text:
An Extraordinary Union: An Epic Love Story of the Civil War
by Alyssa Cole Alyssa Cole
Buy Online, Pick up in Store , Jezebel, Vulture, Book Riot, Entertainment Weekly, and various other outlets. When she's not working, she can often be found watching anime with her husband or wrangling their menagerie of animals. Visit her online at www.https://alyssacole.com/
An Extraordinary Union
By Alyssa Cole
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
Copyright © 2017 Alyssa Cole
January 1862 Richmond, Virginia
"No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck."
The tract of text popped into Elle's mind as she tried to remain calm in the face of yet another indignity. She surely hoped Mr. Douglass was right; she had to believe he was, or else she would give in to the angry fantasies that plagued her every time she was forced into the presence of her mistress. She still had half a mind to dump the steaming cup of tea in her hands directly onto Susie Caffrey's damned head, but that wouldn't have been acceptable even when she was a freedwoman. Besides, as much as Susie chafed her hide, she was a sight less painful to deal with than the sting of a leather strap.
Still, it was mighty tempting, especially as the young woman lounged on the chaise in the mansion's parlor, issuing orders like a tyrant and flipping through a scandal sheet detailing the goings-on of the Richmond elite. The gossip rags were Susie's obsession, as if the fact that her father was a newly elected Confederate senator and war raged on their very doorstep weren't excitement enough. She read them in the guise of doing her duty for the Richmond Vigilance Committee, a group that played at spy hunting but relied on belligerence and wild guesses to control their fellow citizens.
Elle briefly allowed herself the fantasy of the dark brew dripping down over the chit's ridiculous frilly hat, savored the possibility of destroying Susie's perfectly set curls and staining the beautiful blue silk gown she wore. It would almost be worth it, just for the memory. Remembering everything that she saw and heard was Elle's specialty, and there were a rare few things caught in the steel trap of her mind that brought her pleasure of late.
A pair of pale fingers snapped in front of her face, pulling her from her reverie.
"You're dumb, but I know you're not deaf," Susie drawled. "Now I see how the tea went cold in the first place, with you lollygagging about like you don't have work to do. I said take it away." Susie's eyes were a warm hazel that could have been kind, but she narrowed them like a grimalkin at Elle before returning her attention to her frivolous newspaper.
You're a slave now, Elle reminded herself of LaValle's words as she turned and marched out of the parlor and down the high-ceilinged hallway lined with marble statuary and exquisite paintings. The two cornrowed plaits she used to tame her thick curls bounced against her shoulders, propelled by the force of her stride. You'll do as you're told and you won't give them any sass. Too much depends on this. That command stuck in her craw, though. Instead, she thought of Sun Tzu's advice for luring an enemy into defeat: "Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate."
Yes, that was much more to her liking.
Elle repeated the words as she took the "cold" tea that Susie had rejected and returned to the kitchen, nearly scalding herself when it slopped over the rim of the delicate china cup and onto her hand. She bit back an exclamation — it wouldn't do for her to be shouting in the kitchen, or for her to make any noise at all. She had a role to play.
She slowed her angry pace — it wouldn't do to break any dishes, either. The last thing she needed was to call attention to herself. Despite her sour mood, she gave a friendly nod to Mary, the head of the household slaves, as she entered the hot kitchen. Mary's small, rounded nose and wide cheekbones marked her as a slave, although her skin was barely darker than Susie's — the color of fresh milk with the slightest dash of rich cocoa added for taste.
"She sent it back again?" Mary asked, glancing in the direction of the parlor before rolling her eyes. "Lord, Li'l Bit. Not that Miss Susie was an angel before, but she been pure devil since you showed up. She always finding something to get on you about! I shoulda warned you she was in a mood today."
Elle couldn't help but smile when Mary addressed her by her nickname. It made her feel like she belonged, despite the fact that she was at the mansion under false pretenses. "You a li'l bit too small and a li'l bit too dark, but you still pretty all the same," Mary had told her when she first arrived. "Best be careful around Marse Caffrey and his friends."
Mary moved around the kitchen, deftly navigating between the chaos of cooks and liveried slaves preparing for the arrival of Senator Caffrey and his guests. Elle followed close behind her, like Mary's noontime shadow — shorter, darker, and totally silent. Although she paid attention to everything Mary said, she was also observing the other slaves, listening to snippets of their conversations in case someone shared something they'd overheard from the Caffreys and their guests.
Despite her heavy workload, Mary had taken Elle under her wing upon her arrival. The other slaves had quickly grown tired of having to explain things to the mute woman who seemed unable to do the simplest tasks with efficiency, but Mary had worked with Elle until she grew accustomed to her place in the household. And if Mary found it strange that Elle always wanted to do work that kept her in the presence of Senator Caffrey and his compatriots, or in his office while he was away from it, she didn't say anything about it.
"As if tea come cheap these days," Mary continued, taking the cup from Elle's hands. She blew carefully and then took a quick sip. "The stuff is scarce as hen's teeth! Men risk their necks smuggling past the Yank blockade, and this little fool think nothing of throwing it out like the wash water. I swear, that girl ain't worth more than a fart in a whirlwind."
Mary took Susie's laissez-faire attitude about the blockade personally. Her husband, Robert, was a slave, too, and a respected river pilot who was sought after by every captain on the James. He was hired out to different men, getting to keep a sliver of each fee paid to his master. During their short visits, he told Mary the particulars of how the upper classes were obtaining smuggled luxuries like tea and sugar, despite the Union blockade, while most struggled to get the bare essentials. Occasionally, he'd been forced to smuggle the goods himself. It galled him to help sustain those who fought for the continuation of slavery, but a slave, especially a hired-out slave with a wife working in a senator's mansion, was in no position to turn down a demand from Davis's army. Besides, every coin he earned brought him and Mary closer to buying their freedom.
Mary stormed over to the cask that had been filled to the brim with coffee beans when Elle arrived but was now perilously close to empty. "Oh, good Lord, and coffee is even worse than tea. Nearly fifty-five cents a pound! Missus is going to have my head. Maybe I should try that chicory mix folk been using...." Mary receded into her thoughts, obviously calculating where and how and from whom she could obtain what product at what price, and what would be lost in the bargain. With the war waging all around them, supplies were tight and tempers were short. Yet Mary had to keep the house running like there wasn't a blockade, or face the repercussions.
"I know it's dead wrong, but when the missus get on me about how stringy the roast is or how the potatoes is spoiled, I wish Abe would just recall his navy and lift the blockade," Mary confided, her dark eyes weary. "Ain't that a shame? They say the man's thinking of freeing us and all I can worry about is what missus gonna hound me about next."
Elle gave the woman's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and Mary patted Elle's hand in thanks before grabbing a pile of napkins to fold. "As for Susie, she's all a tizzy because her daddy's bringing home some Reb come down from Maryland. Said he's carrying news from them sneaky Baltimore secesh, who smile in Lincoln's face and then plot against him behind closed doors."
Elle's hand went to her throat at the mention of Baltimore, but she caught herself before she touched the thick scar there. What mattered was that she'd recovered from the injury, although her inability to talk after her injury had given LaValle the brilliant idea of having her pose as mute. It would keep her sharp tongue from ruining the sensitive arrangement of working in a target's home; if she couldn't talk, she couldn't place herself and other operatives in danger. She understood that there was a kernel of punishment in the order, too; payback for one terse rejoinder too many. Her mama always did say her smart mouth would get her into trouble one day.
Mary continued. "Marse got stuck waiting for a ferry with the fella and think he's the best thing since Moses parted the Red Sea. He been lonely since we moved out here for the Congress, you know. Funny, since there are so many more people here than back on the plantation."
It was amazing how much information, both business and personal, people bandied about freely in front of their slaves. Elle didn't know why it still surprised her — after all, it was why she had been assigned that particular mission — but each fresh realization incited a confusing mixture of both glee and contempt. She felt a flicker of excitement, too, this time. This new friend of the senator's might be useful. New sources of information always meant the possibility of learning something that could help stamp out the rebellion for good.
Mary prattled on about the goings-on in the house, unaware that Elle was pondering things like the fate of their nation. "This fella better be careful, though — Miss Susie ain't had a beau with the men all going off to fight, and she's ready to sink her claws into anybody. He could be a dried-up old prune, long as he's not married, and maybe even if he is."
Elle nearly opened her mouth to concur, then shut it tightly, instead giving Mary a wry smile and rolling her eyes. Being a slave again after so many years of freedom in the North was hard enough, even if it was just an act; the additional subterfuge of being a mute slave was an added difficulty.
Damned LaValle and his ridiculous ideas.
"Go on and make sure the table is set right," Mary said as she turned back to her work. "Last thing I need is the missus hounding me about a soup spoon or bread plate out of place. You remember how the settings go?"
Elle nodded. Remembering minutiae was her raison d'être, but of course Mary wouldn't be privy to that.
She headed into the dining room to double-check the place settings. As she worked, she wondered what news this Reb brought with him from Baltimore. Plenty of secessionists had remained in the city instead of fleeing south, and they used their connections to garner information for the Confederacy. The information she'd provided to Biddle had taken down a politician and his underlings; further proof that treachery within the Union reached to its very highest levels. If this new man was carrying information from Baltimore that could supplement the information already preserved in Elle's memory, this stranger could prove to be very valuable, indeed.
Sunlight streamed into the dining room, highlighting the finery — the satin finish of the patterned wallpaper, the large walnut table that had been polished until it shone. Light glinted off of the silverware, accenting the fine china at each setting. Elle thought of her own dwelling in Richmond: one tiny, shabby room in a home for hired-out slaves with a bed barely fit for a barn animal. And it was a damned luxury compared to what other slaves, the ones who worked the land from morning to night with no reward, called home. And this was what the South fought to maintain.
Elle darted out a hand to adjust a small plate that hung precariously on the edge of the table, but her angry musings turned what should have been a gentle prod into a forceful nudge. The plate flew off of the edge of the table, hovering in the air for a moment suspended in time before her hand shot out and caught it. She gripped the plate to her chest, surprised that her wildly beating heart didn't tap out a tune on the ceramic. A broken plate was a punishable offense — Missus Caffrey was very particular about her household, and Elle didn't want to invite her wrath in addition to Susie's constant harassment. She laid the plate down, gently this time.
"You move quicker than a spring-loaded cat." It was a masculine voice that made the ridiculous observation, deep and smooth and tinged with a lilt that spoke of shores far from Richmond somewhere in its past. There was something familiar in the voice that slipped around Elle like the velvet lining of her favorite cloak on a cold New England day.
She whirled and found herself facing an expanse of gray: a Rebel uniform stretched over a wide chest. Broad shoulders and strong arms filled the rest of the jacket, and when she looked up, warm gray eyes stared down into hers. Not gray — a stunning silvery blue that would have been enhanced by the uniform of whichever side he had chosen in this terrible war. Jet-black hair hung over his ears, complemented by sideburns that were just a bit overlong and shot through with streaks of silver. His face was smooth and unlined, except for the crow's feet that creased the corners of his eyes.
"You put those boys doing drills down at the Central Fairgrounds to shame. Most of them can't even walk straight," he said, his vivid gaze locked on her. "And not a one of them is half as pretty as you."
Heat rushed to her cheeks, unbidden and unwanted. Now that he had spoken more than a few words, Elle could detect the trace of a Scottish accent. She'd heard the accent often enough back home in Massachusetts, and in her current dealings with the grocer MacTavish and his clan of Richmond abolitionists, but it had never made her face heat like a cauldron over a flame. She wasn't sure any man's voice ever had. She was poleaxed, and by a man whose every marking screamed ENEMY!
His rosy lips curved up into a grin as she stared at him, as if their situation were normal. As if he weren't making conversation with a slave, and insinuating conversation at that.
That's when realization set in for Elle. She was alone in a room with a man in a Rebel uniform, and he was smiling at her. Maybe if it had been an innocent grin she would have been less alarmed, but it was the smile of a man who was used to getting his way. She backed away from him, watching his smile recede as quickly as her feet did. After only a few steps, she found herself pressed against the dining table.
He wouldn't ... he couldn't in the dining room, could he? Surely he wouldn't be so brazen? Elle had known that there would be a risk of this, of being taken advantage of by a man who saw her merely as a vessel in which to slake his desire. It could happen anywhere, really, North or South, but in these parts it was something of an institution. The slaves who were barely darker than their masters, like Mary, were proof enough of that.
Her fingers itched to grab one of the sharp utensils behind her, but if she fought him she'd surely be beaten and likely removed from the house. Her compatriots would lose a vital source of information and all might be lost if Senator Caffrey searched too deeply into how she had come to work in his household.
Elle's stomach gave a vicious tumble and she inhaled sharply, as if fresh air could blow away the sickness building in her belly.
Anything for the Union. The rallying cry rang hollow, but she had pledged to serve her country. Elle squared her shoulders and looked the man in the eye, hoping he couldn't see her fear. If he were going to try to ravage her, he'd have to acknowledge her first, dammit. His brows rose in confusion as she held his gaze and then it was he who stepped back, a frown pulling at his mouth as comprehension dawned on him.
"No," he choked out. His jaw was tight and the playful light had gone from his strange, dual-tone eyes. "I would never."
His words were brittle, and it was instantly clear that she had mistaken his intentions. His reaction intrigued her, even as her heart raced from the fright he'd given her. Despite the atrocities they committed against her people, she knew that a Southern man was just as human as she; they were the ones who had trouble coming to terms with that reality. But the deference in the man's tone and the guilt on his face were something she hadn't experienced since arriving in Richmond, and she couldn't help but wonder at it.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole. Copyright © 2017 Alyssa Cole. Excerpted by permission of KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP..
★ 02/20/2017
Opening a series set in the Civil War era, Cole (Mixed Signals) hits all the right notes in this smartly written espionage romance brimming with vivid characterization, heartfelt dialogue, and sensual sweetness. Ellen "Elle" Burns, a sassy freedwoman, and Malcolm McCall, a charming immigrant from Scotland, are both spies committed to using their skills to defeat the Confederacy. Their collaboration is complicated by the sizzling chemistry between them. Elle has given up her freedom to pose as a mute slave in an influential Confederate household, as her photographic memory lets her retain confidential information after just a glance. In the same household, Malcolm claims to be a Confederate soldier, hoping to endear himself to Confederate officials. Their closeness leads to genuine mutual understanding of their private selves and a satisfying intimate relationship. But Elle knows the perils of an interracial romance, and she struggles to trust a man who lies so glibly. Despite their ability to work seamlessly together and their growing belief in a shared future, a risky plan to secure vital information goes awry, threatening the success of the mission—and their lives. Cole's sparkling gem of a romance portrays love at its most practical and sublime; she writes with lyricism, intelligence, and historical accuracy. This fascinating novel is a most welcome addition to the historical romance genre. (Apr.)
Exceptional Praise for The Loyal League Series
"It's gratifying to read a novel that deals so frankly with such issues and takes an unflinching view of the realities of life during the Civil War rather than reiterating the dangerous Lost Cause rhetoric that often colors romance narratives of this era." —Entertainment Weekly on A Hope Divided
"Successfully navigating the challenges of writing an interracial romance set during the Civil War is difficult enough to do once, but to pull it off twice is truly impressive. And yet Cole has managed to do just that with her second book in the series." —Shondaland.com on A Hope Divided
"Thoughtfully portrayed characters with deep minds and passionate hearts make this second novel in Cole's Loyal League series, following An Extraordinary Union (2017), sparkle. Highly recommended for lovers of historical romance." —Booklist, starred review for A Hope Divided
"Alyssa Cole's An Extraordinary Union was one of our favorite spring romances, and this season she returns with the sequel." —Bookish "Autumn's 2017 Most Swoon-Worthy Romance Books" list for A Hope Divided
"An exceptional story that both educates and entertains and beautifully launches a unique series." —Library Journal STARRED REVIEW, Editor's Fall Picks for An Extraordinary Union
"The second book in Cole's Loyal League series (An Extraordinary Union, 2017) follows much the same pattern as the first. Again, Cole's heroine is gorgeously portrayed and powerful enough that readers will worship at her feet just as Ewan does. But if this book shows that Cole is settling into a pattern, readers won't want her to break the mold on book No. 3. Her prose is flawless. Her historical research is absorbing, and her characters are achingly human. This book is fantastic. As the war closes in around them, the line blurs between who is the rescuer and who is the rescued." —Kirkus starred review for A Hope Divided
"Brace yourself for another amazing installment of Cole's The Loyal League series! A Hope Divided features plenty of twists and turns that make Marlie's family secrets as surprising to the reader as they are to her." —RT Book Reviews, 5 Stars Gold for A Hope Divided
"Cole's books are always timely, and yet timeless. She has a solid grounding of how to use history in her plots, and knows exactly what story she wants to tell. I could not put this down, even as some of the characterizations made me squirm in recognition (Marlie's White sister is the ancestor of a lot of white feminism. Like, a lot). I love it when the second book in a series totally exceeds the (very high) expectations of the first book." —Smart Bitches Trashy Books on A Hope Divided
"Cole does the seemingly impossible, using the Civil War as a backdrop for a realistic, gripping interracial romance that interrogates slavery, systemic racism, and more, while still remaining utterly swoon-worthy." —Entertainment Weekly on An Extraordinary Union, Top 10 Romances of 2017
"Cole deftly interweaves the fraught realities of American history with romance and adventure — this is a spy story, after all — and it is elegantly told." —Vulture.com on An Extraordinary Union
"The first installment in Cole's Loyal League series defies genre stereotypes at every turn. It's both a romance and a spy novel, with a healthy dose of adventure thrown in, and it offers a nuanced portrayal of Civil War–era racial politics. Any reader who thinks romance novels are pure fluff will be schooled by Cole's richly drawn characters, who must overcome generations of trauma in order to let themselves love each other." —Kirkus starred review on An Extraordinary Union
"Cole's sparkling gem of a romance portrays love at its most practical and sublime." —Publishers Weekly starred review, BEST BOOKS OF 2017 on An Extraordinary Union
"Cole spins a tale that will pull you in from the very first page." —RT Book Reviews *five star* Top Pick review on An Extraordinary Union
"In the first installment in what should be a spectacular new series, Cole opens her adventurous historical romance at the beginning of the American Civil War." —Booklist starred review Top 10 Romance Fiction: 2017 on An Extraordinary Union
"Cole's Civil War-set romance boasts one of the most delightfully, unapologetically powerful heroines in recent memory. Elle Burns quotes The Art of War in between dodging Confederate bullets, and by the end of An Extraordinary Union, readers are just as smitten with her as her adoring love interest is." —BookPage 10 Best Romance Novels of 2017 on An Extraordinary Union
"Alyssa Cole in any situation is magic, and from what I've heard from advance readers it's going to change the face of historical romance." —BookRiot Best Books of 2017 (So Far) on An Extraordinary Union
"With projects like WGN America's Underground, Cole's lively novel—besides being an enjoyable romance full of adventure and extremely good lust—is therefore part of a long-overdue pushback against the way historical fiction portrays this seminal moment in American history." —Jezebel on An Extraordinary Union
"A compelling and engrossing historical civil war romance between two spies, a free black woman and a Scottish immigrant that leaves you spellbound." —Huffington Post on An Extraordinary Union
"With its richly detailed setting, heart-stopping plot, and unforgettable characters, An Extraordinary Union is everything you can ask from historical fiction. Alyssa Cole has taken an unforgettable hero, a uniquely resourceful heroine, and mixed them together for some truly combustible chemistry. Brava!" —Deanna Raybourn, New York Times bestselling author on An Extraordinary Union
"Alyssa Cole's AN EXTRAORDINARY UNION is as extraordinary as the title suggests—riveting, romantic, and utterly remarkable." —Courtney Milan, New York Times bestselling author on An Extraordinary Union
"Alyssa Cole is just a wonderful storyteller, and she's fast become one of my auto-buy authors. An Extraordinary Union is the perfect blend of history, adventure, and heart-stopping romance, with a courageous heroine you'll love and a hero you'll fall in love with. I read it in a single sitting, and my heart wants to go on living with these characters." —Susanna Kearsley, New York Times bestselling author on An Extraordinary Union
"Alyssa Cole's An Extraordinary Union is the first in what promises to be a riveting series." —Heroes and Heartbreakers on An Extraordinary Union
With her eidetic memory and quick wit, Elle Burns, a Northern freedwoman and part of the Loyal League, is the perfect spy for the Union Army. Now a mute "slave" in the home of an influential Southern senator, Elle is shocked when her latest contact turns out to be the handsome Confederate soldier pretending to pay court to the senator's spoiled daughter. But Malcolm McCall is no Johnny Reb; he's a Scot by birth and a Pinkerton detective on a mission for the Union. When he and Elle learn of plans to break the Union blockade, they join forces in a perilous race against time to see the plot foiled. Based in part on historical characters and events, this carefully composed tale envisages aspects of the Civil War often overlooked. VERDICT Courageous, passionate protagonists fight for justice, freedom, and the right to love in an exceptional story that both educates and entertains and beautifully launches a unique series. Cole (Mixed Signals) lives in the Caribbean.
★ 2017-01-23
A spy posing as a slave in Civil War Virginia risks her own life and the outcome of the war by falling in love with a fellow spy of another race.After being freed from slavery as a child, Ellen "Elle" Burns has one purpose. She is "going to help destroy the Confederacy." But to do that, she has to do something she never imagined possible—pose as an enslaved woman on loan to a family of spoiled whites. Her "masters" are living the high life in spite of a punishing Union blockade that's causing widespread suffering and starvation in Richmond, Virginia. Elle's photographic memory makes her extremely valuable to the Loyal League, a network of black spies working to undermine the Confederacy. But her careful work is thrown into disarray by the arrival of Malcolm McCall, a detective in the Pinkerton network who is posing as a Confederate soldier paying social visits to the household where Elle works. Malcolm is a skilled spy and a good person, but Elle has a hard time bringing herself to trust a glib and charming white man whose job requires him to be a gifted liar. Little by little Malcolm wins her over, but the painful racial dynamics around them threaten to poison their relationship. Malcolm must treat Elle as less than human in front of others while convincing her in private that he values her as highly as any white woman. The first installment in Cole's (Mixed Signals, 2015, etc.) Loyal League series defies genre stereotypes at every turn. It's both a romance and a spy novel, with a healthy dose of adventure thrown in, and it offers a nuanced portrayal of Civil War-era racial politics. Any reader who thinks romance novels are pure fluff will be schooled by Cole's richly drawn characters, who must overcome generations of trauma in order to let themselves love each other. A masterful tale that bodes well for future work from Cole.


text:
More Self-Defense Gun Stories
Submitted by: Robert Morse
Website: http://www.selfdefensegunstories.com/
Responsible gun owners defended themselves, but you didn't hear it in the news. Instructor Amanda Suffecool talks about three recent examples with Rob Morse.
First story- You�re parking your car in front of a clothing store. That�s when a stranger jumps through the open passenger window. He shouts for you to get out of your car.
Second story- Your mom�s ex boyfriend is choking your her. Your older sister is trying to pull them apart, but it isn't working.
Third story- A stranger breaks through your screen porch and then breaks the glass in your back door. You yell for him to stop, but he enters your home. You're armed.
What should you do in these situations? Text and podcast available at the link. (15 minutes)
MI: Assault rifle stolen from Michigan State Police trooper in Detroit
Submitted by: Corey Salo
Michigan State Police are searching for an assault rife that was stolen from a trooper's vehicle near Detroit's Eastern Market.
There is an active search for the weapon and state police do not want to release any information because they say it could jeopardize the investigation.
Sources tell Local 4 that the M-4 assault rifle was taken from an unmarked Michigan State Police vehicle and that the officer was not in uniform.
It happened near the intersection of Gratiot Avenue and Riopelle Street.
The officer stopped at Louie's Ham & Corned Beef for lunch and when he came back out, the rear passenger window was smashed and the weapon was gone.
Students discuss safety in the wake of Tibbetts' death
Tibbetts' hometown of 1,400 people seemed like an unlikely place for a murder to take place. But experts warn violence can happen anywhere.
College student Meredith Larsen told 6 News being aware of your surroundings is your best defense. It�s something she learned from a self-defense trainer last year. She says it helps her stay aware while walking to her night class.
NJ: NJ Insurance Regulators Targeting NRA-Backed Policies
New Jersey insurance regulators have launched an investigation of gun-owner policies promoted by the National Rifle Association, alleging that they are not licensed in the state.
In a statement released Tuesday night, Gov. Phil Murphy said the state Department of Banking and Insurance is investigating the marketing and sale of the insurance policies.
NY: Court overturns Carlson manslaughter conviction
An appellate court has thrown out the manslaughter conviction of a Deerpark man who fatally shot a fugitive wanted on rape charges in 2013.
David Carlson was indicted on a murder charge, and convicted after trial of first-degree manslaughter in the Oct. 11, 2013 shooting of Norris Acosta-Sanchez. He and his lawyer argued that he acted in self-defense.
The decision issued Wednesday by the Appellate Division, Second Department of state Supreme Court throws out the November 2016 trial verdict and grants Carlson a new trial on the manslaughter charge.
AK: Self defense and �stand your ground� laws in Alaska
To better understand this law, we welcome James Fayette, a senior trial attorney at the Anchorage District Attorney�s Office. In 2012 and 2013, Fayette testified before the Alaska Legislature against the so-called �stand your ground� amendment to Alaska law � a law which eliminated the �duty to retreat� as a requirement prior to use of deadly force.
Safety Expert Says Best Self-Defense Move is To Act First If You Feel Unsafe In A Situation
Investigators said 20 year-old Iowa resident Mollie Tibbetts warned the suspect who allegedly killed her to stay back and leave her alone, or else she would call 9-1-1. One safety expert says those who feel they may be in danger should take it a step further.
Jason Weber, the public safety coordinator at NWTC who has also worked in law enforcement, said if you are approached by person whose intentions seem suspicious, don't wait for them to make the first move.
KS: Lawrence woman turning attack into action
The tragic death of Mollie Tibbetts hits close to home for one Lawrence woman.
Carrie Musgridge was attacked while on a run through Prairie Park Nature Park in July.
"I think of my life as before July 12th and after July 12th,� Musgridge said.
Speer delivers new Gold Dot 10mm Auto load to Gold Dot line
Speer Ammunition adds to its ammo inventory launching the 10mm Auto 200-grain personal defense load. The �power-packed� 10mm load was created for optimal self-defense performance.
With ballistics similar to that of .40 S&W, the 200-grain load features a bullet utilizing Speer�s Uni-Cor method. The method bonds the jacket to the core one molecule at a time, ensuring that the core and jacket stay together for a precise hollow point.
UT: Home Intruder Ignores Elderly Couple's Warning Sign
A intruder targeted an Iron Town, Utah, home that bore the sign, �Smith & Wesson Spoken Here,� and was shot multiple times Tuesday.
Fox 13 reports that Iron County Sheriff�s Lt. Del Schlosser said the homeowners �are a little bit elderly� and �do have some disabilities,� however, they also had the firepower necessary for self-defense.
Schlosser said the elderly couple �did fear for their lives and they did shoot at [the intruder],� identified as 24-year-old Christian Holbert.
LA: Gun politics pit Louisiana against muni-bond market's behemoths
Louisiana's treasurer is usually focused on how to get the best deal for taxpayers when the state turns to Wall Street to float bonds for roads, bridges and other public works.
But last week, John Schroder, an Army veteran and one-time narcotics detective, used his office to stand up for gun rights by persuading a state commission to banish Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. from a $100 million debt sale -- a punishment for their stances on firearms. He said he shouldn't have any trouble finding banks willing to step in for the two biggest underwriters, who between them handle more than one-fourth of all state and local government bond offerings.
NJ: The NRA and Its Partners in �Murder Insurance� Face Widening State Probes
A fourth state is now investigating whether the National Rifle Association�s Carry Guard insurance coverage for self-defense shootings violates its laws. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, announced the new investigation on Tuesday evening.
Murphy and his state�s Department of Banking and Insurance are following the lead of New York and California, whose probes began months ago. New Jersey also follows Washington State, which revealed its own investigation on August 8 as lawsuits brought by the NRA in an attempt to preserve its lucrative insurance products attracted a wave of attention.
MO: Jury acquits man in fatal shooting of uncle
Authorities say a St. Louis man has been acquitted in the fatal shooting of his uncle.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that jurors deliberated 45 minutes Tuesday before deciding that 35-year-old Jason Westbrook, of St. Louis, wasn�t guilty. He claimed that he shot and killed 57-year-old Frederick Thomas in self-defense.
NH: Chicago needs Maura not New Hampshire
I see a lot of TV ads for Maura Sullivan trying to get the citizens of New Hampshire to send her to Washington. Recently she is said to be from Illinois and that might be a good place for her to be. With her anti-gun attitudes that don�t seem to have helped her home state much why would we want to copy them? A quick internet check shows Illinois to be the least friendly state for a gun owner to live so it should be the safest state for a non-gun owner to live.
Economists Claim Decreased Gun Production Lowered Homicides
Economists from Kentucky�s Transylvania University argue that decreased gun production is responsible for the drop in homicides among black men experienced during America�s boom in private gun ownership.
The economists, Geoffrey Williams and his colleague W. Alan Bartley, claim a rise in homicides among black men was the result of an influx of cheap handguns and that crime descreased as the production of such weapons tapered off.
17 Affordable Concealed-Carry Guns Under $300
Following on the success of our previous affordable firearm roundup, where we focused on 10 AR-15s found for sale under $500, here�s a look at another hot segment of the market: concealed-carry guns.
With a growing number of concealed-carry permit holders in the country, the demand for personal-defense pistols continues to rise, and manufacturers across the world are stepping up to fill orders. However, many of these models are potentially out of reach for many budget-minded consumers, and Shooting Illustrated often receives complaints that some of the guns we cover are far out of reach of the average firearm enthusiast.
Iraq: Baghdad gun shops thrive after Iraqi rethink on arms control
Iraq has legalized the buying, selling, and possession of handguns and semi-automatic rifles. Since the end of the Hussein regime in 2003, the country�s illegal weapons market has been saturated with looted guns from police stations and military bases. Buyers ranged from jihadists to citizens seeking self-defense in a lawless environment. The latest law seeks to curb the illegal market and introduce government oversight through regulation, where authorization and identity cards will connect individuals to owned weapons.
UT: TA Reassigned for Designating Classroom 'Second Amendment Zone'
The University of Utah gave a teaching assistant �other assignments� after she warned students via her syllabus that bringing a concealed firearm to class would be restricted to a �3x3 taped square,� or a �Second Amendment zone� in the back of the classroom, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. �This zone also does not include a desk, because desks are reserved for students who respect the personal and psychological safety of their classmates and instructor,� the unnamed graduate student also wrote on the syllabus. Since the university �reserves the right to restrict elements of the First Amendment on campus to specifically sanctioned �free speech zones,��
Sen. Cruz Submits Amendment To Aprops Bill To Defund UN Arms Trade Treaty
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz submitted an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill Tuesday to ban anyone from using Pentagon funds to implement the Arms Trade Treaty. Similar language is also included in the lower chamber�s version of the legislation.
The text of the amendment states, �None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this division may be obligated or expended to implement the Arms Trade Treaty until the resolution of ratification of the Treaty is approved by the Senate.�
CA: Former Carlsbad High student alleges principal bullied him for organizing pro-gun walkout
A former Carlsbad High School student alleged he was bullied, intimidated and threatened by the school's principal while organizing a student walkout in support of the Second Amendment.
Will Riley, who graduated from Carlsbad High in May, alleged the school principal Adam Garcia Amador went out of his way to disrupt the organization of the May 2 event.
You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence. �CHARLES A. BEARD

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Software allowing the management of video inputs and RGB of video wall processors. The software opens a resizable and movable window for each single input. Furthermore, there's the change to have different lay-outs memorized.


Guests of Whalley Range 11-18 High School, the Q Brothers, showed students the art of rap through Shakespeare.
A lucky group of students got the opportunity to collaborate with Q Brothers TQ and JQ. They combined rap and education through imaginative scenarios and storytelling. The Q Brothers worked with the students to create rap verses based on fictional scenarios. The students bravely took to the stage to deliver their lyrics to the watching crowd, who thoroughly enjoyed the performances.
The students and the Q Brothers had a great time and even made it on to a live broadcast of BBC Radio Manchester.


2019 Florida Renaissance Festival Including Themed Weekends, Performers, Activities, And More!
The 2019 Florida Renaissance Festival is back for it's 27th year.
2018 Florida Renaissance Festival Including New Themed Weekends, Performers, Activities, And More!
The 2018 Florida Renaissance Festival is back and includes new Themed Weekends, performers, activities, and more! Additionally you can also find local favorite "Funky Buddha Brewery" has now been added to the local pubs at the Festival. Come as you are or in costume as the Florida Renaissance Festival celebrates is 26th season.
Win Tickets to the Florida Renaissance Festival!
Only three fun themed weekends left for this years Florida Renaissance Festival at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach. Back for its 24th year of Medieval weekends, the Florida Renaissance Festival has hosted guests from all over South Florida. Enter to Win Tickets to the Florida Renaissance Festival and enjoy a family day of fun.
The Florida Renaissance Festival is returning to Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach for its 24th year of Medieval weekends! Enter the Florida Renaissance Festival Family Day Giveaway for your chance to visit the festival during its first three of seven themed weekends. This years festival theme is "Renaissance Around the World" and the wonderful folks at the Florida Renaissance Festival have made a four (4) pack of tickets available to three (3) of you lucky readers.
For those that love the Florida Renaissance Festival as much as I do, you will be delighted to hear that a seventh themed weekend has been added to celebrate its 24th year. Returning to Deerfield Beach's Quiet Waters Park, there is so much new stuff to look forward to this year, included the festivals theme this year "Renaissance Around the World.


The time has come in your life to wish upon a star and enter the magical, mystical, and totally fun world of Disneyland Resort, the veritable awesomeness magnet historically and conveniently located in Southern California. With a myriad of remarkable options for dining, attractions, entertainment, events and tours including a full-service spa and salon experience, Disney calls!
A simple call or click will place you in front of theme parks, hotel accommodations, shopping opportunities and everything you and your family will need to make the best use of every minute you spend at Disneyland Resort, from the moment you set foot until your leave this wonderful and enchanting world. Magnificent memories await.


text:
Please contact FSISDataDriven@usda.gov with any questions or concerns about FSIS data.
Percent Positive
Fiscal Year 2023
First Quarter, Oct 1, 2022 - Dec 31, 2022
Fourth Quarter, Jul 1, 2022 - Sept 30, 2022
Third Quarter, Apr 1, 2022 - Jun 30, 2022
Second Quarter, Jan 1 2022 - Mar 31, 2022
Fourth Quarter, Jul 1, 2020 - Sep 30, 2020
Second Quarter, Jan 1, 2019 - Mar 31, 2019
Pulsed-field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE)
Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is a laboratory technique used by FSIS scientists to produce a DNA fingerprint with a specific pattern for a group of the same type of bacteria. This can be used to determine PFGE pattern recurrence, which may suggest potential harborage of this strain in live animals or the associated environment in an establishment. In coordination with public health partners, FSIS transitioned to Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) and discontinued the use of PFGE for Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and Campylobacter in 2019 (https://www.fsis.usda.gov/news-events/news-press-releases/constituent-update-december-14-2018-0). Salmonella serotyping is a method for grouping different types of Salmonella based on the bacterium's surface structures. Previously, FSIS used a molecular serotyping assay to provide serotype. On January 1, 2020, FSIS updated its method to using WGS to provide Salmonella serotype. Quarterly sampling reports on serotype and PFGE extend through the end of FSIS' transition to Whole Genome Sequencing. We made this transition for Campylobacter beginning in November of 2018, and finalized it for E. Coli and Salmonella in April of 2019.
Fiscal Year 2019, Oct 1, 2018–Sep 30, 2019
FSIS research and findings are published in peer-reviewed journals.
Review the enforcement actions FSIS has taken to ensure that consumers have access to safe, wholesome and properly labeled products.
Contains official notifications of enforcement actions and restarts when the establishment has demonstrated regulatory compliance.


6610S intelligently connects to the working device. It simultaneously connects to up to 3 devices, and switches among them with ease. It simplifies complicated cross-platform use and meets multi-tasking requirements.
With Rapoo's energy saving technology and power switch, you can use your mouse without power interruption for up to 12 months.


Amanda Palmer has written an open letter to Morrissey offering to help him crowdsource his next album.
However, Palmer ends the letter by admitting she thinks it unlikely Morrissey would get involved with a crowd-funded album.
Crowdsourcing has proved successful recently; with American TV show Veronica Mars raising $2 million in under 12 hours on Kickstarter and Scrubs star Zach Braff gaining the same amount to produce a follow-up to his 2004 film Garden State.


Halloween is approaching quickly and so returns the yearly struggle of finding a costume. To stray away from the overrated Harley Quinn and Pennywise costumes, here are my easy costume ideas to have the best spooktastic Halloween and are sure to make your friends jealous. "Please remember costumes are not allowed to be worn to school. This includes, face paint, wigs and masks. If you wear a costume to school you will be asked to change or remove it," Coronado administration.
Iron Man: First, you will need to buy an Ironman costume. For this costume you will also need a fairly large sized glass jar. Next, you will need to acquire either sand, ash, or dirt. Put the substance of your choice in the jar, close the lid and shake well. Label the jar "Peter Parker" and carry the jar around all night. With this costume you are sure to get some laughs, tears, and possibly slaps.
La Croix: For those of you who are a little more tasteful– or should I tasteless– a can of La Croix is the perfect costume for you. To accomplish this costume, you will need to pick up a large white t-shirt or white dress. Next, you will need to tye dye the clothing with colors relating to your favorite La Croix flavor. Finally, finish off the costume by using a black permanent marker to sharpie on " La Croix" on the front. La Croix may be flavorless but your costume sure won't be.
Bed & Heavy Sleeper: Let's start with the easier of the two costumes: the heavy sleeper. To complete this costume, person 1 will simply just have to wear pajamas. Person 2, who is playing the bed, will have a little more work to do. I suggest buying a memory foam pillow and carving out a hole to stick your head through (you may need to buy an elastic band in order to keep the pillow on your face). Next, wrap a sheet around your body with a comforter draped over one of your arms. To make the costume complete, all you must do is hug each other the rest of the night to give the appearance of sleeping.
Moth & Lamp: Keep up with one of the most controversial memes by going as a lamp and a moth. For the lucky partner going as the moth, start out by wearing all brown (the fuzzier the clothing, the better). You have two options for the wings– you can either go buy cheap butterfly wings and spray paint them the color of the rest of your outfit, or you can buy fabric of your choosing and sew it to your sleeves and torso. The final piece to complete your moth costume is a pair of antennae. These can easily be made by attaching brown pipe cleaners to a brown headband. For your partner's costume, find a lamp shade that is no longer in use (or in use, if you want to annoy your mom), attach a small battery operated night light to the inside. Turn on the light, throw the shade over your head, and you and your costume will have more time and thought put into it than the meme itself.
Emojis: For this costume, you and your friends get to choose from a plethora of emojis. Make sure the emojis go together to make a story, such as the Italian Flag, the man, and pizza. After you've chosen your emojis, trace and cut out their basic shapes on cardboard. After you have cut out your basic shape, use this as a stencil to trace out a second shape. At this point, you should now have two cut outs of the emoji shape. Paint the cutouts to look like the emoji, remember it doesn't need to be perfect. Finally, poke two holes at the tops of the emoji and lace a string through, connecting the two pieces and tie off each end. All that's left to do is drape it over like a poncho and go to your halloween party where everyone will be LOL-ing over your squad.
Nintendo Miis: Nintendo has always wanted to bring friends and family closer together, so the best way to represent that is to go as a group of Miis. For this everyone will need a plain colored T-shirt and solid black pants. To get the Mii faces, just create a mii of you and the members of your group using any Nintendo Wii console. Take a screenshot of each Mii that clearly shows their face. Print out each screenshot and poke two smaller holes on the sides for you to tie a string through and two larger ones in the face for your eyes, preferably in the pupil of the Mii's eye (you can also choose to cut out the eyes). Tie a string through the two side holes and wear it as as a mask. To really enhance this costume, I suggest that you and your group sing the the Mii channel theme the whole time you're in costume.
With these simple ideas you and your friends will have the best Halloween of your lives, and make all that see you jealous.


text:
Francis Levy, Contributor
Satyajit Ray's Apur Sansar (The World of Apu)
What will they think my neighbors,?" says Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee) in the third installment of Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy, Apur Sansar (The Word of Apu, 1959), currently being revived at Film Forum and other theaters. "I'm invited to a wedding and come home with the bride." In another scene Apu, a fledgling novelist is chastened by his friend Pulu (Swapan Mukherjee) "to experience everything." "Is imagination worth nothing?" Apu asks in response. Significantly one of the first jobs the destitute young writer applies for is that of a labeler. Taking one look at the Dickensian workshop, Apu flees, but the scene is prescient. While the first two films in the trilogy Pather Panchali (1955) and Aparajito (1957) are about the awakening of consciousness, Apur Sansar is about action. And the action is more like life than art to the extent that it defies easy categorization. All three movies are based on two Bengali novels by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay and you think the pieces of the puzzle are finally coming together. The movie will be the story of a successful novelist who marries into a wealthy family. Yet Apur Sansar defies expectations. Apu literally throws his writing to the wind and in a memorable scene is about to turn his back on the one connection he has left in the world, a little boy, Kajal (Alok Chakravarty), he barely knows. Amidst all this we are confronted with a melodramatic Bollywood style cast which includes a mad groom and would be mother-in-law who treats Apu, as an incarnation of Shiva. And there's even a period of seeming repose-- in which Apu and his new wife Aparna (Sharmila Tagore) fan each other as they eat on the floor of their humble one room abode--an idyll that is soon taken away. The only constant is change might be the motto of the this last of the Apu movies. There's an unforgettable scene in which the rambunctious Kajal appears in the distance. The moment of comfort is followed by the prospect of the literal winding road that faces Ray's protagonist. It's an ending that eludes any clear direction and poses more questions than answers about Apu's prospects and ultimate fate.
{This was originally posted to The Screaming Pope, Francis Levy's blog of rants and reactions to contemporary politics, art and culture}
Art The Apu Trilogy


When Martin Luther died, a piece of paper was found in his pocket. The last line said "We are beggars. This is true." That may seem an odd, even hopeless, epitaph. However, it is far from hopeless if you know anything about Luther and his spiritual center. God's grace – the unmerited, absolute love of God given freely – was the touchstone of Luther's life. Once he saw clearly that God's love was revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus, he saw every breath and heartbeat as a gift of grace. His last words, found in his pocket, were a perfect and concise creed for Luther. I have appropriated them as my own. I am a beggar. This is true.
My offerings here will be about my "take" on that creed: Witness to the grace I "take," appropriate, receive from God; reflections on my "take," – my perceptions and reflections on what that means. I pray that my "take" is some bit of grace for you.
Feel free to ask a question or leave a note. The peace of Christ be with you!
Timothy V. Olson— Husband, father, pastor, beggar, full-time saint, full-time sinner.
Personal Mission: To share Jesus Christ with those who don't know they need him and teach Jesus Christ to those who can't live without him.
I'd like to get a clear understanding of the term "Psalter." I've heard it described as the Book of Psalms, but according to the Princeton University Library, it is "distinct, bibliographically, from the Biblical Book of Psalms." I read that Martin Luther had a personal Psalter (I imagine it worn and dog-eared) and am curious to know what the book was like that he was using.
Hi Jane! Great question. My understanding is that "The Book of Psalms" refers to the 150 psalms contained in the Bible. A Psalter is a collection from those songs printed separately for use in worship or prayer. A Psalter may have just a portion of the whole book (psalms of thanksgiving, for instance) or contain all of them. Psalters are often marked for singing by the community with a kind of "punctuation" that informs the community when to change tones. Does that help?


Be the sunshine of every person's eyes dressed in this desirable multi colour satin silk designer go..
Be the sunshine of anyone's eyes dressed in this desirable beige satin silk designer gown. You will ..
You are bound to make a impressive style statement with this flattering beige satin silk designer go..
Authentic elegance can come out as a results of the dressing trend with this white satin silk des..
We unfurl our the intricacy and exclusivity of our creations highlighted with this hot pink satin re..
You are bound to make a strong style statement with this beige satin silk readymade gown . Look ravi..
Be the sunshine of anyone's eyes dressed in this desirable green satin readymade gown . You will see..
This navy blue velvet readymade gown is adding the beautiful glamorous displaying the sense of cute..
This beige and orange organza and satin readymade gown is adding the desirable glamorous showing th..
Be the sunshine of everybody's eyes dressed with this appealing maroon art silk readymade gown . Bea..
This green satin readymade gown is including the lovely glamorous displaying the sense of cute and ..
Be the sunshine of anyone's eyes dressed in such a conspicuous green art silk readymade gown . Beaut..
Authentic elegance can come out as a results of the dressing trend with this blue art silk readym..
Design and pattern will be on the peak of your beauty once you attire this riveting blue satin silk ..
Be an angel and create and ascertain a smashing impression on anybody by wearing this hypnotizing cr..
This fuchsia chanderi readymade designer gown is adding the beautiful glamorous displaying the se..
We unfurl our the intricacy and exclusivity of our creations highlighted in this kind of a lovely..
True elegance will come out of your dressing trend with this sea green art silk readymade floor l..
Fashion and pattern will be at the peak of your beauty after you attire this arresting peach art ..
This peach chanderi readymade designer gown is including the lovely glamorous displaying the sens..
Genuine attractiveness will come out from your dressing trend with this beige chanderi readymade ..
Make the heads flip whenever you costume up with this impeccable cream malbari silk readymade des..
We unfurl our the intricacy and exclusivity of our creations highlighted in such a gorgeous maroo..
Design and pattern will be on the peak of your beauty once you attire this exquisite purple satin..
This green satin silk readymade gown is adding the desirable glamorous showing the sense of cute an..
Add a vibrant burst of colour with your wardrobe with this green tafeta silk readymade gown . The..
The wedding dress is the most important dress of a woman in her life. Even though we only wear it for one day, it leaves the most beautiful memory in our lives.
Let's make it more beautiful by wearing buy wedding gowns online. We offer a huge collection of all types of gowns like an evening gown, designers gowns, wedding gowns online India at Sarees Palace.


text:
Search in titles only Search in Maddmattz only
Maddmattz
A Social Engineering Primer Part 1
Maddmattz started a blog post A Social Engineering Primer Part 1
Someone once said, "It's not that computers aren't secure, it's that people aren't." Someone else once said, "If you take a computer, unplug it from the wall, unplug it from the internet, take it deep into the wilderness, dig a very deep hole, put the computer in it and pour concrete on top of it, fill in the hole and never tell anyone where it is; that computer might be secure... but I wouldn't bet on it."
This brings us to my other favorite topic (besides botnets): Social Engineering.
Put a human being in front of a computer and nine times out of ten, that computer is no longer secure. Leaving aside the tenth time for the moment, this is because nine times out of ten, the human being is trying to get some work done. The computer is a tool, just like a hammer and like a computer, the only way to keep a hammer from hurting someone, either by banging a thumb, falling off a bench onto a foot or lying in wait for a toe on the floor, is to bury it and put concrete over it and never tell anyone where it is. It's a people thing.
Add a third person with malicious intent into the mix and you have a catastrophe waiting for a chance to happen. Social engineering is the equivalent of bumping into the hapless hammer wielder just as he starts his downswing. It's guaranteed to cause chaos, and if you are trying to break into a system, chaos is a good result.
I touched on social engineering in my last post where a judicious bit of timing coupled with a knowledge of human nature allowed me to raise cash from an ATM. This time I want to dig a little deeper into the unsung hero of the hacker's toolkit.
For my novel Playing God I created a secure floor at the Microsoft like company Universal Software, where the coding of the "world's most popular operating system" takes place. It's armed with all the latest anti-hacker goodies and set up with an internet connection that is outbound only (packets from the outside world stopped dead in their tracks unless there are corresponding outbound packets preceding them.) An impregnable fortress, and rightly so, because in the hands of an expert hacker, the source code for an OS would reveal all sorts of things too numerous to get into here. Now I'm sure a lot of you are calculating esoteric attack vectors that could break this fortress, but let's assume for the sake of fiction that they wouldn't work. (The reality is that the more obscure the attack vector, the more bored the general public will get reading about it.) So, with all that in mind, how are we to get our protagonist in to steal uncompiled OS code? Enter (stage left) our unsung hero: Social engineering.
Start with a human resources girl who manages to bend the rules for an ex-boyfriend (our protagonist) and give him a brief tour of the secure floor - a major no no. [*note: I could have scripted a seduction scene with a stranger, a blackmail scheme with an older woman, or any number of other ways to get him on the floor.] Then, armed with a thumb drive he's loaded an outbound trojan onto (That's a piece of malware that installs itself and then sends packets to a specified IP address - in this case, our protagonist's computer.) and a sticky note that reads "thought you should see this before the sh#t hits the fan", our hero appears to stumble, catches a desk to break his fall and drops off the payload on a programmers desk and leaves. His escape is seamless, because there is no obvious break in or crime. Forensics will later reveal him to our villain and set him on our protagonist's trail, but it's too late. He has already followed the outbound packets back inside, downloaded the source code and is on the run. Aside from the trojan, pure social engineering top to bottom.
I'll break all this down in part 2 and discuss the reasons that it's so difficult to teach social engineering. I'll also discuss why it's necessary to find a way to do so.


text:
Gary L. Doehling
After defending insurance companies in personal injury litigation for 25 years, attorney Gary Doehling formed the Gary Doehling Personal Injury Law Firm, P.C. to help injury victims prosecute claims against insurance companies. Gary Doehling grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Arizona State University College of Business in 1979, and received his Juris Doctor from Arizona State University College of Law in 1982. He moved to Grand Junction, Colorado after graduating from law school and he has been a trial attorney in Western Colorado and Eastern Utah ever since.
Over the last 25 years, Mr. Doehling has represented numerous insurance carriers including Allstate Insurance, American International Insurance Group, American Family Insurance, American States Insurance, Colorado Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company, Commercial Union Insurance Company, Farmers Insurance Group, Hartford Insurance Group, National Farmers Union Insurance Company, Trinity Universal Insurance Company, USAA, and USF&G. Mr. Doehling is now putting this experience to work for the residents of Western Colorado and Eastern Utah.
Victims of accidents need professional and competent assistance. Lives have been turned upside down. Gary and his team have the knowledge to help you through this stressful and challenging time. At Doehling Law, our client's interests come first. We thoroughly explore all available insurance and avenues of recovery in order to maximize recovery for accident victims. If you are confronted by an unreasonable adversary, we will provide you with effective representation to seek justice in the courtroom. Mr. Doehling is not a stranger to the courtroom. He is an experienced and successful trial attorney who can effectively represent you through trial and appeal. He has successfully represented clients in court and jury trials in Alamosa, Aspen, Craig, Delta, Denver, Durango, Eagle, Grand Junction, Glenwood Springs, Gunnison, Grand Junction, Moab, Montrose, Pagosa Springs, Price, Salt Lake City, Steamboat Springs and Telluride. You can rest assured of not being outgunned by the insurance companies you oppose.
Motor Cycle Accidents
Skiing Accidents
Oil Field Injury
Mesothelioma & Asbestos
Litigation Percentage
100% of Practice Devoted to Litigation
Colorado, 1982
Utah, 1991
U.S. District Court District of Colorado
U.S. District Court District of Utah
Arizona State University, College of Law, Tempe, Arizona
J.D. - 1982
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
B.S. magna cum laude - 1979
Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado
JJR 1, LLC v. Mt. Crested Butte, 160 P.3d 365; 2007 Colo. App. LEXIS 490 (Court of Appeals of Colorado, Division Three 2007)
Carothers v. Archuleta County Sheriff, 159 P.3d 647; 2006 Colo. App. LEXIS 927 (Court of Appeals of Colorado, Division One 2006)
Wilson v. Meyer, 126 P.3d 276; 2005 Colo. App. LEXIS 1346 (Court of Appeals of Colorado, Division Two 2005)
Wilson v. Meyer, 34 Media L. Rep. 1906 (Court of Appeals of Colorado, Division Two 2005)
Wark v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 47 P.3d 711; 2002 Colo. App. LEXIS 248 (Court of Appeals of Colorado, Division One 2002)
Tunget v. Board of County Comm'rs, 992 P.2d 650; 1999 Colo. App. LEXIS 173 (Court of Appeals of Colorado, Division Four 1999)
Tunget v. Board of County Comm'rs, 1999 Colo. J. C.A.R. 3861 (Court of Appeals of Colorado, Division Four 1999)
Mesa County Valley Sch. Dist. No. 51 v. Kelsey, 8 P.3d 1200; 2000 Colo. LEXIS 1036 (Supreme Court of Colorado 2000)
Camelot Invs., LLC v. LANDesign, 973 P.2d 1279; 1999 Colo. App. LEXIS 29 (Court of Appeals of Colorado, Division Three 1999)
Camelot Invs., LLC v. LANDesign, 1999 Colo. J. C.A.R. 688 (Court of Appeals of Colorado, Division Three 1999)
Briggs v. American Family Mut. Ins. Co.,, 833 P.2d 859; 1992 Colo. App. LEXIS 130 (Court of Appeals of Colorado, Division Five 1992)
Briggs v. American Family Mut. Ins. Co., 16 BTR 582 (Court of Appeals of Colorado, Division Five 1992)
Colorado Intergovernmental Risk Sharing Agency
Western Healthcare Alliance
County Technical Services
Sun King Management Corp.
Alpine Bank
Past Employment Positions
Doehling & Driscoll, P.C., Managing Partner, 1994 - 2007
Doehling & Slater, P.C., Managing Partner, 1987 - 1994
Drunk Drivers
Insurance Claims After Car Accidents
Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist
What To Do After An Auto Accident
ATV, UTV And Snowmobile Accidents
Pedestrian And Bicycle Accidents
Holding Distracted Drivers Accountable
Driving Accidents While Texting
Preventing Motorcycle Accidents
Motorcycle Accident Charts
Slip-And-Fall Accidents
Dog Bites And Animal Attacks
Six Factors In A Personal Injury Settlement
Minor Settlements
Workers' Compensation & Third-Party Claims
Oil Field Accidents
© 2019 by Doehling Law. All rights reserved. Disclaimer | Site Map


text:
What are the killer apps for software defined networks?
Despite touted benefits for service providers, OpenFlow and SDNs can help extend business VLANs, create security zones, establish BYOD policies...
By Jim Duffy
Managing Editor, Network World |
With its ability to decouple network control from the physical infrastructure, OpenFlow and software-defined networks have been touted as the Next Big Thing in networking. They've been pitched as a way for cloud service providers and webscale companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo to ease or automate network configuration and reconfiguration, and quickly add more functionality without manually touching each and every switch or router in the network.
Such companies can use OpenFlow and SDNs to reroute traffic, balance traffic loads, provide bandwidth on demand for peak requirements, execute policies to scale and segregate the networks of different data center or cloud tenants, and connect subscribers to content and services.
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: What is OpenFlow and why is it needed?
Is Cisco getting squeezed by SDNs?
OpenFlow and SDNs have also been coronated as "Cisco Killers" due to the ability to abstract network configuration and extensibility from vendor-specific hardware and software commands, ostensibly relegating Cisco switches to Just Another Device status in a network and freeing customers from vendor lock-in. But Cisco just announced its own programmability initiative through its Cisco ONE architecture and onePK software development kit (see related story) and Insieme Networks is building a line of programmable switches for the company.
So what exactly is the OpenFlow/SDN killer app for the enterprise?
Actually, there are several, vendors in the OpenFlow/SDN/network virtualization arena say.
"Our primary focus is the enterprise market," says Kyle Forster, co-founder of Big Switch Networks, a maker of OpenFlow controllers for SDNs. Big financial and technology companies are trailblazers with OpenFlow, he says.
They are using it for network virtualization for private cloud buildouts to extend beyond the limits of virtual LANs, which top out at 4,096. Once those private clouds are implemented, enterprises then look for more business critical applications for OpenFlow and SDNs, like data center interconnect, disaster recovery and granular security.
"There are all these requirements on the application for the private cloud 2.0 and that's where, on the network side, the VLAN architecture really starts to break," Forster says.
Even before enterprises implement private cloud, data center network virtualization is some low hanging fruit for OpenFlow and SDNs, Forster says. Server virtualization across eight to 30 racks, with 200 to 2,000 VMs per rack, usually breaks the VLAN limit and opens up an opportunity for SDNs.
"That's the end of the all VLANs everywhere path," he says.
But OpenFlow and SDNs are not network virtualization, per se; they are network construction tools to facilitate network virtualization, which is really a "solution" built on top of an SDN foundation, says Martin Casado, co-founder and CTO of network virtualization start-up Nicira.
Casado was also one of the chief developers of the OpenFlow protocol and API.
"The enterprise use case motivated the work that I did that became OpenFlow and grew into this SDN mania," Casado says. "Within the business enterprise, there has long been requirements for security, for isolation and for service interposition. How do you build an enterprise network that allows for security and isolation, with simplified operations and service interposition?"
Casado believes network virtualization brings these attributes to enterprise networks. But whether or not those virtualized networks are built using OpenFlow and SDNs is irrelevant to the user, he says.
"Traditionally, OpenFlow does not do network virtualization," Casado says. "All OpenFlow does is allow you to control switches and it may allow you to run different applications on the switch. But it doesn't provide you the ability to create a virtual network that's topology independent that supports L2 and L3. I don't know of any OpenFlow solution that does this.
"SDN is just a tool set," he continues. "Network virtualization is an actual solution. It's a product that you sell. And it solves many of these problems. It will decouple the security policy from the physical topology. It natively supports mobility. It allows for dynamic service interposition. It natively supports isolation. Whether or not you build network virtualization with SDN is an independent question. You can certainly do it without using SDN; I just question whether you'll have the guarantees you need on the scale you'll need. My sense is, without SDN you can't do virtualization at scale with guarantees. But the solution that will change the operational model of the enterprise is virtualization."
HP agrees with that perspective from Nicira: OpenFlow and SDNs are just tools to enable the real value of programmability, which are applications like network virtualization and granular policies for different use cases -- like managing the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) phenomena in enterprises. HP earlier this year rolled out 16 OpenFlow-enabled switches for the enterprises that interoperate with controllers from vendors Big Switch, NEC and NTT, as well as open source controllers like NoX, Beacon, Floodlight, and Trema.
HP also demonstrated its Virtual Application Network orchestration capabilities at Interop in May.
"SDN is a capability and then there are the network applications that run on top of it: network virtualization, BYOD policy, or things of that nature which is what people are actually using," says Saar Gillai, CTO of HP Networking. "In network virtualization, SDN can help you in doing some of the overlay tunneling but there's other things you need to provide to create that capability. SDN is a technology that can be leveraged to provide some unique applications but in and of itself it's just a technology."
OpenFlow and SDN's real value comes from what it enables. Network virtualization allows enterprises to share a common physical infrastructure with different attributes among multiple organizations, says Karl May, CEO of Vello Systems, a maker of OpenFlow and SDN cloud switches for enterprises.
With SDNs, customers build an abstraction of the physical infrastructure to use it for a combination of production and test networks.
"That is greatly undersold when people talk about SDNs," May says. "That's a very valuable element of the SDN architecture."
The programmability afforded by OpenFlow and SDNs enable applications to define the behavior of the network and provide them with a level of deterministic performance, May says. This is appealing to enterprise customers with very high performance computing or Big Data needs, he says.
"The very first thing that they're asking about is, 'Tell me how I can customize your product for my applications,'" May says. "I have very limited ability to customize when I make changes to my network or upgrade my firewall -- that forces me to touch all 300, 400, 500 or 1,000 of my switches. Some of the operational ease that an SDN architecture provides is beginning to become one of the more significant drivers of interest in the enterprise."
Much of that operational ease comes from automation, another key benefit of SDNs. Enterprise IT staffs are resource constrained, in time, manpower and money. The programmability aspects of OpenFlow and SDNs help automate procedures that fit into those constraints, says Don Clark, director of business development for the IT Platform Group at NEC America.
NEC's ProgrammableFlow line of switches are based on OpenFlow.
"The networking and IT staff is having to do more with less resources," Clark says. "And especially as cloud services spin out the networking staff in a traditional networking model is overloaded with service requests. So enterprises are really looking to automate some of the things that today are manually configured.
"Automation brings benefit of not having to develop all of these applications internally," Clark says. "Balancing workloads across data centers, today that's a lot of configuration down on each individual switch. Providing an automated solution that allows them to do that much more dynamically is the kind of thing that allows (enterprise IT) staff to move away from manual configuration and more towards policy."
Weren't VLANs, which were all the rage in networking a decade ago, supposed to virtualize and automate and segment and isolate applications and traffic over a shared infrastructure? They did, but that technology is old now and it limitations are now showing.
"VLANs are difficult to configure and are limited in scope," says HP's Gillai. "We're taking it to the next level with a full virtualized network, with an overlay or segment for a particular application or use case which is isolated from anything else that is going on. Each application or use 'feels' like it has its own network. And it simplifies network management and resource allocation. We're now managing resource pools" instead of individual routers and switches.
"VLANs are very low level," says Nicira's Casado. "Even if you had VLANs as a low level mechansims, would still need someone to update it, configure it, and wouldn't scale because you'd have to trunk everything everywhere; you couldn't go over an L3 boundary."
Newer technologies like Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) and Network Virtualization Generic Routing and Encapsulation (NVGRE) are also intended to virtualize networks and scale VLANs. Cisco, VMware and Arista are co-authors of VXLAN, while Microsoft, Dell and Intel back NVGRE.
VXLAN and NVGRE are encapsulation and tunneling schemes designed to overlay, proponents say, virtualization onto existing network infrastructures. VXLAN, server-based virtual switching and virtualized Layer 3-7 services, such as firewalls, load balancing, NAT and e-mail gateways, are the underpinnings of VMware's SDN strategy.
"Rather than wait for the SDN/OpenFlow world to start penetrating into enterprises - which, we'd be here a long time - we had an immediate need of virtualizing the network," said Allwyn Sequeira, CTO and vice-president of Cloud Networking and Security at VMware. "That's why we started with vSwitches, virtual distributed switches and VXLAN. That works and it solves a bunch of problems, and it has a lot of the elements of software-defined networking: you have a controller - we have our vCloud Director, vCloud Network and Security Services, we bring up VXLANs on the fly that map onto all kinds of existing (networks), and is future-proof. It could map onto OpenFlow.
"Here, we don't really need to program the boxes as much as we make sure we give different tenants space, their own virtual wire," Sequeira says. "That's one of the things about VXLAN: it has the notion of a tenant ID built in so that you can have different tenants with their own name spaces on the network."
VMware's vShield Edge handles the higher-level virtual services, Sequeira says.
But NEC and Nicira see VXLAN and NVGRE as not capably tackling the network virtualization problem.
"VXLAN and NVGRE are complementary" to OpenFlow, NEC's Clark says. "They provide address virtualization, but not network virtualization. Having the control within the network is still required especially for large deployments being contemplated for these, where VLAN exhaustion is an issue."
Clark says NEC will soon demonstrate interoperability between the company's ProgrammableFlow switches and Microsoft's Windows Server 2012 with NVGRE to show the complementary nature of the two technologies.
Nicira's Casado says NVGRE and VXLAN are just not up to the task at hand.
"They are tunneling protocols that are just a way of getting a packet across a network," he says. "We don't care what kind of tunneling protocol you use. We're very happy to support NVGRE and VXLAN if anybody asks us to, which no one has yet."
In the data path, VXLAN and NVGRE are too slow, he says. They don't support hardware acceleration on network interface cards.
"These are first cuts at stretching VLANs across an L3 domain," Casado says. "They rely on an existing but not very ubiquitously deployed control mechanism. They don't provide what I would consider full network virtualization. You can't create a 10,000 node VXLAN. You can't arbitrarily support services. There's no model for doing security, policy," etc.
VMware's Sequeira says he expects VXLAN to be "a complete line-speed, hardware assisted-enabled" technology that "completely removes the need (for applications) to worry about what happens underneath in the actual physical infrastructure."
In the meantime, enterprises want to be able to customize their networks but also make them adaptable, something they are finding difficult to do with closed homegrown scripting and vendor-specific attributes for configuration and extensibility.
"Large enterprises are looking at this as a way to get back on the standards track and not be tied to homegrown systems," says HP's Gillai. "Because of the need to have very granular control of policy in their systems, they've built whole worlds of scripted systems to provide that with SDN you'll be able to do in a much more elegant fashion."
And it can't come too soon. IDC says OpenFlow hardware, software and services, starting from a barely detectable base this year, will be a $2 billion market by 2016.
Big Switch is in the middle of the building momentum. In the first quarter of this year, it shipped eight times as many OpenFlow controllers as it did in the fourth quarter of last year. And last year, when less than 10% of the conversations around OpenFlow and SDNs turned into trails, now 70% do.
"We're understaffed for that level of change in the business," Big Switch's Forster says. "The market in January completely turned on us. It was like night and day."
Jim Duffy has been covering technology for over 25 years, 21 at Network World. He also writes The Cisco Connection blog and can be reached on Twitter @Jim_Duffy.
Jim Duffy has been covering technology for over 28 years, 23 at Network World. He covers enterprise networking infrastructure, including routers and switches. He also writes The Cisco Connection blog and can be reached on Twitter @Jim_Duffy and at jduffy@nww.com.


Chorzów has great chances for organizing at least one match, and Cracow will be the hotel-tourist back – we managed to confirm such information in a few sources on Wednesday.
Meanwhile less than the month ago seemed, that already everything was wasted. From it, what until now we thought, is our advantage i.e. the modernization of the stadium lasting for fourteen years, experts from UEFA made one of main accusations and they poked out the lack of progress in this matter. They also among others criticized us for the low amount of toilets and lack of permanent eating places. They suggested that hosts of the stadium weren't able to coordinate modernization works and they advised renting the professional company which would do it.
After such an assessment it seemed that the Silesian Stadium didn't have chances in the competition with four designed objects in the capital city, Gdańsk, Poznań and Wrocław. However it didn't pass even a week when a different team of experts examined the infrastructure. As it turned out Chorzów together with adjacent cities are good in this matter. Our hospitals with Piekary Śląskie injury hospital, the Regional emergency ambulance service and roads (although we complain it) overbalanced to our advantage. UEFA turned a blind eye even to the modest hotel base. Result from our information is that experts of the federation suggested that supporters could use hotels in Cracow.
The turning point came also in the matter of the project of roofing over the Silesian Stadium. It is already a well-known fact, which company will deal with it. Out of three which had the willingness to it German GMP Architekten from Aachen was chosen. Our informer claims, this company won because perfectly fulfill UEFA requirements.
GMP Architekten is a gigantic design office with over 40 year of tradition. From here were e.g. a plan of the new Central Station in Berlin (Lehrter Bahnhof) with 200 meter glass roof covering platforms, as well as of the Chinese National Museum by the Heavenly Peace square in the Beijing. Architects have also experience at the modernization of the stadium in Berlin what can be useful to them in Chorzów. In the capital city of Germany they converted the Olympic Stadium from Nazi times from 1936. In specialists opinion they did it well: they kept the concrete-stone Coliseum but they added to it roof stretched on the light steel structure. Architects designed also big sports facilities in Europe, China and the Republic of South Africa.
In Poland they won closed contest on project of the National Stadium for Warsaw which is supposed to be a main arena of Euro 2012. However there were controversies. German architects were accused that in Warsaw they had copied their more previous project of the Greenpoint stadium in the Republic of South Africa. They assure that only geometry of the roof is similar and structure and materials will be completely different.
What will happen with the plan? In the nearest days the auditorium company will check whether really it fulfills all international criteria. The agreement with the executor is supposed to be signed on 25 April. From that day the GMP Company will have seven months for the preparation of detailed building and performing project.
It is however not an end of the good news, because authorities of region with the new marshal Bogusław Śmigielski started catching up. For example Office Euro 2012 will be established and the marshal will rent one of auditorium renowned companies for advising at the alteration Silesian and during preparations for championships.
On Wednesday in Katowice Marcin Herra, the director of the PL2012 Company which is dealing with preparations to the football European championships in Poland met the marshal. Officially about chances of Chorzów in organizing at least one match he didn't want to give his opinion. He only stated that all were working hard in order to have the stadium which will fulfill UEFA requirements in 2012 . He also added that up to the end of April UEFA again would judge stadiums, and up to the end of the May – infrastructure in their surroundings.
Unofficially found out that during the meeting with the Herra, the marshal insisted that aspiring for organizing championships cities should stop competing with themselves. It should not be trouble with it , because our self government for ages are emphasizing that they have nothing against the cooperation with Cracow.
EURO 2012 – more action, less declaration.


text:
Custom Shop Services
Our Team & Location
Thalia Artists
Backer Wall
EXOTIC SHELLS
CUSTOM CAPOS
CAPO ACCESSORIES
Fretpads & Tuning Kits
WANT IT FAST? These Capos SHIP SAME DAY if Ordered Before 1pm PST
Warranty Info & Registration
Fretboard Radius Guide
Bouszoukis
How an 8-year-old girl's big idea starts a capo revolution...
We are musicians & artists in the San Francisco Bay Area...
Thalia Artists amaze & delight with their guitars....
STANDARD PICKS
4 SHAPES & 4 SPECIES AVAILABLE
ENGRAVED SYMBOLS
OVER 30 SYMBOLS AVAILABLE
Try one of our samplers to find your perfect pick!
DESIGN YOUR OWN CUSTOM PICKS
WANT IT FAST? These Picks SHIP SAME DAY if Ordered Before 1pm PST
CUSTOM STRAPS
GIBSON & TAYLOR STRAPS
ENGRAVED STRAPS
PEARL INLAID STRAPS
WANT IT FAST? These Straps SHIP SAME DAY if Ordered Before 1pm PST
GIBSON PHONE CASES
GUILD PHONE CASES
MARTIN PHONE CASES
ALL GUITAR CASES
TAYLOR PHONE CASES
LIMITED EDITION CASES
PEARL INLAID SYMBOLS
PLAIN WOOD CASES
MAGNESIUM SLIDES
Home / Fingerboard Stories
The Greatest Led Zeppelin Live Albums… You've (Probably) Never Heard (Part Two)
We're back with Part Two of our Led Zeppelin bootleg rundown.
In the first article of this series, we covered the band's early days, from the Fillmore West in 1969 to their first tour of Japan in '71. In this edition, we're picking up with Zep as they make the transition from burgeoning rock heroes to the arena level superstars.
And, appropriately enough, we're kicking off with a show that one-or-two of you might be familiar with…
"Burn Like a Candle" (L.A. Forum, California, June 25th 1972)
Released on CD by the Smokin' Pig Label in the mid-1990s, this quality audience recording features Zep in their old L.A. Forum stomping ground. Described as a "must for any collector" by Zeppelin bootleg authority Luis Rey in '97, this one shot around the bootleg community like wildfire.
The name itself comes from a Robert Plant onstage comment (or "Plantation," as the boot collectors call them). During the concert, Robert mentioned that the band's then-untitled fifth album "Houses of the Holy" was: "...not gonna be called Led Zeppelin Five, it's got every possibility of being called Burn That Candle"
Eagle-eyed Zep heads will likely remember the date of this boot. Led Zeppelin's official live album, "How the West Was Won," features cuts from this show, as well as the Long Beach Arena Show from June 27th.
So why, if there's an official release out there, should you shoot for the boot? There's so much more of the show on this one, that's why! With a complete acoustic set, unheard versions of "Thank You" and "Communication Breakdown", and an epic "WLL" medley including excursions into "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Slow Down," the bootleg gives you the full picture of this exceptional gig.
"The Great Lost Live Album" (Southampton University, England, January 22nd 1973)
From a live album alternative to the live album that could have been…
Recorded at Southampton University, England during the band's university tour of 1973, this is one of the best sounding Led Zeppelin bootlegs in existence.
The reason, as Classic Rock Review states, is that it's sourced from multi-track tapes part-mixed by producer Kevin Shirley:
"…Jimmy Page thought it might be a good idea to play in a smaller venue and record it for a live album. For reasons that are unknown, the album was never released and sat in the archives for thirty years. When Page and producer Kevin Shirley were working on the DVD and "How The West Was Won" projects in 2002, this tape was considered for possible use. Although it wasn't used on that project, through some means the working multi-track tapes..."
It's not the greatest Led Zeppelin performance ever: definitely on the loose side of Tight but Loose. But, hearing the band clearly enjoying themselves in this more relaxed environment is a real thrill, especially when the sound quality is this good.
Earl's Court, London, May 24th 1975
Zeppelin's mammoth, five-show run at Earl's Court, London in 1975 was an unprecedented event. And, it produced some spectacular performances as a result. As journalist Chris Welch wrote of these gigs:
"The band played with tremendous fire, possessed by an almost demonic power, amidst clouds of smoke pierced by green laser beams. Jimmy Page flailed his violin bow against the guitar strings, producing eerie, echoing gothic howls. At the time, I wrote in a review that 'Robert Plant maintains an essentially human, chatty approach to audiences, almost like a guide taking us through the story of the band, a jester at the wheel of some fearsome juggernaut, offering sly asides and poetic ruminations between moments of terrible power.' The band enjoyed the "Physical Graffiti" material far more than the old war horses, and the best moments from the previous albums came in the shape of ballads and acoustic songs."
There's some debate as to which of the EC gigs is the best. Aficionados typically waiver between the May 24th and 25th shows. For my money, the 24th clinches it thanks to a tender "Tangerine," a brooding, epic "No Quarter" and what is possibly the greatest version of "Trampled Underfoot" ever committed to tape.
Yes, there are other contenders for the greatest show of '75 – I'm looking at you Seattle, March 21st - but ultimately, the Earl's Court shows have history on their side.
That's it for part two. But, we're not done with Zeppelin bootlegs yet. In part three, we'll round out the years '77-'80 with three more essential live recordings.
Which of these bootlegs is your favourite? And, do you remember buying your first Led Zeppelin album? Share your stories in the comments.
AAA Grade Curly Hawaiian Koa Capo
Mother of Pearl Capo
Carbon Fibre Tungsten Carbide Ring 8mm
AAA Curly Hawaiian Koa & Taylor Pearl Logo Inlay Italian Leather Strap
Stargazer Pearl Inlay Italian Leather Strap
AAA Curly Hawaiian Koa & Celtic Knot Engraving Italian Leather Strap
Standard Shape Bubinga Pick Tin
from $ 14.99 $ 149.99
AAA Curly Hawaiian Koa & Bee with Honeycomb Phone Case
Whiskey Wing & AAA Curly Hawaiian Koa Magnesium Slide
Santos Rosewood & Gibson Les Paul Hawaiian Koa Inlaid Guitar Phone Case
Custom Truss Rod Cover Shape T3 - Fits 3 Hole Taylor Guitars
Also in Fingerboard Stories
MTV Unplugged: The Iconic Performances (Part One)
There are plenty of great MTV Unplugged performances. And then there are those that are truly transcendent; the ones that changed the way we thought about an artist or introduced them to a new generation. In this article, we're running through three of those iconic MTV Unplugged moments and what made them so special.
Neil Peart: Words of Wisdom
Last week, the rock world lost one of its greatest drummers. Neil Peart of Rush passed away at age 67 after a three-and-a-half year battle with brain cancer. To say that Peart left his mark is an understatement. "Neil Peart, that's a whole other animal, another species of drummer," Stuart Copeland said of him in 2018, a comment that will resonate with Peart's many admirers. Instantly recognizable and uniquely inimitable, his playing inspired a generation.
Prince's Greatest Guitar Performance… 15 Years Gone
I've always loved Prince's guitar playing, and I think he deserves more recognition for it. Given the man's undisputed musical polymath status, his six-string prowess was ultimately obscured by his myriad skills in singing, dancing, arranging, producing and writing. But, my god, when he had that axe in his hand and the solo break came, Prince slayed with the best of them.
AAA Grade Curly Hawaiian Koa | Capo
Mother of Pearl | Capo
Carbon Fibre | Tungsten Carbide Ring 8mm
AAA Curly Hawaiian Koa & Taylor Pearl Logo Inlay | Italian Leather Strap
Stargazer Pearl Inlay | Italian Leather Strap
AAA Curly Hawaiian Koa & Celtic Knot Engraving | Italian Leather Strap
Standard Shape | Bubinga Pick Tin
AAA Curly Hawaiian Koa & Bee with Honeycomb | Phone Case
Whiskey Wing & AAA Curly Hawaiian Koa | Magnesium Slide
Santos Rosewood & Gibson Les Paul Hawaiian Koa Inlaid Guitar | Phone Case
Custom Truss Rod Cover | Shape T3 - Fits 3 Hole Taylor Guitars
Hawaiian Koa Initiative
All Hawaiian Koa products made by Thalia come with our Hawaiian Koa Reforestation Commitment. $5 from the sale of each Capo or Phone Case goes directly towards planting and maintaining new Koa trees in Hawaii.
While all of the woods and shell on our site are sourced from ethical vendors who have sustainability policies in place, we want to go further. For Hawaiian Koa we are taking a more active position by directly sourcing our wood in Hawaii, ensuring chain of custody of the salvaged logs. These logs are then sliced into veneer per our specifications. Next, we are actively involved in the planting and maintaining of new royal koa trees in Hawaii on the same islands where our wood originates. This full circle approach ensures that we will be able to achieve our goal of being a significant participant in the reforestation of Hawaii while also producing 100 times more koa wood for the musical instrument industry than we consume over the next decade.
Made in the USA by Artists
All of our products are built-to-order in the San Francisco Bay Area by our team of designers & artists.
© 2020 ThaliaCapos.com. Powered by Shopify


RYT 200 Hours Yoga Teacher Training – Cost vs Value?
AN AVERAGE RYT 200 COURSE in Bali costs around $3,000. This payment might seem like a lot of money and of course it is. But the question should be, how much is your health worth to you? And conversely how much do other people believe their health is worth to them?
The real value of your health is only ever clearly revealed once the costs of your sickness start to roll in.
The average American family's health premium has risen 19% over the past five years, to $7,000 for single coverage in 2017, and to nearly $19,000 for family coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
In addition to premium increases, their out-of-pocket costs, which include what they shell out for deductibles, copays and coinsurance, have risen too. Between 2005 and 2015 average out-of-pocket costs grew 66%, or more than twice the growth rate in wages during that period, according to Kaiser.
Most people would be aware of the spiraling costs of healthcare in the modern world and indeed the lack of real healthcare in developing nations.
Health has never been more front and centre as it is today.
So, it is the cost of your RYT 200 hour Yoga Teaching Course versus the benefits and value of such a training course.
Once you have decided that you want to be involved in the health and well being industry as a yoga teacher, or indeed to improve you own practice. The question to ask yourself is, is your Hatha 200 hours Yoga Teacher Training in Bali the-best-value-for your health investment dollar?
INVESTING in the protection of your health CANNOT be a bad decision. Investing in A COURSE for the well being and health of others CANNOT be a bad decision.
Is NOW Your Moment To Become Involved ?
According to a 2016 Yoga Journal report 36.7 million people practice yoga in the US, up from 20.4 million in 2012. The yoga market is now worth $16 billion (£12 billion) in the US and $80 billion (£74 billion) globally.
In the UK, "yoga" was one of Google's most searched-for words in 2015,16,17, while the yoga business brings in £812 million a year, and rising.
Students are packed into yoga classes, which cost north of $15 a pop and the professional expert yoga teacher training costs thousands (fees start at around $2800 without accommodation and can go to $8,000) Yoga retreats are pricey $2500 a week for anything decent in Bali.
And it is not just the yoga studios making money. Take a look at the market for yoga mats. According to market research company Technion, the US yoga and exercise mat business is expected to climb from $11bn (£8bn) now to $14bn (£10bn) in 2020.
Sales of athleisure clothing generated $35bn (£25bn) in 2015 – an all-time high – making up 17% of the entire US clothing market, according to market research firm NPD Group.
Yoga pants by Lorna Jane cost $110, while GQ magazine has described Lululemon's yoga pants as a cult obsession among "a certain set of gym-minded women and busy moms across the country". You can even buy Lululemon prayer beads for $108 (£80).
WE ALL KNOW that regular yoga classes and exercise lowers your risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, dementia, and other chronic diseases and serves as a powerful stress-reducer and mood-booster.
But it is only now that such influential government organisations such as why the ACSM and the American Medical Association co-launched Exercise Is Medicine.
..that encourages physicians to refer patients to yoga and fitness professionals in their communities. It is also encouraging yoga and fitness professionals to make connections with physicians.
With health care costs on the rise and with the future of the health insurance industry uncertain, using yoga and exercise as a preventive health tool is perhaps more important than ever.
Serious About Wanting To Be The Best?
If you are curious about yoga, passionate about yoga, or just wanted a few weeks on a yoga retreat in Bali. You would also like to share your new found knowledge, experiences and practice with others? Then the return on your investment will be immediate.
Invest Once For A Lifetime Of Benefits!