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The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Abbottabad Board 9th and 10th Class Date Sheet 2023 will be announced soon. You can easily get a date sheet in image format for both the 10th and 9th class annual exams of the Abbottabad board. This date sheet is available for all groups, including science, arts, general science, and computer science students. Moreover, regular or private students can download it and can attempt their exams according to this schedule. There are very few days left for students to be ready for the exam. Our best wishes are with you. At this stage, we would like to share one important fact with you: if you prepare yourself according to the date sheet, and do not take any easy papers, because the 9th and 10th class level is an educational turning point for the student.
If you want to get admission to a well-reputed college, then you have to get good marks in both classes. Keep on reading this post and let us see if the Abbottabad board 10th class date sheet 2023 has been released.
Abbottabad Board 9th, 10th Class Date Sheet 2023
The BISE Abbottabad Board is one of the eight boards in KPK province. It conducts the annual exams for Matric and Intermediate for the students who come under its jurisdiction. It is also going to conduct 9th and 10th-grade exams. All students who are willing to appear in the annual exams for Matric can check their Abbottabad Board 9th, 10th Class Date Sheet.
Abbottabad Board 10th Class Date Sheet 2023:
As I have mentioned in the above passage, the exams are held in the month of March, and the Abbottabad Board 10th Class Date Sheet 2023 will be announced 30 days before the exams. BISE Abbottabad has not yet announced any date for the announcement of the date sheet. I suggest staying in tune with this page because as soon as the date sheet is announced, it will be uploaded here. You can click on any of the following links to get the Abbottabad board SSC date sheet.
Date Sheet
Abbottabad Board 9th Class Date Sheet 2023:
Every 9th class student who wants to appear in the annual exam of the 9th class can check his/her Abbottabad Board 9th Class Date Sheet 2023, which will be announced by this board soon. As the date sheet is announced, we will also update this date sheet online on this website. You can simply download it from here or check online too. Abbottabad board Established in 1990 under the KPK Government, it was part of the Peshawar Board. This board is divided into two parts: one part manages secondary educational activities and the second part manages higher-level educational matters.
Date Sheet
That is the reason this board gives exam registration and thousands of students get it. The board is also responsible for issuing date sheets, roll number slips, conducting exams, and announcing the result. It is currently going to announce the Abbottabad Board 9th and 10th Class Date Sheet 2023.
Also Check: AIOU 10th Class Date Sheet 2023


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|John Broskie's Guide to Tube Circuit Analysis & Design
15 November 2011
V-to-I Power Amplifiers (Current-Output Amplifiers)
I know many readers are wondering why I am spending so much time on this topic, particularly as V-to-I amplifiers are so rare. My answer takes two forms. The first is that the V-to-I amplifier may become much more popular in the future, so it cannot hurt to get ahead of the pack. Second is that because the V-to-I amplifier inverts so much of what we imagine is absolutely permanent, fixed, irreversible, and, indeed, irrevocable about amplifier design, it is a useful source of mind-stretching material. For example, with modern voltage-output amplifiers that boast of output impedance of in the milliohms, setting a coupling capacitor's value is straightforward: C = 1/(2 x pi x Frequency x Load Resistance), or C = 1/(6.28 x F x R). Given an 8-ohm load and a 20Hz low frequency cutoff, a 995µF (1kF) capacitor is needed. But what happens when the amplifier's output impedance is in the thousands of ohms? What size coupling capacitor is needed? Assuming a fairly low Zo of 1k (for a V-to-I amplifier) and an 8-ohm load, R becomes 1008 ohms, which when used in the preceding formula yields a value of only 7.9µF, not the 1kµF that you might expect.* Interesting, don't you think? And what about conventional crossovers and Zobel networks, do they still function with an I-to-V amplifier? And what about reactive speaker loads, such as prensent by piezoelectric tweeters? And what about output stage gm doubling issues? Do they still apply?
Zenlike I-to-V Power Amplifier
The maximum theoretical efficiency with a choke load would be 50%, which no real circuit can hope of achieving. With a constant-current-source load, the maximum theoretical efficiency drops to 25%. Thus, with an active constant-current-source load, at least 100W of idle dissipation would be needed to generate 25W into the speaker.
Long ago Nelson Pass famously asked, What is the sound of one MOSFET amplifying? His answer was his Zen amplifier, a minimalist design that relied on the transconductance of a single output MOSFET to deliver all the needed voltage and current swings. His design was a V-to-V type that accepted an input voltage signal and produced a proportional output voltage swing. The following V-to-I amplifier (which first appeared in blog number 155 and is described fully there) produces a proportional output current swing.
What I love about this design is that will confuse just about everyone, yet is childishly simple. By the way, if a choke with a DCR in the milliohms, then the bottom capacitor at the amplifier's output would not be needed. Moving on to something more zen-like, the following circuit also relies on a single MOSFET (the bottom one) to provide voltage to current conversion. The top MOSFET replaces an inductor; but unlike an inductor, it gets hot, real hot.
Like the Pass's Zen amplifier, this amplifier uses the bottom N-channel MOSFET's transconductance to do all the major work. The top MOSFET is configured in what I call a compliant constant-current source, as it is not set to any fixed amount of current flow, rather it adjusts to match the idle current through the bottom MOSFET and sets the DC division of the B+ voltage to 50% at the output. As far as I know, I am the only one championing this topology, which is odd, as this circuit works wonderfully well and is quite simple. The idle current is set at 2A, so 2A peak can be delivered into the load. If the load is 8 ohms, then the peak voltage across the load is 16Vpk and maximum wattage into the load is 16W. The dissipation at idle is 40V against 2A, 80W; this puts the amplifier efficiency at 20%.
The big problem this amplifier presents is the heavy input capacitance. A 12AX7-based line stage is not going to cut it. One workaround is to add a PNP transistor in between the input and the MOSFET's gate, which allows the transistor's heavier idle current to charge and discharge the MOSFET's high input capacitance.
Or, if even one transistor is too many, the following tube-based hybrid could be made. Note the loss of the input coupling capacitor and the DC coupling of the MOSFET's gate to the 12B4 triode's cathode.
Which version do I prefer? This might surprise you, but I bet the PNP transistor beats the 12B4. Why? The problem with the 12B4 hybrid circuit is that two N-type devices, the triode and the N-channel MOSFET cascade in current phase, so both devices will compound in their similar nonlinearity, whereas the PNP transistor works in current anti-phase to the N-channel MOSFET, so their two nonlinearities tend to cancel. In other words, as the input signal swing positively, it works to diminish the PNP transistor conduction, while increasing the N-channel MOSFET's conduction.
Not shown, in all the above schematics, are the trim potentiometers needed to set the desired idle current and center the output at B+/2. The following version uses an OpAmp to drive the MOSFET and automatically set the idle current through the output stage. A FET-input OpAmp would work best, as the OpAmp's inputs are quite close to the its negative rail voltage (ground potential, in this case). The AD823, AD825, OPA627, OPA637, OPA2132, OPA2604, come to mind.
Of course, if a negative power supply rail, say -5Vdc, were added for the OpAmp's benifit, just about any OpAmp could be used, as long as it was unity-gain stable. Note that the conversion ratio is 1V in equals 2A out. As far as the OpAmp is concerned, it configured as unity-gain power buffer, with a 0.5-ohm load.
The next design is still single-ended, no matter how push-pull it may appear, so do not push the push-pull panic button yet.
The P-channel MOSFET (at the top) is configured as a fixed constant-current source, which sets the idle current through the bottom N-channel MOSFET. The input stage, a long-tailed differential amplifier, is only a true differential amplifier at DC, as the AC signal is shunted away through the two capacitors. In terms of audio frequencies, all that is there is the input PNP transistor and its 400-ohm collector and emitter resistors. Since these two resistors match in value, the circuit becomes effectively a split-load phase splitter.
I came up with this topology to allow me to drive the bottom MOSFET with an input signal referenced to the negative power supply rail, which the split-load phase splitter's abysmal PSRR figure makes possible. In other words, I wanted to achieve two goals: DC shifting the input signal and superimposing all of the negative power supply rail's noise on the input signal, so that the bottom MOSFET would be effectively blind to the noise, as both its gate and source would see the same noise signal. In terms of DC operation, the input long-tailed differential amplifier compares the output DC level to ground potential and adjusts the output to fall in line.
Yes, we are back to the problem of the input PNP transistor and the N-channel MOSFET cascading in current phase, so both devices will compound their similar nonlinearity, but the other features of this design are so compelling, such as DC coupling at the output and the fixed idle current, that I would accept this as a necessary minor evil, besides the transistor will undergo smaller current variations in driving the bottom MOSFET, so it will produce less distortion than the 12B4 triode.
Simple Push-Pull I-to-V Power Amplifiers
Well, with a little subtractive modification, this topology can be transformed into a V-to-I power amplifier.
The BUZ901 & BUZ906 are lateral power MOSFETs that offer excellent linearity and fairly low input capacitance; unfortunately, they are both hard to find and expensive. Note how the removal of the feedback resistors (10k & 30K) radically changed the amplifier's output mode. The two 1M resistors only provide DC feedback, not AC feedback. Also note how each channel must have its own floating power supply, which of course would prove no big deal with a monobloc amplifier chassis.
A move up in complexity is to borrow from the the previous single-ended V-to-I amplifier that made use of a long-tailed differential amplifier for DC operation and a split-load phase splitter for DC shifting of the input signal, the latter trick we will keep in our new push-pull amplifier.
Once again we see transitor-based split-load phase splitters. In fact, the split-load phase splitters are used more as phase inverters than true phase splitters. The following schematic reveals the phase relationships within this V-t0-I amplifier.
Note how both output MOSFETs see an inverted input signal relative to the signal presented to the entire amplifier. Also note how as the input signal swings positive, the P-channel MOSFET at the top increases in conduction, while the N-channel MOSFET at the bottom decreases in conduction, forcing the output to swing positively.
Cute as this design is, it has some problems. The idle current is dependent on the rail voltages; as the rail voltage climb, so too the idle current. Second, the output may not center, as there is no DC feedback mechanism to keep the offset low. The following design overcomes the first problem.
The zener diodes set a (roughly) fixed idle current, independent of the power-supply-rail voltage shifts. The problem of a non-centering output remains, however. The next modification solves that problem by introducing a DC servo loop, which monitors the DC offset and corrects any drifts away from zero volts.
All-Tube PP OTL V-to-I Amplifier
I specified the 6AS7 dual triode just as a design example, but other hefty triodes could be used, such as the 6082 or 6C33 or 12B4 or 6S19... This amplifier works to maintain the exact same voltage superimposed on the 10-ohm resistor at the out as appears at the amplifier's input, which creates a voltage-to-current ratio of 1V to 100mA, which against a 50-ohm headphone driver, equals 5Vpk.
Note how easy it would be to convert this V-to-I amplifier into a conventional V-to-V amplifier: just take the negative out at ground instead of the connection to the 10-ohm resistor and replace the 10-ohm and 1M resistors at the output with a 100-ohm and 1k resistors, which yield a voltage gain of 11.
Since a goal of a voltage-output amplifier is a low output impedance, the 100-ohm cathode resistors have been replaced by 10-ohm resistors and negative bias voltages are used. (An alternative setup would be to use the top 10-ohm cathode resistor and a 100-ohm bottom cathode resistor with a large bypass capacitor, say 1kµF.)
Returning to the original schematic, also note how the negative output is NOT grounded, which means that a balanced connector must be used with headphones, not the standard three element plug, as both headphone driver DO NOT share a common ground connection.
The coupling capacitor is there as a safety measure, as the DC offset may be up to a few volts off 0V. The following version uses a DC servo to keep the offset low.
My fingers weary, so I will stop at this last variation, which is a hybrid affair based on this topology.
This is a power V-to-I amplifier that could drive loudspeakers, but, with wimpy MOSFETs and lower power supply voltages, a supremely fine headphone amplifier could be made, say +/-30Vdc and +150Vdc. Since one of the aims of a V-to-I amplifier is a near infinite output impedance, the inclusion of the DC current mirror at the top of the tube differential amplifier stage doesn't drag down the output impedance as a simple series 5k resistor would. (I don't actually believe that 5k is a big deal; I just wanted to strut my funky—design acumen—stuff.)
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subset: commoncrawl


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In 24 hours of playing "New Pokémon Snap," the most thrilling moments were when Pokémon surprised me.
One time I looked at the ground and realized that the fallen fruit on the ground were actually not all fruit – one of them was a Pokémon called Applin, who blended in with the ground. Other times, Pokémon were fast asleep in a tucked away corner or behaving in unique ways, like when Pyukumuku hopped into Pelipper's beak for a free ride. After long sojourns through jungles, beaches, woods and the desert, these small interactions provided a glimmer of joy.
"New Pokémon Snap," which comes out April 30 on the Nintendo Switch, is a game that's about taking beautiful photos of over 100 kinds of Pokémon. On that one note, it excels. It gives the player just enough story and intrigue to press on through a grindy midgame focused on revisiting maps.
"New Pokémon Snap" is a 2021 version of a 1999 game originally made for the Nintendo 64. In terms of nostalgia, the game doesn't disappoint, reminding players that "Pokémon Snap," unlike other titles from 20 years ago, actually gives players a view of Pokémon in their natural habitats and a chance to witness what shenanigans they get up to in the savannah or wilderness. And compared to the 1999 version, the 2021 graphics are stunning. The settings are well crafted and I'm always turning my camera every which way to ensure I'm seeing every little interaction.
The player is put in the shoes of a young adventurer in the Lental Region traversing all kinds of terrain to bring back pictures of Pokémon for Professor Mirror's kind evaluation. I say kind because often times the professor will say a photo isn't a bad shot at all, when in reality, the picture is quite bad and has earned a very low rating.
Playing through "New Pokémon Snap" can feel like craning one's neck at Disneyland on a children's ride. The game's core mechanic is that the player must take photos while riding a self-driving vehicle, the Neo-One, which moves on a predetermined route that can't be changed. The game's controls are mostly for the camera, to aim and zoom in on the Pokémon that fly away, stomp across the ground and sometimes make all kinds of efforts not to be photographed.
Motion controls are also offered, but I chose not to use them, opting instead for the Switch Pro Controller, which I found easier to maneuver for quick shots of nooks and crannies, and my Switch connected to a desktop monitor so I could scan my surroundings quickly for hidden critters. This led to much better results than just playing on the Switch handheld, and I saw my photos improve vastly over time as I got the hang of things.
While other Pokémon games focus on catching them all, Pokémon Snap is about taking photos of them all, and instead of a Pokédex, players have a Photodex, where a Pokémon page can be completed by collecting one-star, two-star, three-star and four-star images.
Photos are scored by points – for how large and well-framed a Pokémon is, and whether the backdrop is engaging – and rated by stars. In general, one-star is a Pokémon doing nothing, two-star is usually eating a Fluffruit, three-star can be Pokémon hanging out with friends and four-star is for Pokémon making the rarest reactions. The game also gives little clues – found on the Requests tab – as to how to unlock four-star reactions. The player's rival (because there usually is one in Pokémon games) is named Phil, and he eggs you on throughout by saying he's taken better photos. For the most part, you see very little of him.
"New Pokémon Snap" feels like a grind, even though it's short. And while the grind can be fun in many games, in this one it sometimes feels a little empty, at least until the next map is unlocked. On some visits to maps, I snapped one-star, two-star and even four-star images of a new Pokémon. But I could only select one of those to be included in my Photodex album, meaning if I wanted to work toward completing the page, I would need to return to that map again. And while Professor Mirror is highly complimentary of the photos he reviews, his comments start to feel stale after countless repetition.
Entering a new region, there are a few ways to interact with Pokémon: tossing fruit at them – which can be mean or a nice treat depending on where it's aimed – playing a melody in hopes of seeing a dance or scanning the area. These skills unlock over time in the early game, and the player starts off with just a scanner, meaning completionists must loop back to the early game with their newfound abilities to see every Pokémon's reaction. One key feature doesn't unlock until the player combs the maps of a given region enough times: the Illumina orb which you receive from Professor Mirror that you can then toss on flowers or Pokémon to snap better photos.
In other words, the grind is built into the game and there's no way around it. Admittedly, I do have completionist tendencies and I did try to revisit various maps, especially the beach, because of how gorgeous the backdrops look and how I knew there was just one more thing to check out. I hit a few low points in the game where I would revisit a map to grab some jaw-dropping shots and then have Mirror tell me the photos I took this time were worth fewer points than the ones I got on a previous trip. After my pride over the accolades that Mirror showered me with had faded, I was left with a strong feeling that I wasn't having any fun.
But the game also wields Pokémon nostalgia to its advantage. Classic Pokémon, the ones that fans of the 1999 "Pokémon Snap" will surely recognize, are strategically scattered throughout the Lental Region. Pikachu, this entire franchise's mascot, is of course one of the easiest to see in the tutorial, but returns around the mid-game at the beach as well. Charmander comes slightly later. Seeing each of these reinvigorated my will to keep playing and made replaying maps to complete my Photodex more exciting.
Can nostalgia carry "New Pokémon Snap" players to the finish line? The repetitive nature of the game makes the mid-game a slog, even if photography and Pokémon are one's passion. After each map, the player is sent back to the main menu, and given the choice to visit yet another map.
At one point I unlocked so many maps, and was so excited for the new rush of content. Soon, I had powered through all these maps and was left to grind them over and over again before the next region could open up.
If "New Pokémon Snap" had added an additional reward to taking great photos, it would've probably livened up the grind. Instead, players may have to find their satisfaction outside the game. Nintendo does have a partnership with Fujifilm to sell instant film printouts of photos players take in "New Pokémon Snap," and there's always Instagram.
From a professional photography perspective, I found myself wishing I could mess around with the aperture and light settings, especially for an evening photoshoot on the beach and some foggy scenes in the forest. Sometimes what the game calls a quality image is barely visible and certainly not passable for printing in a newspaper, which makes for an amusing contrast. The game does have other key features that photographers may like, including an editing tool that lets you blur out the background and crop images.
"New Pokémon Snap" does have Internet features I didn't get to try out very much, where photos can be shared with friends. One user uploaded a crystal clear image of Pichu and Grookey just vibing that made me envious. Once those features grow more popular after the game's launch, it's possible that could help break up some of the mid-game tedium.
It's hard to be mad at a game that knows exactly what its purpose is and delivers on its promise – breathtaking, Vogue-worthy shots of Pokémon lit by sunlight or set during festive jungle nights. The one-note nature of the game hearkens back to 1999, and nostalgia is what fans seek. But just like the game expects me to be able to find Pokémon in the dark and to nail all kinds of mechanics for the special four-stars, I expect the game to spring a few more surprises and keep me on my toes.


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Another quickie for everyone. This one's another example of the way my brain looks for connections (and this time probably where no intentional connection exists). Listen to snippet 1, then see if you hear the connection my brain made to snippet 2.
More Shared Music DNA
One reply on "More Shared Music DNA"
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I offer professional therapeutic support to adults and young people who might be experiencing difficult life situations or who simply want to grow on a personal level. The main goal and content of therapeutic work is always guided by the needs of each client. I work with every individual or couple in accordance to their values and flexibly adjust my approach to their priorities and aims.
As a therapist, I have been working with individuals and couples since 2013. I opened my private practice in Prague in May 2016. I specialise in offering therapeutic support to individuals over 16 years of age and to adult couples. Through both individual and couples therapy, I help my clients to overcome crises, deal with unexpected life challenges and develop personal relationships.
Up until January 2016, I lived, studied, and worked in Ireland and England. I completed my master's degree course in Psychology at the University of Chester. During my studies I completed specialised training focused on the counselling and psychotherapy of young people above the age of 16. In addition to my university programme, I received a number of certificates relating to the therapeutic support of adults, who have been dealing with high levels of stress and anxiety, suffered a significant loss, experienced relationship issues or burnout, or wish to improve their self-esteem or self-confidence. Thanks to a study programme of the American International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT) association, I have attended training focusing on couples counselling and have been working towards this certification.
Up until the end of 2015, I worked as a therapist in London for an international company that provides counselling support to clients from all over the world. With my professional background, skills and knowledge, I was able to support clients, who were experiencing an immediate crisis or considerable long-term exhaustion. Their emotional safety and overall wellbeing were my main concern. As a specialised phone counsellor, I was providing ongoing support to clients, who were not able to attend face-to-face sessions. As a therapist, I also worked in Chester (England) in a centre dedicated to women with a history of sexual and/or domestic abuse and in Galway (Ireland) in a service which specialised in supporting clients dealing with high levels of stress or who had a history of alcohol or drug abuse.
I am a member of the American International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy and the Czech Association for Psychotherapy. I abide by their ethical code and guidelines for leading therapeutic work.
Zoom, Google Meet, Skype and Phone
Individual Therapy and Couples Counselling Online
English, Czech


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Gratitude Cocktail Anyone? - A Thanksgiving Challenge
Everyone is talking about gratitude these days as if it is some kind of magical elixir.
Well, it kind of is.
Gratitude - as a state of being - supports us in digesting the turbulence of unexpected life events and has a curious way of rolling out a magic carpet for more goodness to find its way into our hearts. Research even shows that gratitude practices actually improve key health indicators and reduce stress.
It's typical for most of us to look back on our lives and first take inventory of what has not worked, or how we've been hurt, disappointed and frustrated. But when we look back with a different lens - a gratitude lens - all of those awful things can suddenly seem like a series of gifts that have been alchemized into an elixir of compassion, empathy, and enhanced spiritual wisdom.
Such a delightful cocktail - one you can concoct any time, any place, with nothing more than your own presence -:)
When you can create a new context for the past - shifting from one of hardship to enrichment - you will discover yourself anew and release what used to make you feel victimized by people and situations. The past can now become something to propel you forward, and the transformation found on the other side of your pain can be extraordinary.
My Thanksgiving Gratitude Challenge:
1. Identify three disappointments from your past.
2. Take each disappointment separately. Feel the emotions that arise with each memory, and notice where you feel it in your body. Then, consciously bring breath into the body sensation and speak out loud the thoughts, feelings or emotions that come up for you - until the charge dissipates.
3. Ask yourself what gifts came from the experience, and who have you become because of it? Notice how your inner state shifts.
4. Make a list of the three events and reframe these experiences, identifying how they can now propel you forward.
This way of feeling into the painful past without judgment is a foundational part of the CORE Repatterning Technique, which allows for haunting pains to transform into simple memories. The release process usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes, no matter how intense the painful event happens to be.
What's incredible about releasing these past hurts, is that afterward, most people think of the past event and feel like they are simply observing it instead of being completely wrapped up in the struggle.
They feel free to be themselves, and without the emotional charges of the past, it's easy to reframe the experience - grateful that what they moved through actually made them kinder, gentler human beings, which in itself has already made the world a better place. -:)
#gratitude #gratitudechallenge #yesyoucanspeak #corerepatterning


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Hi friends, good news for LG G3 Verizon users, as CM12.1 based Android 5.1.1 Lollipop Custom ROM is now available for LG G3 Verizon VS985. If your device has already installed latest version of Custom Recovery such as CWM or TWRP, then you can download and install this updated Custom ROM on your smartphone LG G3 Verizon, also our this guide is about how to Install Android 5.1.1 Lollipop CM12.1 Nightly on LG G3 -VS985 Verizon
LG G3 Verizon is one of the latest smartphone, accomplished by powerful hardware properties which can run this Custom ROM smoothly. This updated Custom ROM Android 5.1.1 Lollipop has some rich features such as device protection setup, quick setting panels, improved sound and volume quality and many more…
Disclaimer: This guide is for LG G3-VS985 Verizon only, don't try this guide on any other android device. Also, we (www.guidebeats.com) are not to be held responsible for any damage caused by following this tutorial, try this on your own risk. However, we have never noticed any kind of damage by following this guide.
- Take a complete backup of your important data
- Your smartphone battery has at least 70% charging level.
- Install USB Driver for LG G3 VS985 Verizon on your PC. Click here to download
- Enable USB Debugging from (Settings >Developer Options> USB Debugging Mode)
- You have latest custom recovery installed in your smartphone LG G3-vs985
- Download CM 12.1 nightly for your LG G3-vs985 (Click here to download)
- Download Google Apps for your LG G3-vs985 (Click here to download)
Steps to Install Android 5.1.1 Lollipop CM12.1 Nightly on LG G3 -VS985 Verizon
Tutorial for CWM Recovery Users:
Step 1. Copy downloaded zip files to your device SD Card (Don't unzip/ don't place any file in the folder)
Step 2. Unplug your smartphone from your PC and switch off.
Step 3. Now boot your phone in Recovery Mode
* Press and hold volume down+ Power button > release after LG logo appears, and press them again, > press power button three times.
* Use Volume UP and DOWN keys for navigation in the options here
Step 4. Create an image/backup of your existing ROM by Nandroid backup of this ROM. Which you will restore if there is any issue in this new ROM
* On the recovery mode screen select backup and restore > select backup > Go back after backup completion
Step 5. Perform data Wiping task
i) On the recovery mode screen select Wipe data/Factory reset > select YES > go back
ii) On the recovery mode screen select Wipe cache partition > go back
iii) On the recovery mode screen under Advance option select Wipe Dalvik Cache > go back
Step 6. Now select Install Zip from SD Card > Choose zip from sd card > locate the CM12.1 Nightly zip file> Press power button to select> Click YES-Install_______.zip to confirm ROM installation.
Step 7. After ROM installation finished, repeat step 6 once more but this time choose gapps-lg-20141212.zip to install the Google apps package.
Step 8. NOW repeat Step 4 once again to create image of this new ROM and go back to main recovery menu
Step 9. Now select Reboot System to reboot LG G3 into new installed android 5.1.1 Lollipop ROM.
Returning on Previous ROM: boot into recovery mode, select backup and restore then select previous ROM backup from the list to restore your previous ROM.
Tutorial for TWRP Recovery Users:
Perform step1, step2, step3 and step4 as for CWM Recovery Users
Step5. Perform Factory Reset to do this Tap on Wipe > at the bottom of screen tap on "Swipe to factory reset" option
Step6. Tap on "Install" and locate the CM 12.1 Nightly____.zip file and tap on it.
Step7. Now tap on "Add More Zips" then locate and tap on gapps-lp-20141212-signed.zip
Step8. Now at the bottom of the screen tap on the "Swipe" to confirm installation and begin flashing.
Step9. After flashing finished go back to main recovery menu and tap on reboot and tap again on System to reboot your LG G3 into new flashed Android 5.1.1 Lollipop ROM
Returning on Previous ROM: boot into recovery mode, select "Backup" and then "Restore" then select previous ROM backup to restore your previous ROM.
In case of any query do comment us.


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Kjaergaard, who is a scientist and mother of three, was struck by a sudden bacterial infection in 2013. Within hours she had suffered multiple organ collapse and briefly died before being revived and remaining in a coma. She was to spend the next weeks and months on the edge of existence with locked-in syndrome. Her brain still functioned, but the only signal of life she could send was through blinking her eyes.
Rikke has been on the cusp of life and death with locked-in syndrome—and survived, not only to tell her tale but with a scientific understanding which makes her story unique. Kjaergaard is based in Copenhagen but has lived in both the UK and in the USA and has written the book in English. "Statistically, I shouldn't be able to write this book. I should be dead. Or at least scraping along, brain damaged and unable to take care of myself. Thinking back, it is difficult for me to understand that I'm still here. I know what it's like to wake up from a long-term coma. I know the horror and pain from being paralyzed in a body only able to observe the world around you, not to participate. I know what it's like to understand everything, when everybody thinks you know nothing. I know what it's like to fight every single day just to be able to breathe. I was given a second chance in life. My book is my way of paying it forward, to give a voice to those who have none."
Now fully recovered—following a "slow" and "painful" process teaching herself to breathe, eat, talk and move again—her story is described as "a powerful insight into the nightmare as well as the science of locked-in syndrome, and an inspiration to never give up hope and cherish every little thing in life we take for granted". Bestselling author Bill Bryson, who met Kjaergaard after her recovery and encouraged her to bring it to the attention of a publisher, contributes with a foreword to Kjaergaard's book.


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The House Armed Services Committee voted on June 22 to approve the portion of the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authored by the committee's Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems.
That section of the massive spending bill was approved as a package, without amendments.
That portion of the NDAA bill released by the full committee earlier this week includes the following provisions:
- Requiring the head of U.S. Cyber Command to "evaluate and report to Congress annually on the sufficiency of support to cyberspace operations by the military services";
- Directing the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations to establish an independent occupational specialty for cyberspace operations, in line with all other armed forces;
- Creating an oversight mechanism for the Defense Department (DoD) Principal Cyber Advisor over non-cybersecurity related budget matters across the services and the Department;
- Establishing the authorities of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer and converting a pilot program for data repositories across the Department of Defense into a full program for the building of AI models;
- Creating a joint information operations course to prepare the joint force to employ synchronized information-related capabilities; and
- Tasking the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer with fostering interoperability between systems using mission integration software to support JADC2.
The NDAA legislation released by the committee prior to the June 22 markup featured a "discretionary" top-line spending figure of $802 billion, with $772 billion for DoD and $29.5 billion for the Energy Department (DoE).
Last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved its version of FY2023 NDAA legislation with a top-line figure of $857 billion, including $817 billion in DoD spending and $29 billion in DoE spending.
The House and Senate will vote on their own versions of the FY2023 NDAA, and then reconcile differences between the two versions in a conference committee, then return the unified bill to both chambers for final votes.


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You can contact me anytime if you are interested to buy a print of one of my images: click here.
Prints in limited editions are available at my exhibitions or directly via this page. I offer prints in three sizes: 105x70cm, 60x40cm and 42×29,7cm.
All prints are numbered and signed and printed on museum-grade paper in editions of 18 (plus two archival prints).
China. Everything happens at the same time (Book)
"Everything happens at the same time" shows us a China beyond the masses, beyond superlatives. The China of these pictures surprises above all by its normality and plays with what we know and have learned.
Markus manages the balancing act between macro and micro perspectives. His pictures show the big picture but also focus on the fast-moving details. As viewers, they let us reflect on the individual stories behind the pictures and gradually build a more differentiated image of contemporary China…
The book includes poems by Lin Hierse and is available as a limited edition (33×28cm, 112 pages, 79 images, hardcover, 100 books, numbered and signed) and as a catalogue (25×20cm, 106 pages, 76 images, softcover). For more information click here.
Berlin, Berlin!
(Special collectors edition)
3 prints on Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl 285g, 42×29,7cm. Each is limited to 18 prints plus two archival copies. Please use this contact form for details.
Or click here for more black and white works.
Insomnia (Book)
"Insomnia" comprises a selection of images taken in Berlin between 2013 and 2018. Characterised by the compelling synthesis of mood, light and texture that defines Markus' work ever since, they reveal the city as it is rarely seen – a place where churches, supermarkets and petrol stations are deserted, their isolation exacerbated by the lonely glow of neon and the sodium glare of streetlights. Markus shows how the city's infrastructure is democratised at night.
For more information click here.
Fairytales and nightingales (Book)
Limited edition of 100 prints. 104 pages, 64 images, linen cover, thread stitch binding, bookmark ribbon, printed on 170g FineArt paper.
Read more here.


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PTC has acquired Servizzio, the leading service-specific consulting and training provider for service parts management. Through this acquisition, PTC strengthens its Global Client Enablement program for the Servigistics Business Unit.
Servizzio was founded by Traci White and Dr. Sanjay Jagdale in 2017 to address a need in the market for service-specific consulting and training. Their service-specific toolkit has improved service parts planners' skills and improved the strategic thinking of planners and management at many global industry-leading organizations, including Komatsu and Hitachi Vantara.
"We founded Servizzio concentrating on helping service parts planners to get the most out of their service parts management solution," said White. "Our vendor-agnostic approach helped them achieve superior outcomes, propelling them toward best practice in the people and processes of service planning."
With this acquisition, PTC bolsters the Servigistics Business Unit's Global Client Enablement program and complements its change management and adoption capabilities.
"We are committed to technology innovation through advanced data science and equally committed to expanding our expertise to challenge the status quo," said Leslie Paulson, General Manager, Servigistics Business Unit, PTC.
White and Jagdale represent more than 45 years of expertise in operational and strategic supply chains and have a rich knowledge of service parts management best practices that lead to profitable service businesses. Both have assumed leadership roles within Servigistics at PTC.
The timing of this acquisition is advantageous to Servigistics clients. They gain exclusive access to Servizzio's toolkit, including Service Planning Academy, Service Planning Essentials, Service Planning Academy Virtual Classroom, strategic and change management consulting, and performance assessments and health checks, all based on service planning best practices and proven to elevate service planning maturity.
"After attending Service Planning Academy, the knowledge gained by our planners allowed us to make better use of Servigistics capabilities that improved our forecasts and service levels," said Randy Smith, Material Manager at Komatsu America's Ripley Parts Operation.
Jagdale has been impressed with Servigistics innovation efforts over the past few years. "We've seen a dramatic improvement in service parts management capabilities from Servigistics over the years, far outpacing all other vendors in the market. We are delighted to combine forces with PTC."
This acquisition follows several successful PTC acquisitions, including Onshape, Arena Solutions, and strong Q1 and Q2 financial performance.
"Servigistics plays an essential role in PTC's ambitious growth strategy. Their track record of impressive technology innovations coupled with a client-focused philosophy is a model within PTC we strive to emulate," said Jim Heppelmann, CEO, PTC
Steven Caldwell will host a panel-style webcast with Traci White and Dr. Sanjay Jagdale on July 27 at 11-11:30 am ET to discuss the acquisition and the impact on Servigistics' Global Client Enablement program.
Additional Resources:
As General Manager of the Servigistics Business Unit, Leslie has responsibility for worldwide sales, marketing, business development, customer success, and research and development. She brings a wealth of experience from her 29-year career at Caterpillar, with 16 years as a member of executive management teams. Leslie is known for her passion and focus on driving change to deliver customer value and growth. She has a superior command of disruptive technology and its impact on service operations. She has brought her vision and experience to Servigistics and is leading an era of rapid innovation, further fortifying Servigistics as the industry-leading service parts optimization solution.
Leslie has degrees from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (MSME, BSME, Engineering), Bradley University (MBA) and Stanford (Executive Program).


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In this difficult time, the safety of our employees and trade partners on our project sites is the most important priority. We have implemented increasingly strict protocols and standard operating procedures on all job sites.
Our safety training and Covid 19 protocols will continue to evolve as this virus develops and we learn more.
Understand that during this evolving situation we are fostering open dialogue with all our clients to ensure we communicate and follow all safety procedures.
Paul has over 14-years of sales and marketing experience in the hangar door industry. Prior to this, Paul spent 8 years working in a sales division of Apple Inc, where skills in supply chain, selling and customer service were taught at a multinational level.


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As 2014 comes to a close, Chalkbeat New York invites you to celebrate a successful year with drinks and conversation!
Tuesday, Dec. 16
5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
West 3rd Common
1 W. 3rd St, New York, NY
Come chat with reporters and editors, catch up with old friends, and meet other people who care about education in New York City. Feel free to bring guests—loyal readers and newcomers, parents and teachers, advocates and officials, are all welcome.
If you have any questions, you can send an email to Chalkbeat's community editor Stephanie Snyder.


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Many patients are worried about the risks of CT scans since hearing that some form of radiation is used to capture images of particular body parts can make them worry about their well-being. That's why it's important to inform your patients that CT scans emit a small amount of radiation and ensure that they are safe from risks like cancer.
It's also critical to let your patients know that the benefits of getting a CT scan outweigh the risks. And if your patient suffers from muscle and bone disorders, the best way to diagnose these issues is by running through a CT exam.
For this reason, you must ensure the safety of your patients in the first place by installing high-quality diagnostic imaging equipment for your lab. And if you're using a refurbished CT scanner, ensure that its parts are from a reputable source, like DirectMed Parts.
In this article, we'll discuss everything you need to know about preparation for a muscle and bone CT scan, what your patients can expect, and some risks involved. Let's get to it!
Preparing a Patient for a Muscle and Bone CT Scan
- Ensure you're aware of all medical information regarding the patient, including allergies, recent illnesses, medications, and other medical conditions before going through the exam;
- After knowing their medical information, ask them to change into a hospital gown before the CT scan. This way, the patient can remove all their jewelry, metal accessories, and other pieces of clothing that could be risky to wear during the scan;
- If your patient needs to drink a contrast agent, ensure that they do not drink or eat anything hours before the scan;
- It's normal for a patient to feel nervous before the scan, so ensure that you talk them through the whole procedure to know what to expect.
What Can a Patient Expect During the Exam?
Enter the Exam Room
After asking your patient to change into a hospital gown or medical scrubs, ensure that they have no jewelry or personal belongings on them. After that, your technologist will guide your patient to the room, explain the procedure and ask medical questions about their condition.
Lie on the CT Scan Table
After a brief medical examination, your patient will be asked to lie on the CT scan table. While doing this, the technologist can help arrange the pillows and straps to ensure that your patient is comfortable throughout the exam.
Receiving the Contrast
If your patient needs to receive a contrast agent, they'll be asked to drink a flavored mixture before the exam. This contrast agent will help highlight certain parts in the body so you can see the muscles and tissues of your patient clearly, giving you a better diagnosis for muscle and bone disorders.
Get the Scan
Once everything is in place, the technologist will move to another room where they can control the CT scanner. During this time, the scan will begin, and you can talk to your patient from the other room to ensure that they feel comfortable during the scan.
The Bottom Line: CT Scanners Are Incredibly Powerful, Allowing You to Give Accurate Diagnosis for Muscle and Bone Disorders
CT scanners are complex and powerful equipment that help medical professionals diagnose patients, allowing them to provide proper treatment and medications. Seeing as it plays a vital role in muscle and bone disorder diagnosis, it's important to use high-quality CT scanners and purchase CT parts from a reliable source, like DirectMed Parts.
Why Choose DirectMed Parts?
If you're looking for high-quality CT and MRI parts and coils, you've come to the right place.
DirectMed Parts is the leading and most trusted, knowledgeable source for medical imaging parts and services. We offer CT and MRI parts and coils and understand the importance of working with service professionals, providing quick and accurate delivery on-site.
Check out our products today!


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Urban Decay Naked Heat Alkaline Tutorial
Urban Decay Naked Heat Alkaline Tutorial
Today I'm sharing my Urban Decay Naked Heat Alkaline Tutorial with you. I've had a lot of requests to create more tutorials using the Naked Heat palette that Urban Decay sent me. It seems to be a universally loved Naked palette. Alkaline is my favorite color from the Naked Heat collection release. It's the PERFECT burgundy wine pencil that I've been searching for years to find. If only there was an exact eyeshadow color match to it! This tutorial is perfect for hooded eyes, but will also work for other eye shapes too!
What I'm Wearing for My Urban Decay Naked Heat Alkaline Tutorial
Urban Decay Primer Potion Original
Urban Decay Walk of Shame – base shade
Urban Decay Alkaline – lid in dome shape, lower lid
Urban Decay Ashes (Naked Heat) – on top of alkaline
Urban Decay Relish – to blend out edges
Urban Decay Chaser (Naked Heat) – to help transition
Urban Decay Aura (blue side, discontinued, try Kat Von D Alchemist) – to highlight
Urban Decay Crux – lower lid
Urban Decay Legend – waterline
Wunderbrow Jet Black
The Ordinary High Spreadability Fluid primer
The Ordinary Serum foundation in 1NS + Nyx Pro White + UD Liquid Aura
Urban Decay Fair Neutral powder – to set
Urban Decay Shapeshifter Light – contour
Urban Decay Bang, Quiver, Video – blush
Urban Decay Aura (blue side, discontinued, try Kat Von D Alchemist) – highlight
Milani Make it Dewy setting spray
Urban Decay Deep pencil
Urban Decay Fuel lipstick
KBShimmer No Wave (teal)
KBShimmer Berry Chill (purple)
Urban Decay Naked Heat Alkaline Tutorial How-To
- With a fluffy brush, apply your base shade all over the eye. This makes it easier to blend other colors. I used Walk of Shame.
- Color in your lid and crease in the dome shape with Alkaline pencil. Use a brush to soften the color upwards.
- Use the Iconic brush to blend Ashes into the dome shape on top of Alkaline, blending upwards.
- Blend Relish into the edges of Ashes in little circles, going upwards and outwards.
- Blending in little circles, use Chaser at the edges of Relish to further soften the edges of color.
- Line the lower lash line with Alkaline, then smudge Crux on top of it.
- Tightline the upper lash line and line the lower waterline with Legend.
- Highlight under the brows and at the inner corner with Aura (blue side). Add mascara.
Shop Your Stash for Similar Shades
- Walk of Shame – pale peachy pink beige matte
- Alkaline – burgundy wine pencil
- Ashes – burgundy brown matte
- Relish – red matte
- Chaser – pale peachy brown nude matte
- Crux – smoky teal blue with multi-colored sparkle
- Legend – black pencil
- Aura – iridescent white with blue shift
You can shop your makeup stash for similar shades if you don't own what I used to create my Urban Decay Naked Heat Alkaline Tutorial. Makeup Geek has similar eyeshadow and eyeliner pencil colors to the ones I used.
Be sure you check out my Urban Decay Naked Heat Collection First Impressions.
I've used the Naked Heat palette a ton lately because Chaser and Sauced mixed together make a great crease color for me. If only En Fuego was redder and Ashes was a burgundy wine, it would be perfect!
I created this look with the PhyrraNyx Facebook Group Makeup Challenge Fire Power in mind. I really love how the lower lid turned out. Crux on top of Alkaline looks amazing. And using Aura to highlight makes me think of a blue flame! If you are a burgundy wine fan, Alkaline pencil is a must have!
What do you think of my Urban Decay Naked Heat Alkaline Tutorial? Would you wear it?
Other Hooded Eye Makeup Tutorials
- Urban Decay Naked Heat Scorched Tutorial
- Urban Decay Midnight Blast Tutorial
- Unicorn Frapuccino Tutorial
- Saucebox Mermaid Life Tutorial


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Yoga Sunday!
Join Ashley G. for another amazing yoga session this Sunday at 8:15am. Bring your mat and an open mind… STRENGTH WOD
20 1 Arm DB Clean and Jerk
200 M Run
30 1 Arm DB Power Snatch
400 M Run
40 1 Arm DB Clean and Jerk
600 M Run
50 1 Arm DB Power Snatch
800 M run
25 Minute Time Cap
All movements with the DB are done from the hanging position. Please do not drop the dumbbells. Alternate arms after each rep. 20= 10 on each side.
Coach's Tip: Weather is calling for very high temps Thursday, so if you prefer to row (vs run), that's just fine! We will just up the meters slightly to 300, 500, 750 and 1000.
Chris N. cruising through "Jackie"…


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Swiss Point Leggings
Swiss Point Leggings
Low stock
Sale Sold out
Regular price $ 24.99 USD
Regular priceUnit price per
Sale price
High-rise knit pants with a slim, stretchy fit and a micro polka dot, woven pattern. Comfortable jegging pants that can be dressed up or down. Faux button details on the front.
CARE | Hand Wash Cold Inside Out
CONTENTS | 68% Rayon 28% Nylon 4% Spandex
MEASUREMENTS | 36"/92 cm Top to Bottom 26"/66 cm Inseam 10"/26 cm Rise (Size Small)
MODEL | 5'8 - wearing a size Small


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Oman Hydrogen Centre opens at GUtech
Under the patronage of Azza bint Sulaiman al-Isma'eeli, Oman's Minister of Technology and Communications, the Oman Hydrogen Centre was opened on the campus of the German Technical University (GUtech).
The opening ceremony was attended by Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Salmi, Minister of Religious Affairs, Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad al-Rumhi, Minister of Oil and Gas, and a high-ranking representative from research, technology and industry, as well as dignitaries and experts from the oil and gas industry.
The importance of hydrogen as an energy carrier for the future of Oman was vividly highlighted in the opening speech by Olav Carlsen, CFO of Hydrogen Rise AG, as co-initiator and founding partner of the centre.
The new innovation centre is to play a leading role in the development of a hydrogen economy in cooperation with local and international partners from research, education and industry in the Arab region. One of the most important goals would be to support the government and the energy industry of Oman in building a clean hydrogen industry in the best possible way.
Link: https://omannews.gov.om/NewsDescription/ArtMID/392/ArticleID/7321/Oman-Hydrogen-Centre-Opens-at-GUtech
(c) Text: Oman News Agency, Photos: Oman News Agency


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WP1. Project management
The objective of WP1 is to ensure effective and efficient management of both administration, communication between partners and coherence between the WPs, in order to deliver a successful project to the European Commission. This includes:
(1) Ensuring management and administrative functions by the consortium agreement and financial reporting procedures with partners
(2) Safeguarding the vision and soundness of the overall methodology and the scientific grounding
(3) Ensuring to safeguard the principles of good data management, at every stage of the data lifecycle
(4) Managing the MA approach


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"In light of the events that have transpired this week, I believe the governor cannot wait any longer to appoint members to this commission so it may do the critical work of identifying and rectifying gaps in Missouri's cyberinfrastructure," Aune said Friday.
Aune said the governor's reaction to the Post-Dispatch's story was a "fiasco."
"Let's get down to brass tacks: The Parson administration stored the sensitive, private, personally identifiable information of nearly 100,000 Missouri teachers on a public website, and it could easily be accessed by anyone with even a basic knowledge of the internet. That's a terrifying fact," Aune said.
"If we want to stop actual threats to our online infrastructure, the governor should start appointing members to this commission now," Aune said.
Widespread problem
Missouri's computer woes also affected the launch of the state's expanded Medicaid program. After being forced to begin the long-sought program via a lawsuit, officials at the Department of Social Services said it would take two months to program their computers to allow for an additional 275,000 low-income Missourians to get enrolled.
The problems don't stop there.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, the Department of Health and Senior Services had to replace a clunky, two-decade-old homemade computer system it used for tracking disease outbreaks.


text: In the BUYAs calendar of events, the End of Season Festival is coming up and scheduled for 7th to 12th September 2021; redesigned to provide the BUYAs with exchange learning opportunities. We are glad to be among the 3 organizations selected to host the exchange learning forums from all organizations together with SEP (Society Empowerment Project) and MTG (Moving the goalposts, Kilifi) forums for the first 3 days. After the exchange forums, we will host the main end-of-season festival where all BUYAs and mentors will converge to harvest key exchange learnings and we will host them at the Kolping Vocational Training Centre, Kilimambogo in Thika.


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A Comprehensive Guide on Cyber Security in Gillette, NJ
The world of Cyber Security Gillette, NJ is constantly evolving, and it's important to stay up-to-date on the latest developments. There are many threats out there that are trying to steal your personal information, so you have to be proactive in protecting yourself! This blog post will provide insights into cybersecurity in Gillette, NJ.
What is cyber security in Gillette, NJ?
Cyber Security Gillette has become a hot topic in the technology world. It is very important for companies to take cyber security seriously. As long as you are on the web, your data is at risk of being hacked or stolen from an insecure website that does not have proper cyber security measures implemented. Any personal information can be compromised if it falls into the wrong hands. This includes saved passwords, credit card numbers, and bank account details which could lead to identity theft itself!
Why should you care about cyber security in Gillette, NJ?
Cyber security is the backbone of all businesses on the web. It keeps your data safe and that of your customers, partners, or employees. A breach in cyber security could lead to loss of information, money, and even identities! Cyber security plays a vital role for companies all over the world. It provides protection against threats that come from outside sources. Furthermore, it protects information related to customers who are accessing their accounts online. If you're looking at cyber security services in Gillette, then contact us today!
When are you most vulnerable to cyber-attacks?
Gillette IT Company it is not easy to pinpoint a specific time when you are most vulnerable to cyber-attacks. This is because there could be hundreds of digital threats everywhere and it would be impossible for anyone to secure their system fully against them all. However, this does not mean that you cannot take any precautions at all. In fact, it has been seen that people tend to make the same mistakes over and over again, which makes them even more prone to getting hacked in the future. Let's take a look at some factors which make your online presence susceptible:
- Your operating system can leave loopholes or vulnerabilities if you fail in patching up regularly.
- You should always have an updated antivirus program installed on your machine. Regularly updating passwords must become an integral part of your life, and you must also keep changing them on a regular basis.
- Your router should be set up correctly otherwise, hackers can use it to access your system.
How can you protect yourself from these attacks?
There are a number of things you can do to protect yourself from these attacks. One way is to regularly update your computer software or ask from cyber security services Gillette. Another technique is being careful about where you go on the internet and what you download onto your system, as well as making sure that any websites have a secure connection. Lastly, be aware if anything suspicious happens in regards to your credit card information or social security numbers when purchasing online; if so, change all passwords for those accounts immediately!
GSIT Group
60 Laura Drive, Gillette, NJ 07933
(732) 554-2990


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LRL Home - Legislation - Legislative archive system - Advanced search - Search results - Bill details
Last action: Placed on General State Calendar
Author: Chet Edwards
Sponsor: Wilhelmina Delco
Bill Analyses:
Committee Report (House Research Organization)
Education--Higher--Admission & Attendance
Education--Higher--Institutions & Programs
Human Relations
Science & Technology
House Committee: Higher Education (Wilhelmina Delco, David Hudson, Charles Evans, Mike Millsap, Irma Rangel, Ciro Rodriguez, Stan Schlueter, D.R. Uher, Gary Watkins)
Senate Committee: Education (Carl Parker, Carlos Truan, Gonzalo Barrientos, Chet Brooks, Chet Edwards, Gene Green, Eddie Johnson, Grant Jones, Cynthia Krier, Bill Sarpalius, Hector Uribe)
Minutes: March 11 1987 | April 24 1987
The Legislative Archive System is a work in progress. Complete information is not available for all bills and all sessions. Visit the Legislative Archive System status page for details. Please contact the Legislative Reference Library at 512-463-1252 if you have any questions. Information on this website is provided as a public service by the Legislative Reference Library. The Legislative Reference Library makes no representation as to its completeness or accuracy and makes no warranty in regard to its use. Users assume all risk of reliance on the information included on this site.


text: No doubt about it, small businesses want to build loyal customers. There's a restaurant I go to at least once every week. My wife and I have become "regulars"—"loyal" customers. They have a punch card, that I often forget to get punched after dinner. Nevertheless, our waitress knows me, she even knows my order, and before we've even sat down, she's got it started. The food is good, the service is great, the price is right, and it's comfortable—the punch card is superfluous. Yeah, I like the free meal in every ten, but because my waitress knows I always forget the card, she reminds me now when I pay the check. Although I carry the card, she's keeping track of it for me. Why not just get rid of the card? A few years back, following a haircut, the stylist said to me, "Thanks for being a good customer, this haircut is on me." Wow, they recognized me. They really do appreciate my business. About 10 haircuts later, another stylist in the same place said something like, "Ty, since this is haircut number 11, it's free this time." I was disappointed. Not because they were keeping track (I think every small business should do that), but she pulled back the curtain and dispelled the magic. They really didn't know me, they were just keeping track of me. I get my hair cut someplace else now. I think it's better to "surprise and delight." In other words, "Thanks for being a loyal customer, let me get it this time," is much more powerful than, "You've earned a free meal by eating at our restaurant 10 times." I know it's tough for some businesses to do this because of the nature of their business, but even if you don't track individual customer purchases, you could still surprise and delight your customers. Imagine standing in line to pay for your hamburger and the person behind the counter saying something like, "Thanks for being such a great customer, this one is free." You don't know they've been counting and your the 100th customer that day. You're just excited that you got the free meal and didn't have to "earn" it. If you weren't a loyal customer, you just became one to see if it happens again—and so did everyone else that was there at the time. You were surprised and delighted. Punch cards make your customers do all the work of keeping track of their loyalty, it's really you that should be paying attention. What's more, I have several punch cards in my desk drawer that seldom see the light of day, because it's not the punch card that makes me like you—it's your service, your products, and whether or not I feel like I'm being treated fairly—the rest is just a bonus. A couple of weeks ago, after a ride through central Utah, a friend of mine and I stopped at one of the local Harley dealerships. He had recently bought a new motorcycle and over the last year had purchased a number of other things from the dealer. He had $30 or $40 worth of reward points he hadn't spent yet, and they were about to expire. About to expire? Since when did loyalty expire? I had just redeemed some of the same type of loyalty points at another dealer and they had been accumulating for a couple of years. I actually had enough to buy a very nice leather jacket. What's more, the young lady that helped me seemed excited that I was able to do it. I have to admit, I liked the loyalty program then. However, I had forgotten about it over the years and didn't even know I had so many points until I got an email from the dealer announcing that they were doing away with the loyalty card and would now keep track of all my purchases on computer. Because I still have to "earn" my reward points by making purchases, it doesn't pack the same loyalty punch as a surprise and delight. I wonder what my reaction would be to something out of the blue like, "Thanks for being such a good customer, this time your motorcycle service is on the house."


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The third quarter brought a lot of movement in the domestic stock market but by September 30th the S&P 500 had not gone far from where it started the quarter. Geopolitical concerns continue to create a lot of uncertainty. In the Q2 commentary, we mentioned the smoothing of trade negotiations between the US and China. About 27 seconds after we hit "print," President Trump announced the whole thing was falling apart. This, along with Brexit drama, recession expectations and slowing corporate earnings growth, appear to have the market's mood moving from cautious optimism to slight pessimism.
Economically, the US and global economies continue to show signs of slowing. Many countries across the globe are teetering on the edge of recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction. Germany and the UK experienced economic contraction in the 2nd quarter. Italy is also hanging on by a thread. On the other side of the Atlantic, Mexico and Brazil both contracted in the first quarter and narrowly grew in the second quarter. Checking in with the other hemisphere, Singapore and South Korea each had a quarter in the first half of the year where their respective economies contracted. The slowdown in Chinese economic growth is also evident.
Back at home, economic data is rosier but still pointing to a slowdown. The US consumer is pulling their economic weight (almost 70% of US GDP) with continued strong spending. In contrast, production and manufacturing activity both fell in the first and second quarter and the trend is expected to continue when Q3 numbers are reported. With portions of the economy in a recession, it is reasonable to expect the rest to eventually follow. That said, the strength of the US consumer – whose spending makes up 67% of GDP – will likely keep us out of recession territory for at least the next couple of quarters.
Where's the Value and Why it Matters
As we approach the turn of the economic cycle, we are continually reviewing portfolios to assess risk while we scour the financial markets for value. Domestically, depending on what valuation metric is used, the US market is anywhere from slightly overvalued to highly overvalued. If corporate earnings continue to fall, market valuations will become richer until the stock market reacts to the downside. Looking internationally, European markets are also highly valued but not as much as the US. That does not necessarily make them a better buy…they have a lot more fundamental issues than US markets. When we survey the entire world, though, the best value continues to be in emerging markets. Admittedly, we have argued this position for some time (and we will argue a little more later in the commentary). We have also allocated our portfolios, in part, based on this position.
Why pay so much attention to valuations? Current valuation tends to be one of the largest determinates of market performance. Increases in the price of a stock (and cumulatively, the stock market) happen for several reasons. One is the performance of the company. In the most basic terms, if a company manages to increase their revenue and their profits, the value of the company increases. The other big factor is an increase in the price investors are willing to pay for those profits. This measurement is called the Price to Earnings ratio (PE). We have referenced this ratio many times over the years…let's take a deeper dive into what it is and why it so important to consider.
Imagine you are a kid looking to get into the lemonade stand business. You don't want to start this lemonade stand from scratch (but of course the lemonade will be made from scratch…you can't run a proper lemonade stand with Country Time) so you start looking at lemonade stands to buy. After days of beating the streets on your bicycle performing due diligence on the local stands you narrow it down to two. They are both perfect…on busy streets with lots of foot traffic, nice table set-up, a great chair to sit in and located under a shade tree. There is only one difference. The first makes $50 per day; the second makes $30 per day.
You approach the owner of the $50/day stand and the young lady there says she'll sell it to you for $1,000. Next, you go the $30/day stand to talk to that kid. He says he'll sell it you for $270. How do you determine which one is the better buy? The most basic way is to look at the price of the stand relative to what it earns (Price-to-Earnings). The owner of the first stand is asking 20x daily earnings for the stand: $50 x 20 = $1,000. The other owner is asking 9x daily earnings: $30 x 9 = $270. Which is the better deal? The second stand because at 9x vs 20x you can buy the second at a lower multiple of earnings. Another way to think about this: it will take you 9 days to earn your $270 back on the second stand and 20 days to earn your $1,000 back on the first (lemonade stand season is short…that 11 days makes a big difference). So you shell out your $270 and you're in business.
Our lemonade stand transaction is a simplified example of what happens in the stock market. Just as the two lemonade stands were selling at different price to earnings (PE) multiples, individual securities sell at varying PE multiples and, cumulatively, varying stock markets (Dow vs S&P vs Emerging Markets vs Europe, etc) trade at different PE multiples. Recognizing this is important because if an investor buys an investment at a lower PE their likelihood of making money through a phenomenon called Multiple Expansion increases. Multiples expansion occurs when the PE investors are willing to pay for a stock increases. Below is a basic example from John Neff's book, On Investing. Mr. Neff was the manager of the Vanguard Windsor Fund for over 30 years. He had incredible success through his career, out-performing the S&P 500 by over 3% per year.
In his example, he shows, with very basic math, why the price paid for an investment is critical. His example has two identical scenarios
|Static P/E
|Expanding P/E
|Current Earnings Per Share
|Current Market Price
|Current Price/Earnings
|Expected Earnings
|New P/E
|New Market Price
– same current earnings and same expected earnings – except for the price you pay for the stock. His example demonstrates what happens to investment returns when you buy a stock at a lower PE and then the stock later trades at a higher PE. The performance of the company is the same but when you purchase it at a lower PE it has more room for price appreciation. In this example, a lot more room.
So, that's a nice example but how much does this come into play in actual market returns? A lot. In every bull market since 1900, multiple expansion has contributed over 50% of the total price growth of the stock market. For example, from 1982 to 1999 the PE investors were paying for the market went from 9x earnings to 30x earnings. This multiple expansion accounted for 52% of the price growth of the market during that time.[i] But multiple expansion is a finite source of return. In each historical case, the market hit a point when it recognized that price increases based on further multiple expansion no longer made sense. Think back to lemonade stand…you paid 9x earnings, $270, for the stand. Would you have paid 20x at $500? What if it was 30x at $900? There will come a point, if you are not already there, where you will say, nope…that's too much. Investors essentially do the same thing with the market.
That is why there has been a strong correlation between the current market PE and future returns. Historically, when the aggregate PE of the stock market is high, relative to its historical average, future returns for the following several years are lower relative than when current PE is low (yes, I have data to support this but I'm trying not to turn this into a journal article[ii]). The reason? PE's tend to be mean reverting. When there's a triggering event that draws investors' attention to high PE's they start selling, they sell past the average PE to a low PE where the market eventually bottoms.
GMO, a large institutional investor, maintains a 7-year Asset Class Real Return Forecast based, in part, on this concept of mean reverting PE's. They look at current market values, make some estimations regarding future growth rates of earnings and profit margins and then come up with an expected return for each market. Below is their most recent forecast.
The chart has a large spread between their expected performance of US Large Cap stocks and Emerging/Emerging Market Value stocks. Most of this spread is due to the difference in current day valuations. Over the last couple of years (2018 and 2019 year-to-date), Emerging Markets have continued to under-perform relative to domestic equities. Earnings growth has been good but they have not had the returns from multiple expansion that domestic equities have received. This has resulted in a large value discrepancy between Emerging Markets and Developed Markets. Emerging Markets growth stocks have not been this cheap relative to US Growth stocks since 2002 (see chart below).
In the 5 years following 2002, Emerging Markets out-performed domestic markets by a wide margin. Will history repeat itself? It's impossible to say. Remember the old Danish proverb: Making predictions is hard, especially about the future. But there are a couple take-aways from the facts: First, domestic equities are facing heavy headwinds. If return from multiple expansion is tapped out, or nearly so, the market will need to rely on revenue earnings growth and profit margin increases for return inspiring performance. Not a very promising prospect when the economy is staring down a recession and profit margins (also mean-reverting) are close to an all-time high. Second, it means domestic equities have a lot more room for multiple contraction. In other words, in a bear market, they arguably have farther to fall. Even though Emerging Markets are viewed as the riskier investment, right now, they may not be.
In the late stages of bull market cycle, which is where we believe we are, is a time when few investors are looking at fundamentals for investment decisions. The places where assets are over-priced are often the ones that get the most attention (becoming more over-priced) and the ones that are priced remain unfavored until some event – usually not a good one -makes people look around. When that happens, an old investing adage becomes topical again: Valuations don't matter until they do and when they do, they are the only thing that matters. We will continue to look for opportunities to invest capital at an acceptable level of risk.
[i] Active Value Investing: Making Money in Range-Bound Markets by Vitaliy N. Katsenelson, page 55 for data through 2005.
[ii] Ibid, page 53 for data through 2005.


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Caesar Goodson, the police van driver in the Freddie Gray case, opted for a bench trial on Monday in the high stakes and racially charged case which shone a spotlight on the tension between law enforcement and the minority communities they serve.
The stakes are high in the upcoming trial for Goodson who prosecutors say bears the most responsibility for the death of Gray, a young black man whose spine was snapped in the back of a police transport wagon. The trial is slated to start on Thursday.
Officer Goodson, faces second-degree murder and other charges. He will also face buck-passing from fellow officers who have already testified in two previous trials that if anyone was responsible for ensuring Gray's safety, it was him.
Goodson's choice of a bench trial echoes that of fellow Officer Edward Nero who was cleared of charges of assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment in a bench trial last month. Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams heard arguments in Nero's case and will also hear arguments in Goodson's trial.
Judge WIlliams also granted a motion to eliminate statements that Officer William Porter allegedly made to Detective Syreeta Teel during a telephone conversation in which he said that Gray claimed he could not breathe. Porter denied making those comments during his own trial last year.
Porter's trial resulted in a hung jury.
Related: Officer Charged in Freddie Gray Case, Edward Nero, Not Guilty on All Counts
The officer faces 30 years in prison if he's convicted of the murder charge. If prosecutors fail to secure a guilty verdict, it will be the third straight trial in which they haven't gotten a favorable decision: The first trial ended in a hung jury and the second finished with an acquitted last month.
Prosecutors say Goodson was grossly negligent when he failed to buckle Gray into a seat belt and call for medical aid during Gray's 45-minute ride in the back of Goodson's transport van April 12, 2015. But with no eye witnesses and very little physical evidence, experts say the government could be facing an uphill battle.
"It would be devastating for the state to lose Goodson's trial because there's no question that the ultimate responsibility lies with the van driver," said Warren Alperstein, a Baltimore attorney who has been closely following the case.
Gray died a week after he was injured in the van. His death prompted protests and civil unrest in the streets of Baltimore, and his name became a national rallying cry for people angry over officers' mistreatment of African Americans.
Gray was arrested in West Baltimore after making eye contact with a bicycle officer and running away. Once he was handcuffed and placed inside the van, witnesses have testified that Gray began to scream and kick so violently he shook the wagon. Two blocks from the arrest site, the wagon stopped again, and three officers took Gray out of the van to put him in leg shackles. They then placed him on the floor of the van, head-first and on his belly. He was never buckled into a seat belt, as required by department policy.
Related: A Look at the Baltimore Police Officers Charged in Freddie Gray's Death
The van made six stops in total during the trip from the site of his arrest to the Western District station house. Goodson is the only officer present at each of the stops. At one point, Goodson stopped the van to check on Gray without any other officers there.
Goodson, 46, faces second-degree "depraved-heart" murder, manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges. Prosecutors say that Goodson was so negligent in his failure to buckle Gray into a seat belt that he disregarded the apparent risk to Gray's life and wellbeing.
Porter, whose trial ended in a hung jury in December, testified during his trial that he told Goodson at one of the stops to take Gray to the hospital, but Goodson didn't. Instead, Goodson made another stop to pick up a second prisoner.
Goodson recently filed a motion seeking to block prosecutors from entering into evidence statements Porter made to an investigator. Goodson is the only officer who chose not to make a statement to investigators.
"This is unlike the other trials, where at least the state had a preview as to what the defense might be or what the defendant might say on the witness stand," said Steve Levin, a Baltimore attorney who is familiar but unaffiliated with the case.
"All the stops, it could work in Goodson's favor because it demonstrates that he was concerned about his prisoner," Levin said. "At the same time, it could work in the state's favor because prosecutors could argue that Officer Goodson saw Mr. Gray several times and he saw that he was injured and needed medical aid, and that he was so concerned that he kept checking on Gray."


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Struggles with mental health are common, yet it makes us feel alone and misunderstood. "Love Gets Me Down" is a single that knows this feeling well and comes around to reach a hand to all those of us who are in need of uplifting and understanding vibes.
"Love Gets You Down" is the second single of Little Victories, we presented their debut single Set In Stone back in October on release day. Hailing from Britain, Little Victories is an alt-pop band running an intimate vibrant sound loaded with emotion, wonderful vocals, groovy guitars, and a homemade bass. Consisting of three members – Marcus Gooda, Nay Shalom, and Sam Rose, the trio seeks to unify listeners through captivating songs full of meaning. They are inspired by life as a human person. Through writing songs on themes of mental health and self-acceptance as well as human connections, Little Victories seeks to unify and connect with the listeners and bring light into everyday thoughts. Their newest single is no exception.
The single begins with groovy rhythms that are both captivating and representing the busy world around us. The vocals laced with echoing layers have a melancholic feel, sinking deep into the kind of loneliness experienced standing alone and looking around in the busy city square. The immersive bustling soundscapes that surround the vocals and the listener close in to wrap us into the muted introspective feel before opening up to the swirling chorus. Every element in this song shows quite exactly how it feels like to hang around feeling completely alone, and the subsequently failing emotional state honestly described by the lyrics.
Despite the lyrics' serious pondering thoughts, "Love Gets Me Down" is a groovy dancy tune that will not fail to reach out. The song flows with the energy of everyday life, guitar melodies blending beautifully with synths and vocal slices create a wonderful evocative sound that in itself is already really captivating. The vocals complete the song and turn it into one excellent source of uplifting inspiration!
If you enjoyed Little Victories' music and would like to stay updated, be sure to check out and follow their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok accounts. To listen to their music, you can head over to their Spotify profile, or you can purchase their music at Bandcamp.
You can also support the artist by streaming and sharing their music, which can be found in the following Playlists: Less Than 1,000 Followers, Fresh Singles, Indie Only, Alterindie State Of Mind, and 12 New Songs This Week.
P.S. If you enjoy discovering new artists and fresh new music you should subscribe to Less Than 1,000 Followers and follow the Playlist with all the artists we've talked about!
This coverage was created via Musosoup #Sustainablecurator


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PINK CLAY MASK 60g
- Apply an even layer of the Pink Clay Mask to dry skin over the entire face avoiding the eye area and allow it to dry.
- To remove, use a damp cloth on the face, pressing gently down with your fingertips. By dampening the mask it allows it to return to a creamy consistency and allowing easy removal of the mask.
- Remove thoroughly and apply a moisturiser.
Please Note: After rinsing off the mask you will expect the skin to be a little warm and have a red appearance because the ion particles in the clay will increase blood circulation or bring more blood to the surface of your skin. The redness and heat should go away after a few minutes to an hour or longer dependent on your skin sensitivity.
As the product contains natural clay, settling and separation may occur if the product if left for long periods. If liquid is noticeable, simply stir the product to recombine the liquid with the clay.
Paraben-free; Sulfate-Free; silicone-free, artificial colour-free.
Regular By Hand Flower Delivery Service & Charges
Monday to Sunday: 9am -1pm, 2pm - 6pm, 6pm-10pm
- Delivery on Sunday and Public holiday, please place order one day in advance. Otherwise, delivery may be rescheduled to following day.
- The cost of regular delivery may vary from HK$100 to HK$200, please see details below.
- Free - Self Pick-Up at 235 Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong
- $100 Zone A
- HK Island - Central, Eastern & Western District
- Kowloon
- New Territories - Tsuen Wan & Kwai Tsing District
- $150 Zone B
- HK Island - Southern District, The Peak
- New Territories - Sha Tin, Tai Po
- $200 Zone C
- New Territories - Tuen Mum, Yuen Long, Northern District
- New Territories - Tseung Kwan O, Sai Kung, Clear Water Bay
- $200 Zone D
- New Territories Islands - Tung Chung, Disney, Airport, Discovery Bay, Lamma Island, Cheung Chau
- (Valentine's Day morning delivery service is not applicable to Discovery Bay, Lamma Island and Cheung Chau Island)
- HK$1 will be charged for the bag, according to Hong Kong government law.
- Delivery will be made on the selected date. We will try our very best to accommodate the requested delivery time, however, this is subject to traffic condition. MODA FLORA will not accept order cancellation or refund due to late delivery in the same day under above delivery service provided.
- If the recipient is not available to collect the parcel in person upon delivery, alternative instruction given by the recipient to courior which may vary from sender instruction will be arranged, delivery will be considered as completed.
- If we are unable to deliver or contact the recipient/sender within 10 mins upon arrival, a charge will be applied for redelivery or you may pick up from shop, delivery charge is non-refundable.
- Any changes on delivery, please inform us at least 48 hours prior to delivery.
As to flower delivery, please choose Flower by hand delivery options to provide the best protection to your beautiful flowers.
- GREETING CARD SIZE 10x10cm. Only available while stocks last.
- Once a complimentary card is written/printed, any changes may incur reproduction cost $50.
- Complementary laser engraved tag only available while stocks last.
- If customised tag is made, any changes will incurred extra cost.
Each preserved flower arrangements is individually handcrafted by our professional florists and are one of a kind. The product you receive will be as identical as possible to the displayed arrangement.
- During certain times of the year, our florists may have to change some flower types due to the unavailability of seasonal flowers. However, we ensure them to be of equal beauty, price and quality. This is a Moda Flora guarantee!
As flowers are considered perishable products, all of our sold arrangements are non-refundable and non-exchangeable.
- As flowers are natural products, colours may vary from that shown in the catalogue / photo references. However, we will make every effort to maintain the colour scheme, size and shape of the flower arrangements.
- Products in the catalogue are not in scale; for product dimensions, please check with our staff.
- MODA FLORA reserves the right to amend or withdraw any terms and conditions or terminate the offer any time without prior notice; in case of any disputes, the decision of MODA FLORA shall remain final.
- 禮品系列隨產品附送心意咭一張,尺寸10x10cm,請於產品內頁添加,數量有限,送完即止。
- 如心意咭已制成,任何修改需另收 $50 。
- 多款自選激光雕刻木牌,數量有限,送完即止。
- 如自訂牌已製成,任何修改需重新收費$100 - 200, 視乎原有收費而定。
- 此商品屬天然及手工制作,受季節性花材選擇而略有不同。
- 由於保鮮花是易碎產品,我們所有產品出於出貨後恕不接受退換。
- 由於花是天然產品及每件產品是手工制作,顏色可能與圖片參考中顯示的略有不同,圖片只供參考。


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Buy Mini Fan Diffusers
The New Spring 2020 catalog releases Scenty's new mini fan diffusers. These are refill easily and give up to 120 hours of fragrance release.
Three new colors can be seen below, also shown compared to a standard laptop (below) to get a sense of the little amount of space needed.
Mini Fan Diffuser1.5 Inches Tall
- Charge Via USB
- Only 1.5 Inches Tall
- Up to 120 Hours of Fragrance


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Protecting against business email compromise (BEC) means stopping stolen credentials at source
More than $26bn has been reported lost in business email compromise attacks in the last 4 years , according to the FBI's IC3, though the true figure is undoubtedly far higher. Business email compromise attack techniques have also evolved significantly during that time, making them more difficult to identify using basic security defenses like anti-spam filters and endpoint protection, and highlighting the need for effective threat intelligence to address the issue of compromised user credentials.
A quick BEC primer
Business email compromise (BEC) is a form of fraud where bad actors gain access to a victim's legitimate email account without their knowledge and exploit that platform to trick other victims into instigating damage; typically theft via instructing wire transfers to third parties, diverting payroll to fake employees or procuring gift certificates.
BEC attacks are less of a numbers game than phishing, but there are still many instances of attackers repeatedly reusing proven techniques to qualify victims by initiating trust first, before exploiting it soon after. Some BEC attacks are carried out many months after the user credentials have been compromised and access obtained, typically in high-value scenarios while the attacker studies patterns of communication to formulate the best way of monetizing their advantage.
An industry fed by compromised credentials
BEC is effectively a cybercriminal industry, but one that needs a steady supply of compromised credentials to remain viable. Hence most of the preventative measures for BEC touted by security experts revolve around the use of multi-factor authentication and continual user education; the idea being that the best way to avoid being a victim is for everyone to prevent user credentials being stolen in the first place.
The hard reality is that credential theft is a daily occurence perpetrated on a gigantic scale . In May 2020 alone, more than 8.8 billion records were breached , and those were just the ones we know about. Organizations should absolutely do everything they can to stop credentials from being compromised, but must equally prioritize accepting that some compromises will be inevitable and that appropriate reactive and proactive mechanisms are put in place to mitigate their associated impact.
Easy to believe, difficult to identify
A classic BEC attack will be cleverly designed to appear to the target as a legitimate email from a colleague at the same company, or closely-related organization (i.e. a supplier or customer). The little details are important when trying to look authentic, so scammers will take care to send the email at an appropriate time (i.e. a weekday, avoiding public holidays) and to communicate a message designed to validate trust in the first instance, rather than bluntly asking for a wire transfer. For example, "Let me know when you have a second, I need you to do something for me urgently." Anyone responding to this clearly trusts that the person is who they say they are (e.g. Jessica, the head of finance). Any subsequent emails build on this to the extent that "fake Jessica" can instruct the recipient to do anything that "real Jessica" could plausibly request, such as depositing $50,000 in a bank account before 5pm to avoid the business reneging on a contract/losing a customer, etc.
There is also evidence of some BEC exploits that begin on email and then switch to SMS. The common practice of placing significant amounts of personal data into email autosignatures makes this particularly easy for hackers.
Traditional cyber defenses find all this hard to combat because there is little reason for a machine to suspect that anything other than standard business communications is going on because, unlike phishing emails, BEC attacks rarely include any links or attachments. They are also highly targeted, often to less than 10 recipients at a time; well below the threshold to be flagged as mass distribution spam.
Some BEC attacks are based on spoofing email addresses and domains rather than gaining direct access. According to IC3's latest BEC advisory , over $2bn in losses can be attributed to the exploitation of just two popular cloud-based email services. Recent research by Barracuda , using a sample of 1.5m spear-phishing emails, shows that 47% of all BEC attacks originated from a Gmail domain.
Using threat intelligence to close down BEC threats
To get on the front foot in the fight against BEC, organizations must deploy a range of measures that detect and disrupt the exploitation of stolen credentials, mitigate the risks associated with domain spoofing, and inform the proactive investigation of specific BEC threats to improve security posture and training. All rely upon threat intelligence in the following ways:
Retrieve compromised credentials in real time: Blueliv's Credentials module can detect in real-time where user credentials belonging to employees, customers and third-party suppliers have been exploited by malware and botnets, or exposed through data leaks. By proactively scouring the open, deep and dark web for stolen passwords – using sinkholes, honeypots, crawlers, sensors and other data sources – important information can be converted into actionable intelligence, enabling administrators to update passwords internally or notify customers to do the same, before the compromised credentials can be monetized.
Use domain protection against phishing: Prevent your domains being exploited for BEC purposes by uncovering fraudulent domains, social accounts and mobile apps. Blueliv's Domain Protection module does exactly that, thereby removing the opportunity for attackers to launch targeted phishing campaigns, pose as staff or cybersquat on your brand assets.
Close down and learn from unique BEC threats: Be better protected against BEC attacks uniquely affecting your organization and others like it by deriving meaningful, contextual intelligence from the collection and analysis of continuously updated information around threat actors, campaigns, malware indicators, attack patterns, tools, signatures and CVEs. Threat Context from Blueliv is the tool for this job, providing vital insights to support you in conducting red-teaming exercises and developing training materials based on real threat scenarios, to both reduce the probability of social engineering attacks penetrating your defenses and boost your incident response.
Even traditional email security vendors now advocate the greater use of intelligence in countering these advanced threats, though their fixation lies solely with 'machine learning' and 'artificial intelligence' rather than the application of human experience and analysis in combination with these new technologies.
BEC attacks are a real problem for organizations of all sizes and in all sectors, and the optimum response is to deploy a range of measures to combat the problem. Ultimately, you need to address the supply of compromised credentials, and the only way to do that is through a modular threat intelligence solution that leverages machine automation to manage the sheer scale of information in real time, with intelligent, contextual insights informed by a highly skilled and experienced analyst team.
Visit the dedicated Blueliv blog library on Credential Theft to explore the many facets to this form of threat intelligence, learn more about the latest exploits and inform your next strategic move to combat against compromised credentials.
The post Protecting against business email compromise (BEC) means stopping stolen credentials at source appeared first on Blueliv.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Blueliv authored by Ariadna Miret. Read the original post at: https://www.blueliv.com/cyber-security-and-cyber-threat-intelligence-blog-blueliv/protecting-against-business-email-compromise-bec-means-stopping-stolen-credentials-at-source/