Welcome to 21 Days of Detoxing with clean, whole, real food! Yep, we?re at it again with another awesomely motivated group. Registration is now closed for the fall detox but I?ll run it again in a few months and then YOU can hop on the feel-good train! And from now until October 28th you can get a new recipe each day by subscribing to my RSS feed.
Congratulations to my detoxers!
We made it! 21 days is (not coincidentally) exactly the amount of time they say it takes to form new habits or change an old one.
So, what have we accomplished? I think one member of our group put it best when she described her experience:
?Lots of great things? looked at emotional eating?brain working better, sleeping better, tasting my food, eating healthier, feeling pumped, pooping better, drinking more water, got rid of my addictions, making better choices, and even lost a few pounds. Yeah!?
So here we are, and like a proud mama I?m setting my little birds free and watching them as they continue to make healthy choices and live life awesomely. Today?s recipe is super duper easy, but takes 2 days to sit in the fridge. And that?s intentional. Because 2 days from now (and hopefully many more) I know this group will still be working hard at feeding themselves well.
I?m so grateful to all of you who trusted me with your menu planning and saw results. You are amazing. Thank you. We?ll be doing this again in Spring 2013!
DETROIT -- After a regular season rife with inconsistency, Pablo Sandoval has experienced few downs this postseason.
The Giants third baseman?s postseason assault of opposing pitchers continued with two more hits on Saturday in a 2-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers in Game 3 of the World Series. Sandoval singled and doubled in four at-bats to raise his average in the World Series to .636 as the Giants are now within a victory of their second World Series title in three seasons.
Sandoval?s two hits also increased his 2012 postseason total to 23, which moves him past former first baseman J.T. Snow for the most in a single postseason in franchise history. Snow rapped out 22 hits in 2002 for the National League pennant-winning Giants.
Sandoval believes he has had success -- he?s 23-for-61 (.377) with five doubles, six home runs and 13 RBIs in 15 postseason games -- because his hands are finally back at full strength. The slugger missed 53 games this season, including 35 after he suffered a left hamate fracture on May 2.
?I?ve been feeling great,? Sandoval said. ?I was struggling during the season, up and down. My surgery, I lost the strength in my hand muscles. I think this is the time I?m getting my strength back. All the work I?ve been putting in during the season I?ve been seeing the results right now.?
Has he ever.
Sandoval didn?t just pass Snow on Saturday, he also moved within two hits of the all-time major league record for hits in a postseason shared by David Freese (2011), Darrin Erstad (2002) and Marquis Grissom (1995).
Shortstop Brandon Crawford has seen the difference in Sandoval?s hand strength and agrees it has keyed his success.
?He?s been looking real good,? Crawford said. ?He?s been using his hands a lot. When he?s doing that, he?s tough to get out. Even a guy like (Anibal) Sanchez who is going to keep you off-balance, he?s still going to get his hands up there and get a barrel on some of them.?
Dan Hayes is the White Sox Insider for CSNChicago.com
SAN DIEGO -- A mother and her 7-year-old son have been reunited five years after the boy was kidnapped by his father and taken to Mexico, authorities said.
According to the San Diego District Attorney's office, the boy had been living with his grandparents near Mexico City after his father, 37-year-old Julio Rocha kidnapped him and left him there.
"I haven't really celebrated Christmas or his birthday or anything,"?he boy's mother, Leilani Masumoto, told NBC 7. "I was just waiting to get him back home. This will be our first Christmas together."
Masumoto said she had just been given full custody of her son, Keoni, when Rocha took the boy to Mexico. But last week her prayers were answered.
That's when authorities got a call from the grandparents' next-door neighbor, who came across a missing children's poster online with the boy's photo and recognized him.
'Broke down in tears' After years of anguish, mother and child were finally reunited.
"As soon as he came, I just broke down in tears," Masumoto recalled.
But they are tears she says she would not shed if she ever has to face Keoni's father again.
Read more stories from NBCSanDiego.com
"I think my first initial reaction would be to just slap him across the face. I don't think he cared about Keoni, it's just more the fact of taking him to hurt me and he accomplished that," she said.
Although she may have lost years of memories with her son, it only took one look at her little boy to find that love again.
"It was like, will I recognize my son? Will he recognize me? And when I saw him, that was it," she said.
Right now, Masumoto is focused on getting her son settled in back home.
Keoni is autistic so Masumoto is trying to find a school that focuses on special-needs students.
Authorities are still looking for Rocha. He is facing felony kidnapping charges.
Investigators say he might be going under the name Miguel Martinez and may be staying with relatives in Virginia or North Carolina.
FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2011 file photo, Comcast logos are displayed on installation trucks in Pittsburgh. Cable giant Comcast Corp., the nation's largest provider of TV and high-speed Internet services, more than doubled its net income in the third quarter, helped by fewer cancelations of video service than expected and by breaking even on the expensive-to-produce London Olympics on NBC. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2011 file photo, Comcast logos are displayed on installation trucks in Pittsburgh. Cable giant Comcast Corp., the nation's largest provider of TV and high-speed Internet services, more than doubled its net income in the third quarter, helped by fewer cancelations of video service than expected and by breaking even on the expensive-to-produce London Olympics on NBC. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Comcast Corp., the nation's largest provider of cable TV and Internet services, more than doubled its net income in the third quarter, chiefly due to the sale of wireless spectrum and its stake in the A&E TV channel.
Underlying results were strong, however, as cable TV saw fewer cancelations than expected and the expensive-to-produce London Olympics broke even on NBC.
Net income rose to $2.11 billion, or 78 cents per share, in the three months through September from $908 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding gains from the sale of spectrum to Verizon Wireless for $2.3 billion and the sale of the 16 percent A&E TV stake to Disney and Hearst for $3 billion, earnings came to 46 cents per share, matching the expectation of analysts polled by FactSet. That figure was up 39 percent from the comparable one last year.
Revenue grew 15 percent to $16.54 billion, blowing past the $16.07 billion expected by analysts.
Comcast's shares rose $1.02, or 2.8 percent, to $37.38 in afternoon trading. The shares are close to the all-time high of $37.60 hit a week ago.
The Philadelphia-based company lost 117,000 video subscribers in the quarter, leaving it with about 22 million. Video subscriber losses have slowed for eight quarters in a row, which the company said was due to better customer service and fewer in-person service calls. Analysts were looking for an average decline of 123,000.
Comcast is mainly losing subscribers to telecom and satellite TV providers. Verizon and AT&T already reported combined gains in the quarter of 317,000.
Comcast added 287,000 Internet customers, beating the 273,000 expected, giving it more than 19 million. It gained a net 123,000 voice customers, also beating the 116,000 gain expected.
More video customers signed up for all three services and the revenue it made from every video customer grew 9 percent to $150.73 a month. That's up from $111.32 four years ago.
An increasing number of customers added advanced products such as high-definition digital video recorders, which helped boost revenue per video customer, even though some analysts were expecting a decline.
The good news on the Olympics wasn't a surprise after NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said on Aug. 1 that the Games would likely break even rather than cause a $200 million loss, as was predicted earlier. The company decided to telecast events live on its website but wait several hours before airing them again in prime time in the U.S. The move ended up helping audience ratings, not hurting them, as the buzz on social media helped drive viewers to their living rooms.
Comcast said it took in $1.19 billion in revenue for the Olympics alone during the quarter, topping the $1.18 billion it paid for the rights. The company also spent production dollars on camera crews, announcers and the like.
The money helped NBCUniversal, which saw revenue rise 31 percent to $6.82 billion. Excluding the Olympics bump, revenue still grew 8 percent.
Broadcast ad revenue at NBC more than doubled to $1.99 billion, and rose 9 percent excluding the Olympics.
Ad revenue on pay TV networks such as Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC and NBC Sports was up less than 1 percent to $807 million.
It wasn't immediately clear if pay TV network advertising revenue would have fallen without the boost from the Olympics.
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The Masai have a long history of being great warriors, and that first night while sitting around a fire, Moses offered to tell me about hunting lions. This was an honor, as his people also consider themselves to be great storytellers and do not often share such private tales with visitors.
A Masai boy is expected to hunt a lion with only a shield and spear before he is considered to be a man. While he does not have to kill the lion, he must participate in the hunt. Moses was about 13 when he faced this trial, which is an integral part of his culture.
Moses put on a grave face and began to tell about the lion dance that is performed the night before a hunt and how the warriors jump high into the air while moving in a circle to imitate what they will do in the morning. They begin the hunt by driving the lion into a thicket and surrounding it in a wide circle, then slowly advancing until the lion is so threatened that it attacks a warrior. That warrior then throws himself on the ground, covers up with his shield, and hopes his fellow hunters kill the lion with their spears before it kills him.
Moses stared into the fire a long time before continuing, and I thought perhaps he had awakened a bad memory.
Reaching down, he pulled up his bright red shuka (robe) and showed me a long jagged scar on his calf, saying he'd gotten it on his first lion hunt.
I was shocked. I said, "The lion did that to you?"
He leaned forward as if to impart a great secret and said, "No. I was so scared, I speared myself in the leg, and the lion got away!"
With that he threw his head back, giggling uncontrollably. I had received my introduction to Masai humor.
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DALLAS (AP) ? Celanese Corp. said Monday that its third-quarter earnings fell 30 percent as revenue was hurt by lower pricing for some specialty chemical products.
Celanese products are used in paints, adhesives, auto parts, electronics and other goods. The company said the decline was driven mostly by lower prices for products in its acetyl and industrial-specialties businesses, which it blamed on weak economies in Europe and Asia. Sales and prices rose in its consumer-specialties business.
Profit still beat analysts' expectations but revenue was less than expected. Celanese predicted that fourth-quarter earnings would be "modestly higher" than a year earlier.
Net income totaled $117 million, or 73 cents per share, compared with $167 million, or $1.05 per share, in last year's third quarter.
Excluding an income tax provision and other items, the company said it would have earned 93 cents per share, down from $1.27 per share last year on the same basis.
Analysts, who usually exclude one-time charges and gains, expected 90 cents per share, according to FactSet.
Revenue fell 11 percent to $1.61 billion from $1.81 billion a year earlier, below analysts' forecast of $1.70 billion.
The Dallas company said that it expects challenging economic conditions to persist into next year but still looks for fourth-quarter adjusted earnings higher than a year ago. In last year's fourth quarter, the Dallas company earned $56 million, or 35 cents per share.
Shares rose 18 cents to close at $37.44 before the results were released. The stock was unchanged in after-hours trading.
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Spyware Leaves Trail to Beaten Activist Through Microsoft Flaw
By Vernon Silver - Oct 10, 2012
On a Monday in July, Ahmed Mansoor sat in his study in Dubai and made the mistake of clicking on a Microsoft Word attachment that arrived in an e-mail, labeled ?very important? in Arabic, from a sender he thought he recognized.
With that click, the pro-democracy activist unwittingly downloaded spyware that seized on a flaw in the Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) program to take over his computer and record every keystroke. The hackers infiltrated his digital life so deeply they still accessed his personal e-mail even after he changed his password.
Since then, Mansoor, 42, an electrical engineer and father of four, says he has suffered two beatings by thugs in September during his campaign for citizens? civil rights in the Persian Gulf federation of the United Arab Emirates. While those assailants remain unknown, researchers say they?ve figured out what was behind the virtual assault.
The spyware that penetrated his laptop appears to be a Western-made surveillance tool sold to police and intelligence agencies that?s so powerful it can turn on webcams and microphones and grab documents off hard drives, according to the findings of a study being published today by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs? Citizen Lab.
Mansoor?s predicament shows how nations have rapidly moved beyond the surveillance of phone and e-mail transmissions to rifle through the most intimate details stored by personal computers and the smartphones that citizens carry with them everywhere. The tools, which can peer into people's living rooms and access rough drafts of love letters, business strategies or plans for street demonstrations, mark the latest escalation in a digital arms race between governments and the people they watch.
Countering Encryption
As traditional monitoring of communications has pushed dissidents to encrypt e-mails and shun phone lines for Skype, Mansoor?s story shows how governments are countering with off- the-shelf commercial spyware that in the wrong hands can be turned against people fighting for democracy, rather than the products? advertised targets such as criminals and terrorists.
?People need to understand how this type of thing occurs and under what circumstances, because without oversight these systems will be prone to abuse,? says Morgan Marquis-Boire, 33, the San Francisco-based researcher who led today?s study independently of his job as a security engineer at Google Inc.
Remote Control System, a tool made by Milan-based HackingTeam, is the product that the findings indicate infected Mansoor?s computer.
Spyware?s Enablers
The details of how the software takes over a computer or smartphone expose the important role played by spyware?s enablers -- from software makers, which often send flawed products to market, leaving computers vulnerable to attack; to companies run by hackers-turned-executives that profit from the bugs, building and selling tools called exploits that turn the weaknesses into open doors for intruders.
Mansoor?s is not the only case of Western-made hacking software targeting political dissidents, who in the past two years have embraced the power of the Internet and cell-phone text messages to share information and organize -- only to see those technologies used against them.
Earlier this year, Bahraini activists, including two people who now live in the U.S. and Britain, received e-mails laden with FinFisher spyware made by U.K.-based Gamma Group, showing the far-reaching capabilities of the hacking tools. Marquis- Boire also participated in identifying FinFisher in July after Bloomberg News provided him with the e-mails as part of an investigation into the abuses of electronic intrusion products and the costs and threats of global cyber espionage and its enablers.
Only Governments
HackingTeam and Gamma say on their websites that they only sell the surveillance systems to governments.
The work of unmasking these tools is already serving to protect people from them. The world?s biggest computer security companies such as McAfee Inc., and Symantec Corp., have since written anti-virus protection based on the FinFisher samples.
HackingTeam Chairman David Vincenzetti didn?t respond to e- mailed requests for comment or to messages left at his office. Vincenzetti, 44, the company?s biggest shareholder, co-founded the privately held, 35-employee company in 2003, according to its website. There it boasts in bold black and red letters its ability to give clients, ?Total control over your targets. Log everything you need. Always. Anywhere they are.?
A U.A.E. government spokesman didn?t respond to several e- mailed requests for comment.
Surveillance Abuses
More than a year after the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings exposed repressive regimes? abusive surveillance of phone calls, text messages and e-mails, examples of more intrusive monitoring are surfacing.
In July, the software that appears to be HackingTeam?s also targeted a group of journalists in Morocco who run a pro- democracy website, Mamfakinch.com, today?s study shows, confirming earlier findings by other researchers. The site, formed in the wake of 2011?s street protests, had just won an Internet freedom award from Mountain View, California-based Google and Global Voices, an online community promoting free speech.
?It?s very easy to fall into these traps,? says Mansoor, who says he has a master?s degree in telecommunications. He contacted Citizen Lab researchers after reading about their work on the nearby Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain.
The disclosures are putting pressure on Western governments to rein in the largely unregulated monitoring trade. Sales by European and U.S. companies of digital eavesdropping systems to governments around the world are legal, with some exceptions for countries such as Syria and Iran.
Export Restrictions
The British government informed Gamma in August that it must obtain export licenses to sell its FinSpy tool outside the European Union.
The U.K. is now lobbying other Western nations to amend their conventions on arms-related exports to include some surveillance technology, according to the U.K. Department for Business.
Martin J. Muench, the managing director of Gamma?s Munich- based German unit, which develops the FinFisher product line, including FinSpy, says his company complies with the export regulations of Germany, the U.K. and U.S. The samples reported on by Citizen Lab are demonstration copies of FinSpy, not the fully operational versions sold to clients, he says.
Targeting Bugs
Technologies sold by HackingTeam and Gamma are a type of malicious software, or malware, known as a Trojan, named after the legendary wooden horse that Greek warriors used to sneak into Troy before sacking the ancient city. They are the retail cousins of state-made cyber weapons such as the Stuxnet computer worm, which damaged centrifuges in an Iranian nuclear plant and was jointly developed by the U.S. and Israel, according to the New York Times.
To make the intrusions work, malware often relies on flaws in some of the most common computer applications.
In Dubai, the Trojan snuck into Mansoor?s laptop by using an exploit aimed at a specific bug in Microsoft Office software, Marquis-Boire found.
The flaw, catalogued as CVE-2010-3333, has been a hackers? favorite around the globe -- even after Redmond, Washington- based Microsoft issued a fix in November 2010, available for download online.
One China-based hacking campaign that targeted Tibetan activists and industries including energy and military research has used that weakness in most of its 90 attacks since June 2011, according to a report published by Tokyo-based Trend Micro Inc. in March.
Complete Control
?An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system,? the Microsoft bulletin that alerted users to the patch said two years ago. ?An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.?
?We continue to encourage customers to apply the bulletin to ensure they are protected,? Yunsun Wee, director of Microsoft?s Trustworthy Computing Group, which handles security and privacy issues for the company, said in an Oct. 4 statement.
Mansoor says he bought his laptop this year and doesn?t know if his Microsoft Office was fully updated.
Marquis-Boire?s research led him to seek the origins of the code that exploited the Microsoft flaw in Mansoor?s case, a hunt that took him on a detour to other samples of similar malware in a public database.
Possible Link
The exploit contained in one sample raised the possibility that a vulnerability linked to Montpellier, France-based Vupen Security SA was used to gain entry into Mansoor?s computer with HackingTeam?s Remote Control System, the report says.
Vupen Chief Executive Officer Chaouki Bekrar said in e- mails that his company has no relationship with HackingTeam and has nothing to do with any exploits found in HackingTeam?s product.
Marquis-Boire?s reasoning is based on discovering an exploit created when only Vupen and its clients may have known about it, and finding it had similarities to the exploit used in Mansoor?s case.
In the key sample Marquis-Boire found, the attached exploit was based on a bug in Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE)?s Flash Player graphic design program.
Vupen had discovered that flaw in January and shared it with customers before publicly disclosing it in August, according to a notice on an online mailing list in which Vupen appears to take credit for the find. In a series of e-mails asking about the notice, Bekrar didn?t dispute that the document correctly represented the company?s discovery of the flaw, without directly addressing questions about its authenticity.
Similar Codes
With those dates in hand, Marquis-Boire built a timeline showing when, according to Vupen?s post, the firm had discovered the bug and when the bug was made public. The malware with the Adobe exploit bore a date stamp of May, the report says, midway between the dates.
That meant Vupen knew about the flaw when the malware was built.
Marquis-Boire then compared the Trojan sample that used the Adobe flaw to the malware that hit Mansoor. He found that the computer code written to deliver each of the two exploits was similar, the report says.
The Citizen Lab report says, however, that while Vupen takes credit for discovering the Adobe bug, it?s possible the exploit was made by another party.
?No Evidence?
Vupen?s Bekrar said in an Oct. 3 e-mail that, ?There is absolutely no evidence that links us to those samples, this is a common and classic vulnerability collision issue where other researchers unrelated to us have probably found the same vulnerability, they exploited it, and they supplied the code to HackingTeam or their customers.?
Vupen wrote exploits for both flaws only after the software makers released patches for the programs, Bekrar said in a separate e-mail. Doing so allows customers to protect against attack, he said.
He declined to comment further on Oct. 4, saying, ?Since there is no evidence or proof that the code came from us, we will not comment nor respond to any other question.?
Adobe spokeswoman Wiebke Lips said the San Jose, California-based company alerted customers about the vulnerability in an Aug. 21 security bulletin and had no comment on findings that commercial spyware had capitalized on the flaw.
Wiretapper?s Ball
Governments that buy these tools -- including the U.S. -- and suppliers such as Vupen are purposely keeping the Internet unsafe, says Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union?s speech, privacy and technology project. Allowing the market to flourish could backfire if these tools start being used against us, he says.
?By fueling and legitimizing this global trade, we are creating a Pandora?s box,? Soghoian says.
The confluence of hacking and surveillance is scheduled to be on view Oct. 11 in Washington at the ISS World trade show -- known as the Wiretapper?s Ball -- where Vupen, HackingTeam and Gamma are the sole presenters for a program called ?Encrypted Traffic Monitoring and IT Intrusion Product Training.?
The convention, at which makers of eavesdropping systems peddle their wares, is closed to the media. The daylong training session itself is further restricted to attendees from police, public safety or intelligence departments.
The ISS description of Bekrar?s hour-long talk provides clues to his company?s role in spyware.
Lucrative Market
?This session presents and demonstrates how VUPEN?s exclusive and sophisticated exploits taking advantage of computer and mobile vulnerabilities can be useful as attack vectors to remotely penetrate criminals? PCs and phones (e.g. to install monitoring software) via various attack vectors.?
Vulnerabilities are actively tracked by hackers, software companies and government agencies alike, with each working in dual roles -- sometimes protecting people or companies from flaws, and other times using the tools for attacks.
A lucrative market for vulnerabilities and exploits has developed because companies in the market, such as Acton, Massachusetts-based Netragard Inc., pay bug hunters more for the information than the makers of the flawed software themselves.
Netragard CEO Adriel Desautels says that while the software industry might pay a few thousand dollars for vulnerabilities to patch systems and better protect customers, his company sometimes pays $100,000 or more for an exploit of an unknown flaw.
Shoddy products are to blame for the vulnerabilities, not the people profiting from the flaws, says Desautels, whose company motto is ?We protect you from people like us.?
Connecting Dots
?The software vendors make people vulnerable,? Desautels says. His company only sells exploits in the U.S., he says.
Citizen Lab isn?t the first to identify the Trojan, which has been analyzed by several security companies, as HackingTeam?s. A Russian anti-virus company, Dr. Web, said in a July 25 report that the malware was HackingTeam?s, without explaining how it made the connection. The following day, Bellevue, Washington-based security company Intego, which had first published the virus under the name OSX/Crisis, said the Trojan had been used to target Moroccan journalists, without linking it to HackingTeam.
On Aug. 20, the Web magazine Slate connected the dots, publishing a story about the Moroccan journalists and saying evidence pointed to the spyware being HackingTeam?s. HackingTeam did not comment for that story.
Marquis-Boire writes in his Citizen Lab report that he can attribute the malware to HackingTeam because one of the samples he found -- an apparent demonstration copy that was similar to the Moroccan sample and the one sent to Mansoor -- transmits its data back to the Web location rcs-demo.hackingteam.it.
Unrest Avoided
Since the July Citizen Lab study first unmasked FinSpy, researchers have traced Gamma?s product to at least 15 countries, including the U.A.E. It?s unclear whether government agencies in those countries are Gamma clients or whether the users may be based elsewhere.
The oil-rich U.A.E., a safe haven for investments by foreigners and multinationals in areas such as energy, finance and trade, stands apart from other Middle East nations that have been convulsed by unrest in the past year and a half. It has avoided most of the Arab Spring protests that toppled dictators in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
Still, the country?s lack of democracy has moved activists such as Mansoor to push for change, drawing official scrutiny, he says. He was imprisoned last year after signing a petition supporting elections, and became known as one of the ?U.A.E. Five.? A presidential commutation of a three-year sentence for insulting the government?s top officials freed him, he says.
Suspecting Spies
Mansoor?s cyber ordeal began on July 23. He was sitting in his home office when he received the malware-laden e-mail from a sender who used an address that looked familiar, .
Once open, the document contained only scrambled data, giving him the first hint something was amiss. Unseen to him, the attachment had also delivered the exploit.
The infection complete, the Trojan established a connection out of Mansoor?s laptop to a command and control server, a computer to which spyware sends its pilfered data.
While Mansoor couldn?t tell the program was tracking his virtual movements -- stealing his e-mail password, and possibly more -- he did notice his computer started running slowly.
After seeing coverage of FinFisher and Bahrain, Mansoor reasoned he, too, may have been targeted by such software. He forwarded the infected e-mail to one of the researchers, Bill Marczak, a 24-year-old computer science doctoral candidate at the University of California Berkeley who also is active in the pro-democracy group Bahrain Watch.
Tracking Hackers
Over the next couple of days, Marczak helped Mansoor make sense of the hack. Using menus that Google provides its Gmail users to track account activity Mansoor found someone was logging into his account. The Gmail feature pinpointed the location of the unauthorized login to an Internet address in the Emirates.
Working with Marquis-Boire, they also found that the malware itself at times communicated with a Web address in the U.A.E.
Marczak worked through the first week of August securing Mansoor?s computer. He says he?s motivated by a desire to rein in spyware abuses and to help promote democracy in the Gulf. ?Since I can?t participate on the ground, I participate online,? Marczak says.
First Assault
They hit an unexpected hitch when simply changing Mansoor?s e-mail password didn?t keep out the intruders. Whoever had hacked him had installed a feature that allowed access to Mansoor?s account regardless what password he?d set.
They finally disabled the tool on Aug. 7 and Mansoor finished cleaning the computer.
The virtual attack stopped, but a month later Mansoor says he was physically attacked. The two might not be linked, Mansoor says, though he suspects it is part of a broader pattern of surveillance that includes his mobile phone.
He had continued his activism, bringing attention to cases that included the detention of men with links to a group advocating greater adherence to Islamic precepts.
Human Rights Watch on Aug. 1 said 50 dissidents were arrested, most during July. The government afterward said the people arrested were involved in a conspiracy to destabilize the country.
Mansoor says the first assault came on Sept. 11, when a man approached him as he was walking to his car on the campus at the Ajaman University of Science and Technology, where he is studying law.
Cornered Again
?When he reached me he asked, ?Are you Ahmed Mansoor?? And I extended my hand for a shake. He spit on me and then pushed me to my back,? says Mansoor, who provided hospital records showing treatment for an elbow injury.
In this case he suspects his whereabouts were being tracked through his mobile phone because no one should have known he was coming to the campus, he says.
Six days later, another assailant cornered Mansoor on campus and without saying a word dragged him to the ground and punched him in his head until a crowd gathered, he says. Doctors X-rayed his skull, dressed his wounds and gave him a tetanus injection, according to hospital records that describe him as the victim of an assault.
While he understands the physical risks he faces when venturing outside, the impact of the digital attack within the confines of his own home remains a mystery to Mansoor.
Scaring Activists
?They downloaded my e-mails, and who knows what else they?ve done?? he says. ?My bigger concern is that they are violating my privacy.?
In Casablanca, Moroccan activist Hisham Almiraat, who is a French-trained physician, says that help from San Francisco- based Electronic Frontier Foundation helped confirm the journalists had been attacked by malware.
?After the Arab revolutions happened, those governments have maybe realized they have to harness the power of the Internet and use those tools to try to scare activists, or try to spy on them and follow their steps,? says Almiraat, 35, a founder of the Mamfakinch.com site.
His next step, however, may be through Europe?s courts.
?It?s something that I hope would not change our belief as activists in the Internet,? Almiraat says of the malware attacks.
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DAYTON, Ohio (AP) ? An Ohio county's director of elections has resigned because he says work on the coming presidential election was too stressful.
The Dayton Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/QwGPJb ) that Miami County elections director Steve Quillen cited "the stress of the upcoming presidential election" in his decision.
The county election board accepted Quillen's resignation Friday, just weeks before the election. He is a Republican so the county Republican Party in the key presidential battleground state will recommend his successor.
The county had experienced delays in getting absentee ballots to voters, but the board chairman says that played no part in Quillen's departure.
A Republican on the board said the shuffle won't affect the integrity of the election.
The board asked Quillen's deputy to contact the state elections chief for help.
___
Information from: Dayton Daily News, http://www.daytondailynews.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Backers of liquefied natural gas will launch the first major campaign on Monday to press lawmakers to allow the sale of more U.S. gas abroad, as the industry push for exports intensifies.
The effort by the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas will include a new web site and outreach aimed at policymakers and the public, making the case that selling the nation's surplus natural gas to foreign countries will yield significant economic benefits and not drastically raise prices.
"There is a lot of stranded investment waiting to be unleashed in these projects that would pour billions of dollars into local and national economies, if the regulatory process would be freed up and allowed to move forward," Bill Cooper, the head of the LNG trade group, told Reuters.
President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger for the presidency, Mitt Romney, have both lauded the boom in U.S. shale oil and gas production as a critical component of moving the country toward "energy independence."
But, the winner of the November 6 election will have to contend with concerns about how to manage this newfound energy wealth.
While federal law allows exports of natural gas, the Energy Department has to determine whether expanded exports are in the national interest. Only one export terminal has been approved but decisions on about 10 applications have been delayed till a review on the implications of exports is completed.
Critics have argued the nation's vast gas reserves offer a strategic advantage that should be used to bolster U.S. industry, and exporting gas will hurt manufacturers currently experiencing a resurgence due to cheap energy costs.
While the initiative is not directed at influencing the election campaign, the LNG group hopes it will help to combat calls to limit exports and will speed up the stalled permitting process.
"The markets will react faster and impose limitations upon exports more efficiently than a regulator ever could," Cooper said.
Gas drillers contend that the current low natural gas prices are not sustainable and U.S. gas output will curtailed without exports, as production outpaces demand.
While some lawmakers have weighed in on the debate on gas exports, the issue has not necessarily risen to prominence on the campaign trail or in Congress yet, with only one hearing on the topic so far.
Initially, some in Congress seemed reluctant to take a strong position on a matter pitting manufacturers against the oil and gas industry.
DE FACTO MORATORIUM?
Natural gas exports to all but a handful of countries with free trade agreements with the United States require approval from the Energy Department.
After allowing gas exports from one project, Cheniere's Sabine Pass terminal, the Obama administration has put off approving any more applications pending the outcome of an economic analysis.
That study, commissioned by the administration to evaluate the potential effects of LNG exports, has been delayed repeatedly and is now expected to be released by the end of the year.
Cooper said the department's delays amount to a de facto moratorium on exports. He said he hopes the new initiative will push the department to issue the study and to move forward on export applications.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? The Taliban dismissed on Sunday a UN report that roadside bombs are causing most civilian casualties in Afghanistan as "Western propaganda."
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed that the insurgents only use the weapons to target foreign troops and the Afghan security forces.
"By spreading such propaganda they are trying to prevent us from planting bombs which cause the deaths of invaders in our country," he said in an emailed statement.
On Saturday, the UN mission in Afghanistan urged the insurgents to end the use of roadside bombs, also known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs, saying they were by far the biggest killer of civilians in the conflict. The organization used the term in reference both to bombs detonated by remote control and landmines that go off when a vehicle goes over them.
The call came a day after 19 civilians died and 15 were injured when their bus struck a mine in northern Balkh province on Friday. The UN said that blast was caused by an IED planted on a busy public road and set off by a pressure plate. It said the bomb was "consistent with documented patterns and tactics of choice by the Taliban."
Insurgent-placed homemade bombs continue to be the deadliest weapon for civilians, according to the world body. IEDs killed 340 civilians and injured a further 599 over the past nine months, an increase of almost 30 per cent compared to the same period last year, the UN said.
But the Taliban spokesman denied that any insurgents were operating in the area of Balkh province where Friday's blast occurred.
He also said the Taliban use only remote-controlled roadside bombs which ? unlike the devices automatically activated by pressure-plates ? allow a bomber to choose the time of the blast and specifically target coalition troops and their Afghan allies.
About half of the casualties suffered by coalition forces in recent years have been caused by roadside bombs and mines.
BELMONT, Ohio-Paul Ryan rallied a soggy, but hardy crowd at a campground here after a heavy downpour, twice urging those gathered to vote early.
"One thing Belmont County can do: if you head to early voting at your Belmont Board of Elections the one thing you can do is elect a man named Mitt Romney who will end this war on coal and allow us to keep these good paying jobs," Ryan said, standing in front of a barn at the Valley View campgrounds with the words "Victory in Ohio" on a banner hanging behind him.
He had the same message at the end of his brief remarks, thanking the enthusiastic group-many dressed in ponchos and hunting gear-for "listening and enduring the rain," adding not to "forget early voting."
There's a reason for all the urging: no Republican has gotten to the White House without taking Ohio and in 2008 Barack Obama beat John McCain here in Belmont County by a mere 880 votes. In 2004, John Kerry beat George W. Bush in Belmont County by 1,987 votes, but ended up losing the state and the election.
Polls in the state still show the president ahead, but also show a tightening between the two candidates. A Fox News poll released Friday had Obama with 46 percent to Romney's 43 percent.
The GOP vice presidential nominee didn't hesitate to try to connect with the audience of several hundred, reminding them he spent "four great formative years" at Miami University of Ohio and managing to fit in three hunting references in his 15 minute speech.
"I've chased your deer around this state as well, it's a lot like where I come from Wisconsin," Ryan, an avid bow hunter, said. "I've got to think of some deer I reckon right through that draw right there in those woods. I haven't been able to bow hunt this year yet?I have my phone is camouflage and blaze orange, it reminds me that I get to take my daughter for her first gun hunt for deer this year after we have elected Mitt Romney the next president of the United States."
Earlier Saturday, Ryan campaigned in Pennsylvania hitting the president on his energy policy. Later this afternoon, Ryan travels to a fundraiser in Northern New Jersey before two events in Iowa and one in Colorado Sunday.
You can?t stop all romantic entanglements at work, but you can and should make sure the post-affair fallout doesn?t disrupt the workplace.
Recent case: Nicole worked as a nurse at the University of Texas Medi??cal Branch at Galveston. She and a fellow nurse, Leon, had an extramarital affair while working on adjacent units on the same floor. Their spouses also worked for the university, but in different departments.
Apparently, Leon was a busy guy. Another employee approached Nicole, claiming she also had a relationship with him. The two women then went to Leon?s work area and confronted him. At the end of their shifts, Nicole followed Leon to the parking lot and ended their relationship.
Leon went to his supervisor the next day and claimed that Nicole had sexually harassed him. Both were told to stay away from each other. Nicole, however, did not listen and instead continued to meet Leon at work, seeking to just ?be friends.? Leon again complained.
HR considered firing Nicole, but she had specialized skills that might prove hard to replace. HR decided to retain her and transfer Leon to end the ongoing conflict surrounding the breakup. It didn?t work. Nicole kept looking for Leon at work. That?s when HR concluded that the only way to end the problem was to terminate Nicole.
She sued, alleging she had been singled out for more severe punishment because of her gender. She thought Leon should have been fired.
The court disagreed, deciding the hospital didn?t terminate Nicole because she had an affair with Leon. It terminated her because she wouldn?t leave him alone after the affair ended. Her post-affair behavior was sexual harassment. (The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston v. Petteway, No. 14-11-00498, Court of Appeals of Texas, 2012)
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I met Meghan Barnes, as I meet many writers these days, through Twitter. She?s witty, wise, and doesn?t pull punches.? I love her already, and I?m sure that this interview will endear her to you, too.?
1. Tell me about your latest project.
My last project is a memoir, For the Love of God,?which concentrates on growing up in Atlantic City during the rise of legalized gambling. ?It has a lot to do with the changes that were made in organized crime groups, as well as how it effected the locals. I am currently working on my second memoir, Mad World,?which focuses on losing a best friend and lover during my first year at university. ?The flash-nonfiction piece that inspired this was recently published in the anthology Real. ?
2. What role, if any, did books, writing, and reading play in your childhood? ?
Growing up my father always read to me. ?When I was very little he would real children?s books to me, but as I got older he would find books such as The Secret Garden, which we would both enjoy reading together. ?As my reading skills improved, I would read to him at night before bed. ?To this day I still read every night before bed, and often read to my nieces and nephews via Skype before they go to bed. ?I think it is very important to have strong, creative influences in your life as a child, and have adults who encourage your exploration of those creative outlets.
3. What is your writing practice, your writing routine? ?
I wake up?incredibly?early, go for a run and then attempt to write for two hours, four times a week. ?On Saturdays I try and write a little longer, but I am teaching a 5/6 course load this year, so I have to find time to write when I can.
4. Who are you reading now? ?
I just finished Junot Diaz?s This is How You Lose Her, and I?m excited to be able to possibly sit in on one of his classes when I go to Boston for AWP. ?I am also about to start the new Ian McEwan book that my friend shipped me from the UK since it isn?t released here for a few months.
5. What are three of your all-time favorite books? Why do you love those? ?
The Brief?Wondrous?Life of Oscar Wao, The Great Gatsby, Dreaming in Cuban. As you can tell from the three books I have listed I am a huge fan of magical realism. ?I love stories that carry enough of reality to make the story work, but still heavily rely on the magical realism to give the work alternative meanings. ?I also?believe?that most people, who are?successful, have what I like to call a Gatsby-ism. ?A need to prove people who who say that they are unable to?succeed? ?This is also a very?prevalent?idea in all of these three books, and something that I can personally relate to. ?I also find that books that display?perseverance and magical realism are great teaching tools for literature & creative writing classes.
6. How do you balance ?building a writing platform? and the actual writing to set on that platform?
I?m not quite sure what you mean by this question.
7.What is a typical day like for you?
I generally wake up early, either go for a run or ride my bike, then take my dog out. ?I then give myself two hours of?uninterrupted?time to write, eat breakfast and then head to the?university?to teach.
8. Describe your dream writing space?
My dream writing space would be in a small room, without any large windows. ?I find that windows distract if I am facing them when I write. ?I also like to write in natural light, so I would prefer to have many small windows that ran?across?the top of the room. ?It is easier for me to write when it is colder out, so my dream writing space would be in a colder climate then that one that I am in now.
9. What is the hardest writing critique you ever received? How did you respond?
When graduating from my MFA program, my thesis?adviser?told me that he didn?t think that I had what it takes to be a writer. ?That I was too driven, and too calculated. ?He said that if it was up to him, he would not allow me to pass. ?I am reminded of his words every day when I begin to write, and I have had a lot of?success?from the pain of his words. ?Without his hurtful and unjustified words I most likely would not have had as much of a drive. ?In the past two years since I have graduated from the program my work as been featured in six?separate?anthologies, Real, Yes! I Can, Thoreau?s Rooster, So Long & Christmas, Christmas.??my memoir, For the Love of God, has been bought by a nice-sized publisher, and I have been featured in quite a few national publications such as Creative Nonfiction, Bootleg, Charlotte Viewpoint and a few others. ?I have also been asked to speak on a?panel?at the?Southern?Women?s?Writers?Convention?and the AWP convention in Boston.
10. What is the best wisdom you have to share with other writers? ?
If you want to be a writer, you have to do more than call yourself a writer. ?You have to put in 20x more than what you?expect?to take out of it. ?If you are not willing to give up you free time, certain friendships, or change your priorities, then you shouldn?t even try. ?But if you are the type of person who can take rejection, and turn it into positive creativity then you have the ability to flourish in this industry. ?It will hurt more than it will make you happy for a long time. ?It will take many tries until you get people to accept your work, and it will take even longer to get to a place where people are willing to pay for your work. ?But if you have the drive, and the talent, I would tell you to push on. ?There are too many people who do things half-assed in today?s society, so if you are willing to put in more effort than everyone else, there is a really good chance you might make it.
Meghan K. Barnes is a English & creative writing Instructor who holds an MFA in nonfiction from The University of North Carolina Wilmington, AWP?s 2nd ranked nonfiction program in the country. ?Her book For the Love of God will be released in Spring 2013.? Her work has been featured multiple literary magazines such as Creative Nonfiction, The New York Times Magazine, The Beat & Charlotte Viewpoint, as well as six anthologies: So Long, Writers Block, Yes I Can, Christmas, Christmas, Real & Thoreau?s Rooster.? She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in both nonfiction and fiction, and will be on a panel at this years Southern Women Writers Conference as well as AWP.
Apple has just sent out its last round of invites for the year, and it's as official as it gets: The iPad Mini is coming next week. Go ahead and mark off October 23rd on your calendars. It should be quite a show. More »
[unable to retrieve full-text content]For any dieter that keeps up to date on the numerous types of diets on the market, the numbers are astounding. It seems next to impossible to know the right diet to use or which one is healthy without any health risk factors.
