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Baby Bodysuit | Silently Judging You
How We Describe this Baby Bodysuit.
"Whenever I would take my little fella to the playground, he would be all cute and wobbly, thinking he could hang with the big rowdy kids. Usually that ended with him falling on his extra padded diaper butt next to the monkey bars and giving those big kids the big side-eye. Now everywhere I go, I look for baby side-eyes and I giggle because you can literally see them silently judging you and letting you know exactly what they think. Can you think of a more perfect bodysuit for a baby?"
Wrybaby Baby Bodysuit Features:
- 100% cotton, super soft bodysuit
- Lap-Shoulder collar for easy on and off
- Gender neutral garment and design
- Quality stitching & simple snaps
- Designed and printed in North Carolina
- NOTE: Always remove baby before washing
Well Made. Thoughtfully Designed.
- Soft inks that allow for more breathability make our bodysuits more comfortable for a baby. We're experts at screen printing with a light touch, and we never ever use heat transfers.
- Soft natural fabric is our company standard. Cotton is naturally fire resistant, wicks moisture and is one of the few fabrics worthy of being against a baby's skin.
- No scratchy tags to irritate a newborn's skin. Instead, we prefer to ink in the label & care information so babies have nothing to cry about.
Baby Bodysuits That Make the Perfect First-Year Gift.
- All season wear. Our bodysuits are breathable in the summer, and cozy for layering in the winter – which makes them the perfect wardrobe staple year round. Plus, the snaps make it a snap to change diapers!
- Lap shoulder construction makes it super easy to pull on and off over baby's head. This type of neckline fits the shoulders well, but isn't too tight. Babies come in all shapes and sizes, and this style is better at fitting a wider range.
- Tiny, strong snaps hold this bodysuit in place, even with a full diaper! The safety tested snaps are low profile, and easy to snap, which make changing diapers a breeze!


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Specifications Plug: US Voltage: AC110V Water pressure: 0.08 to 0.75 Mpa0.8-7.5kgf/c? Water flow rate: wash: max 0.8L/min, bidet: max 0.95L/min Water pressure control: anus washing, bidet washing controlled by micro computer Temperature control: 4-step adjustment OFF, 33? Washing power: 1300W Tank capacity: 0.55L Warm air power: 250W Temperature control: 32?
Adjustment Soft seat: when closing, the seat and cover fall down slowly Seat power:45W Length of the power cable:1.5M Comes with 1/2 3 way connector Safety device: float switch, temperature sensor, temperature fuse Package Electric bidet x 1 Water inlet tube (length: about 80cm, inner diameter: 18.8mm) x 1 Bidet accessories (Package) x 1 User manual. Smart Electric Toilet Seat Auto Warmer Bidet Cover Antibacterial Deodorization. Electric Bidet Warm Toilet Seat for Elongated Toilets -Double Nozzles Usa 110v. Installing the Bidet Is As Easy As Simply Removing Your Original Toilet Seat and Replace with It.You Just Need to Connect to the Water Cistern Supply with the Supplied Fittings. And with All the Great Functions Set in a Simple Control Panel, Using the Bidet Is Totally Hassle-free Too. The Plugs for Our Products Will Be Made According to the Country Where the Customer Is Located, so Please Don't Worry. Reminder: the Toilet Seat Comes with G1/2 Three-way Valve Connection Thread. If Your Toilet Tank Has 7/8 Usa Standard Thread, You May Need Prepare One 3-Way T-adapter by Yourself.
Comes with 1/2 3 Way Connector. Water Pressure: 0.08 to 0.75 Mpa0.8-7.5kgf/C? Water Flow Rate: Wash: Max 0.8l/Min, Bidet: Max 0.95l/Min.Water Pressure Control: Anus Washing, Bidet Washing Controlled by Micro Computer. Temperature Control: 4-Step Adjustment off, 33? Soft Seat: When Closing, the Seat and Cover Fall down Slowly. Length of the Power Cable:1.5m. Safety Device: Float Switch, Temperature Sensor, Temperature Fuse.
Water Inlet Tube (Length: About 80cm, Inner Diameter: 18.8mm) X 1. Bidet Accessories (Package) X 1. Electric Bidet Seat Provides a Gentle, Refreshing Clean for the Entire Family. Gentle yet Powerful Water Spray Provides an Effective Clean; Adjustable Warm Water and Pressure Settings; Dual Action Spray with Oscillating Option Creates a Refreshing Clean Every Time.
The Heated Bidet Seat Is Very Suitable for Cold Winter; Adjustable Warm Water Provides You Comfortable Experience; the Built-in Deodorizing Device Can Solve the Odor of the Toilet, and You No Longer Need to Put an Air Freshener. This Smart Toilet Seat Is Specially Contoured for Maximum Comfort; the Design Simulates the Curvature of the Human Hip, so That the Toilet Seat Fits the Hip. You Just Need to Connect to the Water Cistern Supply with the Supplied Fittings, and a Power Source. Feedback is very important to us.It is impossible to address issues if we do not know about them! Faction is our ultimate goal. We work hard to earn your trust and future business. A If you receive a defective item, you may return it or ask for a discount. Due to time zones, our reply to your questions may not be immediately. If it's non-workdays, please kindly be patient and wait till Monday. 0.08 to 0.75 Mpa0.8-7.5kgf/c? Wash: max 0.8L/min, bidet: max 0.95L/min. Length of the power cable. This item is in the category "Home & Garden\Bath\Toilets & Bidets\Toilet Parts & Attachments". The seller is "yiyibushe-4" and is located in this country: US. This item can be shipped to United States.

subset: commoncrawl


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The power outage at Super Bowl 47 shined light on a growing issue for Facebook. Namely, its lack of relevancy during a live-event.
Super Bowl XLVII, the third most-watched program in television history, was accompanied by 52 national TV commercials, according to internet marketing site Marketing Land. Twitter was mentioned in 26 ads, or 50 percent, aired during CBS' game coverage. Facebook took home four mentions for eight percent, while Google was not touted at all. YouTube and Instagram were both shown once.
Facebook and Twitter each received eight mentions out of a total of 59 national commercials during Super Bowl 46 in 2012, wrote Marketing Land. That means Twitter received more than two times as many mentions this year, while Facebook saw a 50 percent drop in big game ad mentions year-over-year.
(Read More: Twitter, Washington Post Also Announce Hacks )
Why are brands, who shelled out an average of $3.8 million per 30 second spot, shying away from a social network that has 1.06 billion users for a micro-blogging platform that has just 200 million users?
(Read More: Advertisers Bet Big on the Super Bowl )
Location, Location, Location:
While Facebook may have an extreme edge over Twitter when it comes to the amount of monthly active users, advertisers want engagement on the platforms most inhabited during a live-event.
Asking social media users to interact with a brand's content on a platform other than the one they are currently on would lead to less than desirable results. Extreme case in point is the lack of a Google mention in a single Super Bowl ad. Brands feel that enough users simply aren't there.
(Read More: For Search, Facebook Had to Go Beyond 'Robospeak' )
Twitter released post-game social statistics that detailed the biggest peaks of Twitter conversation during the championship game. Measured in Tweets per minute, or TPM, the power outage at New Orleans' Superdome registered a game-high 231,500 TPM. A 108-yard kickoff return by the Ravens' Jacoby Jones was good for second place at 185,000 TPM. In total, more than 24 million game-related Tweets were posted.
"It took just four minutes for the first Promoted Tweet to appear against searches for [power outage] on Twitter," the company wrote, illustrating just how fast advertisers moved in to capitalize on the moment in real-time.
In fact, the blackout was the defining moment that portrayed the difference between Facebook and Twitter, said Craig Elimeliah, vice president and director of technology and digital solutions at Rapp.
"It was a small blip in the advertising continuum that I believe will impact the industry forever… I applaud those brands that chose to see that opportunity and seize it without over-examining the creative and testing ad nauseam. It showed that something like that can be done on an ongoing basis as part of a marketing strategy. And they chose to do it on Twitter and Vine. That says a lot."
As of Tuesday, Facebook had yet to release a post detailing any meaningful number-specific trends related to Super Bowl 47. In a few posts on the official "Sports on Facebook" page, the company merely mentioned the game's top moments and most mentioned terms on the site. Noticeably absent is a Posts Per Minute metric.
In a seemingly sponsored pre-game segment on CBS, analyst James Brown informed viewers of "what's been trending on Facebook" in the two weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLVII. A handful of comments on Twitter showed some were puzzled by the juxtaposition of "trending" and "Facebook."
Facebook's Real-Time Roadblocks
Facebook, which celebrated its nine year anniversary Monday, has multiple barriers to overcome if it would like to be real-time relevant.
1) Non-Chronological News Feed
In an effort to enhance user experience, Facebook will display interesting content to users upon sign-in. The news feed's algorithm, using several factors to determine top stories, ensures that its users have a pleasant experience in each visit to the site.
"The bigger Facebook gets the slower it becomes," Elimeliah said. "Facebook has been errant in the way it serves up stories. They choose what the Top Stories are rather than force you to look at what the recent stories are. It's antithetical to a live stream."
Because Facebook utilizes a Top Posts format and doesn't give its users the ability to view Most Recent Posts in chronological order, users have no reason to live inside the platform in real-time; a visit to Facebook the next morning will produce the previous day's most engaging content.
2) Walled Garden
Although Facebook recently added Subscribe/Follow buttons to give users access to content from those they may not be friends with, the social networking site is mostly used to connect with friends and family members. This means an interesting thought posted to Facebook by a friend of a friend or someone on the other side of the world has little chance of ever appearing in your news feed.
Tweets, on the other hand, by default, are published to the world. Twitter users are encouraged to follow and connect with those that share their interests, while meeting in real life is not a prerequisite. Facebook's mostly closed garden approach — while useful to create an intimate social setting — is a massive real-time barrier.
3) Lack of Brevity
Have you ever watched a movie with someone who makes long-winded points? It's not pleasant. Since Facebook's platform allows for a status of up to 63,206 characters, users aren't exactly focused on keeping it concise.
While not all Facebook posts are paragraphs long, it's hard to consume a stream of content that may require you to take your eyes off the first screen (your television) for more than a few seconds at a time.
"Facebook is an investment in time," Elimeliah said. "The Timeline itself tells us that Facebook is for collecting and scrapbooking your life so that one day, maybe, you will look back on those fond memories."
On the flipside, "Twitter is real-time. The speed of Twitter is what keeps it true. You can't polish your posts because there is no time to polish the post. You have to think fast and think smart. It challenges the way we communicate and is as real-time as real-time can possibly get."
If viewers already struggle reading 140-character Tweets in the vicious cycle of repeatedly checking the TV and their phone, longer status updates stand no chance. Facebook has also fostered a platform where most users share personal experiences and life events, not evoked thoughts while watching a Super Bowl.
4) Competition
Twitter could possibly be Facebook's biggest real-time roadblock. Users and brands recognize Twitter's platform as the current go-to second-screen. Even with a user gap of 800 million between Facebook and Twitter, the latter is clearly the more convenient medium on a companion device.
— Written by CNBC's Eli Langer. Follow him on Twitter at @EliLanger


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Toshiba will launch its new line of Wi-Fi enabled SD memory cards in the U.S. from summer, a company executive said Thursday, in a challenge to established makers of such cards like Eye-Fi.
The Tokyo-based tech company's new FlashAir line of SD (secure digital) cards include a built-in wireless access point and file server, so photographs and other files saved on them can be easily shared. Up to 10 devices can use the miniature wireless network generated by the card to download photos from its memory, using a web browser.
The cards will probably go on sale in the U.S. in May or June, though the final date has yet to be set, said Hiroto Nakai, a senior manager in Toshiba's flash strategy division. He said they were designed for a different type of use than Eye-Fi cards.
"I think Eye-Fi is mainly meant for uploading. Our cards are aimed at sharing, at the time and place the photographs are taken," Nakai said.
The company began selling its FlashAir line of wireless cards in Japan earlier this month, and has launched a campaign across Tokyo to promote its file-sharing features. The product currently comes in an 8GB version that costs about
Nakai said Toshiba has made an API (application programming interface) for the card's software available to software and device manufacturers so they can add functionality and ensure it works with their devices.
Memory cards from California-based Eye-Fi's memory cards have proven popular for their ability to automatically sync wirelessly with other devices and download photos from the digital cameras in which they are used. The company recently spoke out against a new specification for SD cards with Wi-Fi proposed by a major standardization body, saying the move infringes on its intellectual property.
Wireless memory cards could eventually be made obsolete by digital camera makers, who are increasingly building Wi-Fi features directly into their hardware.
Toshiba is one of the world's largest manufacturers of NAND flash semiconductors used in memory cards, which could give it pricing and technology advantages over rivals.


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Traditional aesthetic doesn't always have to be grand in scale or accent to achieve a timeless look. The Eunice Collection takes the form of traditional case pieces and utilizes an espresso finish and understated knob hardware to create bedrooms style that can range from transitional to cottage. Recessed framing carries over from the design of the headboard to the drawer fronts of the case pieces and storage footboard.
Available in your choice of Full, Queen, King, or Cal King


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Writer's Workshop-My Birth
LOL! That was cute how you wrote that!
Now, I wanna hear how you spoke to Uma!! 😉
you make it all sound so casual angie! what a story! i went in the taxi when i was born – our car was broken down!!!
OK, I know you're in Vegas partying like a rock star and stuff, but I really hope you're planning on coming back and elaborating on that birth story! Because that sounds like a good one!
That's some birth story, glad you made it through! What a way to start out in life. Hope life has gotten easier for you along the way!
Here's a link to my writer's workshop post about my mom:
What a story!!! Can't wait to hear about your phone call!!!
Now that's a story!!!
Wow, a conversation with Uma herself! That's awesome!!
Holy mackerel! You sure did give us the campbell's soup condensed version of that story – how incredible! You must be on the same list as Mama Kat, huh? What an incredible opportunity you guys have – that is SO stinking COOL! 🙂
LOL what a birth story!
What a rocky start to a great life! I am glad you made it:-)
Love a good chaotic birth story with a very happy ending! 🙂
(I can only imagine how your parents relayed that tale!)
Great post!
WOW that's how you sum up a long story into a short one. Glad you made it sounds scary!
the Buzz, Brandy
Oh my Gosh! LOL You make my birth story so boring… but I think my mother would have had a heart attack in the process!
Oh my Gosh! LOL You make my birth story so boring… but I think my mother would have had a heart attack in the process!
What!? I love how you just wrote that like it was no big deal! How crazy!!
Wow! That's quite a birth story. I'm glad you survived!
And dying to hear about the phone call!
Was that really how you were born?
Tell me all about it in person, soon. 🙂
WHAT?????????? You made that up! I know it! No one has a birth story that damn cool!
And what the hell were you doing on the phone with Uma Thurman???
Justine 😮 )
Thats quite an intense birth story.
Only you can make being born on the side of the road in a snow storm by your dad sound so normal LOL.
I just realized I hadn't "officially" followed your blog even though I have been reading your wonderful blog for a long time. It's fabulous!
I hope you have a great day! 🙂
Um, yes, I want more details on that story. That is one crazy birth story!!
Glad you survived.
Lol, this is great, love the voice in this. Awesome birth story too! I don't think I have heard of a crazier birth. Thank you for sharing and so glad you are here to share with us!
Wow! That's quite a story!
Uummmm you HAVE to tell us more! Ok Vegas calls, but when you get back… Don't leave us hangin like that!
RUDE to just leave us hangin' like that!! Buuut seeing as how you are just so darn likeable, I will let it slide. 🙂
As for the birth story…WOW!! Glad you survived…otherwise Uma would have had a dull day!! 🙂
Hugs to you,
Glad you made it here….. :O)
Wow! That is the best birth story I have heard. Congrats on the new nephew!
Ok …wow. You pack a lot of stuff into one post!!!! Have fun in Vegas! And tell Uma I said hi. And you MUST go into more depth on your birth story some day!!!
Life really is a circus huh? lol
Can't wait to hear all about Uma!
Holy cow. Really?
Too funny! Really?
And, Uma Thurman? Wow!
Of course you did. We have already established that you are one of a kind in so many ways. This entry into the world just seems par for your course. Love it!!
Can't wait to hear about your chat with Uma!
Seriously? THAT is your birth story (in a nutshell of course)?? WOW. What an entrance you made into the world Miss Angie!!


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Study Finds Substantial Decrease in Use of Cardiac Imaging Procedure
Main Points:
There has been a sharp decline since 2006 in the use of nuclear myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI; an imaging procedure used to determine areas of the heart with decreased blood flow), a decrease that cannot be explained by an increase in other imaging methods, according to a study in the March 26 issue of JAMA.
Published in:
Study Further:
Nuclear myocardial perfusion imaging accounted for much of the rapid growth in cardiac imaging that occurred from the 1990s through the middle 2000s. Edward J. McNulty, M.D., of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, San Francisco, and colleagues conducted a study to examine trends in MPI use within a large, community-based population. They obtained patient data for MPI performed from 2000-2011 for members ages 30 years or older from the clinical databases of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, an integrated health care delivery system that provides inpatient and outpatient care for more than 2.3 million adults.
Overall, MPI was used for 302,506 patients at 19 facilities. From 2000 until 2006, MPI use increased by a relative 41 percent. Then between 2006 and 2011, MPI use declined a relative 51 percent. Declines from 2006 to 2011 were greater for outpatients than inpatients (58 percent vs 31 percent) and for persons younger than 65 years. Use of cardiac computed tomography (a newer imaging procedure) increased during this time period, and could have accounted for 5 percent of the observed decline in overall MPI use if performed as a substitute.
"Although the abrupt nature of the decline suggests changing physician behavior played a major role, incident coronary disease, as assessed by [heart attack], also declined [by 27 percent]. We could not determine the relative effects of these factors on MPI use," the authors write.
"… the substantial reduction in MPI use demonstrates the ability to reduce testing on a large scale with anticipated reductions in health care costs."
Edward J. McNulty MD, Yun-Yi Hung PhD, Lucy M. Almers MPH, Alan S. Go MD, Robert W. Yeh MD, MSc. Population Trends From 2000-2011 in Nuclear Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Use. JAMA. 2014; 311(12):1248-1249. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.472
Editor's Note:
This study was supported by a grant from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Community Benefits Program. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, etc.
Media Advisory:
To contact Edward J. McNulty, M.D., call Janet Byron at 510-891-3115 or email firstname.lastname@example.com.


text: In this collection you'll find a variety of Suzanne Crane's handmade stoneware lamps with a variety of shades, including mica, embroidered cloth, and handmade paper. Some are available for immediate sale, and many are available to order. Use this section for inspiration, then call to discuss ordering a custom lamp in the size and color you need, with the type of shade that best suits your needs. If you need a lamp now, go to Pottery Available Now.


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Top Sierra Leone doctor dies of Ebola
(AP)—Authorities say the top doctor treating Ebola in Sierra Leone has died from the disease.
Dr. Shek Umar had been hospitalized in quarantine since he contracted the virus that has killed more than 670 people across West Africa this year.
His death Tuesday was confirmed by chief medical officer Dr. Brima Kargbo.
Health workers have been especially vulnerable to contracting Ebola, which is spread through bodily fluids such as saliva, sweat, blood and urine. Two American health workers are currently being hospitalized with Ebola in neighboring Liberia.
The Ebola outbreak is the largest in history with deaths blamed on the disease in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and also Nigeria.
The disease has no vaccine and no specific treatment, with a fatality rate of at least 60 percent.
© 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


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Before anyone says anything about how a few days of drinking grass in a bottle is not a healthy or effective way to lose weight, I just want to lose 3 poundsssszzzss! Just kidding. No, my five days of mainlining liquid vegetables is actually a serious effort to unhitch my apple wagon from the (death) star that is Marlboro Reds and functional alcoholism, because while I wasn't looking, shit got bad. Like a bottle of sauv blanc at home and then five drinks at a bar and still able to talk semi-coherently about books bad. Like Days Of Wine and Roses but with mediocre Instant Netflix indie dramas instead of Jack Lemmon bad.
There are myriad reviews of the Blueprint Cleanse on the Internet (although some of the reviewers were provided with the product for free in exchange for a review), so I'll be comparing and contrasting.
I will also be dropping some truth-bombs on you guys about poop, but I'll warn you before I do. Because we're all real ladies and when we sit down to "eliminate" (as the Blueprint website puts it) we expel Sephora samples and an effervescent sense of calm, OBVIOUSLY.
Before The Cleanse:
I had watermelon, a few iterations of that sad excuse for a "salad," and two yams. One yam the day before the cleanse, even though they recommend against starch, because THAT'S JUST HOW I ROLL, AND BESIDES, IT'S NOT LIKE YOU'RE MY REAL DAD!!! I'LL BE IN MY ROOM.
Day 1:
First, here's what "they" say about it. From Oh Eat Dirt:
Overall, I did not feel hungry at all... One thing I did notice was I felt more focused throughout the day, and maybe it was from the cleanse or maybe it was because I wasn't daydreaming about what I was going to make that night or have for lunch. Physically, my typical bloodshot eyes were clear, a true miracle.
Okay. Let's talk brass tacks and taste. First, there are six juices. The juices are numbered 1-6 and can be described thusly:
1. Your next door neighbor's freshly-cut grass that she meticulously maintains because her marriage is terrrrrrible, or at least that's what your mom told my mom in the frozen foods aisle at Shop-Rite but don't spread that around, OK?
Or, as Chef Amber Shea puts it: "This was a very drinkable green juice, and even by the end of day 3, I still wasn't tired of it. In sum: refreshing and enjoyable!"
2. Fruit mint. Pretty yumz.
3. See #1.
4. Spicy lemonade.
5. See #1 and urghhhhh.
6. Cinnamon-infused cashew milk, hereafter referred to as "angel jizz." It's awesome. Like it was milked from a breed of sparkly nut-cow found exclusively in Gstaad. But that might also be the lawn water talking.
Had half a glass of champagne at an event and spent the rest of the night wracked with guilt.
Day 2:
This is what the The Jet Set Girls say about Day 2:
My energy levels were sky high the first two days. I was ultra productive and managed to not only get myself organized, but also set some goals for the coming months. I was clear headed and on fire.
Me? Not so much. Maybe I would be "ultra productive" if [POOP WARNING] my butthole had not become a magician's top hat. What will I "eliminate" next? A white rabbit? The Magic School Bus with Miss Frizzle anxiously trying to convince 15 extremely alarmed grade school students not to tell their parents what they saw today because she's been on probation since 12-year-old Chris Bramante was eaten by a Mexican penis fish during their Underwater Adventure Day? Josh Brolin?
I also feel kind of nauseous. Probably because an episode of Veggie Tales is happening inside me.
Pants put on: 0. Syndicated Frasier episodes watched: Too many. If those were my goals, I have achieved them.
Day 3:
Day 3 is supposedly awesome. Here's someone's testimony from 365 Days of Wellness:
My coworkers tell me I'm glowing... Day 3 of the BluePrintCleanse was the best of the whole program. I'm not sure if that's because I know it's all over soon, or if I really do feel rejuvenated. I don't feel hungry, I don't have a headache, I went to the gym in the morning, AND the juice drinking seems like less of a burden.
From Vashtie:
I feel amazing. All day I was in deep thought which, for me, has always been a great outcome of fasting/cleansing. Not only that but my body feels lighter and energized. Another great thing about any cleanse is that you want to do better; eat better and live healthier. It's a great fresh start!
Me? Dizzy. Call Blueprint to see when my delivery of the remaining 2 days of juice will come.
Me: So uh, I'm on a 5-day cleanse, and I have my three days, but it's my last day, so I need another 2 days, does that make sense?
Blueprint customer service person: Haha, um, no? What?
Blueprint has now become that high school frenemy who once told you it was "brave" to wear a white bikini and you never wore one since.
Day 4:
This is where most of the blog reviews drop off, because many of them only did a 3-day cleanse, because many of them are not insane. I did find this woman:
"Cleanse confession time!"
"I ate one stalk of celery."
If I thought a celery stalk would have satiated me, I would have cheated. But at this point, nothing short of the deep-fried, multicolored-sprinkles-topped, hot fudge-drenched heads of my enemies will do. So it's really not worth it.
Text friend: "OMG, i think i'm dying." He responds like an hour later because my intestines are obviously equally fascinating to everyone around me. If Julie Taymor is reading this, I'm just saying, major Broadway potential.
I also got a colonic today, at Blueprint's recommendation, the details of which I will spare you, except to say I've never heard anyone "yelp" in real life until today, and it was me. YOLO?
Day 5:
Wake up freezing cold with a runny nose. I am officially sub-human. According to the Blueprint website, this is "Just A Healing Crisis!" Some other healing crises listed:
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Constipation/Diarrhea
- Skin eruptions
- Rash/Hives
- Cold sores/Canker sores
- Dry mouth
- Nausea
- Insomnia
- A ton of energy
- Increased sex drive
- Overwhelming sense of calm and productivity
Good thing you have all that sex drive! Nothing says "fuck me now" like "I have scurvy??!!"
The website says you have to break the cleanse the same way you prepared for it: fruit, then fruit and salad. But "fruit" means "quesadilla" in some languages, right?
At hot yoga, I mention to the instructor that I am on a cleanse, just in case I spontaneously pass out or start crying blood.
"Oh, only five days? I did a ten-day fast. No juice, nothing. I could have gone longer."
At 7 PM I break my fast with half a cup of black coffee (an item on the "cheat" list), and now I know what Wendy from Breaking Bad feels like. At some point, I go to sleep. It's over.
Day 6, Also Known As Oh Hi Food
This is the day of reckoning. A satisfied customer writes on Shutterbean:
I still feel FANTASTIC. My skin is clear and I have a lot of energy. I also lost 7lbs! I've been wanting to lose some weight in the past few months but just couldn't get motivated. This experience has given me a jump start to live a healthier/cleaner life. Feeling lighter is good motivation to keep it up.
Me? Aside from a tiny appetite that I bet won't last more than 5 minutes, I feel exactly the same. I mean, I'm glad I made it to the end, but I haven't Animorphed into Gwyneth Paltrow. Cheeseburgers are in my future.


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What else should I look for when buying a high-efficiency gas storage water heater?
ENERGY STAR certified gas storage water heaters are currently available from contractors and retailers. If need to replace your gas water heater soon, consider these suggestions:
- Plan ahead if you can. To make your life easier, plan ahead for your next water heater replacement and you will have time to research and select the best technology for your situation before it's an emergency. Your installer may need time to order the proper model, and it may take longer to install than a standard water heater.
- Check product availability. Find out what certified models are available on the market by viewing the ENERGY STAR Product List. You will then need to visit manufacturer Web sites, call local installers, or visit your local retailer to determine who carries these units in your area, or call your plumber or contractor to see what products are available.
- Estimate the capacity you'll need. The amount of hot water a model can deliver under standard test conditions is determined measured by two things: The capacity or volume (in gallons) and the first-hour rating. You can determine the capacity of your existing unit by looking at the nameplate or yellow Energy Guide sticker. If your current water heater meets your needs most of the time, you can probably replace it with one the same size. But also take a look at the first-hour rating of any new model you consider. The first-hour rating measures how much hot water the unit can deliver during a busy hour under standard test conditions. This means you can get better hot water performance without having to buy a larger capacity water heater.
- Contact a Contractor or Manufacturer. Ideally, you will find a local contractor who can assess your site, provide recommendations, install a system, and then perform periodic maintenance. When choosing a contractor you should:
- Request cost estimates in writing.
- Ask for references.
- Check the company with your local Better Business Bureau.
- See if the company will obtain a local permit if necessary and understands local residential building codes and other regulations.
- Search for rebates. You may be able to reduce your costs by taking advantage of rebates. Be sure to review the eligibility rules before you make your purchase.
- Use the Special Deals Finder to determine whether there are rebates available for ENERGY STAR certified water heaters in your zip code.
- Consider other measures that may also save energy. If you are in the midst of new construction or home remodeling project, you may have come across other proposed approaches to water heating. Under the right circumstances, these technologies can save significant amounts of energy.
Point-of-Use (POU) Electric
Hot Water Recirculating System
Be sure to look for the ENERGY STAR when shopping for a high efficiency gas storage water heater
Current Specification Effective Date: April 16, 2015
The specification covers high-efficiency gas storage, whole-home gas tankless, solar, and high efficiency electric storage water heaters. Products must meet minimum requirements for energy efficiency, hot water delivery, warranty period, and safety.
Water Heater Key Product Criteria: ENERGY STAR


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Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Spring Pink Coat
52 comments:
So beautiful Lori - its a perfect fabric choice!ReplyDelete
Your coat looks fabulous!!ReplyDelete
Your lovely jacket is the epitome of spring and modeled with the perfect background and THANKYOU for sharing your jacket construction journey.ReplyDelete
Beautiful coat. Thank you sharing your constructions methods.ReplyDelete
Beautiful work!ReplyDelete
Tailoring a coat is a big project. Yours looks fantastic. You'll get ore wear out of it next spring. I suspect your temps are starting to soar by now. Nice sewing, as always.ReplyDelete
I LOVE your new coat! It looks so stylish on you. Thank you for sharing your tailoring tips as you made this coat. I always learn something from what you share. Hope you don't mind that I recently added your blog site to my sidebar and called you one of my 'mentors'. Thank you again for sharing so much through your blog.ReplyDelete
I would spend hours making a single potholder but never attempt anything to wear. I so enjoy your blog and thank you for posting the step by step posts for us. Your coat looks fabulous. I love the color and the surprise lining is just priceless.ReplyDelete
Marvelous! Oh, you will enjoy wearing this!ReplyDelete
Beautiful, beautiful jacket! You really did an amazing job on this and it is such a wonderful color/print.ReplyDelete
Great looking coat/jacket. I love your fabric choice it works so well for this pattern.ReplyDelete
Oh my gosh, your coat is sooo wonderful; I love everything about it! The colour, the print and texture, the styling. You've done an absolutely beautiful job!ReplyDelete
I have loved following your progress on this project. It's just the perfect mix of fabric and pattern and you!ReplyDelete
It's a gorgeous coat, Lori!
I have read your posts on construction like I read a thriller! It's beautiful.ReplyDelete
Your coat is such a great looking classic style. The fun fabric color translates spring/summer time!! Thank you for sharing all your tailoring hints.ReplyDelete


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The overall precision of a high-resolution, successive-approximation ADC depends on the accuracy, stability, and drive capability of its voltage reference. The switched capacitors on the ADC's reference input present a dynamic load, so the reference circuit must be able to handle time- and throughput-dependent currents. Some ADCs integrate the reference and reference buffer on chip, but these may not be optimal in terms of power or performance—and the best performance can usually be achieved with an external reference circuit. This article looks at the challenges and requirements involved with the reference circuit design.
Reference Input
A simplified schematic of a successive-approximation ADC is shown in Figure 1. During the sampling interval, the capacitive DAC is connected to the ADC input, and a charge proportional to the input voltage is stored on its capacitors. When the conversion starts, the DAC is disconnected from the input. The conversion algorithm successively switches each bit to the reference or ground. Charge redistribution on the capacitors causes current to be drawn from or sunk by the reference. This dynamic current load is a function of both the ADC throughput rate and the internal clock that controls the bit trials. The most significant bits (MSBs) hold the most charge and require the most current.
Figure 2 shows the dynamic current load on the reference input of the AD7980, 16-bit, 1-MSPS, PulSAR® successive-approximation ADC. The measurement was made by observing the voltage drop across a 500-Ω resistor placed between the reference source and the reference pin. The plot shows current spikes of up to 2.5 mA, along with smaller spikes spread over the conversion.
To supply this current, while keeping the reference voltage free of noise, place a high value, low ESR reservoir capacitor, typically 10 µF or more, as close as possible to the reference input. A larger capacitor will further smooth the current load and reduce the burden on the reference circuit, but stability becomes an issue with very large capacitors. The reference must be capable of supplying the average current needed to top up the reference capacitor without causing the reference voltage to droop significantly. In ADC data sheets, the average reference input current is typically specified at a particular throughput rate. For example, the AD7980 data sheet specifies the average reference current to be 330 µA typical at 1 MSPS with a 5-V reference. No current is drawn between conversions, so the reference current scales linearly with throughput, dropping to 33 µA at 100 kSPS. The reference—or reference buffer—must have low enough output impedance at the highest frequency of interest to maintain the voltage at the ADC input without a significant current-induced voltage drop.
Reference Output Drive
Figure 3 shows a typical reference circuit. The voltage reference may integrate a buffer that has sufficient drive current, or a suitable op amp can be used as a buffer. To avoid conversion errors, the average current required at a particular throughput should not cause the reference voltage to droop more than ½ LSB. This error will be most pronounced during a burst conversion, as the reference load will go from zero to the average reference current at that throughput.
Using the AD7980 16-bit ADC with IREF = 330 µA and VREF = 5 V as an example to determine whether a reference has sufficient drive capability, the maximum allowed output impedance for a ½ LSB voltage drop is
Most voltage references don't specify output impedance, but they do specify load regulation, usually in ppm/mA. To convert to output impedance, multiply by the reference voltage and divide by 1000. For example, the ADR435 ultralow-noise XFET® 5-V reference specifies load regulation of 15 ppm/mA maximum when sourcing current. Converting to ohms gives
So, the ADR435 should be suitable from an output impedance perspective. It can source up to 10 mA, which is more than enough to handle the 330-µA average reference current. When the ADC input voltage exceeds the reference voltage, even momentarily, it can inject current into the reference, so the reference must also be able to sink some current. Figure 4 shows the diode connection between the ADC and reference inputs that can cause current flow into the reference during an input overrange condition. Unlike some older references, the ADR435 can sink 10 mA.
As the reference current requirement scales linearly with throughput, a higher output impedance (lower power) reference may be acceptable at lower throughput rates, or when using ADCs with lower throughput, such as the 500 kSPS AD7988-5 or 100 kSPS AD7988-1 (IREF = 250 µA). The maximum output impedance can be calculated with the reduced reference current. Note that these equations should only be used as guidelines, and the selected reference should be tested for drive capability in hardware.
A reference buffer can be used when the drive of the chosen reference is insufficient, or when a micropower reference is preferred. This can be implemented with a suitable op amp in a unity-gain configuration. The op amp must have low noise and suitable output drive capability, and it must be stable with a large capacitive load. It must also be able to supply the necessary current. Op amp output impedance is not generally specified but can often be determined from output impedance vs. frequency plots, as shown in Figure 5 for the AD8031 80-MHz rail-to-rail op amp.
The output impedance is less than 0.1 Ω below 100 kHz and less than 0.05 Ω at dc, so this is a good choice in terms of output drive for our example of driving the AD7980 at 1 MSPS. Maintaining low output impedance over a wide frequency range is important for driving the reference input. The reservoir capacitor will never completely smooth out the current draw at the reference input, even with a large capacitor. The frequency content of the current ripple will be a function of the throughput and the input signal bandwidth. The large reservoir capacitor handles the high-frequency throughput-dependent current while the reference buffer must be able to maintain low impedance up to the maximum input signal frequency—or to a frequency where the reservoir capacitor impedance becomes low enough to supply the necessary current. Typical plots in reference data sheets show output impedance vs. frequency and should be taken into consideration when choosing the reference.
The AD8031 is a good choice, as it is stable with capacitive loads greater than 10 µF. Other op amps, such as the ADA4841, will also be stable with large capacitors, as they mainly have to drive a stable dc level, but particular op amps must be tested to determine their behavior when loaded. It is not a good idea to use a series resistor before the capacitor to maintain stability, as this will increase the output impedance.
A reference buffer is very useful for driving multiple ADCs from one reference, as is the case in simultaneous-sampling applications, such as that shown in Figure 6.
Each ADC reference input has its own reservoir capacitor placed as close as possible to the reference input pin. The trace from each reference input is routed back to a star connection at the output of the reference buffer to minimize crosstalk effects. Reference buffers that have low output impedance and high output current capability can drive many ADCs, depending on their current requirements. Note that the buffer must also be stable with the extra capacitance associated with multiple reference capacitors.
Noise and Temperature Drift
Once the drive capability has been determined, we must ensure that the noise from the reference circuit does not affect the ADC's performance. To preserve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and other specifications, we must keep the noise contribution from the reference to a fraction (ideally 20% or less) of the ADC noise. The AD7980 specifies 91-dB SNR with a 5-V reference. Converting to rms gives
Thus, the reference circuit should have less than 10 µV rms noise to have minimal impact on the SNR. The noise specification for references and op amps is typically split into two parts: low-frequency (1/f) noise and wideband noise. Combining the two will give the total noise contribution of the reference circuit. Figure 7 shows a typical noise vs. frequency plot for the ADR431 2.5-V reference.
The ADR435 compensates its internal op amp to drive large capacitive loads and avoid noise peaking, making it very attractive for use with ADCs. This is explained in greater detail in the data sheet. With a 10 µF capacitor, it specifies 8 µV p-p 1/f (0.1 Hz to 10 Hz) noise and 115 nV/√Hz wideband noise spectral density. The estimated noise bandwidth is 3 kHz. To convert the 1/f noise from peak-to-peak to rms, divide by 6.6 to get
Next, calculate the wideband noise contribution using the estimated bandwidth with a 10 µF capacitor. The effective bandwidth will be given by
Use this effective bandwidth to calculate the rms wideband noise
The total rms noise is the root sum square of the low-frequency noise and the wideband noise
This is less than 10 µV rms, so it won't significantly impact the ADC's SNR. These calculations can be used to estimate the noise contribution of the reference to determine its suitability, but this will need to be verified on the bench with real hardware.
The same analysis can be used to calculate the noise contribution if a buffer is used after the reference. The AD8031, for example, has 15 nV/√Hz noise spectral density. With a 10-µF capacitor on its output, its measured bandwidth is reduced to about 16 kHz. Using this bandwidth and noise density, and ignoring the 1/f noise, the noise contribution will be 2.4 µV rms. The reference buffer noise can be root sum squared with the reference noise to arrive at a total noise estimate. Generally the reference buffer should have a noise density much less than that of the reference.
When using a reference buffer, it is possible to band limit the noise from the reference even further by adding an RC filter with a very low cutoff frequency to the output of the reference, as shown in Figure 8. This can be useful, considering the reference is usually the dominant source of noise.
Some other important considerations for choosing a reference are initial accuracy and temperature drift. The initial accuracy is specified in percent or mV. Many systems allow for calibration, so initial accuracy is not as important as drift, which is typically specified in ppm/°C or µV/°C. Most good references have less than 10 ppm/°C drift, and the ADR45xx family drives drift down to a couple of ppm/°C. This drift must be incorporated into the system's error budget.
Troubleshooting Reference Issues
A poorly designed reference circuit can cause serious conversion errors. The most common manifestation of a reference issue is repeated or "stuck" codes from the ADC. This happens when noise on the reference input is large enough to cause the ADC to make an incorrect bit decision. This may show up as the same code being repeated many times, even though the input is changing, or a repeated string of ones or zeros in the less significant bits, as shown in Figure 9. The areas circled in red show where the ADC gets stuck, repeatedly returning the same code. The problem generally gets worse near full scale because the reference noise has a greater impact on the more significant bit decisions. Once an incorrect bit decision has been made, the remaining bits become filled with ones or zeros.
The most common reasons for these "stuck" bits are the size and placement of the reference capacitor, insufficient drive strength of the reference/reference buffer, or poor selection of the reference/reference buffer, resulting in excess noise.
It is critical to place the reservoir capacitor close to the ADC's reference input pin, using wide traces to connect it, as shown in Figure 10. The capacitor should have a low impedance path to ground using multiple vias to the ground plane. If the reference has a dedicated ground, the capacitor should be connected close to that pin using wide traces. Because the capacitor acts as a charge reservoir, it needs to be large enough to limit droop and must have low ESR. Ceramic capacitors with X5R dielectric are a good choice. Typical values are in the 10 µF to 47 µF range, but smaller values can sometimes be tolerated depending on the current requirements of the ADC.
Insufficient drive strength is another issue, especially if low-power references or micropower reference buffers are used, as these typically have much higher output impedances that increase dramatically with frequency. This is particularly true when using higher throughput ADCs, as the current requirement is higher than at lower throughputs.
Excessive noise from either the reference or reference buffer, relative to the LSB size of the converter, can also result in stuck codes, so the voltage noise of the reference circuit must remain a small fraction of the LSB voltage.
This article showed how to design a reference circuit for precision successive-approximation ADCs and highlighted how to identify some of their common problems. The calculations presented are a means to estimate the reference circuit drive strength and noise requirements so that a greater probability of success can be realized when testing the circuit in hardware.
I invite you to comment on Voltage References for ADCs in the Analog Dialogue Community on EngineerZone.
AN-931 Application Note. "Understanding PulSAR ADC Support Circuitry."
Kester, Walt. Data Conversion Handbook, Chapter 7. "Data Converter Support Circuits."
Kester, Walt. "Which ADC Architecture Is Right for Your Application?" Analog Dialogue. Volume 39, Number 2, 2005.
Walsh, Alan. "Front-End Amplifier and RC Filter Design for a Precision SAR Analog-to-Digital Converter." Analog Dialogue. Volume 46, Number 4, 2012.


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By Rosalie Tirella
How lovely to be driving down Salisbury Street in Holden one night with my eyes aching from an alergic reaction I had to an old blanket I washed the day before! My eyes were hurting! Then just as I was about to turn onto Main Street, a car pulled out of the Holden Recreation Area parking lot on Salisbury Street. The car tailgated me with headlights on strong – and then boom! Sirens screeched and lights flashed. Yes, gentle readers, it was a Holden police officer in a Holden police cruiser! And when the cop stopped me and I looked up at him from my car window, he looked just about ready to shoot me. In Holden! One of the prettiest towns in Massachusetts!
He – Holden Police Officer Gregg Sculthorpe – tells me: You went over the yellow line (on the road).
I tell him: I went over the yellow line just a little because a car – yours – was on my tail with the headlights on strong! I told him my eyes were aching that day – I didn't know why – and that I had made an appointment to see an opthamologist the next day. Continue reading Holden Haze


text: On July 19, 2011, FBI agents in nine states rounded up 14 men and two women ranging in age from 21 to 36 for their alleged involvement with the international hacking group Anonymous. Fourteen of these individuals were arrested for allegedly plotting and executing a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack in December 2010 that took down PayPal's Website.\nThe two other individuals arrested in the sting, both 21, were indicted for separate hacking incidents: one against the Tampa Bay, Fla. InfraGard chapter's Website (InfraGard is an FBI-sponsored public-private partnership devoted to critical infrastructure protection); the other for allegedly hacking into AT&T's systems, stealing thousands of confidential documents and files containing the company's plans for its 4G data and mobile broadband networks, and for posting that information on public file sharing site Fileape.com. \nTwo months later, on September 22, FBI agents in Los Angeles took a member of LulzSec, an offshoot of Anonymous, into custody for his alleged involvement in a high-profile hack against Sony Pictures in late May and early June. Meanwhile, in San Jose, a federal grand jury brought two men associated with the Peoples Liberation Front hacking group up on charges related to their alleged participation in a DDoS attack that took down Santa Cruz County's Website on December 16, 2010. \nThese arrests and indictments are part of a broader effort by law enforcement officials to crack down on cybercrime, which costs organizations anywhere from $1 million to $52 million dollars, according to the FBI. The average cost of a data breach to organizations reached $7.2 million in 2010, according to the Ponemon Institute. The security and privacy research organization noted that in 2010, data breaches cost companies an average of $214 per compromised record, and that the costs of data breaches have grown every year since the Institute first began tracking them in 2006. \nWhether or not law enforcement has been effective in deterring cybercrime is up for debate. Verizon's 2011 Data Breach Investigations Report suggests that law enforcement has curtailed some activity. The report shows that the total number of records compromised through data breaches across the combined caseload of Verizon and the United States Secret Service declined from an all-time high of 361 million records in 2008 to 144 million records in 2009 to 4 million records in 2010. The report attributes the decline to investigations, arrests and prison sentences that law enforcement agencies have made around the world. In 2010, the FBI arrested 202 individuals for criminal intrusions, up from 159 in 2009. Meanwhile, the Secret Service apprehended more than 1,200 suspected cybercriminals last year. \nWhile the Data Breach Investigations Report notes the decline in compromised records, it doesn't declare a victory. In fact, the report indicates there were more data breaches in 2010 than in previous years; it's just that the amount of data that was compromised in the breaches declined. It also states that after a major investigation or arrest, cybercriminal organizations are quick to change their tactics to evade detection. \n\nClearly, cybercrime shows no signs of abating, and that's why law enforcement experts interviewed for this story say there's simply no stopping hackers. They say law enforcement officials lack the manpower, training, technical resources and political support necessary to crack down on these crimes. Even when they do successfully prosecute cybercrime cases, the convicted hackers rarely serve maximum sentences, which hardly helps to discourage other people from committing similar crimes. \n\n"We are never going to solve the [cybercrime] problem. We are just trying to keep a lid on it," says Marc Rogers, a former cybercrime investigator in the U.S. and Canada. "We don't even know how many of these activities are going on. We're only aware of a fraction of what's happening. That makes it a very hard problem to deal with." \nHere, CIO.com exposes the challenges law enforcement faces in keeping a lid on hackers. Investigating Hacking Incidents\nMarc Rogers has investigated more than 200 cybercrime cases during his 13 year career in law enforcement. In describing how law enforcement officials investigate data breaches, he makes it sound systematic, if not downright easy. \n"The first thing to do is to figure out which systems were breached, then it's a matter of putting a time line together, working back from when and where the attack happened to figure out how they [the hackers] came in," he says. "You move from database system to whatever type of security was around it\u2014usually a firewall or intrusion detection system. From there, you work your way to the outside of the organization and ultimately to the telecom carriers these people used to get in." \nEventually, he says, the trail leads to the hacker's computer. \nIf data breach cases are so straightforward to solve, why can't law enforcement stop them? \nFor one, law enforcement can't keep up with the volume of computer intrusions, says Eugene Spafford, a professor of computer science at Purdue University. So far this year, the Internet Crime Complaint Center has processed on average 26,588 cybercrime complaints per month, up from an average of 25,000 per month. \nShawn Henry, the FBI's executive assistant director, told attendees at the Information Systems Security Association's international conference in Baltimore last month that "intrusions into corporate networks, personal computers, and government systems are occurring every single day by the thousands." \nCybercrime is so prevalent largely because it's so lucrative. Hacking into retailers' systems to steal customer credit and debit card information made Albert Gonzales, the mastermind behind the TJX and Heartland Payment Systems data breaches, a millionaire. Edwin Pena also enjoyed a lavish lifestyle before the FBI caught up with him for profiting off several VoIP companies' infrastructures. Joshua Holly, who gained notoriety after he hacked into Miley Cyrus's Gmail account and posted racy photos of her online, reportedly earned at least $110,000 for spamming. Not bad for a 21-year-old. \nOf course, not every hacker exploits lax corporate IT security for the money. Hacktivists break into corporate and government systems and deface Websites to expose security vulnerabilities, flex their tech muscles, protest perceived fascist political policies or spread anti-establishment agit prop. Sometimes the hacktivists work on the same side as the law, and with great effectiveness, as Anonymous did last month when it took down a child pornography Website and posted the account details of nearly 1600 of its sicko users, according to ArsTechnica.com. \n\n"If you look at the sheer volume\u2014the number of compromises, record disclosures, bank fraud, identity theft\u2014that are occurring weekly in the U.S. alone, these numbers are at least in the tens of thousands of incidents, if not hundreds of thousands," says Spafford. "When you say you've been seeing an increase in prosecutions, how many is that? 200 or 300 have been visibly reported in the news ... The response has been nowhere near proportional to the need." \n\nThe Resource Problem\nBesides the explosive number of hacking incidents taking place every month, the fact that law enforcement officials are stretched thin across different types of cyber threats makes it even more difficult for them to stem cybercrime. \nKeith Chval, the former and first-ever chief of the Illinois Attorney General's Office's High Tech and Computer Crime Unit, says that for the most part, law enforcement officials' first priority is online child exploitation cases. Because investigating child pornography and related crimes draws on the same staff as computer intrusions, says Chval, fewer people are left to investigate data breaches. \nIn addition to more investigators, law enforcement agencies need ongoing training to keep up with new technologies and with the evolving schemes hackers use to commit their crimes, adds Chval, who now runs Protek International, a computer forensics and investigative services firm. \n"When you get to the point of seizing computers with a search warrant or otherwise gain access to evidence, it needs to be examined properly," he says. "The investment in people and their training is significant, and that's challenging in our current economic situation. The physical facilities, the labs, to do the forensic work are critical, too. That's been a real backlog in the system: There are cases where forensics need to be completed before they can move forward." \nPurdue University's Spafford criticizes federal legislators for not taking cyber-crime seriously and for not giving law enforcement officials the political and financial support they need to fight it. \n"It's interesting to note the way legislators do react to cybercrime," says Spafford, who started and directs Purdue University's Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security. "They require companies to disclose breaches. There's legislation that would set new regulations on software suppliers and the people who configure the systems, but there's been no budgeting to add law enforcement to investigate those breaches. For law enforcement to succeed, they need money for training, equipment, and they need political support to do these investigations." \nWhen cybercrimes span state and international boundaries, investigating them gets even more complicated, adds Spafford. "If you're trying to get logs or assistance remotely, it is very difficult with some countries to get the cooperation of their law enforcement, especially if the crime is being committed by someone in their country," he says. "That's another area where the government could help, by putting pressure on countries that have been unwilling to assist in the investigation of crimes." Prosecution and Prison Sentences\nFormer cybercrime investigator Rogers says prosecuting cybercrime cases is "usually pretty cut and dried." The evidence linking a hacker to a crime is hard to dispute because every activity on the Internet leaves a trail, he says. \n"Usually there's nothing more than a token effort to defend it," says Rogers. "The evidence really stands up if you've done it [the investigation] correctly." \nThat leaves sentencing. Judges impose prison sentences for three main reasons: 1) as punishment; 2) to prevent the convict from carrying out the same crime again (at least while they're incarcerated) and 3) to discourage others from participating in the same crimes. \nPrison sentences for hackers vary by jurisdiction. If the crime is federal, prison sentences are set according to federal sentencing guidelines. The maximum prison sentence for one common hacking charge\u2014accessing a protected computer without authorization\u2014is five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The maximum prison sentence for another common hacking charge\u2014intentional damage to a protected computer\u2014is 10 years plus a fine of up to $250,000. \nHackers are also often arrested on conspiracy charges, which carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. \n\nThe cybercrime and law enforcement officials interviewed for this story don't see any problems with the sentencing guidelines. The problem is that hackers rarely serve maximum sentences. Albert Gonzales is one of the few who is doing serious time\u201420 years. Consider the following examples:\n\n Robert Moore was sentenced to two years of prison for hacking into the networks of Internet phone companies. He was up against a maximum five years. \n\n David Kernell, who hacked into then vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account at age 20, was sentenced to 366 days at a rehabilitation center, where he was allowed to continue his college studies. Kernell also faced a maximum five years.\n\n Miley Cyrus hacker Joshua Holly got just three years' probation for spamming and computer fraud. He could have been sentenced to 10 years in jail.\nBecause the evidence against them is usually so incriminating, hackers often enter plea agreements with prosecutors, where they plead guilty to all charges in return for a more lenient sentence. In a plea bargain, the criminal might also agree to cooperate with prosecutors on other cases by serving, for example, as an informant or witness. \nWhile plea bargaining has its benefits (prosecutors get freed up to work on other cases, often with the help of the convict), it weakens the deterrent effect that prison sentences are intended to have. \n"The sentences that people are getting don't really seem to have any deterrent effect," says Rogers. "Hackers realize if they get caught, they might get five to 10 years, but when they get out, they'll have a book deal, make a TV movie or become a consultant. In some cases, that's what happens," adds Rogers, referring to Kevin Mitnick and Kevin Poulsen, two of the most famous hackers of all time. Mitnick is now a security consultant and sought-after speaker. Poulsen now works for Wired as a senior editor. \nAnother reason hackers tend to get lenient sentences is because they're often young, says Chval. He points to Joshua Holly, who despite having about 200 stolen credit card numbers stored on his computer, didn't serve a day of prison time. \n\nChval realizes that judges have to strike a balance when sentencing young hackers: They don't want to be overly harsh on defendants who are essentially kids, not hardened criminals, with no prior offenses. Nor do they want to overreach with draconian sentences designed to send a message to other young hackers simply because law enforcement doesn't have the resources to investigate and prosecute all of these cybercrime cases, says Chval. But, he adds, striking this balance comes at the expense of deterring other young people from computer crimes. \n\n"Obviously, kids aren't getting the message about the seriousness of cybercrime, of hacking," he says. Hacking: A Social Problem\nChval and Rogers believe that the individuals the FBI arrested this summer for their alleged involvement with Anonymous will get harsher sentences if convicted because they taunted, embarrassed and attacked government Websites and financial institutions. Prosecutors may finally have their opportunity to exemplify these young hackers as a cautionary tale. \nBut for law enforcement to have any real impact staunching cybercrime, experts agree they need to raise the public's awareness that hacking is a real crime with real victims. \nPart of the reason hackers, particularly the younger ones, get lenient sentences is because judges have to weigh a potential backlash if the public sees them as being too harsh for sending "a college kid who made a mistake" to federal prison for five years, says Chval. The potential public relations backlash suggests that the public doesn't understand the severity of these crimes, he adds. \n"Parents need to talk to their kids about [illegal] music downloading," says Chval. "It's all part of the same realm. A kid who doesn't see anything wrong with downloading music he hasn't paid for probably wouldn't see much wrong with taking credit card numbers. It's a slippery slope when you start down that path." \nIndeed, adds Rogers, the problem with hackers is that they don't see their activity as criminal. "They never see the victims. They never see the impact. All they see is the technology," he says. "For the most part, these people understand right and wrong. They wouldn't rob a bank or engage in other deviant criminal activities, but as soon as technology is involved, that line dividing what's right from what's wrong gets really distorted." \nFor that reason, Rogers would like to see classes on ethical computer behavior taught in elementary, middle and high school. \n"If we only rely on law enforcement and the legal system to solve the problem, it's never going to happen," says Rogers. "This is a cultural problem. It's an education and awareness problem. It's an ethical problem." \nMeridith Levinson covers Careers, Project Management and Outsourcing for CIO.com. Follow Meridith on Twitter @meridith. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline and on Facebook. Email Meridith at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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The Greek House: The Story of a Painter's Love Affair with the Island of Sifnos by Christian Brechneff
A richly rewarding narrative about a young painter's love affair with the Greek island of Sifnos
When Christian Brechneff first set foot on the Greek island of Sifnos, it was the spring of 1972 and he was a twenty-one-year-old painter searching for artistic inspiration and a quiet place to work. There, this Swiss child of Russian émigrés, adrift and confused about his sexuality, found something extraordinary. In Sifnos, he found a muse, a subject he was to paint for years, and a sanctuary.
In The Greek House, Brechneff tells a funny, touching narrative about his relationship to Sifnos, writing with warmth about its unforgettable residents and the house he bought in a hilltop farm village. This is the story of how he fell in love with Greece, and how it became a haven from the complexities of his life in Western Europe and New York. It is the story of his village and of the island during the thirty-odd years he owned the house—from a time when there were barely any roads, to the arrival of the modern world with its tourists and high-speed boats and the euro. And it is the story of the end of the love affair—how the island changed and he changed, how he discovered he had outgrown Sifnos, or couldn't grow there anymore.
The Greek House is a celebration of place and an honest narrative of self-discovery. In its pages, a naïve and inexperienced young man comes into his own. Weaving himself into the life of the island, painting it year after year, he finds a place he can call home..
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.


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"...Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you... I loved you so - 'twas Heaven here with you." ---Isla Paschal Richardson
The Story Behind the Pet Memorial Candle
When the Artist's 13 year-old cat passed away, she wanted to do something special "in memory" of her departed companion, something that would also help her cope with the flood of emotions that she was experiencing.
Searching shop to shop she found nothing that was appropriate to aid in her personal expression of love and sorrow. There didn't seem to be an affordable tribute designed specifically for animal friends. Other devoted pet lovers she spoke to felt the same void.
Out of her grief, this beautiful candle was created -- a classic, wax-filled glass tumbler with a silk-screen design, depicting ethereal dogs and cats circling a wonderfully comforting poem. The Furry Angel Candle is 5" high x 2 5/8" in diameter and will burn for approximately 3 days. Included is a Gift Card containing a Special Blessing, thoughts for a Candle-lighting Ceremony, and a place to record the pet's name.
The Furry Angel Candle makes a thoughtful gift for anyone who has lost a treasured animal companion. It can also be used to commemorate the anniversary of a pet's passing. After the candle has burned, the silk-screened glass makes a lovely permanent flower vase.


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Rotating Curiosity's Back Shell Powered Descent Vehicle
October 05, 2011
At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the "back shell powered descent vehicle" configuration of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory is being rotated for final closeout actions.
At this time, the mission's rover, known as Curiosity, and its rocket-powered descent stage have already been integrated, and are now encapsulated inside the spacecraft's back shell. The configuration of rover integrated with the descent stage is the "powered descent vehicle." The back shell, a protective cover, carries the parachute and several other components used during descent.
The yellow disks visible at the top of the configuration are the descent stage's radar antennas that will be used to calculate the rover's descent speed and altitude.
The mission is on track for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during the period from Nov. 25 to Dec. 18, 2011.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. This mission will land Curiosity on Mars in August 2012. Researchers will use the tools on the rover to study whether the landing region has had environmental conditions favorable for supporting microbial life and favorable for preserving clues about whether life existed.
More information about Curiosity is at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.


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While deaths due to heart disease have dropped in recent years, it's still the No. 1 killer of Americans. The good news is that we now know a ton about how to prevent cardiovascular disease, which includes both strokes and heart attacks.
It's clear that healthy eating and living (like exercising more!) can make a huge difference.
Read on to see what you should be including in your diet to keep your ticker happy for decades to come.
Salmon and other fatty fish such as sardines and mackerel are the superstars of heart-healthy foods. That's because they contain copious amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, shown in studies to lower the risk of arrhythmia (irregular heart beat) and atherosclerosis (plaque build-up in the arteries) and decrease triglycerides. The American Heart Association recommends eating fish and preferably fatty fish at least twice a week. Omega-3 fatty acids are also available as dietary supplements.
Oatmeal is high in soluble fiber, which can lower cholesterol. "It acts as a sponge in the digestive tract and soaks up the cholesterol so it is eliminated from the body and not absorbed into the bloodstream," says Lauren Graf, a registered dietician and co-director of the Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. Graf recommends avoiding instant oatmeal, which often contains sugar, and heading instead for old-fashioned or even quick-cooking oats. Other whole grains such as bread, pasta and grits are also good for the heart as long as they still contain the entire grain.
Not just blueberries, but strawberries and other berries as well. According to one recent study, women aged 25 through 42 who ate more than three servings of blueberries and strawberries a week had a 32 percent lower risk of heart attack compared with those who ate less. The authors of the study attributed the benefit to compounds known as anthocyanins, flavonoids (which are antioxidants) that may decrease blood pressure and dilate blood vessels. Anthocyanins give plants their red and blue colors.
Dark chocolate
Several studies have now shown that dark chocolate may benefit your heart, including one in 2012 that found that daily chocolate consumption could reduce nonfatal heart attacks and stroke in people at high risk for these problems. The findings applied only to dark chocolate, meaning chocolate made up of at least 60-70 percent cocoa. Dark chocolate contains flavonoids called polyphenols, which may help blood pressure, clotting, and inflammation. Unfortunately, milk chocolate and most candy bars don't make the grade when it comes to protecting your heart.
Citrus fruits
Women who consume high amounts of the flavonoids found in oranges and grapefruits have a 19 percent lower risk of ischemic stroke (caused by a clot) than women who don't get as much of these compounds, a recent study found. Citrus fruits are also high in vitamin C, which has been linked with a lower risk of heart disease. Beware of citrus juices that contain added sugar. And be aware that grapefruit products may interfere with the action of the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins.
Soy products, including tofu and soy milk, are a good way to add protein to your diet without unhealthy fats and cholesterol. Soy products contain high levels of polyunsaturated fats (good for your health), fiber, vitamins, and minerals. What's more, soy may reduce blood pressure in people who eat a diet high in refined carbohydrates. And compared with milk or other proteins, soy protein can actually decrease LDL or "bad" cholesterol.
There's no reason to shun potatoes because they're white and look like a "bad" starch. As long as they're not deep fried, potatoes can be good for your heart. They're rich in potassium, which can help lower blood pressure. And they're high in fiber, which can lower the risk for heart disease. "They are definitely not a junk food or refined carbohydrate," says Graf. "They have a lot of health benefits."
Health.com: 10 Tasty Tomato Recipes
Tomato consumption in the U.S. has been rising and that's a good thing. Like potatoes, tomatoes are high in heart-healthy potassium. Plus, they're a good source of the antioxidant lycopene. Lycopene is a carotenoid that may help get rid of "bad" cholesterol, keep blood vessels open, and lower heart attack risk. And because they're low in calories and low in sugar, they don't detract from an already-healthy diet. "They're excellent for the body in a number of ways," says Graf.
This includes almonds, walnuts, pistachios, peanuts and macadamia nuts, all of which contain good-for-your-heart fiber. They also contain vitamin E, which helps lower bad cholesterol. And some, like walnuts, are high in omega-3 fatty acids. "Some people in the past have avoided nuts because they're higher in fat, but most of the studies show that people who consume nuts daily are leaner than people who don't," says Graf. And leaner people are at a lower risk for heart problems. Look for varieties that don't have a lot of added salt.
Because they come from plants, legumes such as beans, lentils, and peas are an excellent source of protein without a lot of unhealthy fat. One study found that people who ate legumes at least four times a week had a 22 percent lower risk of heart disease compared with those who consumed them less than once a week. And legumes may help control blood sugar in people with diabetes. Lowering blood sugar levels is key in helping people avoid diabetes complications, one of which is heart disease.
Extra-virgin olive oil
In a landmark study, people at high risk for heart disease who followed the Mediterranean diet (high in grains, fruits, vegetables) supplemented by nuts and at least four tablespoons a day of olive oil reduced their risk of heart attacks, strokes, and dying by 30 percent. Olive oil is a good source of monounsaturated fats, which can help reduce both cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Olives themselves—both green and black—are another source of "good" fat, says Graf. And they "add a lot of flavor to salads," she notes.
Red wine
Red wine, or small amounts of any type of alcohol, is thought to lower heart disease risk. (Higher amounts, more than a drink or two a day, can actually increase risk.) While some say a polyphenol found in red wine, resveratrol, gives that beverage an added benefit, research suggests that any type of alcohol in moderation works. As with coffee, though, none of these properties are a reason to start drinking alcohol, says Graf. You can also get resveratrol from non-alcohol sources, like natural peanut butter and grapes.
Health.com: 20 Best Foods for Fiber
Green tea
Long a favorite in Asia, green tea has grown more popular in the West and may bring with it significant health benefits. One recent study found that people who drank four or more cups of green tea daily had a 20 percent reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke compared with people who "seldom" imbibed the beverage. The findings echo a previous study that found lower rates of death, including death from heart disease, among avid drinkers of green tea. Antioxidants known as catechins may be responsible for the effect.
Broccoli, spinach and kale
When it comes to your health, you really can't go wrong with vegetables. But green vegetables may give an extra boost to your heart. These are high in carotenoids, which act as antioxidants and free your body of potentially harmful compounds. They're also high in fiber and contain tons of vitamins and minerals. Kale also has some omega-3 fatty acids. "Green vegetables are super health-promoting foods," says Graf.
Another widely consumed beverage—coffee—may also promote heart health. One study found a 10 to 15 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease or other causes in men and women who drank six or more cups of coffee a day. Other research has found that even two cups a day could lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke by 30 percent. It's not clear where the benefit comes from and the news isn't necessarily a reason to pick up the habit. "If you're already drinking coffee and enjoying it, continue," says Graf. "If not, there's no reason to start."
Flax seeds
Flax seeds as well as the ultra-chic (among the health conscious) chia seeds are high in omega-3 fatty acids, says Graf. That's one reason they're good for your heart. Another reason is their high fiber content. Plus, there are a million ways to enjoy them. Try them ground up with other heart-healthy foods, such as dried blueberries, cranberries, or oatmeal or even blended with soy milk and fruit to create a smoothie.
Health.com: 11 Healthy Milk Shakes and Smoothies
These soft, tasty fruits have a well-established reputation for providing the body and heart with healthy fats. Like olive oil, they're rich in the monounsaturated fats that may lower heart disease risk factors, such as cholesterol. They're also high in antioxidants and in potassium, says Graf. They can be eaten on their own or blended into guacamole, perhaps with some heart-promoting tomatoes.
Pomegranates contains numerous antioxidants, including heart-promoting polyphenols and anthocyanins which may help stave off hardening of the arteries. One study of heart disease patients found that a daily dose of pomegranate juice over three months showed improvements in blood flow to the heart. Ultimately, though, it's important to have variety in your diet. If you don't like pomegranates or can't afford them, reach for apples, which also contain plenty of health-promoting compounds, says Graf.


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The Latest Threat: A Virus Made Just for You
The Flashback computer virus gained notoriety earlier this year as the first malware to make headway against Apple's relatively untouched operating system, Mac OS X, infecting some 600,000 victims' machines at the peak of the outbreak.
But computer scientists and security professionals were more worried about another aspect of the malware. The authors of Flashback used a technique that Hollywood often employs to prevent movie and music files from being copied—they added functions that bound the virus to each infected system. The use of that technique prevented security companies from running the virus in their labs.
New research shows that a refinement to the technique could make automated analysis of malware nearly impossible. Paul Royal, a research scientist with the Georgia Institute of Technology's Information Security Center, plans to reveal the work at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas this week.
Royal and his colleagues at Georgia Tech show that a form of copy protection called host identity-based encryption can encrypt critical parts of a malware program with keys based on information gleaned from a victim's system, thereby making it even harder to analyze the specimen on a different machine.
Analyzing the malicious software that criminals use to infect people's computers is a time-consuming operation, yet a necessary one. The makers of antivirus software regularly collect samples of malware and then use automated analysis to generate a collection of identifying characteristics, commonly called a signature.
While an individual analyst can get around the restrictions imposed by malware authors —in the same way that movie copy protections can be circumvented by pirates—preventing security companies from automatically processing large volumes of files will damage their ability to keep up with attackers.
"For the antivirus model, this significantly complicates taking the fire hose quantity of malware and weaning it down into a subset that can be practicably analyzed by a human analyst," Royal says.
Because antivirus software is dependent on using such signatures to catch malware, online criminals regularly attempt to make the analysis harder. Over the last decade, for example, attackers have used polymorphism—a technique for changing programs each time they are copied to a new machine—to make identification harder. This trend has accelerated in recent years (see "The Antivirus Era Is Over").
The database of malware maintained by Symantec includes about 19 million signatures. In its annual Internet Security Threat Report released earlier this year, Symantec stated that its automated analysis systems analyzed 403 million unique variants of malicious programs in 2011, a 41 percent increase from the 286 million analyzed in 2010. Without automation, this task would be much harder.
"If malware guys can get to a stage where, even if you have the [file], that it's tied to a particular machine, then that complicates our life," says Roel Schouwenberg, senior researcher for Kaspersky, another software security firm. Kaspersky processed more than a billion samples through its automated systems in 2011.
If Flashback is an indication of the future, and automation can no longer cull the onslaught of files to analyze, then antivirus companies could see their costs skyrocket.
"From our perspective, we analyze hundreds of thousands of samples per day," says Dean De Beer, chief technology officer of ThreatGRID, a malware-analysis services firm. "Now they are throwing this curveball, and we have to sit back and say, 'What do we need to do in order to ensure that we can collect the sample?' "
Antivirus firms could attempt to foil such malware by creating a virtual machine that appears identical to the victim's system. But this could raise privacy concerns among users. To make the analysis more difficult, malware authors could create functions that interpret commands from the command-and-control servers using a key created from information about the computer's network location. Known as instruction-set localization, the technique would make commands meant for a machine based in San Francisco unrecognizable to a machine based in Boston.
Antivirus firms hope that Royal keeps the discussion at a high level to avoid giving attackers precise advice on how to improve their ability to lock malware to infected machines. "Flashback was a pain," says Schouwenberg. "If the talk is on how to make this very easy for the attacker, then I am not looking forward to that."
Royal hopes the presentation serves as a warning that defenders need to solve this problem quickly. "This presentation is not a reason to throw away your malware analysis tools," he says. "It is supposed to be a warning. We all need to prepare."
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Arcen Games' addicting puzzle game Tidalis is on sale for 85% off as Steam's Daily Deal for today, and today only. That means until 10 AM PDT tomorrow–Wednesday, August 24–anyone can grab a copy (or copies) of Tidalis for just $1.50/€1.20/£1.05.
For those new to the game, Tidalis is a block-based puzzler with casual appeal, hardcore depth, and an addictive mechanic that utilities "streams" to clear blocks. Simple to learn, and difficult to master as it takes a bit of brainpower to set up combos of multiple chains, and the many brainteaser-style puzzles include some real challenges.
Tidalis also brings co-op and competitive multiplayer modes (both online and offline); action-oriented modes and timer-less brainteasers. On top of that, there's a lengthy, casual-friendly adventure mode; twenty unique game modes providing innumerable twists to the basic gameplay; dozens of special blocks and items; and over fifty minutes of beautiful music to go with the painterly art. All that for just a tiny fraction of the typical price!
It's the biggest individual discount the game has received to date, and of course extends to both PC and Mac versions–in fact players get both through SteamPlay. If there's any hesitance still hanging around, check out the Steam demo available for anyone to play. Or try Tidalis Lite, a free browser-based version of the game that runs on the Unity Web Player.
About Arcen Games
Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.
AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles. For all the latest news, media coverage, and some of our other musings, follow us on our developer and individual game pages on Facebook or on Twitter: @ArcenGames.


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@courtjustice Kristen in an @ARMANI Privé SS12 couture gown on set of her Vanity Fair shoot
More after the CUT
Important Note from Libenet "This is a...nostalgic vid :) I do realize that R/K are far away from that time now. That they are in such a happy place. But I really have a very soft spot for pining, tortured, "head-over-heals in a desperate love" Rob. Because, honestly, that's what had me shipping them at first place.
Song is perfect. I love every single note, every single word in it. PERFECT song for this theme."
My heart. Oh Rob! *happy sighs* This is just the most perfect retroRK video...ever! Sunny, dear, you need the tissue box on standby before hitting play. Thanks Lib! LYSM
Song : I Should Go (Levi Kreis)
As per request, Rob and Kristen in Rome 2008
Oh guys, can you vote for Lib's niece, cute little EMNA HARABI CLICK on HER Baby Pic, then the VOTE button at the bottom. Thanks guys.
NO. 27. Kristen Stewart
AskMen.com While Kristen Stewart has a particularly rabid following for such a young actress, we're guessing (hoping?) you don't consider yourself a Twi-hard. Still, just because you're not a Stephenie Meyer disciple doesn't mean you can't still be a fan of Twilight's leading lady. A reluctant star who seems genuinely bothered by all the attention she's received as Robert Pattinson's love interest (both onscreen and off), Stewart has an edge to her that most other tween favorites don't. And maybe it's that hard-to-get attitude that makes us like her so much. Regardless, forget Edward and Jacob -- consider us Team Bella. Is that an option?
via via
Kristen ranked No.90 on their 2011 List
You guys still alive with this day's news and hot pics? lol
I just approved 70+ comments, thanks for waiting guys. *hugs*
Thanks KStewAngel and Sissy via DM
I miss Chatty Cathy!
PopSugatTV via fiercebitchstew
If missed, pics of her arrival were posted here
This blog is in no way affiliated with Rob, Kristen, Stephenie Meyer, or their management. All photos and media are copyrighted to their respective owners, no copyright infringement is intended.