text:
Tag Archives: barzani
Meet Haider al-Abadi, Iraq's likely next prime minister
With his appointment by Iraq's new president Fouad Massoum, Haider al-Abadi (حيدر العبادي) is almost certain to become Iraq's next prime minister — even as two-term prime minister Nouri al-Maliki continues to attempt to stop Abadi's selection by any means possible.
So who is Abadi? And what does his selection mean for Iraq's political future?
Like many leading figures in the Shiite opposition movement, Abadi spent much of the Saddam Hussein era in exile, in his case in London. In 2003, like so many other exiles, returned to Iraq when the US military eliminated Saddam's Baathist regime.
From the outset, Abadi took a leading role in Iraq's new government. An electronic engineer, Abadi served as communications minister in the Iraqi Governing Council that reigned between September 2003 and June 2003. Most recently, Abadi was elected deputy speaker of Iraq's parliament last month in what's been a four-month process to elect new national leaders, following the country's April parliamentary elections.
RELATED: Latest Iraqi parliamentary steps
indicate Maliki's replacement
Abadi's appointment has the support of a majority of the Shiite bloc that Maliki once led, the State of Law Coalition (SLC, إئتلاف دولة القانون), and Abadi himself is a member of Maliki's party, Islamic Dawa (حزب الدعوة الإسلامية), the leading force in the SLC. Up until his appointment replacing Maliki, Abadi was as a key Maliki ally, for example, siding with Maliki against Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a former prime minister and former Dawa leader who was kicked out the party in 2008 when he moved to establish a competing group. Continue reading Meet Haider al-Abadi, Iraq's likely next prime minister →
abadibaghdadbarzanierbiliraniraqIraqi KurdistanISISislamic dawaislamic statejaafarikerrykirkukkurdistanmalikimassoummuttahidoonninevehnujayfiobamapeshmergasaddam husseinshiitesistaniSLCstate of law coalitionsunnitalabaniUnited Statesyazidi
Latest Iraqi parliamentary steps indicate Maliki's replacement
With US and Iranian officials publicly pressuring Iraq's parliament to form a new national unity government as quickly as possible, Sunni and Kurdish (and, increasingly, many Shiite) leaders seem united on one thing — they're not enthusiastic about giving Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki a third term in office.
Iraq's parliamentarians took a small step toward forming a new government yesterday when they elected Salim al-Jubouri as the new speaker of the 328-member Council of Representatives (مجلس النواب العراقي). In post-Saddam Iraq, the speakership is reserved for a Sunni, the presidency is reserved for a Kurd, and the premiership for a Shiite. Each official has two deputies such that each group — Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish — winds up with one major office and two deputy offices. Accordingly, when the Iraqi parliament chose Jubouri as the speaker, it also chose his two deputies.
It was the vote to appoint Iraq's Shiite deputy speaker, however, that may hold some clues to the rest of the government formation process. The new speaker has fully two weeks to nominate a candidate for the Iraqi presidency, which means it could take a full month to appoint the president who thereupon has another 15 days to appoint a prime minister.
Though Haidar al-Abadi, a Maliki ally, ultimately won the deputy speakership, he faced an unexpectedly stiff challenge from Ahmad Chalabi, who's gunning for the premiership.
RELATED: Don't blame Obama for Iraq turmoil — blame Maliki
There's been a considerable amount of chatter inside and Iraq about the sudden rehabilitation of Chalabi, a figure upon whom US officials relied heavily in their decision to launch a military invasion against Saddam Hussein in 2003. But for all the talk of his sudden rise, he remains a longshot to become Iraq's next prime minister.
All the same, Abadi's rise also signals that Maliki won't continue as Iraq's prime minister, either. Abadi is not only a member of Maliki's State of Law Coalition (إئتلاف دولة القانون), he's a member of Maliki's party, Islamic Dawa (حزب الدعوة الإسلامية). In April's parliamentary elections, which now seem a lifetime ago in Iraqi politics, Maliki's State of Law Coalition (SLC) won 92 seats, by far the largest bloc in the parliament, itself holding a majority within the Shiite majority. Though , the State of Law Coalition will continue to drive the process within the Shiite bloc, generally, it's farfetched to think that other SLC leaders, not to mention the legislators of the two other Shiite groups, Muqtada al-Sadr's Sadrist Movement (التيار الصدري) and Ammar al-Hakim's Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ICSI, المجلس الأعلى الإسلامي العراقي), would agree to hand over two of the three top offices, including the premiership to Islamic Dawa.
That makes it very likely that the Shiite leadership will turn to another figure, such as Iraq's former oil minister, deputy prime minister and, as of four days ago, its new foreign minister, Hussain al-Shahristani (pictured above), who is a top SLC figure from outside Islamic Dawa. Continue reading Latest Iraqi parliamentary steps indicate Maliki's replacement →
ammar al-hakimbarzanichalabifayyadhakimICSIiraqISISislamic dawaislamic stateislamic supreme counciljaafarijubouriKDPkurdishkurdistanmalikimuqtada al-sadrPUKsadrist movementshahristanishiiteSLCstate of law coalitionsunnitalabani
Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan
Amid Iraqi turmoil, Kurdistan settles new regional government
July 3, 2014 Kevin Lees Leave a comment
The conventional wisdom is that with the growing crisis in the rest of Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan has never been better.
'Better' is a relative term, of course.
But for a region that also features severe corruption, intense political rivalries, a bloated and unaffordable public sector and fiscal dependence (for now, at least) on Baghdad, Iraqi Kurds have reason for optimism.
With Kurdish peshmerga forces in full control of Kirkuk, the Kurdish regional government can now lay claim to the entire historical region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, notorious for his crackdown against Kurdish identity and nationalism, encouraged Arabs to relocate to what Kurds (and Turkmen) consider their cultural capital.
Under Article 140 of Iraq's newly promulgated 2005 constitution, the national government is obligated to take certain steps to reverse the Saddam-era Arabization process and thereupon, permit a referendum to determine whether Kirkuk province's residents wish to join the Kurdistan autonomous region. Like in many areas, from energy to electricity to education to employment, Iraq's national government has made little progress on the Kirkuk issue. Kurdish leaders now say they will hold onto Kirkuk and its oil fields until a referendum can be arranged. Realistically, there's little that Baghdad can do to reverse Kurdish gains.
That, in time, will give Iraqi Kurdistan the oil revenues that it needs for a self-sustaining economy, in tandem with growing Turkish economic ties that crested last year with the completion of a pipeline between Kurdistan and Turkey that allows the Kurdish regional government to ship crude oil out of Iraq without Baghdad's approval.
RELATED: Don't blame Obama for Iraq's turmoil — blame Maliki
In that regard, the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS or ISIL, الدولة الاسلامية في العراق والشام, ad-Dawla al-Islāmiyya fi al-'Irāq wa-sh-Shām), which now controls much of northern and northeastern Iraq, including much of al-Anbar province and northern cities like Mosul and Tikrit, has been a boon for the cause of Kurdish nationalism.
ISIS, which has newly re-christened itself simply the 'Islamic State' (الدولة الإسلامية), has declared a 21st century caliphate over the territory it holds in Iraq and in eastern Syria, with ambitious, if unrealistic, designs on Baghdad and parts of Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia:
Sentiment is so heady these days that the Kurdish regional president, Massoud Barzani (pictured above), despite the hand-wringing of US and Turkish officials, has called for a referendum on Kurdish independence — in months, not years:
We will guard and defend all areas of the Kurdish region – Kurd, Arab, Turkmen, Assyrian, Chaldean, all will be protected. We will endeavor to redevelop and systematize all regions of Kurdistan. We will use our oil revenue to create better and more comfortable living conditions for our citizens. And until the achievement of an Independent Kurdish State, we will cooperate with all to try to find solutions to the current crisis in Iraq. With all our might, we will help our Shia and Sunni brothers in the fight against terrorism and for the betterment of conditions in Iraq – although this is not an easy task.
Amid that backdrop, the various political parties formed a new Kurdish regional government last week, two months after Iraqi national parliamentary elections in Iraq and fully nine months after Kurdish regional elections.
As the United States leans on the Iraqi parliament to form a new government quickly, in order to combat more effectively the ISIS threat in Sunni-dominated Iraq, the Kurdish example is instructive. If it took nine months to reconstitute the Kurdish regional government, is it plausible to expect Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to form a national government, under crisis conditions, in just two months?
Even under calmer conditions in 2010, it took Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki nine months of coalition talks to build Iraq's previous government. Though Maliki's Shiite-dominated State of Law Coalition (إئتلاف دولة القانون) won the greatest number of seats after the April parliamentary elections, many Iraqis fault his heavy-handed style for the sectarian crisis in which Iraq now finds itself.
In the first meeting of Iraq's 325-member Council of Representatives (مجلس النواب العراقي) last week, Sunnis and Kurds alike walked out on Maliki, and there's not much hope that a second session on Tuesday will result in additional progress.
Continue reading Amid Iraqi turmoil, Kurdistan settles new regional government →
barzanibidenerbilerdogangorraniraqIraqi KurdistanISISislamic stateKDPkirkukkurdkurdistankurdistan democratic partymalikimassoud barzanipatriotic union of kurdistanperlemanpeshmergaPKKPUKsaddam husseinshiitestate of law coalitionsunnisyriatalabaniturkey
Maliki bloc leads after Iraqi parliamentary election results announced
May 21, 2014 Kevin Lees Leave a comment
Though Iraqis voted on April 30, it took the better part of May for election officials to announce the results, which appear to be good news for Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Heading into the elections, Maliki led a coalition of mostly Shiite parties, the State of Law Coalition (إئتلاف دولة القانون), dominated by Maliki's own Islamic Dawa Party (حزب الدعوة الإسلامية). Maliki could rely on 89 seats in the 325-member Council of Representatives (مجلس النواب العراقي), Iraq's unicameral legislature, but he governed as the head of a larger 'national unity' coalition after running on a broadly cross-sectarian, nationalist platform in the 2010 elections.
Iraqis, tired from the fierce Sunni-Shiite violence between 2006 and 2008, seemed weary of fighting, and the Iraqi political scene was then turning toward nationalism and away from sectarianism.
In those elections, Maliki's State of Law coalition was actually bested by Ayad Allawi, a Shiite former prime minister who led a Sunni-dominated, cross-sectarian coalition, 'al-Iraqiyya,' the Iraqi National Movement (الحركة الوطنية العراقية).
Allawi, however, wasn't as successful as Maliki in building a governing coalition, so Maliki remained prime minister.
Here was the Chamber of Representatives on the eve of elections:
In the past four years, Iraq has witnessed a return to sectarian violence. After US forces left the country at the end of 2011, terminating a bloody eight-year military occupation, Iraqi security forces struggled to maintain the period of relative calm in which the 2010 elections took place.
Instead, by the beginning of 2014, Maliki was regrouping after radical Sunni militias had taken control of parts of western al-Anbar province, including its largest city, Fallujah. Militias are also taking advantage of the Syrian civil war to stir mischief on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border. The rise in Sunni-Shiite tension comes as relations between the northern Kurdish autonomous government and the central Iraqi government are also fraught over the issue of oil revenues.
RELATED: What is happening in Iraq, Fallujah and al-Anbar province?
Meanwhile, Iraq's 'national unity' government has performed horribly. With corruption running rampant, and with minister more concerned with turf than performance, the country faces daunting problems — power outages, a weak non-oil economy, massive unemployment among a rapidly growing youth population, tax collection failure, among other problems.
So in 2014, Maliki ran a campaign designed to maximize votes within his own Shiite Iraqi community — and it's a strategy that seems to have worked:
Maliki's State of Law Coalition actually increased its share of the seats in the Chamber of Representatives from 89 to 92.
As Zaid al-Ali, a former legal adviser to the United Nations in Iraq writes in his excellent new book, The Struggle for Iraq's Future: How Corruption, Incompetence and Sectarianism Have Undermined Democracy, the immediate results matter less than the fact that Iraq's politics are stunted by elites who shuffle for power at the expense of governance:
Under the current constitutional and legal system, elections will not produce any real alternatives to Iraq's ruling elite. The fortunes of some parties may rise, while others may see their popularity wane somewhat; but the chances of anything emerging outside the current crop of incompetent and corrupt politicians are vanishingly small…. In all likelihood, Iraqis will choose to stay away from the polls in increasing numbers, leaving the politicians to play an aggrandized version of musical chairs while everyone else just watches.
Maliki wins contest among Shiite Iraqis
Maliki's focus on winning Shiite votes effectively turned the 2014 election into a contest among competing Shiite groups, most notably the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI, المجلس الأعلى الإسلامي العراقي), headed by Ammar al-Hakim, and the Sadrist Movement (التيار الصدري), headed by Muqtada al-Sadr, the former militia leader who returned to Iraq after four years of self-exile in Iran (and who, ostensibly, made a fuss earlier this year over his 'retirement' from Iraqi politics). Continue reading Maliki bloc leads after Iraqi parliamentary election results announced →
al-iraqiyyaallawianbarbarzanigorranhakimiraqIraqi KurdistanISCIislamic dawaKDPkurdistanmalikiPUKsadrsadristssectarian violenceshiitestate of law coalitionsunnitalabanizaid al-ali
What is happening in Iraq, Fallujah and al-Anbar province?
January 9, 2014 Kevin Lees 1 Comment
So is it 2004 or 2014? Iraq is once again making headlines, and second-guessing over both George W. Bush and Barack Obama's performance with respect to the US occupation of Iraq is in the news with the publication of former defense secretary Robert Gates.
What do you need to know about Iraq these days? Here's a list of the top 10 question you probably have about the current turn of events there — and probably more than you wanted to know about the state of governance in Iraq today.
So did terrorists take control of Iraq last weekend?
Not quite. A group called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS or ISIL, الدولة الاسلامية في العراق والشام, ad-Dawla al-Islāmiyya fi al-'Irāq wa-sh-Shām), which formerly styled itself as Iraq's local branch of al-Qaeda, took control last Friday of parts of Fallujah and Ramadi, the two largest cities in al-Anbar province. There are signs, however, that ISIS may already be retreating from Fallujah, with Sunni tribesmen (particularly loyal to neither the government nor ISIS) now wresting back control of both cities. Iraq's Shiite prime minister Nouri al-Maliki signaled earlier this week that he planned on launching a military offensive to retake the city using Iraqi national forces, a move that seems surely to cause even more sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shiite Iraqis. For those of you who've forgotten, al-Anbar, at over 53,000 square miles, is the largest of 19 governorates in Iraq, by far the largest province. Its population is just 1.56 million of Iraq's 31 million people, but it forms part of the heart of Iraq's Sunni population — about 97% of Iraq's population is Muslim and about one-third of them are Sunni. Al-Anbar's geography is even more strategically vital, because it borders much of eastern Syria, northern Saudi Arabia and the northeastern tip of Jordan.
What is ISIS? I thought that was the spy agency in the animated Archer series.
ISIS formed in 2003 as a conglomerate of diverse Sunni groups, largely as a response against the US invasion. It fairly quickly pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and soon even became as al-Qaeda in Iraq, and it had its heyday between 2004 and 2006, when US forces killed its leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But ISIS's modern iteration only really emerged in spring 2013, when it started making mischief in northern Syria, and the Syrian cities of Homs and Aleppo. ISIS, like most hardcore Salafist groups, wants to institute sharia law throughout the Middle East, and ISIS's leaders dream of creating a new caliphate that stretches from Arabia to central Africa. More realistically, it's now fighting for dominance in northern Syria and Sunni-dominated western Iraq. Western media outlets are quick to proclaim this weekend's turn of events as 'al-Qaeda regains ground,' but ISIS is really more interested in holding power in Iraq and Syria than in exploding planes into buildings in New York City. Its current leader is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is still sympathetic to al-Qaeda's wider anti-American goals, though, and that's earned him a $10 million bounty, courtesy of the US state department.
Why is Fallujah such a big deal, anyway?
Fallujah holds an important symbolic value because it was the hub of the Sunni counterinsurgency early in the US occupation of Iraq and, in 2004, it became the site of some of the heaviest fighting during the US occupation. One story about Fallujah in National Journal this week managed to quote seven Americans (and not a single Iraqi citizen) about the costs of Fallujah's recent tumult, and an NPR piece noted that many US veterans are crestfallen that their sacrifices a decade ago may have been for naught. That tells you just how important Fallujah is in the narrative of the US involvement in Iraq.
After the first battle of Fallujah in April 2004, US forces were actually forced by insurgents to withdraw, though in the second battle in November 2004, US troops finally took the city, but not without a year or two of further guerrilla attacks. The two battles of Fallujah were responsible for some of the highest casualties of the Iraq War, though many more Iraqis died (some by the controversial use of white phosphorus) than US or allied troops.
The city, which lies on the banks of the Euphrates River, is just 69 kilometers away from Baghdad and, taken together with Ramadi, the capital of al-Anbar governorate, comprises one of the chief Sunni-majority cities in Iraq. Deposed president Saddam Hussein took extra special care to keep Fallujah in his good graces between 1979 and 2003.
So that means Iraq is moving back toward civil war? Continue reading What is happening in Iraq, Fallujah and al-Anbar province? →
afghanistananbarassadbarzanicouncil of representativesfallujahfree syrian armyhakimhezbollahICSIiraniraqISILISISislamislamic rontislamic state of iraq and the levantkarzaiKDPkuridstanlebanonmalikimuslimobamapakistanPUKramadisadrsadristsalafistsaudi arabiashiashiitestate of law coalitionstatus of forces agreementsunnisyriatalabanitaliabanUnited States
Bordered by chaos, Iraqi Kurdistan holds elections in relative oasis of peace and democracy
September 21, 2013 Kevin Lees 2 Comments
If there's any positive monument to the US-led occupation of Iraq, it's the relative autonomy and stability of Iraqi Kurdistan, the northern sliver of Iraq.
Iraqi Kurds are voting in a parliamentary election today that's likely to have profound consequences for the future governance of a region that serves as a bulwark against the sectarian conflict in the south of Iraq, a government in Turkey to the north that remains largely unfriendly to the Kurdish minority and a civil war to the west in Syria.
The election is notable because the Kurdish president of Iraq Jalal Talabani, who is more responsible for today's autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan than any other Kurdish politician, lies ill in Germany after suffering a stroke last December. Talabani's absence makes it likely that the pro-independence party he founded in 1975, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK, یەکێتیی نیشتمانیی کوردستان) will suffer losses in today's election.
It's also notable because, for the first time since Iraqi Kurdistan gained autonomy, the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP, پارتی دیموکراتی کوردستان), will run on separate tickets after an often uneasy alliance first struck in 1992 — the two parties ran on joint tickets in the previous 2005 and 2009 elections, with a joint KDP/PUK administration. KDP leader Masoud Barzani (pictured above, left, with Talabani, right) has served as president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region since 2005.
Home to between 5.5 million and 6.5 million of Iraq's 31 million residents, Iraqi Kurdistan first obtained autonomy in the early 1990s after the sustained efforts of Kurdish nationalist figures like Talabani in the 1970s and the 1980s, when Iraqi Kurds found common cause with Iranian Kurds during the horrific Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. After the imposition of a no-fly zone by US-led forces in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi Kurdistan started to emerge from the iron-fisted rule of Ba'athist strongman Saddam Hussein.
The Kurdish government and the national Iraqi government continue to fight over the sharing of oil revenue and internal territorial disputes, especially from near Kirkuk, where Kurds constitute around 50% of the population, though it lies technically outside of the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Nonetheless, Iraqi Kurdistan's autonomy was cemented with the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 that toppled Saddam. Even as the rest of Iraq crumbled into civil war between Sunni and Shiite militia, Kurdish Iraq only strengthened and Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, became one of the few peaceful urban centers in Iraq. Talabani, who is a Sunni Muslim, became the president of Iraq in April 2005, as an Iraqi leader with primary associations to his Kurdish identity than to the already toxic sectarian rift between Sunni and Shi'a that would come to dominate the rest of the 2000s.
Continue reading Bordered by chaos, Iraqi Kurdistan holds elections in relative oasis of peace and democracy →
ba'ath partybarzanigorraniraniraqIraqi KurdistanKDPkurdkurdistankurdistan democratic partykurdistan islamic unionpatriotic union of kurdistanperlemanPUKsaddam husseinshiasunnitalabaniUnited States


text:
Q: Laravel 5.4 null csrf_token() when posting to route I'm sending an ajax post request, and with Laravel it seems that is done by creating a post route for it. I've set it up so a csrf token is put in the header automaticaly for every ajax request using ajaxSetup. I'm attempting to then catch that header on the backend and verify the tokens match.
In my web routes (which automatically use the web middleware), this returns as expected:
Route::get('/test', function() {
    return csrf_token();
});

However, when I post to a route via AJAX, like either of the below ways:
Attempt 1:
Route::post('/test', 'AjaxController@test');

In the AjaxController construct, followed by an alert in the view:
var_dump(csrf_token().',hi'); die;

Response: ',hi' (csrf_token was null).
Attempt 2:
Route::post('/test', ['test' => csrf_token().',hi', 'uses' => 'AjaxController@test']);

$test = $request->route()->getAction()['test'];
var_dump($test); die;

Response: ',hi' (csrf_token was null).
What I seem to be running into is, with get requests csrf_token() is populated, on my post request, it is not.
Any ideas?

A: check your route group it must apply the web middleware as
Route::group(['middleware' => 'web'], function () {
    Route::get('/test', function() {
       return csrf_token();
       //or return $request->session()->token();
    });
});

A: Finally figured this out.
CSRF can indeed be checked on an ajax post request. I wanted to make sure someone on their own site isn't hitting my ajax endpoint with any success of doing anything, especially for another user.
However, I ran into a Laravel order of operations issue, with the way Laravel sets up the session. I was trying to call a validation method (within in the same class) in the constructor, where I validated for CSRF and verified the requesting user all in one place. I wanted to do this so that any time someone hits this class, I didn't have to call the verification in each public method in the class, I'd only have to call it once.
However, csrf_token(), and the request session in general, is not available to me yet in my construct. It is, however, available to me in the method within the controller class that is called in the route.
For example, given the following route:
Route::post('/test', 'AjaxController@test');

If I injected Request into the construct and then tried to reference anything in the session (in the construct), or get the value of csrf_token(), it will throw an error, because Laravel hasn't set that stuff up yet. But if I reference either of those things in the test method, it'll be there and available just fine.
A bit of a weird Laravel order of operations issue.

A: csrf protections are managed by Laravel Forms. It won't be available when dealing with APIs.
You should have a look at how middlewares are used in Laravel
https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/middleware
Think using API middleware for your APIs ;)

A: If you run this command php artisan make:auth documented here https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/authentication#authentication-quickstart when going to resources/views/layouts/app.blade.php you'll see this:
<meta name="csrf-token" content="{{ csrf_token() }}">

And in app.js
$.ajaxSetup({
    headers: {
        'X-CSRF-TOKEN':$('meta[name="csrf-token"]').attr('content')
    }
});

In 5.3 there was this cool feature which looks as though it has since been removed in 5.4.
<script>
    window.Laravel = <?php echo json_encode([
        'csrfToken' => csrf_token(),
    ]); ?>
</script>

So what you need to do is add the csrf field to every request. Do the first 2 code snippets and you'll be fine. The 3rd I believe is probably for Vue.
Answer to your question: no, no, no and no. CSRF tokens I wouldn't believe are generated in POST requests, it's a Cross site Reference token, not an authentication token. If you're looking for something like authentication token refreshing then checkout JWT although the packages for JWT for laravel are a bit unfinished at the moment; with a little work you can get them working.
https://github.com/tymondesigns/jwt-auth 1.0.*@dev is pretty good. You can then use their refresh middleware to generate new tokens on request but this is quite advanced and unless it's for authentication then I wouldn't bother really.
I believe Dingo (another work in progress I believe) https://github.com/dingo/api uses the above package
Anything else let me know!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Officials ID Man Killed in Mankato Fire
stevenmaltby
Mankato, MN (KROC-AM News) - The victim of an apartment fire in Mankato has been identified.
The Mankato Public Safety Department says 64-year-old Howard Easton died after a fire broke out in an apartment building early Thursday morning. When firefighters arrived at the scene, Easton was not breathing and he was pronounced dead at the scene after efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. Officials reported two other people suffered minor injuries as a result of the fire.
It was reported just after 2 AM in a fourth-floor apartment unit at 413 N. 4th St. in Mankato. The damage was estimated at $100,000. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
News Update: COVID-19: First Coronavirus Death in Minnesota Reported
Filed Under: Fatal fire
Categories: Local News, State News

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Code for America is a non-partisan, non-political 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2009 to address the widening gap between the public and private sectors in their effective use of technology and design. According to its website, the organization works with residents and governments in solving community problems. The organization began by enlisting technology and design professionals to work with city governments in the United States in order to build open-source applications and promote openness, participation, and efficiency in government, and has grown into a cross-sector network of practitioners of civic innovation and a platform for "civic hacking".
Through five programs, Code for America helps government work more like the Internet.
The largest program by numbers is the Brigade, which comprises local groups of civic hackers and other community volunteers who meet regularly to support the technology, design, and open data efforts of their local governments. Over 5,000 people in the US are involved in a Code for America Brigade.
Through the Fellowship program, small teams of developers and designers work with a city, county or state government for a year, building open source apps and helping spread awareness of how contemporary technology works among the government workforce and leadership.
Through the Accelerator, Code for America provides seed funding, office space, and mentorship to civic startups.
Code for America also runs a Peer Network for innovators in local government.
Lastly, Code for All (part of Code for America) organizes similar efforts outside the US, particularly Brigades and fellowship programs in countries around the world.
The Washington Post described Code for America as "the technology world's equivalent of the Peace Corps or Teach for America". The article goes on to say, "They bring fresh blood to the solution process, deliver agile coding and software development skills, and frequently offer new perspectives on the latest technology—something that is often sorely lacking from municipal government IT programs. This is a win-win for cities that need help and for technologists that want to give back and contribute to lower government costs and the delivery of improved government service."
The New York Times described Code for America as "a new nonprofit project... which aims to import the efficiency of the Web into government infrastructures" and "[tries] to make working in government fun and creative".
In 2009, the founder Jennifer Pahlka was working with O'Reilly Media at the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington, DC. A conversation with Andrew Greenhill, the Mayor's Chief of Staff of the City of Tucson, sparked the initial idea for Code for America, when he said "You need to pay attention to the local level, because cities are in major crisis. Revenues are down, costs are up—if we don't change how cities work, they're going to fail." The two began discussing plans for a program that eventually became Code for America, "a one-year fellowship recruiting developers to work for city government". With support from web entrepreneur Leonard Lin, Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media, and technologist Clay A. Johnson, among others, the organization was launched in September 2009.
Code for America connects city governments and web professionals through the Code for America Fellowship program.
The first year of the fellowship program began in January 2011. Twenty fellows were selected from 360 applicants, resulting in a 5.6% acceptance rate. Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Seattle were the four cities selected to participate in the 2011 program.
On January 4, 2012 Code for America began its second year fellowship program with 26 fellows and eight cities: Austin, Chicago, Detroit, Honolulu, Macon, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Santa Cruz.
The 2016 Code for America fellowship program is running in partnership with six cities: Kansas City, Missouri; Long Beach, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City, New York; Salt Lake County, Utah; and Seattle, Washington.
The inaugural 2011 fellowship program launched four projects in Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. Each city partners with a team of five web programmers or designers selected for the fellowship. Over a period of 11 months, the fellows and city government collaborate to develop a web application to solve a civic problem identified by the city in their project proposals. The completed software applications are released as open-source for any city government to use or adapt.
The Civic Commons project focuses on reducing public IT costs by helping government entities share code and best practices. It was launched in September 2010 after the Washington, DC project fell through due to a change in administration. Code for America Commons, as it is now called, is a coordinated effort between Code for America, OpenPlans, and the District of Columbia's Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO). In March 2011, Code for America Commons helped make the Federal IT dashboard freely available to all levels of government, thereby providing local governments with tools to monitor project effectiveness and evaluate the allocation of resources.
In December 2011 Code for America announced the receipt of a $1.5 million grant from Google and the formation of two new programs: Accelerator and Brigade. The Code for America Brigades are local groups of volunteers who build civic apps on open data in cities around the world.
In 2011, CFA coders developed an "Adopt a Hydrant" website, so that volunteers in Boston can sign up to shovel out fire hydrants after storms. The system has also been implemented in Providence, Rhode Island, Anchorage, Alaska, and Chicago. Honolulu has created a similar website, "Adopt-A-Siren", for its tsunami sirens.
In 2012, fellows at Code for America created Honolulu Answers, a web application that provides simple, to-the-point answers to citizens' questions. The web application was populated with citizen input at a write-a-thon, which became a unique model for civic engagement. Both Honolulu Answers and the write-a-thon model have since been redeployed in a dozen cities around the world, including as Oakland Answers and Durban Answers.
In 2015, fellows at Code for America designed GetCalFresh.org, to streamline the CalFresh application process. In California, 40% of people who are eligible for CalFresh, the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, were not receiving benefits. California has the second lowest participation rate in the country. Although an online application is available in California, it can take up to an hour to complete, is more than 50 web pages long, and filled with over a hundred questions. It also doesn't work on mobile devices, despite the fact that most low-income people rely on smartphones for access to the Internet. GetCalFresh takes an average time of 11 minutes to complete and, as of 2016, is being used by 9 counties to help over 1,000 people. In addition, it leverages mobile phone access among applicants to encourage questions and answers, all over text. Current efforts are focused on scaling this solution.
^ "Who We Are". Retrieved 2011-01-15.
^ a b "About Code for America". Retrieved 2014-04-20.
^ "What We Do". Retrieved 2011-01-15.
^ Wadhwa, Vivek (2011-12-16). "Code for America: An elegant solution for government IT problems". Washington Post.
^ Bilton, Nick (2010-07-06). "Changing Government and Tech With Geeks". New York Times.
^ a b c Kamenetz, Anya (2010-11-29). "How an Army of Techies Is Taking On City Hall". Fast Company.
^ a b "Code for America Chooses 20 Developers as Fellows". Mashable. 2010-11-02. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
^ a b "Code for America Fellows to Work with City Governments". Government Technology. 2010-11-03. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
^ a b "Hacker Driven Code for America Kicks Off Today". Fast Company. 2011-01-05. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
^ "codeforamerica.org/2012". 2012. Code for America. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
^ "The 2016 CfA Fellowship | Code for America". Code for America. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
^ "Civic Commons Launched to Help Government Share Technology and Cut Costs". DC.gov. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
^ "Code for America Commons - About". Civic Commons. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
^ "Cost-Saving IT Dashboard Software Now Available to All Levels of Government". Code for America. Archived from the original on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
^ "Google Awards $1.5 Million To Code For America". Google Awards $1.5 Million To Code For America. InformationWeek. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
^ Raja, Tasneem (June 2014). "Is Coding the New Literacy?". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
^ "GetCalFresh.org". getcalfresh.org. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
^ a b "CalFresh | Code for America". Code for America. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
^ America, Code for. "California counties make it easier to apply for CalFresh - Code for America". Code for America. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
^ "Code For America Improves CalFresh Application via SMS". www.twilio.com. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
This page was last edited on 7 February 2019, at 19:05 (UTC).


text:
Light Blue Touchpaper
Security Research, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge
UKRI Digital Security by Design: A £190M research programme around Arm's Morello – an experimental ARMv8-A CPU, SoC, and board with CHERI support
2019-10-18 Open-source security, Operating systems, Processors, Programming languages, UncategorizedArm, CHERI, MorelloRobert N. M. Watson
PIs: Robert N. M. Watson (Cambridge), Simon W. Moore (Cambridge), Peter Sewell (Cambridge), and Peter G. Neumann (SRI)
Since 2010, SRI International and the University of Cambridge, supported by DARPA, have been developing CHERI: a capability-system extension to RISC Instruction-Set Architectures (ISAs) supporting fine-grained memory protection and scalable compartmentalization .. while retaining incremental deployability within current C and C++ software stacks. This ten-year research project has involved hardware-software-semantic co-design: FPGA prototyping, compiler development, operating-system development, and application adaptation, as well as formal modeling and proof. Extensively documented in technical reports and research papers, we have iterated on CHERI as we evaluated and improved microarchitectural overheads, performance, software compatibility, and security.
As we know, mainstream computer systems are still chronically insecure. One of the main reasons for this is that conventional hardware architectures and C/C++ language abstractions, dating back to the 1970s, provide only coarse-grained memory protection. Without memory safety, many coding errors turn into exploitable security vulnerabilities. In our ASPLOS 2019 paper on CheriABI (best paper award), we demonstrated that a complete UNIX userspace and application suite could be protected by strong memory safety with minimal source-code disruption and acceptable performance overheads. Scalable software compartmentalization offers mitigation for future unknown classes of vulnerabilities by enabling greater use of design patterns such as software sandboxing. Our An Introduction to CHERI technical report introduces our approach including the architecture, microarchitectural contributions, formal models, software protection model, and practical software adaptation. The CHERI ISA v7 specification is the authoritative reference to the architecture, including both the architecture-neutral protection model and its concrete mappings into the 64-bit MIPS and 32/64-bit RISC-V ISAs. Our Rigorous Engineering technical report describes our modelling and mechanised proof of key security properties.
Today, we are very excited to be able to talk about another long-running aspect of our DARPA-supported work: A collaboration since 2014 with engineers at Arm to create an experimental adaptation of CHERI to the ARMv8-A architecture. This widely used ISA is the foundation for the vast majority of mobile phones and tablets, including those running iOS and Android. The £170M UKRI program Digital Security by Design (DSbD) was announced in late September 2019 to explore potential applications of CHERI — with a £70M investment by UKRI, and a further £117M from industry including involvement by Arm, Microsoft, and Google. Today, UKRI and Arm announced that the Arm Morello board will become available from 2021: Morello is a prototype 7nm high-end multi-core superscalar ARMv8-A processor (based on Arm's Neoverse N1), SoC, and board implementing experimental CHERI extensions. As part of this effort, the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has also announced a new £8M programme to fund UK academics to work with Morello. Arm will release their Morello adaptation of our CHERI Clang/LLVM toolchain, and we will release a full adaptation of our open-source CHERI reference software stack to Morello (including our CheriBSD operating system and application suite) as foundations for research and prototyping on Morello. Watch the DSbD workshop videos from Robert Watson (Cambridge), Richard Grisenthwaite (Arm), and Manuel Costa (Microsoft) on CHERI and Morello, which are linked below, for more information.
This is an incredible opportunity to validate the CHERI approach, with accompanying systems software and formal verification, through an industrial scale and industrial quality hardware design, and to broaden the research community around CHERI to explore its potential impact. You can read the announcements about Morello here:
A blog post by Richard Grisenthwaite (Chief Architect, Arm) on DSbD and Morello
A blog post by Cambridge's Department of Computer Science and Technology on DSbD and Morello
The announcement from the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
Recordings of several talks on CHERI and Morello are now available from the ISCF Digital Security by Design Challenge Collaborators' Workshop (26 September 2019), including:
Robert Watson (Cambridge)'s talk on CHERI, and on our transition collaboration with Arm (video) (slides)
Richard Grisenthwaite (Arm)'s talk on the Morello board and CHERI transition (video) (slides)
Manuel Costa (Microsoft)'s talk on memory safety and potential opportunities arising with CHERI and Morello (video)
In addition, we are maintaining a CHERI DSbD web page with background information on CHERI, announcements regarding Morello, links to DSbD funding calls, and information regarding software artefacts, formal models, and so on. We will continue to update that page as the programme proceeds.
This has been possible through the contributions of the many members of the CHERI research team over the last ten years, including: Hesham Almatary, Jonathan Anderson, John Baldwin, Hadrien Barrel, Thomas Bauereiss, Ruslan Bukin, David Chisnall, James Clarke, Nirav Dave, Brooks Davis, Lawrence Esswood, Nathaniel W. Filardo, Khilan Gudka, Brett Gutstein, Alexandre Joannou, Robert Kovacsics, Ben Laurie, A. Theo Markettos, J. Edward Maste, Marno van der Maas, Alfredo Mazzinghi, Alan Mujumdar, Prashanth Mundkur, Steven J. Murdoch, Edward Napierala, Kyndylan Nienhuis, Robert Norton-Wright, Philip Paeps, Lucian Paul-Trifu, Alex Richardson, Michael Roe, Colin Rothwell, Peter Rugg, Hassen Saidi, Stacey Son, Domagoj Stolfa, Andrew Turner, Munraj Vadera, Jonathan Woodruff, Hongyan Xia, and Bjoern A. Zeeb.
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. This work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), under contract FA8750-10-C-0237 (CTSRD), with additional support from FA8750-11-C-0249 (MRC2), HR0011-18-C-0016 (ECATS), and FA8650-18-C-7809 (CIFV) as part of the DARPA CRASH, MRC, and SSITH research programs. The views, opinions, and/or findings contained in this report are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official views or policies of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government. We also acknowledge the EPSRC REMS Programme Grant (EP/K008528/1), the ERC ELVER Advanced Grant (789108), the Isaac Newton Trust, the UK Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), Thales E-Security, Microsoft Research Cambridge, Arm Limited, Google, Google DeepMind, HP Enterprise, and the Gates Cambridge Trust.
Online suicide games: a form of digital self-harm or a myth?
2019-10-11 Academic papersOnline games, Self-harm, SuicideMaria Bada
By Maria Bada & Richard Clayton
October is 'Cyber Security Month', and you will see lots of warnings and advice about how to keep yourself safe online. Unfortunately, not every warning is entirely accurate and particularly egregious examples are warnings about 'suicide games' which are said to involve an escalating series of challenges ending in suicide.
Here at the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre, we've been looking into suicide games by interviewing teachers, child protection experts and NGOs; and by tracking mentions of games such as the 'Blue Whale Challenge' and 'Momo' in news stories and on UK Police and related websites.
We found that the stories about online suicide games have no discernable basis in fact and are linked to misperceptions about actual suicides. A key finding of our work is that media, social media and well-meaning (but baseless) warning releases by authorities are spreading the challenge culture and exaggerating fears.
To clarify, virally spreading challenges are real and some are unexpectedly dangerous such as the salt and ice challenge, the cinnamon challenge and more recently skin embroidery. Very sadly of course suicides are also real – but we are convinced that the combination has no basis in fact.
We're not alone in our belief. Snopes investigated Blue Whale in 2017 and deemed the story 'unproven', while in 2019 the BBC posted a detailed history of Blue Whale showing there was no record of such a game prior to a single Russian media article of dubious accuracy. The UK Safer Internet Centre calls the claims around Momo 'fake news', while YouTube has found no evidence to support the claim that there are videos showing or promoting Momo on its platform.
Regardless of whether a challenge is dangerous or not, youngsters are especially motivated to take part, presumably because of a desire for attention and curiosity. The 'challenge culture' is a deeply rooted online phenomenon. Young people are constantly receiving media messages and new norms which not only inform their thinking, but also their values and beliefs.
Although there is no evidence that the suicide games are 'real', authorities around the world have reacted by releasing warnings and creating information campaigns to warn youngsters and parents about the risks. However, a key concern when discussing, or warning of, suicide games is that this drives children towards the very content of concern and raises the risk of 'suicide contagion', which could turn stories into a tragic self-fulfilling prophecy for a small number of vulnerable youths.
Understanding what media content really means, what its source is and why a certain message has been constructed, is crucial for quality understanding and recognition of media mediated messages and their meaning. Adequate answers to all these questions can only be acquired by media literacy. However, in most countries media education is still a secondary activity that teachers or media educators deal with without training or proper material.
Our research recommends that policy measures are taken such as: a) awareness and education to ensure that young people can handle risks online and offline; b) development of national and international strategies and guidelines for suicide prevention and how the news related to suicides is shown in media and social media; c) development of social media and media literacy; d) collaborative efforts of media, legal systems and education to prevent suicides; e) guidance for quality control of warning releases by authorities.
Maria Bada presented this work on 24-26th June 2019, at the 24th Annual CyberPsychology, CyberTherapy & Social Networking Conference (CYPSY24) in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. Click here to access the abstract of this paper – the full version of the paper is currently in peer review and should be available soon.
Honware: A Virtual Honeypot Framework for Capturing CPE and IoT Zero Days
Security Engineering, and Sustainability
2020 Caspar Bowden Award
Rental scams
APWG eCrime 2019
Tim Coote on Honware: A Virtual Honeypot Framework for Capturing CPE and IoT Zero Days
KSzymczyk on Rental scams
tim on Security Engineering: Third Edition
Categories Select Category Academic papers (253) Authentication (64) Awards (23) Banking security (136) Call for papers (29) CL frontpage (1) Cybercrime (74) Electronic voting (12) Internet censorship (61) Jobs (20) Legal issues (221) Meta (15) News coverage (197) Open-source security (20) Operating systems (33) Politics (166) Privacy technology (149) Programmable logic (6) Programming languages (10) Security economics (239) Security engineering (255) Cryptology (47) Hardware & signals (47) Processors (15) Protocols (40) Usability (41) Security psychology (84) Seminars (21) Social networks (38) Spam (6) Three Paper Thursday (9) Uncategorized (11) Useful software (12) Web security (38)
Archives Select Month January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006


Best of - live! Finally in Zagreb!
Saša Huzjak: Best of - live!
It's a same story as then - the exhibition will be a part of Festival of music documentaries DORF (my third one with them, after Rijeka and Varaždin), and I'll be displaying some of my best live images from the archive and from this year, too.
The second edition of the festival organised by Glas podzemlja and MKC Maribor started last Friday, and will continue this Friday with two concerts (Urška Supej kvartet + OrGanic FunkaDelic), jam session and opening of two new exhibitions as part of their accompanying programme!
After displaying selections of my best photographs from concerts and festivals in different cities in the last few years, I'm very proud to announce my first solo photography exhibition in the town where I was originally born - Koprivnica, Croatia!
The exhibition features a selection of images created by photographers who have covered the festival Contemporary Dance Platform since its beginnings and it will be shown in few different venues during the Festival Performa & Platforma 2016.
Group exhibition promoting local photographers (that are not so local anymore) - I'm very privileged to be in the group of my esteemed awarded colleagues which include Sandra Požun, Gregor Radonjič, Matija Brumen, Dejan Bulut and Rene Strgar. The exhibition is a part of Photonic Moments 2016 - Month of photography festival that hosts many great exhibitions mostly in Ljubljana.
I'm very happy to announce my upcoming exhibition called "Zvoki iz Izbe" (Sounds from Izba) which is entirely focused not on the dancers of this great dance school, but on their drummers!
I am very happy to announce that few of my photographs will be exhibited in the upcoming group photography exhibition that will feature photographs of Festival Lent, from four of its, current and past, official photographers: Boštjan Lah, Dejan Bulut, Nebojša Tejić and yours truly.
Being shortlisted with my Lost in Music project photographs for Alfred Fried Photography Award, was a big recognition for my work, especially since there are so many amazing projects and photographs shortlisted this year, and music photography is often look down upon in the photojournalistic world. Honestly, I really feel very honoured to be in such extinguished club. But, the story goes on!
Best of - live! In Varaždin!
After I had to postpone the Zagreb exhibition two weeks ago due to illness, I'm happy to have the opportunity to be a part of DORF festival in Varaždin, and exhibit a small number of my photos in the town very special to me (I had some amazing student years there).
It is with great sadness that I have to inform you that the opening of my photo exhibition "Best of - live!", that was planned for tonight in Zagreb, is postponed due to illness.
Best of - live! In Zagreb!
The opening of the exhibition will take place at 24th October at 20:20 in Fotografski muzej Maribor as part of the PechaKucha Night vol. 13, which will include presentations of few Slovenian photographers and is sure to be an interesting evening for all interested in photography!
Tomaž Praunseis, skater who skated diagonally through Slovenia in the end of last month, will be giving a talk about this humanitarian project this Saturday, 8th June 2013, at Mladinski center Trbovlje. I'm happy to announce that my talented colleague Peter Fettich and me will be exhibiting some photos from this project at the same venue!
Some of the photos that I took at the recent dance photography workshop with Chris Nash, along with the ones from my fellow photographers, will be shown as part of The Moving Gallery project in the next two days, as part of Front@, contemporary dance festival.
After the successful 11th birthday celebration of the online magazine terapija.net in Medika (Zagreb, Croatia) in February this year (read more about that event and my fruitful connection with terapija.net) which included concerts in two clubs and a concert photography group exhibition, the sequel is taking place this Friday. The town is the same, but the venue is different - it's Tvornica Kulture (Culture Factory), the biggest (indie) rock club in the Croatian capital.
Opening of my first solo photographic exhibition, which will be a part of an excellent Croatian Documentary Rock Film Festival DORF will take place at March 15th at 7 PM in Molekula, Rijeka, Croatia.
To mark the anniversary of online magazine terapija.net and celebrate out 11th birthday, we're making a party this Saturday, February 4th 2012 in Zagreb, Croatia with eight nine bands and two DJs performing live, plus an accompanying small concert photography group exhibition from our photographers (yours truly included).
"Monochrome world", group photography exhibition consisting of the best photos from the annual competition for Refoto Magazine, was opened last night in the Artget Gallery in Belgrade.
Big photographic exhibition that will feature selection of the best photos from the competition "Monochrome world" ("Monohromatski svet") of the Serbian photo magazine ReFoto will be opened on January 12th 2012 in the Artget Gallery.
Photography group exhibition called "Moje mesto - bodoča evropska prestolnica kulture" ("My town - future European Capital of Culture"), opened yesterday at Univerzitetna knjižnica Maribor in Maribor, Slovenia, exhibiting four of my photographs, with one of them awarded the 2nd place in the competition.


text:
Q: Remove array from a multidimensional array based on a SQL query My multidimensional array is :
Array (
[0] => stdClass Object (
    [processId] => H5-05848939
    [productCode] => ITBYMZ
    [availabilityStatus] => InstantConfirmation
    [totalPrice] => 27
    [packagingType] => Box
                        )
[1] => stdClass Object (
    [processId] => H5-05848939
    [productCode] => ITOLDZ
    [availabilityStatus] => InstantConfirmation
    [totalPrice] => 37
    [packagingType] => Box
                        )
[2] => stdClass Object (
    [processId] => H5-05848939
    [productCode] => IYDYMZ
    [availabilityStatus] => InstantConfirmation
    [totalPrice] => 37
    [packagingType] => Bulk
                        )
 )

And i have a SQL Database that contains almost all the products images.
I need to remove from the above array all the products that does not have an image.
I query the sql db with below code:
for ($n = 0; $n < 60; $n++) {
    $productc= $productCodes[$n];
    $result = mysql_query("SELECT ImageURL FROM Flat_table where ProductCode= '$productc'", $link);
    if (!$result) {
        die("Database query failed: " . mysql_error());
    }
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
        $ImageURL[$n] = $row["ImageURL"];
    }
}

Have any ideea how can i do this :
I need to remove from the above array all the products that does not have an image.

A: So first just pull all the product codes that dont have an image like:
SELECT f.ProductCode FROM Flat_table f WHERE f.ImageURL IS NULL

Note if your fields are not NULL when empty but something like 0 or and empty string then youll need to adjust that query. After you have all those id's in an array (loop over the result and make an array like Array('IYDYMZ', 'ITOLDZ')) you can just use array filter on the array of product objects:
$filtered = array_filter($arr, function ($a) use ($noImageIds) {
    return !(in_array($a->productCode, $noImageIds));
});

Also you should really use PDO or mysqli, mysql_* functions are deprecated so for PDO a complete solution might look like:
// our array from the api is called $products
$db = new PDO($dsn, $user, $pass);
$db->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);

try {
    $stmt = $db->prepare('SELECT f.ProductCode FROM Flat_table f WHERE f.ImageURL IS NULL');
    $stmt->execute();

    $noImageProducts = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_COLUMN, 0);
    $filteredProducts = array_filter($products, function ($a) use ($noImageProducts) {
        // returning true means "keep", while false means omit
        // if the productCode is in the array it doesnt have an image
        return !(in_array($a->productCode, $noImageProducts));
    });

} catch (Exception $e) {
   echo $e->getMessage();
}


text:
/ Holidays
08 Feb 2022 >
< 15 Feb 2022
Albufeira Jardim Apartments
Dates: 08 Feb 2022 - 15 Feb 2022
Room: 1 bed apartment for 2 guests
There're two outdoor swimming pools, plus one children's, which are surrounded by a wide sun terrace, dotted with sun loungers and parasols. Rooms all come with private bathrooms and a full-sized kitchen – not just a kitchenette. Each has a seating area, satellite TV and a private balcony, with outdoor furniture. The Panoramic restaurant-come-bar, serves a wide range of international cuisine and has a TV with satellite sport channels. There's an additional bar where guests can enjoy a relaxed drink. And if you feel like burning off some of those calories, there are two tennis courts onsite. But there's much to do outside the hotel, with Albuferira's lively bars and restaurants less than 10 minutes' walk away. Praia dos Pescadores, is just one of Albuferira's 25 Blue Flag-winning beaches along its unspoiled 30-metre coastline and all with slightly different features, such as Praia da Oura, which was made for water sports fans and the more secluded Praia da Falesia, which is sheltered by ochre coloured cliffs. And if you can find time between beach-hopping, the picturesque old town, with its white-washed walls, is the ideal place to laze away an afternoon. You can seek out some shade in its churches, which date back to the 1500s, or explore the labyrinth of cobbled alleyways that provide a cooling break from the heat. Come evening, the main square bursts into life and becomes a hub for al fresco eating and drinking. For those looking to explore further, Lagos, the epicentre of Portugal's maritime past, is about an hour's drive away. Albufeira Jardim is 38km from Faro Airport.
Services included: Luggage and airport transfer to the hotel
Travel Agent: Love holidays
Outbound - 08 Feb 2022
London (STN)
Inbound - 15 Feb 2022


Cracked screen? System crashing? Battery issues?
We service a range of devices including iPhone, Samsung, Blackberry and more. Bring yours in for a comprehensive diagnosis or give us a call today.
As Powell River's only smartphone repair centre, we carry a large list of inventory to meet the demands of customers just like you.
Most repairs can be completed in 24 hours or less depending on the parts needed.
We enjoy going the extra mile to build a rapport with our customers for a much more personable experience.
Our expertise means we've been sourcing the best quality OEM and aftermarket parts from vendors since 2011.


text:
should I get a health science degree
Should I Get An Associate Degree in Health Science?
Getting an Associate Degree in Health Science may be exactly what you need to launch your career. It pays well, the required classes are standard, and
Science Degrees health science associates, health science degree, health science jobs, health science salary, how to get a health science degree, is a health science degree hard, should I get a health science degree
Is a Health Science Bachelor Degree Right for You?
College is expensive, so don't get a Health Science Bachelor degree unless you're sure it's what you want to do. There's always time to turn back, but
Science Degrees bachelor degree in health science, degrees in health science, health scientist jobs, how to be a health science major, is a health science degree hard, should I get a health science degree


text:
FACTBOX-Five facts about naturalist E.O. Wilson
By Metro US Posted on December 27, 2021
American biologist E.O. Wilson walks along a path in Lexington
(Reuters) – Here are five facts about American biologist, naturalist and environmentalist E.O. Wilson, hailed as the Darwin of the 21st century, who died on Sunday at age 92 :
* A young Wilson lost most of his vision in his right eye when it was cut by a fish's fin. He said the injury led him to concentrate on ants and other insects because he could examine them up close with his good eye, given that he had trouble spotting larger animals in open areas.
* For his book "Pheidole in the New World," a study of ants, Wilson did all 5,000 drawings himself, Harvard magazine said.
* Wilson grew up in the Southern Baptist church and eventually came to think of himself not as an atheist or agnostic but as a "provisional deist" who is "willing to accept the possibility that there is some kind of intelligent force beyond our current understanding".
* Wilson honed his love of nature in the Boy Scouts, which he called an organization that "seemed invented just for me." He reached the elite rank of Eagle Scout.
* Wilson's other honors include the U.S. National Medal of Science, two Pulitzer Prizes for non-fiction and a spot on Time magazine's list of the 25 most influential people in 1995.
(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Erik Stevenson's 31 leads West Virginia over No. 15 Auburn
Emhoff says somber Auschwitz visit key to antisemitism work


Many people purchase renters insurance without knowing the exact parameters of their plan. Then, when it's too late and they need to file a claim, they don't understand how the claims process works.
• First, remember that you should always have a home inventory when it comes to renters insurance. Often, renters use a video camera to go through their entire rental property to have evidence of what they own. You can also take pictures and make a list.
• Your insurance adjuster will appreciate this video because it gives proper evidence that you own what you are filing a claim for, and it can also back up the value that you are claiming for your items.
• What if you don't have a home inventory? You'll need to make a list of the things that you've lost or that were damaged, and you need to attribute value to these things.
• You also should know about how claims are valued. There are two basic ways that insurance claims work: replacement cost or actual cash value. You want the former because it gives you the ability to be purchase your items at retail prices. If you take the actual cash value, you'll get a depreciated price after you make your claim.
If you are a Raleigh, NC resident and you are looking for a renters insurance plan or would like to learn more about what your plan covers and how claims are made, contact Young Insurance today. We are proud to serve the residents of Raleigh, NC and can help you find a plan that works for you. Give us a call or visit one of our offices at your earliest convenience to get in touch with an agent. We hope to hear from you soon!


BizLink AC Charging Coupler is an industry-standard vehicle connector for convenient charging of Electric Vehicles (EV) and Electric Vehicles Supply Equipment (EVSE). Contact assemblies are sealed against moisture and corrosion and are UL 2251 recognized and are resistant to common automotive fluids.
Design for AC Level 2 charging standard and backward compatible of AC Level 1, 120V and 16A.