text:
FiOS and the Westell 9100
Update: Looking for the Westell 9100 default password? It's admin / password1.
Verizon finally came and hooked us up today. Here are a few things I've noticed so far:
The tech thought it strange that we have a huge LCD TV but no TV service at all. He also thought it strange that we had no phone line.
The technician came with a USB drive and a SecurID-type dongle. He requested to use a Windows machine so he could run it. Since my computer took a while (it hasn't been used in a while, and I also have it locked down a bit so that it won't, for example, autorun USB drives), he was talking a bit. Apparently the USB drive contains a set of applications that log into the router to perform initial configuration. (He connected via WEP key first, so it's possible it works over wireless, too.) He also mentioned that it fixes WinSock, which made me a bit nervous since I'm pretty sure WinSock doesn't need any fixing. It sounds more like it fixes common network issues. He also mentioned that one day the server it connects to went down, and that the techs were told to "do it by hand," but no one even knew what steps were involved anymore.
He had a Toughbook with a cellular modem. He mentioned that if the laptop didn't work, he could use that to configure the router, but that they weren't supposed to, and had to write up a report explaining why they didn't use the customer's computer.
The router connects to the ONT (Optical Network Terminal) over coax, using MoCA. The fiber ends at the coax; there's no fiber run inside your home. It's also possible to plug into the Ethernet port on the ONT, though what I've read suggests that you can only use MoCA or Ethernet, but both cannot be enabled simultaneously.
My router is a Westell 9100. The default password is admin / password1 — this isn't provided, and it took a little bit of Googling to find.
The Westell appears to run embedded Linux, based on the fact that the system log feature is obvious dmesg/syslog stuff, including "kern.info NET4: Linux TCP/IP for NET4.0" A few other notable lines:
kern.info IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
kern.info TCP: Hash tables configured (established 4096 bind 8192)
kern.alert 802.1Q VLAN Support 1.8 Ben Greear [email]
kern.alert All bugs added by David S. Miller [email at redhat.com]
kern.warn Watchdog started Kick jiffies = 10
kern.warn Danube Port Initializaion
Various references to IPSec and ipsec_null_init, an Infineon DEU for MD5/SHA1/AES/DES
Several entries about MAC addresses being changed, and to atypical formats at that
The Westell uses pool.ntp.org to synchronize its clock. This is improper and expressly prohibited for a preset value: end users are invited to use pool.ntp.org (a 'cluster' of thousands of NTP servers), but you're supposed to get a vendor CNAME before shipping devices using the pool.
The Westell has a webserver running on port 4567. I can see a handful of connections from 166.68.134.174, which resolves to sw01.verizon.com. They're hitting a URL that are long strings of numbers. The majority of the requests came back with a 401 Unauthorized, but a few were authenticated. If I open a remote connection on this port, I can speak to the webserver, though it rejects all my connections. (Incidentally, if you nmap it from outside to make sure it's locked down, and pass the right flags, nmap generates a lot of strange HTTP requests, including 401, 501 Not Implemented, and a lot of 400 Bad Requests. With a URL containing a space (%20) and some weird characters, a 404 came back, which seems improper: a 401 should really take precedence, no? Googling seems to suggest that this port is open so Verizon can remotely upgrade it, but it seems troubling that it's not locked down other than with BasicAuth. If a vulnerability were found in this webserver implementation — which is apparently meant to allow low-level management — it could allow someone to mess with a lot of peoples' routers. At least one forum suggests it's a TR-069 implementation, using SOAP to manage CPE.
It's fast, though I'm yet to hit the promised speed. We pay for 25/15 Mbps; tests get me about 19 Mbps down, and very close to 15 Mbps up. Part of it may be that 25 Mbps is a ridiculous amount of bandwidth for a server to be pushing; I've worked with plenty of servers on 100 Mbps drops (into much bigger backbones), and 25 Mbps would be a big spike in any of them, albeit doable. So a busy server might struggle.
Even though the Westell is improperly using the NTP pool, it doesn't seem to have an option to run an NTP server on the LAN. As best as I can tell, it's strictly used to keep the logfile timestamps accurate. Perhaps it's necessary as part of a security mechanism (e.g., a time-based key system) for remote access over 4567. I kind of hope it is.
The Westell keeps lots of counters on packets and bytes, but doesn't seem to want to speak SNMP.
Despite being a Linux device that doesn't let me ssh to it, use NTP, or query it over SNMP, it has a good feature set for home users. A dumb-user-friendly interface allows me to see/manage all devices on the network, and you can set up rules: like "Johnny's computer can't go online after 10pm" or "Johnny's computer can't access playboy.com" There's also QoS support and Dynamic DNS support for several major clients.
It's possible to download a configuration file. It includes references to passwords, though I'm not sure how they're used.
It comes with an out-of-the-box WEP key, which is good. It's possible to use WPA, though I haven't set it up. You can disable SSID broadcast (default is to broadcast), and do MAC restrictions.
7 thoughts on "FiOS and the Westell 9100"
Kyle on November 24, 2009 at 7:28 pm said:
Ah, interesting! We got a Actiontec MI424WR with our setup. Does the Westell have a really tiny ARP lookup table too?
Matt on November 24, 2009 at 8:12 pm said:
I haven't run into trouble yet. How the heck does an ARP cache fill up? I can't fathom why it would need more than maybe 16 bytes per connected device? And frankly, that's generous: a MAC address is 48 bits = 6 bytes. If you asked me to design the LEDs on your toaster I'd probably end up throwing in something like 16MB of memory?
Joe on February 17, 2010 at 1:33 am said:
I just got FiOS service and I'm looking for how to enable the USB port on the router. A lot of similar posts (even on a Verizon forum) say it has been disabled.
Personally, why the hell is it not enabled!? I may be the one to post something up once I blow the router up jacking with the configuration file.
Anybody have any luck figuring this out let me know… Regards, Joe
John on May 16, 2010 at 4:22 pm said:
You can enable telnet access. Export the config file, search for 'telnets' and set disabled to 0. Once telnet'ed into the device, you can open a shell with the command system / shell.
The device is built on OpenRG. I'd like to get SNMP or similar monitoring data but have not yet found a way.
Matt on May 16, 2010 at 6:14 pm said:
Thanks for the info, John! I'll have to poke around a bit when I get the chance.
abishur on May 18, 2010 at 12:01 am said:
Awesome tip on the telnet, worked like a charm! Any ideas on a configuration line to enable the usb? Or how to enable it from the telnet shell? I saw two options in the config that looked interesting. The first was lock (1) (which I think allows me to turn off remote administration) and hiddenpage (0) which I can't really see what that does. Any ideas?
MarkC on January 21, 2011 at 1:25 pm said:
WAKE ON LAN (WOL) on Westell 9100
Sorry for a similiar post on an old thread, but this has info on the Westell 9100 I haven't seen anyplace. I'm using WOL very successfully from my local LAN – the target PC always wakes up. However, from the Internet i can only wake the target PC for few minutes and then it will not wake. My research appears to indicate the ARP table is timing out. I have a static entry for this PC, but the packet does not make it to the target PC after it has been asleep for a few minutes. Some suggestions for other routers included configuring the router with an unused IP address and a MAC address of FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF but the router rejects it as being reserved for network broadcast.
Has anyone gotten WOL to reliably work from the Internet on the Westell 9100 ? ?


Climate change will impact every part of Chico State, including the Counseling and Wellness Center. Cal-Adapt predicts extreme heat days to increase from an average of 3-4 days a year to 16-20 days a year by 2037. More extreme heat days is going to greatly affect the student's mental health causing impacts in the Counseling and Wellness Center. Both students, faculty, and staff will be at risk for experiencing both mental and physical issues, such as heat stroke or anxiety attacks and will need to seek help from a medical and mental health professionals.
Mental health determines how people cope with stress in their lives and can affect the way a person functions. An increase in extreme heat days can lead to severe anxiety and stress, and combined with other climate change related events such as extreme storms, can cause depression, anger and violence. (1) With students being forced to worry about such events, and handle the extreme heat, their minds will be less capable of studying and finishing assignments which will then lead to even more stress and anxiety. Those who don't seek any professional help are likely to either fail and drop out, or in the faculty and staffs case, not showing up for work.


This page displays sold house prices for Buckingham Street in Aylesbury.
Buckingham Street in Aylesbury HP20 consists predominantly of flats. Properties on Buckingham Street typically have values around £200,000 - £250,000, ranging up to around £300,000 for top end flats.
Map showing Buckingham Street in Aylesbury.


Weekly exercise for CodeBase tenants. £25 a month for one class or £45 for two classes (you can offer your space to someone if you can't attend) Or £10 drop in. Bring your mat and some water for some stretching, de-stressing and exercise. For more information, see reception.


According to famous Pakistani English Newspaper The News Pakistan Cricket PCB has warned Pakistani Cricketers to stay away from all the controversies during the England Tour in which Pakistan will be facing Australia and England teams.
The Players are also warned of not doing any carelessness so that no one can raise finger of Match fixing against them. Pakistani team Manager Yawar Saeed done meeting with all the players of the team in which they where given these advices.
The Players are also told to not entertain any guest in the Hotel. Pakistani Cricket has suffered a lot in last decade specially in last two years from allegations of the match fixing which proved to be wrong later on. Team performance also gone down badly by these match fixing controversies.


Quiz, Survey, Poll & Votes, Battle, Memory, Prediction, etc.
Photo Contest, Writing Competition, Video Contest.
Custom forms, input masks, field types, coregistration, Facebook Connect, etc.
Publish on Facebook, website, use Smart URL's, Instagram, etc.
Leverage social networks to grow your campaign reach.
Captcha, unique codes, ban ip adresses, e-mail validation, etc.
Export profiles, filter results, draw winners, manage UTM tags, etc.
User rights, send password, add & delete users, etc.


The days of suffering through subpar uploads of Girl's phenomenal back catalog may be over. A couple of days ago, Crailtap made the company's second full-length, Mouse , available for all to enjoy. The video, directed by Spike Jonze and apparently conceived as an homage to Art Spiegel's Das Maus (it'll probably be another 22 years until we understand this particular tribute), pioneered a style of video editing that has been imitated, duplicated, and appreciated for decades.
One last piece of Oregon hype for you: Tucker Glasow and Tristan Brillanceau-Lewis's "Portland Public Skateboarding 2" is a full-length that brings it—rain or shine.
There are thousands of high schools in Southern California. Four of them will be gifted $25,000 by Active to fund their athletics programs—no strings attached.


text:
Kathy Lord
Kathy Lord has been with the ABC since 1993, and she has been the Victorian online news producer since 2007. Before that she worked as a producer for Stateline Victoria, and was the associate producer of the national Black Saturday bushfire special After the Firestorm in 2009. Kathy spent 10 years as the weekend news producer of Melbourne's 7pm News. She also worked on the ABC breakfast program First Edition and the 7.30 Report after a three year stint in London with the international news agency Worldwide Television News. Kathy also spent six years as a radio political correspondent for Standard Broadcast News in Canada.
Latest by Kathy Lord
COVID-19 close contacts warned against 'bailing early' from isolation period
By Kathy Lord
While most Victorians wake today to life after lockdown, thousands like John Calder remain confined to home after coming into contact with a positive case of COVID-19.
Updated Wed 28 Jul 2021 at 9:49pm 28 July 2021 Wed 28 Jul 2021 at 9:49pm
There are seven key exposure areas Victorian authorities are focussed on. Here's why they matter
Victoria's lockdown is continuing for another seven days and what happens in the key exposure sites will have a big role in determining whether or not it ends then.
Updated Wed 21 Jul 2021 at 12:18am 21 July 2021 Wed 21 Jul 2021 at 12:18am
The three issues that will determine how long Victoria's lockdown runs
Daniel Andrews is expected to let Victorians know how much longer they'll have to spend in lockdown later today. That decision will be based on three key factors: the number of cases, the chains of transmission and the number of mystery cases.
Updated Mon 19 Jul 2021 at 11:36pm 19 July 2021 Mon 19 Jul 2021 at 11:36pm
Juliet will soon have major surgery for breast cancer. Border closures mean she may face it without her husband
By Kathy Lord and Nicole Asher
Juliet Wilson wants to be reunited with her Canadian husband before she has breast cancer surgery in August. But four applications have been rejected and she's pleading for compassion.
Updated Sun 4 Jul 2021 at 8:10am 4 July 2021 Sun 4 Jul 2021 at 8:10am
Deer seen running down inner-Melbourne street euthanised
A deer expert says the young animal likely travelled into the city from Melbourne's peri-urban fringe to look for a mate.
Updated Sat 5 Jun 2021 at 9:53pm 5 June 2021 Sat 5 Jun 2021 at 9:53pm
Meet the Melbourne woman making artwork for Rihanna, Netflix and Vogue from her bedroom
Paria Mahboobi ditched her plan to have a career in PR for something she'd been doing since she was a kid, and it's paid off for the 23-year-old, as evidenced by collaborations with Netflix, Vogue Spain, and Rihanna.
Updated Wed 19 May 2021 at 8:33pm 19 May 2021 Wed 19 May 2021 at 8:33pm
Planned burn hectares more than doubled after 'really good' fire season in Victoria
After the devastation of the the 2019/20 bushfires, Victoria has enjoyed a brief reprieve. But the threat of climate change and sporadic outbreaks of COVID-19 mean the next season will be anything but simple.
Updated Sat 8 May 2021 at 2:04am 8 May 2021 Sat 8 May 2021 at 2:04am
'You can't vaccinate your way out of this': What Toronto can learn from Melbourne's lockdown
The current coronavirus outbreak in the Canadian province of Ontario was predicted by the experts. So how did it happen and are there lessons to be learned from Victoria's experience with lockdown.
Victorian vaccination hubs to open up as AstraZeneca jabs resume for under 50s
The Victorian government will throw open the doors of its three mass-vaccination hubs for people who have previously only been covered by the Commonwealth's coronavirus vaccine rollout.
Updated Sun 18 Apr 2021 at 10:09am 18 April 2021 Sun 18 Apr 2021 at 10:09am
'A real mess': Aged care residents left waiting, nurses at the ready, but no vaccine doses turned up
By Maryanne Taouk, Kathy Lord and Samantha Donovan
Residents of one aged care home who have been confined to their facility since Queensland's recent outbreak began in March waited in vain for COVID-19 vaccinations this week.
Updated Thu 8 Apr 2021 at 1:30am 8 April 2021 Thu 8 Apr 2021 at 1:30am
'Let his mind and body recover': Two surgeons weigh in on Daniel Andrews's injuries
It could be a while before the Premier will be able to be on his feet for long press conferences again. There are no plans for him to have surgery now but either way, his recovery will be a long one.
Updated Fri 12 Mar 2021 at 1:14am 12 March 2021 Fri 12 Mar 2021 at 1:14am
Anyone can fall and hurt themselves, but staying fit can reduce the risk
ABC Radio Melbourne
A medical expert says falls like the one that left the Victorian Premier in hospital are very common and the costs of looking after people who've had falls is double that of car accidents. Keeping active with a focus on balance may be the key to preventing falls.
Updated Tue 9 Mar 2021 at 11:10pm 9 March 2021 Tue 9 Mar 2021 at 11:10pm
Australia will need options other than hotel quarantine when the borders reopen
Experts say as Australia's coronavirus vaccination rate climbs, the option of home quarantine may become more viable for low-risk returned travellers, as an alternative to the costly hotel quarantine program.
Updated Fri 5 Mar 2021 at 9:42pm 5 March 2021 Fri 5 Mar 2021 at 9:42pm
'Heart of Australian music ripped out' as industry icon Michael Gudinski dies aged 68
By Michael Doyle, Alicia Nally and Kathy Lord
Stars including Kylie Minogue, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Barnes and Archie Roach pay tribute to pioneering Australian music industry figure Michael Gudinski, who has died at the age of 68.
Updated Tue 2 Mar 2021 at 5:46am 2 March 2021 Tue 2 Mar 2021 at 5:46am
Expert says no cause for 'huge alarm' after flesh-eating bacteria found in inner Melbourne suburbs
Health authorities detect cases of the Buruli ulcer in Essendon, Moonee Ponds and Brunswick West, but an expert says the risk of getting it is low and there are good treatments for the illness.
Updated Tue 23 Feb 2021 at 7:05am 23 February 2021 Tue 23 Feb 2021 at 7:05am
The UK variant of coronavirus is more infectious, so why hasn't it spread widely in Australia?
The UK variant of COVID-19 is more infectious than the original but so far it has mainly been contained to people in hotel quarantine. That's down to luck, the environment and statistics, two epidemiologists say.
Updated Sat 6 Feb 2021 at 1:15am 6 February 2021 Sat 6 Feb 2021 at 1:15am
'This was close to home': Grassfire on Melbourne's fringe a taste of what's to come this summer, firefighters warn
By outer suburban reporter Nicole Asher and Kathy Lord
An out-of-control grassfire came within 1 kilometre of Graeme Hall's property at Mount Cottrell on Monday. The CFA veteran is one of many experts warning grassfires will pose a serious risk in the state this summer.
Updated Sat 2 Jan 2021 at 10:54pm 2 January 2021 Sat 2 Jan 2021 at 10:54pm
Victoria could remove ring of steel border around Melbourne next month, Premier says
By Elise Kinsella and Kathy Lord
Victorians are close to once again being able to travel around the state, with Premier Daniel Andrews saying he hopes to remove the ring of steel border around Melbourne during November.
Updated Tue 20 Oct 2020 at 5:54am 20 October 2020 Tue 20 Oct 2020 at 5:54am
Andrews was grilled on hotel quarantine failures. Here's how he replied
By Joseph Dunstan and Kathy Lord
Premier Daniel Andrews stands firm on his decision not to answer detailed questions on the hotel quarantine program which may have been the main driver of infections in Victoria's second wave of coronavirus cases.
Updated Thu 6 Aug 2020 at 1:38pm 6 August 2020 Thu 6 Aug 2020 at 1:38pm
Victoria's coronavirus restrictions are easing. Here's what you can and can't do
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we go about our lives but we're about to get a little bit of normal back with the easing of restrictions in Victoria from today. Here's a look at what you can and can't do.
Updated Sun 31 May 2020 at 11:44pm 31 May 2020 Sun 31 May 2020 at 11:44pm
Giant sinkhole filling up as the rain keeps coming down
The sinkhole, measuring 12 metres wide and five metres deep, developed in a broken pipe for stormwater access, the SES says. It came as Melbourne was hit by heavy rainfall ahead of three more days of wintry weather.
Updated Wed 29 Apr 2020 at 9:43am 29 April 2020 Wed 29 Apr 2020 at 9:43am
Eerie feeling across Victoria as businesses shut down, streets turn into ghost towns
By Kathy Lord and staff
Sam Khoury is trying to work out if he should keep his Essendon cafe open for takeaway, as he and thousands of Victorian business owners face the unprecedented crisis of forced closure.
'Tip of the iceberg': Influenza cases may be 10 times higher than we thought, researcher says
By Peter Lusted and Kathy Lord
The number of flu cases in Victoria is three or four times higher than normal and experts say it may only be the tip of the iceberg because we don't test everyone who gets sick.
Updated Sat 1 Jun 2019 at 10:09pm 1 June 2019 Sat 1 Jun 2019 at 10:09pm
Who tried to kill Kelvin? Police offer $500k reward as they hunt cyclist's shooter
After two years, police in Victoria still do not know why someone shot Kelvin Tennant while he was cycling on the Myrtleford-Everton Rail Trail in 2017. They are offering a $500,000 reward to find the person responsible.
Updated Wed 29 May 2019 at 3:02am 29 May 2019 Wed 29 May 2019 at 3:02am
'People started fainting' after eating rabbit terrine entree at MCG Anzac Day function
Victorian health authorities investigate why more than 30 people became sick after eating rabbit terrine at a $725-a-head function as part of the annual Anzac Day clash between Collingwood and Essendon.
Emergency fire warning declared with blaze threatening lives and homes north of Perth
'Cold-blooded attack': Eight killed in mass shooting at birthday party in South Africa

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Manali is the most beautiful and tempting destination in Himachal Pradesh (North India). Every year it tempts thousands of tourists who wish either to spend their leisure holidays or on honeymoon trips. The snow capped peaks of himalyas are just breath taking. The Beas river adds the beauty of Manali by jewelling the hills with its smooth flow. The white snow capped hills and the River Beas over them looks wonderful and starring. Manali is the excellent place for family holidays, school trips, corporate trips and even a good honeymoon destination.
Shimla-Manali: Just 275 kms to travel to feel the snowy mountains.
Chandigarh-Manali: From Chandigarh, manali can be reached by covering a distance of 315 Kms by road transport.
Best time to visit: Manali can be best viewed during summer vacations i.e. April to June and during winters, September to November is the best time.
Around the Town: Just at a distance of 3 kms in the northwest, there survives an OLD MANALI which is very popular because of its orchids. Teh famous old fort Manaligarh is situated here. Manu maharshi temple which is dedicated to Sage manu is also a tourist attraction.
In the northwest, at a distance of 13 kms from manali, there exists Solang Nullah which is known for its 300 meter ski lift. Exotic views of hills, snow capped mountains, snow games and beautiful location will never kept you far and insist your desire to pool into the valley.
Vashisht is located at around 3 kms from manali and known for its hot spring and beautiful make over.
Rohtang pass also known as the snow peak of manali is the most attractive tourist destination which attracts the tourists from all around the India and even from abroad. Rohtang valley is the most attractive nad famous tourist place of Manali.


text:
package backends

import (
	"fmt"

	"github.com/flashmob/go-guerrilla/mail"
	"github.com/flashmob/go-guerrilla/response"
)

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Processor Name: redis
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Description   : Saves the e.Data (email data) and e.DeliveryHeader together in redis
//               : using the hash generated by the "hash" processor and stored in
//               : e.Hashes
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Config Options: redis_expire_seconds int - how many seconds to expiry
//               : redis_interface string - <host>:<port> eg, 127.0.0.1:6379
// --------------:-------------------------------------------------------------------
// Input         : e.Data
//               : e.DeliveryHeader generated by Header() processor
//               :
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Output        : Sets e.QueuedId with the first item fromHashes[0]
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
func init() {

	processors["redis"] = func() Decorator {
		return Redis()
	}
}

type RedisProcessorConfig struct {
	RedisExpireSeconds int    `json:"redis_expire_seconds"`
	RedisInterface     string `json:"redis_interface"`
}

type RedisProcessor struct {
	isConnected bool
	conn        RedisConn
}

func (r *RedisProcessor) redisConnection(redisInterface string) (err error) {
	if r.isConnected == false {
		r.conn, err = RedisDialer("tcp", redisInterface)
		if err != nil {
			// handle error
			return err
		}
		r.isConnected = true
	}
	return nil
}

// The redis decorator stores the email data in redis

func Redis() Decorator {

	var config *RedisProcessorConfig
	redisClient := &RedisProcessor{}
	// read the config into RedisProcessorConfig
	Svc.AddInitializer(InitializeWith(func(backendConfig BackendConfig) error {
		configType := BaseConfig(&RedisProcessorConfig{})
		bcfg, err := Svc.ExtractConfig(backendConfig, configType)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		config = bcfg.(*RedisProcessorConfig)
		if redisErr := redisClient.redisConnection(config.RedisInterface); redisErr != nil {
			err := fmt.Errorf("redis cannot connect, check your settings: %s", redisErr)
			return err
		}
		return nil
	}))
	// When shutting down
	Svc.AddShutdowner(ShutdownWith(func() error {
		if redisClient.isConnected {
			return redisClient.conn.Close()
		}
		return nil
	}))

	var redisErr error

	return func(p Processor) Processor {
		return ProcessWith(func(e *mail.Envelope, task SelectTask) (Result, error) {

			if task == TaskSaveMail {
				hash := ""
				if len(e.Hashes) > 0 {
					e.QueuedId = e.Hashes[0]
					hash = e.Hashes[0]
					var stringer fmt.Stringer
					// a compressor was set
					if c, ok := e.Values["zlib-compressor"]; ok {
						stringer = c.(*DataCompressor)
					} else {
						stringer = e
					}
					redisErr = redisClient.redisConnection(config.RedisInterface)
					if redisErr != nil {
						Log().WithError(redisErr).Warn("Error while connecting to redis")
						result := NewResult(response.Canned.FailBackendTransaction)
						return result, redisErr
					}
					_, doErr := redisClient.conn.Do("SETEX", hash, config.RedisExpireSeconds, stringer)
					if doErr != nil {
						Log().WithError(doErr).Warn("Error while SETEX to redis")
						result := NewResult(response.Canned.FailBackendTransaction)
						return result, doErr
					}
					e.Values["redis"] = "redis" // the next processor will know to look in redis for the message data
				} else {
					Log().Error("Redis needs a Hasher() process before it")
					result := NewResult(response.Canned.FailBackendTransaction)
					return result, StorageError
				}

				return p.Process(e, task)
			} else {
				// nothing to do for this task
				return p.Process(e, task)
			}

		})
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


CORE Hub is delighted to be hosting a Lunch and Learn with the Autism Academy for Software Quality Assurance (AASQA), a social initiative aimed at connecting individuals with autism to the ICT industry. The social innovation event is free for all CORE, FLUX and Spacecubed members.
Michael, one of the Aspi Bug Busters and an employee at Bankwest, will be coming along to talk to members.
The AASQA, whose directors include Professor Torbjorn Falkmer and Associate Professor Tele Tan (both from Curtin University), utilises the strengths and talents of individuals with autism, in particular their extreme attention to detail, appreciation of predictability and capacity to focus.
The AASQA is based at the Cisco Internet of Everything Innovation Centre at Curtin University and is sponsored by Engineers Australia, a CORE Industry Partner, and have been working with Clough, also a CORE Industry Partner, to support software applications in the resources sector.


text:
Pentagon Admits 24,000 Files Were Hacked, Declares Cyberspace A Theater Of War
Grace Wyler
Jul. 14, 2011, 4:35 PM
Unveiling the military's first-ever cybersecurity strategy, Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn admitted today that a "foreign intelligence service" stole 24,000 Defense Department files from Pentagon computer systems this March.
The hack — one of the largest the Pentagon has ever suffered — was data-related, Lynn said. "A great deal of it concerns our most sensitive systems, including aircraft avionics, surveillance technologies, satellite communications systems, and network security protocols."
The cyber attack, and others like it, exposed serious vulnerabilities in U.S. cybersecurity, prompting the military to develop a strategy that lays out an offensive approach for dealing with cyber threats.
Notably, the declassified strategy does not indicate how the U.S. plans to respond to specific cyber attacks, which has been the subject of heated debate since the Pentagon announced in May that it would respond to cyber attacks with military force.
Under the new plan, the Pentagon will treat the Internet as an "operational domain" of war, thereby allowing the military to train and equip for cyber attacks as it does for physical threats.
To beef up its cyber capabilities, DoD has established U.S. Cyber Command as a sub-command of U.S. Strategic Command; under the leadership of the National Security Agency director, the new command will be responsible for coordinating cyber commands within each branch of the Armed Forces. The military will also integrate "cyber red teams" into war games, training and exercises to prepare for a range of cyber threat scenarios.
"Our responsibility is to acknowledge this new environment and adapt our security instruments to it," Lynn said. "Far from militarizing cyberspace, our strategy of securing networks to deny the benefit of an attack will help dissuade military actors from using cyberspace for hostile purposes."
Although data theft has thus far been the most visible cyber threat, the Pentagon's strategy identifies other vulnerable cyber targets, including the military's information networks and systems, mission-critical technology hardware and software made overseas, critical civilian infrastructure (i.e. power grids, transportation systems), and intellectual property.
More: Threats Pentagon


text:
Would a Higher Cigarette Tax Get You to Quit?
21 Purchases You Should Never Skimp On
The 3 Worst Money Mistakes You Are Making at the Gas Station
10 Items Every First-Aid Kit Should Have
A proposal to raise the federal cigarette tax would increase the per-pack rate to $1.95. That's in addition to the state tax on cigarettes, which is already much higher in some states. Too expensive for you?
Karen Datko • April 22, 2013
Photo (cc) by Fried Dough
You've probably heard that President Obama has proposed a 94-cent-per-pack increase in the federal tax on cigarettes. The additional $78 billion in revenue over 10 years would be used to pay for expanded preschool education — called "Preschool for All."
The federal tax last increased in 2009, from 39 cents to $1.01 per pack — prompting lots of complaints from smokers. The new tax would nearly double the rate.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids estimates the increase would prevent 1.7 million kids from becoming smokers, thus preventing 626,000 premature deaths and saving $42 billion in health care costs. The organization says that 18.1 percent of high school students are smokers and nearly 1,000 kids pick up the habit every day.
It also says the higher tax would "prompt 2.6 million adult smokers to quit and save 18,000 lives by 2021."
The prediction about youth smoking makes sense. Young people have less spending money, and many are too smart to pick up a vile habit that ruins health and makes your breath stink.
But what about the adult smokers out there? Ask yourself, if you smoke, or ask loved ones who do whether that higher tax would make cigarettes unaffordable or too expensive to rationally justify the behavior.
Let's look at what you're spending on tobacco right now.
In addition to the federal tax, smokers are paying state taxes on cigarettes and perhaps city taxes too. A chart from the Federation of Tax Administrators listing the state tax in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., as of Jan. 1 identifies the states with the highest cigarette taxes as:
New York, $4.35 a pack. (To get the rate by carton, multiply by 10.)
Rhode Island, $3.50.
Connecticut, $3.40.
Hawaii, $3.20.
Washington state, $3.02½.
The five lowest state tax rates are:
Missouri, 17 cents.
Virginia, 30 cents.
Louisiana, 36 cents. The legislature there is currently considering an increase, as are lawmakers in some other states.
Georgia, 37 cents.
Alabama, 42.5 cents.
The average cost of a pack of cigarettes in the U.S. is $6 (more than $2,000 a year for pack-a-day smokers) but can be as much as $14 a pack in New York City, CNN says.
Yet, research suggests that those who've been smoking for years are willing to continue smoking despite price increases, although they might adjust by cutting back.
The Washington Post reported on a Congressional Budget Office study about the impact if the federal tax were raised by just 50 cents. The Post said:
A few years after the hypothetical tax increase took effect, the number of 12- to 17-year-olds who smoked cigarettes would be about 5 percent lower than it would be otherwise, the number of 18-year-old smokers would be 4.5 percent lower, the number of 19- to 39-year-old smokers would be almost 4 percent lower, and the number of smokers age 40 or older would be about 1.5 percent lower.
Of course, the tobacco companies hate talk of a new tax, arguing that it would tie a government program to a revenue source that is bound to decline as fewer people smoke, and would unfairly penalize low-income people, who are more likely to be smokers than higher-income folks. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids disputes those arguments.
What do you think? Would a higher tax on cigarettes finally convince you or smokers in your life to give up the habit? Share your views on our Facebook page.
And if you want to quit — now or if Congress approves a higher tax rate — there's plenty of free help for that. Use your favorite search engine to find help in your area.
The 3 Biggest Regrets of Retirees — and How to Avoid Them
Rescuing a retirement from regret starts with these steps well before it's time to quit working.
These benefits might make you think twice about retirement.
How to Achieve Your Financial Goals in 2020
New year, new you. Get your finances on track with the help of these tools for investing, saving, budgeting and earning.
If you fall into one of these groups, don't assume that you will receive benefits.
5 Ways to Save up $500,000 in 15 Years
Even if you're behind in preparing for retirement, there's still a way to pull together a solid nest egg if you focus.
26 States That Do Not Tax Social Security Income
7 Gadgets Under $60 That Can Boost Your Health
This Pastime Can Keep Your Brain Sharp as You Age
15 of the Most Outrageously Overpriced Products


UCSD is now offering free, confidential testing that can detect HIV in the very early stages of infection.
The "Early Test" reveals an infection with HIV, the retrovirus that can lead to AIDS, as early as one week after exposure.
This is significantly earlier than standard HIV tests, which check for blood antibodies that may not be detectable for up to three months after an individual becomes infected.
HIV is highly infectious in the early stages, according to Dr. Susan Little, UCSD Associate Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases.
Both for that reason and because treatment options differ depending on the stage of HIV infection, early detection is extremely important.
UCSD is collaborating with the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency to offer the Early Test at several San Diego sites.
For more information about the Early Test, please call 877-323-5050 or visit the UCSD Early Test website.


text:
Reading for an extra hour; three Baroque rediscoveries.
My Dad has very kindly sent me this link from the Telegraph, about the rediscovery of Caravaggio's Magdalen in Ecstasy. The painting illustrates the legend that after Christ's death, the Magdalen lived as a hermit in France, at a cave near Aix-en-Provence, where seven times a day her penitence was blissfully interrupted by the sound of heavenly choirs.
Several copies of the Magdalen are known, but it wasn't certain which if any of them was the original. The scholar Mina Gregori tracked down this example in a private Italian collection.
After years hunting for the real thing, the eminent art expert and president of Florence's Roberto Longhi Art History Foundation, declared: "At last, it's you", after finding herself seemingly gazing at the Caravaggio original. If true, the discovery would be one of rare importance in Western art.
Ms Gregori said key characteristics of the painting, the first ever photograph of which was printed in La Repubblica yesterday, left no doubts in her mind regarding its provenance. "The creation of a body with varying tones, the intensity of the face. The strong wrists, crossed fingers and beautiful hair … the wonderful variations in light and colour – all show that it is Caravaggio," she said.
An authentic Caravaggio is always a very exciting discovery. He has been described as the first modern artist. He is certainly a rock n roll figure. Outside his patrons' palazzi, he lived in a world of tavern and brothels, and he brought prostitutes, rent-boys and beggars into his paintings as models. Some critics and patrons were appalled – one called him 'the antichrist of painting' – but enough recognised his genius. The Taking of Christ 1602 – discovered in an Irish monastery in 1990, now in the National Gallery of Ireland – shows his cinematic sense of action and lighting and the way he controls drama like a director – the figure on the right with a lantern is a self-portrait. Christ, incidentally, has the same crossed fingers that Mina Gregori admired in the Magdalen.
(c) National Gallery of Ireland
This violent world got the better of him in the end. In 1606 he killed another man in a fight over a bet on a tennis match, and had to escape from Rome, first to Naples and then to Sicily. That same year he painted the Magdalen, repenting her past life just as Caravaggio must have been. Friends of his in Rome were trying to get him a pardon from the Pope, just as friends of the dead man were said to have been trying to track him down. Cardinal Scipione Borghese, his chief patron and the Pope's nephew, finally secured the pardon in 1610, when Caravaggio set off on a circuitous return journey. He never made it back to Rome. He died on July 18th that year at Grosseto in Tuscany – of fever, poisoned by his toxic pigments, or murdered in revenge by his victim's friends – no one is quite certain. The Magdalen may have been part of the price he paid for his pardon. A letter from the Bishop of Casserta written on July 29th mentions three Caravaggios being held for Cardinal Borghese, two of St John the Baptist and a Magdalen. And a seventeenth century label on the back of the newly-discovered painting reads 'Cardinal Borghese of Rome.'
The second discovery is another Magdalen, Anna Magdalena Wilcke, the singer who married Johann Sebastian Bach as his second wife in 1721. Anna Magdalena is known to have been a musical copyist. Several Bach manuscripts are in her hand, but Professor Martin Jarvis of Charles Darwin University in Australia, believes that she was also a composer.
Prof Jarvis said he aims to overturn the "sexist" convention that recognised composers were always a "sole male creator", to finally reinstate Mrs Bach into the history books.
Heidi Harralson, a forensic document examiner, said she was convinced the composer was more likely to be Anna than Bach himself, saying she was as sure as possible "within a reasonable degree of scientific certainty".
While Anna is known to have transcribed for Bach in his later years, researchers found the handwriting did not have the "slowness or heaviness" usually attributed to someone who is merely copying, but was likely to have flowed from her own mind.
They also pointed to numerous corrections to scores written in her hand, signalling she is likely to have been composing it as she went along.
I'm not a musicologist, but it seems perfectly plausible. The pieces that Professor Jarvis attributes to Anna Magdalena include the Cello Suites, the First Prelude from the Well-tempered Clavier and the Aria from the Goldberg Variations. I've always thought the Aria, played here by Glenn Gould, sounds a bit different to most Bach I'm used to. The Goldberg Variations were published in 1741, but a manuscript copy of the Aria exists in Anna Magdalena's handwriting from 1731. Previously it was assumed that she had made a copy for her own use, but Professor Jarvis's idea makes you wonder. His full thesis is given here and will be presented in a documentary to be screened at Bafta next week Written by Mrs Bach, presented by the composer Sally Beamish. I hope Anna Magdalena receives the recognition she deserves. Her life was a sad one after her husband died in 1750. Her large family fell apart, and when she died eleven years later she was buried in a pauper's grave.
This detail from the frontispiece of Johann Sigismund Scholze's Singende Müse an der Pleisse, a book of songs published in Leipzig in 1736 shows Mr and Mrs Bach in happier times. It is the only known portrait of Anna Magdalena, and it reminds you that Baroque keyboard pieces were not written for grand piano.
The unruly satyr appearing from underneath the tablecloth, and the public health advertisement at the start of the Glenn Gould youtube recording – 'blood in your pee?' – bring me to the last Baroque discovery of the weekend, a discovery for me at least as I'd never seen Molière on stage before, the brilliant Hypochondriac at Brighton's Theatre Royal, with Sir Tony Robinson in the lead. But the extra hour is up now, so I will write about that properly next time.
By jamesmulraineLeave a comment
← Seeing the world through Turner's glasses; and Constable's eyes
Alternative lives; revolutionaries rebooted. →


text:
Bắc Ninh (Hán Tự: 北寧, IPA: ) ist eine Provinz (tỉnh) im Norden Vietnams. Der Name bedeutet etwa "Nördliche Gelassenheit" oder "Heiterkeit des Nordens" und stammt von der Provinz-Hauptstadt Thành phố Bắc Ninh.

Lage, Demographie und Klima

Im Osten grenzt die Provinz an Vietnams Hauptstadt Hanoi, des Weiteren an die Provinzen Bắc Giang, Hưng Yên, Hải Dương und Vĩnh Phúc. Durchflossen wird sie von Sông Cà Lồ, Sông Cầu, Sông Thái Bình und Sông Đuống. Bắc Ninh ist nach der Fläche die kleinste Provinz Vietnams und hat eine der höchsten Bevölkerungsdichten des Landes.
In der Provinz leben verschieden ethnische Gruppen, deren Hauptanteil die Việt/Kinh stellen. Weiter leben dort kleinere Gruppen der Tày, Nùng und Mường. Der jährliche Niederschlag liegt zwischen 1.400 und 1.600 mm, die mittlere Temperatur bei 23,3 °C und die mittlere relative Feuchtigkeit bei 79 %.

Geschichte
Historisch gilt die Region im Herzen des Deltas des Roten Flusses als eine der Wiegen der vietnamesischen Kultur.

Im legendären Reich Văn Lang (Hán tự: 文郎) des Stammes Lạc Việt trug die Region Bắc Ninh den Namen Vũ Ninh. 257 v. Chr. schlug Thục Phán (蜀泮, Herrschername An Dương Vương) aus dem Stamm Âu Việt bei Phật Tích den letzten der 88 Hùng-Könige aus der Hồng Bàng-Dynastie Văn Langs. Daraufhin vereinigte er Văn Lang mit seinem Land Tây Âu und gründete das Königreich Âu Lạc.

Bắc Ninh ist die Heimatprovinz der Lý-Dynastie (1009–1225), deren erster Herrscher Lý Thái Tổ (974–1028) in der Pagode Cổ Pháp Điện bei der Gemeinde Đình Bảng erzogen wurde. Im Lý-Song-Krieg zwischen Đại Việt und der chinesischen Song-Dynastie wehrte General Lý Thường Kiệt 1077 am Fluss sông Như Nguyệt, einem Abschnitt des sông Cầu nördlich von Bắc Ninh, den Feldzug des chinesischen Kaisers Shénzōng unter General Quách Quỳ ab.

Die Provinz liegt im Zentrum des historischen Gebietes Kinh Bắc. Unter diesem Namen waren Regionen der heutigen Provinzen Bắc Giang und Bắc Ninh ab 1490 Provinz im Reich Đại Việt unter König Lê Thánh Tông (1442–1497). Diese Epoche wird auch als das "goldene Zeitalter" Vietnams bezeichnet.

Im Konflikt mit der Nguyễn-Dynastie 1862–1864 siegte Bà Ba Cai Vàng und übernahm der Herrschaft über Bắc Ninh, Bắc Giang und Hưng Yên. Vom 6. bis 24. März 1884 war die Stadt Bắc Ninh Schauplatz der Schlacht von Bắc Ninh. Während ihres Tonkin-Feldzuges von 1883 bis 1886 schlugen dort die Franzosen eine entscheidende Schlacht gegen vietnamesische Kräfte, die Schwarzflaggen-Partisanen (Pavillons noirs) von Liu Yongfu (Lưu Vĩnh Phúc) und chinesische Armeen aus Guangxi und Yunnan.

In den Jahren 1894 bis 1909 dehnte sich der Bauern-Aufstand gegen die französischen Kolonialherren, der um 1884 im 50 km nördlich gelegenen Yên Thế begonnen hatte, auch auf das Gebiet von Bắc Ninh aus. Die Aufständischen wurden vom "Tiger von Yên Thế", Hoàng Hoa Thám, angeführt (bekannt auch als Trương Văn Thám oder Đề Thám). Mit dessen Ermordung am 10. Februar 1913 bei Yên Thế brach der Aufstand zusammen.

Administrative Gliederung
Die Provinz ist in die Provinzstadt (thành phố) Bắc Ninh, die Stadt (thị xã) Từ Sơn und in folgende sechs ländliche Bezirke (huyện) unterteilt: Gia Bình, Lương Tài, Quế Võ, Thuận Thành, Tiên Du und Yên Phong. Von 1962 bis 1996 waren Bắc Ninh und die benachbarte Provinz Bắc Giang als Provinz Hà Bắc vereinigt. Der ISO 3166-2-Code für Bắc Ninh ist VN-56. Die Telefon-Vorwahl ist +84 (0) 241, die Postleitzahl 22xxxx und das Kfz-Kennzeichen 99.

Infrastruktur und Wirtschaft
Die mehr als 20 Industrie-Zonen in der Provinz werden von der Bac Ninh Industrial Zones Authority in der Ly Thai To Nr. 10 in TP Bắc Ninh koordiniert. Die Schweizer Sika AG betreibt seit 2012 in der Industriezone Bac Ninh des Konsortiums Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) eine Produktionsstätte für Betonzusatzmittel, die 2018 für die Herstellung von Fertigmörtel erweitert wurde.

Sehenswürdigkeiten
Als traditionelle vietnamesische Kunstform sind die Holzschnittdrucke namens Tranh Đông Hồ bekannt, die zum vietnamesischen Neujahrsfest Tết Nguyên Đán in den Wohnungen aufgehängt werden. Sie sollen zu diesem Anlass, ähnlich wie die Kirschblütensträucher und andere Dekorationen, Glück im neuen Jahr gewährleisten. Ihren vietnamesischen Namen tragen die Neujahrsbilder nach dem Dorf Đông Hồ in der Gemeinde Song Hồ, Distrikt Thuận Thành, etwa 40 Kilometer nordöstlich von Hanoi. Dies ist das bekannteste der Handwerksdörfer, die diese Bilder produzieren, denn nur hier werden die Drucke aus regionalen, natürlichen Materialien hergestellt und diese Rezepturen seit Jahrhunderten als Geheimnis weitergegeben. Jährlich werden über eine halbe Million Bilder hergestellt.

Die Provinz ist Ursprung des Quan họ-Gesanges, ein improvisierter, ursprünglich unbegleiteter Gesang in Dialogform oft zwischen einem unverheirateten Mann und einer unverheirateten Frau. Dieses Ritual hatte früher eine hohe Bedeutung bei der Anbahnung einer Hochzeit. Quan Họ ist eine der ältesten noch erhaltenen Musikformen Vietnams und steht seit 2009 auf der UNESCO-Liste der Meisterwerke des mündlichen und immateriellen Erbes der Menschheit.

Der Lý-Bát-Đế-Schrein (vietnamesisch: Đền Lý Bát Đế, auch Đền Đô oder Cổ Pháp Điện) ist ein buddhistischer Schrein zur Anbetung von acht Kaisern der Lý-Dynastie. Er steht in der Gemeinde Đình Bảng im Bezirk Từ Sơn und liegt etwa 20 km nordöstlich von Hanoi. Der erste Herrscher der Lý-Dynastie, Lý Thái Tổ, wurde in dieser Pagode mit dem damaligen Namen Cổ Pháp Điện erzogen. In der Haupthalle stehen Statuen von Lý Thái Tổ und Lý Thái Tông als den ersten Kaisern dieser Dynastie. Vor den Gebäuden liegt ein als Halbmond geformter See. In einem Thủy Đình genannten Pavillon, der auf einer kleinen Insel steht, treten Quan Họ-Ensembles auf und wird Wasser-Marionettentheater gespielt. Zum Tempelfest vom 12.–16. Tag des zweiten Mondmonats kann man außerdem Drachentänze, Ring- und Hahnenkämpfe erleben. Im Bezirk Từ Sơn lohnen auch das um 1700 gebaute Gemeindehaus in Đình Bảng und die Pagode Chùa Dận einen Besuch.

In der Gemeinde Phật Tích im Bezirk Tiên Du liegt am südlichen Hang des Berges Tích (auch Lạn Kha) die bekannte Pagode Chùa Phật Tích (Phật Tích tự, 佛跡寺 oder Vạn Phúc tự 萬福寺). Dort steht eine Buddha-Statue aus der Lý-Dynastie. Am 24. Tag des dritten Mondmonats wird um die Pinselturm-Pagode (Chùa Bút Tháp) mit dem fünfstöckigen Bảo Nghiêm-Turm, gelegen am Đuống-Fluss in der Gemeinde Đình Tổ, Bezirk Thuận Thành, das Pagoden-Fest gefeiert. Bekannt sind auch das Fest in Đồng Kỵ, einem Tischlerdorf in der Gemeinde Đồng Quang, Bezirk Từ Sơn und das Lim-Fest Hội Lim, das in Lim, Distrikt Tiên Du, ab dem 13. Tag des Lunarkalenders nach Überlieferungen der Kinh Bắc-Kultur gefeiert wird. Am selben Tag wird im Dorf Cô Mễ, Bezirk Vũ Ninh, im Tempel Đền Bà Chúa Kho, der als Kultstätte für Bà Chúa Kho dient, das jährliche Fest gefeiert. Die Anrufung dieser Dame der Schatzkammer soll zu materiellem Reichtum führen.

Galerie

Weblinks

 Quan Họ-Musik aus Bắc Ninh
 Website der Verwaltung in Vietnamesisch
 Website der Bắc Ninhh Industrial Zones Authority, vietn. und engl.
 Webseite der Industriezone VSIP Bac Ninh

Einzelnachweise

Provinz in Vietnam

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The NCAA tourney is wrapping up but the NBA playoffs are just about to kick off! Jon Cokines, Jim Dodge, and Bill Lesko return to talk all things basketball with your humble caddy, Wayne Salvatore. Let's talk busted brackets and NBA Championship picks!


text:
Brick Transformed: The 2014 Wienerberger Brick Award Winners
01:00 - 28 May, 2014
by Andrew Galloway
All of the 2014 Wienerberger Brick Award Winners use the material in innovative, imaginative and beautiful ways. Image © Marko Huttunen
The following news is presented by ArchDaily Materials, our new US product catalog.
The 2014 Wienerberger Brick Award Winners exemplify brick's potential in contemporary architecture, transforming the common brick into something spectacular. This year's jury featured 2012 Pritzer winner Wang Shu, who commented on the "spatial and secret" feeling of the Grand Prize Winning Kantana Film and Animation Institute. See all seven winners after the break.
© RUF
Residential Use Winner
John Lin - A House For All Seasons
Jury Statement, Ewa Kuryłowicz, Poland
"What the architects did, and what was later constructed with significant input from the local society, is an implementation of the typical layout of the Chinese house from that area. It gathers renewable resources, such as by collecting water on the roof, making the roof very sculptural and multifunctional. The bricks are used in an innovative way and are double-layered. The first layer is an infill for insulation. These are the mud bricks which are made in situ with the use of a special machine. The other layer is for the exterior finish, made of bricks, which in this area of China are readily available. It is a very interesting and unique use of bricks, which doesn't call for the use of any other insulation materials. It's not only a very wise project, but also a graceful and beautiful one."
Public Use Winner
© Ravensburg art museum
LRO Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei GmbH & Co. KG - Ravensburg Art Museum
Jury Statement, Pavol Paňák, Slovakia
"The outstanding quality of this project lies in the certain timelessness of its appearance, of its architecture. It's not strikingly fancy or modern architecture, it's timeless. I think a very important role was played by its recycled brick from the demolition of a former monastery, so it's reused brick. In the gallery we need a certain mass of the walls of the structure to keep the climate stable internally, and therefore it's logical that the brick is used as a wrapping shell for the mass of the building. On the top floor of the exhibition spaces there is a very interesting warped structure made in a new way. The highest architectural quality is the double-meaning of its appearance; it's new and old in the same moment."
© Zooey Braun
Public Re-Use Winner
© Filip Dujardin
51N4E - Buda Art Centre
Jury Statement, Vera Yanovshtchinsky, The Netherlands
"It is an old factory and the architects made interventions with modern architecture. This project used brick the way we often use brick in the northern countries: as a far-developed, industrial, modular, perfect building product. The masonry, the way of building it, suits this building with the perfection of the material. The result, however, is not a traditional or common one. The result is unique, because what you get is a brick that makes a fabric almost with the quality of silk, where the color nuances are the most striking feature. It makes a harmonious combination, in terms of both space and material, between the old and the new. I find it a very beautiful way of creating harmony and tension at the same time; it combines what seem to be opposites into a new harmony. What really made a big impression on me about this building is the combination of intelligence and sensitivity. I have the feeling that they have reached the maximum result by using the material and the design in such a sophisticated way."
Courtesy of 51N4E
Urban Infill Winner
© Fernando Alda
Sol89 - Cooking School in Ancient Slaughterhouse
"As the winning project of the 'Urban Infill' category, we have chosen the conversion of a former slaughterhouse into a cooking school. In the sense of its spatial organisation and its materiality, the project is very much inspired by local tradition, but it deals with it in a very contemporary way. The way the ceramics are used on the roof of the school enriches the silhouette of the town in a traditional but non-sentimental way. Those are the outstanding qualities of this project. Unusually, it uses just one type of brick and one type of tile for all the vertical and sloping areas as well as the horizontal surfaces. This gives the building a sense of monomateriality. It looks very strong in its appearance, almost like a statue; quite interesting, very convincing."
Courtesy of Sol89
Grand Prize And Special Solution Category Winner
© Pirak Anurakyawachon
Boonserm Premthada / Bangkok Project Studio - Kantana Film and Animation Institute
Jury Statement, Wang Shu, China
"The Kantana Film and Animation Institute uses a spatial brick wall, and you recognise the relation it has to the traditional temples. The building blends in with the trees and the surrounding green landscape, which gives it a very spatial and 'secret' feeling. It's a very good example of combining function with this beautiful feeling. The layering of the bricks, one on top of the other, is a very typical skill in the tradition of brick construction. In the case of this project, the brick is not just about decoration, it's also about the whole structure of the construction, which I think is very important; very simple, but very beautiful. It's the first project where I instantly thought, it's good.
Special Prize Winner
© Marko Huttunen
K2S Architects ltd. - Paasitorni Hotel & Conference Centre
"The granite Paasitorni "Fortress" dating from 1908 originally served as headquarters of the local trade union. Meanwhile, it has been established as a hotel and conference centre. A new wing now emphasises the characteristics of the different construction periods (1908, 1925, 1955, and 2012) and provides sufficient room and light. Ivory-coloured bricks were chosen for the facade, which use omissions to create conspicuous structure and light effects. Also new is the floor underneath the sea level, which is reserved for logistic and other services."
© Damir Fabijanic
Rusan Arhitektura - Lumenart – House of Light
"The office complex of the "Lumenart" Company has been conceived as a white building with an unusual crystal shape. The core, a brick and concrete cube, functions as a skeleton for the internal and external panelling. The choice fell, among other materials, on brick because the natural and compatible material was perfectly suited for the special design of the building. The three-dimensional façade creates shadow plays, which distinctly emphasise the different shapes of the complex. At night, the façade illumination stages the company's technical and creative repertoire."
© Zlatko Kalle
Interested in more Materials? Check out our new US product catalog, ArchDaily Materials.
Andrew Galloway
News Architecture News BrickAwards2014 Wienerberger Brick AwardJohn LinWang ShuLRO51N4ESol89Bangkok Project StudioBoonserm PremthadaK2S ArchitectsRusan
Cite: Andrew Galloway. "Brick Transformed: The 2014 Wienerberger Brick Award Winners" 28 May 2014. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/510169/brick-transformed-the-2014-wienerberger-brick-award-winners/> ISSN 0719-8884


This chapter examines the Coptic Manichaean library discovered at the Madinat Madi site in the Fayoum Oasis in Egypt. Manichaeism was a dualistic religion founded in Mesopotamia in the third century AD by Mani or Manichaios. He used missionary work to convince the whole world of his knowledge. This chapter explains the contents of the seven codices found in Fayoum and compares its meanings with the doctrines of other religions.


text:
How is Genome Editing Used?
Genome editing is currently being applied to research on cancer, mental health, rare diseases, and many other disease areas.
Basic research exploring human and nonhuman genomes is critical to help scientists understand the basic biology underlying disease, as well as to discover new possible therapeutic targets. Although excitement about the potential for gene therapy has grown tremendously since the discovery of CRISPR, the vast majority of work undertaken by scientists funded by NHGRI or other NIH Institutes takes place in the petri dish and in nonhuman organisms such as mice or zebrafish. Researchers rely on genome editing tools as a way to explore the connection between genotype (genes) and phenotype (traits). A typical study might be to model human disease in mice by deleting or editing certain genes that are thought to contribute to the disease. This approach can help researchers determine if specific changes made to the genome contribute to the disease. It can also lead to the creation of "disease models," or laboratory animals that mimic human diseases and can be studied to test new therapies.
In the clinic, there are proposals to use genome editing as a treatment for disease. Many diseases from cancer to asthma have genetic bases. Through the application of genome editing technologies, physicians might eventually be able to prescribe targeted gene therapy to make corrections to patient genomes and prevent, stop, or reverse disease.
Types of Gene Therapy
There are two different categories of gene therapies: germline therapy and somatic therapy. Germline therapies can alter many cell types but by definition they also change genes in reproductive cells (like sperm and eggs). These changes would then be passed down from generation to generation. Germline therapy could potentially prevent inheritance of diseases. Somatic therapies, on the other hand, target non-reproductive cells. Changes made in these cells affect only the person who receives the gene therapy and do not pass on to future generations. Somatic therapies could be used to slow or reverse the disease process.
Of the two types of gene therapy, somatic therapies are the less controversial, and therapies using this approach are under development in research and commercial labs around the world. Treatments for HIV and cancer are being tested in clinical trials in patients. In contrast, germline therapies pose a greater number of ethical hurdles because of their ability to affect future generations. Critics have highlighted the possibility that germline therapies would pave the way for genetic enhancement, the use of genome editing to change non-medically relevant characteristics, such as athletic ability or height. More information about the ethical concerns around genome editing can be found at: What are the ethical concerns about genome editing?
Ethical concerns aside, there are still significant technical barriers that prevent genome editing therapies from entering the clinic. The research and regulatory communities have yet to begin evaluating the safety of potential treatments. The risk of off-target edits, or unintended edits, and their effects are still unknown, even for a technology like CRISPR that is many times more precise than previous techniques. Another problem to overcome is how to deliver the genome editing therapy to the right cells in the body in an effective manner.
One other challenge for gene therapy is that there is still much to learn about which genes are involved in most diseases and how different changes in these genes affect a person's risk of getting a disease. Many genes have more than one function, and in some cases editing a gene to "cure" one disease could create another. Scientists are also working to learn more about how genetic changes and environmental influences combine to result in disease and how genes interact with each other. Additionally, scientists need to learn more about how genes are controlled and how variants in these "controlling" regions of the genome are associated with disease risk. In the case of common diseases, such as diabetes, many genetic changes and environmental influences combine to result in disease. Therefore, scientists need to learn more about these changes before many gene therapies can be developed.


text:
Q: Convert BGR colored image to grayscale except one color I'd like to leave a color image in black and white (grayscale), and regions of interest in the original color. I have a colored BGR image and I want to remove all colors except one color.

Like this leaf image, I want to make the entire image black and white, and leave the original color (green), or intensify the yellow spots in this image, using OpenCV and python.
I have studied the OpenCV documentation, but I don't find anything to use. I study about create a filter for this, but I couldn't find anything too.

A: HSV color thresholding sounds great for this situation. The idea is to convert the image into HSV format then define a lower and upper range. This will allow us to segment desired objects in the image onto a mask where sections to keep are in white and areas to throw away in black.
The idea is to get two images: one representing the colored sections and another representing the inversed grayscale sections we want to keep. Then we simply combine them together to get our result.
Input image:

Using this HSV lower/upper range, we can segment green from the image
lower = np.array([35, 90, 35])
upper = np.array([179, 255, 255])

Colored -> Gray -> Combined result

If instead you wanted only light green, you could adjust the threshold range to remove dark green
lower = np.array([35, 90, 88])
upper = np.array([179, 255, 255])

Colored -> Gray -> Combined result

Here's the result for yellow
lower = np.array([0, 0, 128])
upper = np.array([29, 255, 255])

Code
import numpy as np
import cv2

image = cv2.imread('1.jpg')
gray = cv2.cvtColor(image, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
gray = cv2.merge([gray, gray, gray])
hsv = cv2.cvtColor(image, cv2.COLOR_BGR2HSV)
lower = np.array([35, 90, 88])
upper = np.array([179, 255, 255])
mask = cv2.inRange(hsv, lower, upper)
colored_output = cv2.bitwise_and(image, image, mask=mask)
gray_output = cv2.bitwise_and(gray, gray, mask=255-mask)
result = cv2.add(colored_output, gray_output)

cv2.imshow('colored_output', colored_output)
cv2.imshow('gray_output', gray_output)
cv2.imshow('result', result)
cv2.waitKey()

To determine the HSV lower/upper ranges, you can use this HSV thresholder script with sliders so you don't need to guess and check. Just change the image path
import cv2
import numpy as np

def nothing(x):
    pass

# Load image
image = cv2.imread('1.jpg')

# Create a window
cv2.namedWindow('image')

# Create trackbars for color change
# Hue is from 0-179 for Opencv
cv2.createTrackbar('HMin', 'image', 0, 179, nothing)
cv2.createTrackbar('SMin', 'image', 0, 255, nothing)
cv2.createTrackbar('VMin', 'image', 0, 255, nothing)
cv2.createTrackbar('HMax', 'image', 0, 179, nothing)
cv2.createTrackbar('SMax', 'image', 0, 255, nothing)
cv2.createTrackbar('VMax', 'image', 0, 255, nothing)

# Set default value for Max HSV trackbars
cv2.setTrackbarPos('HMax', 'image', 179)
cv2.setTrackbarPos('SMax', 'image', 255)
cv2.setTrackbarPos('VMax', 'image', 255)

# Initialize HSV min/max values
hMin = sMin = vMin = hMax = sMax = vMax = 0
phMin = psMin = pvMin = phMax = psMax = pvMax = 0

while(1):
    # Get current positions of all trackbars
    hMin = cv2.getTrackbarPos('HMin', 'image')
    sMin = cv2.getTrackbarPos('SMin', 'image')
    vMin = cv2.getTrackbarPos('VMin', 'image')
    hMax = cv2.getTrackbarPos('HMax', 'image')
    sMax = cv2.getTrackbarPos('SMax', 'image')
    vMax = cv2.getTrackbarPos('VMax', 'image')

    # Set minimum and maximum HSV values to display
    lower = np.array([hMin, sMin, vMin])
    upper = np.array([hMax, sMax, vMax])

    # Convert to HSV format and color threshold
    hsv = cv2.cvtColor(image, cv2.COLOR_BGR2HSV)
    mask = cv2.inRange(hsv, lower, upper)
    result = cv2.bitwise_and(image, image, mask=mask)

    # Print if there is a change in HSV value
    if((phMin != hMin) | (psMin != sMin) | (pvMin != vMin) | (phMax != hMax) | (psMax != sMax) | (pvMax != vMax) ):
        print("(hMin = %d , sMin = %d, vMin = %d), (hMax = %d , sMax = %d, vMax = %d)" % (hMin , sMin , vMin, hMax, sMax , vMax))
        phMin = hMin
        psMin = sMin
        pvMin = vMin
        phMax = hMax
        psMax = sMax
        pvMax = vMax

    # Display result image
    cv2.imshow('image', result)
    if cv2.waitKey(10) & 0xFF == ord('q'):
        break

cv2.destroyAllWindows()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Gargoyle (englisches Lehnwort aus  'Wasserspeier') bezeichnet:
 Wasserspeier (), regenwasserleitende Abtraufe in Form grotesker Skulpturen als architektonisches Element insbesondere gotischer Kathedralen
 Gargoyle (Fabelwesen), ein mythisches Wesen mit Menschengestalt und Fledermausflügeln, das tagsüber zu Stein wird

als zoologischer Name
 Gargoyleosaurus, ein Vogelbeckensaurier aus dem Oberjura

als geographischer Name
 Gargoyle Island, zu Alaska gehörende unbewohnte Insel im Nordpazifik
 Gargoyle Bastion, Landspitze der Livingston-Insel im Archipel der Südlichen Shetlandinseln, Antarktis
 Gargoyle Ridge, Gebirgskamm in der Ross Dependency, Antarktika
 Gargoyle Turrets, Felssäulen im Viktorialand, Antarktika
als technischer Name
 LBD Gargoyle, US-amerikanische Gleitbombe, siehe McDonnell LBD
 SA-20 Gargoyle, NATO-Bezeichnung für das sowjetische Langstrecken-Boden-Luft-Lenkwaffensystem S-300PM-1
 Gargoyle, eine auf OpenWrt basierende alternative Router-Firmware

als Filmtitel
 Gargoyles – Auf den Schwingen der Gerechtigkeit, eine US-amerikanische Zeichentrickserie (1993–1997) der Walt Disney Company
 Gargoyles, Fernsehfilm (USA, 1972)
 Gargoyles – Der Film, Spielfilm (USA 1995, orig. Gargoyles the Movie: The Heroes Awaken)
 Gargoyles – Flügel des Grauens, Horrorfilm (USA 2004, orig. )
 Gargoyles – Monster aus Stein, Horrorfilm (USA 2007, orig. )
 Gargoyles – Die Brut des Teufels, Horrorfilm (USA/F/CDN 2009, orig. )

Siehe auch:
 Gargoylismus


Petitioner suffered a sharp pain, followed by paralysis on the left side of her face after Respondent put his arm around her in a "friendly, unsolicited hug." Petitioner brought suit against the respondent for negligence and assault and battery.
"...[A]n assault and a battery is not negligence, for such action is unintentional, while negligence connotes an unintentional act." Additionally, "negligence is a relative term and its existence must depend in each a case upon the particular circumstances which surround the parties at the time and place of the events upon which the controversy is based."
Issue: Whether the petitioner's action could be maintained on the negligence count, or whether respondent's conduct amounted to assault & battery as a matter of law, which would bar the suit under the two-year Statute of Limitations (which had run)?
Holding: Yes, the petitioner's action could be maintained on the negligence count, which the jury would decide if the respondent's actions are negligent or not.
Harmful contact is apparent = intentional hug and pulled P towards D and paralysis of the face.
This court looks at the knowledge portion of the intent requirement.
Was it foreseeable by a reasonable person that the result of the D's actions would have occurred?
What the court is doing is going on policy, they are at least trying to give the P a chance for recovery through negligence since.
The court did not analyze the other way intent can be determined, which the D did willfully and purposely made his actions.
Relevant Facts---- Spivey and Battaglia were employees of Battaglia Fruit Co. At lunch several employees were sitting around. Battaglia (defendant), as a joke because the plaintiff was shy, gave her a "friendly, unsolicited" hug. He pulled her head toward him and in the process injured her neck. She felt pain in the neck and ear and skull. As a result she was paralyzed on the left side of her face and mouth.
Issue--- Is this an assault and battery or negligence? Assault and battery would have expired under 2 year statute of limitations, but negligence can stand up.
Reasoning--- Unlike McDonald, there was no way that Battaglia could have known with substantial certainty that the results (injuries to Spivey) could occur. Therefore no assault occurred and the summary judgments and dismissals should not have occurred. Instead the case should be decided on negligence, which is decided by the differing circumstances in each case.
Judgment/ Resulting Rule-- -Reversed summary final judgment. Difference between intentional and "substantial certainty rule" although both qualify for assault and battery must exist. It can affect things like penalties, statute of limitations, liability.


text:
Last edited 05 Nov 2018
RoadPeace and CEMEX UK join forces
RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash casualties and CEMEX UK, a leading provider of aggregates, cement, ready-mixed concrete and rail sleepers, are calling on the construction industry to join the CLOCS scheme (Construction Logistics and Community Safety).
They have produced a video aimed at the construction industry, highlighting the reasons why the scheme is so important to businesses and the public at large, and gives a constructive voice to people who have been injured or bereaved by construction vehicles.
Victoria Lebrec, RoadPeace spokesperson and victim of a construction lorry crash, said:
"In 2014, my life changed forever when I was hit by a tipper truck whilst cycling in London. I lost my leg in the collision, and have had over 12 operations and months of physiotherapy. I urge all construction companies to join up to CLOCS and take on board some simple, effective methods to make their vehicles safer. If signing up means saving someone the pain I went through, then it is absolutely worth it."
Andy Taylor, Health and Safety Director CEMEX UK said:
"We are delighted to be involved in this video and would encourage everyone in our industry who isn't a member of CLOCS to become members. Over the years, the construction industry has shown great commitment and done an excellent job of raising health and safety standards on sites. Now it is time to go beyond the sites themselves to roads and site access to raise the level of safety by sharing best practice and implementing innovation and change."
Derek Rees from CLOCS said:
"I am delighted that RoadPeace and CEMEX UK have joined forces to create a hard-hitting video calling on others within the sector to join up to the scheme. As an industry, the construction sector takes health and safety on site really seriously. But very few clients, principal contractors and sub-contractors seem to recognise their legal and moral responsibilities for the vehicles servicing their sites. As soon as that lorry leaves the site the same rules don't seem to apply. The CLOCS scheme is a way of introducing workable solutions which help everyone in the industry protect the wider community, their colleagues and themselves."
CLOCS brings the construction logistics industry together to revolutionise the management of work related road risk (WRRR) and ensure a road safety culture is embedded across the industry. By working together we can help protect pedestrians, cyclists, motorcycles and other users who share the roads with construction vehicles. Find out more about the CLOCS Standard or about becoming a CLOCS Champion here.
Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
What is CLOCS?
Retrieved from "https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/RoadPeace_and_CEMEX_UK_join_forces"


Whether you are a high school student headed to college for the first time or a professional wanting to complete you bachelor's degree, Rochester College is committed to your academic excellence.
Even after you start at RC, our close-knit, vibrant community commits to helping you along the way. The resources in this section of the website will help guide you as you manage your college career.


text:
<!DOCTYPE html>

    <meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>
  Class: Planter::Plot

    — Sapling Documentation

</title>

  <link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/style.css" type="text/css" charset="utf-8" />

  <link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/common.css" type="text/css" charset="utf-8" />

    Index (P) »
    Planter
     »
    Plot

        <svg width="24" height="24">
          <rect x="0" y="4" width="24" height="4" rx="1" ry="1"></rect>
          <rect x="0" y="12" width="24" height="4" rx="1" ry="1"></rect>
          <rect x="0" y="20" width="24" height="4" rx="1" ry="1"></rect>
        </svg>

Class: Planter::Plot

Inherits:

      Object

Object

Planter::Plot

        show all

Defined in:

lib/sapling/planter.rb

Overview

In-memory tree

Instance Attribute Summary collapse

      #branches  ⇒ Object

The tree, trunk, and branches.

      #tree  ⇒ Object

The tree, trunk, and branches.

      #trunk  ⇒ Object

The tree, trunk, and branches.

      Instance Method Summary
      collapse

      #edit_branch(branch_no)  ⇒ Object

Edit a branch on the tree.

      #edit_leaf(branch, leaf)  ⇒ Object

Edit a leaf on a branch, grasshopper.

      #edit_trunk  ⇒ Object

Edit the trunk of the tree.

Instance Attribute Details

    #branches  ⇒ <tt>Object</tt>

The tree, trunk, and branches

12
13
14

# File 'lib/sapling/planter.rb', line 12

def branches
  @branches
end

    #tree  ⇒ <tt>Object</tt>

The tree, trunk, and branches

12
13
14

# File 'lib/sapling/planter.rb', line 12

def tree
  @tree
end

    #trunk  ⇒ <tt>Object</tt>

The tree, trunk, and branches

12
13
14

# File 'lib/sapling/planter.rb', line 12

def trunk
  @trunk
end

Instance Method Details

    #edit_branch(branch_no)  ⇒ <tt>Object</tt>

Edit a branch on the tree

Parameters:

        branch

        (<tt>Integer</tt>)

        —

The number of the branch to be edited.

32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44

# File 'lib/sapling/planter.rb', line 32

def edit_branch(branch_no)
  puts "Current Branch:\n"
  Dialogue.display_branch(@branches[branch_no], branch_no, true)
  print "\n[ =EDITING= ](CTRL-C to abort)> "
  STDOUT.flush
  begin
    new_branch = STDIN.gets.to_s
  rescue Interrupt
    puts "\n**Aborting edit**\n\n"
    new_branch = @branches[branch_no]["desc"]
  end
  @branches[branch_no]["desc"] = new_branch
end

    #edit_leaf(branch, leaf)  ⇒ <tt>Object</tt>

Edit a leaf on a branch, grasshopper

Parameters:

        branch

        (<tt>Integer</tt>)

        —

The number of the branch to be edited.

        leaf

        (<tt>Hash</tt>)

        —

The leaf hash to be edited.

50
51
52

# File 'lib/sapling/planter.rb', line 50

def edit_leaf(branch, leaf)

end

    #edit_trunk  ⇒ <tt>Object</tt>

Edit the trunk of the tree

15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27

# File 'lib/sapling/planter.rb', line 15

def edit_trunk
  puts "Current Trunk:\n"
  Dialogue.display_trunk(@trunk, true)
  print "\n[ =EDITING= ](CTRL-C to abort)> "
  STDOUT.flush
  begin
    new_trunk = STDIN.gets.to_s
  rescue Interrupt
    puts "\n**Aborting edit**\n\n"
    new_trunk = @trunk["trunk"]
  end
  @trunk["trunk"] = new_trunk
end

  Generated on Sat Oct 14 23:40:01 2017 by
  yard
  0.9.9 (ruby-2.4.2).


Police officers with their guns drawn hear the second explosion down the street, April 15, 2013. Photo credit: John Tlumacki / The Boston Globe / Getty Images.
The US government's latest report on the Boston Marathon bombing is so full of revealing information buried in plain sight, it seems as if an insider is imploring someone—anyone—to dig deeper. It reads like the work of an unhappy participant in a cover-up.
• A Boston FBI agent seemingly recruiting and acting as Tamerlan Tsarnaev's control officer, interacting personally with him, preventing on multiple occasions serious investigations of Tsarnaev's activities, and then pleading ignorance to investigators in the most ludicrously improbable manner.
• The likelihood that the blame game between the US and Russia over who knew what, and when, regarding Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his activities, masks a deeper geopolitical game which may very well point to the sine qua non of most such struggles—the battle for the control of precious natural resources.
• The sheer inability of well-meaning US government officials—who either may know or suspect that the "official" account of the Boston bombing, with the Tsarnaev brothers as lone wolf terrorists, is utterly false—to come out and state their true beliefs. The most recent report is an example of the necessity of reading between the lines.
The other day, we explained a key point missing from most coverage of the Boston Bombing story: that the US government may have been in contact with the alleged bombers before the Russians ever warned about them.
Since then, the report itself has been released. It is the coordinated product of probes by Inspectors General from a number of intelligence agencies and other governmental entities. Actually, what's been released is not the report itself—just an unclassified summary filled with redactions. Even so, it is enormously revealing, as much for what it does not say as for what it does.
Be advised that this is not a short read. Our take is an in-depth look at how the government loads the dice for its own purposes. As such, it is necessarily complicated, with layers of obfuscation that need to be peeled away. But if you want to get some inkling of what might actually lie behind the Boston Marathon Bombing, read on.
Let's start by taking a look at the summary report.
In March 2011, the FBI received information from the FSB alleging that Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva were adherents of radical Islam and that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was preparing to travel to Russia to join unspecified underground groups in Dagestan and Chechnya. The FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force in Boston (Boston JTTF) conducted an assessment of Tamerlan Tsarnaev to determine whether he posed a threat to national security and closed the assessment three months later having found no link or "nexus" to terrorism.
So, in March 2011, the FBI received information from the FSB (Russian internal security service, comparable to the FBI), warning about terrorist threats posed by the Tsarnaev family.
We have long been told that this Russian warning was the first time the Tsarnaevs were on the US government's radar.
After that paragraph comes a sub-section labeled JANUARY 2011 COMMUNICATIONS. The entirety of that section, including a lengthy footnote, has been redacted.
Reading a government report with redactions is like reading tea leaves in the bottom of a dirty cup. You can't know for sure what's been suppressed, but you can hazard some educated guesses about why certain material was deemed too dangerous for the public to know.
In this case, you have to ask: Why would the first item in Section V and the entire subsection labeled "January 2011 Communications" be suppressed. The answer may lie in a story that appeared in the New York Times last week. Based on a leak exclusive to the Times, the story quoted a "senior government official" who claimed that the Russians had withheld some key information when it informed the US about the Tsarnaevs' jihadist leanings in March 2011—information that might have made the US government pay more attention to the Tsarnaevs, and so perhaps could have helped avert the Marathon bombing.
As we previously noted, much earlier, back in 2013, the New York Times reported another leak. That leak asserted that US authorities had been in contact with the Tsarnaevs as early as January 2011. If true, this assertion would be enormously consequential, because it would mean the Tsarnaevs were known to US authorities two months before American intelligence learned from the Russians that the Tsarnaevs might be terrorists.
As far as we know, no one in the media ever followed up on this leaked assertion. When we queried the Times about it, the paper never replied. Nor has the Times ever published a correction. Now, it is possible that the official who provided the Times with that earlier leak was mistaken, or that the Times got the date or the facts wrong and did not want to admit its error in public.
But it's hard not to see a link between that leaked assertion and the government's redaction, in the just released summary, of the entire section labeled January 2011 Communications. What is in that section that's so disturbing to the censors in the American intelligence community?
One possibility is that the US censors are not so concerned about the information in those "communications" as in the way that information was obtained.
Russia Eavesdropping on American Telephone Conversations?
It would of course be news if the Russians were capturing domestic American telephone conversations, and if they were so interested in the Tsarnaevs that they launched a very risky and complicated operation to eavesdrop on that family's communications within US borders.
This real possibility can be further contextualized. The Boston area has long been a hotbed for spy-vs-spy intrigue. With top military research going on at Cambridge-based MIT and other area institutions, that's not surprising.
Consider that the Tsarnaevs lived in Cambridge—home to members of a ring of Russian spies that was broken up shortly before the Tsarnaevs came under scrutiny. Remember that the US rolled up a spy ring in June of 2010—after monitoring it for a decade, and that an exchange of prisoners quickly followed. An American mole inside Russian foreign intelligence, Col. Alexander Poteyev, who was back-channeling to American intelligence while simultaneously directing the stateside ring from Russia, fled to the US before the arrests. His role was obscured by American officials; and his identity was only revealed when a Russian court later found him guilty in absentia.
Few Americans remember Poteyev's role, or any of the other more remarkable "details." Indeed, US media coverage of the Russian spy ring story quickly focused on the sexiness of one of the characters, Anna Chapman, who returned to Russia as part of the exchange and became a lingerie model, corporate spokesperson, and national icon.
However, US officials dismissed the ring itself as a "sleeper cell" that actually accomplished nothing.We wonder if this is true. Did the Russians really go to such enormous efforts over a decade and achieve nothing substantive? More on this in a moment, but for now, consider the notion of an active Russian spy ring in the Tsarnaevs' Massachusetts backyard as a basis for further thinking.
Given the "shocking" exposure of the Russian ring, it is equally shocking to contemplate that, less than a year later, the Russians have gone from spying to "helping" the US—by notifying American intelligence of potential terrorists in our midst. Either that, or the Russians were notifying the US out of self-interest, to ensure that yet another anti-Russian terrorist did not succeed in jihad on Russia's turf.
To us, frankly, neither explanation is wholly satisfying. It seems there is more going on.
Was the US itself monitoring the Tsarnaevs at the same time the Russians were? Of even more interest, did US authorities, as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense suggests, seek to turn Tamerlan Tsarnaev into an asset?
The defense's claim that the FBI tried—but failed—to get Tamerlan to work for the US is hard to accept, not because the FBI doesn't regularly try to recruit immigrants like the Tsarnaevs through a carrot-and/or-stick approach, but because it's hard to imagine the FBI failing in such an endeavor. The "failure" part of the defense claim seems like a concession to the likelihood that detailed information about FBI recruitment would not be admissible in such a case. Also, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lead federal public defender is accomplished at getting her clients charges reduced—in this case, presumably to avoid the death penalty—not at exposing giant falsehoods perpetrated by her government.
For context on whether or not Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have agreed to cooperate, consider the FBI's tactics with people from the Tsarnaevs' extended circle who did not cooperate, as reported in this earlier piece we did.
The FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force in Boston (Boston JTTF) conducted an assessment of Tamerlan Tsarnaev to determine whether he posed a threat to national security and closed the assessment three months later having found no link or "nexus" to terrorism.
Surely if he were working for the US and involved with anti-Russian activities, he would rightfully be found to "have no link to…terrorism"—inasmuch as terrorism (so far as the FBI is concerned) would likely be defined as a threat only to US national security.
Also, as the report summary notes, the Russians repeatedly pinged the Americans, presumably because they saw no serious action taking place. They provided information to the FBI in March 2011, and similar material to the CIA in September. (The report states flatly, and without emphasis, that the FBI had failed to share intelligence with the CIA—a suspiciously common practice that dates back to the John F. Kennedy assassination if not earlier).
Did the Russians decide that FBI inaction meant the Bureau had recruited Tamerlan, and either had not notified the CIA or had not done so through official channels? In October, in any case, the CIA passed the Russian intelligence along to a range of agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. It also passed it along to the FBI, as if it did not know that the FBI itself already had the information from half a year earlier. Finally, the information was passed on to the National Counterterrorism Center, which put Tamerlan Tsarnaev on a terrorist watch list.
Incredibly, even after this, when Tamerlan traveled to Russia three months later, exactly as the Russians said he would, and while on that terror watch list, US authorities did nothing.
This lead information was investigated by the FBI through the Boston JTTF. Representatives from the DHS, CIA, and other federal, state, and local agencies work directly with FBI-led JTTFs across the country, including in Boston.
Notice the waffling. The summary authors state a standard principle: FBI-led investigation units "work directly" with other federal and local agencies. They explicitly do not say that the FBI did so in this case. And how could they? Because the FBI clearly did not.
Mind you, this is WhoWhatWhy's attempt at coherently and accurately summing up the content of the Summary Report. It is instructive that those who prepared the report did not feel the need to emphasize these rather glaring and seemingly deliberate "failures"—and instead basically give the FBI and US government a free pass for their cover-up.
Keating said the letter gave Tsarnaev's date of birth, his cellphone number, information about his boxing career, weight and Golden Gloves matches. It talked about his wife and mother, giving the mother's Skype number. The up-close look at Tsarnaev's life raised questions, which went unanswered, about how the FSB had accumulated so much information about a family in Boston.
The Russian authorities provided personal information about both Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, including their telephone numbers and e-mail addresses, and requested that the FBI provide the FSB with specific information about them, including possible travel by Tsarnaev to Russia.
Importantly, the memorandum included two incorrect dates of birth (October 21, 1987 or 1988) for Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and the English translation used by the FBI transliterated their last names as Tsarnayev and Tsarnayeva, respectively.
Only later do we read that an FBI agent had no difficulty resolving these issues.
So they began their inquiries with two predispositions: (1) that the government had very little information available on its own, and (2) that completely contrary to Edward Snowden's revelations about NSA abuses, US agencies are scrupulously careful about how they collect private data on individuals.
[T]he OIGs were mindful of the sensitive nature of the ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions related to the bombings, and were careful to ensure that the review would not interfere with these activities. We carefully tailored our requests for information and interviews to focus on information available before the bombings and, where appropriate, coordinated with the U.S. Attorney's Office conducting the prosecution of alleged bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Presumably, a truly independent investigation would involve coordinating with anyone who had information to impart, including Dzhokhar's defense.
In this section, we summarize the chronology of events relating to the U.S. government's knowledge of and interactions with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, members of his family, and other associates before the bombings. Many of the activities and events that occurred during the period discussed below cannot be included in this unclassified summary.
Redactions in this document are the result of classification and sensitivity designations we received from agencies and departments that provided information to the OIGs for this review. As to several of these classification and sensitivity designations, the OIGs disagreed with the bases asserted. We are requesting that the relevant entities reconsider those designations so that we can unredact those portions and make this information available to the public.
conducted database searches, reviewed references to Tsarnaev and his family in closed FBI counterterrorism cases, performed "drive-bys" of Tsarnaev's residence, made an on-site visit to his former college, and interviewed Tsarnaev and his parents.
The question is obvious: Why no effort to monitor the Tsarnaevs' covertly? What about, instead of warning them that they were under suspicion, keeping a close and quiet watch on them? Isn't that how you would proceed if you wanted to find out what a suspected terrorist was up to?
Instead of raising this point, the OIG summary questions why the FBI did not make even more noise, including interviewing others who knew the family. Then it notes the FBI agent's failure to query every database, but points out that such an additional effort would not likely have garnered much new information. And while acknowledging that the FBI failed to share information with other agencies, it gives the Bureau an out by lamely saying that if other agencies had known where to look it a shared database, they might have happened upon the information.
And if it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium.
The rest of this paragraph is blacked out. In fact, that's the first redaction you come to in the whole report. For some reason, the OIGs do not make more of this—though it demonstrates that the FBI counterterrorism officer failed to ask the questions that mattered most.
It is not hard to see how introducing a plethora of such small obfuscations into a "Summary Report" can keep even expert readers from focusing on the larger issues in play. And when the readers are less-than-expert representatives of the mass media, the tactic is even more effective. A review of articles about the report in major newspapers makes this abundantly clear.
The report concludes that a Customs and Border Patrol officer most likely notified the FBI when Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to Russia in 2012. The Customs officer also flagged Tamerlan so his record would be visible for his own colleagues when Tsarnaev re-entered the country.
This kind of inconsistency makes it all but impossible to get to the bottom of things, and the IGs don't seem to have tried hard.
Everything about this case suggests that we might want to learn more about the Boston FBI agent and his most unusual behavior. Was he wildly incompetent and reckless, or operating under some kind of instructions? Unfortunately, the names of such significant personnel are almost never made public.
A US Citizenship and Immigration Services officer says he actually met with the FBI agent and told him that Tsarnaev was on track to be granted citizenship. Despite all that he knew, the FBI agent apparently had no objection.
Based on all the information gathered during our coordinated review, we believe that the FBI, CIA, DHS and NCTC generally shared information and followed procedures appropriately. We identified a few areas where broader information sharing between agencies may have been required….
In light of our findings and conclusions summarized above, the participating OIGs found no basis to make broad recommendations for changes in information handling or sharing. We nonetheless identified some areas in which existing policies or practices could be clarified or improved.
When your instincts tell you that a major effort is underway to make sure no one gets to the bottom of things, you're inclined to look for larger explanations. To wit: Could some kind of larger geo-strategic battle relate to the Boston bombings, with the on-the-ground players mere pawns?
We'll have more to say later about the larger circle of national-security-community figures that has surrounded Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for years. But for now, we want to step back a little.
Given the tendency of spy services to play elaborate games with a long view, it is reasonable to wonder whether the Russians had more in mind than just being helpful when they notified the US that it ought to look at the Tsarnaevs.
Could the notice to the FBI have been a warning that the Russians knew the US was already in contact with the Tsarnaevs? Given the possibility that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was supposed to infiltrate anti-Russian jihadists, that essentially puts the two intelligence services on the same side in this matter. Or were the Russians worried that the Americans were playing a double game, seemingly hunting jihadists while simultaneously using those jihadists to put pressure on the Russians in their majority-Muslim, oil-bearing southern flank?
There is also the possibility that, as with the US mole in Russian intelligence, Colonel Potayev, both sides thought they were controlling the Tsarnaevs. This would have made them players in a still more dazzling game. Pull out your old spy novels for this one.
Consider, as one must, what would be worth such extraordinary measures? What would justify so many redactions in a Summary Report? What would compel a bunch of Inspectors General, purportedly responsible for getting to the bottom of things, to participate in a whitewash?
What else but an issue of "national security"?
And since, as we know, there were no actual terrorist attacks or credible near-attacks on US soil between 9/11 and the Marathon bombings more than a decade later, these "national security" concerns might logically relate to something else. We hate to sound like a broken record, but keeping the lights and computers on and the cars moving pretty well approximates national security these days. And we all know what powers the grid—and where the next big oil and gas hub is after the Middle East deposits are tapped out. It's the Caucasus region, the southern portion of the old Soviet Union, which encompasses a bunch of places where the US and Russia have been duking it out in recent years, including notably, Georgia, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Dagestan and Chechnya. The first three of these are loci of military operations which saw the US and Russia on opposite sides, and the last two are restive, heavy-Muslim-majority Russian Republics with which the Tsarnaevs are associated.
• 2001, when, according to former NATO Commander Gen. Wesley Clark, he was shown a Top Secret memo laying out seven countries the US was prepared to invade with 9/11 as the justification. In an exclusive video interview with WhoWhatWhy, Gen. Clark expanded on that, emphasizing the role oil plays in US military policy.
It will take a lot more research to determine whether the story neither government is likely to tell is really about a titanic struggle for the earth's wealth. But, given historical precedents, it would not be so far-fetched.
Indeed, it is only the official story of the Boston Marathon bombing which sounds far-fetched.
There are 71 comments Our Comment Policy: Keep it civilized, keep it relevant, keep it clear, keep it short. Please do not post links or promotional material. We reserve the right to edit and to delete comments where necessary.


"The Calm" was trash and Sara's death pushed nothing. Stop buying the lines the producers are feeding you about that and examine how much of the season was really about Sara or her death. Hint: The answer's 0%.