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We're honored to have Michael Busch dissecting the latest WikiLeaks document dump for Focal Points. This is the tenth in the series.
(Pictured, President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin raise a toast.)
When the late Charles Tilly suggested that âwar making and state makingâquintessential protection rackets with the advantage of legitimacyârepresents our largest examples of organized crime,â he was understating the case. At least thatâs what seems to be the case if the recent WikiLeaks documents from the US Embassy in Moscow are accurate. They paint a grim picture of the quintessential mafia state being run out of the Kremlinâs bowels and the hopeless politics it engenders. Nevertheless, they offer an insightful anatomy of how crime operates in post-Soviet Russia under the rule of Vladimir âBatmanâ Putin and his sidekick Dmitry âRobinâ Medvedev.
Writing earlier this year, US ambassador John Beyrle had this to say about the ways in which crime had hollowed out the Russian state:
The Moscow city government's direct links to criminality have led some to call it "dysfunctional," and to assert that the government operates more as a kleptocracy than a government. Criminal elements enjoy a "krysha" (a term from the criminal/mafia world literally meaning "roof" or protection) that runs through the police, the Federal Security Service (FSB), Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), and the prosecutor's office, as well as throughout the Moscow city government bureaucracy. Analysts identify a three-tiered structure in Moscow's criminal world. [Moscow mayor Yuriy] Luzhkov is at the top. The FSB, MVD, and militia are at the second level. Finally, ordinary criminals and corrupt inspectors are at the lowest level. This is an inefficient system in which criminal groups fill a void in some areas because the city is not providing some services.
XXXXXXXXXXXX told us that Moscow's ethnic criminal groups do business and give paybacks. It is the federal headquarters of the parties, not the criminal groups, who decide who will participate in politics. XXXXXXXXXXXX argued that the political parties are the ones with the political clout; therefore, they have some power over these criminal groups.
Crime groups work with municipal bureaucrats, but at a low level. For example, the Armenians and Georgians were formerly heavily involved in the gambling business before city officials closed the gambling facilities. These ethnic groups needed protection from law enforcement crackdowns, so they sought cooperation with the municipal bureaucrats. In such scenarios, crime groups paid the Moscow police for protection.
If all this isnât depressing enough, it only gets worse from there:
XXXXXXXXXXXX told us everyone knows that Russia's laws do not work. The Moscow system is based on officials making money. The government bureaucrats, FSB, MVD, police, and prosecutor's offices all accept bribes. XXXXXXXXXXXX stated that everything depends on the Kremlin and he thought that Luzhkov, as well as many mayors and governors, pay off key insiders in the Kremlin. XXXXXXXXXXXX argued that the vertical works because people are paying bribes all the way to the top. He told us that people often witness officials going into the Kremlin with large suitcases and bodyguards, and he speculated that the suitcases are full of money. The governors collect money based on bribes, almost resembling a tax system, throughout their regions. XXXXXXXXXXXX described how there are parallel structures in the regions in which people are able to pay their leaders. For instance, the FSB, MVD, and militia all have distinct money collection systems. Further, XXXXXXXXXXXX told us that deputies generally have to buy their seats in the government. They need money to get to the top, but once they are there, their positions become quite lucrative money making opportunities. Bureaucrats in Moscow are notorious for doing all kinds of illegal business to get extra money.
According to XXXXXXXXXXXX, Luzhkov is following orders from the Kremlin to not go after Moscow's criminal groups. For example, XXXXXXXXXXXX argued that it was only a public relations stunt from Putin to close gambling. XXXXXXXXXXXX said he did not see the sense in suitcases of money going into the Kremlin since it would be easier to open a secret account in Cyprus. He speculated that the Moscow police heads have a secret war chest of money. XXXXXXXXXXXX said that this money is likely used to solve problems that the Kremlin decides, such as rigging elections. It can be accessed as a resource for when orders come from above, for example, for bribes or to pay off people when necessary.
Interestingly, Beyrle closes his cable with the following observations:
Despite Medvedev's stated anti-corruption campaign, the extent of corruption in Moscow remains pervasive with Mayor Luzhkov at the top of the pyramid. Luzhkov oversees a system in which it appears that almost everyone at every level is involved in some form of corruption or criminal behavior. Putin and Medvedev's dilemma is deciding when Luzhkov becomes a bigger liability than asset⦠Ultimately, the tandem will put Luzhkov out to pasture, like it has done with fellow long-term regional leaders like Sverdlovsk oblast governor Edward Rossel and Tatarstan President Mintimir Shaymiyev.
Boy, was he right! Luzhkov was given his walking papers by President Robin at the end of September. Still, if the cables accurately reflect the reality of Russian politics, and the endemic corruption that defines them, then it wonât much matter if Luzhkov is mayor of Moscow, or if itâs someone else. Itâs clearly not the men who run the Russian political establishment that are the heart of the problem. Itâs the establishment itself.


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To have an access on these sites, all you have to do is to enter your personal information including your name, age, birthday, address, e-mail address, citizenship, and race among others. Other college scholarship search would require you to give your academic information about yourself. This would include your past scholarship grants and awards received.
College scholarship search will give you the ultimate ease that would lead you to the best and most suited scholarship you can get. And the best thing about using this is that, you don't have to search far and spend too much time on the web. The college scholarship search is all you need.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Sometimes, one is given some pretty sweet assignments. Quite near the top of that list is a commission to photograph beautiful buildings by one of the country's – arguably the world's, too – leading architects with the rare thing of a completely open creative brief. This is the position I found myself in a couple of months ago, camera bag in one hand, Mother Of All (somewhat portable) Tripods in the other, and sheaf of permission letters and permits from Hijjas Kasturi Associates tucked away safe inside the camera bag just in case.
The afternoon didn't start off well, actually. Though I left my office in downtown Kuala Lumpur for the shoot location in Putrajaya with plenty of time to spare – 4pm, for an estimated 6.45pm blue hour and 7.30pm complete sunset – traffic was very, very heavy. And Putrajaya* is about 45min away by highway, assuming there's no traffic to begin with. The problem, as always, was the why: it started to rain. Slowly, at first, then past the point of requiring an umbrella into full-fledged tropical-monsoon-cubic-falling-mass-of-water-plus-free-carwash-weather. I swear – and subsequently swore again – that when I left, things looked clear, without a cloud on the horizon**.
*It's the nation's new(ish) administrative capital, put into place by the leadership from two elections ago. I suppose the idea was to create a corridor between Kuala Lumpur and the new capital, but in reality all it did was clear some land, make some former plantation owners very rich, and build a long, straight highway on which I'm told it's possible to reach 300km/h should you be wealthy enough to own the right kind of vehicle.
**I'm certain it's because I got my car washed that morning.
One of the occupational hazards of architectural photography is that you bill by the image, or some sort of notional day rate should you be lucky enough for the project to complete on time – but the reality is that it's weather dependent, time of day dependent, and often seasonally dependent (direction of the sun, foliage), too. Oh, and let's not forget to throw contractors into the mix: if the building isn't finished on time – another one of my projects has been ongoing awaiting final works for the last six months – then you're looking at some extremely long collection times. This whole project was relatively short by comparison – about a month or so – and close to running on schedule and budget, with about 1.5 days of total location time for a final delivery of 23 images.
Fortunately, the rain stopped just before I arrived, and I was fortunate to have a three-hour window – and yes, it rained heavily again on the return leg. I arrived early enough to set up for the first shot – I did a daytime reconnaissance after the previous morning shoot – that I had quite a lot of time and mosquitoes to kill. I therefore did what any sensible person would do: light up something Cuban (in this case, a H. Upmann Half Corona, which I've been enjoying particularly of late for short smokes). I've found that not only does the smoke seem to keep mosquitoes and inquisitive passers-by away, it's also a very pleasant way to kill half an hour to an hour; any more than that and you should probably think a bit more carefully about your scheduling.
For this assignment, I packed a range of gear (D800E, D600, Zeiss ZF.2 2.8/21, Zeiss ZF.2 2/28, Zeiss ZF.2 2/100, Nikon AFS 24-120/4 VR, OM-D and Panasonic 100-300, and of course the Gitzo GT5562, geared column and Manfrotto 410 geared head, all except the tripod packed inside a Billingham 555) – but landed up using just the D800E, 21 and 24-120. The 21 is perhaps my most indispensable architecture lens, and I'm seriously considering the 15mm, too. I don't personally like using lenses that wide because they yield a very unnatural perspective, but sometimes you don't have a choice because there are no other vantage points. The 24-120 requires software correction, but after doing so, it performs very well – just use the ACR profile to dial out distortion and CA.
One thing I've always liked about shooting architecture is that there's a lot of great B-roll to be had most of the time – just turn around. I generally have a second camera set up for reportage and people-watching if there are a lot of people around, or if not, then something else for longer shots. But the bottom line is you never know when a) you'll get something that might be portfolio-worthy, or better yet b) portfolio-worthy and something that another architect asks for later…this has happened a couple of times already.
Not the target building, but nevertheless interesting.
Another one nearby by the same architect who commissioned me.
There's often some degree of personal risk involved with architectural photography, too. Especially with larger buildings: the challenge is always in finding the right vantage point. This frequently requires you to climb things, and then either somehow stick and secure a camera to the outside to clear balustrades etc. or lean over the edge.
The image above doesn't look particularly special, but in order to get the context of location – bridge, water, etc. and the necessary height to avoid keystoning, I had to have at least 5-6 stories of altitude. The only solution was to climb one of the bridge towers (you can see a mirror image of the one I climbed on the other side of the bridge) and set up on the outside of the roof ledge. Fortunately, the tower was left unlocked and had internal stairs, making that part easy; working on a narrow, somewhat windy, slippery bird-dropping-covered and to top it off, sloping, roof ledge was somewhat unnerving, and I didn't stay any longer than I had to. Still, the client loved the images, so I suppose it was all worth it in the end… MT
The various equipment used is available here from my partner retailers:
Nikon D800E** – review B&H Amazon
Nikon D600** – review B&H Amazon
Nikon AFS 24-120/4 VR** – B&H Amazon
Zeiss ZF.2 2.8/21 Distagon** – review B&H Amazon
Zeiss ZF.2 2/28 Distagon** – review B&H Amazon
Zeiss ZF.2 2/50 Makro Planar** – B&H Amazon
Zeiss ZF.2 2/100 Makro Planar** – review B&H Amazon
Olympus OM-D** – review B&H Amazon
Panasonic 100-300/4-5.6** – review B&H Amazon
Billingham 555** – B&H Amazon
Gitzo GT5562LTS Systematic 6x Carbon** – review B&H Amazon
Manfrotto 410 Geared head** – B&H Amazon
Enter the 2013 Maybank Photo Awards here – there's US$35,000 worth of prizes up for grabs, it's open to all ASEAN residents, and I'm the head judge! Entries close 31 October 2013.
Visit the Teaching Store to up your photographic game – including workshop and Photoshop Workflow videos and the customized Email School of Photography; or go mobile with the Photography Compendium for iPad. You can also get your gear from B&H and Amazon. Prices are the same as normal, however a small portion of your purchase value is referred back to me. Thanks!
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Images and content copyright Ming Thein | mingthein.com 2012 onwards. All rights reserved


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Virtualizing rootkits and the future of system security
Faced with the difficulty in identifying a rootkit once it has been installed, the need to safeguard and monitor the boot process and the VMM becomes critical. The admin's best approach is to avoid an infection.
From a technical point of view, the models suggested by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG [12]) seem like a good place to start. The key component is a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), a hardware chip that implements the TCG model on the computer's motherboard. The TPM chip provides cryptographic functions and operations, which are addressable through the BIOS and the operating system, to assess how trustworthy a system is.
On top of this, the TPM chip can be used to perform integrity checks during the boot process. To allow this to happen, special routines for critical system components calculate cryptographic hashes and store them in the TPM chip's platform configuration registers (PCRs). The corresponding evaluation instance compares the hash values calculated with the stored reference values and declares the current system configuration to be valid, permitted, or trustworthy.
Incorrect hash values indicate unauthorized changes to the system and trigger suitable responses from the evaluating instance, such as cancellation of the boot process or kernel panic. If the evaluation and the possible response occur while the system is booting, this is referred to as a secure boot. If this happens later – typically being handled by the operating system – this is referred to as a trusted boot.
These techniques allow the administrator to verify the integrity of the whole system from the boot processes to the VMM. The TPM chip and parts of the BIOS act as a core root of trust for measurement. When the system boots, the TPM chip helps the BIOS verify parts of itself and stores the hash values in the TPM platform configuration registers. After this has happened, the BIOS investigates the master boot record on the boot device and hands over control to the bootloader.
If the bootloader has been instructed to do so, it will carry on measuring values. Suitable targets are the bootloader configuration file, the initial RAM disk, the kernel file, the VMM file, and so on. If this is done consistently, the result is a chain of trust from the BIOS to the VMM. The VMM is the master of all the guest systems and can verify their integrity and respond appropriately, depending on what you want to achieve, without the guest systems influencing the process. This all sounds fine in theory, but taking care of the details can be time consuming.
To achieve a demonstrably secure boot, the reference values for each element in the chain of trust must reside in trustworthy memory. The only place to store the BIOS' checksum and hash value at the start of the train of trust is in the TPM chip's own NVRAM. Then the BIOS must store the MBR reference values in its own NVRAM, and the bootloader must have the reference values for the bootloader configuration file, and so on – the verifying instance guarantees the trustworthiness of the next link in the chain, including the reference values stored in that link.
The names of the two rootkits mentioned in this article, Red Pill and Blue Pill, are lifted from the movie "Matrix" (1999). In once scene, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) gives the hacker Neo (Keanu Reeves) a choice, which he has to take by swallowing either the red or the blue pill. The scene plays in an old high-rise building.
Morpheus: Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. [Bends forwards towards Neo.] This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. [In his left hand, Morpheus shows a blue pill.] You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. [A red pill is shown in his other hand.] You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. [Long pause; Neo begins to reach for the red pill.] Remember – all I am offering is the truth, nothing more. [Neo takes the red pill and swallows it with a glass of water.] (Source [13])
Best References
Secure boot imposes some fairly stringent constraints on reference value management. This also means that the admin has to replace the reference values stored in the TPM chip after flashing the BIOS with new firmware, and if the bootloader codes change, the reference value in the BIOS must be changed, and so on. All of these transactions have to be secure, and this is only possible with trustworthy and authorized instances.
If an action fails, the administrator also needs some kind of backup and recovery mechanism to boot the system. And the question of whether users should be able to influence this is another hard nut to crack.
The whole infrastructure is very low level; for example, Intel's VT follows the model with its "Secure Extensions" and "Secure Boot" implementations. Because of technical complexities, production deployment of this feature on PC systems is unlikely to be worthwhile in the near future. Embedded systems, mobile phones, and PDAs, on which reference value management is easier to handle, seem more likely candidates.
A question still remains as to who the origin of trust should be: the owner of the system, the manufacturer, or even a third party? The owner is always in danger of losing control of the system because, say, a rootkit compromises all of these measures, or a manufacturer wants to dictate the software a user can install on the system.
Virtualization is increasingly making inroads into daily server operations. The virtual environment offers many security benefits through isolation and parallel contexts, but virtualization also introduces new vectors for malware.
Initial concepts impressively demonstrate how rootkits can exploit virtualization to hide malicious processes. In the future, more implementations can be expected. So far, none of these state-of-the-art virtualizing rootkits has appeared in the wild, but it makes very good sense to keep an eye on security in the virtual world.
- "SubVirt: Implementing Malware with Virtual Machines" by Samuel T. King, Peter M. Chen, Yi-Min Wang, et al. Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, http://www.eecs.umich.edu/Rio/papers/king06.pdf
- "Red Pill … Or How To Detect VMM Using (Almost) one CPU Instruction" by Joanna Rutkowska. http://invisiblethings.org/papers/redpill.html
- Scoopy doo: http://www.trapkit.de/research/vmm/scoopydoo/index.html
- Jerry: http://www.trapkit.de/research/vmm/jerry/index.html
- IBM LPAR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPAR
- Intel Virtualization Technology: http://www.intel.com/technology/platform-technology/virtualization/index.htm
- AMD Virtualization technology: http://multicore.amd.com/us-en/AMD-Multi-Core/Quad-Core-Advantage/At-Work-AMD-Opteron/Virtualization.aspx
- Blue Pill: http://theinvisiblethings.blogspot.com/2006/06/introducing-blue-pill.html
- Vitriol: http://www.theta44.org/software/HVM_Rootkits_ddz_bh-usa-06.pdf
- Blue Pill redesign: http://bluepillproject.org
- "IsGameOver() Anyone?" by Joanna Rutkowska and Alexander Tereshkin. Invisible Things Lab, 2007, http://bluepillproject.org/stuff/IsGameOver.ppt
- TCG: http://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/home
- The Matrix: http://www.whysanity.net/monos/matrix3.html
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Scottish Authorities are still on the hunt for a man who used an axe to do more than £40,000 ($62,712) of damage to a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti last month.
The Italian GT coupe was parked at Graypaul Edinburgh—the official Ferrari dealer of the Scottish capital—when an unidentified man arrived and began attacking the car with an axe and a knife. According to The Daily Record, the Ferrari destruction lasted several minutes before the unidentified vandal slashed the tires of the 612 and then calmly walked away.
While the attack was captured by a security camera, the footage has not been enough to clearly indentify the criminal or provide the police with any good leads. Video of the incident has not been released to the public but we imagine watching an axe wielding man destroy the Ferrari would be a rather painful viewing experience for any car person.
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With this in mind it becomes hard to imagine how miserable watching the 612 Scaglietti destruction footage was for the car's owner—a Scottish property developer named Rajinder Singh. Singh was extremely upset to find out about what happened to his cherished car while it was in the care of the Ferrari dealership. As the man explained to the Daily Record—
"This has been a nightmare. The car was just in the garage to get a pump fixed when this happened. I gave the garage a car worth more than £200,000 and they give me back a car that is effectively written off. It is bad enough that this has happened but the garage have been useless. The whole thing is a bad joke."
What makes this story even worse is the fact this axe-destruction appears to be a random act. Police questioned Singh about anyone with a possible motive for the Ferrari destruction but as the man explained "the garage is miles from my home" and "no one would have known it was my car."
Although the investigation remains ongoing, so far police haven't had much luck. Unfortunately for Singh and other exotic car owners in Edinburgh this means it's looking more and more likely the perpetrator of this axe on supercar violence will remain at large.
[Daily Record via GTspirit]


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Texas Punishes Prisoners by Killing Them With Heat Stroke
The state of Texas is, as one would expect of Satan's favored playground, hot. Texas is also "tough on crime," meaning it enjoys locking people in jails but cares little what happens to them afterwards. So while Americans love air conditioning for themselves, Texans don't see the point of giving it to prisoners. What next—water?
The NYT reports that two lawsuits have been filed by prisoners in Texas, where only a fifth of the state's prisons are air conditioned.
An appeal is pending in a lawsuit initially filed in 2008 by a former inmate claiming that 54 prisoners were exposed to Death Valley-like conditions at a South Texas prison where the heat index exceeded 126 degrees for 10 days indoors... A Texas law requires county jails to maintain temperature levels between 65 and 85 degrees, but the law does not apply to state prisons.
Four (4) (FOUR) Texas inmates died from the heat last summer. Four. Dead. That is a problem.
Texas should only have air conditioning in prison, and nowhere else.


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apologies for the slow site speed and frequent recent downtimes. for some reason, DB performance has been really bad, about 10x worse than before, and there's no clear reason. i'm going to fix this one way or another, so please bear with me. i made a bunch of query optimizations today, which will help hold things together while i fix the underlying problem. (interesting tidbit: web crawlers (mostly Bing) were causing the bulk of the SQL load as they spidered heavy pages -- i'm restricting them now).
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Catholic theologian; born at Eck, Bavaria, Nov. 13, 1486; died in Ingolstadt Feb. 10, 1543. One of the most active antagonists of Luther, he was an equally zealous enemy of the Jews. His work, "Verlegung eines Juden-Büchleins, Darin ein Christ (der) Ganzen Christenheit zu Schmach Will, als Geschähe den Juden Unrecht, in Bezüchtigung der Christ-Kinder-Mord," an endeavor to fasten the blood accusation on the Jews, was published in Ingolstadt in 1542. Eck translated the Vulgate into German in an effort to counteract the influence of Luther's version of the Bible. His translation, known as "Die Ingolstadter Bibel von 1538," is by no means as accurate or as well written as Luther's version. He also edited Haggai in Hebrew.
- Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, v. 596:
- Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 220;
- Grätz, Gesch. ix. 310 et seq.;
- Herzog-Hauck, Real-Encyc., and Wetzer and Welte's Kirchenlexikon, s.v.


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Mikroturn® 1500v4
4-axis vertical turning machine for workpieces up to Ø 1,500 mm and 2,000 kg in weight. The 4-axis configuration allows cycle time savings of up to 40% when compared to a 2-axis configuration.
The Mikroturn® 1500 V4 is able to achieve micron accuracies in hardened steel due to superb static and dynamic stiffness and the thermal stability of the machine. The construction is unique due to the application of a fully hydrostatic and wear free main spindle and slides together with the use of a very stable natural granite machine base.
Ultra precision. It all starts at the base.
All Mikroturn® machines have a natural granite machine base with an integrated vibration damping system. Natural granite is the perfect machine base. It is completely stress free, has very good damping properties, is corrosion free and has a low thermal expansion coefficient improving thermal stiffness.
All these characteristics make natural granite the perfect base for an ultra precision machine. Natural granite base:
- Good damping properties
- High thermal stability
- High static and dynamic stiffness
- Free of stress
- Corrosion free
Hydrostatic slides and main spindle.
The main spindle bearings and slide guideways are the most important machine elements in a lathe, determining part accuracies of the workpieces and the lifetime of the machine.
The current Mikroturn® machines entail more than 40 years of engineering knowledge in hydrostatic bearing systems and guideways.
The hydrostatic system in the Mikroturn® Machine series is far superior to any other conventional system and offer many advantages.
- Excellent running accuracy
- Superb damping properties
- High stiffness, independent of speed
- Good thermal stability
- No wear and thus everlasting accuracy
- Longer tool life
Key features Mikroturn®
- Rigid natural granite machine base with an integrated system of vibration dampers
- Headstock housing of natural granite for improved static and dynamic stiffness and thermal stability
- Hydrostatic X/U- and Z/W-slides with a ± 0.1 µm repeatability
- Sealed type direct linear slide measuring system
- Hydrostatic main spindle with a 0.2 µm run-out and integrated torque motor.
- External hydraulic service unit.
- Heat and vibration generating elements are fully isolated from the machine
- Siemens 840D CNC control with a 0,001 micron resolution
- Temperature controlled wet coolant
- Tool measuring system
- Automatic tool changer with 20 capto C5 holders
- Automated part centering system
- Chip conveyor
- Milling head and/or grinding spindle
|Max. turning diameter (mm)
|Max. turning length (mm)
|Max. workpiece weight incl. chuck (kg)
|Max. spindle speed (rpm)
|Z(/W) axis travel (mm)
|X(/U) axis travel (mm)
|Rapid travers rate (m/min)
|Slide repeatability (µm)
|Position accuracy (µm)
|CNC-Resolution (µm)


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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Legendary Cheshire (Connecticut) girls and boys swimming coach Ed Aston joins four individuals who excelled as high school athletes, including former Washington Redskins' all-pro quarterback Joe Theismann and current Los Angeles Clippers' guard Chauncey Billups, to headline the 2013 class of the National High School Hall of Fame.
In 37 years as girls swimming coach at Cheshire High School, Aston's teams won 25 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference state championships and had a 414-21-1 record. He coached the boys teams for 33 years, claiming 18 state titles, and recorded an overall record of 410-47. His girls teams won a national-record 281 consecutive dual meets from 1986 to 2011.
Joining Theismann and Billups as athletes in the 2013 class are Harrison Dillard, who helped Cleveland (Ohio) East Technical High School to three state track championships before winning four gold medals at the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games, and Kristin Folkl Kaburakis, who helped her St. Louis (Missouri) St. Joseph's Academy teams to four state volleyball championships and four state basketball titles in the early 1990s before an outstanding two-sport career at Stanford University.
These four individuals, along with five high school coaches, two officials, one administrator and one in the performing arts, will be inducted into the NFHS National High School Hall of Fame June 27 at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. The 31st Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be the closing event of the 94th annual NFHS Summer Meeting.
High school coaches slated for induction this year include Aston, who retired in 2011 after 37 years as girls swimming coach and 33 years as boys swimming coach at Cheshire High School; Chuck Koeppen, cross country and track coach at Carmel (Indiana) High School for 37 years before retiring in 2008; Chuck Lenahan, who is in his 42nd year as football coach at Plymouth (New Hampshire) Regional High School; Mike Messere, lacrosse coach at Camillus (New York) West Genesee High School for the past 37 years; and James Tate, who has coached cross country and track at Mobile (Alabama) St. Paul's Episcopal High School for the past 34 years.
Jerry Kimmel, a basketball official from Kentucky who recently retired after 56 years as an active official and assigner for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA), and Haig Nighohossian, a soccer official from Granite City, Illinois, who is in his 39th year as an active official with the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), are this year's honorees in the Officials category.
Ronnie Carter, who retired in 2009 after 23 years as executive director of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA), is this year's inductee in the Administrators category, and Richard Floyd, who is retiring this year after 50 years in music education, including 29 years as director of music for the University Interscholastic League (UIL) in Austin, Texas, is this year's honoree in the Performing Arts category.
Joe Theismann, who was a three-sport star at South River (New Jersey) High School, led the football team to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Group III championship in 1966 with a 9-0 record and 24 touchdown passes. He quarterbacked the University of Notre Dame to a No. 2 national ranking in 1971, and he won a Super Bowl and Most Valuable Player honors during his career with the Redskins.
Chauncey Billups was a four-time all-state selection and three-time Mr. Basketball at Denver (Colorado) George Washington High School. He averaged 23.8 points per game for his career and helped his team to state championships as a sophomore and junior in 1993 and 1994. Billups is in his 16th season in the National Basketball Association (NBA), highlighted by six years with Detroit when he helped the Pistons to the 2004 NBA championship.
As a senior at Cleveland East Technical in 1941, Harrison Dillard won the city, district and state championships in the 120-yard high hurdles and 220-yard low hurdles. At the 1948 Olympics in London, Dillard won gold medals in the 100-meter dash and 4×100-meter relay. Four years later at the 1952 Games in Helsinki, he won gold in the 110-meter hurdles and 4×100-meter relay.
While helping St. Louis (Missouri) St. Joseph's Academy to amazing records of 137-7 in volleyball and 117-5 in basketball and eight Missouri State High School Activities Association state championships, Kristin Folkl Kaburakis won all-state honors each year in both sports and graduated third in her class with a 4.2 grade-point average. She continued her two-sport dominance at the collegiate level, helping Stanford to three NCAA Volleyball Championships and an overall 125-8 record and two NCAA Women's Final Four appearances in basketball and an overall 85-11 mark.
Along with Aston, the following coaches will be honored with induction in June.
Chuck Koeppen led the Carmel (Indiana) High School boys cross country teams to 11 Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) state championships and the girls teams to 11 titles as well. Five times his boys and girls teams won state titles in the same year. His cross country teams finished second 16 times, and his boys track team won the IHSAA state championship in 2000.
Chuck Lenahan won his 19th state football championship last year at Plymouth Regional High School and is the winningest football coach in New Hampshire history. In 43 years at Plymouth, Lenahan has compiled a 345-69-1 record, which includes 13 undefeated seasons and a 57-game winning streak from 2005 to 2010.
Since assuming the boys lacrosse coaching duties at Camillus (New York) West Genesee High School in 1976, Mike Messere has posted a 757-55 record (.930 winning percentage) – the all-time mark by a high school or college lacrosse coach. His teams have won 15 New York State Public High School Athletic Association state championships and established a national record 91-game winning streak from 1981 to 1984.
After stops in South Carolina and Georgia for nine years to begin his coaching career, James Tate joined the Mobile (Alabama) St. Paul's Episcopal High School staff in 1978 and started the school's boys track and cross country programs. Combining boys and girls cross country, boys and girls indoor track, and boys and girls outdoor track, Tate's teams have won an unbelievable 86 state championships. His girls cross country teams won 16 consecutive Alabama High School Athletic Association state titles from 1983 to 1998 – an all-time national record.
After 16 years as an active basketball official in Kentucky, Jerry Kimmel turned his attention to recruiting and training officials and was one of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association's assigning secretaries for basketball. He also was a highly successful college basketball official for many years.
Haig Nighohossian has been selected to officiate the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Boys Soccer State Finals 17 times and the IHSA Girls Soccer State Finals seven times. He has been a soccer rules interpreter for the IHSA since 1973 and has served as coordinator of officials at the state finals on several occasions.
Ronnie Carter joined the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) staff in 1978 and was appointed executive director in 1986. In addition to his leadership at the state level, Carter served on the NFHS Football Rules Committee for 25 years and was chair of the NFHS Basketball Rules Committee for eight years. He was chair of the Football Research Subcommittee for eight years and was a member of the NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee for four years. Carter was president of the NFHS in 2001-02.
Richard Floyd is a recognized authority on conducting, the art of wind band rehearsing, concert band repertoire and music advocacy. He has served as a clinician, adjudicator and conductor with appearances in 40 states and nine other countries. As director of music for the Texas University Interscholastic League, Floyd coordinated all facets of secondary music composition for 3,500 performing organizations throughout the state of Texas.
The National High School Hall of Fame was started in 1982 by the NFHS to honor high school athletes, coaches, contest officials, administrators, performing arts coaches/directors and others for their extraordinary achievements and accomplishments in high school sports and activity programs. This year's class increases the number of people in the Hall of Fame to 411.
The 13 individuals were chosen after a two-level selection process involving a screening committee composed of active high school state association administrators, coaches and officials, and a final selection committee composed of coaches, former athletes, state association officials, media representatives and educational leaders. Nominations were made through NFHS member associations.


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Iran canceled air show upon Russian warning of Israeli plan to destroy all 140 warplanes
Editors Note: This comes from a Pro Israeli, back-channels news site… The Israelis appear to be ready to provoke a conflict with Iran with or without US "permission." Frankly, I fear it is the Israel who gives the orders in this relationship…
Debka File – 24 April, 2009
Iranian and intelligence sources disclose that Moscow warned Tehran Friday April 17 that Israel was planning to destroy all of its 140 fighter-bombers concentrated at the Mehr-Abad Air Force base for an air show over Tehran on Iran's Army Day the following day. The entire fleet was accordingly removed to remote bases and the display cancelled.
In the first week of April, Tehran announced it would stage its biggest air show ever to dramatize a ceremonial military parade in the capital on April 18. Iran would show the world that it is capable of fighting off an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities. Instead, only four aircraft flew over the saluting stand. Iranian media explained that the big show was cancelled due to "bad weather and poor visibility," when in fact Tehran basked in warm and sunny weather.
Moscow had informed the Iranians that its spy satellites and intelligence sources had picked up preparations at Israeli Air Force bases to destroy the 140 warplanes, the bulk of the Iranian air force, on the ground the night before the display, leaving its nuclear sites without aerial defense. A similar operation wiped out the entire Egyptian air fleet in the early hours of the 1967 war.


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These days, everything seems to have some sort of measurement system. We have heights and weights, salaries and rankings, Klout scores, GPAs, BACs — it seems like everything must be put into numeric terms. Accordingly, we've put together a comprehensive review of 2013, scored with our proprietary scoring system. Every significant event of 2013 will be judged on a scale of -5 to +5. A score of -5 means the event made the world a much worse place, and a score of +5 means the event made the world a much better place. Let's take a look back at 2013 and see where our world lies after the year's events. Continue reading
Tag Archives: The Awakening
2013: Net Gain or Net Loss? A Quantitative Review31 Dec
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Located 20 minutes drive from the station and fort of Jaisalmer, the Thar Vilas hotel has an outdoor swimming pool and traditional Indian massage services. Coffee is available 24h/24.
Hotel Imperial is located in Jaisalmer, about 1km from Jaisalmer Bus Stand. Its rooftop restaurant, Spice, presents Indian and Continental dishes accompanied by beautiful sunset views. Free parking and a 24-hour front desk are available.
Centrally located in the lively City Centre, Hotel Shanti Residency is a 5-minute drive from Jaisalmer Railway Station. It features a rooftop restaurant, free Wi-Fi and free parking.
Hotel Fifu is a 10-minute walk from Jaisalmer Fort and 2.3 km from Jaisalmer Railway Station. A free pick-up is provided. It offers vegetarian restaurant, ayurvedic massage services and free parking on site.
Located 5 km from Jaisalmer Domestic Airport, Golden City Hotel provides rooms with private balconies and air conditioning. It offers a rooftop restaurant, an outdoor pool and free pick up service from the railway and the bus stations.
The Hotel occupies a Nachana Haveli Haveli (private residence) history dating back 280 years. Just 700 meters from the Jaisalmer Fort, the hotel has a rooftop restaurant and free parking.
Located just across the sand dunes of Sam, Camp e Khas offers luxurious Swiss tents in the Thar desert near Jaisalmer. You can explore the villages in safari or walk on a camel in the ...
Golden Haveli offers elegant rooms with private balconies and en suite bathrooms within 3 km of Jaisalmer Railway Station. It features Wi-Fi access in the entire hotel, and a rooftop restaurant which serves Indian and western dishes.
The Royale Jaisalmer includes a rooftop restaurant overlooking a fort and town of Jaisalmer. It offers an outdoor pool and a traditional Indian massage service.
Boasting a 3-tier garden and a rooftop restaurant, Hotel Brys Fort features beautiful architecture inspired by Jaisalmer Fort. Sitting within a large garden, it provides well-designed accommodation with free Wi-Fi.
Maplandia.com in partnership with Booking.com offers highly competitive rates for all types of hotels near Kadanwari Airport, Pakistan, from affordable family hotels to the most luxurious ones. Booking.com, being established in 1996, is longtime Europe's leader in online hotel reservations.
At Maplandia.com you won't be charged any booking fees, cancellation fees, or administration fees – the reservation service is free of charge. The reservation system is secure and your personal information and credit card is encrypted.
We have put together also a carefully selected list of recommended hotels near Kadanwari Airport, only hotels with the highest level of guest satisfaction are included. Many photos and unbiased hotel reviews written by real guests are provided to help you make your booking decision. Luxury hotels (including 5 star hotels and 4 star hotels) and cheap Kadanwari Airport, Pakistan hotels (with best discount rates and up-to-date airport hotel deals) are both available in separate lists. Always bear in mind that with Maplandia.com and Booking.com the best price is guaranteed!
Accommodation in popular destinations near Kadanwari Airport.
Maplandia.com is not sponsored by or affiliated with Google.


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A young husband and wife were found dead in their home at 73 Henderson Street in Bristol on Wednesday morning in a murder-suicide.
Authorities said children discovered the bodies of 26-year-old Alexander Ryng and his wife, 27-year-old Kyla Ryng and alerted neighbors.
The medical examiner determined that Kyla's death a homicide. She had been shot in the head. Alexander's death was ruled a suicide. He also died of a gunshot to the head, according to the medical examiner.
Kyla Ryng filed for divorce May 30, according to state court records.
The couple's three children – ages 4 years, 3 years and 20 months – were home at the time and were not injured.
In 911 calls released on Thursday, Kyla's mother, who lives next door, called police to report the incident around 7:14 a.m. after two of the children came to her house and told her their father was shooting their mother.
During a news conference late on Wednesday afternoon, Bristol police Chief Thomas Grimaldi said Alexander Ryng legally purchased the weapon used in the shooting.
According to the U.S. Army National Guard, Ryng was a member of the Connecticut Army National Guard and was based in New London.
"We extend our sincere sympathy and condolences to the families and friends of Alex and Kyla Ryng," said Col. John T. Wiltse, director of public affairs for the Connecticut National Guard, in a statement Wednesday. "This is a tragedy that affects many communities, including our Guard. We mourn their loss. The Ryng family will remain in our thoughts and prayers."
A neighbor who did not want to appear on camera said the three children are with their grandmother. According to police, the Department of Children and Families has been notified.
Residents of the quiet neighborhood said they were shocked.
"This is a very quiet neighborhood," said neighbor Brenton Eckstrom. "I grew up here; I bought the house from my parents. That's the reason I bought it: it's always quiet."


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Dalian, Liaoning
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Dalian, Liaoning
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We are one of leading machine tool companies from China and represent dozens of pre-qualified leading machine tool builders and tooling manufacturers that have good reputation and produce high quality products. We have built solid connections with these manufacturers, so our clients can avail themselves of these connections to share the benefit of low cost and high quality of Chinese manufacturing.
In 1997 we visited Buenos Aires, Argentina and met our client there. We worked together to sell machine tools since then, and the cooperation has been lasting without stop. We commit to long term support and partnership, and we highly value and enjoy the long term relationship.
Now Dalian ZT Machinery serves worldwide clients from Argentina to Mexico, UK, Turkey, Qatar, Vietnam, and so on. Our goal is 100% customer satisfaction and 100% of the time. All machines recommended are of good reputation already proven in the market. All machines ready for shipping are double checked by our Pre-Delivery Inspection Program to assure the quality. Our customer service is in a timely manner no matter how far your location from us.
We sell various machine tools, metal cutting and metal forming, universal type and dedicated type, and plastic molding machines. We also design, develop and supply dedicated tooling and components for related machines.
Sincerely we hope to use our good faith to earn your trust and expect to become your single source for high quality machine tools and tooling. You are warmly welcome to contact us, thus to start a long term relationship at an early date.


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TrueFX brings you live, indicative prices aggregated from institutional market participants, 24 hours a day, whenever markets are open.
16 major currency pairs, top-of-book, tick-by-tick market data, with fractional pip spreads in millisecond detail.
TrueFX is the first destination to offer historical and real-time tick-by-tick data for free.
Premium plans available.
Available for iOS and coming soon to Android devices
Follow currency pairs, precious metals and crypto-asset movements from anywhere.
TrueFX is a true representation of where the institutional markets are trading FX and crypto currencies. TrueFX brings you indicative and event-driven prices aggregated from real market participants, delivered directly to you with no intermediary. We bring you streaming and historical tick-by-tick market data, 24 hours a day, whenever markets are open.
In short, because we think it is the right thing to do. FX and cryptocurrencies have historically been rather opaque markets with uneven access to liquidity and tools to effectively participate and win. We believe that by lowering the barriers to entry, reducing costs and friction and by increasing transparency the markets will dramatically expand and attract more participants.
TrueFX is the first destination to offer historical and streaming tick-by-tick data for free. Historically, this data has been costly and thus only available to the larger market participants. Our Professional and Institutional premium packages are extremely competitively priced to ensure the barriers of entering the market are significantly reduced for participants.
The data that feeds TrueFX comes from a global network of financial institutions that trade FX, metals and crypto assets using Integral's technology. TrueFX is an aggregated liquidity stream from multiple sources, including the largest financial institutions and FX market makers in the world. FX and metals prices are sourced from Integral OCX, a high-performance trading network, linking market making banks and major financial institutions. Crypto assets are sourced from Mint Exchange, the first clearinghouse for institutional investors.
No, TrueFX is not a broker. TrueFX is a service brought to you by Integral, a neutral technology provider.
TrueFX is brought to you by the team at Integral, a technology provider of trading systems to foreign exchange market participants. Our solutions support all market players with solutions to enable FX trading for anyone, anywhere.
We can do this because Integral is not a broker, bank or active market participant. Integral is a neutral technology provider. We have always used our technology to help market participants build their businesses, reach their goals and provide the most sophisticated trading environment to their users. We have a history of pushing the envelope in foreign exchange technology: We built the first multi-sided trading network and offer all our products as on demand services. In that spirit, we decided to build TrueFX.
Anyone who has an interest in currency rates is welcome to take advantage of TrueFX. That might be a university with specific research needs, an algorithmic trader, or individuals who want to better understand and compare the rates they are being charged with what the market truly is.
TrueFX market data is indicative, meaning the prices provide a true representation of where the markets are trading but are not executable prices. However, the data can be used in a wide range of workflow scenarios, for example, enhanced price verification, historic back-testing and generating a base price for onward distribution.
Everyone who has a registered and confirmed account on TrueFX.com can use the data based on their subscription plan. The TERMS and CONDITIONS can be viewed here.
"TrueFX removes the layers, latency and adverse spreads facing brokers when accessing institutional prices for their global client base."


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Website Design Services Siliguri
If you are looking for a website design company in Siliguri, look no further. Seize the opportunity and engage our skilled crew to build your dream website. Leciel Solutions team will help you take it from concept to completion without any hassle. We have over 4 years of experience in website designing and development with latest designs and frameworks.
Define your business objectives, define your goals and find the best website design solution to achieve them. We offer solutions that are easy to manage and use which is vital to any online business.
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Search Engine Friendly
Satisfaction and Reliability
Mobile-Friendly Approach
Website Development
We provide a wide range of websites. We have vast experience in creating internet based brands like business, entertainment and travel portals and portals for professional services. Our Websites are affordable both in terms of the cost and rate per page.
Our efficient, innovative and competent team of web designers and programmers work with you to develop the best optimized website for your business.
- Client satisfaction is our prime responsibility.
- We design our websites with the help of our trained and expert team of designers.
- We use latest techniques and technologies to ensure your website stands out in the crowd.
- We have an experience of over 4 years in Internet marketing, web designing and development.
- We have become a leader in the industry because of our unique combination of expert knowledge and commitment to the highest standards in quality.
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- We offer an affordable cost for website designing and development.
- Our clients get the best possible service at affordable rates.
Our goal is to simplify your business management and offer complete web solutions that are innovative, creative, and functional. We have a team of professionals, experienced in creating and developing websites that work.
We create and host your website, providing the marketing support you need to succeed online. That's why our customers come back to us again and again. We've earned a reputation for our excellent customer service and dedication to client's needs.
We offer you the following services
Web Design & Development
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CMS Website Design and Development
Why we are the Best Website Design Company in Siliguri?
We Understand Your Business. We take the time to understand your business goals. As a result, we're able to create a website that matches your brand and objectives.
We Take Pride in Our Work. The majority of our staff has been with us for years. This means you can expect a high standard of quality and consistency.
We Are Fully Equipped for Your Needs. Our designers know Magento, Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, and BigCommerce.
Leading Web Development Company with a Nationwide Presence
Leciel Solutions is an India-based company that was founded in the year 2017. We have a nationwide presence with a network of over 15 offices throughout India. With our strong digital marketing strategy, we have been able to achieve sales growth of 20% every year. We are a dedicated team of 90+ media professionals, designers, developers, analysts and internet marketers working together to drive sales.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT Website Design & Development
Our designers start with our company's standard design and customize it to your specifications. Once you are satisfied with the design, our developers will set up a time frame for the development, as well as estimated cost.
Q: What are the common payment methods?
We accept payments via Bank Transfer, Cash or Cheque and Paypal.
Q: How long will it take to set up my website?
This is dependent on the design and functionality of your website. Typically, websites that do not have too many pages and features are completed in 7 - 10 days.
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We provide you with a home page design that matches your brand and showcases your logo. You can modify these as required, or go out and source the perfect colour palette in your industry. Once the design is finalised, you can order the wooden coasters and decals to make your brand look great when you're serving up tasty cocktails.
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We are happy to make changes at any time, but there may be a cost attached to this service. Please contact us for a quote.
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Our Site Security Specialist team will configure your site with SSL certificates and firewall protection, providing you with the best possible security. We use every possible step to ensure your site is safe from malware and hackers.
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A logo, a list of pages (home page, about us etc.) and text for the headings. If you have a clear idea of the design you want, we will be happy to provide advice and share our experience with you.
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Our CMS provides you with advanced reporting, including traffic statistics and visitor information. You can also use Google analytics for the same. You can see who has visited your site, as well as when and from where they came.
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Our CMS and hosting packages include a full maintenance service with monthly updates to keep your website secure and up-to-date.
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Of course, we are happy to provide advice on any CMS you would like to use. We can also help you set up WordPress for your website.
Why Leciel Solutions?
Do you need a WordPress Website Design and Development Company? You came to the right place. We are one of the most reputed WordPress website design companies in Siliguri. We have been in business for some years now, and have a network of 15 offices across India that covers all the major cities in the country. Our designers are completely self-taught, which ensures our websites match your brand perfectly and are absolutely unique. This means you'll have to look no further for the best WordPress website design company in Siliguri.
Why Leciel Solutions is the Best WordPress Website Design Company in Siliguri?
We are one of the most reputed WordPress website design companies in Siliguri. We have been in business for some years now, and have a network of 15 offices across India that covers all the major cities in the country. Leciel Solution is an India based company, having its head office located at Bhopal.


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Icebreaker/Intro: Introducing A Partner
Brief Description/Purpose
To increase group comfort, a get to know you exercise.
Age Appropriate
Teens, Adults
Ideal Group Size
Under 15 people. Otherwise the reporting back to the group goes on too long.
Time For Exercise
Under fifteen minutes
Detailed Instructions If Needed
Facilitator divides the group into pairs and assigns each pair to interview one another.
Then each individual introduces her/his counterpart. One pair volunteers to begin, and the others follow. Possible questions for the interview:
- Introduce yourself and talk about your successes and challenges.
- In an ideal situation, where money and training were not a problem, what would you be doing?
- Three words I would like to be remembered by are…
- What would I most like to learn today?
- What would I REALLY dislike to happen today in the session?
Discuss in the group:
- What did you feel when your counterpart introduced you?
- What is easier: to talk about yourself or to hear it from others?
- Was it an easy task to talk about your successes/positive characteristics?
Don't miss out on the use of this icebreaker to GET information you need as a trainer to customize the training for the specific group. That's why we include the questions above highlighted in red and bolded.


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To commemorate the life and work of the late Irving Penn, we are reposting "Irving Penn's Modern Venus," an article originally published in the magazine in February 2002. It was written by Maria Morris Hambourg, then head of the photography department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who curated the exhibition "Earthly Bodies," which featured the artist's nudes from 1949–50.
One day in the winter of 1947, Irving Penn, a promising young photographer, walked away from a dressing room full of slender, beautiful models and boarded a plane for Haiti. He was not unhappy with his job at Vogue, but he felt the need for some "real women in real circumstances," as opposed to those "skinny girls with self-starved looks." Setting aside the concerns of fashion, for a couple of days Penn roamed about the docks and mixed with the people of Port-au-Prince until his natural vitality had been restored and he felt reconnected with his essential self. Evidently the Caribbean cure worked, for within a few short months of his return, he had created several disconcerting and novel still lifes, had met the love of his life, and had begun his most important personal work, a series of photographs of female nudes.
These nudes, which are the subject of the exhibition "Earthly Bodies: Irving Penn's Nudes, 1949–1950," at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through April 21), began with a single, extraordinary photograph that Penn made in May 1947, not long after his trip to Haiti. Although he had access to the best facilities and fine assistants at Vogue, he still yearned for authentic qualities—for bodies that had not been dieted, painted, directed, or styled for the printed page. Following his impulses, he hired a heavy-set model who was willing to pose nude and photographed her in a truncated corner flat he had built—a shallow chamber a little like a rudimentary stage set that served to focus his subjects and limit the arena of the picture.
Resting her bulk on a cube-shaped block, her arms tucked behind her back, the woman is a compact mass. The rounded forms of her breasts, belly, and thighs, laved in soft light, have such lithic weight and texture that she becomes an archaic fertility goddess existing outside time. The photograph, which he later titled Nude No. 1, so strongly resembles the famous Venus of Willendorf that Penn presumes he had been struck by that image. Yet he was not consciously reverting to a primitive form but was reaching for forms that carried a positive charge for him and responded to his plastic needs as an artist.
Whether he had seen a reproduction of the statuette in Vienna or not, he was in touch with the same instinct that called forth that Venus from her Neolithic sculptor—the recognition of the mysterious, procreative power of the female body that has symbolized creativity since the dawn of art. The urge to embody the earth's fertility, human conception, or any creative aspiration in the form of a female nude is as basic as the artist's urge to take up pen or brush. In the fullness of their bodies, the Willendorf Venus and Nude No. 1 are original sites of art, and to create them is to embrace life at its fullest, deepest, and most generative.
It was not until two years later, during the summer of 1949, that Penn again followed the impulse that had led to Nude No. 1. He organized studio sessions on weekends and holidays, when he had time to indulge his imagination and freely follow the train of his attention. The models he hired were accustomed to posing for artists rather than fashion photographers and inhabited their nakedness without concern for their virtue or vanity. Instead of passively holding a position for hours and relinquishing their bodies like inert things, they actively collaborated with the artist, coming alive in themselves.
Penn will say, lightly, that he inevitably "falls in love" with his models the moment they walk out of the dressing room. Spoken by another, the phrase would be unremarkable, but for a man who chooses his words with meticulous care, it is telling. Whatever we give ourselves over to has immense power to hold us, and Penn is the most attentive of men. So completely does he enter his photography that he and his subject become engaged in a consensual relation, a mutual give and take that is more like love than anything else.
Like an experienced fisherman with a good pull on the line, Penn managed to keep a constant play of communication and awareness—a subtle tension—between himself and his models. Most of the time the photographer was down on the floor with the model, the camera often only two or three feet away from her on a tiny tripod. The women lounged comfortably, giving up their weight to the earth's pull naturally, like hanging fruit. The smell in the studio, Penn recalls, was "sweet and powdery, a little sweaty. Very good. We were alone together for hours. There was no physical contact except an appreciative hug at the end. All the women responded in the same way."
The women he chose as models and the ways he viewed them produced nudes that were highly unorthodox by midcentury fashion standards: their fleshy torsos are folded, twisted, and stretched, with extra belly, mounded hips, and puddled breasts. Although charged with powerful physical and sexual energy, the photographs remain somehow chaste. Like Matisse's figures, whose contours are often left open because the light eats them away, Penn's figures are always complete in their partiality; although they lack limbs and heads, they seem whole, like fragmented antique torsos resplendent in the light. Just as those sculptures, whatever their identity, represent the Goddess, so these nudes, whoever modeled them, represent Woman.
Those who value creativity more than style, and imagination more than titillation, probably will have little difficulty with these nudes; however, some will find these images and the women they represent not beautiful. They are not alone: two powerful arbiters of taste at midcentury, the photographer Edward Steichen and Alexander Liberman, the cosmopolitan, Russian-born director of Vogue, also found them problematic. For those who initially share their opinion, Nude No. 1 and the series that followed offer a rare opportunity to embrace a concept of bodily beauty that is not prescriptive or exclusive. If we suspend our judgment and give in to pleasure we cannot control, we may discover a gratifying expansion of ourselves as we follow these women through their progressions in the evolving series. We may be surprised to find that we are greatly moved and that what moves us is the undeniable beauty of these bodies expressed through Penn's prodigious art, which recognized it and brought it forth.


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A Combinatorial Approach to Evaluation of Reliability of the Receiver Output for BPSK Modulation with Spatial Diversity
In the context of soft demodulation of a digital signal modulated with Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) technique and in presence of spatial diversity, we show how the theory of symmetric functions can be used to compute the probability that the log-likelihood of a recieved bit is less than a given threshold $\varepsilon$. We show how such computation can be reduced to computing the probability that $U-V < \varepsilon$ (denoted $P(U-V < \varepsilon)$) where $U$ and $V$ are two real random variables such that $U=\sum_{i=1}^N |u_i|^2$ and $V=\sum_{i=1}^N |v_i|^2$ where the $u_i$'s and $v_i$'s are independent centered complex Gaussian variables with variances ${\Bbb E}[\,|u_i|^2\,]=\chi_i$ and ${\Bbb E}[\,|v_i|^2\,]=\delta_i$. We give two expressions in terms of symmetric functions over the alphabets $\Delta=(\delta_1,\dots,\delta_N)$ and $X=(\chi_1,\dots,\chi_N)$ for the first $2N-1$ coefficients of the Taylor expansion of $P(U-V < \varepsilon)$ in terms of $\varepsilon$. The first one is a quotient of multi-Schur functions involving two alphabets derived from alphabets $\Delta$ and $X$, which allows us to give an efficient algorithm for the computation of these coefficients. The second expression involves a certain sum of pairs of Schur functions $s_\lambda(\Delta)$ and $s_\mu(X)$ where $\lambda$ and $\mu$ are complementary shapes inside a $N\times N$ rectangle. We show that such a sum has a natural combinatorial interpretation in terms of what we call square tabloids with ribbons and that there is a natural extension of the Knuth correspondence that associates a (0,1)-matrix to each square tabloid with ribbon. We then show that we can completely characterise the (0,1)-matrices that arise from square tabloids with ribbons under this correspondence.


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2013 Nissan NV200 First Drive
SAN DIEGO -- According to the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, California's second-largest city is home to a little over 3 million people, and the downtown area alone is host to over 5000 businesses. That somewhat crowded nature makes downtown San Diego a natural setting for us to take a spin in the 2013 Nissan NV200, a compact cargo van designed for urban settings.
Rise of the Small Vans
American cargo vans may have risen from compact car roots in the 1960s, but quickly grew to full-size truck proportions in the 1970s and 1980s. Van manufacturers didn't really think small again until relatively recently. The introduction of Ford's Transit Connect to the U.S. market in late 2009 resonated with a surprisingly large segment commercial van buyers seeking a practical, nimble, and fuel-efficient van instead of making do with a standard full-size model. Since its introduction, Ford has sold more than 120,000 Transit Connects in the U.S. -- prompting Ram to bring Fiat's Doblo to our market.
That Nissan wants in on this growing action isn't surprising at all. Not only does it already have a line of work vans and a network of commercial vehicle dealers established in the U.S., it had a small van design waiting in the wings. The NV200 first launched in Japan and Europe in 2009 before going on sale in other global markets in 2010.
An American Translation
Like those vans, the North American-spec 2013 NV200 rides upon Nissan's global front-wheel-drive B platform, which also underpins the likes of the Juke crossover, Cube subcompact, and the previous-generation Versa. Despite this commonality, our NV200 isn't just plucked from a showroom overseas -- they've been stretched. U.S.-market NV200 cargo vans measure 186 inches in length and ride on a 115-inch wheelbase. In contrast, NV200s sold elsewhere on this planet are 173 inches long and use a 95.5-inch wheelbase. That extra length adds about 600 pounds, but beefier suspension hardware -- MacPherson struts up front and leaf springs out back -- allows the NV200's payload to remain close to the 1500-pound mark.
More importantly, the stretch increases the space inside. The load floor itself can accommodate items up to 82.7 inches in length, although a fold-flat passenger seatback helps the NV carry items up to 9'8" with the rear doors closed. The cargo hold is 54.8 inches wide, while the load floor between the rear wheel wells measures 48 inches -- just enough to accommodate a standard-sized palate. In all, there's 122.7 cubic feet of load space. That's roughly seven cubic feet shy of the current Ford Transit Connect, but the NV200 may have the edge in terms of agility: not only is it a half-foot shorter overall, but its turning radius is 2.3 feet tighter.
U.S.-spec NV200s also differ from their global siblings in terms of powertrain. While a range of small gasoline and diesels are offered abroad, a 2.0-liter I-4 -- rated at 131 hp and 139 lb-ft of torque -- is the sole engine option here. While other markets receive a manual transmission option, U.S.-spec NV200s are only offered with a continuously variable automatic transmission. That combination allows the NV200 to earn a 24/25 mpg city/highway rating from the EPA, along with a 24-mpg combined figure.
Looks Aren't Everything
There's only so much a designer can do with a wedge-shaped box that lacks tumblehome, but the 2013 NV200 isn't the most unattractive cargo appliance we've seen on the road. The slender headlamps remind us of the Versa subcompact models, although the chunky grille insert is patterned after Nissan's truck line. Grey-colored bumpers are standard fare on all trim levels, but the upper-crust SV trim is available with body colored panels. 15-inch steel wheels are standard on all grades, though SV models are available with argent hubcaps, if so desired.
If you mistook the NV200's exterior for anything other than a commercial vehicle, a quick look at its cabin extinguishes those misconceptions. Door panels and dashboard alike are trimmed in petrified, inexpensive plastics; seats are trimmed in a durable but banal cloth and vinyl blend, and the steering column does without any tilt or telescoping adjustment. Power windows and locks are standard, as are side curtain airbags.
What the NV200 lacks in flash it makes up for in functionality. A large, angled cubby atop of the dash is perfectly sized for holding clipboards, tablet devices, or binders. Another large cubby placed between the front seats can hold a laptop computer or hanging file folders. The aforementioned fold-flat seat can also double as a writing surface, and a pull-out-drawer beneath the seat cushion. SV models include six floor-mounted D-ring cargo lashing points, while all NV200s boast integrated internal cargo and external roof rack mounting points, which expedite the installation of aftermarket storage equipment. SV models are also available with the NissanConnect infotainment system, which incorporates navigation, Google-based POI search functions, and a Bluetooth hands-free phone interface.
Although Nissan is preparing a taxi variant of the NV200 for New York City and other livery fleets across the country, Nissan representatives tell us there is no plan to bring a non-taxi, NV200 passenger wagon model to the North American market.
Small Car Charm
We didn't have an opportunity to toss a few pallets of landscape brick in the back or load the NV200 down with a sizable amount of cargo, but we were allowed to exercise it around the metropolitan San Diego area.
About town, the NV200 behaves like a tall, windowless Versa. That's unsurprising, given its roots, but that car-like nature is quite important, especially to businesses attempting to acclimate new drivers to the NV200. The NV's slender body, tight wheel cut, and small turning radius make threading through traffic and down narrow alleyways an absolute breeze. Acceleration off the line is brisk, but the 2.0-liter and CVT labor slightly when merging onto high-speed freeways.
Drivers, who will likely enter and exit the cockpit dozens of times each day, will appreciate the ability to step up into the NV200, instead of ducking down. Even in its lowest position, the NV200's driver's seat is placed rather high, allowing for impressive forward visibility. Ducking is certainly required when using either of the side sliding doors: because of the upper sliding rail, the side door openings are roughly 2-3 inches lower than the front doors. The 40/60 split rear doors awkwardly block rear visibility when rear windows are equipped, but there's a method to their madness -- when both doors are opened to their full 180-degree position, the driver's side barely sticks out into traffic.
Big Question
The NV200 may not have much competition at the moment, but the field will quickly be changing. Ford's second-generation Transit Connect range will launch in North America early next year, Ram's Doblo should arrive in the middle of 2014, and Chevrolet will even attempt to cash in on the segment by badge-engineering the Nissan NV200 itself. That said, the NV200's capacity, fuel economy, agility, and low price point are attractive to commercial buyers -- and will likely remain so for quite some time.
2013 Nissan NV200
- Base Price: $20,985
- On Sale: Now
- Powertrain
- Engine: 2.0-liter DOHC I-4
- Horsepower: 131 hp @ 5200 rpm
- Torque: 139 lb-ft @ 4800 rpm
- Transmission: CVT
- Drive: Front
- Measurements
- L x W x H: 186.3 x 60 x 73.7 in
- Curb Weight: 3252-3255 lbs
- Payload: 1500 lbs
- EPA Rating: 24/35 mpg (city/highway)
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The Time for a New, All-American Advanced Liquid Rocket Engine Is Now | Commentary
In 1972, President Richard Nixon committed the United States to a space shuttle to meet all launch needs for America's space program — for national security, civil space, human spaceflight and the commercial marketplace. Now, the consequences of this decision and others emphasizing globalization fundamentally threaten America's vital access to space.
Because we put all our launch eggs in one basket with the shuttle, the United States delayed by two decades any development of new launch capability. When we restarted a program in new launch technologies, our emphasis on globalization left our space launch infrastructure without a critical element, namely a large, advanced-hydrocarbon-fueled rocket engine. Russia has had this capability for decades, China will soon have it, and the United States lags well behind. To protect vital U.S. national security and economic interests in the 21st century, America needs to develop an advanced-hydrocarbon-fueled rocket engine.
Recently, Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson wrote about returning to realpolitik. "Globalization," he said, "could never swamp everything else. Economics is not omnipotent. Markets promote prosperity and deliver benefits, but they also stir instability and impose costs." The geopolitical reality of 2014 in Syria, Iran, Crimea and Ukraine is that certain elements of vital American national security infrastructure can no longer be "outsourced" in pursuit of benefits from globalization.
Today American space access is largely dependent on Russia. Crew transport to the International Space Station is provided entirely by Russia. Our national security launch infrastructure depends on propulsion hardware that is imported from Russia.
America and Russia have a positive history of space cooperation. From Apollo-Soyuz to ISS in orbit, Russian and U.S. leaders have seen the benefits of cooperation in space exploration and commerce. In the 1990s those policies led America's aerospace companies to form joint ventures with Russian aerospace companies. These ventures were created and, on net, paid dividends to Russian and American interests.
In the heady post-Cold War '90s, these relationships reached their zenith when Lockheed Martin offered the U.S. Air Force an Atlas V launch vehicle powered by the Russian RD-180 liquid oxygen/kerosene engine for affordable, reliable access to space. This proposal was accepted and today is a workhorse of U.S. national security space access.
But as Samuelson concludes, after 20 years of globalization, we are "left today (with a) messy mix of old and new. Countries pursue their interests in ways that involve, but are not limited to their economic interests." It is time for the United States to step back from decisions on our space program that clearly tilted too heavily towards globalization and post-Cold War rapprochement with Russia.
We do not suggest that space cooperation with Russia is bad or that it should be totally curtailed or discouraged, but simply that there are elements of U.S. infrastructure that cannot be outsourced indefinitely. We must revitalize America's space infrastructure, and the right place to start is with an advanced-hydrocarbon-fueled booster engine — an engine critical to U.S. leadership in rocket propulsion for access to space.
America has not been idle in rocket engine development over the past 20 years. Today we produce several advanced engines — the RS-68 engine for the Delta IV rocket; the RL-10 upper stage engine for Atlas and Delta IV; and refurbished RS-25s for Space Launch System. The Merlin engine for Falcon launch vehicles is a relatively small hydrocarbon engine derived from an older U.S. technology that is not as efficient as current-generation oxidizer-rich staged combustion (ORSC) engines like the 30-year-old RD-180. ORSC engines offer performance advantages significantly affecting launch vehicle design, operations and safety, and provide spacecraft designers with a better launch environment.
These advantages can be maintained by developing a new advanced liquid oxygen/kerosene rocket engine produced in the United States. This new engine could be the replacement engine for updated Atlas, Delta, Antares and Falcon launch vehicles, power strap-on boosters for SLS, and enable future low cost reusable launch systems. By utilizing the engine across launch vehicles, efficient rate production can assure affordability for all. Such an advanced engine can be developed and in production in under four years.
The first building block of a national space program is the powerful, affordable, efficient and safe first-stage liquid-fueled rocket engine that sits under it. An advanced large OSRC hydrocarbon-fueled engine — all-American designed and built — is easily within our reach. We should build it now to assure the continued availability of economic and national security benefits derived from access to space.
Mark Albrecht served as executive secretary of the White House National Space Council and president of Lockheed Martin International Launch Services. Don Kerr served as the principal deputy director of National Intelligence and director of the National Reconnaissance Office.


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Welcome to Schroders
"I'm often asked how a two century-old business stays relevant in the modern world. It's one of my favourite questions and one I always answer in the same way.
My response is that we've never forgotten that our business is all about our clients. By understanding their needs, anticipating how these will evolve in the future, and focusing on building wealth for them in the long-term, we have remained current, relevant and up-to-date.
Of course, appreciating what matters most to an individual client is just the start. We also invest in understanding the ever-changing environment. Both the big picture and the fine detail are important in this – that's why we pride ourselves in having specialist teams with freethinking ideas. They give our clients a unique lens on the world and allow us to invest for them with conviction, take long-term decisions and seek sustainable returns.
Delivering long-term value demands powerful tools as well as deep insights. We have always tailored our investment strategies and solutions so that they are focused on protecting and growing our clients' wealth. That means we're tough with ourselves – designing and stress testing products and ideas at every turn and ruthlessly discarding anything that doesn't measure up now or in the future.
Client focus, specialist teams, bespoke solutions – it's a simple story that you'll hear across our firm from my colleagues in every part of our business. All three are works in progress – constantly developed, tuned and delivered for our clients now and for the next two centuries. Constantly focused on their future prosperity."
Peter Harrison, Group Chief Executive


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Concern about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) isn't confined to the US. We've also seen deep worries over the treaty, which is being drafted secretly and outside the normal international channels for such work, in countries like Canada. But the debate rages across the Atlantic, too, and Europe's Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) tried to get access this week to 12 secret EU documents on the treaty.
Meanwhile, the EU continues to insist that critics are making a Tour Eiffel out of a molehill, and that border guards won't soon be checking anyone's iPod for copyright infringement.
Show us the documents
Groups concerned about the treaty, and about the fact that all the negotiation will be complete before it is presented for public viewing, have resorted to similar tactics to dig up information. In the US, the Freedom of Information Act has been used to request access to internal negotiation documents, while Canada's Access to Information Act has been successfully used to unearth at least a few pages of data.
In Europe, FFII hopes that its requests will meet with more success. FFII analyst Ante Wessels says that "parliaments cannot build an informed opinion about ACTA and therefore will not be well prepared to use their power."
In order to get the information it wants, the group hopes that a recent European Court of Justice ruling will support is position. That ruling found that the public has broad rights to preliminary legislative texts, since the "considerations underpinning legislative action is a precondition for the effective exercise of their democratic rights."
FFII wants 12 documents from the EU, all with exciting names like, "Recommendation from the Commission to the Council to authorise the Commission to open negotiations of a plurilateral anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (10-09-2008 7095/08 REV1)."
The basic worry, according to an earlier FFII analysis of ACTA (somewhat speculative, of course, since no draft text is available), is that "the Community's efforts to fight piracy suffers from a fundamental misconception. It fails to make adequate distinctions between commercial piracy enterprises, legitimate/lawful activities undertaken by business competitors, or even the common activities of ordinary Europeans. As a result harsh measures aimed at commercial piracy enterprises also hurt business competitors and civilians."
When the governments negotiating ACTA have deigned to come down from the mountaintop and speak to the teeming masses below, the message has generally been: you folks are crazy. Canadian, US, and EU authorities have all stressed that the darkest fears of ACTA opponents—iPod-searching border guards, mandated three strikes law, mandated ISP surveillance, etc.—are generally found in proposals submitted by various stakeholders. And just because stakeholders want to stuff the agreement like a Thanksgiving turkey doesn't mean they will succeed.
At a public meeting held by the US Trade Representative recently, a USTR rep involved with ACTA negotiations stressed that the various Internet proposals had yet to even be discussed. The focus of the treaty is allegedly on large-scale, industrial counterfeiting.
That's the line taken by Europe, as well. In a document issued on September 15 (and not, ahem, this week) by the European Commission's External Trade division, the EU insists that "ACTA is not designed to negatively affect consumers." The goal remains large-scale infringement.
"EU customs, frequently confronted with traffics of drugs, weapons or people, do neither have the time nor the legal basis to look for a couple of pirated songs on an i-Pod [sic[ music player or laptop computer, and there is no intention to change this."
You're not paranoid if they really are out to get you
But the conspiracy theories certainly have some basis in fact. Remember, we've seen real and sometimes creepy uses of customs authority to seize laptops and other devices at the border without any reason whatsoever. And Big Content's ACTA request list really is stuffed with goodies that should make consumers cringe.
And so, while the EU might not come after an "i-Pod" while families are waiting in line for a flight out of Schiphol, people have a right at least to worry that Big Content's desire to push its agenda in every conceivable forum, bill, trade agreement, and private memoranda of understanding means that some truly bad ideas will eventually slip through. Vigilance is required, especially when the agreements are being drawn up in secret.
Not that the parties involve believe they are being secretive. As the EU puts it, "It is alleged that the negotiations are undertaken under a veil of secrecy. This is not correct. For reasons of efficiency, it is only natural that intergovernmental negotiations dealing with issues that have an economic impact, do not take place in public and that negotiators are bound by a certain level of discretion."