text:
An Apple tablet computer, expected to be introduced next week, will run on both AT&T and Verizon Wireless 3G networks, reports say , but two industry sources warned today to not assume Verizon is on board.
It is possible both carriers had made deals to provide wireless service earlier in the week, however some last minute changes may be related to business decisions and have little to do with technology limitations.
The two analysts spoke separately with Computerworld on the condition of anonymity, which may indicate the carrier situation is probably volatile and could change before Apple's expected tablet announcement next Wednesday.
Additionally, the device is only expected to be announced that day, and any internal components could be altered prior to its initial shipment a few weeks later.
Spokesmen for both the carriers said they would not comment on the issue.
Analyst Jack Gold, of J. Gold Associates, said he thought it makes more sense for Apple to have as many carriers on board as possible to increase reach and sales, and AT&T and Verizon each have more than 80 million customers. "Apple would be nuts to not have as many carriers as possible," Gold said.
Gold also said he presumed that Apple would want to make the tablet work on Verizon's network just to "get as far away" from AT&T, which has held the exclusive on the iPhone and has been drubbed by iPhone users unhappy with AT&T's network .
From a technology standpoint, it wouldn't be hard for the tablet to support both networks. Doing so would require the device to have radio chipsets for both a GSM network, which AT&T uses, and a CDMA network, which Verizon uses.
Of course, that doesn't mean two separate radios are needed inside each tablet, since Qualcomm Inc. makes the Mobi chipset, which combines both GSM and CDMA, Gold said.
Having two separate radios in one device could raise the cost by $30 to $50, something Apple would likely avoid even if the new tablet costs more than $500, he said.
Gold said it seemed unlikely that Apple would have two separate tablet models, one for CDMA and the other for GSM, but he noted that many phone manufacturers do so.
And if Apple is trying to avoid an exclusive deal with this expected launch, Gold said he also wondered why the tablet wouldn't work on more than two carriers in the U.S., since T-Mobile USA runs a separate 3G network based on GSM.
The proposition that more than one carrier could support the Apple tablet suggests there will some kind of competition for throughput, or speed, a user gets. Most measurements of speeds are based on averages over broad areas, and don't account for individual differences, including whether a nearby cell tower is congested with many users or near tall buildings and other obstructions, analysts noted.
AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega said in December that the carrier was having problems in New York City and San Francisco , where networks performed "below standards." In San Francisco's financial district, for example, antennas needed to be replaced, he noted.
On a broader basis, Verizon has also established a larger area of coverage for 3G wireless in the U.S than AT&T, an issue highlighted in a series of TV ads . AT&T has responded with its own ads, making note of greater variety of network capabilities for its users.
De la Vega has described a series of network buildouts that include moving to a faster variation of its 3G network, called HSPA 7.2 , to be installed in 25 cities by mid-2010. Asked today about the status of six cities that were due to be activated with HSPA 7.2 by now, however, the AT&T spokesman would not comment.
Theoretically, HSPA 7.2 gives a maximum download speed of 7.2 Mbit/sec, with average speeds double of what AT&T can now offer with conventional 3G, de la Vega said. Presumably, an Apple tablet could take advantage of HSPA 7.2, but it is not completely clear that's the case.
However, theoretical speed is largely meaningless, especially to end users, Gold and other analysts noted.
Root Wireless found in a recent study that average 3G speeds for AT&T ranged from 246 Kbit/sec in New York to a high of 428 Kbit/sec in Dallas. Also in that study, Verizon offered average 3G speeds from 195 Kbit/sec in Seattle to 259 Kbit/sec in Chicago.
If users decide to connect to a cellular wireless connection, they will have the variations of distance, the number of other users and physical obstacles, just as they do today with cellular voice services.
If they work within a Wi-Fi network, as the Apple tablet is rumored to support, speeds of 10 Mbit/sec up to more than 100 Mbit/sec is possible, but only within that network.
A user bringing in a signal via cable modem or DSL to a business or home Wi-Fi zone might only get 1 Mbit/sec to 7 Mbit/sec, which puts a limit on the total network connection, even over the Wi-Fi portion, Gold said.
For most users of the expected Apple tablet, 3G speeds would be enough to support their needs "unless they are doing a lot of streaming video," Gold said. At the average speeds Root Wireless found, streaming video could pose problems, he said.
Video streaming is more easily addressed with the prospect of much faster speeds of up to 6 Mbit/sec. with next-generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks , which both Verizon and AT&T are adopting. Verizon is aiming to launch LTE in up to 30 markets in 2010, and has already begun trials in Boston and Seattle, while AT&T will introduce services in 2011.
Apple would have to update its tablet for LTE connections. The company would also have to do an update if it wants to go to another fast wireless standard called WiMax, which is being rolled out now by Clearwire and Sprint Nextel . WiMax offers download speeds of between 3 and 6 Mbit/sec. Nobody is talking about Apple's tablet supporting WiMax, however.
Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld . Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen , send e-mail to email@example.com or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed .


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array tableInfo (
mixed $result
integer $mode
= null
Get information about columns in a table or a query result.
DB_result object from a query or a string containing the name of a table
If the name of the table needs to be delimited (ie: the name is a reserved word or has spaces in it), use the quoteIdentifier() method on the table name when passing it.
This can also be a query result resource identifier, but doing so is deprecated.
one of the tableInfo mode constants
array - an associative array of the table's information or a DB_Error object on failure
The array's contents depends on the
The names of tables and columns will be lowercased if the DB_PORTABILITY_LOWERCASE portability mode is enabled.
flags element contains a space
separated list of extra information about the column.
If the DBMS is able to report a column's default value,
the value is passed through rawurlencode()
to avoid problems caused by potential spaces in the value.
Most DBMS's only provide the
table and
flags elements if
is a table name. Only fbsql and mysql provide full
information from queries.
type element contains the type returned
by the DBMS. It varies from DBMS to DBMS.
This section describes the format of the returned array and how
it varies depending on which
$mode was used
when the function was called.
The sample output below is based on this query:
SELECT tblFoo.fldID, tblFoo.fldPhone, tblBar.fldId FROM tblFoo JOIN tblBar ON tblFoo.fldId = tblBar.fldId;
In addition to the information found in the default output,
a notation of the number of columns is provided by the
num_fields element while the
element provides an array with the column names as the keys and
their location index number (corresponding to the keys in the
default output) as the values.
If a result set has identical field names, the last one is used.
Similar to DB_TABLEINFO_ORDER but adds more dimensions to the array in which the table names are keys and the field names are sub-keys. This is helpful for queries that join tables which have identical field names.
Contains the information from both DB_TABLEINFO_ORDER and DB_TABLEINFO_ORDERTABLE
The tableInfo mode constants are bitwised, so they can be
combined using
|Error code
|Error message
|DB backend not capable
|Driver doesn't support this feature.
|Switch to another database system, if you really need this feature.
|insufficient data supplied
The data passed in the
$result parameter
was not a valid table name or result identifier.
|Check the table name for typographical errors or that the query ran correctly.
|no database selected
|No database was chosen.
|Check the DSN in connect().
|can't distinguish duplicate field names
|The query result has multiple columns with the same name. PHP's Informix extension deals with columns having the same names by overwriting the prior columns information. Therefore, tableInfo() is unable to properly represent these result sets.
|Use aliases for columns that have the same names.
This function can not be called statically.
tableInfo() is not portable because not all drivers have this method, many DBMS's are unable to determine table names from query results and the metadata returned by each database system varies dramatically.
Finding information about a table
// Once you have a valid DB object named $db...
$info = $db->tableInfo('tablename');
Finding information about a query result
// Once you have a valid DB object named $db...
$res =& $db->query('SELECT * FROM tablename');
$info = $db->tableInfo($res);
Prior to version 1.6.0, tableInfo() was a part of the DB_result class, so had to be called like this:
// Once you have a valid DB object named $db...
$res =& $db->query('SELECT * FROM tablename');
$info = $res->tableInfo(); // <---- DEPRECATED

subset: commoncrawl


text:
This post is in partnership with Inc., which offers useful advice, resources, and insights to entrepreneurs and business owners. The article below was originally published at Inc.com.
Social media, we all know, can make you unproductive. If you're indiscreet or offensive, it can complicate your relationships. But can it also make you downright dumb?
That's what a new study published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface suggests. How can spending more time on Facebook or Twitter end up making us stupider?
It's not just that all those hours clicking crops in Farmville and the like simply represnts time that could be spent, say, reading a book and actually learning something. The greater problem seems to be the human tendency to copy others.
Can You Copycat Your Way to Intelligence?
To come to this conclusion, the scientists created five artificial social networks made up of volunteers. Some connected their members in a tight net, where everyone was in contact with everyone else. Others kept the participants more separate. They then tasked the participants with answering a tricky set of brainteasers. Were those who were more socially connected more or less likely to figure out the right answers?
In the short term, more connections yielded more right answers, but not because members were learning. Nope, they were just stealing.
"The researchers found that in well connected networks volunteers…got better at giving the right answer the more times they were asked and the more opportunities they had to steal their neighbours' answers," Phys.org reports. "This result showed that when the students had lots of connections to peers they could recognise where they had given a wrong answer and swap it for the right one."
But did copying smarter social connections improve participants' ability to figure out the answers independently? In short, no. Given a fresh question, the copycats performed no better than when they first joined the social network.
The Good News–and the Bad
The results offer encouragement for both fans and critics of social networks. If you look at things on the group level, there is reason for cheer. "Being able to copy from other people in vast networks means analytical responses rapidly spread, fulfilling their promise of improved decision-making for well-connected people," says Phys.org.
But for individuals, the implications are less positive. Social networking probably isn't making you smarter. In fact, it could be making you dumber by supplying answers and insights without requiring any actual thinking, so that your analytic powers begin to waste away like an unused muscle.
Or as the research team puts it: "On the other hand, the bias may very well decrease the frequency of analytical reasoning by making it easy and commonplace for people to reach analytical response without engaging analytical processing." In the long-term, they warn, "increased connectivity may eventually make us stupid by making us smarter first."
Read more from Inc.com:
How 4 Entrepreneurs Started Up (Really) Young
Firing an Employee–Even a Bad One–Is Hard to Do
- The Man Who Thinks He Can Live Forever
- Why We Can't Get Over the Roman Empire
- The Final Season of Netflix's Sex Education Sends Off a Beloved Cast in Style
- How Russia Is Recruiting Cubans to Fight in Ukraine
- The Case for Mediocrity
- Paul Hollywood Answers All of Your Questions About The Great British Baking Show
- How Canada and India's Relationship Crumbled
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time


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several days ago i shown baby logos i newly designed, ie. oneizh, imaekit, emake, he instantly asked for the ownership of these logos. that reminded me i should stick to tradition and should live with my old namespace. so i doubting if i should retouch my old sites' logos, esp. that of faezrland, my first namespace. the day before yesterday i finished its version 2. its nice surely. but yesterday i doubting if i can find more detailed feather clip art from the web, for i don't equipped with sketching and drawing. with Chinese search engine i did found some clip art can download within domestic websites, unlike in western world where most clip art online had to buy to use. i prepared the stuff at noon and just when i ready to design, the corporate lan went down and i had no access to the Internet. i returned home earlier, around 2 pm and continued broken task. after ema&baby returned, we dine out for yesterday is my birthday. we ate fried beef in a Korean style restaurant. returned home and after baby left the pc to me after watching dvds, i worked till 11 pm before i finished&uploaded to my sites. i don't know if its my best works, but i felt i was contented. now i can live peacefully and longer with my old sites, like faezrland, benzyrnill, etc.
site log >


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A 'Narrow' Decision From The Narrow-Minded
Relax. This is not a slippery slope.
So Justices Samuel Alito writing for the majority and Anthony Kennedy writing in concurrence, take pains to assure us in the wake of the Supreme Court's latest disastrous decision. The same august tribunal that gutted the Voting Rights Act and opened the doors for unlimited money from unknown sources to flood the political arena now strikes its latest blow against reason and individual rights.
By the 5-4 margin that has become an all-too-familiar hallmark of a sharply divided court in sharply divided times, justices ruled Monday that "closely held" corporations (i.e., those more than half owned by five people or fewer) may refuse, out of "sincerely held" religious beliefs, to provide certain contraceptive options to female employees as part of their health-care package. The lead plaintiff was Hobby Lobby, a chain of arts and crafts stores based in Oklahoma and owned by the Green family, whose Christian faith compels them to pay employees well above minimum wage, play religious music in their stores, close on Sundays and donate a portion of their profits to charity.
Unfortunately for their employees' reproductive options, that faith also compels them to object to four contraceptive measures (two IUDs, two "morning-after" pills) that they equate with abortion. Most gynecologists will tell you that's a false equation, but Alito said that wasn't the point.
Rather, the point was whether Hobby Lobby was sincere in its mistaken belief. That it was, the court decided, meant that the Affordable Care Act provision requiring Hobby Lobby to provide the disputed contraceptive measures violated the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prevents government from doing anything that "burdens" the free exercise of religion.
Apparently we now have greater solicitude for the feelings of corporate "persons" than for the health of actual persons. This ruling places women's reproductive options at the discretion of their employers, which is awful enough. But it has troubling implications beyond that.
Not to worry, writes Alito, this ruling is "very specific." Not to fret, concurs Kennedy, this is not a ruling of "breadth and sweep." Let no one be mollified by these assurances.
Under the court's logic, after all, it's difficult to see why a corporation owned by a family of devout Jehovah's Witnesses can't deny blood transfusions to its workers. Or why one owned by conservative Muslims can't deny employment to women. Or why one owned by evangelical Christians can't deny service to gay men and lesbians.
This is not just hypothetical. In the last decade, we've seen Christian pharmacists claim faith as a reason for refusing to fill — and in some cases, confiscating — contraceptive prescriptions. We've seen Muslim cabbies use the same "logic" in declining to serve passengers carrying alcohol.
What is the difference between that outrageous behavior and Hobby Lobby's? By what reasoning is the one protected, but the others are not? It is telling that Alito and Kennedy are virtually silent on this question.
Apparently, it's a narrow ruling because they say it's a narrow ruling. Apparently, we are simply to trust them on that. But even if you could take them at their word, this would be a frightening decision, the imposition of religion masquerading as freedom of religion. And the thing is: You can't take them at their word.
So here we stand: a corporate "person" celebrating a dubious victory as millions of actual persons wonder if they'll have birth control tomorrow. Or be denied a prescription, a job, a wedding cake.
Not a slippery slope? They're right. This is a San Francisco sidewalk coated with ice, slicked with oil and littered with banana peels. God help us.
And look out below.
(Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla., 33132. Readers may contact him via email at firstname.lastname@example.com.)
Photo: Matt H. Wade via Wikimedia Commons
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text:
The local committee is made up of all county councillors for the Allerdale area. The Committee has powers to make decisions on a range of matters affecting their local area.
The County Council is committed to providing opportunities for the people of Cumbria to have a say in the Council's work and is keen to encourage the public to attend meetings, listen to debates and give residents the opportunity to make their views known on issues they feel strongly about. Follow the link to the Public Participation Scheme to find out how you can get involved by asking questions, presenting petitions, or leading deputations at meetings.
Support officer: Daniel Hamilton. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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text:
Twin Cities Maker will be having its usual weekly meet and greet at the Hack Factory this Wednesday, Jan 13, at 7 pm. This event is open to the public as well as members.
For those new to the organization, our weekly meetings are usually geek fests where you can meet up with and talk to people about whatever catches your fancy. Ask for help, share thoughts, inspire and be inspired.
We'll also start planning for the future of the Hack Factory. We would like to start planning a kickoff event for the near future, and we'll need a small committee of enthusiastic makers to help pull that off. If you're interested, come to the meeting and we'll get you in the loop on that.
Of course, anyone wanting to pay dues or bring in tools (or anything else they want to contribute to the stocking of the space) is welcome to do so.
We'll see you there!
Hack Factory
3119 E 26th St
Minneapolis, MN 55406
Use the side door, it's yellow and just around the corner from the garage door.


text:
wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places
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|all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
| PlanetArk
18 Oct 07
Do Food Miles Make a Difference to Global Warming?
Story by Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
WASHINGTON - The US local food movement -- which used to be elite, expensive and mostly coastal -- has gone mainstream, with a boost from environmentalists who reckon that eating what grows nearby cuts down on global warming.
But do food miles -- the distance edibles travel from farm to plate -- give an accurate gauge of environmental impact, especially where greenhouse gas emissions are concerned?
"Food-miles are a great metaphor for looking at the localness of food, the contrast between local and global food, a way people can get an idea of where their food is coming from," said Rich Pirog, associate director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.
"They are not a reliable indicator of environmental impact," Pirog said in a telephone interview. "What one would want to do is look at your carbon footprint across a whole food supply chain."
The problem with food-miles is that they don't take into account the mode of transport, methods of production or the way things are packaged, and all of these have their own distinct impact on emissions of carbon dioxide, a climate-warming gas.
Take the case of the well-traveled Idaho potato and its closer-to-home cousin from Maine. For a consumer on the US East Coast, the Maine potato seems the winner in the local food derby.
But Maine potatoes get to market by long-haul truck while Idahos go by train, a more energy-efficient mode of transportation, so they have a smaller carbon footprint even with a larger number of food-miles.
The example is easily transposed to Europe, Pirog said, noting the relative environmental impacts for a Stockholm consumer in tomatoes grown in a Swedish greenhouse compared with field-ripened tomatoes imported by ship from Spain. The Spanish tomatoes are more Earth-friendly.
The idea of food-miles, or more properly food-kilometers, began in Sweden and Britain, but Pirog and others at the Leopold Center started looking into the matter in the United States in 2001 in a paper called "Food, Fuel and Freeways," available online at http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/ppp/index.htm.
It is now so commonplace for Americans to opt for local versus regional or national food supplies that sophisticates feel free to make fun of the movement, as The New Yorker did in its Oct. 8 edition.
"We think it's terribly important that you meet the people responsible for the food you're eating tonight," reads the caption on a cartoon showing a pair of wary-looking diners, surrounded by a smiling waitress and basket-bearing farm-folk with their produce and livestock.
The United States came late to the local food movement, except for high-end eateries that featured their offerings' provenance as a selling point in the 1970s. Until then, imported food was considered a status symbol, no matter what condition it was in when it finally arrived at the table.
Before that, most Americans unthinkingly ate local food out of simple necessity. If your great-grandmother wanted a tomato in winter, she probably opened a home-canned jar rather than picking an Israeli-raised specimen at the supermarket.
Another difficulty with the food-miles measurement is that the most accurate versions of this calculation deal only with produce, not with prepared foods that contain many ingredients from many sources.
This is changing, Pirog said, reached outside a conference on this issue in Portland, Oregon. Researchers in Europe and Japan are leading the way in figuring out how to make these complex calculations, and Pirog noted that Europe and Japan are parties to the Kyoto Protocol which mandates reductions in greenhouse gases. The United States is not.
The calculus is not always environmental; most locavores say taste comes first, while some maintain locally produced products are safer or more nutritious.
Others, like restaurateur Barry Eastman, say local provisions make economic sense for the businesses that use them and the farmers that raise them.
As the owner of Rudy's Tacos in Waterloo, Iowa, Eastman has been seeking out local suppliers for a decade, with 70 percent of his food produced in Iowa. This is not as obvious as it may seem: while Iowa is dense with farm fields, most are planted with commodity crops like soybeans and feed corn -- a circumstance that makes parts of the state food deserts. Corn, corn everywhere, but not an ear to eat, if you're a human.
"You'd be surprised at how many people want to know where their food is coming from," Eastman said by telephone. "It's not just the granola bar folks, everybody's starting to get into it."
In his case, the primary driver was flavor, and he found that local chickens made for a better-tasting taco than those trucked in from Alabama in the same load with paper towels and other restaurant staples. The Iowa poultry cost more per bird but less overall because they were meatier, Eastman said.
Tim Schlitzer, executive director of the Food Routes Network, which promotes a national "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" consumer campaign, noted long-term reasons to encourage the locavore movement.
As commodity farming increases in the United States, some regions can lose the ability to feed themselves, Schlitzer said in a telephone interview from Arnot, Pennsylvania.
"Right now, there's a national and international food system," Schlitzer said. "Ten years, 20 years from now, will that still be the case?"
Related articles on Climate change
|News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com


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In the next several months we'll start seeing VRM getting respect as a counterpart to CRM — in some cases with a social angle as SRM and sCRM get into the mix. For more on that, here's Bob Pike on Social Customer Relationship Management:
Forrester predicts the era of Social Commerce, the future of the social Web as I see it, starts to embrace a corporate philosophy and supporting infrastructure that migrates away from CRM and even sCRM to one of Social Relationship Management or SRM. This will usher in the fifth era as observed by Forrester. And, SRM is also acutely cognizant of and in harmony with VRM (Vendor Relationship Management).
VRM is the opposite of CRM, capsizing the concept of talking at or marketing to customers and shifting the balance of power in relationships from vendors to consumers. As such, systems are created to empower consumer participation and sentiment and improve products and services with every engagement.
Should we think the unthinkable and finally adopt a set of new rules which are aligned to actually what is happening this new world of social collaboratio online? Yes I do think so.
And here's John Lewis on The Manageability of Information:
Nowadays the science of selling has gone much further with 'relationships selling" as distinct from "transactional selling" and is even being inverted in the form of "soft selling" or should that now be "soft buying". It goes beyond selling, organisations have CRM (Customer Relationship Management) processes and systems and are now starting to realise that they need to provide their customers with access to VRM (Vendor Relationship Management) processes and, possibly, systems. There had always been some people who understood it, but there was a development of a general realisation that "selling" and other related areas are manageable!
I believe here John is talking about VRM in a B2B context, where it has been used for many years. Still, it speaks to the need for customers to interact with companies that have transparent and available processes.


text:
Participation in sport is an internationally recognized human right and is important for people of all ages to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. For
young people, sport, play and exercise are vital for optimal growth and
learning, stimulating physical, cognitive, emotional and social development.
But the benefits of sport extend far beyond the individual. Through sport, we
can lay the groundwork for positive, lasting change on the societal level.
Around Uganda, Beyond Youths Sports programs promote health awareness, accelerate psychological healing in areas affected by natural disasters and
conflict, further social inclusion and cohesion, and contribute to economic
development through a variety of sport-based activities. Our programs take
advantage of sport's popularity and convening power to mobilize young people
and their communities, communicate key messages, bring diverse groups together
and teach valuable life skills in a way that is fun and participatory.
Our sport-based programs also aim to empower and promote the inclusion of marginalized groups, especially minorities, girls, refugees, people with disabilities and vulnerable children and youth.
Meeting Challenges with Sport
BYSPORTS strives to be a leader in the field of sports programming by developing a series of innovative and replicable models that demonstrate the
powerful effect of sport in transforming the lives of young people.
BYSPORTS is organizing sports-related projects in Uganda. These projects have a focus primarily on helping youth overcome health challenges (specifically, HIV/AIDS) and the
trauma associated with natural disasters. Now, we are broadening the scope of
our work to include programs addressing conflict management and economic
development using sports.
Protecting Against HIV/AIDS
we appeal to all local sports coaches to incorporate an innovative HIV/AIDS life skills curriculum into their teams' activities. Through their work, young
people will learn how they can prevent HIV/AIDS and live a healthy life. The
programs also work to reduce stigma and discrimination against people affected
by HIV/AIDS.
Views: 25
© 2023 Created by Daniel Bassill. Powered by


text:
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan will accept a Taliban liaison office in Qatar to start peace talks but no foreign power can get involved in the process without its consent, the government's peace council said, as efforts gather pace to find a solution to the decade-long war.
Afghanistan's High Peace Council, in a note to foreign missions, has set out ground rules for engaging the Taliban after Kabul grew concerned that the United States and Qatar, helped by Germany, had secretly agreed with the Taliban to open an office in the Qatari capital, Doha.
U.S. officials have held about half a dozen meetings with their insurgent contacts, mostly in Germany and Doha with representatives of Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban's Quetta Shura, this year to prepare the way for face-to-face talks between the group and the Afghan government.
A representative office for the group is considered the starting point for such talks and Doha has in the past served as a meeting ground for initial contacts.
But the Afghan peace commission which has suffered a series of setbacks including the assassination of its head in September said that negotiations with the Taliban could only begin after they stopped violence against civilians, cut ties to al Qaeda, and accepted the Afghan constitution which guarantees civil rights and liberties, including rights for women.
The council, according to a copy of the 11-point note made available to Reuters, also said any peace process with the Taliban would have to have the support of Pakistan since members of the insurgent group were based there.
"The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is in agreement regarding the opening of an office for the armed opposition, but only to move forward the peace process and conduct negotiations," the council said.
The government would prefer such an office in either Saudi Arabia or Turkey, both of which it is close to, but was not averse to Doha as long as the authority of the Afghan state was not eroded and the office was only established for talks, officials said.
"We are saying Saudi or Turkey are preferable, we are not saying it has to be there only. The only condition is it should be in an Islamic country," said a government official.
President Hamid Karzai's administration recalled its ambassador from Doha last week, apparently angry that it had been kept in the dark about the latest round of contacts with the insurgent group.
Officials said Kabul was also deeply concerned about reports that the United States was considering the transfer of a small number of Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay military prison to Doha as a prelude to the talks.
"We are a sovereign country, we have laws. How can you transfer our prisoners from one country to another. Already it's a violation to have them in Guantanamo Bay," the official said.
The Afghan government wanted the prisoners to be returned to its custody, the official said.
Reuters reported this month that the United States was considering the transfer of an unspecified number of Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay into Afghan government custody as part of accelerating, high-stakes diplomacy.
"We have no problem with this. In fact we have been demanding this for a while. These are Afghan prisoners," said the official, who declined to be identified.
The tension between the Karzai administration and the United States over engaging the Taliban underscores the challenges of seeking a political settlement as the West prepares to withdraw most combat troops from the country by 2014.
Efforts to engage the insurgent group have faced a string of setbacks, the most recent being the assassination of the head of the peace council and former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, in September at the hands of a suicide bomber who pretended to be a Taliban emissary.
It led to a hardening of positions with Karzai saying the government could not talk to suicide bombers and that there should be an address for the Taliban so that negotiators know they are talking to the right representatives.
"We are committed to the reconciliation process, the experience of the last 10 years shows no military solution is possible. Talking to the armed opposition is the key in this regard," said presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi.
White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the United States backed steps toward reconciliation that bring Afghans together and allow insurgents eschewing violence and abiding by the Afghan constitution to come off the battlefield.
"We will join initiatives that support Afghan-led reconciliation. Pakistan also has an important role to play in supporting the Afghan-led process," she said.
A State Department official added Washington will continue to work very closely with Kabul authorities to draw in Taliban fighters who break from al Qaeda terrorists and agree to respect the rights of Afghans, including women and ethnic minorities.
"We believe it is in the interests of both of our countries, as well as the region as whole, to work together to support a stable, secure, and prosperous Afghanistan inside a stable, secure, and prosperous region," the State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Afghan peace council, laying down the markers for engagement with the Taliban, said well known figures from both the Taliban and the government had to be involved in talks.
It said that "before any negotiations can take place, violence against Afghan people must stop and that the armed opposition must cut ties to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups".
It also said that the Taliban must accept the constitution and honor the gains made in the last 10 years since they were ousted from power, conditions that the Taliban have shown no sign of accepting.
The Taliban do not accept the constitution and have vowed to carry on fighting until all foreign troops have left the country.
The peace council said Pakistani support was necessary for talks to take place, another condition that makes the task harder because of fraught ties between the United States and Pakistan which fears it is being shut out of the process.
Opening a Taliban office in a third country is seen as a way to create distance from Pakistan which has longstanding ties to the insurgent group.
But the government official said he did not think the peace council had laid down such tough conditions that the talks would fail even before they started.
"We don't think it's a deal breaker. We are quite optimistic," he said.
(Additional reporting by Laura MacInnis in Honolulu and Alister Bull and Jim Wolf in Washington; Editing by Robert Birsel, Ed Lane and Sandra Maler)


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A couple of Fridays ago some sermons were given in light of Friday sermons of Hazrat Khalifatul Masih II (may Allah be pleased with him) regarding reformation of practices. The need to remove some impediments to reformation of practices was mentioned and it was explained that the impediments to the reformation of our practices were stronger than the impediments to our creed and beliefs. The subject was carried forward today.
It should be remembered that the purpose of the advent of the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) was not just reformation of beliefs. He said that he had come to connect man to God and for man to pay the dues of mankind. These matters are dependent on practices. The Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) said: 'Remember mere verbosity and phraseology cannot avail unless it is followed by practise.' He also said: 'Make your faith weighty. Practise is the ornament of faith. If man's lifestyle is not right then there is also no faith.'
Wishing to be useful to the mission of the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) can only be made possible when each one of us tries our utmost to remove the impediments to the reformation of our practices. Reformation of our practises alone will draw others to us and we will be able to help in the completion of the mission of the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace). The strength to reform others can only come about after our own reformation. Our triumph is not in subjugating anyone nor indeed is it to attain worldly objectives. It is to make the world submit to God and His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be on him). If there is no difference between us and the others, why should the world listen to us? Rather than be impressed by others, we have to impress them. There is need to free ourselves from any worldly influence. There are many obstacles in this way for which we have to instil inner strength that would help remove these obstacles. We have to propose some principles to contend with the world which each one of us would follow and firmly adhere to. This will require sacrifice of nafs (the self) and will require generating a special environment. The world today is like a global village and as mentioned before, the evil of thousand miles away has reached every household through the electronic media just as all that is good has also reached each household. However, the rate of spread of evil is more than the spread of good. It has been mentioned before that in addition to this, the standards of what is good and what is bad has also changed. Something which Islam deems bad and sinful is considered trivial in an irreligious society. In fact, certain such things are now even considered good.
Hazrat Musleh Maud (may Allah be pleased with him) said that dancing is part of Western culture. Perhaps it was not as common in the time of Hazrat Musleh Maud as it is today through the agency of television and the internet. Some homes have been turned into dance houses. In some families dancing takes place in the name of entertainment during family functions, especially during weddings. Ahmadi families should be completely free of these practices and attention should be given to this matter. Hazrat Musleh Maud (may Allah be pleased with him) said that although dancing was part of Western culture, there was a time it was not considered good but was later accepted as part of tradition. In earlier times men and women danced by holding hands, this changed and they started dancing with their faces close by and gradually the distance between them decreased and now dance has changed into something very vulgar with semi-clad dancers appearing on television. This gradual spread [change in dancing style] happened because those who spread this stayed firm on it in spite of protestations against it and were ultimately successful. Now there is vulgarity and nakedness even on Pakistan television, a Muslim country, in the name of entertainment.
Thus, due to its constancy, evil has overcome the collective mind of the world. Tremendous planning and sacrifice is required to contend with it. There is need to ponder over it and work hard at it. There is need to adapt those things which will generate the strength to remove the impediments to reform ourselves. Hazrat Musleh Maud (may Allah be pleased with him) beautifully explained that in order to reform our practices we need to instil three-fold aspects: strength of resolve, correct and proper knowledge and strength to implement. The main and fundamental strengths are only the first and the third while the middle aspect, correct and proper knowledge, influences them both. For the purpose of reformation of practice, strength of resolve needs to be fortified and the defects of strength to implement need to be removed. Evil can only be stemmed out if there is resolve to stem it out and this can only come about if strength is generated to implement this.
There is little wrong with our strength of resolve. Majority of the Jama'at wants to have Taqwa (righteousness) and purity, to disseminate the message of Islam and to attain the love and nearness of God. Hazrat Musleh Maud (may Allah be pleased with him) said that although our strength of resolve was strong it did not bring results. Perhaps there is not enough resolve to implement what is desired. We had sufficient resolve as regards our beliefs, however, we lack in our resolve to reform our practices and have not been successful in this regard. We must also acknowledge that our devotion to God is also flawed and our strength to implement what we intend is disabled and is not influenced by our sense of resolve. Or there is deficiency in the supports which are needed for us to get where we intend to be. In this instance unless we rectify the situation nothing will be of avail.
An example of this would be when a student wishes to learn something but cannot. Unless his mental capacity is corrected no matter how hard he tries he cannot learn/remember his lesson. In order to correct his mental capacity the reason for his inability will have to be found out. In Pakistan some students learn by rote, without really understanding what they have memorised. With great skill they memorise entire books but when they come to the West, sometimes they cannot maintain their educational success as things are done differently here. Everything is learnt by understanding and comprehension here. When the educational board in Rabwah was separated from the governmental system due to certain reasons, and associated with a system with different examination precepts, many students wrote to say they could not attain the grades they previously could. Sometimes the hindrance in learning is not due to some mental incapacity and there are other reasons. Of course mental incapacity makes it difficult to overcome things. However, as here in the West there are special schools for children with special needs as regards learning where they are taught in specific ways and sometimes they overcome their special needs.
In order to attain success, the mind should be adapted in accordance to the method that is recommended for something. We have to see why our good intentions and determination not influence that part of our brain which controls practical reformation! We have to see what our level of devotion to God is; we have to see whether our practical efforts are well-intended and sincere. As mentioned earlier, reformation of practice has two impediments: weakness in strength of resolve and weakness in strength to implement matters. The third aspect is weakness of knowledge which influences the other two states. Resolve and its implementation works in accordance to knowledge.
If a person does not know that a throng of a thousand people is about to attack him, but thinks that perhaps one or two individuals are about to attack him, he would have prepared according to the knowledge he has, or else his preparation would have been different. Strength of knowledge increases strength of resolve. If a person wishes to lift something but cannot, he stops and thinks and analyses the situation, perhaps changes the way he lifts and is then able to lift the object. In this instance he would have combined knowledge with correct use of his strength and attained what he wished. God-given capacity is always there but it needs to be used properly. The very same principle needs to be adapted to implement practical capacity and to remove weakness in implementation of matters and for this knowledge should be enhanced so that it can overcome weaknesses.
Hazrat Musleh Maud (may Allah be pleased with him) said that God has given every individual the capacity to asses/compare which determines how much strength is required to do such and such tasks because there is muscular strength and then there is mental strength, just as it was illustrated in the example of a person lifting an object, whereby capacity to assess/compare was utilised. The capacity to asses/compare also comes from knowledge, whether it is internal knowledge or external knowledge. Internal knowledge comes from observation and experiment whereas external knowledge comes from outside sources, for example the noise, sound of an approaching crowd. However, in the instance of lifting a heavy object successfully, it is the capacity to asses that is utilised. In the first instance the person could not lift the object as he had assessed its weight incorrectly, but later, after assessing and appraising the correct weight he lifted it successfully. The same principle works when man prepares to reform himself; it is his capacity to asses/compare which decides how much strength is required for his personal endeavour. Sometimes, due to incorrect knowledge, man is not able to reform himself and due to lack of knowledge the capacity to asses/compare does not furnish correct information as regards the particular kind of reformation. The capacity to asses/compare alerts man and it is the same capacity which, due to lack of knowledge, makes man negligent. Sin is committed due to lack of knowledge alone. When a child is brought up in a sinful environment he grows up with a distorted sense of right and wrong, like considering one cannot get by without telling lies.
It is bewildering why many people who seek [political] asylum think that unless they concoct a story their case will not be successful. This is in spite of Hazrat Khalifatul Masih repeatedly mentioning that if the matter is explained briefly and correctly asylum cases are successful quickly. There are many examples of this when people have said that they made brief and correct statements and their cases were successful promptly. In this regard it is sufficient to say [in the asylum application] that people cannot go through with the mental torture of being ever frightened for their own life as well as the lives of their family and all the related problems. Children cannot go to school or are harassed in schools. Majority of asylum cases are successful on these points. We should adhere to truth and of course trust in God. When false stories are mentioned in front of children, like such and such false account was put before a judge, children end up thinking there is no sin in telling lies and without telling lies perhaps their asylum case would not have been successful and telling lies is key to all progress. They end up thinking nothing gets done without telling lies and as a result they do not think much of telling lies. When such children grow up and expect their capacity to assess/compare to determine something, it will determine for them that there is no harm in telling lies. Similarly when a child grows up in an environment where back-biting is common, his capacity to assess and compare will conclude that everyone does it and there is nothing to it. It was mentioned in previous sermons that a great impediment in reformation of practices is that people consider some sins to be big sins and others not such big sins and think that there was no harm in committing the smaller sins. Once embroiled in sins, it is difficult to leave them. In these instances while the capacity to assess/compare is present, but due to wrong information/knowledge it does not give man enough strength to overcome sin. Physical weakness does not allow a certain amount of weight to be lifted. However, when brain sends signals to lift greater weight, it can be done. Likewise is the strength to erase sin. While such strength is present but when confronted with sin the capacity to assess and compare decides there is no harm. As a result the brain does not furnish strength to erase it and there is also no strength of resolve. In order to reform practices strength of resolve, abundance of knowledge and strength to implement is required. Abundance of knowledge enhances strength of resolve.
In summary, reformation of practice requires three things: strength of resolve which is capable of big things, abundance of knowledge so that our strength of resolve realises its responsibility as regards what is wrong and what is right and supports what is right and endeavours to follow it and not lose out due to ignorance. Thirdly, we need strength to implement matters so that our limbs follow our good intentions and do not reject what the good intentions order them to do. These are the fundamental sources of coming out of sin and reformation of practices. We have to make our strength of resolve like a highly disciplined officer who gets his instructions followed in accordance to his strengths and principles and does not let anything come in his way. We should not make our own definitions of big and small sins. Correct knowledge will save us from matters which influence our capacity to assess/compare. Indeed, strength of resolve cannot determine without knowledge. And if strength to implement matters is strong it would understand the slightest of hints given by strength of resolve.
Hazrat Musleh Maud (may Allah be pleased with him) said that weakness in strength to implement is of two kinds: tangible and intangible. Intangible weakness is when strength is present but due to lack of use is somewhat rusty whereas tangible weakness is when due to no use for a long period it is in a lifeless state and is in need of external help and support. Example of intangible weakness is when a person who can lift 40 kilos of weight but due to lack of practice is perturbed at the thought of it. If such a person convinces himself he can eventually lift the required weight. Example of tangible weakness is when due to not working for a long period of time, the capacity is gone and the person cannot lift more than 20 or 10 kilos of weight. Such a person requires a helper and support in order to be able to lift more weight. In short, when personal strength is not there external resources have to be availed. The state of reformation of practices is the same. Some people have to instil strength of resolve, some are in need of strength to implement but for some the burden is too much and for them the society has to play its role, Jama'at has to play its role, the auxiliaries have to play their role. We need to instil these matters, need to pay attention to these matters for reformation of practices so that we can fulfil the objective of the advent of the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) and so that our God-given capacities do not get rusty and eventually corrode away.
The Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) said: 'The way of belief is to want to be given reformation from Allah the Exalted and to expend one's strengths [for it].'
He also said: 'You should simply show your example by practise and it should have brilliance in it so that others may accept it. No one will accept it unless it has brilliance. Similarly, if your internal state does not have cleanliness and brilliance no one will buy it. If you do not have high morals you cannot attain any station.'
Constant hard work is needed for reformation of practice so that all Ahmadis are able to fulfil the objectives of being Ahmadis and are able make themselves true Muslims in accordance with the wishes of the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace).
Next Huzoor announced that he would lead funeral Prayer in absentia of Master Mashriq Ali Sahib who passed away on 3 January in Qadian after being ill for a year. He was nearly 80 years old. He had taken Bai'at in 1965 and had remained ardent about Tabligh till his last breath. He was a Moosi. He leaves behind three daughters and two sons one of whom is perhaps known by the entire Jama'at. He is IsmatUllah Sahib who recites poems on MTA.
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It's been 30 years since the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man first squished through Manhattan. With Ghostbusters returning to theaters tomorrow for an anniversary run, we thought it appropriate to consider a very serious question: How would New York City actually fight an evil god in the form of a marshmallow man? Stickiness and spoilers ensue.
Now, for the sake of making this a legit late summer afternoon thought experiment, suppose there are no ghostbusters and no proton packs in this world. Who you gonna call? Actually, make it into two questions: Who you gonna call to fight Mr. Stay Puft, and who you gonna call to clean up his sweet sweet marshmallow guts?
How to Battle a Giant Marshmallow Man
As you might recall (or not), when evil Gozer the Gozerian first enters through a supernatural portal on the Upper West Side, he/she/it appears in the form of a woman dressed in David Bowie custume. Gozer then tells the Ghostbuster gang to "Choose the form of The Destructor," and Dan Aykroyd thinks of "something that could never, ever possibly destroy us! Mr. Stay Puft!" Enter Marshmallow Man.
A video assessing the possible damage done by Mr. Stay Puft, made by Cube Cities, a building visualization company.
Who would you call? Well it seems plausible to assume someone might recognize a supernatural portal forming over 55 Central Park West, setting off an evacuation of the Upper West Side. Evacuations in New York City are coordinated by the Office of Emergency Management. But given the size and unique danger posed by giant Marshmallow Man, the city is probably going to call for backup from the state's Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.
"We're like the brain," said Kristin Devoe of the DHSES. "All of your arms and legs and hands are the different government agencies." Homeland Security, coordinating the response, could then call in the National Guard, and they could bring the firepower to take down Mr. Stay Puft.
For the purposes of this thought experiment, let's assume we just need to take down Mr. Stay Puft and not the entire supernatural portal. (Because honestly, if a supernatural portal really opens, we're just fucked.) Flamethrowers, which seem like the most obvious real-world weapons with which to melt a marshmallow, are no longer in the US military's arsenal. In 1978, the Department of Defense stopped using the flamethrower in part because it was too unstable. A taser on the other hand might melt a small patch of Marshmallow Man if you get right next to one of its massive, fluffy legs, but as the destructor (presumably) doesn't have nerves or muscles, a taser wouldn't paralyze it.
If the city did evacuate the Upper West Side and surrounding neighborhoods—or hell, the whole island—then more powerful bombs could come into play. The Air Force's McGuire-Dix-Lakeshurst is a short 75 miles away, and as Marshmallow Man doesn't look especially nimble I'd imagine dropping a few bombs on him shouldn't be very hard. The buildings of New York, however, might take a beating, presumably after an evacuation.
The Sweet, Sticky Aftermath
By bomb or flamethrower or proton pack, suppose we did manage to blast Mister Marshmallow into smithereens. The cleanup effort would start right away. The DHSES told me there are stockpiles of equipment like tractors all over the state that can be mobilized to clean up rubble.
But there is a stickier problem: Uptown Manhattan is now covered in melted marshmallow, nearly 2,000 tons of it. I did the math.
The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is exactly 112.5 feet tall according to Ghostbusters' model shop supervisor. To account for his chubby arms and
beer belly marshmallow belly, let's assume he's about one-third wide as he is tall. And for the sake of simplicity, let's assume he's roughly a cylinder, whose volume formula we of course remember from the SATs.
Volume of MM = π(18.75)^2*(112.5) ≈ 124,000 cubic feet
But Marshmallow Man has presumably since melted and congealed, so it's more helpful to think of his mass. Ordinary unmelted marshmallow is light and fluffy, with a density of about 0.5 g/mL. Do a few conversions and we get the total mass of sweet marshmallow guts spilled across Manhattan:
3,870,000 lbs or about 2,000 tons
And what exactly do you do with 2,000 tons of melted marshmallow? To that end, I called up some folks who regularly deal with marshmallow in industrial quantities: Just Born, the makers of beloved Peeps. "This is probably the weirdest question you've ever gotten," I said. "Yeah, it would definitely have to rank up there," Sally, Just Born's customer relations rep replied.
To get rid of melted marshmallow, you can take one of two tacks, Sally told me. There's ice or cold water to make the marshmallow brittle enough to chip off. Or there's hot water, so you can melt the sugary stuff away. "If you had marshmallow all over your building and your car," she said, "I would say warm water over cold."
The Ghostbusters covered in marshmallow.
So, that leaves us with vast volumes of tepid sugar syrup streaming into sewers, where it flows
away never to be seen straight into the hungry mouths of rats (and cockroaches and ants). 2,000 tons of marshmallow is over 5 billion extra calories for the hungry rodents. "You're going to have a surge in the rat population. You're going to have a frenzy," said Timothy Wong, technical director of M&M Pest Control in New York.
When the marshmallow reserves are exhausted, the rats, which normally live outdoors, are going to look for food in new places. "They can easily go indoors and go into people's homes," he added. That's assuming eating the marshmallow flesh of a reincarnated evil god does not give the rats superpowers, in which case all rat bets would be off.
At the triumphant end of Ghostbusters, our heroes drive off into a cheering crowd. But next time you watch the movie, you might think of the vermin. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is likely to have a long, disgusting legacy in New York City.
The Marshmallow Man aftermath. Definitely not enough melted marshmallow.


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Heart disease patients with a positive attitude live longer than those with a negative attitude, and this boost in survival may be due to increased exercise, a new study from Denmark suggests.
In the study, heart disease patients with a positive attitude were 42 percent less likely to die over a five-year period than those with a negative attitude. All patients in the study had coronary artery disease, or a narrowing or hardening of the arteries that supply blood to the heart.
More from LiveScience
7 Common Exercise Errors And How to Fix Them
What's more, patients with a positive attitude were about twice as likely to exercise. In fact, a further analysis revealed that those with a positive attitude lived longer because they exercised.
However, the researchers don't know which came first: Does a positive attitude give heart disease patients the motivation they need to exercise, or does exercise put you in a better mood? There is evidence for both hypotheses, said study researcher Susanne Pedersen, a professor of cardiac psychology at Tilburg University, the Netherlands.
"Irrespectively, [the finding] cements what we already know — namely, that exercise is good for the heart," Pedersen said. [4 Reasons to Exercise Even When It's Cold Out]
Until researchers know which comes first, improving mood as well as doing more exercise may help patients live longer, Pedersen said. Generally, interventions for heart disease patients tend to focus on reducing negative mood and depression, but this is not the same as enhancing positive mood, Pedersen said.
Previous studies have found a link between an optimistic, positive attitude and better outcomes for heart disease patients, but the reason for the link was not known.
The new study analyzed information from about 600 patients with coronary artery disease who were treated at a Denmark hospital. In 2005, patients answered questions to assess their mood, and how often they exercised.
Among the 80 patients who died during the study, 30 patients (10 percent) were assessed as having had a positive attitude, while 50 (16.5 percent) had a more negative attitude.
Besides exercise, there are multiple reasons why a positive attitude might be good for heart health, said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.
A positive outlook may reduce levels of stress hormones and inflammatory markers, Steinbaum said. And people with a positive outlook tend to adopt other healthier behaviors, such as eating better, sleeping better and not smoking.
"I think that people who are positive are more likely to do things to take care of themselves, and to help themselves," Steinbaum said.
The study did not collect information about the duration and intensity of the patients' exercise, which may affect the link between positive attitude and mortality, the researchers said. It is published Sept. 10 in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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The quilt specifics: Most of the 9 patches are pieced from Kona cotton jelly rolls in the Dusky and Dark colorways. The cream sashing is Moda Bella Solid in the color snow. The pattern is from a quilt along I did a few summers ago. (Links are on my sidebar...one a day quilt along.) It is a twin size.
Anyway, back to the retreat....I was lame-o and took VERY few photos. And the ones I did take turned out all yellow. But thankfully other people did. And they wrote beautiful recap posts all about the retreat. Click on any of the links above to read more about the fun we had. I feel so lucky to be able to call these women friends. I can't wait to do it again next year!


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Check out our review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet.
Now that CES is over, Samsung is gearing up for next month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where the company is expected to unveil a brand new Galaxy Note tablet.
The Korea-based electronics firm will reportedly reveal its Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet, according to Samsung news blog Sam Mobile. The website doesn't specify exactly where this information came from, but does provide a list of specifications for the device. Like most tablets, this rumored slate is expected to come in two flavors. One edition will feature 3G and Wi-Fi, and the other will be Wi-Fi only.
None of this information has been confirmed, but the alleged follow up to Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.7 is expected to come with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out of the box, a 4600 mAh battery, a 5-megapixel front facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera. As for the display, we may be seeing a Super Clear LCD screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Whether these specs turn out to be true or not, we can expect the tablet to come in the standard 16GB or 32GB variants.
This isn't a drastic improvement from the current generation Galaxy Tab 7.7 in terms of tech specs, but it could prove to be an appealing alternative to Apple's iPad Mini. It's similar in size to Apple's offering, allowing for more screen space than Google's Nexus 7 or other smaller-sized slates. However, the alleged Galaxy Note 8.0 would come equipped with Samsung's signature S-Pen stylus, offering a different set of features than Apple's miniature iPad. In addition, since Samsung's rumored tablet comes with Android 4.2 at launch, we can probably expect some of the recently announced Premium Suite features as well.
While Sam Mobile seems to have the scoop, its set of reported specs is missing one key piece of information. There was no mention of what kind of processor would power the device. We're hoping that one of Samsung's new quad-core Exynos chips will be inside, but we'll have to wait until the Mobile World Congress to find out for sure.
If these rumors turn out to be true, Samsung will be adding yet another major player to the already saturated tablet industry. While an 8-inch Galaxy Note may not outsell the iPad Mini, offering the premium suite S Pen-enabled features on a miniature tablet would make sense for Samsung.
This isn't the first time this device has made an appearance on the Web. Back in December, a device with the same model number, code name and specs appeared in the GLBenchmark's database.
Editors' Recommendations
- The Samsung Galaxy S24 just leaked with a few big surprises
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- The Galaxy Tab A7 is down to just $110 because of this deal
- How a few small changes made me love the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5
- The best Android tablets in 2023: the 9 best ones you can buy


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~ Italian Sausage, Broccolini, Plum Tomatoes, Pecorino, Basil ~
This little pot of pasta is a quick and healthy weeknight dinner you can whip up in 30 minutes. It's a great option when you want something fresh and substantial with minimal effort that relies on the pantry and freezer for ingredients. I had fresh broccolini spears waiting for use in my fridge and dipped into my stash of sausages I keep on hand in my freezer, because, well, one should always have a stash of sausages in the freezer. A can of Italian plum tomatoes and a box of pasta later, voila, we had a meal for 4.
Spicy Sausage, Broccolini and Tomato Pasta
Serves 4
1 pound pasta, such as gemelli, fusilli, penne
Extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 pound spicy Italian sausage
3/4 pound broccolini, cut in 1-inch pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 (28-ounce) can Italian plum tomatoes with juice
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup basil leaves, loosely packed, torn in half if large
1/3 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus extra for sprinkling
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente, about 9 minutes. Drain and transfer to a serving bowl.
While the pasta is cooking, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausages and brown on all sides. Remove from pan and transfer to a cutting board. When cool enough to handle, slice in 1/4-inch pieces.
Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from the same skillet and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add broccolini and sauté over medium heat until bright green but still crisp, about 1 minute. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, breaking tomatoes apart with a spoon. Return sausages to the skillet. Stir to combine and cook until thoroughly heat through. Remove from heat and pour over the pasta. Add basil and cheese and toss to combine. Serve immediately garnished with extra cheese.


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Mt. Rainier NP - Naches / Dewey Lake Loop (August 2015)
This is the first (of hopefully many) overnight backpacking trips with my kids, nephews and brother-in-law to the area surrounding Mt. Rainier NP. The kids learned firsthand how to pack for an overnight trip with necessary provisions. The Naches to Dewey Lake Loop is about 7.5+ miles roundtrip with several areas of gradual elevation gains. The descent to Dewey Lake as our destination the first night was met with excitement and joy. When the backpacks came off, the kids left the dads to set up camp while they fished and hunted frogs and snakes. The approx. 800 foot climb out of Dewey lake back on the Naches loop was an epic challenge for each kid but well worth the reward of incredible views of Mt. Rainier for the rest of the hike. This pristine wildnerness adventure is the perfect trail for kids learning to backpack and parents who are learning to backpack with kids! For more, see my blog http://blaze-a-trail.blogspot.com/2015/09/mt-rainier-np-backpacking-adventure.htmlRead More
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Mt. Rainier NP - Naches to Dewey Lake Loop Backpacking Adventure
slideshowWashingtonMt. Rainier National ParkMt. RainierDewey LakeNaches Loop TrailDewey Lake TrailChinook PassNational ParkNaturehikingbackpackingmsl family


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This combination hormone medication is used to prevent pregnancy. It contains 2 hormones: a progestin and an estrogen. It works mainly by preventing the release of an egg (ovulation) during your menstrual cycle. It also makes vaginal fluid thicker to help prevent sperm from reaching an egg (fertilization) and changes the lining of the uterus (womb) to prevent attachment of a fertilized egg. If a fertilized egg does not attach to the uterus, it passes out of the body.
Besides preventing pregnancy, birth control pills may make your periods more regular, decrease blood loss and painful periods, decrease your risk of ovarian cysts, and also treat acne.
Using this medication does not protect you or your partner against sexually transmitted diseases (such as HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia).
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Hacktivism: A Short History
How self-absorbed computer nerds became a powerful force for freedom.
Computer hackers aren't an especially earnest bunch. After all, lulz (a corruption of the phrase "laugh out loud" and a reference to hackers' penchant for tomfoolery) was the primary objective of the hacker collective Anonymous before it graduated to more serious cyberoperations in the latter half of the 2000s. But if the hacking community likes to flaunt its glib side, it also has a rich history of political activism -- or "hacktivism" -- that has come to define it in the era of WikiLeaks. If there's one thing that unites hacktivists across multiple generations, it's dedication to the idea that information on the Internet should be free -- a first principle that has not infrequently put them at odds with corporations and governments the world over.
Computer hackers aren't an especially earnest bunch. After all, lulz (a corruption of the phrase "laugh out loud" and a reference to hackers' penchant for tomfoolery) was the primary objective of the hacker collective Anonymous before it graduated to more serious cyberoperations in the latter half of the 2000s. But if the hacking community likes to flaunt its glib side, it also has a rich history of political activism — or "hacktivism" — that has come to define it in the era of WikiLeaks. If there's one thing that unites hacktivists across multiple generations, it's dedication to the idea that information on the Internet should be free — a first principle that has not infrequently put them at odds with corporations and governments the world over.
A culture of "hacking" springs up at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the term is coined by members of the Tech Model Railroad Club as they play around with track circuitry. The original "hacks" are mostly harmless pranks and practical jokes perpetrated by students in early artificial intelligence labs. Hackers soon discover that toy whistles produce the right frequency for them to "phreak" Ma Bell's telephone system, allowing them to place long-distance calls for free. Among those who make names for themselves as "phone phreaks" are Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, the future founders of Apple.
October 1989
Computers at NASA and the U.S. Energy Department are penetrated by an anti-nuclear "WANK" worm, which alters computers' log-in screens to "WORMS AGAINST NUCLEAR KILLERS … Your System Has Been Officially WANKed." The malware, believed to have originated in Australia, is the second major worm deployed in history, but the first with an explicitly political aim. (The genesis worm was released a year earlier by Robert Morris, a 23-year-old Cornell University graduate student, who said he wanted to approximate the size of the Internet but ended up running afoul of the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.)
November 1994
A mostly British activist group known as the Zippies launches an "email bomb" and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against British government websites to protest Prime Minister John Major's Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, which outlawed outdoor raves featuring music with "a succession of repetitive beats." The attack, known as the "Intervasion of the UK," knocks out a number of government websites for more than a week. It is the first known use of DDoS — which takes down a targeted website by overwhelming it with communication requests — for political purposes.
"Omega," a member of the Texas-based computer-hacking group Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), coins the word "hacktivism" in an email to the cDc listserv. Although somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the term aptly characterizes the group's increasingly political ethos. Founded in 1984 for the whimsical goal of "global domination through media saturation," cDc is by the mid-1990s an explicitly political organization, one that leverages technology to advance human rights and protect the free flow of information. In subsequent years, cDc members team up with a group of dissidents calling themselves the Hong Kong Blondes to hack the computer networks of Chinese government agencies and companies with poor human rights records in China.
July 2001
Hacktivismo, an offshoot of cDc, issues a code of conduct for online civil disobedience that draws on the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This "Hacktivismo Declaration" affirms the right to "freedom of opinion and expression" and declares the hacker community's intent to develop technologies to challenge "state-sponsored censorship of the Internet." The declaration, which can be read as a disavowal of hacking techniques like DDoSing that interfere with free speech, largely falls by the wayside as the next generation of hacktivists increasingly seeks to take government and corporate websites offline.
Christopher Poole, 15, sets up the website 4chan.org from his suburban New York bedroom. The site garners attention primarily for its proliferation of humorous feline memes (LolCats) and gag hyperlinks (Rickrolls) to Rick Astley's insufferable 1987 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up," but over time it attracts a global army of anonymous hackers, many of them politically minded, who exchange coding tips and eventually plot cyberops. What begins as a series of pranks carried out for idle amusement gradually evolves into systematized cyberwarfare or, as one Anonymous member puts it, "ultra-coordinated motherfuckery." Anonymous is born here.
April 2007
Estonia removes a Soviet war memorial from its capital, provoking a series of cyberhits — mostly DDoS attacks — originating on Russian servers. Details about who is responsible for the attacks, which disable various Estonian government websites and substantially disrupt commerce for several hours, remain murky, but the pro-Kre
mlin youth group Nashi eventually claims responsibility, though it denies having carried out direct orders from the Russian government. Whether state-sponsored or an especially virulent example of nationalist hacktivism, the cyberassault against Estonia amounts to one of the largest DDoS attacks in history.
January 2008
Anonymous releases a YouTube video announcing Project Chanology, a deliberate campaign to destroy the Church of Scientology due to its "campaigns of misinformation" and "suppression of dissent." "We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us," the group declares in an ominous, automated voice. Less than a month later, Anons hold their first physical protest (also against Scientology) simultaneously at various locations around the world, with many demonstrators wearing the signature Guy Fawkes masks that will later become iconic symbols of the movement.
November 2010
Tunisian dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali blocks access to WikiLeaked U.S. State Department cables noting massive corruption in his government. In response, Anonymous hackers launch "#OpTunisia," attacking Tunisian government websites and at one point bringing down the Tunisian stock exchange. As protests rage across the region in the following months, the group launches a series of "Freedom Ops" to assist pro-democracy activists — Anonymous's biggest foray yet into world politics.
December 2010
Anonymous launches Operation Avenge Assange after MasterCard and Visa block payments to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. Anons knock out the websites of the credit card giants and briefly slow web traffic to PayPal using an application called Low Orbit Ion Cannon, which directs massive amounts of traffic to specified websites.
December 2011
AntiSec, an offshoot of Anonymous that takes particular issue with the cybersecurity industry, hacks the Texas-based private intelligence firm Stratfor, knocking its website offline and lifting 200GB of data, mostly emails, which it hands over to WikiLeaks. It is the largest public "d0xing" — the posting of private information online — attack that Anonymous has carried out to date.
January 2012
A group of pro-Palestinian hacktivists calling themselves "Nightmare" knocks out the websites of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and El Al airlines. In an online post taking credit for the attacks, the group says it is joining Saudi hacker 0xOmar, who previously released tens of thousands of Israelis' credit card numbers on the Internet, in a "movement" of "Islamic hackers against Israel." The next day, Israeli hackers going by the name IDF-Team retaliate by knocking the Saudi Stock Exchange and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange offline.
February 14, 2012
On the one-year anniversary of Bahraini armed forces' violent dispersal of rallies in the capital, Manama, during the Arab uprisings, Anons carry out a series of hacks against the Bahraini government and its backers, notably the Pennsylvania-based tear gas manufacturer Combined Systems. The kingdom is eventually moved, in February 2013, to ban the import of Guy Fawkes masks to its still-roiling territory.
February 29, 2012
Interpol arrests 25 suspected Anonymous hackers from around the world following an FBI sting operation that flipped an Anonymous ringleader, Hector Monsegur, known online as "Sabu." The information he provides leads to a wave of hacktivist arrests — for taking part in everything from the Stratfor hack to illegal eavesdropping on an FBI conference call — dealing Anonymous a major blow.
March 2012
Frustrated with the way WikiLeaks handled the Stratfor data dump — it was an unqualified media flop — Anonymous launches its own WikiLeaks clone: Par:Anoia (Potentially Alarming Research: Anonymous Intelligence Agency). The website relies on purloined "submissions" provided by the Anonymous community and publishes everything from hacked emails from the Syrian Foreign Ministry to New York City Police Department video footage of the 2011 eviction of Occupy protesters from Zuccotti Park.
April 2012
Anonymous turns its guns on China, knocking out a number of corporate and local government websites and tagging them with the message: "Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible, today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall."
October 2012
WikiLeaks puts millions of its documents behind a pay wall, prompting a vicious rebuke from the freedom-obsessed web underground. The main Anonymous Twitter account tweets @wikileaks: "die in a fire." The Anonymous-WikiLeaks breakup is complete.
January 2013
Computer whiz kid and
Internet activist Aaron Swartz hangs himself in his New York City apartment after federal prosecutors indict him for hacking into JSTOR's digital library, presumably to free millions of academic articles from behind its pay wall. His death in many ways symbolizes the battered state of the hacktivist movement and the futility of its utopian vision — after all, Swartz stole mostly obscure journal articles — but hardly sounds its death knell. Within weeks of Swartz's death, sympathetic Anons hack into the website of the government agency responsible for the sentencing policies of federal courts, at one point turning its home page into a version of the computer game Asteroids.
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Synopsis for Episode 4.20 of The Vampire Diaries: The Originals
Spoiler TV has posted a synopsis for season 4 episode 20 of The Vampire Diaries titled, The Originals:
Acting on a mysterious tip that a plot is brewing against him in New Orleans, Klaus (Joseph Morgan) makes a trip to the town he and his family helped build. Klaus' questions lead him to a reunion with his former protégé, Marcel (guest star Charles Michael Davis), a charismatic vampire who has total control over the human and supernatural inhabitants of New Orleans. Determined to help his brother find redemption, Elijah (Daniel Gillies) follows Klaus and soon learns that Hayley (guest star Phoebe Tonkin) has also come to the French Quarter searching for clues to her family history, and has fallen into the hands of a powerful witch named Sophie (guest star Daniella Pineda). Meanwhile, in Mystic Falls, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Stefan (Paul Wesley) continue with their plan for Elena (Nina Dobrev), while Katherine (Nina Dobrev) reveals a surprising vulnerability to Rebekah (Claire Holt) and asks her to deliver a message.


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It's rare that you get a guided tour through still unfolding carnage. Imagine walking through Aceh right after the tsunami or New Orleans while the rains from Katrina still fell. Lower Manhattan's financial crisis tour doesn't involve as much bad weather or physical danger, but it does give you the chance to learn about the most profound financial disaster in decades in the place where it all started.
This is "The Wall Street Experience."
Guided by a former Wall Street insider, you'll spend the 90 minute tour learning how some traders raked in billions in profits while entire banks came to an end. Also, you'll be introduced to a "shadow banking system" that the government ignored until it was too late.
It's not all mayhem down on the Street, though.
The tour will give you an overview of the history, architecture and trivia for this part of the city. The culture of the trader is wrapped up in these walls and streets – and you'll hear all about it. But, did you know that this was once the political center of the United States? A statue of George Washington stands in front of the building from which he governed the country, staring across the street at a world of financial engineering he'd probably never be able to understand.
The tour guide, Andrew Luan, is a former Deutsche Bank vice president and traded what are now called "toxic assets." He charges $40 a person, though children are free. Part of the proceeds goes to increasing financial literacy. Financial illiteracy is at crisis levels right now, so I applaud Luan for this. If you have become a victim of the financial crisis, The Wall Street Experience does offer weekly tours for those who can't afford to pay.


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Each Weleda Baby Care Starter Kit contains:
Calendula Shampoo and Body Wash, 0.72 oz. (20.4 g)
Calendula Baby Cream, 0.34 oz. (10 g)
Calendula Lotion, 0.34 oz. (10 g)
Calendula Face Cream, 0.34 fl. oz. (10 g)
(The kit I received also included a $2 off coupon and Sea Buckthorn Lotion sample)
Calendula Shampoo and Body Wash
This shampoo and body wash gently cleanses and cares for baby's delicate hair and skin leaving them silky smooth and protected from drying out. It cleans and softens without synthetic detergents and is gentle and tear-free. This body wash is somewhat creamy when it comes out but creates a nice soapy lather once rubbed on baby. I love the light scent of the wash and how it left my daughter's skin soft and clean after bath-time.
Calendula Diaper Care
This natural diaper cream soothes and treat baby's diaper area with Calendula flower extract as well as breathable beeswax. This diaper cream is just as effective as conventional cream but protects baby's delicate skin in a more natural healing way. I have been using this cream on my daughter at each diaper change and it works great (as well as putting a nice fresh scent in the air)! Only a small amount of this cream is needed to treat the diaper area meaning the sample size in this kit will last a while.
Calendula Baby Cream
This emollient Calendula cream intensively nourishes and protects baby's delicate skin as it soothes and provides protective comfort. The cream also contains gentle organic chamomile flower extract
that has a calming anti-inflammatory and antiseptic effect. My daughter has a bit of eczema on her belly which I used this cream to treat. The cream goes on thick as a petroleum would and nourishes the skin naturally while also providing a barrier.
Calendula Lotion
This nourishing, all natural baby lotion provides long-lasting protection from the environment's drying influences. It is best used after baby's regular bath, as it leaves skin soft, supple, and moisturized.
This lotion is perfect in that is goes on light and is not greasy. It blends into baby's skin quickly and again leaves baby's skin super soft!
Calendula Face Cream
This lightweight cream is specifically formulated to moisturize baby's delicate facial skin. Made with soothing organic Calendula flower extract, essential fatty acids from sweet almond oil, and beeswax it easily absorbs as well as enhances and maintains natural moisture.
Weleda is giving one of you a Baby Calendula Starter Kit! Just enter via Rafflecopter below by 3/27 for your chance to win! (18+, US only)a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you to Weleda for providing the products mentioned in this post. Although I received these products free of charge, all opinions expressed are my own. See full PR Disclosure Statement in tab above.