text:
New York: Bill Gates and Kofi Annan are among several prominent businessmen and humanitarians asking a US judge to show fairness when he sentences former Goldman Sachs Group Inc board member Rajat Gupta for his insider trading conviction later in October.
Gupta, 63, the most influential and best-known corporate figure to be caught in a broad insider trading crackdown of the last four years, moved in elite business and philanthropic circles for decades. He is also a former head of the McKinsey & Co management consultancy.
A jury convicted Gupta in June of tipping his friend and business associate, Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, about Goldman's boardroom secrets during the financial crisis. He was found not guilty of divulging the quarterly earnings in January 2009 of Procter & Gamble Co, where he also served as a board member.
Microsoft Corp co-founder Gates, in one letter among about 200 written to US District Judge Jed Rakoff, wrote that he wanted to help "round out Rajat's profile as you consider the appropriate sentence for him."
Gates worked with Gupta when Gupta was chair of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Gates wrote that "many millions of people are leading better lives - or are alive at all - thanks to the efforts he so ably supported."
The judge released the letters on Friday night ahead of the October 24 sentencing in Manhattan federal court at the request of a reporter from the Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors and Gupta's lawyers gave their consent, the judge said.
The letters came from company heads, academics, friends and family, including his wife and four adult daughters.
Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his letter, said: "I urge you to recognize Rajat for the good he has done in the world, to give him the credit that he deserves for helping others and to take into account his efforts to improve the lives of millions of people."
One of the themes running through many of the letters was that not enough of Gupta's humanitarian work came out at his trial. The judge had puts limits on what the jury could hear about Gupta's philanthropy.
His wife, Anita Gupta, wrote, "I know I have to accept the decision of the jury but I cannot but feel that who my husband is and what he stands for did not fully come out at the trial."
The maximum sentence for securities fraud is 20 years and the maximum sentence for conspiracy is five years, although it seems unlikely that Gupta would receive such a heavy punishment following his conviction on those charges.
Rajaratnam was convicted of 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy last year and is serving an 11-year prison term.
Gupta, who lives in Westport, Connecticut, is also a former director at American Airlines Corp and had ties to a prominent business school in his native India.
Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein was a star government witness at the trial, where some of the evidence was based on wiretaps of phone conversations between Gupta and Rajaratnam. All of the counts Gupta was convicted of involved tips and trades in Goldman stock in September and October 2008, including passing inside information on a crucial $5 billion investment by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Ajit Jain, an executive at Berkshire who testified by video at the trial, wrote to the judge that in his many years knowing Gupta socially, "he customarily chided me to become more active in philanthropic causes." Jain said Gupta had already "paid a terrible price" with the disgrace and loss of financial security that came with the conviction.
"I suspect that there are more meaningfully redemptive possibilities for Rajat than a substantial period of incarceration," Jain wrote.
The case is USA v Gupta, US District Court for the Southern District of New York, No 11-907.(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)


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Talkin' About Revolution: 6 Reasons Why the Two-Party System May Become Obsolete
"A revolution is brewing." That was the first sentence spoken to me at a "No Labels" organizing session Sunday in New York City, and it struck a chord for two reasons.
First, No Labels is known as a well-intentioned but ineffectual centrist group launched two years ago to a collective shrug from cynical politicos. A No Labels convention might be the last place you'd expect to hear talk of a revolution.
Second, I agree that a revolution is brewing: a non-violent public upheaval that forces change from within the two-party structure or usurps it.
Before I explain, let's deal with No Labels.
Two years ago, a group of high-powered political activists from both parties formed No Labels to encourage centrist problem-solving in an era of ideological gridlock. Mocked as naive and patronizing, the "Kumbaya Caucus" lacked a clear agenda and grassroots support.
With new leadership and focus, the group opened a two-day conference Sunday with a refined mission: Drop the centrist label, work with frustrated voters of all political stripes, and pressure politicians in Washington to work better together while fixing the nation's problems.
Addressing more than 400 activists who traveled to New York at their own expense, No Labels cofounder Mark McKinnon said, "You may be a Democrat. You may be a Republican. You may a Libertarian. You may be anywhere on the political spectrum, but almost to a person you share an enormous frustration with the political system."
No Labels' modest reform agenda includes "No Budget, No Pay" (barring lawmakers from receiving a salary without passing a federal budget) and requiring the president to submit regularly to "question time" with Congress, like British government ministers do for parliament.
A congressional "Problem Solvers' Group" made up of 12 Republicans and 13 Democrats is committed to the No Labels agenda.
There is nothing earth-shattering about No Labels. The group may never shake its squishy image. It may not change Washington an iota. If you hooked them up to lie detectors, the leaders of No Labels wouldn't guarantee that their group is the catalyst for change. But something, or somebody, will be: No Labels' very existence and steady growth is nothing less than a symptom of the public's frustration with the U.S. political system. It's a warning bell that Washington ought to heed.
"There's a revolution brewing," said former Rep. Mickey Edwards, R-Okla., a No Labels leader. "People are getting tired of a party system that turn Congress into the NFL -- one team against another. They're going to do something about it."
McKinnon, a longtime adviser to George W. Bush, conceded that No Labels may not be the answer to the problem in politics but it is "manifestation and evidence that people are hungry for change."
That leads to the reasons why I suspect we're on the brink of a major political realignment.
1. Americans are disconnected and frustrated with politics unlike virtually any time in the history of polling.
2. The country is in the midst of a wrenching economic shift from the industrial era to an info-tech economy. The transition coincides with unsettling social change. The nation's institutions, especially government, are not adapting.
3. History suggests that periods of socioeconomic change in the U.S. lead to political upheaval, including transformation of existing parties and the rise of new ones.
4. Technology gives consumers enormous purchasing power, which has been used to democratize commerce and other institutions. One example: In a few short years, Americans gained the ability to ignore an artist's album and buy only a favorite one or two songs. The music business was radically changed by we, the people. So why would Americans be expected to settle for the status quo in politics?
5. The parties are weakened. For a variety of reasons, the Democratic and Republican structures no longer have a monopoly on the ability to raise money, broadcast messages, and organize activists.
6. The nation faces existential problems including climate change, debt, income inequality and the decline in social mobility.
One of two things is likely to happen: The existing parties will dramatically adapt to the times (a demographically challenged GOP has the farthest to go), or voters will demand and get alternatives. An independent presidential bid is increasingly likely. The rise of new parties is not out of the question.
It is, of course, just a theory. My list has at least one obvious omission: A leader who is suited to the times. All of this will be a focus of my reporting and writing leading up to the 2014 and 2016 election, starting with a magazine feature in the works. Please share your insights at email@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Terroristen …
Found myself in the middle of a demo on Saturday night. Couldn't figure out exactly what they were up and on against — I think it's the usual anti-establishment (Spreeufer, …) and pro open spaces/speech etc. kind of thing.
Lots of people though and despite their sometimes very individual outfits they all looked pretty friendly and I would have been more afraid to get in between "Anti-Konflikt-Team" and the rest of the police in heavy gear — who looked like "Konflikt-Team". ;-)
Always good to see people excersing their right for free speech and taking part in this thing called democracy.


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- This event has passed.
Stories that no one covered from the weekend!
Jun 27, 2022 @ 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm PDT
All those stories released from Friday to Sunday the press hoped no one would cover.
New Hampshire conservative independent writer and activist, Kimberly Morin joins Joe to discuss today's political issues from a "New England" viewpoint.
AND as always, we'll be covering current events, including those weird news items that you may not have heard or read in the mainstream media accounts. Be sure to tune in!


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It used to be that a smart, motivated young person could work hard, earn a doctorate, do a good job as a junior professor, and live happily ever after as a tenured professor.
It also used to be that a smart young person could work hard, get into a good college, and expect to be taught with passion and enthusiasm by a corps of dedicated professors.
Despite the ever-increasing cost of college tuition, neither of these expectations holds water any more.
Academia, as a profession and as a social landscape, is deeply troubled right now, in ways that are profoundly connected to wider social and economic problems in our society.
In today's New York Times, pundit David Brooks suggests that colleges need to do more to ensure that their high sticker price is delivering measurable value. However, his solution—standardized exit testing of college seniors—shows how out of touch he is with the real issues and problems facing academia today.
At a recent high-level conference hosted by Lafayette College, ponderously titled "The Future of the Liberal Arts College in America and its Leadership in Education Around the World," "Lafayette President Daniel H. Weiss laid out four major challenges facing liberal arts colleges — affordability, public skepticism about the value of a liberal arts degree and college in general, decline in the share of U.S population who fit the demographic patterns of students who traditionally attend liberal arts colleges, and questions about how to incorporate technology into the college and serve a generation of students that is increasingly networked."
At small liberal arts colleges like Bard College at Simon's Rock, where I teach, we pride ourselves on a low student-faculty ratio. At Simon's Rock the ratio is only 9 students to each professor. But of course that's a big part of why our tuition is so high, to pay for the one-on-one, intensive engagement with each student.
From the perspective of college presidents and administrators trying to make ends meet, this educational model may not be sustainable.
Certainly that was the case at the University at Albany, SUNY, where I taught for nine years in an interdisciplinary first-year seminar program designed to "give a small college experience in the big university." The program, which had just received an enthusiastic external review that trumpeted its successes in retention and learning outcomes for the roughly 800 students we served each year, was axed in 2011.
Now those 800 students are sitting in the big lecture halls with 500 others at a time—or, just as likely, not bothering to go to class at all. It was a common complaint among my SUNY students that the professor wouldn't know or care if you showed up or not—all it took to pass the course was cramming for the exam with the textbook.
Given this scenario, it's not surprising that more and more of our large universities are shifting to distance learning. Why go through the trouble of housing thousands of undergraduates, when you can deliver the lecture and the exam to them in their own bedrooms at home?
There is truth to this, and I have no doubt that networked, globalized distance learning is going to be the standard form of higher education delivery in the years to come. It's already happening incredibly fast, and even small liberal arts colleges need to be thinking about how to jump on that train before they miss it entirely.
As someone who teaches media studies, with a special interest in new media, I am in many ways delighted and intrigued by the potential of distance learning in higher education. I have even been trying to persuade the administrators at my college to give it a try.
While it is never going to be the same as the old-fashioned model of nine students sitting around a seminar table with a professor, with current video capabilities it can come pretty close, as anyone who has tried a Google "hang-out" can attest.
And wouldn't it be exciting to "hang out" in a seminar classroom with students from around the world? We higher ed folks like to trumpet the value of diversity and international education—well, distance learning provides the platform to make the dream of a truly diverse and globalized classroom a reality.
However, there is a catch, and it is the same catch that has dogged other American industries as they have leaped on to the globalization bandwagon.
U.S. higher ed is already troubled from within by the shift from stable, tenured fulltime faculty to legions of roving part-time adjunct faculty. With distance learning, the adjunct model gains even more steam, and goes global.
Why not outsource that first year Calculus course to a professor in India, who will teach 1,000 students for a fraction of what even an adjunct in the U.S. would earn?
Welcome to the knowledge sweatshop of the future.
According to the Inside Higher Ed article on the Lafayette conference, "Williams College President Adam F. Falk argued that the principal reason for adopting technological innovation should be for educational improvement, not just productivity gains. 'College education isn't simply about most efficient or innovative means of delivering content,' he said, arguing that the engagement component of what colleges like his do was over all more important. 'It's hard for even the best students to learn on their own.' Falk's presentation was warmly received by the crowd."
But Williams College is one of the richest liberal arts colleges in the nation, with an endowment of nearly $2 billion even after the economic downturn of 2008.
The social stratification that is affecting every aspect of American society is no less marked in higher education.
In the near future, we will be looking at an academic landscape where there will be a few highly paid tenured research professors and a vast majority of poorly paid adjunct professors all over the world, working mostly from their home offices via distance learning networks. While there will always be a few lucky students who will be able to gain access to ivied classrooms through scholarships, those classrooms will increasingly be reserved for the children of the super-elites of the world. Ordinary kids who have the motivation and discipline to go to college will do it from home, a financial decision their parents will have no choice but to support.
Distance learning is often lauded as a way to level the playing field, since it makes higher education accessible to kids who would not otherwise be able to go to college.
This may be so. But it is also going to be yet another way to divide our society into Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons—in other words, to harden the de facto caste walls that are already making the old rags-to-riches, pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps American dream a quaint memory.


text:
Ofcom interrupted their busy schedule ( In re: Sportxxxgirls was the next case on the docket) to consider a complaint by Sir David King, former U.K. Chief Scientist that the programme had broadcast a statement which exaggerated claims he had made in the past regarding the Antarctic, and attributed to him a statement about "breeding couples" which he had never made. http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/prog_cb/obb114/
David King's complaint (as well as similar complaints by IPCC and Carl Wunsch) were considered under Practice 7.11 which states:
"If a programme alleges wrongdoing or incompetence or makes other significant allegations, those concerned should normally be given an appropriate and timely opportunity to respond."
We are not taking here about misrepresentations (section 2.2) or due impartiality (section 5), but the right of criticized parties to be offered an "appropriate and timely opportunity to respond".
King's complaint pertained to a statement by Fred Singer at the end of Swindle:
"There will still be people who believe that this is the end of the world – particularly when you have, for example, the chief scientist of the UK telling people that by the end of the century the only habitable place on the earth will be the Antarctic. And humanity may survive thanks to some breeding couples who moved to the Antarctic. I mean this is hilarious. It would be hilarious actually if it weren't so sad"
Ofcom carefully considered whether Singer's statement amounted to an allegation of "incompetence" or something similar, giving rise to a requirement to provide King with a timely opportunity to respond. Here they considered the allegation in two parts: (1) the "only habitable" place comment (King admitted that he had said that it would be the "most habitable place on earth") and (2) the "breeding couples" comment (perhaps Ofcom was thinking ahead to the Sportxxxgirls case.)
The "Only Habitable Place"
Ofcom stated that King's complaint referred only to his original testimony to the House of Commons Select Committee on April 24, 2004 in which he had stated:
"Fifty-five million years ago was a time when there was no ice on the earth; the Antarctic was the most habitable place for mammals, because it was the coolest place, and the rest of the earth was rather inhabitable because it was so hot. It is estimated that it [the carbon dioxide level] was roughly 1,000 parts per million then, and the important thing is that if we carry on business as usual we will hit 1,000 parts per million around the end of the century."
He complained that the programme had exaggerated his speech by replacing "most habitable" with "the only habitable".
Channel 4 observed that on April 27, 2004, Sir David gave a speech to Tony Blair's Climate Group launch, in which he was reported in U.K. newspapers as using the phrase "only uninhabitable continent". The following quotes were introduced by Channel 4 and noted in the Ofcom decision:
"Antarctica is likely to be the world's only habitable continent by the end of this century if global warming remains unchecked, the government's chief scientist, Professor Sir David King said last week. He said the Earth was entering the 'first hot period' for 60 million years when there was no ice on the plane and "the rest of the globe could not sustain human life".
(The Independent on Sunday, 2 May 2004)
Sir David replied that he had used the following phrase no both speeches:
"55 million years ago the Antarctic was the most habitable place for mammals."
Channel 4 observed that "there was no evidence to suggest that Sir David had been quoted inaccurately as in the three years since the first report in 2004 there was no attempt to correct or challenged them."
In response, Sir David:
Sir David maintained the programme had clearly presented a distortion of his views. Sir David said that he did not say or imply that the Antarctic was ever the ONLY habitable place for mammals, still less was he making a prediction that it would be the only or even the most, habitable place for mammals if CO2 concentrations reached similar concentrations in the future.
Didn't I warn you that it would seem like a Monty Python episode (and we're only halfway so far.)
The issue even recurred on Australian TV in fall 2007 (after the airing of Swindle), where Sir David was asked on Australian TV:
I think you said this in 2004, at least it suggested you did, that there might be a stage when the only inhabitable place on Earth will be Antarctica – do you remember saying that?
and said that he had been "misquoted many, many times" and said that he had merely recommended investments in Antarctic real estate:
I certainly didn't say that, I've been totally misquoted many, many times; always pleased to have the opportunity to correct the statement I made. What I did say was that if you go back 55 million years, it's in the palæological record that Antarctica was a tropical forest and at that point in time, if you wanted to have some real estate, and these were my words, you would want it in Antarctica because the rest of the world was pretty damned hot. So that has been extrapolated to me saying that if we keep going in this way there will only be people left living in Antarctica.
"Fifty-five million years ago was a time when there was no ice on the earth; the Antarctic was the most habitable place for mammals, because it was the coolest place, and the rest of the earth was rather inhabitable because it was so hot. It is estimated that it [the carbon dioxide level] was roughly 1,000 parts per million then, and the important thing is that if we carry on business as usual we will hit 1,000 parts per million around the end of the century."
Back to Ofcom. The Committee duly noted the two sides of the story as follows:
The Committee noted that Professor Singer had attributed to Sir David the words "only habitable", which Sir David said was incorrect as his original statements had used the words "most habitable". The Committee also noted that contemporaneous, unchallenged reports, of Sir David's comments, had referred to "only habitable".
In the end, after all this careful consideration, they didn't actually refer to this matter in their decision, only referring to the "breeding couples" issue, to which we now turn.
"Breeding Couples"
Sir David's complaint stated that his original statement made no reference to the survival of humanity depending on "breeding couples who moved to the Antarctic".
Channel 4 replied that Singer, in fact, was referring to reported quotes of two different scientists: King and Sir James Lovelock, another prominent scientist who had stated:
"Before this century is over, billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable." (The Independent, 16 January 2006)
Channel 4 argued that Singer did not specifically attribute the "breeding couples" quote to King, and, in any event, the quote would hardly result in unfairness to King given that
the complainant was on record as stating that Antarctica could be the "only habitable place on earth" and "the rest of the globe could not sustain human life", it was therefore not unfair for the programme to suggest that Sir David was also of the view
that humanity may only survive due to breeding couples in the Antarctic. Channel 4 said Sir James Lovelock's statement was a natural conclusion to be drawn from Sir David's reported statement, and in essence the two statements said the same thing.
Even if Singer had conflated the views of King and Lovelock, they observed that "neither Channel 4 nor the programme makers were aware at the time of broadcast that Professor Singer had conflated two quotes from these eminent scientists."
Ofcom carefully assessed the to-and-fro concluding as follows:
The Committee noted that, in recounting Sir David's views on the dangers of global warming, Professor Singer had incorrectly attributed to Sir David a comment by the scientist Professor Lovelock regarding "breeding couples". In relation to this Channel 4 had stated that "neither Channel 4 nor the programme makers were aware at the time of broadcast that Professor Singer had conflated [these] two quotes".
In the Committee's view, Professor Singer's comment amounted to a significant allegation which called into question Sir David's scientific views and his credibility as a scientist. In accordance with Practice 7.11 therefore, Sir David should have been offered an appropriate and timely opportunity to respond. The programme makers did not provide such an opportunity to the complainant. In the circumstances the Committee found that the failure to give Sir David King an appropriate and timely opportunity to respond to the comment made by Professor Singer resulted in unfairness to the complainant in the programme as broadcast.
David King on Breeding Couples
|Since the alleged unfairness relates to the representation of David King's view on breeding couples, I think that we should consider views on this topic that he has previously expressed.Last year, King opined that, in order to cure global warming, hot young girls:
The right panel shows Jenni Dahlman, a former Miss Scandinavia, with Finnish race car driver, Kimi Raikonnen. This would presumably represent that the type of liaison that must be sacrificed if we are to cure global warming.
Instead of dashing young race car drivers, let's try to get envisage a world in which the hot car babes were attracted to men who lived "more environmentally friendly lives" – a world that would look more like the one shown below:
Clearly the appropriate mea culpa would be for Channel 4 to dryly apologize for holding the Chief Scientist up to ridicule by incorrectly attributing to him Lovelock's view that humanity would survive through Antarctic breeding couples, when they should properly said that his views on breeding were that hot girls who find "supercar drivers "sexy", … should divert their affections to men who live more environmentally-friendly lives."


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• ¾ cup heavy cream
• 2 2-gram gelatin sheets
• 3 oz. white chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 T instant-coffee powder, like Folgers
• ½ cup whole milk
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup coffee liqueur
• 4 hazelnut biscotti, crushed (8 T)
Using a whisk or a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream on medium-high until soft peaks form. Refrigerate until ready to use. Soften the gelatin sheets in a small bowl of cold water. Lift the sheets from the water and squeeze gently to remove excess moisture. Put the gelatin, chocolate, and coffee powder in a large mixing bowl.
Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the yolks and ¼ cup sugar until the mixture thickens slightly and turns pale. Continue to whisk the egg mixture and gradually beat in half of the hot milk. Beat until the ingredients are well combined, then pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens just enough to coat the back of the spoon, about 1 minute. Pour the custard over the chocolate, gelatin, and coffee, and stir until the chocolate and gelatin have melted and the mixture is smooth. Using a spatula, fold in the whipped cream.
In a small bowl, combine the coffee liqueur with the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Divide the biscotti crumbs among four 8- to 10-ounce glasses, then pour a little of the coffee liqueur into each glass. Spoon the coffee mousse on top. This dessert can be assembled up to 2 hours in advance; it's best kept refrigerated. Makes 4 servings.


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Koch announces $56 million commitment to Quincy Center project
A prominent Chicago-based real estate investment firm has committed about half the equity needed to fund the first stage of construction in the $1.6 billion downtown redevelopment plan.
LaSalle Investment Management is putting up $56 million for Merchants Row, an office, retail and residential construction project on the 1400 block of Hancock Street.
The $56 million allows Quincy Center master developer Beal/Street-Works to begin construction on Merchants Row before obtaining the rest of the funding from construction lenders.
Mayor Thomas Koch announced the equity deal Monday night in his mid-term address.
"This commitment by LaSalle is another essential step forward," Koch said, "and yet another example of the broad national and international interest in Quincy Center's future."
LaSalle manages $47 billion of property assets around the world for a client base that includes pension funds, insurance companies, governments and endowments.
LaSalle's parent company, Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., is the leasing agent for office and medical office space in the new Quincy Center.
Merchants Row includes a 15-story apartment building at the corner of Cottage Avenue and Chestnut Street and new offices and apartments along Hancock Street.
Construction is expected to begin next month.
Dennis Harrington, Quincy's planning director, called LaSalle's $56 million commitment a "huge investment."
"Very few projects are funded at 50 percent equity," he said. "It's quite the initial foray."
Harrington said the commitment allows construction to begin while Beal/Street-Works works out the remaining financing with banks, a process that can be involved and drawn-out because it will likely involve several lenders coming together.
Beal/Street-Works' entire Quincy Center plan calls for 3.5 million square feet of development to be completed by 2020.
The project includes some $289 million in improvements to public property like utilities and streets.
The city will buy those improvements from Beal/Street-Works once the project is demonstrably generating enough new tax revenue to more than cover the city's bond financing costs.
Koch also announced Monday that the city will soon present a formal plan to rehabilitate the Quincy Center MBTA station.
Like the downtown redevelopment, the station renovation will be done with a private sector partner.
The city has hired consultants to study the station, including its 40-year-old, 872-space parking garage, which the MBTA abruptly closed in July over concerns about its structural integrity.
READ MORE about Quincy Center development.
Reach Jack Encarnacao at email@example.com.


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Blum Blum Shub
August 18, 2009
A stream cipher takes its input one plaintext character at a time, producing the corresponding ciphertext character before it moves on to the next plaintext character. An easy way to do this is to seed a pseudo-random number generator and xor its output with the stream of plaintext characters; because of the xor, decryption is the exact same operation as encryption. The pseudo-random number generator must be crypographically secure; such common pseudo-random number generators as linear congruential, lagged fibonacci, and mersenne twister all fail due to serial correlation between successive values.
A simple pseudo-random number generator that is cryptographically secure is known as Blum Blum Shub, after its three inventors. Successive values are computed as the least-significant bit (or bits) of the number xk = xk-12 (mod n). The parameter n is the product of two large primes p and q, each congruent to 3 modulo 4. The initial value x0 is calculated as s2 (mod n), where s is the seed, which must be coprime to n.
Your task is to write a function that enciphers and deciphers a stream of characters as described above. When you are finished, you are welcome to read or run a suggested solution, or to post your solution or discuss the exercise in the comments below.
10 Responses to "Blum Blum Shub"
August 18, 2009 at 1:23 PM
[…] Praxis – Blum Blum Shub By Remco Niemeijer In today's Programming Praxis problem we have to implement a stream cipher based on the Blum Blum Shub method. […]
August 18, 2009 at 5:12 PM
def blum_blum_shub(n, s):
while True:
s = s**2 % n
yield int(s % 256)
def encypher(n, s, text):
bbs = blum_blum_shub(n, s)
return [ord(c)^bbs.next() for c in text]
def decypher (n, s, lst):
bbs = blum_blum_shub(n, s)
return ".join([chr(i^bbs.next()) for i in lst])
decypher(974153, 17, encypher (974153, 17, "PROGRAMMING PRAXIS"))
August 23, 2009 at 12:24 AM
[…] that I would get into clojure for some time, and i finally got around to doing a programming praxis exercise in clojure. Basically, it consists of creating a sequence of pseudo-random numbers, and […]
June 1, 2011 at 8:44 PM
Late to the party, but here we go:
#!/usr/bin/env python def bbs_gen(n, seed): """Blum Blum Shub PRNG""" x = pow(seed, 2, n) while True: yield x % 256 x = pow(x, 2, n) def xor_cipher(text, n, seed): """Uses Blum Blum Shub generator to en/decipher text via XOR""" bbs = bbs_gen(n, seed) return ''.join(chr(x) for x in (ord(t) ^ next(bbs) for t in text)) if __name__ == "__main__": P, Q, S = 983, 991, 17 PLAIN = "PROGRAMMING PRAXIS" CIPHER = xor_cipher(PLAIN, P * Q, S) print CIPHER print xor_cipher(CIPHER, P * Q, S)
January 9, 2015 at 9:00 AM
[…] a hardware guy I suggest the Blum-Blum-Shub cryptographically-secure random number generator of a previous exercise. The second is a way to convert bits to letters. The method we choose is to take 26 consecutive […]
July 7, 2017 at 9:01 AM
[…] built several random number generators: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9] (I didn't realize it was so many until I went back […]
December 15, 2021 at 10:30 PM
https://socialkeko.com/ymadlihoff keylkassa garban 4b1f4b8a67


text:
LOS ANGELES (AP) – In a move that heightens the growing tension between Silicon Valley and Hollywood, Wikipedia and other websites went dark Wednesday in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programs.
The web-based encyclopedia is part of a loose coalition of dot-coms and large technology companies that fear Congress is prepared to side with Hollywood and enact extreme measures – possibly including the blocking of entire websites- to stop the online sharing and unauthorized use of Hollywood productions.
The fight will test which California-based industry has the most sway in Washington.
For now, Silicon Valley appears to have the upper hand. Supporters of the legislation – called the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act in the Senate – say the bills are aimed at protecting jobs in the movie and music industries. But a campaign including tech heavyweights such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. has successfully portrayed the bills as an attack on a free and open Internet.
"It has nothing to do with stolen songs or movies," said Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org, which is participating in the blackout. Ruben says tougher legislation – even directed overseas – could make domestic cultural commentators more prone to legal attack.
Rather than showing encyclopedia articles, Wikipedia displayed a blacked-out page describing the protest and offering more information on the bills. Many articles were still viewable on cached pages.
Reddit.com shut down its social news service for 12 hours. Other sites made their views clear without cutting off services. Google blacked out the logo on its home page, directing people to a page where they could add their names to a petition.
The one-day outage was timed to coincide with key House and Senate committee hearings as they prepare to send the bills to the full floor for debate.
However, sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, sought last week to remove a controversial provision from the House bill that could force Internet service providers to interfere with the way Web addresses work for foreign sites deemed dedicated to piracy. He postponed work on the measure until February.
Critics believe such tinkering with core Internet technology treads into dangerous territory that could lead to online censorship. It might also give hackers a new way to wreak havoc.
The White House raised concerns that the bills could stifle innovation. Over the weekend, the Obama administration reacted to two online petitions, saying it "will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet."
At the same time, the administration called on all sides to "pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders."
That nuanced stance is President Barack Obama's attempt at "threading the needle" between two important constituencies as he seeks re-election in November, said Jeffrey Silva, a technology policy analyst at Medley Global Advisors in Washington.
On the one hand, his administration has defended a free, open Internet as it watched repressive regimes fall in the Middle East with help from social media such as Twitter. It has also been a proponent of the concept of "net neutrality," which prevents Internet service providers from slowing online traffic that comes from file-sharing sites known to trade in pirated content.
On the other hand, Obama and other Democrats have gone to Hollywood dozens of times to raise campaign funds over the years.
"The administration is trying to fight to protect the Internet space," Silva said. "But at the same time, it doesn't want to disenfranchise Hollywood and the business community."
Indeed, behind the protests and public posturing, both Hollywood and Silicon Valley spend generously to lobby causes in Washington. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the movie, television and music industries spent a combined $91.7 million on lobbying efforts in 2011, compared with the computer and Internet industry's $93 million.
In the 2012 election cycle, the movie, television and music industry offered up $7.7 million in direct campaign contributions to congressional candidates. The computer and Internet industry contributed $6.6 million.
Despite the uproar on websites and blogs, PIPA remains firmly in play. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said Tuesday that he intends to push the bill toward a floor vote on Jan. 24. He said much of the criticism of the bill is "flatly wrong."
But amid the high-tech campaign against the bills, several lawmakers came out in opposition. At least three Senate Republicans who had previously cosponsored the Senate bill – Orrin Hatch of Utah, Roy Blunt of Missouri and John Boozman of Arkansas – issued statements Wednesday saying they were withdrawing their support.
It remains to be seen whether the two industries can come to the table and negotiate a compromise.
"There are good companies, and then there are companies simply out to preserve the Wild West, free-to-steal business model," said Recording Industry Association of America CEO Cary Sherman. He expects to know "within the next few weeks" whether the legislation can survive.
Lawmakers may have a personal incentive to keep online piracy on the nation's political radar, said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a non-partisan government-accountability watchdog. If the issue stays alive through the current election cycle, it may help bring in campaign contributions from high-tech donors and Hollywood later this year.
The issue "becomes an opportunity for raising more money from these groups," Wertheimer said. "If you're into an important issue and money is flowing in on both sides, then both sides can up the ante."
Congressional reporter Jim Abrams contributed to this report from Washington.


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Theology has come under attack.
Having lost their way, many would-be theologians have resigned themselves to pursuing two other projects:
- Dogma – a life of trying to prove the unprovable through propositional statements of faith
- Piety – a shunning of Christian ideas and images in favor of simply trying to "live the Christian faith."
Although many have tried and tried, neither course has shown the capacity to bring together the Body of Christ.
In this digital monograph, Theology Is Art, I contend that for theology to fulfill its true purpose and potential it must be understood as an art form. Not law. Not science. Art.
Law wants to limit and lock down. Science wants to define and demarcate. Art wants to suggest and set free.
Synthesizing the contributions of the great philosopher of art, Susanne Langer, and the "father of modern theology", Friedrich Schleiermacher, Theology Is Art asserts that theology is best understood as humanity's "creation of forms symbolic of human feelings which result from an encounter with God."
As of today, I am making this ebook free for you to own and pass along.
If you want, please pass your copy along to an artist who has explored the things of God as a way to tell them "Thank you."
Thank you for showing us worlds we had never seen before.
Thank you for reminding us of things we didn't know we had forgotten.
Thank you for helping us get out of our own little isolated worlds and connect with others.
Thank you.
You can download your free copy below. However, if you don't like reading long form writing on your computer screen, or don't want to bother transferring a copy to your Kindle or Nook yourself, you can get a copy directly from Amazon or B&N for only $0.99 (Amazon Kindle store, B&N.com).


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Andrew Lau and Andy Mak's 2002 Infernal Affairs has a scenario so excellent it's amazing it didn't appear until movies entered their second century (and readers are invited to let me know if it had): A powerful mob boss grooms a follower from childhood to join the police even as the police plant an undercover agent within the boss's crime family. Each organization realizes that it has been infiltrated, but it's not until the movie approaches its climax and after each mole has been enjoined to, in effect, find himself that the deeply buried parallel informants figure out each other's identity.
Its key dramatic roles assumed mainly by cell phones, Infernal Affairs is one of those rare movies in which the premise is the star; Scorsese, however, has necessarily packed his remake with names. Matt Damon plays the rogue cop (Andy Lau's role in the original), with Leonardo DiCaprio as his undercover counterpart (embodied with soulful vulnerability by Tony Leung). Towering over both youngsters, Jack Nicholson has the meaty and here vastly inflated role of the patriarchal crime boss. Eric Tsang stole Infernal Affairs with his high-spirited moonfaced malevolence; Nicholson is handed the keys to the kingdom in his first scene.
The Departed is a wildly commercial project, but let no one imagine it a work for hire. The opening burst of rock 'n' roll mayhem flashback street fight scored to the Rolling Stones is instant Scorsese. Transposing the action to the mean streets of South Boston, the filmmaker gets to refresh his stock in trade: The foul-mouthed protagonists are cops rather than wiseguys and, as the gangsters are Irish, the colorful ethnic invective can encompass Italians. The Deuce is here the Combat Zone; the resident, porn-haunted madman is a crime boss; the John Ford movie that's quoted isn't The Searchers but, inevitably, The Informer (it's shown on TV). Catholic guilt, however, is a constant.
Infernal Affairs was surprisingly cool and effectively restrained for HK action, but Scorsese raises the temperature with every ultra-violent interaction. The surplus of belligerence and slur reach near-Tarantinian levels appropriate as he's staking a claim to QT's turf. Screenwriter William Monahan (responsible for last year's Ridley Scott crusades spectacle Kingdom of Heaven) provides some choice insults: "Hey, go save a kitten in a tree, you fuckin' homos," Damon taunts his rivals in a police-fireman football game. No opportunity is missed to call a priest a pederast. (In addition to a flair for the schoolyard bon mot, Monahan's major contribution is combining the spies' two love interests into one very, very nervous shrink played by Vera Farmiga thus creating the possibility for yet another betrayal.)
The film craft which is to say, the camera placement and Thelma Schoonmaker's slambang editing is first rate, at least at first. Running two and a half hours, The Departed is 50 minutes longer than the original; the set pieces are more baroque than suspenseful and the texture overwhelms the premise. (By the time of the not-even-climactic, mondo bloodbath, car-crash shootout, the story's a sodden mess.) Farmiga's role notwithstanding, psychology is primitive: Damon's rogue cop starts to crack under the strain of his charade as DiCaprio's volatile, Valium-gobbling fake mobster grows increasingly anxious. (DiCaprio's character is never sufficiently motivated, but his stolid non-performance is ultimately more affecting than Damon's one-note interpretation). In a movie characterized by broad accents and broader characterizations, Mark Wahlberg has the distinction of delivering the least nuanced, most sympathetic (and funniest) turn, as the mouthiest cop on the force.
Of course, the Damon and DiCaprio characters are supposed to be acting. Not so Nicholson's, but never to be ignored, the star skews crazier and crazier, appearing with stage blood up to his elbows, playing pointless drunk scenes, pulling whimsical rat faces, reprising his satanic role in The Witches of Eastwick after a night at the opera. (For all the sulfur, Ray Winstone is far scarier as the mobster's second in command.) Scorsese has a long history of burdening films with unpleasant and even atrocious central performances, and Nicholson seems bent on twirling the mustache off Daniel Day Lewis's heavy in Gangs of New York a role that really belonged to producer Harvey Weinstein.
Neither a debacle nor a bore, The Departed works but only up to a point, and never emotionally even if the director does contrive to supply his version of a happy ending. "I don't want to be a product of my environment," Nicholson boasts at the onset. "I want my environment to be a product of me." Yeah, yeah, and that's the problem. Overwrought as The Departed may be, it's nothing that wouldn't have been cured by losing Jack (and maybe half an hour). Too bad the bottom line meant Scorsese had to sell that hambone Mephistopheles his soul.


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This project involves using flammable materials to create a miniature hot-air balloon, and because of the danger of fire, the balloon should be ignited and flown only under the supervision of adults and with the appropriate safety precautions including a fire extinguisher. The balloon should be flown only over water.
This type of balloon, made spherical or designed like the regular aeronaut's hot-air balloon, are the best kind to make. Those having an odd or unusual shape will not make good ascensions, and in most cases, the paper will catch fire from the torch and burn before they have flown very far. The following description is for making a tissue-paper balloon about 6 ft. high.
The paper may be selected in several colors. The gores cut from these and pasted in alternately will produce a pretty array of colors when the balloon is in flight. The shape of a good balloon is shown in Fig. 1. The gores for a 6-ft. balloon should be about 8 ft. long or about one-third longer than the height of the balloon. The widest part of each gore is 16 in. The widest place should be 53 1/2 in. from the bottom end, or a little over halfway from the bottom to the top. The bottom of the gore is one-third the width of the widest point. The dimensions and shape of each gore are shown in Fig. 2.
More From Popular Mechanics
The balloon is made up of 13 gores pasted together, using about 1/2-in. lap on the edges. Any good paste will do--one that is made up of a well-cooked mixture of flour and water will serve the purpose. If the gores have been put together correctly, the pointed ends will close up the top entirely and the wider bottom ends will leave an opening about 20 in. in diameter. A light wood hoop having the same diameter as the opening is pasted to the bottom end of the gores. Two cross wires are fastened to the hoop, as shown in Fig. 3. These are to hold the wick ball, Fig. 4, so that it will hang as shown in Fig. 5. The wick ball is made by winding wicking around a wire, with the wire ends bent into hooks as shown.
The balloon is filled with hot air in a manner similar to that used with the ordinary cloth balloon.A small trench or fireplace is made of brick with a chimney over which the mouth of the paper balloon is placed. Use fuel that will make heat with very little smoke. Hold the balloon so it will not catch fire from the flames coming out of the chimney. Have some alcohol ready to pour on the wick ball, saturating it thoroughly. When the balloon is filled with hot air, carry it away from the fireplace, attach the wick ball to the cross wires, and light it under the supervision of an adult.
In starting the balloon on its flight, take care that it leaves the ground as nearly upright as possible.


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Dritz Wash Away Wonder Tape is adouble sided, transparent tape that disappears after the first washing. Can be sewn through with out gumming up your needle. Perfect for holding together seams or hems before stitching. Tape is water soluble so it should be stored in a cool - dry place when not in use. 1/4 inch x 10 yard.


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APT Renovation Design + Build was created from the vision of our Managing Director, Andi Pepaj, who saw a gap in the market for a full-service high-quality, residential renovation and remodelling company. The result is a seamless service which allows us as a full design and build company to provide all services under one roof.
We know that it can be difficult for home owners to find an architect, apply for planning permission and then find a reputable builder. The benefit of our service is that we do all of this for you. We work directly with architects, so you only have to deal with us. We are able to manage everything for you throughout the entire design and build process. Our service can be fully comprehensive, covering everything from your initial design ideas briefing, right through to the completion of your project.
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Unit 6, Zennor Road
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+44-2072236417 www.aptrenovation.co.uk


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McMillan: Dolson thrilled to head to her third Final Four
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Stefanie Dolson was sporting a new champions hat on Monday night, and this weekend she's hoping to rock out a fashionable paisley dress for her visit to the Big Easy.
The University of Connecticut is making trips to the Final Four look easy, too. The Huskies wrapped up their sixth consecutive regional championship on Monday night, rolling to an 83-53 win over Kentucky.
UConn now heads to New Orleans to face either Duke or Notre Dame on Sunday.
"One of the goals was to get to the Final Four and we are so excited to be here,'' said Dolson, wearing a black baseball cap celebrating the Bridgeport Regional championship. "We are glad to be in this position again to play for a national championship.''
Dolson, a Minisink Valley grad, is headed for her third Final Four, and it never gets old.
"Each year it gets more exciting and more rewarding, to get to the Final Four,'' she said. "This team, I love them all. We're really a family and it's an exciting moment for all of us.''
There was concern when Dolson came up hobbled in Saturday's semifinal win over Maryland. She went down in a collision, and was limping for much of her 26 minutes of action. Dolson told reporters on Sunday that she has a stress fracture in one ankle and a painful case of plantar fasciitis in her opposite foot.
"I couldn't let something like that faze me,'' Dolson said.
On Monday evening, Dolson was in her usual starting role at center. She was sporting a brace on her left ankle, but she wasn't wearing the same band under her right knee as she did on Saturday. Dolson showed no ill effects from the season-long pounding, producing two points and 11 rebounds in 24 minutes of action.
"I can't do much on offense with how immobile I am,'' Dolson said, "but one thing I know I can do for my team is rebound. I am going to be as strong and big as I possibly can for them and distribute the ball and rebound for them.''
UConn coach Geno Auriemma took time on Sunday to praise Dolson for her willingness to play through painful injuries.
"That's probably a little bit of a surprise,'' Auriemma said. "I don't know that two years ago Stefanie would have been able to do that. I don't know that she was in the frame of mind mentally or physically to be able to keep her emotions in check and still be able to play.
"There was a game earlier this year at St. John's where she was sick and she didn't play. I remember asking her after the game, 'If that was an NCAA tournament game, would you have played?' I always ask that question because, if the doctors or medical staff tells you you can't play, then you have no control over that. 'Everything else is up to you.' I think as you get older, in our program at least anyway, you tend to make those decisions fairly easily. ... I think we have the kind of program, we have the kind of players that if you leave it up to them, they're going to play. I think Stefanie has grown into that role.''
Dolson is going to work hard on her rehab work and enjoy a couple days off from practice before getting back into the thick of the championship chase once more. In the meantime, she might come up with another team dance in honor of her first trip to New Orleans, and perhaps her first national title.
"This is probably going to be the most fun,'' Dolson said with a huge smile of anticipation. "I can't wait to get there.''


text: MODERATE SURFACE FRICTIONCrafted for controlGamers using low-DPI settings, benefit from moderate resistance to the mouse feet when starting or stopping a rapid movement. Heat-treated at 200° C, the cloth surface of G240 provides just the right amount of friction for low-DPI maneuvers.CONSISTENT SURFACE TEXTUREEdge-to-edge performanceHeavy patterns and designs can interfere with sensor performance. G240 features a clean, consistent surface texture. This gives sensors better imagery for translating mouse movement into cursor movement, an improvement over inconsistent or dirty table and desk surfaces.MATCHED TO LOGITECH G SENSORSBetter togetherWhether using an optical or laser mouse, G240 can give gamers access to enhanced sensor accuracy and precision. G240 uses a surface texture comparable to the optimal testing environment for Logitech G mice.STABLE RUBBER BASEA winning foundationThe rubber base firmly bonded to the cloth helps keep the flexible surface in place and prevent the cloth from bunching up in front of the mouse, interfering with smooth mouse movement.COMFORTABLE CLOTH CONSTRUCTIONAt just 1mm thick, G240 maintains a low profile. The soft fabric improves comfort as the wrist moves back and forth across the mouse pad's edge.ROLL FOR TRANSPORTTake it with youWith a flexible cloth construction, G240 rolls up for easy transport and lies flat when you're ready to play. Protect the mouse pad when you take it to LAN events using the hexagonal packaging.TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONSHeight: 11.03 in (280 mm)Width:13.39 in (340 mm)Depth: .04 in (1 mm)


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Petrina Berry
(Australian Associated Press)
Online retailer CatchOfTheDay has rebranded itself Catch and relaunched as a marketplace for other sellers in a move that puts it in direct competition with US giant Amazon.
Since Amazon confirmed it will roll out its full online offering in Australia, shares of major retailers including Kmart, Target owner Wesfarmers, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman and Myer have been battered.
Analysts have been warning that the nation's retail sector is in for a major shake up as seen in the US and UK where the eCommerce behemoth's low prices and quick deliveries drove many out of business.
But Catch Group chief executive Nati Harpaz is optimistic that there is room for smaller online players and, in a surprise move, has opened up the site from being purely a seller of brands to being a platform for other retailers.
Lorna Jane, Speedo and North Face are among a number of retailers to begin selling their products on Catch.
Mr Harpaz says the business began 10 years ago as a site to go for deals and it's now ready to transform into a platform similar to eBay and Amazon.
The company wants to go from having a range of about 30,000 products to two million by December.
"No one can downplay Amazon and what it does but at the same time there is a lot of successful online businesses that can co-exist," Mr Harpaz told AAP.
He said Catch, which sells more than two million products a month and has 70,000 club members, has several points of difference to Amazon.
"Amazon is such a big market place and you can get lost in it," he said.
"With Catch, you know you're going to get the eyeballs and you won't get lost among so many other brands and products."
He said it was also a misconception that Amazon is the cheapest.
"It's our intention to offer the best pricing in the market," he said.
"Some of the bigger retailers are putting their heads in the sand and are not putting strategies together to fight Amazon."
Mr Harpaz said there are opportunities for major retailers, including Woolworths and Wesfarmers, to work with online players like Catch in providing better shipping, pricing and product deals.
He said this was something the company was open to but has not yet actively pursued.
Catch Group bought the Pumpkin Patch brand earlier this year and expects to launch it on its site in October.
The group – which also owns online travel deals, grocery and mum and bub retail sites Scoopon, GroceryRun and Mumgo – said it was on track to make $500 million in sales over the next 12 months.


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How Sriracha Became a Food Phenomenon Without Even Trying
Sriracha goes with everything, including maple sausage.
Sriracha, the popular Thai-style hot sauce made by California's Huy Fong Foods, is everywhere right now, from the tables in Asian diners across the country to the menu at PF Chang's, Pei Wei, and even Subway. Sriracha has its own food festival, a new documentary, two cookbooks and a fan base so hardcore that Sriracha tattoos are a thing. Sales last year were $60 million.
The company's current issues with the city of Irwindale over peppery emissions from its new processing plant have made national news and prompted Philadelphia's mayor to offer the company a new home if Sriracha turns out to be too hot for California to handle. From the Huffington Post to Tumblr to Twitter, Sriracha is quite literally a hot topic. And none of that heat is coming from company social media accounts or publicists.
How did a niche product made by a small private company with no sales staff and no advertising budget manage to become a social media superstar? Sriracha's recipe for success is a smart blend of old-school business basics with a dash of serendipity.
An overnight success, 30 years in the making
While Sriracha seems new, it's been around since 1980, and its formula for success starts with a solid base: Sriracha is made with fresh peppers, which cost more and must be processed faster than the dried peppers most sauce makers use. To make the fresh approach workable, Huy Fong founder David Tran has worked with the same farm for 20 years.
His processing plants over the years—including the new one under scrutiny in Irwindale—were all chosen for their proximity to the farm, cutting transport costs and allowing same-day processing during the hectic 10-week pepper harvest season. The result is a tasty and low-cost product that, importantly, needs no refrigeration.
Sriracha's fridge-free aspect made it a natural for the tables of Vietnamese diners around LA, and from there the sauce built up a fan base that went far beyond the SoCal Asian community. Restaurant customers wanted Sriracha for their home kitchens, chefs and foodies looking for the next new flavor discovered it, and Sriracha found its way into venues as diverse as Wal-Mart, which started carrying it in 2003, and Momofuku Noodle Bar in Manhattan.
Demand for Sriracha has always outpaced production, which is limited by the pepper harvest, so there was never any need to advertise. Rather than push to open up new markets, Tran outsourced distribution, ignored social media altogether, and focused on his product. For years, Sriracha remained the open-secret sauce of Asian restaurants, adventurous home cooks, and savvy chefs like Momofuku's David Chang, all the while winning new converts with its sweet fire.
Lighting the fire with Oatmeal
The spark for the Sriracha media wildfire was lit in late 2009, when Bon Appetit named Sriracha its Ingredient of the Year and introduced it to a wider audience of novelty-seeking food lovers. In January 2011, Randy Clemens' popular Sriracha Cookbook hit the market. Two months later, The Oatmeal added major fuel to the Sriracha fire.
The Oatmeal, a site run by cartoonist and author Matthew Inman, offers pithy and profane insights on everything from the horrors of customer service helplines to the predatory virtues of the mantis shrimp. In March 2011, Inman published his literal love letter to Sriracha, praising both its ability to salvage subpar takeout and its character-building qualities.
"This is a Sriracha burn... What you're feeling is premature enlightenment." The post earned more than 8,000 Twitter mentions and 303,000 likes on Facebook, and Inman became Sriracha's biggest social-media fan and unofficial promoter. The poster version of the Sriracha comic, along with other artwork, clothing, and Sriracha-product gift packs, are hot sellers in The Oatmeal Shop.
Inman, whom CNN contacted about the Irwindale factory-fume story, also runs an unofficial Sriracha fan page on Facebook with more than 74,000 followers. He and other fans share links to recipes and some of the endless new products featuring Sriracha—Jack Link's jerky, candy canes, rooster-logo T-shirts, and more. And Inman's still promoting new Sriracha items, like those candy canes, on The Oatmeal, which has 1.7 million Facebook fans and 400,000 Twitter followers.
That's a huge audience to reach for free, and it's a responsive group: The Oatmeal's 2012 comic about scientist Nikola Tesla led to an Indiegogo campaign that raised $1.3 million to save Tesla's former lab in Shoreham, N.Y., and turn it into a museum.
Meanwhile, foodies are putting Sriracha in everything. Search Google for Sriracha plus virtually any dish you can think of and you'll find recipes: ceviche, peanut butter cookies, latkes, jam, and smoothies are just the tip of the fiery iceberg. Clemens, the cookbook author, recently published his second book of Sriracha recipes, this time focusing on vegan and gluten-free dishes. Perhaps Sriracha's greatest virtue is its mind-blowing versatility.
Of course, Huy Fong's 2010 move to Irwindale predates Clemens' cookbooks and all the love from The Oatmeal. And it was almost certainly in the works before Bon Appetit's endorsement. The media attention is simply the spicy garnish on a good product delivered at a mass-market price. And even if Sriracha turns out to be social media's flavor of the month, all that brand awareness hasn't cost the company a dime.
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Clearwater Beach FL
Services We Provide
- Installation: We install long-lasting heating and cooling systems from Trane for your Florida home. Before recommending a new unit, we will conduct a calculation to determine the appropriate size needed, and an energy assessment of your home or business to make sure it's energy efficient. When it's time to replace an aging unit, we provide the guidance you need to make an informed choice.
- Repair: Our highly skilled service technicians can make AC repairs and heating repairs to any model of equipment on the market. Our rapid response, quick diagnosis and expert repairs guarantee that your comfort won't be interrupted for very long.
- Maintenance: When you get home from a bike ride or walking your dog, you're ready for some cool indoor comfort. We maintain all brands of AC and heating equipment found in Florida homes and businesses and offer service plans that ensure your system is ready to go when you need it.
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We Are Full Service
We offer free onsite estimates for new and replacement installations, emergency service repairs, and flexible scheduling to all of our residential and commercial customers. Our service vehicles carry an inventory of frequently used replacement parts, so you won't have to wait around for us to order the parts we need. We provide a range of HVAC services to residents, and certified technicians perform all of the work.
Clearwater Beach FL
After a day at our local award winning beaches there is nothing better than coming back to a home filled with cool, fresh air. Our mission is to help you keep it that way. Trane acknowledged our commitment to quality by awarding us a Top Ten Performer award for the entire Gulf Coast area and its prestigious SOAR award.
Very professional group of people. Detail oriented, great products and services. Eric did an amazing job installing my AC unit; he explained everything in detail. Their prices cannot be beat for the service and products. I recommend them highly. Class act!
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Fantastic professional service. The technician was very polite and professional. They left my house spotless. You would never have known that they were their. The ac is spectacular I can't wait to see how much money I save with this new unit. I would totally recommend Advanced for all your ac needs.
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I was extremely impressed with the level of customer service and professionalism of both the office staff as well as the service technician that came out to my house. Mike was both friendly and knowledgeable.
I would recommend Advanced Cooling to anyone needing work done on their air conditioner system.
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I did get your message asking for my input reguarding recent repair call. I am glad to say that i was very pleased you were able to accommodate me so quickly. Your technician, David, was so helpful explaining why there was condensation around my outside unit. He was most patient with my lack of knowledge and was helpful in answering any questions I had. I do appreciate his patience and am happy that you were able to provide the help I needed,
Elizabeth M
Contact Us
Advanced Cooling Systems, Inc.
1660 N Hercules Ave STE E
Clearwater FL 33765
Phone (727) 738-6006
License#: CAC058664
Services We Provide
Air Conditioning
Indoor Air Quality
Ductless Mini-splits
Pool Heat Pumps
Duct Cleaning
Commericial HVAC


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Top Items:
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Google unveils 'custom' searches — Google will on Tuesday launch a customisable search engine that users can carry on their own blogs and other websites, a move that potentially opens up a big new market for its search listings and related advertising. — Marissa Mayer, vice-president …
Discussion: Mathew Ingram, Rex Hammock's weblog and Googling Google
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Roll your own Google Search — Not a day passes by when someone or the other bemoans the fact that they cannot find anything on Google anymore. Well, they can stop complaining, because Google is doing something about it. The company has announced Google Custom Search tools …
Discussion: TechCrunch, The Next Net, JenSense and Screenwerk
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch: Google Co-op Launches
Erick Schonfeld / The Next Net: Google Joins the Roll-Your-Own-Search Party
Greg Sterling / Screenwerk: Google Rolls Out 'Custom Search Engine'
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Watch Blog:
Google Offers Customized Search With A Social Twist — Google has long distributed its search engine on third-party content sites. But until today you could only search the individual site or the Web — and the branding on search results was practically all Google.
Discussion: ResourceShelf, Matt Cutts and Colin's Corner
Loren Baker / Search Engine Journal:
Google Custom Search Engine Launches
Google Custom Search Engine Launches
Discussion: Download Squad, SEO Book.com and ProBlogger Blog Tips
Chris Gilmer / Download Squad: Google launches Custom Search Engines
Aaron Wall / SEO Book.com: Get a Top Ranking in Google in 1 Day for Free
Darren Rowse / ProBlogger Blog Tips: Google to launch Custom Search Engine
Robert Levine / Fortune:
Unlocking the iPod — Jon Johansen became a geek hero by breaking the DVD code. Now he's liberating iTunes - whether Apple likes it or not. — (Fortune Magazine) — Growing up in a small town in southern Norway, Jon Lech Johansen loved to take things apart to figure out how they worked.
Discussion: Techdirt, The Technology Liberation …, Between the Lines, IPcentral Weblog, Blogging Stocks and Slashdot
David Berlind / Between the Lines: With DeCSS behind him, "DVD Jon" turns his attention to Apple's Fairplay
Douglas McIntyre / Blogging Stocks: Apple: The Hackers Strike Back
Kdawson / Slashdot: DVD Jon's DoubleTwist Unlocks the iPod
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
BitTorrent lands new hardware deals — Three hardware manufacturers will embed file-sharing software BitTorrent into their consumer products. — Asus, Planex and QNap will include BitTorrent's peer-to-peer technology in products such as wireless routers, media servers and network storage devices …
Discussion: Silicon Valley Watcher, TechEffect and TechSpot
Richard Koman / Silicon Valley Watcher: Monday Newswatch: Amazon patent trouble, Chinese bloggers use …
Brian Ward / TechEffect: Cohen keeps BitTorrent moving forward
Erik Orejuela / TechSpot: BitTorrent now in consumer electronics
BitTorrent is key ingredient in Internet-connected devices — BitTorrent, Inc., home to the world's leading peer-assisted digital content delivery platform, today announced it is collaborating with a number of global hardware manufacturers to promote BitTorrent-embedded consumer products.
Discussion: broadbandreports.com, 21talks and The Tech Report
Cyril Kowaliski / The Tech Report: Routers, storage servers to integrate BitTorrent
Business 2.0:
Microsoft's big nightmare: free online apps — A new generation of browsers is about to make Web applications better than downloadable desktop software. — (Business 2.0 Magazine) — The browser is the new OS. Yes, we've heard this before, and if you're quietly groaning right about now, I can understand why.
Discussion: Between the Lines, Blogging Stocks, Ajaxian and digg
Melly Alazraki / Blogging Stocks: Before the bell 10-23-06: EBAY, GOOG, MSFT, YHOO
Michael Mahemoff / Ajaxian: A World of Free Online Apps
Paullehrer / digg: Microsoft's big nightmare: free online apps
Paul Thurrott / windowsitpro.com:
Exclusive: Microsoft Overcomes Final Vista Hurdles, Heads to RTM — A week and a half ago, online reports about an internal countdown clock at Microsoft verified my early 2006 report that the software giant was pushing for an October 25 Windows Vista release to manufacturing (RTM) date.
Discussion: Bink.nu and InsideMicrosoft
Nathan Weinberg / InsideMicrosoft: Microsoft Fixes Catastrophic Vista Bug
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Is Vista ready? Microsoft testers weigh in
Is Vista ready? Microsoft testers weigh in
Discussion: TechBlog
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Jingle gets $30M to grow its free directory assistance service — (Updated below with comments from chief executive George Garrick) — Jingle Networks, a Menlo Park start-up which provides free phone directory assistance, has raised a whopping $30 million more in venture capital — upping the ante in what is now a crowded field.
Discussion: GigaOM, The Kelsey Group Blog, Thomas Hawk's Digital … and Blogging Stocks
Liz Gannes / GigaOM: Jingle Goes Big
Peter Krasilovsky / The Kelsey Group Blog: Hearst Invests in Jingle's Free DA
Thomas Hawk / Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection: 1-800-Free-411, Liberate Yourself From Crappy Cingular's Excessive 411 Fees
Tom Taulli / Blogging Stocks: 1-800-FREE411 $30 million cash call
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Jingle Networks Has Now Raised Over $60 million
Jingle Networks Has Now Raised Over $60 million
Discussion: Screenwerk and digg
Greg Sterling / Screenwerk: Jingle Raises $30 Million . . . More
Ryan Block / Engadget:
The iPod turns five — Hard to believe it, but a half decade ago today Steve Jobs stood up in front of a small crowd and introduced an "MP3 music player... that plays all of the popular open formats of digital music, MP3, MP3 VBR, WAV, and AIFF," a device that changed the consumer electronics industry forever.
Harry McCracken / PC World: Techlog:
Five Lessons For the iPod's Fifth Anniversary
Five Lessons For the iPod's Fifth Anniversary
Discussion: The Unofficial Apple Weblog, TechBlog, Things That, Podcasting News and Washington Post
Scott McNulty / The Unofficial Apple Weblog: Today the iPod turns 5
Jim Thompson / TechBlog: Rip, mix, blog: happy birthday, iPod!
Scott Sternberg / Washington Post: Once a Skeptic, Now Baptized Into the Mac
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Real Sharing vs. Fake Sharing — In a recent brainstorming session about Web 2.0, I made the observation that "harnessing collective intelligence" is the pattern that opened the Web 2.0 era, but that "Data is the Intel Inside" is the pattern that will bring it to a close.
Discussion: CrunchNotes, Greg Yardley's Internet Blog, Digital Micro-Markets, Publishing 2.0, Mathew Ingram and OpenBusiness
Mike / CrunchNotes: I Agree With Nick Carr?
Greg Yardley / Greg Yardley's Internet Blog: 'Fake-sharing' - is it exploitation? — So Lawrence Lessig writes …
Donna Bogatin / Digital Micro-Markets: Google vs. Web 2.0: Cache as cash can
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Edgeio gets $5 million to expand Web 2.0 classifieds site — Edgeio, a Menlo Park start-up trying to redefine the way people list classifieds, has raised $5 million in a first round of venture capital, and may raise more. Here is the release. — The round was led by Intel Capital and included an investment from Transcosmos.
Discussion: edgeio corporation and Keith Teare's Weblog
Keith Teare / Keith Teare's Weblog: Edgeio Secures $5m Series A Financing
Allison Randal / O'Reilly Radar:
The Problem of Email — I have a problem, and its name is "email". Many people have the same problem. Not many have it quite as badly as I do. When I say "my inbox is out of control", people respond "Yeah, mine too. I spent 5 hours this weekend and knocked it down from 3,000 messages to 50 messages and I feel so much better."
Discussion: JD on EP
Mike / Techdirt:
IBM Wants To Change The Patent System, But Before They Do, They Might As Well Sue Everyone — from the they've-patented-the-internet dept — There's a famous old story about IBM accusing Sun of patent infringement back in the 1980s, when Sun was still a small company.
Discussion: MSDN Blogs and GigaLaw.com Daily News
Brentphillips / MSDN Blogs: IBM's next step in patent reform...take out Amazon?
Doug Isenberg / GigaLaw.com Daily News: IBM Sues Amazon.com for Infringing Two Patents
Seth Schiesel / New York Times:
A New System Is Now a Waiting Game — I never thought Ludacris would get in the way of my video game habit. — But there I was Thursday evening on the second floor of the warehouse Sony rented here to show off its soon-to-be-released PlayStation 3 game console, checking …
Discussion: Go Nintendo and Blackfriars' Marketing
RawmeatCowboy / Go Nintendo: New York Times loves PS3, mentions Wii
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
SkyRider gets $12M more for aggressive P2P search engine — SkyRider, the Mountain View start-up we wrote about in August developing an aggressive search engine for peer-to-peer traffic, has raised another $12 million in venture capital. The round, led by ComVentures, comes just two months after it raised $8 million.
Discussion: GigaOM
Om Malik / GigaOM: Ads Come to P2P Networks
Jeff Sandquist / Microsoft 10:
Meet Our New 10 Team Mate — Awhile back I posted a video where I talk about a new opening on our team. The position has now been filled. Thank you everyone who sent an email, a resume or posted a video talking about why they want to join our team. We were simply blown away …
Discussion: Jeff Sandquist and Scobleizer
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer: Ze Frank on how to videoblog
Preed / preed's blah-blah-blahg:
The Anti-release — I mentioned this in today's Project Meeting, and now it's come up in the newsgroups. — Normally, I'd take the time to write up a more in-depth explanation, but since my schedule is... uh... "hectic" right now, I'll just say this: — No, we have. Not. Released.
Discussion: InfoWorld Tech Watch, technology filter and digg
Mike Barton / InfoWorld Tech Watch: Firefox 2.0 released a day early
Informant / digg: Firefox 2 is NOT released!


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I was up on Long Island for a few days last week - had to cut the trip short because of silliness in Charlotte - but I managed to grab a couple of hours at JFK on Monday afternoon. I had to fight a little in and out sun, but it turned out to be a good afternoon. Hard to believe it was my only JFK spotting trip in 2018. I've been up several times for family stuff, but timing or the weather never worked out right.
Progress continues on the TWA Hotel.
I think this is the first A350 I've shot.
Our 200th Aircraft
I haven't seen Thomas Cook at JFK before!
"Fewer Delays, Faster Flights" titles
Former Virgin America A320 in Alaska colors - first I've seen.
Iberia new colors


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According to this study, the researchers evaluated 12 SSDs, of those that had built in ATA and SCSI commands for wiping data – only eight of the twelve – half of the wiping routines on those eight didn't work.
The researchers suggest, instead, that disks be encrypted as soon as the initial system image is created.
They found that degaussing the drives (using magnetism to destroy the structure of the data) didn't work properly. And software wiping of individual files could not be relied upon to properly work with native routines. However, wiping the entire drive with software routines worked often, but not always.
The team provided tools they believe make file sanitation more effective. "Overall, we conclude that the increased complexity of SSDs relative to hard drives requires that SSDs provide verifiable sanitization operations," the report concluded.
This news is troubling for those in industries with highly-sensitive, confidential, or regulated industries who must ensure drive data is properly destroyed.
Colleague Mathew J. Schwartz covers more detail in his story, SSDs Prove Tough To Erase:
How can SSDs be effectively secured or disposed of, short of physically destroying them? The researchers propose encrypting all data from the start, then destroying the encryption keys and overwriting every page of data to securely wipe the SSD and block future key recovery.
Implementing such an approach requires planning. "To properly secure data and take advantage of the performance benefits that SSDs offer, you should always encrypt the entire disk and do so as soon as the operating system is installed," said Chester Wisniewski, a senior security advisor for Sophos Canada, in a blog post. Based on the researchers' findings, "securely erasing SSDs after they have been used unencrypted is very difficult, and may be impossible in some cases," he said.
For my security and technology observations throughout the day, find me on Twitter as @georgevhulme.


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When the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in the challenge to California's Proposition 8 and Wednesday in the challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, there will be key actors to watch during arguments. Here is a breakdown of the main players in the legal drama: Theodore Olson A former U.S. solicitor general during President George W. Bush's administration, Olson will argue on behalf of two same-sex couples who have sued to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriage. A leading conservative and Republican who has become a vocal advocate for gay marriage, Olson is not only leading the arguments because of his vast experience arguing at the high court but also because his political pedigree won't go unnoticed among justices such as Anthony Kennedy, John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Charles Cooper Cooper, a former top Justice Department official during the Reagan administration who runs in the same conservative Beltway legal circles as Olson, will argue for
, backers of Proposition 8. Cooper has had bumpy rides arguing in the lower courts but no doubt is hoping he'll get a more receptive audience from the Supreme Court's conservative wing. Donald Verrilli The current U.S. Solicitor General, Verrilli will be President Barack Obama's voice in the Supreme Court in both Tuesday's and Wednesday's arguments, providing the administration's position that the California and federal gay marriage bans are unconstitutional. Solicitor General since 2011, Verrilli can only hope he gets better reviews than he did last year in arguments defending the president's health care law, when he was panned for his performance even though the court later ruled on his side. Paul Clement Another former solicitor general under President George W. Bush, Clement will argue in support of the Defense of Marriage Act, representing House Republicans who are defending the law now that the Obama administration considers it unconstitutional. Clement squared off against Verrilli in the health care cases, representing states that challenged the law. Roberta Kaplan Kaplan will carry the lowest profile of the lawyers arguing the cases, but will no doubt play a crucial role, representing Edith Windsor, the New York woman whose denial of estate benefits from her spouse prompted a federal appeals court to find the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. Justice Anthony Kennedy From the beginning of the legal battle over gay marriage, Kennedy has been considered the must-have vote for the Supreme Court to side with same-sex couples. His every word will be scrutinized during arguments, both because he's at the court's center and because he penned the court's two most recent decisions in favor of gay rights. Chief Justice John Roberts A staunch conservative, Roberts generally is considered a skeptical vote on gay marriage. But ever since he formed the majority in last year's decision upholding the president's health care law, riling conservatives, it has prompted speculation he could be unpredictable on same-sex marriage. So his tea leaves will be watched, as well.


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We attended the funeral of a lifelong friend's mother on Monday. It was expected, as she had been declining for weeks. She was 89 and had lived a full, vibrant life. Her children and grandchildren shared their thoughts and memories with all of us as lots of tears were shed.
No one expected the final letter. It was from her – the deceased. She had written this letter back in 1991 and left instructions for it to be read at her funeral. The one chosen to read was her granddaughter. As we waited for her to begin there wasn't a sound in the chapel. The anticipation was palpable.
I can't tell you everything she said, but one line I will never forget:
"If you are wishing I had told you I loved you one more time, or that I forgive you or anything else I didn't say to you – please hold on to it, and I will say it to you when I see you again."
How kind of her to think of those in her family who may have had regrets. This one sentence took the pressure off of the "If only's" and "what if's" and placed them where they belonged. By saying this to her family she communicated more than directions, but a deep love for where they would go from here. She didn't want them tied to the past, but she set their eyes forward to eternity. What wisdom; what kindness; what love.
How can we emulate her?
First of all, we could take the time to write a letter, like hers, to be read to our family after we are gone. What would you say? How would you choose to comfort them? Such a legacy of love would be greatly appreciated I'm sure. We found an e-book that helps your write your own Legacy Letter. You can purchase if for only $12.95. That's not very expensive, but to those who receive it, it's value would be priceless!
Secondly, we read this week on The Generous Wife blog about Dave Ramsey's Legacy Drawer. The idea is to have one drawer with everything your family would need in case of your death. His website lists the various items to include.
We don't mean to be morbid, but after spending the week talking about our "What if's" and "If only's" it seemed the appropriate post to share with you today. One thing is certain – we will all die. It's up to us how we prepare our family and loved ones to thrive with no regrets. And putting together such a drawer will help us today to measure our lives against the backdrop of eternity. Are we ready? If not, let's prepare ourselves because none of us know the day when we will take our final breath. song
Do you like the idea of writing such a letter? How prepared are you to fill a Legacy Drawer? How prepared are you for eternity?


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WALNUT CREEK — The City Council continued its journey toward securing financial sustainability and clarifying the city's mission in the coming years while looking at the city's existing services through a different lens.
Council members, city personnel and a handful of citizens held an all-day workshop Friday where they were urged to take a consensus-based approach on how to best serve the city's residents. The workshop was part of the two-year City of Walnut Creek Work Program, approved by the council in October.
Workshop facilitator Stacey McLaughlin told council members, "This requires intentional leadership given the scope of making some hard decisions."
At Friday's workshop, council members instructed city staff to delve more deeply into exploring a wide range of options for administering 12 of the city's 27 existing service categories. These include technology, asset management, performing and visual arts, aquatics and other recreation programs, parks and open space, library services and senior support.
"We built a consensus that's given us a path for our next work," said Assistant City Manager Lori Tinfow. "This was a critical first step."
No specific actions were taken at this workshop.
City Manager Ken Nordhoff noted that, since 1992, the city has lost an estimated $39 million in revenue due to state-mandated money diversion, including the recent dissolution of city redevelopment agencies. Further constraints have come from nonfunded requirements, including Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and regulations governing solid waste or clean water and air quality.
Tinfow said the work program follows two budget cycles characterized by major reductions.
"We've made substantive changes in how we're spending the money," she said.
The council also got a history lesson, courtesy of Nordhoff. The city's configuration and corresponding infrastructure started in 1872 with Homer Shuey's initial subdivisions of what would become Walnut Creek, Nordhoff said, with electricity turned on in 1910, predating the incorporation in 1914, with a population of 450.
The city's naysayers tried unsuccessfully three times to disincorporate early on, he said.
The 1920s was a period of more growth of the city's infrastructure and requisite, voter-approved bonds. The 1960s experienced another boom, Nordhoff told the council, with the addition of such amenities as the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, Heather Farm, the library and John Muir Medical Center.
Another significant date, reflective of the city's ongoing commitment, came in 1974 with its voter-approved, $6.75 million allottment for acquisition of open space.
Meanwhile, the future of the city that is mostly built out will include "up-not-out development" and a 2025 General Plan serving as a guidepost juxtaposed with an inherent "period of ambiguity over what's to come," Nordhoff added.
The city's population now stands at somewhat more than 65,000.
As for Friday's session, "It was very productive," said newly elected Councilman Justin Wedel. "These strategy-based discussions are sometimes frustrating, but in the end we came together as a team."


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Frederick Mark Gedicks holds the Guy Anderson Chair at Brigham Young University Law School and is co-author of "RFRA Exemptions from the Contraception Mandate: An Unconstitutional Accommodation of Religion," forthcoming in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.
Can my employer make me pay the cost of practicing his religion? In the coming months, the Supreme Court will decide two cases involving this issue. The cases are about the Affordable Care Act's "contraception mandate" — the law's requirement that employer health plans cover Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives without out-of-pocket expense, including co-payments, co-insurance or deductibles. The employers in these two cases are among scores of profit-making businesses that are claiming a religious right to be excused from this requirement because the use of contraceptives violates their owners' religious beliefs.
The businesses in these cases are not churches or even nonprofit hospitals or universities with religious affiliations. They are instead a cabinet manufacturer and a chain of arts and crafts stores. Nevertheless, their owners claim that contraceptive coverage poses a grave threat to their religious liberty.
These cases indeed pose a grave threat to religious liberty, but not to that of the owners of these businesses. Exempting ordinary, nonreligious, profit-seeking businesses from a general law because of the religious beliefs of their owners would be extraordinary, especially when doing so would shift the costs of observing those beliefs to those of other faiths or no faith. The threat to religious liberty, then, comes from the prospect that the court might permit a for-profit business to impose the costs of its owners' anti-contraception beliefs on employees who do not share them — by forcing employees to pay hundreds of dollars or more out of pocket each year for what should be covered under the law.
The First Amendment's establishment clause prevents the government from requiring people to bear the burden of religions to which they do not belong and whose teachings they do not practice. To be sure, the U.S. government should accommodate religious beliefs and practices but only when doing so does not impose significant burdens on others. We accommodate, for example, those who object for religious reasons to sending their children to public school; no one is hurt if these families opt for a private school or home-schooling.
On the other hand, the Supreme Court consistently has condemned government accommodations that shift the cost of practicing a religion from those who believe it to others who don't. For example, the court struck down a state law that gave employees an absolute right not to work on their chosen Sabbath because of the burden it imposed on others. If most employees were Christian and took Sunday off, the statute would have forced the remaining, non-Christian employees to work every Sunday. This, the court said, violated the establishment clause: "The First Amendment . . . gives no one the right to insist that in pursuit of their own interests, others must conform their conduct to his own religious necessities."
If the court grants these businesses the religious exemption they seek, it essentially would be directing the women who work for these businesses to bear the cost of the owners' anti-contraception religion. After all, but for the business's religious objection, the cost of contraception would be fully covered by insurance. And the burden on the employees is significant. Some of the most reliable and cost-effective contraceptives have up-front costs approaching $1,000, and many branded contraceptives cost this much or more annually; even generic birth-control pills, which are not appropriate for many women, may cost hundreds of dollars a year. These costs, moreover, would be spread widely throughout the labor force. Consider Hobby Lobby, the arts and crafts chain that brought one of the lawsuits pending before the Supreme Court. If the court rules in the company's favor, Hobby Lobby's 13,000 employees would underwrite the religious beliefs of the single family that controls the business.
Thomas Jefferson once famously expressed his indifference to whether his neighbors believed in one god or 20: "It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." The principle invoked by Jefferson is equally critical today in the face of the remarkable religious diversity of the United States. As a Mormon raised where few other Mormons lived, I have come to appreciate that the First Amendment left me free not only to choose my minority faith but also to live without paying for the religious choices of others.
Americans must be free to practice their respective faiths but also free from bearing the burdens of their employer's faith. The Supreme Court should ensure the liberty of all Americans by rejecting the efforts of for-profit businesses to impose their owners' religion on employees.
The writer is a professor at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School.
Read more about this issue:
Ruth Marcus: Hooey and hype over the birth-control mandate
Rachel Maddow: The war on birth control
Kathleen Parker: Obama runs roughshod over religious freedom
Michael Gerson: Obama plays his Catholic allies for fools