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New Jersey Financial Investor and His Company Plead Guilty to Bid Rigging at Municipal Tax Lien Auctions
A financial investor who purchased municipal tax liens at auctions in New Jersey, as well as a company in which he was a partner, pleaded guilty today for their roles in a conspiracy to rig bids for the sale of tax liens auctioned by municipalities throughout the state, the Department of Justice announced.
A felony charge was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in Newark, N.J., against David Butler of Cherry Hill, N.J. A charge was also filed against DSBD LLC, a New Jersey company responsible for managing tax lien investments in which Butler had a partnership interest. Under the plea agreements, which are subject to court approval, Butler and DSBD have each agreed to cooperate with the department's ongoing investigation.
According to the felony charges, from at least as early as the beginning of 2005 until approximately February 2009, Butler and his company participated in a conspiracy to rig bids at auctions for the sale of municipal tax liens in New Jersey by agreeing to allocate among certain bidders on which liens to bid. The department said that both Butler and DSBD proceeded to submit bids in accordance with their agreements and purchased tax liens at collusive and non-competitive interest rates.
"The Antitrust Division is committed to holding accountable those who seek to exploit and undermine the competitive process at municipal tax lien auctions," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Sharis A. Pozen in charge of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. "The division will continue to work with its law enforcement partners to prosecute those who harm our local communities by engaging in this kind of anticompetitive conduct in municipal tax lien auctions."
The department said that the primary purpose of the conspiracy was to suppress and restrain competition to obtain selected municipal tax liens offered at public auctions at non-competitive interest rates. When the owner of real property fails to pay taxes on that property, the municipality in which the property is located may attach a lien for the amount of the unpaid taxes. If the taxes remain unpaid after a waiting period, the lien may be sold at auction. State law requires that investors bid on the interest rate delinquent homeowners will pay upon redemption. By law, the bid opens at 18 percent interest and, through a competitive bidding process, can be driven down to zero percent. If a lien remains unpaid after a certain period of time, the investor who purchased the lien may begin foreclosure proceedings against the property to which the lien is attached.
According to the court documents, Butler and DSBD conspired with others not to bid against one another at municipal tax lien auctions in New Jersey. Since the conspiracy permitted the conspirators to purchase tax liens with limited competition, each conspirator was able to obtain liens which earned a higher interest rate. Property owners were therefore made to pay higher interest on their tax debts than they would have paid had their liens been purchased in open and honest competition.
Each violation of the Sherman Act carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for individuals. The maximum penalty for a corporation is a $100 million criminal fine. The maximum fine for a Sherman Act violation may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victim if either amount is greater than the statutory maximum.
Today's guilty pleas are the eighth and ninth pleas resulting from an ongoing investigation into bid rigging or fraud related to municipal tax lien auctions. On Aug. 24, 2011, Isadore H. May, Richard J. Pisciotta Jr. and William A. Collins each pleaded guilty to one count of bid rigging in connection with their participation in a conspiracy to allocate liens at New Jersey auctions. On Feb. 23, 2012, Robert W. Stein and David M. Farber also pleaded guilty to conspiring to allocate liens at municipal tax lien auctions in New Jersey. On March 27, 2012, Robert E. Rothman pleaded guilty for his role in a conspiracy to rig bids for the sales of tax liens auctioned by municipalities throughout New Jersey. On April 17, 2012, Stephen E. Hruby also pleaded guilty for his role in a conspiracy to rig bids for the sale of tax liens auctioned by municipalities throughout New Jersey.
Today's charges are part of efforts underway by President Barack Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF). President Obama established the interagency FFETF to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. For more information on the task force, visit www.StopFraud.gov.
The ongoing investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Division's New York Field Office and the FBI's Atlantic City, N.J., office. Anyone with information concerning bid rigging or fraud related to municipal tax lien auctions should contact the Antitrust Division's New York Field Office at 212-335-8000, visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.htm or contact the FBI's Atlantic City Resident Agency at 609-677-6400.


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The end of the month long series featuring WordPress Plugins is done – well, almost. I'll have a few more posts summarizing up some Plugins I missed as well as lessons learned.
The total so far is 32 articles about a wide variety of WordPress Plugin categories. Amazing.
Here they are:
- Where to Find WordPress Plugins
- Lists of Your Favorite WordPress Plugins
- What Are Your Favorite WordPress Plugins
- WordPress Plugins Battling Evil
- Translation and Multilingual WordPress Plugins
- A Love Letter to WordPress Plugin Authors
- WordPress Plugins for Images, Photographs, and Graphics
- WordPress Administration Panel WordPress Plugins
- Helping WordPress Search With WordPress Plugins
- WordPress Plugins That Play With Paper and Documents
- How to Install, Configure, and Use WordPress Plugins
- Counting WordPress: Statistics WordPress Plugins
- WordPress Widgets: The Next Generation of WordPress Plugins
- Customizable Post Listings WordPress Plugin
- Testing Readers: Survey, Polling, Rating, Testing, and Reviewing WordPress Plugins
- Subscribe, Email Mailing List, Blog Update Alerts, and Newsletter WordPress Plugins
- Video, Music, Podcasts, Audio, and Multimedia WordPress Plugins
- Ultimate Tag Warrior WordPress Plugin for Dummies
- WordPress Plugins To Help You Administer Your Blog
- Blog Navigation WordPress Plugins: Related, Recent, Most Popular Posts and More
- Which WordPress Plugins Does Lorelle on WordPress Use?
- Connecting Articles in Series: In Series WordPress Plugin
- WordPress Plugins That Help You Write Code
- Post Meta Data WordPress Plugins
- Monetizing WordPress Plugins
- WordPress Plugins for Comments
- Contact Form WordPress Plugins
- Random WordPress Plugins: Rotating Banners, Header Art, Images, Quotes, and Content on Your Blog
- WordPress Plugins for Feeds
- WordPress Plugins for Blog Layout, Formating, and CSS Designs
- WordPress Plugins for Multiple Blogger Blogs
- Odds and Ends WordPress Plugins You Must Know About
- Wanted: WordPress Plugins for Me
These 32 articles represent only a small fraction of the WordPress Plugins out there. I wanted to cover WordPress Plugins for maps and geographical blogging, online chatting and instant interactivity, research and documentation writing (footnotes, bibliographies, and citations), more business-oriented needs, and more. Maybe later. I've only scratched the surface of what is out there.
This isn't the end of my WordPress Plugin coverage. Don't worry. I'm always on the look out for that perfect Plugin for all our needs. Still, are there any specific Plugins or types of Plugins you would like me to blog about? What types of WordPress Plugins are you looking for? What do you need for your WordPress blog.
Please, remember what I wrote at the beginning of this Plugin series. Go hug a WordPress Plugin author. Can't do that? Pay them. Can't do that? Buy them dinner, whether you are in attendance or not. At the very least, publicly thank WordPress Plugin authors for the hard work they do to make your blogging experience better.
And my thanks to all WordPress fans and the WordPress community for making my work so easy and fun. I'm so thrilled to have met all the wonderful and creative folks out there who have done so much for our WordPress blogs with their Plugins and Themes. You are my heroes. All of you. Thank you.
Site Search Tags: wordpress plugins, month of wordpress plugins, 30 days of wordpress plugins, list of wordpress plugins
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network Subscribe

subset: commoncrawl


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Computer crime investigators come from differing backgrounds. In the private sector a wide range of certifications exist: CISSP, MCSE, Internet Security Specialist, Computer Forensics Specialist, and the like. Developing a common body of knowledge is often a response to the particular examination program one wishes to pass through. Yet, professional practice often dictates the areas of an investigator's expertise. Those with an emphasis on forensic issues (such as police investigators) may concentrate on techniques pertaining to "black" or illegal email, illegal pornography, and common-law crimes committed using a computer. Those with an emphasis on security issues may deal with technologies related to combating hacking, denial of service (DoS), intrusion, and business espionage.
What I've tried to do is devise a summary of basic, practical knowledge, "tricks," if you like, that should interest all computer crime investigators. While they may not be the final word in preparing for an examination, these techniques will provide some insight into the ways and means of computer criminals. I hope to get you into the spirit of the hunt. Learning to think how a criminal looks at twisting, altering, hiding, and diverting information will definitely make the game more interesting. This is a pathfinder, a starting point to discovering other resources.
Part One will cover:
- DOS Tricks
- Unix Tricks
Part Two continues with:
- Windows Tricks
- Browsers
- Passwords
Part Three will discuss:
- Perl Scripting
- Networking Fundamentals
- Tracing Email
Part Four concludes with:
- Understanding Slack Files
- Understanding Cryptography Basics
Not So Dead DOS
For those who grew up in the IT field with MS-DOS, they found Unix and scripting not all that cryptic. Knowing command line instructions gives one a backstage pass to what's happening behind the GUI. Understanding how to examine a computer using MS-DOS with Windows 95 and 98 gives an investigator a firm foundation for other tricks of the trade. When users get cute with trying to hide information, MS-DOS can uncover the hidden structure. So, forget any notion that MS-DOS is dead; it will be a valuable forensic tool for some time to come.
Before we go into the specifics of DOS tricks, keep in mind that any time you examine a computer you run the risk of changing the evidence. These articles will not give you enough knowledge to make you a certified computer forensics expert. Accordingly, in a sensitive, crucial case a bitstream backup copy of the hard drive and possibly a memory dump of the RAM need to be done by a qualified specialist prior to examination. Copies of floppies need to done with DOS Diskcopy (version 6.22) with the /v switch turned on. The rule needs to be "preserve and then examine." Chain of custody issues also become a problem if the copy is not properly hashed and then digitally signed.
Users may try to hide files by using extended ASCII characters in the file name. "Find" searches for "Joes_2000_files" may not pull up "Joe£_2000_files." The Alt key depressed while entering the character number on the numeric pad generates these characters. For example, Alt + 241 is "±." Alt + 156 is "£." Having an ASCII chart is vital to figuring out which key sequence will produce nonstandard characters not found on the keyboard. Most MS-DOS manuals and Dan Gookin's DOS Secrets will have the chart. On the Web you can find a chart at http://www.jimprice.com/ascii-128-255.gif for the extended set. For a general discussion of ASCII try http://www.jimprice.com/jim-asc.htm. To locate these files, make sure your "Find" utility has good parsing capability (finding "Joe" no matter the adjacent characters). Or, consider searching using a specialized "regular expression" engine described in http://www.sans.org/infosecFAQ/cracking.htm (see "Passwords").
Another way to hide files is by using the DOS command "Attrib." Attrib +h hides a file from directory listings produced by the "Dir" command. However, the command dir /a:h will list all the hidden files in a directory. Remember, the Dir command can be an effective tool to view what's in a hard drive's file structure even if running Windows. Just go to the DOS prompt.
DEBUG has a lot of dust on it, something almost forgotten. Yet it is a tool still found in MS-DOS in Windows 95 and 98. It lets you view in hexadecimal and ASCII format what's in a file, on a floppy, or on a hard drive. A poor man's hex editor, it can fill in when a more sophisticated viewer is not at hand. It is useful for dumps of data and for writing assembly language programs. (Hex editors are nifty tools to have too. For more information on keeping one in your toolkit, see the Resources section below.)
Also, don't forget the Undelete and Unformat tools available in MS-DOS. They can move the picture of a hard drive one step back, if needed, in examining a computer, but they do require caution in execution. Their use may result in unforeseen data loss. They cannot be used with Windows 98, or NT. Windows 95 can do Undelete with a bit of sleight of hand, as we shall see later in the Windows section. But if you're checking an old machine, a dinosaur, running Windows 3.1 or MS-DOS 5.0-6.22, the commands may come in handy. For syntax specifics see http://www.computerhope.com/undelete.htm and http://www.computerhope.com/unformat.htm. And, don't forget there are a lot of dinosaurs out there, so keep those old MS-DOS reference books.
Wild, Wild Unix
Unix serves as a wonderful training ground for computer security specialists. It teaches about access permissions for objects; learning about those rwx's in directory listings gives one an appreciation for granular security. It builds on MS-DOS knowledge: hidden files are "dot files" in Unix. They become visible by the "ls-al" command (very similar to dir /a:h). Unix expands on MS-DOS' piping and redirection capabilities. Searching or manipulating files and directories using FIND and SORT, an investigator, for example, can search a directory for inactive files (by date) and pipe the results into a report file.
Using Unix's scripting capabilities (similar to DOS batch files), an investigator may create combinations of commands into specialized programs to conduct security audits and to do file checking as a part of an inquiry. The GREP command searches files or directories that contain a particular character string. This capability provides for granular searching.
For example, /usr/bin/grep 'ron' trade > ronlist searches for all occurrences of "ron" in the file "trade" and prints them into "ronlist."
Unix also has the capability to list processes actively running on the machine by executing the command ps -ef. Processes may be deleted using the Kill command. The Top, Head, and Tail commands allow examination of portions of logs or process lists. Here are some examples of each:
ps -ef UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD root 0 0 0 Sep 07 ? 0:04 sched root 1 0 0 Sep 07 ? 242:49 /etc/init - root 2 0 0 Sep 07 ? 0:39 pageout ps -ef | head UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD root 0 0 0 Sep 07 ? 0:04 sched root 1 0 0 Sep 07 ? 242:49 /etc/init - root 2 0 0 Sep 07 ? 0:39 pageout ps -ef | tail johnjones 29805 29696 0 Nov 23 pts/26 0:00 -bash happy 10732 10731 0 0:01 <defunct> root 3450 12314 0 Nov 22 ? 0:04 /usr/local/sbin/sshd top last pid: 11027; load averages: 4.31, 4.70, 4.99 01:20:40 272 processes: 198 sleeping, 65 zombie, 6 stopped, 3 on cpu CPU states: 0.5% idle, 15.9% user, 15.3% kernel, 68.3% iowait, 0.0% swap Memory: 8192M real, 914M free, 876M swap in use, 1172M swap free PID USERNAME THR PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE TIME CPU COMMAND 7596 peter 132 0 0 60M 60M cpu4 378:00 5.45% smd 22049 john 139 10 0 48M 48M cpu8 214:29 3.91% smd 3130 carl 136 58 0 45M 44M sleep 169:59 2.69% smd
Unix also serves to introduce regular expressions, a powerful means to search for strings. And, later we'll see that regular expressions can serve as the basis for cracking passwords. Used in conjunction with Unix commands and scripts, AWK is a program language especially suited for regular expression searching. AWK searches for patterns and manipulates them when needed.
In the statement awk '$1 < $2 {print $0, $1/$2}' file1 > file2, a file called "file1" with two columns of numbers pipes into a new file called "file2" with columns 1 and 2 as previously, but also adds a third column which is the ratio of the numbers in columns 1 and 2. The ">" shows the piping into "file2," and the "<" shows that the program takes the input from "file1." AWK has the ability to search for specific transactions in logs and generate reports for the investigator.
Print Sources
Dougherty, Dale and Arnold Robbins, Sed & Awk, O'Reilly, 1997.
Gookin, Dan, DOS Secrets, Computer Publishing Enterprises, 1990.
Lasser, Jon, Think Unix, Que, 2000.
Microsoft, MS-DOS Version 5.0, Microsoft, 1991.
Syngress Editors, Hack Proofing Your Network: Internet Tradecraft, Syngress, 2000.
Zaenglein, Norbert, Disk Detective, Paladin Press, 1998.
Hex Editors
"Free 'Hex' Editors"
Ronald L. Mendell's article on Hex Editors
"About DEBUG"
"A Listing and an Explanation of Commands"
"The Unix Reference Desk"
"Solaris Man Pages"
"About AWK"
"An AWK Reference"
SecurityPortal is the world's foremost on-line resource and services provider for companies and individuals concerned about protecting their information systems and networks.
Th e Focal Point for Security on the Net ™


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After sitting in front of a computer or staring at formulas on a whiteboard all day, there are few things better than a fun, energizing workout!POUND Rockout WorkoutPilates
is a new group workout that's a combination of , cardio, and drumming. The class was started by two female drummers who wanted to share the exhilarating feeling of rocking out and pounding your drum sticks!
The workout: Sitting on yoga mats staggered across the floor, our instructors, Kirsten and Christina, told us to grab the lime green drumsticks they had placed in front of us. After running through some basic drumming moves, we spent the next 30 minutes jamming out to loud rock music, and getting a serious core, lower body, and arm workout.
The pros: POUND
combines Pilates, cardio, and a little bit of dance for a workout that doesn't
feel like a workout while you're in the class — because it's so fun! But, trust us, it works — we were sore for days afterward (in a good way!) Besides the physical health benefits, banging your drumsticks on the floor to angry music is a totally amazing stress reliever! Plus, the classes are 45, 30, or 15 minutes, so can choose the best interval of time that fits your busy schedule.
More From Seventeen
The cons: You have to be willing to feel a little silly slamming your drumsticks around! If you're not a big fan of loud, group classes like Zumba or Kickboxing, this workout probably isn't for you.
Try it: Currently, POUND offers classes in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Orange County. However, there are instructor-training sessions across the country, and you can visit the POUND site to request a class in your area!
Do you think you would try the POUND workout? What are some of your other favorite group classes? Leave a comment below!


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At the San Diego Convention Center for the 2005 Comic-Con, the cast and executive producers of Paramount Television's new science-fiction series Threshold were ready to meet the press and their public. I chatted with Carla Gugino (Dr. Molly Anne Caffrey), Charles S. Dutton (Deputy National Security Advisor J.T. Baylock), Brian Van Holt (Cavennaugh), Rob Benedict (Lucas Pegg), Peter Dinklage (Arthur Ramsey), Brent Spiner (Dr. Nigel Fenway), and executive producers Brannon Braga, David S. Goyer, and David Heyman. The series will have its two-hour premiere ("Trees Made of Glass") Friday, September 16 at 9pm on CBS, joining CBS' Friday night line-up in its regular one-hour form the following week at 9pm.
Groucho: How would you describe the aesthetic of the series? What was the design approach, and were there any stylistic points of reference?
Brannon Braga: Well, David directed the pilot, so he could answer this better, but we definitely wanted the show to have this whole David Lynch quality. We keep referring to it as supernatural science-fiction. And it's stuff that's so weird, as it probably would be, that it defies even a team of experts to explain at times.
David S. Goyer And the other artistic goal of the series was to make it feel as realistic as possible. So, I guess, for lack of a better word, a more naturalistic approach to it. It's meant to feel like it's really happening; there's also a bit of a verité aspect to it...
Groucho: This question is for the cast. And after seeing the clips, it sort of has a new meaning, but take it how you will. The premise of the show is dramatic change for the people of Earth. How does your character change as a result of facing this crisis? In other words, who were they before and who are they becoming?
Carla Gugino: Definitely with Molly...this is a person who's a bit of a loner, lives alone with her dog, certainly has people skills in the sense that she's dealing with people in her job and everything, but [she]'s much more a theorist, someone who comes in and sort of gives you the answers to a situation and leaves. So I think in this case she's really expecting that she'll be there for support. You know, they'll be taking this [plan, and she's] going to figure out what's going on, and, in fact, she finds out that she is leading this sort of mission because she is the closest thing that they have to an expert, because she has done this, you know, huge sort of research project on potentially what would happen if this actually came to fruition. So her life is pretty much thrown absolutely upside-down. And I think for everybody, basically our lives in a way are taken away from us, in the sense that we have something now to service—a lot bigger picture.
David S. Goyer: The characters in the show want—Molly drafted this plan and nominated all these experts in various fields that she thought should be brought in. And she didn't know any of these experts per se and sort of wanted to hand-pick them, and all of these people are sort of plucked out of their lives and [told], you know, "Come with us." They're not allowed to tell their loved ones what they're doing or when they'll be back—
Carla Gugino: And we're privy to information that frankly we didn't just ask to have.
David S. Goyer: But there's a lot of personal stress among all of the character's lives because they're having to keep this secret, and they don't know when or if they'll ever be sort of let back and reintroduced to civilian life. I mean, Peter, your character says something like that in hour two, basically.
Peter Dinklage: Yes. This character tries to escape. He's terrified, and Brent Spiner's character is something of a '60s radical who does not trust the government, and yet here he is. His life was shattered by the government, he's brought into this situation, and he's forced to work for the government, which does not sit well with him.
Carla Gugino: And on the flip side there's also the amazing-ness (chuckles) of the scientific discovery for these times, so there's that weird combination of "Wow, this is the most incredible thing that we could ever be, kind of—introduced to," and yet it's affecting our lives in really a kind of shocking way.
David Heyman: Be careful what you wish for.
Carla Gugino: Yeah, exactly.
David S. Goyer: The other thing that is a big sort of thing in the series—is that, you know, there are some various sound and visual kind of recordings of an event that happens, and even these secondary recordings of it have somewhat of an effect in the way that it escalates: you know, um—
Rob Benedict: Well, sure—
David S. Goyer: The character of Lucas, yeah. Some of the team members are exposed to something and they don't know if changes are happening to them as well, and that creates a lot of anxiety.
Rob Benedict: Right, yeah. If nothing else, I mean it's a metaphor for what's happening after we sort of experience this and found out that this is happening...just that we feel different. Feel like something different—something definitely happening that's greater than all of us. And, you know, my character does any—he's sort of overcoming, like, fear. I mean, I'm sort of, uh, uh—.
David S. Goyer: Well, we can tell people. His character is supposed to be married in six weeks time, and then you find out that his fiancée is—in fact pregnant. And you're just concerned about—that you can't tell her anything that's going on, and it could be the end of the world...
Rob Benedict: Right.
Peter Dinklage: With that, there's sort of—I mean, being faced with such a huge change in our world. Also credit to these guys—I mean, just great writers holding on to the everyday—you know, like we're faced with this [and] my character's hitting on her. In a crisis, you just change subtly, you know? With good characters, it's not like—(adopts a stentorian voice:) "They learn because there's been an invasion"; you're still going to be who you are, fundamentally, which I really like. At least with my character, I really like that, that he sort of struggles with that, you know. His answer is to go out and get drunk in the face of some violence, which is really, I think, realistic—
Groucho: Mr. Dutton, you play Deputy National Security Advisor; at least two of you play doctors, in the academic sense; and Mr. Dinklage plays a linguist with a penchant for strippers and booze. So my question is: are any of you actively researching your roles? (Peter Dinklage raises his hand. Laughter.)
Peter Dinklage: I think I'm the only one.
Peter Dinklage: And they're researching my role, too. (Laughter.) I'm like, "Back off, it's my role!"
David Heyman: He's very comfortable—very comfortable with the character's sensibility.
Peter Dinklage: Yes—
Groucho: Mr. Spiner, you play a disillusioned NASA microbiologist. Where did that disillusionment spring from, and how does that put you into conflict with the other characters?
Brent Spiner: Uh, well, you know, the back-story of this character, I think, is going to get revealed as we go forward. And so I don't want to give away a lot of stuff about where it's going, and a lot of it I don't know where it's going. But I think where we pick him up is a guy with a lot of armor, who really is not that fond of the human race in general. And—
David S. Goyer: A lot of ex-wives.
Brent Spiner: A lot of ex-wives, we do know that. And I think a lot of disappointment. And I think that's what's informed his character at the moment.
David S. Goyer: And also mistrust of the government. That you feel the government has abused—
Brent Spiner: Right. Mistrust of the government, as David said. But I think a general sort of mistrust of everyone. And I think maybe the journey this guy is on is towards finding hope and trust again. Uh, we'll see.
Peter Dinklage: I think that just goes hand-in-hand with being really smart. (Laughter.)
Brent Spiner: Well, I feel that way—
Groucho: I wanted to ask about the notion of the moral ambiguity of the show: are these heroes or are they anti-heroes?
David S. Goyer: It depends on, you know—the episode, frankly. I mean, 'cause we're going to see in the pilot, second hour, they're sort of heroes. But then you're going to see some episodes from other people's point[s]-of-view, and they're kind of the Men in Black, you know what I mean? There are instances where—there are only a handful of people when our show begins that know this is happening, and for a variety of reasons, they're trying to keep that information under wraps. And part of the show is about what happens when other people find out, and what do we do with them? And it's not always pretty, what we do with them.
Brannon Braga: Also, even in the pilot [there are] a couple of morally ambiguous areas. Like, for instance, Peter's character doesn't want to know, he doesn't want to come, and Cavennaugh—what's your real name?
Brian Van Holt: Brian, Brian. (Laughter.)
Brannon Braga: Brian's character basically tells [Peter's] character, "You either come with us, or you're going to be thrown in—"
David S. Goyer: You're going to go to Guantanamo.
Brannon Braga: You're going to be in prison until this is over, which could be weeks, could be years: it's your choice. And already—that's not legal. I think you can say that's not legal.
Brian Van Holt: It doesn't matter what's legal anymore. These guys are operating under the radar.
Carla Gugino: And I think also in terms of the reality of the show, it brings sort of a real-life nature to it, when you see real people. People are morally ambiguous. That we all sort of say, "We're not capable of this, or this person—you know, I would never do that," but really we're all capable of everything. And I think that in this—certainly, when we're put through to face a major crisis, you don't know what people will do, so hopefully we can keep us guessing and [the audience] guessing—
Brannon Braga: Absolutely. And in the series, the point of Charles's character is to help Molly deploy various facets of the government and military. And that's kind of what he's going to be in charge of, getting stuff done. So there may be situations where we have to do huge things to cities, or to people's lives, that are illegal. That are insanely illegal. And morally questionable. But it's part of the—plan Molly's working, and it's very difficult to pull off, but they have to do it. Brent's character, in the pilot, questions whether or not he can even tell his father, but it's part of the plan that you've got to keep this as contained as possible. There are lots of things that they have to do that you could say make them anti-heroes.
David S. Goyer: Or villains, sometimes. It depends on the—what we'd like is if there's a—if something like this happened, there's a pragmatism involved that goes so far beyond the rule of law. —there's an issue that comes up vis-à-vis the Geneva Conventions, and it's like, "Geneva Conventions—are you kidding me? This is—there aren't any conventions." There's no rulebook.
Charles S. Dutton: Also, as far as heroes, or whatever, what's interesting for me about the guy I play is that I've spent most of my—practically all of my adult life despising guys like the guy I play. You know, politically, philosophically, I think the guy I play is the kind of person who's in a position to derail history. You know? Things are going one way, and people like him and other governmental kind of people can do things to cause history to be derailed in certain ways where it's not supposed to go. So—on one level I think it would be very interesting every week to get into the skin of a character like that, whether or not he's—I'm sure he'll have some heroic moments and some villainous moments as well. I mean, I hope he stays—I hope he doesn't become an alien. I'd like to stay a human being! (Laughter.)—It's one of those, for me—as an actor, I read the script and I said, "You know, this has the potential to really be totally unpredictable, where the character's going.


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The judgment centers on the May 2012 theft of two unencrypted laptops from some of the council's offices, which were in the process of being refurbished. The security breach occurred when an employee placed a key to a safe area into the drawer of a colleague, leaving both devices unprotected long enough to be purloined. One of the devices contained the names, addresses, and in some cases, bank account data, for more than 20,000 individuals.
[ Could the U.K.'s recently vetoed communications monitoring law help prevent crime? Read Will Britain Revive Its 'Snooper's Charter'? ]
This data was unencrypted due to problems with Glasgow's security software, but the ICO maintains that the city should not have allowed its IT supplier to hand out unencrypted laptops to employees. It also points out that staff had asked for -- but not been given -- better-protected laptops, and that managers were aware of a series of recent thefts in the offices. (In fact, an astonishing 74 laptops had gone missing in addition to the one containing sensitive data.) Finally, the ICO's judgment cites the distress suffered by individuals whose personal information was exposed.
The ICO has now served Glasgow with an enforcement notice requiring it to carry out a full audit of all IT assets used to process personal data. It must also arrange for all of its managers to receive appropriate asset management training, and carry out a full check of all of its devices each year and maintain a complete, up-to-date asset register.
"How an organization can fail to notice that 74 unencrypted laptops have gone missing beggars belief," remarked Ken Macdonald, the ICO's assistant commissioner for Scotland. "The fact that these laptops have never been recovered and no record was made of the information stored on them means we will probably never know the true extent of this breach, or how many people's details have been compromised."
According to the ICO, Glasgow has had a history of security problems. In 2010, it was issued with an enforcement notice after an unencrypted memory stick was lost. Macdonald said, "To find out that these poor practices have returned some two years later shows a flagrant disregard for the law and the people of Glasgow."
"The council should be held to account," he added. "The penalty goes some way to achieving that."


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Many devices -- including anything with a remote control or clock -- continue to draw current when they're not in use. This graph shows how many watts of electricity common devices use when they're at work, standing idle or turned off. On average, idle machines use 11 percent of a home's electricity. Want to reduce your footprint? Get unplugged.
Devices such as the Watt Stopper Isolé ($90; below left), which connects to an infrared occupancy detector, cuts off power if a room remains empty for several minutes. Another efficiency tool, the Smart Strip Power Strip ($33; below right), cuts the current to a computer's peripherals (such as a printer) when the computer itself is turned off.
Your Electricity Footprint
* How to Unplug Your Idle Machines


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WordPress.com blogs and websites are very search friendly by default. The best advice we can give you about getting listed in search engines is to make sure your Privacy Settings do allow search engines and then write good content and descriptive titles for images.
While you can control the basic privacy settings and the content for your blog or website, you cannot control when your site will get picked up by a search engine or how they will rank your site. Those details are up to each search engine, and they are always changing. If you are concerned, you should try to find information from the search engine directly in their help pages to find out what they recommend.
For the sake of brevity, the following questions all refer to Google. However the same answers apply to all search engines.
Why isn't my blog in Google?
WordPress.com automatically sends notifications to Google with every post and page update. The search engines can take 4-6 weeks or more to add any new sites. Connecting a Google account with verified site ownership through Google's webmaster tools may help register your site for inclusion. Please contact Google for more information.
I changed my privacy settings and I still don't see my site in Google. Why?
It may take 4-6 weeks or more for search engines to revisit your blog and discover new content. Registering your site on Google and requesting an update may help speed up discovery.
I changed my privacy settings and I don't want to be in Google. How can I remove my site?
You need to wait until your results drop in the search engine. There is nothing we can do. You may request a Google remove a website from their index through the website removal request tool.
Can I upload meta tags / sitemap for the search engines?
WordPress.com automatically generates an XML sitemap for your website and supports webmaster tools validation through meta tags. Themes on WordPress.com generate the necessary markup on each page.
Can I upload a file so Google clears its cache of my blog?
That is not an option offered by WordPress.com.
Can you make Google remove the copy of my blog?
Change your blog privacy settings to prevent search engines from re-indexing your content. We have no control over Google. You may submit a request for removal from the Google index once you have properly configured your blog settings.
I selected "no search engines" so why is my website still listed in Google?
The "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" setting on Settings -> Reading will ask well-behaved search engines not to index your web site in future. It may or may not affect content that has already been indexed by search engines. Please contact Google for more information.
The "Publish" button on the Post tab is aptly named: when you click it, your words go live on the internet for millions of people to read, copy, index and link to as they please. The "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" option will advise search engines that you don't want your content indexed, but they are not obliged to obey it. If you don't want your content to be available to the entire world, your options are:
- Use the Post Password feature to protect an individual post
- Use the visible only to users I choose setting on Options/Privacy to protect your entire blog
- Don't publish your content in the first place
Can you tell me how to use tags best for Google?
We recommend using only a few descriptive, relevant tags per post.
Why does Google return a certain result for my blog/post?
Google decides how to rank and list blogs and websites. We don't have any control over the search results or any special knowledge about how they are selected. Each search engine has their own algorithm that only they control.
How can I verify my blog with Google Webmaster Tools?
You'll find instructions for that on the Webmaster Tools support page.
What about SEO?
For a broader discussion on search engine optimization and how it applies to your blog on WordPress.com, please see All About SEO on WordPress.com, SEO and Your Blog, and How to Publish Posts that Search Engines Will Love.


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Was Chelyabinsk meteor actually a meteor? Many Russians don't think so.
A recent newspaper poll found nearly half of its readers believe that the event could be anything from a divine message to UFOs to a US weapons test.
| Moscow
They say that Russia is the motherland of conspiracy theories, and public reaction to the sudden meteor strike a week ago that stunned people in the Ural mountains, and injured more than 1,200, seems to be proving that true.
A survey published today by the fairly staid Moscow daily Noviye Izvestia found that barely half its readers believe the official report that the blast was caused by a meteor.
According to the newspaper, the other half prefer to believe in an assortment of bizarre explanations, including that the blast was a secret US weapon test, an off-course ballistic missile, a message from God, a crashing alien spaceship, or even an extraterrestrial trojan horse carrying a deadly space virus to wipe out the Earth.
"Our people remember the Soviet past, when news of disasters was concealed or lied about," says Alexei Grazhdankin, deputy director of the Levada Center, an independent Moscow polling agency.
"We have no scientific polls on what people think about the Chelyabinsk event last week, but it's safe to assume the majority of Russians accept that it was a meteorite. However, our past surveys show that up to 25 percent of Russians do believe in UFOs. A lot of our people just prefer not to accept the safe explanations they were taught at school. Even when all necessary information is available, they don't want to believe it."
An echo of a century-old mystery
Scientists insist that they already know most key facts about 10,000-ton iron and stone meteorite – now named Chebarkul, after a city nearest to where the largest fragments landed – that exploded over the Urals city of Chelyabinsk a week ago in a dazzling fireball that released 500 kilotons, the power of 30 Hiroshima A-bombs, about 15 miles above the city.
It was the largest meteorite to make contact with Earth since the vastly more destructive 1908 Tunguskaya event, which involved an estimated 50 megaton blast that leveled an area of almost 800 square miles, and flattened 80-million trees, in a remote part of central Siberia.
The Tungus event remains shrouded in mystery, and subject to many longstanding offbeat theories, in part because scientists themselves cannot decide what actually happened. The Chebarkul meteorite has yielded plenty of fragments in just a week of searching, some of which are reportedly already being peddled on eBay. But after many decades of intensive investigations scientists have yet to find a single identifiable remnant of the huge object a that shattered a wide area of Siberia a century ago.
"We already know that the Chebarkul incident was an asteroidal type of meteorite, meaning it was composed of rock and iron, because we have a sufficient number of fragments in hand," says Oleg Ugolnikov, an expert with the official Space Research Institute in Moscow.
"But Tungus might have been a comet-type, composed of ice and snow, which was totally consumed in the explosion and that's why we don't find any pieces of it. But it remains controversial, and the search for fragments goes on," he says.
But back in 1946 a popular Soviet science-fiction writer named Alexander Kazantsev proposed an alternative explanation, which has taken hold and spawned generations of true believers in Russia. In a series of popular books and novels, Mr. Kazantsev suggested that the huge explosion was caused by the crash of an alien spaceship, a theory which has been developed by followers in a wide variety of colorful directions.
Others have theorized that the Tungus event was caused by an "antimatter" asteroid slamming into the atmosphere over Siberia or even a small black hole punching into the earth.
One of Kazantsev's contemporary followers is scientist Yury Lavbin, who heads the Tunguska Space Phenomenon public organization in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, which has staged several expeditions to the site of the Tungus blast. He says another UFO probably saved Chelyabinsk last week from total destruction by an asteroid.
"In Chelyabinsk last week we had a mini-Tungus," Mr. Lavbin says. "In both cases there were two objects, and a UFO knocked down the second object. In the Tungus case, the UFO was itself destroyed. We know this because we've been to Tungus and recovered metallic fragments that are impossible to produce on Earth ... If not for the intervention of the UFO in the Tungus event, the Earth could have been plunged into a second stone age. I think we were saved again last week," he says.
Believers in this explanation point to a video that purports to show the UFO actually destroying the meteorite, now making the rounds on YouTube.
If not a UFO, then what?
For those Russians not steeped in Tungus lore, or unprepared to believe in UFOs, a wide variety of other offbeat explanations are available for the Chelyabinsk event.
Russian ultranationalist parliamentarian Vladimir Zhirinovsky, with a nod to the currently strained relations between Russia and the US, has suggested that anti-Russian hardliners in the US staged a secret weapons test over Russia.
"Nothing will ever fall out there," from space, Mr. Zhirinovsky told journalists. "If something falls, it's people doing that. People are the instigators of wars, the provocateurs."
About a third of Noviye Izvestia's readers said they thought the meteor was actually a Russian missile test gone awry, or perhaps a falling satellite, which was covered up with the official story of a meteorite.
Inevitably perhaps, at least one leading Russian cleric has insisted that the meteor was a message from God, to remind us all of the fragility of life on this world.
"From the Scriptures, we know that the Lord often sends people signs and warnings via natural forces," Feofan, the senior Orthodox bishop of Chelyabinsk, said in a statement.
And from the trade union newspaper, Trud, the cheery suggestion that the meteorite could be carrying deadly viruses from outer space, possibly the work of malevolent extraterrestrial forces.
"These kinds of events always spur mysticism and give rise to all sorts of speculations. The UFO believers are an old one," says Lidiya Rykhlova, an expert at the Institute of Applied Astronomy in Moscow.
"Unfortunately we stopped teaching astronomy in our schools long ago; people are not equipped, or inclined to see these things in a rational light. I read recently about a survey that found half the population of the world believes that the Sun revolves around the Earth. There you go," she says.


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Hand-manipulated objects and transparent displays - the computer desktop of tomorrow?
A see-through screen, digital 3D objects manipulated by hand, perspective adjustments according to the user's viewing angle - these are the core features of a prototype computer desktop user interface created by Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group. The prototype uses a "unique" Samsung transparent OLED display through which the user can see their own hands to manipulate 3D objects which appear to be behind the screen.
A demo video appears to show a working prototype of a computer markedly different from those we use today. Yes it includes a familiar keyboard and trackpad - but these are placed behind the OLED display. The user simply lifts their hands from these input devices to manipulate on-screen (or more accurately behind-screen) objects, such as selecting a file or window.
The video shows the interface in action with a series of program windows stacked behind one another, with the user selecting the desired program by hand, using the depth of the workspace.
Similar actions are shown to manipulate 3D objects - an exciting prospect not only for gamers, but perhaps also for architects, inventors and engineers working on 3D models. The cherry on the muffin in this respect is the inclusion of head-tracking technology - step to the side to shift your angle of view and your view of the 3D objects on screen will be altered accordingly.
The video certainly poses questions as to the future of human-computer interaction - not necessarily all intentional. Non-touch typists may balk at the idea of a keyboard positioned behind a busy screen (the display may be transparent - that's not to say the information it displays is). Similarly, objects arranged behind one another will necessarily impede view.
But to quibble at the details is rather to miss the point. "This project advances research in current display technologies hoping to provide a more interaction with everyday desktop computing of the future," said Cati Boulanger, a researcher at the Applied Sciences Group. Even with a working prototype, this is a technological what if, not a thou shalt.
See below for a demo video of the prototype in use.
Via Wired UK


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Shorts Are Piling Into These Stocks. Should You Be Worried?
The best thing about the stock market is that you can make money in either direction. Historically, stock indexes tend to trend upward over the long term. But when you look at individual stocks, you'll find plenty that lose money over the long haul. According to hedge fund institution Blackstar Funds, between 1983 and 2006, even with dividends included, 64% of stocks underperformed the Russell 3000, a broad-scope-market index.
A large influx of short-sellers shouldn't be a condemning factor for any company, but it could be a red flag indicating that something is off. Let's look at three companies that have seen a rapid increase in the number of shares sold short and see whether traders are blowing smoke or their worry has some merit.
Short Increase Dec. 13 to Dec. 31
Short Shares as a % of Float
Veeva Systems
Campbell Soup
Source: The Wall Street Journal.
A cloud-based tug-of-war
What do you get when you pit a cloud-based health-care solutions provider against a sea of rabid value-investors? The answer is a 126% increase in your short interest over the last couple of weeks of December!
In the first week of December, Veeva -- whose cloud solutions include Veeva CRM and Veeva Vault, for the management of content-focused processes like clinical trials and manufacturing for life science companies -- reported another quarter of impressive growth. Veeva saw total third-quarter revenue climb 54% to $55 million as subscription-based revenue increased 95% to $38.9 million. Subscription revenue is incredibly important, because cloud-based companies rely on recurring revenue to drive cash flow and assist them when forecasting annual capital expenditures. Quarterly profit, however, was a mere $0.06 per share.
On the flip side, value investors will stick on that final point (Veeva's profit) and note that, with Veeva spending heavily on research and development and pushing aside nonrecurring business in favor of subscription-based business, its near-term profit results will suffer. Given the stock's forward P/E of 128 and price-to-sales ratio of 21, it would certainly seem value investors are right to question Veeva's current valuation.
So where does the balance lie? My guess would be somewhere in the middle.
In the plus column, Veeva is growing its recurring business at a remarkable rate, which will help ensure stable cash flow in the latter half of this decade. In addition, there's a growing need from life sciences and biopharmaceutical providers to improve operating efficiency and reduce costs through the use of CRM and cloud-based software solutions.
In the negatives column, it'll be years before Veeva's profits grow in any meaningful way while the company is focused on expansion and subscription revenue growth. We may not see this forward P/E dip below 50 for another three or four years. To me, this means the real value of Veeva is probably a bit lower than where it's trading now, but that it also deserves a sizable premium to traditional health care software developers. Over the short term, this means short-sellers may indeed have a slight edge.
Uh-oh, spaghetti-O!
While Veeva is overflowing with potential avenues of growth, Campbell Soup is finding the going tough since reporting dismal first-quarter results for fiscal 2014 in November.
Although Campbell hasn't had much in the way of bad news that would spur short-sellers to jump aboard over the past month, the negative tone from its quarterly report could easily be the reason short interest rose by 22% in the latter half of December. For the quarter, Campbell reported a 2% decrease in revenue, a 4% drop in organic sales, and a 21% decline in earnings per share, to $0.66, missing Wall Street's consensus by a mile. To add insult to injury, Campbell also lowered its full-year forecast to account for the slow start and an inventory shift for many of its retailers.
If there was a bright spot over the past couple of months, it was the Bloomberg report that Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway may be eyeing Campbell after purchasing Heinz. Berkshire Hathaway and its CEO make a living by purchasing seemingly "boring" companies that are capable of generating strong cash flow in any economic environment. Food companies like Campbell are still vulnerable to rising food costs, but they sell a basic necessity product that often does well no matter what.
Like Veeva, there are clear positives and negatives. Ultimately, though, this comes down to catalysts, and I'm just failing to see any for Campbell over the near term. While that's bad news for sending Campbell's share price much higher, it's also bad news for short-sellers who are looking for news that might push shares lower. With a beta of just 0.45, short-sellers would probably be best served looking elsewhere.
MEDNAX's beanstalk
Last, but far from least, we have MEDNAX, a U.S.-based medical group that focuses on neonatal, maternal-fetal, and pediatric physician services.
It's not hard to understand why short-sellers have been skeptical of rallies in hospital and insurer stocks lately given how poor Obamacare health exchange enrollments were through their first two months. Weaker than expected enrollment coupled with millions of Americans losing their health insurance because their policies didn't meet tougher benefits requirements established under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the perfect recipe to move short-sellers into these stocks.
But MEDNAX isn't your typical medical group. With a unique focus on neonatal and pediatric care it's able to use its niche physician network and pricing power to drive growth throughout the country. In MEDNAX's third quarter, it reported a 17% increase in revenue, net income, and cash flow from operations. Furthermore, a growing number of Medicaid and CHIP-eligible patients are having a positive reimbursement effect on MEDNAX's bottom line, to the tune of $0.06 per share in the third quarter.
With Obamacare enrollments only recently kicking into high gear and Medicaid-eligible patients flocking to this new health-care reform law, it looks as if MEDNAX could have a couple of years of double-digit growth hidden up its sleeve. It's not a company I'd recommend short-sellers bet against at the moment.
The No. 1 Way to Lose Your Wealth Without Even Knowing It
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The article Shorts Are Piling Into These Stocks. Should You Be Worried? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool owns shares of, and recommends Berkshire Hathaway. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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Blake Shelton to play free concert on AC beach
ATLANTIC CITY – Country music superstar Blake Shelton will play a free concert on the Atlantic City, N.J. beachfront this summer.
Shelton, who is also a judge on the hit TV series "The Voice," will play on the sand near Caesars Atlantic City on July 31.
The concert is presented by The Atlantic City Alliance and its "Do AC" promotional campaign, and will be produced by Live Nation.
Details can be found at www.doatlanticcity.com .
Shelton will be in the area ahead of his scheduled show the next night at New York's Madison Square Garden.
The concert is the latest in a series of free, large-scale events to attract visitors to Atlantic City.
Last year, Jimmy Buffet drew 50,000 fans to a free concert on the beach.


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Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the launch of an expanded online data visualization resource that will allow any user to access aggregated LEED green building project information in the more than 150 countries with LEED projects under way.
Following on the successful U.S. state market briefs launched by USGBC in April, the international market briefs detail LEED projects by owner sector, rating system and space type for all countries with building projects participating in the LEED green building rating system, along with in-market LEED credentialed professionals and USGBC members.
"LEED is driving innovation and sustainable development across the globe," said Mahesh Ramanujam, chief operating officer, USGBC. "These market briefs offer a global view, country by country, simultaneously representing the international demand for LEED and our commitment to making the story and the data behind it transparent."
The global uptake of LEED has surged in the past few years. The gross commercial square footage certified by the Green Building Certification Institute outside the U.S. rose from 156 million to 176 million square feet in a single year (2012-2013). Currently, more than 648 million square feet of commercial space is LEED certified outside the U.S.
The country market briefs dovetail with the recent series of country-specific LEED in Motion reports (Greater China, Sweden, Canada) and the LEED Earth promotion, which offers complimentary LEED certification to the first project in a country to achieve LEED certification. Since the program began in 2013, LEED projects in 15 nations, including Venezuela and Kuwait, have earned free certification.
"Visualizing the global LEED marketplace allows us not only to see the present, but gives us a window through which we can imagine a more sustainable future for our planet," added Ramanujam.
The international market briefs can be downloaded either as a visualization or as a raw data file and are accessible at https://usgbc.org/advocacy/country-market-brief.


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Over this Christmas break, I was over at a friends house and got to sit down and tinker with my friends Mac. I'd forgotten how good fonts look, and I suddenly realized why so many sites are now using custom web fonts. Since I primarily use Windows at work and at home, I get annoyed by fonts that are difficult to read or that don't render well on the screen. Somehow, I've never been 100% happy with font rendering on windows. It's been getting better, but it's still not as good as a Mac is. Maybe its the screen, maybe its the OS, maybe its the app, maybe its a combination of all of the above. Because I've been on this HTML kick, and I'm on windows, I've tended toward Cufon as my font replacement tool of choice when building sites since it's the only one that produces a "more-reasonable" output on my machine.
Web fonts on the other hand, allow you to use fonts in a very similar manner as if you had them installed on your device with native rendering by the OS. You can select, copy, paste, and use it as you would any other piece of text. Web fonts are cacheable, so although you could get a flash of unstyled content when you first visit a page, subsequent visits should render immediately. The disadvantage however, is the OS. On windows, the rendering of fonts just… Sucks. So people don't use it.
But what if there was a way to do a hybrid between Cufon and Web Fonts?
Besides the rendering issue, Web Fonts are the best option. They're the most flexible and the most future proof. But they still suffer on Windows, some phones, and on older browsers that don't support the new
@font-face CSS syntax. So what if we did a hybrid? Use
@font-face, then fall back on Cufon for older browsers, and for windows. The advantage is that on a new browser the
@font-face's will be cached, used for the initial rendering of the page, and then cleaned up with Cufon later.
Using Modernizr and a little custom javascript to do user agent testing I put together a page to test out the hybrid font idea:
It's a rough draft. I have some screen shots below from both Mac and PC's (click for full size versions).
For simplicity, the javascript code to test and load Cufon and my custom cufon polyfill looks like this:
function rendersNiceFontface() { result = navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Win") != -1 || navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Android") != -1; return result; } var supportsNiceFontface = !rendersNiceFontface(); Modernizr.load([ { test : Modernizr.fontface && Modernizr.canvas && supportsNiceFontface, nope : [ 'cufon-yui.js', 'BebasNeueRegular_400.font.js', 'cufon-polyfill.js' ] } ])
Using the Modernizr yepnope.js, I'm able to completely skip loading Cufon at all if the browser supports good
@font-face rules. There's more that I'd have to do to clean it up before I'd use it in a real setting, but it demonstrate the concept, and is something I could definitely use later as a
@font-face polyfill. It does have some drawbacks though, you have to maintain both your CSS rules and your Cufon replacement calls, and Cufon doesn't work well with a large amount of body text, so if you don't support
@font-face, I'd fall back to a good secondary font and forgo Cufon in those cases.
I hope this got some gears turning, I'm looking forward to some comments.


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I recently found myself on board a cruise ship packed not only with Mac experts but also digital-camera gurus as well. With so many of the brightest brains in the business on board for the MacMania/Photoshop Fling cruise —and with nowhere but the Pacific Ocean for them to flee—I took the opportunity to confide my dirty little secret about my digital SLR camera: I had gunk on my sensor, and I didn't have a clue how to safely remove it.
Should you be out of the know, it's like this: When you switch lenses on your SLR, it's possible for the camera to collect small specks of dust on the sensor—the light-sensitive silicon chip that samples incoming light. Even without changing lenses, you can collect dust when shooting in dry, dusty environments. These bits of dust manifest themselves as tiny (and sometimes, not-so-tiny) spots on your pictures. I wanted those spots gone without having to edit them out in Photoshop or iPhoto —but I also wanted to know the safest way to do it.
Boy, was I surprised by the conflicting—and, often emotional—responses I got.
Two views on sensor cleaning
I first heard from the Don't Even Think of Doing This Yourself camp. Representatives of this group state that attempting to clean a sensor voids the warranty on some cameras and that the chance you take in doing it yourself is far outweighed by what you risk—completely destroying the camera. Cited risks are blowers that put more gunk on a sensor than they remove, damage from the use of compressed air, damage due to a shutter suddenly snapping closed because a camera's battery dies mid-cleaning, and a scratched sensor (actually, its protective covering). These folks contend that Taking It To The Shop is the wisest course.
Then there are the What, You've Successfully Taken Apart an iPod? Just Be Careful and You Can Do This Too folks. This group understands that my Nikon D70 is going to earn its fair share of sensor dust, and taking it to the shop time and again will eventually become an unreasonably expensive proposition. (Handing your camera over for cleaning services can cost $30 to $40, according to the estimates I've gotten. And that can add up over time.) With the right tools and techniques (and a measure of care), these people contend, I can do it myself.
Oh, and to be fair, there's my local camera guy who claimed he could put things right with the judicious use of a can of compressed air and a couple of Q-Tips. Representatives from both of the aforementioned groups suggested I put as much distance between myself and the camera guy as humanly possible.
The tools for the job
Because I trusted the judgment of the Do It Yourself folks I spoke with (and because I'm a cheapskate), I opted to take a chance and clean the sensor myself. I consulted with Macworld contributor and digital photo god Ben Long, who suggested I visit VisibleDust —one of the leading suppliers of camera cleaning tools—for the items I'd need.
What follows is a list of the tools I bought and the steps I followed to clean a digital SLR. None of the instructions below are applicable to point-and-shoot cameras since those devices are essentially sealed, making it almost impossible for dust to find its way to the sensor.
Econo 1.6x Complete cleaning kit
Not knowing what I'd be up against, I opted for the Econo 1.6x Complete cleaning kit. It's not cheap at $286.25 Canadian (around $250 in U.S. dollars, depending on the exchange rate), but if it gives me fewer than a dozen cleanings, it's paid for itself in what a shop would charge me. The kit includes specialized sensor cleaning brushes, sensor stain removal solution, sensor brush wash, a brush-cleaning device that rapidly spins the brush and helps eliminate dust on the brush, special sensor and chamber cleaning swabs (with solution), and a large-bulb blower for safely blowing dust off the sensor.
I began by putting the chamber cleaning portion of my kit to good use. After all, little good it would do me to finally expose the sensor only to have crud from the chamber rain down on it. Following along with the video tutorial on Visible Dust's site, I removed the camera's lens and swabbed out the inside of the D70's chamber with one of the foam-tipped swabs dipped in the company's Chamber Clean solution.
Cleaning the camera's chamber
Nikon tells you precious little about the ways and means of cleaning a D70's sensor so it was off to purchase Thom Hogan's $34.90 Complete Guide to the Nikon D70 & D70s. I won't give away the plot of Thom's PDF guide other than to say that he provides more details and recommendations on how to go about cleaning the sensor than does the Nikon manual that comes with your D70 purchase.
Let's get clean
More-cautious experts will tell you that you must plug your camera into an AC adapter when cleaning the sensor. This is good advice as it's a Very Bad Thing when you've got the tip of a blower inside your camera and the mirror snaps closed because the camera's run out of power. Since I don't have an AC adapter, I charged the camera's battery fully and worked as quickly as safety would allow.
Blasting away dust with a blower
Step 1 was to use the blower to blast the dust from the sensor. For this sort of work you want a blower with a big bulb that can deliver a good blast. You do not, however, want a blower with a brush attached. The brush can collect dust of its own and scratch the sensor cover if it comes in contact with the sensor.
Compressed air is not a good idea because it contains a propellant. If you accidentally turn the can upside down, you've just doused your sensor with that propellant (not good).
After a few good blasts from the blower, I put the camera back together, took it outside, and snapped a photo of a white piece of paper. I loaded the resulting image into iPhoto and adjusted the exposure and contrast levels so I could see any specks. The largest speck was gone, but a few smaller specks remained. Subsequent blasts with the blower didn't remove them.
Step 2 was to move to VisibleDust's Sensor Brush 16. This specially designed brush is safe to use on sensors. Following the online instructions, I wiped it once across the sensor, mounted it on VisibleDust's spinning device (pictured above), spun it around several times to remove any particles on the brush, and repeated the process until I'd completely brushed the sensor.
Sensor Brush 16 in use
I again reassembled the camera, took the white shot, and examined the results. Most of the specks were now gone, but a couple remained. Going in one last time, I gave the sensor a couple of good blasts with the blower, which removed the remaining spots.
The verdict
I'm living proof that Joe Sixpack (albeit a careful Joe Sixpack with good tools) can take on the cleaning of a not-inexpensive digital camera's sensor. I expect to read at least a couple of strongly-worded comments in the forum link below suggesting that I was foolish to attempt it and, perhaps, even more foolish to hint that others take my success as their guide. I urge you to read those comments and carefully consider any warnings they might contain.
I was willing to risk my camera in what might have been a perilous experiment. As it turns out, both my camera and I got out clean. Only you can decide if you're willing to balance the cost of a new camera against the hope of speck-free images.
[ When not risking the health and safety of his beloved D70, Christopher Breen is a senior editor for Macworld and Playlist. ]


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Over the many years that I have been teaching Scrum (since 2005!), I have had a Scrum diagram as part of my slides and/or handouts. The diagram has gone through several major and minor changes throughout that time. Here is the progression from oldest to newest:
First Attempt
This diagram was used in some of my earliest slides when I first started delivering Scrum training. It is bad. It is woefully incomplete. But, here it is:
Second Diagram
I knew the first one was bad so after not too long, I created this next diagram as a supplement that was meant to show the whole Scrum process all in one page. Similar to other Scrum "cheat sheet" style diagrams. I used this diagram until about 2008 when I got some very good feedback from a great trainer, Jim Heidema.
Third Try
The changes I made were small, but to me, significant. Changing from a "mathematical" language of "Sprint N", "Sprint N+1" to a more general language of "Current", "Future" was a big deal. I really struggled with that. Probably because I was still relatively new to being non-technical.
Diagram Four
This fourth diagram made some minor formatting changes, but most importantly added "Backlog Grooming". It's funny how long I talked about grooming in my classes before realizing that it was missing from the diagram. I used the previous diagram and this diagram for a couple years each before making a rather major change to create the next one.
Fifth Go
A couple years ago I realized that I wasn't really talking about the Scrum values in my classes. I started to introduce them in some of my other handouts and discussions, but it still took a while for me to reflect those values in my diagram. I had also received a lot of feedback that having two Product Backlogs in the diagram was confusing. Finally, I realized that I was missing an opportunity to use colour more systematically. So, a major reformatting, systematic colour coding and the addition of the Scrum values was my next change.
Branded Diagram (ug.)
In a rush, I added some logos to the diagram. Just made it gross, but it's badness, combined with feedback about said badness, actually inspired a major change for the next version.
Seventh Diagram (Sep. 2014)
I was showing my brand-new branded diagram to a bunch of people who really care about design and UX. The very first comment when I handed out the diagram was: "wow, you can really tell this wasn't done by a designer!" Well, that got me thinking deeply about the diagram (again). So, here is my newest, latest and greatest (still not done by a designer) version of my Scrum diagram!
Eighth Diagram (2016-ish)
This new diagram represents many small changes including a much stronger focus on Scrum "by-the-book". The most important and significant change is the addition of a bit of information about the definition of done. It also includes some other very minor layout and content changes, and updated branding (again) with the new BERTEIG logo. This one has been in use since some time in 2016, but I don't remember the exact date.
Ninth Diagram (June 2019)
A re-branding of the diagram with color and iconography meant to be consistent with our other diagrams. The work on converting from the previous diagram to this one was done by my son, Justice Berteig.
Tenth Diagram (Sep 2019)
There were quite a few things that were missing from the previous diagram and a small number of things lingering that still were not compliant with the definition of Scrum from the Scrum Guide. I think this one has all the needed changes. Big additions include the "Development Team", "Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation", "Product Vision" and "Marketplace".
The Future
I would absolutely love constructive feedback about this latest diagram. Of course, if you like it, please let me know that too! The thing I like about this is that it is a way of looking back at almost 9 years of my teaching history. Continuous improvement is so important, so I welcome your comments! If you have your own diagrams, please link to them in the comments – I would love to see those too! In fact, it would be really cool if a bunch of people could make little "Evolution of a Scrum Diagram" posts – let me know if you do!!!
PS. Here is a Scrum diagram created by my colleague Travis Birch.
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NASA just sent me this beautiful video of the Sun. "There's no science behind it," says Scott Wiessinger, Helio and Astrophysics Video Producer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, "but it's very pretty." You got it, Scott. It's also very trippy.
This video takes SDO images and applies additional processing to enhance the structures visible. While there is no scientific value to this processing, it does result in a beautiful, new way of looking at the sun. The original frames are in the 171 Angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet. This wavelength shows plasma in the solar atmosphere, called the corona, that is around 600,000 Kelvin. The loops represent plasma held in place by magnetic fields. They are concentrated in "active regions" where the magnetic fields are the strongest. These active regions usually appear in visible light as sunspots. The events in this video represent 24 hours of activity on September 25, 2011.


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Story highlights
Queen Elizabeth II reads a speech to Parliament that sets out the government's agenda
At its heart is a proposal for a tough new bill on immigration, the government says
Steps to strengthen the economy are also a priority, the speech says
The government will continue to press for Scotland to stay within the United Kingdom
The UK government has put immigration reform and the economy at the heart of its plans for the new parliamentary session, which opened Wednesday with the Queen's Speech.
The address by Queen Elizabeth II for the ceremonial state opening of Parliament is written by the government, although read out by the monarch.
At the center of the government's legislative agenda is a new bill with "tough new measures to continue immigration reform and prevent illegal immigrants accessing services they're not entitled to," the Home Office said.
"The bill will ensure that this country attracts people who will contribute and deters those who will not," the queen said.
The legislation will also "contain measures to make it harder for people to prevent their removal with spurious appeals, reduce the complexity of immigration law and make clear that foreign national offenders should be deported, except in extraordinary circumstances," the Home Office said.
A move to the right on immigration may be a response to the political threat posed by the UK Independence Party, known as UKIP, which has made gains in local elections at the expense of the Conservatives. UKIP has promised steps to limit the number of migrants entering Britain.
Measures to make deportation easier may also reflect the Home Office's long-running, and so far unsuccessful, efforts to deport radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada. A series of legal appeals have kept the Jordanian national in the country.
Lawmaker Yvette Cooper, of the opposition Labour Party, criticized the measures outlined in the Queen's Speech, saying they fail to tackle key issues around the exploitation of foreign workers and illegal immigration.
"Immigration is important for Britain and needs to be controlled and managed so it is fair for all," she said.
Welfare reforms
The government will also work to boost Britain's economic competitiveness so it can continue to succeed in the world, the Queen's Speech said.
"To this end, it will support the growth of the private sector and the creation of more jobs and opportunities," the queen said.
In addition, the government intends to pass new measures to tackle anti-social behavior, cut crime and reform the police.
The legislative agenda also includes more measures to reform the state benefits system, "helping people move from welfare to work," the speech said.
The government's sweeping welfare reforms, affecting state help for the disabled and unemployed, have already been controversial in Britain, which is struggling with a large budget deficit.
The Conservatives govern in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
Queen Elizabeth II to miss Commonwealth heads meeting
The Queen's Speech also said the government "will continue to make the case for Scotland to remain in the United Kingdom."
Scots will go to the polls next year to decide whether Scotland should stay in the United Kingdom or become independent.
Prime Minister David Cameron has previously said he wants Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom.
The queen's appearance at Parliament, accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, came a day after Buckingham Palace said it was reviewing the number of long-haul flights she takes.
The monarch will miss a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in Sri Lanka in November, sending her son, Prince Charles, in her place.


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The FBI said this afternoon that it had arrested a total of fourteen individuals thought to belong to the Anonymous hacking group for their alleged participation in a series of distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) against PayPal last year.
The defendants, all of whom were in the 20s or early 30s, were arrested on no-bail arrest warrants in a series of raids in Alabama, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts and five other states. All of them were charged in an indictment that was unsealed in federal court in San Jose today.
Two other individuals were also arrested today on what the FBI said in a statement were related cybercrime charges.
One of them, Scott Matthew Arciszewski, 21, was arrested in Florida on charges that he illegally accessed files from a Tampa Bay InfraGard website last year and then publicly posted information telling others how to break into the site.
The other indictment unsealed in federal court in New Jersey charged Lance Moore, 21, of Las Cruces, N.M., of stealing protected business information from an AT&T server in June this year, and posting it on a public file hosting site. The thousands of documents, applications and files that Moore is alleged to have stolen was later made publicly available by the LulzSec hacking group, the indictment alleges.
According to the San Jose indictment, the 14 individuals who were arrested today were all members of Anonymous who conspired to attack PayPal last December in retaliation for its perceived opposition to WikiLeaks.
Soon after the whistleblower site started publicly releasing classified U.S. State Department cables late last November, PayPal terminated an account that WikiLeaks had set up to collect donations, citing violations of its terms of service.
The move prompted a series of angry retaliatory DDoS attacks against PayPal by members of the Anonymous hacking collective. Similar attacks were carried out by Anonymous members against several other sites that were seen as opposing WikiLeaks.
The attacks, dubbed "Operation Avenge Assange," were coordinated by Anonymous using an open source tool called Low Orbit Ion Cannon that the group made available for public download to anyone who wanted to participate.
The 14 individuals named in today's indictment in San Jose have each been charged with conspiring to and intentionally causing damage to a protected computer. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while the intentional damage charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $500,000 charge, the FBI noted in its statement.
The individuals named in the San Jose indictment are Christopher Cooper, 23, Joshua Covelli, 26, Keith Downey, 26, Mercedes Haefer, 20, Donald Husband, 29, Vincent Kershaw, 27, Ethan Miles, 33, James Murphy, 36, Drew Phillips, 26, Jeffrey Puglisi, 28, Daniel Sullivan, 22, Tracy Valenzuela, 42 and Christopher Quang Vo, 22. One individual was unnamed.
The raids come amid a recent spike in activity by Anonymous. Just last week, members of the group claimed credit for breaking into computers belonging to military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and exposing the email addresses and passwords of more than 90,000 military personnel.
Earlier this month, Anonymous was labeled a cyberterrorism group by the Arizona Department of Public Safety after members of the group repeatedly attacked Arizona police union websites to protest the state's tough immigration laws. ln December, Anonymous launched a series of DDoS attacks against several organizations, including PayPal and Amazon.com, to protest what it claimed were efforts to stifle whistleblower site WikiLeaks.
Today's FBI raids shouldn't come as a surprise, said Josh Shaul, CTO of Application Security Inc. "They got a lot of people angry," he said. "When you play with fire you are going to get burned."
What is unusual, however, is that some Anonymous members appeared to have put little effort into concealing their tracks, he said. "It seems like these folks who got caught were brazen and careless about the way they went about their hacking activity."
Many of the recent attacks by Anonymous and splinter group LulzSec appear to be focused on embarrassing the victims, not about outright data theft or sabotage. Even so, "they [law enforcement officials] are certainly going to want to make an example of anyone they can bring in," Shaul said.
Read more about cybercrime and hacking in Computerworld's Cybercrime and Hacking Topic Center.


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Most people have some second or even first-hand experience with cancer. Whether you've watched a loved one struggle, or if you are a survivor yourself, you know how difficult the battle can be. And if you've gone through it or seen someone go through chemotherapy treatments, you know the poison meant to kill cancer cells can severely weaken the entire body, seemingly destroying healthy cells as well. The treatment can be especially dangerous for children with cancer.
Fortunately, if diagnosed with cancer, we all get a say in how our illness is treated. Right?
That's what the Minnesota family of 8-year old Sarah Parisian thought as doctors tried to force chemotherapy on their young and vibrant child. They were wrong.
Sarah had recently had 90 percent of a brain tumor removed and doctors were recommending a year of chemo to kill the rest of the cancer cells. Her family was not convinced. Suffering from nausea, weight and hair loss, sore throat, and sleeping 22 hours a day, they wanted to seek out alternative treatments for their otherwise happy child.
The medical establishment, undermining their rights as parents and accusing them of making decisions detrimental to the child's health, took them to court.
Eventually, an agreement was reached, allowing for Sarah's treatment to combine chemo with alternative treatments. Though, I'm not entirely sure how much of an "agreement" is was considering the Parisian family was threatened with loss of custody if they didn't cooperate. Now, Sarah will receive less than the originally-recommended chemo chemicals and be able to supplement them with alternative therapies.
So, why the fuss? What's wrong with chemo?
If you've seen someone go through chemotherapy, you can tell it isn't the most health-promoting treatment. No, chemotherapy uses a mixture of poisons to kill cancer cells. But, in the process, it wreaks havoc on healthy cells and the rest of the body.
One of the ingredients in chemo has actually been labeled as carcinogenic by the World Health Organization. Yes, the chemical used in a drug to kill cancer has been found to cause cancer.
Also, there is substantiated concern that chemo creates stronger cancer cells, those that resist treatments.
Still, chemotherapy is used as the first-line of treatment for many types of cancers, and mainstream doctors balk at the idea that anything other than this slew of poisons could have promising effects on this life-threatening disease.
Similar to mandatory vaccinations, mandatory chemotherapy is evidence that the medical establishment thinks people are too dumb for their own good—that they somehow know what's best for everyone. This despite the fact that they hide behind a crooked system where profit is king and health actually takes a backseat.
The case of Sarah Parisian isn't the first of its kind and it likely won't be the last.
Regardless of your diagnosis, arm yourself with information and be prepared to fight for the right to care for your own body, and that of your child's, on your own terms, or risk letting the establishment step in and do it for you.
While chemotherapy has been found to negatively impact future DNA for generations, turmeric, garlic, ginger, and papaya rest among many cancer fighting foods. Marijuana oil has even been used to save lives from cancer death.
Additional Sources:


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1998 Regular Session
To: Fees, Salaries and Administration; Finance
By: Senator(s) Harden
Senate Bill 2121
SECTION 1. Section 25-9-107, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
25-9-107. The following terms, when used in this chapter, unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context, shall have the following meanings:
(a) "Board" shall mean the State Personnel Board created under the provisions of this chapter.
(b) "State service" shall mean all employees of state departments, agencies and institutions as defined herein, except those officers and employees excluded by this chapter, and shall specifically include employees of the Mississippi Industries for the Blind.
(c) "Nonstate service" shall mean the following officers and employees excluded from the state service by this chapter. The following are excluded from the state service:
(i) Members of the state Legislature, their staffs and other employees of the legislative branch;
(ii) The Governor and staff members of the immediate Office of the Governor;
(iii) Justices and judges of the judicial branch or members of appeals boards on a per diem basis;
(iv) The Lieutenant Governor, staff members of the immediate Office of the Lieutenant Governor and officers and employees directly appointed by the Lieutenant Governor;
(v) Officers and officials elected by popular vote and persons appointed to fill vacancies in elective offices;
(vi) Members of boards and commissioners appointed by the Governor, Lieutenant Governor or the state Legislature;
(vii) All academic officials, members of the teaching staffs and employees of the state institutions of higher learning, the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges, and community and junior colleges;
(viii) Officers and enlisted members of the National Guard of the state;
(ix) Prisoners, inmates, student or patient help working in or about institutions;
(x) Contract personnel; provided, that any agency which employs state service employees may enter into contracts for personal and professional services only if such contracts are approved in compliance with the rules and regulations promulgated by the State Personal Service Contract Review Board under Section 25-9-120(3). Before paying any warrant for such contractual services in excess of One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000.00), the Auditor of Public Accounts, or the successor to those duties, shall determine whether the contract involved was for personal or professional services, and, if so, was approved by the State Personal Service Contract Review Board;
(xi) Part-time employees; provided, however, part-time employees shall only be hired into authorized employment positions classified by the board, shall meet minimum qualifications as set by the board, and shall be paid in accordance with the Variable Compensation Plan as certified by the board;
(xii) Persons appointed on an emergency basis for the duration of the emergency; the effective date of the emergency appointments shall not be earlier than the date approved by the State Personnel Director, and shall be limited to thirty (30) working days. Emergency appointments may be extended to sixty (60) working days by the State Personnel Board;
(xiii) Physicians, dentists, veterinarians, nurse practitioners and attorneys, while serving in their professional capacities in authorized employment positions who are required by statute to be licensed, registered or otherwise certified as such, provided that the State Personnel Director shall verify that the statutory qualifications are met prior to issuance of a payroll warrant by the auditor;
(xiv) Personnel who are employed and paid from funds received from a federal grant program which has been approved by the Legislature or the Department of Finance and Administration whose length of employment has been determined to be time-limited in nature. This subparagraph shall apply to personnel employed under the provisions of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973, as amended, and other special federal grant programs which are not a part of regular federally funded programs wherein appropriations and employment positions are appropriated by the Legislature. Such employees shall be paid in accordance with the Variable Compensation Plan and shall meet all qualifications required by federal statutes or by the Mississippi Classification Plan;
(xv) The administrative head who is in charge of any state department, agency, institution, board or commission, wherein the statute specifically authorizes the Governor, board, commission or other authority to appoint said administrative head; provided, however, that the salary of such administrative head shall be determined by the State Personnel Board in accordance with the Variable Compensation Plan unless otherwise fixed by statute;
(xvi) The State Personnel Board shall exclude top level positions if the incumbents determine and publicly advocate substantive program policy and report directly to the agency head, or the incumbents are required to maintain a direct confidential working relationship with a key excluded official. Provided further, a written job classification shall be approved by the board for each such position, and positions so excluded shall be paid in conformity with the Variable Compensation Plan;
(xvii) Employees whose employment is solely in connection with an agency's contract to produce, store or transport goods, and whose compensation is derived therefrom;
(xviii) Personnel employed by the State Prison Emergency Construction and Management Board, paid from funds from the "Correctional Facilities Emergency Construction Fund," or employed under contracts let or approved by the board for the construction, acquisition, lease, lease-purchase or operation of prison facilities. This subparagraph shall stand repealed from and after July 1, 1996;
(xix) The associate director, deputy directors and bureau directors within the Department of Agriculture and Commerce.
(d) "Agency" means any state board, commission, committee, council, department or unit thereof created by the Constitution or statutes if such board, commission, committee, council, department, unit or the head thereof, is authorized to appoint subordinate staff by the Constitution or statute, except a legislative or judicial board, commission, committee, council, department or unit thereof.
SECTION 2. Section 43-3-105, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
43-3-105. The Executive Director of the MIB shall:
(a) Employ all necessary employees at MIB and dismiss them as is necessary, pursuant to the rules and regulations of the State Personnel Board;
(b) Administer the daily operations at MIB;
(c) Execute any contracts on behalf of MIB; and
(d) Take any further actions which are necessary and proper toward the achievement of MIB's purposes.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 1998.