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Meet Colossus, the robot that helped douse Notre-Dame fire
Shubham Sharma
A few days back, Paris' 850-year-old Notre-Dame cathedral caught a massive fire.
Firefighters rushed immediately to the spot, but it took them nearly 15 hours to control the blaze and save the historic structure from permanent collapse.
But, interestingly, they weren't alone in this battle; a fire-fighting robot named Colossus helped, making their job a tad easier, safer.
Here's how it helped.
Colossus doused fire on roof, lowered temperature in main chamber
When the blaze grew on the roof, threatening the structure's integrity and the safety of firefighters, Colossus was called for the job.
The caterpillar-tracked tank-like bot strolled into the cathedral's nave, which is the main chamber, and fired high-pressure water onto the roof, ultimately lowering the temperature in the nave and putting out the blaze.
Designed for emergency response
Developed by French company Shark Robotics, Colossus can handle dangerous situations for humans, be it a landslide, gas leak, or fire - like in this case.
It is merely two and a half feet tall but can lift loads up to 500 kilograms, which makes it capable enough to ferry gear, precious objects, or even people from one point to another.
Colossus uses thermal, night vision, and gas sensors
In addition to load-carrying capabilities, Colossus can also be integrated with a camera attachment, which provides thermal, night vision and gas sensing capabilities.
"He can carry out several missions, such as extinguishing the fire, evacuating the wounded, bringing equipment or making reconnaissance thanks to his video inspection tools and his gas sensors," Cyril Kabbara, co-founder of Shark, told AFP.
Here's what Kabbara said about Colossus' contribution
"It was a tragic moment for all French citizens, but we are very proud to support the firemen to help protect this monument and also protect lives," Kabbara told Popular Mechanics while detailing the robot's capabilities.
Also, it helps save human resources for other tasks
It's worth noting that Colossus' support also saves human resources for other, more complex tasks.
"With Colossus, they are able to do another mission, for example, rescue someone," Kabbara added, noting that the machine does require human controllers to be operated.
Notably, the robot has been in service with the Paris Fire Brigade for two years and can operate for eight hours straight.
Machines will be the future of search and rescue
Colossus' role in dousing Notre-Dame fire gives a peek at the future of robotics in search and rescue.
If machines continue to evolve the way they have, we could soon have robo-protectors to do all the heavy-lifting.
Yes, the rise of robots can raise concerns of jobs going away but we don't think you'd care about that, especially when lives are at stake.
Cathedral Notre Dame
Notre Dame Paris Fire
Cyril Kabbara
Meet Colossus
Paris Fire Brigade
Shark Robotics
Harini Tata
Asked on 18 April, 2019
Is Colossus robot available in India?
No, it is only being used by the Paris Fire Brigade at the moment.
Paridhi Saxena
What is the price of this robot?
This robot is not being sold for commercial use.
Devansh Sarin
Are there any robots like this in India?
At present, robots are not used for dousing fires in India.
Abhinav Das
Are any other companies building such robots?
Many companies, including Boston Dynamics, are working on robots that could be used for search and rescue missions.
View all questions (4)
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June 28, 2018 // Franchising.com // Springfield, PA - BirthdayPak welcomes Kristy Blasey, owner of its newest franchise, BirthdayPak of Raleigh-Durham. Raleigh is not only the capital of North Carolina, it's also one of the fastest growing cities in the country! Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill are known as the Triangle which is luring new residents every day with strong job growth and a high quality of life. Kristy is looking forward to sending birthday wishes to the women in these communities while helping the local businesses reach their financial goals.
With a strong background in sales and entrepreneurship, Kristy was looking for a new career where she could be her own boss while running a profitable business. After a quick search online, Kristy came across the BirthdayPak franchise opportunity and felt her prior experience in advertising sales and business development would be a good match. "I love the BirthdayPak product, and how it caters to women who are about to celebrate a birthday, all while supporting the local businesses," says Kristy.
Kristy had previously launched a food delivery business that was later purchased by Groupon and is co-founder of Women Who Give a Hoot, which has raised over $180,000 for local charities. Having these entrepreneurial qualities will be extremely beneficial for Kristy's BirthdayPak franchise. "I'm excited to be the "birthday" woman, introducing this unique product to the local businesses and community members," Kristy adds.
BirthdayPak only works with a limited number of upscale businesses such as restaurants, day spas, salons and boutiques. BirthdayPak is sent to affluent female consumers who are about to celebrate their birthday and live close to the businesses featured in their BirthdayPak. The BirthdayPak mailer is beautifully printed and highly-personalized, and once it is opened, the recipient finds up to eight personalized gift cards.
BirthdayPak is expanding nationwide through franchising. There are a limited number of markets available. If you, or someone you know, has an interest in learning more about this exciting business opportunity, please visit www.BirthdayPakFranchise.com or call 888-206-0083.


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Experience the Slot Online Experience With Pragmatic Play
12 January 2023 : admin
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The upcoming year is set to be a great one for the slot industry, with several new releases, including a number of high-quality games.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


McKinsey recently published a paper outlining ten trends shaping fintech, focusing in particular on the industry's investment potential. The paper, entitled "Synergy and disruption: Ten trends shaping fintech", seeks to convey the importance of being selective while investing in fintech companies as the road to success is not easy.
In particular, McKinsey's examination of the trends highlights the different attitude taken by Western financial institutions and their Chinese counterparts when it comes to investing in fintech partnerships. McKinsey attributes the rise of China as a fintech powerhouse to local financial institutions partnering with large technology ecosystems rather than smaller fintech firms.This has resulted in the rapid growth and proliferation of Chinese technology giants such as Ant Financial, Alibaba, Ping An and Tencent.
Chinese fintech ecosystems have scaled and innovated faster than counterparts in the West.


We have a small modern home with a view of the ocean and mountains in Homer, Alaska. THe surf here is exceptionally fickle and really only breaks with any dream of consistency in the winter months. However Alaska is incredibly gorgeous year round and stand up paddling can pass the flat days away. While we may not have room to host visiting surfers in our own home we do have many friends and family in the area with more room and can often help make visitors feel at home and get in the water.


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Alex Volkanovski Guarantees He'll Finish Max Holloway At UFC 251
13th June 2020 13th June 2020 Enzo De Gasperi
The reigning UFC featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski believes he has a statement to make in his title rematch with Max 'Blessed' Holloway at UFC 251. The 31-year-old, who earned a unanimous decision win against the Hawaiian at UFC 245, has guaranteed the fight won't go the distance the second time round.
Originally, Volkanovski was set to rematch Holloway on June 6th in Perth, Australia. However, the card was cancelled after the world-wide coronavirus lockdown was imposed. Fortunately, the Australian has been able to begin his training camp for the bout now set for July 11th on Fight Island, after being granted an exemption for contact work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking to ESPN, Volkanovski expressed his intentions to silence the naysayers by proving his superior skills in the Octagon.
"This is a rematch and I've got something to prove right now, this is bigger than just a win," Volkanovski said. "I don't want to go out there and just beat him, I've already done that. I dominated him for five rounds last time, but they give him a rematch anyway.
"People quickly forget how I did it, there were biased opinions and commentary, everything. So I'm a little bit annoyed, I feel disrespected. I've got something to prove this time, I'll put him away inside the five [rounds] this time. I guarantee you that. I'm sending a message."
Despite the government-issued restrictions taking place in his homeland of Australia, Volkanovski and his team were able to make the necessary adjustments to prepare for Holloway. The 145lbs champion is confident that the shortened camp he has for this upcoming fight with the 'Blessed' one will not be an issue.
"It hasn't even been a couple of weeks since I got confirmation that it was probably going to be July 11th," the Aussie stated. "Obviously there are a lot of hurdles that people are adjusting to at the moment, but they let us know that that was what they wanted and I was lucky enough to have my team and everyone organised straight away.
"As soon as we knew that was happening we knew we'd better get something done; we need training; we need contact bodies; we need that contact training; so we got the police commissioners, health ministers and everyone on board, just so that we could get this training going.
"So we got the exemption [and] we're back into it, but it's only going to be a six-week camp. Luckily I'm a professional and I'm always staying in pretty good [condition]. I do need that contact training, but we're fortunate to have some of the best bodies in Australia to help out for the next two weeks."
As his fight agreement got finalised, Volkanovski closely monitored the UFC events that have taken place in the recent past. The crowd-less events have certainly been an unusual experience; while the wild atmosphere brought by the fans is gone, the at-home audience gets a better grasp of how gruelling the sport truly is. The Shellharbour native states that being able to hear the strikes, coaches, and fighters has been a unique and enjoyable experience.
"Obviously you want to entertain and you want to hear the crowd roaring when they see these big shots and when they hear these big shots — but there's something special about the silence in there," Volkanovski said.
"So the people watching on at home can hear the connections, they can hear the coaches talking and see the fighters reacting; they can hear the fighters talking to each other. It's something that I have really enjoyed — the connections that you're hearing, the echoing through the TV and things like that, it's pretty incredible.
"And now this is happening on a Fight Island, there's something about it. I've been saying it's that 'Mortal Combat s***,' so it's pretty special and I can't wait to land some of those big shots so the world can hear my connections echoing through their TVs."
Regarding the newly announced Fight Island, Volkanovski stated his excitement for the chance to perform on such a big stage.
"I've seen some photos and it looks pretty amazing, so it will be some pretty good sights over there," he stated. "But again it's just the timing of everything; it's going to be the first fight on Fight Island, three title fights on this card; this is going to be absolutely huge.
"We still don't have many sports happening right now, so I'm glad even though it's a short-notice fight, that I'm over there and going to be doing my thing."
Although keeping the focus on his upcoming bout against Holloway at the moment, Volkanovski addressed a possible matchup with Olympic gold medalist and UFC two division world champion Henry Cejudo. 'Triple C' — who retired after beating Dominick Cruz in his first bantamweight title defence at UFC 249 last month — publicly discussed the possibility of taking a stab at the featherweight strap.
Volkanovski recognises Cejudo's achievements in combat sports but remains convinced that his own skills will be sufficient to beat 'The Messenger' in a potential bout.
"At the start of it when he was still bantamweight champion and was calling me out, I didn't really care too much about it," declared Volkanovski. "But then you hear that he is retiring and vacating his belt, and then he's saying that he wants to be in featherweight; I look at him as a featherweight contender now — he's no longer in the bantamweight picture.
"So if that fight was offered to me I'd be happy to put him straight back into retirement. Again he's done some great things, so to say he doesn't deserve a title shot in that division would be pretty rude. But we're just a whole different beast in this division and I'll let him know that real quick."
Volkanovski expressed the intensity of his preparations ahead of July 11th and assured that he is ready to put on a display of high-level mixed martial arts.
"We've got the same schedule as we do every camp, which means we're busting our ass," he stated. "But I'll be doing everything I can here and then we'll fly out a week before, I can't really go any earlier than that because each day is crucial here [in Australia] and I want to finish my camp solidly. I don't want to go over there early and miss out on a few sessions.
"So the four weeks that I've got to prepare still, just busting my ass on the schedule that we always do; then head over to there to Fight Island and put on a show."
Do you think Alex Volkanovski will finish Max Holloway in their rematch at UFC 251?
UFC: Everything You Need To Know About Fight Island And More
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Thompson Discusses What It Would Take For Him To Fight Adesanya
Cody Garbrandt And Sean O'Malley Argue Over Best UFC 250 Knockout
Tagged: Alex Volkanovski, City Kickboxing, Featherweight, Max Holloway, UFC, UFC 251, UFC Featherweight Champion, UFC Fight Island
UFC And ONE Championship Athletes Stand Up Against Racism


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Josh Schreck is Populus Group's National Director of Sales. His main responsibility is to help customers overcome challenges around their contingent labor pools and achieve uncommon results.
When Josh is not working with customers he enjoys traveling with his wife Moe, riding his motorcycle and playing golf. Josh and Moe are working snowbirds and spend their time between Chicago and Phoenix.


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MULTIPATH DCV —
Cloudflare aims to make HTTPS certificates safe from BGP hijacking attacks
Free service prevents BGP hijackers from fraudulently obtaining browser-trusted certs.
Dan Goodin - Jun 18, 2019 1:00 pm UTC
nternet1.jpg by Rock1997 modified.
Content delivery network Cloudflare is introducing a free service designed to make it harder for browser-trusted HTTPS certificates to fall into the hands of bad guys who exploit Internet weaknesses at the time the certificates are issued.
The attacks were described in a paper published last year titled Bamboozling Certificate Authorities with BGP. In it, researchers from Princeton University warned that attackers could manipulate the Internet's border gateway protocol to obtain certificates for domains the attackers had no control over.
Browser-trusted certificate authorities are required to use a process known as domain control validation to verify that a person requesting a certificate for a given domain is the legitimate owner. It requires the requesting party to do one of three things:
create a domain name system resource record with a specific text string;
upload a document with a specific text string to a Web server using the domain;
prove receipt of the email address containing a text string sent to the administrative contact for the domain
The Princeton researchers demonstrated that this validation process can be bypassed by BGP attacks. Before applying for a certificate to a targeted domain, an adversary can update the Internet's BGP routing tables to hijack traffic destined for the domain. Then, when a CA checks the DNS record or visits a URL, the CA's query goes to an attacker-controlled server rather than the legitimate server of the domain operator. When the attacker is able to produce the text string designated by the CA, that is considered proof of domain ownership and the CA issues a certificate to the wrong party.
Reining it in
But these attacks come with limitations. BGP attacks usually hijack only a portion of a domain's incoming traffic, rather than all of it. As a result, computers in one part of the world will be directed to the attacker's imposter server, while computers elsewhere will still reach the legitimate server.
Cloudflare, with more than 175 datacenters worldwide, is unveiling a new service called multipath domain control validation that's designed to exploit this limitation of BGP hijacking. As its name suggests, it performs the validation process from multiple origins that follow different Internet paths to the domain. Unless the results from multiple queries are identical, the validation will fail.
"We're going to be leveraging Cloudflare's global network to perform this domain check, whether it's DNS or HTTP, from various vantage points that are connected through various networks," Nick Sullivan, head of cryptography at Cloudflare, told Ars. "If you're hijacked, [the fraudulent data] only applies to a subset of the requests."
Agents and orchestrators
Cloudflare will be making a programming interface available for free to all certificate authorities. The multipath check for domain control validation consists of two services: agents that perform domain validation out of a specific datacenter, and a domain validation "orchestrator" that handles multipath requests from CAs and dispatches them to a subset of agents.
When a CA wants to ensure a domain validation hasn't been intercepted, it can send a request to the Cloudflare API that specifies the type of check it wants. The orchestrator then forwards a request to more than 20 randomly selected agents in different datacenters. Each agent performs the domain validation request and forwards the result to the orchestrator, which aggregates what each agent observed and returns the results to the CA.
Sullivan said Cloudflare has designed the new service to be an effective measure against another potential domain validation attack that spoofs IP addresses in DNS requests that use the user datagram protocol (UDP). Because the IP address of the computer making the request can be spoofed, an attacker can make a request to a targeted domain appear to come from a CA. Then, by manipulating a maximum fragment size setting, the attacker can receive a second identical response.
The new Cloudflare API prevents these DNS spoofing attacks because it sends queries from multiple locations that can't be predicted by the attacker, Sullivan said. In a message, he wrote:
Multipath DCV was designed for and is primarily effective against on-path attacks. An additional feature that we built into the service that helps protect against off-path attackers is DNS query source IP randomization. By making the source IP unpredictable to the attacker, it becomes more challenging to spoof the second fragment of the forged DNS response to the DCV validation agent.
Sullivan said Cloudflare is offering the service for free because the company believes that attacks on the certificate authority system harms the security of the entire Internet. He said he expects the use of multipath domain validation to become standard practice, particularly if it's offered by other large networks. Eventually, he said, it may be mandated by the CA/browser forum, which sets industry guidelines for the issuance of TLS certificates.
"I'm a little surprised this hasn't happened yet," Sullivan said. "We're hoping that this announcement and this product helps spur the CA/Browser forum to adopt and require this more robust multiperspective validation for certificate authorities. It truly is a risk that hasn't been exploited yet, and it's just a matter of time."
icrf Ars Tribunus Militum et Subscriptor
reply Tue Jun 18, 2019 8:18 am
Can someone do a BGP attack on the new Cloudflare API and just intercept a little earlier in the process?
The Dark Ars Praetorian
Perhaps I need more coffee, but the impression I get from my first read-through is that if a BGP attack has been executed on a domain, both the original server and the attacker's server will be rejected because the multi-pathing won't line up. This sounds like it could be a good way for hackers to make legitimate servers inaccessible to CloudFlare users by setting a BGP to their server that then redirects to the legitimate server, just to make the pathing not line up.
szbalint Wise, Aged Ars Veteran et Subscriptor
icrf wrote:
The point here is visibility. Malicious actors would have to BGP hijack a large percentage of Cloudflare's network ranges/Autonomous Systems (AS). That kind of move requires huge bandwidth at the destination and it's highly visible.
Contrast that to hijacking the network range of a smallish DNS server.
binaryvisions Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
The Dark wrote:
This doesn't take the server(s) offline (it's not a real-time check during server access), it's to prevent the issuance of certificates. So the denial of service would only be limited to the timeframe in which a server was attempting to renew or issue a certificate.
In addition, if you read the Cloudflare blog, the request is sent to a random subset of the given domain validation servers; it's not the entire world that has to agree. That means the attacker must control the BGP routes for either a lot of servers to guarantee that the random subset will exist in his or her control, or to be very lucky.
Since this is a new process, I would also expect some fine tuning. You could introduce knobs for tuning the number of servers that have to agree, or a minimum geographic distribution, or other parameters.
shelbystripes Ars Praefectus
This particular validation only applies when registering a new certificate. If the original server has an already issued and valid certificate, the BGP attack and validation failure won't impact the existing certificate already issued for the original server. It would just result in a failure to issue a new certificate to the attacker's server.
It would prevent new certificates from being registered to the original server, but only if (by bad luck or deliberate timing) they're trying to renew their certificates at that exact time.
Deputy Cartman Ars Tribunus Militum
I am both very pleased that CloudFlare is being very gracious and allowing CAs to use it for free, considering what a threat this is, and dismayed at how such a critically important Layer 4 protocol can be used to such effect and how the likelihood of it being updated anytime soon is small.
I'm also wondering how this will be integrated into SSL Labs' test. This definitely seems like a "Grade capped at C" or "Automatic fail" after it has had a chance to be adopted.
bolomkxxviii Ars Centurion
Cloudflare has been in the news fairly frequently lately, all with a positive note towards the company. Either they are doing things right or have a really effective marketing department.
shelbystripes wrote:
That was what I missed, that it was for registration only, not for checking validation of existing certificates. More coffee has been acquired.
4qu4rius Smack-Fu Master, in training
For the http attack against something like the ACME protocol that Letsencrypt uses, am I correct in assuming that the BGP attack would need to hijack both my DNS provided and my own server?
59 posts | registered Dec 19, 2012
Macleone Smack-Fu Master, in training et Subscriptor
Nice intention, but unless/until every single trusted CA adopt it, it is pointless, as a malicious agent would still be able to create a cert using that CA and clients don't make more verification than checking if the cert was released by a trusted CA.
53 posts | registered Feb 6, 2008
Ral Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius et Subscriptor
Macleone wrote:
Sure, but the same applies to any new security feature.
For example the seatbelt being made available for free to manufacturers other than its inventor Volvo definitely aided in its uptake, so that's all we can hope for.
ChrisSD Ars Praefectus
bolomkxxviii wrote:
It's a mix of both. Cloudflare are trying to position themselves as an indispensable backbone of the internet. It's in their interest to be (and be seen as) benevolent. Besides, securing the internet is in their interest too. So people working at Cloudflare have the freedom to be altruistic up to a point.
Of course for anyone who isn't Cloudflare it's a double-edged sword. On the one hand you get some great free services but on the other hand you might wake up one day to find they're so entrenched that competition is near impossible.
Last edited by ChrisSD on Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:01 am
ArsCannon Ars Praetorian
...attacks on the certificate authority system harms the security of the entire Internet.
Very valid concern. This article just makes me think of this fiasco:
https://arstechnica.com/information-tec ... vate-keys/
That was a cert reseller failing to adhere to some very basic security guidelines. All we need these days is for a CA to be fully compromised and you have full potential for MitM.
PandaCheese Ars Praefectus
reply Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:00 am
Are you saying SSL Lab should conduct some DCV check on their own when doing an automated testing of a 443 site? That seems like it would be very hard since DCV by nature requires some shared secret.
Ajedi32 Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
I'm in full agreement with this. Network-hijacking attacks on issuance infrastructure are one of the few remaining weaknesses in TLS, and I'm really surprised it hasn't gotten more attention in the CAB, especially given the number of successful BGP hijacks that have occurred in recent years. (Recent example: https://dyn.com/blog/bgp-hijack-of-amazon-dns-to-steal-crypto-currency/)
To my knowledge no one has yet used a BGP attack to issue fraudulent TLS certs, which might be why this hasn't gotten as much attention as maybe it should have, but I see no reason why it couldn't happen. I suspect the only reason it hasn't yet is that nobody with sufficient resources and motivation has bothered to try. And with the removal of certificate pinning from popular browsers, most sites don't even have a way to proactively protect themselves against this kind of attack anymore. It's a pretty bad situation.
4qu4rius wrote:
Consequence would depend on what service a hijacked IP is known to provide. If say the IP for your domain's nameserver is hijacked then it would be trivial to pass ACME DNS-01 challenge. DNSSEC or similar signed DNS records could protect against that perhaps.
Similarly, if your server's IP is hijacked they can easily pass HTTP-01 challenge.
Of course both require knowing the challenge secret to publish.
PandaCheese wrote:
Knowing the challenge token is trivial if the attacker is the one who's requesting certs to be issued. The CA will send them that information by design. It's also not a secret. The challenge token gets published in the clear, either on public DNS (for DNS-01 validation) or on your server (for HTTP-01).
Other than that, you're correct. Hijacking either the DNS _or_ your server's IP would be sufficient for an attacker to get a cert.
DNS hijacking through BGP can be prevented by DNSSEC, but there's AFAIK no similar way of securing the server IP against a similar attack.
Frequently email is the most convenient DCV method. Cloudflare doesn't say how their service will approach that, but it's going to suck to respond to multiple emails. Imagine logging in to your bank and getting 3 SMS each with a different code…
This seems more like a solution looking for a problem to me. If a nation state can mount a BGP misdirect wouldn't it be easier just to pull an inside job on a CA under their jurisdiction?
I'm actually not sure if Cloudflare's system here works with email validation, but if it does then having to deal with multiple emails still seems like a reasonable price to pay for securing the entire TLS PKI against BGP attacks. Especially since you only have to do it once every few months. If that's still too much for you, there are fully automated methods available which are much less hassle to use than email.
Inside jobs are much less viable now thanks to certificate transparency. A BGP-based attack can be carried out _without_ the CA immediately getting blamed for the misissuance and distrusted by all major browsers.
It was an early post. I just happened to be on my second cup already.
Mardaneus Ars Praetorian
It checks if there is a unique directory (name :the string provided by the CA) exists on the target server then tries to read a file containing a unique string in said directory.
And that is what the multiple verification does, X different checks on that file, if someone hijacks the website through BGP one or more of those checks will bounce. It does not do something as moronic as sending X e-mails, one from X different data centers.
Also it is not a solution trying to solve the problem of a compromised CA, there are other measures for that. This is solving the problem that someone can use the BGP to redirect traffic.
Should have written that the multiple checks should have one or more bounces most of the time since it is always possible, though not likely, that all the paths go through the hijacked routes.
So this option would make it infeasible to get a cert through BGP hijacking if one has to rely on luck to get it.
[/edit]
Last edited by Mardaneus on Tue Jun 18, 2019 11:02 am
Ajedi32 wrote:
I wasn't thinking right, yeah attacker would already have the challenge secret.
CT is just another layer of defense. Depending on how many valid SCTs a client needs at minimal to pass a certificate I suppose a nation state could mess with a CT log publisher just like they can have inroads with CAs.
xney Smack-Fu Master, in training
It's 2019, and BGP still does not have an authoritative routing origin database used by everybody.
Suuuuure, we'll trust you! You wouldn't propagate any bad routes, would ya?!
54 posts | registered Sep 18, 2014
The difference is that CT logs can be audited automatically by browsers and third party monitors. If they sign a SCT and then don't actually include that certificate in the log, it's trivial for a browser to find out about that. So not only would the nation state have to compromise a CA and multiple CT logs (the number of logs required is only going to grow larger in the future, but I think right now Google requires 3); they would _also_ have to ensure that the fraudulent certificate never gets used in an attack against a browser that is capable of noticing the log discrepancy and reporting it.
balazer Ars Centurion
reply Tue Jun 18, 2019 12:06 pm
Ral wrote:
No, I think Macleone was right. It's not like getting seat belts into more cars, because unlike crashes which are distributed randomly across all drivers, malicious actors will target a certificate authority that's vulnerable to BGP hijacking. So long as one authority remains vulnerable, the bad guys will target that one. They don't need to target the CA of your domain's certificate. They can target any vulnerable CA, because the browser doesn't care if the CA of your certificate suddenly changes, right?
But like the article says, the CA/Browser Forum could mandate multipath validation for all CAs, and then this attack becomes much harder.
pavon Ars Tribunus Militum et Subscriptor
The difference is that domain control validation is typically done using unencrypted protocols (HTTP, SMTP) as the domain being verified often doesn't have certificates yet to use for HTTPS.
Cloudflare API however, is provided over HTTPS, so in addition to performing a BGP attack to redirect the traffic, they would also need to obtain invalidly issued certificates for Cloudflare's API domain. Furthermore, I would hope that CAs using this API would use certificate pinning and the whole nine-yards to avoid those sorts of attacks.
adespoton Ars Tribunus Militum
szbalint wrote:
I think he's looking at a slightly different attack point than you are:
In this situation, all the attacker has to do is BGP poison the zone the API calls are going to. So it doesn't matter what the results of CloudFlare's service are... the attacker fakes the API and returns a valid result to the certificate authority.
However, I can see ways this can be avoided: if the API requires a pre-registered key to use it, any MITM attack on the API will cause the API handshake to fail, alerting both sides that a third party is mucking about. It will be interesting to see how CloudFlare actually implements this.
Mikuz Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
Trying to understand how the outlined UDP attack works. You can make a DNS request that appears to come from a CA and get two identical DNS responses? Doesn't sound very harmful.
norton_I Ars Praefectus
reply Tue Jun 18, 2019 1:12 pm
balazer wrote:
This can be used in conjunction with CAA records which CAs are supposed to check before issuing certificates. So if I use CAA to restrict certificates from an issuer that uses multipath verification and non multipath issuers honor CAA records I should still be safe. And if they are compromised, certificate transparency should help detect that.
Our CA system is leaking all over. No single fix is going to remedy that, but every improvement reduces the window for abuse.
Well, this is a new service, so there will inevitably be some improvements over time, but there are plenty of ways that you could check for a distributed validation. For instance, it could be an additional field in the X.509 certificate itself to indicate the cert was obtained after a distributed validation check. Or the certificate transparency log could be extended to include that data.
SSL Labs wouldn't do the domain validation itself; it doesn't do that today, after all. But if this becomes a mainstream way to issue certificates, it would definitely be a useful piece of data when scoring the security of a website's TLS connection.
drfisheye Ars Tribunus Militum et Subscriptor
The API itself would run under https, so harder to MITM through BGP. Though Cloudflare should use some form of certificate pinning to prevent the attacker to use BPG to obtain a fake Cloudfare certificate.
datapharmer Seniorius Lurkius
I commend this and I use their services, but let's remember that this is the same group that allows "flexible" ssl that shows an ssl cert to end users and then passes this "secure" data as unencrypted data from their servers to the origin servers.
That is very very bad.
Criticism of this to their CEO Matthew Prince has been met with the response that it is better than nothing which is very scary - either he doesn't understand that a false sense of security is worse than no security or he is complacent in creating a false sense of security.
They do some amazing things but "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes."
6 posts | registered Feb 18, 2014
reply Wed Jun 19, 2019 10:10 am
I like the solution they came up with, it is a simple concept but has a great impact.
Now only if Phone Service providers can figure out a way to better defend against Spoofed Phone numbers.
datapharmer wrote:
This is utterly ridiculous.
First off, encrypting the connection from the client machine into the Cloudflare datacenters is a meaningful, real improvement on security. For the vast majority of the people on the planet, the biggest threats are right at the edges of the network; malicious hotspots, firewalls, local MiTM.
It is absolutely more secure to encrypt all the way to the origin server, but that doesn't mean there's no value in encrypting up to the CDN.
In addition, their flexible SSL has multiple, easy to implement security models that allow end to end encryption, including using their own origin certificates which allow the implementation of a fully encrypted connection without having to manage certificate rotation or incurring cost.
Maybe this all seems trivial because, hey, Let's Encrypt is free and has management tools, but the reality is that some people can't/won't do that. Giving someone a tool to encrypt to the CDN is still better than not doing it, and the people who are leaving the backside of that connection unsecured are the same people who would be otherwise leaving the frontside unsecured.
reply Wed Jun 19, 2019 1:40 pm
Can someone explain how a BGP hijack is done, technically?
Setting BGP routes requires pretty high level access and should only affect the subnet you control. No?
I'm missing some knowledge of DNS to understand this.
binaryvisions wrote:
No. That is absolutely not true. If I get a valid ssl certificate I expect if I enter a credit card number it is sent via ssl all the way to the origin, not to some data center then converted to plain text and sent through a bunch of random servers for people to intercept. The idea that it is somehow more secure is ludicrous.
You already have no idea how this data is being handled. You have no idea where any TLS socket truncates. Reverse proxies and CDNs exist everywhere.
Companies handling credit cards should be protecting their data better than decrypting sockets prior to hitting the destination servers and PCI compliance requires that. Cloudflare's simplest SSL offering isn't for credit card handlers.


text:
Q: Convenience of 2D CUDA texture memory against global memory I'm implementing a simple boxcar filter only as an excuse to evaluate the different speed of 2D local texture and global memory accesses.
More in detail, the .cu file is the following
#include <cuda.h>
#include <cuda_runtime.h>
#include "cufft.h"
#include "Kernels_Test_Texture_Float.cuh"

#define BLOCK_SIZE_x 16
#define BLOCK_SIZE_y 16

/**********************/
/* TEST TEXTURE FLOAT */
/**********************/
extern "C" void Function_Test_Texture_Float(float* data, float* dev_result, int N1, int N2){

    size_t pitch;
    float* data_d;
    cudaMallocPitch((void**)&data_d,&pitch, N1 * sizeof(float), N2);
    cudaChannelFormatDesc desc = cudaCreateChannelDesc<float>();
    cudaBindTexture2D(0,&data_d_texture,data_d,&desc,N1,N2,pitch);
    cudaMemcpy2D(data_d,pitch,data,sizeof(float)*N1,sizeof(float)*N1,N2,cudaMemcpyHostToDevice);

    cudaMemset(dev_result,0,sizeof(float)*N1*N2);
    dim3 dimBlock(BLOCK_SIZE_x,BLOCK_SIZE_y); dim3 dimGrid(N1/BLOCK_SIZE_x + (N1%BLOCK_SIZE_x == 0 ? 0:1),N2/BLOCK_SIZE_x + (N2%BLOCK_SIZE_x == 0 ? 0:1));
    Kernel_Test_Texture_Float<<<dimGrid,dimBlock>>>(dev_result,N1, N2);

}

/**************/
/* TEST FLOAT */
/**************/
extern "C" void Function_Test_Float(float* data, float* dev_result2, int N1, int N2){

    float* data_d;  cudaMalloc((void**)&data_d,sizeof(float)*N1*N2);
    cudaMemcpy(data_d,data,sizeof(float)*N1*N2,cudaMemcpyHostToDevice);

    cudaMemset(dev_result2,0,sizeof(float)*N1*N2);
    dim3 dimBlock(BLOCK_SIZE_x,BLOCK_SIZE_y); dim3 dimGrid(N1/BLOCK_SIZE_x + (N1%BLOCK_SIZE_x == 0 ? 0:1),N2/BLOCK_SIZE_x + (N2%BLOCK_SIZE_x == 0 ? 0:1));
    Kernel_Test_Float<<<dimGrid,dimBlock>>>(dev_result2,data_d,N1, N2);

}

The .cuh file is the following
texture<float,2> data_d_texture;

/**************************/
/* 2D TEXTURE TEST KERNEL */
/**************************/
__global__ void Kernel_Test_Texture_Float(float* dev_result, int N1, int N2)
{
    int i = threadIdx.x + blockDim.x * blockIdx.x;
    int j = threadIdx.y + blockDim.y * blockIdx.y;

    float datum, accumulator=0.;

    int size_x=5;
    int size_y=5;

    if((i<(N1-size_x))&&(j<(N2-size_y)))
    {
        for (int k=0; k<size_x; k++)
        for (int l=0; l<size_y; l++){
            datum = tex2D(data_d_texture,i+k,j+l);
            accumulator = accumulator + datum;
        }
        dev_result[j*blockDim.x*gridDim.x+i] = accumulator;
    }
}

/******************/
/* 2D TEST KERNEL */
/******************/
__global__ void Kernel_Test_Float(float* dev_result2, float* data_d, int N1, int N2)
{
    int i = threadIdx.x + blockDim.x * blockIdx.x;
    int j = threadIdx.y + blockDim.y * blockIdx.y;

    float accumulator=0.;

    int size_x=5;
    int size_y=5;

    if((i<(N1-size_x))&&(j<(N2-size_y)))
    {
        for (int k=0; k<size_x; k++)
            for (int l=0; l<size_y; l++){
                accumulator = accumulator + data_d[(j+l)*blockDim.x*gridDim.x+(i+k)];
        }
        dev_result2[j*blockDim.x*gridDim.x+i] = accumulator;
    }
}

However, the global memory kernel results much faster than the texture memory kernel (94us vs 615us - the timing is the result of the Visual Profiler - the card is a GeForce GT 540M).
Is there anything wrong in the use I'm doing of the texture memory or global memory is indeed faster than texture being cached?
Thanks in advance for any comment.

A: In general terms the global memory read accesses are faster than the texture memory read. In addition, the GT 540M has a compute capability 2.1, so it has a configurable L1, and L2 cache hierarchy for global memory accesses. Also this cache hierarchy is small, it's bigger than the texture cache.
Considering these two aspects it is not surprising that your global memory implementation is faster than the texture ones.
You probably didn't take into account the L1/L2 cache hierarchy of your device. Depending on the size of the problem, you could find a better performance by maximizing the L1 cache to 48KB before launching your Kernel_Test_Float kernel:
cudaThreadSetCacheConfig(cudaFuncCachePreferL1);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


And if you've been following us, you know that we here at Football Garbage Time have gone head to head against Wally, Will and Ray at Urban Sports Scene on our NFL Picks for the last 3 seasons. Why? Because they're awesome competitors, they KNOW their sports, and, heck, they're just good guys! But this year, although there are lots of things to know before betting on the NFL, we'll have their picks up right HERE each and every week, so keep it tuned in, to both us and them, because we'll be picking all season all long.
Last year I ended up with a 62% record for the season, so that's three years in a row with over a 60% pick rate. I had a decent Week 5 getting me to 48-28 (63.2%). And I intend to keep you at 62%+.
Looks like the Texans have got their mojo back. With a healthier Will Fuller (let's face it, he's never fully healthy) and revelation of Keke Coutee, Deshaun Watson is starting look like that guy we saw in the first couple games of 2017. They've won two in a row and the pass offense looks solid. On the ground, Alfred Blue has been terrible, but Lamar Miller is healing up and should be back this week.
On the Bills side, rookie Josh Allen has appeared serviceable, but actually has the lowest passer rating (60.4) of any qualified QB this year. And with Houston leading the NFL in total tackles (399) and tied for 3rd most sacks (18.0), I'd suspect Allen is going to have another tough week.
OK, so I'll never pick against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs again. Clearly, the Chiefs offense is unstoppable. The Patriots have far superior offense as compared to Blake "I'm a Turnover Machine" Bortles and T.J. "I'm not Leonard Fournette" Yeldon, but their the Patriots defense has been much worse than the Jags, ranked un uninspiring 19th overall in the NFL per DVOA. I do think this game remains close, but Mahomes is unstoppable until further notice.
Uh oh HaKung, I started my ascent last week. Sure, you can say I only gained one game in the standings last week, but I prefer to look at it as erasing 33% of the deficit. All this is to say, I'm the one to listen to here, as I will take home the crown again this year.
The NFC East stinks, so while the Eagles have struggled out of the gate, they will win the division. A Thursday night road win in New York will make that clear.
I, like many, have been fooled by the Bengals more than a few times. Well, I guess put the cheese out because I'm taking the Bengals over Pittsburgh in Cincinnati this week.
While were in the rust belt, give me the Browns too. They have been in every game this year and should honestly have a better record than they do. I hate West Coast teams coming east, so I'm riding with the Browns.
I like that Chicago defense coming out of the bye week to extend Miami's losing streak to three.
What happened to Denver's defense? They get roasted again as the Rams roll to 6-0. The Jaguars get back to winning as they take on the mess that was once America's team. Tennessee climbs back on the horse and takes care of the Ravens at home.
Now for the primetime games. Sunday Night will be an absolute shootout with huge playoff implications on the line. Huge. How can that be this early in the year? Well, if the Chiefs win they take a three-game lead over New England with the main tiebreaker being head-to-head, so they'll effectively have a four-game lead for the one seed. For that reason, New England will be ready to go and eek out a 38-35 victory.
As for Monday night, I take Green Bay in a run-away.
Here we go again, still hanging around .500. For some reason I'm on a lot of home dogs, but we'll see. Keep an eye on @nflfantasy_more for updates as we get closer to kickoff.
I would like to apologize for picking Jacksonville at Kansas City last week. Blake Bortles on the road against the hottest offense in the NFL. What the hell was I thinking?
But I am backing Jacksonville to rebound at distracted and low-scoring Dallas. For Thursday night the Eagles, despite their difficulties at running back, will thump the mostly hopeless Giants.
Game of the Week: Pittsburgh at Cincinnati and the Bengals have a chance to put a hammerlock on the division with a win here. And yet it's just hard to trust a Marvin Lewis team in a big spot. And I can't do it.
I know there's no rational reason to pick Miami against Chicago. The Bears are off a bye and Matt Nagy's old boss Andy Reid is the best coach off the bye. And yet Miami should've won at Cincinnati and they've played only 1 really awful game at New England. So I will take the home dog there. The two 5-0 are teams are on the road so surely one of them loses, right? I say no, the Rams and the Chiefs tighten their grips on the number 1 seed in their respective conferences. Two games are pick'em. In the first I am backing the hometown Browns to beat the Chargers (who were their last win until they beat the Jets in week 3) and the Panthers' defense will rebound from a poor fourth quarter to stymie the Redskins.
Check back next week for our Week 6 results and Week 7 picks!


text:
Q: htaccess file does not rendering the get arguments properly Please consider the following code in .htaccess.
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

ErrorDocument 404 /error_404.php

Options +FollowSymlinks -MultiViews
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /

# Set home page
RewriteRule ^/?$ index.php?con=stories&task=published [L]

RewriteRule ^(published|new)/?$ index.php?con=stories&task=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(published|new)/page/([0-9]+)/?$ index.php?con=stories&task=$1&page=$2 [L]

When I browse the https://example.com/published/, and In PHP the print_r($_GET) displays something like:
Array (
    [con] => stories
    [task] => published
)

My problem is that I see/get the same result above when I browse the https://example.com/published/?hello=world.
I am expecting like the following output:
Array (
    [con] => stories
    [task] => published
    [hell] => world
)

What is the solution, please?


SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is a well-liked framework for developing a marketing technique. When switching from a situational perspective to a relational one, and e-Marketing is generally based on a relational perspective, the marketer saw himself one way or the other pressured into contemplating help and assistance on a non-temporal degree, completely, over time.
This information supplies info on offline and internet marketing and marketing, trendy promoting strategies, and effective advertising methods and methods. Moderating functions of e-Marketing have the quality of average, operate upon all situational features of the combination (the classic 4 P's) and upon each other.
The reality is the unfavorable really feel of viral marketing and the controversial nature of much of the content can make the usage of this marketing problematic for some business house owners. A properly-outlined target market will make every different marketing idea a lot easier to implement successfully.
While some merchandise perish in a short time (like water balloons), services merely cannot be stored, saved, resold or returned at all. Armstrong, J. S. (1990), "Review of Corporate Strategic Planning," Journal of Marketing, 54, 114-119. Prospects have an lively function within the production, and thus can affect the outcome of their very own service or the service of others.
Here's a comprehensive information with details about various marketing methods and ideas that can function methods to promote a enterprise effectively. Companies are outlined in (Zeithaml, Bitner, & Gremler, 2006) as "deeds, processes, and performances". Examine marketing and start creating your personal plan.
E-Marketing is still quite a controversial subject to speak about, since no one succeeded to unify the varied theories round it; however there is one thing upon which there isn't a doubt – that e-Marketing first appeared underneath the type of numerous strategies deployed by pioneer corporations promoting their merchandise via the internet in the early ninety's.


Johnstone's has a long history as a professional trade brand. The name Johnstone's has been a presence in the UK paint market since 1890, and is part of the PPG portfolio of brands.
A high quality flexible steel wool abrasive, ideal for use in difficult to reach areas offering a multitude of uses with various grades available.
Johnstone's Trade Acrylic Satin is a low VOC content satin finish. It is a washable product which is thinned with water and is applied by brush. It is suitable for interior and exterior use. It is touch dry in 1-2 hours and recoatable after 4 hours. Water based satin is a tough, durable mid sheen finish for wood and metal, which is non-yellowing and provides good resistance to knocking and scuffing. It can be applied over most previously painted surfaces without an undercoat. On new surfaces apply over the top of a suitable primer.
Johnstone's Trade Alkali Resisting Primer is a high VOC content finish. It is applied by brush or roller and is suitable for interior or exterior use. It is recoatable after 16-24 hours.
Johnstone's Trade Aluminium Paint is a high VOC content finish. It is applied by brush and is suitable for interior or exterior use. It is recoatable after 16-24 hours.
Johnstone's Trade Aluminium Wood Primer is a high VOC content finish. It is a product which is thinned with TC2 Thinner and Cleaner and is applied by brush. It is suitable for exterior use. It is recoatable after 16-24 hours. Touch dry in 4-6 hours.
Johnstone's Trade Aqua Gloss is a low VOC content gloss finish. It is a washable product which is thinned with water and is applied by brush. It is suitable for Interior and exterior use. It is touch dry in 1-2 hours and recoatable after 4-6 hours. Water based gloss is a tough, durable high sheen finish for wood and metal, which is non-yellowing and provides good resistance to knocking and scuffing. It can be applied over most previously painted surfaces without an undercoat. On new surfaces apply over the top of a suitable primer and undercoat.


All Things A : How is the month almost gone?
How in the world is it the 22nd?? This month has just flown by. It's going to be 2012 in the blink of an eye!! I am finished with all my Christmas shopping just have some wrapping to do. Just the girls stuff and a few of Conrad's things. I usually wrap them on Christmas Eve for some reason, I do it every year. Maybe I like saving it to the very end to keep that Christmas feeling as long as I can, maybe I'm just a slacker.
I made these super cute wrapping paper ribbon bow for a few gifts. I got the idea off of a friend's blog. So easy and who knew you could curl wrapping paper. Amazing!!!
Allyson is officially walking and she's a pro at it already. She went from zero interest in walking to being crazy good. I think she really likes being able to walk around where ever her little heart pleases. She doesn't like it when Aubrey tries to hold her hand and walk. She is still such a little mama's girl. She will walk over to me with her hands in the air and whining. How can I not pick that sweet thing up? Enabler over here.
This is one of there favorite places to place/hide.
We have had quite the time with Aubrey these last couple weeks. Her attitude is crazy. She will have a bunch of good days in a row and then out of no where she'll be horrible. Back talking, stomping her feet, screaming, just a little pill! We came up with a reward system that seems to be working quite well for us. She gets a popsicle stick, with a little something written on there when she is good. Not everytime she is good, we are trying to catch her being good. When she is naughty, back talks, whatever she gets a stick taken away. It seems like a lot of the time she end up with zero sticks at the end of the day. We told her if she collected 5 sticks we would take her to Yogurt Mill and get her current favorite, peppermint. It took probably about a week but here she is with her reward!
I'm really hoping that little Ally doesn't pick up Aubrey's bad habits only her good ones. I can dream right?


text:
Our Tribal Council
Tenah Richardson, Tribal Chair
My name is Tenah Richardson. I am an enrolled member of the Nipmuc Nation and currently serving as Chair on the Tribal Council. I am a direct descendant of the Pegan/Wilson family line. Currently I reside in Ware, Massachusetts and work as a Home Health Care Aide. I also own and operate my own salon business. I have proudly served our community on council as a councilwoman for over 14 years.
My leadership focus as I work with my team of councilors is to help foster unity, encourage community involvement, and create strong working connections between the Bands.
As Tribal Chair, I hope that you would feel comfortable to ask me any questions as aid relates to my commitment and experience serving the Nation. Thank you!
Candia Flynn, Vice Chair
My name is Candia Flynn. I am an enrolled member of the Nipmuc Nation and currently serving as Vice-Chair on the Tribal Council. I am the daughter of former Sub Chief, Charles Everett Richardson, and am a direct descendant of the Pegan/Wilson family line. Currently, I reside in Unceded Mohawk Territory just outside of Montreal where I am an educator at Kahnawake Survival School here on the reserve. I prioritize my traditional values and teachings as they are essential in my role as an Indigenous Educator. I use my medicines and love to share what I have learned with others and am thankful for the teachings I receive in return. I enjoy crafting with a heavy focus on ribbon skirt making as I feel strongly it provides a connection to our ancestors and healing.
I believe It is the concerns, needs, and goals of the membership that should drive the Tribal Council's vision and agenda. We are in a very exciting time of transition and are blessed to have a community full of talented individuals with many gifts to share. I am excited to see us continue to grow as a tribal community and provide greater member access and to cultural learning and maximize participation for all.
As a Tribal Council Councilor, I hope that you would feel comfortable to ask me any questions as it relates to my commitment and experience serving the Nation. Thank you!
Jennifer Vickers, Treasure
My name is Jennifer Vickers, Nippi88e Tinnogkukquas, Pond Frog. I am an enrolled member of the Nipmuc Nation and currently serving as treasure on the Tribal Council. I am the daughter of Daughter of Albert C Vickers-Drifting Eagle feather, Granddaughter of Albert C Vickers Sr. Fields, Great Granddaughter of Frederick Chandler Vickers, and am a direct descendant of the Curliss family line. Currently, I reside in unceded Territory of the Duwamish Peoples and Co-Salish Tribes just north of Seattle, Washington.
As an Indigenous granddaughter, daughter, busy mother of 2, sister, auntie, cousin, advocate, and member of my local Indigenous community, I'm passionate, outspoken and committed to building a sustainable future for the next seven generations.
I bring experience from my current 13 years in philanthropy managing investment, both grants and contracts. I currently sit on the executive board of the Potlatch Fund, a Pacific Northwest Native nonprofit. I work with many of the local urban Seattle area Native organizations and lead the Employee Resource Group (ERG) where I am employed bringing about awareness and education opportunities regarding both domestic and global Indigenous topics. As a relatively newcomer to tribal council matters, I accepted this position to assist in bringing structure, unity and creating access for all of our Nipmuc relatives.
Fran Richardson Garnett, Council Member
My name is Frances Richardson Garnett. I am an enrolled member of the Nipmuc Nation and currently serving as a member of the Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council. My direct descendant 5th generation grandfather is Joseph Peagan. He was a US War Veteran; a Revolutionary Soldier.
The succession of my grandfather's are Edward, James, George M. and George M.M. Pegan/Wilson who is Chief Thunderbird and was Medicine Man of Hassanamisco. I reside in the Nipmuc Homelands of Middlesex County in Massachusetts. I am retired from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Having worked there as a Human Resources Professional in Recruitment and Employee Relations. I have served my Nation on the Tribal Council for many years serving on several committees.
It is my hope for the future generations that the Nipmuc Nation continues to move forward through these challenging times. And, with the participation of the Nipmuc Nation people.
Tia Eady, Council Member
My name is Tia Adams (Wilson) Eady. I am an enrolled member of the Nipmuc Nation and currently serving as a member of the Tribal Council. I am the great granddaughter of George M. "Chief Thunderbird" Wilson, direct descendant of the Pegan/Wilson family line. I currently reside in unceded Chickahominy Territory just outside of Williamsburg, VA. Professionally, I am Assistant Vice President, Head of Digital (Cloud) Architecture for a fortune 500 professional services company and honored to service the executive sponsor for our Black, Latinx and Indigenous affinity group (BLING).
I have served our illustrious tribe for many years, as an organizer of children's activities at tribal functions, directed and participated in educational initiatives including primary school programs and also Indigenous cookbooks, to name a few. I prioritize my traditional values and ancestorial connection as they are essential to our community's health and well-being.
I answered the call of the tribal council to continue in service to our members. Using my technical background, I hope to assist the council in building a solid technical foundation to ensure we can effectively and efficiently serve the needs Nipmuc community. The concerns, needs, and goals of the membership drive the Tribal Council's agenda. We are excited to see the membership grow as a tribal community as we provide greater member access to cultural learning and maximize participation for everyone.
Thank you for affording me the opportunity to serve you.
Justin Wilson, Council Member
My name is Justin Wilson, I was born on the 5th day of November 1973 in Worcester Massachusetts. In 1982 my mother, younger sister and I moved to Southern California where I remain a resident of Los Angeles county in the city of Long Beach. I maintain the head of household as a single parent to my youngest son, however I am a supportive father of five.
My childhood was full of love with many lessons extended from my mother, and inherited traits from my father who was on paper George M. Wilson III however in reality was George M. the 4th one of the Grandsons of Chief Thunderbird of the Wilson/Pegan Family. Suffering from a culture shock from leaving Worcester to growing up in South Lod Angeles, I had to adapt to my new environment, which caused me to execute my determination and motivation to survive. The misunderstanding of my feelings and emotions led to bad decision making and practices that resulted in loyalty that confined me to the streets for many years.
In 1992 at the age of 18, I graduated from Westchester High School in Los Angeles, which was preceded by the birth of my oldest daughter and the admission into a Community College to master the trade of carpentry like my father. My ambition and dedication to a lifestyle that I once embraced definitely contributed to the spiritual, physical, and mental consequences that I endured.
Moving forward, carpentry for me became a thing of the past as I was then transitioning into a grateful, appreciative, obedient, and humble soul. I have taken so much away, my solution was to give back, so I wrote a book that was self-published in 2017 titled "The Art of Bangin'" with the intent to encourage strength and hope to our struggling youth. Due to my compassion and wanting the best for others, also in 2017 I began my career as a Drug & Alcohol counselor. In 2020, I graduated from Long Beach City College with an Associate in Arts degree in Human Services Addiction Studies.
My goal is to attend Cal State University Dominguez Hills to obtain a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and then obtain a Masters degree in Social Work. I have a passion for helping others in any kind of way that I can, which also helps me to stay honest with myself about who Justin is and provides me with the qualities I need to continue to extend the care and support that our people need.
Glenda Hines, Council Member
My name is Glenda Vernell Wilson-Hines, I am the great granddaughter of Chief Thunder Bird also known as George M Wilson. In November 1960 I was born in Worcester Massachusetts to Paula Mae Wilson-Goolsby and Calvin Ford. Currently I serve as a member of The Nipmuc Tribal Council.
We moved to Springfield mass in the late 60's. Where I began my early childhood education then graduated from Springfield Technical High School and the Reserve Officers Training Program. In 1979 right after giving birth to me oldest daughter I began a 30-year career in behavioral health. I worked as direct care staff at Monson State Hospital, where I learned to work with severely challenged and disabled people. Working with disabled people helped me to quickly gained a unique perspective of life. One of appreciation, respect, and the need to help others. From here I started a life of service to others.
My second daughter was born in 1982. Now a mother of two I was ready to expand my life experiences beyond my hometown of Springfield. In 1992 we moved to California. While raising my daughters as a single mom, I earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Service and continued to work as Case Manager and Operations Manager Chemical Dependency Facilities.
The highest form of service came into my life when I became a member of the Morningland International Community a Sanctuary of Peace and Meditation, I spent 25 years within this larger community of good people helping others in need. While developing a new mindset for modern living.
Throughout the years, the history and struggles of the Nipmuc have always been kept alive and close to my heart. Many of my family member have served on the Nipmuc Tribal Council and have endured the struggle to make sure our voices have been heard. Because of them I am here today as a member of the Nipmuc Tribal Council.


The Ford Racing UK Puma had guest drivers out for this meeting. Rob Ladbrook (deputy editor MotorsportNews) and Hamish Brandon (Panda Monium Racing) a leading Scottish Mini Racer. The Friday testing showed some good pace and on the Sunday morning qualifying this intrepid duo took the Ford Racing UK Puma to its highest ever grid spot. 3rd in class. The race saw an unfortunate contact which meant that Rob had to limp round to the pits. Some hard work was put in to try and get the car back out and Hamish took to the fray once more only to subsequently retire the car as it had a deformed back axle which saw the car crabbing. However, both drivers were efflusive in their praise for the Puma Cup Series, the Puma race car and the brilliant way the Classic Sports Car Club ran the meeting. They managed to keep ahead of timetable both days in what was a busy programme. Well done to all involved especially Ian Scruton who ran the car for the team.
The Puma Cup cars run on Dunlop Control tyres, GAZ suspension and Superchips ECU upgrade. The Puma Cup is sponsored and supported by Nextec.
Ford Racing UK Puma Cup car in action.
Another good display of cars and drivers. 10 drivers made the trip to the glorious Cheshire circuit and the Saturday weather was great – overall. The three session day was spread out for comfortable racing as the Puma Cup joined their Ford XR cousins for this race day. The feedback from the XR Challenge drivers was more than positive with many friendships being made between the two sets of drivers. It seems that our pristine Puma Cup cars were admired and treated with respect on track. The times were not too far apart given that our cars were much heavier.
During qualifying our Puma Cup cars were quick and on pace from the off. Entertainment was brought to the crowds by a huge spin by Ross Morris as he exited Old Hall Corner. It (the spin) was skilfully collected by Ross and he continued as he was passed by Jamie Clare.
In the racing, the continued pace of Ben Eacock was evident, but in qualifying he had to give best for the pole man James Clare. Race 1 saw a good scrap between Colin Tester and Ben Eacock with the latter claiming the win and third going to Marcus Carniel. In Race 2, the Tester speed saw him leading for a few laps before he slipped back and thus Ben Eacock got the Chequered Flag acknowledgement and the win with Carniel second and Ross Morris third.
Our own Puma Cup car was hired out to a budding GT4 driver who was looking to urgently add to his Nat B signature list before the upgrade to Int C in order to race his Aston Martin GT4 for real.
The car ran faultlessly under the engineering/mechanic team of Ian Scruton and Mike Hooper. Other driver clients have now come forward and they are taken with Puma Cup and wish to look at hiring Puma Cup cars for some sensible mini-endurance racing with the Classic Sports Car Club.
Puma Cup ready for Silverstone on 30 April.
Another good entry of Puma Cup cars will be seen out on the CSCC run Silverstone event this coming weekend.
Heartening to note that at least four new potential drivers have been in contact and are coming to look at probably the most cost effective one make racing.
taken from http://www.classicsportscarclub.co.uk website report.
Once again the CSCC has begun the season with a record grid for the club at Snetterton on the 9th and 10th of April 2016, with 334 entries and a total of 443 drivers! Conditions couldn't have been more different across the weekend, with heavy rain on Saturday and sunshine on Sunday. Given the awful conditions, large grids and drivers reawakening after the winter off season it was exceptional that we are unaware of any car to car contact and no driving standard complaints or judicials. Well done CSCC drivers!
Everyone agreed the 2016 Puma Cup got off to a tremendous start with over a dozen drivers racing at Snetterton. Congratulations to the CSCC for a brilliantly organised weekend and for keeping the event ahead of time. A record entry of over 340 cars were fielded and compared with previous events there was actually a goodish crowd of spectators.
The race went well and many of us learned some valuable skills. 40 minutes is a long time in racing but the drivers to watch were the three who came home in the podium places. So, a well done to Luke Johnson (1st), Ross Morris (2nd), who had been at the front until the very last lap, and Ben Eacock with a stunning character drive from the back to take 3rd. Endurance racing is really exciting, witnessed by the fact the race winners margin over second was just a mere 0.443 of one second.
Ross Morris held the lead until the last lap – brilliant 2nd place.
Ben Eacock drove from the back to 3rd place.
Drives are still available and new cars and drivers are planning to be at Silverstone on 30th April. If you want to race Puma Cup is the best way to go.
Posted in Ford Racing UK - Latest News.


Ellie has joined the fashion police and she is on the look-out for fashion crime, which she has seen in three princesses. Now let's help her make a fashion intervention in all three of them and find a new look. The first one is Anna and she can wear a stylish bob, an asymmetric ruffled blue top, a green pleated skirt with flower prints, a pair of white peep toe shoes with bows, a rattan clutch with cherry prints and a black choker around her neck. Add new make-up and move on to Ariel. Put her hair in a ponytail and dye her tips blue, pick for her an off-shoulder white romper, a cardigan with moon prints, a purple heart shaped handbag and a pair of sunglasses. She has also caught Moana, who you can style with a side braid, a blue swimsuit, a black lace skirt, a beach bag with colorful tassels and a beautiful hat. Continue to fight fashion crimes with Ellie! Have a blast playing this fun game!


Well the challenge may be The Weekend in Black and White, however for me, it was my Week in black and white...and endless shades of gray. I just completed my CZT training, class 14 in Providence, Rhode Island. What an awesome experience! Thank you to the city, the fabulous staff at Hotel Providence, all the wonderful people I met, my encouraging husband (he truly is the best) and Rick and Maria and the warm welcome from the Zentangle® family, of which I now belong.
These are some of my favorite black and white photos of Providence. This city renders/offers itself so well in shades of gray.
And just a touch of color.
What a fine series of photos! I particularly like the last - strong lines softened by delicate lacy flowers. Lovely.


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West Hunter Street Baptist Church was founded in 1881 as Mount Calvary Baptist Church. The congregation's Gothic Revival stone sanctuary was constructed in 1906 at the corner of West Hunter Street (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive) and Chestnut Street (now James P. Brawley Drive). Beginning in 1961, under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., it served as a strategic and emotional headquarters of the Civil Rights Movement.
RALPH DAVID ABERNATHY
The partnership of Rev. Dr. Ralph David Abernathy and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 6, 1955, after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus. Together they led the Montgomery Improvement Association during the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott and forged a lasting friendship and partnership.
After the boycott, King moved to Atlanta to join his father as associate pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church. King and Abernathy spoke nightly, with King encouraging Abernathy to join him in Atlanta. In 1961, with the help of "Daddy" King, Abernathy visited the West Hunter Street Baptist Church, which was in need of a new pastor. At the age of 35, the Reverend Ralph David Abernathy moved to Atlanta to become Senior Pastor at the West Hunter Street Baptist Church.
WEST HUNTER STREET BAPTIST CHURCH
With Abernathy at the helm, West Hunter Street Baptist Church became a central fixture in the Civil Rights Movement. Most organizations (including schools and churches) did not want to take an active role in the movement. West Hunter accepted Dr. Abernathy's pastoral charge to become agents of change. The church provided space for non-violence training, the Poor People's Campaign, and other civil rights activities.
The congregation later provided key support for the election of Maynard Jackson as Atlanta's first black mayor and for Andrew Young as Georgia's first black U.S. congressman.
Under Dr. Abernathy's leadership, the congregation continued to grow and needed more room. As they were ready to begin construction to expand the church, a sanctuary on Gordon Street (now Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard) became available at an affordable price. Dr. Abernathy led members of the West Hunter congregation on a 1.7-mile march to their new home, where the church continues today.
Do you have memories of West Hunter Street Baptist Church, Dr. Abernathy, or Atlanta's Civil Rights Movement? Please share them with us!
© 2020 The Ralph David Abernathy III Foundation. This material was produced with assistance from the Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior.


A single Powerball ticket sold in Pennsylvania matched all six numbers in Saturday's drawing for a jackpot worth $456.7 million, lottery officials said.
The winning numbers in the March 17 drawing were 22, 57, 59, 60, 66 and Powerball 7. The jackpot was the eighth largest in Powerball history, worth $456.7 million in installments or $273.9 million if paid out in a lump sum.
Officials didn't immediately reveal where in Pennsylvania the winning ticket was sold. Three other tickets sold in California, Missouri and Texas matched the first five numbers in the drawing.
In January, a woman in New Hampshire bought the only winning ticket for a jackpot worth nearly $559 million. The winner went to court to ask a judge to allow her to remain anonymous, despite New Hampshire law stating that winners' identities are public information.
The judge allowed her to keep her identity hidden and claim her winnings, saying that revealing her name would be an invasion of privacy.


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You can save nearly $600 on LG's new Gram 16 laptop
LG's Gram 16 laptop is on sale for $799 at BuyDig. Image: LG
If you're tired of constantly relying on a second monitor or resizing windows for work because your laptop's screen isn't spacious enough, today's deal on LG's latest Gram 16 is one you'll want to consider. Regularly $1,396.99, you can currently buy it with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and an Intel i5-1240P processor for just $799 from BuyDig until December 31st.
This is the 16-inch version of LG's new Gram 17 we reviewed in October, which is our favorite laptop for fans of big screens. While this model's display is one inch smaller, both still share a large, high-resolution screen so you can easily open up multiple windows and apps. Yet despite its size, the laptop's also light enough to carry around while traveling or commuting….
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Q: Coefficent Estimates Collinearity Ridge Regression Suppose you are experiencing collinearity in your data set which is warping estimates of the regression coefficients. If you apply regularisation (in particular ridge regression) to combat this - will the estimates on the coefficients be more reliable or do you still need to mitigate further to combat the collinearity?

A: Ridge regression reduces the standard errors of the parameter estimates by allowing some bias in those estimates. You can select the amount of bias to allow. There are methods for selecting this so as to get a "best" result - that is, one that minimizes a combination of bias and error.


As a people of God, Trinity offers prayers for those of the church, the community and the world who are in need.
There are many ways that Trinity offers prayerful support. One way is through a prayer list that is shared with a small number of parishioners that intentionally pray for those in need.
This ministry allows us to care for, and lift up the needs of persons within our community, as well as families and friends. Additionaly, prayer requests are listed in the weekly church service bulletin so others may join in offering prayers.
Also, you may wish to take part in one of our healing services held during Sunday worship services every first Sunday of the month throughout the year.
If you would like to participate in Trinity's prayer ministry, please contact the Church office at 215-297-5135.
Is any other follow-up necessary?


Summit for Someone gives individuals and organizations the opportunity to embark on the adventure of a lifetime while raising funds for under-resourced youth.
GOLDEN, Colo. (October 8, 2018) – Big City Mountaineers (BCM), a leading provider of life-changing wilderness experiences for under-resourced youth, announced the launch of its 2019 Summit for Someone (SFS) season—a series of fifteen premium mountaineering and outdoor adventures across the country. Individuals can now register to take the trip of a lifetime while raising funds for under-resourced youth to have similarly impactful outdoor experiences.
Last season, Summit for Someone raised over $260,000 for BCM's transformational wilderness programs. Alongside roughly one hundred individuals who registered for an adventure in the SFS series, several outstanding corporations created custom Summit for Someone challenges supporting BCM. Polartec employees raised $10,000 hiking the Presidential Traverse and Thermacell employees raised $20,000 for a custom biking challenge.
In 2018, BCM sent its 10,000 participant into the backcountry, a milestone made possible by the funding from Summit for Someone's individual and corporate participants. The 2019 SFS series includes a winter ascent of Mt. Whitney, an all-women's climb up the Grand Teton, and a hut-to-hut expedition on the Presidential Traverse. To register and see the full schedule for 2019, visit www.bigcitymountaineers.org/fundraise/summit-for-someone.
To begin planning a custom Summit for Someone challenge for 2019, please visit https://www.bigcitymountaineers.org/fundraise/custom-challenge. Organizations interested in designing a corporate SFS expedition can contact Megan Aranow, Summit for Someone Coordinator at BCM.


Using this contact form you can request information and / or business related services Hotel Villa Irlanda .
Our staff, will answer as soon as possible .
To request availability of a room for specific period, you can write to us using the contact form on this contact page..


(FT5) Panasonic will launch two new Full Frame cameras at Photokina! Both with IBIS and 4K60p!
Note: This rumor has been posted first on the very new L-rumors.com website. This site will talk about rumors about all three companies involved in the new project: Leica, Sigma and Panasonic.
Sty tuned, I am working on getting the specs!


Last week, in Marchisio v. Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC, 2019 WL 1320522 (11th Cir. Mar. 25, 2019), the Eleventh Circuit, taking a somewhat exasperated tone, addressed claims against a mortgage servicer whose repeated misreporting of a consumer account—even after a history of litigation and two settlement agreements—was an "obvious" violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The 60-page opinion, authored by Judge Julie Carnes, discusses the FCRA, the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act, availability of emotional-distress and punitive damages, agency law, and contract interpretation, among other topics. In the end, it was not a good day for the mortgage servicer.
Back in 2009, Carrington Mortgage Services and the plaintiffs, Johnnie and Adrian Marchisio, settled a foreclosure action based on the Marchisios' default on two mortgage loans serviced by Carrington. The Marchisios turned over the property, and their debt was extinguished. Carrington, however, continued its debt collection efforts and reported the debt as delinquent to the credit reporting agencies.
The Marchisios then filed their first FCRA lawsuit, prompting Carrington to (correctly) inform the credit reporting agencies that the plaintiffs' first loan had a zero balance. Carrington, however, continued to misreport that the Marchisios owed money under the second loan. Under another settlement agreement, entered in January 2013, Carrington agreed to pay the Marchisios $125,000 and report the second loan's zero balance to the credit reporting agencies "as soon as reasonably possible, but in any case" by April 23, 2013.
Nevertheless, Carrington continued for the next three months to send automated monthly reports to the credit reporting agencies, erroneously reporting the second loan as delinquent. Carrington finally corrected the report two days after the April 23 deadline, only to begin reporting (incorrectly) that the Marchisios owed a balloon payment of nearly $35,000, due on March 1, 2021.
In response to disputes submitted by the Marchisios in November 2013, the credit reporting agencies contacted Carrington to verify the information reported. A Carrington employee investigated, but nothing in Carrington's database reflected the January 2013 settlement agreement or the previous litigation history, so the employee verified the reported information as accurate.
The Marchisios then filed their second lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida, giving rise to the Eleventh Circuit's opinion. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court granted summary judgment to the Marchisios as to Carrington's willful violation of the FCRA but granted summary judgment to Carrington on pretty much everything else, including emotional-distress damages and punitive damages (which it did sua sponte) as well as on the Marchisios' state-law claims. This left the Marchisios with an award of statutory damages of $3,000 plus attorneys' fees and costs, calculated based on only partial success.
On cross-appeals, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the ruling for the Marchisios and reversed and remanded for trial on the rest of the claims.
As to the willful FCRA violation, the Court found it "obvious that Defendant failed to conduct a reasonable investigation" and concluded that, as a matter of law, Carrington's investigative efforts were not reasonable. Carrington had failed to create a reliable system for inputting information regarding the settlement of litigation, Carrington was aware that its system was unreliable, and it was incumbent on Carrington to ensure that the terms of the settlement agreement were communicated to those who report to the agencies. Because Carrington had not taken these necessary steps, it was foreseeable that any investigation of the disputed information would yield an incorrect conclusion by its employees.
Moreover, even if Carrington had not acted willfully, it was at least reckless, which was sufficient to support a violation of the FCRA. The Marchisios had attempted to stop Carrington from reporting false information for "an exceedingly long period of time," yet Carrington repeatedly failed to take appropriate measures to insure its records were accurate.
The Eleventh Circuit went on to reverse the district court's denial of emotional-distress damages under the FCRA. Although there was evidence that these damages were caused by actions that occurred prior to the November 2013 FCRA violation, the district court had failed to evaluate whether that violation "exacerbated again" the existing emotional distress.
The Eleventh Circuit also reversed on the issue of punitive damages. First, it was improper for the district court to summarily dispose of the issue without hearing from either party. Second, the court rejected the district court's rationale that punitive damages were inappropriate because the defendant's willful violation was not based on any intentional or purposeful act. According to Supreme Court precedent, willfulness includes reckless conduct, not solely conduct that is intentional or purposeful.
The Eleventh Circuit also rejected the district court's reasoning and Carrington's arguments as to the state-law claims for violation of the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act and breach of contract. Although the court agreed with Carrington that a breach-of-contract claim could not be based on emotional-distress damages, the Marchisios had put forth evidence of damages in the form of receiving adverse financial terms on subsequent vehicle purchases.


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Mar Vista/Del Rey
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The Self-Made Candidate
Posted by The Argonaut | Feb 27, 2019 | News | 0 |
The Self-Made Candidate Maria Shriver asks sharp questions of Starbucks CEO turned presidential hopeful Howard Schultz
By Bliss Bowen
Schultz answered Shriver's questions thoughtfully, but focused more on big ideas than detailed plans to accomplish them
Photo by GARY LEONARD
Live Talks LA hosted a sold-out event last Thursday in the Moss Theater at New Roads School, presenting former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in conversation with author and onetime California first lady Maria Shriver. The subject was ostensibly Schultz's new book "From the Ground Up: A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America," but the meat of the evening was the will-he-or-won't-he question that's made Schultz controversial: Will he run for president?
Dire warnings have issued from all corners that his independent candidacy would split the Democratic vote and all but giftwrap a second Trump term. More than once he promised the Santa Monica crowd, "I will do nothing to re-elect Donald Trump."
Shriver's introduction of Schultz as "a self-made man who made money the old-fashioned way — he earned it" received one of the night's most enthusiastic bursts of applause from a comfortably dressed, mostly white audience discernibly disapproving of Trump's policies. Many millennials nodded appreciatively at his calls for accountability, a "Marshall Plan for restructuring policies for the middle class," and government's "moral obligation" to fix the linked crises of mental health and homelessness.
When Shriver pointedly asked why instead of running as an independent centrist he doesn't swing his wisdom, expertise and money behind centrists like Amy Klobuchar (or, perhaps, Joe Biden), Schultz called it "the right question." But his response seeded more questions than it answered.
"If I run for president, I'm not running against the Democratic Party," he said. "It's not personal against any of the people who are running, they're well intentioned. If I run, it's because I've concluded the two-party system is no longer working. As a result of that, it doesn't matter to me who the Democratic nominee is because I don't think in 2020 that the Democratic nominee should get elected. Is there any evidence whatsoever that both parties are going to start working well together on behalf of the American people?"
That's a valuable question, but Schultz offered no granular detail about how he would translate his admirable ideas into action in tandem with elected members of the two main political parties. To be fair, declared candidates have yet to post their own policy prescriptions; but Schultz's critiques prompted logical curiosity — left unsatisfied. As non-answers go, his was less offensively arrogant than Trump's "I alone can fix it," but however decent or humble, Schultz's answer was still undergirded by entitlement, a dismissal of the bare-knuckled realities of how governance works day to day.
"You can't do anything alone, and business is a team sport," Schultz said. The same is true of American government.
Schultz spoke convincingly of the need for compromise, which is essential for effective government. But that is not the same as viscerally understanding what it means to develop political alliances and work cooperatively within that government.
Therein lie the core problems with Schultz's potential candidacy, independent or otherwise. He's offered scant "evidence" (his word) that he understands how to translate his ideas into legislative action within the framework of democratic government, or how to motivate and unify voters. And his tremendous corporate success means that, were he to win, overnight he would — not unlike the Oval's current businessman occupant — go from being the boss of everyone at his company to everyone in the country being his boss. Schultz's keen sensitivity to how he's quoted raises questions about his ability to absorb criticism. Not talking in soundbites makes him more relatable, and his preambles are substantive, but he hamstrings himself with their length.
Issues addressed by Starbucks under his stewardship echo national concerns: inequality, racism, guns, unemployment, veterans, refugees. Reminding the audience that Starbucks hired nearly 20,000 veterans spurred big applause; he also cited the company's announcement after Trump's first travel ban that it would hire 10,000 refugees.
Schultz spoke movingly of an "epidemic of loneliness" and the need to "make people feel they belong" by helping them feel respected, valued and understood — and, crucially, replenishing their "need to believe in something true," which Trump has "undermined."
He listed other items that need to be "reimagined" (K-12 education, healthcare, immigration policy) and "rekindled" (authenticity, "the pride and idealism of the American Dream"), and voiced deep concern about a prevailing "lack of fairness, a lack of opportunity, and our standing in the world."
"The responsibility of anyone who has succeeded in this country is to pay it forward," he declared, adding that companies and individuals who've made money "should not be vilified" and corporations should be given tax incentives "to do good." ("There's a good deal of linkage between doing right by your people or community and making a profit," he adds.)
Schultz connected aging and the crushing need for more caregivers to jobs for older people and immigrants, an idea worth further study. Singling out insulin's ridiculous markup, he said a President Schultz would "mandate that pharmaceutical companies cannot take advantage of American consumers." Nice. How?
All that established his thoughtfulness and intelligence, but not bona fides for presidential office. Instead, other questions arose: How much more could he achieve setting an example of corporate conscience? Or responsible citizenship? Would his analytical and communication skills be more fruitfully employed in diplomacy?
Shrewdly quoting an observation from Schultz's book that "authority has to be earned," Shriver recalled her mother's mantra "You have to earn your way up by starting small" before asking if Schultz thought of "starting small" by first running for Congress, the Senate, or governor.
His problematic answer, which earned applause, presented a case for him to heed the title of his own book and build a third, centrist party "from the ground up," but failed to explain his reasoning as to why he should lead from the top down. When he cited Starbucks' success, claiming, "I know a little bit about leadership," audience members laughed; the last election went to a businessman with no government experience. Left unmentioned was his contentious Seattle SuperSonics ownership.
"We need a level of leadership that American people can trust and a government that's working for us," Schultz said. "I don't see any evidence of any Democratic candidate that has more executive experience than I do. … In terms of earning it, that's gonna be up to the American people." Swiftly pivoting to partisan divides, he added, "Over the last 30-plus years every presidential election has been decided basically by eight to 10 battleground states, because almost every state is predetermined red or blue. Should I decide to run as independent … all 50 states in a three-person race no more are predetermined. This kind of story has not really gotten out yet. Why should the American people only have two choices?"
There was insufficient time to assess nuts and bolts of third parties, gerrymandering or voting rights. Minimal discussion of climate change centered around the Green New Deal: "If you offer a fantasy that has no realistic prospect of being achieved, it's dishonest and un-American," Schultz said. Given that climate change is one of the gravest threats to our national security, his lack of engagement with the issue was not a promising sign that a Schultz administration would address it with vigor.
Regarding his potential candidacy, Schultz fully committed only to traveling the country with his wife to determine whether people share his feelings, and to believing he is where he needs to be: "This is where my life has led me. … I've never had more conviction about what I'm trying to do."
Schultz's avowed aspiration to be a "servant leader" was refreshing: "Success is best when it's shared, and we are in need of leaders in service of others." Very true. But the implication was that such sincere, values-grounded desire to give back is sufficient ground on which to build a presidency. History reminds us: It is not.
Spectrum News 1 Los Angeles is broadcasting the Live Talks LA conversation between Schultz and Shriver at 9 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 28). It also streams at livetalksla.org on Saturday (March 2).
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