text:
Solidarity against online harassment
One of our colleagues has been the target of a sustained campaign of harassment for the past several months. We have decided to publish this statement to publicly declare our support for her, for every member of our organization, and for every member of our community who experiences this harassment. She is not alone and her experience has catalyzed us to action. This statement is a start.
The Tor Project works to create ways to bypass censorship and ensure anonymity on the Internet. Our software is used by journalists, human rights defenders, members of law enforcement, diplomatic officials, and many others. We do high-profile work, and over the past years, many of us have been the targets of online harassment. The current incidents come at a time when suspicion, slander, and threats are endemic to the online world. They create an environment where the malicious feel safe and the misguided feel justified in striking out online with a thousand blows. Under such attacks, many people have suffered — especially women who speak up online. Women who work on Tor are targeted, degraded, minimized and endure serious, frightening threats.
This is the status quo for a large part of the internet. We will not accept it.
We work on anonymity technology because we believe in empowering people. This empowerment is the beginning and a means, not the end of the discussion. Each person who has power to speak freely on the net also has the power to hurt and harm. Merely because one is free to say a thing does not mean that it should be tolerated or considered reasonable. Our commitment to building and promoting strong anonymity technology is absolute. We have decided that it is not enough for us to work to protect the world from snoops and censors; we must also stand up to protect one another from harassment.
It's true that we ourselves are far from perfect. Some of us have written thoughtless things about members of our own community, have judged prematurely, or conflated an idea we hated with the person holding it. Therefore, in categorically condemning the urge to harass, we mean categorically: we will neither tolerate it in others, nor will we accept it among ourselves. We are dedicated to both protecting our employees and colleagues from violence, and trying to foster more positive and mindful behavior online ourselves.
Further, we will no longer hold back out of fear or uncertainty from an opportunity to defend a member of our community online. We write tools to provide online freedom but we don't endorse online or offline abuse. Similarly, in the offline world, we support freedom of speech but we oppose the abuse and harassment of women and others. We know that online harassment is one small piece of the larger struggle that women, people of color, and others face against sexism, racism, homophobia and other bigotry.
This declaration is not the last word, but a beginning: We will not tolerate harassment of our people. We are working within our community to devise ways to concretely support people who suffer from online harassment; this statement is part of that discussion. We hope it will contribute to the larger public conversation about online harassment and we encourage other organizations to sign on to it or write one of their own.
For questions about Tor, its work, its staff, its funding, or its world view, we encourage people to directly contact us (Media contact: Kate Krauss, press @ torproject.org). We also encourage people join our community and to be a part of our discussions:
In solidarity against online harassment,
Roger Dingledine
Nick Mathewson
Kate Krauss
Wendy Seltzer
Caspar Bowden
Rabbi Rob Thomas
Karsten Loesing
Matthew Finkel
Griffin Boyce
Colin Childs
Georg Koppen
Tom Ritter
Erinn Clark
David Goulet
Nima Fatemi
Steven Murdoch
Linus Nordberg
Arthur Edelstein
Aaron Gibson
Anonymous Supporter
Matt Pagan
Philipp Winter
Sina Rabbani
Jacob Appelbaum
Karen Reilly
Meredith Hoban Dunn
Moritz Bartl
Mike Perry
Sukhbir Singh
Sebastian Hahn
Nicolas Vigier
Nathan Freitas
Leif Ryge
Runa Sandvik
Andrea Shepard
Isis Agora Lovecruft
Arlo Breault
Ásta Helgadóttir
Mark Smith
Bruce Leidl
Dave Ahmad
Micah Lee
Sherief Alaa
Virgil Griffith
Rachel Greenstadt
Andre Meister
Andy Isaacson
Gavin Andresen
Scott Herbert
Colin Mahns
John Schriner
David Stainton
Doug Eddy
Pepijn Le Heux
Priscilla Oppenheimer
Ian Goldberg
Rebecca MacKinnon
Nadia Heninger
Cory Svensson
Alison Macrina
Arturo Filastò
Collin Anderson
Andrew Jones
Eva Blum-Dumontet
Jan Bultmann
Murtaza Hussain
Duncan Bailey
Sarah Harrison
Tom van der Woerdt
Jeroen Massar
Brendan Eich
Joseph Lorenzo Hall
Jean Camp
Joanna Rutkowska
Daira Hopwood
William Gillis
Adrian Short
Bethany Horne
Andrea Forte
Hernán Foffani
Nadim Kobeissi
Jakub Dalek
Rafik Naccache
Nathalie Margi
Asheesh Laroia
Ali Mirjamali
Huong Nguyen
Meerim Ilyas
Timothy Yim
Mallory Knodel
Randy Bush
Zachary Weinberg
Claudio Guarnieri
Steven Zikopoulos
Michael Ceglar
Zachariah Gibbens
Jeremy M. Harmer
Ilias Bartolini
René Pfeiffer
Percy Wegmann
Tim Sammut
Neel Chauhan
Matthew Puckey
Taylor R Campbell
Klaus Layer
Colin Teberg
Jeremy Gillula
Will Scott
Tom Lowenthal
Rishab Nithyanand
Brinly Taylor
Craig Colman-Shepherd
A. Lizard
M. C. McGrath
Ross MacDonald
Esra'a Al Shafei
Gulnara Yunusova
Ben Laurie
Christian Vandrei
Tanja Lange
Markus Kitsinger
Harper Reed
Mark Giannullo
Alyssa Rowan
Daniel Gall
Kathryn Cramer
Camilo Galdos AkA Dedalo
Ralf-Philipp Weinmann
Miod Vallat
Carlotta Negri
Frederic Jacobs
Susan Landau
Jan Weiher
Donald A. Byrd
Jesin A.
Thomas Blanchard
Matthijs Pontier
Rohan Nagel
Cyril Brulebois
Neal Rauhauser
Sonia Ballesteros Rey
Florian Schmitt
Abdoulaye Bah
Simone Basso
Charlie Smith
Steve Engledow
Michael Brennan
Jeffrey Landale
Sophie Toupin
Dana Lane Taylor
Nagy Gabor
Shaf Patel
Augusto Amaral
Robin Molnar
Jesús Cea Avión
praxis journal
Jens Stomber
Noam Roberts
Ken Arroyo Ohori
Brian Kroll
Shawn Newell
Rasmus Vuori
Alexandre Guédon
Seamus Tuohy
Virginia Lange
Nicolas Sera-Leyva
Jonah Silas Sheridan
Aaron Zauner
Christophe Moille
Micah Sherr
Gabriel Rocha
Yael Grauer
Kenneth Freeman
Dennis Winter
Lee Azzarello
Zaki Manian
Aaron Turner
Greg Slepak
Ethan Zuckerman
Pasq Gero
Pablo Suárez-Serrato
Kerry Rutherford
Andrés Delgado
Tommy Collison
Dan Luedders
Flávio Amieiro
Ulrike Reinhard
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Matt Price
Charlie McConnell
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Laura Poitras
Benet Hitchcock
Dave Williams
Jane Avriette
Renata Avila
Sandra Ordonez
David Palma
Andre N Batista
Steve Bellovin
James Renken
Alyzande Renard
Patrick Logan
Rory Byrne
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Leah Carey
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Nick Feamster
Dominic Corriveau
Adrienne Porter Felt
Allen Gunn
Eric S Johnson
Hanno Wagner
Anders Hansen
Alexandra Stein
Tyler H. Meers
Shumon Huque
James Vasile
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Johannes Schilling
Niels ten Oever
David W. Deitch
Dan Wallach
Jon Penney
Starchy Grant
Damon McCoy
David Yip
Adam Fisk
Jon Callas
Aleecia M. McDonald
Marina Brown
Wolfgang Britzl
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Heiko Linke
David Van Horn
Larry Brandt
Matt Blaze
Radek Valasek
Galou Gentil
Douglas Perkins
Jude Burger
Myriam Michel
Jillian York
Michalis Polychronakis
Kostas Jakeliunas
Sebastiaan Provost
Sebastian Maryniak
Clytie Siddall
Claudio Agosti
Peter Laur
Maarten Eyskens
Tobias Pulls
Sacha van Geffen
Cory Doctorow
Tom Knoth
Fredrik Julie Andersson
Nighat Dad
Josh L Glenn
Vernon Tang
Jennifer Radloff
Domenico Lupinetti
Martijn Grooten
Rachel Haywire
Christoph Maria Sommer
J Duncan
Michael Kennedy Brodhead
Mansour Moufid
Melissa Elliott
Mick Morgan
Brenno de Winter
George Scriban
Ryan Harris
Ricard S. Colorado
Julian Oliver
Sebastian "bastik" G.
Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara
Koen Van Impe
Kevin Gallagher
Sven "DrMcCoy" Hesse
Pavel Schamberger
Phillip M. Pether
Joe P. Lee
Stephanie Hyland
Maya Ganesh
Greg Bonett
Amadou Lamine Badji
Vasil Kolev
Jérémie Zimmermann
Cally Gordon
Hakisho Nukama
Daniel C Howe
Douglas Stebila
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Nayantara Mallesh
Valeria de Paiva
Tim Bulow
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Max Hunter
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Ronald Deibert
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Alan L. Stewart
Alexander Muentz
Erin Benson
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David Molnar
Holger Levsen
Peter Grombach
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Lisa Geelan
Antonius Kies
Jörg Kruse
Arnold Top
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Ahmet A. Sabancı
Henriette Hofmeier
Ethan Heilman
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Max Maass
Ed Agro
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Lluís Sala
Laurelai Bailey
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Fabio Pietrosanti
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Harald Lampesberger
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Bruce Schneier
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Claudia Diaz
Kelley Misata
Denise Mangold
Owen Blacker
Zach Wick
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Alexander Dietrich
Frank Smyth
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Grit Hemmelrath
Masashi Crete-Nishihata
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Kaustubh Srikanth
Enrique Piracés
Antoine Beaupré
Daniel Kahn Gillmor
Richard Johnson
Ashok Gupta
Alex Halderman
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Joseph Steele
Marie Gutbub
Valeria Betancourt
Konstantin Müller
Emma Persky
Steve Wyshywaniuk
Tara Whalen
Joe Justen
Susan Kentner
Josh King
Juha Nurmi
John Saylor
Jurre van Bergen
Saedu Haiza
Anders Damsgaard
Sadia Afroz
Nat Meysenburg
Julian Assange
Dan Staples
Grady Johnson
Matthew Green
Cameron Williams
Roy Johnson
Laura S Potter-Brown
Meredith L. Patterson
Casey Dunham
Raymond Johansen
Kieran Thandi
Jason Gulledge
Matt Weeks
Khalil Sehnaoui
Brennan Novak
Casey Jones
Jesse Victors
Peter DeChristo
Nick Black
Štefan Gurský
Glenn Greenwald
Russell Handorf
Lisa D Lowe
Harry Halpin
Cooper Quintin
Mark Burdett
Conrad Corpus
Steve Revilak
Nate Shiff
Annie Zaman
Matthew Miller (Fedora Project)
David Fetter
Gabriella Biella Coleman
Ryan Lackey
Peter Clemenko
Serge Egelman
David Robinson
Sasa Savic
James McWilliams
Arrigo Triulzi
Kevin Bowen
Kevin Carson
Sajeeb Bhowmick
Dominik Rehm
William J. Coldwell
Niall Madhoo
Christoph Mayer
Simone Fischer-Hübner
George W. Maschke
Jens Kubieziel
Dan Hanley
Robin Jacks
Zenaan Harkness
Pete Newell
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Kitty Hundal
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Wilton Gorske
Lukas Lamla
Kat Hanna
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Georgia Bullen
Vladan Joler
Eric Schaefer
Ly Ngoc Quan Ly
Martin Kepplinger
Freddy Martinez
David Haren
Simon Richter
Brighid Burns
Peter Holmelin
Davide Barbato
Neil McKay
Joss Wright
Troy Toman
Morana Miljanovic
Simson Garfinkel
Harry Hochheiser
Malte Dik
Tails project
Kurt Weisman
Shaikh Rafia
Olivier Brewaeys
Sander Venema
James Murphy
Chris "The Paucie" Pauciello
Brad Parfitt
Jerry Whiting
Massachusetts Pirate Party
András Stribik
Alden Page
Juris Vetra
Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn
Marcel de Groot
Ryan Henry
Joy Lowell
Guilhem Moulin
Werner Jacob
Tansingh S. Partiman
Bryce Alexander Lynch
Robert Guerra
John Tait
Sebastian Urbach
Atro Tossavainen
Alexei Czeskis
Greg Norcie
Greg Metcalfe
Benjamin Chrobot
Lorrie Faith Cranor
Jamie D. Thomas
EJ Infeld
Douglas Edwards
Cody Celine
Ty Bross
Matthew Garrett
Sam P.
Vidar Waagbø
Raoul Unger
Aleksandar Todorović
John Olinda
Graham Perkins
Casa Casanova
James Turnbull
Eric Hogue
Jacobo Nájera
Ben Adida
If you would like to be on this list of signers (please do — you don't have to be a part of Tor to sign on!), please reach us at tor-assistants @ torproject.org.
IMHO too simplistic. > 300
IMHO too simplistic.
> 300 Mio. firearms will kill people 4 sure.
> 300 Mio. firearms will frighten police which will again kill hundreds of innocents.
1 bn knives aren't a problem.
tor is not a problem -> diligent police investigations can + will find a lot of bad guys + gals
Anybody possessing a knive and anybody using tor = better world
anybody possesing a gun = nightmarie
As a gay man I've been
As a gay man I've been there, gotten hurt, and lived to tell of it. However I will not stand in line to oppose it. We tend to overreact and merely create new victims. It is much harder to speak against overreacting than it is to line up and support an anti-harassment campaign (which in and of itself is not necessary a bad thing if it was purely speech).
Despite having lived through periods of severe harassment (and still to this day other forms of in-direct harassment by the media and the general public- in part due to intentionally malicious perceptions of what is, but is not, and political correctness) I'm more fearful of campaigns to end online harassment than I am of online harassment itself. You can avoid to some degree online harassment. You can't avoid the government putting you in handcuffs.
'Solidarity against online harassment' could mean anything and more often than not it means criminalizing speech. Laws that will be used to quell peoples opinions and hurt them- no victimize them. Governments and those in power lead in harassing behaviors. They target those who object, those who stand out, those who nobody cares about.
We need to think of the victims of the victims-the perpetrators. It might be a honorable effort to fight the harassment, but it will not be without the creation of new victims.
I could see how in some
I could see how in some communities one might assume "solidarity against online harassment" would be code for criminalizing speech, but do you really think that is what the people on this list are talking about here? As one of them, I certainly don't.
This statement does have a fair amount of unspoken subtext. I think one purpose of it is to inform some people who are trying to drive a community apart with a gaslighting campaign that they've failed and we're standing together.
I hope that by taking
I hope that by taking leadership with this statement, the Tor Project will be able to participate in the anti-harassment discussion and maintain a stance against harassment that does not involve curtailing speech, but instead promotes and values respect.
I share your concerns that it is a hard position to take, but I think historically the Tor Project has shown that its involvements in these types of discussions - such as with domestic violence groups, law enforcement, legislators, etc - has yielded positive outcomes, where as withdrawing from those situations seems to cause spiraling misunderstandings and assumptions of bad faith.
I trust the Tor Project to try to do the right thing here, but like you, I hope they will be very careful about it, as they always are.
Appreciate the good
Appreciate the good intentions, but agree with the original poster and hope this is intended for morale building only.
Accusing TOR of
Accusing TOR of totalitarianism is pretty freaking ironic. And that you interpret people standing up to harassment as censorship and criminalising speech is ridiculous.
Though not as ridiculous as what comes next:
"We need to think of the victims of the victims-the perpetrators."
What the fuck are you smoking? Standing up and saying that harassment isn't okay is hardly overreacting, and it has jack shit to do with government oppression.
Here here. Standing up to
Here here.
Standing up to harassment is just what it is: anti harassment. It is supportive of anyone who has been bullied online.
How exactly do you "stand
How exactly do you "stand up" to harassment? It's not stated and its not clear to me. While I doubt they're about to call for censorship it's not unheard of for people to contradict or say "that's not what I mean". You can't say you support freedom of speech and than outlaw pornography- or the right of others to say mean things about you. I don't like the fact people have lied about me- but I still support the right of all people to speak freely.
Given that MOST people who have made these statements would sell out privacy and anonymity for the sake of perceiving additional security it would not be unsurprising to me if others took this statement to mean we should pass legislation that censors- and then they would say- but its not censorship because of x, y, and z. This type of speech is almost always alongside the views of people who would also propose terrible legislation that can / is being used to curtail speech.
Freedom of communications MUST come first at all costs.
Victim is a matter of perspective. We demonize people all the time who have done nothing but react in reasonable ways to unreasonable conditions that society has placed on them.
We're all both victims and perpetrators of taking more than what we can reasonably justify for example given the suffering of others around us (particularly on a world scale). We are selfish. We don't care about the people in prison because we ourselves are not in prison.
I do care, but I'm probably a lone exception. I'm not against reasonable action to protect others. However it can't come at the cost of censoring ANYTHING. That includes speech that some may find to be harassing.
Yell back- don't curtail speech. It only makes things worse.
I agree with some of your
I agree with some of your points, but I don't agree with your generalisations/characterisations, and your statement that 'freedom of communications MUST come first at all costs' is an endlessly-debated point and not an easy one for you to defend. More importantly, it's a point of view which is not reflected in most of the world's legal systems.
It should go without saying that the internet is not a country, and what happens on it doesn't happen in a law-free environment. Nor will it ever.
I'm not trying to be a dick
I'm not trying to be a dick here (as maybe I'm interpreting the whole thing weirdly), but when terms like:
"We will not accept it."
"... we must also stand up to protect one another from harassment."
"... we will neither tolerate [harassment] in others, nor will we accept it among ourselves."
"We will not tolerate harassment of our people."
... are used it sounds a little like a 'threatening' call to action.
What does "not tolerate" actually mean? That there'll be repercussions for those dishing out the harassment (i.e. harassing the harassers/shaming the shamers)? Or does it mean that "we'll write a list of people who don't support you harassing someone" - which is what it seems to be at the moment.
If the latter (which I think is actually a most appropriate and most kind gesture btw), then it's not so much a matter of "not tolerating" as it is "not supporting" (or conversely, supporting those being harassed).
Admittedly, I might be part of a very small minority that misinterpreted what was written as threatening ("If you harass someone, there will be repercussions!"). My grief comes from the use of the term "not tolerated" as it doesn't really state what this actually means.
Yes, I think "not supported"
Yes, I think "not supported" is a great alternate phrase here.
This statement is meant as a gesture of support and, more, to raise awareness about the issue and try to get all of the neutral people in the middle to be mindful about it when choosing their behavior.
[Edit: after more thinking, I realize I am very wrong with accepting this alternate phrase and should correct myself. The problem with "not supported" is that it allows you to say "this is wrong; I will contribute to fixing it by not participating." And that's exactly the response that's gotten us to this point. Instead, we need to contribute to fixing it *by participating*. That's what this statement is all about (and why it keeps saying "this is a start".]
There's nothing wrong with
There's nothing wrong with anything you've said, Arma, it's just people trying to twist it out of shape.
Harassing people is illegal, not just immoral. Stopping harassment has nothing to do with interfering with 'free speech'. Free speech is not for the purpose of interfering with someone else going peacefully about her or his business. In law, and arguably in morals, the right to speak freely doesn't override the right to be unharassed.
Not harassing people is a basic principle of civilised society. We all benefit from having a civilised society, so we should all stand up for it. Elevating 'free speech' above other rights has never created a civilised society.
Dangerous ideology can seep
Dangerous ideology can seep into even the most noble of causes.
Of course it can, but this
Of course it can, but this isn't a cause. Harassment is already illegal and already immoral. These ideas are well established and need to elaboration.
+1 exactly.
+1 exactly.
i agree nomatter what in
i agree nomatter what in life your going deal with idiots but the last thing this community needs is the government getting involved.The past has shown pretty much anything it touches goes to hell.Plus everyone is already losing rights and civil liberties so i think we are all being oppressed in some fashion(NSA)Its time we stand together or we will hang seperate.
I agree entirely. The
I agree entirely. The "community" should strive to support each other, not blacklisting people they distagree with - for two reasons:
1: People who are being harassed usually, and in my experience, need strong friends to show support more than an echo chamber that refuses to recognize individuals
2: These movements creates a theoretical group of people that doesn't exist who are being harassed by another theoretical group of people that doesn't exist. Because of this, these movements ends up neglecting and shunning actual inidividuals who are actually being abused and harassed, especially when the individual's experience does not align with the goals of the movement.
I think the Tor Project should be encouraging people to work together to support each other and stop specific harassers, not starting an anti-bully movement.
It should go without saying that I would support the investigation of serious death threats. In many cases though the serious threats need to be separated from off-the-cuff comments on random message boards.
" In many cases though the
" In many cases though the serious threats need to be separated from off-the-cuff comments on random message boards."
Who do you think is such an idiot that she cannot tell the difference?
Good blog post, I agree with
Good blog post, I agree with it.
but stop editing it after people have signed
Thanks! We're editing it to
We're editing it to add names of people as they contact us.
I don't think we've been making other changes.
Where is the link to sign on?
Where is the link to sign on?
Good to see this blog post,
Good to see this blog post, you have my support too.
Good call. I of course
Good call.
I of course support your colleague but in my humble opinion next time you identify an harasser, contact him, warn him and ask for an apologize privately first. And if he doesn't stop then you can out him in public.
I'm not crying over the idiot who got what he deserves but I just think it's good compromise between protecting privacy and preventing abuses.
Just my two cents.
Actually, we're explicitly
Actually, we're explicitly not calling out specific harassers here. We're calling out the harassment as a whole, as a part of a much bigger problem in our Internet community and in our culture.
It's time for the broader Internet community (and heck, beyond even the Internet) to recognize the abuse and harassment that women in technology experience, and we all need to step up and make sure this sort of abuse stops because our world is poorer when we lose diversity.
Thank you Roger
Thank you Roger
Actually you specifically
Actually you specifically called out harassment against women, gay people and minorities. Even leaving aside the issue of only deeming certain groups as being worthy of protection, you haven't defined harassment. It's an impossibly broad term which is used as a call to action for all kinds of measures.
It's not about "only deeming
It's not about "only deeming certain groups as being worthy of protection", but that those other groups are already protected. In case you still don't understand this, ponder on why nobody protests for the birds' right to fly.
"those other groups are
"those other groups are already protected"
That seems quite mistaken as far as I can tell, so I'll have to ask for your sources regarding this. Thanks.
"In case you still don't understand this, ponder on why nobody protests for the birds' right to fly."
Seems quite unrelated to the issue at hand, so please be less obscure. We're not meditating on koans here.
Straight white men are
Straight white men are already protected by the law, and in fact are actively enshrining their right to discriminate into law as we speak (e.g, new "conscience clause" laws permitting denying medical treatment to LGBT people.) They are not under threat. They just see any slight reduction in their dominance as a threat.
The statement goes beyond
The statement goes beyond categories. The whole passage is very clear that it's harassment which is the issue, not the 'category' of the person who is the target of the harassment nor the 'category' of the person doing the harassing.
On your other point, there is no need for the staff here to define harassment because the law already defines it.
Hoo boy. I was with you
Hoo boy. I was with you until the part at the end when you say "the law". There sure are a lot of laws out there, in a variety of jurisdictions, and some of them aren't so great. So I am not eager to rely on what "the law" says when making judgements about how I think the world should be.
Harassment is a social issue, and for online harassment, we the Internet community need to (be the ones to) solve it.
Thanks for broadening the
Thanks for broadening the scope, as I was slightly uncomfortable with the sentence "We will not tolerate harassment of our people."
I see why you get there (your starting point was the harassment of one member of the Tor team) but I felt it was a rather weak point (we're against online harassment if and when our clan is affected).
Though your words are still important, thanks a lot - also for the software and whole biotope created by Tor!
Thank goodness! I hope that
Thank goodness! I hope that the community becomes more active in pushing back against some of the lies in the media about people involved with Tor.
A recurring annoyance on the Internet is harassment of people who are doing great work on the Internet, typically to benefit the public good.
If you notice harassment or bullying either online or offline, stand up against it and help people out where possible by discussing the problem with them. Bullying and harassment is not acceptable.
There is allot of harassment
There is allot of harassment online specially against women even in the tech community it self. Thank you is good to know that the Tor community will not accept it.
and don't forget, this is
and don't forget, this is far bigger than the networking culture. it is deeply embedded in most cultures around the world. so kids, do try this at home. :)
I stand with everyone that
I stand with everyone that being harrased. Solidarity!
I've sat around a lot of
I've sat around a lot of tables and IRC rooms talking about people in
our communities getting harassed and how we can do something about it.
I'm still not sure how, but I think solidarity is a good start. And if
anyone can figure out a solution for this huge and debilitating problem,
I do think the people who participate in the Tor project are capable of
attacking it. Without stiffling speech and without creating new victims. I support anonimity and privacy, and I also support efforts to combat harassment.
Not speaking up against harassment is the privilege of those who have never been targets.
Thank you for giving new
Thank you for giving new support to people who have been silenced, driven from their homes, or made chronically heartsick by rape and death threats; paralyzed, undermined, or destabilized by gas-lighting; discouraged, isolated, or persecuted by wrongful accusations.
You guys are hero!!!!!!!!!
You guys are hero!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for doing this.
Thank you for doing this. Thinking about how we can all do better, this sentiment resonates with me:
"It's true that we ourselves are far from perfect. Some of us have written thoughtless things about members of our own community, have judged prematurely, or conflated an idea we hated with the person holding it. Therefore, in categorically condemning the urge to harass, we mean categorically: we will neither tolerate it in others, nor will we accept it among ourselves."
I have not experienced it in the Tor community, but I sincerely hope that the (open source) mindset that seems to reward individuals for shaming those folks that are less knowledgeable yet care enough to speak up and engage, is a thing of the past.
We can accomplish so much more by working together.
I regret that the actions of
I regret that the actions of these individuals have come this far, in both having seen some of the specific issue in question, as well having a modicum of awareness of the problems that our colleagues encounter on a daily basis.
If a community is going to be subject to harassment, there is a responsibility of members to support each other and a need to assert a vision of what the community's expectations are. There are certainly people who might not always have had positive influences in their lives displaying a standard what is decent behavior. Tor has a leadership role in the community, people look up to the project and personalities involved. I appreciate that it is exercising its position in a constructive manner.
This is also a moment of reflection for even those who aren't necessarily intolerant to examine their own behavior. I have seen decent people resort to less decent practices in their communications with other members of the community. We could all do well to check ourselves. I view my participation as a commitment for self-examination as much as it is a rejection of another group's nonsense.
Furthermore, when Tor is at times misused by malicious parties for abusive behavior elsewhere, this reaffirms that support for freedom expression does not mean support for violence against others.
I hope this is a first step in a continuing engagement on harassment for Tor and all the signatories of this letter.
In Western countries,
In Western countries, Feminism is no longer a movement that struggles for equal rights. Instead, it has become synonymous with misandry and other kinds of hate-mongering.
21st century Feminists are among the most intolerant, hypocritical bullies on the internet. Their complaints about "online harassment" are really nothing but calls for censorship against those who stand up for tolerance and reason against their offensive vitriol.
Women who do care for equal rights are women who oppose feminism and who condemn this biased article as a perfect example of Feminist irony and hypocrisy.
See also http://womenagainstfeminism.tumblr.com/.
The fact that you read this
The fact that you read this post - which describes a general effort to stand in solidarity against online harassment (most commonly aimed at minorities and women) and nowhere uses the term "feminism" - and thought, "Grrr! Those damn feminists are ruining all the things again!" says a lot about both feminism and your objection to it.
Actually, it mostly says just two things::
1. feminism is intersectional support of different oppressed groups of people, and plans to remedy that oppression
2. you are so not okay with that
How embarrassing for you.
The @torproject did mention
The @torproject did mention feminism. But the post doesn't call for censorship, implicitly or explicitly. Anyone who thinks it does is unfamiliar with Tor Project.
Tags bro. Tags.
Tags bro. Tags.
The fact that you read this
The fact that you read this post, and did not read half a centimeter above it to see the aformentioned tags, and then immediately thought "grrr, those damn anti-feminists will find any excuse to hate women", says a lot about your views on anyone who dislikes (western, 3rd-wave) feminism.
How embarrassing. :P


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The idea for this "paper" grew out of my video work (here and here) for a seminar I took with Alex Juhasz: specifically, from her questions about the assertions I made regarding theory, violence and the body. What follows is an "academic" humanities paper–of sorts–that attempts to address some of her questions. I'm "forwarding" the form for a few reasons–which will become obvious–but one is the vain hope that my non-academic readers will stick around 'til the end just to see what one of these things looks like. So, come on, hang out for a few minutes. I promise it won't enrich you, elevate you, or make you a better person. You will not be impressed by my erudition, or my acquaintance with obscure historical personages. You can just sit back and watch the form emerge, like watching someone fold an origami. You don't have to worry about the content: after all, "the medium is the message."
The Thesis
An academic humanities paper is a particular genre of writing that traditionally emphasizes the disembodied "one," over the unscholarly intimacy of "you" and "I." One comes to the form for professional reasons, as it is rarely read for pleasure; exceptions, of course, exist–someone has to get struck by lightning. It is a genre of writing that footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetically notes copiously, and often inelegantly, to emphasize that the authority for one's thoughts is not solely one's own. It, admirably, gives credit where credit is due, often treads politely across other people's lawns, and puts a very high value on originality–no matter how small. Cliché's are avoided–no matter what the cost. Generalizations are always bad. Puns are okay as long as they don't run-on indecorously. But irony is strictly forbidden, because it poisons the apple, since the form relies on the inviolability of episteme over doxa, and we know from experience that there's only one way to skin a cat. Interestingly, in contrast to the modest claims common to most academic humanities papers, the products themselves tend to be fantastically titled, much the way humdrum apartments bear grand monikers: "Shangri-La is on Hollywood and Vine: An Asymptotic Analysis of Apartment Complexes in the Los Angeles Basin from 1963-1968."
Of course, many scholars have challenged this "academic" style: bell hooks for one; Paulo Freire is another; Foucault has challenged the idea of an ahistorical epistemological form, disputing the universal yard stick against which error can be measured. And there are many others besides these who have rattled the foundations of knowledge–a list so long that one wonders how academic humanists still offer imprimaturs of authority. Still, though the genre has been contested, it continues on proudly, largely undiscouraged by its increasing marginalization within a culture of broadened literacy but narrowed tastes. Perhaps this is because its central conceit remains unchallenged–indeed, perhaps is unchallengeable. A central conceit that is in play even amongst the aforementioned academic superstars. Namely, that there is some phenomenon operating behind history's curtain, an assumption upon which most–though, not all–humanities research depends. Something is hidden, concealed–a secret soul, a platonic form–an urge that can be uncovered, interpreted, theorized, summarized and understood within the grammatical confines of an 8 1/2 x 11 inch leaflet, or a 960 pixel wide window, and once grasped, can serve as a cypher for unlocking what is really happening in the world. Take your pick: the unconscious, the archetype, false consciousness, power, capital, patriarchy, absence, reason. The list is very, very long. However, they all work by the abiding fiction that a scholar can survey the breadth of human experience and distill something resembling the truth (episteme) of that experience, something heretofore hidden from sight.
The Argument
All Theory must, one way or another, dispose of Fact–whether by arrangement or dissolution. There can be no theory that encompasses every fact, and therefore every theory, like every subjective position, is open to revision. This is fine in dialogue, or even dialectic, but it undermines the very premise of theory, which is that some ordering of the world exists prior to observation. Theories, no matter how decentralized or drunk on deconstruction, must aspire to objective stability; otherwise they would not be theoretical, but rather some other rhetorical form–poetic, fictional, etc. And the first fact that any humanistic theory must deal with, whether academic or artistic, is the contingency of the human body–the common denominator which simplifies all of us, regardless of our cultural-historical calculations. What do I mean? I mean that theories of the invisible must abjure the body to be theoretical. But, contrary to the Herculean efforts of slavers, Nazis, Stalinists, and L'Oreal, the body cannot be hidden, only buried or burned; it cannot be disguised, only adorned. Turned to dust? Possibly, but even then it dirties the furniture, and ashes the pines. It is horribly, terrifyingly present; even after death it remains. It is only we who disappear–I disappear, you disappear. These tinkering subjects, with all of our symbolism and quick wit, exit stage left, without so much as a bow. No one gets an encore, no matter how commanding the performance. Everything we invent–religion, science–is powerless to eradicate these bodies. Murder, genocide, hate–try as we might, kill what we can, the body abides, while you and I remain nothing–not even a remainder to be disposed of.
And theory only lives in you and I. Although it aspires to the anonymous "one," no theory survives our death–only the body, cold and anonymous, survives. The body that can be easily replaced–jealousy. The body that can be made impotent–shame. The body that betrays–ticklish. No humanistic theory can account for the body without discounting bodies, either by speaking for the them or replacing them. Indeed, the most indispensable aspect of this paper, the one you're so generously reading, is our bodies and their self-interested ecology of bio-psychosocial needs. These bodies must be ignored if we are to believe that anything I am saying to you in this paper has anything to do with anyone else.
But even now, calling attention to our particular bodies, I'm disposing of so many others. Even though I repeat "the body" stupidly, like Gertrude Stein reviving the rhetorical rose, I can accomplish nothing but diversion. At best I'm able to gesture at the form's presumptions with suggestive hyper-links, and ironic asides. What I mean to say is that although human bodies can be captured by symbolic systems–Christianity, America, Buddhism, Humanism, Feminism, Islam, Capitalism, Socialism, et al, ad nauseam–symbolic systems are never able to capture the body, and therefore will always remain a fiction, since they must, by necessity, purport to be the thing that they aren't.
If I'm right–and if I am, it's of fairly limited use–what do I suggest humanistic scholarship should look like? Where should it live? In journals–online, print, either/or, both/and? In conferences, volleyed back and forth between equally pedigreed antagonists? In the classroom, where it might possibly seduce a student with its arcana and delicacy? Or perhaps it can disperse to other floors of the tower, where it will, as Stanley Fish argues in a June, 2011 New York Times Opinion piece, "The Triumph of the Humanities," teach scientists how to read and write, and persuade others of truths increasingly unstable? It's a serious question, or, at least, I ask it seriously. To whom should "humanistic" scholarship be addressed and to what end, if its theoretical underpinnings carry as much weight as a lead nothing?
If the answer is college professors and interested hobbyists, then there's no problem. The world is plenty big enough for obscure vocabularies and insular gnostics. But if the answer is, as one suspects from reading any number of essays from scholars in the digital humanities and those rare spotted intellectuals who survive in the public wild, the answer is a broader swath of the population, then the scholarship has to change. It has to recognize its insignificance, its absolute inconsequence. It must wear its diminutive stature proudly so that it can remind an increasingly armored world that we are, first and foremost, bodies; not nations, or creeds, not genetic material or gendered power relations. Just bodies. Bodies that put way too much stock in theories.


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Do you ever wonder how people make it to Harvard?
So does Aaron Harris, co-founder and CEO of Tutorspree and a Harvard alum. He thinks high quality tutoring is an important part of achieving the academic success necessary for acceptance to the world's most prestigious universities.
So Harris started a company with the mission of making high-quality tutoring accessible to all.
Tutorspree has built a growing roster of excellent tutors around the country, currently they are at about 7,000. Prospective students or their parents can go online and type in their zip code to get a list of potential tutors in their area. If they are interested they fill out a brief online form and a Tutorspree representative contacts them.
Tutorspree works with potential clients to find the best tutor for the job and then they set up scheduling with the tutors. The company handles the payment and takes a small cut, but part of their appeal to tutors is that most of the money actually goes to the tutor.
They work out of a chill office in hip SoHo and we recently stopped by to see what they are up to.


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Faculty & Staff
EagleMail is CSI's student e-mail system that incorporates Google Apps. Each student who registers for a credit class receives an EagleMail account. Since e-mail is the primary means of written communication with CSI students, students are expected to check their EagleMail accounts regularly. Not checking e-mail regularly may lead to missing important information, announcements, or deadlines.If you are taking an online class, it is advisable to send an e-mail to your instructor who will contact you with instructions on how to get to your course.
Important Note: EagleMail is for CSI students only. If you are a CWI student, please go to the CWI Student Email page.
How to Login to EagleMail
For additional help, see http://myhelpdesk.csi.edu/.
Full time Faculty and staff are provided an Microsoft Exchange account that is accessible through Outlook Web Access http://mail.csi.edu. Exchange is also available through Outlook via on campus computers.
NOTICE: Exchange Server Migration
During the mail server migration occurring in January 2017, employees can also try logging in at https://outlook.office365.com if https://mail.csi.edu does not work.
How to Login to mail.csi.edu as Faculty/Staff
Eaglemail for Faculty and Staff
In addition, faculty and staff are eligible to provision an Eaglemail account. Eaglemail provides document sharing, calendaring and email that might be useful for faculty to communicate with their students better.
How to Login to Eaglemail as Faculty/Staff
Before you can use your Eaglemail Account, you must provision an email address and agree to Google's Terms of Service.
For additional assistance with email and network accounts, see http://myhelpdesk.csi.edu/.


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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ready to Raise 'Shell' Again on the Big Screen
Cowabunga, dude! The mega-popular '80s franchise 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' is ready to make a big return to movie theaters in advance of their upcoming 30th anniversary. Paramount, Nickelodeon and producer Michael Bay are teaming up to bring back the "Heroes in a Half-Shell" with an all new reboot of the classic series.
Director Jonathan Liebesman ('Battle: Los Angeles', the forthcoming 'Wrath of the Titans') has been hired to find a way to bring the property, which once featured stuntmen in rubber suits and the voice of Corey Feldman, to the current day.
According to Slashfilm, the new 'TMNT' film will employ motion-capture technology, not unlike what Fox did with the 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' remake. That sounds great because those apes looked awesome, but keep in mind those apes were photo-real. The Ninja Turtles were always meant to be a little cartoonish because, after all, they're turtles who are masters of martial arts.
The 'Ninja Turtles' franchise spawned 21 videogames, four films, three TV shows and one Vanilla Ice rap song, which you can watch below. Just try getting this one out of your head.


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Eight decades ago, audiences around the world flocked to see the remarkable stunts, supreme athleticism, swarthy good looks and boundless charm of Douglas Fairbanks in a series of lavish swashbuckling adventures including "The Mark of Zorro," "Robin Hood," "The Three Musketeers" and "The Gaucho."
Two of his best films, 1924's "The Thief of Bagdad" and 1929's "The Iron Mask," are screening today and Monday, respectively, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
"I think in all of our obsession with comic-book movies we have going on, we forget that he's the guy who basically gave us action-adventure as a genre and did it with still undeniable style and panache," says academy programmer Randy Haberkamp. "He's a rare blend of Harrison Ford and Nijinsky. It's amazing."
The films are being presented in conjunction with the exhibition "Douglas Fairbanks: The First King of Hollywood" at the academy's fourth-floor gallery, as well as with the academy's publication of "Douglas Fairbanks" by Jeffrey Vance with Tony Maietta and photographic editor Robert Cushman. The trio will be signing copies after the screening of "Thief" this evening.
Introducing the films will be the pre-eminent silent film historian Kevin Brownlow ("The Parade's Gone By"), who is flying in from England for the events. Both of the restorations were supervised by Brownlow and feature new orchestral scores by Carl Davis.
It was Fairbanks who spurred Brownlow's interest in silent films. "As a kid starting out as a film collector, it was a Fairbanks film I first acquired, 'American Aristocracy' from 1916. It had a fascinating series of effects."
Fairbanks appealed to audiences, says Brownlow, because "he's so self-deprecating and still so amazingly skillful as an athlete. He knows he can't act, is extremely endearing, and he makes sure that you know that he knows."
Directed by Raoul Walsh and featuring the ornate, imaginative sets of William Cameron Menzies, "The Thief of Bagdad" is literally a magic carpet ride of effects and stunts. "It's so imaginative and extraordinary," says Brownlow.
What's most astonishing about the film are the physical risks Fairbanks took, especially on the magic carpet, which was suspended in the air simply by six lengths of piano wire.
"I wouldn't have done it for anything," says Brownlow.
He reinstated the color tinting, which includes amber and blue tones, to the film. "Fortunately, somebody had kept a record over here so we could bring back the tinting."
"The Iron Mask" was Fairbanks' final silent film, which was released nearly two years after the introduction of talkies. It's a beautifully designed swashbuckler based on the Dumas novels in which he plays the aging musketeer D'Artagnan.
The 1929 version of the film had disappeared completely from view because his son, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., had produced a new version with the old footage in 1953.
"He shortened the film and had spoken the narration that went with it," says Brownlow. "It was so effective I wondered whether the silent one would be any good at all. But the silent film is a film of much greater stature."
'Douglas Fairbanks'
Where: Samuel Goldwyn Theater, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills
When: "The Thief of Bagdad," today at 7:30 p.m.; "The Iron Mask," Monday at 7:30 p.m.
Price: $5
Contact: www.oscars.org or (310) 247-3600


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Inside iOS 6: What's wrong with Apple's new MapsApple's new Maps in iOS 6 certainly has some significant flaws, but its real problems have been overshadowed by a small number of reports calling attention to minor glitches that are relatively insignificant.
There are multiple components to Apple's new iOS 6 Maps: the iOS app itself, including its user interface and APIs; the cloud service providing 2D maps and satellite/aerial imagery that Apple has assembled under in a series of licensing deals and customized for its own use; the 3D modeling Apple has commissioned to create standard 3D mode and Flyover (currently limited to specific areas); the directions and live traffic information used to provide driving and walking directions; and the integration with third parties that Apple is leaning on to provide missing elements such as transit maps and local search.
What's wrong with iOS 6 Maps: The App
Looking at the current status of Maps, it's pretty easy to identify the errors that are being discussed. Most of these are not really intrinsic to the design of the Maps app itself, which is (unsurprisingly) very similar in layout and functionality to Apple's original Maps app.
There are two significant features that are missing in the new Maps app however: Google's Street View and Transit directions. Flyover provides a partial alternative to Street View, but it's not available in nearly as many areas (currently it is limited primarily to select, larger urban U.S. areas).
Because Google's web Street View is implemented via Adobe Flash, there isn't currently any way to access it from iOS 6. So if you're outside the limited coverage of Flyover, your only real option to preview a particular destination is to download Google Earth (which provides a lower quality alternative to Flyover but with more coverage) or another third party app or website providing similar birds-eye views.
Apple could have conceptually addressed this by releasing a secondary or helper app to pull up Street View of a given location. However, the story of Google Maps and iOS 6 isn't limited to Apple seeking to complete with Google, as is described later in our historical overview of the two companies' maps.
Google is now charging users of its Maps service, meaning that to offer Street View, Apple would have to ink a licensing deal, likely with unpleasant terms, given the circumstances. So Apple isn't the only party that took action to remove Street View from iOS Maps.
There are three solutions to the missing Transit directions. The first is maps.google.com, the web version of Google Maps. In addition to transit directions, it will also provide Google's flavor of driving directions, walking directions, and biking routes, something that iOS hasn't every natively provided. The web app version is not fun nor very easy to use, however, and suffers in many usability respects for being a web app. It also doesn't show traffic.
[Correction: Google's live traffic information is available through the web app, through enabling it as an optional layer, as reader @Tom tweeted.]
The second solution to getting transit directions is to use an existing third party app such as the excellent Routesy. The third solution is Apple's primary one: wait for third parties to release integration with iOS 6's new routing APIs, where the app adds new features to Maps by simply advising iOS of its capabilities and what geographies it covers.
It initially seemed that Apple should have taken more initiative to make sure there were at least some helper apps available at launch. Fortunately, there are now a lot of apps showing up to offer directions. When you enter a start and end point in Maps and hit the transit button for directions, iOS now pulls up a series of apps that can help.
If you've already installed one of these helper apps, you can pick which of the installed apps you'd like to use. Each specifies the type of routing it knows how to calculate: bus, bike, car, subway, train, ferry, pedestrian and so on.
I tried a couple of different transit apps for San Francisco, including Transit and City Maps, each of which offered its own style of directions, from graphical instructions overlaid on the map to detailed procedural directions.
I also tried out the novel SideCar, a real-time ride sharing service that lets you request a nearby driver (in general, or somebody specific) to take you to your location, with an estimated cost and the kind of car they're driving.
Apple's market based solution to providing the type and style of directions you personally prefer (leaving the door wide open for innovative new types of rides and directions) seems like a huge improvement over the hardwired link to Google's often inaccurate transit information. Curiously, it seems to be the "free and open" advocates who are grumbling about this change.


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The Falklands Conflict 1982
In 1982 the Royal Navy played the leading role in a remarkable war in which a carrier and amphibious task force supported by nuclear submarines and Royal Air Force aircraft, landed 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines and the Army's 5 Brigade in a major joint operation to liberate the remote Falklands Islands in the South Atlantic that had been invaded and captured by Argentina.
On 2 April 1982, the day of the invasion, destroyers and frigates exercising off Gibraltar under Rear Admiral 'Sandy' Woodward were ordered south. They were joined by the carriers Hermes and Invincible, loaded with Sea Harrier fighters as well as amphibious ships and merchant ships were taken up from the trade for use as troopships. These were also three nuclear powered submarines to cover the surface ships. In overall command was Commander-in-Chief Fleet, Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse at his headquarters at Northwood near London. Woodward commanded the carrier task group while Commodore Mike Clapp was in charge of the amphibious ships.
First the island of South Georgia was recaptured in operations that included helicopters sinking an Argentine submarine, Santa Fe. As he neared the Falklands Woodward felt vulnerable to the threat of Argentine aircraft, both carrier and land based, missile armed surface ships and submarines. His concerns led to approval being given to sink any Argentine warships outside Argentine territorial waters; HMS Conqueror was at the time in touch with the cruiser General Belgrano which was duly sunk. This ended the threat of the Argentine carrier and surface ships, which took refuge in coastal waters. Argentine submarines were ineffective due to torpedo problems and effective British anti-submarine warfare.
The task of denying the British their chance of landing fell to the aircraft of the Argentine Air Force and the Argentine Navy flying from land bases. Because of tactical mishandling, on 4 May, the destroyer HMS Sheffield was hit by an air launched Exocet missile, caught fire and had to be abandoned. Despite this setback, however, the Sea Harriers, armed with effective AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles inflicted such losses on the Argentines that their air attacks failed to stop the landings.
The amphibious ships were effectively covered by the guns and missiles of the destroyers and escorts shared between Woodward's and Clapp's task groups. The air defences of the Task Group were such that the Argentines often dropped bombs too low to explode. Fighting was serious and the frigates Ardent and Antelope and the destroyer Coventry were sunk by bombs that did explode; other ships had narrow escapes. Several ships were saved by the remarkable bravery of the Royal Naval Divers, in particular, acting as bomb disposal teams.
Perhaps the major setback was the loss of vital helicopters on the transport Atlantic Conveyor, onto which the fleet's effective decoy rockets diverted two Exocet missiles. This created transport difficulties that led to shipping being used to assist in troops crossing East Falkland; two landing ships logistic were bombed at Port Pleasant in these operations and one, Sir Galahad was lost. As the ground assault began on Port Stanley, the Falklands capital, with Royal Marine Commandos in a leading role, naval gunfire and RAF Harriers brought down as reinforcements gave support. In reply the Argentines damaged the destroyer Glamorgan with a shore based Exocet, but she was soon operational once more. The Argentines, outfought and demoralised, surrendered on 14 June.
Operation 'Corporate', as it was called officially, had been a remarkable feat of maritime power projection. Two brigades of troops had been transported 8,000 miles and one of the most successful amphibious landings in history was conducted in San Carlos Water on 21 May when 3,000 troops were put ashore without casualties to the landing force.
The twenty Sea Harriers from Hermes and Invincible inflicted serious losses on the Argentine air force destroying 23 aircraft in air-to-air combat for the loss of none of their own number. A further 17 enemy aircraft were destroyed by the Task Group's missile and gun air defences. Destroyers and frigates fired 7,500 rounds against Argentine positions and provided valuable support for the troops ashore. The presence of nuclear submarines forced the Argentine fleet to withdraw, while the frigate Alacrity destroyed an Argentine supply ship in Falkland Sound on 11 May. It was a fine demonstration of the continued strength and reach of British maritime power at a time when its future was in some doubt.
Further reading:
- D. Brown, The Royal Navy and the Falklands War (London, 1987).
- M. Clapp and E. Southby-Tailyour, Amphibious Assault Falklands: The Battle of San Carlos Water (London, 1996).
- Admiral S. Woodward with P.Robinson, One Hundred Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander (London, 1992).


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I'm not sure which is my favorite holiday, Christmas or Easter. However, one can't deny that when it comes to the seasons leading up to these most holy days in the church calendar, Advent's got Lent a little beat as far as "fun" and "warm feelings" go. Am I right? All my life I've been a real sucker for Christmas, but it wasn't until several years ago that I began to truly enjoy the season of Advent...the intentional waiting, preparing, and thinking on the most amazing, crazy idea that God came to this world to be one of us.
I have a huge soft spot for liturgy and church symbolism. I also have a growing distain for much of the Christian "art" that is out there, and I'd like to play my part in stopping its spread. Since I couldn't find the calendar I was dreaming up, I decided to create my own for my family this year. For the last month or two finding the right scripture, the right activity, and creating the right design for each of the 28 days has been a real labor of love. It's finally complete and printed, hung by the fireplace, and waiting for Wednesday, November 28, to let the games begin! Here are some of my favorites...
So...my Christmas gift to you this year, dear reader, is sharing this Advent calendar with you (the print-yourself-version at least) for FREE for a limited time! I'd love to charge a pretty penny for all the work I put into it, but I'm not about to be a Grinch and hinder anyone from experiencing the Advent season in a new and intentional way this year: a way that goes beyond a daily piece of cheap chocolate, or a little gifty trinket that may soon be forgotten (not that I won't also probably buy the cheap chocolate one).
Each day has a 4x6 card with a seasonal design on the front by yours truly and a back with the day's summary, Bible verse, and suggested corresponding activity (concept inspired by this). Many of the activities are simple and won't take much work and some days are a little bigger, but each is intended to prepare our hearts for Christmas (day 1) and intentionally experience the season of Advent, filled with waiting and wonder. We used clothespins to attach each card to one string of twine and hung it up by the mantle, but you could hang it down the stair rail, as a decoration somewhere else, or come up with some other way to display/use it.
No matter how you spend your holiday season, I hope that you'll find time for quiet, coziness, and togetherness with the ones you love, and that you'll take time to ponder and behold God's love for the world. Please download the calendar and enjoy using it this season and for Advent seasons to come!
Download FREE CalendarThanks for your interest, but the free download was only available for a limited time. You can still purchase it through my Etsy store (see link below).
Please note that the file is large and may take a minute to download. If you are printing this yourself, I recommend 110# cardstock, which you can find at your local office supply store. This paper weight may be too thick for your home printer, but you can have it printed double-sided at Office Max, Kinkos, etc. If you end up using the calendar, I'd love to hear how you set it up or how it worked for you.
Order Printed Calendar
If you are interested in purchasing an already-cut, professionally printed version of this Advent calendar, you can use the link above to order it through my Etsy shop. Be sure to order by this Monday at the latest in order to get it before Advent begins. If you work at a church and are interested in ordering copies for multiple families in larger quantities, contact me at sarahondrey(at)gmail.com and I can hook you up ASAP!


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This will be Fawn's 4th year! Come join me and a ton of talented artists this summer in Boston's South End most famous market.
The SoWa Art + Design District is a vibrant community of artist studios, contemporary art galleries, one-of-a-kind boutiques, design showrooms, and restaurants unified by a passion for creating and curating exceptional artworks, products and experiences. Once known as a region of neglected warehouses in Boston's South End, the SoWa Art + Design District has experienced a dramatic renaissance, blossoming into a world-renowned arts, retail, and lifestyle destination. Developed to support and preserve Boston's talented artists and entrepreneurs, SoWa connects visitors with a dynamic group of makers and thinkers, and offers a platform to showcase their work at now-famous events such as the SoWa Open Market, SoWa First Fridays and the SoWa Art Walk.


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March 20, 2014-Back to the Pacific Ocean
When Vasco Balboa first ventured across the Isthmus of Panama and sighted a new ocean he named it the Ocean of the South. In 1520, Ferdinand Magellan renamed the sea the Pacific Ocean because of its calm waters.
Having ourselves just arrived back on that ocean I can understand why he chose that word. Compared to the boisterous Caribbean Sea, where a thousand miles of fetch and strong trade winds bring big waves crashing onto the Panama shoreline, this side is calm. It has the protection of the land, and instead of the dark and angry waves, the sea is a weak pale blue; it is "Pacific". And thus it was given the name it still carries to this day.
However, times have changed somewhat since Balboa first sighted the Pacific.
Now we have 30-40 ocean-going vessels charging past each day, either going into the canal headed to the Atlantic or coming out headed, oh, I don't know, to China maybe. And there are a hundred vessels anchored offshore, waiting a cargo or waiting their turn in the canal, and the crews aboard these ships need some shore leave, so the shore boats ply back and forth. All these ships and shore boats leave a lot of wakes which destroy the pacific nature of the Pacific Ocean.
So we are bouncing here day and night.
But we don't mind; it's good to be back in the Pacific after 10 years.
The Panama Canal. Our transit of it went easy; deceptively easy. The canal has been in the back of our minds for years. It was the unknown; a possibly fearful experience. But you can't shy away, you have to face it, so you get in line and you move up as the boats ahead of you go through, and some tension builds. Naturally, I guess. Then it is your turn and you march bravely ahead. You do what the canal pilot says, you follow orders. He says go ahead, you go. The stages seem easy, but disaster is just seconds away. A rope can tangle; a swirl of current can grab you and throw you against the wall. The worst disaster of all, for us, other than getting crushed by a big ship of course, which is always in your thoughts, would have been to break our gear shift. It was already dodgy when we started but we didn't know how much we'd need it. Our pilot, however, seemed to delight in making us change from forward to reverse and back again about twenty times a minute. Over and over the gear shift balked against the heavy usage and I had to finesse it. It got so that I just knew it would break the next time he gave an order. "Just get me out of the last chamber," I prayed. But you get caught up in the immediate, "Slow the engine now", "catch this line", "a bit of reverse", "now make the lines fast, NOW! Ease it! OK, You're OK, no, Reverse!" And you are too busy following the orders to think about the disaster which lurks nearby. Finally the doors of the last lock opened into the Pacific and we knew we had escaped the disaster, we'd made it. The gear shift held. The lines didn't tangle; the swirls never grabbed a hold of us.
That's the way it is in the Panama Canal, 24 hours of low key stress, then you're done; you are out. You made it.
And it never seemed like a big deal, but looking back, it was. And we chalked up another one.
So we are happy to have gone through the Panama Canal and we are happy to be back in the Pacific Ocean. We're not sure what's next; we haven't given it a lot of thought, but compared to the Panama Canal, it should be a piece of cake.
Click here for more photos.
Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Panama
Labels: Pacific Ocean, Panama, Panama Canal


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Sure, you may have a brilliant business idea that could very well change your industry, maybe even the world some day. But, as plenty of budding entrepreneurs learned Thursday at Rice University's Business Plan Competition, a solid idea alone will not win you much in praise, prizes, or, most importantly, investment.
On the first day of Rice's competition, which is widely touted as the largest and richest of all business plan competitions, a panel of previous years' winners and finalists gathered to discuss what it actually takes to win the top prize. As it turns out, the ideal qualities in a successful business plan competition team are not all that different from those you'd want to see in any solid business group. Here are a few highlights that emerged from their conversation:
Razzle and dazzle them
Even a profitable solution to some of the world's most serious ills can fall on deaf ears if the presentation falls flat. "We seemed to make the judges 'ooh' and 'aah,'" said Jenny Corbin, CEO of TNG Pharmaceuticals, last year's winning team from the University of Louisville. "'Aah' over the grossness of our product. And then we made them laugh." TNG pitched a cattle vaccine that tackled the vicious horn fly, a pest that costs the cattle industry around $1 billion a year.
MORE: Business titans of the future? Rice's biz plan showdown
So, whether it's by showing off that shining personality of yours or coming up with a slick (yet meaningful) presentation, keep your audience on their toes.
Get to know your judges
In between your formal pitches, speak with the judges who have set aside the time to spend a few days and seriously consider your business ideas. "The most important thing in this competition is meeting the judges and being in that environment," said Gautam Gandhi, whose medical device and patient safety startup Clearcount won Rice's competition in 2004. "Before I even presented, I met every judge and they knew a little bit about the company." Gandhi, who is a judge at this year's competition, is currently at Google (goog), leading the tech giant's new business development projects in India.
Competition judges are often leaders in their respective industries and even if you don't go home with a prize in hand, you will still have several valuable contacts if you put in the effort to get to know them.
Take the criticism with a smile
Accepting criticism, especially in front of an audience of several strangers, is never fun. But that's precisely what many business people do every day; they sell their ideas and their products, often to skeptical strangers. So get used to taking it like a champ. "Look at the critical questions from the judges as them giving you the opportunity to validate what you just said," advised Darren Olson, CEO of RhoMania, an iPad wine menu app startup and a finalist at Rice's competition last year. "Do not lose your cool."
MORE: Upcoming small business competitions
But it's also wise to bear in mind that each judge, as with any potential investor, has her own view of what makes a solid business plan, and judges may not always agree with each other. "At some point, the feedback [will] contradict. So don't listen too much," said Nicholas Seet, whose startup Auditude won the competition in 2004 (Adobe (ADBE) acquired part of Auditude's business in November 2011 for around $120 million). " You have to go and see for yourself what's true and what's not."
Practice, practice, practice
The best way to cool your nerves and smooth the edges of any business pitch is practice, plain and simple. "It will totally replace all of the confidence issues you have," said Seet. "Being comfortable with your material that you can do it with your eyes closed, will come across as a much more powerful presentation."
It's not only about the big prize
Winning is great, and at Rice, some teams go home with several hundred thousand dollars in tow. But landing a prize is not the only reason to enter a business plan competition. "The point is to launch a company," said Bob Gillespie, CEO of InContext Solutions and a former Rice finalist. "It's not to get your picture taken because you won a contest. The point is to have a viable product and grow a business. It's not to win."
One key to taking home a prize that was not mentioned outright at the winners panel? You need to deliver a crystal clear message, the kind of pitch that judges and potential investors can not only understand but believe in as a viable business concept. You can put on a great show and get some laughs from your audience, but if you don't communicate what you are trying to sell and how you are going to sell it, you are just a player on a stage, not a business team. Judging from the performance at the practice-round presentations today, plenty of finalist teams have their work cut out for them.


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Meet Shunsuke Shiomi, Sony's acoustic engineer for headphones. Wherever he goes, music and sound quality are on his mind: how people experience music, what music sounds like in different environments and how to improve the listening experience.
Read on to get a glimpse into his world of music, design, sound quality and High-Resolution Audio technology.
Delivering the Best Music Experience
Shiomi's unique approach to listening to music allows him to deliver the listening experience that music fans crave.
"When I go to a club or a live concert, not only do I enjoy the music, but I also think about how all the different sounds balance each other out and how that music would sound through a pair of Sony headphones," Shiomi said.
A guitar player himself, Shiomi understands the importance of music in people's lives and the passion that musicians inject into their songs. Making sure that passion is translated through Sony's headphones is almost second nature.
Designing the Headphones
There's a lot of work that goes into making headphones, from the design on paper to the final product. Shiomi and his team build many prototypes and go through hundreds of tests to ensure the best sound quality.
"The reason why I love headphones is that you can enjoy music by yourself, anytime you like, and anywhere you like," Shiomi said. "It's very important to recreate the same atmosphere you experience at a club or live performance."
Part of recreating that atmosphere is making sure your headphones have high frequency capabilities and are compatible with High-Resolution Audio. Shiomi believes that compressed sound files, like MP3s, cannot preserve all the digital information and details that you hear in the original recordings. At the end of the day, Shiomi wants music fans to be able to enjoy every detail of their favorite songs — from the pluck of the guitar strings to the delicate shimmer of a cymbal.
The Inspiration Behind the Sound
Each headphone series has a different target audience and unique design and features that reflect the lifestyle of those listeners. To ensure that each of his headphones produces the best sound quality possible, Shiomi conducts extensive research.
For instance, when designing the MDR-1A headphones, Shiomi and his team went straight to the source for inspiration: the mastering studio. Shiomi talked to the sound engineer and musicians at the Sony Music Studio to gather feedback on the audio equipment used to create the music. These conversations set the quality sound standards that you can hear while listening with the MDR-1A.
Not only did Shiomi research in the mastering studio, but he also sat in on concerts to experience how the sound moved there. His goal was to create headphones that reproduced the sounds you would hear in the front row of a concert.
Shiomi's research, vision and heart go into each pair of headphones that he designs. Thanks to his craftsmanship, every audiophile and music fan can get their hands on world-class audio equipment.


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FLCC strives to lead the sustainability efforts of the region through modeling sustainable practices and educating students and the community about conservation and environmental stewardship. In March 2008, former FLCC President Barbara Risser signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, and the college developed an institutional plan for climate neutrality by 2030.
Our new Student Center is a shining example of FLCC's commitment to sustainability. The Student Center is Ontario County's first public LEED-certified building, meaning it meets environmentally-friendly criteria established by the U.S. Green Building Council.
We are incorporating sustainability initiatives into every aspect of the college, including daily operations, curriculum, student life, and community outreach. Learn more about FLCC's green practices.
Sustainability means meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.


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text: Greetings from TX. I recently purchased a 04' 325i sedan, and have a few questions about the maintenance interval schedule. It had (at the BMW dealer) oil changes at: 10k 15k 22K 34k (when I purchased it--non BMW dealer). The paperwork the dealer gave me said FULL MAINTENANCE PROGRAM, MP-LOW MILAGE ANNUAL OIL SERVICE for each of the first three entries. How do I tell if Inspection I, and/or II were completed? Thanks in advance…


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Senate Committee on Finance Held A Hearing On Preventing Benefits To Prisoners, Fugitives, The Deceased And Other Ineligibles. Fritz Streckewald, Acting Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs testified.
April 25, 2001
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for asking me to appear before you today to discuss the findings of audits that have been conducted by the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Office of the Inspector General (IG). Today, I want to briefly discuss the efforts the agency is undertaking to strengthen and maintain the integrity of the Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs in the areas addressed by these audits. But first I would like to describe the scope and magnitude of our Agency's activities as administrator of the Social Security program.
Importance of Social Security and SSI
SSA paid almost $430 billion to 52 million OASDI and SSI beneficiaries last year. Each workday about 100,000 people visit our 1,300 field offices and over 240,000 people call our 800 number telephone service. Each workday we process an average of 20,000 initial claims. Every year we correctly credit over 250 million earnings items to workers' accounts, respond to 60 million telephone calls, and process about 6.6 million Social Security and SSI claims for benefits.
The public's trust in Social Security programs is absolutely critical. Because of the importance of program integrity, $1 out of every $4 in SSA's administrative budget is dedicated to program stewardship and program integrity. We must remain vigilant if we are to fulfill our role as stewards of the public trust.
Fugitive Felons
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 made it illegal for fugitive felons to collect SSI payments. This prohibition does not apply to the OASDI program. Under this law an individual is ineligible to receive SSI benefits during any month in which the individual is:
- fleeing to avoid prosecution for a crime which is a felony under the laws of the place from which the person flees;
- fleeing to avoid custody or confinement after conviction for a crime which is a felony under the laws of the place from which the person flees; or
- violating a condition of probation or parole imposed under Federal or State law.
SSA protects the integrity of the SSI program by stopping payments to fugitive felons and protects the public by providing information to law enforcement that assists in the apprehension of a fugitive fleeing from justice.
This Fugitive Felon Project utilizes a multi-faceted approach that requires extensive and cooperative efforts of many law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. SSA and our Office of the Inspector General are actively involved in this project by identifying and taking action against fugitive felons collecting SSI payments.
This project identifies individuals who are prohibited under the law from receiving SSI benefits by conducting computer matches with available sources of warrant information, which include the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and the states. The NCIC is a major national repository for information on felons and other offenders. We also have signed agreements with U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI, giving us access to all federal warrants.
Unfortunately only about 30 percent of all outstanding warrants are reported to the NCIC since the reporting of such information is voluntary and selective. Eleven states report all of their warrants to the NCIC. These states are Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Arkansas, New Mexico, Kansas, and Missouri. The remaining 39 states report some, but not all warrant information to the NCIC.
In a joint effort to develop comprehensive sources of warrant information, SSA and the IG are actively pursuing matching agreements with those states that only provide some of their warrants to the NCIC. SSA currently has signed matching agreements with Alaska, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Nebraska, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington to obtain the additional warrant information that is not reported to the NCIC. In addition, we have agreements with three major metropolitan police departments, New York City, Baltimore and Philadelphia.
Negotiating these individual state and local agreements is a major undertaking. We need to address state and local variations in records, incompatible formatting of data, privacy concerns, and the lack of state and local central reporting repositories. Our regional fugitive coordinators and field office staff are working to negotiate matching agreements with all state and local authorities. Every effort is being made to automate the matching operations necessary to identify SSI recipients that have outstanding warrants.
One of the difficulties with such matches is that law enforcement agencies frequently do not have accurate identifying information for fleeing felons. Felons often use aliases and the law enforcement agency may not have an accurate Social Security Number (SSN). Therefore, their correct identification may be difficult. Unlike prisoners, fugitive felons are not incarcerated and may not have been convicted of a crime. For these reasons our matching operations are carefully designed to determine that the person being sought by law enforcement is the same individual receiving SSI. In order to protect individuals from unwarranted invasions of their privacy resulting from collections and use of information about them, all of our data matches and exchanges are done pursuant to agreements that comply with Privacy Act requirements, and we take security measures to limit access to the data.
When we obtain warrant information from the NCIC or from any other source, these records are first matched against SSA's files to verify identity information, such as name, date of birth, and Social Security number. Once the records are verified then a second match is conducted against our SSI recipient files to determine which of the fugitives are receiving SSI benefits. The results of the second match are then forwarded to the IG for processing. The two-step matching process performed by SSA takes four to ten days, from the time the warrant information is obtained from a participating federal, state or local agency until the information is forwarded to the IG.
The IG must conduct thorough investigations of the warrant information matches to ensure that the fugitive felon warrants are valid and that the appropriate individuals are brought to justice. The IG works with the FBI Information Technology Center (ITC) to verify that the felony, probation or parole violation warrant is active. The ITC provides the address information about each SSI recipient to the appropriate law enforcement agency so that they can apprehend the individual. Over 22,000 SSI beneficiaries were identified during FY 1998 - 2000. Over 2,800 of these fugitives were apprehended.
After action by the appropriate law enforcement agency the IG refers their findings to SSA for appropriate action. SSA also provides feedback to the IG reflecting the actions taken and any overpayment that may have occurred.
Even though SSA is working to expand the number of matches through agreements with local authorities, much of the investigative process cannot be automated. Verification of warrant information requires direct contact with the local law enforcement personnel who issued the warrant. If the felon is no longer in the jurisdiction of the originating law enforcement agency, then additional contacts must be made with law enforcement personnel in the new jurisdiction in order to facilitate the fugitive's apprehension.
SSA needs to be very careful when reviewing warrants to make sure they are accurate, up-to-date, and that it pertains to the correct person. To arrest or to suspend benefits of the wrong individual would have severe consequences.
SSA has gained experience identifying and suspending benefits as a result of our enforcement of prisoner suspension provisions, and we would like to discuss the experience briefly.
Prisoner Suspensions
Social Security benefits are not payable to certain persons incarcerated as a result of a conviction of a crime and certain other confined individuals (for example, those found not guilty by reason of insanity). SSI benefits are not payable to anyone confined to a public institution for any reason.
Beginning in 1994, SSA undertook several significant initiatives with State and local entities to identify prisoners who should not be receiving OASDI or SSI benefits. Changes in agency enforcement efforts have increased program savings under the prisoner suspension provisions.
Today, SSA maintains over 2,600 incentive payment agreements, which provide monthly reports from approximately 5,500 facilities. An additional 1,200 facilities report to us monthly under agreements that do not provide for incentive payments. These agreements, like those for the fugitive felon program, incorporate strong privacy protections. This represents 95 percent of correctional facilities, including the Federal Bureau of Prisons, all State prison systems, and most county and local jails. These reports cover 99 percent of the inmate population in the United States. With the support of these Federal, State, and local entities, SSA has made substantial progress in ensuring that incarcerations are timely and accurately reported and that benefits are suspended promptly. We continue to pursue the goal of having 100 percent of the prisoner data reported and continue to negotiate with the remaining correctional facilities.
SSA is able to share prisoner information with other agencies administering Federal or federally assisted cash, food, or medical assistance programs for purposes of determining eligibility. For example, SSA shares prisoner data with the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Education, the District of Columbia and the fifty state agencies administering the food stamp program under the Department of Agriculture.
Deceased Beneficiaries
One of the issues in the IG report concerns payments made to deceased beneficiaries. SSA compiles and maintains a comprehensive database, the death master file (DMF), containing death information that includes reports from family members, funeral homes, all of the States and some territories, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Health Care Financing Administration, the postal authority, banking institutions, and other sources. SSA independently verifies reports from other government agencies before terminating benefits. SSA processes over 2 million death reports annually.
Timely reports of death help prevent overpayments, which may occur because a spouse or a representative payee negotiates a check after the individual has died or the benefit was electronically deposited into a joint or payee account.
An intercomponent workgroup has identified ways the Agency could improve its death reporting operation. These improvements will be implemented through system enhancements and when completed will strengthen the processes we use to terminate deceased beneficiaries.
Within the next two months we will pilot an Electronic Death Registration under an agreement with the State of New Jersey.
Workers' Compensation Offset
OIG reports have raised concerns about the administration of the workers' compensation (WC) provision. Since 1965, the Social Security Act has provided for the reduction of Social Security disability insurance benefits when the worker is also eligible for periodic or lump-sum WC payments from Federal, State, or local government programs. During the application process, SSA asks the worker whether he or she is or will be receiving any workers' compensation payments that would require offset. If appropriate, offset is imposed and the worker is advised to report any changes to these payments.
Many different agencies administer WC payments and the records are often decentralized and are not always automated. In some States, the payments are administered at the State level; in other States, the payments could be made by many different private insurance carriers, or the employer could be self-insured. Because of the fragmented structure of WC programs, SSA relies primarily on beneficiaries to voluntarily report changes in WC status and payments. Payment errors occur when the beneficiary does not inform SSA of changes in the WC payments. To address this problem SSA has instituted a number of measures.
- In 1999, SSA began its review of WC cases in which offset was imposed before 1999--approximately 112,000 cases--as a 3-year project. Presently, the project is on target, and one-half of the cases have been reviewed and reworked. These cases are difficult to work and typically take about 10 hours to process. To ensure accuracy, each case receives a second review. Over FY 2000-FY2001, SSA is expending approximately 285 workyears on this project, representing a significant resource commitment. We plan to conclude the project by September 2002.
- We have developed a computer matching agreement with the State of Texas. Texas sent SSA 699,000 records involving WC payment data from 1991-2000 and we are currently validating this data before matching it with our beneficiary rolls. Implementation is scheduled for summer of 2001. Although few states have centralized records, we intend to use this agreement with Texas to help us in developing matching agreements with other States where records exist. In addition, we have an ongoing computer matching program with the Department of Labor (DOL) to identify disability beneficiaries who are receiving Federal WC payments administered by DOL.
- Beginning next month, we will implement a new procedure that requires processing centers to re-verify WC payments every 3 years. This is a significant improvement because it will enable us to periodically update with the beneficiary the WC information that is on our records.
- SSA has committed and continues to commit significant resources to improve the accuracy and timeliness of our processing of claims involving WC offset. Beginning this fall, improved automation will allow SSA field offices to be able to input post-entitlement WC changes. We have also provided and continue to provide specialized training to the employees of the program centers and field offices.
We recognize the importance of the IG findings regarding WC offset, and believe that SSA has demonstrated that we are working hard to improve our administration of the WC offset procedures. Through these actions, SSA is taking the necessary steps to correct the problems identified by the IG.
Student Monitoring
The final issue we wish to discuss is the process used to monitor school attendance by child beneficiaries who are over 18. As a result of SSA's own review and the IG recommendations, in March 2001 we began to implement a new process for monitoring school attendance.
We have established processes to:
- Obtain documentation from the student and certification from a school official of the students' continuing education plans before awarding benefits. Also, at that same time, the school official is being provided a form to be retained in the student's file. The school official is encouraged to notify SSA of any changes in the students' status (e.g., no longer a full-time student, drops out, marries).
- Contact the student directly (by phone or in person) when the certification of attendance from the school is initially returned to the field office (FO). At that time we explain to the student his/her reporting responsibilities and when entitlement to student benefits will end. The FO determines the correct termination date and inputs that information into our computer records; benefits for the student will end with the termination date unless they are previously terminated-e.g., because the student drops out of school.
Under the old process, we verified school attendance with the school at several points during the school year-which was very labor intensive and did not result in significant improvements in payment accuracy. Under the new process, we will obtain verification of the student's statement of attendance from the school before we pay benefits and encourage the school to report any changes in the student's status. In the personal contact with the student, we stress their responsibility to report to us any changes in their school attendance.
SSA is making continued progress to improve our management of all Social Security programs. We are committed to our role as stewards of the trust funds. We value our partnership with the IG to further these efforts and look forward to working with this Committee to assure public confidence in our programs.
I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.