text:
The US Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Standard and Poor’s is misguided, says our legal writer Lawsmith. It was the market’s confidence in the ratings agencies that was at fault, not the agencies themselves.

Last week, Standard & Poor’s, the rating agency, was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice (USDoJ) in a Los Angeles federal court for “knowingly and with intent to defraud, devis(ing), particpat(ing) in, and execut(ing) a scheme to defraud investors in (residential property securitisations) and CDOs, including federally insured financial institutions… and to obtain money from these investors by means of material false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises and the concealment of material facts.”

Even to persons legally trained, this is weighty stuff. One of the most amusing ways I know to frighten an unschooled junior lawyer is to sit him or her down in front of a structure diagram of a securitisation, a jumbled mess of agreements, parties, cashflows, security arrangements, and hedging – and then change slides to display a CDO, a securitisation of securitisations, a stacked jumble of jumbles. (Instant fun.) Despite the visuals, however, such transactions are conceptually very simple: one takes assets that throw off a steady stream of income (such as residential mortgages), models the cashflows arising from them, and creates debt instruments which match the payments from the assets with the payments on the notes. Those notes or bonds are then sold, with the seller recouping the capital value of the assets in the present in exchange for investors’ acquiring the future flows of income.

As such, securitisation is a remarkably versatile funding tool: one can quite literally put a chicken sandwich into a securitisation, and emerge on the other side with investment-grade debt. This is achieved through a process called “tranching,” where certain classes of debt receive higher payments of interest but absorb losses first, allowing the more senior pieces to be sold as relatively safer assets. So, for example, with a structure that issues £100 million in notes – £40m “B” and £60m “A” – if there is a shortfall of £30 million, the junior “B” tranche is wiped out by 75%, whereas the position of the senior debt is unaffected.

This is where rating agencies come in. Each agency appointed on a particular transaction assesses how these transactions have been structured by the banks and determines, on the basis of a pre-published (and public) set of criteria, their reasoning for arriving at their conclusions. Based on the amount and quality of credit enhancement for a given deal, they issue ratings to the more senior classes of debt which represent the rating agency’s opinion as to the probability of default on a given piece – the better the rating, the lower that probability is.

USDoJ asserts that, as the sub-prime crisis began to unfold over the course of 2007, S&P rated 30 CDOs backed, in whole or in part, by non-prime (low-income borrower) RMBS collateral, and that “S&P knowingly disregarded the true extent of the credit risks associated with those non-prime RMBS tranches in issuing and/or confirming ratings for CDOs with exposure to those non-prime RMBS tranches.” One of these, the complaint points out, was “NovaStar ABS CDO I,” a $374 million transaction comprised of securities which were backed by subprime residential loans and issued in 2006 (76%), 2005 (18%), and 2007 (5%). S&P rated $277 million of the notes issued by the deal as AAA, or the lowest probability of default; however, the deal imploded. The result, as put by the Justice Department, was “near total losses to investors,” who were for the most part federally-insured banks.

This is an example of one small part of a wider evil which requires a $4bn lawsuit to be put right. The nitty-gritty of legal arguments – which does not bear repeating here – hinges on whether S&P’s statements on these deals were actionable misrepresentations or protected speech under the US Constitution. The more important question, though, is this: is this a case that should have been brought in the first place?

From a jurisprudential standpoint, the only relevant consideration is that the statute upon which the claim is based has never been used before for this purpose (suggesting that this alleged social ill was not what the drafters of FIRREA 1989 had in mind).

In terms of economic substance, a slightly closer look at NovaStar shows that USDoJ falls very wide of the mark. As of late 2006, the company was a reasonably reputable originator of residential mortgage loans: as reported by the New York Times, NovaStar “boasted 430 offices in 39 states… fast becoming one of the top 20 home lenders in the country,” a “Wall Street darling” with “shares trading at $30 (in 2003), up from $9.50 in late 2002.” It would go higher, eventually soaring to $70 per share: “between 2004 and 2007, for instance, the company raised more than $400 million from investors,” eventually attaining a market value of $1.6 billion, with loan origination to sub-prime borrowers reaching $600 million per month.

The secret behind NovaStar’s short-lived success was that the firm originated loans which, in hindsight, a reasonably prudent mortgage lender would not have, with low-quality security and to low-quality borowers. “One NovaStar loan on a property in Ohio totalled $77,500 even though the average sales price for the neighbourhood was $31,685, and the same house had been purchased two months earlier for $20,000,” reported the Times, and virtually anyone – “even… a corpse, the joke went” – could obtain one. NovaStar employed accounting methods that “gave the company lots of leeway in how it valued the loans held on its books,” such as one which “allowed it to record immediately all the income that a loan would generate over its life,” even if the mortgage had decades to run until maturity. As a result, virtually the entire market misapprehended NovaStar’s business, including its securitisation business, until the subprime bubble was well into the throes of its (widely unexpected and spectacular) collapse.

When one considers that it is not a rating agency’s mandate to perform investor due diligence, but rather to look at the stated characteristics of the income flows presented to it and “assess the likelihood, and in some situations the consequences, of default – nothing more or less,” one understands that if garbage data go in, whether by dint of fraud or endemic asset mispricing, garbage conclusions will invariably come out. It is this which should colour USDoJ’s claims when being viewed by objective observers.

The credit enhancement involved in obtaining a AAA rating should, according to USDoJ, “on average, be able to withstand economic conditions similar to those of the Great Depression,” a roughly 1% probability of default. Most of the time the rating agencies get this right: the default rate of AAA-rated notes in structured finance transactions has, in the last thirty years, barely exceeded 0.5%, and even then only reached that historically unusual high in 2008.

But sub-prime RMBS was different, and this was not the fault of the rating agencies. Investors everywhere lost money as a result of the sub-prime crisis because they failed to conduct proper due diligence and were caught up in the largest speculative property mania in history – one which was US-government-fuelled at that. The U.S. federal government was left with considerable additional egg on its face after it then had to bail out these banks with these toxic assets on their books. But, if this lawsuit is to be believed, the primary responsibility for these losses should lie with S&P, which has allegedly perpetrated a massive fraud for its own material gain.

Recent rhetoric emerging from the populist left has capitalised on the suit, with financially illiterate commentators asserting that the rating agencies’ giving AAA ratings to toxic assets was “tantamount to a massive betrayal of America.” This is plainly absurd. Many people and institutions made bad calls in the run-up to the great recession. It does not follow that it is appropriate to sue organisations which made a profit throughout, simply because they had no skin in the game. Nor will it do anything to protect the American taxpayer from being the guarantor of last resort, a precarious position in which the American people remain: not despite the role of their government, but because of it.


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Conflict-Affected Region Emergency Project: Rehabilitation of Madathuveli and Veilai Salt Water Exclusion Schemes in Jaffna District

Environmental Assessment and Measures | December 2011

Environmental assessments and measures ensure the environmental soundness and sustainability of ADB-financed projects.

This document dated December 2011 is provided for the ADB project 44065-013 in Sri Lanka.

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State of Alaska
Fish and Game Home

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Lower Cook Inlet Management Area
Fishing Information

The streams of the Central and Lower Kenai Peninsula are crossed by the Sterling Highway, which begins 90 miles south of Anchorage at its junction with the Seward Highway, and travels 142.5 miles west and south to the Kachemak Bay community of Homer. There are many services available along the Sterling Highway — motels, bed & breakfasts, restaurants, private and public camping, boat launches, and parking areas.

This area is a very popular sport fishing area. The creeks and rivers support runs of king, silver, red, and pink salmon; both freshwater and sea-run Dolly Varden char; and both freshwater rainbow trout and sea-run steelhead trout.

Marine waters provide additional fishing opportunities for king and silver salmon as well as halibut.

The following links lead to regulation summaries of Alaska sport and personal use fishing regulations published by the Division of Sport Fish as a service to anglers. They are not intended to be a complete digest of all fishing regulations.

Regulations may be changed by the Alaska Board of Fisheries during its regular meetings, by emergency regulation, or by emergency order at any time. Any changes to the regulations are made available through the emergency order link below.

Lower Cook Inlet Emergency Orders
Lower Cook Inlet Regulations


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Grey Group New York New York, United States Full Service

Grey Group New York Creative Work

Title "Mustache"
Agency Grey Group New York
Production Company Bandito Brothers
Editing Company MacKenzie Cutler
Audio Post Production Heard City
Campaign You Don't Just Eat 'Em
Advertiser Procter & Gamble
Brand Pringles
Date of First Broadcast/Publication 1/2014
Business Sector Potato Chips, Crisps & Crackers
Tagline You Don't Just Eat 'Em
Media Type Television
Length22 seconds
Market United States
Sound Design Company Bang
Music Company / Composer Bang
Executive Creative Director Mr. Derek Barnes
Executive Creative Director Ms. Lisa Topol
Creative Director Mr. Brian Platt
Creative Director Ms. Hema Patel
Art Director Ms. Hema Patel
Chief Creative Officer Mr. Tor Myhren
Copywriter Mr. Brian Platt
Director Mr. Larry Charles
Director of Photography Mr. Larry Sher
Agency Producer Ms. Donna Stokes

Recent Work


text:
ATY auditions for "Beauty & the Beast Jr. " and "The Three Musketeers"

See other events that happened on this day

Auditions for August 24 from 2:00-4:30 pm or August 25 from 6-8:30 pm
Auditioners only need to come to one day of auditions and will be excused when finished. Auditions held in order of appearance. Two shows audition at once.

 Come to auditions prepared to do cold readings from the script and dress to mov.! Auditioners should prepare a short song to be performed without accompaniment. All auditioners are encouraged to memorize a short monologue/passage from any play to recite from memory (30-60 seconds max). A passage to read aloud will be provided for those without a prepared piece. Auditioners that do not yet read should come prepared to share a memorized poem, nursery rhyme or joke.

Shows will perform at the Sydney Laurence Theatre in the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, October 10-18. Performers will need to miss 1 or 2 partial days of school for school-time performances. Rehearsals generally take place 6-8:30 pm or 6-9 pm Mon-Fri, Tue-Sat, or Sun-Thu. Sat/Sun rehearsals are usually in the afternoon. The director will determine the rehearsal schedule after auditions. Come prepared to note any pre-existing plans (trips, other after school activities) on the audition form. There is a $100 actor participation fee (a contribution toward show expenses) for all performers 18 and younger that are selected to participate in the production. Scholarship applications and payment plans available. ATY has a "kid-first" casting policy which gives developing actors casting preference over adult actors. From time to time adults may be cast in ATY plays to provide mentorship and to role-model professional practices.

Event Details

August 24, 2014 - 2:00pm to August 25, 2014 - 8:30pm
Location Name:
All Ages
Phone Number:


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Bushnell 10x25mm Legend Ultra HD Water Proof Roof Prism Binocular with RainGuard Twist-up, 5.4deg. Angle of View,

About Bushnell 10x25 Roof Prism

The Bushnell Legend Ultra HD 10x25 (190125) is a high-performance compact roof prism binocular with outstanding optics. Its lightweight yet rugged magnesium chassis and double hinged closed bridge affords this fine optic a trim profile, while ensuring years of dependable use. The Legend HD is configured with fully multicoated extra-low dispersion (ED) lenses for optimum optical performance. ED glass lenses offer an outstanding level of viewing performance providing amazing color rendition, enhanced resolution and vivid contrast while virtually eliminating chromatic aberration and color-fringing. The resulting views reveal distinct details that viewers with standard binoculars would miss out on.

Each lens is custom-coated with Bushnell's proprietary Ultra Wide Band coating system to maximize light transmission across the entire visible spectrum. This anti-reflective coating process optimizes each lens' brightness and contrast levels, while allowing colors to be rendered accurately. Finally, the exterior lens surfaces are treated with a water repellent RainGuard HD coating to minimize light dispersion from haze, mist, fog and rain.

This Legend HD sports a rugged yet lightweight and compact waterproof housing with a magnesium chassis. The interior is nitrogen purged and O-ring sealed for reliable all-weather service and a locking diopter is provided on the right ocular for individualized viewing comfort.

Bushnell 10x25 Roof Prism Features

  • BaK-4 roof prisms
  • ED Prime glass
  • Ultra Wide Band Coating
  • RainGuard HD water-repellent lens coating
  • Waterproof/fog-proof
  • Fully multi-coated optics + PC-3 Phase Coated prism
  • Twist-up eye cups

Bushnell 10x25 Roof Prism Specifications

Prism Type
Objective Lens Diameter
25 mm
Angle of View
285' @ 1000 yd / 94.62 m @ 1000 m
Minimum Focus Distance
6.0' / 1.83 m
Exit Pupil Diameter
2.5 mm
Eye Relief
15.5 mm
Focus Type
Tripod Mount
Lens Coating
Fully Multi
RainGuard HD
Prism Glass
Water/Fog Proof
Size Class
8.1 oz / 230 g

Bushnell 10x25 Roof Prism Reviews

Reviewed by 2 customers

Exellent choice

from Fl  -  Casual/ Recreational

This little binocular was everything I expected, and more! Now I can view from my home country balcony in Finland boats sailing by.

(2 of 3 customers found this review helpful)

Exactly what I needed

from Austin, TX  -  Avid Adventurer

Compact and light!

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JOHN T  new
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Kona Brewing Suggests Multi-Taskers Try Some 'Single-Tasking'

Delightfully toying with the ridiculousness of multi-tasking that has devoured the lives of "mainlanders," Kona Brewing is out with a new spot, Dear Mainland, featuring two Hawaiian brothers who think sitting in a meeting sending texts about another meeting where you'll send emails about the first meeting is, well, not so great.

The brothers think it's much better do do just one thing once in a while. And they have a wonderful name for it. Single Tasking. And, of course, it's best exemplified by having a Kona beer.

The ad, created by Duncan/Channon, closes with one of the brothers saying, One life. Don't blow it." Good point.

by Steve Hall    May-12-14   Click to Comment
Topic: Commercials

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Ladies Vacation, Doritos Bowls, Coupons Go Mobile, Sheen Pulled

- Ladies. Need to plan the perfect girls weekend? Expedia has the building blocks you need.

- Once again, Doritos is doing the consumer-generated Super Bowl commercial thing. Six finalists have been selected and their work can be viewed here.

- The Savannah College of Art and Design hosts the 2010 SCADDY Awards Friday, January 22, 6pm at the Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St. The SCADDY Awards honor excellence in advertising and the related fields created by SCAD students.

more »

by Steve Hall    Jan- 7-10
Topic: Games, Industry Events, Mobile/Wireless

Sick of Elf Yourself? Try Santa's Snow Globe

Elf Yourself! Elf Yourself! Elf Yourself! Sick of the annual OfficeMax insanity? Then you'll love this little game from Studio Tiga called Santa's Snowglobe. You get to pummel the elves with a snowstorm, shake them silly or have a reindeer kick the crap out of them. Glee.

by Steve Hall    Dec-21-09
Topic: Agencies, Games

Box Jocks, Dumb Ads, California Calls, Critter Crosses, Chrome Confused

- Box Jocks lets kids can design, download, print and build their own papercraft figure while learning about sports safety. It's sponsored by Levine Children's Hospital and Kohl's and was created by BooneOakley in Charlotte, NC.

- CNN Money has a list of the Dumbest Moments of the Decade. It includes Jay Leno's move to primetime, the Chris Farley DirecTV ad and the shake the baby iPhone app.

- Want to be in a California Tourism ad? Here's your chance.

- Want to play a game in which you help a cute little critter cross the river? Then check out Dodge to the Lodge from TAMBA Internet.

- Mullen's North Carolina office has been awarded the Men's Wearhouse and K&G Fashion Superstore accounts and the agency has promoted Group Creative Director Jason Black to Executive Creative Director.

- Can't Google explain anything simply? Apparently not.

- Provision thinks it has the answer to ad blindness.

by Steve Hall    Dec-15-09
Topic: Games, Video

Trivial Pursuit Wants to Know Who's Smarter. Men or Women

It's like America's Finniest Home Videos! Yup. Men and doing stupid/brainless/forgetful things. And Trivial Pursuit wants to keep score. It's to promote a big ass, online meta-game which, yes, pits men against women.

Currently, the men are winning. Ladies? You better head over to the website and fix that!

by Steve Hall    Nov- 2-09
Topic: Games

Cathay Apps, Subaru Gets Hyper, Dawn Saves, Homeless Advertise

- Haven't we seen this Chinchilla crap before?

- Cathay Pacific wants you to "Meet the Team" by using its new iPhone application.

- Subaru is out with a new DDB Canada-created commercial for its Legacy. It points to a site which launches next week and "features 3D audio technology using a new 'hypersonic' recording technique that mimics the hearing experience of a test drive."

- RockYou has teamed with Procter & Gamble's Dawn brand for the "Dawn Saves Wildlife" campaign to encourage consumers to join the movement through Dawn's Everyday Wildlife Champions Facebook fan page.

more »

by Steve Hall    Sep-17-09
Topic: Cause, Commercials, Games, Industry Events, Mobile/Wireless

Effies Call, Bourbon Quizes, Hocky Moms Fight

- Entry materials for the 2010 Effie Awards are now available on www.effie.org. The On-Time Effie entry deadline is October 14, with the last chance to enter set for November 4.

- On September 23 at the Yale Club of New York, MediaPost will host its Creative Media Awards.

- 72andSunny is out with an online and offline campaign for the newest 2K Sports video game, NHL 2K10 featuring three hockey moms who take out their aggressions, and take on NHL pros, with their favorite party game, NHL 2K10.

more »

by Steve Hall    Sep-15-09
Topic: Games, Industry Events, Opinion

Serious Sam's WTF of the Week, Maybe of The Year

Polygons per krundle people. Pick a sterotype and it's all her, here. Texas' own Beef and Sage created this trailer for the soon to be released gaming title Serious Sam HD from Croatia's own Croteam. They also have another version of this spot which will be released when this thread hits 100 comments. Won't you please help? (Below.) If you need to cleanse the palette, there's this real trailer too.

more »

by Bill Green    Sep- 1-09
Topic: Commercials, Games

Remember the Svedka Fembots? Now You Can Become One

We're written a lot about Svedka Vodka and their fembot-based ad campaigns. For the most part, they've been good (to be sure, you'll have to check the archives). We've even begun drinking the stuff. Why? It's half the price of Grey Goose and just as good. At least we think so.

Anyway, the folks over at uber-awesome Barbarian Group, working with Oddcast, have put together the Svedka Bot Builder which, after uploading your face (from your computer, your webcam of from Facebook) and choosing what you want your bot body to look like (and even give it a drink to hold), lets you to turn it into an IM icon, a widget, make an e-card or send if to Facebook.

by Steve Hall    Jul-29-09
Topic: Brands, Games, Online

Finally! A Better Way to Manage Facebook Friends

Don't you wish you could do something more with your friends on Facebook that poke them, tag them or comment on their status updates? Well, thanks to the Deep Focus-created Facebook app Make A Friend Famous, now you can.

The application is a Fan page-based contest whereby friends take on the roles of Entourage's E and Vince and manage themselves to the top. People vote for the best client/ manager team and the winners get to appear on a billboard in LA and an all-expenses-paid trip to go see it.

Now stop working and go pretend you're E or Vince.

by Steve Hall    Jul-13-09
Topic: Cable, Games, Good, Promotions, Social

Elejump to Show Your Earth-Savvy

Heh, this is highLARity. For Sustrans, which campaigns for sustainable transport in the UK by promoting a bike-or-walk commute, Rubber Republic launched Elejumper.

The object of the advergame is to build enough steam for the elephant to slide onto a ramp with sufficient momentum to get himself to work. Probably the best part about it is you can hit space bar mid-flight to flap his ears, and if you flap them while he's on the ground he kind of just lays there, thumping pathetically. Oh how we LOLed.

The game's objective is to promote Sustrans' Change Your World 2009 challenge, where, for the week beginning June 29th, people are invited to swap their cars out for more earth-friendly transport. If all car users do it for just one day, traffic is expected to go down 20% that week.

Pledge your support at the Change Your World site or at the end of the game.

by Angela Natividad    Jun-17-09
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Events, Games

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El Paso, Texas
United States
Last Activity: > 3 months ago

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Let us enjoy the moment

About myself
Have not the size but the ability to adapt in situation

The person I would like to meet
Someone who can make me desire her for all motives

About my work
Always a given

What do you like to do for fun/hobbies?
Have fun with a female

My idea of a great date
A motel or hotel

If you are divorced/widower, you can talk about how that happened here.
Nope has not happened

What is your fantasy vacation?
The moon

What is your academic background?
College dropout at least not high school dropout

Where did you last vacation and did you like it?

What do you find attractive in people?

What do others do that irritate you?
Being uncool

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Search over 5000 Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech Therapy Jobs.

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Job Details

  • Job: Physical Therapist in ID
  • Market: Perm
  • Dated: May 26th, 2015
  • Job ID: 46763
  • Location: Pocatello, ID
  • Contact: Therapy Recruiter
  • Office: (800) 330-7711

Advanced Medical has a Physical Therapy job in Pocatello, ID available. The ideal candidate will have experience working in a setting. Essential duties and responsibilities of the physical therapist include providing skilled therapy services and interventions in accordance with Physician orders, assessing patients functional limitations, developing a plan of care consistent with the rehabilitation goals of the patient and participating in the interdisciplinary team.

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Bahamas Sailing Adventure Cruise

Set sail for new horizons on a barefoot cruise in the Bahamas. On the 125-foot schooner Liberty Clipper you'll explore the Out Islands of the Bahamas from this majestic windjammer. You'll be welcomed aboard by expert crew who are there for your safety and enjoyment. From qualified Captains to wonderful cooks, they are there to make your Caribbean cruise fun and memorable. You can choose to get involved with the sailing of the ship by taking the helm or hoisting the sails, or just relax and watch that watery part of the world float by as you cruise the Bahamas Out Islands on a Windjammer Cruise.

Day 1

Embark in Nassau

Arrive in Nassau on your independent international flight. Catch a cab from the airport for boarding of your sailing vessel, the Liberty Clipper, at 5pm. Enjoy a Captain's Welcome Reception this evening and get settled in for your Caribbean sailing adventure.

Days 2-6

Sailing the Bahamas

The Liberty Clipper never has a fixed itinerary, enabling the Captain to chart a course for the best wind and weather. As a result, each departure is a little different. The principal islands that the ship will visit may include Eleuthera Island, the Exumas, and many smaller, unnamed islands.

The following is a sample itinerary:

The Exumas are an archipelago of 365 cays and islands which begin just 35 miles southeast of Nassau. Great Exuma Island, together with the Exuma Cays, offers an amazing variety of possibilities for all water sports. Hidden coves, bays, and harbors throughout are magnets for yachts and sport fishermen. Many of the unnamed beaches and coves of the islands, including extensive offshore reef areas, are included in the protected Exuma National Land and Sea Park of the Bahamas National Trust. Some of the islands on which there are permanent residents and resorts include Staniel Cay (home of the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, a fixture in the Exumas), Fowl Cay, Musha Cay and Iguana Cay. Thunderball Grotto, located just a few hundred yards off Staniel Cay, is one location where the James Bond film Thunderball was filmed. Sandy Cay, just a short boat ride from Little Exuma, was the location used for filming the Pirates of the Caribbean beach scenes!

Eleuthera, one of the Bahamas' 'Outer Islands,' is 110 miles long and just a few miles wide. The island faces the Atlantic Ocean on its east side, and the Great Bahama Bank on its west. Eleuthera started as a coral reef, but unlike many of the islands, its terrain is quite hilly, with some hills as high as 100 feet. The shoreline varies from pink sand beaches to large coral outcroppings extending into aquamarine and azure waters. Eleuthera's many beaches are considered among the best in the Bahamas. Today, Eleuthera is like an island lost in time, much less developed than Nassau, Freeport or the Abacos. Life moves at a slower pace on the island, with only 8,000 inhabitants, and a focus on vacationing.

Day 7

  • Breakfast

Disembark in Nassau

Enjoy a final meal aboard the Liberty Clipper and disembark for your continued journey home.
 Standard CabinPremium CabinPrivate Bath
Drink Pass (soda/water): $50 per person
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Drink Pass (soda/water): $50 per person
Drink Pass - Full Bar: $150 per person
Port Fees: $236.25 per person
All rates are posted are per person based on double occupancy. A select number of premium cabins are available for an additional fee.

Singles can opt for willing to share at the same rate, or a single supplement of 50%.

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- Cruise fares do not include port taxes, an additional 5% fee.
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Clear appreciation

February 15, 2014
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I just wanted to thank a gentleman on Minerva Street. He has used his snow blower and cleared the sidewalks on both sides of the street for almost the entire block. He also has cleared the walkways leading from the sidewalk to the houses. He has done this after each snow storm we have gotten this year. I just wanted him to know that I appreciate it!

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Adopt a friend

Sheba is a 4 1/2-year-old Brindle pit mix. She was a beloved family dog, but unfortunately her owners lost their home. She has had lots of training, is housebroken, and walks well on a leash. She will make an easy transition into a new home. She is a sweet dog and would make a great family companion. Gerri Sorkin photo.

Meet Cindy, Sheba and other dogs and cats at the Mendocino Coast Humane Society,?19691 Summers Lane in Fort Bragg.?The shelter is open Monday through Saturday, noon until 5 p.m. For information, call 964-7729, check the blog link at, the MCHS Facebook page, and/or


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WATCH: Pro-Equality Judges Need Plumbing Lessons, Says Louie Gohmert

By Trudy Ring

Originally published on January 16 2014 7:35 PM ET

Texas congressman Louie Gohmert added to his record of outrageous and bizarre antigay remarks Wednesday, when he said that judges who rule in favor of marriage equality “need some basic plumbing lessons.”

Gohmert made the comment at “Conversations With Conservatives,” a monthly event hosted by the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank based in Washington, D.C., for conservative politicians to meet with the media. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota was there to get some shots in at marriage equality as well.

When asked about recent court rulings striking down barriers to same-sex marriage, Gohmert said the judges’ attitude seems to be “basically, we haven’t seen any biological evidence to support marriage being between a man and a woman.”

“They need some basic plumbing lessons,” he said of such judges. “For one omnipotent, omniscious, ubiquitous federal judge who is wise beyond his education to say — to make such a declaration about the law, I think, requires revisiting by each state and compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Bachmann denounced President Obama for his decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, a key portion of which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer. “The legacy of Barack Obama will be of the establishment of lawlessness in the United States,” she said.

She also likened Obama and pro–marriage equality judges to ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, “who all of the sudden declared that his edicts were not appealable to a court.”

Watch a clip of Gohmert, Bachmann, and Rep. Steve King of Iowa at the forum, courtesy of The Raw Story.


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10,000 Strong Against Preacher Sean Harris

A group called Faithful America is circulating a message that condemns antigay pastor Sean Harris, who advocated punching gay-acting children in a recent sermon.

The letter, entitled "Abusing Gay Children Is Not Christian," has received over 10,000 signatures, according to the Faith in Public Life website. The statement reads, "Faithful Christians are appalled by Pastor Sean Harris’s hateful tirade urging violence against gay and lesbian youth. Violence and child abuse can never be justified by the teachings of Jesus Christ. All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, should be assured in church that they are beloved children of God." Read more here.

After audio of Harris's sermon leaked online, the North Carolina preacher said he did not mean to offend the LGBT community. You can watch his speech here and judge for yourself.

Tags: Religion


text:
Older blog entries for MikeCamel (starting at number 42)

Hey, Denny - the Posse love you! So - do we know the whole story yet? Are you prosecuting? Were the police helpful? Did she run out of bricks, or what? (-;
-The Bursar.

Mike who?
Got one of those wierd emails today, to one of my lesser known accounts (very little spam, thank heavens), from a guy called Mike Adams. Turns out that he's changed his email address, but at least he gave me a form to send him SMS messages. And enough information to track down his web pages. Seems like a nice enough bloke, lots of pictures of him and his wife, etc., but I have to admit that I don't know him from Adam. Which, I guess, is quite ironic.

Fallen Angel
Wrote some javadoc comments for Fallen Angel (the distributed trust engine that I've alluded to before) last night, and it's going to take more time than I thought. Must get in touch with raph to tell him about it at some point, I suppose.

Want a dog, want one now. The Newfoundland Club have us down for a rescue, but nothing yet. Sad. It seems that Kate (my mother-in-law) has latched onto our having a dog (though, as she rightly points out, they're more the size of ponies) as an alternative to her having grandchildren for now. However, as we don't seem to be about to produce either for her in the near future, I guess she's going to have to wait a while.

Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea is good, but it's far from my favourite. If you're looking for other short fiction by him, try "The Snows of Kilimanjiro", which I have down as the best short story ever written. For longer works, "The Sun Also Rises", and "For Whom the Bell Tolls". I get annoyed with him after a while (and he's not exactly great with female characters), but he writes dialogue like noone before or since.

Was supposed to go to a work summer party on Sunday, but the weather was so nice that Catherine wanted to stay at home and garden, so I stayed at home and read (and moved things in the garden from time to time). Beautiful weekend, and two great barbecues. Was going to write some code for Fallen Angel, but it was too lovely outside.

I've been thinking about getting a standalone Access Point, as the PCI card I'm using doesn't really have the range I need to get around our (fairly large) house with any decent bandwidth (or at all, in some places). However, as I've just had a buy a new printer to replace the one that I've given to Catherine because the XP drivers for her old one are so cr*p, I might hold off on this for a while. I'll either go with the Netgear ME102 or the Buffalo Airstation WLA-L11G - any comments about using these with Linux systems (specifically on ease of admin) would be appreciated.

CUP's all well and good, but I'm not sure I'd be worshipping it! I worked there for a while, and hmmm. Be aware that the Pitt building in the centre of Cambridge isn't where the real work gets done - that's in the Edinburgh Building, out on Shaftesbury Road. Just a note - I created their website in 1994 - we were the first UK publisher with one, and one of the first 20 publishers in the world with one. It was still in the times of "if you build it, they will come". How are you enjoying the UK?

Wrote a job spec. for a role I'd like to fill today. It started off as a discussion document, but someone suggested I stop beating around the bush, as there's clearly a need for it. Security ... We'll see.

A bunch of mates from where I used to work got told yesterday that 10% of them will be laid off. They should hear by the end of tomorrow. Decimation, literally (although people tend to use the word to mean very few people left, it came from the Roman army's practice of executing one out of ten men in disgraced units). Morale's low (surprise, surprise), but I hope that none of my friends are in too much danger. They're "considering their options" (read "looking/asking around for new jobs) anyway, but the market's not good ATM.

8 Jul 2002 (updated 8 Jul 2002 at 11:46 UTC) »
It's our seven year wedding anniversary today! Not an itch in sight, and we're both very happy (well, I am, and she says she is!). We had to be up at 6:15am this morning so that Catherine could get to London in time, and as a result, it was only when she texted me on the way to work that I realised that we'd both forgotten! Presents later.

As I finally moved our CDRW from Catherine's machine to mine (hers runs WinXP, which doesn't seem to want to burn any CDs at all), and I've been reading lots of security books recently, I thought it was high time I did some backing up of data. So I made an image (mkisofs), and then tried to burn it to a clean CD (cdrecord). Hang, big time. Button at the front of the box big time.

So, next time, try it as root. No obvious reason - just thought I would. Same problem. Reboot, try it from the command line, without going into X (sometimes X gets upset, in my experience, and won't respond to the appropriate 3-finger salute). Hang. Same, as root. Hang. Time to do some searching on the 'Net.

And it turns out that if you've got your CDRW hooked up to an off-board IDE card (mine's a Promise one), some people have big problems. So, I think, let's try moving my HDDs to the IDE card, and my CDRW to the onboard. Much swearing and pulling and pushing of connectors, then power and reboot. Machine doesn't immediately find boot partition (which is fair), and tries to use BOOTP. Interesting - I escape it. It finds LILO (which surprises me), and the boot partition. However, it panics on not being able to find the root partition, which is also fair. I'd wondered whether the ide bus had a direct mapping to hd* devices, and now I know.

Pull machine apart again, reattach HDDs to old IDE interface, move other drives around. Reboot - machine comes up. Spend some time changing soft links in /dev, checking /etc/fstab, and then try cdrecord. Joy. So, in the hopes that others will find this account useful, here's something for the search engines to fix on:
"cdrecord CDRW IDE card Promise hang".

Remember I said that I'd gone to see Catherine down in Sussex, because she was unwell? Well, I picked it up, and was up at 4am on Saturday morning throwing up and the rest. Not the nicest weekend, and I must have been mad to agree to see the parents-in-law on Saturday. Oh well, I did spend most of the day asleep in the car while they walked around Stamford, and they did give me a well-done present for passing the MBA, so it wasn't all bad.

being a good husband/friend
Catherine's away in Sussex (about 1.5-2 hours drive away) at the moment, on work. I was working from home today, and she phoned to say that she was ill - nothing life-threatening, but not at all well. I told her to go back to the hotel, and to bed, and offered to come down. She told me to stay where I was. Spoke to her again a bit later (she'd at least gone to bed), and she wasn't sounding any better. So I hopped in the car, which made me very popular indeed when I turned up at the hotel room an hour and forty-five minutes later. I'm home again now (she didn't fancy waking up extra early so that I could get to work near enough to 9am), but it's nice just to do the right thing from time to time. That's love, that is, and I feel happier knowing that she's not dangerously ill.

Well, isn't grip better behaved with ide-scsi? Certainly is. The extra 512Mb of RAM may be helping, but the CPU usage seems well down, and I can now listen to oggs via XMMS and rip at the same time, and even get stuff off the modem(*), which is a huge improvement. Still a bit jerky typing from time to time, but that's all part of the fun. So, my recommendation is that you definitely run grip with ide-scsi (unless you already have a SCSI cdrom drive). Don't forget to add /dev/sg0 (or appropriate) in the config, and to give the appropriate group access to this device (generic SCSI).

(*)Note - after some experimenting, this bit turns out to be rather less true than I'd hoped...

interest rankings
These are new since I was last here. Interesting to see them in action. Important not to regard them as "I'm a good person" marks, of course. I was rather a karma wh*re on /. - until I got to 50, of course. So I'd better try to be sensible about them this time.

Independence Day
As a Brit, this is a bit of an odd thing for me (glad to let you have your independence, chaps, if that's the way you treat good tea, etc.). However, I recognise the importance of the day to Americans (USAmericans, that is), and it's sad to see that it's been spoilt by a shooting in Los Angeles airport. I hope that the rest of the day goes well, and safely.

Scary, scary, scary. I should have included, in my last entry, which was around New Year, a resolution to keep posting to Advogato, which I haven't done. Well, hopefully I'm going to start again. I've managed to finish an MBA (how many m*n*g*rs on Advogato, let alone MBAs?), and now I'm thinking hard about what I want to do. Probably security consultancy - I've got a good technical grasp of the technical issues, and I'm commercial enough to deal with the business issues. Well - let's hope.

It's been good to spend some time (virtual) with the Posse - thanks guys! What else have I done? Well, the new (debian) box is up and running, 802.11b is working, I've now got a gig's worth of RAM, a GeForce 3 Ti200 and a 17" TFT, which makes sitting in front of a machine lots more fun.

I also thought very hard about starting a new company, and decided not to. The other guy involved agrees that we should open-source the software instead, which I think is very positive. I with I could pretend that it was because we care, but it's more about lack of funding - sorry. Give us some time to get our thoughts together, but let me give you a preview - it's about groups and communities, and democratically securing them. Believe me, it's nice, and the crypto works (I wrote it, and it _still_ works!).

Last but not least - all of my emails are now signed - I finally got gpg up and running. Mike Bursell, MikeCamel - you'll find the key in the obvious place. Should we support signing in Advogato?

Good to be back - I'll try to keep this up.

Happy New Year in just a few hours. Resolutions?

  • more coding - particularly in C
  • try to get that PhD proposal accepted
  • work more from home
  • new box + debian
  • some other ones concerning my wife which are none or your business. (-8

I hope that you all have a happy and prosperous New Year.

This is probably it for a few days because, like others here, I'll be away from a decent network connection over Christmas. Off to my parents in Somerset, and then Catherine's, near Loughborough. Many Scousers expected.

Why, oh why, oh why can't I get my Prism 2 cards working? Not on Win98 (not my first choice), not under Linux. I've just moved to 2.4.17, and there's supposed to be support, but I'm having problems with CardBus dependencies on kernel compile. Not the slightest idea. Heigh-ho. Need to get some sort of network sorted for when we knock through into the new house, and at the moment it looks like it might be a matter of drilling through. Not a good thing.

I don't usually play politics too much, but for the first time in my life I felt strongly enough about something yesterday to write to (email) my MP (member of parliament ~= senator?). Under the new Terrorism Act which the UK government has just pushed through, the police can imprison foreign nationals without telling them what the charges are against them. I find this suspension of the ancient right of habeus corpus not only concerning, but also a disgusting move. I believe that the state has a duty to protect its citizens, but this is not acceptable. So, I emailed my MP - I feel quite virtuous for caring enough, and doing something about it.

Christmas and New Year
A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you. To those of you who don't celebrate the Christian festivals, or for whom New Year occurs at a different time, may you enjoy the season with your loved ones, and have a relaxing and fulfilling time. Advogato counts as family, now, so I'm sorry not to be spending it with all (well, some!) of you, too.

Finally finished Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". It was a good time for me to read it (although it occurred to me that any time would probably have been a good time to read it), and I wish that I had a little more time just to chill and think about it. Unluckily, I've got an assignment for my MBA which I need to be getting started on. ZatAoMM was good reading: I've been doing quite a lot of work on "knowledge" recently (partly for the MBA), and it slotted some of it into place. If only it had taught me a little more about motorcycles, too. (-8

Office party on Friday night was good, and we didn't get to bed too late. Spent Saturday morning present shopping, and had a nice rest of weekend, including leaving Moo to do the wrapping (at her suggestion), doing a big recycle run (how do we get through so many bottles?), more MBA work, a post-wedding party on Sunday evening (ridiculous time for it), tuning my pppd on-demand settings (now connect at 50+kpbs, was around 19kbps), and stuff. Life seems good.

dwmw2 - the very suggestion that I, a pedant myself, would mix up license and licence. Ridiculous. Please reread my post and pay a little more attention this time.

Lovely Advogato
Advogato is lovely, isn't it? There's the trust metric, the diaries, the articles, and the community aspect, too. My particular favourite in terms of features is the "Edit" function on diary entries...

Office Christmas do
Off in a few minutes. 578 people going. Catherine's made it abundantly clear that if it's cold (it's not risen above freezing today) she is not going to be at all happy. Heigh-ho.

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Recent blog entries for vab

It's been a while since I've been on Advogato. There's not a whole lot of new stuff going on in my life. I'm still working as a sysadmin. As I've gotten older, I've gotten a lot more interested in making money and a bit less interested in free software. So, most of what free time I've been able to find recently has been spent on commercial projects and stock/options trading software. Work at my day job has been super busy. But, it's finally starting to kinda slow down now.

I just released a new version of passgen. Mostly it was because some of the users I support have been having trouble with homoglyphs. This release adds the ability to suppress homoglyphs and force either upper or lower case.

I've been learning a lot about image processing, vision, and AI, for a project I'm working on. I've been spending most of my time working on code that uses openCV. I want to give the openCV people big props - amazing job guys it's one of the cleanest, clearest, and most robust libraries I've ever used. It's saved me *so much* time and effort.

I've finally released a new version of the PGP Keysigning Party HOWTO.

I've also now gotten the vast majority of things properly redundant and mostly automated at work. So, I'm finding myself with much more time for such things.

26 Apr 2007 (updated 26 Apr 2007 at 19:56 UTC) »

I've started a new vertical blog on cryptography, called CryptoWatch, and started back-populating it. There's just under 50 entries now. There's obviously tons and tons of other stuff that I need to back load. But, I keep getting busier and busier with other stuff. So, I'm letting people know it's there now in case I don't get back to it for a while. I am keeping an eye on all the crypto related journals, blogs, mailing lists, etc... as I had been before I started CryptoWatch. I will post anything note worthy that passes in my periphery.

CryptoWatch is basically meant to highlight the announcement of technological and mathematical advancements that may impact decisions about the use of cryptographic systems. I hope that it will be a great way to stay informed about bleeding edge advancements in fields that effect cryptosystem, algorithm, key length, and expiration date choices. I'll also try to help keep you keep abreast of the state of emerging disruptive technologies like quantum computation.

If you decide to become a reader, I hope that you enjoy it.

27 Aug 2006 (updated 9 Apr 2013 at 00:59 UTC) »

Current mood: busy

Entry tags: cryptography, linux, mit, pgp, security

Speaking at BLU@MIT Sept. 20th 2006

I'm speaking at The Boston Linux Users group on the topic of PGP encryption before a keysigning party. The talk will be given @ MIT E-51 rm 335.

Register your key and drop on by if you'd like to help us build the web of trust. Fun will be had by all. Well, at least the math geeks anyway.

I really need to sit down and force myself to update the PGP Keysigning Party HOWTO. That's officially my mission for today.

A web of trust:

Current mood: nerdy

Current music: 3 Doors Down - If I Could Be Like That

Entry tags: books, library

After seeing it in xach's journal, I set up an account for myself on LibraryThing. LibraryThing is basically a kind of mix between a Social Networking site and a Recommendation Engine. You put in all the books you own and it will tell you who else also has those books, let you add reviews and ratings, tag your books, give you interesting statistics on your collection, and recommend other books you might like to read. I left my data public, so anyone can take a peak at my collection of books or my profile on the site.

My reaction to seeing my books all listed out like that was "OMG, I'm such a NERD! I'm never going to get laid!". I have them spaced out around the house and many of them stacked at odd angles, some with their spines facing the wall, to keep me from having that reality brought into my consciousness. 8-)

I signed up though cause I need to starting reading again. I need to find some new books I might like. The world's changing. I need something new. Pretty much, the only things I've read in the last five to seven years that weren't online were text books and certification study guides. I've kind of been in this over focused rut. I have done much of anything but work-work (stuff for $ or other people) and waste time. I'm not sure if there's any irony in the fact that rut is a homonym that's alternate meaning is the breeding season for cervids. Probably, if I was vulgar enough to disclose how I've been wasting my time. haha

Here's my Author Cloud:

And here's my Tag Cloud

I have a huge number of books that no one else has. Disclosing stuff about myself always makes me feel like I'm weird because of stuff like that. Hakank has the most books in common with me, closely followed by dkennedy.

27 Aug 2006 (updated 27 Aug 2006 at 12:22 UTC) »

MIT is amazing. I'm super inspired. I have lots of big news to post, but haven't had time. Big stuff coming soon.

Some little other stuff:

* I'm speaking at HOPE Number Six. Let me know if you're going to be there and you wanna grab a beer.

* I have some new LDP stuff/HOWTO's coming out soon

* Bill Gates is wicked freakin' awesome

* Bank of America sucks. I got hit with an overdraft because MIT messed up my first paycheck and it took BoA four days to clear a check from them to them! Four days for their own check! grrr

* I'm walking in the Autism Research Walk on June 17th (tomorrow). It's an issue that obviously very close to my heart. If you could sponsor/give a few bucks, and even consider walking in on of their other walks this year I'd really appreciate it. Click here to contribute.

New Job

I've taken a new job at MIT. I'll start work there next month. I hope that it will not only enrich me intellectually, but stimulate me to begin making some more significant contributions to the free software community.

I came to my last job mostly for a girl, so I have no strong regret about it - oh, she was soo beautiful! =) But, I have dissappointed myself with my recent lack of productivity. With a slow pace at work, it's very difficult to keep a fast pace at home. I'm hoping that a fast pace at work will translate into, or at least encourage, a fast pace at home. It may have just been the youth, but in my younger days this seemed be the case.

I'm greatly looking forward to the move to Boston. I've rented a place in Southie, also known as "Little Ireland", which will allow me to take the T to work every day - no more driving for me. That's going to be a very nice change.

Unfortunately, my boss took the week of St. Pat's for vacation so I won't be able to be up there for the parade since I'm covering at work. But, I'm looking forward to the little break inbetween jobs anyway. I'm going to try and make a trip to Ireland and Germany to visit some friends before I start work.

Many years ago I used to hate Bill Gates - passionately. I had a job working for a pediatric cancer research group writing Java Applets to support clinical trials when Microsoft released their own JVM and caused me endless problems and many hours of lost productivity.

Later, I had a job building a single signon infrastructure for a large University with AIX and Linux using MIT Kerberos when Microsoft released their broken version of Kerberos.

I'm starting to really like the guy and respect him allot, though. So, the head aches, lost hours of work, lost nights and weekends spent working around artificial problems - all forgotten. Water under the bridge. Perhaps, a large part of it is that I'm no longer a college kid and my world view has changed a great deal. I understand money much better now.

But the major thing is that I've been hearing a great deal about The Gates Foundation and what Bill Gates has been doing to try and help with the world's most serious problems. I'm especially impressed with, and grateful for, the Foundation's efforts in global health, particularly with vaccines. Gates and his foundation have played a roll in creating a nonprofit pharmaceutical company, and helped with the creation of the DATA organization. From listening to him and reading interviews, it's obvious he actually cares and is very well informed.

I never thought I'd say this, but... I'm going to start developing for the Microsoft platform! (I'll still be continuing to develop software and documentation for the Linux Platform, of course.)

I ordered a copy of Microsoft Studio Beta-2 from Microsoft. The web pages suggested that there would be a small charge for it. But there was none - I'm not sure if it's because I came from a .edu address, a Linux browser, or just that they're not charging. But, it's on its way. So wish me luck in the wild new world of MFC and .NET.

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Old 08-25-2009, 12:10 AM   #1
philofax OP
lifetime noob on wheels
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Joined: Oct 2007
Location: Munich, Germany
Oddometer: 424
Talking Grossglockner High Alpine Street .. Austria

A day off. I had to work on the weekend, so i got free days this week. Living 39
years in Bavaria, so i have been a few hundred times in Austria but never have
been to the famous "Grossglockner" and the "Hochalpenstrasse" going through
this wonderful Landscape. So i decided to spent a day and 18.- EUR. Yes, it's
18.- EUR to use the road. Till today i was not sure if this could be worth it.

Now i got my Sticker. In other words, i've been there, rode the street 2 times
and i would do it again.

Starting yesterday morning at 0800h and it was foggy on my way to the alps.

but after a few kilometers, when reaching Bayrischzell, it clears up and i was
sure, this will be a fine, sunny day.

long story short ... rode through the "Wilder Kaiser" Region (Wild Emperor) to
the Toll Boothes of the Grossglockner, paid my 18.- EUR (second ride in the
same year for 4.- EUR) and started to see the Grossglockner and the dead
end at "Franz-Josef-Haus".

note the ADV Patch on the Sleeve ... ;) ok .. thank you.

RideReports - mostly Europe
The Grossglockner HighAlpine Street / Austria RideReport // 2009
How Nightmarion became an ADVRider a RR from Slovenia, Croatia and Italy 2009
Sardinia, the Italian beauty in fall 2009
A country a day keeps the boredom away, Ride Report / Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Germany Aug 2010
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Old 01-13-2013, 06:56 AM   #316
Casejeep OP
Studly Adventurer
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Joined: May 2011
Location: Lake Powell or Flagstaff
Oddometer: 739
Originally Posted by Sohere View Post
Bike looks great.Looking forward to see the tank with some crashbars!
Any idea where the previous owner got the rubber pads from that are on tank?
No Idea my man. Sorry about that!
MY F800 GS Build
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Old 01-15-2013, 08:15 PM   #316
Beastly Adventurer
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Joined: Mar 2007
Oddometer: 2,648
Originally Posted by almissoula View Post
I'm trying to plan a route to see the racetrack and saline warm springs (2 separate days of riding). And checking this link: I'm a little puzzled.

When I see that Saline road is 'posted closed' that means the closure is only a suggestion, right? My bike is too heavy to pull under a gate ;)
Inyo County translation ......

Road = You Are
Closed = on your own !

Don't call us for help.... (unless it's your life, not just stuck out there, not your bike or property!)

South Pass is pretty rough right now... How big of bike ?

Hunter Mountain is icy, so you'll probably have to go up Lippencott if you want to get to the Racetrack too...

If you're based out of Panamint and a good rider you can do it no problem on the big bikes..

Good Luck.

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Old 01-21-2013, 12:04 AM   #4040
Gnarly Adventurer
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Joined: Jun 2006
Location: USA
Oddometer: 465
Originally Posted by turbodieseli4i6 View Post
This is US mpg's with a 77.6 US mpg average.
My best was 76.3 mpg US, 670cc's 80.3 mpg US is hard to beat.
I should have added, it's hard for me to beat. There are a few that beat 80 mpg. I beleive 1 got 90 mpg +/- on his, but its hard to do that when your running late for work.
I still turn my head when I see a KLR on the road. Someday I will have a Killer or DR sitting beside the NC sitting beside my TW.
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Old 05-23-2013, 04:25 PM   #69
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Joined: Aug 2008
Location: At the bottom of your glass, staring back
Oddometer: 858
Originally Posted by ttpete View Post
Thr gun thing is moot, really. Convicted felons can't own firearms.
Convicted felons can't LEGALLY own firearms.

Felons certainly own firearms just as people with multiple DWI's and fatalities on their driving record continue to drive, even without a license.

Our society has been indoctrinated to not change unless change is forced upon them. There is no reward for simply being a good person and considering others; only punishment for not obeying the law.

"Click It or Ticket"
"Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over"
"Obey the Sign or Pay the Fine"

I staired a whole thru the breaks until I remembered the carb prolly has a problem to and I'm gonna hafta work on em.
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Is ‘Lust for Life’ the worst ad song ever?

Royalcaribbean_1Arnold Worldwide may have a recording of an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator answering phones at its New York office, but the Havas shop may have more in common with a different California governor—Ronald Reagan. Reagan, of course, famously used Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” as his campaign song in 1984. (Never mind lyrics like “Got in a little hometown jam/So they put a rifle in my hand/Sent me off to a foreign land/To go and kill the yellow man.”) Now, Slate readers are ridiculing Arnold client Royal Caribbean Cruises for a similar “incongruous soundtrack,” declaring “Lust for Life” by Iggy Pop to be the “Worst Ad Song Ever.” “Nothing says maritime comfort like a song about shooting up junk,” writes one reader. (Conveniently excised from the ad are these lines: “Here comes Johnny Yen again/With liquor and drugs/And a fast machine/He’s gonna do another strip tease.”) Also earning jeers: Wrangler’s use of CCR’s “Fortunate Son” and Mercedes’ use of Janis Joplin’s tongue-in-cheek “Mercedes-Benz.” The kicker? She drove a Porsche.

—Posted by Deanna Zammit

Photo: PR Newswire/Newscom

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Don Lupo to Head Digital Production at Dailey

By Kiran Aditham Comment

While we’re on the Deutsch LA tip today, thought we’d mention that its former VP, director of digital production Don Lupo has added the word “senior” to his title by joining up with IPG-owned, fellow LA-based shop Dailey. Lupo, who spent the past two years at Deutsch and worked on Volkswagen, HTC and PlayStation among other accounts, is “the perfect guy at the right time to help lead the rapid growth we’re experiencing in digital across all clients” according to Dailey president Tom Lehr.

Prior to Deutsch, Lupo spent over two years as senior interactive producer at DDB,  where he developed websites, ARGs and rich media campaigns for the likes of Activision, Epson and Wells Fargo. Now at Dailey, he will work on the digital side, of course , across the agency’s accounts including California Pizza Kitchen. Dailey, which handles strategy and creative for the 25-year-old restaurant chain, just broke a new OOH campaign for CPK, in fact. Its sister shop, Draftfcb Chicago, handles the Kitchen’s frozen pizza business.


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Wednesday Morning Stir

By Kiran Aditham Comment

-BBDO and MediaCom were among the big winners in creative and media, respectively, at the 2013 O’Toole Awards. link

-FYI, the Bees Awards, which focuses on social media marketing and currently has 52 countries participating in this year’s go-around, will wrap up call for entries on April 12. link

-We’ve been hearing about this for a few weeks, and now, Morristown, NJ-based agency GráficaGroup presents an animated clip about automated marketing (above). link

-Dentsu’s acquisition of Aegis Group is reportedly set to be complete by March 26. link

-The IAB is rallying against Mozilla and its intention to block third-party cookies. link

-Can Samsung really go toe-to-toe with the iPhone via its Galaxy S IV? link


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Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wins Twitchy’s ‘Deleted Tweet of the Day’ Award

By Richard Horgan Comment

The Georgia paper is the latest victim of an epic-fail attempt at edgy humor. On the heels of even The Onion finding out that this general racist territory is no place to joke.

Twitchy, as it so often does, quickly posted the screen grab and select Twitter reaction to the AJC‘s racist tweet. A few minutes ago, the paper shared this:

There are no details in the AJC‘s Twitter profile about which staffers operate the paper’s @ajc account. But no doubt, some disciplinary action will be directed at the individual responsible for trampling all over a reference that was more tastefully sourced for the name of Spike Lee’s production company.


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Fallon, Higgins Mine Monologue Gold from Drop-In Imaginary Friends

By Richard Horgan Comment

It’s turning out to be one of the great pleasures of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The insertion by Fallon into most every monologue of a recurring comedic-character impression. These imaginary friends are used as a punchline for subsequent monologue gags and also riffed on with deft expertise from the lectern by announcer Steve Higgins.

During one recent monologue for example, Fallon and Higgins triangulated around a big box electronics store wise guy. The sort of salesman who is aghast at anyone opting for medium-size flat screens, lower-end cable TV trappings and who reminds throughout his sales pitch that he’s got that Frozen sing-along Disney smash “right here!” On another occasion, Fallon and Higgins had tons of monologue fun with the idea of some cuckolded senior citizens reported to have left a measly seven-cent tip for their restaurant server.

Sometimes, the monologue “third man” is famous, like Vladimir Putin. In each monologue case, the wonderful rapport of Fallon and Higgins and the playful tone of their shared imitation helps cement the phantom sidekicks deal.

Another important aspect of these reoccurring monologue riffs is that the ways in which Fallon and Higgins occasionally crack up at their own and each other’s call-back efforts are completely charming to the eye and pleasurable to the ear. All in all, The Tonight Show‘s newest host-announcer combo has got your monologue bonus “right here!”

[Image courtesy: fallontonight.tumblr.com]

Previously on FishbowlNY:
Heeeere’s Eugene Lee Wood-Carved Manhattan Skyline


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FNC #3 Last Week in Cable Prime

By Chris Ariens Comment

Buoyed by political coverage that included a forum, a debate, and New Hampshire primary coverage, Fox News Channel was the third ranked cable channel in prime time last week. FNC was 5th in Total Day based on Total Viewers.

CNN ranked 13th in Prime and 21st in Total Day.

MSNBC ranked 28th in Prime and 31st in Total Day.

Click here to see the PDF…


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TVNewsers Starling and Alexander Tie the Knot

By Chris Ariens Comment

“Today” show correspondent Peter Alexander and WJLA main anchor Alison Starling are just about a week into their new life as husband and wife. Alexander and Starling married last Saturday on the roof of the Newseum in Washington, DC.

The couple met while they were both reporters in Seattle, he at KCPQ (FOX) and she at KIRO (CBS).

They remained friends after leaving the city, started dating and got engaged in Paris last August. AllDAY reports the DC couple is delaying the honeymoon until after the election.

(Photo: Greg Gibson Photography)


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Police Officer Sues WTMJ for Promo Showing Him Taking Money from Man at ATM

By Kevin Eck Comment

A Milwaukee police officer is suing WTMJ and Journal Broadcast Group saying the station promoted and aired a story that put him in a bad light even though the station knew he had done nothing wrong.

The lawsuit, filed by Officer Matthew Knight, says the Milwaukee NBC affiliate promoted and aired a story using surveillance footage showing Knight and what Milwaukee police say was a drunk Marine walking into a bank. The video shows the officer taking the man’s ATM card, punching in the man’s pin, withdrawing money, then counting the money out and leaving with the man.

The promo copy for the May sweeps story said, “It’s the video that has everyone talking. A Milwaukee police officer taking a man’s cash out of an ATM. Then walking off with that cash in hand. What’s really going on? The Milwaukee police department has some explaining to do.”

What the promo didn’t say was that police were called when a man broke a taxicab’s window.  The cabdriver said he would not press charges against the man if he paid $300 to repair the damage. The man and officer Knight went to the ATM where Knight helped the man withdraw the money and pay the cabbie.

While the promo didn’t say Knight had been cleared of any wrongdoing, the story did. Officer Knight had been cleared in an internal investigation two months before the story aired.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Knight is suing for “defamation of professional reputation.”

TVSpy reported in May, the Milwaukee Police Chief called a press conference the morning the story was scheduled to air to complain about the promo. “People deserve to know the truth,” said Chief Ed Flynn. “And I have no confidence that that truth will be known watching this TV story’s coverage of its own sweeps story.”

TVSpy has reached out to Steve Wexler, WTMJ executive vice president of television and radio operations for comment.  We will update when we hear back.


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Lairy’s Letter from Retreat

July 2005

During silent retreats, Adyashanti often shares letters written to him by the participants. The following is an excerpt from one such letter. We asked Lairy from Orinda, CA for permission to share it with you. An excerpt from Adya’s response is included.

Dear Adya,
This retreat represents an anniversary of sorts, as it was last September, while on retreat with you, that a profound change in the awareness that knew itself as Lairy seemed to occur, shattering the dream of “me.”

Last September during satsang, I became aware of a core belief regarding fear, and failure, and survival strategies that created this imagined identity, facilitating a seeing that penetrated and imploded this dream of “me.” The seemingly dramatic experience alternated between terror, disorientation, bliss, and an intense explosion of psychophysical bodily energy, for the better part of two months.

Ten days after the retreat while sitting and observing my feet, not recognizing them as mine, a single thought came, “Nice feet,” and in that moment everything stopped. Stillness made itself known in a most profound way. The first sense was, “I know this.” And instantly all the moments over the last thirty years when the stillness had shown up were remembered, recognized, and realized. Nothing was happening. There was no experience, just perfect stillness. It seemed as if all of creation—past, present, and future—was only brought into existence to facilitate pure beingness revealing itself to itself in that moment.

It’s been quite an unfolding, unraveling, undoing over the last year. Witnessing the bright quietness of this beingness outshining the lingering patterns of “me” has been and continues to be remarkable. The relationship awareness has with experience now is amazing. Experience is still arising as conditions, but it’s not happening to “me.” It’s as though someone turned up the volume of this silence.

And then there is this gratitude, this love. The sense is of receiving an incomprehensible gift. The giver and the receiver are the same, and still there is a movement to experience this beingness on a human level.

I don’t know who this letter is about; I don’t know who you are—only this feeling of deep gratitude and appreciation for how this beingness made itself known through or as the wisdom that is you.

Heart deep,

Adya’s Response

Thank you, Lairy. The truth is that this awakening is a mysterious thing. There isn’t a “how to”; it just happens.

My job is simply to hammer away relentlessly and ruthlessly at your ideas about yourself. Something inside all of us knows the truth of what we really are. Something in us knows. You don’t know how it knows, but something in you knows, and when its time is right, it starts to reveal itself. And something within us knows the fiction of who we have believed ourselves to be. Whatever the identity—good, bad, worthy, unworthy, smart, stupid—it starts to crumble and fall down. When its time is right it just falls apart.

When this happens, there’s a great tendency to try to put it back together, because it can be quite disorienting, quite strange. You may be wondering why you feel disoriented or your body energies are going wacko, or you can’t sleep at night for six months, or you have strange bouts of anxiety, followed by strange bouts of bliss. The mind may try to figure it out, put it back together. But your mind can’t make sense of this coming unglued, the fiction of you breaking apart at the seams.

The beauty is, as you wrote at one point in your letter, Lairy, “You come to trust how everything resolves itself.” This process knows what it’s doing. It knows what it’s doing much better than I know what it’s doing, and much better than you know what it’s doing. To wake up to this stillness is a gift. ~ Adyashanti


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The quadcopters are back in European airspace! Needless to say, innovation and testing have been going full speed ahead (and even a notch or two beyond) since the 2012 voestalpine Klangwolke. After all, the performance in Linz was just the beginning of the spaxels, a proof-of-concept as it were—though it did have what it takes to set a world record as the largest outdoor quadcopter formation flight.

Thanks to the global sensation the quadcopters launched online, the next big milestone show is set for Saturday night. Paramount Pictures has booked a spaxel flight to create some big-time buzz for “Star Trek – Into Darkness,” the next episode in the relaunch of the great Star Trek film series. In cooperation with the WWF, spaxels will highlight the start and finish of Earth Hour by forming a Star Trek logo in London’s night sky in the vicinity of Tower Bridge. Why London, you might ask? Well, we’ll spare you the spoiler. For now, let’s just say: you’ll find out when you see the flick.

You’re only reading about it now because everything was hush-hush before the big event. What follows is a travel diary. And since the quadcopters couldn’t make the trip from Linz across the Channel to England’s capital under their own power (or because there just wasn’t enough time for such a flight), the first log entry is the account of a bus trip.

But wait a minute. This journey actually ought to begin with an explanation of what a spaxel is! “At first, I didn’t even take them seriously,” said Daniel Gurda of Ascending Technologies, the Munich manufacturer of the Hummingbird, a remote-controlled, four-rotor mini-whirlybird also commonly known as a quadcopter, quadrocopter or drone. Nevertheless, these spaxels aren’t standard model Hummingbirds; customized software makes the flight characteristics of these babies considerably more stable than their off-the-shelf siblings; “to use the Hummingsbirds as pixels in an aerial 3D-Screen just seemed too crazy.”

The finding and insights of Futurelab engineers have gone into the development process that has made these quadcopters the top-of-the-line of drone aviation.

But what’s the Futurelab actually developing now? Aren’t these birds ready for takeoff already? Here too, the software is the key. The mission is to enable the Hummingbirds to create a formation—a logo, a symbol, an entire choreographed show—as precisely as possible.

It works like this: designers write a 3-D program that specifies a sequence of movements—shapes, animated images, a series of forms. Essentially, it’s produced just like an animated film, except that the pixels aren’t tiny points on a screen but rather illuminated physical devices hovering aloft.

The challenge is to translate the data into flight coordinates. To accomplish this, a computer processor gives the sequence of the choreographed movements and the spaxels report their positions via GPS and LPM (more about this in the next blog entry). And they do that very frequently, since the flight paths have to be executed with utmost precision. Wind and weather exert a big influence on flight patterns, so it’s essential to constantly monitor and correct the spaxels’ absolute position above ground as well as their position relative to each other.

And this is the masterly technical feat achieved by the Futurelab’s staff—actually rendering finely detailed patterns, and doing so outdoors. This is a challenge that few have faced, and far fewer have met even halfway successfully.

The location, aerial view

So now that everybody’s clued in about quadcopters, the journey—our long-promised bus trip—can commence. Well, let’s put it this way: it went uneventfully, and the crew and their Hummingbirds arrived in London intact. There, the first item on the agenda was an in-person inspection of the site where the quadcopters would take off. The verdict: fantastic! The advance word had been that the location was right on the river, immediately adjacent to the Tower Bridge, good visibility, in the heart of London. But it turned out to not be like the hyperbole-puffed text in a brochure for some dodgy hotel: the takeoff area actually was a stone’s throw from the Thames, and if the sun ever came out in England, the Tower Bridge would literally cast a shadow on the spaxels. The crew was tickled pink!

It’s been already mentioned that the Tower Bridge is not far off, right?

Location-Check: Done! Next up: Food!

The next piece of good news arrived that same evening: Daniel Gurda and Jan Stumpf from Ascending Technologies showed up with new software that helps to even further improve the Hummingsbirds’ stability aloft. So there are two brains inside each one of these wondrous pieces of equipment. One was developed by the Futurelab, and its job is, so to speak, the creative aspect of the flight, the so-called high-level operations including communication with the server, the color changes by the LED lights, the navigation, etc. The second processing unit was set up by Daniel and his buddies at Astec; it enables the quadcopters to execute their aerial maneuvers and thus controls the low-level operations that keep the Hummingbirds on course.

The Hummingbird in all it’s glory!

The Munich-based enterprise’s R&D staff was hard at work over the last few weeks in a concerted effort to even further enhance the quadcopters’ performance. The latest tweaks include removing a few software routines that are very practical in the case of manual or semi-manual flight but aren’t at all helpful when it come to formation flight.

The two processing units work together closely and interdependently. You could compare it to driving a car—the brain issues the orders; the hands and feet are responsible for carrying them out.

The development process itself has been a tandem flight. Ascending Technologies made the developer kit available to the Futurelab, and prior to the London show, developers from both partners spent four days together in Munich. Completely isolated from the outside world, they optimized operations, eliminated errors, and made considerable progress upgrading the software.

Last modification are performed on the quadros.

The quadcopters were flashed with the new firmware, enhanced and prepped to take off on their final test flights. Now, the only potential hindrance is weather that’s simply too nasty. The whole production crew assembles for a banquet. The combined Futurelab & Ascending crew is looking forward to the day leading up to the main event.

Every Hummingbird has it’s own spot.

The weather is English: moderately dry and windy. The test flights begin with the takeoff of one of the Hummingbirds, Renly, to find out how strongly the gusts affect the flight path of the quadcopters. And once again the news is good: the performance is excellent, even at a wind speed of 30 km/h and much more. Only the battery output is slightly subpar, so the software modifications are really paying dividends now.

All set!

To make things a bit easier, a few modifications are carried out on the quadcopters as well as the lighting unit on each one. The transparent hemisphere that protects the LEDs is replaced by a truncated cap, and the landing struts are removed, which means that the Hummingbirds will be lying on their belly when they take off. All of this improves the aerodynamics by giving the wind as little opportunity as possible to get into the act. The batteries breathe a sigh of relief.

Up, up in the air!

Back at the hotel that evening, the day’s test flights are evaluated. Under extreme conditions, the Hummingsbirds came through with flying colors. Confidence prevails, since the forecast is for the wind to subside before the show goes on.

It is warm and sunny…

Saturday, the big day, the time to put up or shut up, begins with a shock: it’s snowing. It’s late March in London and even the locals are visibly taken aback. Light rain doesn’t exactly facilitate flying, and snow’s even worse. The communication between the server and the quadcopters is adversely affected; the GPS positioning becomes less accurate; the flight conditions are riskier. Some consolation is provided by a weather forecast calling for the precipitation to taper off and the wind to diminish by evening. But the crew is facing a long, chilly day posing a challenge to body and mind. The preparations have to be carried out with the utmost precision. This show demands supreme concentration by everyone involved.

Horst Hörtner and Daniel Gurda discuss last minute matters

The start grid is adjusted to the facts & circumstances on the ground. The park from which the quadcopters will be taking off isn’t big enough to accommodate the regular starting formation, but that’s no big deal. The Hummingsbirds get a final adjustment: a shipment of harder rotor blades flown in from Munich to improve the flight characteristics ever so slightly.

Once they’re installed, all that’s left to do is to wait. On one hand, the snowflakes persist in playing the party-pooper role; on the other hand, construction work is in progress on the neighboring parcel, and safety considerations dictate waiting for the all-clear.

One last item is added to the spaxel checklist: set up patio heaters. Oh, to be in England before April’s there (as Robert Browning might have said)! We’re all chilled to the bone; tea and other liquid refreshments are used to banish the cold.
Finally, the snow lets up. The test flights can begin. Each Hummingbird is individually checked to make sure all modifications and adjustments were done properly.

Minutes before take-off

Bevor es ernst wird, wird nochmal der Zeitplan besprochen, jeder Handgriff muss sitzen, das Zeitfenster, um die Formation, um das Star Trek – Logo zu fliegen, ist nicht gerade groß.

At 7 PM, the preparations are in the home stretch. The weather is good—the Brits might call it spring-like. The reconnaissance drone ascends to measure wind speed and direction at the altitude at which the quadcopters will be performing. Its flight behavior makes it possible to draw conclusions that are essential for planning the series of maneuvers that make up the show. Good news: everything’s A-OK. Green lights across the board. All systems are GO!

Es geht los

It’s 8:15 pm, and the show is about to start: All quadrocopters are set up and switched on, they can’t wait for the signal to take off, and that goes for the crew as well. The Hummingsbirds lift off into the sky according to plan, the rise up to their positions, they light up, and then it’s there: A gigantic version of the Star Fleet – Emblem flies right next to the Tower Bridge, overpowering the river Themse and drawing eyes from all of London. When the Paramount’s camera-crew is asked via cb wheter they got the shot and the answer is yes, the crew and crowd goes crazy. Euphoria, pride, knowing to have delivered an excellent performance, all those feelings create a beautiful cocktail of emotions. But enough words, see for yourself what you’ve missed:

En route to the final formation

Live long and prosper!

Print-Ready photographs of the event at Flickr

Shiny, happy people! The quadcopter-team was visited by people of Ars Electronica, you don’t want to miss out on a show like this.

A great way to come back to the Futurelab!

Now, if you want to have a similar show for say your birthday-party, head to the website of Ars Electronica Solutions.