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Common themes help students connect stories
They are three very different books.
One is about a girl's suicide. Another about 1960s gang violence. The third about love and fears of infidelity.
But high school students at the Southwest Alternative Education Center are finding something personally relevant in all three.
English teacher Bethia Williams said she chose for her students "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher, "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton and "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare because of common themes that seem to run constant in life.
"They have themes in all of them that students can relate to today," Williams said. "Even Shakespeare, which was written in the 1500s. The language has changed so
dramatically, but as we go through it the students are just so surprised that the topics that come up are still relevant and important today."
The same thing goes for "The Outsiders," Williams said, a coming-of-age story set in 1960s Tulsa about two rival gangs and the struggles and angst of the personalities involved.
"So students are seeing that yes, there is a clash of different groups in society and there are still cliques around — they're called different things now, but they're still there," Williams said. "Students are making these connections of how life is a lot the same for teenagers today as it was for teenagers then."
For "Thirteen Reasons Why", Williams had to send a note home first notifying parents of some of the topics in the book, which revolve around a girl's suicide tapes. None of the parents objected.
"Students relate to the issues in that book because they deal with things like suicide, bullying and how what you do can greatly affect somebody and you don't even necessarily realize it," Williams said.
She called "Thirteen Reasons Why" the "best young adult book" she has "ever came across." There was actually a waiting list of 12 students wanting to read it, besides the ones already doing so in her class.
Christina Stevens, a junior, isn't naturally a big reader, but she said "Thirteen Reasons Why" is one she has really gotten into.
"When you read something like that, you think about how she (the girl on the tapes) must have really felt, you understand where she's coming from," Stevens said. "It really makes you think."
While the three books mentioned are very different from one another, there is a sort of subtle link that binds them in a way high school students can relate to — which is one of the main reasons Williams chose them to begin with.
"They all have different themes about relationships," Williams said. "Relationships are the biggest theme in all of them. Sometimes it's a family relationship, sometimes it's a love interest relationship. But those are the big ones that show up. ... And (the books) have helped a lot of my students who are reluctant readers in class to take more of an interest in reading and want to do better."
Neosho Daily News


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Sony is a manufacturer whose IP surveillance products we have carreid and while we find their products to be excellent in the IP surveillance market, they are not at their core a VoIP telephony manufacturer. Therefore, we will no longer carry this product.
To find a partner that can help you with creating your Sony IP surveillance solution, VoIP Supply recommends filling out the Contact Us form on the Sony website.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cosmetic Plastic Surgery in Denver, Colorado
Dr. Francesco Campanile is a board-certified plastic surgeon in Denver, Colorado.
*Actual patients shown before and after surgery. Your results may vary. Photos are for education only and are not meant as a guarantee of results.
Campanile Plastic Surgery:Dr. Francesco Campanile
425 S. Cherry St. Suite #510Denver, CO 80246
Office Hours: Monday - Thursday: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m
Friday: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Individual experience, results, and recovery may vary. Results shown on our site are not a guarantee of the results you can achieve. Unless otherwise noted, images on this site are of models, not actual patients.
Our patients and staff health and safety is incredibly important to us. In an effort to mitigate the risks associated with the coronavirus, Campanile Plastic Surgery has implemented several measures to help protect both our staff and our patients from illness, based on guidelines from the CDC and AAAASF. We are able to provide virtual appointments and are available via phone calls. We have screenings in place to be sure our office remains safe for everyone who enters. If you have questions please give us a call or email us at: [email protected]. We are all in this together and we will do everything possible to provide you excellent patient care even during this difficult time.


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Poll: Arcata Voters Like Corps Ain't Peeps, Grow House Energy Tax Measures – October 26, 2012
News Release – Arcata Pre-Election Poll 2012 Oct. 26, 2012
Prof. Mark Larson, Journalism & Mass Communication Department
Pre-election poll results in Arcata for Measures H and I
A recent poll of 474 registered "likely" voters in Arcata asking how they would vote on city Measures H and I in the Nov. 6 Arcata City election showed strong support for each measure.
For Measure H, 78.3 percent said "Yes" in favor (12.2 percent said "No"), while 61.5 percent said "Yes" in support of Measure I (23.2 percent said "No").
Only 9.5 percent said they didn't know how they would vote on Measure H while 15.2 percent said they didn't know how they would vote on Measure I.
"These results, particularly the low 'don't know' percentages, suggest that most Arcata voters have made up their minds on these ballot measures," said Mark Larson, journalism professor at Humboldt State University, who sponsored the poll. Larson and students in his journalism research class have previously conducted polls on Arcata's city council election and ballot measures from 1976 to 2000 and 2006 to 2010.
The error margin for a random sample of 474 is plus or minus 4.5 percent, with a confidence level of 95 percent.
"Both Measures have a comfortable lead at the time the poll was taken, given that the percentage of supporters easily exceeds twice the error margin over the percentage of opponents," said Larson. "Polls should not be considered predictions, however, so the actual election may be still up for grabs depending on the turn out and how the undecided choose to vote."
The random sample was selected from public records of Arcata registered voters who listed telephone numbers, including those with cell phone numbers. The poll was conducted between the hours of 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Oct. 22-25. There was a refusal rate of 35.1 percent, a typical refusal rate found in previous telephone surveys in Arcata, said Larson. "We thought the refusal rate would be far worse, given that this week unexpectedly included evening playoff and World Series baseball games and the Presidential debate."
The poll results cited include only the 474 registered voters who said it was likely or very likely that they would be voting on Nov. 6. "We excluded 19 of the 493 registered voters who participated in the poll who said they were unsure or it was unlikely that they would be voting on Nov. 6," said Larson.
The sample included 46.8 percent men and 53.2 percent women, similar to (within the error margin) of the population of Arcata voters.
The age of voters in the sample broke down to 45 percent from 18-29 years old, 14 percent from 30 to 39, 8 percent from 40 to 49, 12 percent from 50 to 59, and 21 percent 60 and older. "By chance, it appears this sample may have over-sampled slightly those aged 39 and younger compared to those who participated in recent pre-election polls," said Larson.
"I always feel very proud of my students' efforts to conduct this real-world experiential-education project," said Larson. "They deserve all the credit for this important civic-journalism activity. Conducting a poll on just these ballot measures was just a very unusual experience for us all this year with all the incumbent city council candidates running unopposed."
The actual questions in the pre-election survey read:
2. There are two Arcata city measures on the ballot, Measure H and Measure I. Measure H is an AN INITATIVE DECLARING THAT CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PERSONS. This initiative makes a declaratory statement that within the City of Arcata, corporations are not natural persons and are not entitled to the protections granted by the United States Constitution to natural persons. The stated purpose of this initiative is a long-term goal of changing federal and/or state law to be consistent with this understanding of corporations. ****IF THE ELECTION WERE HELD TODAY, how would you vote on Measure H – YES or NO?
Results for Measure H:
(# of votes) (percent)
Don't Know 45 9.5%
* Sample = 474 registered "likely" voters.
3. The second Arcata city measure on the ballot is Measure I. Measure I reads: EXCESSIVE RESIDENTIAL ELECTRICITY USERS TAX. Shall the City of Arcata impose an electricity users tax rate of 45% on residential customers whose electricity usage exceeds 600% over the established Baseline Allowance with a sole exemption for households receiving an extended Medical Baseline from the electricity service supplier, and automatically terminating in twelve years? ****IF THE ELECTION WERE HELD TODAY, how would you vote on Measure I – YES or NO?
Results for Measure I:
(# of votes) (percent)
Don't Know 72 15.2%
* Sample = 474 registered "likely" voters.


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The look of UFC 70's fight card just got a whole lot clearer.
UFC 70, which takes place April 21 in Manchester, England, will be the first UFC show on foreign soil since UFC 38's "Brawl in the Hall" in 2002.
The rumors have been swirling for a couple weeks now, and a UFC press conference today confirmed it: Andrei Arlovski (10-5 MMA, 8-4 UFC) will face Fabricio Werdum (9-2-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) in a major heavyweight battle. Additionally, a Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin rematch will not happen, seeing how Griffin (13-4 MMA, 4-2 UFC) is now set to face Ryoto Machida (9-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC).
Arlovski is a former UFC heavyweight champ. He won the belt from Tim Sylvia at UFC 51, and after twice defending his belt (Justin Eilers at UFC 53 and Paul Buentello at UFC 55), lost a subsequent rematch and a rubber match to Sylvia. He looked dominant in his latest UFC fight, though, beating Marcio Cruz with a first-round KO at UFC 66.
Werdum, one of the world's top-ranked heavyweights, is a PRIDE Fighting Championships veteran who will make his UFC debut at the UFC 70 show. The Brazilian is part of Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic's training camp and actually serves as the Croatian's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach.
The winner of Arlovski vs. Werdum should emerge — with Filipovic — as a top heavyweight contender and could be in line for a title shot.
The Griffin vs. Machida bout is equally intriguing.
Griffin, fresh off a humbling defeat at the hands of Keith Jardine at UFC 66, isn't getting much a reprieve with Machida.
After winning the light heavyweight division of The Ultimate Fighter's first season, Griffin rose to superstar status. However, he's lost two of his past three fights (to Ortiz and Jardine), and another one would spell disaster for the fighter.
Machida, who handed former UFC champion Rich Franklin his first career MMA loss (in a non-UFC fight in 2003), is a Japanese-Brazilian K-1 veteran who made his UFC debut earlier this month at UFC 67. He won a decisive unanimous decision over Sam Hogar.
The latest card now includes:
UFC 70 — April 21 in Manchester, England (M.E.N. Arena)
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
Andrei Arlovski vs. Fabricio Werdum
Tito Ortiz vs. TBA
Ryoto Machida vs. Forrest Griffin
Michael Bisping vs. Elvis Sinosic
Assuerio Silva vs. Cheick Kongo
Dennis Siver vs. Jess Liaudin
Alessio Sakara vs. Victor Valimaki
David Lee vs. TBA


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Architects: Openbox Architects
- Area: 450 m²
- Year: 2010
Photographs:Pruk Dejkhamheang
Text description provided by the architects. The site of this project was on the edge of a small, man-made lake, inside a property adjacent to Kaoyai National Park. The selected placement of the cluster was to maximize the views, ventilation and privacy. With part of the land curving around the lake, and a gentle slope towards the lake, the best lake view scenery was selected and framed to be the main view of the living and dining compound.
Arriving at the lake view scene was stretched into an interesting journey. The approaching sequence was carefully outlined: starting from the main entrance gate, the entrance curved road around berms, wild grass and trees that helped to frame the entrance court with a group of large existing trees in the center, as a foreground of the house. From this point, the house was seen as seen as series of grey walls stretching across the whole width of the land. Only through a large timber panel in the middle of a clean line of walls, the unobstructed lake scene is revealed to sight.
For unobstructed facing towards the lake view on the east, the extra long overhang was provided to protect the glass window from rain and excessive sun light. All sliding panels can be left open even on a rainy day.
Humidity is always a big issue for forrest area. Even as a single storey house, every platform is raised from ground level, away from humidity, and natural rainwater surface flow. As a weekend home by the forrest, maintenance is the biggest issue. The use of timber is very little, only where absolutely necessary. All solid timber has to be Teak to prevent termites' attack. Material selection has to be very common, constructed in very simple and solid details. In tropical region, small animals live in all parts of a house, where there are gaps and holes within structures. Therefore, reinforced concrete, brick and plaster were used as the main core material, while polished cement screed surface is used on most surface. This results in a "solid" single material from roof top surface to ceiling surface.


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Today's News: Our Take - Broadcast Networks Aim to Reclaim Summer With Scripted Series
CBS is serious about tackling broadcast TV's summer problem, and to prove it, the network is hauling out two big names: Steven Spielberg and Stephen King.
The Steves are behind the upcoming 13-episode CBS summer series Under the Dome, based on King's best-selling thriller about a New England town that becomes sealed off from the rest of the world. It's a major undertaking, but if it succeeds, Spielberg and King may accomplish what others have failed to do for decades: Launch a big scripted network hit in the summertime.
And Under the Dome isn't the Eye network's only big summer play. Also on deck: The Poppy Montgomery drama Unforgettable - which was canceled last year - has been resurrected and is moving to summer for its second season.
CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler says the network is making a concerted effort to keep the lights on during the vacation months. "I think we're looking at audiences' evolving viewing habits," she says. "The impulse to seek out and consume original content is now a part of our culture. We're looking at the willingness to experiment and try different ways of scheduling and different times to offer original content."
CBS isn't the only network looking to finally make some real noise with scripted fare during the off-season. NBC just picked up the 13-episode series Camp, a dramedy from Liz Heldens (Friday Night Lights) and Peter Elkoff (Gossip Girl) about families at a summer camp. "It's important," NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt says of expanding his summer output, which will also include several new unscripted series in addition to America's Got Talent, American Ninja Warrior and The Voice (which spills into June). "We have he good fortune of being in a massively good place with unscripted. But we want to do more scripted."
NBC's Hannibal could also wind up in the summer (depending on how well its midseason debuts perform). "If you look at all the great cable shows that are on in summer, I think it could fit really nicely in that world," Greenblatt says.
At ABC, that network plans to launch the new sudsy drama Mistresses and bring back Rookie Blue. (Another show, the paranormal drama Weird Desk, was delayed.) Fox is keeping its plans close to the vest, but entertainment chairman Kevin Reilly has also hinted at grand plans: "I'm going to try a few things differently," he says.
The need for change comes out of necessity. The networks realize that they can't keep losing momentum every summer. Cable dominates original scripted television from May to September, as broadcasters focus mostly on reality series. "Do I want more competition?" asks Michael Wright, head of programming at TNT, TBS and TCM. "No. But it's the reality of the game. And I'm sure the broadcast networks aren't thrilled that we are running into the fall and into the winter. But you have to."
Scripted originals that do air on the networks in the summer are usually burn-offs: Shows that didn't make the schedule in the fall or winter; leftover episodes of shows already canceled; or foreign acquisitions like Canada's Rookie Blue and Flashpoint. But beyond those two entries, few other imports have succeeded (though they may be cheap enough to be profitable, even with super low ratings). "What we're trying not to do is grab foreign co-productions that are already made and cheap enough that we just put on our air," Greenblatt says. "That's not a bad business decision. But with Camp, which is the first time we've done this, we wanted to take a show that we developed and can get excited about."
Wright says even though it makes sense for the broadcast networks to expand their original offerings, they're taking a financial hit by airing fewer repeats. "They're already struggling with an inability to rerun everything," he says. " If you struck all of their repeat runs over the summer, the business model would be very challenged," he says.
But viewers tend to ignore summer repeats, with a few exceptions (mostly comedies like The Big Bang Theory). With fewer eyeballs in the summer, the networks have a much smaller audience to see promos for their upcoming fall series.
Every few years, one of the broadcast networks makes a grandiose announcement that it's betting big on summer TV -l ike in 1997, when Fox heavily promoted the July premiere of the original series Roar, starring Heath Ledger. But that show ultimately lasted just eight episodes. The last successful scripted summer launch may very well have been 1992's Melrose Place, which debuted after original episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210. The 1990 summer launch of Northern Exposure is also frequently cited as a rare network summer debut.
At the same time, cable is moving out of summer and encroaching on the broadcast network's fall and winter turf. "Today, basic cable networks rolling out new series throughout the entire year," says Turner's Wright.
Networks have been slow to embrace summer because to some degree it just doesn't make economic sense. Since viewership is smaller, it's tougher to recoup your investment. "Every cable network is doing more and more scripted," Greenblatt says of the crowded field. "We're certainly not going to have a whole night of scripted TV or four or five new nights to launch. It would be too hard to transform ourselves from what we are into that. You have to make it in a very fiscally responsible way. There will be compromises in terms of how many days we shoot and how much money we spend but that's good discipline for us in the long run anyway,"
At CBS, Tassler says the network is striving to make Under the Dome economically viable. CBS' Simon & Schuster imprint will release a paperback edition of the book concurrent with the series, and the drama will be distributed on digital platforms immediately after its CBS airing.
Tassler also notes that the series, which was originally developed at CBS' pay-TV sister Showtime, has already been completely mapped out by writer Brian K. Vaughan (Lost), so there won't be any surprises. "This has the potential to appeal to a young audience," Tassler says. "So we said, 'Let's look at summer as an adventure, as an opportunity to experiment."
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Ten Of The Most Corrupt Countries In The World
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. "Friedrich Nietzsche
Transparency International, an anticorruption agency monitors the relationship between politics and money around the world. Measuring corruption is difficult and subjective, but the group compiled a Corruption Perceptions Index. The lowest ranked nations were all plagued by "conflict and war, poor governance, weak public institutions like police and the judiciary and a lack of independence in the media."
Fair and just government rule is an important step in pulling a country out of the cycle of poverty. When the government is corrupt, natural resources are destroyed. The death toll rises when people have to bribe for inadequate health care,clean water or food. The first step to putting an end to poverty is putting an end to government corruption.
Unfortunately, there are way more than ten countries – many being in Africa. I compiled the ten from a few different lists.
1.Somalia in Eastern Africa heads almost all the lists as the world's most corrupt country. It has been there for the last ten years. Corruption in Somalia takes the form of mass murder. Three decades of war and droughts forced half of the population to be dependent on foreign food aid shipments which are controlled by the local warlords. Desperation turns ordinary citizens into pirates on the many Somalian pirate ships to feed their families. Bribery, voter intimidation and no way of keeping track of the number of voters, makes change in government difficult.
2. Corruption in North Korea is a widespread and a growing problem. It is hard to get the facts because it is the most totalitarian Communist regime left in the world. North Koreans assume that any official in a position to take bribes will. Corruption is part of the fabric of daily life. Strict rules and serious punishments imposed by the regime, for example, against accessing foreign media are commonly evaded by offering bribes to the police.
3. Afghanistan is always in the top four as one of the most corrupt countries. The casual disregard of legality is noticeable. Most of the money from international aid never filters down to the people who need it. There is no punishment for corruption. The interior minister was also made a drug czar which was too much for the international community to handle. Britain pulled their funding. Drug trafficking and vote rigging are very visible.
4. Sudan is one of the worst nation's in the world for human rights violations. Corruption exists in every section of the economy and every level of government. There is no freedom of the media so it is hard for the average person to get any information. Bribery is necessary for any public services and in dealing with police. The UN is ineffective in this country because of government intervention.
5. Corruption is at the root of the power struggle in South Sudan causing the continued violence. Government officials have built personal fortunes while their country suffers and starves. Both sides have been blamed for mass rape, massacres, denial of aid, sexual slavery, burning of food supplies and villages, killing civilians and the use of child soldiers. Both sides, have been looting the country's natural resources and using international aid to fund their militias to fight each other. There is no accountability for the atrocities and looting of state resources, or for the famine that has resulted.South Sudan is the world's newest country (2011) and the hope they had five years ago is dwindling.
6. Angola is a country rich in diamonds, oil and serious corruption. The president is a billionaire. Government workers are rich. Villagers live without health care, education and adequate food. Angola has the highest child mortality rate in the world which is mostly preventable. Corruption kills. The US and western oIl companies have a great relationship with Angola. If we do not condemn it, then we have a part in it.
7. Not much has changed since the revolution in Libya in terms of corruption and financial mismanagement. The systemic corruption is not limited to a few institutions but becoming normal in people's lives. The bribe culture still flourishes. The oil based economy is a huge source of corruption with very little filtering down to the people who need it.
8.In post war Iraq a corrupt political class has pillaged the country's money, forcing corruption at every level. The senior political leaders have taken most of it. Organized corruption syndicates run the country and militia. Plunging oil prices and the War against the Islamic State are putting Iraq's dwindling finances in major jeopardy. Corruption exists because it is allowed to exist. Having being governed by a dictator for so long, the people don't understand self governance.
9. The Myanmar government has acknowledged the problem of widespread corruption. it will take time to have an impact on all the private sector and government corruption. Land ownership and the jade business are still run by military. Multiple exchange rates and corruption are serious barriers to trade and investment in Myanmar. Nepotism, personal connections and bribery are more important than qualifications. Myanmar is one of four major producers for opium and heroin. Money intended to help the public is more often used for personal gain.
10. Corruption seems to go hand and hand with human rights violations and Venezuela is no exception. Government funds meant to serve the people are mismanaged, stolen or spent. Medicine and food meant for the poor are sold to other countries.Venezuela is an oil rich country and the fact that so many live in poverty without government aid is shameful. There is so much corruption and mismanagement from the government to the private sector that food and medicine are rotting in warehouses instead of being distributed. Journalists who try to report anything are jailed.
Other very highly corrupt countries are Haiti, Guinea Bissau, Eritrea. Syria, Turkmenistan, Yemen, Uzbekistan,Burundi, Cambodia, Zimbabwe,Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Fly safe,


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…of becoming an adult.
I've been silent for a bit, I know. You see, we bought a house, moved into said house, are still planning a wedding that is now only a little over two months away, and in the meantime I've been working 6 day weeks. Yay!
At least we got this out of it:
No FOs at the moment, since I've had precious few minutes to knit (must get on the flowers and shawl…)
However, I did want to share a few quick knitty things before I dive into a post I'm planning on my day job (libraries, specifially children's services).
1) Stitch Maps! Lots of chatter on the interwebs about this new knitting pattern format and, while I do think it is very cool, I must support the crocheters who are quick to point out that they have been using a format akin to Stitch Maps for forever.
Stitch Map Crochet Diagram
I rest my case.
2) WWKiP in Toronto happened! Lots of events at High Park and at local stores.
My Instagram pictures from High Park:
More pictures here, here, here, and here. This one's my personal favourite:
3) Other things I've been up to. Baking very nerdy things.
My previous Game of Thrones baking adventure using the A Feast of Ice and Fire cookbook can be found here.


text: Shopping CartYour Cart is EmptyQuantity: RemoveSubtotalTaxesShippingTotalThere was an error with PayPalClick here to try againThank you for your business!You should be receiving an order confirmation from Paypal shortly.Exit Shopping CartToggle NavigationHOMESHOPPAYMENTPOSTAL RATESMOREChevronENQUIRY FORMCONTACTHOMESHOPPAYMENTPOSTAL RATESMOREChevronENQUIRY FORMCONTACTSHOP SHOP My Cart: 0 items All Products / NS55 - OKEH RECORD SLEEVE BADGE OUT OF STOCK NS55 - OKEH RECORD SLEEVE BADGE £2.25 only 25MM BY 25MM SILVER PLATE Add to Cart Add to Cart Proceed to Checkout Item Added. Adding Item. out of stock! / PreviousNextPausePlayClose


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Are You Working in an Ecosystem or Battlefield? 8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses
March 10, 2013 Leave a comment
Are You Working in an Ecosystem or Battlefield? 8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses
What is the difference between an average boss and an extraordinary boss?
An extraordinary boss builds an ecosystem.
I recently read an article that was one of the best I have read in a long time.
Clear and to the point on what makes a good work environment.
8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses
Writer for www.Inc.com
What are your thoughts on the following 8 points?
1. Extraordinary bosses naturally create teams that adapt easily.
2. Extraordinary bosses inspire employees to dedicate themselves to the success of their peers and therefore to the community–and company–at large.
3. Extraordinary bosses commit themselves to obtaining the resources that their employees need to get the job done. They push decision making downward, allowing teams form their own rules and intervening only in emergencies.
4. Extraordinary bosses treat every employee as if he or she were the most important person in the firm. As a result, employees at all levels take charge of their own destinies.
5. Extraordinary bosses inspire people to see a better future and how they'll be a part of it. As a result, employees work harder because they believe in the organization's goals, truly enjoy what they're doing and (of course) know they'll share in the rewards.
6. Extraordinary bosses see change as an inevitable part of life. While they don't value change for its own sake, they know that success is only possible if employees and organization embrace new ideas and new ways of doing business.
7. Extraordinary bosses see technology as a way to free human beings to be creative and to build better relationships.
8. Extraordinary bosses see work as something that should be inherently enjoyable–and believe therefore that the most important job of manager is, as far as possible, to put people in jobs that can and will make them truly happy.
Do you have an extraordinary boss?
If so, let them know with a


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It's not likely most of the people who are, a week after the fact, only just now seeing last week's show involving Patrick Greene will read this first. But in any event, as we mentioned on the show today, emails from our viewers criticizing Patrick are still pouring in, and they're still being sent to the AE TV show email address as well as to him. We'd just like to say, while we're amazed at the overwhelming reaction, we're pretty much past the whole Patrick debacle now. So if you still want to write him, fine. Just don't copy it to us, okay? Matt and I are a little weary now, and probably the rest of the team are as well, to the point where if we see any email with "bumper sticker" or "lawsuit" in the subject line, we simply delete it. The message has been loud and clear, Patrick apparently has already decided all of you are fools and cowards anyway, so it's time to move on.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Please stop CCing us your Patrick emails
3 comments:
I was out of town and away from the computer over the past week, so I had just gotten around to watching last week's episode. So, this came a day too late before my CC ;)ReplyDelete
Thanks for helping to put an end this individual's 15 minutes of fame ... he had 15 minutes more than I'd prefer :-(ReplyDelete
He's a piece of work. He does this EVERYWHERE not just with Atheism. He is married to my Aunt...whom I don't speak with anymore and I have had to block his email address because of his harassment towards my mother and myself. Just ignore him he'll eventually go away if you don't encourage him; hopefully anyway.ReplyDelete
PLEASE NOTE: The Atheist Experience has moved to a new location, and this blog is now closed to comments. To participate in future discussions, please visit http://www.freethoughtblogs.com/axp.
This blog encourages believers who disagree with us to comment. However, anonymous comments are disallowed to weed out cowardly flamers who hide behind anonymity. Commenters will only be banned when they've demonstrated they're nothing more than trolls whose behavior is intentionally offensive to the blog's readership.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.


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The Parè*** is the perfect destination for families and groups who want to spend a custom-designed vacation in Livigno. The Hotel is very appealing, located on the sunny side of the valley looking out towards Livigno, with a panoramic view difficult to match. The bike paths and ski trails are a stone's throw away and can be reached easily without transportation. The rooms are spacious and decorated in the alpine style, and the large picture windows in the dining hall let you enjoy a splendid view as you eat. The quality of the food is excellent: the menu proposes specialties from the Valtellina tradition and there is a special children's section. There is also a weekly activity program that will tempt you to try new excursions and activities during your stay.
Discover what makes a vacation at the Hotel Paré*** special.
Download the brochure and anticipate the charm of your next stay in Livigno in a friendly and informal environment.


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You are currently browsing the daily archive for March 16, 2008.
Thornton Bros has appeared on this blog before but never such a close-up.
John B. Caddell has maybe a dozen appearances already,
A different shot of this still-unidentified tug stuck in March canal ice was here last week. Any identifiers? Near Lock 28B.
This is Dania's debut, although I'm unable to learn much about this tanker with a fairly common name.
and when Clearwater is included in this list, who's greenest of all? And yup, happy that day! Cheers.


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|This specification defines an XMPP protocol extension that enables any two entities to establish a one-to-one bytestream between themselves, where the data is broken down into smaller chunks and transported in-band over XMPP.
|Justin Karneges, Peter Saint-Andre
|© 1999 - 2012 XMPP Standards Foundation. SEE LEGAL NOTICES.
|Standards Track
|Last Updated:
NOTICE: The protocol defined herein is a Draft Standard of the XMPP Standards Foundation. Implementations are encouraged and the protocol is appropriate for deployment in production systems, but some changes to the protocol are possible before it becomes a Final Standard.
1. Introduction
2. Protocol
2.1. Creating a Bytestream
2.2. Sending Data
2.3. Closing the Bytestream
3. Bidirectionality
4. Use of Message Stanzas
5. Usage Guidelines
6. Security Considerations
7. IANA Considerations
8. XMPP Registrar Considerations
8.1. Protocol Namespaces
9. XML Schema
10. Acknowledgements
A: Document Information
B: Author Information
C: Legal Notices
D: Relation to XMPP
E: Discussion Venue
F: Requirements Conformance
G: Notes
H: Revision History
This document describes In-Band Bytestreams (IBB), an XMPP protocol extension that enables two entities to establish a virtual bytestream over which they can exchange Base64-encoded chunks of data over XMPP itself. Because IBB provides a generic bytestream, its usage is open-ended. To date it has been used as a fallback method for sending files (see SI File Transfer [1] and Jingle File Transfer [2]) when out-of-band methods such as SOCKS5 Bytestreams [3] are not available. However, IBB could also be useful for any kind of relatively low-bandwidth activity, such as games, shell sessions, or encrypted text.
IBB as specified in this document defines two protocol aspects:
Other methods can be used for setup and teardown, such as Jingle [4] as specified in Jingle In-Band Bytestreams Transport Method [5].
In order to set up an in-band bytestream, the initiator sends an IQ stanza of type "set" containing an <open/> element qualified by the 'http://jabber.org/protocol/ibb' namespace. This element possesses three attributes:
Note: It is RECOMMENDED to send IBB data using IQ stanzas instead of message stanzas because IQ stanzas provide feedback to the sender regarding delivery to the recipient).
<iq firstname.lastname@example.com/orchard' id='jn3h8g65' email@example.com/balcony' type='set'> <open xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/ibb' block-size='4096' sid='i781hf64' stanza='iq'/> </iq>
If the responder wishes to proceed with the IBB session, it returns an IQ-result to the initiator.
<iq firstname.lastname@example.com/balcony' id='jn3h8g65' firstname.lastname@example.com/orchard' type='result'/>
If the responder does not support IBB, it returns a <service-unavailable/> or <feature-not-implemented/> error.
<iq firstname.lastname@example.com/balcony' id='jn3h8g65' email@example.com/orchard' type='error'> <error type='cancel'> <service-unavailable xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/> </error> </iq>
If the responder supports IBB but would prefer a smaller block-size, it returns a <resource-constraint/> error.
<iq firstname.lastname@example.com/balcony' id='jn3h8g65' firstname.lastname@example.com/orchard' type='error'> <error type='modify'> <resource-constraint xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/> </error> </iq>
If the responder supports IBB but does not wish to proceed with the session, it returns a <not-acceptable/> error.
<iq email@example.com/balcony' id='jn3h8g65' email@example.com/orchard' type='error'> <error type='cancel'> <not-acceptable xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/> </error> </iq>
If the responder informs the initiator that it wishes to proceed with the session, the initiator can begin to send data over the bytestream (in addition, because the bytestream is bidirectional, the responder can also send data; see the Bidirectionality section of this document for details).
Each chunk of data is contained in a <data/> element qualified by the 'http://jabber.org/protocol/ibb' namespace. The data element SHOULD be sent in an IQ stanza to enable proper tracking and throttling, but instead MAY be sent in a message stanza. The base64-encoded data to be sent, prior to any wrapping in the <data/> element and IQ or message stanza, MUST NOT be larger than the 'block-size' determined in the bytestream negotiation.
<iq email@example.com/orchard' id='kr91n475' firstname.lastname@example.com/balcony' type='set'> <data xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/ibb' seq='0' sid='i781hf64'> qANQR1DBwU4DX7jmYZnncmUQB/9KuKBddzQH+tZ1ZywKK0yHKnq57kWq+RFtQdCJ WpdWpR0uQsuJe7+vh3NWn59/gTc5MDlX8dS9p0ovStmNcyLhxVgmqS8ZKhsblVeu IpQ0JgavABqibJolc3BKrVtVV1igKiX/N7Pi8RtY1K18toaMDhdEfhBRzO/XB0+P AQhYlRjNacGcslkhXqNjK5Va4tuOAPy2n1Q8UUrHbUd0g+xJ9Bm0G0LZXyvCWyKH kuNEHFQiLuCY6Iv0myq6iX6tjuHehZlFSh80b5BVV9tNLwNR5Eqz1klxMhoghJOA </data> </iq>
Each chunk of data is included as the XML character data of the <data/> element after being encoded as Base64 as specified in Section 4 of RFC 4648 [6]. Each block MUST be a valid base64 block with padding at the end if needed.
The <data/> element MUST possess a 'seq' attribute; this is a 16-bit unsigned integer that acts as a counter for data chunks sent in a particular direction within this session. The 'seq' value starts at 0 (zero) for each sender and MUST be incremented for each packet sent by that entity. Thus, the second chunk sent has a 'seq' value of 1, the third chunk has a 'seq' value of 2, and so on. The counter loops at maximum, so that after value 65535 (215 - 1) the 'seq' MUST start again at 0.
The <data/> element MUST also possess a 'sid' attribute that ties the data chunk to this particular IBB session.
In the case of IQ stanzas, if the packet can be processed then the recipient MUST reply with an IQ stanza of type "result".
<iq email@example.com/balcony' id='kr91n475' firstname.lastname@example.com/orchard' type='result'/>
The sender of a data chunk need not wait for these acknowledgements before sending further stanzas. However, it is RECOMMENDED that the sender does wait in order to minimize the potential for rate-limiting penalties or throttling.
It is possible that delivery of the stanza might fail, in which case the sender's or recipient's server shall return an appropriate error:
Upon receiving an error related to delivery of a <message/> or <iq/> stanza, the sender SHOULD temporarily suspend the stream but either (1) retry sending at a later time or (2) renegotiate the higher-level session (if any) such as a session controlled via Jingle File Transfer [7].
It is also possible that there is a problem with the data packet itself, in which case the recipient shall return an appropriate error:
Upon receiving an error related to the data packet, the sender MUST close the bytestream as described under Closing the Bytestream.
Data packets MUST be processed in the order they are received. If an out-of-sequence packet is received for a particular direction within a bytestream (determined by checking the 'seq' attribute), then this indicates that a packet has been lost. The recipient MUST NOT process the data of such an out-of-sequence packet, nor any that follow it within the same bytestream; instead, the recipient MUST close the bytestream as described in the next section.
To close the bytestream, either party sends an IQ-set containing a <close/> element.
<iq firstname.lastname@example.com/orchard' id='us71g45j' firstname.lastname@example.com/balcony' type='set'> <close xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/ibb' sid='i781hf64'/> </iq>
The receiving party then acknowledges that the bytestream has been closed by returning an IQ-result (however, the receiving party might wait until it has had a chance to send any remaining data in the other direction, if the bytestream is bidirectional; in this case, the party that sent the original <close/> element SHOULD wait to receive the IQ response from the receiving party before considering the bytestream to be closed).
<iq firstname.lastname@example.com/balcony' id='us71g45j' email@example.com/orchard' type='result'/>
It is possible that the recipient of the close notification does not know about the bytestream, in which case it would return an <item-not-found/> error.
<iq type='error' firstname.lastname@example.com/balcony' firstname.lastname@example.com/orchard' id='us71g45j'> <error type='cancel'> <item-not-found xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/> </error> </iq>
In either case, both parties MUST consider the bytestream to be closed.
An in-band bytestream is bidirectional. Therefore, either party to the bytestream is allowed to send data. Each sender MUST initialize the 'seq' attribute to zero and increment the 'seq' value by one with each chunk of data it sends. Each recipient MUST track chunks based on the 'seq' values it receives. The 'seq' values in each direction are independent of the values in the other direction. Thus there are two data sequences for each Session ID.
It is RECOMMENDED to use IQ stanzas when sending data packets. However, an application MAY use message stanzas instead. If message stanzas are used when sending data packets, the sender SHOULD also use Advanced Message Processing [8] or some other stanza flow-control method. For proper tracking of delivery and processing errors related to data packets, the 'id' attribute SHOULD be used with message stanzas.
<message firstname.lastname@example.com/orchard' id='dsw71gj3' firstname.lastname@example.com/balcony'> <data xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/ibb' seq='0' sid='i781hf64'> qANQR1DBwU4DX7jmYZnncmUQB/9KuKBddzQH+tZ1ZywKK0yHKnq57kWq+RFtQdCJ WpdWpR0uQsuJe7+vh3NWn59/gTc5MDlX8dS9p0ovStmNcyLhxVgmqS8ZKhsblVeu IpQ0JgavABqibJolc3BKrVtVV1igKiX/N7Pi8RtY1K18toaMDhdEfhBRzO/XB0+P AQhYlRjNacGcslkhXqNjK5Va4tuOAPy2n1Q8UUrHbUd0g+xJ9Bm0G0LZXyvCWyKH kuNEHFQiLuCY6Iv0myq6iX6tjuHehZlFSh80b5BVV9tNLwNR5Eqz1klxMhoghJOA </data> </message>
The In-Band Bytestreams protocol is as secure as the underlying XMPP transport. The application that uses IBB could have its own security layer, but this is outside of the scope of IBB.
An entity MUST verify any Base64 data received. An implementation MUST reject (not ignore) any characters that are not explicitly allowed by the Base64 alphabet; this helps to guard against creation of a covert channel that could be used to "leak" information. An implementation MUST NOT break on invalid input and MUST reject any sequence of Base64 characters containing the pad ('=') character if that character is included as something other than the last character of the data (e.g., "=AAA" or "BBBB=CCC"); this helps to guard against buffer overflow attacks and other attacks on the implementation. Base64 encoding visually hides otherwise easily recognized information, such as passwords, but does not provide any computational confidentiality. Base64 encoding MUST follow the definition in Section 4 of RFC 4648.
This document requires no interaction with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) [9].
The XMPP Registrar [10] includes 'http://jabber.org/protocol/ibb' in its registry of XML namespaces at <http://xmpp.org/registrar/namespaces.html>.
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> <xs:schema xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema' targetNamespace='http://jabber.org/protocol/ibb' xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/ibb' elementFormDefault='qualified'> <xs:annotation> <xs:documentation> The protocol documented by this schema is defined in XEP-0047: http://www.xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0047.html </xs:documentation> </xs:annotation> <xs:element name='open'> <xs:complexType> <xs:simpleContent> <xs:extension base='empty'> <xs:attribute name='block-size' type='xs:unsignedShort' use='required'/> <xs:attribute name='sid' type='xs:NMTOKEN' use='required'/> <xs:attribute name='stanza' use='optional' default='iq'> <xs:simpleType> <xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'> <xs:enumeration value='iq'/> <xs:enumeration value='message'/> </xs:restriction> </xs:simpleType> </xs:attribute> </xs:extension> </xs:simpleContent> </xs:complexType> </xs:element> <xs:element name='close'> <xs:complexType> <xs:simpleContent> <xs:extension base='empty'> <xs:attribute name='sid' type='xs:NMTOKEN' use='required'/> </xs:extension> </xs:simpleContent> </xs:complexType> </xs:element> <xs:element name='data'> <xs:complexType> <xs:simpleContent> <xs:extension base='xs:string'> <xs:attribute name='seq' type='xs:unsignedShort' use='required'/> <xs:attribute name='sid' type='xs:NMTOKEN' use='required'/> </xs:extension> </xs:simpleContent> </xs:complexType> </xs:element> <xs:simpleType name='empty'> <xs:restriction base='xs:string'> <xs:enumeration value=''/> </xs:restriction> </xs:simpleType> </xs:schema>
Thanks to Fabio Forno for his feedback.
Series: XEP
Number: 0047
Publisher: XMPP Standards Foundation
Status: Draft
Type: Standards Track
Version: 1.3
Last Updated: 2011-03-01
Approving Body: XMPP Council
Dependencies: XMPP Core
Supersedes: None
Superseded By: None
Short Name: ibb
Schema: <http://www.xmpp.org/schemas/ibb.xsd>
Source Control: HTML
This document in other formats: XML PDF
JabberID: email@example.com
JabberID: email@example.com
URI: https://stpeter.im/
The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is defined in the XMPP Core (RFC 3920) and XMPP IM (RFC 3921) specifications contributed by the XMPP Standards Foundation to the Internet Standards Process, which is managed by the Internet Engineering Task Force in accordance with RFC 2026. Any protocol defined in this document has been developed outside the Internet Standards Process and is to be understood as an extension to XMPP rather than as an evolution, development, or modification of XMPP itself.
The primary venue for discussion of XMPP Extension Protocols is the <firstname.lastname@example.com> discussion list.
Discussion on other xmpp.org discussion lists might also be appropriate; see <http://xmpp.org/about/discuss.shtml> for a complete list.
Errata can be sent to <firstname.lastname@example.com>.
The following requirements keywords as used in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119: "MUST", "SHALL", "REQUIRED"; "MUST NOT", "SHALL NOT"; "SHOULD", "RECOMMENDED"; "SHOULD NOT", "NOT RECOMMENDED"; "MAY", "OPTIONAL".
1. XEP-0096: SI File Transfer <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0096.html>.
2. XEP-0234: Jingle File Transfer <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0234.html>.
3. XEP-0065: SOCKS5 Bytestreams <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0065.html>.
4. XEP-0166: Jingle <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0166.html>.
5. XEP-0261: Jingle In-Band Bytestreams Transport Method <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0261.html>.
6. RFC 4648: The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data Encodings <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4648>.
7. XEP-0234: Jingle File Transfer <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0234.html>.
8. XEP-0079: Advanced Message Processing <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0079.html>.
9. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the central coordinator for the assignment of unique parameter values for Internet protocols, such as port numbers and URI schemes. For further information, see <http://www.iana.org/>.
10. The XMPP Registrar maintains a list of reserved protocol namespaces as well as registries of parameters used in the context of XMPP extension protocols approved by the XMPP Standards Foundation. For further information, see <http://xmpp.org/registrar/>.
Note: Older versions of this specification might be available at http://xmpp.org/extensions/attic/
Clarified error handling, block construction, and bytestream closing.(psa)
Encouraged use of IQ stanzas rather than message stanzas for sending data; clarified bidirectional nature of IBB; more clearly specified data handling, error conditions, XML syntax, and attribute datatypes; added optional stanza attribute as in XEP-0261.(psa/jk)
Allowed IQ for delivery.(jk)
Per a vote of the Jabber Council, advanced status to Draft.(psa)
Add 'block-size' attribute and usage guidelines(jk)
Use IQ for shutdown, remove XEP-0022 dependency, loop the counter(jk)
Use message for delivery(jk)
Changed newseq to prevseq, added acks, changed seq size to 32-bit(jk)
Changed protocol, added sequence id(jk)
Removed the 'comment' block, changed namespace(jk)
Revised the text(jk)
Initial version.(jk)


text:
My brother Brice just sent me a very interesting study that combines satellite imagery and field reporting to analyze Kenya's 2008 election violence. The peer-reviewed piece is entitled "Violence and Exodus in Kenya's Rift Valley, 2008: Predictable and Preventable?" and was pub- lished in the Journal of East African Studies.
Given the use of satellites to monitor the referendum in Sudan, this blog post reviews the methodology and insights gained from the Kenya analysis. I'll do this by providing key excerpts from the study along with my own commentary. This case study is of particularly interest to me since I was in Kenya the time and because that was when the first Ushahidi platform was launched. For more information on the use of satellite imagery to document human rights abuses, I highly recommend Amnesty International's Science for Human Rights Explorer.
I wasn't aware how much scrambling for information was going on in the humanitarian community:
"Over the first days, and then weeks following the December election, information about the outbreak and extent of violence was fragmented and difficult to access. Even those tasked with responding most rapidly to violence and displacement faced problems in interpreting information that was frequently distorted by rumour and misinformation."
Interesting to know that humanitarians were facing some of the same challenges as crowdsourcing presents. Would using SwiftRiver have made a difference to try and assess the validity of the information they were collecting?
"In the early days of January 2007, UN agencies and other humanitarian bodies had numerous sources reporting that tens of thousands of people had been displaced and dozens killed across the country, yet details on the extent, location, and chronology of the violence were hard to establish, making it difficult for these agencies to plan an effective response."
Note the need for location and time-stamped information. Would drawing on reports from the Ushahidi platform have helped? See my co-authored study on Crisis Mapping Kenya's Election Violence. That said, this was the first time that Ushahidi was deployed in Kenya so the reports may not have been of the highest quality.
"The Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), for example, implemented the election contingency plan it had put in place prior to the December polls, but staff could not confirm reports of violence, and could not deliver essential food and relief items to those people displaced by the fighting because of roadblocks mounted by protestors. Even after carrying out a helicopter assessment mission on 1 January 2008, the KRCS still found it difficult to present an overall picture of the location and timing of the violence."
So UN agencies in Kenya turned to satellite imagery.
"In response to the challenges facing them in January 2007, UN agencies in Kenya asked UNOSAT to produce a series of maps showing the likely location of election-related violence in the west of the country. UNOSAT has a variety of satellite imaging data available to them, but one tool used to map conflict situations is data on active fires. Fire plays an important role in forcing people from their homes and terrorizing local populations, so the location of active burn sites in a conflict zone offers a reasonable indicator of where violence and displacement is occurring."
"Indeed, upon examining available fire data from Kenya for 27 December to 3 January, staff at UNOSAT noticed unusual patterns of fires on tea plantations—areas where fire is never normally employed for agricultural management. They then carried out further analysis, and created maps of areas where, according to a chronological and spatial evaluation of the fire data, it was 'probable that a majority of detected fires are directly or indirectly linked to the civil unrest'."
"The result was five maps covering a portion of Rift Valley Province from Nakuru to Kitale, as well as the eastern edges of Nyanza and Western Provinces. Map 1 provides an aggregate view of all active fire locations from 27 December 2007 to 3 January 2008."
"Maps 2-5 show fires on specific days during that period. Each of the diamonds on the maps represents an area of a square kilometre that contained an active fire location at the time a satellite passed overhead. Fires generally have to cover an area of about fifty square metres to be noticed by this technology, though intensity can affect this. The colouring in the background, on the other hand, is a function of the relative clustering of active fire locations—purely a tool to direct the map-reader and not an indication of fire intensity."
"Apart from demonstrating the geographical dimensions of the arson and conflict occurring in the area, the maps also begin to provide a general chronology of events into which more specific accounts from witness testimonies and other sources can be integrated. UNOSAT's four chronological maps (Maps 2-5) cover the majority of the eight day period: 27-28 December, 29-30 December, 1 January, and 2!3 January, and provide powerful visuals of how events unfolded."
"It is important to bear in mind that gaps in data collection occurred on 31 December and 2 January, and that satellite imagery captures what is happening in a particular fraction of a second—data acquisition times generally occurred around 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 11 p.m. Kenyan local time. Bearing this in mind, it is possible using the maps to begin to understand the broad pattern of the escalation of the violence over the period."
The authors of the study point out some limitations:
"These maps are visually compelling, but we should note that they 'hide' important dimensions of the violence—on a map all fires look the same. Violence in urban areas, for instance, differed markedly from that in rural areas, and these maps do not represent this difference. Another example is how little these maps reveal about the increasingly serious situation in Mt Elgon."
This limitation is inherent to static maps, not so for live crisis maps that are interactive and dynamic.
"The mark of a single fire in the southern part of the district included on two of the maps does not stand out from the other fire locations. However, we know from other sources that violence in Mt Elgon continued to increase in severity after the elections. If violence was occurring on the Chebyuk land settlement schemes on Mt Elgon at this time, then it did not involve fires of sufficient magnitude to be detected by this satellite technology."
"The mapping of fires can therefore tell us only part of the story. Cohesive explanations of specific situations can only begin to emerge if we triangulate the evidence provided by the maps with other kinds of information. This research is continuing, but at this stage we can offer a preliminary analysis that highlights several significant points:
- Even before the first wave of violence in the Rift Valley was sparked by the announcement of the presidential poll result on 30 December 2007, conflict had already broken out in some areas over the two days between the closure of the polls and the announcement of the presidential result. This correlates with evidence in media and human rights reports that some majimboist activists planned violence after the election regardless of the outcome of the vote.
- Over the hours following Kivuitu's announcement of Kibaki's victory, violence broke out in several different locations across the province, some of this undoubtedly a spontaneous reaction to the alleged 'theft' of the election, and targeted against persons associated with the PNU and its allies. However, many other attacks were evidently planned and orchestrated. Kikuyu-settled areas of Eldoret were ablaze within two hours of Kibaki's re-election, armed Kalenjin men arriving in lorries to carry out the attacks. These assaults were not confined to 'aliens', but included attacks upon properties owned by ex-president Moi and his close Kalenjin associates, including Nicholas Biwott, whose KANU party had made an electoral pact with PNU.
- The locations of this first major wave of violence in the first week of January show a clear spatial pattern: the outbreaks were invariably in places where non-indigenous populations were living. The targets of this violence were predominantly Kikuyu and Kisii communities, who were identified as PNU supporters. Though many attacks were murderous, the main purpose was to 'chase away' the victims. By 6 January, the Kenya Red Cross estimated a national figure of 211,000 persons internally displaced in violence since 30 December, the vast majority of these being within Rift Valley.
- The violence accordingly coalesced in two types of location: the first was larger and smaller towns, where populations are ethnically more mixed and where businesses are concentrated—for example the rapid upsurge of conflict in and around Eldoret. The second was on rural settlement schemes, where land has been purchased or leased by farmers from a wide range of ethnic groups—for example, Burnt Forest, Ndalat, and the Molo area of Nakuru District. The settlement schemes at Burnt Forest, the scene of dreadful violence in the 1990s, were completely cut off by road barricades by the morning of 1 January, impeding the work of relief agencies, in what was clearly an organized and coordinated assault."
This study clearly shows the added value of combining satellite imagery analysis with reporting from the ground. This analysis was all carried out retroactively, however. To this end, lets hope that the Satellite Sentinel Project, which I blogged about here, and Sudan Vote Monitor, which uses the Ushahidi platform, will be sharing information to allow for near real-time integrated analysis.


text:
You'd expect an engineer to know everything about a basic subject like nuts and bolts right? Well fasteners are one of those topics that seem simple at first but turn out to have much more depth than you expected. What follows are 10 tricks on this 'basic' subject that might surprise you!
UPDATED MARCH 2017: It has come to my attention that there is testing data available that makes the counter argument to my first point in this article. In the interest of transparency and good scientific discussion, I've provided links to all sources mentioned at the end of point #1. When faced with contradictory test results, if we assume the methodology and integrity of all sources are without fault, it is reasonable to conclude that your results may vary. Many factors could significantly affect testing results including variances from manufacturing process, fastener & clamped materials, heat treating, surface finishes, ambient conditions, and bolt diameter.
1. Split washers have been experimentally proven to be ineffective locking devices and can even aid self loosening over time. And yet I see these things in use everywhere, so what gives?
In theory split washers (aka lock washers or helical spring washers) are supposed to work by squishing flat between the nut and the mounting surface when you tighten them. At this point the sharp edges of the washer are supposed to dig into the nut and mounting surface to prevent counter-clockwise rotation.
In practice a split washer is unable to gain any purchase against hard surfaces and does not actually prevent rotation. The problem is that split washers make for poor springs and bottom out after only a small percentage (on order of 10%) of a bolt's total clamping load.
The only time a split washer might prove useful would be for fastening onto soft easily deformed surfaces such as wood, where the washers springiness & sharp edges could actually work.
The evidence against split washers started stacking up in the 1960's when a gentleman named Gerhard Junker published some of his lab experiments. He invented a machine specifically for testing the effect of vibrations on threaded fasteners. The first thing he discovered was that transverse vibration loads generate a much greater loosening effect than do axial vibrations. Good to know.
His second discovery was made by plotting the bolt tension vs vibration cycles to create a 'preload decay chart'. When he compared the preload decay of a bolt & split washer combo to bolt by its lonesome, he found that the split washer caused the connection to loosen sooner, as seen below.*
Not to worry, there are better locking options available. Chemical lockers like Loctite, deformed thread lock nuts, and Nyloc nuts should be your everyday go-to locking devices. If you have some money to burn then wedge lock (Nord-lock) washers &
Serrated flange nuts are probably the best way to go.
When lives are on the line you may want to employ a 'positive locking device' such as a castle nut or a slotted nut. No amount of vibration will break this kind of connection:
Since this one is sure to stir things up when you mention it the guys at the office, I've provided my sources below.
A) Article 1 n boltscience.com and Article 2 on Boltscience.com and Article 3 on Boltscience.com, all condeming split washers
B) pdf file from hillcountryengineering.com condeming split washers
D) Awesome video showing actual testing and how preload decay charts are generated.
*E) Alternate Testing Video #1 making the counter argument in favor of split washers.
*F) Alternate Testing Video #2 making the counter argument in favor of split washers.
#2. Double Nutted joints with jam nuts are affected by order of clamping. While I'm talking about bolt locking techniques, I'll share another interesting one: For double nut connections involving the use of a jam nut & a standard nut, it REALLY matters what order you install them in.
The jam nut should go on first! Otherwise the effectiveness of the nut pair is greatly reduced. Double nut Source.
Before I move on to the next one I need to clarify the difference between static loads and fatigue loads. Static loads do not change over time. If a bolt is rated to yield at 3,000 lbs of tension, any static load less than that will not have a permanent effect.
However, if you were to vary that applied load over time you can fatigue the bolt until it breaks using less than 3,000 lbs! In the same way that a small stream can carve out the Grand Canyon, fatigue loads gradually chip away at the structural integrity of fasteners over time.
#3. The relationship between fatigue load and the number of cycles until bolt failure occurs can be predicted using experimentation. It turns out that you can make reasonably accurate predictions of the cycle count at failure by performing as few as three experiments (though I would recommend doing at least 6 to attain some real accuracy). All it takes are a few data points and a regression line to create a high cycle fatigue life curve (aka an S-N curve).
We don't put the ultimate static loading on the graph, but if we did it would be the highest point on the 'applied load' axis and the zero point on the 'cycles' axis.
Why is this useful? Now that you know bolts can break from small fatigue loads, imagine trying to build a bridge using riveted or bolted connections. How could you trust that you ever had a big enough fastener? It turns out that fatigue loads below a certain threshold will never cause the fastener to break.
As a very general estimate, a bolt will require an infinite number of cycles to break if the fatigue load is around 30% (+/-15%) of the ultimate static load. You can expect the bolt to break in a few thousand cycles if the fatigue load is about 80% (+/-10%) of the ultimate static load. (Note: the exact percentage can vary dramatically based on material composition and ambient conditions.)
#4. (UPDATED) For maximum strength tighten bolts up to the yield point…For maximum durability, don't! There is a common misunderstanding that a bolt within a securely fastened connection is impervious to outside forces if hey don't exceed the clamped load of the connection.
That is, the myth says a bolt clamped to 500 lbs won't experience additional stress unless outside forces applied to the clamp exceed 500 lbs. This is not so! In fact ANY additional load, no matter how small, will add to the tension in the bolt. But not at a 1:1 rate.
Think of pulling on a fastened connection as if it were 2 stacked springs. Both springs stretch measurably, but the weaker one stretches more. Part of the external load is absorbed by the joint and part by the fastener.
To be crystal clear, as you tighten the nut the bolt will compress the two parts together. The bolt itself has an internal reaction force equal to the amplitude of the compression force, but the bolt itself is in tension. If you were to graph the tension on the bolt while you tighten the nut, the plot would look like the graph below. To get the greatest clamping force out of the bolt we would to tighten it all the way up to the yield point. Any more force and the bolt will enter the plastic region and permanently deform.
In practice engineers don't design that way. Since any additional force will begin to yield the bolt, you want to give yourself some margin for error. Engineers select a bolt tension that is somewhere between the calculable minimum functional clamping force and the yielding force…. while also accounting for error in the tension measurement method.
(Sources: Shingley's Standard Handbook & Article on Fastenal )
#5. It is actually quite difficult to determine the exact load the fastener sees during clamping. We now know how important it is to avoid over tightening a bolt, but how do we know when it is yielding?
For everyday purposes the clamping force can be approximated by measuring the tightening torque. You can look up the recommended tightening torque for a given fastener size in my bolt sizing calculator or in a table like the one found here. An alternate method is called the 'turn of the nut' wherein you tighten the bolt until it 'feels snug' before rotating it another 90 degrees to ensure adequate tightness.
Those methods work OK for most things, but some critical applications require you to be certain of the clamping force (think spacecraft or large weights above your head). The torque method has difficultly accounting for friction and lubrication, but at least the torque is mathematically correlated to the clamping force. On the other hand the turn of the nut method uses rotational displacement to bypass lubrication affects, but it doesn't even consider forces at all.
There are better options though. Load indicating washers can accurately verify bolting loads by squishing open a paint sack after reaching a specific load. The drawback with these is that they only work once. http://www.boltscience.com/pages/tighten.htm The other option comes from a company called smart bolts who came out with a fastener featuring a built-in tension indicator. This is by far the most accurate method of measuring bolt clamping load. On the other hand, a single box of these bolts can cost around 10 times as much as a standard fastener!
Neat, I just wish I could afford one.
How different tightening methods compare in terms of accuracy.
#6. If you've ever designed a part with a threaded hole, you may have wondered:'How many threads do I need to make a strong connection?' The answer is that it varies, but six at most.
Bolts actually stretch very slightly when force is applied, which causes the loading on each thread to be different. Because of this stretch, when you apply a tensile load on a threaded fastener the first thread at the point of connection sees the highest percentage of the load. The load on each successive thread decreases from there, as seen in the table below.
Additional threads beyond the sixth will not further distribute the load and will not make the connection any stronger.
So will a bolt break before the nut strips? Yes! Nuts typically have no less than three internal threads, but nut thickness standards have been selected on the basis that the bolt will always sustain tensile fracture before the nut will strip.
#7. Have you ever seen a fastener labeled with a 2A or 3B rating and wondered what that meant?That number-letter combo is used to indicate the thread class of the fastener. Thread classes include 1-4 (loose to tight), A (external), and B (internal). These ratings are clearance fits which indicates the level of interference during assembly.
- Class 1 is a good choice when quick assembly and disassembly is a priority.
- Class 2 is the most common thread class because it offers a good balance between price and quality.
- Class 3 is best used in applications requiring close tolerances and a strong connection.
- Class 4 is precision tight, typically used for lead screws and such.
#8. All fasteners are available with either coarse or fine threads and each option has its own distinct advantages.
Finely threaded bolts have slightly larger cross-sectional areas than coarse bolts of the same diameter, so if you are limited on the bolt size due to dimensional constraints, choose a fine thread for greater strength. Fine threads are also a better choice when threading a thin walled member. When you don't have much depth to work with, you want to utilize their greater number of threads per inch. Fine threads also permit greater adjustment accuracy by requiring more rotations to move linearly.
On the other hand, coarsely threaded bolts are less likely to be cross threaded during assembly. They also allow for quicker assembly and disassembly, so choose these when you will be reassembling a part often. If the threads will be exposed to harsh conditions or chemicals, a coarsely threaded fastener should be considered for its thicker plating/coating. Coarse ly threaded fasteners are much more commonly available in the united states.
#9. Would you expect a bolt to be stronger or weaker at very high temperatures? How about at cryogenic temperatures?
Most people answer 'weaker' to both question, but being weaker at both temperatures doesn't even make sense when you think about it. Why would steel be strongest at whatever typical room temperature happens to be? It's not.
As a rule, metals are strong & brittle at low temperatures and soft & ductile at high temperatures, within their solid phase temperature range. Room temperature is just another non-extreme point on the curve.
#10. You can make bolted connections more resistant to shear loads by using clever design instead of larger bolts. For maximum strength, try to use the correct thread length for the connection. In the image below you can see two connections which are identical except that the one on the right has a properly sized thread length. It exposes the bolt shank (rather than the threads) to the applied load at the connection seam.
All else remaining the same, the connection on the right will be stronger because the shank has a larger cross-sectional area and no stress concentrations.
Another clever trick is to design connections so that the applied load will be on multiple sections of the bolt, as opposed to just one section. In the images below there are two connections. The one on the right is twice as strong as the one on the left because it would have to shear the bolt off in two places to become free. Also, the single shear configuration can also lead to bending loads on the fastener and loosening of the connection (see #1).
#11. Have you ever cursed the day you were born because you just stripped out a Phillips head screw? While it is nice that Phillips screw drivers don't slip off screws like flat heads do, it's a real pain when the head can no longer be rotated because the screw head has melted into a hollow cone.
As frustrating as that is, it turns out that Phillips head screws are designed to strip out via the tapered point and rounded edges. The technical term is called a cam-out and every time it happens the relative surface motion wears out your screw. Alternate screw heads like torx and pozidriv are specifically designed not to cam-out.
If fascinating facts about fasteners are your thing then you should check out Carroll Smith's "Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners, and Plumbing Handbook" aka 'Screw to Win'. Smith's Engineer To Win is another good one. Actually every book by Carroll Smith is pure gold.
You might also enjoy reading about a custom MS Excel based EngineerDog Bolt Sizing Calculator here.


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Although I may not be posting many recipes that rely upon my new love, the spiralizer, I continue to us it frequently. In fact — hold on to your hats — I use it more often than I do my pasta machine. I know! I never would have thought such a thing possible. Yet, here I am with about 3/4 lb of homemade pasta in my pasta basket, where's its been for just about 3 weeks now. 3 weeks!!! This would have been unthinkable just last summer and I have butternut squash to credit — or is it blame?
As much as I enjoy zucchini noodles, "zoodles", their texture often leaves much to be desired, They can go from al dente to unappealingly soft in the blink of an eye. To avoid this, I often serve them raw, making more of a pasta salad than a dish of freshly cooked pasta. Not so with butternut squash. Roasting doesn't affect these noodles' "bite" but it does add flavor to the final dish. Best of all, these noodles can be served hot, making a number of dishes possible. Today's recipe is one such dish.
As is the case with most seafood pasta dishes, this one is easy to prepare and you'll find that roasted butternut squash compliments seafood quite well. Truth be told, I've a squash just waiting for me to return home from the fishmonger with more seafood. It won't be long now.
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Butternut Squash Noodles with Seafood Recipe
- 1 small butternut squash
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 2 oz (56 g) pancetta, chopped
- about 12 small clams — manila, littleneck, or cockles will do (See Notes)
- 1 clove garlic, minced or grated
- about 12 shrimp — no smaller than 41 to 50 ct/lb
- 2 tbsp breadcrumbs – omit if GF (See Notes)
- 2 tsp parsley per serving, chopped
- olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat oven to 400˚ F (195˚ C).
- Separate neck of squash from the bulb end that contains the seeds. Reserve the bulb for another use.
- Peel the squash before using a spiralizer to create spaghetti-like noodles.
- Place noodles on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Place in oven and roast for 15 minutes.
- Combine breadcrumbs, parsley, and a bit of olive oil. Mix thoroughly. Place mixture in a small fry pan over medium heat. Cook until mixture is golden brown. Set aside.
- Begin heating remaining olive oil in a large frypan with a lid. Add the pancetta and begin to render its fat. Do not allow the pancetta to burn. It should be fully rendered about the time that the noodles have 5 minutes to go.
- Place the garlic and clams in the pan with the pancetta and cover. Sauté for 5 minutes before adding the shrimp to the pan. Cover the pan.
- After a minute or so, stir the frying pan's contents and cover.
- Remove noodles from the oven and dump them into the pan with the seafood and pancetta. Stir to evenly coat everything with the pan juices.
- Continue to sauté until the clams and shrimp are fully cooked — no more than 2 minutes more.
- Remove to a serving platter and garnish with the toasted breadcrumbs created in Step 5.
- Serve immediately.
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Use a brush reserved for food-prep to scrub all clams before cooking. Any that remain open after a thorough scrubbing should be discarded. Opinions vary as to whether to soak fresh clams in salt or fresh water to cause the clams to expel grit. Some feel that commercially harvested and shipped clams do not need such purging. If, however, your clams are bought directly from the fishermen or harvested yourself, they must be soaked for at least 30 minutes before scrubbing, changing the water midway through.
In Italian cooking, it is definitely not recommended to use grated Parmigiano or Pecorino cheese on a dish with most varieties of seafood. Very often, toasted breadcrumbs are substituted, just as I did above. Do you remember the stuffed calamari recipe I shared back in March? At the time, I suggested freezing the extra cooked breading mixture. They would make the perfect garnish for this dish, as well as a number of other pasta with seafood dishes. Being roasted already, all you need do is to warm them in a small frying pan. Use them as you would grated cheese, as a garnish just before serving.
I've seen recipes where squash noodles are boiled first, much like pasta, rather than roasted. I've yet to prepare them that way. If it ain't broke …
My spiralizer is an attachment for a stand mixer. As such, it makes quick work of the "neck" of a butternut squash. Some may find this squash is too firm for their hand-cranked spiralizer. I've no experience with any of them and look forward to hearing from you in the Comments.
Of course, for a gluten-free version do not include the toasted breadcrumbs unless they're GF. Garnish with chopped parsley instead.
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It's déjà vu all over again …
With September almost here, there's no time like the present for frozen treats. If you're like me and took advantage of the sour cherry season, stashing some of the red beauties in your freezer, well, now's the time to set some of them free! Follow this LINK to learn how to use them to prepare frozen yogurt, as well as a tasty chocolate sauce to smother it. All that's missing is the cherry on top!
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Coming soon to a monitor near you …
General Tso's Chicken
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama announced Friday he is creating the post of cyber security coordinator to oversee "a new comprehensive approach to securing America's digital infrastructure."
President Obama announces Friday the creation of the post of cyber security coordinator.
The president said he will personally select the person who takes on that post.
"I'll depend on this official in all matters relating to cyber security, and this official will have my full support and regular access to me as we confront these challenges," he said.
The economic crisis cannot be tackled without ensuring the safety of the nation's online activities, Obama said. "America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber security," he said.
"Our technological advantage is a key to America's military dominance," he added. "But our defense and military networks are under constant attack. Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups have spoken of their desire to unleash a cyber attack on our country -- attacks that are harder to detect and harder to defend against."
The country is not adequately prepared, he said, to defend against a possible "weapon of mass disruption." Watch Obama's announcement »
"From now on ... the networks and computers we depend on every day will be treated as they should be: as a strategic national asset," Obama said. "Protecting this infrastructure will be a national security priority."
Obama vowed that these efforts "will not include monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic. We will preserve and protect the personal privacy and civil liberties that we cherish as Americans."
"I know how it feels" to have online privacy violated, the president said.
He referred to last year's hacking of computers at his campaign headquarters. The hackers did not access databases containing information about campaign donors, but did gain access to policy position papers and travel plans, Obama said.
CNN reported in November that computers at the headquarters of Obama's rival for the presidency, Sen. John McCain, had been broken into with similar results.
Obama's announcement Friday followed a 60-day review of the government's cyber security efforts, conducted by the National Security Council and Homeland Security Council.
The results of the review are posted at www.whitehouse.gov, along with links to more than 100 documents that helped inform the review.
The military has said it is working to create a Cyber Command. Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the command would initially be under the U.S. Strategic Command.
The president is expected, within weeks, to sign a classified order officially creating the command, defense officials told CNN.
The Department of Homeland Security reports the number of cyber attacks on government and private networks increased from 4,095 in 2005 to 72,065 in 2008.
This month, a Transportation Department audit -- carried out after hackers got into a support system containing personnel records -- indicated the nation's air-traffic control system could be at risk.
CNN National Security Producer Pam Benson contributed to this report.
All About Computer Crime • Barack Obama • U.S. Congress


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To start the internet connection speed test, click the start button. A simple upload and download internet speed test will help you measure your current connection speeds to the internet.
How to get more accurate results
Your internet connection speed can be affected by many factors. To help achieve the most accurate test results, please follow these simple steps:
- Close any other open browser windows you may have open.
- Close any programs that you have running which may be connecting to the internet.
- Run this speed test at different times of the day and different days of the week. Network usage will vary depending on the time of day and your speed may be directly affected by the changes in the network.
How does the internet connection speed test work?
The internet connection speed test measures that amount of time that it takes to download and upload a file. This is a non-obtrusive test and the test determines your internet connection speed based on the amount of time that it takes to upload and download the file. If you find that you have a slow connection to the internet, you can determine the best time for you to download or upload files by keeping a history of your internet connection speeds to help determine when you have the fastest internet connection speeds


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Today is the cover reveal for Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault by Candace Robinson. This cover reveal is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The cover is designed by Jenny @ Seedlings Design Studio.
Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault
By Candace Robinson
Genre: Urban Fantasy/ Horror
Age category: Upper YA
Release Date: May 16, 2017
Some see it… Some don't…
People in the town of Deer Park, Texas are vanishing. There is a strange museum, known as Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault, that appears overnight. Perrie Madeline's best friend and ex-boyfriend are among the missing. Perrie, along with her friend August, go on a pursuit to search for them in the mysterious museum. Could the elusive Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault have anything to do with their disappearances?
You can find Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault on Goodreads
You can pre-order Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault on Amazon.
About the Author:
Candace Robinson is just your average hemiplegic migraine sufferer. Her days are spent writing, book reviewing and traveling through books. She live just outside of Houston, Texas, where it feels like the hottest place on Earth with the crazy weather. No, seriously, one day it's 30 degrees and the next it's 70 degrees! She resides with her husband and daughter.
You can find and contact Candace here:
– Website
– Facebook
– Twitter
– Goodreads
– Instagram


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08.09.09Gemini version available ♊
Microsoft Still Says That Linux is Derived from Unix
"A couple of years ago this guy called Ken Brown wrote a book saying that Linus stole Linux from me… It later came out that Microsoft had paid him to do this…"
–Andrew S Tanenbaum, father on MINIX
Summary: Microsoft calls Linux a Unix derivative, and this is not the first time Microsoft is doing this, just like SCO
Dishonesty of this kind is nothing new at Microsoft. The same old myths that Microsoft is spreading are probably geared towards implying that Linux does something illegally.
Microsoft paid an author to write similar lies about MINIX [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], and in a conferences a few years ago Microsoft disseminated these lies, despite them being challenged. Microsoft also spread false rumours about Groklaw being a front of IBM.
"Microsoft also spread false rumours about Groklaw being a front of IBM."Groklaw's editor took a look an article from The Register where Microsoft's SEC filing is quoted as follows: "The Linux operating system, which is also derived from Unix…"
"That's not true," says Pamela Jones, "It was what SCO claimed, but SCO has to date been unable to prove any such thing. Microsoft also calls Linux a "UNIX variant" like Apple. So why is Microsoft channeling SCO like this in its 10K? You tell me."
A few days ago we wrote about how Microsoft uses its search engine to funnel in self-serving disinformation [1, 2, 3]. There is yet another analysis of this behaviour, which is over a year old.
The poster had searched for "why is microsoft word so expensive?" in both Google and Bing. The results were strikingly different. Google's first two results were clearly web pages discussing that very question: one on MacRumors.com and the other on Ibibo.com. A look at Bing made me scratch my head…just as the post had intended. It's first response was to the question, "Why is Manhattan so expensive?" If, in Bing's algorithm, "microsoft" is the same as "manhattan" I think they need to check their programming. The second and third results were about the differences between various versions of Word.
Microsoft is very good at lying with apparent sincerity. █
"We have 17.1 million users of bbc.co.uk in the UK and, as far as our server logs can make out, 5 per cent of those [use Macs] and around 400 to 600 are Linux users."
–Ashley Highfield, Microsoft


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It's hard to get your mind wrapped around Russia's annexation of Crimea and seizure of Ukrainian military bases there. It was — and many Ukrainians say still is — part of a neighboring sovereign country until mid-March.
And it seemed like Europe had transcended that kind of old-school warmongering.
Just two years back, the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to the European Union for ending such conflict on its own turf and "for over six decades (contributing) to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe."
Easy come, easy go.
This isn't turning into World War III — at least not yet. The United States and EU are responding with economic sanctions and talking about ramping them up.
"Our interest is not in seeing the situation escalate and devolve into hot conflict," White House national security adviser Susan Rice said. "Our interest is in a diplomatic resolution, de-escalation, and obviously economic support for Ukraine, and to the extent that it continues to be necessary, further costs imposed on Russia for its actions."
Booting Russia from the G-8 cluster of the world's most powerful nations is one of those "costs." At least for now, the club is back in G-7 mode.
This newfound inclination to give peace a chance illustrates what President Barack Obama meant during his State of the Union speech when he said, "America must move off a permanent war footing."
There are other signs that Washington has had it with big wars.
The last U.S. troops left Iraq more than two years ago. American forces remaining in Afghanistan could leave by the end of 2014. Cooler heads (not ours, unfortunately) prevailed in Syria, and Obama seems ready to back away from attacking Iran.
But don't get your hopes up.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, deemed by all polls and most pundits to be the Democratic Party's frontrunner in the 2016 presidential race, just declared that "every other option does remain on the table" with Iran, including military action.
And, unfortunately, the United States remains up to its elbows in less publicized bloodshed and smaller-scale military actions.
Our drones assassinate in Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. Our special forces kill in Libya, Honduras, Colombia, Syria, and who knows where else. We have hundreds, maybe more than 1,000 overseas military bases operating in more than 63 countries. No one can really determine how many there are, where they all are, or exactly what they do.
The United States remains by far the No. 1 exporter of weapons. These arms flood many war zones, sometimes on both sides.
In 2012, Uncle Sam started to lavish a little less on the Pentagon, yet still led the world in military spending — forking over about 40 percent of the global war budget.
Just keeping track of whom exactly we're at war with is a perennial challenge for the American public. We all should realize that people are dying at our hands, but most of us tune out that sad fact.
Likewise, Americans struggle to acknowledge the devastation of our past wars. The mainstream media now seems mystified as to why so many children are starving in Afghanistan after we destroyed its economy.
And our government never truly acknowledged the consequences of spraying Agent Orange defoliant in Vietnam for the locals in remote villages. Four decades later, it still hasn't officially recognized the damage done to U.S. service members either. Many of them were exposed to the toxic stuff when they either flew or worked with the aircraft that dispersed Agent Orange as a weapon.
Just because this happens to be the world's most powerful nation doesn't mean we must also be the most aggressive. The carnage of war, big or small, makes the price of military action too high.
Obama should keep simmering down the Pentagon's exploits. It's the best way he can retroactively earn that Peace Prize he won in 2009 for what the Nobel committee deemed to be "his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts."


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Compliance preparations for the National Credit Union Administration's new emergency liquidity rule must have been completed by March 31 2014.
The liquidity rule sets up three-tiered emergency liquidity requirements for credit unions with less than $50 million in assets, between $50 million and $250 million in assets, and more than $250 million in assets.
Federally insured credit unions (FICUs) with less than $50 million in assets must maintain a basic written emergency liquidity policy but will not be required to take further action. All FICUs with assets of $50 million or more are required to develop contingency funding plans describing how their credit union will address liquidity shortfalls in emergency situations. FICUs with assets of $250 million or more would be required to have access to a backup federal liquidity source for emergency situations.
Why wouldn't credit union's with less than $250 million in assets not want to have access to a backup federal liquidity source such as the discount window or CLF for emergency situations?
The final rule does not include the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB) as an acceptable source of emergency liquidity, although eligible credit unions required to meet the federal source provisions would be free to borrow from a FHLB for nonemergency purposes. Without the FHLB, credit unions have two options to ensure a federal liquidity source for emergency situations: Becoming a member of the NCUA's Central Liquidity Facility (CLF) by subscribing to CLF stock or access to the Federal Reserve's discount window.
I strongly supports the use of the home loan banks for liquidity.
Why be concerned now about liquidity when most credit unions are still awash with funds resulting from a flight-to-safety fund inflows and loan portfolio outflows due to lack of loan demand?
• Rising rates typically are used to manage economic recoveries. so it is likely rising rates will be accompanied by a return of flight-to-safety funds to the market and a spike in loan demand, putting many credit unions back in the tight liquidity environment of a few years back.
• Many credit unions have rate floors under their variable rate loans. As rates move up, rates on these loans won't move for a while. But your cost of funds will. The result is a compressed net interest margins or NIM
The objective of a viable liquidity policy and strategy is to provide a framework to minimize the adverse effects of a significant and sustained liquidity crisis. This can result from changing economic or interest rate conditions, deposit outflows, unusually strong loan demand, intense competition, an international crisis, or any other factors that can deplete the liquidity of the credit union.
In the event of a serious and sustained liquidity crisis, various strategies, of which some would be considered preventative and must be implemented prior to the onset of a crisis. Other strategies are reactive and may be implemented immediately. The strategies will differ in terms of the implementation time, costs, risks, financial implications and regulatory consequences.
The first place to look for sources of liquidity is within your own balance sheet. More


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Early Modern Theatricality, ed. Henry S. Turner (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) brings together twenty-nine full-length, original essays by leading scholars in the field, inviting them to test out new methods for capturing the full event of theatre and its immense imaginative resources. Contributors examine the clusters of techniques, objects, bodies, conventions, signs, and other significant elements that characterized early modern performance and that extended beyond the public theaters to public entertainments and spectacles of all types, from the Tudor period to the Restoration. The third volume to appear in the 21st Century Approaches series at Oxford, edited by Paul Strohm, the collection offers an exploded view of theatricality, isolating functional parts, magnifying them for analysis, and integrating them into rigorous, conceptually adventurous statements that aim to provoke a re-discovery of early modern theater in all its formal complexity and wild profusion.
£95 / $150. Cloth. xiv, 624 pages, with 26 black-and-white illustrations, an Index of Plays cited, and a separate General Index.
Click here for a preview of the collection on Google Books.


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Scientists are working on a device they hope will be able to reveal the location of a target as far as 500 metres below the ocean surface
It is the latest addition to the country's expanding deep-sea surveillance programme, and aside from targeting submarines – most operate at a depth of less than 500 metres – it could also be used to collect data on the world's oceans.
Project Guanlan, meaning "watching the big waves", was officially launched in May at the Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology in Qingdao, Shandong. It aims to strengthen China's surveillance activities in the world's oceans, according to the laboratory's website. Continue reading


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Calendar of the Moon
Rowan Tree Moon
Color: Orange-red
Element: Fire
Altar: Upon a cloth of orange-red set a row of red candles, Brigid's cross, and a bell.
Offerings: Votive candles. Quicken a newborn idea into birth.
Daily Meal: Hot drinks with every meal. Keep food warm.
Luis/Gamelion Invocation
Call: Now is the quickening of the year.
Response: Now is the time of the first movement.
Call: Now the child stirs in the womb.
Response: Now the seed stirs in the earth.
Call: Now the plains flood and our fire is threatened.
Response: Now the cold water drowns our spark.
Call: Now is the time of the hard struggle.
Response: Now is the month of desperation.
Call: Now is the time of desperation to live.
Response: Now is the time of desperation to be born.
Call: We turn in our sleep as the earth turns.
Response: We dream with the sleeping earth.
Call: Each of our dreams is a lit candle in the dark.
Response: Each of our dreams is a single point of hope.
Call: They shine faint and alone in the night of struggle.
Response: They are alone as we are alone.
Call: Yet we are not alone in our dreams.
Response: We are not alone!
Call: We will keep our fires burning.
Response: We will burn against the night!
Call: We will warm our dreams with the force of life.
Response: We will not die alone in the cold!
Call: We will ward off all evil.
Response: Only good shall pass our gates.
Call: We will care for each other.
Response: We will never cease to care!
Call: We will survive the winter.
Response: We will survive!
(Repeat last two lines twice more.)
Protect the flame that warms your dreams
And dreams shall never die.