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Michael Oren's bombshell: US-Israel alliance in tatters due to problematic Obama relationship
Posted on 24 June 2015 by anneinpt
Former Israeli Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren
Israel's former Ambassador to the United States, the renowned historian and academic Prof. Michael Oren, has been making a huge splash in the media in the last few days after he published several columns about the US-Israel relationship in advance of the publication of his new book on the same subject entitled "Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide".
Since Oren has a well-deserved reputation of being a moderate, thoughtful academic, and centre to centre-left politically, the fact that he slams US President Barack Obama for ruining the US-Israel relationship as well as for his incompetence in managing world affairs, has caused something of a sensation.
We'll start with David Horovitz's take on the scandal in his column: Michael Oren sees Israel-US alliance in tatters and Israel on its own:
The US-born former diplomat, who is now a Knesset member for the Kulanu party, notes in his foreword that the Hebrew term for "ally" is ben brit — literally "the son of the covenant." And what he documents is actually the breaching of a covenant, the collapse of an alliance — an accumulated arc of abandonment by the Obama administration, and most especially the president himself, of Israel.
It's a charge, unsurprisingly, that the administration has rushed to deny, and, rather more surprisingly, that Oren's own party chief Moshe Kahlon has hurried to dissociate Kulanu from.
Oren's style is not excitable or melodramatic. In fact, he writes in generally understated tone, with the measured sense of perspective you'd expect from a best-selling historian. So when he notes, as he does near the very end of the book, that last summer's Israel-Hamas war left "aspects of the US-Israeli alliance in tatters," you take him seriously, and you worry.
And when you read that Washington worked relentlessly to quash any military option for Israel, most especially in 2012 — arguably the last moment at which Israel could have intervened effectively to thwart Iran's drive to the bomb (though Oren does not confirm this) — you sense that he has exposed the emptiness of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's endless assertions that Israel will stand alone if necessary to stop a nuclear Iran. And you register, with all its grim repercussions, the realpolitik of a broken relationship with our key defender — the rupture that now leaves Israel vulnerable to an increasingly bold Islamist regime that avowedly seeks our annihilation.
It's a really worrying book. You're documenting — you're describing it; you're the ambassador — a presidency that is so wrong and so increasingly problematic on Israel. You talk about an America that wants to pull out of the Middle East. I think the worst criticism is the line about the administration negotiating with Iran in secret on an issue of existential importance to Israel… (Oren writes in the book: "Most disturbing for me personally was the realization that our closest ally had entreated with our deadliest enemy on an existential issue without so much as informing us.")For seven months behind our back.
Again, the book is called "Ally," but it's not the documentation of an alliance. It's the documentation of the failure of an alliance.
It's a cri de coeur, that's what it is, for an alliance that should be in a much better place than it is.
Michael Oren goes on to describe to Horovitz some of the daily events taking place in the Knesset: a discussion in the constitutional committee about whether the State of Israel should give grants, advantages, to industries within the Gaza envelope area; a discussion with Arab MKs about an Arab Book Week which currently does not exist; and then a caucus meeting with various political parties on educating young Israelis about transgenderism.
Oren continues (emphases are mine):
Now all of this is happening about a two hour drive from ISIS. Think about it. There were two extraordinary things: One, this is happening a two-hour drive from ISIS. And two, I'm probably the only person in the room who thinks this is extraordinary. I'm sure I'm the only one who is thinking, "holy s**t, this is happening here!"
Why do I bring this up in this conversation? Anybody who would want to in any way endanger this little pearl of democracy, with all of its craziness, to me is being reckless and unappreciative of what we have here. There's a tremendous lack of appreciation for what we've accomplished here. That doesn't mean we don't make mistakes. We make huge mistakes. But as irreplaceable as the United States is for Israel as the ultimate ally, we are an ultimate ally for the United States. You're not going to find anything (else) like this here. There's a lot of talk in this book about being on the right side of history. History's going the other way. There is no Iraq. There is no Syria anymore. And this alliance is crucial for Middle East stability, and through Middle East stability is crucial to the world. I deeply believe that.
Don't get me wrong. You can have disagreements. The Obama administration was problematic because of its world view: Unprecedented support for the Palestinians. Reconciling with what Obama calls the Muslim world; even the choice of the term is interesting. And outreach, reconciling with Iran. From the get-go. You see that right from the beginning. He comes into office going after Iran.
But (the administration) is also problematic because the White House jettisoned the two core principles of the alliance, which were "no surprises" and "no daylight." Obama said it: I'm putting daylight. And proceeds to put daylight, public daylight. And then surprises. I was told that with previous administrations — I'm certainly going back to Clinton — we were always given advance copies of major policy speeches. The Cairo speech (that Obama delivered in 2009) was twice as long as the First Inaugural Address. It touched on issues that were vital to our security. We never had any preview.
How endangered are we on Iran because of the Obama administration? You say nobody should want to endanger this pearl. But that's what's happened, isn't it?
It has happened.
The good news is that America is not just the administration, as you know. America is America. America is the Congress. My biggest fear is not the Obama administration. I am deeply concerned about the future of the Democratic Party, with the progressive wing in the background…
Oren ties the Iran imbroglio to Obama's inaction on Syria:
The bottom line is that the day that Obama didn't act against the Syrians (for their use of chemical weapons in 2013, and thus failed) to maintain the Syrian "red line," was the day that the debate (over whether Obama was serious about his military option on Iran) stopped here. Did you notice that? Just stopped. Dead. And everyone went quiet. An eerie quiet. Everyone understood at that point that that was not an option, that we're on our own.
To me that's a refreshing Zionist moment. We realize we're on our own..
There's much much more at the link. Do go and read it all. I don't think it can be stressed strongly enough, considering Oren's moderation and academic and diplomatic neutrality, how shocking Oren's book is, as well as this interview. It's as if the man has done a complete about-turn in character. I commend him for his courage in "coming out" so publicly.
President Barack Obama and former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at the White House
Adam Kredo at the Washington Free Beacon writes about An inside look at how Obama killed the US-Israel relationship:
Obama stacked his administration with senior officials hostile to Israel and pursued a policy of "daylight" with Jewish state, Oren recounts.
"The first thing Obama will do in office is pick a fight with Israel," Oren recalls a confidant as telling him in the early days of the administration.
Below are a series of passages that reveal in detail how the U.S.-Israel alliance hit historic lows under the Obama administration.
1. 'I know how to deal with people who oppose me'
… "Face-to-face, I later heard, Obama had demanded that Netanyahu cease all building not only in the territories but also in the disputed areas of Jerusalem," Oren writes. "'Not a single brick,'" the president purportedly said. 'I know how to deal with people who oppose me.'"
2. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Commanders Never Trusted Obama
…These commanders "scoffed at what they regarded as Obama's inexperience with the Middle East, where magnanimity is often seen as weakness. They cringed at his tendency to equate America's moral foibles with the honor killings, human trafficking, and the suppression of women, foreign workers, and indigenous minorities rampant in many Muslim countries," Oren writes.
3. The Anti-Israel State Department
… "Discord indeed mired my initial meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg," Oren writes.
"Under the administration's policy, a Jew could only build his home in certain Jerusalem neighborhoods but an Arab could build anywhere—even illegally—without limit. 'In America,' I said, 'that's called discrimination.'"
4. Congressional Democrats Scold Oren
… Oren recalls taking a call from Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), who "railed at me so furiously [about Israeli criticism of Obama] that I literally had to hold the phone form my ear."
7. White House Orders Senior Officials to Criticize Israel
In addition to privately embracing the anti-Israel fringe group J Street, the Obama administration sent top officials to speak at its first national conference in Washington, D.C.
Oren, who refused to participate in the event, reveals that Obama administration officials had direct orders to criticize Israel publicly.
Again, there is much more at the link which I recommend you read, though by now, after suffering through these past 6 years of Obama's presidency, none of it is hardly new. Again, the shocker is that Oren has related these stories so publicly and so outspokenly in such an undiplomatic fashion.
Shockingly, Michael Oren thinks that the US-Israel relationship has soured to the extent that he thinks the US might not veto Palestinian state vote:
Former Israeli envoy to Washington, Michael Oren, said the United States is "likely" not to veto an expected United Nations Security Council resolution calling for the creation of a Palestinian state.
Oren's remarks were made at the New York launch of his new book Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide on Thursday evening.
Responding to a question from the audience about Israel's public diplomacy on the Palestinian issue, Oren brought up the expected upcoming move at the U.N. and stated emphatically that "the United States is likely not to cast a veto."
Oren did offer some solutions to the lawfare facing Israel at the UN, though we might not necessarily agree with his prescription:
To preempt the U.N. threat, Oren suggested that Israel publicly declare three positions. Firstly, the Jewish state should announce that while "we realize there is no Palestinian partner," nevertheless, "we are always going to be at the table." Secondly, he said Israel should reaffirm that "we still subscribe to the Bar Ilan formula of two states even though it's probably not realizable for the foreseeable future." Thirdly, it should be declared that Israel will only build in settlements likely to remain part of Israel in a peace deal, namely the large blocs in Jerusalem's suburbs.
Oren also indicated that Abbas in some ways presents a greater threat to Israel than the Gaza-based terror group Hamas.
"The irony of the thing is that Hamas presents a tactical threat to Israel with its rockets, it's Mahmoud Abbas with the attempt to sanction and boycott us which is the strategic threat," Oren said. "Any Israeli security official will tell you just what I'm telling you now, he's the threat, we can preempt the threat by saying to the world [these] three things."
In a third op-ed in the media this week, Oren reached intot he world of psychology to explain Obama's behaviour, relating how – and why – Obama opened his heart to the Muslim world:
In an op-ed published Friday, Kulanu Knesset member and former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren speculates that President Barack Obama's relentless outreach to the Muslim world may stem from the fact that he was abandoned by the two Muslim father figures in his life and therefore seeks acceptance by their co-religionists.
In the article, in Foreign Policy Magazine, Oren also posits that the world may look back on Obama's approach to Middle East issues as naive and hard to credit.
In the Foreign Policy article Friday, Oren writes that "Obama's attitudes toward Islam clearly stem from his personal interactions with Muslims. These were described in depth in his candid memoir, 'Dreams from My Father,' published 13 years before his election as president. Obama wrote passionately of the Kenyan villages where, after many years of dislocation, he felt most at home and of his childhood experiences in Indonesia. I could imagine how a child raised by a Christian mother might see himself as a natural bridge between her two Muslim husbands. I could also speculate how that child's abandonment by those men could lead him, many years later, to seek acceptance by their co-religionists."
Oren's book and his columns have certainly touched a nerve in Washington as well as in the media, as the Algemeiner reports in its story: Michael Oren's book lifts a veil on US-Israel relationship:
The main attraction of the book, of course, is its account of the Obama administration's Middle East policies, and Oren's candor has already gotten him into trouble. Dan Shapiro, the current U.S. ambassador in Israel, who makes several appearances in Oren's memoir, this week told Israel's Army Radio that "Ally" is "an imaginary account of what happened," going on to belittle Oren for having, as a mere ambassador, a "limited point of view into ongoing efforts. What he wrote does not reflect the truth."
This is a serious charge, and it remains to be seen if Shapiro will attempt to substantiate it. In the meantime, it should be pointed out that what makes "Ally" such a fascinating read is that it provides, from Oren's perspective, a detailed sense of the bitter atmosphere in both Washington and Jerusalem that underlay diplomatic efforts on the issues we are all intimately familiar with, from the negotiations over Iran's nuclear program to the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Unlike other diplomats, Oren didn't wait 20 years to publish his story—most of the key individuals in his book, most obviously President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are still in power, and the bilateral tensions which Oren agonizingly explains haven't been lessened since his departure from Israel's Washington embassy. Diplomats aren't supposed to be this transparent, which is why Oren will be regarded in many circles as a man who broke "omerta," the code of silence which ensures that us ordinary mortals are kept in the dark about what our leaders are saying in private.
Most interestingly, within Israel there were two contrasting reactions from the government:
Binyamin Netanyahu reportedly refused US Ambassador Dan Shapiro's demand that he disavow Oren
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected an American request to publicly distance himself from the criticism aimed at the White House by former ambassador Michael Oren, according to an Israeli newspaper.
The op-ed has drawn unhappy reactions from the US, including an angry phone call from US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro to Netanyahu, asking the prime minister to renounce Oren's ideas in a public statement, according to a report in Haaretz Thursday.
Netanyahu refused Shapiro's request and said he had no intention of publicly addressing the piece, an anonymous source told the newspaper.
The prime minister said Oren was no longer a public official but a politician belonging to another party and therefore he saw no reason he should intervene, Israel's Army Radio reported, citing a statement from Netanyahu's office.
Sadly, and a bit surprisingly, Kulanu's chief Moshe Kahlon, rushed to distance himself and the party from Oren's views:
Kahlon, in response, sent a letter to Shapiro emphasizing that they were Oren's personal views and did not reflect the party line of Kulanu.
Oren, according to Kahlon's letter, wrote his book before he joined the party. Kahlon, who serves an finance minister, said he had summoned Oren and made clear his appreciation for the US's commitment to Israel.
Even more unexpectedly, firebrand Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely chided Oren for his critique of Obama:
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said that Oren "does not represent the State of Israel in matters relating to our relationship with the United States, only himself."
"The United States is a true friend of Israel and every attempt to harm the relationship between the two countries by resorting to personal attacks will not succeed," Hotovely added.
I'm glad that Hotovely knows how to act in a statesmanlike way, but this was possibly one of those times when we would have liked to hear how she really feels. 🙂
This entry was posted in International relations, Israel news, Mideast news and tagged Ambassador, anti-Israel, Barack Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Democrats, Iran, Michael Oren, Middle-East politics, nuclear deal, State Department, US-Israel relationship. Bookmark the permalink.
12 Responses to Michael Oren's bombshell: US-Israel alliance in tatters due to problematic Obama relationship
How frightening. So why in the world did Kulanu "reject" Orens statements &also especially Hotoveli? Are they still so scared of Obama? What more can go wrong between the US & Israel? Today may be a good day for pushing his book again as I just read that wikileaks released how the US adminstration spied on France! It's time Obama got dealt with what he deals out. it's a 2 way street here , not that he seems to think that. He thinks he's king of the world & can do only as he sees fit. It's time to bring him down to earth
My only theory is that the Israeli government is trying to preserve whatever is left of the relationship so that there is a basis on which to build after Obama leaves office. Remember, if Hilary Clinton gets in, we'll be in for more of the same, even if she disguises it in a gentler atmosphere.
As for the spying, everyone spies on everyone, even allies. The US has been caught spying on Israel numerous times, and the Germans are furious at the US for spying on them too. So today's news doesn't really make much difference.
What we have to do is push back. Any time we are accused of spying on them, we need to remind the US of Wikileaks.
JudyPt says:
Very scary article.To add fuel to the fire ,in todays Wall Street Journal there is an oped how the State Dept is ignoring the backtracking and cheating (whats new) by the Iranians, and yet Obama is forging ahead with his deadly agenda.Dont confuse them with facts, it might upset the apple cart.I cant see the point in all the endless talks if no one holds the Iranians accountable and they poke us in the eyes and merrily renage on all agreements.
I agree with you 100% about the point, or lack of one, of negotiating with Iran when the result is a foregone conclusion. I'm not sure if Obama truly beleives that a deal will stop the Iranians, or if he doesn't care. He knows that his supporters support him blindly because he is a) Democrat, b) black (political correctness goes a long way) and c) they don't really care about the Mideast, think it can't affect them, so they will cheer him on to the bitter end as long as he can leave a "legacy". He thinks that legacy will be a deal with Iran. We know that his legacy will be a nuclear Iran threatening the entire Middle East, and from there, the civilized world.
DavidinPT says:
Why on earth should Netanyahu even consider criticising Oren's views on Obama? I didn't hear anyone in the US administration criticise Obama for calling him a "chickensh*t". Another 17 months and Obama will be consigned to the dustbin of history – where he belongs.
Precisely. I think Bibi's reaction of studied indifference was perfect.
What gets me about this whole brouhaha is the outrage expressed by Obama's supporters. They almost seem to love him more than he loves himself. Their outrage is visceral. Yet they cannot take the same criticism that they love to dish out, as you mentioned with the chickensh*t scandal.
On a slight tangent, I hope that the Israeli administration is quietly warning the Americans, Europeans, Russians and Chinese, that if Israel, G-d forbid, has to resort to a retaliating nuclear strike (from German-supplied submarines) against a future Iranian nuclear attack on Israel, it will not restrict itself to destroying Iran, but will also nuke their capitals. This is the renowned "Samson Doctrine". If Israel is in danger of destruction, it will take down everyone else with it. This reminder might concentrate lazy minds into reconsidering an unenforceable deal that leaves the Mad Mullahs with a military nuclear option. They also have to feel a knife at their throats………
Do you really believe the Samson Doctrine actually exists? I sometimes wonder whether it wasn't an invention of an antisemite.
I very much doubt Israel would do such a thing. Nuke Iran or other enemies if necessary, yes. But uninvolved countries? Hard to imagine.
Then again….
What we need to do is act crazy, like Iran and the Arabs. Act like בעל הבית השתגע, make the world nervous as to what we might do next, keep them off-balance. As things stand we're only too predictable.
Perhaps we should also make clear to the Euros, the UN and particularly the US that in the next round of fighting Israel will utterly destroy Hamas/Hezbollah/whoever is the enemy du jour. No more of this conceding to ceasefires, but shoot it out to the very end. We have never been allowed to win a war since 1967, and we only won that due to a miracle, and because it was over before it started, before the world got its act together. In every other conflict we have been forced (or persuaded ourselves) to agree to a premature ceasefire which ALWAYS leaves us in a worse position, or in nowhere near as good a position as if we had carried on fighting.
I simply do not understand our politicians, and they can say "what you see from there you don't see from here" till they're blue in the face. Until they stand up and explain in words of one syllable on prime time TV and radio to the entire Israeli public what exactly they mean, I will not accept that they are anything but pathetic weaklings, court Jews, and cowards.
Seems to me everyone forgot that Iran is concentrating not only on nukes but also on long range rockets that can deliver nukes on the "big Satan" ie, the US. If I am still around then, I shall dance
on the roof, showing that the Americans "were" naive in their negotiations and finally showing all
Dems how stupid they really are.
Good point about Iran's long range missiles. I don't agree with dancing on the roof if they G-d forbid hit the US, partly because a lot of innocent people will be killed and partly because we'd be next – if we weren't' the first.
Elise Ronan says:
I am reading the book now. It is spot on and terrific. The main essence is that everything we have been saying about Obama for the past eight years is correct. He is a hateful malevolent man. Whether Oren's psychoanalysis is correct I don't know, but Obama without question suffers from some kind of terrible mental health issues.
The truth is Oren also took the Jewish-American community to task which they of course rejected. But he is so on target in analyzing American Jewry. I have been trying to get across to Israelis, that Israel needs to understand that the Jews in the US give lip-service and little else. Even AIPAC refused to stand up for Israel in the first 7 years of Obama's administration because the lay-people that "run" that organization are DNC bigwigs. It stopped being about Israel a long time ago and is now all about political power and that is it.
But Oren is wrong in that the less religious do not understand Israel. They do, they simply do not care. As example: my dentist whose wife was their conservative synagogue president told me he voted for Obama because of gay marriage. When I asked him about Israel, he knew Obama hated Israel, but said Israel will take care of itself. And in a very condescending manner chastised me that I need to think about other people other than myself in life. I told him that is why I voted for Romney, as a lawyer my husband's business thrives on government over regulation, but I wanted other Americans to have jobs, never mind knowing that the 6 million Jews of Israel had a friend in the White House. And nope, he never brought up the subject again.
So there you have it. Oren is right on most things, but thinking that the less observant Jews are unaware of what Israel faces is wrong. They simply don't care and have not cared for decades.The 70% of the Jewish community that voted for Obama in 2012 is no different than the 70% that voted for Carter when he ran against Reagan. Same stupidity, same delusion, same unbelievable lack of common sense, different election season. And don't kid yourself, they will overwhelmingly vote for that liar, prevaricator and Israel-hater Hillary simply because she is a democrat and has a vagina. Hopefully the rest of the country will remove their heads from their tuchases in 2018, but if the GOP continues on its usual course, it will pick another lame loser instead of someone who can galvanize the country.
Wow, Elise, thank you for your comment and your fascinating, though depressing insight into American Jewry. I too was of a similar opinion to Oren, that American Jews just "don't get it" when ti comes to Israel. It is a much bigger indictment of them to say that they do get it but don't care. It's pretty terrifying actually, both for us Israelis and for the future of American Jewry to be honest.
One thing that I have noticed, which has become much clearer over Obama's presidency, is that the liberal American Jewish community (as opposed to the Orthodox, or the "right-wing" non Orthodox) seem to regard liberalism as more their religion than Judaism. And in that case, it's no surprise that they're indifferent to Israel, especially as Israel represents all that is "wrong" for liberals: it is proudly Jewish, it is nationalist (Zionist) and makes no apologies, it is quick and fierce to defend itself, and will undiplomatically call others out on their mistakes.
I find it interesting that Oren, who is himself American born and educated, has misread American Jews to such an extent that he has made the same basic mistake about their motivations.
We're watching the American elections, well, the primaries for now, with growing interest and concern. I really hope the Republicans manage to field a decent set of candidates who stand a proper chance of winning. Ever since Bush it seems the Republicans only manage to shoot themselves in the foot. But Jeb Bush, Rubio, and Cruz seem to be very good candidates.
And yeah, anyone is better than the witch Clinton.


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Run back to the future with us at the Awesome 80's Run. Bring the neon shorts, leggings, and big hair and we'll bring the live music, dancers, and awesome course music. Awesome 80's Run is a 5K and 8K Run/Walk on Mission Bay with surprise entertainment along the course. Tickets are $20-50. Run begins at 7:30 am at the De Anza Cove. Get your tickets here!
The history of chocolate and how it came to our country is an interesting tale of seafaring travels. This year's 7th-annual event will be held on multiple vessels to expand the event space. This annual event with over 15 vendors showcasing and sampling various types of chocolate has something for every palette. Kids and adults can make their own chocolate pizza. The adults can participate in the wine and chocolate or beer and chocolate pairings as well as live baking and cooking with chocolate demonstrations. Bay cruises and sailing opportunities with chocolate delicacies on board are available too. Head to the San Diego Maritime Museum from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. Get your tickets here.
At the spring show you'll see nearly 200 wedding showcases brimming with ideas and inspiration. Hundreds of wedding professionals will be on hand to answer your questions and offer discounts and deals on their wedding services. Plus you'll enjoy California's largest runway fashion show with the latest styles for everyone in your wedding. Tickets are $12-15, event is from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm.
The San Diego County Vintners Association's Annual Wine & Food Festival returns to historic Bernardo Winery for an afternoon of unlimited wine tasting, food, and music. This is the only wine event exclusively featuring San Diego County wines. Funds raised will support San Diego County Vintner Association education programs and marketing for the local wine region. With 25+ San Diego County wineries, silent auction, live music. Tickets are $55 for unlimited wine tasting and a selection of gourmet foods. Designated driver tickets include food tasting and bottled water for $25.Event takes place from 1-4pm. Get tickets here.


I definitely feel more 'adult' throwing things in my slow cooker and having them come out as delicious, homely meals. Making a will would definitely be a grown up thing and I really ought to consider drawing one up now I have my little one.
Yay! It will sneak up behind you before you know it!


Meaning and definitions of jasmine, translation in Bengali language for jasmine with similar and opposite words. Also find spoken pronunciation of jasmine in Bengali and in English language.
What jasmine means in Bengali, jasmine meaning in Bengali, jasmine definition, examples and pronunciation of jasmine in Bengali language.


Computer science and artificial intelligence are taking over many facets of our life and revolutionizing the way we live. Its role in scientific research is imperative to analyze huge sets of data no human researcher could examine in their lifetime. Join us in this episode as we learn about how two professors in Biology and Computer Science use this invaluable tool to make great discoveries and how they see AI shaping our future.
Interested in learning more? Visit Dr. Kathleen Hill's website and Dr. Mark Daley's website to read about their research in greater detail.
Hosted by Mike Ge. Interviews by Max Soltysiak and Mike Ge.


text:
Q: If a port behind NAT sends a packet to a malicious host, can that host send packets to any open port, or only the port that sent the packet? For example, a computer behind a NAT router uses Skype. Skype uses port 4000 to send packets to a server to establish indirect connections with other Skype clients.
Since Skype had sent a packet to the server first, the server can obviously send packets back to the router that utilizes NAT.
My question is, considering the router is using NAT, is that server allowed to send packets to any open/forwarded ports that the NAT has, or only port 4000?
I know that Skype servers are not malicious at all, it was only an example

A: For incoming traffic initiated by others:
A malicious host can always send data to any port of your router (Port Scanning).
If the port is not forwarded, your router may decide whether dropping the unsolicited packet or politely respond that the connection is invalid.
If the port was forwarded, that it will reach the end host behind the router.
For outgoing traffic initiated by your host:
There is no rule on which origin port you must use to communicate with the Skype Relay Server.
Also, on your end host, Skype might use TCP 4000 but NAT might actually use another port to send the message, say port A. The Skype server only see port A, not port 4000. If Skype server responds to a port other than A, then the situation described in "For incoming traffic" applies. If Skype server responds back to port A, then NAT routes this back to your host by sending to port 4000.
To clarify:
The NAT (Network Address Translator) is your router. And don't confuse the part "For incoming traffic" as the network response to your host. It actually means the external server is the first who talks to your host so as to establish a connection.

A: The simple answer is "it can only send packets (to the client behind the NAT router) to the port that sent the packet".  This is largely but not entirely correct though.
The answer depends on the way IPTables is set up, the port in question and the modules used.  Simple nat devices would only allow mapping traffic to the same port that it came from, however not all devices are so simple.   In linux and other OS's you get "Stateful firewalls", where typically uses "Established and related" ports, along with various modules which look at connection states - so for example if an outbound FTP request is made (port 21), the router may also open up port 20 for data if the FTP module is loaded.  It may also be possible to for FTP to open other ports, and a malicious server might be able to do this to access an arbitrary high numbered port.   Some common tracking modules which might be leveraged include FTP, SIP, Netbios, PPTP, gre, tftp, h323, irc.   There is a bug CVE-2014-8160 which may allow arbitrary bypassing of the firewall when using connection tracking under certain conditions - possibly in the way you contemplate.
It would be pretty difficult for a malicious server to open up other ports, but may not be impossible.  Of-course, you would need something vulnerable listening on the other ports - and (under Linux), you could mitigate this risk by ensuring your connection tracking rules come after rules denying general access on those ports.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Add a cam
Live webcams in North Karelia, Finland
North Karelia — live webcams in real time.
… › Finland › North Karelia /region/ — Rating: 2/5 (votes: 1)
Location clarification
Kontiolahti (1)
Category: all webcams› sport (1)
First shown: popular webcams
Page 1 of 1 (webcams from 1 to 1 of 1).
Webcam at the ski stadium in Kontiolahti, Finland
Kontiolahti, Finland
Live webcam installed at the ski stadium in Kontiolahti, Finland. With this camera you can watch biathlon competitions in real time. Live broadcast from the stadium is around the clock.
Time zone: GMT+03:00. Broadcast quality: video 720p.
Last online check: a few days ago (webcam is online)
The nearest webcams
Kirov Square webcam in Sortavala(148 km)
Sortavala, Russia
Live webcam shows a view of the Kirov square in the town of Sortavala.
Last online check: (webcam is online)
Webcam on the bell tower of the Valaam Monastery (view to the north)(186 km)
Valaam, Russia
Live webcam shows a view to the north from the bell tower of the Valaam Monastery on the island of Valaam. The broadcast shows: the dome of the Church of the Life-Giving Spring (in the foreground of the broadcast), the building of the outpatient clinic, the singing pavilion, the smithy, the monastery library and other buildings of the Valaam Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior. Lake Ladoga is visible on the horizon.
Time zone: GMT+03:00. Broadcast quality: video 1080p.
Webcam on the bell tower of the Valaam Monastery (view to the south)(186 km)
Live webcam broadcasts a view in the south direction from the bell tower of the Valaam Monastery in real time. The camera is directed at the Peter and Paul Church and the outer square of the central estate of the monastery. In the lower left corner of the broadcast you can see the dome of the Valaam Church.
Webcam overlooking Bolshaya Nikonovskaya Bay, Valaam(187 km)
Live webcam broadcasts a view of Bolshaya Nikonovskaya Bay (Big Nikon Bay) of Valaam Island in real time. The camera is installed on the territory of the Resurrection Skete and is aimed at the bay and pier. Bolshaya Nikonovskaya Bay is the main navigable bay of the archipelago, cruise ships can enter it.
Kirov Square webcam in Medvezhyegorsk(226 km)
Medvezhyegorsk, Russia
Live webcam shows a view of the Kirov square in Medvezhyegorsk, Russia.
North Karelia
Live webcams in North Karelia, Finland in real time. First shown popular webcams. North Karelia is a region in eastern Finland. Live webcams in North Karelia operate in real time around the clock. North Karelia borders the regions of Kainuu, North Savo, South Savo and South Karelia, as well as Russia (Republic of Karelia).
Some live webcams can be viewed with sound. When viewing, consider the fact that the sound in the broadcast can be turned on by default.
#North Karelia, #webcams, #live, #real time, #Finland, #Europe
Webcam categories (North Karelia):
◊ sport (1)
v. 2.0.30 — Site Map

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Home. > Program for Representative Government > In the news
Modernizing the vote
Our view: U.S. approach to registration has proven woefully inadequate
By Editorial Board
Published June 22nd 2009 in The Baltimore Sun
By any reasonable standard, the U.S. does a terrible job of registering eligible citizens to vote. According to the most recent estimates, only about 68 percent of eligible voters age 18 and over are likely to be registered in 2010.
A study of voter registration systems in other democracies around the world released last week by New York University's Brennan Center For Justice underscores this country's failure. France registers 91 percent of its eligible citizens. Germany and Britain do even better.
Even within North America, the U.S. is atrociously far behind. Mexico registers 95 percent of eligible residents and Canada scores 93 percent.
For a nation that claims to be promoting democracy around the globe, the U.S. is setting a poor example in the most fundamental requirements of self-government. How can we claim to be a nation where a majority rules when so many citizens don't participate?
The core problem is that unlike most democracies, the U.S. places the entire burden of registering on individual citizens. People must generally seek out their right to vote, and inevitably there are obstacles to overcome from unprocessed registration forms, inaccurate purges of voter roles and other too-common errors.
The federal government doesn't take such a haphazard approach with income taxes or Social Security; why must voter registration be treated so indifferently?
A far better model would be for the U.S. to take the more activist approach favored by our neighbors to the north. Canada faces many of the same challenges that this country does - voting is not mandatory, registration is decentralized, and it's a mobile society with an estimated one-seventh of the population moving each year.
But the difference is that the Canadians keep a database of voters that is continuously updated by a slew of government agencies, from motor vehicle departments to post offices to tax authorities. The U.S. also gives it citizens an opportunity to register to vote when they enroll in college or get a driver's license, but it's a modest outreach by comparison.
The U.S. needs to make modernizing voter registration a top priority. One answer may be for more states to offer registration on election day. In Minnesota, where that's been the practice for 30 years, voter turnout is relatively high with little evidence of double-voting or other forms of fraud, according to a recent report sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Surely there's a way to capitalize on 21st century technology and computerized data-sharing to keep voter rolls accurate and complete - if Congress can put aside the customary partisan bickering and disinformation that so often blocks efforts at voting reform.


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Bitcoin (BTC) $22,837.00 42.88 0.188140% 24h Ethereum (ETH) $1,598.78 29.17 1.86% 24h Binance (BNB) $302.99 -3.568287 -1.163970% 24h Chainlink (LINK) $7.40 0.237230 3.31% 24h Ripple (XRP) $0.411720 0.004438 1.09% 24h
Guggenheim Funds Trust expected to invest $500 million in Bitcoin
One more institutional is preparing to diversify its portfolio in favor of Bitcoin. Through its Macro Opportunities Fund, Guggenheim Funds Trust plans to devote up to 10% of its assets to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
64% of institutional investors expect a slight increase in their crypto-investments over the next 5 years. 26% are even more enthusiastic.
The Guggenheim Funds Trust is expected to be one of these institutional investors. However, it will not buy Bitcoin directly. Through its Macro Opportunities fund, it plans to invest in cryptocurrency through the Grayscale ETF.
It informs the US financial regulator, the SEC, that the Macro Opportunities Fund may devote up to 10% of its net assets to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). The asset manager will therefore be able to acquire Bitcoin on behalf of its clients.
With assets valued at $4.97 billion according to Fidelity, Macro Opportunities' entry into GBTC could represent a total investment of up to $497 million.
For the Guggenheim Funds Trust, the investment in Bitcoin could be a first step before further investments. However, the manager and investment advisory specialist is not a lightweight in the sector.
Guggenheim Partners has total assets of more than $233 billion in fixed income, equity and alternative strategies," said CoinDesk. For Grayscale, this represents a new growth opportunity.
The asset manager continues to amass Bitcoin for its investors. In mid-November, Grayscale acquired an additional 15,114 Bitcoins for $241 million. Its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) then posted a grand total of 506,000 Bitcoin for the impressive sum of $8.2 billion.
According to Grayscale Investments' Chief Operating Officer, Michael Sonnenshein, the craze for Bitcoin is no longer a fad. The asset now represents a credible option for all investors.
"I think they now understand that buying Bitcoin and storing it in their portfolio is a way to store value, protected against inflation, much like digital gold (…) much more suited to the digital world we live in," Sonnenshein says.
Should we expect an Airbnb token?
Coinbase announces it will support Ethereum 2.0 staking


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Episode 32: A Conviction to Help Kids in Care 0
Jamie Grace is a Grammy nominated, Dove award-winning contemporary Christian/Christian rap musician who has big dreams and plans beyond music. Raised in a household in which her parents took in more than 25 children, she has a huge heart for foster care and is determined to make a difference in others' lives in tangible ways.
Episode 30: How Foster Care Became a Passion to Help Others 0
Jim Daly, President of Focus on the Family, shares his personal journey of being a child in foster care and explains how going through that painful time created a passion in him to work on behalf of children in foster care and how, even as an adult, he still feels the effects of foster care in his life.
Episode 29: Mother to Many: Doing Life with Nine Children 0
Kirsten Smith believes her past experience prepared her for her present reality, although "nothing could fully prepare me to be the mother of nine!" She grew up with an idea of what foster care was, and after college she worked as a social worker with families in crisis, aiding in reunification, but also seeing the effects of child abuse and neglect. "It was a hard job," she says. "I remember thinking, 'I don't know why God put me here.'" A few years later she realized that some of her own children came from those scenarios.
Episode 28: CAFO's Aging Out Initiative: Helping Teens Transition into Adulthood 0
Scott Brown, Coordinator of the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) Aging Out Initiative, gathers success stories of organizations that are helping aging out youth and are creating solutions. Approximately 24,000 youth age out of the foster care system every year, and about 70% of those young adults are falling through the cracks of making a successful transition into adulthood.
Episode 27: Keeping It Real for Foster and Adoptive Dads 0
Foster and adoptive fathers have very few resources to help them deal with the feelings and struggles that often arise when caring for children from hard places. Andrew Schneidler is trying to change that.
Episode 26: Helping Your Foster and Adoptive Kids Tell Their Story 0
Many foster and adoptive parents are unsure of the best strategy regarding when and how much information to tell a child about their background, or their "story."
ENCORE: Foster Care, Adoption, Runaway: The Story of One Child's Reality 0
Join us for this Encore Episode of Jami's conversation with Emma Williams. Emma lived in several foster homes, shelters, and adoptive family situations as a child. Her story will give you amazing insight into the sometimes hard realities facing children in foster care.
Episode 25: Trauma: How You Can Help Your Child and Family Survive 0
Because caring for the orphan is a deep concern on God's heart, Jenn Ranter wanted to provide support for these families, so that they felt loved and cared for. She founded Replanted Ministry because she wanted to create a community where both the parents/foster parents could feel safe and vulnerable and be able to share their honest feelings and emotions without judgment. Families who are in the trenches of dealing with trauma can offer this support to other families—parents and children alike.
Episode 24: Through the Eyes of an Investigator: Working to Protect Children 0
Molly Evans knew working with kids was what made her heart beat with excitement and purpose. In college, she interned in a DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services) office and took a class in child welfare that solidified her goal of working with families and one-on-one with kids. After college, she worked at a private agency as a Family Enhancement worker, helping intact families get help with parenting skills, job searches, even housing, as well as supervised parent-child visits.
Episode 23: Overcoming the "I Could Nevers" of Foster Care 0
Fawn Kieser admits she was one of those parents who said with firm conviction, "I could never do foster care—I could never give them back." But as she and her husband, Brent, took baby steps of faith, starting with just being willing to be moved by God to a new place that they never thought they'd be, she realizes that they have become survivors and overcomers.
Episode 22: Navigating the "Messy and Complicated" Path of Foster Parenting 0
Brittany Lind and her husband, Joel, didn't overthink the idea of becoming foster parents. Adoption was part of the church culture she experienced in college—it was preached and lived out on a regular basis. When they married and planned for their family, they didn't see a difference between having biological children and adoption—they were both equally good and beautiful.
Episode 21: Conversation with a Pediatrician: Physical Issues Common in Children in Foster Care 0
Dr. Andrea Kane is a pediatrician whose practice includes many foster families. She shares wisdom regarding some of the common physical, mental and emotional concerns that foster families may face.
Episode 20: TFI Advocate Roundtable Discussion 0
Several TFI Advocates join Jami in a conversation about why they became Advocates and the benefits of being an Advocate with TFI.
Episode 19: Making Foster and Orphan Care a Priority to the Church 0
Jedd Medefind serves as the President of CAFO (Christian Alliance for Orphans). His biggest joy is spending time with people who are making their faith tangible by living it out and loving vulnerable kids. "Nothing is more beautiful and encouraging than Christians who look like Jesus—who care about kids the world has pushed to the side."
Episode 18: The National Foster Care Initiative—Helping Others Engage in Caring for Kids 0
Jason Weber's experience with working with the inner-city kids and families provided not only an invitation to foster, but also an invitation to help other followers of Christ engage in caring for kids who needed families.
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So I'm probably a little late to this discussion, but Brian Bailey has a nice piece about building traffic to your blog. He lists 10 steps that every blogger should take in order to garner more clicks to their blog, and I would say that for the most part I agree with all of his suggestions. His omissions, however, are probably more telling than his inclusions.
One great way to drive traffic to your site that I believe most bloggers overlook is TrackBack. Maybe most folks don't understand the concept, and I'm not the most technically-inclined to explain the feature, but basically Trackback involves sending a ping to another site. When you Trackback a URL, usually a specific entry on someone's blog, you are creating a link (an actual HREF) between yourself and that author's site. You are also telling visitors to that other site that you too are commenting on this author's meme/conceit/idea/post in your own unique way over at your own blog.
In the last 3 weeks I've gotten more traffic to my site because of 4 Trackbacks than I have from all the comment spam I've ever gotten. I Trackbacked 4 large blogs who were discussing fairly popular topics (Engadget, Gizmodo, Om Malik on Broadband and Gothamist) and received HUGE dividends from Om Malik and Gothamist. All of this traffic resulted because, just like commenting on their blogs, I let THEIR READERS know that I was talking about the SAME THING over at MY BLOG. The results are amazing AND it's easy to do. Most blogging software enables you to either automatically TrackBack URLs in your post or enter them individually. Whichever method you choose to use, make sure that when you talk about a popular topic you TrackBack to the place you heard it first. You'll make the initial author happy by throwing them some traffic and you'll most likely grab some eyeballs of your own as people seek out other voices commenting on the topic.
Another great way to build traffic is to ping the big blogging services. Most of us ping some kind of announcement site, hopefully ping-0-matic, to let the internet know when we update. If you're not doing that, read the FAQ of your blogging software and get with the program. If nothing else, visit ping-0-matic after you write a new post and submit your pings. The traffic may not be astounding, but it will be something. I'm getting at least a couple of clicks a day from each of the major blog players and aggregation sites (ex: Weblogs.com, PubSub, Bloglines, Syndic8).
So there you have it. Two additional ways to build traffic to your blog. They may not be magic bullets, but they are part of the "promotion mix" that every blogger looking to get more regular visitors should consider. Thanks, Brian, for giving me such a great topic to discuss.
Thanks for these ideas! I've got to figure out how to implement trackback on my own site. I'll set up ping-o-matic posthase.
Thanks for the link and feedback! Both good points. On pinging, I should've mentioned that. After using Typepad for a year and Radio before that, I've begun to take it for granted that everyone does it.
I experimented with Trackbacks in the past and didn't notice much of an impact. I'll have to give it anothe try.
Happy to help, Noran. Your blog concept seems very interesting. Keep up the excellent writing.
To be totally honest, I've never heard of either wolf surfer or blogclicker. I'd just advise you to get to know people who run similar sites and exchange links. Failing that, I'd say add your site to StumbleUpon.
I'm sending a Trackback to Jeremy Zawodyny's "Trackback is dead" post just to disprove his point. Too droll? I think it's a straight-forward and valid point.


Although inclement weather precluded journalists from trekking out to Phillips Station – near Sierra-at-Tahoe — with representatives of the state's Department of Water Resources (DWR) for the fourth snow survey of Water Year (WY) 2018/2019, the manual survey's results were phenomenal. Braving the winter elements DWR representatives recorded 106.5 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 51 inches. This represents 200 percent of average for this location.
Nemeth's "all-of-the-above approach" is in reference to the state's fickle water supply ranging from extreme drought conditions one year and a plethora of atmospheric rain and snow the next year forcing Californian's to truly save water not for a rainy day but rather saving water for the inevitable next California drought. The "all-of-the-above approach" means continual conservation, managing the precipitation we do get and looking for new sources of water.
For now, the state's largest six reservoirs currently hold between 106 percent (Oroville) and 132 percent (New Melones) of their historical averages for this date. Lake Shasta, California's largest surface reservoir, is 109 percent of its historical average and sits at 89 percent of capacity.
In February alone California experienced six atmospheric rivers; more than 30 of these powerful storms have deluged the state since the start of the water year. DWR representatives are reporting that statewide the snow water equivalent has nearly tripled since February 1. Snow water equivalent is the depth of water that theoretically would occur if the entire snowpack melted instantaneously. It is a tool used by water managers across the state to estimate anticipated spring runoff.
The Sierra snowpack supplies about 30 percent of California's water needs each year as it melts into streams and reservoirs in the spring and early summer to meet water demands throughout the year. The April results are a key indicator for the rest of the year's water supply.
DWR conducts up to five snow surveys each winter on or near the first of January through April. If necessary, a fifth snow survey is done in May – at Phillips Station though the snowpack's water content typically peaks around April 1. After that point in time the sun's higher position in the sky frequently begins to accelerate the snow melt.
The manual snow survey measurements done four or five times each year augment electronic readings from about 100 snow pillows in the Sierra Nevada. Together these measurements provide a current snapshot of the water content in the snowpack.
Although the abundant Sierra Nevada snowpack is welcome news in contrast to last WY's drought conditions, the melting snow could spell flooding in the coming weeks depending on how rapidly the snow melts. Jon Ericson, DWR chief of the Division of Flood Management cautions people to remains alert when in or around moving water.


Sit back and relax or grab your pack and go - this IPA is up for anything. Lively and light-bodied, Daycation celebrates Mosaic's stone fruit and herbal notes, while El Dorado, and Azacca dry hop adds layers of bright citrus. Balanced by a varied malt profile with enough bitterness to satisfy hop enthusiasts, this beer is crafted to bring you back for more.


Audits are generally intended to monitor compliance with existing rules. However, audits can also create unintended impacts and incentives through the specific protocol by which they are executed. In particular, audits can discourage the use of complex administrative procedures with more rules for auditors to check. This paper investigates the effects of procurement audits on public entities' choice of purchase procedures in Chile. While the national procurement legislation tries to promote the use of more transparent and competitive auctions rather than discretionary direct contracts for selection of suppliers, auctions are significantly more complex and the audit protocol mechanically leads to more scrutiny and a higher probability of further investigation for auctions than for direct contracts. Using a regression discontinuity design based on a scoring rule of the National Comptroller Agency, we find that audits lead to a decrease in the use of auctions and a corresponding increase in the use of direct contracts. In order to further test the underlying mechanism, we develop a new approach to conduct subgroup analysis in regression discontinuity designs while holding other observables constant.


text:
<?php

namespace Cake\Chronos\Test;

use Cake\Chronos\Chronos;
use Cake\Chronos\Date;
use Cake\Chronos\MutableDate;
use Cake\Chronos\MutableDateTime;
use TestCase;

class DebugInfoTest extends TestCase
{
    public function testDateTime()
    {
        $expected = [
            'time' => '2001-02-03 10:20:30.000000',
            'timezone' => 'America/Toronto',
            'hasFixedNow' => false
        ];

        $chronos = Chronos::create(2001, 2, 3, 10, 20, 30);
        $this->assertEquals($expected, $chronos->__debugInfo());

        $mutable = MutableDateTime::create(2001, 2, 3, 10, 20, 30);
        $this->assertEquals($expected, $mutable->__debugInfo());
    }

    public function testDate()
    {
        $expected = [
            'date' => '2001-02-03',
            'hasFixedNow' => false
        ];

        $date = Date::create(2001, 2, 3, 10, 20, 30);
        $this->assertEquals($expected, $date->__debugInfo());

        $mutable = MutableDate::create(2001, 2, 3, 10, 20, 30);
        $this->assertEquals($expected, $mutable->__debugInfo());
    }

    public function testDateTimeWithNow()
    {
        $expected = [
            'time' => '2001-02-03 10:20:30.000000',
            'timezone' => 'America/Toronto',
            'hasFixedNow' => true
        ];

        Chronos::setTestNow(Chronos::now());
        $chronos = Chronos::create(2001, 2, 3, 10, 20, 30);
        $this->assertEquals($expected, $chronos->__debugInfo());

        MutableDateTime::setTestNow(Chronos::now());
        $mutable = MutableDateTime::create(2001, 2, 3, 10, 20, 30);
        $this->assertEquals($expected, $mutable->__debugInfo());
    }

    public function testDateWithNow()
    {
        $expected = [
            'date' => '2001-02-03',
            'hasFixedNow' => true
        ];

        Date::setTestNow(Chronos::now());
        $date = Date::create(2001, 2, 3, 10, 20, 30);
        $this->assertEquals($expected, $date->__debugInfo());

        MutableDate::setTestNow(Chronos::now());
        $mutable = MutableDate::create(2001, 2, 3, 10, 20, 30);
        $this->assertEquals($expected, $mutable->__debugInfo());
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- LivaNova PLC (NASDAQ:LIVN), a market-leading medical technology company, welcomes the recently updated interventional procedures guidance for sutureless aortic valve replacement issued by the U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which states that sutureless aortic valve replacement is an alternative to conventional surgical aortic valve replacement. The NICE guidance comes as LivaNova completes enrollment for a global aortic valve replacement clinical trial comparing the benefits of sutureless versus standard aortic valve replacement for aortic stenosis.
Based on its evaluation, NICE concludes that the sutureless aortic valve replacement procedure may be faster than the standard procedure, reducing cardiopulmonary and aortic cross-clamp times. Additionally, sufficient evidence was found to support the safety and efficacy of the sutureless procedure. The guidance was informed by a comprehensive assessment of literature and detailed review of evidence from various sources, including six systematic reviews and meta-analyses and two case series. The review also included patient feedback and considered outcomes such as quality of life, valve durability and clinical improvements.
Concurrently, LivaNova completed enrollment for the Perceval® Sutureless Implant vs. Standard Aortic Valve Replacement (PERSIST-AVR) study with more than 900 patients from 47 centers in 12 countries. While the original study protocol was for 1,234 patients, the introduction of an innovative adaptive design allowed for a reduced sample size and the ability to analyze data earlier. PERSIST-AVR, which began in April 2016, is the only worldwide, prospective, randomized, multi-center trial comparing the LivaNova Perceval sutureless aortic valve with standard sutured bioprostheses in patients with aortic valve disease.
Since 2007, Perceval has been implanted in thousands of patients with aortic valve disease to help improve their lives.
For more information on the NICE guidance, visit https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ipg624.
LivaNova PLC is a global medical technology company built on nearly five decades of experience and a relentless commitment to improve the lives of patients around the world. LivaNova's advanced technologies and breakthrough treatments provide meaningful solutions for the benefit of patients, healthcare professionals and healthcare systems. Headquartered in London, LivaNova has a presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. The Company currently employs approximately 4,000 employees. LivaNova operates as two businesses: Cardiac Surgery and Neuromodulation, with operating headquarters in Mirandola (Italy) and Houston (U.S.), respectively.


text:
Heywood to referee Tuesday night's game
Referee decided for Tuesday...
Referee Mark Heywood will take charge of the penultimate League One match of the season at Highbury on Tuesday night.
Mr Heywood, from West Yorkshire, was the man who took charge of Fleetwood's first ever League One victory away from home, as the Cod Army sealed a 1-0 victory at Notts County in August 2014.
His last match was Preston North End's 3-0 triumph at Bradford City on Easter Monday.
Heywood, who has been officiating since the 2011/12 season, has handed out 85 yellows and five reds this season. One of those yellows was brandished to Jamie Proctor in the win at Meadow Lane.
His last visit to Fleetwood's Highbury Stadium was in October 2013 as Scunthorpe United ran out 1-0 winners courtesy of a 59th minute strike from Sam Winnall.
He will be assisted by Richard Bartlett and Nicholas Gibbons. Paul Hodskinson is the fourth official.


Global mergers and acquisitions dropped to $783 billion (Dh2.9 trillion) in the third quarter, down 35 per cent from the prior quarter, as the escalating trade dispute between the United States and China cast a shadow on the financial and regulatory prospects of some deals.
US chip maker Qualcomm Inc pulled its planned $44bn acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV in July after China delayed offering antitrust clearance, a move seen as retaliatory to the trade tariffs announced by the United States.
This has cast uncertainty on the prospects of other deals involving global companies that require Chinese regulatory approval, including aerospace supplier United Technologies's $23bn acquisition of Rockwell Collins .
"We've got some clouds on the horizon, vis a vis a trade skirmish, or potentially a trade war with China. You have the potential for a hard Brexit and we've got rising rates," said Mark Shafir, Citigroup's global co-head of M&A.
The number of global announced deals hit its lowest since 2013, at about 9,135, and global deal volume was down 6 per cent compared with a year ago. To be sure, dealmaking activity has remained stronger than average and the first nine months of 2018 saw global M&A reach a new record of $3.2 trillion.
M&A activity in Europe has been particularly strong, with deals worth $962.5bn so far this year, a 72 per cent increase compared with a year ago and the strongest period for European dealmaking since 2007.
US. M&A, which rose 14 per cent year-over-year to $368.1bn in the quarter, fared better than other regions. Announced deals in Europe fell 14 per cent to $151.4bn, while M&A in Asia-Pacific was down 38 per cent to $185.1bn, the Thomson Reuters data showed.
Among the third quarter's biggest announced deals were chipmaker Broadcom Inc's $18bn acquisition of software maker CA, and Dell Technologies'proposal to pay $21.7bn in cash and stock to buy back securities related to its stake in software company VMware.
In August, dealmakers had been chasing potentially the largest buyout of all time, after billionaire Elon Musk tweeted that he had the funding secured to take electric car maker, Tesla Motors Inc private, valuing the company at $72bn.
Musk had said he had held early talks about the buyout with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, a move that highlighted the growing importance in alternative pools of capital around the world, from sovereign wealth funds to pension funds. Musk decided to scrap the plan and was sued on Thursday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over his tweets.
"Going forward it will be hard to sustain the number of $10 billion-plus deals," Mr Cristerna said. "Next year we will see fewer transformational moves but there will be a large amount of activity in the $3bn to $5 bn deal range because companies see the logic of doing M&A and are conscious of the difficulties and risks of going through a big transaction."
"Antitrust reviews are more difficult to predict," said Alexandra Soto, Lazard Ltd's chief operating officer of financial advisory in Europe and globally. "The traditional definition of markets is changing and entire industries have been disrupted by new technologies."
Soto said companies remained interested in getting deals done to stay relevant. "You have to be opportunistic when you operate in a disrupted market and keep on moving rather than standing still," she said.
Dealmakers also said they are preparing for an acquisition spree by Japanese companies, following the country's biggest-ever outbound deal this year, Takeda Pharmaceutical's $59.03 bn agreement to buy London-listed drugmaker Shire Plc. "Many Japanese companies have access to substantial capital and they are using it to drive M&A growth outside of Japan," Morgan Stanley's head of Americas M&A, Tom Miles. "We expect Japanese companies to continue outbound M&A at a strong pace."
Tens of billions of dollars in tariffs by the United States and China have not dented the rise of most stock markets in the Western world. Goldman Sachs Group Global M&A Co-head Michael Carr said he does not see management teams "handwringing about tariffs" when they are trying to figure out whether to do a deal or not.
"Their attention is closer to home, competing to move their companies forward to generate growth for their shareholders," Mr Carr said.
Morgan Stanley's Mr Miles said some companies in sectors where tariffs create uncertainty are factoring it into their thinking but added, "We have not seen uncertainty around tariffs be a major impediment to M&A so far."


Well, well, well, I wasn't expecting to post today in preparation for all the activity planned later this week, but here we are. Today is Commonwealth Day, held annually on the second Monday in March, on which the 52 Commonwealth countries celebrate their unity and diversity. It's also one of the most significant events on the Queen's calendar each year, marking her honor for the "family of nations." Today she launched a relay race from Buckingham Palace before moving to a multi-faith ceremony at Westminster Abbey attended by various members of the Royal Family including the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex and Prince Harry.
You know who wasn't there? The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. And that's fine; they weren't necessarily expected to be. But you know where they also weren't expected? A ski holiday. Look, I really don't want to write this post and, frankly, I'm getting 2016 flashbacks, but here we are.
First, the good news: The events themselves went smoothly. It's always fun to see multiple generations of the House of Windsor on display at once, and it's good to see that the Queen still appears in good health, having recovered from the bad flu she had over the Christmas holiday. Harry was in rare form greeting visitors before and after the ceremony. Multiple outlets picked up a conversation he had with a group of pre-teen girls who asked if him he was the "real" Prince Harry, remarking that he looked like pop artist Ed Sheeran. Hilarious, lovely, great.
For some further context, William and Kate have attended Commonwealth Day for the last two years, an event which drew participation from nearly every other senior Royal. The only other notable absences were the Princess Royal who was carrying out an engagement and the Countess of Wessex, who was in Malawi on the Queen's behalf.
I'm not particularly bothered by William taking a quick hop to Verbier with some friends. I don't think it's a big deal that he did so without his wife. And, frankly, I don't love that photos of one of the women in her bikini are now being splashed across the tabloids. She's certainly not done anything wrong. But yeah, this was an unfortunate visual – if the "spares" can attend, then surely the future king should? And, I don't know, let's say it was a very, very important ski trip for reasons unbeknownst to the world (which, hey, it might be), then why didn't Kate at least represent their sector of the family?
To add further salt to the PR wound, Andrew was in Verbier this past weekend, too. He was at today's service.
Stuff like this is frankly tedious less because of the action itself and more because it's so obviously going to play out exactly the way it is. Of course the headlines are indignant. Of course William is once again being called "work shy." This is exactly the narrative KP ostensibly had been trying to move away from going into the new year. This story will now likely be a throwaway line (at least) in all the coverage of the couple's trip to Paris later this week.
I'm not interested in bemoaning any member of the BRF taking time off, but by the same token, this is an important event in the UK, one that the Queen herself takes seriously. Even if she's fine with William missing it, I also understand the offense from some corners that this was a serious misstep on the Cambridges' part – if for no other reason then it's not the first of its kind to have occurred. Fool me once, etc., etc.
Now, let's try not to make it worse by saying something about needing to spend time with the children.
*As a rule I don't mention friends of the Royal Family, hence why the couple whose wedding Harry and Meghan Markle attended the other weekend were left out of all references here. They're private individuals and so on and so forth.


text:
The Morpheus Database: Defining the Limits of Change
"When you choose anything, you reject everything else....
Every act is an irrevocable selection and exclusion....
If you go to Rome, you sacrifice a rich suggestive life in Wimbledon....
it is impossible to be an artist and not care for laws and limits.
Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame."
Orthodoxy, GK Chesterton
The Morpheus Database (Mark 1): By the end of the summer this program will allow me to cross-reference data on transformations from over 100 classical, medieval and early modern tales for each form taken, sequence, reason for change, type of change and possible relevance for gender, disability, queer, race, class, animal and object studies.
The aim of the project is to help (1) translate my thoughts into more easily comprehended forms, (2) allow for a quick review of a large amount of texts & notes and (3) eventually to allow for the production of data-clusters where corresponding tales can be called up at the press of a search-key. For instance, as the database gets better, I'd be able to stack information on instances where a body was transformed via surgical intervention or where the resulting form was considered to be hybrid instead of a new whole. It will start rough, then change and change again.
What is Transformation?
GK Chesterton, whose lucid and inspiring words I listen to absentmindedly on podcast as I work, wrote that the start of every major argument should begin by stating what it does not wish to prove. This is not only a generosity to the reader, as it allows her to know at the start whether or not the general direction of the work follows her interests, but is a generosity to the writer who in forming must set perimeters.
A key issue for coding the research that I am processing is the simple foundational question which I in part seek to answer: what is transformation? Put another way, what will I not count as a transformation?
Since my work begins in the Greco-Roman world and continues on into Medieval world which preserved and modified such Classical thought, I took Aristotle as discernment tool. According to his work On Coming-to-Be and Passing-Away one can recognize change on either one or two levels:.
(1) In the first world-view, which may be taken as the only (and is by many atomists) the sum of all that exists has always existed and will always exist. Accordingly all beings are either the preservation of like-things or else the mixture of unlike-things. You can rearrange but not make anything new.
(Note: this level of change is typically proscribed to the powers of humanity and nature. "God makes, Man shapes" is a common medieval saying).
(2) In the second world-view, there is another form of change which states that the sum of all things can be increased or decreased, through the creation or destruction of either matter (the essence of things) or form (the qualities that matter can assume). Accordingly, when a like-thing becomes an unlike-thing (for instance, among a bunch of apples one becomes an orange) there is something which is created (the orange) and something which is destroyed (the apple). As stated, this can coexist with preservation and artifice (or the act of "joining together"), so that certain atoms (like-things) and molecules (unlike-things joined together) can cause this creation (of an orange) and destruction (of an apple).
(Note: Because this level of change is about the introduction of new levels of ontological possibility and wholes > parts, it is generally affirmed from Ovid to Chaucer that "real change" such as this can only be accomplished by or with the aid of a divine power).
As a result I can thus identify at least two significant ways of distinguishing change: (1) hybridity and (2) coming-to-be or passing-away. This has various effects on what I will be looking for and what I will not be.
I. Hybridity v Growth
The Target:
What I am looking for is moments in which two things, which remain distinct in quality and/or being are mixed in such a way that a reader can distinguish the qualities of both but cannot easily separate them. Putting an apple and an orange next to each other may not constitute hybridity because they exist as two things in relation, but chopping them up and mixing them together into a fruit salad binds them together under a common identity which has qualities of both but which separate the pieces would destroy the new object (i.e. the fruit-salad).
The Exception:
Argument: What I am not looking for is moments in which one thing develops more of itself or more of things like-itself. This gets tricky, because the addition of the same or the persistence of a thing over time often does accrue change.
Counter-Argument: In the first case a person can become a crowd if enough people are gathered together, even a couple is different than a single-person as Valentines Day attests for many of us. In the latter case, a baby and an elderly man are qualitatively different; one could arguably say (as I have in previous posts) that a real change does occur in aging.
Resolutions: In both of these cases however, the presence of change is largely a matter of degree. If they really are "effectively the same" than dealing with one person vs a crowd, or one person one day and the same person a year later should be the same but just require persistence in the action/relation. While theoretically I find the question of growth as a form of change compelling, so the sake of this research, the work required would outweigh the benefits. I would be coding practically everything if I was to include persistence over time or degree as form of change.
II. Coming to Be v Passing Away
What I am looking for is productive change, or which is why I tend to favor the term "trans-FORMATION." The creation of a new whole that encompasses its constituting parts into itself or else replaces them. This may be regarded as an absolutely new "kind" of thing (an new type of "nature" or "likeness" which has its own internal logic) or an exchange of identities from one form and another form, where the qualities of the assumed thing effectively suppresses, suspends or destroys the former in such a way that the old and the new cannot coexist in the same place in time and space.
Argument: What I am not looking for is the thing that departs, disappears or dies when the change occurs, although passing-away will often mark the points where creation manifests itself. Unless defined as a hybrid (where the qualities of each part remains evident), a new whole will take the place of the old individual wholes. Unless split into discrete wholes by death (such as Medusa, whose head becomes carried by Jason and whose blood becomes the Pegasus), mere decay or fracture will not be coded.
Counter-Argument: Parts do live under the tyranny of the whole and often, especially in cases of damage, illness, disability, aging, etc a body's parts will continue to function differently and separately even while perpetuating the whole. Likewise, something that passes-away, be it matter, form or both it may very well go somewhere or reemerge at another time. Dead bodies or dead ideas do not always remain buried and may undergo acts or changes in that time.
Resolutions: If and where parts are able to be distinguished they may be coded separately or significantly quality the thing being described (i.e. the eye of the fates or the-man-with-a-prosthetic-shoulder). In general however I will follow the lead of my texts on when to ignore parts or things passing away, because to look into, under or behind the wholes that I can see will put strains or takes leaps with the evidence. I may need to do just that, but as a rule, I will regard wholes and presences over absences, unless the parts or absences manifest themselves (such as ghosts). Because nearly everything is made of parts and because nearly everything is absent in a scene which deals with only present things, I would again end up coding everything if I did note each passing-away.
What is a Thing?
What I am looking for is matter and form together, where there is an instance of something with a boundary/closure that a thing can exist between or across.
The Exclusion:
Argument: Matter alone is not going to be coded (i.e water, being, time, space). Forms alone will not be coded, such as words/ideas/identities (i.e. dialects, hope, Englishness). They require individual instances or bodies which can be considered as having specific qualities or boundaries, however porous or fluid they may be, (i.e. the sea, the universe, the hopeful Saxon man who spoke old English). This will be the case unless Matter (i.e. Mother Nature), Form (the Logos), or other such things manifest AS bodies, such as in Allegory (where Love arrives, walks around and speaks).
Counter-Arguments: Many of my colleagues are working with exactly these exceptions. (1) On language as embodied or as a living thing, which undergoes change and may exist across different language communities; (2) or as the universe as effectively one monad of either matter (we are all one in essence); (3) or form (the universe is chaos where all things are so interconnected they they are insaperable), this is not my project. The effect of coding for these would be to looking at changes in the words of what I am reading at times when more embodied changes are occurring in what the words are referencing. Likewise, if borders or difference are impossible, so too may transformation be either impossible or irrelevant.
Resolution: I am concerned with Trans/Forming/Bodies, which requires a certain level of definition, positive production and materiality to fit within my research.
On Being Personally and Professionally Trans
A Perk of Being of a Wallflower: Being Alone Together
Breaking the Grail: Partings in Le Morte d'Arthur


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text:
John E. Scheaffer (August 28, 1916 – March 29, 1990) is a former Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

References

Republican Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
1990 deaths
1916 births
20th-century American politicians

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Jenny Deam Aug. 5, 2017 Updated: Aug. 5, 2017 7:08 p.m.
In a time when most any daily want can be procured by smartphone and delivered to doorstep, why not birth control pills, too?
At age 57, oral contraceptives have quietly entered today's trendy online marketplace alongside personalized wardrobe picks and impressive dinner ingredients, targeting the millennial and Gen Z women who already dwell there.
With chummy, just-like-me messaging and promises of convenience, privacy and even a little activism, a handful of startups now will dispense and, in some cases, provide online prescriptions as a way to ensure women's continued access to birth control.
This is all coming at a time when reproductive rights are seen as being under siege, especially in a politically conservative states like Texas with large swaths of rural areas and dwindling providers.
For instance, in 2011, when Texas lawmakers dramatically cut the two-year grants to family planning clinics to $38 million from $111 million, presumably taking aim at abortion providers, the result was 82 clinics - roughly one in four in the state - closed or stopped offering family-planning services.
"We want women to see us and say, 'These are people who believe that if you want birth control you should have it,'" said Hans Ganeskar, co-founder and CEO of Nurx, a California-based site founded in 2015 that can both dispense and prescribe by way of computer or app.
Nurx (pronounced New RX) became available to Texas women in June, bringing the total number of states it serves to 17.
Women answer a series of health questions or in some cases undergo video consultation, and then their prescriptions are written by a state-licensed doctor affiliated with the company. The prescription is then sent to a local pharmacy to handle delivery. With insurance, the cost is generally free; without, it is $15 for a one-month supply of pills.
A similar company, The Pill Club, entered the Texas market in early July. It, too, is a California-based startup touting the same message of accessibility and inclusiveness.
The Pill Club differs from Nurx in that it provides all prescriptions and products in-house, without involving local pharmacies.
While it is possible to get an online exam and first-time prescription in some states through The Pill Club, founder Nick Chang said the exam service is not yet available to Texas women. In states where it is unavailable, women upload an existing prescription. The cost is typically covered by insurance.
Chang, a Stanford Law School graduate who also attended medical school, said his company takes its cues from the many personalized niche shopping sites such as Birch Box with its makeup or the Dollar Shave Club.
"All of these things are being delivered, but not birth control. There's something wrong with that," he thought as far back as 2014, although his company did not officially launch until last year. It is now in 13 states.
Contraceptives have been available through online pharmacies long before these new, more hip entrants, but Chang said for reasons not entirely clear many women were not taking advantages of them.
Sometimes they also weren't going to their neighborhood pharmacy to fill a prescription even if they had it in hand. Chang wanted to solve the disconnect.
Those who study retail patterns say a powerful lure in today's online shopping is about selling not just a product but the "experience" that is wrapped around it.
Betsy Gelb, a marketing and entrepreneurship professor at the University of Houston's Bauer College of Business, said it is more than simply targeting broad demographics, like gender or income, but rather a segment within.
"It's a club," she said, where shoppers are attracted to a specific aspirational image portrayed on a website, sort of like getting to sit at the cool kids' table.
Gelb said it appears these contraception sites have tapped both the emotion and buying power.
"This is a happy purchase," she said. "Most health care is not about making happy purchases."
In such niche marketing, the main product often arrives with add-ons to complete the "experience." Birth control from The Pill Club arrives with not only contraceptives but also body wash, chocolate squares and empowerment stickers, like "Dream Big."
At Prjkt Ruby (note the text message spelling), contraception comes paired with social conscience. Also launched in 2015, the service arrived in Texas earlier this year, chief marketing officer Daniel Snyder said.
It also offers its own in-house mail-order pharmacy and prescription services. In Texas, those come after a video consultation. But the company does not accept insurance, instead charging the $20-per-cycle prescription services by cash or credit card.
For every order of a three-month cycle, the company donates 75 cents to Population Services International, a nonprofit organization that supports access for birth control to women in developing nations.
"We're like the TOMS Shoes of birth control," said Snyder, referring to the shoe seller that donates either a pair of shoes or a portion of the profits from other items to those in need.
Despite the white-hot political glow that surrounds all things reproductive these days, online contraceptive marketing has mostly flown under the radar, even as they also fill the controversial morning-after pills, said Dr. Kristyn Brandi, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Los Angeles and an advocacy fellow for the Physicians for Reproductive Health.
Despite some initial reservations, she said, the potential boost to access outweighs potential safety concerns in misdiagnosis.
"A lot of the trouble with contraception is getting it," she said.
Snyder agreed, adding it's impossible to extract the current political climate from what it happening with his company. In the days after the November election, he said they experienced a noticeable surge in business.
"People were panicking," he said.
"Planned Parenthood is sitting in an uneasy spot," said Barbara Boonnark, an 18-year-old Houston student who just received her first three-month supply of pills from Nurx.
In the past, she had gone to Planned Parenthood for birth control. She saw something about Nurx in her Facebook Feed a few months ago but then discovered it was not offered in Texas.
When it became available and her prescription was about to expire, she decided to give it a try. The online questionnaire took about five to 10 minutes as she provided answers about her overall health, medical history, whether she had taken birth control pills previously and if she had a preference in the kind of contraception.
"It was pretty simple, and I like the privacy," she said. "I think I will stick with it."
Carmen Catizone, executive director of the national Association of Boards of Pharmacy, sees the trend as walking a fine line. He, like others, favors increased access but worries against leaning too heavily on a lifestyle message.
"You can't treat this like just some purchase on the internet," he said. "You have patient safety in place because this is still a medication and medications are inherently dangerous."


text:
Lucjan Tadeusz Wrotny (ur. 1920 w Śmiecinie k. Ciechanowa, zm. 6 grudnia 2006 w Warszawie) – profesor zwyczajny Politechniki Warszawskiej, specjalista w dziedzinie mechaniki i budowy maszyn oraz dynamiki maszyn. Kierownik Zakładu Konstrukcji Obrabiarek.

Pochodził z okolic Ciechanowa, z którym bliskie relacje łączyły go do końca życia. W 1938 ukończył ciechanowskie gimnazjum im. Z. Krasińskiego. Brał czynny udział w kampanii wrześniowej, a następnie działał w konspiracji należąc do Armii Krajowej. Był zastępcą komendanta obwodu ciechanowskiego. W styczniu 1945 został aresztowany przez NKWD i zesłany do łagru w Stalinogorsku, skąd powrócił po dziewięciu miesiącach. W 1946 rozpoczął studia na Politechnice Warszawskiej, po ukończeniu której został pracownikiem naukowym. W swoim dorobku posiada podręczniki politechniczne z dziedziny obróbki maszynowej i projektowania maszyn. W 1978 otrzymał tytuł profesora nadzwyczajnego. Współpracował z miesięcznikiem naukowo-technicznym "Mechanik". Do końca życia należał do Towarzystwa Miłośników Ziemi Ciechanowskiej. Zmarł w wieku 86 lat.

Pochowany na cmentarzu Bródnowskim w Warszawie (kw. 38G, rząd IV, grób 27).

Wybrana twórczość
 Projektowanie obrabiarek
 Podstawy budowy obrabiarek
 Obrabiarki skrawające do metali
 Obrabiarki i urządzenia technologiczne
 Kinematyka i dynamika maszyn technologicznych i robotów przemysłowych
 Dynamika układów mechanicznych

Przypisy

Absolwenci Politechniki Warszawskiej
Ludzie związani z Ciechanowem
Pochowani na cmentarzu Bródnowskim w Warszawie
Polacy i obywatele polscy – więźniowie radzieckich łagrów 1945–1989
Polskie ofiary represji stalinowskich
Urodzeni w 1920
Wykładowcy Politechniki Warszawskiej
Zmarli w 2006
Żołnierze Armii Krajowej


We were approached by representatives of The Point, Eastleigh as they were looking to install a new wheelchair lift. The Point, Eastleigh is a local theatre that plays host to a large variety of performances and is run by Eastleigh Borough Council. The Point is situated adjacent to Eastleigh Borough Council offices in the town centre and is a hub for local residents. The theatre accommodates a wide range of events spanning from contemporary theatrical productions to dances classes for all ages to community shows. As a vital hub for the local community the client needed to replace their current wheelchair lift quickly. The Point's current wheelchair lift was over 15 years old and wasn't fit for purpose. However the old lift provided a vital disabled access route for both staff and visitors alike and so we surveyed the site and submitted drawings for a new lift to the client.
We designed and fitted a brand new wheelchair lift to travel up the 3.5 metres difference between ground floor to first floor. The total travel of the lift is over 7 metres which included two 90º corners and one 180º corner from the ground floor. The width of the staircase varied therefore a smaller platform measuring 750mm x 900mm was fitted. The wheelchair lift has a rated load of 225kg therefore can easily move even the heaviest of mobility scooters. The lift was installed within 2 days.
To see more examples of our work in theatres click on the following links: Step Lift and Passenger Lift in York Theatre Royal and Passenger Lift in the National Theatre.
To see more examples of our inclined wheelchair lifts click on the following links: Inclined Platform Lift in Grade II Listed Waterworks, Outdoor Inclined Platform Lift in Dartford, Inclined Wheelchair Platform Lift in Poole, Outdoor Garden Lift in Parkstone and Inclined Platform Lift in Dartmouth.