text:
The European Arbitration Review 2023
What Do End Users Want From Arbitration Today?
Hafsa Zayyan
The past couple of years have seen wide-ranging revisions to global institutional rules, in a bid to increase their competitiveness, efficiency and provide long-awaited clarifications on the scope and breadth of the tribunal's powers. While there are a broad range of subjects that may appeal to today's arbitration's customers (including diversity, a bigger commitment to 'green' arbitration, transparency and ethics), this article focuses on procedural changes concerning the tribunals' powers across the major European institutions to address the question of whether the rules and their changes have delivered.
Why do parties use arbitration to resolve their disputes?
Summary disposal and expedited procedures
Sanctions and powers in relation to third parties
The importance of the choice of seat
Referenced in this article
Consilient Health Ltd v Gedeon Richter PLC
AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals AG v PharmaEssentia Corporation, ICC
AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals AG v PharmaEssentia Corporation, ZPO
English Arbitration Act 1996
Gerald v Timis
When it comes to discussing trends in arbitration procedures, the past few years have been characterised by a singular focus: the covid-19 pandemic and its impact on global dispute resolution – Queen Mary University of London's 2021 survey identified 'administrative/logistical support for virtual hearings' as the number one adaptation that would make institutions and arbitral rules more attractive to users.[1] The immediate aftermath of the pandemic is beginning to settle; remote proceedings will certainly not be abandoned, although time will tell to what extent they will continue to be used in high-value cross-border complex disputes. But other trends have sprung from the disruption of the pandemic – in a bid to have business carry on as normal, arbitral institutions all over the world saw revisions to their institutional rules to accommodate what end users want: speed, efficiency and low cost. Between 2020 and the date of this publication, industry-specific as well as jurisdiction-based institutions revised their arbitration rules. Changes were truly global,[2] but among those with headquarters in Europe, to name but a few: CEPANI (the Belgian Arbitration Centre, January 2020), the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA, October 2020), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC, January 2021), the Swiss Arbitration Centre (June 2021), the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (July 2021), WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (July 2021) and PRIME Finance (January 2022). In many cases, parties opting for arbitration under these rules select a European seat. This article looks at the procedural changes implemented by a number of these institutions in the broader context of the question: what do end users want from arbitration today?
Arbitration has long been held as the preferred method of resolving international commercial disputes – its classical advantages were that commercial disputes could be resolved by judges who would apply the laws and practice of the market rather than common law,[3] and in disputes with cross-border elements (as tends to be the case in international commerce), it provided a neutral forum in which the local jurisdictions of each party could be avoided.[4] A major side effect, although possibly not the primary reason, at least initially, for user demand, was the associated efficiency and speed of arbitral proceedings, and resulting lower costs. The flexibility of arbitration distinguished it from the rigid rules of civil procedure in court litigation – and the awards would bite under the New York Convention, with more ease than a foreign judgment. What is not to love?
In Queen Mary's 2018 survey, the three most valuable characteristics of international arbitration were said to be enforceability, avoiding specific legal systems and national courts, and flexibility.[5] The survey also identified the three worst characteristics as cost, lack of effective sanctions and power in relation to third parties and – inevitably – delay.[6]
The pandemic provided a good excuse to overhaul existing rules to provide better compatibility with virtual proceedings. At the same time, many institutions sought to revise their rules to increase the speed and efficiency of the process – particularly in circumstances where much delay to arbitral proceedings had been garnered by the mere fact of the pandemic.[7] Certain of these changes traverse into territory traditionally considered the domain of litigation. If the traditional attraction of arbitration was its dissimilarity to litigation, however, is a move towards procedures that are more akin to those available in court what end users desire from arbitration? Research suggests that parties want arbitrators to have the scope of powers available to judges, but without the rigidity of national rules of procedure. Of course, the breadth of powers available to judges cannot be available to tribunals, who are creatures of consent. But this is why the seat of the arbitration – in its capacity as the supervisory jurisdiction – is such an important choice.
Despite the preservation of neutrality, enforceability and autonomy, there is a quiet dissatisfaction with the perceived efficiency of international arbitration.[8] Arbitral proceedings are taking longer to resolve, coinciding with increasing costs. Queen Mary's 2021 survey asked users of arbitration what adaptations would make arbitration rules more attractive to users, and high on the list were the provision of expedited procedures and costs sanctions for delay by arbitrators.[9] Queen Mary's survey is often the first port of call for lawyers and other researchers investigating demand in the field – but the large majority of the interviewees are private practitioners, arbitrators or other interested parties[10] – and only 7 per cent of their interviewees for the 2021 survey (and 10 per cent for the 2018 survey) comprise in-house legal counsel.
So what do the clients desire? It has traditionally been considered, for example, that banks prefer litigation.[11] According to the ICC Commission's Task Force on Financial Institutions and International (whose research was carried out in 2016), 70 per cent of their interviewees[12] did not have substantial experience of international arbitration.[13] The perceived limitations of arbitration from financial institutions' perspectives focused largely on forms of relief understood to be unavailable in arbitration – including interim measures, summary awards and consolidation.[14] These concerns were perhaps a misconception – many major institutional rules (including the ICC) already had provisions for 'emergency' arbitrations to lead to rapid interim awards, as well as detailed rules on consolidation. Summary disposition was lacking at the time of the Task Force's initial report, but fast forward six years and the majority of arbitral institutional rules have sought to deal with those deficiencies by giving tribunals the express power to grant summary awards. In October 2020, the LCIA introduced express provision for summary disposal (early determination) under article 22.1(viii) (although it was lagging behind several other major institutions, which had already made provision for this in years prior).[15] Despite the late introduction, for many years the banking and finance sector has been in the top three industry sectors dominating the LCIA's caseload. In 2021, it topped the list with 26 per cent of the LCIA's cases emanating from that sector (with the energy sector coming in closely behind at 25 per cent).[16] These statistics are in stark contrast to other institutions with published statistics[17] – suggesting that despite the Task Force's findings, it is not the specific powers provided for in institutional rules that are determinative, but likely reputation and tradition, the choice of the LCIA being a reflection of London's pre-eminent and historical status as a global financial centre.
PRIME Finance, an arbitral institution dedicated to arbitrations in the finance sector, is a good illustration of this point. Although statistics are difficult to locate, anecdotal evidence suggests that it has not had the uptake that might be expected for a specialised institution. Leading arbitration practitioners have suggested that there is an inherent difficulty with trying to carve a new space in what is a tight-knit, closed arbitration community: new institutions (through no fault of their own) do not have the experience and pre-existing reputation and customers do not want to bring their cases to an inexperienced, relatively unknown institution.[18] In 2022, PRIME Finance made wide-ranging changes to its rules in response to feedback from users, including the introduction of an expedited procedure and a summary procedure. It remains to be seen whether these changes will have any real impact on the institution's caseload.
While English or New York law jurisdiction clauses appear to remain a favourable choice of dispute resolution clause in financial transaction documents, arbitration clauses are finding more traction.[19]
In the flagship lecture of Dr Georges Affaki (a co-chair of the ICC Task Force on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration) at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in April 2018,[20] Dr Affaki emphasised that financial institutions do use arbitration. In particular, he noted that it was important to recognise that there are multiple types of financial sector disputes and one size does not fit all. Export finance differs from advisory banking involving no lending, for example.[21] Dr Affaki's point was that while arbitration can offer a lot in each of these fields, it is vital that the economics of each field are properly understood and the procedure specifically adapted thereto.[22]
The institutions have made efforts to make themselves more attractive; the structures are in place. So other than the LCIA, why isn't the finance sector using arbitration more widely? The answer is probably that it will take time. Many of the procedures that have been introduced have been introduced in recent years, and the financial world may be slow to uptake (if it ain't broke, don't fix it). But the financial sector is in a constant state of evolution. As fintech develops, and the cryptocurrency market grows, there will no doubt be room for further adaptations to the arbitration offering to accommodate the changing needs of the financial sector, which may well find that arbitration is actually better suited to their disputes.
Another sector traditionally considered to favour litigation over arbitration is the life sciences industry,[23] perhaps because of its close interaction with IP disputes. IP disputes have not typically been considered within the purview of arbitration, but times are changing – enough to cause GAR to publish its first guide to arbitrating IP disputes in 2021.[24] Statistics published by the major arbitral institutions suggest, however, that the arbitration of life sciences disputes is not really increasing. Information published by the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre suggests that approximately 15 per cent of its caseload concerns the life sciences sector: that figure apparently has not changed between 2015 and 2021.[25] Numbers do not appear to have changed for the ICC or the LCIA either: the ICC Reports suggest that between 2017 and 2021, the life sciences sector has not accounted for more than 8 per cent of all filings; the LCIA caseload for 2016 to 2021 figures is even lower, at 3 per cent. There is plenty of room for growth if we can understand what exactly it is the sector is looking for and tailor the arbitration offering to provide it.
In contrast to the financial sector, little empirical study on the involvement of the life sciences sector in international arbitration has been carried out – perhaps because the life sciences sector has not traditionally been considered as large of a potential client as financial services and banking. But if there is one thing that came out of the pandemic, it is the importance of public and accessible healthcare, vaccinations and drugs. Collaborations required to research, develop, manufacture, market and sell new products have new markets. This leads to fertile ground for what are often cross-border, high-value disputes. And recent cases in the public domain suggest that the life sciences industry uses arbitration, demonstrating the breadth and nature of arbitration disputes in the field:
On 7 July 2022, the High Court in London stayed enforcement proceedings pending a set-aside application in the Netherlands.[26] The enforcement proceedings were brought by an Irish pharmaceuticals company that sought to enforce a Dutch-seated ICC award arising out of a collaboration agreement for the production, marketing and distribution of oral contraceptives in the UK and Ireland. The defendant was responsible for manufacturing, while the claimant was responsible for marketing and distribution. Following a dispute between the parties, the result of two separate arbitration tribunals' findings were that the defendant had breached the contract, and in the event the claimant exercised an option (to which it became entitled in the event of a substantial breach of the collaboration agreement) to purchase trademarks belonging to the defendant, the defendant was obliged to provide such information as the claimant or third-party manufacturers required to understand how to manufacture the relevant products, which went beyond the information contained in the common technical documents. The defendant's concerns about the confidentiality of its know how could not be resolved between the parties, and the defendant eventually issued an application to set aside the second award in the Netherlands. In the meantime, it sought to stay enforcement of the English enforcement proceedings pending the decision in Amsterdam. The Court agreed to do so on the basis that if the award was ultimately set aside, it would be very difficult to reverse or undo the impact on the defendant of handing over its know-how.
In February 2022, the German Supreme Court released a judgment from the previous December, setting aside a €140 million damages award in favour of an Austrian pharmaceuticals company, which had concluded a licence agreement with a Taiwanese entity to develop and commercialise a blood cancer treatment. The claim alleged that after the claimant had developed the drug, the respondent terminated the agreement without cause. The Frankfurt-seated tribunal agreed with the claimant and awarded substantial damages,[27] but when the matter came before the German Supreme Court, it set aside the damages part of the award on the grounds that, among other things, the tribunal had relied only on the claimant's quantum evidence.[28]
Finally, the existence of a CEPANI award issued in late 2021 in an M&A dispute in the life sciences sector shows how the sector can be involved outside of collaboration disputes.[29] That case involved the acquisition by US pharmaceuticals company Perrigo of Omega, the owner of several cough and cold, skincare, pain relief and weight management brands. Perrigo was awarded approximately €355 million by the tribunal on account of what it described as the accuracy and completeness of information disclosed about Omega pre-sale.
These cases indicate that in spite of the interaction with IP disputes, many life sciences sector disputes are ripe for arbitration, and parties in the sector are in fact using arbitration clauses to settle their disputes.
Another innovation of the new rules closer in nature to the scope of powers exercisable by judges has been the development of rules to reach parties not party to the original arbitration agreement at all – particularly, consolidation – but also joinder and intervention. The Swiss Arbitration Centre has perhaps gone the furthest in its 2021 update. While joinder (of a non-party, on application of a party) and indeed intervention (of a non-party, on its application) of third parties was already provided for in the 2012 Rules, the 2021 Rules provide further clarity on the process for joinder and intervention. Tribunals are afforded wide discretion to allow joinder and intervention[30] – rather than basing any such request on the consent of the joining party as is required under the LCIA and ICC Rules (which provide only for joinder, and not intervention).[31] The Swiss Rules go further still and expressly provide in the 2021 rules that the tribunal has a broad discretion to consider requests by non-parties 'to participate in the arbitration proceedings in a capacity other than an additional party' (such as through the submission of amicus curiae briefs).[32] This type of participation is highly unusual in private commercial arbitration, unlike investor-state dispute settlement where arguably a certain level of transparency is demanded. Proceedings remain confidential, and it is difficult to find any evidence of the use of these types of provisions in practice – but for users of arbitral systems, they know they are available if they opt for arbitration under the Swiss Rules.
Further changes have been made across the scope of institutional rules to broaden the scope of consolidation provisions. The LCIA Rules 2014 required all parties to the arbitration to be the same; but the 2020 rules allow consolidation in circumstances where the arbitration agreements are compatible and – even if the disputing parties are not the same – the arbitrations arise out of the same or related transactions.[33] This could considerably increase the attraction of the rules to a variety of commercial parties where transactions are characterised by the involvement of multiple parties, such as in the financial, construction and energy sectors, so that one forum can resolve all disputes arising out of the same transaction. Beyond the classic sectors that may benefit from wider consolidation rules, the revisions are welcome. In a recent case known to the author under the LCIA Rules, the new provisions were used in a family shareholder dispute, where the same family members were party to a number of different shareholder agreements reflecting their interests in the various family companies. After the family fell out, multiple arbitrations that had been commenced against the companies and their members under each shareholders' agreement were able to be consolidated into a single forum dealing with the broader issues that gave rise to the claims.
These changes on the scope of the tribunal's powers in relation to third parties reflect the increasingly complex, multiparty disputes being handled by arbitration – its maintained popularity as a choice of dispute resolution, and its ever-growing capacity to adapt to suit the client's needs.
Conclusions: the importance of the choice of seat
On 22 September 2022, the Law Commission of England and Wales published Consultation Paper 257, concerning proposals to reform the English Arbitration Act 1996, which is the principal legislation governing arbitration in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.[34] Despite the changing needs of arbitration users, and reforms to other arbitration legislation around the globe, the English Arbitration Act has not been revised since it came into force 25 years ago. Nevertheless, parties have not been deterred from choosing England-seated arbitration for their disputes – indeed, it might be said that the Act has only cemented the predictability and certainty that comes with English-seated arbitrations, supported by arbitration-friendly courts. The Law Commission has, thus, confirmed that the goal is not wholesale reform, but to 'maintain the attractiveness of England and Wales as a destination for dispute resolution and the pre-eminence of English law as the choice of law'.[35]
Among the areas that the Commission has identified in the Consultation Paper are the courts' powers exercisable in support of arbitration proceedings. In that regard, one set of changes to institutional rules that has been introduced since the Act came into force are provisions for emergency arbitrators to address interim relief. In Gerald Metals v Timis [2016] EWHC 2327 (Ch), the Court was asked to grant a freezing order in support of an LCIA arbitration that had been commenced, but the tribunal had not been fully constituted. The claimant had sought the appointment of an emergency arbitrator, but the LCIA Court rejected the request after the respondent gave various undertakings. The claimant then approached the English Court for relief under section 44 of the Arbitration Act. The Court concluded that the test of 'urgency' set out in section 44(3) of the Act, coupled with the requirement under section 44(5) that the tribunal has no power or is unable for the time being to act effectively, meant:
the test of exceptional urgency must be whether effective relief could not otherwise be granted within the relevant timescale – the relevant timescale for this purpose being the time which it would otherwise take to form an arbitral tribunal. Likewise, under Article 9B the test of what counts as an emergency must be whether the relief is needed more urgently than the time that it would take for the expedited formation of an arbitral tribunal.[36]
The fact that the LCIA had already rejected the claimant's request likely meant that it was not persuaded that the application was so urgent that it needed to be decided before the arbitral tribunal was constituted.
Article 9.12 of the 2014 LCIA Rules provided that the emergency arbitrator provisions: 'shall not prejudice any party's right to apply to a state court or other legal authority for any interim or conservatory measures before the formation of the Arbitration Tribunal; and it shall not be treated as an alternative to or substitute for the exercise of such right'. In Gerald, the Court said that while this article made it clear that the emergency arbitrator provisions were not intended to prevent a party from exercising a right to apply to the Court, it did not prevent the powers of the Court on such an application from being limited as a result of the existence of the emergency arbitrator provisions.
Following Gerald, the 2020 LCIA Rules revised the wording of (what is now) article 9.13 as follows:
Notwithstanding Article 9B, a party may apply to a competent state court or other legal authority for any interim or conservatory measures before the formation of the Arbitral Tribunal; and Article 9B shall not be treated as an alternative to or substitute for the exercise of such right.
The change appears to be largely semantic and, if before Leggatt J in Gerald Metals again, is unlikely to be interpreted differently.
In the Consultation Paper, the Law Commission said that stakeholders consider the perceived consequence of the Gerald decision to be that the existence of emergency arbitrator provisions precludes an application to court, given section 44(5). The Law Commission said that the reach of the decision had been exaggerated, and Gerald was little more than a restatement of section 44(5). However, given that section 44(3) contains a criteria of urgency, which the Law Commission (like the Court in Gerald) said was to be determined by the ability of arbitral regime to produce an order within the necessary time period, the Law Commission was in favour of repealing section 44(5).
It remains to be seen whether section 44(5) will in fact be repealed from the Arbitration Act, but one thing is clear: for commercial parties, the choice of the seat is just as important as the selection of the institutional rules.
[1] See LON0320037-QMUL-International-Arbitration-Survey-2021_19_WEB.pdf at p. 11.
[2] See, for example, International Centre for Dispute Resolution (March 2021), Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services Inc International Arbitration Rules (June 2021), Japan Commercial Arbitration Association (July 2021), DIAC (March 2022) and ICSID (June 2022).
[3] Brekoulakis, The 2019 Roebuck Lecture: The Unwavering Policy Favouring Arbitration Under English Law, 86 Arb. 97, 99 (2020).
[4] Brower, Introduction to International Arbitration in the 21st Century: Towards 'Judicialization' and Uniformity? ix, x (Richard B. Lillich & Charles N. Brower eds., 1994) ('parties to international transactions choose to arbitrate eventual disputes . . . simply because neither will suffer its rights and obligations to be determined by the courts of the other party's state of nationality').
[5] 2018-International-Arbitration-Survey-report.pdf (qmul.ac.uk) at p. 7.
[6] Id., p. 8.
[7] Message from the Institutions: Arbitration and COVID-19 (lcia.org).
[8] Gaurav Sharma and Chantal du Toit, 'Chapter 8: Efficiency in International Commercial Arbitration in England: Three Innovations for Future Proceedings', in Gregory Roy Fullelove , Laila Hamzi , et al. (eds), Arbitration in England: 2030 Vision, (© Kluwer Law International; Kluwer Law International 2022) pp. 147 – 168, at p150 citing Lucy Greenwood, The Rise, Fall and Rise of International Arbitration: A View from 2030, 77(4) Arbitration 435 (2011) 'One of the members of the Corporate Counsel International Arbitration Group, which was launched in 2006, claimed that 'no one he [knew] who uses arbitration regularly [was] happy with it''.
[9] LON0320037-QMUL-International-Arbitration-Survey-2021_19_WEB.pdf at p. 12.
[10] This includes, for example, academics, judges, representatives of trade associations, third-party funders, government officials, expert witnesses, economists, entrepreneurs, law students and business development experts.
[11] See William Park, Arbitration in Banking and Finance, Annual Review of Banking Law (1998) 7:213.
[12] The Task Force interviewed approximately 50 financial institutions from around the globe: para. 2.
[13] Paragraph 41.
[14] 58–60, 64.
[15] For example, SIAC, SCC and ICC Practice Note all made updates to their rules in 2017 to include express powers for summary disposal; HIKAC in 2018.
[16] Reports (lcia.org).
[17] The ICC, for example, reports not more than 7 per cent of its caseload as involving the financial sector (2020), the SCC reports 4 per cent of its caseload arising from a credit or loan agreement (2021), and VIAC reports 2 per cent of its caseload as concerning finance (2020).
[18] See, for example, reports in International Arbitration Insight: Bigger, longer, more complicated (legalbusiness.co.uk).
[19] In 2018, ISDA updated its arbitration guide to include model clauses for not only the arbitral institutions that were already included in its 2013 guide, but also the SCC, DIS, DIFC-LCIA and VIAC.
[20] CIArb – Arbitration in Banking and Finance Deconstructed.
[21] Arbitration in banking and finance deconstructed | LexisNexis Blogs.
[23] See James P. Duffy, 'Arbitration's Benefits for the Life Sciences Industry', in Gregory Kochansky (ed), Dispute Resolution Journal, (© Kluwer Law International; AAA-ICDR 2020, Volume 75 Issue 2) pp. 17–30 at p. 19.
[24] The Guide to IP Arbitration – Global Arbitration Review.
[25] See Microsoft PowerPoint - 9_Judith Schallnau_LifeSciences Conference May 22 2015 website (wipo.int), p. 8; 2017_pharmacdm.pdf (wipo.int), p. 4; Online Workshop on New WIPO ADR Options, p. 5.
[26] Consilient Health Ltd v Gedeon Richter PLC [2022] EWHC 1744 (Ch).
[27] AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals AG v PharmaEssentia Corporation, ICC Case No. 23526/FS.
[28] AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals AG v PharmaEssentia Corporation, ZPO § 1054 Abs. 1, § 1059 Abs. 2 Nr. 2 Buchst. b.
[29] See https://investor.perrigo.com/download/03_24_2022_PRGO+AR+Final.pdf.
[30] See Swiss Rules, art. 6.
[31] LCIA Rules Article 22.1(x) (written consent of joining party required); ICC Rules art. 7.5 (consent of joining party to Terms of Reference required).
[32] See Swiss Rules, art. 6.4.
[33] LCIA Rules, art. 22.7(iii).
[34] Law Commission Documents Template.
[35] https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/law-commission-to-review-the-arbitration-act-1996/.
[36] Paragraph 7 of the Ruling given at 15.41pm.
Author | Senior Associate
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan UK LLP
Arbitration in Technology Disputes
Eric Leikin, Lutz Riede, Matthias Hofer and Sue Ng
Art and Science Behind Damages in Investment Management Disputes
Bruno Campana and Denis Desbiez
Economic and Financial Issues in Renewable Energy Arbitration
Jostein Kristensen, Mateusz Slomka and Sahar Shamsi
Oxera Consulting LLP
Human Rights in International Arbitration
Maria Fogdestam Agius
Westerberg & Partners Advokatbyrå AB
The Use of Statistical Samples in Commercial Disputes
Meloria Meschi and Ravi Kanabar
Arnaud Nuyts and Gabriele Ruscalla
Liedekerke Wolters Waelbroeck Kirkpatrick
Finland Remains Reliable Place of Arbitration
Jussi Lehtinen and Helen Lehto
Dittmar & Indrenius
Fredrik Lundblom and Sebastian Berglind


A callous yob caused over £100 of damage when he smashed up a Christmas display, according to the Alvaston dad who built it.
Peter Atkin-Mangnall said he woke up to find the mess on Thursday morning.
The 45-year-old said a CCTV camera at his home, in Crawley Road, captured three youths passing his house at 1.30am. He said one of the entered his front garden and began attacking the display.
Mr Atkin-Mangnall said: "It's disgusting what they have done. They need punishment. At the end of the day I just want to name and shame them for what they did.
Mr Atkin-Mangnall described the moment he came across the mess: "We woke up to it. I came out to go to the shops and I saw it all damaged.
"It was chopped up all over the place. We have a six-foot blow-up elf and even that was smashed.
"None of it was cheap to buy. I'd say that they caused over £100 of damage.
Mr Atkin-Mangnall, who has a young child himself, had a message to those he said carried out the offence: "I do it every year for the local children and every time it gets vandalised by the kids nearby.
"Why ruin it? Why spoil it for younger children? It is quite disgusting.
A spokesperson at Derbyshire police said no arrests had been made in connection with the incident.
They said: "If anyone has any information please contact us in the usual ways using the incident number 18*628579."


Matterhorn Snags New Online Cashback Platform Ker-Ching!
Matterhorn Communications has won the marketing duties for the new online cashback platform called Ker-ching!
Retail Awards CEO, Geoff Darmody said: "Working with Matterhorn has been an exciting experience.
"The first meeting we had with them they told us we had to change our name, our logo and redo our website.
Matterhorn Communications founder, Matt Kemsley (featured image) said: "It's very straightforward. If you shop online, you should sign up to Ker-ching!
"You shop at all the sites you love (plus there are thousands of others to tempt you) but with Ker-ching! you get paid to shop at these sites.
"It's not vouchers or discounts, it's cold hard cash in your bank account.
Kemsley added: "Working with Geoff and Bek on this project has been a joy.
"They have big ambitions for Ker-ching! They're brave, and they want things done the right way.


The Prussian philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), described by many as a philosopher and a transcendental idealist, wrote "Addresses to the German Nation" between 1807 and 1808, which promoted the state as a necessary instrument of social and moral progress. He taught at the University of Berlin from 1810 to his death in 1814. His concept of the state and of the ultimate moral nature of society directly influenced both Von Schelling and Hegel, who took an similarly idealistic view.
Using the basic philosophy prescribing the "duties of the state", combined with John Locke's view (1690) that "children are a blank slate" and lessons from Rousseau on how to "write on the slate", Prussia established a three-tiered educational system that was considered "scientific" in nature. Work began in 1807 and the system was in place by 1819. An important part of the Prussian system was that it defined for the child what was to be learned, what was to be thought about, how long to think about it and when a child was to think of something else. Basically, it was a system of thought control, and it established a penchant in the psyche of the German elite that would later manifest itself into what we now refer to as mind control.
The educational system was divided into three groups. The elite of Prussian society were seen as comprising .5% of the society. Approximately 5.5% of the remaining children were sent to what was called realschulen, where they were partially taught to think. The remaining 94% went to volkschulen, where they were to learn "harmony, obdience, freedom from stressful thinking and how to follow orders." An important part of this new system was to break the link between reading and the young child, because a child who reads too well becomes knowledgable and independent from the system of instruction and is capable of finding out anything. In order to have an efficient policy-making class and a sub-class beneath it, you've got to remove the power of most people to make anything out of available information.
Now, the Prussian system of reading was originally a system whereby whole sentences (and thus whole integrated concepts) were memorized, rather than whole words. In this three-tier system, they figured out a way to achieve the desired results. In the lowest category of the system, the volkschuelen, the method was to divide whole ideas (which simultaneously integrate whole disciplines – math, science, language, art, etc.) into subjects which hardly existed prior to that time. The subjects were further divided into units requiring periods of time during the day. With appropriate variation, no one would really know what was happening in the world. It was inherently one of the most brilliant methods of knowledge suppression that had ever existed. They also replaced the alphabet system of teaching with the teaching of sounds. Hooked on phonics? Children could read without understanding what they were reading, or all the implications.
In 1814, the first American, Edward Everett, goes to Prussian to get a PhD. He eventually becomes governor of Massachusetts. During the next 30 years or so, a whole line of American dignitaries came to Germany to earn degrees (a German invention). Horace Mann, instrumental in the development of educational systems in America, was among them. Those who earned degrees in Germany came back to the United States and staffed all of the major universities. In 1850, Massachusetts and New York utilize the system, as well as promote the concept that "the state is the father of children." Horace Mann's sister, Elizabeth Peabody (Peabody Foundation) saw to it that after the Civil War, the Prussian system (taught in the Northern states) was integrated into the conquered South between 1865 and 1918. Most of the "compulsory schooling" laws designed to implement the system were passed by 1900. By 1900, all the PhD's in the United States were trained in Prussia. This project also meant that one-room schoolhouses had to go, for it fostered independence. They were eventually wiped out.
One of the reasons that the self-appointed elite brought back the Prussian system to the United States was to ensure a non-thinking work force to staff the growing industrial revolution. In 1776, for example, about 85% of the citizens were reasonably educated and had independent livelihoods – they didn't need to work for anyone. By 1840, the ratio was still about 70%. The attitude of "learn and then strike out on your own" had to be broken. The Prussian system was an ideal way to do it.
One of the prime importers of the German "educational" system into the United States was William T. Harris, from Saint Louis. He brought the German system in and set the purpose of the schools to alienate children from parental influence and that of religion. He preached this openly, and began creating "school staffing" programs that were immediately picked up by the new "teacher colleges", many of which were underwritten by the Rockefeller family, the Carnegies, the Whitney's and the Peabody family. The University of Chicago was underwritten by the Rockefellers.
Now, part of this whole paradigm seems to originate from an idea presented in The New Atlantis, by Francis Bacon (1627). The work described a "world research university" that scans the planet for babies and talent. The state then becomes invincible because it owned the university. It becomes impossible to revolt against the State because the State knows everything. A reflection of this principle can be seen today with the suppression of radical and practical technologies in order to preserve State control of life and prevent evolution and independence. The New Atlantis was widely read by German mystics in the 19th century. By 1840 in Prussia, there were a lot of "world research universities", in concept, all over the country. All of them drawing in talent and developiong it for the purposes of State power and stability.
By the middle of the 19th century, Germany had developed a new concept in the sciences which they termed "psycho-physics", which argued that people were in fact complex machines. It was the ultimate materialist extension of science that would parallel the mechanistic view of the universe already under way. This new view of people became more or less institutionalized in Germany, and by the 1870's the "field" of experimental psychology was born. The ultimate purpose of experimental psychology was to discover the nature of the human machine and how to program it.
The main proponent of this new experimental psychology in Germany was Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), who is today widely regarded as the "father" of that field. He is described by orthodoxy as having "freed the study of the mind from metaphysics and rational philosophy." Presumably in favor of irrational philosophy. Wundt obtained his PhD in medicine from the University of Heidelburg in 1856, and embarked on the study of sensory perception. His most famous work was "Contributions to the Theory of Sense Perception" , done between 1858 and 1862. It is described by orthodoxy as the first work of experimental psychology. In 1875, Wundt was appointed to a chair in philosophy at Leipzig, where he instituted a laboratory for the "systematic, experimental study of experience." Back then, the phase "get a life" was not in vogue, and evidently he didn't have much interpretable experience of his own.
In 1873, he began a year-long writing project which resulted in "Principles of Physiological Psychology", which became a "classic" that was subsequently reprinted through six editions over the next 40 years, establishing psychology's claim to be an "independent science". Wundt also wrote on philosophical subjects such as logic and ethics, but as he did not subscribe to "rational philiosophy", his writings presumably yielded irrational interpretations of both areas. It is conceivable that his warped view of humanity and the universe contributed in some small way to the eventual Nazi penchant for experimenting on those they didn't like, producing for them an irrational experience they would never forget. American students of Wundt who returned to the United States between 1880 and 1910 became the heads of Psychological Departments at major universities, such as Harvard, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania, to name a few. Wundt trained James Cattell, who on his return to the United States trained over 300 PhD's in the Wundt world view. The system of "educational psychology" evolved from this. Funded by the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations, the Wundtian system gains control over educational testing in the United States for soldiers of World War I.
The wave of immigration which began in 1848, combined with the visibility of revolutions taking place all over Europe, helped foster uncertainty in the public mind. Laws requiring compulsory schooling were then legislated. It was all very Hegelian. We wouldn't want those little tykes to become reactionaries, would we? In 1890, Carnegie wrote a series of essays called The Gospel of Wrath, in which he claimed that the capitalistic free enterprise system was dead in the United States. It really was, since Carnegie, Rockefeller and Morgan, by then, owned the United States. It was about 1917 that a great "Red Scare" was instituted in the United States in order to set up a reactionary movement intended to get the public to accept the idea of compulsory schooling – Prussian compulsory schooling, of course.
The implimentation of the German educational nightmare in the United States met some initial resistence. In Carnegie's home town of Gary, Indiana, the system was implemented between 1910 and 1916, mostly through the efforts of William Wirt, the school superintendent. It involved no academic endeavor whatsoever. It worked so well in supplying willing workers for the steel mills that it was decided by Carnegie to bring the system to New York City. In 1917, they initiated a program in New York in 12 schools, with the objective of enlarging the program to encompass 100 schools and eventually all the schools in New York. William Wirt came to supervise the transition.
Unfortunately for Carnegie, the population of the 12 schools was predominently composed of Jewish immigrants, who innately recognized what was being done and the nature of the new "educational system". Three weeks of riots followed, and editorials in the New York Times were very critical of the plan. Over 200 Jewish school children were thrown in jail. The whole political structure of New York that had tried this scheme were then thrown out of office during the next election. A book describing this scenerio, The Great School Wars, was written by Diane Ravitch on the subject. Curiously, William Wirt was committed to an insane asylum around 1930, after going around making public speeches about his part in a large conspiracy to bring about a controlled state in the hands of certain people. He died two years later.
Because the United States was owned by wealthy businessmen, a synthetic free enterprise system was created and anti-trust laws were passed to prevent anyone else from gaining power. Everything that had already been consolidated was "grandfathered" out of the law. It was a brilliant scheme, and it worked very well.
Earlier in the century there were "school boards" in every town. Between 1932 and 1960, the number of school boards dropped from 140,000 to 30,000. Today there are about 15,000 – all controlled by extensions of the Carnegie-Rockefeller educational complex. In 1959, with the advent of the "sputnik" and the public realization that "another country was ahead of us", the embarassed educational system was forced to temporarily create a synthetic focus on science which produced a generation of scientists and technicians in order to resolve the apparent decifit in the public mind.
In retrospect, in 1889 the U.S. Commissioner of Education assured a prominent railroad man, Collis Huntington, when he protested that the schools seemed to be over-educating (producing too many engineers and people who could think), that schools had been scientifically designed not to over-educate. It was a reference to the German system of education inculcated into the United States between 1806 and 1819.
Tired of endless failed attempts to reform education?
Absolutely precise description of the whole matter! I always like to educate myself on these things so, please, do write more! And I am being really sincere about this-no sarcasm or trolling whatsoever.
By the way, could you post your sources and maybe some other, more detailed articles? It`s a subject that never seizes to intrigue me.
Wikipedia`s article on the "Prussian Education System"(that`s how I googled it) is a goddamn joke-always omitting the "big names" like the Carnegies and Rockefellers…not to mention their dearly beloved overlords like the Rothschilds.
Here is a quote from you, from one of those who saw the opportunity that was there and used it.
Well, the whole thing IS a monstrous conspiracy!
If this article is actually written for critical thinkers then maybe you can add some sources. The ideas are all very interesting and plausible. But so was Bush's "weapons of mass destructions" logic. If I understand you correctly, you would like to see more people thinking for themselves instead of buying pre-fabricated stories. And if that's true then you must feel insulted by anyone who compliments your on this article without checking the facts for himself.
Actually, critical thinkers generally prefer to do their own research, and are often insulted by being spoon fed selected sources. It's rather presumptuous to accuse others of complimenting this article without checking any facts for themselves. Ordinary consumers may not check facts, but critical thinkers usually do.
You're sounding a bit defensive. If my comment came across as if I was accusing you of anything, then I miscommunicated and it's my fault. The thing is, your article did inspire me to do some research, but for the facts I checked, I did not find anything from credible sources. I'm not interested in being spoon-fed or in being told what sources to consult and which to avoid. But if you have sources from where you took the statements that you made, I would be interested in seeing them.
Ages ago when I was just finishing up university (where none of my teachers were as good with computers as I was) and then going out getting a job, I was puzzled by the fact that US education was all "rote memorization" coupled with abstracts that lacked the sort of 'sneaky direction coupled with fun' that works. I found out. I read about this after being told about it by a person who was a major in education with a minor in child psychology.
My favorite quote from the founder of this mess is "Children learn best in an atmosphere of despair". After all, he wanted unthinking, compliant, factory workers. People who needed to be conditioned to comply and to cope well with grinding hours and poor pay, and were already used to being mistreated. He wanted to instil a DISLIKE for actual thinking and learning in the majority of the people to ensure that most of the population would not like learning enough to do it on their own.
You see? The system works as intended. It still does. Everyone I know who was brilliant in the USA and managed to thrive intellectually had to fight the system. They got where they are today in spite of, not because of, the system of education they went through.
Splendid! I have been on the trail of this beast for close to fifty years. This is a very good digest of the information I have come to know.
Reblogged this on E-tools in Teaching .


Today's featured book is a little off topic, but for a very special reason. There's no theological depth to it, no stirring images of God, no Gospel, but it's a book that has won the heart of our whole family and has endeared itself to one particular little girl who, as I write, is sleeping in popsicle PJs, her arm slung around her dad's funky old teddy bear.
Her name is Sarah. And today, she turns three.
But there's only one book in the series that we've felt compelled to own, partly because it is wonderful and partly because Sarah memorized the whole thing and took to flipping through it, "reading" the story in her own toddler way (while Mitch and I spied on her from the kitchen, quaking with suppressed laughter).
The premise of the book is uniquely hilarious, but I can't tell you about it without dampening its charm, so I'll tell you instead that it reduced my husband and I (and the many guests who had the book dropped in their lap with a pleading, "You read this to me?") to unbecoming laughter—tears, snorts and all.


text:
Startup Pitches
A platform that puts political lobbying back into the hands of everyday people
By Michael Krumholtz - June 22, 2018
Amit Thakkar saw first hand how messy and inefficient politics can be from the inside. While working as a political consultant for a decade, Thakkar said he became frustrated with seeing the same old players decide policy with almost no influence from actual constituents or voters.
That's a large part of why he decided to create LawMaker.io, which bills itself as a revolutionary platform that gives those in the U.S. the chance to create propositions for new laws through crowdsourcing. That allows for support to build for popular ideas that are eventually handed over to legislators to propose them as real laws. Touting itself as a "free lobby for the lobbyless," Thakkar said its a platform that could very much change the face of U.S. democracy.
"It didn't make sense to me that such a small group of wealthy and well-connected people had such an outsized influence on the laws that are written and the way our government works," he told Techli. "I knew there needed to be a free way that all Americans could propose common-sense ideas for laws and influence elected officials in a way that benefitted all Americans instead of just a powerful few."
Lawmaker.io works by finding ideas at the ground level that can shape politics and then making sure it gets a wider audience after a user proposes a policy idea. It's then shared widely by the user and suggestions are made for possible amendments to the initial proposal. Support is then gathered until the idea has at least 100 registered supporters and it is eventually sent off to the appropriate legislators.
LawMaker.io recently held its 2nd Lawmaker Challenge to offer up a winning policy proposal to legislators. As the Supreme Court's Citizen United has become so influential in allowing big money to essentially buy politics, the winning proposal looked to reverse the impacts of the decision and shift back influence to voters over the power of wealthy interests.
"The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy — and the participation of every eligible voter is critical for the strength of that foundation," said Congresswoman Julia Brownley, who issued the winning policy challenge. "It's my job to represent you, and hearing your ideas is a critical part of how I do that."
Thakkar has said that Lawmaker users can have a say on both local and state policy by coming together on key issues. Essentially, it makes it harder for political representatives to ignore their constituents by giving those citizens a way to consistently and powerfully begin conversations on making lasting change in communities and states.
Startup Beat had an exclusive Q&A with Thakkar on the idea behind his startup and its potentially enormous impact on the American political landscape. Excerpts follow:
StartupBeat: How can Lawmaker potentially shape the face of American politics by getting more people involved in a more efficient way?
Amit Thakkar: During the process of designing and building LawMaker, we spend two years talking to and surveying thousands of Americans about their civic habits and feeling about political engagement. Overwhelmingly, people told us that they didn't truly believe their civic engagement made really any difference on their government. This is backed up by a 2014 Princeton study that found that "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact, upon public policy." Both the real and perceived lack of political impact demotivates many Americans from learning about complex political topics, contacting their elected officials, and even voting. Why spend any of your precious time on dry political issues if you don't think your time and energy will have any impact on them? We built LawMaker to change this.
When you see how much effort political candidates put into canvassing, GOTV, advertising, mailers, and voter outreach, you realize where voter power lies. We wanted to take the power at the voting booth and show people how to leverage it between election. LawMaker empowers voters to proactively propose policy ideas that will improve their lives from the federal level, all the way down to the city level. They then use their already ingrained social media habits to share the ideas with others, crowdsource amendments, and build a coalition of supporters. And then they use our tools to publicly engage their elected officials.
But here's the kicker. Come the next primary and the next election, LawMaker sends users their whole ballot, noting how elected officials and candidates responded to the issues each user engaged with, or whether they responded at all. Voters now get to make a more educated choice about who they want on their ballot and in their government, based on tangible information about a candidates positions on issues and responsiveness to their constituents.
Even though we launched just eight months ago, LawMaker users already have a grassroots crowdsourced policy idea making its way through the legislative process in the City of Los Angeles (http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2018/18-0045_mot_01-16-2018.pdf). As Americans start to see proof that their ideas and actions can actually impact their government through civic collaboration, we know people will become more motivated to learn about and engage with these issues as a part of their day-to-day lives.
SB: Is this something that you have noticed young people especially have rallied around using, or does it vary by demographic?
AT: We were actually a bit surprised to see the demographic makeup of our users. Yes, or biggest demographic is among young millennials and Gen Zers, between the ages of 16-35. But our second biggest demographic, in close numbers, is 55 and above, which we didn't expect. When talking to our users, we realize their motivations to participate in the type of civic action LawMaker empowers has a lot to do with where they lie on the cynicism and frustration spectrums. Our younger users are not very cynical — they still believe the system can and should be changed, and that they can play a role. They are frustrated about particular policy issues, but in general, haven't had prolonged negative interactions with the political system. Their belief in the potential for change brings them to LawMaker.
For our older users, it seems to work in reverse. They are extremely cynical about the ability to change the system but they are also extremely frustrated. Many of these users have in fact reached out to us to say that they're not sure if their elected officials are actually listening to them, but they are so frustrated and fed up, they are willing to try something new. To them, being able to propose their own ideas and build support without first getting stonewalled by their elected officials, is an exciting part of LawMaker's potential.
SB: What are some success stories of proposals or potentially bills that have been able to come thanks to Lawmaker's creation?
AT: As I mentioned above, we currently have a policy idea, completely crowdsourced and amended by LawMaker users, making it's way through the legislative process in the City of LA. Jamie Tijerina, a young research scientist, crafted an idea that would help people like her engage in civic issues. She proposed that a certain percentage of public hearings, including city council, commission, and committee hearings, be held after 5 pm to allow people who work 9-to-5 jobs a great opportunity to participate in the City's decision-making process. Her policy idea received support by other Angelenos, and LA City Councilman David Ryu, and City Council President Herb Wesson, wrote it into a motion that's making it's way through committee as we speak: http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2018/18-0045_mot_01-16-2018.pdf
The best part of this story is how it galvanized Jamie, and her community to lobby for their own interests. Not only did she propose an idea for a policy that would help her, but she's become a consistent advocate for this change. Because of Jamie's advocacy and outreach, this motion has received 22 letters of support, including community impact statements from four of LA's neighborhood councils — unheard of for a procedural policy like this. Jamie was even invited to do a podcast with the City of LA's Department of Neighborhood Empowerment: http://empowerla.org/podcast-neighborhood-councils-and-activism-with-jamie-tijerina/
LawMaker's best stories are when we can empower someone to take a more proactive, more substantial role in the political world around them.
SB: What is the next step for the Web Platform as it continues to grow?
AT: Right now, America is experiencing some politically frustrating times. People who claim to be invested in politics are either screaming at each other or beginning to check out mentally and emotionally. LawMaker is steadfastly focused on showing more people that there is immense potential in civil conversations that are focused on actual policy, not politics. We are about to launch three more LawMaker Challenges sponsored by various California elected officials to bridge the chasm between voters and the people that represent them. In addition to that, we are currently building support and partnerships for an ambitious year-long public dialogue around homelessness in Los Angeles County, which we plan to launch in 2019.
My team's main goal is to engage as many politically frustrated people as possible and show them that even a little consistent engagement on actual tangible policy issues can make a real political change in the world around them.
We plan to expand our California beta to other states at around 18 months.
lawmaker.io
Michael Krumholtz
Michael is a journalist living in Medellín, Colombia.
< Next Post
A guide to millennial home buying with The Mortgage Quarterback
Liongard Raises $1.25 Million In Seed Funding To Bring Unparalleled Automation to the IT Managed Service Provider Industry
Ahead of investment activity, startup collaboration is key
By StartupBeat Team December 13, 2022
Digital fitness should be top of mind for startup founders
By Sam Brake Guia December 13, 2022
Retailers, this Chilean startup promises to recession-proof your business
By Maria Delgado December 1, 2022

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
(Photo by VETPAW)
Wildlife Warriors: A Worthy Anti Poaching Cause With VETPAW
by Zoltan Bathory
VETPAW
[VETERANS EMPOWERED TO PROTECT AFRICAN WILDLIFE]
It is a few degrees below the comfort zone on the border of Zimbabwe and South Africa. It is also around fifteen minutes to "Who cares?" Time does not matter here — only life matters. We are sitting around the campfire at VETPAW's basecamp, watching the orange flames dancing on dense African wood. It burns great but it is hard to cut, even though we didn't have to; we just collected the arm-thick pieces some young elephant bulls had ripped off the neighboring trees while testing their powers.
Above us, the Milky Way's overbearing grip on the night sky will humble you to nothing as our not-even-worth-a-mention sized sun hides out in the suburbs of this galaxy. We are literally in the "galactic boonies." We are not even a speck of dust — mind-blowing numbers, staggering proportions — yet we have the power to perceive it all.
The starlight we see has traveled — sometimes even billions of years — across space. The photons that left those stars eons ago now explode across our retinas, absorbed by molecules that chemically trigger a signal that is transmitted to our optic nerves. In the process, our eyes have caught those particles of distant suns and they have become a part of us. Life is what gives us that power. Life is everything, but it is short and fragile. Africa has the uncanny ability to snap this into focus, even for the most self-absorbed person.
(Photo by Zoltan Bathory)
I have been out here for a week now, embedded in an anti-poaching team and having an amazing time, but tonight is different. Things just got real. Across from me sits Ryan Tate, a thirty-something former Marine and the founding father of VETPAW, and he is not exactly in his typically jovial mood. News has arrived that just a dozen miles from here, poachers have attacked a reserve and brutally slaughtered three rhinos. Unfortunately, they were not under VETPAW's protection.
Ryan begins to speak to me. "There are so few of the rhinos left that they are known by name. Every one of them is important and has a personality, just like your dogs and your cats back home. These animals are our friends. How would you feel if someone jumped in your backyard, wounded your dog and hacked his face off, then left him there to bleed to death? Would you be enraged?"
In addition to the reserves, even the rhino orphanages are now being attacked. Poachers beat up or kill the rangers, and they even kill the baby rhinos for their tiny nobs, which couldn't even be called horns yet. It is brutal, it is sad, and it is inhumane.
Seeing these war-hardened combat vets staring into the fire with tears in their eyes is an amazing sight. Their silence is a thin layer of ice over a river of rage below. No poacher has ever crossed VETPAW's red line. They had better pray that they never do ….
These men probably caught my gaze resting on a rifle as a voice scatters my thoughts: "We are not here to kill poachers. All life is precious. We are here to protect this land and the animals on it. Our response will always be appropriate to the situation presented to us — nothing more, but nothing less. We drew our red line; it's where our private reserve's fence is," says Jeff, the anti-poaching team's leader, a no-nonsense former Green Beret. As he jumps on his bike he yells back, "The moon is up; we are going out on patrol." Mark, who could be the camouflaged Santa Claus for the children of the bush — especially if you see how good he is to the villagers — quietly follows him. Their bikes disappear into the night.
The Danger
It is the full moon, the most dangerous time, since the poachers can see without flashlights, which would give away their presence. The land VETPAW patrols is enormous; it takes hours for the vehicles to circle it. They are looking for breaches in the towering electric fence line, while a helicopter scans for parked vehicles anywhere near the reserve. Poachers have getaway drivers; they need to flee quickly or they wouldn't get far on foot in the deep bush of Africa — and sure enough, a vehicle is spotted.
As we are patrolling quickly through the teeth-rattling terrain in 4x4s that have enough light bars to remake the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," we have to stop to check out a car changing a flat tire too close to one of the reserve's fence lines. I can hear the chopper and see another VETPAW cruiser cutting through the bush behind us. Then two more dirt bikes show up. I feel like I'm in a movie — the situation is lit AF.
As Ryan approaches the vehicle, I can tell he has done this a thousand times.
Imagine these highly skilled operators going home from international conflicts, where they were invaluable to their missions and to the men next to them. They were fighters, technicians, engineers and diplomats all in one, and they can't fully reintegrate into civilian life because no matter what they do, they will always be underutilized. Part of post-traumatic stress disorder is a feeling of no longer being needed, of no longer being a part of a team and a part of something that is important. VETPAW fills that void — it is therapeutic, the missions are complex, the necessary skills are high level, and at the end of the day, it is an indisputably righteous cause.
VETPAW does a lot of good with one swing. "You need more men out here," I say to Ryan.
"We do have a lot of resumes," he responds, "but as with every mission, this one has specific requirements. You have to be the right person for this job. The love of the cause and love for the wildlife are number one. We are not looking for adrenaline junkies to come here for a firefight. In the early days we were happy for all the help and manpower we could get, but soon we realized we had to tighten up our vetting process and exclude any hotheads who'd misrepresent this very complex situation and the work we do here.
One loose mouth can destroy years of hard work and progress. A lot of sensitive politics are involved, and it's important to understand that we are not headhunters. We are defenders, peacekeepers and educators first and foremost. There is a poaching crisis here that we don't want to turn into a war. We need snipers who are diplomats first; in need of engineers who can fix the villagers' wells, too. We need people who will stay calm and collected if bullets are zipping around and who understand that the rounds don't stop out here — that there are animals in all directions. Unable to just dump mags when we are fired at."
"So, your strategy is just to keep expanding the land you protect?" I ask.
"Yes, slowly. Since we are a nonprofit, we can only afford operations we can raise the money to fund. We never expand to try to protect more land than we effectively can. We are dependent on both manpower and equipment. The extremes of Africa destroy our gear, so we are constantly in need of new equipment like thermal vision goggles, NVGs, scopes, dirt bikes and off-road vehicles. The gear just falls apart here. We are easily the best test lab on Earth, because if it doesn't break here, it won't break anywhere."
The car near the fence line turns out to be nothing, so we all trickle back to the camp. The next morning on the radio I hear, "Everyone stay calm — the shooting range is going hot." Without that warning, the first shots would have spun up another tornado of dirt bikes and land cruisers.
The Training
It's range day and codename "Kevin" is running it. You might imagine that he would be an all-American cowboy, since he can shoot the chrome off a dung fly's ass from a hundred yards out, but actually, he is a tall black man with a British accent. On the day of 9/11, he was a 17-year-old immigrant kid standing in line to get his U.S. citizenship papers while watching the twin towers go down. His next trip was to the recruitment center. That's right — the immigrant British kid with balls the size of Texas became an American Green Beret. He is now a decorated combat vet still living up to his credo — defending southern Africa's helpless animals, farmers and local villagers from lawless poachers. When we roll out to the range, we find him reloading magazines with Gavin and Zac.
Back in Afghanistan, an IED took Gavin's leg, but not his spirit. Even though he could probably still outrun any of us, he can't serve in the US Army. However, a soldier is always a soldier, so he found himself a good cause to fight for. Zac is a true believer, and he researched and applied to various wildlife reserves, telling them that he was willing to work for no pay. He sent emails that read, "Hello, I'm a US Army vet and I'm willing to fight and lay down my life to defend these animals." They probably asked themselves, "Who is this crazy American?" However, Zac's passion caught VETPAW's attention.
In war, there are two parties fighting; here, one side is defenseless. For the animals, this is genocide. For the landowners and the farmers, these criminals pose a life-threatening situation. Lastly for Africa, its heritage and economy are on the line; if these animals are brought to extinction, both will take a big hit, and nobody will come to see large empty fields.
As I compliment these veterans' shooting, they tell me to wait until Oz gets back. He is a legendary Green Beret, but now he's on leave. The VETPAW teams have rotations of a few months on and a few months off. They need it — Africa is intense.
The only permanent inhabitant here is François, a long-bearded South African wildlife expert. He has raised and cared for many rhinos, and everyone here says he is the rhino whisperer. The rhinos run to him when they hear his voice — they are his children.
The Human Element
Later in the afternoon, as I sat under the camp's giant, 3,000-year-old baobab tree listening to stories, I concluded that while the universe might be finite, human stupidity definitely is not. Rhino horns are nothing but keratin, just like your nasty-ass toenails, yet the black market sells them to the gullible as a cure for cancer or as an aphrodisiac. Does rhino horn powder have medical value? No — absolutely not. Have you ever gotten a boner from biting your nails? However, the con men who push the horn-powder mix it with actual Viagra so it seems like it works, and customers pay high premiums for this hard–to-get black-market substance. The price for this is extreme — around $300,000 for a horn and, ultimately, the extinction of the species. Unless anti-poaching teams like VETPAW get the help that they need, the rhinoceros will disappear.
When my two-week stay is up, I drag my feet and am reluctant to leave. I do not want to lose the keen sense of reality and the heightened awareness this magical environment has given me. It has felt as if time here has slowed down while life has sped up. It seems that a lifetime's worth of things have happened to me in this place, and I fear this vivid dream full of amazing characters will fade away as soon as I wake back into the noise of civilization. There is an uneasy feeling inside me from having to leave this wolf pack. I will miss the sunsets, the campfires and, of course, the next helicopter raid. I tell myself that I'll be back — that this is a cause that I truly believe in — and being here in person has only made me want to contribute more.
To learn more about VETPAW and to get involved, visit: www.vetpaw.org and make sure to listen to our podcast, Skillset Live! We always spotlight fighters that live the "alpha lifestyle" in our magazine and on our show!
A Confederate Sniper Had More Than 100 Union Kills – All For Revenge
When we think of snipers today, chances are good we're thinking of either Tom Berenger or some burly special operator
Fighter Pilot Capt. Charlie Plumb Survived 2,103 Days As A POW
Under his code name "Plumber," fresh-faced and zealous U.S. Navy pilot Charlie Plumb made more than 100 successful carrier landings
The Devil Dogs Of Belleau Wood: US Marines Of World War One
The American Expeditionary Forces of World War I can claim countless heroes among their ranks, from the Lost Battalion to
Stay in the know with the latest from the SKILLSET newsletter
Sign-Up Today!
I have read the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy, and I hereby agree to those terms. For purposes of clarity, I consent to Athlon's collection, storage, processing, and transfer of my Personal Data and Non-Personal Data (as defined in the Privacy Policy) for the purpose of signing up for the email newsletter.


Sig Christenson April 15, 2016 Updated: April 15, 2016 8:49 p.m.
Those who knew Lt. Col. William "Bill" Schroeder said he was deeply devoted to his wife and two young children, and wanted airmen under his command to know they had an Air Force family that they could turn to in tough times.
On Friday, the Air Force was there for his family a week after Schroeder, a special operations veteran, was killed in a murder-suicide at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Though far from the combat zones he'd been in, they said, he lived by the warrior's code to the end.
Schroeder, 39, saved a first sergeant who stood in a room with him at Forbes Hall on Lackland's Medina Annex before being shot four times. The assailant, Technical Sgt. Steven D. Bellino, 41, of Parma Heights, Ohio, then turned the gun on himself.
The shooting jolted the Air Force and drew a strong show of support to Friday's ceremony, starting with an honor cordon of more than 700 basic training graduates who stood along a road leading to the chapel. There, 1,200 people filtered in, as did another 600 who watched the ceremony on a closed-circuit TV feed in a nearby room.
Schroeder, who will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, was posthumously awarded the Airman's Medal, given to those who distinguish themselves by a heroic act — usually at the voluntary risk of their lives but not involving combat.
He lived in the Air Force Special Operations Command's shadowy world and had a long list of assignments over his career as a combat weather team operator that took him to Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Mali and Mauritania. Buller took a fast liking to Schroeder, quickly deciding that he was the right officer to command the 10th Combat Weather Squadron at Hurlburt Field.
Buller said he wanted someone who'd answer the phone and make decisions, and soon discovered just how serious his new commander was about it. Schroeder, an ultra-marathon runner, would do one-mile jogs down the beach and stop to check his phone. He'd run another mile, and check the phone again.
But if devoted to command, Schroeder had a softer side. Maj. William Herman helped Schroeder and his family look for a home when they came to San Antonio to command the 342nd Training Squadron. That's how Herman was introduced to Abby and the kids, Noah and Mason.
The crowd laughed. Herman and others stressed that the service would not mark an end for their friend and brother. They vowed to be there for the family and to tell the story of his life to his children.


text:
Comics, 1988, 1988, March,
Copper-Age
X-Factor Vol 1
Fall of the Mutants
Tom DeFalco/Editor-in-Chief
Walter Simonson/Cover Artist
Louise Simonson/Writer
Walter Simonson/Penciler
Bob Wiacek/Inker
Joe Rosen/Letterer
Bob Harras/Editor
X-Factor (Earth-616)/Appearances
Robert Drake (Earth-616)/Appearances
Scott Summers (Earth-616)/Appearances
Jean Grey (Earth-616)/Appearances
Henry McCoy (Earth-616)/Appearances
Warren Worthington III (Earth-616)/Appearances
Patricia Tilby (Earth-616)/Appearances
En Sabah Nur (Earth-616)/Appearances
Horsemen of Apocalypse (Earth-616)/Appearances
Abraham Kieros (Earth-616)/Appearances
Autumn Rolfson (Earth-616)/Appearances
Caliban (Earth-616)/Appearances
Madelyne Pryor (Earth-616)/Appearances
New York State/Appearances
Cyclops' Visor/Appearances
Prosh (Earth-616)/Appearances
X-Factor Vol 1 26
Part of the "Fall of the Mutants" event
X-Factor Vol 1 #26
Walter Simonson
"Casualties"
Louise Simonson
Penciler
Bob Wiacek
Petra Scotese
Joe Rosen
Bob Harras
X-Factor #25
I've seen these guys in action! Believe me... guns won't work!
--Sergeant Miller
Appearing in "Casualties"
Marvel Girl
Trish Tilby
Four Horsemen of Apocalypse
Unnamed New Yorkers
Roosevelt Hospital's staff
Lieutenant Craig, Sergeant Miller and other policemen
Tailor/Stylist who creates new uniforms for team - (Mentioned)
Madelyne Pryor-Summers - (Appears on a computer screen, TV, or hologram only)
Roosevelt Hospital
Cyclops' Visor
X-Factor's Ship
Synopsis for "Casualties"
Continued from last issue...
With Apocalypse's Horsemen defeated, and his ship crashed in the Hudson River, X-Factor emerges from the ship as police arrive on the scene. When the police demand to speak with X-Factor, they reiterate that they helped save the city, however the police are not so easy to believe that -- not when Death, on of Apocalypse's minions is among their number. Warren, fed up of listening to the humans, scatters them by firing his razor sharp feathers and flying off into the sky to seek out other priorities. Before the police can regroup, there is an explosion at a nearby building prompting Cyclops to order Marvel Girl to carry them there telekinetically so that they can see if there is anything they can do to help. When the press and police attempt to enter the abandoned ship, they attempt to enter through the main entrance and find that some force keeps them from entering it.
Watching form his hideout with Death and Caliban, Apocalypse laughs and remarks that only mutants can pass through the barrier into his former ship and then calls back his soldier Famine from her mission attempting to destroy "America's Breadbasket"[1]. X-Factor meanwhile arrives at the scene where a gas explosion has caused an apartment building to set ablaze. As another explosion rocks fire-fighters, Warren saves them from a deadly fall and the other members of X-Factor begin lending a hand to try and help. While Jean uses her telekinesis to keep the building together, Iceman smothers the majority of the flames with his ice powers. As they are working, police observe the situation and tell X-Factor that a building has collapsed on 54th street. Without a moments hesitation, Jean carries them there telekinetically. Helping with the blaze, Hank uses his powers to help save people trapped in the building even at the risk of losing his intelligence thanks to the illness Pestilence infected him with[2]. While rescuing the people in the building, Scott sees a woman who he thinks is his wife Maddie at first, but realizes he is mistaken. Scott admits to Jean that while he believes that Maddie's dead, the body he saw was so decomposed that he still had a hope that she might still be alive out there.
When police arrive on the scene, they remark about how ambulances are stalled, and when one of the officers has the nerve to tell X-Factor they are under arrest, Jean makes him eat his words by using her powers to carry the injured to the nearest hospital. Along the way, Scott talks about his relationship with Madelyne and realizes that he never truly loved her like he loved Jean. However, he stayed with her to try and make her happy and have a normal life. Having a child was a step in that direction but things went bad when Scott learned that Jean was still alive[3] and he went running to her and joined with X-Factor[4], he finally realized who he truly loved above all others. However, after this Maddie left him and when he went searching for her she was missing[5], and how her body was found and leaving him wondering if his son is alive as well[6]. While at the hospital, a doctor angrily orders Beast to get out of his way and goes on a triad about the Smiley Face "mutants" shooting spree[7] and Horsemen's attack on New York and that all mutants should be lynched because of it. Hank, his intelligence at a very low ebb is emotionally hurt by the comments and begins to cry.
Elsewhere in the hospital, Trish Tilby, nearly fully healed following her wounds following the Smiley Face attack gives up her bed for the hospitals new arrivals. She finds Hank in the corner crying and tells him he's a hero, and she is surprised to find that his intelligence has been drastically reduced since she last saw him. Iceman explains everything to Trish and how Hank blames himself for Apocalypse's ship crashing because Apocalypse tricked him to damage it's controls. When he asks Trish if she is going to write up another anti-mutant editorial, she tells him that she was never anti-mutant, only anti-X-Factor, as she did not approve of their methods. When they compare notes about how Trish learned that Warren was involved in an "anti-mutant" militia, Bobby explains how Cameron Hodge manipulated them and misappropriated X-Factors funds. He tells her that X-Factor will tell the full story after they finish helping the city with the current crisis. Bobby tells Hank to stay behind while they tackle trouble on 23rd Street because they don't want him to lose anymore intelligence, however Hank refuses to stay behind and goes anyway. As they leave, Trish flips open her note book and begins jotting down notes.
The following morning, X-Factor drops off another group of wounded New Yorkers to the hospital and Jean is about wiped out after the group has been working for three days straight. They decide to take a rest when they are approached by some NYPD officers. Following the news coverage have changed their orders and the people of New York consider X-Factor heroes. With Jean weak from all the work, and the press willing to follow them everywhere, X-Factor agrees to a police escort back to Apocalypse's ship to stay the night as it appears that only mutants can enter the ship. As they are driven through the city, Scott and Jean are touched by the fact that people in the city are finally recognizing them as mutant heroes instead of mutant menaces.
Once in privacy, Iceman and Hank decide to leave Scott and Jean to explore the ship. Left alone, Scott begins to brood over Madelyn's death again and vows to find her killers. Jean tells him to stop focusing on the dead, that Maddie and Phoenix are dead and she is still alive and the facts that be have brought them back together -- that they should stop worrying about anything but each other. They kiss, and eventually, after such a long time -- Scott Summer and Jean Grey make love.
The next morning, with their current uniforms in tatters, the members of X-Factor have nothing to wear except for spare uniforms once owned by Apocalypse's horsemen. However Hank and Bobby have a surprise: A gift from a tailor who was thankful for X-Factor saving his life, he had made them all new costumes. As they go outside to greet the gathered public, they are told that they are going to be the guests of honor in a parade thanking them for helping the city. As X-Factor rides off to join this parade, Apocalypse and his minions watch from their hidden headquarters. Apocalypse muses that X-Factor has passed his first test, that they have cast off their human guises and won the love of an entire city and took control of his ship. However, he muses that while X-Factor has achieved a great deal of power this day, he remarks that power eventually corrupts.
X-Factor, is of course oblivious to all this, as they bask in the glory of being haled as heroes for their work in saving New York City.
This issue is reprinted in other comics and books, see references for more info.[8]
Discuss X-Factor Vol 1 26 on the forums
Images from X-Factor Vol 1 26
X-Titles: Recommended Reading
X-Men • X-Factor • X-Force • New Mutants • Generation X
Uncanny X-Men Vol 1
X-Men Vol 2
Astonishing X-Men Vol 1
X-Force Vol 1
Bishop Xavier Security Enforcers Vol 1
Bishop the Last X-Man Vol 1
Cable Vol 1
Cable: Blood & Metal Vol 1
Cable & Deadpool Vol 1
Deadpool: The Circle Chase Vol 1
Deadpool: Sins of the Past Vol 1
Deadpool Vol 1
Gambit Vol 1
Generation X Vol 1
New Mutants Vol 1
Wolverine Vol 1
Wolverine: Origins Vol 1
Wolverine: First Class Vol 1
Young X-Men Vol 1
X-Factor at Wikipedia
X-Factor at Marvel Subscriptions
X-Factor series index at Comicbookdb.com
X-Factor series index at Uncanny X-Men.net
X-Factor series index at the Grand Comics Database Project
The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators - accessed on 09/19/2010
↑ see Captain America #339
↑ X-Factor #21
↑ Avengers #263 and Fantastic Four #286
↑ X-Factor #1
↑ It's not really Maddie's corpse but check it out in X-Factor #13
↑ actually minions of the Right smearing X-Factor's good name in X-Factor #21
↑ This story is reprinted in the following comics/TPB's:
Essential X-Factor #2 - 10th story
X-Men: The Fall of the Mutants TPB #1 - 7th story
Retrieved from "https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/X-Factor_Vol_1_26?oldid=3913304"


text:
Mandy Moore on Why She Was Never Going to Be Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera
November 8, 2018 News
Mandy Moore knows who she is, and who she isn't, meant to be.
In an interview with Bustle, the This Is Us star reflects on her time as a pop star, alongside the likes of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
"They're dancers and they're entertainers and they're performers. They give their all — and costume changes! — and they can live on that level. And that was never going to be me," Moore says.
Though her time as a pop star was short-lived, Moore also discusses her transition into acting, and the break she took from Hollywood after marrying singer Ryan Adams in 2009.
"When I think back to that particular time period that we're talking about… It was heavy," she shares. "It was dark. It was confusing. It was lonely. There was no room for me. There was no room for me to have anything else in my life."
Adams and Moore split in 2015, and the Tangled star says that it was a tough decision, but the right one for her.
"It's no coincidence to me that once I did that hard work, life opened up in a way that I never could have expected," she notes. "Once I did that, it was like, the sun came back out again. In every respect, I felt like, oh, now I'm living the life that I'm supposed to be living."
Then, in 2016, Moore landed the role of Rebecca Pearson, the beloved mom on This Is Us, which has become a runaway hit, and earned Moore a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role.
Moore says the role of Rebecca, an aspiring singer, has been slowly boosting her confidence about pursuing music again.
"Over the last year or two years since the show's been on, those little comments being peppered into conversations give you the confidence," she explains. "And to me, the wherewithal that people are like, 'Oh, OK!' I didn't know that people were even interested in that side of me anymore."
Fans love Rebecca/Mandy's voice on the show, and the 34-year-old admitted she's still overcoming hesitations about the musical side of her life.
"You have to be your biggest advocate. No one's going to do it for you. It's a stunning realization," Moore says. "There's a lot of weirdness wrapped up in music for me that I still have to work through. That I don't think I'm good enough. That I don't think I'm deserving. That I allowed other people to make me feel bad about wanting to do it."
As for her long-term plans, Moore says she looks to another Hollywood star who started young and is now an absolute powerhouse advocate for women.
"I wanna find really female-focused [projects]," she shares. "I love what Reese Witherspoon is doing. I think she has impeccable taste and that she's a real champion for other women. And I want to do that in my own capacity. I want to maybe find something that has a musical lean to it."
This Is Us returns Nov. 13 at 9 p.m. EST on NBC, and Moore can be heard reprising her role as Rapunzel in Ralph Breaks the Internet, along with all the other princess characters. Check out their epic reunion in the video below!
Mandy Moore Shares a Regrettable Red Carpet Flashback: 'Don't Dye Your Eyebrows'
Ryan Adams Apologizes For His Response to Mandy Moore's Divorce Comments
'This Is Us': Who Is the Mystery Man at Rebecca's Door? Mandy Moore and Producers Tell All (Exclusive)
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ETTopStories/~3/WYTvujfTly0/mandy-moore-on-why-she-was-never-going-to-be-britney-spears-or-christina-aguilera-113310


text:
Hatebreed frontman to release new Jasta album in December
Tuesday, October 22, 2019 10:22 AM PT
Hatebreed vocalist Jamey Jasta will release the new Jasta album late this fall. The outing has been titled The Lost Chapters, Volume 2 and will arrive on December 13.
Featuring musicians Charlie Bellmore (Dee Snider, Kingdom Of Sorrow) and Nick Bellmore (Dee Snider, Kingdom Of Sorrow, ex-Toxic Holocaust) along with Jamey Jasta, the new Jasta record will also include guest appearances by Max Cavalera (Soulfly, ex-Sepultura), George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher (Cannibal Corpse), Jesse Leach (Killswitch Engage), Kirk Windstein (Crowbar), Howard Jones (Light The Torch, ex-Killswitch Engage), Matt Heafy (Trivium), Zoli Teglas (Ignite), Billy Graziadei (Biohazard, BillyBio), Phil Rind (Sacred Reich), Tommy Victor (Prong), Joey Concepcion (The Absence), and Frankie Palmeri (Emmure).
Pre-orders are available now.
Related: Jamey Jasta, Hatebreed, Howard Jones, Frankie Palmeri, Billy Graziadei, Jesse Leach, Jasta, Max Cavalera, Kirk Windstein, George Fisher, Matt Heafy, Tommy Victor, Nick Bellmore, Soulfly, Sepultura, Killswitch Engage, Cannibal Corpse, Trivium, Biohazard, Emmure, Ignite, The Absence, Crowbar, Kingdom of Sorrow, Sacred Reich, Light The Torch, Prong
• Jasta debut new song featuring Crowbar frontman
• Jasta debut new song featuring Killswitch Engage vocalist
• Jamey Jasta details new 'metal album' with Dee Snider
• Rebel Rock Fest 2021 lineup announced
• Howard Jones and Jared Dines writing new album together


text:
Report: Verizon is getting ready to cut back 3G in favor of 4G LTE
Image: Flickr, Carl Lender
By Rex Santus 2014-12-04 19:20:11 UTC
For phone users that rely on Verizon's 3G network, this might not be great news.
The wireless carrier apparently has plans to cut the amount of spectrum dedicated to 3G connectivity to make room for more high-speed 4G LTE. This could mark the beginning of a gradual phasing out of 3G services. The name "3G" loosely refers to the third generation of mobile data standards, Verizon's being the more specific EV-DO (a tech also used by Sprint in the U.S.). 4G LTE is its latest successor.
See also: The high-tech secret hiding in New York City pay phones
The "refarming" of spectrum hasn't been officially announced, but wireless tracker Milan Milanovic used a spectrum analyzer and saw that 4G tests were going on in Cleveland and Manhattan in bandwidth spots normally reserved for 3G.
GigaOm spoke with Verizon about the change, and the company admitted that it was testing out the shift of 3G to LTE but declined to go into specific locations or a timeline. Verizon's already gone on the record before about its plans to repurpose 3G for LTE, starting in 2015, so this isn't exactly shocking news.
The final end of Verizon 3G could be a while off yet, too. While 80% of Verizon's mobile traffic uses LTE, 41% of the company's total devices still rely on 2G or 3G, so 4G isn't poised for a total takeover just yet. Ironically, 2G will probably outlast 3G because it's used for Verizon's voice network, at least until Voice over LTE (VoLTE) becomes standard.
Verizon did not immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment.
Topics: 3g, 4G, 4g lte, Dev & Design, LTE, Mobile, Tech, verizon


text:
Getting It Done in Disease-ravaged Haiti
By: Madeline Vann
newwave@tulane.edu
Photo: Planning their work in Haiti are, from right, Carl Kendall, Wuleta Lemma, Marie Aubry and Tara Doskey of the Tulane Center for Global Health Equity. This week marks one year since the devastating Haiti earthquake. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)
Cholera outbreaks, disputed elections, civil unrest and earthquakes are unlikely to deter the commitment of Tulane researchers to improve the infrastructure of Haiti, says Carl Kendall, director of the Tulane Center for Global Health Equity. The staying power of Tulane University on the ground in Haiti is due in part to the way in which researchers work within the country, Kendall says.
'€œWe'€™ve got explicit goals that are not political goals,'€ Kendall says when asked about the country's political instability. '€œNo one is denying the need for more health staff and training for a nurse auxiliary staff. We think that public health can be a less politicized aspect of the state.'€
At the request of the Haiti minister of health who visited Tulane in July, Kendall and his colleagues are developing a training program for a new cadre of nurses. The nurse auxiliary course will begin on Jan. 22, starting with a cholera module. The team also is organizing a two-day cholera training workshop for public sector and other staff members.
The group works with the Haiti Ministry of Health, whose staff is likely to remain in place through political unrest.
'€œBuilding local capacity to respond to the needs is flying below the radar. It helps to have local staff who can blend in, who are plugged in to Haiti, who have families and systems of intelligence so that if there'€™s going to be a demonstration passing by the office, they get a call ahead of time and clear out,'€ explains Kendall, who is a professor of medical anthropology and community health at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Tulane's reputation is based on providing a complete program package.
'€œYou do what you need to get things done," Kendall says '€" providing whatever is required, from training materials to desks and computers. "Our partners have trust that whatever we commit to doing, we'€™ll get it done.'€
Madeline Vann is a freelance writer who holds a master of public health degree from Tulane.
See the original article in Tulane's New Wave
Carl Kendall
Professor - Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, Director - Center for Global Health Equity


Flaw fixed quickly - phew!
Stealing all your passwords by just visiting a webpage. Sounds too bad to be true? That's what I thought too before I decided to check out the security of the LastPass browser extension.
In his article, Karlsson explains how he was able to trick LastPass into believing that it was on the real Twitter website, and cough up the users' credentials because of a bug in the LastPass password manager's autofill functionality.
The same technique could have been used to steal passwords associated with other websites.
The good news is that Karlsson believes in responsible disclosure, and so informed LastPass of the problem. In more good news LastPass fixed the issue in less than a day (and awarded Karlsson a $1,000 bug bounty for his efforts).
Karlsson recommends that LastPass users disable the autofill functionality and enable multi-factor authentication for better security.
Although his discovery is troubling, I agree with Karlsson when he points out that using a password manager is still better than reusing passwords on different websites.
PS. Well-known vulnerability researcher Tavis Ormandy has also tweeted overnight that he has also found a flaw in LastPass.
Update 28 July 2016: Details of the flaw found by Ormandy have now been published, and LastPass has pushed out a fix for all at-risk Firefox users running LastPass 4.0.
PPS. Readers with good memories will recall that LastPass was acquired by LogMeIn last year to the concern of some. Overnight it has been announced that LogMeIn is itself being acquired by Citrix.
Tried using LastPass but gave up and went back to Keepass. Their plugin kept crashing my browser, and I prefer having complete control over the database file that Keepass provides. Plus, cloud password storage acts like a honeypot, whereas with Keepass, when you upload your encrypted database file to cloud storage, you benefit from security from obscurity. I know that is usually considered bad practice, but it is actually an extra layer of security in this case.
It's disgusting that they only rewarded him $1,000 (£756) for a vulnerability that could have put the company out of business. If companies don't pay decent bounties then the only people who will seek out problems in their code will be criminal hackers who will be renumerated with massive sums: upwards of $500,000. Other countries governments would pay even more: upwards of $1M for RCE exploits.
Even worse is their suggestion that it wasn't serious! LastPass aren't properly allocating developers or penetration testers to proactively validate their code. Considering they charge people for their premium service this is simply not acceptable.
There's still other vulnerabilities that are waiting to be fixed as discovered by Travis. A "quick look" is all it took him. Unacceptable behaviour LastPass.
For their paltry bug bounties I won't bother auditing the code. My time is more valuable.
I stopped using Keepass when my laptop was stolen. I realised that anyone with basic programming knowledge could brute-force break a password cache by just plugging passwords into Keepass. I now use Lastpass. I figure that if anyone can intercept my logging into Lastpass then I can't use the internet. Pretty much all my passwords are for the internet.
Bob in reply to Robert.
Then you've fundamentally misunderstand how password managers work Robert.
Search Google for 'password derivation functions' and you'll get lots of information on the primary method used to prevent brute force attacks. Instead of being able to try 1 trillion passwords per second using supercomputers the maths means that an attacker can try 1 password per second (or less, depending upon the KeePass option you use).
If you're concerned about your stolen laptop then all I can say is you should have encrypted it. Proper encryption would prevent the thief from breaking into your data.
LastPass is less secure than KeePass but use whichever you feel most comfortable with.
Robert in reply to Bob.