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Aimed at members of the general public, this weekly newsletter contains stunning images of the Universe, the latest science results from ESO's telescopes or news about the organisation. Journalists and other media representatives should subscribe to the ESO Media Newsletter to receive embargoed news from ESO.
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Mount Desert Island, Maine
Summer Evening in Maine
Maine's Rocky Coast
Taking Off
Duke Gardens (NC)
Trees at Tennis Club (NC)
The Pond Down the Road (NC)
Maine Blueberries
North Carolina State Fair
Leaf in Afternoon Light (NC)
Blue Ridge Mountains (NC)
Sunrise at Mt. St. Michel, France
Pointe Du Hoc Normandy, France
Temple of Love at Petit Trianon (Marie Antoinette's country house)
Omaha Beach, France
Mt. St. Michel
American Cemetary
Pointe du Hoc, France
Tide Moving In at Mt. St. Michel
Sunset view from Mt. St. Michel
Fjord and Tree in Maine
Manset , Maine Seawall
My bark's prettier than yours
Sea urchins, sea glass, sand dollars
Waves on stormy day at Seawall

subset: commoncrawl


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The Congress has just ended one of the worst and least productive sessions in the history of our country. At a time when the problems facing us are monumental, Congress is dysfunctional and more and more people (especially the young) are, understandably, giving up on the political process. The people are hurting. They look to Washington for help. Nothing is happening.
In my view, the main cause of congressional dysfunction is an extreme right-wing Republican party whose main goal is to protect the wealthy and powerful. There is no tax break for the rich or large corporations that they don't like. There is no program which protects working families -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, affordable housing, etc. -- that they don't want to cut.
But the Democrats (with whom I caucus as an Independent) are most certainly not without fault. In the Senate, they have tolerated Republican obstructionism for much too long and allowed major legislation to fail for lack of 60 votes. They have failed to bring forth a strong and consistent agenda which addresses the economic crises facing the vast majority of our struggling population, and have not rallied the people in support of that agenda.
As we survey our country at the end of 2013, I don't have to tell you about the crises we face. Many of you are experiencing them every day.
- The middle class continues to decline, with median family income some $5,000 less than in 1999.
- More Americans, 46.5 million, are now living in poverty than at any time in our nation's history. Child poverty, at 22 percent, is the highest of any major country.
- Real unemployment is not 7 percent. If one includes those who have given up looking for work and those who want full-time work but are employed part-time, real unemployment is over 13 percent -- and youth unemployment is much higher than that.
- Most of the new jobs that are being created are part-time and low wage, but the minimum wage remains at the starvation level of $7.25 per hour.
- Millions of college students are leaving school deeply in debt, while many others have given up on their dream of a higher education because of the cost.
- Meanwhile, as tens of millions of Americans struggle to survive economically, the wealthiest people are doing phenomenally well and corporate profits are at an all-time high. In fact, wealth and income inequality today is greater than at any time since just before the Great Depression. One family, the Walton family with its Wal-Mart fortune, now owns more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of Americans. In recent years, 95 percent of all new income has gone to the top 1 percent.
- The scientific community has been very clear: Global warming is real, it is already causing massive problems and, if we don't significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the planet we leave to our kids and grandchildren will be less and less habitable.
Clearly, if we are going to save the middle class and protect our planet, we need to change the political dynamics of the nation. We can no longer allow the billionaires and their think tanks or the corporate media to set the agenda. We need to educate, organize and mobilize the working families of our country to stand up for their rights. We need to make government work for all the people, not just the 1 percent.
When Congress reconvenes for the 2014 session, here are a few of the issues that I will focus on. (By the way, I'd love to hear from you as to what your priorities are).
WEALTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY: A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much, while so many have so little. It is simply not acceptable that the top 1 percent owns 38 percent of the financial wealth of the nation, while the bottom 60 percent owns all of 2.3 percent. We need to establish a progressive tax system which asks the wealthy to start paying their fair share of taxes, and which ends the outrageous loopholes that enable one out of four corporations to pay nothing in federal taxes.
JOBS: We need to make significant investments in our crumbling infrastructure, in energy efficiency and sustainable energy, in early childhood education and in affordable housing. When we do that, we not only improve the quality of life in our country and combat global warming, we also create millions of decent-paying new jobs.
WAGES: We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. We should pass the legislation, which will soon be on the Senate floor, to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour, but we must raise that minimum wage even higher in the coming years. We also need to expand our efforts at worker-ownership. Employees will not be sending their jobs to China or Vietnam when they own the places in which they work.
RETIREMENT SECURITY: At a time when only one in five workers in the private sector have a defined benefit pension plan; half of Americans have less than $10,000 in savings; and two-thirds of seniors rely on Social Security for more than half of their income, we must expand and protect Social Security so that every American can retire with dignity.
WALL STREET: During the financial crisis, huge Wall Street banks received more than $700 billion in financial aid from the Treasury Department and more than $16 trillion from the Federal Reserve because they were "too big to fail." Yet today, the largest banks in this country are much bigger than they were before taxpayers bailed them out. It's time to break up these behemoths so that they cannot cause another recession that could wreck the global economy.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).


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JBL Endurance Race TWS
Product Specifications
General Specifications
|Driver size (mm)
|Number of Microphones
Audio Specifications
|Driver sensitivity at 1kHz/1mW (dB)
|Dynamic frequency response range (Hz)
|20 Hz - 20 kHz
|Impedance (ohms)
|Number of drivers per ear
Dimension Specifications
|Charging Case Weight (oz)
|Earpiece Weight (oz)
|Charging Case Weight (g)
|Earpiece Weight (g)
Control Connect Specifications
|Bluetooth version
|Bluetooth profiles
|Bluetooth frequency
|2.4 GHz - 2.4835 GHz
|Bluetooth transmitted modulation
|GFSK, π/4QPSK, 8DPSK
|Bluetooth transmitter power
|< 10 dBm
Documents & Downloads
Quick Start Guide
What's in the Box
- 1 x JBL Endurance Race TWS earbuds
- 1 x USB Type-C charging cable
- 1 x 3 sizes of eartips
- 1 x 2 sizes of enhancers
- 1 x Charging case
- 1 x Quick start guide / Safety Sheet (S / i)
- 1 x Warranty / Warning (W / !)
FAQs & How-Tos
The driver (software) should support the following Bluetooth protocols, to be able to play music/sound from your Computer/PC/Laptop:
• A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) driver for your Computer/PC/Headphones to transfer music.
• AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) driver to send skip/forward/pause/play music to your device
Always get the latest driver version available for your Computer/PC/Laptop.
To download the correct driver (software), visit the manufacturer's website of your Computer/PC/Laptop. They usually have a "Support/Download" section where you can find the correct driver. Otherwise, we advise you to contact their support.
The standard drivers provided by Microsoft/Windows system are not correct and will result in error messages (such as having to enter a PIN code), or pairing will not work.
If you are experiencing issues getting the app to communicate with your headphones, (assuming you have already paired the headphones with the device) go into the communication apps audio settings. You will likely find the resolution there. You may have to set your headphones as the 'communication device' within the app you are using.
If you are experiencing issues getting the app to communicate with your headphones, (assuming you have already paired the headphones with the device) go into the communication apps audio settings. You will likely find the resolution there. You may have to set your headphones as the 'communication device' within the app you are using.
If you have charging problems, the first step is to always clean all contact points, on each earbud and on the charging case.
You will need: cotton cloth or makeup swab, cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol. Also a pencil with eraser for further cleaning.
Use a cotton swab with some rubbing alcohol to clean the charging terminals of the headphones. Rotate the swab and scrub lightly on each contact surface, then use a cotton cloth to remove any dust and cotton residue left on the headphones. It is important to perform this process periodically to keep your headphones clean, thus avoiding affecting the charging speed/quality.
Wipe the contact pins in the charging case with a clean cotton swab. The swab can be slightly moistened with rubbing alcohol, but it is important that the interior is completely dry before closing the box. Use the cotton cloth and wait for it to dry.
Repeat until the contact points are visibly clean, and charging should work as designed.
Try cleaning the contacts with the tip of a pencil and the eraser at the end of the pencil, the graphite and rubber can help to re-establish charging also.
This procedure can be performed on all TWS earphones and cases.
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Handcrafted Punjabi Juttis with Velvet & Embroidery
Khinkhwab brings you its exclusive jutti collection for the upcoming festive season.
These juttis are specially designed to match with any ethnic outfit you wear this season. These juttis are lined with velvet to give the finesse and that royal touch.
Wear this Handcrafted juttis to any occasion and being light and comfortable your feet are surely going to love them.
Pick your favorite piece now exclusively available at Khinkhwab design studio, the one-stop-shop bringing the essence of Handloom Banarasi Silk. These juttis are available in a wide range of sizes and designs for you to choose from.
NOTE : Sizes mentioned are standard sizes.


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Like other reviews of James Cummins' The Boneyard have pointed out, it's a film that doesn't quite know what it wants to be. The aspects you figure playing larger roles later on, the telepathy and Chinese mysticism angles, end up completely forgotten once the creatures begin reigning terror upon the living stuck in the facility's basement labs (dubbed "the boneyard"). That's fine since the programmer-grade screenplay and acting aren't up to snuff to make these interesting. For some reason, a crotchety Phyllis Diller (sans wig) and Three's Company's Norman Fell show up appearing game with Diller eventually gagging and barfing in a bathroom sink after force-fed a slimy chunk of zombie flesh. The IMDB states Alice Cooper and Clu Gulager were first sought for key roles and it's a safe bet an immediate improvement would have occurred if they would have signed on.
What saves this mish-mash from lingering boredom are the creatures. The three kid ghouls look fantastic being reminiscent of the thin beef jerky-skinned demons of Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight (1995). They're a genuinely terrifying bunch that seem impossible to shoot at a bad angle. Plus Diller transforms into a towering, bug-eyed monster version of herself with her poodle following suit. So if you find yourself struggling through a needless monologue about suicide or telepathy just wait five minutes until the next tango with the freak beasts.
The Boneyard's identity crisis was actually reflected on the VHS cover above. There was a rental sticker now removed in the corner that denoted "DRAMA" until someone crossed that out and wrote in "HORROR". The VHS was also available in two covers, the black "horror" version pictured and a yellow "comedy" variant with the zombified poodle (as seen on the DVD's cover). It's interesting to note Diller as she appears on the horror cover isn't seen as such in the movie.


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They have an unwritten yet clearly understood commandment in the military. It's a rule that soldiers in combat live, and sometimes die, by. It is, like love of flag and country, inviolate: Never leave a buddy behind.
Understand this concept and you understand Jimmy Norris. The new CFO of the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), Norris has spent the better part of his life looking after injured comrades. When asked why, at nearly 60 years of age, he's signed on at a vast federal agency that is underfunded, overworked, and often bashed by the very veterans it serves, Norris says simply, "I feel a connection to these people."
That connection was first formed 37 years ago in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Barely a year out of ROTC and flight school, Norris found himself stationed north of Saigon. The second lieutenant flew Medevac helicopters, retrieving wounded soldiers from the front lines. It was extremely hazardous duty. Nearly 10 percent of the helicopter crews in Vietnam never made it back home. "When we had hot missions," recalls Norris, "we'd hover at tree level. We'd have to get cover from Cobra [gunships]." Sometimes the cover wasn't enough. Twice, Norris had his helicopter shot down by enemy fire. In both cases, the young pilot somehow managed to crash-land his crippled aircraft. Both times, he walked away unscathed.
Such grace under fire will serve Norris well in his new post. As CFO of the VBA, Norris is charged with overseeing the finance function at one of the three agencies that make up the enormous Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). (The other units include the Veterans Hospital Administration [VHA], responsible for medical care, and the smaller National Cemetery Administration). The VBA, with around 13,000 employees, has an annual budget that now tops $40 billion. Some of the money covers survivor benefits for spouses and dependents, but most of the agency's funds go to the 2.7 million veterans with service-related disabilities.
That number is likely to swell. Existing vets, particularly those from the Vietnam War, are beginning to file additional or expanded disability claims as they get older. Those sorts of reopened cases constitute nearly 60 percent of disability claims filed with the VBA. At the same time, soldiers coming back from what is now referred to in Washington, D.C., as the GWOT (Global War On Terrorism) have started to enter the VBA system.
Coping with the impact of these returning soldiers presents a sizable challenge for Norris. He does not know exactly how many will be coming home, or when. He doesn't know how many will need payments to cope with life-altering traumas like amputations or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And he cannot be entirely sure that staffing levels set by Congress and approved by the President will provide the manpower needed to process claims quickly.
Few CFOs in the private sector hold such a momentous responsibility. When companies in the private sector fail to predict — or service — increased demand, customers switch to competitors. When the VA underestimates demand, lives may be at stake. Indeed, for the poorest disabled veterans, delays in receiving VBA checks can lead to real suffering. Some end up on the street (see "The War at Home," at the end of this article). "Congressmen spout platitudes about soldiers twice a year," says David Gorman, executive director of the Washington, D.C., office of Disabled American Veterans. "They talk about providing Kevlar for the troops. But then they forget what happens when the uniform comes off."
Modest and fiercely loyal, Jimmy Norris does not forget. A graduate of the ROTC program at Arkansas State University and, later, the Defense Comptrollership School at Syracuse University, the former Army officer exhibits an unwavering commitment to his comrades in arms. "The job of the VA is to take care of its people," he says. This connection to the nation's 25 million veterans has defined Norris's postmilitary career. During the 1990s, he held civilian finance positions in Washington, including a budgeting post at the Department of Defense (DoD). Later, Norris was hired as a resource-allocation specialist at the VHA, which operates hospitals and community medical centers for former service personnel.
In 2000, Norris was promoted to acting CFO of the giant department, and a few months later he became its permanent finance chief. In a short time, the former helicopter pilot had gone from analyzing budgets to overseeing the finance function at the nation's largest integrated medical system. "It was a big step up in scope," he recalls.
During his tenure at the VHA, Norris was part of a team that engineered a remarkable turnaround at the health-care provider. By most accounts, the quality of care at the VHA has improved dramatically in recent years. And despite the difficulties of coping with a budget that is subject to political wrangling, the soft-spoken Norris won nearly universal praise for his work at the VHA (see "The Budget Battles," at the end of this article). One Senate committee staff member who has worked with Norris calls him "top-notch." A VA observer says Norris has a reputation for being "extremely competent." Another describes the finance chief as a Washington rarity, noting that "he has credibility on the Hill on both sides of the aisle."
Even critics of Veterans Affairs — and there are plenty of those among veterans groups — admire Norris's dedication. "Some people are bureaucrats and some are public servants," says Richard Weidman, director of government relations at Vietnam Veterans of America. "Jimmy Norris is a public servant."
He is also ex-military, and, as a rule, ex-military tend to be a restless lot. This urge to move on explains, in large part, why Norris left the VHA for the VBA. "I'm an old army guy," he says. "I never stay in one place for more than a few years." Beyond that, he says he was intrigued by the challenge presented by his new job. "It's different enough to be energizing." That's one word for it. The VBA remains a bureaucratic mess, buried in paperwork and struggling to keep up with demand. The problems at the VBA are evident in the time it takes the agency to sort out a claim. Currently, an applicant can expect to wait about 25 weeks for an initial disability claim to be processed. By contrast, a workers' compensation claim in the private sector is usually sorted out in four to five weeks. If a veteran appeals the VBA's decision, which happens about 13 percent of the time, it takes about 94 weeks — almost two years — for the appeal to be resolved.
Veterans' advocates rail about the long delays, charging that they can leave poorer veterans homeless. Laggardly processing has also created a mounting backlog of cases, which the agency refers to as its "inventory." As of January 6, the VBA's inventory was threatening to take over the joint. The agency reported nearly 600,000 compensation and pension claims pending, as well as 150,000 cases awaiting appeal.
Certainly, the claims-processing process is not geared for speed. Take initial claims for disability compensation. Once a veteran submits a claim at one of 57 regional service centers, VBA employees must assemble all the relevant paperwork and medical information. If the veteran can't supply that paperwork, the VBA staffer must attempt to collect it from either the VHA or the DoD — no small task. Eventually, the claim goes to a ratings specialist who makes a decision on the claim based on the available evidence and the VBA's criteria for benefit entitlement. (The agency recognizes about 110 diseases considered to be related to special military-service conditions.) Award checks, which are sent monthly — usually for life — are intended to make up for lost earnings capacity. In 2006, the average payment for disability was close to $9,000 per year tax free.
Experts point out that the claims themselves are getting more complicated. They often include several "issues" (medical conditions), which ultimately get rolled up into one overall percentage rating. A decade ago, the VBA estimated there were 2.5 issues per claim. These days, raters say they often see claims with two and three times as many issues. Indeed, the VBA reckons that from 2000 to 2005, the number of claims with 8 issues doubled.
The number of claims being filed is going up as well. Part of this rise stems from aging veterans filing additional claims. The VA has also taken pains to make sure veterans know what they are entitled to, which has added to the pile. "The backlog of cases is getting bigger," says Quentin Kinderman, deputy director of the national legislative service at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), "just as Iraq and Afghanistan vets are coming back."
According to the most recent data from the VA, about 567,000 soldiers deployed in the war on terrorism have been mustered out of the service. An internal VA document shows that, so far, about one in four have filed disability claims. Not surprisingly, this influx of new vets is adding to the workload at the VBA. In total, the agency says that veterans filed more than 806,000 compensation and pension claims in fiscal 2006. That's 50 percent more than the VBA received in 2000 and at least 40,000 more than the agency processed in 2005. "We're very concerned about the returning soldiers," says Gerald Manar, deputy director of the VFW's national veterans service. "They add more and more burden to the system. And this is just the tip of the iceberg."
Others agree. Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, estimates that these most-recent veterans could end up filing well over 600,000 disability claims through 2012.
Addressing this glut of cases will fall, in no small part, to Norris and his 160-member finance team. As part of his job, Norris must report on the future liabilities of the compensation and pension program. He must try to predict future benefit payments over the next 75 years. The estimate is prepared by a contractor using actuarial standards, but Norris and his staff provide both data and input for the forecast. Beyond that, the finance group is responsible for monitoring how well the agency meets its own performance targets. The VBA has already announced it wants to reduce the claims-processing time to 145 days; Norris says the agency is "working hard to get the number down."
Mostly, reducing the number will require sufficient staffing levels and an updating of the agency's information technology. But the goal itself suggests which way the agency is headed. In 2001, the VBA's stated aim for processing disability and pension claims was 74 days. One veterans' service organization official refers to the current 145-day target as "wishful thinking." Adds Robert Norton, deputy director for government relations at the Military Officers Association of America: "Today's backlog is not going to go away anytime soon."
The agency started falling behind on its workload in 2004. That's around the time the Office of Management and Budget issued guidance to federal agencies to assume increased worker productivity in their budgets. ("Do the same amount of work with fewer employees," is how a Government Accountability Office report put it.) In response, the VBA ordered a self-imposed 15-month freeze on hiring. At the same time, the agency was hit by a wave of retirements.
It has yet to catch up. Critics say a quota system designed to reduce the inventory has actually made the problem worse in some instances. "The raters do all they can to meet quotas," explains Gorman. "What's sacrificed is quality." Even Norris concedes, "there is some pressure to move cases."
That pressure can result in poor decisions. About a third of claims decisions are remanded — that is, sent back for further work — while 12 percent of the decisions are flat-out wrong. The percentage could increase, as soldiers from the ongoing war enter the system. Experts say many of the injuries sustained in the wars in the Middle East can be tricky to assess, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder. In fact, a survey conducted by the VA's Office of the Inspector General found that one-quarter of PTSD claims were processed incorrectly by the VBA.
That's troubling, considering early reports show that one out of every four soldiers serving in Iraq suffers from PTSD or related mental illnesses (although soldiers are often reluctant to file claims for psychological problems). "The [VBA raters] can tell the worst from the best," says Kinderman. "But they have serious problems in between."
Adopting more-stringent performance standards could help reduce the number of flawed assessments. It's a tactic Norris has used before. At the VHA, he developed a financial indicators report covering 21 different measures, including receivables and outstanding accounts. Those metrics were then incorporated into managers' performance plans. Norris says that when the benchmarks were first adopted, a 70 percent score was considered successful. Over time, the bar was raised. "Now it's 85 percent," he says. Still, it will likely be slow going at the VBA. Raters (who assess initial claims) and decision-review officers must keep up with a slew of ever-changing guidelines on injuries. Field-station employees, for example, receive updates through several delivery methods. One of the most common: so-called Fast Letters, designed to advise field employees on policy and procedural changes and legal revisions (typically stemming from court decisions). In 2005, the compensation and pension service issued 23 Fast Letters.
Veterans' advocates say the raft of new information can be confusing. In a survey of raters conducted by the VA's Inspector General, over half responded that they could support two or more different ratings for the same medical condition. And while the VBA does conduct a "National Quality Review," critics say the look-back is little more than a random sampling of cases. Says Steve Smithson, the American Legion's deputy director for claims services, Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Division: "There's not a lot of accountability."
That lack of accountability is underscored by the agency's current performance standards. Last year, 54 of the VBA's 57 regional offices received an "outstanding" rating. "There's a backlog of 600,000 cases," says Weidman, "and all but 3 offices got outstanding ratings."
When asked about the crush of claims facing the VBA, a Capitol Hill insider is blunt about the substantial challenges facing the agency's new CFO. "Why are there perennial backlogs? Staffing is part of the equation. For that, Norris has to find the dollars."
Norris agrees that hiring more staff is a "matter of identifying and defending requests for resources." At press time, the $80 billion VA appropriation for 2007 was still being debated by Congress, nearly six months into the fiscal year.
The Administration reportedly aims to cut veterans' funding in its 2009 budget. The appropriation for 2007 holds about $40 billion for the VBA, including $39 billion for mandatory costs (payments) and $1.2 billion for discretionary spending (general operating expenses). While the proposed operating budget is an almost 11 percent increase from 2006, critics say it won't be enough. They point out that the Administration's budget sets aside funds for 9,445 full-time employee (FTE) equivalents for compensation and pension services (including raters) — a reduction of 149 workers. The Independent Budget, a yearly forecast published by several veterans' service organizations, estimates the VBA actually needs 10,821 FTEs in 2007 to address the inventory backlog. If that projection is correct — and The Independent Budget is usually fairly accurate — the VBA may find it nearly impossible to cope with an increasing workload.
It wouldn't be the first time. "For the last 20 years or more, managers at the VA have tried to live within their means," says the VFW's Manar. "They do what they can with what they have."
Despite the controversy surrounding the War on Terrorism, legislators continue to insist they'll support the troops. But this support has led to an unintended consequence: Some veterans' advocates claim that veterans from the latest war are getting preferential treatment within the VA system. To date, more than 100,000 have been granted disability compensation. This influx of new vets, these advocates say, is pushing other soldiers to the rear of the column. Says the VFW's Kinderman: "We're hearing that in claims processing, older veterans are getting less attention."
Norris seems genuinely surprised at this contention. "If it's true," he replies, "it's not the intent." Veterans' advocates, however, fear it's only the beginning. Says Gorman: "All of a sudden, Vietnam vets are becoming second-class citizens within the VA."
This is a particularly disturbing development for Gorman, who lost both his legs in Vietnam. The Disabled American Veterans spokesman notes that the VA does pay to replace his artificial limbs. "A guy can make me two legs for $12,000," he says. But Gorman claims that disabled soldiers returning from the war in Iraq are receiving state of-the-art, computer-designed prosthetics that cost around $80,000 to build. "They're practically giving those away," he insists.
If all service is honorable, say veterans' advocates, then all treatment should be equal. "The rhetoric is, we're taking care of these young guys, and we are," Gorman says. "But we're not taking care of the ones who came before them."
Since Jimmy Norris joined the VBA in December, President Bush has committed another 21,000 troops to Iraq. Whatever the impact of this "surge" may be, it's a dead certain lock that the buildup will create more customers for the VBA. Those who come home with missing limbs — about 6 percent of those injured in Iraq — will require medical and monetary help. Norris, as ever, remains committed to his band of brothers. "Everyone is behind these folks," he says. "Whatever they need they'll get." While the cost in shattered lives is incalculable, the monetary obligation for the war could be staggering. According to Harvard's Bilmes, disability payments for the returning soldiers could top $109 billion over 40 years. "The financial price of this war goes way beyond the current war budget," says Norton. "These new veterans will be around long after this war is over."
John Goff is a senior editor of CFO.
The War at Home
If truth is the first casualty of war, sanity runs a close second. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that one group of U.S. soldiers in Iraq exhibited a high incidence of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. For some, those afflictions can make it nearly impossible to readjust to civilian life. "They can't handle it," says Robert Webster, a case manager at the Veterans Outreach Center in Rochester, New York. "So they drink to stop the madness."
Self-medication with alcohol or drugs makes it next to impossible for many to hold down a job. Likewise, physically disabled soldiers sometimes find it hard to get work once back in civilian life. Some end up on the street. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), on any given night, 194,000 veterans are homeless. All told, vets make up about a quarter of the adult homeless population in the United States.
There's no easy fix for this problem. Ellen Warren, director of development for the Veterans Outreach Center Inc., claims the Department of Defense (DoD) does "a terrible job of transitioning people." Requiring vets to manage a raft of documentation only complicates that transition. "If a guy doesn't keep all his paperwork in order," says Webster, "he's screwed."
Jimmy Norris is aware of the problem. The Veterans Benefits Administration CFO says there has been considerable effort in the last few years to try to improve the flow of information between the VA and the DoD. "We're trying to get some commonality [in the data systems]," he notes, "but we're never going to have the same database."
The lack of integration, along with a lack of staff, can lead to sizable holdups in processing claims. The delays put some disabled veterans, particularly poorer ones, at risk. "On a complicated claim, it can take a year or two," says Richard Weidman, director of government relations at Vietnam Veterans of America. "If they win, they get a lump-sum payment. But at that point, they've already lost the house."
One ray of hope: last year, Congress reversed a law (dating back to the Civil War) that prohibited veterans from hiring attorneys to help file initial claims. Veterans advocates say outside counsel could improve the odds for some deserving veterans. "The guys most in need," says Weidman, "are often the ones least capable of presenting their cases." — J.G.
The Budget Battles
In June 2005, Jimmy Norris and several high-ranking Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials testified before angry members of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. The lawmakers were looking into a funding gap at the Veterans Hospital Administration (VHA) — a $1.3 billion underestimate of the money needed to provide medical services to vets that year.
It's not entirely clear what caused the shortfall. Officials at the VHA blamed much of the gap on a larger-than-predicted increase in demand caused by returning veterans of the Global War on Terrorism. For his part, Norris, who was the VHA's CFO at the time, says some of the problems stemmed from overly optimistic projections about cost savings in the agency's long-term-care operations.
But VA critics insist that the budgeting process itself is partly to blame. They note that the agency's annual appropriation is generally subject to an intense amount of political posturing and behind-the-scenes wrangling. Members of Congress are often eager to divert funds to home states, say the critics, while White House officials typically attempt to keep spending increases from spiraling out of control. Notes Quentin Kinderman, deputy director of the national legislative service at the Veterans of Foreign Wars: "Initial figures come out of an Administration intent on keeping numbers lower than needed."
As with managers in the private sector, VA officials generally try to stay within the budgets set by their boss — in this case, the President of the United States. Says Steve Smithson, deputy director of claims services, Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation
Division, at the American Legion: "The Secretary [of Veterans Affairs] says, 'Yes sir, Mr. President, we can handle this.'"
Norris refuses to lay blame for the snafu. — J.G.


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Floral Park Outdoor SignsVIEW GALLERY
Great outdoor signs are crucial for any business's success. With these signs installed outside your facility, they will not just let people know what products and services you are offering but also pique their interest in your business.
It can be very difficult to figure out which outdoor sign is perfect for your business and location because of all the available options. Fortunately, our sign professionals at The Signary are trained to help you find and design the perfect Floral Park outdoor signs for your business.
The engaging outdoor signs we create for you will bring in more customers and help turn them into loyal, repeat customers. Your brand will get noticed and create a buzz among exactly the people you want to come into your business to check out your services.
Call The Signary at (516) 853-7884 for your Free Consultation!
Storefront & Building Signs
A business cannot call itself a business if it does not have a storefront or building sign outside to let people know it exists. Storefront and building signs can be customized depending on your location, your industry, and your brand.
When you request Floral Park outdoor signs, we guide you through all of your options while considering your business model, marketing message, location, budget, timeline, and customer traffic. We can determine where these storefront signs should be placed and which materials will work perfectly to create to greatest possible impact for your business.
Channel Letters & Dimensional Letters
Channel and dimensional letters are the perfect outdoor signs to choose if you want to show that you are a unique brand that doesn't fear to be bold.
These economical signs can be customized to match your brand's colors and personality, effectively reinforcing your brand's image to your customers. Channel letters and dimensional letters can be lighted for extra impact and can be customized to showcase any business.
Any business can benefit from channel and dimensional letters, and they can be used almost anywhere.
Lighted Signs
If your business operates at night or if you want your message seen at all hours, you may want to consider lighted signs. Lighted signs allow people to see that you are open for business even at later hours while it helps them find your business location easily and see what you have on offer. Having lighted signs is also a plus if you want your business to be spotted easily, even if it's raining or snowing heavily in your location.
Our lighted sign options are extensive. Signs can be lighted from within, or from above or below to add dimension. The Signary uses LED lights for our signs because they are inexpensive and eco-friendly to use and are very durable.
Businesses open for 24 hours like convenience stores and gas stations, plus late-night businesses such as bars, clubs, and restaurants can benefit from lighted signs.
Custom Sign Panels
Custom sign panels are versatile and customizable to match whatever the information you want to convey to your customers. They are relatively simple to make with whatever colors, logos, and messages you'd like to include, which makes them very affordable.
Sign panels can be attached directly to the front of your building, or added to a box sign with lighting. The Signary will help you choose the best design to make your custom sign panels visible, attractive, and effective for your business.
Small businesses, service centers, and shops looking for a great way to promote their business often use custom sign panels to achieve their goals.
Canopy & Awning Signs
Canopy and awning signs are great outdoor signs to consider if you want to show off your brand while making your storefront more comfortable to visit even if it's raining or snowing.
Canopy and awning signs are made from durable materials that can be imprinted with your business name, logo, or other message. They also create overhangs that passersby can use to protect themselves from the elements while looking at what you have on offer.
Canopies and awnings also are a great way for a shopping center or business park to achieve a uniform, cohesive look for all their businesses.
Salons, hotels, shopping centers, and specialty shops use canopy and awning signs to create an upscale and uniform impression for their customers.
Monument Signs
To create the perfect first impression of your business or company, you can go for substantial, durable monument signs. Monument signs are very durable and give people the impression that your business is solid and trustworthy.
The Signary can customize monument signs based on your preferences, location, and business needs. We can even add electronic message centers, lighting or other elements to make your monument sign unique.
Monument signs are large structures that are often located at the entrance of offices, government facilities, churches, schools, resorts, clubs, and other large businesses.
Pole Signs & Pylon Signs
Get maximum visibility for your outdoor sign, you need a pole or pylon sign.
These freestanding signs are very tall and have the capacity to catch anyone's attention, even from a long distance. The Signary can create pole and pylon signs in many shapes and configurations, We can even add lighting and electronic message centers that will boost their visibility even further.
Some industries that can benefit from this type of outdoor sign include fast-food chains, gas stations, shopping centers, and businesses that are not easily visible from the road.
Complete Exterior Signage Provider
To achieve your business goals, it is essential to invest in a variety of outdoor signs that will attract more customers and reinforce your brand with the public. The Signary has the professional team, equipment, materials, and experience to help you develop the perfect exterior signage combination to suit your business strategy.
No matter what type of outdoor sign you want us to make, we are ready to produce them for you. We can also make indoor signs that complement your outdoor signs and reinforce your marketing message.
Our exterior sign options include:
Need something unique for your business? Don't worry! We at The Signary can create the sign style you want to give your business an edge over your competition. Let our team know your ideas, and we'll work with you to achieve your ideal sign design.
Full-Service Exterior Sign Company
The Signary does all the work of creating your outdoor signs in-house. We have quite an extensive catalog for you to peruse to identify which type of outdoor sign is perfect for your needs. If you have a design already, we can guide you through your options to see which ones match your design. If you don't have a design or want to update the one you have, our designers can help you get them into shape.
Our team will guide you through each step in the process and get your opinion along the way so that you always know what is going on with the project as it is taking shape. We ensure that all the elements of your signs are manufactured with top-notch materials for durability and we check everything for quality. Our team will then install and maintain your signs for you.
Free Outdoor Sign Consultation
If you want a Floral Park, NY sign company you can trust to deliver you the best Floral Park outdoor signs, don't hesitate to contact us at The Signary.
Whether you are just starting out or need an upgrade for your business, we are ready to create attractive and memorable outdoor signs that will promote your brand and get people interested in your business. Let us know what you need, and our team will transform your ideas into the perfect outdoor signs.
Call The Signary at (516) 853-7884 for your Free Consultation!


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LOS ANGELES — Sacramento Kings forward Zach Randolph has been charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession and resisting arrest following an incident this month when a large gathering became unruly at a Los Angeles housing project, prosecutors said Thursday.
The two-time NBA All-Star had initially been arrested on suspicion of possessing marijuana with intent to sell — a felony — but Los Angeles city prosecutors instead charged Randolph with misdemeanor drug possession.
Court documents say the 36-year-old Randolph possessed "more than 28.5 grams of marijuana or more than four grams of concentrated cannabis or both." Randolph also is accused of resisting arrest and obstructing a Los Angeles police officer in the discharge of their duties.
Randolph is scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles courtroom on Sept. 14, said Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney's office, which is prosecuting the case.
To get news, features and more Cannifornian content delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter.
Randolph's attorney and agent, Raymond Brothers, did not immediately respond to telephone and email messages seeking comment Friday. He has previously said the charges against his client were "false and misleading."
Randolph was arrested Aug. 9 at the Nickerson Gardens housing project in Watts after officers observed a crowd of people drinking, smoking marijuana, blasting music and blocking streets, police have said.
The officers observed three people, including Randolph, run off but immediately stopped one of the men, police said. Randolph and another man ran inside a home and were arrested after a crowd of bystanders formed and attempted to block the officers, police said.
After the arrests, the crowd grew and people began throwing bottles and rocks, police said. Five police cars and one sheriff's vehicle ended up with smashed windows and slashed tires but no officers were hurt.
Randolph, a 16-year NBA veteran, spent eight seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies before signing with the Kings in July. The Kings issued a statement Thursday saying the team was aware of the situation and would have no further comment at this time.
Randolph played for Michigan State and was drafted in 2001 by the Portland Trail Blazers. Randolph also played for the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers.
Related: NBA coach Steve Kerr speaks out on medical marijuana use
Ex-NBA player clarifies: I didn't smoke marijuana before 'meaningful' games


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When it launched, WiiWare signalled a shift in Nintendo's attitude toward developers and gamers. After Dr. Mario and My Pokémon Ranch hinted that it was really just another outlet for them to spawn pedestrian versions of their tremendously popular franchises, many gamers lost hope in Nintendo's plans for WiiWare. Then, suddenly, Art Style: Orbient appeared as if out of nowhere and although it was a remake of a Japan-only GBA release, it rejuvenated enthusiasm in the service by offering a glimpse into Nintendo's intent to offer elegant gameplay at a reasonable price. With Art Style: Cubello they've upped the ante with a completely original 3D puzzle game that is unlike anything on WiiWare or practically anywhere else.
Cubello's premise is a deceptively simple, three-dimensional take on classic puzzle gameplay. Each puzzle, or stage, is a structure made up of a number of cubes in various colours. The goal is to launch coloured cubes from your magazine (which holds up to ten) at the structure to match four or more cubes, which causes them to disappear and more cubes to be added to the magazine. As cubes vanish they cause any detached cubes to fall toward the core, effectively changing the structure and potentially triggering combos. The stage is finished when all that's left is the core; however, run out of cubes in your magazine and you'll fail. Compounding this simplistic design are equally straightforward controls that yield enthralling challenges.
While the basic controls consist entirely of highlighting an area with the pointer and pressing A or B to place a cube in that spot, Cubello is not as easy as it may sound. Each puzzle is in perpetual motion and placing a cube causes the structure to rotate in the opposite direction, leaving the player balancing careful thinking and patience with a quick-trigger and steady hands. The structure also moves steadily toward the screen until it collides and causes a few cubes to be removed from the magazine. Likewise, the closer it gets, the smaller the window is for launching cubes. To keep it at bay you must continually launch and match cubes, which will knock the structure back a bit.
Topping things off is a hint of luck in the form of randomly activated bonus rounds. Each matched series of cubes triggers a corresponding number of slots. Matching four slots activates either a normal (unlimited number of a specific colour) or super (unlimited number of all colours) bonus for a short period of time, leading to a frantic race to launch as many cubes in the proper places as possible to make some potentially serious headway -- conversely, careless placement will only add further clutter. This adds a welcome dynamic to the otherwise straightforward gameplay, but also means that high scores are occasionally subject to lucky breaks rather than effective, efficient thinking.
All told, Cubello offers countless hours of gameplay over two distinct modes. There are over 35 widely varied stages divided into six levels with each subsequent level introducing more colours than the last (the first has three while the last has eight). Beating a stage unlocks the next level as well as more stages in the current level, meaning the game thankfully never requires you to play a specific level over and over again to advance. However, the goal is to not simply complete each stage but to do so in the fewest number of turns and in the shortest time possible. Additionally, there is an unlockable 'endless' mode that challenges the player to complete successive randomly generated puzzles until getting stumped. Here high scores are tallied on a point system and then recorded on a local leaderboard. Points are scored for matching cubes, triggering combos, and for finishing a puzzle. In a nutshell, Cubello has plenty of challenges for even the strongest intellect.
Finally, Cubello's presentation is based around modest aural and visual design that is entirely adequate and mostly pleasant. The cubes and colours are all easy to identify due to the minimalist graphics and the music changes from strictly ambient to upbeat based on your performance. There are, however, a few occasionally grating sounds and a mildly annoying voice that announces the launch of every cube in a computerized accent. The result is a game that maintains a proper, if unimpressive graphical and audio fidelity to achieve a desirable block size. It certainly could look and sound better, but as with any WiiWare game it's a trade-off between size and style.
Despite its basic presentation and superficially simplistic gameplay, Cubello is the kind of game that delivers an engrossing experience every time you pick it up. A compelling blend of concepts makes for progressive gameplay that constantly evolves into fresh challenges even when repeatedly replaying the same stages; inspiring proclamations of "just one more level" well after you planned to put down the Wii Remote. That's the trademark of quality game design and a testament to Cubello's value for a mere 600 points and 47 blocks. It's one of the best puzzlers on WiiWare and a must have for any fan of the genre. Just be prepared for each play session to balloon into an extended diversion.


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ve • lo • drome n.
A sports arena with a banked oval track for bicycle racing.
Velodrome racing dates back to the 1800s, when, according to USA Cycling, it enjoyed the sort of popularity NASCAR racing has today. There are currently 20 or so outdoor velodromes in the United States, where cycling is once again beginning to reclaim some of that popularity.
The velodrome at Brian Piccolo Park in Cooper City is the only velodrome in Florida and one of only three in the southeastern U.S. The other two are in East Point, Georgia, and Asheville, North Carolina. It opened in March 1992, and on April 17, 1993, hosted its first major race. It attracts more than 3,500 athletes annually.
The Brian Piccolo velodrome is used for both competitive cycling and recreational cycling and in-line skating. The competitive track is 333.3 meters long with a maximum 30-degree slope at each end. The recreational track is 200 meters long and has a maximum 10-degree slope at each end.
Bicycles for velodrome cycling have no multiple gears or brakes, which helps maximize speed, reduce weight, and avoid sudden braking. Track passes and youth track passes are available.
Velodrome users are required to read and sign a release, assumption of risk, indemnity, and waiver of liability.
Road Course
The Brian Piccolo Road Course, adjacent to the velodrome, is open from 8 a.m. to dusk daily for both cyclists and in-line speed skaters. It is a paved course that includes both 500-meter and 800-meter loops. Except for special events, there is no charge to use the facility, although the park's regular weekend and holiday gate entrance fee (children 5 and under free) applies.
For more information on the velodrome and the road course at
Brian Piccolo Sports Park & Velodrome, call 954-357-5160.
Velodrome's fee schedule.


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Watch some great videos or look through our photos of great trips!
Northern BC is like nothing you've ever experienced - big mountains, rich culture & more bears than people!
Burnie Glacier Chalet is easy to get to - leave Vancouver in the morning and ski in the afternoon!
The ultimate backcountry experience in the mountains of northwestern BC.
When the powder is super deep, we take to the trees!
Watch some great videos or look through our photos of great trips!
We loved our course and the entire trip. Sensational views, excellent chalet, highly trained and informative guides, Molly's superb cooking and all that powder.
We have lived in Smithers for 14 years, have travelled the world, and all this time, since 2001, this gem of an experience was right on our doorstep. We will be back a lot more often. We enjoyed the chalet and really appreciated the course, patience and tips we received from Christoph and Lucas. The last time we had someone preparing food for us that was this good was nearly 30 years ago, in a camp where Molly's mother was the cook. Thank you for an amazing experience.
Sandy M and Karin B, Smithers


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I don't know how many Nigerian scam emails I have must have received. Who would have thought that anybody actually gets taken in. This article that appeared in the New Yorker provides a fascinating insight into the mind of someone who succumbed.
The poor subject of the scam in this case was ultimately (and in my mind rightfully) sentenced to two years in prison for knowingly passing falsified checks.
The article provides the best insight that I have seen to date of the mind of someone who succumbs – with plenty of lessons. If something is too good to be true, then it generally is.
Link here, or full article below.
by MITCHELL ZUCKOFF
How a Massachusetts psychotherapist fell for a Nigerian e-mail scam.
Issue of 2006-05-15
Posted 2006-05-08
Late one afternoon in June, 2001, John W. Worley sat in a burgundy leather desk chair reading his e-mail. He was fifty-seven and burly, with glasses, a fringe of salt-and-pepper hair, and a bushy gray beard. A decorated Vietnam veteran and an ordained minister, he had a busy practice as a Christian psychotherapist, and, with his wife, Barbara, was the caretaker of a mansion on a historic estate in Groton, Massachusetts. He lived in a comfortable three-bedroom suite in the mansion, and saw patients in a ground-floor office with walls adorned with images of Jesus and framed military medals. Barbara had been his high-school sweetheart—he was the president of his class, and she was the homecoming queen—and they had four daughters and seven grandchildren, whose photos surrounded Worley at his desk.
Worley scrolled through his in-box and opened an e-mail, addressed to "CEO/Owner." The writer said that his name was Captain Joshua Mbote, and he offered an awkwardly phrased proposition: "With regards to your trustworthiness and reliability, I decided to seek your assistance in transferring some money out of South Africa into your country, for onward dispatch and investment." Mbote explained that he had been chief of security for the Congolese President Laurent Kabila, who had secretly sent him to South Africa to buy weapons for a force of élite bodyguards. But Kabila had been assassinated before Mbote could complete the mission. "I quickly decided to stop all negotiations and divert the funds to my personal use, as it was a golden opportunity, and I could not return to my country due to my loyalty to the government of Laurent Kabila," Mbote wrote. Now Mbote had fifty-five million American dollars, in cash, and he needed a discreet partner with an overseas bank account. That partner, of course, would be richly rewarded.
Mbote's offer had the hallmarks of an advance-fee fraud, a swindle whose victims are asked to provide money, information, or services in exchange for a share of a promised fortune. Countless such e-mails, letters, and faxes are sent every year, with a broad variety of stories about how the money supposedly became available (unclaimed estate, corrupt executive, and dying Samaritan being only a few of the most popular). Worley, who had spent his adult life advocating self-knowledge and introspection, seemed particularly unlikely to be fooled. He had developed a psychological profiling tool designed to reveal a person's "unique needs, desires and probable behavioral responses." He promised users of the test, "The individual's understanding of self will be greatly enhanced, increasing the potential for a fulfilled and balanced life." And Worley was vigilant against temptation. Two weeks before the e-mail arrived, he had been the keynote speaker at his eldest granddaughter's graduation from the First Assembly Christian Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts. He cautioned the students about Satan, telling them, "He's going to be trying to destroy you every inch of the way."
Still, Worley, faced with an e-mail that would, according to federal authorities, eventually lead him to join a gang of Nigerian criminals seeking to defraud U.S. banks, didn't hesitate. A few minutes after receiving Mbote's entreaty, he replied, "I can help and I am interested." His only question was how Mbote had found him, and he seemed satisfied with the explanation: that the South African Department of Home Affairs had supplied his name. When Worley attributed this improbable event to God's will, Mbote elaborated on the story to say that Worley's name was one of ten that he had been given, and that it had been pulled from a hat after much prayer by someone named Pastor Mark. (A more likely possibility is that his e-mail address was plucked from an Internet chain letter, which he received and passed on, that promised a cash reward from Microsoft to anyone who forwarded the letter to others.) In e-mails, phone calls, faxes, and letters during the ensuing weeks, Mbote laid out the plan: If Worley would pay up-front costs, such as fees to a storage facility where the cash was being kept, and possibly travel to South Africa to collect the money, he would receive thirty per cent, or more than sixteen million dollars.
Worley told Mbote that he lived his life with the "utmost integrity" and didn't want to jeopardize that. He also said that he couldn't fund the operation. (Though he would report nearly a hundred and forty thousand dollars in income in 2001, he had declared personal bankruptcy in the early nineties, had relatively little saved for retirement, and wanted to help his grandchildren through college.) No problem, Mbote answered; "investors" would provide up to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for airfare and other expenses needed to move the money to the United States, while Worley would act as middleman and curator of the funds.
As promised, in late August, 2001, Worley received a check for forty-seven thousand five hundred dollars, purportedly from one such investor. It was from an account belonging to the Syms Corporation, the discount-clothing chain whose slogan is "An Educated Consumer Is Our Best Customer." Worley was wary. He called the Fleet Bank in Portland, Maine, where the check had been drawn. The bank told him it was an altered duplicate of a check that Syms had paid to the Maryland office of an international luggage manufacturer.
Every swindle is driven by a desire for easy money; it's the one thing the swindler and the swindled have in common. Advance-fee fraud is an especially durable con. In an early variation, the Spanish Prisoner Letter, which dates to the sixteenth century, scammers wrote to English gentry and pleaded for help in freeing a fictitious wealthy countryman who was imprisoned in Spain. Today, the con usually relies on e-mail and is often called a 419 scheme, after the anti-fraud section of the criminal code in Nigeria, where it flourishes. (Last year, a Nigerian comic released a song that taunted Westerners with the lyrics "I go chop your dollar. I go take your money and disappear. Four-one-nine is just a game. You are the loser and I am the winner.") The scammers, who often operate in crime rings, are known as "yahoo-yahoo boys," because they frequently use free Yahoo accounts. Many of them live in a suburb of Lagos called Festac Town. Last year, one scammer in Festac Town told the Associated Press, "Now I have three cars, I have two houses, and I'm not looking for a job anymore."
According to a statement posted on the Internet by the U.S. State Department, 419 schemes began to proliferate in the mid-nineteen-eighties, when a collapse in oil prices caused severe economic upheaval in Nigeria. The population—literate, English-speaking, and living with widespread government corruption—faced poverty and rising unemployment. These conditions created a culture of scammers, some of them violent. Marks are often encouraged to travel to Nigeria or to other countries, where they fall victim to kidnapping, extortion, and, in rare cases, murder. In the nineteen-nineties, at least fifteen foreign businessmen, including one American, were killed after being lured to Nigeria by 419 scammers. Until recently, Nigerian officials tended to blame the marks. "There would be no 419 scam if there are no greedy, credulous and criminally-minded victims ready to reap where they did not sow," the Nigerian Embassy in Washington said in a 2003 statement. The following year, Nuhu Ribadu, the chairman of Nigeria's Economic & Financial Crimes Commission, noted that not one scammer was behind bars. Last November, however, Ribadu's commission convicted two crime bosses who had enticed a Brazilian banker to spend two hundred and forty-two million dollars of his employer's money on a fictitious airport-development deal. (Prosecutions by U.S. authorities are rare; most victims don't know the real names of their "partners," and 419 swindlers are adept at covering their tracks.)
Despite Nigeria's efforts, the schemes have reached "epidemic proportions," according to a publication by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The agency received more than fifty-five thousand complaints about them last year, nearly six times as many as in 2001. The increase is due in part to the Internet, which makes it easy for scammers to reach potential marks in wealthier countries. "If we educate the public to the point where nobody falls for it, then they'll go out of business," Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the Secret Service, the lead U.S. agency in investigating advance-fee frauds, says. The agency estimates that 419 swindlers gross hundreds of millions of dollars a year, not including losses by victims too embarrassed to complain. In February, the son of a prominent California psychiatrist named Louis A. Gottschalk—he identified what turned out to be early signs of Alzheimer's in Ronald Reagan after analyzing his speech—filed suit seeking to remove his father from control over a family partnership, claiming that Gottschalk had lost more than a million dollars to Nigerian scammers. Some victims try to pass along their losses. The former Iowa congressman Edward Mezvinsky, who had refashioned himself as an international businessman, was caught up in a 419 scam, and during the nineteen-nineties stole from his law clients, friends, and even his mother-in-law to cover his losses. He is serving more than six years in prison after pleading guilty to thirty-one counts of fraud.
Robert B. Reich, the former Labor Secretary, who has studied the psychology of market behavior, says, "American culture is uniquely prone to the 'too good to miss' fallacy. 'Opportunity' is our favorite word. What may seem reckless and feckless and hapless to people in many parts of the world seems a justifiable risk to Americans." But appetite for risk is only part of it. A mark must be willing to pursue a fortune of questionable origin. The mind-set was best explained by the linguist David W. Maurer in his classic 1940 book, "The Big Con": "As the lust for large and easy profits is fanned into a hot flame, the mark puts all his scruples behind him. He closes out his bank account, liquidates his property, borrows from his friends, embezzles from his employer or his clients. In the mad frenzy of cheating someone else, he is unaware of the fact that he is the real victim, carefully selected and fatted for the kill. Thus arises the trite but none the less sage maxim: 'You can't cheat an honest man.' "
Born in the small town of Zanesville, Ohio, Worley joined the Army after high school. He served for a year as a staff sergeant with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam, earning decorations that included a Bronze Star. In 1976, after fifteen years in the military, he was convicted of driving a car for a fellow-serviceman who held up a store; nevertheless, Worley received an honorable discharge and was later pardoned for his role in the robbery. He went to college and divinity school, and got a Ph.D. in psychology through correspondence courses from the Carolina University of Theology, then in Mount Holly, North Carolina. A. Erven Burke, a Baptist pastor who has known Worley for nearly thirty years, has called him a man of "integrity and honesty," dedicated to helping others.
In the early nineteen-nineties, Worley developed a sixty-item questionnaire that he called Worley's Identity Discovery Profile, or W.I.D.P., which sought to quantify a person's temperament in three areas: social and vocational, leadership, and relationships. W.I.D.P. assigned labels to each: Introverted Sanguine, Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Melancholy, or Choleric, or a blend, such as Phlegmatic Introverted Sanguine. People whose "living patterns" were primarily focussed on fulfilling a temperament need were labelled Compulsive. Over time, Worley built a successful business selling W.I.D.P. to churches, businesses, schools, individuals, and other counsellors.
Worley's own profile was Melancholy Compulsive in the social-vocational realm, Choleric Compulsive in leadership, and Introverted Sanguine in personal relationships: inward, headstrong, needy. The combination, he said later, made him ripe for scamming. He had abundant time to strategize with Nigerian partners, he tended to ignore warnings, and he yearned for his family's approval. (Anticipating his fortune, he asked his daughters to list all their debts, which he promised to pay.) But Worley's egotism also may have made him think he could gain the upper hand. When Mbote asked him to fly to South Africa to collect the money, he agreed—but only if Mbote reimbursed him for lost wages. Worley set the price at thirty-five thousand dollars a week.
After the Syms check proved false and Mbote failed to send a replacement, Worley told him that their partnership was over. A few days later, though, he began receiving e-mails from someone claiming to be Mohammed Abacha, the eldest surviving son of Nigeria's late dictator General Sani Abacha, who reputedly stole billions from the Nigerian treasury. Mohammed Abacha told Worley that Joshua Mbote had been operating surreptitiously on the Abacha family's behalf, but had bungled so badly that Abacha decided to step forward. He told Worley that the story about buying weapons had been a ruse to protect the Abacha family and their money, which, he said, was actually hidden in Ghana. Soon Worley was put in touch with someone claiming to be the General's widow, Maryam Abacha. In a torrent of phone calls and e-mails, she appealed to Worley. "I learned you wanted to hear from me," she wrote. "Here I am. Help me." In his e-mails, Worley seemed invigorated by this new scenario; he apparently believed that he was on the verge of becoming rich while rescuing a woman in distress.
In late November of 2001, Worley spent several thousand dollars on an attorney who specialized in international tax planning. The attorney warned him against the seeming opportunity, as did Barbara Worley. She knew little about her husband's "project," as he called it, but she didn't like it. Barbara lived a life that revolved, as she put it, "around God and family." In some ways, she still looked to her husband for guidance, as she had when they were in high school; she expressed her opinion, but deferred to his judgment.
Worley dismissed these warnings; now that he had committed money to the partnership, he had a vested interest. By the end of 2001, he was telling the Abachas that he had investigated ways to ship the cash secretly and had searched a half-dozen countries for a bank that would accept a huge deposit without alerting authorities. He reassured them that they had chosen the right partner, and begged for patience: "I am a smart man and very cautious and do not want anything to go wrong." He settled on the Bermuda-based Bank of Butterfield, and in late January, 2002, he told Mrs. Abacha that he had spent forty-three hundred dollars to open an account there. "There will be no trail back to the U.S. and no tax to be paid," he wrote.
Worley's partners soon persuaded him to wire more than eight thousand dollars to retain a Nigerian lawyer and "to cover the bank fees and late fees" that supposedly were the last barriers to the transfer. But, after more delays and growing doubts, Worley told them that he would not travel abroad—the money, they said, had been moved to Amsterdam—to collect the cash. They couldn't change his mind, so they tried a different approach. Mrs. Abacha asked him for help in claiming forty-five million dollars that she told him was hidden in an account of the Federal Ministry of Aviation at the Central Bank of Nigeria. It was a textbook 419 tactic. When Worley doubted Mbote, he disappeared; when Worley wouldn't travel for one treasure, they found another. He sent more money.
Under this new plan, Worley allowed his partners to file false documentation claiming that he was a private aviation contractor to whom the Nigerian government owed forty-five million dollars. At the end of February, Worley crossed another line when a patient named Jennifer Morlock came to his home office for a counselling session. She had barely arrived when he told her he was engaged in a business venture with partners in Nigeria. Violating his profession's code of ethics, he asked to borrow fifteen thousand dollars. Morlock went home, spoke with her husband, and agreed. By noon, Worley was at her door to collect the money. The same day, he went to a nearby liquor store with a Western Union outlet and wired all fifteen thousand dollars to Nigeria. He soon repaid Morlock, with interest, by borrowing on his credit card.
Meanwhile, Worley was growing more and more distressed. The number of correspondents was increasing—at one point, he counted nine—and the spelling of their names kept changing. He complained of receiving letters from "Maram Abacha," "Mariam Abacha," and "Mrs. Maryam S. Abacha." "I would think that everyone would know how to spell their own real name," he wrote testily. "Obviously, someone does not." When he still seemed no closer to receiving the payment he'd been promised, he made a bid for sympathy, falsely telling his partners that he had been given a diagnosis of cancer. That didn't work, so he told them that he was abandoning the project: "To date, I have lost nearly fifty thousand dollars chasing a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end of it. I cannot go any further. It will take me two years to recover from this, and I will probably be dead by then." Mrs. Abacha's reassurances wrung thirteen thousand dollars more from Worley, but in April, 2002, he swore he was through, writing, "I must stop this financial torment and anguish and pray that God forgives me for my pursuit of money, simply put, greed."
For five months, Worley didn't correspond with the Nigerians. Then, in September, 2002, a fax arrived from someone calling herself Mercy Nduka, who claimed to be a confidential secretary at the Central Bank of Nigeria. Nduka told Worley that the Aviation Ministry funds were still waiting for him, and that she was secretly working with the Abacha family. She said that they needed five hundred thousand dollars to bribe five Nigerian bank officials who had the power to release the forty-five million; plus, she said, they needed another eighty-five thousand to cover fees. Worley refused to send more money, so Nduka and her boss, Usman Bello, said that they would borrow it from investors. Worley would pass along the investors' money and then receive the fortune on behalf of the Abachas, with shares going to him, Nduka, and Bello for their services.
Soon men who claimed to be investors began calling Worley from New York and Washington, asking him to provide credit references and requesting that he put up collateral for the loans they were considering making to him. He refused to offer collateral, but that was never the point. The investors' questions and demands made him feel more secure, as though they were truly weighing whether to lend him money. In late November, 2002, Worley received a check for ninety-five thousand dollars, drawn on an account of the Robert Plan Corporation, a Long Island-based insurance company. Without verifying it, as he had done with the Syms check, he deposited it at a branch of Fleet Bank. In fact, the check was fraudulent, but a novice employee at the insurance company approved Fleet's payment inquiry. When the money appeared in Worley's account, Nduka told him to wire eighty-five thousand dollars to a bank in Latvia, which he did. He wired another thirty-eight hundred dollars when Bello said that he needed to buy a Rolex watch to bribe a bank official. Although the Robert Plan employee had approved the check and Fleet had paid it, Worley, according to federal law, was responsible for repayment. (If a fraudulent check is passed deliberately, a depositor can face felony charges.) About a month later, the Nigerians sent Worley a check for some four hundred thousand dollars from a Michigan marketing company. This check was real, but it had been stolen and altered to make Worley the payee. When Worley deposited it at a branch of Citizens Bank near his home, it cleared; following Nduka's instructions, he wired the money to an account in a Swiss bank.
In the meantime, the Nigerians had ensnared the wife of a Mississippi car dealer, a woman named Marcia Cartwright. In October, 2002, she had received a 419 e-mail from a man saying he was desperate to get his money out of Nigeria. Two months later, Cartwright received a check made out to her for nearly a hundred and nine thousand dollars, drawn on the account of a Texas advertising firm, and deposited it at the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Booneville, Mississippi. It cleared, and, on orders from Nigeria, she sent Worley a cashier's check for a hundred and six thousand dollars, keeping the remainder for herself. He deposited the money in his Citizens account on January 15, 2003. The next day, he wired a hundred thousand dollars to the Swiss account.
Worley told Nduka and Bello that he was certain they now had more than enough to bribe the bankers and cover other expenses. Nduka, ever polite, said that they were not quite there. She sympathized with his frustration, and Worley promised to be patient. She asked for another six thousand dollars—the balance of Cartwright's cashier's check—to bribe the telex operators who would execute the transfer. Worley hesitated, but soon sent that money, too. Finally, Nduka told him what he longed to hear: "All is set for the final release of your fund."
That day, the president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank learned that the check Marcia Cartwright had deposited a month earlier had been returned as fraudulent. Bank officials called federal and state authorities, and Citizens Bank, where Worley had deposited Cartwright's cashier's check, was also notified. An investigator for Citizens, a former police lieutenant named Michael Raymond, told Worley what had happened and said that he was investigating potentially fraudulent activity. Worley sent frantic e-mails and made repeated calls to Nigeria, begging for a replacement check. Nduka answered with bad news: Bello had been attacked by robbers and was comatose. But, she wrote, "I have reached an agreement with them for your fund to be released as planned on Friday." All she needed was a thousand dollars to bribe another telex operator.
Worley seemed on the verge of panicking. "If you are my friend, then make it happen tomorrow," he pleaded. "Why are you badgering me with this $1,000? I have gone as far as I will go with this. I am desperate and have nothing else to say at this time. I am emotionally, spiritually, and financially drained." Nduka answered humbly, calling herself "an ordinary woman" who struggled on four hundred dollars a month. Worley responded that Nduka had "touched my heart." He wired the thousand dollars on January 30, 2003.
The next day, Raymond told Worley that the other check he had deposited at Citizens, the check from Michigan for four hundred thousand dollars, was also phony. Worley knew what that meant, and, according to Raymond, disclosed his suspicion that the Robert Plan check was probably fake, too. When Worley got off the phone with Raymond, he was enraged. "I hate being taken advantage of by you evil bastards," he wrote to Nduka. "This is all lies?" He went on, "Your day will come that you will be judged by God, and so will I. And I am ashamed, and shamed, and an embarrassment to my family, who are so precious and Godly people. What a terrible model of a Christian that I am. Thoughts of suicide are filling my mind, and I am full of rage at you despicable people. I hate living right now, and I want to die. My whole life is falling apart, my family, my ministry, my reputation and all that I have worked for all my life. Dear God, help me. I am so frightened."
In May, 2005, Worley went on trial in U.S. District Court in Boston on charges of bank fraud, money laundering, and possession of counterfeit checks. Worley's overseas correspondents, whose real identities he never knew, disappeared, and were never located or charged. With them went more than forty thousand dollars of Worley's money and nearly six hundred thousand dollars from the checks. Including credit-card interest, money-wiring fees, long-distance telephone charges, and the tax lawyer's bills, Worley's losses may have been closer to eighty thousand dollars.
The prosecutor, an Assistant U.S. Attorney named Nadine Pellegrini, urged the jury to reject suggestions that Worley had simply been scammed. At best, she said, Worley "got in over his head." Pellegrini portrayed Worley as the puppeteer, not the puppet, and said that he knowingly passed bad checks, in the belief that he was entering into a "mutually beneficial arrangement." She focussed on Worley's recognition at various points that he was dealing with liars, and said that he displayed "willful blindness" by ignoring the warning signs of their criminality and his own. Pellegrini said that Worley's claims of innocence were undermined by consistent bad conduct—lying to his wife, borrowing from a patient, plotting to avoid taxes, posing as an aviation contractor, claiming to have cancer, and agreeing to bribe Nigerian bank officials. She was unsparing during her cross-examination. "So you don't have any integrity either, do you, Dr. Worley?" she asked. He answered, "No, I don't."
"Ladies and gentlemen," she told the jury, "it's clear John Worley understands behavior of people and motivation of people, and he could and he can manipulate both behavior and reaction. . . . There is only one story here, and that's the story of John Worley's greed."
Worley's lawyer, a former prosecutor named Thomas Hoopes, cast him as a childlike man who was tricked by sophisticated con artists into a check-cashing scheme. Hoopes stressed that Fleet and Citizens had approved payment on the checks, which, he said, reasonably led Worley to believe they were legitimate. He urged the jury to focus on the final thousand dollars that Worley had sent after he knew an investigation was under way—this was evidence, he said, of Worley's gullibility. He likened Worley to Marcia Cartwright, whom the government viewed as a victim despite her also having passed a bad check. (Cartwright made partial restitution, testified for the prosecution, and was not charged.) Mostly, Hoopes urged the jury to view Worley's acts as foolish, not criminal. Hoopes emphasized that Worley had lost heavily in the scam. "It's not willful blindness," Hoopes said. "It is blind trust."
In addition to witness testimony and lawyers' arguments, the jury was given hundreds of e-mails between Worley and the Nigerians which told a story of their own, about a man transformed by his pursuit of riches. Reading the e-mails, in which Worley displays both cunning and credulousness—sometimes in the same message—it is clear that the Nigerians were able to take advantage of his religious convictions, his stubbornness, and his desire to be a hero to Mrs. Abacha and to his family. Patiently and persistently, the Nigerians turned Worley's skepticism into suspension of disbelief, to the point where he seemed to worry that they might not trust him. They made Worley the perfect mark.
The trial took six days, and the jury found Worley guilty on all counts. On February 15th, Worley, now sixty-two, returned to the federal courthouse at the edge of Boston Harbor to face sentencing. Accompanied by more than three dozen family members and friends, he arrived wearing a charcoal suit with a support-the-troops pin on the lapel. U.S. District Judge George O'Toole, Jr., acknowledging the "ordeal" that Worley had been through, said that he was nevertheless bound by the jury's finding. He sentenced Worley to two years in prison, plus restitution of nearly six hundred thousand dollars, and gave him five weeks to turn himself in. Outside the courtroom, Barbara Worley, a stout woman with blond hair, said they would appeal. (They eventually decided not to.) "My husband is the victim here," she said. "It's an atrocity."
One morning a week later, I drove past acres of winter-brown fields to the Worleys' large, blue-gray house, which was owned by a trust created by the Lawrence family, one of Massachusetts's nineteenth-century industrial dynasties. (The Worleys, looking for an inexpensive place to live after John left the Army, believe that divine guidance delivered them to the Lawrences, who needed the home restored and overseen.) Barbara, in a white bathrobe, let me in, saying she thought the meeting had been rescheduled. The house was dark, and the hallways were filled with packing boxes: Worley was preparing for prison, and Barbara was moving to a small house in a nearby town.
Barbara led the way upstairs to a living room with a brass plaque on the door. "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," it read. Worley entered, wearing a red-white-and-blue robe with an eagle on the back. He sat in a green leather chair, and fed treats to Pancake, the family cat. He seemed stunned by his misadventures of the past five years. "The communications that I had with those people were so convincing that I really believed that they were real, they were true," he said. "I would question them and they would come back with a response that was adequate to cover my concerns each and every time." Despite everything, he insisted that he still believed he had been dealing with the real Maryam and Mohammed Abacha. "I think they were legitimately trying to use me and my resources to get their funds out of Nigeria into a safe place where they could have access to them," he said. Worley wasn't sure whom to blame for the bad checks, though Nduka was suspect. "Somehow there was a buyoff, a payoff, or something that went on there, and then it got switched to the point where I was then dealing with fraudsters," he said.
When I asked Worley what he wished he had done differently, he didn't answer directly. Instead, he spoke about hoping that the Abachas would get back in touch with him. However, before they could resume work on the multimillion-dollar transfer, he expected them to send the six hundred thousand dollars that he needs for restitution.
"What if they sent you a check?" Barbara demanded. "Would you put it in the bank to see if it cleared again?"
"John!" she said.
"I don't know," Worley said finally, sounding defeated. "I have to have time to think about what I would do in that situation."
"My husband is naïve," she explained to me. "He trusts people."
A month later, moments after dropping off Worley at a federal prison in Pennsylvania, Barbara called me in tears. "They knew they couldn't go after the Nigerians, so they just get the person they can reach. They're trying to stop people in America from getting involved in it by making an example of my husband," she said. "Why don't they assign an F.B.I. agent to go after the people who scammed my husband? Where's the justice?"
An enduring trait of Nigerian letter scammers—indeed, of most con artists—is their reluctance to walk away from a mark before his resources are exhausted. On February 5, 2003, several days after the checks were revealed as phony, after Worley was under siege by investigators, after his bank account had been frozen, after he had called his partners "evil bastards," Worley received one more e-mail from Mercy Nduka.
"I am quite sympathetic about all your predicaments," she wrote, "but the truth is that we are at the final step and I am not willing to let go, especially with all of these amounts of money that you say that you have to pay back." She needed just one more thing from Worley and the millions would be theirs: another three thousand dollars.
"You have to trust somebody at times like this," she wrote. "I am waiting your response."


text:
Janet is the name given to an electronic communications network and associated electronic communications networking services and facilities that support the requirements of the UK education and research communities. The Courtauld Institute of Art (User Organisation) uses Janet to fulfil and to undertake activities supporting its missions of providing education, research and business and community engagement.
This Acceptable Use Policy applies in the first instance to any use of Janet by the Courtauld Institute of Art's own members and all those to whom it otherwise provides with access to Janet (collectively, its "Members"). In conjunction with the Janet Security Policy, it is an integral part of the Terms and Conditions for the Provision of the Janet Service (the "Janet Terms").
The Acceptable Use Policy does not determine the eligibility of any particular organisation or individual to have a connection to and use Janet services. This eligibility is determined by the Janet Eligibility Policy. The Acceptable Use Policy merely defines acceptable and unacceptable use of Janet by those who have been provided with access to Janet services under the terms of the Janet Eligibility Policy.
Copies of the Janet Terms and of the Janet Eligibility and Security Policies may be found on the Janet website.
Acceptable Use
The Courtauld Institute of Art and its Members may use Janet for the purpose of communicating with other User Organisations and their Members and with organisations, individuals and services attached to networks which are reachable via Janet. All use of Janet is subject to the Janet Terms.
Subject to clauses 8 to 16 below, Janet may be used by a User Organisation and its Members for any lawful activity in furtherance of the missions of the User Organisation. Use by the User Organisation and its Members may be in pursuance of activities for commercial gain as well as for not for profit activities. (See Note 1.)
It is the responsibility of the User Organisation to ensure that its Members use Janet services in accordance with the Acceptable Use Policy, and with current legislation. (See Note 2.) Use of the Courtauld Internet services is only by named individuals and all usage is tracked and logged.
Unacceptable Use
It is inappropriate use of the internet system for users to access, download or transmit any material which might reasonably be considered obscene, abusive, sexist, racist, defamatory, related to violent extremism or terrorism or which is intended to annoy, harass or intimidate another person. Please note that this also applies to use of social media systems accessed from Institute systems.
Janet may not be used by a User Organisation or its Members for any activity that may reasonably be regarded as unlawful or potentially so. This includes, but is not limited to, any of the following activities. (See Note 3.)
- Creation or transmission, or causing the transmission, of any offensive, obscene or indecent images, data or other material, or any data capable of being resolved into obscene or indecent images or material. (See Note 4.)
- Creation or transmission of material with the intent to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
- Creation or transmission of material with the intent to defraud.
- Creation or transmission of defamatory material.
- Creation or transmission of material such that this infringes the copyright of another person.
- Creation or transmission of unsolicited bulk or marketing material to users of networked facilities or services, save where that material is embedded within, or is otherwise part of, a service to which the user or their User Organisation has chosen to subscribe.
- Deliberate unauthorised access to networked facilities or services. (See Note 5 and Note 6.)
- Deliberate or reckless activities having, with reasonable likelihood, any of the following characteristics
1 wasting staff effort or Janet resources, including time on end systems on another User Organisation's network, and the effort of staff involved in the support of those systems;
2 corrupting or destroying other users' data;
3 violating the privacy of other users;
4 disrupting the work of other users;
5 denying service to other users (for example, by overloading of access links or switching equipment, of Janet services, or of services or end systems on another User Organisation's network);
6 continuing to use an item of software or hardware after the Janet Network Operations Centre or its authorised representative has requested that use cease because it is causing disruption to the correct functioning of Janet;
7 other misuse of Janet, such as the introduction of "viruses" or other harmful software via Janet to resources on Janet, or on another User Organisation's network.
Access to Other Networks via Janet
Where Janet is being used to access another network, any deliberate or persistent breach of the acceptable use policy of that network will be regarded as unacceptable use of Janet. Any activity as described in clause 16 above, and where applied either to a user of that network, or to an end system attached to it, will also be regarded as unacceptable use of Janet.
Any deliberate or persistent breach of industry good practice (as represented by the current standards of the London Internet Exchange) that is likely to damage the reputation of Janet will also be regarded prima facie as unacceptable use of Janet.
It is the responsibility of the User Organisation to take reasonable steps to ensure its Members' compliance with the conditions set out in this Policy document, and to ensure that unacceptable use of Janet is dealt with promptly and effectively should it occur. The discharge of this responsibility includes informing all Members of the User Organisation with access to Janet of their obligations in this respect. (see Note 7.) Use of the Courtauld Internet services is only by named individuals and all usage is tracked and logged.
Where necessary, service may be withdrawn from the User Organisation, in accordance with the Janet Terms. Where violation of these conditions is unlawful, or results in loss or damage to Janet resources or the resources of third parties accessible via Janet, the matter may be referred for legal action.
Explanatory Notes
Note 1: The Acceptable Use Policy does not make any particular statement as to the acceptability of using Janet for activities resulting in commercial gain to the User Organisation, other than this is acceptable where lawful. However, it should be noted that there are legal constraints applying to a publicly funded User Organisation in such activities. Where the User Organisation is operating as an economic undertaking the issue of State Aid will need to be considered. There is also an issue of the status of both Janet and the User Organisation's network as private networks. Both are addressed in the Janet Eligibility Policy and more particularly in the Janet factsheets referenced therein. Any questions specific to this, please contact the Courtauld IT Dept.
Note 2: It is preferable for misuse to be prevented by a combination of responsible attitudes to the use of Janet resources on the part of its users and appropriate disciplinary measures taken by their User Organisations.
Note 3: The list of unacceptable activities in this section is not exhaustive. The purpose is to bring as clearly as possible to the reader's attention those activities most commonly associated with the abuse and potentially unlawful use of a network.
Note 4: It may be permissible for such material to be received, created or transmitted where this is for properly supervised and lawful purposes. This may include, for example, approved teaching or research, or the reception or transmission of such material by authorised personnel in the course of an investigation into a suspected or alleged abuse of the institution's facilities. The discretion to approve such use, and the responsibility for any such approval, rests with the User Organisation. Universities UK has provided guidance on handling sensitive research materials.
Note 5: Implicit authorisation may only be presumed where a host and port have been advertised as providing a service (for example by a DNS MX record) and will be considered to have been withdrawn if a complaint from the provider of the service or resource is received either by the User Organisation or by Janet. For all other services and ports, access will be presumed to be unauthorised unless explicit authority can be demonstrated.
Note 6: Where a User Organisation wishes to commission or itself perform a test for vulnerabilities in its IT systems (for example, via "penetration testing") this, as an action authorised by the User Organisation, will not be a breach of clause 15. However, the User Organisation should inform the Janet CSIRT, in advance of the test, of the source, nature and timing of the test. This is to avoid wasting the time and resources of the CSIRT in investigating the perceived attack on the User Organisation, or automatically blocking it.
Note 7: In order to discharge this responsibility, it is recommended that each User Organisation establishes its own statement of acceptable use within the context of the services provided to its Members. This should be cast in a form that is compatible with the provisions of this Acceptable Use Policy. Such a statement may refer to, or include material from this document. If material is included, this must be done in such a way as to ensure that there is no misrepresentation of the intent of the Janet Acceptable Use Policy. The Janet Service Desk can advise on this aspect if required.