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Kinnesswood Bed and Breakfast, Cheap Hotel and Guest House Accommodation
Kinnesswood
Kinnesswood Bed and Breakfasts. Compare latest rates and Live availability for all your favourite places and places you have always wanted to go using our new My Shortlist feature. Click + to add to your Shortlist.
Bed and Breakfasts in Kinnesswood, Perth and Kinross for 1 night from Sat Jan 16, 2021 to Sun Jan 17, 2021 within 10 miles, in an Average Nightly price range of £1 to £200.
Kinross 3.6 5.79 3 16171819202122 £69.00 £69.00 £59.00 £59.00 £59.00 £59.00 £59.00 £69.00
Burnbank
Kinross 3.67 5.91 4 16171819202122 £75.00 £75.00 £75.00 £75.00 £75.00 £75.00 £75.00 £75.00
The Greenside Hotel
Glenrothes 4.89 7.86 3 16171819202122 £84.00 £84.00 £84.00 £84.00 £84.00 £84.00 £84.00 £84.00
Best Western Balgeddie House Hotel
Orchid House
Kinross 7.57 12.18 N/A 16171819202122 £65.00 £65.00 £65.00 £65.00 £65.00 £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
Scotties B & B 4 Star
Kirkcaldy 8.98 14.46 4 16171819202122 £70.00 £70.00 £70.00 £70.00 £70.00 £70.00 £70.00 £70.00
the windsor hotel kirkcaldy
The Elbow Room
Lothrie House
Kirkcaldy 9.27 14.91 N/A 16171819202122 £68.00 £68.00 £68.00 £68.00 £68.00 £68.00 £68.00 £68.00
Ashgrove Bed and Breakfast
Holiday Inn Express Dunfermline
Dunfermline 9.45 15.21 3 16171819202122 £52.00 £52.00 £57.00 £57.00 £57.00 £57.00 £51.30 £52.00
Clarke Cottage Guest House
The Crees Inn
Abernethy 8.7 13.99 N/A 16171819202122 £60.00 £60.00 £60.00 FULL £60.00 £60.00 £60.00 £60.00
Oswald House Hotel
Kirkcaldy 8.34 13.42 4 16171819202122 FULL FULL FULL £115.00 £115.00 FULL FULL FULL
Chalet Loch Leven Lodge
Kinross 2.1 3.37 3 16171819202122 FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL
Kirklands Hotel
Kinross 3.55 5.72 3 16171819202122 FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL
The Thistle Hotel
Kinross 3.62 5.83 N/A 16171819202122 FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL
Holiday Home Devonvale Place
Ballingall Cottage
Firbank Bed and Breakfast
Glenrothes 4.89 7.87 N/A 16171819202122 FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL
The Hayloft
Fochy Cottage
Ashknowe Log Cabin
Glenfarg 4.95 7.96 N/A 16171819202122 FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL
Fingask Log Cabin
Bracken Log Cabin
Bishops Hill View
Glenrothes 5.28 8.5 N/A 16171819202122 FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL
Holiday Inn Express Glenrothes
Glenrothes 5.39 8.68 3 16171819202122 FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL
The Studio at Maspie House
Falkland 5.63 9.05 N/A 16171819202122 FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL
The Covenanter Hotel
Falkland 5.64 9.08 3 16171819202122 FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL
Falkland 5.66 9.1 3 16171819202122 FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL FULL
2 The Muirs, Kinross, KY13 8AS
Set in an 18th-century coaching inn, the family-owned Green Hotel offers a selection of restaurants, bars, a games room and 2 golf courses. The proper...more
Set in an 18th-century coaching inn, the family-owned Green Hotel offers a selection of restaurants, bars, a games room and 2 golf courses. The property is in Kinross, close to the M90 motorway. The hotel offers beautifully maintained grounds and there is also a courtyard where guests can relax and enjoy evening drinks or afternoon tea. The bedrooms at The Green Hotel each have a satellite TV and a work desk. All rooms have a private modern bathroom and a cosy seating area, and free WiFi is available throughout. There are meeting and events facilities available, as well as function spaces for weddings. Green Hotel is within an hour's drive of Perth, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Dundee and the gateway to Fife. There is plenty of free on-site parking. The hotel also offers the Loch Leven Heritage Trail.
Muirs, Kinross, KY13 8AZ
Burnbank offer a luxurious bed and breakfast experience in Muirs, just 2 minutes' drive from the centre of Kinross, Perthshire. Its individually style...more
Burnbank offer a luxurious bed and breakfast experience in Muirs, just 2 minutes' drive from the centre of Kinross, Perthshire. Its individually styled en suite rooms are Wi-Fi enabled, and Burnbank B&B also serves an impressive menu of home-cooked evening meals. The house has twin, double and family rooms, as well as a guest lounge and dining room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the gardens. All rooms are equipped with tea and coffee facilities, TV with DVD player, radio alarm clock and hairdryer. The full cooked breakfast features free range eggs and bacon, and there is also porridge, cereals and homemade granola and preserves. Other choices include waffles with maple syrup, and scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toasted brioche. Burnbank is just a 5-minute drive from Loch Leven and a 10-minute walk from the Kinross Golf Courses. The beautiful Lomond Hills are around 15 minutes' drive from Kinross.
1 High Street, Glenrothes, KY6 3DA
Featuring a garden, The Greenside Hotel offers rooms in Glenrothes, 7 km from Balgonie Castle. This 3-star hotel features free WiFi and a terrace. The...more
Featuring a garden, The Greenside Hotel offers rooms in Glenrothes, 7 km from Balgonie Castle. This 3-star hotel features free WiFi and a terrace. The restaurant serves Scottish dishes. The units in the hotel are fitted with a kettle. With a private bathroom, certain units at The Greenside Hotel also boast a mountain view. All units include a desk. Guests at the accommodation can enjoy a continental breakfast. Hiking is among the activities that guests can enjoy near The Greenside Hotel. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 47 km from the property.
Balgeddie Way, Glenrothes, KY6 3QA
This traditional country house hotel is in quiet countryside in North Glenrothes. It mixes original character with modern comforts, including free Wi-...more
This traditional country house hotel is in quiet countryside in North Glenrothes. It mixes original character with modern comforts, including free Wi-Fi, free parking and flat-screen TVs. The Balgeddie House Hotel looks out over its own large gardens and the Fife countryside. It was built in 1923 and has now been extended and refurbished. The en suite rooms have TVs with Freeview digital channels. There is a relaxed cocktail lounge and an oak-panelled cocktail bar, with a fine range of malt whiskies. The Brasserie offers fresh Scottish cuisine, and looks out over the gardens. A full cooked Scottish breakfast is on the breakfast menu in the Brasserie.
4 Ashfield, Carnbo, Kinross, KY13 0NX
Beautiful country house with spa and beautiful bedrooms in an ideal location for golf, shopping, sight-seeing and exploring. Our home is your home com...more
Beautiful country house with spa and beautiful bedrooms in an ideal location for golf, shopping, sight-seeing and exploring. Our home is your home come and have a look.
15 Bennochy Road, Kirkcaldy, KY2 5QU
All twin rooms fully equiped with complimentary safes and internet access points and WiFi for your laptops.tea coffee, hair dryers etc.
38 Victoria Rd, Kirkcaldy, KY1 1DR
Boasting a garden, the windsor hotel kirkcaldy is situated in Kirkcaldy. Providing a restaurant, the property also has a shared lounge and a bar. Free...more
Boasting a garden, the windsor hotel kirkcaldy is situated in Kirkcaldy. Providing a restaurant, the property also has a shared lounge and a bar. Free WiFi is available. At the hotel, all rooms are equipped with a desk and a flat-screen TV. The windsor hotel kirkcaldy offers a sun terrace. Edinburgh is 46 km from the accommodation, while Perth is 44 km from the property. Edinburgh Airport is 43 km away.
Rosslyn Street 131-137, Kirkcaldy, KY1 3HT
Featuring free WiFi, a restaurant and a sun terrace, The Elbow Room offers pet-friendly accommodation in Kirkcaldy, 21 km from Edinburgh. Guests can e...more
Featuring free WiFi, a restaurant and a sun terrace, The Elbow Room offers pet-friendly accommodation in Kirkcaldy, 21 km from Edinburgh. Guests can enjoy the on-site bar. Free private parking is available on site. Each room includes a flat-screen TV. Some units include a seating area for your convenience. You will find a kettle in the room. For your comfort, you will find free toiletries and a hairdryer. There is room service at the property and breakfast can be booked on arrival. You can play darts at the inn. Perth is 35 km from The Elbow Room, while Dundee is 38 km away. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 25 km from The Elbow Room.
1 Gow Crescent, Kirkcaldy, KY1 1EY
Lothrie House is situated in Kirkcaldy. Free WiFi is available. All guest rooms in the guest house are fitted with a flat-screen TV. Continental and F...more
Lothrie House is situated in Kirkcaldy. Free WiFi is available. All guest rooms in the guest house are fitted with a flat-screen TV. Continental and Full English/Irish breakfast options are available daily at Lothrie House. Edinburgh is 43 km from the accommodation. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 39 km from the property.
213, Nicol Street, Kirkcaldy, KY1 1PF
Located in Kirkcaldy, 41.6 km from Edinburgh, Ashgrove Bed and Breakfast features free WiFi access and free private parking. Each room is equipped wit...more
Located in Kirkcaldy, 41.6 km from Edinburgh, Ashgrove Bed and Breakfast features free WiFi access and free private parking. Each room is equipped with a flat-screen TV. You will find a kettle in the room. For your comfort, you will find free toiletries and a hairdryer. Perth is 36 km from Ashgrove Bed and Breakfast, while Dundee is 41 km from the property. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 21 km from Ashgrove Bed and Breakfast.
Halbeath Dunfermline, Dunfermline, KY11 8DY
In the historic city of Dunfermline, with great access by road to Edinburgh and Edinburgh Airport, this modern hotel offers free WiFi internet access ...more
In the historic city of Dunfermline, with great access by road to Edinburgh and Edinburgh Airport, this modern hotel offers free WiFi internet access and great-value rooms with satellite TV. Just a few hundred metres from junction 3 of the M90, Holiday Inn Express Dunfermline has excellent access to the area's major road network. Edinburgh city centre is 26 km away and Edinburgh Airport is only 21 km from the hotel and can be reached in about 25 minutes by car. Free parking is available for guests. The hotel is next door to the Carnegie Conference Centre, a modern conference and exhibition centre. The hotel is also located close to Knockhill Racing Circuit, Carnegie Hall, Deep Sea World and the home ground of Dunfermline Athletic Football Club.
139 Halbeath Road, Dunfermline, KY11 4LA
Set in Dunfermline, Clarke Cottage Guest House offers 3-star accommodation with a garden. This 3-star guest house offers free WiFi. The property provi...more
Set in Dunfermline, Clarke Cottage Guest House offers 3-star accommodation with a garden. This 3-star guest house offers free WiFi. The property provides a shared lounge. The rooms at the guest house come with a seating area and a flat-screen TV. The rooms come with a private bathroom. The units include a wardrobe. Breakfast is available each morning, and includes continental and buffet options. Edinburgh is 30 km from Clarke Cottage Guest House, while Perth is 43 km from the property. Edinburgh Airport is 27 km away.
Main Street The Crees Inn, Abernethy, PH2 9LA
Featuring a bar, The Crees Inn is set in Abernethy. Boasting room service, this property also provides guests with a restaurant. Free WiFi is featured...more
Featuring a bar, The Crees Inn is set in Abernethy. Boasting room service, this property also provides guests with a restaurant. Free WiFi is featured. At the hotel, rooms include a wardrobe and a flat-screen TV. Each room is equipped with a private bathroom with a bath or shower and free toiletries. Breakfast is available each morning, and includes continental and buffet options. Perth is 14 km from The Crees Inn. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 65 km from the property.
Dunnikier Park, Kirkcaldy, KY1 3LP
Featuring a garden and bar, as well as a restaurant, Oswald House Hotel is set in Kirkcaldy. With free WiFi, this 4-star hotel offers a 24-hour front ...more
Featuring a garden and bar, as well as a restaurant, Oswald House Hotel is set in Kirkcaldy. With free WiFi, this 4-star hotel offers a 24-hour front desk. Guests can enjoy garden views. All rooms in the hotel are equipped with a kettle. The rooms are equipped with a private bathroom with a shower. At Oswald House Hotel rooms include a wardrobe and a flat-screen TV. Guests at the accommodation can enjoy a continental breakfast. Edinburgh is 44 km from Oswald House Hotel, while Perth is 43 km from the property. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 41 km from the hotel.
, Kinross, KY13 9LY
Chalet Loch Leven Lodge is situated in Kinross. Guests staying at this chalet have access to a fully equipped kitchen. With direct access to a terrace...more
Chalet Loch Leven Lodge is situated in Kinross. Guests staying at this chalet have access to a fully equipped kitchen. With direct access to a terrace, this chalet comes with 3 separate bedrooms. Private parking is available at the chalet. Edinburgh is 43 km from Chalet Loch Leven Lodge. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 40 km from the property.
High Street, Kinross, KY13 8AN
This traditional 18th century coaching inn boasts 9 en suite rooms with free Wi-Fi. Each room features a TV, as well as an iPod docking station..Extra...more
This traditional 18th century coaching inn boasts 9 en suite rooms with free Wi-Fi. Each room features a TV, as well as an iPod docking station..Extras include free toiletries and a hairdryer. Guests can enjoy Scottish cuisine in both the restaurant and there is also a beer garden. Kirklands Hotel offers room service. Popular local activities are hiking and walking. Lomond Hills Regional Park is just 15 miles away. Perth is 21 km from Kirklands Hotel. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 29 km from Kirklands Hotel.
25 New Road Milnathort, Kinross, KY13 9XT
The Thistle Hotel is situated in Kinross. The property has a bar, as well as a restaurant serving British cuisine. The rooms have a TV with satellite ...more
The Thistle Hotel is situated in Kinross. The property has a bar, as well as a restaurant serving British cuisine. The rooms have a TV with satellite channels. At the hotel, every room comes with a desk. Featuring a private bathroom, rooms at The Thistle Hotel also offer free WiFi. At the accommodation all rooms have a seating area. The Thistle Hotel offers a Full English/Irish or vegetarian breakfast. Edinburgh is 46 km from the hotel, while Perth is 26 km from the property. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 43 km from the property.
, Kinross, KY13 8FR
Situated in Kinross in the Perthshire region, Holiday Home Devonvale Place features a patio. This holiday home features a garden. This holiday home co...more
Situated in Kinross in the Perthshire region, Holiday Home Devonvale Place features a patio. This holiday home features a garden. This holiday home comes with 3 bedrooms, a flat-screen TV, and a kitchen with a dishwasher. Private parking is available at the holiday home. Edinburgh is 44 km from Holiday Home Devonvale Place, while Perth is 27 km from the property. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 41 km from the accommodation.
, Kinross, KY13
Ballingall Cottage is located in Kinross. This holiday home features a garden as well as free WiFi. The holiday home has a TV and 2 bedrooms. Edinburg...more
Ballingall Cottage is located in Kinross. This holiday home features a garden as well as free WiFi. The holiday home has a TV and 2 bedrooms. Edinburgh is 43 km from the holiday home. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 40 km from the property.
42 High Street, Glenrothes, KY6 3DA
Located in Glenrothes, Firbank Bed and Breakfast provides accommodation with free WiFi, within 7 km of Balgonie Castle. Continental and Full English/I...more
Located in Glenrothes, Firbank Bed and Breakfast provides accommodation with free WiFi, within 7 km of Balgonie Castle. Continental and Full English/Irish breakfast options are available daily at the bed and breakfast. Firbank Bed and Breakfast offers a sun terrace. Guests can relax in the garden at the property. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 47 km from the property.
The Hayloft is situated in Kinross. Free WiFi is available. Edinburgh is 47 km from the holiday home, while Perth is 26 km away. The nearest airport i...more
The Hayloft is situated in Kinross. Free WiFi is available. Edinburgh is 47 km from the holiday home, while Perth is 26 km away. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 44 km from the property.
Fochy Cottage is situated in Kinross. Complimentary WiFi is featured. Edinburgh is 47 km from the holiday home, while Perth is 26 km away. The nearest...more
Fochy Cottage is situated in Kinross. Complimentary WiFi is featured. Edinburgh is 47 km from the holiday home, while Perth is 26 km away. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 44 km from Fochy Cottage.
, Glenfarg, PH2 9PD
Ashknowe Log Cabin is situated in Glenfarg and offers a garden. Guests may enjoy free WiFi. This 1-bedroom holiday home includes 1 bathroom equipped w...more
Ashknowe Log Cabin is situated in Glenfarg and offers a garden. Guests may enjoy free WiFi. This 1-bedroom holiday home includes 1 bathroom equipped with a shower. Perth is 19 km from the holiday home. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 50 km from the property.
Fingask Log Cabin is situated in Glenfarg. The accommodation has free WiFi. Guests can also relax in the garden. Perth is 19 km from the holiday home,...more
Fingask Log Cabin is situated in Glenfarg. The accommodation has free WiFi. Guests can also relax in the garden. Perth is 19 km from the holiday home, while Dundee is 47 km from the property. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 50 km from the property.
Set in Glenfarg in the Perthshire region, Bracken Log Cabin has a garden. This holiday home provides accommodation with free WiFi. Perth is 19 km from...more
Set in Glenfarg in the Perthshire region, Bracken Log Cabin has a garden. This holiday home provides accommodation with free WiFi. Perth is 19 km from the holiday home, while Dundee is 47 km away. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 50 km from the property.
, Glenrothes, KY6
Bishops Hill View in Glenrothes provides accommodation with free WiFi, 7 km from Balgonie Castle. This holiday home has a garden. The holiday home com...more
Bishops Hill View in Glenrothes provides accommodation with free WiFi, 7 km from Balgonie Castle. This holiday home has a garden. The holiday home comes with a TV and 2 bedrooms. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport, 49 km from the property.
Leslie Road, Glenrothes, KY6 3EP
Holiday Inn Express Glenrothes has free parking, a bar and Wi-Fi access. Edinburgh is within easy reach and there is good motorway access. Each modern...more
Holiday Inn Express Glenrothes has free parking, a bar and Wi-Fi access. Edinburgh is within easy reach and there is good motorway access. Each modern room at Holiday Inn Express Glenrothes features Freeview TV, tea and coffee making facilities, and a power shower. A generous continental breakfast includes cooked items, and is served each morning. The staff at Holiday Inn Express Glenrothes are friendly and efficient. There is a traditional British inn located next to the hotel, serving home-cooked food all day.
Maspie House, High Street, Falkland, KY15 7BU
Offering free WiFi and garden views, The Studio at Maspie House is an accommodation located in Falkland. The property is 100 metres from Falkland Pala...more
Offering free WiFi and garden views, The Studio at Maspie House is an accommodation located in Falkland. The property is 100 metres from Falkland Palace. The bed and breakfast has a flat-screen TV. A continental breakfast is available every morning at the bed and breakfast. The Studio at Maspie House offers a sun terrace. Guests can relax in the garden at the property. Edinburgh Airport is 57 km away.
The Square, Falkland, KY15 7BU
Situated in the picturesque village of Falkland with the Lomond Hills as a backdrop, The Covenanter Hotel features an on-site coffee shop, restaurant ...more
Situated in the picturesque village of Falkland with the Lomond Hills as a backdrop, The Covenanter Hotel features an on-site coffee shop, restaurant and free private parking. Free Wi-Fi is also available, and a traditional carvery is on offer each weekend. An en suite bathroom, TV and tea/coffee making facilities are featured in each room at The Covenanter, as well as views over Falkland Square. Lunch and evening meals are provided in the on-site restaurant, and ingredients are locally sourced where possible. Homemade cakes are served in the coffee shop, where guests can relax with a tea or coffee. Pleasant walks and mountain biking can be enjoyed in Lomond Hills Regional Park, which the hotel lies on the edge of. A handful of small pubs and craft shops are situated within Falkland village, as well as a golf course.
The Hayloft, Back Wynd, Falkland, KY15 7BX
On the edge of the Lomond Hills Regional Park, The Hayloft is a cosy ground-floor apartment in the Fife town of Falkland. This apartment has a modern ...more
On the edge of the Lomond Hills Regional Park, The Hayloft is a cosy ground-floor apartment in the Fife town of Falkland. This apartment has a modern interior and its own garden, barbecue and summerhouse. The kitchen is equipped with an oven, fridge, microwave and washing machine, and has a breakfast bar. In the same open-plan living area, the lounge has a comfortable sofa, flat-screen TV and DVD player. A stylish double bedroom is complemented by a bathroom with shower and bath. Upstairs, there is a tea room run by the apartment's owner, with discounts for guests who choose to eat there. Falkland is around 16 miles south of Perth, with Scone Palace a little over 30 minutes' drive. A 35-minute drive from Dundee and less than 1 hour from Edinburgh, the town is less than half an hour from Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy.


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Microsoft Advocates Security Through Timely Patching
By Kurt Mackie
Organizations can ensure security by keeping Windows up to date, and they should patch their line-of-business applications as well.
That basic notion, well known by IT pros, was one of the main talking points heard recently from Microsoft Chief Security Advisor Tim Rains. He spoke on Day 1 of the Microsoft TechNet Virtual Conference series, a three-day Web event that kicked off on Tuesday. Rains' talk is available on demand here.
Four issues tend to increase risks for organizations. They have weak passwords, software misconfigurations, fall prey to "social engineering" attempts or have unpatched vulnerabilities. Rains' talk concentrated on the latter issue. He acknowledged that "patch Tuesdays," the second Tuesday of the month when Microsoft delivers its software updates and security bulletins, does increase anxiety for organizations, especially when they have complex software environments to maintain.
Since 1999, per U.S. Department of Homeland Security statistics, just 3 percent to 7 percent of all software vulnerabilities now track back to Microsoft, Rains said. Microsoft's security used to be "terrible," but the company has improved its software development process over the years. Rains credited Microsoft's Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) approach for this turnaround.
Most of the security problems out there are due to applications, which account for about 80 percent of the vulnerabilities, Rains said. Browsers, in particular, amount to about 15 percent to 25 percent of the security holes, he added. Some applications don't automatically update, which makes it a chore to keep them patched, but there's risk if the patching isn't done, Rains noted.
Rains provided some clarification about Microsoft's approach to software vulnerabilities. Its focus is on reducing vulnerabilities that are actually exploitable, rather than exploitable at the theoretical level, he explained. While there might be a high number of security bulletins issued on a given month, Microsoft measures its software security progress by its reduction of highly exploitable software flaws.
The exploitability of Microsoft's software flaws has declined, Rains contended. There's been a 70 percent reduction in critical exploitability between 2011 and 2013, and the software was even less exploitable between 2014 and 2015, Rains said.
It's been a long-running joke that "exploit Wednesday" follows "patch Tuesday." Rains contended, though, that this exploit Wednesday phenomenon has largely shrunk as a result of Microsoft's speed in releasing updates.
Attackers have speeded up the production of "exploit kits" following patch Tuesdays. They used to take about 30 days to create exploits kits for known vulnerabilities, but now that time has shrunk to about 10 days, Rains said. In 2015, Microsoft is now seeing so-called "zero-day" exploits being placed into attack kits. Zero-day flaws are unpublished vulnerabilities typically not known by software developers. Rains said that organizations with five-year-old patching methodologies are likely out of date in addressing this faster attack pace.
Attacks aren't going to stop, so Rains' guidance for IT pros is simply to keep software patched. If software is up to date, it can't be targeted, Rains contended.
"If your system is patched, it can't be exploited through unpatched vulnerabilities, which is one of the four ways I mentioned that people get exploited," he said.
Attackers in the early days used to be motivated by achieving notoriety, but profit is the main consideration today. Other threats come from "hacktivists" and "nation-state" entities, Rains said. The Stuxnet worm, allegedly created by the U.S. and Israel governments to disrupt Iranian nuclear technology development, is still around even though it's been patched in Windows since 2010. Stuxnet remains as the No. 1 attack attempt because other attackers have adopted it for commodity malware, Rains explained.
IT pros already understand that patching should be kept up to date, Rains said, which is hard work in a lot of environments. He said that Microsoft tries to minimize patch reboots because they're "painful." However, IT pros also should make sure that software mitigation tools are turned on as well. It will help ward off zero-day attacks. In that regard, Rains recommended using Microsoft's Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET), a free software tool designed to ward off known exploit techniques. EMET will show all of an organization's apps that have Data Execution Prevention (DEP) or Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) turned on, Rains said. While DEP and ASLR protections are built into Windows, sometimes those security options get unchecked, Rains explained. You can turn on those mitigations without recompiling apps when you use EMET, he added.
Rains also recommended the use of Microsoft's BinScope Binary Analyzer. Microsoft describes it as a tool for both developers and IT pros to audit the security of applications. Microsoft uses it as part of its SDL software approach. Rains said that BinScope will show which mitigations are turned on for a given binary.
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for the 1105 Enterprise Computing Group.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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If found…review
Posted byrulerofowls December 28, 2020 Posted inGame Reviews, GamesTags:game review, if found, If found...
I first heard of "if found" due to the various awards it won or was nominated for and, since it had a good discount during that time, I decided to take a swing at it, not knowing what it was actually about. Turns out it is brilliant and another game I played in December that I'm very positive on and have to consider for my own lists later on. It is one of those games that pushes the medium forward in what it can do and how to use its unique aspects and universal qualities, to create something that is poignant and deeply entertaining.
The game starts off in space with an astronaut getting cryptic warnings about a catastrophic event that will erase the entire universe in 24 days; then it transitions to Kasio, a young girl returning home in West Ireland after university trying to figure out who she is. If found is not a crushingly depressive game about coming out to parents and society; the developers explicitly state this in one of their updates. It is sad, funny, uplifting, gloomy, hopeful and pessimistic; it's a coming-of-age story of a teenager who is okay with who they are and must now deal with the rest of the world and grow up, and is also a trans person. It takes on a lot of themes and has a lot to say and the game could have been crushed by its own weight, but the developers have done an exceptional job at using their own artistic capabilities, alongside the medium's inherent qualities to distribute and manage that weight expertly.
Obviously, I'm talking about the interactivity and the role it has on the game's narrative and intended experience, however before that, there's an important element to discuss; the art style. I think my favorite art style of the year might still end up being Ori, but the game's art style is certainly the most fitting and purposeful of the year. It's a pencil drawing complete with water-color paintings, done in A4 textbook-looking papers; this is Kasio's diary and, while the game is about learning the story, it is also about accepting it and then erasing it, so you can start fresh. Its an interesting art-style to look at, especially for a game, but it is immersive when it comes to the interactivity and the player identifying with Kasio as well.
Furthermore, this is a game that is heavily focused on its narrative, so the most important individual feature of it – the writing – had to be top notch, and it is one of the best examples of writing in video games of the year, and of recent memory. It is so effortless and natural that, as an aspiring writer myself, I couldn't help but be captivated by it; it is extremely difficult and rarer still for a game to have such flair and realism in their writing, especially one that can easily steer into corniness or melodramatic very easily. The actual storyline is handled really well with a lot of focus placed on the excellent characterization of the main characters, their relationships with each other and the other people in their circle, but they still leave room for some quirky moments of fun, some teenager drama, and a frantic and thoroughly entertaining conclusion. To add to all this, the soundtrack is (once again for 2020) a fantastic example of how music can not only add to a scene, but enhance the experience and help convey emotions and feelings that are vital to the game hitting you when it needs to.
Taking a look at each of the game's features individually, they are all great, but where the game becomes brilliant is in how it uses interactivity to gel everything together and create a unique and worthwhile experience. Most of the time it will be as simple as erasing text, scribbles, or drawings to move on to the next lines or reveal new ones; in between these sections, there are "coloring" sections as well. On face value, these are rudimentary implementations of interactivity, but they make such thematic sense and allow several other moments to shine. For example, Irish slang is a big part of how the game manages to come off as natural and it is used frequently and often; the game uses a pop-up system to let you know what that word means and its origin, making great use of the fact that the player has control over the speed of the text and which parts they choose to focus on. Furthermore, there are several moments where erasing a drawing is almost therapeutic, while also having several moments where needing to erase a line feels wrong. This isn't groundbreaking use of interactivity – there are several examples of games doing the same thing – but it is incredibly well executed and feels as impactful as any of those examples before it; it makes melodramatic, serious, and frantic moments pack a much heftier punch, while delivering the uplifting, poetic, and entertaining moments in a novel and interesting way.
Unfortunately, this level of importance in the interactivity is likely to create problems and there are some issues. Primarily, the game sometimes seems to be inconsistent with how fast it recognizes that you are done "erasing" scribbles on a page, meaning it will sometimes take a while to register that you can see the text (even had it take as long as reading the actual text) or be instantaneous which led me to erase some text by accident (with no way to reverse this). This is less of a problem/critique, as it is a praise on the writing, that I would be frustrated at loosing a couple of words here and there. Furthermore, although they are unintrusive on the whole, there are several "points of no return" in moments where you can explore the pages and uncover smaller moments with the characters, which move you on before you've seen all that you want to see. Again, this is less of a critique, because like KRZ before it, these moments are worthwhile to search for (in further playthroughs) but are not necessary for the appreciation of the characters involved or the story as a whole.
To conclude with, If found is a brilliant game; I've intentionally not talked about the narrative in detail or with specifics, because that IS the experience that everyone should discover on their own and have it resonate in its own personal way, but there's so much more to it. Like KRZ, I think writers, designers, and developers in general, should study this game and take the same lessons it took from others and help push forward the medium into new artistic territory. It is an expertly crafted game and one that, despite having less time to think back on it and appreciate it even more, is definitely one of my favorites of a wonderful year (for video games at least) and a standout that I hope can be matched, studied, and exceeded upon by other creators with similarly poignant and interesting ideas they want to explore.
End of the year catch up: Neversong and Coffee talk
Haven review
One thought on "If found…review"
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If you have used one of the Thermarest NeoAir models you'll know that, although the mats are great, the valves are not as good as what's offered by Exped or Sea to Summit. The big problem is that the air can come out just as fast as it goes in. This makes using an inflation sack a bit hit and miss. Blowing in to the mat is likely a bad idea as it can cause frost build up, not to mention putting bacteria into the mat.
I got the idea for a one way valve from a post on Backpackinglight.com but I think that my latest version has improved upon the original idea; same valve but silicone tubing makes for a lighter, more compact and better performing adaptor.
The valve fits the inflation sack supplied with the Xtherm or it can be used to fit an Exped or MEC pump or sack on to the T'Rest valve. My rectangular XTherm can be filled drum tight with four goes with the Thermarest bag. I insert the valve from the inside of the sack for a more secure fit.
Anyway I have a few of these for sale.
BV, I'll take one.... Let me know how you want to be paid.


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Coronavirus live news: global cases could be five to 10 million, says Australia's medical chief | World news
12.51am EDT 00:51 Crops at risk in Europe without migrant workers Farmers across Europe bank on improvised armies of pickers to save harvest, as coronavirus lockdowns have stopped migrant workers from arriving to carry out the work. Fruit and vegetable crops in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the UK and other countries risk rotting in the
12.51am EDT
Crops at risk in Europe without migrant workers
Farmers across Europe bank on improvised armies of pickers to save harvest, as coronavirus lockdowns have stopped migrant workers from arriving to carry out the work.
Fruit and vegetable crops in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the UK and other countries risk rotting in the fields – putrefying testaments to the coronavirus pandemic.
"It won't be pretty," said Eamonn Kehoe, a soft fruit specialist with Ireland's agri-food agency, Teagasc. "If they don't have the staff it won't be picked. It's a nightmare, a perfect storm."
He was referring to Ireland's growers, but farmers and agriculture officials across Europe have equally grim warnings about abandoned fields and lost crops unless they can conjure improvised armies of pickers.
Spain, which is the EU's biggest exporter of fruit and vegetables, is already feeling the impact. "We're very limited at the moment when it comes to having enough hands to pick and harvest," said Pedro Barato, the president of Spain's largest farming association, Asaja.
You can read the full story below:
Australia's chief medical officer says global cases could be '5-10 times higher' than reported
Australia's Chief Medical Officer Dr Brendan Murphy has said worldwide cases of Covid-19 could be "five to 10 times" higher than the one million known currently. Murphy says the only numbers he has total faith in are the Australian numbers, because "we have the highest testing rate in the world" (Trump has also claimed this mantle).
I think China is in a really difficult position. They did clamp down incredibly hard and they stopped transmission. But their population is not immune. They still have a lot of people in their population and they are, obviously, trying very hard to prevent second waves. I think they have been pretty transparent but as I said, I'm only confident about our numbers. I'm certainly not confident even the numbers out of the US are much higher than being reported because nobody else in the world has been doing testing like we have. Nobody else in the world got on to all those original cases out of Wuhan in January and contained them. That's why we are now dealing with what we know rather than a huge community transmission that happened all through February in countries like Italy and the US. We're on top of our cases. But we still have a long way to go.
Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy (L) and prime minister, Scott Morrison, hold a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA
At the same press conference, Australia's prime minister, Scott Morrison, said modelling done for the government shows that "at the current rate" Australia is "tracking well".
At the current rate if we keep doing what we're doing and keep doing the work to upgrade ICU capacity and secure the extra ventilators then right now that trajectory is promising, it's encouraging, but there are no guarantees. This virus writes its own rules.
You can follow all of the developments in Australia' on Guardian Australia's live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
at 12.43am EDT
The Asian Development Bank says that Vietnam's GDP growth will slow to 4.98% this year, versus 7.02% last year.
Still with business and share markets have had a sticky day after hopes of a Saudi-Russia deal on oil production faded.
Donald Trump talked up the hope of a deal that would reverse a decision last month by the two countries to boost production, which shocked investors and saw prices plunge to $20 a barrel.
But that looks less certain now and the price of Brent crude slipped more than 1% in the Asia trading session. Shares also struggled and Wall Street was set to open down on Friday. All the main indices in Asia Pacific, from Sydney to Seoul, are in the red.
11.35pm EDT
Helen Davidson
Some more details from my colleague Helen Davidson about the capacity cuts at Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong-based airline that has been devastated by the city protests and now the virus.
Augustus Tang, the chief executive, says the airline's passenger fleet "has been virtually grounded as the remaining demand has disappeared", according to a memo seen by Reuters.
Ezra Cheung
(@ezracheungtoto)
Just in: Hong Kong flagship airline @cathaypacific further cuts its capacity due to #coronavirus. As the airline carried on average 582 passengers each day, CEO Augustus Tang announces to operate two flights per week and reduce senior management's wage by 25-30% from Apr to Dec. pic.twitter.com/KWsORyZXEQ
"We carried 582 customers on one day this week, with a load factor of just 18.3%," he said, adding that a usual day would see 100,000 passengers.
Cathay's passenger capacity will now be further reduced from the previously announced "skeleton schedule" to two weekly flights to four long-haul destinations- London Heathrow, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Sydney.
(@Trinhnomics)
So basically you're telling me Cathay is closing shop except air cargo for the next two months???
Super worrying for Hong Kong economy. https://t.co/M5o2hSrYun
Tang said they hoped to maintain three weekly flights on regional services to Tokyo, Taipei, New Delhi, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore, as well as three weekly flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur.
He will take a 30% cut to his base salary from April to December, as will Chairman Patrick Healy, with executive directors taking a 25% cut, the memo said.
This week the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's 7.30 Report TV programme asked viewers if any of their children had messages to send to their grandparents, who they couldn't see at the moment because of the home isolation requirements. The result was terrific.
(@abc730)
#Coronavirus has made it impossible for some children to see their #grandparents in person. Hundreds of kids sent #abc730 video messages of love to their grandmas and grandpas to help bridge the gap. pic.twitter.com/M4z48cSpWs
China records 31 new cases
China has released its latest daily figures. They include 31 new cases, 29 of which were imported.
People's Daily, China
(@PDChina)
The Chinese mainland on Thursday reported 31 more #COVID19 cases, 29 of which were imported and 60 new asymptomatic #COVID19 patients.
Latest figures:
– 81,620 total confirmed cases
– 3,322 total deaths
– 76,571 discharged pic.twitter.com/oMhLsZk0Kh
at 11.13pm EDT
A row has erupted in the US over the sacking of the commander of the US Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, which is docked in Guam. Captain Brett Crozier had written a scathing letter asking for stronger measures to control a coronavirus outbreak onboard his warship, which was subsequently leaked to the media.
Acting US Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said the commander exercised poor judgment. Modly said the letter was sent through the chain of command but Crozier did not safeguard it from being released outside the chain.
"He sent it out pretty broadly and in sending it out pretty broadly, he did not take care to ensure that it couldn't be leaked and that's part of his responsibility," Modly said.
"It raised alarm bells unnecessarily," he added.
Captain Brett Crozier was removed as commander of the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier. Photograph: Us Navy/Reuters
Over 100 personnel on the Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus so far.
In the four-page letter, Crozier, who took command in November, described a bleak situation aboard the nuclear-powered carrier as more sailors tested positive for the highly contagious respiratory virus.
He called for "decisive action": removing over 4,000 sailors from the ship and isolating them. He said that unless the Navy acted immediately, it would be failing to properly safeguard "our most trusted asset – our sailors."
The ship has since docked at US naval base in Guam.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said the Trump administration's decision to remove the commander showed "poor judgement".
Fujifilm Holdings Corp says it has developed a new test for the coronavirus that reduces the results time to about two hours.
The test was developed by subsidiary Fujifilm Wako Pure Chemical Corp and will be released on 15 April, Reuters reports.
The SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR Detection kit will be able to deliver results for the virus that causes Covid-19 faster than existing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which presently take four to six hours, the company said.
Jazz guitarist John Bucky Pizzarelli dies in outbreak
Jazz guitarist John Bucky Pizzarelli who was inducted to the New Jersey Hall of Fame, has died at the age of 94.
The virtuoso who had played for presidents at the White House during his long and esteemed career died on Wednesday at his home in New Jersey.
His family told the New York Times they believe the cause of death was the coronavirus. And the Bergen Record reports that Pizzarelli tested positive for the virus on Sunday.
Jazz guitarist John Bucky Pizzarelli who was inducted to the New Jersey Hall of Fame, has died at the age of 94. Photograph: Rich Schultz/AP
Associated Press says:
Pizzarelli was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and had a career that spanned eight decades.
He showed off his musical chops for former presidents like Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton and played alongside musical icons like Frank Sinatra.
Jazz guitar wouldn't be what it is today without Bucky Pizzarelli, said jazz guitarist Frank Vignola. He and Freddie Green were responsible for a style of rhythm guitar playing that has lasted until 2020.
Pizzarelli died with his wife, Ruth, his son Martin, and his caregiver at his side.
China to hold national day of mourning on Saturday
China will hold a national mourning on Saturday for "martyrs" who died in the fight against the epidemic, the official Xinhua news agency says.
Three minutes of silence will be observed at 10am on 4 April across the country "while air raid sirens and horns of automobiles, trains and ships will wail in grief," Xinhua said.
China has reported a total of 81,589 confirmed cases, which exclude asymptomatic patients, and 3,318 deaths from the outbreak.
A food delivery man scans the code on a mobile phone to show the green code as he prepares to enter into 798 Art Zone in Beijing. Photograph: Wu Hong/EPA
9.43pm EDT
Just while I'm on the airline industry, Hong Kong's carrier Cathay Pacific carried just 582 passengers one day this week, with a load factor of 18.3%, Reuters reports, quoting an internal memo. It's CEO and chairman have agreed to take a 30% base salary cut until December.
Cathay Pacific aircraft are seen parked on the tarmac at the airport, following the outbreak of the new coronavirus, in Hong Kong. Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters
International airline seat capacity drops 80% from a year ago
We have written quite a lot about the dire state of the airline industry, but here's a little more woe to add to it …
International seat capacity has dropped by almost 80% from a year ago and half the world's airplanes are in storage, new data shows, suggesting the aviation industry may take years to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Carriers including United Airlines Holdings Inc and Air New Zealand have warned they are likely to emerge from the crisis smaller, and there are fears others may not survive.
"It is likely that when we get across to the other side of the pandemic, things won't return to the vibrant market conditions we had at the start of the year," said Olivier Ponti, vice president at data firm ForwardKeys.
"It's also possible that a number of airlines will have gone bust and uneconomic discounts will be necessary to attract demand back," he said in a statement.
There seems to be some movement on whether or not Americans should wear face masks routinely, outside of the house.
Speaking at a White House briefing, Dr Deborah Birx, a member of President Trump's coronavirus task force, said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would issue guidelines in the coming days on the use of face coverings.
Birx however cautioned that Americans, who have been admonished to stay at home except for essential outings, should not develop a "false sense of security" that they are fully protected from the respiratory illness by wearing a mask.
New York City's mayor, Bill de Blasio, urged residents to wear face coverings, citing studies showing that the virus can be transmitted by infected people who are showing no symptoms.
"What that means is when you put on that face covering you're protecting everyone else," de Blasio said. The Democratic mayor suggested New Yorkers use scarves or other home-made masks because medical-grade protective gear was in short supply.
The WHO has said only people who are sick or treating or assisting people who are sick should wear masks.
The Guardian asked four experts for their advice on face masks.
In case you missed this, the Guardian's Yang Tian has written about her anticipation of receiving a care package from her father in Beijing: "Dad has always sent care packages from China. Now it's face masks instead of snacks."
Australias


Muzonjani Zulu is so determined to change South Africa and to free it from what he describes is a government of non-intellectuals incapable of running the country, that he decided to contest the local government elections. Zulu is one of thousands of "double-agents" – candidates running for multiple wards and/or multiple parties – who stand to get more seats on the council by getting more votes.
But what sets Zulu apart from the other 'double agents" is that he is running for 108 of 110 wards in the eThekwini Local Municipality – more wards than any other candidate in the country.
Another "double agent" is Kempen Nel, a farmer from Jacobsdal, a small town in the Free State, who appears to be caught up in intra-party politics. He is standing in two different wards for the Congress of the People (Cope) and is on the DA's party list, but he says that this is an error.
But Zulu and Nel are just two out of over 5,000 "double agents", with the majority of parties fielding candidates standing in more than one ward.
Zulu was a senior figure in the National Freedom Party (NFP) resigned from the NFP on May 25 and set up a new party, the Academic Congress Union (ACU), three days later. With just five days left before the cut-off date to register a party for the upcoming local government elections, and to submit a candidate list to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Zulu decided to contest all but two of the wards in his municipality. He is also on the party's proportional representation (PR) list.
The "double agent" strategy is being used by nearly 15% of party-affiliated candidates.
Parties are allocated PR seats according to a formula based on the percentage of the vote they get. And votes that double garner in every ward they contest is counts. A predetermined process is then followed to allocate seats. So, when it comes to getting a seat, the underlying principle is simple: the more votes you get, the more seats you get.
Although this is completely in line with election legislation and regulations, the strategy is an opportunistic one, with some of these candidates running for dozens of wards within their municipalities. If a candidate wins in more than one ward they can only take up one – and by-elections must be held in the other wards they took.
For example, if Zulu wins every ward he runs in – which is unlikely due to the small size and newness of the party – then 107 by-elections would have to take place.
This strategy, however, will add to an already existing problem, "with the mounting number of candidates being killed", according to Ebrahim Fakir of the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA). With the candidate list already finalised, even deceased candidates cannot be removed from it, which means that in some cases, wards will find the anomaly of dead candidates being elected and by-elections will have to take place.
So, is allowing candidates to run in as many wards as they like enabling parties to take advantage of the entire system, at a cost to the IEC and to the public?
On the surface it appears unethical, but is merely "incentive to use every available opportunity, no matter the cost", says Fakir.
When voters arrive to cast their votes on August 3, there are two aspects they will have to consider: a list of possible ward councillors and a list of parties, which is the PR list. Together, the results of these will be used to determine who will be the ward councillors for the next five years and how many seats a party gets on a local council.
"The purpose, for me, is to get PR votes," says Zulu. "Our intention is to contest as a party in the 2019 elections." But first, people need to know who the ACU actually are, and what better way than to run in as many wards as possible?
Zulu's purpose, therefore, is twofold: he wants to increase his party's chances of getting a seat on local council and to advertise the party across three different provinces – the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal – where the NFP has always had support. But what about the costs that will be incurred if he wins in more than one ward?
"You can't equate democracy to how much money it's going to cost," says Western Cape IEC spokesperson, Trevor Davids.
Besides, Mosery is confident that Zulu won't win in that many wards. "I just don't think it will happen," he insists, laughing at the strategy the party has chosen to take. Regardless, if he does land up winning in more than one ward, by-elections will have to take place.
For Zulu, beyond hoping to increase support for his new party, it is about countrywide intellectual growth. South Africa, he says, is "running short of intellectuals who are politicians".
Zulu provides a detailed history of his education, from a Bachelor of Arts undergraduate degree at the University of South Africa, to having just submitted his PhD. He also does not show concern over the possibility of – hypothetically – 107 by-elections taking place. "We need to grow, grow, grow," he says.
Nel, whose irrigation farm is in Letsemeng in the Xhariep municipality. Since before 2000, Nel has sat on and headed up various community committees and has remained heavily involved. The municipality is small, consisting of only six wards and covers a vast rural area. This, he says, is why he is running for more than one ward.
On June 20 this year, Nel wrote a letter to the DA, resigning from the party. He received no response and was surprised to see his name on the party list when it was released.
Patricia Kopane, a Member of Parliament for the DA tells the story quite differently. When the party received the candidate list, a day after Nel had begun the resignation process, they realised that he was running for Cope and subsequently fired him. She cannot, however, explain why the party did not use the opportunity available to rectify the double-partied candidate. She also says he was also fired for "being a racist".
Although Nel is one of the only DA candidates running for multiple parties, more than half (54,9%) of the party's ward candidate list is running for multiple wards. And they aren't the only ones, with hundreds of candidates from the ANC and EFF in the same situation.
He explains that he felt "pushed out" by provincial DA leadership due to incidences of nepotism, inequality and the unwillingness to engage the long-time rural councilors and bring in new, inexperienced ones instead. So in May, when he was approached by Cope to run as a representative in two wards, he quickly agreed.
Nel says that he is not running because of politics, but rather for his community, who "are all behind me in these elections".
Fakir, who is manager of the EISA's Political Parties and Parliamentary Programme, says that although we can point to examples like Zulu and Nel, this is the "system we chose".
"The reason we have this system is because we don't want peoples' votes to go to waste," he says.
INFOGRAPHIC: Candidates can only take up one seat or ward councilor position, even if they win multiple wards. There are 5, 572 of these "double agents" in the upcoming elections.


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FLEXIBLE FESS & CASE FUNDING
On the other side of Brexit and in the midst of a pandemic, the UK's domestic regulator of medicines and healthcare now stands alone for the first time in almost 40 years. This raises several questions: what might the post-Brexit 'new world' look like for product regulation in the UK? Can the UK's domestic regulator alone keep us safe? And what legal challenges will be created?
In an article first published by New Law Journal in March 2021, Partner Sarah Moore and Associate Stuart Warmington explore the long-term shape of medicine and medical device regulation in the UK. Among the changes in the pipeline is the creation of a new statutory role, the independent patient safety commissioner, who will work to promote patient safety and ensure that patients' views are heard.
Stuart Warmington
EU Shopping judgment: what does equal access to Google's general results pages mean?
Germany, United Kingdom
The Airdeal ruling: German Federal Court of Justice strengthens collective redress in Germany
Privacy by default, abuse by design: EU competition concerns about Apple's new app tracking policy
United Kingdom, Germany
The Digital Services Act: What are the key provisions, and does it strike the right balance?
Confusion continues in the antitrust evaluation of Most Favored Nation provisions
United States, United Kingdom, Germany
Antitrust remedies in digital markets: lessons for enforcement authorities from non-compliance with EU Google decisions
Legal Notices and Disclaimers


The city of Philadelphia is giving a pension bonus to its workers even though the system is severely underfunded. The bonus comes courtesy of a candidate for mayor.
The 2007 bill, championed by then-City Councilman Jim Kenney, mandates the pension fund pay out $62 million in bonuses because the city's investments outperformed their goals.
But with pension accounts only 48 percent funded, Mayor Michael Nutter said, Philadelphia can't afford the bonuses.
A representative of the Kenney campaign, who said Wednesday the candidate will work to shore up pensions, called it immoral to deny the first increase for retirees in seven years when earnings are beating projections.


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Corporate Cup
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With attention: Privacy Policy,
The Australian Esports League.
Reach out to the AEL team today! Make sure to follow our network across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn!
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Australian Esports League
Australian Esports League6 days ago
HIGHLIGHT: The 2019 AEL Clubs League Nationals presented by Philips Monitors featured a $12,500 prize pool across Tekken 7, Super Smash Bro's Ultimate and FIFA 19!
It is the culmination of matches played at a clubs across Australia with the highest ranked players traveling to the Southport Sharks in the Gold Coast to battle out for the ultimate prize!
Interested in joining the AEL Clubs league? visit clubs.ael.org.au
Congratulations to the national champions Glace for SSBU, Chuckthunder for FIFA 19 and Deeon Grey for Tekken 7!
We look forward to seeing everyone join us for this years competition! More details announced soon!
#esports #esportsau #gaming #philips #monitors #goldcoast
AEL @AUesportsleague
Hello, we are excited for this. https://t.co/4xqGcjzQl9
Nintendo AU NZ @NintendoAUNZ
Here is a special music video collaboration between @wearegalantis, @charli_xcx and @USJ_official celebrating #SUPERNINTENDOWORLD! The #Nintendo theme park experience will open in Japan this winter. #USJ
https://t.co/stuXmJvgmU https://t.co/RfE8qg3BxZ
The Australian Esports League is a trademark of Critical Hit Entertainment Pty Ltd, an Australian entity ABN 82 624 361 968.
The AEL is a grassroots esports promoter covering multiple facets of the esports ecosystem.
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© 2019 Critical Hit Entertainment Pty Ltd.


text:
package com.google.devtools.j2objc.util;

import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
import java.util.Locale;

/**
 * Utility methods for translating Unicode strings to Objective-C.
 *
 * @author Tom Ball
 */
public final class UnicodeUtils {

  private UnicodeUtils() {
    // Don't instantiate.
  }

  /**
   * Returns a valid C/C++ character literal (including quotes).
   */
  public static String escapeCharLiteral(char c) {
    if (c >= 0x20 && c <= 0x7E) { // if ASCII
      switch (c) {
        case '\'': return "'\\''";
        case '\\': return "'\\\\'";
      }
      return "'" + c + "'";
    } else {
      return UnicodeUtils.format("0x%04x", (int) c);
    }
  }

  /**
   * Returns a valid ObjC string literal (excluding quotes).
   */
  public static String escapeStringLiteral(String s) {
    StringBuilder sb = null;
    int len = s.length();
    int lastIndex = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
      String replacement = escapeCharacterForStringLiteral(s.charAt(i), s, i);
      if (replacement == null) {
        continue;
      }
      if (sb == null) {
        sb = new StringBuilder();
      }
      if (lastIndex < i) {
        sb.append(s.substring(lastIndex, i));
      }
      lastIndex = i + 1;
      sb.append(replacement);
    }
    if (sb != null) {
      sb.append(s.substring(lastIndex, len));
      return sb.toString();
    } else {
      return s;
    }
  }

  private static String escapeCharacterForStringLiteral(char c, String s, int idx) {
    switch (c) {
      case '\\': return "\\\\";
      case '"': return "\\\"";
      case '\n': return "\\n";
      case '\t': return "\\t";
    }
    if (c >= 0x20 && c <= 0x7E) {
      // Printable ASCII character.
      return null;
    } else if (c < 0x20 || (c >= 0x7F && c < 0xA0)) {
      // Invalid C++ Unicode number, convert to UTF-8 sequence.
      if (idx + 1 < s.length() && isHexChar(s.charAt(idx + 1))) {
        // If followed by another hex character, we must terminate the hex sequence.
        return escapeUtf8(c) + "\"\"";
      }
      return escapeUtf8(c);
    } else {
      if (!isValidCppCharacter(c)) {
        ErrorUtil.error(String.format(
            "Illegal C/C++ Unicode character \\u%4x in \"%s\"", (int) c, s));
      }
      return "\\u" + UnicodeUtils.format("%04x", (int) c);
    }
  }

  private static boolean isHexChar(char c) {
    return c >= '0' && c <= '9' || c >= 'a' && c <= 'f' || c >= 'A' && c <= 'F';
  }

  /**
   * Returns true if all characters in a string can be expressed as either
   * C++ universal characters or valid hexadecimal escape sequences.
   */
  public static boolean hasValidCppCharacters(String s) {
    for (char c : s.toCharArray()) {
      if (!isValidCppCharacter(c)) {
        return false;
      }
    }
    return true;
  }

  private static String escapeUtf8(char value) {
    StringBuilder buffer = new StringBuilder();
    String charString = Character.toString(value);
    try {
      for (byte b : charString.getBytes("UTF-8")) {
        int unsignedByte = b & 0xFF;
        buffer.append("\\x");
        if (unsignedByte < 16) {
          buffer.append('0');
        }
        buffer.append(Integer.toHexString(unsignedByte));
      }
    } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
      throw new AssertionError("UTF-8 is an unsupported encoding");
    }
    return buffer.toString();
  }

  /**
   * Returns true if the specified character can be represented in a C string
   * or character literal declaration. This invalid character range is from
   * section the <a
   * href="http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n1124.pdf">C99
   * specification</a>, section 6.4.3.
   */
  public static boolean isValidCppCharacter(char c) {
    return c < 0xd800 || c > 0xdfff;
  }

  /**
   * For a given String, returns a legal identifier for Objective-C.
   */
  // TODO(mthvedt): Consider using this for all identifiers.
  public static String asValidObjcIdentifier(String word) {
    StringBuilder objcWord = new StringBuilder();
    int offset = 0;

    if (word.length() > 0 && Character.isDigit(word.codePointAt(0))) {
      // Identifiers must not start with a digit
      objcWord.append("_");
    }

    while (offset < word.length()) {
      int codepoint = word.codePointAt(offset);
      offset += Character.charCount(codepoint);
      if (Character.isLetterOrDigit(codepoint)) {
        objcWord.appendCodePoint(codepoint);
      } else if (codepoint == '$') {
        // Allowed by Clang in non-strict mode (and used in J2ObjC)
        objcWord.append('$');
      } else {
        objcWord.append("_");
      }
    }

    return objcWord.toString();
  }

  /**
   * Invokes String.format() using Locale.ROOT, so that local locale
   * settings don't cause generated code to have characters the C compiler
   * can't manage. This method shouldn't be called for error messages or
   * other text displayed to the developer invoking j2objc, however.
   *
   * {@link https://github.com/google/j2objc/issues/698}
   */
  public static String format(String format, Object... args) {
    return String.format(Locale.ROOT, format, args);
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This book offers a snappy but comprehensive investigation of how the resource needs of today could become the resource conflicts of tomorrow. As the most populous country in the world, the security of China's "rice bowl" is not only a top political priority for China's policymakers but increasingly a critical global concern as the country emerges as a leading food importer and a major player in outward agricultural investment. This book sheds light on China's efforts, both at home and abroad, to safeguard its food security and how these efforts will affect global food systems. This book will be of interest to industry analysts, institutional investors, and scholars of China's global rise.


Stepping away from the X-rated exploits of HBO's Tell Me You Love Me, Patricia Rozema has taken on some decidedly lighter material with Kit Kittredge, a depression era, G-rated Nancy Drew that's based on the popular "American Girl" doll line. It seems logical that a movie based on a plush doll line of merchandise, and that professes "dress like your doll" as a selling point, would be facile and saleable. However, the film features some guileless didactics with a heart-warming centre that's only occasionally contrived.
The film follows Kit Kittredge (Abigail Breslin) during the '30s depression after her father (Chris O'Donnell) has left their home in search of work and her mother (Julia Ormond) has had to take borders into their home in order to make ends meet. Kit's response to change and hardship is initially fearful, acknowledging social stigmas attached to the poor, such as selling eggs and wearing dresses made of chicken feed bags. But like all plucky heroines, she makes lemonade when life hands her a bag of manure.
To keep the younger demographic interested, there is an overlying mystery involving a faceless thief with an arm tattoo who travels from town to town, giving hobos a bad name. As a few of Kit's central themes are acceptance and prevailing kindness, it doesn't take a great deal of genius to predict the road that the film will eventually travel.
Observations about a child's necessity to take on more adult roles in difficult times, in addition to the human tendency to ostracise and condemn those who are different in order to validate their own fragile existence, ameliorate the films schmaltzy tendency to be maudlin and banal. For every false scene where the soundtrack forces unearned sentiment, there are moments of truth, such as one where a young boy writes a fake letter to his mother from his absent father in order to give her hope and strength.
The colour, costumes and construction of Kit are all top-notch, giving gravity and credibility to the premise, while performances from the cast of seasoned thesps are uniformly effective, aside from Joan Cusack, whose over-the-top goofiness is both distracting and aggravating. The central mystery, along with Kit's journalistic journey, is occasionally lost in a story that tries to cover too much ground, but comes together in a third act that ties things together satisfactorily, if unremarkably.


text:
Introducing the SKULLastic Book Club
The Haunted Closet blog started with a book... Baleful Beasts and Eerie Creatures, and over the years several of my favorite out-of-print-good-luck-finding-a-copy-on-Ebay selections have since followed.
But for some time I've been meaning to do a post on newly published books that have found their way into my library. In fact, I've been "meaning to" for so long, some of these "new" books are several years old already (sad foghorn). But that's only a few minutes in Haunted Closet years. The important thing is these titles are relatively new releases that are still in print, so should be readily available to order.
And since I can't seem to mention ordering books without flashing back to my elementary school Scholastic Book Club, I'm presenting this month's selections as they might appear in a children's book club catalog.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce the first installment of... the SKULLastic Book Club (ooh boy, am I good or what?)
Paperbacks from Hell (Grady Hendrix with Will Errickson, 2017)
One category of horror media on which I'm embarrassingly unversed is the "drugstore paperback", those provocatively-titled tomes whose covers used to proposition me, in all their full-color embossed glory, from across the 10-items-or-less checkout line. In fact, outside a few Stephen King titles, only one book of this pedigree every successfully completed the passage from carousel rack to shopping cart: Rick Hautala's Night Stone (1986)-- and that was only because the nifty 3-D skull hologram on the cover commanded me to buy it.
That hologram cover gimmick was, it turns out, an industry-first, according to Paperbacks From Hell (Grady Hendrix, 2017). In fact, there are so many nuggets of information about 70s and 80s horror fiction crammed between its pages that I can confidently fake some level of expertise on the topic the next time it comes up at the office happy hour that I never go to.
Paperbacks... kicks off with an origin story of the horror fiction phenomenon's humble beginnings as an attempt to capitalize on the lingering popularity of older gothic romance novels, before launching into plot summaries, author and artist profiles, and musings on how political and cultural shifts of the day were reflected in their lurid pages (from haunted-house-as-housing-crisis-metaphor to pagan-cult-as-urban-decay-anxiety). The chapters are divided by plot device, with Satan worship, murderous children, mutant animals and more getting their turn in the spotlight.
But Paperbacks... also functions as an art book, with full-color illustrated covers reproduced on every page. Will Errickson of Too Much Horror Fiction provides a recommended reading strategy in the afterword.
Are You in the House Alone? (Amanda Reyes, 2017)
Are You In The House Alone is a love letter to that most unusual hybrid, the television movie. You'll find here essays on the medium from various contributors (editor is Amanda Reyes, of Made For TV Mayhem) but the meat of this book is the over 200 pages of micro-reviews, organized by era (the years 1964-1999 are covered), with a separate section reserved for Stephen King adaptations.
Being a killjoy, I naturally skipped right to the index first to see if they remembered to include my pet obscure TV movie, 1985's Final Jeopardy. They didn't. But I'm not going to complain about getting only one puppy for Christmas, because literally all my other favorite TV films get coverage here, including King adaptations Salem's Lot and It, true crime dramatizations Helter Skelter, The Legend of Lizzie Bordon and Guyana Tragedy: The Jim Jones Story, disturbing creepers Bad Ronald and Born Innocent, supernatural thrillers Baffled!, Don't Go To Sleep, Dark Night of the Scarecrow and This House Possessed, monster movies The Bermuda Depths, Gargoyles, Killdozer, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, The Last Dinosaur and Snowbeast, Satanic scare films Devil Dog: Hound of Hell, The Initiation of Sarah, Horror at 37,000 Feet and Satan's School For Girls, early Spielberg works Something Evil and Duel, slasheresques Home For The Holidays and John Carpenter's Someone's Watching Me, the Kolchak series predecessors The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, and Dan Curtis anthologies Trilogy of Terror and Dead of Night.
And for every one of those, there are a dozen entries for films that were completely unknown to me and have now been added to my ridiculously ambitious "watch list". This is a book you'll read at least once for pleasure, and then want to keep at hand for reference.
Art of Atari (Tim Lapetino, 2016)
This is how art books should be done. A heavy hardback with beautiful full color layouts on every thick glossy page, this magnificent brick of a book showcases the promotional and package art that launched a thousand ROM cartridges in the 1970s and 80s.
Early home video game graphics were often simplistic and crude thanks to the hardware limitations of the era, so the packaging art was not merely a marketing tool, but served as an extension of the game playing experience itself, priming the players' imagination with rich renderings of the characters and environments they would encounter as a mere grid of cubes on their TV screens.
Consoles, peripherals, and unreleased hardware prototypes are also presented here for your aesthetic consideration. But Art of Atari is not a mere picture book. The history of the Atari company is told here, one cartridge box at a time, along with artist bios, and peppered throughout with interesting bits of trivia (like the fact that the only reason a chess game was released for the Atari 2600, a system woefully inadequate for such a demanding piece of programming, was due to a threatened lawsuit prompted by the appearance of a chess piece graphic on the original system box art.)
Deep Dark Fears (Fran Krause, 2015)
I had not heard of Fran Krause or the website that inspired this kinda cute, kinda creepy book of comic strips depicting various phobias, anxieties and nightmares collected from his readers, but after reading Deep Dark Fears, I'm looking forward to the follow up volume. Some are funny, others resemble ghost stories or urban legends, and many tap into that collective Jungian swamp of shared nightmare tropes that have haunted us all at one time or another (teeth falling out, sudden nudity in public, etc.)
Monster Mash (Mark Voger, 2015)
Subtitled "The creepy kooky Monster Craze in America 1957-1972", Monster Mash opens with a forward by legendary horror host Zacherle, before diving head first into all aspects of the monster-kid phenomenon, with page after page of attractive, full-color magazine-style layouts. Topics range from the Universal monster dream team of Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf-Man, The Mummy, and The Invisible Man, whose package film reissues in the 1950s captivated a new generation of young fans, to horror magazines Famous Monsters of Filmland and Creepy, novelty music (the Del-Aires appearance in "Horror at Party Beach" and Bobby "Boris" Pickett's eponymous hit), television shows (The Addams Family, The Munsters, The Outer Limits, Dark Shadows), Aurora plastic model kits, Mars Attacks trading cards, Ben Cooper Halloween masks, spooky Saturday morning cartoons (Scooby Doo, Milton the Monster, and The Flintstone's new neighbors The Gruesomes), hot-rod culture (Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's Weird-Oh and Rat Fink characters), and more, more, MORE!
I should add that the photo of the author as a child dressed as Dark Shadows vampire Barnabas Collins is adorable.
Collecting for Dragon's Lair & Space Ace (Syd Bolton, 2013)
I've previously expressed my love for the Don Bluth animated laserdisc games Dragon's Lair and Space Ace (you can add Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp to that list as well, although having been released years later when video arcades were on the decline, it's the machine I've spent the least amount of time on).
To me, these games represented a cosmic merging of two great loves, video games and Disney animation (Bluth was a former Disney animator who left to form his own studio in the early 80s due to concerns about quality standards at the house of mouse).
Collecting Dragon's Lair & Space Ace catalogs every arcade cabinet variation, home system adaptation, promotional item, magazine cover and toy relating to Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. Save a few very rare items, everything is pictured in full color photographs. Most fascinating to me are the early computer adaptations that employed considerable artistic license in interpreting the unique motion-picture style game play on puny 8-bit and 16-bit systems that still relied on magnetic media (it wasn't until the early 90s, when CD-ROM technology started to become commonplace, that the home versions actually began to resemble their arcade inspiration.)
There are also sections briefly covering Don Bluth's feature animation work, references to the laserdisc games in pop-culture, and unofficial emulations and fan-made homage.
This book runs a little pricey but is a must have for any Don Bluth fan.
Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings (Brian Heller, 2012)
There are plenty of books out there for toy collectors, but this is the only one focusing on those inexpensive, poorly-made pieces of junk that were found exclusively in what passed for the toy department at your neighborhood grocery store, pharmacy or gas station.
Rack Toys (by Brian Heller, of Plaid Stallions) is a celebration of those wonderful blister-packed bits of molded rubber and plastic from the 1970s and 80s that never seemed to turn down a branding opportunity, no matter how outlandish. It's almost as if the head of marketing picked a random licensed property from one hat and a toy from the other and demanded his staff to "make it work."
But you'll be too charmed by the full color photographs of these toys and their packaging to question the logic of a Popeye grooming kit, Rocky Balboa bubble-blowing set, Space 1999 water gun, Star Trek silly putty, Planet of the Apes stunt motorcycle, Spider Man bowling game, or parachuting Incredible Hulk doll.
There's even a chapter reserved for "knock off" toys that couldn't quite land the licensing agreement so just cranked out generic imitations (e.g. "Astro Ape", a doll clearly modeled after Planet of the Apes, and a "Star Fleet" space communicator that boldly goes where no officially licensed product has gone before.)
While still in print, I've found this book is sometimes unavailable at Amazon, so you might want to just go straight to the Plaid Stallions store instead.
Mail-Order Mysteries (Kirk Demarais, 2011)
In third grade, some friends and I conspired to order a set of pellet guns we saw advertised in the pages of a comic book. Really fires! 50 pellets included! Realistic gun action and sound! Convinced our parents wouldn't approve of us receiving dangerous firearms in the mail, we swore an oath of secrecy as we made an on-foot pilgrimage to the corner 7-11 to buy a money order (even at that young age we knew not to send cash in the mail!) and arranged to have the weapons delivered to a drop-house (i.e. a friend whose parents weren't as attentive as ours and less likely to intercept the package.)
Six to eight weeks later we took delivery of three plastic "old West" looking six-shooters and 150 white pellets that resembled Tic-Tacs. These were not the deadly pump-powered air guns we were hoping for. They were, in fact, rubber-band "powered", and if you took careful aim and held the gun level, the plastic Tic-Tac would skim out the end of the barrel with all the force of a finger flick.
It wasn't quite Stand By Me, but a little innocence was lost in that amusing episode from childhood, and it taught me to be skeptical of any deal that seemed too good to true.
Mail-Order Mysteries (by Kirk Demarais of Secret Fun Spot) compiles all those sensational over-promise, under-deliver comic book ads I remember from my youth, which walked that razor-thin line between hyperbole and straight-up mail fraud. They are all here: X-Ray specs, hypno-coins, 100 Toy Soldiers footlockers, "Monster-Sized" monsters and remote control ghosts, dollar-bill printers, secret agent spy scopes and Sea Monkeys.
If that was all there was, the book would warrant purchase. But Mail-Order Mysteries ups its game considerably by also presenting the actual items themselves alongside their respective ads, accompanied by the author's humorous color commentary (on the plastic soldier 'flat' figurines, Demarais observes they "lacked one of the three dimensions we typically look for in a toy.")
If you've ever wondered what exactly those "X-ray specs" were all about, or how they could possibly ship to your home a working nuclear submarine "big enough for two kids" for $6.98, this is a peek behind that curtain.
Special Offer! Order any 3 books and receive a free poster!
(book club order form graphics and poster were found at Branded In the 80s. Set aside a few days and take a look.)


text:
Mexico Considers Border Fence to Halt Californians Fleeing High Taxes
Andrew Lundeen
Mexican border officials announced the weekend interdiction of a record number of Californians attempting to flee their home state, seeking to cross the border illegally in search of a better life south of the border.
Border patrol officials in Tijuana warned that the human tide has reached record levels since California raised its top income tax rate to 13.3 percent in November, joining high sales and business taxes. A separate retroactive business tax and a proposed exit tax has increased the outbound migration. Mexican officials are debating whether to construct a border fence and reinforce border agent numbers.
Professional golfer Phil Mickelson made quite a stir in January when he threated to leave the state, but it looks like he's not the only one who does not like his new tax burden. Citizens of all income levels are leaving California in search of promise in their new land of opportunity.
"I love my new home. You just can't survive with that broken California tax system," said John Smith, one recently landed immigrant, said. "So I figured I would go to a place where I feel a little more welcome."
Local residents are not so sure the American immigrants will enjoy the Mexican tax treatment much better.
"They'll be in for a big surprise when they get their first paycheck and see the taxes are not much better," one restaurant owner said. "But I'll let them figure that out on their own."
All the same, business is booming for a few borders towns. The desert city of Mexicali and the beach town of Rosarito Beach have seen the biggest difference. One local business owner said he has seen his sales soar 100 percent since November.
But the insurgence of American labor is not going unnoticed by the local authorities.
"The trouble is, these people are all here illegally," one local labor official said. "They can't stay."
"It's creating a real problem for us," one Mexican border security official said. "Now we've got to round them up and send them home ourselves, because we know they're not going to 'self-deport' back to California."
Click here to see other posts like this one.
The Tax Code Dance (To be sung to the tune of "Locomotion")
Testimony Before the British Ministry of Magic Committee on Ways and Means
IRS Announces Data Sharing Agreement with Nigerian Prince
Costumed Characters Gather in Protest of Tax Credit Program
Kanye West Releases Tax Plan Ahead of 2020 Presidential Run
How Tax Brackets are Adjusted Explained in Taylor Swift Gifs