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USDA hires FIU professor to develop new dietary guidelines for Americans | FIU News
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have selected Christina Palacios, chair of the Division of Diet and Nutrition at the FIU's Robert Stempel School of Public Health and Social Work, to serve on the Diet 2025 Guidelines Advisory Committee. The committee will advise USDA and HHS on developing guidelines that form the basis for federal nutrition policy and programs, nutrition education efforts, and health promotion and disease prevention initiatives.
The USDA-HHS releases its Dietary Guidelines for Americans every five years to educate policymakers and nutrition and health professionals on how to help individuals and their families eat a healthy, nutritious diet.
"We will see the positive impact of this committee not only in the United States but also around the world, as many countries, given limited resources, look to the United States to prepare their own dietary guidelines," Palacios said. "These dietary guidelines are for everyone. Here in the United States, they will affect all programs related to diet, including the types of foods served from day care centers to school cafeterias, even those served in nursing homes."
Palacios, who is Venezuelan in origin, has her expertise in the dietary patterns of the various Hispanic populations. She is one of 20 nationally recognized nutrition and public health experts charged with examining the relationship between diet and health across all ages. The goal is to ensure that the new guidelines are relevant to people with diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.
"The recent White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health emphasized the need to understand the science of nutrition and the role social structures play when it comes to people eating healthy," HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a press release. "The work of the Advisory Committee will be instrumental in this effort, and in helping HHS and the USDA improve the health and well-being of all Americans."
Palacios started her job as chair of the Diet and Nutrition department last year. In addition to leading the department, she is the principal investigator for the MetA-Bone Trial, a nutrition research study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health aimed at helping children develop strong, healthy bones.
For more than two decades, Palacios has focused her research on obesity prevention, studying the role of diet and physical activity in Hispanic infants, children, adolescents, and pregnant women. As a result, she has had experience developing several dietary guidelines and recommendations for the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization. She is an active member of the American Dietetic Association.
said Tomás R. Guilarte, dean of Stempel College. "We are incredibly proud of her contributions to the health and well-being of people in our community, nationally, and around the world."
Computer Systems Professor Job at UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
Reviewers say these patches can de-puff your eyes in just 10 minutes.


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[Victorian Web Home — Children's Literature —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> George Cruikshank —> Next]
Frontispiece: "The Father proposes to lose the Children!!!"
Facing title-page in George Cruikshank's Fairy Library (1865) with illustrations by George Cruikshank.
George Cruikshank's Fairy Library consists of four short stories published individually in 1853: "Hop-o' My-Thumb," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Cinderella," and "Puss in Boots." Cruikshank was already a distinguished caricaturist and illustrator of books for both children and adults when he produced this work.
Title-page and frontispiece
Relevant passage in the Brothers Grimm original
After the father and mother had grieved some time, they thought that as they could contrive no other way to live they must somehow get rid of their children. One night when the boys were gone to bed, and the fagot-maker and his wife were sitting over a few lighted sticks, to warm themselves, the husband sighed deeply, and said: "You see, my dear, we cannot maintain our children any longer, and to see them die of hunger before my eyes is what I could never bear. I will, therefore, to-morrow morning take them to the forest, and leave them in the thickest part of it, so that they will not be able to find their way back: this will be very easy; for while they amuse themselves with tying up the fagots, we need only slip away when they are looking some other way."
"Ah, husband!" cried the poor wife, "you cannot, no, you never can consent to be the death of your own children."
The husband in vain told her to think how very poor they were.
The wife replied "that this was true, to be sure; but if she was poor, she was still their mother"; and then she cried as if her heart would break. At last she thought how shocking it would be to see them starved to death before their eyes, so she agreed to what her husband had said, and then went sobbing to bed.
Relevant passage from Cruikshank (1853)
One night, after they had said their prayers, and she had put them to bed (and when, she thought, they were all asleep), the father came home and sat down by the side of his wife before the fire, and then began to tell her all the news about the scarcity of all sorts of food, and that he was unable any longer to get bread either for themselves or the children, and that they must, therefore, all starve to death. There was, to be sure, just enough for her and himself for a couple of days, but there was none for the boys; and as it would be a shocking sight to see them all starving, he proposed to his wife that they should take the children out with them in the morning when he went to cut fuel , and that they should leave the children in the great forest.
"No, indeed," cried the tender mother, "I shall do no such thing! If the poor children are to die, I will die with them." But the father insisted that it should be done, got quite angry, and talked so loud that he woke little Hop-o' my-Thumb, who was a very light sleeper, so he sat up in bed and heard all the talk; and after a great deal of crying and opposition, the mother at last consented. . . . — p. 5-6.
"Hop-O'-My-Thumb" was originally told by the French author Charles Perrault (1628-1703) in his Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals, subtitled, Tales of Mother Goose. In this fairytale the youngest of seven brothers from a poor woodcutter's family uses his superior wisdom to keep his siblings safe from an ogre with unusual footwear. Toledo Museum, "Story-Telling in Miniature."
Eliminating much of the direct discourse, Cruikshank emphasizes the scarcity of food as only part of the "Count's" motivation; when he had been drinking, remarks Cruikshank, the Countess knew that "it was no use arguing with him when he was in that state" (6). The immediacey of the conversation is emphasized by the illustration six pages earlier in which, underneath the banner The Father proposes to lose the Children!!! the long-haired, bearded father points at the sleeping children. Cruikshank's
illustrations for the first English translation of Grimm's Fairy Tales were praised widely, but his own rewriting of fairytales was criticised, most prominently by Charles Dickens. This was not due to the quality of the illustrations, but because, in line with his temperance beliefs, Cruikshank rewrote aspects of the fairytales to warn the reader against the evils of alcohol. Thus, for instance, the preparations for Cinderella's marriage include the court throwing all alcohol in the palace on a bonfire; and in "Jack and the Beanstalk," the giant is an alcoholic. Dickens, a friend of Cruikshank, was outraged at what he considered to be a betrayal of the essence of fairytales and, in protest he published an essay in his weekly magazine Household Words entitled "Frauds on the Fairies" in protest (1853). See more at: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/george-cruikshanks-fairy-library#sthash.u2f5mNF3.dpuf — Story-Telling in Miniature.
Alcoholics populate the pages of Cruikshank's Fairy Tales: both the Count and the Ogre in "Hop-o' My-Thumb" are irascible and unreasonable because of two much drinking, and must be mollified by their long-suffering wives.
The brilliant visual satirist George Cruikshank published more than 6,000 graphic works, though he was most known during his lifetime for his book illustrations for popular authors of the day. His artwork included caricatures, social and political satires, pamphlets, drawings, and self-published books. He was self-educated and self-trained as an artist and had a strong and idiosyncratic personality. Later in life he became involved in the Temperance Movement, after which his art became even more focused on social reform.In the mid-1800s Cruikshank rewrote four fairy tales — "Cinderella [and the Glass Slipper]," "The History of Jack and the Beanstalk," "Puss-in-Boots," and "Hop-O'-My-Thumb [and the Seven-League Boots]" — and published them with his illustrations in George Cruikshank's Fairy Library [1853-65].
"Hop-O'-My-Thumb" was originally told by the French author Charles Perrault (1628–1703) in his Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals, subtitled, Tales of Mother Goose [whom Cruikshank depicts in the title-page vignette]. In this fairytale the youngest of seven brothers from a poor woodcutter's family uses his superior wisdom to keep his siblings safe from an ogre with unusual footwear. — Toledo Museum, "George Cruikshank's "Hop-O'-My-thumb." — Story-Telling in Miniature.
Cruikshank may have borrowed the concept of showing different incidents in the plot sequence simultaneously from John Leech in The Chimes (1844), a strategy evident in both Sir Joseph Bowley's and Richard and Margaret. In other words, the presentation of images as if they are occurring at the same time rather than sequentially prepares the reader for encountering them in the text, and enables the reader to see the images in a cause-and-effect relationship rather than discretely. In the Cruikshank frontispiece similarly, the father's proposing to lose the children in the woods and his doing so afterwards are presented simultaneously, while the other threat to the children, the Ogre sandwiched in between caption banners, leers at the reader fromthe upper register, although he makes his entrance much later in the story. If the father had not persuaded the mother to abandon the children in the forest, Hop would not have had to save his brothers from the Ogre, who, like the father, is an alcoholic. Thus, the illustrator's  non-sequential presentation suggests that the events depicted are causally related, although the reader is not aware ofthe connection between the dancing children, the parents in ernest conversation, and thecannibalistic giant.
The parents surreptitiously depart as the children are focussed on their dancing in the Cruikshank frontispiece. In the telling of the story by the Grimms, the parents slip away as before, but this time Hop's schemeto lead the boys safely back home fails:
It was not long before they all set out, and their parents took care to lead them into the very thickest and darkest part of the forest. They then slipped away by a by-path as before, and left the children by themselves again. All this did not give Hop-o'-my-Thumb any concern, for he thought himself quite sure of getting back by means of the crumbs that he had dropped by the way; but when he came to look for them he found that not a crumb was left, for the birds had eaten them all up.
The poor children were now sadly off, for the farther they went the harder it was for them to get out of the forest. At last night came on, and the noise of the wind among the trees seemed to them like the howling of wolves, so that every moment they thought they should be eaten up. They hardly dared to speak a word, or to move a limb, forfear. Soon after there came a heavy rain which wetted them to the very skin, and made the ground so slippery that they fell down at almost every step and got dirty all over.
In the Cruikshank re-telling, the children are not merely gathering wood, a scene which would be rather prosaic (and which would, moreover, seem to be a repetition of the scenario in "Hansel and Grettel"), but are dancing in a ring with Hop in the centre. In other words, Cruikshank reshapes the story for the sake of illustration, and expands this section considerably in order to heighten the suspense:
At length they entered the wood, and the father began chopping away, and the Countess and the children gathering and binding. The Count kept his wife close by him all the time, in order that they might be ready to set off [at] the first opportunity; but whenever he was about to steal away, he always found that little Hop was alongside of him. So, in order to get rid of Master Hop, he told the boys that might leave off work for a little while, and have a bit of play; and he proposed that they should join hands and form a ring, and put little Hop in the middle and dance round him. The boys were all delighted with this game except little Hop, who tried hard to get out of the ring, but his brothers would not let him; and thus, while they were all dancing and shouting, the Count took the opportunity of slipping away, dragging the Countess along with him. The poor mother, although she had determined to go back for the children, was, nevertheless, fearful that they might be lost or come to some harm. So she began to cry, and beg of her husband to let her go back for the children; but he had been draining his bottle, and only gave her harsh words and made her go on quickly, in order that they might get entirely away from the children.
Little Hop-o' my-Thumb's brothers kept on dancing away until they were tired and out of breath, and then they all sat down to rest themselves. But when they looked round and could not see either their father or mother, they jumped up and ran about to look for them; but little Hop stood where he was, for he had noticed which way his parents had gone off. But, oh! when his brothers could not find their parents anywhere, they all looked at one another, and said, "Oh dear, we are lost! oh dear, where's father and mother? Whatever shall we do? — Cruikshank, 8-9.
The cartoonist shows the light and comforting world of the children's home as supported by a grotesque tree with gnarled, twisting arms and two skull-like faces, and a dark, deciduous forest from which the anxious father and reluctant mother (dressed fashionably in the mediaeval idiom as a "count" and "countess") are escaping towards the light at the left margin.
British Library. "George Cruikshank's Fairy Library." Romantics and Victorians. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/george-cruikshanks-fairy-library
Cohen, Jane Rabb. Part One, "Dickens and His Early Illustrators: 1. George Cruikshank. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio University Press, 1980. Pp. 15-38.
Cruikshank, George. George Cruikshank's Fairy Library: "Hop-O'-My-Thumb," "Jack and the Bean-Stalk," "Cinderella," "Puss in Boots". London: George Bell, 1865.
Howard-Tilton Memorial Library. "George Cruikshank." http://library.tulane.edu/exhibits/exhibits/show/fairy_tales/george_cruikshank
Kitton, Frederic G. "George Cruikshank." Dickens and His Illustrators. London: Chapman & Hall, 1899. Pp. 1-28.
Toledo Museum. "George Cruikshank's "Hop-O'-My-thumb." Story-Telling in Miniature.  http://www.toledomuseum.org/exhibitions/online-catalogues/storytelling-in-miniature/118/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Un retrónimo es un tipo de neologismo acuñado para representar un concepto cuyo significado se ha visto afectado debido a la aparición de uno nuevo que incluye una idea más reciente. Así el retrónimo menciona al concepto anterior con la finalidad de diferenciarlo del más reciente.

Así por ejemplo un retrónimo sería guitarra acústica, término acuñado después de la invención de la guitarra eléctrica; es decir que cuando esta última no existía, la primera era simplemente llamada «guitarra».

El término «retrónimo» (tomado del griego) fue acuñado en su forma inglesa (retronym) por el periodista estadounidense Frank Mankiewicz (1924-) y popularizado en 1980 por el divulgador lingüístico estadounidense William Safire (1929-) en su columna del New York Times.
La mayoría de los retrónimos se crean debido a los avances tecnológicos.

El DRAE todavía no ha recogido el vocablo, y recién en el año 2000 su equivalente inglés (retronym) fue incluido en el American Heritage Dictionary.
Habitualmente, el retrónimo consiste en el vocablo original con un adjetivo añadido, que enfatiza la cualidad que lo distingue del significado posterior.

El uso descuidado de retrónimos en ficción histórica puede causar anacronismos. Por ejemplo, hablar de la «Primera Guerra Mundial» en una obra situada en 1935 sería incorrecto: en esa época —en que todavía no había sucedido la Segunda Guerra (1939-1945)— se la llamaba «la Gran Guerra», o «la Guerra del 14».
El uso anacrónico de un retrónimo también puede revelar un fraude documentario; por ejemplo, una descripción de la Primera batalla de Bull Run antes de que tuviera lugar la segunda.

Ejemplos

 bajo acústico o contrabajo (contra bajo eléctrico)
 franco francés (contra franco)
 guitarra acústica (contra guitarra eléctrica)
 leche entera (contra leche descremada)
 medicina convencional (contra medicina tradicional)
 sistema cableado (contra inalámbrico); nótese que el término correcto sería «cableado»
 pavo real (contra pavo)
 piano acústico (contra piano eléctrico)
 Primera Guerra Mundial (contra Segunda Guerra Mundial)
 George H. W. Bush (contra su hijo George W. Bush también presidente de los Estados Unidos de América)

Retrónimos geográficos

 Asia Menor
 Baja California
 Gran Colombia
 Indias Occidentales
 Latinoamérica
 Prusia Occidental
 Viejo Mundo
 Washington D.C.

Retrónimos tecnológicos
 correo postal (contra correo electrónico)
 analógico (contra digital)
 cine 2D (contra cine 3D)
 cine mudo (contra cine)
 Arquitectura de procesador CISC (contra Arquitectura de procesador RISC)
 caja de cambios manual (contra caja de cambios automática)
 cinta abierta (contra el posterior casete, de cinta en cajita)
 CD de audio
 disco de vinilo (contra disco óptico)
 disco duro
 ratón mecánico (contra ratón óptico)
 Computadora de escritorio
 Radio AM (contra FM)
 reloj analógico (contra reloj digital)
 señal terrestre de televisión
 señal de televisión abierta
 teléfono fijo (contra teléfono móvil)
 televisión analógica (contra televisión digital)
 televisor de tubo de rayos catódicos (contra televisor LED, plasma, etc.)
 televisor en blanco y negro (contra televisor de color)

Tipos de palabras
Neologismos

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


All the talk about the Lynx being down this season might be justified, but they've reached the All-Star break with the third-best record in the WNBA.
Yes, the team that started 2-5 is now 15-10 thanks 13 wins in their last 18 games, including three straight victories after Tuesday's 85-82 win over the New York Liberty.
The WNBA race is shaking out a lot like last year's Western Conference race in the NBA played out, with very little separation. In fact, just 2 1/2 games separate the second-place Atlanta Dream and the eighth-place Connecticut Sun.
The eight teams with the highest winning percentages make the playoffs in the WNBA regardless of conference, with the top two seeds receiving a bye into the semifinals and the third and fourth seeds receive a bye into the second round.
Minnesota has nine games left in the regular season, including three in four days coming out of the All-Star break against Los Angeles, Seattle and Atlanta.
The All-Star Game is at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Target Center in Minneapolis, where Maya Moore, Sylvia Fowles and Seimone Augustus will represent the Lynx.
While men's teams have been invited, the Lynx are still waiting.
Rebekkah Brunson has been doing it at a high level for a long time.
Maya Moore is back in the game as a starter for the fifth time.
Maya Moore led the way with 32 points.
It's a team record eighth selection for Seimone Augustus.


It's well known that when a guy meets a girl, the majority of the time the onus will be on him to entertain and gain the attention of the girl. There is a pressure to say the right things, have the right body language and simply give off the right vibe.
Once he has 'won over' the girl, it's thought to be her turn to do all the worrying. Well yes, she knows she like him at this point, and it's at this point worries start to creep in about his intentions. However, even at this stage, you are not alone girls.
Here are the five common worries that guys have at the early stage of a relationship.
He may not show it, but he is excited. If he were not excited at this stage, he wouldn't have got into the relationship in the first place. He is looking forward to what is to come as he is getting to find out things about you that he had no idea about.
There are many new things to learn about you, and new is often exciting.
He is looking forward to getting to know you, very much so. But he doesn't want to show you how much. Why? He's probably worried it might scare you off. It may have happened to him before where he appeared to keen, and the other person was quickly turned-off, leaving him to start the dating process all over again with somebody else.
To prevent this from happening, he may withhold SOME of his excitement, but how much is held back depends on the guy you are dealing with. Proving that it is not only women who try to prevent themselves from getting hurt!
You are getting more comfortable around each other, and you really are enjoying each other's company. But then the inner voice starts to ask him questions. One of the common questions is, "Why is she into me?" This is a question that can throw him right off, as over focus on the answer of this question results in loss of natural behaviour, and reduced focus on just having a good time with you.
It may seem like a question that only those who are unsure of themselves will ask, however this will effect many different types of men. Some will be wondering how you find them interesting, as they don't think they are good enough!
Will my family and friends like them?
Once it is established that he does really like you, thoughts are likely to turn to what his family and friends will make of you. Although this may not be a deciding factor for many men, it is a factor nonetheless.
Some guys are very headstrong, and will do exactly what they wish, but even these guys are aware that their life will be far more peaceful and happy if their close ones approve and get along with his new love interest. His family have been there for him, and he's friends with people as they have got along for a long period of time, so he will respect these people's opinions.
You may be very nervous when you get to meet his friends and family, as it can be a daunting prospect having people quietly judge you. But it is likely your guy is just as nervous of the outcome as you.
Is this someone I could build a life with?
OK, you've passed the friend and family test, and now he is considering if this relationship is for the long-term. His friends like you, his family likes you, and he likes you. He probably won't try to fast forward the relationship at this early stage, but he is aware this may lead to a bit more than some short-lived fun.
Some guys will be fine with this, whilst other guys may get freaked out, as hand-in-hand with a long-term relationship is responsibility and commitment. If your guy is not used to/ready to show these things, this could be unnerving.
However, just because this worries him, it doesn't mean he won't overcome it and make a great boyfriend in the long-term. He just needs to relax, focus on both of you making each other happy and the rest will come.
When to publicly declare you are in a relationship to colleagues, family (and of course as we are in 2017), social media, is a common consideration. Although the worry is common, the result is very varied. Some guys like to publicly announce their new status very early to the world, whilst others prefer to wait much longer before in particular, making social media aware.
A lot of his concern will come from anticipation that your wants for when you want to go public are very different from his. In the early stages of a relationship, everything is blissful, but the topic of "when to make things public", could potentially be the first sign of a very different approach to relationships between the two of you. He knows this, which may lead him to tread the subject carefully.
It may seem like the guy who is eager to tell everyone about your new relationship is the one who will treat you right in the long-term. But these things are not that black and white. Although you can use it as an indication, fundamentally his approach to announcing the relationship is a reflection of how cautious a guy is when it comes to both relationships and life in general.
In summary, although the concerns of guys at the start of a relationship are very common, how a guy reacts to these worries is very different. If he shows signs of worry at these early stages, encourage him to concentrate on the good times you are having now. Let the happy relationships commence!
The LoveHunch app has been made available from this weekend on www.lovehunch.co.uk and the App Store (iOS) and is available for both iPhone and iPads.
There's something to it, I grant you.


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Amid an Embarrassment of Riches, Ransom Gangs Increasingly Outsource Their Work
October 8, 2020 by ITSecurity.Org Ltd
There's an old adage in information security: "Every company gets penetration tested, whether or not they pay someone for the pleasure." Many organizations that do hire professionals to test their network security posture unfortunately tend to focus on fixing vulnerabilities hackers could use to break in. But judging from the proliferation of help-wanted ads for offensive pentesters in the cybercrime underground, today's attackers have exactly zero trouble gaining that initial intrusion: The real challenge seems to be hiring enough people to help everyone profit from the access already gained.
One of the most common ways such access is monetized these days is through ransomware, which holds a victim's data and/or computers hostage unless and until an extortion payment is made. But in most cases, there is a yawning gap of days, weeks or months between the initial intrusion and the deployment of ransomware within a victim organization.
That's because it usually takes time and a good deal of effort for intruders to get from a single infected PC to seizing control over enough resources within the victim organization where it makes sense to launch the ransomware.
This includes pivoting from or converting a single compromised Microsoft Windows user account to an administrator account with greater privileges on the target network; the ability to sidestep and/or disable any security software; and gaining the access needed to disrupt or corrupt any data backup systems the victim firm may have.
Each day, millions of malware-laced emails are blasted out containing booby-trapped attachments. If the attachment is opened, the malicious document proceeds to quietly download additional malware and hacking tools to the victim machine (here's one video example of a malicious Microsoft Office attachment from the malware sandbox service any.run). From there, the infected system will report home to a malware control server operated by the spammers who sent the missive.
At that point, control over the victim machine may be transferred or sold multiple times between different cybercriminals who specialize in exploiting such access. These folks are very often contractors who work with established ransomware groups, and who are paid a set percentage of any eventual ransom payments made by a victim company.
Enter subcontractors like "Dr. Samuil," a cybercriminal who has maintained a presence on more than a dozen top Russian-language cybercrime forums over the past 15 years. In a series of recent advertisements, Dr. Samuil says he's eagerly hiring experienced people who are familiar with tools used by legitimate pentesters for exploiting access once inside of a target company — specifically, post-exploit frameworks like the closely-guarded Cobalt Strike.
"You will be regularly provided select accesses which were audited (these are about 10-15 accesses out of 100) and are worth a try," Dr. Samuil wrote in one such help-wanted ad. "This helps everyone involved to save time. We also have private software that bypasses protection and provides for smooth performance."
From other classified ads he posted in August and September 2020, it seems clear Dr. Samuil's team has some kind of privileged access to financial data on targeted companies that gives them a better idea of how much cash the victim firm may have on hand to pay a ransom demand. To wit:
"There is huge insider information on the companies which we target, including information if there are tape drives and clouds (for example, Datto that is built to last, etc.), which significantly affects the scale of the conversion rate.
– experience with cloud storage, ESXi.
– experience with Active Directory.
– privilege escalation on accounts with limited rights.
* Serious level of insider information on the companies with which we work. There are proofs of large payments, but only for verified LEADs.
* There is also a private MEGA INSIDE , which I will not write about here in public, and it is only for experienced LEADs with their teams.
* We do not look at REVENUE / NET INCOME / Accountant reports, this is our MEGA INSIDE, in which we know exactly how much to confidently squeeze to the maximum in total.
According to cybersecurity firm Intel 471, Dr. Samuil's ad is hardly unique, and there are several other seasoned cybercriminals who are customers of popular ransomware-as-a-service offerings that are hiring sub-contractors to farm out some of the grunt work.
"Within the cybercriminal underground, compromised accesses to organizations are readily bought, sold and traded," Intel 471 CEO Mark Arena said. "A number of security professionals have previously sought to downplay the business impact cybercriminals can have to their organizations."
"But because of the rapidly growing market for compromised accesses and the fact that these could be sold to anyone, organizations need to focus more on efforts to understand, detect and quickly respond to network compromises," Arena continued. "That covers faster patching of the vulnerabilities that matter, ongoing detection and monitoring for criminal malware, and understanding the malware you are seeing in your environment, how it got there, and what it has or could have dropped subsequently."
WHO IS DR. SAMUIL?
In conducting research for this story, KrebsOnSecurity learned that Dr. Samuil is the handle used by the proprietor of multi-vpn[.]biz, a long-running virtual private networking (VPN) service marketed to cybercriminals who are looking to anonymize and encrypt their online traffic by bouncing it through multiple servers around the globe.
Have a Coke and a Molotov cocktail. Image: twitter.com/multivpn
MultiVPN is the product of a company called Ruskod Networks Solutions (a.k.a. ruskod[.]net), which variously claims to be based in the offshore company havens of Belize and the Seychelles, but which appears to be run by a guy living in Russia.
The domain registration records for ruskod[.]net were long ago hidden by WHOIS privacy services. But according to Domaintools.com [an advertiser on this site], the original WHOIS records for the site from the mid-2000s indicate the domain was registered by a Sergey Rakityansky.
This is not an uncommon name in Russia or in many surrounding Eastern European nations. But a former business partner of MultiVPN who had a rather public falling out with Dr. Samuil in the cybercrime underground told KrebsOnSecurity that Rakityansky is indeed Dr. Samuil's real surname, and that he is a 32- or 33-year-old currently living in Bryansk, a city located approximately 200 miles southwest of Moscow.
Neither Dr. Samuil nor MultiVPN have responded to requests for comment.
Filed Under: A Little Sunshine, DomainTools, Dr. Samuil, Intel 471, IT Security, Mark Arena, Ne'er-Do-Well News, Sergey Rakityansky, Web Fraud 2.0
Voice Phishers Targeting Corporate VPNs
August 19, 2020 by ITSecurity.Org Ltd
The COVID-19 epidemic has brought a wave of email phishing attacks that try to trick work-at-home employees into giving away credentials needed to remotely access their employers' networks. But one increasingly brazen group of crooks is taking your standard phishing attack to the next level, marketing a voice phishing service that uses a combination of one-on-one phone calls and custom phishing sites to steal VPN credentials from employees.
According to interviews with several sources, this hybrid phishing gang has a remarkably high success rate, and operates primarily through paid requests or "bounties," where customers seeking access to specific companies or accounts can hire them to target employees working remotely at home.
And over the past six months, the criminals responsible have created dozens if not hundreds of phishing pages targeting some of the world's biggest corporations. For now at least, they appear to be focusing primarily on companies in the financial, telecommunications and social media industries.
"For a number of reasons, this kind of attack is really effective," said Allison Nixon, chief research officer at New York-based cyber investigations firm Unit 221B. "Because of the Coronavirus, we have all these major corporations that previously had entire warehouses full of people who are now working remotely. As a result the attack surface has just exploded."
TARGET: NEW HIRES
A typical engagement begins with a series of phone calls to employees working remotely at a targeted organization. The phishers will explain that they're calling from the employer's IT department to help troubleshoot issues with the company's virtual private networking (VPN) technology.
The employee phishing page bofaticket[.]com. Image: urlscan.io
The goal is to convince the target either to divulge their credentials over the phone or to input them manually at a website set up by the attackers that mimics the organization's corporate email or VPN portal.
Zack Allen is director of threat intelligence for ZeroFOX, a Baltimore-based company that helps customers detect and respond to risks found on social media and other digital channels. Allen has been working with Nixon and several dozen other researchers from various security firms to monitor the activities of this prolific phishing gang in a bid to disrupt their operations.
Allen said the attackers tend to focus on phishing new hires at targeted companies, and will often pose as new employees themselves working in the company's IT division. To make that claim more believable, the phishers will create LinkedIn profiles and seek to connect those profiles with other employees from that same organization to support the illusion that the phony profile actually belongs to someone inside the targeted firm.
"They'll say 'Hey, I'm new to the company, but you can check me out on LinkedIn' or Microsoft Teams or Slack, or whatever platform the company uses for internal communications," Allen said. "There tends to be a lot of pretext in these conversations around the communications and work-from-home applications that companies are using. But eventually, they tell the employee they have to fix their VPN and can they please log into this website."
SPEAR VISHING
The domains used for these pages often invoke the company's name, followed or preceded by hyphenated terms such as "vpn," "ticket," "employee," or "portal." The phishing sites also may include working links to the organization's other internal online resources to make the scheme seem more believable if a target starts hovering over links on the page.
Allen said a typical voice phishing or "vishing" attack by this group involves at least two perpetrators: One who is social engineering the target over the phone, and another co-conspirator who takes any credentials entered at the phishing page and quickly uses them to log in to the target company's VPN platform in real-time.
Time is of the essence in these attacks because many companies that rely on VPNs for remote employee access also require employees to supply some type of multi-factor authentication in addition to a username and password — such as a one-time numeric code generated by a mobile app or text message. And in many cases, those codes are only good for a short duration — often measured in seconds or minutes.
But these vishers can easily sidestep that layer of protection, because their phishing pages simply request the one-time code as well.
A phishing page (helpdesk-att[.]com) targeting AT&T employees. Image: urlscan.io
Allen said it matters little to the attackers if the first few social engineering attempts fail. Most targeted employees are working from home or can be reached on a mobile device. If at first the attackers don't succeed, they simply try again with a different employee.
And with each passing attempt, the phishers can glean important details from employees about the target's operations, such as company-specific lingo used to describe its various online assets, or its corporate hierarchy.
Thus, each unsuccessful attempt actually teaches the fraudsters how to refine their social engineering approach with the next mark within the targeted organization, Nixon said.
"These guys are calling companies over and over, trying to learn how the corporation works from the inside," she said.
NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T
All of the security researchers interviewed for this story said the phishing gang is pseudonymously registering their domains at just a handful of domain registrars that accept bitcoin, and that the crooks typically create just one domain per registrar account.
"They'll do this because that way if one domain gets burned or taken down, they won't lose the rest of their domains," Allen said.
More importantly, the attackers are careful to do nothing with the phishing domain until they are ready to initiate a vishing call to a potential victim. And when the attack or call is complete, they disable the website tied to the domain.
This is key because many domain registrars will only respond to external requests to take down a phishing website if the site is live at the time of the abuse complaint. This requirement can stymie efforts by companies like ZeroFOX that focus on identifying newly-registered phishing domains before they can be used for fraud.
"They'll only boot up the website and have it respond at the time of the attack," Allen said. "And it's super frustrating because if you file an abuse ticket with the registrar and say, 'Please take this domain away because we're 100 percent confident this site is going to be used for badness,' they won't do that if they don't see an active attack going on. They'll respond that according to their policies, the domain has to be a live phishing site for them to take it down. And these bad actors know that, and they're exploiting that policy very effectively."
A phishing page (github-ticket[.]com) aimed at siphoning credentials for a target organization's access to the software development platform Github. Image: urlscan.io
SCHOOL OF HACKS
Both Nixon and Allen said the object of these phishing attacks seems to be to gain access to as many internal company tools as possible, and to use those tools to seize control over digital assets that can quickly be turned into cash. Primarily, that includes any social media and email accounts, as well as associated financial instruments such as bank accounts and any cryptocurrencies.
Nixon said she and others in her research group believe the people behind these sophisticated vishing campaigns hail from a community of young men who have spent years learning how to social engineer employees at mobile phone companies and social media firms into giving up access to internal company tools.
Traditionally, the goal of these attacks has been gaining control over highly-prized social media accounts, which can sometimes fetch thousands of dollars when resold in the cybercrime underground. But this activity gradually has evolved toward more direct and aggressive monetization of such access.
On July 15, a number of high-profile Twitter accounts were used to tweet out a bitcoin scam that earned more than $100,000 in a few hours. According to Twitter, that attack succeeded because the perpetrators were able to social engineer several Twitter employees over the phone into giving away access to internal Twitter tools.
Nixon said it's not clear whether any of the people involved in the Twitter compromise are associated with this vishing gang, but she noted that the group showed no signs of slacking off after federal authorities charged several people with taking part in the Twitter hack.
"A lot of people just shut their brains off when they hear the latest big hack wasn't done by hackers in North Korea or Russia but instead some teenagers in the United States," Nixon said. "When people hear it's just teenagers involved, they tend to discount it. But the kinds of people responsible for these voice phishing attacks have now been doing this for several years. And unfortunately, they've gotten pretty advanced, and their operational security is much better now."
A phishing page (vzw-employee[.]com) targeting employees of Verizon. Image: DomainTools
PROPER ADULT MONEY-LAUNDERING
While it may seem amateurish or myopic for attackers who gain access to a Fortune 100 company's internal systems to focus mainly on stealing bitcoin and social media accounts, that access — once established — can be re-used and re-sold to others in a variety of ways.
"These guys do intrusion work for hire, and will accept money for any purpose," Nixon said. "This stuff can very quickly branch out to other purposes for hacking."
For example, Allen said he suspects that once inside of a target company's VPN, the attackers may try to add a new mobile device or phone number to the phished employee's account as a way to generate additional one-time codes for future access by the phishers themselves or anyone else willing to pay for that access.
Nixon and Allen said the activities of this vishing gang have drawn the attention of U.S. federal authorities, who are growing concerned over indications that those responsible are starting to expand their operations to include criminal organizations overseas.
"What we see now is this group is really good on the intrusion part, and really weak on the cashout part," Nixon said. "But they are learning how to maximize the gains from their activities. That's going to require interactions with foreign gangs and learning how to do proper adult money laundering, and we're already seeing signs that they're growing up very quickly now."
WHAT CAN COMPANIES DO?
Many companies now make security awareness and training an integral part of their operations. Some firms even periodically send test phishing messages to their employees to gauge their awareness levels, and then require employees who miss the mark to undergo additional training.
Such precautions, while important and potentially helpful, may do little to combat these phone-based phishing attacks that tend to target new employees. Both Allen and Nixon — as well as others interviewed for this story who asked not to be named — said the weakest link in most corporate VPN security setups these days is the method relied upon for multi-factor authentication.
A U2F device made by Yubikey, plugged into the USB port on a computer.
One multi-factor option — physical security keys — appears to be immune to these sophisticated scams. The most commonly used security keys are inexpensive USB-based devices. A security key implements a form of multi-factor authentication known as Universal 2nd Factor (U2F), which allows the user to complete the login process simply by inserting the USB device and pressing a button on the device. The key works without the need for any special software drivers.
The allure of U2F devices for multi-factor authentication is that even if an employee who has enrolled a security key for authentication tries to log in at an impostor site, the company's systems simply refuse to request the security key if the user isn't on their employer's legitimate website, and the login attempt fails. Thus, the second factor cannot be phished, either over the phone or Internet.
In July 2018, Google disclosed that it had not had any of its 85,000+ employees successfully phished on their work-related accounts since early 2017, when it began requiring all employees to use physical security keys in place of one-time codes.
Probably the most popular maker of security keys is Yubico, which sells a basic U2F Yubikey for $20. It offers regular USB versions as well as those made for devices that require USB-C connections, such as Apple's newer Mac OS systems. Yubico also sells more expensive keys designed to work with mobile devices. [Full disclosure: Yubico was recently an advertiser on this site].
Nixon said many companies will likely balk at the price tag associated with equipping each employee with a physical security key. But she said as long as most employees continue to work remotely, this is probably a wise investment given the scale and aggressiveness of these voice phishing campaigns.
"The truth is some companies are in a lot of pain right now, and they're having to put out fires while attackers are setting new fires," she said. "Fixing this problem is not going to be simple, easy or cheap. And there are risks involved if you somehow screw up a bunch of employees accessing the VPN. But apparently these threat actors really hate Yubikey right now."
Filed Under: Allison Nixon, DomainTools, IT Security, Latest Warnings, Security Keys, The Coming Storm, Unit 221B, urlscan.io, vishing, VPN phishing, Yubico, Yubikey, Zack Allen, ZeroFOX
Who's Behind the "Reopen" Domain Surge?
April 20, 2020 by ITSecurity.Org Ltd
The past few weeks have seen a large number of new domain registrations beginning with the word "reopen" and ending with U.S. city or state names. The largest number of them were created just hours after President Trump sent a series of all-caps tweets urging citizens to "liberate" themselves from new gun control measures and state leaders who've enacted strict social distancing restrictions in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's a closer look at who and what appear to be behind these domains.
A series of inciteful tweets sent by President Trump on April 17, the same day dozens of state-themed "reopen" domains were registered — mostly by conservative groups and gun rights advocates.
KrebsOnSecurity began this research after reading a fascinating Reddit thread over the weekend on several "reopen" sites that seemed to be engaged in astroturfing, which involves masking the sponsors of a message or organization to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants.
The Reddit discussion focused on a handful of new domains — including reopenmn.com, reopenpa.com, and reopenva.com — that appeared to be tied to various gun rights groups in those states. Their registrations have roughly coincided with contemporaneous demonstrations in Minnesota, California and Tennessee where people showed up to protest quarantine restrictions over the past few days.
A "reopen California" protest over the weekend in Huntington Beach, Calif. Image: Reddit.
Suspecting that these were but a subset of a larger corpus of similar domains registered for every state in the union, KrebsOnSecurity ran a domain search report at DomainTools [an advertiser on this site], requesting any and all domains registered in the past month that begin with "reopen" and end in ".com."
That lookup returned approximately 150 domains; in addition to those named after the individual 50 states, some of the domains refer to large American cities or counties, and others to more general concepts, such as "reopeningchurch.com" or "reopenamericanbusiness.com."
Many of the domains are still dormant, leading to parked pages and registration records obscured behind privacy protection services. But a review of other details about these domains suggests a majority of them are tied to various gun rights groups, state Republican Party organizations, and conservative think tanks, religious and advocacy groups.
For example, reopenmn.com forwards to minnesotagunrights.org, but the site's WHOIS registration records (obscured since the Reddit thread went viral) point to an individual living in Florida. That same Florida resident registered reopenpa.com, a site that forwards to the Pennsylvania Firearms Association, and urges the state's residents to contact their governor about easing the COVID-19 restrictions.
Reopenpa.com is tied to a Facebook page called Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine, which sought to organize an "Operation Gridlock" protest at noon today in Pennsylvania among its 68,000 members.
Both the Minnesota and Pennsylvania gun advocacy sites include the same Google Analytics tracker in their source code: UA-60996284. A cursory Internet search on that code shows it also is present on reopentexasnow.com, reopenwi.com and reopeniowa.com.
More importantly, the same code shows up on a number of other anti-gun control sites registered by the Dorr Brothers, real-life brothers who have created nonprofits (in name only) across dozens of states that are so extreme in their stance they make the National Rifle Association look like a liberal group by comparison.
This 2019 article at cleveland.com quotes several 2nd Amendment advocates saying the Dorr brothers simply seek "to stir the pot and make as much animosity as they can, and then raise money off that animosity." The site dorrbrotherscams.com also is instructive here.
A number of other sites — such as reopennc.com — seem to exist merely to sell t-shirts, decals and yard signs with such slogans as "Know Your Rights," "Live Free or Die," and "Facts not Fear." WHOIS records show the same Florida resident who registered this North Carolina site also registered one for New York — reopenny.com — just a few minutes later.
Merchandise available from reopennc.com.
Some of the concept reopen domains — including reopenoureconomy.com (registered Apr. 15) and reopensociety.com (Apr. 16) — trace back to FreedomWorks, a conservative group that the Associated Press says has been holding weekly virtual town halls with members of Congress, "igniting an activist base of thousands of supporters across the nation to back up the effort."
Reopenoc.com — which advocates for lifting social restrictions in Orange County, Calif. — links to a Facebook page for Orange County Republicans, and has been chronicling the street protests there. The messaging on Reopensc.com — urging visitors to digitally sign a reopen petition to the state governor — is identical to the message on the Facebook page of the Horry County, SC Conservative Republicans.
Reopenmississippi.com was registered on April 16 to In Pursuit of LLC, an Arlington, Va.-based conservative group with a number of former employees who currently work at the White House or in cabinet agencies. A 2016 story from USA Today says In Pursuit Of LLC is a for-profit communications agency launched by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch.
Many of the reopen sites that have redacted names and other information about their registrants nevertheless hold other clues, mainly based on precisely when they were registered. Each domain registration record includes a date and timestamp down to the second that the domain was registered. By grouping the timestamps for domains that have obfuscated registration details and comparing them to domains that do include ownership data, we can infer more information.
For example, more than 50 reopen domains were registered within an hour of each other on April 17 — between 3:25 p.m. ET and 4:43 ET. Most of these lack registration details, but a handful of them did (until the Reddit post went viral) include the registrant name Michael Murphy, the same name tied to the aforementioned Minnesota and Pennsylvania gun rights domains (reopenmn.com and reopenpa.com) that were registered within seconds of each other on April 8.
A large number of "reopen" domains were registered within the same one-hour period on April 17, and tie back to the same name used in the various reopen domains connected to gun rights groups. A link to the spreadsheet where this screen shot is drawn from is included below.
A Google spreadsheet documenting much of the domain information sourced in this story is available here.
No one responded to the email addresses and phone numbers tied to Mr. Murphy, who may or may not have been involved in this domain registration scheme. Those contact details suggest he runs a store in Florida that makes art out of reclaimed or discarded items, and that he operates a Web site design company in Florida.
Update, April 21, 6:40 a.m. ET: Mother Jones has published a compelling interview with Mr. Murphy, who says he registered thousands of dollars worth of "reopen" and "liberate" domains to keep them out of the hands of people trying to organize protests. KrebsOnSecurity has not be able to validate this report, but it's a fascinating twist to this tale: How an 'Old Hippie' Got Accused of Astroturfing the Right-Wing Campaign to Reopen the Economy.
As much as President Trump likes to refer to stories critical of him and his administration as "fake news," this type of astroturfing is not only dangerous to public health, but it's reminiscent of the playbook used by Russia to sow discord, create phony protest events, and spread disinformation across America in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
This entire astroturfing campaign also brings to mind a "local news" network called Local Government Information Services (LGIS), an organization founded in 2018 which operates a huge network of hundreds of sites that purport to be local news sites in various states. However, most of the content is generated by automated computer algorithms that consume data from reports released by U.S. executive branch federal agencies.
The relatively scarce actual bylined content on these LGIS sites is authored by freelancers who are in most cases nowhere near the localities they cover. Other content not drawn from government reports often repurpose press releases from conservative Web sites, including gunrightswatch.com, taxfoundation.org, and The Heritage Foundation. For more on LGIS, check out the 2018 coverage from The Chicago Tribune and the Columbia Journalism Review.
Filed Under: A Little Sunshine, astroturfing, Breadcrumbs, DomainTools, Dorr Brothers, FreedomWorks, gunrightswatch.com, In Pursuit of LLC, IT Security, Local Government Information Services, Michael Murphy, minnesotagunrights.org, Pennsylvania Firearms Association, Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine, reopenamericanbusiness.com, reopeningchurch.com, reopeniowa.com, Reopenmississippi.com, reopenmn.com, reopennc.com, reopenny.com, Reopenoc.com, reopenoureconomy.com, reopenpa.com, reopensociety.com, reopentexasnow.com, reopenva.com, reopenwi.com, taxfoundation.org, The Heritage Foundation, UA-60996284
Sipping from the Coronavirus Domain Firehose
Security experts are poring over thousands of new Coronavirus-themed domain names registered each day, but this often manual effort struggles to keep pace with the flood of domains invoking the virus to promote malware and phishing sites, as well as non-existent healthcare products and charities. As a result, domain name registrars are under increasing pressure to do more to combat scams and misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
By most measures, the volume of new domain registrations that include the words "Coronavirus" or "Covid" has closely tracked the spread of the deadly virus. The Cyber Threat Coalition (CTC), a group of several thousand security experts volunteering their time to fight COVID-related criminal activity online, recently published data showing the rapid rise in new domains began in the last week of February, around the same time the Centers for Disease Control began publicly warning that a severe global pandemic was probably inevitable.
The total number of domains registered per day that contain a COVID-19 related term, according to DomainTools. The red line indicates the count of domains that DomainTools determined are "likely malicious." The blue line refers to domains that are likely benign.
"Since March 20th, the number of risky domains registered per day has been decreasing, with a notable spike around March 30th," wrote John Conwell, principal data scientist at DomainTools [an advertiser on this site]. "Interestingly, legitimate organizations creating domains in response to the COVID-19 crisis were several weeks behind the curve from threat actors trying to take advantage of this situation. This is a pattern DomainTools hasn't seen before in other crises."
Security vendor Sophos looked at telemetry from customer endpoints to illustrate the number of new COVID-related domains that actually received traffic of late. As the company noted, one challenge in identifying potentially malicious domains is that many of them can sit dormant for days or weeks before being used for anything.
Data from security vendor Sophos, published by the Cyber Threat Coalition, shows the number of Coronavirus or COVID-19 themed domains registered per week that received traffic.
"We can see a rapid and dramatic increase of visits to potentially malicious domains exploiting the Coronavirus pandemic week over week, beginning in late February," wrote Sophos' Rich Harang. "Even though still a minority of cyber threats use the pandemic as a lure, some of these new domains will eventually be used for malicious purposes."
CTC spokesman Nick Espinosa said the first spike in visits was on February 25, when group members saw about 4,000 visits to the sites they were tracking.
"The following two weeks starting on March 9 saw rapid growth, and from March 23 onwards we're seeing between 75,000 to 130,000 visits per weekday, and about 40,000 on the weekends," Espinosa said. "Looking at the data collected, the pattern of visits are highest on Monday and Friday, and the lowest visit count is on the weekend. Our data shows that there were virtually no customer hits on COVID-related domains prior to February 23."
Milwaukee-based Hold Security has been publishing daily and weekly lists of all COVID-19 related domain registrations (without any scoring assigned). Here's a graph KrebsOnSecurity put together based on that data set, which also shows a massive spike in new domain registrations in the third week of March, trailing off considerably over the past couple of weeks.
Data: Hold Security.
Not everyone is convinced we're measuring the right things, or that the current measurements are accurate. Neil Schwartzman, executive director of the anti-spam group CAUCE, said he believes DomainTool's estimates on the percentage of new COVID/Coronavirus-themed domains that are malicious are too high, and that many are likely benign and registered by well-meaning people seeking to share news or their own thoughts about the outbreak.
"But there's the rub," he said. "Bad guys get to hide amidst the good really effectively, so each one needs to be reviewed on its own. And that's a substantial amount of work."
At the same time, Schwartzman said, focusing purely on domains may obscure the true size and scope of the overall threat. That's because scammers very often will establish multiple subdomains for each domain, meaning that a single COVID-related new domain registration could eventually be tied to a number of different scammy or malicious sites.
Subdomains can not only make phishing domains appear more legitimate, but they also tend to lengthen the domain so that key parts of it get pushed off the URL bar in mobile browsers.
To that end, he said, it makes perhaps the most sense to focus on new domain registrations that have encryption certificates tied to them, since the issuance of an SSL certificate for a domain is usually a sign that it is about to be put to use. As noted in previous stories here, roughly 75 percent of all phishing sites now have the padlock (start with "https://"), mainly because the major Web browsers display security alerts on sites that don't.
Schwartzman said more domain registrars should follow the example of Los Angeles-based Namecheap Inc., which last month pledged to stop accepting the automated registration of website names that include words or phrases tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, a handful of other registrars have said they plan to manually review all such registrations going forward.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization that oversees the registrar industry, recently sent a letter urging registrars to be more proactive, but stopped short of mandating any specific actions.
Schwartzman called ICANN's response "weak tea."
"It's absolutely ludicrous that ICANN hasn't stepped up, and they will bear significant responsibility for any deaths that may happen as a result of all this," Schwartzman said. "This is a CYA response at best, and dictates to no one that they should do anything."
Michael Daniel, president of the Cyber Threat Alliance — a cybersecurity industry group that's also been working to fight COVID-19 related fraud — agreed, saying more pressure needs to be applied to the registrar community.
"It's really hard to do anything about this unless the registrars step up and do something on their own," Daniel said. "It's either that or the government gets involved. That doesn't mean some [registrars] aren't doing what they can, but in general what the industry is doing is nowhere near as fast as the bad guys are generating these domains."
The U.S. government may well soon get more involved. Earlier this week, Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) sent letters to eight domain name company leaders, demanding to know what they were doing to combat the threat of malicious domains, and urging them to do more.
"As cybercriminals and other malevolent actors seek to take advantage of the Coronavirus pandemic, it is critical that domain name registrars like yours (1) exercise diligence and ensure that only legitimate organizations can register Coronavirus-related domain names and domain names referencing online communications platforms; (2) act quickly to suspend, cancel, or terminate registrations for domains that are involved in unlawful or harmful activity; and (3) cooperate with law enforcement to help bring to justice cybercriminals profiting from the Coronavirus pandemic," the senators wrote.
Filed Under: CAUCE, Centers for Disease Control, COVID-19, Cyber Threat Alliance, Cyber Threat Coalition, DomainTools, Hold Security, IT Security, John Conwell, Latest Warnings, Michael Daniel, Neil Schwartzman, phishlabs, Rich Harang, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Maggie Hassan, Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, Sophos, The Coming Storm, Web Fraud 2.0


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RTsoft Forums > Official Robinson Technologies Forums > RTsoft Tavern > Do you have any mystical things happened to you before?
View Full Version : Do you have any mystical things happened to you before?
Me having such slow internet connection is a mystical phenomenon.
BTW, when did you get unbanned?
I remember the day that I bumped my head on to a glass when I was a kid. The glass broke, but I didn't feel pain nor was I bleeding.
OT: Since you have a shark as an avatar, I'm just going to leave this (https://www.reddit.com/r/TsundereSharks/top/) here.
The link you put doesn't work..
Sometimes, I have a (realistic)dream that after a few days later, it came true irl... Well, atleast i think it did... :scratch: And by realistic dream I meant a dream without superpowers, zombies, and OP stuff. Just a normal human life thingy.
How so? Like what does it say and all that stuff.
If you want to see the interesting stuff, just add "/top" at the URL.
Edit: Welp, seems like there's nothing I can do. I'm just going to stop posting to avoid the thread from getting derailed.
The link is fine. It's your fault. Check if you're able to access Reddit.
Reddit is blocked in Indonesia.


Write each equation on a new line or separate by a semicolon. Unknows are a,b,c ... z. A Diophantine equation is a polynomial equation, usually in two or more unknowns, such that only the integer solutions are studied. An integer solution is a solution such that all the unknowns take integer values). Diophantine problems have fewer equations than unknown variables and involve finding integers that work correctly for all equations.


Cliché. Overrated. Too commercialised. Overly crowded. Terms that I used to associate Bora with. (I'd like to believe that) I am the type who, as much as possible, avoids riding on bandwagon—the type who loses interest in anything exceedingly popular. And I think it is true most of the time.
I've had chances in the past to visit Bora, but decided against them. Stubborn and full of pride that I was, I ignored invitations and/or suggestions. Ironically though, if anyone (non-Filipino) asks me about suggested places to visit in the Philippines for a holiday trip, I would suggest Bora. But it was always with a caveat that I've never been to the island myself. Strange. I think I had it in me—I wanted Bora to prove to me that my pre-conceived idea of it is lacking any basis.
And then came end of 2015/early 2016, when Phil and I decided to come home to the Philippines. El Nido and Bora were in a race to get my decision as one of the places to take Phil to. I've asked a few friends. I've considered what both Phil and I would prefer doing—definitely just lying on the shore and catching some tan isn't our preferred way to spend the time. We both like to stay in motion. And after feedback from friends, I decided to give Bora a chance. Apparently, Bora has loads to offer!
And it didn't fail. Thankfully.
The day that I gave Bora a chance, was the day that I can confidently say to foreign friends that they should visit the island as well. Confident (and more proud) now because I've seen and I've been to Bora myself! And to be fair, my preconceived idea of it being overrated has been erased. It's still cliché but heck! Like Paris, it's still a good idea! It absolutely is a tropical paradise.
2016 January – Boracay from Resident Slacker on Vimeo.


At the time of its construction (completed in 1928), this was the largest building of its kind in the world and the first Functionalist building in Prague. Today it serves the needs of the National Gallery. A unique collection of Czech and international modern and contemporary art, it includes some extremely valuable examples of French and European art, including important works by such illustrious names as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Gustav Klimt and many more.


text:
Charles Michael Cotten, MD
Professor of Pediatrics
Chief, Division of Pediatric Neonatology
Campus mail: 2400 Pratt Street, 8th Floor, Durham, NC 27710
Email address: michael.cotten@duke.edu
I am involved in 4 major areas of research:
1) Neuroprotection. Working with colleagues from Cell Therapies, we have added to Duke's experience participating in pivotal trials of hypothermia for term newborns with moderate to severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) by completing a phase I study of autologous cord blood cells for these infants, and developing and currently leading a multicenter, double-blind randomized clinical trial of autologous cord blood cells or placebo in term infants with moderate or severe HIE. We recently completed, w/ funding from Duke's CTSI support, the first phase I single center study of allogeneic cord tissue derived mesenchymal stromal cells for newborns with moderate or severe HIE who do not have autologous cells available.
2) Genomics. We at Duke have been in the NICHD Neonatal Research Network (NRN) since 2001. I led the NRN's development of an Anonymized DNA bank of samples collected from 1,000 extremely low birthweight infants, with phenotype information linked to the samples. This resource has been the basis for multiple candidate gene, and genome wide scan analysis, and has identified variants associated with severe retinopathy of prematurity and necrotizing enterocolitis. We are in the process of partnering with the Vermont Oxford Network-Rady Genomics collaborative to bring 48 hour turnaround Whole Genome Sequencing to patients in the Duke Intensive Care Nursery.
3) New Technologies: I have collaborated with Drs. David Millington from Duke and Vamsee Pamula (a Duke Pratt School graduate), from BAEBIES Inc, on prototype new technology devices for use in newborn screening for lysosomal storage disease as well as multiplex chips for screening for hyperbilirubinemia and related conditions, as well as working with Dr. Pamula and Dr. Michael Freemark (Peds Endocrinology) on screening panels for hypoglycemia and hypothyroidism, and with investigators from UAB on an Acute Kidney Injury panel. Also, I am collaborating with Dr. Cynthia Toth in pediatric ophthalmology, and Pratt School investigators to develop and apply use of optical coherence tomography for retinal imaging that will assess associations between retinal neurovascular development, brain development, and neurodevelopmental outcomes. I recently worked with the Duke FORGE and multiple Pediatric subspecialists on machine-learning and deep informatics analysis of electronic health records to quantify risk for subsequent complications and on development of algorithms to identify neonatal seizures from neonatal EEG tracings.
4)Microbiome in Micropreemies and health outcomes of periviable infants. I have worked with multiple epidemiology researchers to assess practice variation within our center, and within the Neonatal Research Network centers, to identify how variation in practice can influence outcomes, with a particular focus on antibiotic use. This work demonstrated strong associations between high empirical antibiotic use in infants with sterile cultures and subsequent morbidities and mortality. This discovery has led to strong collaborations and new initiatives by young faculty leading studies of the evolving microbiome, leading to hypothesis generation re: the microbiome and optimal growth in extremely preterm infants.
Intern and Resident, Pediatrics, University of Miami, 1986 - 1989
M.H.S., Duke University School of Medicine, 2006
M.D., University of Miami, 1986
Selected Grants and Awards
Duke Women's Reproductive Health Research Scholars
The Hydrocortisone for BPD Respiratory and Developmental Outcomes Study (HYBRiD Outcomes Study)
Unified Program for Therapeutics in Children
The Transfusion of Prematures Early School Age Follow-Up (TOP 5)
RTI NRN Capitation
Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD Cooperative Multicenter Neonatal Research Network
Early Check: A Collaborative Innovation to Facilitate Pre-Symptomatic Clinical Trials in Newborns
Darbepoetin Trial to Improve Red Cell Mass and Neuroprotectoin in Preterms (Darbe)
Implementation of an Evidence-based Parentally Administered Intervention for Preterm Infants
Population Health Research Support - Study of Pregnancy and Neonatal Health (SPAN) Task A
A Low Blood Volume Platform for Global Newborn Screening of Common, Treatable Conditions Phase II
Multiplex Platform for Point-of-Care Newborn Screening of Hyperbilirubinemia
Expanding thyroid testing in high risk newborns: total T3, free T4, TSH and TRAB
Comprehensive, Near Patient Assessment of Severe Hypoglycemia in Newborns Using Low Blood Volume (Phase II)
Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy-Phase II-Robertson Foundation
Near Patient Acute Kidney Injury Biomarker Analysis in Critically Ill Neonates- Phase II
TOP Trial
A Novel Digital Microfluidic Platform for Near Patient Acute Kidney Injury Biomarker Analysis in Critically Ill Neonates
Growth Failure in Extremely Preterm Infants: Microbiomic and Metabolomic Analysis
A rapid, ultrasensitive system for recurrent thyroid testing in high risk newborns
Gastrin-Releasing Peptide and Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia
A Secondary Study to the Transfusion of Prematures (TOP) Study
Linking Safety Practices to Adverse Events and Outcomes in Hospitalized Infants
MICROBIAL SUCCESSION AND ADAPTIVE IMMUNE RESPONSES IN THE PREMATURE INFANT
PTN TO#25: Antibiotic Safety in Infants with Complicated Intra-Abdominal Infections
PK of Sildenafil in Premature Infants
Prospective Observational Study of Respiratory Support Provided to Premature Infants at Risk for Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Phase II Stannosoporfin
Temperature Monitoring with InnerSense Esophageal Temperature Probe
The Duke Multidisciplinary Training Program in Pediatric Lung Disease
PTN TO 13: PK of Antistaphylococcal Antibiotics in Infants
48-52 Month Follow Up Stannsoporfin 64,185-204
PTN Task Order #5: Safety and Efficacy of High-Dose Acyclovir in Infants with HSV
Multidisciplinary Neonatal Training Grant
Data Coordinating Center for the Prematurity and Respiratory Outcomes Program
Multiplex platform for point of care newborn screening of hyperbilirubinemia
Accelerating Adoption of Comparative Effectiveness Research in Premature Infants
Best Pharmaceutical for Children Act (BPCA): Use of Meropenem in Infants
Gentle, Samuel J., Benjamin Carper, Matthew M. Laughon, Erik A. Jensen, Austin Williams, Colm P. Travers, Namasivayam Ambalavanan, et al. "Duration of noninvasive respiratory support and risk for bronchopulmonary dysplasia or death." J Perinatol, January 15, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-021-01269-2.
Flibotte, John, Abbot R. Laptook, Seetha Shankaran, Scott A. McDonald, Mariana C. Baserga, Edward F. Bell, C Michael Cotten, et al. "Blanket temperature during therapeutic hypothermia and outcomes in hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy." J Perinatol, January 8, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-021-01302-4.
Chalak, Lina F., Athina Pappas, Sylvia Tan, Abhik Das, Pablo J. Sánchez, Abbot R. Laptook, Krisa P. Van Meurs, et al. "Association of Increased Seizures During Rewarming With Abnormal Neurodevelopmental Outcomes at 2-Year Follow-up: A Nested Multisite Cohort Study." Jama Neurol, October 18, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2021.3723.
Blakely, Martin L., Jon E. Tyson, Kevin P. Lally, Susan R. Hintz, Barry Eggleston, David K. Stevenson, Gail E. Besner, et al. "Initial Laparotomy Versus Peritoneal Drainage in Extremely Low Birthweight Infants With Surgical Necrotizing Enterocolitis or Isolated Intestinal Perforation: A Multicenter Randomized Clinical Trial." Ann Surg 274, no. 4 (October 1, 2021): e370–80. https://doi.org/10.1097/SLA.0000000000005099.
Chakkarapani, Aravanan A., Hany Aly, Manon Benders, C Michael Cotten, Mohamed El-Dib, Pierre Gressens, Henrik Hagberg, et al. "Therapies for neonatal encephalopathy: Targeting the latent, secondary and tertiary phases of evolving brain injury." Semin Fetal Neonatal Med 26, no. 5 (October 2021): 101256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.siny.2021.101256.
Curtis, Samantha, Noelle Younge, Jennifer Peterson, C Michael Cotten, Samia Aleem, and Rachel G. Greenberg. "Which infants should receive indomethacin prophylaxis: moving closer to individualized medicine in the neonatal intensive care unit." J Pediatr 237 (October 2021): 318–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.07.006.
Mukhopadhyay, Sagori, Karen M. Puopolo, Nellie I. Hansen, Scott A. Lorch, Sara B. DeMauro, Rachel G. Greenberg, C Michael Cotten, et al. "Neurodevelopmental outcomes following neonatal late-onset sepsis and blood culture-negative conditions." Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 106, no. 5 (September 2021): 467–73. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2020-320664.
Weimer, Kristin E. D., Hunter Roark, Kimberley Fisher, C Michael Cotten, David A. Kaufman, Margarita Bidegain, and Sallie R. Permar. "Breast Milk and Saliva Lactoferrin Levels and Postnatal Cytomegalovirus Infection." American Journal of Perinatology 38, no. 10 (August 2021): 1070–77. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0040-1701609.
Adams-Chapman, Ira, Kristi L. Watterberg, Tracy L. Nolen, Shawn Hirsch, Carol A. Cole, C Michael Cotten, William Oh, et al. "Neurodevelopmental outcome of preterm infants enrolled in myo-inositol randomized controlled trial." J Perinatol 41, no. 8 (August 2021): 2072–87. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-021-01018-5.
Miller, Laura E., Chris DeRienzo, P Brian Smith, Carl Bose, Reese H. Clark, C Michael Cotten, Daniel K. Benjamin, Chi D. Hornik, and Rachel G. Greenberg. "Association between neonatal intensive care unit medication safety practices, adverse events, and death." J Perinatol 41, no. 7 (July 2021): 1739–44. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-020-00857-y.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub