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Picture this: Dozens of drug smugglers dance and drink outside a colonial-era farmhouse in a leafy countryside near Cali, Colombia. A salsa band provides the soundtrack for a bustling wedding party. "Mama always said, 'Mouse and cheese are friends,' " go the lyrics, in Spanish. "Don't trust anybody, because when you least expect it, they'll stab you in the back."
The groom, whose name is Martín, is a top lieutenant in charge of smuggling coke to Miami. He grabs his new wife, Sofia, a Miss Colombia finalist dressed in a flowing white dress. They laugh and cut into a towering red-and-white cake.
Suddenly, a man with a flowing mustache bursts through the crowd, a cell phone clutched to his chest. "Muchachos!" he yells over the din. "The stuff made it to New York!"
Andres Lopez
The crowd erupts. Martín hugs the mustached messenger and dances ecstatically with his wife.
Then, abruptly, horror ripples through his lean, stubbled face. "No!" someone screams.
A half-dozen gunmen in tracksuits and camouflage pants leap a wall, and rounds pop from their semiautomatic weapons. A vase explodes. Guests flip the carefully appointed tables, littering the ground with lace doilies and floral centerpieces. Men clutch their chests, crumble, and die. Martín and his bride lunge into the house.
Now picture this: During a sweltering fall night, a top cartel lieutenant named Andrés López tosses his friend Fernando Henao a soccer ball and walks off the pitch. As usual, the drug smugglers have blown off steam with a soccer game — this time in Tulua, a jungle city not far from Cali.
Suddenly shots explode. One of Andrés's friends — a cocaine cartel veteran nicknamed Chucho Queso — falls to the ground screaming, grabbing his bleeding chest in agony. Fernando, Andrés, and a half-dozen others sprint from the field toward the jungle canopy. Bullets thwack into the turf, spitting grass and mud into the air. A screaming pack of men with automatic weapons runs past the goal firing wildly.
Ducking behind a bush, Andrés and Fernando each pull out a gun and blast a dozen shots toward the attackers. Rounds ricochet off trees. Someone screams. Then the shooting stops as suddenly as it began. Andrés peers over a bush and sees the gunmen hauling away one of their men — dead or unconscious. The friends run.
One scene is fiction, the other fact. The wedding shootout was portrayed in the 2008 hit Colombian narco-drama El Cartel. The jungle shootout is from the real-life story of drug snitch Andrés López. In fact, López's true story, which has never been told by the English-language press, of love, betrayal, and redemption in cocaine central is every bit as dramatic as the hit TV series it inspired.
López really did start working in the labs of Cali drug lords when he was just 14 years old. And he rose through the ranks until he was shipping tens of thousands of kilos of cocaine through Miami every year. Then he made the agonizing choice to save himself from the Drug Enforcement Administration by turning on his friends and leaving the only life he'd ever known. For the U.S. government, he became the most important informant in the war to bring down Norte del Valle Cartel, a vicious gang that has moved more than a million pounds of cocaine to the U.S.
Now, three years after leaving Miami's Federal Detention Center, López is once again famous and wealthy. He's become the Mario Puzo of Colombia's drug trade with a best-selling memoir — El Cartel de los Sapos (Cartel of the Toads). Sapo is also Colombian slang for snitch.
Depicted in books, drug lords who once terrorized Colombia have become objects of fascination in Latin America. Pablo Escobar, for instance, has become a kind of popular myth in books such as News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel García Márquez. There are dozens of other examples.
But even as López rakes in cash, friends and family worry the remnants of Norte del Valle Cartel will try to take revenge. "He was a key informant in the biggest case against Norte del Valle leaders," says Romedio Viola, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who worked with López. "And it's extraordinary what he's accomplished since then. But I wish he would get himself some protection. I've told him that over and over again."
For several months in 1984, late-night cab passengers in a quiet Cali neighborhood were treated to a bizarre sight: A battered yellow and black cab was piloted by a driver barely taller than the steering wheel with a wide-brim hat sagging over his eyes.
"Are you even old enough to drive?" customers would ask before the cabbie cut them off by growling, "Where to?" Usually, the boy had no idea how to get there. So he'd growl some more, asking for directions.
The driver was 13-year-old Andrés López. The taxi belonged to his abuela, who'd be asleep in the small home they shared. He'd take the car without her permission. "I was stealing her car because I wanted to work, not to joyride or something," López says today, doubling over with laughter as he tells the story.
Even at such a young age, López combined a keen business sense, a fiery entrepreneurial spirit, and a willingness to break all the rules to make a buck. The same traits would lead him into the drug trade less than a year later. It would also help him rise quickly to the top.
López was born June 15, 1971, in Cali, Colombia's third largest city and a transit hub for all kinds of goods, legal and not, traveling everywhere from the Andes to the Pacific. When he was just a few months old, his father took off to the United States to look for work and ended up in a New York factory making pop-tops for deodorant sticks.
Nine years later, López's mother followed her husband. She sneaked over the border into Texas and eventually found work at the same factory. Andrés's older brother, Juan Carlos, had also left Cali, and his sister Beatrice was studying at a Colombian university.
So young Andrés was alone with his grandmother. "We weren't poor or hungry," he says. "My parents sent us money all the time. They bought my abuela the cab."
When she caught Andrés taking the car out at night, she demanded he enroll in a local military school. "They sent all the worst kids there," he says.
On his first day, Andrés asked to share a desk with a handsome, wealthy kid named Fernando Henao, who wore the nicest clothes in school and arrived every day with a different chauffeur.
Andrés was fascinated. Where did all the money come from? He and Fernando, an irrepressible jokester, became fast friends. Eventually the rich classmate told Andrés the truth: His older brother, Orlando, was a magico. "I thought he was actually a really successful magician," López says. "I didn't find out for months that it was slang for a drug dealer."
One day, Fernando asked if Andrés wanted to meet the brother. Soon, both boys, still age 14, agreed to work in Orlando's cocina, an illicit shop where he combined coca leaves with lethal chemicals to make cocaine. López was quickly hooked. Driving his grandmother's cab, López made 400 or 500 pesos (less than a couple U.S. bucks) during a good night. With the same number of hours in the cocina, he earned 10,000 pesos.
He'd already shown a talent for entrepreneurship. As a teenager, Andrés reinvested his profits in taxis, and before he was old enough to drive, he owned 18 cabs and managed a complex web of drivers. "I thought the taxi industry was the real way to make money," he says, laughing again.
Why did López care so much about cash? "I always had this idea that I could bring our family back together if I made enough," he says. "My parents could move back to Colombia; my abuela wouldn't have to keep driving that cab."
So by the time López was 16 years old, he and Fernando Henao had opened their own cocina — with Orlando's blessing — and recruited 15 classmates from the military academy to help. Within six months, they were churning out several kilos per month.
At work, the teenagers joked, partied, and sampled their wares. López was a wiry kid who never grew above five feet six inches. He had trouble hauling the huge vats of dangerous chemicals used to turn coca leaves into a drug. One day, a buddy watched him struggle, laughed, and nicknamed him Florecita — a delicate little flower. It stuck.
That same year, López was out one night with friends at a fruit stand in Cali's Centro Comercial when he spotted a girl grabbing a mango. She had the high cheekbones, light skin, and Renaissance curves of a traditional Cali beauty. She spoke with intelligence and poise. As she drove off, López demanded her name from the owner. "Maria del Socorro," was the answer. López offered 100 pesos for an introduction.
The next day they met at the fruit stand, and Maria was quickly wowed by the fast-talking teen with cash to burn. "He was a real Casanova. He was talking and making eyes, and I was all, 'Ohhhh,' " remembers Maria, whose sharp features and sculpted figure haven't faded with age.
A few months later, Maria met Andrés at Feria de Cali — a huge, drunken carnival of salsa music and horse parades at Christmastime. He handed her a shot of aguardiente and ordered: "Drink up!"
By the end of the night the young lovers were arm in arm, watching fireworks in the warm December night. Andrés López was young, rich, and in love.
By the early 1990s, López had become one of the most daring smugglers in Cali. When Colombian forces in 1993 killed Pablo Escobar, kingpin of the Medellín cartel, Cali drug runners became increasingly important. At first, López sent drugs in suitcases to Miami, where crooked baggage handlers unloaded them. "Half the luggage that flew out of Cali those days didn't belong to passengers," López says. "You'd get to Miami and go, 'Where is my bag?' We bumped them all off to ship our cocaine."
Then López came up with a more ingenious solution. He paid a Cali furniture maker to create replicas of airline seats with hollow centers. López would send a message to his contacts in Miami: Flight 110, Row 26, Seats A, B, and C. When the plane landed at Miami International Airport (MIA), they'd swap the cushions and remove the coke.
"Eventually we sent almost entire planes full," he says, laughing. "What would have happened if it crashed? Everyone would pull out their seats to float and find them full of cocaine."
In the mid 1990s, López and his compadres noticed that one cargo jet was free of police checks: the flight carrying U.S. diplomatic mail. So he took photos of the embassy's mail crates and had a friend make replicas. After the embassy loaded its jet, López's source sneaked aboard and swapped in his duplicates, which were packed with cocaine. The real mail, meanwhile, went on another plane. When both jets arrived in Miami, López's guys swapped the cartons and removed the drugs.
"It was really easy," he says. "We never got caught. We shipped drugs like that for two years, until Orlando Henao found out. Then he called us in and said, 'Are you out of your mind?' "
Fernando Henao's older brother, Orlando the magico, threatened López: "It's you, so I'm not going to kill you. This time."
Still, for years life was good for López and his friends. The soccer-pitch shootout in the jungle near Tulua — which happened in 1992 — was an isolated burst of violence in a normally peaceful smuggling career.
In 1995, López read in the newspaper that his old sweetheart, Maria, had won a local contest to represent Cali in the Miss Colombia pageant. He stared slack-jawed at the newspaper photo.
"He started calling me nonstop then," Maria remembers, laughing. "I couldn't get rid of him."
Maria had long before given up on López. But when they met again, he seemed different. "He had grown up," she says. "Or at least I thought he had."
After the contest (which Maria didn't win), she moved in with López on his farm outside Cali. A month later, in May 1996, they were married. No one shot up the wedding, but otherwise the soap opera El Cartel isn't far off the mark. Dozens of drug traders danced the night away at Andrés's countryside home. A few days later, Maria found out she was pregnant.
The joyful news was quickly marred by Cali's disintegrating cartel. The previous summer, Colombian police had nabbed the two brothers who ran it — Miguel and Gilberto Rodríguez-Orejuela.
The ensuing power struggle exploded violently in May, weeks after Andrés and Maria's wedding. Fifteen gunmen stormed a ritzy Cali restaurant called Rio D'enero, where jefe Miguel's son — 30-year-old William Rodríguez — was eating lunch. They showered more than 50 rounds on his table, killing six people and wounding the drug prince.
After the assassination attempt, Orlando Henao ordered López back to the farm. More than 200 heavily armed fighters were assembled there, listening to an array of radios and satellite phones.
Maria, still pregnant with their first child, hid inside. López begged her to leave Cali, but she'd survived a bad car accident a few months earlier and refused. "I told him I'd rather die here than on the road," she said.
"What the hell am I doing here?" López asked himself, staring at the army massed around his house. "I'm in a goddamn war."
Andrés López studied the federal agents with unsmiling faces, the prosecutors in gray suits, and the DEA officers in shiny field jackets. The air was stale inside the fluorescent-lit interrogation room in the DEA's Doral office. The silence hung heavy.
"Do you mean how much drugs have I personally moved to the United States? Or how much drugs has my organization moved?" he asked, glancing at his lawyer, Roberto Cardeñas.
David Weinstein, a savvy prosecutor with two decades of experience jailing Miami drug dealers, shrugged. "How much have you moved?" he asked.
This time, López didn't hesitate. "Much more than 50,000 kilos," he said.
Stunned silence followed. López had just admitted to smuggling more than 50 tons of coke. With that simple admission, he established his credentials as a major player, became a certified snitch, and sealed his exit from the drug trade.
"I told Andrés at the beginning: If you come in here and lie to them, you just hang yourself immediately," Cardeñas says. "Andrés is very smart, so he didn't beat around the bush."
His journey to the DEA wasn't easy — and it came at a great personal cost.
After the assassination attempt on William Rodríguez, tension spiked in Cali. A faction led in part by Orlando Henao — López's childhood guide into the cocaine kingdom — split to form a new organization: Norte del Valle Cartel, so named because its members worked in valleys north of Cali.
The gang set new standards for bloody conflict. "They were incredibly, sadistically violent," says Bruce Bagley, chair of the international studies department of University of Miami, who taught in Cali at the time. "They would chop people up while they were still alive with electric saws, and then toss the body parts in the Cauca River."
López contends he wasn't directly tied to the violence, a claim echoed by federal prosecutors who later used him as a witness. He was a logistics guy, charged with getting the coke where it needed to go. But that doesn't mean he wasn't a target. "They knew how close I was to the top guys," he says. "They knew if they killed me, it would be a direct affront to those guys."
So in 1997, López, his wife, and his son, Juan Sebastian, who had been born the previous October, moved to Miami. They lived first in Kendall and then in Miramar. Later that year, the couple had a second son.
Life wasn't good in the Magic City. Andrés would leave home to meet his drug-smuggling contacts at 9 a.m. and return at 11 p.m. He'd skip town every weekend. Maria sensed he was unfaithful. She was right. And he had an explosive temper.
"He'd yell, 'I bought you this house, I bought you this car,' " Maria says. "I'd say, 'I don't care. I don't care. I'd go live under a bridge with you if you were there for me.' "
In 1999, Maria moved back to Cali with their sons. Friends from Miami called frequently to tell her about Andrés's mistresses. Finally, in 2000, she had had enough. They divorced.
Back in Colombia, Norte del Valle Cartel had erupted into civil war after Orlando Henao was arrested and then executed with six shots to the head. Another prisoner had smuggled in a .38 handgun.
Then in May 2000, word reached López the DEA was closing in. A government informant had asked López to ship 150 kilos of cocaine to Los Angeles. When López agreed on tape, the feds had all the ammunition they needed. They indicted him that July in Miami federal court.
Told by a U.S. friend the gig was up, López fled to a condo in Cancún to mull his options. His sister Beatrice, who then worked as a lawyer in New York, asked attorney Roberto Cardeñas to go to Mexico to meet with him.
The pair dined at an upscale restaurant and talked. Cardeñas laid out the options: López could either run forever or surrender. "Andrés struck me as a very smart, very analytical guy," Cardeñas says. "There's not a violent bone in his body, and to survive in these gangs without violence requires real street smarts."
After meeting with the DEA about the surrender, Cardeñas flew back to Cancún and accompanied his client to Miami. The night before, they stayed up until sunrise at a seaside bar, talking things through. "He was really scared," Cardeñas says.
On July 28, 2000, López and Cardeñas landed at MIA. Half a dozen federal agents were waiting. After that initial meeting in a Doral interrogation room, when López admitted how much coke he'd shipped to the United States, Weinstein and his crew realized they'd landed a valuable source.
They spent a week debriefing him while he lived under 24-hour guard at a Doral hotel. Then they struck a deal — they'd put off López's court date as long as he kept talking. López was allowed to live in relative freedom, and soon found himself helping a parade of prosecutors.
"He'd worked his way from the ground up inside the cartels and he knew a lot of the top people, so he had important organizational information," says Weinstein, who left the government in 2009 for a private practice.
In January 2002, López pleaded guilty to a felony count of cocaine possession with intent to distribute. Prosecutors delayed his sentencing. But López hadn't beaten the system.
That summer, without telling prosecutors, he tried to fly to Cancún with a girlfriend. He was detained at the Miami airport and tossed in immigration jail. He spent three months behind bars. "That finally got it through to him, I think," Cardeñas says. "He was still very immature and naive."
Then in April 2002, he was blindsided by a term of almost 11 years. Maria, his ex-wife, wept loudly when the judge read the verdict. "They made him give me his watch and other things," she says. "We were in total shock."
But López kept talking, and prosecutors agreed to delay his prison term while he helped seal their biggest case yet. In 2004 they charged ten top members of Norte del Valle Cartel with the same statutes used to put away big-time mobsters such as the Gambino crime family. The defendants read like a who's who list of cartel capos: Orlando's brother Arcangel Henao, "Don Diego" Montoya, Wilber "Jabon" Varela.
Thanks in part to López's help, the case was successful. The prison terms handed out to the drug barons crushed the group. "It was the most important case in dismantling the cartel," says Viola, the ICE agent.
López couldn't avoid his own sentence forever, though. In February 2006, with the case against Norte del Valle Cartel finished, López reported to a federal prison in Pennsylvania. (He was soon transferred back to Miami's downtown Federal Detention Center.)
The feds didn't forget his help, though. His lawyers won a reduction in his sentence based on his snitching. In March 2006, a judge cut his sentence to 20 months.
It still wasn't easy to bear. The cocky young coke-runner had to forfeit millions in cash and his freedom. Even though they were divorced, Maria helped him weather the storm. "We don't love each other like a man and a woman, but platonically we still do love each other," Maria says. "I am his guardian angel and vice versa."
After a few weeks in prison, López called Maria. "I should have run. I never should have turned myself in," he said.
"Andrés, if you run, it's forever. You'll never see your sons again," Maria replied. "This isn't forever. This is a few years, and then you're free, you've paid your debts. Then maybe, if you're lucky, you can figure out what to do with the rest of your life."
López arrives in a new Range Rover for a recent interview at a Brickell breakfast joint. He is inconspicuously clad in a T-shirt, gym shorts, and a plain, blue baseball cap. Though friends regularly caution López he should consider hiring bodyguards, he casually strolls in alone.
He says he doesn't spend any time worrying about his security.
"I'm not thinking, Oh, such and such from my past is going to come and get me. I'm at peace with my own self," he says, digging into a huge plate of corned beef, fried eggs, bacon, and pancakes. "I'm relaxed. I don't look to the past at what things have happened. I'm trying to live my life as a regular person."
Besides, he says, "everyone I write about is either dead or in jail." (Fernando Henao, his best friend in the cartels, was sentenced to 19 years in prison in the U.S. District Court of Southern New York in 2005. He pleaded guilty, but López was prepared to testify against him.)
López's comfortable new life was far from a certainty when he walked out of the downtown federal prison four years ago. He was broke, unemployed, and forever severed from his life as a top-flight coke dealer. But he hadn't spent his jail time idly.
For 14 months in federal custody, López hoarded his scant daily allotment of paper and spent nearly every waking moment writing. He described his early entrance into the drug cartels, who got whacked, and who was a snitch. He named names. "I had all these ghosts and demons in my mind," he says. "This was the only way to free them."
He had plenty of problems to work through in jail. For the first time since he was 13 years old and driving a stolen cab, he wasn't in charge. The worst moment, he says, was explaining to his two sons — then nine and ten years old — why he was behind bars. As they munched on Honey Buns and soda in a visitors room, Andrés explained: "I was bad, and so now I have to stay here for a while and wear this uniform."
López's writing sustained him through the months of tedium until his release in March 2007. Maria and his sons picked him up. He was ecstatic — but still unsure what to do with himself.
So he called Julio Sanchez Cristo, a radio host who broadcasts from Colombia's W Radio. Cristo put him in touch with a book firm. In 2008, months after his release from the federal prison, the book he'd scribbled behind bars was published in Colombia and Mexico.
In the unadorned language of an airport potboiler, El Cartel de los Sapos tells the true story of the rise and fall of Norte del Valle Cartel and Andrés's personal journey from cocaine cocinero to drug baron to snitch. The book has "everything: sex, power, drugs, money. Everything," recalls Viola, the ICE agent.
But López's lawyer, Cardeñas, wasn't sanguine when it was released. "I told him, 'Andrés, bro, you're signing your own death warrant with this.' "
The book spent most of 2008 as the number one seller in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and several other countries. In all, the volume sold more than 150,000 copies officially — a figure that translates to millions of copies in the streets considering the black market for books in the region.
"As a history of the cartel, I think it's really good," says Viola. "It's really well researched."
On June 4, 2008, Caracol Television debuted El Cartel, a show based on the book. The series tells the same basic tale of Andrés's rise and fall through the cartel. It's cast in the lurid tones of a telenovela, packed with over-the-top shouting matches, fistfights, and shootouts. Andrés's character, Martin, is played by Manolo Cardona, a heartthrob star with chiseled cheeks.
The show was a huge hit, earning some of the highest ratings in Colombian history. DVDs are now sold in 50 countries, and there's a waitlist to check them out at Miami-Dade Public Library. A sequel (made without López's support) has kept viewers hooked, and a full-length Spanish-language film is due out later this year starring Cardona and Tom Sizemore as a DEA agent.
As audiences have devoured his stories, López's bank accounts have swelled with legal profits. He earned a $400,000 advance from Caracol for the series. Last year, he purchased a $1.5 million condo on the Miami waterfront.
In January, López released El Cartel de los Sapos 2. The book tells the story of "Don Diego" Montoya's ascent to lead Norte del Valle Cartel and illuminates ties between right-wing paramilitaries and the Mafia. It's been atop the Colombian charts since its release.
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There's a cost to all this public success, though, says Cardeñas, the lawyer. Even he has received death threats, including one serious enough that federal agents warned him about it. López "can never go back to Colombia" because of his writing, Cardeñas adds.
There's still disagreement about what actually motivated López to leave the cartel life. Weinstein, the federal prosecutor, points out that López really had no choice but to abandon his cocaine career. "We had enough evidence to put him away for the rest of his life," he says. "Was he a bad person? Well, he wasn't violent. But he moved hundreds of kilos of cocaine here and that affected a lot of lives."
López says he's done with drugs. He's still close to his ex-wife — who remarried and still lives in Miami — and his two kids, who are both in middle school now. He's writing every day, working on a documentary about government informants, and exploring an English translation of his books.
"I can't really be extremely happy knowing that for 15 years, I wasn't a really good person. I did things that tore me from my family," he says. "But I'm trying, through my writing, to make up for the past."


text: She's an adorable pup who's missing a paw due to complications at birth. However, that doesn't hold Lily back! She's currently training to be a therapy dog to humans who use prosthetic limbs. To relate better to her friends, she's being fitted for her own prosthetic paw. If she likes it, she'll be an inspiration to people using prosthetics. If she doesn't like it, she has an awesome new chew toy. Win/win.

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Any 4.0/4.5 players in the Ballard/Greenlake area down to hit after 5pm today?
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Mom puts up with so much: your gaming habits, the loud noises of gunshots in the middle of the night, the loans for your console purchases... get a job! She deserves some love this Mother's Day, and since she's such a big casual gaming fan, PopCap has her covered. PopCap is offering a free copy of Bejweled Deluxe for Mother's Day, and it's as easy as signing up for PopCap's monthly newsletter, The Fizz. Whoever's e-mail address the subscription is under will get a special link and key, you put that in a Mother's Day card, and she enjoys her new addiction. From the press release:
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I think this is a great promotion, and I plan on taking part. Apparently PopCap employees routinely use their mothers to test out the early versions of games to make sure each title has a wide appeal. I wonder if that's how all that unicorn got into Peggle...
Your poor, long-suffering mom deserves a free game, don't you agree?


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Spiritual Help to Finding Love
Astrology Forum to get free Vedic Astrology readings and for horoscope discussions. Ask about your horoscope in this horoscope forum
Spiritual Help to Finding Love
Finding true love isn't easy, and this would be supported by the numerous breakups that you would hear from friends, colleagues, and relatives. In spite of whatever you have learned from your past, it is not easy to find true love and to restore faith in yourself after getting hurt from time to time. Sometimes you feel like "I am not made for love" or "I am not good enough for a partner." Not many people recognize the truth that getting prepared for love spiritually is vital than anything else.
Preparing Yourself Spiritually
However, do not imagine that the lack of spiritual preparation would end up your relationship, but there can be conflicts and troubles. Getting prepared spiritually is something that is similar to learn the basics of the business before you venture into one. Spirituality is the invisible thread that helps to form a network between people and God.
The prerequisites of every individual vary based on his or her past experience. The loss, pain, or abuse of the past life can have a severe impact.
Start with Self-exploration
In this process, you need to be honest about discovering yourself, do not underestimate or overestimate yourself. If you find your mistakes devastating, you need to accept them and try to go ahead while finding ways to correct them. Do not start criticising yourself, or become too sensitive. Remember everybody has imperfections, and consider you lucky to have identified them, and move ahead.
Move Forward
Accepting the inevitable is another facet on which you need to concentrate. For instance, if your illness has resulted in something that cannot be reversed, take it, and move forward.
Know About your Needs and Want
Finally, be thoughtful about what are your needs and want. Sometimes we are attracted towards the things that we do not need in our life. So, choose the partner that match with your values and vision so that you can move together in life.
Prayers and Meditation
We have learned to focus on the intellect and mind with five senses since childhood but in the spiritual practice, we need to dissolve everything so that our soul shines when we are directed towards the God. For identifying the pure soul or the God within you should rely on the prayers and meditation. This also lowers down your ego as you are seeking help after surrendering under the supreme power. You definitely want to see yourself as a loving partner having a pure soul and for this, you should daily practice on the prayers and meditation.
You can start for a few minutes initially and then very soon you will find yourself connecting to the higher power. Unwind yourself from all the stressful thoughts while your body and nervous system relax during the process of spiritual meditation.
Spiritual force is something that exists even if you don't agree, and it is a driving force for everything in life. You can find here a few spiritualtips that would help you to find the love of your life.
1. You need to be selfless:
When you are looking for a new relationship, don't go for it just because you need something to it. Your relationship should be devoted towards a goal of leading a happy and blissful life, and it should not be for filling some void. To ensure that the relationship is healthy, you need to understand that both have to help mutually, and there should be no mandating that compels the other to fill the void.
2. Always make yourself accessible:
Accessibility is not a thing that you should focus only on your partner. You need to make your partner feel that there should be a meaningful encounter, and should be available for the other to offer help. Being connected with someone else is what you need to consider when you are in the process of finding your love, so make yourself socially available. You need to only show up yourself, and the rest is taken care by the spiritual force.
3. Concentrate on the partner:
When you are in the process of connecting with a new person, it is inevitable that you would be in a dilemma about what to speak, and how to feel connected. But, it is important to understand that rather than talking about yourself and letting the other person know about your interests, explore the interests of your new partner. Ask about his or her interests, what he or she likes and dislikes. Make them feel drawn into the conversation. Speak that is relevant to him or her so that he or she focuses on talking, and this is the best way to stay connected. Find things that interest you two in common, and speak more on that. This way, you would not be at alossfor words, or you would not be feeling down that the other is not interested in you. More important is that the other person certainly will love talking to you.
4. Help others:
Understanding that the entire mankind is connected spiritually, and all are parts of the spiritual being, is what the very necessary step of finding your divine love. When you are in the process of finding a partner, why wouldn't help your friend to achieve the same goal? Host a party for single friends, if you can afford it, or form a group of single people and help them to steer along the right path.
5. Surpass rejection:
More than getting rejected, the fear of rejection is the reason for losing the potential partner. You can see that you would be afraid of your insecurities more, and this is why you wouldn't feel connected. Yes, rejection is a part of forming a relationship, but this alone does not estimate your potential and value. Bless the individual who hasn't reciprocated with your interests, and move on.
Consider all relationships help in spiritual growth, and evolving to a better person. You can find psychics helping a great deal to find your true love, so consider best online psychics and get connected to them for getting the right advice.
Spiritual Help to Finding Love
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Re: Spiritual Help to Finding Love
Yoga is the best way to release mental disbelief. You can clear your power using the well guided meditations found in the Love or Above Religious Toolkit; imprinting the thoughts you want rather than constantly running through the same negative thoughts that a person stressed out. You are using the potency of positive thinking to literally change your mind. Positive self-talk is most beneficial done in meditation, when your mind is open up to such messages.
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Re: Spiritual Help to Finding Love
Dua to get your lost love back or come back your dream lover back very soon. You can use below dua for getting your lost/ex love back. First take a white paper and write name of your lover on that paper 128 times but first read below dua for getting love back. each time write your lover name on that paper so completely read 128 times below dua and for each time write your lover name on that paper. Now put that paper into earth and this process should be more carefully done to getting love back and for more information contact us any time.
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Re: Spiritual Help to Finding Love
If you fed up with all your efforts in maintaining good healthy relationships but get failed then you should go for spiritual help because sometime planets or all positive energies of universe can bless you with all eternity. If you truly love someone with dignity and purity then god also heps you.All you need is to chant some mantras and follow some remedies or tips. There are so many mantra like love vashikaran mantra, vashikaran mantra for love marriage. For more details you can contact Dr Ravi Sharma
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Re: Spiritual Help to Finding Love
If you irritated with all your efforts in maintaining good healthy relationships but get failed then you should go for spiritual help because sometime planets or all positive energies of universe can bless you with all eternity. If you truly love someone with dignity and purity then god also heps you.All you need is to chant some mantras and follow some remedies or tips. There are so many mantra like love vashikaran mantra, vashikaran mantra for love marriage.
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Re: Spiritual Help to Finding Love
One thing i would like to suggest you by my real time experience that you must take advise from any astrologers.
They will really suggest you what to do exactly what to do.Its an spritual power.
They will really suggest you what to do exactly what to do.Its an spritual power.
Re: Spiritual Help to Finding Love
I guess, at least for me, the most important thing is to know what I want and need, and I know Astrology is great in helping us figure our what we want in a relationship. The most important love of all, ourselves. However, if for example I were to. I'd also like to know some more about how they are in a relationship, at least in general. Of course, this is very simplistic, but it helps.
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Sumedha devi is indian best astrologer and working in this field from last 35 years. She has very unique techniques to solve people issues. To consult your issue you can call sumedha 24/7 . one of astrologer will be there for you to consult on your issue.Having any type of problems in life like love, family, friends , Relation, husband wife or your personal life issues, you can discuss your issues with us and get a perfect solution to your issues.
Re: Spiritual Help to Finding Love
Dear Friend,
In order to find the love for your life you can go through this site which may help you to find love for yourself.
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In order to find the love for your life you can go through this site which may help you to find love for yourself.
Thank you
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Re: Spiritual Help to Finding Love
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Control of SMPS, A Refresher
This is a qualitative overview of the control of Switched Mode Power Supplies.
2018 South Asia Industrial Webinar Series
The topics will cover system design issue and solution for Building Automation, Power Delivery and Test & Measurement. TI experts introduce the latest technology and innovation system reference design. Discover ways to enhance the time-to-market and create safer and efficient industrial systems.
Phase Shifted Full Bridge (PSFB) vs. Full Bridge LLC (FB-LLC) for High Power DC/DC Conversion
The Phase Shifted Full Bridge (PSFB) has always been considered the best design for high power DC/DC conversion. However, a newer technology called Full Bridge LLC (FB-LLC) has recently been used and accepted for high power DC/DC conversion. In this 3 part series, we will go in-depth in discussing the pros and cons of both the PSFB and FB-LLC. We will then compare the basic problems between the PSFB and FB-LLC and give ideas on how to choose between the two given a certain application. Lastly, we will review some Reference Designs.
Power factor correct (PFC) basics and design considerations
Applications Engineer Jason Tao discusses PFC basics, topology comparisons and design considerations to achieve a cost-optimized and efficient PFC design.
How to design multi-kW DC/DC converters for electric vehicles (EVs)
We are all well aware that the demand for Electric Vehicles (EV) is increasing rapidly. This eight-part training session begins with a description of a typical EV system in part 1. Part 2 is a brief description of how both Lead Acid and Lithium Ion batteries are charged. Part 3 focuses on the types of power factor and harmonic currents. Part 4 discusses power factor correction and the typical boost PFC stage. Part 5 concentrates on the Phase Shifted Full Bridge topology, including the reasons why it is used and a detailed description of how it operates.
Optimizing DC/DC Converters for EMI in Automotive Systems
EMI (electromagnetic interference) mitigation is a critical step in the design process in most electronic systems, and especially so in the automotive world. In many cases, automotive OEM emissions requirements are even more stringent than both national and international standards bodies like the FCC. Unfortunately, by their nature, switching regulators are sources of EMI; but, in order to keep power supply designs small and efficient, switchers are a critical component. So how can you reap the benefits of a switching regulator while still meeting challenging EMI requirements?
Power Supply Design Training Series
Created by power supply experts. Now available when and where you need it.


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Database software developer Oracle has the all-clear from American regulators to go ahead with its purchase of beleaguered server maker Sun Microsystems.
But besides acquiring Sun's nearly vanished hardware business, Oracle would also gain control over the Java programming language and, maybe more importantly, free, open-source database software MySQL.
MySQL (pronounced "my sequel") was purchased by Sun last year in an attempt to bolster its business in developing server software in the hopes of making up for losses on the hardware side.
But MySQL is an "open source" project, which means that anyone who needs a database and can wrangle the publicly available source code can set it up on their servers.
And thousands, if not millions, of Web sites are powered by MySQL -- but it has also managed to become a more generic database application. And as such, has begun competing with Oracle for potential customers.
And while Oracle has pledged to continue funding development of MySQL, it has granted no assurances that it will keep the project open source, or use closed, proprietary code to develop additional functionality.
All of which has the original developer of MySQL, Michael "Monty" Widenius, worried. So he's asking hardcore geeks to write to the European Commission, which oversees anti-trust cases in the European Union, to block the deal.
Oracle has tangled with European regulators in the past, namely over the acquisition of PeopleSoft in 2005 which caused competing business database developer SAP to cry foul based on anti-trust concerns.
That deal went through, but besides Widenius and open source apostles like Richard Stallman, big guns like SAP and Microsoft are also opposed to Oracle acquiring Sun.
Photo by Marc Nozell.
Jackson West has to admit, he can't see Larry Ellison ever allowing that open source hippy horses**t to continue at Oracle.


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Our Solar System
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With over a million books downloaded worldwide, Tidels empower kids to learn, read and explore the world.
Our Solar System is a short, interactive, educational children's science book that takes young readers on a fascinating tour through space. This book take childrens into a journey which will enable them to discover the treasure of space and make them to understand and appreciate the Universe around us. With full-color photographs young readers will learn all about the beginning of the solar system, including the sun and the eight planets and their moons. Rotate the images to see an entire 360-degree view, swipe and zoom to focus on different parts of the image.


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Letter from FoPPS about AGM
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Latest News
Letter from FoPPS about AGM
Dear all,
We'd like to invite you to a FREE evening with FoPPS! A quick AGM (Annual General Meeting) and then a fun quiz night!
As a charity, we have to hold an AGM every year - it's super short (max 15 mins!). After that, we are going to have a fun quiz evening... for free! Bring your own nibbles and drinks, make up a team of friends, colleagues or people you've just met! It's open to everyone - parents, teachers, guardians or our local community (you just need to be over 18!).
We will start at 7pm on Thursday September 19th at Pontprennau Primary School.
What happens at an AGM?
Our Chair will show some photos of our events and show what we've been up to and our Treasurer will let you know what has been raised and what it's been spent on.
As per our constitutional requirements, all committee members will be standing down and putting themselves up for re-election. When this has happened, we will have a space for a new member to join too - if you think you would like to join us please send in your nominations (with some info about you and what skills/experience you can bring) by Sunday 15th September to firstname.lastname@example.com. We will hold the vote on the evening - you can only vote if you come along on the night.
If you are thinking of joining the team , you might like to know that we hold our FoPPS meetings several times a term (a bit more if we have a big event coming up), usually at 6 or 8pm on a night to suit the majority. They generally last a maximum of 2 hours. We are usually joined by at least one member of teaching staff at each meeting. We also have a discussion group that we use in between meetings. If you are voted on, you will need to be registered as a Charity Trustee with the Charity Commission (as all the committee are) which has certain legal conditions attached. (We are happy to share these if you'd like more information) It's a friendly and hardworking bunch and we'd love to have another member join us!
Once we have the (very quick!) AGM and (fun!) quiz night out of the way, you can also look out for the following....
-Friday 4th October-Race Night! This special event for grown-ups has been postponed from last year and will be a special one as it was our Vice Chair Phil Nicholls' favourite event and we want to hold it in memory of him. Book your babysitters and gather your team!
Saturday 19th October - Halloween disco! The DJ is booked... And we are going to split it so that the older and younger children have their own special disco each.
End of November (date tbc) - Santa is taking to the streets of Pontprennau again! And this time he'll have his reindeer and lots of entertainment waiting for you at the school!
And that's just taking us to the end of 2019!
Look out, 2020!
We look forward to seeing you there,
Best wishes,
(Friends of Pontprennau Primary School)
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Ar lan y mor dw i'n hoffi........
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Barry Island Beach Trip
Reptile Party
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'Dinosaur Land'
Measuring Snakes
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Salt Dough Snakes
Outdoor Learning Environment (1)
Easter Bonnets
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Paint and Pastels
Dydd Gwyl Dewi ~ St David's Day
Craft Competition
St David's Day ~ Dydd Gwyl Dewi
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The witch tapped her broom stick and whoosh they were gone!
Iggity, Zigitty, Zaggity, Zoom! Room on the Broom
I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down...
Building Bridges
Who's that trip trapping over my bridge?
A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood...
The Gruffalo Trail
Oh help! Oh no! It's a Gruffalo!
A Miracle In Town!
Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear
Someone's been eating my porridge...
Snip! Snip! Snip!
Clay Woodland Animals
Hedgehog Bread
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Reception Archive: 2018-2019
Block Play
May 17th 2019
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Fine Motor Skills
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Our First Week Sept 2017
Barry Island July 2017
Sports Day
We Made Courgette Cakes and Fish Cakes
Race For Life
Our Healthy Breakfast Cafe
Tie Dyeing Our T-shirts
Making Fruit Kebabs
Our Fairy Houses
We Hatched Ducklings
World Book Day
St David's Day 1st March 2017
Daffodil Painting
Welsh Themed Puppets
St David's Day
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Our Talking Transport Books
Jacob F
Jacob L
A Visit From St John Ambulance
Our School Trip To Cardiff Bay
Looking At a Motorbike
We Painted Vehicles
A Visit From An Aircraft Engineer
A Visit From An Air Hostess
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Vintage Volvo Sports Car
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I Understand


text:
For years, Dr. Martina Callum has traveled the country and the world as a locum tenens physician, providing temporary health care in communities where few doctors exist.
But after months on the road, she'd return home to an apartment in White Marsh that could barely hold the furniture, art and other items that she had accumulated over a lifetime.
"I was flying back and forth to places like Alaska and paying a lot of rent here," says Callum, who was raised in East Baltimore. "My mother was upset that I didn't own a house, though I did have one years ago. I needed a home to call my own."
Fortunately, Callum's mother, noted Maryland genealogist Agnes Kane Callum, had already scouted a location.
"She said, 'I know where a house is. Come and get me.' I picked her up and we went to see this house off of Old York Road," says Callum of that summer day back in 2005. "It was abandoned and a mess. There was a hospital bed on the porch and a headboard from the last century. The foliage was so overgrown you couldn't walk. It looked crazy, but it was a house."
As fate would have it, Callum's mother also knew the owner, an elderly distant relative. The woman's immediate family had owned the property since the 1960s but had boarded it up in recent years.
"We went to see her," Callum recalls. "I asked about buying it and she surprised me by saying, 'You can have it.'" They agreed upon a price of $5,000. Then the doctor began to navigate a maze of red tape involving the property deed and title, along with back taxes and other issues. The woman died a few months after their first meeting.
"When I visited her in the hospital she told me, 'Thank God, Papa's house is still in the family,'" Callum says.
Today, Callum is restoring the three-story Victorian, built circa 1900 on an 8,000-square-foot lot in Pen Lucy, a historic neighborhood in Northeast Baltimore.
The age of the four-bedroom, 21/2-bath house was one matter — there were even gas lamps on the third floor — but the home had also been ravaged by neglect.
"Squatters had come in, and there was trash everywhere, although they hadn't completely stripped the copper pipes," she says. "The basement had some flooding, the furnace didn't work. It was closed in and musty."
The yard was no better; the weeds were so high that after the grass was cut, Callum was "blown away," to discover a two-car stone garage.
Still, she looked beyond the obvious and saw potential. "I knew the bones of the house were good. I got really lucky."
Though she had no previous experience rehabbing a home, Callum became a self-taught Dr. Fix-It, as comfortable donning work boots and a tool belt as a stethoscope and scrubs.
In her free time, she studied how-to books, watched HGTV and other home-improvement shows, and consulted local experts. She hired pros — including an electrician, carpenter and plumber — to perform major jobs such as replacing the sewer lines and rewiring the house.
But whenever possible, Callum tackled projects herself, in some cases enlisting the help of friends.
"We basically gutted every room down to the beams except the kitchen," says Callum, who moved in in 2007. "I learned how to use a saw. I learned how to lay ceramic tile with a book; we were going page by page. I helped tar the roof. We turned and seeded the soil. I even purchased a pickup truck to haul supplies."
In spite of Callum's enthusiasm, there were occasional missteps. She spent hours steaming off all the wallpaper on the first floor before realizing that the material underneath was plaster. With cracks and imperfections, much of it wasn't worth saving. "I wound up tearing almost all of it out and putting in drywall," she says.
With no subfloor underneath the pine floors, Callum made a decision to cover them with red hardwood rather than refinish them.
Callum estimates that she's put about $100,000 into the place so far.
"I call it a 'paycheck renovation,'" she chuckles. "Everything's been done in stages. And it's still not finished."
Still, Callum takes pride in the many ways she's returned the house to its former glory.
For instance, the tin roof was restored for $350 — complete with eco-friendly heat-reflecting features — by a Pennsylvania company that worked with Baltimore's Living Classrooms Foundation.
The original cedar shingles on the exterior of the house are now painted white. The wooden banisters on the staircases also have stood the test of time.
Meanwhile, Callum has decorated in an eclectic style, mixing modern and traditional furniture, flea market finds, and artistic treasures from her travels.
On the first level, where the spacious foyer, living room and dining areas are painted a shade of wheat, she's installed recessed lighting and hung several chandeliers — including silver and copper designs with a contemporary feel.
Here and there are colorful Persian rugs, a tan overstuffed couch, a green crushed-velvet chair, leopard-print silk throw pillows, mother-of-pearl tables and carved wooden stools from Ghana.
The dining room, with a lavender color palette, has a mahogany table but few other formal pieces. Instead, Callum has put in a 42-inch flat-screen television, DVD player and stereo, so the room "doubles as an entertainment center."
On the same level is the summer kitchen, with its original sliding pocket door. One part of the kitchen has been converted into a pantry, the other half into a powder room, painted mint green.
Callum knocked out walls on the second level to create a spacious master bedroom suite. There are French doors, a walk-in closet and a master bath with a Jacuzzi, double vanity, black granite counters and a frosted-glass chandelier.
On the third floor, she's built a home gym and converted the remaining space into a library filled with first editions by such authors as James Baldwin. The floor also houses Callum's cherished family photos and her collection of African-American memorabilia.
For all of her travels and appreciation of other cultures, she looks forward to coming home.
Callum works in her garden, tending tomatoes, peppers and corn. She relaxes on her large front porch, filled with wrought-iron furniture that she rescued and repainted. She gazes at two huge silver maple trees — each more than a century old — that tower above the house.
"It's very comfortable," she says. "I am absolutely so in love with this house."
Have you found your dream home? Tell us about it! Send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Making the dream
Dream exterior: Boasting 29 windows and 12-foot ceilings, the house is situated on an 8,000-square-foot lot in Pen Lucy, a historic neighborhood in Northeast Baltimore.
Dream design: The wooden front door that residents used more than a century ago remains. Its transom is made of Tiffany stained glass.
Dream interior: Throughout the home, colorful art abounds. Her pieces include a colorful oil painting, "Summertime in Baltimore," by the late Tom Miller, black-and-white and sepia-tone photographs by local artist Camilla Blackwell and famed photographer James VanDerZee, and sculptures and mixed-media works from around the world.
For years, Dr. Martina Callum has traveled the country and the world as a locum tenens physician, providing temporary health care in communities where few doctors exist.


text:
Pinne Elm
Pinne Elm
from 79.95
A classic pintail. A middle sized board with deep concave and chamber. Quite rigid for extra control. Great for cruising the city as well as riding downhill. Urskog's Pinne has a core of The 8 ply core of Swedish Birch gives a semi-hard flex.
SETUP : Bear Grizzly Model 5.01, North Best Co. Soft Cruising wheels 70mm 78a, High Quality Abec 7 North Best Co. All Black Bearings.
LENGTH: 995mm 37,6"
WiDTH: 225mm 8,9"
WHEELBASE: 705mm 22,8"
CONCAVE: 11mm 0,43"
CAMBER: 12,2mm 0,48"


text:
Stop, think, click — online safety
The news has been dominated by stories about the dangers of the Internet. Just in recent days, we have heard of major banks losing the personal information of hundreds of thousands of account holders, a congressman's indiscretions on a social networking Web site, hackers accessing thousands of accounts at a major retailer, and many other mass data breaches that may result in wholesale identity theft. Individuals are still falling prey to the infamous "Nigerian 419" scams, sending money to pay the "fees and taxes" in order to receive unimaginable riches from the Nigerian oil minister's widow. Many people are duped into giving money (or credit card data) to crooks who have no intention of ever delivering the purported merchandise. We constantly hear of children who have become the victims of cyber-bullying, where social network sites or chat rooms are utilized. Russian crooks, often teenagers, continue to spread rogue antivirus software in order to extort money from victims, and then sell the credit card information to other crooks. We plead that something ought to be done about these and the other endemic online scams; once again, the federal government has launched a Web site to educate us such that we may become resistant to such scams and other Internet threats, OnGuardOnline.gov.
According to the site, it "provides practical tips from the federal government and the technology industry to help you be on guard against Internet fraud, secure your computer, and protect your personal information." The Web site is maintained by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with the assistance of a substantial public/private partnership. Among the federal agencies and private organizations that contribute material to the Web site are the U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, Internal Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Better Business Bureau, National Crime Prevention Council and several other agencies and organizations. The extensive resources of these agencies and organizations have created and compiled some excellent online safety resources for the use of children, adults, and families.
This Web site consists of three major sections: Topics, Games, and Videos. The Topics section consists of over two dozen discreet subjects, each hyperlinked to a detailed explanation of that subject.
Many kids and adults like playing games, and the Games section has 13 games. The games are designed to "test your cyber smarts … on everything from spam and spyware to phishing and file-sharing." I tried several of the online games, and they are both cute and educational. The games are mostly of the interactive question and answer variety. If correct answers are chosen, the game displays some congratulatory words, as well as an enhanced explanation; if an incorrect answer is picked, the reasons are given why the answer is wrong, and the correct response is then displayed. At the end of each game, a final score is displayed along with links for additional information. Games cover a variety of topics including P2P (Peer to Peer) file sharing, ID theft, spyware, cybercrime, and other contemporary cyber safety subjects. Users should play each of these games and learn from them. Each game only takes a minute or two to play, but they are loaded with useful and beneficial information. In "Invasion of the Wireless Hackers," the player must protect his Wi-Fi network from evil hackers by correctly answering questions about wireless security. A correct answer keeps the evil hackers away from the computer, but incorrect answers, along with some creepy music, bring the hackers closer and closer to the computer until it is taken over. In "Invest Quest," the player spins and advances by successfully answering questions about online investing safety. Several times during the game, a window pops up warning the player that a scammer is trying to steal money, which can be protected by answering the question correctly; otherwise the winnings in a piggy bank may be stolen. By playing these fun games, the user can learn valuable lessons about computing safety and security. The games are appropriate for both children and adults, and could be a healthy family activity. For those with Web sites or blogs, the code for each of the games can be obtained by clicking the "Grab this Game" button, which will display a few lines of code. This code can then be copied and pasted into the blog or on the Web site, allowing others to play the games.
The videos available on OnGuardOnline.gov cover a variety of subjects, and are clearly geared to different age levels. Five of the videos are "Net Cetera Videos" (also available on YouTube) and are intended to be viewed by children (as well as parents), and cover "... online risks, including sharing too much information, scams, viruses, P2P file-sharing, and cyberbullying." Another video is intended to "help parents start a conversation with their kids about online safety, and find resources to help them."
The three "Phishy Videos" are "60-second spots (that) expose phishing scams where online fraudsters use e-mail, pop-ups, or text messages to get your personal and financial information by showing what phishing would look like offline." All of these videos may be explicitly forwarded, posted, or linked from other Web sites and blogs.
OnGuardOnline.gov is an excellent Web site that provides a wealth of information for parents and children in a fun and pleasant way. It would be most appropriate for families to play the games and watch the videos together. While some of the subjects are intended to help us protect our fiscal health, the most valuable subjects can help us protect our most valuable assets, our children.


text:
Specialized 2010 road preview: Tarmac SL3; Secteur; Roubaix; Shiv
We're currently in Snowbird,
In this first instalment, we look at the company's new road range which includes the Tarmac SL3, the time-trial specific Shiv, the
New Tarmac SL3 road race flagship for Quick Step and Saxo Bank
Specialized has expanded on the lessons learned with the current S-Works Tarmac SL2 to produce the new Tarmac SL3.
According to Specialized, the SL3 'module' weight (frame, fork, headset, crankset, seatpost) of 2,047g shaves a rather remarkable 153g off of the already light SL2 while simultaneously increasing both front triangle torsional rigidity and rear triangle stiffness by 18 percent.
But what about drivetrain stiffness?
"The SL2 bottom bracket rigidity had reached a point where even top pros like [Fabian] Cancellara and [Tom] Boonen can't discern a difference any more," said Specialized marketing man Ben Capron. As such, Specialized chose to focus on the other ends of the frame that would yield tangible improvements in handling precision.
Though the Tarmac SL3 bears a strong visual resemblance to the SL2, the two actually have very little in common. In fact, the SL3 frame is even constructed from wholly different assemblies and now comprises just four separate molded parts: the top tube/head tube/down tube structure, the one-piece bottom bracket and bigger and boxier asymmetrical chain stays, newly elliptical seat stays, and the top two-thirds of the seat tube that still transition from round up top to a more rectangular shape down below.
Specialized claims the curved top tube is a key element for keeping the Tarmac SL3 comfortable.
Stiffening ribs have also been added inside the head tube and around the bottom bracket area, special extra-rigid pitch carbon fibres have been added in, and the integrated bottom bracket now consists of lighter separate pressed-in cups.
The rear dropouts are still alloy for durability but they're now deeply relieved forgings with a separate plate welded on to create a trick box-section structure that's both lighter and stiffer than an equivalent molded carbon bit, so says Specialized.
The new FACT SL crank on the top-end S-Works Tarmac SL Superlight uses a carbon fibre spider and lighter chainrings.
Up front, however, the SL2's alloy headset cups have been traded in for lighter carbon units.
Why no integrated seatpost?
Specialized engineer Luc Callahan says his group did investigate the concept but determined there would be no advantage whatsoever in terms of weight, stiffness, or comfort so the SL3 instead retains a conventional 27.2mm round post, which is easier to pack in a travel case, helps retain resale value, and reduces hassle for dealers. Fair enough.
Specialized continues on with a traditional 27.2mm round seatpost, saying there is no weight or stiffness advantage with an integrated design.
We can't confirm Specialized's assertion that the new Tarmac SL3 offers the highest stiffness-to-weight ratio among all the major players (and it admits that it hasn't tested every frame on the market) but based on our experience on the SL2 – and now our brief taste test of the SL3 – any improvement in that area would be quite an accomplishment.
If nothing else, the complete bikes are undoubtedly light. Specialized will offer the Tarmac SL3 in a variety of build kits but the complete top-end S-Works Tarmac SL3 will weigh in at just 5.95kg (13.1lb) without pedals, aided in no small part by Zipp carbon tubulars, a SRAM Red group, Specialized FACT SL integrated crank with a new carbon fibre spider and lighter chainrings, TRP 970SL forged magnesium dual-pivot brakes, and a new Specialized ultralight carbon fibre classic-bend bar and non-adjustable alloy stem.
The new frame is built using an entirely different procedure and is both 153g than before yet a claimed 18 percent more rigid.
One thing that thankfully won't change though is the Tarmac SL2's spot-on geometry and fairly generous spread of six sizes from 49-61cm. Pricing and availability are still to be determined but we would guess the latter to be around the end of 2009 or early 2010.
Cut through drag with the Shiv
The radical Specialized S-Works time trial bike that Saxo Bank's Fabian Cancellara has been piloting over the past few months – to great success, we might add – is now officially called the Shiv and it will be available for public consumption in 2010, albeit in "incredibly limited quantities".
Specialized's newest time trial weapon is the Shiv – a menacing name for a not-so-friendly-looking bike.
Key features include the in-line level top tube and integrated stem, the enormous forward bulkhead section with the fully enclosed front brake built-in, the almost nonexistent gaps between adjacent components, carefully configured internally routed cables, special shaping around the top of the seat stays, the bottom bracket-located rear brake, and an especially slippery fully integrated aero bar setup.
In spite of the forward section's visual mass, it is its relative bulk and width that actually helps it achieve better drag figures at more realistic yaw angles more typically seen during a real world time trial.
Though all of the Shiv frame was carefully shaped, this is really what the wind will see first as the bike moves through the air.
Naturally, Specialized claims impressive aero figures for the Shiv: just 513g of drag at 0 degrees yaw relative to the current Transition's 582g; 443g vs. 626g at 15 degrees on the non-driveside; and just 386g vs. 596g at 15 degrees on the driveside – roughly the same as what the non-UCI legal GT Superbike achieved in the '96 and '00 Olympics with its downsized front wheel, no top tube, and the limited componentry associated with its pursuit role.
In fact, Specialized is so confident in the Shiv's aerodynamics that it is openly challenging any other bicycle company to best the bike's performance in the wind tunnel (any takers?).
The brake is wholly mounted to the forward bulkhead but the whole assembly is then bolted together at the top of the steerer tube and down below with a carbon 'strap' to make for an ultra-stout front end.
Aerodynamics is only part of the equation however and according to Specialized, the Shiv is also one of the most confident-handling machines around owing to its near-Tarmac SL2 rigidity figures: 89.1 Nm/degree for the front triangle vs. 92.5 – or roughly 30 percent better than its nearest competitor, claims Specialized.
The front end is especially stout. Though the tapered 1″-to-1 1/8″ carbon steerer tube isn't all that solid on its own, the forward bulkhead is firmly bolted to the fork at both the top of the steerer and at the crown for a fully boxed-in structure and the larger lower bearing also allows for a broader down tube.
The top tube is rather broad as well and down below, the Shiv boasts heaping amounts of carbon fibre around the bottom bracket area. Both the chain stays and seat stays are also imposingly sizeable and in fact, very little about the Shiv's shaping even remotely suggests the idea of 'spindly'.
As if that weren't already enough, the Shiv is light to boot: claimed frame weight is around 1,300g and a complete bike with a Zipp Sub-9 carbon tubular rear disc and 1080 deep-section front wheel, FACT integrated carbon crank and a SRAM Red group is just 7.6kg (16.8lb).
Explicit UCI approval is still in progress but Specialized adamantly insists the bike is 'UCI-compliant' and it has already been used in competition at both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de Suisse – cross your fingers.
Cables are cleanly routed into the top of the top tube.
Specialized will offer the Shiv in four frame sizes, all measured using the easier-to-interpret X-Y 'stack and reach' system that is quickly gaining favour through the industry.
As Shiv is intended as a pure road time trial machine, Transition will remain in the line-up as a more versatile TT/Tri rig and will even gain three sizes for a new total of six.
Shiv pricing is still to be determined but the 'extremely expensive' descriptor will almost assuredly apply.
Roubaix and Secteur: more value and performance through rest of range
The Roubaix chassis range will carry into the 2010 model year unchanged but Specialized will add a less expensive variant called Secteur that uses identical geometry but in aluminium.
The Specialized Roubaix platform will carry over into 2010 essentially unchanged.
The top-end Secteur Comp will include carbon seat stays – similarly shaped to the full-carbon
New for 2010 is the Secteur range, which aims to provide Roubaix-like comfort and positioning but at a lower price point courtesy of its aluminium frame construction.
Lesser Secteur frame models will use Zertz-free aluminum stays – still similarly curvy for extra give – and an aluminium fork crown.
In the Tarmac range, much of the high-tech features from 2009 models will trickle their way down through the family for 2010. The current Tarmac SL2 features will now roll over into the Pro and Expert frames, this year's Expert becomes next year's Comp, and the revised Elite will gain the more elaborate shaping of more upscale Tarmacs.
The rest of the Tarmac line benefits from trickle-down technology, such as the mid-range Expert model which now gets the more advanced tube shaping previously reserved for the top end.
Given that these mid-range frames will effectively offer similar stiffness levels as top-end models from just a couple of years ago, consumers that have been biding their time over the past few seasons will now be able to get pro-class levels of performance but at a fraction of the cost. Who said the slumping economy was a bad thing?
Stay tuned for more upcoming information on Specialized women's road bikes as well as other components and accessories coming soon.