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What Will “Post-Artifact Books” Mean For the Library?Posted: 14 Jun 2011 This is the post-artifact system. A system of unlocking. A system concerned with engagement. Sharing. Marginalia. Ownership. Community. And, of course, reading. - Craig Mod This morning Craig Mod published another beautiful and thought-provoking essay called Post-Artifact Books and Publishing: Digital’s effect on how we produce, distribute and consume content. Like his other writings, this essay examines the future of the book vis-a-vis traditional and new publishing models. The essay addresses ideas about social reading, where and how books will live and the best format for digital books. All said, it is a sprawling but inclusive essay that, I think, all librarians need to read. Now. In the opening Mod quotes Matthew Battles Library: An Unquiet History. After that little is expressly mentioned about libraries, forgivable since Mod, primarily a writer, publisher and designer, is not a librarian nor writing about what role they should play in shaping the future of books. However, the essay contains concepts that libraries are going to struggle with in the near future (if they are not already struggling with them now). A few questions: Libraries have always been somewhat social but what happens when the social is moved to the digital realm? How can libraries be a part of this. More importantly, how can libraries shape and connect this? Mod points to several examples of how books are being created and published by alternative publishing formats largely through reader interaction. How can libraries be sure that these important books that are either POD or produced by smaller publishers are made available? What are libraries doing to help shape the new systems in which books and ideas will be distributed? Working for rather than reacting to (or against)? How can libraries promote the de-emphasis of authority surrounding access to information and materials?

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Timothy Hart remembers being curious about local history even as a youngster growing up in Stafford. "I grew up near an old railroad right-of-way, and I always wondered what had been there," said Hart, who graduated from Southern Regional in 1972. In those days, Ocean County was only beginning to feel the impact of the Garden State Parkway. And that right-of-way? That's where Route 72 is now, Hart said. Hart's love of history has now landed him in a role he could only dream of: That of county historian for Ocean County. Hart, who serves as the director of the county's Cultural and Heritage Commission, was appointed county historian by the Ocean County Board of Freeholders on Wednesday afternoon. Hart succeeds Pauline S. Miller, who has been the county's only historian previously. She died in December at age 93. "His love for the history of this great county makes him the perfect choice for county historian," Freeholder John C. Bartlett said. "Tim has extensive knowledge of the county's history. He is an expert when it comes to the role Barnegat Bay plays in county history, in addition to how historical events like the Civil War had an impact on this county." The title carries no salary, but Hart said he is very happy to be chosen for the post. "It's quite an honor," said Hart, who also serves as deputy director of the Tuckerton Seaport and Baymen's Museum in Little Egg Harbor. Hart, who serves as Stafford Township's historian, has been a member of the Stafford Township Historical Society since his childhood. His Linked-in profile lists historical organization after historical organization, going back to high school. A theology major at Georgetown, he minored in history, while majoring in theology at Georgetown. He later attended law school and passed the bar in the early 2000s. Hart not only studies history, however; he participates yearly in the reenactment of the battle at Cedar Bridge Tavern, site of an important Revolutionary War skirmish. Hart said he does not see himself as the kind of historian Miller was. "I don't know everything," he said, but instead he knows who to ask for the answers. That includes a vast wealth of town historians throughout Ocean County, whom Hart intends to get to know in the coming weeks and months. "It's my fantasy to tour each of the towns with their historians and have them point out, 'This used to such-and-such,' " Hart said. "We live in such a homogenized society, with all the McDonald's and Walmarts and such," Hart said. "When you know about the local history, it makes it kind of a special place." And that right-of-way that Hart grew up near? That's better known today as Route 72.

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This is the eleventh audio message for the Heroes & Villains series. It's important to know where our responsibility ends and someone else's begins. In short, it's important to identify the boundaries in our lives. We experience an amazing amount of freedom and fruitfulness when we faithfully serve within our appropriate boundaries. When we go outside of our boundaries, by definition we encroach on others' territory. We trespass. We rob others of the opportunity for faithfulness by doing what they were meant to do. And we also abdicate our own roles, thus neglecting our own stewardships. Have you identified your roles? Do you stay within your own boundaries? Do you respect others' boundaries? Doing more than we're asked to do (by crossing boundaries) doesn't earn us bonus point; rather, it reduces our effectiveness and undermines the contributions of others. The bible.org staff and supporters share the vision to harness the Internet for God and freely provide the NET Bible and trustworthy Bible study material to everyone on earth so they become equipped for global impact, able to complete the Great Commission in one generation. Would you consider sharing your time, talents, monies, and prayers to achieve meaning to this life and in heaven receive your crowns and hearing Christ say well done….. Matthew 25:23More...

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It's more about having fun- even if you don't have someone to dance with. "We don't need a partner," said Ladonna McGee. This group of senior citizens slip on their dancing shoes for their line dancing class and as a way to stay in shape. "It teaches balance, it is exercise, it keeps brain waves going and the main thing is its to socialize," said McGee. They practice twice a week and its not just country music they dance to- they also learn Latin and Classic Pop dances as well. It's all about keeping up with the beat- but no ones judging here if you fall out of step. "You just kind of know what you're doing and if not then you just fall back in you don't get worried about it," said Arlene Wuske, one of the participants. Arlene Wuske has danced for years and joined the class to ensure she maintains a healthy active lifestyle. "I'm laughing, I'm having a reason to get out of the house I'm anxious to go out and have fun and afterwards i go have a drink," said the 65 year-old. To her however, its more about the learning the steps- its about having a good time and keeping the music going in her life. "I like to stay active so that I can do everything and not hurt, never hesitate every time anybody wants to ride a bike or run up a hill or jump around, I'm ready," she said. The Rose Park Senior Center offers beginner and intermediate line dancing classes every Monday and Thursday at 1 p.m. and advanced classes at 2 p.m.

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Food of the Gods from the Island of the Gods We work directly with over 3,000 farmers farmers on the islands of Bali and Sumatra to procure our fine cacao. The history of the Bali Cacao is linked to the history of the legendary Java Criollo, which is linked to the Philippines, which is directly linked to the cacao the Spanish brought there from the legendary Aztec cacao orchards of Soconusco, Mexico. These genetics that made their way into Indonesia were dominantly planted on old Dutch plantations found on East Java. These same genetics that were so highly regarded were also planted on the next island over, Bali. As the chocolate industry become more industrialized in the mid 1900’s and production output replaced quality of flavor, the plantations started to replace the Java Criollo with hybrids that increased the volume of cacao per hectare. Fortunately, the island of Bali was mostly ignored during the hybridization period. This is probably due to the fact that villages and small family farms populated these smaller islands, not plantations. In the mid 1900’s, Bali was nothing like it is today; it was still quite forgotten and remote. Today, many of Bali’s farms still remain as they were. The cacao is grown interspersed with other food crops such as, vanilla, exotic peppercorns, passion fruit, banana, jackfruit, palm trees and mangosteen. We refer to these as “food forests”. The Health of it All Cacao is PACKED with natural compounds called antioxidants. More than blueberries, pomegranate, cranberries and even red wine. Yet, all these fruits and drinks are great for a healthy diet and lifestyle. Promotes good cardiovascular health. Cacao is one of the best sources of natural magnesium, which is critical for a happy and healthy heart. Perhaps this is why its such a lovers food.. Promotes good blood circulation. Theobromine is a superior vascodilator, which means more oxygen gets pumped into your bloodstream, making it a great food for exercise. Lowers blood pressure. Rich in minerals. Cacao is a seed which contains many vital minerals our body needs to function optimally. There is so much more that we can go on for pages with the positive health benefits of cacao and chocolate. Yet, we are sure you know most of the good news already... you just need to get some in your mouth now!

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The Convention adjourned from July 26th to August 6th to allow the Committee of Detail – composed of John Rutledge of South Carolina, Edmund Randolph of Virginia, Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts, Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, and James Wilson of Pennsylvania – to prepare a rough draft of a constitution, based on the series of resolutions the delegates had debated, amended, and debated again. When the Convention re-convened, the Committee of Detail presented its report, made up of twenty-three articles. The Convention spent the remainder of August reviewing and further revising these articles. We the People of… Delegates quickly agreed to accept the Committee of Detail’s preamble and Articles I and II, affirming the new government would be called the Unites States of America and consist of Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches. This agreement masked the critical issue that the Convention had debated throughout – was this to be a union of states or of people? The Committee of Detail’s constitution began, “We the people of the States (emphasis added) of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, and Georgia, do ordain, declare, and establish the following Constitution for the Government of Ourselves and our Posterity.” The Convention would not end with that language in the preamble. Representation: Who, What, and How Many? Discussion of the Committee of Detail report continued to include the structure and powers of the legislative branch. Some of the key questions included: Who can elect representatives? How many representatives will there be? What will be their qualifications? Delegates debated whether to allow non-land owners to the right to vote for House members, or reserve the franchise to property owners. Gouverneur Morris wanted to restrict voting to those with property, considering them more educated and better able to choose wise leaders. “The ignorant and dependant,” Morris stated, “can be… little trusted with the public interest.” Colonel Mason countered arguments of this kind, saying all citizens should have equal voting rights and privileges. Doctor Franklin sided with Colonel Mason believing that restricting the right to vote to land owners would cause contention among the people. In the end Morris’s proposal to restrict the franchise to property owners was defeated soundly (7-1-1). Just as the Convention rejected a plan to restrict voting to property owners, they also rejected a proposal to restrict elective office to property owners. South Carolina’s Charles Pinckney moved that “the President of the U.S., the Judges, and members of the Legislature should be required to swear that they were respectively possessed of a cleared unencumbered Estate” – in an amount to be agreed upon by members of the Convention. This proposal went nowhere. Benjamin Franklin expressed his “dislike of every thing that tended to debase the spirit of the common people,” and observed that “some of the greatest rogues he was ever acquainted with, were the richest rogues.” Madison reports that Pinckney’s motion “was rejected by so general a no, that the States were not called.” The Convention did have a sentiment in favor of strong citizenship requirements for legislators. The Committee of Detail’s report required members of the House be U.S. citizens for three years prior to election, and members of the Senate for four years. Some, including George Mason and Morris, agreed that a lengthy citizenship requirement would protect the legislature from foreign intrigue. Others, including Madison and Franklin, pointed to the number of foreign friends who had helped the states during the war for independence. Delegates sided with Mason and Morris, agreeing to requirements that members of the House be citizens for seven years and members of the Senate for nine years prior to election. On the question of how many representatives would make up the national legislature, Article IV of the Committee of Detail Report stated that the House of Representatives would initially consist of sixty-five members, and that in the future, members of the House would be added “at the rate of one for every forty thousand.” Madison, expecting the Union to grow rapidly, thought that rate would quickly lead the House to grow too large. Others thought that time would make this issue irrelevant. Mr. Nathaniel Gorham from Massachusetts asked, “Can it be supposed that this vast country including the Western territory will 150 years hence remain one nation? Mr. Oliver Ellsworth observed that “If the government should continue so long, alterations may be made in the Constitution” through the amendment process. Delegates agreed to add the language “not exceeding” to the one representative for 40,000 citizen ratio, making that a ceiling and not a floor. Controversy over this provision would re-emerge before the end of the Convention, however. The Specter of Slavery Likewise, controversy would emerge about slavery. Consideration of the apportionment of representatives raised the question of whether slaves would be included within that ratio. Morris rose on August 8 and gave a withering criticism of the institution. Moving to specify that this ratio would include only “free” inhabitants, Morris called slavery “a nefarious institution,” and “the curse of heaven”. Comparing free with slave states, Morris noted, on the one hand, “a rich and noble cultivation [which] marks the prosperity and happiness of the people,” and on the other “the misery and poverty which overspread the barren wastes of Virginia, Maryland, and the other states having slaves.” Morris’s motion was defeated 10-1, but the issue of how slavery would be addressed by the new union was by no means resolved. For more detailed information on the Constitutional Convention, please visit Prof. Gordon Lloyd’s web companion to the Philadelphia Convention. Posted in Countdown to the Constitution

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Recording Frog Advertisement Calls at Mason Farm Biological Reserve (Haven Wiley Lab) Our Biology graduate programs span the breadth of biological questions and experimental systems — from evolution in viruses to cell and molecular biology in frogs and plants to bioinformatics of the human genome. Advances in genome sequencing and analysis together with rapid growth in interdisciplinary research are making the 21st century an exciting time for Biology. The University of North Carolina recognizes the importance of investing in Biology research and training and is undertaking key initiatives in the life sciences. The Biology department’s addition of the Genome Science Building and the recruitment of many new faculty make the department a vibrant place to learn and advance science. We invite you to join us in these exciting times. Our graduate students have the opportunity to become outstanding researchers in their chosen area of specialization. They learn how to conduct and analyze scientific research, give seminars, publish research papers, and write grants. Our programs allow flexibility in training for a multitude of futures, from university research and teaching, to biotechnology, to environmental conservation. Please use the navigation menu at left to explore the exciting possibilities we offer. We hope you will join us. Gregory P. Copenhaver and Karin Pfennig Directors of Graduate Studies

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That’s Random! A Look at Viral Self-Assembly It should be noted that indeterminacy does not imply that God does not have foreknowledge of future events. Christians ought not to be uncomfortable with the idea of God interacting with his creation through chance. Hydrology of the Bow River There’s a word beneath the water, and the Bow River belongs to God. Have you been listening? Denis Alexander on Understanding Creation Theology In this video Conversation, Denis Alexander asserts that contemporary Christians are not taking the early chapters of Genesis seriously enough. Evolution, the Enlightenment, and Worldviews In this video conversation, N.T. Wright discusses how the Enlightenment worldview -- which clearly separates God from the world -- has impacted our view of Scripture, and why cleaning the "spectacles" through which we view the world can help us see both Scripture and the world more clearly. Raising Children to Pursue Truth In this video Conversation, Joel Hunter articulates the importance of raising a child that can garner knowledge from a variety of sources and to be able to study science with integrity—that is, to be able to pursue the truth to where it leads. Worshiping, Growing, and Learning Yesterday, biology professors Randy Moore and Sehoya Cotner raised the concern that workshops focused on evolution-related training do not reach not reach creationism-based biology teachers. Today, we'd like to focus on BioLogos' efforts to address that divide through our Biology by the Sea workshops. Scientists Tell Their Stories: George Murphy During his seminary education, Dr. Murphy also gained a deeper understanding of Luther’s theology of the cross, and he realized that it’s really the best way to approach the science and theology dialogue. Katharine Hayhoe: Evangelical Christian, Climate Scientist As an Evangelical and a scientist, Katharine Hayhoe is already a member of a rare breed. As a climate change researcher who is also married to an evangelical Christian pastor, she is nearly one of a kind. Series: It's an Old World After All In our sixth BioLogos videocast, we take a look at the age of the Earth. We explain four methods scientists have used to determine that age: tree ring, lake varve, radiometric, and seafloor spread dating, and also offer some theological insight on how an old earth can fit with the first chapters of Genesis. Series: From the Dust In this series, Ryan Pettey offers several clips from his powerful documentary "From the Dust". This feature-length film is divided up into various sections, each of which wrestles with the difficult problems that arise when reconciling Scripture with the theory of evolution. A light of hope dawns on the science-faith conversation, however, as scientists and theologians engage in honest dialogue about tough issues such as the interpretation of Genesis, the nature of the Fall, and the idea of random design. Their profound insights are sure to enlighten all minds, raise deeper questions, and provoke new thought. Series: Genesis Through Ancient Eyes In this talk, originally delivered at the BioLogos President's Circle meeting in October 2012, Dr. John Walton discusses the origin stories of Genesis 1-3, and why their focus on function and archetypes mean there is no Biblical narrative of material origins. Growing in Faith As he endeavored to learn more, David was intrigued by Francis Collins book The Language of God because Francis did not present evolution as a rival theory to Christian faith, but as something that described God's method of creation. Series: Shaping the Human Soul In Washington DC, Church of the Advent teamed up with The Trinity Forum to offer a series of lectures exploring the synergy between modern science and Christian Faith. This presentation by psychiatrist Curt Thompson and philosopher James K.A. Smith addressed the process of Christian discipleship and spiritual formation through the lens of neuroscience. Using Film to Catalyze Conversations on Faith and Science What are the best ways to spark productive conversations about science and faith? Certainly there are books, articles, blogs (like this one), and podcasts. But there are particular advantages to using film. Mending the Disconnect How can it be that two things we love and treasure—two things that are absolutely central to ourselves and the lives we’ve built—seem so often to be at odds with each other? Did David Hume "Banish" Miracles? “I flatter myself,” Hume triumphantly proclaimed, “that I have discovered an argument . . . which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures.” Series: Divine Action in the World In this talk, Professor Plantinga addresses the fact that many contemporary thinkers—including many theologians—believe that God cannot perform miracles, providentially guide history, or interact in the lives of people, as these activities would be contrary to science. Plantinga, on the other hand, makes the case that this popular view is mistaken; excluding divine action in the world is not a central feature of natural science itself, but a philosophical or theological preference that has been added on to science (and can just as readily be removed). Plantinga concludes that it is completely logical to accept the miracles of the Bible and support contemporary science. Hominids Lived Millions of Years Ago, but How Can We Tell? (Videocast) This BioLogos videocast addresses the age of recently discovered hominid fossils and how scientists are able to obtain those dates. Randomness and Evolution: Is There Room for God? (Videocast) This BioLogos videocast addresses the idea of randomness as a part of natural selection, and whether it challenges the possibility of God using the evolutionary process as a means of creation. Scientists Tell Their Stories: Owen Gingerich When it came time to go to graduate school, one of Owen Gingerich's science professors told him “If you feel a calling to go to astronomy, you should give it a try, because we shouldn’t let atheists take over any particular field.”

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Alas there were already Birders there when I arrived before 8 AM. One said he arrived just after 7 AM. I ended up hanging around the pond, gossiping and taking the occasional photo of a speeding Virginia Rail. The person there before me said that the Rails were nest building. I looked and indeed, saw one or more gathering material probably for a nest and carrying it from one location to another in the reeds. A heavily obscured photo as once again, the Rails did not cooperate with me. Later this person said he had seen a Rail carrying a chick on its back under its wings last year in the same area. I've never even seen a Rail chick. Maybe this year. The Rails were vociferous and one of the nesting Rails walked over to a different area and proceeded to attack another Rail, with both taking to the air briefly before disappearing into the reeds. Later we watched them foraging. We would see a black blur shoot across an open area, then disappear. Finally, though, luck blessed me and I watched a Rail come out of the undergrowth and grab a worm. The worm, though, was uncooperative and wrapped itself around a stalk, causing the Rail to slow down enough for me to get some photos. Like this from about 5 meters away: And while talking I noticed a small bird flying amongst the reeds. I wondered if it were a Marsh Wren. It seemed to have some yellow colouring on it. While I was watching a nearby RW Blackbird went after it. It flew a little towards me and landed. My first Common Yellowthroat of the year. He wasn't singing, but he had that perky look and a fresh coat of Spring colouring.

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Skip to content Skip to navigation Black Country History Web Site Black Country History is a searchable website which allows users to find information about documents, maps, photographs, art works, objects and more held by archives and museums services within the Black Country. The eight partners involved in this website are: Dudley Archives and Local History Service Dudley Museums Service Sandwell Community History and Archives Service Sandwell Museums Service Walsall Local History Centre Walsall Museums Service Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Service Contact information for accessibility help Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Service Wolverhampton Art Gallery N. Hingley & Sons Ltd, Washington Street, Netherton - Ref No: p/430 - Repository: Dudley Archives & Local History Service - Date: [c1960] - Description: Goods wagon belonging to Hingley's on display in a museum. - Admin History: A forge and a small chain-making factory was founded by Noah Hingley (1796-1877) at Cradley, in the early 1800s. The company later produced pig iron for the manufacture of wrought iron. Noah Hingley leased mining areas from the Earl of Dudley in order to raise his own coal, limestone, and iron ore. Hingley's activities encompassed the Netherton Ironworks; The Harts Hill Iron Works; The Old Hill Furnaces; and various collieries. Until 1820, Noah Hingley was a nail master and maker of small chains, but by the 1830s, he had established himself as an ironmaster - manufacturing pig iron and wrought iron, before establishing his chain works at Netherton in 1837. It was one of, if not the largest cable making factory in the world. In 1848 he began making anchors and cables for the shipping industry. New extended premises were erected at Netherton in 1852. Noah Hingley died in 1877 and was succeeded by his son, Benjamin Hingley (1830-1905). He ran the company until 1895 when he was forced to retire due to a serious illness. The Company was then taken over by his nephews, George Benjamin Hingley (1850-1918), who became Managing Director, and Henry Montagu Hingley (1855-1909). George Benjamin Hingley was a long-standing member of the Midland Iron and Steel Wages Board; and served as vice-chairman of the South Staffordshire Ironmasters Association. By 1909, 90% of all Britain's production of chain took place in the Netherton and Cradley areas; and Hingley's was the largest chain manufacturer in that area, at one point, they were manufacturing some 10,000 tons of anchors and chains per year. Most of the big ocean-going liners of Cunard and other companies had anchors and chains made by Hingleys - for example in 1911, Hingley's manufactured the enormous 15 ton anchor for the ill-fated SS Titanic. The anchor was pulled through the streets of Netherton by 20 shire horses, and the townspeople turned out to watch the spectacular event. They also made the anchor for the yacht of Tzar Nicholas of Russia. Other companies were taken over from the early 20th century (some absorbed, others maintained as wholly owned subsidiaries, etc.) and further subsidiaries established. In the post-Second World War (1939-1945) era some dormant subsidiaries were revived and renamed as the group took on (albeit incompletely) a holding company-operating subsidiary pattern. Various activities were grouped (e.g. "Engineering") and in the 1960s subsidiaries and plants were rationalised. The whole group was absorbed by F.H. Lloyd and Company, Ltd. of Wednesbury in 1966 but the consequent reorganisation of management, subsidiaries and activities was not completed until 1970/71, at which time F.H. Lloyd was reconstructed as a holding company and Hingley's became one of its principal subsidiaries through which various of the old Hingley subsidiaries were controlled. - Level: Item - For more information contact: Dudley Archives

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Wednesday, July 11, 2012 10:27 PM | Posted by Admin | Edit Post Bing has announced a number of changes designed to improve the user experience for searchers. Bing said the service improvements include faster page loading times and a greater relevance in search results, as well as some cosmetic changes. My Blog List The Effects of Media and Technology on Young Children in the U.S. [INFOGRAPHIC] - As you can imagine, parents and teachers have strong opinions about the effect media and technology is having on America’s youth. About 73 percent of paren...12 hours ago Boston Marathon Suspect Texted 'lol' to Friends After Bombing - [image: Boston-bombing] [image: Feed-tw] [image: Feed-fb] Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev texted "lol," "you better not text me" and other messag...2 weeks ago Powered by Blogger.

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The Chicago Stadium Chair -- A Great Conversation Piece Sunday, 04.06.2008 / 12:06 AM / Features By Evan Weiner - NHL.com Correspondent |Former Blackhawk Darcy Rota has a Chicago Stadium seat in his home and it's a conversation starter for guests.| Both Mets and Yankees officials would do well if they were to steal a 1994 idea from Chicago Blackhawks ownership before Chicago Stadium was closed down to make way for a new arena. Owner Bill Wirtz, gave away seats from “The Madhouse on Madison” to one-time Blackhawks players. Darcy Rota, who was a member of the Blackhawks from 1973 to 1979, has a seat in his home, and the seat is a conversation starter for guests. Chicago Stadium hosted Blackhawks games from 1929 to 1994, as well the NBA's Chicago Bulls from 1967 through 1994, five United States political conventions and even an NFL playoff game in 1932 -- played on an 80-yard field. There was also a massive pipe organ built into the structure. "I am sure they sent most of the players who played for the Blackhawks the chair,” Rota said. “For me, it's been something that is a great talk piece when people come to the house. It's got my name and my number when I played for the Blackhawks and the Blackhawks logo. But it is an old rickety chair and people get quite a kick out of it. The young kids and my young kids don't know about the Chicago Stadium." Chicago Stadium had a colorful history and was unique. Players had to walk up and down a flight of steps to get to the ice surface, which was smaller than the standard 200-feet by 85-feet setup in the NHL. Therefore, there was less room between the blue lines. Plus, the place was maybe the loudest building in the NHL. |Real or imagined? The stories are great The long and storied career of Gordie Howe also is a career full of stories that may or may not be true, as Evan Weiner explains in Off the Wall. ...more But climbing up and down the steps was the biggest obstacle players had, and it was not an easy hike. "You wanted to make sure you didn't slip because you were walking down steps with skates on,” he said. “You had to be careful about that. The odd guy would tumble and fall down the stairs. Basically, you had to watch your steps as you went down." If one guy fell, it could have had a domino affect and a whole team of players could have fallen down at the same time. But during Rota's tenure, that never happened. The console of the Chicago Stadium 3,663-pipe Barton Organ, which was played for years by Al Melgard, now resides in the Las Vegas home of Phil Maloof whose brothers own the NBA's Sacramento Kings. That organ was as much a part of Blackhawks history as Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita. It was a legendary musical instrument. "That organ was fantastic and it was a very, very special place to play,” Roda said. “(The rink) was about 185 feet long or so. It was a tough place for visiting players to play. People I know found it an intimidating place to play. If you weren't ready to play a game in Chicago Stadium you were in the wrong business because of the type of atmosphere in there. I always enjoyed the ice area, it was never a problem. “Now it's a parking lot and it's unfortunate that the Stadium is no longer there." Chicago Stadium perfectly fit into its era and was vastly different from the other NHL rinks in Boston, Detroit, Montreal, New York and Toronto during the days of the Original Six between 1942 and 1967. Sign up here for your FREE Playoff Fantasy Hockey Challenge team, exclusively on NHL.com. “You couldn't hide in the some of these Original Six places because the ice surfaces were small. A lot of history, a lot of tradition. Growing up as a young boy in Canada, of course following the Original Six teams and having an opportunity to play in the National Hockey League, it was pretty exciting. A lot of old rinks with lots of character are gone (now), replaced with fancy buildings for revenue opportunities now.” The new arenas are, in some cases, too nice. The chairs are too plush and don't have the character -- or probably the stories that a chair from Chicago Stadium could tell. It is well known that Blackhawks games routinely broke city fire laws because there were more people in the building than the 17,317-seat capacity. There was the fog horn after goals, Melgard and the organ, and if the chair could talk, the stories would probably be intriguing. Author: Evan Weiner | NHL.com Correspondent

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Finding a position that’s comfortable and supportive is important for beginning meditation. Remaining completely still for any period of time is difficult for most Americans, and if you’re uncomfortable, it makes it even harder. If you’re just starting out with meditation, don’t feel like you have to twist yourself up like a pretzel. A simple posture will provide just as much benefit. In Buddhist philosophy, the mind, body, and breath are intricately connected. How you sit will affect the quality of your breathing and your mental focus. Keeping your back straight with good posture is important no matter which meditation position you choose. This allows the diaphragm to move freely as you breathe more deeply. If you are sitting on the floor, you may need a pillow (called a zafu) to raise your buttocks and help you keep your body upright with very little effort. Sitting in a chair is the simplest way to begin your meditation practice. It’s also the best option for individuals who suffer from back pain or other discomfort that makes sitting on the floor difficult. Keep your feet flat on the floor. Use a backrest if needed, but keep your body upright and your back straight. You can use a zafu pillow behind your back to help your posture, or you can sit on the front third of the zafu in the same you would use it on the floor. Sitting on the floor helps you feel more grounded and stable. Meditation cushions such as a zafu and zabuton can make sitting on the floor more comfortable. Use the zafu to raise your hips and make it easier to keep your body upright. Sit on the front third of the zafu cushion. You can either sit with your knees bent in a kneeling position with the zafu under you (seiza position) or with your legs crossed in front of you and both feet on the floor, in the Burmese position. The Burmese, half Lotus, and Lotus positions require flexibility. Only attempt to sit in these positions if you can do so comfortably. Otherwise they may interfere with your ability to meditate. Photo Credits: Kanzeon Zen Center on Flickr

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The concept of a numbering machine is quite simple. It consists of various wheels inside and all wheels are stamped with numbers. But, what could be done with this? Well, the wheels of a numbering machine can be set and arranged to form a date or various other numbers. Basically numbers machines are used to imprint items with sequential numbers. Over the time, people have been using this type of machine to stamp many different kinds of paperwork. By adjusting the numbers stamped on wheels, you can keep an organized record of your date paperwork and label contracts. Numbering machines are considered as an inevitable stationery in offices or corporations, especially small businesses. They are used for any paperwork that requires to be printed with unique and trackable numbers. It is a way to keep an organized record of whatever you do. There are many applications in an office set up that require sequential numbering, such as purchase orders, invoices, production orders, inventory paperwork, insurance claims, property documents, serial number tags and much more. (more…)

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Discussions about faith-work integration are on the rise, with an ever-increasing number of related books, sermons, and blog posts (ahem) appearing with every passing day. Just a cursory glance around the faith and work landscape, and you’ll find a bunch of middle class white men (with the occasional woman or Asian). So what’s going on here? Does integrating your faith and work only matter for white professionals and not African-Americans or Latinos? (For the sake of this post, you’ll have to excuse some generalizations.) After offering a brief history of 20th-century American prosperity and the widespread self-actualization that followed, Haanen offers his hypothesis: Twentieth century America did not bless all ethnic groups evenly with wealth and comfort. African Americans lived under the thumb of institutionalized racism even years after the civil rights movement, and struggled for years to acquire the kind of jobs, and thus material comfort, that their white counterparts did. Today, it’s mostly Latinos who occupy the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder; they make even less than blacks per capita across age groups. All that to say this: while white guys were wondering about their purpose in life, blacks and Latinos were just trying to survive. When I was a pastor of a Latino congregation, it wasn’t terribly surprising that questions of existential despair or vocational fit never arose. Dignity and providing for the family trumped “fulfilling the cultural mandate.” Getting a job and paying rent was a bit higher on the hierarchy of needs. Haanen’s point about disparate shifts in the makeup and distribution of work is an important one. The minimum-wage McDonald’s worker will likely face a host of spiritual challenges distinct from those faced by the white-collar executive. Likewise, the differences in time and comfort outside of that work will play no small part in defining that struggle. As Haanen also indicates, “intangible” factors like racism are bound to transform these struggles further, even among workers in the same job type and industry. But having recognized all of this, it’s also important to recognize that just because a worker hasn’t the time, resources, or energy for armchair theologizing on “vocational fit,” it doesn’t mean that meaning, purpose, and transcendent activity isn’t taking place amid the strenuous circumstances. Whether or not we are actively thinking and talking about “cultural mandate,” the basic dignity of our work and the basic activity of serving society and providing for one’s family is an integral part of fulfilling that mandate. At a certain level, “needs-based” work has a forceful way of tempering our individualistic inclinations, and at that level, I think we need to seriously reconsider how closely we’re aligning “vocation” with our own personal preferences or our end-game goals. Does God not also call us to that initial job or task that begins a longer trajectory filled with other more “fulfilling” things? Read more on Before and Beyond Vocation…

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On Oct 1, 2012, the Perth Mint in Australia released the latest issue of a popular Gold bullion series: the 2013 Australian Gold Kangaroo. Much like the previous releases in this series, these Gold Kangaroos are issued as Australian legal tender and guaranteed by the Commonwealth Government of Australia. The 2013 Australian Gold Kangaroos are offered in sizes of 1/10 oz, 1/4 oz, 1/2 oz and 1 oz, as well as the larger 1 kilo size. The smaller sizes (1/10 oz to 1 oz) have limited mintages of no more than 350,000, depending on size, which gives them high numismatic value. Their worldwide distribution facilitates easy purchase and liquidation, making them good investment pieces, as well. The Australian Gold Kangaroos have been offered by the Perth Mint since 1989 and are one of the few Gold bullion coins to change its reverse design each year. This year’s issue depicts a kangaroo standing against the Australian outback. The kilo coin differs slightly, in that the image is instead a hopping Red Kangaroo. The “P” mint mark appears on the reverse of each coin, along with the inscriptions “Australian Kangaroo,” the date, size of the coin, and the purity, “9999 Gold.” The obverse of each coin shows the Ian Rank-Broadley likeness of Queen Elizabeth II, as well as the coin’s monetary denomination. The Perth Mint opened in 1899, originally serving as a branch of Britain’s Royal Mint to help supply Gold sovereigns and half sovereigns, which were used as everyday circulating coins throughout the British Empire. In 1970, control of the mint passed from Britain to the Western Australian Government, which still owns it today. To add these beautiful coins to your collection or your investment portfolio, shop APMEX’s selection of 2013 Australian Gold Kangaroo bullion coins. APMEX makes it easy to buy Gold by offering competitive Gold prices on all Gold coins and bars. Click here to view our wide selection of 2013 Australian Gold Kangaroos as well as all previous years of Gold Kangaroos:

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Gov. Rick Perry defended the state’s controversial Voter ID law Friday during on a Fox news interview when he complained about interference from the federal government. The Justice Department on Monday rejected the state’s Voter ID law because state officials failed to demonstrate the election changes would not make it harder for minorities to vote. Because of historic discrimination against minority voters, federal law requires Texas to prove its case before making any election changes. Texas is suing to overturn the 1965 law. “Here we are in 2012 and the idea that somehow or another a southern state, Texas in particular, a state that is a majority minority in our public schools now, is somehow or another being discriminatory toward minorities, I think, is a vestige of fear tactics that have been used through the years, and frankly, don’t hold water anymore,” Perry said in the interview. “This is not a Democratic or Republican issue,” the governor added. “Any person who does not want to see fraud believes in having good, open and honest elections – transparent. And one of the best ways to do that is having photo identification so you prove you are who you say you are, and you keep those elections fraud free.” The vote to pass the bill into law, however, reflected a strong partisan perspective. All 19 Texas Senate Republicans voted for it last year while all 12 Democrats opposed the bill. In the House, the key vote saw 100 Republicans and 1 Democrat supporting the bill. All 48 dissenting votes came from Democrats. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, acknowledges that voter fraud exists. “No one disputes that. However, what every investigation has proven is that the kind of fraud voter ID laws would address — voter impersonation — doesn’t really exist. In fact, there are more UFO and Bigfoot sightings than documented cases of voter impersonation,” Ellis said. “Literally millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent in Texas, South Carolina and across the country chasing the white whale that is voter impersonation,” Ellis said. “Several years ago, Texas supporters announced there was an ‘epidemic’ of this kind of voter fraud, launched an investigation and found nothing of the sort. They found 26 cases to prosecute and two-thirds of those were simple technical violations, not fraud and not one of the 26 would have been affected by a voter ID requirement. It is just a coincidence, I’m sure, that all 26 cases were brought against African American or Hispanic voters.” Perry told his Fox news audience Texas has “multiple cases of voter fraud in various places across the state,” according to legislative testimony. But the evidence of voter impersonation, which the Voter ID law addresses, is sketchy. In the 2010 general election, the Texas attorney general’s office received 7 allegations of election law violations, according to statistics the office provided to state Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas. Four of those seven cases involved mail-in ballots, which the Voter ID law does not address. One of the 2010 general election alleged violations involved “unlawfully rejecting a voter, another involved “campaign finance violations” and the other dealt with “obtaining voter registration applications prior to being deputized, failing to timely deliver voter registration applications, false statement on voter registration and tampering with a governmental record”. Nearly 5 million ballots were cast in the 2010 general election. The 2008 election law violation allegations in the document provided to Anchia: “electioneering within 100 ft mark at a polling place,” “citizen not allowed to vote by an election worker,” “vote soliciting bribery on the internet (eBay),” “Unlawfully released police reports and narratives on one of the candidates running for sheriff (in Wichita County),” “providing false information on a voter registration application,” “ineligible to hold the office of county clerk (Terry County),” “Unlawful assistance, unlawfully influencing a voter and illegal voting,” “Unlawfully prevented from voting,” “Solicitation of campaign funds while on duty, selling of campaign fundraiser tickets while on duty and misuse of county employees while on county time,” “illegal voting,” “death row inmates registering to vote,” “non-citizen voted in election,” “election misconduct,” and “unlawful candidacy (Tarrant County).” More than 8million Texans voted in the 2008 general election. “The only thing that I can put out is that there is obviously those who would like to fraudulently impact elections and, therefore, they are against having a photo ID. Otherwise, it makes all the sense in the world. And we have put in place ways for people to get those IDs,” Perry said in the interview. The state will provide DPS voter ID cards for at least 600,000 registered voters who don’t have a Texas driver’s license. But getting those cards could be difficult for those who live in 73 Texas counties without any DPS driver’s license office – or in inner city communities that also lack access to a driver’s license office. “The sad truth is that there is now a concerted all-out assault on the right to vote in this country, and minority and elderly voters are the ones being mugged,” Ellis said.

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See on Scoop.it – EDchat Shaka wind meter is the first accurate windmeter that will turn your iPhone into a precision weather monitoring tool. See on shakaon.net This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2012 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

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I just came across this pro GMO article which I found offensive enough that I needed to immediately write a rebuttal: Would Rachel Carson Embrace ‘Frankenfoods’? – This Scientist Believes ‘Yes’ Here’s my rebuttal: I find it very irksome when articles like this suggest that scientists are “ok” with transgenics while those on the other side are just fear mongering. Instead of spewing propaganda, let’s look at scientific facts. Many scientists have raised concern over resistance to Bt toxin. Given that Bt transgenic crops express this toxin over the entire plant, throughout the plant’s life, there is very real concern that constant, chronic exposure to Bt toxin will lead to resistant pests. This pest resistance has already been found to be happening. As pests become resistant to Bt toxin, pesticide applications will increase. As such, it is a concern that any currently observed reductions in pesticide use will be short lived. Following are a few peer reviewed studies: 1. Agi, A., J. Mahaffey, J. Bradley, and J. van Dunn, ‘‘Efficacy of Seed Mixes of Transgenic Bt and Non Transgenic Cotton Against Bollworm,’’ Helicoverpa zea Boddie. Journal of Cotton Science 5 (2001), 74–80. 2. Alyokhin, A. V. and D. N. Ferro, ‘‘Relative Fitness of Colorado Potato Beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Resistant and Susceptible to the Bacillus thuringiensis Cry3A Toxin,’’ Journal of Economic Entomology 92 (1999), 510–515. 3. Cannon, R. J. C., ‘‘Bt transgenic Crops: Risks and Benefits,’’ Integrated Pest Management Reviews 5 (2000), 151–173. 4. Cao, J., J. D. Tang, N. Strizhov, A. M. Shelton, and E. D. Earle, ‘‘Transgenic Broccoli with High Levels of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1C Protein Control Diamondback Moth Larvae Resistant to Cry1A or Cry1C,’’ Molecular Breeding 5 (1999), 131–141. 5. Carriere, Y., T. J. Dennehy, B. Pedersen, S. Haller, C. Ellers-Kirk, L. Antilla, L. Yong-Biao, E. Willott, and B. E. Tasbashnik, ‘‘Large- Scale Management of Insect Resistance to Transgenic Cotton in Arizona: Can Transgenic Insecticidal Crops be Sustained?,’’ Journal of Economic Entomology 94 (2001), 315–325. 6. Chaufaux, J., M. Seguin, J. J. Swanson, D. Bourguet, and B. D. Seigfried, ‘‘Chronic Exposure of the European Corn Borer (Lepidoptera: Cambidae) to Cry1Ab Bacillus thuringiensis Scientists have also raised concerns about the impact of Bt from transgenics on non-target species with the Monarch butterfly being a common topic. Remember, in the case of transgenic Bt crops, the toxin is being excreted all the time as opposed to discreet applications in conventional farming. Here are some peer reviewed studies: 1. Hansen, L. C. and J. J. Obrycki, ‘‘Field Deposition of Bt Transgenic Corn Pollen: Lethal Effects on theMonarch Butterfly,’’ Oecologica 125 (2000), 241–248. 2. Sears, M. K., R. L Hellmich, D. E. Stanley-Horn, K. S. Berhauser, J. M. Pleasants, H. R. Mattila, B. D. Siegfried, and G. P. Dively, ‘‘Impact of Bt Corn Pollen on Monarch Butterfly Populations: A Risk Assessment,’’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98 (2001), 11937–11942. 3. Zangerl, A. R., D. Mckenna, C. L. Wraight, M. Carroll, P. Ficarello, R. Warner, and M. R. Berenbaum, ‘‘Effects of Exposure to Event 176 Bacillus thuringiensis Corn Pollen on Monarch and Black Swallowtail Caterpillars under Field Conditions,’’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98 (2001), 11908–11912. Because Bt toxin in transgenic plants are excreted from every part of the plant, including the roots, scientists have raised concerns regarding potential negative impact on beneficial insects that as a part of the natural ecosystem help reduce pests and maintain healthy soil. Following are some peer reviewed studies: 1. Crecchio, C. and G. Stotzky, ‘‘Insecticidal Activity and Biodegradation of the Toxin from Bacillus thuringiensis ssp. kurstaki Bound to Humic Acids from Soil,’’ Soil Biology and Biochemistry 30 (1998), 463– 470. 2. Cui, J. and J. Xia, ‘‘Effects of Transgenic Bt Cotton on the Population Dynamics of Natural Enemies,’’ Acta Gossypii Sinica 11 (1999), 84–91. 3 . Dutton, A., H. Klein, J. Romeis, and F. Bigler, ‘‘Uptake of Bt-Toxin by Herbivores Feeding on Transgenic Maize and Consequences for the Predator Chrysoperla carnea,’’ Ecological Entomology 27 (2002), 441– 447. 4. Dinel, H., M. Schnitzer, M. Saharinen, F. Meloche, T. Pare, S. Dumontet, L. Lemee, and A. Ambles, ‘‘Extractable Soil Lipids and Microbial Activity as Affected by Bt and Non Bt Maize Grown on a Silty Clay Loam Soil,’’ Journal of Environmental Science and Health 38 (2003), 211–219. 5. Donegan, K. K., R. J. Seidler, V. J. Fieland, D. L. Schaller, C. J. Palm, L. M. Ganio, D. M. Cardwell, and Y. Steinberger, ‘‘Decomposition of Genetically Engineered Tobacco Under Field Conditions: Persistence of the Proteinase Inhibitor I Product and Effects on Soil Microbial Respiration and Protozoa, Nematode and Microarthropod Populations,’’ Journal of Applied Ecology 34 (1997), 767–777. Scientists have also raised concerns that herbicide resistant GM crops could lead to reductions in biodiversity which in the long run could impact productivity. Two peer reviewed studies are here: 1. Andow, D. A., ‘‘UK Farm-Scale Evaluations of Transgenic Herbicide- Tolerant Crops,’’ Nature Biotechnology 21 (2003), 1453–1454. 2. Brooks, D. R. (and 32 others), ‘‘Invertebrate Responses to the Management of Genetically Modified Herbicide-Tolerant and Conventional Spring Crops. I. Soil-Surface-Active Invertebrates,’’ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (London) 358 (2003), 1847–1862. Many scientists have raised concerns about the potential for transgenes to jump from one plant to another or even across species. Many normal pathways for DNA movement exist namely sexual reproduction and dispersal (eg. pollen, fruit, gametes, embryos, offspring), non-sexual gene transfer such as between bacteria or between bacteria and higher organisms (horizontal transfer). In the case of horizontal transfer, the genetic material does not have to be in the living organism. It could be in decayed tissue, in feces, in the gut, etc. Given that transgenes are naturally unstable and are also armed with all the “tools” to jump into a genome, they are at significant risk of jumping out of their host genome and into other non-target genomes through the pathways described above. Here are a few peer reviewed studies on this subject: 1. Doerfler, W. and R. Schubbert, ‘‘Uptake of Foreign DNA from the Environment: The Gastrointestinal Tract and the Placenta as Portals of Entry,’’ Wein Klin. Wochenschr 110(2) (1998), 40–44 2. Duggan, P. S., P. A. Chambers, J. Heritage, and J. M. Forbes, ‘‘Survival of Free DNA Encoding Antibiotic Resistance from Transgenic Maize and the Transformation Activity of DNA in Ovine Saliva, Ovine Rumen Fluid and Silage Effluent,’’ FEMS Microbiology Letters 191 (2000), 71–77. 3. Einspanier, R. L., A. Klotz, J. Kraft, K. Aulrich, R. Poser, F. Schwagele, G. Jahreis, and G. Flachowsky, ‘‘The fate of Forage Plant DNA in Farm Animals: A Collaborative Case-Study Investigating Cattle and Chicken Fed Recombinant Plant Material,’’ European Food Research and Technology 212 (2001), 129–134. This study is the first recorded confirmation that transgenic DNA can in fact be transferred to gut bacteria in the human gut: Netherwood, T., S. Martin-Orue, A. G. O’Donnell, S. Gockling, J. Graham, J. C.Mathers, and H. J. Gilbert, ‘‘Assessing the Survival of Transgenic Plant DNA in the Human Gastrointestinal Tract,’’ Nature Biotechnology 22 (2004), 204–209. Movement of transgenic material into non-target species is a big deal. For example, antibiotic resistance is a common marker used in the transformation process. If antibiotic resistance started jumping into the environment, it would create a whole slew of human and environmental health issues. The fact that it has been shown that transgenic material can be taken up by gut bacteria in the human gut also opens up the potential for movement of transgenic DNA into the human genome which could have serious health implications. There is serious concern from the scientific community that transgenes could also spread into wild relatives with risk being transfer of herbicide resistance to “weedy” relatives. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest this is already happening. Here are some peer reviewed studies: 1. Halfhill, M. D., R. J. Millwood, P. L. Raymer, and C. N. Stewart, Jr. ‘‘Bt-Transgenic Oilseed Rape Hybridization with its Weedy Relative, Brassica rapa,’’ Environmental Biosafety Research 1 (2002), 19–28. 2. Haygood, R., A. Ives, and D. A. Andow, ‘‘Consequences of Recurrent Gene Flow from Crops to Wild Relatives,’’ Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 270 (2003), 1879–1886. 3. Lefol, E., A. Fleury, and H. Darmency, ‘‘Gene Dispersal from Transgenic Crops: Hybridization Between Oilseed Rape and the Wild Hoary Mustard,’’ Sexual Plant Reproduction 9 (1996), 189–196. So please refrain from making statements like “It’s a wholly uncontroversial comment—at least among scientists.” That type of statement is untrue and highly misleading. As you can see from the large number of peer reviewed studies I just produced, there are many scientists across a variety of disciplines who are very concerned about the impact of GMOs on our health and the environment. As many of you know, this debate is heating up with the impending vote to occur in California where people from that state will be able to cast their ballot for or against labeling of genetically modified foods. What happens in California has huge implications across the US. What happens there will set the precedent for what happens nationally. I hope I have shown you that there are a lot of concerns regarding GMOs in their current state. If you agree and wish to do your part to allow concerned citizens to at least have a choice, then support the Right To Now campaign. Go here to learn more about it: http://www.carighttoknow.org/. We’ve got one shot at this. Let’s not waste it.

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Voting Open for 2011 People’s Choice Award Companies like these, and all the members of our business network, are green-economy heroes, using their entrepreneurial skills for social change and a more sustainable planet. This year’s list of top-ten nominees cover a range of green-business products and services. They include companies that offer: - Fair Trade chocolate - eco-friendly toys - sustainable personal care products - humane, eco-friendly pest control - earth-friendly, organic fashion - local and organic food - Fair Trade gifts and accessories - re-used and recycled products - peace and social-justice educational products, and more To find out which change-making businesses made it into the top ten, visit our People’s Choice page.

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Did You Know? Facts, Figures & Folklore About Fall / Autumn Sept 18 : 04 days to Fall Did you know that the word autumn comes from the French word, automne? The word came into common usage around the 16th century, before which “harvest” was used to refer to this time of year. The use of harvest fell out of popularity as people gradually began living in towns and working the land became less common. Did you know that Americans colloquially refer to the season between summer and winter as “Fall”? While Brits prefer the more scientific terms “Autumn”! Do you feel that? The crisp morning air is a sure sign that the Fall season is right around the corner. As the days get shorter and the temperatures fall, Autumn heralds its coming with fiery red leaves and bright orange pumpkins. Get yourself ready to fall back into Fall with Holidays on the Net’s fun-filled Autumn trivia. Join us for a new “Did You Know?” fact each day as we countdown to Autumn (Sept 22 @ 11:09 PM EDT)! So stop by again tomorrow.

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In 2006, two scientists announced that they had cooked an egg by placing it in between two cell phones. It has been thrououghly disproven and analyzed since the surface of the claim, but it is still an excellent opportunity to use the Scientific Thinking Principles on! #1: Ruling Out Rival Hypotheses This principle isn't the most relevant because the experiment doesn't exactly prove any hypotheses. But it can still apply to the attempt to cook an egg between two cell phones because there could be other effects causing that outcome. #2: Correlation vs. Causation There are so many other reasons that the egg could've cooked! Maybe it was really hot out? Or the cell phone egg set up was within a microwave? Not the most probable of all possible causations, but it proves the point. There could be many other ways this egg could've cooked (or in actuality, the fact that it didn't cook at all) that we need to examine or at least acknowledge that they could be there. This claim is very out there so it has a really good chance of being able to be falsified. As we will see in #4, after replicating the incident one can find almost instantly that it is in fact a hoax. As many people did, reproducing the egg cooking experiement will prove that it is in fact a hoax. Every reproduction that was prodcued failed to yield the same results as the first, which made everything make sense when the site's webmaster that published the article stepped forward to say it was in fact completely fake. #5: Extraordinary Claims The claim that you can cook an egg with two cell phones is pretty extraordinary yet there is no extraordinary evidence to back it up! In fact, it is just too extraordinary to be real. #6: Occam's Razor In my mind, the simpliest explaination would be that it simply is not true. The end. I'm not going to lie, if this claim was true I would be thrilled. In addition to being in awe of the power of technology, it would make cooking meals for myself in my dorm room a whole lot easier! Unfortunately though, this is a hoax. With the help of the Six Principles of Scientific Thinking, I will never fall for this or any other raw food cooking claim ever again!

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Posted for Summer 2012 Digital Library Intern Gail Betz: Over the summer, I transcribed a portion of Elizabeth Hayes’s personal letters. Elizabeth was Patrick Barry Hayes’ wife, and she devoted a great deal of her time to corresponding with her seafaring husband and traveling sons. While only a few of the letters that Elizabeth herself wrote are included in the collection, she kept letters from her sons and her husband, which now provide a glimpse into their everyday lives. As a history lover, I greatly enjoyed reading these primary source documents, trying to figure out what the different words could be, and deciphering the context of the letter. I discovered that it was much easier to read the younger sons’ letters, because they had much neater cursive than their father did. It’s possible that Patrick Barry Hayes spent much of his time writing to Elizabeth while at sea, which could account for some of the jarring script that made much of his letters illegible. In contrast, his sons’ handwriting was easy to read, and they used more modern vocabulary than their father did. Having the opportunity to read personal letters from the early 19th century was fascinating for me. It was like reading a diary, but with multiple perspectives and a great deal of guessing about missing information between dates and locations. I enjoyed learning that one son had reunited with his love, and had written to her father to ask for her hand in marriage. I was worried for the son who was away at school for the first time, was ill, and clearly homesick for his mother. While these letters were written almost 200 years ago, the thoughts and feelings they related were contemporary and relatable. Thank you to Michael Foight and Laura Bang for sharing their knowledge and advice, and providing me with the opportunity to learn about and work with digital libraries. I enjoyed seeing the “other side” of the digital library process, and look forward to using this experience in future digital projects! Editorial Note: These transcriptions are in the process of being attached to the digital images and will be available for the public in the near future.

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Do you know what the “quiet zone” means in terms of QR Codes? If you don’t, don’t feel bad, I will tell you here. The simple fact is that QR technology is gaining traction fast and there is a lot of good information that is mixed in with a lot of bad information. Often overlooked in the whole campaign is the necessary “quiet zone” or area around the QR that should be left empty. In order for the QR Code reader to decode the QR properly, there needs to be a zone around the code that is empty and in fact, needs to be at a minimum 4 modules wide. This comes directly from the Denso specification and they created the code. It’s a simple concept that if overlooked can lead to a bad QR experience. Keep this in mind next time you send your QR to the printer to be printed: See image below:

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How To Win At Science Fairs (Dec, 1960) How To Win At Science Fairs by Ronald Benrey YOU CAN WIN at a Science Fair as long as one thing interests you more than winning does. This is your project itself. It is going to be judged on scientific thought, creative ability, and presentation. You will really have to know the field your project is concerned with. This takes effort. Since you lack the means of a professional laboratory, you will have to do much with little. This takes trial and error and just plain work. Your presentation must be attractive and clear. This means good workmanship, which takes time and care. You are going to have to show some originality. After all, there is no use doing what everybody else is doing: be different. For this, you have to have the other three under control. By the way, the “laymen” who see your exhibit will ask all kinds of questions. Have good answers at your fingertips. The judges won’t be laymen, and any double-talk will scream to them that you don’t know your subject. It may also make them suspect that the best parts of your project are not your work. This would be unjust, perhaps, but deadly. Now, whether your entry covers a large table top or can just be tucked under your arm, it is going to be a big job. It can’t be left for a “crash program” in the last few weeks before the Fair. It is going to eat up big portions of your time, energy, and spending money for the next several months. All this demands your interest. But it isn’t simply a matter of “fun. ” Licking this challenge may be a turning point in your life. With or without a scholarship prize, your career may begin with it. As a reader of Electronics Illustrated your project will probably deal with electronics or applied physics rather than with biological or earth sciences. Select your topic carefully from a broad subject that really interests you. A massive effort in the direction of a passing fancy will result in a mediocre project at best. Take a limited subtopic that you think worth investigating and that you feel able to handle. To ease financial strain, plan now to build your project over a long period of time, say six months, on a pay-as-you-build basis. Once you have a rough idea of your project’s general form, don’t dash into construction. Visit technical libraries and learn all you can about current professional work in the field, and its technical jargon. This will give you much important information and helpful hints, and when you finally face the judges, you will know your subject. Here is a prickly question. It is up to you to be realistic and honest with yourself when you choose a topic. Your science teachers and advisers will certainly be helpful, but the final decision must be yours. In other words, if you have never handled a soldering iron before, don’t take on a project requiring elaborate electronic instrumentation. If you have enough time you can work up to a complex project by building a few simpler devices, like many described in EI. This is another reason for starting NOW. – Why not get your feet wet by assembling some test equipment from kits? You will certainly need a multimeter anyway, for any project, and it will be something you can use “forever. ” Another touchy subject: discussion of this often scares off good potential science fairers. Nobody requires or expects a science fair project to produce a radical new scientific discovery. However, this does not imply that an entrant can’t find a new angle on an old problem. Merely duplicating a project described in a magazine shows the judges only one thing: the builder can follow directions. The main benefit of entering a science fair is the challenge of thinking a real problem out, all the way through. Your project can be for “demonstration” rather than “research, ” but make sure you come up with fresh, clear, meaningful ways to present your material. Stay away from last year’s winning project: it was good last year. Avoid “staples” (like Tesla coils) unless they are only part of a ‘wider original project. Your project should be well presented and look impressive, but impressive need not mean expensive. Judges seldom look twice at an exhibit loaded down with excess and borrowed equipment when the same results could have been obtained more economically and without false show. Novel use of common materials shows creative ability, and this is an important judging criterion. Remember, how you solved your problem is what counts at a science fair, and not merely that you solved it. Also, neatness counts! Aside from being impossible to troubleshoot, a rat’s nest of wiring is typical of losing projects. Time spent color-coding leads, installing wire harness and cable clamps will result in a much more attractive and more reliable project. But know what you are doing! Don’t harness leads in a circuit that demands point-to-point wiring, or cable grid and plate leads together in an amplifier circuit. Read up on layout and construction techniques, and allow yourself time to make and correct mistakes. Prior planning will also pay off in dollars and cents, since you can save by purchasing some components (like resistors) in quantity, and if you live near a big city you can shop around for some items in the military surplus stores, modifying your design if necessary to take odd-value components. Now, sit back and start your thinking. The time to start is right now. IS YOUR WINNING PROJECT HERE? RADIO TELESCOPE: Home-built sensitive low-noise receiver, simple antenna system. Try to make simple “radio map.” GUIDANCE SYSTEM: For model ear. Can be programmed to run around science fair grounds without hitting anything, or to reach pre-chosen destination. SOLAR CELLS: Home-built unit as part of demonstration of basic physics of solar cells: display on recent professional research results: off-beat practical applications (eyeglass type hearing aid?). MOON MOUSE: “To be landed on the Moon. ” Self-propelled, radio controlled from Earth, instrumented and transmitter equipped. Some functions solar powered ? These are only suggestions. You may come up with ideas regarding fuel cells, space communications, navigation, etc.

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I’ve only been at MSPP for two months, and so far I have met some truly incredible people that I will consider life-long friends. One of those friends in my first year cohort is named Nicole, and we spend about 9 hours a week in class together. Even though class does not leave a lot of time to get to know each other, I feel like we’ve become pretty close. Nicole is one of those people that radiates positivity and genuine caring, and you feel like a better person by osmosis just sitting next to her. I’ve just found out recently that she has not always been this happy and positive, however. Like 1/4 of the general American population, (myself included), (statistic from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication), Nicole has struggled with mental illness. However, unlike most of us that fear the stigma, Nicole is brave enough to share her story with the world. Nicole is a really wonderful writer, and has written and published a book about her battle with mental illness. It is a collection of short stories, poems, and various artwork about her struggles. In publishing her book, she hopes that other people battling mental illness will see that they are not alone. It is my hope in sharing her book with you, we can promote hope and continue to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness together. If you are interested in reading Nicole’s story, you can purchase her book, Spoken, here. I am so immensely proud of my friend and classmate, not only for writing and publishing her own book during her first year of grad school, but for being such a courageous individual that is using her history of pain as motivation to get her PsyD in order to relieve the suffering of others. In the end, isn’t that why we are all here at MSPP anyway? For more information on the prevalence and treatment delays of mental illness in American youth, check out this article from the APA: http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep05/treatment.aspx For more information on the current stigma surrounding mental illness in the US, check out this article from the APA: http://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/06/stigma.aspx

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My manservant had, as usual, materialized just when I needed him. I swear he has a sixth sense. I put the newspaper down. "Joe," I said, "I am so mad at this character John LaBruzzo that I need the calming influence of one of your specials. Kindly mix me a stiff one." I expect you've heard about LaBruzzo. He's the state rep who wants to sterilize poor people and give the upper classes tax breaks for having children. Frankly, that strikes me as uncivilized. You know what would happen? The racial balance would be skewed, and society would become top heavy. Domestic servants, if we could find them at all, would want top dollar. It would be the biggest blow to gracious Southern living since the Civil War. I never miss a chance to discuss current events with Joe, but thought it best not to pursue this line of argument when he returned. It might sound selfish, or even bigoted. Joe's ancestors inhabited hotter climates than mine, so I always tread very carefully. I swished the ice cubes and took a stimulating draught. "There's a word for this, Joe. I remember my dear old grandfather saying that humanity would benefit by applying the principles he learned breeding horses. He used to talk about some movement he was in years ago, but I'm damned if I can remember what it was called." "Eugenics, sir. The theory was that unfit specimens should be prevented from procreating and contaminating human stock. Miscegenation was widely banned, imbeciles and epileptics hunted down to be forcibly sterilized, and immigrants from undesirable ethnic groups were turned back. Italians and Irish, I believe, were widely regarded as a dire threat to America's gene pool." Joe sometimes congratulates me on my sense of irony -- and I am pretty sure he is serious. This time it took me a minute or so to latch on, but I knew he would be impressed when I came through. "LaBruzzo -- isn't that an Italian name?" "Indeed it is, sir, and in the old days Italians were greatly despised in New Orleans. But that was long before LaBruzzo's time, and nowadays Italian ancestry is no bar to social acceptance, except, perhaps, in certain krewes." Did I see a flicker of a smile on his face? I, of course, refused to be drawn. Beauregard will never be one to divulge the secrets of Carnival. I sent Joe off to replenish the goblet and picked up another newspaper, which included quotations from some Tulane egghead that left me mystified. When Joe returned, I was confident he could help me out. "Joe, what is Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal?" "Ah, yes sir. LaBruzzo has reminded many people of Swift's suggestion that the poor sell their infants to be eaten by the rich." "That's his proposal, is it? Well, you can tell him from me that he is sick in the head." "I fear that is not possible, sir. In any case, Swift was not serious. He was an Irish satirist." I gazed into the delicious concoction deep in thought. Then it struck me. "Do you think that LaBruzzo might be an Italian satirist, Joe?" You will never catch Joe off guard, but the question did cause his eyebrows to rise by about a millimeter. He said something to the effect that LaBruzzo was not regarded as a subtle mind even in the state capitol. He was no more of a jokester than the old kleagle and Third Reich fan, David Duke, who called for the sterilization of welfare recipients when he represented the same district in the state House. Joe pointed out that welfare reform had made the rationale for such legislation even flimsier than in Duke's day. Duke got nowhere with his bill, and Joe reckoned that the Legislature would give LaBruzzo short shrift too, supposing he was reckless enough to introduce a bill and take on the Catholic lobby. "I am with the archbishop on this one," I told Joe. "I think it only right that the poor should always be with us. Still, let's give LaBruzzo credit for good intentions. He only wanted to remove a drain on the public purse, and sterilization would be strictly voluntary." "That is true, sir, but compulsory sterilization is hardly an option as the law currently stands. And if we are to discourage breeding among people who damage the economy, we might start castrating Wall Street bankers." I thought he was joking, but when I checked my portfolio later that evening, I began to warm to the idea. . . . . . . James Gill is a staff writer. He can be reached at 504.826.3318 or at email@example.com.

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If a visit to this weekend's (June 13) grand opening of the Audubon Insectarium inspires a sudden interest in entomology, continue your explorations with a do-it-yourself film festival. Sadly, "The Savage Bees," the 1976 television movie about killer bees disrupting Carnival before being air-conditioned to death in the Superdome on Ash Wednesday ("the quietest day of the year in New Orleans"), is not available on DVD. Luckily, there are plenty of other choices. Granted, there's more fiction than science about them, but here are five titles that deliver the bugs. A Bug's Life The insectarium's colorful exhibits lead quite naturally to a repeat viewing of this computer-animated classic from Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios. The 1998 movie tells the story of a misfit ant who recruits a troupe of flea circus performers to help save his colony from some mean grasshoppers. The family-friendly film is known for its groundbreaking use of delicate lighting effects. Those who prefer old-school bug movies should check out this genre-defining, 1954 black-and-white classic, in which atomic tests in New Mexico turn ants into man-eating monsters. Promotional materials promised "a horror horde of crawl-and-crush giants clawing out of the earth from mile-deep catacombs! . . . Kill one and two take its place!" Eight Legged Freaks Mid-century horror cliches are played for camp value in this 2002 film with the hyphen-challenged title, which should be "Eight-Legged Freaks." The movie isn't about eight freaks who happen to have legs; it's about a bunch of freaks with eight legs apiece. Yep, it's your basic giant spider movie, tricked out with the kind of visual effects filmmakers in the 1950s could only imagine. (If you prefer less cheese, check out 1990's "Arachnophobia" instead. In that film, the spiders don't have to be supersized to be superbad.) It might be set in New York, but it's New Orleans' worst nightmare. Scientists engineer a "Judas Breed" -- half-mantis, half-termite (insert scream here) -- to wipe out plague-carrying cockroaches by impersonating them, infiltrating their nests and killing them. Unfortunately, the new bugs don't know when to stop -- and guess whom they're impersonating now! Mexico's Guillermo Del Toro directs the 1997 film. (If you prefer your cockroaches to have a sense of humor, check out "Joe's Apartment" from 1996 instead.) In a future in which a fascist global government has founded military academies with co-ed showers, Earth must defend itself from a planet populated by giant bugs. When the film was released in 1997, director Paul Verhoeven (whose previous two films were "Basic Instinct" and "Showgirls") came under fire for his supposed glorification of fascist imagery, although a case can be made that that's just successful production design. At any rate, the viscerally thrilling action sequences helped the film build enough of a fan base to merit two direct-to-DVD sequels. "Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation" was released in 2004, and "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder" will arrive Aug. 5. There also was a British television series titled "Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles," available as a DVD series. ALSO ARRIVING THIS WEEK Release dates are subject to change. (N) denotes a Newhouse review. (TP) denotes movie critic Mike Scott's review. Tuesday (June 17) Burn Notice: Season 1 Californication: Season 1 Carmen Miranda Collection Dynasty: 3rd Season, Vol. 1 ER: 9th Season Inspector Gadget: Big Little Problems Jericho: 2nd Season Jungle Book 2: Special Edition Just Add Water Meerkat Manor: Season 3 My Mom's New Boyfriend The Naked Brothers Band: Polar Bears Popeye & Friends, Vol. 1 Popeye the Sailor: 1938-1940, Vol. 2 Rails & Ties The Real McCoys: Season 3 So I Married an Axe Murderer: Special Edition The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Lip Synchin' in the Rain The Sword in the Stone: 45th Anniversary Edition Under the Same Moon The Spiderwick Chronicles Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns Superhero Movie: Extended Edition Spaced: Complete Series Lost Boys: The Tribe

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Corporate cash does funny things to people. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) got into office by pledging to fight “special interests,” but just a decade or so later, he’s running one of the biggest special interest shows in Washington. It’s easy to see the appeal. As the fancy funding backing the Tea Party demonstrates, big money buys big things—from elections to populist outrage. In a piece for Mother Jones, Kate Sheppard details some of DeMint’s serious campaign finance flip-floppery. During his first bid for Congress in 1998, DeMint denounced the Political Action Committee (PAC) mechanism as a tool deployed by “special interests” that “corrupts” the electoral process. But today, DeMint is the single most important figure and fundraiser for Senate Tea Party races. He has endorsed and pledged millions of dollars to support fringe right-wingers Senate candidates Christine O’Donnell (Delaware) and Rand Paul (Kentucky). DeMint has funneled this money through his own Political Action Committee (PAC) known as the Senate Conservatives Fund. DeMint even pledged to “fight for reforms that allow only individual contributions to campaigns.” But as I note in a blog for Campaign for America’s Future, DeMint isn’t the only power player pouring money into the Tea Party. DeMint’s 12 Tea Party Senate candidates have reaped over $4.6 million from Wall Street for this election—excluding Wall Street cash that has been funneled through DeMint’s PAC. So much for all that grassroots rage against bailed-out elites. The Tea Party bubble And Wall Street’s new Tea Party investment might just be the next big economic bubble. Joshua Holland at AlterNet surveys the campaign contributions of America’s bailout barons. The 23 firms that received at least $1 billion in bailout money from taxpayers spent $1.4 million on campaign contributions—in September alone. And these are just campaign contributions, which are essentially unaffected by the high court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The real corporate money is running through front-groups that run their own ads—not the official campaigns operated by political candidates. And these front-groups don’t have to disclose where their money comes from. Writing for Campus Progress, Simeon Tally highlights a frightening trend toward secrecy in U.S. elections, fueled by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Back in 2004, 98 percent of outside groups disclosed who their donors were. Today, that number is just 32 percent. We’re not just fighting corporate money bombs, we’re fighting secret corporate money bombs. Who really has the advantage? While there’s been much debate over who really comes out on top thanks to the post-Citizens United rules, Jesse Zwick notes for The Washington Independent, these stories are only talking about direct campaign contributions. Some might argue that Democrats have an advantage in disclosed funding, but Republicans have a six-to-one advantage money flowing through outside groups. But wait, there’s more! - Check out Matthew Reichbach and Trip Jennings’ reporting for The New Mexico Independent on the fact that all of this spending from outside groups usually means money from outside the states where candidates are running. Outside expenditures have swelled to $5 million in two New Mexico House races—both in relatively cheap media markets. - AlterNet has been running loads of stories on crooked corporate cash, covering everything from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s dirty dealings with AIG to the political spending habits of bailed-out banks. Joshua Holland rounds up eight of the articles here for AlterNet. - Comic artist Matt Bors makes light of America’s new “growth industries” at Campus Progress, pointing to makers of anonymous political attack ads. This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the mid-term elections and campaign financing by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit The Media Consortium for more articles on these issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, The Pulse, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

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It all might start to change this week. Today and tomorrow are the days that marriage equality supporters have been waiting for, when the Supreme Court takes on the issue in two separate cases. On Tuesday, the court will hear one hour of testimony on California’s Proposition 8 case, formally known as Hollingsworth vs Perry. On Wednesday, the justices will devote 110 minutes to hear arguments on the so-called federal Defense of Marriage Act, United States vs. Windsor. LGBT rights supporters and detractors were lining up as early as last Thursday to be in the courtroom for the arguments. We wondered what specific issues the justices would be looking at in the two cases, and what possible outcomes the justices may decide. Let’s take Prop 8 first According to Geoffrey Stone, an expert on constitutional law and former dean at the University of Chicago Law School, the court will likely make one of four decisions in hearing Prop 8 on Tuesday: 1) Not hear the case 2) Agree with the opinion of Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit, which would limit the decision only to California 3) Rule Prop 8 unconstitutional, but only in states where marriage is currently legal and states that already give LGBT people some protections – like civil unions or domestic partnerships 4) Rule Prop 8 unconstitutional in total – meaning LGBT people have a right to marry everywhere U.S. law is applicable Stone thinks the last scenario is unlikely, given the makeup of the court and recent suggestions by liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that the Supreme Court may have “moved too far too fast” in the 1973 Roe vs. Wade case, thus giving rise to the bitter divide over abortion that still rages 40 years later. The second option – agreeing with the lower court’s decision – would slow down the process, by ruling Prop 8 unconstitutional only on the grounds that when a state has already legalized marriage equality, it can’t take that right away. That is the ruling the Ninth Circuit made in February of 2012 in deciding the Prop 8 case. Judge Reinhardt specifically declined to consider whether same-sex marriage is constitutional, ruling narrowly on the ability of states to take away rights it has already granted. Since California is the only state in the country that has granted LGBT couples the right to marry, then taken that right away, California only would be affected by this decision. The second option is also more in line with a decision Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in1996 striking down Colorado’s Amendment 2, which the court said discriminated against LGBT people and therefore violated the Equal Protection Clause. The third option, Stone thinks, is the most likely – that states that recognize same-sex couples on some level have to recognize marriage. Some legal watchers have dubbed this the “eight state solution,” in that it would automatically legalize same-sex marriage in eight states – Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Delaware and Hawaii – but it wouldn’t hold marriage legal in states such as Mississippi or Utah, which have constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. It will now also include Colorado, which passed a civil unions law this past Thursday. Stone said that the decision to grant LGBT couples some rights in Colorado will, if the third option is adopted, trump the constitutional amendment banning marriage equality the state passed in 2006. So, if the third option prevails, and the Court rules Prop 8 unconstitutional, but only applies it to states that have marriage laws already or states that have some same-sex couple protection, that will be 19 states, plus the District of Columbia, where same-sex couples can get married. This is exactly the outcome that the Obama administration has argued for the in its amicus brief to the court. “It’s an intermediate step for the courts to eventually invalidate the laws against same-sex marriage,” Stone said. “The Justices might want to go slow – even though the majority of people favor same-sex marriage, there are states in the union which would consider it an outrage.” Of course, the court may simply decide that there is no case to be made. In both Prop 8 and DOMA, Stone pointed out, “the State of California and the Justice Department have been clear that they think those laws are unconstitutional.” That means that a government entity is not arguing against the issue at hand. In the case of Prop 8, California is not defending the state law. The justices may decide that since a government is not arguing for its own law, then the Court will not hear the case. Marriage equality advocates don’t want that scenario, as it would allow the Ninth Circuit decision to stand – which only rules that LGBT people can get married in California. Now let’s look at DOMA The Justices will also decide if those that are arguing for the so-called Defense of Marriage Act have legal standing to do so, given that the Obama administration is not defending the law. You’ll get up-to-date information on both cases here on the blog, and up-to-the-moment updates by Liking us on Facebook and Following us on Twitter! Two lowercourts last year ruled DOMA unconstitutional, so if the justices don’t hear the case, those rulings will stand and the federal government will give the same benefits to same-sex married couples as it currently does to opposite sex married couples. There’s also the possibility that the Court will rule that DOMA is constitutional. “I think that’s highly unlikely,” said Stone. “I don’t think there’s any scenario in which Anthony Kennedy would do that.” Stone believes that Kennedy wants to write these opinions affirming some constitutionality of marriage equality. And he believes that Kennedy wants to write the next opinion – in a few years – legalizing same-sex marriage for all states. DOMA, he thinks, will be struck down, both because “Kennedy will be skeptical of denial of same-sex marriage” and because of the issue of whether the Federal government has any business telling people who they can marry. That, Stone asserted, could possibly be the issue that draws Chief Justice John Roberts to vote for striking DOMA down as well. If DOMA is struck down, it will mean that LGBT couples will be afforded the approximately 1,100 federal benefits that opposite sex couples already get. It will not mean that states that don’t honor marriage equality will have to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. That’s an issue pertaining to the Full Faith and Credit clause of the constitution, which deals with contract law.

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A beautiful combination of nature, origami and robotics Matthew has a thing for origami. In his own time, he tours the globe as an origami evangelist… helping to coax paper folding fanatics out of their shells to share some of the brilliance that we know and love from this distinctive artform. A recent residency at Ars Electronica FutureLab in Austria enabled Matthew to explore a combination of 3d printing and polyester fabrics to create these stunning networked robots. They not only respond to each other, but also to the proximity of any fleshy humans who happen to be nearby. An ultrasonic sensor at the centre of each Oribot responds to a nearby figure by gently opening the folds and changing colours. Having 3d printers on site meant that Matthew could revise the mechanism for his design and then replicate it once the desired outcome had been reached. Watch the following video for a run-through of the Futurelab exhibition. There’s also another clip from Oribotics on Vimeo Under Matthew’s careful guidance, the Oribotics continue to evolve. I recently caught up with Matthew and his Oribot swarm at the Linden gallery in StKilda, where the installation will be on display until December 12. They are not able to reconfigure themselves, or reproduce, or have any effect on the world other than being beautiful. Their nature is in their crease patterns, and the robotics simply reveals that. The crease pattern, the pattern of folds, is the core of their being, their program, their DNA. I can’t wait to see what happens when Matthew gets his hands on some of this stuff. Hopefully his head doesn’t explode.

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With the development of science and technology, computer has become more and more popular in our daily life, which is intended to be a part of our life. But at the same time it also brings the safety problem, because increasing number of bad people would like to break into computer systems to steal the secret information. It seems that computer safety has been a serious problem by now. Maybe you could learn something about the safety terms in Microsoft so that you could adopt the different methods according to different cases. What is malware? In fact malware, short for “malicious software”, is any kind of software which is installed without your complete permission and is not in need at all.The famous malware areviruses, worms, and Trojan horses, which are almost known to us all. Even though you are not familiar with them, you must have heard of it at ordinary times. If you want to protect your computer from the malware, you could make sure that the automatic updating is turned on all the time to get the latest updates. 2 antispyware software Antispyware software helps protect your computer, and prevent the pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other adverse software. Every computer user must keep antispyware software up to date in order to keep in touch with the latest spyware. Aimed at protecting our computer, we could use Microsoft Security Essentials, free download software, to be against spyware and other malicious software. A firewall is used to help screen out hackers, viruses, and worms that try to attack your computer through the Internet.In fact, if you are the one who use the computer at home, the most efficient and important step is to enable firewall when you start your computer. A virus will slip through and infect you; the only effective way by protecting yourself is using a firewall. A firewall monitors your Internet connections and allows you to specify which programs are allowed to connect and which are not. 4 antivirus software Antivirus software is a kind of computer program which can be used to test, defend, and take actions to remove or delete malicious software program. As we all know, computer virus is some programs, which can specially disturb computer operation. So we should update antivirus software in regular time to prevent against the latest virus. 5 Windows password Besides the above mentioned software, you could have an alternative at the same time, namely Windows password. With a password like this, you can prevent your privacy from being let out or being viewed. Of course you should set up a Windows password reset disk to set the password reset in case that you forget it. As a computer user, you should have a general knowledge of these safety terms so that you can protect your computer better. And with these terms, your computer can be protected better than that without them. In a word, please have a brief understanding of them in the first place, and then you could know how important they are.

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Ever wondered what white tea is? Why we call it white anyway? Here are a few interesting facts about white tea, made from the plant Camellia sinensis: - White tea is similar to green tea in that it has undergone little processing and no fermentation whatsoever. - The leaves are harvested before they open fully, when the unopened buds are still covered by thin silvery white hair. Hence the white tea name. - White tea has a subtle and slightly sweet flavor that sharpens the senses without overwhelming the tongue, whereas green tea has a “grassy” taste. - There is 25% to 30% less caffeine in white tea than in green tea, though it depends on the variety. - White tea health benefits are the highest among the tea family¹. - It is more expensive than green or black tea because white tea is scarcer. Yet, at Savorique, white tea is as cheap as black or green tea. Note 1: Science Daily “”White Tea Could Keep You Healthy and Looking Young”", (August 14, 2009) and Science Daily “”White Tea Beats Green Tea In Fighting Germs”", (May 28, 2004).

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In Scouting, knives are a double-edged sword. Used safely, they’re part of a rite of passage for boys and a chance for leaders to impart important lessons to help Scouts become “Prepared. For Life.” But inevitably, some Scout will do his best Crocodile Dundee impression and show up at summer camp with the 10-inch sheath knife his uncle bought him. The BSA keeps its knife policy intentionally vague (see below), offering suggestions but leaving specific policies up to individual units. Does your pack, troop, team, or crew have a policy? Units with knife policies often set a specific maximum blade length and other restrictions. Others leave it up to their Scouts’ common sense and only intervene if the need arises — such as confiscating a Scout’s big sheath knife or butterfly-style knife and returning it to his parents after the trip. Whether you have a policy or are considering creating one, first read what the Guide to Safe Scouting says: A sharp pocketknife with a can opener on it is an invaluable backcountry tool. Keep it clean, sharp, and handy. Avoid large sheath knives. They are heavy and awkward to carry, and unnecessary for most camp chores except for cleaning fish. Since its inception, Boy Scouting has relied heavily on an outdoor program to achieve its objectives. This program meets more of the purposes of Scouting than any other single feature. We believe we have a duty to instill in our members, youth and adult, the knowledge of how to use, handle, and store legally owned knives with the highest concern for safety and responsibility. Remember—knives are not allowed on school premises, nor can they be taken aboard commercial aircraft. The Guide to Safe Scouting doesn’t get more specific than that, but most states do. Some states restrict knife length — in Texas, for example, a knife with a blade longer than 5.5 inches is deemed “illegal.” Others forbid certain kinds of knives, such as throwing knives. This site aggregates state knife laws, so check your state’s laws today and be in the know. How to create a policy In keeping with the youth-led spirit of Boy Scout troops, Venturing crews, and Varsity teams, you’re better off letting the Scouts set their own policy. Involving them in the process ensures that they’ll take ownership in the policy and will more effectively follow and enforce it. Suggest they address knife length, kinds of knives allowed, how many knives each Scout can bring, proper storage, Totin’ Chip requirements, and anything else that addresses specific needs in your unit. And don’t forget to print out your state’s knife laws and give that to your youth leaders to consult. Pretty soon, you’ll have a policy that allows — encourages, even — the safe use of knives in Scouting. Take the poll Need your own knife? Win one! Speaking of knives, don’t forget to enter the CUT ABOVE GIVEAWAY for a chance to take home one of six great knives. Contest ends Aug. 31, 2012. What do you think? I’d love to know whether packs, troops, teams, and crews have specific knife policies. If so, what do they include? Do you specify a maximum blade length? What about quantity — can Scouts carry multiple knives? Leave your thoughts below. Photo by Flickr user herzogbr.

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We’re rebuilding ScraperWiki. For three years, we’ve been helping people get, clean and analyse data on the web. Our key insight was that you need to write code to do that, and we should make writing that code as easy as possible. Earlier this year, we realised that that isn’t enough. ScraperWiki Classic, as we now call the original ScraperWiki, falls into a gap. It’s neither flexible enough for most programmers, nor simple enough for most non-programmers. There’s a bunch of people who love it, right in the middle. Our plan was to push that sideways – add more features to make it useful to programmers, and add tools to make it useful to anyone. We listened and watched our users and found it wasn’t going to work. To make ScraperWiki useful to enough people now, we have to make it powerful and geeky enough for programmers, and, right at the other end, supply code-free tools that anyone can use straight away. So that’s what we’re making. One unified platform that exposes the true power of a raw UNIX environment and a set of industry standards (like HTTP and SQL) for programmers; and that also, at the other end, builds on those foundations to give non-programmers access to a whole ecosystem of powerful, code-free, web-based tools for data science. Everything is transparent, and every tool, no matter how simple, has a “view source” button so we can all get to, edit, and learn from the code underneath. But more than transparency and code, ScraperWiki has always been about community. And that’s never going to change: By sharing one platform, the power-users can learn from the programmers, or use the tools they create, while the programmers can work with each other, and use the power-user tools to simplify the boring bits of coding. If that sounds like your sort of data hub, stay tuned: We’ll be introducing the new ScraperWiki in the New Year. If you want to know more about the theory and practice of bringing “end-user computing” (letting people make their own custom apps) to everyone, I recommend Bonnie Nardi’s book A Small Matter of Programming.

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Can old rubber tires be converted into fuel? That’s the idea behind a Tacoma company by the name of Organic Energy Conservation Co.. The company, which generates an alternative fuel by vaporizing rubber at high temperatures, plans to open a 30,000-square-foot processing facility near Yakima. About two dozen people will be employed at the facility, which the company says will be a “showcase” for another 15 to 20 plants that it hopes to open in the next decade. Eventually, Organic Energy plans to create as much as 20,000 gallons of fuel a day from its tire recycling program. Organic Energy is not the only Pacific Northwest startup looking to turn old tires into fuel. Bellevue-based Reklaim Technologies says on its Web site that one tire yields 1.37 gallons of oil. “That is a tremendously valuable resource that, until now, has been languishing untapped in our nation’s landfills,” the company writes. UPDATE: Bill Rose, a managing member at Organic Energy, said that they have not received permits for the plant, which is tentatively slated to open next spring. The company, which currently has no employees, was formed in the past two months with technology from Powergen International of Australia and Ambient Energy of Los Angeles, he said. While the tire recycling market has received some “bad press” with many people professing to have mastered the technology, Rose said that Organic Energy has a “unique process” that has been tested in other countries.

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Projects expected to benefit seven states in the Mississippi River Basin LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A $32 million set of projects across seven states in the Mississippi River Basin will restore a variety of wetland types, from Iowa to Louisiana. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday it will work with state agencies and private groups to embark upon the water quality and wetland restoration projects. The bulk of the money, $20 million, will go to restoration of hardwood bottomland along the Mississippi River, from Wickliff, Ky., to Baton Rouge, La. The work will focus on acreage in the batture — land between the water's edge and the levee. The rich land floods regularly and supports a variety of wildlife. The project will involve more than 7,000 acres this year and up to 30,000 acres when completed. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in an interview that the program is targeting areas with "pressing natural resources issues." The program, run through the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, enlists private landowners to help restore wetlands they own. "We're showing the country that voluntary conservation programs can work," Vilsack said. The project along the Mississippi River will be carried out with the Mississippi River Trust as a partner. The trust is a charitable partner that works with private landowners often to create conservation easements. The landowner can receive tax benefits while helping preserve ecologically sensitive land. The work will include restoration of 7,280 acres this year, and up to 30,000 acres once the project is completed. In Iowa, the USDA is devoting $6 million to restore 1,020 acres in an area known as the Prairie Pothole Region. The work will focus on the Raccoon River wetland to improve wildlife habitat, water quality and prevent flooding in the Raccoon and Des Moines river watersheds. The USDA devoted $3 million to a project along the Cache and White rivers in Arkansas, where The Nature Conservancy will work with landowners to protect or restore 2,000 acres of wetland habitat this year. When the project is complete it is planned to cover 6,000 acres. A smaller scale project along the Cache and L'Anguille rivers in northeast Arkansas will cost $215,000 to create conservation buffers to reduce sediment and fertilizer that runs off into the waterways. The project will include 100 acres this year and, ultimately, 600 acres. "All of this has been designed to create a healthy outdoors," Vilsack said, adding that pristine natural areas attract hikers, hunters, birdwatchers and others, helping boost local rural economies. --Chuck Bartels, The Associated Press

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Marriott to Certify More than 85 Hotels With Energy Star Label Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE:MAR) announced today that more than 85 hotels will earn the ENERGY STAR label – signifying 35 percent less energy use than average buildings – from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this year. With more than 200 ENERGY STAR-labeled hotels currently, Marriott continues to lead the hospitality industry in energy management and has set a goal to certify at least eight hotels per month with the ENERGY STAR award. Today, twelve hotels in Boston are being recognized at the Boston Marriott Quincy. The 12 hotels earning the ENERGY STAR label today include: Boston Marriott Quincy; SpringHill Suites Peabody; SpringHill Suites Boston Andover; Courtyard Boston Norwood; Courtyard Boston Woburn/Boston North; Courtyard Boston Danvers; Courtyard Boston Lowell/Chelmsford; Courtyard Boston Foxborough; Courtyard Boston Stoughton; Courtyard Boston Milford; Residence Inn Boston Tewksbury/Andover; and TownePlace Suites Boston North Shore/Danvers. “We are excited to add these twelve in Boston to our ENERGY STAR group of hotels,” said Pat Maher, senior vice president, Engineering and Program Management, Marriott International, Inc. “We have a global initiative in place that focuses on environmentally friendly programs from energy and water conservation to wildlife protection, which began over 10 years ago.” Marriott recently announced that it has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 70,000 tons in one year–the equivalent of removing 10,000 cars from U.S. streets*–and is the first hotel company to proactively join the prestigious EPA Climate Leaders Program. Additionally, the company has set a five-year goal to reduce greenhouse gases by six percent per guest room by 2010. Marriott’s commitment to the environment is longstanding. With the introduction of ECHO, Environmentally Conscious Hospitality Operations, more than a decade ago, Marriott focused on water and energy conservation, clean air, recycling, wildlife preservation and neighborhood cleanups. Marriott works in partnership with hotel owners and franchisees to implement sustainable environmental practices, which reflect the environmental interests and concerns of our guests, associates, business partners and communities. For more “green” news and Marriott’s ongoing commitment to conserve and preserve, visit the Environmental Stewardship page on Marriott.com. * Marriott calculation based on published EPA data Source: Marriott International, Inc.

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I was walking along the corridor at the back of Te Papa the other day and spotted these boxes…. You see some quite strange things out the back of Te Papa (it could be a blog all of its own ”Out back Te Papa” ) but this was one of the better ones. Further investigation revealed that the dinosaurs had escaped from their boxes and were now living in the workshop next door. Some staff got to meet them… Since then the dinosaurs have been on the move. If you look carefully you’ll see their heads poking above the barrier in the Awesome Forces exhibition on Level Two. From tomorrow you’ll be able to get a proper look at these scary looking raptors, which are part of a makeover of this exhibition. The two dinosaur models come from Germany and are of a dromaeosaur species, Deinonychus. No one has found fossils of Deinonychus in New Zealand … yet. But they have been found in Antarctica, Australia and other parts of Gondwana so it’s likely that they did live here once. Did I mention the unusual packing that the dinosaur models arrived in? – nicely padded bra inserts to protect those sharp claws…

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.8grams X kilogram of body weight/day How to convert pounds into kilograms: #pounds/2.2 = kg For example someone who weighs say 110 would be 50kg. So we take 50kg and multilpy that by .8gm and they should be getting about 40 grams of protein a day. Low protein diets can result in weak bones, muscle wasting, and decrease in time for wounds to heal. Protein is essential in the diet and having enough is very important especially if you are exercising. When you are working with weights and building muscle adequate protein intake is essential in building those muscles. If you are taking a protein supplement in powder try to find one that does not have any added saturated or transaturated fats. There are some protein supplements out there that are made for gaining weight so they will have additional calories and fats in them. So make sure you read the label and everything says 0 except the protein. This brand is an excellent choice and very safe : Just remember to read label and consult with your doctor if it is safe for you to take a protein supplement. The following foods are excellent sources of protein: - cottage cheese - nuts and seeds - soy beans - Greek yogurt Make sure at every meal you have a protein, a healthy carbohydrate(whole wheat or whole grain), and good fat. (monounsaturated fats) Keep your meals and snacks balanced so you can stay full and not feel hungry throughout the day.

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Our opinion: Fostering better nutrition is a key to reducing public health costs. That makes the scarcity of large grocery stores in some urban neighborhoods, especially poor ones, a matter of public policy. It’s easy, and comforting, to assume that in an modern, industrialized nation, everyone eats well. Surely with programs like food stamps, even needy people are doing OK, right? More than 40,000 people in Albany and Schenectady live in what are known as food deserts — places where a grocery store is at least a mile away. Many are poor. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that about 3,700 of the more than 23,000 people in Albany who don’t live near a large grocer are poor. In Schenectady, about 5,400 of the more than 19,000 people for whom a supermarket trip is more like a trek are low income. Moreover, those estimates were based largely on information gathered before a recession that has made even more people poor. That’s not just an inconvenience. It’s a public health issue in a society where the problems associated with poor nutrition and obesity are linked to the growing cost of public health care. One suggestion for alleviating the problem comes from the American Cancer Society, which is reviving the controversial idea of a tax on soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks. The group suggests using the tax to help fund and evaluate child obesity programs. An even more productive use might be to devote a portion of such a tax to local efforts to lure larger grocery stores to urban neighborhoods that don’t have them now. It would seem doubtful, though, that the state Legislature will be any more inclined to implement a soda tax than it was last year, when it refused to do so even with the prospect of raising $400 million in new revenue and even with the urging of the state health commissioner and then-Gov. David Paterson. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying for a soda tax — encouraging kids in particular to cut back on sugary beverages is not a bad goal at all, nor is raising funds that could be used to promote a healthier citizenry. But the more likely reality is that New York and communities will have to find ways to do something about poor nutrition and food deserts without the help of a soda tax. Here’s one direction: Since last March, Capital District Community Gardens has been supplying nine convenience stores and markets with fresh produce under a five-year, $175,000-a-year grant from the state Health Department that also helps underwrite fitness programs. Veggie Mobile Sprout, as this program is called, delivers produce twice a week at wholesale prices, enabling urban stores in Albany and Schenectady to sell fresh food at supermarket rates and offer something better than their typical fare of often fattening and less nutritious processed food. The program’s goal is to become self-sustaining. How many more ideas to promote healthy and affordable food choices are there that might perhaps benefit from some initial public investment or other support? Why not make identifying and nurturing those ideas part of the mission of local community development or economic development entities? Funding for such programs would not be handouts; beyond improving nutrition and reducing obesity with a long-term eye toward reducing public health costs, they would help get greater value out of the public assistance that goes to people in low-income neighborhoods. Sounds like a shopping cart full of public interest to us.

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TSA employees have posted that they will limit medical items at the checkpoint.TSA management has not made statement correcting these poorly trained screeners.How many TSO's are qualified to practice medicine?Why are TSO's so poorly trained that they do not understand the exceptions to the 311 policies.When will TSA make a public statement about this? As recently as December, 2007, the passenger screening areas at Kansas City International Airport (MCI) had signage that inaccurately states that photo identification is required in order to enter the secure area. Some of the signs bear the TSA seal.I suspect this is in violation of OMB's Agency Information Quality Guidelines.I photographed these signs and have posted them here, here, and here. I'm not surprised you've been shocked by some of the comments left. I've been pretty shocked too.The thing that is the most shocking to me is that people are posting the most horrific stories of flagrant abuse by TSO's like patients with a medical need, babies and small children being denied water and food! A basic, human right and yet the TSA is confiscating baby food, telling parents just how much food they can bring to feed their children. The TSA is abusing the elderly and the sick by forcing them to remove shoes and belts, throwing away water, confiscating needed medicines or creams and so much more. I'm shocked at how many stories there are of items so commonplace as to be ridiculous being confiscated.Please, post a video of an explosive that can be made to resemble peanut butter (down to the smell), or strawberry jam, or barbecue sauce or any of the other hundreds of thousands of items that people carry with them on a daily basis. I've seen some answers to some of the questions here, but I've yet to see anyone address the liquids ban convincingly. If it looks like peanut butter and it smells like peanut butter, why is it considered a "gel"? It's food, not a dangerous substance! If I'm facing a 2-3 hour pre-boarding time, plus a 5-6 hour flight, yes I want to bring real food with me and so do people who are diabetic, have medical conditions, are traveling with children or have dietary restrictions for any reason. The TSA counters that you can get food behind the security check but for real, when one single banana costs $1.50 or more, a small 16 oz. bottle of water goes for $2-3 and there isn't any "real" food to get behind the security lines besides an expensive, greasy pile of fries or a scone from Starbuck's this is just not an option. And as countless people have pointed out, you can't find baby food or formula behind those security lines. Neither can you find healthy food, vegetarian food, halal food, kosher food, vegan food, inexpensive food, non-wheat-based food (celiac disease), low-sodium food, or any other number of representative dietary restrictions. Flying is an all-day ordeal for many, as there are very few cross-country flights which don't have at least one stop, and yet the TSA expects people not to pack food! Some of the ridiculous items I've personally had confiscated in this specific category: a brick of solid cream cheese (a gel!) a home-packed tub of chunky peanut butter (a gel!) slices of cheese (a gel! how do you slice a gel? It's a mystery!). Not to mention the countless times that I have had to throw out a half a 4 oz. bottle of expensive face cream, even though there was clearly not even close to 4 oz. left in the bottle. The most frustrating part is when you say, "well we can't post our rules, then the "terrists will win"and then you get all upset with us, the traveling public, when we can't follow the rules you won't tell us about! And then, when we run into something like never stopping to consider that something as commonplace and easily identifiable as peanut butter will get taken away, because we've never thought about it as a "gel", well we're just told to shut up and follow the rules! Then we are told we can't see a list that says something as simple as "food items such as cheese and peanut butter fall under the "gel" category, so don't even try" because the the "terrists" would know that peanut butter and cheese were banned substances! Follow the logic on that one for a minute! Anybody care to comment on this idea from Lamperd which has garnered interest from DHS (Paul Rudwaldt):"A method of providing air travel security for passengers traveling via an aircraft comprises situating a remotely activatable electric shock device on each of the passengers in position to deliver a disabling electrical shock when activated; and arming the electric shock devices for subsequent selective activation by a selectively operable remote control disposed within the aircraft. The remotely activatable electric shock devices each have activation circuitry responsive to the activating signal transmitted from the selectively operable remote control means. The activated electric shock device is operable to deliver the disabling electrical shock to that passenger."That DHS/TSA would even think to consider something like this is an abomination as well as a total waste of taxpayer money. I am a retired Naval Officer with a hip replacement plus other metalic parts which set your machine off every time I go to the airport. As you have access to my service record of 24 years plus I would pay for a security check for the last 30 years then could I get a chip embedded in my shoulder that eliminate the 10 minute individual check at the airport plus let me keep my shoes on. They are hard to get on without the LONG SHOE HORN that disabled people use. Cliff Woodrick - CDR USN (Ret) Cliff, make certain that you wear tie shoes and tell the screeners that you are wearing orthopedic shoes and cannot and will not remove them.Works for me every time. Hey phil, Kansas City Int. does not have TSA employees. They are a private contract company. And no matter where you fly you are required to show a phot ID.To the retired Naval Officer. You of all people should understand why TSA does what they do. But maybe you never seen what an IED or any other weapon can do. Simple solution to all of your problems. Take a bus, a train, or a cab maybe they will feel your pain. Someone anonymously wrote:"Hey phil, Kansas City Int. does not have TSA employees. They are a private contract company."I understand that. However, they display signage with inaccurate information, some of it bearing the TSA seal."And no matter where you fly you are required to show a phot ID."Sir or Madam, you are mistaken. Passengers on domestic flights are not required to present credentials (to "show I.D.").Please see this letter from Jeffrey R. Sural of the TSA to Senator John Warner confirming that domestic passengers are not required to show any I.D. at airport security checkpoints.Please see also this air travel screening information on the TSA Web site, where they state, "We encourage each adult traveler to keep his/her airline boarding pass and government-issued photo ID available until exiting the security checkpoint." Note: that's "encourage" not "require".I have recently posted related comments to this blog here, here, here, here, here, and here.For more information, see "What's Wrong With Showing ID" at The Identity Project. "To the retired Naval Officer. You of all people should understand why TSA does what they do. But maybe you never seen what an IED or any other weapon can do.Simple solution to all of your problems. Take a bus, a train, or a cab maybe they will feel your pain."You can also fly through General Aviation at 2800 airports and never even see a TSO. To the retired Naval Officer. You of all people should understand why TSA does what they do. But maybe you never seen what an IED or any other weapon can do. Simple solution to all of your problems. Take a bus, a train, or a cab maybe they will feel your pain.I sincerely hope that you are in no way associated with either TSA, the inspection process or dealing with people on a face to face basis. FYI TSA is doing inspections on some trains.The retired Navy Officer is disabled. Your flippant attitude reflects what we, the traveling public, have come to expect from TSA/inspectors at airports. The terrorists do a risk/reward assessment of their attacks. OBL was really amazed at what, with a small investment, they were able to accomplish. That being said the next attacks probably won't involve the airlines since we nailed the barn door shut after the animals all ran into the woods. As to IED and aircraft, they don't give terrorists the reward they seek. I have noticed at some airports that the security lines will have a person greeting the people coming in and making sure that they have a ziplock bag for the liquid items. These folks are so nice and in alot of cases older. They are alot like the greeters at Sam's. I think this little bit of kindness and preperation up front will keep the rest of the security from being angry and will improve all relations. Stop a person from getting frustrated and offer up something as small as a ziplock bag, a trash can for drinks and a friendly smile. I think you might have a winner. I have sent the following to TSA and to my state representatives. I would some relief from the problems of being handicapped and getting through the TSA screening. As you will see it is a horrible experience.This is the letter that I sent out: I have had many bad experiences dealing with TSA agents while traveling. Yesterday was just the straw that broke my spirit and patience. I am handicapped, I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, and have been treated like a criminal, a child, like I am stupid, and like a terrorists. This needs to stop. I know that I am not alone in this problem I have witnessed people with many different problems treated badly, humiliated and threatened. I need to know a list of persons that I can start to contact. I want the name, phone number, and email addresses of the people that oversee all of the TSA activities and training. I would also like to see the EXACT information that TSA agents are trained to especially in regards to dealing with the handicapped. Since every airport seems to follow different rules, at this point I am assuming that there are NO standard rules. Here are the two scenarios that I am interested in: 1.) Handicapped person can not remove shoes and walk. The person alarms when walking through the detector..What happens now? 2.) Handicapped person can not remove shoes and walk. The person does not alarm when walking through the detector...What happens now? I want to see the EXACT wording in the formal documentation that tells the TSA police what to do. Thank you for your time and effort in clearing up my expectations when traveling the "Friendly" airways of my country. I need the name, email, and address for the Director of Federal Security at the Albany Airport to notify him/her of the egregious separation of my eight-year-old daughter from my girlfriend while going through security together. Then security patted my eight-year-old daughter down in a manner that I would be arrested for child molestation if I did it, while she was crying for her mother. Standard TSA policy? Does the TSA not recognize that children can be snatched up and away by evil people during such times. If the TSA is so paranoid about security, doesn't the TSA have a policy of accompanying a child they deem a security risk through the security check point when they have separated them from the adult in charge? "I am handicapped, I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, and have been treated like a criminal, a child, like I am stupid, and like a terrorists. This needs to stop. I know that I am not alone in this problem I have witnessed people with many different problems treated badly, humiliated and threatened." (just part of the post).I'd like the blogger staff to take a serious look at what the above poster stated, and give us your best thoughts about how disabled people, the elderly, and childrencan be treated in a more humane and professional manner. I will state again that a Passenger Bill of Rights should be prominently posted before and after every checkpoint, with the names and phone numbers of the shift supervisors. Gripe:TSOs at Nashville trying to determine my immigration status and not knowing enough to figure out what they are looking at.Grins:The TSOs at Richmond who are so friendly that the entire process becomes virtually pain free. If all your employees acted the way the Richmond folks did, then the complaints section on this site would be dramatically reduced. Hi.I had an umbrella confiscated by the TSA at the Portland (Oregon) Memorial Coliseum prior to a Barack Obama rally because "it was too long." The woman would not tell me where we could pick up these confiscated items afterwards, and by the time the rally ended the TSA were long gone, and so were the umbrellas. This in a city where it rains and lots of people have umbrellas. At no time prior to the rally was I ever told that umbrellas were too long to carry into the arena.I have two requests: The next time your organization runs security at an event, please make sure to tell the organizers exactly what attendees can and cannot bring (the only warning about forbidden items was about large bags, which are always forbidden at the Coliseum).The second request--please stay around until the end of the event so that people have a chance to retrieve their items. This has lots of problems at an airport where travellers may never come back, but everyone going into the Coliseum went back out of it, so most of those items will be reclaimed. If that can't be done with current staffing levels, leave the stuff in a pile outside... or tell us where to claim it.Thanks for having this blog, I really appreciate it.--Darrick I would like to start by saying that I believe TSA employees are conducting the job they were hired to do with respect and vigilance. Are there times when a situation is not handled to everyone's liking? Sure. Unfortunately we all tend to remember the uncomfortable situations because of their personal nature rather than the positive experiences. Passengers have and will continue to experience frustating screening situations, as TSA employees will continually be faced with abusive passengers, but this is not the norm. 95% of what I've experienced is security being conducted by courteous and professional individuals attempting to protect us, and passengers that appreciate and are thankful for the protection. Let's correct the issues, but also try to focus on the positive. "I am a retired Naval Officer with a hip replacement plus other metalic parts which set your machine off every time I go to the airport. As you have access to my service record of 24 years plus I would pay for a security check for the last 30 years then could I get a chip embedded in my shoulder that eliminate the 10 minute individual check at the airport plus let me keep my shoes on. They are hard to get on without the LONG SHOE HORN that disabled people use. Cliff Woodrick - CDR USN (Ret)"Sir;Unfortunately, access to your service record is not that easy to obtain for the screener on the floor. People who already scream that TSA is too intrusive would not be pleased with the idea that we could do some sort of computer background check on each passenger as they came up to our check point.As it stands now I am not aware of any technology in the TSA system that would allow us to make distinctions between passengers based upon some sort of bio-chip. And I very much doubt if congress would be willing to pay to install such a system. We have enough trouble getting them to cough up the money to buy equipment to replace what we wear out.We have no recourse but to treat all passengers as nearly the same as possible. Our SOP has provisions for persons with disabilities, and most airports have local procedures for implementing those provisions. Inform the screeners of your special needs when you arrive at the checkpoint; at most places we can adapt.Yes, I am aware that at some airports the screeners are not as polite or as patient as I would wish. I would ask that you please be patient with us. Most of us are doing the best we can. I have one question: why are we so paranoid as a country to have such ridiculous screening? What is the point of living in the country of the "free" with all these rights, when they really don't exist at all? I'm not saying that other countries don't have it rougher, but let's be realistic! Why do we give up so much for a little security? There is absolutely no privacy anymore... Packing my luggage has now become a "process," just so I can make sure that I don't have anything in my carry on that would be deemed "explosive!" The days of overnighters with a carry on are practically gone... unless you're gonna buy a whole bunch of stuff on the other end. What has the world come to? Anonymous said... Hi.I had an umbrella confiscated by the TSA at the Portland (Oregon) Memorial Coliseum prior to a Barack Obama rallyI thought TSA = Transportation Security Administration. Why in the world is the TSA providing security for Barack? Does the Portland Coliseum have an airport, bus or train station? Providing security for anything other than transportation is CLEARLY NOT YOUR JOB.Who approached the TSA with this idea?Who authorized this outside work? Who paid for the TSA's time and equipment?I think this falls into the category of GROSS mismanagement, GROSS waste, and fraud. I have to fly almost weekly and the deal with the TSA is this... They are A JOKE. I went through a Check point chicky in Charlotte NC and had my buddies boarding pass and he had mine. It was a mistake.. But the TSA crackpot checked them thtoughly and then let us both through. I know that checking a boarding pass is bascailly a joke anyway but my issue with this is if you are going to put me through the hassle then do it right. I also want to address the issue of all of us complaining and REMEMBER 911. Here is the deal.. 911 would NEVER NEVER happen again and nothing that the TSA does will change that or not. Could someone sneak a bomb on a plane today I say YES. I am not sure how because I have no desire to but the bad guys are looking and will find a way if they so choose. The only thing that will stop them is the passangers on the plane. That is precisely the reason 911 would never happen again because the passangers would not let it happen and they have locked and renforced the cock pit doors and some piolets are armed. These are better than any TSA regulations. The TSA is there for the IMPRESSION of security and that is all! If you fools believe that the TSA or even your government is saving the world get a life please! I would like some basic common sense at the airports. I want my civil liberies back and I want the TSA is figure out they are not saving the world. And I am sure this will not get posted how is that for censorship! I am handicapped, I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, and have been treated like a criminal, a child, like I am stupid, and like a terrorists. This needs to stop. I know that I am not alone in this problem I have witnessed people with many different problems treated badly, humiliated and threatened.SIR, WE DO NOT CONSIDER ANYONE A CRIMINAL UNLESS THEY ARE ONE - CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT A TERRORIST LOOKS LIKE??...I THINK NOTI would also like to see the EXACT information that TSA agents are trained to especially in regards to dealing with the handicapped. Since every airport seems to follow different rules, at this point I am assuming that there are NO standard rules.YOU WILL NOT HAVE ACCESS TO SUCH INFORMATION AS IT IS DEEMED SENSITIVE SECURITY INFORMATION BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITYHere are the two scenarios that I am interested in:1.) Handicapped person can not remove shoes and walk. The person alarms when walking through the detector..What happens now?YOU GO THORUGH THE SCREENING PROCESS (SIMPLY SAID)2.) Handicapped person can not remove shoes and walk. The person does not alarm when walking through the detector...What happens now?YOU GO THROUGH THE SCREENING PROCESS (SIMPLY SAID)I want to see the EXACT wording in the formal documentation that tells the TSA police what to do.AGAIN - SENSITIVE SECURITY INFORMATION (YOU WILL NOT SEE IT)Thank you for your time and effort in clearing up my expectations when traveling the "Friendly" airways of my country. I find the TSA workers to be so inconsistent that I never know what is expected. In February I flew from SFO to Sydney, Australia-the TSA workers were very courteous and helpful. I am disabled and they were very nice about screening me and making sure that my belongings were in the control of my husband.I faced an entirely different kind of TSA worker in Honolulu flying home to SFO. The TSA woman was so very, very rude to me saying I needed to put all my electronics in a plastic bag-nothing was said about this when I left the country in February (14th). This worker yelled at me that I was being rude-she had me completely off balance and my boarding pass was in one of the plastic containers that had already gone through the xray machine. She yelled at me again and called me ignorant-I am disabled and this rude,aggressive woman was completely out of line. I was crying as she totally humiliated me and I feel that these people are not making us any safer. Some of them just get off telling people they have to do this and they have to do that. TSA you have made flying Hell!!! Get your act together and simplify your inconsistent rules and weed out the workers that are on an ego trip!!! There is no reason whatsoever that should give a government worker the right to harass an American citizen!!! To speed up the xray process, why not post a sign at the conveyor that tells the people to PUSH there baggage onto the belt, instead of just standing there waiting for instructions wondering why the bags aren't moving. We should see at least a 20% improvement in processing. And speaking of improving the speed of the xrays, instruct the person sitting at the screen to stay focused on the job and not chit chat the the other Tsa employees whoile our bags are just sitting there or while we wait for the bags to come out the other end. Disney has monitors which explain how the process works, so consider a screen with a loop tape that tells newbie travelers how to proceed efficiently through the line. As an honorably discharged,wartime veteran, as far as I'm concerned, the bad guys have already won. These infringements on my liberties and freedom to move around the country I defended are, imho, overboard.Along with the pre-approved, background cleared folks, how about including veterans. We defended this country, we're not out to blow something up. You guys are even a bigger pain than I thought you were. Just getting to the point where I could post my comment was a royal pain.Trying again. As an honorably discharged, wartime vet, it's my humble opinion that your restrictions and scrutiny mean the bad guys have already won. When the restrictions begin interfering with the very freedoms and rights I fought to defend and complicate my everyday life, I have a problem with it.How about including active duty and veterans with honorable discharges in the quick lane? To screener joe.See the note I just posted. I'm a vet., too, with part of a Huey in my leg that occasionally trips the buzzers. While it may be ethnic profiling, there really should be room for us in the mix. Re Signs in KC Airport - the sterile area is restricted to passengers and individuals with a need to conduct business in the sterile area (airport personnel, DEA personnel, secret service etc). Each individual must be able to demonstrate that they have a legitimate reason for being in this environment. Prior to submitting to screening, a flyer may elect not to show their ID...which is a voluntary decision, and voids your 4th amendment rights. The result of that decision is that the passenger will not be allowed to fly for two reasons;1. cannot verify that fraud is not taking place for the airline (is the person using the ticket who bought the ticket)...as nowadays, if IDs were not checked at the security checkpoint, one could;1. buy online2. check in online3. proceed through security4. board the aircraft ALL WITHOUT HAVING VERIFIED THEIR IDENTITY2. cannot verify that the individual has a legitimate need to be in the sterile area, pursuant to the changes that only allow flying passengers and those with a business need to be in the sterile area. Are you guys getting the message. Terrorists can not be stopped if they set their minds to it. Stop stepping on my freedoms. I just read the other blog postings, and that seems to be the general gist.Remember who's the bad guy. OK, can't get the airplane, let's just drive a truck where we want it. (Remember, that's how they started.) It's am intelligence issue, not an airport security issue. Let's knock off this overreaction! Inconsistencies in Appproach ~The regulations loosely state that a Federal Security Director may, at his/her discretion exercise procedures that exceed the minimum requirements. TRANSLATED, this means that any airport can do as they please, and common sense doesn't always prevail. 1. SFO - "please remove your hat when going through the screening process." What? No other airport requires this. Consider the impact on individuals who are going through chemotherapy etc and the potential embarrassment this may cause. Why this is a silly request...A. plastic explosives could be hidden in my hat. Answer - and they could be in my underwear too...or tied to my calf...or anywhere else. Result - dumb practice by SFO2. Las Vegas (good)...most other airports (bad) preparation of the passengers for the screening experience.Example: videos are continuously playing to show travelers what they need to do to be ready for screening...and even done with entertainment value (Elvis characters etc shown going through screening). Imagine how cool this could be for Burbank (Universal Studios or Disney), Orlando/John Wayne (Disney), Vail (skiers) etc...every airport could have unique individuals that are relevant to that geography. What the TSA may say...and my response:1. Space - not all screening checkpoints are created equal and some are very cramped. Answer - TRUE. However consider the impact of a screener saying (often yelling over-and-over) "take off your shoes etc. NO ONE SOUNDS HELPFUL when yelling! * Signs only solve one part of the problem, as a wise friend of mine once said, 'the problem with signs is, you have to read them.' ** Thus video etc are clever and less abrasive ways to address this concern. 2. Cost is excessive. I have a difficult time understanding how this can be a valid answer, as associating 'cost benefit' is simply an exercise of moving funds from one general accounting line item to another...which isn't exactly a new financial practice for any business/organization. Apparently All Plastic Bags are not Created Equal - True Story (JFK) -On day 1 of a 5 day road trip, I had the audacity to have my toiletries in a bag that was a "quart sized bag." I was told I would have to either;a) throw all of these items away (and no, none of them exceeded 4 oz)b) find a smaller bagWhen I folded my 'quart sized bag' into quarters (yes, 1/4 the size), which is smaller than the TSA 'approved' size...I was still told that I needed a smaller bag. I simply asked "why," as I was now transporting less than the approved amount. I didn't receive a real answer, other than a none too polite, "you can't bring that through the checkpoint."As fortune and karma would have it, a nice woman next to me handed me a smaller bag (that was still larger than my folded one - yes I repeated myself)...so that I could fly that day without dumping my toiletries. Trusted Traveler Program (explain this please)~If one were to register, pay and be approved for this service, one is supposed to receive "shorter lines and less stringent screening."To clarify what a screener must do, and my inability to understand the TSA's logic on how our experience will be enhanced;1. x-ray carry on bags (NO CHANGE)2. have electronic items removed from carry on bag (NO CHANGE)3. Resolve any alarms from the walk through metal detector (NO CHANGE)4. Randomly and consistently search carry on luggage (POSSIBLE CHANGE)5. Remove shoes (NO CHANGE)6. Resolve any suspicious or unidentifiable images in carry on bags - also known as the 'Screaming BAG CHECK' (NO CHANGE)7. Remove jackets and have them screened (NO CHANGE)So, if someone can actually explain the benefits from a 'security' standpoint, as the only benefit I see is from a practical standpoint of having a separate line to go through with less volume of passengers with the following impact;1. less screening space at that checkpoint for the remaining passengers (vast majority) TSA Screeners have a thankless job~The job the screeners do is extremely difficult with the limited tools they are provided...under often thankless conditions.Consider this;A. in the majority of airports the most 'private' space a screener can take a break, is usually a coffee shopB. often, when a supervisor needs to have a briefing with their team, they do it in a very public settingC. Being a screener is like being 'on stage' 8-10 hours per day...with every mis-step or frown being noticed D. Screeners are not empowered to effect change - how many times have you questioned a policy and gotten a 'good' answer? In LAS VEGAS, screeners are not required to yell over and over again for passengers to remove their electronics etc. In places like LAX where the screening checkpoints are bottlenecks, the pressure on screeners to move the line along means that they often don't actually stop the belt and examine every bag, as was once the mandatory practice (which was my experience in Austin, TX yesterday as well). * Note - an experienced x-ray operator can easily distinguish when a tub has nothing but a jacket and belt in it (for example), and having to stop the belt in that case is actually silly and somewhat of an insult to their experience and skill level; HOWEVER, when there are briefcases or electronics involved, it is alarming not to see the belt stopped. No one wants their bags checked...wants to take off their shoes and walk on dirty floors...to be treated like a security risk etc...yet these are the realities of the screening experience today. Maybe next time when traveling through the airport, we should all stop and ask ourselves, "is it the screener making these rules, or Washington?" Just maybe, we'll realize the screeners are just doing their job as instructed...and a letter to Washington is better than scorn for the screeners. Communication Skills Start In Washington~Honest, clear and easy to understand communication can help the screeners work with the traveling public. One would suggest that an area for VAST IMPROVEMENT would be easily understandable communication strategies for the screeners to use when explaining a procedure. These explanations could be easily crafted in Washington and passed to screeners via their daily shift briefings. Examples of questions and TSA 'Suggested Answers' (some tongue in cheek): Question - "Do I LOOK like a terrorist to you?"Answer (tongue in cheek) - "I don't know that I have ever seen a terrorist...so I don't know."Question - "Why do I have to show my ID to get through security?" Answer - "One reason is to help the airlines make sure that the person buying the ticket is indeed using the ticket and the other is because by limiting the number of people who go through security to just those who need to...we HOPE to reduce lines for you!"Question - "Why do I have to throw out my food?" Answer - "Because the consistency of foods can be similar to known explosives. While we know it is terribly inconvenient, it is also our policy to err on the side of caution to try and help keep you safe when you travel."Question - "Why do I have to take off my shoes?"Answer - "Experience has taught us that when terrorists try a tactic, they may try it again. There was once a attempted shoe bomber, so we want to make sure that never happens again."Question - "How come I have to show my boarding pass AGAIN (to the screener working the walk through metal detector)?"Answer - "To double check ourselves, because good security requires back up checks."Just for fun...ask these same questions when you travel next and be prepared for poorly crafted answers...which usually start with the words..."the rules say..." Checking IDs - At some airports, I show my ID and boarding pass 3x...other times I show it 2x...and sometimes I show it 1x. Problem - I never know what to do with it. First - ID checker at the beginning of the security line Second - screener at walk through metal detectorThird - upon exiting the 'screening area'Suggestions~1. Ask the carriers to add a field in their data base to enable something like (PLEASE KEEP YOUR BOARDING PASS WITH YOU FOR SECURITY SCREENING) to be printed on the boarding pass - preferably near where the GATE # is printed/written2. Ensure coordination between screeners - as I left Austin I was told I didn't need my boarding pass again...only to be chastised for not having it at the walk through metal detector. The Rules - it used to be a carrier responsibility to ensure that ID/boarding passes were checked (and the carriers would employ the most cost effective solution to staffing that position that did not include their own personnel). This is why there was a disconnect between those companies and the TSA...as they didn't work together. NOW, we have the TSA doing it at significant cost...Next step...instead of simply replacing the prior employees with TSA screeners, look at how to consolidate that work in the actual screening process to eliminate duplication of effort and apply those screeners more effectively across the checkpoints. Neils Post~I agree with you...and offer this bit of information. The TSA is hoping to create a random environment that is difficult to predict for 'would be' bad guys. Everyone knows that the truly skilled bad guys are not fooled by these efforts; however there are others who we don't commonly think about...who are regular folks gone bad...who would do harm. Let's call them the Amateur Bad Guys. The TSA efforts are more akin to stopping these individuals. If one were to talk to the airport police about their day-to-day work day...one would be amazed by all the crazy stuff that they deal with; jilted boyfriend gone mad, failed marriages and ensuing behavior of those folks, people 'testing the system,' Amateur Bad Guys, drug dealers with controlled substances trying to transport them, drug/arms dealers transporting large sums of cash that show up on the x-ray as large blocks of organic material etc. Periodically there are even events that one would never suspect...like the time an airport employee climbed onto the ticket counter and began flapping his arms and crowing like a chicken...just basically losing it and need psychological evaluation. Or another time that an airport empoloyee was found scaling a fence (in uniform) before being apprehended...and was soon found to be mentally unstable and submitted for psychiatric care. All of this brings me to my point...which is that I agree with your assessment that anything that happens on an airplane now will be met by 50 passengers throwing laptops and every imaginable item while pummeling the individual stupid enough to try and take control of the aircraft. As the TSA continues to maintain the illusion of security to keep the Amateur Bad Guy from striking, let's hope that our government focuses on cargo and access to the sterile area by non-screened individuals. Plastic Bags for toiletries~Suggestion - Opportunity - Companies want advertisingOpportunity - TSA (airport authority) could generate revenue and a serviceHave the TSA (or airport authority) allow businesses to provide 'branded' plastic bags to consumers...Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Kayak/SideStep are just a few that are no brainers...OR, regional identities - * Microsoft for Seattle* Google for San Francisco* Disney for Orlando/Orange County* Ski resorts for Denver ...the list goes on and on! Thank you for having this blog and for your willingness to post even extremely critical comments. I also appreciate that you sometimes respond to the comments. I hope this blog helps the TSA improve. quote: Trollkiller said... Anonymous said... Hi.I had an umbrella confiscated by the TSA at the Portland (Oregon) Memorial Coliseum prior to a Barack Obama rallyI thought TSA = Transportation Security Administration. Why in the world is the TSA providing security for Barack? Does the Portland Coliseum have an airport, bus or train station? Providing security for anything other than transportation is CLEARLY NOT YOUR JOB.Who approached the TSA with this idea?Who authorized this outside work? Who paid for the TSA's time and equipment?I think this falls into the category of GROSS mismanagement, GROSS waste, and fraud.The TSA officers in question were on loan to the Secret Service. This has been common practice since at least the 2004 election. We have the training to conduct searches. While working these events we are following Secret Service directions. I would hardly call this practice waste or fraud. If we did not assist our brother agency, they would have to hire outside contractors. These would have to have some sort of background check and training. Instead, the government is being smart and efficient for a change by using its own employees that are already trained and vetted. The employees that do these events are working on their days off so security at the airport is not compromised. A very upset Anonymous person wrote:And he, along with a great many others, aren't going to be pleased with my answer, but at least I'm trying to give an answer.I would also like to see the EXACT information that TSA agents are trained to especially in regards to dealing with the handicapped. Since every airport seems to follow different rules, at this point I am assuming that there are NO standard rules.You're not going to get it, since I'm fairly certain that would be considered SSI information.However, your assumption would be incorrect. We do, in fact, have a Standard Operating Procedure. The differences between the airports, however, are brought from how any number of various supervisors and managers choose to execute those, and the fact that, while nobody can do less than the SOP requires, they can do moreExample?Shoes have to be removed when going through the walk-through metal detector (I understand there are a couple of exceptions to this, pilot programs and what-not, but that's the general rule). To do less, to not require this (again, in general), is against the regulations. To do more, however, and require that all shoes in a carry-on be removed and x-rayed seperately? I can only imagine that being inconvenient as hell, but it would, technically, be permissable.I want to see the EXACT wording in the formal documentation that tells the TSA police what to do.We're not police, and you're not going to get it. Again, all of that information is considered to be SSI, and cannot be released by any except the.. oh.. I think it is the TSA Administrator himself/herself.Here are the two scenarios that I am interested in:1.) Handicapped person can not remove shoes and walk. The person alarms when walking through the detector..What happens now?2.) Handicapped person can not remove shoes and walk. The person does not alarm when walking through the detector...What happens now?Again, I can't give you the exact wording that you want, but I can tell you, in the scope of those scenarios, what is required:1. The passenger must be sent for secondary screening, and since they alarmed will require a hand-held metal detector screening, followed by a pat-down at the end. The shoes themselves will be tested and screened while remaining on the passenger's feet.(though it behooves the passenger to [while remaining civil, please; civility helps passengers so much] inform the screener that they cannot remove their shoes)2. The passenger will be sent for secondary screening, though since he passed the WWMD without alarming, all that must be screened is his footwear, and in the same method of scenario #1.Now, bear in mind, that's the baseline on what would be absolutely required. Any airport is able to go above and beyond the scope of what is deemed to be minimum - if one of the Powers That Be decided that anyone and everyone being referred for secondary screening had to undergo an HHMD screening, then they would be within their rights to do just that, and the absolute minimum doesn't apply - they're not doing less, they're doing more.I know you're not going to be satisfied with this answer, but it is the best that I personally can give. "I want to see the EXACT wording in the formal documentation that tells the TSA police what to do."I must say that you will almost certainly not be allowed to see the "exact wording." Please, let me explain.Whether we like it or not, there are "bad guys" out there who do intend harm to the U.S. and its citizens. There have been incidents in Europe. There have been plots broken and people arrested both in Europe and in the U.S. They are out there. As a screener, I would like to believe that my work is helping to keep you safe.The mission of TSA is to make it as difficult as possible for the bad guys to act. To that end a certain amount of randomness is deliberately built into our procedures. And we are modifying and changing our procedures as we are made aware of new or different threats. Most of these changes never reach the publics attention.Any information that the bad guys can gain about our procedures and techniques could weaken our systems. If they know what we do and how we do it, they know what they need to avoid. We don't want them to have that advantage. So, we do not allow the public to have access to our SOP.There is an implication in your post, and others like it, that just because you have a disability, you cannot be dangerous. Well, just last fall, a person with a disability smuggled a hand gun into a prison by hiding it in a wheelchair. Nor is that a new idea. Thirty years ago in a newspaper comic strip, I remember a story line in which a person used a disability to smuggle a hand gun onto a airplane in order to commit an act of air piracy.Screening is very uncomfortable for the passenger with disabilities. It is also uncomfortable for the screener. Good screeners understand how intrusive it is. For that reason it is part of our refresher training program and our annual competency testing.I suppose this is not the answer you were hoping for, but I hope it at least help clear up some of the confusion. Screener Joe... I was not in any way satisfied with your dismissive response to the retired Naval Officer who has disabilities and trouble getting through screening:"... I very much doubt if congress would be willing to pay to install such a system. We have enough trouble getting them to cough up the money to buy equipment to replace what we wear out.We have no recourse but to treat all passengers as nearly the same as possible. Our SOP has provisions for persons with disabilities, and most airports have local procedures for implementing those provisions. Inform the screeners of your special needs when you arrive at the checkpoint; at most places we can adapt.Yes, I am aware that at some airports the screeners are not as polite or as patient as I would wish. I would ask that you please be patient with us. Most of us are doing the best we can.March 21, 2008 5:39 PM1. If TSA were particularly adept at managing its budgets (it is not, see the 2007 GAO report that excoriates TSA for its uncertain budgeting practices for example in the way it maintains its screening machines, its high turnover rate -- very costly, and its general mismanagement overall -- "Heckuva Job, Kip")2. Your SOP has provisions for dealing with people with disabilities that include forcing people who can't walk to walk, people who can't remove their shoes to remove their shoes, not providing places for these people to put their shoes on again once they've managed to get through the process, and you're telling me that they will vary from place to place? This sounds like a blatant violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. How is it that you haven't been sued yet? Or is immunity from such suits written into your charter (I admit that I haven't had the bandwidth yet to see if that got written into your enabling act)?3. You ask that we, the traveling public be patient with you? No dice. How about you, the government who serves the traveling public, actually serve the traveling public -- especially those who have given so much for this country. We as a people have been patient enough with the lies and obfuscations of the TSA, and every other government intrusion into our lives that has been brought on in the name of "homeland security" since 9/11 to save us from the "terrists" and the other assorted non-christian brown people from overseas. It's time for the government to show us some results. Most unfortunately, the TSA makes it extremely difficult for the disabled traveler to know that he/she has every right to refuse to remove his/her shoes. All one needs to do is to state to a screener something to effect of "I have a medical condition and cannot remove my shoes." The screener may not ask the traveler any questions about that condition.Those stations that force everyone to remove shoes need to be instructed in the ADA. It is a disgrace to the TSA to force the elderly and infirm (as well as infants) to remove their shoes.I have seen old people in wheelchairs made to get up out of their chairs and walk, shuffle, through the WTMD. That, too, is a disgrace to your agency.The rules need to change.The AARP, the American Diabetes Association, elder care centers, gerontologists, etc. all need begin to instruct their members/clients/patients to refuse to remove their shoes when transiting a checkpoint. Why aren't TSA staff levels matched to the airlines schedules and capacity levels? Why must there be waits of over an hour at large airports (Atlanta, Chicago, etc)? This would take planning and monitoring based on reservations and the actual schedule. McDonalds, grocery stores, Wal-Mart and others can adjust to the ebbs and flows of volume. Why can't TSA at large airports? Screener Joe... You make me want to tear what's left of my hair out:Whether we like it or not, there are "bad guys" out there who do intend harm to the U.S. and its citizens. There have been incidents in Europe. There have been plots broken and people arrested both in Europe and in the U.S. They are out there. As a screener, I would like to believe that my work is helping to keep you safe.How many times do we have to go over this? The TSA has not been responsible for finding so many as one of these so called "plots" or foiling so many as one of these would be "terrorists". Plain old fashioned intelligence and police work has been the key to this. You would like to think that you're keeping us safe, but you're not. You're just keeping people afraid in a very visible way. Keep screening cargo -- or keep moving toward screening cargo (uh, how is it that we have to wait til 2010 when the threat is so omenous?????). Keep screening checked baggage (subject to the many good ideas that people have submitted for keeping the theft problem in check on other parts of the blog) and take the checkpoint security back to what it was pre-9/11. Remember, it wasn't the fact that the guys had the boxcutters that made them able to take over the planes -- it was the fact that they were able to get into the cockpits. We got that covered now.Don't p*** on my shoes and tell me it's raining Joe. I ain't buying it, and fortunately, it looks as if a great number of others aren't either. airport screening is just one example of our society's total over reaction/paranoic collective conciousness. While 9/11 was a horrific event - to put it in perspective: blow up one 747 jet every 10 minutes and that is the rate of how many children under the age of 5 are dying every 10 minutes!!! In the meantime, the terrorists are laughing hysterically and are totally energized by our society's collective psychosis. Does anyone honestly think a plane can by highjacked in this day and age? At least 25% (a guess) of the passengers would be attacking the terrorists...aka...pennsylvania plan heroes on 9/11 TSA does not like screening the disabled and as such want to make the process so disagreable that the disabled will cease flying. Might be time to call TSA about discrimination. Might be time to get the AARP involved as well. Screening is very uncomfortable for the passenger with disabilities.Yes, and TSA makes it even more uncomfortable for the disabled/elderly to fly.It is also uncomfortable for the screener.Part of doing your job so shut up and stop whining about that part of it.Good screeners understand how intrusive it is. For that reason it is part of our refresher training program and our annual competency testing.Make it so uncomfortable for the disabled that they stop flying and you've won. You won't have to deal with them anymore. You will, though have to deal with their letter writing campaigns. Yes, I am aware that at some airports the screeners are not as polite or as patient as I would wish. I would ask that you please be patient with us. Most of us are doing the best we can.You're making your problem our problem. Since when should the traveling public be forced to deal with your inability to properly do your job? What if one of your close relatives was subjected to the torture your coworkers regularly subject other disabled people to? Would you tell them that the screener had a bad day and to just put up with a screening process? What would you do yourself? what's equally disturbing to me is how many people (including me) are reluctant/afraid to post their names. We are choosing anonymous. Even though we have code linking to us, we are "afraid" other people may deem us unpatriotic with potential repercussions. Total paranoid society is developing/has developed. Consider this;A. in the majority of airports the most 'private' space a screener can take a break, is usually a coffee shopB. often, when a supervisor needs to have a briefing with their team, they do it in a very public settingC. Being a screener is like being 'on stage' 8-10 hours per day...with every mis-step or frown being noticed D. Screeners are not empowered to effect change - how many times have you questioned a policy and gotten a 'good' answer? None of those issues are the traveling public's responsibility. If you don't like your job then find another (sort of like TSOs who've said "if you don't like the screening process then find a different way to travel.") Does anyone honestly think a plane can by highjacked in this day and age? At least 25% (a guess) of the passengers would be attacking the terrorists...aka...pennsylvania plan heroes on 9/11Terrorist: Remain calm. This plane is being hijacked.Passengers: WTF?Lots of noise and some screams from the hijacker.Passengers: He's pretty much stopped moving. You don't have to stomp on him anymore. No, really, his hands are crushed. Passengers: Just one more kick to the head for inconviencing us? I love the phrase "I ain't buying it", don't p*** on my shoes and say its raining. thats just gold Paragraph breaks are mine. BGR TSO said...The TSA officers in question were on loan to the Secret Service. This has been common practice since at least the 2004 election. We have the training to conduct searches. While working these events we are following Secret Service directions. I would hardly call this practice waste or fraud. If we did not assist our brother agency, they would have to hire outside contractors. These would have to have some sort of background check and training.Instead, the government is being smart and efficient for a change by using its own employees that are already trained and vetted. The employees that do these events are working on their days off so security at the airport is not compromised.Sorry I am not buying the "outside contractor, background check" argument. If the Obama rally was a "one of" event I would support your "loaner TSO" plan. The fact is TSOs are being used at rally after rally. According to you TSOs have been loaned out since 2004.Do you really think it is more efficient to use a security team that is unfamiliar with the venue, unfamiliar with Secret Service protocol and changes day to day and venue to venue?Don't you think a more efficient use of resources would be hiring a contract security company, assuming the Secret Service does not have enough of their own people, to screen at Obama rallies day after day? The use of TSO instead of professional contract security brings up a few questions.What budget do the loaner TSOs get paid from? TSA, Treasury Dept., or Obama's campaign?What law or rule allows for the loaning of TSOs? (Just a general answer here is good. No need to make Francine look up all the case law on a Easter weekend)Who paid for the moving and setting up the equipment?Are TSOs allowed to take other off duty security jobs and wear their TSA issued uniform?If a TSO makes rude comment or steals, what department takes the complaint? TSA or Secret Service?The TRANSPORTATION Security Agency needs to stick with transportation security until they can do that right on a consistent basis. If the TSA wants to be the Wal~Mart for all the Govt. screening needs, they need to change the name. How about "The Screening Agency", that way you don't have to change the monogram on the Kip's towels. Orlando Airport. Friday 10 AM. Tried to report an unattended bag to Burger King staff since it was at their table counter. Nobody cared. Walked to the nearest gate. They told me to use the courtesy phone. TSA isn't an option. Lost and found is. They said they dont have the manpower to go all over the airport and pick up bags. (this was all recorded on the phone call). Why play "report all unattended bags using the courtesy phone" when you cant actually do it? Anonymous said... Consider this; A. in the majority of airports the most 'private' space a screener can take a break, is usually a coffee shop B. often, when a supervisor needs to have a briefing with their team, they do it in a very public setting C. Being a screener is like being 'on stage' 8-10 hours per day...with every mis-step or frown being noticed D. Screeners are not empowered to effect change - how many times have you questioned a policy and gotten a 'good' answer?***************** None of those issues are the traveling public's responsibility. If you don't like your job then find another (sort of like TSOs who've said "if you don't like the screening process then find a different way to travel.") I disagree, ALL those issues are the traveling public's (read American citizens) responsibility. The TSA works FOR us. They are OUR employees.If we allow poorly trained employees, improper procedures, bad management, or poor working conditions to continue because we take the "too bad so sad" attitude, we will get what we deserve.We are the bosses of our Government. It answers to us, not the other way around. EVERY government employee from the President down to the janitor answers to us, but we must demand answers and not rest until we get them. "YOU WILL NOT HAVE ACCESS TO SUCH INFORMATION AS IT IS DEEMED SENSITIVE SECURITY INFORMATION BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY."Standard operating procedure is now considered SSI? I smell a rat. Why would someone need a security clearance (which, by the way, I have. Are CAC readers so expensive you can't put just one in every airport?) to find out whether or not they need to remove their shoes, and what their basic rights are?Someone later on said something to the effect of "you void your 4th Amendment rights when you travel without photo ID". Though the TSA, through executive charter (which has not yet been reviewed by a judicial body - I'll give it a couple years maximum before it's completely overturned), has "voided" 4th Amendment rights in the first place (who needs probable cause, anyway?), there is no case law or precedent for "no ID = no 4th". In fact, I believe that there's been at least one case that has decided that NOT showing ID is in fact an exercise of one's 4th Amendment rights - which is why the TSA can't require photo ID for domestic flights.Your agency needs to have clearly documented and implemented procedures for every single one of your employees and contractors to follow. There are 43,000 of you total, according to your website. There are three million active and reserve members of the United States military, and we do a much harder job than you much more efficiently. I know you've only been a real government agency for a little under six years, but it's time to pull it together. You often state that "lives are at stake" - please act like it. I've been reading this blog for a month or so, and what strikes me is that the TSOs who post don't understand that they'll never get the trust they want until the TSA changes its approach. Uneven enforcement of rules and refusal to standardize and disclose requirements has created in the minds of many Americans the impression that the TSA is either corrupt or incompetent. Neither impression inclines Americans to be particularly cooperative or sympathetic, as reflected in the comments here.Terrorists seek to disrupt the normal functioning of society through the use of violence, and I'd say that the TSA is proof that OBL and his gang have succeeded nicely. Personally, I preferred this country when it was less safe and less fearful. EVERY government employee from the President down to the janitor answers to us, but we must demand answers and not rest until we get them.Want to fly today? Want us to call a LEO over to have you arrested? Go over there for additional screening.Neither the President nor the janitor can have us summarily either detained or arrested. On the other hand a TSO who has a burr under his saddle can do all of those things plus some. They are an agency running open loop and answer to no one, especially the unwashed masses who fly. winstonsmith said: "The TSA has not been responsible for finding so many as one of these so called "plots" or foiling so many as one of these would be "terrorists"."Do I understand your opinion correctly: you are saying that since we can't prove we're perfect we should quit trying? TSA is not supposed to "catch" terrorists as you seem to challange us to do. We are supposed to create a barrior between the terrorist and the passengers on that airplane. Our job is to make it difficult enough for the bad guy that he does not make the attempt.I cannot prove that the work of the TSA has dissuaded anyone from trying to attack a plane. You cannot prove that we haven't. Standard operating procedure is now considered SSI? I smell a rat. Why would someone need a security clearance BOY, YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT COMPLETELY - DID IT EVER ACCUR TO YOU DO NOT NEED A SECRET CLEARANCE FOR YOUR JOBS SSI INFORMATION THAT USE MUST USE TO PERFORM YOUR JOB??IF YOU ACTUALLY WERE AWARE OF THIS, YOU WOULD NOT HAVE COMMENTED ON THAT. Oh Screener Joe... let's look at what you said:winstonsmith said: "The TSA has not been responsible for finding so many as one of these so called "plots" or foiling so many as one of these would be "terrorists"."Do I understand your opinion correctly: you are saying that since we can't prove we're perfect we should quit trying?Joe, you clearly don't understand much. What you don't get is that you can't claim that you are keeping us safe from plots such as the London bomb plot or any other plot that never actually makes it to a TSA checkpoint. You and other TSOs seem to like to support yourselves by saying that "they're out there and we're catching them." Well, "they're" out there, and actual police and genuine investigatory agencies are catching them while you good people at the TSA are busiliy treating innocent travelers as if they were criminals. Not only can't you prove you are perfect Joe, you can't even prove you're effective. So yes, quit. Please. Take checkpoint security back to what it was pre 9/11 and leave the cockpit doors bolted. We'd all be better off for it.TSA is not supposed to "catch" terrorists as you seem to challange us to do.That's your "challenged" interpretation of what I said. I never used any such language. What you are supposed to do as an agency is to keep guns, large knives, and actual explosives off of planes, a job that was done just as well if not better by the private security companies pre-9/11 as you do today and without all the needless and wholesale violation of people's rights and sensibilities.We are supposed to create a barrior between the terrorist and the passengers on that airplane. Our job is to make it difficult enough for the bad guy that he does not make the attempt.And your own agency's audits, as well as audits by the GAO in 2003, and 2006 have shown that your efforts are largely ineffective in keeping dangerous items from going through the checkpoints (in addition to numerous anecdotal items that appear right here on this very blog about missed items that passengers were surprised made it through). So why are you still on the job?I cannot prove that the work of the TSA has dissuaded anyone from trying to attack a plane. You cannot prove that we haven't.March 22, 2008 9:53 PMJoe, it is not up to me to prove anything. Your agency is making the extraordinary claim to be providing us incremental safety, therefore it is up to the TSA to provide the extraordinary evidence to support the claim. I make no claims, but I do point out the demonstrable facts that you as an agency aren't doing anything any better than we had before, but at a much greater cost to the flying public, to the airlines, and to the rights and civil liberties of all people who fly in the United States. The burden of proof is on the TSA and on the government in general to prove that its extraordinary measures have yielded extraordinary results, not on the flying public to prove that governmental claims of "trust me" are all wet.What's that I smell?... oh that's right, you are still telling me it's raining and my shoes are wet yet there's not a cloud in the sky. No sale Joe. Anonymous said...Want to fly today? Want us to call a LEO over to have you arrested? Go over there for additional screening.Neither the President nor the janitor can have us summarily either detained or arrested. On the other hand a TSO who has a burr under his saddle can do all of those things plus some. They are an agency running open loop and answer to no one, especially the unwashed masses who fly.The President may not be able to but his security team can, or at least Cheney's security can. You are right, at this point the TSA is running in an open loop. It is up to us, to close that loop.I encourage you, do not bow down to threats. Stand up. Refuse shoddy treatment from TSOs. Stand on every one of your Federal Constitutional rights and your State Constitutional rights. I'm sure the TSA has noticed since they initiated these blogs the repition of how passengers report how they are treated or mis-treated. Despite that the TSA has never officially addressed these complaints. Sure the TSA bloggers have at different times and in different tomes replied to some of those complaints but never a blog decicated to treatment of passengers. Yes there has been a blog on liquid, a blog on the legal foundations of TSA, how the TSA searches bags, etc, etc. But nothing on the basic most common gripes posted here. I find it even more surprising that the TSA Mission, Vision and Core Values does not address this most fundamental aspect. MissionThe Transportation Security Administration protects the Nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.VisionThe Transportation Security Administration will continuously set the standard for excellence in transportation security through its people, processes, and technology.Core ValuesTo enhance mission performance and achieve our shared goals, we are committed to promoting a culture founded on these values:Integrity: We are a people of integrity who respect and care for others. We are a people who conduct ourselves in an honest, trustworthy and ethical manner at all times. We are a people who gain strength from the diversity in our cultures. Innovation: We are a people who embrace and stand ready for change. We are a people who are courageous and willing to take on new challenges. We are a people with an enterprising spirit, striving for innovations who accept the risk-taking that comes with it. Team Spirit: We are a people who are open, respectful and dedicated to making others better. We are a people who have a passion for challenge, success and being on a winning team. We are a people who will build teams around our strengths. Screener Joe - You said:"I cannot prove that the work of the TSA has dissuaded anyone from trying to attack a plane. You cannot prove that we haven't."The TSA can do better than that. Of all the passengers that have been arrested due to suspicious behavior or fraudulent travel documents, or had firearms found at checkpoints, or artfully concealed prohibited items found at checkpoints, or were involved in a checkpoint closure, terminal evacuation or sterile area breach, or were disruptive on flights, how many actually were involved in a terrorist group or plot?Certainly all of this above issues were further investigated by TSA or LEO. How many were involving a person with terrorist intentions? Any? If some were just "testing" the system certainly the TSA or LEO would have investigated their backgrounds and affiliations. In that case how many were found to have connections to known terrorist organizations?All of the items that were used in the 9-11 hijackings were allowed, then and now, to be brought on a plane. So what is different? The principal difference is that passengers today, like those on United 93 and American 63, will rise-up and defend to the death, any threat to the safety of the aircraft and fellow passengers.It would be totally impossible for an aircraft to be hijacked today and used as a weapon. Sorry I made one mistake in my previous post. One of the items reportedly used during the 9-11 hijackings were box cutters that were allowed then but are currently not allowed. However one item allowed today, and then, are scissors less than 4" in length. As everyone knows a scissor blade less than 4" length is still greater than the length of the exposed blade in a box cutter. i would like to just post a grin and a gripe at the same time...just got home from RSW in FL (Fort Myers)and here is what happened, got to the airport at 430 for a 730 flight (ok, early) checked into Delta, and bags checked in too, and then got boarding passes and then went through security, no problem, fast, the agents were nice etc. go through security, FLIGHT CANCELED... have to go back to delta counter (outside security) and have them book us on a continental flight to NEWARK instead of LGA... then new boarding passes, and into security again and surprise surprise, pulled over for random check cause we had left, got new boarding passes and all...ok, the agent who checked my things was really nice, so i am happy about that as were the female agent who did my sisters things and the other male agent who handled my dads. we got our boarding passes stamped cleared by TSA and the date. went to the gate and then when the 630 (full flight) NEWARK left, we asked if we could get seats together, ok, the ticket agents at the desk for CONTINENTAL were happy to change our seats, but took our freshly stamped TSA CLEARED boarding passes and didnt return them...gripe- went to board the 830 flight to NEWARK already 15 min late, a alarm went off when the new agents checked the boarding passes- hmm we were supposed to be checked by TSA and werent, so we have to be again... telling the agent for continental- ummm we were checked, look it up- they said they had to have a TSA agent come and check us again- is it possible to maybe get a computer system where- TSA agents can input the passengers name on a list, with the airline too, so the airline can pull it up, if a seat change has occurred or if, the alarm goes off?grin- two TSA agents came over, and the female one had already checked us, and was like, you again, and told the flight agents that we were clear and stamped us and sent us on our way... whew!!!! that is awesome, and thank u TSA for that! A couple of recent experienceshave left me deeply troubled about the state of the TSA and airport security in general.In October of 2007, I was returning to Honolulu from Miami International. In the security line, I showed the TSA attendant my photo ID (a Hawai'i driver's licence) and my boarding pass. He told me that my ID was not valid and that I needed a passport. After a moment of stunned silence, I asked why it was valid enough for me to get to Miami but not for the return trip. He once again said that I would need a passport. I then asked him if he realized that Hawai'i was a part of the U.S., at which point he said that he'd "let me go this time" but that in the future, I should have a passport as a valid ID.On another trip between Honolulu and Hilo in December of 2007, my wife and three daughters (ages 4,2,and 9 months at the time) as well as myself were singled out for extra screening. All of us, including my infant, were patted down and thoroughly inspected. I have absolutely no problem being inspected, and I realize there are issues with profiling, but there seems to be a disconnect with reality on the part of many of the screeners. Of the more than 100 passengers on that flight, a couple with 3 young children are singled out for extra screening? Gimme a break! Lowlights~LowLight 1.~Screener Joe...being curt in your response to the individual with a physical hardship, when they simply asked how they would be handled. Just like the checkpoint...unhelpful at times. * HOW ABOUT THIS - anyone who alarms the WTMD will need to have the source of the alarm identified. If that means taking a sterile piece of cloth and 'tracing' their shoes etc...then that's what will happen. DID THIS JUST VIOLATE SSI...nope...common sense Screener Joe. LowLight 2.~ NO VOTING BUTTONS on TSA posts. You would have an immediate feedback mechanism that tells you how your answers/statements are being received. MAYBE this preponderance of evidence/response would be enough to wake some folks up to how things are being done?LowLight 3.~LACKING FACTUAL STATEMENTS - 1) Testing - has anyone bothered to see the results of the Red Team Testing? WATERED DOWN EXPLANATION - (Red Team Testing) - a bunch of folks from Washington DC hit each checkpoint simultaneously with tests that are meant to measure screening effectiveness. Once the first test is registered, a call goes out to the other checkpoints to be on the alert to testing. Despite this...the results are no better than when private screening companies were working the checkpoints. IS IT THE TRAINING? (IMO) - the TSA screeners receive 5x more initial training than the private screeners before them. TSA screeners receive recurrent training that eclipses what private screening companies were budgeted for...yet the results are the same. COULD IT BE THE EQUIPMENT? - the x-ray equipment etc that is used to screen for IEDs etc are inadequate. If one understands how the machines actually function technically, the ability to thwart them is even easier. WHAT THE ISRAELIS DO DIFFERENTLY THAN WE DO - they do through review of boarding passengers (profiling or what the TSA now calls 'behavior officers' or something akin to that). After all...one could have a 10 lb bomb on an airplane...and unless that person had ill intent...the plane is safe. THE LESSON HERE - it is not 'what' is on the airplane...it is 'who' (with the exception of explosives in cargo).OH, and before we have to read another politely structured statement from the TSA about testing effectiveness...can some writer for some paper use FOIA and get the results, as it is shocking. LASTLY...the comments I posted earlier on these points (copied at the bottom) are meant to highlight that Washington is letting down their own people. When the TSA rolled out, the screeners were promised break rooms, lockers, internet access to be able to manage their payroll accounts, proper anti fatigue mats etc...of which the screeners received none of those things. SCHEDULING...WASTED RESOURCES...how many airports are still using excel by a 'Scheduling Manager' who has no way of tying the passenger loads of the airlines into their manpower forecasts? How ridiculous is that...to be unable to 'forecast' the passenger load when every airline knows their loads in advance? THE IMPACT - 1. tax payer money being thrown away by inefficient practices2. Screener Morale is impacted - consider the impact on the screener who asked for a day off...and is told 'no' only to find a half empty checkpoint because the TSA can't forecast passenger loads. 3. Higher burnout and turnover4. Long lines and not enough resources to handle them or too many screeners manning empty checkpoints (back to point #1)If the TSA was less like a government organization and more like a business, these practices would have been fixed out of necessity. Wasteful practices abound... It makes me sad to see a screener have to sit in a gate area to take their break and eat something. It makes me sad when a screener can't have a moment of privacy to call family or loved ones during a break. It makes me sad that the way the screeners have been let down by Washington has caused some to feel like their behavior to the public is OK...like being rude or impatient or unwilling to explain is somehow forgiven...because of what they were promised and didn't receive. Consider this;A. in the majority of airports the most 'private' space a screener can take a break, is usually a coffee shopB. often, when a supervisor needs to have a briefing with their team, they do it in a very public settingC. Being a screener is like being 'on stage' 8-10 hours per day...with every mis-step or frown being noticedD. Screeners are not empowered to effect change - how many times have you questioned a policy and gotten a 'good' answer? Thanks for listening! Please fill the trunk of your car with food, drinks, and condiments and drive to your destination!Don't forget your GAS card! Please fill the trunk of your car with food, drinks, and condiments and drive to your destination!Don't forget your GAS card!I do that if the trip is less than 500 miles.1.5 hours drive to airport2.0 hours early1.5 hours flight0.5 hours waiting for luggage0.5 hours waiting for rental cartotal 6.0 hoursI also get $.51 per mile, tax free, when I drive for business. In flyover country a person can drive at 65-75 MPH. "Please fill the trunk of your car with food, drinks, and condiments and drive to your destination!Don't forget your GAS card!"What a pathetic comment. If you are a TSO you are a disgrace to the job and your fellow TSO's who are attempting to keep people safe. Your attitude is why you personally are held in such low esteem.Any one in this country that wants to avoid people in the TSA who think like this can easily do so, still fly to thousands of locations in the country, and never run into this joker. It is called General Aviation, you are treated with respect, and you will wonder why there even is a TSA. "Please fill the trunk of your car with food, drinks, and condiments and drive to your destination!Don't forget your GAS card!"Well you pretty much sum up what is the worst attitude a TSO could possibly have. Do you hate your job? Do you think that abusing the public is a right that comes with your TSA uniform? I hope your fellow TSO's root you out, their workplace would be a much better place without you. To DuaneObviously I don't have all the facts, but your side was horrifying enough to warrant further investigation. Please don't stop at the Albany FSD. If you indeed believe a crime was committed, contact the local police and file charges. TSA needs to learn that government is "for the people" - and not against them. Maybe if screeners realized that they may have to explain their actions in a court of law, some of this would stop. At the Kalispell, Montana airport, they did not open the security check line till less than half an hour before flight time. We joined the line in plenty of time, but were at the end. The plane took off before we got through the line. We surmise that the contractors maximized their profit by minimizing the time the line was open. Anonymous said... "Please fill the trunk of your car with food, drinks, and condiments and drive to your destination!Don't forget your GAS card!"Why do you automatically assume that this was a TSO?It could just as easily not been a TSO who made this post.If it was a TSO, Shame on you, Quit and go to work at a fast food joint!If it was not a TSO, this shows the abuse that TSO's have to deal with when everyone assume it was a TSO making that statement.P.S. Naysayers, (especially winstonsmith) Please consider the following: What if the terrorist plot is to blow up the plane in the sky over a major American city and not a repeat of 9-11? Does this change the equation for you?Well, does it? The traveling public is comprised of many travelers today that are ignorant to the fact that the world we live in today is not all "PEACHY" and well. I do agree that PEANUT BUTTER nor STRAWBERRY JAM can destroy you. But why make the job harder for TSA or TSO's from doing their job? Because you want to make a point that your hungry and that PEANUT BUTTER won't blow up? If the Dept Of the NAVY would allow me to again volunteer to go overseas and take someone with me to show them what kind of people there are out there. And what they are capable of, I would gladly do so. But in the meantime enjoy your peanut butter and Jelly sandwitch because I will continue to do my job and discard it. I do not understand the TSA policy by which my identification card/passport and boarding pass is checked by a TSA officer at the head of the line, and then the boarding pass has to be checked 10 feet away as I pass through the metal detector. Why can't the first check enough - there is no place for anyone to go or for anyone to join the queue. Figure this one. I have a TSA approved lock (i.e., one for which the TSA has a key) for my suitcase, although I usually carry on. On one flight recently, however, I checked my bag .. but forgot to lock the suitcase. Thus, the lock was attached and secured, but not preventing the suitcase from being opened. When the bag arrived, the lock was removed, gone. Only a TSA person could have removed the lock. My husband and I are travelers in our 70's. We are so fed up with long lines, humiliating searches and inconvenience that we now skip flying entirely and take Amtrak whenever possible. Good food, nice seats, great scenery. We need more trains! Michael wrote:In October of 2007, I was returning to Honolulu from Miami International. ...He told me that my ID was not valid and that I needed a passport. ...I should have a passport as a valid ID.Oh.. my.. God..Far be it for me to rag on my own organization, or one of my fellow coworkers that work for that organization, but God-Almighty that is just stupid.On another trip between Honolulu and Hilo in December of 2007, my wife and three daughters (ages 4,2,and 9 months at the time) as well as myself were singled out for extra screening. ...Of the more than 100 passengers on that flight, a couple with 3 young children are singled out for extra screening? Gimme a break!Yeeeeeah... about that...See, the airline does this thing called selectee designation, which, so I understand, is done through a computer system known as CAPPS - Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening. While the ins and outs of this system are above my pay-grade, and are probably SSI, I can tell you that the reasons for being so selected number into the small thousands. Everything from a flight being cancelled and being rebooked on a different airline (as far as the computer is concerned, you just walked up to the counter and got the ticket) all the way down to good, old-fashioned random selection.It's one of the more common questions I've been asked over the course of the past six years - "Why was I selected?" - and that's the best I can tell them. I really, really don't know all of the things the airline associates with designating people as selectees; I only know that we have to screen them.And there's not a choice in it for us. One time, an entire flight of 12-year old girls flying home to China after a week in Space Camp got designated as selectees, and the only option we, as the TSA, had was to screen them and perform the bag searches on all of their carry-ons.And, on a final note, the way an airline designates people as selectees is not the much-maligned no-fly list nor even the "terrorist watch list" - it's something seperate from the two of those. It's more like a coding requirement in computers.If (this) is (that[+the other]) then (X), else (Y). The TSA does not make me feel safe at all. I was travelling on business out of BWI and when I was in the line to go through security, the "child" that was screening the bags had his head turned away from the screen and was having a conversation with his girlfriends. What is the point of screening bags when noone is watching? Anonymous said: All of the items that were used in the 9-11 hijackings were allowed, then and now, to be brought on a plane. So what is different? The principal difference is that passengers today, like those on United 93 and American 63, will rise-up and defend to the death, any threat to the safety of the aircraft and fellow passengers.This statement is entirely untrue. The items used in the hijackings on 911 are not permitted items any number of them or even all of them being caught by xray would have taken the tools used out of the hijackers hands. This includes the boxcutters, playdough/clay used in the fake bombs to control the passengers, and knives. Also those hijackers would be on no-fly lists as known terrorists and stopped while trying to purchase tickets. If they managed to get tickets a ticketchecker or BDO most likely would have picked up the very obvious signals and body language and sent them for extra screening. One or any number of these scenarios should have prevented 911 and the great loss of life.I have just mentioned the things the TSA does to prevent another 911. I'm not talking about the cockpit doors, the passengers being aware and willing to stop hijackings as that has also changed post 911. TSA screeners I would like to see what would happen if the tsa stopped working for 1 week. I assure you that after 20 plus firearms, god only knows how many knives, and maybe even an ied or two, gets onto an airplane then youll be a little less likely to complain about losing your 2 dollar toothpaste. In regards to the comments about the retired naval officer with the hip replacement, there is nothing in our policies at TSA that says that all passengers must remove their shoes, no exceptions. If a passenger states for any medical reason they are unable to remove their shoes then we are to do additional screening on the shoes and allow them to leave them on. No passenger can be forced to do anthing, we can only make suggestions. I am under the understanding that the whole screening process is done through passengers decisions. And to the people making the comments that the passenger should take a bus or train, that is not what TSA is about. Security may be number one priority but customer service follows close behind that and as a TSA officer it is our job to work with person's with disabilities and medical requests. I have no idea who some of these TSO's are, responding to some of these "Anonymous"idiots who post here.But as far as I am concerned, my greatest fear is that someone will walk in amongst people waiting in line and detonate a IED! The second fear I have is that I miss a IED that goes on a plane and blows up not only killing the "Anonymous" TSO haters here but those beautiful people who I swore to protect.Here is a few facts...first of all the late flights, the cancelled flights, the over booked flights are attributed to the Airlines and not the TSA. Our job is to do our best to protect you according guidlines set by the Department of Homeland Security.....Long Lines? One of the problems we have is that passengers do not understand or follow the instructions for the screening process. THE LESS ON BOARD BAGGAGE THE BETTER. Follow the 311 rule. If you pack a bag full of electronics and wires, its going to be search. Do you know what a detonator looks like? I do, but when you insist on bringing a bag on board with items that you won't need on the flight, there will be bag searches.Do you know what the latest intel is on IEDs being made to blow up a plane? We do and you won't be happy to know what they are doing. Someone say Peanut Butter earlier? We go to class and learn everyday. We are tested on our job knowledge and capabilities on a daily basis constantly. I am extremely cordial with passengers and go out of my way to greet the passenger, smile at the passenger, give helpful hints to the passenger, and wish them a great day and a happy flight, no matter what duty station I'm on. If you have a situation with a TSO, talk to the STSO and a Complaint form will be filled out. It will be submitted for review.This week I received three written compliments which made me very appreciable. Have you ever tried either one?In closing I see some legit complaints and I see others that are so off base it is pathetic. I thank you very much and if I can be of further service, let me know and folks, you have a great day!!!! I would like to post a complaint. Last week after picking up my checked bag, and getting to my car in long term parking, noticed that the TSA lock on my bag wasn't mine. Had to drive to the terminal, lug the suitcase into the counter, then was told to go to security, where they had to try 5 different keys to get the lock off my bag. Thank goodness they only switched the locks, my clothes were still in my suitcase. Don't think I'll bother buying another TSA lock... Patting down a child is disgraceful. Patting down a 9-month old is beyond belief.It's my suggestion that all parents teach their kids to scream for help if someone from the TSA touches them. They would just be putting into practice what hopefully they are already being taught - that you never let a stranger touch you and if someone does that, you scream. On a direct flight from Memphis to Detroit, jewelry was stolen from my suitcase. The jewelry was packed inside of a box, which was packed inside of a zipped up bagged. The jewelry were the only items taken, and no card was left to indicate that my luggage had been searched. I know that my suitcase had been tampered with, because the zippers were in a different location than where I put them. The only time my suitcase was out of my possession was when I turned it in to the TSA people at the airport in Memphis. The only way someone could have known that the jewelry was there was via Xray. My claims with TSA and the airlines were denied. Now, you tell me - who could have pulled off this theft? It MUST have involved a TSA employee, perhaps in cahoots with someone from the airlines. In any case, DON'T TRUST ANYONE with TSA. They're human beings and not all of them are honest! As one with a replacement knee, I am set aside for "special" treatment. Some TSA employees follow the necessary procedures pleasantly; others go far beyond the minimum procedures.For example, I have been asked to empty my pockets completely, even of items such as handkerchiefs and dollar bills that are clearly non-metallic. In one instance, my wallet was taken to be put through the detector, and was left unattended in plain sight for anyone to steal. I flew from Detroit to Amsterdam in early March. I normally carry a fair amount of tech toys; I get pulled over about half the time, which is understandable. However, this time the TSA official explained I had to remove my portable DVD player ahead of time. I remembered reading this, and pulled up the site on my iPhone; sure enough, it said 'full-size DVD players'. I explained this to the rep, explaining that's what you hook up to your TV at home. His response? "There's no such thing as a full-size DVD player." Since he had been quite polite up to that point (and thanked me for putting all my power cords in a bag), I didn't push the issue, but obviously at least one rep @ Detroit isn't quite familiar with what 'portable' means. How about training ALL TSA inspectors to recognize basic medical devices? I can't believe I still run into TSA inspectors who act like they have never seen nor heard of a CPAP machine. The last time I was at ELP the inspector obviously did not only know what a CPAP machine was, but became downright twitchy when the smear he ran on my CPAP machine came back positive. I explained to him that CPAP machines such as mine have air filters that trap organics and, thus, can give false positives in devices that test for explosives. It was clear to me that he had no idea what I was talking about. ....Long Lines? One of the problems we have is that passengers do not understand or follow the instructions for the screening process. THE LESS ON BOARD BAGGAGE THE BETTER. Follow the 311 rule. If you pack a bag full of electronics and wires, its going to be search. Do you know what a detonator looks like? I do, but when you insist on bringing a bag on board with items that you won't need on the flight, there will be bag searches.The only reason I fly is for business reasons. I fly at least 2x a week for 49 weeks out of the year. I carry lots of computer equipment with me (again job related), no liquids in carry on luggage, and have dealt with snotty TSOs (quite often) and professional TSOs (rarely). I know the routine (empty pockets into laptop bag, shoes, belt and glasses off, coat off, laptop out of bag and into a bin). I've arrived at an airport at 0430 to catch a flight at 0630 only to discover that neither the airlines nor TSA have opened up (what about the 2 hr rule?), have been rousted by a cop (MPLS) for standing at an empty line waiting to be first in line when they opened up the counter, and have been subjected to excesses by TSA hirlings.Your organization has a long way to go before I would consider it professional. I recently traveled through Amsterdam and Helsinki and was pleasantly surprised by how those security types handled passengers (both passport and gate screeners). Why can't TSA learn a lesson from those guys (who've a much longer history dealing with terrorists than the US)? I wince when seeing little children and the obviously disabled getting the 'treatment' from TSO's and have refrained from commenting. No more will I do that. Outrageous conduct, witnessed by me on the part of TSA will be reported to the local FSD and TSA hqtrs. I usually have lots of time on my hands while at the airport (arrive two hours early for check in and security screening). My family and I just flew from Phoenix today. The TSA folks were helpful and friendly through the security checkpoints. When we got home though, it was a big surprise to find all of my husbands sampoo, body wash, toothpaste and cream medicines with caps off leaking all over his clothes. My daughters suitcase had similar issues. I don't see why it has to be this way. It seems as though the people we are trusting and paying to secure our baggage are taking advantage of us. Here's an idea. Seal off the captain's cabin from the rest of the airplane. Give the cabin a separate entrance. Terrorists will not be able to enter cabin. Terrorism problem solved. We go back to reasonable (vs. excessive) precautions at our airports. Another anonymous poster said:P.S. Naysayers, (especially winstonsmith) Please consider the following:What if the terrorist plot is to blow up the plane in the sky over a major American city and not a repeat of 9-11?Does this change the equation for you?Well, does it?So what if the terrorist plot is to blow up the plane in the sky? Is the TSA equipped to catch these terrorists any better than the private screeners were pre-9/11? Nope. They are not. They are certainly no more capable of capturing things going through the checkpoints. Cargo is not yet screened 100%, so we can't claim that. We were already checking for explosives pre-9/11. People's ability to create actual explosives on planes has been debunked thoroughly on this blog and elsewhere, so no, this does not change the equation.Any other questions you want to ask me? I have to agree with retired navy man Cliff Woodrick and others with disabilities who have posted with similar complaints. To the wag who told us to take a bus or cab or train or drive instead, many of us already have chosen to do so.I’ve given up flying until more sane accommodations are made for people with titanium prosthetics. I had both hips replaced ten years ago and since 2001, flying has become an exercise in humiliation that I refuse to participate in any more. I was issued cards following my surgery that are useless. TSA personnel have pointed out that they can be forged and even if they were legitimate, I could still be carrying a weapon. So I understand the predicament. I just don’t like it. Every time with absolutely no exceptions, I have been singled out for searches whenever I fly. Every time it is embarrassing. 80-90% of TSA personnel have been professional and courteous about the situation; but I’ve had enough of the finger pointing and snickering by other passengers. The Denver airport was the worst and the straw that broke this camel’s back. I was put in an elevated plastic cage in full view of all arriving and departing passengers and left there for ten minutes while passengers streamed by and made fun of my situation. Finally being searched in the cage was even more embarrassing. I can now appreciate how fish in a bowl and caged zoo animals must feel.I consider myself a professional in my field, I am civic-minded and active in my community, and outside of a few minor traffic tickets, have a spotless record. So I naturally resent the fact that my country’s security personnel constantly consider me a potential criminal. All because I have fake hips. I wish I had a simple solution for this problem, but alas I do not; but until one is found, I’m driving no matter what the cost of gas or distance. Hi -I fly 1-3x / week and know airports pretty darn well.The TSA is one of the most poorly-run organizations I have ever encountered. Coupled with the significance of their role, it's shameful that we sit still for it.Screeners make under $10 an hour? No wonder I have an awful feeling of "lights on, absolutely no one home ... for years ..." when speaking to many of your employees.Your QA systems - if they indeed exist - are inadequate. Screening is haphazard, rules are not only enforced inconsistently, but there is a constant thrum of belligerence in many of your employees. When I spoke my mind about the intrusiveness of one TSA screener in McCarran (Las Vegas), he followed me into the terminal, yelling at me as I walked away. He was eventually told to stop by a police officer (blonde man, about 30, working the first-class lane in Terminal B). While perhaps more noticeable, this is not an isolated incident. TSA staff are often uneducated, hostile and simply unintelligent (another favorite: having a bracelet of rhinestones mistaken for "drill bits," also at McCarran's first-class lane - wowzers, the stupidity!).This is a problem about which you not only CAN do something, you owe it to us, as well as to whatever shred of personal dignity you folks have left: teach your employees to be fair, rational, and courteous. You are NOT 'doing us a favor,' and the constant sanctimony about "thuh terrorists" sounds like so much self-justifying drivel.As it is now, I get more intelligent and polite service at Del Taco drive-throughs than TSA. What does it take for you to finally become embarrassed to the point of improvement? "But as far as I am concerned, my greatest fear is that someone will walk in amongst people waiting in line and detonate a IED! The second fear I have is that I miss a IED that goes on a plane and blows up not only killing the "Anonymous" TSO haters here but those beautiful people who I swore to protect."So it is them or us again. FYI the beautiful people mostly fly through General Aviation, so they never get the benefit of your "protection".Passengers don't hate TSO's indiscriminately, they just have no liking for the unprofessional behavior that some of them exhibit. Once those few bad apples are eliminated, things will be more pleasant. Anonymous said..."Please fill the trunk of your car with food, drinks, and condiments and drive to your destination!Don't forget your GAS card!"Why do you automatically assume that this was a TSO?Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck.... "Anonymous said... I have no idea who some of these TSO's are, responding to some of these "Anonymous"idiots who post here."Let me see, you are posting anonymously, and complaining about anonymous idiots. Hmmmm... What items are clearly allowed as carry-on food?wrapped Candy/nutrition/fruit bars?homemade sandwiches?bagged nuts/fruit/trailmix?chips or crackers?boxed items- what sizes are permitted?I think that it is fair to say that the guidelines are very unclear about these items and permitted quantities. hi sandrayou commented on child screening and i though it would be nice to explain this process a bit.i am sure u are aware of the fact that profiling is ineffective since a terrorist can look like anyone and be from anywhere. If you’ve read any newspapers there are countless atrocities reported oversees where women and children are harnessed in killings.Given these bleak truths the TSA is trained to screen everyone acordinglyTSO's are not looking to screen your 9 moth old or your 5year old... they are merely insuring that there is nothing prohibited being smuggled in via covert means.Having your child scream at the top of his/her lungs while being patted down... is a bit cruel and excessive and will lead to a bit more of a delay as you explain this disruption to a supervisor.The child will not be screened without an accompanying adult present, so of course you will be briefed on what will occur and you will be watching.if anything you can always complain to the STSO if you feel something was done wrong during your screening.It is never the TSA's intension to cause you anguish. Obviously screening is not something we do for fun but rather to clear any alarms or solve any selectee designations. It is a matter of security and we will not take the risk of assuming.I'm sorry this bothers you but it’s always important to maintain "better safe then sorry" sincerelyTSO :) My gripe is at Kansas City International Airport (MCI) the TSA will not allow a passenger to take drinks into the secure area. Although everytime I fly out, early especially the flight crew are allowed their Starbucks in as well as bottle water. Why as there is no decent place inside the secure area to purchase something are the flight crew allowed? Are they special? The rule should be one rule if it is dangerous then it is dangerous for all. If the captain needs his Starbucks in the morning let him get up early and get it just like the rest of us. Stand in line like us and no you do not have special "Cut in Line priviledge!" As a very frequent flyer this practice is not allowed in larger airports. "I am extremely cordial with passengers and go out of my way to greet the passenger, smile at the passenger, give helpful hints to the passenger, and wish them a great day and a happy flight, no matter what duty station I'm on.If you have a situation with a TSO, talk to the STSO and a Complaint form will be filled out. It will be submitted for review.This week I received three written compliments which made me very appreciable. Have you ever tried either one?"Both good advice and a great attitude. I hope that you continue to post, and that you mentor other TSO's in your method of dealing with the traveling public.Thank You. To Phil, Please ensure that if you post a link to letter that you want everyone to read, you read the letter yourself. It is true that it is not required to show ID, however if you do not show ID you will be subject to secondary(additional) screening. That letter that you refer to was also published 2 months before TSA began checking ID's and boarding passes in place of the contracted company doing so. I may be wrong but it seems to me that there is alot of anti-TSA "spam" here.I'm still waiting for the "anonymous" poster to "school TSO's" about the exceptions to the 311 rule. What are they?I applaud the Navy Veteran with the two replaced knees for his service! However if you walk through the MAG and it alarms you will be asked to exit and reentered. If you set the alarms off again you will be "wanded"! Thats everyone.The poster who has a reason for his CPAP setting off alarms when it is tested....clean it! I've seen filters on CPAP machines co crusted, it is a wonder air gets through. Secondly, TSO's are not trained to accept your excuse why, they have to test to be sure.Ah yes, the DVD player. The rule is that it comes out of the case.Sandra is the best though. Appalled at children being patted down!! I guess we are the only country in the world that does it? BTW, the correct name is a "Process"! The reason that the child is being processed 99% of the time is because the Airline you purchased your tickets from....called for it!!So if you have a gripe against TSO's, at least know what you are talking about. TSA Carry-on Regulations Update — August 4, 2007 As of August 4, 2007, the TSA is requiring travelers to remove full-size game consoles (examples include Playstation, X-box, and Nintendo), CD and DVD players from their carry-on bags for separate X-ray screening at security checkpoints. They will be handled the same way laptops and larger video cameras (that use cassettes) have been for some time. The TSA states that “Small electronic items, such as cell phones, MP3 players, iPods and portable video game systems do not have to be removed from their carrying cases.” Bear in mind, however, that since this is a new regulation, there may be some initial confusion or misinterpretation on the part of the TSA inspectors. Be prepared to remove any and all electronics from your carry-on bag, and allow a little extra time for screening.Also new as of August 4th, the TSA has relaxed the ban on lighters in carry-on luggage: “In an effort to concentrate resources on detecting explosive threats, TSA will no longer ban common lighters in carry-on luggage as of August 4, 2007. Torch lighters remain banned in carry-ons.Lifting the lighter ban is consistent with TSA's risk-based approach to aviation security. First and foremost, lighters no longer pose a significant threat. Freeing security officers up from fishing for 22,000 lighters every day (the current number surrendered daily across the country) enables them to focus more on finding explosives, using behavior recognition, conducting random screening procedures and other measures that increase complexity in the system, deterring terrorists. The U.S. is the only country in the world to ban lighters – all other nations, including Israel and the U.K., do not.”In addition, the TSA has modified the regulations on carrying breast milk through security checkpoints: “Mothers flying with, and now without, their child will be permitted to bring breast milk in quantities greater than three ounces as long as it is declared for inspection at the security checkpoint.Breast milk is in the same category as liquid medications. Now, a mother flying without her child will be able to bring breast milk through the checkpoint, provided it is declared prior to screening.”Travelers will not be asked to taste the milk to prove it is not a liquid explosive. "BOY, YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT COMPLETELY - DID IT EVER ACCUR TO YOU DO NOT NEED A SECRET CLEARANCE FOR YOUR JOBS SSI INFORMATION THAT USE MUST USE TO PERFORM YOUR JOB??IF YOU ACTUALLY WERE AWARE OF THIS, YOU WOULD NOT HAVE COMMENTED ON THAT."Don't be silly. If information is classified, you need a clearance - even if it's only a garden-variety FOUO (For Official Use Only) clearance, which requires no background check. If SSI material is unclassified in your organization, I would call it "SBU" (Sensitive But Unclassified). We call this "open source". It is restricted, but unclassified, which means that it technically can be released to those who have no clearance. The exclusion categories for this include "national security". Good luck fitting that category to include the specific criteria for taking your shoes off in an airport security line.The funny thing about what you said is, not only do you need the SSI information you alluded to in order to perform your job; but travelers need that information to know how to get through your checkpoints. It would be like us setting up a checkpoint in Iraq, not posting any procedures, and then shooting people for violating the procedures that we didn't post.Oh, and would you mind writing using lower-case? All-caps is considered rude on the Internet. Now that a TSA-certified flight deck officer's gun has accidentally discharged during a US Airways commercial flight, who is going to protect us from those who are protecting us?Can one request "handgun-free" flights from the airlines? To the lady, Sandra, with the comment on the patting down of infants. Unfortunately you are not seeing all sides to the enforcement of security at the airports. In your eyes it may seem that the patting down of children is absurd but the TSA is unable to make assunmptions about any individual coming through security and all persons who alarm or children being carried by sn adult who alarmed must get screened.If you did research and thought about the logic behind TSA screening infants you would find that there have been multiple incidents where children and infants have been used as suicide bombers and terrorists. Children are vulnerable and for a suicide bomber they may be a prime choice to try and get past the security process.Unfortunately as absurd as it may seem, it is what our world has come to and it has to be done or the U.S. will be compromised again. While it's unfortunate that we need security checkpoints, I feel that TSA employees have a thankless job. Perhaps if passengers knew what they were doing before getting in the security line TSA personnel would treat people better. When we go through the line we do what we're supposed to do, TSA treats us fine, and we say "Thank You" to each that we have contact with.As with everything in life, acting properly and politely goes a long way.So, we say TSA is doing an adequate job given what they're dealing with. We prefer screening rather than dangerous objects going onto a plane we're riding in. THANK YOU TSA. Hello Anonymous Person:To the following:In your eyes it may seem that the patting down of children is absurd but the TSA is unable to make assunmptions about any individual coming through security and all persons who alarm or children being carried by sn adult who alarmed must get screened.If you did research and thought about the logic behind TSA screening infants you would find that there have been multiple incidents where children and infants have been used as suicide bombers and terrorists.It is theoretically possible to wire a baby as a bomb, true. Can you cite a single incidence where this has been tried (since you claim multiple incidences, just one will do)? No, strollers don't count. We're talking baby here. Similarly for children -- there have been documented cases where people have blown up children as part of a suicide bombing (i.e. leaving them in a rigged car perhaps to make the car look less suspicious to passers by -- an incident that was reported recently coming out of Iraq comes to mind for that) but it was the car, not the kids who were rigged to blow. The children were no less the victims of this than anyone else who may have been unfortunate enough to be in the immediate vicinity of the exploding car.All kinds of crazy things are theoretically possible. It is impossible to guard against every micro threat that comes along. The kid does not understand why a strange adult is patting him or her down and why Mommy and Daddy can do nothing but watch it happen. All the kid understands is that he's scared. So are the parents. So is everyone else who watches this -- is it going to be my turn next?Leave the kids alone. They have enough to worry about with the mess the people in power are leaving to them to clean up without the TSA's help. I'm still waiting for the "anonymous" poster to "school TSO's" about the exceptions to the 311 rule. What are they?Medications?Food/drink for diabetics?OTC medications?We, the traveling public are tired of dealing with made up on the spot rules and regulations. Many of us fly on a weekly basis and know when we're being fed a shovel of used bull food.Oh, and please someone define the term 'reasonable amounts." I applaud the Navy Veteran with the two replaced knees for his service! However if you walk through the MAG and it alarms you will be asked to exit and reentered. If you set the alarms off again you will be "wanded"! Thats everyone.Wanded is one thing. Being frisked like a criminal suspect is something else. 99.99% of the people who fly aren't in any way criminals. TSA treats people (i.e. elderly and disabled) as if those folks were hardened terrorists/criminals on the level of Karlos the Jackal. "I may be wrong but it seems to me that there is alot of anti-TSA "spam" here."Spam? I don't see ads for stuff we neither want nor need. I do see lots of very displeased people complaining about TSA abusing the traveling public. "In your eyes it may seem that the patting down of children is absurd but the TSA is unable to make assunmptions about any individual coming through security and all persons who alarm or children being carried by sn adult who alarmed must get screened.If you did research and thought about the logic behind TSA screening infants you would find that there have been multiple incidents where children and infants have been used as suicide bombers and terrorists. Children are vulnerable and for a suicide bomber they may be a prime choice to try and get past the security process."How many children suicide bombers have there been in the US? Why wasn't this procedure put into place in the 60's when VC used children as bomb delivery systems? How do the Europeans handle infants and children? Do they make the assumption that all infants and children are nothing but wanna be bombers or do they assume innocent until found guilty? I wrote two posts related to a specific question that were barred by the administrator. None had fowl language, and the question was perfectly pertinent (won't post it again to see if this message gets through).I do not believe the Delete-O-Meter! Much more is being deleted!! Considering how many negative posts are here, that thought is rather scary!! In response to my previous comment, someone anonymously wrote:"Please ensure that if you post a link to letter that you want everyone to read, you read the letter yourself."I've read that letter many times. I'm very familiar with it. In fact, I quoted the entire thing in the comment thread of another post of this blog."It is true that it is not required to show ID"Right. That's what I stated that the letter confirmed, and indeed it does. (As does the TSA's Web site.)"however if you do not show ID you will be subject to secondary(additional) screening."I never suggested otherwise. You are not required to present any credentials (to present documents which can be used in the process of identifying you; to "show I.D.") when flying domestically in the United States. Many people incorrectly believe otherwise.For more information, see "What's Wrong With Showing ID" at The Identity Project. re: "If you did research and thought about the logic behind TSA screening infants you would find that there have been multiple incidents where children and infants have been used as suicide bombers and terrorists."Please enlighten us and list some of your several incidents of children being used as suicide bombers and terrorist that you refer to. How many in the Northern Hemisphere?TSA is a larger threat to freedom than any terrorist! "Sandra is the best though. Appalled at children being patted down!! I guess we are the only country in the world that does it? BTW, the correct name is a "Process"! The reason that the child is being processed 99% of the time is because the Airline you purchased your tickets from....called for it!!"You really have missed the point, in less of course you don't think child abuse is a problem. Sexual abuse of their children by strangers is a concern of every parent. TSO's are not immune to arrest for child abuse. Sandra's concern is understandable, your comment shows a blatant disregard for human rights. If the TSO next to you is a pedophile, are you going to cover for him? Do you really think child abuse is a subject for your mockery? Anonymous said... Figure this one. I have a TSA approved lock (i.e., one for which the TSA has a key) for my suitcase, although I usually carry on. On one flight recently, however, I checked my bag .. but forgot to lock the suitcase. Thus, the lock was attached and secured, but not preventing the suitcase from being opened. When the bag arrived, the lock was removed, gone. Only a TSA person could have removed the lock.March 23, 2008 11:44 AM I work in bags and I see locks that have fallen off via the belt system all the time. Sometimes they don't lock all the way (even tho we think that they do) sometimes they pop open, sometimes they get ripped off. I'm sorry that that happened to you but it is not always TSA's fault. Anonymous said... On a direct flight from Memphis to Detroit, jewelry was stolen from my suitcase. The jewelry was packed inside of a box, which was packed inside of a zipped up bagged. The jewelry were the only items taken, and no card was left to indicate that my luggage had been searched. I know that my suitcase had been tampered with, because the zippers were in a different location than where I put them. The only time my suitcase was out of my possession was when I turned it in to the TSA people at the airport in Memphis. The only way someone could have known that the jewelry was there was via Xray. My claims with TSA and the airlines were denied. Now, you tell me - who could have pulled off this theft? It MUST have involved a TSA employee, perhaps in cahoots with someone from the airlines. In any case, DON'T TRUST ANYONE with TSA. They're human beings and not all of them are honest!March 23, 2008 3:45 PMGuess what? After a TSA personell gets done checking your bag (which at least at my airport is ALWAYS under a camera) it gets handed off to an airline worker. I would not risk my job for some jewlery most of my co-workers would not either. i am a photographer who still shoots film. when i travel i usually take 60-80 rolls of 220 film with me. since all the new rules after 9/11, tsa employees routinely open every single plastic packaging of each roll of film, exposing the paper-backed film to the air (roll film is different from 35mm - it is not protected by a metal cannister). because i do not want to put 800asa roll film through the x-ray machine (film ends up with xray lines crosshatching the film) all of my film becomes exposed to the elements, causing the film to take in moisture, which can in turn ruin the film. is there anything i can do to protect my 800asa 220 roll film in the future? Comment-curious as to whether or not spurs on western boots pose a possible weapons threat. Did I also mention knitting needles of various number sizes. Anyone with any knowledge of close quarters contact know that either of the above mentioned items can and will do serious or fatal results. Yet I consistantly see these items being passed through security w/o as much as a look at. Want to witness unqualified, untrained TSA officers, try Fairbanks, AK. I travel through there two to three times a month. One never knows what to expect. Of course, neither do they. Just roll your eye and wonder how these folks were selected for this highly sensative position. Makes for a good time passing conversation with other travelers. Thank you. It is so easy for people to bash TSA and what they do but in all reality the people who are making comments about TSA and how unprofessional they are and how they treat people like criminals (especially elderly, children and people with disabilites)are the ones who are on the outside looking in and have no idea what they are talking about. Bottom line is that there will never be a time when all persons are satisfied with how the security process is. Right now people non-stop complain that TSA does too much and takes away too many items and screens people who should not be bothered with so they think security should be lessened.But the second something happens and the nation is put in an uproar then TSA will be blamed because they did not do enough. TSA is in a lose-lose situation but continues to do their job day in and day out despite all the negativity made about them.TSA as with any company is always trying to improve but nothing in life can ever be 100% error proof. People are so quick to judge TSA and blame them for anything that goes wrong with flying, whether it be their flight being delayed, showing up late, something is missing from luggage, items are broke, what have you. TSA is not the fault of everyones problems and a sensible person would sit back and think about it for awhile and realize that TSA screeners are human just as anybody else. To the lady complaining about the lotions and shampoos leaking all over her daughters clothes, it is called ZIPLOC bags and they sell them at stores so you can put your spillables in them and they will not leak. I am not sure if you are familiar with an airplane and flying but there is such a thing called air pressure and unfortunately when a plane gets high in altitude containers and such tend to expand and burst. The same thing would happen if you brought a bag of chips on a plane unopened, the bag would expand. Just thought i would help you out. This is in response to the person whose jewelry was stolen. I am sorry for your loss, but the TSO's are not the one and only people who have access to your baggage after you check it with the airlines. After the TSO's screen your luggage, there are at least three other people who handle the property. 1. the person who loads the bag on the tug to take it to the plane. 2. the person who unloads from the tug and onto the conveyor into the plane itself. and 3. (most likely of the three) the person in the belly of the plane loading and stacking the luggage where there is no (that I know of) cameras to keep watch on them. I am a scientist, and as such I would like to see factual analysis of the efficacy of TSA screening.The only scientific evaluation of TSA´s work I have found to date is published in the last issue of 2007 British Medical Journal (you can download it at www.bmj.com, archive, 2007, Dec 22). The article (Screening programme evaluation applied to airport security, by Eleni Linos, Elizabeth Linos and Graham Colditz) is very well put together and brings up important questions. Could a TSA person on this blog please answer the questions in that article? Better still, could the TSA please publish a serious, peer reviewed work showing that its policies are effective? First time to the Blog, SHEESH - nothing constructive just a bunch of crybabys with no common sense, venting their frustration about rules and regulations now that they consider themselves adults, I just see the 3rd graders complaining about having to remove their shoes to take a nap. As far as food and such thru the checkpoint for babies, I don't see any under fed kids out their in the lanes, on the contrary. just feed your kids b-4 you fly and use the drinking fountain inside security (poor baby)I always thought the proper terminolgy was "handy capable" stop using your old age or military background as a crutch to skate security. You will be playing golf when you land anyway.GET OVER IT and FACE THE FACTS this is the way it is going to be from now on when you travel the friendly skies. You all probably yell at the McDonalds attendant TOO! "This is in response to the person whose jewelry was stolen. I am sorry for your loss, but the TSO's are not the one and only people who have access to your baggage after you check it with the airlines. After the TSO's screen your luggage, there are at least three other people who handle the property. 1. the person who loads the bag on the tug to take it to the plane. 2. the person who unloads from the tug and onto the conveyor into the plane itself. and 3. (most likely of the three) the person in the belly of the plane loading and stacking the luggage where there is no (that I know of) cameras to keep watch on them."It is TSA that created the opportunity for theft, however. Not properly resealing luggage, cutting off TSA approved locks, and doing nothing to prevent theft is the problem. Handing over the luggage in a non-secure condition just aggravates the situation, as well as annoying the public. Blaming the airline baggage handlers does nothing to make the situation more palatable to the public. The baggage security issue is the TSA's problem, if you wanted to resolve it you could. A tamper proof seal of some description together with a tag that stated that the bag had been searched, a time stamped tag inside the luggage, all would help resolve the issue of responsibility for theft. Some TSA employees have been let go or prosecuted for this very issue of theft. On a direct flight from Memphis to Detroit, jewelry was stolen from my suitcase. The jewelry was packed inside of a box, which was packed inside of a zipped up bagged. The jewelry were the only items taken, and no card was left to indicate that my luggage had been searched. I know that my suitcase had been tampered with, because the zippers were in a different location than where I put them. The only time my suitcase was out of my possession was when I turned it in to the TSA people at the airport in Memphis.Memphis is rather infamous for baggage thefts. I've had more things stolen from there than at any other airport. It is possible, also, that a TSA type was working in conjuction with one of the ramp rats. This doesn't bring back your jewelry. Next time carry it with you to keep the theives at bay. The airlines don't allow for claims for expensive items (jewelry, laptops, medications, etc)in checked luggage because they know that they have both theives working for them and customers who file claims for non-existing items. To the person whose jewelry was stolen - don't pack valuables in your luggage. This is written on just about every piece of travel literature. Either wear them or don't take them. Any many people have access to luggage, not just the TSA. "First time to the Blog, SHEESH - nothing constructive just a bunch of crybabys with no common sense, venting their frustration about rules and regulations now that they consider themselves adults, I just see the 3rd graders complaining about having to remove their shoes to take a nap. As far as food and such thru the checkpoint for babies, I don't see any under fed kids out their in the lanes, on the contrary. just feed your kids b-4 you fly and use the drinking fountain inside security (poor baby)I always thought the proper terminolgy was "handy capable" stop using your old age or military background as a crutch to skate security. You will be playing golf when you land anyway.GET OVER IT and FACE THE FACTS this is the way it is going to be from now on when you travel the friendly skies. You all probably yell at the McDonalds attendant TOO!"Maybe you can get a role in TSA Gangstaz,(watch it on You Tube) Part2.... Seriously, you are guilty of the very whining that you complain about. Got a problem with "traveler envy"?Do YOU have a problem with parents being concerned with the health, safety, and wellbeing of their children? Are you a parent? A good parent? "I wince when seeing little children and the obviously disabled getting the 'treatment' from TSO's and have refrained from commenting. No more will I do that. Outrageous conduct, witnessed by me on the part of TSA will be reported to the local FSD and TSA hqtrs. I usually have lots of time on my hands while at the airport (arrive two hours early for check in and security screening)."It is abuse, and should be stopped! The more that this issue is brought to the attention of the blog,and to the public through the media, the more likely it will be addressed by TSA officials, hopefully before it becomes crisis management. To me its the same neurotic anti-TSA posting here. What a waste of a valuable information tool for people who use the Air Ports, Ports and Railroads.Never mind what the truth is, this mal-content is going to jam this blog with garbage.To other TSO's who post here, do what you wish, but don't waste your time on this "passenger"! Mr. Anonymous Scientist:Thanks for posting the following:The only scientific evaluation of TSA´s work I have found to date is published in the last issue of 2007 British Medical Journal (you can download it at www.bmj.com, archive, 2007, Dec 22). The article (Screening programme evaluation applied to airport security, by Eleni Linos, Elizabeth Linos and Graham Colditz) is very well put together and brings up important questions.Could a TSA person on this blog please answer the questions in that article? Better still, could the TSA please publish a serious, peer reviewed work showing that its policies are effective?March 25, 2008 6:56 AMI have been asking the TSA now since I started posting to this forum to produce some kind of documentable proof that the tradeoffs they force upon the traveling public in terms of dollar cost and lost liberty in exchange for what appears to be effectively illusory security are worth it. One of the central themes of the many things that I have posted is that some security is necessary, but the extremes to which the TSA has gone, particularly with checkpoint security, are ridiculous; constitutionally questionable; morally repugnant; and sickening to anyone who values their rights and the sacrifices people have made to protect those rights in the past.To date, no such proof has been offered. I doubt any such proof exists. There will be plenty of people who will respond in knee-jerk fashion to this by saying, "well prove that it hasn't." It is not for us to prove a negative. The TSA makes the claim that it protects. Let them prove to us that it has succeeded in its mission. I don't like the new lanes TSA are making to get people threw faster.What you are doing is giving blue print on how to figure out how and when to get something threw. This is by having a routine for the family lane or the business lane etcThe TSO's will fall into a routine and when that happens there will be problemsDT "The TSO's will fall into a routine and when that happens there will be problems."Not hardly, if the routine that they fall into is a routine of thorough, professional checks made to the best of their abilities and those of the equipment they use. "To me its the same neurotic anti-TSA posting here. What a waste of a valuable information tool for people who use the Air Ports, Ports and Railroads.Never mind what the truth is, this mal-content is going to jam this blog with garbage.To other TSO's who post here, do what you wish, but don't waste your time on this "passenger"!"This blog is an open forum. The moderators decide what gets posted.What passes muster might not be for the thin skinned, especially people who are unable to accept and learn from the information shared here. It probably isn't a very easy job being a TSO, but there are some who do it well. My own concerns are about the ethical, fair, humane and non-abusive treatment on both the passenger and TSO sides of this debate. The elderly, the disabled, children, and TSO's all have the right to the same fair treatment.Unfortunately, it begins with the TSO community. It is part of your job description to be courteous and professional. Barring some heroic action, your job probably won't get many accolades. Sadly, many people see what you do as an intrusion in their lives. This dialog might seed some changes. Who knows, but we can hope. Dear Winstonsmith,Thank you for supporting my petition for hard data from the TSA. Let us hope that more people read this and force some kind of information (which I also doubt exists) from these people.Don't miss the British Medical Journal article. It is great! This is the conclusion of the British Medical Journal article:"ConclusionOf course, we are not proposing that money spent on unconfirmed but politically comforting efforts to identify and seize water bottles and skin moisturisers should be diverted to research on cancer or malaria vaccines. But what would the National Screening Committee recommend on airport screening? Like mammography in the 1980s, or prostate specific antigen testing and computer tomography for detecting lung cancer more recently, we would like to open airport security screening to public and academic debate. Rigorously evaluating the current system is just the first step to building a future airport security programme that is more user friendly and cost effective, and that ultimately protects passengers from realistic threats." A few of my favorite parts of the BMJ article:"With such high value attached to airport security, the details of efficacy, precision, and cost effectiveness of screening methods are easy to ignore. Protection at any cost is a reassuring maxim for us jetsetters. But preventing any death—whether from haemorrhagic stroke, malignant melanoma, or diabetic ketoacidosis—is surely an equally noble cause. In most such cases, screening programmes worldwide are closely evaluated and heavily regulated before implementation. Is airport security screening an exception?""Since 1969, only 2000 people have died as a result of explosives on planes, yet the US department of homeland security spends more than $500m annually on research and development of programmes to detect explosives at airports. Even the devastating 11 September 2001 attacks caused around 3000 deaths, which is similar to the number of deaths attributed to high blood glucose each day13 or the number of children dying of the human immunodeficiency virus every three days worldwide.""Furthermore, the cost of airport security ($9 per passenger) is 1000 times higher than for railway security ($0.01 per passenger), even though the number of attacks on trains is similar to that in planes. This is analogous to committing mammography resources to screening only the left breast, and ignoring the right side, even though cancer can affect both breasts.""We systematically reviewed the literature on airport security screening tools. A systematic search of PubMed, Embase, ISI Web of Science, Lexis, Nexis, JSTOR, and Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost) found no comprehensive studies that evaluated the effectiveness of x ray screening of passengers or hand luggage, screening with metal detectors, or screening to detect explosives. When research teams requested such information from the US Transportation Security Administration they were told that evaluating new screening programmes might be useful, but it was overshadowed by "time pressures to implement needed security measures quickly." I had a extremely unpleasant encounter with the TSA officers while traveling through the San Diego airport SAN last saturday (March 22, 2008). How it happened was that I somehow set off the metal detector alarm, I have absolutely no idea how that is possible because the ONLY metallic thing on my body was the underwire in my bra, and other people that I was traveling with were able to walk through with belts on, change in their pockets, jewelry, ect without setting off the same exact metal detector's alarm. So, I was pulled inside and put into the "box" that is on the other side of the metal detectors. As I was standing in there, I politely asked if I or possibly one of the officers could retrieve my stuff which included a brand new laptop, a purse with cash, cellphone and bag, because other passengers were knocking my laptop around and moving it while retrieving their own bags, also I was concerned that my things could be stolen (since airports are one of the highest theft areas). The officer rudely snapped at me "You cannot leave here, and don't worry about your stuff." While I waited, my laptop was knocked onto the floor, and upon turning it on I found that the screen is now damaged. I was treated like a criminal and told to stand in the "box" and not allowed to even place my objects in a safe place. Then they used the wand and patted me down as if I were a criminal. That wouldn't have been so bad if the security officers would not have been complete jerks (There other words that describe them much better). While the officer was waving the wand over my chest area it kept going off, and it was mysteriously going off while passing over my shoulder. The officer rudely asked if I had anything metallic in my shoulder or chest area, and I told her maybe underwire in my bra, but I have no idea why it would be going off while passing my shoulder. Then the officer became even ruder with me. The she patted down my shoulder/chest area, and I was already wearing a skin-tight shirt, it was pretty obvious that there was nothing in this area of my body. Then while searching my bag, the officer asked me if I had anything 'round' in my bag. I had a confused look and said "I'm not sure", and then the officer began to yell at me. I'm sorry that I did not take an inventory of the various shapes of the items that I had packed in my bag. "Do you have anything round?" is such a vague and off-hand question that my only quick on the response could be something like "I'm not sure." Then the officer opened my jewelry bag, and a piece of jewelry fell on the floor and the officer just stepped on it like it was nothing. When I reached to pick it up to place it on the table she yelled "DO NOT TOUCH THAT."I really hate being treated like a criminal and my personal possessions treated like garbage. The saddest thing is that my story isn't nearly as bad as other stories of read on this blog or reports that I have heard on the news. My heart goes out to all of the people who have been harassed and abused by TSA people. Thank you TSA for allowing my brand new $2,000 computer to be broken. (I could not have it retrieved when I asked POLITELY, and of course laptops have to come out of their protective padded bags.)Also, thank you TSA for treating me like a CRIMINAL. The terrorists are getting what they wanted. Our civil liberties and freedoms are being chipped away one by one, and the Bill of Rights is being thrown out the window. I hope these TSA officers enjoy their jobs of treating innocent people like criminals and pieces of crap. Hmmm, I suspect that the SOPs governing the day-to-day operations were written by career paper pushers with little thought given to the what-if senarios that engineers would have discussed. Grammar correct?Spelling correct?Okay we're ready to use this as policy. I suspect that little thought went into reactions of US citizens, or the much longer lasting repercussions for a slip-shod, half baked, SOP. Homeland security and TSA have me shaking my head and wondering just what were they thinking when they put pen to paper. From the TSA's own website: 3-1-1 for carry-ons = 3 ounce bottle or less (by volume) ; 1 quart-sized, clear, plastic, zip-top bag; 1 bag per passenger placed in screening bin. One-quart bag per person limits the total liquid volume each traveler can bring. 3 oz. container size is a security measure.The rule limits the volume of liquids, gels and aerosols to bottles 3 ounces or smaller (or 100 ml), in 1 quart-sized zip top bag, and 1 bag per traveler.All liquids, gels and aerosols must be in three-ounce or smaller containers. Larger containers that are half-full or toothpaste tubes rolled up are not allowed. Each container must be three ounces or smaller.So just what is allowed? You lack consistancy even on the place, we fliers use. You wonder why you get so much grief over things like this. FYI 3oz doesn't equal 100mL.Fix the minor details like this and your jobs will become easier. The last few years my wife and I have traveled internationally. We had not traveled just with in the USA until this month.We made a quick 4 day weekend trip and packed two small suitcases. One we checked and one we carried on during the out bound trip, as we were taking some Tequila to my brother in law to try.On the way home we decided to carry both suitcases on board, something we have not had the opportunity to do for years. We did not think about some of the liquids that tend to stay in the suitcase we normally check. The TSA people a John Wayne Airport were extremely nice in requesting permission to check our bag, and in explaining why. We knew better but had a brain fade as we were out of our normal routine.I did have to remove my belt and watch, and go through the metal detector again. I was wearing the same belt and watch on the out bound trip, and did not set of the metal detector. Other wise I would have removed them to start with.I understand different machines can have different levels of sensitivity.I do not understand why there are different procedures from one airport to another. Most require shoes removed, a very few do not. This must be training and monitoring issue and should be corrected. Overall we have no problem meeting and complying with the requirements. We have had very few TSA agents who were unfriendly, or difficult. I must say however, that the John Wayne TSA agents were the most pleasant I have ever meet. re post by Duane on 03/21/2008 3:18 PM.It has been mentioned in another blog that multiple attempts were made to respond to the post made by Duane.TSA block all post advising Duane to contact local police for 1 1/2 days, a delay that could prevent an effective investigation of the incident.I have to wonder if TSA places its agenda above the 8 year old citizen that went through the TSA checkpoint? What does TSA have to hide?Smells like an attempt to cover-up the actions of a TSO.TSA continues to disappoint! Here's another horror story from FlyerTalk about the TSA's treatment of a 2 year old child:"I flew out of PHX Saturday March 8th with my wife and 2 year old and they seperated* my son from us and patted him down. I have filed a complaint with Office of Civil Rights which is part of TSA, but have not had any response in almost two weeks. I am spending time today writing my Congresswoman and Senator and trying to find some way to get this addressed. There were two people who wound up being very helpful, but two were hostile and had our 2 year placed on a chair against a wall and had us stand four feet away and turn our backs on him while they decided who was going to pat down my son.I have heard repeatedly that people are horrified by this experience and they recommend I contact legal counsel."*The TSA's website says they will NOT separate you from your child.Among comments to the above were:"This seems cruel. I know that there are many *$&%*##$ TSA types, but surely they don't condone cruelty to children. Is there any sort of logic or justification for isolating a 2 year old and making his parents turn away from him? Are there really TSA staff who are that sadistic, and others who would let such behavior go on without comment or correction?""A situation such as .....'s child endured could very well produce signs of trauma: not sleeping well, nightmares, fear of airports, clinging to parents, not wanting to go to nursery school/day care. What happened to him was despicable and it seems to be becoming the norm rather than an aberration.""....consider filing an abuse complaint with the Phoenix PD"The flying public, as others have said, must start to speak up. If you see the TSA treating a child or a disabled person with disrespect or in an abusive manner, speak up so that other people in line can hear you, point out the abusive treatment, call a police officer, call a supervisor..... don't wait until such things happen to you, take a stand for your fellow travelers.I would love to see a coordinated day of civil disobedience at our airports, where thousands of people join together and say WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH. I had an umbrella confiscated by the TSA at the Portland (Oregon) Memorial Coliseum prior to a Barack Obama rally because "it was too long." only a few of us were tsa the were secret service. they were having tsa do their bag checks. their uniforms look really similar to ours. next time look around. While traveling from Detroit with TSA approved locks---the fastening hole for the lock was snipped thereby making the lock useless. Looks like someone needs glasses. We were following the "directive" for having TSA approved locks. Hmmmm. TSA needs to train their employees to THINK on some passengers. My Dad is in his 80s, has had bypass surgery, wears a pacemaker, has congestive heart failure, and walks slowly, and has to stop to rest. He brings his medical records to the airport, to no avail. He has put up with the indignity of an employee putting their hands inside his belt. Come on! THINK --this is a church official who travels on church business, never had a speeding ticket or parking ticket--Hands off my Dad! This is clearly invasive --and absolutely not necessary. THINK --this is not a 'bomb-carrying' individual--and the medical papers should be enough to let him pass without the indignities in the extra search. He doesn't complain, but I travel with him, and think you should change your policies to include some common sense. Anonymous said... only a few of us were tsa the were secret service. they were having tsa do their bag checks. their uniforms look really similar to ours. next time look around.The use of TSO instead of professional contract security brings up a few questions.What budget do the loaner TSOs get paid from? TSA, Treasury Dept., or Obama's campaign?What law or rule allows for the loaning of TSOs? (Just a general answer here is good. No need to make Francine look up all the case law on a Easter weekend)Who paid for the moving and setting up the equipment?Are TSOs allowed to take other off duty security jobs and wear their TSA issued uniform?If a TSO makes rude comment or steals, what department takes the complaint? TSA or Secret Service?The TRANSPORTATION Security Agency needs to stick with transportation security until they can do that right on a consistent basis. As a traveler with a defibulator, I understand that I must get a patdown everytime I go through security. While inconvienent I understand this. What I do not understand is why some locations require me to leave my belongings and go behind enclosed walls to get to the patdown checkpoint. This happened just 2 weeks ago in San Diego. I was forced to send my belongings through the scanner but since I could not go through the metal detector I had to go around to the exit area while my belongings went through the scanner.After getting to the patdown area I was asked which tubs were mine. However this was AFTER I had them out of sight for about 2 minutes. The people behind me could have easily taken my wallet, phone, keys, etc. What's funny was after I got to the gate area there was an announcement that you should not leave your belongings out of your sight.TSA could easily have escorted me and my belongings to the patdown area and then sent the tubs through the scanner. They could have asked before I left which tubs were mine and made sure they were safe, or at least have special color tubs for these instances so that the agents could monitor the situation.By the way, it doesn't even matter who you are. I am a DHS (not TSA) employee with a top secret clearance and credentials. I was still treated wrong. From TSA's own website:3-1-1 for carry-ons = 3 ounce bottle or less (by volume) ; 1 quart-sized, clear, plastic, zip-top bag; 1 bag per passenger placed in screening bin. One-quart bag per person limits the total liquid volume each traveler can bring. 3 oz. container size is a security measure.Just for grins I went to take a look at my tube of toothpaste and deodorant. Funny thing is that both of them list the contents by weight instead of volume. FYI TSA weight often doesn't equal volume. How can you possibly state that 3oz of displacement (volume) equals 3, 4, 5 oz of weight? The misaplication of simple mathematics, science, weights and measures calls to question your confiscation of passenger belongings. By the way, it doesn't even matter who you are. I am a DHS (not TSA) employee with a top secret clearance and credentials. I was still treated wrong.Please tell them that you get very excited when separated from your belongings and want them to be visible during your screening process.Good to see someone with some credentials (DHS, TS, ect) complain about the excesses of TSA. Does that mean the rest of us unwashed fliers are now vindicated when we complain? By the way, it doesn't even matter who you are. I am a DHS (not TSA) employee with a top secret clearance and credentials. I was still treated wrong.Just wondering if you took any action after the fact to report this problem to the TSA Chain of Command? Regular civilians only get corrective screening when attempting to voice a concern with TSA! "TSA could easily have escorted me and my belongings to the patdown area and then sent the tubs through the scanner. They could have asked before I left which tubs were mine and made sure they were safe, or at least have special color tubs for these instances so that the agents could monitor the situation."I know it may be hard to do, but next time insist on getting your things before you are screened. This IS something the screener should have did for you. It happens at my airport as well. Here's my two cent's worth on experiences at several airports, in a fair bit of detail. I'm hoping that my describing each situation in some length that the TSA can see where things went wrong and how the experience can be improved.These comments expand on comments I've made previously about Flint MI, Orlando FL, Atlanta GA and Pensacola FL. More gripes than grins, unfortunately....The recent stories are all gripes. These unfold from August of 2007 to February 2008.Flint MI, Story #1My girlfriend (hereafter referred to as Heather) and I are going through security. Bags go through x-ray, and I hear the infamous call for "bag check". We walk up to the tail end of conversation between another passenger and the screener. Both are rather brusque with each other in their tone. Passenger leaves. Screener comments loudly to another screener about how rude that last passenger was to her. (I'm thinking that the screener's tone with that passenger set no example of politeness. Neither did loudly making that comment in public.) Screener starts to look in my girlfriend's carry on, and here's the dialog from there. Screener: Are any "liquids gels or aerosols" in the bag?Heather: noScreener: Is there anything metal in the bag or anything I might poke herself on?Heather: (holds hand above bag, and points to rear pocket) There's a nail file in that back pocket. Screener: (yelling) DON'T TOUCH THE BAG WHILE I'M SEARCHING IT !Heather: I not touching the bag. I'm just pointing to the pocket where my nail file is. I don't want you to get stuck.Screener: (yelling louder) DON'T TOUCH THE BAG WHILE I'M SEARCHING IT !Heather: Fine, whatever. (puts her hands at her side.)Screener: (after encountering a tube of lipstick, yelling) THIS HAS TO BE IN YOUR ZIPLOC BAG.Me: (thinking to myself -- a lipstick has a fixed volume and shape. From what I learned in school, that makes it a solid. No point, however, in arguing semantics of states of matter with a power happy ignoramus.)Heather: Fine, I'll put it in there. (Starts to put lipstick in her ziploc, which was pretty full.)Screener: (no longer yelling, but with smug satisfaction) Your ziploc has to be able to close. (obviously thinking "gotcha")Me: I've got plenty of room in mine. (I place lipstick in my ziploc, close the top, and hold it up for screener to see. My turn to think "gotcha".)Screener: (Walks away without saying a word.)Two major comments:1. The yelling was totally unnecessary and unprovoked. We were being cooperative and trying to play the game by the rules.2. Heather was concerned by for the well-being of the screener, as evidenced by wanting to make sure she didn't get poked by the nail file. The screener reacted by yelling.3. As I have said in prior posts, the TSA needs to stop throwing "liquids, gels and aerosols" around like a catch phrase and define what this means in real world terms. I have yet to find a definition on the TSA web site, and have yet to see a link to an official definition on this blog. (TSO NY has posted his thumb rules, but has yet to provide a link to where they may be found for all to see.)4. If the screener is done with you, they should yet you know that in a definitive manner. (Similar to the phrase LEO's use, "you're free to go.") Just walking away is rude.5. Less cattiness at the checkpoint, please.Flint MI, Story #2I was the first of four passengers in line. The screening area at this airport has very little background noise. I already had my plastic bins on the table, my notebook PC in a bin, my regulation ziploc in the bin and was starting to take off my shoes. The people in line behind me were doing similarly. Obviously, we all "knew the drill." The screener / wannabe drill instructor started barking orders. "TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES AND PUT THEM IN THE BIN. PUT ANY NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS IN A BIN. KEEP YOUR BOARDING PASS AND PHOTO ID IN YOUR HAND AT ALL TIMES."Comments on this one:1. Did the screener really expect people to remove footwear, pull out notebook PC's, pull out ziploc bags, handle bins, etc. one handed in order to keep their boarding passes and photo id in their hand at all times? What is that supposed to accomplish, anyway? 2. What's wrong with a simple request to "please have your boarding pass and photo id in hand as you approach the metal detector"? 3. How about passengers with mobility, strength, or balance issues? For example, there's absolutely no way my Dad could take his shoes off one handed, standing on one foot. I see no accommodation at this checkpoint (or others for that matter) for the elderly, infirm or physically challenged in getting in or out of footwear. Can't the TSA afford a few chairs?4. Is it necessary to yell at four people in a fairly quiet area? The screener only needed to be heard over a distance of ten feet max. A normal conversational voice will carry that far.Orlando FLScreening area is a large open space, and acoustically, it's an echo chamber. PA is blaring endlessly saying to "keep control of your luggage to prevent introduction of prohibited items", interleaved with announcements of the terror alert level de jour. Screener is shouting something in such heavily accented English that passengers couldn't understand a word being said. We could see her gesturing and pointing in an angry manner, presumably trying to direct traffic, obviously irritated that the passengers weren't doing what she wanted.Comments on this one:1. Why do the announcements have to go non-stop ? Put some space in between announcements to lessen the overall noise level.2. What difference does it make to me whether it's a yellow day or an orange day, anyway? What's the point of the announcement, anyway, since we're supposed to just "be about our lives"?3. If a TSA person can't speak English clearly, they have no business getting irritated with passengers who don't understand whatever she's shouting. Time for ESL and / or accent reduction training.Pensacola FLHeather and I are going through security together. I start the bags through the x-ray, and screener #1 calls for a bag check on one of Heather's carryons. She goes on through the metal detector to resolve the situation, while I hang back to make sure our stuff gets into the x-ray OK (especially not wanting to let my notebook PC out of my sight). Here's the dialog from there:Screener #1: (pulls a tube of mascara out of carryon, starts yelling) THIS HAS TO BE IN YOUR ZIPLOC BAG. Me: (I'm through the metal detector and join Heather. Screener #1 has left to go look at the x-ray machine as more bags come through.) Are we done?Heather: I'm not sure. She made it sound like they want to re-xray my bag without the mascara. I don't want to just walk away if they're not done.Me: Yeah. Don't want to give them any excuses.Screener #2: (Walks behind us, and bellows out) THE LINE IS BACKING UP. EXPEDITE GATHERING YOUR BELONGINGS AFTER THEY GO THROUGH THE X-RAY MACHINE. (He shoots a look of contempts at us and continues to where screener #1 is at the x-ray machine.)Me: (I catch the eye of screener #3, who is standing to the side wearing blue gloves and doing nothing. He immediately looks away and stares into space.) Me: (Quietly to Heather.) Let's get out of here. That guy wants people to expedite gathering their stuff, so I'll take that as our cue to leave.Me: (Projecting my voice straight at screener #3) Since he left, I guess they're done with us. Let's get out of here. Screener #3: (No response. Continues to stare into empty space.)Comments: 1. Again, no effective definition of "liquids, gels or aerosols".2. Screener #1 yelled when a normal tone of voice would have gotten the job done. I could hear her yelling from the other side of the metal detector.3. Screener #1 gave no clear indication that we were free to go, and we didn't want to look like we were trying to sneak away. The thanks we got for trying to cooperate was screener #2 yelling orders, when he could have asked us if there was a question or problem. You don't have to yell when you're standing beside us, and spare me the dirty looks. 4. Screener #3 was less than ten feet away when Screeners #1 and #2 were yelling, so he had to know what was going on. By avoiding my gaze, he gave the impression that he did not want to help.5. When I got home and was looking in my bag, I found a 1 oz tube of sunscreen in my carryon that Screener #1 had missed. So much for their self-righteous attitude. If minimal contents of a tube of mascara is such a threat to aviation security, that's nothing compared to a 1 oz sunscreen tube. 6. Again, the yelling was totally unnecessary and unprovoked. We were being cooperative and trying to play the game by the rules.Atlanta GAAcoustics similar to Orlando -- noisy echo chamber. Same announcements going nonstop, too. Big crowds -- it's a few days after Christmas.I walk up to the person checking id's. She doesn't say a word, and just glares at me with a major league scowl on her face and a look of utter hatred in her eyes. (Don't have to be a BDO to detect that.) I say hello, then hand her my passport and boarding pass. She looks at them and silently hands them back. Thinking "if you see a person without a smile, give them one of yours", I wish here a happy new year. No response, and no change from scowl.As I head towards the screening lines, there a person there attempting to direct traffic. He looks pretty frazzled, but I couldn't blame him, under the circumstances. At least he isn't yelling. I wish him a happy new year, and he smiles.In line, there's a screener shouting at the passengers, but I couldn't understand him over the general bedlam. Since the people in front of me were doing the usual drill with shoes, ziplocs and computers, I did the same. Screener at metal detector checks my id and boarding pass without saying a word. I wish him a happy new year -- no response. Talk about being treated like cattle.Get to concourse, and there's a lengthly pre-recorded announcement playing about the 3-1-1 requirement. Comments:1. This is the typical "treat passengers like cattle" situation. Even if you're going to have a distant manner, don't look at me with a look of utter hatred. If you don't like checking ID's, get another job. If I greet you, respond -- that's ordinary courtesy.2. Same comments as Orlando regarding terror alert de jour announcement and keeping control of your bags.3. Seems silly to have an announcement going about 3-1-1 after everyone has already been through security. Talk about shutting the door after the horse has left the barn !And now on a positive noteFlint MI, Story #3This was one of my first flights post 9/11 and before 3-1-1. Still a bit nervous about flying again. (I didn't fly for two years after the attacks.) I get to the checkpoint, empty my pockets into my carryon, take off cell phone, etc. Here's the conversation from there:Screener #1: (Leans across the table, and looks at my footwear.) Sir, you should probably take those boots off so we can x-ray them. They might have metal shanks.Me: They don't have metal shanks -- I've seen them with the soles off at the cobbler shop.Screener #1: It's easier if you go ahead and take them off. If you set off the metal detector, we'll have to x-ray them anyway.Me: Makes sense. No problem.Metal Detector: BEEP.Screener 2: Sir, do you have anything metal on you? Me: Nothing that detaches. (I grin widely to show my braces.)Screener #2: Sir, if you'd step over here please. (Points to mat with two yellow footprints on it.)Screener #3: Sir, if you'd stand on the footprints and hold your arms out to either side.Me: Sure thing.Screener #3: (Starts wanding me. As he goes over my right shin, wand give off a little "beep".)Me: I've got a surgical screw in that shin. It helps hold my knee together. Screener #3: (Keeps wanding.) OK, thanks. We may have to come back and hand check that.Me: No problem.Screener #3: (Keeps wanding. As he goes over my left wrist...)Wand: BEEEEEEPMe: That's my bone-headed mistake for the day -- I forgot to take off my wrist watch.Screener #3: (Pulls my sweater sleeve up and sees it's a watch, and smiles.) No problem. (keeps wanding.)Screener #3: (Finishes wanding.) Thanks for your cooperation, and have a good flight.Me: Thanks. Have a good evening.Comments:1. First and foremost, note the courteous and respectful tone in the screeners' manner. No yelling, and I hadn't been addressed as "sir" that many times in one conversation since getting out of the Navy.2. Despite my dumb mistake, the screener was nice about it. No public ass-chewing in front of everyone else.3. Note that when I questioned the need to take off my boots, the question was answered politely.4. All in all, a very positive experience. The screeners had a job to do, no doubt, but were able to do it cordially.Flint MI, Story #4Another post 9/11 and pre 3-1-1 flight. That trip, I decided to fly in a polo shirt, walking shorts and sneakers. Nothing metal in my footwear, and my right shin is in the open in case that screw trips the metal detector. Remembered to take my watch off that time. I'm approaching the metal detector. Here's the conversation from there:Screener: Sir, you should probably take those sneakers off.Me: There's nothing metal -- they won't trip the metal detector. Screener: True, but you'll have to go through secondary screening if you leave them on, and then you'll have to take them off there so we can x-ray them.Me: (In a puzzled tone.) OK, but what's the issue with my sneakers?Screener: It's the thickness of the soles. Me: The Richard Reid scenario? Screener: Exactly.Me: Aha! Makes sense. Thanks for explaining.Screener: You're welcome.Comments: 1. Again, note the courteous and respectful tone in the screener's manner and response to my questions.2. I learned something about the requirements that day. 3. Notice what was missing from the response to my questions -- no authoritarian attitude, no threats, etc. Summing UpIn the pre 3-1-1 world, the screener's seemed like decent people trying to a difficult job. Post, 3-1-1, though, it seems rudeness and suspicion have become institutionalized. Unfortunately, the 3-1-1 rule is implemented in typical bureaucratic fashion. “Liquids, gels or aerosols” becomes quite the catch phrase with the TSO’s, but the flying public is not knowledgeable of all the nuances of exactly what is a “liquid, gel or aerosol”. In the absence of good operational definitions, the TSO's implement their own interpretations of what is a “liquid, gel or aerosol”. Each TSO expects the traveler to know their particular interpretation of the rules. The TSO's treat a passenger who violates their individual interpretation like they are stupid at best, probably uncooperative, and have criminal intent at worst. The TSO's appear to be inventing requirements, such as the "requirement" that one's 3 oz bottles have to be "labeled" (such as TSO NY's posts), but don't specify in what manner. Hey blog moderators -- can you confirm or deny the "label requirement".Because of the continued confusion, the TSO’s become perpetually irritated with the flying public as a group. They assume the worst of the passengers, feel the need to shout instructions, bark orders like drill instructors, etc., instead of dealing with passengers as individuals. Ordinary civility goes out the window.Is it any wonder that the relationship between the TSA and the flying public can be a little acrimonious? Though the TSO’s are tested frequently for their skill at detecting prohibited items by the TSA, there is little or no accountability for their interpersonal skills. Supervisors seem to pay no attention to the way that passengers are treated. The TSA relies on passenger complaints to deal with heavy handed TSO’s, instead of taking the proactive approach and evaluating the actions of the agency in general and the TSO’s in particular from the point of view of a law-abiding passenger.What about the security camera footage from the checkpoints? Also, I would presume that the checkpoints are also "wired for sound". Why not review camera footage to see how the checkpoint experience can be improved?Why doesn't the TSA do some secret shopper missions with the express purpose of looking at the security experience through the eyes of the public? I recently had to suffer through boarding a flight at the Orlando Int'l Airport (MCO) a few days after a new policy of pre-sorting passengers into 3 categories was put into place: Family, Casual Traveler, Seasoned Traveller. This might have been a good idea, but its implementation was flawed beyond belief. For example:1) passengers sort themselves. there was no enforcement.2) it was so crowded and there were no TSA employees to help guide the flow of people nor rails to handle the long lines.3) as you get closer to the gate, you do see 3 checkpoints, each manned by 2 i.d. checkers. However, beyond the checkpoint, the lines all mix together again! People just naturally went for the shortest line they can see. I got stuck behind a poor mother traveling with her 3 children.What is the point of segregating passengers at all if you are not going to enforce the separate flows all the way through?Why bother segregating passengers if they end up getting the same treatment anyway? I did not see the TSA assigning more personelle to help the "Family" travellers or provide wider entrances or ....It was clear that very little thought went into implementing the idea. Anonymous Sandra said... "Patting down a child is disgraceful. Patting down a 9-month old is beyond belief. It's my suggestion that all parents teach their kids to scream for help if someone from the TSA touches them. They would just be putting into practice what hopefully they are already being taught - that you never let a stranger touch you and if someone does that, you scream."Man walks up to the check point with his family, and suddenly remembers that he still has his four inch blade hunting knife on his belt. He thought it was too much trouble to go back to the counter to try to catch his luggage or make other arrangements. So, he slid the knife down the shirt back of his eight year old son in order to sneak it through screening.Yes, that really happened.A little girl was given a stuffed animal by someone at the motel a few days before the family was due to fly out. When the family went through check point, TSA found a pistol hidden inside the toy. The person at the motel was using the child to dispose of evidence of a crime.Yes, that is a true story also. I was hoping that someone from the Blog Team or TSA would have been a standup guy and addressed why the responses to poster Duane were blocked for 1 1/2 days.Did TSA communicate with Duane during that period?What was the TSA motivation for blocking Blog participants from commenting back to Duane?Was there an effort (this appears to be the case) by TSA to block an investigation by any Law Enforcement Agency of this incident?How about it TSA, would you care to respond? Anonymous said... "Now that a TSA-certified flight deck officer's gun has accidentally discharged during a US Airways commercial flight, who is going to protect us from those who are protecting us? Can one request "handgun-free" flights from the airlines? March 24, 2008 3:47 PM"Oh no! Haven't you been reading the blogs? That armed flight deck officer and the locked cabin door are all the security you will ever need! With them in place all of the TSA and all the things it does can all go away! joe screener said:""Patting down a child is disgraceful. Patting down a 9-month old is beyond belief.It's my suggestion that all parents teach their kids to scream for help if someone from the TSA touches them. They would just be putting into practice what hopefully they are already being taught - that you never let a stranger touch you and if someone does that, you scream."Man walks up to the check point with his family, and suddenly remembers that he still has his four inch blade hunting knife on his belt. He thought it was too much trouble to go back to the counter to try to catch his luggage or make other arrangements. So, he slid the knife down the shirt back of his eight year old son in order to sneak it through screening.Yes, that really happened.A little girl was given a stuffed animal by someone at the motel a few days before the family was due to fly out. When the family went through check point, TSA found a pistol hidden inside the toy. The person at the motel was using the child to dispose of evidence of a crime.Yes, that is a true story also."March 27, 2008 10:04 AMAnd those two items were going to bring down an aircraft how? By the way, are you a/k/a "screener joe" who has been ripped a new one so often on this blog because you don't know what you are talking about?Three cheers to Sandra, winstonsmith, Marshall and all those anonymous posters who are fed up with the TSA and are not afraid to say so. I have a close relative who works for TSA as a Security Officer.She attributes most of the ill treatment of passengers,poor training,and inconsistancies to the high turn over rate at TSA. According to her, many of her coworkers are brand new or on the way out the door. This would lead me to believe that this is the heart of the problem. There has to be a reason why people would run away from a federal job advertised as a career in such high numbers as reported by many news sources.What's going on behind the scenes is my question. What ever you do don't post a comment on how much TSA's turnover rate is responsible for the inconsistancies and poor performance of the workforce because it will be censored. The truth hurts I see. Our tax dollars hard at work. I have read every single comment on this post. Some were hysterical, especially about passengars pummeling a hijacker. I think it's true. Save one of them having a gun, they wouldn't last with annoyed mothers who raised 6 boys, ticked off business men who's secretary won't come in for private meetings anymore, and the guy who's girlfriend cheated on him.Some are a tad off beat, like the one about children screaming if someone touches them. I think it's important for children to be educated about strangers, but in this case I think it's important for children to know that they parent will be there and that there is a law that says some people get searched and others don't. And that this isn't "bad" touching.I just want to say, I hate TSAs. Honestly, I could care less if you're just doing your job. You picked a nasty job. There is a reason I do not have your job. Because I don't want to be the one people are posting comments about on the TSA blog because I am enforcing rules I may not agree with.When I hear them say "We're just following the rules" or "We may not agree with them but we have to follow them" I feel like saying "Then get a job that has rules and regulations you agree with"Same for soldiers. Don't state that you think this "war" is ridiculous and then join the Army/Navy/Marines, etc.That being said, no I don't like you, but *I* put up with *you* because I'd rather not sit on my plump rump for sixteen hours just so I can have my very own sammich made by my grammy.I take off my belt, remove my laptop from the case, take off all my outer layers, so I am left in a tank top or t-shirt.On Tuesday, the 25th of March I flew from JFK to SFO. We got non-stop flights with one weeks notice, and checked in online. My boyfriend and I checked our luggage both under my name, that I was checking too. The agent at the counter didn't even look at his boarding pass but required my ID and boarding pass. Fair enough, he didn't have baggage.We get to the security line and I think for sure we'll be singled out for selective screening. I would much rather go through selective screening!1. It's often a shorter and quicker line!2. The TSA personnel are often nicer because they aren't dealing with hoardes of people. Their human interaction is much less.When we weren't selected we moved on. I always wear flip flops to go through security. Recently I found out I suffer from an overarch in my feet and even walking short distances, or short amounts without the support of my shoes is very painful. I recently found very supportive flip flops and was excited, thinking I would be able to wear them and not be in pain (flip flops often aren't supportive and for someone like me, it is painful to wear them). I was told I needed to remove them. My bin had already gone through so they were simple tossed on the belt.And then I had to walk, BAREFOOT on that dirty skeevy floor where all the TSA personnel walk with their chunky black shoes.Ew.I just wanted to wash my feet.Yes, you're just doing your job. Blah blah blah - if you don't have enough faith in the job you do to say "This is why I am doing this" and not "The rules say..."Don't be a robot. If someone asks "Why?" they are most likely genuinely curious because it's something they haven't encountered yet. Answer the, politely, don't act like they are a criminal.My mom get's visible upset and frustrated, and ornery and nasty, when she is singled out for a search or they want to look inside her bag. I believe it's justified, albeit embarassing. One time the woman, while my mom watched, knocked open my mom and brothers pill holder that she had in her carryone and proceeded to unscrewed a bottle of lotion and not rescrew it.M-o-r-o-n. That's uncalled for. And some may say "That was on TSA official, not all are like that" but it's those one's that people remember.I smile and keep my mouth shut because I prefer to spend less time traveling to a destination and more time at that destination. I would like to see an itemised account of the TSA's expenditures for the lenth of it's existance. Can we say scandal! This is our money paying for this monstrousity. I've got a major GRIN based on a news story I just read about a woman being forced or asked to remove her nipple rings with pliers.If the story is true, my reaction (besides being titillated) is that TSA workers went too far, the really funny part of the story is the official response by TSA spokesman Dwayne Baird: "I'd be really curious to know what this woman had in her nipples. Sometimes they have a chain between their nipples, or a chain between their nipples and their belly button. It would have to be made of heavy metal to be detected."Why is this funny to me? At first blush, it seems a case of TMI. But when one thinks about it, one realizes just how much weird information someone like Dwayne is required to know. I'm sure this is a relatively minor example of bizarre human behavior, too.Anyway, if Mr. Baird reads this, thank you for the laugh. You're handling this with grace and wit. If Mr. Baird's superiors read this, give the man a raise!Lastly, when can we expect to see a video by Bob on this subject? I seriously want to know which genital piercings are allowed! =) Thank goodness my airport has camera's at each screening area so we can no longer be accused of taking items out of bags!!!!!!!!! To the nice Anonymous person who wrote: Three cheers to Sandra, winstonsmith, Marshall and all those anonymous posters who are fed up with the TSA and are not afraid to say so.March 27, 2008 1:40 PMIt is I who thank you for reading and taking your civil rights seriously. It is only when more people start to do the same that we the people will restore actual freedom to our great country. The TSA is only a symptom (albeit a very visible and painful one) of a much larger problem we have in the US. My mom is just about to turn the corner to 70 years old. I took her out to lunch about a month ago and we were talking about stuff in general and she came out with the pearl of wisdom, "I'm glad I'm on my way out. This is *not* the country I grew up in."That's why I write. And that's why I'll bet Sandra writes, and Marshall writes, and even Trollkiller -- a man with whom I don't always agree, but for whom I have great respect because he gets it -- there are legitimate questions to debate here.Please everyone, take it to the next level and start to write your Congress Critters and everyone else in Washington who will or won't listen. Write letters to the editor. Write blogs. Talk to your friends. Get and stay informed from sources you can actually trust. You can make a difference. "Thank goodness my airport has camera's at each screening area so we can no longer be accused of taking items out of bags!!!!!!!!!"Phase one of check-in baggage security, partially complete. At least at one of 450 airports....Now we just need you to do one more thing, secure the bag with a tamper proof seal. Violation of that seal should be a Federal offense.... "The TSA is only a symptom (albeit a very visible and painful one) of a much larger problem we have in the US."Thanks, winstonsmith.As we have seen over the past two months on this blog, the bloggers are opening a channel of communication. To a degree we have some insight into the bottlenecks, issues, and problems that the TSA is facing. It is important that both TSO's and passengers report problems, and work towards resolution. We can only hope that positive dialog will continue.I have been posting anonymously since the beginning, but that is one thing that I can change. I would still like to press for a posted Passenger Bill of Rights.I urge all of you to vote in November. Your voice matters. We use to have TSA zip ties and also TSA cavalar ties but we are no longer able to get them. We loved them so why they are not available any more is sad. "We use to have TSA zip ties and also TSA cavalar ties but we are no longer able to get them. We loved them so why they are not available any more is sad."Lets work on getting them back. With RFID tags if necessary. It is a TSA issue, but affects your credibility, secure check-in baggage and theft is really serious issue with passengers. I recently returned home from overseas thru DTW, most of the TSA employees were polite enough except one who was so rude and crude that anywhere else they would have been fired. If I was not in a hurray to catch a connecting flight I would have asked to see a supervisor. What happen to the comment cards that were available? TSA you need to train your employees to be polite also and remember you are goverment employees paid by the people so technicaly being a tax paying citizen you work for me. I'd be really curious to know what this woman had in her nipples. Sometimes they have a chain between their nipples, or a chain between their nipples and their belly button. It would have to be made of heavy metal to be detected.Mr. Baird's statement is quite accurate. Unless these piercings were of a heavy gauge -- and based upon the photo I've seen in the media where the woman and her lawyer demonstrated the removal with a mannequin, they apparently were not -- they shouldn't have set off the wand. I speak from experience here, as I have the same piercings (and one below the belt, so to speak). I used to give the TSA screeners a friendly warning before they'd wand me -- just because I realize this type of thing makes some people uncomfortable -- but I stopped because the jewelry simply would never trip the metal detector. It's really been a non-issue. "When we weren't selected we moved on. I always wear flip flops to go through security. Recently I found out I suffer from an overarch in my feet and even walking short distances, or short amounts without the support of my shoes is very painful. I recently found very supportive flip flops and was excited, thinking I would be able to wear them and not be in pain (flip flops often aren't supportive and for someone like me, it is painful to wear them). I was told I needed to remove them. My bin had already gone through so they were simple tossed on the belt.And then I had to walk, BAREFOOT on that dirty skeevy floor where all the TSA personnel walk with their chunky black shoes"You sound more angry that your pretty little feet had to touch the dirty floor. if you had work orthopedics and you said you had a medical reason why you cant take your shoes off, they wouldnt have made you but flip flops, you cant be serious. "they simply tossed them on the belt" is there a point to this? i travel 3 times a week and i love how every moron wastes a bin that i could use for their pair of shoes. its like their shoes will get dirt on them by going through the machine . i find this even more redundant seeing they are ya know shoes.Its people like this who make the lines as long as they are, people who think they are special and deserve special screening Don't you people get it? The public is angry because of the extreme lack of transparency, inconsistent policies, and a complete lack of any and all civil liberties once you walk into that TSA checkpoint. The bad guys have already won. Thanks to you, Big Brother. Glad to see you treated this woman fairly, without unnecessarily invading her privacy (hint: sarcasm)Nipple rings? Come on now, you can't be serious. News flash: terrorists are not currently and will never use nipple rings as a weapon. What really gets me is the oh-so-common line "We can't tell you, national security and all." Half of the general public would be satisfied at this point if the TSA just released some honest to goodness information and not more doublespeak. I will admit, I think this blog is an amazing idea - but it is still in a sad state of affairs. How many times have questions been asked and responded to without any real content being contained in the so-called answer? You can practically hear the TSA squirming in their seats as they dodge providing complete answers to many if not most questions asked here. I would love to hear someone try and argue why security through obscurity is a valid model in the TSA when it has proven a failed concept in every other application ever imagined? Keeping secrets doesn't provide any ACTUAL security... it only provides the illusion of security. Of course given the ability of many people to succumb to illusions and doublespeak, how can it possibly surprise me anymore that we as a society tacitly accept this thought process? Someone really ought to officially inform the body modification community that body piercings are not prohibited items. I have worn large gauge steel and titanium nipple and genital piercings for many years and have passed through many US and foreign airports without ever being detected by the metal detectors. Unless she had little razor blade jewelry, you really need to explain yourselves over this one. The worst part about my service in Iraq was not my time there, but the trip home. Thanks, TSA. Upon leaving Fort Dix, I had to take a commercial flight from the Philly airport to get back home on the West coast. Upon reaching the security gate, a Army COL. in uniform who was a Silver Star awardee, was being made to empty all his pockets; he complained that he was not a terrorist, but the screener cut him short and snapped at him "You military folks ARE the terrorists!" I received similar treatment, and when checking my briefcase, her assistant dumped it upside down, mixing up the paperwork and damaging some items in there. The TSA lady told me "If you want to catch your flight, you're going to do nothing about it." I ended up having to put my stuff away without the screeners help, which only delayed me. Several men of Arabic descent behind me were able to pass through without even being given a second look-over by the screener (scared of profiling?). When I got to San Diego, I checked out of my temporary command, and went to fly back home to Seattle a week later from San Diego airport. I was in uniform at the ticket counter, when a TSA official had me step out of line with my seabag, and in front of the other passengers, empty out the entire seabag, whilst she inspected it's contents. She asked for my military ID, because she said my name was on some sort of 'Terrorist Watch List' and she had to look up to see if I was that person (I wasn't). I was told I have the same name as someone else on that list, but there was nothing I could do about it because "That's just the way it is" as she put it. So now I'm 'flagged' for special treatment everytime I fly! Every TSA person I talked to on my return home from Iraq made it clear directly or suggestively, that they had a problem with me and some of my fellow travellers for no other reason than that we were military personnel. I remained courteous and polite to the TSA folks even though I got nothing but attitude and unprofessional behavior from them in return! This type of discrimination against military personnel by TSA screeners happens every day in our airports. This is how TSA welcomes our heroes home.I filed a complaint on the TSA website about my mistreatment over a year ago, and they have not bothered to respond to my complaint, or even apologize. That only shows TSA knows about it, and they care to do NOTHING about the problem, otherwise they would have responded to my complaint! Nipple piercing? Are you serious? This has to be a hoax. There is no way the TSA is this bad.http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VM3DT00&show_article=1&image=largeWhat is next. I have to remove the metal plate on my hip? Litigation is the answer. Sue 'em more. Get names from badges and, by god, sue 'em. If they lose enough bling in court they'll come around to acting like humans again. Some snippets posted on FlyerTalk recently:"So this morning I'm flying CO from NJ (EWR) to Denver, & I packed a backpack instead of my normal roller. To deal w/ liquid regulations I bought plastic bottles @ Walmart & carry my own shampoo, shaving cream etc. Toothpaste however I've always just bought smaller sized tubes & tossed it in the bag. This morning, I failed to bring my plastic bag & had to put the toothpaste in my dob kit. Of course they pull out my toothpaste telling me it's over the limit - TSA agent stated the limit is 3.5oz - TSA website says 3oz by volume which I knew, & my toothpaste was w/i that limit. I asked the agent if she knew what the limit represented, volume or weight..... blank stare. I asked her again pointing out that although the weight was greater than 3.5 oz, the volume was closer to 2... blank stare & a repeat of "the limit is 3.5oz." In the end I walked away, but just another example of the TSA's utter incompetence."From a recent Patrick Smith column:"In Latin America, for example, our TSA requires local security personnel to set up gateside screening tables exclusively for flights to the United States. After passing through the standard metal detector and x-ray station, which does not enforce a liquids ban, passengers get in line to have their carry-on bags hand-searched for any oversized containers. Those headed elsewhere are exempt from such nonsense. These gateside checks are not only tedious, but useless. In South America recently I was sitting in a crowded gate and witnessed something hilarious -- or maybe sad is the better term: At the screening tables, a handful of contract guards were ransacking carry-ons, but there was no frisking or pat-downs of passengers themselves. So, as the line snaked forward in agonizing slow-motion, people would simply reach into their bags, remove any toothpaste or other personal effects they'd rather not forfeit, and slip them into their pockets!Over the past six years I have written upwards of twenty columns on the airport security and the TSA. Through it all I've found myself searching for a word -- a single word that might possibly encapsulate the nonsense that we go through, from the pointy-object confiscations to the shoe removals to the childish folly I just described. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, there is no single word that can simultaneously account for things wasteful, pointless, humiliating and immature. Neither is there a word to describe the level frustration some of us feel when we are demanded, at the risk of confrontation and hollering, to treat obviously silly rules with unmatched seriousness.What we're dealing with is, to some extent, human nature. At this point the TSA is the kind of self-perpetuating beast that inevitably results when a bureaucracy is granted lots of power and little actual purpose. But also, we have also spent six years living in a state of institutional denial. Our government, willfully or otherwise, refuses to admit a basic and irrefutable premise: that the attacks of September 11th were not, in fact, caused by a failure of airport security."Re: episode where woman was forced to remove her body piercings with a pair of pliars. Rather than address the issue directly, the TSA continues to maintain that its screeners are properly trained and further adds to the fear-mongering in order to justify its existence:"TSA is actively investigating Ms. Hamlin's allegations to ensure procedures were followed appropriately. Our security officers are well-trained to screen individuals with body piercings in sensitive areas with dignity and respect while ensuring a high level of security.TSA is well aware of terrorists' interest in hiding dangerous items in sensitive areas of the body, therefore we have a duty to the American public to resolve any alarm that we discover. Incidents of female terrorists hiding explosives in sensitive areas are on the rise all over the world. This scenario must be addressed at our nation's airports.To the right is a prototype training device that TSA will use to simulate a bra bomb in training and testing its officers."A comment on suggested "overreactions", i.e., child screaming while being patted down:Any attempt to change a bad situation, such as this country is dealing with at this time, needs to start with outrageous actions in order to garner the attention of the general population, in the case of the TSA, the "SHEEPLE" who just go along with the agency's demands. Most know the rules serve no purpose, but most people are scared to death to speak out. (Thankfully, the phrase "anything for security" is heard less and less these days.)In order to embolden the general flying public to speak out, we must ourselves be willing to say in a very loud and a very clear voice: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! As a former TSO, let me help clarify the mystery of liquids, gels, aerosols, etc. This information is available at the TSA.gov website and I will include the link. It seems that many passengers have forgotten much of the science they learned in school, but . . . if you can POUR it, PUMP it, SQUEEZE it, SPREAD it,SMEAR it, SPRAY it or SPILL it; then you are carrying a liquid, gel, or aerosol and those items are subject to the 3-1-1 restrictions. Link -- http://www.tsa.gov/assets/pdf/311-insert.pdfIn general, TSO's are not trying to be difficult, but they are required to follow the standard operating procedures. "We use to have TSA zip ties and also TSA cavalar ties"Cavalar???Is that anything like Corbomite? (Ask the nearest Trekker if you're not familiar with that substance.)Presumably you mean Kevlar, which would make a darned strong zip tie. Interesting that the TSA did make an effort at one point to resecure bags they searched, but no longer. TSA IS A JOKE. All they do is make it more expensive and more of a hassle to travel. Air travel is not fun any more. It is not any more safe than it was before 911. Texas woman claims TSA forced nipple ring removalLOS ANGELES — A Texas woman who claims she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation.Hamlin said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin's chest, the Dallas-area resident said.Hamlin said she told the woman that she was wearing nipple piercings. The female agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the body piercings, Hamlin claimed.Hamlin said she could not remove them and asked if she could instead display her pierced breasts in private to the female agent. But several other male officers told her she could not board her flight until the jewelry was removed, she said.She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped nipple piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring."Still crying, she informed the TSA officer that she could not remove it without the help of pliers, and the officer gave a pair to her," said Hamlin's attorney, Gloria Allred, reading from a letter she sent Thursday to the director of the TSA's Office of Civil Rights and Liberties. Allred is a well-known Los Angeles lawyer who often represents high-profile claims. I work at MSP airport. So I travel often. I cant honestly say that I have had a lot of good security experiences with the TSA. The last time my husband and I flew, I was harrassed by the TSA agents for wearing a button-up hoodie that they were convinced was a jacket. They tried to force me to take it off in front of everyone that was also waiting in line to go through checkpoint. Even though I let 3 male and 1 female TSA agents know that I did not have anything on under my sweatshirt they insisted it come off NOW! They were incredibe rude. The worst part of it was when I told one of the male TSA agents that I did not have a shirt on under my sweatshirt he smiled. They are incredibly rude and have no sense of customer service. They Just dont care! I'm confused by the "squeeze and smear" comment. I can squeeze a block of cheese or a bean bag. I can squeeze my backpack. I can squeeze an empty plastic bottle. I can smear crayons and pencils onto paper -- that's how they work! These are all solids, aren't they? What about candles? And chocolate bars?And technically, some would consider glass (eye glasses) to be not solid. Look it up.So do all of these have to go in that tiny bag as well?And pens, which do contain liquid, do not need to go into the bag.This is why the general population is confused. Lipstick is a solid at room temperature and so is peanut butter (Google it) and therefore does not need to go into the baggie.Maybe we need a chemistry professor at each TSA checkpoint to confirm whether various objects are solid or liquid. Or maybe a printed list at each checkpoint that the TSA can point to. If it's not on the list, and you cannot pour it, it's not subject to the 3-1-1 policy. "You military folks ARE the terrorists!" There are liars, and dam liars and you are one. Philly TSO! We flew from Milwaukee to Phoenix and the screeners in Milwaukee have no respect for personal belongings that have to be screened. They were unnecessarily rough with my son's expensive, delicate camera which he had placed carefully in one of the bins to go through the X-ray. The agent made an exasperated noise as if we weren't supposed to put the camera bag in a little gray bin. Where, pray tell, are the instructions for what goes into the bins and what doesn't? There aren't any posted, and not everyone flies on a regular basis. We fly once a year, perhaps twice a year, and this kind of rudeness and rough treatment of expensive equipment is unwarranted. There is not one sign that states what we need to remove and what we need to leave on...from shoes to jewelry. We've had agents refuse to hand-inspect exposed film; when we have had to dump water out of a Nalgene bottle, there's no place to dump it but into a trash can. Why? This whole security routine is nothing new by this time, yet every time I have had to traverse its labyrinth, there's no improvement in the communications, no improvement in the efficiency, and highly variable attitudes on the part of the screeners. In Phoenix, the screeners were uniformly polite, kind, willing to make the process go as smoothly as possible, and were more than willing to answer questions for us as well as hand-screen exposed film. Every one of our possessions was handled carefully and we were treated kindly. This was not true in Milwaukee. We flew into Indianapolis and found the same incredibly rude attitude on the part of the TSA team there. They wouldn't budge to put a sign on a vending machine that was taking money and not dispensing water...."not our job." These people were standing (sorry, leaning) around with nothing to do while we struggled to find a piece of paper, pen and possibly tape to post a sign that the machine was out of order. This was within 3 feet of the TSA people. Is kindness prohibited? To a person, every TSA employee that we encountered in Indianapolis was surly, rude, and unhelpful. Not a good first impression of Hoosier Hospitality. As far as shipping items to yourself, that's impossible. There is no way to do that when you find that you cannot transport something. By that time, you have no option but to hand the item over to be dumped in the trash. The kiosks for shipping are well-hidden...I looked in Phoenix, Indiapolis, and Milwaukee. As a parent of a child with Celiac Disease, I am constantly worried that we won't be able to travel with the food that my son needs. It's expensive, cannot be checked, and cannot be replaced easily ANYWHERE, least of all in the "secure boaring area." I have comforted myself with the hope that I could possibly ship the food home, but that's not possible from what I can see at the airports. So, TSA, we need uniformity of rules, communication of rules, kindness, clarity, respect for our belongings (no matter what age the passenger), and follow-through on what you tell the public (make the mailing kiosks visible and accessible in every airport). How can we comply when we don't even know what we're expected to do?! Well this should be interesting. I've been following the articles written about the TSA since 9/11. All they have done is provide more fact to Homeland Security and the bush babies that they don't know what they’re doing, don't care and someone is pocketing the money that may make a difference. I cannot believe the ignorance of the TSA at airports and the attitude of superiority these junkie monkeys display. COMMON SENSE is not in any of their vocabulary. I'm guessing someone else filled out their employment applications. It's like Homeland Security went out and hired every thug they could find, slipped them some money, put them on the bush dole and said hey just do this and if this happens, act like a "jack" that never had an intelligent thought in their life. COMMON SENSE. The latest posting... TSA has posted that they "followed procedure" at the Dallas airport with the poor woman and the nipple ring. If any of the agents had any kind of decency or COMMON SENSE they easily could have checked the woman's piercing and not have HARMED her in anyway. But no, the female TSA agent, showing no sense on her own (she deserves the exact same treatment at every airport for the rest of her life), asks a bunch of "jack" males who instead of using COMMON SENSE used their nether regions and FORCED her to hurt herself when a look was all that was needed. It's like the hill, the airports need to be cleaned out of the ignorants as soon as possible and decent people with common sense need to be paid well and establish real protocols that they are RESPONSIBLE for. The TSA lawyers are constantly answering questions with we have establish this or that policy, it just isn't in effect yet, but since we established it, we did our job. NO, YOU DID NOT. I think every TSA agent should be forced to go to another airport, lead to the head "jack" and see what it feels like. People, if you can't do your job, if you're some sicko enjoying the torment of Americans, if you don't like your job, if you're stealing from your job - stop and get out; YOU ARE NOT WANTED. And if you stealing directly from Americans like Homeland Security and the bush babies, I hope your job gets cut, airports shut down because you don't deserve a bailout with your shitty service, and all of you can't find a job for a 2 years. TSA agents, hope you like being a bush baby Americans. I travel extensively through the US and all over the world and i have to admit my experiences with security in US airports is inconsistent. I can't imagine it is a fun job by any means but I have to say that it would be a better experience for all involved if the screeners realized that MOST travellers are innocent and not terrorists. A smile, a courteous manner, a sense of humour would go a long way in getting people through the screening process without feeling like they are in the movie midnight express!I am okay with high levels of security if it makes sense and is consistent. I find the whole no liquids thing ridiculous. I am concur that peanut butter and lip glass are far from explosive. I would also appreciate it that if you have to pat me down you ask my permission first and do so in a gentle, respectful manner. TSA employees would be wise to remember this especially if you are patting down, women, children and elderly. Think about how you would want your mother to be treated. I have been manhandled by TSA agents in both Hawaii and North Carolina airports.I would also show more patience and understanding if some of the security measures made sense. I understand the need to screen laptops and electronics and am happy to oblige. I am also more than happy to take off my shoes, i always travel with shoes that are easy to remove. What doesn't make a lick of sense to me is to screen the bottoms of my bare feet (Hawaii airport). If you can clearly see that there is nothing on the bottom of my feet nor are there any fresh surgical scars that would suggest something had been implanted there. Why waste my time making me go through that only to be sent on to be manhandled by the next screener? I have been dying to ask that question for ages. (BTW this happens every single time i go through the Hawaii airport)At the end of the day i think you would find the general public is grateful for the attention to security but it would behoove the TSA to spend some time with their screeners to teach them how to not only maintain homeland security but do so respectfully and kindly without evoking the ire of the public. Consistency across all airports would also go along way to building confidence with the public. An innocent person shouldn't come away from security feeling, violated, humiliated or like a criminal. The public needs to understand the role of TSA and be prepared to adhere to their regulations. They need to anticipate and prepare for screening in advance to make things go more smoothly by getting there early, being patient, being prepared to remove shoes, electronics etc. and remembering it is for everyone's safety. It has been scientifically proven that an observer will not find what they are looking for accurately if they do not find it fairly frequently (see Wolfe JM, Horowitz TS, Kenner NM. Cognitive psychology: rare items often missed in visual searches. Nature 2005;435:439-40).Considering that, the lack of science behind TSA screening methods and the distractions the officers have (assuring that liquids, laptops, shoes, etc all follow regulation screening procedures), I seriously doubt the ability of this whole process to protect us.The system, however, is a major victory for terrorists, since it created the havoc and mania they always wanted. Regarding the occurance with the woman in texas required to remove her nipple piercings prior to entrance into the airport's secure area.Now, i fully realize the reasoning and necesity of identifying all detector alarms, however this is a case where TSA has overstepped its bounds, and has shown a clear abuse of power. Yet they claim the incident was handled properly as noted in the update on tsa's website.As quoted:March 28, 2008It appears that the Transportation Security Officers involved properly followed procedures in that incident.Yet, if the news article is accurate The woman involved identified them and offered to privatly display them to another female TSA officer, which was refused.She said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took out the ring. This is proper procedure? She was scanned again and was allowed to board even though she still was wearing a belly button ring.A belly button ring is less dangeous than nipple piercings?Since, i see nothing in TSA's list of prohibited items relating to this sort of jewelery as being not allowed was she then allowed to keep them or required to dispose of them?This entire incident is not only unprofessional, but excedes any authority allowed by security regulations, once it was determined she possessed no dangerous or prohibited items. It also raises the question(s) of what adornments then are allowable?Is it Because of her body being pierced? if so then why was the belly button ring allowed? What then about ear rings that are inserted in ear piercings? or some of the other piercings seen today such as nose, lips, eyebrows? Are only specific adornments at question here?This then brings another question to mind. What about a womans bra that contains underwires, and metal adjustment or fastening devices? Is a woman then going to be required to remove her bra because said metal is hidden?And whats next? "I'm sorry sir (or ma'am) you'll have to remove that artificial joint (knee replacement for example) we cant allow that." or "we're sorry sir, the zipper in your trousers is too long, you'll have to leave your pants here."Its time TSA takes responsibility for its actions, and if a person is informed they are in violation with a prohibited item, then TSA should if necessary be required, and ready to document that with written copies of said violation.Sadly this appears to be nothing more than abuse of power on the part of the TSA officer(s), as well as a lack of understanding of regulations in general, and i sincerely hope this woman pursues this through legal channels as necessary.Based on personal experience, this isn't a totally isolated incident either. Firsthand experience with my spouse, who has BOTH hips replaced, (and again i fully understand the necessity of identifying unknown alarms) When even a pat down discloses no hidden property some airport security employees are at a loss about what to do. The worst airport for this we have been in is Memphis. and on more than one occasion we have been detained long enough to almost miss a flight which was 2 hours in advance of our arrival.Denver on the other hand, seems to have a good handle on problems such as joint replacements and has a procedure in place to deal with these issues. 1. I have a high-level security clearance.2. I am a contractor for DHS (since I am not on site in DC, though, I have no badging).3. I have a Registered Traveler pass(good only at a few airports).I think it would be much more efficient - not to mention a good PR gig - if government or contract employees with security clearances were granted some sort of TSA clearance or consistent access to a speed lane. I have no idea on the number, but I am sure that would speed probably hundreds of thousands of people through security lines. I travel almost weekly, and it irritates me to no end to have an arrogant, ill-trained, ill-mannered screener treat me like I am something he scraped off his shoe. Anonymous said..."You military folks ARE the terrorists!" There are liars, and dam liars and you are one. Philly TSO!March 28, 2008 12:39 PMThank you Anonymous for serving my purposes! But I wasn't lying, it really happened. You see, the fact that you were able to make that baseless imflammatory comment and the TSA Blog Moderator(s) DID NOT see a problem with it and posted it, only proves my assumption (posted in my first comment) that TSA has a problem with military folks like myself. Otherwise, they would not have condoned the above comment like they did at 12:39PM.I can only imagine what kind of treatment they find acceptable for the civilian community? If they screen for the bad guys at the airport as well as they moderate their discussion board as shown above...The we should ALL be worried! I have been reading this blog off and on since its inception. As a Transportation Security Officer for almost six years, I have worked in the smallest airports in Alaska to the largest airports on the east coast. I am amazed every day, of the things that happen and that I see. Certainly, I am concerned about the possibility of a terrorist getting through the TSA checkpoint and onto a plane with an IED. However, I am just as concerned, if not more, by the whiny sucky bottle babies, that write the majority of these posts. It seems most of these people have been spoon fed their entire lives and who knows what they have been fed. Granted, some of the concerns brought up are valid, but by and large... bogus. People, please get your facts straight or at least attempt to do some research before you start throwing stones. I do not agree with a few of the procedures that we must follow, but I do not have a suggestion to repair them and I have not seen anyone offer up any realistic alternatives. Getting through the screening process is only as difficult as you make it. At which Airports have they said they will limit the amounts of Medical items? If the medical item is over the 3.4oz limit and is a liquid/gel/etc then it should be simply tested and go from there. And as for them being poorly trained...do you know how much they have to go through for each person? Especially that guy stuck on the x-ray machine? He's gotta scan each image and look for components of an IED in a matter of seconds. I'm sure he'd love to take longer but we, the passangers, start to complain over it takeing to long without remembering that they are being thorough for our benefit. And as for them being rude or what have you, I feel we should cut them a bit of slack. Of course they are professionals and should act better but they are people too. They will bite back like any of us would in our own professions. Post a Comment

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So, what if you show up at a TSA checkpoint and you can’t find your ID? Does that mean you won’t fly? Nope… You’ll still be able to fly as long as you provide us with some information that will help us determine you are who you say you are. Verifying the identity of people coming through checkpoints is an important part of security, just as vetting passenger names against the No Fly and Selectee lists. Using the information you provide, if we can confirm your identity, you’ll be cleared to go through security, and you may or may not have to go through some additional screening. If we can’t confirm your identity with the information you provide or you’re not willing to provide us with the information to help us make a determination, you may not be able to fly. You can find a list of acceptable IDs here. Also, prior to the new ID rules rolling out last year, there were tons of questions, and we addressed the questions with several blog posts you can review here: - 8.13.2008 You won’t be put on a TSA “List” if you forget Your ID - 8.11.2008 Furthering the Dialogue on IDs - 7.03.2008 Yet Another ID Post...With Some Answers to Your Questions - 7.02.2008 ID Q&A - 6.27.2008 ID Update and Word on the Blog - 6.23.2008 New ID Requirements: The First 48 - 6.20.2008 New ID Requirements Begin Tomorrow - 6.11.2008 Why is ID Important for Security? TSA Blog Team

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The original Mapes Hotel, a grand beauty of a building near the Truckee River, was haunted for decades by an unknown spirit. After it was torn down, the same presence has been reported lingering near the ice rink on the spot of the old hotel that is set up in the winter months. A few miles out of Virginia City is the little town of Gold Hill. This is the town where the actual gold strikes began just prior to the biggest gold and silver strike ever (called the Comstock Lode) occurred in Virginia City. Gold Hill has its share of mines that are still under the ground. The Yellow Jacket mine, the Commons mine and all the rest are still here. Miners were killed in some of these mines due to accidents. Right behind the Gold Hill Hotel is the Yellow Jacket mine. The miners didn’t have electricity with which to do their work. They had to use candlelight. Oxygen was limited underground and the gases that emanated from under the ground combined and fires were a constant danger. Unfortunately, a fire broke out in the Yellow Jacket mine in 1873 and 37 miners were killed and were left buried at the bottom of the mine shafts behind this hotel. ~ AKA ~ The Millionaires Club “Locals and tourists rub shoulders and swap stories at The Old Washoe Club. Originally called The Millionaires Club, it was built so that nouveau riche gentlemen might enjoy the pleasures of wealth, in comfort and style. At one time, the building was even used to store corpses when the ground was frozen too solid for digging graves. “Three ghosts haunt The Old Washoe Club; A lovely, blonde apparition, known as the lady in blue, the specter of a scared little girl, and a grizzled prospector who occasionally cadges drinks from unsuspecting patrons. Ladies be warned, the door to the women’s room locks and unlocks itself.” – Janice Oberding, Suite 101 Article. These stories and more are part of the Old Washoe Club. What people don’t know is that there are two totally different sites of the Old Washoe Club. There are two different “parts” to the Old Washoe Club. There is the bar and snack bar downstairs. There you will find the winding staircase. This staircase was the original front door to The Millionaires Club. This would be where respectable men turned millionaires would be greeted. Behind the scenes was where the real action took place. Halloween is just around the corner! Spend it with us as we Ghost Hunt and attempt to communicate with the lovely spirits here at St. Mary’s Art Center, fondly known as The St. Mary Louise Hospital, established in 1876 located in Virginia City, NV. Mark your calendar and make your reservation now. Price includes overnight accommodations plus we have a special 2 nighter package as well. Go to the following link for more info and to purchase your ticket.

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Grand Central Market will be reborn with new food vendors, restaurateurs and foodcrafting space by next fall. The city's largest and oldest open-air market - it opened in 1917 - currently houses more than 45 food stalls but only 30 are occupied. According to the LA Times, owner Adele Yellin, along with consultants Joseph Shuldiner and Kevin West, wants to change that. Shuldiner, who founded the Institute of Domestic Technology and oversees the fantastically funky Altadena Farmers Market, and West, of Saving the Season, will be instrumental in finding new chefs and entrepreneurs, including bread bakers, coffee roasters and retail, cheesemongers, fishmongers and butchers. The vendors currently at the market aren't being replaced - the goal is to have new vendors alongside existing ones. So Downtown's Soi 7 restaurant has already signed on to open there next year, and Las Morelianas will be back with its carnitas. We personally hope Roast to Go stays. Market owners expect to have a dozen more new spots open by next fall, but the full renovation will be a multi-year, multi-phase project. Aesthetically, there's talk of an outdoor "living room" on the Hill Street side with outlets, free WiFi and low-slung couches. There are plans for an exhibition kitchen in the basement for classes, tastings and private dinners. If the whole thing sounds a bit like San Francisco’s Ferry Building, you’re not far off the mark. BCV, one of the architecture firms that collaborated on that project has signed on for this one. Photo: Trader Chris/Flickr

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The five elements (earth, air, fire, water and sky or cosmos) make up this known world. The world in turn is perceived by us with our five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste and smell). This interaction between us and these elements demand a constant functioning of all the five senses. Each of these senses is unique and has its own importance in the overall sensory experience. In the orchestra of the world attended by the body, the removal of just one sense is enough to throw the experience out of sync. The loss of synchronicity with the beauty of this world because of sensory deprivation causes a tremendous sorrow which cannot be expressed. Such is the agony of an artist who can no longer see or that of a musician who can no longer hear. Beethoven, a legend then and now in the world of mortals left us with immortal musical compositions, some of which were composed even when he was completely deaf. He was in indescribable agony for having been denied the pleasures of hearing his own compositions. His life was dwelt in constant pain over this sensory deprivation from the passion which he most embraced, music. In the now famous letter which he sent his brothers named Heiligenstadt Testament, he writes: "O how harshly was I repulsed by the doubly sad experience of my bad hearing,...but what a humiliation when one stood beside me and heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone heard the shepherd singing and again I heard nothing, such incidents brought me to the verge of despair, but little more and I would have put an end to my life - only art it was that withheld me, ah it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I felt called upon me to produce, and so I endured this wretched existence - truly wretched, an excitable body which a sudden change can throw from the best into the worst state ... O men, when some day you read these words, reflect that you did me wrong and let the unfortunate one comfort himself and find one of his kind who despite all obstacles of nature yet did all that was in his power to be accepted among worthy artists and men". The above notes of personal grief were written in 1802, a time when the biological body had no choice but to accept what was bestowed unto it by random replications of genetic material and the quality of society. Now, in the year 2007, two hundred and five years later, the modern Beethoven has a ray of hope.

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Yesterday’s House passage of cap-and-trade legislation designed to confront climate change is a landmark achievement, the first tangible step taken by the country that emits more greenhouse gas per capita than anyone in the world. The bill itself still faces a tough test in the Senate. Passage is far from assured, and without similar actions by other major emitting countries, it won’t mean much. But it does finally demonstrate to the rest of the world that the United States is prepared to do its part, which puts the pressure on them to follow suit. The bill itself, the product of a thousand political compromises, also isn’t perfect. But it also isn’t what its hysterical opponents claim it is. As Bryan Walsh acknowledges in Time: … critics have vastly overstated the likely cost. In fact, they’re all but lying. During the House debate, Republican whip Eric Cantor, using numbers from an American Petroleum Institute study, said that the bill would eventually cost more than $3,000 per family per year — but those numbers assume that billions of tons worth of inexpensive carbon offsets won’t be available under the bill, which would significantly inflate the overall cost. That’s not going to happen. A more reliable study from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office forecast that the bill would cost the average U.S. household $175 in higher energy costs annually by 2020 — and other studies estimate that the energy-efficiency provisions in the bill might even save Americans money over time. When opponents are forced to lie so blatantly — in this case exaggerating the likely cost 17 times over — they don’t have much of an honest argument.

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Georgia state legislators seem likely to pass a bill that would outlaw almost all abortions once a pregnancy has advanced beyond 20 weeks. (The current legal limit is 26 weeks). The rationale behind the bill is scientifically fraudulent, and its potential impact is tragic. Let’s deal first and quickly with the ungrounded premise behind House Bill 954, which claims that “by 20 weeks after fertilization there is substantial evidence that an unborn child has the physical structures necessary to experience pain.” No, there isn’t. Although a relative handful of scientists claim otherwise — and many of those scientists are pro-life activists — the overwhelming scientific consensus is that the neural connections needed to feel pain do not exist in a fetus until at least 24 weeks into gestation and even beyond that. A 2010 review of all research in that area by Britain’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists makes the science behind the question quite clear. Now, let’s talk about the practical impact of such a bill. According to the Guttmacher Institute, nine out of 10 abortions performed in the United States occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Most of those are unplanned, unwanted pregnancies that the mother chooses to terminate. However, the small fraction of abortions that occur after the proposed 20-week deadline are a very different matter. Many if not most such abortions occur not because the pregnancy is unwanted, but because prenatal testing has discovered serious or even fatal abnormalities in the development of the fetus. However, rather than create an exemption for such tragic cases, HB 954 cruelly and callously forbids it. In fact, they are the target of the bill. Abortions beyond the 20-week limit would be allowed only to save the life of the mother or “to avert serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function,” which is a very high standard for a “health of the mother” exception. There is no provision regarding severe impairment of the fetus. Georgia is not alone in considering such legislation. To the contrary, HB 954 is part of a nationwide crusade to pass such laws. In the handful of states where it has passed, it’s already having an impact. For example, in Nebraska last year, Danielle Deaver suffered a serious setback 22 weeks into a planned pregnancy when her water broke prematurely. Her doctors told her that her fetus’ lung and limb development had ceased as a result, and that even if carried to term, the baby would be born unable to breathe. But under a newly passed state law almost identical to that under consideration here in Georgia, Deaver was denied the right to end that pregnancy. When she finally went into premature labor, the child died 15 minutes after birth. This was considered humane, moral and proper by Nebraska legislators. In Washington, D.C., congressional Republicans are trying to pass a bill imposing similar restrictions on residents of the District of Columbia. At a press conference this week, Christy Zink, a D.C. resident and mother of two, recalled the impact that such a law would have had on her own tragic case. Twenty-two weeks into her pregnancy, tests determined that if carried to term, Zink’s fetus would be born with half of its brain missing and other structures compromised as well. Shocked by the news, she and her husband made the difficult choice to end the pregnancy. Under the so-called “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” however, she would have been denied the right to do so. “Its very premise — that it prevents pain — is a lie,” Zink said of the bill. “If this bill had been passed before my pregnancy, I would have had to carry to term and give birth to a baby whom the doctors concurred had no chance of a life and would have experienced near-constant pain.” Here’s Zink’s statement. Watch it, and as you do, remember that in the eyes of many this mother of two is a murderer because of the difficult decision that she and her husband were forced to make, a deeply personal decision that members of Congress and Georgia legislators want to strip from citizens of this country because as elected representatives, they believe themselves to be more qualified. These decisions are not easy. Several years ago, Rick Santorum and his wife Karen faced a similar dilemma and took a very different course, as he often describes in very moving terms. They decided to see their pregnancy through to term, even knowing that the child would certainly die once it left the womb. Just as their doctors warned them, their son, Gabriel, died two hours after his birth. No one should question the decision that the Santorums made. It was their personal struggle, and they handled it on the basis of their own values, thoughts and faith. It is the essence of freedom to be able to make such decisions yourself, free of government dictate. Likewise, however, I also do not believe it within the purview of the Santorums or Georgia legislators or members of Congress to question or most of all overrule the decisions that other Americans might make in that same situation. It is, or ought to be, unthinkable. – Jay Bookman

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Just as there are many variants and forms of electronic malware and Internet-based threats around the globe, so there are many forms of protection against these threats. Signature-based detection is one of the multifarious forms of defense that have been developed in order to keep us safe from malicious content. Although signature-based detection can be argued to have been overshadowed by more sophisticated methods of protection in some environments, it remains as a core ‘technique’ featuring in the anti-virus controls of packages and suites that work to protect a user’s system today. How does signature-based detection work? Signature-based detection works by scanning the contents of computer files and cross-referencing their contents with the “code signatures” belonging to known viruses. A library of known code signatures is updated and refreshed constantly by the anti-virus software vendor. If a viral signature is detected, the software acts to protect the user’s system from damage. Suspected files are typically quarantined and/or encrypted in order to render them inoperable and useless. Clearly there will always be new and emerging viruses with their own unique code signatures. So once again, the anti-virus software vendor works constantly to assess and assimilate new signature-based detection data as it becomes available, often in real time so that updates can be pushed out to users immediately and zero-day vulnerabilities can be avoided. Next-generation signature-based detection New variants of computer virus are of course developed every day and security companies now work to also protect users from malware that attempts to disguise itself from traditional signature-based detection. Virus authors have tried to avoid their malicious code being detected by writing “oligomorphic“, “polymorphic” and more recently “metamorphic” viruses with signatures that are either disguised or changed from those that might be held in a signature directory. Despite these developments, the Internet at large does of course still function on a daily basis. Populated as it is by users who not only have up to date security software installed, but also by those who have educated themselves as to the type of risks discussed here.

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Many technologies and tools in use in universities and colleges are not developed for educational settings. In the classroom particularly teachers have become skilled at applying new technologies such as Twitter to educational tasks. But technology also plays a crucial role behind the scenes in any educational organisation in supporting and managing learning, and like classroom tools these technologies are not always developed with education in mind. So it is refreshing to find an example of an application developed for UK Higher and Further education being adopted by the commercial sector. Archi is an open source ArchiMate modelling tool developed as part of JISC’s Flexible Service Delivery programme to help educational institutions take their first steps in enterprise architecture modelling. ArchiMate is a modelling language hosted by the Open Group who describe it as “a common language for describing the construction and operation of business processes, organizational structures, information flows, IT systems, and technical infrastructure”. Archi enforces all the rules of ArchiMate so that the only relationships that can be established are those allowed by the language. Since the release of version 1.0 in June 2010 Archi has built up a large user base and now gets in excess of 1000 downloads per month. Of course universities and colleges are not the only organisations that need a better understanding of their internal business processes, we spoke to Phil Beauvoir, Archi developer at JISC CETIS, about the tool and why it has a growing number of users in the commercial world. Christina Smart (CS): Can you start by giving us a bit of background about Archi and why was it developed? Phil Beauvoir (PB): In summer of 2009 Adam Cooper asked whether I was interested in developing an ArchiMate modelling tool. Some of the original JISC Flexible Service Delivery projects had started to look at their institutional enterprise architectures, and wanted to start modelling. Some projects had invested in proprietary tools, such as BiZZdesign’s Architect, and it was felt that it would be a good idea to provide an open source alternative. Alex Hawker (the FSD Programme manager) decided to invest six months of funding to develop a proof of concept tool to model using the ArchiMate language. The tool would be aimed at the beginner, be open source, cross-platform and would have limited functionality. I started development on Archi in earnest in January 2010 and by April had the first alpha version 0.7 ready. Version 1.0 was released in June 2010, it grew from there. CS: How would you describe Archi? PB: The web site describes Archi as: “A free, open source, cross platform, desktop application that allows you to create and draw models using the ArchiMate language”. Users who can’t afford proprietary software, would use standard drawing tools such as Omnigraffle or Visio for modelling. Archi is positioned somewhere between those drawing tools and a tool like BiZZdesign’s Architect. It doesn’t have all the functionality and enterprise features of the BiZZdesign tool, but it has more than just plain drawing tools. Archi also has hints and helps and user assistance technology built into it, so when you’re drawing elements there are certain ArchiMate rules about which connections you can make, if you try to make a connection that’s not allowed you get an explanation why not. So for the beginner it is a great way to start understanding ArchiMate. We keep the explanations simple because we aim to make things easier for those users who beginners in ArchiMate. As the main developer I try to keep Archi simple, because there’s always a danger that you can keep adding on features and that would make it unusable. I try to steer a course between usability and features. Another aspect of Archi is the way it supports the modelling conversation. Modelling is not done in isolation; it’s about capturing a conversation between key stakeholders in an organisation. Archi allows you to sketch a model and take notes in a Sketch View before you add the ArchiMate enterprise modelling rules. A lot of people use the Sketch View. It enables a capture of a conversation, the “soft modelling” stage before undertaking “hard modelling”. CS: How many people are using it within the Flexible Service Delivery programme? PB: I’m not sure, I know the King’s College, Staffordshire and Liverpool John Moores projects were using it. Some of the FSD projects tended to use both Architect and Archi. If they already had one licence for BiZZdesign Architect they would carry on using it for their main architect, whereas other “satellite” users in the institution would use Archi. CS: Archi has a growing number of users outside education, who are they and how did they discover Archi? PB: Well the first version was released in June 2010, and people in the FSD programme were using it. Then in July 2010 I got an email from a large Fortune 500 insurance company in the US, saying they really liked the tool and would consider sponsoring Archi if we implemented a new feature. I implemented the feature anyway and we’ve built up the relationship with them since then. I know that this company has in the region of 100 enterprise architects and they’ve rolled Archi out as their standard enterprise architecture modelling tool. I am also aware of other commercial companies using it, but how did they discover it? Well I think it’s been viral. A lot of businesses spend a lot of money advertising and pushing products, but the alternate strategy is pull, when customers come to you. Archi is of the pull variety, because there is a need out there, we haven’t had to do very much marketing, people seem to have found Archi on their own. Also the TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework) developed by the Open Group is becoming very popular and I guess Archi is useful for people adopting TOGAF. In 2010 BiZZdesign were I think concerned about Archi being a competitor in the modelling tool space. However now they’re even considering offering training days on Archi, because Archi has become the de facto free enterprise modelling tool. Archi will never be a competitor to BiZZdesign’s Architect, they have lots of developers and there’s only me working on Archi, it would be nuts to try to compete. So we will focus on the aspects of Archi that make it unique, the learning aspects, the focus on beginners and the ease of use, and clearly forge out a path between the two sets of tools. Many people will start with Archi and then upgrade to BiZZdesign’s Architect, so we’re working on that upgrade path now. CS: Why do you think it is so popular with business users? PB: I’m end-user driven, for me Archi is about the experience of the end users, ensuring that the experience is first class and that it “just works”. It’s popular with business users firstly because it’s free, secondly because it works on all platforms, thirdly because it’s aimed at those making their first steps with ArchiMate. CS: What is the immediate future for Archi? PB: We’re seeking sponsorship deals and other models of sustainability because obviously JISC can’t go on supporting it forever. One of the models of sustainability is to get Archi adopted by something like the Eclipse Foundation. But you have to be careful that development continues in those foundations, because there is a risk of it becoming a software graveyard, if you don’t have the committers who are prepared to give their time. There is a vendor who has expressed an interest in collaborating with us to make sure that Archi has a future. Lots of software companies now have service business models, so you provide the tool for free but charge for providing services on top of the free tool. The Archi tool will always be free, anyone could package it up and sell it. I know they’re doing that in China because I’ve had emails from people doing it, they’ve translated it and are selling it and that’s ok because that’s what the licence model allows. In terms of development we’re adding on some new functionality. A new concept of a Business Model Canvas is becoming popular, where you sketch out your new business models. The canvas is essentially a nine box grid which you add various key partners, stakeholders etc to. We’re adding a canvas construction kit to Archi, so people can design their own canvas for new business models. The canvas construction kit is aimed at the high level discussions that people have when they start modelling their organisations. CS: You’ve developed a number of successful applications for the education sector over the years, including, Colloquia, Reload and ReCourse, how do you feel the long term future for Archi compares with those? PB: Colloquia was the first tool I developed back in 1998, and I don’t really think it’s used anymore. But really Colloquia was more a proof of concept to demonstrate that you could create a learning environment around the conversational model, which supported learning in a different way from the VLEs that were emerging at the time. Its longevity has been as a forerunner to social networking and to the concept of the Personal Learning Environment. Reload was a set of tools for doing content packaging and SCORM. They’re not meant for teachers, but they’re still being used. The ReCourse Learning Design tool developed for a very niche audience of those people developing scripted learning designs. I think the long term future for Archi is better than those, partly because there’s a very large active community using it, and partly because it can be used by all enterprises and isn’t just a specific tool for the education sector. I think Archi has an exciting future. Phil has received some very positive feedback about Archi via email from JISC projects as well as those working in the commercial world. "The feeling I get from Archi is that it's helping me to create shapes, link and position them rather than jumping around dictating how I can work with it. And the models look much nicer too... I think Archi will allow people to investigate EA modelling cost free to see whether it works for them, something that's not possible at the moment.” “So why is Archi significant? It is an open source tool funded by JISC based on the ArchiMate language that achieves enough of the potential of a tool like BiZZdesign Architect to make it a good choice for relatively small enterprises, like the University of Bolton to develop their modelling capacity without a significant software outlay.” Stephen Powell from the Co-educate project (JISC Curriculum Design Programme). “I'm new to EA world, but Archi 1.1 makes me fill like at home! So easy to use and so exciting...” “Version 1.3 looks great! We are rolling Archi out to all our architects next week. The ones who have tried it so far all love it.” Find Out More If this interview has whetted your appetite, more information about Archi, and the newly released version 2.0 is available at http://archi.cetis.ac.uk. For those in the north, there will be an opportunity to see Archi demonstrated at the forthcoming 2nd ArchiMate Modelling Bash being held in St Andrews on the 1st and 2nd November.

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I just finished reading the much-hyped book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, which well deserves the hype. It is an extraordinary look at life in Annawadi, a slum adjacent to Mumbai’s modern international airport. Author Katherine Boo spent three years in the slum (researching, interviewing, videotaping, recording) trying to understand “how ordinary low-income people—particularly women and children—were negotiating the age of global markets.” The question that drives her is: “What is the infrastructure of opportunity in this society?” It is a critical question for any society, and one that Boo has been exploring in various poor communities for the past twenty years as a staff writer for the New Yorker. The answer she paints for Annawadi makes me question my relatively bullish assessment of India’s growth prospects. The residents of Annawadi, many of whom earn a living by scavenging through garbage, are remarkably resilient, innovative, determined, and hard-working towards their goal of upward mobility. But they are also stymied at almost every turn by a corrupt system. The plot turns on a woman who, in her desperation, sets herself on fire but frames her neighbors in an act of vengeance. The number of people who try to profit from this calamity is breathtaking. Also breathtaking is how many well-intentioned programs to help the poor do nothing of the sort. Corrupt power brokers appropriate the municipal water and charge their neighbors to use it; a renegade social worker from World Vision, the American Christian charity, collects money for a new water tap but runs away with it; the director of a local orphanage sells for cash the goodies donated for the children; a woman collects money for a school but never teaches. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is not intended as a commentary on global development, but it will inevitably be read as such. Microfinance comes across as particularly misguided: “The government was lending money at subsidized rates to help poor entrepreneurs start employment-generating businesses. These new companies could be fictions, though. A slum-dweller would request a loan for an imaginary business; a local government official would certify how many jobs it would bring to a needy community; and an executive of the state-owned Dena Bank would approve it. Then the official and the bank manager would take a hunk of the loan. Asha, having befriended the bank manager, was helping him select the Annawadians who would get the loans—for her own cut of the money.” The indictments of microfinance in the book will resonate with recent research that suggests that even well-managed programs are not the poverty-busters they have claimed to be. In his exhaustive Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance, David Roodman from the Center for Global Development ultimately concludes that there is no definitive causation between microfinance and poverty reduction. By the end of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, I am left more convinced that simply giving cash directly to the poor is the most effective way to alleviate poverty. As Boo demonstrates in her lively descriptions, the poor in Annawadi are smart, and clearly know better than anyone else what they need. Directly giving cash to the poor is an increasingly accepted development strategy that recognizes that their main problem is not having enough money, that they know how to spend money effectively, and that more middlemen simply create more opportunities for corruption and inefficiency. Direct cash transfer programs such as Oportunidades in Mexico and Bolsa Familia in Brazil offer small monthly cash sums to poor families, often under the condition that they enroll their children in school and take the children to medical checkups. The results of these programs are impressive, to say the least. One Brazilian economist credits Bolsa Familia with 17 percent of the country’s reduction in inequality since 2001. “Pensions and other welfare payments had a similar effect, but at a massively higher cost.” In Mexico, as a result of Oportunidades, enrollment in rural high schools is up 85 percent. Mexico’s success with Oportunidades has inspired forty other countries to implement similar programs. One new NGO that I’m watching closely, GiveDirectly, is using census data to locate the poorest households in Kenya (80% of which report not having enough food for tomorrow), and using Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile payments system to directly transfer money to them. GiveDirectly doesn’t tell recipients what to do with the money, but recipients so far report using it to buy food, livestock, and clothes, invest in their homes, and pay school fees. Surely the people in Annawadi would quickly figure out how to better their lives with such cash transfers. As The Economist suggests, perhaps once India issues national ID numbers to more of its citizens—proper documentation often determines whether poor people can access services, and India is leading a landmark identification effort—the country could be well-placed to create a robust cash transfer program of its own. I suspect that only through such a program will the all-important “infrastructure of opportunity” in India improve.

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By Jason Kohn, Contributing Columnist Like many of us, scientific researchers tend to be creatures of habit. This includes research teams working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. government agency charged with measuring the behavior of oceans, atmosphere, and weather. Many of these climate scientists work with massive amounts of data – for example, the National Weather Service collecting up-to-the-minute temperature, humidity, and barometric readings from thousands of sites across the United States to help forecast weather. Research teams then rely on some the largest, most powerful high-performance computing (HPC) systems in the world to run models, forecasts, and other research computations. Given the reliance on HPC resources, NOAA climate researchers have traditionally worked onsite at major supercomputing facilities, such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where access to supercomputers are just steps away. As researchers crate ever more sophisticated models of ocean and atmospheric behavior, however, the HPC requirements have become truly staggering. Now, NOAA is using a super-high-speed network called “n-wave” to connect research sites across the United States with the computing resources they need. The network has been operating for several years, and today transports enough data to fill a 10-Gbps network to full capacity, all day, every day. NOAA is now upgrading this network to allow even more data traffic, with the goal of ultimately supporting 100-Gbps data rates. “Our scientists were really used to having a computer in their basement,” says Jerry Janssen, manager, n-wave Network, NOAA, in a video about the project. “When that computer moved a couple thousand miles away, we had to give them a lot of assurances that, one, the data would actually move at the speed they needed it to move, but also that they could rely on it to be there. The amount of data that will be generated under this model will exceed 80-100 Terabits per day.” The n-wave project means much more than just a massive new data pipe. It represents a fundamental shift in the way that scientists can conduct their research, allowing them to perform hugely demanding supercomputer runs of their data from dozens of remote locations. As a result, it gives NOAA climate scientists much more flexibility in where and how they work. “For the first time, NOAA scientists and engineers in completely separate parts of the country, all the way to places like Alaska and Hawaii and Puerto Rico, will have the bandwidth they need, without restriction,” says Janssen. “NOAA will now be able to do things it never thought it could do before.” In addition to providing fast, stable access to HPC resources, n-wave is also allowing NOAA climate scientists to share resources much more easily with scientists in the U.S. Department of Energy and other government agencies. Ideally, this level of collaboration and access to supercomputing resources will help climate scientists continue to develop more effective climate models, improve weather forecasts, and allow us to better understand our climate. Powering Vital Climate Research The high-speed nationwide HPC connectivity capability provided by n-wave is now enabling a broad range of NOAA basic science and research activities. Examples include: - Basic data dissemination, allowing research teams to collect up-to-the-minute data on ocean, atmosphere, and weather from across the country, and make that data available to other research teams and agencies nationwide. - Ensemble forecasting, where researchers run multiple HPC simulations using different initial conditions and modeling techniques, in order to refine their atmospheric forecasts and minimize errors. - Severe weather modeling, where scientists draw on HPC simulations, real-time atmospheric data, and archived storm data to better understand and predict the behavior of storms. - Advancing understanding of the environment to be able to better predict short-term and long-term environmental changes, mitigate threats, and provide the most accurate data to inform policy decisions. All of this work is important, and will help advance our understanding of Earth’s climate. And it is all a testament to the amazing networking technologies and infrastructure that scientists now have at their disposal, which puts the most powerful supercomputing resources in the world at their fingertips – even when they are thousands of miles away.

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On December 5, 1971, five men entered the Quality Motel on Main Street and forced their way into the room of Davenport Police Patrolman Leon Washington. The men hit Officer Washington and tied him up, then stole three automatic pistols, a revolver, and a shotgun. It is possible that the men also tried to rob the motel offices—in any case, an alarm went off, alerting the police. Patrolman Sam L. Raley and his partner Patrolman Michael Farnsworth, who had joined the department in August, were among the first officers to arrive on the scene. They observed four men fleeing from the motel and tried to stop them. The suspects started shooting and the police returned fire. Patrolman Raley was lucky—three bullets just missed him. Patrolman Farnsworth wasn’t. The twenty-nine year old man died of a gunshot wound to the head shortly after being rushed to t. Luke’s Hospital. The police, joined by Scott County deputies and five squads from the Iowa Highway Patrol, cordoned off a two block area and searched the motel and surrounding buildings. Four suspects were arrested and charged with first degree murder. A continuous honor guard of uniformed police officers stood at either end of the casket as more than 400 people visited Runge Mortuary to pay their respects to Michael Farnsworth, the first Davenport Police Officer to be killed in the line of duty since 1958.* Donations for the Farnsworth family were sent to the Police station by people all over the Quad-Cities—over $800 was collected in two days. A clothing store offered to give Mrs. Farnsworth a dress for the funeral. The city paid the funeral expenses, and Davenport Memorial Park donated two burial plots to the family—a gift that was usually given only to war veterans killed in action. The funeral, held at the First Presbyterian Church, was attended by almost 200 police officers, active and retired, from as far away as Dubuque, Iowa, and Galesburg, Illinois. All members of the Davenport Police Department and Fire Department, barring those on shift duty, were present, including Patrolman Leon Washington. “His death in responding to the Call of duty deeply touches us all,” said Reverend Dr. Donald Blackstone. “[We must] increase out respect for, and appreciated of, and cooperation with out law enforcement officers and agencies. . . if we will seriously undertake and implement these changes, the death of Michael Farnsworth will not be in vain.”** After the service, a double line of police officers formed and an honor guard of six officers in full dress uniform escorted the coffin as the pallbearers carried it to the hearse. One of these pallbearers was Sam Raley. Officers stood at attention long the route to the cemetery, which led past the Police Station, its doors draped in black. Flags all over the city were flown at half mast. Once the procession reached the cemetery, officers lined the path from the hearse to the gravesite. Davenport police officers are not often lost to us in the line of duty, though they willingly put themselves at risk for us every day. Perhaps it shouldn’t take a funeral to remember how important they are to our community? *Detective William Jurgens was shot while coming to the aid of another officer on July 16, 1958. **Arpy, Jim. “Hundred Mourn Slain Officer,” Times-Democrat, December 9, 1971, p.1. Arpy, Jim. “Hundred Mourn Slain Officer,” Times-Democrat, December 9, 1971, p.1. “Shooting of Officer at Motel Follows Holdup,” Times-Democrat, 6Dec1971, p.1 “Quiet Salute to a Friend,” Times-Dmeocrat, 8Dec1971, p.1.

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The bacterium Micavibrio aeruginosavorus (yellow), leeching on a Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacterium (purple). What’s the news: If bacteria had blood, the predatory microbe Micavibrio aeruginosavorus would essentially be a vampire: it subsists by hunting down other bugs, attaching to them, and sucking their life out. For the first time, researchers have sequenced the genome of this strange microorganism, which was first identified decades ago in sewage water. The sequence will help better understand the unique bacterium, which has potential to be used as a “living antibiotic” due to its ability to attack drug-resistant biofilms and its apparent fondness for dining on pathogens. Anatomy of a Vampire: - The bacterium has an interesting multi-stage life history. During its migratory phase it sprouts a single flagellum and goes hunting for prey. Once it find a delectable morsel of bacterium, it attacks and irreversibly attaches to the surface, and sucks out all of the good stuff: carbohydrates, amino acids, proteins, DNA, etc. - Sated, the cell divides in two via binary fission, and the now-depleted host is left for dead. Hungry for Pathogens: - M. aeruginosavorus cannot be grown by itself; it must be cultured along with another bacteria to feed upon. A 2006 study found that it only grew upon three bacterial species, all of which can cause pneumonia-like disease in humans. A more recent study showed that it can prey upon a wider variety of microbes, most of them potentially pathogenic, like E. coli. - These studies also found that M. aeruginosavorus has a knack for disrupting biofilms, the dense collection of bacteria that cause harmful plaques on teeth and medical implants alike, and can be up to 1,000 more resistant to antibiotics than free-swimming bugs. - The bacteria can also swim through viscous fluids like mucous and kills Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the bacterium that can colonize lungs of cystic fibrosis patients and form a glue-like film. - These qualities have caught the eye of researchers who think it could be used as a living antibiotic to treat biofilms and various types of drug-resistant bacteria, which are a growing problem in medicine. Sequencing the organism’s genome is an important step in understanding its biochemistry and how it preys on other microbes. Clues From the Vampire Code: - The new study found that each phase of life involves the use (or expression) of different sets of genes. The migratory/hunting phase involves many segments that code for flagellum formation and genes involved in quorum sensing. The attachment phase involves a wide variety of secreted chemicals and enzymes that facilitate the flow of materials from the host. - Micavibrio aeruginosavorus possesses no genes for amino acid transporters, a rather rare trait only seen in a few other bacterial species that depend heavily upon their host to help them shuttle these vital protein building-blocks. This absence helps explain the bacterium’s dependence on a narrow range of prey, from which it directly steals amino acids. Although it remains unclear exactly how the microbe attaches to and infiltrates other cells. The Future Holds: - The range of microbes upon which Micavibrio aeruginosavorus can survive is expanding; after being kept in laboratory conditions for years it has apparently evolved a more diverse diet. If this expansion continues, that could be a real problem for its use as an antibiotic; it could begin to eat beneficial gut bacteria, for example. - Researchers claim it is harmless to friendly gut microbes, but it hasn’t been tested on all the varieties of bacteria present in humans. - Several important steps must be taken before testing in people, like learning more about what traits makes another bacteria tasty to Micavibrio aeruginosavorus. Researchers speculate the bacterium may need to be genetically altered in order to go after specific pathogens, or to reduce the risk of it causing unforeseen complications. Reference: Zhang Wang, Daniel E Kadouri, Martin Wu. Genomic insights into an obligate epibiotic bacterial predator: Micavibrio aeruginosavorus ARL-13. BMC Genomics, 2011; 12 (1): 453 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-12-453 Image credit: University of Virginia

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- November 15th, 2008 - Derek Robertson - Comments: 7 Comments »Tags: Consolarium, Endless Ocean, games based learning, Wii Endless Ocean for the Nintendo Wii was one of those games that immediately caught my eye. A wonderful world in which the player can become immersed in a rich, vibrant and somewhat hypnotically therapeutic underwater world. I’ve written about how I thought it might be used to drive learning before but my initial ideas have been put into place and extended beyond recognition by some really creative teachers. Last week I went with Margaret Cassidy from Stirling Council to Cowie PS to see a teacher that was using Endless Ocean with her class: Mrs Bullivant and her class of P.6 children treated me to an afternoon of sheer joy. I walked in to a class that had been turned into an underwater world that was awash with a tide of enthusiastic and industrious learnning. - Streamers of various shades of blue were hung from two lines that criss-crossed the class.From these lines also hung starfish, sharks and other underwater creatures that the children had made. - The Wii was hooked up to the whiteboard and the gameplay was integral to the learning. - The children were divided into ‘dive teams’ and their ‘dive leader’ had to manage certain aspects of how the children worked together. - Children were engaged with a teacher led leson that investigated buoyancy. - Children were searching the web to find out more about some of the creatures that they discovered in the game. - A spreadsheet activity detailing the range of creatures that they had discovered was in place. - A shipwreck (created by the janitor) was sitting in the class. This helped drive much of the creative writing work. - The children created treasure maps and were using these to look at grid references. - Mermaids were created in art and design and very lifelike they were too! - Reference books were in great demand when I was in the class and the initial stimulus of the game appeared to drive a real interest for what could be found in the complementary resource that was the book. - Children actively encouraged to measure exactly how long 7 metres is as a result of finding out that that was how long a Great White Shark was. This was just a wonderful visit and an example of what learning in class can be. Yes we need creative teachers to lead this but isn’t that what we are meant to be. The work that was in evidence in this class was delightful to witness and further cemented my ideas of the possibilities of sandbox games such as Endless Ocean. Categories Stirling Council

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Correctly identifying what is causing a problem is the most important step in pest control. We do our best here to help you do that. Sometimes we can identify the cause accurately enough from your phone or e-mail description of what is happening and what you see. Sometimes we can do this from photographs you submit, either electronically or printed on paper. But sometimes word descriptions and photographs aren't quite good enough, and we ask you to submit a specimen of an arthropod you have found, or the damage it has caused. The information we give you is only as good as the information you give to us. I can't identify specimens that look like the one in the photograph above. Here are some hints that will help all of us: 1. Make sure any photographs are CLEAR and take several, from very close up to farther away. Make sure you have sufficient light, or that you compensate with your camera to make sure we can clearly see what you are trying to show us. Learn how to use the close up mode on your digital camera. 2. You have 20,000 of something flying around? Please give us at least - oh maybe - six of them. If it's something unusual, we need at least one full, intact set of key characteristics. If there are big individuals and little ones, try to submit a few of each size. Maybe they're different, maybe they're not, but we won't know for sure unless we see them. 3. Label your material. Where and when was it found? What does it seem to be doing? 4. You had 20,000 last week, but you can't find even one now? Maybe you don't have the problem anymore. Keep an eye on the situation and try not to worry. 5. That doesn't go for termites. If you think you had a termite swarm, worry! Keep a close eye on it, try to find a least one, even if it's only a wing, and submit it for identification. 6. You can kill most small pests by putting them in the freezer or by dropping them into alcohol. Any sort of alcohol will do. The alcohol not only kills them, it also preserves them. Never submit arthropod specimens in water (unless they are living aquatic animals). Moths and butterflies are easier to identify if they are not preserved in alcohol, so just freeze them and bring them in dry. We can also take live specimens. 7. Some insects and mites are most easily submitted on or in a piece of the plant they are living on. It's best if the sample is as fresh as possible. Don't bake it in a hot car. 8. A few creatures can't be identified from the sample you submit. Ants are most easily identified from the workers (the ones without the wings). Some spiders can only be identified to species if you have adults of both sexes. Small larvae, nymphs and eggs can be extremely difficult to identify. That's just the way it is. 9. Entomologists specialize. Sometimes we have to send things off. If they only have to go to the university, turn-around time can be quick. If they have to go further, it may be a long time before you hear back. This doesn't happen that often, though.

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Driven by opportunity and visions of success in the Windows Store, you set to work, turning your gaming idea into code. Maybe you wanted to move something across the screen. Maybe check if it hit a target. Oh, and there’s wind, and friction, and maybe things should bounce when they collide… The specter of forgotten math begins to loom. Thankfully, there are physics engines. Simply put, they take care of some of the math and work involved in games and simulations. Of course they don’t eliminate math and complexity, but they can make many scenarios easier: Why write such things yourself when others have taken the time to create great libraries? That said, you may not need a physics engine at all. For the simplest games, it’s pretty easy to roll your own logic for basic bounding-box collision checking and basic motion. However, games become complex quickly, so even if you don’t imagine you’ll need one, the up-front investment in learning & using physics engines can pay off sooner than you’d think. Home - http://code.google.com/p/box2dweb/ Download - http://code.google.com/p/box2dweb/downloads/list The box2dweb site has an interactive demo and directs you to Box2DFlash for documentation (since it’s a direct port). According to the box2dweb download site, it was last updated in June, 2011. Home - http://box2d-js.sourceforge.net/ Download - http://sourceforge.net/projects/box2d-js/ Like box2dweb, Box2DJS is also port of Box2DFlash/Box2DFlashAS3. It’s somewhat older (at least at time of writing) and does require more files to be added to your project than box2dweb. The Box2DJS home page has instructions, sample code, and demos. Here are a few of them: According to the Box2DJS download page, the last update was in April, 2010. Home - http://box2d.thinkpixellab.com/ Download - https://github.com/thinkpixellab/box2d This version of Box2d by Pixel Lab is a clone of Box2DJS, updated to have better compression and to resolve bugs in the original version. The Pixel Lab Box2d-JS site has some live demos, mirroring the ones featured on the Box2DJS site. Interestingly, this engine was used in the Agent 8 Ball game: According to the download page on Github, the compiled version was last updated in April, 2012. Home - https://github.com/kripken/ammo.js Download - https://github.com/kripken/ammo.js Ammo.js is a 3D physics engine, and an automated port of the Bullet Physics Library (written in C++). Like box2dweb, it is built into a single file (“ammo.js”), making it simple to import. The lastest version of Ammo.js (built as “/builds/ammo.js”) was updated in September, 2012. Again, with this post being primarily an index, see the last section for links to more detailed analysis of Ammo.js. Home - http://brokstuk.com/jiglibjs2/ Download - https://github.com/bartdeboer/JigLibJS2 JigLibJS2 is an automated port of the JigLibFlash physics engine. It’s a 3D physics engine, and on the JibLibJS2 home (and in the download source) there’s an interesting canvas demo (using three.js for 3D rendering) with multiple objects, including a car you can drive: The download page on Github shows the latest updates in September, 2012. Home - http://schteppe.github.com/cannon.js/ Download - https://github.com/schteppe/cannon.js According to the cannon.js download page, the latest updates were made in September, 2012. Here are some other helpful articles to get you started: As I mentioned, this post lists only a subset of what’s out there. If you know of other helpful engines, please post in the comments!

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|Posted on Dec 13, 2011 10:53:40 AM | Jessica Nimon | 1 Comments || The Center for the Advancement of Science In Space, known as CASIS, introduced itself this fall to the community of existing National Lab partners as the new non-profit organization that will manage the National Lab on behalf of NASA. CASIS was founded specifically to fulfill the statutory requirement from Congress that a non-profit entity be engaged by NASA to stimulate, develop, and manage non-NASA U.S. use of the space station. On the NASA side, we are excited to start meeting our new CASIS colleagues as transition work begins. The primary mission of CASIS is threefold: - Maximize the value of the space station to the nation through both research and development and STEM education activities. - Stimulate use of the station by other agencies, academia, and private firms. - Develop tools and techniques to communicate the value of the work done on the station and increase the return on the taxpayer investment. CASIS intends to accomplish this mission by building a strong, interconnected community, which ties together investigators at any level of progress down a particular research pathway, provides both private and public sources of funding, and engages experts in science and economics who can advise the community on technical matters and provide an independent valuation of a particular line of research. These pathways will connect basic and applied research to the resulting mission and market applications. The goal is to shorten the overall cycle time by evaluating projects in terms of the bigger picture and with an understanding of their added value. As a non-profit, CASIS can also bring in visionary, speculative, and commercial funding sources, where appropriate, in the research process by recruiting backers who are seeking the value the project provides. The International Space Station (NASA Image) CASIS will sponsor both a Science Collegium and an Economic Collegium to examine the scientific feasibility and economic value of proposals brought forward to the non-profit, using a value-added approach to complement scientific review, as well as proven algorithms for economic valuation. These valuation models will be benchmarked against real world data from existing National Lab partners before they are formally implemented. All of these various elements will come together in what CASIS calls, the “Marketplace,” where researchers can seek funding and partnerships, implementation partners can offer their expertise with flight hardware and integration services, investors can look for promising opportunities, and all the various participants can negotiate innovative partnerships and collaborations with the help of CASIS. Through its initial seed funding from NASA, as well as partnerships with private investors and other government agencies, CASIS will sponsor annual grant solicitations designed to bolster research lines, education programs, and technology development projects assessed by the Science and Economic Collegiums as having particular merit and value. This will continue over the 10-year cooperative agreement between NASA and CASIS, which has a five-year extension option. The CASIS concept of operations will further develop over the next year as the organization grows and the Collegiums form. The transition will include CASIS progressively taking on more of the payload development support and research prioritization roles, while the International Space Station National Lab Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center facilitates the handover with existing partners. Learn more and keep up-to-date with this promising new collaborative model between CASIS and NASA at: http://www.iss-casis.org/ Presentations from the CASIS Kickoff Meeting can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/nlab/index.html The Center for the Advancement of Science In Space, known as CASIS, official logo. Justin Kugler, strategic relationships manager for the International Space Station National Lab Office, worked with CASIS leaders in developing this initial blog. Stand by for more details as CASIS establishes their organization for enabling new research on the space station. Tags : General, Guest Bloggers, ISS as a Laboratory, US Research

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There are many schools of thought on how to conduct therapy. A new dichotomy seems to be growing between those who favor tough love and those who focus on acceptance. In a recent Wall Street Journal Article, clients and therapists discuss how with “tough love” therapists try to eliminate their client’s whining. These therapists might limit what topics a client can discuss or confront a client who is “whining” about their life again. One client says she needs this sort of therapy. That she simply won’t change if she receives unconditional acceptance. And this client is likely right. Unconditional acceptance alone typically doesn’t result in change. But, although confrontation and demanding change does, often, lead to positive life changes, it can also leave clients feeling resentful, angry at therapists and misunderstood. The reality is that change is hard. And therapy is often hard because it is typically an agent of change. We want to feel better, cope better, relate to others better and make positive life changes. Therapy can help us do that with a mixture of unconditional acceptance and a more directed focus on change. Tough love is important, but so is understanding and acceptance. Good therapy can’t have one without the other. You can find more strategies to approach your life with both acceptance and a focus on change in my new book, The Stress Response and by clicking here to sign up for more of my tips and podcasts using DBT strategies to improve how you feel. Counseling session photo available from Shutterstock. This post currently has You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts. No trackbacks yet to this post. Last reviewed: 18 May 2012

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The brewing controversy over leaks of classified information presumes that disclosures of classified information to unauthorized persons are always impermissible and undesirable. But that presumption does not correspond precisely to the reality of government operations as they are conducted in practice. The leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees said last week that they would work “to ensure that criminal and administrative measures are taken each time sensitive information is improperly disclosed.” In fact, however, classified information is frequently disclosed at the interface between national security agencies and the news media. This is not necessarily a surreptitious or underhanded process. Rather, though it is not often discussed, it is how the system normally functions. “I refer to classified information a lot,” admitted then-Pentagon press secretary Kenneth Bacon at a November 2000 press briefing, when asked whether all of his statements from the podium were unclassified. “There are certain questions that I can only answer by referring to classified information,” Bacon said at that time, adding that “I do this carefully, after consultation with our intelligence authorities, to make sure that I don’t answer questions in a way that causes any problems.”

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Cute awareness video (plus other resources) For those into security awareness: This security awareness video (on YouTube), made by the infosec people in the state government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, covers some good, basic tips. It’s amusing, and only 13 minutes long. Some of the advice is specific to their security policy, and probably won’t match yours, but at least it’ll get you (or your staff) thinking about some of the issues. If you want something more, the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) (state government agency) has an Information Security Awareness Toolkit site with copies of the video (both viewable and downloadable, and with subtitles and without), as well as other links and resources.

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September 27, 2011 Diosa Costello was the first Latina on Broadway. She was a pioneering night club performer. As a producer and club owner, she set trends in entertainment; as a film star and popular musician, she personified them. “I was the original J. Lo.,” Costello says. Last week, as part of an on-stage program and conversation with curators, she donated a set of 11 stage costumes from her storied career to the American History Museum. The 94-year-0ld Costello grew up in Puerto Rico, performing for her father sick in bed and soldiers on the street . “I was born dancing,” she says. “All my life I danced.” After moving to New York with her family as a teenager, she worked her way up the ranks, catching a major break when she was cast in the Broadway musical Too Many Girls. During her long and diverse career, she would record music, appear in Hollywood films, perform alongside Rodney Dangerfield in Catskills comedy clubs and launch Desi Arnaz to fame. In an era when racial diversity was nonexistent on stage, she performed as everything from Latina stereotypes to a Pacific islander, as “Bloody Mary” in South Pacific. Her routines, in particular, were remarkably racy for the time. “I would stick my behind out, and I put a glass of water on top of it. When I was dancing all over the place, and I didn’t spill one drop,” Costello says. “I’m very uninhibited. If I think something, I do it.” “She is a pioneering performer and a significant figure in American entertainment,” says Dwight Blocker Bowers, a curator of the American History Museum’s entertainment collection. He hopes that, after renovations that will create a larger exhibition space for the popular culture artifacts, the museum will be able to put Costello’s costumes on display. Despite her longevity and popularity, Costello never expected for her work to be honored in the Smithsonian. “I’ll tell you, I didn’t even know. I had never been to a museum, I didn’t even know what the heck it was all about,” she says. But Bowers feels the honor is fitting for a career of Costello’s magnitude. “You’re a legend,” he says, “to us and to the American people.” In the upcoming November issue of Smithsonian, don’t miss Around the Mall’s Q&A with Diosa Costello. Sign up for our free email newsletter and receive the best stories from Smithsonian.com each week. No Comments » No comments yet.

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President Lyndon Johnson and the “best and the brightest” who staffed his administration led this country into three quagmires. By far the most famous, but perhaps not the most expensive and dangerous resulted from LBJ’s escalation of the Vietnam War. More than 50,000 Americans and many more Vietnamese died as a result of that policy; our country was bitterly divided in ways that still weaken us today, and the economic cost of the war was immense. It contributed to the wave of inflation that shook the country in the 1970s and in addition to the interest on the debt from this ill-starred venture we are still paying (as we certainly should) pensions and medical costs for the vets and their spouses. The Second Great Johnson Quagmire now destroying the nation is the Medicare/Medicaid complex. These entitlement programs are the biggest single financial problem we face. They dwarf all the Bush-Obama wars; they make TARP look like small change. They not only cost money we don’t have — and are scheduled to cost inexorably more until they literally ruin the nation — they have distorted our entire health system into the world’s most bloated and expensive monstrosity. Thanks to these programs, we have a health system that marries the greed of the private sector to the ineptitude of government, and unless we can somehow tame these beasts America and everything it stands for could be lost. (Note, please, that by comparison Social Security can be relatively easily reformed to be solvent for the next 75 years. The New Deal, whatever its shortcomings, was almost infinitely more realistic and sustainable than the Great Society.) LBJ Signing the Medicare Bill (Source: Wikimedia Commons) But that is a subject for another day. The third Johnson Quagmire is the War on Poverty, and specifically the attempt to treat inner city poverty primarily as a racial problem. After the Medicare/Medicaid catastrophe the single greatest policy failure of modern America is urban policy. Since the Great Society era of Lyndon Johnson, the country has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into poor urban neighborhoods. The violence and crime generated in these neighborhoods costs hundreds of billions more. And after all this time, all this money and all this energy, the inner city populations are worse off than before. There is more drug addiction and more social and family breakdown among this population than when the Great Society was launched. Incarceration rates have risen to levels that shock the world (though they make for safer streets); the inner city abortion rate has reached levels that must surely appall even the most resolute pro-choicers not on the Planned Parenthood payroll. Forty percent of all pregnancies in New York end in abortion, with higher rates among Blacks; nationally, the rate among Blacks is three times the rate among white women. Put it all together and you have a holocaust of youth and hope on a scale hard to match. This is not a lot to show for almost fifty years of fighting poverty — not a lot of bang for the buck. We need to do better. The state of the American inner city is an unacceptable human tragedy, and the costs in money spent and prosperity forfeited create an unsustainable drag on the national economy at a time when we need all the help we can get. There is more. Those neighborhoods — and the prisons in which so many young urban men spend large chunks of their lives — threaten the peace and security of the country as a whole. Extremist cults, some domestically based and others relying on foreign money and enthusiasm, fish in these troubled waters for souls, and sometimes they catch a few. This could turn ugly. An old friend who has spent much of his life fighting violence and extremism in the inner city puts the danger like this: think about “The Wire” and think about all the talent, ingenuity and training that goes into the drug gangs. Think about their ability to operate in defiance of the police, think about their connections with international crime and the amount of money they can raise. Now think about what life would be like in this country if the leaders of those groups embraced violent religious extremism and sought, as many have done overseas, to finance a terror campaign through drug money. This is, I believe, a serious threat down the road; there are already a few early warning signs and while we should not be stampeded into panic about them, the situation is one to watch with concern. Where there is no real hope, people clutch at straws — and on present trends conditions in the inner cities are likely to get significantly worse. Bad and dysfunctional as the remaining Great Society programs are, we are entering an era of government budget cutting. Given the power that unions, middle class and elite lobbies have, inner city residents stand to take a disproportionate share of any cuts. If it’s a choice between helping poor children in the inner city or paying inflated pensions to retired union workers, where will the politicians come down? The Great Society legacy is not all bad. The voting rights legislation and the affirmative action programs introduced at that time helped a solid African-American middle class to expand. Increasingly, the country now has second and third generations of African-American families who have college educations and who are represented at all levels of business, the professions, politics and the arts. Not that the Great Society deserves as much credit as its backers like to claim. Most of African-American progress since 1965 is due to the dogged hard work of people determined to change their own lives. Government action did play a role, but clearly racial attitudes in the United States have dramatically changed, perhaps especially so among conservatives. When conservative Republicans whose parents were Dixiecrat segregationists cheering on Lester Maddox now swoon at the rhetoric of Herman Cain, give standing ovations to Condoleezza Rice, write angry letters to editors when liberal journalists attack Clarence Thomas and elect an African American Republican to the House of Representatives from Charleston, SC, we must recognize that something has changed. In any case, the Johnson-era approach to urban poverty was largely predicated on the idea that our urban problems were a race and justice problem. Discrimination in housing, jobs and education had created the “ghetto”; ending those practices, compensating for them through affirmative action and providing infusions of cash to jump start urban investment and “renew” down at heels urban neighborhoods would win the war on urban poverty. To the extent these ideas and the policies they inspired had merit, things got better. The middle class grew and many African Americans moved out of segregated neighborhoods and public housing projects into the suburbs. But this wasn’t the whole story, and even as Great Society era programs worked for some, conditions in the inner cities worsened for many who remained. The result is the urban quagmire in which we now find ourselves. We are spending massive amounts of money and conditions are getting worse. Liberals recognize this as a problem in Afghanistan; they are more reluctant to see it in St. Louis — but it is true. What we are doing now isn’t working and while some of the reforms being tried (especially in education and perhaps also new ways of handling drug issues) offer promise, there is no light at the end of the urban tunnel. The urban quagmire into which the Johnson administration (blue thought at its zenith) led the United States reflects a massive intellectual failure. We still have racial problems in this country, but the urban problem at its core about much more than race. To think clearly about the inner cities, we are going to have learn to think less racially — to for example learn to think about our inner city problem as if most of the urban poor were white. Inner Cities in Context The first step is to put the African-American presence in the cities in historical context. The Great Migration of African-Americans from southern farms to northern cities was one of many such movements in the modern era. For hundreds of years now, changes in agriculture have been sending people from the countryside into the city. The rising productivity of agricultural workers, the growing concentration of land ownership in the hands of well-capitalized large proprietors and the mechanization of farm work meant that peasants have been leaving the field for the city all over the world. The African American urban migration was one of these mass movements of population. It was not unlike waves of migration to the US from much of Europe; farmers and farm workers were either pushed off the land or drawn to the possibilities of urban life and many of them came to America’s burgeoning cities in search of better lives. As cotton culture was mechanized and sharecropping gave way to large estates directly worked by the owner, millions of African-Americans streamed to northern cities between 1910 and the 1960s just as Italians, Greeks, Russians, Poles and Jews had done between the Civil War and the immigration restrictions of the 1920s. We are, incidentally, seeing many more Great Migrations today: in North America we have rural Mexicans and Central Americans are streaming into cities in Mexico and across the US. The Turkish migration into Germany followed this pattern; much of the North African migration to western Europe and the internal Chinese migration from country to city is of this kind as well. Rural migrants are swelling the population of African cities from Capetown to Cairo; they are filling the cities of South and Central Asia. Globally we are in the middle of a Great Migration that sometime in this century will put a majority of the world’s population into cities for the first time ever. Historically, cities were tough places to move to. Back in the eighteenth century and in most of the nineteenth, mortality rates were often higher and in many cases much higher in cities than in rural areas. Sanitation was primitive; food transport was slow and uncertain and refrigeration did not exist. Social safety nets were porous and weak. The cities were regularly scourged by disease and fire. Urban populations tended to shrink in those years if not continually renewed by fresh migrants from the countryside. Economically and culturally it wasn’t easy, either. Back in the country, young people (the bulk of the migrants then and now) were integrated into strong social patterns. They were mostly honest and hardworking. There were relatively few opportunities for the sons and daughters of poor peasants and laborers to be anything else. When they got to the city, there were no strong extended family networks to provide a social safety net in bad times — or to enforce social discipline and healthy habits in good ones. Cities, classically, have more temptations than the country does — that is one reason adventurous young people in particular like to move to them. With no social safety net, no public health and no support system, many migrants became statistics on the urban mortality rolls. Drinking badly made gin, eating poorly preserved and often contaminated food, and living in unsanitary neighborhoods was not a recipe for longevity. Throw in venereal disease in an era that knew very little about prevention or treatment, and it is easy to understand why cities needed constant replenishment from the countryside. A 1751 engraving of Gin Lane by William Hogarth (Source: Wikimedia Commons) The old urban migration was a kind of Darwinian test. Migrants had to maintain their social discipline and sharply limit their indulgences in the dangerous but alluring diversions of urban life. Failing to do that meant an early and often very unpleasant death. The growing European cities of the eighteenth and early to mid-nineteenth century had what Marx called a lumpenproletariat of deracinated residents who had lost their footing in the country but been unable to establish themselves on steady terms in the city. They were the petty thieves, prostitutes and hustlers of the day — the pages of Dickens are full of them. Their numbers tended to grow as the pace of urbanization sped up, but epidemics and hunger continued to take their toll. Beginning in the nineteenth century and continuing through to the present day, urban demography changed. Mortality rates in cities dropped as people grew to understand the importance of clean water, learned how to fight or prevent infectious disease and the quality of the food supply dramatically improved. Add the provision of a social safety net and the conditions existed for what we have seen: the development of a cycle of urban poverty spanning many generations. When the Great Migration of rural African-Americans came north, beginning around World War One, they were more like the Mexican immigrants of today than like a Marxist lumpenproletariat. By and large they were hard working and clean living people who were willing and able to work at sometimes backbreaking jobs to provide for their families. Despite the corrosive effect that slavery had on family ties and despite the inevitable strains that great poverty places on family life, African American family ties were much stronger then than they are in today’s inner city. Many African Americans established themselves in urban middle class communities; Harlem and Queens (this most glamorous and cosmopolitan of New York boroughs included Jackie Robinson, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Malcolm X among its residents) contained vibrant, exciting and safe neighborhoods. Schools often worked much better than many do now; the social infrastructure of African-American neighborhoods was comparable and in some cases stronger than in other neighborhoods of recent urban immigrants from around the world. The Louis Armstong House in Corona, Queens (Source: Wikimedia Commons) Over time, two trends appear in such neighborhoods. Some residents (luckier or more talented) establish secure lives in the urban economy. Over time they tend to move away from the old neighborhoods to less crowded parts of the city and to the suburbs. Those who do not for whatever reason make this transition successfully begin to lose the inherited culture and discipline of the country. In the old days a high mortality (and high infant mortality) rate would limit this population. These days, though abortion, violence, drug addiction and crime take a toll, the modern scourges are less effective than the older ones and many more people survive physically in the city while failing to find secure livelihoods there. As one dysfunctional generation gives rise to another, inherited social structures weaken further, and we see what we see. African Americans formed the first nucleus of what is likely to be an ongoing underclass not so much because of their skin color (though with many craft unions and employers holding to white only hiring practices discrimination had an effect) as because of their timing. African Americans were the last wave of migrants to hit the American industrial belt; while the 1920s immigration laws cut the flow of European immigrants to a trickle, the African American influx continued into the years when American factory employment stagnated and then began its (so far) inexorable decline. Black America showed up for the party just as the bar was closing down. Many African Americans transitioned to the modern economy. Even as factories stopped taking on new workers and laying off old ones, African Americans went to college in record numbers. Like second and third generation European migrants to city life before them, they found middle class jobs on police forces, in schools, in fire departments, sanitation departments and in the civil service. Some pursued military careers and others went into business, finance, politics and law. A critical mass, however, did not make the adjustment in time. Early generations of American immigrants headed quickly from the cities onto family farms up through the Civil War; from the Civil War through the Vietnam era the factories provided a bridge into the middle class. For the last forty years that avenue has been closed; new waves of immigrants have been forced to find new paths into the middle class. For some, it is proving difficult, and we have already seen the signs of social and family breakdown and a growing gang culture among some newer immigrant groups. Once a community has reached the levels of dysfunction and defeat that characterizes the third, fourth and fifth generations of the modern American underclass, conventional social programs no longer work particularly well. Affirmative action does not help a thirty year old illiterate with a drug habit get a job. The most dedicated teachers in the best schools cannot compensate for the lack of basic parenting at home. A community of young men who have never known a father’s care or even seen a father caring for a family cannot be prepared for adult life by anything the government can do. There are no magic solutions to problems this deeply rooted, but we are going to dispel the shadow of LBJ from our urban policy and find new approaches to urban problems that break with the core assumptions of the catastrophically wrongheaded ‘best and the brightest’ of the 1960s. Thinking less racially about urban problems is part of the answer; in future posts I will make more suggestions. This is a complicated subject and clear answers are not easy to find; I will be looking to responses from readers to help me figure things out.

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The tragic loss of one of America’s greatest heros, a title he tried to avoid, has saddened the scientific community, the country and the world. His work is not done, however, as Neil Armstrong is continuing to help demonstrate NASA‘s accomplishments. His death has helped to rekindle the effort to declare the lunar landing sites National Historic Sites, and to highlight the importance of the artifacts left there. With new trips to the moon being planned, it is hoped that disallowing interference in the Apollo sites will preserve the history that lies therein. For more information on the work being done on lunar landing site preservation, please see: For the guidelines for preservation established earlier this year, please see: Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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By Joseph Walker You’ve heard about things going on your permanent record? Steve Jobs had one, too. The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday made public a background check on the Apple co-founder. The agency assembled the investigation in 1991 because Mr. Jobs was being considered for a presidential appointment by George H.W. Bush to the President’s Export Council, which advises on international trade. Mr. Jobs was appointed to the position that year. The Wall Street Journal/FINS.com requested the file through the Freedom of Information Act. (See the original post on sister site FINS.com.) In the 191-page document, friends and associates describe him as profoundly talented, creative and hardworking. But his many faults are also acknowledged including the fact that he neglected his daughter for the first several years of his life and that his management techniques were considered by many to be abusive. Two individuals, who were acquainted with Mr. Jobs, said he was “strong willed, stubborn, hardworking and driven, which they believe is why he is so successful.” Another source said she was reluctant to discuss Mr. Jobs, because she had “questions concerning his ethics and morality.” The woman, who said that she and Jobs had “experimented” with drugs together in the past, also described him as “shallow and callous.” His success as head of Apple, she said, had given him an “enormous amount of power” and “caused him to distort the truth at times to get his way.” Despite this, she recommended him for the government position. A Palo Alto, Calif.-based man who identifies himself as a former “good friend” of Mr. Jobs said that while he was “basically an honest and trustworthy person, he is a very complex individual and his moral character is suspect.” Mr. Jobs “alienated a large number of people at Apple, as a result of his ambition.” The question of whether Mr. Jobs, who had admitted to drug use in his youth, still used drugs while at Apple comes up frequently in the file. It appears nearly everyone interviewed believed he no longer used drugs. An interview subject from International Business Machines said that he never “witnessed any illegal drug usage or alcohol abuse by the appointee” and said Mr. Jobs “seemingly lives within his financial means and he never witnessed any examples of an extravagant lifestyle having been practiced by Jobs.” An unnamed female source said Mr. Jobs “drank only a little wine and did not use any kind of illegal drugs.” However, “in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mr. Jobs may have experimented with illegal drugs, having come from that generation,” the report says. Other aspects of the Steve Jobs narrative are referenced in the file, including his pilgrimage to India and his resulting interest in Eastern religion. One person whose name is redacted says that Mr. Jobs “had undergone a change in philosophy by participating in eastern and/or Indian mysticism and religion. This change apparently influenced the Appointee’s personal life for the better.” The person suggests that Mr. Jobs’ apathy toward money and material possessions were manifest in the early 1990s when the investigation was conducted. Mr. Jobs lived a “spartanlike and at times even monastic existence,” the person told investigators. Joseph Walker is a reporter for FINS.com, The Wall Street Journal’s jobs and career website.

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Business Functions and Processes in Extended Mass Layoffs in the Third Quarter 2012 Employers initiated 885 extended mass layoff events in the third quarter of 2012 that resulted in the separation of 138,484 workers from their jobs for at least 31 days, according to preliminary figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Extended mass layoff events related to nonseasonal economic reasons totaled 706 and involved the separation of 112,193 workers. More complete information on third quarter 2012 extended mass layoffs can be obtained from the news release The total number of business functions reported by employers in nonseasonal layoff events in the third quarter was 1,373, a decrease from 1,872 business functions a year earlier. This decrease of 27 percent was smaller than the 35 percent over-the-year decrease in nonseasonal extended mass layoff events, meaning more functions on average were involved in each extended mass layoff event than a year ago. Construction activities, producing goods, and contracted services were cited most often by employers as the main business function—that which involves the most laid-off workers—involved in third-quarter nonseasonal extended mass layoffs. Secondary functions most often reported by employers for layoff were administrative and clerical support, general management, customer service, and human resources, including recruiting. (See table 1.) Business processes affected by all extended mass layoffs during the second quarter numbered 1,125, down from 1,712 a year earlier. Over the year, the number of reports decreased in 5 of the 6 core processes and all support processes. In the third quarter of 2012, the largest number of processes per event occurred in layoffs due to disaster/safety reasons and organizational changes. (See table 2.) The most common process affected by nonseasonal extended mass layoffs in the third quarter of 2012 was operations—the process most directly related to the key activity of the establishment. Total core and support processes involved in nonseasonal extended mass layoffs decreased over the year in both goods-producing and service-providing industries. (See table 3.)

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Find here a selection of other inspiring environmental organizations, individuals, and ongoing projects. We recommend familiarizing yourself with these organizations, learning about their programs, benefiting from their expertise, and if possible, getting involved. Oceana — protecting the world’s oceans Pew Environment Group — works globally to establish pragmatic, science-based policies that protect our oceans, preserve our wildlands and promote the clean energy economy Ocean Conservancy — educates and empowers citizens to take action on behalf of the ocean Marine Conservation Institute — saving wild ocean places, for us and future generations National Coalition for Marine Conservation – the USA’s oldest public advocacy group dedicated exclusively to conserving ocean fish, such as swordfish, marlin, sharks, tuna, striped bass, menhaden and herring. Greenpeace — the largest independent direct-action environmental organization in the world.

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Lobster, California spiny The California Spiny Lobster fishery is a small but locally important and largely sustainable fishery in southern California. Abundance of Spiny Lobsters off California varies with broad-scale changes in environmental conditions caused by El Nino and La Nina. State managers closely regulate commercial fishing for Spiny Lobster, but do not monitor recreational catches. Bycatch is low. Spiny Lobster traps generally allow undersize lobsters and other animals to escape. This fish may have high levels of mercury that could pose a health risk to adults and children. More mercury info here.

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February 8th, 2008 by Bob Bly Lord Kelvin, inventor of the Kelvin temperature scale, once said, “When you can measure something in numbers, then you know something about it.” No where does his lesson have more meaning than in advertising. A case in point: a recent column in DM News noted that the Sales Genie ad in the 2007 Superbowl was a success, generating 25,000 visits to the company’s Web site. Well, assuming the company spent $1 million on the spot, that comes to $40 per visit. That compares poorly to the cost per click of Google Adwords and other common methods of generating traffic. When you apply metrics to the presidential campaign, the results are even more embarrassing for NYC’s former mayor. According to an article in Newsweek, Rudy Giuliani spent $60 million on his failed run for the White House, collecting only a single delegate in the process. That’s a marketing cost of $60 million per delegate — perhaps a record. This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 3:53 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, Anxiety Veiled: Euripides and the Traffic in Women. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993. Pp. 246. $14.95 (pb). ISBN-0-8014-8091-4. Reviewed by Jennifer Dellner, Reed College. Sorkin Rabinowitz presents a provocative and ultimately unsettling analysis of the phenomenon of "the traffic in women" in eight tragedies of Euripides. The phrase "traffic in women" in the subtitle of the book derives from an article written in 1975 by Gayle Rubin, which has since become the locus classicus of feminist literary and anthropological theory of women and exchange. The prominence of Rubin highlights other theoretical choices and exclusions which reveal a deeper agenda.1 In the conclusion of this study, S.R. recounts the following incident: "When I presented my work at a conference several years ago, someone in the audience asked me why we should continue to teach and read this material. I admit that this is a problem for me, given the competition for scarce resources in the curriculum, for example." S.R. continues, "It is possible for feminist readers to use these texts..." (220). Her own ambiguity vis-à-vis the value of her subject matter produces what I consider to be the book's most dominant flaw: the assumption of the monolithic feminist "we" in a premise of despair over what tragedy means to "us" (women). Indeed, in her Introduction, S.R. speaks of adapting Althusser for "deployment in the feminist arsenal" (12), while I am left wondering why I need weaponry to approach these texts. S.R.'s assumptions are "up-front," in that they are explained at the outset and embedded in her interpretation. In what follows, I have noted several theoretical moves which may make even a feminist reader uneasy; since they often account for S.R.'s acceptance or rejection of a certain understanding of the tragedies, I present them as I move through the text. In spite of an introductory section which traces out a by now well-known route from Mauss to Gernet to Levi-Strauss to Rubin on the exchange of gifts, women, and signs, S.R.'s analysis is more Freudian than Marxist, and it is this approach which will generate the most controversy. Her segue from Marxism to Freudian psychoanalysis relies on their shared vocabulary of "the fetish." Fetishism ties together the economy of (masculine) desire (Freud), and the social construction of commodities (Marx), and allows S.R. to "attend to the maculinity of Athens and stress tragedy's ideological function" (9), i.e. to examine the "cultural work" tragedy does when it makes its female characters "discursive practices" (12) in its form(ul)ation of masculine desire qua Athenian ideology. S.R.'s examination of the cultural practice of Euripidean tragedy comes to a view of tragedy as "comforting to men" (168), a far cry from recent views of tragedy as a destabilizing or questioning influence on Athenian life and politics (e.g. Goldhill's term, "fractive").2 All in all, S.R.'s reading yields the following triangle: the two species of commodified women are "Fetishized Victims," (Part I), who are either "sacrificial" virgins or wives, and "Vengeful Destoyers" (Part II), Matres Dolorosae, who become, in opposition to their fetishized counterparts, unheimlich or "uncanny"; both of these serve to produce "Men United" (Part III). S.R.'s reliance on the Freudian concept of the unheimlich to balance vengeful mothers with fetishized young women clearly inclines her analysis toward a psychoanalytic theory of male wish-fulfillment. S.R. makes good use of Freudian-based feminist film criticism (Doane, deLauretis, Mulvey) in her reading of female characters as projections of male fantasy. It is in this concept of "public art" that S.R. uses MacKinnon's work on ideology to relate the notions of male sexual desire and commodified fantasy to the production of epistemology (196). Iphigenia (at Aulis) and Alcestis are S.R.'s main models for the "sacrificial" women of Part I, though an examination of Polyxena and Macaria supports S.R.'s reading of Iphigenia in the first chapter. In the first section, S.R. opposes the supposed "subject" status of women who sacrifice their lives (their seeming volition and possible power) with the male glorification ("fetishization") of them which seeks to control it. In this section, S.R. wishes to produce a "grammar of the plays of sacrifice," where she argues that sacrifice is a form of gift-exchange with the gods (31). She turns to work by Vernant and Foley to make a further analogy between sacrifice and marriage as comparable forms of exchange. Both marriage and sacrifice, according to S.R., re-organize "natural" phenomena (reproduction, meat-eating) into social, hierarchized behaviors which advantage the male: "In sum," she writes, "marriage is like sacrifice because in marriage woman is the offering through which culture is constituted" (34). Iphigenia, Polyxena, and Makaria are marked by their "oscillation" between states as volunteering subjects and idolized objects. S.R. has apparently borrowed the term "oscillation" from Doane, and uses it five times in Part I -- pages 54,71, 83, 98, 99 -- to mark the sense of movement between the women's gestures at subjectivity/power, which marks them as "uncanny," and their only act as subjects (submission), which leads to their glorification and maintains the masculine-dominant status-quo. Fetishism, according to S.R., "oscillates between mutilation and adoration" (83), an explanation which has little to do with Marxist theory, and much more to do with Sorkin-Rabinowitz's use of "castration anxiety" to explain the attempts of Athenian males to control their potentially threatening women. Herein lies a tension in S.R.'s analysis between the universalizing tendencies of Freudian criticism and her attempt to formulate a specifically Athenian male ideology. S.R.'s reliance on psychoanalytic explanation often feels superfluous in the face of her acute and perceptive readings of the plays themselves, and many notions of what is specifically Athenian in the plays is obscured by her discussion of what is male/Euripidean. For example, it is not clear, in her final and excellent analysis of Kreousa in the Ion, whether any male could have written a different play:Psychoanalytic theory speculates that the infant, denied the milk of the mother (either because he is biting and hurting her or because another child has come along to take his place), responds with aggressive fantasies of destroying her but justifies his own hostility by imagining that she is harming him. Euripides, taking the part of the son, creates a scenario in which the mother does harm to the infant first. Euripides justifies Ion's attack on Kreousa by depicting her as an aggressor. (202-203)Her analysis of the Ion and the Hippolytus in Part III argues for this scenario (or primal scene) as the governing fantasy of all the Euripidean tragedies under consideration. The idolized women are merely the solution to the "Vengeful Destroyers" (Hekabe, Alcmene, Medea and Phaidra) whom she discusses in Part II. Unable to re-incorporate the power of older powerful women under the rubric of fetished glory/virtue, Euripidean tragedy manages their potential threat by pairing them off with their younger, sacrificial counterparts, demonstrating that these older women are indeed destructive of the social order. As she writes of Hekabe, "In the beginning, she is associated with the human realm as it faces the unheimlich, but by the end she is instead viewed as a manifestation of the uncanny itself" (116). S.R. views this association as purely recuperative on the part of Athenian males, but with implications which "can be positive" (105) for "us." Athenian men "displace" their anxieties "aroused by and on behalf of masculine civilization onto the female" by making the female cede to the male spatially in the plots' narratives (Hekabe, Hippolytus), and in general by using displacement to deflect "audience attention from systemic failings to [the women's] violence" (108). These women become a "screen" for the projection of masculine anxieties about their own (male) violence. However, "we" "can look for [positive] traces of female subjectivity, but let us not fool ourselves that Euripides applauds it" (154). S.R. is at her best in this central section, perhaps because, although psychoanalytic film theory lends her the notion of displacement onto the screen of female characters, she lets go of her tendency to use Freud to provide proof of what she finds, and instead performs very acute and nuanced readings of the tragedies which argue well for her findings. In Parts I and III, she seems much more concerned with establishing the plays' cohesion with Freudian paradigms than she is in Part II, where her use of theory backgrounds, and never overshadows, her own interpretive work. Yet even here, her own findings often make S.R. nervous, and prevent her from drawing certain conclusions, as she attempts to quash any heroizing emotional response the women's strength produces in her by retreating to a contemporary moral agenda. She says of Medea's solution to her problems: "Given the realities of child abuse in our own time, however, I find it problematic to simply applaud Medea's infanticide and escape" (154). S.R.'s objections make plain what some feel to be a difficulty of reading as a feminist theorist: the notion that to be a feminist, one must find something positive in these women, must be able to identify with their strength and their choices. Because S.R. finds such choices (whether submission or murder) to be morally unacceptable, she cannot accept that a real woman would make these choices; only a construct in a collective male fantasy would: "the murder of the children is his [Euripides'] choice, not Medea's" (153). Her uneasiness denies the fact that women have chosen to kill and been heroized for it (Bonnie and Clyde, for example, evoke similar emotions in some, as do Thelma and Louise). Granted the presence of difficulties such as these, S.R.'s analyses of the final two plays (the Hippolytus again from the Father-Son vantage point, and the Ion) with the "arsenal" fully deployed -- all terms operational -- are well worth foregoing one's qualms. Although it may be jarring for a classicist of the non-Freudian persuasion to encounter the phrase, "The pre-Oedipal phase of Ion's life" (193), a reliance on Freudian scenarios is nicely counterbalanced in Part III by S.R.'s articulation of what may be a historically specific psychology of the influence of repressed homoerotic desire between Athenian men. She states as a general principle that "The possibility or probability of an erotic charge between father and son was denied in antiquity because that relationship founded the social order. Horizontal desire for one like oneself is the repressed, unconscious desire of this text [Hippolytus]; it is gratified by being transformed into a vertical (asexual) desire of father for son" (174). This dynamic of desire is demonstrated in the Ion as well, and it is in S.R.'s smart and well-supported readings of the texts themselves that readers will find well-founded provocation toward more exploration and research. S.R. has undertaken some risks by exposing, in our own terms, the psychic and moral dilemmas which may underlie the tragedies' exposition of the so many powerful, brave, and troubling women who are at the core of Athenian thought as we know it. Instead of arguing that the Greeks existed in a realm "Before Sexuality," Sorkin-Rabinowitz concludes that the insurgent power of women arises from a strong, historically situated, pre-Oedipal drive (220-221), of which Athenian men were only too aware, and had to constantly attempt to manage in a public realm where their most repressed fears could be rendered safe by a particular mechanism of fantasy. There are places where recent work on exchange which she has excluded could be used to bolster her argument. For example: Jean-Joseph Goux. tr. Curtiss Cage (1990) Symbolic Economies after Marx and Freud Cornell U. Press; Marilyn Strathern (1988) The Gender of the Gift U. of CA Press; Annette B. Weiner (1992) Inalienable Possessions U. of CA Press. Simon Goldhill (1986) Reading Greek Tragedy Cambridge U.Press.

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Game based on the traditional Middle-Eastern game of Okey. You try to get rid of all your tiles by forming numbers into runs of 3 or more, or groups of 3-4 of a kind. Played tiles become communal and can be rearranged and added to by any player. (2-4 players, 30 minutes) My newly bought, first-hand game of Rummikub (from Philos) came with a die. However, the game doesn't seem to use a die. Is there any variant that uses a die, if so, what for? In rummikub, how exactly does the 30-point rule work? Is it: The very first move of each player must be independent of existing stones and with a value of at least 30. There is no 30-point rule in ... I have to code a program that suggests what to do depending on the situation of a Rummikub game. More about Rummikub: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rummikub In Wikipedia's explanation, I quote: ... I don't have the paper rules here as a reference, but I grew up playing Rummikub with the rule that, if you replaced a joker on the table you must immediately replay the joker in a run or set with at ...

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by Bob Mackreth Shunning human contact, the brooding, bearded man retreated to the woods, hiding himself away in a tiny cabin devoid of comforts. No one knew for sure what private demons pursued him- some said that he nursed a wounded heart, others hinted that he hoarded an ill-gotten treasure. Many thought him uncouth, but others described him as a gentleman, well educated. Just about everyone agreed it was best to keep far away from him, though. "He was sullen and ugly," one writer recalls, "and on several occasions it is said that he used his gun to drive away unwelcome meddlers." He refused to pay taxes, and once greeted a visiting sheriff with a loaded rifle. A character from today's headlines? No, the long-ago hermit of Hermit Island. The tale of the Hermit is a story filled with violence, romance, and wealth. Or maybe not- it's hard to say. You see, since there was nothing written about the Hermit during his lifetime, writers and tale spinners over the ensuing century-and-a-half have felt free to make things up as they went along. As one writer confessed, "There are a number of different versions to this tale. The author has chosen the one which most appealed to him." The Hermit's name was William Wilson or maybe it wasn't. Some accounts claim that his name was anything but Wilson, and that the pseudonym concealed a dark past. "Nothing is known of his early life," says one writer, "He came from no one knew where." Not so, says another: "He was born in Canada of Scottish parents," confidently adding that the year was 1792, and the place was Sault Ste. Marie. Most sources agree that Wilson was a fur trader in his youth, and roamed the mountains as far as the Pacific Ocean. Tiring of the wandering life, one account tells how he walked cross-country, hoping to return to the land of his birth. Arriving there, he found his parents dead, his former sweetheart married. It seems that few writers could resist the temptation to place a woman at the center of the Hermit's story. An 1890's account describes a mysterious moment: One day a friend found him sleeping beside the cabin. He did not disturb him. But out of his dreams he awoke, and in an agonizing cry he uttered one word "Estelle!" Hmmm who might this mysterious lady have been? Perhaps she was a woman wronged: one source says that at the age of 18, "he ran away from home, deserting a young French girl he was to have married." Not true, says another account: "He had a wife and daughter at L'Anse, in upper Michigan, who he took out to the Columbia River and there deserted. Later, repenting of this cruelty, he sought to reclaim them and found they had been murdered." Perhaps there was no wife, no French girl, no "Estelle." Who can be certain? But surely we must know more about his life once he appeared in the Apostle Islands country! Indeed, the stories do grow more detailed, the tellers more confident. He came to LaPointe in 1841, we are told, and worked as a cooper, or barrel maker. His employer, John Bell, was every bit as fierce as Wilson, and just a bit tougher, it seems. The two men came to blows one day in 1847, and we hear that Bell laid Wilson out with one punch. Humiliated, Wilson vowed he would never stay on an island where he was not the best man, and so loaded a canoe with provisions and set off to an island where no man would ever be his better. There, on what is now called Hermit Island, Wilson built a log cabin, planted a garden, and raised chickens. To earn a few dollars, he kept up his work as a cooper. Fishermen would stop by to purchase barrels for their catch, but the Hermit did not encourage them to linger. Yet some writers say he had no need to raise cash. They say that on his rare trips to town, he attracted attention by paying for supplies from a purse filled with silver Mexican coins. Others whispered of a store of gold, buried somewhere near his cabin. Perhaps this rumor of hidden wealth led to the Hermit's death. In 1861, he was found "dead in his cabin, where he had undoubtedly been murdered evidently by parties in search of his wealth." There was "evidence of a violent death struggle, crude furniture broken, the trunk empty, money bags missing." "Not exactly," says another story: it was whiskey that laid him low. "Wilson had died of delirium tremens as misshapen monsters appeared against the mud-lined walls of his lonely cabin, he forced his trembling old body to go after them until life wrenched from it in a final, violent convulsion." Oh, my! Amid all this embellishment, what do we really know about Wilson the hermit? We can be confident that he did exist- that in the decade before the Civil War, a tormented man spent his declining years all but shut-off from human society on a lonely island in Lake Superior. Beyond that, it seems that the Hermit will forever remain a man of mystery. One suspects he would have preferred it that way. To learn about... Please note: the Scrapbook articles are presented here for public information and education only. Written for the National Park Service, they are in the public domain. (Though if you borrow them for your own web page, please be honest and give proper credit- okay? Thanks.)

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After the waters pass Set aside your spring chores and cancel the rest of your plans when you pick up The Winter Vault. Thirteen years after her first novel, Fugitive Pieces, Canadian writer Anne Michaels unfolds the unforgettable story of Avery and Jean, who meet near land flooded by the St. Lawrence Seaway project. After their marriage, they live in Egypt, where Avery is an engineer responsible for rescuing the temples at Abu Simbel from the floodwaters of the Nile, as part of the Aswan High Dam construction in the mid-1960s. In both projects, lives and memories are uprooted with the landscape as entire communities are relocated. Michaels uses the structure of the novel to portray this displacement and this dislocation, juxtaposing water against desert, flow against flood, showing some of the ways people respond to emotional and physical dislocation. In Egypt, Avery works with old sandstone and modern plans, while Jean observes the locals and tries to understand their lives. When their first child dies in utero, their relationship breaks. Their loss is the stone in the river that a Nubian friend describes as the one that splits the waters. Back in Canada, Avery does not know how to help Jean—or himself—grieve, and leaves her. She becomes involved with Lucjan, an older man who survived the war as a Jewish orphan in Warsaw, and is now known as the Caveman because of the paintings he creates on Toronto fences late at night. He draws Jean, and they become lovers. It is Lucjan’s stories—and his challenges—that help Jean start to return to life. A year after their daughter’s death, Jean and Avery meet, unplanned, at her grave, and begin to walk back to each other. Michaels is the author of three books of poetry, and her phrases and images echo back and forth through the novel. The title refers to the buildings where bodies wait until the ground thaws and graves can be dug, a metaphor for the temporary holding place we all visit in our lives, but rarely name. The Winter Vault requires close reading, but when you finish, you’ll want to turn back and read it all again. Leslie Budewitz lives and writes near Flathead Lake in western Montana.

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Myself and other more important matters Amacom Books, 2006 - 213 halaman The book was selected as one of STRATEGY + BUSINESS Best Business Books of 2008. The book was also selected by Leadershipnow.com as one of The Best Leadership Books of 2008. One of the world's most influential living management thinkers, Charles Handy has year-after-year been listed alongside business gurus including Peter Drucker and Tom Peters in the prestigious Thinkers 50 list. His views on management and life have inspired and enlightened others for decades. Now, in Myself and Other More Important Matters, the bestselling author of books including The Age of Unreason shares his special brand of wisdom, giving readers uncommon insight into business and careers...as well as the choices we all have to make in our lives. Handy draws on the lessons of his own experience to help readers move beyond the facts they learned in business school and reflect on their own individual management style. With the philosophical elegance and eloquence Warren Bennis has described as his trademark, Handy discusses how one should develop one's career goals in line with personal values and sense of ethics. Handy entertainingly recounts what he's discovered along his own international journey: from lessons his father taught him growing up in Ireland to what he learned in Borneo in his days working for Royal Dutch Shell to Italy, where he bought and fixed up an old house in Tuscany all the way to America, where recent corporate scandals have shaken our understanding of what is ethical and acceptable. Throughout the book, Handy asks us to look at the role of work in our life, and what we truly find fulfilling. It is hard to imagine a better or wiser guide to work and life's big questions.

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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001 NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance. Support for this project was provided by the National Academies. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project. International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0309-13901-4 International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-13901-5 Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, N.W., Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area); Internet, http://www.nap.edu. For more information about the Institute of Medicine, visit the IOM home page at: www.iom.edu. Copyright 2009 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America The serpent has been a symbol of long life, healing, and knowledge among almost all cultures and religions since the beginning of recorded history. The serpent adopted as a logotype by the Institute of Medicine is a relief carving from ancient Greece, now held by the Staatliche Museen in Berlin. Suggested citation: IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2009. Integrative medicine and the health of the public: A summary of the February 2009 summit. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

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Social Media can help unite us in times of crisis. Within moments, social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube connect the world with the voices and images on the ground as well our own global reactions. We give you here one more reason that you should be participating in social media if you aren’t yet, as well as important links to information and ways to help the tragic situation in Japan following the devastating earthquake and tsunami. Our first alert in Kauai to the huge, tragic Japan earthquake was at 9PM Thursday night, March 10. We attended first to preparations for a tsunami predicted for 3AM our time. There was little sleep for everyone on Kauai and the rest of the state of Hawaii with tsunami warning sirens going off every hour from 10PM through 3AM with a bonus at 2:30AM. Residents from homes and vacation rentals directly at the coast needed to evacuate and we supported that effort by taking in a few people. As it turned out, the tsunami effect in Hawaii was very limited but given the magnitude of the quake and tsunami in Japan, it was certainly better to be safe than sorry. We immediately got on Twitter @KauaiTalk @LindaSherman @RayJGordon and Facebook to make sure that our local friends in Hawaii were aware of the warnings and were taking precautions. We passed on news and responded to questions using the hash tag# created for the local event: #HITsunami. All night, we watched the first shocking, horrifying and heartbreaking images that CNN could get a hold of. CNN didn’t have many that first night and kept running them over and over but we kept coming back to watch. My husband Ray and I lived in Japan for more than 13 years beginning in late 1993. (I was there for an additional 8 years before that). We were very worried about our friends in Japan. We checked for whatever social media we could find and also bothered them with emails. At times of humanitarian crisis or when a nation or the world is focused on a special event, social media brings us together. Twitter in particular is very immediate. I wrote about this phenomenon calling it the Twitter Shared Experience. Facebook Pages that are open to updates can also be very useful. Blogs follow and allow us to share stories that support all of us. Information shared through social media is helpful to those in need and it links us all together, in all of our humanity. Social Media for Social Good Social media can be used for Social Good. You may have seen stories written about “social influencers” people whose voices carry to many thousands of listeners through their followers on Twitter, Facebook and blogs. In these times of crisis, these influencers can be a positive force. But so can each and everyone of us. You can share your voice on Twitter by including a # in your tweet such as #HelpJapan. People who use Twitter search can create a stream of information by putting that # in their Twitter search bar.* You can contribute your voice to the Facebook Pages I have listed here. You can comment on relevant websites and blogs or post a blog yourself. I worked in Japan as an executive and was one of the few foreign participants in the Nihon Keizai Doyukai (Japan Associate of Corporate Executives). The Keizai Doyukai produces white papers for consideration by the Japanese government. There are few foreigners in this organization because it is conducted entirely in Japanese and requires the ability to not only speak Japanese but read Japanese in order to fully participate. I participated in several committees that touched on the image of Japan to the world. Japan is a huge international aid contributor but they never talk about it. Japanese are humble by nature and do not brag about what they do. I am hoping that this crisis ultimately drags more English capable Japanese onto social media to communicate with the rest of the world about Japan. This will be part of an overall change from a rather insular society to one that is more fully linked with the rest of the world. We can help Japan financially and emotionally through our support delivered through social media platforms. Following is the list of links* that I have collected so far. This has been a labor of love and I hope you find it useful. You are invited to add useful links that I have missed in the comments. Social Good – Giving List of Local Japanese Organizations Providing Direct Support Links to their English pages selected as trustworthy by Todd Wassel and his Japanese wife who are both professional aid and recovery workers with the United Nations Tokyo IS Support Tokyo International School & TEDxTokyo communities have partnered with Second Harvest Japan to receive needed supplies at Tokyo International School for immediate delivery to the disaster areas (local donations) Seven Ways to Help from Mashable a leader in Social Media news and analysis South by SouthWest SXSW Giving SXSW* – Use your social media influence to help Japan message – Red Cross Time Magazine – Five Ways You Can Help How You Can Help from Tokyo Time Out USAID.gov links to this Interaction list of charities There are additional references to charities within many of the links on this page. Celebrities are making major contributions, some direct and some collecting donations through fans such as Lady Gaga with a Pray for Japan wristband. On corporate or non-profit giving: some people have objected to requests for passing forward the word on Twitter through retweets (Microsoft for Bing) or joining Fan Pages to raise money but Charlie Weingarten at Dog Bless You smartly replied: Some people ask why I don’t just give the money. Because together we are far stronger than working alone. Others are suggesting that Apple is taking a cut of contributions through iTunes (they are not!). I have to admit that I personally didn’t like a 2009 cancer campaign on Twitter that appeared to be all about breaking a guinness record so that a particular PR agency could show they had clout (without acknowledging major players that had helped them along the way). But while using caution to only contribute through organizations you trust, we need not be stingy with our Facebook likes and our Twitter RT’s (retweets). Microsoft quickly decided to just donate the $100,000 instead of continuing their RT campaign but ultimately, continuing to spread the word is good for everyone and … why is it that we need to begrudge these organizations some positive PR? Useful Japan Disaster Dedicated Sites Google Crisis Response includes flight cancellation status and other useful updated information (English) Wikipedia current disaster page filled with useful links and updates Press Releases from the Prime Minister of Japan related to Measures Being Taken Olive – Advice Wiki for emergency areas in English and Japanese by @_nosigner Wiki for Earthquake Info American Embassy in Japan Fukushima International Association Live News Streams from Japan – English NHK World (Japan’s national TV station) has is providing livestream with full earthquake/tsunami coverage on this NHK Ustream Link Live News Streams from Japan – Japanese TBS Channel on UStream. Useful Sites About Japan Providing Updates Yokoso – Japan Culture, Lifestyle and Entertainment based in Yokkaichi, Mie, Japan Entertainment Magazine in Japan – Time Out Tokyo Japan Times – English Language Newspaper in Japan Tokyo Post Online News Magazine Japan Today Online News Magazine Gaijin Pot Online Live, Work, Play Magazine for Foreigners in Japan Google People Finder Useful Facebook Pages in English – includes Giving eJournal USA published by the United States Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs Help Save Japan at SXSW Prayer for Tsunami Victims in Japan (fortunately has non-prayer related info as well) Rescue Dog Organization: Explore Dogs Tokyo International School Emergency Supply Center Twitter Corporate Produced (in both Japanese and English) helpful links and useful hash tags. Search for essential local Japan earthquake crisis information in English on Twitter Twitter #Hash Tags* I am seeing tweets that say ‘instead of #PrayforJapan please use #HelpJapan’ and I agree! However, #PrayforJapan is still going strong, so if you want to get a message to all on the English channels you should use both tags. In Japan they are using #jishin (earthquake) and others you can see listed in the Twitter blog at the top of this section. #EQJP has become an accepted format from recent earthquakes in Equador and New Zealand. The #j_j_helpme hash tag reminds us that Twitter can be used to save your life. We wrote about this in our Your Cell Phone Can Save Your Life article. Tweets From Japan Tweets From Japan 60 volunteers translating tweets in Japanese into 12 languages – Google Doc Earthquake and Relief live tweet streams on Twimpact this system by Matthias Jugel, owner of Twimpact (in Germany) searches tweets by keywords and #tags and includes cloud of active twitter accounts providing information. This is generally designed to capture Japanese tweets because of the keywords used. You can choose the translation language for your country. In English (curating news) @Tzarimas Helen Tzarimas from Sydney (update – Mar 15 – exhausted – passed to her Japan twitter list) @seacorro Zoe Daniel from Bangkok @Colvinius Mark Colvin from Sydney @HiroTag Hiroko MD from Cardiff, Wales, UK @Bunguman Yoshi Suzuki from Minneapolis, Minn @MarianSteinbeck from Cologne, Germany @MarcySensei Marcy Sensei, from Mexico City Thought Leaders Not Currently in Japan @Joi Joi Itoh from wherever he is in the world Tweeting From Japan Personal Experience and Information @YankeeReview Darren in Fukushima, Japan @UnusualOlive Rika Oshima in Yokohama, Japan @DanielKahl public personality, born in California, in Japan @audreybenten Usually in Shinjuku, Japan – in Austin for SXSW conference @tokyoreporter Brett Bull in Tokyo @Matt_Alt Matt Alt in Tokyo @tamegoeswild Joseph Tame in Tokyo @1rick Rick Martin in Tokyo @survivingnjapan Ashley Thompson in Shizuoka @sandrajapandra Sandra Barron in Tokyo @HidekiOnda in Tokyo @Gen Gen Kanai @MutantFrogInc Roy Berman @KenMogi in Tokyo @OurManinAbiko in Abiko, Japan @Shioyama in Tokyo @Tom_Vincent in Tokyo @gakuranman Michael Gakuran in Nagoya, Japan @SteveNagata in Tokyo News Bureau Related People Tweeting from Japan @martyn_williams in Tokyo @HirokoTabuchi in Tokyo @W7VOA Steve Herman @JNatsuko Natsuko Fukue @jtmasami Masami Ito @Ularainblack Ulara Nakagawa @fieldproducer Neal Mann (free lance) @sanchanta Mariko Sanchanta @dicklp Richard Lloyd Parry @kzinagata Kazuaki Nagata @Daiwaka Daisuke Wakabayashi Japan News Sites in English @Norishikata Noriyuki Shikata, PR Prime Minister’s Office Updates and Rescue Information in Japanese Accurate Nuclear News @BraveNewClimate Barry Brook author Brave new Climate Japan Status Accurate radiation level information @JapanStatus March 17 Obama Public Address: USA Not Threatened by Nuclear Fallout from CNN Why I Am Not Fleeing Japan – Washington Post I have created a Japan Crisis Twitter List on my @KauaiTalk account and am doing related tweeting from both @LindaSherman and @KauaiTalk but no longer in the format of a constant stream of information that you will find most of the time on the twitter accounts I have collected for this article. How to Pronounce Japanese Japanese pronunciation is flat with no emphasis on the second syllable that you are used to in English, so please stop putting emphasis on the dai in Sendai. The vowels in Japanese are the same as in Spanish so it is relatively simple to pronounce Japanese words. I produced this little Japanese pronunciation tutorial with audio during a raft of news anchor mispronunciations of the word karaoke during the holiday season. Failure of Closed Social Media Systems – American Chamber of Commerce ACCJ (American Chamber of Commerce) should be an important resource to American companies doing business in Japan. They have recently put up a Facebook Page and Twitter feed. Unfortunately, they have set their Facebook Page as a fairly closed system that does not encourage others to update. Their LinkedIn Group moderates comments (slowly!) so there is little activity there as well. Why Japan Will Emerge Stronger After the Earthquake We were in Japan during the Kobe (Hanshin/Awaji) earthquake in January 1995. Japan refused international assistance during that disaster which proved to be a regrettable decision. The spirit of cooperation both internally and internationally during this horrible tragedy and in the rebuilding to follow should be a positive force. *Boomer Tech Talk Guide to Technical Words Used in this Article: Hashtag: Used in Twitter, written #. This is used to create a stream in Twitter of all tweets that include that #. Using the hashtag allows Twitter uses to follow particular topics and events using the search bar in Twitter without needing to go to any particular one source. Twitter refers to some of these hashtags as “trending topics”. You can search for a key word with using the hashtag but the # encourages people to use the same word, making it easy to find a stream of information or commentary on one topic. SXSW: Stands for South by Southwest. A huge annual music/film/social media conference held in Austin (this year March 11 – March 20, starting shortly after the earthquake hit Japan) Links: You can click on a live link to get to a website, including a Facebook Page. I have not made the Twitter profiles into live links so when you see @name you need to enter http://Twitter.com/name to get to the link. We hope that if you are not yet participating in social media, this article has given you one more reason to take that step. Social media can help you cope with a crisis in your personal or business life with immediate information and emotional support. I would greatly appreciate it if you add useful links that I may have missed in the comments.

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When Scrum is first introduced to a team or department, those directly involved in the process are the main priority. The goal is to train the Product Owners and ScrumMasters, to teach team members methods and to help conduct the first sprints. But soon you realize that the introduction of Scrum has a far-reaching impact. It effects wider parameters, other areas of the company and even career paths. Workshops for Visionaries For this reason bor!sgloger continuously offers workshops on such ‘general’ topics. In order to ensure real, long term success in transitioning in a company you have to think outside the box and try out new possibilities. Get new ideas, tips and real solutions at this workshop: - Scrum 4 Classic Project Managers Bringing together classical project structures and agility Unsere nächsten Trainings! |22.07.2013||Der Agile Festpreis||Wien||Der Agile Festpreis||July 2013||Wien||DE| |23.09.2013||Der Agile Festpreis||Frankfurt||Der Agile Festpreis||September 2013||Frankfurt||DE|

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Filed underPolitical Blog Progressive Last night, Republican Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan addressed the Republican National Convention. After a shaky start, Ryan became comfortable with the TelePrompter and delivered a talking points filled speech that was well received in the Convention Hall and drew positive reviews. But if Paul Ryan tried to submit his speech as a school paper he would draw a F for failing to do even the most basic checking of his facts. If Paul Ryan turned that speech in to an editor it would be either covered in corrective red ink or unrecognizable if the editor chose to use track changes and emailed it back. Or they would simply reply: start over. If a CEO received a paper from his staff full of such glairing inaccuracies Paul Ryan would be looking for a new job this morning. While Paul Ryan is entitled to his own opinions, he is not entitled to his own facts. Maybe if he spent less time doing P90X and more time doing the most basic research his speech would not have been filled with little white lies. He lied to America about Medicare. He lied to America about the debt commission. He really lied to America about the stimulus and America’s debt rating. He went out of his way to lie and blame President Obama for a plant closing that happened when George W. Bush was President. That is a bold lie to tell America when your boss wrote an op-ed that demanded that we “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”. Across the Midwest auto plants are adding jobs, like in Lordstown, Ohio where they make the Chevy Cruise and keep adding shifts. If W. Mitt Romney had his way those jobs would not be in Lordstown or anywhere else in the US. When it comes to the stimulus, Ryan likes to call it “a case of political patronage, corporate welfare and cronyism at their worst.” He lied to a reporter’s face about requesting stimulus money and he lied to America about it last night. Ryan also lied when he said the “American people were cut off” from the benefits. The payroll tax reduction that put dollars in people’s pockets hardly left them cut off from the stimulus. The stimulus built and repaired roads and bridges they use every day don’t leave them cut off. Just another Paul Ryan little white lie to America. The fact is, that Paul Ryan requested tens of millions in stimulus dollars, voted for an alternate stimulus in 2009 and spoke on the House floor of the benefits of stimulus and borrowing money to boost the economy, when George W. Bush was President. Paul Ryan’s white lie to America on the Debt Commission is that he voted against it. He failed to mention that when he criticized Obama for not acting urgently on the recommendations that Ryan, himself, opposes. That is a cleaver little lie to America for a deceitful person. Paul Ryan blamed Obama for the decline in America’s credit rating. That is a big lie coming from the leader of the Tea Party House that scuttled a budget deal and threatened to throw America into default as a temper tantrum. But Paul Ryan does not want America to know about his tantrums or his record. The kid has a lot to learn. But the biggest of Paul Ryan’s little white lies to America was saved for Medicare. Ryan criticized Obama for reductions in Medicare and lied when he said benefits were cut. The fact is, and Paul Ryan knows it, that the cuts are in fees for services and those reductions are used to create efficiencies in the way we deliver health care. That helps the economy and improves the long-term outlook for Medicare. Raul Ryan, if he were an honest man, would tell you that in his budget roadmap he kept the Obama Medicare payment reductions but used the savings to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, not to reduce our national health care costs. He also failed to tout his couponing scheme that ends Medicare and raises the cost of health care for seniors while lining the pockets of the health insurance industry. But Paul Ryan knows that the truth is politically toxic. So instead he tells lie after lie to America about Medicare, the debt, the auto recovery, the economy and the stimulus. But mostly he lies about his record. There is a reason that the Obama campaign, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wanted to make the Ryan Budget the focus of this election. First, it is the most detailed policy outline of the Republican Party and every Republican has voted for a version of it or promised to support it. Second, it is a political loser. It is the skunk at the garden party. And that is why Republican House and Senate candidates are not happy with a Romney-Ryan ticket (and Democratic candidates were, to say the least, overjoyed). It is why those Republican candidates have run as fast as they can away from their record of supporting Paul Ryan and his radical plan to end Medicare. Even W. Mitt Romney immediately tried to distance himself from his running mate. He clearly believed that he could pick Paul Ryan to be a heartbeat away from the presidency but expect everyone to ignore the Ryan record. A monumentally dumb belief. About Bill Buck Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.

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Mars Science Laboratory arrived at its destination Sunday night at 11:31 p.m. The MSL team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's control center in Pasadena was ecstatic; the mission control room was flooded with jubilant pandemonium. According to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, who was there along with Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and Presidential Science Advisor John Holdren, "Everybody in the morning should be sticking their chests out saying, 'That's MY Curiosity rover on Mars!'" The rover is checking out in perfect shape so far, and soon the science will begin. Progress reports rolled in last night at a rate of about one per minute. Each time a milestone in the intricate system was transmitted home, the team clapped and broke out in spontaneous laughter. Read more at Ars Technica.

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Efforts to incorporate Bowmanstown as a borough occurred as early as 1892. The village contained about 300 inhabitants in 1896 but the nearby New Jersey Zinc Company soon added to its growth. Bowmanstown was incorporated as a Borough on November 29, 1913 for the purpose of providing general local government services to residents of the community. Upon incorporation of Bowmanstown as a borough its boundaries encompassed lands measuring 0.75 square mile. The borough's assessed valuation in 1918 was $279,000.00. The population of 834 in 1920 remained relatively constant for decades. The Bowmanstown Borough Municipal Building (Borough Hall) is a converted school building that was constructed in 1903 to serve the youths of the community. In 1958, the Palmerton School District was established and combined several local schools in order to create a regional school thus making the Bowmanstown campus obsolete. In 1964, the Borough acquired the old brick school building and has been using it as offices ever since. The borough kept the building in its original condition. The Bowmanstown Borough Authority was incorporated August 24, 1997 and was created for the purpose of owning and operating the Bowmanstown Public Water System. On February 11, 2002 the Authority began construction of its water system improvement project which included a new chlorine building, looping numerous water mains, installing new services, erection of a new 250,000 gallon Standpipe and a new liner to the one Reservoir. In 2009, the Authority replaced their two roofs at the Reservoirs with metal roofs. Ongoing water projects will continue to transpire throughout the years.

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A TWENTY-year-old Yanuca villager survived a shark attack off an island near Taveuni yesterday. Tevita Naborisi was spearfishing at Matacucu Reef when he was attacked. According to his cousin, William Bukarau, Mr Naborisi went spearfishing with a group but strayed from the rest of his group. He was attacked twice by the shark. “He had speared a donu when the shark attacked him from his right side,” said Mr Bukarau. “The shark bit his head but he managed to fend the shark away. “The shark had bitten into the right side of Tevita’s temple in the first attack. The shark came around a second time but Tevita managed to push the shark away,” said Mr Bukarau.

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Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod and Podcast.com. Download the transcript. Sponsor: The Open Group. Dana Gardner: Hi, this is Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions, and you're listening to BriefingsDirect. Today, we present a sponsored podcast discussion, coming to you from The Open Group Conference last week in Boston. We've assembled a panel to explore a new military aircraft systems interoperability consortium and effort, the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE), which aims to promote and better support interoperability and standardization among future military avionics platforms across several branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. We will define FACE, how it came about, and examine the consortium's basic goals under the tutelage of The Open Group. Here to help better understand the promise and potential for FACE to improve costs, spur upgrades, flexibility, and accelerate the components' development agility is our panel. We are here with David Lounsbury, Vice President for Collaboration Services at The Open Group. Welcome. David Lounsbury: Hi, Dana. How are you? Gardner: I'm great. We're also here with Mike Williamson, Deputy Program Manager for Mission Systems with the Navy's Air Combat Electronics Program Office. Welcome to the show. Mike Williamson: Dana, thanks, it’s good to be here. Gardner: Mike, tell us a little bit about what FACE is, and the history that led up to it? Williamson: Sometimes it’s easier to describe a program by saying what it’s not. FACE is not a program. FACE is not a computer. FACE is not a software package. FACE is an environment, and it’s specifically set up as an environment. It was an idea that came about to try to reduce costs, improve interoperability across naval aircraft, and to get capabilities out to the fleet faster and quicker, as best we can. FACE started out as a Navy program. As we started looking around to see what other services were doing, we found that the Army and the Air Force were also doing similar things and trying to go down that same path. The Army had a program called Integrated Data Modem (IDM). The Air Force was doing a program called Universal Network Interface (UNI). We got together with them and are now teaming up to put this consortium together and go forward to define standards for what FACE will be. Gardner: In general terms, what are the problems that we need to solve here? Williamson: The primary problems are cost and schedule. The costs of getting systems to the fleet today are going up. Primarily, it's driven by testing and by the fact that the systems that we have on aircraft today are not open. As for schedule, it takes a minimum of two years, once a new capability is defined, to get it fielded on our aircraft today. We need to reduce that timeline. Gardner: For the benefit of our listeners, we're talking about the avionic systems. Can you tell us a little bit more about the actual systems and some of the capabilities that we're addressing with this program? Williamson: We're really addressing all of the capabilities and all of the systems onboard the aircraft. In the past, we identified a requirement and usually developed a system to meet that requirement. What we are trying to do with FACE now is to develop a computer environment that’s on the aircraft already. As we define new capabilities and new things that we want to put out into the fleet, we can host software in the computer environment that’s already there, rather than building a brand new box, software, or program for every single capability that we put out there. Gardner: Dave, I think The Open Group has seen this issue before, right? Lounsbury: Yeah. It’s very interesting. We've got a number of activities that are on this government-industry boundary, where some of the lessons that industry learned about how open standards can bring agility and help control your cost can benefit military systems like this. I want to pick up on a thread that you mentioned about schedule, because there’s two sides to that coin. The testing and deployment schedule is a real issue for agility for our forces. The one thing we know is that threats change all of the time, and we need the ability to field new capabilities quickly, both as the mission changes and also as the technology evolves. We really need that modularity within the necessary structures of testing for things that are going to be used, and be able to get those new capabilities in the cycle quickly and get them out to the war fighters. Gardner: So how did The Open Group become involved, and what do you expect to be doing vis-à-vis the FACE effort? Lounsbury: The Open Group has a couple of areas similar to this. We've got our Real-time and Embedded Systems Forum for some of the fundamental standards. We've been running a consortium called DirectNet, which is very similar to FACE in the sense that it is principally focused on a defense need, but in the context of open systems. Through connections developed there, Mike found us and we talked about what we can do to organize. Typically, what The Open Group does is provide a structure. Members come in, they bring their business expertise, their subject matter expertise, and operate. What we provide is the framework, where we can have an open consortium that has a balance of interest between the suppliers of components, all government agency programs doing procurement, and the integrators who put it all together. We've got the proven process at The Open Group to make sure that we have that openness that's important for protecting all of the parties. Gardner: Mike, tell me about milestones and timelines? How far into this effort are we, and what might the fruits of this labor be over time? Williamson: This idea really started about a year ago in the Navy, within PMA-209, the program office that I represent here, the Combat Electronics Program Office, at the Naval Air Systems Command. We started looking at what we could do and what we needed to do. The timeline is very, very tight. We're looking at having some kind of standards defined by first quarter of calendar year 2011 -- next year. By the end of March, we're looking to have defined a set of standards on what the FACE environment will look like, because we have procurements coming out at that time that we intend to have FACE be part of those requests for proposals (RFPs) that are going to be coming out. Gardner: And for you, Dave, at The Open Group, what do you see as some of the existing efforts that have taken place that you could look to for some guidance? Are there processes, standards, or technologies that will already be available for FACE? Lounsbury: It's very early, and we're just starting to learn the technical requirements. There are a few that we know that we are going to need. We've talked about the need for operating system kernels that keep the various levels of information to various levels of sensitivity separate. And, there's an active program in our Real-time and Embedded Systems Forum called MILS that's addressing that. I think there will be many that we will discover going forward. There is also a good background. The Open Group has worked with some other government activities -- the Modular Open Systems Architecture folk. We've got quite a reservoir of expertise there. What we're going to be doing principally is marshaling, as always, the expertise of the members to address various parts of the problem. Gardner: Let's look to some commonality, Mike, between the commercial world and the efforts for your avionics platforms, this notion of modular and the right balance between components, silos, and an overarching system. Tell us where you expect this to go, not only in terms of your agility, but into better architecture. Williamson: One of the things that we have looked at is the fact that commercial industry is doing this. Commercial aviation is already doing a lot of this. We've not been able to do that within naval aviation to date, and primarily that's been driven by safety-of-flight issues, issues within our operability, and issues with how we contract for things. We need to get beyond that. We're actually using the model of what commercial aviation has done, with open systems, open source software, licensed software, and those kinds of things, to ask how we can bring that into our platforms. We need to have an environment that we can have a library of software applications that can be used across multiple platforms in the same environment. That solves two problems for us. One, it gets capabilities to the fleet cheaper and faster. And two, it solves the interoperability issues that we have today, where even sometimes when we have the same standards, two different platforms implement the same standards in two different ways and they can't talk to each other. They are not interoperable. Those are the things that we are trying to solve with this. Lounsbury: I want to pick up on something you mentioned there about following the commercial world, and you articulated a few business drivers in there, like cost, time to market, and things like that. One of the explicit goals of FACE, and we performed a business work group to address these, is to talk about the business-model issues. What does open licensing mean in a government context? What would be appropriate ways of sharing intellectual property rights (IPR) in the run up to this? These are all things that commercial people are familiar with through years of standards activity, but it's kind of new to some of the players in the government space. So, we're going to make sure that those things are explicitly addressed. It’s not just the technological solution, though that’s the critical part, but the fact that people can actually buy -- and that we will have a marketplace of -- components that can be licensed and reused. It's early on how we are going to do that, but it’s a very active topic inside the consortium. Gardner: Do you see an extensibility that this effort with FACE might have some bearing on where you could go in other areas of either the military or government? Lounsbury: Certainly. Obviously, we started FACE. The Navy came to The Open Group, but once the word got out, the Army and Air Force are on board. So, we've started to branch out into agencies. The government is a complex place, and there are lot of programs, so principal growth will be different programs inside the government. But, we do envision that some of the things that will be developed here may be applicable to other systems. Part of the vision is, in fact, how does this start to overlap with the commercial avionics practice that Mike mentioned earlier. Gardner: And, we've got our timeline. We understand that there are going to be some improvements pretty rapidly. Is there anything about the standardization process, Mike, that is perhaps different than you expected? Is there any learning process so far? Williamson: There have been a lot of things that I've learned, having The Open Group come along and take a lead on all of this and developing the standards. The Navy and the Department of Defense (DoD) aren't real good at developing standards ourselves. We've tried to do it in the past and we've failed miserably with some of the attempts that we have had. Having The Open Group come and join us, and then bringing industry in, was the right thing to do. Having this consortium with industry, Navy, Army, and Air Force acquisition teams, and fleet participation, has been the right way to go. It’s the only way we can really define the standards and get in place the standards that we really need to get at, with all those inputs coming together. Gardner: We've been discussing a new military aircraft systems interoperability effort and consortium, the Future Airborne Capability Environment or FACE effort, and how it promises to improve costs, spur upgrades, flexibility, and accelerate avionics components' development agility. I'd like to thank our guests. We've been joined by David Lounsbury, Vice President of Collaboration Services at The Open Group. Thanks, Dave. Lounsbury: Thank you, Dana. Gardner: And, we've been joined by Mike Williamson, Deputy Program Manager for Mission Systems, with the Navy’s Air Combat Electronics Program Office. Thank you. Williamson: Thank you, Dana. Gardner: This sponsored podcast discussion is coming to you from The Open Group Conference in Boston the week of July 19, 2010. This is Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions. You've been listening to a sponsored BriefingsDirect podcast. Thanks for joining, and come back next time. Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod and Podcast.com. Download the transcript. Sponsor: The Open Group. Transcript of a sponsored podcast discussion on the US military's work with The Open Group to develop a computing environment that will smooth cost and schedule issues for new systems. Copyright Interarbor Solutions, LLC, 2005-2010. All rights reserved. You may also be interested in: - Three new Open Group white papers help make for a peaceful leap to cloud computing - The State of Enterprise Architecture: Vast Promise or Lost Opportunity?

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died Aug. 28, 1818, St. Charles, Mo., U.S. black pioneer trader and founder of the settlement that later became the city of Chicago. Du Sable, whose French father had moved to Haiti and married a black woman there, is believed to have been a freeborn. At some time in the 1770s he went to the Great Lakes area of North America, settling on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Chicago River, with his Potawatomi wife, Kittihawa (Catherine). His loyalty to the French and the Americans led to his arrest in 1779 by the British, who took him to Fort Mackinac. From 1780 to 1783 or 1784 he managed for his captors a trading post called the Pinery on the St. Clair River in present-day Michigan, after which he returned to the site of Chicago. By 1790 Du Sable's establishment there had become an important link in the region's fur and grain trade. In 1800 he sold out and moved to Missouri, where he continued as a farmer and trader until his death. But his 20-year residence on the shores of Lake Michigan had established his title as Father of Chicago.

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Which contains the several parishes of St. Martin, St. Mary, and St. Michael; and first of (134) St. Martin in Coslany, Commonly called St. Martin at the Oak, from a large oak with the image of our Lady, in it, which stood in its churchyard; it stands on the east side of Coslany-street leading to St. Martin's-gates; the steeple is square, and hath three bells, the nave, chancel, south porch, and south isle, are all covered with lead; and it appears by the following inscription on a brass plate, lying at the very entrance of the chancel, that the isle was built by Thomas Wilkyns, Alderman of Norwich, who died in 1491. Orate pro anima Thome Wilkyns nuper Cibis et Aldermanni Nar lnici, qui istam clam sumptibus suis propriis de novo in ommbus fieri fabricabit, et idem Thomas obiit xxviijo die Januarii Ao Dni. MoCCCColxxxxj. cuius Anime propicietur Deus. In the south porch there is a stone for Tho. Cady Senior, who died 4 Sept. 1708, aged 58, and Rebecca his wife Jan. 11, 1722, 72. I find the following persons interred in the south isle, beginning at the west end. Mary Dr. of Christopher and Frances Richardson, 26 Febr. 1631. Anne their Dr. 20 Mar. 1632, Chris. Richardson 20 Sept. 1733, 24. Frances Richardson March 24, 1734, 3. On a brass plate, Orate pro anima Agnetis Wylkyns quondam Uroris Radulphi Wylkyns que obiit xxo die Mensis Nobembris Ao Dni. M CCCCCiio. Margery, nebulé a fess, impales Manfield, or, two bars sab. on the first a wyvern arg. James Margery Gent. March 5, 1720, 80. Eliz. his wife, Dr. of Nic. Manfield, Aug. 14, 1725, 71. & their 10 Children, James, Samuel, Sarah, Easter, Nathaniel, Henry, Henry, Barbary, Joseph, Margaret Dewing 23 Apr. 1690, 42. In the nave beginning at the west end, On the font there are eight shields, England, France, Scotland, Ireland, Norwich deanery, Norwich city, St. George, and a cross On an old brass, Orate pro animabus Nicholai Heylakke et Margarete Uroris sue nui obiit xxviijodie Mensis Januarii AoDni. MovCrri. quorum animabus propicietur Deus. Orate pro anima Bricii Skow (fn. 1) cuius anime propicietur Deus Tho. Tawell Esq; 5 May 1724, 52. Next lies a flat stone over the Revd. Mr. Jeremiah Revans, and Mary his wife, for whom there is a large monument erected against the north wall, upon the altar part of which, is placed a desk, with their effigies in white marble on each side, a book lying before each of them; on the wall opposite to the woman who is placed on the east side, is this, Over them is this, Memoriâ Æternâ Justi erunt. In hope of a happy Resurrection, in the Ile lie interr'd the Bodies of Abra the affectionate Mother, Feb. 16, 1691. George the indulgent Father, Sept. 9, 1700. Mary Dr. of James Margery Gent. the most loving, pious, vertuous, and meek wife of Jeremiah Revans Clerk, Oct. 1st, 1711, who in Honour to her blessed Memory, hath given three Pounds per Annum, for the Education of poor Girles, with other charitable Donations. O chara Maria! nil nisi longior defuit Vita; Ævum præsens te laudat, laudabit futurum. The said Mr. Revans died Oct. 25, 1727, aged 63, and lies buried by his wife, he was a pious good Man, a kind Benefactor to this Parish, to East-Tuddenham and Barford, and all his Relations. Beatus Servus ille, quem cum venerit Dominus ejus invenerit ita Orate pro anima Alicia Wattys quondam Uroris Johannis Wattys que obiit bicessimo die Mensis Januarii Ao Dni. Mo bC rii. Mary wife of John Girling, 5 April, 1687, 23. waighting for the second Coming of the Lord. Eliz. their Dr. 7 April 1686, an Infant. Martha Girling 20 March 1687. Ann 28 July 1688. Mary, Aug. 10, 1691. Mary, March 27, 1692. Mr. John Girling 27 Oct. 1715, 57. On the north side of the chancel, hangs a table with the names of the benefactors to the parish inscribed thereon, viz. Mrs. Agnes Bungey, died July 11, 1582, and gave a house and ground in this parish to repair the church. She lies buried on the north side of the chancel, and hath a large brass plate fixed in the wall to her memory, on which is this, Under this Stone lieth buried the Bodyes of Mr. John Bungen, and of Agnes his Wife, which John departing this Life, yelded his Soul to God the bith of December Anno 1557, after that he had libed lbiii Yeres fower Meclis, one Day, and and his Wief Agnes lybing after him rrb Peres FFF Weekes, Yelded her Soule also to God, the rith of Julye Ao 1582, being 96 Yeres and 24 Wekes old, who in her last Will and Testament, did gyhe and bequeath to the Parishyoners of this Parish, a Tenement sometymes Robert Derrolds, to have and to hold to them and to their Assignes, upon these Conditions following; that is, if the yerely Rebeneme and Profit thereof, rising a growing, shal and man be employed toward the Maintenance and repayring of the saide Church, so long as the same shall contyneme a Parishe Church, and a Sermon to be made by a learned Preacher for eber, upon the riith of Tulye, being the Day in the which she mas buried; and also, that then do repayer from Time to Time sufficientlie, the said Vowse, with th' Appurtenances, otherwise to reberte to her right heires for eber. Blessed be then, which oye in the Lord. 1648, Mr. John Warnes gave 10s. yearly to the poor. 1702, 29 Sept. Robert Bene, Esq. gave the branch, and paved the altar with black and white marble. Mr. Jeremiah Revans, rector of East-Tuddenham, gave 4l. 10s. for ever, towards educating six poor girls of this parish, and for a yearly commemoration sermon for his wife, and for bread to the poor There is an estate in the parish tied for the payment of it. Mr. John Demee, grocer, died Dec. 28, 1706, tied an estate for 3l. per annum to the poor. James Demee, Gent, died Sept. 11, 1718, and gave 5l. per annum to the poor, and an estate in St. Andrew's parish is tied for the payment of it. Mr. William Nockells of London, Gent. in his lifetime gave 15l. 5s towards erecting the altar-piece; 10l. for communion plate; a purple communion cloth; 100l. towards procuring Queen Anne's bounty o the curacy of this parish; and another 100l. raised by the parishioners of this parish, and other well-disposed people's contributions, procured the said augmentation in 1723, which was On the south side of the chancel, on a mural monument of white Sacred to the Memory of ROB. BENE Esq; who was born and died as mentioned on the Marble near this place, which covers his These two periods of Life are common to him and all Men, but he had many Vertues, in which he had not many Partners; his Industry render'd him wealthy; his Integrity, Liberality & Munificence. esteem'd; his Affection to his Friends, and his Benevolence to all Men belov'd; and his Death lamented; these excellent Qualities which adorn'd his Life, recommended him to the Favour of his Fellow Citizens, and he was elected one of the Sheriffs in the Year 1694, Alderman 1708, Mayor of this City, and one of the Representatives in Parliament 1710. As his Example is worthy Imitation, let this short but true Remembrance, excite latest Posterity to follow so good a Pattern. BOB. BENE Esq; died 27 May, 1733, aged 80. To the memory of THO. BENE, who died 23 Oct. 1680. Rebecca his Wife Aug. 30, 1700, 84. Nihil sic revocat a peccato, quam frequens mortis Meditatio. Remember thine End, and thou shalt never do amiss. Lord teach us to number our Days, that we may apply our Hearts John Tompson Gent: 27 Febr. 1732, 89. Hester his wife, 8 March, 17 0, 65. Henry Tompson July 1677. John Nall the Elder, 28 Aug. 1699. Juxta Cineres Parentum depositæ sunt Reliquiæ Matthei Nall Armigeri, qui jute municipali ex Ephebis Exercitatus, rerum Prudentiam morum Integritati conjunxit, unde Civium Suffragijs in Senatorum ordinem cooptatus, Tribunitia potestate & Prætoris Officio Functus, Vitam deinde egit modestam, placidam, quietam, morte' ec absimih supremum diem clausit, natus Ao. 1655, denatus John Toll, Jan. 18, 1671, the Year that he was Sheriff of this City. John Molcar, March 7, 1678. On a mural monument in the churchyard, on the north side, John Hale Senior, 25 Nov. 1706, and 5 young Children. Also the Body of the ingenious Hen. Hale, master of the Mathematicks, Son of the said John Hale, 15 Nov. 1723, 28. The Phenix of his Time, Lies here but sordid Clay, His thoughts were most sublime, His Soul is sprung away. Then lett this Grave keep in Protection, His Ashes, untill the Resurrection. There is a hatchment in the church for Thomas Newton, Esq. Newton, sab. two shin-bones in saltier arg. impaling Tawell, az. on a chevron between three annulets arg. five cinquefoils gul. And the same arms are on a mural monument against the south chancel wall; Newton's crest is, on a torce sab. and arg. a blackmoor clad in blue, kneeling; in his right hand a scymitar drawn or, his left hand by his side on his scymitar's scabbard, which hangs on a belt or, on his head is a crown or. Sacred to the memory of THOMAS NEWTON Esq; and REBECCA his affectionate wife, who lived many Years the principal Inhabitants of this Parish, and whose Remains are deposited in a Vault between the Rails of the Communion Table and the Wall, to which this Monument is affixed. He was a Man well and deservedly beloved, and as a mark of it, successively elected Sheriff and Alderman, and in the year 1722, Mayor of this City; which Offices he discharged with Integrity and peculiar Generosity; Nor is she less to be remembred in her Station, being endowed with all social Vertues, and a Pattern of conjugal and parental Affections: She died the eighth Day of February, and he did not long survive the Loss, exchanging this Life for a better, the eleventh Day of July 1738. Not out of Ostentation, nor to flatter the Deceased, is this Marble erected, and this Inscription recorded, but this short commemorative Recitall, to testifye the Duty and Gratitude of the Living, to their indulgent Parents. There is a stone in the south isle, under which Sam. Ridgewell Gent. was interred in 1742, aged 23. and another by the font for John Lyng, 1740, 67. on which is this, Although I am mouldering here to Dust, In Christ is all my Hope and Trust, My Change was sudden, without Surprise, By my Example, learn to be wise. There is a headstone in the churchyard for, John Brooks, who departed this Life all in a watery grave, Sept. 1, 1742, 21. and Isaac Wolfery with him, they being both drowned in Fuller's hole. (fn. 2) The Young, the Strong, the Rich, the Wise, To Death, must all become a Sacrifice. Persons buried in this church, for whom there are no memorials remaining, are, Joan Clerk, widow, who was buried by John Clerk, her husband, in 1466. John Reynolds in 1503, who gave 40s. towards new leading the church, and two silver candlesticks for the altar. Tho. Richeman, worsted weaver, he gave 40s. a pair of silver chalices, and a vestment of 4 marks value, and had this on a brass, formerly to be seen here, Orate pro anima Thome Richman, nuper Cibis Norbici, Dursted Weeber, et Alice Consartis sue, qui quidem Thomas obiit bi. Ja nuarii, Ao Dni: 1505. In 1513, John Buxton, worsted weaver, (fn. 3) was buried in the churchyard "before the image of our Lady in the Oke, and gave to our Lady in the Oke 6d. This was a famous image of the Virgin Mary, placed in the oak, which grew in the churchyard, so as it was seen by all that passed in the street; from whence the church took the name of St. Martin at the Oak, it being always before, called St. Martin in Coste-lane, or Coselany, (fn. 4) the whole part of the city from Blackfriars-bridge, or New bridge, to St. Martin at the Oak-gates, being so called, because it lies on the coste of the river: now it seems this oak and image began to be of remark about the time of Edward II. for then I find it first called ate the Oke. What particular virtue, this good lady had, I do not know, but certain it is, she was much visited by the populace, who left many gifts in their wills, to dress, paint, and repair her; at the coming of Edw. VI. to the crown, she was dismounted, and I am apt to believe the poor oak, also cut down, least that should be visited for her ladyship's sake, for the present oak, which now grows in the place, hath not been planted a hundred years, as appears by the parish register in these words, "I John Tabor, constable and overseer, did bring the Oak from Rannerhall near Horning ferry, before me on my horse, and set it in the churchyard of St. Martin of Coselany, I set it March 9. 1656." Then also the rich vestments and plate, were sold, and the money laid out to fye the river. (fn. 5) 1534, Will. Alleyn, worsted weaver, gave a pall This rectory was appropriated to the infirmary of Norwich priory, and paid 3d. synodals, was exempt from the archdeacon of Norwich, being valued at 12s. and taxed at half a mark. The tithes of Basset's close, and a third part of the tithes of that part of Gilden-croft, lying within the bounds of this parish, were due to the rector here and the mortuary was the best beast; it seems to have been appropriated by Bishop Blundeville, with the consent of Ric. de Redham, the last rector, who had a grant of it for life, paying 10s. per annum to the infirmary, which was confirmed by the Bishop and the Pope. And from that time, it hath been a perpetual curacy or donative, and is now in the donation of the dean and chapter of Norwich. It was returned formerly into the Exchequer, to be "an appropriation of the dean and chapter, the curate's stipend being 20 marks;" but now the curate hath only the income of the estate purchased with the augmentation money, and the surplice fees and voluntary contributions, amounting in the whole to about 40l. per annum. In 1460, Sir John Feltwell was parish chaplain. 1492, Sir Thomas Cawne, alias Plowman, D. D. was buried in the chancel, and had a stone laid over him with the sacramental cup and wafer upon it, with the name of Jesus inscribed thereon, and under it this, Orate pro anima Thome Plawman Capellani ruius anime propicietur John Prentis, chaplain here, was also buried with this, Orate pro anima Johannis Prentis Capellani i will Prentis. 1638, Robt. Kent, S. T. B. (fn. 6) who had been minister here 45 years, died 3 June, and was succeeded by Henry Spendlove, (a relation of Prebend Spendlove,) (fn. 7) he was ejected, and after two or three intruders, at the Restoration, Mr. Pew was appointed curate, and after him Mr. Studd, who was succeeded by Mr. Peter Burgess, and he by Dr. Will. Herring, at whose resignation it was given to The Rev. Mr. Ephraim Megoe, (fn. 8) the present curate, who holds it with St. John Sepulchre in Berstreet. (See p. 138.) There were images with lights, either lamps or wax tapers, burning before them, of St. Martin, St. Thomas, our Lady of Pity, St. John Baptist, St. Christopher, St. Anthony, and a chapel, altar, image, and light of St. Mary at the east end of the south isle. The religious concerned here were, the Prior of Norwich, who had a messuage held by Sir John Norwich, Knt. (fn. 9) and after by Sir John Fastolf, and was called Stone-Hall. The Prioress of Carrow, the Master of St. Giles's hospital; the Prior of Walsingham had two messuages and gardens granted to John Peckover, and Will. Wood. The Prioress of Symplyngham's temporals were taxed at 10s. In 1637, a dwelling-house under the walls, was granted to Marg. Gibson, widow, searcher of the infected poor, to hold during the pleasure of the court, and not otherwise, because it is intended, that that house shall continue for the only dwelling of such a searcher, when need shall be. 1343, Sir Barth. de Heylesden gave 6d. a year out of his messuage here, to the city to maintain Coslany-bridge, which had many other rents appropriated for that purpose. Directly opposite to the lane on the north side of St. Martin's churchyard, called anciently Whores-lane, was the Mill-lane, which led directly to Calk-mill; which mill, with the fishery thereto belonging, from the Conquest, belonged to the manor of Horseford; one of the ancient lords of which, granted a yearly rent out of it to the Prioress of Carrow, before 1287, for that year, the Prioress received 40s. for arrears of rent due from it. In Edward the Third's time, Sir Robert de Benhale, Knt. held the 3d part of the mills and manor of Horsford, in right of the lady Eve, daughter of Eve de Clavering, his then wife. (fn. 10) In 1394, the tithes of this mill were paid to the keeper of the Infirmary, in right of the appropriated rectory of St. Martin. In 1518, Lord D'acres, lord of Horsford, owned it, and was then seized of the fishery belonging to the mill, which was then set out by them and the corporation, and it extended from the mill to the bank of the close late of Rob. Thorp; before that of Gregory Clerk, after of Edm. Clerk, and late of Hamond Linsted; and in 1539, the lord of Horsford granted that fishery to be held of his manor of Horsford, to Alderman Nic. Sywatt (who then owned the closes) and his heirs, for ever; and in 1637, the jury for Horsford manor returned, "that they had credibly heard Calk-mill to be seated at or next the house called the Crown, in St. Martin in (135) St. Mary in Coslany Was a rectory appropriated to the prior and convent of Cokesford in Norfolk, who received all the profits, and found a secular canon belonging to their house to serve the cure. He resided generally in the parsonage-house, which stood against the north-east part of the churchyard, and after the appropriation became the city house of the priors and canons of that monastery, to resort to, when either business or pleasure called them hither; the garden which belonged to it was very large, (fn. 11) and abutted on Whores-lane north; it was valued at 5 marks and an half, taxed at 20s. first paid 3d. and afterwards 6d. synodals. At the Dissolution, the advowson of the rectory, and all the great garden and house, were granted to Thomas Duke of Norfolk and his heirs, from which time it hath been a donative, and it is now in the donation of the Lord Townesend. It hath no certain endowment, other than the 200l. of Queen Anne's bounty, which, with the voluntary contributions, surplice fees, &c. do not exceed 20l. a year in 1366, John Howes, chaplain. Sir Jeffry Baniard, who was buried before the font in 1416. Robert Mayo, on whose brass is this, Orate pro anima Domini Roberti Maya, quondam huius Ecclesie Capellani Parachialis, qui obiit rrii die Aug. Ao Christi. 1503. By will dated 1502, he ordered to be buried in the chancel, and gave 4 large wax tapers to burn about his herse, and then to be given to the alderman and brethren of Corpus Christi gild; and each brother present at his dirige, to have 4d. and gave a vestment of blue silk, another of white damask, with a cross of rich red or blue tissue. 1518, Henry Mowndford, was buried in the chancel, and gave a gilt silver chalice, two silver paxbredes, his best corporas with a red velvet case bordered with ihesvs in gold letters, and a printed mass-book and little processionary; and 9 marks a year for two years, and founded a certain for seven years, "I will that my Place lying in the Church-yard of the said Parishe of St. Marie, (fn. 12) the Churche Wardens for the Tyme beyng for ever, shall receyve the yerely Profites & Fermes of the said Place, upon this Condicion folowyng, that is to say, that yerely for evyr, the Churche Wardens shall kepe, or do to be kepte, in the said Churche of St. Marie, myn Obyte Day, and that they shall with the Profightes cummyng of the same Place yearly, pay to the Curate of the saide Churche for his Labor, seyinge Dirige & Masse for my Sowle, the Sowles of my Father and Mother, and all Cristen Sewles, 5d." (fn. 13) a candie of wax weighing 4 ounces, to be set yearly upon his herse on his obit day, and to 5 poor men to sit that day about his herse, 1d. each, and to the parish clerk and sexton, to ring a peal on his obit or yereday, 8d, and if this be not duly performed, the prior of the monastery of our Lady at Coxford was to have the premises, and perform it; "provided alway, that the seyd Church-Wardeyns for the Tyme beying, and x or xii honest Men of the said Parishe of St. Mary, shall stond enfeffid in the said Mese to the eutent before rehersyd, and at every xxti Yere end, a new Astate, to be taken in maner and Forme aforeseid." "Item, I will have a Stone of Marble with j Epitaphy in Verses, which I have wretyn in a Bil, to the Price of 46s. 8d. or more, to lye upon my Grave;" and it is still there with the verses on a Henrici Tumulum Mounteforth, Precor, aspice tutum, Ouisquis eris, qui transieris, sta, perlege, Plora, Sum, quod eris, fueram, quod es, pro me, pcecor, Ora, Et Deus Dmnipotens, qui verbo cuncta creasti, Sis memor, Oro, tui Famuli fragilis sine fine. Oui dictus Nericus fuit in Cecretis Doctor, et istius Ecclesiæ Curatus, obiitque ultimo die Mensis Septembris Ao Dni: Mille 1555, Mr. John Elwyn, late chantry priest in St. Michael of Coslany. 1604, Will. Inman, curate, by donation of the Earl of Berkeley. 1625, Will. Allenson, licensed curate, on the donation of Sir Roger Townsend. 1662, Gabriel Wright. The Rev. Mr. Stephen Norris is the present curate, who is rector of Felthorp, vicar of Felmingham, and curate of St. Miles at Thorn. The church stands in the midst of a large churchyard, and hath a round steeple and six bells, on two of which, are these inscriptions, Dulcis cisto melis, campana vocor Michaelis. In multis annis resonet campana Johannis. The present nave was rebuilt in 1477, and the two transept chapels or isles much about the same time, as also the north vestry and chancel, which are all leaded. In the chancel, on a mural monument. Crest, a bull's head. Hic iacent una Martinus ban kurnbeck, Artium et Medicine, Doctor, et Joanna Uror sua, de Parochia et Cibitate hac nuper defuncti, qui Martinus obiit rro Februarii 1578, et Johanna ter tio Septembris 1579. In quorum Memoriam Fidelis sibi Men Regine Eraminator, crecutor Testamenti dicte Johanne, opus culum hoc fieri fecit. Quorum animabus propicietur deus Amen. On a mural monument on the south side of the chancel, are the effigies of a man with two sons behind him, and a woman with one daughter behind her, with a faldstool between them, and a book before each of them, and the arms and crest of Herne, or, three bars gemels gul. on a canton arg. five lozenges in saltier gul. Crest, a talbot passant sab. lingued gul. collared and chained or. Norwich, and the fishmongers. Sic fuit exorsû primo, Natura Pusilla, Sic fuit auspicijs serpens, sic parvulus Hyrnus, Mox fuit erectus, ut pinea Tæda corruscans, Altus, Honoratus, Firmus, sic Pinus in Hortis; Nunc jacet immotus, quem vestit terra quiescens, Sed vestit Cœlum melius Christus que, Precator. Here lyeth buried the Body of Clement Hyrne, late Citisen and Alderman of this Citty of NORWICH, who had bene once Maior of this Citty, he dyed 23 Sept. 1596. He had issue by Margaret his first Wife, 2 Sonnes, Thomas and Xpofer; and one Dr. named Susan. He was a good benefactor to the Poore of this Parish. The said Margaret died the 13 of June, 1584. He gave a tenement which stands directly opposite to the Millpassage-gate in Coslany-street, (now in the possession of Mr. John de la Hay,) to be let to farm by the church-wardens, 30s. of which is divided among the poor every Christmas and Easter, the one half of the residue is to repair the church, and the other half the houses. Part of this house to the value of 40s. per annum, was given by Jane Here leyethe Johnhn herne I Cecilie his Wyfe, the whiche John depertid the xix Daye of September in the Yer of our Lord God xvC and xlviijo. on whose Soules Jesu have Mercy. Orate pro anima Isabelle Western quondam Uroris Johannis Western, cuius tr. Tho. Westwood 1699, 60. Abraham his Son 1699, 31. Alderman Henry Brady 1688, 55. Mary his Wife 1714, 78, he left one Daughter married to Rob. Schuldham, M. D. of Kettleston in Norf. in a Vault lie Mary Wife of Thomas Postle, Grandaughter of the said Henry & Mary Brady, & Daughter of the said Doctor Rob. Schuldham. 1730, 49. Mr. Thomas Postle 1739, 59. Francis Pyke 1681. In the rails are buried Mat. Coates, he died 1703, 33, & 2 children. Mary Wife of Joseph Parker 1685, 60. There is a handsome gilt cup and cover, on which, Saynct Marye of Coselanye Ao 1569. A neat patin Ao 1736. On a fine large chalice, Deo optimo Maximo, humillimè dicatur, in usum Stæ Eucharistæ in Ecclesiâ Sanctæ Mariæ in Norvico Ao Dni. 1444, Alice late Wife of John Alderford, was buried by her husband's tomb in the church. 1464, Gregory Draper Alderman, was buried in the south transept, which was then not quite finished, towards perfecting of which, he gave 26s. 8d. His stone hath this on a brass, and their effigies, and 7 sons and 5 daughters. He gave a house in this parish, to John Norman, Esq. Ecce sub hoc Lapide Gregorius crtat humatus, Quondam Merrator pius, ar tnupum Kelebator, Consensu Turbe, Maior bis, in hac fuit urbe, Annis Mo Co quarter, decies ser, bis quoque binis, Serto kalendarum fuit Aprilis sibi finis; vic quisquis steteris ipsum precibus memor eris, Sponsam definctam simul Aliciam sibi Functam. 1464, Rob. Wood, buried before the Virgin of Pity, and was a benefactor to the south cross isle, which was called the Chapel of the Virgin Mary. 1466, Alice Nyche, gave a legacy to lead the vestry, which was then new built; and was buried in the church by Walter Nyche her late husband. 1465, Henry Toke was buried in the north cross isle, on his brass is this, Orate pro anima Denici Johe, Libis Norwici, Cooke, cuius anima propicieur Deus. He founded a candle to burn before the Holy Sepulchre, from Good Friday to the Resurrection, as the use and custom is, of 5l. weight; a candle before 'the Pyte,' another before the principal image of our Lady, and another before St. Thomas the Secundary, of the said church, to burn yearly at service time, as custom is; he gave x. marks towards finishing St. Thomas chapel, or the north cross-isle. 1466, John Hall buried in the porch, 1467, Will. Reyner buried by his father's tomb. 1479, Margaret, Wid. of Ric, Courdon. 1482, John Howard, buried in the churchyard, and gave a legacy to make a door into the chancel. 1493, Eliz. widow of John Knowte, buried in the church by her husband, and gave 5l. to make a silver foot to the cross that her husband gave; she was buried by St. Anne's altar, a priest to sing at that altar 4 years, the first year for her own soul, the 2d for John Ellis her son, the third for the soul of Tho. Elys, her husband, and the 4th for John Knowte, her husband. 1497, Edw. Howse, gave a damask vestment. There is a loose brass which came off a stone in the nave, on which is this, Die iacet corpus Agnetis Franceys Vidue, quondam Filie Johannis Dentom cruis anima propcietur Deus. By will dated 1501, she desired to be buried by her mother Margaret Denton, and ordered John Franceys her husband to buy a jewel of 20 marks value, for the church. 1505, Geffrey Whitlake, Barker, ordered a glass window of 40s. value, to be made by Mary Mawdelyn, on the south side of the church. 1511, John Norman, alderman. Tho. Chaunte was buried by the font, whose brass, though much worn, hath this, Orate pro animabus Thome Chaunte Aldermanni istius Cibitatis, ac Johanne Uroris sue prime, qui quidem Thomas obiit iiiio die Octob. Ao Dni. Mo hC ri. quorum animabus propicietur deus. 1522, Will. Philip, Baker, gave 5 marks to repair the church, and a ship of silver. 1524, John Moone gave x. marks for a vestment. 1531, John Halston 5l. There were in this church, the principal image of the Virgin Mary, in its usual place, viz. north of the altar, at the east end, and in the north wall was the sepulchre of our Lord, as usual in most churches, the image of St. Thomas the Secundary, or second patron of the church, was in his chapel, as also the image of St. John Baptist; in our Lady's chapel, on the south side was the image and altar of St. Mary, and the images of Mary Magdalen, St. Anne, and the Virgin of Pite; these had all lights before them, as well as the image and altar of the Holy Trinity, which stood at the west end of the nave on the north side; over which is the following inscription cut in stone: That is, Ie Thomas de Lingcole a done a cel Auter Sirge e un Laumpe e la Rente de Colegate. I Thomas de Lincoln, have given to this Altar, a Wax Taper and a Lamp, out of the Rent of Colegate. I find this Tho. de Lincolnia or Lincoln, was a wealthy tanner that lived in this parish, and was owner of a house in St. George of Colegate in the year 1292. In 1275, he was one of the bailiffs of the city, and again in 1281; he died about 1298, and is buried before On a brass against the east side of the north chapel, Mrs. ANNE CLAXTON here inter'd doth lye, Whose Vertuous Lyfe, a livinge Prayes did merrit, Hir Faith, Religion, Grace, & Charritye, Hath crownde hir Sowle, with what the Sayntes inherit, Full fower-score Years, She lived exempte from Blame, Preserving safe her Reputation's Name, From Worshippe's Race She did at first descend, And Claxton's Name did well that Worthe adorne, By whom whilst Heaven unto her, Lyfe did lend, Nine Sonnes, five Daughters, to this Worlde were borne, The first of August, one thousande, six hundred, & five, She dyed, let still hir Virtues Prayes survive. Claxton, gul. a bend between three porcupines arg. on a demishield by way of canton, another coat born also by the name of Claxton, barruly arg. and az. on a canton gul. three martlets or, Clarke of Somersetshire, or, two bars az. in chief three escalops Other persons buried here are, Philp Dyball 1712, 57. Sarah his wife 1741, 77. Sam. Watson, 1695, 46. James son of Peter Verbeeke merchant 1633, and Peter Verbeeke merchant 1629, 44. Alice Kinge a virgin, Dr. of John and Kath. Kinge 1570. Tho. Dowe Frances his wife 1521, on whose souls Jesus have mercy. A hatchment hath, 1st Claxton's arms. 2d ar. a fess quarterly az. and gul. between three mascles gul. 3d az three piles wavy ar. 4th, gul. a bend vair impaling Clark as before. In a glass window. er. a saltier ingrailed betwen four croslets gul. On the roof, Rookwood, with a mullet for difference. Er. on a chevron sab. two lions combatant or and sab. a chevron between three lions rampant ar. On the pulpit, Herne impales Davy. On the font are the arms of England, France, Scotland. Ireland, St. George, Norwich city, and gul. a cross floré parted per cross arg. and sab.; and anciently an anchoress called St. Anne's anchoress resided in this Thomas Malby, alderman, died in 1558, (see Pt. I. p. 272, 8.) "Item, I will that the Mayor of the said Cittye for the Tyme beyng, withe the too Shreves, and certeyne of the Aldermen, shall ones in the Year, cawse an Obyte to be Songe in St. Maryes Church in Coslany, where my Body lyethe buried, to pray for my Soul and all my Frends, and that the Chamberlains of the City for the Time being, shall bestowe 20s. every yere at the Day appointed, by the Advice of the Mayor, Shereves, and the more part of the Aldermen, and this to be continued for ever, for the Welthe of my Soul to God's most high Pleasure." 3s. used to be distributed to St. Martin's at Oak, 2s. to St. Michael Coslany, and 5s. to the poor of Cecily Wingfield, widow, about 1586, gave her arable close of ten acres by Norwich walls adjoining to the city, extending from St. Martin's to St. Austin's-gates, "To the Use and Behoof, Relief and Comfort of the poor People, from Time to Time, being in the said Parish of St. Mary, for ever." It is copyhold of Tolthorp cum Felthorp manor, which belongs to the see. In 1725, Mr. Mathew Bretingham, paid the sum of 30l. (fn. 14) to the parish, for which the feoffees surrendered the premises to him and his heirs, chargeable for ever, with a clear annual rentcharge of 6l. 10s. to the parish, to be applied to the use of her will; and now he hath built a new house upon it, with convenient gardens, &c. Part of the new-mills are in this parish, and were sometimes called Gregory's mills, for which see p. 256, and Pt. I. p. 432. The religious concerned here were, the Prior of Weybrigge, the Prior of Norwich, who had divers houses and rents given to the almoner, by Ric. de Horsted, Joceline de Norwich, chaplain Ralf de Heynford, and others. (136) The Church of St. Michael in Coslany, Commonly called St. Miles in Coslany, stands more south in the same street, and is a rectory valued at 13l. 6s. 8d. in the King's Books, and being sworn of the clear yearly value of 11l. 12s. 2d. it is discharged of first fruits and tenths. Dr. Prideaux valued it at 14l. endowment, and 20l. voluntary contribution, in his time: there is a parsonage-house, and garden, not far from the north side of the churchyard, the houses which stand between them, belong to Caius college, (fn. 15) and the house, voluntary contributions, augmentation, (fn. 16) &c. is said to amount to about 70l. per annum. 1300, Edward Oram of Acle (or Ocle-market in Norfolk.) 1304, Will. Sare of Horseford. Will. Over-Dam of Acle, in right of Gundelf's half acre in Acre-field. 1332, Henry son of Jeffry atte Churche. John son of Bartholomew de Acle. 1339, Edward III. licensed the rector to receive land for a garden to his house. 1352, Henry Limpenhowe. Tho. Hobbe of Acle. He exchanged for Holkham in 1353, with John de Merston, who was buried in the chancel in 1387. 1387, Tho. de Wrotham, presented by John Frythe, vicar of St. Stephen's, trustee to John and Walter Daniel, who exchanged it for 1387, with James Whitwell, who was presented by the same patron. 1393, John Reed. Ditto: he died rector. Daniel's right was set aside, and John Ocle recovered. 1395, William atte Fen, he died rector. John Ocle, citizen of 1414, John Faukes was presented by John and Walter Daniel, citizens of Norwich, who purchased of John Ocle, half an acre of ground called Gundell's half acre in Ocle-field, to which this patronage is appendant, and John Frythe, vicar, was named in the deed. 1418, John Daniel, by will desired, this church might be appropriated, to find a chantry priest in St. Stephen's for their three souls, but the vicar could not bring it to bear. John Prince, priest, for whom the following epitaph, which was on a brass in this chancel, is preserved by Mr. Weever, fo. 803. Orate pro animabus Thome Chaunte Aldermanni istius Cibitatis, ac Johanne Uroris sue prime, qui quidem Thomas obiit iiiio die Octob. Ao Dni. Mo hC ri. quorum animabus propicietur deus. 1522, Will. Anno Milleno C quater, totque ad et X quoque bino: Altari summo Tabulam prebet er alabastro, De precio Magno, cupiens Laus hinc fore Christo, Orridui Parte Fenestram fecit honeste, Ordinis Angelici, nec non ter Nomine Trini. 1421, John Barsham, rector, was buried in the chancel. 1421, John Riche, he was buried by him in 1426. Walter 1426, Tho. Lynes, buried in the chancel, in 1463. Sir John Erpingham, and Sir Will. Phelip, Knts. John Schotesham, &c. 1464, Tho. Drantale or Drantall, A. M. who was buried in the chancel in 1501. He was presented by Sir Thomas Boleyn, or Bollen, divine, master or warden of Gonvile-hall in Cambridge. Geffry Chaumpeneys, vicar of St. Stephen's, Thomas Boleyn, junr. John Burgeyn and George Munford, and this Sir Thomas it was, that after much trouble, got the advowson settled on the college, for in 1501, 12 Jan. John Barly or Barlie, S. T. P. though he was then master of Gonvile hall, was presented by the master and scholars of Gunwile hall in Cambridge, and died rector in 1503, and was succeeded in 1504, by Edmund Stubbs, D. D. who succeeded him in his mastership, as well as living, and was presented as before. 1513, William Bokenham, S. T. P. succeeded to the rectory and mastership, and was a great benefactor to the college and living, for he rebuilt the parsonage-house, adorned the church, &c. He was vice-chancellor in 1509, and died here in the 81st year of his age, Ao 1540, having resigned his mastership to John Skypp, D. D. in 1536. Nic. Bokenham, his brother, was a great benefactor to the 1540, Roger Overey. He was deprived. 1556, Edmund Harrocke, by lapse. 1561, John Elwyn, the last chantry priest here, was presented, by John Caius, the master, and fellows of Gonvile and Caius college in Cambridge, who presented all the following rectors, the patronage being in that college at this day. Elwyn was buried here. 1569, Humfry Beshby or Busby, res. 1570, Will. Botwine, ob. 1572, John Staller. 1580, Tho. Plombe, senr. 1591, Tho. Plombe, ob. 1600, Richard Stockdale. 1601, Will. Batho, S. T. P. ob. 1625, Rob. King. 1676, Will. Cecill. 1715, Rob. Cory, A. B. 1724, Will. Selth, A. M. United to Melton-Magna, ob. 1740. 1741, The Rev. Mr. Charles Tucke, A. M. the present rector, who holds it united to the consolidated parishes of Melton-Magna, St. Mary's, and All-Saints in Norfolk. The tower is tall, and square, having a clock, chimes, and musical peal of eight bells, on which, 3d. Per Thome Meritis mereamur gandia Lucis 5th. Uirginis egregie, Uocor Campana Marie, 6th. Munere Baptiste Benedictus sit Chorus iste. The south porch and isle are leaded, and were built by Gregory Clerk, citizen and alderman of Norwich, who lies interred in it with Orate pro animabus Gregorii Clerk, quondam Cibis t Aldermanni Norwici, qui obiit rrviio die Oct. Ao. Dni. Moccccolrriro et pro anima Agnetis quondam Uroris eiusdem Gregorii, postea Uroris Roberti Thorp Cibis et Aldermanni Norwici que quidem Agnes obiit rvo die Oct. Ao Dni. Mocccccoiiio. On a stone in this isle with two effigies, is this imperfect inscription, over Gregory Clerk, junior citizen and alderman of this Cyte, off qwose Soule Thu. have Mercy, the qwyche seyd Gregory depertyd from thys World the rrvi day off the monythe off January, in the Yere off owr Lord God, a thowsand ffyyffe (1516) He was Mayor 1514, and perfected this isle, which was begun by his father. Orate pro anima Johanne Clerk, nuper Uroris Gregorii Clerk Junioris, Civis et Aldermanni Norwici, que quidem Johanna obiit xxio die Sept. Ao. ri. Mo. vC xiijo. cuius anime propicietur deus On a stone covered with a seat, are the arms of Ferrour, arg. on a bend gul. cotized sab. three bezants impaling Garnish. Orate pro anima Margarete Ferrore nuper Uroris Rici. Ferrore Civis et Aldermanni Norwici que obiit xixo die Maii Ao. Dni Mo ccccoiio, cuius anime propicietur deus Amen. At the east end of this isle, is a chapel of beautiful workmanship, made with freestone and black flints; this is the chantry chapel of the Virgin Mary, which was built and endowed with lands and houses, in Norwich, Barnham-Broom, Hunningham, Sprowston, Heigham, and Wood-Dallyng, by Robert Thorp, (fn. 17) the founder, in the time of Hen. VII. He lies buried here, under a stone which hath his own effigies, and those of his three wives, and three boys and two girls, but the inscription is lost, though the most part of it is preserved by Mr. Weever, fo. 803. It had the arms of Thorp, az. three crescents arg. on the first shield, and the same arms impaled with those of his three wives, his second wife's arms remain, viz. a fess nebulé between three wolves head's erased. Pray for the Sowl of Robart Thorp Gentilman, Citezen and Alderman of Norwich, Founder of this Chappyll and Ile, with a Chantrie Prest; be to sing perpetually for the Soul of Robart Thorp, the Sowls of Elyzabeth, Emme, and Agnes Sowls, his Wyfls; the sowl of John Thorp, his kindryd sowls, and al Cristen sowls: the which Robart th yer M. ccccc. The several chantry priests that served here, are buried in this chapel, the first of which was Sir Richard Walloure, or Waller, by his will dated 1505, (fn. 18) he ordered these lines to be fixed to a marble, and laid over him, as they now remain: Ossa Magistri cuncta Ricardi Walleour ista Urna tenet primi terrea Presbiteri, Er Cantaria, Ueniam sibi posre Maria. Nunc anime cuius propiciare Deus. MD. que quinquies J. Anno Christique sepulti. Good Frends, prey for Thomas Warnys Master of Arte, here the seronde Chauntry Prist, departed this Worlde on St. Mihil Evyn 1508. (Weever, fo. 803.) Ao. 1524, Robert Long, citizen of Norwich, and Agnes his wife, gave to Gonvile-hall in Cambridge, the perpetual donation to this chantry, on condition, they constantly nominated an honest priest, or fellow of their college, to reside constantly in the house belonging to Thorp's chantry priest in Norwich, (fn. 19) and daily to serve the said Orate pro anima Johannis Mebber, Arcium Magistri et can- tarie huius Ecclesie quondam Cappellani qui obiit Ao. Dni. Mo. vC. xxviio cuius anime propicietur deus. Sir John Elwyn, who afterwards became rector here, was the last chantry priest, and had a pension for life of 6l. 13s. 4d. out of the revenues of his chantry, all which were granted by Edw. VI. Ao 1547, to Sir Edward Warner, Knt. (fn. 20) and Ric. Catline, Gent. and their heirs, who in 1549, sold the whole to John Welsh. It was valued to the tax at 8l. 2s. 6d. per annum. Weever, fo. 803, hath this which, is now lost. As I am, so sall yee be, Prey for Margery Hore of Cherite. In 1540, Tho. Atkin, vicar of Mutford, and Margery Hore of the same town, gave 48l. apiece, to Gonvile-hall, to buy lands of the value of 4l. per annum, the same Thomas gave also Pain's close in Worlingham in Suffolk, of 40s. per annum for stipends for three scholars of the diocese of Norwich, 35s. per annum, who are to be chosen by the master and two senior fellows. "Now hear a Word or two (saith Weever) of the Name Hore. I find saith Verstegan this antiently written Hure, and I find Hure to be also written for the word Hire; and because that such incontinent Women do often lett their Bodies to Hire, this Name was therefore aptly applied unto them. It is in the Netherlands written Hoer, but pronounced Hoor, as wee yet pronounce it, tho' in our later English Ortography (I know not with what Reason) some write it Whore. I find many of this Sirname of good Note, and speciall Regard, in many Places in this Kingdom." The nave is covered with lead, and is said to have been rebuilt by John Stalon, who was sheriff in 1511, and Stephen Stalon, who served that office in 1512, and lies buried at the west end, with this, Orate pro anima Stephani Stalon, quondam Uiceromitis Civi- tatis Norwici, gue obiit iiiio die Februarii Ao Dni: 1527, cuius anime propicietur deus Amen. Alderman Henry Scolhouse, is also said to have been a benefactor, who lies buried in the nave with this, Orate pro animabus Kenrici Scolows, quondam Aldermanni Cibi tatis Norwici, et Alice consortis sue, quidem Henricus obiit xxv die Der. Ao. dni. Mo. hC xvo. This on a loose brass, (fn. 21) Of your charyte pray for the soules of Mr. Rafe Dylkyns, sum tyme Maner of this Cyte, which dyed in the yere of our Lorde 1535, And also of Mr. Brayan Tailor sumtyme one of the Auditors of the King's Erchequer, which also dyed in the Yere of Lorde 1555. and Anne sumtyme Wyfe to them both. Of ther Fathers and Mothers Souls, and all Christen Souls, God have mercy, Amen. Orate pro animabus Johannis Dulman I Katerine Uroris cius quorum animabus propicietur Deus Amen. Hic iaret Willus: Erasham Ao Dni. Mill: ccccxlij.o Orate pro animabus Johis: Swaloi Domine Clizabethe Mor- ley t Alicie Ur. Orate pro anima Margarete Bacton, cuius anime propicietur Hic iacet Willus: Jselham nuper Civis et Mercator Norwici, cuius anime propicietur Deus. Round the brass eagle, which weighs above 200 weight, is this, Orate pro animabus Willmi: Wesrbrok, Rose et Johanne Urorum eius Ao Dni. Mocccclxxxxiij. Orate pro anima Edmundi Laws, cuius anime propicietur deus Amen. (By the Font.) 1497, John Bishop, Esq. buried in the church, gave 10l. towards rebuilding it. In 1373, Will. Plommer, and in 1469, Walter Blake, mercer, were buried here. The north isle and chantry chapel of St. John the Baptist, were built by Will. Ramsey, who lies buried in his chapel under a large altar tomb robbed of all its brasses, except his merchant's mark, and the initial letters of his name on each side it, and on the window are two rams and an A, as a rebus for Ramsa or Ramsey; he was sheriff in 1498, and mayor in 1502 and 1508, in which year the chapel was finished; in 1504, Will. Herte, chaplain here, desired to be buried on the north side of the church, within the precinct of the new ele, there to be edified, and ordered a gravestone to be laid over him, which is now disrobed of its brasses. In 1505, Agnes Parker was buried in this chapel, by John Ebbes, her late husband, and settled a rent charge out of her tenement to find a lamp before the rood. In 1513, Sir John Cleyton was chantry priest and curate here. (fn. 22) Orate pro anima Roberti Harridans Arcium Magistri in Medicinis Bachalarii, Merceri et Cibis Norwici, qui obiit Anno Domini 1513, et die Mensis Februarii iio This Robert Harridans, who is said to be master of arts, bachelor of physick, mercer and citizen of Norwich, was a physician of note in those days, and was not a mercer by trade, but only free of the mercers company in London. Orate pro animabus Helene et Elizabethe Godfrey Filiarum Willi: Godfrey Uicecomitis Civitatis Norwici, quarum animabus propicietur deus. Ao. Dni: xvC. xxxo. (In the north isle.) Sponsa facet talis, Welyam Roo que fuit alis, Sed sibi non ite, rogo, dices, Christe venite. (In the nave.) (In the nave.) Hier licht begran. ven Franchoys Vander Bekefs Huberts Van Ypre wyt Vlandren Staf Den xviii Dach May Anno Mccccclxxvij. A griffin holds a shield, on which, a chevron between two stars in chief, and a crescent in base. The chancel, as well as the north isle, and chapel and vestry at the east end of it, are all covered with lead. The carpet at the altar formerly belonged to the altar of the north chapel, and had a crucifix, and Mary and John on it, though now picked out, and there are several angels with labels, on which, Da Gloriam Deo. Credo quod Redemptor meus vivit. Mortui venite ad Judicium. Anne the 2d Dr. of Henry and Mary Plombe, Anno 1596, 16. Tho. Fen 1596, 59. Mr. Henry Fawcett (fn. 23) that great benefactor to the city, and this parish, (see Pt. I. p. 368, 9,) died 1619, and was buried in the north chapel; his tomb is now broken through to make a passage into the vestry; his arms on a bend three dolphins with a crescent gul. for difference, still remain. There is an inscription on a board standing in the vestry, which formerly hung by Fawcet's tomb, round which is a vine springing from the bottom, with leaves and bunches of grapes, between which are 24 labels, with inscriptions on them: A deserved Memorial upon the worshipfull and worthy Benefactor to this City and Country, Mr. Henry Fawcet, who departed this Life, the 21 of Jan. 1619. Stay Reader here, and e're a Foot thou pass, See what thou art, and what once Fawcit was, Whose Body resteth in the Earthly Bed, But heavenly Soule, to Heaven it's home, is fled: What in his Life he did, Behold! the Root, Body, Branches, and afterward the Fruit, Of him that lived by his Godly care, Of him that died with a heavenly fear, For look, how many Branches here you see, So many Hands imagine, hath this Tree, Not dealing Pence, unto the poor around, But Royally imparting, by the Pound, Oh! England, might in every City be, So brave a Vine, so beautifull a Tree, To check the base, and viler Shrubs below, Who now on Earth, unprofitable grow, But Fawcit, now thou art in lasting Fame, Let Rich admire thee, Poor, will bless thy Name, In Earth thy Body Sleep, thy Soul above, With Angeis rest, in Charity and Love, And Norwich mourn thy loss, not like to See, Hereafter, such another, like to thee. 1. To all his Godchildren 10s. a piece. 2. To a Widow and her Infant 8s. 8d. 3. 10l. for a Stock for 2 Joiners, for three Years, Gratis. 4. 10l. for a Stock of Coals for the Poor of St. Michael in 5. For the mending of a Bridge at Hustangill 20l. 6. 20l. to the French for a Stock for their Poor. 7. 20l. for a Stock for 6 Darnick Weavers, to last for ever. 8. 40l. to set poor Masons to Work in Winter, Stock to last 9. 6l. Annualty for 2 poor Women during their lives. 10. 10l. a Year to maintain a School Master, at Haughlin-hall 11. For the Preachers at the Common Place in Norwich, for 12. 300l. for a stock among 10 Poor Worsted Weavers for ever. 13. 15l. a Year to keep Worsted Weavers in St. Giles's Hospital. 14. 100l. to the Hospital of this City for Orphants. 15. 10l. p. Ann. to Cloath 10 naked Worsted Weavers in Fibridge Ward. 16. Unto 2 Poor Maidens Marriages 60l. 17. 33l. 6s. 8d. for a Stock for ever for the Poor in Fybridge 18. 20l. to be lent to 4 Shoemakers for 4 Years, the Stock for 19. 20l. for the Dutch for a Stock for their Poor. 20. 23s. 8d. for an Annual Commemoration here. 21. 10l. for a Stock for Blacksmiths, for 3 Years. 22. To the City Poor, presently to be distributed 10l. 23. To the Prisoners in the Castle or Guild-hall 10 Chaldrons 24. To every Lazer House to be distributed presently 10s. a-piece. On a stone covered, a fess between two chevrons, a de-lis for difference, quartering 1st, a frette. 2d, on a bend three mullets pierced. In the east window of the south isle, a bear's head erased sab. muzzled arg. a crescent or, Ao Dni. 1577. In the east window of the north isle, the deanery impales a castle, on a chief sab. a mitre or, between three snakes or, and a cinquefoil for difference. This was the arms and rebus of Dean Castleton; see Pt. I. p 617. At the west end, are the arms of Gonvile and Caius College. There were in this church, before the Dissolution, the altar and light of St. William of Norwich before his image. The lights of St. Catherine, St. Margaret, St. Michael, St. Mary Magdalen, St. Anne, St. Christopher, St. John, St. Thomas, and that in the basin before the sacrament, the rood or perke light, the sepulchre light; and those before the images of the Virgin Mary in Thorp's chantry, and of St. John Baptist in Ramsey's chantry. 1498, July 8, it was decreed by the Bishop, that whereas the feast of the dedication of this church (fn. 24) used to be kept the same day with that of the dedication of the cathedral; it should now be altered to Monday after Relique Sunday. Henry Playford gave 20s. yearly to the rector, to find a lamp continually burning in the chancel before the high-altar; and 31 Henry VIII. Thomas Morley, who owned the tenement that was tied for it, In the beginning of Edw. I. Richard de Brekles, chaplain founded St. Saviour's Hospital in Coselany, And in 1297, Richard de Coselany, fishmonger, conveyed to the founder, a stall in the bread-market, by the stall of the fraternity of St. Mary and St. Augustine. And in 1304, the said King confirmed the foundation, and granted license to hold all the revenues in FrankAlmoign. After which I have met with nothing concerning this The religious concerned here were the Priors of Mendham, whose temporals were taxed at 12d.; of Binham 12d.; of Mungè, Mountjoy, or Haverlond 3s. 4d.; of Ixworth 2s.; of Hickling 5s. 11d.; of Westacre 5s.; the Abbots of Holm 2s. 4d.; of Saveyne 18s. 8d.; the Prioress of Carrowe 10s. 8d.; the Prior of Norwich at 7s. The altar here is lately fitted up handsomely, being laid with the black and white marble which came out of the Earl of Yarmouth's private chapel at Oxnead, and was given by Mr. William Tuck of St. Peter's in Hungate, who purchased it. There are the four Evangelists at length, and a piece of the resurrection, painted by Mr. Heins. In the south chantry, John Buller, Son of John and Sarah Balderstone 1733. Nic. Vipond Gent. Attorney at Law, 13 May, 60. In the chancel, Will. Cockman Esq; Mayor in 1711, died 1733, 82. Sarah his Relict 1735, 75. Anna-Maria Dr. of Charles and Anne Harwood 1723, 3. so soon passeth it away, and we are gone. Maria-Anna another Dr. 1726. Mary their Dr. 1730. Salter their Son 1723. Alice their Dr. 1731. Salter's arms and crest, impaling sab. a fess parted per pale, indented gul. and erm. between three cross-croslets ar. Roger Salter, Gent. 1698, 76. Mary his wife 1706, 76. Crest, an armed arm in pale, holding an arrow. Dover, three arrows, the points meeting as piles in point, on a chief three rocks, impaling Salter Francis Dover 1720, 46. In the north chapel: Hic jacet Maria Uxor Johannis Annyson, quæ obijt 24 die Julij A°. Æt. 29, et Sal. Humanæ 1700. John Annyson her Husband, 1715, 43, and 3 of their children. Sarah his 2d Wife 1738, 56. Daniel son of John Masingbard, Gent. 1701, 25. Mark Masingbard 1704, both born at Thorney Abby in the Isle of Ely. Moulton, arg. three bars gul. eight escalops sab. 3, 2, 2, 1, impaling three doves. Crest, a dove standing on a stone. M. S. Elizabetha Johannis Moulton Uxor, Arnoldi Wallen Filia, utriusq; dilectissima, ad plures abijt 18° Sept. 1703, æt. 22. Browne per bend A. S. three mascles counterchanged, impaling three castles. Crest, a demi-griffin displayed, with a snake twined about its neck. Hic sitæ sunt exuviæ Stephani Browne, cohortis Armigeræ apud Norvicenses, Ducis, qui obijt 14 Maij A. D. 1723. natus annos 37. Juxtaque ejusdem Liberi Quatuor. John Wigget 1720, 76. Abigail his Wife 1719, 66. James their son late of Calthorp, 1734, 53. Tho. Andrews, merchant, 1709, 67. In the north isle, Mary wife of John Rudsdell 1743, 34. John Whetewr 1655. Anne Dr. of Will. and Jane Maltby of Orston in Nottinghamshire 1717, 29. Mary Hallewijck widow 1661. Richard Skeeles, Gent. and Eliz his wife, dr. of Ric. Drury, Esq. of Bluntisham in Huntingdonshire 1723, 20. Ben. Cobb 1720, 79. Christian 1719, 70. In the nave, Robert Mitchell, 20 Years a faithfull Servant to the Salter's of this parish, 1723, 34. John Son of John and Eliz. Richardson 1742, 1. Nathaniel Ragge 1713, 69, Anne his Wife 1734, 77. Charles Verbeeke 1648. Sarah Cook 1707. Susanna Master 1733, 72. Samuel Hasbert late of Stoke Holy Cross, and Lydia his wife, he died 1703, 36, she 1731, 70. Eliz. their Dr. 1733, 43. John Fremoult M. D. 1711, 28. Samuel Fremoult Brewer, 1727, 48. Joel Fremoult Attorney at Law 1728, 56. Resurgemus. By the font, Joel Freemoult, born in this Parish, and Judith Dr. of John Shoulder his Wife, born at Canterbury, where they had Issue, 5 Sons and 4 Daughters, 7 whereof do still Survive them, and are living monuments of their paternal Care and Industry, he died 1708, 66, She 1706, 56. Eliz. wife of Sam. son of Sam. Fremoult Brewer, 1743, 25. Sarah wife of John Day, Dr. of William & Christian Jackson of Carlton Scroop in Lincolnshire 1737, 33. Sarah their Dr. 1732, Bridget their Dr. 1737, 4. Eliz. Filia Josephi Alanson Clerici & Annæ Uxoris 1701. The said Joseph is buried by her, and was Rector of St. Simon & Jude, & died in 1736, æt. 82. See p. 355. Dover's arms as before, with a bear's paw erased for a crest. Motto, NIHIL UTILE QUOD NON HONESTUM. H. S. E. Samuel Dover Generosus, ob Legum peritiam, Morumque Probitatem, undique notus obijt xvi° Nov. A° Sal. MDCCXXXVI. æt. LXVII°. I find by the register these persons were buried in this church. 1559, Mr. Leonard Sotherton. 1571, Serjeant John Mason. 1583, Mrs. Sotherton. 1600, Alderman Christopher Soame & Anne his Wife in 1581. In 1568, Mary Dr. of Mr. Ralph Shelton, and in 1569, Kat. Dr. of Roger Wodehouse Esq. were baptised here. Queen Elizabeth's mausoleum is painted over the south door, and this on the east side of it, Stay Passenger, who e're thou art, retard thy Pace, View here the Mem'ry, of a Majestick Race, See here the Emblem of a dying State, Proves clear, that all alike, must stoop to Fate, This Urn, no common Ashes doth contain, The enclosed Majesty, seems Still to Reign, Only being wearied, with the World's Contest, Tamely Retires, here to take it's Rest: And 'tis but Just, that She, who made Religion shine Should in her Temple, still retain a shrine, But least this Monument, Should not display, The greatness of the Jewele, which doth lay Within it, stay yet further, & thou wilt see, The true Import of this Effigie. On the west side, Here lies Elizabeth, whose Royal breath, Gave true Religion Life, & false one Death, Whose Zeal & Power join'd, alike to advance, God's Honour, Christians Glory, and Church Ordinance. To say no more; she liv'd, she reign'd, she dy'd, A Christian Queen, fit to be Canoniz'd. Queen Elizabeth came in progress to Norwich 16 Aug. 1578, and died on the eve of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary 1602. The tradition is, that she lodged in a house in this parish; which is false, for she lodged during the whole time she was here, at the Bishop's palace. (See Pt. I. p. 332.) There is a mural monument in the churchyard, against the west steeple wall, for Tho. Mason 1708, 69. Jane his Wife 1700, 66. David his Son 1703, 30. Eliz. his Daughter 1672, 12. On the south side of the churchyard are two altar tombs, for Mary Dr. of Mr. John Pecke, and Mary his Wife 1718, 31. And Mr. John Pecke 1715, 58. Mr. John Pecke his Son 1716, 23. There are memorials also, for John Cornish, Martha Wife of Geo. Wilson 1730, 56. Ambrose, Mary & Anne, their Children. George their Son, who successfully applied himself to Philosophical Inquiries, 1735, 28. John Wignall 1737, 52. Eliz. his Wife 1722, 35. And And now having gone through the whole city, I shall proceed by ANCIENTLY CALLED HELLE-GATES, (fn. 25) From their low situation, and the odd appearance that the street leading to these gates hath, to any one that looks down it, from Charyng-Cross; it being a prodigious chasm and declivity, like the entrance of the ancient poets' hell. This was a postern only, till lately, when it was taken down to be made a passage for carriages, since which time it hath never been built, but lies open and in As soon as you are out of this gate, you enter the parish of Heham, Eeham, or, as it is now called,

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Norway is a long, thin country in northern Europe that is known for its fjords, glaciers, fishing villages and huge pine forests. Norway is a big and very mountainous country with only 4.5 million inhabitants. The landscape is mainly dominated by huge forests. The climate is mild on the coast, and the best time to visit is between May and September. It can be bitterly cold in the interior during the winter. Oslo is a magnificent city, and architecturally, it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

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Angola is a giant jigsaw puzzle of different climates, landscapes, cultures and colors. From mountains to vast open plains, wide white beaches to thick tropical rainforest, Angola has it all, as if each of its eighteen provinces were a different country. Lubango has a mild temperate climate, Luanda is hot and dry, while Cabinda is steamy and tropical. Much of the landscape is dramatic, with plunging waterfalls, bizarre rock formations and deep gorges. With an Atlantic coastline stretching for over 1.650 kms, Angola has mighty rivers flowing into wide estuaries depositing sediments from the high plateaus to form numerous small islands, bays and sandbanks. In Angola, you can encounter a diversity of wild animals: lions, hyenas, elephants and antelopes. Apes, hippopotamuses and crocodiles are also indigenous to this country. In the Namib Desert, which is situated in the south-west, you can find the tumboa, a unique plant with two wide leaves that are several metres long and lie on the ground of the desert. Although the climate is such that the beaches can be visited all year round, it is in fact during the hot season that they are most frequented. The bars all filled and the local music and dancing provide an animated and exotic atmosphere that mixes well with the mystery of the African nights.

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Tom Grubisich wrote a great piece on the failure of local news sites to capture the boom in revenue happening in local online. He made a great point on the news market not capturing this local revenue. ”The issue that no one seems know the answer to is how to channel even a small fraction of the billions of dollars that flow to local non-news digital into news. I have spent a lot of time trying to understand why ads worked in newspapers before. I mean, of course, people read the paper to get the news not to find out about wedding dresses at Macy’s. But the surprising thing is that a lot of people get the newspaper not to read the news but to find information about just that same wedding dress in a marketplace the newspapers have created that gets delivered with the paper. In other words, over the last 50 years, newspapers created a market place for local shopping that they owned. - You are never going to make an effective local ad by sticking ads in online news stories - You have to create new market local market places online - No matter how much local news a digital news business like Patch creates, it will never be successful financially without taking that audience and creating a set of commercial marketplaces.

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By Patrick J. Buchanan “In May 1866, a little group of young men in the Tennessee village of Pulaski, finding their time hang heavily on their hands after the excitement of the field, so lately abandoned, formed a secret club for the mere pleasure of association, for private amusement — for anything that might break the monotony of the too quiet place, as their wits might work upon the matter, and one of their number suggested that they call themselves the Kuklos, the Circle.” This prettified depiction of the founding of the Ku Klux Klan is from “A History of the American People” by Princeton professor and future President Woodrow Wilson. The main activities of the Klan, wrote Wilson, were “pranks,” “mischief” and “frolicking.” Occasionally they did prey upon blacks, Wilson conceded, but black fears of the Klan were “comic.” In “Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party’s Buried Past,” Bruce Bartlett relates countless such anecdotes to show that while the Republican Party is endlessly smeared as racist, at its worst, it could not hold a candle to the party of Wilson and FDR. What brings this history up is the media assault on Gov. Haley Barbour for his answer to an interviewer’s question as to why his hometown, Yazoo City, avoided the violence that attended the desegregation of other cities in the Mississippi of his youth. Haley’s reply: “You heard of the Citizens’ Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK. Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders. In Yazoo City, they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan would get their a– run out of town. If you had a job, you’d lose it. If you had a store, they’d see nobody shopped there. We didn’t have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City.” No one has contradicted the facts as stated by Haley, that the Citizens’ Council of Yazoo City consisted of “town leaders” who did not want any Klan violence ripping their town apart. But if Haley had meant to leave the impression that the White Citizens’ Councils were promoting peaceful integration, that would have been laughable. Like almost all the U.S. senators from the 11 states of the Old Confederacy who signed the Dixie Manifesto opposing the Brown decision, the White Citizens’ Councils believed in massive resistance to integration. After 24 hours of media bashing, Haley sought to silence his tormenters with this clarification: “My point was my town rejected the Ku Klux Klan, but nobody should construe that to mean the town leadership were saints, either. Their vehicle, called the ‘Citizens’ Council,’ is totally indefensible, as is segregation. It was a difficult and painful era for Mississippi, the rest of the country and especially African-Americans who were persecuted in that time.” Thus did Haley throw the town fathers of Yazoo City, many of whom he must have come to know as friends, under the bus to restore his acceptability to media elites, some of whom he probably detests. Such are the demands of political advancement in America. Yet, as Voltaire observed, history is a pack of lies agreed upon. Undeniably, across the South in the 1950s and 1960s, there was broad and deep resistance to integration. But it is also true that all the Senate signers of the Dixie Manifesto and all but two of the House signers were Democrats in good standing in the party of JFK and LBJ. And while civil right workers and others were brutally killed in the 1960s, the real racial violence occurred in the North — in the Harlem riot of 1964, the Watts riot of 1965, the Detroit and Newark riots of 1967 and the wave of riots that broke out in scores of cities after the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis. There were days of looting and burning in Washington, D.C. Who was responsible for that wave of racial violence? Was it the black rioters themselves? The Democratic machines and mayors that ran almost all of the Northern cities? The Johnson administration? Because it was surely not Republicans, who in the 1960s were nonexistent in the South and shut out of power in Washington and most major cities and state capitals after JFK’s victory and LBJ’s landslide. The Nixon White House is endlessly denounced for a “Southern Strategy” that captured all 11 states of the Old Confederacy in 1972. But Nixon’s vice president was a pro-civil rights governor, Spiro Agnew of Maryland, who had defeated George P. (“your-home-is-your-castle”) Mahoney, a Democrat who ran in 1966 on his opposition to open housing. In the six presidential elections in which Wilson and FDR topped the ticket, Democrats carried all 11 Southern states every time. Outside of Missouri, Deep South states were the only ones Adlai Stevenson carried in 1956. The sainted Adlai balanced both his tickets with Dixiecrats: John Sparkman of Alabama and Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. As Haley Barbour can attest, liberal hypocrisy is exceeded only by liberal amnesia about who kept them in power from 1933 to 1968.

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According to Buddhist tradition, the disciple Devadatta was the Buddha's cousin and also brother to the Buddha's wife, Yasodhara. Devadatta is said to have caused a split in the sangha by persuading 500 monks to leave the Buddha and follow him instead. This story of Devadatta is preserved in the Pali Tipitika. In this story, Devadatta entered the order of Buddhist monks at the same time as Ananda and other noble youths of the Shakya clan, the clan of the historical Buddha. Devadatta applied himself to practice. But he became frustrated when he failed to progress toward becoming an arhat. So, instead, he applied his practice toward developing supernatural power instead of the realization of enlightenment. It was said he also became driven by jealousy of his kinsman, the Buddha. Devadatta believed he should be the World-Honored One and the leader of the order of monks. One day he approached the Buddha and pointed out that the Buddha was growing older. He proposed that he be put in charge of the order to relieve the Buddha of the burden. The Buddha rebuked Devadatta harshly and said he was not worthy. Thus Devadatta became the Buddha's enemy. Later, the Buddha was questioned how his harsh response to Devadatta was justified as Right Speech. I'll come back to this a bit later. Devadatta had gained the favor of Prince Ajatasattu of Magadha. Ajatasattu's father, King Bimbisara, was a devoted patron of the Buddha. Devadatta persuaded the prince to murder his father and assume the throne of Magadha. At the same time, Devadatta vowed to have the Buddha murdered so he could take over the sangha. So that the deed could not be traced back to Devadatta, the plan was to send a second group of "hit men" to assassinate the first one, and then a third group to take out the second one, and so on for some time. But when the would-be assassins approached the Buddha they couldn't carry out the order. Then Devadatta tried to do the job himself, by dropping a rock on the Buddha. The rock bounced off the mountain side and broke into pieces. The next attempt involved a large bull elephant in a drug-induced fury, but the elephant was gentled in the Buddha's presence. Finally Devadatta attempted to split the sangha by claiming superior moral rectitude. He proposed a list of austerities and asked that they become mandatory for all monks and nuns. These were: - Monks must live all their lives in the forest. - Monks must live only on alms obtained by begging, and should not accept invitations to dine with others. - Monks must wear robes made only from rags collected from rubbish heaps and cremation grounds. They must not accept donations of cloth at any time. (See Kathina.) - Monks must sleep at the foot of trees and not under a roof. - Monks must refrain from eating fish or meat throughout their lives. The Buddha responded as Devadatta had predicted he would. He said that monks could follow the first four austerities if they wished, but he refused to make them mandatory. And he rejected the fifth austerity entirely. (See Buddhism and Vegetarianism.) Devadatta persuaded 500 monks that his Super Austerity Plan was a surer path to enlightenment than the Buddha's, and they followed Devadatta to become his disciples. In response, the Buddha sent two of his disciples, Sariputra and Mahamaudgayalyana, to teach the dharma to the wayward monks. Upon hearing the dharma explained correctly, the 500 monks returned to the Buddha. Devadatta was now a sorry and broken man, and he soon fell mortally ill. On his deathbed he repented of his misdeeds and wished to see the Buddha one more time, but Devadatta died before his liter-bearers could reach him. Life of Devadatta, Alternate Version The lives of the Buddha and his disciples were preserved in several oral recitation traditions before they were written down. The Pali tradition, which is the foundation of Theravada Buddhism, is the best known. Another oral tradition was preserved by the Mahasanghika sect, which was formed about 320 BCE. Mahasanghika is an important forerunner of Mahayana. Mahasanghika remembered Devadatta as a devout and saintly monk. No trace of the "evil Devadatta" story can be found in their version of the canon. This has led some scholars to speculate that the story of the renegade Devadatta is a later invention. The Abhaya Sutta, on Right Speech If we assume the Pali version of Devadatta's story is the more accurate one, however, we can find an interesting footnote in the Abhava Sutta of the Pali Tipitika (Majjhima Nikaya 58). In brief, the Buddha was questioned about the harsh words he said to Devadatta that caused him to turn against the Buddha. The Buddha justified his criticisms of Devadatta by comparing him to a small child who had taken a pebble into his mouth and was about to swallow it. Adults would naturally do whatever it took to get the pebble out of the child. Even if extracting the pebble drew blood, it must be done. The moral appears to be that it is better to hurt someone's feelings than to let them dwell in deceitfulness.

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Apache has been the most popular web server on the Internet since April 1996. 1&1 internet packaged hosting, mail and eCommerce solutions owned by United Internet and incorporating Schlund and Partners. PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. A contextual advertising solution for delivering Google AdWords ads that are relevant to site content pages. DoubleClick enables agencies, marketers and publishers to work together successfully and profit from their digital marketing investments. Provides conversion tracking for adword campaigns. Google Analytics offers a host of compelling features and benefits for everyone from senior executives and advertising and marketing professionals to site owners and content developers. Allows a user to make a website more sociable and connected with integrations from the hugely popular Facebook website. Google+ API functionality. Google+ +1 Button implementation. Allows users to Like items they find on the web, similar to how you Like items within Facebook. The use of a fan page Like box Facebook page integration. A family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. The DOCTYPE is a required preamble for HTML5 websites. The description attribute provides a concise explanation of the page content. Meta tag containing keywords related to the page. This page contains a meta robots tag which tells search engines and robots to index or not index the page. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML UTF-8 (8-bit UCS/Unicode Transformation Format) is a variable-length character encoding for Unicode. It is the preferred encoding for web pages. SEO Meta Description SEO Meta Keywords Last profiled 16th May. Profile will be refreshed on 13th June. Profile for sprachenlernen24.de. Link to this page. Download lists of websites using particular web technologies for lead generation and research at BuiltWith TrendsPro. Download the BuiltWith Google Chrome Extension and get website lookups directly in your browser. Download the BuiltWith Safari Extension and get website lookups directly in your browser. Download the BuiltWith Firefox Addon and get website lookups directly in your browser. Stay in the loop on website technology trends, sign up to the monthly update - Apply this information and improve your websites Search Engine Optimization, Web Technologies and Document Standards with the BuiltWith Website Optimizer. Free SEO and Technology Report Score Is this profile missing a technology? Suggest a Technology to be added to our database.

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Public Papers - 1991 White House Fact Sheet on The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) Today, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. This treaty marks the first agreement between the two countries in which the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons will actually be reduced. Reductions will take place over a period of 7 years, and will result in parity between the strategic nuclear forces of the two sides at levels approximately 30 percent below currently deployed forces. Deeper cuts are required in the most dangerous and destabilizing systems. START provisions are designed to strengthen strategic stability at lower levels and to encourage the restructuring of strategic forces in ways that make them more stable and less threatening. The treaty includes a wide variety of very demanding verification measures designed to ensure compliance and build confidence. The treaty sets equal ceilings on the number of strategic nuclear forces that can be deployed by either side. In addition, the treaty establishes an equal ceiling on ballistic missile throw-weight (a measure of overall capability for ballistic missiles). Each side is limited to no more than: -- 1600 strategic nuclear delivery vehicles (deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles [ICBM's], submarine launched ballistic missiles [SLBM's], and heavy bombers), a limit that is 36 percent below the Soviet level declared in September 1990 and 29 percent below the U.S. level. -- 6000 total accountable warheads, about 41 percent below the current Soviet level and 43 percent below the current U.S. level. -- 4900 accountable warheads deployed on ICBM's or SLBM's, about 48 percent below the current Soviet level and 40 percent below the current U.S. level. -- 1540 accountable warheads deployed on 154 heavy ICBM's, a 50-percent reduction in current Soviet forces. The U.S. has no heavy ICBM's. -- 1100 accountable warheads deployed on mobile ICBM's. -- Aggregate throw-weight of deployed ICBM's and SLBM's equal to about 54 percent of the current Soviet aggregate throw-weight. Ballistic Missile Warhead Accountability The treaty uses detailed counting rules to ensure the accurate accounting of the number of warheads attributed to each type of ballistic missile. -- Each deployed ballistic missile warhead counts as 1 under the 4900 ceiling and 1 under the 6000 overall warhead ceiling. -- Each side is allowed 10 on-site inspections each year to verify that deployed ballistic missiles contain no more warheads than the number that is attributed to them under the treaty. Downloading Ballistic Missile Warheads The treaty also allows for a reduction in the number of warheads on certain ballistic missiles, which will help the sides transition their existing forces to the new regime. Such downloading is permitted in a carefully structured and limited fashion. -- The U.S. may download its three-warhead Minuteman III ICBM by either one or two warheads. The Soviet Union has already downloaded it's seven warhead SS - N - 18 SLBM by four warheads. -- In addition, each side may download up to 500 warheads on two other existing types of ballistic missiles, as long as the total number of warheads removed from downloaded missiles does not exceed 1250 at any one time. The treaty places constraints on the characteristics of new types of ballistic missiles to ensure the accuracy of counting rules and prevent undercounting of missile warheads. -- The number of warheads attributed to a new type of ballistic missile must be no less than the number determined by dividing 40 percent of the missile's total throw-weight by the weight of the lightest RV tested on that missile. -- The throw-weight attributed to a new type must be no less than the missile's throw-weight capability at specified reference ranges (11,000 km for ICBM's and 9,500 km for SLBM's). START places significant restrictions on the Soviet SS - 18 heavy ICBM. -- A 50-percent reduction in the number of Soviet SS - 18 ICBM's; a total reduction of 154 of these Soviet missiles. -- New types of heavy ICBM's are banned. -- Downloading of heavy ICBM's is banned. -- Heavy SLBM's and heavy mobile ICBM's are banned. -- Heavy ICBM's will be reduced on a more stringent schedule than other strategic arms. Because mobile missiles are more difficult to verify than other types of ballistic missiles, START incorporates a number of special restrictions and notifications with regard to these missiles. These measures will significantly improve our confidence that START will be effectively verifiable. -- Nondeployed mobile missiles and non-deployed mobile launchers are numerically and geographically limited so as to limit the possibility for reload and refire. -- The verification regime includes continuous monitoring of mobile ICBM production, restrictions on movements, on-site inspections, and cooperative measures to improve the effectiveness of national technical means of intelligence collection. Because heavy bombers are stabilizing strategic systems (e.g., they are less capable of a short-warning attack than ballistic missiles), START counting rules for weapons on bombers are different than those for ballistic missile warheads. -- Each heavy bomber counts as one strategic nuclear delivery vehicle. -- Each heavy bomber equipped to carry only short-range missiles or gravity bombs is counted as one warhead under the 6000 limit. -- Each U.S. heavy bomber equipped to carry long-range nuclear ALCM's (up to a maximum of 150 bombers) is counted as 10 warheads even though it may be equipped to carry up to 20 ALCM's. -- A similar discount applies to Soviet heavy bombers equipped to carry long-range nuclear ALCM's. Each such Soviet heavy bomber (up to a maximum of 180) is counted as 8 warheads even though it may be equipped to carry up to 16 ALCM's. -- Any heavy bomber equipped for long-range nuclear ALCM's deployed in excess of 150 for the U.S. or 180 for the Soviet Union will be accountable by the number of ALCM's the heavy bomber is actually equipped to carry. Building on recent arms control agreements, START includes extensive and unprecedented verification provisions. This comprehensive verification regime greatly reduces the likelihood that violations would go undetected. -- START bans the encryption and encapsulation of telemetric information and other forms of information denial on flight tests of ballistic missiles. However, strictly limited exemptions to this ban are granted sufficient to protect the flight-testing of sensitive research projects. -- START allows 12 different types of on-site inspections and requires roughly 60 different types of notifications covering production, testing, movement, deployment, and destruction of strategic offensive arms. START will have a duration of 15 years, unless it is superseded by a subsequent agreement. If the sides agree, the treaty may be extended for successive 5-year periods beyond the 15 years. Noncircumvention and Third Countries START prohibits the transfer of strategic offensive arms to third countries, except that the treaty will not interfere with existing patterns of cooperation. In addition, the treaty prohibits the permanent basing of strategic offensive arms outside the national territory of each side. Air-Launched Cruise Missiles (ALCM's) START does not directly count or limit ALCM's. ALCM's are limited indirectly through their association with heavy bombers. -- Only nuclear-armed ALCM's with a range in excess of 600 km are covered by START. -- Long-range, conventionally armed ALCM's that are distinguishable from nuclear-armed ALCM's are not affected. -- Long-range nuclear-armed ALCM's may not be located at air bases for heavy bombers not accountable as being equipped for such ALCM's. -- Multiple warhead long-range nuclear ALCM's are banned. Sea Launched Cruise Missiles (SLCM's) SLCMs are not constrained by the treaty. However, each side has made a politically binding declaration as to its plans for the deployment of nuclear-armed SLCM's. Conventionally-armed SLCM's are not subject to such a declaration. -- Each side will make an annual declaration of the maximum number of nuclear-armed SLCM's with a range greater than 600 km that it plans to deploy for each of the following 5 years. -- This number will not be greater than 880 long-range nuclear-armed SLCM's. -- In addition, as a confidence building measure, nuclear-armed SLCM's with a range of 300 - 600 km will be the subject of a confidential annual data exchange. The Soviet Backfire bomber is not constrained by the treaty. However, the Soviet side has made a politically binding declaration that it will not deploy more than 800 air force and 200 naval Backfire bombers, and that these bombers will not be given intercontinental capability. The START agreement consists of the treaty document itself and a number of associated documents. Together they total more than 700 pages. The treaty was signed in a public ceremony by Presidents Bush and Gorbachev in St. Vladimir's Hall in the Kremlin. The associated documents were signed in a private ceremony at Novo Ogaryevo, President Gorbachev's weekend dacha. Seven of these documents were signed by Presidents Bush and Gorbachev. Three associated agreements were signed by Secretary Baker and Foreign Minister Bessmertnykh. In addition, the START negotiators, Ambassadors Brooks and Nazarkin, exchanged seven letters related to START in a separate event at the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow. Magnitude of START -- Accountable Reductions Following is the aggregate data from the Memorandum of Understanding, based upon agreed counting rules in START. (Because of those counting rules, the number of heavy bomber weapons actually deployed may be higher than the number shown in the aggregate.) This data is effective as of September 1990 (TABLE START)and will be updated at entry into force: Delivery Vehicles .... 2,246 .... 2,500 Warheads .... 10,563 .... 10,271 Ballistic Missile Warheads .... 8,210 .... 9,416 Heavy ICBM's/Warheads .... None .... 308/3080 Throw-weight (metric tons) .... 2,361.3 .... 6,626.3 As a result of the treaty, the above values will be reduced by the following percentages: Delivery Vehicles .... 29 percent .... 36 percent Warheads .... 43 percent .... 41 percent Ballistic Missile Warheads .... 40 percent .... 48 percent Heavy ICBM's/Warheads .... None .... 50 percent Throw-weight (metric tons) .... None .... 46 percent

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University of Stellenbosch economics professor Servaas van der Berg is the latest academic to attack recruitment firm Adcorp’s employment statistics, describing them as "dangerous fictions". The Adcorp Employment index is published monthly. Unlike figures from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), it is not based on surveys and relies upon its own data gathered in interviews with job recruits. It also uses a controversial methodology to estimate the size of the informal sector to arrive at an estimate of total employment. › Adcorp job figures fiction - Prof › Eurozone slips deeper into recession In an article on Econ3x3, a new online policy forum, Prof van der Berg writes that Adcorp’s data "is so clearly wrong that it does not even warrant paying their methodologies serious attention". He urges people to consider the "obvious inconsistencies" in Adcorp’s numbers by juxtaposing its unemployment figure - which it put at 1-million people in 2011 - with the number of unemployed graduates, which it estimated to be 600 000 at the time. This would mean, Prof van der Berg writes, that based on a labour force of 20-million and a graduate population of 1.1-million, unemployment was 5% for the population and 54% for graduates. In contrast, the last quarterly labour force survey compiled by Stats SA put unemployment at 25.5% and in 2011 found that broad graduate unemployment ( for all tertiary qualifications ) was 340 000. The Adcorp employment index estimates the informal sector to be much larger than estimates from other organisations. It uses the currency demand method to arrive at its estimate, which takes the amount of cash circulating to estimate the size of the activity not recorded in the formal economy. The result is a much higher number of employed : 19-million according to Adcorp and 13.5-million according to Stats SA. This methodology has been criticised in detail by University of Cape Town academics Andrew Kerr and Martin Wittenberg, in two papers written last year. "The Adcorp employment and unemployment figures are dangerous fictions - and need to be exposed as such," Prof van der Berg writes. "It is unfortunate that the news media publish them as if they come from a credible source. That feeds at least two contradictory and mistaken beliefs: that unemployment is not a problem of great consequence, and that graduate unemployment is a problem of grandiose proportions. "Neither of these two conclusions could be further from the truth." Adcorp economist Loane Sharp said Prof van der Berg’s criticisms were "parochial" while his methodology enjoyed international recognition. He said he would not debate the size of the informal economy - as he had done it before - and won. Mr Sharp said the apparent anomalies in the number of unemployed graduates compared to the rest of the population was because "there is a problem with Stats SA data". He believed Prof van der Berg had incorrectly read Stats SA figures on graduate unemployment. Statistician-general Pali Lehohla, who has been arguing with Adcorp over its employment numbers for years, said on Thursday the company’s objectivity was compromised. "They are an employment agency. That compromises them severely. To collect statistics, you need to be policy neutral. You can’t measure statistics when you have an interest, especially where the benefits are financial."

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Evidence-Based Building: It's All by Numbers The Byggmeister Perspective WegoWise may sound like the latest Hasbro toy, but this web-based energy tracking system is actually a powerful new addition to Byggmeister's green-building toolkit. It is easy to say certain improvements will save energy. Paul and the rest of the Byggmeister crew want to prove it to their clients and themselves. Byggmeister Sustainability Consultant Rachel White and client Dick Jones share both sides of the story and a little bit of inner data-loving geekiness too. Why did Byggmeister decide to use WegoWise? RW: When you step back and think about how most energy upgrades are done in the residential sector, you think if we do this it will save about X amount each year, but no builder is really looking at hard and fast numbers when they say that. We want to see how much money and energy upgrade X or Y is actually saving, from adding insulation and fixing air leaks, all the way to a complete deep energy retrofit. How does it work? RW: You enter your utility account information and WegoWise retrieves the data automatically from online bills each month. We had started trying to track that ourselves, asking homeowners to give us the information after we complete an energy project, but it is hard to keep going back for it. This streamlines the whole process and Byggmeister is now offering it as part of our services. We'll set up the accounts, monitor the data, everything. It is free to the homeowner and all the information is shared between us. How does Byggmeister use the data? RW: WegoWise has great analytical and graphing that allows you to look at total energy usage and compare that to similar buildings in energy usage per square foot. We can compare our portfolio of projects against one another, and we can also compare against the WegoWise broader pool. That gives us real insight by drilling down and seeing how this particular upgrade, like a basement retrofit, actually impacted energy savings. It takes the guesswork out of it and we can take that to future clients and apply it because we have concrete numbers. We call it "evidence-based building." What has the data shown? RW: On a couple of our deep energy retrofit projects, it's very dramatic. Per square foot, they use 60 to 65 percent less energy than my own house uses. That's exactly what we want to see. 50 to 70 percent reduction is the goal with a deep energy retrofit. It impressed me just how much impact those projects actually had. What the Client Says: What kind of project did you do with Byggmeister? DJ: We had a tenant in our carriage house apartment that was a hoarder, lots of cats, windows were broken, and there was a water problem. When she left, we said we'd fix it up right and make it as sustainable as possible. We asked around about architects and builders who would be sensitive to our goals and that's how we came to Paul. Since then, we have also done more on our main house to make it more energy efficient, including blower door tests to see where we were losing heat. Kerry [Kostinen] is crazy about that stuff. He'll crawl all over an attic and into any crevice to find air leaks. Why use WegoWise? DJ: I kept asking Paul, 'I've got this 8500-square-foot house with 11-foot ceilings, how are we doing with these improvements? I want to be the best you've ever done.' We kept wanting to know how we compared to other Byggmeister projects, but Paul didn't have enough data. Byggmeister is actually entering historical data into WegoWise for us so we can do a more substantial evaluation. What has WegoWise shown you? DJ: The greatest thing is the monthly feedback loop. I can see that my natural gas use is the biggest contributor to our carbon consumption. I saw that my electricity use came down a lot and then back up, which I figured out is behavior related. It's like buying a certain kind of car for the miles per gallon, I want to know this stuff is making a difference. If you're not getting the savings, then you can hunt down the reason. Have you hunted down energy issues in your house? DJ: I'm always asking questions about what's going on. Like when I realized houseguests had caused our electricity consumption to go up because they were leaving lights on. I've also realized the new boiler we had installed is not as efficient as it should be, so I'm having Byggmeister's plumbing contractor come in to look at it. It's all about working to drive my costs down more and seeing it happen. Everyone can do it. In fact, I think homeowners should eventually be able to say to builders, 'I want to see your WegoWise improvement numbers.' More from Our Viewpoint Learn more about us Review our goals

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for sheer exuberance and talent in all areas of jazz vocals. Though three or four outshone her in pure quality of voice, her splendid improvising, wide dynamic tone, and innate sense of rhythm made her the most enjoyable singer of the age. 's first appearances in a big band shattered the traditional image of a demure female vocalist by swinging just as hard as the other musicians on the bandstand, best heard on her vocal trading with recording "Let Me Off Uptown." After making her solo debut in the mid-'40s, she incorporated bop modernism into her vocals and recorded over a dozen of the best vocal LPs of the era for Verve during the 1950s and '60s. Though hampered during her peak period by heavy drinking and later, drug addiction, she made a comeback and continued singing into the new millennium. Born Anita Belle Colton in Chicago, she was raised largely by her mother, and entered her first marathon-dance contest while barely a teenager. She spent time on the road and occasionally back at home, later moving from dancing to singing at the contests. After bad experiences amid brief tenures with Benny Goodman and even Raymond Scott earned a place in Gene Krupa 's band in 1941. Several weeks later, Krupa also hired trumpeter Roy Eldridge , and the trio combined to become an effective force, displayed on hits like "Let Me Off Uptown," "Boogie Blues," and "Just a Little Bit South of North Carolina." She spent a brief period away from Krupa with Woody Herman , but returned to the band, only to have it break up by 1943. After moving to Stan Kenton , she starred on Kenton 's first big hit, 1944's "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine." Another stint with Krupa presaged her solo debut in 1946, and with drummer John Poole as her accompanist, she recorded a moderate hit one year later with the novelty "Hi Ho Trailus Boot Whip." Her career really ignited after her first album, 1955's Anita (also known as This Is Anita ). Much more successful in the jazz world than she was in its pop equivalent, she performed at jazz festivals and jazz-oriented concerts, appearing with figures including Louis Armstrong , Thelonious Monk , and George Shearing . Her performance at 1958's Newport Jazz Festival made her fame worldwide after being released on a film titled Jazz on a Summer's Day.O'Day 's series of almost 20 Verve LPs during the '50s and '60s proved her to be one of the most distinctive, trend-setting, and successful vocal artists of the time, arguably surpassed only by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald . She worked with a variety of arrangers and in many different settings, including a hard-swinging Billy May collaboration (Anita O'Day Swings Cole Porter with Billy May ), an excellent, intimate set with the Oscar Peterson Quartet (Anita Sings the Most ), several with the mainstream Buddy Bregman Orchestra (Pick Yourself Up ), one with the cool-toned Jimmy Giuffre ), and a Latin date with Cal Tjader (Time for Two ) as well as a collaborative LP with the Blue Note instrumental trio the 3 Sounds . Even by the early '60s, however, her ebullient voice had begun sounding tired. The cumulative effects of heroin addiction, its resulting lifestyle, and a non-stop concert schedule forced her into a physical collapse by 1967. After taking several years to kick alcohol and drug addictions, she made a comeback at the 1970 Berlin Jazz Festival and returned in the early '70s with a flood of live and studio albums, many recorded in Japan and some released on her own label, Emily Records. Her autobiography, 1983's High Times, Hard Times was typically honest and direct regarding her colorful past. Though her voice gradually deteriorated, O'Day recorded throughout the 1970s and '80s, remaining an exciting, forceful vocalist on record as well as in concert. She slowed down considerably during the '90s, and appeared only occasionally. She re-emerged in 2006 with a new album (Indestructible! ), recorded during the previous two years, but passed away in November of that year due to the effects of pneumonia and advanced Alzheimer's disease.

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Teachers make sacrifices. Right? We give of ourselves, of our time, and of our resources. It seems to be a job requirement that we teachers commit every part of our being to our jobs. And sometimes it does feel like we surrender all. But is that surrender a sacrifice? A sacrifice is something one gives that costs them greatly but returns something even better. Ancients would sacrifice animals to their gods in return for a strong rain, healthy harvest, or protection from a host of hostile elements. Sometimes it worked. Christians are required to give 10% of their income as a tithe, any more is considered a sacrifice. Most who sacrifice do it willingly in exchange for some thing or some situation they believe will improve their lives. So too do teachers sacrifice for their students. Teachers give of themselves to improve the quality of life for their students. Whether its through imparting some knowledge, or facilitating a hard lesson in character, teachers give to the students' benefit. But is that a sacrifice on the part of the teacher? What saturating rain, or bountiful harvest or guarantee of protection do teachers get for their personal and costly sacrifice? Better put, what's in it for the teacher? Not much you say? How about those painfully long days without adult interaction? What about the great pay? And don't forget test scores. Well there are those long summers off. That's pretty cool. Maybe it's not a sacrifice. Since we do not do what we do for the greater personal return on our investment, then maybe what we do do is not a sacrifice at all. Stay with me here. Perhaps what we are really doing is building the future. Think about it. Who else in the global village (I hate that term) is saddled with the responsibility or churning out well-behaved, disciplined, moral, value-filled, hard-working, freedom loving young adults ready to take on the responsibilities of leading the free world and not blowing the place up? Certainly not television producers, alcohol and cigarette sales people, or movie, sports, and musical talents. No. Charles Barkley said so himself. It's up to the teachers. We are held to a higher standard. I once used the word "bitchen" in class to describe a dance that one of my sixth grade students choreographed and shared with me. She went home and shared my enthusiasm with her parents and grandparents. At a parent conference I sat across from a pair of leather-clad parents who explained that it wasn't that they didn't use the word in their own home, but that I was a teacher, and I had to hold the higher ground. It was my first year. So do we sacrifice? Well, not for our personal gain. So, no, we don't sacrifice. I hope that doesn't upset you. I know that martyr is on the list of synonyms for teacher (not really). Here is the list from thesaurus. com : abecedary, advisor, assistant, babysitter, coach, disciplinarian, docent, don, educator, faculty member, governess, grind, guide, guru, instructor, lecturer, maestro, master, mentor, mistress, pedagogue, preceptor, prof, professor, pundit, scholar, schoolman, schoolmaster, schoolmistress, schoolteacher, slave driver, supervisor, swami, teach, trainer, tutor. I think my favorite from that list is "slave driver." So that settles it. We don't sacrifice when we spend hours after school helping kids with make up work for classes that they missed during the day because they slept in late and Mom and Dad couldn't get them to school on time, or at all. We don't sacrifice when we give up our weekends to grade essays written by other people's children trying to help them understand the difference between a noun and pronoun. We don't sacrifice when we can't afford to buy our families they vehicle they need when the students we teach drive to school in BMWs and Porsches. No, that' not sacrifice, that's building the future. Wow, that's so negative. I can't end it there, The Last Day 2 hours ago

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Dying , and You Should Be Very Worried RSS makes it possible for me to check 100s of sites a day. I only actually implicitly go and read two, everything else goes through the RSS reader. If I didn’t have RSS then I wouldn’t bother keeping an eye on that many sites in the first place. Because me and you—dear technical readers—don’t have to suffer that routine anymore, it’s not reason that everybody else should. Bringing all the news updates straight to the user every day is a great killer feature that vendors should be waving from the fronts of their home pages! Browser vendors talk about their software helping users get the most out of the great ’Web; right next to “browsing”, RSS should be the second most important feature of browsers! Imagine for example that on the Chrome home page, where sites you visit often appear, Chrome also was following the RSS of these sites in the background, and listing new news items for those sites on the home page, all without you having to do anything. Google Chrome has no RSS reader. It doesn’t even try to render RSS, or even help the user with it in any way. It gives less of a crap than a French man smoking a cigarette in public. Mozilla will deal the final blow that kills RSS off. In Firefox 4.0, there will be no RSS button on the toolbar by default (it has been moved to the bookmarks menu). Mozilla outright refuse to listen to their users on this matter. The reason for this is that statistically, only 3%–7% of users use the RSS button on the toolbar. If not enough people use it already, then how many less people are going to use it if it’s not there by default? How many regular users customise their toolbar to add a button they barely use? Mozilla’s mistake here is to associate low usage with user dis-interest. If people don’t use it, the feature must not be necessary…? To my mind if the feature is not being used it’s because it’s badly designed and needs a rethink. The majority of users are missing out on a wealth of information because it is currently too time consuming to be regular in their habits. If RSS were easier (or even automatic) to discover and use, it would save them hours browsing every day! The problem is the interface, not the technology. Let’s face it, RSS sucks and browser vendors care about it almost as little as they do about CSS printing (hello 10+ year old bugs!) What does this symbol mean? How many regular users could name this symbol? None, I’d wager. If they know that this symbol means “RSS”, then what does “RSS” mean; how many users can explain that? Users are already adverse to clicking things they don’t understand so what do they think this symbol will do to their computer when it is not obvious a) what it is, and what it stands for, or b) what happens when it’s clicked? Will a dialogue box open? Will it ask questions? Will it print something? Will it ask for a name and password? This symbol gives absolutely zero clue as to why it is present, what functionality it represents and how the user is supposed to use it. The browser RSS button is the worst piece of UI since 2004. This is a serious problem because a regular user understands Facebook and Twitter better than they understand RSS, and when browser vendors push RSS so far to the sidelines, companies will respond by replacing RSS with Twitter and If RSS isn’t saved now, if browser vendors don’t realise the potential of RSS to save users a whole bunch of time and make the web better for them, then the alternative is that I will have to have a Facebook account, or a Twitter account, or some such corporate-controlled identity, where I have to “Like” or “Follow” every website’s partner account that I’m interested in, and then have to deal with the privacy violations and problems related with corporate-owned identity owning a list of every website I’m interested in (and wanting to monetise that list), and they, and every website I’m interested in, knowing every other website I’m interested in following, and then I have to log in and check this corporate owned identity every day in order to find out what’s new on other websites, whilst I’m advertised to, because they are only interested in making the biggest and the best walled garden that I can’t leave. If RSS dies, we lose the ability to read in private We lose the ability for one website we read to not know what other websites we read We lose the ability for a website operator to be in control of what he advertise to his users, rather than having no control over the aggregator’s “value add”. If Facebook, Twitter and Google are the ones making the money on adverts attached to another website’s content, then where does that leave the website owner to pay for producing the content? We lose the ability for websites to push updates to us on their own terms and infrastructure, rather than through closed APIs and flavour-of-the-month platforms. A website should be free to operate on the web without the requirement of additional unwanted accounts that need to be updated and managed and adhered to. If every website on the web has to have a Facebook account in order to exist in practical terms, the web is dead—competition is dead Every website should not look like a NASCAR advert for every sharing service in existence. One RSS button should do everything We lose the ability for us to aggregate, mash-up and interpret news without having to go through a closed API that may change on a whim, or disagree with our particular usage We lose a common standard by which content can be aggregated. A developer should not have to be fluent in Twitter, Facebook and a million different private APIs just to aggregate content from different websites you read You should be writing to Mozilla, Google, Microsoft and all browser vendors to demand a first-class RSS experience baked in to your browser so well your grandmother could use it. RSS Is the Browser’s Responsibility More than one person has already said that I’m somehow hypocritical because my website doesn’t have RSS, it does have RSS! (here) You are probably not seeing it because of the very problem I’m talking about! Browser vendors are hiding RSS auto-discovery to the point nobody is aware it exists. I don’t have an RSS button in my HTML because it’s in the <head> and it’s up to the browser to do the best thing based on the user interface, operating system and device. There isn’t enough screen space on mobiles for every website to use their own RSS button. Relying on the web author to present RSS is not going scale. Too many different websites, too many different designs, too many different platforms, browsers and devices. It is far better if browser vendors do what is most appropriate to the browser’s user interface, that the website itself can’t see, can’t change. There appears to be a distinct lack of imagination going on with RSS. RSS does not have to be RSS shaped and look like RSS and do RSS things. Why can’t, when you visit a blog article, the browser reads the comments RSS, and when you next come back to that article, it can tell you that there have been new comments since, and highlight them on the page? Why do we go through the same daily routine of checking certain sites over and over again? Can’t our computers be more intelligent here? Isn’t the purpose of the computer / browser to save us time!? Why doesn’t the browser, when you open it, tell you how many new items there are, on what sites you commonly visit, without you having ever You cannot do that with a web app like Google Reader. It cannot look at your whole browsing history like the browser can. It cannot tie together your bookmarks and RSS. It cannot make decisions for you based on what other sites on the web you visit often enough. Only the browser knows everything about you, and tries to prevent one website knowing what other websites you’ve been on. Only the browser is central and trust-worthy enough to be aggregating your information without fears of beaming it to advertisers. Only the browser can join the dots and empower the user, rather than entrap them. When Mozilla release Firefox 4, then RSS auto-discovery moves out of sight from the most popular modern browsers. IE9 will add HTML5 (allowing IE users to see my site for the first time), but follow suit in removing the RSS button from view. I will be forced to add RSS hyperlinks to my HTML, which clutters up my website and links to a dumb page that doesn’t do anything helpful, or just doesn’t display at all. It confuses users, it wastes space and worse—it’s a really stupid way to be handling such incredible time-saving technology that should be part of every users’s daily interaction with their browser. What Can Be Done I’m open to fair representation, and actually quite honoured to have Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler defend Firefox on my How about spending the same energy you did on this rant coming up with a better design for RSS features and submitting it to the browser vendors who accept feature requests? This, I always knew would be the open retort, which is why I had staved off from writing this article until this point where I was finally too sick and tired to hold it back. I owe it to myself to put forward some good suggestions and will make it my aim to do so in due time. Your post suggests over and over rss auto-discovery is being killed when it isn’t. You no more today have to add an RSS button to your page than you did a year ago. The UI for RSS has actually improved with a menu item that makes it clear what RSS is “subscribe”. RSS never had a button in the toolbar. It had an icon in the addressbar. Now it has a full menu item in the bookmarks menu with a clear description of what it is “subscribe.” something it lacked before and which makes it far more discoverable than the little orange chicklett in the addressbar. Your rant is misplaced. Mozilla, with the creation of live bookmarks and the first high-profile placement of the rss icon has done more to promote RSS than any other piece of desktop software. The UI, as it was — a tiny orange button in the addressbar wasn’t helping users use the feature so it was removed. Better UI, a menu item with a real description of what RSS does, “subscribe” replaced it. That’s a positive step, not a negative one. Though it may be encountered by fewer users, it will make much more sense to those who do encounter it. Live bookmarks, the best RSS feature implementation I've seen to date in a web browser, is still there. Auto-discovery and a “subscribe” menu item is there. Mozilla has improved the design of RSS and you’re ranting as if they’ve killed it. My only response to this at this time is simply that what exists in current browsers isn’t enough. E-mail was once inaccessible to regular folks, now it’s an essential part of their day. I believe that RSS can also be every bit as important as a tool for browser intelligence to make the web easier and more user-centric. Thank you to everybody who has spread this article about, it got a very large amount of attention and I hope some good has come of it. I have written a follow up to this article, here.

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Pew Report: Young Voters Played Bigger Role In 2012 Than Expected While Obama’s national support among young voters was slightly down from 2008 when they supported him by 2 to 1 margin, a closer look reveals that his 2012 victory was even more dependent on the Millennial vote. The reason? In 2012, Obama narrowly lost voters 30 and older (a group he won in 2008) to Romney, 48-50. With that shift, he needed a boost from young voters much more than he did in 2008, and they came through for him, especially in the critical swing states where the race was closest: Ohio, Virginia, Florida, and Pennsylvania. In each of those four states Obama lost among voters over 30 but won 60 percent or greater support from young voters. Additionally, the overall, youth share of the electorate was up from 18 percent in 2008 to 19 percent in 2012. The increase is noteworthy not only because all signs leading up to the election pointed to a smaller showing from young voters than in 2008, but also because the total number of young people eligible to vote is up substantially. About 16 million young people turned 18 in the last four years, and as Millennials continue to come of age, their political power will only increase. A big shift happened in the final weeks before the election (just as in 2008), when interest surged among young voters, who once more came out in force to support Obama. However, the president’s support among young voters was not absolute. Indeed, the unprecedented level of diversity among Millennials was a key factor in his carrying the demographic overall. Obama’s support was highest among African-American and Latino voters generally and so the fact that so many young voters are among these groups was critical to the president’s success with Millennials. As Pew states: His losses among young voters since 2008 might have been even greater, but for the fact that the under 30s are by far the most racially and ethnically diverse age group. Just 58% are white non-Hispanic, compared with 76% of voters older than 30. As we’ve written previously, Millennials strongly support progressive values and policies, which is another reason Obama did so well with them again this year. And as they continue to make up more of the electorate, we’ll see more and more of these kinds of policies enacted and expanded. The key issues that Pew identifies as having strong support from young people include: - 59 percent believe the government should do more. - 53 percent support expanding or maintaining Obamacare. - 68 percent believe undocumented immigrants should be given a chance to achieve legal status. - 64 percent believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. - 66 percent believe their state should legalize marriage equality. - 61 percent believe the U.S. economic system favors the wealthy. With each new election cycle, the importance of young voters will grow and it will be harder and harder for candidates who reject these values to succeed. Millennials are the new electoral reality and will play an increasingly large role in every election for decades to come. Abraham White is a communications associate at Campus Progress. Follow him on Twitter @abwhite7. - With No Clear Trend in Youth Vote, A Challenge Awaits Progressives - Why State Support for Marriage Equality Is Gaining Momentum - Missouri’s New Gun Law Criminalizes Federal Officers for Doing Job, Pushes Guns into Schools - #AskCP Twitter Chat Tells All On Guns, Immigration, And What It Takes To Work At Campus Progress - How Senate Republicans Plan to Fix Student Loans

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Use quotes to search an exact phrase: e.g. "occult fiction" Use * or ? to search for alternate forms of a word. Use * to stand for several characters, and ? for a single character: e.g. optim* will find optimal, optimize or optimum; wom?n will find woman and women. Use AND and OR between words to combine them with Boolean logic: e.g. (heart OR cardiac) AND surgery will find items about heart surgery or cardiac surgery. Boolean terms must be in

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SUNDAY HOMILY: The Happy Priest - Building a Culture of Life - - - Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013 General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him. Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance. Keywords: john paul II, benedict XVI, paul VI, humanae vitae, culture of life, roe v wade, abortion, contraception, life, marriage, family life, sunday homily, homily, father james farfaglia Rate This Article Leave a Comment More Year of Faith News - FRIDAY HOMILY: Follow Me - THURSDAY HOMILY: Father, May they Be One. Do We Pray and Work for Christian Unity? - WEDNESDAY HOMILY: The Holy Spirit Coaches our Interior to Fight - TUESDAY HOMILY: The Response of Faith to Scandalous Infidelity - Toward Pentecost: St Cyril of Jerusalem on The Living Water of the Holy Spirit - MONDAY HOMILY: Take courage, I have overcome the world - SUNDAY HOMILY: The Happy Priest - A Reflection on Motherhood - SATURDAY HOMILY: Whatever you ask the Father in my Name He will give you - Your Grief Will Become Joy. Living Gospel Joy in the Real World - Fr. Paul Schenck: Finding Living Faith on Catechetical Sunday - The Movie Yellow: Incest as 'Normal' and Cassavates's Slides Into the World of Woes - The Chicago School Teachers Strike Reveals the Need For School Choice - The Sexual Barbarians and the Dissolution of Culture - The Happy Priest Challenges Us to Ask: Who is Jesus to Me? - Michael Coren on Canadian Public Schools: Teachers, leave those kids alone - We Cannot Ignore Our Consciences: Cardinal Dolan On Religious Liberty - In the Face of Danger, Successor of Peter Travels to Lebanon as a Messenger of Peace - Reflections on the Dignity and Vocation of Women: Who or What?

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A Mexican legal expert is calling for conscientious objector status for public employees who do not wish to cooperate with Mexico City’s new regime of homosexual “marriage.” Alberto Patiño Reyes, who holds a PhD in law, says that the Mexican juridical system “lacks an express recognition of the right of conscientious objection, which is a manifestation of a broader fundamental right, liberty of conscience.” Pointing out that the Mexican government has signed the San Jose Covenant, which recognizes “the right of the person to liberty of conscience and religion,” Patiño Reyes opines that such a right should apply to any employee of the Mexican government who wishes to opt out of participation in homosexual “marriage.” “The recognition of conscientious objection for the celebration of matrimony for people of the same sex, would entail the possibility of substitution for the objector in the fulfillment of his functions, leaving intact his liberty of conscience,” he writes. “It is necessary to protect the officials of the Civil Registry, when the government becomes increasingly interventionist, legislating on issues with strong ethical content,” he adds. “In this case intending to equalize homosexual unions with the marriage of a man and a woman, under the pretext of equal rights, as well as an erroneous concept of the same, in a framework of moral relativism that is summarized in the maxim ‘if you like it, do it.’” “Legislation like this brings about the immediate result of imposing on the citizens an important moral contribution, with the consequent violation of their personal convictions.” Mexico City’s government, which is dominated by the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, legislated the creation of homosexual “marriage” and adoption of children in December of last year, sparking expressions of outrage. A recent poll carried out by the conservative National Action Party found that a majority of Mexico City residents oppose the law The federal government of Mexico, along with two state governors, are currently suing Mexico City over the law, contending that it is unconstitutional.

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