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Cystic masses
Ignore, Follow, Excise
David S. Hartman, MD and Ileana Chesaru, MD.
From the Department of Radiology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State University School of Medicine, U.S.A and the Westeinde hospital the Hague, the Netherlands.
This article is based on a presentation given by David Hartman and adapted for the Radiology Assistant by Ileana Chesaru.
In the menubar in the upper left, you will find interactive cases.
Bosniak Classification of Renal Cystic Disease
The Bosniak classification was described in 1986.
This classification helps the radiologist to categorize each cystic renal mass as "nonsurgical" (ie, benign in category 1 and 2) or as "surgical" (ie, requiring surgery in category 3 and 4).
After the original description, it became obvious that there were some category II cysts that were slightly more complicated than most category II lesions, but not complicated enough to place them in category III.
For that reason, a category IIF (F for follow-up) was introduced in 1993.
Category I (simple cysts), Category II (mildly complicated benign cysts), and Category IV (cystic neoplasms) are easy to diagnose.
Their clinical management is straightforward, with surgery indicated for category IV masses while category I and II masses can be dismissed as benign.
Category IIF ('F' for follow-up; moderately complicated cystic masses that require follow-up imaging to demonstrate stability and therefore benignity) and Category III masses (indeterminate masses that require surgery in most cases) can be difficult to differentiate and are subject to interobserver variability.
This distinction is essential because their treatment is different.
Renal cysts are commonly encountered lesions in daily radiological practice.
Usually these are simple benign cysts, but they can become complicated in case of hemorrhage, infection and ischemia.
When this occurs it can be difficult to differentiate these complicated cysts from cystic renal cell carcinomas (10% of all renal cell carcinomas)
Since the only treatment for renal cell carcinoma is surgery or ablation, we need to recognize these cystic renal cell carcinomas.
Imaging is a reliable means for differentiating benign from malignant cystic lesions.
Ignore, Follow or Excise
Renal cysts can be classified according to the Bosniak classification depending on their features.
Type I cysts are simple cysts.
Type II are the minimally complicated cysts.
Type I and II can be ignored.
Type II F are probably benign, but need to be followed.
Type III and IV both are surgical lesions.
Type IV is inevitably malignant and in the type III group about 80-90% turn out to be malignant as well.
In our communication with the clinicians it is important, that we explain the significance of our findings and the meaning of the classification in terms of: Ignore (type I and II), Follow (type IIF) or Excise (type III and IV).
So in this lecture we will only talk about Ignore, Follow or Excise.
For those who want to see the original Bosniak classification, look at the table which is presented at the end of the lecture.
Radiological Interpretation
Although the final differentiation of cystic renal masses is based upon histologic diagnosis, there are imaging findings that tell you that a cyst is not a simple cyst and whether it is probably benign or malignant.
The following imaging features indicate that a cyst is NOT simple:
- Calcification
- Hyperdense / high signal
- Septations
- Multiple locules
- Enhancement
- Nodularity / wall thickening
The table on the left summarises these imaging features together with the management consequences: Ignore, Follow or Excise.
When we look at these imaging features, we have to realise, that the most worrisome portion of a cystic mass should be used in deciding appropriate management.
So when the findings are discordant either within one examination or using different radiological examinations, the lesion should be managed based upon the most aggressive imaging findings.
When we look at the table on the left, we can say that we are pretty good with the first 3 parameters (calcification, hyperdens and septations), because we are correct in about 95% of the cases.
The other four are even more easy, because when you have any of these (enhancement, multiloculated, nodularity or wall thickening), the lesion is almost always a surgical lesion.
Regarding follow up, there are no rules at the moment.
One could do a follow up at 6 months and if the lesion is stable then double the follow up time.
We will now discuss all these imaging features in detail.
The most important thing is a good description of the type of calcifications.
We can ignore small amounts of calcification that are smooth, septal or if it is milk of calcium, which moves to the lowest point with positional changes.
We have to make sure, that no enhancement (= All lesions that show enhancement and lesions with wall thickening or nodularity of the wall outside the calcifications should be excised.
We can follow lesions with thick or nodular calcification without any enhancement.
On the left we see a cystic lesion.
There is a small punctate calcification that we can ignore.
On the bottom of the cyst there is a layer of calcium typical for milk of calcium.
This is also a benign calcification that we can ignore.
On the left a patient with nefrolithiasis.
There is also a cystic lesion with linear and nodular calcification . If there were only these linear calcifications we could ignore the lesion. In case of nodular calcification we can follow it, if there is no enhancement.
In this case however we see enhancement, so this lesion has to be excised.
Hyperdense or High signal
On CT hyperdense means: > 20 HU on a NECT
On MRI hyperintense means all that has higher signal intensity than water on a T1 weighted image.
Hyperdensity or hyperintensity usually indicates hemorrhage or high protein content of the cyst.
Ignore all lesion with sharp margins; lesions On US they have to be clearly cystic
Follow all lesions that are totally intrarenal, because you can not appreciate the wall and follow all lesions > 3 cm, because there is at the moment not much experience with these lesions.
All these lesions must show no enhancement.
Excise all lesions that are poorly defined or heterogenous or show enhancement.
Also when ultrasound shows that the lesion is solid, the lesion should be excised.
On the left we see a hyperdens cystic lesion on CT and a hyperintense lesion on a T1-weighted MR.
Both lesions have a sharp margin and are homogeneous, although there is some noise in the CT image.
On the enhanced scans (not shown) the lesions didn't show any enhancement.
We therefore can ignore the lesion on the left and we have to follow the lesion on the right, because it is totally intrarenal.
Ignore thin septations (
Follow all septations that are only slightly 'greater than hairline'. They still have to show no enhancement.
Excise all septations that are thick, irregular or nodular and all septations that show enhancement.
On the left we see 2 cases
There is a cystic lesion with a thin smooth non enhancing septation that we can ignore.
The other case is a thick enhancing septation that has to be excised.
The ultrasound image on the left shows a thick septation.
There is also a nodule in the wall of the cyst.
So we have two reasons to excise this cystic lesion.
Enhancement is our best predictable sign of malignancy.
So we have to excise all lesions, that clearly show enhancement.
The only exception is infection.
Enhancement is defined as follows: Increase in Hounsfield Units of the mass after contrast injection:
- 10-15 HU = indeterminate
- >15 HU = vascularity
On MR:
>15% = enhancement = surgical
The case on the left doesn't shows much on the NECT.
However when we give contrast we can appreciate a thick wall and we see enhancement both of the wall and of a central area in the medial part of the cystic lesion.
We should never see this in an benign cyst, so this is a surgical lesion.
Masses with three or more septa are not called multiseptated but multiloculated.
All multiloculated lesions should be excised, unless there is clear evidence of infection.
In the adult, the two most common multiloculated masses are MLCN (multilocular cystic nephroma) which is usually benign, but sometimes malignant and MLRCC (multilocular renal cell carcinoma) which is always malignant.
On imaging there is no way that we can separate these two and therefore, all multiloculated masses are surgical (unless infection).
Even the pathologist can not separate the usually benign multilocular cystic nephroma from the malignant multilocular renal cell carcinoma on gross specimen .
The differentiation is based on the histology of the epithelial cells lining these locules.
So all multilocular renal masses have to be excised.
Ignore: none
Follow: only very small nonenhancing nodules, and follow carefully
Excise: all other nodular lesions
The case on the left shows very small nodules on a CECT and a T2WI.
From all the other images we could tell that they were not enhancing.
So we can probably follow this lesion.
If they start to grow or show any enhancement, then we have to excise the lesion.
On the left an easy case.
There is a big nodule with enhancement, so this lesion has to be excised.
Even if there was no enhancement, the lesion still had to be excised.
The case on the left is a T2WI with Fatsat.
We see multiple nodules so this mass has to be excised.
It doesn't matter whether or not these nodules enhance.
Wall thickening
All lesions with a thickened wall, with or without enhancement, should be excised, unless there is clear evidence of infection.
In these latter cases the lesions should be followed.
On the left we see two renal lesions that are cystic.
The lesion on the far left clearly shows a thickened wall. This is easy to appreciate because part of the lesion is extrarenal.
The cystic lesion next to it is totally intrarenal, which makes it harder to appreciate, but there is wall tickening.
So both lesions have to be excised, whether there is enhancement of the wall or not.
The only exception would be if there were evident signs of infection.
The cystic lesion on the left is clearly a surgical lesion.
It has a thick irregular wall, it is exophytic and shows enhancement.
Role of Biopsy
In the literature there are different opinions concerning the role of biopsy in renal cystic lesions.
Here we provide Dr Bosniak's opinion.
A different opinion is given by Dr Lang in the artice on CT-guided biopsy of indeterminate renal cystic masses (Bosniak 3 and 2F): accuracy and impact on clinical management (see references)
Dr Bosniak's opinion
Biopsy plays a limited role.
Only in case of clinical suspicion that the mass is inflammatory (pyuria, etc.) or when there is radiological evidence suggesting inflammation (such as perinephric fat stranding), puncture is acceptable.
When the outcome is infection, the lesion can be treated and followed.
Although considered rare, needle track spread of tumor is an 'underestimated risk'.
A core biopsy of the wall of a cystic lesion (benign or malignant) can cause it to rupture and spill its contents into the surrounding tissues.
A negative biopsy result does not rule out malignancy, particularly in cystic lesions that have less bulk of tissue to sample.


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UPDATE (03/01/15) There have been a lot of breakthroughs in hacking these Gbones upscalers via Raspberry Pi and I2C connection. Details can be found on the shmups forum thread located here.
I made a very interesting discovery with the CGA2VGA scaler that came in my Red Storm cabinet. The scaler looks like the generic/OEM version we've all seen on eBay for ~$35, except even cheaper since they removed all the components except for RGB input and VGA output. But the big difference is the one that came in my cab can successfully scale PCBs of various refresh rates, like the very difficult Seibu 55hz games!
Here is a visual comparison. The Gonbes GBS-8220 in on the left, and the Red Storm generic is on the right.
|(click picture for hires pic)
Comparing both side by side in a similar setup, the menus are exactly the same, except the red storm version allowed for a wider range of values to be set for horizontal and vertical settings. Looking closely at the both boards, the GBS-8220 has a 2011.08.16 V30 silkscreened on it, while the stickers on the red storm version looks like it's firmware was updated in February of 2012.
So I'm hoping someone can help me figure out how to dump the firmware of the red storm version and see if I can successfully upgrade the GBS-8220 firmware. I see there are two sets of 4 pin "upgrade" connectors on the right side, although it looks like some were removed. There is also a 2 pin connector directly under these which I assume may be a selectable "write" jumper?

subset: commoncrawl


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Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and internets to bring you everything you need to know to start your day.
• Former Montreal Canadiens enforcer Georges Laraque says he "just want[s] to improve people's health and change the world." So, he was named a deputy leader of Canada's Green Party.
Hopefully, that pesky thing about bringing Haiti into his getting-released conversation has blown over. [The Globe and Mail]
• The Yankees third-baseman adds a second asterisk to his 600th home run: "The way I am swinging now it's going to take a while. Everybody get comfortable. A home run? I'll take a hit-by pitch, a bunt single, an error. Just get on base." [New York Post]
• Did a North Jersey columnist tweet that he doesn't know how Yankees president Randy "Levine gets any work done, all he does is leak info to reporters all day" but then scurry to take said tweet down? The nation's GTL region demands to know. [H/T lenNYsYankees.com]
• As was foretold by Mandalay Bay's Giant Pacific Octopus on Thursday, Juan Manuel Marquez retained his lightweight belts with a unanimous decision over Juan Diaz. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]
• Some guy named Flo Rida joined the They Hate Me Party by writing "We Already Won," an ode to the Miami Heat. His presumed inspiration: Landing an invitation to hang with LeBron in Vegas on the condition that he doesn't write a song about all the pantyless ladies they see. [The Sporting Grave]
• Oh look, Jerry Jones is contradicting himself left and right, and right and left. [Dallas Morning News]
• Reporters talking about a just-signed Denver Broncos rookie QB. [Denver Post]
• What's more historic: Being the first Chinese-American player drafted into the NFL or presumably writing the first "Wang ready to make an impact" headline? [MPNNow.com with a H/T to JovanJ]
• And finally, from the "Hickey's Biased Coverage Files," never one to be outdone by the Phillies' Brad Lidge blowing another victory to a walk-off home run, the Cubs' Sean Marshall serves up a cycle-clinching, game-ending home run. ... Also, Eagles' mute DeSean Jackson got hurt and Villanova's Scottie Reynolds is going to take his talents to Lazio, Italy.
It's Sunday. It's Sunday. It's Sunday. Just a little nip in the 'ead don't mean nothing. Let's do this.


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Sipadan Dive Schedule
Sipadan is one of the the top ten dive sites in the world and you can dive there all year round!
If you are unable to fit your schedule into our group trips, contact Dive Asia Now for your personalised trip with your preferred dates. We plan, you dive!


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Recipe Central
Food and Beverages are a big part of the Kentucky Derby tradition. Make sure your party is stocked to serve mint juleps with Woodford Reserve, the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby. For food items, we recommend traditional Southern fare, to create the full Kentucky Derby Experience.
We've collected a few of our favorite recipes from our Kentucky Derby partners, and world famous chefs who cook for the Taste of Derby event, to give your party menu that little extra something.


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Department: Day Walk Map Packs
Not sure where to start? These Day Walk Map Packs are a great resource for beginners and people wanting to explore more of the Track.
Just what you need to get out and do some day walks on the Track.
- Exclusive booklet with four suggested day walk options and comprehensive Track notes (not available separately - valued at $10).
- Latest edition Northcliffe Bibbulmun Track Map - 6 (valued at $11.50).
- Bibbulmun Track Handbook (valued at $11.95).
- Plastic sleeve.
- Souvenir Bibbulmun Track postcard.


text: Back Benzodiazepines (Urine) Does this test have other names? Toxic urine screen, urine toxicology screen What is this test? This is a urine test to screen for a class of drugs called benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines are central nervous system depressants. They are used to sedate patients, help them sleep, prevent seizures, ease anxiety, and relax muscle spasms. These drugs are often informally called tranquilizers, sleeping pills, and muscle relaxants. Variations in the molecules of different benzodiazepines give each drug specific chemical properties and medical uses. Examples of common antianxiety medicines, muscle relaxants, and antiseizure medications include: Alprazolam (Xanax) Chlordiazepoxide (Librium) Clonazepam (Klonopin) Clorazepate (Tranxene) Diazepam (Valium) Lorazepam (Ativan) Oxazepam (Serax) Examples of common sedative-hypnotic medications include: Temazepam (Restoril) Triazolam (Halcion) Flurazepam (Dalmane) Estazolam (ProSom) In addition to medical use, benzodiazepines are sometimes used illegally. Chronic abuse of benzodiazepines can lead to addiction, and combining these drugs with other depressants like alcohol can be fatal. Street names for these drugs include "downers," "benzos," "nerve pills," "candy," and "tranks." Why do I need this test? Even if you have been prescribed these drugs, you may need this test if you are showing signs of an overdose. Symptoms of overdose include confusion, slurred speech, loss of muscular coordination, stupor, and unconsciousness. Benzodiazepines can also cause low blood pressure, slow or shallow breathing, and cardiac arrest. You may also have this test if a health care provider suspects you are abusing these drugs or using them illegally. If you appear confused, cannot be roused, have seizures, or lose muscle control, you may also have this test as part of an overall urine toxicology screen to check for other commonly abused drugs. These screens vary at different hospitals, but often include tests for cocaine, opioids, amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines or phencyclidine. If you are conscious, able to talk with doctors, and willing to cooperate, you can provide information that helps health care providers determine the appropriate test for your situation. For example, if you are a victim of sexual assault, you may have this test to determine whether someone slipped a benzodiazepine date rape drug, such as Rohypnol ("roofie"), into your drink. You might also be tested if doctors think you have taken benzodiazepines accidentally or in a suicide attempt. What other tests might I have along with this test? If you seem to have an altered mental state, doctors will most likely give you a glucose test to check your blood sugar. If you are brought to a hospital showing symptoms of central nervous system depression, such as confusion, slurred speech, seizure, or coma, you may be tested for a variety of drugs, including benzodiazepines. A benzodiazepine overdose alone is unlikely to cause coma or severe heart or lung function problems. If you have those symptoms, a doctor may screen for other drugs and test for causes of central nervous system depression that are not drug-related. In addition to ordering a urine test, a doctor may also order a blood test for benzodiazepines. In some situations, it may be more practical to obtain a blood sample than a urine sample. Blood tests are also harder for a patient to alter to hide drug abuse. Exactly which lab tests you have depends on your physical exam and information about your condition that you are willing and able to provide. What do my test results mean? Many things may affect your lab test results. These include the method each lab uses to do the test. Even if your test results are different from the normal value, you may not have a problem. To learn what the results mean for you, talk with your health care provider. A typical benzodiazepine urine test can detect benzodiazepines or their break-down products, called metabolites. Although most benzodiazepines show up in standard urine tests, some don't. Alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin), temazepam (Restoril), and triazolam (Halcion) may not be detected in many of the common tests. Many benzodiazepine tests can find whether the drug is present, but can't give the amount. Different benzodiazepines have different therapeutic doses, ranging from 0.5 to 50 milligrams (mg). Overdoses of 10 of 20 times the prescribed dose of some benzodiazepines can result in a mild coma, but usually don't cause slow or shallow breathing. Most people recover. Overdoses of fast-acting benzodiazepines like triazolam (Halcion) are more likely to cause breathing problems and even death. A drug called flumazenil (Romazicon) may be used as an antidote to the sedative effects of benzodiazepines. it shouldn't be used in people who have been taking benzodiazepines over a long period to control seizures. In such cases, flumazenil could cause potentially fatal withdrawal. How is this test done? This test requires a urine sample. Follow your health care provider's instructions for collecting and storing the sample. In some cases, you may have to provide a sample in the presence of a lab employee. Does this test pose any risks? This test poses no known risks. What might affect my test results? Some other medications can cause a false positive result in benzodiazepine urine tests. These drugs include: Tolmetin (Tolectin)Naproxen (Aleve)Etodolac (Lodine)Fenoprofen (Nalfon). Oxaprozin (Daypro)Sertraline (Zoloft) How do I get ready for this test? You do not need to prepare for this test.


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Biggest headline of the day:
Charlize Theron is a mom!
Theron's rep has confirmed that she's adopted a baby boy called Jackson. No other details have been released. But... well done.
Not as well done as Sandra Bullock who, literally, HID A BABY for weeks DURING AWARD SEASON, but well done nonetheless. Because it's not impossible to keep your sh-t tight in Hollywood. You just have to actually want to keep your sh-t tight.
Last week it was reported that Charlize may or may not be seeing Alexander Skarsgard on a date at a gay bar...? Her last boyfriend prior to that was about a year ago: Ryan Reynolds. That died almost as soon as it was revealed as, well, Ryan was coming out of a marriage, and Charlize, as we can see now, was making plans to be a mother. "Compatible goals are the keys to a strong relationship."
Not that you can't date and raise a child, but with this news, I don't know if I believe the hook-up situation with Skarsgard anymore. Bringing a baby home and making all those adjustments, where would she possibly find the time? Not to mention the delicacy of navigating that relationship - does she want to introduce him to the baby and make him part of his life, and would he even want to be part of his life after one date at a gay bar?
I'm told Charlize has been trying to make this happen for almost two years and experienced a few heartbreaking setbacks along the way after coming close, not unlike many other families in the same situation. Finally being able to confirm this monumental news would have been her priority...probably her only one.
How will we meet Jackson?
Will she sell the first photos?
It doesn't seem like her style. Thoughts?
Attached - Charlize hasn't been out publicly since Oscar week. Here she is just before the Academy Awards shopping for groceries.
Don't need a man to be a mom
Biggest headline of the day:


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Now that accelerated layers have been turned on for a while in Firefox 4 betas, I want to explain what this means for HTML5 <video> playback in Firefox and how it compares with what Adobe is doing in Flash 10.2.
I've already written about our layers framework and how that contributes to GPU-accelerated rendering. For each frame, our video decoder libraries (libvp8, libtheora) produce a YCbCr (aka YUV) image in their output buffer in system memory. This is usually, but not always, in 4:2:0 format. In the video decode thread we wrap this buffer up into a YCbCrImage object, which makes a copy. (We have to copy here because the decoder libraries overwrite their output buffer for every frame, and we're decoding a bit ahead of the current frame to avoid jitter.) Exactly how that copy is made depends on the layers backend:
- For GPU backends that support multithreaded access to GPU resources (currently our D3D10 backend), the video decoder thread copies the output buffer directly into VRAM. This is the most efficient approach.
- For GPU backends that don't support multithreaded access, we copy the output buffer in system memory. The buffer is uploaded to VRAM later when we paint on the main thread.
- For CPU-only rendering, we convert the output buffer from YUV to RGB (while also scaling it to the expected output size) on the video decoder thread.
Actual rendering happens on the main thread. When we composite an ImageLayer containing a YCbCrImage into the window, the GPU converts to RGB at draw time using a shader program (and also handles scaling). When we're not using the GPU, we just draw the pre-converted image (possibly with some rescaling if the output size has changed since we did the convert-and-scale step).
This architecture seems optimal given the constraints we're currently working with, although it will need to evolve in a few directions. Other than being fast, it works well for Web authors. Unlike Adobe's "stage video", it just works without authors having to do anything. You can overlay and underlay content around the video without losing acceleration. You can wrap it in a container with CSS opacity and 2D transforms, scroll it and clip it, without losing acceleration. (Currently a few effects will cause us to deaccelerate --- if the video has an ancestor element with 'border-radius' and non-visible 'overflow', an ancestor with CSS mask, filter or clip-path, or an SVG ancestor. We'll fix those cases post-FF4 by accelerating them.)
This design will need to evolve in a few directions. We currently don't have hardware decoders for our video formats, but that will change as hardware support for VP8 spreads, and we'll need to take advantage of it. We may need to introduce a new Image type or even a new Layer type to encapsulate hardware decoding. I hope that there will be an efficient way to get decoded video data into textures, otherwise we'll have to limit the use of hardware decoders to whatever special cases their APIs support.
Some devices have GPUs with bad enough shader performance that doing YUV conversion with shaders is a noticeable performance hit. But some of them have native support for YUV-format textures or surfaces with dedicated hardware for YUV conversion. We should use those features. This won't require any architectural changes.
In Fennec, we composite the layer tree in a different process to the content process that actually does the video decoding. This will later be true for desktop Firefox too. This requires us to ship our YCbCr frames through shared memory or shared VRAM buffers, but we should be able to keep the same basic architecture.


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A New Mexico man who police say was shot to death by his teenage son in a multiple homicide at the family's Albuquerque, N.M., home was a reformed gang member-turned-pastor who ministered to prison inmates, a friend of the man said on Monday.
Nehemiah Griego, 15, is in custody on two counts of murder and three counts of child abuse resulting in death for allegedly gunning down his father, Greg Griego, mother Sara, 40, and three of his younger siblings on Saturday night.
Steve Stucker, a longtime friend of Greg Griego, said Griego was an ex-convict who had turned his life around.
"Greg was dedicated to providing a good, godly home for himself and his kids," said Stucker. "It's very shocking for all of us who knew him."
A report in the Albuquerque Journal said that after the killings, the suspect had intended to drive to a Wal-Mart and continue shooting. Instead, he phoned a friend and was convinced to go to Calvary Church, where his father was formerly a pastor, according to the report. A security guard called 911, the Journal reported.
Aaron Williamson, a Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department deputy, would not confirm the reports the suspect had planned further violence.
Williamson said Griego, his wife and their three youngest children were each shot multiple times. According to Griego's Facebook page, he had 10 children.
Nehemiah Griego was accused of using multiple firearms to kill his family, including an AR-15 assault rifle, Williamson said, the same type of weapon used in the mass shootings at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater and Newtown, Conn., elementary school.
The Newtown school massacre in which a man killed 20 children and six adults renewed a national debate about gun control. President Barack Obama has proposed a new assault weapons ban and mandatory background checks for all gun buyers.
Greg Griego, 51, was a former pastor at Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque and had volunteered at a local fire department.
Stucker said Griego left the detention center after a change in management. "I think they thought Greg was too overtly Christian," Stucker said.
Stucker said he and Griego were chaplains together and had an interest in prison ministry. "Greg focused on adults and I focused on youth," Stucker said. "He was a mentor, he was a lot more skilled and I was constantly going to him for advice."
Stucker also said Griego had once been in the military and was working on a new project involving returned soldiers.
Stucker also spoke of the importance of finding a way "to care for Nehemiah Griego. He's really hurting. We hope that he can be treated kindly, the way Greg might have treated someone."
Reporting by Zelie Pollon in Santa Fe, N.M. Editing by Barbara Goldberg, Mary Wisniewski and Peter Cooney.
© 2013 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.
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Southern Miss Suspends Quarterback
Southern Mississippi quarterback Anthony Alford has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault by university police following a fight on campus.
Police say no one was injured in the altercation, which involved four people, including two who were not students at Southern Miss. The school released a statement saying Alford has been suspended from the university until he can have a hearing through the school's judicial process.
Another student was arrested and charged with felony possession of a weapon on campus by a student. The incident happened at about 11 a.m. on Wednesday.
Alford played in nine games this season, starting five. He led the team with 664 passing yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions. He also was third on the team with 329 rushing yards and six touchdowns.
Read more: djournal.com – Southern Miss QB charged with aggravated assault


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A University of Texas at Arlington physicist has been awarded more than $400,000 in NASA funding to develop a 3D look at how electrodynamic energy from solar winds enters and moves throughout the Earth's upper atmosphere.
Yue Deng, an assistant physics professor, aims to help scientists and engineers protect satellites, power distribution systems and other vital infrastructure from the potentially harmful effects of these inevitable bursts of energy.
Understanding interaction between the Earth's magnetic field, or magnetosphere, and its upper atmosphere – known as the thermosphere/ionosphere – is especially important this year and in 2014, Deng said. That's when the Sun is predicted to reach a time of heightened activity or its "solar max."
"Right now, estimation of the amount of energy entering the Earth's thermosphere is not very precise and can be underestimated by 100 percent. We know even less about how that energy is distributed," Deng said. "This information is critical because if you put the same amount of energy at 400 kilometers the impact can be 100 times larger than if you put it at 100 kilometers." Deng received a $408,000, three-year award from NASA's heliophysics division in January. She is co-developer of a new 3-D Global Ionosphere-Thermosphere
Model, or GITM. Deng also is the 2010 recipient of a National Science Foundation Early Career Development or CAREER award.
"Dr. Deng is a young professor who is already making a valuable contribution to her field, and the NASA award recognizes that," said Pamela Jansma, dean of the UT Arlington College of Science. "By helping the physics community better understand the role that space weather phenomenon has on Earth, she is creating a vital new tool."
Co-investigators on the new NASA grant include Arthur Richmond, a senior scientist at the High Altitude Observatory of The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and Delores Knipp, a visiting professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Solar wind is plasma from the Sun that travels through space at about 400 kilometers per second carrying with it a magnetic field. Usually, the Earth's magnetic field protects it from this plasma radiation. Solar flares and other activity on the Sun's surface can increase the energy traveling toward Earth, with some of the radiation passing through the magnetosphere at the Earth's magnetic poles.
Energy entering the thermosphere/ionosphere after a solar storm can wreak havoc on scientists' ability to track the satellites that orbit the Earth in that region, anywhere from about 100 to 500 kilometers above the ground.
Energy bursts from solar flares, coronal mass ejections and similar phenomenon can also disrupt energy distribution systems on Earth, communication technology and affect airline activity. Efforts like the NOAA/NWS Space Weather Prediction Center have been established to give warnings about upcoming disturbances, so scientists can protect equipment and minimize the damage. But, better information is needed, Deng said.
Deng said the grant team plans to integrate information from several different scientific models and the COSMIC satellite program. They will create a more comprehensive model of how conductivity is distributed through altitudes. The research also will explore the role that Joule heating, or friction heating, and charged particles in the ionosphere play in energy distribution. COSMIC is a joint Taiwan/United States science mission for weather, climate, space weather and geodetic research that is entering its sixth year.
The University of Texas at Arlington is a comprehensive research institution of more than 33,800 students and more than 2,200 faculty members in the heart of North Texas. Visit http://www.uta.edu to learn more.


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Amhara, Ethiopia
The Amhara Region is a regional state in northern Ethiopia, and the homeland of the Amhara people. Previously known as "Region 3", its capital is Bahir Dar. Ethiopia's largest inland body of water, Lake Tana, which is the source of the Blue Nile river, is located within Amhara. The region also contains the Semien Mountains National Park, which includes Ras Dashan, the highest point in Ethiopia.
Guatemala is the most populous country in Central America. Its abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems includes many endemic species and contributes to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot. The core of the Maya civilisation, which extended across Mesoamerica, was historically based in the territory of modern Guatemala.
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire is a West African country with beach resorts, rainforests and a French-colonial legacy. Its modern landmarks include zigguratlike, concrete La Pyramide and St. Paul's Cathedral, a swooping structure tethered to a massive cross. North of the central business district, Banco National Park is a rainforest preserve with hiking trails.
Tanzania is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. Tanzania is mountainous and densely forested in the northeast, where Mount Kilimanjaro is located. Three of Africa's Great Lakes are partly within Tanzania. In 2012, Tanzania produced a National Climate Change Strategy in response to the growing concern of the negative impacts of climate change and climate variability.
Sundarbans, India
The Sundarbans is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal. It spans from the Hooghly River in India's state of West Bengal to the Baleswar River in Bangladesh. It comprises closed and open mangrove forests, land used for agricultural purpose, mudflats and barren land, and is intersected by multiple tidal streams and channels.
Mexico is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is crossed from north to south by two mountain ranges known as Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre Occidental, which are the extension of the Rocky Mountains from northern North America. Because of its high biodiversity Mexico has also been a frequent site of bioprospecting by international research bodies.
Florida, United States
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. It is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, as well as for its increasing environmental issues. Much of Florida has an elevation of less than 12 feet, including many populated areas, making it susceptible to rising sea levels associated with global warming.
Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. Many fjords punctuate its coastline, which is also where most settlements are situated. The island's interior, the Highlands of Iceland, is a cold and uninhabitable combination of sand, mountains, and lava fields. Iceland has three national parks: Vatnajökull National Park, Snæfellsjökull National Park, and Þingvellir National Park.
California, United States
California is the most populous and third-latest state in the United States, though its per capita energy use is one of the smallest of any state in the United States. The state's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast and metropolitan areas in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east and from the redwood and Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast.
Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of more than seventeen thousand islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support one of the world's highest levels of biodiversity.
Denmark is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, consisting of the peninsula of Jutland and 443 named islands. The size of the land area cannot be stated exactly since the ocean constantly erodes and adds material to the coastline and because of human land reclamation projects (to counter erosion). Post-glacial rebound raises the land each year, extending the coast.
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Romania has one of the largest areas of undisturbed forest in Europe, covering almost a quarter of its territory. The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 5.95/10, ranking it 90th globally out of 172 countries. Some 3,700 plant species have been identified in the country.
Appalachia, United States
Appalachia is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. Logging in Appalachia reached its peak in the early 20th century, when firms cut the virgin forests on an alarming scale, leading to the creation of national forests and similar state entities to better manage the region's timber resources.
Rwanda is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley, where the African Great Lakes region and East Africa converge. It is highly elevated, giving it the soubriquet "land of thousand hills", with its geography dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the east, with numerous lakes throughout the country. It is the most densely populated mainland African country.
British Columbia, Canada
British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. TheCoast Mountains and theInside Passage's many inlets provide some of British Columbia's renowned and spectacular scenery, which forms the backdrop and context for a growing outdoor adventure and ecotourism industry.
Haiti is a country located on the island of Hispaniolain theGreater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea. It is the most mountainous nation in the Caribbean, its terrain consists of mountains interspersed with small coastal plains and river valleys. Haiti's forests covered 60% of the country as recently as 50 years ago, but that has been halved to a current estimate of 30%.
Kijabe, Kenya
The Kijabe Forest is a remnant example of the forest type that used to cover much of the eastern wall of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. The forest used to represent a fairly contiguous extension of the more mesic forests of the Aberdares watershed and the Kikuyu Escarpment Forest Reserve, which forms the headwaters of Kenya's largest river, the Tana.
Colombia is a country in South America with territories in North America, bound on the north by the Caribbean Sea. It is one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries and has the second-highest level of biodiversity in the world. Its territory encompasses Amazon rainforest, highlands, grasslands, and deserts, and it is the only country in South America with coastlines and islands along both the Atlantic and Pacific.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Owing to their remoteness, the islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable lands to be settled by humans. The country's physical isolation has caused biological isolation, resulting in a dynamic evolutionary ecology with examples of distinctive plants and animals as well as populations of widespread species.
The Atlantic Forest, Brazil
The Atlantic Forest is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina. The Atlantic Forest has ecoregions within the following many biome categories and is characterised by a high biodiversity and endemism.
Honduras is a country in Central America. It was home to several important Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya, before the Spanish Colonization in the sixteenth century. Its northern portions are part of the western Caribbean zone and it is known for its rich natural resources, including minerals, coffee, tropical fruit, and sugar cane, as well as for its growing textiles industry.
Ontario, Canada
Ontario is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada, one of the most populous provinces. The great majority of Ontario's population and arable land is in the south. In contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and heavy forestation. The Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province.
Peru is a megadiverse country country in western South America with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon Basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon river. Peruvian territory was home to several ancient cultures, including the Inca Empire.
Oregon, United States
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. It is one of the most geographically diverse states in the U.S., marked by volcanoes, bodies of water, evergreen and mixed forests, as well as high deserts and semi-arid shrublands. Because of its diverse landscapes and waterways, their economy is largely powered by various forms of agriculture, fishing and hydroelectric power.
Quebec, Canada
Quebec is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. More than 95% of Quebec's territory lies within the Canadian Shield - It is generally a quite flat and exposed mountainous terrain interspersed with higher points such as the Laurentian Mountains in southern Quebec, the Otish Mountains in central Quebec and the Torngat Mountains near Ungava Bay.
Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the eastern edge of the Indochinese Peninsula. Vietnam's land is mostly hilly and densely forested, with level land covering no more than 20%, the rest comprising of Mountains and tropical forests. Southern Vietnam is divided into coastal lowlands, the mountains of the Annamite Range, and extensive forests.
Uganda is a landlocked country in East-Central Africa. Its geography is very diverse, consisting of volcanic hills, mountains, and lakes. The Ruwenzori mountain range contains the highest peak in Uganda, which is named Alexandra and measures 5,094 meters. Much of the south of the country is heavily influenced by one of the world's biggest lakes, Lake Victoria, which contains many islands.
The Philippines is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of about 7,640 islands. Situated on the western fringes of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity. The Philippines is a megadiverse country with eight major types of forests distributed throughout the islands.
Ghana is a country in West Africa with a diverse geography and ecology ranges from coastal savannahs to tropical rain forests. Grasslands mixed with south coastal shrublands and forests dominate the region. Climate change in Ghana is impacting the people in Ghana in several ways as the country sits at the intersection of three hydro-climatic zones.
Malawi, a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, is defined by its topography of highlands split by the Great Rift Valley and enormous Lake Malawi. The lake's southern end falls within Lake Malawi National Park – sheltering diverse wildlife from colorful fish to baboons – and its clear waters are popular for diving and boating
Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the eastern edge of the Indochinese Peninsula. Vietnam's land is mostly hilly and densely forested, with level land covering no more than 20%, the rest comprising of Mountains and tropical forests. Southern Vietnam is divided into coastal lowlands, the mountains of the Annamite Range, and extensive forests.
Vietnam's tropical forests support rich biodiversity and a precious, sensitive ecosystem. 25 million people depend on forest products for subsistence. Over-exploitation of the land has endangered many native species of plants and animals, and increased the impact of natural disasters. Planting trees here will help conserve threatened species, regulate climate, provide economic stability for local villagers, and protect watershed areas that serve the community on a daily basis.
Our experienced partners in Vietnam work hard to ensure tree-planting is both environmentally and economically sustainable. By planting native fruit trees and replenishing endangered timber species, we can restore balance to the area's flora and fauna while educating the local community about forest conservation. The project will create jobs for villagers (including site clearance, planting, tending, protection), and provide long-term income through collecting fruits of Son Tra trees.
To maximize the impact of your donation, our partner will determine the most appropriate species of tree to plant, depending on the time of year. Native species that will be planted include dipterocarpus alatus and hopea adorata.
OneTreePlanted is a non-profit organisation based in Vermont with a mission to make it simple for you to plant trees around the world. Started in 2014, they have more than doubled the number of trees planted year over year. Fast-forward to today, they now work with awesome reforestations partners in North America, South America, Asia, and Africa who help them get trees in the ground to restore forests after fires and floods, create jobs, build communities, and protect habitat for biodiversity.
© 2023 Neutral. All rights reserved.


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When you paint on a wall in the middle of the city, people want to talk to you.
They want to tell you how they would have painted things differently, choosing a different shade of green or a different subject entirely. They want to know why you're there. They want to tell you their stories.
"You did that, man?" they ask. "That is all right."
For six days last month, the artist known as Gaia painted on the side of a Korean rice cake factory in the 2000 block of N. Charles St. in Station North.
First the Roman god Mercury emerged on the gray cinder-block wall, gazing west toward a beauty supply store. Then a tiger took shape over the trash-strewn vacant lot. A glowing landscape appeared, then an image of the University of Baltimore's new law school. The face of an arabber, a friend of Gaia's, materialized on the eastern edge, his eyes shaded by the brim of an Orioles cap, lips parted as if about to speak.
"I just sit here all day and receive stories," said Gaia, 25, an internationally acclaimed street artist with a wild mop of brown curls. "You are given a tremendous power when you're painting on a wall."
Korean grandmothers, Latino construction workers, men in traditional Muslim dress, a dancer at the Hustler Club, commuters from Penn Station and many residents of a nearby high-rise for the elderly and disabled paused as they passed the wall.
Gaia's mural kicks off Open Walls Baltimore 2, a series of at least 17 works that will appear on walls throughout Station North and nearby blocks over the next 21/2 months. The project has sparked conversations about art — and a dispute over inclusion as well.
Gaia, a 2011 Maryland Institute College of Art graduate whose legal name is Andrew Pisacane, is curating the series, as he did the first Open Walls project in 2012. About half the artists this time are people with Baltimore roots, including the prolific muralist Ernest Shaw; many of the others are friends and associates Gaia met while painting in Europe, South Africa and Argentina.
The project is organized by the Station North Arts and Entertainment District, with major funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the PNC Foundation and the European Union National Institutes for Culture.
Ben Stone, the district's executive director, said that people clamored for a second round of murals after the first Open Walls project. The 22 murals from the first series add to the distinct character of the neighborhood, which is home to theaters, galleries, restaurants and studios.
"I'd much rather pay someone to do a mural than put a big Station North sign out," said Stone. "We use it as a hook to get people to come in."
But the second Open Walls project has met with some criticism. Members of the activist group Luminous Intervention projected a short film on the wall outside of the Metro Gallery at the program's kickoff party to call attention to what they saw as an underrepresentation of female artists in the mural project. The film pointed out that 14 of original 15 murals were slated to be painted by male artists.
Olivia Robinson, a MICA professor and member of Luminous Intervention, said she was struck by how many passersby commented that they hadn't realized that the group of artists was overwhelmingly male until they saw the projected messages.
"If the entire roster were 92 percent women, my guess is that is something people would really comment on," she said. "But when it's 92 percent men, people don't notice. It's what they expect."
Stone said Gaia chose artists who were interested in coming to Baltimore to work in Station North but failed to include enough women artists. Stone said his organization was negotiating with other artists and, as of Monday, had confirmed the participation of two additional female muralists: Betsy Casañas of Philadelphia and Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who created a striking series of images of women known as the Stop Telling Women to Smile project.
Baltimore has sponsored mural programs since the 1960s and more than 170 have been painted on city walls in the past 27 years. It's only recently that the city has emerged as an important hub for street art.
Most of the city's mural projects have historically been "community-driven," said Bill Gilmore, executive director of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts. Neighborhood leaders would choose an artist, theme and wall, and approach BOPA for funding, he said. BOPA recently decided to fold the mural program into a "transformative" art project, allowing for more ambitious and complex projects, Gilmore said.
Wilfried Eckstein, a member of the European Union National Institutes for Culture, said his group generally focuses on Washington but was intrigued by Baltimore's arts scene. Many European nations are also dealing with the post-industrial challenges that Baltimore faces, he said.
In addition to the mural project, the European cultural group is helping to fund a series of artworks at Baltimore transit hubs. They'll be sponsoring three parkour performers at Penn Station later this month in conjunction with Open Walls.
But some question whether the Open Walls muralists seek enough participation from the community.
As Gaia laid out the design on the Charles Street wall on a Sunday evening, members of the activist group the People's Power Assembly, which meets across the street, questioned why there had not been more advance notice of the project. Gaia said that he and the Station North group had reached out to community leaders, but it would be impossible to speak with everyone who would live with the wall.
Others in the neighborhood had little interest in the mural. The clerk at the halal grocery store up the block hadn't seen it. Juan Perez, an employee of Papi's convenience store a block away, wondered why a beautification project would be prioritized in a city with so many other challenges.
But many of the people who passed by the mural were intrigued by the images Gaia brought forth. They paused and gazed for a long time, called out in admiration or stepped up to chat with the artist, who was bundled against the unusually chilly spring days in a hunter's camouflage jacket.
"I'm an artist, too. Let me show you my work," said Chae Harris, 17, a senior at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, who was heading home from school. He pulled the beginnings of a pencil sketch of a woman's face from a folder.
"Hell, yeah," said Gaia, nodding. "Let me know if you want to get involved with helping any of the artists out."
Gaia got his start by hanging out with established street artists when he was growing up on the Upper East Side of New York. His work had already gained a following by the time he moved to Baltimore eight years ago to attend MICA.
His distinctive pieces from that time period — evocative figures blending human and animal characteristics — popped up on buildings around Station North, affixed to walls with wheat paste. Since then, he has been commissioned to create works around the world. He has had a solo show at the Baltimore Museum of Art and been featured in The New York Times and The Washington Post.
He spends about three months of the year in Baltimore, hanging out with arabbers, painting murals on car repair shops, creating art for free. These days, he primarily works in paint, forgoing the wheat paste images that were his earlier trademark.
The mural, which he called "Horizons," speaks to the neighborhood's diversity and state of flux.
"This piece is about the changing nature of this community," he said. "There are so many directions it could go. And there's fear invested in that."
Robert Grant, 62, studied the mural for a long time as he passed by on his way home from the garage where he does odd jobs.
Weekend Watch
"You get a feeling from it," he said. "The sky above the mountains tells you you're in this world, but the head" — the bust of Mercury — "tells you you're not."
Gaia decided to leave some parts of the mural apparently unfinished. The tiger's face is rendered in fine detail, but its body trails off in an outline. The body of the man in the foreground, a third-generation arabber named James Chase, fades into a blur of brush strokes. The old sign for "Seoul Rice Cakes" shines through his shirt.
"I never try to completely finish the piece," he said. "It's a thesis without a conclusion, rather than a full statement."
Sitting on a log opposite the mural, Aileen Brown recounted a series of misfortunes. She's been ill and recently became homeless, she said.
"It's a shot of hope," she said of the mural. "Despite everything that's happened, this represents that there's hope."


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UK Band Chapel Club Encourages Fans To Remix And Resale Their Music
By Mike Masnick , this post originally appeared on Techdirt.
At this point, bands releasing stems and asking fans to remix their work is old hat. We've seen it done a bunch over the years, and it's pretty common. But Darren Hemmings alerts us to a cool variation on that done by the UK band Chapel Club. Earlier this year, Chapel Club "parted ways" with Universal Music. In testing out new things, it decided to do a remix offering, but one where fans are actually encouraged to then try to sell the results and make money off of it:
We're offering THE WHOLE WORLD the chance not only to REMIX THE TRACK, but to SELL their creations and KEEP THE MONEY. LOL.
So the deal is this: you can download these stems FOR FREE, remix the song and self-release it digitally via any online outlet you like. To find out how best to do this we've attached a little step-by-step guide, below.
The band does admit that they're about to sign a new record deal — so they're doing this "in between" deals, and it's unclear how long it will last. Also, the terms and conditions (pdf) are interesting in that they actually provide detailed instructions on how to upload the remixed tracks to Tunecore and CDBaby. The band does ask that you email them before releasing the track, which seems like a reasonable request. What's a little odd, though, is that they will not allow remixers to "give away" the remixes:
So the deal is this: you can download these stems FOR FREE, remix the song and
self-release it digitally (and only digitally) via any online outlet you like (as long as it's
known for selling lots of music). You can also stream your creation (but don't give it
That seems like a silly and pointless restriction. The band does note that it retains the publishing rights, meaning that if someone does remix the song and sells a ton of copies somewhere, they'll still get their publishing cut (though the remixer will get all of the direct sales revenue, minus the fees taken out by the middlemen). So, it's smart in that the band knows that if someone else somehow figures out a great way to market and sell the song, they'll still make some money. But, it's still a little disappointing to see that restriction on giving it away. For such an experiment that seems pointless.
It's also a nice reminder that letting some others make money in helping to promote your work (or even letting them build on your work) can be a good thing. There's way too much of an attitude among some that every penny that's earned belongs to the original creator, even if someone else did more with it. We've warned before that non-commercial restrictions on Creative Commons often don't make sense — but many people cling to them out of this irrational fear that if someone else makes money, it means you lose money. So it's great to see the band recognize that a bigger pie can be good for all.
That said, while I do think this experiment is cool — and I love to see bands experiment in unique and innovative ways — I do wonder how successful experiments like this will be. I think that many people think that fans will rush out to try to "make money" with content from an artist they like, but in watching various businesses built around that concept before, I just haven't seen it play out in reality. Fans like bands because they like those musicians and want to support them. Assuming that they have a monetary incentive to help out often feels weird and just doesn't interest people. In fact, it reminds me a lot of Daniel Pink's awesome and thought provoking book Drive in which he notes a large stack of research that says for some activities (not all!) providing monetary incentives actually harms output. It's for activities where the person already feels fulfilled in some manner or another, and I'd argue that probably applies with fans. Fans don't want to make money off artists they love. They just want to see them succeed. Adding the monetary component might not necessarily be a very good incentive, even if people assume that money is always a driving incentive.
Still, that's just an aside on money and incentives. I still think it's cool to see a band experiment with something different to engage fans that could possibly open up another new revenue stream.


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Follow Majestic Family Records:
Support on YouTube: www.youtube.com/antonsheridan
Support on Facebook: www.facebook.com/majesticfamilyrecords
Follow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/majesticlabels
Listen on SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/majesticfamilyrec
Samples & Purchase:
Support on Traxsource: www.bit.ly/Majestic-TS
Support on Beatport: www.bit.ly/Majestic-BP
Download Link: http://bit.ly/mfr105
Majestic Family Records presents new release "Not This Time" from "Richard J Aarden" and "Dance Bridge"
Richard J Aarden is a Singer/Songwriter now based in Milan, Italy.
After several years playing in AlternativeRock/Indie bands he started producing his own songs approaching to electronic music.
At the moment he writes and produces his songs mixing his acoustic songwriting style with some light electronic elements.
He also collaborate with Silk Music,Arrival and Majestic Family Records as a singer/songwriter.
Cat#: MFR105
Beatport release date: November 03th, 2014
iTunes release date: December 01st, 2014
Genre: Progressive House, Deep House
Format: Digital
Stores: Beatport, iTunes, JunoDownload
1. Richard J Aarden feat. Dance Bridge - Not This Time (Original Mix)
2. Richard J Aarden feat. Dance Bridge - Not This Time (Digital Constructive Remix)
3. Richard J Aarden feat. Dance Bridge - Not This Time (Kirill Hopeless Remix)
Feedback and Support:
Kyau & Albert support Not This Time (Original Mix)
Euphonic Sessions (November 2014) (2014-11-01)
Pedro Del Mar support Not This Time (Digital Constructive Remix)
Mellomania Deluxe 665 (2014-10-13)
Steve Anderson support Not This Time (Kirill Hopeless Remix)
SAME Radio Show 305 and 306
Tempo Giusto support Not This Time (Kirill Hopeless Remix)
Global Sound Drift 082 (2014-10-19)
For More Information:
Website: www.majesticshowcase.com
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/majesticfamilyrecords
Facebook: www.facebook.com/majesticfamilyrecords
Twitter: www.twitter.com/majesticlabels
YouTube: www.youtube.com/antonsheridan
Richard J Aarden feat Dance Bridge - Not This Time [MFR105]
Tech House, Acid House, Deep House etc...
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Although it's based on Intel's fastest new Ivy Bridge CPU for Ultrabooks, the Dell XPS 14 at 4.7 pounds hovers perilously close in weight to the all-purpose laptop category. But Dell gives you several reasons to lug the extra ounces around, especially if you value good multimedia features.
Sitting in between the XPS 13 and the XPS 15 on the consumer-focused XPS laptop continuum, the XPS 14 we looked at boasts an exceptionally bright high-res (1600-by-900-pixel) 14-inch widescreen display and discrete nVidia GeForce GT 630M graphics with 1GB of memory to help with games and video.
Waves MaxxAudio technology, meanwhile, contributes to the full-bodied audio from two built-in 2-watt stereo speakers, and the high-def (1.3-megapixel) webcam captures smooth video for Skype calls and YouTube clips. As an added bonus, battery life in our tests was a praiseworthy 7 hours, 37 minutes.
But the XPS 14 disappoints in a couple of its features. The brilliant, LED-backlit display suffers from a somewhat narrow field of vision, especially when viewing videos from above or below.
And the XPS 14 isn't inexpensive. Our review unit, which also included an Intel Core i7-35178u processor, a 5400-rpm 500GB hard drive with startup assistance from a 32GB mSATA solid-state caching drive, and the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, goes for a somewhat pricey $1500. Dell does, however, offer less expensive configurations starting at $1100, as well as a version with a 512GB SSD for (gulp) $2000 (as of July 20, 2012).
Performance, meanwhile, is a mixed bag that skews to generally good. Although the excellent battery life helped lift our XPS 14's overall performance score to a respectable 79 (on a par with scores for the current ultraportable chart-toppers), the 5400-rpm hard drive did drag the XPS 14 down on some components of our WorldBench 7 benchmark, most notably hard-drive operations and video encoding.
While the XPS 14's overall WorldBench score was a bit shy of recent averages, it had some bright spots, including an above-average score on the PCMark 7 Productivity Suite. Gaming results were also mixed--some slightly higher than average and others a bit below--but the overall gaming score of 84 out of 100 (slightly above recent averages) is certainly within the ballpark for a laptop with discrete graphics.
The XPS 14 looks sturdy, yet at just under an inch thick, it is slimmer than you might expect for its weight. The pewter-colored, brushed-aluminum lid contrasts with the black soft-touch coating on the magnesium palm rest and the black silicon base (which absorbs a lot of the heat generated during prolonged use) to give the unit a layered look when shut. Bonded Corning Gorilla Glass covers the display, contributing to the model's generally classy appearance, but also contributes to the weight.
Lifting the lid immediately reveals a roomy, backlit keyboard. The keys are fairly flat and a bit slippery, but travel is decent, and the conventional layout makes for a reasonably satisfying touch-typing experience. The clickable touchpad is responsive--and pretty much in line with what we've seen on a number of laptops lately.
The XPS offers good connectivity options via ports arrayed on the left edge. From back to front, they include gigabit ethernet, HDMI, DisplayPort (for monitor connections), and two USB 3.0 ports, one of which has PowerShare technology for charging devices even when the notebook is powered down. On the right edge is a headphone/microphone combo port, an SD/MMC card reader, and a slot for a security cable. The XPS 14 also supports dual-band (2.4GHz/5GHz) Wi-Fi.
Dell's software bundle is fairly typical, including the starter edition of Office 2010 (with ad-supported, limited-functionality versions of Word and Excel), Skype, Windows Live Essentials, and the annoying 30-day trial of McAfee Security Center (annoying because you have to uninstall it to stop the constant appearance of pop-up nag windows), as well as Dell-branded webcam and online backup software.
Bottom Line
On the whole, the XPS 14 has a lot to offer notebook users who can get past its weight and are willing to shell out a bit extra for its multimedia and gaming potential. Despite the great battery life, I'd recommend this one more for occasional travelers than frequent fliers.


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Ride Across Britain Day 5: My toughest day yet
As my 970 mile Deloittle Ride Across Britain adventure rolled into Lancashire I was supposed to be firing on all cylinders.
But the engine was broken. And the spirit was on the ropes too for the 107 mile stage from Haydock to Penrith.
On day five of the adventure, we rolled through Bradley Wiggins' hometown of Eccleston before crossing through Leyland, Penwortham and skirting Preston before our first pit stop at Barton Grange.
Knee pain and a serious bout of lethargy hindered the progress, along with a couple of flat tyres for one of the riders I was tagging along with.
But after what felt like an eternity, we inched our way into Cumbria to face the mighty Shap Fell. Eight miles of constant climbing to an elevation of more than 1,300ft.
Strangely, having a big hill to concentrate on forced me out of my slumber and I flew through the final 30 miles.
Attritional day though. But onwards and upwards. We are already over the half way mark and we'll make our way into Scotland tomorrow.
To find out more, including information about next year's ride, visit www.rideacrossbritain.com


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The Counselor a Colossal Waste of A-List Talent
- Christa Banister Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
- 2013 25 Oct
DVD Release Date: February 11, 2014
Theatrical Release Date: October 25, 2013
Rating: R (for graphic violence, some grisly images, strong sexual content and language)
Genre: Drama/Crime
Run Time: 117 min.
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Rosie Perez
Celebrated novelist Cormac McCarthy has never been one for writing feel-good stories. From the disturbing No Country For Old Men, which earned four Academy Awards in 2007 including Best Picture, to the grim post-apocalyptic tale, The Road, his work has still made for some pretty thrilling cinema.
Now with The Counselor, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author is venturing into brand new territory by adapting his own work. Trouble is, while screenplays are decidedly different from their literary counterparts because the writer is given freedom to show and tell, success still hinges upon thoughtful exposition and character development. Unfortunately, The Counselor is sorely lacking in both, so the end product is basically a frustrating cautionary tale on how getting mixed up in drug trafficking doesn't pay. Does anyone really need to watch a movie to learn that?
Even with a gaggle of A-list talent onboard, including director Ridley Scott (Prometheus) who usually provides a reliable eye for memorable visuals (he does here, too, but for all the wrong reasons), The Counselor is nothing more than a head-scratching string of scenes that don't propel the threadbare narrative forward. Worse yet, McCarthy never gives the viewer a reason to care. Never have characters been this unlikable or inconsequential.
The "plot" involves a lawyer (Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave) who's never called by any other name but "Counselor" for the duration of the film. For someone smart enough to make it through law school, pass the Bar and defend people in precarious legal situations, Counselor, like the hapless protagonists who inevitably meet their grisly end in your average horror movie, stunningly ignores numerous warnings about the "one-time" drug smuggling adventure he's about to embark upon.
And considering the ethics of the people offering their two cents, namely Counselor's shady, larger-than-life clients Reiner (Javier Bardem, Skyfall), his leopard-loving gal pal Malkina (Cameron Diaz, Knight and Day) and one very greasy middleman Westray (Brad Pitt, World War Z), one would assume Counselor would at least weigh his options. But for whatever reason, sheer stupidity or otherwise, Counselor believes he can emerge unscathed. As it turns out, Counselor's end game is obtaining a quick but hefty payout so he can run off into the sunset with his beloved fiancée Laura (Penélope Cruz, To Rome With Love).
Of course, we all know that Cormac is no writer of romance, and everything spirals ridiculously out of control. Instead of dazzling the viewer with a clever cat-and-mouse game, however, the filmmakers never find their footing with their unconventional approach. Random bursts of violence and bizarre sexual displays surely keep the audience guessing, but all these tasteless spectacles do little for the film's bottom line.
Truly, it takes far more than a slew of celebrity talent to make a movie memorable, and no amount of weird get-ups for Bardem, shock-jock antics from Diaz or beautifully framed shots from Scott is going to accomplish that here. What The Counselor lacks desperately is a compelling story, or at least a unique point of view that works. Since that wasn't in the cards, however, we've got one of the world's most acclaimed writers philosophizing about a whole lot of nothing. And to that - not to mention the film's many other shortcomings - audiences should object.
CAUTIONS (may contain spoilers):
- Drugs/Alcohol: Illegal drugs, particularly cocaine, figure prominently into the plot. A man is shown smoking a joint. Social drinking.
- Language/Profanity: A handful of f-bombs, plus instances where God's name is misused. Sh--, as- dam- and he-- are also said occasionally.
- Sex/Nudity: Crude references to female anatomy and various sexual acts. Oral sex is performed on a woman in the opening scene (no nudity but Laura's reaction to what's happening is shown). A lengthy scene where a woman pleasures herself on top of Reiner's car in public. Malkina sports a few skimpy swimsuits at the pool where quite a bit of her naked body is shown from the side. Malkina makes a quasi-pass at Laura in the same scene.
- Violence: A man driving a motorcycle at a very high speed is purposely tripped up by a wire that ends up not only tipping the bike over but beheading him in the process. We see his head rolling around on the road. Several people are shot multiple times at very close range. A device is placed around a man's neck that keeps getting tighter and tighter until it decapitates him. He's shown in the middle of a busy London street struggling and his blood is spurting everywhere. A woman is kidnapped, and we later see her torso intermingled with a large pile of trash at the local dump.
Publication date: October 25, 2013


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Laura Wilson
Senior Vice President, Platform Strategy
Weber Shandwick & Georgetown University
Laura Wilson is the Director of Digital Engagement & Social Media at Georgetown University, one of the world's leading academic and research institutions located in Washington, DC. She has a track record for creating or improving successful social media programs for global brands such as Hilton Hotels & Resorts, ICF International and Cvent. At Georgetown Laura sets the university's social media strategy including leading an award-winning first-person video documentary series "Georgetown Stories" which shares the lives of 11 undergraduate students. Laura also volunteers her time consulting on social media strategy for several non-profits in the DC area.


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From Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking. Copyright ©2015 by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
"The secret to great Israeli-style hummus is an obscene amount of tehina, as much as half of the recipe by weight, so it's especially important to use the best quality you can find. Unlike Greek-style hummus, which is heavy on garlic and lemon, Israeli hummus is about the marriage of chickpeas and tehina."
1 cup dried chickpeas
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups basic tehina sauce (recipe below)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
Paprika, Chopped Parsley and Olive oil for drizzling
Zahav Basic Tehina Sauce
1 whole head garlic
¾ cup lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 generous cups tehina (such as Soom brand)
½ teaspoon ground cumin
Place the chickpeas in a large bowl with 1 teaspoon baking soda and cover with water. The chickpeas will double in volume, so use more water than you think you need. Let soak at room temperature overnight.. The next day drain and rinse under cold water. Place the chickpeas in a large pot with remaining teaspoon of baking soda and add cold water to cover by at least 4 inches of water. Bring to a boil over high heat, skimming any scum that rises to surface. Lower heat to medium, cover and let simmer about 1 hour until chickpeas are soft. (Overcooked chickpeas are the secret to creamy hummus, so don't worry if they are mushy and break down a little.) Drain.
Combine chickpeas, tehina sauce, salt and cumin in processor. Puree the hummus for several minutes, until smooth and uber-creamy. Then puree it some more.
To serve, spread the hummus mixture in a shallow bowl, dust with paprika, top with parsley and more tehina sauce if you like and drizzle generously with oil.
Zahav Basic Tehina Sauce
Break up the head of garlic with your hands, letting the unpeeled cloves fall into a blender. Add lemon juice, and 1/4-teaspoon salt. Blend on high a few minutes until you have a coarse puree. Let mixture stand 10 minutes to let garlic mellow.
Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer set over a mixing bowl. pressing to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids. Add the tehina to strained mixture; add cumin and 1-teaspoon salt. Whisk or use a food processor, adding ice water a few tablespoons at a time to thin out – until you have a perfectly smooth, creamy, thick sauce.
Keeps a week in refrigerator and up to a month in freezer.
Makes about 3 1/2 cups
Recipe: Kosher, appetizer, parve


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With his opponent Brian Bilbray a no show, Scott Peters makes his case to the Ocean Beach Town Council.
Congressional candidates Scott Peters and Brian Bilbray were scheduled to square off in front of the Ocean Beach Town Council last night as a part of the council's Candidates Forum, but apparently someone forgot to inform Mr. Bilbray. Instead, Democrat Scott Peters held the floor to answer questions from the audience.
It was noted that the council had invited Mr. Bilbray, and that he and his campaign had confirmed that he would attend. No explanation was given for his absence.
"I want to cut costs to save the program," Peters said when asked about the attack ads by his opponent regarding his stance on Medicare. "Mr. Bilbray has voted to cut benefits and end the program." He said that savings in Medicare can be achieved by allowing the government to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs, which it currently by law cannot do; by reducing fraud and overbilling; electronic record keeping that will help increase efficiencies; and taking it from "a sick care system to a healthcare system that incentivizes prevention."
Significant savings in the program, he said, can be achieved without cutting benefits to seniors.
Peters also was eager to discuss one of the other main criticisms of his opponent: His vote on the City Council to continue to underfund the pension system. He said that for three decades San Diego had been underfunding its pension system, and that in one of his first votes as a new member of the City Council, he voted to continue that practice for one more year. That vote, he says, was "a mistake."
Peters said that according to the actuary, reversing that vote would have saved three percent off of the pension deficit. "It doesn't really qualify me for the 'father of the pension crisis,' which he's calling me, or the Bernie Madoff of San Diego. I think that's a little bit of an exaggeration."
Subsequently, Peters pointed out that the City Council hired outside consultants, followed their advice, and ended the underfunding of the pension system, making it illegal. After making several changes to the way the city handled the pension system, he said, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) called San Diego "a model for other cities to follow." As a result, he said, employees now pay a higher portion of their benefits, and the changes instituted for new hires as of 2004 saved the city $23 million per year.
Asked about his thoughts on the role community college system, Peters acknowledged that community colleges are the place where today's workforce gets trained, and that a greater emphasis needs to be placed on not only getting people to go to college, but to make sure they graduate. He pointed out that while the United States leads the world in the number of students in college, we are 16th in the number that graduates. "You can't compete in a brainpower economy unless kids can go to college," he said, which means making college affordable and ensuring a reasonable pathway to be able to pay back student loans.
Pivoting to immigration, Peters explained that the border is often looked at as a threat instead of an opportunity. He said that border crossing delays cost the California economy $3.5 billion per year with a similar effect in Mexico, and that while Mexico has already finished a major renovation on its border crossing with San Diego, the U.S. has not even begun theirs. The average border delay in San Ysidro is two hours, sometimes four, which is hurting the economy on both sides of the border. "That's an example that If you want to stop immigration, why aren't we facilitating better economics along the border on both sides? That helps reduce the draw and the pressure to cross," he said.
As far as the undocumented people already in the States, he said it is simply not possible to deport 11 million people. "Mr. Bilbray has taken a hard line against any kind of comprehensive reform."
Peters said that he does support the DREAM Act. "We have to sit down and be a little more reasonable than the Tea Party folks have been, and my opponent has been, really, one of the harshest voices."


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Best of NAMA Events
Regional and chapter Best of NAMA Awards events will be taking place in January and February. We know you won't want to miss these fun events, so we're providing the various dates so you can add as many as you'd like to your calendar and easily register for more than one.
January 12, 2012 – Region II (Gateway, Great Plains, Midlands, Missouri-Kansas, Rocky Mountain, and Southwest Chapters) at Boulevard Brewing Company, 2501 Southwest Boulevard, Kansas City, MO 64108, beginning at 6:00 pm. For more details, visit http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/region2.htm. You can also register online at http://www.nama.org/ConferenceRegistration/Default.aspx?confid=39.
January 19, 2012 – Region IV (Badger, Chicago, Heartland, and Mid-America Chapters) at the Crowne Plaza Madison, 4402 East Washington Avenue, Madison, WI 53704 starting at 6:00 pm. For more details, visit http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/region4.htm. Online registration for the banquet is available at http://www.nama.org/ConferenceRegistration/Default.aspx?confid=41.A block of rooms has been secured at the Crowne Plaza Madison. To book a room, call 1-888-233-9527 or, to reserve a room online, go to https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_ei_new&eventID=7906469. Make sure you mention NAMA to receive the $99 discount rate. The hotel cutoff is January 11, so if you need a room be sure to make a reservation quickly.
January 24, 2012 – Carolinas/Virginia Chapter at Mez Contemporary Mexican, 5410 Page Road, Durham, NC 27703, starting at 5:30 pm. Online registration for the banquet is available at http://www.nama.org/store/index.php?p=catalog&parent=16&pg=1. For more details, contact Mary Cameron (email@example.com), Lela Griffin (email@example.com) or Jennifer Gwyn (email@example.com).
A Midsouth Chapter event will be planned and further details will be forthcoming.
January 25, 2012 – Southeastern Chapter at The Norcross Station Café, 40 South Peachtree Street, Norcross, GA 30017, starting at 6:00 pm. Online registration for the banquet is available at http://www.nama.org/store/index.php?p=catalog&parent=20&pg=1. For more details, contact Kim Maloney (email@example.com).
January 26, 2012 – Region III (Cornbelt, Iowa, North Central, and Northern Prairie Chapters) at the Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403, starting at 6:00 pm. For more details, visit http://www.nama.org/amc/bon/region3.htm. Online registration for the banquet is available at http://www.nama.org/ConferenceRegistration/Default.aspx?confid=40.
A block of rooms has been secured at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, 1300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55403. To book a room, call 1-888-421-1442 or, to register online, click on the following link: https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_ei_new&eventID=8116620. Make sure you mention NAMA to receive the $120 rate. The hotel cutoff is January 12.
February 14, 2012 – Region I (Desert Southwest and Western Pacific Chapters) in the Wine and Cheese Pavilion (Corner of "S" Street & Expo Lane/by Seminar Center) at the World Ag Expo, Tulare, CA, with a reception scheduled to start at 11:00 am.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at 913-491-6500.


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To prevent Linux from running away with Thailand's subsidized "people's PC project," Microsoft has dropped the price of its Windows and Office packages from nearly US$600 to $37. Other Asian countries are lining up to duplicate the Thai program. As a result of the events in Thailand, analysts have begun to predict the end of Microsoft's long-standing "one-price-fits-all-markets policy."
Significantly, first-time PC users in Thailand are finding the Linux Thai Language Edition easier to master than Windows.
In a computer shop on the outskirts of Bangkok, Nalong Sripronsa is teaching his assistant how to install Linux Thai Language Edition OS on a secondhand Pentium PC. Nalong, manager of DCO Computer, has seen growing interest in Linux since the Thai government launched its people's PC project in May of this year.
The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is offering a million PCs preloaded with Linux StarOffice at rock-bottom prices to increase computer literacy in Thailand.
"Many people in Thailand have never used a PC before," Nalong told LinuxInsider. "They don't know the difference between Windows and Linux. If you go from Windows to Linux, it seems difficult, but for first-time PC users, the Thai edition of Linux is easier to learn than Windows." Nalong added that Microsoft has neglected the Thai market. The company only recently made Thai-language documentation available for beginners.
People's PC Project
The people's PC project, formally known as the ICT PC Project, revolutionized the Thai PC market, and its effect is being felt around the region. The Ministry of ICT aims to sell 700,000 PCs and 300,000 notebooks in the first year of the project. To make the PCs affordable, the government has insisted that computer makers offer the machines at fire-sale prices — $250 for PCs and $400 for notebooks, including the software.
The government did invite Microsoft to participate in the project, but the company initially refused to lower its prices. Microsoft has a long-standing policy of charging the same prices throughout the world, which could help explain the widespread piracy in developing markets like Thailand, where the average annual income is about $7,000. Charging Thai consumers nearly $600 for Windows/Office is the equivalent of charging U.S. consumers $3,000.
Pirates in Bangkok sell copies of Windows XP for $4 and Office XP for $8. With Microsoft refusing to lower its prices, the Ministry of ICT turned to Linux and StarOffice.
The rock-bottom prices — and easy financing terms — generated enormous interest in the ICT PCs. An estimated 35,000 people showed up at a Bangkok convention center where the machines were launched. Some people even camped overnight to sign up for the program. By August of this year, Thai consumers had snapped up 300,000 ICT PCs. Three regional computer clubs joined forces to produce alternatives for those who were not qualified for the ICT PC, offering similar PCs for a slightly higher price.
Microsoft Has Second Thoughts
Microsoft, faced with the prospect of a million Linux PCs, began to have second thoughts about its pricing structure. With many students buying an ICT PC, the company risked losing both market share and mind share to Linux. Microsoft's newly appointed regional general manager, Andrew McBean, no doubt having consulted Redmond, offered to supply the ICT PC Program with the Windows/Office package for a mere $37 — a price cut of 85 percent.
Gartner research director Martin Galliland, coauthor of the report "Thai PC Market May Change Global Windows Landscape," told LinuxInsider that Microsoft's concerns about Linux and piracy explain the company's change of heart. "The price drop was clearly motivated by a feared loss of market share for legal copies of Microsoft software," said Galliland.
While some buyers still will install pirated copies of Microsoft's software, Gartner estimates that 70 percent of Thai consumers will stick with Linux, citing freely available software, lower prices and lack of knowledge among first-time PC owners.
Microsoft's Andrew McBean in Bangkok was not available for comment on the company's decision to participate in the ICT PC project.
Two Month's Salary
Gilliland said Gartner has been contacted by several other Asian countries wanting to duplicate the Thai initiative. "The apparent success of the Thai ICT project has spawned some interest in other emerging markets, and they have approached Gartner with very early statements of interest," Galliland told LinuxInsider. He refused to identify the countries involved. In what could signal an ominous sea change for Microsoft, nearly all countries in the region are developing localized versions of Linux.
Gartner had more bad news for Microsoft. In the second quarter of 2003, just 40 percent of all desktop PCs shipped in Thailand had a licensed copy of Windows installed, an all-time low that Gartner expects will dip even further. Moreover, PC manufacturer Laser Computer has replaced HP as Thailand's top PC seller. Laser Computer sells only Linux PCs and has been growing at an annual rate of 300 percent.
Nalong Sripronsa at DCO Computer believes Linux will take market share from Microsoft. "Even people who do not qualify for the ICT PC program think Microsoft is just too expensive. Schoolteachers make only about $300 per month. How can they afford to pay $600 for Microsoft software? That's more than the cost of a basic PC. For a few dollars you can buy a Linux CD with all the applications you need."


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Justice Initiative lawyers have represented scores of individuals and groups before domestic and international human rights courts and tribunals around the world. These cases seek not only to vindicate individual claims, but to establish and strengthen the law's protection for all.
Askarov v. Kyrgyzstan
Human rights defender Azimjan Askarov was detained and tortured by police in Kyrgyzstan after documenting human rights violations committed during inter-ethnic conflict in 2010. Askarov was given a life sentence after being denied a fair trial and died in July 2020.
Akmatov v. Kyrgyzstan
Turdubek Akmatov was taken to the local police station in Kyrgyzstan and severely beaten during ten hours in custody. He died a few hours after being released without charge.
Ernazarov v. Kyrgyzstan
The Ernazarov case concerns the death in custody of Rahmanberdi Enazarov, who was arrested in November 2005 and charged with the serious sexual offense of forced sodomy.
Akunov v. Kyrgyzstan
The death of a political activist in police custody in April 2007 after undergoing a severe beating reflects a larger pattern of violence in Kyrgyzstan.
Moidunov v. Kyrgyzstan
After a dispute on the street, Tashkenbai Moidunov was taken to a police station in Kyrgyzstan. Later that night, he was found dead in his cell. Despite the evidence, there was never a proper investigation into his death.


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May 16, 2019
Boeing Boeing
by Marc Camoletti, translated by Beverley Cross, Francis Evans
May 10 – August 31
Fasten your seatbelts—there's turbulence ahead in this laugh-out-loud, over-the-top farce! Bernard has the perfect setup: three beautiful fiancées, all flight attendants. And because of their schedules, they're never in town at the same time. Until… a new, improved Boeing jet throws Bernard's perfect timetable into chaos. Antics ensue as he scrambles to keep the ladies from learning about each other. How will this hilarious flight touch down?