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MANSORY Cabrera: a complete vehicle conversion based on a Lamborghini Aventator SVJ
PublicationsWorld of Supercars MANSORY Cabrera: a complete vehicle conversion based on a Lamborghini Aventator SVJ Under the motto "One car per decade", the "MANSORY Cabrera", which is limited to only 3 units worldwide, marks the start of several special editions on the occasion of MANSORY's 30th anniversary in 2020. Share
Courtesy of MANSORY
The so-called "black fighting bull" has been bred for more than 500 years. There are several breeding lines of the "Toro de Lidia", the Spanish fighting bull, which differ from each other in their physical proportions and/or their colouring. One of the best known and most important breeding line is – besides the world-famous lines "Gallardo" and "Miura" – the line called "Cabrera". Wild, powerful, full of temperament – with these attributes this breeding line also proves to be the perfect name giver for another high-performance creation from MANSORY headquartered in Brand, Bavaria.
Even the completely redesigned carbon bodywork is reminiscent of a fighting bull in attack posture. Also, the reference to the shape of stealth aircraft gives the "MANSORY Cabrera" a thoroughly desired, attack-conscious look. In addition to the appearance, the technology has also been improved in numerous ways. For example, the striking air inlets of the front apron optimise the fresh air flow of the radiator. Together with the specially developed front design, this also results in improved downforce for more road grip overall. At the sides, striking side skirts and the grown wheel arches show the well-known MANSORY signature.
And here too, visual enjoyment and technical functionality go hand in hand. E.g. the new carbon components not only look impressively good, they also act as air fins and supply large amounts of fresh air to both the unit under the new full carbon engine hood and the rear brake system. The newly developed double diffuser is responsible for perfect airflow underneath the vehicle and the large rear spoiler in conjunction with the rear skirt is responsible for downforce on the rear axle. The vehicle width of the "MANSORY Cabrera" is also increased by 4 cm in the course of the body conversion.
All these aerodynamic improvements are necessary because the "MANSORY Cabrera" clearly surpasses the performance values of the standard Aventador. The powerful V12 engine with its 6.5 litre cubic capacity is therefore completely rebuilt by MANSORY. The result of this elaborate conversion process is a leap in performance that even demanding connoisseurs are simply thrilled with: the basic output of 700 hp pushes MANSORY to a peak output of 810 hp. The maximum torque is now 780 Nm. The impressive result: the super sports car needs exactly 2.6 seconds to sprint from zero to 100 km/h and its high-speed ends at an almost unrivalled 355 km/h.
The powerful sound is produced by a four-pipe exhaust system, which makes a visually impressive statement at the rear between the rear lights and show unmistakably that up to 810 horses are at work when needed. In order to transfer this immense power of the twelve-cylinder engine to the asphalt, MANSORY relies on forged light-alloy wheels in 9X20 and 13×21 inch dimensions in conjunction with the high-performance Pirelli P ZERO tyres in 255/30ZR20 at the front and 355/25ZR21 at the rear. The standard four-wheel-drive is the perfect partner to manage the power either.
However, the LED main headlights, also known from the "Le MANSORY" and completely newly and exclusively developed, are of particular importance. This lighting system, which is divided into four individual headlights, gives the "MANSORY Cabrera" a dynamic appearance which clearly distinguishes it from the standard SVJ and gives it an independent look through newly drawn contours and enlarged air inlets. The look of the "MANSORY Cabrera" also gives it a kind of family resemblance with the "Le MANSORY".
In the interior – as is customary with all MANSORY complete conversions – almost not a single component has remained untouched by the MANSORY specialists. The "Vento Verde" colour chosen for the exterior is also used as a colour accent in the interior. Decorated with arrow-shaped decorative seams and with "forged carbon" applications refine the interior in numerous details and give the "MANSORY Cabrera" also in the interior a sporty touch with technical appeal at the highest level. The "MANSORY Cabrera" is limited to 3 conversions worldwide.
AventatorLamborghiniMansory
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Mountainside Medical Blog – tagged "Brain Injury"
Imagine you are headed out the door to run some errands and you can't seem to remember where you left your keys. You know you had them with you not too long ago, but now you can't find them. After a few minutes spent searching, you find your keys in the most unlikely places - the refrigerator. You're bewildered as to why they are there, but assume you must have accidentally placed them there when you were grabbing a glass of water. You carry on and chalk your moment of forgetfulness to stress, or fatigue, and hop in your car. Where were you going? You had a whole list of places you mentally noted. The grocery store? No. The gym? No. Maybe, the mall? No.
After running through a checklist of your frequently visited locations, you remember where your headed. Oh, of course, the bank! You chuckle to yourself for forgetting something that you're used to doing every Tuesday afternoon. You drive a little ways down the road and suddenly stop. You can't remember how to get there. Which highway do you take? What exit is it off of? You call your spouse and share your concerns. You've always had a great sense of direction. You used to be able to find your way anywhere, never even needing a map or a GPS.
Between those three scenarios, you're starting to become worried. It's not like you to lose your focus like that, even if you are more than a little tired. You decide to set up an appointment with your doctor to discuss your memory. After doing some tests, he tells you that you have the start of Dementia.
June is National Alzheimer's and Dementia awareness month, and this week on our blog we will be taking a more in depth look at how these two tragic medical conditions are related. Let's start by exploring more about Dementia.
Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability that is severe enough to interfere with daily life. Dementia is not a specific disease, but rather it is an overall term that describes a group of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills that are severe enough to reduce a person's ability to perform every day, routine activities.
There are 10 different types of Dementia, with Alzheimer's being the most common type. In fact, Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60 - 80% of cases, followed by Vascular Dementia (which occurs after a stroke) as the second most common type of Dementia.
Many Dementias are progressive, which means that they start out slow, but gradually worsen as time goes on. People with Dementia may begin to have problems with short term memory, keeping track of every day items, paying bills, cooking, remembering appointments, or traveling outside of their neighborhood.
Note: It is important to consult with your doctor if you are experiencing any of the above symptoms. There are many other conditions that mimic the symptoms of dementia, including some that are reversible, such as thyroid problems or vitamin deficiencies. Through testing, your doctor should be able to determine your diagnosis.
Dementia is caused by damage to brain cells. Different types of Dementia are associated with particular types of brain cell damage in a particular region of the brain. Damage interferes with the ability of brain cells to effectively communicate with each other, and, when brain cells can't communicate normally, thinking, behavior, and feelings are affected. Therefore, when cells in a specific area or region of the brain are damaged, that region cannot carry out its normal functions.
Alzheimer's Disease: the most common type, accounts for 60 to 80% of cases. Symptoms include: memory loss, apathy and depression, impaired communication, poor judgment, disorientation, confusion, behavior changes, and difficulty speaking, swallowing and walking.
Vascular Dementia: Second most common form of Dementia, accounts for 10% of cases. Typically known as "post-stroke" Dementia. Symptoms include: impaired judgment, inability to make decisions, plan, or organize. This occurs from blood vessel blockage, bleeding in the brain, or damage that leads to strokes. The location of these, plus the number and size of the brain injuries determine whether Dementia will result, and how the person's thinking and physical functions will be affected.
Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB): Lewy Bodies are abnormal clumps of the protein alpha-synuclein which can develop in the cortex part of the brain. When that happens, Dementia can result. Symptoms include memory loss, thinking problems, sleep disturbances, visual hallucinations, slowness, imbalance, and Parkinson movements.
Mixed Dementia: When abnormalities linked to more than one cause of dementia occur simultaneously in the brain. Studies have shown that Mixed Dementia is becoming more common that in previous years, and show that the likelihood of having Mixed Dementia increases with age. Mixed Dementia is seen highest in people 85 and older.
Parkinson's Disease: Occurs when the protein clumps begin in the substantia nigra, located deep in the brain. These clumps cause degeneration of the nerve cells that produce dopamine. Symptoms include: problems with movement, slowness, rigidity, and tremors.
Frontotemporal Dementia: Includes Dementias such as FTLD, Primary Progressive Aphasia, Pick's Disease, Corticobasal Degeneration, & Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. Symptoms include: changes in personality, behavioral changes, and difficulty speaking. This occurs when nerve cells in the front and side regions of the brain are damaged.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD): CJD is the most common human form of the rare, fatal brain disorders that affect people and certain other mammals. It is believed to be caused by consumption of products from cattle who have been affected by mad cow disease. It's a rapidly fatal disorder that impairs memory and coordination, and causes behavior changes.
Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus: Caused by a buildup of fluid in the brain. Symptoms include: difficulty walking, memory loss, and incontinence. This disorder can sometimes be corrected with surgical installation of a shunt in the brain that can drain any access fluid.
Huntington's Disease: Huntington's Disease is a progressive brain disorder caused by a single defective gene on chromosome 4. This gene defect causes abnormalities in that specific brain protein. Symptoms include: abnormal involuntary movements, a severe decline in thinking and reasoning skills, irritability, depression, and other mood changes.
Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome: a chronic memory disorder that is caused by severe deficiency of Thiamine - or Vitamin B-1. Thiamine helps brain cells produce energy from sugar. When the levels fall too low, brain cells cannot generate enough energy to function properly. Symptoms include: severe memory problems.
It's important to know that there is no one test to determine if an individual has Dementia. Doctors diagnose Dementia, and its different types based on careful medical history, a physical exam, lab tests, and monitor any characteristic changes in thinking, every day function, and the behaviors associated with each type. While many Doctors can diagnose Dementia with a high degree of certainty, often times they cannot pinpoint the exact type of Dementia because many of the symptoms from each type overlap each other. At this point, Doctors may recommend seeing a specialist, such as a neurologist, or gero-psychologist.
The treatment of Dementia is dependent on its cause. In most progressive Dementias, including Alzheimer's Disease - there is no cure or treatment that stops or slows its progression. However; there are drug treatments that may temporarily improve the symptoms of each Dementia. Non-drug therapies can also help to alleviate some symptoms of Dementia.
Ultimately, Doctors and researchers are continuing to seek the path to new, and effective treatments for the various types of Dementia. It is through funding and clinical trials that they can develop better ways to live with, and hopefully be cured from Dementia.
Remember: consulting with a medical expert, such as your physician will benefit you or your loved one in how to cope with Dementia. Various types of help and support are available to you and your loved one, so no one has to walk this journey alone.
Dementia from Mountainside Medical Equipment on Vimeo.


१ आदाय त्वा (य) आ + दा २ प. न कर्तरी भूत.
१ उदच्यते उत् + अच् १ उ. आ.* न कर्मणि* वर्त. तृतीय एक.
२ अवशिष्यते अव + शिष् १ प. आ.* न कर्मणि* वर्त. तृतीय एक.
1 The ऋषिः whoever composed this मन्त्रः seems to have left it for one to 'experience' by oneself, what 'That' is and what 'This' is, both of which are described as being wholesome.
2 Without any background of the requisite spiritual experience, I am tempted to venture a guess that 'That' and 'This' are प्रकृतिः and पुरुषः, of which there was some study in the previous lesson. That in fact was the prompt to take up this मन्त्रः for this lesson.
4 There are known to be two prominent schools of philosophical thought, one school, द्वैतवाद speaking of these dualities as dualities and the other, अद्वैतवाद speaking of these dualities as being essentially a Unity, which is to be realized through spiritual experience.
5 It is interesting that the invocation at the beginning of every chapter of श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता is ॐ श्रीपरमात्मने नमः । This is so different from the usual invocations to one deity or another.
7 The other quote पूर्णस्य पूर्णम आदाय पूर्णम् एव अवशिष्यते । "(Even) when wholesome is taken out of wholesome, wholesome only remains" seems to be more challenging to 'realize'. For my own simplistic understanding, I am fascinated at the way actors switch between their 'on stage' roles and real-life roles. Once they have wholesomely 'taken out', out of their mind and body, their 'on stage' role, their real life role, that wholesome, remains ! How nicely William Shakespeare said, "The world is a stage'. Is not this single quotation enough to rate him also as an accomplished philosopher ?
8 We all are mere enactors of a role on the stage of the world. We make an entry and also take the exit, as ordained by providence.


text:
Q: Create a wiggle effect for a text So what I want to happen is that when viewing the Span the text is normal but as you scroll down it starts moving until it looks like such:
Before the effect:

While the effect occurs:

The header is represented by spans for each letter. In the initial state, the top pixel value for each is 0. But the idea as mentioned is that that changes alongside the scroll value.
I wanted to keep track of the scroll position through JS and jQuery and then change the pixel value as needed. But that's what I have been having trouble with. Also making it smooth has been another issue.

A: Use the mathematical functions sine and cosine, for characters at even and odd indices respectively, as the graphs of the functions move up and down like waves. This will create a smooth effect:

cos(x) == 1 - sin(x), so in a sense, each character will be the "opposite" of the next one to create that scattered look:

function makeContainerWiggleOnScroll(container, speed = 0.01, distance = 4) {
  let wiggle = function() {
    // y-axis scroll value
    var y = window.pageYOffset || document.body.scrollTop;
    // make div pseudo-(position:fixed), because setting the position to fixed makes the letters overlap
    container.style.marginTop = y + 'px';
    for (var i = 0; i < container.children.length; i++) {
      var span = container.children[i];
      // margin-top = { amplitude of the sine/cosine function (to make it always positive) } + { the sine/cosine function (to make it move up and down }
      // cos(x) = 1 - sin(x)
      var trigFunc = i % 2 ? Math.cos : Math.sin;
      span.style.marginTop = distance + distance * trigFunc(speed * y)/2 + 'px';
    }

  };
  window.addEventListener('scroll', wiggle);
  wiggle(); // init
}

makeContainerWiggleOnScroll(document.querySelector('h2'));
body {
  height: 500px;
  margin-top: 0;
}
span {
  display: inline-block;
  vertical-align: top;
}

  Header

Important styling note: the spans' display must be set to inline-block, so that margin-top works.

A: Something like this will be the core of your JS functionality:
window.addEventListener('scroll', function(e) {
  var scrl = window.scrollY

  // Changing the position of elements that we want to go up
  document.querySelectorAll('.up').forEach(function(el){
    el.style.top = - scrl/30 +'px';
  });

  // Changing the position of elements that we want to go down
  document.querySelectorAll('.down').forEach(function(el){
    el.style.top = scrl/30 +'px';
  });
});

We're basically listening in on the scroll event, checking how much has the user scrolled and then act upon it by offsetting our spans (which i've classed as up & down)
JSBin Example

Something you can improve on yourself would be making sure that the letters wont go off the page when the user scrolls a lot.
  You can do this with simple math calculation, taking in consideration the window's total height and using the current scrollY as a multiplier.

- As RokoC has pointed out there is room for performance improvements.Implement some debouncing or other kinds of limiters

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Posts Tagged: twitter
A Little Sunshine — 53 Comments
Report: No 'Eternal Blue' Exploit Found in Baltimore City Ransomware
For almost the past month, key computer systems serving the government of Baltimore, Md. have been held hostage by a ransomware strain known as "Robbinhood." Media publications have cited sources saying the Robbinhood version that hit Baltimore city computers was powered by "Eternal Blue," a hacking tool developed by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and leaked online in 2017. But new analysis suggests that while Eternal Blue could have been used to spread the infection, the Robbinhood malware itself contains no traces of it.
On May 25, The New York Times cited unnamed security experts briefed on the attack who blamed the ransomware's spread on the Eternal Blue exploit, which was linked to the global WannaCry ransomware outbreak in May 2017.
That story prompted a denial from the NSA that Eternal Blue was somehow used in the Baltimore attack. It also moved Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott to write the Maryland governor asking for federal disaster assistance and reimbursement as a result.
But according to Joe Stewart, a seasoned malware analyst now consulting with security firm Armor, the malicious software used in the Baltimore attack does not contain any Eternal Blue exploit code. Stewart said he obtained a sample of the malware that he was able to confirm was connected to the Baltimore incident.
"We took a look at it and found a pretty vanilla ransomware binary," Stewart said. "It doesn't even have any means of spreading across networks on its own."
Stewart said while it's still possible that the Eternal Blue exploit was somehow used to propagate the Robbinhood ransomware, it's not terribly likely. Stewart said in a typical breach that leads to a ransomware outbreak, the intruders will attempt to leverage a single infection and use it as a jumping-off point to compromise critical systems on the breached network that would allow the malware to be installed on a large number of systems simultaneously.
"It certainly wouldn't be the go-to exploit if your objective was to identify critical systems and then only when you're ready launch the attack so you can do it all at once," Stewart said. "At this point, Eternal Blue is probably going to be detected by internal [security] systems, or the target might already be patched for it."
It is not known who is behind the Baltimore ransomware attack, but Armor said it was confident that the bad actor(s) in this case were the same individual(s) using the now-suspended twitter account @Robihkjn (Robbinhood). Until it was suspended at around 3:00 p.m. ET today (June 3), the @Robihkjn account had been taunting the mayor of Baltimore and city council members, who have refused to pay the ransom demand of 13 bitcoin — approximately $100,000.
In several of those tweets, the Twitter account could be seen posting links to documents allegedly stolen from Baltimore city government systems, ostensibly to both prove that those behind the Twitter account were responsible for the attack, and possibly to suggest what may happen to more of those documents if the city refuses to pay up by the payment deadline set by the extortionists — currently June 7, 2019 (the attackers postponed that deadline once already).
Some of @robihkjn's tweets taunting Baltimore city leaders over non-payment of the $100,000 ransomware demand. The tweets included links to images of documents allegedly stolen by the intruders.
Over the past few days, however, the tweets from @Robinhkjn have grown more frequent and profanity-laced, directed at Baltimore's leaders. The account also began tagging dozens of reporters and news organizations on Twitter.
Stewart said the @Robinhkjn Twitter account may be part of an ongoing campaign by the attackers to promote their own Robbinhood ransomware-as-a-service offering. According to Armor's analysis, Robbinhood comes with multiple HTML templates that can be used to substitute different variables of the ransom demand, such as the ransom amount and the .onion address that victims can use to negotiate with the extortionists or pay a ransom demand. Continue reading →
A Little Sunshine / Data Breaches / Ne'er-Do-Well News / The Coming Storm — 51 Comments
When Security Researchers Pose as Cybercrooks, Who Can Tell the Difference?
A ridiculous number of companies are exposing some or all of their proprietary and customer data by putting it in the cloud without any kind of authentication needed to read, alter or destroy it. When cybercriminals are the first to discover these missteps, usually the outcome is a demand for money in return for the stolen data. But when these screw-ups are unearthed by security professionals seeking to make a name for themselves, the resulting publicity often can leave the breached organization wishing they'd instead been quietly extorted by anonymous crooks.
Last week, I was on a train from New York to Washington, D.C. when I received a phone call from Vinny Troia, a security researcher who runs a startup in Missouri called NightLion Security. Troia had discovered that All American Entertainment, a speaker bureau which represents a number of celebrities who also can be hired to do public speaking, had exposed thousands of speaking contracts via an unsecured Amazon cloud instance.
The contracts laid out how much each speaker makes per event, details about their travel arrangements, and any requirements or obligations stated in advance by both parties to the contract. No secret access or password was needed to view the documents.
It was a juicy find to be sure: I can now tell you how much Oprah makes per event (it's a lot). Ditto for Gwyneth Paltrow, Olivia Newton John, Michael J. Fox and a host of others. But I'm not going to do that.
Firstly, it's nobody's business what they make. More to the point, All American also is my speaker bureau, and included in the cache of documents the company exposed in the cloud were some of my speaking contracts. In fact, when Troia called about his find, I was on my way home from one such engagement.
I quickly informed my contact at All American and asked them to let me know the moment they confirmed the data was removed from the Internet. While awaiting that confirmation, my pent-up frustration seeped into a tweet that seemed to touch a raw nerve among others in the security industry.
The same day I alerted them, All American took down its bucket of unsecured speaker contract data, and apologized profusely for the oversight (although I have yet to hear a good explanation as to why this data needed to be stored in the cloud to begin with).
This was hardly the first time Troia had alerted me about a huge cache of important or sensitive data that companies have left exposed online. On Monday, TechCrunch broke the story about a "breach" at Apollo, a sales engagement startup boasting a database of more than 200 million contact records. Calling it a breach seems a bit of a stretch; it probably would be more accurate to describe the incident as a data leak.
Just like my speaker bureau, Apollo had simply put all this data up on an Amazon server that anyone on the Internet could access without providing a password. And Troia was again the one who figured out that the data had been leaked by Apollo — the result of an intensive, months-long process that took some extremely interesting twists and turns.
That journey — which I will endeavor to describe here — offered some uncomfortable insights into how organizations frequently learn about data leaks these days, and indeed whether they derive any lasting security lessons from the experience at all. It also gave me a new appreciation for how difficult it can be for organizations that screw up this way to tell the difference between a security researcher and a bad guy.
THE DARK OVERLORD
I began hearing from Troia almost daily beginning in mid-2017. At the time, he was on something of a personal mission to discover the real-life identity behind The Dark Overlord (TDO), the pseudonym used by an individual or group of criminals who have been extorting dozens of companies — particularly healthcare providers — after hacking into their systems and stealing sensitive data.
The Dark Overlord's method was roughly the same in each attack. Gain access to sensitive data (often by purchasing access through crimeware-as-a-service offerings), and send a long, rambling ransom note to the victim organization demanding tens of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin for the safe return of said data.
Victims were typically told that if they refused to pay, the stolen data would be sold to cybercriminals lurking on Dark Web forums. Worse yet, TDO also promised to make sure the news media knew that victim organizations were more interested in keeping the breach private than in securing the privacy of their customers or patients.
In fact, the apparent ringleader of TDO reached out to KrebsOnSecurity in May 2016 with a remarkable offer. Using the nickname "Arnie," the public voice of TDO said he was offering exclusive access to news about their latest extortion targets.
Snippets from a long email conversation in May 2016 with a hacker who introduced himself as Adam but would later share his nickname as "Arnie" and disclose that he was a member of The Dark Overlord. In this conversation, he is offering to sell access to scoops about data breaches that he caused.
Arnie claimed he was an administrator or key member on several top Dark Web forums, and provided a handful of convincing clues to back up his claim. He told me he had real-time access to dozens of healthcare organizations they'd hacked into, and that each one which refused to give in to TDO's extortion demands could turn into a juicy scoop for KrebsOnSecurity.
Arnie said he was coming to me first with the offer, but that he was planning to approach other journalists and news outlets if I declined. I balked after discovering that Arnie wasn't offering this access for free: He wanted 10 bitcoin in exchange for exclusivity (at the time, his asking price was roughly equivalent to USD $5,000).
Perhaps other news outlets are accustomed to paying for scoops, but that is not something I would ever consider. And in any case the whole thing was starting to smell like a shakedown or scam. I declined the offer. It's possible other news outlets or journalists did not; I will not speculate on this matter further, other than to say readers can draw their own conclusions based on the timeline and the public record. Continue reading →
A Little Sunshine / Ne'er-Do-Well News / The Coming Storm / Time to Patch — 96 Comments
Hanging Up on Mobile in the Name of Security
An entrepreneur and virtual currency investor is suing AT&T for $224 million, claiming the wireless provider was negligent when it failed to prevent thieves from hijacking his mobile account and stealing millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies. Increasingly frequent, high-profile attacks like these are prompting some experts to say the surest way to safeguard one's online accounts may be to disconnect them from the mobile providers entirely.
The claims come in a lawsuit filed this week in Los Angeles on behalf of Michael Terpin, who co-founded the first angel investor group for bitcoin enthusiasts in 2013. Terpin alleges that crooks stole almost $24 million worth of cryptocurrency after fraudulently executing a "SIM swap" on his mobile phone account at AT&T in early 2018.
A SIM card is the tiny, removable chip in a mobile device that allows it to connect to the provider's network. Customers can legitimately request a SIM swap when their existing SIM card has been damaged, or when they are switching to a different phone that requires a SIM card of another size.
But SIM swaps are frequently abused by scam artists who trick mobile providers into tying a target's service to a new SIM card and mobile phone that the attackers control. Unauthorized SIM swaps often are perpetrated by fraudsters who have already stolen or phished a target's password, as many banks and online services rely on text messages to send users a one-time code that needs to be entered in addition to a password for online authentication.
Terpin alleges that on January 7, 2018, someone requested an unauthorized SIM swap on his AT&T account, causing his phone to go dead and sending all incoming texts and phone calls to a device the attackers controlled. Armed with that access, the intruders were able to reset credentials tied to his cryptocurrency accounts and siphon nearly $24 million worth of digital currencies.
According to Terpin, this was the second time in six months someone had hacked his AT&T number. On June 11, 2017, Terpin's phone went dead. He soon learned his AT&T password had been changed remotely after 11 attempts in AT&T stores had failed. At the time, AT&T suggested Terpin take advantage of the company's "extra security" feature — a customer-specified six-digit PIN which is required before any account changes can be made.
Terpin claims an investigation by AT&T into the 2018 breach found that an employee at an AT&T store in Norwich, Conn. somehow executed the SIM swap on his account without having to enter his "extra security" PIN, and that AT&T knew or should have known that employees could bypass its customer security measures.
Terpin is suing AT&T for his $24 million worth of cryptocurrencies, plus $200 million in punitive damages. A copy of his complaint is here (PDF).
AT&T declined to comment on specific claims in the lawsuit, saying only in a statement that, "We dispute these allegations and look forward to presenting our case in court."
AN 'IDENTITY CRISIS'?
Mobile phone companies are a major weak point in authentication because so many companies have now built their entire procedure for authenticating customers on a process that involves sending a one-time code to the customer via SMS or automated phone call.
In some cases, thieves executing SIM swaps have already phished or otherwise stolen a target's bank or email password. But many major social media platforms — such as Instagram — allow users to reset their passwords using nothing more than text-based (SMS) authentication, meaning thieves can hijack those accounts just by having control over the target's mobile phone number.
Allison Nixon is director of security research at Flashpoint, a security company in New York City that has been closely tracking the murky underworld of communities that teach people how to hijack phone numbers assigned to customer accounts at all of the major mobile providers.
Nixon calls the current SIM-jacking craze "a major identity crisis" for cybersecurity on multiple levels.
"Phone numbers were never originally intended as an identity document, they were designed as a way to contact people," Nixon said. "But because of all these other companies are building in security measures, a phone number has become an identity document."
In essence, mobile phone companies have become "critical infrastructure" for security precisely because so much is riding on who controls a given mobile number. At the same time, so little is needed to undo weak security controls put in place to prevent abuse.
"The infrastructure wasn't designed to withstand the kind of attacks happening now," Nixon said. "The protocols need to be changed, and there are probably laws affecting the telecom companies that need to be reviewed in light of how these companies have evolved."
Unfortunately, with the major mobile providers so closely tied to your security, there is no way you can remove the most vulnerable chunks of this infrastructure — the mobile store employees who can be paid or otherwise bamboozled into helping these attacks succeed.
No way, that is, unless you completely disconnect your mobile phone number from any sort of SMS-based authentication you currently use, and replace it with Internet-based telephone services that do not offer "helpful" customer support — such as Google Voice.
Google Voice lets users choose a phone number that gets tied to their Google account, and any calls or messages to that number will be forwarded to your mobile number. But unlike phone numbers issued by the major mobile providers, Google Voice numbers can't be stolen unless someone also hacks your Google password — in which case you likely have much bigger problems.
With Google Voice, there is no customer service person who can be conned over the phone into helping out. There is no retail-store employee who will sell access to your SIM information for a paltry $80 payday. In this view of security, customer service becomes a customer disservice.
Mind you, this isn't my advice. The above statement summarizes the arguments allegedly made by one of the most accomplished SIM swap thieves in the game today. On July 12, 2018, police in California arrested Joel Ortiz, a 20-year-old college student from Boston who's accused of using SIM swaps to steal more than $5 million in cryptocurrencies from 40 victims.
Ortiz allegedly had help from a number of unnamed accomplices who collectively targeted high-profile and wealthy people in the cryptocurrency space. In one of three brazen attacks at a bitcoin conference this year, Ortiz allegedly used his SIM swapping skills to steal more than $1.5 million from a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, including nearly $1 million the victim had crowdfunded.
A July 2018 posting from the "OG" Instagram account "0", allegedly an account hijacked by Joel Ortiz (pictured holding an armload of Dom Perignon champagne).
Ortiz reportedly was a core member of OGUsers[dot]com, a forum that's grown wildly popular among criminals engaging in SIM swaps to steal cryptocurrency and hijack high-value social media accounts. OG is short for "original gangster," and it refers to a type of "street cred" for possession of social media account names that are relatively short (between one and six characters). On ogusers[dot]com, Ortiz allegedly picked the username "j". Short usernames are considered more valuable because they confer on the account holder the appearance of an early adopter on most social networks.
Discussions on the Ogusers forum indicate Ortiz allegedly is the current occupant of perhaps the most OG username on Twitter — an account represented by the number zero "0". The alias displayed on that twitter profile is "j0". He also apparently controls the Instagram account by the same number, as well as the Instagram account "t", which lists its alias as "Joel."
Shown below is a cached snippet from an Ogusers forum posting by "j" (allegedly Ortiz), advising people to remove their mobile phone number from all important multi-factor authentication options, and to replace it with something like Google Voice.
Ogusers SIM swapper "j" advises forum members on how not to become victims of SIM swapping. Click to enlarge.
Latest Warnings / The Coming Storm / Web Fraud 2.0 — 104 Comments
Look-Alike Domains and Visual Confusion
How good are you at telling the difference between domain names you know and trust and impostor or look-alike domains? The answer may depend on how familiar you are with the nuances of internationalized domain names (IDNs), as well as which browser or Web application you're using.
For example, how does your browser interpret the following domain? I'll give you a hint: Despite appearances, it is most certainly not the actual domain for software firm CA Technologies (formerly Computer Associates Intl Inc.), which owns the original ca.com domain name:
https://www.са.com/
Go ahead and click on the link above or cut-and-paste it into a browser address bar. If you're using Google Chrome, Apple's Safari, or some recent version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Edge browsers, you should notice that the address converts to "xn--80a7a.com." This is called "punycode," and it allows browsers to render domains with non-Latin alphabets like Cyrillic and Ukrainian.
Below is what it looks like in Edge on Windows 10; Google Chrome renders it much the same way. Notice what's in the address bar (ignore the "fake site" and "Welcome to…" text, which was added as a courtesy by the person who registered this domain):
The domain https://www.са.com/ as rendered by Microsoft Edge on Windows 10. The rest of the text in the image (beginning with "Welcome to a site…") was added by the person who registered this test domain, not the browser.
IE, Edge, Chrome and Safari all will convert https://www.са.com/ into its punycode output (xn--80a7a.com), in part to warn visitors about any confusion over look-alike domains registered in other languages. But if you load that domain in Mozilla Firefox and look at the address bar, you'll notice there's no warning of possible danger ahead. It just looks like it's loading the real ca.com:
What the fake ca.com domain looks like when loaded in Mozilla Firefox. A browser certificate ordered from Comodo allows it to include the green lock (https://) in the address bar, adding legitimacy to the look-alike domain. The rest of the text in the image (beginning with "Welcome to a site…") was added by the person who registered this test domain, not the browser. Click to enlarge.
The domain "xn--80a7a.com" pictured in the first screenshot above is punycode for the Ukrainian letters for "s" (which is represented by the character "c" in Russian and Ukrainian), as well as an identical Ukrainian "a".
It was registered by Alex Holden, founder of Milwaukee, Wis.-based Hold Security Inc. Holden's been experimenting with how the different browsers handle punycodes in the browser and via email. Holden grew up in what was then the Soviet Union and speaks both Russian and Ukrainian, and he's been playing with Cyrillic letters to spell English words in domain names.
Letters like A and O look exactly the same and the only difference is their Unicode value. There are more than 136,000 Unicode characters used to represent letters and symbols in 139 modern and historic scripts, so there's a ton of room for look-alike or malicious/fake domains.
For example, "a" in Latin is the Unicode value "0061" and in Cyrillic is "0430." To a human, the graphical representation for both looks the same, but for a computer there is a huge difference. Internationalized domain names (IDNs) allow domain names to be registered in non-Latin letters (RFC 3492), provided the domain is all in the same language; trying to mix two different IDNs in the same name causes the domain registries to reject the registration attempt.
So, in the Cyrillic alphabet (Russian/Ukrainian), we can spell АТТ, УАНОО, ХВОХ, and so on. As you can imagine, the potential opportunity for impersonation and abuse are great with IDNs. Here's a snippet from a larger chart Holden put together showing some of the more common ways that IDNs can be made to look like established, recognizable domains:
Image: Hold Security.
Holden also was able to register a valid SSL encryption certificate for https://www.са.com from Comodo.com, which would only add legitimacy to the domain were it to be used in phishing attacks against CA customers by bad guys, for example. Continue reading →
Other — 60 Comments
How to Opt Out of Equifax Revealing Your Salary History
A KrebsOnSecurity series on how easy big-three credit bureau Equifax makes it to get detailed salary history data on tens of millions of Americans apparently inspired a deeper dive on the subject by Fast Company, which examined how this Equifax division has been one of the company's best investments. In this post, I'll show you how to opt out of yet another Equifax service that makes money at the expense of your privacy.
My original report showed how the salary history for tens of millions of employees at some of the world's largest corporations was available to anyone armed with an employee's Social Security number and date of birth — information that was stolen on 145.5 million Americans in the recent breach at Equifax.
Equifax took down their salary portal — a service from the company's Workforce Solutions division known as The Work Number (formerly "TALX") — just a few hours after my story went live on Oct. 8. The company explained that the site was being disabled for routine maintenance, but Equifax didn't fully reopen the portal until Nov. 2, following the addition of unspecified "security improvements."
Fast Company writer Joel Winston's story examines how some 70,000 companies — including Amazon, AT&T, Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle, Twitter and Wal-Mart — actually pay Equifax to collect, organize, and re-sell their employees' personal income information and work history.
"A typical employee at Facebook (which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp) may require verification of his employment through TALX when he leases an apartment, updates his immigration status, applies for a loan or public aid, or applies for a new job," Winston writes. "If his new prospective employer is among the 70,000 approved entities in Equifax's verifier network with a "permissible purpose," that company can purchase his employment and income information for about $20."
While this may sound like a nice and legitimate use of salary data, the point of my original report was that this salary data is also available to anyone who has the Social Security number and date of birth on virtually any person who once worked at a company that uses this Equifax service.
In May 2017, KrebsOnSecurity broke the story of how this same Equifax Workforce portal was abused for an entire year by identity thieves involved in tax refund fraud with the Internal Revenue Service. Fraudsters used SSN and DOB data to reset the 4-digit PINs given to customer employees as a password, and then steal W-2 tax data after successfully answering personal questions about those employees.
Curiously, Equifax claims they have no evidence that anyone was harmed as a result of the year-long pattern of tax fraud related to how easy it was to coax salary and payroll data out of its systems.
"We do not know of any specific fraud incidents linked with the Work Number," Equifax spokeswoman Marisa Salcines told Fast Company.
This statement sounds suspiciously like what big-three credit bureau Experian told lawmakers in 2014 after they were hauled up to Capitol Hill to explain another breach that was scooped by KrebsOnSecurity: That a Vietnamese man who ran an identity theft service which catered to tax refund fraudsters had access for nine months to more than 200 million consumer records maintained by Experian.
Experian's suits told lawmakers that no consumers were harmed even as the U.S. Secret Service was busy arresting customers of this identity theft service — nearly all of whom were involved in tax refund fraud and other forms of consumer ID theft. Continue reading →
Porn Spam Botnet Has Evil Twitter Twin
Last month KrebsOnSecurity published research into a large distributed network of apparently compromised systems being used to relay huge blasts of junk email promoting "online dating" programs — affiliate-driven schemes traditionally overrun with automated accounts posing as women. New research suggests that another bot-promoting botnet of more than 80,000 automated female Twitter accounts has been pimping the same dating scheme and prompting millions of clicks from Twitter users in the process.
One of the 80,000+ Twitter bots ZeroFOX found that were enticing male Twitter users into viewing their profile pages.
Not long after I published Inside a Porn-Pimping Spam Botnet, I heard from researchers at ZeroFOX, a security firm that helps companies block attacks coming through social media.
Zack Allen, manager of threat operations at ZeroFOX, said he had a look at some of the spammy, adult-themed domains being promoted by the botnet in my research and found they were all being promoted through a botnet of bogus Twitter accounts.
Those phony Twitter accounts all featured images of attractive or scantily-clad women, and all were being promoted via suggestive tweets, Allen said.
Anyone who replied was ultimately referred to subscription-based online dating sites run by Deniro Marketing, a company based in California. This was the same company that was found to be the beneficiary of spam from the porn botnet I'd written about in June. Deniro did not respond to requests for comment.
"We've been tracking this thing since February 2017, and we concluded that the social botnet controllers are probably not part of Deniro Marketing, but most likely are affiliates," Allen said.
ZeroFOX found more than 86,262 Twitter accounts were responsible for more than 8.6 million posts on Twitter promoting porn-based sites, many of them promoting domains in a swath of Internet address space owned by Deniro Marketing (ASN19884).
Allen said 97.4% of bot display names had the pattern "Firstname Surname" with the first letters of each name capitalized, and each name separated by a single whitespace character that corresponded to common female names.
An analysis of the Twitter bot names used in the scheme. Graphic: ZeroFOX.
The accounts advertise adult content by routinely injecting links from their twitter profiles to a popular hashtag, or by @-mentioning a popular user or influencer on Twitter. Those profile links are shortened with Google's goo.gl link shortening service, which then redirects to a free hosting domain in the dot-tk (.tk) domain space (.tk is the country code for Tokelau — a group of atolls in the South Pacific).
From there the system is smart enough to redirect users back to Twitter if they appear to be part of any automated attempt to crawl the links (e.g. by using site download and mirroring tools like cURL), the researchers found. They said this was likely a precaution on the part of the spammers to avoid detection by automated scanners looking for bot activity on Twitter. Requests from visitors who look like real users responding to tweets are redirected to the porn spam sites.
Because the links promoted by those spammy Twitter accounts all abused short link services from Twitter and Google, the researchers were able to see that this entire botnet has generated more than 30 million unique clicks from February to June 2017. Continue reading →
Other — 175 Comments
DDoS on Dyn Impacts Twitter, Spotify, Reddit
Criminals this morning massively attacked Dyn, a company that provides core Internet services for Twitter, SoundCloud, Spotify, Reddit and a host of other sites, causing outages and slowness for many of Dyn's customers.
Twitter is experiencing problems, as seen through the social media platform Hootsuite.
In a statement, Dyn said that this morning, October 21, Dyn received a global distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on its DNS infrastructure on the east coast starting at around 7:10 a.m. ET (11:10 UTC).
"DNS traffic resolved from east coast name server locations are experiencing a service interruption during this time. Updates will be posted as information becomes available," the company wrote.
DYN encouraged customers with concerns to check the company's status page for updates and to reach out to its technical support team.
A DDoS is when crooks use a large number of hacked or ill-configured systems to flood a target site with so much junk traffic that it can no longer serve legitimate visitors.
DNS refers to Domain Name System services. DNS is an essential component of all Web sites, responsible for translating human-friendly Web site names like "example.com" into numeric, machine-readable Internet addresses. Anytime you send an e-mail or browse a Web site, your machine is sending a DNS look-up request to your Internet service provider to help route the traffic.
The attack on DYN comes just hours after DYN researcher Doug Madory presented a talk on DDoS attacks in Dallas, Texas at a meeting of the North American Network Operators Group (NANOG). Madory's talk — available here on Youtube.com — delved deeper into research that he and I teamed up on to produce the data behind the story DDoS Mitigation Firm Has History of Hijacks. Continue reading →
A Little Sunshine / The Coming Storm — 87 Comments
They Hack Because They Can
The Internet of Things is coming….to a highway sign near you? In the latest reminder that much of our nation's "critical infrastructure" is held together with the Internet equivalent of spit and glue, authorities in several U.S. states are reporting that a hacker has once again broken into and defaced electronic road signs over highways in several U.S. states.
Image: WNCN.
Earlier this week, news media in North Carolina reported that at least three highway signs there had apparently been compromised and re-worded to read "Hack by Sun Hacker." Similar incidents were reported between May 27 and June 2, 2014 in two other states, which spotted variations on that message left by the perpetrator, (including an invitation to chat with him on Twitter).
The attack was reminiscent of a series of incidents beginning two years ago in which various electronic message signs were changed to read "Warning, Zombies Ahead".
While at least those attacks were chuckle-worthy, messing with traffic signs is no laughing matter: As a report by the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) points out, changes to road signs create a public safety issue because instead of directing drivers through road hazards, they often result in drivers slowing or stopping to view the signs or take pictures.
That same MS-ISAC notice, obtained by KrebsOnSecurity and published here (PDF), points out that these incidents appear to be encouraged by sloppy security on the part of those responsible for maintaining these signs.
"Investigators in one state believe the compromise may be in part due to the use of weak Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) community strings. Investigators in another state believe the malicious actor used Telnet port 23 and a simple password cracker to gain remote access. In one state the malicious actor changed the modem passwords, forcing technicians to restore to factory default settings to regain access."
Teen Arrested for 30+ Swattings, Bomb Threats
A 16-year-old male from Ottawa, Canada has been arrested for allegedly making at least 30 fraudulent calls to emergency services across North America over the past few months. The false alarms — two of which targeted this reporter — involved calling in phony bomb threats and multiple attempts at "swatting" — a hoax in which the perpetrator spoofs a call about a hostage situation or other violent crime in progress in the hopes of tricking police into responding at a particular address with deadly force.
On March 9, a user on Twitter named @ProbablyOnion (possibly NSFW) started sending me rude and annoying messages. A month later (and several weeks after blocking him on Twitter), I received a phone call from the local police department. It was early in the morning on Apr. 10, and the cops wanted to know if everything was okay at our address.
Since this was not the first time someone had called in a fake hostage situation at my home, the call I received came from the police department's non-emergency number, and they were unsurprised when I told them that the Krebs manor and all of its inhabitants were just fine.
Minutes after my local police department received that fake notification, @ProbablyOnion was bragging on Twitter about swatting me, including me on his public messages: "You have 5 hostages? And you will kill 1 hostage every 6 times and the police have 25 minutes to get you $100k in clear plastic." Another message read: "Good morning! Just dispatched a swat team to your house, they didn't even call you this time, hahaha."
I told this user privately that targeting an investigative reporter maybe wasn't the brightest idea, and that he was likely to wind up in jail soon. But @ProbablyOnion was on a roll: That same day, he hung out his for-hire sign on Twitter, with the following message: "want someone swatted? Tweet me their name, address and I'll make it happen." Continue reading →
A Little Sunshine / Web Fraud 2.0 — 25 Comments
Buying Battles in the War on Twitter Spam
The success of social networking community Twitter has given rise to an entire shadow economy that peddles dummy Twitter accounts by the thousands, primarily to spammers, scammers and malware purveyors. But new research on identifying bogus accounts has helped Twitter to drastically deplete the stockpile of existing accounts for sale, and holds the promise of driving up costs for both vendors of these shady services and their customers.
Image: Twitterbot.info
Twitter prohibits the sale and auto-creation of accounts, and the company routinely suspends accounts created in violation of that policy. But according to researchers from George Mason University, the International Computer Science Institute and the University of California, Berkeley, Twitter traditionally has done so only after these fraudulent accounts have been used to spam and attack legitimate Twitter users.
Seeking more reliable methods of detecting auto-created accounts before they can be used for abuse, the researchers approached Twitter last year for the company's blessing to purchase credentials from a variety of Twitter account merchants. Permission granted, the researchers spent more than $5,000 over ten months buying accounts from at least 27 different underground sellers.
In a report to be presented at the USENIX security conference in Washington, D.C. today, the research team details its experience in purchasing more than 121,000 fraudulent Twitter accounts of varying age and quality, at prices ranging from $10 to $200 per one thousand accounts.
The research team quickly discovered that nearly all fraudulent Twitter account merchants employ a range of countermeasures to evade the technical hurdles that Twitter erects to stymie the automated creation of new accounts.
"Our findings show that merchants thoroughly understand Twitter's existing defenses against automated registration, and as a result can generate thousands of accounts with little disruption in availability or instability in pricing," the paper reads. "We determine that merchants can provide thousands of accounts within 24 hours at a price of $0.02 – $0.10 per account."
SPENDING MONEY TO MAKE MONEY
For example, to fulfill orders for fraudulent Twitter accounts, merchants typically pay third-party services to help solve those squiggly-letter CAPTCHA challenges. I've written here and here about these virtual sweatshops, which rely on low-paid workers in China, India and Eastern Europe who earn pennies per hour deciphering the puzzles.
The Twitter account sellers also must verify new accounts with unique email addresses, and they tend to rely on services that sell cheap, auto-created inboxes at Hotmail, Yahoo and Mail.ru, the researchers found. "The failure of email confirmation as a barrier directly stems from pervasive account abuse tied to web mail providers," the team wrote. "60 percent of the accounts were created with Hotmail, followed by yahoo.com and mail.ru."
Bulk-created accounts at these Webmail providers are among the cheapest of the free email providers, probably because they lack additional account creation verification mechanisms required by competitors like Google, which relies on phone verification. Compare the prices at this bulk email merchant: 1,000 Yahoo accounts can be had for $10 (1 cent per account), and the same number Hotmail accounts go for $12. In contrast, it costs $200 to buy 1,000 Gmail accounts.
Finally, the researchers discovered that Twitter account merchants very often spread their new account registrations across thousands of Internet addresses to avoid Twitter's IP address blacklisting and throttling. They concluded that some of the larger account sellers have access to large botnets of hacked PCs that can be used as proxies during the registration process.
"Our analysis leads us to believe that account merchants either own or rent access to thousands of compromised hosts to evade IP defenses," the researchers wrote.
Damon McCoy, an assistant professor of computer science at GMU and one of the authors of the study, said the top sources of the proxy IP addresses were computers in developing countries like India, Ukraine, Thailand, Mexico and Vietnam. "These are countries where the price to buy installs [installations of malware that turns PCs into bots] is relatively low," McCoy said.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says Flint's water system still faces major problems. EPA chief Gina McCarthy sent a warning to Governor Rick Snyder and Flint Mayor Karen Weaver.
The letter says the city's water treatment plant is understaffed – and the water distribution network is too large and sprawling.


text:
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Download photo guide to birds of costa rica in pdf or read photo guide to birds of costa rica in pdf online books in PDF, EPUB and Mobi Format. Click Download or Read Online button to get photo guide to birds of costa rica in pdf book now. This site is like a library, Use search box in the widget to get ebook that you want.
Photo Guide To Birds Of Costa Rica
Autor: Richard Garrigues
Publisher: Cornell University Press
File Size: 28,50 MB
Format: PDF, ePub
Download or Read Book
Few ecosystem destinations are as abundant in their biodiversity as Costa Rica. Having the right field guides in hand can make all the difference when you're enjoying the country's birdlife. Photo Guide to Birds of Costa Rica, which features 549 excellent photographs, is designed to be equally useful for two distinct sets of readers. First are birders new to birding—or new to birding in Costa Rica—who want a guide to the birds that one is most likely to see, as well as to a few of the rarer species that one would hope to encounter. It treats more than 40 percent (365) of the species known from Costa Rica but is a guide to at least 75 percent of the birds commonly seen in a week or so of birding. The book will also be welcomed by experienced birders in search of a companion volume to The Birds of Costa Rica, second edition, an illustrated guide to all the birds of Costa Rica. The photographs in the species accounts in Photo Guide to Birds of Costa Rica are accompanied by names, measurements, field marks, habitat and behavior, voice, status and distribution, and range maps.
Birds Of Costa Rica
Autor: Susan Fogden
Ideal for the travelling nature watcher, this useful guide provides a comprehensive overview of the variety of bird-life to be found in Costa Rica. Over 250 native species are included in the book, each description supported by a clear colour photograph taken where possible in the bird's natural Costa Rican habitat. As well as the commoner species likely to be encountered - colourful birds such as the Blue-grey Tanager, Social Flycatcher, Kiskadee, Clay-coloured Robin and Rufous-collared Sparrow - the guide also focuses on endemics, such as Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager, and endangered species, such as the Bare-necked Umbrellabird and Three-wattled Bellbird. Illustrated with clear colour photography and brief but authoritative descriptions the Pocket Photo Guides highlight the species of birds and animals from each region that the traveller is most likely to see, as well as those that are genuinely endemic (only to be seen in that country or region) or special rarities. The genuine pocket size allows the books to be carried around on trips and excursions and will take up minimal rucksack and suitcase space.
The Birds Of Costa Rica
Publisher: Comstock Pub Assoc
"Field guide for identifying birds in the field in Costa Rica. Includes descriptions, range maps, and illustrations of all 903 species definitely known from Costa Rica, including pelagics and species regular to Cocos Island. Includes alphabetical quick-find indexes of groups and families on the inside back cover"--
Autor: Carrol L. Henderson
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Format: PDF, Kindle
A must-have guide to more than 300 birds that visitors are most likely to see in Costa Rica, includes 464 color photos, including many taken in the wild, and 308 range maps. Original.
Exploring Costa Rica 2007
Field Guide To The Wildlife Of Costa Rica
File Size: 4,94 MB
At the biological crossroads of the Americas, Costa Rica hosts an astonishing array of plants and animals—over half a million species! Ecotourists, birders, and biologists come from around the world to immerse themselves in the country's unspoiled rain forests, mountains, and beaches, drawn by the likelihood of seeing more than three or four hundred species of birds and other animals during even a short stay. To help all of these visitors and local residents identify and enjoy the wildlife of Costa Rica, this field guide presents nearly three hundred species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, moths, and other invertebrates. Carrol Henderson, an experienced wildlife biologist, traveler, and tour leader in Costa Rica, has chosen the species that ecotourists are most likely to see, along with a selection of rarer, sought-after animals. He gives a general introduction to each group of animals, followed by individual species accounts that highlight identification features and interesting ecological adaptations for survival. His stunning close-up photographs and distribution maps complete each entry. In addition, Henderson includes a wealth of data about Costa Rica's natural environment, as well as a trip preparation checklist and lists of conservation organizations, wildlife tourism sites, and wildlife vocalization tapes and CDs. With so much information so readily and readably accessible, this field guide will be essential for planning and enjoying your time in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica A Photo Tour
Autor: Joel Gilgoff
This is an 64 page photo book of Costa Rica. There are over 70 color images of the beautiful biodiversity of this magical country. Images include flowers, plants, butterflies, monkeys, birds, people and reptiles
A Bird Finding Guide To Mexico
Autor: Steve N. G. Howell
Format: PDF, ePub, Docs
With a rich variety of stunning avifauna, Mexico provides the first taste of the Neotropics for many birders. At last here is a guide to Mexico's best birdwatching sites, from Baja California to the Yucatan Peninsula. Steve N. G. Howell, coauthor of the widely acclaimed A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America, has selected over 100 sites where birders may see more than 950 species, including virtually all of the endemics and regional specialties. Useful for both the business traveler in Mexico City with only a morning to spare and the serious birder planning a three-month trip across the country, this indispensable book tells where to go and what to look for. * covers all of Mexico and includes all of the top birding spots. * presents key information on over 100 sites, where more than 950 bird species can be seen. * provides lists of the birds at the most popular sites. * gives general information about each region of the country, along with a map showing the location of its sites; additional maps show greater detail at selected sites. * supplies listings of all endemics and sought-after species with key sites where they can be seen. * includes advice on how best to find and view birds. * suggests itineraries for birding holidays. * offers valuable tips on travel and birdwatching in Mexico.
Birding World
Mammals Amphibians And Reptiles Of Costa Rica
To help visitors, as well as local residents, identify and enjoy the wildlife of Costa Rica, Carrol L. Henderson published Field Guide to the Wildlife of Costa Rica in 2002, and it instantly became the indispensable guide. Now Henderson has created a field guide dedicated to the monkeys, sloths, treefrogs, lizards, crocodiles, and other animals that travelers are most likely to see while exploring the wild lands of Costa Rica. He includes fascinating information on their natural history, ecology, identification, and behavior gleaned from his forty years of travels, studies, and wildlife viewing in Costa Rica, as well as details on where to see these remarkable and beautiful creatures. The mammals, amphibians, and reptiles are illustrated by stunning and colorful photographs—most of which were taken in the wild by Henderson. A detailed and invaluable appendix that identifies many of Costa Rica's best wildlife-watching destinations, lodges, and contact information for trip-planning purposes completes the volume.
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/ Person Extended - Mary Jane Seacole (née Grant)
Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue
in All fields Sitter name Gallery portraits All known portraits Biography References Medium Inscription Provenance Exhibitions Reproductions
Mary Jane Seacole (née Grant) (1805-1881), Nurse, adventurer and writer
Nurse, traveller, writer; born c.1805, at Kingston, Jamaica, daughter of a Scottish soldier and Jamaican hotelier. Married Edwin Seacole 1836, soon widowed; travelled to Britain 1854 and on own initiative to the Crimea, where she sold food and drink to the military and provided first aid and medicine to the sick and wounded; after return to Britain she was made bankrupt until military admirers raised funds for her support; published autobiographical The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands (1857); died 14 May 1881, in London.
Forgotten for many decades, the story of her life was rediscovered in the 1980s and she became a nursing role model alongside Florence Nightingale. In 2004 she was popularly voted the 'Greatest Black Briton'.
I have seen her go down under fire with her little store of creature comforts for our wounded men, and a more tender or skilful hand about a wound or broken limb could not be found among our best surgeons. I saw her at the assaults on Redan, at the Battle of Tchernaya, at the fall of Sebastopol, laden … with wine, bandages and food for the wounded or the prisoners. [1]
According to illustrator William Simpson, Seacole was
a well-known character in the Crimea, all the soldiers and sailors knew her. She had a taste for nursing and doctoring, but she added to this a business as a sutler. She told me one day that she had Scotch blood in her veins. I must say that she did not look like it, but the old lady spoke proudly of this point in her genealogy. She was a nice, good creature, and everyone liked her. At Lord Raglan's funeral, and at such ceremonies as the investiture of the Bath, she turned out with the brightest of ribbons in her bonnet. [2]
Dr Jan Marsh
Footnotesback to top
1) William H. Russell, The Times, 11 Apr. 1857.
2) Simpson 1903, p.57.
Referencesback to top
Anionwu 2005
Anionwu, E., ed., A Short History of Mary Seacole: A Resource for Nurses and Students, London, 2005.
Cooper, T., ed., National Portrait Gallery: A Portrait of Britain, London, 2014.
Funnell and Marsh 2011
Funnell, P., and J. Marsh, A Guide to Victorian and Edwardian Portraits, London, 2011.
Grey 1869
Grey, Mrs W., Journal of a Visit to Egypt, Constantinople, the Crimea, Greece, &c. in the suite of the Prince and Princess of Wales, London, 1869.
I-Spy 2010
I-Spy National Portrait Gallery, Watford, 2010.
James 2010
James, T.B., 'Mary Seacole's Lost Letter', BBC History Magazine, October 2010, pp.53–5.
Marsh 2005c
Marsh, J., ed., Black Victorians: Black People in British Art 1800–1900, Aldershot, 2005.
Modest & Barringer, forthcoming
Modest, W., and T. Barringer, eds, Victorian Jamaica, Durham, NC, forthcoming.
Palmer 2004
Palmer, A., 'Seacole, Mary Jane (1805–1881)', ODNB, Oxford, 2004; online ed., May 2006.
Rappaport 2007
Rappaport, H., No Place for Ladies: The Untold Story of Women in the Crimean War, London, 2007.
Robinson 2005
Robinson, J., Mary Seacole: The Charismatic Black Nurse Who Became a Heroine of the Crimea, London, 2005.
Seacole 1857
Seacole., M., The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, London, 1857.
Seacole, M., The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, ed. Z. Alexander and A. Dewjee, Bristol, [1857] 1984.
Seacole, M., The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, ed. S. Salih, London, [1857] 2005.
Simpson 1903
Simpson, W., The Autobiography of William Simpson R.I. (Crimean Simpson), London, 1903.
Staring-Derks et al. 2015
Staring-Derks, C., J. Staring and E.N. Anionwu, 'Mary Seacole: Global Nurse Extraordinaire', Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol.71, no.3, 2015, pp.514–25.


Next post: NURU Giveaway Winner!
Finally, a little present from BlogCrafted, my site on better blogging: how to do a THOROUGH backup of your WordPress blog.
When you have a good backup, it's much easier to move or restore your blog if something bad happens. But if you don't, you're at the mercy of your hosting company…and they don't care nearly as much about your site as you do.
January is indeed the time for giveaways. Marketeers know it's the best chance of the year of getting us to change our habits.
Thanks for mentioning the giveaway Mrs Micah!


ROLLING MEADOWS, ILL., Oct. 30, 2012 – Cambium Networks™, a leading provider of wireless broadband access network solutions, and Agile Networks, a telecommunications services company headquartered in Canton, Ohio, today announced that Cambium's world-class suite of wireless solutions has been chosen for the statewide build-out of The Agile Network in Ohio.
The Agile Network will cover more than 3 million address points across the state, including over 100,000 homes that do not have access to broadband today. This initiative aims to drive economic development, update the state's public safety infrastructure and reduce telecommunications costs for local and state government across Ohio. It will provide the infrastructure to better connect residents, businesses and government locations, as well as provide open access for telecom service providers throughout the state. Special emphasis for this shared resource will be placed on counties in need and local government entities such as hospitals, county courthouses, police stations and other local government buildings that require an enhanced data infrastructure to provide public safety and a wide range of additional government services.
Cambium will support The Agile Network infrastructure by utilizing a broad range of the company's point-to-point (PTP) and point-to-multipoint (PMP) wireless broadband solutions. Using a combination of both licensed and licensed-exempt frequencies, Agile will deploy Cambium's PMP 320 and PMP 450 products as well as the PTP 800i All-Indoor solution for last mile access and backhaul infrastructure to deliver broadband services throughout the network. The PMP 450, Cambium's newest high-performance, 4G, PMP platform will be instrumental in enabling Agile to reach previously underserved Ohio residents. Cambium's broadband solutions were chosen because they enable wide-range connectivity, scalability and high reliability. Cambium's products have also been recognized as surpassing the technical specifications for reliability, ruggedness and dependability necessary for the public safety network.
The network will help local governments deploy rural broadband projects, reduce operating costs and unify their communications infrastructures across a common system.
Cambium and Quillen first partnered together as part of a 2009 project to deliver countywide wireless broadband to Coshocton County, a rural Appalachian county located in East Central Ohio. As part of that project, Cambium's products were used to install 14 access points throughout the county connecting both residential and business users. The success of that project ultimately led to this statewide deployment.
Agile Networks is a telecommunications company headquartered in Canton, Ohio. They are committed to economic development through innovations in technology and telecommunications service. To learn more about Agile Networks, visit www.agilenetworks.com.
Cambium Networks, formerly part of Motorola Solutions, provides world-class wireless broadband and microwave solutions for Service Providers, enterprise customers, military, government, and municipal networks around the world. It currently has more than 3.5 million products deployed in thousands of networks in over 150 countries, with its innovative technologies providing reliable, secure, cost-effective connectivity that's easy to deploy and proven to deliver outstanding metrics. Cambium's ecosystem of partners, development engineers, and support teams work together to design and deliver innovative, forward-looking solutions that provide data, voice and video connectivity when and where it's needed. For more information, visit: www.cambiumnetworks.com.


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Magazines: A refuge for Covid-free news
Posted On February 8, 2021	 Elise Denoulet 0
While newspapers, TV stations, and radio broadcasts are filled with news about the latest number of cases reported, vaccine updates, and overviews of new restrictions, magazines appear like a safe space where pandemic-related news is not allowed.
Samir Husni, director of the Magazine Innovation Center and a journalism professor at the University of Mississippi — who is also known as "Mr. Magazine" — provides some insight as to why magazines are so popular at the time of COVID-19.
"Magazines, in this ocean of media and this bombardment of information, are still the highland of hope, the highland of positive news, […] the me-time," says Husni.
The audience already knows about the pandemic, about the killings of African-Americans, about the elections, and about social injustice. Husni says that when the audience is reaching for a magazine like Southern Living or Better Homes and Gardens, they are looking for an escape time, a way to cope with everything that is going on in the world, a break from the frenzy.
"Everything that was coming our way was a bombardment of negative, depressing information. And there comes the magazine in your mailbox, there comes the magazine on the newsstand, saying, 'cheer up, life can still be good. Make this recipe, relax a little bit, read this piece of fiction. Have fun.' It's all positive," says Husni.
Magazines staying true to their editorial line also played an important part in their popularity during the pandemic: editors did not deviate from the mission of their magazine. Farming magazines talk about farming, cooking magazines talk about recipes. The one common thing that magazines do is to "stay the course."
"I spoke with one publisher, for the Farmer's Almanac, a magazine that has been published for more than 200 years. She told me that the magazine had lived through the pandemic of 1980, lived through the civil war in this country, but they never deviated from the focus of the magazine. You were not going to find articles about the Civil War. They leave that to the newspapers," explains Husni.
And it worked. Established magazines, almost with no exceptions, have witnessed an increase of 25 to 30% in subscriptions. People largely returned to print because of all the screen fatigue, as well as a longing for more uplifting news. They are also providing continuity in their coverage on a certain topic.
"The beauty of a magazine is it's not a one-time thing, it's like a soap opera: there's always a second, and a third, and a fourth. So it always fascinated me since I was 10 years old, that art of story-filling and how it's continuous from one issue to another. Because anybody can write a book about change. But in a magazine, you have to see it issue after issue after issue. And still be true to your DNA," concludes Husni.
Mr. Magazine Samir Husni on why magazines are new media
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