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'Tomahawk is a snaggle toothed, piratical, bacon eating, cigar smoking, borderline alcoholic, that travels the world, exploring wilderness areas and seeing the sites. He can often be found in 3rd world bars telling drunken "I was there" stories to impress tourists.' - from Tom's blog
Been a while since one of the gang appeared on TV, this time its the blogger known as Pathfinder Tom showing us how its done on a show for Discovery called 'Dude You're Screwed'.
The premise is a simple one; a group of survival experts gather together and take it in turns to kidnap each other, with the kidnapped guy being dropped off in some inhospitable terrain, and having to find his way out. His progress may or may not be hindered by some stuff the others have 'gifted' him to carry along. The show manages to avoid the stunts and sensationalism or earnestness, and instead has guys who know their shit and are having a laugh out MacGyver-ing each other on a lads weekend away. Kind of Bushcraft-TopGear?
Tom is cast in the role of the group's 'wise old guy' or Zen-sage. Who does less to achieve more and wins without competing. All whilst lugging along; a bunch of flowers, some anti freeze, and golf bag, that the other contestants have chosen for him.
I was pleased to see 'wise' as one of the characters the producers had chosen, we've seen military-guy vs earth-guy on these shows before so widening the casting made a refreshing change, for once even that great stereotype of american TV 'British-guy' wasn't of the Hugh Grant mould. Of course the difficulties inherent in filming mean that there is a staged quality to some of the scenes, but I massively prefer that to stunt-cam style where voice overs saying "here's one the production crew got ready while I was still asleep in the hotel" have to be added later. For me by being honestly fake the show was better than those who have tried to fake honesty. So far, so zen.
Followers of Toms blog, will know that while the rest of us are [to varying degrees] playing at it, Tom lives off grid well over 300 days a year. He does a bit of contracting, teaches at Jack Mountain Bushcraft School, or guides, but for the most part he just seems to enjoy himself traveling and living off the land or from things dumped at the fringes of 'civilisation'.
While every other 'survival dude' on tv seems to have a bag, clothing range or knife to endorse, his survival knife is at least 20 years old and cost less than $20. Most of the rest of his gear is literally dumpster-dived. I've been reading his blog for years and I can't remember him once recommending any particular brand of anything, other than Johnny Walker.
Tom lives as near to free as you can - both feet in the wild, and just a toehold in the modern world. Interesting chap, on TV he seems just like he does on the pages of his blog, which I guess is what this storytelling malarky is all about?
More soon


text:
- monthly subscription or
- cancelable any time
"Tell the chef, the beer is on me."
The owner of this soup does not allow people other than friends to view this page.Return to frontpage
"Tell the chef, the beer is on me."
"Basically the price of a night on the town!"
"I'd love to help kickstart continued development! And 0 EUR/month really does make fiscal sense too...

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Matthew Jordan
Director of Finance
1300 Centre Street
Boston, MA 02131
Phone: 617.384.5746
Fax: 617.384.6596
BS Economics/Accounting, College of the Holy Cross
MBA, Suffolk University
Certified Public Accountant, Massachusetts
As director of finance, I oversee all fiscal activity at the Arnold Arboretum, including accounting, budgeting, planning, reporting, payroll, and accounts payable. I also serve as the primary finance contact for Harvard Central Administration and the Provost's Office. Prior to joining the Arboretum, I was budget manager at Hebrew Senior Life, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. I have also held financial management positions at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Harvard Medical School. I am also a headband-carrying Tough Mudder. In my free time, I enjoy physical fitness, cooking, roaming the Arboretum, and most importantly, spending time with my young sons.


text:
In the bottom of the third inning of Sunday's game against the Indians, Fox Sports North commentator and former All Star pitcher Bert Blyleven appeared mystified by what he thought was a new finding: Francisco Liriano was switching his location on the rubber contingent on whether the hitter was left- or right-handed.
During Shin Soo Choo's at-bat, Blyleven released this nugget: "To be honest with you," Blyleven confided with the viewers in the third, "I've never seen Liriano going to that first base side of the pitching rubber. He's usually on the third base side…maybe he's shifting with left-handers and right-handers…we'll keep an eye on that."
Following Choo was the right-handed hitting Austin Kearns. Blyleven then noted that "now Liriano, with a right-hander up, you see he's moving on the pitching rubber…"
"How about that?" Interjected Dick Bremer.
"…over to the third base side." Blyleven allowed a pitch to pass then added, "You don't see that too often where a pitcher will move one side [of the rubber] to the other."
In the ensuing bottom half of the fourth the broadcast threw up a split-screen graphic depicting Liriano's approach to the left and right-side of the lineup. This was followed by Blyleven's admission "I didn't notice that in the other starts for Liriano…maybe it's something he and Rick Anderson, the pitching coach, have been working on."
Congratulations. Blyleven may have stumbled upon a discovery that has been an occurrence for the southpaw since '08. According to pitch F/X charts, Liriano has used this approach dating back to his return from Tommy John surgery:
In '08, Liriano's release points varied from slight over a half-foot to two-and-a-half feet to lefties but ranged from dead-center to slightly under two-feet to righties. Meanwhile, in this past season, there was stronger visual evidence of this shift:
So for the past two seasons (possibly longer if we could find reliable '06 data or video), Liriano has transitioned up and down the rubber. This is hardly a new development and definitely not something Anderson and him have concocted this season. Still, in Blyleven's defense, while Liriano at times worked lefties from the middle of the rubber in the previous two seasons, this year he has remained consistently on the far left-hand side of the rubber.
This emphasis may have made him that much more unhittable to same-sided batters as Liriano's ground ball rate has skyrocketed in this young season comparative the the past two:
|Liriano vs LHB:
Despite what Blyleven would levy on air, Liriano has been moving up and down the rubber regularly since '08. What is different in 2010 is that he appears to be moving to the first base side against ALL lefties and has avoided pitching from the middle as he did in the previous two seasons, which is working extremely well for him so far.


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Mar 13, 2009
MY FIRST BLOG AWARD!!!! Yippeee!!!
I hav been wondering for a long time, wht to write next on my blog that doesnt fall into the category of heartbreak poems/some dhapped TAG's *hehe*/ Pics taken by Karan widout crediting him for it/ news update from VJTI, where time has pretty much stopped... As we can see, i was really short of topics. N here came this award... i m grinning lik an idiot..
Got this from Lancelot's Blog. I hav no idea wht he is like in person.. Though i guess there little to know abt him. he is so vocal abt his greatness.. hehe. he is one true Sagi. Loud, crazy, Narcissistic, amazing writer. :P. in short, for all those who know me, he puts ME at a loss of words, n makes me feels like a 60 year old SLOW person. now try imgaining that!!! THANKS a million for the award... *big warm hug!!!*
Now, i wish to pass on my award to some on the people who hav been AWESOME frnds to me in recent trying times, and also otherwise. :) here we go,
1. Karan - He is the one who intoduced me to blogging. Avid traveller, Railfan, awesoem writer. thanks for getting me here on Blogsville. I still owe u one... :P
2. Mona - My bestttt friend... inspite of all the ups n down's... she is MY rock!! I owe u one poem, and lots of parties.. :) :P AND if u ever gave attention to ur blog, it will get as many hits as Google gets in a day!!! :)
3. Seno - What need i say abt My Guardian Angel??? Ur the bestest!!! she in someone who shoots from the mouth, words coming straight from the heart!!! :)
4. Gargi - According to me, she's the next best thing to watch out for on blogsphere. She is one beauty wid brains!!! :)
5. Appu - She is the ONLY one i can share Edward Cullen with. hehehe.Jokes apart, she is another newbie on blogshere wid a lot of promise. n more importantly, she is a very sweet person!! :)
6. Anu - U deserve dis award cz of all the GREAT, level headed advice i got from u all this while.. THANKS!!! :)
*these ppl dun blog, bt of they ever did it will be an absolute delight!!!*
7. Mrids. - Thanks for taking time out EVERY SINGLE DAY to ask me hw i m doin.. u mean a lot to me... n 'thanks' jus wont be enuf to show u hw much ur words held me thru all the upsn n downs.. :)
8. Shilpa, Moni, Prani *They come in a gang of three for me!!! lolz. :P* - kuch bolna hi baaki nahi hai!!!i guess u alreday know ur very very very important to me. :)
P.S : Yaayyyyy.... i got an award!!!! :P :) :D
15 comments:
- Lancelot said...
me the first
- March 13, 2009 at 6:46 PM
- Lancelot said...
Who is that handsome guy who gave you this award ;)
- March 13, 2009 at 6:47 PM
- अविनाश said...
- March 13, 2009 at 7:00 PM
- IceMaiden said...
hey lancelot...handsome??!!!ummm dunno hav never met him yet.... bt hes a lawyer so i m guessin he muct be pretty stuck uo!!! lolz. :P
- March 13, 2009 at 7:57 PM
- Lancelot said...
Who said lawyers are stuck up re??? :P
- March 13, 2009 at 8:40 PM
- A.prem said...
level headed advice.. OMG .. i feel old!! =)) =))
anyways thanks sweets.
and congrats! :)
- March 13, 2009 at 9:02 PM
- IceMaiden said...
@ chriz
left u a commet on ur blog. read it there. n thanks for the congrats neway.
- March 13, 2009 at 11:29 PM
- Lancelot said...
Wow Wow Wow....amazing war of words...just give me a minute let me order popcorn and watch this going :P I am all ears :P
- March 14, 2009 at 5:50 AM
- magiceye said...
- March 14, 2009 at 11:41 AM
- Unknown said...
Congratulations and thankies for my first blog award :-D
You got me a new topic tooo yayy!
love ya >:D<
- March 16, 2009 at 9:14 PM
- BIG Omi said...
Congrats buddy!! Whoopie!!
Party chahiye
keep it up and keep rocking the blogsville with your hit posts!!
- March 17, 2009 at 12:01 PM
- Karan said...
an award... :) ... nice... now you know evrything isnt bad... this is how life is... a mix of good n bad... move on... indulge urself in your interests... u need to hv a look at your own profile once agen...!! :) ...
Goiod Luck...
PS - this comment is in continuation to your reply in your previous post...
- March 17, 2009 at 3:21 PM
- ^_^ SENO ^_^ said...
Between sowwie for posting the comment from ma moms id *sheepish grin*
- March 17, 2009 at 7:28 PM
- IceMaiden said...
yes, i was wondering who revati is??!!! :O
thanks buddie.. will giv a party as soon as i get my 10th award. pakka. lolz. :P
- March 17, 2009 at 7:41 PM
- Miss Sunshine said...
:P THNNNNNNNNNxxxxxxxx!!!!!!!!!!
and i dun want edward, keep him! ;)
- March 17, 2009 at 7:44 PM


text:
Circ, available for Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS, is so simple in its gameplay but challenging at the same time—players navigate their spaceships collecting stars and points, while escaping from planets and stars trying to pull the ship away from its course. It's the kind of game that's perfect for passing the time between train stops or even just for a quiet few minutes at home.
Similarly, the challenge for Scrape Apps, the brains behind Circ, is navigating the hurdles related to releasing the game across platforms in spite of a limited budget and limited team resources. That's why they turned to the Adobe Flash Platform, specifically Flash Builder.
The team leveraged features in Flash Builder such as reusable coding, automatic debugging and streamlined optimization to make the game available on as many platforms as possible in the least amount of time using the least amount of resources. Now the Circ team is looking forward to building new enhancements into the game, while taking advantage of Flash Builder's flexibility and extensibility.
To learn more about how the Circ development team worked with the Flash Platform, visit here. Also be sure to check out www.adobe.com/gaming for more about our gaming solutions.


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A think tank convened to gauge the financial well-being of "workplace warriors" says home-front job prospects remain "discouraging" for ex-service members, with many hiring managers seemingly scared off by the possibility that candidates have post-traumatic stress disorder.
For even casual watchers of the ex-military vocational plight, the larger conclusion is hardly striking: the "combat-to-corporate" path has long been paved with good intentions, but clogged by application dead ends. What's more, the group's downbeat assessment comes amid some rays of improvement. Last month, the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans finally nudged lower, to 9.7 percent, two full points below the jobless pace during than the same month in 2011, according to federal figures.
But, the experts contend, too many American companies have failed to boost their own internal ranks of former troops, ignoring the military-friendly examples set by Walmart, the Hartford, Citi and several other businesses under the "hire our heroes" mantra.
"Few employers are fully prepared to meet the needs of disabled veterans in the workplace, according to research from Cornell University and the Society for Human Resources Management," think tank members wrote. "... Nearly 20 percent of service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan screened positive for PTSD." (That reported military-PTSD rate has decreased during the past five years, Cornell scientists have found, noting the drop is due largely to interventions by the U.S. military.)
The 2012 Workplace Warriors Think Tank, composed by business, military and health leaders, originally gathered in 2007 — before the Great Recession — to examine the same lag in ex-military hiring. Since then, the nation's slow economic recovery has sidelined tens of thousands of veterans along with millions of other American workers. "But I'm sure, in the case of some employers, the economy is an excuse for them just to say 'no' to veterans," said the report's editor, Marcia Carruthers.
And while the think tank does see threads of tangible progress in the private sector, such as the 100,000 Jobs Mission, it added that: "The fruits of these efforts have yet to fully materialize. More needs to be done" to open opportunities for civilian soldiers and full-time military members.
In large part, that's because just below the simple math of supply and demand, a dark group-psychology seems to be at play, Carruthers said. Battle-related mental illness — diagnosed in some returning veterans but apparently associated with all of them — is tainting many or most job-hunting veterans.
"The stigma of PTSD is at the top of the list," said Carruthers, president and CEO of the Disability Management Employer Coalition, a nonprofit.
"These veterans are exactly the kinds of people you'd want to hire — they're used to working as a team; they're loyal; you give them an order and they follow through," Carruthers said. "So some of this is related to the types of injuries we're seeing — and, I would say, really, due to the fear of employers in terms of bringing back these people. If they were coming home with broken legs, it would be a different thing. There's a fear factor."
Among veteran-friendly companies with representatives on the think tank are insurance provider MetLife and technology consultant Booz Allen Hamilton. While some large U.S. companies are clearing space to bring veterans in house, it's the "smaller organizations that often struggle," Carruthers said.
"They don't have many employees, and not many of their people have been deployed. They also may not have HR departments that are aggressively seeking diversity," she added. "So it's more the smaller organizations that are just not as aware of this issue — or that don't feel they have the resources. But it's small business that definitely make up our economy."
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Arizonans to vote on taking Grand Canyon from federal control
- Beard issue again delays military trial in Fort Hood shootings
- Home but not a 'resident': Student vets fighting to stay on GI Bill
- Body found in N.J. is that of missing 12-year-old girl, uncle says
- Pa. grandmother found dead, baby missing, police say
- Denied dream wedding site, lesbian couple files discrimination complaint


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What can you using green energy do for you?
What ways are some things that you to be involved? This article provides several easy-to-use ideas that will provide you with some useful information to get started!
Wear natural fabrics instead of always using the air conditioning during summer months. Wear lighter colors since warmer ones can make you warm and cause you will be likelier to turn on the air conditioner.
Wash your clothes in cold water. Almost 90 percent of energy consumed by washing machines is used for doing laundry is due to heating the water. If you are using good quality washing detergent, you should have no problems using cold water.
Use drapes or curtains in your windows for when you're not home. This helps to keep your house cool and lowers energy use. Try adding window coverings that block heat, such as shades or darker, and dark … Read more


text:
So last night it's been for the last time that Gilles Peterson spoke over BBC Radio 1's ether, and he ended this show with this tribute by his long-time MC of choice Earl Zinger.
Photos from the last ever show are on Facebook and of course you can listen to the show for the next seven days. Gilles' new 3-hours show on Radio 6 will launch on April 7th.


text: PAM_RADIUS(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual PAM_RADIUS(8) NAME pam_radius - RADIUS authentication PAM module SYNOPSIS [service-name] module-type control-flag pam_radius [options] DESCRIPTION The pam_radius module provides authentication services based upon the RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service) protocol for the PAM (Pluggable Authentication Module) framework. The pam_radius module accepts these optional parameters: use_first_pass causes pam_radius to use a previously entered password instead of prompting for a new one. If no password has been entered then authentication fails. try_first_pass causes pam_radius to use a previously entered password, if one is available. If no password has been entered, pam_radius prompts for one as usual. echo_pass causes echoing to be left on if pam_radius prompts for a password. conf=pathname specifies a non-standard location for the RADIUS client configuration file (normally located in /etc/radius.conf). nas_id=identifier specifies a NAS identifier to send instead of the hostname. template_user=username specifies a user whose passwd(5) entry will be used as a template to create the session environment if the supplied username does not exist in local password database. The user will be authenticated with the supplied username and password, but his credentials to the system will be presented as the ones for username, i.e., his login class, home directory, resource limits, etc. will be set to ones defined for username. If this option is omitted, and there is no username in the system databases equal to the supplied one (as determined by call to getpwnam(3)), the authentication will fail. nas_ipaddr[=address] specifies a NAS IP address to be sent. If option is present, but there is no value provided then IP address corresponding to the current hostname will be used. FILES /etc/radius.conf The standard RADIUS client configuration file for pam_radius SEE ALSO passwd(5), radius.conf(5), pam(8) HISTORY The pam_radius module first appeared in FreeBSD 3.1. The pam_radius manual page first appeared in FreeBSD 3.3. AUTHORS The pam_radius manual page was written by Andrzej Bialecki <[email protected]>. The pam_radius module was written by John D. Polstra <[email protected]>. FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE-p4 October 28, 2002 FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE-p4


text:
Services on Demand
Related links
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Psychology in Society
On-line version ISSN 2309-8708
Print version ISSN 1015-6046
OLIVIER, Bert. Facebook, cyberspace, and identity. Psychol. Soc. [online]. 2011, n.41, pp.40-58. ISSN 2309-8708.
In this article the use of the social networking site, Facebook, is scrutinized in the light of Turkle's work on identity in relation to the internet, as well as of commentaries regarding the growing popularity of the social networking site. The related issue of panopticism regarding sites such as Facebook is examined in the light of the work of Foucault on disciplinary mechanisms in modern society. Virilio gives greater insight on the question of the social consequences of cyberspace as the new "frontier", and focuses on the decline of language in favour of the growing dominance of images in cyber-domains like Facebook. These findings are finally interpreted with regard to "identity" in terms of Lacan's conception of the subject.


text:
3 Items
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Ice Horse Evendura Knee to Pastern Wraps Plus 8 Inserts (Equine)RRP £160.00 Special Price £149.99
3 Items
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If you are looking for a specific product, please contact us and we will do our best
to source it for you.
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Unsure of what you need?
We can help!
Customers are welcome to collect orders, view products in our showroom or arrange a consultation. Whilst we do hold most items in stock, we advise you to telephone before you set off to check that the items your require are in stock. If you would like to arrange an appointment please contact us so we can schedule a time.
Supplement Solutions Ltd
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Tel: 01995 672464


text:
We've often talked of how many of the special effects in our films are invisible, that is most audiences won't be aware they are looking at an FX shot. One such FX in All That Remains has been "face replacement".
With such extensive use of archive footage, some of which contains the actual real life figures our actors are portraying, we didn't want to have the jarring effect of a character suddenly appearing quite different in one scene!
The most complex face replacement was a live action news reel footage showing the Emperor of Japan visiting Nagasaki, in one shot, we see the Emperor walking, surrounded by a crowd.
Using Adobe After Effects, we imported the archive shot and the footage of our actor. Using the masking tools we superimposed our actor's face on to that of the Emperor and then using After Effect's advanced and sophisticated tracking software we mapped it to the archive footage. The tracking tool did a great job, but because the original footage was so blurry, we had to do a fair bit of tweaking to the "face layer", frame by frame in some places, to make it match the movement more perfectly.
Here's a great tutorial on the After Effects tracking tool…
Old footage tends to be very grainy, so we had to generate artificial grain (using the grain filter) on the actor's face to help it blend it and then it was colour graded to match the archive footage. More colour grading work on the blended composition helped blend the two shots more seamlessly.
The most extensive use of face-replacement was, of course, old photos that are shown throughout the film.
We employed the same techniques to create more obvious effects too, such as keloid scarring or replacing eyes to create the effect of blindness causes by looking into the bright flash of the atom bomb.


text:
- Bucharest
- Transylvania
- Southern Bucovina
Romania Travel Information
The Basics
Local time is GMT +2 (GMT +3 between the last Sunday in March to the Saturday before the last Sunday in October).
Electrical current is 230 volts, 50Hz. Two-pin European-style plugs are standard.
Romanian is the official language, but English will be understood in Bucharest and other tourist areas.
Travel Health
Medical facilities in Bucharest are good, but poor in the smaller towns and basic medical supplies are often in short supply. There is a reciprocal health agreement with the UK and most EU countries, whose citizens are entitled to free or low-cost emergency medical treatment on presentation of a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), but travel health insurance is strongly advised. There have been a number of Hepatitis A cases in Romania and visitors are advised to seek medical advice about inoculations before travelling. Tap water is safe to drink, although bottled water is widely available. Stray dogs carry rabies and should be avoided.
Tipping is becoming increasingly common in Romania, and is now expected in all restaurants and bars. A service charge is often included in restaurant bills but a further 5 to 10 percent tip is expected. Though it is not always necessary to tip them, taxi drivers can be rewarded for good service.
Safety Information
Visitors should take normal safety precautions in Romania; keep valuables safe and be aware of pickpockets and scam artists in major cities. Corruption is rife and visitors should be cautious of policemen demanding fines for spurious offences, or asking to see documents as a way of stealing cash; if approached in this way visitors should offer to go with them to the nearest police station before handing over any money or documents. Valuables, including passports, should not be left in hotel rooms, or near the window of a hotel room when you are there.
Local Customs
It is illegal to change money on the streets. Homosexuality, although legal, is frowned upon. A small and still largely closeted gay scene exists in the Romania's largest cities, particularly in Bucharest, which has a few gay clubs. Photography at airports is forbidden.
Business can be quite bureaucratic and old-fashioned. The country adheres to an imbedded hierarchical structure and often it is the eldest who receive the most respect in business and social meetings. It is important to address each person according to their title followed by their surname; 'Domnul' for Mr. and 'Doamna' for Mrs. Romanians prefer a face-to-face approach and like to strengthen personal relationships. Appointments should be made in advance and confirmed. Although the visitor is expected to be punctual the host may be late to arrive. Meetings are often quite formal and a general 'Western' set of old-world manners applies. Business suits are appropriate for meetings. Romanians dislike an overt display of achievement or exaggerated conversation. Business hours are generally 9pm to 5pm Monday to Friday with an hour taken at lunch.
The direct dialling country code for Romania is +40, and the outgoing code is 00, followed by the relevant country code (e.g. 0044 for the UK). There are numerous area codes applying to cities, towns and villages, for example (0)21 for Bucharest. Free wifi is available at cafes, hotels and restaurants. Public phone cards can be bought from kiosks, post offices and some tourist offices. A local SIM card can be purchased as a cheaper alternative to using international roaming for calls.
Duty Free
Travellers to Romania do not have to pay duty on either 40 cigarettes, 50 cigars or 250g of tobacco. 2 litres of spirits, 16 litres of beer, 4 litres wine, and gifts to the value of US$450 are also duty free. Valuable goods, such as jewellery, art, electrical items, and foreign currency should be declared on entry.
Become our Romania Travel Expert
We are looking for contributors for our Romania travel guide. If you are a local, a regular traveller to Romania or a travel professional with time to contribute and answer occasional forum questions, please contact us.
Intrepid Travel
Planning a Romania holiday? Get off the beaten track with tour operator Intrepid Travel.


text:
Brazil demands Canada explain spying allegations
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil on Monday demanded clarifications from the Canadian government about allegations that its spies targeted Brazil's Mines and Energy Ministry, in what Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said appears to be an act of industrial espionage.
Foreign Minister Luiz Alberto Figueiredo summoned the Canadian ambassador in the capital, Brasilia, to "transmit the indignation of the Brazilian government and demand explanations," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement that followed the revelations, aired Sunday night on Brazil's Globo network.
The report said the metadata of phone calls and emails from and to the ministry were targeted by Canada's Communications Security Establishment to map the ministry's communications. It didn't indicate if emails were read or phone calls listened to.
The report was based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and was the latest showing that Latin America's biggest nation has been a target for United States, British and now Canadian spy agencies.
During Monday's meeting, Figueiredo expressed "the government's repudiation of this serious and unacceptable violation of national sovereignty and the rights of people and companies," the Foreign Ministry statement said.
A spokeswoman for Canada's Communications Security Establishment said the "CSE does not comment on foreign intelligence gathering activities." A spokeswoman for the Canadian Defense Department also declined comment.
Ray Boisvert, a former high-ranking member of Canada's spy service and the deputy director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service until last year, said he thinks the documents might have been a case of Canada using Brazil as part of a pretend war game scenario and not actual espionage. He added that he didn't think there was industrial spying going on because "we're all too busy chasing things that could kill people, frankly."
Boisvert said from the reports there's no indication that it's about real targeting.
"It's a hypothetical thing, like 'Could we do something?' Quite often it's an exercise and they'll use any country just to test the theories," he said.
In comments Monday on Twitter, Rousseff said industrial espionage appears to be behind the alleged spying. Canadian companies have large mining interest across the globe, including in Brazil.
In her Twitter comments, which the president's office confirmed were authentic, Rousseff also instructed Mines Minister Edison Lobao to beef up the ministry's data protection systems.
American journalist Glenn Greenwald, based in Rio de Janeiro, worked with Globo on its report. Greenwald broke the first stories about the NSA's global spy program focusing on Internet traffic and phone calls.
Globo previously reported that the communications of Rousseff herself, and also state-run oil company Petrobras, were targeted by NSA spying.
Earlier, Greenwald wrote articles in the O Globo newspaper saying that the NSA was gathering metadata on billions of emails, phone calls and other Internet data flowing through Brazil, an important transit point for global communications.
The fallout over the spy programs led Rousseff last month to cancel a planned visit to the U.S., where she was to be the guest of honor for a state dinner.
Rousseff last month spoke at the United Nations General Assembly and called for international regulations on data privacy and limiting espionage programs targeting the Internet.
Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.


text:
November 03, 2010
SF Photoshop User Group meeting tomorrow
In case you're in San Francisco and feel like joining us:
We are pleased to have visual effects artist Lisa Yimm return for another great presentation.
Join Lisa for a walk-through the workflow and creative possibilities available with Red Giant Software's Magic Bullet PhotoLooks 1.5 and Photoshop CS5.
PhotoLooks is a unique set of color-correction and image enhancement tools that can speed up your workflow and spark your creativity with built-in presets that help you easily achieve some of today's most recognizable film and television "Looks" like CSI:Miami, The Matrix, and Band of Brothers.
The event starts at 6:30. Please RSVP & get other details here.
8:10 PM | Permalink | No Comments


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The 1st International SCANDAL Band Fan-Based Forum
scandal, heaven, japan, band, jpop, album, single, song, music, haruna, #mami, sasazaki, rina, suzuki, tomomi, ogawa, pictures
Free forum : Become a magical girl!
free, forum, puella, magi, madoka, magica, homura, magical, #mami, sayaka, kyoko, akemi, miki, kaname, tomoe, sakura, kyuubey, kyubey, girl, soul, gems, grief, seeds, witches, wraths
A Puella Magi Madoka Magica Fan Forum
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Everything about I've Sound, as well as our beloved I've Girls: KOTOKO, Mami Kawada, Eiko Shimamiya, MELL, IKU, RINA, Larval Stage Planning, YUZUNO and many more.
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UH study finds adequate muscle mass acquired early in life may lower risk of obesity and diabetesUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources
HONOLULU - According to a study recently conducted by molecular biologists Dr. Jinzeng Yang and Baoping Zhao in the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) at UH Mānoa, enhanced muscle growth during developmental stages can play a significant role in the prevention of obesity and hyperinsulinemia, a common symptom of pre-diabetes.
Utilizing a unique transgenic mouse model created by Yang and Dr. Robert Wall, a scientist at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland, several laboratory experiments using mice with high-fat diets showed significant benefits of enhanced skeletal muscle mass on obesity prevention.
The experiments showed that when mice eat a high-fat diet, they develop typical obesity with accompanying insulin resistance similar to Type II diabetes found in humans. Interestingly, the study found that mice having enhanced muscle mass during early developmental stages were normal with no diabetes present when given a high-fat diet later in the adult age. The amount of fat accumulation in the muscled mice was much less than the non-muscled mice, which showed signs of beginning stages of diabetes, insulin resistance and glucose intolerance, at the end of two-month high-fat feeding trial.
By depressing a key negative regulator of muscle growth, myostatin, through transgenic expression of the myostatin propeptide, Yang and Wall successfully generated transgenic mice with enhanced skeletal muscle growth. "We see genetic effects of the expressed myostatin propeptide in reducing fat deposition," said Yang. "At the same time, we also see physiological effects from the enhanced muscle growth reducing fat accumulation in the adult stage."
The mice also showed increased insulin sensitivity and glucose utilization and changed profiles of metabolic hormones. Yang says that it is the physiological changes resulting from muscle mass accumulated during the growing stages that takes the dietary fat away from adipose tissue. "Therefore, the body is in a healthy, dynamic metabolic state with balanced energy storage and utilization," he added.
A study by the National Center for Health Statistics and the Journal of the American Medical Association found that twenty years ago, 5 percent of 6-19 year olds were overweight; now 15 percent are overweight and the incidence is rising, "Given these results, there is a 90 percent chance an overweight child will become an overweight adult," said Dr. Anne Shovic, associate professor of human nutrition and a registered dietitian at UH Mānoa. "Juvenile obesity definitely results from multi-facet environmental and physiological factors."
Shovic emphasized that we are living in an "obesogenic" environment. "There is an increase in sedentary activities such as watching TV and more urbanization with a plentiful and an easily obtainable food supply," said Shovic. "There is also less physical education programs available in schools. Children spend a quarter to a third of their lives in school, mostly sitting. Honolulu elementary children are lucky to get a half an hour a day of activity." This is in comparison to the recommendation of "60 minutes at most, preferably all days of the week," according to the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005, says Shovic.
"This sedentary lifestyle has significantly reduced children's opportunity for physical activity compared with the older generation," said Shovic. "The older generation ate pretty much what they wanted and tended not to be overweight due to their increased workload and activity. The gene pool has not changed but the environment has."
Yang believes that although we cannot genetically program ourselves differently, we can build up a healthy skeletal muscle mass through increased physical activity during the growing and developmental years. Yang adds, "The implication of this mice research model is that the buildup of muscle mass in childhood is extremely important in handling extra food consumption during adulthood. Physiologically, muscle is naturally built up in childhood, up to approximately eighteen years of age. In order to maintain this muscle mass (versus fat), more energy is required. Fat tissue is less metabolically active. Not only is the build up of skeletal muscle in childhood extremely important for normal growth and health, but also for dealing with the obesogenic environment present now and potentially in the future since obesity is so complicated to treat."
In the long-term, Yang and his research team hope to understand how skeletal muscles interact with adipose tissue at the molecular level. With the mice model, they are currently trying to understand the molecular mechanisms of beneficial effects of skeletal muscle buildup on fat reduction. They also plan to study how the signaling pathways of two critical adipocyte hormones, leptin and adiponectin, are changed by the enhanced muscle mass, which may hold a key point in understanding genetic and metabolic basis of obesity and diabetes.
The research work was funded by Hawaiʻi Community Foundation's (HCF) Ingeborg V.F. McKee Fund, and the USDA-CSREES-TSTAR funding program.
Two research articles written by Yang and Zhao on these experiments were published in scientific journals "Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications" Volume 337 (2005): 248-255 and "Molecular Reproduction and Development" Volume 73 (2006): 462-469. To view the articles, visit: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0006291X
The College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR), established in 1907 as the College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, is the founding college of the University of Hawaiʻi. The college is an integral part of the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa's Carnegie I Research Institution designation and is the Land Grant college of the University of Hawaiʻi system. CTAHR is federally mandated to fulfill the University's threefold Land Grant mission of instruction, scientific research, and outreach to address State needs. No other college in the University of Hawaiʻi has such an extensive mandate or interacts so closely with the citizens of the State. The Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering is one of six departments in the college. For more information, visit www.ctahr.hawaii.edu.


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Search Constraints
You searched for: Subject Minerals Remove constraint Subject: Minerals Institution Stanford Remove constraint Institution: Stanford Place Monterey County (Calif.) Remove constraint Place: Monterey County (Calif.) Place Aromas (Calif.) Remove constraint Place: Aromas (Calif.) Place Cachagua Creek Remove constraint Place: Cachagua Creek Place Big Sur (Calif.) Remove constraint Place: Big Sur (Calif.) Place Bolsa Knolls (Calif.) Remove constraint Place: Bolsa Knolls (Calif.) Data type Point Remove constraint Data type: Point Year 1997 Remove constraint Year: 1997
1 entry found
Search Results
1. Mines of Monterey County, California, 1997
1997. Rosenberg, Lewis I. This point shapefile contains locations of active, historic, and inactive mines as within Monterey County, California. Data from the mines database... Monterey County (Calif.). Planning Department.


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|Graphics by Hoot and Crow
Here are my plans:
I will "bless" more books at all levels to help motivate my students to read them.
I plan to meet daily with my struggling readers and watch them read. I want to cheer them on as they build stamina.
I will provide them texts that they can read. I want them reading a lot! So, they will need lots of texts to keep them on task.
As a classroom community, we will focus on building reading stamina. We will make a goal. If we meet it, we will be rewarded in some way that will encourage them to continue reading.
|Click image for your copy.
Lastly, I want us to talk more about the books we read. By us, I really mean, my students. I need to stop some of the talking and listen. This will be hard but so worth it.
This has led me to wonder. How much time does your class spend on actual reading? Please share. I would love for you to join me in this discussion.
Happy Teaching and Learning!


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Firebrand Singer in Support of His New Album Animals in the Dark
Forget overblown theatrics and hackneyed rock star poses and instead witness the undeniable power of a man taking the stage alone with his songs and conviction to spare. William Elliott Whitmore plays the kind of music - raw and seemingly untouched by pop culture - that has drawn young dissidents to folk music since before Dylan's time. Like a young Billy Bragg, or his self-proclaimed hero Shane MacGowan of the Pogues, Whitmore's innate populism and unaffected sincerity resonate with the alienated and imaginative youth culture that surrounds punk, a scene that has embraced him. Honing his skills playing with Against Me, Converge, the Street Dogs, his beloved Pogues and Lucero among others, Whitmore has the ability to quiet a rowdy crowd with just a banjo, a true testament to his powerful voice and unique vision. Whitmore will be heading out to tour the West Coast with Florida's swampy folk punks Fake Problems for what are sure to be some raucous and inspiring shows.
Praise for William Elliott Whitmore:
 "Aside from this album (Animals in the Dark) - which, at under 40 minutes, is far too short - a William Elliott Whitmore concert ticket might just be the best 15 bucks you'll spend all month." - PopMatters
 "And though these stark folk/blues tunes could be a century old, his tales of desperation, death, and despair crackle with agitprop punk urgency." - Spin
"With his just-released fifth solo effort Animals in the Dark, it's easy to hear what the fuss is about... If a guy like this showed up on American Idol, he could give Paula Abdul a nervous breakdown."Â - Time Out Chicago.
"Whitmore's baritone is a magnificent, even frightening instrument, impossibly thick and husky, deep and somber in a defiantly ageless manner." - Slant Magazine
"there's straightforward beauty in his down home blues and an uncompromising punk rock soul." - Jambase
William Elliott Whitmore North American Tour Dates (with Fake Problems) Apr-29 Portland, OR - Bottom of the Hill
Apr-30 San Louis Obispo, CA - Downtown Brew
May-01 San Clemente, CA - OC Tavern
May-02 Los Angeles, CA - The Knitting Factory
May-03 San Diego, CA - The Casbah
May-04 Phoenix, AZ - Chyro Arts


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Photos and Bios of Top Chef Season 7 Contestants
Meet the Contestants of Top Chef: Washington DC!
Meet the Contestants of Top Chef: Washington DC!
The moment you've all been waiting for is here: the seventh season of Top Chef begins tonight, at the earlier hour of 9 p.m. This time around, the drama will unfold at the nation's capital in Washington DC, where an incredibly diverse bunch of 17 chefs will face off for the coveted title. Guest judges include, among others, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and White House chef Sam Kass. For a preview of the competition to come, keep reading.


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Phone number: (08) 9525....
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SconesFrom THE SEVEN HEARTHS BED & BREAKFAST
|1 - 1 1/2 cups raisins- plumped
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg beaten
3/4 cup milk
Preheat oven to 450. In large bowl mix all dry ingredients, then add shortening. Cut shortening into dry ingredients (will be crumbly) Add beaten egg and milk. Dough will be wet. Drain raisins, mix raisins in batter. Knead 1/2 of batter on well floured surface about 10 times (DO NOT OVERKNEAD!) Make circle and cut into 6 slices. Put on baking sheet. Do the same with the second half of the batter. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until a light golden brown. DO NOT OVERBAKE! Remove from cookie sheet immediately and serve.
To plump raisins- Boil 2 cups of water, place raisins in bowl and cover with boiling water for at least 1/2 hour. Many nights I do this the night before and let sit overnight - covered with saran wrap and drain the water in the morning when using them.


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Whither Made in France?
Issued on: Modified:
The latest spike in unemployment grabs headlines with just four months to go before the presidential election. It's extra fuel for partisanship on the front pages of two of the main papers: Libération knocks Sarkozy for placing his supporters in key positions, while Le Figaro slams Hollande for groping in the dark. That's the focus for this look at the French papers, Wednesday 28th December 2011.
Some stories from today's French press review:
Le Parisien/Aujourd'hui-en-France headlines: "Unemployment - the candidates' proposals". Unemployment in France is now the highest in 12 years after 30,000 more jobless signed on in November. The paper's two-page report argues this is now a key campaign issue.
Les Echos: "De-industrialisation – almost 900 factories have closed in France in three years".
Le Figaro front page editorial: "Socialist Party - the year of two disappearances".
Libération: "Four months from the presidential election, Sarkozy places his supporters"
And the Catholic daily La Croix leads with a good news story: "Improvement in the care for the homeless".
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morningSubscribe


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Download the NAMI dissociative disorders fact sheet.
What is dissociation?
A number of people with mental illnesses experience dissociation: a disturbance of thinking, awareness, identity, consciousness or memory. Dissociation is more severe than just ordinary forgetfulness and is also not associated with any underlying cause of memory deficits or altered consciousness (e.g., neurological illnesses, substance or alcohol abuse). Some people have dissociative events that last only moments where as others experience extended periods of dissociation.
Some people will experience having limited ability to regulate their bodily functions and may feel like they are "going crazy" or are "out of my body" during dissociative events. Other people may lose control of their emotions or actions during a dissociative event and can do things that are otherwise quite uncharacteristic. Some people will have limited memory of the dissociative event and may feel surprised or disoriented when it ends. Many people may later recall what happened during their dissociation, but others may not be able to remember significant parts of what occurred, sometimes for even for a time before they dissociated. All of these combined make dissociation a very disturbing and frightening thing for the people who experience it.
There is an association between traumatic events and the process of dissociation. It may be that dissociation is a way the mind/brain contends with overwhelming stimuli. There is much more to be learned about the process of dissociation and the best strategies to address it. Dissociation can be part of a symptom of an existing mental illness. For example, many people who have experienced a traumatic event, such as physical or sexual abuse, may have some aspect of dissociation during the event itself and will be unable to recall details regarding their victimization. For many people diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dissociative episodes may be a very troubling symptom of their illness. Dissociation can also be a symptom associated with certain anxiety disorders, including panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
What are dissociative disorders?
Dissociative disorders are a controversial sub-group of mental illnesses. The most dramatic condition in this area is called dissociative identity disorder, formerly called multiple personality disorder. The media has a history of sensational portrayals of dissociative illnesses (e.g., the film The Three Faces of Eve (1957) and the book Sybil (1974)) and of persons who have pretended to have dissociative illnesses in order to avoid criminal charges (e.g., the 1996 film Primal Fear). Researchers, clinicians, and the public alike find the topic compelling and challenging to understand.
There is controversy over whether or not dissociative disorders are over diagnosed or improperly diagnosed by certain mental health professionals. This is an ongoing debate that is unlikely to be resolved soon.
In rare cases, some individuals have severe symptoms of dissociation in the absence of another primary mental or medical illness. In these situations, the DSM-IV-TR lists criteria by which dissociative disorders may be diagnosed. Dissociative disorders as defined by the DSM-IV-TR include:
- Dissociative amnesia—characterized by severe impairment in remembering important information about one's self. This is perhaps the most common of the dissociative disorders and—like all other dissociative illnesses—is associated with traumatic events. This amnesia can be limited to specific details or events but can also encompass entire aspects of a person's life.
- Dissociative fugue—a massive disorientation of self that leads to confusion about one's personal identity and potentially the assumption of a new identity
- Depersonalization disorder—marked by recurrent feelings of detachment or distance from one's own experiences and can be associated with the experience that the world is unreal. While many people experience these sensations at one point in their lives, an individual with depersonalization disorder has this experience so frequently or severely that it interrupts his or her functioning.
- Dissociative identify disorder (DID)—previously called multiple personality disorder, DID is the most famous and controversial of the dissociative disorders. This is characterized by having multiple "alters" (personal identities) that control an individual's behavior and actions at different times.
What are some available treatments?
In patients where dissociation is thought to be a symptom of another mental illness (e.g., borderline personality disorder (BPD) or PTSD), treatment of the primary cause is of upmost importance. This can involve psychotherapy and psychiatric medications when appropriate. It is important to note that there is no clear consensus on the treatment of dissociative symptoms themselves with medications for it is unclear whether or not psychiatric drugs can help to decrease symptoms of dissociation and depersonalization
Psychotherapy is generally helpful for people who experience dissociative episodes. Different cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) techniques have been specifically developed by mental health professionals to decrease symptom frequency and improve coping strategies for the experience of dissociation.
As with any mental illness, the caring support of loved ones cannot be underestimated. Specifically for individuals with a traumatic past, encouragement and support of friends and family is very important.
Reviewed by Ken Duckworth, M.D., and Jacob L. Freedman, M.D., November 2012
The authors would like to thank Jack D. Maser, Ph.D., for his work in creating a previous version of this review


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On March 16th, the Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, who'd been in office for about a month, announced a strategy to solve the country's banking crisis. This plan, which would be funded in part by confiscating money directly from every single bank account in Cyprus—even the very smallest—met with instantaneous and violent opposition from the country's citizens. Offstage, the European Union, led by a group of adamant Germans, Finns, and Danes, as well as the I.M.F. and the European Central Bank, pointed a cannon at Anastasiades's head: if he didn't move forward with this plan, the Cyprus banks would go bust and their hapless customers would lose pretty much all their money, instead of a measly 6.75 per cent. However, under great pressure from their constituents, Cypriot M.P.s rejected the proposal and sent Anastasiades back to the drawing board.
The following Monday, the price of the decentralized electronic currency bitcoin rose from forty-five to fifty-five dollars on the major exchanges, and by Wednesday it had nipped up to sixty-five dollars. The financial media generally agreed that the two dramas are related. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, it appears that Spaniards are liable to have been particularly active buyers of bitcoins that week, having taken the debacle in Cyprus as the likely sign of a forthcoming governmental plunder of their own savings. The evidence coming out of Spain is circumstantial—a spike in Google searches for "bitcoin," and another on mobile-app downloads of Bitcoin-related software were widely reported—but the pieces appear to fit. Subsequent developments (including the announcement of an eleventh-hour bailout deal for Cyprus) have so far failed to stabilize the euro or cool the bitcoin fever, with the price over a hundred and three at the time of writing.
That a number of panicked Europeans appear to have reckoned the wildly volatile, vulnerable, and tiny bitcoin market a preferable alternative to their own banking system, even temporarily, signals a serious widening of the cracks between the northern and southern E.U. countries in the wake of the euro-zone debt crisis. It also illustrates the broader collapse of trust that is threatening the world of global banking and fiat money.
The weakness in existing currencies stems from lack of faith in institutions—particularly central banks, which are often in league with commercial and investment banks. When a government bails out a failed bank or insurance company—in essence, by printing money—the net effect is that the currency as a whole is debased, in favor of a few and at the literal expense of everyone else, which amounts to a fair description of today's global financial system. Hence the sudden appeal of bitcoins, which appear, for the moment, at least, to be immune to the machinations of inept or crooked bankers and politicians.
In many ways, bitcoins function essentially like any other currency, and are accepted as payment by a growing number of merchants, both online and in the real world. But they are generated at a predetermined rate by an open-source computer program, which was set in motion in January of 2009. This program produced each one of the nearly eleven million bitcoins in circulation (with a total value just over a billion dollars at the current rate of exchange), and it runs on a massive peer-to-peer network of some twenty thousand independent nodes, which are generally very powerful (and expensive) G.P.U. or ASIC computer systems optimized to compete for new bitcoins. (Standards vary, but there seems to be a consensus forming around Bitcoin, capitalized, for the system, the software, and the network it runs on, and bitcoin, lowercase, for the currency itself.)
Bitcoin releases a twenty-five-coin reward to the first node in the network that succeeds in solving a difficult mathematical problem requiring a certain amount of brute-force computation (known as a proof-of-work calculation.) The solution is then broadcast throughout the network, and competition for a new block and its twenty-five-coin reward begins. (There's a good rundown of the technical aspects of Bitcoin on the Bitcoin wiki; there's also a wonderfully pellucid explanation of the proof-of-work angle from Paul Bohm, on Quora.)
At first, anyone armed with an ordinary computer could download and run the Bitcoin software and gather (or "mine") bitcoins. The more computing power you can dedicate to Bitcoin calculations, though, the better your chances of arriving first at each solution. This feature of the system, by design, resulted in a kind of computational arms race that strengthened the network by rewarding increased computing power. Four years into the Bitcoin project, only very powerful, purpose-built machines have enough muscle to keep pace with existing network nodes.
In this way, bitcoins are mined like gold used to be, in quantities that are small relative to the total supply, so that the supply grows slowly. There is an upper limit of twenty-one million new coins built into the software; the last one is projected to be mined in 2140. After that, it is presumed that there will be enough traffic to keep rewards flowing in the form of transaction fees rather than mining new coins. For now, the bitcoins are initially issued to the miners, but are distributed when miners buy things with them or sell them to non-miners (such as jumpy Spanish bank depositors) who desire an alternative currency. The chain of ownership of every bitcoin in circulation is verified and registered with a timestamp on all twenty thousand network nodes. This prevents double spending, since no coin can be exchanged without the authentication of some twenty thousand independent cyber-witnesses. In order to hack the network, you would have to deceive over half of these computers at the same time, a progressively more difficult task and, even today, a very formidable one.
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin, whose real identity is not known, cleverly combined existing peer-to-peer network technologies, cryptographic techniques, digital signatures, and the potential power of network effects to design and develop the Bitcoin system. Nakamoto was very clearly motivated in this effort by the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis. When the experiment was launched and the first fifty bitcoins (the so-called genesis block) were mined, in January of 2009, he (or she, or they) included this line of text along with the data: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."
Until his disappearance from the Web, around the spring of 2012, Nakamoto was a visible participant on cryptography forums, where he discussed Bitcoin freely, and published a nine-page paper outlining the details of the project. These posts reveal that even in 2008, Nakamoto was able to respond to concerns regarding the scalability of bitcoin with remarkable prescience; he clearly understood the ramp-up of computing power that would be required for producing bitcoins as the system grew.
Only people trying to mine new coins need to run network nodes And at first, most users ran network nodes, but as the network grew beyond a certain point, mining increasingly became the domain of specialists with server farms of specialized hardware.
A casual review of Nakamoto's various blog posts and bulletin-board comments also confirms that, from the first, Bitcoin was devised as a system for removing the possibility of corruption from the issuance and exchange of currency. Or, to put it another way: rather than trusting in governments, central banks, or other third-party institutions to secure the value of the currency and guarantee transactions, Bitcoin would place its trust in mathematics. At the P2P Foundation, Nakamoto wrote a blog post describing the difference between bitcoin and fiat currency:
[Bitcoin is] completely decentralized, with no central server or trusted parties, because everything is based on crypto proof instead of trust. The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts… With e-currency based on cryptographic proof, without the need to trust a third party middleman, money can be secure and transactions effortless.
Much of what has been written so far about bitcoins has centered on the perceived dangers of their relative anonymity, the irreversibility of transactions, and on the fact that they can be used for money laundering and for criminal dealings, such as buying drugs on the encrypted Web site Silk Road. This fearmongering is a red herring, and has so far prevented the rational evaluation of the potential benefits and shortcomings of crypto-currency.
Cash is also anonymous; it is also used in money laundering and illegal transactions. Like bitcoins, stolen cash is difficult to recover, and a cash transaction can't readily be traced back to the source. Nor is there immediate recourse for the reversal of transactions, as with credit-card chargebacks or bank refunds when one's identity has been stolen. However, I find it difficult to believe that anyone who has written critically of the dangers of bitcoin would prefer an economy where private cash transactions are illegal.
Contrary to hysterical media reports, such as this recent video from the Guardian, the Bitcoin-software community is loosely governed not by wild-eyed kids camping out in half-deserted lofts but by what appears to be a rational and sober group of adult administrators who run the Bitcoin Foundation. This organization was modelled on the Linux Foundation, according to Gavin Andresen, who is currently the Bitcoin Foundation's chief scientist. As the lead developer for the project, Andresen is paid a salary by the Bitcoin Foundation. He has been involved full-time in Bitcoin since the spring of 2011.
Like the Linux Foundation, the Bitcoin Foundation is funded mainly through grants made by for-profit companies, such as the Mt. Gox exchange, Bitinstant, and CoinLab, who depend on the stability and continued maintenance of the underlying open-source code.
"The Linux Foundation provides a bit of a center for Linux, and to pay the lead developer, Linus Torvalds, so that he can do nothing but concentrate on the kernel," Andresen said. "It's a tricky thing, once you get to be a certain size as an open-source project, how do you sustain yourself? Linux is the most successful open-source project in the world, so we thought it would make sense to use that as a model."
Gavin Andresen is one of the few people in the world who are known to have corresponded directly with Satoshi Nakamoto. (Joshua Davis tried to track him down for The New Yorker in 2011.) When I said I'd like to know more about Nakamoto, Andresen burst out laughing.
"So would I!" His laughter had a credibly rueful edge to it.
He was active on the bitcoin forums through December of 2011. He told me he was going to get busy, and then he stopped posting on the forums. A few months later, he disappeared, and as far as I know nobody has heard from him since then.
Whenever I corresponded with him, it was always on Bitcoin forums or e-mail, we never even real-time text chatted. He was always very businesslike, no personal details, always strictly about the project.
Indeed, a casual review of Nakamoto's writings online reveals him to be unfailingly cool and collected; the only time I noticed him becoming a little heated was in a few forum posts in December of 2010, when WikiLeaks supporters began soliciting bitcoin donations for WikiLeaks. Nakamoto rejected the idea unequivocally. According to Andresen,
Satoshi just felt the project was still too small to take that much attention. He didn't want WikiLeaks to jump in at that point, and they didn't… but a year later they did, and it was fine. I think people realized once I got invited to speak at the C.I.A. that there was no kind of hiding. They, whoever "they" are, already knew about this project. Satoshi was obviously a lot more private, and more worried about what government would do than I am.
I asked Andresen to explain to me the degree to which he and his colleagues are worried about government interference in Bitcoin.
I think if the U.S. government decided that Bitcoin was a bad thing and told me, "Stop doing what you're doing," I'd stop doing what I'm doing, quite frankly. But that wouldn't be very effective, because there are people all over the world who could pick up and reimplement it, for example in different programming languages; if you browse the Bitcoin forums you've seen the enormous chaos and energy there. There's all sorts of people doing all sorts of things—many of them crazy things that will never succeed, but some of those will be the next big things in Bitcoin.
As it happens, a few days ago, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the federal agency that enforces laws against money laundering, announced new guidelines requiring certain "virtual currency" trading entities to register as Money Services Businesses (M.S.B.s). Though the Bitcoin Foundation's general counsel, Patrick Murck, was somewhat critical of the new guidelines, this move went a certain distance toward calming Bitcoin speculators and others who'd been worried that the government would take more drastic steps against the mining, transfer, and exchange of bitcoins. Andresen is among those who sees the new FinCEN guidelines as a positive development.
In my opinion, the FinCEN guidance is fantastic news: it gives Bitcoin users and businesses clear rules on how they will or won't be regulated. It is great for ordinary users, because FinCEN said that using bitcoins to buy products or services is perfectly legal. And, long-term, it is great for businesses, because they now know how FinCEN will classify them and what regulations they must obey here in the U.S.
That said, it might cause problems for some smaller U.S. bitcoin-based businesses, who might have been hoping that they wouldn't be regulated at all. The bigger bitcoin businesses have been anticipating this for a while, so I don't think it will affect them.
But what about new government regulations that may arise down the road: making it illegal to accept bitcoins as payment, for instance, or outlawing or regulating the exchanges? It might not be so difficult to shut Bitcoin down, and that has to be producing a lot of downward pressure on more widespread acceptance, I suggested.
If you're asking me what I would expect to happen… I would expect that some country or another will try to do that. You have the same kinds of arguments about the Internet and the free flow of information across the world. And we've seen countries like China, that try to either ban the Internet or restrict it. I don't think you can just hop on the Internet in North Korea.
So I'd expect some countries that really want to control their currency, to control transactions, to do the same with bitcoin. The question is whether really big countries—like the United States or France or Russia—decide to do that or not. I don't think anybody really knows.
A confluence of key factors is responsible for the current spike in bitcoin values—the situation in Cyprus and the recent FinCEN announcement are widely thought to be among them. But perhaps a more important development is that a number of high-profile online businesses, among them WordPress, Reddit, Namecheap, and Mega, have recently begun accepting bitcoins in payment for their services. There are now many thousands of individuals and businesses already doing business in bitcoins. At bitcoinstore.com, you can buy electronics—including cameras, musical instruments, blood-pressure monitors, and computers—using just bitcoins. There are bitcoin-only casinos, like SatoshiBet, and a bitcoin-based Intrade-style prediction market called Bets of Bitcoin. The infrastructure for implementing the storage and exchange of bitcoins, too, is exploding: vendors, exchanges, facilitators of in-hand trades, dealers in bitcoin debit cards. There are systems for producing "paper wallets" that you can print out for the safe storage of bitcoins, and secure e-wallets for those with a tendency to misplace papers.
The physical bitcoins illustrating most every bitcoin story on the Web are available for purchase, too. They are called Casascius coins, and they are sold by Mike Caldwell through his Web site, casascius.com. These coins contain a private key on a card embedded in the coin and sealed with a tamper-evident hologram.
Caldwell, who lives in Utah, owns a payroll-software business and has about thirty employees. He is not affiliated with the Bitcoin Foundation—he is simply an interested and highly informed participant in the bitcoin market. The name Casascius came from the acronym for "call a spade a spade," with a vaguely Latinized suffix. The widely adopted Bitcoin motto often appears on Casascius coins: "Vires In Numeris," which is a rough translation into Latin of the English phrase "strength in numbers." He is a strong believer in the future of Bitcoin, and has been investing in the currency for a long time. He told me, "After the first crash"—in June of 2011—"there was a panic; people heard that one Web site had been hacked, and erroneously assumed that Bitcoin was a failure. I bought all the way down."
But Caldwell also thinks the road ahead is likely to be a bumpy one.
I believe Bitcoin will have hiccups and issues in the future… scalability limits. And there will be bugs, and times where people experience delays getting their transactions confirmed. These will cause temporary crises of confidence as the developers team up to solve the various issues. But Bitcoin will also evolve and move past them. The day that Hollywood succeeds in using technology to stomp out the music and movie pirates on the Internet, that's when they'll stomp out Bitcoin. I think most people know Hollywood will never win. Bitcoin will always win in the long game.
Caldwell used to mine coins himself, but gave it up eventually: "I considered the maintenance too high in opportunity cost for me personally," he told me. I asked him what, as an ordinary Bitcoin participant, he thought of the new FinCEN regulations. Are they the thin end of the wedge in terms of government interference? How does the "guidance" affect today's bitcoin miners in practical terms? Will they all have to register as M.S.B.s? He doesn't regard it as a threat yet.
Since mining yields pocket change for most, even if it were technically a violation of the way FinCEN sees the law, mining without registering would be like "laundering" a twenty-dollar bill by taking it to the grocery store and asking for two tens… it's hardly worth the resources for anyone to care about it, no matter how illegal they decide it should be.
Where he does see an issue, however, is in the anonymity that is prized by bitcoin adherents.
Mining produces bitcoins that are extremely anonymous. The most anonymous bitcoins you can get, system-wide, are ones you mined yourself. The mined coins have no origin, no history, no nothing. They just appear out of thin air.
This anonymity becomes particularly problematic, from a regulator's viewpoint, in the context of criminal activity—for example, hacking attacks that succeed in robbing people of their bitcoins:
We will see many more "man in the middle" attacks, and they will cause disruption; there will be times when it becomes possible to hack into a site or get in the middle of a transaction and hijack the payment address, causing people to send an irreversible payment to a criminal instead of who they thought they'd sent it to. Imagine getting a fake but realistic-looking invoice in the postal mail from a real vendor everyone pays (let's use the electric company for my example), and you are tricked into sending the payment to a criminal's P.O. box or mailing address. This doesn't happen much today, because the criminal's address would attract law enforcement, and so would their depository bank account. But with bitcoin, an address has no identifying quality and is unseizable, so criminals will do this and get away with it, and people are going to learn the hard way that they have to be vigilant about this.
Caldwell's political views with respect to Bitcoin are connected, like Nakamoto's, with a belief in the potential value of cryptography. "Until now, society has underutilized cryptography. If people accept it more broadly, cryptography can facilitate many things: the exchange of money, transparent elections, transparent government."
The common picture of bitcoin users has been that they're all long-haired anarchists, libertarians, and weirdos who would do away with government entirely, if they could. But in response to a question about his politics, Mike Caldwell had this to say:
I am not an anarchist; I believe in the rule of law and a civilized society. But I also believe that unchecked power is a threat to the common good, and that anything that the public can do to challenge that power is a benefit to society. As an individual, if you accept bitcoin in exchange for your goods or your work, that is a vote for economic fairness.
So is bitcoin going to save the global economy, or is it today's answer to seventeenth-century tulip mania? Gavin Andresen offered a word of caution.
I still tell people that Bitcoin is an experiment: only invest time or money you can afford to lose, because Bitcoin is still an experiment. The longer it keeps going in the face of volatility and technical glitches happening, the more we'll know.
But trust takes time.
Illustration by Grafilu.


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Study estimates indicate the number of COVID-19 infections is higher than reported, Percentage of COVID-19-related deaths is lower than what's reported.


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Having The Levine Real Estate Team when buying your property is like having a tour guide when traveling abroad somewhere you've never been. Your Levine Real Estate Team associate condenses all of the information about what there is to see, how to see it, and what to look for. You'll never get to see the best sights at the best times if you're just wandering around the city.
When and Why to Buy
The Levine Real Estate Team will be able to give you valuable guidance on several influential pieces to consider before purchasing a property for sale. With an established network of knowledge and resources, The Levine Real Estate Team can make sure you end up with a property that is right for you.
One of the biggest things to consider is how long you will be living in the given location. If you can't commit to staying in one location for a duration long enough to make the purchase then sale of the property worth your while, then you might consider not buying at that particular point.
Another major factor is considering what you may or may not be able to afford. You must weigh all sides when proposing to buy a property. Is your job or income situation stable? Is it flat or growing? Do you have an expanding family whose expenses (and space demands) you need to account for? You might want a shorter commute into your job in the city, but you may need a bigger space for growing children or perhaps must travel further outside the metropolitan area to find the kind of space for your budget. The Levine Real Estate Team along side with your lender, can also ask the appropriate questions to find out whether you are a good candidate for a loan.
Being able to provide proof of good credit can help enormously when purchasing a home. Pre-qualified buyers can make sound offers and move faster than someone who is less stable in their financial situation. The Levine Real Estate Team is trained to help you navigate this sometimes-intimidating world. Buyers with good credit do get better rates on their loans; however, it is a myth that buyers with bad credit history can't get financing. The Levine Real Estate Team works with several lending institutions to be able to help anyone with bad credit.


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Elvis Hologram to Be Featured in Film + TV
Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building. Hell, he's left this earthly plane. Still, that isn't stopping the tabloids from printing articles about Elvis Presley sightings… But this time around, their stories will be slightly more accurate.
Fans will be able to "see" the King again, as the digital company that created the Tupac Shakur Coachella hologram is creating an Elvis likeness. Hologram masterminds have teamed up with the holder of Elvis licenses to produce a series of virtual Elvises for a range of entertainment projects, including for film and TV.
A projected Elvis? How amazing would it be to see that curled lip and those shaking hips up close and personal again? The digital King is alive! He better be wearing one of his signature jumpsuits…
The holographic Elvis will be used on the big and small screens, and will also be projected at concerts, too.
"His lifelong fans will be thrilled all over again, and new audiences will discover the electric experience of Elvis the performer," said Jack Soden, president and CEO of Elvis Presley Enterprises, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "The high level of quality entertainment that both Core Media Group and Digital Domain deliver gives us great confidence that these projects will help continue the growth of Elvis' rich legacy all over the world."
What do you think, PopCrush readers? Do you want to see Elvis Presley as a hologram?
Watch the Tupac Hologram Perform at the 2012 Coachella Festival


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White Papers and Application Notes
Modeling of Atmosphere Revitalization
All spacecraft systems must be minimized with respect to mass, power, and volume. Here, we focus on current efforts to improve system efficiency and reliability for water separation systems to be used on crewed vehicles. These development efforts combine sub-scale systems testing and multi-physics simulations to evaluate candidate approaches. The best performing options will then be implemented in full-scale integrated atmosphere revitalization tests. This paper describes the initial development of COMSOL simulations in support of the Atmosphere Revitalization Recovery and Environmental Monitoring (ARREM) project within NASA\'s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) program. The transport of a dilute species, water, in a carrier gas, nitrogen, was modeled as free and porous media flow through a 4-cell bed of sorbent pellets, with pressure boundary conditions. The sorption rates and pellet loading were determined from solving a distributed ODE. The resulting heat transfer in the porous media and the solid housing was modeled with the respective physics nodes. A wall-distance calculation was required to determine the local packing density of the pellets. Boundary conditions (inflow/outflow and wet/dry air) were switched after every half-cycle of the desiccant bed. Figure 1 illustrates the geometry modeled, with the 4 blue domains being the cells, with any two non-adjacent beds flowing in or out with wet or dry air at any time. The first out-of-the-box attempt at using COMSOL Multiphysics to model the reversing-flow bulk desiccant process has resulted in a favorable match to data, at least in temperatures. Concentration is not matched as well, but this could be due to a number of reasons, from how the data was acquired (compared to the simulation) to variability in physical parameters (e.g. the sensitivity of the results to the axial dispersion coefficient, used isotropically in the dilute species transport equation, has not been investigated). Further work will focus on modeling a thermally linked bed, which uses an aluminum housing, as well as larger-scale, higher flow rate experiments to determine various sensitivities. Barring unforeseen issues with those models, COMSOL should be a useful tool to explore design space for ARREM water separation development. The need for optimized atmosphere revitalization systems is necessitated by the aggressive new missions planned by NASA. Innovative approaches to new system development are required. This paper presents such an approach for the AES ARREM project, where testing is supplemented with modeling and simulation to reduce costs and optimize hardware designs. The initial application of the COMSOL model in 3D to simulate a cyclic bulk-desiccant sub-scale test shows promise. The efforts represented here will be continued to support the design of Atmosphere Revitalization systems under the ARREM project. These modeling and simulation efforts are expected to provide design guidance, system optimization, and troubleshooting capabilities for atmosphere revitalization systems being considered for use in future exploration vehicles.


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The times have changed at USC. The ESPN 2011 top 25 rankings does not include the Trojans. These are not the days of Pete Carroll.
Filed under: College Football, Football, Men of Troy, PAC-10, Pete Carroll, Sports, Trojans, USC Football | Tagged: ESPN 2011 top 25 rankings; usc football, usc 2011 football | Leave a comment »


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Happiness comes from within. If you choose to be happy, no one and no thing can ever take that happiness from you.Carl and I hanging the before SF 1 day.
Me in front of our Crossfit aid station.
Carl and I before the start
Melissa and I before the start. Congrats to Mel for running 50.3 miles.
Me leading the way into the aid station early on.
Ok so SF 1 day didn't come easy. It was hot and I had some huge issues. My hamstring and gluts. acted up from around the 50 mile mark to the end. I stopped a lot. If it wasn't for his skill in knowing about trigger point therapy I would of had to walk. He would work on me for 5 min. and I was able to run strong after each massage session.
My goal was to run 103 miles or more. I ran 100.3 in 23:51.
I enjoyed being out there with all my friends. And all the crossfitters who came out to support their friends. Molly from Crossfit SF was running her first ultra and had the guys from SF crossfit supporting her. She did awesome never having run farther then a 10k she ran 79 miles. I hope to see her at a trail ultra in the future.
Melissa and Bob from Newport beach crossfit both ran too. Mel had her wonderful boyfriend Mark helping her and Bob had his wife Jenn and her sister helping him.
I was happy to see crazy Chris Hosmer who I met on the PCT last year. We all made use of his large table and shared it for our own aid station. I call him crazy because he drove all the way from Santa Cruz to Crater lake Oregon Just to hike with me a week. I inspired him to do the 12 hour as his first Ultra last year and this year he was going big , he was doing the 24 hour. Which he finished 100.3 congrats.
Melissa ran 50.3 awesome job girl and Bob ran 101.3 great job.
We all had to fight demons out there some big some small.
I did the best I could even as the demons who were getting the best of me late into the night. I cried I laughed I yelled and screamed yet he still kept me focused. Not sure how. I had so many issues couldn't eat for many hours was on my period had cramps.
The inspiration came from the many emails I got during the race. all of you made me come alive when I would read an email.
Thanks all of you for keeping me going and believing in me.
Early in the morning as the miles added up I came to realize It was not coming easy and I could not make 100 miles. I was anger at myself. I didn't want to let my friends down and most all didn't want to let myself down. I knew with 9 laps to go I had no room for error I must run as if my life depended on it which I did.
With two laps to go I realized me and Jenny Ray were in the same boat we didn't think we would make it. We figure lets get into the aid and see how much time we have.. We decided we would push each other come hell or high water we would finish together and we would run 100 miles.
We worked as a team that last mile knowing we would complete our goal we dug deep and it paid off.
I was very humbled this weekend. It didn't come easy and it was very close but I proved that I do have the desire and I am strong. And when the body and mind work as one, you can accomplish any goal you set out to do.
Thanks Sarah and Wendell for another awesome event. They are number 1.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
3 comments:
- Chris Hosmer said...
Hey Catra,
Good job in the race! Way to suck it up at the end. I cant believe u do this on mountain trails, that is a whole diff. ballgame I am sure. Tell Carl and all his friends thanx for helping me, and thanx to u for being there, that was an experience. My feet r f..ked up! Crazy Chris
- Jessi said...
Great pics! I love the last one of you beating all the boys! :-)
You and Carl look good together - tough and badass, but sweet at the same time!
- Catra said...
Hey Jessi-
Thanks so much. He is awesome and I love him. Going to visit him tomorrow.
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Our show week is in full swing with 21 shows in six different venues. Here in the Deep South fanciers are in Hattiesburg MS for four days with the Greater Hattiesburg Kennel Club and the Meri-Miss Kennel Club. The GHKC was first up on Thursday and they asked Don Rogers to choose his top two dogs. His options were the Irish Setter, Seafarer's Red Hot And Green, the 15" Beagle, CH K-Run's We Could Have Had It All Around, the Boxer, GCH CH Winfall I Dream of Style, the Smooth Fox Terrier, CH Sayo's Jai Ho, the Toy Poodle, GCH CH Donnchada Angel Wings At Dulcinea, the Standard Poodle, GCH CH Dawin Hearts on Fire, and the Shetland Sheepdog, GrandGables Jolie Victor Ludorum.
CH Sayo's Jai Ho
Best went to the Standard Poodle, Flame. Reserve was reserved for the Smooth Fox, Tessa. Flame did not make her 2012 debut until July when she copped three BIS in one weekend in Sedalia MO. By year's end she had two more. Thursday's win is her second in 11 final appearances this year.
Flame & Tessa would return to the final ring on Friday along with the above named Irish Setter & Sheltie to plead their case with BIS judge Kathleen Grosso. Joining them were the Whippet, GCH CH Karasar Remberence, the Doberman Pinscher, O's Godiva Dark Demitasse, and the Papillon, GCH CH Fenice Le Boudreaux.
Judge Grosso would select the same two, giving Tessa the BIS and Flame the RBIS. Tessa is now two for four in the final ring. Are we seeing a Terrier trend here?