ABLE Act – what does it mean to you?
maximum annual contribution to each disabled person's ABLE account is $14,000 (as of 2015). This is the total contribution that can be made per disabled person. Not per donor.
Upon the death of the individual, the remaining funds in the account will be used to reimburse Medicaid for any services that were provided to the individual since the account has been established.
As you can see, an ABLE account works similarly to a special need trust with some important differences, e.g. the onset of disability at age 26, the maximum amount in the account, and the pay back clause to Medicaid upon death of the individual. An experienced estate planning attorney will be able to help you decide which tool is a better option for your specific need.


The March School Holidays for 2019 in Singapore run from 16 - 24 March. If you need help to keep the family entertained, here's a list of holiday camps, classes and events prepared for you!
This is definitely not an exhaustive list. Its either events that we came across or have been shared with us. We will continue to add to the list - so let us know in the comments if this list has helped or if you have something else to share!
BYKidO's Top: Vote for your favourite indoor playground and stand to win prizes!
Holiday Camps to keep the little ones occupied this holiday week! They will make new friends, learn new things and have lots to share!
Saturday Kids | March Holiday Camps: Join us in our mission to transform kids into curious, self-directed learners - where kids do not just learn to code, but they code to learn!
Little Executive | Pick up skills with DR SEUSS: IQ, EQ, EFQ, RQ: Start equipping your child with necessary skills for school and life! Problem-solving skills, growth mindset, helping them focus better and gaining social awareness.
Believer Music | 2-Day Music Adventure Camp: Learn basic strumming patterns and chords on Ukulele, beat to a groove on the Cajon, play chords on a Keyboard and express themselves through the Voice program.
Wavehouse Sentosa | Flow Camp: Learn basic maneuvers and tricks on the flow rider! Includes a Learning Journey to the Trickeye Museum too!
First Code Academy | Coding Camps this March / April: 1 week immersive holiday camps for age 4 and up. Learn to build mobile applications and games!
Prefer to join something with less commitment, but just as much fun! Join a Holiday Workshops to learn something new this holiday!
From Actors Centre Kids to Monsters Alive Writing Workshops, there are workshops to cater to the academic and non-academic aspect of your Little Ones!
Use Promo Code: BKD10 to enjoy 10% Off workshops. More details here.
Enjoy a discounted baking workshop with Genius R Us this March! Pricing starts from $35 for early bird promo! See what are we baking here!
Stepping Out Studios | Holiday Classes: March holidays are just around the corner and we have some exciting dance classes available to keep your little ones entertained.
Bricks4Kidz | Build & Code Camps: Imagine the magic that happens when your kids associate all of their favourite movies, cartoons and toys with learning! In short, a holiday camp at Bricks is Learning + Fun!
A2 Parkour | Kids Parkour Training: 5 day Parkour Workshop for kids from just $450 per child!
Singapore Polo Club | Clay Relief Workshop: For kids between 4 to 9, the workshop teaches them to mould little colorful clay and complete their own 2D masterpiece.
well as techniques for writing. Use Promo Code BKD10 to enjoy 10% Off!
MindChamps | Actors Centre Kids Workshop: Join us this holiday as we take your N1 to P3 kid on a magical journey through various theatrical scenarios. Use Promo Code BKD10 to enjoy 10% Off!
Who doesn't love a good promotion! Especially those that helps us save while spending time with your little ones! Having fun need not be too expensive!
Enjoy 60 min Free Play @ Waka Waka this March Holidays (and beyond till 7th June) when you redeem the eVoucher on The BYKidO App. Simply download the App and redeem your Free Play. Click here (use mobile) to start!
Giggly Feet | 1 for 1 Promo: Purchase 1 hour of play and get another hour free!
Kidz Amaze | $5.50 per admission*: Purchase admission tickets Kidz Amaze, starting from just $5.50 per admission.
Marina Bay Sands | Kids Dine Free Promo: Purchase admission tickets to selected attractions and kids dine free at participating restaurants.
Golden Village, Shaw & WE Cinemas | Kids Watch Free: The kids may catch Wonder Park for Free when it opens in Cinemas this March!
Taking time off to spend time with the kids but not sure where to go? Let us help with a list of events happening during this March Holidays!
The dragon might be a mythical creature (or is it?) but its dental woes are definitely no myth. Follow the dragon dentist and his apprentice on an adventure of epic proportion as they help the poor creature with his toothy troubles. Details here.
MindChamps Preschool | Welcome Day: The Only Preschool that nurtures every child to be a MindChampion. Find out more during the Welcome Day!
Peranakan Museum | Armenian Street Party: Taste, feel and embrace the vibrant living Peranakan culture under the stars with performances, dancing, crafts, and a bazaar full of food and shopping!
United Square Shopping Mall | Flip Flop Carving Live Demo Sessions: Watch the presenter transforms discarded flip-flops into colourful masterpieces in a 30-min live demo session.
Tampines 1 and Century Square | We Bear Bears Meet & Greet: Get your free hugs from the bears, and take part in themed activities too!
SAFRA Family Day Out Prawning Challenge 2019: Get a step closer with nature as SAFRA brings the family to Hai Bin Punggol for some prawning fun!
Singapore Heritage Festival 2019: Happening across four weekends, join the festivities at these venues and dates: Kampong Gelam (March 15 to 17), Bedok (March 22 to 24), Telok Blangah (March 29 to 31) and Kranji (April 6 to 7).
FairPrice Xtras Island-wide | Paw Patrol Meet & Greet: Head down to selected FairPrice Xtra to meet with your favourite pups! Plus take part in workshops too!
City Square Mall: PJ Masks live Show + Meet & Greet: Come meet your favourite night heroes as they head into the night to save the day!
Jurong Bird Park | Feathered Friends Carnival: Enjoy an exciting day of carnival rides, games, and bird encounters at Jurong Bird Park this March holiday (16 – 24 March 2019).
Rochester Mall | Let's Rock and Learn 2019: Register for Free Classes from 11 participating tenants! Its a day of fun learning at Rochester Mall this March School Holidays!
Bukit Panjang Plaza | CapitaLand Malls Beat Saber Cup 2019: From 18 - 24 March, you can look forward to a smashing good time at the CapitaLand Malls Beat Saber Virtual Reality Game event and be pampered with shopping rewards!
Suntec City | March More Fun: Spend to redeem March More Fun Passes to be used at participating tenants! Keep on having fun at Suntec City!


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Iditarod
Twelve O'Clock High
Courtesy of Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
The American war film Twelve O'Clock High (1949) was noted for its groundbreaking depiction of the psychological effects of war on soldiers. The movie was directed by Henry King.
American attorney Harvey Stovall (played by Dean Jagger) is a tourist in London, England, in 1949 when he happens upon an old Toby jug (a beer jug in the shape of a man) in an antique shop. The jug reminds him of his days in England during World War II, and he subsequently visits the village of Archbury and the abandoned airfield where seven years earlier he had served with the U.S. 8th Army Air Force 918th Bombardment Group. The film then shifts to 1942, proceeding in flashback. Stovall recalls Frank Savage (played by Gregory Peck), the hard-as-nails new brigadier general put in charge of his undisciplined bombing squadron, made up of exhausted and emotionally spent men. According to Savage, the previous commander had grown too close to his men, and the new tough policies that Savage institutes alienate the airmen until they see that his policies are the ones that will keep them alive. Savage castigates the men, tells them to stop pitying themselves, and musters their morale as they prepare for longer and more dangerous daylight missions far into German territory. (Whenever a new mission is imminent, the Toby jug on the mantle of the officers' club is turned outward, away from the wall.) Savage knows many of the young airmen will die in the forthcoming missions, and this weighs so heavily on his conscience that he himself has a breakdown during a mission. Like his predecessor, Savage grew to "care too much," and he is then relieved of his duties.
Twelve O'Clock High was one of the first major films about World War II to present realistically the horrors of the conflict—particularly the psychological toll of warfare on its participants. The film was praised for its accurate portrayal of the experience of heavy bomber pilots during the war. The aerial combat scenes are also notable for using actual footage of combat missions shot by Allied and Luftwaffe (German air force) cameras. The movie also featured acclaimed performances, notably by Peck and by Jagger, who received an Academy Award.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Sepp Straka Betting Tips & Odds to Win The 2022 RBC Heritage – April 14-17
Media by: ASSOCIATED PRESS - Sepp Straka
Sepp Straka has +13000 odds to win the 2022 RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links. He made the cut in his last appeareance at this tournament in 2021, finishing 59th. Before Straka tees off in Hilton Head, South Carolina, let's analyze his recent performances to help you place your best bets.
Last 4 Tournaments: Sepp Straka
April 7-10 Masters Tournament 30 74-72-76-71 (+5) 15 $93,150
March 10-14 THE PLAYERS Championship 9 69-74-71-67 (-7) 6 $525,000
March 3- 6 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard MC 76-74 (+6) — $0
February 24-27 The Honda Classic 1 71-64-69-66 (-10) 0 $1,440,000
Recent Form Insights: Sepp Straka
Straka has finished first once while also posting two top-10 finishes in his past four events.
The past four times he has played a tournament, he made the cut three times.
Straka has finished within three shots of the leader in one of his past four appearances. In that same span, he finished with a better-than-average score twice.
He has carded an average score of -4 in his past four events.
Straka has finished below par seven times and posted 11 better-than-average rounds over his last 14 played.
He has carded the best score of the day once while finishing with a top-five score on three occasions and a top-10 score in four of his last 14 rounds.
Last 4 Tournaments Breakdown: Sepp Straka
Straka was in the 72nd percentile on par 3s at the Masters Tournament, averaging 3.06 strokes on the 16 par-3 holes.
He finished in the 77th percentile on par 4s at the Masters Tournament, averaging 4.1 strokes on the 40 par-4 holes.
On the 16 par-5 holes at the Masters Tournament, Straka was better than only 12% of the field (averaging 5 strokes per hole).
Straka recorded a birdie or better on two of the 16 par-3 holes at the Masters Tournament (the other competitors averaged 1.6).
On the 16 par-3 holes at the Masters Tournament, Straka carded three bogeys or worse (the other competitors averaged 3.1).
Straka recorded more birdies or better (seven) than the field average of 3.7 on the 40 par-4 holes at the Masters Tournament.


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Exclusive Interview: Korean Actor, Kim Woo Bin
By Hallyu World, hallyuworldofficial.com
January 13, 2015 Updated: January 13, 2015
This winter, one of the most anticipated films, 'The Con Artists" was released. This film received a lot of attention from the beginning, as popular actor Kim Woo-Bin starred in it.
"The Con Artists" explains how to steal $150 million from a highly secure Incheon customs house in 40 minutes. Top Korean criminal technicians gather together, and work on this plan.
In the film Kim Woo-bin plays the role of an elite safe-cracker Ji-Hyeok.
Kim Woo-Bin also starred in "The Heirs," a story about the friendship between Kim Tan and Young-do, "School 2013," and "Friends: The Great Legacy."
Kim Woo-bin had wanted to become a model. In order to pursue his dream, he even wrote letters to his professors. He's consistently stepped forward on a path that posed a lot of challenges and tests, to pursue his dreams.
"God will bestow hardships to those who can bear it" Woo-bin used this quote for his resume during his first audition.
Hallyu World is an E*Star Entertainment production focusing on Korean Celebrity and Lifestyle Trends
Exclusive Interview: Korean Talent, Actress Ku Hyesun
How many of you remember watching the famous Korean hit drama series "Boys Over Flowers" that collected awards across Asia in 2009 and 2010?
Exclusive Interview: Korean Actor, Ji Chang-Wook
Here is an exclusive interview with celebrity guest Ji Chang-wook, who is a charming young actor. He is more handsome, in real life than on- screen. Ji ...
Exclusive Interview: Korean Actress Jo Yeo-Jeong
Jo Yeo-jeong is a versatile Korean actress, who can be tough, romantic, and cute. Her role in the film "Obsessed," is a departure from that, as she ...
Exclusive Interview: Korean Actor, Joo Sang Wook
Joo Sang Wook is the tall handsome actor from the recent hit drama "Birth Of A Beauty." Here is an interview to get to know him more ...
Researchers Fear Asian 'Clone Tick' Which Killed US Livestock May Spread Disease to Humans
By Isabel van Brugen
An invasive tick species typically found in parts of Asia has been linked to the death of at least five cows in the United States, and now ...


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Teamster History - Hi Desert Teamster Retirees
Hi Desert Teamster Retirees
History; Part 1
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For more than a century, the Teamsters Union has helped millions of workers achieve the American Dream. Our success is a testament to those who came before us, who stood together to form a union and a labor movement. These workers fought for the rights and privileges that today most Americans take for granted. Without the solidarity of unions, there would be no weekends, no pensions and no health insurance.
The best way to celebrate Teamster History is to highlight the actions and events that improved working and living standards for American families and communities.
Learning about the struggles and victories of the past will help union leaders, members and nonmembers alike appreciate the contributions Teamsters made not only to labor history but to American history. Review the real story of the Teamsters in the 20th century. To get the visual concept of what makes the Teamsters Union so great, check out the Teamster history visual timeline. The founding members of the union foresaw the growth and promise of the Teamsters as a model for workers everywhere. And they developed a philosophy that is as true and vital today as it was in 1903:
"Let each member do his duty as he sees fit. Let each put his shoulder to the wheel and work together to bring about better results. Let no member sow seeds of discord within our ranks, and let our enemies see that the Teamsters of this country are determined to get their just rewards and to make their organization as it should be one of the largest and strongest trade unions in the country now and beyond."
The stories, photos, audio recordings and videos that follow are not half-forgotten mementos of past glory days. They memorialize the marches, strikes, tears and victories of the past, but they also form a foundation of tradition, strength and pride upon which we build our future.
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Proof of Our Quality
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. Albert Einstein
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Spectre and Meltdown shook many PC enthusiasts when they came to light. They were essentially the first speculative execution flaws to attract global attention, and because they affected processors from Intel and AMD to varying degrees, the internet was awash with concern for several months. Eventually, researchers discovered more and more speculative execution flaws. But now researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) believe they've found a way to prevent these attacks. The researchers call their solution Dynamically Allocated Way Guard (DAWG) and revealed it in a recent paper. This name stands in opposition to Intel's Cache Allocation Technology (CAT) and is said to prevent attackers from accessing ostensibly secure information through exploiting flaws in the speculative execution process. Best of all, DAWG is said to require very few resources that CAT isn't already using and can be enabled with operating system changes instead of requiring the in-silicon fixes many thoughts were needed to address the flaws. The side-channel attacks revealed earlier this year essentially work by compromising data from memory when the CPU is deciding where it should go. This would, in turn, allow them to gather passwords, encryption keys and other data they could then use to gain full access to a targeted system. The attacks varied in the vulnerabilities they leveraged and the way they could be addressed. Meltdown required the operating system and firmware updates. Spectre was thought to require changes to CPU architectures, but CSAIL said DAWG blocks Spectre attacks itself. Leram how DWAG work by visiting OUR FORUM.


The German Federal Central tax office (BZSt) has published an updated list with information of the local tax offices, including their latest bank account details for receiving periodic VAT payments from each registered taxpayer.
Unlike in other EU countries, in Germany, the responsible tax office depends on the country where you are established in. For example companies established in the UK have to communicate with the tax office Finanzamt Hannover-Nord. You can find the complete listing with all countries and their responsible tax offices published by the German Federal Central tax office (BZSt) here.
Using the right bank account when making your VAT payments is important in order to avoid penalties for late VAT return payments which in some cases can be very high (e.g. 30% in Italy for late payment after the due date to submit the annual return, for example). These penalties are different from country to country. As way of example, you can see our sections for VAT penalties in the VAT Manuals for Italy, Spain or France for example.
At Marosa we can prepare your VAT returns for all European countries and help you complying with the specific requirements in each country in order to avoid any VAT penalties.


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Apartment building plans: projects with DWG resources
July 3, 2018 /in Architecture and BIM /by Newsroom
The apartment buildings architectural focus: a case study with definition, design criteria, DWG CAD files and the 3D BIM model ready for download
In this follow-up issue of our practical cases study we'll be having a closer look at this particular type of building configuration regarding Apartment building plans.
A few weeks ago, we already had a closer look at other types of Housing layouts dealing with townhouses and social housing. This week, we'll continue our study looking at their main characterisctics and some of the most popular projects that have adopted this type of urban configuration.
Further on you'll be able to navigate through the Virtual model of the project and even have a look at other media content such as renderings, photos and CAD drawings of the entire project available for download in the .dxf file format.
Apartment buildings – Milan – Edificius rendering
Most of the drawings and 3D BIM models are inspired by projects such as the M. Rampi architectural design firm in Milan, the Trame d'Ombra Building in Itri by Studio a3e design firm, the Weisenhof area in Stuttgart by Mies Van der Rohe, the Matteotti Village in Terni by De Carlo, the Brunnenhof Housing Complex in Zurich by architects Gigon and Guyer.
Let's see definition and which elements characterize them.
Download the 3D BIM model (file .edf) inspired by the apartment building project in Milan
Browse the model inspired to the apartment building project in Milano with BIM Voyager
Click here to download Edificius, the architectural design BIM software
Apartment buildings definition
Apartment buildings are a residential building layout that stand out for their linear aggregation (not necessarily straight) of individual housing units grouped two by two around a vertical connection formed of multi-storey and multi-family residences, consisting of a stairwell that serves at least two apartments per floor.
The surface of the single residential unit (and therefore the distribution structure) is variable; the single building may contain standard sized or variable sized lodgings.
Normally the stairwell is placed at the center and serves two flats per floor.
In some cases, configuartions with three apartments per floor necessary. In this case, a double room overlooking the other two apartments is used as a solution and is placed at the stairwell level.
Apartment buildings – Milan – Prospect made with Edificius BIM software
Download the DWG CAD drawings with the project elevation views as compressed .zip file
In most cases, the need to have two road facing sides may affect the overall depth of the building too.
Of course, there are also living comfort and envrionmental aspects that must be considered seeing as they must be ventilated and illuminated directly. Given the particular building composition, light and ventilation sources need to be positioned along the building's perimeter walls while the central part is used as a hallway area.
The ground floor can be used entirely or partially as a porch area or may in some cases be dedicated to other types of residential uses especially for the elderly and the disabled.
This part of the building also has the added value of being equipped with private gardens and play areas.
From a Geometrical point of view, height and length are theoretically unlimited.
Length basically depends on the number of minimum required housing units.
Apartment buildings – Milan – Section A-A
Download the DWG CAD drawings with project cross-sections as compressed .zip file
The thickness of the building structure is often variable: on average 10-11 meters (from a minimum of 7-8 to a maximum of 12-13 meters).
The height of the building, its volume and its footprint depend on the urban planning regulations and on the choices made by the designer.
Apartment buildings – Milan – ground, first, second, third floor plan
Download the Project Plan Views as DWG CAD drawings in the compressed .zip file format
Internal layout and distribution
The internal organisation and partition wall layout is normally arranged according to a barycentric configuration with respect to the depth of the building in order to:
minimize the space reserved for entrances, corridors and other connective elements allowing each room to be reached with short passages from the entrance and/or corridor;
avoid having passage rooms, which would make the whole residence less functional since crossing inside rooms creates virtual corridors that reduce the quality of living..
Links between accommodations
The connection between several typological modules takes place outside at ground floor, via a sidewalk (open connection), via a portico (covered connection).
The ground floor is therefore the best part of the building plan to arrange dedicated spaces intended for the community (children's play areas, elderly meeting centers, etc.) or residences for disabled or elderly people.
Apartment buildings: subtypes
The various subtypes depend on the aggregation morphology. For example:
battens, when the typological modules are joined together according to a straight axis
crescent (or fan), when the approach is total but according to a curved line
chain, when the typological modules always aggregate according to a straight axis but with partial combinations leading to an oblique pattern
angled, when between the typological modules there are special "Y", "L", "T" connection solutions
in courts, when the typological modules aggregate forming an internal court.
An Apartment Buildings project: the Trame d'ombra building by a3e design firm
Download the 3D BIM model (in the native Edificius .edf file) inspired by the 'Trame d'Ombra' project
Browse the model inspired to the Trame d Ombra project with BIM Voyager
Descriptive architectural report
The area is located near the historic center of Itri in Italy, and surrounded by residential aprtment buildings of three/four floors above ground.
The intervention is distinguished by the reinterpretation of the building in a classic line, with four flats per floor, a main body reduced to 7.5m capable of accommodating a gallery on each floor per unit.
The façade systems differ according to the exposure and the contribution required for indoor air conditioning:
to the south-east a screening system surrounds the gallery and is characterized by a bamboo brise-soleil, able to filter light for the living area while providing freedom and lightness to the façade;
to the north-west, the system opposes a full solid protective wall working as a shield to the most unfavorable exposure direction.
The ground floor is equipped with different types of accommodation similar to the upper floors, but enriched by large gardens easily accessible to the disabled.
The roofing plan is a collective solarium, with a floating wooden floor carved out of small green craters for relaxation and free time, from which to enjoy the panoramic view towards the castle.
apartment building – Trame d'Ombra – section D-D
Download the DWG CAD drawings with project cross-sections as compressed .zip files
The solarium is protected by a cantilevered metal roof and covered by solar PV panels.
The two front facing walls define a volume that appears suspended, distinct from the ground floor, compact and full of shading elements for extra added visual harmony.
Typological and distributive choices
The building as a whole consists of:
6 units of 64 m2,
4 units of 74 m2
5 of 45 m2.
[fusion_table]
complete ground floor plan – Trame d'Ombra
complete first floor plan – Trame d'Ombra
[/fusion_table]
Download the DWG CAD drawings with project plan views
Each apartment has a similar distribution scheme for three floors, with 1 type of 74m², 2 of 64m² and 1 of 45m² on each floor, served by two staircases with a lift from which it is possible to directly access the balconies.
Only the ground floor has a distributional variation, with 3 floor apartments and two pass-through entrances.
Each apartment has a width of 7.5 m, with a living area of about 25m² for all types and the sleeping area which contracts or expands according to the size of the accommodation.
The living area extends from one side of the building to the other, and continues towards the outside gallery. The kitchen, overlooking the balcony, hinges between the living area and the sleeping area and is aligned with the bathroom block and the cavities column.
The sleeping areas are oriented NE-SW with an illumination surface ratio of 0.4 on average and an advantageous air response due to the slenderness of the building.
Apartment buildings Trame d'Ombra – render made with Edificius
Apartment building plans: architectural projects ready for download
Tags: Apartment Building, Edificius, Focus005, Newsletter 64
http://biblus.accasoftware.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/Apartment-building-plans-projects-with-DWG-resources_architectural-design-software-Edificius.jpg 321 843 Newsroom http://biblus.accasoftware.com/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/Logo_Biblus_2020.png Newsroom2018-07-03 13:32:532019-11-12 17:46:20Apartment building plans: projects with DWG resources
Dealing with renovations and re-modellings with a BIM software: the Dulwich Residence case study
Designing stairs using a BIM software
Public space design: project criteria and examples
Creating a corner window with a BIM software
Artificial intelligence in the construction industry: the applicable solutions
EU BIM Task Group has published the "Handbook for the introduction of BIM by Europe's Public Sector Community"
PAS 1192-2 and PAS 1192-3: BIM and Asset management
The C-House project remodelled with an architectural BIM design software
Smart windows: the intelligent windows that keep you warm during winter and...
BIM in Brazil and how is it evolving: the 9 main points of the BIM-BR Strat...


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Az upádána kifejezést egyaránt használják a hinduizmusban és a buddhizmusban.

A hinduizmusban az upádána Brahman anyagi megtestesülése.
A buddhizmusban az upádána a szenvedés létrejöttének egyik fontos láncszeme.

Buddhizmus

Az upádána a "ragaszkodás" és "telhetetlenség" szanszkrit és páli kifejezése, amelynek szó szerinti jelentése "üzemanyag". Az upádánát és a tanhát (létszomj, sóvárgás) a szenvedés két legfőbb okának tartják és ezek megszüntetése vezet a nirvánához.

A ragaszkodás fajtái
A Szutta-pitakában például, Gautama Buddha négyfajta ragaszkodást említ:
ragaszkodás az érzéki örömökhöz (kámupádána)
ragaszkodás helytelen nézetekhez (ditthupádána)
ragaszkodás szertartásokhoz (szilabbatupádána)
ragaszkodás az én-képzethez (attavadupádána).
Buddha azt állította, hogy más szekták is akár megfelelő elemzéssel szolgálnak az első három ragaszkodással kapcsolatban, egyedül ő magyarázta el az "én-képzethez" való ragaszkodást és az abból fakadó szenvedést.

Az Abhidharma és a szövegmagyarázatai a következő definíciókat adják:
ragaszkodás az érzéki örömökhöz: világi dolgok utáni ismételt sóvárgás.
ragaszkodás helytelen nézetekhez: mint például az eternalizmus (például, "a világ és az én örök") vagy a nihilizmus.
ragaszkodás szertartásokhoz: az abban való hit, hogy a szertartások és rituálék önmagukban elegendőek a megvilágosodáshoz.
ragaszkodás az én-képzethez: az én-képzetet és az én-nélküliséget (például a MN 44, illetve a szkandhákat és az anattát további szócikkek taglalják.
Buddhagósza szerint a négy ragaszkodási típus fenti felsorolása "finomság" szerinti csökkenő sorban állnak.

A ragaszkodás okozatainak egymástól való függése

Buddhagósza magyarázata szerint ezek a ragaszkodások okozati kapcsolatban állnak egymással a következőképpen:
ragaszkodás az én-képzethez: először azt feltételezi valaki, hogy állandó "énje" van.
ragaszkodás helytelen nézetekhez: ezután azt feltételezi, hogy örökké létezik, vagy ezután az élet után teljesen megsemmisül.
az ezekből következő viselkedési megnyilvánulások:
ragaszkodás szertartásokhoz: ha valaki azt feltételezi, hogy örökké létezik, szertartásokon keresztül igyekszik megtisztítani önmagát.
ragaszkodás az érzéki örömökhöz: ha valaki azt feltételezi, hogy ezután az élet után teljesen megsemmisül, akkor nem törődik a következő élettel és az érzéki örömökhöz ragaszkodik.

A ragaszkodási típusok ragsorolását a jobb oldali táblázat mutatja be.

A ragaszkodás megnyilvánulásai
A tudatosan ismerhető mentális élmények szintjén az Abhidharma az érzéki örömökhöz való ragaszkodást a "kapzsiság" (lobha) mentális tényezőjével valamint a további háromféle ragaszkodást a "helytelen nézet" (ditthi) mentális tényezőjével azonosítja. Ezáltal a tapasztalás szintjén a ragaszkodást az Abhidharmában ezeknek a mentális tényezőknek a négyrétű magyarázataként említik, ahogy azt a következő táblázat is mutatja:

Buddhagósza a ragaszkodás sóvárgástól való megkülönböztetéséhez a következő metaforát használja:
"A sóvárgás egy olyan tárgy utáni vágyódás, amelyet valaki még nem szerzett meg, ahogy a tolvaj kinyújtja a karját a sötétben; a ragaszkodás egy olyan tárgy fogvatartása, amelyet valaki már megszerzett, mint a tolvaj ellopott tárgya... [E]zek a szenvedés gyökerei a keresésnek és az őrzésnek köszönhetően."
Így például amikor Buddha a ragaszkodás "aggregátumáról beszél, akkor a fizikai, mentális és tudatos megragadásra és őrzésre utal, amelyekről tévesen azt képzeljük, hogy egyenlőek velünk vagy, hogy birtokoljuk azokat.

A szenvedés oksági láncának részeként
A négy nemes igazságban az első nemes igazság szerint a ragaszkodás (upádána, "a ragaszkodás aggregátumait illetően") a szenvedés egyik legfőbb megtapasztalása. A második nemes igazságban a ragaszkodás (tanhá) a szenvedés alapja. Tehát a ragaszkodás és a sóvárgás között okozati kapcsolat áll fent.

A függő keletkezés (pratitja-szamutpáda tizenkét-szemű oksági láncolatban, lásd még a tizenkét nidána), a ragaszkodás (upádána) a kilencedik oksági láncszem:

Az upádána (ragaszkodás) függ a sóvárgástól (tanhá mielőtt létrejöhetne.
"A sóvárgás feltétele mellett lép fel a ragaszkodás".

Az upádána (ragaszkodás) képezi az oksági láncolatban a létesülés (bhava) feltételét és alapját.
"A ragaszkodás a létesülés fellépésének a feltétele."

Buddhagósza szerint a sóvárgásból az érzéki örömökhöz való ragaszkodás keletkezik, amely azután függvénye lesz a létesülésnek.

Upádána mint üzemanyag
Richard F. Gombrich professzor több publikációjában is rámutat, hogy az upádána szó szerinti jelentése "tüzelőanyag", amit Buddha Tűzbeszéd (Áditta-parijája) (Vin I, 34-5; SN 35.28) metaforájához kapcsol. Ebben a példabeszédben Buddha azt mondja a szerzeteseknek (bhikkhuk), hogy minden ég. A minden alatt az öt érzékszervet és a tudatot, azok tárgyait, azok működéseit és az azokból származó érzéseket érti – gyakorlatilag a tapasztalások összességére vonatkozik. Ezek mind a kapzsiság, gyűlölet és nem tudás tüzében égnek.

A nidánák láncolatában a sóvárgás válik a létesülés (bhava) tüzelőanyagává. A tudat tűzként keres még több tüzelőanyagot, hogy életben maradjon, amely a tudat számára az érzéki élmények, emiatt Buddha óva int, hogy "védjük az észlelés kapuit".

Hinduizmus

Az upádána jelentése anyagi alap vagy okozat.

Kapcsolódó szócikkek
Anatta
Szkandha
Nekkhamma
pratítja-szamutpáda
A tizenkét nidána

Jegyzetek

Bibliográfia
Bodhi, Bhikku (2000a). A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma: The Abhidhammattha Sangaha of Acariya Anuruddha. Seattle, WA: BPS Pariyatti Editions.
Bodhi, Bhikkhu (ford.) (2000b). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
Bodhi, Bhikkhu (szerk.) (2005). In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon.Boston: Wisdom Pubs.
Buddhagósza, Bhadantācariya (ford. Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli) (1999). The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga. Seattle, WA: BPS Pariyatti Editions.
Gombrich, Richard F. (2005). How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings. Routledge.
Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (ford.) & Bhikkhu Khantipalo (szerk.) (1993). Kukkuravatika Sutta: The Dog-duty Ascetic (MN 57). – http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.057.nymo.html
Thánisszaró Bhikkhu (ford.) (1997a). Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta: Analysis of Dependent Co-arising (SN 12.2). – http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.002.than.html
Thánisszaró Bhikkhu (ford.) (1997). Samaññaphala Sutta: The Fruits of the Contemplative Life (DN 2). – http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.02.0.than.html
Thánisszaró Bhikkhu (2000). Life isn't just Suffering. – http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/lifeisnt.html
Walshe, Maurice O'Connell (ford.) (1995). The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Somerville: Wisdom Publications.

Külső hivatkozások
Gazdaság a buddhizmusban

Buddhista fogalmak
Buddhista filozófia
Hinduizmus

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Босния и Герцеговина расположена на юго-востоке Европы. Площадь страны составляет около 51,1 тыс. км². Самую протяжённую границу она имеет с Хорватией (932 км) — на севере, западе и юге, с Сербией она граничит на востоке (357 км), с Черногорией — на юго-востоке (249 км).

Почти вся территория Боснии и Герцеговины, за исключением севера, лежит в пределах Динарского нагорья, сильно расчленённые хребты которого простираются параллельно друг другу с северо-запада на юго-восток. Между хребтами вытянуты обширные межгорные котловины, в которых располагается большинство населённых пунктов страны. Высота хребтов понижается от центра к границе с Хорватией на севере и юге. Высочайшая вершина — гора Маглич (2386 м). В горах, сложенных известняковыми толщами, распространены карстовые формы рельефа (карстовые пещеры, подземные реки, карры), а в межгорных котловинах — обширные карстовые поля (самое крупное Ливаньско-Поле — 405 км²). На юге Динарского нагорья, в районе города Неум, Босния и Герцеговина имеет небольшой выход к Адриатическому морю (но прибрежные воды принадлежат Хорватии). На севере, в долине реки Савы расположена южная часть Среднедунайской низменности.

Территория страны образовалась во время альпийской складчатости и расположена в пределах Альпийско-Гималайского подвижного пояса, что объясняет высокую сейсмичность Динарского нагорья. 27 октября 1969 катастрофическое землетрясение полностью разрушило город Баня-Лука.

Недра Боснии и Герцеговины богаты бокситами, медью, свинцом, цинком, хромом, кобальтом, марганцем, лигнитами, бурым углём, железными рудами, ртутью, каменной солью. Также среди полезных ископаемых стоит отметить глину, гипс, песок и другие.

На большей части территории Боснии и Герцеговины климат умеренно континентальный с тёплым летом и умеренно прохладной зимой. На юго-западе страны климат субтропический средиземноморский, с сухим жарким летом и тёплой влажной зимой. В континентальной части осадки выпадают равномерно в течение года (800—100 мм на равнинах и 1500—1800 мм в горах), в приадриатической части в год выпадает 1600 мм осадков с максимумом в ноябре-декабре.

Реки республики принадлежат бассейнам Дуная (3/4) и Адриатического моря (1/4). На север текут реки Уна, Врбас, Босна (река), Дрина, впадающие в Саву, принадлежащую бассейну Дуная. Река Неретва впадает в Адриатическое море. На горных реках, обладающих большим гидроэнергетическим потенциалом, построено около 30 ГЭС (Бушко Блато, Ябланица).

Леса занимают около половины территории страны (в основном в горах). Сельскохозяйственные угодья вытеснили леса с равнинных территорий. В нижнем поясе гор на северных склонах произрастают широколиственные леса, сменяющиеся выше 900 м елово-пихтовыми лесами, а выше 1700 м — сосновым криволесьем и субальпийскими лугами. Юго-западные склоны заняты вечнозелёной средиземноморской растительностью.


Should be very familiar with the local area.
Has worked in Field Sales, Field Work, Ngo, Field Recruitment, government skill development projects etc.,.
Sourcing,Screening,Recruitment,"Head Hunting","Talent Acquisition",Staffing,hiring,"Human Resource","Fresh Graduate","HR executive","HR Recruiter","Fresher Trainee","HR Profile","HR domain","HR Operations"


text:
Men's Tennis at Hope International University
April 2, 2019 at 11 a.m. Calendar Icon
L 1-8 | Recap
TimeApril 2, 2019 at 11 a.m.
LocationAnaheim, Calif.
The Gustavus Men's Tennis team competes against Hope International University on April 2nd.
Gift Icon Give a gift to Gustavus Tennis
Contactsportsinfo sportsinfo — 507-933-7647
SponsorAthletic Department
CategoryAthletic Tennis
Apr 09 1:00 pm Men's Tennis vs. Macalester The Gustavus men's tennis team hosts Macalester on April 9th.
Apr 09 4:00 pm Men's Tennis vs. St. Scholastica The Gustavus men's tennis team hosts St. Scholastica on April 9th.
Apr 16 9:30 am Men's Tennis hosts UW-Eau Claire The Gustavus men's tennis team hosts UW-EauClaire on April 16th
Apr 23 3:00 pm Men's Tennis vs. Carleton The Gustavus men's tennis team hosts Carleton on April 23rd.
Apr 30 9:30 am Men's Tennis hosts Bethany Lutheran Gustavus men's tennis hosts Bethany Lutheran on April 30.
Apr 30 11:00 am Men's Tennis at Hamline The Gustavus men's tennis team travels to Hamline on April 30.


text:
Everyone is talking about the Euro T20 Slam which is an upcoming cricket tournament. Moreover, hundreds of people are trying to know about the teams which are taking part in this league. If you are also searching for teams, they don't need to go anywhere else. I will tell you about the 2019 Euro T20 Slam teams.
You are at the right platform to get the information about the Euro T20 Slam Teams on this platform. Stay with me!
Euro T20 Slam Teams
Ireland Euro T20 Slam Teams
Scotland Teams
Netherlands Teams
Although Ireland, Scotland, and the Netherlands will participate in the Euro T20 league as the officials said. These three countries will represent the two teams of each in this league. It means that the total quantity of the teams is six.
Furthermore, officials also said that every team will consist of nine local players and six overseas players. Therefore, franchises will pick up overseas players from international cricket teams. The International cricket players will make the Euro T20 Slam more interesting.
Officials of the Euro T20 Slam 2019 have also selected the cricket venues to play the cricket matches. VRA Amsterdam, the Grange Edinburgh, and Malahide Dublin are the cricket places. Six teams will play the ten matches in each cricket stadium.
Belfast Titans, Dublin Chiefs, Amsterdam Kings, Rotterdam Rhinos, Glasgow Giants, and Edinburgh Rocks are teams of the Euro T20 Slam league. Let's, talk briefly about Euro T20 Slam teams. Keep my words!
Ireland will represent the two teams in the 2019 Euro T20 league. The names of the Ireland teams belong to the most beautiful cities of Ireland. You ha
ve read the name of the teams in the above section. Dublin Chiefs and Belfast Titans are teams of Ireland.
Belfast Titans: The name of this team shows the name of the city of Ireland. Belfast is a city of Ireland which is very famous among the tourists. Thousands of people come from different parts of the world to visit Belfast.
Furthermore, Belfast Titans are not famous in cricket worldwide. Officials of this league want to motivate the people of this city. International players will also include in this team. If you are going to the stadium to watch live cricket matches of Euro T20 Slam, then it is good. In this way, you can also visit this city.
Dublin Chiefs: This team has got a significant number of fans from all over the world. Dublin is also the city of Ireland which attracts the people to visit. Furthermore, in Dublin, an international cricket place is also present in which Dublin Chiefs plays the cricket matches as practicing.
International players will also present in Dublin Chiefs. Although officials selected the Malahide Dublin to play the cricket tournaments of this league, the people of this league are ready to welcome the viewers of this league. Moreover, the people of this city love to cricket and they also appreciate their teams and players.
Scotland will represent the two teams in 2019 Euro T0 Slam. If you also want to know the Scotland teams, then don't worry. Let's start a discussion about teams of Scotland!
Glasgow Giants: Glasgow is the most beautiful city in Scotland. It is the hometown of the Glasgow Giants. Furthermore, people in this city have ready to go to the stadium to watch live cricket. The reason is that in this city, there is no cricket venue. They are also ready to appreciate your team.
If you also live in Glasgow, then you should also ready to go to the stadium. Moreover, you should also visit Glasgow. Maybe, your favorite players are taking in this league through Glasgow Giants. So, you should not miss watching live cricket matches.
Edinburgh Rocks: Edinburgh is the city of Scotland. It is also the hometown of the Edinburgh Rocks. Furthermore, Edinburgh is also an international cricket stadium named the Grange Edinburgh. And, many international cricket tournaments have played in this cricket place. Officials of the Euro T20 Slam picked up the Grange Edinburgh to play the cricket matches of this league.
Moreover, people in this city love cricket very much and also ready to welcome the viewers. If you are living in Edinburgh, then you should also ready to welcome the other people. Otherwise, you should watch live cricket games by going to the stadium.
Do you know about the Netherlands team? If you don't know, then I will mention briefly about the teams of The Netherlands. Let me tell about the teams of Netherlands which will take part in Euro T20 Slam league!
Amsterdam Kings: Amsterdam is a city of the Netherlands. The team Amsterdam Kings belongs to Amsterdam. Furthermore, this city is also selected by the officials to play the Euro T20 cricket matches. The reason is that an international cricket venue is also present in Amsterdam. Moreover, Amsterdam is a fantastic team. You should watch live this cricket event.
Rotterdam Rhinos: The city of the Netherlands named Rotterdam will also participate in the Euro T20 with the team Rotterdam Rhinos. Although there is no cricket stadium in Rotterdam, so people will go to the other cities to watch live cricket. Furthermore, you should also go to the stadium to watch live cricket of Euro T20.
You have read about Euro T20 Slam Teams in the above section. If your favorite team or player are taking part in this league, then you should watch live cricket according to your wish.
Euro T20 Slam 2019 Live Streaming & Broadcasting…
Buying Euro T20 Slam Ticket
Euro T20 Slam Venues - Location and Stadiums
Euro T20 Slam Opening Ceremony 2019


The SQUEEZE: Leaders who are adept at leading often make mistakes. However, the smartest leader is the one who learns from the mistakes and successes of others. In "Leadership Gold: Lessons I've Learned from a Lifetime of Leading," John C. Maxwell offers a six-month mentorship course. The book contains 26 chapters and houses application exercises for leaders who desire to mentor. Maxwell's book is the result of 40 years of leading, offering a signature style that is candid and provocative. From the first chapter to the last, Maxwell mentors readers on the importance of defining their leadership, listening to counsel, understanding the reality of problems, examining their own mistakes, and functioning as connectors instead of just climbers.
Who is the toughest person to lead?
How is the "best leader" defined?
What are the keys to time-managing your life?
How will people summarize your life?
What are a number of ways of getting into the zone and staying there?
What is the difference between a duck and an eagle?
About the Author: John C. Maxwell is an internationally-recognized expert on the subject of leadership. As a speaker, coach, and author of multiple books, Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP and the John Maxwell Company. Through these two organizations, Maxwell trains more than five (5) million leaders worldwide. Maxwell's speaking engagements include an audience of Fortune 500 companies, government leaders, the National Football League, and the United States Military Academy at West Point. He is a Business Week bestselling author and three of his books have sold more than one (1) million copies. Maxwell has written multiple books on the subject of leadership. Some of the titles include The 3600 Leader, Laws of Leadership Workbook, Developing the Leaders Around You, Mentoring 101, and Contagious Leadership Workbook. For more information about Maxwell's current projects, visit: http://www.johnmaxwell.com/ and follow him at Twitter.com/JohnCMaxwell.


Sample schedules are only examples of a typical day in elementary school. Actual timetables will vary across grades.
Working with five to seven-year-olds in innovative spaces at school such as creation stations and the makerspace has many privileges. It is an absolute honor to be part of students' very first learning experiences. I literally get to witness the joy of learning on their faces when they successfully program a robot, design a space station from a shoe box, or create a snap circuit to show how electricity works.
All of their smiles, laughter, and excitement make it a pleasure to show up for work every day. I couldn't imagine myself doing any other job.


This is an adorable belly ring with a 316L high grade surgical steel shaft and a multi-color beach ball design with acrylic bead on each side. The top ball size is 5mm and the bottom is 8mm.The belly ring size is 14 gauge and 11mm-7/16 of an inch. Entire piece is nickel free.


text:
require 'spec_helper'
require 'uri'

describe Hooksler::Newrelic::BetaInput do
  subject { Hooksler::Newrelic::BetaInput.new({}) }

  let(:input) { subject }

  let(:request) do
    Hooksler::Test::Request.build(json_data, 'CONTENT_TYPE' => 'application/json')
  end

  it do
    should respond_to :load
  end

  context 'wrong request' do
    context 'empty data' do
      let(:json_data) { '' }
      it_behaves_like 'wrong input'
    end

    context 'wrong conent type' do
      let(:request) do
        Hooksler::Test::Request.build('')
      end

      it_behaves_like 'wrong input'
    end

  end

  context 'alert' do
    context 'general' do
      let(:fixture_address) { File.join('spec', 'fixtures') }

      let(:json_data) { File.read(File.join(fixture_address, 'beta.json')) }
      it_behaves_like 'correct input'

    end
  end

end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Tolani Lake est une census-designated place du comté de Coconino, dans l'État de l'Arizona, aux États-Unis. En 2020, elle compte une population de .

Notes et références

Voir aussi

Liens externes

Census-designated place en Arizona
Localité dans le comté de Coconino


true. This spell is very effective and has worked for many of those who have faith in it.
Use a conjoined bride & groom candle or two figure candles side by side.
charm in the hopes you will be able to emulate the devotion to each other.
These ducks epitomize faithfulness and fidelity.
pair of statues somewhere strategic to radiate happiness there.
and protect your happy marriage.
This spell is designed to make the husband/partner forsake the 'other woman'.
Pick up another pebble but this time place it under your right armpit.
With both pebbles in place, go to a third crossroads and pick up another pebble.
believed to be the most powerful variety of the species.
placed underneath the mattress on his side of the bed too.


Hey Man Faisalabad is a place where you can enjoy your favourite pizza with your friends and family. You can can also make an order for home delivery in Faisalabad. It is located in D Ground peoples colony Faisalabad. We have also given here its Contact Number so that you can know more about its latest menu about pizza and other foods with prices.


text:
by Lynette Mejia
Log Entry, Vitruvius, 2115-26. FTL Propulsion, terminated. Navigation Systems, normal. Suspension and Life Support Systems, normal. Crew Vital Signs, normal. Speed: 276005.965 km/s. ETA, LMC-2015 Singularity: 240h, 42m. Suspension terminated. Begin crew reanimation sequence: T-Minus 36 hours, 12 minutes. Packet prepared, 2115.06.24, 22:25. Packet transmitted, 2115.06.24, 22:27.
In the sleep chamber Adam Steward dreamed. He was at a party, a barbecue. It was summer, hot, so hot that sweat streamed down his back, soaking his shirt. He was standing over a grill, cooking, or trying to, cursing because the smoke was in his eyes and the hamburgers were burning. Nikki behind him suddenly, the rush of cool air on his neck that gave him goose bumps. She pressed a cold beer into his hand, cold enough that ice crystals tickled the inside of his mouth when he took a drink. She laughed, and the sun shone in her hair. Funny, how he'd never noticed that before, how the light glittered between the strands when she turned at just the right angle. He'd had this dream a hundred times, and every time there was something new to see. Some detail, however minor, that had escaped his attention on the day he'd actually lived it.
"You take everything so seriously," she said the first night they met. "You need to lighten up. Smile once in a while. Live a little." She took his hand, led him out onto the dance floor, the science nerd in the button-down shirt and tie at a bar on a Friday night. He was nervous, scared shitless if the truth be told, holding all the anxiety in by white knuckle courage and endless mental repetitions of the periodic table. Of course he was serious. She was beautiful, and she'd asked him to dance. He still couldn't believe he'd allowed his friends to talk him into coming here.
"Do you go to school here?" She was shouting above the sounds of the music, a deep, rhythmic thumping that Adam couldn't have identified with a gun to his head.
"Yes," he yelled. "I'm a graduate student."
"Oh yeah? In what field?"
"Astrophysics." He hesitated, waited to see if her eyes glazed, smiled a little bit inside when they didn't. "I'm doing research connecting supermassive black holes with the Steady State theory." He stopped before he lost her interest. "And you?"
"I teach literature at the lab school. Faulkner, mostly, but I've gone crazy the last couple of semesters and thrown in some Eudora Welty. You wanna get out of here?"
He smiled. "I would love to."
Log Entry, Vitruvius, 2115-27. Propulsion and Navigation Systems, normal. Life Support Systems, normal. Crew Vital Signs, normal. Speed: 275998.772 km/s. ETA, LMC-2015 Singularity: 216h, 31m. Crew reanimation, complete. Radiation scan and survey complete. (Enclosure: images 55-76, visible light, x-ray, gamma radiation) Packet prepared, 2115.25.06, 22:25. Packet transmitted, 2115.25.06, 22:27.
He was groggy, and cold. The temperature of the saline solution had been a fraction of a degree too low, and he awoke chilled and violently shaking. His first thought was ridiculous, inane: Time to make the donuts. As if the bedside alarm clock had just gone off, and he was rolling out of bed for a shower and another day of teaching. As if Nikki were still alive, warm and peaceful beside him. As if Mikey would come padding in on footed pajamas, corn silk hair tousled from sleep, and crawl in between them.
His muscles had atrophied despite the electro-muscular stimulation, and it had taken days to regain full bodily control. After years of intravenous feedings his stomach was shrunken. It was as if it no longer remembered how to digest food. Even with great effort he could only keep down the tiniest bites, violently throwing up anything more than a couple of ounces of broth.
When he was strong enough, he reviewed the past year's logs, manually checking each system for integrity and function. When that was done he reviewed the mission objectives, experimental protocols, and the procedures for filing reports. Everything seemed to be in order, though the deceleration from light speed had taken longer than they had anticipated, reducing his working time. Given his plans, that would not pose an insurmountable problem. Satisfied, he took a seat near the nose of the craft, opening the radiation shields that covered the cockpit windows.
Despite months of preparation and study, despite understanding on a scientific level what to expect, he was nonetheless awestruck. The view was vaguely familiar to be sure; he'd been looking at stars his entire life. But this…this was an entirely new neighborhood, a view even Edwin Hubble could never have imagined.
A 360° telescopic scan with infrared and visible overlays revealed clusters of white-hot Type Ia supergiants wrapped in a magnificent glowing reflection nebula, its bilateral structure a pair of wings that swept the skies. The Butterfly Nebula, Adam thought. That's what Mikey would have called it.
In the echoes of his heart the thing begins to flap its wings, spiraling upwards into the hot summer sky. "Burr-fly, Daddy." The little boy smiles, proud of his identification skills, his entire universe contained in this tiny meadow. From a distance, Nikki's voice: "Food's ready! Come on, you two, even scientists have to eat." Without looking Mikey reaches up with a tiny hand, wrapping it confidently around one of his father's fingers. Adam marvels over it, the meaning of his life encapsulated in this small space, this moment in time.
Log Entry, Vitruvius, 2115-28. Propulsion and Navigation Systems, normal. Life Support Systems, normal. Redshift scan and survey initialized. Data Collection, 58% complete. Speed: 275441.332 km/s. ETA, LMC-2015 Singularity: 192h, 54m. Thermodynamic mapping complete. (Enclosure: Local group spectroscopic analysis, LMC-2015 Radio/X-Ray recording) Packet prepared, 2115.26.06, 22:25. Packet transmitted, 2115.26.06, 22:27.
The cockpit viewing panels were filled with a deep, red vaporous glow that drowned out the darkness of space. He knew it for what it was – the end, or possibly the beginning, depending on how you looked at it. It was getting closer, drawing him inexorably into its wide, endlessly voracious orbit. Adam's heart pounded as he watched it, ticking ever closer. It was a strange feeling to see your destiny stretched out before you, like a fortune teller scrying in tea leaves. In a thousand dreams, he'd imagined what it would have meant to see the future, to take a different path. If he could have called her. If he had stayed home that day. If the weather had been different. Eventually, though, he'd realized the truth of it all – that the future isn't comprised of a million branching possibilities, infinitely changeable. It's a line, clean and simple and straight. There is no deviation.
Log Entry, Vitruvius, 2115-29. Propulsion and Navigation Systems, normal. Life Support Systems, normal. Data Collection, 65% complete. Speed: 275975.031 km/s. ETA, LMC-2015 Singularity: 168h, 41m. Hawking Radiation analysis 1 complete. (Enclosure: Data Package, Images 77-125) Packet prepared, 2115.27.06, 22:25. Packet transmitted, 2115.27.06, 22:27.
The ship was cold. Climate control was struggling to warm the interior from the absolute zero of deep space. The gravity field was stronger now, as if tidal forces were pulling and stretching him like toffee. Physically, it was becoming harder to walk, harder to carry on normally. Adam gripped the cup of coffee, wrapping his fingers around its warm circumference. The only sound was the white noise of the humming engines, pushing him ever onward. With no more responsibilities other than periodic systems checks, he drifted in a haze of jumbled thought and memory. Back to the university. Back to the time before.
"Black holes were originally known as "Frozen Stars." Can anyone venture a guess as to why?" A few nervous glances, some shifting in their chairs. "It's a perception issue, really; since the light of objects near the event horizon will never actually reach the viewer, the black hole appears "frozen," if you will. Stuck in time." He stopped, surveying their faces, watching for the ones on the edges of their seats, playing the game with himself where he tried to pick out his future graduate assistants. "Yes, it sounds strange. It is strange to think of time as something that can be stopped. Of course, don't expect something like that to work when your term papers are due." The class laughed, more at ease now.
This was the moment, he realized. This was where the idea was born; the idea that although time was linear, it didn't have to move at a constant speed. Hell, it didn't have to move at all. At the singularity, the fourth dimension took on the characteristics of the third; became a road that could be traversed, forward or backward. It was only a kernel then, however; not yet born, not yet connected to his life. Later, when grief and sorrow were his only companions, it would return, and set him on that path once more.
Log Entry, Vitruvius, 2115-30. Propulsion and Navigation Systems, normal. Life Support Systems, normal. Data Collection, 87% complete. Speed: 273498.221 km/s. ETA, LMC-2015 Singularity: 72h, 22m. Full spectrum scan, initiated. Hawking radiation analysis 2 complete. (Enclosure: Data Package, Images 126-189) Packet prepared, 2115.01.07, 22:25. Packet transmitted, 2115.01.07, 22:27.
Another year gone by. Adam drifted, awash on a sea of moments that sloshed over him, lapping at his feet like waves. They pulled and pushed, learning him, committing him to memory. Outside the red glow had deepened, wildfire in the distance, a burning door.
He closed his eyes and suddenly he was in the hallway of the new physical sciences building, dedicated just a week before. Painters were still moving among the students. Electric outlets still needed covers.
"Dr. Steward." The policeman was soaked from the pounding rain that smacked against the windows. He had a look on his face that stopped Adam's heart.
"Dr. Steward, I'm sorry, but there's been an accident."
"My wife?" The words were thick; his tongue was swollen and heavy in his mouth.
"She's in critical condition, at Mercy General Hospital. I can take you there right away."
"My son? What about my little boy?"
"I'm sorry, Dr. Steward. You should come with me."
Log Entry, Vitruvius, 2115-31. Propulsion, terminated; Free Fall initiated. Navigation Systems, normal. Life Support Systems, normal. Data Collection, 92% complete. Speed: 289621.555 km/s. ETA, LMC-2015 Singularity: 48h, 04m. Event Horizon gravitational measurement complete. (Enclosure: Data Package, Images 190-244) Packet prepared, 2115.02.07, 22:25. Packet transmitted, 2115.02.07, 22:27.
He still slept, though fitfully. It was noticeably hotter in the cabin, so much so that he perspired heavily most of the time, even though the air conditioning was cooling at maximum capacity. The heat gave an air of unreality to his dreams, mixing memory with madness, the type of thing one might experience during a fever. Images blinked before his eyes like a film played at slow speed, flashes in the dark behind his eyelids. Nikki, smiling, in the sunshine. Mikey, playing with an oversized yellow shovel and pail at the beach. The funeral; staring at the casket that held his life, waiting for it to be lowered into the cold, hard earth. The night sky. The singularity, out there, waiting for him, rushing up to meet him with arms open wide.
Log Entry, Vitruvius, 2115-32. Navigation Systems, no reading. Crew Vital Signs, no reading. Speed: 1132.010 km/s. ETA, LMC-2015 Singularity: 24h, 17m. Packet prepared, 2115.03.07, 22:25. Packet transmitted, 2115.03.07, 22:27.
He hadn't anticipated the frequent loss of consciousness, the blackouts and missing time. It was the heat, mostly, though the intense gravity that felt like it was pushing and pulling apart every atom in his body. His senses had suffered, coming and going in no particularly discernible pattern. He made one last report, one last transmission sent out into the blackness. Perhaps someone would find it, someday, and think of him, if even for a moment.
He took a deep breath, as much as his compressed lungs could manage, and slid the helmet over his head. The eye shields would only provide protection for a moment or two before the super-intense burst of light would overwhelm his retinae. The gloves and the suit he'd already put on earlier, despite the sickening heat; a flimsy, worthless barrier that would, at most, gain him time that couldn't even be measured by a standard clock. Still, he had done it, had made all the preparations. Around him the ship shuddered, coming apart at the seams as it approached the event horizon.
In the distance he felt her calling to him; saw the sunlight glinting off the strands of her golden, burning hair. Over the sounds of the ship tearing apart he could hear Mikey's voice: "Burr-fly, Daddy." They were here, he knew; here at the intersection of death and creation, and, as he had known, they were waiting for him.
With the last strength he could muster, he pressed the button on the console that opened the cabin radiation shields. He smiled as the photons assaulted him, as light and time and space merged with elemental finality. Dimensions opened, unfolding before his eyes like the petals of a flower. Time became a road and Adam walked upon it, back to his wife and son, back home.
From a distance it was a barely discernible blip, a particle suspended in the event horizon, an infinitesimally small ripple in a tiny corner of the universe.
Final Log Entry, Vitruvius, 2115-33. Contact with LMC-2015 Singularity: T-Minus 2 hours, 29 minutes. All systems normal. Packet prepared, 2115.04.07, 23:54. Packet transmitted, 2115.04.07, 23:56.
Lynette Mejía writes science fiction, fantasy, and horror prose and poetry. Her stories have appeared in "The Absent Willow Review", "Everyday Weirdness", as well as the anthologies "Children of the Moon" and "Penny Dread Tales, Volume 1". She is currently working on a master's degree in English at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette with a concentration on Pre-Raphaelite poetry and creative writing. She is also hard at work on her first novel. She lives in Lafayette, Louisiana with her husband, three children, four cats, and one fish.
1 Redstone Science Fiction #22 March 2012 | Redstone Science Fiction { 03.01.12 at 12:28 am }
[…] Steady State by Lynette Mejía […]
2 Editor's Note – March 2012 | Redstone Science Fiction { 03.01.12 at 1:34 am }
[…] SF themes, including human-robot interaction and what planet colonization might be like, while Steady State by Lynette Mejía is heartbreaking take on the SF ideas of the solitary space traveler and a black […]
3 Laura West { 03.09.12 at 1:59 pm }
Awesome read; kept me spell-bound!
4 The Great Geek Manual » Free Fiction Round-Up: March 6, 2012 { 03.21.12 at 7:33 am }
[…] "Steady State" by Lynette Mejía at Redstone Science […]
5 prezzey.net * Bogi Takács » Short story reviews: Jennings, Mejía { 03.29.12 at 8:04 pm }
[…] Steady State by Lynette Mejía (an American woman) […]


text:
The Four Cringe-Worthy Mistakes Too Many Startups Make with Data
If there's one thing that grinds Amanda Richardson's gears, it's fads.
As Chief Data and Strategy Officer for HotelTonight (she was previously their VP Product), she oversees 400 to 500 data events for an app with millions of monthly users. Her team registers hundreds of events from every user session. She's steeped in the data world and is a keen observer of how other companies are increasingly leveraging data to make decisions. But what she sees are a number of trends and approaches to data that aren't just lazy, but also ineffective, misleading, and costing companies a ton of opportunity.
In this exclusive interview, Richardson points out four of these approaches that data teams industry-wide should watch out for, and how leaders can break from the pack to better serve their strategic goals. Specifically, she describes how she built her current team to mimic the product teams she's led for years. And she explains why creating next-generation products has a lot more to do with simplicity, consistency and consensus than leveraging the hottest new thing.
Mistake #1: Starting with Metrics Instead of a Goal
Data is more available than ever before. Collecting, storing and analyzing it have become standard practices at most companies. But all too often, lost in the scramble for real-time analytics and data lakes is a coherent and straightforward plan for what to do with all of these numbers. Richardson has seen many a team aimlessly digging through data, looking for the story. With no clear point of view, though, they're left chasing a moving target.
"You need to start with a specific question to answer or hypothesis to investigate," she says. "A lot of times, people will launch a product and then say, 'How's it doing?' Rather than saying, 'Our product goal is to convert from this to this. Or grow the top of funnel or move the bottom of the funnel. Or increase our revenue per user.'"
Without a clear and agreed-upon goal, you run the risk of rewriting history as the data comes in. Take HotelTonight's Favorites Feature that allows users to 'favorite' hotels they want to call up first during searches. "Is that for our power users? Is it for new people who may not like the serendipity of HotelTonight and want to follow a specific hotel? Is it for people planning a trip who want a watchlist feature?" says Richardson. "Those are all possibilities. But what's the key metric that's going to determine success? Without that clarity, you end up with a situation where one person is saying, 'This was great for our most popular users, who favorite an average of 12 hotels' and another is saying 'But this was intended for new users.' And you're thinking, 'Was it?'"
The key to effectively consuming data is to clearly stipulate what you're trying to accomplish and how you'll define success. But that's easier said than done. "Everyone agrees at 60,000 feet. But once you take it into the details — 'What are we going to high-five over in 30 days?' — people are not clear."
So make things clear. Create the scorecard by which you'll judge success. "The discipline is to have something written down before every project gets started." Richardson cites a classic shorthand for effective goal-setting. "It's that old SMART acronym: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely."
When it comes to setting that all-important goal, she's unequivocal: That's one of the key responsibilities of a startup's founders. "It's the job of the leader to say, 'We're going to climb Everest.' It's the job of the team to figure out the best path up Everest and the requirements for each team member. But particularly at an early-stage company, it's not fair to leave it to the product manager to set these strategic priorities."
Putting your goal down on paper is also the best way to resist the tendency to shift gears as you go. "It's so easy to think, 'Adding whatever feature I heard my buddy mention at a dinner party last night is all of a sudden my goal, too.'" It's also easy to take wins wherever you find them. "We all want to be right. Maybe you said, "Our goal is to grow first-time users by 10%,' then you see that feature is used by repeat users 30%. All of a sudden you're saying, 'That's a big win! We got 30% of repeats!' People lose sight of their goal all the time."
It's easy to understand why. "There's so much pressure. CEOs need to demonstrate success. If the team is growing, they've got this new family of mouths to feed, and it's very stressful. But it's their job, more than anyone, to be honest about what the goal is."
Be as precise as possible about your top-level objective, and the metrics you're using to measure it. "It might be 'Our big goal is to get this many bookings of this type by this date.'" Be clear, too, about the number that represents success.
That's not to say that you have to turn a blind eye to other insights that surface in your data. But keep your focus trained on what you set out to accomplish and the data you came for. "When you ask data people how a product or feature is going, they'll almost always come back with a list of fun facts," says Richardson. "But don't confuse those secondary metrics with your top metric." Not sure where to start? Take it a quarter at a time.
Think about your number one priority for the quarter. Do you have a clear, definable metric around it?
Mistake #2: Rampant Personalization
For many startups, personalization — customizing a user's home screen, for example, or offering recommendations — is a solution in search of a problem. It's a hallmark of hugely successful companies like Amazon (recommended products) and Facebook (a curated Newsfeed), so it stands to reason that it's a good thing, right?
Not necessarily, and definitely not necessarily right now. As with every decision early leaders make, you have to think about opportunity cost. "Personalization takes a ton of development time," says Richardson. "In many ways, it's just another feature. Is it one you even need, or one that makes sense for your product?"
If the answer is yes, you may still need to hold off. Effectively personalizing a product generally requires a good amount of banked data — data that a new company may not have had time to amass.
"I've talked to people at pre-launch startups with fewer than 100 users who say, 'We're going to start on personalization,'" says Richardson. "And I'm thinking, 'What are you going to personalize? And more importantly, why? What is the problem you're solving?' Often the motivation is that it's in a headline or a board member thinks it's the secret to success."
It's not that she's some anti-personalization crusader — tailored results are a key element of HotelTonight's user experience. But it took a lot of data to understand how those users wanted personalization to work. Ultimately, the company realized that travelers didn't want to see suggestions based simply on history, but on context.
"Maybe my last booking was a Luxe hotel. It was the weekend. It was my anniversary,'" says Richardson. "But if I show up in New York City for work and book a Luxe, that expense report is getting rejected. Day of week matters. Time of day matters. If you're booking at 11 o'clock at night, you really don't care if they have a spa, right? All of those factors, which are personalization, matter far more than the individual user. We wouldn't have seen this if we would have rushed our efforts to personalize the experience."
There's no single answer to if and when you should undertake personalization. Richardson's recommendation is, once again, simply to start with a goal, or a hypothesis to test. "Tell me what's not working. Then maybe personalization is a solution," she says. "Let's say conversion in New York City's down, and we don't know why. Maybe a solution is to personalize the display of hotels to you. But it better be a pretty good bet to merit the time and human cost."
For some startups, personalization may be closely tied to mission and need to come early. For others, it may never be worth the investment. "If you're a new photo stream app, the time to pursue this is probably sooner because it can be a core differentiator. If you're selling B2B expense software, it's probably never."
Focusing too much on personalization has steep opportunity cost. It's always a tradeoff with real development time. When you don't waste your time going down rabbit holes, you can use it to pursue more important growth opportunities with a higher likelihood of success, says Richardson. Your data team can work on answering business critical questions instead — like getting a better sense of what drives users to convert, which you might think personalization will solve, even if it doesn't.
Until you can identify the problem you're solving, stop throwing around solutions because they're cheap and catchy.
Mistake #3: Hiring a Dedicated Data Scientist
If you think that your organization's analysis needs to come in the form of a dedicated employee with a "data scientist" title, Richardson challenges you to think broader. "To me, data science is a collection of skills, not a job. Just like I would say analysis and strategy is a collection of skills, not a job. Everybody on your early team needs to be strategic. Everybody should be able to do analysis."
She cites the recent movie Hidden Figures, the story of the women mathematicians behind NASA's early missions. "The women were called 'computers,' right? They used to be the only people dedicated to doing complex calculations. But that's not a job anymore — now everyone does computations — it's become part of a generalized skill set. That's how the world evolves. And I think we're there with data science. More people should be able to take responsibility for and have the capability to work with data to make decisions."
Think about what effective data science requires: There's the statistical, computational chops, of course. But it also demands enough knowledge of the market, and how your business functions within it, to ask the right questions and meaningfully answer the those questions. Also critical are strong programming skills. Too often, though, companies hire for the stats skills only, then silo that person so they can never access the business context they need. This isolation blinds the data scientist to the realities of how the company is operating. And, it makes their results and recommendations theoretical and often irrelevant.
"Our mistake — and the mistake I've seen often — has been to hire a data scientist who is very technical, but who lacks business acumen. Then we isolate that person and have them churn through the million questions we inevitably want to answer." However skilled that person might be, they don't have the context to be successful. And they don't have time or opportunity to interact with the engineers, PMs, or marketing leads that could give it to them. "They don't know what to look for, and they aren't empowered to ask the right questions," says Richardson.
"One of my favorite examples of this at HotelTonight is that data scientists will often come in and remark, '"The people who become our highest value users are people who don't convert in the first two weeks. They convert in days 15 to 30 after installment.' Which is true. But what am I going to do with that? It's a fun fact."
Meanwhile, a lot of good questions are probably getting stuck in the queue. "People wait in line for the data scientist's time rather than saying, 'How can we figure this out ourselves?'" says Richardson. "You'll be much more successful if you create an organization where everyone feels empowered and educated on how to do analysis."
Rather than focusing on an overly narrow title, or a single job req, consider the skills a data scientist brings to bear. Odds are good you already have them on board. "People say, 'I can't afford a data scientist,' but that's crazy. Someone on your team took a stats class. I hope you have a developer. And someone should have business acumen — the CEO, if no one else. Get those three people in a room. You don't have to wait for this magic person to appear."
Moreover, startups should think twice about whether they even have enough material for a pricey data scientist to work with. "To do deep analysis, you need a lot of data. If it's your third month as a start up, and you've got 60 users, there's probably not enough data."
If and when you do hire a dedicated data scientist, don't stick them in a corner. Include them in the meetings and conversations that will inform how you apply the numbers they're crunching. "I'm reflecting on how we failed with our data scientist the first time," says Richardson. "For starters, he literally sat by himself away from all of us." Everyone on your team works better and smarter when they understand their role as part of a whole. Even if you have to do some nudging, get your numbers-minded data people out of their comfort zone and into the business.
You should always be looking to build out engineering skills, statistical knowledge, and business acumen — and support those employees who strive to exhibit the full suite. But especially early in your company's life, you're typically better served to hire three experts and make them come together on analysis than you are to look for one unicorn who can do all of those things.
Mistake #4: Chasing After the Latest Toolset
New tools emerge all the time. But at the end of the day, they can't make your data strategy fool proof or perfect. "Garbage in, garbage out," says Richardson. "A tool can absorb whatever events you want to send it, but it's you that has to define what those events are and what they mean. And you have to make sure those events don't change."
There's no substitute for clarity and consistency, nor a tool that can replicate a clear point of view. Meanwhile, even the simplest tools can be an effective way to manage data if you apply the right rigor — and early stage companies with burn rate on the brain should take heed. There are three things that Richardson recommends every data team supply their organizations:
A central dashboard: "This goes back to the first point. When you know what your top-line metric is and you put it on a dashboard, then no one else can change it. If it's the bold headline at the top, then no one can come back and say, 'That wasn't our goal.'" What you use can be as simple as a locked Google Doc. The idea is simply to have a canonical source of truth for what you're doing, as well as a resource that you can push out to the rest of the organization on a regular basis.
Accessible data: If you want everyone on your team to be empowered to think analytically, you need to give them easy access to the numbers. "For marketing that may be your attribution stuff. For product, that's your conversion stuff. For engineering, maybe your uptime." The most important thing is simply to encourage hands-on engagement with each person's part of the business. "The good news is there's now a whole generation of people who have grown up with computers and access to anything they want, whenever they want it."
Flexible tooling: Adoption of that mindset, though, is a lot more important than adoption of any single tool. "Just let everybody have their own specialized data tool. There is no one solution." Her team uses Looker; other teams might find that something else works better for their analytics. "I hear people say, 'Wouldn't it be great if we all used Looker for everything?' There's no amount of time in the world for me to build enough Looker capabilities, even customizations, to answer questions as well as, say, Amplitude for the product team. So let them use the tool that works for them."
Why You Should Run Data Like You Run Product
Richardson can't predict the next data trend coming down the pike, but she has found a way to make sure her team isn't distracted by the latest shiny object: she runs HotelTonight's data operations like a product team.
Three years into her tenure as VP of Product for HotelTonight, cofounder Sam Shank asked her to lead the company's data efforts. "We'd gotten to a point where it became clear that people didn't agree on what our core metrics were, and he wanted to fix that," she says. "What I immediately saw was the same problem you have in product: a lot of stakeholders, with a lot of different opinions about what is most important."
That's the bad news. The good news? Well, data teams suffer from the same problems that product teams do—so there's a roadmap of processes and best practices there for the taking.
Richardson saw that she needed to build the same type of infrastructure she did as a product leader. "We need a backlog. We need someone who knows what the solution is. We need someone who's talking to our users about how they use data, what they want to use data for. We need a QA process to make sure we don't change the data."
First things first, she made sure that just as someone owns a product, someone owned data product. "I have an amazing director of data product, who's literally a PM by training. He works across the organization to figure out how teams are using data. He prioritizes. He does sprint planning with the data engineering team every week," says Richardson.
Next, the team is responsible for ensuring the data coming in is good, which they do with a rigorous QA test suite. "We're always monitoring and automating the data in the background, so that we don't realize something's broken after three weeks. 'Did the data change from day to day? Is the data abnormally out of bounds? Is there no data coming in?' All the same kind of product-behavior questions you would ask on the product side."
One thing Richardson has found more central to her work in data than her previous product role is documentation. To achieve crisply defined goals, you need to work with a shared vocabulary, and her team is responsible for defining everything from "revenue" to "visit." "Okay, a user. Does a user have to do a search? Or if someone just checks on their bookings, is that a user? Is it someone for whom we have an email address?"
Analysis succeeds or fails on these details, but reaching consensus on what these terms mean can be complicated. "Another reason to have a product owner of the data, who can work across the organization like a PM would."
Finally, there's deprecation. Just as maintaining a healthy product means periodically pruning features, maintaining a healthy data product requires deprecating data streams that are no longer relevant and removing them from the database. "Otherwise, someone pulls the wrong data, and you end up with seven different definitions of revenue."
If your company is still incredibly young or small, you can still pursue this strategy. Start with one strong data engineer who cares about the business and proving value, then make that person prioritize what to go after. This person might have to wear a few hats and take on other development or analyst responsibilities to justify their hire, but they should be encouraged to think ruthlessly like a PM and learn those skills on the job.
For Richardson, there's been one clear sign that she's on the right track: "No one asks if the data is right anymore. They may not like the data, but no one is questioning its accuracy."
That confidence has been the biggest payoff of Richardson's product-based approach to data. With sharp definitions and well-oiled process, she has not only clarified the company's goals, she's freed the company to experiment more productively, too. "In product, you have your committed core features, and then you have the things you're testing in MVP," she says. "We have the same concept in data. There's the data that we've got the gold standard on, and then there's new data that we're taking in even though we're not sure what to do with it yet."


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Complete DHS Daily Report for November 29, 2010
· A package containing ―GE 68,‖ a radioactive material, has disappeared in transit, according to WGN-TV 9 Chicago. The package was shipped by FedEx from Fargo, North Dakota, to Knoxville, Tennessee. When the package was opened, the GE 68 was missing. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has notified public safety agencies. (See item 13)
13. November 26, WGN-TV 9 Chicago – (National) Fedex package with radioactive material missing. A package containing radioactive material has disappeared in transit. The package, containing material known as ―GE 68‖ was shipped, by FedEx, from Fargo, North Dakota to Knoxville, Tennessee. But when it was opened the GE 68 was missing. A spokesperson from Federal Express told WGN that there should not be any threat to public safety, as long as the package is not tampered with. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has notified public safety agencies. Among those agencies notified of the incident by the NRC include the CDC, the FBI, the EPA, and the Department of Homeland Security. Source: http://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-fedex-radioactive-package-nov25,0,3949749.story
· According to a report by the Associated Press, the Saginaw Water Treatment Plant in Michigan discharged 10 million gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage into the Saginaw River between November 22 and 23. The release happened after a 1.75-inch rainfall that caused 4 retention basins to overflow. (See item 18)
18. November 26, Associated Press – (Michigan) 10M gallons of sewage released into Saginaw River. Facility officials say the Saginaw Water Treatment Plant has discharged 10 million gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage into the Saginaw River. Officials tell the Saginaw News the release happened between the night of November 22 and the morning of November 23 following a 1.75-inch rainfall that caused four retention basins to overflow. Water treatment officials at the mid-Michigan plant say they pretreated the sewage with hypochloride. They also allowed solids to settle before discharging overflow. Officials tested for E. coli at two points along the river. Results are pending. Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mi-sewagedischarge-s,0,6154850.story
8. November 26, Associated Press – (Massachusetts) Boston man sentenced in mortgage fraud scheme. A Boston man has received a jail sentence and been ordered to pay $100,000 restitution for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme. Prosecutors say the 39-year-old mortgage broker was sentenced this week to a year in jail, with all but one month suspended for a probationary period of three years. He pleaded guilty to charges including multiple larceny counts. The attorney general's office says the man was one of six people involved in the scheme, in which investors interested in buying multifamily homes in the Boston area were lured in with inflated appraisals of 26 distressed properties. The buyers were then left with properties not worth the loans obtained to purchase them. The convicted man's lawyer did not immediately respond to a call for comment on November 26. Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12249356
9. November 25, Department of Justice – (Ohio) Ohio woman charged in identity theft and fraudulent credit card scheme. A grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging a 35-year-old woman, who hails from Macedonia, Ohio, with aggravated identity theft and fraud in relation to use of access devices, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced November 25. The indictment alleges that the suspect used the personal identifiers of 14 real people, including their Social Security numbers and dates of birth, to open 14 credit card accounts with Capital One. The indictment also alleges that suspect then used those fraudulent credit cards to obtain things of value totaling more than $1,000. Source: http://7thspace.com/headlines/364958/ohio_woman_charged_in_identity_theft_and_fraudulent_credit_card_scheme.html
10. November 24, Bank Info Security – (National) ATM outage stirs debate. Several financial institutions saw their ATM and online banking channels taken offline over the weekend of the daylight saving time change. The institutions allegedly affected by the outage, including Bank of America, Chase, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Compass, USAA, Suntrust, Chase, Fairwinds Credit Union, American Express, BB&T on the East Coast, and PNC, reportedly blamed the downtime on a computer glitch related to the time-zone change. But a senior analyst at Aite Group LLC who covers banking and payments fraud, says more is likely going on behind the scenes. In fact, she says the outage could have been related to anything from a widespread malware attack to outdated technical infrastructures. ―Infrastructure is certainly a problem with banks,‖ the analyst says. ―They acknowledge it.‖ And given the proprietary nature of most banking institutions' code, she says it is unlikely that a bug related to the time-zone would simultaneously hit all of these institutions, or at least within the same relative timeframe. ―That just doesn't seem like a plausible reason for me,‖ she says. ―I think malware if probably the most likely culprit, or some sort of coordinated attack.‖ Source: http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=3127
30. November 26, The Register – (International) Secunia recovers from DNS redirection hack. Security notification firm Secunia has confirmed that a DNS redirection hack was to blame for the redirection of surfers to a hacker site on November 25. Secunia's authoritative DNS hosting was redirected for 70 minutes. But because of the way DNS caching works, many surfers were still redirected to a defacement site hours after the Danish firm's definitive records were straightened out. The attack resulted in a temporary redirection of traffic from all customers of registrar DirectNIC, not just Secunia. The hack was carried out by serial defacer TurkGuvenligi, who has used site-redirection techniques in previous attacks and seems to be motivated by bragging rights or pure mischief rather than anything more malign. In a statement, Secunia was keen to stress that the redirection had no impact on any customer data it held from users of its patch management tools. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/26/secunia_back_from_dns_hack/
31. November 25, The Register – (International) ZeuS variant only infects super-fast PCs. Miscreants behind one variant of the ZeuS Trojan have outfoxed themselves in their attempts to outwit anti-virus analysts by releasing a variant of the malware that only infects high-performance PCs. Security firms use automation and virtualization technologies to cope with the growing volume of malware spewed out by cybercrooks every day. VXers are well aware of this and use virtual machine detection and anti-debugging code in their creations. The tactic is designed to frustrate security researchers and in so doing increase the time it takes to detect, develop, and distribute anti-virus updates. Users of the ZeuS crimeware toolkit are very much involved in this cat and mouse game between security researchers and cybercriminals. But one particular group using the crimeware toolkit released a variant whose anti-debugging efforts are so aggressive it effectively assumes any machine whose CPU is running at lower than 2GHz must be running a debugger. As a result the malware only runs its malicious routines on high-performance machines, remaining inert on lower horsepower boxes. A security analyst at F-secure explains: ―With a CPU below 2GHz the sample acts as if it is being debugged, aborts execution and does not infect the system. I tested the sample on an IBM T42 (1.86 GHz) notebook and the system was slow enough to avoid being infected.‖ Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/25/snobby_zeus_variant_avoids_bog_standard_pcs/
32. November 24, Softpedia – (International) Recent Cutwail spam employs complex text obfuscation techniques. Security researchers from Symantec warn that a new rogue pharmacy spam run uses HTML and CSS techniques to obfuscate text advertisements and avoid detection. Pharma spam has been steadily making a comeback since Spamit, the world's largest rogue pharmacy affiliate program, closed up shop at the beginning of October. A lot of campaigns seen recently advertise a rogue pharmacy called ―Canadian Health&Care Mall‖ and are being sent by the Cutwail botnet. The latest spam involves emails formatted in HTML, which use CSS floating and color declaractions to deobfuscate what looks like random text and show only the relevant parts to recipients. The resulting message reads: ―Everyone has heard about lower-cost drugs from abroad drugstore. The difficulty is to find the reliable one. «CanadianPharmacy» is an experienced, trusted and fully-licensed Canadian online drugstore.‖ In addition to using text obfuscation in order to evade anti-spam filters, the spammers also try to trick URL blocking systems by linking to a Google cached version of the spam site. The resulting link points to a location to a domain called googleusercontent.com, which is possibly whitelisted, instead of a rogue one. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Recent-Cutwail-Spam-Employs-Complex-HTML-Obfuscation-Techniques-168434.shtml
33. November 24, Help Net Security – (International) 34% of all malware ever created appeared in 2010. According to PandaLabs, in the first ten months of the year the number of threats created and distributed account for one third of all viruses that exist. These means that 34 percent of all malware ever created has appeared in the last 10 months. The company's database, which automatically detects, analyzes and classifies 99.4 percent of the threats received, now has 134 million separate files, 60 million of which are malware (viruses, worms, Trojans and other threats). In the year up to October, some 20 million new strains of malware have been created (including new threats and variants of existing families), the same amount as in the whole of 2009. The average number of new threats created every day has risen from 55,000 to 63,000. This would all suggest that the cyber-crime market is currently in rude health, although this is also possibly conditioned by the increasing number of cyber-crooks with limited technical knowledge who are turning their hand to these activities. This also means that although more malicious software is created, its lifespan is shorter: 54 percent of malware samples are active for just 24 hours, as opposed to the lifespan of several months enjoyed by the threats of previous years. They now infect just a few systems and then disappear. Source: http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=1545
34. November 25, Charleston Daily Mail – (West Virginia) Metro 911 wants say in outage probe. Kanawha County, West Virginia's Metro Emergency Operations Center has petitioned to intervene in the state Public Service Commission's investigation into the way telecommunications providers notify public safety agencies of service outages. The commission opened an investigation following FiberNet's October 10 statewide service outage. The Kanawha Commission president requested the probe. He has said that no one from FiberNet contacted Metro 911 about either the October 10 statewide outage or a widespread FiberNet outage that occurred on October 25. Metro 911 said it is the largest so-called ―Public Safety Answering Point‖ in the state. In its petition, filed November 23, the agency said it will be a helpful party to the investigation because it is uniquely situated to discuss the needs of a ―Public Safety Answering Point‖ in knowing when the community is experiencing a telephone service outage. Source: http://www.dailymail.com/Business/GeorgeHohmann/201011241231
35. November 25, Prescott Daily Courier – (Arizona) Suspect arrested on charges of wire theft. Prescott police recently arrested a man on charges including burglary after he sold copper wire to Yavapai Metal Recycling that he allegedly stole from Qwest. Officers booked the man into the Yavapai County Jail in Camp Verde on charges of burglary and trafficking in stolen property. On October 28, Qwest told police that he misrepresented himself by telling the company that he was subcontracting a work project with Qwest. He allegedly stole about 400 pounds of copper wire from Qwest's yard at 1445 Masonry Way, Prescott, said a spokesman for the Prescott Police Department. Shortly after the suspect left with the wire, Yavapai Metal Recycling called Qwest to tell them that he sold them copper wire that appeared new and still had Qwest tags. A Qwest representative verified the copper wire as from the Prescott yard and said it was not targeted for recycling. When detectives found the suspect, he allegedly told them he had worked in the telecommunications repair field for 10 years and knew the lingo so he was able to convince Qwest he was authorized to take the copper wire. He also told detectives he stole copper wire from the Qwest yard when no employees were around. Source: http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=87847
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