text:
Last week we asked you to share your favorite to-do list manager, we rounded up the most popular responses, then you voted for your favorites.
Photo by little blue hen.
In an unexpected turn of events, good ol' paper won this largely digital race with 22% of the vote. Following by only a fraction of a percent was Google Tasks (22%) trailed in third by Remember the Milk (17%). Rounding out the bottom of the Hive Five was Toodledo (13%) and Things (10%).
G/O Media may get a commission
Ooh. stunning.
New Amazon Fire TVs
Have a favorite tool that didn't get a nod? Let's hear about it in the comments. Have an idea for the next Hive Five and you can't wait to see it get its due? Send us an email at firstname.lastname@example.com with "Hive Five" in the subject line.


text:
The new library at Chicago State University has one ironclad rule: No students allowed in these stacks – only robots. Every book, CD, and DVD in the school's $38 million facility is tagged with a radio-frequency ID chip. When a borrowed item slides through the return slot, the system identifies and sorts it. Human librarians shelve post-1990 materials in the traditional stacks and drop older stuff into file-drawer-sized bins. From there, it's all robots – tall, forklift-style machines that run on tracks and stow the materials in a three-story-high storage facility. No Dewey decimals? No problem. The computer knows where everything is and can hustle the correct bin to the circulation desk for checkout.
And if the software crashes? "Libraries are highly networked," says dean Lawrence McCrank. CSU's database is backed up at the Online Computer Library Center in Dublin, Ohio, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "We were building databases with integrated retrieval before there were computers," McCrank says. "They were called card catalogs."
Robotic Librarians by the Numbers
- Top speed of CSU's robotic librarians: 7 mph
- Average time for a robot to retrieve five books: 2.5 minutes
- Average time for a student to retrieve five books: 2 hours
- Capacity of CSU's high-density storage: 800,000 volumes
- Robots making out in the stacks: 0
– Erin Biba
credit: Nathan Kirkman
Biblio Tech
What's Inside: Powdered Nondairy Creamer
How To: Disable Your Passport's RFID Chip
What Happens on the Internet...
The Best: Web 2.0 Acquisition Bait

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Browse eprints by Research Funding
Group by: No Grouping | Leaders | Start Date | Document Language
Number of items at this level: 1.
Naspetti, Simona; Zanoli, Raffaele and Bracchi, Luca (2008) Consumption of Organic Foods from a Life History Perspective:An Explorative Study among Italian consumers. Università Politecnica delle Marche , Dipartimento di Ingegneria e in formatica Gestionale - DIIGA.
This list was generated on Mon Mar 20 16:23:35 2023 CET.


text:
BirdLife International announces new Chief Executive
Posted on Thu, 07/08/2014
BirdLife has announced the appointment of Patricia Zurita as the new Chief Executive of the BirdLife International Partnership.
Currently Executive Director of the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund (CEPF) and a Vice President of Conservation International, Patricia will begin her new role on 1 February, 2015.
"Patricia is an outstanding conservationist with a strong track record of delivering global scale conservation at a local level. It is this experience that makes her a perfect fit for taking on the leading role in the BirdLife Partnership", said Khaled Irani, Chairman of BirdLife's Global Council.
"Patricia joins the organisation at an exciting time and I am very pleased to be able to welcome her to the BirdLife family. Patricia's appointment as the first woman from the developing world to lead an international conservation organisation is a clear statement of what BirdLife is all about; a truly global vision for biodiversity conservation."
Originally from Ecuador and currently based in the United States, Patricia has a well-established background in Natural Resource Economics and Management. She has worked across the globe developing economic initiatives and building civil society capacity, in partnership with both the non-profit and the business sectors. She takes a pragmatic approach to conservation that has delivered real results while working with and helping to develop civil society.
Her time with the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund has seen her lead their fundraising strategy and develop multi-million dollar strategic partnerships to consolidate and expand the existing work of the organisation. She leaves the CEPF in a strong position, delivering conservation across the world's biodiversity hotspots.
"I am delighted to be taking on this new role as Chief Executive of BirdLife, leading the world's largest civil society Partnership for nature and people. BirdLife is recognised throughout the world as a conservation leader and is the acknowledged authority on the world's birds", said Patricia Zurita.
"BirdLife's conservation reach is unparalleled and it makes me very proud to join a genuine local-to-global partnership that brings together 2700 Local Conservation Groups across some 120 territories. I strongly believe that global problems, like the biodiversity loss crisis, require local solutions, and the BirdLife Partnership embodies that strategy seeking for greater harmony, and a more equitable and sustainable future for all."
Original post available here
- Log in to post comments


text:
HOVER to Learn About:
TAP to Learn About:
- Tell me moreOne of only 50 that will ever be made. Once it's sold out, it's gone forever.Our curators partner with top artists to create stunning limited edition prints that are only available here.
- Tell me moreComes with a Certificate of Authenticity that's signed and numbered by the artist.The Certificate of Authenticity serves as proof that your art is a bonafide member of its unique limited edition. In other words, keep it in a safe place.
- Tell me moreLive with your art for 30 days and if it doesn't work, we'll come pick it up for free, no questions asked.Shipping and returns are safe and simple. Orders arrive within 3 weeks of purchase and we insure your art shipment at no additional cost.
- Tell me moreSkip the trip to the framer. We custom mount and frame any work of art with museum-grade materials.Choose our Classic or Premier frame and your art arrives in a handmade wood frame, available in five colors. To top it off, lightweight acrylic or museum glass protects your piece from damage.
Why we love this piece
Elena made this idyllic, dreamy landscape by double-exposing photographs of parks, nature and birds.
Elena Lyakir
Born: Ukraine|Lives:
Brooklyn, NY
Explore this artist
Elena developed a passion for photography as child intrigued by Soviet cinematography and historical family photographs. She picked up her first camera as a 7 year old living in communist Ukraine before immigrating to the United States with her family seeking political asylum.


text:
EliteField 2-Door Soft Pet Playpen, Exercise Pen, Multiple Sizes and Colors Available for Dogs, Cats and Other Pets (48″ x 48″ x 32″H, Navy Blue+Beige)
Attention Buyers: About 90% of the returns are because of purchasing the wrong sized pet playpens. To avoid having to return the pet playpen, please measure the spaces where you will place the pet playpen before you place an order. Please also measure your pet and make sure that the pet playpen is not too
(as of April 19, 2020 6:12 pm EDT - Details) + Add To Wish List


text:
The RIAA has apparently had a change of heart towards a Texas woman accused of sharing music over KaZaA when she was 16 years old. In Maverick v. Harper, the industry group has backed off its demand for a jury trial and has instead opted to accept a judge's $7,400 damage award: $200 for each of 37 songs downloaded in whole or in part by the RIAA's hired investigative gun, MediaSentry.
Whitney Harper admits to using KaZaA, but said that she had no idea that it was illegal to download and share music over P2P. She cited a lack of warnings from the KaZaA software that the music contained on the popular network was "stolen or abused copyrighted material" and a general lack of understanding of copyright infringement, P2P applications, and P2P networks.
Judge Xavier Rodriguez ruled in September that, while Harper was guilty of copyright infringement, she was an "innocent infringer." So instead of having to pay up to $30,000 in damages for each of the 37 songs, Harper was directed to pay $200—below the usual $750 lower limit for violations of the Copyright Act.
Initially, the RIAA resisted the judge's ruling, opting instead for a trial on the amount of damages. The RIAA has since altered its stance, filing a motion for entry of judgment and fighting Harper's request that the trial go forward. Harper makes "no cogent argument to demonstrate why Plaintiff's Motion should not be granted," argue the record labels. "Instead, Defendant attempts to resurrect an issue that has no bearing on Plaintiffs' motion and that has already been decided by the Court, twice."
The issue referred to by the RIAA is whether simply making a file available over a P2P network is sufficient to constitute copyright infringement. Judge Rodriguez had ruled previously in Maverick v. Harper that making available constituted infringement, notes the RIAA, and Harper's attempts to get him to reconsider are "vexatious."
What the RIAA fails to note is that the landscape has changed, not only since Maverick v. Harper was originally filed in 2007, but in the weeks since the judge's $200-per-song award was made. Just days after the RIAA rejected that award, a federal judge in Minnesota overturned the $222,000 verdict against Jammie Thomas, citing an incorrect jury instruction on the "making available" issue.
Harper's attorneys included that opinion in their motion asking that the trial go ahead as planned. While it would be appropriate in a "normal lawsuit" to stick with the $7,400 judgment, argue her attorneys, this case is anything but normal. "[I]in this case we have this single case, one of tens of thousands of lawsuits filed as a part of a massive campaign to preserve a business model currently dominant in the music," reads the motion. "This Court is aware that this case is not about the actions of Whitney Harper, a young lady who was 14 to 16 years old at the time of alleged infringement. It is instead about an 18 billion dollar industry that was once on a rising trend, now facing its comeuppance by rapidly evolving technology and eroding morals."
An RIAA spokesperson declined to comment on why the group has reversed course and decided to accept the $7,400 judgment mere weeks after angling for a much higher number. We suspect there are a couple of factors. First is the making-available issue mentioned above. It's a bedrock of the group's legal campaign against P2P users, and the RIAA is anxious to avoid having that eroded by yet another adverse ruling.
Another reason is bad PR. That's right—despite appearances, the RIAA does have concerns about its public image. RIAA and record label executives are on record that the lawsuits are not meant to make money; rather, they are meant to educate users and act as a deterrent. We noted in our previous coverage of this case that rejecting the court's award and pushing for what could be a six-figure damage award made the RIAA look hypocritical.
Should the judge deny the RIAA's motion for entry of judgment, the trial would take place in mid-November.


text:
You might've heard the rumors (or, come to think of it, maybe not) about a secret group of individuals who gather at Black Point on the night of the full moon. As the moon lifts itself from the sea they – yes, you guessed it – howl.
We agree – that's a little freaky. So we've got a better idea about how to enjoy this beautiful monthly event: Full Moon Yoga at Lanikai Beach, taught by Jennifer Perell (she also teaches when the sun shines at Koa Yoga, Windward YMCA, Yoga Hawai'i in Kaimuki, and at private lessons).
Each full moon (the next is this Wednesday, June 18) just head to the beach, lay down your yoga mat over the straw beach mats Jen sets out, and join the 10-20 others who usually take the time to drink in the moonlit night. As the glowing orb rises over the Moks you'll flow through the asanas with your breath, and whether a beginner or old yoga hand, Jen offers poses and modifications for all.
Another great reason to get out and stretch your body – and maybe your mind and soul while you're at it.
Even if it's only once in a blue moon.
This month's Full Moon Yoga on the Beach is on Wednesday, June 18, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Mokumanu Street beach access (second left), Lanikai.
UPDATE (AUGUST 2010): Full moon yoga is now taught by former Koa Yoga owner/instructor Leah Distad. For current dates and to sign up, contact Distad at 808.780.8544.


text:
Gunplay -- Best Part of House Arrest ... I CAN HAVE SEX!
Gunplay Best Part of House Arrest ... I CAN HAVE SEX!
Gunplay tells TMZ ... he's extremely excited to be out of jail and on house arrest -- where he can actually have sex with other people ... instead of being stuck with his right hand.
Gunplay -- a rapper who's signed to Def Jam-- was released from jail on $150,000 bond and placed on house arrest stemming from an April 13 incident in which he allegedly attacked and robbed his accountant in Florida.
"Being on house arrest really is a blessing for me," Gunplay tells us ... "This has helped me slow down and not want to do negative things anymore."
He adds, "This is a life-changing eye-opener for me that I need to just slow down and do right."
Gunplay -- who's still facing charges of aggravated assault and armed robbery with a firearm -- says he's passing the time by working on his album, playing video games and bangin' chicks ... which is a HUGE change from how he entertained himself while he was behind bars.
"One main difference from house arrest instead of jail is that I can still get sex ... which is a wonderful thing. Although in jail I was still f**king Corporal Mary Palmer and her five sisters."
Corporal Mary Palmer could not be reached for comment. Ditto for her five sisters.


text:
About Gina Badalaty
Gina Badalaty is the owner of Embracing Imperfect, a blog devoted to encouraging and assisting moms of children with special needs and restricted diets. Gina has been blogging about parenting, raising children with disabilities, and allergy-free living for over 12 years. She's blogs at Mamavation.com, and has blogged for major brands like Silk and Glutino. She also works as a copywriter and brand ambassador. She loves engaging on social media, travel and cooking gluten-free.


text:
Stand Tall: How to Prevent Falls
Treadmills, balloons and other tricks to help you keep your balance
On any given day, every 18 seconds, an older adult lands in the emergency room because of a fall. And nearly 23,000 deaths a year are linked to falls. Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham and Robert Atkins, M.D, of Atkins diet fame, for example, both died as a result of falls.
But when her dog yanked on the leash during a walk on an icy sidewalk, Sandra Perkins was prepared. The 65-year-old retired nurse from Hazel Crest, Ill., had just finished a training program at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she practiced recovering from slips and trips. Twice a week for two weeks, Perkins put on a harness, stepped on a specially designed treadmill and learned how to respond to slippery situations created by the researchers.
"What I'd learned to do on the treadmill became automatic, and I didn't hit the ground," Perkins says.
More than a third of people age 65 and older fall each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Deaths from falls are largely due to head injuries or hip fractures that lead to extended hospitalizations.
CDC figures in 2006 showed that falls contributed to 1.8 million emergency room visits by Americans age 65 and older. By 2008, that number had climbed to 2.1 million.
And the problem, says Judy A. Stevens, a senior epidemiologist with the CDC's Injury Center, is going to continue to get worse as the population ages.
But researchers, scientists and doctors are not giving up. They're in a race against time to use new technologies—and old—to prevent falls. Indeed, just talking to a doctor about how to avoid a spill can be vital.
The CDC's Stevens says learning how to prevent falls not only helps people avoid injuries, but also helps them preserve their independence, their ability to walk to the store, visit friends, navigate their own homes.
The federal government supports these anti-fall efforts through the Safety of Seniors Act (SOS), enacted in 2008 to fund projects, research and education. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., one of the bill's sponsors, called falls among the aging a "serious public health issue."
Pain, canes and elevators
Loss of balance, weak muscles, impaired vision, medications and hazards in the home are most often blamed for falls.
And recent research has turned up other causes of falls and ways to address them, including:
- Control pain: Chronic or severe pain can lead to falls in part because the body may alter posture and movement to adapt to the pain. "Older people may tend to minimize or dismiss pain," but they shouldn't, says Suzanne G. Leveille, professor of nursing at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and lead author of a November study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers found that those with severe pain were 77 percent more likely to fall compared with those without pain. Work with your doctor to manage pain and treat the underlying conditions, such as arthritis, that cause the pain.
- Test for inner-ear disorder: An inner-ear disorder called vestibular dysfunction may cause dizziness and affect balance. Your physician can test your balance by asking you to stand with your eyes open and then closed, first on the floor and then on a foam mat.
- Adjust medications: While medications can increase the risk for falls, sedatives and antidepressants may be particularly dangerous, according to an analysis of findings from 22 studies.
- Use canes properly: Improper use of canes and walkers sends 47,000 older people to the emergency room each year. Don't borrow these devices; have a physical therapist fit you with one and teach you how to use the aid.
- Don't let pets trip you up: Pets are responsible for 21,000 older adults being treated for falls every year. Don't let pets lie next to the bed or at the foot of your chair, and keep their toys off the middle of the floor.
- Careful going up (or down): Navigating elevators can be tricky for older adults. Between 1990 and 2006, more than half of the 2,600 elevator injuries in adults over age 65 that were severe enough to require a trip to the emergency room were the result of a slip, trip or fall, according to a new study. Take your time, don't run for the elevator, and don't stick an arm, a leg or a walker into a closing elevator door.
Ask your doctor
Unfortunately, knowing why we fall doesn't seem to translate into fewer falls. Often older adults don't admit to vulnerability or even to having had a fall, and so they don't take steps to prevent them. Jeffrey Kaye, M.D., director of the Oregon Center for Aging and Technology at Oregon Health and Science University, has learned that firsthand. He and his colleagues placed wireless sensors in the homes of volunteers and monitored their movements. The participants in the ongoing study are asked every week if they have fallen.
A "yes" doesn't result in any difference in their walking according to the sensors.
"They get up and they say 'I fell' but they are able to walk and they just go about their business," Kaye says. Although the home sensor system shows that people fell, "it doesn't change their behavior, at least in the short term, in any obvious way."
So what's the best way to break this cycle?
Having a doctor evaluate patients' risk for falls is the most important step people can take, says Stevens of the CDC's Injury Center.
High-tech solutions
While the ancient practice of tai chi and other programs can improve balance, the latest technology may also help in the fight against falls.
Perkins from Illinois was in a pioneering program where she and others got on a treadmill, wearing a harness that held them up if they fell. As researchers unexpectedly speeded up or slowed down the treadmill, people would often fall the first time but quickly learn to catch themselves. That was no surprise to Mark Grabiner, professor of kinesiology and bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who designed the program. He and his colleagues have been studying how older adults fall in order to train them not to—whether by taking a short step, a long step or even a couple of steps to help them regain their balance.
"The beauty of this is that we really don't have to teach anybody anything," says Grabiner. "We put them on the treadmill, and the nervous system does the rest. It's so cool." Grabiner says the treadmill helps re-train nerves and muscles to respond automatically when people trip or slip.
Researchers in Australia are testing the Nintendo Wii balance board's effects on older adults. And in a pilot study in New Hampshire called ActiveStep, a computer-controlled treadmill with a support harness that simulates slips and trips has been shown to reduce falls by 40 percent when used with traditional physical therapy.
Balloon volleyball
Tonya Walton, who teaches a six-week fall-prevention class at Friendship Village Community Center in Chevy Chase, Md., says she uses low-tech measures to achieve similar results. Class members play volleyball with balloons, play catch with tennis balls and participate in other games that improve eye-hand coordination and movement. She also teaches simple strength and balance exercises—like walking toe-to-heel. Walton says as her students enjoy the games, their bodies remember how they moved when they were children. Stiff gaits relax and balance returns. It's the same effect the university researchers are creating, but without the harness or treadmill.
"People come back to me after the class is over and say they are no longer afraid when they walk outside," Walton says.
Cathie Gandel is a freelance writer based in Bridgehampton, N.Y.


text:
Matthew 7:13-23 – The Nazarene's Commentary: The True Disciple #5 Matthew 7:28-29 – The Crowd's Reaction
Matthew 7:28-29 – The Crowd's Reaction
MT7:28 Now, when the Jesus finished these words, it took place that the crowds were astounded at his teaching. MT7:29 For Jesus was teaching them as one possessed of authority and not as their Copyists.
B.S. Commentary:
Known as the son of a manual labourer people often where surprised to hear so much wisdom coming out of this man's mouth. The Nazarene as a sent one from God was the greatest human teacher to ever live because his knowledge was beyond what any human could possibly attain.
When he started his public life there where people who wanted to follow him. Even scribes saw in him a teacher worth following (Matthew 8:19) and several people came to him for advice (Matthew 19:16). Several people became convinced that he was the sent one from God and a rebbe teaching the way of God truthfully. He also was known as one who did not care about anyone's opinion, for he was not swayed by appearances. (Matthew 22:16).
Jesus considered his listeners when he taught. He spoke to them in a way that the message would get into their hearts, the place that motivates people. He skilfully used illustrations and questions and engaged people of any age.
After listening to the Sermon on the Mount people wondered how this man could say such things. They also questioned if he could have the right to speak in such a manner. More and more people started wondering who this person could be who dared to speak in public with such authority. Some got really annoyed by his manner of speaking and attracting such a crowd. Recall from the Gospel of John the Jewish religious leaders felt threatened by Jesus' effectiveness with people. So much so, they conspired to arrest him.
Mt 13:54 And coming into his own country he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these {1 } mighty works? {1) Gr powers }
Mt 22:33 And when the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
Mr 1:22 And they were astonished at his teaching: For he taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes.
Mr 6:2 And when the sabbath was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and {1 } many hearing him were astonished, saying, Whence hath this man these things? and, What is the wisdom that is given unto this man, and what mean such {2 } mighty works wrought by his hands? {1) Some ancient authorities insert the 2) Gr powers }
Mr 11:18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, for all the multitude was astonished at his teaching.
Lu 4:32 and they were astonished at his teaching; for his word was with authority.
Joh 7:46 The officers answered, Never man so spake.
In the previous articles on the Mountain Sermon we could see that Jesus used unassailable logic (Matthew 7:24-27), meaningful illustrations (Matthew 7:3-5) and object lessons (John 13:2-16) which today are still of value.
Jesus not only used his own words. He got inspired by the Words of his heavenly Father. He quoted from the Hebrew Old Testament over 120 times, and from over 20 of the 39 books. When asked which commandment was the greatest, he summed it up this way, as he quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18,
"37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. {1) De 6:5} 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 {1} And a second is like it: {2} You shall love your neighbor as yourself.{1) Or [And a second is like unto it, Thou shalt love etc] 2) Le 19:18} 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."." (Mt 22:37-40 Updated ASV)
Jesus spoke to them in parables,
"because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand"
and in his time it was as difficult for people as it is today because many did or do not want to hear the truth and prefer to clinch to human teachings or church doctrines.
Jesus did not need any human teaching, like the scribes quoted others to lend authority to their teachings. For him God's Word was saying enough and should be clear enough for people to understand, if they would be willing to hear and to open their hearts.
Jesus always was humble, willing to listen to others and not using hurting words or vile language. With his example and manner of speaking he showed to have a worthy authority (which he had received from God). Today there are still lots of Christians who do not understand that a man of flesh and blood could receive authority from God and therefore they say Jesus has to be God.
"And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth." (Mt 28:18 ASV)
"All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal [him]." (Mt 11:27 ASV)
First lower than angels, he followed God's Word and always kept doing the Will of God, putting his own will aside. Two years after Jesus had given his first sermon on that mountain he as a forerunner entered for man in God's Reign and was received up into heaven to sit down at the right hand of God where he was made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek and received full authority over the earth. (Hebrews 4:14 + 6:20)
"who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him." (1Pe 3:22 ASV)
Preceding articles
The Nazarene master teacher learning people how they should behave
Matthew 7:1-11 – The Nazarene's Commentary on Neighbor Love Continued 7: Matthew 7:1-5 Judgment and neighbor love
Matthew 7:12 – The Nazarene's Commentary: Summary on the Torah's Fulfillment
Matthew 7:13-14 – The Nazarene's Commentary: The True Disciple #1 The Narrow Gate and the way to destruction
Matthew 7:15-20 – The Nazarene's Commentary: The True Disciple #2 False prophets and fruitage
Matthew 7:13-23 – The Nazarene's Commentary: The True Disciple #3 Matthew 7:21-23 The ones Jesus never knew
Matthew 7:13-27 – The Nazarene's Commentary: The True Disciple #4 Matthew 7:24-27 – Conclusion
Authority from the One God to one mediator between God and men
Additional reading
- Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be
- Hearing words to accept
- Priest, scribes and others with authority
- Gain Christ, trusting Jehovah
- Witnesses of Christ and of his gospel
- The Mountain: Radical Obedience
Further reading
- Teachings of Jesus
- Category Archives: Teachings of Jesus: Introduction; Teachings on the Great Commission; Jesus' Teachings on Character
- The Gospel According to Matthew: The Principles of the King
- But because You said so…2
- Truth For Today
- Authority Must Flow Down From On High
- Hearing the king (Matthew 7:28-29)


text:
Watford Football Club have a home match on Saturday 10th August against Brighton & Hove Albion (Kick off 3pm). Parking restrictions will be enforced and traffic delays can be expected before and after the match.
The police will close of the section of Vicarage Road, between the junction with Fearnley Street and the junction with Harwoods Road. This will be for a short period before and after the match.
Further information about fixtures and other activities at Vicarage Road Stadium, can be found on the Watford Football Club website


text:
NEW YORK — The FBI tracked the late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam for more than two decades, newly released documents show.
Students at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism obtained the FBI documents by filing a Freedom of Information Act request. The university posted the documents on its Web site Thursday.
The FBI monitored Halberstam's reporting, and at times his personal life, from at least the mid-1960s until at least the late '80s, the documents show. The agency released only 62 pages of a 98-page dossier on the writer, citing security, privacy and other reasons.
Halberstam won a Pulitzer in 1964 for his coverage of the Vietnam War while working as a reporter for The New York Times. In 1972, he wrote "The Best and the Brightest," a best-selling book critical of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.
It's unclear when the FBI began monitoring Halberstam, though the first documents made public date from 1965, when he was a Times correspondent in Poland during the Cold War.
The agency kept tabs on Halberstam's reporting there and his first marriage, to Polish actress Elzbieta Czyzewska, the documents show.
The files include published reports of Polish officials expelling Halberstam and Czyzewska from the country because of his news stories about Poland's communist leaders. The documents also include stories written by Halberstam and telephone company records of calls to him.
In 1971, FBI agents considered interviewing Halberstam, according to the documents. They don't say why agents wanted to talk to him or whether they ever did. The last document released is dated 1987.
The FBI declined to comment Friday on why it tracked the writer.
"The FOIA speaks for itself," spokesman Rich Kolko said.
A Times spokeswoman didn't immediately return a telephone message.
Halberstam's widow, Jean, said he was never certain federal agents were watching him but assumed it was possible.
Under J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director at the time, the agency's now-defunct counterintelligence programs known as COINTELPRO monitored and disrupted groups believed to have communist and socialist ties in the 1950s and '60s.
Before it was shut down in 1971, the domestic spying operation had expanded to include civil rights groups, anti-war activists, the Ku Klux Klan, state legislators and journalists.
Jean Halberstam said her husband referred to Hoover "as our country's worst public servant."
She called the agency's monitoring of the writer "a terrible waste" of time and taxpayer money.
"David's life was very much an open book," she said. "He did not much care about what people who disagreed with him thought about him."
Halberstam left daily journalism in 1967 and turned to books. His works included "The Fifties," a chronicle of that decade's upheavals, and "Summer of '49," an account of that year's New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox rivalry.
He remained based in New York until he was killed in an April 2007 car crash in Menlo Park, Calif., near San Francisco. He was 73.


text:
Freedom New Mexico
A long-awaited Pentagon report on repealing the "don't' ask don't tell" policy so that gay people can serve openly in the military services strongly suggests, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates put it, that it "would not be the wrenching, traumatic change that some people have predicted."
The report also noted, however, that there could be "some limited and isolated disruption to unit cohesion and retention."
It is worth noting that, while 70 percent of service members overall believe the impact of letting gays serve openly would be positive, mixed or of no consequence, the percentage of those who anticipated problems was higher for Marines and for troops on active combat duty. These facts suggest that a transition and adjustment period might have to be longer than some advocates might prefer. But it would be helpful for Congress to start that process now – with a few provisos.
Senate Republicans have announced that all 42 of them will filibuster any bill during this lame-duck session until two essential bills are passed: one to maintain the status quo on tax rates, perhaps with minor compromises, and a Continuing Resolution to provide funding to make sure the government doesn't shut down in a few weeks. There is little reason to doubt their resolve.
Congressional Democrats who want to see D.A.D.T. changed, as President Barack Obama promised during his campaign, are undoubtedly aware that the Congress taking power in January, with six more Republicans in the Senate and with Republicans in control of the House, will be unlikely to make this change. So it behooves Democrats to pass a tax-rate extension and a budget Continuing Resolution if they want to change military policy. Defense Secretary Gates prefers that Congress change military policy rather than having it imposed by judicial fiat, which would undermine the perceived legitimacy of the change. He is correct.
He has also expressed concern about maintaining and encouraging integrity in an institution that requires people to be deceitful about who they are in order to serve.
A time may and probably should come when there are no more lame-duck sessions of Congress. This year, however, Congress would do well to listen to Gates.


text:
Adobe today confirmed that the Flash Player bug it patched Sunday is being used to steal login credentials of Google's Gmail users.
The vulnerability was patched yesterday in an "out-of-band," or emergency update. The fix was the second in less than four weeks for Flash, and the fifth this year. A weekend patch is very unusual for Adobe.
"We have reports that this vulnerability is being exploited in the wild in active targeted attacks designed to trick the user into clicking on a malicious link delivered in an email message," said Adobe spokeswoman Wiebke Lips in response to questions today. "The reports we received indicate that the current attacks are targeting Gmail specifically. However, we cannot assume that other Web mail providers may not be targeted as well."
According to Adobe's advisory , the Flash vulnerability is a cross-site scripting bug.
Cross-site scripting flaws are often used by identity thieves to hijack usernames and passwords from vulnerable browsers. In this case, browsers themselves are not targeted; rather, attackers are exploiting the Flash Player browser plug-in, which virtually every user has installed.
Adobe said that Google reported the Flash Player flaw to its security team.
Targeted attacks that try to steal account information are commonplace, but they've been prominent in the news since last Wednesday, when Google accused Chinese hackers of targeting senior U.S. government officials and others in a long-running campaign to pilfer Gmail usernames and passwords.
China has denied Google's allegations . The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is looking into Google's charges.
The attacks aimed at stealing Gmail account information using the Flash Player vulnerability, however, are different than those Google acknowledged last week. Those attacks, which have been active since at least February, did not rely on an exploit, and instead duped victims into entering their username and password on a fake Gmail login screen.
Adobe updated the Windows, Mac OS X and Linux versions of Flash Player Sunday, and said it would follow that with a patch for the Android edition sometime this week.
Google, which bundles Flash Player with Chrome, also updated its browser on Sunday, refreshing all three of its distribution channels -- stable, beta and dev -- to include the patched version of Flash.
Adobe rated the bug as "important," the second-highest ranking in its four-step threat scoring system. In Adobe's scheme, that rating indicates that attackers may be able to access data on the victimized computer, but cannot plant malware on the machine.
Although most Flash vulnerabilities can also be exploited using specially-crafted PDF documents -- Adobe's Reader includes a component named "authplay.dll" that renders Flash content in PDFs -- Adobe said it wasn't sure whether its popular Reader contained the flaw.
"Adobe is still investigating the impact to the Authplay.dll component," the company's advisory stated. "Adobe is not aware of any attacks targeting Adobe Reader or Acrobat in the wild."
While Adobe did not say whether Reader -- and the for-a-fee Acrobat -- will be patched, the programs are slated for an update June 14 to fix other flaws the company has previously acknowledged in authplay.dll.
Users running browsers other than Chrome can download the patched version of Flash Player from Adobe's site.
Flash's update mechanism -- added to the Mac edition just last month -- should kick in to offer the patched plug-in.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is email@example.com .
Read more about security in Computerworld's Security Topic Center.


text:
When it comes to paid online advertising, more of the same—even if it's worked for you in the past—doesn't work anymore.
According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) latest report, internet advertising hit an all-time high of $32.7 billion during the first half of 2016. Just for a bit of perspective, that's a full $5.3 billion more than the first six months of 2015. Not surprisingly, the lion's share belongs to two camps: search (27%) and mobile (48%).
Those are all big numbers and none of them are surprising. So what do they mean for you as an ecommerce merchant?
Two things: (1) the competition for online advertising is fierce and (2) simply investing in search and mobile isn't enough.
Enter product listing ads (PLA).
New to PLAs and Google Channel?
This gifographic is based on research by Johnathan Dane, founder of KlientBoost, and Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce.
For a complete walk-through, download Brett's The Ultimate Guide to Google Channel.Access the Ultimate Guide
There's nothing jaw-droppingly fresh about PLAs. They've been a part of Google Merchant Accounts for years. A simple search of any high-intent keyword (e.g., "dress shoes for men") reveals exactly what we're talking about.
What you might not know is the chance that you've clicked a PLA and moved directly to a purchase is far higher than other PPC and CPC methods. One study from earlier this year discovered that "revenue from Product Listing Ads (PLAs) grew by 52% year over year in the first quarter of 2016." And that's not all. In keeping with the domination of mobile, during that same timeframe, mobile PLAs alone experienced a:
171% lift in both clicks and orders
23% rise in return on ad spend (ROAS)
45% overall bump in site wide revenue, and a
164% increase in sales
Numbers like that are why PLAs should be your go-to tool for connecting prospects with products as quickly and profitably as possible. In other words, shortening the funnel from search to sale.
I'm glad you asked.
To answer that question, Shopify Plus and I partnered up with the team over at KlientBoost to create the world's first Product Listing Ads Gifographic. Here are the five easiest ways to increase your clicks, ROAS, and sales all with PLAs.
1. Go Negative with Keywords
Because Google Channel campaigns don't let you target specific keywords but instead are based solely on your product itself, you have to go negative.
That doesn't mean you can't control the relative "intent" of each search -- i.e., how serious the person looking for certain products is about buying.
You can do this by creating three different campaigns for each PLA:
(1) Generic Campaigns: "Sneakers"
If you want to target broad queries, exclude (1) common brands associated with your product type and (2) the names of specific products.
(2) Brand Campaigns: "Nike"
To zero in on brand searches, this time eliminate (1) specific product names as well as (2) any generic terms that will only serve to dilute the brand you want to feature.
(3) Product Campaigns: "2016 HyperDunk"
To get down to a single "make and model" (i.e., one specific product), use negative keywords to exclude (1) all generic terms and even (2) the brands themselves.
Create separate campaigns governed by negative keywords to ensure relevancy and optimize your bidding. You can also use negative keywords to discover what campaigns -- generic, brand, and product -- have the highest conversion rates as well as the lowest CPA.
And knowing that is the key to dramatically improving your ROAS.
Naturally, what you'll usually find is that product campaigns perform the best. After all, these are the searches with the highest intent. In contrast, a generic campaign tends to yield the lowest conversion rate and highest cost per conversion. Anybody Googling "sneakers" is far from ready to buy.
As a result, your bidding structure should start out as a reflection of that logic:
- Product Campaign: Highest Bids
- Brand Campaign: Competitive Bids
- Generic Campaign: Lowest Bids
2. Get Detailed with Your Feed
To match searches to ads, Google uses four parameters, all of which are housed in the product feed of your Google Merchant Center account: (1) a product category taxonomy that's organized by presets Google provides; (2) the product type, which is similar to taxonomy but created by you; (3) the product title; and (4) the product description. Mess up any of these parameters and the whole campaign falls apart.
(1) Product Category
While expansive -- clocking in at just under 5,500 options of which you get to pick one -- thankfully, Google's taxonomy is straightforward. You can download the entire spreadsheet here and use Ctrl + F to search for the best option. You may be tempted to go broad, thinking that will increase how often your ad is displayed. That's true, but the more detailed you get with your selection, the higher the relevancy of your PLA will become -- increasing conversions and decreasing costs.
(2) Product Type
The same principle is true of your product type. Get as niched as possible to ensure you match the intent of the search that'll trigger each ad:
(3) Product Title
Like the name implies, product title is the first thing that appears in your PLA:
Onsite, it makes sense to get creative and have fun with your product titles. After all, the majority of your visitors are repeat customers already familiar with your brand's style. For PLAs, be clear, not creative (and certainly not clever).
Both Google and Shopify's own Ultimate Guide to Google Channel by Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce, stress a short-list of best practices:
- You get 150 characters for your product title. Don't waste nor leave blank a single one.
- Front load the most important information (users will see only the first 70 characters).
- Use keywords like the product's full name, brand, gender, size, color, and differentiating factors: e.g., "Nike Flex 2016 RN Men's Water-Resistant Running Shoes, Size: 9, Black."
(4) Product Description
Because your product description is rarely viewed in a PLA, the temptation here is to ignore it and opt for a quick cut-and-paste from something like the manufacturer's listing. Don't. Google uses the description to determine if your ad matches search queries and -- for people who use the Shopping platform exclusively -- it's the only pitch you get.
So again, get detailed. This ad -- if you haven't picked up on our theme yet -- strikes a perfect balance between relevant keywords and real, human copy that's conversational, easy-to-read, and compelling.
3. Divide and Conquer with Product Groups
Complexity is a killer. It's like Pete Seeger says, "Any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple." That's true in life, business, and especially PLAs.
How do you make your PLAs less complex?
Tight-knit product groups.
Google lets you divide your product groups "using product attributes like category, product type, brand, condition, item ID, and custom labels."
The smaller your product groups, the easier it is to adjust bids at the individual product level. And as tip one stressed: that's the key to ROAS. In addition, tight-knit product groups also give you greater control over the search term triggering your ads.
CPC Strategy explains it like this: "Most Shopping advertisers have their campaign structured as one ad group for one campaign, breaking out with product groups to get more granular from there."
In 17 Reasons Why Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) Always Win, Johnathan Dane goes to great lengths to prove that this "approach isn't just for AdWords, it works for social (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) and display networks."
Why? Because SKAGs meet search intent head-on. They give you granular control over exactly what appears and allow you to tailor each and every ad at a near-personalization level. Here's an example of what that looks like applied to AdWords:
With PLAs, the fewer products you sell, the closer you should get to one-to-one: one product, one ad. If that's not possible, creating individual ad campaigns based on tight-knit product groups still gives you full control over a host of Google options:
- RLSAs for remarketing (i.e., retargeting)
- Auction insights for competitive analysis
- Mobile control to separate device types
- Group breakouts to divide by brands, products, types, GPCs, and custom labels.
- Negative keywords as outlined above
- Geo-targeting for localization
This is optimization at its best. But what exactly should you be optimizing for?
4. Balance Your Bidding with ROAS
Ecommerce comes down to one metric: cost versus profit. Once you put Google's revenue tracking into place, the lure will be to optimize based on "cost per conversion."
Instead, make your return on ad spend (ROAS) the be-all-and-end-all by factoring in your margins over time. For example, a 2.0 ROAS might be great, but only if the cost per sale in addition to the cost per conversion doesn't offset your margins.
Here's how the smart folks at KlientBoost handle the issue: Create two columns in your AdWords account once you have revenue/transaction tracking in place:
- Total conv. value = total revenue generated from that campaign, ad group, product group.
- All conv. value / cost = Your revenue generated divided by your ad spend cost (this is your ROAS/ROI).
Knowing your true ROAS for PLAs -- as well as all your online advertising -- is the only way to ensure your bidding is balanced. Otherwise, you run the very high risk of falling for lesser metrics and sinking your money into campaigns that look great when it comes to vanity and revenue but don't make you money.
If you hire a PPC agency to run your ads for you, this is quite possibly the most important lesson to take away: insist that they report ROAS as outlined above.
5. Bring 'Em Back with Retargeting
No doubt you know about retargeting (also known as, remarketing). But just in case, here's a description from AdRoll:
"Retargeting converts window-shoppers into buyers. Generally, 2% of shoppers convert on the first visit to an online store. Retargeting brings back the other 98%. Retargeting works by keeping track of people who visit your site and displaying your retargeting ads to them as they visit other sites online."
And that 98% isn't just fluff. As Shopify Plus reported in How to Execute an Effective Ad Retargeting Campaign That Works: "retargeted ads led to a 1046% increase in branded search and a 726% lift in site visitation after four weeks of retargeted ad exposure."
And it's especially powerful for ecommerce. Dynamic retargeting allows you to remind and recapture lost visitors -- visitors who clicked your PLA, but never converted -- by building ad sets that automatically update with the exact product in which they showed interest. AdWords, Facebook, AdRoll, Perfect Audience, and others all contain remarketing tools that make this easy.
Once you connect your product feed to one of those tools, set a budget, and select a rotation schedule, retargeting takes care of the rest.
Image Source: Quartic USA
In addition to staying top of mind, you can also create custom sequential ads with incentives -- like discounts -- to display based on the amount of time that passes between the initial visit and the ads themselves.
Best of all, the cost per acquisition (CPA) of a dynamically retargeted campaign is far less than the original PLA.
Cut to the Ecommerce Chase
Remember the big numbers we examined? $32.7 billion in total online advertising just during the first half of 2016 alone. Competition is fierce. And simply investing in search and mobile advertising -- more of the same -- won't cut it.
What will cut it, however, is shortening the funnel from search to sale.
PLAs do exactly that. Be sure to (1) go negative with your keywords, (2) get detailed with your product feed, (3) divide and conquer with tight-knit groups, (4) balance you bidding with ROAS as the supreme metric, and (5) bring 'em back with remarketing.
Follow those tips and your clicks, ROAS, and sales will thank you.
Read More
- How To Create a Memorable and Shareable Unboxing Experience for Your Brand
- The Master Guide to Google Channel
- How to Personalize for Unknown Black Friday Cyber Monday Mobile Visitors
- The Science of Impulse Purchases: How to Encourage Your Customers to Buy More on the Fly
- How Ecommerce Teams Get Buy-in To Sell More
- Returning Ecommerce Visitors: How to 'Nudge' Non-Buyers into Taking the Customer Leap
- Supply Chain Optimization: How to Develop a World-Class Logistics Network
- Best Practices for Reopening your Retail Store after COVID-19
- How to Strengthen Your Marketing Using Emotional Intelligence


text:
Some of my albums are now available on Spotify as well, feel free to tune in!
The Journey Begins is an epic and inspiring adventure theme
Epic and inspiring fantasy themed soundtrack tune with really pompous and majestic feel in spirit of Two Steps From Hell and Immediate Music
Celtic Prophecy is epic and intense celtic soundtrack tune
Epic trailer tune
Soundtrack tune from the soundtrack of roguelike indie game Tales of Maj'Eyal addon.
Beautiful choir tune created with 8Dio Insolidus and Olafur strings
Genesis is beautiful ethereal soundtrack tune I composed using 8Dio Insolidus and Spitfire Olafur Arnald Strings
Hero Is Born is epic trailer tune in spirit of Batman and Transformers
Epic soundtrack rumble
Valhalla is epic and pompous soundtrack tune with celtic and viking feel
Chill lounge tune
String tune full of pain and sadness
I upgraded my studio machine and did a fast and raw test run with Hollywood Strings and 8Dio VSTs.
Global Warming is beautiful cinematic documentary soundtrack tune
Epic Rumble defines it perfectly.
Inn is inspiring and happy video game menu theme
Let Me Tell You A Story is a beautiful and emotional soundtrack tune
Solaris is beautiful and emotional soundtrack tune in spirit of scifi classic Solaris
Tight trailerlike epic blast in spirit of Hollywood and Two Steps From Hell. I produced this for the world first kill video of the finnish WoW guild Paragon.
Another example tune from the Ragnaros world first soundtrack.
New material after a long silence
New material after a long silence.
Short, mellow interlude.
The airships of Toran-Mon and their pilots commanded the skies
Another intense battle theme
Sometimes miracles do happen...
Listataivaaseen 18.12. 2005
Angel's Redemption - sad and silent piece.
Dreaming of flying. Melodic and forward-going song.
A bit distinct and alternative soundscape this time. Combines ethnic percussions with vocals and ambient pads.
Slopes of Mont St. Joseph. Quite folkish song with strong percussion background and melody. (Soundtrack)
To the faithful departed
Work in progress. Quite chaotic and drifting soundscape that tries to take elements from jazz and modern classical music.
Merry and light tune
Tear of an angel - strong string-based orchestral piece. (Soundtrack)
8.5.2006 #2 on official list of mikseri.net
War is filled with sinister tasks.
Competition entry for "mimic a composer" competition. Trying to mimic Jeremy Soule's work on Guild Wars soundtrack.
Even jesters cry sometimes
Intense Hollywood-style cacophony. Tested new drum libraries and combined tight rhythms with harmonic tension.
We're flying high above the fields of Tenerron on a dragon.
Title says it all
Intense battle theme
"What is this place...?"
A short and pompous tune - sort of work-in-progress which is still quite raw. I tried to get Gigastudio on it's knees but alas didn't make it so far :)
Pompous orchestral soundtrack tune
A bit older tune which I forgot to upload with the first tunes.
Mystic river flows through the forest.
A simple minimalistic soundtrack tune taking us to the ancient land of the rising sun.
Crystals glimmer in the darkness inside the silent cave
Snowflakes are falling as we fly through the chilly winter air. Combination of drum-loops and orchestral instruments.
Atmospheric and flowing soundtrack tune with electronic ambient soundscapes mixed in.
Mellow and floating soundscape. Past, present and future. Only laughter of children is missing.
A bit melancholic and dynamic waltz with pizzicato and glockenspiel.
After a long night the first rays of the morning sun feel like a blessing.
"We followed him through the infamous bazaar of Tal-Mashad..."
Quite traditional and mellow soundtrack song
Once again something a bit different. Combination of drums and orchestral sounds.
Apprentice wandering inside an alchemist's laboratory. Sort of animation-film-like atmosphere. Disney and Miyazaki here I come. (Soundtrack)
Another short and messy sample. This time I wanted to try a more massive and intense atmosphere - music for a battle scene. Intensity is there all right but the structure is still a complete mess. New version coming in future.
Sample from the upcoming Ultima IX Redemption soundtrack - the song was produced some time ago so the sounds are not of as high level as the more recent songs, sadly
Sample from the upcoming Ultima IX Redemption soundtrack - the song was produced some time ago so the sounds are not of as high level as the more recent songs, sadly
Sample from the upcoming Ultima IX Redemption soundtrack - the song was produced some time ago so the sounds are not of as high level as the more recent songs, sadly
A secret garden inside an old castle
A short instrumental soundtrack piece. Some secrets are best kept as they are
They're heading straight into ambush
"What are we going to do now?"
Everything is silent. (Soundtrack)
Short interlude which combines classical elements to drum loops.
A bit older song - combines classical elements to folkish percussion rhythms. Cold winter is coming. (Soundtrack)
They are all asleep in these damp corridors... (Soundtrack)
Village built on top of treebranches. 5/4 flows like rain.
Drowsy desert village with dark secrets. Strong visual atmosphere and feeling.
A bit older song - sort of marchlike song, which tries to describe the situation when a military company comes to town in sour mood after a hard battle. (Soundtrack)


text:
The purpose of this text is to compile thoughts, opinions and options to gather metrics for the Fedora Project. Everyone seems to be able to find faults in the different types of metrics available but few have been able to offer improvements and alternatives. No metric is perfect, at present the more accurate the method, the more invasive it becomes. In an Open Source world privacy is important so a balance must be found.
This was discussed on the Fedora-users list and in the Fedora Advisory Board
- https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2006-November/msg00239.html
- https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2006-November/msg05080.html
Metrics are actually important
Many people might say that metrics are numbers just for show and that gathering them just isn't worth it. The fact is that metrics are important for anyone trying to do something with limited resources. It allows us to put what little resources we do have to better use. If the developers spend 20% of their time debugging x86_64 and our metrics show that they are 1% of our install base, the argument could be made that less time needs to be spent on x86_64. (Totally made up numbers)
Metrics are also important for determining infrastructure needs like how many users per mirror we have. Finding these numbers allow us to determine capacity and plan for future growth and spikes in traffic, like those found during a release launch.
There are a few methods available to us to determine how many installs / users are out there. Ideally we'd attempt to pick two different methods and compare their numbers. The closer the numbers, the more accurate we can assume our numbers are.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
There's a number of things that we can't get automatically and there's no point in trying to get them. Here's the list, anyone that thinks they can get these numbers without a survey, state your case to the list.
- Fedora Users: We will never know how many people actually use Fedora.
- Failed Installs: We will never know how many people, experienced or noob, try to install Fedora and fail.
- Industry: We will never know how people use Fedora for business, education, government, military or personal, though with GeoIP and reverse DNS we might be able to ballpark this.
- Server vs Desktop: Just the nature of what a server or desktop is, is blurred. We can never hope to even ballpark this number.
What we can get through automated methods:
- Geographic location: GeoIP can even grab some major cities
- Number of installs during the duration of a release. We currently have no way to measure this, though it is technically feasible.
- Number of installs in a period of time. We currently have no way to measure this, though it is technically feasible.
- Popular packages: Would require coordination with mirrors
- General growth
- Downloads
- Use of EOL'd releases
Phone Home
Phoning home is one of the most obvious methods for determining what installations are out there. The idea is simple, place an image in the home page for Firefox, have yum contact a single site for its mirror list (it already does), have Anaconda dial home during an install, have a nightly cron job contact a central server, etc.
Embedded Image
The embedded image idea has been used other projects. It could be any remote file, js, dtd, image, you name it. When a user opens a web browser, the home page is or contains a link to one of our servers, we then mine relevant information from the logs.
- Easy, safe
- Little effort to implement
- Could be combined with a unique (per machine) identifier for better results
- Could get regular updates unless someone changes the home page
- Not very reliable (What if someone doesn't install Firefox? Or even X for that matter?)
- Mildly invasive
- NAT issue (Many machines look like one)
- Dynamic issue (One machine looks like many)
- Requires further alterations for things like arch and release
- Does not catch offline machines
Functionally similar to the embedded image tracking, yum would phone home to a central server to retrieve a mirror list. This method is currently being used. Initially it was thought that we could also track the number of total hits to the mirror site in a day. The idea being that by default yum checks in once an hour. So 500,000 hits (per day) / 24 hours in a day = 20,800 installs. This assumption has proved to be pretty off as many people alter their settings not to check in.
Since the hits/day / 24 hours = installs method proved off, we've changed to tracking unique IP's. Any time a new IP gets added, we add a number to our total install base. This will not, however, let us know how many installs are out there at any point in time since if someone removes Fedora from their system, they will never get removed from our IP list.
The current system tracks unique IP's based off of users looking for rawhide or updates-released-fc6 and properly tracks arch's.
- Easy, safe
- Will always have this information as long as we have a mirror list server
- Could be combined with a unique (per machine) identifier for better results
- Could get regular updates
- Minimally invasive, it is actually a side affect of a service we provide
- Automatically grab arch and release
- NAT issue (Many machines look like one)
- Dynamic issue (One machine looks like many)
- Difficult to track current install base, mostly tracks total installs.
- Does not catch offline machines
Perhaps the most promising technology is adding a phone home into anaconda. Regular check-ins could be considered invasive by some as they allow some sort of tracking, a one time phone home during anaconda would call back to a server once. Users would need opt out (via check box or ks line) to not send the info back home. This could also be considered something to be done one time on first boot.
- Less invasive then regular phone homes
- Could be combined with a unique (per machine) identifier for better results
- Could be set up to send info about arch and release
- Could be combined with a hardware scanner and software profile
- Adds complexity to Anaconda
- NAT issue (Many machines look like one)
- Dynamic issue (One machine looks like many)
- Cannot track current number of installs, only total successful installs
- Will not catch offline machines
Registration is another method that could be used to determine our user base. On its own its fairly useless, basically allowing us to count registered users. But, when combined with a phone home method, we can get much more accurate information.
User Registration / Survey
User registration would be one method for us to determine who is using our systems and for what purpose. This could be voluntary or mandatory, the latter of which is most accurate. Simply asking our users how many installs they have of what and for what purpose they use it for could be very interesting.
- Requires no changes to the OS
- Can get non-fedora information (Do you use Ubuntu for example)
- Mandatory registration may not be taken well among the community
- Users lie or don't always know
- To my knowledge no other major FOSS is requires registration
Machine registration
Evil? Possibly, but it is the most reliable way to figure out what machines are installed. Lets not fool ourselves, as clever as we get with this someone will be far more clever and find a way around it. Basically a machine installs and as part of anaconda or at first boot a dialog between the machine and our servers will occur. This could be mandatory or voluntary.
- Extremely accurate
- Can account for Fedora installs that no longer exist and remove them from our records
- Can get arbitrary information, installed packages, hardware profile, etc
- Evil?
- Does not catch offline machines
- Requires a changes in our current install method
Unique Identifiers
The most reliable way to get rid of the NAT and Dynamic issue is to have each machine identify itself to the server using a unique identifier. This must be combined with another method but can be incredibly affective.
- Accurate
- When used with Phone Home, automated tracking becomes very easy
- Can get trends and remove a machine that is no longer around
- Requires minimal changes to whatever other mechanism it is partnered with
- No more NAT / Dynamic issue
- Users may be uncomfortable with us tracking individual machines (even if there is no direct link back to them)
- More invasive than just IP tracking
Other Metrics
Most of this document is focused on install base but, as mentioned earlier there are other metrics we could be getting.
Geographic Location
There are a couple of methods for getting this besides using user registration. The first is by enabling reverse DNS lookup on the awstats information we're getting. We did this or a while (http://fedoraproject.org/awstats/fedoraproject.org/10-06/). The other method is to use GeoIP to mine the information for us. Using simple reverse DNS lookups has proved to not scale well in our environment. Nightly scans of our logs took hours instead of minutes. Using GeoIP will require a few new Perl modules but scales much better than reverse DNS lookup.
- Geographical information is important, especially when discussing language support
- Pretty non-invasive, like our yum method this is a side affect of a service we provide.
- Not extremely accurate but it doesn't have to be
Popular Packages
Popular packages would be very easy to grab if we controlled all the mirrors or at least had a way to grab logs from all of our primary mirrors. Even if we couldn't get all the mirrors we could get some of them but aggregating different log types can be a pain.
- Knowing which packages are popular may help us allocate time better (adding more modules and plug-ins for popular packages)
- Requires no changes to the OS
- Difficult to grab
- Won't grab people using local mirrors.
- Distorted by which packages are the defaults
One option is to combine package profiles with registration. With voluntary registration this may be a good way to figure out how people are using our OS.
Public Proxy Servers
One idea for totally anonymous phone homes is to use public proxy servers. Basically have each machine phone home with a unique identifier but through a public proxy server. There's no way for us to trace a profile back to an actual machine or user. This would allow users to totally anonymously send us hardware and software profiles which may make more people participate.


text:
You're right to be concerned about the effects of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 and beyond. The power station in Japan failed miserably following an earthquake, sending radioactive waste into the ocean at amounts still not fully understood. Recently, a study from researchers with Oregon State University has affirmed the spills have affected sea life and Albacore tuna in particular.
Published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, the research, led by Delvan Neville of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics of the University, says there are notable effects of the Fukushima disaster being felt by tuna caught off the coast of Oregon.
"You can't say there is absolutely zero risk because any radiation is assumed to carry at least some small risk," said Neville. But, he says, the amounts aren't enough to pose a risk to consumers.
Neville and his team of researchers examined tuna caught off the Oregon coast between 2008 and 2012. In other words, they had tuna before Fukushima occurred and up to the year following. At the most extreme level, the radioactive isotopes tripled from the pre- to post-Fukushima samples. Neville says this isn't enough to be harmful.
"A year of eating albacore with these cesium traces is about the same dose of radiation as you get from spending 23 seconds in a stuffy basement from radon gas, or sleeping next to your spouse for 40 nights from the natural potassium-40 in their body," he explained. "It's just not much at all."
Read: Fukushima Fish Have 258x 'Safe' Level of Radiation
Not everyone's convinced.
Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences say the worst is yet to come and that the most highly radioactive water hasn't reached our shores yet.
Some estimates say the water could be 10 times stronger when it reaches the U.S. shores than it was when it left Japan. Others, say it's diffusing. One thing is for certain, the radioactive contamination is still traveling in ocean currents, the long-term effects of which remain to be seen.


text:
Freedom strikes deal for Arizona paper sale
Freedom New Mexico
Freedom Communications filed a motion Tuesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware seeking approval of the sale of its Phoenix-area publications to 1013 Communications LLC, an affiliate of Thirteenth Street Media.
In a statement, Freedom said company officials hope a hearing will be held in early March and that the transaction can be completed shortly thereafter.
"We believe this transaction is in the best interests of our employees, customers and the communities we serve," officials of the Irvine, Calif.-based media company said in the statement.
Thirteenth Street Media, based in Boulder, Colo., owned by Randy Miller, is the publisher of newspapers in suburban Tucson and Telluride, Colo.
Freedom Communications is also the parent company for the Clovis News Journal, Portales News-Tribune and Quay County Sun. The New Mexico properties are not connected to the proposed Arizona sale.


text:
Travis, William Barrett
Travis, William Barrett trăv´ĭs [key], 1809–36, hero of the Texas Revolution, b. Edgefield co., S.C. He moved to Claiborne, Ala., where he practiced law. Travis later moved (1831) to Texas and soon acquired local prominence. He was ardent in urging the revolt of the American settlers against Mexican rule. In the Texas Revolution he served as a colonel. After the Texans had taken the Alamo, he was sent to reinforce them and became commander of the fort. The little force was beset by the Mexican army of General Santa Anna (Mar., 1836). The Alamo fell, and all of its defenders, among them Travis, James Bowie, and David Crockett, were massacred. The defense became a symbol of heroism.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies


text:
Emaciated horses confiscated from Loxahatchee Groves farm
Horse owner faces felony animal cruelty charges
Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control officers confiscated more than a dozen horses from a farm in Loxahatchee Groves on Wednesday. Nearly all of the horses were emaciated.
"Right now, we're looking at 14 animals that have not been cared for properly over the last month-and-a-half, at least," Animal Care and Control Capt. David Walesky said.
"The animals that I'm seeing right now certainly appear to be starved," Animal Care and Control Director Dianne Sauve said.
According to investigators, they first noticed the malnourished horses more than a month ago. They gave the owner of the horses until Wednesday to improve their health. She didn't.
"This is an animal cruelty situation," Walesky said. "For whatever reason, she's not providing these animals with what they need to be able to live a happy existence."
Walesky said the owner told investigators she was having financial difficulties. He said that's not an excuse and plans to file felony animal cruelty charges against her.
"When there are other options that exist, to me, that's intentional," Walesky said. "If you can't provide for your animals, you need to find humane options for them."
The horses are now being housed at a barn at Animal Care and Control. Veterinarians are treating them, and volunteers dropped off supplies to help feed them.
However, the shelter still needs all the help it can get. Anyone who wants to donate food or volunteer is asked to call 561-233-1200.


text:
"Despicable, unconstitutional, ridiculous, immature, idiotic and mendacious." And that's just how Tennessee newspapers characterized the state's "ag-gag" bill now awaiting the governor's signature.
Ag-gag bills criminalize whistle-blowing that exposes animal abuses, unsafe working conditions and environmental problems on factory farms.
Instead of encouraging whistle-blowing and preventing these violations, ag-gag laws ensure that consumers and regulatory authorities are kept in the dark.
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota and Utah have enacted ag-gag laws, but such bills were defeated in eight other states, thanks to a strong outcry from the public and newspaper editors. In 2013, new ag-gag bills were introduced in Arkansas, California, Indiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont and Wyoming. The language has been invariably drafted by the infamous anti-consumer American Legislative Exchange Council.
Thirty newspapers and 60 national animal protection, workers' rights, civil liberties, public health, food safety and environmental conservation organizations have recently gone on record as strongly opposing ag-gag bills.
Our government must never restrict our right and obligation to know where our food comes from. For a recent update on the status of ag-gag bills, visit mfablog.org/2013/04/state-of-the-ag-gag-2013.html.
Will Turmeric, Wellington


text:
If you can handle its 24-inch screen, the Medion X9613 all-in-one certainly looks the part of a perfectly contained HTPC.
Loaded with Windows 7, the X9613 features a multitouch screen, Core 2 Quad Q9000 processor, Nvidia GT240M graphics, 4GB of RAM, Blu-ray drive and even a second Sideshow monitor (that box you see on the bottom, we believe). But it's the system's glossy, touch-button and fingerprint-friendly design that would make it an aesthetically welcome addition to one's typical array of home theater equipment.
Announced for Europe only at the moment, the X9613 is priced between $2,100 to $2,700 after conversion. Luckily, these types of rigs will only get cheaper.[New Gadgets via Engadget]


text:
Spurs host suddenly hot Raptors
The San Antonio Spurs seemed to have righted themselves from a brief funk and look to remain perfect on a four-game homestand when they host the Toronto Raptors Wednesday night at the AT&T Center.
The Spurs had lost two straight and four of five games until opening the homestand with a win over the New Orleans Hornets last week. They then made it back-to-back victories courtesy of Sunday's 129-91 blowout of the rival Dallas Mavericks and spoiled the return of Dirk Nowitzki.
Nowitzki had missed the opening of the season to recover from offseason knee surgery and was held to eight points in 20 minutes of action. Danny Green led the Spurs with 25 points and made 7-of-8 3-pointers, while Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard scored 18 and 17 points, respectively. Tim Duncan posted 14 points for the Spurs, who shot 56 percent for the game and hit 20-of-30 from beyond the arc (66.7 percent).
"Luckily it felt good tonight. Some nights you have it and some nights you don't," said Green. "Good thing we had it tonight. Not just myself, but everybody else on the team also stepped up and knocked down some shots. It helped us open up the lead a little bit."
San Antonio's 20 3-point makes set a new franchise record for most in a single game. The Spurs, who scored 25 points off 20 Dallas turnovers, have won six in a row at home and are 10-2 in the Alamo City this season. They will wrap up the residency Friday versus Houston.
In injury news for the Spurs, guard Gary Neal is questionable Wednesday with a strained right calf.
Toronto has been on a roll lately with five wins in a row and will begin a three-game road trip against the Spurs, Hornets and Orlando Magic. The Raptors have struggled away from Canada this season, losing 14 of their 16 road games, and are 0-9 as the visitor against teams from the West.
The Raptors extended their season high winning streak to five games with a 93-90 triumph versus Orlando as DeMar DeRozan led six Raptors in double figures with 17 points and also pulled down eight rebounds. DeRozan has been playing well all season and has scored 14 or more points in 10 of the first 11 games in December.
Jose Calderon added 13 points and nine assists for Toronto, which has held opponents under 100 points in a season-high seven straight games and won despite shooting 40.7 percent for the night. Terrence Ross had 13 points in a winning effort and is averaging 10.4 ppg in the previous five.
"He's playing well," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said of Ross. "He's earning every second he's on the floor, mainly on the defensive end. He got some key rebounds, some tough rebounds in traffic.
"We're not developing Terrence Ross, he's earning every minute of it. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be out there."
For how well Toronto has been playing defense lately, the Spurs can light it up practically every night. The Raptors are a dismal 0-13 when allowing the opposition to reach the 100-point mark.
The Raptors haven't won six in a row since March 22 - April 4, 2009. They lost to the Spurs, 111-106, in double overtime at Air Canada Centre back on Nov. 25 and are winless in the past four meetings.
Toronto has dropped its last three and nine of 10 games in the Alamo City. DeRozan is averaging 20.7 ppg in six games against the Spurs.


text:
Grab the Friday Favorites button to display on your site:
Link up your favorite blog posts from the week using the linky below and Maya and I will comment on them! Remember to share the love by reading and commenting on a few other posts from the list after you enter your link in the list. The linky will stay open until Monday afternoon.


text:
Airbnb is flying high. Today comes the news that the company might be valued at $2.5 billion. The number of nights booked through the online subletting service soared to 10 million by June 2012, five times what it was a year earlier.
But as the site's popularity has grown so, too, have the risks. Forget the meth addict who trashed one San Francisco apartment. That's an extreme example.
Rather, the rocky road Airbnb faces now is something that most other American companies are celebrating: the economic recovery.
It is no coincidence that Airbnb came of age during the worst recession the US has seen in a generation. In fact, co-founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia started the site in October 2007, two months before the Great Recession began. A conference was coming to town, hotel rooms were sold out and the two put up a part of their San Francisco loft for rent. And so a company was born, a poster child for the "sharing economy" movement.
Over the next few years, though, Airbnb also became the go-to site for hosts and guests who shared something else in common: desperation and underemployment. In New York City, where I live, hipsters and freelancers started renting out their bedrooms and sleeping on the couch. Why? So they could pay the rent.
And who are the people who sublet from them?
Often hipsters and freelancers.
Here's why: The housing crisis led the US into the recession. A wave of foreclosures wreaked havoc on people's credit, which made it hard for them to not only buy another house but also just to rent one. Then came rampant unemployment. Tougher lending standards meant that if you hadn't been in a job for two years continuously, you couldn't get a loan. That forced an awful lot of people to rent. But they often couldn't find another job right away. So they took what they could get: part-time work, contract jobs, temporary staffing.
Landlords hate those types as tenants. But these people still needed a place to live.
Their options were limited: Live with Mom and Dad (if they're nearby). Rent a room or a basement apartment (if it's affordable). Sleep on a friend's couch (gets old quick).
Enter Airbnb. It became a part of the very gray real-estate economy of the last five years. Airbnb has even mentioned this in its advocacy of its business model, one that has roiled the hotel industry (more on that later). During a conference, Chesky praised his invention for helping "thousands" of homeowners avoid foreclosure. The company's own survey found that almost half of New York hosts rely on Airbnb income "to make ends meet," spending 80% of it on their own living expenses and other bills.
But now the foreclosure crisis is over and housing is recovering. Jobs are being created again. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has pledged to keep rates low until at least 2015, in a move that all but forces Americans to get back to seeing their home as an investment vehicle.
Even victims of foreclosure are in the housing market again, dubbed "boomerang buyers." An Oct. 17 client note from Morgan Stanley referred to "cyclical improvement" in the household formation rate—literally the rate of housing keeping up with the vicissitudes like graduations and new jobs, marriages and new babies.
What does all this mean for Airbnb?
It means people like my freelancer friends who once slept in my guest room (for free) so they could rent out their homes are finding steadier work to pay their rent. It means people have something to fill out on the "employer" line of a rental application.
It means people don't have to settle for Airbnb like they used to. And that leaves the company's growth in the hands of a much tougher business: hotel.
To many, that's what Airbnb has been all along. But without a customer base of desperate hosts and boarders, it is left with homes that are actively being rented out on a nightly basis, for tourists with actual expectations of comfortable beds and high thread counts, or maybe just no roaches or mice. Earlier this month perhaps in a nod to this reality, I received a survey from Airbnb, along with all other New York City hosts asking for the best local eateries, bars and tourists spots, a crowdsourced concierge.
Hotels—the real kind, with licenses and front desks, tiny shampoo bottles and fluffy pillows galore—don't look on this kindly. The Hotel Association of New York City is trying to fight Airbnb's expansion by saying its rentals are not subject to fire code.
Landlords too are lining up. At least two of my acquaintances have been evicted due to Airbnb sublets. It's apparently growing common. For its part, Airbnb tells hosts to ensure their leases allow subletting. Everyone knows that's rare.
The company, for its part, is taking the legal challenges seriously. This week, the company lured away Yahoo's deputy general counsel, David Hantman. He's clearly girding for battle, saying in his farewell note: "…my job will be to help [Airbnb] convince governments that allowing people to rent out their own homes or apartments should not be a problem."
The investors seem to need little convincing, ever pumping cash into Airbnb, impressed with the margins on the site's average 10% transaction fee. Understandably, they don't see the iceberg coming—because if they have hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in this company, they can afford a hotel.


text:
In a rare move, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has rescinded its Best Original Song Oscar nomination for "Alone Yet Not Alone," from the movie of the same name.
Bruce Broughton, who wrote the music, reportedly violated the Academy's rule to campaign in a "fair and ethical manner." Broughton, who is a Music Branch executive committee member, allegedly emailed other members of the branch during the voting period and told them his song was nominated.
"No matter how well-intentioned the communication, using one's position as a former governor and current executive committee member to personally promote one's own Oscar submission creates the appearance of an unfair advantage," said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs.
He probably should've just sent them extremely early holiday gifts.
The Academy won't replace the nomination. The remaining four songs are "Happy" from "Despicable Me 2," "Let It Go" from "Frozen," "The Moon Song" from "Her," and "Ordinary Love" from "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom."
The Oscars will be televised March 2 on ABC.
Contact Tony Hicks at Facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks or Twitter.com/insertfoot.


text:
The word "Frontier" lives a double-life. In the public world of bookstores and Star Trek episodes, it carries itself with bearing, symbolizing something wild and lawless, a place of promise, adventure, and renewal. Within the Academy, however, "frontier" carries the whiff of the disreputable, a word that has fallen into disuse. Once praised and powerful, it now stoops on stair-landings to rest.
The decline of the "frontier" within the Academy has been long and precipitous. Made famous by Frederick Jackson Turner's 1893 essay "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," it's been the inspiration of dozens of books and hundreds of articles.
Why? Because Turner linked the frontier to the story of American progress, arguing that it rejuvenated American culture by placing pioneers into contact with the wild, savage world at the edges of civilization. In the process, pioneers had to break from the strictures of the civilization they left behind and re-imagine life from the ground up. In the process, Turner argued, they recapitulated the long arc of human society from savagery to civilization, infusing American society with the energy of their innovations.
The frontier thesis was (and in some quarters, still is) seen as a compelling story of American uniqueness. In it, supporters found a story to justify a view of Americans as a special, exceptional people.
Still, the frontier thesis found itself under attack from many quarters. In the 1980s, New Western Historians argued that the frontier thesis did not accurately present the progression of changes in the West, nor did it explain the broader arc of American progress. Moreover, frontier was a word that privileged one perspective in the story of the West: the pioneers who viewed these lands as wild and savage rather than the indigenous peoples who called them home.
Between those supporting the thesis and those criticizing it, discussion of the Frontier Thesis seemed to be everywhere, a subject so fecund that it threatened to overwhelm all other subjects within the discipline. All of this ultimately led historian Patricia Limerick to label "frontier" as the F-Word, a term that had become a hindrance, rather than a help, to historian scholarship.
What to do? In her 1992 book Imperial Eyes, Mary Louise Pratt abandoned the term frontier, replacing it instead with the phrase "contact zone," a less loaded term for the place of encounters between indigenous peoples and Euro-Americans.
I see the wisdom in Limerick and Pratt's decisions. And yet still, I think there's still a place for frontier, particularly within the field of the history of exploration. Limerick is right to argue that frontier is a loaded term, one that brings with it a particular tilt. It shares this ground with other loaded terms such as "discovery" and "exploration," concepts which only make sense from the perspective travelers rather than natives.
Yet by definition, stories of exploration adopt the perspective of people traveling into the field. For expeditionary scientists — such as Alexander von Humboldt, Joseph Banks, Charles Darwin, and Alfred Russell Wallace — the grand stage of global travel did represent frontiers, places of profound mystery, inspiration, and otherness.
That their perspective represented a limited frame of reference is clear. Still, within this frame of reference, we see powerful transformations of thought and identity. Expeditionary letters and field sketches express the weight of these events, the frontiers of new experience.


text:
Rick Santorum's Wikileaks
Catholic scold Rick Santorum thinks Julian Assange is a "terrorist"—and ought to be prosecuted as such—for his role in releasing thousands of pages of classified documents on the internet. He ought to know: In 2006, Sen. Rick Santorum literally forced the U.S. government to dump thousands of pages of classified records concerning Iraq onto the web, including detailed plans for building a nuclear weapon, so that right-wing bloggers could search them for evidence of Saddam Hussein's phantom WMD.
The story of the "Operation Iraqi Freedom Documents" is one of the more maddening and irrational detours that the neocons took on their long march toward catastrophic geostrategic failure. During the course of the invasion of Iraq, U.S. forces confiscated more than 48,000 boxes of Iraqi government documents—intelligence reports, military plans, etc. As the invasion quickly turned sour and no WMD's turned up, panicked war proponents turned to the documents with hopeful eyes—surely there would be some scrap of paper in there somewhere to justify the increasingly disastrous adventure?
Douglas Cox tells the tale in an impeccably researched post at his blog, Docex (that's for "document exploitation"):
The drive towards this unprecedented doc dump arose in earnest in late 2005 and early 2006 when the continuing public debate over the justifications for the 2003 Iraq invasion turned towards the possibility of untapped evidence in the captured documents from Iraq. Could they contain, for instance, "smoking gun" evidence of links between Saddam and al-Qaeda? Stephen F. Hayes at the Weekly Standard, for example, had an impressive series of pieces during this period on his attempts to obtain access to some of the captured Iraqi documents both via the Pentagon press office and via repeated FOIA requests.
Trouble is, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which maintained control over the documents, thought it might be more prudent to assess the documents for intelligence before simply dumping them on the public. But the neocons, apparently still drunk on their blogospheric takedown of Dan Rather, came to the belief that the Iraqi documents would be better analyzed by right-wing bloggers than intelligence professionals.
Which is why, on March 14, 2006, Santorum introduced a bill forcing the ODNI to publish the documents online. The mere threat of legislation was enough to spur action, and within two days the whole mess was online in the form of the "Operation Iraqi Freedom Document Portal."
Did it contain evidence of WMD? Sort of. There were no documents definitively linking Hussein to al Qaeda, or demonstrating the existence of an active WMD threat. There was, however, "a basic guide to building an atom bomb," published on the internet, by the United States, at the insistence of Rick Santorum. As the New York Times put it:
The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs.
No less an authority than former Bush chief of staff Andrew Card said at the time that the release was stupid, and that Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte had opposed Santorum's push for release: "John Negroponte warned us that we don't know what's in these documents, so these are being put out at some risk, and that was a warning that he put out right when they first released the documents."
ODNI of course took the documents down, but not before they were grabbed by anyone and everyone who may have been interested in designing a nuclear weapon.
A spokesman for Santorum did not respond to a request for comment.
[Image via Getty]


text:
U.S. senators on Thursday struggled at a committee hearing to understand AT&T's explanation for how exclusive deals for phones like the iPhone stimulate innovation.
The hearing was called by the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to study the effect that long-term exclusivity deals have on the wireless market and particularly on people living in rural areas. It was called partly in response to a filing that the Rural Cellular Association made last year to the Federal Communications Commission, arguing that exclusive handset deals turn rural customers into second-class citizens because in some cases they have no option to buy the latest and most popular phones.
An executive from AT&T, which has a multiyear exclusive deal to sell the popular iPhone, said the agreements are good for the market. "I believe consumers benefit from exclusive deals in three ways: innovation, lower cost and more choice," said Paul Roth, president of retail sales and services for AT&T.
But the senators found it difficult to see why a phone maker wouldn't prefer to sell to all customers of all the carriers. "I accept the benefits you articulated but I'm having a difficult time trying to envision why an innovator, given the size of the market and the number of outlets, is not going to innovate to produce a product that is equally competitive [to an exclusive phone] … because it wants to appeal across different providers," said Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat.
In response, Roth argued that exclusive deals enable innovation because the operator and manufacturer share the risk. He suggested that operators will ask manufacturers for certain features on phones but manufacturers will often only do so if the operator agrees to buy a certain number of phones, he said. "Manufacturers want someone to share the risk," Roth said.
He pointed to the Samsung Propel as a successful example of a phone that was developed in close partnership between the operator and the manufacturer.
However, most of the discussion at the hearing revolved around the iPhone, which most people agree was independently developed by Apple, without input from AT&T. Even Barbara Esbin, senior fellow and director of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, who defended exclusive deals, noted that the iPhone was not co-developed. "It was Apple, a new entrant with a single handset, that sought exclusivity and tightly controlled product development rather than AT&T," she said. The Progress and Freedom Foundation counts many large telecommunications and media companies among its supporters.
In addition, Apple has created a new scenario in the wireless industry by forging a very long exclusivity deal. The rural operators said they could live with the exclusive deals when they covered a matter of months. "This is years, not months," noted Jack Rooney, president and CEO of U.S. Cellular, referring to the iPhone deal. AT&T would only confirm that its deal with iPhone is multiyear. AT&T has been selling the iPhone exclusively in the U.S. since mid-2007. Some of the panelists said they believed the agreement is for five years.
That means that customers in rural areas, who want the same things as customers in urban centers and who may not have AT&T coverage, can't use the iPhone, said Hu Meena, president and CEO of Cellular South.
A senator from Meena's home state put that idea into a real-life scenario for someone living in a rural area. "That 18-year-old kid hunting in the woods … he might like to have an iPhone, but if he doesn't have the coverage, that consumer is then prevented from having the consumer choice," said Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi.
"If he has an iPhone but no AT&T coverage there, it's not going to do him a lot of good out on the deer stand," Meena agreed.
One panelist argued that the Carterfone precedent should apply to this issue. More than 40 years ago in a landmark case known as Carterfone, the FCC decided that network operator AT&T must let people own their own phones and attach other devices to the network. The result spurred innovations such as the fax machine.
"We take for granted the right to own and attach telephones to the wired network. That freedom should extend to wireless networks," said Robert Frieden, professor of telecommunications and law at Penn State University. He noted that TV broadcasters don't restrict people from watching cable or DVDs and computer makers don't regulate which ISP people can use or what services they can access. Wireless customers should have the same freedoms, he argued.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, agreed. "If we had done this in the past with the computer area, it would be like Microsoft and IBM having exclusive deals and you would actually never have had a Google because who would have wanted to make deals with some of these startup companies that might not have had much promise. So I have a big concern about innovation and the long-term effect this might have on pricing," she said.
The Commerce Committee is inviting public comments about the issue over the next week.


text:
Imax Credit Repair Firm San Jose
Credit Repair San Jose
To qualify for a business loan, you need to have a good credit score. The same applies if you are applying for a mortgage or car loans. A bad credit score limits you from achieving your financial goals. iMax Credit Repair Firm San Jose can help. We are a reliable San Jose credit repair company offering quality credit repair services. We review your financial credit report to determine your financial situation and identify any potential negative items that could be affecting your credit score. Our team then creates an action plan to eliminate the negative items on your credit report and increase your credit score. You can trust us to help you improve your credit health.
Business Name:
Imax Credit Repair Firm San Jose
2570 N First St Suite 200San Jose CA 95131United States
(408) 213-7445
Neighborhoods in San Jose, CA
Blossom Valley, Bonita - 24th, Branham - Kirk, Branham/ Jarvis, Brigadoon, Broadway - Palmhaven, Cahalan, California Oak Creek, Cambrian Community, Capewood, Clayton North, Cory, Country Club, Crossgate, Del Robles
Things to do in San Jose, CA
Our Newest Profiles