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Marble currently uses the very old and outdated MWDBII dataset for its vector base map such as national borders and coastlines and we really need to replace it with more up-to-date data. However, MWDBII has two key advantages, it is very compact in size enabling Marble to ship it by default, and the individual nodes have a zoom level value which speeds up drawing.
The current vector layer also has the disadvantage of not being able to be manipulated either programtiacally or by the user. This prevents it from being used for such things as KGeography or other educational uses where you would want to select and manipulate a geographic entity.
Improving the vector base maps would thus consist of two closely related parts:
The Natural Earth data set is a "public domain map dataset available at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110 million scales. Featuring tightly integrated vector and raster data, with Natural Earth you can make a variety of visually pleasing, well-crafted maps with cartography or GIS software." This data set seems ideal as a replacement for the MWDBII.
The 1:10m dataset seems ideal as the base map in Marble as it provides a higher level of detail than the current MWDBII. The 1:110m dataset seems ideal for use in a country selector widget in kdelibs. The 1:50m dataset is less detailed than the current MWDBII so may be less useful.
Using the data in the default shapefile format is not considered desirable however:
The ideal solution would seem be to convert the Natural Earth data into a more efficient file format and either calculate and store the zoom level attribute in the file or calculate it on file load. The full Natural Earth dataset would be converted, but would only ship the minimal dataset required with Marble (approx 4-5Mb?) with the remainder of the data later being downloaded via GHNS or as a separate package.
The main changes required to Marble will be in the vector layer itself, removing the old PNT file vector drawing code and implementing the new dataset using the new GeoData library vector support.
Two main issues will need to be solved here
Some possibilities for the file format are:
The zoom level problem can be solved by either:
The Douglas-Peucker algorithm may be able to be used here.
Some pros/cons to consider:
bytes/point compared to the PNT which is 745KB and contains 127,246 points = 5.85 bytes/point, which would suggest the NE data in PNT format would be half the size, so 6 MB in total. This could probably be further reduced by a light application of Douglas-Peucker.
overlapping features like rivers match exactly and other such niceties, applying the Douglas-Peucker algorithm might affect that.
release which could be a lot of effort, but an automated shp2pnt script could prove useful to allow apps/users to display their own shapefiles in a simple way.
Using GeoPainter and GeoDataLineString ("libgeodata"):
Potential new Marble file format based on PNT:
Applying this to the 1:10m dataset:
Metadata file:
Rather than the Geonames ID, we could just use the Natural Earth object ID, then a look-up file/table that matches the NE ID to the ISO / FIPS / whatever code (NE provides this in the metadata) and Geonames ID (which we would have to provide). This would allow look-ups via whatever code or ID is available, and we wouldn't be reliant on Geonames IDs staying constant or being online.
One option would be to integrate Spatialite and use this as both the data storage for the vectors and as the attribute database. Spatialite is an extension to SQLite implementing a Spatial SQL database. Among the feature this provides is a compact data storage format and the ability to import Shapefiles and CSV files, as well as access all the standard GEOS tools if installed.
There is a 20Mb zip file available for Natural Earth in Spatialite format, it is unclear how much of Natural Earth is contained in this. A minimal dataset could be shipped by default with the full dataset downloaded later.
Spatial SQL queries could return just those vectors currently in the viewport, but repeated reloading and redrawing could be inefficient. However this may also solve the Level-of-Detail problem.
The major downside is the dependencies which include SQLite, PROJ and GEOS so on a platform like Windows would require a larger monolithic binary which defeats the purpose of shipping slimmed down data.
More research is required here. It may not be a suitable option for the default Atlas view, but would be a very powerful extension for Marble to provide lightweight GIS-like functionality.
A possible action plan is
Later add simple shapefile loading to GeoData, maybe with attibute layer?
Key Natural Earth data files from v1.2, recent updates to 1.3 not included.
1:110m 1:50m 1:10m ------ ------- ------- Admin level 0 countries 172 KB 1.36 MB 6.55 MB Admin level 0 land borders 39 KB 301 KB 896 KB Admin level 0 sea borders 12 KB 40 KB 79 KB Admin level 0 disputed 40 KB 157 KB Admin level 1 regions 39 KB 339 MB 13.9 MB * Admin level 1 land borders 16 KB 60 KB 4.82 MB Coastlines 79 KB 883 KB 2.15 MB Rivers 19 KB 420 KB 3.29 MB Lakes 10 KB 286 KB 786 MB Glaciers 13 KB 208 KB 1.23 MB Dateline 18 KB 18 KB 18 KB Playas 18 KB 106 KB Ice Shelves 105 KB 211 KB Minor Islands 449 KB Reefs 171 KB ------- ------- --------- 417 KB 4.08 MB 34.03 MB * level 1 regions are USA/Canada only at 110m and 50m, but whole world at 10m, perfect for KGeography use :-) Other useful files: Physical Features Land 146 KB 1.50 MB 692 KB Physical Features Sea 348 KB 836 KB 836 MB Populated Places 347 KB 1.48 MB Urban Areas 439 KB 3.48 MB Bathmetry 11.64 MB
sovereign states. Includes dependencies (French Polynesia), map units (U.S. Pacific Island Territories) and sub-national map subunits (Corsica versus mainland Metropolitan France).


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Entertainment » Movies
Watch: Trailer for Gay Conversion Therapy 'Miseducation of Cameron Post' is Here
The gay conversion therapy drama "The Miseducation of Cameron Post," starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Sasha Lane, received its first trailer this week.
Directed by Desiree Akhavan ("Appropriate Behavior"), the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner takes place in the 90s and follows a group of teens who are sent to a gay conversion therapy camp. According to the film's synopsis, Cameron Post (Moretz) is "sent to a gay conversion therapy center after getting caught with another girl on prom night." The camp is "run by the strict and severe Dr. Lydia Marsh (Jennifer Ehle) and her brother, Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr.).
"In the face of intolerance and denial, Cameron meets a group of fellow sinners including Jane (Lane), and her friend, Adam (Forrest Goodluck). Together, this group of teenagers form an unlikely family as they fight to survive."
"The Miseducation of Cameron Post," an adaptation of Emily M. Danforth's book, hits select theaters on August 3. Check out the trailer below.


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BOOK ONE The First William I To Virginia
Ambition Achieved
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Admiral Byrd Advance Base Antarctic Antarctica Balchen Barrier Bay of Whales became began Bernt Balchen Beverley blue British Byrd took Byrd wrote Byrd's cabin Captain Charles Charlie Murphy City Colonel colony command Congress Council Dick England expedition exploration father feet finally flew flight Floyd Bennett flying Fokker friends gave Government Governor Harry Byrd hundred Ibid ice pack Indians James Josephine Ford King knew land Larry Gould letter Lieutenant Little America lived Lord married Mary miles morning motors mountains National Naval navigation Navy never night North Noville party Paul Siple pilot plane polar political Poulter President radio Richard Richard Byrd Richard Evelyn Byrd Roosevelt Rosemont sailed Senator Byrd ship Smith snow South Pole Spotswood thing thousand tion tractor United Virginia vote Washington Westover William Byrd Williamsburg Winchester young


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Police Department
Lincoln Man Arrested for Church Embezzlement
On the morning of May 5, 2008, thirty-nine year old Todd Termaat was cited and lodged in Lancaster County Jail for Class III Felony Theft. Termaat served as the non-paid volunteer treasurer for Holy Savior Lutheran Church from 1999 until he resigned in January 2008. The investigation has shown that, from June 29, 2005 to February 21, 2007, Todd Termaat wrote and cashed 36 unauthorized checks for a total loss of $16, 345. During the time period of the thefts, Termaat was the only authorized signature for the church.
Todd Termaat also faces Felony Theft charges based on an investigation at Wyuka Cemetary conducted by Nebraska State Patrol earlier this year.
In 1997, Termaat was found guilty and sentenced to three years probation for the theft of over $50,000 while serving as a staff accountant at a local Lincoln accounting firm.


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There are many ways to change the way you use and view the INC website - here's an overview of a few bits and pieces.
Site appearance
Depending on your preferences and perhaps your favorite game or mood you can customise the forum appearance to suit you. This appearance will stick with you on that machine (it's cookie based). By using the 'site appearance' menu at the top of the forum and selecting a skin you like the look of, it will change to that for your browsing of the site. There are some for each of the popular games and a few that are abstract. There are different ones for different sized browser windows as not all scale well for smaller screens.
Your personal avatar
Via the 'user control panel' under the 'forum index' menu at the top of the screen - you can customise which avatar your profile uses - the image that appears to the side of all posts you make. This option is under 'profile' and 'edit avatar'. There is a gallery you can use which has 2,500+ different and varied images all at a suitable size an covering a wide range of games and topics. You may also upload your own to the forum by using the 'Upload from local computer' option, or indeed link one to elsewhere. Be aware that when using these options you need to specify an image that is 100*100 pixels, as anything bigger will not be allowed.
If you use the PSN, Wii, Steam or xfire - you can use this utility to place a special link into our profile that updates itself. The usage instructions are continaed on that page
It's also possible for you to manage your subscriptions around the forum. These are threads that you are keeping an eye on and will get an email when replies are posted. You can subscribe to any thread on the forum using the links above and below each topic.
There is a blog feature on the INC website that allows for each user to keep their own blog - it's also possible for people to customise the appearance via their own css code - as well as just using one of the default provided versions.
Of course there are also the standard sorts of options such as signature, account options etc.


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I saw this billboard yesterday and I had to stop and take a picture of it. (Actually, I had to park, cross the street in the rain, and stand there like an idiot taking a picture of it).
Is it just me or does this ad bother you?
I can't help but think it's from Smart Tan or a similar organization. If so, I'm appalled that they're using the pink ribbon to promote their cause. Now, if the message was just "Vitamin D helps decrease your risk," I'd have no problem with it. But the fact that they say "from the sun and tanning beds" makes me a bit suspect.
I'm all for Breast Cancer Awareness month, but why use it to promote your own cause? And isn't this kind of like trading one cancer for another? I realize skin cancer is less deadly, but still.
What do you all think?


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Archive for January 2015
Out of Time (Part 2): In the Desert.
As part 1 of this essay considered the metaphorical space of the desert as a model for the new condition of painting within Postmodernism, the physical space of Forever Now is equally revealing. The exhibition is on the top floor, sitting in stark contrast to Matisse's cut outs.[1] Compared to the lyrical journey on a pleasantly winding path that circumnavigates one of the high-water marks of modernism and pure pleasure in color and form, how is an exhibition mucking around in the creation of the grimy present supposed to stand up? The show feels as if it is being hyped to raise its profile as much as possible just on the way to the 4th floor. A large painting hangs over the main lobby like a billboard and several monumentally framed pieces are propped against the wall on either side of the entrance, like outsized carnival barker's signs. Once inside the large space[2] is divided into a series of branching chambers with partitions encouraging meandering and no strict path, but also no exit except back the way one came.[3] Dead-ending against the back wall forces the viewer to rebound and wind one's way back through the show and make new connections and consider different relations and viewpoints. The exhibition layout cancels any hierarchy and allows for slipping glimpses of how some model of the whole might lock together. Looking at the show is an exercise in exploration, of navigating terrain that is not set.
Other than being painting made recently, the work has no common denominator, outside of perhaps generalities of abstraction or a certain sense of scale[4], although many of the works have bits of the real world peeking through. The artists share no agenda or style; they are simply trying to make paintings that reflect how they interact with and process their world. That their work shows its influences and continues a dialog with art of the past does not necessarily point to any "atemporal" influence of the net, beyond its reality as a condition of our shared world. All of the artists have started making their mature work, if not lived their entire lives since the advent of Postmodernism; the interaction between the history of images and present production is ingrained in how they approach the canvas.
Amy Sillman's abstractions provide the clearest model of how painting can make something new when the language of invention is played out, and in the process they show just how obsolete the idea of "newness" is. They are often (and incorrectly) labeled as a grab-bag mix of styles, a criticism that latches on to surface similarity rather than looking at just what Sillman creates for herself. She has found her voice in the direct handling of paint, getting colors that don't easily go together to mix with gesture, shape and space to form a hard won picture that just barely keeps their different compositional elements in balance. They teeter on the edge of falling off the ledge, but the constant revisions within the picture are what give them their subtle vibrational energy and move the eye through the painting. The more complicated she gets the better; her simpler paintings flatten out as though with too few pictorial balls in the air there is not enough to sustain interest, either hers or the viewer's. While there are no intimations of the figure here, it has often made appearances in her work; when it does it is more complicated in its relation to abstract elements in the picture than Guston[5] while remaining much more autonomous than in deKooning.[6] Just because she is working with a subject others have used, she is not beholden to them and her practice allows her raise content in subtler ways than her supposed sources.
Nicole Eisenman's large portrait heads combined confrontational scale with unassuming demeanor. They confront Picasso with a sly rejoinder born of a contemporary eye. Her large frontal slabs of color are as precisely keyed as Sillman's, and the paint surface is as worked and rewarding of close inspection. In several of the paintings she has pasted ethnographic clippings onto the surface. Their shapes echo those built in paint, put they flicker irritatingly, causing a difficult shift in resolutions of scale as the dull grisaille of newsprint or Xerox tries to hide against oil paint, but sit on the surface pushing the space in the painting back. They continue to grate, itching the brain; the fact that I want them removed is probably why they're there. It is also an example of just how aware a critic must be of one's own biases. One of my favorite paintings by Eisenman, The Break up, has a similar format, but lacks additional collage. I found myself longing for its unadulterated surface, and spent time going back to see if I could get the artist's intent rather than trying to make them fit into my own preconceptions. Her Easter Island portraits make for a dynamic conversation with Mark Grohtjahn's mask paintings, which explode out with color and minute gesture – the mass is the same as Eisenman's, but built as a mosaic rather than a slab; we get to see to very different artists approaching a similar idea in very different ways. In Grohtjahn any sense of a source portrait is obliterated in a flurry of paint. His works are not without their own material quirks. Impasto paint curls around stretched linen, but the paint is actually on cardboard. If you look carefully you can detect the slight deflection of the surface plane away from the wall in one of the panels.
These sorts of material inconsistencies and deviations from "pure" painting run throughput the work in the show. Greenberg's purity of medium was being discarded almost as quickly as it was becoming established dogma, and what a painting is made out of is considered only when it is blatantly foregrounded by the work, and then if it is so obvious the work usually falls flat. Rashid Johnson's scratches in soap and wax fail for inserting a Twombly-esque distraction where none is needed[7]; if the resonance of the materials and their importance to the artist's cultural and ethnic experience is the central point then shouldn't the simple act of just matter-of-factly putting them on the surface be enough? Trying to make it look like art seems more self-conscious and is ultimately unconvincing. On the opposite end of a similar spectrum Richard Aldrich's wispy gestures are interesting as sketches writ large, an idea proposed quickly in the studio, but they do not read as full blown statements – it is here that we start to encounter the slippery slope of just how much work really is needed to make a painting.[8] It seems as if the critical eye may slide over some paintings that seem to easily made, too strategized into being. By contrast Dianna Molzan breaks apart the components of a painting to make charming and inventive objects that inject personal idiosyncrasy into the cool ontology of the painting as object. Every aspect of her wry objects is carefully considered[9], and this investment results in a warmth and humor in a small scale object[10] that stands up to an empire of large canvases.
Twombly's influence runs deep through the exhibition, like a common genetic marker. His off-handed and scrawling gesture is a common antecedent to Provisionalism and other strains of the abject in contemporary painting.[11] Critics have not laid the blame at his doorstep, but he is the precursor for the aesthetic developments that are the most troubling to the old guard. He heralds the obsolescence of virtuosity, the divorce of the monumental work matched to a grand statement. To put it another way, when Richard Serra called Twombly the bravest person in modern art for taking on Pollock with only a pencil, the other side of this is that it was possible not only to take on Pollock with only a pencil, but to win. In winning he shifted the stakes and scope away from the tortures of labor and towards the academics of abstraction. He removed doubt[12] from the process of making a painting that was an anathema to Guston and deKooning. It's instructive to compare his Treatise on the Veil to Forever Now and see just how much contemporary painting falls under his influence. There are other such giants that loom over painting (Polke comes to mind) but Forever Now's focus on abstraction is what foregrounds Twombly.
Perhaps the most surprising comparison to Twombly is Julie Mehertu, who has covered her trademark precise pen line with flicks of brushed ink. It's as if turbulent weather and atmosphere has descended to surround her previous architectural subjects. In the larger painting on view it is possible to discern her more standard pictorial language in earlier layers, giving these works the feeling that they were unsatisfactory works that were treated as salvage experiments. They also seem to come out of the small scale (and definitely less-produced) paintings in her recent solo show at Mariam Goodman, but whether they represent a new direction or merely a tangent in her practice, they stand out for how they relate to the exhibition's curatorial conceit. Mehertu's iconic works are steeped in the relationships of systems and the transfer of information across global networks; there is a robust thread connecting them to the digital references the concept of the atemporal suggests (and William Gibson's writings practically demand), but Hoptman's focus is on the recycling and reclamation of images and references rather than the mechanisms and infrastructure of that transfer. As such whatever formal turns Mehertu takes, the comparison of the exhibition is limited to surface similarities of the aesthetic qualities of the objects themselves and not to exploring the deeper implications of the interactions.[13]
Collector's darling and critical whipping boy Oscar Murillo is presenting his paintings for the first time in New York. Given the arc and design of his career it would seem to raise expectations perhaps beyond what the paintings can support.[14] Murillo seems aware of the possible bind, and his interest in moving his art past just being pretty pictures on the wall is on view in a pile of unstretched canvases left lying in the corner to be dragged around and rearranged by the show's visitors. The gesture speaks to a common desire by painters, especially those working abstractly, to be taken seriously and express something beyond mere decoration.[15] Murrilo's answer is to allow the viewer to interact with his works as he does before they are finally stretched. There is a frission to be found in touching and moving works in a museum, however the artist's studio is not necessarily an ideal arena for viewing art, and importing its processes into a museum trivializes his choices rather than lending them gravitas. Instead of revealing thought and process they become just an opportunity for the audience to take selfies. The gesture also feels arbitrary, as his stretched paintings on the walls are not out of place with the rest of the exhibition.[16] The bruised surfaces and casually gestural compositions belie an elegant colorist with a keen sense for collage and editing together fragments to form a cohesive whole; his integration of the separate parts and seams are much more integrated into his overall process and the resulting paintings than Albert Oehlen's recent exhibition with a similar focus. The youngest artist in the show, he is emblematic of the potential problems of a new, metastasized art market that limits judgment to such a narrow career arc, without allowances for growth or change.
Forever Now is MoMA's first exhibition of painting in 30 years, but beyond the imprimatur it is neither encyclopedic or revolutionary; instead it continues a line of exploration that maps trends and similarities in Postmodern painting. High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967 – 1975 at the Whitney Museum explored how painting turned towards objecthood in the wake of Minimalism and the advent of Postmodernism. Cheim and Read presented Reinventing Abstraction, a less known history of the 70's and 80's as a source of continuing rehabilitation of abstraction in painting during a period when Neo-expressionism crested into a second wave of conceptual art; it showed painting that was being made in studios the last time MoMA put on a painting show, and illustrated just how much influence can shift and change. In the vein of the shifting landscape of criticism and fashion, one should also consider the Whitney's Remote Veiwing (Invented Worlds in Recent Painting and Drawing), which explored contemporary painting's relation to dense and personal networks of information.[17] An exhibition a decade past, its links and history organize a thesis that is not dissimilar to that of Forever Now, but with a drastically different focus. The network of Remote Viewing leads to practices of labor-intensive detail, to an exhaustive search for a framework that will mesh with a personal vision. Forever Now references the contemporary Internet, where the birth and appropriation of images are midwifed by brand identities and the ease of cutting and pasting over a wi-fi connection. That so much of Forever Now seems to fall flat[18] may point to this ease of execution; as labor is devalued across the economy, the less demand there is for works of art that grate with a material density that cannot be easily replicated by a JPEG or digital scan, but the most successful works on view maintain their material reality as paintings. This remains true throughout the medium's history, no matter the whims of the bazaar.
The essay concludes in Part 3.
[1] Conveniently coinciding with the exhibition title, entrance to the show is not timed.
[2] Which is not dissimilar from the large gallery spaces where most of this work is exhibited.
[3] A strategy well known in the design retail stores.
[4] Most of the works lock in at a large, but not overwhelming scale.
[5] Who could only get close to head-like lumps when working abstractly.
[6] Who made the abstraction of the figure the entire subject, the figure was the space of the painting, never really in it.
[7] Johnson's inclusion is curious as he is primarily known for much stronger sculptural work, and the "paintings" included are a minor strain in his practice. These works fit with the exhibition in a way that one of his mirrored shelving reliefs do not, but that speaks more to his being included as a broader marker representing his practice; this in turn points to a possible agenda not encoded in the works themselves.
[8] I'm reminded of deKooning stepping back and wondering if his start could contain a picture, and it seems like for Aldrich the answer is not only "Yes" but also "…and it's done."
[9] Just examine the care and detail in the construction of her stretchers. The more common commercial stretcher builds would interrupt the delicate geometries she creates.
[10] And they are objects as opposed to pictures; their depth and the relation of the inside to the outside are inherent to them in a way that separates them from "Painting" proper.
[11] Much like Richard Tuttle in sculpture.
[12] Think of the references to graphitti that abound around his work and consider the confidence of his marks as someone stepping up to a wall with limited time and no room for doubt.
[13] I do not think it was necessarily a good idea to hang Mehertu's paintings adjacent to Rashid Johnson's works. The superficial similarities, albeit played out in contradictory materials (ink separated by isolating layers of acrylic vs. the earthy weight of soap and wax) are a facile comparison. It would have been just as obvious to hang Jacob Kassay's silver mirrors across from Johnson, if he had been included.
[14] Then again, maybe not. One can also look at the recent trend of museum-quality shows in commercial (mega)galleries and then think that maybe David Zwirner has a much cannier strategy mapped out (remember the giant killer robots mentioned in the notes of Part 1? They're coming in Part 3).
[15] It is nearly impossible to circumvent such criticism, but perhaps painters would be better off reading this than importing a Columbian chocolate factory to 19th Street for a month.
[16] It may be a litmus test for how you feel about the show and contemporary painting in general if you consider that to be a good thing or bad thing.
[17] It is startling to read contemporary criticism of the show and to see the nascent fragmentation of painting as a medium and similar concerns that are the same after so much time. Perhaps there is an origin for Provisionalism in Vernacular abstraction, or at least a historical precedent.
[18] There is always room for curatorial kvetching: I would've cut Bradley and Josh Smith and replaced them with R.H. Quaytman and Joanne Greenbaum.


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Books 100 - 81
The written word is an amazing thing. It can be entertaining, instructive, or even revolutionary. It can make you laugh, cry, and cheer, often at the same time. Books can show you new worlds and redefine old ones. Most importantly, however, books can inspire you and change your life. This list, while not definitive, is the Beliefnet editors' attempt to bring together the 100 most inspirational books ever written.
But what, exactly, makes a book inspirational? As we combed through hundreds and hundreds of works, we found that to be a difficult question to answer. For example, take the great spiritual works that are treasured by the world's major religions. Which book should hold the number one spot? Entire wars have been fought over the answer to that question! And since the goal of this list is to inspire you and not to incite heated religious debate, we made the explicit choice to leave such books off of the list entirely. You're not going to find the Bible or the Koran on here, despite the fact that they are considered an inspiration to hundreds of millions of people around the globe.
Many of the books on this list were extremely divisive, with some editors arguing for them and others against them. Very few of our selections had 100% approval across the board. Ultimately, however, we decided that if the book had been deeply inspirational to at least one person, if they could argue for why that book changed them profoundly, it deserved a spot on the list.
We will be debuting a new section of this list each week for the next six weeks, leading up to our selection of the number one most inspirational book. You'll rediscover old stories you had forgotten about and find new, inspiring gems you've never heard of. We hope you enjoy reading this list as much as we enjoyed putting it together.


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Western Civilization Since 1560: The Continuing Experiment
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005 - History - 608 pages
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A Revolution in France During the Enlightenment 581
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Western Civilization: The Continuing Experiment, Volume 1
Barry S. Strauss,Thomas F. X. Noble,William Cohen
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Roca Malaga 1700 X 700Mm Gripped Bath 2 Tap Holes
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baby feet
studio; available light; scanned from film; toned in photoshop
Uploaded on April 06, 2007
Copyright for this gallery photo belongs solely to Vik Orenstein. Images may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the photographer.
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Ya'll are gotta get a load of this. It's rare that one person can generate an entire column with his email exchange, but that's what happened this month. The curious thing is that I was already preparing a column about men's obsession with dick size when along comes this dude and practically writes the whole damn column on his own.
Check it out!
Dr. Dick,
My lover of 10 years just left me. The guy he left me for is 12 years younger. I will be forty-one in June. The primary reason that he left is because, and I quote; "you have a great body and are the most attentive lover I have ever had, but he has a ten inch dick! You cannot compete with that!" And he is right. I am only 7.5.
I have stopped going out. Every chat room online has guys that are 10 plus inches in them. So I have not been in chat rooms, gone to bars or stayed in touch with friends. The two guys I attempted to have sex with, one was a stripper who was on the cover of Inches the week after we met. The other one was an army guy that had a dick like a piece of polish sausage.
I never have been a fan of huge cocks, but now I want one. I want to be at least 9.5 inches. Can this be done through surgery? I understand that vacuum pumps do not really work.
Can you seriously offer some help or advice?
— Without a Big One
Wow, WABO, you've come up with a really brilliant idea. Let's all of us fight shallow with shallow!
Honey, you're 41 and yet you apparently still have this adolescent GRASP on the whole dick size thing, huh? Too bad! I guess some folks just never grow up. And I hate to break the news to you, but all those guys on line, the ones with 10 inches…those are cyber inches, darlin. Cyber inches have no connection at all to real honest-to-goodness LIVE inches. Jeez, wake up and smell the coffee. You're giving us homos a bad name.
Throughout history, men have obsessed about the size of their cocks. And when there's attention of this magnitude paid to something this trivial, you can be sure there's gonna be an entire industry poised to bilk the shit out of the willie worrisome, like you WABO. Hey, where do you suppose the term "snake oil" originated? Sheesh!
All of this unfortunate big-dick envy creates a never-ending parade of con artists tryin' to sell a remedy, of one sort or another, to cure guys, just like you, of their "shame". But, take it from Dr. Dick, the dick doctor; it's all bullshit. And some of the bullshit is really scary and dangerous bullshit.
For every little peanut out there, (and if you are reporting your size accurately, you're not little in any way shape or form) there is some kooky diet, ridiculous cream, bogus massage technique or worthless breathing exercise that is supposed to transform one's mini-meat into the giant economy size. And let's not forget the weights you can hang on your thang. Vacuum devices to pump up your thang. And of course the twenty-first century solution — cosmetic surgery — to put a happy face on your thang. The results are dubious if there are any results at all. And each has negative side effects, some of which are more revolting than others.
Here's the last word on this — don't waste your money on any of this crap. Or better yet, send me the money, and I'll put it to good use. Here's the very best advice I can offer a guy who is unhappy about the size of his schlong…learn to love what ya got and leave it the hell alone.
My overriding concern, WABO, is for your state of mind. I ask myself, what kind of person would chase after a faithless BF, disrupt an established value system and seriously contemplate physically altering his appearance with all the risks that that implies? I can only assume that this is just some kind of mid-life crisis that you're experiencing and that this will pass with time. Hang in there, WABO.
Dr. Dick
Or should I say Dr. Dick, although I am angry and hurt I am in no way experiencing a mid life crisis. In addition, if the correct way to measure the penis is from the base to tip topside…I have done so with a fabric tape measure. The tape breaks, or bends at just past 7.5. In my experience that is small.
Just curious…How big is Dr. Dick's cock? How big are the cocks of the guys you hire for you films and productions. I bet there are none my size or smaller. I always find it interesting that guys like Ron Jeremy or the late Scott O'Hara delving out advice to men much smaller telling them to learn to love themselves. Gee that helps a lot at a bathhouse or a play party. Guys like that, like the guy my ex left me for, never have to worry about dropping there pants after a hot date with a potential boyfriend or fuck buddy and worry about being humiliated because of the size of there cock.
I guess if I were as well adjusted or as well hung it wouldn't be a problem.
— Without
Dear Without,
Here's what I know.
WHAT IS THE AVERAGE PENIS SIZE? The average penis size when erect is only 5.7″ to 6″. Over 90% of men posses this size.
HOW TO MEASURE PENIS SIZE: The easiest way to measure the erect penis is to use a piece of string or similar and wrap it around the thickest part of the erect penis – this is usually very near the base of your dick, but the glans just below the head can sometimes be thicker.
Make a mark on the string where it meets the start of the string and then lay the string flat next to a ruler and measure the distance between the beginning and the end mark. This measurement is your penis circumference.
To find out your length, use a ruler (running along the top of your penis) to measure from the base of the penis, i.e. where the shaft meets the body, to the tip.
Dr. Dick
Dr. Dick,
I was able to find your profile online. You are quite obviously very well hung. Lucky for you. I have decided to talk to a surgeon in NYC that does this particular surgery. In addition, he is putting me in touch with men that he has performed this procedure on that have had success.
Since you are already hung well, I don't expect you to understand. I imagine no one has ever left you because your dick was not BIG ENOUGH! I had hoped for some real and helpful advice. Instead I found your comments belittling.
Thank you,
Dear WABO
Dude, are you serious? You don't know squat about me, girlfriend. And here's a tip, the beauty part of free advice is you can either take it or leave it.
Belittling, huh? Curious choice of words in light of what we're discussing. Take it from a professional; it is you who belittle yourself, not me. A big dick makes one a curiosity, it doesn't make one interesting.
Have a ball with that surgeon. Maybe, if you spend a shit lot of money to get an extra inch of dick you'll be a happier man. I doubt it, but I could be wrong.
While you're at it, why not have the doctor put you in touch with the guys who aren't success stories. Have you ever seen a botched dick job? Not pretty! I'd be willing to wager the cost of such an intervention that there are a lot more dissatisfied customers than satisfied ones.
The best of luck to you. Oh, and have a nice day.
Dr. Dick
Are you a real Doctor? Would you be this insensitive if I were a paying patient? I have lost my lover to someone younger because he has a bigger cock. I have not had sex in months. The two times I tried the guys were hung huge. I don't go out and I see no possible chance for happiness without being able to compete.
Tried three therapists…one fell asleep while I was crying. One said I was too angry for his experience, the last one was a woman. What do I do?
Here's what you should do, WABO, drop all this pathetic self-pity routine and invest in something that will make you a more interesting person, something that does not call attention to your dick regardless of its size. Either that or you'll find yourself even more alone and bitter than you currently are. So buck up, bubby, and pull yourself together. No more whining.


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We are still looking for worthy companies to nominate for the 2nd Annual MAKE Magazine Maker Industry Awards, to be voted on by YOU and presented at World Maker Faire. We're looking for nominees in the categories of Most Hackable Gadget, Most Repairable, and Best Documentation.
The idea behind the Makeys is to nominate mainstream companies (not makers or small maker businesses) that are serving the needs and interests of the maker movement and celebrating them. Last year's winners included Microsoft (for the Kinect) and Parallax (for their educational programming).
We especially need candidates in the documentation and repair categories. Please share any ideas in the comments below. You can find out more about the Makeys here.


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Plugin Review – Leaky Paywall
Plugin Author, License, And Pricing: Created by the same folks who created the IssueM plugin. The plugin is licensed under the GPL and has three different pricing tiers. Single site for $55.00, 2-5 sites for $75.00 and 6-25 sites for $95.00. Description And Review: Leaky Paywall takes a different approach (more…)


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Are you looking to make a difference in a child's life? A child without a home needs your help! Due to their transient lifestyles, many of these children miss months of school at a time. Help these kids get back on track by tutoring a student one hour a week. We believe that education is key to breaking the cycle of homelessness.
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text:
- Introduction
- Unit1 Beginner1
Unit1 Intermediate1
- Sleep Survey(上班族睡眠调查)
- Employment(留学生就业状况)
- Tibetan Tourism
- New US Unemployment
- A Survey on New Office Lady
- To Be Yourself
- The Old Hunting Dog(老猎狗)
- The Old Lady and the Doctor(老奶奶与医生)
- Philosophy of Life
- I Like Pop-music
- Misunderstanding
- Chinese Valentine's Day
- Cultural Difference
- Anxiety in Summer Holiday
- Barcelona Bus was Attacked
- Rent Increases in Beijing
- Life after Earthquake
- Top Judo Black Belt Rank
- TV & Lifetime
- Apple's Spaceship HQ
Unit2 Intermediate2
- Romantic Valentine's Day
- Researchers Grow New Teeth
- Sudan Captures Rebel
- Strange Market
- ICRC in Somalia
- Sun City in South Africa
- Miracle Accident Survival
- Strange Two-headed Snake
- The Largest Lego Park
- Man Hikes for 11 Years
- King of Bhutan Got Married
- Nobel Prize in Physics
- The Haier Company
- Attacks in Nigeria
- Quake in Southeast Turkey
- Population Breaks 7 Billion
- China Unmanned Spacecraft
- Kyrgyz Presidential Vote
- Libya's New Interim Prime
- More Attacks in Nigerian
Unit3 Intermediate3
- Pakistan & India
- Yemeni Forces & Opposition
- Probe Into Election Fraud
- Riots In Kazakhstan
- Winter Storm in US
- Britian Oppose New Treaty
- Syria Deaths Exceed 4000
- Cuba to Pardon Prisoners
- Philippines Flood
- North Koreans Mourn
- US & Pakistani
- US Calls on Iran to Return Downed Drone
- Aussie Sharks'Evolving'
- Fires in Southern Chile
- Spain Deficit Grow
- Ban Iranian Oil Imports
- Damascus Misleading Observers
- Fighter Jet
- Sending Arab Troops to Syria
- S&P Downgrades French Credit Rating
Unit4 Intermediate4
- Taliban&US Negotiators
- US Citizens Seek Refuge
- Shooting at French School
- Barred From Leaving Brazil
- Egypt's Copts Mourn Pope Shenouda
- April Space Launch
- Threaten of Re-election
- Ethiopia & Eritrea
- Greece on 'Knife Edge'
- IMF Approves New Loan
- Arrest Warrant & Sudan Defense Minister
- Israeli Air Strikes
- Obama: Economic Recovery is Speeding Up
- Summit of the Americas Opens
- Afghan Civilian Deaths Rising Up
- US Economic Growth Slows
- North Korean Firms are Sanctioned
- NYC Subway Bombing
- French Journalist Kidnapped
- French & Election Outcome
Unit5 Intermediate5
- An village named Fucking
- Earth Hour
- Foot Power Charge Phone
- Herding effect and Groupon
- Olympic Motto Revealed
- The Youngest Entrepreneur
- Still in Love after 77 years
- Junk food adverts banned
- The Hottest Chili
- Beer Flows from House Taps
- Brando Could Have Played Me in Movie
- Driver Has Transformed Cab into Hotel
- Facebook Provides Platform
- Japanese could Extinct
- NZ will Higher T Taxes
- RIM will Lay off 5,000
- Humor and Survival
- The Wealth of Information
- Wiki Places in Dictionary
- The Last-name Effect
Unit6 Intermediate6
- 75% Britons Want Boris
- A Man was Arrested
- Adidas Closed Factories in China
- Couples go to work together
- Curse of Cameron
- New Rules of Miss Italia Beauty Contest
- The World's Third Richest Man
- Suspect will be charged
- The Olympic Family
- Pored through An Ex'Page
- A Scientist was Framed
- Amazon has Unveiled Kindle
- Signs have Caused Accidents
- Breakfast Time is Short
- Britons Love Mushrooms
- Coldwater Helps Slimming
- Flexible Phone will be Invented
- Google+ Opens signups
- iPod will Become Karaoke
- JK Rowling Launched Potteromore
Unit7 Intermediate7
- Justin Celebrated Selena's Birthday
- Most Countries Prefer to Obama Re-elected
- Obama was winned
- Selling Breast Milk Online
- Scientists have been Sentenced
- Smart Phone Increases 2 Hours
- Sony has Unleashed Tablet P
- Longest Time to Work
- What's the Best Time to Send Email
- Your Commute is Killing You
- Subway in Tokyo are packed
- "Sacred mountains" were banned by France
- Residency permit will be offering
- Australian Asian White Paper Made Mistakes
- Harrowing Competition is Underway
- MoYan Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature
- Foreign language can help brain
- Bread stays mould-free for 60 days
- Switzerland is the best place to be born
- Music lessons are a waste of money
Unit8 Intermediate8
- 'Chinese jaywalking' will be fined
- Student's actions in earthquake
- 'IPad house' can write tweets
- Street stalls by white-collar workers
- Beijing drifters
- Doze off
- Golden toilet paper
- The problem of spoiling the only child
- Starbucks gets accused
- Internet idioms
- Online shopping carnival
- Budget travel
- The campaign of accepting being the obesed
- Robot suicide
- Air Pollution Has Caused a Series of Ripple Effects
- Starpath
- Li-Fi
- Will Do More Housework Help Gain Weight More Easily
- Chinese have more interests in local films
- On-line tutoring
Unit9 Intermediate9
- Yu'e Bao has become the fourth-biggest money market fund in the world
- Time off Work to Give Birth Is the Leading Cause for Employers' Sexism to Women
- Plan of longer working in China will be published before 2020
- White-Collar Workers Meet with Work Jacked
- Yogurt Helps Prevent Diabetes
- One's Senses Could Be Altered When He/She Falls In Love
- User-defined Emoticons
- China Plans to integrate the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region
- Interests rate would be fully liberalized within one or two years in China
- Blood Test Can Diagnose the Common Cancers
- Ten Thousands of People Gather to Celebrate Water Splashing Festival
- Public Square Dancing VS High-pitched Audio System
- The U.S. dramas Might Be Going to Be Forbidden
- The Second Season of "A Bite of China" Has Been Televised
- Cambridge University Selwyn master keeps 'banned' dog as 'very large cat'
- Duchess of Cambridge 'wants to have three children'
- Billionaire, 81, marries blonde, 24
- McDonald's unveils new slogan in a campaign to spread happiness
- The baby who started smiling even before he was born
- Obama: Americans want 'new car smell' in 2016
Unit10 Intermediate10
- Study finds average bloke switches off after just six minutes of chatting
- India is to introduce secure 'tourist carriages' on trains
- Who Discovered the New World?
- Water Skier Lili Chen
- Do you own an iPhone? Then you're SMARTER than an Android user
- Wikipedia to be beamed into space so aliens can learn about the human race
- Why being unable to stand noisy eaters might make you a genius
- An Lee predicts Chinese box office will outgrow US
- Rabbit café hops into operation in Hong Kong
- Shanghai Mall opens husband nursery
- Christmas in China
- Happiness lies in contentment
- Love Traveling(喜爱旅行)
Unit11 Advanced1
- Japan After Disaster-School
- Japan After Disaster-Economy
- China Raised Interest Rate
- Chinese Low Price Production
- Chinese Father&Son Relationship
- The Second Consumption Country
- Friendship
- Internet Time and Family Time
- Working and Marriage
- Leonardo Da Vinci Painting
- Autodyne Cardiac Surgery
- To Escape from Working Plight
- Women Love Pink
- Reunion of Classmates
- Obama has Visited the Flood Zone
- Pippa Middleton's new book released
- Prince Charles talked throne with smile
- Philip Roth announced retirement
- Treadmill desk is popular
- Shanghai 'most popular city' for migrants
Unit12 Advanced2
- Hello Kitty at 40: How she conquered the world
- Top 9 things never to do in China (Part One)
- Top 9 things never to do in China (Part Two)
- Is this the end of pink for girls and blue for boys?
- Chinese President Xi hosts and addresses the 22nd APEC Economic Leaders'
- Selfies see demand for plastic surgery in search of the picture perfect look
- Forget breathalyzers - software that analyses your SPEECH could soon stop you dr
- Despite High-Profile Tragedies, Air Safety Remains Tight, Say Experts
- Switching on outside office risks relationships, psychologists find
- US Government Encourages States to Raise Educational Standards
- Aircraft Carriers and the National Health Index
- Traveling
- Be Wary From Chilly Politics and a Hot Economy to Chilly Politics and a Chilly E
- Finland Schools Ditch 'Subjects' – Topics Will Be Discussed Instead
- Gravity Payments CEO takes 90% pay cut to give workers huge raise
- Chinese students shocked Canada: a suite earned 6 million
- Russian teen pop "train surfing"
Learning Chinese(学中文)
|我觉得这几年中国的变化太大了,建起了那么多漂亮的高楼。我现在长大了, 回中国后可以到其他城市旅游。我去过北戴河、西安、上海。今年冬天我去了香港, 夏天还要去山东威海。妈妈说要让我每年认识一到两个中国城市。
|Expressions for Reference参考词语


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VERGENNES — Two Vergennes Police Department members, one Vermont State Police trooper from the New Haven barracks and two police canines from those agencies are set to make cameos on this week's episode of "Golden Boy," a CBS show that debuted in February.
Vergennes Police Chief George Merkel and his dog, Akido; Vermont State Police Sgt. Eugene Duplissis and his canine, Argus; and Vergennes detective Jason Ouellette were all invited to New York City in October to film brief appearances in the show.
VERGENNES — Addison Northwest Supervisory Union voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected a combined total of $6.2 million in bonding designed to improve the Vergennes Union High School building and athletic fields.
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Local historian Dr. Lonnie Blizzard has written a series of stories about the First Battle of Kinston, which took place Dec. 13-14, 1862; those stories will appear today through Saturday in The Free Press.
By late fall 1862, Gen. John G. Foster, commander of the Union forces at New Bern, had built the strength of his forces to about 18,000. He was ready to move further inland and try to cut off supply routes to the Confederate troops in Virginia.
On Dec. 11, 1862 � 150 years ago today � on what was described as a �splendid winter morning,� Foster ordered the expedition to proceed. His forces for the march numbered about 12,000, including 10,000 infantry, 300 pioneers (black troops), 40 pieces of artillery, 640 cavalry and more than 200 supply wagons.
The 3rd New York Cavalry was dispatched as scouts on the advance and on the side of the march. They were to act as provost guards to protect homes and probe the Confederate defenses.
Foster took Trent Road west from New Bern. The Confederates obstructed his way by falling trees, burning bridges and setting up pickets. Foster was not pleased because he only advanced 14 miles on the first day. The column of troops was more than four and a half miles long.
Today, Trent Road out of New Bern is Trent Boulevard. It intersects with U.S. 17 and roughly follows it to Ten Mile Fork. There, Trent Road follows Ten Mile Fork Road across N.C. 41, where it changes its name to Wyse Fork Road.
About four miles west of Ten Mile Fork, Foster ordered his troops to make camp. During the night, some of the infantry advanced through the swamps to within three miles of Trenton. They engaged a company of Confederate troops and battled for a short time. A number of Confederates were killed or wounded, including the company captain. Four Union soldiers were taken prisoner by the Confederates and two were wounded.
The night was cold, especially for the troops trying to get their rest in bed rolls and sleeping out in the open. In fact, the water in their containers froze during the night. They were awakened the next morning to the sound of drumbeats. Roaring fires were built from rail fencing. It warmed the men and thawed their water. After a hearty breakfast of hardtack and coffee, Foster ordered the march to continue.
Meanwhile, the pioneers, working with the engineers, had pushed forward during the night, clearing trees the Confederates had cut across the road and rebuilding wooden bridges that had been burned.
In 1862, Trent Road forked near Sasser�s Mill. The road leading drictly to Kinston was called Lower Trent Road and it intersected with Dover Road at Wyse Forks. The Upper Trent Road today is Middle Road and it intersects N.C. 58 at Leslie White�s Store. Both roads cross Southwest Creek, which was the Confederates� outer line of defense for Kinston.
Two other roads also led into Kinston: the Neuse Road and the Wilmington Road, which is now U.S. 258.
Breakout box:
A look at history
Local historian Dr. Lonnie Blizzard has written a series of stories about the First Battle of Kinston, which took place Dec. 13-14, 1862; those stories will appear today through Saturday in The Free Press. There are also two opportunities for you to interact with history:
First Battleof KinstonPowerPoint presentation
When: 3 p.m. Thursday
Where: Kinston-Lenoir County Visitors and Information Center, 101 E. New Bern Road
First Battleof Kinstonbus tour
When: 1 p.m. Friday
Where: Visitors center
Contact: Call 252-522-0004 by Wednesday for reservations


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Bloomberg: Biden's got 'balls'
Rupert Murdoch should encourage Fox News to focus on immigration reform. President Obama should be on notice that he'll face tougher criticism in the coming months. And Joe Biden has "a set of balls."
( PHOTOS: An interview with Bloomberg)
Story Continued Below
So pronounced New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a free-ranging POLITICO interview in his bullpen-style office at City Hall recently. He held forth on his efforts to move the dial on guns, immigration and gay marriage — an issue on which he lavished praise, in his unique rhetorical way, on the vice president.
"You know, Joe Biden — you can joke about him all you want, [but] he's got a set of balls, and he says what he believes," Bloomberg said. "And he forced the focus [on gay marriage]."
(PHOTOS: Joe Biden's first term: A BFD)
He added sardonically: "I'm sure the president was evolving and was about to do it anyways. But Biden deserves the credit. He should be the hero of the pro-gay marriage community."
It was high praise from Bloomberg, who's never been one to feign political politesse.
He also said Obama should have dealt with gay marriage during his first year in office, instead of waiting.
"I'm a big believer in, you need time to fix it or let the public become convinced it's a good idea, or to cancel it and get over the damage before your next election," he said. "If you wait, it invariably comes up at the wrong time, aka gay marriage. Would have been better off [doing it on] Day One."
( Also on POLITICO: Bloomberg's Washington footprint explodes)
The billionaire businessman-turned-politician is finishing his final year in office, after a maneuver to extend term limits so he could run again in 2009 angered voters – but not enough to throw him out of office.
Over the past two years, Bloomberg has become more engaged in issues with national impact and expanded an already-full portfolio but that also relate to some of New York City's more pressing concerns. Gun control tops the list.
"The question, really, is has the public changed its views and will they keep focused? We have a very short attention span in America," Bloomberg said of the focus on guns in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre.


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It has always been this way.USWNR has three tiers: called T1, T3 and T4.Because of the obviously missing T2 and the nice even number of schools in the top tier, law students, profs and anyone else who give a crap about this stuff add an imaginary T2 to the mix.So, while TECHNICALLY the University of Louisville (Brandeis) is a tier 1 school, no one (except maybe U of L students themselves) would consider them that.
So what's your point? Are the top 100 Tier 1 or what?
According to US News, the top 100 is Tier 1. It says it right there in their rankings system.


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Active.com names Personal Savers to their Fall Gear Picks for 2011
Posted on October 17th, 2011
Share this posting, you could help save a life, some day.
By Coach Jenny Hadfield
For Active.com
Fall is the perfect time to run outdoors and take in the foliage. As the temperatures begin to drop and the light hours fade away, it's important to be seen, run safely and layer optimally. Check out what's new in the fall gear guide.
M4RBR = Made for runners by runners
NATHAN VITAband (Available October 21, 2011)
It's a wrist band that multitasks on the run. The NATHAN VITAband is identification and cash – on your wrist. It delivers secure electronic health records for medical personnel to access and features a wireless prepaid contactless payment technology via a VISA Prepaid PayWave chip. It includes a fully updatable personal profile, secure Visa payment platform, and an emergency response profile including name, emergency contact, drug allergies, medical conditions, and insurance information.
Available in two sizes: Small and Large $20 [M4RBR]
Personal Savers – Lightweight and Convenient Pepper Spray
A product even McGyver would be proud of, Personal Savers are revolutionizing the way you protect yourself while enjoying your favorite activities. There are three models: the Personal Saver that can be clipped onto your running belt, the Wrist Saver that can be worn while running, and the Cycle Saver that attaches to your handle bars. They offer a highly functional design with an easy-twist lock top, special holster for easy access, a powerful 10-foot spray, LED light, highly reflecting edging, I.D. card, and an LED light that enhances your visibility from as far as one mile away. The pepper spray is extracted from cayenne peppers and creates an intense burning sensation on the eyes, skin and throat and can cause an attacker's senses to temporarily shut down and give you time to get away.
$12.95 [M4RBR], http://personalsavers.com/
APALS-AIR Adhesive LED Light Strips
All Purpose Adhesive Light Strips with Active Illumination Reflective Technology (APALS™-AIR), are micro-thin LED light strips that operate in three modes: fast strobe, slow strobe and steady on. They are lightweight and great for running, cycling, or even walking the dog. They can be seen from up to a 1/4 mile away and have a heavy duty adhesive back that can be placed anywhere, from the back of your running shoes to your jacket, helmet or hat. They can go the distance with an operation time from 35 to 70 hours.
$10 – two-pack, http://www.brite-strike.com/APALS-AIR.html
Knuckle Lights
There's a new way to light your path and be seen on your next run in the dark. Knuckle Lights are designed to be worn on the front on your hands. This puts them in the perfect position to light the path in front of you on a run. The lights strap comfortably to your hands so you don't have to hold on and are fully adjustable for a custom fit. They move with the natural motion of your arms and put out a wide flood beam of light in all directions assuring a nice, even light versus a small spot on the ground like many headlights.
$39.99 [M4RBR], http://www.knucklelights.com/
FlashBrite Stick-On Reflective Patches
Founded by a mom to keep kids in sight, FlashBrite stick-on patches are made of 3M™ Scotchlite™Reflective Material. They increase your visibility at night by reflecting light directly back to its source so you can be seen from 1,000 feet away. They are inexpensive, convenient to wear and come in a variety of fun shapes and themes.
$3.99 for a two-pack
pepper spray for biking , pepper spray for joggers , pepper spray for running , pepper spray for women , bikes pepper spray
posted on: http://www.facebook.com/personalsavers
A Personal Saver Reminder
Posted on May 25th, 2011
Share this posting, you could help save a life, some day.
We wanted everyone to be aware that our general safety product, the Personal Saver can also be used to clip to your fuel belt or fanny pack while your working out. The Personal Saver pepper spray unit is an ideal running safety device, if you already wear a watch, heart rate monitor or GPS device. You can simply take off the key ring portion of the Personal Saver, clip it and go.
Buy pepper spray today at our store by clicking HERE.
pepper spray for runners, pepper spray for joggers and pepper spray for walkers


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Charlie Crist: Romney, Ryan "just aren't up to the task"
The biggest Florida speaker at the Democratic National Convention wasn't a Democrat.
After former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist's speech Thursday night, it's only a matter of time before he officially joins the party's ranks in a slow march to running for governor in two years.
Crist's high-profile role disturbed many Florida delegates, but it furthered President Obama's campaign message — that the Republican Party is too extreme.
"As a former lifelong Republican, it pains me to tell you that today's Republicans — and their standard-bearers, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan — just aren't up to the task," Crist said. "They're beholden to 'my way or the highway' bullies, indebted to billionaires who bankroll ads and allergic to the very idea of compromise."
Crist's speech was as much a condemnation of today's Republican Party as it was an explanation of why he's officially moving toward the Democratic Party and away from the conservative positions he once espoused.
Republicans and many Democrats alike won't let Crist forget he campaigned for years as a pro-life, anti-gay marriage, gun-touting "Reagan Republican" and "Jeb Bush Republican." In 2010, in his unsuccessful Senate bid, he bashed Obama's agenda and ran as a "true conservative."
"Is he here, and in this for his principles?" asked Democratic delegate Bob Hartnett of Orlando. "I've got a long time to think about that. But there are many others in this party qualified to lead and be onstage representing our people."
Crist said Thursday that he was addressing the convention "not as a Republican, not as a Democrat, but as an optimist." Crist referred to Bush in his speech as "my friend" — a comment sure to irk conservatives as well as Bush, who has described Crist as an opportunist.
Crist ran as a conservative in his first statewide race in 1998, when he unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate. With Bush's help, Crist was elected education commissioner, attorney general and, in 2006, governor where he governed as a centrist.
"Half a century ago, Ronald Reagan, the man whose relentless optimism inspired me to enter politics, famously said that he didn't leave the Democratic Party; the party left him," Crist said. "I can certainly relate. I didn't leave the Republican Party; it left me."
But the timing of Crist's departure from the Republican Party suggests a colder political calculation. He officially left the party just before a candidate-qualifying deadline in the 2010 Senate race.
Crist was running against fellow Republican Marco Rubio, and Crist would have handily lost the GOP primary. So he left the GOP and ran as an independent, though he ultimately lost the general election.
Crist's undoing in the GOP: The infamous "hug," his decision to appear onstage with Obama in 2009 in Fort Myers, where he literally embraced the president and the $787 billion stimulus program.
"That hug caused me more grief from my former party than you can ever imagine," Crist said. "But even as the Republican Party fought tooth and nail to stop him, this president showed his courage, invested in America — and saved Florida."
Crist was the only Republican governor to break ranks with his party to talk up the stimulus, which every GOP governor and Legislature wound up using to patch holes in their budget.
As the primary race intensified, Crist then flip-flopped on the stimulus, alternately bashing it and talking it up depending on the day or the media outlet he was addressing. Crist released a radio ad that bashed Obama for spending. The Florida Democratic Party later released a TV spot that questioned Crist's authenticity.
Crist brushed aside those differences Thursday night.
"I'll be honest with you, I don't agree with President Obama about everything.," Crist said. "But I've gotten to know him, I've worked with him, and the choice is crystal clear."
Crist credited Obama with not only saving the economy in Florida, but for fighting to ensure that BP cleaned up the Gulf Coast after the oil spill. Crist said nothing Thursday about the president's Affordable Care Act, which Crist once described as scary.
Crist's role at the Democratic National Convention underscores the weakness of the party in Florida, where only Sen. Bill Nelson holds a statewide seat. The Legislature is overwhelmingly Republican, even though registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state.
Democrats want a winner. They note that, as an independent, he garnered 1.6 million votes in 2010 to Rubio's 2.6 million. Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek came in third, with just over 1 million votes, the overwhelming majority of which would likely have gone to Crist had there not been a three-way race.
Meek won't rule out running for governor against Crist. Florida Senate Democratic leader Nan Rich, of Weston, is running. And former state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink might want a rematch against Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who narrowly beat her in 2010.
"If by some miracle Charlie Crist makes it out of the gauntlet of a Democratic primary even though he called himself a staunch conservative, he then has to run on his dismal record," said Scott's political advisor and pollster Tony Fabrizio, who ticked off the dismal economic indicators that unfolded on Crist's watch.
Former Miami Beach Democratic state Sen. Dan Gelber recently penned a column welcoming Crist to the party, and he chuckled at Republicans painting the former governor out as a flip flopper.
"Just a week ago," Gelber said, "Republicans nominated Mitt Romney, a former pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, anti-Reagan economic, self-described progressive who used to be concerned about global warming."
Crist steered clear of mentioning Romney's reversals, but he did echo the Democratic talking point that the Republicans "would break the fundamental promise of Medicare and Social Security" — a line of attack that could prove devastating in must-win Florida, a state with a disproportionate share of elderly residents.
Crist's speech was brief. Accustomed to having a fan at his side to keep cool, Crist didn't have the luxury on Thursday night and was on the cusp of breaking into a sweat on stage.
But he ended quickly and smoothly as he started to win the home crowd, noting "I used to play quarterback just down the road from here at Wake Forest University. My dad always told me, 'Charlie, it takes a cool head to win a hot game.'"
Crist said Obama had the "cool head" the nation needs.
"That's the leader Florida needs. That's the leader America needs," he said, as the crowd rose to its feet. "And that's the reason I'm here tonight."


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admin. Interior Design. November 17th , 2017.
The antique desk is just one option the world of antiques can offer to you, so you can provide functionality in the room while enhancing the feel and look in such a timelessly amazing way. There are various antique desk styles you can buy, such as writing and field one. Beauty aside, there are also options such as antique desk with hutch to extend the functionality. If you are considering adding one or two antique furniture pieces to your home, this article will come in handy. Today, we have some tips to guide you when buying antiques.
An antique desk can be called as antique rather than just old when it is at least 100 years old. On the other hand, vintage items are younger than that, typically 20 years old. Before you even start buying antiques, it's always good to educate yourself first. This way, you can prevent yourself being conned by seller claiming the desk antique while it's actually not. Reading books, signing up for a class, or visiting good antiques fairs, auctions or shops can provide a great way to accommodate you.
To find an antique desk, there are some places you can visit. Hunting for antiques can be done by visiting places such as antique stores and barns, where multiple sellers do the business together, flea markets, fairs, auctions, and estate sales. You can also buy the antique furniture online, such as from eBay, Craigslist, and 1stdibs. If you decide buying online, remember you need to pay for delivery cost. But you can use the "shop by location" feature to minimize the transportation cost, especially when you buy a bigger piece. Don't hesitate asking for additional information and return policy too.
Buying an antique desk turns out is relatively easy. Follow your instinct and feeling when you are shopping around. Listen to yourself too, especially when you decide to use the antiques or simply put them to display. When you find something you like, take a closer look and inspect for its condition. Note any stains, wobbly legs, cracks, and broken pieces, and ask the history of the desk to the seller.
Something truly fun about buying antique desk or other pieces is an opportunity for you to revamp the condition. But think first before you commit to renovate the worn piece. Will your budget allow it? Will your skill adequate enough to revamp the piece without affecting its value? If you are confident enough, you need to realize it.
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Barack Obama and gun advocates slammed Senators after the Manchin-Toomey proposal failed to get 60 votes on Wednesday, accusing opponents of caving to pressure from the gun lobby.
Eight senators broke from their parties in the vote. An analysis of their votes indicates a reelection concerns were more important than fealty to gun rights' lobbyists.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, joined the president in denouncing the vote. Bloomberg released a statement as part of Mayors Against Illegal Guns after the vote.
"Today's vote is a damning indictment of the stranglehold that special interests have on Washington," the group's statement said, according to ABC News. "More than 40 U.S. senators would rather turn their backs on the 90 percent of Americans who support comprehensive background checks than buck the increasingly extremist wing of the gun lobby."
Four Democrats broke from the majority of their party: Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Max Baucus of Montana, and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. Begich, Pryor, and Baucus all face reelection in 2014 in states that Mitt Romney won in 2012—by wide margins. Heitkamp represents a similarly deep red state, but will not face an election until 2018.
Gun data and NRA membership data are not readily available. However, most states have published lists of concealed carry firearm permits, which can serve as a rough measure of gun rights support in the states. Begich represents a state with a low per capita level of permits, according to data from a Government Accountability Office 2012 report. Pryor is in a higher than average state, while Baucus represents a state with an average number. Heitkamp's North Dakota did not provide data to the government.
Similarly, four Republicans broke from their party in their votes: The bill's co-sponsor, Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania, John McCain, from Arizona, Mark Kirk from Illinois, and Susan Collins from Maine. Only McCain represents a state that Romney won in 2012. Collins faces reelection in 2014. Only Toomey represents a state with high per capita concealed carry permits. In fact, Kirk, in Illinois, represents a state that does not allow concealed carry, though the state legislature will change this soon.
McCain's is the only vote out of all the eight senators who broke from their party that would be unwise from a reelection strategy.
Even looking at the money, seems to indicate that the gun rights lobby does not have a stranglehold on votes. Begich and Heitkamp received no contributions from gun rights lobbyists according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. The data stretches back to 2007. Pryor received a grand total of $2,000 and Baucus $8,000.
McCain and Toomey dwarf those totals with $14,450 and $11,000 respectively. Collins received $3100. Kirk received $500 from gun control lobbyists, a paltry sum in an age when Senate campaigns raises tens of millions.
Even had the Democrats all held rank, the vote would have fallen two short needed to move the measure forward. Political scientists Keith Poole and Christopher Hare wrote a blog post predicting Georgia senators Saxby Chambliss and Johny Isakson would have been the next most likely Republicans to support the measure. Both represent a state that Romney only won by a 7 percent margin and with above average per capita concealed carriers.
Below is a chart that shows a full list of all Senators, their votes, how their state voted in 2012, and the number of concealed carriers per 100,000 residents.
Recent polling shows a strong partisan divide on gun control. According to an April Quinnipiac Poll, only 29 percent of Republicans support stricter gun control, while 78 percent of Democrats support it. The same poll does show an overwhelming support for increased background checks, with even 88 percent of Republicans supporting.
During an intense political campaign, a vote on this measure would certainly be used against senators like Baucus, Pryor, and Begich, all of whom are certain to face difficult reelection battles in 2014. It may have been too much of a gamble to back a measure that could easily be distorted during a campaign into something voters in their states staunchly oppose.
Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada vote against the measure due to procedural rules. Reid can bring the measure back up for vote because of his vote.


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by Fmeaddons
WriteMind Kitchen Customizable – Cupcakes
An all-in-one, disc-bound kitchen organizer.
Offering the flexibility of a three ring binder, but the stylish and compact look of spiral binding, this disc-bound organizer will help keep your kitchen organized! Simply peel pages away from the disks, move them wherever they're needed in the organizer, and press them back in. Store and organize recipes, plan the week's meals, make shopping lists, track nutrition, food costs, leftovers, and more!
Most WriteMind orders ship within 5 business days.
Note: additional modules sold separately. Inquire about custom modules by contacting us.
This organizer includes the following:
- 8 black binding discs for ultimate flexibility. Add, remove, and move modules and individual pages with ease.
- An artistic, cheerful cover page protected by transparent poly covers for durability. Customize the text by leaving us a note at checkout (Order Notes box found on Billing Details page).
- "Please Return To:" page – When you've added your name and number (or email address) to this page, any good Samaritan will be able to make arrangements to return your planner!
- 20 To-Do list slips – slim pages with plenty of lines and checkboxes.
- 20 "All-Out-Of" slips – to help you track what groceries need replenishing
- 30 Recipe pages – with more space than a recipe card, these pages will help you keep the recipes you actually use in an easy-to-find, easy-to-use format.
- 6 months of Meal Planning calendars – plan out the week's meals. Space for notes. Undated. 28 pages total.
- Quick Reference Guide – help with those tricky measurement conversions.
- 10 Price Comparison Worksheets – track and note which store has the best price on your family's grocery staples.
- 10 Leftover Tracking Sheets – never again wonder if that chicken is too old! Waste less food! Put down the date each item was cooked and cross it out when it's used up.
- 15 Nutrition Tracking Sheets – what do you need to track? Protein intake? Calories? Carbs? Move one of these tracking sheets to be near the week's meal plan and see how you do!
- 8 Tabs – solid-colored tabs. 5 are printed with: Main Dishes, Side Dishes, Breakfasts, Slow Cooker, Desserts. 3 are blank so you can write in your own categories.
- 1 Poly Bookmark/Placefinder – quickly flip to a frequently visited location in your organizer with this durable poly bookmark. Extends 1/2″ above the top of the pages.
- 2 Page Protectors – shield open pages from food splatters when cooking! These clear plastic page protectors slide on from the side.
137 pages total.


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Make an Appointment at Family Medicine
Please call your Family Medicine clinic as far in advance as possible to schedule your appointments. This makes it easier for us to find a time that's convenient for you.
Appointment numbers are as follows:
- Family Medicine at Gabriel Park: 503-494-9992
- Family Medicine at Richmond: 503-418-3900
- Family Medicine at Scappoose: 503-418-4222
- Family Medicine at South Waterfront: 503-494-8573
- Walk-In Clinic: 503-418-1500
Be sure to register after you make your first appointment. Registration lets us collect basic information about you and create your medical record. It also helps each clinic correctly identify you and your medical information.
If your health plan restricts the clinics or providers you can use, be sure your plan has approved the healthcare you are requesting. This will help you avoid unexpected fees.
Information you will need when making an appointment
Your Family Medicine clinic will need information to identify you, to locate your medical record and to reserve the appropriate amount of time for your appointment. We will ask for the following information:
- Your name
- Your date of birth or Social Security number (this helps make sure your medical information is not confused with someone who has a similar name).
- Reason for the appointment (be as specific as possible so that we can reserve the right amount of time for your visit).
- Whether you want a particular doctor or healthcare provider or the first available appointment
Canceling an appointment
If you cannot keep your appointment, please call your doctor's office or clinic as soon as possible or no later than the day before. We realize that sometimes emergencies come up and your plans may change. However, giving us as much notice as possible helps us serve you and our other patients better. When you call, we will help you reschedule for another day and time.
Preparing for your appointment
Although we will make most of the preparations for your appointment, there are a few things you need to do:
- Insurance/Medicaid/Medicare card: Please bring your insurance, Medicaid or Medicare card with you to your appointments. We will verify your coverage so we can process your bill correctly.
- Co-payment or prepayment: If your health plan has a copayment or you have a pre-payment requirement, please bring your payment with you. We accept cash, personal checks, VISA debit cards, American Express, Discover, Mastercard and VISA.
- Medications list: Please bring a list of your current prescriptions, over-the-counter drugs, vitamins or supplements, as well as a list of known drug allergies.
- Medical records and X-rays, CT scans, MRIs etc: If you are being referred to an OHSU specialist from a non-OHSU clinic or doctor, please arrange for them to send your medical records and appropriate X-rays or other imaging studies to us. For more information, call Medical Correspondence at 503-494-8521.
- Notes about your health concerns: Some patients find it helpful to write a few notes about their symptoms and any other health concerns.


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We identified malicious web servers with the high interaction client honeypot Capture-HPC. Capture-HPC is an open source client honeypot developed by Victoria University of Wellington in conjunction with the New Zealand Honeynet Project. This high interaction client honeypot monitors the system at various levels:
* registry modifications to detect modification of the Windows registry, like new or modified keys
* file system modifications to detect changes to the file system, like files created or deleted files, and
* creation/destruction of processes to detect changes in the process structure.
Client honeypot instances are run within a VMware virtual machine. If unauthorized state changes are detected - in other words when a malicious server is encountered - the event is recorded and the virtual machine is reset to a clean state before interacting with the next server. (Appendix A contains download details as well as a detailed description of the tool's functionality and underlying technical aspects).
With our focus on unauthorized state changes to identify a malicious server, we are narrowing our view to a particular type of malicious server: the ones that can alter the state of the client without user consent or interaction, which usually means that the server is able to control and install malware on the client machine without the user noticing such actions. These attacks are commonly referred to as drive-by-downloads. Many more types of malicious web servers do exist, which we excluded from this initial study. Some examples are phishing servers that try to obtain user sensitive data by imitating a legitimate site or transparent proxy, web servers that specialize in obtaining sensitive files, such as the browser history, from the client machines, and web servers that simply host malicious executables (that need to be explicitly downloaded and executed by a user). Capture-HPC is not suitable for detecting these types of malicious web servers. Rather, we concentrate on powerful malicious servers that take control of the client machine.
We collected our data in the first half of May 2007 using twelve virtual machine instances of Capture-HPC. These instances were connected to the security lab at Victoria University of Wellington, NZ, from which they had direct access to the Internet. No content filtering or firewalling was performed between the security lab and the Internet. Twelve instances of Windows XP SP2 with Capture-HPC V1.1 and Internet Explorer 6 SP2 were installed to interact with a list of web servers. The client honeypot instances were configured to ignore authorized state changes, such as write activity within the browser cache (the complete list of authorized events is included in our downloadable data set which is available at http://newzealand.honeynet.org/kye/mws/complete_data_set.zip). Besides the Softperfect Personal Firewall, which was configured to block any non-web related traffic and prevent potential malware from spreading, we did not install any additional patches, software or plug-ins, nor did we modify the configuration of the operating system or browser in any way to make it less secure, but rather we used the default settings from a routine installation of Windows XP SP2. We suspected that this configuration would solicit a high number of attacks, since many remote execution vulnerabilities, which enable a server to execute code on the client machine, are known and the corresponding exploits are publicly available. The intent was to gather a comprehensive data set of malicious URLs, some of which we would analyze in-depth.
We were not only interested in analyzing attacks in-depth, but also in gaining a general understanding about the risk of accessing the web with such a configuration, and learning whether there are areas of the Internet that are more risky than others. As a result, we categorized the web servers' URLs prior to inspection by our client honeypot. The following categories were used:
* Content areas: These URLs point to content of a specific type or topic. They were obtained by issuing keywords of the specific content area to the Yahoo! Search Engine. Five different content areas were inspected:
o Adult – pages that contain adult entertainment/pornographic material
o Music – pages that contain information about popular artists and bands
o News – pages that contain current news items or news stories in sports, politics, business, technology, and entertainment
o User content – pages that contain user-generated content, such as forums and blogs
o Warez – pages that contain hacking information, including exploits, cracks, serial numbers, etc.
* Previously defaced/vulnerable web servers: These URLs point to pages of servers that have been previously defaced or run vulnerable web applications. We obtained the previously defaced sites from . A list of vulnerable web servers was generated by issuing Google Hack keywords to search engines.
* Sponsored links: These URLs are a list of sponsored links encountered on the Google search engine results page. It was generated by collecting the links from the site http://googspy.com for various keywords.
* Typo squatter URLs: These URLs are common typing mistakes of the 500 most popular sites from http://alexa.com (for example http://www.googel.com instead of http://www.google.com). The typo URLs were generated using Microsoft's StriderURLTracer.
* Spam: These URLs were mined from several months' worth of Spam messages of the public Spam archive at http://untroubled.org/spam.
The list of URLs as well as the keywords used to obtain the URLs are included in our downloadable data set at http://newzealand.honeynet.org/kye/mws/complete_data_set.zip.
We inspected a little over 300,000 URLs from approximately 150,000 hosts in these categories (approximately 130,000 hosts when accounting for the overlap of hosts between categories. No significant overlap between URLs existed). Table 1 and Figure 3 show the detailed breakdown for the different categories and content areas. With each URL that was inspected by the client honeypot, we recorded the classification of the client honeypot (malicious or benign) as well as any unauthorized state changes that occurred in case an attack by a server was encountered (an example can be found as part of our in-depth analysis of the Keith Jarrett fan site). Unfortunately, we could not determine which vulnerability was actually exploited because analysis tools are still immature and not suitable for an automated analysis.
|Inspected Hosts
|Inspected URLs
|User Content
|Sponsored Links
Table 1 - Input URLs/ hosts by category
Figure 3 - Input URLs by category
Using these input URLs, we identified a total of 306 malicious URLs from 194 hosts (No significant overlap of hosts or URLs exited). Simply retrieving any one of these URLs with the vulnerable browser caused an unauthorized state change that indicated the attack was successful, and that the server effectively gained control of the client machine. At that point, the server would be able to install malware or obtain confidential information without the user's consent or notice.
The percentage of malicious URLs within each category ranged from 0.0002% for previously defaced/vulnerable web servers to 0.5735% for URLs in the adult category. Table 2 shows the breakdown of the various categories. As is clear from these results, all categories contained malicious URLs. This is an important discovery as it means that anybody accessing the web is at risk regardless of the type of content they browse for or the way the content is accessed. Adjusting browsing behavior is not sufficient to entirely mitigate such risk. Even if a user makes it a policy to only type in URLs rather than following hyperlinks, they are still at risk from typo-squatter URLs. Likewise if a user only accesses hyperlinks or accesses links that are served up by search engines, they are still at risk. Nevertheless, there seem to be some categories that are riskier than others. A Chi-Square test (p<0.01) shows statistical significance between the adult category and Spam; also between Spam and any other category. In other words, there exists an elevated risk of attack when accessing adult content or links in Spam messages.
Table 2 – Identified malicious URLs/ hosts by category
|Malicious Hosts
|Malicious URLs
|% Malicious URLs
|User Content
|Sponsored Links
Figure 4 - Identified malicious URLs by category
We interacted with the 306 malicious URLs repeatedly over a three-week period and made several interesting observations. First, malicious URLs might not be consistently malicious. While one might expect that this is a result of a malicious advertisement that is only displayed occasionally on a page, we did observe some URLs that behaved sporadically that did not contain advertisements, but rather contained a static link to the exploit code. A malicious web page might solicit malicious behavior only once upon repeated interactions, but it also might just behave benign for a few times before it solicits malicious behavior again. We suspect that such behavior is intentionally employed on the malicious servers in order to evade detection, such as detection by our client honeypot. Furthermore, there are several attack kits that serve malicious content only once per visiting IP address. This is mainly done to disguise the attack. Second, over the three-week period we observed a decline in the number of servers that behaved maliciously from the original set of 306 URLs. It declined to 180 after two weeks and to 109 after the third week. This is not likely to be indicative of a declining trend of malicious URLs, but rather points to the dynamic nature of the malicious server landscape. Exploits are disappearing from URLs, but we suspect that they are reappearing on another page at the same time. Again, this measure is likely to be employed method of evading detection, but also to ensure that attacks are consistently being executed. Such a moving target is more difficult to hit.


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Wanted drug trafficker held abroad
Convicted drug trafficker and fraudster Martin Evans was arrested by armed officers in South Africa, the National Crime Agency has confirmed.
Evans, aged 52, from Swansea was apprehended at a housing complex in the Midrand area of Johannesburg on Saturday night.
He had been on the run since 2011 when he failed to return to prison after being released on licence.
He was serving 21 years at the time for conspiracy to supply cocaine and fraudulent trading.
Officials said investigators from the NCA alerted Interpol that Evans was in South Africa. That resulted in intelligence-led surveillance operations being conducted by the South African Police Service.
These operations led to Evans being tracked down to the housing complex where officers swooped as he was getting out of his car.
Hank Cole, head of international operations for the NCA, said: "The exceptional level of collaboration and intelligence sharing with the South African Police Service led to the capture of Evans.
"This arrest shows the NCA and its partners will pursue fugitives wherever they are in the world. They can run but they can't hide. We have the capability to track them down and bring them to justice."
General Riah Phiyega, South Africa National Police Commissioner, added: "Both the Crime Intelligence and Interpol teams worked tirelessly to honour the request of our British counterparts and we applaud them for this."
British High Commissioner to South Africa Judith Macgregor said the arrest was testimony to the "close working relationship between the UK and South Africa" on security issues including tackling drug trafficking, organised and fiscal crime. Evans - a former Young Businessperson of the Year - had previously given the authorities the slip while waiting to stand trial for fraud.
Days before he was to face justice for swindling 115 investors out of their savings in a £900,000 ostrich farm scam, he fled to Spain.
While trying to evade capture for that offence, he went on to lead an international gang smuggling ecstasy and cocaine worth at least £3 million into Britain.
He was later convicted of drug trafficking but released on temporary licence - before making off again.
Tracking down Evans was a global operation - given his previous links to the United States, the Netherlands and the Caribbean.
As part of Operation Zygos in 2012, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said it believed the disgraced Pontarddulais businessman was among a group of British fugitives hiding in Cyprus.
Lord Ashcroft, founder and Chair of Crimestoppers, said the organisation was "extremely relieved" to hear of Evans' arrest
He added: "There are now eight individuals remaining (in the Operation Zygos probe), thought to be evading justice overseas and I have every confidence we will succeed in finding them".
Evans will appear at Pretoria Regional Court tomorrow for an extradition hearing.