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Data Protection, Privacy & Security
Medical institutions, health data companies face growing data protection regulatory risks under HIPAA
5 April 2019. By Mike Swift.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center should have known better, a federal administrative law judge admonished in imposing a $4.3 million fine last year. Entities that hold sensitive medical and insurance data would be wise to view Anderson's story as a cautionary tale.
While the highly regarded cancer center in Houston recognized more than five years before it suffered a series of data breaches in 2012 and 2013 that it needed to encrypt its medical records, it "failed spectacularly to protect [the hospital's] confidential data," Administrative Law Judge Steven T. Kessel concluded in the US Department of Health and Human Services order in June.
One MD Anderson laptop stolen by thieves in one of those breaches held the unencrypted medical records of 30,000 people, but it wasn't even password-protected. The patient data exposed in the three MD Anderson breaches included Social Security numbers, and clinical information such as diagnoses, assessments, prognoses, and treatment regimes.
With medical and insurance records increasingly digital instead of paper, US entities that collect, store or process that data — hospitals and clinics, insurance companies and medical data companies — face growing regulatory risks and are paying record civil penalties to federal regulators if they fail to respond aggressively to the growing threat from cyber-attackers.
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, which enforces the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), recorded a record $28.6 million in civil penalties in 2018 for privacy and data security violations.
But the last three years, from 2016 through 2018, marked a significant surge in HIPAA enforcement fines collected by federal regulators over previous years. More than two-thirds of the total $104 million in fines OCR has handed out since it began enforcing HIPAA privacy rules in 2008 came in the past three years, an analysis of HHS data by MLex shows.
The OCR's 2018 total included the single largest individual HIPAA settlement in history, the $16 million that health insurer Anthem paid in October to settle HIPAA allegations around the largest data breach in US health care history. The Anthem settlement was nearly triple the previous record settlement by OCR.
While the Anthem settlement stands out for its size, it is part of a trend in which OCR is bringing more HIPAA enforcement actions, yet the average size of those individual settlements and judgments is also growing.
Medical institutions and companies paid HIPAA fines ranging from $100,000 to $16 million in 2018 for an array of data-protection gaffes, ranging from leaving unencrypted data in an unlocked truck to, in Anthem's case, falling victim to a sophisticated spear phishing attack that may have been sponsored by the Chinese government.
The average financial penalty per case has also grown, reaching an average of $2.6 million in 2018. That was up from $970,000 in 2012, the first year when OCR had at least five enforcement actions.
A key factor driving the growth of enforcement is that "the hacking of electronic health record systems is growing in frequency," Rachel Seeger, a spokeswoman for the HHS Office for Civil Rights, said in written responses to MLex questions.
OCR's data shows that hacking incidents reported to the regulator that caused larger data breaches have nearly quadrupled in the past four years, growing from 39 reported incidents in 2014 to 149 in 2018.
One common element in OCR enforcement actions is that companies facing financial penalties often, like MD Anderson, have suffered multiple breaches or privacy violations after failing to take appropriate steps to protect patient data.
"OCR seeks to highlight HIPAA investigations involving systemic noncompliance with the HIPAA Rules or egregious violations of individuals' privacy rights through settlements or the imposition of a civil money penalty," Seeger said in the OCR written responses. "The size of a settlement with an entity depends on the facts and evidence gathered during an investigation."
The OCR's final enforcement action of 2018 was a $3 million settlement with Cottage Health, the operator of a string of hospitals in Southern California, which on two occasions allowed anyone accessing the company's website to access patient records without requiring a username or password. Around 62,000 people had their health data exposed.
"As a result, patient names, addresses, dates of birth, diagnoses, conditions, lab results and other treatment information were available to anyone with access to Cottage Health's server," the OCR said in a statement in December.
Serial failures
In the Anthem breach, Chinese attackers spent months worming their way through the insurer's computer network over a 14-month period in 2014 and 2015, before exfiltrating the personal information of 79 million people. The stolen data included names, Social Security numbers, medical identification numbers, addresses, dates of birth, email addresses and employment information, OCR said.
Anthem ultimately fell victim to eight different China-based "advanced persistent threats," according to evidence introduced as part of litigation that led to a record $115 million settlement for a data breach class action in 2017.
Called "APTs" in security jargon, such attacks involve a hacker gaining unauthorized access to a private network and lurking undetected for a long time, with the capability to gain control and cause harm within the network. Evidence introduced in the case said Anthem executives ignored the advice of security managers.
Anthem's potential violations of HIPAA privacy rules identified by OCR included a failure "to identify and respond to detections of the security incident," and non-compliance with the "requirement to conduct an accurate and thorough risk analysis of the potential risks and vulnerabilities," leading to the breach.
Unlike the US Federal Trade Commission, which has a limited ability to obtain civil penalties for first-time offenders of data breach or privacy violations, the OCR can seek financial penalties for a first offense.
Ten of OCR's 11 enforcement actions in 2018, which also included prominent institutions like Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, ended in negotiated settlements.
However, if the OCR can't reach a settlement, HIPAA rules include a process for a hearing and judgment before an HHS administrative law judge. As MD Anderson has, a defendant can appeal an ALJ decision to the Department's Appeal Board. It can then appeal that decision to a federal appeals court.
Kessel, the HHS judge who heard the MD Anderson case, wasn't swayed by its argument that it should face a fine of no more than $100,000.
"It is easy to lose sight of what is really at issue here in the blizzard of arguments and counterarguments," Kessel wrote in the order. "This case is in its present posture because Respondent recognized a problem, consisting of the vulnerability of its ePHI (electronic protected health information) to unauthorized disclosure including by loss or theft, devised a mechanism to protect ePHI that included encryption of devices, and failed to implement that mechanism."
CCPA California Consumer Privacy Act Report


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Newsmakers: Hancock, Maxey, Wallace sworn in on County Commission. Collins, Fisher to lead Rome Board of Education. Felisha Jackson named interim principal at Anna K. Davie Elementary. Ashley Ray named CRBI outreach coordinator as Joe Cook steps aside.
Posted on January 9, 2019 by hometownheadlines • 0 Comments
County commissioners Rhonda Wallace, Larry Maxey and Scotty Hancock were sworn on Tuesday to their new terms on the Floyd County Board of Commissioners by Probate Judge Steve Burkhalter. All were on the ballot in the 2018 election. Hancock last month was elected chair of the county commission with Wright Bagby serving as vice chair.
During Tuesday's meeting, the commission approved the Jail Medical Project—Phase 1, Training Center Building Construction—to be managed by the Sheriff's Office staff and maintenance personnel to include inmate labor in the budgeted amount of $550,000.
Faith Collins
Jill Fischer
Faith Collins and Jill Fisher have been elected to serve as chair and vice chair of the Rome City Schools Board of Education for the 2019 school year. This is Collins' third consecutive year serving as chair, and Fisher served as vice chair since 2018.
Felisha Jackson
Rome City Schools has named Rome High School Assistant Principal Felisha Jackson as the interim principal for Anna K. Davie Elementary School. Jackson will assume administrative duties on Jan. 9. Jackson holds a Bachelor's from Georgia Southern University in Criminal Justice, a Master's from Troy State University in Public Administration, an Ed.S from Nova Southeastern University in Curriculum Instruction, Management and Administration, and is pursuing a PhD/EdD from Nova Southeastern University in Instructional Leadership. She has served at the elementary and middle school levels as an educator in Special Education for ten years in the Newton and Rockdale County School Systems. "Mrs. Jackson has an extensive background in curriculum and special education," said Rome City Schools Superintendent Louis Byars. "I feel confident that her knowledge, along with her experience in school leadership, will be beneficial during this transition." The 2019-2020 position of principal for Anna K. Davie Elementary School will remain posted on theteachgeorgia.org website and a decision will be made during the March Board of Education meeting.
Jackson replaces Dr. Clifton Nicholson, hired in June 2017 to serve as the principal of Anna K. Davie Elementary, who resigned in mid December. Nicholson replaced Parke Wilkinson who was named principal at Rome Middle School. No reason was given for the Christmas break departure other than "personal reasons."
Ashley Ray
Recent Berry College graduate Ashley Ray has joined the Coosa River Basin Initiative as Outreach Coordinator. A Chattanooga native, Ray previously served as a Crew Member for the Southeast Conservation Corp. in Chattanooga, where she spent several months building and restoring trail systems along the Hiwassee River to prevent excess rainwater runoff.
She is a 2015 graduate of Berry College, where she studied Environmental Science. She is currently seeking a Masters in Business Administration at Berry College, through which she has discovered a passion for marketing.
As Outreach Coordinator, she will be responsible for acting as a liaison between CRBI and local communities to promote CRBI efforts; develop and lead educational programs; plan and coordinate events; and promote CRBI's online and social media presence.
Joe Cook
"I've always wanted to be on the front lines of protecting our water so this is a dream job for me," Ray said. "I'm looking forward to working with Coosa River communities to make a difference for our drinking water."
As Ray joins the organization, Advocacy and Communication Coordinator and former Executive Director Joe Cook is stepping down from his position. Cook leaves the organization after nearly two decades of involvement, including 10 years serving as Executive Director, to pursue his work with Georgia River Network. Cook organizes the organization's annual Paddle Georgia event, a week-long canoe and kayak adventure, and is also producing a series of river guidebooks.
"My years at CRBI have shown me the power of the people in our Coosa River communities," Cook said. "It has been an inspiration seeing citizens stand up for what they believe in and create change."
Jesse Demonbreun-Chapman will continue to lead the organization as Executive Director and Rivekeeper. "We're excited to have Ashley on board and the energy that she brings to the organization," he said. "I can't overstate our gratitude for Joe and the years of service he has given to this organization."
Filed Under: Buzz, Education, Politics, Uncategorized
← Politics: Feb. 5 runoff between Vaughn, Barton to settle State House District 5 race.
Education: Pete McDonald retiring from Georgia Northwestern Technical College on March 31. He'll leave as Whitfield Murray Campus expansion nears completion. →

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Starting in 2008, the UBC Mathematics Department is participating in the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) to improve undergraduate science education. In 2010 the Math-CWSEI program underwent a major expansion thanks to the generous donation by Prof. David Cheriton, UBC alumnus, now Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University.
An important first step for the Math CWSEI in all the courses involved in the project is to write down a set of learning goals. Learning goals (also called "learning outcomes" or "learning objectives") make explicit what the students are expected to be able to do at each stage of the course. They are useful to instructors in preparing tests, and assessing the success of a course. In lower level courses, where the students and instructors may start out thinking about the material in radically different ways, learning goals can help to focus the instruction at the appropriate level. They provide a communication channel for successive instructors in a given course, so that effort in improving pedagogy is transmitted. Made available to students, they help students assess their understanding and to prepare for exams.
An important last step for all the projects in the Math CWSEI is the archiving of materials in the SEI Course Materials Archive. This archive contains material developed by departments participating in the CWSEI at UBC, and is intended to be an open resource for educators.
The Math department SEI website has up-to-date details and status of the various projects.


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text:
Q: Drawing - optimization I need to draw something like a matrix of pixels. I created a lot of cells (500x500) and I fill them (= cellchecked). But I have problem with lag when I have more than 300 cells which are filled. This problem is inside onDraw method. Every time it have to checked cells anew. How can I optimize this fragment of code?
onTouchEvent:
    public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) {

        int action = event.getAction();

        switch (action) {
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:

                column = (short) (event.getX() / cellWidth);
                row = (short) (event.getY() / cellHeight);

               plot(column, row);
               cellChecked[column][row] = true;

                pX = (short) (event.getX() / cellWidth);
                pY = (short) (event.getY() / cellHeight);

                break;
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE:

                column = (short) (event.getX() / cellWidth);
                row = (short) (event.getY() / cellHeight);

               cellChecked[column][row] = true;
                pX = (short) (event.getX() / cellWidth);
                pY = (short) (event.getY() / cellHeight);

                counterxy++;
                mInterface.onActionFinished(pX, pY, counterxy);        // Wyslanie wspolrzednych do MainActivity
                break;
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:

                invalidate();

                return true;

        }

        invalidate();

        return true;
}

onDraw:
protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
        this.canvas = canvas;

        canvas.drawColor(Color.WHITE);

        if (numColumns == 0 || numRows == 0)
            return;

        for (int i = 0; i < numColumns; i++)
        {
            for (int j = 0; j < numRows; j++)
            {
                if (cellChecked[i][j])
                {
                    canvas.drawRect(i * cellWidth, j * cellHeight, (i + 1) * cellWidth, (j + 1) * cellHeight, blackPaint);
                }
            }
        }
    }

A: Why not create a 500x500 bitmap and (re)set pixels there when cells are (un)checked?
Declare fields in your class for the bitmap, paint and target rectangle:
Bitmap bmp = Bitmap.createBitmap(500, 500, Bitmap.Config.RGB_565);
Paint paint = new Paint();
Rect dst = new Rect();

Set a pixel using
setPixel(pX, pY, Color.BLACK);  // Use Color.WHITE to reset

In the constructor, disable anti-aliasing on the paint object to make sure the bitmap doesn't get blurred. Also clear the bitmap to the desired color:
paint.setAntiAlias(false);
paint.setFilterBitmap(false);
bmp.clear(Color.WHITE);

Draw the bitmap in onDraw
protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
    dst.right = 500 * cellWidth;
    dst.bottom = 500 * cellHeight;

    canvas.drawBitmap(bmp, null, dst, paint);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Left Coast Right Watch
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THE ABSOLUTE STATE
ANTI-LGBTQ+ GROUPS TARGET LIBRARIES IN SEATTLE METROPOLITAN AREA
Patriots of Washington's event to support Mass Resistance's protest of a Drag Queen Story Time event in Renton, WA.
A "Teen Pride" event tomorrow at a public library in Renton, WA is being targeted by anti-LGBTQ+ activists. More demonstrations against a library in the same system are planned for next week.
Elizabeth Johnston, a far-right Christian media personality who brands herself as "The Activist Mommy," went on a transphobic rant about the event Thursday on her Facebook, calling on her 600,000 plus followers to bombard the Renton's library with phone calls demanding they cancel the event. At around 2pm PST on Thursday, Johnston said the phone lines were "jammed" and told her followers to start emailing the library's board of trustees instead.
Antifascists at Emerald City Antifa shared a message from a Renton library employee who'd received calls yesterday.
"I can tell you that we're experiencing a barrage of hateful phone calls," the library employee said, adding "It's been very stressful for me as a queer person."
Johnston's post included talking points from SPLC-designated anti-LGBT hate group Mass Resistance. Arthur Schaper, one of the group's leaders based out of Southern California, recently gained attention for disrupting "Drag Queen Story Time" events at libraries around the country, claiming they were part of a long-running anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theory that says LGBTQ+ members are trying to indoctrinate and molest young people. A Houston far-right radio host was arrested after he brought a gun into a library in February this year, claiming "We have a bunch of homosexuals who are molesting children." He had previously harassed the library because of the Drag Queen Story Time events Mass Resistance was whipping up controversy over.
In response to possible demonstrations against the Teen Pride event, Plateupians for Peace, a local activist group, is organizing a support demonstration to shield young attendees of the LGBTQ+ youth event from bigoted protestors.
"We need your help showing support against these protestors and creating a safe environment for our LGBTQ+ teens to attend this event. We need people there from 12:30-1:30 and from 6:30-7:30, when kiddos [are] arriving and leaving," the description for the event reads.
At around 2PM today, Johnston reposted the call to action, telling people to keep bombarding the Library's phones.
But this isn't the last Renton's library system will hear from anti-LGBTQ+ activists this month. Next week on the 27th, Mass Resistance and Patriots of Washington, a group that includes Zachary Staggs and other members of the Proud Boys, will protest a Drag Queen Story Time event there.
Emerald City Antifa activists are organizing counter-efforts to the demonstration, including offering support and resources to the Drag Queens performing that day.
The library employee who messaged Emerald City Antifa said that "[p]eaceful counterprotestors would be welcome."
The Puget Sound Anarchists collective also put out a call to action to defend the Seattle Trans Pride Parade on the weekend of the 28th this month. The Proud Boys and an affiliated far-right livestreaming group called Operation Cold Front are expected to show up.
These protests come amidst escalating demonstrations and violence against LGBTQ+ people during this year's Pride Month.
Locally, an art display by Renton's United Christian Church was vandalized and then bombed. The display was a series of rainbow-painted doors bearing the message "God's doors are open to all." The FBI is investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. The church is planning a prayer vigil in response tonight at 6:30pm.
In Seattle earlier this month, an AIDS memorial installation was torn down.
On Monday, there was a demonstration against a Drag Queen Story Time event on Des Moines, Washington.
As LCRW previously reported, a trans activist was cited with a hate crime by California Highway Patrol after he confronted a hate preacher at the Capitol Building during Sacramento Pride weekend. During that confrontation, he was threatened by an attendee with a knife.
Other high-profile anti-LGBTQ+ incidents dominated the news cycle this month across the country. The National Socialist Movement, a direct descendant of George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi Party, disrupted Detriot's Motor City Pride Parade earlier this month, flying flags with swastikas. They had full protection from police officers, who were wearing rainbow flag badges.
Additionally, Right-wing provocateur Steven Crowder intensified his years-long homophobic harassment campaign against journalist Carlos Maza, emboldened by Youtube's failure to address the situation.
One of the most viral stories has to do with Resist Marxism's plans for a "Straight Pride Parade." Resist Marxism is a Boston-based neo-Nazi-adjacent protest group founded by Kyle Chapman, the far-right e-celebrity famously nicknamed "Based Stickman" after he broke a closet pole over an antifascist brawler's head during a riot in Berkeley. The "Straight Pride" event is set to go forward August 31st.
Published June 21, 2019 By Laura
Categorized as Article Tagged Anti-LGBTQ+, Drag Queen Storytime, Seattle, Washington
TRANS ACTIVIST CITED BY POLICE FOR HATE CRIME FOR PROTESTING ANTI-LGBTQ+ GROUP
NEO-NAZI NETWORK "THE BASE" PLANS SPOKANE-AREA MILITARY TRAINING CAMP AND MEETUP
NAZIS "WALK FOR (WHITE) LIFE" UNOPPOSED AT SAN FRANCISCO ANTI-ABORTION RALLY
ROKU CHANNELS WANT TO REDPILL VIEWERS ABOUT QANON, VACCINES & THE JEWS
PROUD BOYS & OTHER BIGOTS WAGE LOW-EFFORT INTIMIDATION CAMPAIGN AT RIVERSIDE DRAG STORY HOUR
PHOENIX THREE PERCENTER WINS HIS SCHOOL BOARD RACE, GETS NAME DROPPED IN Epps' J6 DEPOSITION
COVID DENIAL IN SOUTHERN OREGON: HOW NAZI SYMPATHIZERS & "PATRIOTS" TOOK OVER JACKSON COUNTY GOP


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Home Community Ron Mamiya, 1949-2019
Ron Mamiya, 1949-2019
David Yamaguchi
Ron Mamiya (fourth from left) with Seattle mayor Charles Royer (front) who signed the proclamation for the Day of Remembrance in November 1978. Ron stands with Henry Miyatake, Shosuke Sasaki, Arlene Oki, Floyd Schmoe, Cherry Kinoshita, and Dr. Minoru Masuda. (Photo Courtesy: tKinoshita family collection, Densho.)
by David Yamaguchi, The North Ameican Post
A memorial service was held for Ron Mamiya at the Seattle Betsuin Buddhist Temple on June 8. Of the remembrances delivered, those by Rod Kawakami were of the broadest interest to readers, and so are excerpted below.
"I was asked to talk about Ron's early legal career when he was in private practice and we shared office space way back in the early 70s.
"Ron had a certain charm about him, and he had a way of getting people to come together. He was responsible for forming the band when [he] recruited Bob Yamagiwa and myself to join him at his office… in the heart of the International District… Each of us had our own practice and went through good times and some lean times together as we struggled to establish ourselves as attorneys.
"Being right there in the ID at a time Chinatown was evolving, Ron and I were able to get involved in a number of different causes and with various community organizations. In those early days, Ron was not just good at getting people together… he was also known for his passion and dedication to social justice issues and Asian-American causes.
"One of the things I remember was Ron's participation in the first ever Day of Remembrance. Along with principal organizers Frank Chin, Frank Abe, and Kathy Wong, and other prominent JACLers (Japanese American Citizens League members), Ron was a member of the planning committee that staged the first Day of Remembrance in 1978.
"The Day of Remembrance is an event that is put on to observe the issuance of President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, which authorized the incarceration of over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry including American citizens during World War II.
"I can recall several of the pre-event planning sessions that took place in our law office conference room. The meetings went on for hours, sometimes late into the evening.
"The event took place on November 25, 1978. We knew that there was going to be national press coverage and had hoped that it would draw enough of a crowd for a good showing. This was in the era where the camp experience was still in the shadows and those who were incarcerated were mostly embarrassed and reluctant to speak about it. I remember a discussion with Ron that they were hoping to draw maybe 100-200, but nobody knew who would come or how many.
"Some of you here may have attended and might remember. The plan was for everyone to meet at the old Sick's Stadium parking lot to register and then caravan by car to the Puyallup Fair Grounds, which was the Seattle area "Assembly Center" [where] Japanese Americans were gathered for shipment to their eventual incarceration locations.
"Everyone was totally shocked when over 2,200 showed up for registration. The caravan to Puyallup went down I-5 and stretched 4 miles long. There were another 200 or more that didn't join the caravan in Seattle but joined in later at the fairgrounds.
"Because of the success, this event is now held annually, and it has spread to other cities around the country. There are currently 20 other cities that are holding Day of Remembrance events.
REDRESS CAMPAIGN
"I also recall that during the Redress campaign, Ron was active in JACL and was chosen as the Seattle representative to the JACL national redress committee. Back in the early redress days, Seattle and JACL's national redress committees did not always see eye to eye on what redress should look like or on the tactics to achieve redress. Seattle's plan for redress was more radical and ambitious than what the National Committee wanted to pursue.
"Needless to say, representing Seattle's interests didn't make him popular with the National Committee. I will never forget that Ron stood there and took a lot of bullets and public criticism from National JACL in advocating for Seattle's position. He really took one for the team and more like two or three.
"In the end, as we all know, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was passed. This legislation didn't just provide an apology and $20,000 to the unjustly incarcerated… it serves as a reminder to everyone that what happened to the Americans and permanent residents of Japanese ancestry should never happen again.
"After he left private practice, Ron went on to serve the community for decades as a Seattle municipal court judge."
Nikkei History
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David Yamaguchi is a third-generation Japanese American [Sansei]. He has written for the Post since 2006, at first as a volunteer, later as a paid freelancer. He joined the paper's staff in May 2020, when he began learning how articles flow from Word files through layout to social media.
"Look, Listen and Learn," Minority Pre-K TV in Washington
OBITUARY Sen-itiroh Hakomori, 1929 – 2020, World Leader in Glycosphingolipid Research and Nobel Prize Nominee
First free high-volume COVID-19 test site comes to King County's Eastside
War Brides Vol.2
My Issei Heritage


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richardmitnick 9:43 am on July 20, 2019	Permalink Reply
Tags: Astronomy ( 8,370 ), Astrophysics ( 5,498 ), Basic Research ( 11,469 ), Cosmology ( 5,691 ), NASA Ames ( 21 ), NASA Frontier Development Lab ( 2 ), SETI Institute ( 152 )
From SETI Institute: "NASA Frontier Development Lab Returns to Silicon Valley to Solve New Challenges with AI"
From SETI Institute
Next week, NASA's Frontier Development Lab, the SETI Institute, and FDL's private sector and space agency partners will kick off its fourth annual summer research accelerator, applying the latest techniques in machine learning and artificial intelligence to address important science and exploration research challenges. This year, 24 early career Ph.Ds in AI and interdisciplinary natural science domains will be working in six interdisciplinary teams on challenge questions in the areas of space weather, lunar resources, Earth observation and astronaut health.
"Since its inception, FDL has proven the efficacy of interdisciplinary research and the power of public-private partnership," said Bill Diamond, president and CEO of the SETI Institute. "We are building on the extraordinary accomplishments of the researchers and mentors from the first three years and are excited to welcome another international group of amazing young scientists for this year's program. We are also extremely grateful to all our private sector partners and especially to Google Cloud for their leadership role."
Partner organizations support FDL by providing funding, supplying hardware, AI/ML algorithms, datasets, software and cloud-compute resources. They also support working teams with mentors and subject matter experts and hosting key events, such as the first-week AI boot camp and the final public team presentations. This year, FDL is pleased to welcome back partners Google Cloud, Intel, IBM, KX, Lockheed Martin, Luxembourg Space Agency, and NVIDIA. We are also pleased to welcome our new partners Canadian Space Agency, HPE and Element AI.
For the past three years, FDL has demonstrated the potential of applied AI to deliver important results to the space program in a very intense sprint, when supported in this way by a consortium of motivated partners. This approach has proven critical in unlocking meaningful progress in the complex and often systemic nature of AI problems.
"NASA has been at the forefront of machine learning – e.g. robotics," said Madhulika Guhathakurta, program scientist and heliophysicist on detail at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. "But we're now witnessing an inflection point, where AI promises to become a tool for discovery – where the ability to process vast amount of heterogeneous data, as well as massive amount of data collected over decades, allows us to revisit the physics-based models of the past – to better understand underlying principles and radically improve time to insight."
Each team is comprised of two Ph.D. or postdoc researchers from the space sciences and two data scientists, supported by mentors in each area. This year's participants come from 13 countries and will be working on these challenges:
Disaster prevention, progress and response (floods)
Lunar resource mapping/super resolution
Expanding the capabilities of NASA's solar dynamics observatory
Super-resolution maps of the solar magnetic field covering 40 years of space weather events
Enhanced Predictability of GNSS Disturbances
Generation of simulated biosensor data
Additionally, three teams in Europe will be addressing disaster prevention, progress and response (floods), ground station pass scheduling and assessing the changing nature of atmospheric phenomena, in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).
FDL 2019 kicks off next week at NVIDIA headquarters in Santa Clara, California, where teams will participate in a one-week intensive boot camp. The program concludes on August 15 at Google in Mountain View, California where teams will present the results of their work. Throughout the summer, teams will be working at the SETI Institute and NASA's Ames Research Center near Mountain View.
About the SETI Institute
What is life? How does it begin? Are we alone? These are some of the questions we ask in our quest to learn about and share the wonders of the universe. At the SETI Institute we have a passion for discovery and for passing knowledge along as scientific ambassadors.
The SETI Institute is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit scientific research institute headquartered in Mountain View, California. We are a key research contractor to NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), and we collaborate with industry partners throughout Silicon Valley and beyond.
Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute employs more than 130 scientists, educators, and administrative staff. Work at the SETI Institute is anchored by three centers: the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe (research), the Center for Education and the Center for Outreach.
The SETI Institute welcomes philanthropic support from individuals, private foundations, corporations and other groups to support our education and outreach initiatives, as well as unfunded scientific research and fieldwork.
A Special Thank You to SETI Institute Partners and Collaborators
•	Campoalto, Chile, NASA Ames Research Center, NASA Headquarters, National Science Foundation, Aerojet Rocketdyne,SRI International
Frontier Development Lab Partners
•	Breakthrough Prize Foundation, European Space Agency, Google Cloud, IBM, Intel, KBRwyle. Kx Lockheed Martin, NASA Ames Research Center, Nvidia, SpaceResources Luxembourg, XPrize
In-kind Service Providers
•	Gunderson Dettmer – General legal services, Hello Pilgrim – Website Design and Development Steptoe & Johnson – IP legal services, Danielle Futselaar
SETI/Allen Telescope Array situated at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory, 290 miles (470 km) northeast of San Francisco, California, USA, Altitude 986 m (3,235 ft)
SETI Institute – 189 Bernardo Ave., Suite 100
Phone 650.961.6633 – Fax 650-961-7099
Privacy Policy – Questions and Comments
Also in the hunt, but not a part of the SETI Institute
SETI@home, a BOINC project originated in the Space Science Lab at UC Berkeley
BOINC is a leader in the field(s) of Distributed Computing, Grid Computing and Citizen Cyberscience.BOINC is more properly the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, developed at UC Berkeley.
← From SETI Institute: "100 YEARS OF THE IAU: Beyond the Galileo Experiment"
From Ethan Siegel: "Yes, Virtual Particles Can Have Real, Observable Effects" →


Complete all 4 payments via paytm and get flat 250 cashback.
So 200×4=800-50%=400-250cashback=150 rs net cost+extra hotel discounts.
Screenshot added in comments section..
Valid for selected users who had made payment through zomato recently.
Sorry Than not eligible for zomato..
But you can check in your other account too.
Where is this offer section exactly?
There you will find my cashback offers, click on it.
New50 not getting applied. Earlier it was getting applied on that account. Not even used once.
Let me know the app version installed.
For me its showing the same offer in FoodPanda and not zomato..
Not valid in Delhi ncr.
Its userspecific.. for me also showing only foodpanda not zomato..


First, the federal government suspects he gave a massive trove of agency documents to WikiLeaks about the CIA's hacking operations, though he has yet to be charged with that, reports Huffington Post.
WikiLeaks began releasing some of the CIA's hacking tools in March 2017.
The 2017 breach, codenamed Vault 7, details how the CIA can take over iPhones through malware and turn smart TVs into surveillance devices and is believed to be the agency's largest leak of classified documents.
A U.S. prosecutor said in January the investigation was still continuing and that Mr Schulte remained "a target of that investigation", the Washington Post reports, quoting court documents. The server was set up by Schulte in 2009 with an encrypted VeraCrypt volume, allegedly to host gaming and other applications.
In September, a month after his arrest, Schulte was released on the condition he not leave New York City, where he had been living with a relative.
At a January 8 hearing, Schulte's attorneys argued that they did not contest his detention, based on their understanding that Schulte would be sent to Virginia, pursuant to a warrant. Schulte's attorneys have said that Tor is used for all kinds of communications and have maintained that he played no role in the Vault 7 leaks. It is not clear whether the government is pursuing contractors as part of the leak investigation, but prosecutors have not mentioned anyone other than Schulte in court proceedings. Prosecutors said in court last week they plan to file a new indictment in the next 45 days, according to the Times. Early court documents filed in Schulte's case referred to documents found on his computer that may have included classified information. "The government immediately had enough evidence to establish that he was a target of that investigation", Laroche said.
At the same hearing, prosecutors argued that Schulte should be returned to custody because federal monitoring showed his Gmail account had been accessed. Kaplan had been living with his cousin in NY.
That cache would eventually be disclosed as the "Vault 7" data dump. Laroche was actually describing a "characterization" by Schulte's attorneys and expressing disagreement.
Tor, which is short for The Onion Router, routes data through a network of random proxies around the world, making the origin of data traffic hard to trace. Hopefully more information will come out. "In fact, our investigation is ongoing", Laroche said.
The full scope of the case against Schulte is unclear.
Four men were shot and killed as they staged an attack on a police headquarters that left one officer dead and two wounded. But, the country now faces a new threat, in part from from IS fighters who have come home after combat in Syria.
The first ball of his final over, the 17th of the innings, was a wrong'un drifting away from length, right into Pant's weak zone. In reply, league leaders Sunrisers romped home to victory with seven balls to spare ultimately.
Once it opens for traffic on Wednesday, it will be able to carry up to 40,000 cars per day. Over 10,000 people worked to complete the Crimean Bridge six months ahead of schedule.
Who wore his lucky undies in the 2018 NBA Draft Lottery? Kokoskov coached worldwide prospect and consensus top three pick, Luka Doncic , overseas and could try to reunite in the desert. The Dallas Mavericks will pick fifth overall.
Amazon Go Expands to Chicago and San Francisco The company is expanding its experimental Amazon Go store to the two U.S. cities, but did not say when they would open. There is now only one Amazon Go store located in Seattle. "No lines, no checkout", according to the company.


text:
Q: Significant figures while finding errors The question which arose my confusion:

Two resistors with resistance $R_1 = 100\pm 3 \ \Omega$, and $R_2 = 200\pm 4 \ \Omega$ are connected in (a) series, (b) in parallel. Find the equivalent resistance of both combinations.

The confusion:
In the end, my answer came out to be (a) $300\pm 7 \ \Omega$ and (b) $66.7\pm 2 \ \Omega$. But according to my book, my response for (b) is incorrect.
It said that the equivalent resistance should have an error of $\pm 1.8$ not my rounded off answer $\pm 2$. And it (book) explicitly states that the error in (b) should be "expressed as $\pm 1.8$ to keep in conformity with the rules of significant figures." I don't understand how this makes any sense (especially how it conforms to the rules of significant figures). Help anyone?

A: I'm not sure about keeping significant figures, but when you report a number with uncertainty you need to make sure the both values have the same number of decimal places. This is probably what they mean, since if you are going to use $66.7$, then you should report the uncertainty to the same number of decimal places, which goes to $1.8$
From what I have been taught, reporting measurements with uncertainties gets rid of the need for significant figures. Significant figures are more of a "fast and loose" way to report uncertainty in a measurement. For example, if I measure the length of something using a ruler that has ticks every centimeter to be $5.4\ \rm {cm}$, what I really mean is that I am certain that the length falls between the $5\ \rm{cm}$ and $6\ \rm{cm}$ ticks, and I estimate it to be $0.4\ \rm{cm}$ from the $5\ \rm{cm}$ tick. The final significant digit tells me which number I am not certain about. This is why if we were to then add multiple length measurements, we need to keep track of significant figures, since this is how we are choosing to keep track of our uncertainty.

A: The easy part is that $66.7 \pm 2$ is wrong. It is wrong because unless we know the tenths digit of the error, expressing the main value to the tenth's digit doesn't make sense: we'd be force to drop the result in that digit as soon as we add or subtract. So we should write $67 \pm 2$ or write both the main figure and the uncertainty to the tenths column (that is, $66.7 \pm 1.8$).
The harder part (and indeed the part with a little wiggle room) is recognizing that both of the inputs are accurate to better than three percent, so they should be treated as having about three digits of precision. However, if you are old enough to recall the slide-rule convention for leading 1s (which requires that $1.00 \times 10^2$ is a figure with only two digits of precision), you might feel that that fractional errors of a few percent should imply two digits not three.
Part of the problem is that there is no completely internally consistent way to deal with uncertainty using the crude tool that is significant figures. Working scientists don't follow a checklist on significant figures they just always remember to not write figures that have no meaning. And in that frame of mind I would prefer $66.7 \pm 1.8$.


text:
Q: Error de complilacion al rellenar formulario web desde excel con Vba Hola a todos me gustaria que alguien me ayudar con esto Estoy intentando rellenar una pagina de web y me da un error de compilacion "no coinciden los datos" en esta linea de codigo
apiShowWindow IEexp.hwnd, SW_MAXIMIZE
copio todo el codigo
Declare PtrSafe Function apiShowWindow Lib "user32" Alias "ShowWindow" _
            (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nCmdShow As Long) As Long

Global Const SW_MAXIMIZE = 3
Global Const SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1
Global Const SW_SHOWMINIMIZED = 2

Sub PASAR_DATOS()

    Dim IEexp As InternetExplorer
    Set IEexp = New InternetExplorer
    IEexp.Visible = True

   IEexp.navigate "http://sotermica.es/mapadecorte/"
    apiShowWindow IEexp.hwnd, SW_MAXIMIZE

    IEexp.document.getElementById("v1").Value = Range("a4").Value
    IEexp.document.getElementById("v2").Value = Range("b4").Value
    IEexp.document.getElementById("v3").Value = Range("c4").Value
    IEexp.document.getElementById("sendBtn").Click

End Sub

A: Tienes mal declarado el navegador. Hay que declararlo como objeto.
Cambia:
Dim IEexp As InternetExplorer
Set IEexp = New InternetExplorer

Por:
Dim IEexp As Object
Set IEexp = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")

Saludos.


text:
Erin Molan was heavily pregnant when a troll told her he hoped she'd die giving birth.
Amy Clark
On an autumn night last year, a heavily pregnant Erin Molan was woken up in the middle of the night by a loud bang.
Someone was in the house.
The sports journalist and TV presenter screamed hysterically, waking up her fiancé, police officer Sean Ogilvy. He ran towards the noise, only to find a shelf had fallen off the wall in the laundry.
That was the moment Molan knew she had to tell the police about the troll terrorising her on Facebook.
On Sunday, the Sunday Telegraph reported 33-year-old Molan had successfully helped convict a man for relentlessly trolling her on Facebook Messenger while she was several months pregnant with her daughter Eliza.
A post shared by Erin Molan (@erin_molan) on Nov 30, 2018 at 7:42pm PST
The messages began in April, 2018, not long after Molan was announced as the host of Channel Nine's now-axed NRL Footy Show. According to Molan and the Daily Telegraph, the man's initial message was a call for the journalist to "get the f*** off the footy show yiu fake fukn slag (sic)" and to "do the weather report on channel 2 wheir ya belong yiu fukn rag (sic)."
Despite reporting the vile online activity to Facebook, it was deemed not to have breached the social media network's guidelines and the messages kept coming. Among them was a threat against her life and the life of her unborn baby, saying, "I wish u a fukn still born AND U DIE IN THE PROCESS … hip hip hooray hip hip HOORAY (sic)."
"When it gets to the stage when I felt unsafe and I was heavily pregnant, and someone is threatening my life and the life of my child, it's too much," Molan told the publication.
Side note – fellow TV presenter Sarah Harris has also spoken about receiving online abuse for simply doing her job, watch in the video below. Post continues after video.
At this point, Molan blocked the man, however, he continued to abuse the then-mum-to-be under multiple fake online accounts. She then reported the man to police, and as the Sunday Telegraph reports, he was arrested after failing to appear in court, fined $1000 and given an eight-month suspended sentence.
Following the publicised details of Molan's very private ordeal with this online troll, many of the presenter's current and former colleagues have posted messages of support on social media.
"Appalling. Bravo @Erin_Molan for facing this rubbish head on," Australian netball great and Channel Nine sports commentator Liz Ellis tweeted on Sunday.
Appalling. Bravo @Erin_Molan for facing this rubbish head on. https://t.co/GYB7UWFkB6
— Liz Ellis (@LizzyLegsEllis) May 4, 2019
Molan's former NRL Footy Show colleague and ex-NRL player Beau Ryan also posted his support on Instagram, writing, "Bravo Erin we are so proud of you! This has to stop. Imagine if this abuse was directed at your wife, sister, mother or daughter???? It's disgusting."
Bravo @erin_molan we are so proud of you. This has to stop. Imagine if this abuse was directed at your Wife, Sister, Mother or Daughter???? It's disgusting. Let me get this straight. I think social media can be great. I'm all for social media being used to give people a platform to share their views and opinions. That's a positive. But there is a dark side. When people decide to violently abuse people or threaten them you should be held accountable. Bravo Erin for coming forward. I remember talking to you the day the Footy Show got canned and I put a photo up of us 4 (The 4 hosts) and I had to spend the next 3 hours deleting comments. The abuse you have copped is disgusting. But you have still shown up to work for the last 12 months and done a tremendous job. I've known you a long time and there aren't to many nicer, more genuine, caring people out there. I'm proud of you, I admire you, and hopefully this makes people think twice before trolling people online. The effects can be devastating. ????????
A post shared by Beau Ryan (@therealbeauryan) on May 4, 2019 at 3:48pm PDT
"Let me get this straight. I think social media can be great. I'm all for social media being used to give people a platform to share their views and opinions. That's a positive. But there is a dark side. When people decide to violently abuse people or threaten them you should be held accountable.
"The abuse you have copped is disgusting. But you have still shown up to work for the last 12 months and done a tremendous job. I've known you for a long time and there aren't too many nicer, more genuine, caring people out there.
"I'm proud of you, I admire you, and hopefully this makes people think twice before trolling people online. The effects can be devastating."
If this article has raised issues for you, please seek professional help and contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. If you are in immediate danger, call 000.
Have you ever been abused by an online troll? Do you think online abuse should be a crime? Tell us what you think in the comments!
Tags: australian-news , celebrity , erin-molan , news-3 , news-stories , nrl , social-media , sport


text:
Q: Cannot change ownership in SSHFS/FUSE I encounter permission denied when trying to change the owner using chown of a folder on mounted SSHFS:
# /etc/fstab
sshfs#ubuntu@my.remote.tld:/mnt/data  /data   fuse    user,_netdev,nonempty,reconnect,allow_other,idmap=user,delay_connect,workaround=all  0   0

Then both when running as ubuntu and root:
$ chown other:other /data/test
chown: changing ownership of '/data/test': Permission denied
$ ll /data
total 24K
drwx------ 1 ubuntu ubuntu  16K Aug 20 16:01 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x 1 ubuntu ubuntu 4.0K Aug 22 20:32 test

Any hint what should be configured differently please? I read and tried multiple SSHFS options but so far no good...
(chmod works fine)


text:
contactBLOGPast clientsPACKAGESportfolioabouthome
The Clouse Family
Family Portraits, In the City
This was such a fun and meaningful time together! It was very last minute, but didn't feel rushed or strained. Everything was very natural and Lawny, who is two, was so adorable and cooperative! We took these on a Tuesday night! The last day I had available before Rustin returned to Washington DC the following week, leaving his wife, 2 year old daughter and namesake, 5 week old R.J.
What amazing sacrifices people make for their country! Ever since I was young I always stood in awe of what people are willing to give for our freedom. There was a more subtle hero that I didn't even think much about until recently, though.
Rachel's quiet, strong determination astounds me! I know it's not easy for her! I know because I stay home with a 2 year old all day!-And that is a tough job. But add a tiny baby and a husband who lives across the country in active duty Air Force and I can't even imagine!
What better time than now to pay tribute to moms who raise kids alone while their spouse is fighting for our freedom, in whatever capacity they have been given.
Sometimes I think we glamorize what it means to fight for our country and think that you have to be out there on the front lines to make a difference. But it's usually the unspoken hero, the worker in the trenches, the head-down-humble, the concentrating-on-getting-by, the one who see their life as anything but glamorous, who really make the difference in society. In the words of one of the most caring, humble women to ever live,
"If you want to change the world go home and love your family".
That is exactly what this family does- and it shows.
Thank you Rustin and Rachel for contributing to our daily freedoms and reminding us why they are important.
Happy Mother's Day. ♥ Alyssa
Princess G. says:
Oh my gosh!! I just love this family so much!!!! Great job Alyssa!!
Melanie and Rachel »
« Haws Family April Update
Alyssa Haws Photography
© 2020 Alyssa Haws
| Timeless. Romantic. Personal. |
Design by Jessica Gingrich Creative
Alyssa Haws


The objective of this structured poster session is to build community around the scholarship of improvement as an emerging tradition of practice-focused research. By the "scholarship of improvement", we mean research focused on understanding and advancing continuous learning and improvement with the aim of strengthening the systems, resources, and practices that support students' success in schools. The session is structured to showcase eleven examples of the scholarship of improvement. The posters detail new methods and measurement approaches supporting collaborative, continuous improvement; research-practice partnerships aimed at improving instruction, academic learning, and socio-emotional learning; the application of improvement methods in districts, turnaround zones, and state education agencies; and shifts in federal policy establishing the context for all of the preceding.


text:
Western Gun
Taito Corporation
Gun Fight
Shoot 'em up, Run & Gun
Arcade, Bally Astrocade, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64 and Commodore 128
Retail Features
Main Credits
Tomohiro Nishikado
Western Gun,[1][2] also known as Gun Fight in North America, is a 1975 arcade shooter game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado,[3] and released by Taito in Japan[1] and Europe.[2] It was a historically significant game.[4] It was the first on-foot shooter, the first on-foot multi-directional shooter, introduced human combat, was the first open-world video game, and the first action/adventure video game. It was also the first tactical shooter, with elements of real-time strategy/tactics.
The theme of the game involves two Old West cowboys armed with revolvers and squaring off in a duel. Whoever shoots the other cowboy first wins the duel. Unlike in a real-life duel, however, both cowboys get numerous opportunities to duel in order to score points (one point per successful draw).[1] The game was included in GameSpy's "Hall of Fame" in 2002.[5]
1 Gameplay and story
2 Development and technology
3 Gun Fight
Gameplay and story[edit | edit source]
Western Gun (1975) was the first on-foot shooter and the first open-world video game.
Western Gun was the first on-foot, multi-directional shooter,[1] that could be played in single-player or two-player. It also introduced video game violence, being the first video game to depict human-to-human combat,[6] and the first to depict a gun on screen.[1] The game also introduced dual-stick controls,[7] using two distinct joystick controls per player, with one eight-way joystick for moving the computerized cowboy around on the screen and the other for changing the shooting direction.[1][8] Unlike later games, Western Gun has the main joystick on the right instead of the left. It was also the first known video game to feature game characters and fragments of story through its visual presentation, marking the beginning of cinematic elements in video games.[3][9] The player characters used in the game represented avatars for the players,[6] and would yell "Got me!" when one of them is shot.[9]
Other features of the game included obstacles between the characters, such as a cactus,[10] and in later levels, pine trees and moving wagons; these objects serve to provide cover for the players and can be destructible. The guns have limited ammunition, with each player given six bullets; a round ends if both players run out of ammo.[4] Gunshots can also ricochet off the top or bottom edges of the playfield, allowing for indirect hits to be used as a possible strategy.[4][10]
The original Western Gun was the first open-world video game, and the first action-adventure game. The two cowboy gunslingers had free-roaming movement across a single-screen open-world environment, littered with cacti and mountains while attempting to shoot each other. Bullets ricochet off objects, allowing them to be used as a cover system.[2] This gave the game an element of real-time strategy, or real-time tactics, making it the first tactical shooter.
Development and technology[edit | edit source]
Taito employee Tomohiro Nishikado designed Western Gun as a character-based game with fragments of a story. While it lacked the cutscenes or fleshed-out character designs of later games due to technological limitations, the game presented early cinematic elements, through artwork of cowboys in the Wild West on the video game arcade cabinet which matched the in-game graphics featuring cacti, covered wagons, rocks, and human characters. In contrast to earlier games which used miniature shapes to represent abstract blocks or spaceships, Western Gun featured cartoon-like human characters, influenced by Japanese manga.[3] In addition, in contrast to previous arcade video games such as Pong that produced blip sounds, Gun Fight featured the use of a one-channel amplifier to provide mono gunshot sounds.[11]
Tomohiro Nishikado's original Western Gun design was based on discrete logic, like most arcade video games of the time.[3]
Gun Fight[edit | edit source]
Main article: Gun Fight
It had an altered North American version, Gun Fight, released by Midway Games in 1975.[1][3] Gun Fight was a success in the arcades.[6][12]
Gun Fight was a major video game hit for its time,[3] selling more than 8,000 cabinets in the US.[1] Following a flood of Pong clones, Gun Fight helped revitalize a declining arcade video game industry that was flooded with Pong clones.[13] Its success also opened the way for Japanese video games in the North American market.[14] It was also the first video game to use a microprocessor.[14] It was soon ported to the Bally Astrocade video game console[6] as a built-in game[15] in 1977[16] as well as several home computer platforms,[4][17] and has been referred to as "the Halo of its day."[18]
Changes[edit | edit source]
The North American version Gun Fight introduced a microprocessor, allowing more detailed larger sprite graphics and smoother animation, but limited the gameplay. In Gun Fight, each player's movement was limited to their own side of the screen, whereas the original Japanese Western Gun had free-roaming movement across anywhere on the screen. Gun Fight also reduced the scale of the environment, with mountains no longer being present.
Nishikado believed that his original version Western Gun was more fun, but was impressed with the improved graphics and smoother animation of Midway's version Gun Fight.[19] This led him to design microprocessors into his subsequent games, including the blockbuster 1978 shoot 'em up hit Space Invaders.[9]
Series[edit | edit source]
Western Gun (1975)
Gun Fight (1975)
Gunman (1977)[20]
Boot Hill (1977)
Sheriff (1979)
Western Gun Part II (1979)
Popular culture[edit | edit source]
The game's opening chiptune[21] is sampled by the hit 1978 song "Computer Game" by Yellow Magic Orchestra.[22]
↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Stephen Totilo (August 31, 2010). In Search Of The First Video Game Gun. Kotaku. Retrieved on 2011-03-27
↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Western Gun. The Arcade Flyer Archive. Arcade Museum. Retrieved on 2011-04-02
↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Chris Kohler (2005), "Chapter 2: An Early History of Cinematic Elements in Video Games", Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, BradyGames, p. 18, ISBN 0744004241, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=auMTAQAAIAAJ, retrieved 2011-03-27, "Meanwhile, Nishikado at Taito was developing character-based games like Western Gun, which was released in the US, by Midway, as Gunfight. Few American players knew at the time that they were playing a Japanese game, but the difference was clear. Taito was adding characters and fragments of a story. This is not to say that Western Gun had story sequences or fleshed-out character designs, but it had artwork of wild west cowboys on the cabinet, and the in-game graphics, with cacti, covered wagons, rocks, and player-characters that identifiably human, matched the out-of-game artwork. Gunfight became Midway's first major video game hit. Its popularity could certainly be attributed to its originality amongst a field of identical games. What made it original was its use of human characters in a modern setting. Rather than miniature shapes that represented either spaceships or abstract blocks, Gunfight featured almost cartoonish humans. The original Japanese advertisement flyers for Western Gun showed that these were video game versions of Japanese manga characters. Of course, these manga style drawings were not used in the US, and even if they were, nobody would know they were Japanese — how could cowboys be Japanese, anyway?"
↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Western Gun at Allgame via the Wayback Machine
↑ Cassidy, William (May 6, 2002). Gun Fight. GameSpy. Retrieved on 3 December 2011
↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Shirley R. Steinberg (2010), Shirley R. Steinberg, Michael Kehler, Lindsay Cornish, ed., Boy Culture: An Encyclopedia, 1, ABC-CLIO, p. 451, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XRGEIqzv5rsC, retrieved 2011-04-02 . ISBN 0313350809.
↑ Brian Ashcraft & Jean Snow (2008), Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Game Centers, Kodansha International . ISBN 4770030789.
↑ Western Gun at Museum of the Game
↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Chris Kohler (2005), "Chapter 2: An Early History of Cinematic Elements in Video Games", Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, BradyGames, p. 19, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=auMTAQAAIAAJ, retrieved 2011-03-27 . ISBN 0744004241.
↑ 10.0 10.1 Rusel DeMaria & Johnny L. Wilson (2003), High score! The illustrated history of electronic games (2 ed.), McGraw-Hill Professional, pp. 24–5, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HJNvZLvpCEQC&pg, retrieved 2011-04-02 . ISBN 0072231726.
↑ McDonald, Glenn. [gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/vg_music/p2_01.html A Brief Timeline of Video Game Music]. GameSpot. Retrieved on 25 May 2011
↑ I. M. Stoned (2009), Weed: 420 Things You Didn't Know (Or Remember) About Cannabis, Adams Media, p. 158, ISBN 1440503494, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wrDGMocQr6oC, retrieved 2011-04-02, "Before you assume it required you to type things in like "Go North" or "Examine Corpse," you should know that Gun Fight was the Halo of its day."
↑ Kubey, Craig (April 1982). The winners' book of video games. p. 253. http://www.digitpress.com/library/books/book_winners_book_of_video_games.pdf. "Its Gun Fight and Sea Wolf games, introduced in 1975 and 1976, helped revitalize a weak industry that had over-bought Pong-style games and then had nothing with which to follow them."
↑ 14.0 14.1 Steve L. Kent (2001), The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond : the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world, p. 64, Prima, ISBN 0761536434
↑ Mini-micro systems, Volume 11. Cahners Publishing. 1978. p. 46. http://books.google.co.uk/books?ei=mYQ3T9SFMcrR8QPP-tS6Ag&id=cmNVAAAAMAAJ&dq=gunfight. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
↑ Gunfight (Astrocade). GameFAQs. Retrieved on 12 February 2012
↑ Atarimania - Arcade Classics: Sea Wolf II / Gun Fight. Retrieved on 2011-02-01
↑ Chris Kohler (2005), Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, BradyGames, p. 19, "As a game, I thought our version of Western Gun was more fun. But just from using a microprocessor, the walking animation became much smoother and prettier in Midway's version." . ISBN 0744004241.
↑ Gunman at Museum of the Game
Retrieved from "https://gamicus.gamepedia.com/index.php?title=Western_Gun&oldid=108446"
Gun Fight (series)
Shoot 'em ups
Run & gun shooters
Atari 8-bit


From the heart of New York grows a regal apple, a pure and seductive fruit that rises above the rest. Luxurious. Magical. Special. Like the city itself, its a tantalizing blend of sensations. The notes include Golden Delicious Apple, white rose, Casablanca lily, vanilla orchid, muguet, musk, sandalwood and teakwood. Try this and you will not be disappointed.


text:
Nohed special forces ready to counter any threat: cmdr.
MNA – The commander of the 65th Airborne Brigade of the Special Forces said that the force is ready to counter any threat against the country.
Colonel Holako Ahmadian, the Commander of Iran Army's 65th Airborne Brigade of the Special Forces (abbreviated as NOHED) told Mehr News Agency that the forces of the 65th Brigade are trained in accordance with threats of the day and in different climatic regions of the country.
Ahamdian considered the confrontation with terrorist groups as one of the specialties of the 65th Brigade, underlining that they monitor all threats and movements in West Asia carefully.
He went on to say that the 65th Brigade forces are trained with appropriate techniques and tactics to deal with any type of operation which is carried out by terrorist groups.
Referring to the advisory presence of the Iranian Armed Forces in Syria and Iraq, he said "The presence of our country's military in the Resistance Front which was carried out in the form advisory mission at the request of the legitimate governments of these countries, brought great experiences and we have tried to use those experiences in training our forces."
Elsewhere in his remarks, colonel Ahmadian spoke about the individual weapons used by the Special Forces, explaining, "Despite all sanctions imposed on Iran' Armed Forces, today, we do not need to import foreign weapons and equipment, and our missions are carried out in the best possible way with domestically produced equipment."
Relying on God's assistance and using the experiences of the Sacred Defense years and in cooperation with scientific and research centers, the Iran Army Ground Forces have achieved great results in the field of individual combat and night-vision device, as well as protective equipment against chemical and anti-club weapons, he explained.
Colonel Holako Ahmadian, IRGC Nohed Brigade	September 14, 2020
Iran FM advisor: There is no military solution to Afghan crisis
Leader attends mourning ceremony of fourth Shia Imam


When I read letters from those preparing for Confirmation (the majority of whom are in eighth grade), I always look at what they say about their sponsors. It is usually the most unique part of their letters. Lately these letters include a lot of information about shared meals with sponsors.
I am not surprised. In our culture, we seem to downplay this idea of eating together. We are famous for drive-through lines and food we can eat with our fingers, preferably while we multi-task at TV watching, media communication or driving a car. I have noticed that car ads seem to say little about how a car works and more about the amenities inside … free Wi-Fi, DVD players, and so on.
When a young person stumbles upon a meal shared with someone they really like, something rises up in the very DNA. These meals reveal to the Confirmation candidates the power of being with someone who cares about them and with whom they are sharing a journey.
This is why I believe we are ready for a resurgence of the Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl program. It's about sharing a meal that means a lot and much, much more.
This Rice Bowl initiative originated in my backyard back in Pennsylvania in the mid-1970s. A priest of the Diocese of Allentown, Msgr. Bob Coll, then in charge of the Propagation of the Faith and with ties to Catholic Relief Services, came up with this very visible way to help Catholics practice the Lenten call to pray, fast and give alms.
In the beginning, it was a cardboard dish with instructions on what to do. Now it is a ready-to-put-together box that receives the coins we want to give to those with great needs and that includes a handout with helpful resources, such as a Lenten calendar, meatless meals from around the world and stories about those who are helped.
The simple cardboard box can provide your family with a way to share a meal together, observe a Lenten fast, pray and give alms. The idea is so simple. First, it is about sharing family meals, perhaps on Fridays of Lent when we observe the discipline of meatless meals.
The meal itself is worth all of our Lenten energy. Young people really enjoy the tradition of sharing a meal, once it is introduced, and we older folk yearn for it too. Keep the meal simple. Canned tuna or bread and soup work very well. (And the Rice Bowl resources include possible meatless meals from around the world.) Pray together before and after the meal.
Then there is the calculation. What would I normally have spent on this meal and have now saved with this simple fare? This amount is put in your Rice Bowl and at the end of Lent, passed on through your parish to Catholic Charities.
Then there is the adventure of looking into who was helped. Twenty-five percent of the donations are distributed locally to organizations that address the corporal works of mercy, such as St. Vincent de Paul, St. John Center for the homeless and the Cathedral's soup kitchen. For information about how funds are used internationally by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), click here.
Having gone to Africa, the Philippines and Haiti with Catholic Relief Services, I know firsthand of the tremendous good done!
Finally, there is assessing the spiritual benefit to your household: a meal shared, a conversation at the table about those more in need, and a prayer that is matched by a donation.
In most parishes, free Rice Bowls are available for you and your family to use. If you can't find any, go to http://www.crsricebowl.org/families for resources for families.
Most Rev. Joseph Kurtz is the archbishop of Louisville and president of the USCCB.
← Now is the time for peace!


16 / 90 cu. ft.
Description Honda is recalling certain model year 2003 and 2004 Pilot and Odyssey and 2003 through 2006 Acura MDX passenger vehicles manufactured from November 26, 2001, through August 30, 2006. The interlock lever of the ignition switch may deform, which can allow the interlock function of a vehicle with an automatic transmission to be defeated.
Description CERTAIN SPORT UTILITY VEHICLE'S CERTIFICATION LABELS MAY CONTAIN INCORRECT VEHICLE WEIGHT AND TIRE SIZE INFORMATION.
Remedy OWNERS WILL BE REQUESTED TO INSPECT THE CERTIFICATION LABEL OR TO CONTACT A DEALER TO PERFORM THE INSPECTION FOR THEM. IF THE LABEL IS INCORRECT, OWNERS SHOULD CONTACT THEIR DEALERS TO ARRANGE TO HAVE A CORRECTION STICKER PLACED OVER THE INCORRECT INFORMATION. THIS RECALL BEGAN ON AUGUST 11, 2004. OWNERS SHOULD CONTACT HONDA AT 1-800-999-1009.
Description American Honda Motor Co. (Honda) is recalling certain model year 2001-2005 Honda Civic, 2003-2004 Civic CNG and Element, 2002-2005 CR-V, 2002-2004 Odyssey, 2003-2005 Accord, Pilot, Civic Hybrid, and Acura MDX, 2005 Acura RL and 2006 Honda Ridgeline vehicles originally sold, or ever registered, in geographic locations associated with high absolute humidity. Specifically, vehicles sold, or ever registered, in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Saipan, Guam, and American Samoa are addressed by this recall. Upon deployment of the passenger side frontal air bag, excessive internal pressure may cause the inflator to rupture.
Remedy Honda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the passenger side air bag inflator, free of charge. The recall began January 26, 2015. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-800-999-1009.
Description American Honda Motor Company, Inc.'s (Honda) is conducting a limited regional recall for certain model year 2003-2005 Accord, Civic, CR-V, Pilot and Acura MDX, model year 2003-2004 Odyssey and Element, and model year 2005 Acura RL, and 2006 Honda Ridgeline vehicles originally sold, or ever registered in California, and equipped with Takata-brand air bag inflators. Upon deployment of the passenger side frontal air bag, excessive internal pressure may cause the inflator to rupture.
Remedy Honda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the inflators in all affected vehicles, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin during August 2014. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-800-999-1009.
Consequence IF THE TERMINAL ENDS MELT WITHIN THE WIRING HARNESS CONNECTOR, THE LOW BEAM HEADLIGHTS MAY BECOME INOPERATIVE, REDUCING DRIVER VISIBILITY AND INCREASING THE RISK OF A CRASH.
Description HONDA IS RECALLING CERTAIN MODEL YEAR 2002 THROUGH 2004 CR-V; MODEL YEAR 2003 THROUGH 2005 PILOT; AND MODEL YEAR 2002 AND 2003 CIVIC VEHICLES. IN MARCH 2012, HONDA FILED A DEFECT REPORT TO RECALL CERTAIN MODEL YEAR 2002 THROUGH 2004 CR-V AND CERTAIN MODEL YEAR 2003 PILOT VEHICLES. IN AUGUST 2012, HONDA INFORMED THE AGENCY THAT IT WAS INCLUDING AN ADDITIONAL 820,789 VEHICLES INCLUDING CERTAIN MODEL YEAR 2004 AND 2005 PILOTS AND MODEL YEAR 2002 AND 2003 CIVICS. THE TOTAL NUMBER OF VEHICLES BEING RECALLED IS NOW 1,375,217. DUE TO TENSION FROM THE COMBINATION SWITCH WIRING HARNESS, WEAR ON THE SURFACE OF THE ELECTRICAL TERMINAL CAN OCCUR, YIELDING COPPER OXIDE, WHICH INCREASES ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE. INCREASED ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE MAY CAUSE THE TERMINAL ENDS TO MELT WITHIN THE WIRING HARNESS CONNECTOR.
Remedy HONDA WILL NOTIFY OWNERS, AND DEALERS WILL REPAIR THE LOW BEAM TERMINAL HARNESS OR REPLACE THE LIGHTING SWITCH AS NECESSARY, FREE OF CHARGE. THE ORIGINAL RECALL BEGAN IN APRIL 2012. OWNERS OF VEHICLES INVOLVED IN THE SEPTEMBER 2012 EXPANSION WILL BE NOTIFIED IN SEPTEMBER 2012. OWNERS MAY CONTACT HONDA CUSTOMER SERVICE AT 1-800-999-1009.


text:
Васи́лий Ерёмин

 Ерёмин, Василий Петрович (1943—2020) — советский и российский военно-морской деятель, адмирал.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Ricardo Samper Ibáñez (Valencia, 25 de agosto de 1881-Ginebra, 27 de octubre de 1938) fue un abogado y político republicano español, varias veces ministro durante el período de la Segunda República.

Biografía

Orígenes y primeros años
Nació en Valencia el 25 de agosto de 1881. Realizó estudios de Derecho por la Universidad de Valencia, licenciándose en 1904. Se dedicaría a la abogacía en la capital valenciana. Seguidor del escritor Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, se inició en la política de la mano de este y llegó a militar en el blasquista Partido de Unión Republicana Autonomista (PURA). Fue elegido varias veces concejal en el Ayuntamiento de Valencia. En 1920 llegaría a ejercer como alcalde de Valencia.

Con posterioridad pasaría a las filas del Partido Republicano Radical de Alejandro Lerroux.

Segunda República

Tras la proclamación de la Segunda República, en las elecciones a Cortes Constituyentes de 1931 obtuvo acta de diputado por Valencia (provincia). En los comicios de 1933 volvería a revalidar su escaño, esta vez por la ciudad de Valencia.

En septiembre de 1933 entraría a formar parte del gobierno presidido por Lerroux ocupando la cartera de Trabajo y Previsión Social, puesto que desempeñaría apenas unas semanas, hasta el 8 de octubre. En diciembre de ese año sería designado ministro de Industria y Comercio. Se mantuvo en el cargo hasta que el 28 de abril de 1934 fue designado presidente del Consejo de Ministros tras la dimisión de Lerroux. Dicha dimisión estuvo motivada por la negativa inicial del presidente de la República, Niceto Alcalá Zamora, a firmar un decreto que amnistiaba a los condenados por su participación en el fallido golpe de Estado de 1932.

Durante su etapa como jefe del gobierno debió lidiar con un serio conflicto político que había provocado la Generalidad de Cataluña con la aprobación de una ley de cultivos que fue declarada inconstitucional; a pesar de ello, las autoridades regionales volvieron a aprobar una ley idéntica. Otro conflicto estallaría con las provincias vascongadas ante el intento del gobierno central por modificar el régimen fiscal específico que tenía el comercio del vino en el País Vasco —lo que fue considerado como una violación del Concierto Económico—. Samper terminaría dimitiendo el 4 de octubre de 1934 tras perder el apoyo de la CEDA.

En el gobierno que le sucedió ese mismo día, presidido nuevamente por Lerroux, Samper fue designado Ministro de Estado. La entrada en el gabinete de varios ministros pertenecientese a la CEDA fue ampliamente rechazado por las izquierdas y provocó un estallido revolucionario que tuvo su epicentro en Asturias. Samper dimitiría el 16 de noviembre, después de que la CEDA acusara a este —y al ministro de la Guerra, el también radical Diego Hidalgo— de irresponsabilidad y de no haber sabido prevenir los hechos revolucionarios. Le sustituyó, con carácter interino, el radical Juan José Rocha García.

Tras el estallido de la Guerra civil, en julio de 1936, Samper abandonó España y se instaló en Suiza.

Falleció en la ciudad de Ginebra el 27 de octubre de 1938.

Referencias

Bibliografía

Bibliografía adicional

Exiliados del franquismo en Suiza
Ministros de Asuntos Exteriores de España
Ministros de la Segunda República Española
Ministros de Trabajo de España
Ministros de Industria de España
Políticos de España del siglo XX
Abogados de la Comunidad Valenciana
Presidentes del Gobierno durante la Segunda República Española
Masones de España
Políticos del Partido Republicano Radical
Ministros del Gobierno de España nacidos en la Comunidad Valenciana
Ministros del Gobierno de España del Partido Republicano Radical
Primer Gobierno Lerroux (1933)
Segundo Gobierno Lerroux (1933-1934)
Tercer Gobierno Lerroux (1934)
Cuarto Gobierno Lerroux (1934-1935)
Diputados de la I legislatura de la Segunda República Española
Diputados de la II legislatura de la Segunda República Española
Diputados por la circunscripción electoral de Valencia (provincia) durante la Segunda República
Diputados por la circunscripción electoral de Valencia (capital) durante la Segunda República
Presidentes del Consejo de Estado de España
Nacidos en Valencia
Fallecidos en Ginebra


We agree that the jury instruction was erroneous because we conclude that, in order to sustain a conviction for insider trading, the Government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the tippee knew that an insider disclosed confidential information and that he did so in exchange for a personal benefit. Moreover, we hold that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a guilty verdict against Newman and Chiasson for two reasons.
First, the Government's evidence of any personal benefit received by the alleged insiders was insufficient to establish the tipper liability from which defendants' purported tippee liability would derive. Second, even assuming that the scant evidence offered on the issue of personal benefit was sufficient, which we conclude it was not, the Government presented no evidence that Newman and Chiasson knew that they were trading on information obtained from insiders in violation of those insiders' fiduciary duties.
Newman and Chiasson were several steps removed from the corporate insiders and there was no evidence that either was aware of the source of the inside information. With respect to the Dell tipping chain, the evidence established that Rob Ray of Dell's investor relations department tipped information regarding Dell's consolidated earnings numbers to Sandy Goyal, an analyst at Neuberger Berman. Goyal in turn gave the information to Diamondback analyst Jesse Tortora. Tortora in turn relayed the information to his manager Newman as well as to other analysts including Level Global analyst Spyridon "Sam" Adondakis. Adondakis then passed along the Dell information to Chiasson, making Newman and Chiasson three and four levels removed from the inside tipper, respectively.
With respect to the NVIDIA tipping chain, the evidence established that Chris Choi of NVIDIA's finance unit tipped inside information to Hyung Lim, a former executive at technology companies Broadcom Corp. and Altera Corp., whom Choi knew from church. Lim passed the information to co‐defendant Danny Kuo, an analyst at Whittier Trust. Kuo circulated the information to the group of analyst friends, including Tortora and Adondakis, who in turn gave the information to Newman and Chiasson, making Newman and Chiasson four levels removed from the inside tippers.
Although this Court has been accused of being "somewhat Delphic" in our discussion of what is required to demonstrate tippee liability, United States v. Whitman, 904 F. Supp. 2d 363, 371 n.6 (S.D.N.Y. 2012), the Supreme Court was quite clear in Dirks.
That supposed clarity can be little reassurance to Americans who are trying to trade stock based on the best information legally available and who risk being sent to prison, or in the best case accumulating huge legal fees and reputational damage while avoiding prison on a legal appeal, on the basis not of a criminal statute but merely the Supreme Court's interpretation of that statute. Readers who are not persuaded of my view can try reading the Second Circuit opinion, along with Dirks, and then attempt to write a simple, one-or-two sentence definition of what information one is allowed to use when making investment decisions. Good luck! The opinion is good news for Messrs. Newman, Chiasson, and Steinberg, but it's also, alas, good news for all the compliance lawyers who make a living trying to make this sort of thing intelligible. They have a difficult job, because they need to bear in mind not only the Delphic opinions of the judges and justices (never mind the actual law), but also the shifting political and popular moods that produce these prosecutions as predictable responses to economic downturns.
For someone to make the case that the insider trading laws are not just vague but selectively enforced, we'll need not just a judge or a justice or a panel of them, but a politician or public figure able to explain that something's wrong when insider trading prosecutions are just the left's latest means of combating income inequality. Perhaps it'll be a cause for Messrs. Newman and Chiasson now that they have their freedom.


Looking to find the age of my Piano.
It is a "Walstein & Sohn" Brand With "Berlin." underneath the name.
Have looked everywhere for a serial number but cannot find one stamped on or engraved, etc.
However on most of the piano's inside parts are the numbers written in grey lead pencil "3916", unsure if this may be the serial number.
Not overly fussed on how much it's worth, but would be nice to know, more looking for the age of this Piano.
And YES, I have checked the spelling and it is not "Waldstein".
explains that many piano names are meaningless. It has an item about apparently German names that begin or end with "Stein", and another that mentions apparently fake German names applied to genuinely German pianos sold in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Walstein pianos were advertised in Australia in the twenties.
gives lots of useful general information.
With old German pianos, your best bet is that of your tuner feels it is safe to remove the action (the working parts of the notes) it may be marked on the back with the action makers' name and number, and I may be able to date this.


text:
Home Administration and Leadership Improvements sought in Calif. ambulance services
Improvements sought in Calif. ambulance services
MENLO PARK, Calif. Menlo Park Fire District leaders have long clamored for ways to improve ambulance service within their boundaries.
They've reached a point where they're entertaining the idea of opting out of San Mateo County's ambulance system and creating their own program.
"We are not particularly happy with the service," district board President Ollie Brown said. "Because we're at the end of the county, the coverage is not fully here."
Establishing its own ambulance company is among the options Menlo Park is exploring to enhance emergency care for its residents at a time when surrounding districts are also facing challenges under the existing system.
The Woodside and Pacifica fire agencies, for instance, are considering dropping their firefighter-staffed ambulance program because of financial reasons.
However, county leaders say the system overall has been running well, especially compared to what it was in the past.
This system involves a complicated public/private partnership with the county, a joint powers authority including most of the local fire agencies, and the for-profit provider AmericanMedical Response.
"We believe the system is working right now," said county Emergency Medical Services Administrator Barbara Pletz.
She said the present standard requires paramedics on a fire engine to arrive at the scene of an emergency in less than seven minutes 90 percent of the time in urban and suburban areas countywide.
That's quicker than under the old system in the 1990s, when just an ambulance typically responded under nine minutes, she said.
Still, Menlo Park leaders believe response times in their district could be better.
"We sometimes feel we're at the end of the world when we're waiting for an ambulance," said district Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman.
"We know the ambulance service in the district is not up to par," board member Peter Carpenter said during a recent meeting.
Carpenter proposed having the board look into a formal request asking the county to let Menlo Park operate and charge for its own ambulance service dedicated solely for the district's residents.
Larry Olson, JPA executive director, described that idea as "an interesting hypothetical discussion."
But given the current contract with AMR, "it's really not realistic or possible for any department or anyone to jump in and provide ambulance service," Olson said.
Schapelhouman suggested another possibility.
The Alternative Transport Vehicle parked at the main station and tapped only for special purposes within the district could be used as a regular backup when ambulances countywide are busy, the chief said.
District EMS Chief Tim Campbell added that the ATV could serve well as another option during disasters.
That arrangement could be worked into the next ambulance agreement when the AMR contract is up for renewal in 2009, Campbell said.
An AMR official could not be reached for further comment Friday.
Meanwhile, the fire agencies in Woodside and Pacifica might discontinue their ambulance service, which is currently staffed by firefighter paramedics but still part of the county system.
Woodside district Fire Chief Armando Muela said his agency spends more than $750,000 a year to run the ambulance stationed in the district, but gets reimbursed only about $177,000 annually from the JPA.
"We're asking for more," Muela said. "Any money from (transporting patients) goes directly back to AMR — about $1million a year. We want to get closer to that number."
In recent years, the fire agencies in Menlo Park and Half Moon Bay opted out of that same operation because of similar budgetary issues.
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