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What do we mean by Deep Sky Observing, everything in space is a long way away compared to distances on planet Earth and even within our own Solar System? Well in this article we mean anything that is outside our own solar system, this includes every star apart from our own Sun, great big clouds of glowing gas called nebulae, double stars, open star clusters, globular star clusters, planetary nebulae, dark nebulae and galaxies. Many astronomers would argue that stars should not be included in this list but there are some very pretty double stars that are well worth observing and some of these can be as challenging as the 'faint fuzzies' which is very descriptive of most Deep Sky Objects or DSOs for short. The DSOs we shall be discussing here are much fainter than the planets like Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn so do not expect to see them in glorious full techni-colour (apart from double stars) unless using long exposure photography, as the eye is too insensitive to colour.
The easiest way to start observing DSOs is with your naked eye or with a pair of binoculars (bins). To start with you need to find your way around the night sky and to do this there is no better way than to take a look at one of the astronomy magazines and look up its star chart for the month or buy a 10inch (254mm) planisphere and then start by finding some of the circumpolar constellations like Cassiopeia and The Plough asterism (informal grouping of stars) which forms only part of the constellation Ursa Major. Then depending on the time of year you are observing, look for some of the brighter more recognisable constellations like Orion, Taurus, Gemini, Cygnus, Aquila, Virgo, Lyra and the faint white band of the Milky Way as it runs across the sky from Cassiopeia through Cygnus and on down to Sagittarius.
Once you start to be able to find your way around the constellations you will find it easier to use the lists of DSOs in the astronomy magazines and on websites as these tell you which constellation the objects lie in as well as giving their celestial coordinates and brightness (magnitude). Using free software like Stellarium will allow you to check the positions of many DSOs but there are so many to observe where should you start? The answer is the brightest! Then as you start to develop your skill as an observer and/or get a larger telescope, you can head for the fainter ones with confidence.
Choice of Telescope
As previously discussed, many DSOs can be seen using the naked eye and binoculars. However, the true splendour of almost all DSOs requires a telescope to be fully appreciated. The main consideration when observing DSOs is their faintness. Therefore the larger the aperture of the telescope the better, a telescope with twice the diameter will actually capture four times more light from the DSO. This will normally mean using a reflecting telescope of some kind, either a large Dobsonian or a smaller GOTO telescope like a Maksutov or Schmidt-Cassegrain. However, if you are intending to start using a camera for long exposure astrophotography then smaller, shorter focal length refractors can be used to great advantage.
Planning your observing
The visibility of all DSOs is greatly impacted by any form of light pollution caused by things such as street lights but also the light of the Moon. This doesn't mean that you have to have perfectly dark skies but try to do your DSO observing when the Moon is between third quarter and first quarter, so that it is less bright and also out of the sky for the majority of the night. From first quarter to third quarter Moon it's best to either observe the Moon itself or any planets that are in the sky. There are however a few notable exceptions to this rule as we shall find out!
Tricks of the Deep Sky Observers� Trade
Due to the faintness of all DSOs apart from double stars there are a few techniques that seasoned observers use to glimpse the finer details of their targets.
1. High in the Sky:
Probably the number one rule for observing DSOs is to observe them when they are high in the sky. As the Earth spins on its axis, all astronomical targets appear to rise in the East traverse the sky and set in the West. Because of the tilt of the Earth's axis (23.4 degrees), objects appear at their highest above the horizon when they cross the meridian (the line running North-South through your position) and are due South of you. The reason for observing when the object is highest in the sky is because you are looking through less of the Earth's atmosphere. When viewing below 30 degrees you are looking through twice the thickness of atmosphere as when observing at the zenith (the point directly above your head). You can see this for yourself by looking at the sky overhead and then gradually looking downwards towards the horizon, you will notice that there always appears to be a layer of fog down close to the horizon. Therefore when planning any observing it is best to consult tables or astronomy software like SkyTools that tell you what time of year the object will be in the sky (due to the season) and when it will be at its most favourable for observing (time of night).
2. Dark adaption:
Dark adaption of the eye happens over a period of 20 minutes or more and is the eye's way of seeing in lower light levels. It is a twofold process that increases the size of the pupil letting more light into the eye and a chemical change that makes the retina more sensitive. Before starting a search for any DSOs it is best to go outside 30 mins before you want to observe and then DO NOT USE any white lights. Use a red torch or head lamp while setting up your scope ready for the night's observing, remember red light will not impact your night vision as much as white light. This is why it is frowned upon to use a white light at Star Parties!
3. Averted Vision:
Using averted vision is a technique of looking just off to one side of the object, either through the eyepiece of a telescope, binoculars or naked eye. This causes the image of the object to form on the eye's retina in an area that is covered with the black and white light receptors called Rods that are much more sensitive and packed more densely than the colour receptors called Cones which cover the central part of the retina. This technique can be a little difficult at first because you suddenly see more of the object and then your eye re-centralises the object, so you lose it again. Persevere and practice because averted vision will enable you to see fainter objects than normal. Three good examples of this, using the naked eye are: The Andromeda Galaxy M31 (late Autumn); The Double Cluster NGC869 and NGC884 (all year); and the Beehive Cluster M44 (late Winter). Look at any of these directly and you will be lucky to see them but look slightly off to one side and they will pop into view!
4. OTA Nudging:
Nudging the telescope's Optical Tube Assembly (OTA) can be a good way to determine whether you can really see something in the eyepiece or not. Sometimes DSOs are barely perceptible against the background sky in the field of view of the eyepiece but if you gently tap the OTA then the target's image wobbles which makes it more discernible.
5. Patience is a Virtue:
Being patient and allowing an image of a centred DSO to build up on your retina is good advice. It is very tempting to rush around the night sky, looking at one DSO after another to see what they all look like in a single evening. This is great fun and will wow all your friends but later go back to each DSO again and spend more time observing it. Certain DSOs like the Hercules Cluster M13 (Summer) that has hundreds of thousands of stars grouped into a globular cluster that really sparkle in larger telescopes and look good even in a smaller scope, really benefit from patience.The longer you look (at least 5 minutes), the more you will see! This is true of all DSOs.
6. Sky Conditions � Seeing and Transparency:
The sky conditions are obviously beyond the observer's control but make the most of the nights of really great transparency and seeing. Astronomical seeing refers to the steadiness of the Earth's atmosphere that we are attempting to look through. Unsteady atmosphere causes the stars to twinkle as the refractive index of the atmosphere changes above our heads. The better the seeing the higher magnification that can be used. Often when it has been raining all day and the sky has been washed clean of all the pollution, the sky will be really transparent and will appear crystal clear with jet black background and bright stars. When good seeing and transparency occur at the same time, don't waste a second as it doesn't happen very often in the UK! Make the most of these rare opportunities and you will be glad you did. Take the chance to look at some of the smaller DSOs as you will find that you can push the magnification above the normally recommended maximum of once times the telescope's aperture in millimetres, sometimes up to as high as twice that.
What to Observe
There are all manner of DSOs and double stars that are worth observing, even with the naked eye or bins. Obviously these have to be the brighter ones but also include the furthest object visible to the naked eye! Then there are the fainter ones many of which are listed in famous catalogues the most notable of which are the:
• Messier Catalogue (M numbers) - a catalogue of misty patches that Charles Messier didn't want to confuse with comets;
• Caldwell Catalogue (C numbers) - Compiled by Sir Patrick Caldwell-Moore as a catalogue of some of the night sky's best objects for amateur astronomers to observe;
• New General Catalogue (NGC numbers) - The New General Catalogue is a catalogue of Nebulae and star clusters compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888.
• Barnard Catalogue (B numbers) - compiled by the astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard in the early 20th century contains a list of 'Dark Markings in the Sky'.
Most GOTO telescopes will have the first three catalogues programmed into their hand controllers.
Below is a list of some suggested DSOs for beginners broken down into three main groups that can be viewed: all year round; during the Winter months; and during the Summer months. Each group is then further broken down for viewing either using naked eye, bins or telescope. The best seasons to observe DSOs are late Autumn, Winter and early Spring as the sky is actually darker at night than during the Summer months which makes the fainter DSOs easier to see during this time of year. This is caused by the tilt of the Earth's axis pointing the northern hemisphere towards the Sun in Summer and away from the Sun in Winter. The Sun therefore drops further below the horizon during Winter months, resulting in darker skies. Obviously some of the DSOs can only be viewed during the Summer months due to the Earth's annual orbit around the Sun, so observing them, is best done near midnight (GMT) as they cross the Meridian. Suggested best observing months are enclosed in [square brackets] but do not have to be stuck to rigidly.
Suggested All Year Round DSOs
The DSOs in this section are circumpolar from northern latitudes of 50 degrees or more. This means that they can be viewed at any time of year but will be found in a different place each month as the Earth progresses around its orbit of the Sun. These give you the chance of getting started straight away with Deep Sky Observing, no matter what the season!
Naked Eye:
Double Cluster (NGC869 and NGC884) - the double cluster is only just visible as a hazy patch to the naked eye and is a good target to practice averted vision on. It lies roughly half way between Perseus and Cassiopeia. [circumpolar]
Binoculars:
Double Cluster (NGC869 and NGC884) - looks its spectacular best viewed through binoculars or a short focal length telescope. Looking through binoculars NGC869 looks like a necklace with glittery pendant hanging down into NGC884 (depends on orientation of the pair when viewed). [circumpolar]
Bodes Galaxy M81 - in Ursa Major can just about be spotted with binoculars and has two very helpful pointer stars in the bowl of the Plough to guide you on your way. Draw a line from Phad diagonally across the bowl to Dubhe and carry on for about the same distance again. Once you have spotted M81 you will find that there is another galaxy M82 very close by. [circumpolar]
Telescope:
ET Cluster (C13 or NGC457) - this cluster of stars lies just under Cassiopeia and is so named as it looks like the guy out of Steven Spielberg's film ET. As Cassiopeia is circumpolar, ET can be viewed at any time of the year. Consequently sometimes ET will appear upside down and sometimes the right way up. The two bright stars at one end of the cluster as supposed to be ET's eyes and the lines of fainter stars to each side are his arms! [circumpolar]
Bodes Galaxy M81 & M82 - Bodes Galaxy, also known as NGC3031 is relatively close to Earth at 12m lys which together with its Super Massive Black Hole producing an active galactic nucleus, makes it a relatively bright DSO for beginners. The nextdoor galaxy M82 (NGC3034) is a starburst galaxy and was the location of a Type 1A supernova on 21st January 2014. This galaxy is many times brighter than the centre of our own Milky Way due to all the star formation taking place. [circumpolar]
Whirlpool Galaxy M51 - One of the brighter face on spiral galaxies that appears to be interacting with a nearby neighbour, producing a bridge of stars between the two. On a dark clear night some of the spiral structure can be seen through 8inch telescopes. [circumpolar]
Suggested Late Autumn - Winter - Spring DSO observing
Mira the Wonderful - is an intrinsically variable star, one where the star's actual light output varies. It was the first to be discovered of a special type of variable star now known as Mira Variables. Mira varies in intensity from its brightest of around magnitude 2 right down to magnitude 10 with a total period of 332 days. This means that at maximum brightness it is one of the brightest stars in the constellation of Cetus but at minimum it is totally invisible to the naked eye. Mira's next maxima is predicted to occur between 21-31 May 2015 when unfortunately it won't be in the night-time sky. [Mid-October]
Algol or Demon Star - the second brightest star in Perseus is in fact an eclipsing binary star with a dimmer star and a brighter star orbiting each other. The pair are aligned such that as they orbit, they eclipse each other as observed from Earth. This results in the apparent brightness of the star system varying with a marked dip in brightness once every 2 days, 20 hours, and 49 minutes with the eclipse lasting around 10 hours. At its brightest, Algol shines about three times more brightly than at its faintest. Check tables for the timing of this event as you will see it get fainter in comparison to other nearby stars and then brighten again in the course of a full night's winter observing. [November]
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) - this object is actually the most distant object visible with the naked eye at a distance of 2.5m lys. What you see as a faint patch in the sky, using averted vison, is the centre of our closest neighbour spiral galaxy. If it was bright enough to see the whole galaxy right out to its edges, it would actually appear 6 times the diameter of the Full Moon. [November]
Great Orion Nebula (M42) - this is a large molecular gas cloud that is giving birth to new stars. It is at a distance of 1,300m lys and actually looks like a fuzzy star to the naked eye, appearing as the central star in Orion's sword. [December]
The Pleiades or Seven Sisters (M45) - is a cluster of middle-aged hot bright stars surrounded by very faint nebulosity which is located in the constellation of Taurus. They are clearly discernible on most clear winter nights when it is normal to be able to see seven stars forming a small saucepan shape. [December]
Beehive Cluster or Praesepe (M44) - lies in the constellation of Cancer the crab which is the dimmest of all zodiacal constellations. It can be found just to the north-west of the central star of Cancer but it is normally only just visible and is another good target to try out the averted vision technique on. [Feb]
Coma Berenices - this constellation is supposed to be a truss of hair from Queen Berenices that she dedicated to Aphrodite for her husband's safe return from Syria. It is a faint constellation with its three brightest stars forming a right-angle with fainter stars near 5th magnitude filling the right-angle. On nights of exceptional sky clarity these dimmer stars, the strands of hair, can be seen twinkling. [April]
Great Orion Nebula (M42) - training binoculars on M42 will start to reveal that this middle 'star' in Orion's sword is much more than appears to the naked eye. [Nov]
Open Star Cluster (M35) - lies just off the tip of the foot of Castor, one of the Gemini twins. This is a pretty compact open cluster which is just visible through binoculars. [Dec]
Pleiades (M45) - all the naked eye objects will appear in more detail in binoculars. However, the Pleiades are at their most spectacular through binoculars even more so than through a larger telescope. [Dec]
Beehive Cluster or Praesepe (M44) - when viewed through binoculars it is easy to see where it got the name Beehive Cluster. The stars in this open star cluster actually appear to be moving like a swarm of bees buzzing around their beehive. [Feb]
Telescopes:
Almaach (Gamma Andromeda) - is the third brightest star in the constellation of Andromeda and the furthest East. It is a stunning coloured binary pair with one brighter golden yellow star next to a blue coloured fainter star. This is the Winter's equivalent of Albireo in Cygnus and some say that Almaach is actually brighter and prettier. [Nov]
Great Orion Nebula (M42) - the jewel in the winter sky lies in Orion. It will appear as a great big swirl of gas and dust in most telescopes. Larger aperture, longer focal length scopes will reveal hidden detail in the centre of the nebula, showing the Trapezium of hot young stars that were only formed about 300,000 years ago. On good clear nights the gas cloud can be seen sweeping around the Trapezium and looking quite like an angel fish. Some people claim to be able to make out a slight colour in the nebula in larger amateur scopes. [Dec]
The Crab Nebula (M1) - lies between the tips of the horns of Taurus and is the remnant of a supernova that was chronicled in 1054 by Chinese observers as the light from the titanic explosion first reached the Earth. M1 is the first entry in Messier's catalogue but it is one of the faintest and hardest to see. In scopes under 8inch aperture in semi-urban skies it is hardly visible. This is where an accurately aligned GOTO telescope can save hours of searching. Even then all of the tricks of the DSO observer's trade will be needed to see much. Larger scopes will reveal more detail but even with a 14inch scope, M1 will still appear very dim in all but the darkest of skies. [Dec]
Horsehead Nebula (B33) - this is an example of a dark nebula of gas and dust which lies in the line of sight of a bright emission nebula in Orion. It is so called as it looks like the head of a seahorse. The Horsehead is located just below the star Alnitak, which is at the East end of Orion's Belt. This can be very tricky to see by eye at a telescope and can require special filters applied to the eyepiece to make it stand out but long exposure photographs under clear skies can really show it up well, as shown below. [Dec]
Flame Nebula (NGC2024) - this nebula lies just to the East end of Orion's belt and can be seen together with the Horsehead in the image below. The Flame is an example of an emission nebula of hydrogen and dust that is being ionised by the intense ultra-violet radiation from Alnitak. This energy then gets re-radiated as light in the red end of the spectrum as the ionised hydrogen gas recombines with the liberated electrons. [Dec]
C30 or NGC7331 - is a relatively bright spiral galaxy in Pegasus in which the core of the galaxy appears to be rotating in the opposite direction to the disk although this can't be discerned visually. (Sept)
Eskimo or Clownface Nebula (C39 & NGC2392) - this is a planetary nebula in Gemini, which appears quite small but which has a striking resemblance to an eskimo's face with a parka hood around it. Due to its small size this is best observed when the seeing is good and steady so that a high magnification of up to two times the aperture in millimetres can be used. [Jan]
Leo Triplet (M65, M66 & NGC3628) - a cluster of three galaxies just below the star Chertan in the body of Leo. This triplet of galaxies can just be fitted into a single 1 degree field of view which can be achieved with a widefield eyepiece at a magnification of 90. M65 and M66 are easily seen but NGC3628 is fainter and is separated by about twice the distance, lying to the north of M65 and M66. [March]
Suggested Late Spring - Summer - Early Autumn DSO Observing
Naked Eye
Delphinus - a small dimmer constellation of 3rd magnitude stars does actually look like its namesake, a leaping dolphin. [Aug]
Double Double or Episilon Lyra - this is a pair of double stars orbiting a common centre of gravity in Lyra the two pairs can just about be split by the naked eye in very dark sky sites under extremely good seeing (apparently!). [Aug]
Milky Way - the band of faintly glowing light arching across the night sky is most easily seen during the Summer months from the UK. It is brightest as it passes through Cygnus on down into Sagittarius which is where the centre of our galaxy lies but much further away than the stars of Sagittarius. As the Milky Way passes through Cygnus it appears to split into two (The Cygnus Rift) which is actually only a visual result of interstellar dust and gas blocking our view of it. [Aug-Sept]
Milky Way - by sweeping across the band of the Milky Way with binoculars it becomes obvious that the white band across the sky, is caused by the light of millions upon millions of stars that are so dense and so far away that the unaided eye can't resolve them as individual stars. Using binoculars allows us to start to resolve them and as you sweep the binoculars across the band you see the field of view start to become completely filled by tiny pinpricks of light from the stars that lie in the disk of our own galaxy. [Aug-Sept]
Globular Cluster (M13 or NGC6205) - is just to the west of the line between the stars eta and zeta Herculis that make up the right side of the Keystone asterism. It lies about 1/3rd the way down from eta to zeta and is considered the best of all globular clusters. In binoculars it can be seen as a misty, fuzzy snowball, just like a comet which is why Messier catalogued it as something to be avoided. [June]
Double Double or Episilon Lyra - the widest pair of this four star system can be easily split using binoculars [Aug]
Albireo or Beta Cygni - is a beautiful double star which forms the beak of the swan Cygnus. It comprises a brighter yellow star contrasting against its slightly fainter blue companion. Albireo is also interesting for the fact that it is not the second brightest star in Cygnus (as would be assumed from its Beta classification) but is in fact only the fifth brightest. [Aug]
Coathanger Asterism - this asterism lies in Vulpecula. Once found it will never be forgotten as it fits within the field of view of a pair of 10 x 50 binoculars and looks exactly like an upside down coathanger. [Aug]
Globular Cluster (M15 or NGC7078) - is to the north-west of the star Enif which is the nostril of the upside-down winged horse Pegasus. It appears as a fuzzy snowball in binoculars. [Sept]
Whale Galaxy (C32 or NGC4631) - this galaxy has a large angular size and contains a central starburst, which is a region of intense star formation. [May]
Ring Nebula (M57) - is a bright planetary nebula that looks like a smoke ring or doughnut set against the blackness of space. Some say that they can see the central white dwarf star that is all that remains of the original star that puffed off its outer layers to form the Ring. This is an excellent target for beginners to image as it is relatively bright and shows beautiful colouring with a central blue region ending at the red and orange outer ring. Such photos definitely reveal the central white dwarf. [Jul]
Double Double or Epsilon Lyrae - splitting all four stars in this double, double star system is considered a good test of both the seeing conditions and the telescope's resolving power. They can be split using a 5inch telescope and show up as two sets of binary stars with the line between the two binary pairs lying at right angles to each other. Amazing when first observed and understood that each close binary pair orbit around themselves and then both binary pairs orbit around a common centre of mass. [Jul]
Albireo or Beta Cygni - is really a beautiful double star when viewed through a telescope. The two stars are bright yellow and blue which make a striking contrast. [Aug]
Dumbbell (M27) - is another planetary nebula which is larger and fainter than the Ring but can still be seen through medium sized telescopes. Some say that it looks more like an apple core than a dumbbell. [Aug]
Globular Cluster (M13 or NGC6205) - This globular cluster consists of over 300,000 stars closely bound together by their own mutual gravity. Moderate sized telescopes reveal a dense ball of stars that on good nights can be resolved almost to the centre. [Aug]
The above can only ever be an introduction to Deep Sky Observing and DSOs. Every astronomer has a different list of favourite DSOs and as you get more practiced you will develop a list of your own which will probably include one of the very first DSOs you ever observed. It is hoped that the above list will give you some ideas and the enthusiasm to get out under the night sky and enjoy Deep Sky Observing, it can be challenging but also very rewarding!
Recommended Further References
With all DSOs, knowing what you are looking at, adds to the enjoyment of the observing. However, try to observe the object first before looking at high resolution photos taken by the likes of the Hubble Space Telescope so as not to 'see' things that you can't possibly be seeing through your own equipment. Then read up about the object you have just observed from reference books and also Wikipedia but remember to always double check the facts from at least two different sources as they can sometimes be wrong!
Deep-Sky Companions: The Caldwell Objects and The Messier Objects by Stephen O'Meara. By using sketches, the author actually attempts to portray how these DSOs will look in amateur telescopes, albeit under pristine skies. These are good books to have with you at the telescope.
Collins Stars & Planets by Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion is a guide to stars, planets, galaxies and the Solar System. It includes all 88 modern constellations including those in the southern hemisphere.
One very good piece of free software is SkyTools-3 Starter Edition. This software will generate an observing list showing which Messier objects are best visible that night and takes into account the phase of the Moon etc. It will also rank the objects from easy to hard, through both binoculars and small telescopes. Purchase an upgrade to get many more object catalogues and larger telescopes included.
Article by Ian Hargraves


I recently heard the term "best of breed" used when discussing network vendor selection. I was surprised by this answer because you don't hear it too often. The more I thought about it, why not "best of breed" selection? My time as a network and infrastructure supervisor has taught me that a data center environment can be full of different compute and storage vendor products. Our SAN environment consists of Pure, Tegile, EMC, and even QNAP. Each product has its place. Pure serves the VDI environment, Tegile/EMC host production, and QNAP serves as a target for our Veeam backups. The team has also categorized and carved out each platform into tiered offerings.
On the other hand, network vendor selection tends to be biased. Typically you'll see one network vendor selected for the edge/access, distribution, and core. However, you will find a different wireless vendor from time to time.
We would like to interact with only one vendor for purchases and support.
ABC vendor only works well with a particular management tool.
I only know vendor ABC, and we don't have time to learn something new.
Did you hear that vendor ABC had an issue with XYZ product, I don't want those problems.
Everyone else uses vendor ABC.
No other vendor supports my VOIP feature set.
You can't do XYZ well or at all with any other vendor product.
I will say that there are a few use cases that keep you tied to a particular vendor that are listed above. However, what's the harm at looking into something new or trying something different? We shouldn't be afraid of learning new things. I've done comparisons, demo's, and have had to choose a different WAN router due to a lack of offerings before. Management tools can become a difficult topic for discussion, but networking gear tends to stick with long time veteran SNMP for management, so that opens up possibilities. Even Cumulus Networks, with all its automation buff, still provides legacy SNMP support. However, you wouldn't want to use SNMP for automation with Cumulus as that would defeat their main business case of choosing their product.
So why not design around different use cases?
So why not design around different use cases? If you need leaf/spine, don't build the traditional access/distribution/core. If you require a robust NAC solution, maybe Extreme Networks at the edge would be worth looking at instead of Cisco. If you require low latency, perhaps look into Arista or Mellanox. If you're in the service provider arena, Ciena may be worth looking into.
Being part of the networking field right now is a fun place to be. The variety of vendor selection creates some great competition and interesting niche feature sets. Be sure to highly consider sticking with open standards if you travel down the "best of breed" road. Just remember to embrace openness and have fun. And yes, Cisco and Juniper have their places as well.


Our favorite big red dog has lost his father. 'Clifford the Big Red Dog' creator Norman Bridwell died Friday in his home on Martha's Vineyard at the age of 86. Bridwell created his beloved four-legged pal more than 50 years ago in 1963, and he went on to write and illustrate more than 150 companion children's books. But his age never slowed him down, as Bridwell was set to release two new Clifford titles in 2015 — Clifford Goes to Kindergarten in May and Clifford Celebrates Hanukkah in October — and a movie based on his characters is in the works for 2016.
Currently, Scholastic counts more than 129 books in print in 13 languages, and of course there's also the Emmy-winning TV show based on the books.
Norman Bridwell's books about Clifford, childhood's most loveable dog, could only have been written by a gentle man with a great sense of humor ... Norman personified the values that we as parents and educators hope to communicate to our children – kindness, compassion, helpfulness, gratitude – through the Clifford stories which have been loved for more than fifty years.
Clifford himself is the official mascot of Scholastic.
Our giant four-legged friend and his companion Emily Elizabeth — the name of Bridwell and his wife Norma's now adult daughter — had a lot of adventures together through the years. The red dog was Emily Elizabeth's birthday present, and if you recall, he didn't start off so big. He was a teeny tiny dog, small enough to sleep in a shoe box.
The magic of the character and stories Norman created with Clifford is that children can see themselves in this big dog who tries very hard to be good, but is somewhat clumsy and always bumping into things and making mistakes. What comforts the reader is that Clifford is always forgiven by Emily Elizabeth, who loves him unconditionally.
And as us bookworms know, Clifford was also all about reading. In fact, he made a pretty good reading nook himself.
Last year for Clifford's 50th birthday, Scholastic talked to Bridwell about his creation.
Norman, you will be sorely missed.


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Cover Reveal – Every Little Thing by Samantha Young
August 8, 2016 by Jaime Leave a Comment
We are so excited to be part of the cover reveal for EVERY LITTLE THING by New York Times bestselling author, Samantha Young! The second book in the new Hart's Boardwalk series returns to the picturesque Delaware beachside town for another heartfelt and sexy story…
Hartwell, Delaware—the perfect place to get away from it all, and find what you never knew you needed…
Bailey Hartwell has many reasons to feel content—her successful business, a close circle of friends, and her steady boyfriend…even if their romance feels staid after ten years without a serious commitment. The only challenge in her life comes in the form of sexy businessman Vaughn Tremaine. She thinks the ex-New Yorker acts superior and that he considers her a small-town nobody. But when Bailey's blindsided by a betrayal, she's shocked to discover Vaughn is actually a decent guy.
Vaughn admires Bailey's free spirit, independence, and loyalty. As his passion for her has grown, his antagonism toward her has only worsened. Every little thing Bailey does seduces him. But when Vaughn's painful emotional past makes him walk away in fear he will hurt her, it opens an old wound in Bailey, and she uncharacteristically retreats.
Once Vaughn begins to realize he's made the biggest mistake of his life, he has no choice but to fight like he's never fought before to convince Bailey that the love they've found together only comes around once in a lifetime.
We can't wait for Bailey and Vaughn's story! But in the meantime, we're looking forward to the first book, The One Real Thing, that goes on sale September 6th! Pre-order the first book in the Hart's Boardwalk series today!
Welcome to Hartwell, a quiet seaside escape where uncovering old secrets could lead one woman to discover the meaning of a love that lasts…
While Doctor Jessica Huntington engages with the inmates at the women's correctional facility where she works, she's always careful to avoid emotional attachments in her personal life. Loss and betrayal taught her that lesson long ago. But when she comes across a set of old love letters in the prison's library and visits the picturesque town of Hartwell to deliver them to their intended recipient, she finds herself unable to resist the town's charm—and her attraction to the sexy owner of a local bar proves equally hard to deny.
Since his divorce from his unfaithful ex-wife, Cooper Lawson has focused on what really matters: his family and the boardwalk pub they've owned for generations. But the first time Jessica steps into his bar, Cooper is beyond tempted to risk his heart on her.
Yet as their attraction grows hotter and Jessica remains stubbornly closed off, he begins to realize it will take more than just passion to convince her there's only one real thing in life worth fighting for…
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About Samantha Young
Samantha Young is the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of adult contemporary romances, including the On Dublin Street series and Hero, as well as the New Adult duology Into the Deep and Out of the Shallows. Every Little Thing, the second book in her new Hart's Boardwalk series, will be published by Berkley in March 2017. Before turning to contemporary fiction, she wrote several young adult paranormal and fantasy series, including the amazon bestselling Tale of Lunarmorte trilogy. Samantha's debut YA contemporary novel The Impossible Vastness of Us will be published by Harlequin TEEN in ebook & hardback June 2017
Samantha has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award 2012 for Best Author and Best Romance for On Dublin Street, Best Romance 2014 for Before Jamaica Lane, and Best Romance 2015 for Hero. On Dublin Street, a #1 bestseller in Germany, was the Bronze Award Winner in the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2013, Before Jamaica Lane the Gold Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2014 and Echoes of Scotland Street the Bronze Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2015.
Samantha is currently published in 30 countries and is a #1 international bestselling author.
Spiral of Bliss Series by Nina Lane
Cover Reveal: Long Way Home by Katie McGarry
Cover Reveal: Beyond Pain by Kit Rocha
Cover Reveal – Fall of Poppies Stories of Love & The Great War
Cover Reveal: The Left Side of Perfect & The Right Side of Forever by Meghan Quinn
Filed Under: Cover Reveal
About Jaime
Avid reader and book blogger, lover of music, writing, my kid & my cats. Master of sarcasm and snark and doing what makes me happy.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I disabled HA on all my clusters to delete the datastore. It was locked because of HA datastore heartbeat.
what command will work in ESXi 5.5?
the above command does not work in ESXi 5.5.
I got the same error, powered off, deleted and removed the vms resided on DS from inventory and DS disappeared.


A) Work up to 4RM for 4 sets across.
B) Add 10% of your 1RM to the weight used for A and perform 1 set of 2 reps.
C) Add another 10% of your 1RM to the weight used for B and perform 1 set of 2 reps.
Close grip bench press: Work up to 6RM for 3 sets across.
2 count pause squats: Work up to 2RM for 2 sets across.
Grip work of choice: 10 minutes.
Deadlift should be touch and go for the sets of 4. Aim to make these 5kg heavier than last week. They can be dropped and reset for the sets of 2. They should be dropped and reset for the set of 10.
Close grip bench press should be touch and go. They should be taken up to a weight you know you will be able to perform with near perfect form for all six sets.
Pause squats should be taken up to a solid double. You should feel like you could do another rep. Use this weight again for the second set. Go heavier than week 1, day 2.
Grip work should be broken down into suitable sets and performed as continuously as possible for ten minutes.


Robert W. Warnement focuses his practice on energy regulatory, energy transactional and project finance matters.
Mr. Warnement's transactional experience includes representations of utilities, merchant power and other energy-related clients in a wide range of transactions, including mergers, acquisitions and restructurings; assets sales (representing buyers and sellers in the transfer of all types of generating facilities (including nuclear)); auctions; spin-offs; the formation of joint ventures and joint ownership arrangements; power sales and hedge arrangements; and operating arrangements.
a merchant generator and public pension fund in the acquisition of renewable generation asset portfolios.
USEC in the development and negotiation of various nuclear fuel cycle related contracts, including USEC's model uranium enrichment supply contract.
Mr. Warnement's regulatory experience works synergistically with his transactional practice. He frequently counsels clients on the regulatory implications of various transactions and assists them in obtaining approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Wisconsin Electric Power Company before FERC in its sale of the Point Beach Nuclear facility and the return of retained decommissioning funds to its customers.
Mr. Warnement also has represented Toshiba Corporation before the NRC in its acquisition of Westinghouse Electric Company and its nuclear reactor design and fuel business; and Energias de Portugal before FERC in its purchase of Horizon Wind Energy LLC.
Before finishing law school and joining Skadden, Mr. Warnement was a U.S. Naval officer assigned to the headquarters of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, a unique joint program between the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Energy. While there, he served as a nuclear engineer responsible for overseeing the design, manufacture, maintenance and development of test, operating and maintenance procedures for various submarine reactor plant fluid systems. In addition, toward the end of his service, he also served as a special assistant to the deputy director, responsible for congressional and public affairs, classification and technology policy, and special projects.


The results of the class XII (ISC) and class X (ICSE) examinations were announced on Friday.
Students from the state have come up trumps in the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), with an overall pass percentage higher than the national average.
However, the overall pass percentage of the state for class XII examination has decreased from 99.70 % last year to 99.35 % this year.
However, class X examination results show a slight increase from 99.89 % last year to 99.93 % this year.
The national average for class X exams is 98.50 % and class XII exams is 96.46%.


Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC New Job Circular 2018 has published by the authority. Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC has published job circular on 01 categorizes post. It's a lucrative job circular and it's great chance to get job for employment people. This job is perfect to build up a good career. Those,who want to work,they should be taken out of this opportunity. Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC is a renowned Foreign private bank in Bangladesh.


text:
« Richard Epstein's Mistakes | Main | Clifford v. Davidson & Cohen »
SCOTUS Term: Hughes v. United States and Federal Sentencing
On June 4, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Hughes v. United States. Many law professors were watching Hughes because it promised to revisit the rule from Marks v. United States about how lower courts ought to treat fractured decisions from the Court. Even though Hughes proved to be a disappointment to those who are interested in Marks and fractured opinions, it is still interesting for those of us who follow federal sentencing. That is because Hughes marks another episode in the continuing saga about how to treat the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
As many of you know, Congress adopted the Federal Sentencing Guidelines in the mid-1980s in an effort to make sentencing more uniform and less lenient. Although called "guidelines," the Federal Sentencing Guidelines imposed mandatory rules on federal judges about the sentences that they could imposed based on various facts involving particular defendants and their crimes. This mandatory system endured for decades until 2005, when the Court decided in Booker v. United States that the factfinding in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines violated the Sixth Amendment jury trial right. Although Booker concluded that the mandatory federal guidelines violated the Sixth Amendment, five members of the Court attempted to retain some role for Guidelines by declaring that they could continue to operate as "advisory Guidelines." In the decade since Booker, the Supreme Court has failed to articulate clearly what it means for sentencing law to be "advisory." Instead, it has delivered a series of opinions that alternatively venerate the Guidelines as fundamental features of every federal sentencing proceeding, and insist that the Guidelines are nothing more than advice that district courts are free to disregard.
For example, in Peugh v. United States the government had argued that the prohibition on ex post facto laws ought not apply to the advisory federal guidelines. According to the government, after Booker, federal guidelines "are just one among many persuasive sources a sentencing court can consult, no different from a 'policy paper.'" But the Peugh Court rejected this characterization of the guidelines. It characterized the Guidelines as "framework for sentencing," and it said that the post-Booker system is "intended to make the Guidelines the lodestone of sentencing" by "impos[ing] a series of requirements on sentencing courts that cabin the exercise of [their sentencing] discretion."
The Court made a series of pro-Guidelines statements in Molina-Martinez v. United States as well. Specifically it suggested that trial judges need not make an independent judgment about the appropriate sentence, but rather may impose Guideline sentences without reflection. "District courts, as a matter of course, use the Guidelines range to instruct them regarding the appropriate balance of the relevant federal sentencing factors." This language seems inconsistent with a 2009 case, Nelson v. United States, the Supreme Court held that a district court may not presume that a Guidelines sentence is reasonable, but instead court must engage in their own independent balancing of the § 3553(a) factors.
While Peugh and Molina-Martinez suggest that the Federal Sentencing Guidelines are more than merely "advice," last Term, the Court suggested the opposite. In Beckles v. United States, the Court addressed whether the post-Booker Guidelines are subject to challenge under the void-for-vagueness doctrine. In an opinion by Justice Thomas, the Court said they were not, in part because:
The Guidelines thus continue to guide district courts in exercising their discretion by serving as "the framework for sentencing," Peugh v. United States, 569 U.S. ––––, ––––, 133 S.Ct. 2072, 2083, 186 L.Ed.2d 84 (2013), but they "do not constrain th[at] discretion," id., at ––––, 133 S.Ct., at 2089 (THOMAS, J., dissenting).
Because they merely guide the district courts' discretion, the Guidelines are not amenable to a vagueness challenge.
(You'll note that Justice Thomas had to rely from language in one of his own dissents for the idea that the "advisory" Guidelines don't constrain judges' sentencing discretion.)
I had been waiting to see whether the Court would take that language from Beckles seriously. Hughes answers that question. This is Justice Kennedy's majority opinion in Hughes:
[T]his Court's precedents since Freeman have further confirmed that the Guidelines remain the foundation of federal sentencing decisions. In Peugh v. United States, 569 U.S. 530, 133 S.Ct. 2072, 186 L.Ed.2d 84 (2013), for example, the Court held that the Ex Post Facto Clause prohibits retroactive application of amended Guidelines that increase a defendant's sentencing range. Id., at 544, 133 S.Ct. 2072. The Court reasoned that, Booker notwithstanding, the Guidelines remain "the lodestone of sentencing." 569 U.S., at 544, 133 S.Ct. 2072. And in Molina–Martinez, the Court held that in the ordinary case a defendant suffers prejudice from a Guidelines error because of "the systemic function of the selected Guidelines range." 578 U.S., at ––––, 136 S.Ct., at 1346.
Not only did Hughes ignore the inconsistency between Peugh/Molina-Martinez and Beckles, it ignored Beckles altogether. Beckles isn't mentioned at all in the majority opinion.
One irony of the opinion in Hughes is that it said the decision was necessary to resolve a split in the circuits. Because the Guidelines exist in order to promote uniformity, the Court did not want inconsistent circuit court decisions to result in non-uniform treatment of defendants who had pleaded guilty. But the retreat to Peugh/Molina-Martinez and refusal to acknowledge Beckles are symptoms of a bigger problem that has caused far more sentencing inconsistency across the country. By failing to explain what "advisory" Guidelines actually are, and by making inconsistent statements about the role of the Guidelines at sentencing, the Court has left sentencing law ambiguous. As a result, there are some circuits that routinely affirm sentences outside the Guidelines, and others that police them closely. It is ironic that the Court wants to keep some role for the Federal Sentencing Guidelines in order to promote sentencing uniformity, but in failing to explain what that role is, the Court has created pervasive inconsistencies in sentencing law across the country.
Posted by Carissa Byrne Hessick on June 6, 2018 at 04:00 PM in 2018 End of Term, Carissa Byrne Hessick, Criminal Law | Permalink
Thanks for that interesting ruling . But the issue in that ruling it seems , is different from what has been presented in the post . For in that ruling, the issue stood on very specific type of plea bargain , and it is the so called : " Type – C agreement " . Now , according to the majority , such type of agreement , is eligible for re –sentencing , but , not according to the dissenting opinions , here I quote :
The Type-C agreement, and not the Guidelines calculation that preceded its acceptance, forms the basis for the sentence.
Here the sentence that petitioner Hughes received "turned on" the agreement, not the Guidelines or anything else….
End of quotation :
As such , the majority on one hand , thinks , that since the agreement was based on range and guidelines , it is eligible for re – sentencing , while the minority , thinks , that it is based upon agreement , not range or guidelines .
However, out of the range , doesn't necessarily suggests that the system lacks uniformity . for in that case for example , the agreement itself , indicates far greater lower sentence than the possible range , here I quote :
In exchange for the certainty of a binding 180-month sentence, the Government not only dropped additional charges against Hughes, but also promised not to pursue a recidivist enhancement that would have imprisoned him for life.
Sometimes , agreements , or particular case , may deviate from the range , due to particular circumstances . That doesn't indicate necessarily lack of uniformity. For , if reasoning given , are clear and consistent ,it may hold.
Posted by: El roam | Jun 6, 2018 6:24:46 PM


My illustration of Timbers' mascot, Joey, is now on display and for sale at The Talisman Gallery. It was selected as one of the many Timbers-related art pieces to be displayed during the 2013 Portland Timbers Kit unveiling ceremony.
If you are local, head on over to 1476 NE Alberta St, Portland OR, 97211 to check it out!
Joey will be on display until March 23rd, 2013.
Timbers Joey goes to the Game!


text:
PCMag India Computers & Electronics Networking
Inside the Dark Web
The Dark Web is supposed to be the Internet's seedy back alley. But the real Dark Web is a lot more complicated than that. From TOR to the Silk Road and beyond, we investigate.
By Max Eddy
Feb. 4, 2015, 6:30 p.m.
Nonprofit Behind Tor Browser Cuts Staff, Citing COVID-19 Impact Google: We're Blocking 18 Million COVID-19 Phishing Emails a Day Login Credentials for Over 500,000 Zoom Accounts on Sale Via the Dark Web Google Pulls SuperVPN From the Play Store, Users Urged to Delete It Google Bans Zoom's Desktop Client From Running on Employee Computers
If our popular culture is to be believed, most people assume there's a place online where the worst of the headlines you read about drugs, money laundering, murder for hire, and vast child pornography rings are born. It's called many things, though "Dark Web" is the most dramatic.
Although it's true that this Dark Web exists, it's much larger and more diverse than merely these illegal activities. What's more, the same technology that makes it possible for such marketplaces to operate in secret is also protecting political dissidents overseas and hiding everyday Internet traffic from surveillance. It may be that this digital back alley is the path toward a more secure Internet.
The World of Webs
Most people take the Internet at face value, but what most of us interact with is really just a slice of the information available called the Surface Web. To get to the Dark Web we have to go deeper, away from the world of standard Web addresses and onto the anonymity network called Tor. When you click on a link in Google, you're connected with the target information fairly directly. Someone accessing the same site while connected through Tor would have their request bounced randomly through volunteer computers called nodes before exiting Tor and arriving at the site, making their online movements much harder to track.
Tor can be used to access sites on the Surface Web, but servers can also be assigned special addresses that can only be reached within the Tor network. These are called hidden services, and when we're talking about the Dark Web, we're mostly talking about these sites. Of course, there are other services to hide online activity and even host hidden websites, but Tor is perhaps the most well known and well established.
Surprisingly, the onion routing protocol that powers Tor was originally developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. Tor is now a volunteer-run nonprofit operation, but it makes no secret of its roots. A page on Tor's history reads: "[Onion routing] was originally developed with the U.S. Navy in mind, for the primary purpose of protecting government communications. Today, it is used every day for a wide variety of purposes by normal people, the military, journalists, law enforcement officers, activists, and many others."
Among those "others" are some of the Internet's ne'er-do-wells. Some malware authors, for example, have used Tor to hide communication with their creations. The anonymization of the Tor network is also attractive for people carrying out illicit online activities, such as selling and purchasing illegal merchandise. When you read about illegal websites selling drugs, weapons, and child pornography, it's a safe bet that those websites are hosted within Tor.
The Bad Dark Web
"A few years ago, if you tried to browse the Internet through Tor, it would be a very slow and very painful experience," says Kaspersky researcher Stefan Tanase (pictured). As is often the case with digital security experts, speaking with Tanase and his fellow Kaspersky associate Sergey Lozhkin required a phone call from the PC Magazine office in New York to Bucharest and Moscow. That part of the world produces huge amounts of spam, malware, and cyberattacks, but just so happens to also produce some of the best minds in digital security in almost equal proportions.
Tanase and Lozhkin have a unique perspective on the hidden ecosystem of the Dark Web. Although the Surface Web has search engines to index its contents and connections, there was no map of the Dark Web on Tor. Tanase and Lozhkin set out to create one.
"We started with a list of known hidden websites hosted within [Tor], so we've been crawling, accessing these websites and looking for links to other websites," says Tanase, describing their process of mimicking Google's approach in mapping the Surface Web. Though the number of hidden services on Tor is relatively small compared with the Internet at large (Tanase describes it as containing "thousands but not tens of thousands of websites"), the researchers say the Dark Web will remain a bit of a mystery, even after their explorations.
"There are a number of sites that go offline every day and some that are available for months or weeks," says Lozhkin. "In the next few hours, the sites with the same content can be available on a completely different address." The relative difficulty in simply finding hidden services, in addition to the anonymity provided by Tor, feeds the Dark Web's aura of mystery. Not to mention the exclusivity of its illegal offerings.
But even that's changing. These days, you can download a specially modified Web browser from Tor that requires little to no technical know-how to use. The Dark Web is nearing drag-and-drop simplicity. There's even an officially supported Android client you can use to access Tor on the go. Using tactics similar to those of the Kaspersky researchers, search engines have begun to appear within the Dark Web over the last year or two. "They're like Google," says Lozhkin. "Search whatever you like. I dunno, malware, drugs, stuff like this, and get links right away."
This is what most people imagine the Dark Web to be: an electronic black market where anything is available. And the researchers I spoke with confirm that all that—and worse—is available on websites hidden within Tor. Drugs, guns, and even rhinoceros horn are for sale on the Dark Web, but those still require the physical exchange of goods. The Dark Web is, without question, far more dangerous when it comes to easily distributing illegal digital material, such as child pornography. In 2011, the Dark Web child pornography marketplace Lolita City made headlines when activists from Anonymous knocked the site offline and released information about its patrons. At the time, it was reported that the site hosted more than 100GB of sexual images of children as young as toddlers. When Eric Eoin Marques, the operator of a Tor-based webhosting service called Freedom Hosting (which hosted Lolita City and was also attacked by Anonymous), was arrested in 2013, the Irish newspaper The Independent wrote that Marques' customers used the service to share "graphic images [depicting] the rape and torture of prepubescent children."
Continue Reading: How Can You Fight What You Can't See?
How Can You Fight What You Can't See?
Andrew Conway works for Cloudmark, an antispam company that serves more than 120 major communications providers including AT&T, Verizon, Swisscom, Comcast, Cox, and NTT. When I met with Conway, he was sporting a denim outfit and white leather vest, complete with bolo tie. It's an outfit befitting his job, where he and his coworkers go toe-to-toe technologically with the criminal networks behind spam operations. He understands criminal networks, and how money flows through these groups.
Though he was dressed like a cowboy, Conway spoke with a gentle British accent. We discussed how the U.S. law enforcement managed to take down the black market website Silk Road. It was the embodiment of the Dark Web myth: a place where a few bitcoins could get you a fake ID, heroin, or even (allegedly) an assassin.
Silk Road, which was hosted as a hidden service within Tor, vanished from the Internet in October 2013, and its alleged operator, Ross William Ulbricht (who operated the site under the name The Dread Pirate Roberts), was arrested in short order. It's surprising, because the site appeared bulletproof for so long. Conway isn't so surprised the site has vanished. "There are many nation-states or individuals who have the resources to bring Tor down for a limited period, and quite a few who could do it permanently," he says. "Eventually one of them will get annoyed enough by something that Tor is doing and take action against it."
Lozhkin says that in the case of Silk Road and its successor, Silk Road 2, law enforcement probably didn't find a secret weakness within Tor. "They didn't do anything with the Tor network or architecture," he says. Rather, the Feds likely got what they needed from undercover agents.
Or maybe loose lips sank Silk Road's ship. The owners of Tor nodes, says Lozhkin, sometimes chat on hidden forums. "These guys, they like to talk, and what they talk can be used against them," he says. It's worth noting that, as of this writing, another spinoff of Silk Road called Silk Road Reloaded has reportedly appeared on an anonymous network called I2P.
"All the Tor nodes are simple websites, and every website can have a vulnerability," Lozhkin explains. "If the law enforcement find a [vulnerability] they can easily exploit it to get inside the server. If you get access to the server side you can easily identify its location."
In the case of Silk Road, sloppy mistakes almost certainly played a part. Tanase says Silk Road's operator was managing the server from an Internet café and connecting to that server directly, not through Tor. Ironically, these are the kind of simple mistakes that criminals frequently exploit in order to attack companies and individuals.
However law enforcement identifies the server hosting hidden, law-breaking websites, the next course of action is to physically take control of the server. "They usually get the warrant for monitoring the server first and try to extract the information from the server when it's still live to track the criminals," says Tanase. Does this mean that at least some percentage of illegal hidden websites is being operated by law enforcement? "Nobody knows," he says. "I'm always wondering if they're actually sellers [running the sites] or if it's a trap set up by law enforcement.
"But this is why services like Silk Road become so popular; they're like eBay of the [Dark] Web, and offer users the chance to give reputation to each other," Tanase continues. "Law enforcement has to work quite a lot of infiltrate these markets and achieve reputation."
Of course, there are far more exotic attacks to use to expose the machines serving up hidden websites within Tor. Tanase says that if a single entity were in control of the bulk of the Tor nodes, they could trace traffic through the whole system. "No malicious actor or agency can do this, but the more nodes you can monitor, the greater the chances," says Tanase. As of this writing, there appear to be approximately 6,500 Tor nodes.
Tanase and Lozhkin describe an even more audacious scheme to locate hidden services on Tor. It would require selecting all the IP addresses in a certain range—say, all the IP addresses within a country—and methodically flooding them with fake requests in a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. While that's going on, the attackers would carefully monitor the status of a hidden Tor website. When it went down or experienced a noticeable spike in traffic, they'd know they've hit on the right group of IP addresses.
All the attacker would need is some hint as to where the server might be located in order to begin the attack. That's exactly the kind of information that could be obtained from an undercover agent, or from stalking hidden forums where Deep Web operators chat. Pulling off attacks like this would require vast resources and the will to break into Tor. Conspiracy theorists can fill in their favorite nation-state or three-letter agency of choice. Of course, that assumes that whoever would attack Tor would allow it to survive.
To actually bring down Tor, Conway says he'd expect to see a large-scale DDoS attack against the few Tor nodes that exit back to the Surface Web. "As of this morning there are only 1,199 of them, and many are on consumer networks," he tells me. "A DDoS attack on those IP addresses from the regular Internet, without using Tor at all, would limit the ability of Tor traffic to pass through those nodes and render the Tor network unusable."
Even Tor has seemed dim on the future of hidden services. After the U.S. government seized and shuttered more than 400 websites (including Silk Road 2) in "Operation Onymus," an article appeared on the Tor blog that read, "In a way, it's even surprising that hidden services have survived so far. The attention they have received is minimal compared to their social value and compared to the size and determination of their adversaries."
The Good Dark Web
Those adversaries include law enforcement, but not always the kind that's involved in busting drug rings or prosecuting human traffickers. It's spies, the nation-states they work for, and the increasingly capable electronic expressions of force available to those states. That's because the same protection Tor provides to criminals can also be used to circumvent censors and nationally imposed restrictions on the Web.
Though it's U.S. law enforcement that most recently gutted Tor's hidden services, various branches of the federal government and DoD continue to support Tor financially. In 2014 it received funds from the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, and the National Science Foundation. Previous donors include the Naval Research Laboratory and DARPA. It's clear that the U.S. government still sees value in Tor, no doubt in supporting this country's continued stated mission to promote free speech (and dissent) abroad. It's also possible that it's a handy, free, off-the-shelf tool for intelligence agents.
"One mark of human progress is the weight given to human rights," Conway tells me, citing Article 19 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which describes the right to the freedom of opinion and the expression of those opinions, as well as the right to seek and receive information. "Yet for much of the world's population, the right to seek, receive, and impart information is seriously impaired. Tor is helping to support a basic human right. Many of our basic rights can be abused, but that abuse does not justify taking the right away from everyone."
I hear much the same thing from Tanase: "You cannot ignore the good users because there's some bad users." The Dark Web, he explains, supports a surprisingly diverse ecosystem of websites. "Online stores that are selling drugs or guns, personal websites, and just simple services that are providing secure communications."
Tanase continues, "Like any technology out there, Tor is double-edged sword. It has its good parts and its worst parts. It's up to us, security researchers, to try to clean it up, right? To make sure it's only being used for good stuff."
Continue Reading: A GNU Dark Web>
A GNU Dark Web
Without a doubt, 2014 was a banner year for terrifying digital security headlines. Concerns about NSA surveillance dominated public discussions for months, massive data breaches shocked and titillated the public, and the argument over net neutrality continued in a stymied U.S. Congress.
These are engineering, not political, problems for security researcher Christian Grothoff (pictured). He hopes to correct them with GNUnet, which he began in 2001 as a free-software, volunteer project to create secure peer-to-peer networking. Like Tor, it's designed with security and anonymity in mind; but unlike Tor, it does not require the underlying architecture of the Internet (TCP/IP) to function. TCP/IP lets anyone with the know-how inspect much of users' traffic, and it relies on central authorities such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which manages the Domain Name System. Because GNUnet offers a secure alternative to these services, it's easy to understand why Grothoff says it could "effectively reenvision the Internet."
"Explain to me, why does an IP packet have to have the source IP in the packet? To route it, we only need the destination," says Grothoff. "In Tor, we can bounce it around. Or we could have new protocol where it's already encrypted."
Grothoff says GNUnet is a mesh network where individuals use privacy-preserving name resolution instead of DNS lookups for greater security without the need for central authority. By its nature, it should resist the kind of widespread surveillance the NSA has been accused of, and prevent governments from being able to segment the Internet. In other words, GNUnet is dark from the start.
"It is not enough to anonymize the access; we have to decentralize the application logic of how and where we store data," says Grothoff. For him, GNUnet is the next stage of the Internet, and he invokes the military-funded pre-Internet computer network when describing it. "Like ARPANET, except secure and for civil society."
Grothoff has a healthy respect for Tor, which he regards as the best tool for people with an urgent need for anonymity today. But Tor, Grothoff says, is a bolt-on solution for an Internet whose structure does not take privacy into account.
"We used to say we need to write laws to reflect our ethics," Grothoff says. "These days, code is the law. That's an old quote by now. When we write code, we should write code that is ethical, and writing code is an engineering issue.
"My goal is to build, engineer, deploy a network where the technology reflects what a broad number of people can get behind," he continues. Grothoff says that, despite being in the works for more than a dozen years, GNUnet is still only for geeks right now. Although he certainly believes in the project, he has no illusions about its complexity. "We have made some progress but it's still not usable for most users, and I know that. There's some really hard issues remaining. I don't have all the answers today, but I have some good answers."
Should We Make the Web Go Dark?
In the process of writing this piece, I did traverse the Dark Web. I beheld the smoking ruins of Silk Road—now just a placeholder image left by U.S. law enforcement officials. I've seen a site that promises to kill the person of my choice for a few thousand dollars. I've priced out automatic weapons in bitcoins. I've seen links that seemed to promise underage pornography (but I didn't click on any of them).
It's disgusting, but a lot of it is elusive. Most of the links are dead, and many of the sites I can visit don't inspire the same kind of confidence that eBay or Amazon do. Though there's something spooky about the matter-of-factness of a site that claims to offer murder at reasonable rates, I don't know if any of this is real. Accessing a website that is only viewable while my traffic is bounced around doesn't necessarily mean that the site's owners—if they exist—can follow through on their promises.
What's more, the Surface Web isn't exactly a paragon of upstanding behavior. A cursory Google search will reveal thousands of sites devoted to violent and racist causes. It's almost impossible to visit a website without advertisers collecting your data, and loading a legitimate website can trigger the download of malicious software. That's not to mention mass surveillance from nations like the U.S., or countrywide censorship like what's seen in China or Iran.
That makes me wonder what the Internet would be like if it were more like the Dark Web. Our Web would, at least in theory, be free from state-sponsored censorship and more secure by design. A lot of what we take for granted in our current economy—the passive gathering of personal data by companies for profit, for example—would vanish. But capitalism adapts. So does law enforcement, as Silk Road demonstrated.
The Internet as we know it now is a far cry from the simple collection of labs and universities that were first linked together in ARPANET, but the underlying technology isn't so different. Reinventing the Web as a tool for communication, but also one with built-in privacy, doesn't seem like such a bad idea in today's world, where the Web plays as much a role in defining us as our jobs and haircuts.
Perhaps it's not surprising that, in this environment, Tor and the Dark Web are growing. The number of volunteer nodes through which Tor traffic is routed has steadily increased. When I ask Tanase if he thinks Tor and the Dark Web will ever eclipse the Surface Web in size, he says it's very unlikely but then adds, "Never say never. People want it."
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About Max Eddy
Max Eddy is a Software Analyst, taking a critical eye to Android apps and security services. He's also PCMag's foremost authority on weather stations and digital scrapbooking software. When not polishing his tinfoil hat or plumbing the depths of the Dark Web, he can be found working to discern the 100 Best Android Apps.
Prior to PCMag, Max wrote for the International Digital Times, The International Science Times, and The Mary Sue. He has also been known to write for Geek.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @wmaxeddy.
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Rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis are diseases affecting joints. Both cause inflammations in synovial joints, such as hands, wrist and feet, resulting in loss of cartilage and bone erosion.
Patients experience this as pain and stiffness in the affected joints.
Disease progression is currently measured using X-ray images of affected joints. Rheumatologists and radiologists evaluate using a semi quantitative scoring based on visual assessment of radiographs. Joint spaces are measured in order to gain insight in cartilage loss and erosions are (visually) detected.
It is preferable to use objective automatic assessment of disease progression. The methods described in literature describe partially automated measurement of the joint space.
Kauffman developed a semi-automatic joint segmentation and joint space width measurement. This method has been redesigned for foot radiographs. The segmentation system used connected active appearance models of the bones. The system is able to detect a large variety of hands and feet on radiographs. Also, a method for erosion visualization was developed.
This research evaluates the visual scoring method to automated assessment of joint damage in RA. The aim is to develop automated methods to measure joint damage with a higher sensitivity to change compared to the currently used scoring method. Furthermore, the aim is to show the relevance of the system for research as well as clinical use.
- What is the minimal size of an erosion to be detected?
We are always looking for motivated students (BSc or MSC); just send an email to o.schenk@utwente.nl and we can discuss the possibilities for an assignment!
Click here for a movie about hand-segmentation.
Click here for a movie about foot-segmentation.


I recently discussed my sewer bill with the Richmond Sanitary District. I live in the Buckholtz addition where we have no city water. We get our water from private wells.
I was informed that our sewer bills are based on an estimate of 5,000 gallons that they say we dump into their sewer each month. Most of the 42 homes in this addition have only two people living in them, and a few have only one person.
I have checked with two families who have city water, which I'm told is how the Sanitary District figures the sewer bills, by checking the amount of water used. One family with two in the household used a little more than 2,500 gallons, and the other family, which has two adults and three children, used 3,500 gallons.
I have lived in this division for 42 years and I estimate I have probably overpaid approximately $2,000. I have contacted my council member in this matter, but so far I have not heard from him.
If your sewer bill says "unmetered" on it, you are most likely paying too much, also. I don't mind paying my fair share, but I do resent paying too much. Let us all pay an equal share.
Companies invest in new equipment for many reasons. 1. Increased sales revenues based on improved productivity. 2. Improved quality. 3. Improved employee safety with fewer lost worker days. 4. Access to new markets. 5. Reduced labor cost because of greater thru-put. 6. Reduced cost in maintaining new equipment. 7. Reduced downtime for equipment maintenance. 8. Reduced energy cost due to more efficient equipment. 9. Reduced lead times.
The above benefits contribute to increased profits and provide a great deal of incentive for companies to make investments in capital equipment. City leaders believe that the above incentives alone are inadequate to encourage investment and have devised abatement plans to further reward companies. These abatements continue to negatively impact much needed revenue, which leads to the gutting or underfunding of vital government services. Given the ease with which tax abatements are granted, these companies would be guilty of ignoring their fiduciary responsibilities if they failed to squeeze every dollar that council dangles in front of them. And so, it becomes a race to the bottom with each city, each county, each state competing against other cities, counties and states by offering more and more tax incentives.
Political scientist Michael Parenti writes that "the essence of democracy isn't trust. It's distrust, it's accountability, it's exposure, it's challenge, it's debate." Perhaps we need to ask city leaders to explain why after more than 30 years of tax abatements, Wayne County's median household income ranks 88th among Indiana's 92 counties.
In a recent speech in Pennsylvania, Joe Biden referenced Trump, saying that in the past, there has been "... an invisible moral fabric that held our society together." That fabric has now been ripped to shreds. Trump exhibits no morals, no integrity, no honesty; this, compounded by conflicts-of-interest somewhere between his secret tax returns and he and his son-in-law's interactions with Russia and other foreign entities. And, as an immature narcissist, Trump is emotionally/psychologically bankrupt.
Who supports this person? 1). People who get their "news" from Fox or from social media; 2). Ultra-rich people who couldn't care less about "regular" people. 3). Those who share Trump's hateful prejudices/mockery against: A.) the physically-handicapped; B). Gold Star families; (C); former prisoners-of-war; D). Native Americans, and E). Anyone whose gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity differs from his.
We have two choices: 1). USA annexed by Russia; or 2). Impeachment.


The table saw is a piece of equipment needed on almost every work site, but they can be difficult to move around the rough terrain of a job site and once in position time consuiming to relocate. The Bosch 4100-09 can remove many of the problems of transporting a table saw and moving it around a job site, built to be both tough and lightweight the 4100 guarantees perfect cuts and durability over many years and different jobs.
In total, the Bosch 4100 weighs in at just over 124 pounds, making this one of the lightest professional standard table saw and stand combinations available. Built from aluminum, the saw and accompanying stand are designed to be lightweight and tough, with the 39 pound stand including eight inch treaded wheels to make moving the saw around a job site as easy as possible. Bosch has also created simple to use gravity rise technology for the stand, which simplifies the process of raising and lowering the table saw for set up and take down. Once lowered on the gravity rise stand this lightweight saw in the classic blue color of the Bosch corporation can be stored easily at just 29 x 21.5 inches in diameter.
Despite its lightweight nature, the 4100 packs a powerful punch, with the power to cut through the majority of stock up to 25 inches in width. The powerful 15 amp motor produces four horsepower to turn the ten inch blade at a top speed of 3,650 rpm. Technological advances on this Bosch product include power management applications, which allow the saw to maintain a constant speed during each cut and lower the amount of power used when not in use. To increase the power management and safety options a soft start feature is also included with this high quality product.
Of course, power management and portability are nothing without the ability to create perfect cuts each and every time with simple to use cutting equipment. A unique style of rip fence is simple to use for the operator with just one hand, leaving the other free to handle stock to be cut. The rip fence can be locked into position easily for a precision cut to be made time after time. The 4100 allows a wide variety of cuts to be made from bevel cuts at an angle of -2 to 47 degrees, and dado cuts up to 13/16 inch.
As always safety is a key issue with power tools and the Bosch 4100-09 introduces a new innovation from the German manufacturer. The smart guard system allows the operator to see each cut being made in full view as the guard protects from any problems with kickback or similar issues.


I saw these on Pinterest last year, pumpkin time had passed for me so I kept the idea stored and now that "pumpkin time" has returned these were, of course, the first thing I wanted to make!
Please do make these! They are good, seriously good! The recipe was by the Blue eyed bakers and they say you will need "comfy pants", indeed this is true! These cute little donuts are sweet and spicy with a hint of pumpkin pie, just perfect for kicking off autumn and pumpkin time!
The recipe was in cups so for all those here in the UK I made the recipe and weighed all the ingredients in grams so you too can share in the delight that is the mini baked donut!
These donuts, as delicious and cute as they are do not store well, in fact not at all. You have a couple of hours at the most to enjoy these little treats, after that the sugar begins to melt! You can make the donuts ahead of time but don't coat with the sugar until just before serving.
I pretty much followed the Blue Eyed Bakers recipe so have linked to that and just included the measurements in grams below. The only change I made was to leave out the cloves (husband is a hater) and I coated half of my donuts in plain sugar as cinnamon is not as popular here! I love cinnamon everything (does anyone remember those cinnamon toothpicks years ago?) but I am aware that as strange as it may be to me not everyone likes cinnamon as I do and actually the donuts themselves are quite cinnamon-y so the plain sugar-coating was equally good, these mini donuts really are my new favourite thing!
For a mix of cinnamon sugared and plain sugared donuts mix 70 grams of the sugar with the cinnamon to coat one half of the donuts. Use the remaining sugar to coat the other half of the donuts.
This entry was posted on September 27, 2013, 16:55 and is filed under Baking, dessert. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Dangerous! I could gobble up the entire batch!
Thanks they are cute arent they? Let me know how they go GF!
Dreamy indeed! Ive seen those little donut machines, that would be perfect!
Wow these look good. I now really want a mini donut pan myself, as the reason I never make donuts is the hassle to cook them in a fryer. Now I have no excuse. Baking them is so much easier. They sound heavenly and I will leave out the cloves too!
Thanks Laura, I try not to buy novelty pans like that as they often turn out to be nothing more than cupboard fillers but I'm certain that wont be the case with my donut pan! Baked donuts are the way to go!
WOOT! 😉 I know I shouldn't but I do. 😉 Yummm….
Ooh these look like a good way to use some of our mass of leftover pumpkin!
A perfect way to use up pumpkin! Thanks for stopping by!


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Q: Windows API to map an application as a drive This is probably an odd question, but are there any Windows APIs that allow an application to behave like a mapped drive or physical drive? For example when you navigate to the "drive" in Windows Explorer the application returns what looks like a list of say image files. Then when you click on the image file the application serves up the image from a database.

A: There are at least three ways to do this:

*

*Write a CIFS server, then you can use the "Client for Microsoft Networks" redirector to connect to it, Windows does all the hard work of intercepting file access and sending them to your application.  Or write a HTTP+WebDAV server, and use the Microsoft-provided "Web Folders" redirector.  However, WebDAV isn't as compatible with all applications as CIFS is.

*Write an Explorer namespace extension.  The files won't have a drive letter, and will only be usable by programs that use Shell PIDLs for file access.

*Write a filesystem driver.  Since this requires kernel mode, it's a more difficult development environment, and very easy to crash your computer, therefore I don't recommend this option.  However, you may find some existing kernel driver that forwards to a user-mode process, like fuse does on Linux.

A: You need to create a virtual drive.
It's not something that many people ever have do, but is essentially straightforward - see http://www.acc.umu.se/~bosse/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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"I quote others only in order the better to express myself"*…
A recent query to the always-illuminating Language Log:
I'm reading my new copy of Soonish and came across a reference to air quotes and I got to wondering about the meme. I remember using them at least 30 years or more ago, entirely un-ironically. How does one go about looking up the history of such a thing? How would you reconcile the discoverable print references to its presumably earlier emergence as a metalinguistic thing in itself? At what point do the words, "air quotes" show up to stand for actual physically-performed "Air Quotes"?
Find the answers at: "Air Quotes."
* Michel de Montaigne
As we admit that there's probably no pithier way to be ironic, mocking, or disingenuous, we might recall that it was on this date in 1726 that Jonathan Swift's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships— much better known as Gulliver's Travels— was first published. A satire both of human nature and of the "travelers' tales" literary subgenre popular at the time, it was an immediate hit (John Gay wrote in a 1726 letter to Swift that "It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery"). It has, of course, become a classic.
From the first edition
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Home>News> CF Chairman's New Year Message!
CF Chairman's New Year Message!
A very Happy New Year to all ClubFootball players, families, partners and supporters!
2019 is the Year of the Pig, in Chinese culture a good time to reap dividends for our hard-work and positive attitude on and off the field and a great opportunity for those not yet involved to start supporting grassroots football!
With new junior coaching courses opening in Spring both midweek and weekends (watch out for an announcement coming soon!) and strong engagement through our progressive stages, a record number of ClubFootball teams are ready to compete in the 2019 Beijing International Junior Football League. Once again, our indoor winter programmes have proved popular with many kids keeping fit and sharp.
At the top of our junior pyramid, our U17's boys' team has benefited from playing in the adult IFFC League and the second half of the season awaits. This experience came into play in two historic friendly matches against Beijing Guoan U16s late last year. ClubFootball won the first encounter 4-2 and Guoan took the second match 2-1. In the absence of a Beijing league at this elite level, these friendlies are much needed by all teams and we hope to arrange more exchanges with pro club academies in the future.
In 2019, we will continue to work closely as a Nike strategic grassroots partner and we thank them for their ongoing support. Look out for the International Children's Day project, in which the Nike ClubFootball Junior Cup (now in its 13th year) is an important celebration. The ClubFootball network continues to grow geographically and we look forward to working on projects with partners in Tongzhou, Tianjin and Hebei this year.
The new year is also a chance to contribute to football's wider role in society and we thank SIKE Sports for sponsoring ClubFootball's junior programme and promoting our expanding range of football culture activities to its millions of fans.
Since 2015, we have been working with Linzi Football Museum in Zibo, Shandong on a series of international "football culture" exchanges that started with President Xi Jinping's famous presentation of a Cuju to the founding Director of the National Football Museum in England. In 2018, we helped organize the 3rd World Football Culture Summit in Zibo and the next event to promote Cuju culture will be held in Europe or Middle East. As I have been saying since I first came to learn about the ancient game, China really should learn from Cuju culture.
Finally, 2018 marked 40 years of China's opening and reform and 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of China national team played historical first time in UK that helped build support for China to rejoin FIFA. As a Chinese club inspired by British amateur values of fair play, we would like to remember this great example of football building bridges by sharing a special picture with our friends. One of the British teams on that 1979 China tour was Middlesbrough and here is the wonderful retro cover of the original programme.
Chairman of ClubFootball