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Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Joshua King
Posted: February 8th, 2016 ˑ Filled under: Biology, COS News, Faculty News, News, Staff News, Top News, UCF News ˑ
Growing up in a rural community in New England, Joshua King, Ph.D., entomologist and associate professor in the Department of Biology, began his exploration in the life sciences as many children do: outdoors. With a voracious curiosity, King developed a hobby of observing and collecting insects. Inspired by the support and encouragement of his high school life sciences teacher, King decided to pursue biology as a career.
He attended Tufts University and received his B.S. and M.S. in Biology. After a semester abroad in Australia during his junior year, King knew that his academic focus would be on insects. His interests narrowed even more after receiving his Ph.D. in entomology at the University of Florida and during his postdoctoral studies at Florida State University (FSU). He focused his attention on one exotic insect that is a common and painful pest throughout the Southern U.S., from California to Florida: the fire ant.
As part of his postdoctoral work at FSU, King focused on the development of non-toxic methods to control fire ant colonies in pastures.
King explained one such non-toxic method: "It's a simple idea, using hot water to kill fire ant colonies. In the original version [that King is improving upon], you have a giant pot, like a crawfish boil or turkey fryer, that you would take out in the field, boil 20 gallons of water, and pour it on the colony. However, that's extremely inefficient and takes forever."
The prototype he developed with Walter Tschinkel, Ph.D. at FSU, using a charcoal-fired kiln to heat the water, had similar challenges. It was unwieldy and had issues with water flow. Despite the design challenges, King remained intent on pursuing an eco-friendly method to control and kill fire ants.
When King came to UCF, he collaborated with an agricultural fabricator to improve the design. Together, they created a high-temperature, high-volume, fuel-powered, mechanized system that can be hauled on a trailer. Over the summer, King used his machine at Fort De Soto Park in St. Petersburg, Florida, where endangered and protected sea turtles lay their eggs on the beach. Sadly, the park was losing a large number of hatchling due to fire ants.
"If there are fire arts foraging near the nests, the hatchlings are in great danger. Fire ants will attack and sting, and sometimes kill, many young turtles. The hatchlings are two to four inches long—they are quite small. The fire ants attack their soft body parts, primarily their eyes and around their mouth and head. The hatchlings are small enough that being stung a few times by fire ants can be lethal," King said.
King applied for emergency funds from Florida's Sea Turtle Specialty License Plate program so he could help protect these nests.
"The park staff was actually digging up the nests to avert disaster. I was given these funds to remove fire ants around sea turtle nests for the summer, and it was great. We eliminated greater than 90 percent of the fire ant colonies from around the nests and really reduced the fire ant problems. So it was very effective," he recalled.
In fact, King was astonished that his system far exceeded his expectations. The entire process was very eco-friendly, and all it took was gallons and gallons of hot water, heated to 150 degrees Fahrenheit, to eliminate the fire ants. You can read more about this invention in this month's Patent Trending blog.
King was attracted to UCF for several reasons. One, was location. The majority of his work (studying fire ants) primarily occurs in the Southeastern U.S. He was also impressed with the resources that a major research institution could afford him and his work. UCF's rigorous research environment allowed King to meet and collaborate with other colleagues who work on similar research questions. He was also attracted to UCF's Ph.D. program in Conservation Biology that brings in graduate students in the top of their class who can work with King on his research projects in addition to pursuing their own research interests.
King appreciates how UCF encourages partnerships outside of academia. "The university has been a fantastic resource for finding and making connections with people in business and industry," he explained. Along with federal and state funding, King attributes these relationships to the success of his lab.
And he attributes the success of any scientist to curiosity and persistence. "A lot of what we see in science as success is product of repeated failure. [Research] is not a career to work in if you're a thin-skinned person, because you'll be rejected a lot. But that's why we have processes like peer review. It's a corrective aspect of our work, where oftentimes, even if you have a great idea, it can be made even better with input from other people and other ideas with a different perspective," King said.
How does a researcher keep going in the face of expected, repeated failure? It helps to be very interested in your research topic and exploring how it can make an impact on the "big" picture.
"I'm interested in insects in particular. It has always has been a hobby of mine, so that keeps it very interesting. I'm also interested in making the world a better place. If we can figure out ways to use fewer pesticides to solve our pest problems, if we can figure out a little bit more about how the world works, about how ecosystems function, these are important things to know [in the pursuit of making the world a better place]."
King's curiosity and persistence as a scientist has helped him create a simple solution to a pervasive problem that adversely affects both people and animals. If you want to learn more about King's fire ant control system, contact Brion Berman.
View the original story here.
Tags: biology, Brion Berman, Fire ants, Florida's Sea Turtle Specialty License Plate, Joshua King, Patent Trending blog, research, Sea Turtle, UCF, UCf biology, UCF College of Sciences, UCF news, University of Central Florida, Walter Tschinkel


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With Enniskillen being the largest town in County Fermanagh, it's no surprise that the area has the largest number of sports shops in the county. If your favourite hobby or sport is cycling, fishing, golf, archery or climbing, there's a County Fermanagh sports shop or sports centre that can help with all of your requirements. Fletcher Golf in Portland Business Park are the experts for golf clubs, bags, accessories and clothing, whilst Lakeland Bikes in the same area can sell you a complete cycle or any number of accessories like lights, saddles, pedals, wheels, tyres and tubes.
Lakeland Leisure Sports & Trophy Shop on Main Street in Enniskillen are the specialists at engraving cups, medals and trophies for almost any sporting event. Proleisurewear in Roselea is an online company that sell their selection of sports and leisure clothing to customers all over the UK. If you have a County Fermanagh sports shop that you would like listed here, please let us know.


text:
How to do security poorly. Build in your own back door.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/03/myequifax-com-bypasses-credit-freeze-pin/
MyEquifax.com Bypasses Credit Freeze PIN
Most people who have frozen their credit files with Equifax have been issued a numeric Personal Identification Number (PIN) which is supposed to be required before a freeze can be lifted or thawed. Unfortunately, if you don't already have an account at the credit bureau's new myEquifax portal, it may be simple for identity thieves to lift an existing credit freeze at Equifax and bypass the PIN armed with little more than your, name, Social Security number and birthday.
Probably nowhere near enough, so what's next?
North Korea amassed around $670 million in cryptocurrency through hacking, says UN panel
Kaori Yoshida reports:
North Korea has used cyberattacks and blockchain technology to circumvent economic sanctions and obtain foreign currency, according to a panel of experts reporting to the U.N. Security Council.
Pyongyang has amassed around $670 million in foreign and virtual currency through cyberthefts and used blockchain technology to cover its tracks, the panel told the Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee, ahead of the council's annual report, Nikkei has learned.
Read more on Nikkei Asian Review.
Can organizations keep this information from employees/customers under the GDPR and similar laws?
Algonquin College faculty union files grievance over data breach
If you're not transparent about a breach and people cannot figure out how to protect themselves, you may be almost guaranteeing people will sue you about it or file a grievance.
CBC reports:
The union representing faculty at Algonquin College has filed a grievance against the school after a recent data breach.
Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) local 415, which represents faculty at the school, wants Algonquin College to disclose the exact nature of the information that was accessed in last month's phishing attack — and take steps to protect any faculty whose personal information is used illegally.
The only assurance that the college has given the union is that no social insurance numbers were lost, said Pat Kennedy, the union's local president.
Read more on CBC.
So, why not use the 'news' tag all the time?
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/8/18255265/brie-larson-youtube-captain-marvel-mcu-algorithm-review-bomb-trolls
YouTube fought Brie Larson trolls by changing its search algorithm
If you searched "Brie Larson" on YouTube a couple of days ago, the top search results were calls for a boycott of Captain Marvel, and angry rants about Larson's involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With one small change, YouTube made all of that disappear.
This week, YouTube recategorized "Brie Larson" as a news-worthy search term. That does one very important job: it makes the search algorithm surface videos from authoritative sources on a subject. Instead of videos from individual creators, YouTube responds with videos from Entertainment Tonight, ABC, CBS, CNN, and other news outlets first.
… The noticeable shift in responses speaks to an even bigger conversation about YouTube's search algorithm: if this is a way to prioritize higher-quality videos when people are searching for a topic, could this be used for non-news topics, too?
Some creators see it as a problem if YouTube favors videos from approved news outlets instead of individuals. On Twitter, some critics and creators called it censorship from YouTube, while others commended the site for taking some kind of action. YouTube has millions of creators on the platform who are fighting to get their videos seen; if traditional news outlets are shown favoritism, it's a cultural shift that will see immense backlash from a large portion of the creator community.
Apparently lots of US companies have created the notice wall, but are gathering user "agreements" before local versions of GDPR (like California's) come into effect.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/08/cookie-walls-dont-comply-with-gdpr-says-dutch-dpa/
Cookie walls don't comply with GDPR, says Dutch DPA
Cookie walls that demand a website visitor agrees to their internet browsing being tracked for ad-targeting as the "price" of entry to the site are not compliant with European data protection law, the Dutch data protection agency clarified yesterday.
… So, in other words, a "data for access" cookie wall isn't going to cut it. (Or, as the DPA puts it: "Permission is not 'free' if someone has no real or free choice. Or if the person cannot refuse giving permission without adverse consequences.")
Anything to avoid the expense of compliance? Wait till you see what non-compliance costs.
https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-protection/from-paper-compliance-to-operational-compliance-why-financial-services-firms-must-prepare-for-the-california-consumer-privacy-act/
From Paper Compliance to Operational Compliance
… With the European Union's sweeping GDPR regulation having gone into effect last year, additional countries and jurisdictions have taken it upon themselves to create similar legislation that enhances individual privacy rights and holds companies accountable for ensuring that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect data.
… Much of the discussion around the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA") has centered around whether the law is set to become the "GDPR of the United States." While GDPR is a more robust, complex data privacy regulation and framework, the CCPA is nevertheless sweeping in scope and impact, and the two acts are underpinned by many of the same data privacy principles. And while comparisons between the two acts have been frequent, not enough has been said about the concrete steps that organizations, specifically those in the financial services space, should be taking to get their processes, people and technology ready for CCPA compliance. These heavily-regulated organizations should be weary (sic) to view the CCPA as simply another law to comply with. In order to avoid scrutiny by the regulators and heavy fines along with potential reputational harm, they will need to shift their approach to data privacy.
https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-protection/the-ohio-data-protection-act-and-the-quiet-revolution/
The Ohio Data Protection Act and the Quiet Revolution
Since the 2018 U.S. state legislative sessions began, at least 12 states have brought into force updated or entirely new cybersecurity legislation.
… As a major privacy trend, several states are introducing data protection legislation in their respective 2019 legislative sessions, and some of these bills incorporate elements of other states' data protection statutes. This "cross politization" of data protection and the sheer number of bills currently moving through state legislatures, along with 2018's new legislation, collectively represent a quiet revolution in data protection practice in the U.S.; in doing so, it also represents a uniquely American approach to solving a societal problem.
Looking at Ohio, early in August of 2018, then-governor John Kasich signed into law the Ohio Data Protection Act.1 The law represented a novel approach to data protection:2 it provides an "affirmative defense" to a "covered entity" against tort claims brought against that entity as a result of a breach of personal information if the entity's cyber security program conforms to industry recognized cybersecurity frameworks or federal regulations cited in the Act.
An un-civil suit?
NY Appellate Court Slams Use of Hacked Email
Craig A. Newman of Patterson Belknap writes:
When we hear about discovery abuses in litigation, we often think of overzealous lawyers using obstructionist tactics. Such behavior, however, rarely involves litigants hacking into the email of an adversary or accessing privileged attorney-client communications that disclose litigation strategies.
But in a unanimous ruling last week, a New York state appeals court found that a litigant's "improper and willful" misconduct – which included "improperly accessing approximately 12,000 of defendant's privileged attorney/client communications … [and] deleting relevant documents" – justified the dismissal of an assault and battery lawsuit.
Read more on Data Security Law Blog.
Perspective. Because my students will want to talk about this.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190308/10591041767/elizabeth-warren-wants-to-break-up-amazon-google-facebook-does-her-plan-make-any-sense.shtml
Elizabeth Warren Wants To Break Up Amazon, Google And Facebook; But Does Her Plan Make Any Sense?
This isn't necessarily a big surprise, given that she's suggested this many times over the past few years, but 2020 Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has just laid out her plan for breaking up Amazon, Google and Facebook. It's certainly worth reading to understand where she's coming from, and some of the arguments are worth thinking about – but much of it does feel like just grandstanding populism in front of the general "anti-big tech" stance, without enough substance behind it.
Twenty-five years ago, Facebook, Google, and Amazon didn't exist. Now they are among the most valuable and well-known companies in the world. It's a great story — but also one that highlights why the government must break up monopolies and promote competitive markets.
I find this a very odd way to open this proposal. I don't see how the first sentence supports the second. Indeed, the first sentence would seem to contradict the second. Twenty-five years ago those companies didn't exist, and if you asked people what tech companies would take over the world, you'd get very different answers. Technology is an incredibly dynamic and rapidly changing world, in which big incumbents are regularly and frequently disrupted and disappear. One of my favorite articles to point people to was a 2007 article warning of the power of a giant monopolistic social network that would never be taken down by competition. That social network? MySpace. The article briefly mentions Facebook, but only to note that it "will always be on MySpace's periphery."
Interesting backgrounder.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/whats-driving-demand-data-scientist/
What's Driving the Demand for Data Scientists?
Data analytics is becoming mission-critical to more and more businesses. One of the biggest challenges they face: recruiting data scientists.
"There are very few data scientists out there passing out their resumes," LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue said. "Data scientists are almost all already employed, because they're so much in deman
… Sethi added that he's noticed many more organizations similarly looking into how to reskill their mid-career people. He observed, "I've got to believe that over the next few years, data analytics is going to be [extremely] prevalent. It's like digital: everyone's going to need to have a base level understanding of it."
Self-driving fighter jets?
https://taskandpurpose.com/air-force-valkyrie-robot-wingman
Here's what you should know about the Air Force's new robot wingman
There's a lot of buzz about the first flight of an unmanned U.S. Air Force drone, designed to accompany manned combat aircraft into battle, that many believe will herald a new age of aerial warfare.
… with its twin tail, curved fuselage and a jet engine that propels it to near-supersonic speed, the XQ-58A looks like a smaller F-35 stealth fighter.
… contract called for a drone with a top speed of Mach 0.9 (691 miles per hour), a 1,500-mile combat radius carrying a 500-pound payload, the capability to carry two GBU-39 small diameter bombs, and costing $2 million apiece when in mass production (an F-35 costs around $100 million).
This sounds like a description not of the clumsy drones we have today, but a real Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle, or UCAV. Put another way, this is a true robot warplane.
Should make an interesting discussion case.
Should Companies Terminate Third Party Vendors That Cause A Data Breach?
Joseph Lazzarotti of Jackson Lewis writes:
According to reports, bank customers in Australia (yes, data breach notification requirements exist down under) have been affected by "an industry-wide" data breach experienced by a third-party service provider to the banks – property valuation firm, LandMark White. As expected, the banks are investigating and in some cases notifying customers about the incident. However, there are reports that some of the affected banks are suspending this vendor from the group of valuation firms they use. This is not an unusual reaction by organizations whose third party service providers have or are believed to have caused a data breach affecting the organization's customers, patients, students, employees, etc. But, it is worth thinking about whether that is the best course of action.
Read more on JDSupra.
GDPA inspired? More specific Privacy requirements, now more specific Security requirements.
FTC Proposes to Add Detailed Cybersecurity Requirements to the GLBA Safeguards Rule
Mike Nonaka, Libbie Canter, David Stein and Sam Adriance of Covington & Burling write:
On March 5, 2019 the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") published requests for comment on proposed amendments to two key rules under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ("GLBA"). Most significantly, the FTC is proposing to add more detailed requirements to the Safeguards Rule, which governs the information security programs financial institutions must implement to protect customer data.
In addition, the FTC is proposing to expand the definition of "financial institution" under the Safeguards Rule and the Privacy Rule to include "finders." Finally, the FTC is proposing to amend the Privacy Rule to make technical and conforming changes resulting from legislative amendments to GLBA in the Dodd-Frank Act and FAST Act of 2015.
Read more on Inside Privacy.
Some of the specific proposed changes include:
Revising the requirement to designate an "employee or employees to coordinate [the] information security program" to require designation of a single individual, referred to as a Chief Information Security Officer ("CISO"), as responsible for overseeing and implementing the program;
Requiring financial institutions to implement access controls on information systems, as well as restrict access to physical locations containing customer information only to authorized individuals;
Requiring customer information to be encrypted, both in transit and at rest;
Requiring information systems to include audit trails designed to detect and respond to security events;
Requiring financial institutions to develop procedures for the secure disposal of customer information in any format that is no longer necessary for their business operations or other legitimate business purposes;
Requiring financial institutions to implement policies and procedures "to monitor the activity of authorized users and detect unauthorized access or use of, or tampering with, customer information by such users;"
A perspective on propaganda.
https://www.recordedfuture.com/china-social-media-operations/
Beyond Hybrid War: How China Exploits Social Media to Sway American Opinion
… our research demonstrates that social media influence campaigns are not a one-size-fits-all technique. We studied Chinese state-run social media influence operations and concluded that the Chinese state utilized techniques different from the Russian state. These differences in technique are driven by dissimilar foreign policy and strategic goals.
… We believe that the Chinese state has employed a plethora of state-run media to exploit the openness of American democratic society in an effort to insert an intentionally distorted and biased narrative portraying a utopian view of the Chinese government and party.
… According to the French researchers, nation-state information manipulation includes three criteria:
A coordinated campaign
The diffusion of false information or information that is consciously distorted
The political intention to cause harm
https://www.bespacific.com/nearly-one-in-five-americans-now-listen-to-audiobooks/
Nearly one-in-five Americans now listen to audiobooks
"Americans are spreading their book consumption across several formats, and the use of audiobooks is rising. About three-quarters (74%) of Americans have read a book in the past 12 months in any format, a figure that has remained largely unchanged since 2012, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in January. Print books remain the most popular format for reading, with 67% of Americans having read a print book in the past year. And while shares of print and e-book readers are similar to those from a survey conducted in 2016, there has been a modest but statistically significant increase in the share of Americans who read audiobooks, from 14% to 18%. Overall, Americans read an average (mean) of 12 books per year, while the typical (median) American has read four books in the past 12 months. Each of these figures is largely unchanged since 2011, when the Center first began conducting the surveys of Americans' book reading habits…"
Sound trivial?
https://www.automationworld.com/how-frito-lay-applies-machine-learning
How Frito-Lay Applies Machine Learning
… "One of my first projects at the company involved building systems that could sense the texture of chips without destroying them," said Mirza. For this project, he was capturing acoustic data and manually processing it.
"It's a system that hits the chip with lasers, listens to the sound coming off them, and then uses that data to correlate the sound into texture," Mirza said. This system could provide an automated quality check for the company's chip processing systems.
… Mirza said this project, which is still in process, is estimated to save the company over a million dollars a year based on its ability to optimize the potato peeling process in the U.S. alone. With a global deployment, additional savings are expected.
Just because we use it…
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-03-06-turnitin-to-be-acquired-by-advance-publications-for-1-75b
Turnitin to Be Acquired by Advance Publications for $1.75B
… Founded in 1998 by four university students, iParadigms, Turnitin's previous parent company, launched with a vision to offer tools across different industries, from law to education and technology. Over the years, it saw the most success in education and the company shifted to focus specifically on that market.
An idea I missed.
http://disrupt-africa.com/2019/03/agri-tech-startup-hello-tractor-to-expand-across-nigeria-kenya/
Agri-tech startup Hello Tractor to expand across Nigeria, Kenya
Hello Tractor connects tractor owners to farmers through an Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled digital solution that bridges the gap between manual and mechanised farming.
The startup, which last year entered into a partnership with IBM Research to pilot a new tool for farmers, enables farmers to request affordable tractor services, while providing enhanced security to tractor owners through remote asset tracking and virtual monitoring.
Should be amusing. Will the government reveal specifics or rely on the "it could happen" argument?
https://hotforsecurity.bitdefender.com/blog/huawei-takes-us-to-court-over-ban-cyberespionage-accusations-20929.html
Huawei Takes US to Court over Ban, Cyberespionage Accusations
… Huawei decided to take the US government to court not only because of the restriction of business in the US, but also the accusations that it poses a threat to national security and the call for other countries to ban its 5G technology, the telecom said on Thursday, according to The Guardian.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Texas, hinges on a legislative act that prohibits as unconstitutional the act of depriving a group of a trial and declaring the party guilty.
… "The US Congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence to support its restrictions on Huawei products. We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort."
A clear area where AI could improve security? All it would need to do is identify employees who have no connection to patient treatment. (Not as easy as it sounds.)
Dozens Of Northwestern Hospital Workers May Have Been Fired For Improperly Reviewing Jussie Smollett's Records
Dana Kozlov reports:
Dozens of workers at Northwestern Hospital may have been fired for improperly reviewing the medical records of Jussie Smollett, who was treated at the emergency room after he claimed he had been attacked by two men.
Sources say those workers have been terminated after gaining access to the "Empire" actor's medical chart. Smollett has since been charged with staging the whole incident.
Read more on CBS.
Part of this strategy seems to be a recognition that GDPR like laws will proliferate.
https://www.thisisinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-privacy-pivot-make-growth-harder-2019-3
Mark Zuckerberg says his vision to divide Facebook's products in 2 could put its $56 billion business model at risk
… Facebook has been signalling a pivot to privacy for months, but on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg slammed the reset button in a thoughtful blueprint for the future.
In essence, Zuckerberg sets out a plan to split the Facebook product in two. To use his analogies, he wants to create:
A town square, where people can talk to many people at once. Think the Facebook Newsfeed, groups, Instagram posts, and Stories.
And a living room— a closed-off space where people can interact privately, using messaging with end-to-end encryption. Think WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram DMs.
… But it will come at a cost. End-to-end encryption — along with other plans to give people more control over their data such as a clear history tool and disappearing posts — will make it harder for Facebook to gather the user information on which its business model relies. The company made $55.8 billion in revenue in 2018, the bulk of which came from advertising.
(Related) Another reason to change?
https://www.marketplace.org/2019/03/06/tech/exclusive-look-numbers-showing-users-leaving-facebook-by-the-millions
U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says
All the bad press about Facebook might be catching up to the company. New numbers from Edison Research show an an estimated 15 million fewer users in the United States compared to 2017. The biggest drop is in the very desirable 12- to 34-year-old group. Marketplace Tech got a first look at Edison's latest social media research. It revealed almost 80 percent of people in the U.S. are posting, tweeting or snapping, but fewer are going to Facebook.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/facebook-backing-away-china-mark-zuckerberg-privacy
Mark Zuckerberg Tried Hard To Get Facebook Into China. Now The Company May Be Backing Away
"As we build our infrastructure around the world, we've chosen not to build data centers in countries that have a track record of violating human rights like privacy or freedom of expression," Zuckerberg wrote on Wednesday.
AI impersonating a restaurant customer? What could possibly go wrong?
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/06/google-brings-its-duplex-ai-restaurant-booking-assistant-to-43-states/
Google brings its Duplex AI restaurant booking assistant to 43 states
No moment wowed the audience at last year's I/O more than Duplex. The demo of the artificial intelligence restaurant and appointment booking program left many in the audience wondering whether Google had just pulled a fast one over on them.
Turns out, it's real.
… Starting this week, Pixel 3 owners in 43 U.S. states will be able to use the Duplex technology to book appointments. The tech should work with any restaurants ... that accept reservations but do not have an online system to complete the booking.
In the coming weeks, the service will be rolled out to users on other Android and iOS devices, as the company continues to tweak the program based on user feedback.
The future? Hacking a fake license will become as easy as it was back when I was an 18, 21 and 24 year old in high school.
https://www.xda-developers.com/google-android-digital-drivers-license/
Google is working on securely storing Digital Driver's Licenses in Android
Carrying a wallet has become less of a necessity for me since I started using Google Pay to manage my credit cards, but there's still no way I can travel anywhere without my driver's license. I know a few people who use wallet cases to hold what few cards they must carry on their person, but I'm waiting for the day when I can legally drive to Walmart with just my phone on me. A digital driver's license offers multiple advantages over the traditional ID card. You can't lose it, you can update it remotely so you don't have to stand in line at the DMV, you can wipe it remotely if your phone gets stolen, you're less likely to get your identity stolen since you don't need to carry a wallet with easily accessible information, you're less likely to leave your phone at home, and you'll have an easier time bringing it up on request. Authorities across the U.S. are slowly recognizing the benefits of a mobile driver's license, which is why we're hearing more U.S. states test their adoption each year.
… digital security company Gemalto is partnering with Colorado, Idaho, Maryland, Washington D.C., and Wyoming to run pilot programs before rolling out their digital driver's license solution. At the same time, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators is working to standardize this new form of electronic identification.
Should interest our programming students.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/6/18253474/microsoft-windows-calculator-open-source-github
Microsoft open-sources its Windows calculator on GitHub
Microsoft is making the source code for its Windows calculator available on GitHub today. The software maker wants to "build an even better user experience in partnership with the community." Opening up the calculator means anyone can contribute code to improve the app
… The source code is now available on GitHub and it includes the build system, unit tests, and even the product road map for the calculator feature in Windows.
My students can not understand why I don't own a smartphone. This may be part of the reason: Without one, I don't exist.
https://www.bespacific.com/phone-numbers-are-the-new-social-security-numbers/
Phone numbers are the new Social Security numbers
Axios: "Cellphone numbers have become a primary way for tech companies like Facebook to uniquely identify users and secure accounts, in some ways becoming a proxy for a national ID.
Why it matters: That over-reliance on cellphone numbers ironically makes them a less effective and secure authentication method. And the more valuable the phone number becomes as an identifier, the less willing people will be to share it for communication.
Driving the news: Facebook faced criticism this week for its handling of phone numbers that users provide for the purpose of two-factor authentication (2FA) — in which a person's login is protected by both a password and a device like their smartphone.
The big picture: American culture and law are hostile to establishing any sort of national ID, leaving businesses and organizations to find substitute… Many Americans try to avoid broadcasting SSNs online. But now people have to share them with so many institutions and clerks that there's very little that's truly secret about them…"
For my Computer Forensics and Ethical Hacking students. Just a couple small tweaks and this becomes quite useful!
https://www.securityweek.com/nsa-makes-reverse-engineering-tool-freely-available
NSA Makes Reverse Engineering Tool Freely Available
Initially announced in January, the release was accompanied by a demonstration of the tool at the RSA Conference 2019, which is taking place this week in San Francisco.
Ghidra, the NSA explains, is a software reverse engineering (SRE) suite of tools developed by the agency's Research Directorate to analyze malicious code and malware, as well as to provide cyber-security researchers with information on potential vulnerabilities in their networks and systems.
The framework packs various software analysis tools compatible with multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, and provides capabilities such as disassembly, assembly, decompilation, graphing and scripting, and more.
https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra
Redefining 'Jurisdiction' for the Internet Age?
https://www.justsecurity.org/63079/breaking-united-states-supports-germanys-international-arrest-warrant-accused-syrian-war-criminal-a-rare-exercise-universal-jurisdiction-general-jamil-hassan/
BREAKING: United States Supports Germany's International Arrest Warrant for Accused Syrian War Criminal
On Tuesday, the United States government issued a statement supporting Germany's request to Lebanon to extradite a high-ranking Syrian official accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Former officials from the Obama and Trump administrations spoke to me about the significance of this development.
By taking this step, the United States placed itself on the record in support of Germany's exercise of a form of "universal jurisdiction," a move that marks a significant development in U.S. legal practice. Under section 1 of the 2002 Code of Crimes Against International Law, German courts are allowed to exercise criminal jurisdiction over an accused person who has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide—regardless of where the crimes were committed, regardless of whether the accused has any connection to Germany, and regardless of the nationality of the victims at the time the crimes were committed.
I found an amusing new term!
https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/05/amy-webbs-the-big-nine-predicts-the-impact-of-ai-and-tech-giants-over-the-next-50-years/
Amy Webb's 'The Big Nine' predicts the impact of AI and tech giants over the next 50 years
… "We stop assuming that the G-MAFIA (Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, IBM, and Amazon) can serve its DC and Wall Street masters equally and that the free markets and our entrepreneurial spirit will produce the best possible outcomes for AI and humanity," author Amy Webb writes.
Minutes keep getting busier.
https://www.allaccess.com/merge/archive/29580/2019-this-is-what-happens-in-an-internet-minute
2019: This Is What Happens In An Internet Minute
For my Excel toolkit.
The Essential Microsoft Excel Formulas and Functions Cheat Sheet
I do like lists, but "most widely available" is not the same as "best."
https://www.bespacific.com/oclc-publishes-list-of-top-100-novels/
OCLC publishes list of top 100 novels
"OCLC, a leading library technology and research organization, has published The Library 100: Top Novels of All Time, a list of the novels most widely available in libraries today. The list is based on data in WorldCat, the world's most comprehensive database of information about library collections. Produced and maintained by OCLC and individual member libraries and library organizations, WorldCat reflects the collections of more than 18,000 libraries worldwide. It includes information about more than 2.7 billion copies of more than 447 million titles. This aggregate worldwide library collection is likely the best view of the global scholarly and published record.
The full list, and more information about The Library 100 can be found at https://www.oclc.org/en/worldcat/library100.html.
…"Of course, the list of top novels emphasizes classics," Prichard continued, "and so reflects dominant cultural views over the years about the canon and its formation. Librarians are aware of this and are more mindful than ever of the need to think critically about their collections. Librarians are actively seeking out and preserving overlooked, minority and marginalized perspectives." (Read Prichard's blog post at https://oc.lc/top-novel-blog.)…
I'm guessing they won't need to do this in the US. We're much more ambiguity tolerant.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-google-to-ban-political-ads-ahead-of-federal-election-citing-new/
Google to ban political ads ahead of federal election, citing new transparency rules
Google is banning political advertising on its platforms ahead of the Canadian federal election because of new ad transparency rules it says would be too challenging to comply with.
The decision comes in response to the Liberals' signature election measure, Bill C-76, which passed in December. Among other things, it requires online platforms to keep a registry of all political and partisan ads they directly or indirectly publish.
… Aside from the ad registry requirement, Google also expressed concerns about how it would detect ads of a partisan nature, which may not specifically mention a candidate or party by name. "The challenge for us is that that definition is extremely broad," Mr. McKay said.
If true, why is it being announced by an aide? No one wants to take credit?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/us/politics/nsa-phone-records-program-shut-down.html
Disputed N.S.A. Phone Program Is Shut Down, Aide Says
The National Security Agency has quietly shut down a system that analyzes logs of Americans' domestic calls and texts, according to a senior Republican congressional aide, halting a program that has touched off disputes about privacy and the rule of law since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The agency has not used the system in months, and the Trump administration might not ask Congress to renew its legal authority, which is set to expire at the end of the year, according to the aide, Luke Murry, the House minority leader's national security adviser.
Perhaps individual opinions are not universal?
https://www.justsecurity.org/62857/eu-terrorist-content-proposal-sets-dire-free-speech-online/
EU 'Terrorist Content' Proposal Sets Dire Example for Free Speech Online
… Last year, the German parliament enacted the NetzDG law, requiring large social media sites to remove posts that violate certain provisions of the German code, including broad prohibitions on "defamation of religion," "hate speech," and "insult." The removal obligation is triggered not by a court order, but by complaints from users.
… While NetzDG required companies to create mechanisms to lodge complaints about posts, it failed to include parallel requirements for challenging removals. Within hours after it went into effect, warnings that the law would sweep too broadly were vindicated: Twitter deleted tweets from a far-right politician, as well as those of a satirical magazine that made fun of her.
PreCrime!
https://www.bloombergquint.com/technology/the-ai-cameras-that-can-spot-shoplifters-even-before-they-steal#gs.oBcXvSKw
These Cameras Can Spot Shoplifters Even Before They Steal
… While AI is usually envisioned as a smart personal assistant or self-driving car, it turns out the technology is pretty good at spotting nefarious behavior. Like a scene out of the movie "Minority Report," algorithms analyze security-camera footage and alert staff about potential thieves via a smartphone app. The goal is prevention; if the target is approached and asked if they need help, there's a good chance the theft never happens.
More on surveillance.
Student Surveillance Versus Gun Control: The School Safety Discussion We Aren't Having
Chad Marlow of the ACLU has an article that I would encourage parents of school-age children to read. And if you don't have school-age kids, but just generally give a damn about letting little kids grow up to become adults instead of getting gunned down at school, read it anyway. Here's just one snippet:
there is no demonstrated link between increasing student surveillance and decreasing gun violence on campus.
To the contrary, student surveillance — and indeed surveillance in general — has been shown to have no deterrent effect on violent crime. And one should not fall into the false forward-versus-backward analysis trap: Even if, after-the-fact, many school shooters are found to have posted threatening statements online, that doesn't mean most, or even a significant number of students who post threatening statements are likely to become school shooters.
Do you know what the Dickey and Tiahrt Amendments are and how they are preventing us from getting meaningful research on stemming gun violence in schools? No? A lot of us didn't/don't know. But it's time we all became more educated and insistent on really addressing the problem of gun violence at schools properly and effectively.
I grew up in the generation where we had atomic bomb drills in school. Today's kids are growing up with active shooter drills. In one way, I think things are worse now because today's kids are worrying about a fellow student or former student who comes in, looks them in the eye, and tries to take their life. Not someone remotely pushing a button that drops a bomb on the whole building or town, but someone you may know having the intent and means to kill you or your little brother down the hall….
What are we doing to children?
Read the ACLU's post and stop drinking the Kool-Aid that the NRA hands out with one hand while providing campaign financing with the other hand.
A noble goal, but I don't see a clear answer here.
https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/how-to-build-artificial-intelligence-that-everyone-can-trust
How to Build Artificial Intelligence That Everyone Can Trust
Experts from IBM Watson and Kellogg discuss how to remove bias and increase transparency in machine-learning algorithms.
For my next Disaster Recovery lecture.
https://www.cnet.com/news/for-fukushimas-nuclear-disaster-robots-may-be-the-only-hope/
For Fukushima's nuclear disaster, robots may be the only hope
Perspective. Find something India wants, set sales records.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spotify-india/spotify-adds-1-million-unique-listeners-in-india-in-less-than-a-week-idUSKCN1QL22C
Spotify adds 1 million unique listeners in India in less than a week
Spotify Technology SA, the world's most popular paid music streaming service, said it racked up more than 1 million unique users in India across its free and premium tiers since launching less than a week ago.
Spotify launched in India on Tuesday, stepping into a price-sensitive market crowded by well-funded players such as Reliance Industries' JioSaavn and Apple's Apple Music.
The Swedish company is offering a free version that will run with ads, alongside a premium ad-free variant that will charge users 119 Indian rupees ($1.68) per month.
Worth a try?
https://www.bespacific.com/shaking-the-chrome-habit-is-getting-easier-try-brave/
Shaking the Chrome habit is getting easier – try Brave
The Verge – Vlad Savov: "Readers of this august website may recall that a year ago, I lauded Firefox and its progress toward becoming a genuine alternative to Google's dominant Chrome browser. As much as I liked where Firefox was going, however, I couldn't stick with it over the long term. It wasn't compatible with everything the way Chrome was, its extensions were different, and, for my way of using a browser, it was slower and less responsive. So I returned to Chrome after a few weeks of Firefox, but the urge to decouple my browsing habits from Google remained.
https://brave.com/
Dive deep!
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/free-reading-spree-to-kick-off-spring/
Free Reading Spree to Kick Off Spring
We're gearing up to release our Spring 2019 issue, which features an exciting lineup of big ideas from key management thinkers. To celebrate its publication in advance, we're dropping our paywall on March 5 and 6 so that all of our content will be freely available to visitors online.
If you don't want to unleash the nukes, what's the next best thing?
Indian Hackers On The Offensive After Successive Hits On Govt Sites
Fossbytes reports:
A recent report by Hindustan Times stated that hackers from Pakistan attacked over 90 websites of the Indian Government. The recent escalations in tensions between the neighbors led to a surge in attacks in cyberspace, targeting key infrastructures.
The death of 40 CRPF personnel in a recent terror strike by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad led to India retaliating with airstrikes on terrorist launch pads in Balakot, Pakistan. The attack is said to have wiped out a few hundred terrorists including leader Masood Azhar's brother in law, Yousuf Azhar.
Read more on Fossbytes.
As reported on the 18th of Feb, Indian hacktivists had retaliated in cyberspace by hacking over 200 websites of the Pakistan Government, some of which are still not accessible from outside Pakistan.
The constant competition of capitalist China.
https://www.bespacific.com/1-in-5-corporations-say-china-has-stolen-their-ip-within-the-last-year/
1 in 5 corporations say China has stolen their IP within the last year
CNBC CFO survey:
Theft of intellectual property by Chinese companies is a major point of contention between the Trump administration and Chinese government.
Just under one-third of CFOs of North America-based companies on the CNBC Global CFO Council say Chinese firms have stolen from them at some point during the past decade.
U.S. trade policy remains a negative for businesses around the world, but right now European CFOs are expressing the biggest concerns about trade policy as an external risk factor…"
Security backgrounder.
https://www.bespacific.com/ibm-x-force-intelligence-threat-index-2019/
IBM X-Force Intelligence Threat Index 2019
"As the cyber threat landscape evolves, what we saw in 2018 is organisations across all industries are facing unmanageable levels of cyber threats brought on by the changing threat landscape, the risk of exposure and an ever-growing attack surface. The IBM X-Force Research team is a crack team of security professionals who run thousands of spam traps around the world and monitor tens of millions of spam and phishing attacks daily while analysing billions of web pages and images to detect fraudulent activity and brand abuse. In the fight to stay one step ahead, this week we released the IBM X-Force Intelligence Threat Index 2019. The report contains notable security events in 2018 and looks ahead with a pre-emptive approach. It also shares insights and observations from data analysed via hundreds of millions of protected endpoints and servers across over 100 countries…
Some of the key findings in the report include: Ransomware & Malware are out & cryptojacking is in…"
https://www.securityweek.com/cisco-publishes-annual-ciso-benchmark-study
Cisco Publishes Annual CISO Benchmark Study
… Cisco's 2019 Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Benchmark Study has one great strength. It queried more than 3,200 senior leaders with a CISO role (if not title) from 18 different countries.
… The report (PDF) states, "ML, AI and more automation should be able to boost security efforts exponentially – and next year we need to see more respondents in the 'completely reliant' phase of implementation and practice."
Another perspective on AI.
https://www.bespacific.com/new-on-llrx-nothing-artificial-about-it-how-law-firms-really-use-ai-in-practice/
New on LLRX – Nothing Artificial About It: How Law Firms (Really) Use AI in Practice
Via LLRX – Nothing Artificial About It: How Law Firms (Really) Use AI in Practice – Ed Walters, CEO of Fastcase, talks about how the new age of law firm innovation is changing legal services by moving from anecdotal to data-driven insights and thus providing better-informed guidance for clients. Walters also identifies the value of analytics to manage and mitigate risk, which he points out is almost always more cost effective than litigating the effects after the fact. Most importantly, Walters highlights not only how law firms are using AI, but that they are also building their own tools to deliver new types of services as well.
My AI reading list.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/03/04/what-is-the-best-book-on-artificial-intelligence-ai/#5fc714f61674
What Is The Best Book On Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
… honestly, it was just too difficult to narrow down my favorites to one book!
Instead, I offer you my top five.
The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow By Yuval Noah Harari
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley And The New World Order
Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI
Not exactly household names… How did GDPR change their practices?
https://www.bespacific.com/here-are-the-data-brokers-quietly-buying-and-selling-your-personal-information/
Here are the data brokers quietly buying and selling your personal information
FastCompany: "It's no secret that your personal data is routinely bought and sold by dozens, possibly hundreds, of companies. What's less known is who those companies are, and what exactly they do. Thanks to a new Vermont law requiring companies that buy and sell third-party personal data to register with the Secretary of State, we've been able to assemble a list of 121 data brokers operating in the U.S. It's a rare, rough glimpse into a bustling economy that operates largely in the shadows, and often with few rules. Even Vermont's first-of-its-kind law, which went into effect last month, doesn't require data brokers to disclose who's in their databases, what data they collect, or who buys it. Nor does it require brokers to give consumers access to their own data or opt out of data collection. Brokers are, however required to provide some information about their opt-out systems under the law–assuming they provide one. If you do want to keep your data out of the hands of these companies, you'll often have to contact them one by one through whatever opt-out systems they provide… Those include big names in people search, like Spokeo, ZoomInfo, White Pages, PeopleSmart, Intelius, and PeopleFinders; credit reporting, like Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion; and advertising and marketing, like Acxiom, Oracle, LexisNexis, Innovis, and KBM…"
Well, this didn't take long. Apparently someone listened to his announcement.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-john-hickenlooper-could-win-the-2020-democratic-nomination/
How John Hickenlooper Could Win The 2020 Democratic Nomination
The Privacy Foundation (https://www.law.du.edu/privacy-foundation) has stirred up some real interest or at least some concerns with our April 19th (changed from the 26th) seminar on "Current California Privacy Legislation" We're even getting articles submitted that discuss (attempt to explain?) the law. Here are a few:
A quick comparison of California and GDPR
https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/cybersecurity/california-consumer-privacy-act.html
Your readiness roadmap for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
(Registration required)
https://www.law.com/corpcounsel/2018/12/10/a-practical-guide-to-ccpa-readiness-implementing-calif-s-new-privacy-law-part-1/
A Practical Guide to CCPA Readiness: Implementing Calif.'s New Privacy Law (Part 1)
CCPA is an unfamiliar type of law for the United States due, in large part, to its broad scope. It establishes a new privacy framework for businesses that fall within its jurisdiction.
… the most far-reaching privacy law in the United States.
A comparison PDF
https://fpf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/GDPR_CCPA_Comparison-Guide.pdf
A comparison chart (PDF)
https://www.bakerlaw.com/webfiles/Privacy/2018/Articles/CCPA-GDPR-Chart.pdf
Should Facebook ignore legislation it thinks will have a negative impact on the company? We're talking degree here, not direction.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/02/facebook-global-lobbying-campaign-against-data-privacy-laws-investment
Revealed: Facebook's global lobbying against data privacy laws
Facebook has targeted politicians around the world – including the former UK chancellor, George Osborne – promising investments and incentives while seeking to pressure them into lobbying on Facebook's behalf against data privacy legislation, an explosive new leak of internal Facebook documents has revealed.
The documents, which have been seen by the Observer and Computer Weekly, reveal a secretive global lobbying operation targeting hundreds of legislators and regulators in an attempt to procure influence across the world, including in the UK, US, Canada, India, Vietnam, Argentina, Brazil, Malaysia and all 28 states of the EU. The documents include details of how Facebook:
• Lobbied politicians across Europe in a strategic operation to head off "overly restrictive" GDPR legislation. They include extraordinary claims that the Irish prime minister said his country could exercise significant influence as president of the EU, promoting Facebook's interests even though technically it was supposed to remain neutral.
• Used chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg's feminist memoir Lean In to "bond" with female European commissioners it viewed as hostile.
• Threatened to withhold investment from countries unless they supported or passed Facebook-friendly laws.
Perspective. Could these be profitable? Implications for self-driving cars?
Shared scooters don't last long
I took a look at data on scooter rides in Louisville, Kentucky, shared online as part of the city's open data policy. The latest data is available here. The data set I used was older and included monthly data on scooter trips from August through December. It also included a unique "ID" for each scooter, a detail that was key to my analysis and has been stripped out of subsequent data sets published by Louisville. The data doesn't differentiate between Bird and Lime, but as Bird started operations in August 2018 and Lime that November, you can assume it skews toward Bird.
With that preamble, here are some things I found:
The average lifespan of a scooter in Louisville from August to December was 28 days
Median lifespan was 23 days
If you stripped out scooter IDs that first appeared in December, to focus on older vehicles, the average lifespan increased slightly to 32 days and the median lifespan to 28 days
Still stripping out scooter IDs that started in December, the median scooter took 70 trips over 85 miles
How to do security poorly. Build in your own back...
Should make an interesting discussion case. Should...
Should be amusing. Will the government reveal spe...
My students can not understand why I don't own a s...
I'm guessing they won't need to do this in the US....
If you don't want to unleash the nukes, what's the...
ThePrivacy Foundation (https://www.law.du.edu/priv...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Trump knew he was talking to Americans. After all, he was in Las Vegas. How could he not know? The only rational conclusion is that Trump thought his audience's loyalties to Israel equaled, if not eclipsed, other loyalties.
Even with a generous interpretation, Trump's slur was patently more offensive than Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar's suggestion in a February town hall meetingthat, after she had criticized Israeli policies towards Palestinians, she had been pressured from both sides of the political spectrum to confirm her loyalty to Israel.
But for some, Omar's clarification was insufficient.
But Trump's use of "your prime minister" is doing exactly that, directly. There is no nuance in Trump's phrasing. He assumed his Las Vegas audience considered the political leader of another sovereign country to be their leader as well.
That is the definition of the dual loyalty slur. But was the deep-rooted anti-Semitism of Trump's comment to the Republican Jewish Coalition ever acknowledged as such by the GOP and Israelis?
Of course not. After all, Trump has pretty much given Netanyahu everything he's asked for, short of a war against Iran — and with two more years left in his term, that could still happen.
Trump's oratorical word salads have never been funny and, as president, the misinterpretations they invite only raise the possibility that he could do real damage to our national security and interests. Such solecisms in the context of an Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has killed 9,876 Palestinians and 1,263Israelis since 2000, over 2,300 being children, are particularly reckless.
Making the situation even more unpredictable is the Israeli policy under Netanyahu's leadership to aggressively support and reinforce Trump's leadership in the region.
By any objective measure, Netanyahu and Trump are besties. But to what end for the Israelis? So far, just short-term political gains, such as U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights and the U.S. Embassy's move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Those are purely symbolic outcomes from Israel's perspective. Before Trump entered office, the U.S. Embassy was already, functionally, working out of Jerusalem and Israel's control of the Golan Heights has been secure since 1974. Even Palestinian protestations over these U.S. policy moves have been muted and perfunctory.
But with the introduction of partisan politics into the U.S.-Israeli equation in the past 10 years, the Israeli alliance with the Republicans, and now Trump, may be effecting immeasurable damage to Israel's (and U.S.) long-term interests.
Recent events on the 2020 presidential campaign trail illustrate this potential.
For anyone following the U.S.-Israeli relationship over the years, O'Rourke's statement was unprecedented for a mainstream politician with presidential hopes. American politicians don't call Israeli prime ministers racist (not even strong Netanyahu critics such as former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry or Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders). But, in the post-Obama world, the U.S.-Israeli relationship has fundamentally changed — even as U.S. foreign policy towards Israel is as supportive as it has ever been.
Should Israel annex large sections of the West Bank, as Netanyahu has promised should he form the next government after the April elections, the Two-State Solution, which is already on life-support, will be OBE (Overtaken-By-Events). There is no viable Palestinian state on the West Bank where Israel controls 60 percent of the land (see Figure 1). Even as most U.S. foreign policy experts still cling to the Two-State-Solution, on the ground, it is as dead as Jussie Smollet's career.
When Trump implies that American Jews are as loyal to Israel as they are to the U.S., he is not only saying something that is demonstrably untrue, he is reinforcing one of anti-Semitism's bedrock falsehoods.
Ironically, he is also doing measurable harm to Israel's support among American Jews.
Trump's politicization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has also impacted support for Israel across all Americans, and these opinions are dividing along party lines.
In a University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll, conducted in September and October of 2018 among a nationally representative sample of 2,352 Americans, a majority of Republicans (57%) indicated they want U.S. policy to lean in favor of Israel over the Palestinians, while a substantial majority of Democrats (82%) want it to lean toward neither side, and 8 percent want it to lean toward the Palestinians.
As Trump said many times on the 2016 campaign trail, "I will do more for Israel than any president in history," after two years, he believes he has made good on that promise. But he also done great harm, not just to Palestinians who saw a significant increase in fatalities by Israeli forces in 2018, but to Israel itself by overtly linking U.S. policy towards Israel to his political fortunes.
Given Trump's demonstrable propensity for perpetuating anti-Semitic tropes, that is a political marriage the Israelis may well regret.


Nostalgia only arises when you get used to receive happiness from your environment instead of nurturing an inner core of confidence that will stay with you wherever you are. Luckily, I understood that before leaving the Florence Academy of Art and the city of Florence. Don't get me wrong, those last four years have been excellent, each one better than the previous, but I am truly glad to move on.
Our brains love patterns. They love what's recognizable and they love to receive it again and again. After all we are programmed to survive not to create. That's the challenge when it comes to art. That's why I'm glad to leave my alma mater, both physically and psychologically. Now, back in Montreal, I am ready to look for myself. I grew up here. I know this city. It does not challenge me from the outside in; I have to challenge myself from the inside out. Comfort is overrated. I mean the comfort of the mind. It's stagnation. Growth is freedom. Immobility is slavery. I know, big worlds, big concepts; but isn't that how we should think? I don't want to bombard my brain with just enough mindless external stimuli to keep it from worrying. I want to interpret the world around me like raw materials then pour it on canvas as manufactured goods. Let's see where it all takes me. I'm curious about each step, and that's what makes the stairway of life—exciting!


text:
Q: "Collision" between marker labels in pgfplots scatter plot Sometimes, it's hard to avoid "colliding" marker labels in scatter plots, by which I mean labels that overlap each other. If I don't want to remove data points to avoid the overlap, is it possible to shift individual labels (as with TikZ nodes)? The following MWE illustrates the problem:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview}
\PreviewEnvironment{tikzpicture}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    xlabel=$a$,
    ylabel=$b$
]
\addplot[blue,mark=*,mark options={fill=blue},nodes near coords,only marks,
   point meta=explicit symbolic] table[meta=label] {
x y label
100 152 {Long label 1}
200 180 {Long label 2}
110 150 {Long label 3}
};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Ideally, I would like to be able to adjust selected labels left/right/up/down. Thanks!

A: You can add your preferred anchor and possibly other properties as follows,
\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.11}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    xlabel=$a$,
    ylabel=$b$,
]
\addplot[blue,mark=*,mark options={fill=blue},nodes near coords,only marks,
   point meta=explicit symbolic,
   visualization depends on={value \thisrow{anchor}\as\myanchor},
   every node near coord/.append style={anchor=\myanchor}
] table[meta=label] {
x y label anchor
100 152 {Long label 1} south
200 180 {Long label 2} east
110 150 {Long label 3} west
};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Here, you can actually make it more complicated as testing whether \thisrow{} is empty or not then use the default or the input value etc.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Traslado, the commute. Whilst in Cuba at the end of 2017 I was keen to photograph the iconic cars found all over the country, but wanted to shoot them in a new and original way. To the local Cubans these icons of the country are nothing new, nothing exciting. So I set about photographing people on their commute in these beautiful and classic cars, capturing the mundanity of traffic and the thought of the day that's passed or that lies ahead. That experience is shared all over the world, just rarely in such captivating vehicles.


text:
The Life of Abraham Lincoln: From His Birth to His Inauguration ..., Količina 2
Ward Hill Lamon, Chauncey F. Black - 1872 - 547 strani
...contend it does, do so only because they want to vote, eat, sleep, and marry with negroes. Now, I protest against the counterfeit logic which concludes, that,...equal ; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands, without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal, and the equal...
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Količina 2
Henry Wilson - 1874 - 695 strani
...in favor of social equality. " I protest against the counterfeit logic," he said, " which concludes, because I do not want a black woman for a slave, I must necessarily want her for a wife." Comprehending the magnitude of the contest and the gravity of the occasion, he spoke at Quincy of "these...
Charles Godfrey Leland - 1879 - 246 strani
...emancipation implied amalgamation, he answered — " I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave, I must necessarily want her for a wife." This popular Democratic shibboleth, "How would you like your daughter to marry a negro ?" was keenly...
Abraham Lincoln and the Abolition of Slavery in the United States
...emancipation implied amalgamation, he answered — " I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave, I must necessarily want her for a wife." This popular Democratic shibboleth, " How would you like your daughter to marry a negro ?" was keenly...
Discovery and Conquests of the North-west, with the History of Chicago, 6. del
Rufus Blanchard - 1881 - 768 strani
...a black woman for a slave, it does not follow that I want her for a wife. * * In some respects she is not my equal, but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hand without asking leave of anyone else, she is my equal and the equal of all...
Abraham Lincoln: A History, Količina 2
John George Nicolay, John Hay - 1890
...and sleep, and marry with negroes. He will have it that they cannot be consistent else. Now I protest against the counterfeit logic which concludes that...equal ; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands, without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal and the equal of...
Lincoln, His Life and Time: Being the Life and Public Services ..., Količina 1
Henry Jarvis Raymond - 1891 - 808 strani
...sleep, and marry with negroes! He will have it that they cannot be consistent else. Now, I prot-iat against the counterfeit logic which concludes that, because I do not want a black woman ibr & slave, 1 mnnt necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. I can just leave...
History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850: 1854-1860
James Ford Rhodes - 1892
...only because they want to vote, and eat, and sleep, and marry with the negroes ! . . . Now, I protest against the counterfeit logic which concludes that,...; I can just leave her alone. In some respects she is certainly not my equal ; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands,...
History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the ..., Količina 2


This butter croissant recipe is absolutely wonderful. It is made from healthier ingredients than croissants available in stores; for example, it doesn't contain margarine. These croissants are so amazing that you might never buy them from the store again if you try the recipe.
For this recipe you will need to make a pastry-type dough which also contains yeast. Add the sugar to the milk and mix in the yeast to activate it.
Mix the flour and the salt, add the egg, gradually add the water and knead. Mix with the activated yeast and knead some more until you obtain a medium-soft dough.
Fold the dough, spread on some butter and then roll out the dough. Repeat the procedure three times to create the layers of butter and dough typical to croissants. The procedure may seem complicated but it is in fact not difficult and goes fast.
Cut the dough into triangles, roll up and shape the croissants, and leave them at room temperature until they double in size. Once the rising is complete, bake them at high heat for 10 minutes and then lower the temperature to medium and bake for 15 minutes more. The croissants will turn out very tasty, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Serve them with hot chocolate and jam or honey.


If you are not happy with what you received from Kollectin, submit a return request within 21 days from your date of purchase, and we will set things right for you!
1. On your Kollectin App, go to Menu, and select the My Orders tab.
2. Click on the Order related to your return to review order details.
3. Check off the item(s) that you wish to return, and press 'Return' to continue.
4. Select your 'Reason for Return' with the drop down menu, and enter your phone number in case we need to reach you for any question.
5. Press the 'Return' button to submit your request.
6. We will reply you via email with details of how to send back the items to us, including a separate message for the optional Return Shipping Label.
7. Please observe our Return Policy below for packing instructions, and attach your optional Return Shipping Label.
8. Please allow 7-10 business days for our processing.
For further details, please review the Plans section on your Kollectin app. For questions and comments, please send us an instant message on the Support tab on your Kollectin app or contact us here.
We accept returns or exchanges requests within 21 days of the order placed date, all Sale items are Final Sale and may not be returned or exchanged.
Upon receiving your Return Authorization email (and return label, if you requested one), please ship back your return to us within 5 days.
To be eligible for a full refund (less return shipping fee, when applicable to plan level), you must include: 1) the unworn, intact, and unused item or set of items, 2) all original packaging, 3) the original packing slip or a copy of your return reply email or attach return shipping label emailed to you with our return authorization number.
We suggest you inspect your items carefully upon receipt. We cannot accept returns on items that do not comply with these policies. In no case will the refund issued to you exceed the amount paid to Kollectin whether in your payment method or by Bling.
All refunds will be issued in the manner in which payments were received by Kollectin. For example, if you used a credit or debit card, you can only be issued a refund on the same credit or debit card used to make the purchase. For purchases with Bling, we will refund you with Bling to your Bling Report account.
Please allow approximately 7-10 business days to process the return and see Bling posted to your Bling Report account if applicable. Refunds are provided consistent with these provisions, and otherwise are at our sole discretion.
Kollectin does not record or maintain any of your credit card information. We partner up with Stripe online payment, a trusted partner for major on-demand commerce companies to handle your payment processing.
A 9.25% Sales Tax will be applied to orders shipped to California customers as of July 2017. We reserve the right to update the tax rate without notification pending on relevant Federal or California county tax regulations.
We offer Fedex Ground, Fedex 2 day, and Fedex Overnight shipping options.
We currently accept U.S.A. domestic shipment orders only.
Please allow 3 to 5 business days to process your order. Once your order is processed and your item(s) are in stock, orders are shipped immediately from our warehouse in California with assured shipping time based on your selected option.
We at Kollectin will strive to meet every order we receive, but at times there will be unforeseen discrepancies in inventory and availability of products that we did not anticipate, we will contact you as soon as possible if such does occur.
Due to how our system is set up, orders may not be exchanges or cancelled once it is processed, but a return request for unworn/unused merchandise may be submitted within 21 days from the date of purchase. See our Return Policy above.


text:
Shakib Qortbawi (born 1945) is a Lebanese businessman and politician. He served as the minister of justice between June 2011 and February 2014.

Early life and education
Qortbawi was born in 1945 into a Maronite family. He received a bachelor's degree in law from Saint Joseph University in 1967.

Career
Qortbawi was the president of Beirut bar association from 1995 to 1997. Then he began to serve as a member of the legal commission to the Lebanese cabinet and legal commission for the modernization and unification of laws at the ministry of justice. His tenure lasted from 2001 to 2004. In April 2001, he cofounded the Qornet Shehwan Gathering together with nearly thirty Christian politicians. However, after the general elections held in 2000, he left the bloc. He was a member of the national committee of the civil center for national initiative, which was founded by Lebanese politicians and intellectuals in July 2007.

On 13 June 2011, he was appointed minister of justice to Najib Mikati's cabinet. Qortbawi succeeded Ibrahim Najjar as justice minister. Qortbawi was part of the change and reform bloc and the March 8 coalition within the cabinet. And he is a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, headed by Michel Aoun.

Qortbawi's term as justice minister ended on 15 February 2014 when Ashraf Rifi succeeded him in the post.

References

External links

1945 births
Free Patriotic Movement politicians
Government ministers of Lebanon
Lebanese lawyers
Lebanese Maronites
Living people
Saint Joseph University alumni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


drop length of complete fitting 141 cm | 55 1/2 "
Our gold-plated finish consists of a welded steel frame plated with gold, with the exception of the Pumpkin tabletop, which is solid brass, plated with gold. The gold finish is smooth and luxurious and requires specific care.
For regular cleaning, first remove dust with a feather duster or similar. Use Windex or similar spray cleaner, followed by a soft, lint free cloth. Over time, the surface may become dull. To restore shine, please use the following procedure: Apply a small amount (approximately one teaspoon) of Plaster of Paris to a soft clean cloth. Use the cloth to rub the plaster into the metal surface. Continue rubbing until shine is restored. Wipe the excess with a soft clean cloth. If further cleaning is desired, a soft polishing cloth made specifically for gold may be used. Avoid using abrasive polishing cloths as they may damage the surface. NEVER use harsh abrasives, bleach or cream cleaners. Note that gold-plating is a very thin layer - 200 times thinner than standard printer paper - so the use of abrasives over time can remove the plating, revealing the steel underneath. The best protection against surface scratches is prevention.
Stainless Steel is hardwearing, stable and easy to maintain. Our stainless steel has a brushed surface for a desirable industrial appearance.
For regular cleaning, first remove dust with a feather duster or similar. Use warm water and mild soap followed by a clean water rinse. Be sure to wipe the surface dry after cleaning, following the polish lines. For stubborn marks, Windex or similar cleaning product can be used, with a soft cloth wiping along the polish lines. For deeper cleaning, use 3M Perfect It III Machine Polish, applied with a soft, lint free cloth and wipe dry following polish lines.


Willow Oaks is a Hope VI mixed-income community, with neighborhood-serving retail and local entrepreneurial economic development initiatives, serving locally owned enterprises. Seth Harry and Associates, Inc. was part of a team which planned and designed the project through a public charrette process, and has subsequently provided ongoing consulting services related to the planning, design, and implementation of the neighborhood's mixed-use commercial area.
The Village Center Master Plan, design guidelines, and development and implementation strategy produced by Seth Harry and Associates is providing the basis for build-out and design of the mixed-use Village Center.


September | 2009 | Tap into the Fabulous you!!!
Lately I have been thinking of ways to share my thoughts, passion and love for makeup, skincare and beauty. I figured a blog would be the perfect venue to let my ideas run free. A little about me: I am a Makeup Artist based in North Carolina…you can view my work here. I'm inspired by everyday things, everyday colors. I love to recreate looks while adding my own personal twists. One of the best feelings in the world is when I'm done with a "face" and I take a step back and love the look on the model. I just love that feeling. Ohh yeah… love has to be my favorite word…seeing I have used it a million times already.
Future blog entries will include makeup looks, beauty tips, FAQ, giveaways…etc. I will try my best to be consistent with my entries, at least one or two entries a week. So far I already love blogging, Yo!!! I know, a little premature for my first entry, lol. My goal with this blog is to meet like minded people and to reach as many people as possible.
I would like to thank my husband, family and friends who have been soo supportive as I pursue my dreams. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, ideas or features for future blog entries. I can tell you now…this blog might be a little random, but join me as I embark on this journey.


Women's Multi-Vitamin on the go!
Take your daily supplements whenever, wherever.
Unfortunately, the food we eat these days is mostly processed and does not carry the same nutritional value as it once did. This makes taking your daily multi-vitamins more important than ever. The problem is that this would require taking a handful of capsules and pills every single day. Not only is it inconvenient, but it could take a toll on your digestive system.
Not anymore! 24Hr Health Daily Men's Multi-Vitamin gives your body all the vitamins and nutrients it needs in one single spray serving per day. The small spray bottle can be stashed in your purse, office desk, or even your glove compartment. Not only is it convenient, but it is delicious!


"Cholesterol levels are perfect! Continue healthy lifestyle, diet, and exercise. Liver, kidneys, electrolytes and blood count are normal."
Well, I was pretty happy with those results! If that isn't motivation to do a Whole30, I don't know what is.
I was going to show before and after ab pics, but I just couldn't bring myself to it. Sorry! Maybe it has to do with the fact that my face resembles that of a serial killer in the before picture, and maybe it has to do with the fact that I'm just too bashful. Probably the former. I can tell you though, I was happy about the way my love handles and gut diminished, as it was pretty substantial. Yay!
Rice noodles is by far the one that baffles me the most. Rice noodles? Who craves rice noodles? I'm not even sure I know what a rice noodle is! (I know what a rice noodle is...sort of.) And in the least shocking/most shameful turn of events ever, I dreamed about wine the most. Which makes total sense, because this was far and away the "food" I missed the most.
Needless to say, I did not do a slow reintroduction afterwards like you're supposed to and sort of lost my mind over the weekend, starting with a tasty dinner at Down House, which included a martini, Houston Dairymaids cheese, and a chicken fried portobello mushroom. Whoops!
Then I really fell off the deep end while out of town for our friends' wedding in New Braunfels, where I drank all of the wine and ate all of the cheese, and subsequently my body was incredibly pissed at me. Lesson learned!
Okay, here comes the honesty I promised you all from the beginning.
Throughout the process I did not really feel all that different. My energy levels were pretty much the same (and good), and my skin stayed the same after it had a rough first couple of weeks. One difference was I had to take way more bathroom breaks throughout the day, which was annoying. And there was that super depressed couple of sugar detox days. Those were seriously awful. However, a huge bonus was that I never felt hungry or food-hungover - a definite plus! And though I didn't necessarily feel different from before, I will admit that I felt better than I do now, post-gluttonous weekend. I'm still recovering from that.
The program sort of messed with my head to be perfectly honest, and pretty much up until the very end. I sincerely do think it would have been much easier if I ate meat. Not eating meat made it seem very limiting and boring. And since I am such a fan of food, this was difficult. Also, since eating out and having wine with friends is such a huge part of my life, having this taken out of the picture (for the most part) was also difficult. And when I say "difficult" I mean mentally difficult. Eating whole, unprocessed foods is actually not difficult at all. And I really did lose all of my bad food cravings. AND maybe most importantly, I had the best sleep of my life during Whole30. I am incredibly glad that I did this for my body. It's just that these limitations made me feel like I was sort of losing myself.
But it was only for one month, so I realize the entire previous paragraph was beyond dramatic.
Also, it's funny because there have been times in my life where I weighed what I weighed after Whole30, and I'd look at myself in the mirror and be like, "Dang girl, good job! Keep up the good work!" But after Whole30, I looked in the mirror and - while generally happy with the depletion of my aforementioned love handles and gut - my overall reaction was one of, "meh. I could do better." My food hangovers may have been cured, but my body dysmorphia certainly hadn't. I think this is because at the end of it all, I just sort of felt defeated and craved a life with less guidelines and more available time.
Would I recommend it? If you're not a vegetarian, yes, absolutely. If you are...maybe. Moving forward, I'd like to try to stay Whole30(ish) during the week, with some exceptions. I plan to add in quinoa, beans, tofu on occasion, and some whole grains, while allowing myself a glass of wine here and there if I so desire. I'll do my best to stay away from dairy, because I really do think I feel better without it, but I won't necessarily avoid it altogether. If I go out with friends for dinner - so be it, I'm going to enjoy myself!
I have learned that as a human, I do not do well with being told I can't have something, or I have to do something, even/especially when I'm the one instituting these stipulations on myself. Other people do very well with guidelines, and more power to them! I see people on Instagram doing Whole100s, and I am beyond impressed with these superhumans. But I know that were I to go down this route, my overall happiness might be compromised. I perform and feel better under the practice of moderation, and with a general focus on wellness. This is something the Whole30 program taught me about myself, and I am so glad to have learned this!
I will take the tools and tricks I learned in my vegetarian Whole30 and apply them to my day-to-day Life After Whole30 existence, while still allowing myself to eat out with friends (and not stress out about every single ingredient!), have a glass of wine if I so choose, and spend my Sundays at brunch or bike riding or watching football on the couch with Jon (who was SUPER supportive and patient with me during all of this), instead of using the entire day to grocery shop and meal prep, then pass out from exhaustion. The relationships in my life are far and away the most important things in the world to me, and I plan to continue striving towards maintaining that ideal health/work/life balance.
So while it may seem that I'm not leaping for joy with pom-poms in hand over Whole30, please do not misunderstand me. I very much believe in the program and the wonderful health benefits that result in it. It is definitely a worthwhile process to go through, and your body will thank you immensely for it. But I promised you honesty, and my truth is that it was mentally and socially difficult for this loose-y goose-y free spirited gal. And as a #whole30alumni, I have major respect for anyone who has completed the program, whether following it strictly or modifying it to fit their lifestyle. Here's to living lives filled with peace, love, and good health!
Thank you so much for your detailed writing about your journey through the vegetarian Whole30. It was helpful. It was funny. It was timely. But most of all, it was honest - especially when speaking about the mental and social aspects of a lifestyle change.
As I prepare for my first veg Whole30 for health reasons, I'm reminded of this reality. I am glad I came across your blog while seeking compliant recipes. Thanks to your words, I feel I now have a few more tools to tackle the days ahead of me. Take care.
Thank you for the kind words. I wish you all the best on your veg Whole30. I'm so glad did it, and I learned so many valuable tools that I still use regularly in my non-Whole30 life. Enjoy the ride and the many health benefits you'll reap from the process!


Pleasant Hill Academy is an educational childcare program in Duluth, Georgia that is designed to develop and inspire young minds from six weeks to 14 years of age. Their tagline is "Not Just Another Daycare!" and needed a website that reflected their message.
The Black Bear Design team needed to find a way to help our client demonstrate how they stand out from similar service providers. In addition, there was a lot of information for parents and prospective students on their previous website that needed to be organized in an easy-to-review way.
The Black Bear Design team streamlined the information on the client's website to help make it easier to navigate. All information is conveniently accessed from the home page including a video explaining what sets them apart from their competitors. We used carefully placed images of children in a nurturing environment to give parents a true sense of the program and its benefits.
The client now has a fun, user-friendly website design with plenty of information that can be easily found from an informative and visually-interesting homepage.


In mid-October, April released their sixth mini-album "The Ruby" and released "Oh! My Mistake", a single that could be the band's biggest hit to date. Although the chart debut hit the charts rather low (#98 on Melon and #23 on bugs), April made it to #3 in the genius charts and almost hit the 3 million views mark on YouTube.
Thus "Oh! My Mistake" surpassed previous hits like "Take My Hand" (2.5 million views) or "The Blue Bird" (2.6 million views). Quite rightly!
"Oh! My Mistake" has the potential to become one of my personal favorites and has already climbed to the second place in the ranking of my most streamed songs in 2018 (behind the evergreen "Love Options" by Bestie). Although I've never – shame on me – really listened to any other April song before!
That has changed abruptly. With a quite chilled beat and a melody that masters the perfect balance between catchiness and understatement, "Oh! My Mistake" is the perfect "repeat one song". You can give it a listen all day long without ever getting annoyed.
Also, the video is worth seeing, especially because of the hip 80s aesthetics, which are shown in the trendy VHS look, that runs like a thread through the music video.
For this simply perfect release, I give 10 out of 10 poppies!
Picture and video are taken from the original upload from YouTube.


text:
using System;

namespace Xwt
{
	public struct SizeConstraint : IEquatable<SizeConstraint>
	{
		// The value '0' is used for Unconstrained, since that's the default value of SizeContraint
		// Since a constraint of '0' is valid, we use NegativeInfinity as a marker for constraint=0.
		double value;

		public static readonly SizeConstraint Unconstrained = new SizeConstraint ();

		static public implicit operator SizeConstraint (double size)
		{
			return new SizeConstraint () { AvailableSize = size };
		}

		public static SizeConstraint WithSize (double size)
		{
			return new SizeConstraint () { AvailableSize = size };
		}

		public double AvailableSize {
			get {
				if (double.IsNegativeInfinity (value))
					return 0;
				else
					return value;
			}
			set {
 				if (value <= 0)
					this.value = double.NegativeInfinity;
				else
					this.value = value;
			}
		}

		public bool IsConstrained {
			get { return value != 0; }
		}

		public static bool operator == (SizeConstraint s1, SizeConstraint s2)
		{
			return (s1.value == s2.value);
		}

		public static bool operator != (SizeConstraint s1, SizeConstraint s2)
		{
			return (s1.value != s2.value);
		}

		public static SizeConstraint operator + (SizeConstraint c, double s)
		{
			if (!c.IsConstrained)
				return c;
			else
				return SizeConstraint.WithSize (c.AvailableSize + s);
		}

		public static SizeConstraint operator - (SizeConstraint c, double s)
		{
			if (!c.IsConstrained)
				return c;
			else
				return SizeConstraint.WithSize (Math.Max (c.AvailableSize - s, 0));
		}

		public override bool Equals (object ob)
		{
			return (ob is SizeConstraint) && this == (SizeConstraint)ob;
		}

		public bool Equals(SizeConstraint other)
		{
			return this == other;
		}

		public override int GetHashCode ()
		{
			return value.GetHashCode ();
		}

		public override string ToString ()
		{
			if (IsConstrained)
				return AvailableSize.ToString ();
			else
				return "Unconstrained";
		}
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Microsoft Envisions a Blockchain-Based Bounty System to Catch Pirates
Hot August 16,2021 0
Microsoft is one of the world's most prominent copyright holders with a vast experience in fighting piracy.
The company is part of the Software Alliance (BSA), for example, which is known to track copyright infringements both off- and online.
The BSA is also known for its piracy bounties, where it promises whistleblowers cash rewards in return for fruitful tips. This is a controversial strategy which Microsoft's own research team hopes to improve upon.
A few days ago Microsoft's research department published an article titled: Argus: A Fully Transparent Incentive System for Anti-Piracy Campaigns, which lays out the details of its plan.
The paper, which also received input from researchers at Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon University, suggests that an open and transparent blockchain is part of the solution. This openness is currently missing from BSA-style reporting mechanisms.
"Industrial alliances and companies are running anti-piracy incentive campaigns, but their effectiveness is publicly questioned due to the lack of transparency. We believe that full transparency of a campaign is necessary to truly incentivize people," the paper reads.
Piracy Bounty Hunting
The article is full of technical details. We don't strive to provide a full summary but, simply put, Argus is a transparent system built on the Ethereum blockchain that allows people to anonymously report piracy in exchange for a bounty.
Pirated content is traced back to the source through a unique watermark that corresponds with a secret code. When a pirated copy is reported, the status of the source (licensee) is changed to "accused." The system provides an appeal option, but if that fails, the accused status changes to "guilty."
Argus is an open system but there are various safeguards to prevent abuse. Reporting the same pirated work multiple times under different aliases is useless, for example, as that will only reduce the reward.
Low Blockchain Costs
The system relies on several checks to ensure that the system is open, while avoiding false accusations at the same time. And according to the researchers, the costs of utilizing the blockchain are relatively low.
"We effectively optimize several cryptographic operations so that the cost for a piracy reporting is reduced to an equivalent cost of sending about 14 ETH-transfer transactions to run on the public Ethereum network, which would otherwise correspond to thousands of transactions.
"With the security and practicality of Argus, we hope real-world anti-piracy campaigns will be truly effective by shifting to a fully transparent incentive mechanism," the researchers add.
Real-World Use?
Whether Microsoft has any plans to test the system in the wild is unknown. It theoretically works with various media types including images, audio and software.
That said, it's unclear how effective it will be. The researchers "assume" that the watermarking technology deployed is tamper-free, which isn't always the case today.
All in all, it's intriguing to see blockchain technology used to improve the rather old-fashioned piracy reporting campaigns. This idea isn't completely new, however, as the South African company Custos came up with a similar idea years ago.
Microsoft's research notes that Argus is superior to Custos' solution as it can assess the severity of piracy and the strength of accusations. At the same time, they believe Argus is better than BSA's campaigns because the reward payments are transparent.
The paper and the Argus system will be presented at the upcoming 40th International Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems, which will be held virtually at the end of September.
microsoftenvisionsblockchainbasedbountysystemcatchpirates
Adobe Acrobat Reader DC drops onto the new Windows 11 Microsoft Store
The new Microsoft Store for Windows 11 gets another feather in its cap with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC – the full Win32 app – now appearing for users to download.
Hot adobe acrobat reader July 03,2021
After Sierra Leone Explosion, a Health System Is Strained
Victims are still dying from injuries after a fuel tanker burst into flames last week in Sierra Leone, a country that has no burn units.
Hot sierra leone explosion November 15,2021
Microsoft Calls For An End To 'Git Gud'
Double Fine joins in, announcing an invincibility toggle for Psychonauts 2
Hot microsoft calls end July 13,2021
Microsoft Shuts Down Cortana App for iOS and Android
As expected, Microsoft today discontinued its Cortana mobile app. As a result, the company has ended all support for third-party Cortana skills and...
Hot microsoft shuts cortana March 31,2021
Using satellites and AI, space-based technology is shaping the future of firefighting
New programs are being developed by startups and research institutions to predict fire behavior, monitor drought and even detect fires when they first start.
Hot satellites ai space July 26,2021


Be seen and stay safe when paddling in the dark. This versatile light is sold with the Orbiloc clip that enables it to be mounted directly to the front rear of the board. Also comes with a karabiner that can be attached to your buoyancy aid. Danish design and quality.
There are designated Orbiloc mounts front and rear on the board. Water proof, tough and reliable. Visible up to 5 km range.The pump bag has two light holders to keep your kit organised. The light can also be clipped on to your buoyancy aid.
Orbiloc Dual Safety Light is waterproof to a depth of 100 meter. Can withstand temperatures from +50°C to -40°C. The battery life time is 100 hours when steady on and 250 hours when flashing. Batteries are replaceable. Three-year warranty.


– delicious bites are our weakness and the fall season makes us crave scratch made soups, stews and spiced desserts. this recipe for delicious apple cake fits in with the season perfectly. apples are a quintessential fall staple and one that we immediately think of when deciding on a dessert for fall events. the inspiration for this apple cake recipe was borrowed from Food Network and adapted for our tastes. we wanted a cross between a loaf and a crumble and that's definitely what we ended up with! this delicious apple cake is sure to make you welcome fall with open arms. we've shared the recipe and special local ingredients we've used down below. be sure to let us know your thoughts if you try the recipe in the comments section! we'd love that!!