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Lyudmila Lebedeva "Over the Pain"
'Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me, and said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee; be strong, yea, be strong.'
The Holy Bible "Daniel"
Note: Initially, this article was published in the context of the project "DIY Vawoom", which should be interpreted as "Make yourself something amazing." But this name does not reflect its full purpose. From now on, following the "Philosophy of the Common Business" by N.F. Fedorov, the project is called "Common Business" (further CB).
In this article, I invite you to think about the development of software and hardware, intended to support DIY-style production by individual order. In particular, it may be electronics, but I do not consider platforms like Electronics DIY or DIY Trade, because speaking about precisely flexible, geographically distributed production of a wide range stuff.
Closer in ideology is the approach of Technopark University ITMO. However, it is centralized - a large room, a lot of different equipment, but absent, for example, a sewing machine for leather. In addition, that laboratory is designed mainly to prepare students for the actual production process. I appeal to those, who already have real experience of creativity and implementation, but unexpectedly for themself "slipped and fell from the stage into an orchestra pit." Therefore, I chose this picture of Lyudmila Lebedeva, with whom had the honor to meet once at Kiev's "Montmartre". She allowed to put it in one of my publications, but the photo on the phone is incomparable with what you'll see in her gallery.
Karl I. Wighers thoroughly covers the development of software requirements, and in addition to well-known works I liked his article, where on the need for a definition of "what" and "how", he mentions "why", as the most important, in my opinion.
'... we are now allowing human and social capital to depreciate, auguring ill for future economic growth ...'
Peter Temin "The Hidden Decline in Human Capital — and the Danger Ahead"
My pension of ~$50/mo is not special for millions of compatriots, but an uninitiated person can see another reason for the coincidence of thoughts and desires among so many of my fellow citizens. In such a situation, the rulers of ancient Rome did not wait for the people to develop a stable reflex of disgust and distrust. They not only introduced the "Laws of XII tables", but began to steadily execute them. And the people returned ...
- Note: do not take the following as a boring complaint against an insidious fate. Following own understanding of morality, I repeatedly had to reluctantly reject extremely lucrative offers. But even now, I will not go to the US consulate to take a work visa if again unexpectedly will find in the final document the requirement that all my past, current and future developments would belong to the inviting company. It's not about pride or greed. It's just about that a person, who putting such traps in a tinsel of words, or arranging an indecent show of hard firing of a previous employee, either didn't open the Global Slavery Index, or doesn't understand that only free like-minded people can create Ferrari FXX-K.
One day, the developer of "hardware" of the device, in which development I originally participated as an MCU programmer, was quit without explanation. The implementation deadlines were pressed and the company management delivered a deliberately non-working product to the customer at a price of ~$20K. I was offered to make a complete software package at all levels for a very high reward, based on future sales results. I was developing at home, because the work often ended after midnight.
Final: when it was made and successfully implemented more than 15 devices, I was suddenly notified that fired a few months ago by own wish and may take the work book now. After a while the director and the chief engineer of the company, which every resident of my city knows, called me and asked for a bit of functionality. They did not know about my dismissal. Later called an intelligent circuit designer, with whom I had not met for 10 years and asked how to use the ModelSim simulator in the Quartus environment. He turned out to be next in this amazing lineup, but replied bravely - "They will not deceive me." Since then, the mention of the device has disappeared from the site of the company.
I recommend you to watch the full interview on the current state and prospects of Artificial Intelligence. The type of activity, offered for selection, is small and lies among those, which difficult to master, requires a long time to learn and confirm knowledge with practice. I assume that the problems, highlighted by me rather superficially will sink into oblivion, soon. The achievements of such powerful organizations as IBM, SNOMED, LOINC, and others in the field of knowledge systematization, will make it possible to establish the diagnosis and prescribe treatment automatically, without human intervention. The circle will get more narrowed and, for example, V.S. Vysotsky gave the following prognosis to dentists, in one of his comic songs:
'And where to find the teeth for all?
So - unemployment ...'
Regarding the prestigious jobs for ITs, I would like to show by this project, that the amount of work can decrease dramatically very quickly.
Very briefly on the concept of the project
'Evolutionary deadlock awaits humanity not only on the path of abandoning integration, but also on the path of such integration, when the creative freedom is sacrificed to the union of people.'
V.F. Turchin "Inertia of fear. Socialism and totalitarianism."
In one article there is no possibility to describe everything in detail, but in short it's about creating a "family". I am very impressed with the rules of bees and ants, because based on the shortest and most capacious definition of the human being, which I met in the ancient book "Zohar", the proportions between Knowledge and Mercy are skewed in modern society.
By CB I mean the voluntary, based on the principle of sufficiency, union of free creative people, who do not set themselves the goal of becoming millionaires. In principle, it is possible to create alone something for $million. But, first, without CB you will not get the results of your work. One more example - I have never had own firm and have not done developments by order, but familiar with the situation that this esteemed person is talking about. CB's support in such matters is invaluable ...
Secondly, because The Creator did not reward everyone with the gift of invention, then a prerequisite for the existence of CB should be assistance in teaching and engaging everyone who is sincere and honest, but not able to apply their efforts. And this assistance should not have borders (international). In this regard, I was looking at different projects, but even the most powerful "Clinton Global Initiative", in my opinion, is somewhat impersonal.
So, the project's goal quite social.
Five stages of product life
- search
- development
- production
- proposal
- recycling
Product Search (draft variant of SPA online store)
The theory is unattractive without a practical example. Therefore, I am going to develop a draft application, on which concretize the basic principles of the concept implementation. The store chosen because it is always primary, because aims at the main task - the identification and implementation of the desires of a wide range consumers. In general, the buyer is one of the main links in the chain of the creative act of product design, because his:
- wish
- causes the manufacturer to describe the function
- which, in turn, can create actuator(s).
For example, concerning a doorbell, the development of which described in this series of articles, the chain looks like this:
- Wish: last year, Bob bought a doorbell for his girlfriend, that had the following
- Functions: The list proposed by the manufacturer is very shortened, selected by the buyer highlighted in red
- wired bazer
- wireless bazer
- wireless melodic
- wireless with the ability to talk anywhere in the world
- Actuators: the list proposed by the manufacturer is very abbreviated, the one chosen by the buyer is highlighted in red
- Button-host-Internet exchange protocol:
- ZigBee-Ethernet
- OneWire-WiFi
- LoRa-Ethernet
- Host case design: Bob's girlfriend already has a doorbell button with a built-in 1-Wire connector, and she likes it
- Makak Jamaican
- Swan
The store can offer customer to choose a product in a standard way, if there was a refusal and there is some with the necessary parameters. But more important is the possibility of manufacturing a product in an area, located close to the buyer. It also facilitates warranty service. The store should be able to quickly pick up "local" makers from the CB. In this case, for example, an individual image of the necessary firmware for MCU can be compiled in another country, even from the source libraries of different authors. As a result, instead of the MCU with 8kb of program memory, it may be sufficient to use the cheaper one, with 1kb. In the same way, it is proposed to deal with manufacturing of cases (3-D descriptors should be transferred from the libraries of the respective authors), up to the generation of individual descriptors of automated placement of elements on printed circuit boards (PCB), soldering temperature profiles, GERBER files, for PCB drilling, etc.
The store should also give the buyer an opportunity to leave a request to make of unknown "actuator" and encourage him for his creativity. Let's continue the story of Bob, who decided once to make a surprise, and came without warning to girlfriend whom, as we remember, bought a doorbell with WiFi. She replied from Cyprus in the company of a hairy "napoleon". Great surprise! Now he protects his nerves and for the new girlfriend looking for a doorbell in the form of a simple copper hammer. We don't have one and Bob for sure must get encouragement, after such a device will appear in the CB's product catalog.
Consider the prototype of GUI store frontend, made by me with the Pencil tool:
In the case of electronics products, the buyer has possibility to select a Model of the device required, as well to adjust its consumer properties (see the round buttons with numbers) and design features (see the buttons Material, Shape and Color). But there are cases, when "product" does not need reproduction. For example, a pleasant female voice. If someone looking for a narrator to record a commercial, then this GUI is useless for him, as well as for a macho, who wants to tell about his amazing timbre.
So, I intentionally tighten the task, and want the front-end GUI to be:
- always friendly and simple, even for people with disabilities. Although, this interface is not as complicated as, for example, the SOP descriptor of the Blood Center, but it is also inconvenient from the point of view of WCAG.
- universal and, following the requirements of previous point, allowed to reflect the properties of a product of any type and level of complexity. The concept of complexity is excluded and any descriptor will be considered complex, since it can be changed at any moment (simplified or complicated).
- multilingual. The GUI and content should reflect information in the language, chosen by user on their display. If there is no translation, the default language is traditionally English.
- tested and approved code should not require changes in the future. Those, written once and forever, while supporting the requirements of all the preceding points.
- the program should be available for free.
The above GUI does not meet most of the requirements and, therefore rejected.
Backend requirements
Consider ways of product describe in the following programs:
Hope you agree, the approaches are quite similar, although Magento additionally allows to separate the descriptors into simple and complex. In my opinion, this only complicates the matter, because a priori allows for ambiguity. After all, what is elementary for one person, may look like Newton's Binomial Theorem for another. In any case, the proposed methods for describing the final product seem to be insufficiently flexible and incommensurately time-consuming in the annex to the declared general task. We will need support for a much larger number of parameters and complex relationships:
- The GUI should be simple and understandable to a person, unexperienced in programming.
- Anyone should have the opportunity without help, easily and with pleasure to explain features of own product.
- The Descriptor's format must be harmoniously integrated into the structure of production.


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A lot of potentially good poets are only a few steps away from being very good. I've seen a lot of people just be so blunt and straight forward in a poem that it ruins the whole thing. Metaphors and Similes can help you be a little mysterious and deep with your writing.
Metaphor - usually a short phrase or word that literally means something else but is used in the context to mean something specific to the writing. More simply put, you use one thing to describe something else.
Example: "Her milky white skin..." or "You are my sunshine..." or "The black shadow of night has been cast over my heart"
Simile - (yes, you pronouce that 'E' on the end) This is like a metaphor but you use specific words within the phrase. "the ____ is as ____ as _____." Or "____ like ____."
Example - "The sky is as black as death." or "Her eyes burned like fire."
The Basics: Metaphor and Simile
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As far as I can remember, it's only happened twice. The first time was a long time ago back when our children were very young. The second time was just a couple of weeks ago. If I were a bit more spiritually aware, perhaps it would happen more often, who
knows? But at the risk of sounding a bit unbalanced, I will share with you…..for lack of a better word…a vision I had.
It was on a Sunday morning. I was sitting in the balcony of our church in Nashville, TN with Steve by my side. Keep in mind that I had just spent several days prior to this experience watching both the Republican and the Democratic party conventions on television. So, it's no surprise to me that my mind was saturated with all things political after witnessing the raw meat of partisan sniping for endless hours.
As I sat listening to the sermon, I suddenly realized I was no longer sitting in the pew of our church, but instead I was sitting in the balcony of the democratic convention. From the elevated vantage point I observed the activity and movement below. All of a sudden, I saw a very large hand reach for the edge of the scene and peeled back the façade. What I saw was very unsettling. Just below the surface of activity was a mass of maggots. They were crawling and squirming and moving about. There were larvae of every of hue. Somehow I knew I was watching the political scene as God sees it and it was not pretty.
Before I could think about what I had just witnessed, my mind was drawn to the opposite side of the balcony. There before my eyes was another political convention. I knew in my heart this was the Republican gathering. Then the same giant hand reached and pulled back the picture and there was the same scene ….a mass of maggots moving about. It looked identical to what I had witnessed on the other side.
I then heard a booming voice say emphatically, "TRUST ME!! TRUST ME!! TRUST ME!!
That was it. As quickly as it started, the vision was over. I was back in my seat at church. It took me a few days to process this experience and to realize what I had just seen. I didn't share it with Steve until a couple of days later. When I did, I shared my interpretation of the vision.
When you mix power, money and self-interest together, regardless of the political ideology, it's inevitable you are going to end up with corruption. It is obvious that neither political party is the answer for the mess we are in as a nation. Repentance and a return to the moral, biblical principles this country was founded upon is the only hope for us as Americans. So, the question begs, who do we vote for, or do we even vote at all if both political parties are equally bent? The answer to that question is simple for me.
Yes, I will vote. Every citizen of this nation has the opportunity and the obligation to participate in the process. However if both parties are imperfect how do we decide where to place our vote?
One of the speakers at the Republican Convention, Rick Santorum said that while both parties have shortcomings there is one party that is determined to protect the life of the unborn and one party that is determined to protect the ideal that marriage is between a man and a woman. It is for that reason I have made my decision.
If we vote strictly along economical issues, then we can argue all day about who is right and who is wrong. But for me, life and marriage issues are the heart of God. As long as there is one political party that is willing to stand on those issues, they have my vote. When and if they abandon those principles, they have lost me as a supporter.
This is an election season, like it or not. I will cast my ballot, but I will put my TRUST in God. "TRUST ME!! TRUST ME!! TRUST ME!! Still rings in my ears.
A few years ago, Steve wrote a song that reveals our only hope as a country. It was true then, it's still true today. Let this musical picture of our country motivate you to join with the hundreds of thousands of Christians across this great land who are willing to stand in the gap and pray for God's mercy on us as a people.
Listen to audio: Drifting Away
(This song is available only at this sight at this time)
Drifting away, drifting away
The great ship America is drifting away
Once she was safe in God's harbor but now she is headed for dangerous waters
Let's pray, cause she's drifting away
Might have been in the sixties when her rope came untied
When too many people said, "God must have died!"
Might have been in the seventies when her anchor let go
When five judges ruled in the favor of Roe
Might have been in the eighties when her engines went cold
When she put her trust in her silver and gold
And when the nineties have passed us will history reveal
That this great ship went down cause man took the wheel
Steve Chapman/Times & Seasons Music/BMI
(This song is available only at this site at this time)


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I've started on the Comics and Graphic Novels Mlitt course at the University of Dundee recently and one of the modules I'm working on is "Creating Comics" with Phillip Vaughan.
As part of the module, I'm required to keep a blog detailing the creation of a new 8-12 page story, due to be finished in December.
Anyone interested in how I do comics should give this a read, as although I always give a brief bit of background in my comic books, this will be more detailed than those.
So far I have written up the "pre-creation" thinking to my story and published the first two layout pages.
Have a read here.


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The torrid post-Christmas rally, which fizzled last Friday, appears to be officially dead just as earnings season begins, with futures sliding early in the session only seeing the drop accelerated after dismal trade data out of China reignited concerns about global growth and ahead of a key Brexit vote on Tuesday, leading to a sea of red in global markets with S&P futures down 1% to session lows around 6am ET, alongside sliding stocks in Europe and Asia. Treasury yields fell to 2.66% while the dollar held steady.
Tech stocks were the biggest losers in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index on renewed fears about a China hard-landing; in Asia, losses were most pronounced in Hong Kong after China posted the worst import and export figures since 2016. The index of Europe's leading 300 shares slipped 0.7 percent in early trade to 1,365 points. Germany's DAX and France's CAC fell around 0.6 percent, with shares in European tech and luxury goods companies and the automotive sector suffering some of the biggest declines.
"We believe trade growth next year will slow significantly on huge uncertainty and high base," Citi analysts wrote in a note, predicting China's exports and imports to fall 5.1 percent and 6.8 percent respectively this year. "Significant uncertainty remains as to whether there could be a 'deal' after March 1," they added.
The falls in Europe followed hefty declines in Asia where MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific ex-Japan shares lost around 1 percent from Friday's 1-1/2 month high – its biggest single-day percentage drop since Jan. 2. Chinese and Hong Kong shares suffered the worst hits.
Early on Monday, China reported dismal trade data with exports unexpectedly falling the most since 2016 in December, while imports also contracted, pointing to further weakness in the world's second-largest economy in 2019 and deteriorating global demand. Specifically, China December exports tumbled Fall -4.4% Y/y in Dollar Terms, the weakest year-on-year reading since January 2017, and down from +3.9% in November; far below the 2.0% consensus increase, while imports plunged -7.6% from +2.9% in Nov, badly missing the 4.5% expected increase, ironically resulting in the biggest trade surplus on record of $57.1BN. In month-on-month terms, the contraction of exports and imports accelerated further in December. In sequential terms, exports contracted 6.2% mom sa non-annualized, down further from a decrease of 3.4% in November
"Today's data reflect an end to export front-loading and the start of payback effects, while the global slowdown could also weigh on China's exports," Nomura economists wrote in a note, referring to a surge in shipments to the U.S. over much of last year as companies rushed to beat further tariffs.
The large contraction in Chinese imports was broadly consistent with a significant decrease of exports in December from Korea and Taiwan to China. Exports growth has been weaker than expected over the past two months, and sequential momentum has slowed significantly to a contraction since November from a strong rebound in September, which has been probably due to the fading impact from front-loading ahead of 10% tariffs levied on $200bn Chinese goods starting in late September (and ahead of the potential—and so far delayed—increase of tariffs on these goods to 25%). According to Goldman, exports growth is likely to remain soft in the near future, given moderation in global growth momentum suggested by GS Leading Current Activity Indicator, even though a faster-than-expected waning of impact from front-loading could potentially pose less downward pressure for exports in the coming months. Adding to policymakers' worries, data on Monday also showed China posted its biggest trade surplus with the United States on record in 2018, which could prompt President Donald Trump to turn up the heat on Beijing in their bitter trade dispute.
The dismal December trade readings suggest China's economy may have cooled faster than expected late in the year, despite a slew of growth-boosting measures in recent months ranging from higher infrastructure spending to tax cuts. Some analysts had already speculated that Beijing may have to speed up and intensify its policy easing and stimulus measures this year after factory activity shrank in December.
Elsewhere, ahead of a critical Brexit vote on Tuesday, UK PM May warned that failure to back her Brexit deal risks a no-deal Brexit and is to say she believes parliament will more likely block Brexit than the UK leave without a deal, according to the PM's office. In separate reports, the UK government commented that any defeat by less than 100 votes on Tuesday would be counted as a good result. Furthermore, reports in The Times noted that Brussels expects the UK to ask for an extension to Article 50 to allow Brexit to be delayed if the House of Commons rejects Theresa May's deal tomorrow, while there were separate reports that Pro-EU MPs are said to publish draft legislation on Monday for a 2nd referendum.
All this adds to tensions as traders watch the record rally of the last two weeks finally collapse and as the banks are set to report earnings. As Bloomberg notes, this month's buoyancy in global equities, triggered by signs of progress in U.S.-China trade talks and dovish commentary from Federal Reserve officials, faces a test with the Chinese data underscoring the impact of the trade spat. The next hurdles to clear will be a slew of U.S. bank profit reports and earnings season, amid worries global growth is slowing. Also weighing on sentiment is the partial U.S government shutdown that's entered its fourth week.
In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed while the yen climbed as Chinese trade data and caution ahead of key earnings curbed risk appetite. The euro hit a session low after data showed euro-zone industrial production contracted 3.3% y/y in November, compared to an estimate of a 2.1% decline; Bunds gained, lagging Treasuries, while Italian bonds fell ahead of possible supply. Sweden's krona recovered from an earlier decline after inflation data beat analyst estimates, while matching the central bank's forecast. Finally, the Turkish lira slumped after Trump warned Turkey not to attack Kurdish forces in Syria after a planned U.S. pullout, saying it would be economically devastated if it did so.
The prospect of slowing global growth also roiled commodity markets, with oil prices slipping 1% after initially rising, and industrial metals copper and aluminum losing ground in both London and Shanghai. Meanwhile safe havens trades benefited from the equity pullback with U.S. 10-year Treasury yields falling to as low as 2.6690 percent – their lowest level in a week – while gold prices gained as Newmont announced it would buy Goldcorp to create the world's largest gold miner.
In geopol news, President Trump tweeted that US is starting long overdue pullout from Syria, while he also threatened to devastate Turkey economically if Turkey hits the Kurds and likewise doesn't want the Kurds to provoke Turkey. Iran suggested it could restart its nuclear program as its nuclear program chief stated that they have started preliminary activities for designing a modern process for 20% uranium enrichment for its reactor in Tehran. In separate news, US President Trump's reportedly instructed the Pentagon last year to provide military options to strike Iran.
In other news, PG&E (PCG) said to be in discussions with banks about multi-billion dollar bankruptcy financing and may inform employees on Monday it is preparing a bankruptcy filing for January 29th.; the Co's CEO Williams is leaving with general council John Simon to takeover in the interim. Company shares are down 50% pre-market.
For the U.S. trading day ahead, banks will be in sharp focus as they kick off the earnings season. Quarterly results from Citigroup are due on Monday followed by JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley later in the week. Expectations are dour with profits for U.S. companies forecast to rise 6.4 percent, down from an Oct. 1 estimate of 10.2 percent and a big drop from 2018's tax cut-fueled gain of more than 20 percent. Investor attention was also on the U.S. government shutdown, now in its 24th day, and with no resolution in sight.
Market Snapshot
- S&P 500 futures down 1% to 2,569.00
- STOXX Europe 600 down 0.5% to 347.32
- MXAP down 0.4% to 150.88
- MXAPJ down 0.9% to 486.56
- Nikkei up 1% to 20,359.70
- Topix up 0.5% to 1,529.73
- Hang Seng Index down 1.4% to 26,298.33
- Shanghai Composite down 0.7% to 2,535.77
- Sensex down 0.4% to 35,862.08
- Australia S&P/ASX 200 down 0.02% to 5,773.37
- Kospi down 0.5% to 2,064.52
- German 10Y yield fell 1.9 bps to 0.22%
- Euro up 0.02% to $1.1471
- Italian 10Y yield fell 3.5 bps to 2.493%
- Spanish 10Y yield fell 1.2 bps to 1.433%
- Brent futures down 1.8% to $59.40/bbl
- Gold spot up 0.3% to $1,294.05
- U.S. Dollar Index little changed at 95.67
Top Overnight News from Bloomberg
- Trump's refusal to reopen the U.S. government reflects the growing influence of his acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and senior adviser Stephen Miller, hard-right conservatives who are closer to the president thanks to turnover within the White House
- With Washington mired in gridlock and markets flashing all sorts of warning signs, the majority of Americans expects 2019 to be a grim one for their finances, according to a new study
- Industrial output in the euro area fell the most in almost three years in November, raising questions over the economy's ability to regain momentum after a broad-based slowdown
- Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's political future is on the line this week after a coalition breakdown prompted him to call a confidence vote in parliament set for Wednesday, raising the risk of an early election
- Italy's economy is probably in a phase of stagnation not recession, Finance Minister Giovanni Tria said in a newspaper interview, adding that the country's deficit will be kept under control
- Germany should try to head off an economic slowdown by easing the tax burden on companies, according to the new chairwoman of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats
Asian equity markets began the week subdued following the indecisive close on Wall St last Friday as the US government shutdown extended to its longest in history, while disappointing Chinese trade data and the absence of Japanese participants for Coming of Age Day also contributed to the downbeat sentiment. ASX 200 (Unch.) failed to hold on to early gains as strength in Telecoms and its largest weighted Financials sector was eventually overwhelmed by losses in the broader market, while KOSPI (-0.5%) was lacklustre amid softness in the index heavyweights including Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor. Hang Seng (-1.4%) and Shanghai Comp. (-0.7%) were also pressured as Chinese Exports and Imports figures took a further hit from the US-China trade dispute, although losses in the mainland were capped after the PBoC injected liquidity to the interbank market in which it utilized 28-day reverse repos for the first time since June last year. PBoC injected CNY 80bln via 7-day and CNY 20bln in 28-day reverse repos for a net daily injection of CNY 20bln. PBoC set CNY mid-point at 6.7560 (Prev. 6.7909).
Top Asian News
- China Doubles Foreign Investment Limit in Further Opening
- CapitaLand CEO Puts Stamp on Developer With $4.4 Billion Deal
- Etihad Agrees to Raise Stake in India's Jet to 49%, Report Says
- Jet Airways Jumps on Report Founder Goyal Is Giving Up Control
- China Is Said to Extend Foreign Bond Quota for 28 More Firms
Major European Indices are in the red [Euro Stoxx 50 -1.0%], with some underperformance seen in the SMI (-1.1%) weighed on by poor performance in luxury names such as Richemont (-2.1%) and Swatch (-1.0%) following poor Chinese trade data. Other luxury names including Pandora (-6.5%), and LVMH (-3.5%) are in the red on the back of this as well; Burberry (+0.3%) is bucking the luxury trend after being upgraded at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Sectors are similarly in the red with some slight outperformance seen in healthcare. Other notable movers include Next (-2.9%) in the red after being downgraded at Credit Suisse, and Dialog Semiconductor (+4.3%) after reporting a 7% Y/Y increase in full year revenue.
Top European News
- Orsted Shares Slump Most Since July as Asset Sale Scuppered
- Telecom Italia Is Said to Bid for BT's Scandal-Plagued Business
- Monte Paschi Drops After ECB Says It Has Capital, Profit Issues
- Euro-Area Production Slump Adds to Gloom for Economic Outlook
- Continental AG Issues Gloomy Auto Market Forecast for First Half
In FX, it has been a relatively docile session for the USD thus far as the index sits around the middle of tight 95.527-726 range as the US government shutdown extends to the longest in history. Subsequently, the US data originally scheduled for release today (building permits, advanced goods trade balance and durable goods) have been cancelled.
- AUD/NZD/CNY/JPY – The major G10 movers, all in the aftermath of below-forecast Chinese trade data as exports and imports both declined to a 6-month low in USD terms vs. expected rises. As such trade-proxy AUD/USD fell around 0.4% to test its 100 DMA at around 0.7180 while NZD/USD declined 0.3% to test its 200 DMA at around 0.6797, ahead of its 50 DMA at 0.6789 as the technicals are still poised to form a golden cross. Meanwhile, global-growth fears sparked safe-haven demand into the Yen as USD/JPY tested 108.00 to the downside ahead of a Fib level at 107.91, of note 1.1bln in option expiries sit between 108.00-15. Finally, the Yuan snapped a three-day winning streak but remains sub-6.80 vs. the greenback, though the currency is of course dampened by the disappointing trade figures, USD/CNY is capped by a firmer PBoC CNY fix of 6.7560 (Prev. 6.7909). In terms of techincals, USD/CNH breached its 50 HMA to the upside at 6.7692 with the 100 HMA above the 6.8000 level. It is also worth noting that Goldman Sachs raised their 3, 6, 12 month USD/CNH forecast to 6.80 (Prev. 6.95), 6.80 (Prev. 7.10) and 6.70 (Prev. 6.90) respectively citing an improvement in sentiment around US-Sino trade talks.
- GBP, EUR – Both little changed on the day, while the latter is largely fluctuating with the dollar and the Pound awaits tomorrows meaningful vote, which was originally scheduled for December 11th last year. The deal is widely expected to be voted down and BBC reports that around 100 Tory and the 10 DUP MPs are expected to join the Labour and the opposition parties in voting against the deal. In terms of where we stand with Brexit, PM May is to deliver a speech at 15:30 GMT where she will warn that Parliament is more likely to block Brexit rather than let Britain leave without a deal. Furthermore, the assurances provided by Brussels are also understood to not be enough to sway MPs towards PM May's deal scheduled for 19:00GMT tomorrow. Cable was largely unfazed by the release of the EU assurances which offered little in the way of legally-binding material MPs sough for. From a technical standpoint, Cable recently saw a pop higher and rests just below its 100 DMA at 1.2893 with no notable option expiries for the day. Going back to the EUR, the currency was relatively unmoved by below-forecast industrial production figures following Germany's dismal IP release last week. EUR/USD is currently below its 100 DMA at 1.1476 and in close proximity to the psychological (and 200 HMA) at 1.1450, while there is nothing notable to report regarding option expiries.
- TRY – The stand-out EM underperformer as USD/TRY reclaimed 5.50 to the upside amid a tweet by US President Trump over the weekend where he threatened to devastate Turkey if Turkey hits the Kurds, subsequently pouring cold water over what seemed like a fruitful relationship between the countries.
In commodities, Brent (-1.4%) and WTI (-1.6%) prices are in the red, just below USD 60.00/bbl and USD 51.00/bbl respectively, as the risk tone stemming from the ongoing US government shutdown and disappointing Chinese trade data weighs on markets. Regarding China, December oil imports of 10.35mln BPD, down from November's figure but up from the 7.97mln BPD for December 2017. Separately, Saudi Energy Minister Al Falih stated that in his opinion OPEC+ has taken enough action to balance the oil market this year, and that there is no need for an extraordinary OPEC meeting before April. Gold (+0.4%) is in the green, towards the sessions high of USD 1294.57/oz as the aforementioned risk tone weighs on markets. Elsewhere, China's 2018 iron ore imports fell -1% Y/Y, the first yearly decline since 2010. In contrast China's 2018 copper imports increased 12.9% to a record high of 5.3mln tonnes.
US Event Calendar
- Nothing major scheduled
DB's Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap
For those disappointed with the news on Friday that Mr Trump has cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos next week, then fear not. I'll be making my debut at the event and will be presenting at two Deutsche Bank hosted events. If you or anyone you work with are attending and would like to come along please let me know and I'll let you know how to register. I'm hoping Bono finds time away from fixing the world's problems to attend one of my sessions. Failing that I'd be happy to discuss my views on the yield curve with Angelina Jolie.
That's for next week. For this it's all about the Brexit vote, what happens next, and the start of US earnings season. Before we preview this, today marks the 24th day of the US government shutdown eclipsing the previous longest ever (21 days) seen in 1995-96. For markets the main inconvenience so far is the delay in some data releases. This Wednesday's US retail sales release is the highest profile casualty to date data wise. Our economists highlighted that the 2013 shutdown was calculated to have cost about 0.1% of GDP per week lost. However at 850k furloughed workers, the shutdown over 5 years ago led to double the temporary losses of jobs than the current impasse has created. So the overall economic impact should be minimal for now even if it is distressing for those directly impacted. However the longer it goes on the more the lack of visibility on data will be a problem and the more it will start to make a meaningful impact on the immediate economic outlook. We're not there yet but we're also not seemingly near a solution.
Outside of US politics the main story this week will be Brexit. The Withdrawal Agreement vote takes place tomorrow evening but The Times on Saturday suggested that if an earlier amendment (the amendments get voted on first) is passed that rejects the deal but also rejects a no-deal then it's still possible the vote won't take place and the government will admit defeat but avoid the actual process. Regardless of what happens it seems possible that the deal won't pass and we could get a constitutional head scratcher of a week. The opposition Labour Party will likely call a no-confidence motion that they have very little chance of winning but more importantly the weekend press (Bloomberg) is increasingly suggesting that Parliament will try to wrestle control of Brexit from Mrs May after Tuesday. Meanwhile, in a last ditch effort PM May is going to make a speech today appealing to members of Parliament to vote for her deal and at the same time warning them that there's now more chance of them blocking Brexit than of Britain leaving the European Union without a deal.
Overnight the Guardian has reported that the EU27 is considering extending the Article 50 deadline until July should the UK request it assuming Mrs May loses tomorrow. To extend beyond the Euro Parliamentary elections would show the EU are keen to avoid a no-deal. If true one could argue that we'll now increasingly likely to get a rolling extension until we get a deal, the U.K. decides to stay in, or there is a Parliamentary majority for a no-deal exit (highly unlikely). This news if verified would ultimately reduce the pathways to a hard, cliff edge Brexit.
As it stands Mrs May needs to come back by next Monday with a plan B if she loses tomorrow (thanks to a constitutionally questionable amendment last week that shortened the required response time from 21 to 3 days). However it appears that procedure in the U.K. Parliament is highly unpredictable at the moment and it wouldn't be a surprise to see more constitutional deviations to standard procedure. . Anyone who says they know exactly how this all ends is either lying or a time traveller. If they are the latter can you ask them whether Liverpool win the league as I wouldn't mind knowing so as to cut down the tension and stress I'm feeling at the moment. However if the answer is that after waiting 29 years there's another 29 years further to wait then maybe I'll be better off blissfully unaware.
On a serious note the direction of travel seems likely to be a pivot towards a softer Brexit or a delay to Brexit if the main motion is defeated tomorrow night. However many bumps are likely on the way.
Meanwhile, earnings season is back in the US with 35 S&P 500 companies set to report this week. The highlights will likely be the banks with Citigroup reporting today, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan tomorrow, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America on Wednesday, and Morgan Stanley on Thursday. UnitedHealth and Delta Airlines are also due to report on Tuesday, Netflix on Wednesday, and Schlumberger and American Express on Thursday. For Q4, earnings growth for the S&P 500 is expected to be 11.4% which compares to around 25% growth reported in each of the previous three quarters. Still, if Q4 comes in in-line this would be the fifth straight quarter of double digits earnings growth. It's worth noting also that over the past five years on average, actual earnings have exceeded estimated earnings by nearly 5% according to Factset. In terms of data we show the full week ahead at the end.
This morning in Asia markets are heading lower with the Hang Seng (-1.43%), Shanghai Comp (-0.56%) and Kospi (-0.66%) all down weighed by the disappointing December trade data from China with both exports (at -4.4% yoy vs. +2.0% yoy expected) and imports (at -7.6% yoy vs. +4.5% yoy expected) declining at a faster pace and at the worst levels since 2016, thereby raising concerns of a slowdown in global growth. The Australian dollar (-0.44%) also came under pressure following China's disappointing trade data even as China's onshore yuan is eking out a small gain (+0.06%). Japan's markets are closed for a holiday. Elsewhere, futures on the S&P 500 are also down -0.73%.
Turning to a recap of last week, Friday turned out to be quite a calm trading session, especially relative to the rest of the week. The highlight was the US's December CPI data, which printed exactly in-line with consensus expectations. Core prices rose +0.2% mom and +2.2% yoy. Headline inflation moderated a touch, to -0.1% mom and +1.9% yoy, though it was driven by transitory energy dynamics.
On the week, the S&P 500 ended +2.54% higher (-0.01% on Friday), while small caps outperformed with the Russell 2000 up +4.83% (+0.14% Friday). Other major indexes also advanced, with the DOW and NASDAQ gaining +2.40% and +2.78%, respectively (-0.02% and -0.30% Friday). In Europe, the STOXX 600 rose +1.69% on the week (+0.09% Friday) while Italy's FTSEMIB outperformed, up +2.43% (-0.06% Friday). Asian equities advanced as well, with the Nikkei and Hang Seng indexes up +4.08% and +4.06% (+0.97% and +0.55% Friday) respectively. The main drivers of this broad risk-on sentiment were: positive progress on US-China trade talks, Fed Chair Powell and other Fed officials signaling a pause in the rate hike cycle, and low valuations after December's steep selloff.
In fixed income, US HY credit stole the show with a -44.5bps rally on the week, its strongest week since March 2016 (+2bps Friday) and 84bps tighter than its recent wides on January 3rd. European HY also gained -28bps (-4bps Friday). Sovereign bond yields rose slightly, with Treasuries and Bunds ending the week +3.0 and +3.1 bps higher at 2.70% and 0.24% (-4.5bps and -1.6bps on Friday). The dollar retreated -0.53% while EM currencies gained +0.36%, though the moves moderated on Friday (dollar +0.14% and EMs -0.14%). The euro ended the week +0.59% stronger at 1.146 (-0.33% Friday). Finally, oil continued its strong rally as well, gaining +6.15% on the week (-1.80% Friday) to close above $60. The two week gain for Brent was 16.05%, the best performance in over two years.
It should be a quiet start to the week on Monday with the only data due out being the Euro Area November industrial production report and China's December trade balance. Meanwhile earnings season gets underway with Citigroup reporting.
via RSS http://bit.ly/2Fr5j92 Tyler Durden


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Dazzle-It!™ seed beads are ideal for a variety of jewelry projects generally used for bead weaving and stringing. The ruby colored bead mix features an assortment of reflective and luminous beads in a variety of transparent, luster, matte, and Aurora Borealis finishes. Some beads also contain a silver colored bead hole lining. This dazzling mix includes varying shades of red, purple, and orange colored beads that create a gem-like appearance.
All the way from the Czech Republic, these glass beads are perfect for making colorful necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. They can also be used for creating embellishments on a variety of garments and home décor crafts.


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Green Cleaning
We are working around the campus to decrease the number of potentially hazardous chemicals used in cleaning. Some initiatives in this area include:
- Dining Services is increasingly using a line of more environmentally responsible cleaning products called EcoLogic.
- Purchase and deployment of 60 ActiveIon Ionator units which effectively clean and sanitize using ionized water instead of chemicals.
- More than 60% of the cleaning agents used on campus are certified as green.
- Equipment is being replaced with newer versions that meet green criteria such as reduced water consumption, no or low chemical use, and HEPA filters on vacuums.
- Replacing blackboards with white boards to reduce chalk dust and water consumption.


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Indian Navy Chargeman & Ammunition Mechanic-II Recruitment 2018
Indian Navy Recruitment:
Indian Navy has announced job notification as Indian Navy Chargeman & Ammunition Mechanic-II Recruitment. Applications are invitedfrom eligible applicants for the posts of Chargeman and Ammunition Mechanic-II. Candidates can download application form in prescribed format through official website of Indian Navy that is www.indiannavy.nic.in before the last date.
Dear job seekers, are you eligible to carve out your Career in Indian Navy, than great here we are providing all information regarding Indian Navy recruitment. Grab the opportunity of Job by filling form, recently most recent notice of Indian Navy vacancy has been announced by Indian Navy. You can apply by submitting form as soon as possible. You can bookmark this web page using Ctrl plus D to get up to date details of Indian Navy Chargeman & Ammunition Mechanic-II Recruitment. Eligible job seekers can read GK Questions & Answers for good knowledge.
www.indiannavy.nic.in Application Form:
More details about Indian Navy Recruitment like education qualification, vacancy details, salary, age limit, selection procedure how to apply, important date etc are given below:-
Educational Qualification:
Chargeman (AWS):
Applicants should have possessed Bachelor of Science degree with Physics/ Chemistry/ Mathematics OR a Diploma in Mechanical or Electrical or Electronics or Telecommunication Engineering from a recognized University /Institute/ Board.
Ammunition Mechanic-II:
Dear job seekers must have passed Matriculation or equivalent from a recognized Institute/ Board with knowledge of English & must have completed Apprentice Training from ITI or hold National Apprenticeship certificate issued by NCVT in the relevant trades.
Age Limit:
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How to Apply:
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- Go to "Career" tab on the home page.
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For more info about Indian Navy Recruitment like education qualification, salary details, important dates etc visit below link:-
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Welcome to SAIMechE!
The pre-eminent body for the Mechanical Engineering profession
SAIMechE exists to serve the interests and needs of its members, to advance the science and practise of mechanical engineering, and to promote high standards in the profession. Our website is the primary vehicle to deliver on our objectives. Join here...
SAIMechE launch digital accreditation platform - Privyseal
We are pleased to announce that we are now offering all our members the ability to demonstrate and verify their SAIMechE membership standing in real time using the Privyseal digital accreditation service.
The "Getting Started Guide" will provide you with more details on PrivySeal and will walk you through the registration process.
About SAIMechE
SAIMechE is the senior body representing the discipline of mechanical engineering in South Africa. It covers all fields of application as diverse as automobile, energy generation, process engineering, heavy manufacture, design, management, research, mining and education. SAIMechE is over a century old, and originated as the South African Association of Engineers and Architects, established in 1892. SAIMechE is a voluntary association of Mechanical Engineers, Technologists and Technicians that have access to various grades of membership and the associated benefits.
SAIMechE's Mission: To serve the interests and needs of its members and of the Mechanical Engineering Community, and to promote the continued supply of appropriate and sufficient Mechanical Engineering skills to meet the nation's needs, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of local industry to the benefit of all.
In addition, the SAIMechE motto is: 'Scientia Progredimur'– By Knowledge We Advance.
An Engineer's View
This blog contains the popular commentary "An Engineer's View" which is a regular feature of SA Mechanical Engineer (our official publication).
The commentary reflects the personal views of SAIMechE members, typically those who have accepted leadership positions in the Institution.
Click here to read the current and past posts...
Professional Development Programme (PDP)
Standard of Professional Competency is key to professional development.
Driving the strategic objectives of SAIMechE is a commitment to the professional competencies described in its Standard of Professional Competency (SPC).
SAIMechE's SPC adopts the eleven learning outcomes described in the Engineering Council of South Africa's various competency standards for professional registration. In doing so, the Institution endorses the standard as the complete description of competencies expected of the "professional". The SAIMechE Standard of Professional Competency, and other documents related to our Professional Development Programme (PDP) can be accessed here...
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Island Lodges LimitedRoebeck Country ParkGatehouse RoadUpton CrossRydeIsle of WightPO33 4BP
E: firstname.lastname@example.com
Our sales office is open from 10.00hrs until 16.00hrs Monday to Friday or by appointment outside of these hours. Please feel free to send us an enquiry or pop in and see us.
Island Lodges Limited, Roebeck Country Park, Gatehouse Road, Upton Cross, Ryde, Isle Of Wight, PO33 4BP
+44 (0)1983 562 505or click here to send us an email
© Copyright 2018 Island Lodges. All rights reserved


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"But thou, O Lord, art a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head." Psalm 3:3
Has your head hung low this week, dear reader? Mine has risen and fallen so many times over the last several days, I feel as if I have whiplash.
Exciting things happening in my ministry, I raise it high. Conflict with a friend, I let it drop.
My husband is witnessing numerous conversions while he ministers in Haiti, up it goes. Devastating news at home, I let it drop as lead.
Yes, whiplash. That is until I held it still long enough for the Holy Spirit to hit me between the eyes with Psalm 3. He showed me that I am unable to hold my head in an upright position on my own. If I continue this vain effort, it will constantly jerk back and forth, depending on my circumstances.
Don't let yourself become a 'jerk' like me, dear friends. 🙂
Don't focus on your circumstances, look up at Him. It is the Lord who is a 'shield about us, He is our glory, the lifter of our heads'!
Matthew Henry wrote, "Man has this advantage above the beasts, in the structure of his body, that whereas they are made to look downwards, as their spirits must go, his is made erect to look upwards, because upwards his spirit must shortly go and his thoughts should now rise."
Look up, dear ones. Remember, this is not our home. Satan is buffeting us on all sides, but don't focus on him. Jesus is our shield, the lifter of our heads, and He will return to cast out the evil one for good.
Pray with me, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.
"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (the evil one)."
"Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blest assurance control, that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed his own blood for my soul.
It is Well With My Soul, by Horatio Spafford
If that doesn't lift our heads, I don't know what will!


text: Lauri GavelDirector of CommunicationsUCLA School of Law (310) email@example.com ANGELES, CA, June 15, 2011 -- Three leading bankruptcy and corporate restructuring-related organizations have made grants totaling $69,500 to UCLA School of Law. The grants will fund the collection of new fields of data for constructing a comprehensive model of bankruptcy success. Lynn M. LoPucki, Security Pacific Bank distinguished professor of law, and Joseph W. Doherty, director of UCLA Law's Empirical Research Group, will direct the success-modeling project. The grants from the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Turnaround Management Association, will be used to study the best ways to reorganize large, public companies. The new fields of data will include information on creditor recoveries, committees, DIP lenders, turnaround managers, economic conditions, confirmation and post-363 sale business performance, and other factors possibly related to success."Lots of academics have studied the success and failure of big bankruptcy cases. What will be different with this study is the quality and scope of the data that will be available," said Professor LoPucki. "The success-modeling project is also unique in that we do not intend to analyze the data ourselves. Our role will be to collect and distribute the data. Academic researchers from all over the world, acting independently, will do the modeling."Researchers may use the collected data — along with data from other databases and data they collect themselves — to model success as they see it. The terms of the grants will also make the data available free to members of the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Turnaround Management Association. The success-modeling project is part of the UCLA-LoPucki Bankruptcy Research Database (BRD), which was developed by Professor LoPucki and donated to UCLA School of Law in 2009. The BRD provides data free of charge to academics worldwide. It fills approximately 130 requests a year from scholars conducting research for publication on large public company bankruptcies. Key data are also available to the public on the BRD website at http://lopucki.law.ucla.edu. About UCLA School of LawFounded in 1949, UCLA School of Law is the youngest major law school in the nation and is dedicated to principles of excellence, innovation, access and service. With approximately 100 faculty and 970 students, the school pioneered clinical teaching, is a leader in interdisciplinary research and training and is at the forefront of efforts to link research to its effects on society and the legal profession. For more information, visit http://www.law.ucla.edu.


text: Last night I was looking over Twitter and saw that Topps was giving away 3 boxes of Series 1 cards. I retweeted it thinking there was no way I would win with over 1200 people taking a shot at it. Lo and behold, this morning I get tweet saying my self and 2 Yankee fans did indeed win. I guess I'll be able to get my Mariners and hopefully some other nice cards. Big thanks to Topps and Twitter for the chance to win!


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A nurse's aide is under arrest, accused of abusing an elderly patient with Alzheimer's. And, it was all caught on tape. The suspect has been identified as 55-year-old Sandra Kerr.
She worked at the gold crest care center in the Bronx. The state attorney general says his office has zero tolerance for elderly abuse.


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Taking off on our How Do You Use Your BlackBerry series, forums member valorian suggested we change it up a bit and ask some questions about the PlayBook and I totally agree. So to get things started we'll go with something quick and easy. The BlackBerry PlayBook comes with a sweet neoprene sleeve out of the box. I totally love it and used it religiously the first few days I had my device. I did use the PlayBook Barely There case for a bit, but I have since purchased the PlayBook convertible case however, and can't say that I'll ever stray from it. It does just what I need and it is truly an awesome case. So PlayBook owners: do you use a BlackBerry PlayBook case of any kind on your device? We want to know if you use the neoprene sleeve, a different case or just go out naked! Cast your vote in the poll above, then leave a comment letting us know!
Best in class:Save 49% on 15 months of ExpressVPN


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- Details
- Published: Tuesday, 13 March 2018 11:28
- Written by Awókey Entertainment
We regret to have learrned that Long island rapper Graig Mack passed away on Monday at a hospital near his home in Walterboro due to heart failure, the Daily news confirms.
The New York rapper was well known for his clubbanger "Flava In Ya Ear" back in 1994 which was released under Diddy's Bad Boys label followed by a succefull remix featuring various artists including The Notorious B.I.G., LL Cool J and Busta Rhymes.
Graig Mack was 46 years old and leaves behind a wife and two kids. He will sureley be missed for his raw style and undeniable contribition to Hip-Hop music.
May his sould rest in power!
Craig Mack: "Flava In Ya Ear" (Rmx) Ft. V.A.Featured
- Details
- in #HipHop, Clips & Videos
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Science can be weird sometimes. (And no I don't mean two teenage boys building the woman of their dreams and watching as she come to life like the '80s flick "Weird Science" — though that would really blow people's minds.)
I'm talking about bulging methane bubbles, mysterious booms in the sky and glowing orbs. These science stories of 2017 may surprise or confuse you — but there's nothing boring about them!
Mysterious loud booms are being heard around the world, but why?
So far, the bizarre 'booms' seem to defy explanation, which isn't so different from the first time you experience lenticular clouds. (Photo: Mr,W5er 3nee (More Evolved .. ?)/flickr)
You may have heard of a sonic boom — when an object travels faster than the speed of sound and shock waves create a loud sound. But what if no plane or jet was flying?
Around the world, reports emerged of booming sounds of mysterious origin echoing from the sky, from Colorado and Alabama to the Middle East, United Kingdom and Australia, according to News Corp Australia.
In Alabama, a thunderous noise shook houses and frightened residents on Nov. 20 and remains unexplained.
One theory is the booms are caused by meteors exploding in the sky. The Leonid meteor shower has coincided with the hysteria. This theory would certainly explain why the phenomenon is global, though astronomers have insisted that meteors produced by the Leonids are way too small for this to happen.
There are several other theories roaming about out there, but so far there's no singular explanation for these mysterious sounds.
Spider drinks graphene, spins web that can hold the weight of a human
Imagine a spider web that is strong enough to be used as a parachute. (Photo: Chen-Pan Liao/Wiki Commons)
These are not your friendly neighborhood spiders: scientists have mixed a graphene solution that when fed to spiders allows them to spin super-strong webbing. How strong? Strong enough to carry the weight of a person.
And these spiders might soon be enlisted to help manufacture enhanced ropes and cables, possibly even parachutes for skydivers, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
Graphene is a wonder-material that is an atomic-scale hexagonal lattice made of carbon atoms. It's incredibly strong, but it was definitely a shot in the dark to see what would happen if it was fed to spiders.
So far it doesn't seem as if the spiders can continue to spin their super-silk without a steady diet of graphene. That might offer some solace those concerned about getting ensnared in next spider web they walk through.
Giant glowing orb appears over Siberia
Has E.T. finally arrived? That's what thousands of locals in northern Russia recently feared after the sudden appearance of an enormous glowing orb in the Siberian night sky, which briefly stirred up a "War of the Worlds"-esque frenzy on social media.
"The glowing ball rose from behind the trees and moved in my direction," said one witness who thought the end of the world was at hand.
As pictures poured into local social media circles, so did the theories. Alien invasion pronouncements were especially rampant; others speculated about a rip in the spacetime continuum, or about wormholes to another dimension.
Official word from the Russian Defense Ministry later confirmed that the event was caused by a test launch of the country's much-hyped Satan 2 Topol-M rocket.
Thousands of bulging methane bubbles could explode in Siberia
Researchers believe that sinkholes like this one on the Yamal Peninsula in northern Russia may be caused by explosive methane gas. (Photo: EL ARTE DE SERVIR/YouTube)
Siberia's frozen landscape, locked in time for thousands of years, may be coming back to life in violent fashion.
Scientists using both satellite imagery and ground-based surveys discovered more than 7,000 bulging bubbles of gas on Siberia's Yamal and Gydan peninsulas. These potentially dangerous protrusions contain mostly methane and create a surreal ripple effect on the ground when stepped on.
Because methane is extremely flammable, there is increasing concern that these bulges will begin to explode. One such explosion happened at the end of June on the Yamal Peninsula. Witnesses to the explosion reported fire shooting up in the sky and chunks of permafrost popping up out of the ground. The result was a 164-foot-deep crater on a river near a reindeer encampment.
What caused this strange code-like pattern to form on an Icelandic lake?
Ice on this lake is split in a very curious pattern. (Photo: Thingvellir National Park/Facebook)
A strange pattern on a frozen lake left residents baffled in Iceland. Could it be a message from an alien life form? Some kind of Icelandic version of crop circles? Is there a message in the pattern that can be deciphered?
Though the pattern looks eerily unnatural, as if written by an intelligent designer, it's probably nothing too spooky. In fact, the design looks suspiciously like a natural phenomenon known as "finger rafting," which can happen when two expanses of sheet ice converge toward another, and one of them slides smoothly on top of the other.
However, finger rafting hasn't been confirmed as the cause of the strange pattern yet, and the conditions present on the lake aren't usually conducive to generating this phenomenon, but it's still the leading theory about what's going on here, according to Ice News.


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As mentioned in a previous post on Team Member Rights, transforming to Agile is a culture change, and all cultures have rules so that everyone understands their expected behavior. DAD has inherited some of the basic rules from the XP world. Each time I present these rules in the training course, inevitably they end up on the list of things that "freaked us out". That means to me that the rules are really important and that the community needs to be talking about them and getting a clear understanding and acceptance.
The Responsibilities of Everyone:
To produce a solution that meets the needs of stakeholders given the resource constraints
The primary goal of the team is to meet the stakeholder needs as best they can.
To optimize the use of those resources
Optimizing the resources should be looked at from a long term perspective. Tasking the specialist on the team with a particular type of task may seem optimal in the short term because the task is done quickly. In the long term it may be more optimal to assign a new team member to train with the specialist to do that type of task even if it takes longer to complete the current task.
To be willing to collaborate extensively within your team including those outside your specialty
Gone are the days when a developer could go hide in a corner and hack away at code. Collaboration is required across all team members.
To share all information including "work in progress"
One of the keys to successful Agile is transparency. If you run into a problem, tell the team so they can help out or at least re-plan. If you complete something quickly, tell the team so they can work on next steps whether that be: testing, or documenting or promoting. Everyone should know what everyone on the team is doing all the time.
To coach others in your skills and experience
The goal is to increase the skill set of everyone on the team so be prepared to teach your skills to the other team members. Previously the performance of people was assessed on their ability to perform specialty tasks. The focus needs to shift to how well a person collaborates, shares and increases the teams ability to perform.
To expand your knowledge and skills outside your specialty
Again, the goal is to increase the skill set of everyone including you so everyone needs to be open to learning new skills so they can help the team do every required task.
To validate your work as early as possible, working with others to do so
No more writing code and getting it promoted directly to production or producing documents that haven't been reviewed. All code should be reviewed by another developer; non-solo development is great for this because it reduces the feedback loop to almost zero since 2 sets of eyes are always on the code. And all code needs to be tested against the acceptance criteria in the user story. Nothing goes out without someone else on the team reviewing it because it is a team responsibility to ensure quality.
To attend co-ordination meetings in person or through other means if not collocated
The co-ordination meeting is the most important meeting of the day and nothing else takes priority. Get to the meeting and get there on time. If you are late then you are holding up the whole team.
To proactively look for ways to improve team performance
The retrospectives are designed to fix and improve the team's process. Come prepared to the meeting to discuss how the iteration went and talk about things that went wrong and how to fix them. However, if you see something during the iteration that can be fixed, don't wait for the retrospective!! Bring it up at the co-ordination meeting and suggest a fix right away.
To avoid accepting work outside of the current iteration without consent from the team
The team commits to complete a specific bundle of work when they start an iteration. That means that all team members have made a commitment to complete all the work in the iteration. If you as a team member take on work from outside the iteration (whether it be from a colleague or an old boss or your current boss) then it means you are not working on tasks for the iteration and you are letting your team down. You should refuse all outside requests for your time. If that doesn't work tell them they need to talk to the team lead. The team lead should refuse the request. If that doesn't work then tell them to talk to the Product Owner. The Product Owner should refuse the request but offer to write it up as a user story and put it onto the backlog for consideration.


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PTA – a correction
Last week, Pakistanis suffered some three minutes of unmitigated shock and awe. It occurred after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced that it would not allow the mobile operators to carry text messages containing swear words. After registering some initial outrage, however, the nation broke into uncontrollable euphoria. It had to do with the list of swear words that the PTA issued to go with their directive. The list, in case you haven't seen it yet, is spread over two documents (Urdu, English) and it has been researched, compiled and prepared by the PTA — May God bless them. Going through ...Read Full Post
A short, myopic and utterly biased guide to bookstores in Lahore
Let me qualify this first: by 'books' I almost exclusively mean books of fiction and poetry — and my judgment of bookstores rests entirely on the said collections. So, go read some other column if you're into politics or that kind of a thing. Just go away. (Also, I don't discuss Urdu books here either; there will be another piece for that.) Now let's begin with the usual suspects, Ferozesons and Sang-e-Meel, which have traditionally provided shadier grounds for fiction lovers. Over the past few years, however, these two have fallen on hard times — and it seems to me, ...Read Full Post
Our boys of Aalu Anday
Do you know how long it takes for kids to grow up in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan? One and a half week. If you don't believe me, listen to this story. It involves eggs, potatoes and three boys—and it's scary. The three boys went to school together. They were best friends. One boy was extensively tall, one unsuitably short, and the last one was just fifteen. They were nice, proper boys who kept their hair neatly oiled and parted on the sides and their neckties on even in the sweltering Lahori heat. They were good boys in most ways—respectful ...Read Full Post
In praise of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2011
In case you didn't notice, it was the annual literary maelstrom last week. The Nobel Prize in Literature was handed to somebody, Tomas Tranströmer of Sweden. The announcement evoked a global response which entailed synchronised hair pulling, angry tweeting, cynical literary opining in the millions. On the whole, it turned out to be an entirely predictable show of hostility from a world of outraged readers. The ruling sentiments went something like this: "Oh right! So Roth/Murakami/Pynchon/Nadas/Adonis is going to lose out AGAIN to somebody I've not even heard of?" "Wait, are you saying, like, this guy Transformer-whatever, haha, his work is ...Read Full Post
Dimple and Alexander
The movie Mere Brother ki Dulhan is full of twists and turns. In fact, it is so twisty that I am tempted to use the old chestnut that appears in about ninety-eight percent movie reviews in our papers: 'a rollercoaster ride' — except, this movie is really a donkey cart where the donkey routinely mistakes his own backside for his face. In the movie Katrina Kaif plays Dimple. But she's not just any Dimple, she's Dimple urf D, which means she's free-spirited and spontaneous too. Someone who was born in London and bred there for 18 years before showing up ...Read Full Post
The city of prose
Madiha Sattar, a writer based in Karachi, in her recent comment on the Karachi violence complained about 'the mythology of the city's not-so-distant golden past' that is evoked whenever the times are dark and roads bloody: Those of us not old enough to have worn hipster saris to nightclubs here in the 60s and 70s, are frequently subjected to misty-eyed reminiscing about a city that was once apparently safe, cosmopolitan and liberal, a magical place where one could drive around late without racing home to avoid a hold-up and people were far too polite and open-minded to be too fussed ...Read Full Post
The amazing messages of Ali Azmat
I once saw a sign in an ice cream parlor: NO SUGAR FREE, NO FAT FREE—ONLY REAL ICE CREAM. IF YOU WANT NUTRITION, EAT CARROTS. This pretty much sums up how I feel about music videos/movies/poetry/novels/et cetera meant to convey messages. They are useless in terms of providing pleasure, which is what they are meant to do, and utterly rubbish for nutrition, which is what they are purporting to do. When I first heard that Ali Azmat has released a video called Bum Phatta, and knowing what we all know about him, I laughed for about a week. Then I took the risk ...Read Full Post
Postcard from Dubai
You know, I really wouldn't say another nasty thing about Dubai if I didn't know a secret. Yes, it's true. Dubai and other Gulf states which sear their bottoms on the desert sands have a dirty secret that doesn't get publicised. And I am going to tell you what it is. To be fair, however, let me just say that there are really no points for you as a critic for singling out Dubai for criticism. Namely, because a. it is an easy target; and b. it doesn't make a difference. And I agree. In fact, I think it is unfair to diss ...Read Full Post
Poetry for monkeys
Do you know Mr Javed Chaudhry? You should if you don't. He's amazing. Recently, he was invited to speak to some students on 'Relationships'(?). He kicked off the discussion with the claim that he is smarter than Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, et al. simply because they lived 5,000 or 3,000 years ago (both dates are wrong, actually). He said: "If we are not wearing 5,000 year old pants or using nail-cutters from so long ago, then why are we bothering with what those people thought or wrote?" After this hatchet job on Aristotle & Co's longstanding reputation, Mr Chaudhry laid it into Darwin ...Read Full Post
Uninspired grandmas, dusty fairytales
I don't mean this to be a newsletter. In fact, I really mean to discuss a poem by Agha Shahid Ali, but a plug here and there does a reader only good. Besides, how else would you know there is a charming new fairytale out there waiting for you — or that there is a writer in this country who writes fairytales for a living? And to be fair, I am big on fairytales for another reason as well. You see, I am quite aware, given the evidence of evolutionary psychology, that irrespective of the stories we hear when young, ...Read Full Post


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I arrived yesterday evening without fanfare. V is understandably exhausted due to being a new mom. My drive home from the airport with D in rush hour traffic was almost twice as long as my layover in Dallas (which was barely long enough to make it from one gate to another in time to board my connecting flight). Good times.
My new little nephew is adorable! Being with a newborn for the past 24+ hours for the first time in a long time has been an interesting experience. . . to say the least. SL & I have talked a lot about our desire to have a baby of our own within 15-18 months after our wedding. You do the math: that would mean this time in 2 years, it'll be me suffering sleep deprivation and not my sis. I'll be the one with the cracked nipples, swollen breasts, achiness, mood swings, etc. Not to mention recovering--mentally and physically--from childbirth. The most notable thing to me is the baby's total dependence on the adults in his world to meet his needs.
Don't get me wrong: I am no stranger to the world of babies, so I'm not thinking about any of these things for the first time. I was a hospital RN for 7 years; I've worked in post-partum & cared for newborns as my patients. I also have close friends with children ranging in age from a few months to 15 years of age. I had extensive contact with at least 4 of those kids' friends during their first few months of life. I've fed, burped, & changed the diapers of many a newborn in my day. I guess I am thinking more about all these things this time for a couple of reasons.
One, because my nephew hits closer to home. My sis & I are only 2 years apart: I'm actually the older sister, though she's done most things first as adults--become a lawyer, married, become a mom--go figure. And two, because when I helped my friends with their babies. . . I knew that the day when I would have those same responsiblities for my own baby, 24/7, was FAR distant. Now. . . God willing, not so much.
So it has been a thought-provoking 24 hours.
It's great seeing V again. I hadn't seen her since before she got pregnant. It's a bitch living 3000 miles from your only sister. And I do love my nephew. He is adorable.
Nephew had a "weight check" today at the doctor's because he lost weight the 2 weeks following his birth. (A not-uncommon occurrence, but the doctor was a little concerned at V's milk production & so had her start supplementing with formula a week ago.) The little bugger gained 16 oz in a week! That puts him at 13 oz over birth weight, which means his average weight gain is right on target. He was deemed "perfectly normal" by his pediatrician (though V says this is an understatement & he is a "super" baby).
I've probably gained a pound in a week before. I doubt it'd be cause for celebration. Ah, how things change as we age. LOL
I had my first fleeting thought of work this evening. Bah! It's nice to be out of the office, but I always worry about things going wrong in my absence. I've been burned more than once in that regard. That aspect of my change is one of the few things that I miss about being a nurse: work was never waiting for me at the hospital when I returned from a vacation.
I'm hoping to see a few friends while I'm here in the DC area, too. Figure my sis & bro-in-law will probably appreciate a break from me in the evenings after I've been here a few days. LOL


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GTs is recognised internationally and domestically as one of the leading law firms in Ulaanbaatar. What distinguishes GTs is the hard-working team of lawyers who are always on the offence for knowledge and greater experience. The firm has risen in the rankings to a Band One firm for Mongolia focused in General Business Law in 2015, 2016 and 2017. GTs provides a full range of legal advisory services focalised in five key areas including corporate and M&A, finance and capital markets, all stages of project finance (encompassing mining, infrastructure and energy), commerce and real estate, and lastly, litigation and arbitration. As a law firm with wide-ranging experience with far-reaching clients, GTs has cultivated a consistent and instinctive pragmatism that is sensitive of cultural, social and legal differences.
GTs Advocates - Ulaanbaatar
Suite#705 Park Place Sukhbaatar District 1st khoroo, Chinggis Avenue 24
Ulaanbaatar 14253
Tel: +976 11 331020, 7013-1020
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The challenge of RuPaul's Drag Race is that it pulls its contestant in a million different directions while also requiring them to present a unified vision of what makes them unique. Few have walked that line quite as gracefully as newly crowned Season 9 winner Sasha Velour.
Walking into the workroom on day one with a bald head, a stylized unibrow and a guttural scream, the former Fulbright scholar—she studied in Russia—maintained her art and academic-informed perspective while still meeting every challenge head on. Her only real weakness in the competition? Perhaps getting a little too intellectual. She originally planned to portray feminist theorist Judith Butler during the show's trademark campiest Snatch Game challenge, but eventually found a winning backup plan with a deliciously dry take on Marlene Dietrich. Such smarts though will serve her well now that she's free to expand her vision beyond the show.
We caught up with Velour to talk about the inspiration behind her eyebrows, how she turns her friends' cast-off party dresses into style statements, and, of course, the rose petal performance to Whitney Houston's "So Emotional" that still has the internet shook.
So let's start with the thing everyone is still talking about. How did you come up with the idea for that flower petal performance? I wanted an element to the performance with a 'Wow' factor. That was the challenge we had to rise to with almost no time to prepare. I ended up coming up with the idea the day before and bought tons and tons of flowers—fake rose petals from Michaels, actually. And the song is all about love in excess and I thought the explosion of rose petals really captured that. I practiced it once and made it work and was just glad it worked out.
Were you surprised about the twist on the finale? I was shocked. The show had kind of had a stable format for how the finale goes. When we finished filming I thought that the competition aspect of the show was over. To discover that we had one more or two more of the most intense challenges, the most high stakes competition yet, it was kind of intimidating and scary. At the same time I tried to see it as an opportunity. Because I had never fallen into the bottom two on the show and didn't get to lip sync. The heart of my drag is really powerful emotion lip-syncs, so I wanted to take advantage of that and show that to people.
When it comes to style inspiration are there specific people or designers or scenes that inspire you? I kind of try to tune out fashion trends as much as I possibly can especially when it comes to drag fashion trends. I find inspiration in the movies I've loved, especially all films ever made about Dracula. My finale outfit, the blue and white dress, takes direct inspiration from The Bride of Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula, the 1992 movie. It was also a little bit of pottery meets dinosaur. So I just tune out trends and focus on things that inspire me. It's important in drag to challenge things, and present your own vision.
What was your shopping process like? In the past I didn't really have that much money to invest in fashion so it was a a lot of vintage on the show. A lot of the things I'd wear on the show were actually gifts. A lot of girlfriends who bought a sequence dress that they thought was too loud or too over the top would give it to me. The most fun game is, 'How do I transform this most random dress into a fashion statement by styling it with accessories or with gloves or to alter it to really make it into a fashion statement?' Now that I have a little bit more resources to devote to drag I can kind of start fresh. Before I never really able to have that fresh start, so it's really exciting.
How did your signature eyebrows come about? When it comes to drag my favorite thing we can do is kind of push against the beauty standards of magazines. We don't need to look like supermodels. That what really makes drag special and makes it unique and makes it queer. I've always tried to twist the ideas of beauty that are maybe considered to be ugly by the mainstream. I was already kind of toying with that when it comes to baldness, which came from a discussion with my mother about how to be considered a beautiful woman if you're bald. The eyebrow thing kind of came because of my obsession with Dracula and the earlier movie Nosferatu. He had natural bald head and those bushy eyebrows, which I think is iconic and a real fashion statement. It's also a little bit of Frida Kahlo, and the idea that her eyebrows were really an attempt to honor herself, which is the most powerful idea when it comes to beauty. It's also, well, I shave my eyebrows now that I do drag, but, truthfully, to me eyebrows grow exactly like that. There's a little patch in my unibrow and I wanted to turn that into something I could finally see as glamorous. All my life I've tried to tweeze, or wax and transform them into something, but now I celebrate them.
You have a lot of things going on, but what are your plans you're most excited to do now that you have the crown? I'm gonna invest the money in the creative projects I have going, and I want to share the platform and spotlight with the collaborators I already have and the new collaborators I get to meet. Right now I have two big projects. The first is Velour, a drag magazine that kind of captures drag through visual art and writing. We're trying to figure out how to write what's going on in drag at this particular moment to have a lasting record. I also have "Nightgowns," which is my monthly show in Brooklyn [at National Sawdust in Williamsburg]. I want to expand that and take that on the road and tour the country and connect lots of different drag scenes and types of drag from small towns to big cities. I'm also in the process of turning it into a non-profit organization so we can ultimate raise money for queer and trans youth and help with everything from housing to scholarships.
Related: The Many Faces of the One and Only Kim Chi
Carmen Carrera: Showgirl:


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Give hulls for which custom paint jobs are available a new 'paintjob' rigslot. Paintjobs are new items that act like rigs and can only be applied to the relevant hull and into its paintjob rigslot. Removal results in destruction.
BPCs for these items is a different matter, but they could be on market, NeX or from LP stores. They could require Aurum in the price, or during construction.


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7 Tracking Mistakes That Can Wreck Your SEO Campaign
Execution is only half the battle for search engine optimization (SEO) success; you also have to measure and analyze your campaign effectively. Unfortunately, some search marketers get so caught up in their ongoing execution that they botch the tracking portion, or aren't skilled enough in data analysis to produce an accurate, insightful report.
So why is tracking so important in the first place, and what are the biggest mistakes to watch out for?
Why Tracking Is So Important
Ultimately, if you're tracking your own campaign, there are three goals to meet here:
- Understanding progress. First, you'll want to understand if and how your campaign is progressing, including your return on investment (ROI) so you can calculate whether your investment is paying off.
- Proactively fixing issues. Accurate tracking can also alert you to key mistakes or weaknesses that have the potential to damage your campaign if not addressed quickly.
- Generating new ideas. Sometimes, looking at the data can help you generate new ideas by showing you what's working and what isn't.
If you're tracking a client's campaign, you'll also need to use tracking to prove your worth.
The Biggest Mistakes
So what are the biggest mistakes people make when tracking SEO progress?
- Starting from the middle. If you don't start tracking your results as soon as you start a campaign, you'll miss out on having a baseline to compare all your future metrics to. While present-focused metrics are important, they won't tell you as much as a comparison of the present to the past.
- Failing to use visuals. Choose a marketing dashboard that provides you with customizable data visuals, rather than stagnant metrics. Visuals, like graphs and charts, make it easier for you to understand and communicate the high-level takeaways of your current strategies. Ideally, you'll also be able to customize those visuals to target exactly the statistics or parameters you want, and walk away with a much more detailed understanding of your work.
- Tracking the wrong metrics. You could also do your campaign a disservice by tracking the "wrong" metrics, or too few metrics to get an accurate picture of what's going on. Keyword rankings and organic traffic, for example, are two of the most popularly measured SEO metrics, but they alone won't tell you about the health of your entire campaign. Ideally, you'll pay attention to dozens of different variables, and understand how they relate to each other to get the full picture.
- Comparing apples to oranges. Comparing one group of keyword rankings last month to a different group of keyword rankings this month won't tell you much about how your campaign is progressing. As much as possible, compare apples to apples; that means measuring your data the same way, and comparing your metrics only when they've been measured under similar circumstances.
- Having no tie-back to monetary value. Remember, one of your main goals here is determining your ROI. You'll need to find some way to tie your results to a monetary value, so you can calculate the returns you're seeing. The most popular way to do this is to measure how much traffic you're generating, then calculate the value of that traffic by determining how often it converts (along with the average value of a conversion). Then, you can compare those numbers to how much you're spending and wind up with an overall ROI.
- Never isolating your variables. Let's say you've noticed a spike in organic traffic over the course of the past month. That's a good sign, but why did it happen? You'll need to isolate your variables if you want to get the complete picture, tracing back all aberrations to a specific strategy or tactic. Otherwise, you won't be able to do much with the data.
- Allowing one person to run the show. Human beings are wrought with baked-in cognitive biases, no matter how much we'd like to pretend otherwise. If left to your own devices, these biases will likely influence your interpretation of results, whether it's allowing your preconceived notions to guide your conclusions, or neglecting key pieces of information because you've disproportionately undervalued them. One of the easiest solutions to this problem is establishing a system of checks and balances; have multiple people double-check the work and come up with their own conclusions, then compare results.
You don't have to have a degree in data science to understand the basics of SEO campaign tracking. But all of us are vulnerable to basic mistakes that can make our interpretations worthless. Acknowledging that fallibility, and incorporating better practices to prevent these mistakes from happening, is necessary if you want your campaign to be a success long term.
11 Responses to 7 Tracking Mistakes That Can Wreck Your SEO Campaign
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Excellent article! Would be interesting to look at the ROI from an affiliate marketer perspective. Since the conversions and sales happen ultimately a few steps away from the affiliate marketer's site.
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Last Wednesday a female driver in Zoucheng, Shandong province, accelerated straight into a pedestrian, sending the victim onto the car's windshield for over 200 meters until the driver collided with another car and came to a stop. Somehow, that might not even be the most disturbing part of this incident. Afterward the woman was caught on video dancing in the street, while the victim's body lay motionless nearby.
Unfortunately, the pedestrian died shortly after being rushed to the hospital for treatment. Police have detained the female driver. They did not give a reason for the woman's driving and dancing, but did note that she was not drunk at the time.
Watch the video below:
In the latter part of the video, reporters are seen interviewing locals about the incident. The residents talk about fast and carelessly the woman was driving and how far the car took the pedestrian. The video was first posted on social media by The Paper on Sunday. On Weibo, some netizens have concluded that the driver suffers from some mental disorder. While others think that she is merely faking it to receive a lighter sentence in court.
[Images via Weibo // Video via People's Daily]


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July 12, 2012: The Day ISPs Start Spying On Customers
15 March 2012 – Technology
July 12, 2012: The Day ISPs Start Spying On Customers
By David K. Sutton
If you are in the habit of downloading copyrighted media, including software, music and videos, be warned that beginning on Thursday July 12th your ISP will start spying on your activity. The Raw Story reports, "That's the date when the nation's largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users' bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials."
Of course the usual suspects are behind this plan including the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA). The plan is backed by all major ISPs (Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, AT&T) and has the support of the Obama administration.
Penalties for offenders can include reduced bandwidth, access reduced to a limited number of websites, and complete internet service cut-off. ISPs can require customers to attend "an education course" if they want service restored. And of course offenders can be charged with copyright infringement by the studios.
A CNET News article quotes RIAA CEO Cary Sherman, "Each ISP has to develop their infrastructure for automating the system." Sherman said ISPs are developing systems to keep track of repeat infringers which will allow them to send "first notice or the third notice." CNET reports that ISPs will use a "graduated response" approach. This approach requires ISPs to "send out one or two educational notices to customers accused of downloading copyrighted content illegally. If the customer doesn't stop, the ISP is then asked to send out 'confirmation notices' asking that they confirm they have received notice." If accused customers continue to pirate material the ISP can then begin to impose the before mentioned restrictions.


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With 80% of Scottish environmental protections stemming from EU legislation, the EU's positive impact on our natural environment is unquestionable. Through EU membership, Scotland has not only been able to better protect our natural environment, but also develop world-leading policies setting the bar across Europe and beyond.
This, however, does not change the fact that, as rich and diverse as our wildlife is, it is also under increasing pressure from pollution, loss of habitat and climate change. Today, 1 in 9 species in Scotland is at risk of extinction.
The UK's exit from the EU endangers our ability to continue protecting and enhancing our environment at a critical time for nature and climate.
This is why environmental NGOs from across Scotland are calling on Scottish Government to protect our environment now and in the future.
Scottish Government needs to introduce a Scottish Environment Act that will:
Embed much needed EU environmental law principles in Scots law
There are four key principles that have guided EU policy-making on the environment. As a result of EU membership, these EU environmental principles can be applied by courts, businesses and governments in their decision-making. They form an essential component of environmental law.
Scotland's environment has been shaped by these principles, from GMOs and fracking to the introduction of a deposit return scheme and measures to tackle climate change.
These principles need to continue forming the basis of Scotland's environment policy in the future and to do that they need to be legally binding.
Create an independent and well – resourced watchdog to enforce environmental protections
Environmental protections are only as strong as the mechanisms that ensure they are upheld.
Leaving the EU means Scotland and the rest of the UK will lose the oversight and enforcement roles of the European Commission, European Court of Justice and other EU bodies.
These institutions have performed key functions from reviewing, monitoring and reporting on the state of the environment to investigating potential breaches of environmental standards, ensuring enforcement and applying sanctions in cases of noncompliance. They have played an invaluable role in giving a voice to the public on environmental matters and holding governments to account.
Set clear targets for environmental protection alongside adequate financial resources.
We need to stop and reverse the loss of our natural environment. Experience shows that legally binding targets provide a clear direction for government and stakeholders such as businesses and other operators.
We need to build on the Scottish Government's commitment to bring forward the first Scottish Environment Strategy and ensure that its provisions are legally binding through a Scottish Environment Act.