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Privacy Policy & Terms of Use
Thank you for visiting LowestPriceTrafficSchool.com (the "Company"). The Company respects the privacy of every individual that visits our website and seeks to make its information collection and use practices transparent to every user. This Privacy Policy and Terms of Use ("Policy") outlines the information we collect on this website (collectively with any and all sub-domains, "Website") and the manner in which we use and disclose that information. By visiting, using and/or submitting information via this Website you accept the practices described in this Policy and agree to the terms and conditions published herein.
For purposes of this Policy the terms "we," "us," and "our" mean the Company and The National Safety Commission, Inc. ("TNSC"), and any reference to the Company herein shall include TNSC. TNSC owns and operates this Website, as well as a number of other websites that offer related products and services for sale to end-users. All websites owned by TNSC, including this Website, operate on the same system. As such, information collected on any one of TNSC's websites is shared with TNSC and the affiliated websites.
Collection and Use of Personally Identifiable Information by the Company
Certain features of our Website require you to provide personally identifiable information; for instance, when you send us correspondence via our "Contact Us" form or when you register to obtain or purchase one of our products or services. Personally identifiable information generally includes information that could be used to determine your identify, such as your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, or birth date. We do not collect this information from you if you do not provide it and we only collect the information you provide for legitimate business purposes and/or as required by law.
When you provide us with personally identifiable information, we may use that information in the following ways:
- To fulfill your requests for certain products, services and/or information, including, but not limited to, processing payment for one of our courses, issuing credits/refunds, as the case may be, and managing your account;
- To authenticate and/or verify your identity (or, if a minor, the identity of your parent or other legal guardian) and/or the identity of the person purchasing and/or using any of our products or services so that we may, among other things, properly record and report certain attributes to courts or governmental agencies that require the collection and retention of such information for administrative purposes related to the product and/or service purchased;
- To provide customer support, troubleshoot and resolve problems and disputes, if any, or for other internal purposes;
- To detect and protect against error, fraud or other malicious or criminal activity, and to enforce this Policy;
- To analyze site usage, conduct market research, improve marketing and promotional efforts, and to further improve and customize our content, layout, user experience, products and services;
- To contact and deliver information to you about products or services you purchased or other offerings, notices, or communications relevant to your use of our Website;
- As otherwise set forth in this Policy, or as otherwise described to you at the time of collection.
Collection and Use of Personally Identifiable Information by Third Parties
In addition to the Company's collection and use of your personally identifiable information as detailed above, certain optional features of the Website may require you to disclose personally identifiable information in order to use those features. Some of these features, such as AddThis and Shopper Approved, are owned and operated by third parties that are not owned or controlled by us. If you choose to use these Website features your information will be disclosed to the respective third party. In addition, as stated below, even if you do not elect to use these Website features, your email address will be provided to our marketing consultant, Shopper Approved, in the ordinary course of our business to, among other things, conduct market research and obtain feedback from you regarding our products and services. The third party's collection, use and disclosure of information is governed by the third party's privacy policy and terms of use, not this Policy. As such, we strongly encourage you to review the third party's policies and terms of use prior to the disclosure of any such information to the third party.
Disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information by the Company
The Company does not share or otherwise disclose personally identifiable information except to the extent reasonably necessary to accomplish a legitimate business purpose or as otherwise required by law. It never sells the personally identifiable information it collects to third parties. The following describes some of the ways that personally identifiable information may be disclosed in the ordinary course of business:
- Certain characteristics of your personally identifiable information may be provided to a court, government agency or law enforcement authority for administrative purposes related to a product or service you purchased or a product or service purchased on your behalf from the Company (e.g., if, as a result of a traffic violation, you elect to attend traffic school and purchase a course from us, we are required to and will report your successful completion of the course to the applicable state agency, along with your name, address, e-mail, phone number, birth date, gender, driver license number, citation data, and any other information required to be disclosed to the agency for processing your completion).
- We may disclose your personally identifiable information to our service providers and independent contractors that have been retained to perform functions on our behalf or to provide services to us in the ordinary course of our business, including legal, audit and other professional service providers, our marketing and advertising consultants, data processors, and information technology subcontractors, among others (e.g., we may disclose your credit card information, including your billing information, to our payment processing partner in order to complete the processing of your purchase of one of our products or services, or we may disclose your email address to a third party marketing consultant, such as Shopper Approved, in order to obtain reviews from you about our products and services). Personally identifiable information is disclosed only to the extent necessary for any provider or contractor to perform any such service or function.
- Our Website and emails that we may send you may contain features that allow you to voluntarily forward information and personal messages to a friend, family member, colleague or other individual. When you use one of these features, we may ask you to provide your name and email address and the recipient's name and email address so that we may use this information to customize and deliver your email message to your intended recipient.
- When you contribute to a public area or feature on our Website, such as an online community board, message board, blog or other such open forum, the information that you submit will be made available to the general public. For this reason, we recommend that you exercise caution in your submission of personally identifiable information since it will be accessible by the public.
- If we are under a duty to disclose or are otherwise required to share your personally identifiable information in order to, among other things, comply with any legal or regulatory obligation, respond to a subpoena, inquiries or other requests from any government agency or authority, enforce this Policy, to pursue available remedies or limit damages we may sustain, or to protect the rights or interest in property of the Company, or the safety, security or interests of the Company and/or any of its officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives, customers, or other visitors of the Website, including, but not limited to, exchanging information with other organizations for the purposes of fraud protection.
Personally identifiable information and other information collected from you may also be transferred to a third party that is a prospective buyer or seller of the Company's business or assets, or to another as a result of a sale, acquisition, merger, other transfer, debt financing arrangement, reorganization, or bankruptcy (a "Transfer") involving us, our parent company, or any affiliate or subsidiary. We specifically reserve the right to transfer personally identifiable information collected from the Website, and any of the Company's databases, to a third party in connection with a Transfer, and nothing in this Policy is intended to or shall be deemed to interfere with our ability to transfer all or part of our business and/or assets (including the Website) to an affiliate or independent third party at any time, for any purpose, without limitation whatsoever.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, and without limiting the above, we reserve the right, and your use of the Website authorizes us, to disclose your personally identifiable information when we determine, in our sole discretion, that the disclosure of any such information is necessary to identify or contact you, or bring a legal action, including an action against you, if: (a) you are or may be violating this Policy; (b) you are interfering with another's rights or property, including, without limitation, our rights or property; (c) you are violating any applicable law, rule or regulation; (d) necessary or required by any applicable law, rule, or regulation; and/or (e) requested by authorities during any pending investigation, whether against you or another, or in the event of any act of terrorism or instance of local, regional, or national emergency.
Please note that, although we use security measures to keep your personally identifiable information anonymous, no security measure is perfect or impenetrable. As such, we cannot ensure or guarantee that all of your private communications and other personally identifiable information will never be disclosed in ways not detailed in this Policy. By way of example, and without limiting the foregoing, we may be forced to disclose personally identifiable information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances or third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications despite certain safeguards being in place. Therefore, notwithstanding anything contained herein to the contrary, your use of the Website is at your own risk and we cannot and do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personally identifiable information or private communications will always remain private.
How to Change Your Personally Identifiable Information Maintained by the Company
If for any reason you are concerned that your personally identifiable information held by the Company is not correct, please visit the Website's homepage and select "Sign-In" to log into your account so that you may edit and save the correct information. Should you have any trouble with the online sign-in process, or are otherwise unable to correct your personally identifiable information in this manner, you may call one of our Customer Care specialists at (800) 729-1997 or email us at firstname.lastname@example.com so that they may assist you. Only you or the Customer Care department may access your personal data from the Website using your password and user ID. Additional information related to you and/or your account may be changed online within "My Account".
Other Information Collected and Used by the Company
In some cases, we may automatically collect information from you that may not be considered personally identifiable information. Non-personally identifiable information may be collected directly by us or by a third party vendor that performs functions on our behalf. Examples of non-personally identifiable information include, but are not limited to, the computer operating system used, the Internet browser used, your IP address, the date and time of a visit to the Website, the number of times you have clicked on an advertisement, other interactions between you and the Website and other web usage activity and data logged by servers. This information is generally used for internal system administration, to diagnose and troubleshoot our system and servers, and to administer our Website. The information may also be used to gather broad demographic information and data related to consumer behavior so that we may better match our products, services, advertisements and Website to your interests and preferences.
Like many other websites, we use "cookies" or similar anonymous identifiers to help us gather and store information about visitors to our Website. A cookie is a small data file that a server sends to your browser when you visit the Website. When you visit the Website again, the cookie allows the Website to recognize your browser. Cookies may store user preferences and other information. The cookies do not monitor, track or store any personally identifiable information.
The use of Cookies helps us assist your use of the Website and permits us to better advertise our products and services to you and other consumers. Generally speaking, we may use information from cookies for the following purposes:
- To help make the Website work properly and improve your browsing experience (e.g., cookies that enable you to navigate around web pages or access secure areas of the Website so that you may purchase products or services);
- To monitor traffic to and from our Website and on our Website;
- To recognize repeat visitors to our Website, including specific pages of the Website;
- To authenticate users, safeguard against fraudulent use of login credentials and protect user data from unauthorized parties;
- To enable you to carry information across pages of the Website to avoid having to re-enter the same information on multiple pages;
- To track visitor interaction with advertisements displayed on our Website or advertisements linked to our Website (e.g., to monitor the number of times a certain advertisement is displayed during a visit to the Website and/or the number of times the advertisement is clicked by the visitor);
- To advertise and remarket our products and services and to make those ads more engaging and relevant to you;
- To measure conversion events and the effectiveness of our advertising (e.g., some cookies help us determine how many times visitors have clicked on a Google ad and how many of those visitors thereafter purchased a product or service from us).
Both the Company and third party vendors (like Google) set cookies through the Website. We use first party cookies, such as Google Analytics cookies, and third party cookies, such as AdRoll cookies, to report ad impressions and uses of ad services. These cookies and website pixels also allow us to analyze how user interactions with ad impressions and services are related to the Website.
In addition, we permit other third party companies, like AddThis, to collect certain anonymous identifiers when you visit our Website. These third party companies may use non-personally identifiable information during your visits to this Website and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or a third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this type of behavioral advertising practice, please visit www.networkadvertising.org.
A. Google Analytics
Our analytics cookies include Google Analytics. This tool uses a set of cookies to collect information and report Website usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors to Google. We have implemented the following Google Analytics advertising features:
- Remarketing with Google Analytics: permits us to deliver targeted ads to users that have already visited the Website or App, which ads are based on behavior those users displayed during their sessions (e.g., delivering an ad for a discount to a Website visitor who added items to their shopping cart but did not complete the checkout process).
- Google Display Network Impression Reporting: permits us to measure the effect and value of ads that are not clicked by consumers, thereby helping us better understand the value of these ads with respect to our return on investment.
- Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting: permits us to better understand the interests and demographics of our Website audience so that we can identify the types of visitors to the Website and the subset of visitors that convert in order to better understand our return on investment and more efficiently manage our advertising costs.
To find out more information about Google Analytics, its security and privacy policies, please visit https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245. To opt out of Google Analytics visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
B. Google AdWords
We also use Google AdWords to advertise online and make our ads more relevant to users interested in one of our products or services. We have implemented the following Google AdWords features:
- Remarketing
- Interest Categories
- Similar Audiences
- Other types of interest-based advertising
- Demographic and location targeting
The remarketing and similar audience features allow us to reach consumers who previously visited the Website as well as consumers similar to past visitors of the Website. With this feature we are able to match those users with the most relevant ads in order to attract those visitors to the Website. Such ads may appear to users as they browse other websites that are part of the Google Display Network or as they search for terms related to the Company's products on Google. To learn more about remarketing with AdWords visit https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2453998?hl=en. For additional information about AdWords similar audiences, visit https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2676774?hl=en.
Interest-based advertising features permit us to reach consumers based on their interests as they browse websites or apps on the Google Display Network. For instance, if a user has been browsing for a specific product, like a Driver Safety Course, and takes a break to read a news site, Company ads relevant to its driver safety courses may reach that user while they browse the news site. This helps us attract the customers that have expressed an interest in our products and services, or are likely to express an interest in our products or services based upon their already expressed interest categories. To learn more about AdWords interest based advertising, like interest categories, visit https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2497941?hl=en&ref_topic=3122880.
Similarly, with the demographic and location targeting features, we are able to target our ads to a specific set of consumers within a particular geographic area, age range, gender or parental status that are most likely to purchase our products and services. For example, we may set our ads for a Florida Driver Education Course to be displayed only to users situated in the State of Florida, or our ads for a Mature Driver Course may only target adults of qualifying age. For more information about AdWords demographics targeting, visit https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2580383?hl=en. For AdWords location targeting visit https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6317?hl=en.
To learn more about Google AdWords, its security and privacy policy, please visit https://www.google.com/intl/en-US/policies/privacy/. To opt out of Google's use of cookies in AdWords please visit Google's Ad Settings: https://www.google.com/settings/u/0/ads. To learn how to opt out of other third party vendor's use of cookies, please visit the Network Advertising Initiative Opt-Out Page: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/.
C. Bing Search Network
In addition to Google AdWords, we also advertise our products and services via the Bing Search Network ("Bing"). Bing uses cookies and web beacons to operate its service and provide users with a more relevant search experience. For more information about Bing, its security and privacy policy visit http://www.microsoft.com/privacystatement/en-us/MicrosoftOnlineAdvertising/Default.aspx. To learn how to opt out of Bing's use of cookies, please visit http://choice.microsoft.com/en-us/opt-out.
D. AdRoll
We also use the third-party AdRoll cookie to serve you more relevant ads. Like the remarketing features of Google Analytics and AdWords, the AdRoll cookie tracks visitors of the Website and assists us in redisplaying our ads to those visitors after they leave the Website and visit other sites online. AdRoll does not collect information that personally or directly identifies you; rather, the information captured may include the content you view, the date and time such content is viewed, the products purchased, and/or the location information associated with your IP address. AdRoll may also collect information about where you saw the ads they serve you and what ads you clicked on. For more information about AdRoll, its security and privacy policy, and/or to opt out of AdRoll please visit http://www.adroll.com/about/privacy.
E. How You Can Manage Cookies
In addition to the methods detailed above to opt-out of specific features that use cookies, most Internet browsers also provide additional mechanisms to control cookies stored on your device. For instance, your browser may inform you when a cookie has been sent to you and provide you with an opportunity to refuse that cookie. Browsers also typically permit you to erase cookies from your computer and/or block all cookies from being stored on your device. To learn how to control cookie permissions in Google Chrome, please visit https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en. If you do not use Google Chrome, please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions as they relate to the browser you use.
Please note that unless you have set your browser to refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you visit the Website. If you reject a cookie issued by the Website, you may be limited in some areas of the Website.
Anonymous Identifiers
To serve ads in services where cookie technology may not be available (for example, in mobile applications), we may use anonymous identifiers. Anonymous identifiers perform similar functions to cookies. To learn more about limiting ad tracking on devices using iOS 6 and above, visit the Settings menu on your device. To opt-out of interest based ads on Android, open the Google Settings app and select Ads.
Linking Policy and Safeguarding your Personally Identifiable Information
The Website links to other websites created and maintained by other private and/or public organizations, such as Facebook or Twitter, that are not controlled by the Company. Some of these third-party websites may use our logos or style as the result of a co-branding agreement or other business relationship. Others may not. In any event, we do not endorse the organizations sponsoring linked websites or the views they express or the products or services they may offer. The Company cannot and does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of information contained on a linked website, and is not responsible for any transmission received by or from a user from or to a linked website. It is the Company's policy to not link to any website that endorses hate, bias or discrimination and we reserve the right to deny or remove any link that contains misleading information or unsubstantiated claims, or is otherwise determined to be in conflict with the Company's mission or this Policy.
In addition, please be aware that third party websites, including linked websites, may send their own cookies to you and/or may collect, use and disclose data in ways dissimilar to the Company. The Company has no control over these websites, their cookies, the data they collect or the data that they use (or how they use it). This Policy does not apply to those websites or any other website except this Website. We encourage you to read the privacy policies and terms of use referenced in or applicable to any websites that you enter or any third party companies to which you provide your personal information.
Please also note that we cannot authorize the use of any copyrighted materials contained in linked websites. Request for authorization to use a copyrighted work must be made to the copyright owner.
While the information and recommendations contained within or on the Website, including, without limitation, courses, tests, publications, newsletters and other entries, have been compiled from sources believed to be reliable and accurate, the Company does not warrant and makes no guarantee as to, and expressly disclaims and assumes no responsibility or liability for, the correctness, sufficiency or completeness of any such information or recommendation.
Copyright Violations
We respect the intellectual property of others and we ask that you do the same. If you believe that your work has been copied in a manner that potentially constitutes copyright infringement, please contact our Copyright Agent at the below address and provide the following information:
- An electronic or hard copy of the signature of the individual authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
- A description of the copyright work that you claim may be infringed;
- A description of where the material that you claim may be infringing is located on the Website;
- Your first and last name, address, telephone number and email address;
- A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and
- A statement by you, made under the penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are otherwise authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.
Our copyright agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement on the Website or Services can be reached by mail at Copyright Agent at:Copyright Claims
The National Safety Commission, Inc.
P.O. Box 442288
Jacksonville, FL 32222
Fax (888) 977-3809
Email firstname.lastname@example.com
Please be advised that, pursuant to 17 U.S.C. section 512(f), any misrepresentation of material fact in a written notification automatically subjects the complaining party to liability for any damages, costs and attorney's fees incurred by us in connection with the written notification and allegation of copyright infringement.
We use industry-standard security measures to protect your information. For Website security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, we employ commercial software programs to monitor network traffic in order to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or to otherwise cause damage, are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, as amended. 18 U.S.C. §1030.
Please be advised that no data security measures can be guaranteed to be completely effective. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information that you provide to us. In the unlikely event that an unauthorized third party compromises our security measures, we will not be responsible for any damage directly or indirectly caused by any unauthorized third party's ability to view, use or disseminate such information.
Access to and Use of the Website by Persons Under the Age of 18
If you are under the age of 18, we require that you inform a parent or other legal guardian about this Policy and obtain their consent to the same prior to your use of the Website or otherwise placing an online order with us. The Website is intended to be accessed and used only by individuals age 14 or older and is not directed to anyone under the age of 14. By using this Website you agree not to submit any information about anyone under the age of 14, or anyone between the ages of 14 and 17 (including your own) where a parent's (or a legal guardian's) informed consent is not first obtained.
If we learn that we have inadvertently obtained any personal information relating to a child aged 13 or younger, we will delete that information as quickly as possible in accordance with applicable laws. If you believe that we may have collected any such personal information, please immediately notify us by contacting the Company at the addresses provided under the "Contact Us" section located at the end of this Policy.
CAN-SPAM Compliance
We are compliant with the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (the "CAN-SPAM Act"). 15 U.S.C. §7701.
You may opt-out from receiving commercial email from us and any other promotional communications that we may send to you from time to time by sending your request to us by email at email@example.com or by writing to us at the address provided under the "Contact Us" section located at the end of this Policy. Please be advised that if you opt-out of receiving commercial email from us, it may take up to ten (10) business days from the receipt of your opt-out request to process such request, and you may receive commercial email messages from us during that period. Please be advised that even after we process your opt-out request you may continue to receive administrative messages from us regarding our products or services.
Governing Law and Arbitration
This Policy is to be governed by and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of Florida, without regard for principles of conflicts of law. Any civil action, claim, dispute or proceeding arising out of, or relating to, this Policy shall be referred to final and binding arbitration, before a single arbitrator, under the commercial arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association in St. Johns County, Florida. You and we shall select the arbitrator; provided, however, if you and we are unable to reach agreement on the selection of the arbitrator within thirty (30) days after the notice of arbitration is served, then the American Arbitration Association shall select the arbitrator. Arbitration shall not commence until the party requesting it has deposited One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) with the arbitrator as a retainer for the arbitrator's fees and costs. The party requesting arbitration shall advance such sums as are required from time to time by the arbitrator to pay the arbitrator's fees and costs until the prevailing party is determined or the parties have agreed in writing to an alternate allocation of fees and costs. Should either party first commence an action in any state or Federal court, necessitating the other party to file a motion with the court to compel arbitration, the party so moving shall not be deemed to be the party requesting arbitration; rather, the party commencing the action shall be deemed to be the party to have requested arbitration and shall advance all sums required herein.
Judgment upon any award rendered by the arbitrator shall be final, binding and conclusive upon you and us, and your and our respective administrators, executors, legal representatives, successors and assigns, and may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Notwithstanding anything contained herein to the contrary, in no event shall either you or we be entitled to punitive, special, indirect or consequential damages, and both you and we hereby waive your rights to any punitive, special, indirect or consequential damages, including, but not limited to, damages for any loss of profit, revenue or business.
Fee Disclosures, Courses, and Testing
The Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles REQUIRES that we collect a State Assessment Fee for each person completing a BDI or TLSAE course. LowestPriceTrafficSchool.com may collect some or all of the below additional fees. These fees are in addition to the posted price for the course, exam or package. Automated Drivers License Testing System (ADLTS) Fees: Our testing services are conducted under contract with Intellectual Technology, Inc (ITI), a third-party entity with which the Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles requires providers like us to use. ITI charges a per transaction testing fee of $4.42. We collect that fee from customers and remit the amount to ITI. The Department and ITI charge a retesting fee for those Learner's Permit applicants who fail to pass the Florida written test ($10 Department Fee and $4.42 ITI Fee). Additionally, the Company charges a fee for license re-testing ($9.95) and processing fee of $5.58. State Assessment Fee for BDI or TLSAE Courses: The Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles requires that we collect a State Assessment Fee of $2.50 (BDI) and $3.00 (TLSAE) for each person completing a BDI or TLSAE course. These Assessment Fees are remitted to the Department's Highway Safety Operating Trust Fund, which is used to administer the Department's programs and to fund the general operations of the Department. Provider Processing Fee: Providers are required to process and submit your information to the Department as well as maintain certain course records pursuant to Florida law. For the initial BDI or TLSAE course transaction, we include an additional charge of $27.45 for BDI and $26.00 for TLSAE processing fee. There is a retesting fee for those who fail to pass the BDI or TLSAE course of $29.88. The exam, however, is an open book test with no time limit to completing the test. Credit Card / Debit Card Convenience Fee: For the initial BDI course transaction only, we include an additional charge of $3.95. There is no credit card or convenience fee for TLSAE customers. We do not require any student to purchase a course completion certificate and certificates are delivered free of charge via US Mail unless the student exercises the option to purchase an expedited delivery method. Driver's License Prep Courses (new driver/drivers license/motorcycle license/CDL license) are not regulated by the State of Florida and customers may take unlimited tests/re-test during their access period. TNSC does not offer refunds for payments made on a month-month subscription plan. To avoid being charged during a free trial promotion, you must cancel your subscription before your 7-day free trial ends. Your subscription will continue on a month-to-month basis unless and until you cancel or the subscription is suspended or discontinued by TNSC. If you cancel your subscription, cancellation will be effective at the end of the current monthly period; you will have continued access to your subscription for the remainder of that period, but you will not receive a refund.
We reserve the right to update, amend and/or change this Policy at any time in our sole discretion and without notice. This Policy, as published, is the most current version of the Policy and includes any and all updates and amendments. All changes shall automatically be effective when posted. Any information we collect from you online is subject only to our most current Policy. You are encouraged to revisit this Policy from time to time in order to review any and all changes that have been made.
In the event that any part of this Policy is found to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions shall remain valid and enforceable; provided, however, that the remaining provisions do not render the Policy meaningless or of no value.
Contact Us
You may direct any questions regarding this Policy to us at the following address:The National Safety Commission, Inc.
P.O. Box 442288
Jacksonville, FL 32222
Fax (888) 977-3809
Email firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Members of the United Nations met with distinguished astronauts and cosmonauts this week in New York to begin implementing the first-ever international contingency plan for defending Earth against catastrophic asteroid strikes.
Six of the space travelers involved in these U.N. discussions discussed the asteroid defense effort Friday (Oct. 25) in a news conference hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson at the American Museum of Natural History. Their goal: to drive home the very-real threats posed by near-Earth objects (NEOs), or asteroids traveling within the radius of Earth's orbit with the sun. You can see a video of the asteroid defense discussion here.
Scientists estimate that there are roughly 1 million near-Earth asteroids that could potentially pose a threat to the planet, but only a small fraction of these have actually been detected by telescopes. There are about 100 times more asteroids lurking in space than have ever been located, said Edward Lu, a former NASA astronaut and co-founder of the non-profit B612 Foundation advocating asteroid defense strategies. "Our challenge is to find these asteroids first, before they find us," Lu said.
To help achieve this goal, Lu co-founded an organization called the B612 Foundation in 2002. Today, the group is developing a privately built infrared space telescope — called the Sentinel Space Telescope — with the sole purpose of locating threatening asteroids. The foundation hopes to launch the telescope by 2018.
The Sentinel telescope will help space agencies identify threatening near-Earth objects years before they hit Earth, providing governments and space agencies with enough time to take action, Lu and his colleagues said. Such action would entail deploying a spacecraft — or multiple spacecrafts, depending on the size of the space rock — toward the asteroid in order to smack it off course.
The technology and funds to deflect an asteroid in this way already exist, the panel explained, but the Association of Space Explorers, a group that includes active and retired astronauts, decided to involve the United Nations in their decision-making efforts to avoid nationally biased action in the event of an emergency.
"The question is, which way do you move [the asteroid]?" former NASA astronaut and B612 co-founder Russell Schweickart said in the news conference. "If something goes wrong in the middle of the deflection, you have now caused havoc in some other nation that was not at risk. And, therefore, this decision of what to do, how to do it and what systems to use have to be coordinated internationally. That's why we took this to the United Nations."
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The panel hopes that the discussions with the United Nations this week —which extend from discussions dating back to 2008, when the panel presented the United Nations with the first draft of a report titled "Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response" —will improve public awareness of the threats at hand, and encourage policymakers to develop plans and appoint leaders to deal with threats in a timely manner.
The explosion of a truck-size asteroid over Chelyabinsk, Russia, this past February —which blew out windows throughout the entire city and injured more than 1,000 people —helped draw public attention to what the panelists described as the often-overlooked and underappreciated threat to the planet.
"It did make a difference in policymakers realizing that this is not just a science-fiction concept, or something that will happen in 100 or 500 years in the future," Thomas Jones, former NASA astronaut and senior research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, told SPACE.com at the news conference. "The fact that it happened right now, I think, enforced the reality."
The recommendations that the group presented to the United Nations this week provide an outline of what governments will ultimately implement in the event of an emergency. However, the details of these recommendations are still in the works, Schweickart said.
Source: space

subset: commoncrawl


text:
There are European cave paintings that are 30000 years old, but the art of the ancient Americas remains a mystery. This bone fragment features an engraving of either a mammoth or a mastodon, and is at least 13000 years old.
This bone was discovered in Florida by fossil hunter James Kennedy, who discovered the inscription while cleaning the fossil. Realizing its potential anthropological significance, Kennedy turned the bone over to experts at the Smithsonian Museum and the University of Florida, who have now been able to confirm that this really is authentically ancient, and not just a clever forgery (making counterfeit mammoth engravings was a big thing in the 19th century, for whatever reason).
University of Florida anthropologist Barbara Purdy observes just how painstaking the process was to establish the bone's authenticity:
"The results of this investigation are an excellent example of the value of interdisciplinary research and cooperation among scientists. There was considerable skepticism expressed about the authenticity of the incising on the bone until it was examined exhaustively by archaeologists, paleontologists, forensic anthropologists, materials science engineers and artists."
Smithsonian anthropologist Dennis Stanford says that this is the first known piece of American art to depict a mammoth or mastodon, while there are hundreds of such examples to be found in Europe. The bone itself probably did belong to one of these two giant ancient creatures, although it's possible the bone came from a giant sloth instead.
It's hard to date the bone with certainty, but we do know that mammoths had died out by 13,000 years ago, which means this engraving is at least that old, as all knowledge of these creatures was lost until the discovery of their fossils in the last couple of centuries. This provides the clearest evidence yet that the ancient peoples of the Americas created artistic representations of the creatures around them.
Via the Journal of Archaeological Science.


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The Academical Reader: Comprising Selections from the Most Admired Authors, Designed to Promote the Love of Virtue, Piety and Patriotism
P.N. Wood, 1832 - Readers - 324 pages
From inside the book
Page 13
For instance , in the following lines of Milton : " What in me is dark , Illumine ; what is low , raise and support . " The sense clearly dictates the pause after illumine , at the end of the third syllable , which , in reading , ought ...
For instance , in the following lines of Milton : " What in me is dark , Illumine ; what is low , raise and support . " The sense clearly dictates the pause after illumine , at the end of the third syllable , which , in reading , ought ...
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affection appear arms army authority beautiful become blessing blood body breath called cause character common consider Constitution continued dark death delight duty earth enter expression eyes face fall father fear feel force give glory Government grave hand happiness hath head hear heard heart heaven honour hope hour human interest kind land laws learned leave less LESSON liberty light living look Lord manner means ment mind moral nature never object once passed passions peace pleasure poor present principles reason religion respect rest round seemed seen sight soon sorrow soul speak spirit stand stood suffer tell thee thing thou thought tion true truth turn union virtue voice whole youth
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Page 218 - ... can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it ? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity...
Page 163 - I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided ; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.
Page 217 - Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all; religion and morality enjoin this conduct ; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.
Page 165 - There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.
Page 139 - STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring ; for ornament, is in discourse ; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one ; but the general counsels, and the plots, and marshalling of affairs come best from those that are learned.
Page 81 - And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, ' Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
Page 142 - Which thing I also did in Jerusalem ; and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests ; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them; and I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme ; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.
Page 165 - They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?
Page 163 - Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love ? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir.
Page 218 - I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations; but if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended...


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Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, numbering at least 25,000. If it takes a village, we have a couple.
Yet we know amazingly little about the Somali community, probably because we are afraid to ask the relevant questions. We know they are mostly Muslim — we can see the hijabs, we are familiar with the many local controversies to which their faith has given rise over the past 10 years — but are they loyal residents or citizens of the United States? In the conflict between the United States and the Islamist forces with which we are contending, whose side are they on?
The terror trial that concluded with a raft of guilty verdicts in October 2011 raised these questions and others. The two convicted defendants are women who were convicted of charges including conspiracy to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, of providing support, and of lying to the FBI. The "terrorist organization" is al Shabab, an affiliate of al Qaeda. The women were naturalized American citizens pursuing the jihad in Rochester, Minnesota.
The ringleader was not exactly remorseful after the jury returned its guilty verdicts. According to the AP, she stood before the judge and stated through an interpreter: "I am very happy." She added that she knew she was going to heaven. As I noted at the time, she may be going to heaven, but she'll be stopping off in prison first. As for the rest of us, she advised: "You will go to hell." Yes, ma'am, the feeling is mutual.
The investigation that resulted in the charges involved here has consumed the local FBI office for years. The investigation has previously resulted in a string of guilty pleas involving local Somali men supporting al Shabab. A subsequent case against Mahamud Said Omar in guilty verdicts in Minneapolis this past October. Investigators believe at least 21 Somali men have left Minnesota to join al Shabab. We're a little concerned they might choose to return to Minnesota to continue the jihad.
What about the rest of the local Somali community? Members of the local Somali community materialized at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis to support the women at trial, but not because they didn't commit the crimes charged. The members of the local Somali community appearing at the courthouse never bothered to cite any evidence of innocence. The question was beside the point. No voice expressly spoke up on behalf of law-abidingness or loyalty to the United States, and no journalist has to my knowledge explored the issue, although Peter Skerry provided some valuable background (and no comfort) in "The Muslim-American muddle."
It's easy to miss, but the Minnesota cases have been in the news this month as some of the Somali defendants returned to court for sentencing. The man convicted last fall appeared for sentencing last week, as did the two women.
The common thread in these cases is the presiding judge, United States District Judge Michael Davis, a man for whom I have great respect. I tried a small case before him when he was a state district court judge and John and I litigated a serious free speech case against the University of Minnesota before him in federal court. He is a fair man and a fine judge.
Last week in sentencing a Somali man who had pleaded guilty and cooperated with the government in the case of the man convicted at trial last fall, Judge Davis said: "I don't know you. The government doesn't know you. Your family doesn't know you." He obviously remains troubled by the evidence in the case.
In separate hearings for the two women last week, Judge Davis sentenced the ringleader to 20 years and her colleague to 10 years. Before sentencing the women, Judge Davis asked them if they supported jihad, suicide bombings and Sharia law. "Does she understand there are some Muslim women who wear dresses or short skirts?" Davis asked the interpreter for one of the women. As in the case involving the Somali man, Judge Davis must have been troubled by the evidence at trial. Judge Davis said the questions were aimed at determining the likelihood that the women would continue to support terrorist causes when they are released from prison.
So there is of course a sequel. CAIR promptly announced that it plans to file a complaint against Judge Davis for questioning the women on their religious beliefs and "equating mainstream Islamic principles with terrorism," as the CAIR news release puts it. As for the relationship between "mainstream Islamic principles" and terrorism, at any rate, we're not supposed to see it, say it, think it or act on it, lest we be stigmatized as "Islamophobic."
CAIR itself has been aptly described by Daniel Pipes as Islamists fooling the establishment. It's an establishment of which Judge Davis appears no longer to be a member in good standing.


text:
I'm torn between posting this for the sheer joy of laughing at a leftist blowhard who's struggling to cope with looming defeat in Wisconsin and wondering if anyone can really be so stupid, including him, as to believe it.
This is basically the liberal-hack version of a religious prophesy. If Scott Walker isn't sacrificed to appease the gods then, yea, a thousand years of darkness shall fall upon the land.
But it's pretty clear to me what's happening here. They are trying to set it up that if Mitt Romney gets elected, if Mitt Romney gets elected, there will never be a Democratic president again in the history of the United States. The future is just, this is the way it's going to be. There'll never be a Democratic president in our lifetime again. And when I say in our lifetime, I'm talking about long, long, long, long, long time.
This is why Wisconsin's so important. The people of the country need to know that you can defeat it. And this in many respects is doing the country a favor, the way they're operating, the way they're lying, the way they're backing up the worst candidate, the worst governor in the country, his record's horrendous, and who he's a puppet to.
So that's why this is so important. They're trying to make it so Barack Obama doesn't get re-elected and no Democrat ever will be elected into the White House.
…Yeah. Good point, Ed. Democrats will be totally out of luck in 2016 with Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo on the bench even though President Romney's likely to face some sort of right-wing challenge from Rand Paul or someone else. But never mind: This idiocy isn't designed to be taken seriously, it's designed to horrify the most dimwitted Wisconsin Democrats into turning out on Tuesday. Even so, per BuzzFeed, top Dems are already lowering expectations:
"Win or lose, it's going to be over-interpreted and over-analyzed by political insiders and the media," Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday. "Regardless of what happens, it's going to be a very competitive election in November for the presidential race, the Senate race and on down the ballot."…
Asked whether the recall race has any impact on the general election, Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter told NBC News' Chuck Todd Wednesday that she didn't think so.
"This is a gubernatorial race about a guy who is getting recalled," she said, adding "It's not about president Obama at the top of the ticket, and it's certainly not about Mitt Romney."
The only variable left that might make things interesting on election day is if Walker suddenly got bad news on jobs, but it looks like the news is all good: According to the AP, an announcement should be coming from the feds on Friday that Walker was right all along when he claimed that Wisconsin gained, not lost, jobs last year. If that's true, it's a brutal gut-punch for Tom Barrett with the vote right around the corner. With the jobs picture looking up and Democrats having all but given up on anger at the collective bargaining law taking Walker down, what hope do they have?


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long sleeve shirt with a classic fit and screen printed graphic. This crewneck shirt features neck ribbing, tubular construction, and double needle hems. The bottom of the shirt includes a exterior woven label. Preshrunk to minimize shrinking.
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text:
First, a big WOOHOO!! I've just got another 1-star review on Amazon! Yippee!
No, I'm not crazy, I know how the star system works. This particular verified purchase review says:
One Star
do not recall this book and I cannot give a fair critic [sic] of it.
So, basically, someone bought my book, maybe read it, can't remember it, and gave it a one-star review because they can't remember if they read it.
Seriously, if the intent was to troll me — don't they realise that ANY review is a good one? If people are buying the books and leaving review, the book is active. It's churning interest. As long as they spell my name correctly, right? And this one is even more hilarious than the previous one-star review.
I'd like to use this opportunity as a segue into a discussion about how to read reviews. This is meant for both authors (for their sanity) and readers (when evaluating reviews).
Side note to authors: read the Amazon Myth Busting post, before you consider Amazon and reviews.
When evaluating the worth of reviews (not editorial critique — that's a subject for another day), always look at the Two and Four star reviews. The breakdown is rather simple:
- One Star: tells you just that the reviewer is a caustic moron. You won't learn about the book, you'll only learn about the reviewers preachy opinions
- Two Stars: Didn't like the book, and assessed why
- Three Stars: humdrum meh.
- Four Stars: liked the book, but not blind to it's faults
- Five Stars: loved everything about it
So, readers, if you're looking to evaluate a new book — look at the two- and four- star reviews. These are more likely to show you what is the good and bad about this book, and match it to your own tastes. (And do remember, that all reviews — like all art critique — is far more subjective tastes than exact science).
And, authors, just keep working to get as many reviews as you can. Who cares if it's a troll leaving one-star rating? If your work is good, then the overwhelming numbers will be positive. No book is for every reader. The total average (and the more reviews the more meaningful it is) is telling prospective readers if the work is generally good or not, and the two and four stars help them match it to their tastes.
Crack open the champagne, and keep on writing!


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12*2*0.2m Inflatable Air Track For Sale Customized Size And Logo Gymnastic Track Mat Air Tumbling Track Factory BY-AT-125
If you've been looking for a way to boost your skills faster than ever, you've found it! The AirTrick is the ideal mat for anyone trying to learn new tricks or perfect his technique.
Enjoy the bounce a normal trampoline offers while having the space to combine multiple moves like you're on a regular gym floor. You can set the pressure to anything between rock-hard and bouncy-soft. Easy to roll up and transport in a regular car.
All AirTricks are custom made. Choose your ideal height (10, 20 or 30 cm high) and a length and width that fit your gym best.
Size:12X2X0.2m or customize
Height (10, 20 or 30 cm high) and a length and width that fit your gym best.
Wear-resisting and not easy to deformation.
Exquisite workmanship provide long service life.
Close valve design, completely sealed and no leakage.
It is more easy and convenient to use.
Can be set up in your living room, back yard, at the beach, etc.
Suitable for used to do gymnastics, yoga, taekwondo, etc.
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There are still countries in which we do not have a distributor yet. If you are interested, please send us an email or give us a call and we'd be happy to inform you about the possibilities.
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This depends on the product, sports type, skill level and weight of the users. Always use enough pressure not to bottom out and refill before every new training session. Check our user manual or our website for recommended pressure levels.
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Obviously this will depend on how, and in what frequency the products are used. A lifespan of more than 7 years is definitely not uncommon.
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Striving to deliver the best service and highest quality is the core of our business. Since our products are being used on a daily basis for many years, quality is crucial. Before a product leaves our factory, it is tested extensively on many different aspects.
If you have any enquiry about quotation or cooperation,please feel free to email us at email@example.com or use the following enquiry form. Our sales representative will contact you within 24 hours. Thank you for your interest in our products.
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Skype: Rita:barrysales0003


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I'll bet you're thinking the post title is a metaphor for bad art. It can be taken both metaphorically and literally. From this year's Whitney Biennial, I give you Pope.L's Claim (Whitney Version). Or, more accurately, The Baloney Room.
The Biennial is always ripe with hyper-modern art begging to be ridiculed. This year's show was actually quite accessible and there were many pieces I enjoyed. But where's the fun in discussing those?
There were 2,755 slices of bologna pinned to the interior and exterior of freestanding walls. The slices were carefully arranged in a grid. The number of slices represents 0.25% of the total number of Jewish citizens living in New York City.
Each slice has a small, black and white image of a (supposedly) Jewish person pasted in the center.
As time passed, the slices dried and the portraits distorted. The exhibit was quite smelly. There was some ARTNews-worthy mumbo-jumbo explaining the MEANING of a slice of baloney with a portrait on it but I wasn't buying what they were selling.
Pope.L is also known as William Pope.L. A pretentious name to go along with his pretentious art.
On the other hand, we have Robert Rauschenberg. There's a fine retrospective currently at MoMA. I've always been a fan of his work but this exhibit gave me a deeper appreciation. It restored my faith after the Biennial circus.
In Hiccups (1978), Rauschenberg gathered images from magazines and transferred them to 97 sheets of handmade paper using a lithographic press. The sheets are connected with zippers.
The sheets can be disassembled and reordered. You can change the flow and texture of the piece. I didn't get the sense this was participatory, so I didn't try to rearrange the sections. When he was young, Rauschenberg briefly worked as a zipper inspector for a bathing suit company.
Hiccups wasn't participatory, bur Black Market was. When first exhibited in 1961, Rauschenberg placed objects in the suitcase. Viewers were invited to take an item out and leave one of theirs in return. They were instructed to draw their item on a clipboard attached to the canvas.
He closed the exhibit when he discovered items were being taken but nothing left in return. You can always count on humanity to let you down.
This is Canyon, one of his Combines. These were works made from found objects. The stuffed eagle was given to him by fellow artist Sari Dienes. She found it in a hallway of the Carnegie Hall studio building in 1959.
Bald eagles are a protected species, so selling this would be a felony. Consequently, when the owner passed away and bequeathed it to her children, the appraisers valued it at $0. The IRS disagreed and said it's worth $65 million and wanted $29.2 million in inheritance taxes. To get the IRS off their backs, they agreed to donate it to MoMA and MoMA agreed to always have it on display for the public to enjoy. Thank you, IRS!
May 18, 1993
Bonnie has viral meningitis. She calls it fire on the brain. She got it from kissing the guy who owns the company she's doing work for. How about that Bonnie? Always sleeping with the help. I paid a visit and brought some groceries. She wanted hummus, beef bouillon cubes, Georgia peach juice, macaroons and some other stuff. Why can't she just get milk and bread like everyone else?
She didn't look too good but was in high spirits. I gave her a back rub and that made her feel better. She always loved my back rubs. She said they have a medicinal, healing quality. I picked up a bacon cheeseburger deluxe from the Greek diner for myself. We sat at her glass kitchen table and talked. I ate my delicious burger and she picked at my fries and drank water.
She has a book idea. "How to Commit Sexual Harassment." She'd show two photos. One photo, captioned "Correct," would be a man and a woman in business attire, holding brief cases standing with their hands extended to shake. The other photo, captioned "Incorrect," would be the same woman with her hand extended and the man would have both hands on her breasts. The humor seems kind of broad and obvious to me. She wanted to know if I'd pose for the photos and I said sure.
We talked a lot about Laura. She seems genuinely happy for me and told me to be careful not to smother her. I got home around 10:00 and Kurosawa's Seven Samurai was on PBS. I went to bed. At 1:30, my doorbell rang. It was Laura. I let her up. I opened the door and watched her walk off the elevator. She was wearing a red tee-shirt, a black/white jacket and blue jeans. She'd spent the day in the sun and was glowing. She was a vision. I'd never seen her look more ravishing and told her so. She stepped into my apartment and closed the door behind her. She put her arms around my neck and said she couldn't sleep. She kissed me.


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When reporters asked Baltimore police and state agencies where the guns used in city crimes came from, no one could provide specific information.
"I can tell you that the vast majority, 95 percent plus, are committed with illegal guns," Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. But he didn't use data to support that widely held assumption.
Local law enforcement agencies don't have that information because of a federal blockage of gun tracing data. Police also can't reveal what gun tracing data they do have because a federal law passed a decade ago shields most firearm tracking information from the public.
Gun tracing information was public until 2003, when Congress passed what is known as the Tiahrt amendment. Named after former Kansas Rep. Todd Tiahrt, a Republican, the law limits what information is publicly available for research.
At the time, the National Rifle Association and others argued that gun research studies using tracing information were biased against guns and that the data allowed unfair scrutiny of legal gun dealers and owners. Tiahrt has also said that the law aimed to protect undercover police and informants.
But the amendment has come under increased criticism as the national gun debate heats up since the Connecticut school shootings and the Colorado movie theater massacre. Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has called for its repeal.
The amendment is also seen as one reason President Barack Obama added increased gun research as a goal in the broad gun control proposal he announced last month. Gun research has slowed considerably since the Tiahrt amendment passed.
In 2009, Congress passed provisions pushed by Obama's administration to tweak the Tiahrt amendment and direct the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to share more gun-tracking information with other law enforcement agencies. But that loosening didn't open the information dam that much.
According to an ATF guideline sheet, a law enforcement agency requesting federal firearm tracing information can only receive data limited to its jurisdiction for a "bona fide" criminal investigation. The goal of restricting the data is to make sure gun that tracing information — like fingerprints — doesn't land in the hands of "third parties" such as journalists and the public, the ATF stated.
Law enforcement agencies are also limited in what information they can maintain. The FBI is required to destroy background checks on gun buyers, and federal laws prohibit any national database that stores information on gun ownership, sales or manufacturing.
The gun trace data that is publicly available from the ATF includes annual state-by-state breakdowns on the total number of guns recovered by law enforcement agencies. In 2011 in Maryland, for instance, that includes the total number of guns recovered (7,680), the types of guns recovered and a map showing the states where the guns came from.
—Justin George


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Diameter transport over TCP.
This module implements diameter transport over TCP using gen_tcp. It can be specified as the value of a transport_module option to diameter:add_transport/2 and implements the behaviour documented in diameter_transport(3).
start({Type, Ref}, Svc, [Opt]) -> {ok, Pid, [LAddr]} | {error, Reason}
Type = connect | accept
Ref = reference()
Svc = #diameter_service{}
Opt = {raddr, ip_address()} | {rport, integer()} | term()
Pid = pid()
LAddr = ip_address()
Reason = term()
The start function required by diameter_transport(3).
The only diameter_tcp-specific argument is the options list.
raddr and
rport specify the remote address
and port for a connector and not valid for a listener.
Remaining options are any accepted by gen_tcp:connect/3 for
a connector, or gen_tcp:listen/2 for a listener, with the exception
packet and
Also, option
port can be specified for a listener to specify the
local listening port, the default being the standardized 3868 if
Note that option
ip specifies the local address.
If the service specifies more than one Host-IP-Address and
ip is unspecified then then the
first of the service's addresses is used as the local address.
The returned local address list has length one.


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Do you have a problem with mice? If you do, then you will be looking for the best mouse trap. My advice is to take a look at the Victor M2524 Electronic Mouse Trap. In my experience I found this to be the most successful type of trap, catching more than the conventional models, with the added bonus of not needing to handle the vermin.
When I had a problem with mice in my garage, I originally looked at the M2524 and decided it was too expensive. My next thought was to catch them humanely and release them in nearby fields. I also thought it would be a cheaper solution.
I baited two traps along the back of my workbench, as I could see droppings along there. The plan was to catch the mice alive.
The bait was taken for 2 days without a catch. On the third day I went into the garage but could only see one trap. I looked around and the other trap was lying down the back of the bench. I picked it up and could tell by the weight it had a mouse inside. I checked the mouse and it looked completely dishevelled, and it was obvious that once caught, it had thrashed around to the point the trap fell off the bench. As it had died completely stressed out, it rather defeats the object of trying to treat the mice humanely, so I decided to buy an electronic trap, at least the mice do not suffer.
Best Mouse Trap
The Victor M2524 trap works by killing mice with a high voltage, which is produced by an electronic circuit using the 4 AA batteries.
Setting up is simplicity itself. Open the trap lid and you will see the high voltage pads at the far end from the entry hole. The mouse has to touch both of these to be electrocuted, so put the bait where it has to reach across. The trap has a cutout switch that disables the voltage when the lid is opened. The run is made tight so that once the mouse is inside it will find it hard to back out.
Close the lid and turn on the switch. The LED will light for about 2 seconds then goes off. The unit is now armed. Place the unit directly in the mouse run.
Check the trap at least once every 24 hours. If the LED is blinking then the trap will have been triggered and you should have your first mouse! (the LED stops blinking after 24 hours)
For bait, I personally found that crushed peanuts work well. I put some inside the trap plus some by the entry hole.


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Diego Liatis, a Montreal gamer and entrepreneur, told Ars that he still plans on releasing a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map of Berri-UQAM, the city's most well-known metro station. He's moving forward—the map is due sometime in March 2013—even if it means a drawn-out lawsuit brought by the local transit authority.
"If you ask me to change the name of the station—forget about it," Diego Liatis told Ars, starting the sentence in French and switching to English for emphasis.
"I understand [copyright law]. But there are limits, such as the name of the station."
Last week, Ars reported that Liatis and his colleague Frédérik Denis spent nine months creating a playable map of Berri-UQAM in time for LAN ETS 2013, a massive LAN party to be held at a Montreal university.
The plans of such a map drew a cease-and-desist letter from the transit authority, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) later in the week. The designer maintains he has the right to digitally reproduce a real-world location in a video game, just as anyone has the right to photograph it.
"Indeed, there was a meeting between the lawyers of the two parties today," Amélie Régis, an STM spokesperson, told Ars in a French-language e-mail on Monday. "The STM has asked that certain elements of the video game map be taken out. Mr. Liatis' lawyer must discuss this with his client and come back to us quickly. As this is a legal negotiation, I'm not in a position, unfortunately, to tell you anything more."
A hobby project
Liatis and Dénis haven't released the map to other Global Offensive players yet, but they did release a YouTube trailer last month, followed by a second trailer on February 17. Liatis told Ars he plans on releasing the map on a private server for free sometime next month.
"The goal was to make something that speaks to Montreal or another Canadian location," he said, lamenting the lack of Canadian locales in video games. "And to do something independent—there's no money [involved]."
Liatis also told Ars that LAN ETS had threatened to impose a lifetime ban on him if he ended up releasing the map. LAN ETS did not immediately respond to our request for comment on this point.
Liatis added that STM's media representative, Amélie Régis, expressed concern to him that releasing the map would allow it to be used by actual terrorists training for an actual attack. Régis also said it would be "insulting" to Montreal's Arab community.
Régis did not respond to our request for comment on this specific point.
UPDATE Tuesday 5:42pm CT: Régis finally wrote back to Ars, saying that she had never spoken to Liatis, and was "really surprised to read the opposite." Ars has contacted Liatis again to clarify who exactly he spoke with at the STM.
"Logic is on my side"
Liatis said he planned on meeting in person with STM representatives later this week. While he is willing to alter the STM logo and a well-known piece of art that hangs above a track, he's not willing to compromise on the name of the station or its layout.
"Either [the STM] opposes me and we'll meet in court," Liatis added. "Or [the agency] will be OK with it."
The February 11 cease-and-desist letter reminds Liatis that the STM "had warned you that it did not authorize you to use its image nor reproduction of the station in question for this project," adding that use of its name, acronyms, graphic symbols, and seal are "prohibited by law unless permission is granted by the STM."
The STM sent Liatis a second letter, dated February 21, noting that "copyright on architectural works is well-established in jurisprudence as well as in [case law]" and invited Liatis' counsel to meet with them last Friday. Liatis provided Ars with copies of both letters.
No matter the outcome, Liatis remains determined. He plans to make similar maps of other Canadian locations for Left for Dead and Counter-Strike.
"Logic is on my side," Liatis added.
UPDATE 8:05pm CT: Simon Marin, a LAN ETS spokesperson, told Ars in an e-mail that the university, and by extension its LAN party event (LAN ETS), is "disassociating itself" from Liatis and his map. Marin did not provide any further explanation.