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Seven years after he left, Josh Thomson (19-5 MMA, 2-1 UFC) is returning to the octagon.
UFC officials today announced the ex-Strikeforce lightweight champ will fight Nate Diaz (16-8 MMA, 11-6 UFC) at UFC on FOX 7, which takes place April 20 at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.
It's not yet known whether the bout will be broadcast on the event's FOX-televised main card or on the preliminary-card, which serves on FX and Facebook.
The venue, however, is a familiar place for Thomson, whose post-UFC residency with Strikeforce netted him his first world title. He later ceded it to current champ Gilbert Melendez.
This past May, Thomson failed to reclaim the belt in a razor-close fight with Melendez, who was booed at the announcement of a split call in his favor.
Nicknamed "The Punk," Thomson ended his Strikeforce tenure with a 10-4 record. He went 2-1 in his first stint with the UFC, which ended in 2004 with a highlight-reel knockout loss against Yves Edwards.
Diaz most recently vied for UFC gold when he took on champ Benson Henderson at UFC on FOX 5. Dominated over five rounds, he lost a unanimous decision, which snapped a three-fight win streak he built following an unsuccessful stint at welterweight.
Diaz's longtime teammate, Melendez, is now set to challenge Henderson for the title in UFC on FOX 7's main event.
For more on UFC on FOX 7, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
(Pictured: Nate Diaz)


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Editor?s Note: This blog by Steve Gershom, a Catholic, gay, young man, was originally published on the blog, Little Catholic Bubble.
If you want to read more about the what the Catholic Church teaches about homosexuality and gay marriage, check out this blog that debunks some common misconceptions.
I have heard a lot about how mean the Church is, and how bigoted, because she opposes gay marriage. How badly she misunderstands gay people, and how hostile she is towards us. My gut reaction to such things is: Are you freaking kidding me? Are we even talking about the same Church?
When I go to Confession, I sometimes mention the fact that I?m gay, to give the priest some context. (And to spare him some confusion: Did you say ?locker room?? What were you doing in the women?s . . . oh.) I?ve always gotten one of two responses: either compassion, encouragement, and admiration, because the celibate life is difficult and profoundly counter-cultural; or nothing at all, not even a ripple, as if I had confessed eating too much on Thanksgiving.
Of the two responses, my ego prefers the first ? who doesn?t like thinking of themselves as some kind of hero? ? but the second might make more sense. Being gay doesn?t mean I?m special or extraordinary. It just means that my life is not always easy. (Surprise!) And as my friend J. said when I told him recently about my homosexuality, ?I guess if it wasn?t that, it would have been something else.? Meaning that nobody lives without a burden of one kind or another. As Rabbi Abraham Heschel said: ?The man who has not suffered, what can he possibly know, anyway??
Where are all these bigoted Catholics I keep hearing about? When I told my family a year ago, not one of them responded with anything but love and understanding. Nobody acted like I had a disease. Nobody started treating me differently or looking at me funny. The same is true of every one of the Catholic friends that I?ve told. They love me for who I am.
Actually, the only time I get shock or disgust or disbelief, the only time I?ve noticed people treating me differently after I tell them, is when I tell someone who supports the gay lifestyle. Celibacy?! You must be some kind of freak.
Hooray for tolerance of different viewpoints. I?m grateful to gay activists for some things ? making people more aware of the prevalence of homosexuality, making homophobia less socially acceptable ? but they also make it more difficult for me to be understood, to be accepted for who I am and what I believe. If I want open-mindedness, acceptance, and understanding, I look to Catholics.
Is it hard to be gay and Catholic? Yes, because like everybody, I sometimes want things that are not good for me. The Church doesn?t let me have those things, not because she?s mean, but because she?s a good mother. If my son or daughter wanted to eat sand I?d tell them: that?s not what eating is for; it won?t nourish you; it will hurt you. Maybe my daughter has some kind of condition that makes her like sand better than food, but I still wouldn?t let her eat it. Actually, if she was young or stubborn enough, I might not be able to reason with her ? I might just have to make a rule against eating sand. Even if she thought I was mean.
So the Church doesn?t oppose gay marriage because it?s wrong; she opposes it because it?s impossible, just as impossible as living on sand. The Church believes, and I believe, in a universe that means something, and in a God who made the universe ? made men and women, designed sex and marriage from the ground up. In that universe, gay marriage doesn?t make sense. It doesn?t fit with the rest of the picture, and we?re not about to throw out the rest of the picture.
If you don?t believe in these things, if you believe that men and women and sex and marriage are pretty much whatever we say they are, then okay: we don?t have much left to talk about. That?s not the world I live in.
So, yes, it?s hard to be gay and Catholic ? it?s hard to be anything and Catholic ? because I don?t always get to do what I want. Show me a religion where you always get to do what you want and I?ll show you a pretty shabby, lazy religion. Something not worth living or dying for, or even getting up in the morning for. That might be the kind of world John Lennon wanted, but John Lennon was kind of an idiot.
Would I trade in my Catholicism for a worldview where I get to marry a man? Would I trade in the Eucharist and the Mass and the rest of it? Being a Catholic means believing in a God who literally waits in the chapel for me, hoping I?ll stop by just for ten minutes so he can pour out love and healing on my heart. Which is worth more ? all this, or getting to have sex with who I want? I wish everybody, straight or gay, had as beautiful a life as I have.
I know this isn?t a satisfactory answer. I don?t think any words could be. I try to make my life a satisfactory answer, to this question and to others: What are people for? What is love, and what does it look like? How do we get past our own selfishness so we can love God and our neighbors and ourselves?
It?s a work in progress.


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Filtering, modifications and improvements of the Yaesu FT-1000D
The Yaesu FT-1000D which I use and was manufactured in May 1995
IMHO the FT-1000D still is one of the best transceivers which has been made for the amateur radio market.
For my purposes I prefer analog rigs like the FT-1000D,
in combination with Inrad IF-filters, the Inrad Roofing Filter and the Timewave DSP599zx.
Inrad filter setup in the Yaesu FT-1000D
455 kHz IF-filters
Inrad #715-C 2800 Hz instead of the Murata CFJ455K13 2400 Hz
Inrad #702-C 2100 Hz instead of the Yaesu XF-D 2000 Hz
Inrad #721-C 500 Hz instead of the Yaesu XF-E 500 Hz
Inrad #704-C 250 Hz instead of the Yaesu XF-F 250 Hz
8.2 MHz IF-filters
Inrad #716-B 2800 Hz instead of the Yaesu XF-8.2M-262-01
Inrad #709-B 2100 Hz instead of the Yaesu XF-8.2M-202-01
Inrad #701-B 400 Hz instead of the Yaesu XF-8.2M-501-03
Inrad #708-B 250 Hz instead of the Yaesu XF-8.2M-251-01
International Radio filters are superior in performance to original radio manufacturer filters.
Example of the Performance Curve of the #709 2100 Hz filter:
Inrad Roofing Filter
This Roofing Filter can substantially reduce the third order Intermodulation
from multiple strong signals in the 2 to 20 kHz region either side of the tuned frequency.
Installation is simple and requires soldering the +12V and ground wires.
One coax is moved and a coax jumper is added.
W8JI Keyclick and Noise Blanker Modification
On the very interesting site of Tom W8JI you will read more about these mods:
For the serious CW-operator this mod is a must!
The FT-1000(D) runs an essentially unshaped CW waveform into the filters.
This harsh signal generates unnecessary keyclicks.
The clicks are strongest from almost 1 kHz below to 2kHz above the transmit frequency.
Thanks to Tom W8JI for his great help with this important mods!
FT-1000D Sub-Rx filter setup
Instead of the Murata Ceramic CFJ455K15 2400 Hz filter: the Inrad #715-C 2800 Hz filter wired-in for the 455 kHz IF.
Instead of the Yaesu XF-455MC 600 Hz filter: the Inrad #1303.2 500 Hz filter for the 455.8 kHz IF.
This is a substantial improvement of the FT-1000D's Sub-RX!


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***1/2 (out of four)
And down goes "Iron Man 3."
Touching on similar themes with far greater depth and maturity, "Star Trek Into Darkness" sets the bar for the summer blockbuster movie season. Yes, action and character development can coexist. Yes, expensive movies can embrace moral complexity. Hell yeah, a villain can be both cool and scary.
He's John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch, pure dynamite), a Starfleet officer who goes rogue, unleashing terror on 23rd century London and a major threat to Capt. Kirk (Chris Pine), first officer Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the Enterprise crew. Actually, first Kirk's penchant for rule-breaking and truth-massaging gets him booted off the Enterprise and Spock reassigned, but his punishment lasts approximately three minutes before the ideological opposites partner back up to track Harrison to the one place they'd never otherwise go: Klingon-land! (It's not really called that.)
Before I go on: Some have griped that "Star Trek Into Darkness" doesn't boldly go where the series hasn't gone before and so forth. Since when do we complain about a richly executed, thrilling and thoughtful franchise installment? Director J.J. Abrams has a really good ship and should feel free to take it on multiple journeys before trading it in.
Once again, Abrams delivers a sci-fi/action film that doesn't require affinity for the original franchise to enjoy. Anyone can relate to issues of loyalty and the fear of death, or lack thereof, not to mention a moving film that just plain looks great. "Star Trek Into Darkness" hits the right notes of character-based comedy—Kirk tells Bones (Karl Urban) to can the metaphors after spouting two back to back—while wowing visually enough to make the 132-minute running time feel only slightly long.
But freezing a volcano? Questioning the slippery slope of militarization? Two admirable heroes learning from each other while battling over emotion vs. logic? Every blockbuster should be this hefty, with the fleetness of warp.
Watch Matt on "You & Me This Morning," Friday at 6:55 a.m. on WCIU, the U
Want more? Discuss this article and others on RedEye's Facebook page.


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Comic strip: Adventures of a Would-be Arms Dealer
Interactive Map
Recent Publications
Monitoring Illicit Arms Flows: The Role of UN Peacekeeping Operations, by Holger Anders. SANA Briefing Paper, June 2018 (also available in Arabic)Download (1.8 MB)
From Legal to Lethal: Converted Firearms in Europe, by Nicolas Florquin and Benjamin King. Small Arms Survey Report, April 2018 (also available in French).Download (1.22 MB)
The trade in small arms, light weapons, and their parts, accessories, and ammunition involves every country in the world. The Trade Update 2019 estimated that international small arms trade by top and major exporters was worth at least USD 6.3 billion in 2016.
The global trade in small arms and light weapons consists of both newly produced weapons and surplus arms that their owners no longer need. Trade in sporting shotguns, sporting rifles, pistols, and revolvers is much greater than that in firearms made to military specifications. A small number of countries dominate this trade; 21 countries are known to have exported at least USD 100 million in a single year between 2001 and 2016.
The Small Arms Survey's annual Transparency Barometer assesses and compares the relative transparency of countries' export reports.
An analysis of customs data suggests that nine countries routinely export small arms worth more than USD 100 million. The number of major exporters and the value of their activity is likely under-counted.
An analysis of customs data suggests that 21 countries have imported small arms worth more than USD 100 million during a single year for the period 2001 to 2016.
Authorized Trade
Each year, the Small Arms Survey further provides an update of annual authorized small arms and light weapons exports and imports by major exporter and importer (annual transfers of at least USD 10 million).
Illicit Trafficking
The illicit trade in small arms and light weapons occurs around the globe but is concentrated in areas afflicted by armed conflict, violence, and organized crime, where the demand for illicit weapons is often highest. Arms trafficking fuels civil wars and regional conflicts; stocks the arsenals of terrorists, drug cartels, and other armed groups; and contributes to violent crime and the proliferation of sensitive technology.


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Students Must Learn More Words, Say Studies
Children who enter kindergarten with a small vocabulary don't get taught enough words—particularly, sophisticated academic words—to close the gap, according to the latest in a series of studies by Michigan early-learning experts.
The findings suggest many districts could be at a disadvantage in meeting the increased requirements for vocabulary learning from the Common Core State Standards, said study co-author Susan B. Neuman, a professor in educational studies specializing in early-literacy development at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
"Vocabulary is the tip of the iceberg: Words reflect concepts and content that students need to know," Ms. Neuman said. "This whole common core will fall on its face if kids are not getting the kind of instruction it will require."
In an ongoing series of studies of early-grades vocabulary instruction, Ms. Neuman and co-author Tanya S. Wright, an assistant professor of teacher education at Michigan State University in East Lansing, analyzed how kindergarten educators choose and teach new words, both in the instruction that teachers give and in basal-reading books.
Ms. Neuman and Ms. Wright found limited vocabulary instruction across the board, but students in poverty—the ones prior research shows enter school knowing 10,000 fewer words than their peers from higher-income families—were the least likely to get instruction in academically challenging words.
The Michigan studies are "immensely valuable in calling attention to the problem, and to the way early-literacy instruction fails to overcome the verbal gaps between demographic groups," said E.D. Hirsch Jr., the founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation and a professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia.
Mr. Hirsch has written extensively about the essential role of background knowledge, including the words and concepts common to "culturally literate" Americans, in children's education. In an essay published in the Winter 2013 issue of City Journal, Mr. Hirsch argues that expanding students' vocabulary is "the key to upward mobility," for example, because college-entrance exams such as the ACT and the SAT and military exams such as the Armed Forces Qualification Test demand such knowledge.
Vocabulary is a deceptively simple literacy skill that researchers and educators agree is critical to students' academic success, but which has proved frustratingly difficult to address.
By age 3, when many children enter early preschool, youngsters from well-to-do families have a working vocabulary of 1,116 words, compared to 749 words for children in working-class families and 525 words for children on welfare, according to a seminal 2003 longitudinal study by Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, authors of the 1995 book Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children.
The consensus among researchers and educators has been that students must close such vocabulary gaps to succeed academically and deal with rigorous content.
"It's been one of the most resistant-to-change skills in early literacy," Ms. Neuman said. "Generally, children come into school with vocabulary at one point and leave with vocabulary at the same point."
Unlike other early-literacy skills, such as phonics, vocabulary doesn't seem to have a "ceiling" for mastery, said Timothy Shanahan, the director of the Center for Literacy, the chairman of the curriculum and instruction department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and one of the reviewers of the common core's literacy standards.
That's because people continue to grapple with unfamiliar words throughout their lives, in school, college, and even adulthood.
'Teachable Moments'
In the first of the Michigan researchers' studies, presented in brief form in the fall 2012 Reading Research Quarterly but not yet released, Ms. Wright and her colleagues analyzed observations of 660 hours of 55 kindergarten teachers' classroom instruction in districts of differing poverty levels in the 2009-10 school year.
The researchers found few formal, structured lessons on vocabulary during that time. Instead, most teachers defined words during "teachable moments" that came up as they read stories to students or held discussions.
That informal style led to major discrepancies in both the number and difficulty of vocabulary words, with some teachers discussing only two words a day and others as many as 20.
Moreover, because most words were chosen from the stories, they had little connection to other words being taught at the same time and were rarely words that students would need to understand instructions or academic content in later grades. Prior studies have shown that students learn words better when they are grouped with related words.
Rebecca Silverman, an assistant professor in special education at the University of Maryland College Park, agreed that the same problem permeates vocabulary instruction across all the grades.
"I think that happens a lot, because sometimes in these basal readers, they pick words that seem sophisticated [to be highlighted in vocabulary lessons], but they don't connect words," Ms. Silverman said.
"So, a student hears the word 'transportation' in a book about trains," said Ms. Silverman, who was not involved with the Michigan studies. "If the teacher doesn't explain it in a general context, the student might not get the full sense of the word, and might think it's just related to trains."
In schools with fewer than one in four students in poverty, Michigan State's Ms. Wright found teachers explained the meanings of nine words per day, compared with only six words a day in schools with a majority of students in poverty. Similarly, teachers in wealthier schools discussed the meaning of five challenging words per day, compared with only three challenging words per day in higher-poverty schools.
Prior studies suggest a student needs to hear a new word 28 times on average to remember it. The more sophisticated the word, the more important it is for students to have opportunities to recall the word, use it, and understand how it relates to other, similar words, Ms. Wright and Ms. Neuman said.
In the first study, Ms. Wright found kindergarten teachers discussed vocabulary on average eight times a day, and rarely went back to recall and expand on words they had already defined.
"In other words, we're not teaching very many words, and we're not teaching in a way that children will retain the words," Ms. Neuman said. "Essentially, I'm teaching these words, hoping like hell they've learned it, and never checking whether the children have learned it."
Boosting Basals
In the second study, "Vocabulary Instruction in Commonly Used Kindergarten Core Reading Curricula," Ms. Neuman and Ms. Wright analyzed 12 weeks' worth of curricular materials from the four most commonly used basal-reading programs in the nation: Houghton Mifflin Reading, Pearson Education's Scott Foresman Reading Street, Harcourt Trophies, and Macmillian/McGraw-Hill's Treasures. Combined, those programs were used in 52.3 percent of the elementary school market in 2009-10, though the study focused specifically on the kindergarten reader.
The researchers grouped the vocabulary words highlighted in those books based on three measures of difficulty used by early-literacy researchers.
One such measure, the Dale-Chall list, includes 7,875 words commonly known by 4th graders, considering unlisted words more "sophisticated."
The "Words Worth Teaching" list differentiates words that most children know by 2nd grade; those that 40 percent to 80 percent of children know by the end of 2nd grade; those that 40 percent to 80 percent of children know by the end of 6th grade; and "difficult" words known by fewer than 40 percent of rising 6th graders.
Finally, the researchers grouped words based on a three-tier system developed by Isabel L. Beck, a professor emerita of education at the University of Pittsburgh. Tier I, or basic, words can be learned without instruction; Tier II words are academic words used over many subject areas; and Tier III are "difficult, content-specific" words.
Ms. Neuman and Ms. Wright found that, on average, the reading curricula introduced eight to 10 new words a week, and a majority of those were easy, commonly known words.
"Essentially, what we found was a very haphazard approach to vocabulary instruction," Ms. Neuman said."The 'challenging' vocabulary choices were not based on frequency, not based on the supporting academic words children need to know like 'during' and 'after,' not content-rich words, like 'predict.' Why would you choose to emphasize the word 'platypus'? It makes no sense."
Ways of targeting vocabulary words have been evolving in the past decade, Mr. Shanahan said. Reading materials developed in the early 1990s tend to focus on the phonics of words, so the word "cat" might have been chosen to highlight the "-at" sound, rather than because educators need to teach children what the word means.
Mr. Shanahan said he believes the lack of vocabulary cohesion comes from the attempt to choose more difficult words from upcoming texts.
"It gets very tricky," he said. "The words aren't terribly important; they aren't words you'd really care if the children know or not. If the next story has a platypus in it, that's a hard word; we might as well teach it. ... We've managed to get publishers off 'cat,' but they've swung over to 'platypus.' "
Jeff Byrd, the director of product marketing for reading at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in Boston, said common words are included in kindergarten and 1st grade basal readers because students may not have connected the spoken word to a printed one. Including "easy" words helps students read independently, he said.
Mr. Hirsch said research shows children learn the bulk of their vocabulary implicitly in context, but educators and book publishers still must find a better balance of explaining words day to day and building the vocabularies of students, particularly those who enter with a vocabulary lag.
Mr. Shanahan agreed: "Common core is really pushing you to do two things: Don't neglect vocabulary in the text you are reading, but simultaneously you are responsible for expanding students' vocabulary."
However, Houghton Mifflin's Mr. Byrd said the publisher's 2014 basal-reader series Journeys Common Core, which was revised to meet the new standards, has a much stronger emphasis on explicit vocabulary instruction.
For kindergarten and 1st grade, the curriculum does teach 88 common words each year; children are expected to know the meanings of those words already, and they are noted in order to connect the spoken word to a printed word, to help children read independently.
But the new readers also include six to 10 academic words each week, such as "recall" or "captured," and four to six challenging, content-related words. The challenging words are directly tied to Tier III and Tier II words in Ms. Beck's classification model.
Mr. Byrd did agree that 300 new words per year—the maximum number taught in the basal readers studied—would not be enough to bring poor students, struggling readers, and English-language learners up to average levels.
"We recognize the studies and the concern that there are students who enter with this vocabulary deficit," Mr. Byrd said. "It's really frustrating to see those gaps persist despite the fact that, as content providers, we make our best efforts to help teachers close that gap."
Vol. 32, Issue 20, Pages 1, 16-17Published in Print: February 6, 2013, as Studies Find Vocabulary Instruction Is Falling Short
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About this paper
As today's regulatory and financial environments evolve in the banking sector, efficient capital management has assumed a status of paramount significance. This paper illustrates an approach to managing capital that will enable banks to proactively steer the vital components of strategic plans – product mix evolution, revenue growth and risk appetite. It postulates that banks must manage strategic planning life cycles in tandem with risk appetite and forward capital position. Further, it illustrates ways to make capital management – that is, forward-looking planning and short- to midterm utilization – more efficient and more oriented to risk-adjusted performance measures.
About SAS
SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative software and services, SAS empowers and inspires customers around the world to transform data into intelligence. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW®.
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Cannibalism feared in wilderness survival story
Russian investigators have opened a murder case amid fears two men who survived three months lost in a remote forest could have eaten a companion to stay alive.
Four men disappeared in August on a river fishing expedition to the vast Yakutia region in the Russian Far East, one of the most remote and inhospitable places in the world.
Rescuers found two of the men this month by the Sutam River, around 250 kilometres from the nearest town of Neryungri in the south of Yakutia.
The men claimed their group had split up and said the others were likely still alive as they were used to living in the open.
But a murder probe was opened after a team of investigators from the regional capital Yakutsk found fragments of a human corpse close to where the pair was found.
"Investigators carried out an examination of two areas," the Yakutia branch of Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement.
"Fragments of a human corpse with signs of a violent death were discovered and removed.
"A criminal case into suspected murder has been opened."
Russia has no article in the criminal code for cannibalism, but the state RIA Novosti news agency said the initial theory was that the two men had eaten one companion.
It is not clear what happened to the fourth man.
The pair, aged 35 and 37, have denied any wrongdoing and said they had managed to survive as winter set in in a wooden hut by foraging for wild foods.
The Yakutia investigators said DNA and pathological testing had been ordered and they were working urgently to uncover what happened.


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Welcome to Better Saddles
Better Saddles Ltd based in The New Forest, Hampshire / Wiltshire borders, provides a personal saddle fitting service to clients, and via our online shop offer top quality saddle related products.
You were a huge help to me when I was making a big decision – long distance – re the saddle and your specialised knowledge and advice was absolutely essential for me to make the investment – which proved to be so successful and worked so well for me and Merlin.
Thank you so much for quick despatch and delivery really good product too I will definitely use you again.
I just wanted to say a big thank you for such speedy delivery and process of my order. I am really happy with my goods. I was informed that my order had been confirmed and when it had been shipped which is customer care that I have not received from all online horsey websites. The goods are of great quality and I will definitely be purchasing from you again. Thanks again.
It was lovely to meet you, and I actually enjoyed what was a very informative session. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a saddle fitting before – – in my experience they are usually exercises in progressive frustration! So thanks for that.
After many enquiries to other non responsive suppliers in UK I found Bettersaddles, and a Better Service! Prompt response to email enquiry followed by a helpful telephone conversation and items arrived within 48 hrs which meant I could have that long awaited ride on my youngster. Thank you Mariaana I would recommend you for your 5* service.
I am so pleased that I made the decision to contact Mariaana at Better Saddles to help me purchase my first treeless saddle. She was very helpful and always quick to reply to my emails. From placing the order to putting the saddle on my pony was less than 2 weeks and I am so pleased with it. I have a feeling that this won't be he last order I place with Better Saddles! Thanks again.
I went for a 3 hour hack in the saddle on Sunday and it's fab. My pony is definitely really happy in it and it is really comfy for longer rides.
Really pleased!
Torsion News
We are very pleased to announce that Better Saddles is now the official UK importer of Torsion treeless saddle and Equitex range of saddle pads.
To view the full range of Torsion saddles, please go to the shop.
To arrange a saddle trial, click here!
Saddle Focus – FlexEE VSD Saddle
The latest saddle from world renowned riding teacher and saddle designer, Heather Moffett. One of the most affordable multi-fit saddles on the market which uniquely benefits from a flexible leather tree and wool serge panel.
Flex Ride Caged Stirrups
These lightweight flexible stirrups are ideal for endurance riders. The wider tread spreads the pressure and relieves pain in feet, ankles and knees. Increased safety – caged stirrups prevent the foot from slipping through in case of a fall.
How to Take a Template
Learn how to accurately take a wither template that you can send to Better Saddles as part of the process of getting a custom made saddle.
What's in your Saddle?
A step by step strip-down of a typical treed saddle. Here we talk about each stage along with detailed pictures.
See how the components fit together and can affect the horse and rider.
In the Shop
Urad Saddle cream. A self shining cream that feeds the leather and protects against mould growth. Ideal for any kind of leather tack, no need for saddle soap. Simply apply sparingly using the sponge provided for clean, shiny tack, no need to buff. Buy it HERE!
Saddle Trials
We will also be able to provide you with suitable treeless pad, dressage girth and stirrup leathers to go with the saddle, if needed (for no extra charge).
Why Choose Us
- Largest range of treeless saddles in the UK with latest models always available.
- Years of experience in saddle fitting and saddle issues with all horse types.
- Help and advice on saddle problems, before and after purchase.
- Secure online shop for easy ordering with sensible postage rates and quick despatch.
- No bias to treeless or treed saddles. We advise on the best for you and your horse.
Recent Posts
Freeform Saddles
New to the Better Saddles shop are these Italian made lightweight, versatile treeless saddles. Freeform range of treeless saddles offers very elegant treeless saddles with a conventional [...]
All About Girths
Have you ever stopped to consider how the design and materials on your girth could have a significant impact on your horse and his [...]
Riding School Horse
Saw an ex riding school horse today – he had only been in a riding school for 4 years, but had saddle sore marks on [...]


text: Apologies if I've missed a thread on this, but I picked up from Smiths yesterday part 1 of Eaglemoss' new Star Trek: Official Starship Collection partwork. Each issue has a glossy mag and a model of a Trek ship! (part 1 = £1.99. Reg price £9.99!!!) Embarrassingly, I can't seem to find anything about it on Google, but I definitely have it! It seems to have had little fanfare or launch, but has anyone else picked it up? Part 1 was the Enterprise-D and is excellent. Eaglemoss is the company behind the Classic Marvel Figurine Collection, the DC Chess Collection, and many more partwork model-type releases.


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Common Core is controversial because it will change what we expect from our school system, and because it comes with the added discomfort of being a national standard. For years, parent organizations stressed the importance of decentralization and community control, and now Common Core is a nod in the opposite direction.
To make matters worse, the roll out of this policy is confusing and now it's a political hot potato. (What is with this federal government and bad rollouts, by the way?)
Common Core standards may not be a terrible idea, but it probably needs more time to be set up. The policy has critics on both sides of the political aisle, both nationally and locally. Since Common Core is not a federal mandate (it is optional), maybe it should be tried with one subject (let's say mathematics) in schools where principals agree to participate.
Math is the easiest subject in which to test skills and progress. History being left up to a federal standard, however, is different. That could get political real fast. Mathematics, however, might fit an approach such as this.
By testing the policy, we would see how well Common Core works before it becomes more wide-spread. Participation in this program allows states federal funding, so the temptation is big, but it should test driven on a limited basis. If it is a good idea, it will prove itself.
There are some major issues with a plan like Common Core. For one, what if it fails miserably? Who gets the blame in that case? This is a plan to give education policy a national identity, so it's normal to expect discomfort from states. State education systems pride themselves on their own innovative ideas.
Common Core may not be a bad idea, but it should be tried on a limited basis on subjects that can be somewhat streamlined, like math and science. That would not get a state those attractive federal dollars, but it might be a wiser approach. Some of the outcry is that the new curriculum is too involved or too difficult. Well, that is supposed to happen. School is supposed to be difficult.
Raising education standards is never a bad idea. To bridle at a new idea because it comes from a liberal or conservative place is a giant mistake. We give these ideas a political label, and we make any reform attempts impossible. This is what has held back school choice options.
The old way does not work, at least in many places. One reason to look at a federal standard is that students learn in more of a bubble than ever before. For example, they listen to the same music, read the same news, and follow the same issues as students all across the country, thanks to the internet and cable television.
Their lives have gotten more homogenized, and maybe a national educational standard (on select subjects in certain schools) is worth a look.


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Former dealers testify at cheating trial
Former Mohegan Sun table games dealer Jeian Ng testified Tuesday in New London Superior Court Tuesday that he was playing poker at the region's other tribal casino in the summer of 2010 when a New York City man approached him and asked if he wanted to make money.
Ng, 41, of Norwich, and former dealer, Bong Gate Louie, 39, of Norwich, both testified for the state at the cheating trial of Hung Lit Leung and Leonard Hu with the hope of being treated leniently when their own criminal cases are disposed. Both men admitted they broke the law, and Ng characterized his behavior as "stupid."
All four men were arrested on cheating, conspiracy and larceny charges after the alleged card marking scheme was discovered in February 2011. The state alleges that Leung and Hu beat the odds at mini-baccarat, gaining as much as a 21.53 percent advantage by having dealers mark the most favorable cards so that they could increase their bets when they knew the cards were in play.
Prosecutor Stephen M. Carney alleges Leung and Hu won hundreds of thousands of dollars by cheating, but has not pinpointed the amount.
Ng, who had worked at Mohegan Sun since 2004, said he always went to Foxwoods Resort Casino on his days off from Mohegan Sun, and that the man he knew only as "Lee" approached him three times about "making money" before he agreed to it.
The next day, Lee came to his house and showed him how to "touch" the 7, 8 and 9 cards while retrieving them during mini-baccarat games.
"He showed me a couple of cards and how actually to touch the card," Ng testified. "He said when I pick up, just touch with a little pressure on it."
Ng said he went to work and started "touching" the cards, as instructed, by applying pressure in the center. He said the cards didn't look any different to him, but he began receiving payments of $500 to $1,000 in cash in his home mailbox, which he said he thinks came from Lee. Ng estimated he received $5,000 to $6,000.
Ng said he never saw Lee at his table but recognized the defendant, Hu, as a regular customer whom the dealers referred to as "Fat Boy." Louie, the other dealer, testified that his co-worker, Ng, recruited him to "press the cards," and that he tried it four or five times but never got paid.
During their cross-examination of the two dealers, defense attorneys Jeremiah Donovan and Conraid Sei fert let the jury know the men were both facing decades in prison if convicted. Both former dealers signed cooperation agreements with the state last Friday in which the state promised to "take into consideration the nature and extent of your cooperation when deciding the specific charges to which you will plead."
Surveillance investigation manager Mark Smith testified Tuesday that he started looking into the case after a routine review of the player rating and tracking system showed a higher than usual loss for the casino from one particular table.
"The table in question lost $179,000 in one day," Smith testified. The table was not in a high-stakes area, he said. He looked to see who had won the money, discovered it was Hu and Leung, and began reviewing video to see if the play was valid and legitimate, Smith testified.
Jurors began viewing the video at the end of the day and are expected to continue when the trial resumes today.
Trump threatens to veto major defense bill unless Congress repeals legal shield for tech giants12:46 am
Barr says he hasn't seen fraud that could affect election outcome
Trump threatens to veto major defense bill unless Congress repeals legal shield for tech giants
Software company to buy Slack for $28B: What this could mean for remote work


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Google Gets Into the Paper (Mill) Business
There are probably many good reasons that Google has chosen an old Finnish paper mill as the site of a new data center. But it's reasonable to assume that at least someone in Mountain View was amused by the irony, no? Reuters:
Google said on Thursday it aimed to build a data centre at an old paper mill in southeastern Finland that it bought from Stora Enso for 40 million euros ($51.7 million).
'We are currently considering to build a data centre at this site,' said Google spokesman Kay Oberbeck…
In early 2008 Stora Enso closed down the loss-making Summa mill, which consumed 1,000 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, after nearly 53 years in operation."
Go ahead and make your own knowing creative destruction joke here. And when you're done, think about the more prosaic symbolism of the purchase. Last fall, Google (GOOG) was putting the brakes on growth–it delayed and scaled back data centers in Oklahoma and North Carolina, and even laid off some of its recruiters.
You don't want to read too much into this purchase–buying property isn't the same as actually building a data center–but it's certainly a more hopeful sign than a company that's selling off assets.
[Image Credit: Library of Congress via Flickr]


text:
|+1 855-379-3115
|Values are valid only on day of printing.
Second-order testing when cortisol measurement by immunoassay (eg, CORT / Cortisol, Serum) gives results that are not consistent with clinical symptoms, or if patients are known to, or suspected of, taking exogenous synthetic steroids. For confirming the presence of synthetic steroids, order SGSS / Synthetic Glucocorticoid Screen, Serum.
An adjunct in the differential diagnosis of primary and secondary adrenal insufficiency
An adjunct in the differential diagnosis of Cushing syndrome
See Steroid Pathways in Special Instructions.
Cortisol, the main glucocorticoid (representing 75%-95% of the plasma corticoids), plays a critical role in glucose metabolism and in the body's response to stress. Both hypercortisolism and hypocortisolism can cause disease.
Cortisol levels are regulated by adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which is synthesized by the pituitary in response to corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH). CRH is released in a cyclic fashion by the hypothalamus, resulting in diurnal peaks (6-8 a.m.) and nadirs (11 p.m.) in plasma ACTH and cortisol levels.
The majority of cortisol circulates bound to corticosteroid-binding globulin and albumin. Normally, <5% of circulating cortisol is free (unbound). Free cortisol is the physiologically active form, and is filterable by the renal glomerulus.
Pathological hypercortisolism due to endogenous or exogenous glucocorticoids is termed Cushing syndrome. Signs and symptoms of pathological hypercortisolism may include central obesity, hypertension, hyperglycemia, hirsutism, muscle weakness, and osteoporosis. However, these symptoms and signs are not specific for pathological hypercortisolism. The majority of individuals with some or all of the symptoms and signs will not suffer from Cushing syndrome.
When Cushing syndrome is present, the most common cause is iatrogenic, due to repeated or prolonged administration of, mostly, synthetic corticosteroids. Spontaneous Cushing syndrome is less common and results from either primary adrenal disease (adenoma, carcinoma, or nodular hyperplasia) or an excess of ACTH (from a pituitary tumor or an ectopic source). ACTH-dependent Cushing syndrome due to a pituitary corticotroph adenoma is the most frequently diagnosed subtype; most commonly seen in women in the third through fifth decades of life. The onset is insidious and usually occurs 2 to 5 years before a clinical diagnosis is made.
Hypocortisolism most commonly presents with nonspecific lassitude, weakness, hypotension, and weight loss. Depending on the cause, hyperpigmentation may be present. More advanced cases and patients submitted to physical stress (ie, infection, spontaneous or surgical trauma) also may present with abdominal pain, hyponatremia, hyperkalemia, hypoglycemia, and in extreme cases, cardiovascular shock and renal failure.
The more common causes of hypocortisolism are:
Primary adrenal insufficiency:
-Addison disease
-Congenital adrenal hyperplasia, defects in enzymes involved in cortisol synthesis
Secondary adrenal insufficiency:
-Prior, prolonged corticosteroid therapy
-Pituitary insufficiency
-Hypothalamic insufficiency
See Steroid Pathways in Special Instructions.
5-25 mcg/dL (a.m.)
2-14 mcg/dL (p.m.)
Pediatric reference ranges are the same as adults, as confirmed by peer-reviewed literature.
Petersen KE: ACTH in normal children and children with pituitary and adrenal diseases. I. Measurement in plasma by radioimmunoassay-basal values. Acta Paediatr Scand 1981;70:341-345
In primary adrenal insufficiency, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) levels are increased and cortisol levels are decreased; in secondary adrenal insufficiency both ACTH and cortisol levels are decreased.
When symptoms of glucocorticoid deficiency are present and the 8 a.m. plasma cortisol value is <10 mcg/dL (or the 24-hour urinary free cortisol value is <50 mcg/24 hours), further studies are needed to establish the diagnosis. The 3 most frequently used tests are the ACTH (cosyntropin) stimulation test, the metyrapone test, and insulin-induced hypoglycemia test. First, the basal plasma ACTH concentration should be measured and the short cosyntropin stimulation test performed.
Cushing syndrome is characterized by increased serum cortisol levels. However, the 24-hour urinary free cortisol excretion is the preferred screening test for Cushing syndrome, specifically CORTU / Cortisol, Free, 24 Hour, Urine that utilizes liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. A normal result makes the diagnosis unlikely.
Symptoms or signs of Cushing syndrome in a patient with low serum and urine cortisol levels suggest possible exogenous synthetic steroid effects.
When patients are not taking or are not suspected to be taking exogenous glucocorticoids, the regular assay (CORT / Cortisol, Serum) should be used.
When cortisol assays are used for serial monitoring, the same methodology should be used throughout.
There is little, if any, value in an isolated p.m. serum cortisol measurement.
The most common cause of increased plasma cortisol levels in women is a high circulating concentration of estrogen (ie, estrogen therapy, pregnancy) resulting in increased concentration of corticosteroid-binding globulin. This does not result in an increase in the free, bioactive cortisol fraction. For this reason, measurement of 24-hour urinary free cortisol (CORTU / Cortisol, Free, 24 Hour, Urine) or demonstration of absent diurnal variation (ie, by midnight salivary cortisol measurement SALCT / Cortisol, Saliva) are the preferred means of diagnosing spontaneous Cushing syndrome.
Acute stress (including hospitalization and surgery), alcoholism, depression, and many drugs (ie, exogenous cortisones, anticonvulsants) can obliterate normal diurnal variation, affect response to suppression/stimulation tests, and cause elevated baseline levels.
Not recommended for evaluating response to metyrapone; DOC / 11-Deoxycortisol, Serum is more reliable.
A low plasma cortisol level does not give conclusive indication of congenital adrenal hyperplasia. DOC / 11-Deoxycortisol, Serum; OHPG / 17-Hydroxyprogesterone, Serum; and DHEA_ / Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), Serum provide a more accurate and specific determination of the enzyme deficiency.
1. Lin CL, Wu TJ, Machacek DA, et al: Urinary free cortisol and cortisone determined by high-performance liquid chromatography in the diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1997;82:151-155
2. Findling JW, Raff H: Diagnosis and differential diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am 2001;30(3):729-747
3. Buchman Al: Side effects of corticosteroid therapy. J Clin Gastroenterol 2001;33(4):289-297
4. Dodds HM, Taylor PJ, Cannell GR, Pond SM: A high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray-tandem mass spectrometry analysis of cortisol and metabolites in placental perfusate. Anal Biochem 1997;247:342-347


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Good Morning,
I'm out of the area this morning, but will be back later in the day. Please use this post as today's Market Thread to keep each other informed on today's news. Thank You, and have a good day!
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Market Thread 11/9
Posted byAmy Jamison at2:45 AM


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The revs from the 400ci small-block bounced off the limiter as the raucous growl from the 3.5-inch exhaust and Spintech mufflers bounced off the adjacent buildings. The Camaro's enormous rear tires broke loose, and soon thereafter a thick plume of smoke curled up from underneath the chassis.
An exhibition of speed is not something that Super Chevy magazine insists upon when we photograph a car. If the subject at hand is as gorgeous as the one you see before you, with full tubs, 20-inch rear meats, and 660 supercharged rear-wheel horses underhood just waiting to break loose, well then, we might suggest a little smoke show. But what happens after the mechanical violence takes place is beyond our control.
More on our little confrontation with the law later; for now, let's hear how this diabolical collusion of sheetmetal, tubing, gauges and a supercharger the size of a horse's head came to fruition. Jim Bassett is the proprietor of Bones Fab in Camarillo, California. Bassett or "Bones" as he is sometimes referred to, has (like many hot rodders) been around cars most of his life.
"I worked at a speed shop selling parts for 12 years and doing the occasional side job," said Bassett. "I finally had enough of my boss so I quit and opened up my own shop." This was circa 2002. Around that time Bassett, who is tall and lean in stature, wore a skeleton costume to a Halloween party. The name Bones stuck after the debut of that original costume and morphed into his company name, Bones Fab-as in fabricating.
Even before Bones Fab sprung to life, a customer of Bassett's previous place of employment had started the build of this car. While the project started about 10 years ago, Jim acquired it much more recently after the customer moved out of state.
"As with most projects like this, it went a little sideways. It went from a nitrous car to a supercharged car, to a twin-turbo set up," said Jim. "Needless to say, it never got done in any of those combos and sat for quite a while."
The customer wanted something to play with so he went out and got another running '69 Camaro that they built up for him in four months. While the customer was out ripping around in his new ride, he also ended up moving out of the state, at which point the half-finished Camaro and its adjacent pile of parts became a thorn in his side. Well, you know what they say: In Japanese, "crisis" is the same word as "opportunity" and in this case, the customer's crisis became Bassett's.
"He had to get rid of the Pro Street car so we made a deal," said Jim. "From sitting around all those years the paint had suffered some ill effects. But the pile of parts that came with it more than made up for that."
The deal sweeteners included such items as a GM Bow-Tie block with full race-prep and 4.125 bore, 65-pound fuel injectors, Coast Machine heavy duty 1350 driveshaft, Wilwood disc brakes, and a Vortech reverse rotation YS-I blower.
There were even more high-end go fast parts that Jim basically just had to piece together. But before that point, he got the paint sorted out, changing it from red to blue with basically the same graphic display. The stripes are playing loud and clear on this Camaro's body.
Completing the majority of the project ended up being pretty straightforward for a man with Bassett's experience. He did mention that fitting the supercharger presented its problems. "The blower clears the hood by 1/4-inch," he said.
Bassett's skills as a fabricator got put to the test as he had to relocate the master cylinder from the firewall to the floor and fit the alternator and vacuum pump along with that ginormous supercharger. An easy route would be to fit a hood with a big nasty cowl, but that would have been too easy. Instead, Bassett with lots of careful measuring, created all of the bracketry that holds all these performance parts in all these odd places and allows for it all to sit and function under a fairly unnoticeable 2 1/4-inch cowl hood.
The rest of the body retains mostly stock trim to achieve a little bit of subtlety. This is a trait that is quickly negated by the massive Mickey Thompson 20x16 HR1s with the rear fenders stretched over them. The Mickey Thompson Sportsman SR 26x8x18s up front look like bicycle tires as they and the Wilwood 11-inch front brakes with polished calipers struggle to hold down the force generated by the torque being squeezed through the Mike's TH400 tranny.
Topping the 400-inch short-block are Dart Pro-1 215cc heads that were ported and assembled by McKenzie Cylinder heads. A 0.625-inch lift solid roller Comp Cam works the 2.08/1.60 Manley valves. For induction, there's an Edelbrock Super Victor manifold modified to accept fuel injection by Bones, a 90mm Accufab throttle body and Bones Fab custom elbow, and a FAST electronic fuel injection system. An Aeromotive pump, regulator and filter keeps the petrol flowing and an MSD ignition system lights it all off. A four-inch front-mount intercooler ensures the incoming charge from the blower isn't too hot to handle.
We first ran into Bones two years ago at our Super Chevy Show in Fontana, California. We were dazzled by the car's threatening looks and even more impressed when it won the Super Chevy Magazine True Street Challenge, with a three-run average of 11.489. The owner knows there's a lot more in it, but the last time he went to the track he wasn't allowed to run due to what was dubbed an "illegal helmet."
Which brings us to the aforementioned burnout, or burnouts as the case may have been. You see, Bassett did not one but two brake-stands for us that day. It should be mentioned that this was a Saturday in the empty parking lot of a powerplant, as you can see from the background in the pictures. The adjacent office building had three or four cars so we weren't exactly waking up any sleeping babies. Nonetheless someone got annoyed or they just heard us all the way at the police station because about three minutes after the second burnout a county cop rolled up and shut down the shoot.
Or so they thought. As you can see from the pictures, your brave little snapper continued to shoot Bassett as he "took one for the team." The cop called two cars for back up, but ended up being quite cool about the whole thing and giving Jim a slap on the wrist.
But don't take our word for it. Go see this tarmac-chomping muscle car in action at: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=60069404


text:
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text:
In a pilot project, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded cooperative agreements totaling $1.9 million to three state radiation laboratories to improve fast collection of important data, according to a Jan. 8 press release.
The awardees are the Connecticut Department of Public Health Laboratory, the Texas Department of State Health Services Radiological Laboratory, and the Washington Department of Health Public Health Laboratories. These labs will improve their existing radioanalytical capability by adding instruments and supplies, training on incident response operations, conducting proficiency testing studies, and conducting emergency response operations audits.
For information on EPA response to radiological emergencies, go to http://www.epa.gov/radiation/rert.


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Suburban Districts Shouldn't Hire Detectives to Keep Students Out
Some suburban districts hire detectives and even take families to court, to keep out students, often low income and students of color, from nearby urban districts. I think this is awful. I found many status quo defenders (and I don't see you as one of them) who believe this is perfectly ok.


text:
Josh Rogin took note when a major Tea Party group rallied against New START, the arms control treaty Obama signed with the Russians.
He was right to pay attention. The Tea Parties have said little on defense issues. Some on the Left had high hopes, even as they trashed the Tea Parties, that the latter might actually join them in an effort to cut defense spending; bail on Afghanistan; and scale back on America's overseas footprint.
The arms-control Left was also probably hoping that Tea Party followers would become part of a bipartisan "anti-military" arms-control coalition.
This hope appears dashed. Indeed, Liberty Central's decision to oppose New START suggests that the Tea Partiers are part of the "peace through strength" coalition. In a related development, the First Coast Tea Party in Florida is hosting a screening of the pro-missile defense documentary "33 Minutes" on Sept. 7. These developments are big news.
If Rogin had stuck to the story, rather than try to play arms-control expert, his piece may have been more accurate. He went on, however, to ridicule the anti-New Start argument, suggesting that the Tea Parties are out of their league and don't know what they are talking about. The problem is, most of his "gotchas" are either misleading or just plain wrong.
The Tea Parties are more right than Rogin.
Rogin asserts that missile defense was never about defeating a Soviet/Russian nuclear strike. This is not quite right. The Reagan administration sought to couple missile defense and arms control in order to end the U.S.'s vulnerability to such a strike. While missile defense alone would not end this vulnerability, it was an essential part of Reagan's "peace through strength" policy. New START seeks to minimize the importance of missile defense and resurrect the old "Mutual Assured Destruction," or MAD, balance of terror — a policy that leaves the U.S. intentionally vulnerable to Russian missile strikes.
Next, Rogin wrongly asserts that there is no withdrawal provision in the treaty for missile defense. The general withdrawal clause is in Article XIV and the Russian unilateral statement, as bolstered by the anti-missile-defense paragraph in the preamble, links opting out of the treaty to missile defense. In other words, if a future president decides Obama's missile-defense plans are insufficient and elects to build much more robust defenses, then the Russians can just walk away from the treaty (after, oh, we've already cut our warheads and delivery systems).
Rogin is also wrong when he argues that the withdrawal of the Third Site missile-defense proposal in Europe was a separate decision from pursuing New START. It most certainly was not. President Obama withdrew Third Site to "reset" relations with Russia, in order to facilitate New START negotiations. Ultimately, both the withdrawal of Third Site and New START became key steps in the White House push for the broader reset policy. In other words, this is all about making Russia happy.
Finally, Rogin points out that the change in declaratory policy regarding the use of nuclear weapons, which narrows U.S. strategic options, came in the Nuclear Posture Review or NPR (released before the treaty was signed) and not in New START. This is true as far as it goes. But Rogin is flat wrong to suggest that it is wrong to criticize New START on the basis of the negative consequences of the NPR. Together, the change in declaratory policy in the NPR and New START serve to reinforce each other in weakening the U.S.'s strategic posture.
Rogin wants Americans to ignore the broader, troubling implications of New START. The Tea Parties are dead right when they link the two issues.
James Jay Carafano is senior research fellow for national security and homeland security at The Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org). Baker Spring is Heritage's F.M. Kirby Research Fellow in National Security Policy.


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Last updated: 2020/08/01
Click here for other units available at WaterMarke LA
705 W 9th St
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Offerred At: SGP$8,300
Lease Terms: 1+Year
List Date:2019/10/25
List Price/SQM: SGP$58.16
Days on Market: 142
Bedrooms: 2
Baths: 2
Pet Friendly: Yes
Laundry: In Unit
Parking Space(s): 0
Mills Act: No
Live Work: No
*Currency conversion is based on exchange rate of SGP$1.34 for each $1 USD as of 2020/11/27 02:09:11 GMT - 06:00/07:00 Mountain Time (US & Canada).
Virtual tours are available! This beautiful 17th floor 2bd/2ba is available immediately in this iconic 35-story luxury high-rise tower located in the heart of Downtown, Los Angeles. Just minutes away from the exciting L.A.LIVE & Staples Center, this iconic residential tower is located in downtown's premier neighborhood, South Park.Across the street from downtown's supermarket and entertainment center.Indulge in a relaxing refuge from the workday world by taking a dip in the pool, lounging by our outdoor fireplace or taking a stroll through our beautiful grounds.The apartment home features stainless steel kitchen appliances, hardwood floors throughout living/dining areas, in-unit washer/dryer, central HVAC and much more...
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This is one of a series of posts on my preparations for sessions on Azure and ORMs at Software Architect 2009.
One of the things that has been added to Windows Azure while i have been "elsewhere" is the Service Management API which the team introduced on the 17th of this month (Sept 2009).
This is a REST-based API which allows:
It uses X509 client certificates for authentication. You can upload any valid X509 certificate in .cer format to the Windows Azure developer portal and then use it as a client certificate when making API requests.
But… you need an X509 certificate. If you have the Windows SDK installed then you can use makecert (details on the original post). An alternative is to use IIS 7. I decided to use IIS to get my X509 but it turned out a little less obvious than I expected. Hence a step by step is called for:
First use IIS Manager (inetmgr.exe) to create a self signed certificate:
Next use Certificate Manager (certmgr.msc). Find the certificate you just produced under "Trusted Root Certificates":
Then Export the certificate from the Action menu. Use the following options (which were the defaults for me):
And select a name for your *.cer file:
Now navigate to http://windows.azure.com. Open your Project (PDC08 CTP for me) and then click on Account (Don't click on Account before opening your project). Next select Manage My API Certificates. Use Browse to find the file you created above and then click Upload.
You should now see one installed certificate.
You are now done. Except… you need to read the documentation to find out how to actually use the API :)
Hope that helps.


text: Rethinking the MBA Business Education at a Crossroads For decades, MBA graduates from top-tier schools set the standard for cutting-edge business knowledge and skills. Now the business world has changed, say the authors of Rethinking the MBA—Srikant M. Data, David A. Garvin, and Patrick G. Cullen—and MBA programs must change with it. Increasingly, managers and recruiters are questioning conventional business education. ExcerptReview


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Thanks for the messages of kindness checking on me that a few GSD faithful have sent in over the past few weeks.
I'm pleased to say that Claus V. is still alive and kicking…just worn down and rusted out a bit. As many of you have correctly surmised, work assignments have pretty much overwhelmed me and left me with little energy left except for watching Phineas and Ferb, iCarly, and Bones with the ladies off the DVR on the few free hours when I drag home at night as well as wearily wake up on the weekends. Everyone has had to really crank up the productivity (already red-lined) due to economy pressures with more special-projects in the pipes.
I even got some time off today to catch the Disney movie "Tangled" with Alvis this afternoon. I'm a sucker for princess movies! I can't wait to put the Blu-ray version of this one next to my "Enchanted" disk set. Good family movie for all ages!
Anyway, the positive news from this unplanned blogging hiatus is that I have really been able to focus on applying many of the security/forensics tools and techniques in a myriad of very unusual incidents so while I am still exhausted to the frame-rails, it's been a fun trip along the way. Look for some neat stuff soon from that camp.
Nor have I been taking a "Net-free" sabbatical. The RSS-feed collector has been diligently at work as well and I've been distilling the results to some of the most interesting and helpful links of all that survived the winnowing process.
So, without more ado, sit down, strap in, and hang on tight. The Linkfest begins!
Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 ?
Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 looks like it may have been released.
Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Download Center. Publish date 12/16/2010 (Note: as of this post, that link still shows a version number of "1".)
I've been running the Beta MSE 2.0 versions on our Windows 7 x64 & x32 systems for some time and have been pleased. Love the inclusion of a right-click context menu "scan with MSE" menu item now.
This morning my Beta MSE version was 2.0.522.0
After downloading and over-installing the new setup file version downloaded from that page, it now checks in at 2.0.657.0
Some more info on what the new edition offers over at this Security Essentials 2.0 releasing tomorrow mynetx post.
I assume patient users of MSE already will eventually get a push/Windows Update to bump it.
Meta data in the setup file (x64 version) I downloaded and used did report it was a 2.0 version as well…so maybe MS hasn't updated the version number on the page until an official release announcement…or it could be one last final beta bump before the final release? I'm not certain.
Spotted over at the (German) Caschys Blog post: Microsoft veröffentlicht kostenlose Sicherheitslösung Security Essentials 2.0
i-odd Firmware updates and other multi-boot/formatting toys
I-Odd has released some firmware updates. If you don't recall the iodd : Multi-boot madness! post, the i-odd is an external USB2.0/eSATA drive enclosure that allows you to store boot-disks in ISO format and then boot a system with any of them via the selector toggle. It is wicked cool.
The US i-odd site is offering Firmware Version 1.42.48 (ISO) that supports either FAT32, EXFAT or NTFS partition handling for loading disk images. Until recently only FAT was supported.
The Korean manufacture's i-odd site actually is serving an even newer firmware version at 1.42.53.
Take your pick.
FAT/FAT32 formatting limitations typically have restricted partition sizes so you have had to use alternative formatting tools to get around those limits if you wanted a really big FAT32 partition to store your ISO's on.
TinyApps.Org Blog recommended the FAT 32 Formatter from Ridgecrop Consultants Ltd. If that CLI version isn't to your speed, they also offer a Windows GUI version of fat32format. Miles' recommendations are always golden so that's the tool I still use.
I recently found mention Fat32Formatter which has a slightly different GUI.
That was picked out from RMPrepUSB HomePage which has an interesting tool to partition/format USB drives and make them bootable for SysLinux or grub4dos bootloaders.
That was found via this XBOOT vs 1.0.0 beta4 - reboot project that is working to aid in the creation of a multi-boot USB builder.
All this is still very interesting, but TinyApps's find of the i-odd device makes all these exercises almost academic. Get the enclosure, buy a 2.5" drive to stick in it, update the firmware, and copy your boot ISO images over to your heart's content. Then just toggle to the ISO you want to boot with, select it, and boot away.
One last TinyApps mention: check out his amazing documentation work TinyApps.Org : Mounting disk image partitions. He sent the link to me some time ago but I've been swamped and only had time to do very limited Linux-based work at work so I haven't been able to give it its true due.
Secunia PSI 2.0 Beta Available
Security company Secunia announced in September the release of the PSI 2.0 Beta.
Auto Update your Programs - Secunia PSI 2.0 Public Beta - Secunia Blog
From the blog post, the engine remains the same but the user interfaces, the auto-updates, and reporting have all been revamped. Secunia PSI changelog
While I and everyone else can continue to benefit from the cloud-based Online Software Inspector (OSI) version, having a localized Personal Software Inspector (PSI) on your Windows system can go a very long way to ensuring your applications are able to be kept current without much mess or fuss.
Adobe Advances
The Adobe folks have been hard at work revamping and prepping a number of products that are often found on many enterprise and consumer Windows systems.
Adobe Labs - Adobe Flash Player 10.2 beta - This is the latest "mainstream" Flash beta version. It includes enhanced support for IE 9.0 releases and full screen mode support for users with multiple monitors. However it only comes in a x32 bit release version.
Adobe Labs Download: Flash Player 10.2 Beta Release
Adobe Labs - Adobe Flash Player "Square" is also available and does include x64 bit support for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. I've been running this one on my x64 Windows 7 system with no issues at all.
Adobe Labs Download: Adobe Flash Player "Square" Preview Release
Related: How-to: Disable Chrome's built-in Flash to use a Flash beta release. DownloadSquad
You may also have heard Adobe released version 10 (a.k.a "X") of the Adobe Reader.
Adobe Reader X is Here! « Adobe Secure Software Engineering Team (ASSET) Blog
PDF security guru Didier Stevens has some initial thoughts: Quickpost: Adobe Reader X and provided a wicked-helpful link to
Adobe's FTP server. The en_US FTP folder contains both msi and exe based installer versions!
To add to the helpfulness, Aaron Parker at StealthPuppy has a number of great Adobe Reader deployment tips and tricks postings.
Deploying Adobe Reader X | Aaron Parker
Uninstalling Adobe Reader | Aaron Parker
…including a tip-out to the Customization wizard for pre-deployment installer tweaking; note you can get the 10.x version from the FTP site.
Network Nuggets!
One of the duties that has required a lot of my time has been network monitoring and traffic analysis. I continue to make good progress with Microsoft's Network Monitor 3.4; specifically the nmcap.exe CLI tool. I've not had a dropped packet yet during a capture session.
Marking Frames with Network Monitor 3.4 - Network Monitor Blog
Network Monitor Freezes While Loading Capture - Network Monitor Blog
CodePlex Parser Site - Check for the latest Network Monitor parser sets here.
In case I haven't mentioned it recently (it's been a while) inSSIDer Wi-Fi Scanner over at MetaGeek is now out at version 2.0. It was a great help tracking down a network tap some time ago.
And despite my comfort and pleasure with Network Monitor 3.4, I am now trying to transition back to Wireshark. NM3.4 only seems to output in "cap" format, not pcap. That's no big issue but I then have to do an extra step of "editcap -F libpcap infile.cap outfile.pcap" to convert things. This has been quite fast, but it is a step I shouldn't have to be taking.
My biggest complaint to date with Wireshark (and it's a noobie one) is that I kept getting occasional crashes during capture in the Wireshark GUI mode.
However since I've gotten comfortable working in the NMcap CLI tool mode, I've started flirting around the the TShark CLI utility for captures as well. It seems to be more stable for longer-run capture sessions.
Along those lines I've been collecting resource links on TShark:
Tshark examples: howto capture and dissect network traffic - CodeAlias
tshark filters - PacketLevel
tshark examples - random notes
TShark Packet Filtering - TheSprawl
Wireshark/TShark Utilities - TheSprawl
Pcap format is essential as I continue to use the NetworkMiner Network Forensic Analysis Tool (NFAT) and Packet Sniffer for much of my post-capture analysis work. Unfortunately, it doesn't handle NM "cap" format files, thus the conversion to pcap first in editcap. So capturing in pcap native files is a time-saver.
You may also recall that I've been restricted to using an older .88 version of NetworkMiner as some packet captures end up forcing a premature shutdown in versions up to the current .92. I actually was able to engage developer Erik Hjelmvik in this Topic: Versions past .88 prematurely exit discussion. He was awesomely kind and patient. We eventually took the discussion off-line and with his gentle guidance I was eventually able to provide him some helpful data that explained the issue. He thinks that the issue "…could occur when there are partially overlapping TCP segments at the same time as the TCP packets arrive out-of-order."
A future version of Network Miner should address this issue, and bring many more enhancements. Hopefully Erik will release an updated version soon!
It was really challenging but really rewarding having the opportunity to work with Erik on this issue. He is a really great guy for kindly providing that level of support to me on a free-to-the-community project.
Microsoft Tips, Tricks, and Treats
Download details: The Windows® Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows® 7 - Released in mid-November under version 2.0.
The Case of the Slow Project File Opens - Mark's Blog; troubleshooting awesomeness!
The Windows 7 Guide: From Newbies To Pros [FREE EBOOK] - MakeUseOf - Nice resource for you all who are planning on handing out Windows 7 systems as gift to current XP users.
Enhanced Event Viewer for Windows 7 released - The Windows Club is a fancier version to view and search event logs. Pick it up over at the sateesh-arveti - Site Home on TechNet Blogs
Tenniswood Blog has an update tip on How to enable Remote Desktop in Windows 7 Home Premium. Follow his links to grab the new and improved bits. Me? I've still got this around on our home systems as a "just in case" but am really loving the TightVNC 2.0 application even more.
While we are still on the subject, MakeUseOf blog has a really interesting Control Your Computer Remotely Using HTML5 With ThinVNC post worth checking out.
The Best Ways To Customize The Welcome Screen In Windows 7 by Simon Slagen on MakeUseOf has a trio of ways to modify your Windows 7 login screen ranging from the very simple to the very complex. Of them, I agree with the post and found that for most users the Logon Screen For Windows 7 tool by DanielNET software was the easiest to use. That said I'm surprised my first utility to encounter in this class, Windows 7 Logon Background Changer didn't get included. It hasn't let me down yet.
Image is Everything
TOOL: Image Resizer 2.11 for Windows 7/Vista - Kurt Shintaku's Blog is a dead-simple, integrated way to let anyone quickly and easily resize their images fast. It's a must add.
Freemake Video Converter updated with cool new features - freewaregenius.com is yet another great and very full featured video converter.
Lightworks - Open Source highly complex but wonderfully approachable video editor is out in a public beta. I've been waiting for this one for some time and am amazed it is sitting on my desktop. The GUI is very well designed but start digging under the hood and I think this tool has the stuff to leave the other freeware/open-source video editors in the dust. For a Windows platform, this must be seen. I'm itching to get a new video-production project to toss at it. This is not for casual users who might find Windows Live Movie Maker 2011 or another similar non-MS product easier to get started with. Registration (easy and free) with Lightworks required to get the download bits. Lots of documentation in PDF form is a happy bonus. Requires download of third-party "Matrox VFW" codecs.
For other options and software tools in video editing see this GSD Blog Video-Editing Resource Roundup.
Finance Planning Tools
Things have been very tight around the Valca home. For almost the past two years we have had to painfully downsize to a single-income family lifestyle. It has been almost that long since Lavie was able to work. However thanks to discipline and the kindness of family and friends, we have weathered the belt-tightening fairly well. Hopefully the new year will bring new riches both in terms of our family employment outlook as well as the bank account.
We continue to benefit from the use of Microsoft's free "Sunset" edition of Microsoft Money Plus. I'm using the Money Plus Sunset Deluxe version but there is also the Money Plus Sunset Home and Business.
However, if you trust and and are looking for a cloud-based financial planning tool, check out the following finds:
Sprouty - Simple and easy budgeting
Either of these along with some healthy Finance & Family encouragements from zenhabits, those (by choice or circumstance) living in the "simple life" may find some great tools and resources to help them breath.
More Utilities
These didn't seem to fit in other categories, so here they reside:
CSV file editor, for Windows - CSVed is now updated to version 2.1.3. This freeware tool has saved my rear lots of times for complex pre-editing of tricky CSV files before dumping into Access or Excel.
BulletsPassView - NirSoft's new build to view the passwords stored behind the bullets in Windows / IE. Doesn't work for everything but is super-useful in a pinch. May set off AV as "hackware" or PUP. That's a AV thing nothing wrong with the tool in the right hands.
6 Must-Have Apps For Computer Repair Technicians - MakeUseOf blog. Interesting roundup. Not what I would pick for my "must have 6" list, but they are worthy to add to your toolbox.
FOG-ing the Future?
With only a literary nod to JKR, the FOG project is one really neat looking project.
FOG allows for Windows system imaging capture/deployments from a Linux OS. It is very cool looking and very neat, particularly with an almost turn-key PXE-based capture/deployment solution.
Windows Image Deployment with FOG - Petri.co
Lifting the Fog - Compendium IT
Cloning Windows 7 VMs Using FOG - The Horrendous World of IT
FOG - Computer Cloning/Imaging solution Server (0.27) - VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace
See also these FOG Project Video Tutorials
There is a lot of documentation and YouTube video resources and it looks to be a very mature (and still developing) project.
If you haven't heard of FOG yet, it's worth checking out, particularly if you are an imaging guy.
That said, I still like working with Microsoft ImageX WIM file images and deploying them in PE-based methods in our environment. Being able to off-line mount and service image files has helped me lots of times.
In the "Lifting the Fog" link above, the author incorrectly states that the virtual version of FOG uses Oracle's VM VirtualBox. That isn't correct. It is a VMware appliance version, not VirtualBox. I guess it is easy to get them mixed up by name alone. I currently have Windows VirtualPC, Oracle's VirtualBox, and VMware's VMware Player all installed on my system!
VMware Player still is getting updated (and remains free). If you don't want to register to get the bits from VMware, try this Download VMware Player 3.1.3 link via FileHippo.com.
Think the VMware Player will trap you into using only pre-configured VMware appliances? Check out the free VMware resources by developer DEVFarm Software such as the really cool VMX Builder. One of may cool tools at VMXBuilder.com
VirtualBox fans may be surprised (or not) to learn that while the public build of VirtualBox is at 3.2.12, if you dig around you can find and use VirtualBox 4.0 beta builds. I've been using these for a while and they are really nice! I really find the GUI interface improvements particularly enjoyable…not to mention all the under-the-hood updates!
Download VirtualBox 4.0.0 Beta 3 - Change Log - FileHippo.com
Index of /virtualbox/ - Oracle's FTP site for direct VirtualBox bits including the [DIR] 4.0.0_BETA3/
Hope you found something here enjoyable and I appreciate the GSD fans who have been waiting for a new post.
Check back again soon for the forensics and security linkfest followup.
Even more goodies await!
--Claus V.


text:
Raymond Peters Ltd is a family run hardwood flooring company specialising in the supply and installation of all forms of hardwood flooring. We have a wide range of wood flooring products and services to suit any job.
Based in Essex, we cover London and the home counties, however we would be happy to travel further afield if required.


text:
eResource Spotlight
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text:
This was published 10 years ago
France's Gypsy expulsions sour EU summit
BRUSSELS: All eyes are on the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, as Europe kicks off an explosive summit overshadowed by a slanging match over France's expulsion of Roma Gypsies.
While leaders are also wrestling with cross-border sanctions for budget spendthrifts, favours for flood-devastated Pakistan and a sickly-sweet trade deal with South Korea, Mr Sarkozy's first utterance is the one they are all waiting for.
The row turned personal on Wednesday after a top European Union official compared France's hard line on travellers to the tactics of its World War II pro-Nazi regime.
Mr Sarkozy responded by suggesting the European Commissioner offer to host expelled Gypsies in her country of Luxembourg.
France has attacked Viviane Reding, a Luxembourger and the EU's Justice Commissioner, after she threatened legal action over Mr Sarkozy's policy of expelling the Roma.
She said it was a ''disgrace'' that reminded her of World War II round-ups of Gypsies and Jews.
''A cash handout, a plane ticket to the EU country of origin are not the same as the death camps, the gas chambers,'' France's European Affairs Minister, Pierre Lellouche, snapped back.
''As he will explain tomorrow, it's scandalous,'' a French senator, Bruno Sido, added after lunching with Mr Sarkozy, the son of an Hungarian immigrant.
France is ''irreproachable'', Mr Sarkozy was quoted as telling party allies, adding ''if the Luxembourgers wanted to take them, he had no problem''.
Paris faces legal action over its controversial drive to deport ethnic Roma, living in travelling communities, back to Romania and Bulgaria.
But a diplomat warned that the European Commission, whose justice supremo Ms Reding unleashed the storm, ''doesn't always win at the European Court of Justice''.
He said: ''Our argument is sound.''
The Luxembourg Foreign Minister, Jean Asselborn, attacked the reported Sarkozy jibe as ''malicious''.
Finally, Ms Reding, in a bid to smooth out tensions, contacted Agence France-Presse to express ''regret''.
She insisted: ''I in no way wanted to draw a parallel between World War II and the actions of the French government today.''
An EU founder member, France is fiercely proud of its historic legacy as the home of human rights.
The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, for his part, was happy to argue that ''the problem of the Roma concerns every country in Europe''.
Italy had its brush with the commission in 2008 when it started to register Roma living in camps, taking fingerprints and documenting their ethnicity and religion.
The heightened atmosphere could easily infect other existing divisions.
The EU chief, Herman Van Rompuy, stands charged by Berlin with producing only ''nebulous'' ideas for clipping countries whose spending blitzes threaten a shared euro economy.
''Germany backs severe sanctions,'' the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, said at tactical talks with centre-right allies in Brussels.
As seen by Slovakia wriggling out of a commitment to loan Greece money - an uncomfortable truth euro chiefs prefer to ignore - momentum has faded since May when EU bosses trumpeted a ''trillion-dollar'' rescue war-chest.
''Intensive work'' was required if decisions slated for next month were to live up to Mr Van Rompuy's launch fanfare, one diplomat said.
The International Monetary Fund chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who must throw in one euro for every two the EU throws at its difficult economies, also wants ''courageous measures''.
Otherwise, Europe will ''no longer be able to compete with the world's most dynamic countries'', he said.
Agence France-Presse, Telegraph, London


text:
DOVER — Prosecutors in the murder case against Seth Mazzaglia filed paperwork this week stating they intend to use during trial only the first five hours of an 11-hour interview they conducted with him before his arrest.
DOVER — Prosecutors in the murder case against Seth Mazzaglia filed paperwork this week stating they intend to use during trial only the first five hours of an 11-hour interview they conducted with him before his arrest.
The interview, which was the subject of a two-day long evidentiary hearing earlier this month, has drawn speculation about police practices and whether Mazzaglia, 31, of Dover, was being held in custody involuntarily when he was answering questions about the disappearance of Elizabeth "Lizzie" Marriott, the University of New Hampshire student he is charged with killing in October 2012.
The defense, which hopes to suppress Mazzaglia's statements, and all of the evidence derived from them, claims Mazzaglia was being held involuntarily. His attorneys argue he tried to invoke his Miranda rights, or the right to remain silent, at various times during the police interview. The interview was conducted by State Police Sgt. Joseph Ebert on Oct. 12 and 13.
Mazzaglia's lawyers also argue he made statements and drew a map of Peirce Island in Portsmouth, where Mazzaglia allegedly dumped Marriott's mostly naked body into the water, because of promises made to him by Ebert during the course of the interview.
Recordings from the interview with Mazzaglia have been sealed by Judge Kenneth Brown, but the recently filed motion indicates the defendant, who was not a suspect at the beginning of the police interview, was read his Miranda rights at 1:36 a.m. on Oct. 13. Mazzaglia invoked those rights after being brought back to his apartment on Mill Street. The interview stopped immediately at that time. It was 3:21 a.m.
Prosecutors argue that Mazzaglia was told the interview was voluntary and that he could leave at any time. They intend to use information from the interview up until 9:19 p.m. on Oct. 12.
The motion states Mazzaglia was offered an attorney at least once, before he lead Ebert to Peirce Island. On the car ride there, Ebert asked Mazzaglia if he "wanted an attorney before you go to see the body."
At that time, just after 7:20 p.m., Mazzaglia responded, "No, I'm comfortable with that."
Brown is expected to make a decision on whether the statements and evidence derived from them will be admissible within the next few weeks.


text:
Delicious and good to the last drop!
No body will ever know that this rice pudding is lowfat.
- 3/4 cup Carolina rice cooked with 2 cups of water till mushy. (add more water if necessary)
- 1 quart of "Skim Plus" milk (a thicker version of skim milk)
- 1 beaten egg
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- cinnamon stick
- Cook rice with water
- pour and mix rice and all other ingredients into a clean pot
- stir often on low flame for an hour till thick
- let cool slightly
- pour into small cups or decorative bowl and dust with cinnamon.


text:
The Chuck Taylor is indisputable as the iconic American sneaker and while it's been offered in every variation under the sun, we appreciate that the brand lets us hold the design reigns firmly in hand. Converse's DYO sneakers have been around for some time but starting October 23rd they're launching the program in premium leathers, giving your classic canvas a lu upgrade. The set up is what customers will be used to — the opportunity to select everything from body color to lining and racing stripes — but this time the leathers have been treated, the rubber sidewall weathered, and the laces wad. Available in both hi and lo silhouettes, it's the perfect way to step up (you get it?) your personal style this fall.
$125, available at converse.com starting October 23rd.