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|Posted: November 2, 2009
Breakthrough in industrial-scale nanotube processing
|(Nanowerk News) Rice University scientists today unveiled a method for the industrial-scale processing of pure carbon-nanotube fibers that could lead to revolutionary advances in materials science, power distribution and nanoelectronics. The result of a nine-year program, the method builds upon tried-and-true processes that chemical firms have used for decades to produce plastics. The research is available online in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
|"Plastics is a $300 billion U.S. industry because of the massive throughput that's possible with fluid processing," said Rice's Matteo Pasquali, a paper co-author and professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering and in chemistry. "The reason grocery stores use plastic bags instead of paper and the reason polyester shirts are cheaper than cotton is that polymers can be melted or dissolved and processed as fluids by the train-car load. Processing nanotubes as fluids opens up all of the fluid-processing technology that has been developed for polymers."
|The report was co-authored by an 18-member team of scientists from Rice's Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, the University of Pennsylvania and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Co-authors include Smalley Institute namesake Rick Smalley, the late Nobel laureate chemist who developed the first high-throughput method for producing high-quality carbon nanotubes, as well as Virginia Davis, a former doctoral student of Pasquali's and Smalley's who is now a professor at Auburn University, and Micah Green, a former postdoctoral researcher of Pasquali's who is now a professor at Texas Tech University.
|The new process builds upon the 2003 Rice discovery of a way to dissolve large amounts of pure nanotubes in strong acidic solvents like sulfuric acid. The research team subsequently found that nanotubes in these solutions aligned themselves, like spaghetti in a package, to form liquid crystals that could be spun into monofilament fibers about the size of a human hair.
|"That research established an industrially relevant process for nanotubes that was analogous to the methods used to create Kevlar from rodlike polymers, except for the acid not being a true solvent," said Wade Adams, director of the Smalley Institute and co-author of the new paper. "The current research shows that we have a true solvent for nanotubes -- chlorosulfonic acid -- which is what we set out to find when we started this project nine years ago."
|Following the 2003 breakthrough with acid solvents, the team methodically studied how nanotubes behaved in different types and concentrations of acids. By comparing and contrasting the behavior of nanotubes in acids with the literature on polymers and rodlike colloids, the team developed both the theoretical and practical tools that chemical firms will need to process nanotubes in bulk.
|"Ishi Talmon and his colleagues at Technion did the critical work required to help get direct proof that nanotubes were dissolving spontaneously in chlorosulfonic acid," Pasquali said. "To do this, they had to develop new experimental techniques for direct imaging of vitrified fast-frozen acid solutions."
|Talmon said, "This was a very difficult study. Matteo's team not only had to pioneer new experimental techniques to achieve this, they also had to make significant extensions to the classical theories that were used to describe solutions of rods. The Technion team had to develop a new methodology to enable us to produce high-resolution images of the nanotubes dispersed in chlorosulfonic acid, a very corrosive fluid, by state-of-the-art electron microscopy at cryogenic temperatures."
|Co-author Nicholas Parra-Vasquez, a Rice graduate student advised by Pasquali who is now working in France, said, "In looking at the project when I started, I had no idea where it was going to end up and how much work needed to be done. The project encompassed many students and professors, as well as collaborations with other schools. Because of this, it was a slow process but one that left no avenue unchecked. Looking on it now, I can't believe how big it became -- how much effort was put into every point found."
|Few technological breakthroughs have been hyped as much as carbon nanotubes. Since their discovery in 1991, nanotubes have been touted as everything from a cure for cancer to a solution for the world's energy crisis. The hype is all the more remarkable given that nanotubes are notoriously difficult to work with and that chemists worldwide struggled for years even to make them.
|So why the hype? Put simply, carbon nanotubes are remarkable. While they are roughly the same size and shape as some rodlike polymer molecules, nanotubes can conduct electricity as well as copper, and they can be either metals or semiconductors. They can be tagged with antibodies to diagnose diseases or heated with radio waves to destroy cancer. They've been used to make transistors far smaller than those in today's finest microchips. Nanotubes also weigh about one-sixth as much as steel but can be up to 100 times stronger.
|"Kevlar, the polymer fiber used in bulletproof vests, is about five to 10 times stronger than our strongest nanotube fibers today, but in principle we should be able to make our fibers about 100 times stronger," Pasquali said. "If we can realize even 20 percent of our potential, we will have a great material, perhaps the strongest ever known.
|"The electrical conductivity is already pretty good," he said. "It's about the same of the best-conducting carbon-carbon fibers, and that could be improved 200 times if better production methods for metallic nanotubes can be found."
|The new research appears just as the Smalley Institute prepares for a 10th anniversary celebration Nov. 5 of the creation of Smalley's "HiPco" reactor, the first system capable of producing high-quality nanotubes in bulk. HiPco, short for high-pressure carbon monoxide process, broke the logjam on nanotube production and cleared the way for more scientific study and for industry to begin using them in some materials. Industrial nanotube reactors today generate several tons of low-quality carbon nanotubes per year, and the worldwide market for nanotubes is expected to top $2 billion annually within the next decade.
|But a final breakthrough remains before the true potential of high-quality carbon nanotubes can be realized. That's because HiPco and all other methods of making high-end, "single-walled" nanotubes generate a hodgepodge of nanotubes with different diameters, lengths and molecular structures. Scientists worldwide are scrambling to find a process that will generate just one kind of nanotube in bulk, like the best-conducting metallic varieties, for instance.
|"One good thing about the process that we have right now is that if anybody could give us one gram of pure metallic nanotubes, we could give them one gram of fiber within a few days," Pasquali said.
|Source: Rice University
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Wolf Blitzer delivers the most important breaking news and political, international, and national security stories of the day. Tune to The Situation Room weekdays 5-7pm ET on CNN.
CNN's Brian Todd looks at the future role for private companies is in high-altitude and space exploration.
Nonie Darwish: "My heart sank when I heard president Obama's recent statement at the UN: "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam." It was difficult to hear the president of the United States declare to the world that critics of Mohammed are wrong, don't have a cause, must not be heard, respected, taken seriously and will have no future in America."
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subset: commoncrawl


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I SAW NONE of the third round of the Memorial Tournament. So when I checked the leaderboard my first thought was, "Matt who?"
Matt Bettencourt, a 34-year-old PGA Tour rookie, shares the 54-hole lead with Mark Wilson at nine under par. A posse of name players are on their tail.
Bettencourt can play. You don't get in Jack's tournament or lead on Saturday night unless you know your way around the golf course. Bettencourt carded eight birdies today en route to a 68.
Last year Bettencourt won the 2008 Nationwide Tour Championship. In 16 PGA Tour events in 2009, he's made seven cuts and had just one finish in the top 25. Not exactly the kind of numbers that would indicate he's ready to win on golf's biggest stage. Still, Matt's leading the golf tournament and I'm writing about a guy I've never heard of.
Bettencourt is from California and attended Modesto Junior College. Michael Jordan, Payne Stewart and his dad are his heroes. He has a twin sister named Michelle. That's all I know about him.
Bettencourt has a lot of work to do on Sunday. It will be a nerve-wracking day at the office. I wish him the best.
−The Armchair Golfer
FREE Drawing for ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Enter the free drawing at above right (or ARMCHAIR GOLF BLOG) for a hardcover edition of ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The Story of Rocco Mediate's Extraordinary Battle with Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open. The book is by Rocco Mediate and bestselling author John Feinstein.


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The decline in CAPTCHA efficacy has been an ongoing story in 2008, as hackers and malware authors have steadily found ways to chip away at the protection these security practices were once thought to offer. Now, new findings indicate that both Gmail and Windows Live Hotmail have been compromised again, this time via a more-streamlined attack process. With two of the largest webmail providers once again vulnerable, CAPTCHAs clearly aren't meeting the security needs of either company, and it may be time to reevaluate the use of them altogether.
Gmail defeated
The latest bad news for Google comes courtesy of the malware team in charge of the XRumer project. XRumer is a blogspam tool that's particularly good at what it does, and is capable of fooling multiple CAPTCHA systems. Once it successfully registers, XRumer may take steps to avoid human detection by first posting an innocuous question regarding a specific product or service. The point of all the subterfuge is to boost the Google page rank of a site by bombarding multiple forums with product/service mentions and discussions. Users that can be tricked into posting their own links (perhaps in an attempt to demonstrate where a product may be found) only help the program perform its primary function.
According to the list of features that accompanies the team's latest release, XRumer 5.0a is now capable of bypassing Gmail's defenses. The list states: "Now works with gmail.com: auto-registering mailboxes, downloading letters (yes - we've 'f**d' Google Captcha ;)." There's no further information on how the program has accomplished this feat, but the list of CAPTCHA's it now understands and can bypass is reportedly fully up-to-date, and includes newer designs that ask the user to identify a cute cat or other distinct animal.
And Hotmail too
As for Windows Live Hotmail, Websense Security Labs has put together a step-by-step demonstration of how an existing automated anti-CAPTCHA bot goes about its business. The bot begins by hooking itself to Internet Explorer and communicating with the Hotmail sign-up servers. The anti-CAPTCHA software is prepackaged with a list of account names, which it attempts to use as the first step of the account creation process. Said list is presumably updated regularly, with successful accounts noted and unacceptable/pre-existing accounts scratched off. Our little darling of a program then spins off a second instance of IEXPLORE.EXE, and attempts to connect with the actual CAPTCHA-breaking host. As we've previously discussed, CAPTCHA-breaking is a huge business in nations like India, where workers will input thousands of CAPTCHAs per day in exchange for a minuscule amount of money per CAPTCHA successfully decoded.
The CAPTCHA is sent off, decoded, sent back, and handed over to Hotmail in what is presumably the correct form. Unlike what we saw in the initial CAPTCHA-breaks earlier this year, the communication between host and client is now scrambled, presumably to make the CAPTCHA-cracking process harder to detect. Received image files are stored on the victim's hard drive, and while such images are tiny individually, a program that has been in operation for weeks or months might still accumulate a suspiciously large number of JPG files in a single directory. Whether or not the user notices (or even knows how to check for hidden directories), of course, depends on his or her skill set. Websense's screenshot of the files implies that they are all prefixed with "mmh" for now, but such information is only of minimal use if the goal is to track the proliferation and existence of these files.
Once the CAPTCHA is cracked and an account created, it's business as usual for the bot in question. E-mail addresses are entered, spam messages are sent, and the bot logs out to begin the entire process all over again. Apart from detecting the malware in operation and/or stopping it from completing its task, there doesn't seem to be much the security industry can do to prevent this procedure from working indefinitely. Researchers are continuing to develop advanced CAPTCHA concepts—we saw an image-based system earlier this year—but the entire point of a CAPTCHA was that it offered a relatively simple task that a human could do but a computer couldn't.
The human touch
Instead of trying to build better CAPTCHA-cracking programs, the malware industry went out and got itself some humans of its own. This effectively bypasses the primary security strength of the CAPTCHA system and leaves it entirely dependent on what we'll call secondary security characteristics. CAPTCHAs are often complex (particularly these days), which does increase the chance that they'll be misread (and returned incorrectly), while the font and display of the characters themselves are at least somewhat unfamiliar to the CAPTCHA crackers sitting on the other side of the world. A number of websites have attempted to counter the CAPTCHA-crackers by imposing a timeline on how quickly the CAPTCHA must be entered, but this inevitably degrades how complex the CAPTCHA can actually be. The puzzle, after all, has to hang around long enough for legitimate users to decode it—even the slow ones. It's entirely possible that the time-to-decode between the two groups (legitimate and crackers) overlaps considerably—there may not be a time slice that can cleanly separate the two.
As for the other two secondary characteristics, both can be overcome through sheer repetition, and that's precisely what the bot networks are doing. If brand-new Worker A in Mumbai can't read CAPTCHA number one, send him 100 more. Not only will he get some right (crackers must be able to decode a certain percentage of CAPTCHAs correctly within x amount of time in order to work in the industry at all), he'll also become increasingly proficient as time goes by. This doesn't just increase his chance of returning the correct CAPTCHA, it increases the chance that he'll return the correct CAPTCHA within the necessary time period.
This is one security problem that may not have a practical solution. There's no theoretical reason why researchers couldn't build CAPTCHAs that rely on verbal, audio, contextual, or even cultural understandings, but the websites and services that rely on such authentication systems will inevitably be restricted to those who understand the context of the CAPTCHA. A CAPTCHA that asked would-be users to name the equivalent Greek god when presented with a Roman name, for example, would certainly confound a number (though not all) of current CAPTCHA-breakers, but it would also confound any legitimate user who was unfamiliar with the necessary mythology. Even if you know that Diana and Artemis are considered equivalent goddesses of the hunt, chastity, and the moon, would you know that she was also considered to be an Etruscan goddess, Artumes?
Websense reports that the bot in question successfully creates a Hotmail account once out of every eight to ten tries. If we were talking about a small group of people, such a low success rate might not be worth the trouble, but the larger organizations in India are advertising themselves as capable of breaking 700,000 CAPTCHAs (or more) per day. Lower numbers, in the 25,000-50,000 range are more common, but even if we start at just 25,000 and take a 10 percent success rate, that's still one small company churning out 2,500 successful e-mail spam accounts per day. Start ramping even that minimum estimate up by the number of CAPTCHA-breakers in India and the growing popularity of the field (Surprise: "Ralph," in customer service over at Dell doesn't like talking to you, either), and a one-of-eight to one-of-ten crack rate starts looking pretty good. Longer term, that rate is only headed up


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Riddled with fraud and abuse, it's no surprise that the Pentagon has not successfully passed an audit since 1996, according to the Government Accountability Office. Yet, the federal government continues to funnel billions of tax dollars to the Pentagon while local communities struggle to make ends meet.
In the midst of this year's congressional budget battles, local governments are fighting back. In 'Bring Our War Dollars Back Home,' from the June 2013 issue of Sojourners, Candice Quinn describes how communities around the nation are pushing for Pentagon spending cuts to fund local needs.
As U.S. taxpayers wait for the Department of Defense to get its accounts in order, continue to keep an eye out for some of the Pentagon's most wasteful programs:
- F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: With cost overruns and delays, these jets are projected to cost taxpayers $396 billion, nearly four times as much as any other weapons system.
- Ballistic Missile Defense: Since Reagan's 1983 "Star Wars" proposal to build a space-based antimissile shield, the Pentagon has spent more than $100 billion trying to develop missile defense systems fraught with technological issues.
- Nuclear Weapons: Each year the Pentagon spends $23 billion to support the U.S. nuclear force, a bloated arsenal that could easily destroy the world five times over.
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ABC Signs Eve to Development Deal, Orders Pilot From 12 Years a Slave Writer
Eve is eyeing a possible return to TV. The rapper, who previously starred on the self-titled UPN sitcom from 2003 to 2006, has signed a development deal with ABC, TVGuide.com has learned.
Eve will also executive-produce the project, which is being targeted for the 2014-2015 development slate, with Aaron Kaplan (The Neighbors). She most recently appeared on the big screen in Bounty Killer and guest-starred on two episodes of Glee.
Returning Shows: Where we left off
ABC also announced on Tuesday that it has ordered a drama pilot from 12 Years a Slave writer John Ridley. American Crime is about a group involved in a racially charged trial whose personal lives are examined as their worlds are turned upside down. Michael McDonald (Cougar Town) will executive-produce with Ridley. Ridley was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best screenplay.
Would you watch American Crime? Do you want Eve to return to TV?
View original ABC Signs Eve to Development Deal, Orders Pilot From 12 Years a Slave Writer at TVGuide.com
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Labor market, housing in US strengthen into 2013
The labor market and housing strengthened, signaling the U.S. expansion may withstand the fiscal impasse.
"The economy is holding up just fine right now," said Neil Dutta, head of U.S. economics at Renaissance Macro Research LLC in New York. "Folks that are thinking there was going to be some cataclysmic economic shock to close out the year, I don't think that's right."
Applications for unemployment-insurance payments fell by 12,000 to 350,000 in the week ended Dec. 22, bringing the average over the past month to the lowest level in more than four years, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Purchases of new houses rose 4.4 percent in November to a 377,000 annual pace, the highest level since April 2010, according to data from the Commerce Department. A third report showed consumer confidence slumped this month.
The claims data indicate companies are seeing enough demand to maintain headcounts, a necessary development before hiring picks up. Stocks retreated for a fourth day as lawmakers said there was no progress in talks to avert the fiscal cliff of more than $600 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts slated to begin taking effect next week.
"If you could take the fiscal cliff off the table, if you could get the gorilla out of corner of the room, the platform for growth in 2013 is looking reasonably solid," said John Ryding, chief economist of RDQ Economics in New York. "But how do you get the gorilla out of the room? That's the problem."
Shares Drop
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 0.5 percent to 1,412.82 at 3:14 p.m. in New York as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said a resolution to the budget dispute appeared unlikely because Republicans won't cooperate.
Elsewhere today, Italian business confidence rose in December for a second month after a recession eased in the third quarter and the nation's borrowing costs declined.
Confidence among U.S. consumers declined more than forecast in December as the budget debate in Washington soured Americans' outlook for the economy.
The Conference Board's sentiment index fell to 65.1 from a revised 71.5 reading the prior month, figures from the New York-based private research group showed. The gauge was projected to fall to 70, according to the Bloomberg survey median.
Expectations Tumble
The group's gauge of expectations for the next six months decreased to 66.5, a one-year low, from 80.9. The measure of present conditions climbed to 62.8 this month, the highest since August 2008, from 57.4 in November.
That is in line with the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, a compilation of Americans' views on the current state of economy, buying climate and personal finances. The measure eased to minus 32.1 in the week ended Dec. 23 from minus 31.9 the prior period, a drop that was within the margin of error of 3 percentage points. The gauge was less than a point from an April reading that was the highest since March 2008.
"The sudden turnaround in expectations was most likely caused by uncertainty surrounding the oncoming fiscal cliff," Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said in a statement. "While consumers are quite negative about the short-term outlook, they are more upbeat than last month about current business and labor market conditions."
Estimating Claims
The U.S. federal holiday on Dec. 24 prompted many state employment offices to close, making it more difficult to complete the jobless claims tally in time, a Labor Department spokesman said as the figures were released today. Fourteen states and territories provided their own estimates, which are usually "fairly accurate," the spokesman said. The Labor Department estimated data for five states that didn't provide any figures, he said.
The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 41 economists called for 360,000 claims. Projections ranged from 350,000 to 375,000. The prior week's applications were revised to 362,000 from an initially reported 361,000.
The four-week moving average of claims, a less-volatile measure, dropped to 356,750, the lowest since March 2008.
Demand for new houses was up 15.3 percent from November 2011, today's report showed. The median price rose 14.9 percent in November from the same month a year ago to $246,200.
Housing Rebound
Low mortgage rates and dwindling foreclosures are stabilizing prices and attracting buyers more than three years after a recession that was fueled by the industry's collapse. Growing demand coupled with less inventory has given a boost to builders such as Toll Brothers Inc.
"The housing market's in a steady recovery that's likely to continue," said Renaissance Macro's Dutta. "We're probably in the early stages of this positive feedback loop" of cheap credit, tight inventory and rising prices, he said.
Builder confidence has been improving as well. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index increased in November to the highest level since April 2006.
Cheaper borrowing costs are helping drive housing demand. A 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.35 percent in the week that ends today, according to Freddie Mac. That is little changed from the 3.31 percent reached in late November that was the lowest in data going back to 1972.
Policy makers are striving to keep rates low to spur an even bigger recovery in housing. The Federal Reserve, which has kept its benchmark interest rate near zero since 2008, this month said it would hold it low "at least as long" as unemployment remains above 6.5 percent and inflation projections are for no more than 2.5 percent.
"Pent-up demand, rising home prices, low interest rates, and improving customer confidence motivated buyers to return to the housing market in fiscal year 2012," Toll Brothers Chief Executive Officer Douglas Yearley said on a Dec. 4 earnings call. "As household formations accelerated and unsold home inventories dropped to record lows, the industry took further steps towards a sustained housing recovery."


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Big guns bring magazines to Peoria
Peoria may not have the reputation as a publishing center but national magazines have been produced here for decades.
Today, InterMedia Outdoors carries on a tradition at 2 News Plaza, just down the hill from the offices of the Peoria Journal Star.
Among the magazines printed here is the Shooting Times, a monthly with a focus on firearms and hunting, first produced by PJS Publications in 1960 as part of the magazine subsidiary of the Journal Star.
Today, the Times is just one of a flock of magazines devoted to guns and hunting put together in Peoria. Titles include Shotgun News, Guns & Ammo and Petersen's RifleShooter.
Bob Hunnicutt, general manager of the Shotgun News, calls it a comeback story. Primedia, a previous owner, sold off most of the titles except for the gun magazines, he said.
"By 2001, instead of 140 people working here, we had 13 with Shooting Times and Shotgun News," said Hunnicutt.
Numerous ownership changes over the years had seen magazine titles - and employees - come and go in the building. Specialty magazines like Crafts, Sew News and Just Cross Stitch with a long history in Peoria went elsewhere to be published.
But the New York City-based InterMedia Outdoors decided to make Peoria its base of operations for its gun/hunting magazine division, Hunnicutt said. That meant titles previously published in Los Angeles were moved here. "It took a pretty intense sales job to get that done," he said.
Peoria had to overcome a small-town stereotype as well as the fact that it lacked direct air service to many cities and a selection of four-star hotels, factors considered important at the New York headquarters, said Mike Carney, vice president and hunting-and-shooting group publisher who arrived in Peoria in 2005.
"I've lived all over the country and I'd rate Peoria over 17 other cities I know. Peoria is the place I want to be," he said.
Hunnicutt has also adopted Peoria as a favorite place, even though when he first arrived a dozen years ago from Washington, D.C., "I thought it was Siberia," he said.
But there were other reasons beyond Peoria being a good - and less expensive - place to live that made sense for a stable of hunting magazines to locate here. "Illinois is one of the top three deer-hunting states in the nation, plus advertisers are close," said Hunnicutt.
"There are also good hard-working people in this town," he said. As a result of InterMedia's relocation of magazines, there are now 33 employees working here. "We just added 16 full-time jobs," said Hunnicutt.
One of those who just came on board is Mike Anschuetz, the staff photographer, who occupies a studio recently set up among InterMedia's remodeled offices. Formerly with Dynamic Graphics, Anschuetz now sets up rifles and handguns in various formations for magazine covers.
The 10 regular magazines and 27 annuals - magazine editions printed once a year - make Peoria "the most robust publishing center in the InterMedia empire," Hunnicutt said.
While some national magazines have seen circulation and advertising decline, the InterMedia group is holding up well with its niche publications, said Carney. "Any of your general-interest magazines are hurting but we have very defined areas. Despite the recession, we're not suffering as broadly on the newstand. In fact, we've just had two of our best years ever," he said.
Shotgun News, a 200-page magazine printed three times a month, is the oldest InterMedia title, having been published for more than 60 years. It's recognized as being the world's largest gun-sales publication, with a circulation close to 100,000. The magazine brings in $6.5 million annually in ad revenue, said Hunnicutt.
But InterMedia isn't only loading up print pieces. The company purchased the Sportsman Channel in 2007 and now rolls out a wide array of TV programs for the sportsman, said Carney, adding that each magazine has its own complementary Web site with custom video features.
"Our goal is to serve the active participants in the hunting field. We want the people that follow their passion. It's proved to be a pretty good business model," he said.
Steve Tarter can be reached at (309) 686-3260 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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...online censorship edition. If viewed on a computer screen that resides in China, this image actually has a gaping, country-shaped hole. [Information is Beautiful]
UPDATE: In all fairness, we've heard this list is quite possibly outdated (even though the graphic itself is new)—from a journalist in China: "NYTimes, Wash Post haven't been blocked for seven years...Apple and Sony are not blocked among others...That said it is true that blockage can vary from place to place in China..."


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With the wild and wacky weather we've been having lately, power outages are becoming commonplace here in the northeast. If you too have been experiencing frequent electrical power losses, you might consider investing in a generator. Keep in mind that as annoying as it is to lose air conditioning, be without hot water, and toss all the food in your fridge, even worse is losing heat in the cold months which could lead to freezing pipes that burst...and a costly repair bill!
If you have natural gas coming to your house or have a propane tank on your property, your best bet for preventing both major discomfort and damage to your home is to invest in a standby generator. In particular, we recommend Generac generators, many of which have earned the Good Housekeeping Seal. This type of generator is permanently installed in your yard and utilizes the gas line from your house, or propane from a tank, for power. The electricity it generates is connected to your electrical panel. It constantly monitors the power coming into your home and when it detects a loss of power, it automatically kicks on.
Generacs are available in a variety of sizes from ones that power your whole home to smaller ones that can be programmed to power your refrigerator and heating system, giving you access to the essentials in the event that you lose electricity. The price of these varies from a couple of thousand to tens of thousands, depending on how big of a unit you want. These also have to be professionally installed by a dealer which could add to the price depending on where you live.
For more information on the Good Housekeeping Seal please see our video and About the Green Good Housekeeping Seal and Green Good Housekeeping Seal Establishes Advisory Board onthedailygreen.com. And if you're going to be in the NYC area, be sure to come take atour of our labs!


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Coach Gary Kubiak is alert and coherent but will remain with medical personnel at a local hospital for at least the next 24 hours, the Texans announced Monday.
"Our primary concern is of course with Gary's health and well-being," general manager Rick Smith said in a press release. "There have been so many people throughout the city and across the country that have reached out to express their love and support and we are thankful for everyone's thoughts and prayers. Gary is alert, coherent and in good spirits. He is continuing to be evaluated and monitored."
Kubiak, 52, was forced to leave the Texans' 27-24 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night at Reliant Stadium after the coach collapsed on the field at the end of the second quarter.
Kubiak didn't experience a heart attack or stroke but was evaluated for stroke-like symptoms after his collapse.
Defensive coordinator Wade Phillips filled in for Kubiak, while offensive coordinator Rick Dennison handled playcalling.
"There was a lot of unknown. … It was a shock to everybody," Phillips said.
Phillips is expected to stand in for Kubiak on Monday during the team's weekly press conference.
The Texans (2-6) have lost six consecutive games and blew a 21-3 halftime lead against Indy. It's the longest losing streak of Kubiak's coaching career.
The Texans play at Arizona this Sunday.
Twitter: ChronBrianSmith


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Weather station KCXO, Conroe airport, is in a rurally wind-protected, somewhat "bowl-shaped" locale in relation to the surrounding topography. This layout allows winds to go calm many nights, especially in the cooler months. This equates to more efficient radiative cooling. This location records temperatures that can be on average 5 to 8 degrees colder than even a mile or two away. The geography can also create a 'drainage effect' where cool air (sinking) flows into the weather station. The National Weather Service states the gauge is calibrated and maintained properly. A more accurate temperature reading for the city would be accomplished if the NWS moved the gauge to, perhaps City Hall, but airports get priority in terms of these official gauges which cost about $10,000 to install and $2,000 a month to maintain.
Concerning Lake Conroe: You can not compare this much smaller (cooler) interior lake to the much larger (and warmer) Gulf of Mexico… so it is simply a scale issue. The lake is 10 miles to the West Northwest of the airport. The small size of the cooler freshwater Lake Conroe and the distance from KCXO is the main factor as to why you can't compare Conroe to Galveston. The Galveston weather station is in a tropical maritime environment, where warm moist winds blow over Scholes Field. – Anthony
Temperature Monday morning at 6 a.m.
I had a random question for you – why does it seem like on every forecast, regardless of time of year, that the temperature reading in Conroe is always 3-6 degrees colder than the rest of the viewing area – even those areas to the north of Conroe?? I wouldnt think Conroe would typically be colder than say College Station but more times than not it is…
Wes Raska
Hi Anthony,
Why is Conroe's winter temperature 2 to 3 degrees cooler than surrounding cities. Galveston's temp is warmer in the winter because of the effect of the surrounding Gulf of Mexico. Why doesn't Lake Conroe have a similar effect on the city of Conroe? My thought is that their thermometer is incorrect, unless you have another explanation. I await your answer.
Edmond McGee
Just wanted to make a comment about the temperature for Conroe. I live 11 miles west of Conroe and have two friends who live in Conroe. I have two digital and one standard thermometer while they both have two digital as well. The low temps that are given out of Conroe typically are anywhere from 5-10 degrees cooler then the actual temperature. You might want to investigate the reporting method out of this area.
Kind Regards,
Darin Barrow
How come Conroe usually has cooler temps than surrounding cities? Does Lake Conroe play a part in this? Scratching my head,
John Powers


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Apple's third-generation iPad is similar in overall design and construction to the iPad 2. But, Apple's third-generation tablet packs some significant hardware upgrades. In this week's episode of Cracking Open, I take a look inside the Wi-Fi version the 2012 Apple iPad.
Editor's note: The Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 4G iPads have similar hardware. Therefore, some of the material in this Cracking Open analysis came from my earlier article, "Apple iPad 2012 Teardown: Amazing display, difficult to repair."
Our 2012 Apple iPad (Wi-Fi) has a Samsung-made, Apple-branded A5X system-on-a-chip (SoC), 16GB of storage, a 9.7″ Retina display (2,048 x 1,536 at 264ppi), 802.11 a/b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth 4, and 5MP iSight and VGA-quality FaceTime cameras. The iPad measures 7.31″ (W) x 9.50″ (W) x 0.37″ (D) and weighs 1.44 pounds.
Despite all the hardware upgrades, Apple kept the iPad's pricing and options scheme the same. As of this writing, the 2012 iPad is available in two colors (White and Black), two wireless connectivity configurations (Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + 4G), and three storage capacities (16GB, 32GB, and 64GB). Prices for Wi-Fi only iPads start at $499 and go up to $699. Prices for Wi-Fi + 4G units start at $629 and go up to $829.
Full teardown gallery: Cracking Open the Apple iPad 2012 (Wi-Fi)
Cracking Open observations
- Difficult-to-open case: The 2012 iPad is nearly identical to the iPad 2 in design and construction. This is nice as it means many iPad 2 accessories (such as the Smart Cover) will fit this year's model. But it also means the new tablet is a real pain to crack open and work on. I used a hair dryer to heat and loosen the adhesive that holds the front panel to the aluminum case, and several thin metal and plastic tools to pry loose the front panel. Even having done this once before on the iPad 2 and new 4G iPad, this process took at least 30 minutes. So be patient and don't rush it. Apple definitely didn't design this tablet to be user-serviceable.
- Retina display: The new, 9.7-inch Retina display has a resolution of 2,048 by 1,536 pixels at 264 pixels per inch, and offers four times the total number of pixels as the iPad 2's screen.
- A5X SoC: To run this display, Apple gave the iPad a more powerful GPU and more RAM. From what I can tell, the 2012 iPad's A5X system-on-a-chip has dual-core CPU (like the iPad 2) but a quad-core GPU. The 2012 iPad also has 1GB of RAM, compared to the iPad 2's 512MB. Interestingly, the PlayStation Vita uses the same PowerVR SGX543MP+ GPU, but pairs it with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU.
- 5MP iSight camera: One of my biggest disappointments with the iPad 2 was the cameras' poor image quality. Luckily, the new iPad's camera will have the same optics as the iPhone 4. It will offer a 5MP sensor, backside illumination, 5-element lens, hybrid IR filter, and Apple-designed ISP. It also supports 1080p video recording, video stabilization, and temporal noise reduction.
- Better battery: One of the more surprising features of the new iPad is the battery. Although it's roughly the same physical size as the iPad 2's battery, it provides a lot more power. The new battery is a rated at 43Whr compared to the just 25Whr for the iPad 2. But given the new tablet's souped up hardware, battery life remains about the same–10 hours under normal use and 9 hours on 4G.
- Unchanged storage options: On the downside, Apple didn't increase the iPad's storage capacity. The 2012 model comes in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB versions.
- Single speaker: Also, the tablet still has a single speaker. It gets the job done, but most other 10-inch tablets have two.
Internal hardware
Our 2012 iPad test unit has the following hardware:
- A5X SoC (Samsung-made, Apple-branded)
- 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU
- 200MHz quad-core Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU
- 9.7″ LED-backlit Retina display (2,048 x 1,536 pixels at 264ppi)
- 3.7V 43.0WHr 11,560mAh Li-ion Polymer Battery (Model: A1389)
- 16GB Hynix H2DRDG8UD1MYR NAND Flash
- Unknown Apple chip (343S0561-A1 11508HCF)
- 1 GB Elpida DRAM (512MB B4064B2MA-8D-F x 2)
- Broadcom BCM4330 802.11a/b/g/n MAC/Baseband/Radio with Integrated Bluetooth 4.0+HS & FM Transceiver
- Fairchild FDMC 6676B2
- Fairchild FDMC 6683
- Texas Instruments CD3240 driver device (CD3240B0 1CA038T)
- Broadcom BCM5973 I/O controller (BCM59731A1 KUFBG HE1151 P11 176760 03 W)
- Broadcom BCM5974 microprocessor (BCM5974 CKFBGH HE1152 P12 178465 N3 W)
- Unknown Apple chip (338S0987 B0RV1151 SGP)


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Big Little Hippo
Written and Illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev
Sterling Children's Books 4/04/2017
40 pages Age 2—5
Themes: Growing Up, Helping Others, Self-Esteem
Genre: Children's Fiction Picture Book
Synopsis: "Little Hippo is the youngest and smallest in his family—and sometimes he feels like the tiniest animal in the world. Little Hippo wants to be big right NOW! Then one day while taking a walk, the kindhearted little hippo learns you don't have to grow up to feel big." [INSIDE JACKET]
Opening: "Little Hippo was the youngest in his family. He was the smallest, too. His sister was bigger. His brothers were bigger. His mother was bigger. And his father was bigger."
Why I like this book
~Little Hippo is largely the cutest small hippo I have ever seen.
~The entire Hippo family is terrific, especially their eye's, which can me great expression is just the movement of their pupils.
~The ink and watercolor illustrations are not cartoonish, but give young children a fair representation of the wild world and the animals in it.
~The test is simple, easy to follow, and easy to remember, allowing young children to recall and read by themselves after just a few times listening attentively to the story.
~Being able to take the book and read it by themselves empowers children and enhances their love of reading.
~Little Hippo learns that size is relative. Showing this to children may help a child wishing to be bigger, or older, so they can learn to accept themselves.
~Children can learn that anyone can be a help to another.
~I love the overall goodness of the story and the wonderful illustrations. Little Hippo really doesn't change from spread to spread. A slight head movement or eye change is all it takes to give the little hippo personality that pops.
10 BIG and Small Activities for Kids are HERE.
Find more "Perfect Picture Book Friday" reviews at Susanna Leonard Hill's blog HERE.
BIG LITTLE HIPPO. Text and illustrations copyright © 2017 by Valeri Gorbachev. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Sterling Children's Books, New York, NY.
Amazon—Indie Books—Sterling Children's Books
Add BIG LITTLE HIPPO to Your Goodreads Shelf HERE. More Activities HERE and HERE.
Illustrations from BIG LITTLE HIPPO by Valeri Gorbachev copyright © 2017 by Valeri Gorbachev. Used with permission from Sterling Children's Books/Sterling Publishing Group.
Copyright © 2017 by Sue Morris/Kid Lit Reviews. All Rights Reserved
Big Little Hippo
Written and Illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev
Sterling Children's Books 4/04/2017
Don't forget, WIN 6 BOOKS! now until end of April! – every comment is worth an entry to KLR's 6th anniversary giveaway. Win 6 of the books reviewed here on KLR. Enter daily. More information.


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WhenVampire Diaries
star Nina Dobrev was planning her 23rd birthday, she wanted to do something totally unique. She decided to cook her friends an elaborate four course meal at Le Cordon Bleu Atlanta. The delish menu consisted of chicken satay kebab, coconut milk and lemongrass steamed Thai mussels, seared salmon and tuna salad with avocado, beets and lemon vinaigaigrette and warm chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream. Woah, that sounds pretty tough to make! We chatted with Nina about how the big event went, her favorite cooking memories and her other birthday plans.
Seventeen: Happy birthday! Tell us about the dinner you made for your friends. What made you want to book such an elaborate meal?
Nina Dobrev: My birthday dinner was held at Le Cordon Blue College of Culinary Arts where I hosted a culinary class, followed by a three course dinner that my guests and I prepared. I really wanted to do this because it's not your typical birthday outing, and my friends and I love to cook! I mean, I love to try and cook. I'm pretty good, but I'm not saying I'm great. So that's exactly why I wanted to learn from the best. There's a certain type of bonding that happens when you cook with people you love, and this gave me an opportunity to do just that
More From Seventeen
17: What other plans do you have for your birthday?
ND: After dinner, my friends and I went to a local Atlanta hangout spot called ORMSBY's just to relax, have a good time and enjoy each other's company. I sent a mass text to the cast and crew of The Vampire Diaries and all my ATL friends to meet us for post-dinner drinks and games. ORMSBY's has a whole area of competitive games, like bocci ball and pool. We had a great night!
17: How did you learn to cook?
ND: I learned by watching and helping my mother in the kitchen. I also learned by trial and error. Even though I'm big on recipes, I love to make up my own dishes and when you take a risk in the kitchen, you learn a lot about food!
17: What is your "go to" comfort food?
ND: My favorite is Peanut-Butter Puffins with unsweetened vanilla almond milk!
17: Do you have a favorite cooking memory?
ND: Over the holidays is when I have the most occasions to cook and bake. My mom and I went to several holiday parties. One of my favorites was an ugly Christmas sweater party! I took my mom to a vintage store and we bought the most ridiculous, yet amazing sweaters. After that, we spent the entire day baking! I'm not kidding, like 6 hours. I have a giant baking book, so I close my eyes and pick a random page. Whatever it is, I try to bake it! So my mom and I did that together. The kitchen was such a mess, but we laughed so hard and listened to enough Christmas songs to last me a lifetime.
17:Being so busy filming Vampire Diaries memories?
ND: There have been a million. This is a very special group of people and together we've experienced some pretty amazing things. In the last three years, I feel like we've gone through everything. On set as our characters we've gone through every emotion and experience. We've laughed, we've cried, lost family and friends, and gotten dressed up for the many Mystic Falls lavish events. In real life, we've done big things like go on trips together — for my 21st birthday we all went to Vegas — and really simple, little things like dinners and watch movies. The girls and I go on annual Labor Day weekend trips — I don't think I've ever laughed harder. We're really lucky.
17: Can you tell us about the new episodes at the end of the month?
ND: There's a ball coming up in Mystic Falls and all the main players are invited. They don't know what to expect because there's a lot of tension and being at this party feels like it's a ticking time bomb. Everyone is on guard waiting for it to go off. There's drama on and off the dance floor — some of the characters connect, for better or for worse. And the last thing I can say is that there are some pretty pivotal things that are said and cannot be taken back. It will come as a huge surprise for the audience!
Emily is a freelance writer and certified health coach who specializes in writing about mental health, fitness, healthy food, and social justice issues. Emily spent six years as an editor and writer at Well+Good, covering everything from food trends to serious issues like the opioid crisis in America and gun violence. She has also worked at Seventeen, Elle, and Twist magazines. She regularly writes for publications including Forbes, Parade, Shape, and The Huffington Post. Emily lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her cat Evie.


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In conjunction with the Intermat exhibition in Paris Volvo Penta presents three press releases including both product and business news.
In 2014, manufacturers of off-road original equipment will face a major challenge.
Will their products be ready and competitive when the much stricter Tier 4 Final/Stage 4 environmental standards come into force? For customers of Volvo Penta, the demanding journey towards 2014 will be more like a walk in the park: Volvo Penta will keep it simple – for the OEMs.
In 2011, Volvo Penta was one of the first diesel engine manufacturers to receive stage 3B and Tier 4i certificates for its entire engine line-up. For many years these engines have been successfully proven for use in the demanding underground mining segment. Now, the same engines are also certified by MSHA and CANMET.
With rapid advances in technology and emission legislation, not only the choice of technology but also the choice of engine supplier has become an important issue for equipment manufacturers for the construction industry.
Jennifer Humphrey
Global Communication Manager
+46 31 323305
Email: email@example.com


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Seven reasons why credit cards are better than debit cards
Credit card companies bad?
Regular visitors to this corner of the blogosphere (can spheres have corners?) may have gained the impression that the resident writer isn't a huge fan of credit card companies. Well, to some extent that's true. Too many of them seem to bury "gotcha" clauses in their agreements, and become almost viciously predatory the moment a customer gets into trouble.
But none of that prevents a recognition of the enormous benefits that credit cards themselves can bring, especially to those who are responsible and self-disciplined. So let's explore and celebrate some of the unique qualities of these cards, and especially those that are usually unavailable to debit card users.
Credit cards good?
Earlier this month (September 10), this blog reported a study by Javelin Strategy and Research that showed that consumers were increasingly leaving their credit cards in their wallets and using debit cards instead. Yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Connecticut Watchdog both quoted Javelin's figures in features that reminded readers why this trend could be a mistake, and how credit card use is often the better choice. Here are some of the arguments put forward:
1. Purchase protection
You don't have to pay for disputed items on your credit card account until the matter's resolved. But once you've paid for something on your debit card, your money's gone. That gives you much less leverage with suppliers of shoddy, mis-described or defective goods.
2. Theft protection
If someone steals your debit card and PIN, you could be liable for all their spending. And you may have to pay up to $500 if your debit card goes missing but you fail to report its loss or theft within two working days. Credit cards generally better limit your exposure.
3. Price protection
Many credit card companies refund the difference if you find exactly the same item you've recently bought being offered cheaper elsewhere. It's unlikely that your debit card issuer would do the same.
4. Fewer fees?
Credit card use often carries lower fees than those for debit cards. It's worth comparing your bank's fee structure with your credit card companies' to see which is offering the best deal.
5. More perks
Many credit cards offer genuinely valuable perks such as roadside assistance, car rental loss/damage cover, trip cancellation/interruption insurance, extended warranties, lost luggage cover and so on.
6. Credit score boosting
Responsible credit card use is one of the fastest ways to improve your credit score, which is likely to give you access to lower rates for big purchases, including mortgages and auto loans.
7. You get credit!
With a debit card, you're spending your own money from day one. With a credit card, you could get to use the issuer's money for free for up to 45 days. And, of course, you can spread payments over a long period, if necessary.
Which card might suit you?
Picking a card involves matching your lifestyle and spending habits with the most suitable product.
Published 09/30/10 (Modified 07/09/14)
No Comments


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Excerpt from Intimate WarsBy Merle Hoffman
December 31, 2011
"Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself."
Twenty years ago I attended a party at which a numerologist offered to analyze my name. After performing what appeared to be complicated mathematical computations she told me my number was eleven—a "power number"—then looked at me quizzically.
"How strange," she said. "This is the first time I have ever seen this."
"What is it?" I asked, genuinely concerned.
"Your numbers tell me that you make money from war."
I met her gaze steadily as I replied, "I do."
As an only child growing up in 1950s Philadelphia, I occupied myself with warrior fantasies. My imagination soared with visions of knights, kings, and queens who populated the English history books I would get from the library. The dramatic tales of battles driven by focused energy and heightened danger excited me. It wasn't conquest I was after; it was the warriors' extraordinary sense of mission. I was moved by an empathic connection with the vulnerable and oppressed. I wanted to challenge a great evil power, to lead troops into battle for the most noble of causes.
Unfortunately, the world in which I was living allowed for few grand heroics. Rather than a battleground, it was a special kind of wasteland. I grew up at a time when one's worth and acceptance as a female were measured by the width of a crinoline skirt, when French kissing branded you a sexual outlaw, and when little girls' dreams revolved around their weddings and lessons learned from watching Queen for a Day's ritual of "improving" one's life with domestic conveniences. It was a vast wilderness of mothers, teachers, and friends encircling me in traditional femininity, creating a suffocating loneliness that I could not name or understand.
I felt powerless to change my fate until Queen Elizabeth I, whose story I discovered at age ten, finally broke that silence. Her survival skills were legendary: her mother was beheaded when she was three and her stepmother executed when she was nine; she was sexually molested at fifteen; and she spent two months imprisoned in the tower, a hair's breadth away from execution herself. She learned to carefully scan the political and emotional landscape for signs of potential danger.
She ruled sixteenth-century England by herself, refusing to marry or to bear children. The androgynous strategies of this woman who wanted to be "both king and queen of England" were unheard of for a female monarch of her time.
I kept the lessons I learned from Elizabeth close to my heart and my head when I broke free from Philadelphia and came of age in New York City in the 1960s. The time was ripe to pick up her gauntlet and challenge women's traditional roles. I became a child of one of the greatest social revolutions in history, at a time when it became politically possible for women to legally gain and exercise reproductive choice—the power of life and death. A time when the right to choose became the fundamental premise of the movement for women's liberation, and when the expression of that truth was every woman's entitlement. After years spent feeling I should have been born in some earlier, more romantic age, I have come to realize that my life's work would not have been possible in any other era but this one.
In 1971, two years before Roe v. Wade, I opened one of the first legal abortion clinics in the country and thrust myself into a world that came with battles to fight (replete with invasions, death threats, and killings), opportunities for courage and heroism, and the necessity for bold leadership, strategic thinking, philosophical debate, and entrepreneurial skill. There were barbarians at the gate, self-identified as Right to Lifers (anti-choicers, or "antis," as I call them throughout this book), waving pictures of bloody fetuses and sometimes hiding bombs or guns under their coats. My sword was a six-foot coat hanger held high over my head as I declared my sisters would never return to back-alley butchery. I raised a bullhorn to rally fellow soldiers, decrying the clinic violence that swept the nation. This was my historic stage. It was a war, and I finally felt I was living my destiny.
I helped midwife an era in which women came closer to sexual autonomy and freedom than ever before in history. The very idea that women could rise up and act in their own best interest electrified men and women alike during those years, and the foundational works of second-wave feminists inspired millions of my peers. But my feminism didn't come from books or theoretical discussions. It came in the shape of individual women presenting themselves for services each day. I began to understand the core principle of feminism as I held the hands of thousands of women during their most powerful and vulnerable moment: their abortions.
I wasn't immune to the physicality of abortion, the blood, tissue, and observable body parts. My political and moral judgments on the nature of abortion evolved throughout the years, but I quickly came to realize that those who deliver abortion services have not only the power to give women control over their bodies and lives, but also the power—and the responsibility—of taking life in order to do that. Indeed, acknowledgment of that truth is the foundation for all the political and personal work necessary to maintain women's reproductive freedom.
My story is the story of women's struggle for freedom and equality in the twentieth century, but it is also a personal story of obstacles, survival, and triumphs. Like Elizabeth, I did not want to give birth to my successor. I never dreamed of being a mother, nursing a child, shaping a young life. I wanted—needed—to give birth to myself. And, in the arms of the women's movement, my delivery was aggressive, even violent, with pressures pushing down on me from every direction at times, crushing and battering me as I reached for the freedom to become. Most painful of all were my terrifying glimpses of the all-encompassing sense of being alone. Whatever one can say glowingly about the women's liberation movement and our "collective problems requiring collective solutions," this fact cannot be denied: becoming is nothing if not a solo journey. Yet my singular voyage has been enriched with allies, friends, lovers, and family, unexpected intimacies that bear meaning, depth, purpose, and joy.
Thomas Merton taught that there were three vocations: one to the active life, one to the contemplative, and a third to the mixture of both. This book is the story of my mixed life. I am an activist, a philosopher, a transgressor of boundaries. I strive to live in truth—or, perhaps, truths. I have not escaped this war unscathed; like all women who have gone into battle, I am scarred. But perhaps that is the definition of wisdom. Perhaps our wounds, the crevasses and cracks in our innocence of perception that come as the price of experience, are our marks of understanding.


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It looks like Angry Birds developer Rovio is thinking, "If you can't beat 'em (by firing one of those toucan-beaked boomerang birds at them in court), join 'em.
It's not a big scoop that Angry Birds is already an international phenomenon complete with multiple sequels and lots of merchandise.
When reports circulated that the Window of the World theme game in Changsha, China, launched a real-life version of the game this month, legal action from Rovio seemed inevitable.
However, rather than sending an exploding black ball of feathers into Beijing, Rovio is reportedly looking to partner with the theme park to make the attraction legal--as long as everyone involved can get their beaks wet.
Related story
T-Mobile puts on life-size Angry Birds show
PCWorld quoted Daisy Yang, a spokeswoman for Rovio's China operations, as saying that "we would welcome a partnership, but Rovio would need to give them permission to use the Angry Birds game."
The article also quotes an employee of the theme park who claims the establishment had already received permission from Rovio's Chinese representatives, and that the two parties were in talks about a long-term partnership.
Either way, the move makes a lot of sense when you consider how hard it is to take any sort of legal action within China from outside the country. If there's not much you can do to stop someone from profiting off your idea, why not look for a way to get in on the action?
Elsewhere, there's no confirmation that the Chinese theme park and Rovio might meet during the ongoing Angry Birds peace talks.


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Nine California public school students are suing the state over its laws on teacher tenure, seniority and other protections that the plaintiffs say keep bad educators in classrooms.
The case that goes to trial Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court is the latest battle in a growing nationwide challenge to union-backed protections for teachers in an effort to hold them more accountable for their work. The nonjury trial is expected to wrap up in March.
"The system is dysfunctional and arbitrary due to these outdated laws that handcuff school administrators," said Theodore J. Boutrous, the lead attorney on the case sponsored by an educational reform group.
States across the nation have weakened teaching job protections, including generations-old tenure, to give administrators more flexibility to fire bad teachers.
Tenure was created in the early 20th century to prevent arbitrary or discriminatory firings based on factors such as gender, nationality or political beliefs. It spelled out strict rules under which teachers could be dismissed after a probationary period, though opponents claim they make it virtually impossible to fire teachers who aren't making the grade.
The changes are occurring as states replace virtually automatic "satisfactory" teacher evaluations with those linked to teacher performance and base teacher layoffs on performance instead of seniority.
Teachers' unions are fighting back, arguing the changes lower morale, deny teachers due process, and unfairly target older teachers. They also say the evaluations are too dependent on standardized tests and that eliminating such protections erases a vital support system for a profession already losing talented people to higher paid private sector positions.
The California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers intervened and asked the court to throw out the lawsuit filed against the state, including the Department of Education, Gov. Jerry Brown and Superintendent of Public Education Tom Torlakson.
"It is deceptive and dishonest to pretend that teacher due process rights are unfair to students," said California Federation of Teachers President Josh Pechthalt, the parent of a ninth-grade student in the Los Angeles Unified School District. "Students need a stable, experienced teaching workforce. They won't have one if this lawsuit succeeds in gutting basic teacher rights."
Judge Rolf Treu, who will decide the case, rejected a motion to dismiss the case.
The lawsuit wants the court to deem unconstitutional five statutes within the state education code. Besides the one on tenure, three others lay out the steps to dismiss a teacher, and the fifth mandates the last-hired, first-fired rule, which the lawsuit's attorneys say hurts teachers who are young but may be talented.
"Every student in California should be taught by a teacher with the background and skills they need to help their students succeed," the California Department of Education said in a statement issued Sunday. "There is nothing in the law that prevents districts from making sure unqualified or unsuitable teachers don't become permanent, just as there is nothing that prevents them from removing teachers from the classroom when necessary."
The plaintiffs are students primarily from the Los Angeles and Bay areas. They are supported by a nonprofit organization called Students Matter that says it fights for education equality.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy, who oversees the nation's second-largest school district, will be called to testify by the plaintiffs, Boutrous said.
Plaintiff attorneys say teachers too often get tenure by just showing up for work — after about 18 months in California. Afterward, bad teachers are almost impossible or too expensive to fire, Boutrous said.
"The school system knowingly puts kids in classrooms with teachers who are grossly substandard," Boutrous said, adding that it was crucial to turn to the courts because "the political system can't fix this."
Many districts send substandard teachers to disadvantaged schools instead of dismissing them because those schools are seen as less desirable places to work by experienced teachers, who can have priority where they are assigned, Boutrous said.
The California teacher unions say they support improving teacher evaluations and streamlining the dismissal process. But those changes should be made by the Legislature not the courts.
Laura Lacar, a high school teacher in the ABC School District, fears the law could expand beyond what happens in the classroom.
"It would be very scary to me, if this lawsuit succeeds, to think that I might not have a job next year, not for anything I'd done in the classroom, but because my principal didn't like me, or my clothing, or something I'd said."
Declaring the laws unconstitutional will allow the Legislature to craft legislation that does work, the lawsuit's attorneys say.
Karen Martinez, who lives in San Jose, said her daughter, Daniella, who is a plaintiff, reached the third grade unable to read before a teacher helped her.
"I'm hoping with all my heart that we win this case, so California can change a system that is clearly failing so many children," Karen Martinez said. "To me, it's common sense: appreciate and reward the teachers who are doing great, and hold accountable the teachers who are failing our kids."
Terry Moe, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution who has researched teacher unions and their impact on public education, said there's a long way to go even in states that have adopted new laws.
"Unions can make life difficult for administrators in coming years," he said. "The political pressure on the ground is strong. It's going to be really difficult to follow through on these new laws and put a dent in teacher tenure and really do away with the role of seniority."


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You are currently browsing the daily archive for April 5, 2011.
I'd hoped to see movement today, but no news. Just
weather. Fotos taken at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Day 5
Hightide's fury pounded it so hard that it did move, but like a horse with a broken leg
I kept my distance, but I wondered about the size of openings where water geysers out here midships.
It's a tough ship, but it reminds me of Gallopin' Gertie.
Fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Fotos from a few days ago, here.


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REV3 Florida is open for registration! This is going to be a fantastic late season race (hello - perfect blue gulf waters!?!) Not to mention - this will be the first Rev3 race ever in the Sunshine State!
Also - yesterday was a pretty big day for Big J and I. We are officially homeowners. I have my big girl pants on!


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Citrix Workspace app 1906 for Mac
Release Date: Jul 8, 2019
Compatible with:
Mac OS 10.11, 10.12, 10.13, 10.14
(116.1MB - .dmg)
Version: 22.214.171.124 (1906)
SHA256 - bd5dcf70e534731198eea7238aa206cd78e5ee01c599bb52befc90049ca23090
High performance web and self-services access to virtual apps and desktops. Configure for anywhere access from your desktop or web access with Safari, Chrome or Firefox.
Available Languages
English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch and Simplified Chinese
Ask your help desk for set-up instructions.
Citrix Workspace app 1906 for Mac
Version: 188.8.131.52 (1906)Checksums
- SHA-256 - bd5dcf70e534731198eea7238aa206cd78e5ee01c599bb52befc90049ca23090


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When the Airbus A320 took off from New York City's LaGuardia Airport yesterday, the air temperature outside was well below freezing—around 20 degrees Fahrenheit (–6.7 degrees Celsius). The 150 passengers on board no doubt assumed they would spend the next hour and a half in the cushioned seats of a cozy, warm airplane cabin en route to Charlotte, N.C. Little did they know that just minutes after takeoff they would instead be bobbing on the frigid waters of the Hudson River off Manhattan's west side.
Just minutes after Capt. Chesley Sullenberger orchestrated a near-perfect emergency water landing (after a collision with a flock of Canada geese reportedly knocked out both engines), water began seeping into the plane. Two passengers treated for hypothermia at nearby Saint Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital emergency room said that the water was waist-high almost immediately, according to Gabe Wilson, associate medical director of the hospital's emergency medicine department. According to media reports, some of the passengers were submerged up their necks in water once they had evacuated the plane and awaited rescue.
"They were all shaking from both the [cold] temperature and stress," says Wilson, who treated 11 of the plane's passengers for hypothermia, a potentially fatal condition that occurs when the body cannot generate enough heat to compensate for the warmth it loses.
Many of the symptoms of hypothermia resemble those of a drunken stupor: sleepiness, clumsiness, confusion and even slurred speech. Doctors also check for shivering, a weak pulse, low blood pressure, and a body temperature below 96 degrees F (35.5 degrees C). (Normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees F, or 37 degrees C.)
Fortunately, none of the passengers that he treated had body temperatures below 95 degrees F (35 degrees C), Wilson says, adding that all they needed to warm up were Bair Huggers, special blankets hooked to a heater which send warming air currents over the body.
But what if the passengers had not been rescued so fast? What would have happened if they had spent hours wading or swimming through the Hudson, or in any cold water, awaiting rescue? We asked Christopher McStay, an emergency room doctor at New York City's Bellevue Hospital Center about the potential consequences and treatments for hypothermia.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
How long can a person survive in water that is 41 degrees F like the Hudson was when the plane went down?
When you first go into extremely cold water there is this weird response called a cold shock response. People start to hyperventilate immediately. For one to three minutes you breathe very fast and deep, uncontrollably. If you go underwater, you could swallow water and die. …I can't tell you how often this occurs but it's certainly a very real phenomenon. Once that response goes away, you're fine…for awhile.
Generally, a person can survive in 41-degree F (5-degree C) water for 10, 15 or 20 minutes before the muscles get weak, you lose coordination and strength, which happens because the blood moves away from the extremities and toward the center, or core, of the body.
There are many factors that determine how fast a person submerged in water cools. People who are obese, who have a lot of soft tissue that provides a lot of insulation, are likely to last longer than lanky people, because the body fat provides insulation. Another factor is how much of the body is actually underwater. (Water conducts heat away from the body much faster than air does, even if the water temperature is 20 degrees higher than the air temperature. So, the more the body is submerged, the faster its heat will be drained, according to Craig Heller, a Stanford University physiologist). If you have a flotation device that you can pull yourself on top of, you are much better off.
How cold does the water have to be to put a person at risk for hypothermia?
Even water temperatures as high as 75 and 80 degrees F (24 and 27 degrees C) can be dangerous, but it would most likely take much longer than 15 minutes to become debilitated. There is no set time for when hypothermia will set in, but generally the colder the water, the faster it happens.
So if you find yourself submerged in icy-cold water, what should you do?
If you have a flotation device, you should get on top of that device and hug yourself to keep as much of your body away from the water as possible. If you keep your arms and legs in tight, close to the core of the body, you keep your limbs from being exposed to the cooling water. If you do not have a flotation device, get out of the water as fast as you possibly can.
What is the difference between frostbite and hypothermia?
Frostbite is actually the freezing of tissue [such as skin, muscle and nerve tissue]. Suppose you're on top of Mount Everest and you're bundled up; your core temperature is 98.6 degrees F. If you take off your gloves, you have exposed that area and it may get frostbite. That's not hypothermia. Hypothermia is a drop in the core temperature of the body.
When are you in danger of getting frostbite and were these survivors at risk?
For frostbite to occur, the tissue actually has to freeze—meaning a dip to 32 degrees F (0 degree C) or lower. The parts of the body submerged in water are not in danger of becoming frostbitten, because the water temperature (41 degrees F) is not freezing. However, the parts of the body exposed to air are at risk because the air temperature is 20 degrees F (–7 degrees C), which is below freezing.
Can you die from frostbite?
You can certainly die from frostbite, but that is exceptionally rare. Usually when people die from frostbite, it's from some complication down the road such as gangrene, the decay and death of tissue which occurs when it does not receive enough blood or becomes infected.
What do you do to treat hypothermia?
If your body temperature is above 95 degrees F and you're healthy, your body will warm itself up and you generally don't need treatment.
If your body is 90 degrees to 95 degrees F (32 to 35 degrees C) and you look okay, we'll do things like put a warming blanket around you. If your temperature drops much lower, we might give you an IV with warm fluids, insert a breathing tube to supply the lungs with warm air, and insert tubes through the mouth and urethra to put hot saline into the stomach and bladder, respectively. Heating from the inside (by introducing these fluids) helps warm the body's core tissues faster than heating the body from the outside (by using blankets or putting a person in a warm environment, for instance).
If a patient comes into the emergency room with a body temperature between 70 and 80 degrees F (21 and 27 degrees C), they often appear dead—or are dead. Cardiac arrest often occurs in this temperature range. Even if it appears someone has passed away, it is still important to warm them (using the techniques described above), because with this degree of hypothermia the heart can slow to a point at which doctors cannot even detect it. Thus, they could make the mistake of presuming someone dead who is actually still alive.
For these unconscious patients, we also do cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on them and often use a cardiopulmonary bypass (heart–lung) machine that will actually oxygenate the blood and provide a pulse for them.


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Graduate Diploma in International Tax
- CRICOS code: 075325C
The experience
World-class teaching staff
The Melbourne Law Masters program brings Melbourne Law School academics together with experts from the profession and legal scholars from around the world. Each year, more than 140 teachers from outside the School teach in the program, of which more than 30 are visiting international experts.
A global student body
Our diverse student body is integral to the quality of the program and gives our graduates access to an international and interdisciplinary network united by their experiences at Melbourne.
Melbourne Law School has a dedicated Melbourne Law Masters Student Association (MLMSA).
Research and academic support
As a student, you'll have access to our law library – housing one of the best law collections in Australia – as well as support services including one-on-one research and legal academic skills consultations.
Visit our Legal Academic Skills Centre
Mentoring program
Available to full time students, our mentoring program matches you with a practitioner working in your field of interest. Our diverse mentoring network includes practitioners from leading law firms, the Bar, government, the judiciary, major organisations and the not-for-profit sector, who can offer insights into practice in Australia and opportunities to grow your professional contacts.


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Exhibit is a flashback to Boston's Combat Zone
Sex and nostalgia, according to gallery owner Howard Yezerski, are why the exhibit, "Boston: Combat Zone 1969-1978," has attracted art connoisseurs and novices alike.
Boston's once infamous red-light district, like New York's Times Square, has long been purged of most of its "unsavory" businesses and colorful habitues. However, the works of three photographers who captured the adult entertainment area's essence during its heyday are featured together in a tantalizing look back.
The black-and-white images by Roswell Angier, Jerry Berndt and John Goodman seem like stills from a Boston-themed film noir, capturing intimate scenes of a seedy, yet vibrant, world that has mostly disappeared.
Goodman said that during the '70s he had a studio at the Bradford Hotel near the Combat Zone. He was attracted to the area because he had "always been drawn to urban energy" and he "liked the...madness."
Some of his photos were of performers he knew who lived at the hotel. Others, like "La Grange St., 1975," captured provocative street encounters between johns and hot pants-clad prostitutes -- one walking by as the other ogled. These pictures he took "very discretely."
While some visitors are looking to buy, Yezerski said many simply came in to reminisce, recalling the good times they had in the area during the pre-AIDS era. In fact, past entertainers like Princess Cheyenne, who performed at the Naked i strip club, lamented during the exhibit's opening that some photos only showed the downside of the Combat Zone, rather than its liveliness.
However, Goodman's photo, "The Schlitz Boys, 1978," shows a group of young guys driving down the street, six-pack on the dashboard, trolling for a good time and ready to party. The car rolls by, almost inviting you to come along.
Most of the pictures by all three artists, whose photos are represented in museums from Boston to Paris, do have a more somber, thoughtful tone. Berndt's "The Combat Zone, Washington St., Boston, 1968," is reminiscent of Edward Hopper's "Night Hawks." Both feature mostly empty, nameless cafes in which seated customers gaze off into the distance, lost in their thoughts. Berndt frames a Goldie Hawn-type alone at her table, floppy hat tilted just so, staring off into space.
Goodman said the Combat Zone "had a heaviness" to it at the time, captured perfectly in Angier's photo, "Lorraine Gail, Two O'Clock Club, 1975." In it he focuses on the showgirl made up to be Mae West's doppelganger. Her feathery, satiny costume is open, her lips are pursed and her face is blank - could she be imagining her routine or is she simply worn down?
Many images feature men gazing at women, or women looking off into nowhere or at something just outside the photo. In Berndt's "The Combat Zone, Boston - The Silver Slipper, 1968," a blond performer is seen from the back. She is in the spotlight, ringed by seated men staring at her, receding into the blackness of the smoky club.
Angier's "Backstage, Pilgrim Theater, 1973," almost makes the viewer wonder who's really staring at whom. In it a performer in her underwear looks into a mirror, blowing kisses at the camera, smiling mockingly, as if sharing a secret joke with the photographer.
The subject matter of the show, Yezerski said, is not new. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was capturing the same imagery of excess and desire in his late-19th century posters of the Moulin Rouge in Paris. But these photos push viewers to ask questions and imagine the untold stories behind the artwork.
The before and after are missing, leaving it up to us to fill in the blanks.
"Boston: Combat Zone 1969-1978" features the works of photographers Roswell Angier, Jerry Berndt and John Goodman. The show is on view through March 16 at Howard Yezerski Gallery, 460 Harrison Ave., Boston.
The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, visit www.howardyezerskigallery.com or call 617-262-0550.


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Flights to Indonesia with Qatar Airways
Indonesia is a long, scattered archipelago strung like a necklace between Australia and the mainland of Asia. The beautiful country encompasses more than 17,000 separate islands here of every size and shape, and this diversity is reflected in the ethnic mix and number of languages spoken. Travel to Indonesia with Qatar Airways and you'll find yourself in the middle of an exotic melting pot of culture and tradition.
Walk through the bustling streets and immerse yourself in the lifestyle and customs that spring from this cultural diversity. Indonesia is famous for its atmospheric night markets and the range of different cuisine on offer, which you can enjoy in top restaurants or at the plentiful street stalls. There are also excellent modern shopping malls in the bigger towns and cities where you can pick up designer goods as well as souvenirs.
The landscape forms a suitably dramatic backdrop to this great mixing of peoples, with cloud-swept mountains and rainforests, rice terraces and bright sandy beaches forming the wilderness regions and wildlife sanctuaries. The country is home to a startling range of exotic wildlife, from elephants and tigers to Komodo Dragons.
Sports and outdoor pursuits are well catered for here and are extremely varied. Enjoy everything from trekking, scuba-diving and surfing to mountain climbing and white water rafting. Alternatively, you can choose to hop from one island to another by traditional boat. Old ferries, planes and buses are all par for the course, but it's probably best to stick to one particular area rather than trying to see everything at once, especially if you have limited time here.
Renowned for its paradise islands, fine sandy beaches and diverse wildlife scene, fly to Indonesia with Qatar Airways and you'll discover a wealth of attractions.
Flight FAQ
The cost of flights to {DestinationCountry} will depend on your city of departure and chosen city of arrival in {DestinationCountry}; Qatar Airways fares to {DestinationCountry} start from {LowestFare}.
It is worth planning ahead to pick the right time to travel, as the price can vary depending on when you want to fly. Booking online at qatarairways.com means you can take advantage of exclusive fares and special offers on flights and take full control of your trip from beginning to end.
Flights departing from other cities will stop in transit at the state-of-the-art Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar. The airport is home to a myriad of entertainment, shopping and relaxation venues where you can take a break from your journey, stretch your legs and rejuvenate before your connecting flight. You can check our timetable (link to timetable) for flight times and frequency.
From the moment you are welcomed on board by our friendly, professional crew to the moment you arrive in {DestinationCountry}, our unparalleled level of service and facilities will offer you an exceptional experience in the sky. Relax in reclining seats that have that all-important extra legroom, and choose your favourite dishes from a menu of delicious cuisine made from the finest ingredients. With thousands of in-flight entertainment options and a host of other services, we make sure your passenger experience is one that you will remember for all the right reasons.


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TYBEE ISLAND — Tourism officials on Georgia's coast say tax revenue indicates that Tybee Island experienced a record summer.
Statistics from Visit Savannah show that bed tax revenue rose 8.2 percent for the months of June, July and August 2012 over the same period last year.
They say that beat the previous record summer — 2010 — by 7.2 percent.
Tourism leaders tell The Savannah Morning News reports (http://bit.ly/WoHCRg) that the island's hotels, inns and vacation rentals were near full occupancy for the Memorial Day to Labor Day span.
Officials say factors that led to the busy summer include relatively mild weather, favorable water conditions and Tybee Island's proximity to Savannah. Officials say Savannah tourism is on pace to top last year's record returns, with hotel stays up 6 percent through the end of September.


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March 2, 2011 -- Taking codeine, hydrocodone, or other opioid painkillers shortly before or early in pregnancy increases the risk of congenital heart defects and other birth defects, a study shows.
The study by CDC researchers is published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
About 4 million babies are born in the U.S. each year. About 3% are born with major birth defects. The most common type of birth defect is a congenital heart defect. More babies die from congenital heart defects in the first year of life than from any other type.
Some previous studies have shown a possible link between codeine and birth defects; the impact of other opioid painkillers has not been thoroughly examined. "The effects of opioid use on the developing fetus during pregnancy are poorly understood," the researchers write.
Painkillers During Pregnancy
The researchers drew upon data from the ongoing National Birth Defects Prevention Study, focusing on the years 1997 to 2005. They analyzed 17,449 interviews conducted with mothers of infants with birth defects.
In the interviews, the mothers discussed the medications they took during their pregnancy and the three months preceding it. The researchers compared their answers with those of 6,701 mothers of babies born without defects.
Therapeutic opioid use was reported by 2.6% of mothers of babies born with birth defects and by 2.0% of mothers of babies born without birth defects. The study did not examine the use of illicit opioids.
Codeine and hydrocodone were the two most commonly used opioid painkillers among study participants.
Risk of Heart Defects
Opioid drugs were found to raise the risk for several different types of heart defects. This class of medications more than doubled the chances of having a baby born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Other birth defects associated with the drugs include spina bifida, congenital glaucoma, and hydrocephaly.
Despite the increased risk, birth defects such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome remain rare, the researchers point out. Still, the risks of opioid use and birth defects should be part of any discussion a woman has with her prescribing doctor, the researchers say.
"With very serious and life threatening birth defects like hypoplastic left heart syndrome, the prevention of even a small number of cases is very important," says study researcher Cheryl S. Broussard, PhD, of the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, in a news release.


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Creepy Sheriff Gives Sarah Palin Pink Underwear
Sarah Palin was in Phoenix for a Tea Party rally on Friday, where she had the wonderful opportunity to meet Maricopa County's legally questionable, self-promoting celebrity sheriff, Joe Arpaio. And apparently he gave her pink underwear.
Arpaio, who's currently being sued by the federal government for not cooperating with one of the various civil rights investigations into his sheriff practices (racial profiling, tent cities, etc.), typed this braggart's message on Twitter after their meeting:
The Twitpic link, sadly, just leads to the top picture of him within several feet of the Alaskan snowbilly. (And the pink underwear we added is not the pair he gave her.) But he probably did do it. One of Sheriff Joe's hilarious means of degrading his prisoners is to make them wear all pink, including pink underwear, because then they look gay or something.


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Comunicati stampa
Media Advisory: Fortinet Secures the Path to 5G at Mobile World Congress 2019
Fortinet to provide demonstrations on its security solutions for 4G and 5G Networks, Secure SD-WAN, IoT and Edge Cloud at booth #31, Hall 7
Overview of Fortinet at Mobile World Congress 2019 – Booth #31, Hall 7
Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity, will participate in Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain from February 25 – 28, 2019. Fortinet will showcase security solutions addressing the opportunities and the cybersecurity challenges inherent to digital transformation for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and their customers.
Fortinet's Show Highlights
Fortinet will showcase its security solutions with daily demonstrations and presentations on the following topics:
- Security for Core Mobile Networks
Fortinet will highlight how 4G networks are transforming to support 4.5G and then 5G and moving from a predominantly physical infrastructure to a partially virtualized, hybrid infrastructure to a predominantly virtualized network. This has several significant implications for the deployment of security functions. Fortinet will demonstrate how its 5G-ready security solutions can help Mobile Network Operators prepare for this digital transformation.
- Multiaccess Edge Computing (MEC) and Internet of Things (IoT)
Communication Service Providers (CSPs) are investing heavily in transforming their infrastructure to drive innovation. Fortinet will share how its unique IoT capabilities, scalable security VNFs and integration with SDN and Orchestration can secure CSPs IoT ecosystem and MEC use cases.
- SD-WAN and Managed Security Service Providers
Fortinet will demonstrate how its suite of security solutions and the Fortinet Security Fabric architecture provide the foundation for an industrialized MSS infrastructure to deliver profitable and advanced services across markets and verticals. This includes SD-WAN, Hybrid Cloud Security and Automation, Secure WiFi and Switching, Advanced Threat Protection and more.
Meet us and see our demonstrations
Visit Fortinet at booth 31 in hall 7 to see how we are working with our customers and partners today.
Additional Resources
- Read our blog for more information on Fortinet's participation in Mobile World Congress 2019.
- Learn more about FortiGuard Labs and the FortiGuard Security Services portfolio.
- Learn more about the FortiGuard Security Rating Service, which provides security audits and best practices.
- Sign up for the weekly FortiGuard Threat Intelligence Briefs.
- Read more about our Network Security Expert program, Network Security Academy program or our FortiVets program.
- Read more about the Fortinet Security Fabric or the Third Generation of Network Security.
- Follow Fortinet on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
About Fortinet
Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) secures the largest enterprise, service provider, and government organizations around the world. Fortinet empowers its customers with intelligent, seamless protection across the expanding attack surface and the power to take on ever-increasing performance requirements of the borderless network - today and into the future. Only the Fortinet Security Fabric architecture can deliver security features without compromise to address the most critical security challenges, whether in networked, application, cloud or mobile environments. Fortinet ranks #1 in the most security appliances shipped worldwide and more than 375,000 customers trust Fortinet to protect their businesses. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, or FortiGuard Labs.
Copyright © 2019 Fortinet, Inc. All rights reserved. The symbols ® and ™ denote respectively federally registered trademarks and common law trademarks of Fortinet, Inc., its subsidiaries and affiliates. Fortinet's trademarks include, but are not limited to, the following: Fortinet, FortiGate, FortiGuard, FortiCare, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, FortiOS, FortiADC, FortiAP, FortiAppMonitor, FortiASIC, FortiAuthenticator, FortiBridge, FortiCache, FortiCamera, FortiCASB, FortiClient, FortiCloud, FortiConnect, FortiController, FortiConverter, FortiDB, FortiDDoS, FortiExplorer, FortiExtender, FortiFone, FortiCarrier, FortiHypervisor, FortiIsolator, FortiMail, FortiMonitor, FortiNAC, FortiPlanner, FortiPortal, FortiPresence , FortiProxy, FortiRecorder, FortiSandbox, FortiSIEM, FortiSwitch, FortiTester, FortiToken, FortiVoice, FortiWAN, FortiWeb, FortiWiFi, FortiWLC, FortiWLCOS and FortiWLM.
Other trademarks belong to their respective owners. Fortinet has not independently verified statements or certifications herein attributed to third parties and Fortinet does not independently endorse such statements. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, nothing herein constitutes a warranty, guarantee, contract, binding specification or other binding commitment by Fortinet or any indication of intent related to a binding commitment, and performance and other specification information herein may be unique to certain environments. This news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve uncertainties and assumptions, such as statements regarding technology releases among others. Changes of circumstances, product release delays, or other risks as stated in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, located at www.sec.gov, may cause results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in this press release. If the uncertainties materialize or the assumptions prove incorrect, results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Fortinet assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, and expressly disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.


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05/03/2017 First flight: Liebherr-Aerospace on board the Antonov AN-132
The twin-engined turboprop transport aircraft - developed jointly by the Ukraine and Saudi Arabia -successfully completed its first flight on March 31st, 2017.
Liebherr-Aerospace supplies the integrated air management system for the aircraft. The system has been developed and is manufactured by Liebherr-Aerospace Toulouse SAS, Toulouse (France), Liebherr's center of excellence for air management systems.
Liebherr-Aerospace offers support solutions for its components on board the AN-132 during the aircraft's entire life cycle.