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They work longer hours, face economic insecurity and suffer worse health. Now their feckless ways are lampooned in the media. A controversial new book argues that men increasingly face a prejudice that dare not speak its name
by Elizabeth Day
You might not have realised it, but men are being oppressed. In many walks of life, they are routinely discriminated against in ways women are not. So unrecognised is this phenomenon that the mere mention of it will appear laughable to some.
That, at least, is the premise of a book by a South African philosophy professor which claims that sexism against men is a widespread yet unspoken malaise. In The Second Sexism, shortly to be published in the UK, David Benatar, head of the philosophy department at Cape Town University, argues that "more boys drop out of school, fewer men earn degrees, more men die younger, more are incarcerated" and that the issue is so under-researched it has become the prejudice that dare not speak its name.
"It's a neglected form of sexism," Benatar says in a telephone interview. "It's true that in the developed world the majority of economic and political roles are occupied by males. But if you look at the bottom – for example, the prison population, the homeless population, or the number of people dropping out of school – that is overwhelmingly male. You tend to find more men at the very top but also at the very bottom."
The American men's rights author Warren Farrell calls it "the glass cellar". There might be a glass ceiling for women, Farrell once told theObserver, but "of the 25 professions ranked lowest [in the US], 24 of them are 85-100% male. That's things like roofer, welder, garbage collector, sewer maintenance – jobs with very little security, little pay and few people want them."
Do Benatar and Farrell have a point? A handful of statistics seems to bear out their thesis. Not only are men more likely to be conscripted into military service, to be the victims of violence, and to lose custody of their children in the event of a divorce, but tests conducted in 2009 by the programme for international student assessment, carried out by the OECD thinktank, showed that boys lag a year behind girls at reading in every industrialised country. They work longer hours, too: in 2010 the Office for National Statistics found that men in the UK work an average of 39 hours a week, compared with 34 for women. Healthwise, men develop heart disease 10 years earlier than women, on average, and young men are three times more likely to commit suicide.
"The biggest challenge is … tackling the male tendency to suffer in silence," says Tim Samuels, presenter of Radio 5's Men's Hour. "We're getting better at admitting to our weaknesses or seeking help, but there's still such a long way to go."
Men are also increasingly the butt of jokes. In a recent article for Graziamagazine, one male writer took exception to comedian Jo Brand claiming that her favourite man was "a dead one" and an advertisement for oven cleaner with the tagline: "So easy, even a man can do it." In aGuardian article on Friday, it was pointed out that the stereotyped image of a man incapable of growing up has become a staple of US film comedies – the most recent example being Jeff, Who Lives at Home, starring Jason Segel as a man still living with his long-suffering mother who lets him smoke weed in her basement.
Would the same humour be levelled at women? Benatar thinks not. "It's very hard to quantify the level of disadvantage," he says. "But one form of discrimination that is universal is the greater tolerance of violence against males. The victims of murder and severe assault are disproportionately male. There have been lab experiments with both men and women where it has been shown that we have fewer inhibitions inflicting violence against men than women."
He laughs when asked how the women in his life have responded to The Second Sexism. "They seem to be positive," he says. "Perhaps I just mix with people who are more reasonable."
In her 2008 book The Sexual Paradox, the psychologist and journalist Susan Pinker covered some of the same territory, also highlighting the anti-male bias in education and preventative medicine. "The majority of children with developmental delays, behavioural and learning problems are male," she says. "For the most part, our school system fails them. Many end up dropping out. Our mental health system, too, is focused on helping those who seek out assistance. That's not the forte of most men.
"I think the five-to-six-year gap between women's and men's lifespans could be shortened if more work was done to address male risk-taking and stress-related disease – which kill so many more men than women in their prime. The recent spate of male suicides during the financial crisis is a good example of the way male suffering is often invisible."
Another area of concern, according to Duncan Fisher, co-founder of the UK's Fatherhood Institute, is the "gratuitous exclusion" of men from child-rearing: midwifery services are described as "one-to-one care" and whereas employers frequently allow women flexible working hours if they are mothers, the same option is rarely offered to men in similar situations. "It can be so alienating," says Fisher. "Segregation, in a way, has got worse even though, under the radar, the role of fathers is actually increasing all the time. With the recession, there's much more sharing of childcare, but there's a growing gap between the reality and the rhetoric. A lot of early years services are still just 'mothers' groups', which is worrying because it leaves vulnerable men to sort out their own narrative. They don't believe they exist. They stay silent."
There are those, however, who take exception to the notion that men are a downtrodden minority, unable to speak out for fear of ridicule or repression. "It's an idea that's made more comebacks than Madonna," says Julie Bindel, the feminist writer and political activist. "It's total and utter bullshit. There are areas where men are paying the price that male supremacy gives them – there's absolutely no doubt about that.
"My dad, a working-class man from the north-east, had an absolutely horrendous job in a steel mill and he came home bad-tempered, knackered and underpaid. What he could do was come home and dominate – not in a physical way – but he could be the boss over his wife and children, he could go and sink 10 pints in the pub.
"The reality is that the public domain belongs entirely to men and the disadvantages they face are just the price they pay. It's tough cheese. Masculinity is just learned behaviour in the same way that femininity is. Ultimately, if we dismantle the patriarchy, that would end up being better for men, too."
"You can see the ways that patriarchy can be hard on men who don't fit the mould," concedes Natasha Walter, the author of Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism and The New Feminism. "There is more debate to be had about the sacrifices that men make, but obviously I wouldn't go so far as to say that shows women hold all the cards. You have to look at the structural inequality. Sexism against men doesn't exist in the same way because of the way the system is balanced."
Benatar believes this is a false distinction – and that our ignorance of the "second sexism" stems from what he terms "partisan feminists", who are interested only in the advancement of women's rights, rather than true equality and co-operation between the sexes. "It is true that women occupy fewer of the highest and most powerful positions," he writes, "but this also does not show that women are in general worse off. To make the claim that women are worse off, one must compare all women with all men, rather than only the most successful women with the most successful men. Otherwise, one could as easily compare the least successful men with the least successful women and one would then find that men are worse off."
If we measured "success" differently, taking into account a sense of broader wellbeing, gained from family relationships and a flexible work-life balance, would men be losing out? Pinker believes so. "'Global power' as measured by bean-counting the number of male chief executive officers in industry, for example, is not the only value in a just society," she says. "Health, happiness, the richness of one's human relationships, job satisfaction and how long one lives are also important values. Men are lagging behind women in all those areas."
Still, there are some men who remain relatively untroubled by this state of affairs. Tim Samuels, for one, readily concedes that we tolerate jokes about men that wouldn't be made about women or ethnic minorities "because men haven't faced hundreds of years of persecution".
"We shouldn't lose our sense of humour over this," says Samuels. "A few gags on Loose Women aren't going to signal the demise of mankind."
Iron John: A Book About Men, 1990
The American poet Robert Bly offered a new vision of what it is to be a man. He addressed the effects of remote fathers and mourned the disappearance of male initiation rites in western culture. Finding meaning in ancient stories and legends, Bly used the Grimm fairytaleIron John, in which the narrator guides a young man through eight stages of male growth.
The War Against Boys, 2001
Christina Hoff Sommers claimed that boys were ignored by conventional wisdom that focused on solving girls' problems and warned that boys risked becoming the "second sex" if this wasn't addressed.
Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man, 2006
Sam Keen argued that men must define their identities by severing themselves from women as approval-giving mother figures and as the ancient goddess who continues to exert power within the male psyche's hidden recesses. Going beyond the modern rites of manhood – alienating work, war, performance-oriented sex – the new male "psychonaut" brings forth meaning by undertaking "a spiritual journey into the self".


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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/8/2014 (2096 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Tina Fontaine's final days were spent in a downward spiral of drugs, alcohol and violence, which included being rushed to a Winnipeg hospital after being found unconscious in the West End, the Free Press has learned.
Yet Fontaine, 15, apparently checked herself out and disappeared earlier this month, somehow slipping back into the abyss before authorities could determine what happened and get her the help she needed.
Fontaine wasn't seen or heard from again. Her body was found stuffed inside a bag, floating in the Red River Aug. 17. Police are continuing to hunt for her killer.
Sources have revealed new details about the circumstances leading up to Fontaine last being seen Aug. 8 and being reported missing one day later. It's a potentially key piece of the puzzle now forming part of the homicide investigation.
Fontaine, who had been placed in a group home by Child and Family Services, was found by a passerby on Ellice Avenue in a troubled state.
She was passed out, and sources say some of her clothing appeared to have been removed. A possible sexual assault was feared, especially since it was well-known Fontaine was working in the sex trade in order to earn money.
'Tell mama and papa (what she called her great-aunt and her husband) I love them, I miss them but I'm not ready to go home yet'‐ one of Tina Fontaine's final text messages
Two sources who spoke to the Free Press couldn't pinpoint the exact day Fontaine was found and taken to Children's Hospital, only that they believed it was around the Aug. 9, the date police were contacted about her going missing.
But they confirm Fontaine's CFS worker was notified and went to the hospital. Doctors also conducted an examination to determine if there had been a sexual assault.
"Her pants were found halfway down," a source said.
It's not clear if a file was also opened regarding the incident that led to her going to hospital and whether any forensic evidence was obtained.
Police and CFS refuse to comment on any specific aspects of the investigation.
And the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority can't disclose any details about patients under privacy legislation.
How Fontaine managed to leave the hospital without being signed out by a parent or guardian is now under investigation.
The province's children's advocate reviews all cases of a child dying while in care, although the findings are not automatically publicized. They will be forwarded to the chief medical examiner's office, which has the authority to call an inquest.
An internal child welfare review of the case is also underway.
Fontaine's great aunt, Thelma Favel, told the Free Press Thursday she was never advised Fontaine had been located and rushed to hospital.
"If I knew that, I would have been at the hospital right away," she said. "This is the first I'm hearing about it."
Favel and her husband had been raising Fontaine on Sagkeeng since the teen was a child.
She last saw Fontaine on Canada Day, when the teen left their home in Sagkeeng and went to Winnipeg to visit her biological mother for what was expected to be a week. Favel said she had approved the trip.
Fontaine would periodically check in via text message but was clearly in trouble. She was reported missing in early July, only to be found a short time later and put into a CFS foster-home placement.
"I know she was drinking, doing drugs, working on the streets," said Favel.
At one point, Fontaine claimed she had been beaten up by her mother and even texted pictures of her face, she said.
One of Fontaine's final texts to her sister, sent around the time she was reported missing earlier this month, included a message for Favel and her husband.
"Tell mama and papa (what she called Favel and her husband) I love them, I miss them but I'm not ready to go home yet," Favel said Fontaine wrote.
A source familiar with Fontaine's CFS file told the Free Press this week she struggled with how she was perceived in Sagkeeng following the brutal slaying of her father on Halloween day in 2011.
Eugene Fontaine was attacked by two men he'd spent hours with doing cocaine, snorting crushed-up painkillers and sharing 93 beers.
His two killers pleaded guilty to manslaughter in May and are set to be sentenced later this fall.
Family members have previously said Fontaine was never the same after his death. Her ashes will be interred with her father next month..
Mike McIntyre
Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.
Updated on Friday, August 29, 2014 at 6:28 AM CDT: Replaces photo, changes headline
8:29 AM: Corrects typo
11:57 AM: Corrects that Tina Fontaine's ashes will be interred with her father next month
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subset: commoncrawl


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Was it an illegal catch of the day?
An investigation is under way to determine if a local fisherman knew he reeled in a great white shark. If so, he could face criminal charges. The fish are protected under California law.
The 5-foot great white was caught Monday off the Huntington Beach Pier. Video of the catch was posted on YouTube (warning: contains adult language). California Department of Fish and Game agents seized the carcass, after getting a tip.
A warden found the men in possession of the shark, but he thought it was a mako shark and he let the men go. A short time later, the warden realized it was a great white. He found the men at the nearby Newport Beach Pier, where the shark was seized, the Associated Press reported.
"The frozen shark is now in an evidence locker in Los Alamitos," said Paul Hamdorf, an assistant chief of law enforcement with the Department of Fish and Game.
The investigation is focusing on one person right now, but others are in the process of being interviewed, Hamdorf said. If officials determine that the shark was illegally caught, investigators will submit their evidence to the Orange County District Attorney office for possible prosecution.
It's a misdemeanor to catch or possess a great white shark. The maximum penalty is a $1,000 fine.
California law states fishers cannot catch white sharks, even with a sport fishing license. They are also off limits when it comes to commercial fishing operations.
However, white sharks are not protected all over the world. In some parts of the globe, "they have become a popular trophy fish with each bringing thousands of dollars for just their valuable fins and jaws alone," according to the Fish and Game website.
A similar case landed a Valley Village man in court earlier this year. Video showed the man dragging a 150-foot sea bass ashore near Balboa Pier after a boater used a hook to grab the fish.
Giant sea bass must be returned to the water, according to authorities. Both men pleaded guilty to an infraction.
YouTube: "MAKO OR WHITE SHARK IN HUNTINGTON BEACH PIER????" (warning: contains adult language)


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Here are some products we're talking about this month!
Prices include a one colour print in one position
Prices include a one colour print in one position
ReChocolate in an egg shaped box
Prices include a one colour print in one position
Prices include a one colour print in one position
Prices include a one colour print in one position
Promotional Gifts at PG Branding Promotional Gifts at PG Branding
As one of the UK's leading suppliers of promotional gifts, from our base in Harrogate near Leeds, Yorkshire, we bring to you a brand new online Promotional Gifts Store. Our website features cutting-edge browsing features to make your experience as easy as possible and enable you to quickly find the promotional gifts you are looking for. We offer you a phenomenal choice of quality promotional merchandise to suit all your promotional, marketing and branding requirements. The fantastic collections of promotional items we feature have all been chosen to reflect and cater to the current needs and requests of our customers. We are constantly updating our promotional product ranges and checking our prices to make sure we clearly reflect current trends and innovations, while offering you the best choice of quality promotional gifts at the best prices.
All our promotional items are designed to be custom-printed to your exact specifications to suit all your promotional briefs. Whether you require value for money mass marketing items, or just a few high-end executive gifts, we offer something to suit every situation for businesses large and small. Whatever your specific requirements, if you browse through our website you will be amazed by the fantastic selection of promotional gifts available to you. Have them personalised with your brand, logo, contact details and marketing messages. The results will be unique promotional merchandise that will support and reflect your corporate image and aspirations in the most appropriate way and which will be appreciated by your customers and clients. Look no further than PG Branding for all your Corporate, Branded and Personalised promotional gifts and be seen in all the right places.
Choosing PG Branding as your Promotional Gifts Provider... Choosing PG Branding as your Promotional Gifts Provider...
We have over 15 years experience supplying quality promotional merchandise to businesses of all shapes and sizes across the UK from our Yorkshire base in Harrogate near Leeds. Many of our customers, including several blue-chip companies come back to us for all their promotional gifts because they have come to rely on the quality of our promotional products and the high standard of customer service they receive from us. Customer feedback tells us often that PG Branding exceeds expectations on quality, service and delivery times. You can always rely on us to do the best we can for you in terms of supplying good quality promotional merchandise, custom-printed to your exact specifications, in the time-frames you require.
PG Branding offers you a one-stop-shop for all your corporate, branding and marketing needs. The huge range of quality promotional products at good prices means that you will find all the customised products you require to suit any promotional and branding projects. No need to shop around. We offer promotional gifts to meet all budgets, styles and aspirations so you can find everything you need to meet even the most exacting brief.
To compliment the collection of promotional gifts we present, PG Branding also offers in-house personalisation for your promotional items. This includes a full design service for your artwork, backed up by a range of custom printing and embroidery services to apply your designs to your chosen promotional merchandise. Together we can create unique customised gifts that will have the desired impact on your customers.
Whether you know exactly what your requirements are, or need some ideas, suggestions or information, our friendly and experienced Customer Service Team are on hand to help you find the perfect promotional merchandise for your event. Contact us by Email via our 'contact us' area, the Free Phone at the top of the page, or our innovative Live Chat facility on the right hand side of this page. We look forward to hearing from you and helping you find the perfect promotional gift for your project.
We're so much more than just another Promotional Gifts distributor... We're so much more than just another Promotional Gifts distributor...
Over the last few months PG Branding have continued adding lots of new promotional items to the already huge range of promotional merchandise we offer. Our policy is to constantly update our range of promotional products on offer to our customers. We endeavour to keep our product range new, innovative and up-to-date so that whatever your promotional needs you will find the perfect promotional gifts on our easy to use website and stay one step ahead of the competition.
What are you looking for? Is it seasonal or event related promotional gifts you need or something closely linked to your particular promotional theme? If so, we offer a great range of promotional Christmas and Easter gifts, promotional diaries and calendars, promotional eco-friendly items, promotional desktop products, trophies and awards, promotional clothing and promotional golf gifts among too many other items to mention. Perhaps you are organising a conference or series of meetings. Here the range of suitable promotional products would include promotional pens, pencils and paper products, promotional mugs and key rings, printed folders and conference bags, ad infinitum….
There are so many scenarios, projects and circumstances to use quality promotional and branded gifts to support and increase your business; it would be hard to cover them all. You may know what you want, or maybe you need some new ideas for different and innovative promotional gifts for your next campaign. If you can't find inspiration on our website from the thousands of promotional products on offer (and that's somewhat unlikely!) you could get in touch with one of our friendly and experienced sales representatives. A phone call will cost you nothing with our Free Phone number, an email is convenient to deal with in your own time, or try our Free Chat Line and talk to someone here in real time. We can help you make the most of your marketing budget and find the best promotional merchandise for your particular needs.
We look forward to hearing from you and helping you to grow your business.
Where abouts is PG Branding? Where abouts is PG Branding?
Harrogate, North Yorkshire, is well known by people all over the UK and even overseas. It has a reputation of being a uniquely attractive town and a desirable place to live. Our lovely Yorkshire town has a great range of independent retailers and designer shops bringing shoppers in from all surrounding areas, and offers a different shopping experience to the over-the-top hustle and bustle of Leeds. We locals have the benefit of living and working in this beautiful town, nestled on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales and not far from the lovely North Yorkshire Moors, while enjoying the great benefits of being in close proximity to the vibrant city of Leeds, which is one of the top commercial cities in the country. In the heart of the so called 'Golden Triangle' of Yorkshire, we have the best of all worlds!
In many minds, Harrogate is synonymous with quality and style, and Yorkshire people are known for their friendliness, good humour and and financial prudence. Here at PG Branding we aim to bring all these good qualities to our business, providing quality promotional gifts at good prices to companies of all sizes throughout Yorkshire and the UK. We pride ourselves on our great customer service and on the huge range of promotional items we offer, many from quality recognized brands. Visit our comprehensive user-friendly website where you will find a great selection of popular brands from which to build your own collection of quality company branded merchandise. You will find plenty of household names such as Balmain, Calvin Klein, Cross, Parker, Dunlop, PGA Tour, Nike Golf, Fruit of the Loom, Papermate, Jamie Oliver, Slazenger, Regatta, Sheaffer, Victorinox, Waterman, Sigg, Maglite, Waterman, Laguiole, Paul Bocuse, Stormtech and Dickies among others. We are constantly striving to include branded goods from more and more recognized brands onto our website, to give you the best choice of branded promotional items available anywhere.
Here in the heart of Harrogate, we adhere to providing an unbeatable range of branded items, with a great Yorkshire no nonsense approach. We at PG Branding work towards offering you the very best choice of branded gifts available together with excellent customer service and attention to detail. You can be assured of our best attention at all times, no matter whether your order is large or small, or if you are a first time customer or one of our ever growing group of loyal customers who have come to know and rely the quality of our products and service.
Areas we work in... Areas we work in...
- Preston
- Ripon
- Salford
- Salisbury
- Sheffield
- Southampton
- St Albans
- Stoke-on-Trent
- Sunderland
- Truro
- Wakefield


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30 October, 2011
Best song, best attitudeIs really there a "best" U2 song? Probably not. Even then, if one had to choose, this is a serious candidate. And performing this, in the middle of the street - fantastic.
14 April, 2011
Audi Allroadi agree with you that U2 that they need to do a video like that again but it would be a better video if they did something like that but with more power like for example all because of you it's a powerful song and that video on the truck was the best way they could do it
Audi Allroad
23 August, 2010
Best live location shoot ever!!!In true U2 style they just went and did it. it was raw and honest. Not over managed or choreographed. They probably had all the permits and stuff and still got shut down. They need to do it all again!


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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
A rude morning wake-up
When you wake up in the morning, after having pumped your system full of the aforementioned drugs, it's not so much that you wake up as it is that you move out of a state of total unconsciousness to one of mobile unconsciousness.
It was in that state that I entered the bathroom this morning to take my shower. I think I had one eye half open (the other still felt glued shut) as I stepped into the shower. I reached down, turned on the water and... holy crap! Cold water sprayed me and I jumped back about 3 feet. Both eyes open now, I tried to squeeze between the shower wall and the cold stream to reach down and turn it off. After a few brutal seconds, I finally got the water turned off and laid my head against the wall to try and recover. I got out of the shower, reached back in, turned the water on to let it heat up and stood there on the rug, cold and dripping while I waited. This is where you say "awwwww...poor baby".
I really don't think it matters that this happened while I'm fighting a cold. I'd have hated it and had the same reaction even if I'd been healthy and well. It just seemed worse this morning because I was so fuzzy-headed.
Now that I've bored you with all that, let me get to the thought I had, after the water heated and I climbed back into the shower, that prompted this insipid post...
Are there actually people out there who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water?
2 comments:
- Brian Tkatch said...
Heh. No, i hit the water first, or stay at a safe distance.
I'm more concerned over my neighbor taking a shower. We have separate hot water tanks, but this building has cold water taps that are connected. I can get burnt, or frozen when it goes off.
- September 15, 2009 at 3:29 PM
- Joel Garry said...
Googling for it shows the answer is yes. I guess some people just need rude awakening in the morning.
My shower is very far from the water heater, so the previous owner of the house added a small electric water heater for, shall we say, performance optimization. He put a switch in the basement next to the switches for the basement lights. Sure enough, any time any workman (like the cable guy) works in the basement, they oh-so-thoughtfully turn off the lights when they leave. I find out the next morning as I'm waiting and waiting, wondering if the water heater is working... we have a serious drought going on in my region.
word: exsial
- September 16, 2009 at 8:02 PM


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There's no better way to say "I truly hate you" than by giving someone a gift that requires them to wear 3D glasses. But this lazy gift wrap is a brilliant way to show someone you actually care, a little.
I can barely wrap a gift, let along tie a fancy bow on a package. And thanks to this Lazy Bows wrapping paper, I don't have to waste the five seconds it would take to look up an instructional video. You see the paper is already printed with a bow, but in 3D! So when viewed through a set of red and blue glasses, it looks like you've actually taken the time to put a little extra effort into the package you're giving someone. It's the perfect ruse!
Unfortunately like 3D movies the gift wrap does come with a premium price tag, $9 for just a couple of sheets and glasses when it's available in March. But unlike Hollywood blockbusters, at least you're not stuck staring at this for two hours. [Perpetual Kid via The Green Head]


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Page One
Parking Ticket Scofflaws Take Note! Berkeley's About to Boot Your Car
[Editor's Note: This is the first of two articles about Berkeley's new SmartBoot system. Tomorrow's article will explore the risks to citizens created by the city's use of this technology..]
Have you accumulated too many overdue parking parking tickets? If so, the Berkeley Police Department is putting you on notice: your car may soon be booted.
Beginning October 18th BPD will start using new tools to enforce against parking scofflaws. The "boot van", equipped with cameras, a computer, and wireless network connection, will roam the city scanning the license plates of parked cars, looking for those with too many overdue tickets.
When the boot van spots a vehicle with 5 or more outstanding parking tickets, each at least 30 days old, an alarm will be signaled and the parking enforcement officer will verify the identification and immobilize the vehicle with a SmartBoot™. . Notices will be posted on both the driver's side window and windshield to ensure that drivers know their vehicle cannot be driven.
The SmartBoot physically resembles traditional boots and immobilizes a vehicle in much the same way, but it adds some high-tech twists. SmartBoots have a numeric keypad. A car owner can remove a SmartBoot, in minutes by punching in a secret numeric code. The catch is that to obtain the code, the violator must first call a customer service number, give a credit card number, and pay up. (The new booting program also includes provisions for owners unable or unwilling to pay over the phone by credit card, and provisions for drivers physically unable to remove the boot themselves.)
BPD is encouraging parking ticket scofflaws to pay up now, before October 18th, to avoid the extra hassle and penalties of getting booted.
The Scofflaw Problem
In the twelve month period ending on September 28, 2011, parking ticket scofflaws accumulated a roughly $1.5 million dollar debt to the city.
Until now, the city's system for tracking down violators has been expensive and inconvenient for both the city and the violators:
City employees have had to search "by eye" for offending vehicles and then arrange for them to be towed. The cameras and computers on the boot van are expected to streamline this process: The boot van can drive the speed limit while simultaneously scanning license plates on both sides of the street. One enforcement officer can check many more vehicles per hour than by using traditional methods.
In the past, violators had to spend hours making a payment (including a $300 towing fee, plus impound charges for vehicles not retrieved promptly). Violators had to visit the impound lot to retrieve their vehicles. Now, drivers with a suitable credit card and phone can remove boots themselves, in minutes and be on their way.
The Cost of Getting Caught
If your car is booted, here is what you can expect:
Seizure notices on your car: Parking enforcement officers will attach large notices to the driver's side window and windshield, alerting you that your car has been booted. The notices include a toll free customer service number which operates 24 hours a day, every day.
Opportunity to pay over the phone If you have a suitable credit card, the customer service number can accept payment for your outstanding tickets, plus a $140 non-refundable booting fee, plus a $500 refundable deposit on the boot itself. Those unable to make such a payment can, for example, visit city service center to pay their fine in person.
Self-help removing the boot: Once you are paid up, you'll be given the secret code number that can unlock the boot. You can remove the boot and be on your way in minutes.
Return the boot for your deposit: You must drop off the boot at a return center to receive back your $500 deposit. Late fees accumulate if you do not, although BPD Traffic Bureau Lieutenant Diane Delaney says that the city can work something out with people who genuinely can not make the 24 hour deadline.
Or else get towed after-all: If you've been booted and don't resolve the issue within 48 hours, your car becomes "tow-able", says Delaney, with a corresponding accumulation of additional fees.
Attempting to Enforce Fairly and Evenly
Delaney says that BPD wants to be sure the new enforcement technology is applied evenly to all parts of the city. Therefore, she says, the Traffic Bureau has divided the city into 10 "zones". The boot van will be deployed in one zone at a time, cycling through all other zones before returning.
BPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Mary Kusmiss emphasized that pursuing parking ticket scofflaws has always been a focus of the department — the new boot van and SmartBoot are new tools in that effort, not a change in priorities.


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One of the most-discussed issues in long-term investing is whether to focus on income generation or simply to think in term of total return (price gains plus income). The discussion of this topic often focuses on whether investors should seek out stocks that pay dividends vs. simply planning to sell a fraction of their portfolio periodically to provide income. I recently wrote a long article on this topic, which has been cited in a very interesting discussion of this theme going on at Bogleheads. One of the most active participants in the debate on the Bogleheads forum and elsewhere is Larry Swedroe, a well-known advisor and author. As I read the Bogleheads discussion thread, it strikes me that there is considerable confusion around this topic, so I thought I would add a few more thoughts.
The debate over income vs. total return investing is especially important to people who are in retirement and who depend on an income stream from their portfolios. If you can live entirely on the dividends, bond yield, and other distributions from your portfolio, you don't have to worry about longevity risk—the risk of depleting your portfolio in your lifetime. This is probably the major appeal of income investing. There are many who believe that an income-focused strategy is a mistake, however, and Swedroe has written a number of articles in which he asserts this. Vanguard has also published research in which they assert that total return strategies are superior to income-focused portfolios. Here is an article in which I analyze Vanguard's case.
The arguments in favor of a total return focus are, in my appraisal, holding sway in the money management industry for the time being.
To understand this issue, I like to think in terms of a metaphor to another type of investing. Imagine that you purchase a ski condo for the purpose of renting it out for income. You have two sources of return from this investment. You have the rental income and you have the potential to benefit from an increase in real estate values over the period that you own the condo. You might purchase a condo in an area in which you need the entire rental income to cover your mortgage on the condo, fees from the homeowner's association, and maintenance and upkeep on the condo. The only way you will actually realize a positive return on this property is to eventually sell it. From the time you buy to the time you sell, the only returns you accrue are paper returns: your estimate of the future sales price of the condo. On the other hand, you might buy a condo that generates income that consistently gives you cash flow beyond all of your costs. Whether you sell or not, you are generating income. The two sources of return on your investment might average out to be the same over the lifetime of the investment, but they are undeniably different.
Dividend-paying stocks are not inherently safer than non-dividend payers. The fundamental difference between them is that dividend payers give a portion of their income back to shareholders while non-dividend payers either invest the money in growth or do share buybacks. In theory, investors should be indifferent as to whether their returns come in the form of dividend checks or reinvestment. In practice, companies that pay dividends are often less risky because their business models and management are less aggressive.
If you control for differences in risk between companies, why would someone choose to invest in stocks on the basis of dividends? The answer is actually very simple: consistency of at least some portion of the return. If a company has a long history of paying a dividend—AEP is one example that was mentioned on the Bogleheads discussion—we can feel pretty confident that it will continue to do so. Companies can and do cut their dividends when they are in distress, of course. In light of the dividend payment history for AEP (which pays four times per year—see chart below), I am quite comfortable betting on a quarterly dividend of $0.47 per share for next year. This equates to a dividend yield of 4.3% at the current price.
How confident can we be as to how much AEP's price will go up next year? There are a variety of ways to come up with reasonable expectations for price returns from stocks, but the uncertainty with regard to the outcomes is high. We can predict quite confidently that we know how much gain we will get from dividends but we cannot predict the changes in price for AEP over the next year with any confidence at all.
This difference in the uncertainty with regard to estimating dividend return vs. price return is the key distinction of dividends. There will be some investors who judge that their ability to forecast price returns is comparable to their ability to forecast returns from dividends. For these people, dividends have no advantage. There will also be investors who are comfortable with year-to-year variability in returns and are willing to bet that the diversification benefits provided by non-income-generating assets is sufficient reward for the higher uncertainty in estimating returns. This is, in fact, a strong argument in favor of total return investing. There will also be people who place a premium on reducing their estimation uncertainty in the amount of income that a portfolio generates, and it is for these people that income investing will make the most sense.
The decision to invest for income or for total return reflects investor preferences in important ways. The ongoing debate—which sometimes seems to get pretty heated—would benefit from a balanced approach. It is not the case that income investing is inherently better or less risky than total return investing. The choice of the balance of income vs. price appreciation depends on an investor's specific needs, risk tolerance, and level of sophistication in making investment decisions.
The views set forth in this blog are the opinions of the author alone and may not represent the views of any firm or entity with whom he is affiliated. The data, information, and content on this blog are for information, education, and non-commercial purposes only. The information on this blog does not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice and is limited to the dissemination of opinions on investing. No reader should construe these opinions as an offer of advisory services.


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Monster Mopar Weekend - A Monster Of A Weekend
At The St. Louis Monster Mopar Show
It happens the same weekend every year, immediately following Labor Day. This year the Monster Mopar Weekend, held on September 5, 6, and 7 at Gateway International Speedway and Dragstrip, was plagued with beautiful weather, great racing, and car show action. Every weekend should be this nice. This was our first time attending this event, and the calendar is already marked for next year. We were overwhelmed by the number of race cars and show cars drawn to this venue. Nearly 1,000 race and show cars from around America came to Gateway to compete in nine categories of drag racing. We have never heard of an all-Mopar event with racing payouts as large as this. Would you believe a $10,000-to-win payout in the Indy Cylinder Heads Quick 16 class? Harden's Muscle Car World was the sponsor of the car show, with 50 classes to make sure all Mopar enthusiasts were covered. When the final tally was made, 531 show cars made the pilgrimage, with 436 race cars vying for the money. Of the over 500 show cars entered, 32 of them were of the wing-car persuasion, and they even made a few laps around the speedway on Saturday.
We began our weekend in Union, Missouri. we went to Union to partake in the Winged Warrior get-together at the home of Richard Bolzenius. This laid-back gathering featured several wing cars, and a special appearance of one of only three Turbine cars that can move under its own power. A special thanks goes out to the St. Louis County Museum of Transportation for allowing it to appear. Several gentlemen that worked for Mopar in the heyday of musclecars, including James Hylton (NASCAR Rookie-of-the-Year in 1966), Al Bradshaw (Turbine car engineer), and several plant employees were on hand, telling how things really happen at the plant. Mike Eberhardt (the man responsible for getting the St. Louis Turbine car running) was also busy all weekend giving rides and telling what it took to get the Turbine car running.
In Circles-Really, Really FastAnother perk for those who attended the Monster Mopar Weekend was the Petty Driving Experience classes. For those who have been under a rock for the last couple of years, the Petty Experience gives you the opportunity to drive a NASCAR-built car a few laps around the speedway at well over 100 mph. Now, you just don't show up, jump in the car, and go. Each student receives the proper training required, and is then fitted with a driving suit, helmet, and the necessary safety harness. After the "schooling" is complete, each person is assigned a car for his or her laps.
These are not dressed-up street cars. These are real NASCAR Cup-style cars, complete with 358ci Cup engines and four-speed transmission. If you think it's easy, try it. At 120-plus mph, things are not cut and dried. You're strapped into a car and cannot move very much. Your heart rate is up, and these cars are not air-conditioned. Before you are tempted to tell your favorite NASCAR driver how he should drive, get into one of these cars and try it for yourself. You will have a new appreciation for what it takes to drive in NASCAR traffic at over 100 mph.


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This is the discussion thread for the Hammock Hanging Method - Addendum.
This is the discussion thread for the Hammock Hanging Method - Addendum.
I think that when the lies are all told and forgot the truth will be there yet. It dont move about from place to place and it dont change from time to time. You cant corrupt it any more than you can salt salt. - Cormac McCarthy
I'm sorta busy right now, but I will check back in daily.
If anybody has ideas for improving the hang rope method of hanging a hammock, they will be very welcome. There are ALWAYS improvements that can be made.
Any changes will also be seriously considered.
Also, if anybody doesn't have access to AWK, I will run the programs with your parameters (ridge line length and max tree separation) and post the results to this thread. You can PM the ridge line length and max tree separation to me or post to this thread if you want.
There's a lot of detail in this post, but I think I know now what it is about.
My executive summary :
Of course the post is all about details in doing these things, but that's the thrust I think.Use your cord to measure the distance between trees. From this, the known length of ridgeline and marks on the cord, figure out how to center the hammock and how long the end-to-end suspension ought to be to give you a 30 degree angle on the suspension line. Use Marlin spike hitches on the single line, at the right places, to hang your hammock ends.
Making this useful for those who may not use a single line, or be able to precisely measure the distance between tree, I'll rephrase what I find to be key points.
First, estimate the distance between trees. You can step this off, you can stand between them with your hiking poles outstretched (about 12' tip-to-tip for me). You need to know how long your ridgeline is (or the distance between hammock ends), and subtract that off from the distance between trees. Divide that by two to get the distance from hammock end to tree, same at both ends. Call that distance D.
Now the length of suspension cord from hammock end to tree needs to be longer than D in order for the hammock to get the right hang (e.g., the suspension cord is at a 30 degree angle with respect to the ground). The precise length is D/cos(30 degrees). 1/cos(30 degrees) is very close to 7/6, a point made several times in HF by youngblood. Numerically D/cos(30 degrees) is approximately 15% larger than D. So if you can estimate a tip, you can estimate what D/cos(30 degrees) is. I'll offer an even simpler means of figuring out how long the suspension cord to tree should be using the marks on the cord .... make the marks 15% farther apart than they should be. So where there was before 12 inches to represent a foot, now use 14 inches (this is TeeDee's 2" per foot rule restated). To find the right length on the cord for a distance to tree of D, just measure D on the cord now in the exagerated scale. (aside...if you use marks on the cord also to measure the distance between trees, it would be best to have one color of marks for normal scale, and a different set of marks at a different color for the exagerated scale).
Finally, tie a slipped bowline loop at the right distance along the cord (what all my blather above is about), and hang it on the Marlin hitch toggle at the tree.
So if I have anything to add to improve the complete line suspension system, it is to eliminate the tables and the worst of the math by marking the line with two different scales.
The most useful thing for me out of the post was the idea of using a slipped bowline to attach the cord to tree. I'll be playing with that to see how I like it.
Last edited by GrizzlyAdams; 08-06-2008 at 15:50.
I never thought I would see grizz simplify a math thing to the point where I can understand it. Thanks tremendously. I got so bogged down in the original article, excellent tho it was, that I gave up in despair. Your recap is most helpful.
I may be slow... But I sure am gimpy.
"Bless you child, when you set out to thread a needle don't hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and poke the thread at it; that's the way a woman most always does, but a man always does t'other way."
Mrs. Loftus to Huck Finn
We Don't Sew... We Make Gear! video series
Important thread injector guidelines especially for Newbies
Bobbin Tension - A Personal Viewpoint
Grizz - thanks for the summary. I tend to get wrapped up in the details and forget that others don't have my experience with what I am writing so that it isn't clear in their minds what I am describing.
Yes, you are right. I am using the cord to measure the distance between trees and then using that and the marks to set the sag. And you can estimate/measure the distance by any means. I have always found that I am way off by pacing and trying to guessimate it visually is worse for me.
I haven't tried the outstretched arms with poles - will have to try it.
My calculations are rounded off and add error and to add more error with my pacing or visual guesstimates just makes the procedure unworkable for me - far too much error. That's where I was before HC4U's idea of marking the rope. Marking the rope got my errors down to the point that I could reliably set the sag from tree separation. It would be great if laser range finders were cheap enough and light enough to use and carry.
I just remembered, I do have a Leica optical rangefinder - I'll have to try that. It's accurate from 1 meter to 20 meters and up to 7 meters the scale is almost as accurate as the markings on my hang rope. Just weighed it - 2.7 oz in its leather case. It would make a workable method. That would give me the distance right at the start, even before putting on the tree huggers. Knowing the distance fairly accurately right at the start makes things even easier.
front view of rangefinder
side view of rangefinder
I could mark a hang rope in metric and do the tables in metric ..... I going to have to try this - I think it will work.
I like the suggestion for putting the scale directly on the rope and using the 2 colors.
I would have one problem with it though - the scale as you suggest is based on a 30 degree sag angle. A lot of the time that is fine, but for large separations, 30 degrees can quickly get my butt on the ground or so high in the trees that I need a ladder - maybe lineman's spurs
I don't know - I've never done the AT or the PCT or any "maintained" trails, but the areas I do go are usually old growth and large separations are the norm. 16' may be considered "close" and findable a lot of the time, but 18' to 20' usually.
Where 30 degree sag works all the time, then a second color scale would be better. Great idea/modification.
I have been experimenting with marking webbing and rope suspension systems to aid in hanging hammocks. Like Grizz mentioned, I use a 31 degree sag angle because the cosine 31 is a convenient ratio of 6/7. I start the marks at a 12 foot span. From that 12 foot reference each foot is incremented 7 inches on each end, so that works out pretty well. What I mark is the span distance because I really don't care about the actual length of the suspension, I just want to know where to tie it off and the distance I do know is the span.
I am of the opinion that if there is one key parameter to get right in hanging a hammock, it is the height to tie off the hammock for the span you are using. If you get that right and are using a low stretch suspension system, about all you have left to worry about is centering the hammock between the span. Get that wrong and everything is more difficult. So my priority list is:
1- Span distance.
2- Tie off height.
3- Height hammock is above ground.
4- Centering hammock.
With a marked suspension system, centering of the hammock is hard to mess up. For a tie off height for most hammocks, I suggest shoulder height for a 12 foot span, head high for a 15 foot span, and as high as I can reach for an 18 foot span. (The tie off height is different for some of the larger Hennessy Hammocks. They should be tied higher by a half foot or more.)
I observe the height the hammock is above the ground and use that as the fine and final adjustment to make up for the inaccuracy I sometimes get in determining the span (by pacing or using my outstretched hiking poles. It just happens that I actually 'calibrated' my outstretched hiking poles the other day and found they are more like 13 feet instead of the 'old 12 foot rule' for me.) My fine adjustment is usually adding or subtracting some suspension but occasionally may be the tie off height, it just depends on how things look and feel.
Youngblood AT2000
That I understand because it is just what I was saying earlier...and I think you mentioned it to me in a PM once...
If you really and truly mean what you wrote as you wrote it, I don't get it.
Using the 7" marking means that you have other means of measuring span distance accurately. How do you accomplish that?
Also, your rule of cos(31) ~ 6/7, is usable for a single sag angle. You than have only one thing that you can adjust to achieve your desired hammock height - how high you place the tie off points, i.e., the tree huggers. By limiting yourself this way means that where I go, you would have to pass by a LOT of otherwise suitable hang spots and spots that would be better than the ones you could use. I would guess that on the maintained trails in the US this is probably not a problem though.
I would change your above ordering slightly and swap items 2 and 3. Hammock height is what I want and tie off height follows from hammock height and span distance. With a ridge line, computing the tie off height from hammock height and span distance is a simple trig problem. Without a ridge line, you have a much more flexible problem and have to fall back on the "art" of where to place the tie off on the trees as you do with your "rules of thumb" below.
Of course, if you know what the distance between your hammock whipping is when hung, then you know the "virtual" ridge line length and can use that as Grizz mentioned. You then have the problem of accurately measuring span distance. The hang rope with built-in ridge line solves that problem as does my Leica optical rangefinder.
I really think that I would change your list even more in that items 3 and 4 are not items that are unknown, but are my final goals in hanging the hammock. I have the following list in my head when hanging the hammock:
- accurate span distance measurement
- sag angle and,
- tie off point height
I can measure 1, and then mentally adjust 2 and 3 to get my desired/known hammock height. Centering the hammock then follows from sag angle and knowing the measured amount of slack to allow and using the marks on the suspension to accomplish that.
That's the reason I might be carrying that Leica optical rangefinder in the future and will certainly be doing testing with it in the days to follow.
Knowing the span distance accurately immediately with the rangefinder without even having to put the tree huggers on the trees, means that I immediately know several things:
- if a 30 degree sag angle will be workable
- what sag angle I can use
- how high to place the tie off, i.e., how high to place the tree huggers
All of that falls out immediately from the span distance since I already know how high my hammock will be and the fact that I want it to be centered.
Also, you may not "care" about the suspension length, but what you are doing assumes that, at least theoretically, you know what it is. Otherwise your procedure for the 7" markings makes no sense to me. It is based on suspension length.
Here is the geometry I am basing this on. A structural ridgeline can alter this, or not, depending on what the sag of the structural ridgeline is. Hopefully the 7" of suspension per 6" of span is evident from the diagram. It all works out, but as TeeDee pointed out, the accuracy of determining the span is the rub. I'm not sure too many people will want to use something to precisely measure the span, I think most people will have to work around that inaccuracy.
And the virtual ridgeline trick, I have used my version of that for years. I make all my backpacking hammocks such that the attachment points for the hammock bugnet will be at a 9 foot horizontal distance when the hammock sag is 31 degrees. I mentally subtract that from the span and multiply the results by 0.6 to estimate the amount of suspension needed on each side from that point. I use various points from my finger tips to elbows, armpit, nose, etc to estimate those lengths. It gives me a ball bark hang which I make fine adjustments to. I know 0.6 isn't the exact number but my measurements aren't precise enough to warrant worrying with multiplying a two digit number.
Last edited by Youngblood; 08-06-2008 at 21:18. Reason: wrote "horizontal difference"... should have been "horizontal distance"
Youngblood AT2000


text: News Beach volleyball 25/05/2013 Women's final four field set at Corrientes Grand Slam Corrientes, Argentina, May 25, 2013—Enjoying the warming sunshine, the player-friendly sand and the gracious fans that helped them elevate their game even more, the women's quarterfinals have set the stage for the semifinals and medal matches of the $440,000 FIVB Corrientes Grand Slam double-gender tournament. Following their quarterfinal victories Saturday morning, making up the final four will be two teams from Brazil along with one each from the Netherlands and the United States.The women's portion of Round 2 of the 10-event 2013 FIVB World Tour concludes Saturday with the internationally-televised women's semifinals and medal matches later today. Men's final matches will be played on Sunday. With the event being held for the first time in Corrientes, the purpose-built site is located on the sands of Arazati Beach – Costanera Sur. The lighted stadium court has been built to seat 7,500 spectators. The men's semifinals and medal matches close the tournament on Sunday. The men's semifinals and medal matches will start at 2:30 p.m. local time on Sunday for the men's final four matches.The lineups for Saturday afternoon's semifinals, which begin at 3 p.m. local time, will see Brazilian sisters Maria Clara Salgado/Carolina Salgado meeting Netherlands' Madelein Meppelink/Sophie van Gestal in the first semifinal followed by Brazil's Maria Antonelli/Agatha Bednarczuk, meeting USA's Jennifer Kessy/April Ross.In the semifinal matchups are experienced players with three of the teams being together for some time and the fourth, Brazil's Antonelli/Bednarczuk competing on the FIVB World Tour together for the first time. As a team, the Salgados have played 105 tournaments together, Netherlands Meppelink/van Gestal are in their 16th, Brazil's Antonelli/Bednarczuk are playing their third and Kessy/Ross are playing in their 74th as a team.While Brazil's Antonelli/Bednarczuk have not faced each other before, Brazil's Salgado sisters and Netherlands' Meppelink/van Gestel met for the first time in the bronze medal match three weeks ago in Shanghai won by the Dutch women.Five of the eight players are Olympians as USA's Kessy/Ross won the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympic games, Meppelink/van Gestal finished fifth in London and Antonelli, teamed with Talita Antunes, also finished fifth in London. For these final four teams, this is the 15th final four for the Salgado sisters, fourth for Netherlands' Meppelink/van Gestel, first for Antonelli/Bednarczuk and 34th final four for USA's Kessy/Ross, the 2009 FIVB Beach Volleyball World ChampionshipsTo earn the place in the final four with three of the four quarterfinals lasting three sets, Netherland's Meppelink/van Gestal defeated Germany's Karla Borger/Britta Buthe in straight sets, 21-13, 21-19 in 34 minutes while their semifinal opponent Brazil's Salgado sisters advanced by working three sets to defeat Germany's surprising Julia Grossner/Victoria Bieneck, 19-21, 21-11, 15-4 in 47 minutes.To advance to their second semifinal matchup, Brazil's Antonelli/Bednarczuk upset the Germany's veteran duo Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler, 22-24, 21-19, 16-14 in 55 minutes while their next opponent, USA's Kessy/Ross had their hands full as well before pulling out another three-set victory, this one over Spain's Liliana Fernandez/Elsa Baquerizo, 21-13, 11-21, 15-12 in 52 minutes."This was a very, very tough match for us, the Germans are so experienced, so good and we are a new team so winning the match is amazing for us," said Antonelli after she and Bednarczuk pulled out their three-set victory with two sets going to overtime. "We are really started to play well and its great to make the final four in just our third FIVB international event together. Now we want a medal."While all the teams in the women's quarters have FIVB World Tour experience because of partner switches only two of the matches had teams who had played before. Netherlands Meppelink/van Gestal are now 3-0 overall in head-to-head matchups against Germany's Borger/Buthe and USA's Kessy/Ross have the same 3-0 margin over Spain's Fernandez/Baquerizo although Spain has taken the Americans to three sets the last two times they have met.With their quarterfinal losses Germany's Borger/Buthe, Spain's Fernandez/Baquerizo, Germany's Grossner/Bieneck and Germany's Holtwilck/Semmler will all leave Argentina with official fifth-place finishes in the 2013 FIVB Corrientes Grand Slam.USA's Kessy/Ross, the 2012 Olympic silver medalists, continued their powerful tournament start in winning their pool with wins over teams from Argentina, Canada and Kazhkstan and the Czech Republic Friday before Saturday's quarterfinal victory to put them at 5-0 for the tournament so far.The gold medal teams in each gender in the FIVB Corrientes Grand Slam will each split $33,000, the silver $22,000, the bronze $16,500 and fourth place $12,900. The women's medal matches will be held on Saturday and the men's medal matches on Sunday. The FIVB Corrientes Grand Slam is the 286th FIVB men's event since the FIVB began play in 1989 and the 248th FIVB women's tournament since they started in 1992. Print this Page News {{item.LocalShortDate}} {{item.Title}} All the News


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Let's recap where we are.
Facebook is valued at less than 10X next year's revenue for a business with strong network effects, unparallelled engagement, 20% net margins growing 50% y/y, etc. and just a completely unique, era-defining company. To be sure, there are lots of questions about Facebook's business, and there have been lots of shenanigans around the IPO, but the point is that a company that everyone thought was worth $100 billion a few weeks ago is now worth $60 billion and still crashing.
Apple meanwhile has a P/E ratio of 14. The S&P 500 has a ratio of 21. According to finance 101, P/E is a measure of expected growth. What it means is the market is telling us that it expects Apple--a company that grew 70% last year and is wallopping the competition in gigantic markets where it's just getting started--to grow much slower than the average of the biggest (ie slowest growing) companies in America.
We've been spending the past few months debating whether there's a "tech bubble." This debate got us so irritated, because it's so indisputable that there's no tech bubble, that we wrote an exhaustive 6,600 word post about it.
But it occurs to us that the bubble debate is a sideshow, or rather just a manifestation of something much broader and real, and it's that everybody hates tech.
There's just no other explanation for Apple's P/E at 14.
And it's a great explanation for what happened to Facebook's stock: a lot of people thought there was a tech bubble and they thought they could play it. They thought they could buy Facebook stock at inflated prices on the secondary market and that because it's a bubble some retail sucker would come along and buy it at an even more ludicrous price. It's what happens when a lot of people think there's a tech bubble but really everybody hates tech: a couple things get bid up by people thinking they're going to sucker other people and then it crashes. In a weird sense, the people who bid up Facebook hated tech as well, because the reason they were buying it was because they thought they could sucker someone else into buying something worthless, not because they thought Facebook was intrinsically valuable.
Today we have the news that after Facebook's IPO Kayak decided to pull its own IPO, because of the way Facebook's been crashing. Now Kayak is a flight search engine--it's got nothing to do with Facebook, or even "social." It's in travel which is one of the most lucrative, tried-and-true verticals in the internet business. The only way pulling Kayak's IPO after Facebook's IPO makes sense is if Facebook's IPO made Kayak realize that everybody hates tech.
And it's easy to see why everybody hates tech: once burned twice shy. We had a tech bubble, during which so many things about the future of technology were sold, that even when it's finally happening under people's eyes, they can't believe it. People who were optimistic in the late 1990s got burned, so the smart thing is to never be optimistic, and to always be pessimistic about technology.
It's the kind of thing that the legendary tech investor Peter Thiel is always harping about: that people have stopped believing in technology. And indeed he's right. In my bubble post, I noted that the technology sector has a lower P/E than consumer goods. In other words, the market is expecting office supplies and makeup to grow faster than technology. That's not only self-evidently absurd, it's incredibly depressing about the state of the world we live in.
So, what does it mean for technology?
- In the short term, it's obviously bad: as we see with the Kayak IPO, we're seeing real significant businesses that can't get an exit because everybody hates tech.
- In the long term, it might actually be great: technology is obviously eating the world, and the fact that that the rest of the world is going to try to undermine it might make it stronger.
Like much else, the fact that everyone hates tech is probably going to make it a lousy investment in the short term, and a great one in the long run.
Previously: Why Everybody Hates Tech →


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ORNL Review Archive
Disorder in Crystal Surfaces
- ORNL and Antarctica
- Reducing Friction To Save Energy
- Differing Structures of Amorphous Solids
- The Verdict on Acid Rain
- ORNL's Contributions to NAPAP
- Awards and Appointments
- Educational Activities—Successful first Saturday Academy for Computing and Mathematics; photograph of Oak Ridge teacher in national magazine
- R&D Updates—ORNL waste site surveyed by mobile robot; ORNL materials aboard Ulysses space probe; ORNL procedure adopted by EPA
- Technical Highlights—Part of gene making fruit fly resistant to insecticides cloned; subtle DNA changes and trace levels of organics detected by two ORNL mass spectrometer systems; rat lung tumors targeted by ORNL's monoclonal antibodies; new theory on tokamak operations
- Technology Transfer—Optics MODIL organized; iron aluminide technology licensed to two firms
ORNL's Future Missions
- 2 Editorial—ORNL can help synthesize new materials, as called for by a recent National Research Council report.
- Robotics for Nuclear Reactors and Hazardous Environments
- Examining Substitutes for Ozone-Depleting Chemicals
- Mechanisms of Radon Transport
- ORNL's Future Missions
- Awards and Appointments
- Take a Number
- Educational Activities—Science and Technology Alliance; memorandums of understanding
- User Facilities—Bioprocessing Research Facility examined
- R&D Updates—New findings on attic insulation and heat loss; ORNL contributions to shaping National Energy Strategy many and varied; computation speed record attained; U.S . civil defense's ability to meet threat of nuclear winter studied; ORNL tritium sales ended; support for Operation Desert Shield
- Technical Highlights—5 R&D 100 Awards for ORNL; new concept for producing very pure therapeutic drugs continuously
- Technology Transfer—Radiation detector for groundwater licensed; new R&D agreements allowed
Visualizing Scientific Data
- State of the Laboratory—1989
- Scientific Visualization: New Insights by Computer
- Improving Detection of Airport Explosives
- Microwave Processing of Radioactive Waste
- Take a Number
- Awards and Appointments
- User Facilities: The expanding Roof Research Center
- Educational Activities: Role models at ORNL for future women scientists; helping public-school science and math teachers
- Technical Highlights: Solar-powered infrared-emitting microchip being developed and tested; microbes aided by vegetation in decontaminating waste sites; revealing results of a carbon dioxide simulation model
- R&D Updates: World's longest dinosaur imaged by ORNL technique; SSC detector pre-proposal developed at ORNL; the HFIR restored to full-power operation
- Technology Transfer: Electrical solvent extraction technology, precision etching technology, and a radionuclide generator for diagnosing heart disease licensed
Organ Images
- Eureka! A Look at Inventing
- Iron Aluminides and the Inventor of the Year
- Human Behavior in Emergencies
- Environmental Protection in China
- Toward a One-Angstrom Electron Microscope
- ORNL's Impact on Radiation Protection Guidance
- Awards and Appointments
- Educational Activities—New initiatives pushed by President Bush, Secretary of Energy Watkins, Energy Systems, and state of Tennessee
- R&D Updates—New parallel computer at ORNL; Oak Ridge Detector Center established; effects of solar storms on U.S. electric power systems being studied
- Technical Highlights—New concept for increasing optical data storage; important human repair gene cloned; ORNL support for French fusion device; waste-managing microbes
- Technology Transfer—ORNL to collaborate with SEMATECH; computer security technology licensed


text:
Does Apple Need a Bigger Stick - or Charm School?
Mar 7, 2013 5:00 AM PT
Apple, in so many ways, is now king of the hill. As such, behind every rock on the Web there seems to be a new charge to knock Apple down.
If a competitor isn't charging the hill, Apple seems to be the target for stone-throwing. It's not that this is unexpected; the rise and fall of companies -- and Hollywood starlets -- is commonplace. But does a meteoric rise always require a fall?
The questions on my mind these days: Once you're at the top, do you have to change? Must you act differently to stay there? And once you are there, do you have to start playing defense?
I don't know all the answers to these questions, but it's clear to me that Apple's identity -- and relationship with the world -- is in the middle of a profound and fundamental shift. Even if Apple doesn't hold the leading marketshare numbers, Apple holds the top mindshare in virtually every category.
Pay Some Mind to Mindshare
Despite not being the outright leader in everything, Apple is not an underdog.
While the Mac represents a fraction of the PC market, Apple sells more units than other manufacturers. Plus, the MacBook Air and Pro still represent the key designs other manufacturers are striving to emulate and surpass.
While the iOS is being surpassed by Android, the iPhone still holds admirable mindshare. It also captures the bulk of actual smartphone profit.
The iPad is still dominating tablet sales, and it's still clear that it represents the tablet experience and ecosystem to beat.
As near as I can tell, the Apple TV still seems to be outselling other set-top boxes. Aside from the sneak attack Xbox 360, other set-top boxes seem to become mere blips on the radar when they have a new release.
As for profit, oh boy; Apple's profits in relation to its products and revenue are simply stellar -- US$13 billion in just the last quarter, making it one of the world's most profitable companies.
Then there's Fortune, which just named Apple the world's most admired company, again, for what, the 6th year in a row?
Persistent Clamor for Change
As Android continues to gain marketshare, it seems that most industry watches believe that Apple should release an inexpensive, big-screen iPhone to compete on the low end to gain worldwide marketshare. Never mind that Apple doesn't create products just to gain marketshare. Apple only creates products that it believes improves the customer experience in some way.
Does Apple now have to create products that don't necessarily improve customer experience, but simply extend it to new customers? That plan of action doesn't really sound like Apple to me.
Yet the pressure to do so seems to be coming all the time, and every day that Apple's stock price slips, it's just more fuel on the fire.
In the past, the world's scrutiny wasn't as intense. Apple didn't have to worry about its supply chain partners leaking photos of new products. Apple could work in a carefully controlled and secretive environment. It could, when led by the oddly charming Steve Jobs, reveal new products to the world. There was deep surprise. This secretive process was -- and still is -- worth millions and millions of dollars in marketing value.
Because so many people keep talking about Apple and what it is going to do next, it doesn't have to spend nearly as much money as Samsung in advertising in order to make a healthy profit.
The marketing value of being secretive is the biggest single argument against any sort of change from Apple.
What if Apple said, "Look, we're building an Apple TV. It's freaking amazing. Do you know what's holding it up? The current television industry. They are the biggest road block in the world, and they seem to believe that forcing consumers to pay for a hundred terrible channels in order to get what they really want is a good business practice. We're trying to change that, and you know, we could use your help."
Theoretically, Apple could get defensive and let Wall Street know that it really does have awesome products nearing completion. At the same time, theoretically, Apple could go on offense and show everyone what sort of clubs it has as it stands at the top of the hill.
"Do you really want to come up here and compete? Are you sure?" Apple could say.
At the same time, Apple could throw stones. The company could call out the industries -- and individuals -- that keep Tim Cook's television experience two decades in the past. Apple could peel back layers and expose dark underbellies, and it could position itself as a champion of the light -- of progress.
iWatch Anyone?
If Apple just came out and said, "We've got an iWatch coming out in time for the 2013 holiday season," half the power of the naysayers who think Apple has peaked, is stagnant and can't come up with new products would be obliterated. Just one sentence is all it would take, maybe even three words: iWatch, September 2013.
What if Apple produced concept cars? What if Apple held a visionary sort of auto show and showed off interesting concepts for new products? What if it showed off its goofs, too?
It could work. It's hard to hate someone who is joyfully exuberant, has great ideas and just loves to share them.
On the other hand, would all of Apple's magic simply dissipate? Would fans stop asking questions? Stop talking? Stop hoping?
Can Apple weather the storm raging at the top of the hill by continuing to operate exactly as it did when it was climbing? If Apple doesn't change, will the vagaries of public opinion gradually wear it down?
Maybe I'm not asking the right questions at all. Maybe this is the right question:
Can Apple continue to be successful if it ignores the world, and simply focuses on creating the best possible products?
I sure as heck hope so.


text:
Community Engagement
Highlight of the Month
More than 20 employees and family members of United Mechanical's residential air conditioning division recently participated in a United Way Day of Caring. The team spent the day cleaning up planting beds and installing a drip irrigation system for Child Care of Southwest Florida's Joseph H. Messina Children's Center in Fort Myers.
Child Care of Southwest Florida is so grateful to United Mechanical for their help and volunteerism to the cause. Special thanks to United Mechanical employees Jill Moreland and Don Pine for their project management.
About the Messina Center
Our Messina Center is home to a community garden with fresh vegetables, which has become a full circle learning tool for our children. They have learned about sustainability, healthy food, teamwork, and the importance of fruits and vegetables. By becoming engaged in nature, the children are able to see how bountiful surroundings contribute to a healthy diet and a healthy mind. The Messina Center is a nurturing, supportive environment with a passionate staff that loves to see their students thrive.
Child Care of Southwest Florida Events
We hold several different events throughout the year to raise money and community awareness about children's child care needs in our area. These events allow us to:
Have you visited a Child Care of Southwest Florida location?
Please share your positive experience, story or feedback by writing a review on our Facebook page.
Brown & Brown Insurance of Naples presented the inaugural Par-Tee for Tots charity golf tournament to benefit Child Care of Southwest Florida on Friday, September 16 at West Bay Club in Estero.
The four-person scramble drew the participation of 124 golfers and raised $25,000 for Child Care of Southwest Florida, whose mission is to enhance the lives of children and their families through quality early childhood education and related services to promote health and school readiness.
Along with Brown & Brown Insurance of Naples, Child Care of Southwest Florida would like to thank ABS Distributors, AV Air Pros, CIGNA, Florida Blue, LeeSar, Lee Memorial Health System Foundation, Pure, United Health Care, and Tri Circle Pavers. A special thank you to board member Bill Emo, from Brown & Brown Insurance of Naples, for his leadership.
Cara Singletary, Carol Conway, Karen Miller, and Angela Anderson
Isandro Marquez, Kale Mitchell, and Joshua Whitehead
Was education important to one of your friends or family members? Are you looking for a way to honor a living person you admire, or memorialize deceased loved ones? You can leave a legacy through our Legacy Charity Donation Program that offers naming opportunities.
Child Care of Southwest Florida
6831 Palisades Park Ct.
Suite 6
Fort Myers,
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text:
KDE Releases Alpha Version of Next-gen Plasma Workspace
KDE today releases the first Alpha version of the next-generation Plasma workspace. This kicks off the public testing phase for the next iteration of the popular Free software workspace, code-named "Plasma Next" (referring to the 'next' Plasma release-see below "A note on versioning and naming"). Plasma Next is built using QML and runs on top of a fully hardware-accelerated graphics stack using Qt 5, QtQuick 2 and an OpenGL(-ES) scenegraph. Plasma Next provides a core desktop experience that will be easy and familiar for current users of KDE workspaces or alternative Free Software or proprietary offerings. Plasma Next is planned to be released as 2014.6 on the 17th of June.
The converged workspace
Modern day computing device abilities are starting to blend with each other. Tablets can be used with a keyboard, phones can stream their screen contents to a television, laptops have gotten flip and touch screens. To deal with this, Plasma Next has been designed as a converged workspace shell. It will be able to switch on demand between workspaces optimized for these different form factors, like a tablet user interface turning into a traditional desktop workspace when paired with a keyboard and a mouse. Plasma will be easily extensible as new form factors emerge.
The mechanism to adapt to different form factors is fully implemented and functional, but, as there is only one workspace available right now, it is not useful at this point. In the months to come, the Plasma team plans to make available additional workspaces, such as the tablet-oriented Plasma Active user experience, and the media-consumption-targeted Plasma Mediacenter.
A note on versioning and naming: The code name "Plasma Next" always points to the upcoming release of Plasma, KDE's end user workspace. The current Alpha will become 2014.6, to be released in June of this year. If the team opts for a 6 month release cycle (still to be determined), Plasma Next will refer to the 2014.12 release once 2014.6 is out.
Ready for testing, not production
The workspace demonstrated in this pre-release is Plasma Desktop. It represents an evolution of known desktop and laptop paradigms. Plasma Next keeps existing workflows intact, while providing incremental visual and interactive improvements. Many of those can be observed in this technology preview, others are still being worked on. Workspaces optimized for other devices will be made available in future releases.
As an Alpha release, this pre-release is not suitable for production use. It is meant as a base for testing and gathering feedback, so that the initial stable release of Plasma Next in June will be a smooth ride for everybody involved and lay a stable foundation for future versions. Plasma Next is intended for end users, but will not provide feature parity with the latest 4.x release (although this is expected to be accomplished in a follow-up release). The team is concentrating on the core desktop features first, instead of trying to transplant every single feature into the new workspaces. The feature set presented in Plasma Next will suffice for most users, though some might miss a knob here and there. This is not because the Plasma team wants to remove features, but simply that not everything has been done yet. Of course, everybody is encouraged to help bringing Plasma back to its original feature set and beyond.
left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Wallpaper dialog, panel toolbox, notifications and network manager in the system tray
For developers
Plasma Next builds on top of Qt 5. With this transition, all QML-based UIs—which Plasma is built exclusively with—will make use of a new scenegraph and scripting engine, resulting in huge performance wins as well as architectural benefits, such as being able to render using available graphics hardware.
Plasma Next is the first complex codebase to transition to KDE Frameworks 5, which is a modular evolution of the KDE development platform into leaner, less interdependent libraries.
For users
Users testing this Plasma pre-release are greeted with a more refined visual appearance. The new Breeze Plasma theme debuts in this pre-release with a flatter, cleaner look. Less visual clutter and improved contrast make Plasma Next a noticeable improvement over the current stable Plasma workspaces. There has been some polish to much of Plasma's default functionality, such as the system tray area, the notifications, the settings for the compositor and window manager, and many more. While it will feel familiar, users will notice a more modern workspace.
Installing and providing feedback
You can install Plasma Next directly from source. KDE's community wiki has instructions. Some distributions have created packages; for an overview of Alpha 1 packages, see this page. You can provide feedback either via the #Plasma IRC channel, Plasma-devel mailing list or report issues via bugzilla. Plasma Next is also discussed on the KDE Forums. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. If you like what the team is doing, please let them know!
What about a new look?
Is there any plan to have a new icon/widget theme?
Except oxygen, there is currently no polished widget theme available. At all. It's all a qtcurve based mess :(
By Josh at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 5:28am
It's coming, it's coming.
The thing is these things take time. Right now we're working on a new widget as well as a new window decoration and icon theme. But we got in fairly late in the game so it hasn't gone through yet. But it will.
By Jens Reuterberg at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 9:01pm
Do you realize that now some of us are dying of anxiety, do you?
Please, please, please show us something as soon as you can!
By Martín at Sat, 2014/04/05 - 12:38pm
Great look with some room for optimizations
I like the new calendar and notifier a lot and i would like to thank you for your awesome work with kde.
However, the inactive tasks do have a very low contrast, so it is hard to read the title, I do also like the old kickoff menus indicators of the current active category more than the new one. The small line above the category (in the screen shot: favorites) need some more attention to get the current state of the menu. So while this is very shiny. keep in mind the "contrast" / "readability" / "easy to capture" aspect of the gui
By Till Schäfer at Fri, 2014/04/04 - 12:46pm
as a kde user since kde2 please accept an humble suggestion:
By Andrea Z. at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 8:21am
Wobbly windows the default?
If so this is news to me - which distro is that on?
By Paul Eggleton at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 4:48pm
By keopsis at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 7:10pm
Wobbly Windows is not enabled by default
Wobbly Windows has never been, is not and will never be enabled by default. It's used in the video as it got recorded by a developer who likes using Wobbly Windows.
By Martin Gräßlin at Fri, 2014/04/04 - 7:40am
Week numbers in the calendar
Looks great.
By JW at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 9:14am
Looks awesome!
Looks awesome, keep up the good work!
By Erik at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 10:55am
Congratulations! You guys are doing a terrific job
By pedrorodriguez at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 2:30pm
KDE is still inconsistent
Hi to all! :) I'm kde user since years and I really apreciate the work devs and designers did on kde. What I don't understand is... am I the only one who thinks the integration between "plasmoids" and other apps(qt apps) is inconsistent ? Why we can't try to have plasmoids' look even for the qt? This will bring kde to be one piece insted of various(not always visually integrated) components.
By Aleksandar Petrinic at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 4:49pm
Separation between Desktop Shell and Applications
There is a visual separation between the elements belonging to the Desktop Shell and the Applications. This is nothing special to our software stack but can also be seen in other environments, e.g. GNOME Shell.
By Martin Gräßlin at Sat, 2014/04/05 - 6:50am
icons theme
Please, change icons to this (as suggested by KDE's visual design group)
By Walid at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 5:25pm
matching flat widget and window theme for Breeze Plasma theme
It would be nice if a matching flat themes for widget and window decoration is also made available( a more complete flat themeing)
By anonymus at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 5:46pm
+1 to matching flat theme
By travis at Tue, 2014/04/15 - 3:56am
oxygen transparent
Can there be default support for oxygen transparent. Would look good with the more refined desktop
By shaurya at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 7:07pm
Not suited for default
Oxygen transparent is still not suited for default due to technical reasons.
By Martin Gräßlin at Sat, 2014/04/05 - 6:48am
Looks very edgy
Any way to have smooth corners with the start menu?
By Cheesy_popcorn at Thu, 2014/04/03 - 10:11pm
What about activities?
Nice and elegant but... For some time Activities has been one of the flags of the Plasma workspace and the new Activities chooser looks cool. The usage and usefulness of Activities, however, introduces a new concept to the users that has not been well promoted and demonstrated. The video above shows some activities but completely empty: what is the shown "email activity" usefull for? in what is it different from, ex organizing applications in different screens? I am affraid that unless there is some investment in promoting the concept and practical use of Activities, this will be just an "interesting concept" but underused.
By Nuno at Fri, 2014/04/04 - 7:55am
It's up to the user
The power of activities is that it will look different for each user. We as the developers cannot know what possible activities will look like for the user. It's a tool to work in a more productive way. So of course it's valid to use an activity for emails as that will hide the mails from other activities and provides a more distraction free work. But if it suits a user better to have the emails always visibile on another screen (if available) or on a virtual desktop that is equally valid and supported.
By Martin Gräßlin at Sat, 2014/04/05 - 6:46am
[email protected]
Showing the concept does not force anybody to setup the same activities. Yet, it DOES show the idea behind it.
As I speak for myself: I once created some and never used them as I did not find a benefit over virtual desktops. Yet, there is a huge difference between them that I (and a lot of other people) just don't know. Like energy saving modus being set per activity (and probably much more...but how to know?)
By BartOtten at Mon, 2014/04/07 - 3:18pm
*sigh* still same problems as 10 years ago
At 30 second mark, the user has to make the window horizontally bigger, as the content of the window doesn't fit it properly at it's default size. I think it has now been about 10 years when I was talking about these exact same problems in various KDE mailing-lists, bug-reports and the like, and it seems that they are still not fixed.
These are tiny things, easy to fix. And requiring the user to deal with these issues just leaves a bad taste in users mouth.
By Janne from the past at Fri, 2014/04/04 - 1:59pm
Where are your patches?
If it's easy to fix I'm wondering why you don't submit a patch? For the record I fix thus an issue a week ago and I didn't find it an easy to fix but quite some work.
By Martin Gräßlin at Sat, 2014/04/05 - 6:43am
Why didn't I?
Why didn't I submit a patch? Because I'm not a coder, that's why. But for someone who can code, fixing issues like proper default size of windows is probably very easy thing to fix. Or are you saying that increasing the default size of the app-window is very hard to do?
This attitude is one if the reasons I was sot turned off by KDE and free software in general. If you don't code, you are basically dead weight. Useless, unneeded, unwanted. If you point out a shortcoming or something, the answer is always "fix it yourself".
By Janne from the past at Sun, 2014/04/06 - 8:08pm
Your comment; Martin's reply
You wrote that "These are tiny things, easy to fix." Martin replied appropriately. He also wrote that fixing it took quite a bit of work. In other words, you did not know what you were talking about, even though you gave the impression that you did know.
Now you've turned this into an unjustified complaint, unrelated to what Martin wrote. Check the KDE forums and the distro forums...it's simply not true that "the answer is always 'fix it yourself'".
By Carl Symons at Mon, 2014/04/07 - 2:48am
But, not 9 years ago.
Most of those isses you remember, was actually fixed 9 years ago. For the KDE 3.4 release a lot of size tweaks was made by Waldo Bastian, cleaning up the initial size of most applications.
Unfortunatly it's a reappearing problem, both because of changes made since then and applications becomming replaced. And to make the problem worse, it's common with varius relsolutions. Real high resulution display is becomming more common and there also are users using larege screens with lower resolutions(TVs). This combined with different font sizes tend to make the issue more noticable. Back when almost everyone did 96dpi, it was simpler to handle. Applications also tend to use some dynamic size tricks, unfortunatly not always with luck. In the end, it makes it less easy to fix.
Regardless, a good start would be to check out all applications from a fresh user and identify the missbehaving applications. It's probably not a thing developers test often, and it's a trivial detail to notice compared to other more complex issues they work on. But first impressions count, and making the developers aware gives a bigger chancce the issue will get resolved.
By Morty at Sat, 2014/04/05 - 10:51pm
Where is the blur?
This is all very nice and I like it very much, ... but weren't we promised with more blur instead of more "white" on transparent menus?
So pleeeaase keep the blur in mind.
By rich ard at Fri, 2014/04/04 - 7:57pm
Idea: Send feedback widget
As I am not a developer, I have no idea how hard it is to do the following:
- Create an widget which on click
This way it would be easy for novice testers to send in feedback. Not devs using Bugzilla, not nerds using the forum, not geeks using a Wiki. That way I could give my mom a copy and she could easily report what whe thinks should be improved or what is unclear.
Enable the widget by default on Alpha and Beta and voila.....
By BartOtten at Mon, 2014/04/07 - 3:26pm
Not terribly hard, I think.
Not terribly hard, I think. We even have something similar - likeback. It is used by Amarok. Downside is that it creates a lot of feedback you have to go through... Time you could spend on coding. The issue with these things is always that it is a trade-off :(
By Anonymous at Wed, 2014/05/14 - 12:37pm


text:
All-in-one free web application security tool. Web application vulnerability and privacy scanner with support for HTTP cookies, Flash, HTML5 localStorage, sessionStorage, CANVAS, Supercookies, Evercookies. Includes a free SSL/TLS, HTML and HTTP vulnerability scanner and URL malware scanner.
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Keywords: book city road room grill hotel lunch until dinner luxury oxford sunday banbury ordered parking vouchers afternoon breakfast parsonage restaurant
Last fetched: 2019-04-15T12:03:44.410526+00:00
HTTP status: 5 Sub-resource URL
See full SSL/TLS security report for www.oldparsonagehotel.co.uk
Server: LiteSpeed
Announces web server software and optionally version details.Read more...
X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
Controls an Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) filters built into the majority of web browsers. The filter is usually turned on by default anyway, but requirement to set the header to
1 became part of canonical set of "secure" HTTP headers. Over time, vulnerabilities in the "sanitizing" mode filter were found, so
1; mode=block became the recommended value. Some companies decided that they don't really need a browser-side XSS filter to mess with their web services which are XSS-free anyway and they became consciously disabling the XSS filter by setting the header to
XSS auditor is enabled in blocking mode+1
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Instructs the browser if the current website can be embedded in HTML frame by another website. Since this allows the parent website to control the framed page, this creates a potential for data theft attacks ("clickjacking") and most sensitive websites won't allow them to be framed at all (
deny) or just allow parts of them to be embedded in frames created by themselves only (
Clickjacking protection is enabled+2
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
A non-standard but widely accepted header introduced originally by Microsoft to disable "content sniffing" or heuristic content type discovery in absence or mismatch of a proper HTTP
Content-Type declaration, which led to a number of web attacks. In general, presence of the header with its only defined value of
nosniff is considered as part of a properly secured HTTP response.
Fuzzy content type guessing is disabled+1
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=15768000;
HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) is an opt-in security enhancement that is specified by a web application through the use of a special response header.Read more...
HTTP Strict Transport Security is enabled+2
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is enabled+2