text:
\section{Introduction}

Online social networks are sites that enable their users to connect and share
information with friends and family. Recent advances in wearable, user-friendly
devices equipped with smart sensors (e.g., pedometers, heart rate and sleep
monitors) and wireless technologies, are facilitating the emergence of
\textit{social sensor networks} (SSNs): social networks that collect and share
not only explicit user information (e.g., status updates, location reports) but
also implicit health-centric data.

Fitbit~\cite{Fitbit}, a representative \textit{social sensor network} centers
its existence on fitness sensor data. It consists of (i) \textit{trackers},
wireless-enabled, wearable devices that record their users' daily step counts,
distance traversed, calories burned and floors climbed as well as sleep
patterns when worn during the night and (ii) an online social network that
automatically captures, displays and shares fitness data of its users.
Figure~\ref{fig:trend:all} illustrates the basic functionality of Fitbit.

While popular and useful in its encouragement of healthy lifestyles, the
combination of health sensors and social networks makes social sensor networks
the source of significant privacy and security issues. In this paper we show
that Fitbit is vulnerable to a wide range of attacks. Besides standard social
networking problems, including infiltration attacks~\cite{BMBR11} and private
data leaks to general account holders~\footnote{Fitbit has suffered
criticism due to its initial default access control settings: The reported
sensor information was made publicly available on Fitbit's social network.},
Fitbit is made vulnerable by the wireless nature of tracker communications and
poor security practices.

Fitbit relies on a Personal Area Network (PAN) protocol~\cite{PAN} called
ANT~\cite{ANTref}, that enables trackers to automatically upload their data to
the online social network account of their user. The improper design of
Fitbit's communication protocol, (i) allows Fitbit users to engineer their
fitness data and inject it into their social networking accounts, thus gain
financial benefits and (ii) enables external attackers to intercept data
reported by trackers of other users, inject arbitrary data into the trackers
and online social network accounts of other users, as well as launch denial of
service attacks.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=2.2in]{trend1.eps}
\caption{Social Sensor Network (SSN) illustration. Health sensor devices and
corresponding data reported, displayed and shared with friends. The user's last
name is anonymized.
\label{fig:trend:all}}
\vspace{-15pt}
\end{figure}

In order to expose Fitbit's vulnerabilities, in a first contribution, we have
reverse engineered the semantics of tracker memory banks, the command types and
the tracker-to-social network communication protocol.  In a second
contribution, we have built FitBite, a suite of tools that exploit Fitbit's
faulty design. We have used FitBite to prove the feasibility of a wide range of
attacks. For instance, we show that FitBite allows attackers to capture and
modify the data stored on any tracker situated within a radius of 15 ft.

In a third contribution, we propose FitLock, a lightweight extension that uses
efficient cryptographic tools to secure the Fitbit protocol. We show that
FitLock prevents the FitBite attacks.  Our end-to-end implementation on
BeagleBoard~\cite{Beagle} and Xperia devices shows that the computation and
communication overhead imposed by FitLock is small: resource constrained
BeagleBoard and Xperia devices can support hundreds of packet encryption and
transmission operations per second. Moreover, the end-to-end overhead of the
cryptographic operations employed by FitLock over the standard Fitbit protocol
is only 2.4\% on a Xperia device.  The project website containing the source
code of FitBite and FitLock is made publicly available at ~\cite{Fitlock}.

The paper is organized as follows. Section~\ref{sec:model} describes the Fitbit
model, including background on the ANT protocol, and details the attacker model
considered. Section~\ref{sec:fitbit} reverse engineers Fitbit and
Section~\ref{sec:fitbite} introduces FitBite, the suite of attack tools.
Section~\ref{sec:fitlock} introduces FitLock, our defense extension and proves
its security. Section~\ref{sec:evaluation} describes our implementation
results. Section~\ref{sec:related} describes related work and
Section~\ref{sec:conclusions} concludes.

\section{Background and Model}
\label{sec:model}

The Fitbit system consists of user tracker devices, user USB base stations and
an online social network.

\noindent
{\bf Fitbit tracker.}
The Fitbit \textit{tracker} is a wearable device that relies on a 3D motion
sensor and a barometric pressure sensor to measure the daily steps taken,
distance traveled, floors climbed, calories burned, and the duration and
intensity of the user exercise. The tracker mainly consists of four IC chips,
(i) a MMA7341L 3-axis MEMS accelerometer, (ii) a MSP430F2618 low power TI MCU
consisting of 92 KB of flash and 96 KB of RAM, (iii) a nRF24API 2.4 GHz RF chip
supporting the ANT protocol (1 Mbits/sec, 15 ft transmission range) and (iv) a
MEMS altimeter to count the number of floors climbed. The user can switch
between displaying different real-time fitness information on the tracker, using
a dedicated hardware \textit{switch} button (see the arrow pointing to the
switch in Figure~\ref{fig:system:main}).  Each tracker has a unique id, called
the \textit{tracker public id} (TPI).

\noindent
{\bf Data conversion.}
The accelerometer and the altimeter allow the tracker to count the steps taken
and the floors climbed by the user. The tracker relies on extrapolated walk/run
stride length values to convert the step count into the distance covered by the
user: the sum of the recorded walking steps times the user walking stride
length and of the running steps times the user running stride length.  The
running steps are identified based on the frequency and intensity of the user's
steps. The tracker uses the extrapolated user Basal Metabolic Rate
(BMR)~\cite{BMR} values to convert the user's daily activities into the number
of calories burned.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=2.9in,height=1.8in]{sys1.eps}
\caption{Fitbit system components: trackers (one mounted on the base), the base
(arrow indicated), user laptop. The arrow pointing to the tracker shows the
switch button, allowing the user to display various fitness data.
\label{fig:system:main}}
\end{center}
\vspace{-15pt}
\end{figure}

\noindent
{\bf The base.}
The second component, the Fitbit \textit{base}, connects to the user's main
compute center (e.g., PC, laptop) and is equipped with a wireless communication
chip that enables it to communicate with any tracker within a range of 15 ft.
The base acts as a bridge between trackers and the online social network. It
sets up connections with all the trackers within its transmission range, then
reads and clears up the information stored on the tracker according to commands
issued by the social network. Figure~\ref{fig:system:main} shows a snapshot of
two trackers and a base, connected to a laptop through a USB port.

\noindent
{\bf The webserver.}
The third component, the online social network, allows users to create accounts
from which they befriend and maintain contact with other users. Upon purchase
of a Fitbit tracker and base, a user binds the tracker to her social network
account. Each social network account has a unique id, called the
\textit{user public id} (UPI). After the base detects and sets up
a connection with the tracker, the base automatically collects and reports
tracker stored information (step count, distance, calories, sleep patterns) to
the corresponding social network account. Based on user preferences, this data
is either made public, shared with the user's friends, or kept private. In the
following, we use the term \textit{webserver} to denote the computing resources
of the online social network.

\noindent
{\bf Tracker-to-base communication: the ANT protocol.}
Trackers communicate to bases over ANT. ANT is a 2.4 GHz bidirectional wireless
Personal Area Network (PAN) communications technology optimized for
transferring low-data rate, low-latency data between multiple ANT-enabled
devices.  The ultra-low power consumption of the ANT chipset guarantees an
extended battery life even from low-capacity supplies such as a coin cell
battery. This, along with the low implementation cost of ANT, enables its
integration and use in a wide range of mobile devices, including smartphones
and health sensors.

\subsection{Attacker Model}

We assume the existence of not only external attackers but also insiders.
External attackers attempt to learn and modify the fitness information reported
by the trackers of other users, as well as disrupt the Fitbit protocol.
Insiders own Fitbit trackers and may attempt to report fitness values that do
not reflect their effort, e.g., inflate reports or replay old values.  We
assume external attackers do not have physical access to trackers of other
users. However, attackers are able to capture wireless communications in their
vicinity. Furthermore, we assume that the Fitbit service (e.g. the social
network servers) does not collude with attackers to facilitate false data
reports.

\section{Reverse Engineering Fitbit}
\label{sec:fitbit}

We document here the results of our effort to reverse engineer the Fitbit
communication protocol, including the message communication format among
the participating devices. Our endeavor has relied on information from
libfitbit~\cite{libfitbit} for open source health hardware access.

Fitbit uses \textit{service logs}, files that store information concerning
communications involving the base. On the Windows installation of the Fitbit
software, daily logs are stored in cleartext
in files whose names record the hour, minute and second corresponding to the
time of the first log occurrence. Each request and response involving the
tracker, base and social network is logged and sometimes even documented in the
archive folder of that log directory. The logs have proved central to our
understanding and reverse engineering of the functionality of Fitbit.

Data retrieved from the tracker to be uploaded to the social network is encoded
in base64 format. However, no authentication is used, and all requests are sent
in clear HTTP.  We have exploited Fitbit's lack of encryption in the messages
sent between the base and the tracker to implement a USB based filter driver
that separately logs the data flowing to and from the base.

In the following we present details of the organization of the tracker memory
banks, then describe the main Fitbit opcodes and then present the reverse
engineered Fitbit communication protocol.

\subsection{Memory Banks}

A tracker has two types of memory banks, (i) \textit{read banks}, containing
data to be read by the base and (ii) \textit{write banks}, containing data that
can be written by the base. The log data we captured reveals that during the
upload session, the webserver reads data from 6 memory banks, writes on 2 write
memory banks and clears data from 5 memory banks by sending requests to the
tracker through the base. The byte length of memory banks varies. We now
briefly describe the most important read and write memory banks.

\noindent
\textbf{Read banks}.
The read bank \#1 stores the daily user fitness records. Each record is 16
bytes long. It starts with a 4 byte long timestamp, followed by the number of
calories, steps, distance and floor count. Both steps and distance are stored
on four bytes while the calories and the floor count are stored on two bytes.
To ensure reliability, Fitbit stores the important fitness records (e.g., step
and floor count) on multiple memory banks.

\noindent
\textbf{Write banks.}
The write bank \#0 stores 64 bytes concerning the device settings as specified
on the user's Fitbit account (the ``Device Settings'' and ``Profile Settings''
links). The write bank \#1 stores 16 bytes that contain the daily user
fitness records whose data format is similar to the read memory bank 0.

\subsection{Opcodes and Responses}

The webserver communicates with a tracker through a base. The communication is
embedded in XML blocks, that contain base64 encoded opcodes -- commands for the
tracker. Opcodes are 7 bytes long. We briefly list below the most important
opcodes and their corresponding responses. The opcode types are also shown
in Figure~\ref{fig:fitbit:maincomm}.

\noindent
{\bf Retrieve device information (TRQ-REQ):} opcode $[0x24,0 (6 times)]$.
Upon receiving this opcode from the webserver (via the base), the tracker
includes in a reply its serial number (5 bytes), the hardware revision number,
and whether the tracker is plugged in on the base.

\noindent
{\bf Read/write tracker memory.}
To read a memory bank, the webserver needs to issue the READ-TRQ opcode,
$[0x22, index,0 (5 times)]$, where $index$ denotes the memory bank requested.
The response embeds the content of the specified memory bank. To write data to
a memory bank, the webserver issues the WRITE opcode $[0x23, index,
datalength,0 (4 times)]$.  The payload data is sent along with the opcode. The
value $index$ denotes the destination memory bank and $datalen$ is the length
of the payload. A successful operation returns the response $[0x41,0 (6
times)]$.

\noindent
{\bf Erase memory: (ERASE)} opcode $[0x25, index, time, 0]$.  The
webserver specifies the $index$ denoting the memory bank to be erased.
$time$ (4 bytes, MSB) is the operation deadline - the date until which the
data should be erased. A successful operation returns the response $[0x41,0(6
times)]$.

\subsection{The Fitbit Communication Protocol}

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=3.3in]{drawing2.eps}
\caption{Fitbit protocol between the tracker, base and the Fitbit webserver}
\label{fig:fitbit:maincomm}
\end{center}
\vspace{-15pt}
\end{figure}

In the following, for brevity, we use the notation ``URL'' to
denote the full URL \url{http://client.fitbit.com}. The data flow between
the tracker, base and the webserver during the data upload operation,
illustrated in Figure~\ref{fig:fitbit:maincomm}, is divided into 4
phases, beginning at steps 2, 3, 5 and 7:

\begin{enumerate}

\item
Upon receiving a beacon from the tracker, the base establishes a connection
with the tracker.

\item
{\bf Phase 1:}
The base contacts the webserver at the \url{URL/device/tracker/uploadData}
and sends basic client and platform information.

\item
{\bf Phase 2:}
The webserver sends the tracker id and the opcode for retrieving tracker
information (TRQ-REQ).

\item
The base contacts the specified tracker, retrieves its information TRQ-INFO
(serial number, firmware version, etc.) and sends it to the webserver at the
\url{URL/device/tracker/dumpData/lookupTracker}.

\item
{\bf Phase 3:}
Given the tracker's serial number, the webserver retrieves the associated
tracker public id (TPI) and user public id (UPI) values. The webserver sends to
the base the TPI/UPI values along with the opcodes for retrieving fitness
data from the tracker (READ-TRQ).

\item
The base forwards the TPI and UPI values and the opcodes to the tracker,
retrieves the fitness data from the tracker (TRQ-DATA) and sends it to the
webserver at the \url{URL/device/tracker/dumpData/dumpData}.

\item
{\bf Phase 4:}
The webserver sends to the base opcodes to WRITE updates provided by the user
in her Fitbit social network account (device and profile settings, e.g., body
and personal information, time zone, etc). This operation takes place
irrespective of whether the user has updated her settings since the last
communication with the tracker or not. The base forwards the WRITE opcode and
the updates to the tracker, who overwrites the previous values on its write
memory banks.

\item
The webserver sends opcodes to ERASE the fitness data from the tracker. The
base forwards the ERASE request to the tracker, who then erases the contents of
the corresponding read memory banks.

\item
The base forwards the response codes for the executed opcodes from the tracker to
the webserver at the \url{URL/device/tracker/dumpData/clearDataConfigTracker}.

\item
The webserver replies to the base with the opcode to CLOSE the tracker.

\item
The base requests the tracker to SLEEP for 15 minutes, before sending its next
beacon.

\end{enumerate}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\vspace{-5pt}
\includegraphics[width=3.1in]{servicelog2.eps}
\vspace{-5pt}
\caption{Fitbit service logs: Proof of login credentials sent in cleartext in a
HTTP POST request sent from the base to the webserver.
\label{fig:service:log2}}
\vspace{-10pt}
\end{figure}

\section{FitBite: Attacking Fitbit}
\label{sec:fitbite}

We first describe two vulnerabilities of Fitbit, followed by details of the
attacks we have deployed to exploit these vulnerabilities.

\subsection{Vulnerabilities}

\noindent
{\bf Cleartext login information.}
During the initial user login via the Fitbit client software, user passwords
are passed to the website in cleartext (as part of POST data) and then stored
in the log files. Figure~\ref{fig:service:log2} shows a snippet of captured
data, with the cleartext authentication credentials emphasized.

\noindent
{\bf Cleartext HTTP Data processing.}
When syncing data to the website, no data protection/authentication is used --
all requests are sent over plain HTTP.
Capturing tracker data and injecting data into trackers and social
network accounts becomes thus possible.

\subsection{The FitBite Tool}

We have built FitBite, a suite of tools that exploit the above vulnerabilities
to attack Fitbit. FitBite consists of two modules. The Base Module (BM) is used
to retrieve data from the tracker, inject false values and upload them into the
account of the corresponding user on the webserver. The Tracker Module (TM) is
used to read and write the tracker data.  FitBite implements the
following attacks.

\noindent
{\bf Tracker Private Data Capture (TPDC).}
FitBite uses the TM module to discover any tracker device within a radius of 15
ft and capture the fitness information stored on the tracker.  This attack can
be launched in public spaces, particularly those frequented by Fitbit users
(e.g., parks, sports venues, etc).

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=2.7in]{temper1.eps}
\caption{Outcome of Tracker Injection (TI) attack on
Fitbit tracker.}
\label{fig:fitbit:pic3}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\noindent
{\bf Tracker Injection (TI) Attack.}
FitBite uses the TM module along with knowledge of the data and memory bank
formats and required opcode instructions to modify any of the ``real-time''
fitness data stored on neighboring trackers. FitBite allows the attacker to
choose the data to be modified. It then reads the data from the storing memory
bank and modifies the target bytes while keeping the remaining locations
unmodified. The TM can act however modify simultaneously multiple fitness
records (memory banks).

Figure~\ref{fig:fitbit:pic3} shows an example of a victim tracker, displaying
an inflated value for the (daily) number of steps taken by its user. Note that
the tracker's owner (an insider) can also launch this attack.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=3.1in]{inject1.eps}
\caption{Snapshot of Fitbit user account data injection attack.}
\label{fig:attack:inject}
\end{center}
\vspace{-15pt}
\end{figure}

\noindent
{\bf User Account Injection (UAI) Attack.}
Fitbit allows a tracker to report its data to the user's social network account
through any USB base in its vicinity (15 ft. radius).  Specifically, in step
6.b of the Fitbit protocol (see Figure~\ref{fig:fitbit:maincomm}) the base
sends the data to the webserver at the
\url{URL/device/tracker/dumpData/dumpData}.  FitBite enables an attacker to
hijack the data reported by trackers in its vicinity, through the attacker's
corrupt USB base.  FitBite uses the BM module to launch the data injection
attack by fabricating a data reply embedding the desired fitness data (encoded
in the base64 format). The BM sends the reply as an XML block in an HTTP
request to the web server. The webserver does not authenticate the request
message and does not check for data consistency -- thus it accepts the data.

Figure~\ref{fig:attack:inject} shows a snapshot of one account where we have
successfully injected the number of steps taken by the ``account owner'', while
keeping the other values intact. This shows that (i) FitBite can inject an
unreasonable daily step count (12.58 million) into the account of any tracker
owner located in its vicinity and (ii) Fitbit does not check data
consistency -- the 12.58 million steps are shown to correspond to 0.02 traveled
miles.

\noindent
{\bf Free Badges.}
By successful injection of large values in their social networking accounts,
FitBite enables insiders to achieve special milestones and acquire merit
badges, without doing the required work. Figure~\ref{fig:attack:inject} shows
that the injected value of 12.58 million steps, being greater than 40,000,
enables the account owner to acquire a ``Top Daily Step'' badge.

\noindent
{\bf Free Financial Rewards.}
Fitbit users can link their social networking accounts to systems that reward
users for exercising, e.g., Earndit~\cite{Earndit} provides gift cards and
financial prizes. An Earndit user receives 0.75 points for each of her ``very
active'' Fitbit minute and 0.10 points per a ``fairly active'' minute. By keeping
the BM module running and continuously updating the tracker data (once each 15
minutes), FitBite allows an insider to easily record ``fairly active''
minutes. We have created an Earndit account, linked it to one of our Fitbit
accounts and used FitBite to accumulate a variety of undeserved rewards.
Figure~\ref{fig:attack:earndit} shows an example where we have accumulated 200
Earndit points, that can be redeemed to a \$20 gift card.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=3.1in,height=1.9in]{earndit.eps}
\caption{Earndit points and available gift cards}
\label{fig:attack:earndit}
\end{center}
\vspace{-15pt}
\end{figure}

\noindent
{\bf Battery Drain Attack.}
FitBite allows the attacker to continuously query trackers in her vicinity,
thus drain their batteries at a faster rate. To understand the efficiency of
this attack, we have experimented with 3 operation modes. First, the
\textit{daily upload} mode, where the tracker syncs with the USB base and the
Fitbit account once per day. Second, the \textit{15 mins upload} mode, where we
kept the tracker within 15 ft. of the base, thus allowing it to be queried once
every 15 minutes. Finally, the \textit{attack} mode, where FitBite's TM module
continuously (an average of 4 times a minute) queried the victim tracker. In
order to not raise suspicions, the BM module uploaded tracker data into the
webserver only once every 15 minutes.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=3.1in,height=1.9in]{battery_rony.eps}
\caption{Battery drain for three operation modes. The \textit{attack} mode
severely reduced the battery lifetime.}
\label{fig:fitbit:battery}
\end{center}
\vspace{-15pt}
\end{figure}

Figure~\ref{fig:fitbit:battery} shows our battery experiment results for the
three modes. In the daily upload mode, the battery lasted for 29 days.  In the
15 mins upload mode, the battery lasted for 186.38 hours (7 days and 18 hours).
In the attack mode, the battery lasted for a total of 32.71 hours. While this
attack is not fast enough to impact trackers targeted by casual attackers, it
shows that FitBite drains the tracker battery around 21 times faster than the 1
day upload mode and 5.63 times faster than the 15 mins upload mode.

\noindent
{\bf Denial of Service.}
FitBite's injection attack can be used to prevent users from correctly updating
their real-time statistics. A tracker can display up to 6 digit values.  Thus,
when the injected value exceeds 6 digits, the least significant digits can not
be displayed on the tracker. This prevents the user from keeping track of her
daily performance evolution.

\begin{figure*}
\centering
\vspace{-5pt}
\subfigure[]
{\label{fig:attack:rope}{\includegraphics[width=2.3in,height=1.5in]{rope.eps}}}
\vspace{-5pt}
\subfigure[]
{\label{fig:attack:physical}{\includegraphics[width=1.9in,height=1.5in]{physical.eps}}}
\vspace{-5pt}
\subfigure[]
{\label{fig:attack:wheel}{\includegraphics[width=2.7in,height=1.79in]{wheel.eps}}}
\caption{Physical attack:
(a) Spinning a tracker, when tied with different rope lengths.
(b) Attaching tracker on car wheel.
(c) Effectiveness of wheel attack: evolution of tracker recorded number of steps and calories in time.}
\vspace{-5pt}
\end{figure*}

\noindent
{\bf Mule Attacks.}
Besides attacks exploiting Fitbit's unprotected wireless communications,
adversaries may also launch physical, \textit{mule} attacks, by attaching
trackers to various moving objects. This enables the adversary to increase
fitness parameters with significantly less effort than walking. In a first,
\textit{rope} attack, the adversary spins the tracker attached to a rope
(Figure~\ref{fig:attack:rope} illustrates this attack).  Our experiments show
that the step count increase in the rope attack is a function of the rope
length. For a 1ft rope, the step count increases by 1 for each circumvolution;
for a 2ft rope length, the step count increases by 2 per circumvolution.

While the rope attack requires perseverance, in a second, \textit{wheel}
attack, the adversary attaches a tracker to a car wheel. This enables the
attacker to effortlessly increase the recorded step count, distance and calorie
values when driving.  Figure~\ref{fig:attack:physical} shows a picture of our
``testbed''. We have experimented with this setup, by driving the car over
several 20 minutes sessions.  Figure~\ref{fig:attack:wheel} shows the outcome
of our experiment, in terms of the number of steps and the calories recorded by
the tracker as a function of time, displayed with a 4 minute granularity. At
the end of the experiment, the tracker recorded 1166 steps, 211 calories and
0.9 miles (1.44km).

We used the ``My Tracks'' Android application~\cite{Mytrack} which relies on
GPS readings to measure the average speed and distance traversed by the car.
At an average speed of 16.53kmh, the tracker increases the step count by
approx.  58 steps per minute. The tire type is P17565R14, with a radius of
11.48 inches and a circumference of 72.12 inches ($\approx$ 1.83m). The tracker
was placed 5.85 inches apart from the center of the tire. Thus, for the
circular path of the tracker, the circumference is 36.76 inches ($\approx$
0.93m).

The average distance covered by the car for each 20 minutes session was 5.51km,
when the tire rotated 5510/1.83=3010 times. Given the tracker's circumference
(0.93m), the tracker actually travels 2.8km for the 3010 times tire rotations.
The running stride length of the user bonded with the test tracker is approx.
0.9m, which converts the 2.8km into 3111 steps.  While these values (2.8km/3111
steps) are inconsistent with the 1.44km/1166 steps recorded by the tracker, we
note that the tracker's values are consistent: the tracker converts the steps
into distance according to the user stride length.

\section{FitLock: Protecting Fitbit}
\label{sec:fitlock}

A good Fitbit solution needs to (i) protect against internal and external
attackers, by authenticating the system participants, ensuring the
confidentiality, integrity and freshness of system information, and preventing
denial of service attacks, while simultaneously (ii) taking into consideration
the extreme resource limitations of Fitbit trackers. In this section we
introduce FitLock, a solution that secures the Fitbit system and is efficient in
terms of the imposed computation, storage and communication overheads.

\subsection{The Solution}

FitLock consists of a \textit{bind} procedure (BindUserTracker), where the user
associates a new tracker to her online social network account and an
\textit{upload} procedure (UploadData), where the tracker reports information
upon demand from the social network. Each tracker T has a unique serial number
$id_T$ and a secret symmetric encryption key $sk_T$, shared with the webserver.
These values are stored in a write-once-read-many (WORM) area of the tracker's
memory banks. The tracker never reveals (e.g., displays or communicates) the
secret key.  The webserver stores a database $Map$ that associates a tracker id
to tracker related data, including symmetric key, user id and session id.
Initially, $Map$ only maps tracker ids into corresponding symmetric encryption
keys.

Let $Id_A$ denote the unique user id of the account that user A has on the
Fitbit social network.  In the following, we use the notation
$F(P_1(args_1),..,P_n(args_n))$ to denote a protocol $F$ running between
participants $P_1$,..$P_n$, each with its own input arguments.  For instance,
the following BindTrackerUser protocol involves user A, with her account id and
a time interval $s$ as input arguments, her tracker T, with its id and secret
key as arguments, her base B with no arguments and the (Fitbit) webserver WS,
with its $Map$ structure as input argument. The BindTrackerUser protocol allows
user A to bind her new tracker to her social network account (illustrated in
Figure~\ref{fig:fitlock:bind}).

{\bf BindTrackerUser}(A($Id_A$,s),T($id_T,sk_T$),B(),WS(Map)).
User A logs in into her account on the Fitbit social network (step 1 in
Figure~\ref{fig:fitlock:bind}). A presses T's switch button for $s$
seconds (step 2). Upon this action, the tracker T reports its identifier $id_T$
in cleartext to WS, through the user's base (step 3). WS uses the Map
structure to retrieve the symmetric key associated with the $id_T$, i.e., $sk_T$
(step 4). It then generates a 6 digit long random value, $N$ (step 5). WS sends
to T the request value
\[
id_T, E_{sk_T}(``WS'', Time, N),
\]
where $Time$ is WS's current time (step 6). WS keeps track of all requests sent to
trackers and pending responses, indexed under the tracker id and the nonce
value.  WS associates an expiration time with each entry, and removes entries
as they expire without being answered.

Upon reception of this message, T uses its symmetric key, $sk_T$, to decrypt
it. It verifies the freshness (the $Time$ value) and authenticates WS through
its ability to have encrypted this message, containing the string ``WS'', using
the key $sk_T$.  If the verifications succeed, the tracker displays the 6 digit
random nonce $N$ (step 7). User A reads and enters this nonce into a
confirmation box in her Fitbit social network account (step 9). Then, if WS
finds any pending (not expired) request matching the value entered by the user,
WS associates $Id_A$ to $id_T$ and $sk_T$ in the $Map$ structure (step 10). WS
removes this request from the list of pending requests.

The following procedure, UploadData, is used to secure the Fitbit communication
protocol described in Section~\ref{sec:fitbit}. It involves a tracker T (taking
as arguments its id $id_T$, secret key $sk_T$, stored fitness $data$,
expiration interval $\delta$t and retry counter $r$), a base B (with no
arguments) and the webserver WS (with its $Map$ structure and the same
expiration intervals and counter as T).

All communication between T and WS is encrypted with their shared key $sk_{T}$.
Each communication session between WS and T has a monotonically increasing
session id $S_{wst}$. T and WS do not accept messages with older session id
numbers.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=2.7in]{bind.eps}
\caption{The BindTrackerUser protocol between the user, tracker and the (Fitbit)
webserver}
\label{fig:fitlock:bind}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\noindent
{\bf UploadData}(T($id_T$,$sk_T$,data,$\delta$t,r),B(),WS(Map,$\delta$t,r)).  A
new session starts only after the tracker's beacon is received by the base and
the base sets up a connection with the tracker (step 1).  Within each session,
the communication between WS and T starts with a request from WS followed by a
response from T. Each request contains a request type REQ $\in$ \{TRQ-REQ,
READ-TRQ, WRITE, ERASE, CLOSE\} (see Figure~\ref{fig:fitbit:maincomm}), and a
counter $C_{ws}$ encoding the number of times this particular request has been
re-transmitted.  Within a session, T stores the latest $C_{ws}$ received from
$WS$ for any request type, or -1 if no request has been received yet.  Thus, a
request from WS to T has the format
\[
id_T, E_{sk_T}(REQ,S_{wst},C_{ws}),
\]
where $S_{wst}$ is the current session id and $C_{ws}$ is set to 0 for the
first transmission of the current REQ type. Upon receiving such a message, the
base B uses $id_T$ to route the packet to the correct tracker T in its
vicinity.  T uses its secret key to decrypt the packet and authenticate WS:
verify that the first field is a meaningful request type, the second field
contains the current session id and the value of the third field exceeds its
currently stored value for REQ. If either verification fails, T drops the
packet. Otherwise, T stores the received $C_{ws}$ value, associated with the
REQ type for the current session, and replies to this request with
\[
id_T, E_{sk_T}(RESP,S_{wst},C_T),
\]
where RESP $\in$ \{TRQ-INFO, TRQ-DATA, CLEAR\} denotes T's response type (see
Figure~\ref{fig:fitbit:maincomm}) and $C_T$ is its counter (initialized to 0).

WS waits a predefined interval $\delta$t to receive the reply RESP from T. If
it does not receive it in time, WS repeats the request, with an incremented
counter $C_{ws}$.
If WS's re-transmission counter reaches a maximum value, $r$, and no
corresponding RESP is received within the $\delta$t interval, WS increments the
session id $S_{wst}$.  Similarly, if C's re-transmission counter reaches the
maximum value $r$ and the next request is not received from WS, T increments
$S_{wst}$. This means that T and WS consider themselves to have been
disconnected and their next communication needs to start from the beginning
(step 1 of Figure~\ref{fig:fitbit:maincomm})) with a new session id.  If T
receives a REQ from WS that has a session id larger (by 1) than its current
session id, T drops the data associated with the current session, and begins a
new session with the incremented session id.

At the successful completion of a session, both T and WS increment the session
id $S_{wst}$. WS stores this value in Map indexed under $id_T$.

\subsection{Data Consistency}

As mentioned in Section~\ref{sec:model}, there exists a strong relationship
between the different activity parameters tracked by Fitbit. However, as
demonstrated by the UAI attack in Section~\ref{sec:fitbite}, Fitbit does not
verify the consistency of the data reported by trackers. FitLock addresses this
vulnerability: Whenever new user data is uploaded on the webserver, FitLock
uses the walk/run stride length and the BMR values to verify the relations
between the number of steps (walking and running) and the distance traversed
and the calories burned by the user. If the relations do not hold (including an
error margin), FitLock considers that the data has been victim of an injection
attack.

\subsection{Analysis}

We now prove several properties of FitLock.

\begin{thm}
Without physical access to the tracker, an attacker cannot hijack the tracker
during the $BindTrackerUser$ procedure.
\end{thm}

\begin{proof}
A \textit{tracker hijack} attack, takes place during a normal execution of the
$BindTrackerUser$ procedure by a victim user for her tracker T. The adversary
attempts to bind the victim tracker T to another user account, potentially
controlled by the attacker.  Let $M$ denotes the Fitbit account owned by the
adversary.  Without physical access to the tracker, the adversary cannot read
the 6 digit random nonce displayed on the tracker and upload it in $M$.

However, the adversary is able to capture packets exchanged by WS and T during
a $BindTrackerUser$ procedure. The adversary could then attempt launch a
\textit{rush} attack. In a rush attack, the adversary decrypts a captured
packet, recovers the nonce $N$ sent by WS to T, and uploads it in $M$,
before the valid user.

Rush attacks are prevented by the semantic security of the encryption scheme of
FitLock -- the adversary cannot recover the nonce.
\end{proof}

FitLock prevents the TPDC attack through the use of semantically secure
encryption. The non-malleability of the encryption also prevents injection
TI, UAI and ensuing free badge and financial rewards
attacks, generated from previously captured (encrypted) messages. The use of
session identifiers and re-transmission counters prevents replay attacks.

\begin{thm}
FitLock prevents DoS and Battery Drain attacks.
\end{thm}

\begin{proof}(Sketch)
FitLock's use of semantically secure symmetric encryption to protect
communications, prevents attackers from obtaining a response from trackers.
The attacker cannot replay requests with old session ids or old counters (for
the current session id): Upon receiving invalid requests or requests with old
session ids or old counter values, the tracker drops them, thus does not
consume power to answer them.
\end{proof}

\noindent
{\bf Thwarting mule attacks.}
The sensors present in Fitbit trackers are insufficient to prevent insider, mule
attacks: the adversary has control over the tracker and the step count recorded
by the tracker is consistently converted into distance and calorie values. We
propose however two defenses against this attack, relying on the addition of
new sensors on Fitbit trackers.

A first solution relies on GPS chips installed in Fitbit trackers. Broadcom
offers BCM4752~\cite{BCM}, an inexpensive, energy efficient (it uses 50\% less
power than equivalent receivers), small (takes up nearly half the size of
comparable chips) and performant -- delivers 10 times more accurate readings,
and works indoors. By comparing the distance recorded by the GPS receiver
against the distance recorded by the tracker, we can discover inconsistencies
both for rope and wheel attacks. During a rope attack, the GPS location does
not change. During a wheel attack the GPS location changes too much compared
to the number of recorded steps.

A second solution relies on the inclusion of a small heart-rate monitor (HRM)
which can be well suited inside the Fitbit tracker (e.g., the AD8232
AFE~\cite{HRM} which comes in a 4 $\times$ 4-mm sized package).  The HRM device
measures cardiovascular electrical signals from the heart and the tracker only
records the user's activity if it gets such signals from the user. It ensures
that the user is actually wearing the tracker, thus trivially preventing rope
or wheel attacks.

\section{Evaluation}
\label{sec:evaluation}

\subsection{Experimental Setup}

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=3.2in]{beagle.eps}
\caption{Snapshot of testbed for FitLock, consisting of BeagleBoard and Xperia
devices used as Fitbit trackers.}
\label{fig:fitbit:structure}
\end{center}
\vspace{-15pt}
\end{figure}

We implemented FitLock in Android. We have tested the tracker side of FitLock
on a Revision C4 of the BeagleBoard~\cite{Beagle} and an Xperia smartphone. The BeagleBoard
uses the OMAP 3530 DCCB72 720 MHz version and uses a 4500 mAh Li-ion battery to
power our system through a special, 2-pin barrel jack. The Sony Ericsson Xperia
X10 mini smartphone features an ARM 11 CPU @600 MHz and 128MB RAM with Android
OS Eclair 2.1. Similar to the Fitbit tracker, the Xperia device supports ANT+.
In addition, we have used two Dell laptops, one equipped with a 2.4GHz Intel
Core i5 and 4GB of RAM, was used for the web server (built on the Apache web
server 2.4) and the other, equipped with a 2.3GHz Intel Core i5 and 4GB of RAM,
was used for the base.

We implemented a client-server Bluetooth~\cite{Bluetooth} socket communication
protocol between the tracker (Xperia smartphone) and the base using
PyBluez~\cite{Pybluez} python library. In PyBluez, each device acts as a server
and other connected devices act as clients in P2P communications. For
connectivity between the base and the webserver, the laptops use their own
802.11b/g Wi-Fi interfaces. Figure~\ref{fig:fitbit:structure} shows a snapshot
of our testbed.

For encryption we experimented with RC4~\cite{RC4}, AES~\cite{AES} and the
Salsa20~\cite{Salsa20} stream cipher, selected in the final eSTREAM portfolio
~\cite{ESTREAM}. The 20-round Salsa20 is built on a pseudorandom function based
on 32-bit addition, bitwise addition (XOR) and rotation operations. It uses a
256-bit key, a 64-bit nonce, and a 64-bit stream position to a 512-bit output.
As of 2012, there are no published attacks on the full Salsa20/20; the best
attack known~\cite{JSSWC} breaks 8 of the 20 rounds.

\subsection{Results}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=2.5in]{key_gen.eps}
\caption{Secret key generation time overhead on Xperia device and laptop.}
\label{fig:fitlock:key}
\end{figure}

In the following, all reported values are averages taken over at least 10
independent protocol runs.

\noindent
{\bf Key generation overhead.}
We have first measured the overhead of generating (AES) secret keys.
Figure~\ref{fig:fitlock:key} shows the overhead on the laptop and the Xperia
device, when the key bit size ranges from 64 to 1024 bits. Note that even a
resource constrained smartphone takes only 2.46 ms to generate 1024 bit keys
(0.62ms on the laptop).

\begin{figure*}
\centering
\vspace{-5pt}
\subfigure[]
{\label{fig:fitlock:sony}{\includegraphics[width=2.3in,height=1.9in]{sony_enc.eps}}}
\vspace{-5pt}
\subfigure[]
{\label{fig:fitlock:compare}{\includegraphics[width=2.3in,height=1.9in]{compare_enc.eps}}}
\vspace{-5pt}
\subfigure[]
{\label{fig:fitlock:decrypt}{\includegraphics[width=2.3in,height=2.2in]{pc_decrypt.eps}}}
\caption{FitLock overhead.
(a) Encryption time overhead on Xperia.
(b) Comparison of Salsa20 encryption time overhead when tested on BeagleBoard and Xperia.
(c) Decryption time overhead on webserver (Dell laptop).}
\vspace{-15pt}
\end{figure*}

\noindent
{\bf FitLock overhead on tracker.}
A potential bottleneck of FitLock is in the encryption of packets by the
tracker. In order to verify if this can be the case, we compared the
performance of RC4, Salsa20 and AES. We set the key size to 128 bits. We ran
these protocols both on the BeagleBoard and the Xperia while the packet size
ranges from 32 bytes to 1024 bytes.  Figure~\ref{fig:fitlock:sony} shows the
execution time of the three protocols on the Xperia smartphone. For small
packet sizes, Salsa20 performs the best. As the packet size increases, RC4
performs slight better than Salsa20.  Both RC4 and Salsa20 outperform AES for
any packet size. Even for a packet size of 1024 bytes, the average encryption
times for RC4, Salsa20 and AES are only 3.24ms, 4.62ms and 4.83ms respectively.
In Figure~\ref{fig:fitlock:compare}, we compared the encryption overhead of
Salsa20 when running on the BeagleBoard and on the Xperia smartphone. The
BeagleBoard performs better due to its more powerful CPU: it takes only 3.64ms
to encrypt 1024 bytes packets. Thus, both the BeagleBoard and the Xperia device
are able to generate hundreds of packet encryptions per second, making
encryption an unlikely source of bottlenecks.

\noindent
{\bf FitLock overhead on webserver.}
We further examined the packet decryption overhead on the webserver using the
above mentioned protocols. Figure ~\ref{fig:fitlock:decrypt} shows the
dependence of the decryption time on the packet size. RC4 and Salsa20 perform
better than AES. Even for 1024 byte packets, the average decryption overheads
for RC4, Salsa20 and AES are 0.69ms, 1.01ms and 1.31ms respectively.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=2.3in]{revised.eps}
\caption{Comparison of end-to-end delay between the current Fitbit solution
and our proposed encrypted solution}
\label{fig:fitbit:end2end}
\end{center}
\vspace{-15pt}
\end{figure}

\noindent
{\bf End-to-end FitLock overhead.}
Finally, we report the measured end-to-end performance of FitLock and compare
it against the performance of Fitbit. We have implemented and tested both
Fitbit and FitLock on our testbed. Figure~\ref{fig:fitbit:end2end} shows our
results split into the times of each of the 4 phases of the
webserver-to-tracker communication protocol described in
Figure~\ref{fig:fitbit:maincomm}.  We have set the secret key size to 256 bits.
The end-to-end (sum over all 4 phases) time of the FitLock protocol is 1518ms.
The total time of Fitbit is 1481ms. Thus, FitLock adds an overhead of 37ms,
accounting for 2.4.\% of Fitbit's time.

\section{Related Work}
\label{sec:related}

Halperin et al.~\cite{Pacemaker} demonstrated attacks on pacemakers and
implantable cardiac defibrillators, and proposed zero-power defenses.
Similarly, Li et. al.~\cite{Insulin} demonstrated successful security
attacks on a commercially deployed glucose monitoring and insulin delivery
system and provided defenses against the proposed attacks. Proximity-based
access control~\cite{Proximity} has been proposed as a technique for
implantable medical devices to verify the distance of the communicating
peer before initiating wireless communication, thereby limiting attackers
to a certain physical range. Although similar in overall objectives,
our work differs significantly in the attack methodologies and proposed
defenses.

Barnickel et al.~\cite{HealthNet} targeted security and privacy issues for
HealthNet, a health monitoring and recording system. They proposed a security
and privacy aware architecture, relying on data avoidance, data minimization,
decentralized storage, and the use of cryptography. Marti et al.~\cite{Ramon}
described the requirements and implementation of the security mechanisms for
MobiHealth, a wireless mobile health care system. MobiHealth relies on
Bluetooth and ZigBee link layer security for communication to the sensors
and uses HTTPS mutual authentication and encryption for connections to the
backend.

Lim et al.~\cite{WBAN} analyzed the security of a remote cardiac
monitoring system. The data transfer was modeled as starting from the
sensors, reaching a Body Area network (BAN) gateway, then a wireless router
and through the Internet to a final monitoring server.
Muraleedharan et al.~\cite{Muraleedharan} proposed two types of possible
denial-of-service attacks including Sybil~\cite{Sybil} and
wormhole~\cite{Wormhole} attacks in a health monitoring system using wireless
sensor networks. They further proposed an energy-efficient cognitive routing
algorithm to deal with those attacks.

Sriram et. al.~\cite{PervasiveData} took an in-depth look at potential
health-monitoring usage scenarios and highlighted research challenges required
to ensure and assess quality of sensor data in health-monitoring systems.
The work of Stanford~\cite{PervasiveSec} stresses the need of meeting stringent
privacy and security requirements, especially to protect confidential medical
records and the organizations and end users that employ them.

\noindent
{\bf Bottom line.}
Most related work either (i) proposes a novel system with embedded defense
mechanisms to handle security and privacy issues or (ii) introduces different
attacks against the wireless network communication in a health monitoring
system.  Our work not only provides hands-on attacks for a popular fitness and
healthcare tracking system but also provides efficient end-to-end defenses and
proves their efficacy in preventing and thwarting attacks.

\section{Conclusions}
\label{sec:conclusions}

In this paper, we discussed security and privacy issues related to a renowned
and widely accepted and used fitness tracking system. We showed that through
reverse engineering of the ANT protocol and data communication, both passive
and active attacks can be launched on the system using off-the-shelf
software module. We then analyzed the various attack scenarios and also
proposed various types of possible defenses against them. We believe that
our proposed attack methodology and defenses may be applicable to several
wearable and implantable healthcare systems. Healthcare appliance security
is a critical challenge that demands the immediate attention of the research
community.

\bibliographystyle{unsrt}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Posted on Sep 03, 2022 @ 2:38 PM PT
George (007) Lazenby Born on 9/5/1939
Sean Connery succeeded twice as James Bond. Roger Moore is best remembered for doing so in 1973's LIVE AND LET DIE — but George Lazenby did it five years earlier after Connery quit for the first time.
Lazenby, who was born Sept. 5, 1939, in Australia, had no acting experience aside from commercials when Bond producers Harry Saltzman & Albert Broccoli hired him for ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. While he was eager to play 007 then, he's famous now for having walked away from the role despite having a seven-picture Bond deal.
Lazenby's strategy to become Bond brought him to Connery's London barber and tailor so he'd have a Connery-type look when he first met the producers. As luck had it, Broccoli also used Connery's barber and saw Lazenby there — and reportedly thought he had a Bond look. Lazenby spent some of his last Pounds at the time buying a bespoke suit that had been cut for Connery but hadn't been picked up.
Thus armed, Lazenby met with Saltzman, Broccoli & Peter Hunt, who was directing SERVICE after having edited early Bonds like DR. NO, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE & GOLDFINGER. After bluffing about his acting credits, Lazenby got a screen test, during which he told Hunt he'd made everything up and really wasn't an actor. Hunt, however, laughed, "You just strolled in here and managed to fool two of the most ruthless bastards in the business. You're an actor!"
When Connery exited after 1967's YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, Saltzman & Broccoli were going to say Bond needed plastic surgery because he'd become too recognizable to work undercover. They didn't do that but did include an inside joke in the pre-credits scene where Bond saves a mysterious woman from drowning, but she then speeds away in her convertible — leaving Lazenby to protest into the camera, "This never happened to the other fellow!"
Lazenby quit just before SERVICE had its Royal Premiere in London. He'd come to believe that youth appeal films like THE GRADUATE & EASY RIDER would be the most popular type of movies in the '70s. Lazenby confided to his agent his doubts about playing Bond and when that got back to the producers they were, understandably, quite unhappy. Despite Lazenby's seven Bond film offer and a signed letter of intent for DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, it all ended.
The producers' first choice for the next Bond was Burt Reynolds, who wasn't unavailable. Adam West passed because he felt Bond should be British. So they signed John Gavin, who'd recently played a French spy in a European thriller. Then Connery unexpectedly agreed to be handsomely over-paid to return as Bond. Of course, they now also had to pay Gavin in full to not play Bond.
"For someone who had never done a movie before, he was quite good." – Diana Rigg, Lazenby's Co-Star
BH COP 4 May...
After the Peak: Recovery...
THUNDERBALL Premieres in N.Y.C. 12/21/1965
Posted on Dec 24, 2022 @ 5:10 AM PT
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE Premieres in L.A. 12/15/1972
BEVERLY HILLS COP Opens 12/5/1984
THE MARK OF ZORRO Opens in New York City on 11/27/1920
Posted on Nov 26, 2022 @ 2:50 PM PT
Goldwyn Pictures Founded on 11/19/1916
GOLDENEYE Premieres in N.Y. on 11/13/1995

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
'Hypocritical' Republicans abandon fiscal discipline
US debt to hit 100% of GDP if tax cuts and spending rises are made permanent
Rand Paul asked the Senate: 'If you were against President Obama's deficits and now you are for the Republican deficits, isn't that the very definition of hypocrisy?' © Getty
Sam Fleming and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Rand Paul cut a lonely figure on the floor of the Senate on Thursday evening as he accused his Republican colleagues of hypocrisy over the deficit. Running up a $1tn dollar deficit after vilifying Barack Obama for racking up huge debts was intellectually dishonest, the libertarian senator and former presidential contender said.
"If you were against President Obama's deficits and now you are for the Republican deficits, isn't that the very definition of hypocrisy?" he asked.
Mr Paul was correct in suggesting the Republican party's decision to embrace a deficit-busting budget deal overnight marks a significant moment in US politics. With the GOP ditching any attempt to curb public borrowing, there is now no immediate check on a public debt burden that according to authorities, including the Federal Reserve, is headed on a hazardous long-term trajectory.
"This is the absolute breaking of the fiscal dam," said Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "There are very few political leaders left who have real credibility on helping to control the debt. This is bipartisanship at its worst."
The agreement to lift the caps on discretionary public spending by $300bn over two years comes hard on the heels of a $1.5tn tax-cutting package voted through against Democratic opposition in December. The result will be a short-term boost to economic activity at the expense of a swelling public debt load over the longer term. Estimates from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget show that the US is now on track to record annual deficits exceeding $1tn indefinitely.
If the temporary policies in the deal are made permanent, deficits will reach $1.7tn by 2027, according to its analysis. Assuming the tax cuts enacted in December are also made permanent, along with delays to certain healthcare taxes, the deficit will rise to $2.1tn in 2027, pushing public debt above 100 per cent of gross domestic product.
The GOP spent its last eight years . . . pushing for spending restraint very successfully. Immediately once they get full power they flip
Brian Riedl, Manhattan Institute
All this comes at a time when financial markets are fretting about the potential for higher inflation and interest rates, which could add to fiscal costs. And while they haggle over discretionary spending, neither party's leadership appears eager to tackle the key drivers of America's rising debt burden — age-related spending on healthcare and retirement benefits. "We are on an unsustainable path," said Michael Strain of the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
The GOP leadership's decision to abandon fiscal rectitude is by no means without precedent: Dick Cheney, vice-president under George W Bush, was said to have declared that the Ronald Reagan years proved "deficits don't matter" when he advocated deficit-boosting tax cuts in 2003.
Yet the Republican volte-face is nevertheless striking given the US is now set to receive a fiscal boost larger than stimulus enacted in the teeth of recession under former President Obama. During the 2016 election, the deficit was one of the top issues that most of the 17 Republican contenders stressed they would address if they won the White House. John Kasich, the Ohio governor, even brought an electronic board to his campaign events that showed the deficit rising in real time.
Months before his election, Donald Trump claimed, implausibly, that he would pay off the US national debt in eight years. One of the champions for the budget deal struck in the early hours of Friday morning was Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House, who ran for vice-president on the Romney ticket in 2012 on a platform that stressed the need for fiscal discipline.
"This is a stunning reversal," said Brian Riedl, a former GOP Senate aide who is now at the Manhattan Institute. "The GOP spent its last eight years . . . pushing for spending restraint very successfully. Immediately once they get full power they flip."
The U-turn reflects in part a calculation that voter appetite for tough choices to rein in borrowing is diminishing. Polling last month from the Pew Research Center shows that just 48 per cent of voters think deficit reduction should be a top policy priority for the president and Congress, down from 63 per cent in 2014.
For their part, Republicans have repeatedly defended their willingness to raise the deficit by claiming that the biggest culprit are social welfare programmes that are spiralling out of control. But they have been willing to add to the deficit in the knowledge that Mr Trump has pledged not to cut back health programmes such as Medicare and Medicaid, which help the old and poor.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, said Republicans were also relying on the fact that the strongest part of the Democratic party is the progressive wing, which wants significant spending increases. "For the Republicans to look budget conscious it isn't going to take much."
He added that the Republicans were also benefiting from the fact that there was no figure like Bill Clinton at the helm of the Democratic party pushing for balanced budgets. "If there was a Clintonesque figure they would get killed," said Mr Holtz-Eakin.
Even self-declared conservative deficit hawks are far from blameless. Despite Mr Paul's expressions of outrage, the senator from Kentucky was among the Republican Party politicians who voted en masse just two months ago for the tax cuts.
"The GOP proved it deeply cares about the deficit — when a Democrat is in the White House," said Brendan Boyle, a Democratic congressman from Philadelphia. "But when Republicans control the White House and Congress, they couldn't care less."
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In the clip, which was filmed in New York and inspired by the city's "house ballroom" culture, Icona Pop is seen hosting an intense, stylish dance party where bottles of the new Absolut Tune are generously flowing out drinks. The video is the first part of a new partnership between Icona Pop and Absolut to support the national launch of Tune, a sparkling Sauvignon Blanc-and-vodka product that was rolled out in select markets earlier this year.
A print ad featuring the band's Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo is expected in the coming weeks, with additional touring and possible TV components still in the works.
So, having the help of a major brand like Absolut helping back the next single is a bid to ensure the group goes beyond any one-hit wonder status, especially as their debut, "This Is…Icona Pop," is due Sept. 24 on Big Beat/Atlantic. A U.S. headlining tour launches Sept. 12 in Chicago, and incidentally, also has a sponsor -- Bed Head styling products, which will host meet-and-greets with the girls on the road.
The last time Absolut partnered with an artist at this level was with Swedish House Mafia for an original flavor as well as song called "Greyhound." The music video for the track has been viewed more than 36 million times on YouTube, while a national TV commercial for the track was the most Shazam-ed commercial of 2012. The iconic vodka brand has partnered with artists of all kinds over the years, from Andy Warhol to Jay Z to RuPaul's "Drag Race" competition on Logo.
"Icona Pop is almost the embodiment of what Absolut Tune is -- they're upbeat, very celebratory, collaborative and they're from Sweden. It felt like there was a natural fit there," Absolut brand director Afdhel Aziz says.
Samsung's Y.H. Lee, exec VP of Samsung's mobile business, tapped Icona Pop as part of its global influencer program as early as fall 2012, and recently renewed the brand's relationship with the band to help launch its new wearable Gear products. A new music video for "In The Stars (Galaxy Mix)," a song based off the Samsung jingle "Over The Horizon," is set to debut later this fall.


To meet an expected demand in traffic as a result of the Pentecost holiday 'season' in southern Germany, Lufthansa has assigned an A346 to flight between Munich and Palma de Mallorca during peak travel dates. Normally, the route is flown with an A321.
More Lufthansa A350 Flights For North America…..
In addition to my previous post talking about the A350 coming to places like Chicago, Mexico City, and New York's JFK there are a few other cities that will see LH's newest Munich-based flagship.
Beginning on March 25, the A346 currently flying between Munich and Newark will be replaced by an A350. Though the schedule says it's only in place for Spring and Summer, I suspect that the A350 will become a year-round visitor to Newark.
Denver will also begin to see the A350 next week, though the introduction will be phased in. Between March 25 and May 31, the A350 will fly to Denver everyday EXCEPT for Tuesday and Thursday. Then, between June 1 and June 30, the A350 will fly to 'DEN' everyday except Thursday. The A350 will fly the route daily beginning July 1.
In addition to Newark and Denver, the A350 will also debut on the daily flight between Munich and Vancouver beginning May 1. The A350 will replace the A333 that currently serves the route.
Lufthansa has made a few changes to their timetable to reflect more A350 aircraft entering service.
Munich – Cape Town beginning on December 1 will be served by the A350, replacing the A340-600 currently on the route.
Munich – Chicago originally was scheduled to see the A350 during the Spring and Summer only, but that has now been extended into the Winter 2018/19 timetable.
Munich – Mexico City beginning on October 28 will have the A350 fly the route, however it will still share the workload with an A346. From October 28 to November 30, the A350 will fly the route on Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday leaving the A346 to the flights operated on Thursday and Saturday. From December 1 to March 19, 2019 the A350 will fly the route Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday while the A346 will fly the route on Thursdays.
Munich – Mumbai effective October 28 will lose A350 service. It will be replaced by the A333.
Munich – New York (JFK) will see more of the A350 beginning on October 28. Between October 28 and January 12 the A350 will fly the route on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday while the A333 will fly the route on Wednesday and Saturday. Between January 13 and March 30, 2019, the A350 will fly the route everyday except for Saturdays. The Saturday flight will be flown by the A333.
Munich – Seoul will continue to see the A350 into the Winter 18/19 schedule.
Munich – Shanghai will see the A350 flying the route beginning on May 31, 2018. Initially it will fly the route on Thursday and Sunday. Then between July 3 and August 2 it will fly the route on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Beginning August 3, the A350 will fly the route daily except for Monday and Wednesday.
Munich – Tokyo (HND) will continue to see the A350 into the Winter 18/19 schedule.
Coming This Summer From Lufthansa: Sushi In Economy Class!
Lufthansa has announced that they will be introducing an 'A La Carte' menu for passengers traveling in Premium Economy or Economy class on long haul flights out of Frankfurt and Munich.
The program will be similar to what is offered by Austrian, where passengers can order specific meals ahead of their flights.
The Lufthansa version of this program will begin this May, and will give passengers the option to order one of several unique meals for their flights. As far as pricing is concerned, expect to pay between $20 and $35 per meal.
The menu will cover a wide range of options including Sushi served in Bento Boxes, Mediterranean Seafood, Thai curry, Bavarian specialities, an Asian 'vitality' meal, or simply a grilled steak.
The meals can be ordered as part of your booking process. Orders need to be placed at least 24 hours prior to your departure.
The standard, complimentary economy or premium economy meals will be available as usual for passengers not wishing to purchase the 'A La Carte' option.
In 4 weeks (on March 25, 2018), Lufthansa will finally begin deploying their A380s in Munich with flights to Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Beijing. Though that is not 'new' news, LH did provide an update today regarding the logistics at the airport when it comes to gates and security screening. Considering the A380 can carry twice the amount of passengers as the typical long-haul planes LH currently uses in MUC, it was obvious that certain things needed to change at security screening and the gates that LH will use for the A380.
According to Lufthansa, the A380 will use gates H47 and H48 located inside Terminal 2, and gates L11 and L13 that are located in the new Satellite terminal. In addition, gates L24/26 and L28/30 are retrofitted with a 3rd passenger bridge that will give passengers direct access to the upper deck.
Munich Airport and Lufthansa have also adjusted the security screening process to make it a bit easier to get through security and to the gate as a result of having substantially more passengers boarding the A380 as compared to other aircraft that usually use Terminal 2 and the Satellite Terminal.
Current plans call for LH to utilize 5 A380 aircraft in Munich to cover these initial routes.


The Loose Box, a busy restaurant and bar in Westminster is hiring an ambitious chef de Partie to help drive our kitchen.
The Loose Box is a contemporary Bar and Restaurant offering Modern British Food and quality drinks in a brasserie style environment from breakfast to late evening.
We are looking for an enthusiastic chef, interested in a rewarding working environment, career progression and the chance to work with freshly prepared, British, seasonal food. You would be a chef de Partie or an experienced Commis chef looking to take the next step in your career.
Defined career paths are in place. We are part of a company called Moonshine Bars Ltd, who is in-growth and currently searching for more venues to offer Quality British Food in. The right candidate will have the opportunity to be a part of moving our brand into other areas of London.


The Laemmle Sneak Preview Club is an exclusive artfilm-advanced-screening club ONLY for the Laemmle community. It's our thank you to our most loyal customers ... FREE MOVIES!
About twice each month or so you will receive an email detailing the new movie we are screening along with a RSVP link. Simply click that link, RSVP, show up, & ENJOY the FREE MOVIE!


Delivering a valuable and differentiated experience for customers is essential to any organisation's strategy for growth and business survival. This course will provide delegates with a methodology for addressing the customer experience strategy challenge. The course is interactive, straightforward and focused on the steps of how to make your organization's customer care/service better.
This course is designed for people who have the responsibility for any part of the customer experience journey within their organisation this includes heads of marketing and other marketing support functions, brand managers, customer services managers and HR managers.
Fill out your details to find out more about Customer Service Experience CSE.


If you are looking for an electrician you may want to think of contacting your local Electrical Contractors Association for a listing of local contractors Ranger. If their contractors have finished a nice task, then they are going to supply you with the details and if they're prevented they will not resist in telling you that either. Electric contractors deal with unique employers. Personalized house builder or contractors can help you through the entire process of housing. Spotting the correct pool contractor isn't really everybody's cup of tea. On construction websites, electricians are generally believed to be the Primadonnas of construction, but regardless of whether that holds true or not, it is a very good approach to produce a living. Some property owners demand paying money given that they want to invest less and avoid paying taxes. Electrician assurances and warranties are an indicator of superior workmanship and genuine customer care. While an unqualified electrical contractor may appear enticing depending on the extremely low price, in regards to completing electrical work, you do not need to take the less costly option.
License An electrician needs to be licensed to supply services in Ranger. Check Reviews and References You wish to know as much as possible about your commercial electrician prior to your employ them, to make sure you're making the proper choice. Finding a professional electrician is simpler.
Search for a person who may give you a one-to-one sort of service. Either way, employing the assistance of an electric contractor is vital. Industrial construction contractor's service isn't just needed when you're building a completely new structure. For the very best interest of your construction or renovation project, it is quite ideal to employ the expert services of a certified and licensed electrical contractor Ranger. The contractor would be responsible for getting each of the suitable building permits and permissions for the job you're doing. After you have a couple contractors that you want to hire, you have to decide on one that's professional and skilled enough to do the job. Many people believe that an electrical contractor and an electrician are the identical thing but they're incorrect. Electrical contractors give an extensive number of electrical services Ranger. Trained electrical contractors have a wide comprehension of how to train lights to illuminate only intended places. An exemplary electrical contractor has an inclination to carry a terrific reputation. Industrial electrical contractors, on the flip side, constantly keep updated on the numerous changes which occur within the business.
With advances in technology and equipment capabilities it is necessary to employ a contractor with the wisdom and experience to use them to their fullest. Lots of people mistakenly assume an electrical contractor and an electrician are the very same thing but they're very different. The residential electrical contractor is quite different from an industrial electrician Ranger. If you prefer residential electrical contractors on Ranger that may secure the business accomplished in a timely and effective fashion. Electrical contractors have unique needs in regards to estimating jobs. To learn what you require, speak to our electrical contractors. Electrical contractors for industrial jobs must bid competitively to find the job. The electrical service must be set up through an electrical contractor. Turn to us when you require a reliable electrical support. Our residential electrical service encompasses a wide selection of installations. Residential electrical contractor services can be hard and risky. If you have a look around your house you will notice you own a lot of things which deal with electricity. Few of the older homes have dedicated circuits, so the very first thing that any skilled residential electrical contractor will want to be aware of is the age of the home. A residential house is a significant investment, therefore it is logical which you would should make periodic improvements to it over time.
The absolute most effective method at which you can access their services is by uploading your needs on their site. You may use our electrical contractor services even when you are in possession of an overall contractor. You merely ought to search for the expert services of a certified electrician. When it has to do with electrician services in Ranger, it's important to select the proper electrical contractors. Electrical emergencies Ranger can be disruptive to your house and business. They are nothing to play around with. Although an electrical emergency can happen to anybody, there are a few things you can do in order to decrease the possibility of one occurring. When you've got an electrical emergency, you should not attempt to correct the issue all on your own. If you're looking for an electrician you may want to think about contacting your community Electrical Contractors Association for a listing of local contractors Ranger.


Research tells us that 50% of survey respondents feel that poor signage deters them from even entering a place of business. This is not a statistic that should be taken lightly. Few things are more important than clear, attractive and high quality exterior signs. They not only direct traffic your way, but set the tone and create the positive image so crucial in today's competitive business landscape.
Fortunately, recent advances in sign concepts, materials, fixtures and installation techniques allow every location to create a beacon to their business. No need for cookie-cutter solutions that don't pass the attention-getting test. Working with the visual communication experts at Image360 Plymouth MI will provide the optimum cost-efficient solution for you.
Given the variety of choices, neighboring signage and the need to comply with local sign codes, you need an exterior sign strategy that takes it all into account and results in a total storefront approach to spotlight your business. A site assessment is the first step toward capturing more traffic and erecting the positive image that leads to a more effective shopping environment. Contact us to start the conversation.


Wildland Conservation is consistently managing a number of projects and conservation initiatives throughout Florida. See below for a description of our work.
Wildlands Conservation, in conjunction with the Ashton Biological Preserve, is certified by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to provide Authorized Agent training courses to individuals working with gopher tortoises. This is consistent with our conservation mission, as we place a tremendous amount of importance in placing accurate and job-relevant information into the hands of those individuals that will most likely be on the ground working with this species. The typical student for these courses is in a professional position that places him or her in contact with gopher tortoises and/or gopher tortoise habitat on a regular basis. This course is ideal for state and local government employees, private land managers, environmental consultants, developers, and non-governmental organization members, to name a few.
3) Create and/or adapt protocols for maximizing the probability of achieving goals 1 and 2 that are efficient, valid, and repeatable, thus allowing for year to year comparisons of data and utility for management tools, such as the invasive curve.
Wildlands has permitted both a conservation bank and a mitigation bank on two adjacent properties located along the eastern slope of the Lake Wales Ridge in Polk County, FL. This 300+ acre property, located adjacent to state lands, not only provides habitat for the federally protected sand skink, it offers a unique assemblage of habitats that extend from scrub to a seepage slope dominated by bays and cutthroat grass. We are also working on the permitting of another bank and are providing consultation services in assisting several capital investment groups to identify lands that are appropriate as banks. Wildlands identifies these sites by consulting with various peers working with state agencies, local municipalities, and bringing to the table their understanding of the region's ecology and "big picture" protection" strategy.
Wildlands is performing gopher tortoise permitting and relocations at several sites across the state. Our biologists are FWC Gopher Tortoise Authorized Agents that are mission driven to perform property evaluations, permitting, excavations, and relocations with the highest possible quality at the lowest possible expense to the landowner. It is because of our ability to provide high-level professionals at lower costs to the landowner that we are the choice of several special projects in the state (e.g. Incidental Take Permits, etc.).
The Peace River is the principal freshwater source for Charlotte Harbor, Florida's second-largest estuary. The Peace River is a critical lifeline of central Florida – it is an essential source of water supply for thousands of Floridians, and it is the watershed of the Bone Valley region- Charlotte Harbor and southwest Florida's health is directly related to the health of the Peace River. A healthy, protected, Peace River is critical in light of the fact that the region's primary land uses over the past century have been phosphate mining and agriculture. The Peace River corridor is not only regionally significant, it also provides one of the few viable options for functionally connecting conservation lands in the south and north Florida, from the Everglades to the tip of the Florida panhandle.
In 1998, CF Industries underwent an experiment to compare various treatments in an attempt to identify the most effective, timely, and cost-efficient way to restore improved pasture to pine flatwoods, the native habitat type on six selected treatment areas. One way to gauge the success of this flatwoods restoration is to compare the wildlife use of these treatment areas to the wildlife use in typical pine flatwoods (reference sites) in close proximity to the treatment areas. In other words, "if you build it, will they come?" Wildlands designed and implemented an intensive survey regimen on the treatment sites and two local, typical pine flatwoods communities for comparison.
Wildlands Conservation is assisting Pasco County with developing a comprehensive restoration plan for the newly acquired preserve in Pasco County, FL. The preserve is a relatively hilly 600-acre property that extends along the upper reaches of CrewsLake in central Pasco County.
Wildlands is conducting an intensive literature review to create up to date ecological profiles (species accounts) for all current or impending federally protected wildlife species (herein referred to as "focal species") that are likely to occur in Polk County. These profiles detail the rationale for identifying the focal species as well as the following detailed ecological information: physical description, habitat description, life history information, occurrence, population trends, and threats.
Wildlands will then use the ecological profiles to create detailed habitat models that clearly delineate the occurrence, preferred, and potential habitat for each of the focal species. The habitat models will be used to identify areas that may be suitable for future conservation activities. These areas will be prioritized by ecological value and connectivity to existing conservation.


It's obvious that BCore's history is intimately linked to Barcelona's, but that doesn't mean that our town's scene is the only active one in our country. And with this compilation we've tried to illustrate what's happening around in Madrid, the town we've always been close to in terms of underground music. Many bands from Madrid have had some relationship with BCore through the years, and so we've wanted to put the newest (and most cases unsigned) bands we've known around in this CD, bands which have a huge interesy, from Ginferno to Garzón, or from Humbert Humbert to Doss, these bands are plenty of quality and illusion, and those two atributes are fundamentel for BCore, wherever they come from.


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Biographical Sketch of Rev. Barney Kinard
Barney was born in New London, CN in 1943. His father was a career Naval Officer and veteran of World War II and the Korean War. Barney is the oldest of five children and spent a good deal of his childhood and youth moving around the country following his father's career. One of these moves changed his life.
Barney's conversion story occurred when he was a boy of nine in a neighbor's home in Encinitas, CA. Mrs. Kay Fulton was a new adult Christian and the Lord led her to open her home to the neighborhood children by hosting and teaching a Good News Club, sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship. Barney responded at the age of nine (1952) to the invitation following the story called Barney's Barrel. Kay introduced Barney to the Savior, a Bible, a Church and a Sunday school teacher. He continued to attend the Good News Club for five years and then moved. It was during this time that Barney read The Boy from Northfield, a book on the life of D. L. Moody. That was the first time Barney wanted to be an evangelist like D. L. Moody. By his senior year in High School, Barney experienced a definite call from God to "preach the Word." This was the time he knew he was called to evangelism and Billy Graham became his new hero. God was leading him to prepare for a career in ministry.
So from these simple beginnings, he first attended and graduated with a diploma from Moody Bible Institute in the Pastor's Course, in 1964. Then he continued his studies at Biola College (now University). Further, he received his B.A. in Biblical Literature and Theology from Azusa Pacific College (now University) in 1966. That summer he married Sharon Russell. Then he continued his studies with graduate work at Talbot Theological Seminary. While speaking at Forest Home Conference Center to two children's camps, the Lord specifically called Barney into children's evangelism. With this new calling came the need for more study, so he attended Fuller Theological Seminary, where he received his M.A. in Youth Ministries, with a research emphasis in Children's Evangelism in 1972.
Rev. Kinard now brings a wealth of background of 50 years in ministry, including ten years of pastoral staff experiences in five churches working with children, youth, and families. Barney was ordained with the American Baptist Denomination in 1972. He served in two American Baptist Churches and two Baptist General Conference Churches. He also served a Congregational Church in Pacific Grove, CA. Currently, Barney is a member of Whittier Area Community Church in Whittier, CA.
Barney has maintained an interdenominational ministry for forty years as an Itinerant Evangelist with CCM. Barney is widely recognized as an "Incorporation Evangelist," with the distinct ability to reach new children and parents for Christ and the Church through his outreach crusades and rallies.
Throughout the United States, Rev. Kinard has become known for his unique visual methods that creatively illustrate the Bible for children of all ages. Barney is a popular Puppeteer, Ventriloquist, Gospel Magician, and a Master of Object Lessons. Although Barney favors the use of performing arts in his ministry, he also adds effective visuals, both projected and non-projected, in his theme programs that successfully reach and teach children (i.e. overheads, slides, large black-light felts). Barney has written, designed and produced three staged puppet productions.
In addition to evangelism of children, Barney has extensive experience training lay and professional children's ministers in workshops, seminars and classes. He has maintained an active schedule during the last forty years with numerous Sunday School Conventions and frequently conducts regional workshops. He has been actively involved with the National Children's Pastors' Conventions for fifteen years. His ministry has sponsored the unique training conference called Music, Magic & Storytelling, which showcases the creative aspects of CCM.
For ten years Barney served on the Board of the Greater Los Angeles Sunday School Convention, now called Christian Ministries Training Association (CMTA). He also served twelve years on the National Board of Children's Christian Ministries Associates (CCMA) as the Vice President of Networking. In his travels he has been instrumental in starting several regional networks, which encourages Children's Pastor's to gather for monthly fellowship. He has been actively involved with the Fellowship of Christian Magicians for over forty years and helped start the former Orange County Chapter. Currently, Barney currently serves in the leadership of the Los Angeles Chapter of FCM. Barney has developed a unique Magic Course called the Trick Brain.
Helping churches to release their untapped growth potential is an important aspect of the CCM ministry. For the last twenty-five years Rev. Kinard has been doing Church-growth consulting with training received from the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth. He has maintained an active, but selective involvement in consulting with churches. He has also developed programs to prepare churches to incorporate those who respond to his Family Crusades and evangelistic work with children. Several churches have retained Barney's services to sharpen the focus of their ministry to children and young families.
Children's Christian Ministries Association presented Barney the Mover and Shaker Award for challenging others to a deeper commitment in children's ministries in l988. In January of 1992, the International Network of Children's Ministries presented Barney their National Award of Excellence in Children's Ministry at their Denver Children's Pastors' Conference. Barney served on the National Board of Directors of Children's Ministries of America for the five years. They launched a national evangelical awareness campaign, called "Celebrate the Child," which called Christian leadership to make evangelism and discipleship ministries with children a priority in 1998-2000.
In 1999 Barney accepted an invitation to be a part-time Children's Crusade Director/ Evangelist for the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association. This exciting new partnership began in Nov. 1998 with preparations for Palau's "Mission Maine," an all-state campaign held during April of 1999. Barney successfully conducted six citywide-children's crusades called Kid's Celebrations held concurrently with Palau's adult crusades.
As an experienced Children's Evangelist, Barney was asked by Mission America to moderate a new children's ministry coalition composed of national children's ministries. They had a national vision to pray for and share the Gospel of Christ with every child in America by the year-end 2,000. The program included a Lighthouse Back Packet that contained evangelistic materials for any child to receive the Lord as their Savior.
For the last thirteen years Barney has conducted Kid-Missions overseas. The first Kid Mission was for children in the Republic of Vanuatu, an island nation between Fiji and Australia in 2002. The Next two Kid-Mission trips occurred in 2003 and 2004 to Estonia, a nation in Northern Europe, formerly ruled by Russia for 50 years. He conducted children ministry and leadership training in some select churches from the Union of Baptist and Evangelical Churches there. The next Kid Mission was in late spring of 2005 to Pakistan. What an experience it was working with missionaries and missionary children from The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM). Barney has continued to go on Kid Mission trips for the last five years that has included five trips to Mexico a year. In addition, he gone with the Bread of Life Church in Torrance with teams to Oaxaca, Mexico, Panama (three times) Just this year (2010) Barney returned to India two more times under the auspices of Whittier Area Community Church. Two more trips to India since then.
In the last ten years, Barney has maintained a serious monthly-writing schedule to develop a new curriculum to mentor and educate children's ministry professionals. This Writing Project led to a face-to-face mentoring program with fifteen students. It is now part of a long-distance learning model to train leaders in children's ministry called Kidology Personal Coaching, that is found on the Internet: www.Kidology.org. Over forty leaders from U.S. and Canada have been involved in this online-training program.
Rev. Kinard, and his wife Sharon reside in La Mirada, CA. Together they have raised four grown children: Karina (husband Mike), Ken (wife Jennifer), Kevin (wife Sarah) and Kristen (husband Bryan). They currently have eight grand children.
Permission is hereby granted to use selected portions of the above biographical sketch for promotion and publicity purposes only. It is not recommended that this be printed and used in its entirety.
Page Created by: kidhelper


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← Buridan's ass
The spectre of Munich →
When is a massacre OK, when not?
Posted on August 30, 2013	by Antigone1984.com
What is the difference between killing people with a spear and starving them to death by failing to ensure that they have enough to eat?
This is the question that the Chinese political philosopher Mencius posed to Chinese rulers in the period of internecine conflict known as the Warring States (403-221 BC).
Today, in the light of the daily carnage in Syria, we might ask what is the difference between killing people with explosives and killing them with nerve gas?
Only this week a regime pilot dropped an incendiary bomb on a school courtyard in northern Syria that killed, maimed or burned scores of children, leaving them with napalm-like burns all over their bodies. The atrocity was hardly mentioned in the news.
For two and a half years, since the revolt broke out on 15 March 2011, the western powers have sat on their hands, rejecting incessant pleas for help from the motley band of freedom-fighters and jihadis who have rebelled against the vicious sectarian regime of Bashar al-Assad.
During that period, more than 100 000 people have been slaughtered, according to UN figures for June 2013, an estimated 50 % of these being civilians, while about four million citizens have been displaced from their homes within Syria with another two million fleeing to seek asylum in neighbouring countries.
Then on 21 August 2013 in the al-Ghouta district of Damascus, the Syrian capital, an estimated total of over a thousand people were slaughtered indiscriminately in a poison gas attack attributed by most experts to the al-Assad regime.
Suddenly, the western powers woke up from their slumber and vowed military retribution on the perpetrators.
Those who had been quite happy for the dictator to slaughter tens of thousands of his fellow citizens with conventional weapons found it quite unacceptable that he should use nerve gas to kill them.
On this issue, Antigone1984 sides with Mencius. We do not believe that blowing someone to smithereens with conventional rocket shells is any less morally reprehensive than killing them with poison gas.
A letter from reader Colin Macnee criticizing western inaction on Syria, which was published in the London Guardian newspaper yesterday 29 August 2013, sums up our view precisely:
"Had more been done to arm the rebels a year or more ago, that most venal and brutal regime would likely have been toppled by now, tens of thousands of lives spared, the ravaging of the country mitigated, and the influence of Islamic fanatics minimised."
In our post "Crocodile Tears" published as far back as 3 April 2012, we said:
"Antigone1984 believes that the sword is mightier than the pen.
"Hence, we are in favour of armed humanitarian intervention to save the lives of human beings threatened with annihilation by brutal regimes.
In 2011 we supported armed humanitarian intervention in Libya – as did the "international community". Unlike that same "international community", we support it today in Syria.
Are the lives of Syrians less important than the lives of Libyans?
Or is it just that, compared with Libya, Syria has fewer oil reserves to be exploited by the international oil majors?"
Given the disastrous outcome of the recent western occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, we do not favour putting "boots on the ground" in Syria. However, we do believe that the rebels should be equipped with adequate weaponry and trained to use it. Above all, a no-fly zone should be imposed, since it is al-Assad's monopoly of air-power that has given him a crucial advantage over the rebels.
As Guardian reader Mcnee also said in the letter mentioned above,
"Irrespective of who carried out the gas attack in Damascus, the catalogue of atrocities committed by the Syrian armed forces and militia thugs in support of a regime which has institutionalised torture is sufficient reason for limited military strikes to limit the use of air power against the rebels."
The western powers have spent the last week threatening token air-strikes against the regime – possibly using guided missiles rather than piloted airplanes – to punish it for using poison gas at al-Ghouta. The aim is simply to dissuade the regime from using this weapon again, not to take sides in the conflict or to bring about regime change.
We think that this is the wrong approach and might well provoke the regime into committing even more heinous acts. We believe that the object of any western action should be precisely to achieve regime change – to boost the rebels and dethrone the despot.
All the more so since – while the western powers have turned a deaf ear to pleas for help – the Syrian dictator has not wanted for allies of his own. Vladimir Putin, the Russian dictator, has been supplying him with heavy weaponry, rockets and ammunition, while Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and Iran's Revolutionary Guards have provided guerrilla fighters and troop reinforcements as well as military hardware.
The conflict is asymmetrical, as a result, with assorted bands of badly coordinated rebels facing an overwhelmingly superior despotic regime backed by powerful outside interests.
There is an inescapable similarity with civil-war Spain (1936-1939), when the Great Powers looked the other way as Franco's fascists decimated the democratic opposition and set up a brutal dictatorship that was to last for 35 years.
As we wrote in our post "Fiddling Nero" on 9 September 2012,
"Fascist Italy supplied Franco's Falangists with troops – the notorious 'Black Shirts' – as well as planes, tanks and machine-guns. In 1937, at Franco's request, Nazi Germany sent in the Luftwaffe's Condor Legion to bomb Durango and Guernica.
Meanwhile, in the Foreign Office and the Quay d'Orsay the leading statesmen of liberal Europe twiddled their thumbs.
But worse was to come.
In 1938, at the height of the Spanish civil war, the British and French Prime Ministers, Neville Chamberlain and Édouard Daladier, agreed to appease Franco's ally Hitler by signing an agreement in Munich which ceded to Germany the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia.
This supine agreement did not appease Hitler, needless to say. It only whetted his appetite for more. He went on to occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia with impunity. It was only when he invaded Poland in 1939 that Britain and France reluctantly decided to take action.
But by then it was too late to save Spain. The Falangists had triumphed. Democracy was snuffed out and would not return until after Franco's death in 1975."
Is this what the western powers want for Syria?
This entry was posted in Military, Syria, UN, USA and tagged al-Ghouta, Bashar al-Assad, boots on the ground, Colin Macnea, humanitarian intervention, Mencius. Bookmark the permalink.


Tote your latest project in safety and style with this sheep-adorned, soft yet durable linen canvas bag from Mommy Sews exclusively for Simply Socks Yarn Company. Each bag fits a 4-5 skein project and is fully reversible. It's like having two bags in one! Close your bag easily with drawstrings and carry your project anywhere in style.


Phat Kat was really one of the first emcees that DIlla ever worked with.
Phat Kat is celebrating the impending re-release of his phenomenal 2007 album, Carte Blanche, by sharing the raw, stripped-down, straight-up filthy "World Premiere" produced by none other than, J Dilla.
For those unfamiliar, Kat and Dilla had a special bond that led to them working together on their respective solo careers and as part of Dilla's group, Slum Village. The late producer would often use the large-voiced rapper as a testing ground for his dirtier instrumentals, which would sometimes result in gems like "World Premiere." Recorded in 1996—a full 11 years before Carte Blanche's initial release—this joint is a ripped-from-the-cassette banger that's bursting with life and personality on all fronts.
For Phat Kat, it's an opportunity to talk his sht over one of Dilla's grimier, barebones instrumentals, which is very much in line with what he was producing at that time. And among other bars, the chorus of "Emcees out there, you better stand clear/ That n**a Phat comin' with the world premiere" is bound to get wrapped around your brain for days to come.
"World Premiere" is now available for stream and download through all major digital retailers, and is one of two Dilla-produced bonus tracks on the Carte Blanche re-release, which hits digital retailers and streaming platforms this Friday, July 27 via Below System Records.


John 12:25 "He who loves his soul loses it; and he who hates his soul in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
zwh;n aijwvnion Eternal Life. From zwhv life, spiritual life, 2222, & aijwvnio" eternal, everlasting, 166. John 3:16, 1 John 5:13.


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Il suo scritto intitolato In Erathostenes Cyrenaei geometricum epigramma votivum axcursio critica menziona la prima edizione latina illustrata del trattato De sphaera et cylindro di Archimede, pubblicata a Venezia nel 1573 dal matematico Niccolò Tartaglia (in collaborazione col tipografo Venturini-Ruffinelli).

Opere

Note

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Coronavirus: NAFDAC boss says agency to intensify surveillance on drugs
Al Amin Khaliel February 24, 2020 | 47 | | NAFDAC
Abuja, Feb. 24, 2020 (NAN) The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said it is intensifying its surveillance on drugs coming into the country following the outbreak of Coronavirus in China.
Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director General of the agency disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Monday in Abuja.
Acccording to Adeyeye, India is already feeling the heat of the disease because it gets most of its raw materials from China; and Nigeria also buys most of its drugs from the same China.
"If India has started feeling the heat, we should be going to Churches and Mosques to pray because we do not manufacture anything here except water.
"We import almost everything, the active ingredients and non-active ingredients, and even equipment; it is a scary thing and I have been emphasising this from day one.
"Drug security is needed in this country, we are in trouble if something happens; part of our best global practice is to ensure we have quality laboratories with well trained staff.
"We have revamped our approach to post marketing surveillance, meaning if your drug product is approved and it is now in Wuse and Kano, the quality must be the same," she said.
She added that the agency had been able to inspect not less than 165 companies within six months between 2018 and 2019, saying that inspection of product was not limited to only imported goods.
The D-G said the agency had a mandate to ensure that imported and manufactured products were of standard quality, noting that so far NAFDAC's efforts had yielded good results.
She said that companies were now following International standards and using best practices in the production of their goods.
According to Adeyeye, the agency is now working directly with foreign laboratories to ascertain the quality of goods being shipped into Nigeria instead of going through agents. (NAN)