Industry Super Funds not so super!
Are you aware of how much the industry super funds life insurance premiums have skyrocketed over the last few years?
Income Protection waiting periods changed from 60 to 90 days.
Are you aware you can maintain your industry super fund but now pay the premium for an external Life insurance policy via a partial rollover?
By utilizing this strategy you will get a 15% upfront Tax Rebate Benefit (discount).
If you are concerned about your current industry super fund life insurance or would just like to receive more information on this please contact us now.
The statistics has been obtained from a presentation and research by BT Financial Group Limited (ABN 63 002 916 458) 'BT'. It is for general information only. Every effort has been made to ensure that it is accurate, however it is not intended to be a complete description of the matters described. Furthermore, it is not intended that it be relied on by recipients for the purpose of making investment decisions and is not a replacement of the requirement for individual research or professional tax advice.
Great recent article from Money Management (please click on the below link) for our preferred passive diversified investment manager Vanguard Investments. It nice to know your superannuation monies is invested with one of the largest and most highly respected global investment managers.
Again if you don't have one of Vanguards leading investment funds in your investment or superannuation portfolio and would like to discuss their appropriateness please contact us for a review.
Also winning awards was our preferred Australian Equities manager Bennelong Funds Management who won the Australian Equities Large Cap Manager of the year.
And finally our preferred small cap Australian equities manager NovaPort Capital won the Australian Equities Small Cap Manager of the year.
If you don't have these funds in your investment or superannuation portfolio and would like to discuss their appropriateness please contact us for a review.
Did you know that one of our preferred partners, TAL, paid out more claims than ever before in 2014 – almost $1 billion. Despite this, we know that clients continue to have doubts about life insurance. We often hear 'I don't need life insurance', 'It won't happen to me' and 'I don't believe that insurers pay claims'.
TAL has collated real claims data to prove that, sadly, it does happen and, in fact, insurers do pay.
We have helped many families secure their financial future. Here's a breakdown of our clients' claims.


text:
Transformers 07 movie review
Posted by MindChamber - July 18th, 2007
Well Dudes.
its what it is, thats all I can really say.. Any casual movie goer that knows Micheal Bay Knows what they were in for. A cheezy Popcorn Flick. They expected as much, and thats what they what they got.
The Story has been rewritten(read: bastardized) for the new generation.
The "Allspark" a special cube that gives life to all transformers and has ravaged Cybertron in a war for years was sent to earth to avoid decepticon control.
Megatron, chases after it. and gets himself frozen in ice for many years.
The location of this cube was itched into Sam Witwickys Great grandfathers glasses.
Which is how Sam become important. So the Autobots attempt to approach Sam for the glasses, while the Decepticons have been infiltrating the military to find the location of the Cube and megatron
The movie is Wall to wall action, a lot robots crunching and scraping. Amazing cinematography, a lot of yelling, and HUGE Potholes.
Secondly the transformers, while a bit convoluted, are incredible to look at. No question the designs are still ugly, but the way their pieces catches light in the scenery is something to be amazed at. Guaranteed the first time Optimus transforms, it will bring a chill to your spine.
Its also one huge 2 hour commercial, with products and cars getting shoved in your face at neck breaking speeds, but we've becoming accustomed to that.
I still found there absolutely no reason to redesign the characters. It was purely personal choice on those involved. Heres why
The Transformers exhibit no mechanical movement,Thus the need to expose so many internal parts was not only unnecessary, it countered the way they moved.They are as over animated as your average Pixar movie. (they even use Frenzy as gremlin sounding, Goofy sidekick)They mass shift. The density between Robot and car is very obvious. (as well as other things) The Fact that they yell and speak English is interesting, and yet out of place. The action is intense, and confusing. The fighting is dramatic, the one liners are totally clichéd....hey... sound familiar?
Well it SHOULD, Its an episode of any transformers you've seen before.
Thats right, If you are a purist you will hard pressed to not like this movie if you just see it for what it is, a Two hour episode of the 80s transformers.
Problem with us purists, is that we expected more, and to be honest that has nothing to do with the show, it has to do with us.. WE Built up this incredible universe for the transformers, WE are the ones with these amazing in depth characters, in our fan scripts and comics. Can we really expect anyone from Hollywood to understand that? No.
The script was garbage. the writers are hacks, and should definitely turn over their Pens. It took TWO people to write this crap, but then again, the writing of the original show wasn't so great either.. Ranters.. So in an odd twist, If you liked the Show for what it was, then you shouldn't have a hard time loving the movie.
If you expect more from your characters, then continue to turn towards the community, because thats where the true world of transformers live.
I had a good time, just not a great one. I'm neither upset nor impressed.
Heres a big fat C
fuzz	 2007-07-18 09:28:24
I agree with you on most parts and i do think some of the action parts were confusing at times.. however some of the effects were nice.
Glaiel-Gamer	 2007-07-18 09:40:48
since I wasn't a huge fan of the original transformers, I thought the movie was pretty good but didn't really know what to compare it too.
So does the movie explain the origin or does it assume that you know the transformers lore and just sort of pussyfoot it and instead plunges you into an actionpacted story? How does the real story and the hollywoodized one differ... like did you moan and groan in the theatre when you realized it was steering away from what you were expecting? Im still so torn on this movie and wether its worth my 7.50.... everyone i talk to either loves it or not so much.
See the movie, its a visual feat.
Story wise its on par with the show, which isnt saying much.
and while the story was great for the 80s, it doesnt hold up, which is my problem.
the comic book had a much more interesting backstory.
My main beef at this point was if they were going to stick with such a nonsensical storyline similar to the one in the show, then why not go full steam nostalgia and give us characters that represented them.
the insanely detailed characters force you think that this another universe of transformers. which I could accept, Except the 80's garbage writing reminds you its not new, so you get torn..
I take it they leave the door open for a sequel.
behemothjosh	 2007-07-18 10:15:20
I was a huge Transformers fan as a kid as well. I had more toys then anyone I know (even Mindchamber). I remember with great fondness watching the cartoons. But, as a kid, the story didn't matter to me, it was the fact that these robots (what kid doesn't like robots) turned into cars and jets and stuff (what kid doesn't like cars and jets) and they were shooting each other (what kid doesn't like shooting). As I grew, my memory of the dazzle grew too. Looking back, though, the story was pretty cheesy, the plotholes were huge, the robot transformations are morphed, and the battles were very GIJoe (noone ever gets hurt). Well, thats what we get in the Transformers Movie but in a way that is still interesting to today's audience. Can you imagine how horrid it would be if we had an 80's cartoon on the bigscreen?
I have many gripes about the movie:
1) Bumblebee's lack of voice is pointless
2) Megatron's vague reference to Starscream's failure seems like an afterthought to create Decepticon politics and satiate the original fans
3) Bumblebee's 'lubricating' was a failed attempt at potty humor (the same with the references to masturbation)
4) The "kids are smarter then parents, police, the government and any other adults" philosophy is overplayed
5) Frenzy is way too Jar-Jar Binks
6) Jazz was too hip hop
7) Bumblebee looks like a furby
8) With the exception of just a couple of the robots, there was no character development of the robots.
That being said, the movie was definately a thrill-ride. The transformations and robot designs were incredible. The battle sequences were awesome. The special effects were spot on. The Decepticons were as evil as they should be; the Autobots were as good as they should be. The robot redesigns were VERY cool (I won't get into it, but I'm very happy they redesigned everyone). While liberties were taken, I think those liberties may have been a necessity for today's audience and I'm looking forward to seeing more.
Genocide	 2007-07-18 10:29:20
I for one thought that the movie was awesome, during one of the battle scenes i actually looked over to one of my friends and said "this is epic.". The movie may have been cheesey, but thats what you should expect from transformers. I know that they probably should have made it a bit more for the teens and adults of today, but if they had, people would have complained that they were to serious, it was a lose-lose situation. Anyways, your review is spot on, and it shows me that the user pages can be used for more then just a blog spot of "i ate cheese today that gave me gas". I have always been a fan of you mindchamber, and this review shows me that you have some brains to go with your animation skills. Keep it up :3. <3
Sarai	 2007-07-18 14:41:30
Heh, well I still want to see it. I guess a so-so film is what a lot of big franchise films are these days. For example 'Curse of the Golden Flower' a large Chinese one, was very commercial.
By the way, I didn't imagine you to have a Garbage level Whistle... But I also kinda thought you'd fancy a girl with spark.
So the fact you like the woman who invented(?) some form of electricity device to do with TRANSFORMERS (heh), is no suprise.
Phizzzz :)
I want more than someone with a spark, I want to be inspired.
CaptainBob	 2007-07-18 20:42:09
I personally loved the movie. I had some TF toys but I actually never watched the cartoon or the original movie, so I think I was pretty unbiased.
Everyone bitches and moans about Michael Bay but personally I usually really like his movies. Maybe I just take them for what they are, pop entertainment, and don't try to read more in to them.
and here i thought you where gonna take me with you, lol.
haha what? take you where, the movies? They don't allow famous Homemade potato salad in theaters :(
Famas	 2007-07-19 10:54:44
Based on what you're saying, and what I've been hearing from people everywhere, I think I'll wait for the film to be released on DvD before I bother to see it.
well heres the thing... this movie was BUILT for theaters... The effects on DVD will never compare to 30 foot screen with surround sound.
just look at it for what it is, an ILM Tech demo
johnkilo	 2007-07-19 11:00:00
The funny thing is, I thought it looked like the puzzle cube from Hellraiser too.
Next mod meet up i'll make the whipped potato salad.
he heh.
haha OMG... you are just too god damn precious.
Im'a eat you all up.
As an 8-year-old Transformers-obsessed kid in 1986, I cried, sitting in the theater, watching Optimus die. This new movie is a flimsy, third-rate "Transformers" - the characters are scrambled and wooden, the robots themselves look like overwrought junkyards with legs, and the story was just ridiculous. The big final battle, which should've felt climactic, just seemed to drag forever, and at no point did I find myself caring about any of them. I'd give the movie a 1.5 out of 5 stars.
DAMN STRAIGHT ROSS, YOU TELL EM..
Ortiz the artist
Vocal, Opinionated
Usually right though
: A Haiku for you
I should treasure it always.
JadeTheAssassin	 2007-07-21 13:18:13
That picture you posted scares me.
But anyways, I'm still planning on seeing it. I wasn't exactly around for the big Transformers craze, so I'd be unbias against it, like CaptainBob said.
However, I wanted to tell YOU that my brother got my other brother this signed sketch of Megatron. Whether it's apparently from one of the guys who designed Megatron originally, I thought you'd know and get back to me on it. :)
thats Awesome! if its Frank Welker, thats The voice of Megatron.
Demented-baby	 2007-07-25 02:48:41
i'm just sad the voltron movie will be worse :"( lolol i'm teh 15's years old, but i don't sleep.
keatnisher	 2007-08-16 16:48:54
beside what you said the movie was actually really good
ZJ	 2008-04-05 21:27:36
Lol. Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?
ProtomanBlues	 2009-07-09 21:49:23
Transformers Was a good Movie! It desservs a B

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
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Cenegenics Builds Resilient Cisco Network to Support Its Growing Practice
At Banfield Pet Hospital, PACS and Telemedicine Bridge the Distance across Its Hospital Network
Credit Union Takes Unorthodox Approach to Developing IT System for Member Care
Virtual Machines, Virtual Desktops and Zero Clients Deliver Real Benefits for PAE Consulting Engineers
Transtector Reins in Printing with a Shared, Consolidated Solution from Ricoh and IKON
St. Luke's Radiology Group Accelerates Reporting with Speech Recognition Technology
Arlie and Company Revamps IT with Server Virtualization and Unified Storage
PIAB Turns to IBM Cast Iron Systems for Fast ERP Integration: Integrate in Days, ROI in Nine Months
Grigg Brothers Turns to VOIP Service from ATC to Reduce Phone Costs and Improve Communication
Northwest Nazarene University Makes Smarter Decisions With Evisions Argos
Copyright © 2009-2011 Apropos LLC. All rights reserved.
Database Emailer Finds Database Stability and Business Growth with Infobright
Posted on September 29, 2009 by Mike Fisch
We were still crashing due to the amount of records… We went to MySQL and said, 'What can we do here?'"
– Al Inga, President and CEO, Database Emailer
A Large and Unwieldy Database
Database Emailer ran into serious challenges when its MySQL database grew too large. MySQL is a popular and functional open source database, but the scale of the company's data was more than the platform could effectively handle. "We had partitioned the database into over 70 partitions," said Al Inga, President and CEO of Database Emailer. "And we were still crashing due to the amount of records. We had about 20 columns in relation with 300 million rows. We went to MySQL and said, 'What can we do here?'"
Based in Little Falls, New Jersey, Database Emailer is the largest opt-in email database in the United States. Opt-in means that people have expressly agreed to receive product offers and specials by email. The company sells email lists that can be targeted by multiple criteria or "selects," such as geographic location and demographics (e.g. income, gender, dwelling status). Its customers then market to these lists.
For Database Emailer, its database is its business. The ability to perform fast queries and generate lists for each customer request is essential. But its large and unwieldy database meant the IT department had to spend about 100 hours per week performing manual queries. "We couldn't run queries effectively," said Inga. "If someone came to us and wanted to run four or five or six different selects – for instance, women between 30 and 50 years old who make an income of X amount of dollars who live in New York City and own a home – there was no way that could be run on the website." In such cases, the IT staff ran the query directly on the MySQL server and determined the number of records. After reporting back to the customer, the number of records was often too small or too large for the customer's needs, so they had to change the parameters and run another query. "At that point, you're just going back and forth, back and forth, tying up the IT department with doing queries because it can't be run through a website interface," he said.
Manual queries slowed down the sales process and cost the company up to $1,000 per day in IT staff time.
A Smooth Transition to Infobright
In response to Database Emailer's request for help, MySQL recommended its partner Infobright, which offers a self-managing, scalable data warehouse that is optimized for analytics and integrated with MySQL. Database Emailer downloaded a free, open source version called Infobright Community Edition. After trying it out, they decided to purchase and deploy the commercial version, Infobright Enterprise Edition (IEE).
Infobright is a column-oriented database, so data is stored column-by-column instead of row-by-row. This architecture enables more efficient data compression of 10:1 or better instead of the typical 2:1 or 3:1 compression ratios. A 50 TB database could be stored in only 5 TB of capacity – a significant storage savings. The database is self-managing, so administrators do not have to manually create and manage indexes. Infobright also organizes and tracks data in a way that enables very fast queries.
Infobright's integration with MySQL eased the transition. Database Emailer was able to keep its MySQL code base, and the IT department could apply its existing knowledge and skills to the Infobright solution. "My IT guys were very quickly able to learn the Infobright infrastructure. A lot of it was very common. If they knew MySQL, they could quickly learn this," said Inga.
They used the same server and storage hardware for the Infobright solution. "It required zero outlay for additional servers. The Infobright engine was able to handle it. We were only running 4 gigabytes of RAM," he said.
Online Queries Mean Business Growth
With the new, robust Infobright database, Database Emailer could offer online queries of the entire database, including the United States and Canada. "So now everyone can do queries 24 x 7 x 365 on their own," said Inga. "If they want to increase their data sample, they can just change one of the variables and increase or decrease the record count. Once they lock it in, they can hit the button and we have a debit-credit system set up where they can store credits on the account. When they download the data, it debits their account. No intervention from the IT department. So we literally have spent 100 hours a week less time doing queries."
Business has increased since March probably 200 or 300 percent."
– Al Inga
The fast online queries have made the sales process more competitive. "People are now using it more and more because of the access to immediate information. Whereas before, they might wait for a quote from us and we might not be able to get back to them for several hours or the next day. In the meantime, they are shopping around three or four other places. Now, they know they can get immediate quotes right from us. We are the first source they go to, and most of the time we have what they want," he said.
"Business has increased since March probably 200 or 300 percent," he continued. "Interestingly enough, the money that was going towards the IT people is now heading towards customer service. We actually have more customers now than ever, and more sales calls coming in. So sales and customer service are increasing, but IT costs have substantially decreased."
Inga is proud of how well his company is able to compete with these new capabilities: "Major data supplier corporations' websites don't have one-tenth of the queries that we are able to run on our website. We are virtually a mom-and-pop operation that is able to compete with companies that are hundred million, five hundred million, billion dollar corporations."
In short, Inga is pleased the new Infobright platform. "We're real happy," he said. "It literally has caused the business to increase substantially."
Copyright © 2009 Apropos LLC. All rights reserved.
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A Culture of Purpose will not only help you achieve success, it will help you sustain success by building organizations motivated by long–term meaning.
Successful companies see sustainability not as a noun, but as an adjective that applies to everything they do: sustainable operations, sustainable solutions, sustainable opportunities, sustainable profits. In A Culture of Purpose, Christoph Lueneburger provides compelling examples of how this comprehensive approach can give an organization a sense of deeper meaning, as it does at Dow.
Christoph Lueneburger breaks new ground with a fascinating analysis of the leadership attributes and organizational characteristics that will distinguish successful companies in the twenty–first century. A Culture of Purpose should be read by anyone seeking to break out of the constraints of traditional approaches.
The challenge of climate change demands leaders who are comfortable making decisions under uncertainty, and focused on the long term while driving for more immediate results. In A Culture of Purpose, Christoph Lueneburger shares powerful stories of some of the leaders on this journey and the cultures they are building.
If you re like me, you learn best from stories, and A Culture of Purpose bursts with stories of leaders whose commitment to sustainability took their organizations to a stronger, purpose–driven future. Christoph Lueneburger parses the core elements of success that guided these leaders, offering an actionable roadmap for building a culture of purpose.
Sustainability is not an intellectual luxury; it s fundamental to achieving business goals at Lands End. In A Culture of Purpose, Christoph Lueneburger shares the actionable and wise counsel that we have relied on to inspire our employees and strengthen our company.
At the heart of Christoph Lueneburger s book is the understanding that sustainability is not just a commercial necessity and increasingly the driver of profit, but a magnet for talent. If you want to build a passionate organization with impact and meaning, A Culture Of Purpose will triumphantly and practically lead the way.


Each month the Contributing Employers send a report to the Plan Administrator listing who worked for them in the previous month and the hours worked by each member with the payment for Contributions.
The Plan administrator sets up a Dollar Bank Account for each person, depositing to that account all of the contributions earned and received by the Plan Administrator. Provided that you are a member in good standing of LiUNA Local 493, you and your eligible dependants will be covered by the welfare plan on the first day of the second calendar month following the month in which your contributions have reached $220.
For each month that you are covered by the Welfare Plan, $220.00 will be deducted from your own dollar bank account in order to pay for your benefits.
If your coverage has previously terminated because of insufficient dollars in your dollar bank account or due to administrative suspension for not meeting the requirements of the member in good standing of LiUNA Local 493, you will again become insured on the first day of the second month following the accumulation of 1 month of coverage costs in your dollar bank account or reinstatement as a member in good standing.
For more information on eligibility please see our Benefit Booklet.
To see if you are eligible for benefits please call the office.


This used to be one of the best calendar app. Since the new upgrade, it does not even open !
So I can't use it anymore. Guess I paid for nothing.
Developer should at least warn about which system accept their app.
Thank you for reaching out on this issue. Some good news for you though, you can delete the app and re-install. Don't worry, you won't lose your events as they are stored within the internal iOS calendar, and myCal PRO simply reads and writes to those.
I have also added this information to the review you posted.
Also, if the app wasn't compatible with a specific hardware configuration, the AppStore wouldn't even allow you to install it.


text:
Maria Sharapova Changed Tennis with Her Ambition, on and off the Court
By Louisa Thomas
Maria Sharapova was not always the best player on the court, but she was usually the most desperate one, and was the better for it.Photograph by Peter Klaunzer / Keystone / Redux
There was a time—a long time—when, by one measure, Maria Sharapova was the biggest star in women's sports. According to Forbes, she was the highest-paid female athlete in the world for eleven consecutive years, from 2004 until 2015. Her performance on the court had something to do with this: she was a five-time Grand Slam champion, winning each major at least once, and in four different years she was the No. 1 player in the world. But that was only part of the story. She leveraged her lean physique, blond hair, good looks, and sharp business instincts to create a major international brand. Fittingly, when she announced her retirement from professional tennis, on Wednesday morning, she did it not in a press conference but with an essay that was published simultaneously by Vanity Fair and Vogue.
Sharapova's brand could be boring—she created prettily packaged candy and promoted upscale water—but on the court she could be mesmerizing. The drama didn't come from the style of her game, which was often monotonous: big serve, booming groundstrokes. It was in her relentlessness and resilience. She shrieked. She lunged. She clenched her fist and pounded her quad as she readied herself to return serve, sweat soaking through her dress. (She had her own designer line at Nike.) The friction between the smoothness of her brand—its sanitized sex appeal and vague suggestion of snobbery—and the gutsiness and grit of her game made her compelling. It's hard to name another athlete who was at once more image-conscious and more willing to subvert that image again and again. She was not always the best player on the court, but she was usually the most desperate one, and was the better for it.
Her legacy is not uncomplicated. In 2016, she tested positive for meldonium, which had recently been added—apparently without Sharapova's knowledge—to the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned drugs. Sharapova claimed to be using it for medical rather than performance-enhancing purposes, and her two-year ban was reduced to fifteen months on appeal, after a panel concluded that she had not intended to cheat. But the damage to her reputation was done. She tried to come back, in 2017, but her body never quite allowed it. She struggled to finish matches, let alone make it into the deep rounds of tournaments. Her shoulder was frayed, and the rest of her, stressed by years of overcompensating, was breaking down. It has been clear, for a while now, that her retirement was imminent. She is thirty-two years old and currently ranked No. 373. Characteristically, she persisted long after many people thought she would, or could.
The last time many people saw Sharapova play was last summer, at the U.S. Open, when she faced Serena Williams. Williams routed her, 6–1, 6–1. The rivalry between Sharapova and Williams may have been the most lopsided in the history of professional sports. Sharapova defeated Williams in the final of Wimbledon, in 2004, at the age of seventeen, and beat her again later that year. Williams beat her the next nineteen times they met on the court. (Technically, Sharapova defeated Williams in 2018, at the French Open—but only because Williams withdrew with an injury.) And yet it was a rivalry. The two women were not shy about how much they disliked each other. Even when the outcome seemed inevitable, their matches crackled with a special kind of electricity. Sharapova was Williams's great if overmatched foil, on the court and in American culture.
Watching that U.S. Open match between Sharapova and Williams, last August, I was reminded of how much Sharapova had shaped the sport, even when she didn't dominate it. Tennis, particularly women's tennis, is different because of her, and not only because of new marketing opportunities. Sharapova brought the mentality of a grinder with attack-first instincts, which you can see today in many of the game's best young players. She also provided a blueprint. These days, the stories of immigrant families with little money and massive ambitions who went to Florida in search of sun and hard courts have become almost commonplace. That's the story of Amanda Anisimova, a teen-ager who made the semifinals of the French Open last year and just signed a major sponsorship deal with Nike. It's the story of Sofia Kenin, who just won the Australian Open. Sharapova was the model.
Louisa Thomas is a staff writer at The New Yorker. She is the author of three books and a co-editor of "Losers: Dispatches from the Other Side of the Scoreboard."
More:TennisWomen's TennisMaria SharapovaRetirement
2020 Australian Open: Sofia Kenin Outruns Garbiñe Muguruza to Win the Women's Final in Melbourne
Kenin, who, at twenty-one, is all but unheard of to the casual fan, is now the top-ranked American woman in tennis.
By Gerald Marzorati
Serena Williams Routed Maria Sharapova Again at the U.S. Open, and Looked Ready for More
Over the years, Williams vs. Sharapova has always been less a tennis rivalry than a personal feud.
From Osaka to Federer: What a Forehand Can Reveal
This fundamental stroke gives tennis stars their power. Louisa Thomas looks at what their distinctive forehands tell us about some of the best players in the game.


text:
// Copyright (c) 2009-2012 The Bitcoin developers
// Distributed under the MIT/X11 software license, see the accompanying
// file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.

#include <boost/assign/list_of.hpp> // for 'map_list_of()'
#include <boost/foreach.hpp>

#include "checkpoints.h"

#include "txdb.h"
#include "main.h"
#include "uint256.h"

static const int nCheckpointSpan = 5000;

namespace Checkpoints
{
    typedef std::map<int, uint256> MapCheckpoints;

    //
    // What makes a good checkpoint block?
    // + Is surrounded by blocks with reasonable timestamps
    //   (no blocks before with a timestamp after, none after with
    //    timestamp before)
    // + Contains no strange transactions
    //
    static MapCheckpoints mapCheckpoints =
        boost::assign::map_list_of
		(     0, Params().HashGenesisBlock() )
		(  1, uint256("0x96f8969adf071fb172db7a6e6a4e71cd9a01d4b730e11a405b344409a013f5f2"))
		(  5, uint256("0xd91f414ab9bd5ceb57574b1df8c1512cd53667ac785baa65ccb4844a0d7bd945"))
    ;

    // TestNet has no checkpoints
    static MapCheckpoints mapCheckpointsTestnet;

    bool CheckHardened(int nHeight, const uint256& hash)
    {
        MapCheckpoints& checkpoints = (TestNet() ? mapCheckpointsTestnet : mapCheckpoints);

        MapCheckpoints::const_iterator i = checkpoints.find(nHeight);
        if (i == checkpoints.end()) return true;
        return hash == i->second;
    }

    int GetTotalBlocksEstimate()
    {
        MapCheckpoints& checkpoints = (TestNet() ? mapCheckpointsTestnet : mapCheckpoints);

        if (checkpoints.empty())
            return 0;
        return checkpoints.rbegin()->first;
    }

    CBlockIndex* GetLastCheckpoint(const std::map<uint256, CBlockIndex*>& mapBlockIndex)
    {
        MapCheckpoints& checkpoints = (TestNet() ? mapCheckpointsTestnet : mapCheckpoints);

        BOOST_REVERSE_FOREACH(const MapCheckpoints::value_type& i, checkpoints)
        {
            const uint256& hash = i.second;
            std::map<uint256, CBlockIndex*>::const_iterator t = mapBlockIndex.find(hash);
            if (t != mapBlockIndex.end())
                return t->second;
        }
        return NULL;
    }

    // Automatically select a suitable sync-checkpoint
    const CBlockIndex* AutoSelectSyncCheckpoint()
    {
        const CBlockIndex *pindex = pindexBest;
        // Search backward for a block within max span and maturity window
        while (pindex->pprev && pindex->nHeight + nCheckpointSpan > pindexBest->nHeight)
            pindex = pindex->pprev;
        return pindex;
    }

    // Check against synchronized checkpoint
    bool CheckSync(int nHeight)
    {
        const CBlockIndex* pindexSync = AutoSelectSyncCheckpoint();
        if (nHeight <= pindexSync->nHeight){
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The church family at Colmar Manor Bible have partnered with Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Operation Christmas Child. Children and adults alike have packed shoeboxes filled with toys, games, and Bibles. The shoeboxes are shipped around the world and distributed to children through local churches. Read below to see how this ministry works!
Colmar Manor Bible Church's Shoeboxes Being Opened In Ghana!
Contact Maria K. for more information to see how you can serve in this amazing ministry!


Alyssa Milano and other Hollywood leftists calling for a boycott of Georgia over its proposed fetal heartbeat bill are more concerned with "tax incentives" than the "sanctity of human life," the star of the new pro-life film "Unplanned" charged.
Ashley Bratcher, in an interview on SiriusXM's Breitbart News Tonight, noted that several Hollywood figures are threatening Georgia with boycotts following the state's legislative moves to ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.
Milano spearheaded a campaign – with the support of Judd Apatow, Lena Dunham, Ashley Judd, Eva Longoria, Mark Ruffalo, Olivia Wilde, and Ariel Winter – to pull film, television, and other entertainment production business from Georgia in response to the state's Heartbeat Bill.
Bratcher portrays Abby Johnson in the film, which made $6.1 million from 1,059 theaters in its opening weekend, doubling industry forecasts.
Bratcher described the importance of Unplanned.
Meanwhile, fans of Unplanned, for a time, couldn't go to Twitter and follow the movie's page over the weekend, because of a site "error," according to company higher-ups, Washington Times columnist Cheryl K. Chumley noted.
And over a movie "that's really, at root, about love and hope and redemption," Chumley wrote.
"It's easy to look at what happened with Unplanned as just one more example of social media free speech failure, or as one more instance of liberal-conservative bickering over politics. But the larger theme is this: America's drift of moral compass has been ongoing for decades, and traditionalists are losing," Chumley wrote.
"Just a few short years ago, a story about the shunning of Unplanned would've shocked. Now, it's expected. Censorship's almost a yawner. The controversy over Unplanned is nearly an eye-roller. Now, it's just one of a collection of stories about conservatives being censored, Christian speech being stifled, traditional viewpoints being shuttered, stories of morality and faith-based virtues being suppressed and quelled. Therein, for those care about America's moral direction, lies the danger. Sleeping in the face of the enemy doesn't win the war.


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text:
Questions for... Fr David Sanders OP
As I settle into the comfy chair in the Student Master's bedroom, with the buses rumbling outside along St Giles, it occurs to me that for the next half hour the roles will be reversed: I will be the one asking him about how he's getting on in the Dominican life. He is the first to be interviewed in our new Godzdogz series on the life and work of the brethren today.
David Christopher Sanders grew up in a North London parish run by Olivetan Benedictine monks. 'I think my vocation, without a doubt, came from the liturgy, a very strong sense of the presence of God ... and a call'. Religious life seemed normal; the Olivetans were 'happy, well-adjusted religious and people were attracted – a bit like here at Blackfriars – to the liveliness, the preaching, the good liturgy of the parish'. Fr David has always been interested in Scripture, experiencing 'the pull of the Gospel'.
But the young David didn't want to enter religious life too early. Studying English at King's College London was 'alright', though he got 'quite involved' in the Catholic Chaplaincy and made some lifelong friends. He then went to Tanganyika for three years, teaching in a school run by German Benedictine missionaries ('a very efficient mission, almost overwhelmed the local population'), and was there during the Zanzibar revolution in 1964 which led to the formation of the united Tanzania.
The early-1960s were important for the Church, too. 'It was a very exciting time to be a young Catholic, because of all the new movements which would come to a climax at Vatican 2.' David had been present at Pius XII's final public audience at Castelgandolfo and keenly followed the news of Roncalli's election as John XXIII, a man who had close Olivetan connections.
Fr David (incognito) in Jerusalem
Why did David join the Dominicans, then, instead of the Benedictines? He was drawn to a more itinerant vocation, he explains, and 'a taste for adventure' runs in his family (his brother was then serving as an army officer in the Far East). The Dominicans seemed to be 'perhaps the only Order I could survive in, flexible…' Then he adds: 'and I could get a good education.' So it was also the intellectual side, knowing about Dominicans such as Herbert McCabe and Anthony Ross, and attending Laurence Bright's extracurricular theology lectures for Catholics at King's. He felt the Dominicans were the only ones who could stand up intellectually to the agnostic academics in the university.
It was exactly fifty years ago, as Vatican 2 was drawing to a close, that David joined the Order, in a noviciate of twelve, of whom three others are still in the Order (Timothy Radcliffe, Simon Tugwell, and Tom Kearns). It was a period of crisis in religious life, and I ask about the six novice masters they had in the space of one year. 'There were only three! Timothy says six, but I think he might have been influenced by the beer that was made in the novitiate at Woodchester.' As if to put the strength of the drink beyond doubt, he adds: 'I hadn't worn glasses until I drank that beer!' But he concedes even three novice masters is a bit much. 'It really was an extraordinary crisis. Everything was falling apart in many ways.'
Philosophical and theological studies followed at Hawkesyard then Oxford. Brother David matriculated at Trinity College for a year's diploma in Scripture, then spent a year in Paris, to improve his French, complete his licentiate and enjoy a different experience. The great priory of St Jacques then housed a hundred friars, including Chenu, Congar and Pohier. That was in 1973, a year still affected by the '68 revolution, but we don't dwell on the details of how he ran into a supermarket and bought a small chair to put in his rather austere cell and to avoid the tear gas from a riot outside…
On 2 October 1971, at Blackfriars Oxford, Fr David was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Christopher Butler, the former Abbot of Downside who had a major influence at Vatican 2. Timothy Radcliffe was ordained in the same Mass.
The ordination Mass (left, with Herbert McCabe OP, and reception (right) on 2 October 1971 at Blackfriars, Oxford
What are the highlights of Fr David's priestly ministry? He enjoyed teaching at the United Theological College of the West Indies in Jamaica for nine years and the pastoral challenges of working on urban and rural parishes. The life of a missionary has never quite left him; he still manages St Martin's Mission, making appeals in parishes throughout England to raise funds for our Caribbean mission. Teaching at Cambridge was also a 'blessing': he ran the Bible Study group at the Fisher House chaplaincy for fifteen years and gave Scripture 'supervisions' for several colleges. It was striking how students gave very different responses to Scripture, and thus 'how much one learned oneself'. Fr David in a rural parish, Jamaica
What about his time as an editor? He produced a monthly issue of Priests and People for thirteen years, and had close links with The Tablet. 'You had to be very open to what what was going on, and try to respond to what were the felt needs in the Church and society at the time.' He was also glad to have good writers, sensitive to theology and history, and drawing on a wide culture: Eamon Duffy, Nicholas Lash, Luke Timothy Johnson, among others. From such articles came two popular books: Faith of Our Fathers by Duffy and Living the Gospel by Johnson. For Fr David, they exemplify how 'to preach the Gospel in different situations without feeling inhibited'.
How has Fr David navigated the Dominican diversity of apostolates? 'I've been very lucky. I think I thrive on a combination of the academic and the pastoral.' He acknowledges he has been 'blessed' in Jamaica and England to do both simultanesouly, 'and therefore happy'.
So we turn to community life, which underpins all the external activity. 'If you've got a good community, it's a very satisfying way of life.' At Cambridge, Fr David was prior of the 'mixed community' of friars and lay students, 'where everyone shared in the liturgy and the cooking…that was a great experience. We had endless dramas…but we survived!' Others call it the 'mixed-up community', and Fr David admits it was an 'unusual' setup, though a sense of nostalgia remains.
Members of the 'mixed community' in Cambridge during Fr David's priorship
There have always been young people and students around Fr David, and he gets on well with young and old alike. 'It's only the difficult people you don't like – because they're difficult!' He pauses for a moment, and concludes that co-operative is the operative word. I suppose that's his way of highlighting our vow of obedience.
There has been no lack of work either: Fr David was bursar in Cambridge, then prior for six years, and afterwards in Oxford 'endlessly student master' (1999-2004, then 2011-present). Fr David has formed more than one generation of Dominican friars, including over half the present Oxford community. He knows that a good community can lighten the burdens of one's own work. Community meetings are very important, albeit a 'great penance', since good government matters: 'things go wrong if the Constitutions are neglected'. Then, to avoid accusations of legalism, he quickly adds, 'not in a wooden way'.
We return to liturgy and prayer, the driving force of his vocation. Private prayer is 'absolutely essential', and the Holy Spirit has answered many prayers. But prayer also manifests itself in preaching; the Dominican life encourages 'a combination of preaching and prayer as a personal ascesis'. And preaching is not only about reaching others but also allowing the Gospel to speak to oneself: 'The challenge of preaching is a way of growing', that is, 'to make sense of the Gospel in the world we live in'.
What, finally, does our oldest member of the community think about the future? The would-be Soixante-Huitard avers that historical context is important: religious life 'reflects very much what's in the air in society'. He is 'extremely hopeful' about the future and is pleased with his Dominican students: 'they combine a seriousness about study with a desire to evangelise. It does offer a source of hope when you see a community which is flourishing, because it's inspired by the Gospel.' Fr David (back row, second from left) with his Dominican students and the Master of the Order in December 2013
Top image: David Sanders (far left) with some of his fellow novices in 1965
Fr Matthew Jarvis O.P.
Fr Matthew Jarvis is assigned to the Priory of the Holy Cross in Leicester.
matthew.jarvis@english.op.org
Webmaster commented on 21-Nov-2015 07:35 PM
Smashing interview! Well done.
Clare Richards commented on 21-Nov-2015 08:59 PM
I have really enjoyed reading about Fr David's Dominican life.
I am growing more and more interested and appreciative of the Spirit of St Dominic, and so pray for your community in Oxford - and Cambridge, - in fact for all Dominicans, that you pass on to us a deep love for God.
Mark Spalding commented on 24-Nov-2015 08:53 AM
The "mixed-up" community in Cambridge was inspirational to dozens of people. A home to mathematicians, engineers, vets, theologians and even the odd marine biologist - conversations around the dinner table were to die for, community meetings tiresome, but sometimes hilarious. It gave a certainty of faith, a love of God and an understanding of community that, for many of us has remained a central pillar of our lives.
...I would urge the Dominicans or any other orders to re-establish such a communities again!
John Sanders commented on 22-Dec-2015 10:16 AM
Wonderful to read and learn so much about my brother. He is very reticent ! talking about himself
Well done David . We are all in the family very proud of you
Alan Perry commented on 26-Dec-2015 10:40 PM
I was a student at Trinity Oxford with David around 1970. The twinkle in his eye and the good natured smile is just the same today as it was then! David has always represented what to me is a very attractive marriage of great openness, warmth and approachability to the intense seriousness of his vocation. You remain an inspiration, David, and I'm enthused, though not surprised, to see from this excellent article just how widespread that inspiration has been, still is, and will I trust long continue to be. .
fr. John Paul Peterson, OP commented on 31-Mar-2020 08:15 PM
This was a wonderful interview. I met David in Oxford when the Caribbean friars from Grenada, Barbados and Jamacia were studying there in 2000-2005. Meeting David was always a treat. He was always kind and hospitable. He had a wit about him that I always enjoyed his company. He will be missed.
Rodrigo Moreira commented on 02-Apr-2020 03:51 PM
Rest in Peace, Fr David Sanders. My gratitude for your friendship, sense of humour and advice - and spiritual guidance, before and after confession. Thank you for vocation, your enthusiasm to help people in hardship and your interest about Brazil and its communities. You will be missed. Pray for us in Heaven. We will pray for you.
Peter Davies commented on 02-Apr-2020 07:01 PM
I have only now read this article, discovered via the hypertext link in "Requiem for Fr David Sanders OP". As the Webmaster commented at the time, it's a smashing interview and a fitting memento of an obviously much loved and inspiring person.
Alessandro Cortesi commented on 03-Apr-2020 10:28 PM
I'm grateful to the Lord for meeting David. I appreciated his joyful friendship, his deep knowledge of Holy Scripture, his sense of mission, his openness of mind and heart. Rest in peace, David, and pray for us.


text:
With a world class faculty and up-to-date production facilities, Hunter College's Department of Film & Media Studies offers two undergraduate programs of study and an MFA degree in Integrated Media Arts. [more...]
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Prof. Sissel McCarthy addresses Foreign Correspondents inaugural awards ceremony
Journalists from around the globe turned out for the Association of Foreign Correspondents USA inaugural awards and scholarships ceremony at the Roosevelt House on Nov. 4. Hunter College Journalism Program Director Sissel McCarthy kicked off the event with a speech about the growing threat to journalism and journalists here and abroad. "Tonight is an opportunity to celebrate the important work foreign journalists and indeed all journalists are doing around the world. Foreign correspondents, like so many of you here tonight, are on the frontlines in the battle of information to hold those in power accountable," said McCarthy, who also emceed the event. "According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, in 2018, 56 journalists were killed, 250 jailed and 65 went missing, making it one of the most dangerous years ever to be a journalist. We also remember tonight the 19 who have been killed already this year, many of them in Mexico, which now is the most deadly country in the world to be a journalist." Several foreign correspondents echoed these remarks, describing firsthand the risks they have faced in their countries.
Later in the evening, five foreign journalists received full scholarships to pursue graduate degrees in the United States, and several board members were recognized for their work to empower international journalists living and working here. Former Secretary for Homeland Security Jeh Johnson was also honored for his lifetime contributions to public service. In his keynote speech, he talked about the role of the free press in our country, calling his relationship with journalists "healthy but not always pleasant, which is how it should be."
McCarthy closed out the evening with a request: "Going forward, it's up to all of us to remind the public of the personal risks journalists face each and every day to seek the truth so we can be an engaged and informed citizenry. Our very democracy depends on it."
Need to see an advisor January?
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text:
Encyclopedia > Soviet Union Leaders
List of leaders of the Soviet Union
Redirected from Soviet Union/Leaders
An approximately chronological listing of Soviet leaders (heads of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Soviet Union)
Vladimir Ilych Lenin Head of the Central Committee October 26, 1917 - April 3, 1922
Joseph Stalin First Secretary April 3, 1922 - March 5, 1953
Nikita Khrushchev First Secretary September 7, 1953 - October 14, 1964
Leonid Brezhnev First Secretary October 14, 1964 - April 8, 1966 and General Secretary April 8, 1966 - November 10, 1982
Yuri Andropov General Secretary November 12, 1982 - February 9, 1984
Konstantin Chernenko General Secretary February 13, 1984 - March 10, 1985
Mikhail Gorbachev General Secretary March 11, 1985 - March 14, 1990 and President of the Soviet Union March 14, 1990 - December 25, 1991
The post of First Secretary was created in April 1922. The title of General Secretary was introduced in April 1966.
On March 14 1990, the newly created (1989) Congress of People's Deputies voted to end the Communist party's control over the government and elected Gorbachev President of the Soviet Union.
see also Leon Trotsky
See also : History of the Soviet Union, List of minor leaders of the Soviet Union
For the leaders of post-communist Russia, see History of post-communist Russia.
... couples living together, 16.1% have a female householder with no husband present, and 37.4% are non-families. 31.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 12.1% ...


text:
Q: Problem cloning the startup disk of a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan Before putting my question in detail, see Problem section below, I'd like to sketch the context in which it appears.
Hardware-Software-Environment
MacBook Pro Early 2015 running OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan.
The internal HD is actually a 250 GB SSD comprising partitions EFI,                    Macintosh HD and Recovery HD.
External 2 TB HD connected via USB 3.0 Bus; later on called target disk.
Task
Create a bootable clone of the startup partition and, in addition, of the associated recovery partition. Provide a robust and simple command line based procedure.
Basic Procedure
Terminology
source_disk_id
       disk identifier of the Macintosh HD partition
source_device_node
       device node corresponding to the Macintosh HD partition
target_disk_id
       disk identifier of the target partition on the external HD
target_device_node
       device node corresponding to the target partition
target_partition_size
       size of the target partition
       Note: Used on invocation of a command, take care to use an appropriate size specifier.
Processing Steps

*

*Create the target partition that is to contain the bootable clone.

*

*Determine the size of the Macintosh HD partition via
diskutil info source_disk_id.

*Determine the size of the Recovery HD the same way running diskutil info; usually yet another 650 MB.

*We estimate the target partition's size so that the target partition can hold the contents of the Recovery HD as well as that of the Macintosh HD, including free space. This is more or less a precaution to prevent asr restore, later on used, from complaining about missing space.
When the cloning operation will be accomplished, the target partition's size may be reduced running diskutil resizeVolume.

*Now we are ready to create the target partition:
diskutil resizeVolume target_disk_id target_partition_size  JHFS+ FreePartition 0
Note: This works for me because the target disk is maintained such that there is a "remainder partition" with respect to on-disk order. Running the diskutil resizeVolume command then simply cuts off a chunk of disk space from the remainder partition's upper end that shall now be used as the target partition.

*Switch to recovery mode and run
asr restore --source source_device_node --target target_device_node --erase
Invoked this way, asr restore will restore(clone) and verify both partitions, Macintosh HD as well as Recovery HD.

*Back in normal mode, run diskutil rename to assign more meaningful names to the two partitions just "made" by asr restore, something like "my_mbp2015_macintosh_hd_osx10.11.6_yymmdd" and "my_mbp2015_recovery_hd_osx10.11.6_yymmdd" resp.
Problem
With the external HD connected, invoke the Startup Manager holding down the ⌥ Option key on starting or restarting the machine.
The Startup Manager brings up the volume icons of those partitions on the HD it considers bootable. Select the icon corresponding to the newly created startup partition and initiate the boot process by double-click.
Now, without any word of consolation, the system boots from the internal Macintosh HD. Obviously the system does not recognize the newly created startup partition as bootable.
Question: What is wrong with the above procedure trying to create a bootable clone? Any advices and suggestions are welcome.
Test and Fixing Attempts

*

*Check and Repair Partitions
When checking the new startup partition diskutil verifyvolume reported:
Checking volume information
Invalid volume free block count
(It should be 25379769 instead of 23010379)
Volume header needs minor repair
The volume my_mbp2015_macintosh_hd_osx10.11.6_200106 was found corrupt and needs to be repaired
File system check exit code is 8
Error: -69845: File system verify or repair failed
Underlying error: 8: POSIX reports: Exec format error

The associated recovery partition, however, is considered OK.
Subsequent "repair" of the startup partition via diskutil repairVolume appears to be successful, at least in the sense that diskutil verifyVolume does not complain any longer.
Unfortunately this repair attempt finally was not successful because the system still does not recognize the "repaired" startup partition as bootable.

*Disk Utility Restore
When we employ the "Restore" feature of the GUI Disk Utility with processing step #2 above instead of asr restore, the startup partition and the associated recovery partition appear to be cloned correctly, at least diskutil verifyvolume does not complain and on subsequent start or restart, the system boots from the newly created startup partition if told to do so.
I'm pretty sure that with Disk Utility "Restore"  the command asr restore will be invoked under the hood to do the job. The question then is what else may happen. I guess some additional attribute might be set using the somewhat opaque "adjust" option documented like this:
asr adjust --target <partition> [--settype <partType>]

*External HD
The external target HD itself is not considered suspicious because there reside several bootable partitions on the disk from which the system boots  without problems.

*Start from "logical" Macintosh HD Volume
As we learned from @klanomath, see below, in our case where the Macintosh HD is a CoreStorage volume, we should take the corresponding logical volume as argument for asr restore --source.
So we run in Recovery Mode:
asr restore --source /dev/disk2 --target /dev/disk16s6 --erase
    Validating target...done
    Validating source...done
    Erase contents of /dev/disk16s6
(/Volumes/my_mbp2015_macintosh_hd_osx10.11.6_200106)? [ny]: y

Source volume is read-write and cannot be unmounted, so it can't be block copied.

In such cases, some other process may keep the volume Macintosh HD volume busy. Try to address the problem, unmount the volume running diskutil unmount and rerun asr restore with the same parameter settings as before.

*Side Trip: Figuring out the Logical Startup Volume
A reliable, while not "scriptable", way: Immediately after logging in to      an account start the GUI Disk Utilitiy. You will find the startup volume highlighted. Enter ⌘I to see the same volume information as otherwise displayed by the diskutil info command.
In this particular case where the startup volume is actually a (mounted) CoreStorage partition, we can determine the corresponding logical volume from the diskutil coreStorage list output:
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 9344A028-DD9F-454C-89C0-8E2866E5FBB6
=========================================================
Name:         Macintosh HD
Status:       Online
Size:         250140434432 B (250.1 GB)
Free Space:   8921088 B (8.9 MB)
|
+-< Physical Volume EC0BB005-738C-4F32-8B27-BA8801EBC34D
|   ----------------------------------------------------
|   Index:    0
|   Disk:     disk0s2
|   Status:   Online
|   Size:     250140434432 B (250.1 GB)
|
+-> Logical Volume Family A20BC6DA-C477-44B4-82C9-C88B2CB41658
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Encryption Type:         None
    |
    +-> Logical Volume 73C52081-F8CF-4C86-93F9-4BBA68602854
        ---------------------------------------------------
        Disk:                  disk1
        Status:                Online
        Size (Total):          249779191808 B (249.8 GB)
        Revertible:            Yes (no decryption required)
        LV Name:               Macintosh HD
        Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
        Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Surprisingly, the most obvious method failed: bless --getBoot --verbose (--verbose option just added to have somewhat more information)
EFI found at IODeviceTree:/efi
Current EFI boot device string is: '<array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOMedia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>56173D2D-142D-4425-AA07-DC6762337E8C</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>disk10s3</string></dict></array>'
Boot option is 8BE4DF61-93CA-11D2-AA0D-00E098032B8C:Boot0080
Processing boot option 'Mac OS X'
Boot device path incorrect
Boot option does not match XML representation
XML representation doesn't match true boot preference

Resetting the NVRAM fixed the problem. Reset method used: Hold down ⌥ Option ⌘ Command P R keys on starting the machine. Now the blesscommand returned the boot volumes's device node as expected:
bless --getBoot
/dev/disk1

For the sake of completeness, bless --info /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD recorded:
finderinfo[0]: 1430821 => Blessed System Folder is /System/Library/CoreServices
finderinfo[1]: 2587775 => Blessed System File is /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
finderinfo[2]:      0 => Open-folder linked list empty
finderinfo[3]:      0 => No alternate OS blessed file/folder
finderinfo[4]:      0 => Unused field unset
finderinfo[5]: 1430821 => OS X blessed folder is /System/Library/CoreServices
64-bit VSDB volume id:  0x839BA1DBB460E54F

Sources and Footnotes
Disk image of OS + Recovery partition?
Contains reference to the asr utility: Will restore both the system partition and the associated recovery partition as well.
https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/asrs-hidden-documentation/
Reveals that there is a hidden documentation for the asr utility.
https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4/help-my-clone-wont-boot
Very instructive cheat sheet from Bombich Software dealing with bootability problems. Although this text refers to their CCC product, it contains a lot of generally useful hints.
What makes a volume bootable?
Another useful text from the Bombich Software knowledge base dealing with a Mac's boot process and on how to "bless" a bootable volume.
Resetting and setting NVRAM
Some words on the nvramcommand.
Apple Core Storage
Educational text on Apple Core Storage.

A: The system partition type of SSDs defaulted to CoreStorage in 10.11 (El Capitan).
The CoreStorage partition (usually disk0s2) is a container which can store one or more volumes. Only the innermost objects (logical volumes) export to additional device nodes. Further reading: CoreStorage.
If you asr --source ... a CS partition (in your case disk0s2) to a target partition, you will not get a proper bootable file system (e.g. a bootable HFS+ volume). The simple reason: a CS partition has no traditional file system and a different internal structure compared to an HFS+ boot volume.
Solution:

*

*Instead of asr --sourcing a disk slice simply use the exported logical volume.
There is no easy way to get the device node of the mounted logical volume of the SSD automatically (i.e. to use it in a shell script). diskutil list or diskutil cs list list it, but it's difficult to extract the device node with tools available in Recovery Mode (with e.g. awk ... or sed ...) - at least for me with limited shell scripting capability. The best I have found is bless --getBoot. The default boot volume has to be the internal SSD before booting to Recovery Mode (with the option key or cmd-R) - compellingly! You can also set the start volume to the internal SSD in Recovery Mode.
On the command line (in Recovery Mode) the asr command would look like this then:
CSB=$(bless --getBoot); asr restore --source $CSB --target target_device_node --erase

If you get the error Source volume is read-write and cannot be unmounted after executing the asr ... command, try to unmount $CSB after defining the variable CSB: diskutil umount $CSB.
You will get a bootable HFS+ volume on a type HFS+ partition on the target disk finally.

*If method 1 fails you can also use the mountpoint of the SSD's system volume (e.g. Macintosh HD):
asr restore --source /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD --target target_device_node --erase

I tried to asr blockcopy the CoreStorage source partition (disk0s2) to a target partition with the same size using different methods but all fail with a checksum error. These methods require to modify the partition type of the target partition with gpt afterwards.

A: Here I just put a re-worked version of the Basic Procedure section in the original question. Following the path sketched below solved my issue. You may regard this as a kind of preliminary exercise for a script-based solution. Fame on @klanomath if its useful for you, shame on me if it sounds like gibberish to you.
Basic Procedure
Terminology
source_disk_id
       disk identifier of the Macintosh HD partition
source_device_node
       device node corresponding to the Macintosh HD partition
target_disk_id
       disk identifier of the target partition on the external HD
target_device_node
       device node corresponding to the target partition
target_partition_size
       size of the target partition
       Note: Used on invocation of a command, take care to use an appropriate size specifier.
Processing Steps

*

*Create the target partition that is to contain the bootable clone.

*

*Determine the size of the Macintosh HD partition via
diskutil info source_disk_id.

*Determine the size of the Recovery HD the same way running diskutil info; usually yet another 650 MB.

*We estimate the target partition's size so that the target partition can hold the contents of the Recovery HD as well as that of the Macintosh HD, including free space. This is more or less a precaution to prevent asr restore, later on used, from complaining about missing space.
When the cloning operation will be accomplished, the target partition's size may be reduced running diskutil resizeVolume.

*Now we are ready to create the target partition:
diskutil resizeVolume target_disk_id target_partition_size  JHFS+ FreePartition 0
Note: This works for me because the target disk is maintained such that there is a "remainder partition" with respect to on-disk order. Running the diskutil resizeVolume command then simply cuts off a chunk of disk space from the remainder partition's upper end that shall now be used as the target partition.

*Switch to Recovery Mode

*

*Determine the source_device_node
When we have a look at the CoreStorage Logical Volume Group to which the Macintosh HDbelongs, we have to select the disk identifier of the   associated Logical Volume - in contrast to the Physical Volume.
Note: The partition type of the Physical Volume is Apple_CoreStorage while partition type of the Logical Volume is Apple_HFS, equipped with a JHFS+ file system.
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 9344A028-DD9F-454C-89C0-8E2866E5FBB6
-   ---------------------------------------------------------
Name:         Macintosh HD
Status:       Online
Size:         250140434432 B (250.1 GB)
Free Space:   8921088 B (8.9 MB)
|
+-< Physical Volume EC0BB005-738C-4F32-8B27-BA8801EBC34D
|   ----------------------------------------------------
|   Index:    0
|   Disk:     disk0s2
|   Status:   Online
|   Size:     250140434432 B (250.1 GB)
|
+-> Logical Volume Family A20BC6DA-C477-44B4-82C9-C88B2CB41658
----------------------------------------------------------
Encryption Type:         None
|
+-> Logical Volume 73C52081-F8CF-4C86-93F9-4BBA68602854
    ---------------------------------------------------
    Disk:                  disk2
    Status:                Online
    Size (Total):          249779191808 B (249.8 GB)
    Revertible:            Yes (no decryption required)
    LV Name:               Macintosh HD
    Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
    Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

A somewhat more direct way to determine the boot volume`s device node is just to invoke bless --getBoot, provided it works in your environment.

*Now run

asr restore --source source_device_node --target target_device_node --erase

Invoked this way, asr restore will restore(clone) and verify    both partitions, Macintosh HD as well as Recovery HD.

*Back in Normal Mode, run diskutil rename to assign more meaningful names to the two partitions just "made" by asr restore, something like "my_mbp2015_macintosh_hd_osx10.11.6_yymmdd" and "my_mbp2015_recovery_hd_osx10.11.6_yymmdd" resp.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A couple of months after finding out I was pregnant with Baby boy I knew that I wanted to take the girls somewhere for a little family break before Baby boy arrived. My partner agreed and we went ahead and looked at a few places before deciding. In the end we decided to visit Llanelli and Cardiff down South Wales. We stayed in Llanelli one night and in Cardiff for one night but spent two days there before heading back home.
Before heading down to South Wales we took a look at where we could visit whilst we were down there but Cardiff was a last minute decision and we were lucky to still find an affordable and reasonably priced hotel in the centre. We kind of knew what we could do on the first day in Cardiff but the second time we went around asking the staff at the hotel where we could visit with children and somewhere that was cheap.
All together we ended up visiting Pembrey Park in Llanelli, Cardiff Bay and Sain Ffagans in Cardiff. We really enjoyed ourselves there and the girls most importantly, really enjoyed themselves. It's something we all can remember and look back at in a few years when we look back at what things we did as a family of 4 before baby boy arrived.
Having a budget is quite important when you go on holiday as a family but also making sure you have that extra cash just in case you need or want an extra night somewhere just like we did when we visited South Wales. With a budget you need to find an affordable and reasonable priced place to stay. There are many places to stay around the UK and there are different kinds of ways to spend your holiday, such as, camping, staying in a hotel or even a caravan.
When you have found a place to stay, it may be best to take a look at what kind of things there are to do around and in the area. Again, this could help your budget. You can find out about things to do in certain areas by looking at leaflets and online. When you have planned about how you are going to spend your holiday and what you are going to do then you should have a rough idea on what to pack.
Halfords have done an online camping guide to help you plan your break away. With many information on tourist hotspots, camping checklist, which tent to buy, tip and much more.
Good timing as I am considering a short UK trip. Wales looks lovely.
I have planned 2 trips for this year. Need to plan a few mini vacays too.
Brilliant article! Now I know where we will spend our romantic holidays! Jack and I will hire quality paper writers for finishing our study a little bit earlier.


Increasing your success while hunting doesn't necessarily have to decrease your savings account. The perfect example of that is the Neos series. This is the perfect scope for those who want quality and features all while staying on a budget. The Neos has an impressive list of features and is designed and built to endure. It has a one piece aluminum tube. The lenses are Fully Multi Coated. Finally some of the models even have the latest side parallax focus technology. What about the cost? Let's just say the scope isn't the only thing that looks good, but still with optics, ruggedness and precision.
Aircraft Grade Aluminum - Aircraft Grade Aluminum provide extra strength and durability to handle the toughest terrain and offers lifetime of use.
Nitrogen Purged - Nitrogen purging dramatically reduces the moisture inside the tube and helps maintaining fogproof and waterproof.


text:
Budget, Taxation & Economy, Education
The Leandro long game: How the Left has weaponized a 27-year-old court case
The new Comprehensive Remedial Plan to comply with the Leandro ruling lacks critical details for how its measures would provide all public school children a sound basic education
It includes costly bureaucratic and noninstructional spending recommendations from WestEd, a California-based educational consultant firm, and Gov. Roy Cooper's Commission on Access to Sound Basic Education
Democrats and activists are pressuring the Republican-led General Assembly to adopt these expensive proposals — or the judge to force them despite the constitutional separation of powers
Expect to hear the word "Leandro" much more in the months ahead, as advocacy groups and activists attempt to use the courts to engineer an end-run around voters and elected legislators to score a massive payday for public schools.
In 1994, a group of parents filed a lawsuit that would be known as Leandro v. State of North Carolina. The case centers on the constitutional requirement that the state provide an opportunity for all public school children to receive a "sound basic education." It remains active today thanks to a decision by the NC Supreme Court to remand the case to a lower court indefinitely. For years, Superior Court Judge Howard Manning monitored the state's compliance with the ruling. Judge Manning retired in 2015, and Judge David Lee was appointed to take his place.
In 2017, the plaintiffs and defendants agreed to allow an independent consultant to advise Judge Lee on how to proceed. They selected California-based consulting firm WestEd to recommend an action plan, which they delivered in December 2019. The Comprehensive Remedial Plan, delivered to the court on the Ides of March, stabs taxpayers in the front by drawing on costly recommendations in both the WestEd report and Gov. Roy Cooper's Commission on Access to Sound Basic Education.
A few shortcomings of the Comprehensive Remedial Plan
Despite being billed as a "comprehensive" plan, the recent report submitted to Judge Lee lacks critical details about the measures purported to meet the constitutional requirement to provide all children an "opportunity for a sound basic education." Moreover, it would cause spending on non-classroom personnel to surge by at least $1 billion by 2028, the final year of this initial plan. Finally, it includes no input from the one entity that the North Carolina State Constitution tasks with collecting and spending tax dollars: the North Carolina General Assembly.
Of the dozens of recommendations included in the plan, 17 action items have no cost estimate included. Instead, the report authors write that the cost estimates "will be determined on the basis of a study, analysis, or pilot implementation." For example, the plan sets aside over $232 million for teacher and instructional support staff salaries in fiscal year (FY) 2022 and over $354 million in FY 2023. A $200,000 wage comparability study would determine how much to pay teachers starting in FY 2024. If the researchers contracted for the wage study conclude that teacher and instructional support staff salaries are not comparable with those of other professions, then taxpayers could be on the hook for billions more through FY 2028.
Other items simply add to our state's education bureaucracy. For example, one action item is to spend $400,000 annually to support a new Office of Equity Affairs at the NC Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI). The stated purpose of this office is to "direct the recruitment and retention of a diverse educator workforce." On its face, it may be a worthy goal, but there is ample reason to doubt the capacity of a handful of high-paid bureaucrats in Raleigh to achieve it.
Even worse, the report calls on the state to increase funding for central office staff "to ensure sufficient funding to implement the reforms necessary to provide all students with a sound basic education." The total estimated yearly cost of adding central office Leandro czars would reach $58.7 million by FY 2028.
And the spending spree on non-classroom personnel would not end there. Additional funding for noninstructional support staff (child nutrition, transportation, and maintenance personnel) would eventually add $80.5 million to the state budget each year. Funds for a Career and Postsecondary Planning Director at NC DPI and Career Development Coordinators in middle and high schools across the state would necessitate annual expenditures exceeding $106 million when fully implemented. Over $743 million would be required to hire thousands of specialized instructional support personnel (SISP), including school counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists.
A Leandro advocacy campaign is underway
Democratic elected officials, the NC Association of Educators, and public school advocacy organizations are investing significant resources into a public awareness campaign designed to pressure the Republican-led General Assembly into adopting the Comprehensive Remedial Plan recommendations. If lawmakers refuse to do so, Leandro enthusiasts hope that Judge Lee will spurn the separation of powers and try to compel them to spend the money through a court dictate. The next court hearing in the case will occur in April or May.
True to form, Cooper's state budget recommendations declare that he "is committed to pursuing the policy and programmatic changes outlined in the [Comprehensive Remedial] Plan and to providing the resources necessary to achieve the actions in the Plan over the next biennium and in future fiscal years." That commitment included over $1.5 billion in additional state education spending and hundreds of millions more in federal coronavirus aid dollars.
The next step is for the Republican leadership in the General Assembly to unveil their proposed budget for the biennium, which likely will reject the governor's irresponsible spending recommendations and focus spending on research-based programs that raise student achievement.


text:
Minnesota United coach Adrian Heath impressed with Austin FC's buildup to MLS
Matthew McConaughey, center, jokes as Dell President and Chief Commercial Officer Marius Haas, left, and Austin FC CEO Anthony Precourt laugh during an Austin FC investor ceremony in August.
— TNS - TNS
Gift this Article Anyone can read, no subscription required
By Jerry Zgoda, Star Tribune
See more of the story
When Adrian Heath left England to spread soccer's gospel in America 13 years ago, he arrived in Austin, Texas, seeking to build the best minor league team in his new country.
He spent just two seasons managing the Austin Aztex before he and the club relocated to Orlando, but while there he dropped the seeds for a Major League Soccer expansion team that played its third game ever Saturday at Allianz Field.
Disillusioned and angry after he lost his Coventry City FC coaching job back home, he accepted an invitation from Phil Rawlins — a former part-owner and director for his and Heath's hometown Stoke City team in England — to come to Texas. That's where Rawlins lived at the time and developed a tech sales and marketing company.
"Build the club completely from the bottom," Heath said about the plan. "It went very well."
It went so well, Heath and Rawlins soon set their sights on moving up to MLS. They moved the team and their families in 2010 to Orlando, a market more ready for Major League Soccer.
"At that particular time, Austin wasn't a viable option for us," Heath said. "If we could have done it, we probably would have."
Orlando City made its MLS debut with Heath as coach in 2015. He was hired in November 2016 to coach Minnesota United after Orlando City fired him the summer before.
All these years later, Heath remains a University of Texas sports fan and a believer in Austin now as a MLS market. He remembers bars crowded with fans watching the 2010 World Cup from South Africa.
Austin FC was fast-tracked as a MLS expansion franchise that played its first game two weeks ago, with a 2-0 loss at Los Angeles FC. It scored three goals in 12 second-half minutes last week to win 3-1 at Colorado. It has new Q2 Stadium set to open, and actor Matthew McConaughey is a part owner.
"We always thought the market was very, very good," Heath said. "At that particular time, it wasn't an option for us. But I'm pleased. It's a great town and I have a lot of really good friends still there.
He knows Austin FC sporting director Claudio Reyna, a renowned former U.S. men's national team member who played in Europe and later was sporting director for New York City FC.
Austin FC arrived at Allianz Field on Saturday with one more victory than the 0-2 Loons had to start their season.
"I know Claudio very well and I know a lot of the people who support the club," Heath said. "I'm pleased they got theirs and I think they're going to do very, very well. Claudio has done it before in New York City. It doesn't surprise me they put a really good product together in a year's time."
Wanchope starts
Newly signed striker Ramon "Wanchope" Abila made his first start as a Loon in a lineup of 11 that had several changes.
Right-side attacker Robin Lod didn't play because of a chest injury, so versatile Hassani Dotson started on the left wing in a role where Heath planned to drop hm back to play with Wil Trapp and Ozzie Alonso, who were paired together to start in a defensive midfield for the first time.
Ethan Finlay moved back to the right side on the other side of star playmaker Emanuel Reynoso in the middle.
Jan Gregus moved to a substitute spot. Jukka Raitala started for injured Bakaye Dibassy (thigh) for a second consecutive game.
Trialist midfielder Aziel Jackson, acquired Friday from New York Red Bulls, was in uniform as a sub, as were young Justin McMaster and Patrick Weah.
Sticking with St. Clair
Goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair started his third consecutive game to start the season despite his team getting outscored 6-1 in its first two games.
"I can't really think, if I'm being honest, were there's one you can put on Dayne now," Heath said. "We left him out to dry on a couple of them. Last week, I don't think we could blame the keeper for the two goals."
Next in Sports
Fleury making saves, dropping jaws as milestone chase continues
With Twins signing Correa for six years, Lewis might switch positions
Great eight: Gophers pound Michigan State to open series at Mariucci
Loons are fit for first time this season, Heath says
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There's no doubt about the fact that mobile computing is becoming the new paradigm. I have resisted the shift to mobile computing mainly due to concerns about "security". But lately I feel rather like King Canute ... It seems resistance is useless. But I would still like to pay attention to "security".
My first real smart phone was a Samsung Galaxy S II. I had waited several years before rushing out and getting on the smartphone bandwagon. And even though the iPhone looks like a very well-designed and reliable product, there are several trends in Apple's system architecture which appear to be rather totalitarian. And the Samsung Galaxy S II seemed to be a very good product.
One of my gripes about using the mobile phone interface is the speed of data entry. I had found this earlier with (not so smart) phone keypads as I tried to enter text messages. I am used to using a full QWERTY keyboard and I can type at a moderate speed, so I find the phone keypad quite restrictive. Even though the Samsung has a relatively large QWERTY keyboard ... And it can be made even larger by tilting it to landscape orientation, I still found the interface cramped and tedious. However with a little practice it becomes easier to use a one finger tapping style of data entry. When I started using the Galaxy S II, the predictive typing and spell correction was switched off. This is a good setting to begin with. However, once you become more confident the word completion algorithm can make life a lot easier. Provided of course you can find it ... It's called XT9 ... And you'll find it in the Settings.
The best features of the Galaxy S II are the integration with Google services. If you have a Gmail account the Samsung phone will quickly discover your contacts, documents, picassa images, emails etc.
If you choose to store your contacts in Gmail and then start calling or texting any of those people, you can match phone numbers with existing contacts. The interface is seamless and unobtrusive.
I found that after becoming more familiar with the device I could enter text by tilting it to landscape mode and using both thumbs to tap on the mini QWERTY keyboard. It was still way slower than a real keyboard.
Although the interface is mostly intuitive there are some actions that aren't obvious and must be discovered by trial and error or by a well constructed Google search. For example, I easily discovered the bookmarks bar in the default browser (tap the star at the top of the page in the mobile version of Chrome -- make sure that you are at the top by scrolling up). And it was easy to find out how to add bookmarks and change the order (it's in the options menu). But I struggled to discover the delete option ... Eventually I worked out that if I held a bookmark (rather than tapping it) another menu popped up which gave me the options of editing or deleting the item.
Of course experienced smart phone users already know that there is considerable difference between tapping and holding items on smart phone GUI, but I had to discover this for myself.
The memo app (presumably supplied by Samsung?) seemed a handy little application which offered an option to sync with "Google Docs". However, although the synchronisation from Google Docs is excellent, sometimes the synchronisation to Google Docs seemed to be patchy (perhaps this was some weird sort of time-zone thing?). Also the Samsung memo app seems to forget your Google login after a while.
There several things I wanted to do. Of course the first was to use a local Internet connection and the second was to connect the phone to a computer. I soon came to the conclusion that the easiest way to connect to the phone was via a wireless connection. You can use a wired connection to utilise the phone as a storage device. But more comprehensive PC Studio type software is a little more difficult to install on a Linux workstation ... This will have to be a future project.
Up until recently I have avoided wireless. My main concerns are security Most laptops include an ethernet port and all the workstations use ethernet. There has been a few niggling things that have been difficult for domestic purposes ... Hand-held devices such as the PSP, or Nintendo DS have been built for wireless.
The Samsung S II like other mobile devices, assumes that there will be a wireless access point. So I decided to get a wireless router. I was rather wary of purchasing a device. Because I have found that getting devices (such as modems) to work with Linux can be difficult ... I decided to choose a that that had a reputation of working well with open source software. NetGear have just such a reputation. Many of their products use Linux kernels and they usually include open interfaces with them. There is a wide range of NetGear wireless modems ... I chose the N150 as the best compromise between price and performance. Although, after using it for a while, I regret that I did not one of the better models. The N150 does seem to struggle if there are several mobile devices connected to it.
I wanted to setup the router behind my existing firewall ... And I did note that the setup manual recommended that I should not do this. (see Page 12 of the N150 Manual) ... I ignored this advice.
The biggest challenge I faced was getting the router to a stage where I could connect to it with Firefox. The setup disk that ships with the router only works with Microsoft Windows. If you want to configure the router manually, it must have a route to the Internet. The router had one Internet port and four local ports. I connected the Internet to my LAN and made a note of the address that it obtained from the DHCP server and setup the rules in the firewall for the address it obtained. I then tried connecting a laptop to the router ... Sadly, I did not write down the exact sequence of steps involved in this. But it was difficult! I had to disconnect and reconnect various cables ... Eventually I was able to connect to the router with Firefox with the default admin login admin/password at http://10.0.0.1/. I configured the router to use a static address (on the Internet side) and I enabled Remote Management.
Of course, since the router was behind a firewall, remote management of the router could only be carried out from workstations on the LAN. As an extra precaution, I restricted remote access to a range of known workstations. I then restarted the router.
Once I was able to connect to the router from a workstation I fine-tuned the settings and configured to it automatically obtain its network settings (apart from IP address) from the network DHCP server.
The first thing I wanted to do was connect my Samsung mobile phone to the Internet. However, in light of the many well-publicised vulnerabilities in wireless network protocols, I decided to concentrate my initial efforts on security. The NetGear router includes the option of a push button wireless PIN. This requires a button to pushed on both the access point and the device. This certainly seemed easy, however the drawback is that devices that do not support the push-button method can slip through the cracks. I decided to use the wireless access list option (which can be found in the Advanced Wireless Settings option. This option was simple and direct. It would restrict access to a nominated table of Mac Addresses. As long as the access list is enabled the wireless will only talk to devices that have an entry on the table.
In order to build the access list, I followed this procedure for each device.
Uncheck the box that says Turn Access Control On (in the Wireless Card Access List).
Connect the new device to router.
Get the Mac address of the new device from the Attached Devices list in the Maintenance group.
Add the Mac address Wireless Card Access List, along with a description of the device.
Check the box that says Turn Access Control On.
Compared to the relatively easy method of pressing a button on both devices, this does seem to involve considerably more effort. However for a small site, there are probably only a dozen wireless devices. And as new devices come along it is quite easy to add them using the above procedure. Also not all wireless devices support the push button method of access. The Access list method is secure and easy to understand.
The perl script has a copy of the access list (basically just Mac address and description) separated by tabs. It turns the emails into a human readable log (substituting device name for Mac address) and adjusts the time to local time (the NetGear N150 uses GMT by default).
Whenever a Mac address turns up in the log, or an event that the script does not recognise shows up, the watcher scripts sends an alert to my mobile phone. This basically closes the loop and means that I can feel confident that only authorised devices have access to the wireless router.
The NetGear N150 is capable of running two networks simultaneously. There is the primary network and a "guest" network. This allows you to use different security settings for the two networks. I set up the primary network as WEP and the secondary (guest) network as WPA2-PSK [AES]. This was because earlier Nintendo DS devices (such as the DS lite and the DSi) seem to only work with WEP. The more recent Nintendo 3DS does recognise WPA2, however I setup it up with WEP because all the other Nintendo DS devices were already working with WEP.
The wireless network is setup as 10.0.0/24. The office LAN uses 192.168.1/24. The Wireless Network has to access the Internet via the firewall (which connects the LAN to the Universe).
Oct 22 11:06:53 host kernel: [52152.723981] Neighbour table overflow.
A little reading revealed that this is usually caused by too many addresses in the originating network ... This seemed to suggest that the Windows laptop might be sending Martian packets ... (Eek!) I removed the laptop Mac address from the authorised list and told the owner that I regretted that I could not allow them access to my networks with that device ... Of course, I could say with all due humility, that if a Windows computer is sending Martian packets, I am ninety-nine point nine nine nine nine percent confident about what might be causing the problem. If you encounter similar problems with your Linux firewall you might also be able to work out what the problem is but you might have to explain it slowly.