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Suzanne Adair has shared a fascinating blog on researching historical mysteries with the readers of WWK before. She is the winner of the Patrick D. Smith Literature Award and author of the exciting novels, Paper Woman and The Blacksmith's Daughter plus a third novel Camp Follower, which was nominated for both the Daphne du Maurier Award and the Sir Walter Raleigh Award. Regulated for Murder follows those works with an equally memorable story that grabs the reader immediately and provides a thrill ride like galloping on a horse through an unknown darkening countryside to escape pursuing marauders. The tension builds throughout as Redcoat Lieutenant, Michael Stoddard uses his fists, weapons, and wits in equal measure. In especially dire straights he is saved by his would-be love interest, the lovely and wise widow Kate Duncan. Stoddard survives to pursue justice in an unjust world.
First, welcome back.
Thanks, Warren I'm glad you invited me.
Second why don't you tell us a little about your newest novel?
Here's the official blurb:
For ten years, an execution hid murder. Then Michael Stoddard came to town.
Bearing a dispatch from his commander in coastal Wilmington, North Carolina, redcoat Lieutenant Michael Stoddard arrives in Hillsborough in February 1781 in civilian garb. He expects to hand a letter to a courier working for Lord Cornwallis, then ride back to Wilmington the next day. Instead, Michael is greeted by the courier's freshly murdered corpse, a chilling trail of clues leading back to an execution ten years earlier, and a sheriff with a fondness for framing innocents—and plans to deliver Michael up to his nemesis, a psychopathic British officer.
Regulated for Murder is the first title in the Michael Stoddard American Revolution series, a spin-off of my trilogy (Paper Woman, The Blacksmith's Daughter, and Camp Follower). It takes place during an event we never read about in American History texts: the Crown forces occupation of Wilmington, North Carolina, in the year 1781. Possibly we don't hear about this occupation because during much of 1781, the 82nd Regiment commanded by Major James Henry Craig deployed loyalists as an efficient fighting machine while stymieing movement of the Continental Army in North Carolina. The February 1781 murder investigation in Regulated for Murder is anchored in murderous deeds from 1771, which were covered up by Royal Governor Tryon's execution of six men who'd participated in the Regulator Rebellion that year. So you have a historical mystery embedded in a historical mystery.
When is it coming out?
The release date for the electronic version is Friday 14 October 2011. The print version will be released in the Spring of 2012.
I'm curious about why you chose a Redcoat for a hero.
Traitorous, aren't I?
I noticed you refer to a padlock, which did exist at the time. What other devices or inventions existed then that readers might think of as modern?
What amazes me about the American Revolution is how modern much of it seems. Here are a few examples of "modern" technology from that time.
- Thomas Jefferson invented a device that copied his letters.
- We had the ability to grind lenses with a fair amount of accuracy back then, so a number of people wore glasses, and Benjamin Franklin conceived of sunglasses.
- A few wealthy people had telescopes and compound microscopes, although with the microscope, no one was quite sure what those curious, squiggly things on the slide were.
- Most people brushed their teeth using a roughed up twig, but toothbrushes did exist. (Toothpaste was baking soda and salt.)
When officers in the army and navy bought a commission, from whom did they buy it? Did the king get his cut of the money? I've always wanted to know.
In the 1600s, it was illegal for an officer to purchase a commission. But by the time of King George I, the practice happened so often that regulations were put into place to curb the abuses. (If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.) Tariffs were placed on commissions. The Crown had to approve each transaction. Children could no longer be commissioned. If an officer were in the market to sell his commission, he was supposed to offer it to an officer in the rank just below his. And the government did participate in the purchase and sale of commissions.
In Redcoat: the British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket, Richard Holmes says, "About two-thirds of the commissions in the period 1660–1871 were obtained by purchase, the remainder being gained by seniority, through patronage or as a reward for long, gallant or distinguished service...In wartime the demand for officers outstripped the supply of would-be officers who could afford commissions, and in the large army of 1810 as many as four-fifths of all commissions had been obtained by means other than purchase...Non-purchase vacancies occurred when an officer died or was cashiered, or in wartime when new units were raised or existing ones augmented, although the commissions thus granted could not generally be sold."
That business adage applies here: "You can get it fast, or you can get it cheap, but you cannot get it both fast and cheap." The fast track, as you'd expect, was purchase, but only the very wealthy could afford multiple purchases. Thus Michael Stoddard, a commoner, appears stuck at the rank of lieutenant in Regulated for Murder, as his benefactors' pockets have run dry. But the landscape of war changes rapidly, as Michael will learn in the next book of the series.
Is there some question about your writing that you have never been asked, but would like to answer?
Yes, my characters often pursue actions that surprise me, and yes, I've had creepy dreams about Lieutenant Fairfax.
Finally, please promise you will come back in the future and tell us more?
I'd be delighted. Thank you for having me.


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Brazil 2012 Fieldwork Diary Entry 13: Skeleton!
Roger Smith examining the rocks forming the wall of a quarry just outside of the town of Timon, a suburb of Teresina. Photo by Ken Angielczyk.
Today was our first day of fieldwork in the Teresina area this year. We decided we would return to the quarry outside of the town of Timon where we found a very interesting fish skull last year. We're just starting to prepare that specimen, so I can't offer many details about it at this point, but it certainly seems to have a lot of potential. Based on that specimen, our expectations were high and the quarry did not disappoint.
Not long after arriving today, Martha Richter literally stumbled across a partial skeleton of a terrestrial vertebrate (or tetrapod) preserved in a few pieces of rock in one of the quarry spoil piles. The main layer of the quarry that is used for paving material is the hard red siltsone that forms much of the vertical walls. However, at the base of the wall and exposed in some other areas is a softer sandstone that is too friable to use for paving, hence the reason that pieces of it are mostly discarded. It's not an exaggeration to say that this specimen is the most exciting that we've found in our two years of fieldwork in the Parnaíba Basin.
Partial skeleton of a tetrapod from the quarry in Timon. The skull is in the upper left portion of the picture. The large, white pieces of bone just behind the skull are likely parts of the animal's shoulders, and parts of vertebrae (or backbones) can be seen extending towards the bottom of the picture. The scale bar is in centimeters. Photo by Ken Angielczyk.
So what is it? First, I'll say that it's not a synapsid. That's a little disappointing, but the specimen is interesting enough that it's easy to get over. Instead, the specimen appears to represent a type of amphibian. As you can see, the specimen has a fairly short, broad skull that lacks the very elongate snout of Prionosuchus. Therefore it is definitely something new to the basin. The size and shape are a bit reminiscent of the little jaw fragment that Domingas found a few days ago, so it might represent that animal. More preparation of both specimens will be necessary to definitely say whether that's the case. Beyond that, there was a lot of discussion of which group of amphibians the specimen might be part of, based on our attempts to interpret the anatomy exposed in the specimen. A couple of our guesses focused on two groups, the microsaurs and the amphibamids. Both are known exclusively from areas in the northern hemisphere during the Permian, so finding one south of the paleo-equator would be an important discovery. Again, more preparation of the specimen will be necessary to be sure, and we're all already thinking about what might be the best ways to approach this process. Every specimen is a unique problem when it comes to preparation, and the way this one is preserved suggests it will require a particularly delicate touch.
Luckily, the excitement of finding the skeleton was enough to keep us motivated for they rest of the day. It was very hot today (even by local standards), and the only other fossils we found in the quarry during the rest of our searching were small, unidentifiable fragments of bone. The plan for tomorrow is to do more prospecting for fossils in a couple of other quarries in the area. Our discovery today has given us an idea of what rock layer will be good to target, and it would be great if we can find more material like this.

subset: commoncrawl


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Confed Cup: Brazil not ready for Eagles, others – FIFA
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke conceded on Friday that Brazil will not complete its preparations in time for the Confederations Cup and warned that compromises "will be impossible" ahead of next year's World Cup.
Valcke's comments came on the day Brazilian organisers delivered the third of the six stadiums that will be used in the warm-up tournament, which begins on June 15.
"The next few weeks will be an acid test for the host cities, the local organising committee, the federal government and Fifa on the final lap of preparations for the Fifa Confederations Cup," Valcke said in his latest column published on Fifa's website. "We are all working together tirelessly against the clock to make sure that the facilities will be ready to host a world-class tournament in two months."
After a series of delays, the Arena Fonte Nova was finally opened Friday in the northeastern city of Salvador, and Valcke said local organisers have promised to deliver the remaining three venues by the end of the month.
Fifa initially wanted all six stadiums to be ready last December, but was forced to extend the deadline because of constant delays in construction. Infrastructure work in the host cities will not be entirely done either, and Brazilian officials recently acknowledged that some of the promises made on telecommunications may not be completely fulfilled.
"We will make it," Valcke said. "It will be a fantastic tournament, but not all operational arrangements will be 100 percent. It is impossible to expect this to happen in the shortened preparation time – in most cases, less than two months instead of the scheduled six – due to the compromises we made with the cities."
Local organisers had promised that all venues would be ready by April 15, but that deadline won't be fulfilled. The president of the local organising committee, Jose Maria Marin, said last year that the stadiums not ready by that date would be excluded from the competition. But the venues in Brasilia, which will host the tournament's opener, and in Rio de Janeiro, home to the final at the Maracana, won't be ready by then.
Fifa said it will not tolerate these kinds of exceptions next year.
"I want to reiterate – this will be impossible to repeat for the Fifa World Cup," Valcke said. "(This) has been acknowledged by the federal government and LOC. The deadline for the Fifa World Cup stadiums delivery stands firm as December 2013. There will be no compromise."
He noted that getting the country ready for the World Cup "is an infinitely more complex and demanding job."
"In 2014 we expect more than half a million international visitors alone, and in total, more than three million spectators flocking to the 12 stadiums," Valcke said. "The scale and magnitude of the Fifa World Cup requires a minimum six month operational set-up.
"While we are totally focused on the delivery of the Fifa Confederations Cup, we need to keep working full speed on the 2014 infrastructure in parallel."
Valcke said he will travel to Brazil in May to inspect construction at stadium in the northeastern city of Natal, and that Fifa President Sepp Blatter will visit all 12 World Cup host cities in June, during the Confederations Cup.


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Joseph Lynn Lee was born December 23, 1931 in Farmington, NM to William Lionel and Elva Arreta (Bond) Lee.
After what would be his final battle with caner, he left this earthly home to return to his Heavenly home on May 12, 2014.
Lynn attended all levels of schools in Farmington, NM, where he participated in numerous sports and other childhood activities.
On June 29, 1950, soon after high school graduation, Lynn was sealed to his high school sweetheart Carol Jeanne Irvin in the Mesa Temple for time and all eternity.
He completed his Bachelor's degree and later earned a Master's degree from Northern Arizona University.
Lynn was passionate about family, church, and education. He always felt his mission on the earth was to bring education to the American Indian people he so dearly loved.
He was involved in various levels of education throughout his career in both Colorado and Utah.
He later co-founded and directed the College of Eastern Utah, San Juan Campus (now Utah State University-Blanding Campus) for nearly 25 years.
Lynn is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, where he served diligently in various callings. His greatest calling was that of serving in the Monticello Temple as an ordinance worker with his wife Carol by his side.
Lynn loved and supported his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in any endeavor they pursued.
He is preceded in death by his wife and love of his life, Carol Jeanne Lee, his parents, three brothers, two sisters, and one great grandson, William Ben Lee.
He is survived by children; Carol Lynn (Joseph) Barton of Monticello; Monty (Lana) Lee of Blanding; Larry (Susan) Lee of Blanding; Laura (Bobby) Robbins of Phoenix, AZ; and David (Karleah) Lee of Henderson, NV; his sister Leona Lynn of Highland, UT; as well as 26 grandchildren, 70 great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.


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Catholic Priest Collects Money to Build German Mosque
Whether it's getting people at his parish to offer tables and chairs which they then donate to the Muslim community for a project room in their mosque or applying for European Union funds for language courses for girls, Pastor Franz Meurer is a man of action.
His church, St. Theodor, is located in the Höhenberg-Vingst areas of Cologne - two bordering, lower-income districts with high immigrant and Muslim populations.
Meurer's interaction with Muslims has been a driving force behind his projects. After speaking with church authorities and the church council, he began collecting money to give to the Turkish Islamic Union of the Institute for Religion (DITIB) to help them build their new mosque in the city most famous for its Catholic cathedral.
In mid-March, Meurer raised 2,000 euros ($2,660) in a collection during services in his parish.
"Several years ago, when our new Catholic church was inaugurated, we received a present from a neighboring Protestant church," said Meurer. "We thought the idea was so nice, we wanted to do something similar ourselves."
That's when the idea to donate something to the Muslim community was born.
Returning the favor
"It's a good idea to support those who think sensibly and want to live together in peace," Meurer said. "I think it would be a dangerous thing if everyone just lived in their own worlds, separated from one another."
Bekir Alboga, DITIB's appointee for inter-faith dialogue, said she thinks Meurer's willingness to pass the plate for understanding across religions.
"I think it's great that he's brave enough to show his true colors," Alboga said. "It's a wonderful thing when a Catholic priest dares to do what he's doing, even though right-wing extremism and xenophobia, and even Islamophobia, are on the rise.
But not everyone in Meurer's parish agreed with collecting money for the new mosque.
"I don't like the idea," one parishioner said. "People from all religions should be tolerant, and I don't see Muslims being that way."
Another man said that since donations helped to get St. Theodor built five years ago, he felt it was a good idea to help people of other faiths build their own places of worship.
"Everyone has the right to live their faith," another woman said. "We pray to our God and the Muslims to theirs. If we can build a church, then they should be able to build a mosque if they want."
Controversial mosque
The Cologne Central Mosque is to be built in the district of Ehrenfeld - at the site of the current, smaller DITIB mosque - and will be one of Germany's largest. It is designed to hold more than 3,000 worshippers, and building is set to begin in the fall.
However, construction of the mosque has been controversial. The right-wing extremist "Pro Köln" group - a political party that also sits on the Cologne City Council - has been one of the biggest opponents of the mosque.
It's the opposition to a new mosque that Alboga said makes Meurer's decision to back its construction a strong statement of support.
"I think Meurer's gesture is worth a lot more than the money the community wants to give us," she added.
Monika Griebeler
Islam and Integration in Germany
The Merkez Mosque as a Symbol of New Acceptance
Since the late 1980s, more and more impressive mosques have been built in Germany. They are increasingly replacing the old makeshift mosques from the Gastarbeiter days. North Rhine-Westphalia's largest mosque celebrated its topping-out ceremony last week. Details from Alexandra Jarecki
German Architect To Build Mosque
"Muslims Should Not Try to Hide"
In order to find an architect for their mosque, a Muslim community in Germany conducted an open tender process. Now the German non-Muslim Paul Böhm was awarded the first prize for his model. Thilo Guschas interviewed the architect
Mosques in Germany
The Minaret Man
Ahmet Akbaba had a good idea at exactly the right moment. Originally a carpenter, he began specializing in building minarets and is now the top man in Germany for the field. Abdul-Ahmad Rashid introduces him


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Grid computing will change storage
Often described as the Internet on steroids, grid computing has the buzz as the next big thing to change the world of computing as we know it. Here's how storage management will change in the grid world.
Grid computing--also called computing on demand--has the potential to change the computing model we've used for more than a half of a century. Computers have essentially been self-contained systems with local memory, I/O and storage. This model has been expanded and refined over the years while remaining essentially unchanged.
Of course, there have been numerous computer revolutions in the last five decades: networked computers on LANs; two-tier computing or client-server computing, which separates the application from the data; three-tier computing that separates the user interface from the applications and the data such as Java. And the short list of giant leaps in computing would certainly need to include the Internet, WWW, SANs and high- performance or massively parallel computers.
Yet in spite of these admittedly significant advances, the basic model remained the same. Grid computing is the first real change to the model that leverages these advances. For the first time, users will be able to get the computing they need, on demand, without having to know anything about computing. Computing on demand will have a huge impact on the way data is used, shared and stored.
|Grid Computing's Impact on storage
Internet on steroids
Some have called grid computing the Internet on steroids. In reality, it's the virtualization of computing to the user. Grid computing allows IT organizations to forego having to provide individual computers to provide computational capabilities.
The Global Grid Forum and the IETF for Grid
Computing define the grid as a type of parallel and distributed system that enables the sharing, selection and aggregation of resources distributed across multiple administrative domains based on their availability, capability, performance, cost and users' QoS requirements.
Grid computing is often confused with cluster computing. If distributed resources happen to be managed by a single, global centralized scheduling system, then it's a cluster. In a cluster, all nodes work cooperatively with a common goal and objective as a centralized, global resource manager performs the resource allocation. In a grid, each node has its own resource manager and allocation policy.
What this means is that applications will be able to dynamically draw processing cycles, memory, I/O and storage from anywhere on the grid based on its moment-by-moment requirements and resource availability. The grid continuously identifies computer processing, I/O, memory or storage demand and assigns the appropriate computer resources to fulfill that demand.
The compute resources on the grid must be interconnected across a high-speed, high-performance network. These resources can be local or geographically distributed. The grid resource allocation software takes into account the physical location of the resources before assigning them. Bandwidth and performance to each compute resource have an impact on the decision algorithm.
Grid computing has enormous potential and has captured the attention of the computer industry as well as a fistful of research dollars from companies such as Fujitsu Softek, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Siemens, Sun Microsystems and others. Grid computing has the potential to reduce research time by orders of magnitude. It could allow cancer researchers to test thousands of drug candidates in minutes vs. years, or astronomers to map all near earth objects in months vs. decades or provide meteorologists with an incredibly accurate forecast of any given spot in the world. Grid computing is at the same point that the World Wide Web was in 1991.
That sounds almost too good to be true, but today there are dozens of working grid projects around the world. Of course, there are still many significant challenges ahead to take grid computing beyond the do-it-yourself experiment stage to commercially shrink-wrapped viability. Perhaps the most important challenge for grid computing will be how to manage the storage.
A clash of revolutions
Grid computing requires storage I/O that's typically orders of magnitude greater than most storage systems can provide today. This means that aggregate storage throughput will be measured in hundreds of gigabytes to terabytes per second instead of megabytes per second. Aggregate storage I/O will be measured by the hundreds of millions to many billions of IOPS. Additionally, the storage must be capable of being geographically distributed while maintaining a single image. Finally, that storage must be capable of scaling both capacity and performance linearly up to tens of petabytes, exabytes and even yottabytes in a single image. (A yottabyte is a billion petabytes.) Many in the grid computing community have postulated that the storage systems themselves must be able to work together in a parallel storage grid. These are by no means trivial tasks, and appear to require a paradigm shift in storage thinking.
Storage systems and SANs have gone through a different and well-documented revolution over the past five years. There has been an accelerating move away from direct-attached storage (DAS) toward storage area networks (SANs). As you know, storage systems have become increasingly more sophisticated providing additional functionality such as replication, snapshot, mirroring, SRM and even policy-based management. Storage applications and intelligence are starting to show up in the SAN fabrics in the form of appliances and intelligent switches.
So what happens when the storage revolution meets a diametrically different grid computing revolution? The answer is something changes. The revolution that comes out on top is the one that provides the greatest overall value to the IT organizations.
Since the mid-'90s, storage has become the tail that wags the IT budget dog. The premise behind this is that the data is the critical asset or family jewels to the organization. Therefore, the proper storing and protection of that data is mission critical. Over the last decade, there has been an outpouring of products that more efficiently and reliably, store, protect, access, service and secure data. And now the focus of most new storage products is to help better manage storage at a lower cost.
Grid computing will reduce capital and operating costs for the all aspects of the computing environment in the IT organization. It will concurrently increase the IT organizations capabilities and flexibility while making these systems a living adaptive entity. Storage will have to adapt to grid computing.
There are two logical paths storage systems will probably evolve as a result of grid computing's requirements. The first path is to deploy a more sophisticated and more capable storage system than any of today's familiar high-end names. This storage system will be massively parallel and capable of linearly scalability in both capacity and performance. Multiple storage subsystem controllers must have the ability to work together as peers locally or geographically distributed on high-speed networks just like the grid computer resources.
The second path is the complete opposite where the storage subsystem becomes simpler and completely slaved to specific compute resources. The compute resources are already massively parallel and can provide most if not all of the storage applications. A closer examination will show how each approach meets the storage requirements of grid computing.
Storage subsystem controllers are in effect purpose-built servers. This means they are servers that are hardware- and software-optimized for storage. It's not a big stretch imagining these purpose-built servers moving from being a slave (as it is today) to becoming a peer in the grid. This would allow the grid to allocate storage resources identically to compute resources. When an application on the grid requires local block or file storage access, the storage subsystem controller that best fits this need can be located and allocated dynamically. As far as the grid is concerned, the storage subsystem is a compute resource specifically for storage.
One example comes from YottaYotta's NetStorager storage system. This storage system can scale linearly in both capacity and performance to potentially yottabytes of storage in a single image. The storage can either be local or distributed across the room or across the world.
YottaYotta accomplishes this scale by its unique cache coherency across multiple controllers. The cache in one controller knows what's in the cache of all the other controllers. "We started with a clean sheet design for the NetStorager to specifically address the requirements of HPC and grid computing," says Wayne Karpoff, CTO of YottaYotta. "We knew that many of the grid's storage requirements such as replication, throughput,and real-time geographic distribution needed to be resolved."
This type of storage system is ideal for grids that span multiple geographic locations. If an application requires more compute resource and more storage resource, the peer-to-peer storage system will be able to efficiently tie the additional resources together transparently. This makes the grid faster and more efficient.
|Storage and the future
of the data center
Compute resource slave
As opposed to the approach YottaYotta took, the computer resource slave paradigm calls for smaller less expensive storage subsystems. These subsystems would be slaved to specific compute resources and allocated by the grid as a package. This simpler approach could take several guises including DAS and simple (e.g. non-intelligent) SANs, multi-ported shared RAID, very low- cost RAID, JBOD or SBOD all tightly coupled with the compute resource. The grid's software can then decide (based on policies) which data is copied, distributed or highly available.
Massively parallel database (MPbase) from Open Sky Technologies uses loosely coupled Linux or Solaris compute resources that are tied together over high performance TCP/IP networks. MPbase can be local and/or geographically distributed. Each MPbase compute resource is tightly coupled with an appropriate amount of storage (as low as two to four disks.) MPbase works better when compute resources use fewer disks.
MPbase organizes the data in a naturalized fashion versus normalized for RDBMS systems. Naturalized meaning that like data aligns with like data instead of having to be placed in tables. In the process of this naturalization MPbase natively stores the data both compressed and encrypted. It's also capable of searching and processing the data in that mode.
MPbase typically utilizes fewer than 1% to 2% of the storage required with current RDBMS systems. This database system automatically replicates, mirrors, and encrypts between any of the locations on the grid. It was designed from the ground up to be a grid based database structuring environment supporting any-to-any and many-to-many data structures. As queries become more complex, MPbase actually works faster.
This data structure system works best if it's storage is unsophisticated. Ken Tratar, partner in the Open Sky venture likes to use this analogy: "The current data structure environment is like having an F-18 tied to the Empire State building. Grid computing complicates the picture. It's like having 500 F-18s tied to the Empire State building. Eventually the building breaks. MPbase frees those F18s from the building."
Richard Foster, CTO of WestGrid (a consortium of western Canadian universities funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation ) has a strong opinion of how storage technology must evolve to meet the requirements of grid computing. He's an advocate of the sophisticated storage path.
According to Foster, "grid computing is requiring ever-larger and increasing numbers of datasets to be accessed anywhere over large geographical distances...[and] these datasets will need a parallel geographically dispersed storage grid that matches the compute grid. Storage anywhere must be aware of the storage everywhere and appropriately align dataset requests with bandwidth, I/O performance, and location."
Which design wins?
Both the more sophisticated and simpler storage paths have merit and risk. The tendency in storage is to always reduce the risk first and then reduce the cost. This adds weight to the arguments for a simpler approach. The immaturity of grid computing software pushes the arguments the opposite way towards the more sophisticated approach.
Neither model is likely to triumph completely. Both could coexist in the same organization, for that matter. And regardless of which path an organization selects, the impact on SANs will be dramatic.
If storage subsystems become more sophisticated and a peer in the grid, then the SAN will very likely be relegated to a simple switched interconnect. Complex zoning schemes and security become redundant because of the grid's own built-in security. This should drive towards a lower cost invisible SAN--something many end users are asking for.
On the other hand, if the storage subsystems are simpler and a slave to compute resources on the grid, then market pressures will drive that simplicity and lower cost into the SAN. Either way, storage approaches will be applying significant commoditization pressure on SANs.
What about the storage applications moving into the fabric itself? The grid will manage many storage applications, which would mean that if there were appliances, they would have to become grid aware and a peer in the grid. If they are application platform switches, they could end up being obsolete.
Grid computing has a high probability of making iSCSI far more important. There are already visions of a "World Wide Grid" along the lines of the "World Wide Web." Grids will be geographically dispersed. This means that the span of the SAN must extend outside of the traditional data center. The iSCSI protocol was designed with that requirement in mind. With iSCSI's ability to go great distances and the coming RDMA on TCP/IP and GigE, it will likely play a roll in future grids that Fibre Channel cannot.
Over the past decade, IT budgets have been increasing as a percentage for storage and SANs while decreasing for servers. The benefits of grid computing will put pressure in the opposite direction, toward a greater investment in the fundamental computing infrastructure. Just at the dawn of storage networking, we may be at the apogee of storage power right now.


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You're dreaming. Someone has asked you, a complete novice, to sing at a festival in front of thousands of people. Live, with a band. What song would you choose to sing in public? (given the necessary vocal talent of course). Would it be one you hear over and over again from your kids room, or a Take That standard that will get everyone singing along? Would you like it to be a song that speaks of who you are as a person, or who you would like to be – a protest song perhaps?
I had this dream. Anyone who knows me would say that me singing in public is my- and indeed everyone else's – idea of a nightmare rather than a dream come true. But when it came to going on stage I made a pretty good job of singing this…
It is a song I have always loved (and annoyed my children with over the years as 'mummy's miserable music') and I do indeed sing along to it in the car so I expect there was nothing too significant about my choice.
But thinking about it, I reckon this has got to be one of the most seductive songs ever written. I am a huge fan of Portishead and Beth Gibbons' voice is sexy as hell anyway, but she really surpasses herself on this track.
What do you reckon? What might you have sung? What do you sing when no-one else is listening (after all we can't all get the chance to sing at Glastonbury…)
Its daft I know, but I felt the need to share it on my blog because in a funny kind of way I feel proud of myself for getting up there on stage and giving this fabulous song a go.
In my dreams…


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Security researchers lift the lid on Torpig banking Trojan
300K bank accounts compromised by backdoor code
Security researchers at RSA have uncovered how a banking Trojan may have stolen the login credentials of as many as 300,000 online bank accounts.
The Sinowell (AKA Torpig) trojan has also lifted email and FTP account login details. Previous attempts to track the source of the Trojan have run into blind alleys.
One popular theory is that the malware authors behind the trojan are in the same gang as the group who ran the infamous Russian Business Network (RBN). RSA's analysis suggests that the authors of Sinowell may have been at least affiliated with the Storm worm gang in the past but are now running the malware through hosting facilities unaffiliated to the RBN.
RSA is in liaison with computer emergency response teams and other appropriate parties in an effort to take down the network controlled by the Sinowell trojan.
The malware, variants of which first appeared in 2006, takes considerable pains to conceal its presence on compromised machines
In addition, the communication infrastructure behind the trojan is sophisticated and well maintained.
"The creators of the Sinowal Trojan periodically release new variants and register thousands of Internet domains for its communication resources. The purpose of this is to maintain the Trojan's uninterrupted grip on infected computers," a posting on the RSA security blog explains.
More details on the malware can be found in a post made by RSA on its security blog here. ®
Sponsored: Detecting cyber attacks as a small to medium business


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By Stewart J. Lawrence [1] Jun 05, 2013 0 [2]
Latinos as Autism Caregivers
Autism families are accustomed to facing enormous obstacles securing recognition and services for their children. But not all families face these obstacles in the same way or to the same degree. While each individual autism case is unique, making generalizations difficult, there is a growing recognition among experts [3] that ASD children from minority backgrounds face unique ethnic and racial barriers from the start, barriers that tend to compound over time. For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [4] (CDC), minority children on average receive an early diagnosis three to five years later than Caucasian children with ASD do. That means many simply miss the critical intervention period [5] in which the development of stronger cognitive and communication skills could make a real difference in their ability to function more independently in adulthood.
Latino ASD children and adults appear to face some of the worst group barriers. In addition to ethnicity, these barriers may include language and legal status (some 20 percent of the 53 million Latinos are undocumented, while 26 percent of those here legally are non-citizens, limiting their access to public assistance). Latinos in 2001 surpassed African-Americans as the country's largest minority group [6] (13 percent then, 17 percent now) and with relatively high birth rates, and ongoing immigration, are expected to become nearly 30 percent of the nation's population by 2050 [7]. (In fact, Latinos already comprise a disproportionately high share (25 percent) of American children under 5). That means their share of the total autism population is growing exponentially [8]; it also means that the potential impact of under-diagnosed Latino autism for Latino adults [9]—and for American society as a whole—is growing rapidly, too.
The challenges Latinos families living with autism face derive from multiple sources. It's tempting for many public health professionals to couch the issue in terms of poverty, lack of education and low health awareness among Latino families, especially if they're immigrants. Those Latinos that do immigrate from abroad often come from countries where autism is too often lumped under the broad category of "mental retardation" or confused with other intellectual disabilities. And if specialized diagnostic and treatment services for autism are available at all, generally only a wealthy few can access them. That means Latino immigrants especially have an enormous amount of catching up to do—and often, unless they arrive with their children early, and get a proper diagnosis—they may miss the critical intervention period.
The Impact of Cultural Difference
But even American-born Latinos, it turns out, may fare no better than their immigrant counterparts. Sandy Magaña [10], a professor in the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has been studying Latino ASD families for years. Her research [11] has shown that Latinos aren't included in clinical trials for autism in proportion to their numbers, and that even the diagnostic instruments used by clinicians [12] fail to take into account cultural differences in the perceptions of Latino mothers that affect the way that they might report a potential disability or development delay in their child. Unless clinicians are Latino themselves, or have a high degree of "cultural competency" [13] they may not realize that the "difficult" child the mother is describing actually has autism, Magaña's research shows.
Ethnic and racial health disparities—a polite word for "institutional racism" or "discrimination"—appear to affect Latinos with ASD at every stage of their development [14], compounding the problems first encountered in childhood. For example, what happens when under-diagnosed autistic Latino children enter the public schools? "To be honest, they get royally screwed, there's no other way to put it" says Jan Blacher [15] of the University of California at Riverside, another Latino autism expert. Blacher's the only US health researcher thus far to study Latino children with autism over time through a series of longitudinal studies funded by the National Institutes of Health [16] (NIH). She says that most Latino parents don't obtain the critical special needs support (including all-day behavioral aides) that non-Latino parents do, in part because they simply don't realize that such support is available. But even when they do, public authorities may not be amenable to accommodating them, she says. And in the face of institutional resistance, these parents are rarely sufficiently organized to demand that the schools comply with the law the way many more affluent non-Latino parents do.
Data from California, home to nearly one-third of the nation's Latino population, and the first state in which Latino numbers are roughly equal to those of Caucasians [17], seem to bear out Blacher's blunt assessment. Under state law, public monies for autism services, many of them school-based, are managed through 21 regional non-profit centers. However, at 14 of these centers, spending on Caucasian children still far surpasses spending on Latino children, according to a review of the most recently available data [18] conducted by the Los Angeles Times. At the regional center that serves Los Angeles County, for example, spending on Caucasian youngsters with autism averaged $12,794 per child in 2011 compared to $4,652 for Latinos, or almost three times as much, the Times found, despite state guidelines mandating that spending on autism and other disability services be distributed equitably. Contacted by the Times, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles center refused to comment on the data or the newspaper's report.
The Role of the Family
How much of the responsibility for disparities might lie with Latino families? That's a matter of considerable dispute. Some multicultural experts [19] say that Latinos are sometimes overly fatalistic about their life circumstances, or are afraid to acknowledge that their child has a serious problem in front of other family members for fear of being blamed or judged for their child's condition. That may limit their willingness to fight for better services, they say. Magaña agrees, in part, noting that many first-generation Latinas still suffer from a "martyr" complex which consigns them to a more traditional family role as the self-sacrificing housewife and mother. But that doesn't mean these mothers won't fight for their children—just the opposite, she says. She also notes that "Latino families, unlike Anglo families, don't generally think in terms of how to launch their ASD young adults into careers and marriages outside the home." Instead, according to Magaña, because Latinos tend to prioritize family unity and solidarity across several generations, "they fully expect to take care of their children in perpetuity, if need be."
Raul Escobedo, now 29, is a good example of an ASD adult with severe autism who still lives at home with his parents and two younger sisters. Born in Mexico like the rest of his family, Raul was lucky to receive an autism diagnosis at age 3 after his parents decided to borrow the money to fly to Chicago on a tourist visa to see a specialist after realizing that quality care for Raul simply wasn't available in Mexico. Once their suspicions were confirmed, the family then took another bold step: They decided to remain in the US illegally, largely to ensure that Raul could get better care, even at the risk of being arrested, jailed and deported.
Raul's sister Gissel, who was also born in Mexico and accompanied her parents and Raul to Chicago, says the entire family, including her younger sister, are actively involved in taking care of her brother. Despite his early diagnosis, Raul never developed effective social and language skills but did receive a minimum of special education support in the public schools (just 30 minutes weekly) until he started having violent episodes (or "meltdowns", as she calls them). Gissel says the episodes occurred every hour and lasted for seven years, beginning at age 15. The daily burden on her entire family was enormous, she says. However, even now, at age 26, Gissel, who has a Master's degree in Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago, has trouble thinking of her own future independently of her brother's daily care issues. "I don't know how I am going to balance, for example, my professional life with him," she says. "And I'm not even thinking about a married life at this point. The truth is, we've never sat down as a family and talked about the future. We live moment to moment and just cherish all the time we have with Raul. We are a very united family."
Legal Complexities
In Gissel's view, the biggest obstacle Raul faces is his legal status. While she's recently qualified for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [20] (DACA) under the Obama administration's provisional legalization program for the children of undocumented immigrant parents, her brother—and her parents—are still in legal limbo. And even with provisional legal status, under current rules and without a more comprehensive legalization plan, Raul still won't qualify for a day program, much less for assisted group living or another potential out-of-home solution, she notes. "He might not be able to work or earn a degree, but he still has the ability to learn, and to contribute, instead of just stagnating," Gissel says. Right now Raul is strictly homebound, except for emergency hospital visits. In fact, the family doesn't even drive to the park, much less take family vacations, for fear of being detected and possibly deported. Gissel's father still doesn't have a driver's license, but may soon be eligible for one after the state legislature passed a law overturning the former ban for undocumented immigrants.
The case of Matiana Ovalle, the mother of 22-year-old twins, David and Carlos, further highlights the challenges Latino ASD families face but can still surmount as long as culturally-tailored support is available, and the family fights for it. Ovalle, who immigrated to the US from Mexico as a young girl, directs Grupo Salto [21], a non-profit organization based in Chicago that serves some 400 Latino ASD families, many of them with adult children like her own. Most Latino families, she says, simply aren't aware of the services that are available to them, and even if they don't face a language barrier, they aren't necessarily accustomed to speaking up and demanding that they receive equitable treatment. Her organization, founded in 2003 and still operating on a shoestring budget, tries to fill that void. In addition to providing Latino families with strategies to access the often forbidding public health care system, it provides collective emotional and moral support. Even while bridging and adapting to the dominant culture, many Latino families need to have a place of their own to commiserate, share stories, and hugs, she says.
Grupo Salto may be unique nationwide in the special emphasis it places on Latino ASD adults in transition, sponsoring an annual tour of universities and colleges for high school seniors who feel ready and able to tackle the challenge. Families also network through friends and colleagues to find their children jobs. David, who has performed in his mother's small dance company since he was a young boy, is about to become a dance instructor's assistant. Carlos, meanwhile, has a part-time job as an audio-visual aide. Both are entering college, but still live at home. "It's a start, and we'll just have to see where things go," Ovalle says.
Working Together
The Grupo Salto model—a quiet partnership with a large mainstream university—is one way of ensuring that linguistically isolated ASD families outside the cultural mainstream get the extra support and guidance they need. Blacher's doctoral program at UCR and others at universities like Drexel [22] also conduct special outreach to ASD children and young adults in low-income Spanish-speaking communities. But these efforts reach only a small fraction of Latino families. Magaña, who applauds Grupo Salto's efforts and assists them whenever she can, says leaving it to Latinos to develop their own informal ASD support groups isn't enough. In her opinion, the mainstream public health system needs to step up to the plate and address disparities more pro-actively, in part by ensuring that clinicians know how to diagnose Latino children properly, and by conducting more pro-active bilingual outreach of their own, above all, to ensure equitable access.
Since last year, Magaña has been working with a team of researchers to test the use of special "autism educators," based on the promotora de salud (community health promoter) model [23] that's proven so effective in getting health services to Latinos in low-income communities throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The idea is to train Latina mothers with ASD children to go out into Latino communities nationwide to help educate and mobilize other mothers like themselves. The basic model was first tested successfully in a pilot study Magaña conducted in 2011 in Milwaukee with Latina mothers of children with disabilities. Her most recent series of federal health grants will allow the model to be applied for the first time to mothers of children with autism. Magaña's past research has shown that Latina mothers are starved for more information about how to help their children and young adults. "Getting information from their cultural peers with similar experiences in a language they can understand results not only in greater awareness of the issues, but a determination to do even more for their children," she says.
Ovalle, who works for the University of Illinois at Chicago, says she feels lucky to have received support from autism professionals in her workplace, who have helped her find support for her twins over the years. However, what her case and that of the Escobedos seem to suggest most is that strong families with socially active mothers are an unusually powerful protective factor for autism care in Latino communities, a finding that could have powerful implications for Anglo families, too. Magaña's past research has shown that Latino mothers with ASD children report significantly lower levels of depression and higher rates of life satisfaction than non-Latino ASD mothers [24]—this despite the fact that Latina ASD mothers also suffer twice the divorce rate of Latina mothers with neurotypical children. Equipped with the information and support they need, these women, many of them poor and with limited English skills, will stop at nothing to help their ASD children have a better life, Magaña says, a life they hope—despite their children's autism—will be better than their own.


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Top titles on Quality Control for teachers, students, and industry professionals are listed below.
Lean Manufacturing: Implementation Strategies that Work
Divided into three basic sections, this unique resource provides an understandable and implementable approach to inserting Lean in a manufacturing operation, pointing out the stumbling blocks and pitfalls to avoid. Its goal is to to help American manufacturing more effectively go about the task of making Lean a viable process. The significance of the work is that, if followed, it could change the entire course of how Lean Manufacturing is implemented in the United States and help manufacturing, in general, to become more competitive on a worldwide scale.Learn More$49.95
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Developed from the author's own practical experience, this unique resource details a proven, 10-step approach to cost reduction, and provides a series of tools to help you achieve sustainable cost reduction in your business while avoiding the damage of "slash and burn". A New Strategy for Continuous Improvement presents a new 'Operations Improvement Cycle'. This cycle provides the benchmark, priority and guidance that were missing in the original cycle. This is achieved through a three stage process involving 10 specific steps. Additionally, it explores the issues with the traditional approach to continuous improvement and cost reduction and then takes you through the three stages and the '10 Steps' in detail. Working with this manual will change your approach to cost reduction forever. Not only will you save money on an ongoing basis, but these proven techniques will have an impact almost immediately!$49.95
Lean Production
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The concept of lean production is not new, but the challenges of dramatic change management often stymie business leaders trying to put lean operations into place. This revised and greatly expanded volume aims to provide a readable, real-world roadmap for putting into place the indispensable strategy and tactics managers need to make lean work and move their organizations - whether manufacturing or service-based - toward a world-class production system. Drawing upon decades of experience in the front lines of lean production and organizational transformation, the author provides cases, anecdotes, examples, rationales and concrete tools to help business leaders stop talking about lean production and actually make progress toward achieving it. It's the perfect resource for leaders at all levels who are interested in improving their competitiveness, building more successful operations, and moving toward world-class performance in customer satisfaction, profitability, and employee satisfaction.Learn More$54.95
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Written for anyone in a leadership position in maintenance, storeroom or production, this unique book will also be found useful by vendors to the maintenance departments, including maintenance contractors, parts vendors, and various kinds of service providers. As a practical book, Lean Maintenance will take the reader on a journey from uncovering waste, designing projects to address the waste, selling the projects to management and delivering the projects. Every area in maintenance is covered, including your TPM effort, storeroom, PM tasking, work orders and computer systems. What's more, the user will be able to immediately use this book to start the process of saving money, energy, or time within just one hour!Learn More$54.95
Value Analysis Tear-Down
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When humans are "well," they are in a state where body, mind, and spirit are holistically integrated, and are healthy, happy, and resilient. The same can be said for a business. Industry and Manufacturing Wellness explains how to use Reliability Engineering principles to design and create companies that are robust, reliable, self-improving, integrated business systems best suited for getting maximum success in today's and tomorrow's world.
This revolutionary work goes well beyond the plant to show a completely new way to engineer, design, and build business processes and work flow that deliver overall operational excellence to a company. The work introduces risk management, decision-making methods that prove the worth – or not – of a change before it's initiated in the organization, thus protecting against making wrong choices. These universally applicable process improvement concepts makes readers take a system-wide approach that can be repeated infinitely to deliver the utmost operational success.Learn More$69.95
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Statistics for Quality Control
Statistics for Quality Control is a basic level study of statistics used in a production operations setting. It is primarily intended for students entering quality control or other industrial and operations careers. It covers introductory topics such as a brief background, measurements, and graphing techniques. It then moves on to the beginning statistics necessary to understand these practices commonly found in industry and ends with coverage of quality assurance issues along with some pertinent managerial practices associated with this topic.Learn More$69.95
Value Creation Through Sustainable Manufacturing
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By Caroline McGraw Jun 04, 2012 0
Extreme Sports Camp: Learning in Action
Sedentary lifestyles. Hours spent staring at a screen each day. Obesity and obesity-related health conditions. These are "typical" problems for most Americans these days, and individuals with developmental disabilities often suffer most of all from the nation's dwindling level of healthy physical activity. With constant decreases in programmatic and governmental funding, individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities have fewer and fewer opportunities to exert themselves and test their athletic abilities in a fun, safe, and supportive environment.
Enter Extreme Sports Camp, located in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado. The organization is dedicated to giving individuals on the spectrum the chance to participate in sports and experience the outdoors. In the words of Sallie Bernard, the camp's founder, "Our kids and adults [on the spectrum] are so prone to sitting indoors, in rooms, and they are missing out on something that should be a part of everyone's life: Activity Based Learning, or ABL … it's all about learning actively, as opposed to sitting at a desk." At Extreme Sports Camp, every day is filled with indoor and outdoor activity, a dramatic contrast to "everyday" life that keeps individuals with autism and their families coming back year after year.
Founding Story
Bernard was motivated to begin the program because she saw a distinct lack of opportunities for her autistic son, Bill, to go to summer camp and participate in sports. Bill's neurotypical siblings loved camp, and Sallie couldn't help but desire a comparable experience for him. As she says, "I saw the value of my other kids going off to camp, and felt my son Bill should have that opportunity." When the family relocated from New Jersey to Colorado, Bernard saw her chance. In her words, "I liked how people got outside here and prioritized outdoor sports. And so, with my son's skiing instructor, we just started to do something [with individuals on the spectrum]: a weeklong activity program, which started in 2001." Bill is now 24, and Extreme Sports Camp has expanded beyond her initial imaginings. It incorporated as a nonprofit in 2004, and became an overnight camp for children, teens, and adults on the spectrum. (Individuals must be 8 years old or older to participate.) The program does not receive state funding; instead, students pay tuition, and money from private donors and grants helps to make programs more affordable for participants. (To enroll in a program, families can expect a base tuition cost of $1,100 for a five-day program, and $1950 for a five-day/six-night residential program. However, various scholarships and aid opportunities are available.) With each passing year, Extreme Sports Camp has expanded: more weeks, more kids, an adult program, winter ski programs. As Bernard puts it, "Every year, we keep building on that small first step."
Summer Camps and Winter Programs
Extreme Sports Camp's first year was, indeed, very small, with four participants over the course of two weeks. Initial development was a challenge, but as word spread and interest grew, program offerings expanded proportionally. Bernard observes, "This [camp] is a work in progress. We look at sports and physical fitness from an autism perspective and actually break down sports in a way that they can be accessible to someone with autism at any level." Essentially, Extreme Sports Camp takes the progressive thinking utilized to teach individuals with autism life skills and community-based learning and applies that approach to sports.
Bernard recalls, "When my son has been involved in sports through school programs, it was not very challenging, and it wasn't very engaging for him. It was dumbed down. I saw my son sitting on the sidelines a lot. What we do out here is figure out how analyze sports so that it can be individualized and taught to someone with autism." Cultivating intrinsic motivation is paramount in the Extreme Sports Camp philosophy, and its staff work together to foster techniques that make their activities engaging and exciting for each participant. One of Extreme Sports Camp's goals is to set the stage for a lifelong enjoyment of sports; as Bernard says, "We really want the person to come back and do [the sporting activity] again!"
It seems that the camp has made a success of that goal, as their enrollment numbers speak for themselves. In the summer months, Extreme Sports Camp hosts nine week-long sessions, as well as a training week for staff. While each of the nine weeks has 21 slots available for individuals on the spectrum, many choose to register for multiple weeklong sessions, so although the camp has the capacity to host 189 individuals on the spectrum, the total number of individuals served is less than that each summer. The summer sleep-away camp is based at the Spring Valley Campus of Colorado Mountain College. Summer activities offered for the 2012 year include a wide variety of lake and river sports, such as wakeboarding and kayaking, as well as activities like climbing, yoga, caving, and therapeutic dance and drumming. The winter session is smaller, with six sessions, and seven participants welcomed to each session. Since the winter program is less extensive, Extreme Sports Camp also offers ski instruction and buddies to pair up and ski with participants on the spectrum throughout the winter ski season.
Challenges and Supports
As my brother Willie is a young man on the autism spectrum, Extreme Sports Camp sounds like a dream come true for families. Yet even so, I wonder: What about challenging behaviors in campers? What about how stressful it can be for individuals to try new things, live communally with strangers, and spend a week or more away from home? Is this a setup for some possibly epic meltdowns? When I voice my fears and ask Bernard my questions, she speaks in the voice of a woman who has comforted and reassured many a concerned parent. In her words, "Every participant has their own unique set of challenges. [For example], there may be someone who is very high-functioning from a cognitive perspective, but they may have emotional issues and anxiety. We try to be preemptive, scanning for signs of something that may be 'coming up' for a participant." Counselors who serve as program staff are trained to watch for warning signs and monitor camp participants for conditions such as overheating, hydration, fatigue, and sensory overload. Moreover, Extreme Sports Camp seeks to offer as much support to each participant as possible. Their staffing ratio is 1:1, and individuals participate in all of their activities in teams with a supervisor present, so that 2:1 support may be available as needed. The staff is trained in each individual's Behavior Support Plan, as well as in the basics of behavioral support. In addition, staff members utilize supports such as sensory toys, social stories, calendars, and schedules to facilitate learning and minimize camper anxiety. All Extreme Sports Camp activities are located within 25 minutes of a hospital at all times, and the staff is trained in basic First Aid and CPR as well.
Given the week of training and preparation that staff members need in order to effectively support program participants, Bernard mentions securing sufficient, caring employees as an ongoing challenge. However, Extreme Sports Camp does have senior staff, all of whom have a strong experience base with autism as well as with various sporting activities involved in the camp. The camp also relies on the expertise of Diane Osaki, an Occupational Therapist and consultant who oversees areas such as staff training and programmatic safety. Furthermore, each camper is required to submit an extensive information packet, where parents or caregivers outline the individual's needs in detail. These needs might include Behavioral Support Plans, dietary needs (gluten and casein-free dietary options are always available), athletic ability, sleep patterns, and medication lists. This information, along with phone contact with parents and caregivers (which is ongoing throughout the camp session), allows staff to provide the most specialized supports possible for each camper.
The level of commitment required from the program staff is tremendous, but not without reward. Bernard says, "The feedback that we get is that it has been transformative [for staff]. It's a lot of work, and they really feel it, but … It's like childbirth; once it's over they're like, 'It was an amazing experience!'" Bernard cites examples of staff members who have participated as camp counselors and gone on to specialize in autism studies within their respective professions. As she says, "It's really neat how many people come in and say, 'Wow these kids can really do a lot of cool things.' It gives them a new perspective, and, if they are going to work with an autism population, it raises the bar in their minds as to what someone with autism can really do."
Likewise, participating in programs such as Extreme Sports Camp allows individuals with autism themselves to get a new sense of their own capabilities. "When [an individual] is able to do a sport at whatever level, [they are] working in a zone of achievement, and ... it fosters this sense of confidence and competence," notes Bernard. In a similar vein, being away from home overnight can promote personal growth. "The 'typical' community has known for decades that [summer camp] fosters independence and maturity," says Bernard. "I was very surprised when my son went to camp for a week. I was crying, but he loved it; he never missed us at all! And we see that over and over. The parents can be anxious, but the kids are saying 'See ya later!'"
Bernard's words remind me of my own brother, of his intense desire for freedom. I wonder if, despite the fact that Willie loves routine, such an experience of exploration might be just what he needs. Bernard confirms: "Our kids are used to routines and patterns of behavior. When none of that is there, it can be very anxiety-provoking but also liberating. As long as you have supports in place to help [individuals] in their new setting, you can do a lot of things … that you wouldn't be able to do at home."
Moving Forward into the Future
When asked if Extreme Sports Camp has an eye on expansion and if she considers the model replicable in other communities, Bernard replies with an enthusiastic "Yes! We're putting the foundation in place to allow that to happen." At present, senior staff members are working to produce instructional manuals and videos, which outline all of Extreme Sports Camp's techniques, along with their approach to instruction. The materials will be utilized for staff training, but Extreme Sports Camp plans to allow other potential providers and families to access the manual as well. In addition, Extreme Sports Camp leadership is planning to host an autism sports symposium in the coming year.
Finally, perhaps Extreme Sports Camp's most exciting programmatic development of all lies in their fledgling employment skills program for adults with autism. The program is slated to begin this summer, and it will allow adults with autism to gain skills and support Extreme Sports Camp programs as well. Bernard says, "Depending on their interest and ability levels, [individuals on the spectrum] will go out with the boat team, help with climbing, plan and put on parties, work in media tech … [They'll] still have counselor or job coach working with them, but they'll be learning aspects related to the business of running a camp." If all goes well this summer, there is potential for individuals with autism to work as employees in future sessions of Extreme Sports Camp.
It seems fitting that a program dedicated to supporting individuals with autism is opening new doors for their employment; the leadership opportunity dovetails well with the camp's mission of enhancing health and promoting personal growth of individuals on the spectrum. My brother, Willie, swims like a fish, walks faster than I do, and loves to exert himself whenever possible. I can't help but envision him at Extreme Sports Camp, showing others how to snowplow, or jumping into the lake. And for parents and caregivers across the country, such visions become reality as individuals with autism turn away from couches and computer screens and embark on Extreme Sports Camp adventures each year.


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NRA vs. Gun Control: A Process Argument
Dec 24, 2012 5:00 AM PT
At the core of any major political argument like gun control or abortion is power. If you believe in Argumentative Theory, these battles are less about actually doing the right thing and more about one side or the other gaining social status.
For instance, right after the Newtown event, Twitter came alive with gun control advocates calling anyone on the other side any number of unacceptable names. This behavior had nothing to do with safety and everything to do with appearing superior and using a tragic event to drive that superiority. However, just pointing this out doesn't address the problem that guns in the U.S. aren't safe, and unless this changes they'll likely be broadly banned here.
Technology and a more pragmatic approach might be able to create a situation where folks could keep guns and be safer. We aren't on that path at the moment -- and unless we get there, we'll repeat the 9/11 mistake: We spent millions making air travel significantly less pleasant and not much safer.
We've developed a series of analytical processes to look at business decisions to ensure they are made better. I figured I'd use a similar practice to explore this topical area and suggest that while both sides of this gun control argument are wrong, as things stand right now, the NRA will likely lose.
I'll close with my product of the week: a book on reputation management that you may want to read while traveling over the holidays.
The NRA Problem
While it is very easy to focus on the children who were killed and use it as the primary reason to ban weapons, that isn't the strongest argument for gun elimination by far. The strongest argument is that the first person allegedly killed was the owner of the guns.
You see the strongest argument for gun ownership isn't the Constitution and the right to bear arms; it is self-defense. Yet with every move we've made to make guns safer in the home, we've reduced their effectiveness for self-defense. Much like a car safety technology that kills drivers, a self-defense tool that is more likely to get the owner killed probably has a limited time in market.
The current tragedy points sharply to this problem. If you have a gun and it is locked up as it should be, with a trigger guard or in a safe, there is a really good chance someone else will get to it before you can, and it will be used against you.
Burglars and kids, who typically have plenty of time, can eventually figure a way around most locks. Much of what we've done to make guns safer over the years has simply made them more likely to be used against you, supporting a future ban. Even if there isn't a ban, folks will eventually come to believe that owning a gun is stupid -- because today, in many ways, it is.
The Argument for Assault Weapons
Now I personally think a ban on assault weapons is stupid, largely because in their civilian form they are relatively ineffective weapons, and if someone is shooting at me I'd rather have them use an ineffective weapon than an effective one.
They are relatively ineffective for three reasons: They were designed to be an automatic because what they lose in accuracy they make up for in the number of rounds they can kick out per second -- at least by design -- yet that feature is disabled in civilian markets so, for a rifle, they are relatively inaccurate.
They have relatively low stopping power and low lethality -- the bullets tend to pass through things. The word "assault" isn't branding -- it is tied to their design. Anyone seen carrying one is immediately branded a threat because an assault weapon has only one use: shooting people. That suggests law enforcement will be on site more quickly if someone sees a person carrying one -- concealed weapons they aren't.
Now if they are stupid as an attack weapon, they are insanely stupid as a defense weapon. Assault weapons typically use a small bullet with a high charge like a .223 round which massively overpenetrates. This means it will go through walls and hit folks you can't see -- likely family members or neighbors. It has low stopping power, which means even if you hit the burglar, you are more likely to just really piss him off than kill him.
You are also more likely to put a gun like this in the safe, which means you probably aren't going to get to it in time -- which, given the first two facts, is actually an advantage. Why buy a gun that sucks for hunting and really should be locked up, which would mean no one, including you, could actually use it?
If you want folks to stop buying assault weapons, just portray them in ads and movies as they really are. People will stop buying them because they are stupid guns. There really is nothing macho about stupid.
Fixing the Problem With Training and Technology
There are two countries the folks for gun control don't want to you look at and one the NRA doesn't want you to look at. The two that the gun control folks don't want you to look at are Switzerland and Israel. Both have very high gun densities and low gun crime.
The one the NRA wants to you avoid is Australia, which instituted massive gun controls and also eliminated much of the problem.
This tells you guns alone aren't the problem. It is the lack of training coupled with guns that creates the issue. If you instituted training, like Israel and Switzerland do, and actively turned gun owners into part of the solution, you could likely eliminate much of the exposure and have a much stronger deterrent for illegal gun use.
However, if you can't turn gun users into a solution, then the better path is to eliminate guns entirely, because that too will solve the problem. It does amaze me that we do a better job ensuring people know how to drive cars than we do ensuring folks know how to properly use and protect the guns they own.
Finally, and this is where technology comes in, we can make guns themselves smarter, so they can't be used against the people who buy them -- or even better, can't be used by people unauthorized to use them. If we ban any gun that isn't so equipped, we should then be able to have guns and be safer.
Biometrics could work well here, but I've seen magnetic rings, a far cheaper technology, work nearly as well. Finally, guns for home protection likely should be vastly different than guns used for hunting or in the military, suggesting major redesigns that focus on their intended use.
However, both sides in the gun debate have to accept that the problem can be solved without either side having to lose.
Putting Gun Companies Out of Business
This doesn't have to end with gun companies, many of which are strong employers and taxpayers in the U.S., going out of business -- but that is clearly the path we are on.
Given how many guns are in market and how many are sold illegally today -- and how understaffed law enforcement is -- I doubt that strong gun controls initially will do anything but make the criminals who have guns safer. Unlike Australia, we aren't surrounded by water.
Through a process of mandatory training, technology and common sense, we should be able not only to make this industry safer, but also turn it from the liability it is into the asset it could be.
Unless the NRA stops stonewalling and becomes part of the solution, it -- and the industry it protects -- will be done. The only win-win here is if guns can be turned into an asset. Anything short of that eventually will put an end to guns as a legal industry in the U.S.
Wrapping Up: Avoiding the Zero Sum
Now this was a process exercise; note how I broke apart both sides' arguments without losing track of the real goal, which isn't winning either side's argument but making people safer while retaining most of the privileges.
In effect, my goal was to showcase how to turn a liability into an asset. If you can realize what the core problem is while setting aside the need for a zero-sum solution that requires the other side to lose absolutely, then you can generally find an approach that will work. That's something to noodle on when you argue about this topic over the holidays.
Special thanks to Bill Clinton who spoke to me about the problem of zero-sum games and the need to find creative win-win solutions for problems like this one.
Product of the Week: Digital Assassination - Protecting Your Reputation, Brand, or Business Against OnLine Attacks
This recently released book focuses on the digital world we live in and how unsafe it is. At any time, almost anyone can take your digital reputation and trash it so badly that you become unemployable.
We actually saw this happen during the Newtown event, when some poor sap with the same name as the shooter had his Social Security Number broadcast and his reputation trashed.
The book goes into some detail on the nature of the problem, recounts actual cases of people who were badly damaged, and then walks through practices you can take to recover your reputation.
Increasingly, your reputation will be your greatest personal asset in a digital world. If you don't learn how to protect it, then you may lose that reputation, and with it much of your career potential.
This week, my themes are safety and problem solving. Because the book Digital Assassination, by Richard Torrenzano and Mark Davis, is on topic in the world I mostly live in -- the digital world -- it is my product of the week.


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Last lesson, our grooming editor and knowledge emperor, Colonel Cator Sparks, taught us how not to become gigantic walking piles of dried-up, winter-skin pieces of dandruff by introducing us to some hardcore Winter Products. This installment, Sparky helps us hold onto the hair follicles on our heads.
Santa Claus and Father Time both have something in common, they are totally going bald under their respective floppy hats. It's an issue some of us aren't too happy about as we get older. There are lots of hair loss remedies out there, some don't work, most are slightly confusing and others are off-the-charts pricey. Granted, if you want to keep your hair it's gonna cost you and we've really have been loving the regimen from MiN. I have been using Rogaine since I was 18 and, to be honest, I still use Rogaine with MiN. My hair has never felt cleaner than after using his Detox Shampoo. And his hair dressing product gives a sturdy hold without getting the funk all up in my hair and scalp.
We spoke to Chad Murawczyk, founder of MiN hair loss treatment and grooming boutique in New York's Soho to get into myth debunking.
1. What can guys do today to prevent hair loss?
Hair loss is caused by DHT, which, in full is Dihydrotestosterone, a chemical compound. It is always essential to make sure you keep your scalp and hair clean. Be careful of using products that are heavy in alcohol as it's damaging to the roots of the hair, and yes, wearing a hat all the time when you're thinning causes more hair loss. The scalp needs to breath and the headwear adds friction.
2. Are any specific ethnic groups more likely to lose their hair faster than others?
There is no scientific proof that certain ethnicities lose their hair more then others, of course certain backgrounds have stronger hair (thin, thick etc.) which affects how you style and look after your hair, but when it comes to DHT we are all the same!
3. At what point should dudes start using hair growth products?
First sign of thinning is best, to combat hair loss it's good to grab the problem as soon as it begins to occur so you can keep the hair you have. The true challenge is regrowing your hair from nothing. This is why I created a shampoo that has DHT blocking attributes; you wash your hair already so why not use a shampoo that will block DHT everyday?
4. If I'm half bald is it too late?
It's never too late. There are many options on the market to regrow hair but of course it's a challenge and one must be patient and persistent on using the products of your choosing. Our product, Agent, is formulated for use on balding spots and must be used every day to assist in hair regrowth.
5. What's the most basic MiN regimen our readers can try?
The regimen can be as simple as using the DHT Cleansing System, which comes in a multi-function set of three:
Detox- This should be used 2-3 times weekly or as a needed deep cleanser, which brings any dirt from the roots to the surface and deeply penetrates the DHT.
Fortify- This is a conditioning treatment that delivers exceptional moisture for soothing and healing damaged/stressed hair while inhibiting DHT.
Wash- Use the Wash daily to clean scalp and hair while delivering essential nutrients while attacking DHT.


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Under the terms of the multi-year arrangement eOne gets first look to finance and distribute all 1984 films. LA-based Spencer Silna and Adi Shankar's slate includes Corsica '72 from Skyfall writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and the untitled Female Expendables project.
eOne will distribute 1984 films in Canada, the UK, Benelux, Spain and Australia while eOne Films International will handle sales for the rest of the world. 1984's longtime representatives CAA will handle US rights.
1984 has backed The Grey, Killing Them Softly, Dredd 3D, Machine Gun Preacher and Broken City.
"We're thrilled to partner with pioneers Adi, Spencer and the 1984 team," said Patrice Théroux [pictured], who heads eOne's global film business. "It's incredibly rewarding to attach the industry's most sought-after independent producers to our multi-territory infrastructure and finance projects in new and resourceful ways that largely contribute to the making of great pictures. It's always very exciting for our teams to add highly commercial crowd pleasers to the slate in our territories and for sale to our partners around the globe."
"We are honoured to formalise our relationship with the world's preeminent distributor of independent film," said Silna. "There is a great sense of integrity to this partnership in that our companies have an aligned focus on quality, culturally resonant film. We feel very lucky to have found such an extraordinary core team with whom to share our vision."
"Spencer and I have dreamed of having a studio first-look deal since the day we started our shingle four years ago," said Shankar. "We're particularly happy to have our home at eOne, as it provides us with [not only] robust studio-level distribution, but the flexibility of an independent company. This partnership allows us to quickly green-light films while circumventing the byzantine juggling act of traditional indie tentpole filmmaking."
Benedict Carver and Lara Thompson will oversee the deal for eOne. The deal builds on eOne's pre-existing relationship with Shankar involving TV dramas and reality projects.
eOne's Nelson Kuo-Lee and Dina Appleton negotiated the deal with Robb Klein of Sheppard Mullin on behalf of 1984.


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The following was written and submitted by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California:
Edgar Degas was born on July 10, 1834 in Paris and died there on September 27, 1917. He was the only 19th century French painter to have direct family ties with America. His mother, the former Marie-Celestine Musson, was born in New Orleans and his brothers Rene and Achille worked for a time in New Orleans with their uncle, Michel Musson. Edgar was the oldest of five children; they were raised in the comfort of a well-to-do family. His father was a banker (The original spelling of their name was de Gas). Young Degas had the usual scholastic training but he was exposed to art early
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