Prestigious US fraternity at Cornell University sued for $25 million

Sigma Alpha Epsilon, whose motto is 'The True Gentlemen', has received a lawsuit from the mother of George Desdunes, 19, who was found dead on a sofa at Cornell University, earlier this year.

The 155-year-old "frat", whose alumni range from William McKinley, the 25th US president, to Monty Python's Terry Gilliam, has now been banned from the Ivy League in upstate New York for five years.

Younger members of the group allegedly kidnapped Mr Desdunes during a "hazing" in February, before tying him up with duct tape and cable ties, and quizzing him about the fraternity's history.

Mr Desdunes, an aspiring doctor, is said to have been ordered to do exercises or down a shot of vodka if he got an answer wrong. Eventually he passed out from the alcohol, according to the lawsuit.

But rather than being taken to hospital, the second-year student was allegedly dumped on a sofa in the frat house library.

The 19-year-old was found by a housekeeper, who called an ambulance. He was declared dead at a nearby hospital, where it was discovered his blood-alcohol level was five times the legal driving limit.

A spokesman for SAE, which has more than 240 chapters at colleges and universities across the US, said it had strict rules against hazing and a "zero-tolerance policy" for those who do not comply.

"In addition, Sigma Alpha Epsilon sponsors an anonymous hazing hotline at 1-888-NOT-HAZE that anyone may use to report inappropriate behaviour," the spokesman said.

But the lawsuit alleges: "The kidnapping and ensuing events were part of a long-standing fraternity ritual that was authorised and encouraged by SAE chapter officers and members." It claims one member "tried to interfere with the crime scene by having the zip ties removed before police arrived".

The lawsuit also cites three other alcohol-related deaths of Sigma Alpha Epsilon members or would-be members in recent years.

The parents of one, Carson Starkey, said last month that they had settled a lawsuit against the fraternity following the death of their son at a California university in 2008.

In a statement, lawyers for Mr Desdunes's mother, Marie Lourdes André, described him as "a fine young man".

"George's death has incited Marie to join the fight against fraternities, their dangerous rituals, and their refusal to stop activities that have killed at least one student every year for the past 40 years," it said.

Miss André said: "With the death of my son, I find some comfort in knowing that this lawsuit may bring about changes in fraternities that will prevent other families from suffering as I have."

Tommy Bruce, a spokesman for Cornell, said in a statement that the university "neither condones nor tolerates hazing or the type of activities that we understand contributed to George's death."

Detailed Interior Features

So far the Burton has shown significant innovation, but also some of the money saving ideas like using self-adhering cable ties has not worked out so well. Lets get into more detail, and see what else this case has to offer.


The Sentey Burton has plenty of room to the right and just below the motherboard. However, unless you have a modular PSU, this will be filled with unused PSU wiring. There is simply not enough room on the back side of the motherboard to store all this cabling. The last expansion slot might be best for USB or e-SATA expansion brackets or similar because it will not accommodate more than 0.5 to .7” (12.7mm) from the PSU to the slot. The depth from the standoffs of the motherboard tray, (measured from the top of the standoffs) to the inside cover edge is 7” (177.8mm). This is more than adequate for the Scythe Mugen 3 installed here. There is 1 5/8” (41.28mm) space between the top of the motherboard and the case, some of that is taken up by the 2 fans at the top.


On the right side of the case there is 5/8” (15.88mm) of space between the back of the motherboard and the case cover. This a pretty decent amount of space. There is also a larger area next to the drive cage that can be used to place extra cables. There are channels located at the bottom and top of the case as shown in this photo which can also be used to run cables.

One issue that is noted is that the reversible cable ties are unable to stick strongly enough to the painted surface of the case. In this photo you can see that the top middle cable tie is missing (because it could not stick to the case). All three of the cable ties that are supposed to run down the middle of the case failed to adhere to the case either as I was working on the cabling or soon after.


The front bezel lifts away from the case pretty easily. There are no wires that prevent the bezel from lifting off. The external drive plates are snapped off, but the design incorporates a mountable screw hole, that allows the plate to be put back into place. This is actually a pretty good idea. The 5th drive slot can also handle a 3.5” drive. However, the exterior portion of the bevel is designed to remove in its entirety, so you would need to purchase a cover plate for the smaller drive, and there is no drive cage adapter internally.


The fans are remarkably quiet. They do not include any specific modeling label or identification. The wiring for these fans terminate with standard connectors to the fan controller, however, you will certainly need extensions if you decide to replace with a non-proprietary fan. The voltage to the left fan bracket measured at 11.96 vDC (fans off) which suggests that if you desire more air flow you will have to buy different fans.


Here's a close-up of the removable hard drive cage. Once assembled the drive and the sleeve simply slide in. It locks into place with a positive feel. Hot Swap SATA is missing from the case design. This is very disappointing for a case with so many great features.


The hard drive is mounted to the drive sleeve between the metal plates, by angling the drive into non-moving pins on the right side, and then pressing a lever on the outside of the sleeve which forces the pin into the screw holes of the drive. In this photo the middle pin is shown because the lever has been pressed into place. Sentey should have followed the lead with its external drive pins and kept these metal, but unfortunately, they are plastic pins. One plus, is the hard drive sleeve also includes holes for the smaller SSD form factor which are then screw mounted from the bottom of the sleeve. This design does not use rubberized grommets to reduce noise, but despite this I did not hear any HD noise. This may be related to the fact that the newer drives are less noisy.

BACHMANN TIES ROMNEY IN LATEST IOWA POLL, SUFFERS THE CONSEQUENCES ON FOX NEWS

A new Iowa poll, which shows the most recent leanings of likely Republican voters in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, has Michele Bachmann in a statistical dead heat with Mitt Romney. This morning Bachmann appeared on Chris Wallace’s Fox News Sunday and was asked “Are you a flake?” Was Wallace simply being a tough journalist, or is Fox News’ bias in favor of Mitt Romney showing?

Would Wallace ask Romney, "Are you a socialist?" in reference to Romneycare.

Bachmann is set to officially announce her presidential aspirations in her birthplace of Waterloo, Iowa on Monday and it would seem that her new found popularity among potential voters is irking the folks at Fox News.

Everyone in the mainstream media is rooting for Mitt Romney. The Republican wonks and puppets want him to be the nominee so badly they’re drooling. Funny thing is, Obama would love to see Romney take the nomination too, because, in all honesty, Obama would slaughter Romney.

If Romney is the candidate, then conservatives and independents looking for a real change from politics as usual would once again be forced to hold their noses, and try to hold down their lunches, while voting for Romney. The result: lack of passion which means lower turnout and Obama wins in an election year when my Golden Retriever ought to be able to beat Obama.

In the tank for Romney -

Romney is constantly dubbed the “front runner,” but typically without any analysis of the fact that Romney is the front runner by frequently smaller margins despite being the only candidate in the race now with any sort of national recognition.

Romney also dips in the polls whenever potential voters see anyone, anywhere who might be a viable alternative to Romney. Bachmann now occupies that space. Previously, it was Donald Trump when he flirted with entering the race. Trump? This is how desperate votes are for anyone but Romney.

The media continues to portray Romney as the people’s choice, despite the fact that so far, Romney, Bachmann, Santorum, Cain, Pawlenty, et al, have exactly the same win record in primaries: 0.

While Romney does lead most of the time in most of the polls, the internal numbers of those polls show him to be an incredibly vulnerable candidate with a very, very shallow base of support.

Romney is well known to voters because of his 2008 presidential run. Given that he has a higher national name recognition among voters than do any of his announced opponents, it could be argued that if Romney were truly the people’s choice, he would be running away with the race. He isn’t.

And that makes Republican elites, the party faithful, very unhappy. It also seems to chap the backside of Fox News.

More and more, the Fair and Balanced network appears to be solidly in the tank for Mitt Romney. From Karl Rove to Charles Krauthammer, a parade of talking head after talking head discredits the entire field of GOP candidates, and potential candidates from Sarah Palin to Rick Perry.

The Fox News Channel put a Democratic strategist on the air this morning to assess the potential candidacy of Texas Governor Rick Perry. Basically, she said that she can’t believe we’re actually talking about the possibility of another “Texan” running. Amazing! Throw Rick Perry and the other 27 million of us who live in Texas under the bus.

Mention the name Sarah Palin and Fox News gets mighty testy, despite the fact that Palin works for Fox News. Krauthammer has attacked Palin and Karl Rove is completely dismissive of the former Governor of Alaska.

Krauthammer, in an appearance on Bill O’Reilly’s “The Factor,” recently said of Palin that she is not being "properly schooled" and "not learned.” You know, she’s just one of the unclean masses, like you or me.

We all know that Fox News is no more Fair and Balanced than is the New York Times or any other news organization in the world. There is no such thing as an objective news organization. The Cypress Times is unabashedly Christian and conservative and we will not be dishonest with our readers by pretending to be something we are not. I wish other media outlets would do the same. They won’t.

Fox News has become the number one cable news channel by not being Fair and Balanced. They have reached number one by reflecting the beliefs of the people of the United States, as opposed to CNN and the wretched MSNBC which tells the American people what they ought to believe.

So, Fox needs to be careful with its ongoing campaign rally for Mitt Romney.

Mitt is not liked among genuine conservatives. Romney is a man who made his fortune destroying companies, not creating jobs.

The only NBN monopoly seems to be on ignorance

If you listen to Opposition carping about the National Broadband Network (NBN), you might imagine that we're about to see the end of competition in the telecommunications industry. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The key to understanding the NBN - a point that the Opposition tends not to emphasise, because it's in their interests for people to remain ignorant and confused - is that NBN Co is not an internet service provider (ISP). It's a wholesale provider of a customer access network (CAN).

Let's step back a bit...

Put very simply, a telecommunications network has three pieces:

    The CAN that connects everyone to the local exchange. This was traditionally copper wire, but it now includes the hybrid optical fibre and coaxial cable (HFC) networks like the ones originally laid for pay TV, or optical fibre all the way such as the NBN is laying or, in the case of wireless data and mobile phone networks, towers packed with radio gear.
    The backhaul network that runs between cities connecting the exchanges together. That's mostly optical fibre these days, though historically it's been microwave radio links and, before that, big fat multi-strand copper cables.
    The core network that ties it all together, connecting to the rest of the world, and providing administrative functions such as metering customers' usage. This sits in data centres in the major cities.

These days, that's all called the wholesale network. Building and maintaining it is essentially an engineering and systems administration job.

Separate to all of that are the retail operations - that is, dealing with end customers and taking care of sales and marketing, billing and customer support.

Historically, big telcos like Telstra and, at least in the capital cities, Optus have run all three parts of their networks and handled retail too. The next tier like iiNet and Internode have run their own core networks and arranged their own backhaul, and have installed their own equipment in Telstra's exchanges, but have used Telstra's CAN for the "last mile" to the customers' premises, paying wholesale rates. The mid-ranking and smallest telcos have no networks of their own. They just buy wholesale capacity from, say, Telstra and handle only the retail operations.

That's perhaps overly-simplified, But the point is that there are wholesale telcos who have just a handful of customers, namely the retail telcos, who in turn have thousands or millions of end customers. If those retailers provide data services they're an ISP, if they provide voice telephone services they're a phone company, and of course these days many if not most telcos are both.

The concept of the NBN is very simple, provided you ignore what happens in the most densely-populated parts of the major capital cities, and provided you remember we're taking only about fixed services, not mobile.

In most parts of Australia, the only CAN has been Telstra's copper network. The NBN will replace that with NBN Co's optical fibre CAN - at least for 93 per cent of the population, roughly any location with a population of 1,000 or more. In other words, the NBN replaces an ageing CAN that's reaching the limits of its capacity technically, with a new one that provides vastly increased capacity for the future.

What doesn't change is the fact that customers, both domestic and business, can still choose whichever retail telco offers the best deal for them. That is, there's still the same capacity for competition between telcos. The only difference is that those retail telcos are provisioning their services via NBN Co fibre rather than Telstra copper.

That competition can take the form of different pricing for a different quality of service, or different bundles of services.

There will still be some ISPs charging premium rates for premium service and support - such as high-capacity international links with a low contention ratio and a phone number staffed 24/7 by qualified systems administrators. There will still be cheap ISPs offering over-crowded international links and a call centre in the Philippines that might finally answer your call after an hour on hold, only to present you with a human who barely understands what email is.

There will still be telcos that bundle together services delivered via the NBN - let's say a 25Mbps internet connection, two voice phones and a selection of 40 pay TV channels - with additional non-NBN services like mobile phones and web and email hosting. Heck, maybe new models will emerge, where telcos include pay-by-the-month computers along with technical support.

All that's different is that the retail telcos, instead of dealing with Telstra Wholesale to get access to its copper CAN and suspecting that Telstra arranged things to preference its own retail operations, they now deal with NBN Co - which is mandated to treat all its wholesale customers equally, and to have consistent entry-level pricing between the city and the bush. Rather than Telstra's habit of keeping its plans secret, we have NBN Co's very public consultation with the rest of the industry over what it's building and how it'll work.

Sure, things aren't quite as clear-cut in inner-urban areas. There, Telstra and Optus ran HFC networks. The deal has been done, or nearly done, to close them down. They and other providers were running fibre to the premises in cherry-picked highly-profitable areas. That will essentially end, since the only way NBN Co can maintain its regional prices is to cross-subsidise the bush from the city.

Whether you agree with that policy or not is another question, of course. But that was one of the NBN's stated policy goals. Personally, I'm all for policies that help regenerate declining regional centres and reduce the population pressure on Sydney and Melbourne and their creaking transport networks. You may disagree.

But to claim that telco competition will end because of an "NBN monopoly" is as silly as claiming there's no competition in the road transport industry because everyone has to use the same monopoly public-funded roads. Different freight companies use those same roads to deliver different styles of service at different prices, and competition seems healthy enough.

Competition won't end. It'll just be different. And perhaps, on the balance of things, better for consumers. We shall see. Amongst all the details of the Telstra-NBN and Optus-NBN deals released Thursday there are bound to be things we should be concerned about. In the NBN project more broadly, there are plenty of things we should question. But the death of competition isn't one of them.

A four-pack of fashion fun at DSquared2

DSquared2 didn't so much show a runway collection in Milan on Tuesday morning as it did four mini-collections backed by a rotating stage backdrop, topped off with a hilarious leather-and-sparkly-spandex dance number performed by a four-pack of male dancers sporting stilletto heels.

The first mini-collection, set against the backdrop of a Scandinavian fishing village, offered up things like roomy cable knit sweaters, scarves, mixed-fabrication light outerwear pieces and a hybrid boat shoe/derby boot.

That was followed by a brief (in more ways than one) trip to the island of Mykonos, which consisted mainly of exceedingly snug swim trunks (some emblazoned with the name of the island across the posterior) and mesh tank tops with a few pairs of walking shorts and light jackets thrown in.


Then it was a romantic Roman holiday with a preppy American sportswear flavor (brightly colored chinos, double-breasted blazers, and red-and-white striped ties), followed by the final  mod-rock-themed set piece, with mixed fabrication leather and denim jackets, skinny black ties, tuxedo trousers with silver studding stripes and prints of tigers and stars.


Why four mini-collections? And why the quartet of wildly gyrating, voguing dancers?

It didn't really seem to matter, since the camp theatrics -- barely past the breakfast hour -- make the show one that attendees will remember for quite some time.

Fiberart exhibition makes stop at Memorial Art Gallery

Every three years, fiber artists from around the world submit their best recent work to Fiberart International, a juried exhibition organized by the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh.

This year, the Memorial Art Gallery is one of only three stops for the show, which is on view at the Gallery, 500 University Ave., through July 3.

Fiberart International 2010 brings together work rooted in ancient techniques and materials, non-traditional textiles made possible by technological advances, and art made from such unexpected materials as cable ties and X-ray film.

The 81 featured artists representing Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The works in the exhibition were chosen from 1,685 entries from 30 countries and six continents, which were reviewed by three distinguished jurors: Vibeke Riisberg, textile designer and associate professor at the Designskolen Kolding in Denmark; Mary Ruth Smith, fiber artist and professor of art at Baylor University in Waco, TX; and Rebecca A. T. Stevens, consulting curator for contemporary textiles at The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C.

Tapas Nights

Max at the Gallery Tapas Nights run from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays. Visit the gallery -- open until 9 p.m. -- to hear live music, and purchase wine, beer and tapas plates.

Family Day

The Gallery celebrates the Fiberart exhibit with a free family day from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Children can try hands-on art activities, have their face painted and listen to storyteller Howard Edmond (1 p.m.). Other activities include color warp, a large-scale interactive outdoor weaving project, "Flying Colors," and an interactive dance using fabrices with Elizabeth Clark Dance Ensemble (1:30 and 3 p.m.).

I’ll start by sharing that my siblings

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there!  If you’re reading this on Monday (because who wants to spend their holiday online?), you may not have seen that Google featured one of their famous “doodles” in honor of Father’s Day, with a clean, simple design inspired by one of the lamest Father’s Day gifts ever: the necktie.

No offense if you got your husband or father a tie this year, but let’s talk about some more unique Father’s Day gifts.  Did you send your Dad skydiving?  Take him on a fishing vacation?  Clean his garage?  I thought we could make this an open thread where each of you gets to brag about how creative and awesome you are when it comes to gift-giving.  What have you gotten Dad that absolutely blew him away?  Which of your gifts tanked?

I’ll start by sharing that my siblings and I always strove to get our Dad gifts for every occasion that would impress him, and he always, always, always complained about everything we ever bought.  ”What’d you go and spend money on a thing like this for?,” he’d ask.  ”You’re only gonna ask me for gas money when you leave!”  (So. True.)

Tell me about your favorite Father’s Day memories in the comments below!

Time for more action, less talk, Mayor Bing

Build a team. Get some wins. Patch up relations.

Those are the three imperatives on which Detroit Mayor Dave Bing needs to focus now if he wants to extricate his administration from the scandal engulfing his former communications chief, Karen Dumas, and dispel the growing sense that his two years in office have been long on talk and short on measurable progress for the city he leads.

Here's what the mayor should do:
Build a crackerjack staff

One of Bing's biggest problems has been the lack of a strong manager and leader to run day-to-day operations, recruit and retain talented executives, and make sure that managers in key positions are delivering results. Ultimately, that's what's spinning the revolving door of talent in and out of his office.

Getting rid of Dumas -- who had assumed that role without much expertise or relevant experience -- was a start, as was rehiring Kirk Lewis, the former chief of governmental and corporate affairs who comes back as chief of staff.

But the mayor also needs a stronger team now. Some 32 high-level officials have come and gone since he became mayor, and he needs to bring in more high-caliber leadership to help Lewis build the staff Bing needs.

Here are some suggestions:

• Sheila Cockrel: The former city councilwoman knows City Hall as well as anyone, and she is a tough-as-nails administrator. She can be brusque (which was one of Dumas' problems), but she backs it up with competence and expertise that even her critics recognize and respect. She could both help the mayor navigate the politics in City Hall and help Lewis structure a realistic agenda for getting things done.

• Darrell Burks: A CPA and partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Burks has developed a reputation as someone with a keen, stabilizing influence and a sharp mind for turnarounds. He was considered to lead Detroit Public Schools when the state first took over in 1999. He led a committee designed to find streamlining opportunities in city government for former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. His name has also been mentioned quietly as a possible candidate to be emergency manager, if the state had to name one to oversee Detroit.

• Samuel (Buzz) Thomas: A former state senator and small businessman, Thomas is one of Detroit's bright young political lights, with good contacts in Lansing and a reputation for levelheaded action. Adding him to Bing's executive team could enhance the administration's relationships with the Detroit delegation in the Legislature and help attract others with legislative experience to the executive staff.
Get some wins

After two years in office, Bing's list of formidable accomplishments -- things that really move the city forward and impact the lives of Detroiters -- is pretty thin.

He has given a lot of "I'm gonna" speeches. But he hasn't been able to claim a lot of "I did" victories.

Indeed, in his State of the City address this year, the biggest accomplishment Bing touted was the restructuring of the Detroit Water Board -- something that wasn't his idea and was done mostly by a federal judge.

Time for the mayor to get going.

He could green-light a large-scale urban farming initiative, like the one businessman John Hantz has had on the table for years. He could work with the Ambassador Bridge company to dramatically alter the status of the old train depot (tear it down or get a developer going on it). Make visible progress on the construction of the new Detroit police headquarters. Get a regional authority together to manage a proposed light-rail line.

Or he could rescind his decision to kick his Detroit Works Project into 2012, identify the neighborhoods where he wants to concentrate resources and redevelopment efforts, and get moving on enticing people and businesses to move into them.

Bing suffers from the comparison to Gov. Rick Snyder, who in six months has enacted major pieces of his agenda. But he's also running out of time, and he has other things distracting attention from his work.

Nothing will fix that better than racking up some small successes. They'll almost certainly build into bigger ones, but the mayor has to start somewhere.a

PM put GB economy in jeopardy

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham’s decision not to renew the work permit of former Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) Chairman Hannes Babak at the end of 2009 placed Freeport’s economy in “jeopardy” and possibly stalled several major projects planned for Grand Bahama, claimed a classified diplomatic cable obtained by The Nassau Guardian through WikiLeaks.

Babak’s work permit was not renewed after it expired on December 31, 2009.

Ingraham publicly announced the decision about Babak’s work permit earlier that December.

According to the cable, which was classified on December 18, 2009, Babak asked the U.S. Embassy to help change the prime minister’s mind about the work permit.

The embassy official Babak reportedly spoke to remained “noncommittal”, according to the cable.

The GBPA was the subject of a bitter, protracted ownership dispute between Sir Jack Hayward and the family of the late Edward St. George.

In December 2009, Babak was in negotiations to sell Sir Jack’s significant stake in the GBPA to Mid-Atlantic Projects (a U.S. company).

The cable stated that the embassy felt that Babak's ultimate departure, “…could result in further delays in Grand Bahama's development just as the expected sale to Mid-Atlantic had sought to jump-start progress.”

The Mid-Atlantic deal fell apart in April 2010.

The embassy official claimed that the refusal to allow Babak to continue to legally work in the country was, “likely made out of anger at Babak's move not to obtain Ingraham's blessing before moving forward with the Mid-Atlantic deal as well as a not-so-discreet desire to increase Chinese involvement in Grand Bahama's development plans through Hutchison-Whampoa (a Chinese company with major business interests in Freeport).”

During the time Babak was seeking renewal of his work permit, he was in the midst of brokering several deals with major U.S. companies intended to help alleviate Grand Bahama’s economic woes.

The embassy official said Babak’s removal, “(put) into jeopardy ongoing negotiations with major U.S. firms to bring liquid natural gas (LNG) re-gasification facilities and other badly needed commercial ventures to the country's second largest city, which suffers from nearly 15 percent unemployment.”

There were also several other deals reportedly in the works with U.S. entities — including energy and medical care companies — that Babak was overseeing at the time.

One deal under negotiation involved the establishment of an offshore, ship-based Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) re-gasification plant and on-shore LNG storage facilities operated by Texas-based Excelerate Energy and Virginia-based AES, the cable noted.

“The arrangement would enable electricity delivery services via underwater cable to Florida Light and Power as well as Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC),” justified the cable, which also cited possible savings for BEC if the deal was to go through.

The status of that deal is unclear.

The cable further stated that Babak was negotiating with a U.S. hospital construction company to build a facility in Grand Bahama that could have been worth up to $100 million.

Visits by Indian leaders were better under BJP: Israel

JERUSALEM: Lamenting the lack of high-level visits from India under the UPA government, senior officials at the Israeli foreign ministry told US diplomats that it was "better under the Bhartiya Janata Party government," according to a classified US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.

Despite burgeoning defence and trade ties, " Israel is concerned about the lack of high-level visits and other exchanges with India. The last visit by an Indian Foreign Minister was in 2000, with a November 2007 visit called off at the last minute," deputy Director general for Asia and Pacific at Israel's foreign ministry Ruth Kahanoff told US diplomats.

"Kahanoff believes that India is restrained in the relationship (with Israel) by its large Muslim population, their concern about relations with the Arab world, and lingering elements of the Non-Aligned Movement/Nehru ideology," the US embassy cable revealed by WikiLeaks said.

Giora Bacher, Director at Israel's foreign ministry Asia and Pacific Desk, also attending the meeting, added that the "visits were actually better under the Bharatiya Janata Party government".

Kahanov also pointed out to US political counsellor Marc Sievers and others present during the December 2007 meeting that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited India in 2003, but no Indian Prime Minister has ever come to Israel.

He also complained about Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari giving a speech attacking Israel, which she saw "as a sign that India is still trying to find its place in the world".

Bacher told US officials that her country's current relationship with India is dominated by defence cooperation and other trade.

The Israeli official noted that initially 95 per cent of the bilateral trade between the two countries was in diamonds, but it is now down to 70 per cent, and there is significant investment in real estate and businesses on both sides as both the countries' economy continue to liberalise.

A quarter-century ago, the Senate was ready for its close-up

On a Monday afternoon in early June a quarter-century ago, Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) — then a youthful-looking 83 — gaveled the Senate into session. After the opening prayer, Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.) took the floor and began to speak.

It was the start of a typical legislative day except for one key innovation — people outside the chamber could watch it.


Live televised coverage of the Senate, and thus C-SPAN2, were born on that day in 1986, seven years after cameras first came to the House. The video of that session — now available on C-SPAN’s Web site — shows that lawmakers were well aware of the occasion’s import.

“There’s no doubt about it, this day’s historic in many ways,” Dole said, later adding: “I think today we in effect sort of catch up with the 20th century. We’ve been the invisible half of the Congress the last seven years.”

Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) followed Dole and began his remarks, not surprisingly, by quoting a poet, Alfred Tennyson: “The old order changeth, yielding place to new.”

Byrd, a legendary guardian of Senate history and traditions, played a key role in bringing cameras into the chamber.

Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) was the first lawmaker to propose, in 1981, that the chamber emulate the House by embracing television. Many in the Senate’s old guard were staunchly opposed, including Byrd. But he eventually warmed to the idea.

“He called me on the day that he changed his mind,” Brian Lamb, the founder of C-SPAN, said Monday.

The turning point, Lamb said, came when Byrd stayed in a hotel that had cable television — which Byrd did not have at home — and saw the House in action for the first time. He was impressed that the coverage was gavel-to-gavel.

“You guys are going to run the whole speech?” Byrd asked Lamb — a key point, given that Byrd was known for his epic addresses on the floor.

Byrd also told Lamb of an incident at a political event in West Virginia where the senator had been erroneously introduced as the speaker of the House. “That was a warning to me that we’d better go on television,” Byrd said, according to Lamb.

After the leaders spoke on that Monday in 1986, Sen. Al Gore (D-Tenn.) was the first rank-and-file lawmaker to appear, just as he had been the first House member to speak when that chamber went on the air in 1979. (Gore was chided — unfairly, to some observers — for allegedly claiming to have “invented the Internet.” Lamb said he had heard of Gore telling others he “invented C-SPAN.”)

From a fashion perspective, the mid-’80s was certainly a different era than today’s. But the Senate is the Senate — mostly white guys in suits — so no one on that day looked like a character in a John Hughes movie or a Depeche Mode video.

The most visible differences between then and now involved hair, or lack thereof. Sen. Charles Grassley’s (R-Iowa) mane was nearly black. Dole’s was much more brown than gray. Gore’s thick locks grew over the top of his ears.

The main camera position — high in the chamber, pointing down — was not flattering to follically challenged lawmakers.

“Those of us with thinning hairlines, or with little hair on the head, have been advised that you do not lean over like this into the camera,” said Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), demonstrating the improper position. At one point Glenn gestured for the cameras to zoom in as he applied makeup to his scalp.

Lamb said he knew of one senator, whom he would not name, who applied dark paint to cover a bald spot.

At the time, C-SPAN2 was only available in about 7 million homes. It’s not clear how high the ratings were on that first day, although it’s safe to say “The Cosby Show” and “Family Ties” did not feel threatened.

Reviews of the chamber’s debut performance were mixed.

Tom Shales, The Washington Post’s television critic, wrote the next day that the Senate began to “grapple with this strange, new, one-eyed monster in its midst. In Round 1, the monster won, but the grappler can be expected to hang in there.” A Los Angeles Times columnist said: “Monday came and went . . . and no bells, no tap dances, no Hula-Hoops, no hats, no circus. Not very much excitement, either.”

The Senate’s television experiment was dubbed a six-week trial, but Dole predicted on the first day that once cameras came to the Senate, they would be there to stay.

Another of Dole’s predictions didn’t turn out as well: “The Senate may change, not as an institution, but may become a more efficient body because of televised proceedings.”

what do people think back in his district?

We have just witnessed an extraordinary scene on the streets of New York. It happened just a few minutes ago, Representative Anthony Weiner -- it's not the video you're seeing there, but we'll show it to you in a moment -- he stepped out just to run a few errands and he was bombarded by reporters, including our own Jason Carroll, and surprised to see him step out this morning.

Also surprising that many of his supporters were following him along as well and were really emphatic in their support. We will check in with our Jason Carroll in just a moment. We are getting that video turned around for you and you will hear from some of those supporters on the streets who want their representative to be left alone. That's coming up in a live report in just a moment.

Also, out in Arizona firefighters keep battling the flames, but the weather is not helping. Conditions that have been helpful over the past day or so have now taken a turn for the worst. It will not help them in an effort to get this large fire under control.

Also today, court is in session in the Casey Anthony trial. She's accused, as you know, of killing her young daughter. Now from gruesome photos to people fighting to get inside the courtroom. Court is in session, yes, on this Saturday morning.

From the CNN Center this, is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes. Thank you for spending part of your day with us.

It was the next revelation, the next twist in the Anthony Weiner scandal. A teenage girl has received messages from the congressman. Multiple reports say this girl is 17-years-old. As you know, representative Weiner has admitted sending lewd photos to women he met online, but his representative saying that the girl in particular, now this teenager did not get any of those kinds of messages.

This is a statement that was released from a spokesperson from congressman Weiner and says, and I quote, "According to Congressman Weiner, his communications with this person were neither explicit nor indecent."

We actually just heard that as well from Congressman Anthony Weiner who again is in New York and stepped out to the street and looked like he was running errands and he was followed by reporters. And he, again, to answer a question from our Jason Carroll, said no, nothing was indecent that went to this young woman.

Delaware police say detectives interviewed the girl, but she did not say anything about inappropriate contact between her and the congressman. Congressman Weiner could be facing a house ethics investigation and something he said he's not afraid of and he also says he's not stepping down.

So what do people think back in his district? CNN's Jason Carroll is with me now.

Jason, hello, I was watching as this video that you had just a few minutes ago was feeding into us, but the congressman stepped out. What was he doing this morning? It looked like he was just running a few errands, but the media was there, you were there and his supporters were there with a message for you all as well.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Everyone there in place. I have to say it was somewhat unexpected. That's why we were here. Congressman Weiner came out and went to the ATM. In addition to the ATM went over to pick up some of his laundry. So he was out just doing what he normally does, running errands. I want you to listen, though, to what he had to say when he was questioned about a number of issues.

Safety in canola colour system

AN ADVISORY firm has developed a coloured tags system to label the four different herbicide tolerance groups in canola varieties.

Mike Stephens and Associates is producing the coloured tags to reduce the potential for costly mistakes when using herbicides on canola crops.

MS and A agronomist Andrew Daley said he was aware of cases where canola crops had been damaged or killed off through spraying the wrong chemical.

Mr Daley said mix-ups could happen if the farmer was using a number of varietal types.

He said if the farmer changed seed without recording it in the farm plan and employees or spray contractors later applied herbicides on the basis of what they thought was sown, thousands of dollars could be lost.

MS and A resorted to coloured cattle tags to solve the problem.

The company adopted the colour codes used by Pacific Seeds on their seed bags for their tags.

They were aligned to the respective colours of the seed developers.

Conventional canola has a blue tag, Clearfield canola green, purple for triazine-tolerant varieties and red for Roundup Ready canola.

Mr Daley said the coloured tags were printed with the herbicide tolerance and MS and A's logo, with farmer to write the year of sowing on the front and the variety on the back.

He said the tags were tied to the paddock gate with cable ties and should last a few years.

Agronomists or spray contractors could check the tags to confirm the variety sown before herbicides were applied.

"These tags cost about $1 but they could save $100,000 in lost earnings (if a spraying mistake was made)," Mr Daley said.

"And they are not going to take a farmer any time to put up."

The tags are also useful when considering chemical residues from certain herbicides.

MS and A uses a white tag for Clearfield wheat.

If Midas was used on the crop, the date on the back became important in the planning for next year's crop, as residue limited choices with the following season's planting.

MS and A had about 50 clients using the coloured tags this year but company principal Mike Stephens said he hoped the industry would adopt the system.

Melbourne house of cards just made for tumbling down

FROM a tree-like canopy to secret spots reachable only by crawling, children are exercising their imaginations in an adventureland made entirely out of cardboard.

ArtPlay Cardboard Play Spaces, designed and built by a team of 75 first-year Monash University architecture students, are intended to encourage children to engage with their creative sides.

Architecture lecturer and Fitzroy resident Ross Brewin said students had to cater to children’s tastes.

The playground is divided into four spaces, each designed with a different function in mind - reading, resting, listening and crafting.

“Hopefully it facilitates a certain level of learning for kids who play there,” he said.

Students were not allowed to use glue, so the cardboard is attached with 600 cabinet connectors and 150 cable ties. Mr Brewin said the project taught students that they could make extraordinary things out of ordinary materials.

ArtPlay Cardboard Play Spaces will be at ArtPlay, Birrarung Marr, until July 7. Details: melbourne.

Accused 'watched Crown witness kill'

Murder accused Karl Nuku cried as he described seeing a drug-crazed and paranoid woman hitting Dean Browne over the head with a hammer.

"I woke up to a banging noise, yeah. I looked up and saw [Witness 29] standing beside the couch and she had a hammer in her hands. She hit him three times with a hammer," Nuku told the High Court in New Plymouth yesterday.

The fatally injured man fell off the left side of the pull-out couch, his face covered in blood, Nuku said, breaking down in tears.

"I jumped up and grabbed her arm and pulled it [the hammer] out of her hands and asked her `What the f... are you doing, you're killing him'.

"She started ranting that he had raped her."

She was wearing pink rubber gloves, Nuku said.

Nuku, 19, Mikhail Pandey-Johnson, 23, and Rhys (Tex) Fournier, 22, deny murdering Dean Browne, 38, at a Wellington flat on January 21 last year.

Nuku told the court that before the attack, Witness 29 was paranoid that Browne, who he called "Matty", would attack her because he knew that she had tried to drug him two days before.

She had earlier wanted to deliver him to an Auckland drug dealer in return for methamphetamine and money, Nuku said. "She was quite a heavy meth user and would inject morphine as well," Nuku said.

After the attack, she told him that she was giving him morphine because he was making too much noise and she didn't want her flatmates disturbed.

"She was trying to cover her own arse."

Fournier said they needed to call an ambulance but Witness 29 said they could not do that because they would all go to jail as a party to what had happened.

She took charge, checking his pulse and told them he was dead. She put the pink gloves back on, went to her drawers and got cable ties and duct tape and told them how to wrap him up.

"I wanted the situation to go away so I did what she told me to do."

She picked up Pandey-Johnson in central Wellington to help move the body. She told him she got up to go to the toilet and he grabbed her leg and told her to get into bed with him.

He told her she "wasn't complaining the other night they had sex". She told Pandey-Johnson she had never had consensual sex with him, Nuku said.

"She said she got back in bed. She was real angry. She said she waited for Matty to fall asleep then got her hammer out. He was shocked and disgusted. He couldn't believe she'd done something like that."

They put Browne's body in the back of Nuku's car and he and Pandey-Johnson arrived at the New Plymouth home of Pandey-Johnson's cousin Claire Davies about 3am the next day. She was still awake watching TV. She let them in, and they together discussed what they should do, Nuku said.

The next day Joseph Banks, Claire Davies' partner, offered to get rid of the body for them. He would leave it on a beach and make an anonymous call to police.

"But he said we would need to pay him because it was quite a big favour."

Banks asked for $2000 to be put in another person's bank account so it could not be traced. "We agreed straight away."

Banks helped them put the body in the shed and they padlocked it, leaving for Wellington.

To questioning from Crown solicitor Cherie Clarke, Nuku denied he was very loyal to Pandey-Johnson, as the head of the Killer Clown Fiends, who was his role model, and would do anything for him.

"In 2010, Mr Pandey-Johnson was in the throes of a meth habit. You were his right hand man, his protege."

Nuku said they loved each other and were like family.

Nuku said he did not use heavy drugs, because he saw what it did to people, and never saw Pandey-Johnson use methamphetamine.

Ms Clarke said to Nuku that he had killed Mr Browne on Pandey-Johnson's instructions and had received his KCF patch for doing it.

"You killed to get your patch," she said.

"No, it was [Witness 29]," Nuku replied.

The Killer Clown Fiends were not a gang, Nuku said. Their clothes were a "fashion statement".

In a letter to Nuku, Pandey-Johnson wrote from prison that Nuku was "a literal walking proof of the Killer Clown dream", Ms Clarke said.

Ms Clarke said Pandey-Johnson's pride in Nuku was because Nuku was the one who hit Mr Browne over the head with a hammer.

"No, I did not," Nuku said.

The trial, now in its fifth week, continues today.

Teens arrested after alleged plot to kidnap Stratford H.S. student

The Goose Creek Police Department has arrested three teenagers accused of conspiring to kidnap a Stratford High School student and scare him by shooting off an assault rifle.

Authorities have charged 17-year-old Patrick Joseph Coxe, a 16-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, stalking and conspiracy.

On May 31, Goose Creek police were contacted by the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office in regards to an incident at Stratford High School. Deputies say they located Coxe and another juvenile inside a Ford Mustang around 5 p.m. They located a white trash bag nearby that contained military clothing and equipment.

Among the items authorities found and listed in the police report were cable ties used to form hand restrains, several 30-round AR-15 magazines with blank rounds. A pipe used for smoking narcotics was also found inside the vehicle, according to the police report.

During the investigation, deputies found out that some of the items were to be used in a plot to kidnap and scare a 17-year-old Stratford High student. The investigation also revealed that the three suspects had also committed acts that amounted to stalking of the student.

Investigators believe that one of the suspects planned to kidnap the victim and hold him inside one of the school's bathroom while the suspect fired off blank rounds to scare him.

On Friday, the Goose Creek Police Department and Berkeley County Sheriff's Office investigators located all three suspects and took them into custody.

The two juveniles were charged as adults and received $100,000 surety bonds. The two were transported to the Department of Juvenile Justice. Patrick Coxe received a $50,000 bond and was locked up at the Hill Finklea Detention Center.

EchoStar unveils Aria for smaller cable operators

EchoStar plans to deepen its cable ties with the introduction of Aria, a technology ecosystem that is designed exclusively for mid-size and independent cable operators.

Aria will run in concert with new EchoStar SD, HD or SlingLoaded set-top boxes and will allow operators to offer services over multiple platforms and for out-of-home viewing that can brand the "experience" of the local operator.

"Our engineers have designed an economical technology platform that will allow smaller cable operators to deliver the premium television features and services in demand by consumers, without investments in new facilities, servers, data centers and additional engineering staff," said Mark Jackson, president of EchoStar Technologies.

Aria is a hybrid IP/QAM solution that uses existing cable plant and features cloud-based VOD, TV Everywhere and an interactive HD program guide Click here!. It will also provide system maintenance and software upgrades.

Though not a breakthrough technology (Avail-TVN is doing a similar "white box" OTT service, and the Comcast Media Center has its VOD in a Box), Aria is expected to help smaller operators better compete.

"Major cable operators are busy building over-the-top video and moving to bring Internet connection to their own infrastructures. That's great for Comcast and other large MSOs, but smaller operators can't do that. That's where Aria fits. We think EchoStar is in a great spot to accommodate second- and third-tier operators," maintains Gerry Kaufhold, principal analyst for the research firm In-Stat.

For years, smaller operators have depended on the reuse of consumer premises equipment developed for larger operators. That has changed, however, as larger operators develop their own private clouds.

"The trend is toward large pay-TV services having their own over-the-top machines. Basically, it's now OTT in a box instead of VOD in a box," Kaufhold said.

As Netflix Leapfrogs Comcast, Here's What the East Bay is Watching

On a rainy Wednesday in the East Bay, Concord was in the mood for some Pokémon with the feature film Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life. Pleasant Hill was watching an indie drama called Snow Cake. Walnut Creek, meanwhile, was absorbed with the courtroom drama TV show Canterbury’s Law.

The “local favorites” section on the Netflix website provides insight into the top video rentals in each city. But the growth in subscriptions to this online streaming and by-mail movie service proves an even deeper trend.

If you are considering killing your pay TV in favor of Netflix, Hulu or YouTube, then you are not alone.

Cable, satellite and digital pay television are losing customers in a big way. Meanwhile, online video streaming companies like Netflix and Hulu are expanding. In the first quarter of the year, Netflix earned more subscribers than any network television providers, including Comcast, DirecTV, DISH Network and Time Warner. According to Business Insider, Netflix jumped ahead to 22.8 million subscribers, beating Comcast for the first time. Netflix also hit a record high on Wall Street with its stock more than doubling in the past year. Around 7 percent of all Americans now subscribe to Netflix.

The population most inclined to cut the cord from traditional television is “Generation Y,” according to a recent study. Research indicates that these 18- to 29-year-olds may be less attached to their pay TV boxes, more enticed by smaller monthly fees and highly attracted to on-demand viewing. The report, titled “Must Choose TV: What Gen Y Thinks About Pay-TV and Cord-Cutting,” suggests that 60 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds are considering cutting the cord to traditional television.

So what would a world without pay TV look like? For a start, it could be much cheaper. Netflix and Hulu Plus subscriptions cost $7.99 a month for a streaming-only account, compared to around $64.99 for Comcast’s “Digital Starter” service in the East Bay. Even the cheapest packages from DirecTV and Dish Network — at around $30 — can’t compete with the low prices of online video providers.

But online services will struggle to compete with pay TV’s coverage of live news, sports and events. The quality of the picture, too, is only as good as your Internet allows with online streaming, while cable, satellite and digital TV boast HD channels and “crystal-clear” viewing.

If Internet video watching continues to gain popularity, it could mean the decline of the ultimate American tradition — the television itself. According to Nielsen, the number of homes in the U.S. with TV sets is falling for the first time in 20 years. For now, most people are expanding platforms, rather than replacing one for another. But Nielsen notes that “a small subset of younger, urban consumers are going without paid TV subscriptions.”

“Long-term effects of this are unclear,” concluded the Nielsen press release. This younger subset could turn to television as they get older and acquire more financial means, or it could mean “the beginning of a larger shift to viewing online and on mobile devices.”

Loaded gun and chainsaw found in blood stained car boot

A sawn-off shotgun found in an abandoned car in New Plymouth after the discovery of the body of Dean Browne in a garage was ready to fire, the High Court in New Plymouth was told.

Karl Nuku, 19, along with Mikhail Pandey-Johnson, 23, and Rhys Fournier, 22, have denied the murder of Mr Browne, 38, of Auckland, at an Oriental Bay, Wellington, flat on January 21 last year.

Detective Janine Lee said she was put in charge of the Toyota Corolla abandoned in a driveway in Robe St during the armed offenders squad manhunt for the murder accused two days after Mr Browne's body was found.

In a backpack next to the car was a sawn-off shotgun. In it was a live round of 12-gauge buckshot. It ejected as the gun was opened, Ms Lee said.

On later examination of the car, then at Western Autos, she noticed what appeared to be blood underneath the tow bar and other small bloodstain marks.

Scientists confirmed yesterday that the blood was from Mr Browne.

Among the large number of items in the boot, including clothing, was an orange chainsaw and two petrol containers, several pairs of rubber gloves, some of which were marked "super heavy duty".

There were digital scales, and small plastic bags containing white crystals and fine white powder.

A pair of Dr Martens boots were decorated with a Killer Clown Fiends patch, and green and purple material.

In the front footwell were traces of cannabis leaf, Zig-Zag cigarette papers and an iPod. A red text book was under one of the seats.

In the glove box was an expired passport for Karl Nuku and a cancelled passport in the name of Mikhail Pandey- Johnson, a Westpac bank card and a four-digit number on a piece of paper.

Detective Glen Bosson said he was put in charge of Mr Browne's body lying in the Drake St garage.

Mr Browne had clear plastic tape wrapped many times around his face and head. There was a lot of blood on his face, some coming from his nose and some from a small hole on the left side of his face.

Mr Bosson took several black cable- ties from Mr Browne's wrists and ankles and black tape from around his ankles. His body was taken to the Taranaki Base Hospital mortuary and then by hearse to Wellington for a post mortem examination.

Yesterday, forensic experts from Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland told of analysing samples from the Oriental Pde bedroom, Drake St garage and the Toyota Corolla.

Environmental Science and Research scientist Janina Savage, of Porirua, said she could not exclude Fournier's Jackie Chan shoes as having made an impression on the heavily blood-stained blue satin sheets wrapped around Mr Browne.

feed anti-Americanism throughout the military

The sale by the United States of F-16 military aircraft to Pakistan, announced in 2005, was celebrated as a sign of deepening strategic ties between Islamabad and the Bush administration in Washington. Described by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as an attempt to “break out of the notion that [India and Pakistan are in] a hyphenated relationship,” the decision was met with anguish in New Delhi. But leaked U.S. diplomatic cables suggest that the sale was used only to further America's broad strategic interests, with Pakistan standing to gain little from the deal.

The despatches, from the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, indicated that the deal was, among other things, meant to assuage Pakistan's fears of an “existential threat it perceived from India.” The diplomatic cables, accessed by The Hindu through WikiLeaks, suggested that the purpose of the sale was to divert Pakistan's attention from “the nuclear option,” and give it “time and space to employ a conventional reaction” in the event of a conflict with India ( 151227: confidential). Privately, however, the U.S. acknowledged the “reality” that the F-16 programme would not change India's “overwhelming air superiority over Pakistan.” In fact, the cables bluntly assert that the F-16s would be “no match for India's proposed purchase of F-18 or equivalent aircraft.”

Given India's “substantial military advantage,” one cable ( 197576: confidential) even surmised that the F-16s would at the most offer “a few days” for the U.S. to “mediate and prevent nuclear conflict.”

Fully aware of such limitations, the U.S. continued to press ahead with the deal, and cables document hectic parleys to bring it to fruition. Before the agreement was signed in September 2006, the U.S. played hardball to make Pakistan sign the Letter of Acceptance (LoA). Islamabad had threatened to delay it further, raising additional demands. The U.S. Ambassador to Islamabad, Ryan Crocker, suggested that Washington “convene” the Pakistani Ambassador, Ali Durrani, to remind him that “missing the deadline [to sign the LoA] would have serious ramifications.”

“Do not think there is a better deal out there if this one expires,” was one of Ambassador Crocker's suggested bargain lines for Washington to use ( 77877: confidential/noforn). The agreement was inked two weeks after the cable was sent.

At the time of signing the LoA, Major General Tariq Malik, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Defence Production, had expressed reservations about the payment schedule as an “immense strain on Pakistan's fiscal and foreign exchange reserves…, jeopardising growth.” But Mr. Malik's memo was dismissed by Mr. Crocker as “separate from the valid, legal contract” ( 80337: confidential/noforn).

But when “a cash-strapped” Pakistan government approached the U.S. two years later for Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to perform mid-life updates for the existing F-16 fleet, the succeeding Ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, was concerned that Washington would be “rewarding economic mismanagement.” The annual disbursement of FMF had “produced a culture of entitlement within the Pakistani military,” according to the diplomat ( 151227: confidential).


Why, then, did the U.S. push hard to realise the agreement, apart from the stated objective of “additional business for U.S. defense companies”?

If, according to American diplomats, the threat from India was the primary consideration for the Pakistan military, the F-16 sales would not tilt the strategic balance by their own admission. However, the cables suggested that the U.S. was confident that Pakistan would “still fully invest in its territorial defense, despite current economic challenges.” On the other hand, “our [U.S.] cancelling the sale would emphasize that we favor maintaining Indian superiority at Pakistan's expense and feed anti-Americanism throughout the military” ( 197576: confidential).

Another reason to sell F-16s, according to the same cable, was to “exorcise the bitter legacy of the Pressler Amendment” in the 1990s, when the U.S. refused to deliver F-16s that Pakistan had paid with “national money.” Pakistan was even made to undertake costs for storing the fighters in Arizona. For the Pakistan military, the new deal would be tangible proof of the “post-9/11 bilateral relationship.”

US Embassy: Ex Bulgarian Econ Min Competent, Liberal, Corrupt

A recently leaked diplomatic cable authored by former US ambassador to Sofia John Beyrle has described ex socialist Minister of Economy and Energy as an able politican entrenched in murky business ties.

"Ovcharov is an enigmatic and controversial figure - linked to corruption and Russian energy interests, but also to a more liberal economic policy than many of his Socialist colleagues would support," reads the secret cable regarding the former Bulgarian Socialist Party vice-chair and one of the key ministers of Sergey Stanishev's cabinet (2005-9).

"He has the political and mental juice to match the best players at the table, but keeps his cards close to his chest. In face-to-face meetings, he can be both charming and off-putting," writes ambassador Beyrle in his penetrating and nuanced style.

In a strong note of warning, the former American ambassador to Sofia counsels Ovcharov's direct US counterparts not meet him directly during a trip of the States he was making in 2007.

Beyrle substantiates that recommendation with Ovcharov's murky ties for which, according to the report, the words "conflict of interests" are an understatement.

Beyrle qualifies that remark, noting that although the socialist minister is deeply involved with Russian energy interests, he has done nothing to harm American companies.

More specifically, the report argues that Ovcharov is behind the signing of a 23-year natural gas delivery contract with Russian giant Gazprom on unclear terms.

As an addition to the contract, the author of the cable believes that Ovcharov committed Bulgaria to build its second NPP, the Belene NPP, by a consortium owned by Gazprom.

Beyrle further comments on the very good bilateral relations between the States and Bulgaria under Stanishev's cabinet and argues that Ovcharov's visit could be used to boost that, especially in terms of NATO commitments.

He also suggests that representatives of the US Department of Trade could influence Ovcharov to help bring closer the positions of the EU and the USA positions in the Doha talks.

"While we have no illusions that Bulgaria will be the key to resolving US-EU trade differences, Ovcharov's generally liberal outlook on markets and Bulgaria's newness as a EU Member State give us a perfect opportunity to start moving them into our corner," argues Beyrle.

Oprah's Finale: Talk Show Host Has Ties to Maryland

It was the final episode of the syndicated Oprah Winfrey Show, and the event had special meaning in Maryland, where Winfrey once had a morning talk show, on WJZ-TV in Baltimore.

Harris, an associate professor, was one of thousands to attend a sold-out farewell party in Chicago that featured a bevy of star-studded guests.

“It was truly a once in a lifetime experience,” Harris said.

The party, peppered with appearances from stars like Will Smith, Beyonce, Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Jordan and Tom Hanks, marked Winfrey’s 25 years as host of her daily talk show.

When Harris’s friend offered her an extra ticket to the farewell party last week, Harris said she jumped at the chance.

The excitement began building before people even walked through the doors of the United Center, she said.

“By the time Oprah came out, people were just losing their minds,” Harris said.

While Harris said she enjoyed seeing all of the celebrity guests, the ones whose stories touched her the most were the more than 100 men from Morehouse College in Atlanta who received scholarship money from Winfrey. In all, 415 Morehouse men benefited.

“I really admire what she’s done and how she’s contributed to the world,” Harris said.

As does said Jim Jurzak, manager of the Barnes & Noble book store in Ellicott City. In his lifetime, Jurzak said he cannot think of anyone else with as much power and positive influence as Winfrey.

 “(The show) changed a lot of lives of a lot of people in a positive way,” he said.

Jurzak cited Winfrey’s book club as an example.  Launched in 1996, Oprah’s Book Club included more than 65 selections, ranging from Pulitzer Prize winners to lesser known works. The show estimates the club helped sell 30 million books.

“Whenever Oprah Winfrey suggested a book, the book usually shot up into the top ten,” Jurzak said.

Customers would visit the store, asking specifically for the latest Oprah-recommended book, he said.

“She also revived some of the classics,” he said. “I can’t imagine it’s not going to keep going in some form.

In addition to the book club, Winfrey’s show has launched numerous programs aimed at helping the disadvantaged worldwide. In the process, she became one of the most recognized and powerful women in the world.

“Oprah ushered in a model for a new sort of female power broker,” said Sheri Parks, an associate professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. “She was strong and emotional, whole in a way that women had been reluctant to be in the workplace.”

Some of Winfrey’s programs and initiatives will continue on her new network, The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which debuted in January.  The network is designed to “entertain, inform and inspire people to live their best lives,” Winfrey’s web site states.

But at the moment, there does not seem to be another celebrity who can “hold court” or capture the “collective imagination” the way Winfrey did, Parks said.

“The television audience is moving to cable, and the media landscape has become more scattered, less coherent,” she said. “Her leaving makes it more so.”

Now that the show is done, it’s up to others to continue Winfrey’s work, Harris said.

 “If her legacy is anything, it should be the courage to create good in our lives and in the lives of others,” Harris said.

You'll have to cope with the lack of a handle

Look inside the Armor A30 and you'll find a welcome sight: Nearly everything is modular. By loosening a few thumb screws here and there, you can remove the entire optical-drive cage, the hard-drive cage (affixed to the floor just below it), and even the motherboard tray, which guarantees you'll have all the elbow room you need to install all the components you'll want in your system.

The power supply bracket is likewise removable, but you'll need your Phillips screwdriver to get it out. The same is true of the expansion slots: Though the screw rail is protected by a bracket attached with a thumb screw, to actually open the slots you'll need your screwdriver again. You'll also want to keep it handy for when you're installing your optical drives and 3.5-inch hard drives. Given how accessible so much of the Armor A30 is, it's a bit odd that the entire thing isn't tool-free.

Additional bells and whistles are few, and oddities both minor and generally unobtrusive. It's not really possible to take off the front panel without dismantling and removing the optical-drive cage. If you have two 3.5-inch hard drives to install in the floor cage, you'll need to position one of them upside-down in order to fit properly. You don't need to screw in 2.5-inch drives at all: Two plastic clips that come with the case let you securely attach them to the top of the optical drive bay with no additional hardware whatsoever. Only one thing was absent that we thought negatively impacted the Armor A30: a handle. There's not one built in, and there's not even one in the box you can attach yourself, as with the NZXT Vulcan. For a case designed with mobility in mind, this strikes us a serious omission.

In building a test system in the Armor A30, we didn't find much else missing. We ran into no trouble installing any of our components; in fact, doing so in the Armor A30 was easier even than in many ATX tower cases, thanks to all the individual cages we could remove and replace as needed. The only real wrinkle we ran into was cable management. It's perhaps unavoidable in a case of this size, but you'll need to snake cables in odd directions to connect every component and fan; as there's no space beneath the motherboard tray for storage, something you'll find in many ATX cases, the inside of your PC could look like a spider web. Using the included cable ties will help some, but this is going to be a chore no matter what you do. We'd definitely recommend seriously considering using a modular power supply in the Armor A30, so you can cut down on most of the interior clutter.

You won't have to make too many other compromises when using the Thermaltake Armor A30, however. It packs enough build-friendly features into its miniature frame that you won't feel slighted because you didn't go with a larger tower. You'll have to cope with the lack of a handle, but as it is the Armor A30 isn't too big to cart around regularly. And once you see the range of options it gives you, chances are you'll want to do just that.

Leaked cable says Pakistanis sabotaged own air missions

Pakistani airmen sabotaged their fighter jets to prevent them from participating in operations against militants along the border with Afghanistan, according to a leaked U.S. Embassy cable.

Another cable reveals that Pakistan's army chief asked U.S. military officials for “continuous” coverage by Predator drones along that border despite criticism of the strikes by Pakistani officials in public.

The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks has provided a batch of U.S. diplomatic cables to Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper and India’s New Delhi Television and the Hindu newspaper.

A March 2006 cable cites the Pakistani deputy chief of air staff for operations, Air Vice Marshal Khalid Chaudhry, as telling a visiting U.S. delegation that he was receiving monthly reports of acts of “petty sabotage” of jets by airmen.

Vice Marshal Chaudhry interpreted these acts as an effort by “Islamists amongst the enlisted ranks to prevent [Pakistani air force] aircraft from being deployed in support of security operations in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas along the Afghan border,” the cable says.

The U.S. delegation was led by John Hillen, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs.

Another cable, sent in February 2008, revealed that Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, sought “continuous Predator coverage of the conflict area” in an area along the Afghanistan border where the Pakistani army was fighting militants.

In a meeting on Jan. 22, 2008, Gen. Kayani asked Navy Adm. William J. Fallon, who was chief of U.S. Central Command, for drone presence over South Waziristan.

”Fallon regretted that he did not have the assets to support this request, but offered Joint Tactical Aircraft Controller (JTAC) support for Pakistani aircraft. Kayani demurred, saying that having U.S. JTACs on the ground would not be politically acceptable,” according to the cable.

Vice Marshal Chaudhry, speaking “off the record,” told Mr. Hillen that Pakistani aircraft are called regularly to provide air support to military and security forces when they get into tight spots in the tribal areas near the Afghanistan border, “dryly adding that army brass and the ground forces commanders would deny it,” the cable said.

In a rare public statement this year, Gen. Kayani condemned a March 17 U.S. drone strike that Pakistan said killed up to 40 people in North Waziristan.

Most Pakistanis oppose drone strikes, which they see as a violation of Pakistani sovereignty.

U.S. and Pakistani officials have not publicly acknowledged the covert program.

However, a Pakistani official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter, told The Washington Times that these operations have been carried out after robust intelligence sharing between Pakistan and the U.S.

The Predator drones are operated from bases inside Pakistan the Shamsi air base and Jacobabad.

U.S. officials and analysts say elements within Pakistan’s armed forces and intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, are reluctant to sever ties with militants operating in Afghanistan and India.

“Pakistani military operations against insurgent groups have always been primarily focused on threats to Pakistani security,” said Jeffrey Dressler, a research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.

At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last week, Sen. Christopher A. Coons, Delaware Democrat, raised questions about Pakistan’s commitment to acting against terrorists.

“I’m deeply disturbed by what seems to be a state that plays a double game, that accepts significant multibillion-dollar aid from us, combat groups that target its own domestic concerns, but then clearly hedges against the U.S. mission in Afghanistan is an uneven partner at best,” he said.

Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden early May 2 in Abbottabad, a garrison town about 30 miles from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The al Qaeda leader’s hide-out was barely a mile from the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul.

In his meetings with the U.S. officials, Vice Marshal Chaudhry said Pakistan’s military leadership has a tough time maintaining positive attitudes toward the U.S. among enlisted personnel.

The cable says he cited the susceptibility of the enlisted ranks - most of whom come from rural areas - to the influence of Islamist clerics. “You can’t imagine what a hard time we have trying to get to trim their beards,” Vice Marshal Chaudhry is quoted as saying in a cable.

Conservative Muslims grow full beards as a sign of piety.

While in Pakistan, Mr. Hillen heard criticism of President George W. Bush’s decision not to give Pakistan a civil nuclear deal similar to the one he struck with India.

A Pakistani official expressed dismay at Mr. Bush’s reference to rogue nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, as the reason why the U.S. would not offer this deal to Islamabad.

Nazir Hussain, who at the time was chief of protocol at Pakistan’s foreign ministry, told Mr. Hillen: “Your man cut Musharraf off at the knees” with that public comment, according to the cable. Gen. Pervez Musharraf was the Pakistani president.

Pakistan was negotiating the sale of F-16 fighter jets with the U.S. at the time, and Vice Marshal Chaudhry asked Mr. Hillen to ensure that the deal “has enough sweeteners to appeal to the public - a complete squadron of new F-16s, with JDAM and night-vision capability - but not to offer the PAF things that it cannot afford,” according to the cable.

Discussing the Chinese JF-17 Thunder jet, a key component of Pakistan’s fighter fleet, Vice Marshal Chaudhry acknowledged that the jet was not comparable to the U.S. F-16 in terms of quality, particularly its avionics and weapons systems.

On a trip to Beijing last week, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani secured a deal in which China will provide Pakistan with 50 more JF-17s.

Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar said Pakistan was seeking delivery of the jets within six months.

U.S. cable ties Saudis to Pakistan jihad

A U.S. diplomat in Pakistan accused Saudi and Gulf groups of bankrolling Islamic extremists in a cable revealed by WikiLeaks Sunday.

Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported Bryan Hunt, then consul in Lahore, sent the message to the State Department in November 2008, citing local officials and his visits to south Punjab.

Hunt wrote, "Financial support estimated at nearly 100 million USD annually was making its way to Deobandi and Ahl-i-Hadith clerics in south Punjab from organizations in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, ostensibly with the direct support of those governments."

He said local informants had described a "sophisticated jihadi recruitment network" to him.

Muslim "charities" funding a network of radical mosques and madrassas preyed on "families with multiple children" and "severe financial difficulties," recruiting their sons into schools and paying bounties for them, Hunt wrote.

Those youths found most inclined to "martyrdom" would be "chosen for jihad" and sent to "more sophisticated indoctrination camps," which he identified, and eventually off to the North-West Frontier province to launch attacks.

Local officials were doing little to stop the extremists, Hunt wrote.

Keep North Carolina’s Broadband Market Free

While arguments over network neutrality have steadily misdirected attention toward Washington, phone and cable companies have quietly lobbied one state after another to throttle back or forbid cities, towns and small commercial and non-commercial entities from building out broadband facilities. This Community Broadband Preemption Map, from Community Broadband Networks, tells you how successful they've been so far: Now they're the verge of succeeding in North Carolina too.

This issue isn't just close to home for me. I lived in North Carolina for nearly two decades, and I have more blood relatives there than in any other state. (Not to mention countless friends.) Not one of them tells me how great their broadband is. More than a few complain about it. And I can guarantee that the complaints won't stop once the Governor signs the misleadingly-named "Level Playing Field/Local Gov't Competition act" (H129), which the cable industry has already been lobbied through the assembly.

The "free market" the phone and cable companies claim to operate in, and which they mostly occupy as a duopoly, is in fact a regulatory zoo where the biggest animals run the place. Neither half of the phone/cable duopoly has ever experienced anything close to a truly free market; but they sure know how to thrive in the highly regulated one they have — at the federal, state and local levels. Here's Ars on the matter:

    Let's be even clearer about what is at stake in this fight. Muni networks are providing locally based broadband infrastructures that leave cable and telco ISPs in the dust. Nearby Chattanooga, Tennessee'scity owned EPB Fiber Optics service now advertises 1,000Mbps. Wilson, North Carolina is home to the Greenlight Community Network, which offers pay TV, phone service, and as much as 100Mbps Internet to subscribers (the more typical package goes at 20Mbps). Several other North Carolina cities have followed suit, launching their own networks. In comparison, Time Warner's Road Runner plan advertises "blazing speeds" of 15Mbps max to Wilson area consumers. When asked why the cable company didn't offer more competitive throughput rates, its spokesperson told a technology newsletter back in 2009 that TWC didn't think anyone around there wanted faster service. When it comes to price per megabyte, GigaOm recently crunched some numbers and found out that North Carolina cities hold an amazing 7 of 10 spots on the "most expensive broadband in the US" list.

And here's what Wally Bowen and Tim Karr say in the News & Observer:

    North Carolina has a long tradition of self-help and self-reliance, from founding the nation's first public university to building Research Triangle Park. Befitting the state's rural heritage, North Carolinians routinely take self-help measures to foster economic growth and provide essential local services such as drinking water and electric power. Statesville built the state's first municipal power system in 1889, and over the years 50 North Carolina cities and towns followed suit. In 1936, the state's first rural electric cooperative was launched in Tarboro to serve Edgecombe and Martin counties. Today, 26 nonprofit electric networks serve more than 2.5 million North Carolinians in 93 counties. Strangely, this self-help tradition is under attack. The General Assembly just passed a bill to restrict municipalities from building and operating broadband Internet systems to attract industry and create local jobs. Although pushed by the cable and telephone lobby, similar bills were defeated in previous legislative sessions. But the influx of freshmen legislators and new leadership in both houses created an opening for the dubiously titled "Level Playing Field" bill (HB 129).

    No one disputes the importance of broadband access for economic growth and job creation. That's why five cities -- Wilson, Salisbury, Morganton, Davidson and Mooresville -- invoked their self-help traditions to build and operate broadband systems after years of neglect from for-profit providers, which focus their investments in more affluent and densely populated areas. Not coincidentally, all five cities own and operate their own power systems or have ties to nonprofit electric cooperatives. (While the bill does not outlaw these five municipal networks, it restricts their expansion and requires them to make annual tax payments to the state as if they were for-profit companies.) How does a state that values independence, self-reliance and economic prosperity allow absentee-owned corporations to pass a law essentially granting two industries -- cable and telephone -- the power to dictate North Carolina's broadband future? This question will be moot if Gov. Beverly Perdue exercises her veto power and sends this bill where it belongs: to the dustbin of history.

We don't need more laws restricting anything around Internet infrastructure build-outs in the U.S. That's the simple argument here.

We need the phone and cable companies to improve what they can, and we need to encourage and thank them for their good work. (As I sometimes do with Verizon FiOS, over which I am connected here in Massachusetts.)

We also need to recognize that the Internet is a utility and not just the third act (after phone and TV) in the "triple play" that phone and cable companies sell. The Net is more like roads, water, electricity and gas than like TV or telephony (both of which it subsumes). It's not just about "content" delivered from Hollywood to "consumers," or about a better way to do metered calls on the old Ma Bell model. It's about everything you can possibly do with a connection to the rest of the world. The fatter that connection, the more you can do, and the more business can do.

Cities and regions blessed with fat pipes to the Internet are ports on the ocean of bits that now comprise the networked world. If citizens can't get phone and cable companies to build out those ports, it's perfectly legitimate for those citizens to do it themselves. That's what municipal broadband build out is about, pure and simple. Would it be better to privatize those utilities eventually? Maybe. But in the meantime let's not hamstring the only outlet for enterprise these citizens have found.

Here's a simple fact for Governor Perdue to ponder: In the U.S. today, the leading innovators in Internet build-out are cities, not phone and cable companies. Look at Chatanooga and Lafayette — two red state cities that are doing an outstanding job of building infrastructure that attracts and supports new businesses of all kinds. Both are doing what no phone or cable companies are able or willing to do. And both are succeeding in spite of massive opposition by phone and cable companies.

The Internet is a rising tide that lifts all economic boats. At this stage in U.S. history, this fact seems to be fully motivating to enterprises mostly at the local level, and mostly in small cities. (Hi, Brett.) Their customers here are citizens who have direct and personal relationships with their cities and with actual or potential providers there, including the cities themselves. They want and need a level of Internet capacity that phone and cable companies (for whatever reason) are not yet giving them. These small cities provide good examples of The Market at work.

It isn't government that's competing with cable and phone companies here. Its people. Citizens.

No, these new build-outs are not perfect. None are, or can be. Often they're messy. But nothing about them requires intervention by the state. Especially so early in whatever game this will end up being.

I urge friends, relatives and readers in North Carolina to Call Governor Perdue at (800) 662-7952, and to send her emails at  governor.office at nc.gov. Tell her to veto this bill, and to keep North Carolina from turning pink or red on the map above. Tell her to keep the market for broadband as free as it's been from the beginning.

Screwfix Boosts Landscaping and Outdoor Range

World renowned suppliers of turf and landscape maintenance equipment, Toro, are a new addition to the range with the inclusion of two lawn mowers. The mowers have many labour-saving and eco-friendly features that make mowing easier whilst producing a great finish including a recycler which cuts the grass into extra fine particles and puts it back on the lawn.

The latest additions from German brand Solo are also showcased in the Screwfix range. Solo's excellent chainsaws and brush cutters can be used in both agricultural and landscape gardening environments, perfect for the busy professional landscaper.

Brand new outdoor power tools:

Screwfix now stocks a comprehensive range of Makita outdoor power products. From trimmers and chainsaws to brush cutters and lawn mowers, the professional landscaper will be spoilt for choice this season. The MM4 brush cutter and line trimmers have 4-stroke engines which are easy to use and better for the environment than a 2-stroke equivalent. There is no mixing of oil and fuel which leads to easy maintenance, and the oiling system is revolutionary making the tools easy to use at any angle.

Back to basics:

For use when working near live cables, Spear and Jackson Insulated Hand Tools have been included in the new product range at Screwfix. From pick axes to crowbars, all products are tested to the standard BS 8020:2002 mark.

Also new to the landscaping and outdoor range, includes top brand Bahco Professional. Its Heavy Duty Bypass Lopper is a must in any professional landscaping tool kit - perfect for cutting extremely thin and tough branches on all types of trees and vines thanks to the blades being fully hardened, which also gives smooth finishes. It has a long reach for overhead cutting which makes it easy to use with shock absorbing buffers between the handles.

Top of the range hoses:

Two varieties of Hozelock hoses have been added to the Screwfix product range. One is perfect for use on construction sites as it provides reinforced protection from all types of weather. The other is a robust irrigation hose with UV protection and both hoses can carry water with temperatures from -15 to 60°.

All products from the Screwfix landscaping and outdoor range can be ordered for home or site delivery with many lines stocked in one of over 160 Screwfix branches across the country for immediate collection. Tradesmen can pick up a copy of the spring deals catalogue from their local Screwfix branch to find out more about the extensive range, browse online at screwfix.com or order by phone (0500 41 41 41).

About Screwfix:

Recognised as being "where the trade buys" and promising a fast, reliable service, Screwfix is the UK's leading multi-channel supplier of thousands of high quality screws, cable ties, hand tools, power tools, plumbing, radiators and electrical supplies. Combining trade prices and a massive range of leading brand name items, Screwfix offers over 18,000 products and is fully committed to customer care and support.

Spring Fling trip went well

The Rockport-Fulton Chamber of Commerce recently hosted the 26th annual Spring Fling and I was one of the guides.

Spring Fling is a gathering of various media personalities, outdoor writers, product manufacturers/distributors and local fishing guides who are invited to the area to showcase our fabulous bay fishing venue.

My group consisted of John Goodspeed, chairman of the board for the Texas Outdoor Writers Association; Mike Nischalke, Outdoor Communications; and Jim Van Gilder, Corrosion X. We anchored in a backlake shallow on San Jose Island.

We began free-lining shrimp and the fast incoming tide caused us to change over to Carolina Rigs to keep the bait in the hole. A couple of rods were put out with cut blue crab.

*
About an hour into our adventure, Goodspeed was onto a hard hitting fish that stripped line from the reel on several runs away from the boat. Soon it rolled, revealing an upper slot-sized redfish with Goodspeed skillfully maneuvering the critter into the outstretched landing net.

Despite the excellent conditions, the bite was slow and the next fish in was a black drum caught by Nischalke.

Van Gilder had a handle on the hardhead catfish bringing in one after another earning the title of catfish king.

We fished for another couple of hours with a couple of additional redfish coming to net before we decided to drift Allyn’s Bight.

We covered the bulk of the north end with nary a taker.

We headed to clean fish and get ready for our farewell dinner feast hosted by the Chamber.

What’s happening in bays?

Spotted seatrout are coming in  for the spring spawn. Fair numbers have been reported on most flats and adjacent drops.

Soft plastics, top waters and natural baits have all worked well. Try Estes Flats, Little Flats, Super Flats and Steadman’s for some good action on trout with some redfish thrown in for good measure.

The best baits have been live shrimp under a popping cork, or your favorite artificial.

The Port Aransas jetties have been good for spotted seatrout and redfish, as well as flounder coming in from the drops along the channels. Black drum are plentiful in most fishable waters.

Today’s tip

I keep a supply of cable ties at home and on board the boat for when a quick fix opportunity arises.

Looking back on one such occasion, my fishing buddies and I went off a prop in deep water. We had a spare prop, but no retaining parts. We took enough cable ties to rig a spacer, put on the spare prop and use a spare cotter pin to finish the job. The cable ties held for the ride back at a slow speed and got us in without having to be towed. Next to duct tape, this is the best item to have in your emergency kit. You can pick up various sizes, which will work for most applications. They can be strung together for additional length if needed and each can be tightened to a small diameter. Some people use them to attach mullet, pinfish or ballyhoo to a hook thus leaving the business end of the hook completely exposed for unimpeded hookups.

This week’s hotspot

Hit the flats for spotted seatrout and redfish. Try drifting while bouncing your bait or lures in the pot-holes. Good luck everyone and stay safe out on the water.

Cable and PCB accessories

With its recent appointment as Richco’s South African distributor, Electrocomp has made available to the local market a broad array of product offerings addressing application needs within electronic, consumer goods, telecoms, automotive and contract manufacturingindustries. Richco offers a variety of spacers, standoffs, kwik wraps and cable ties. Its product range also includes bushings, cable glands, harness wraps and grommets, as well as ducts, wraps and rivets.

For each of its standard products, customers can download 3D models directly from the manufacturer’s website.

The company offers a range of spacers and standoffs for printed circuit board hardware, which aid the support, spacing, locking and guiding of the board within electronic applications. The majority of the spacers and standoffs are designed to be installed manually by hand and do not require automated assembly equipment. The parts are available in a selection of materials.

Richco’s plastic cable ties and kwik wraps can be fixed to PCBs, chassis or even to a wall in order to harness cable at any application level. It supplies the plastic cable ties and kwik wraps in different colours and materials, sizes and mounting types. Cable tie options include push-in arrowhead mount, screw mount, hook and loop, releasable, marker and heavy duty. They are radiation-, vibration-, flame- and corrosion-resistant.

Richco has a wide range of cable clamps, bushings, grommets and cable glands. Furthermore, customers can choose between different wraps and ducts. The cable clamps and cable clips offer a variety of mounting methods including self-adhesive tape, screws, rivets, blind hole and push-through arrow-headed designs. Richco’s grommet range is available in a variety of materials including plastic, rubber and metal. The bushings are designed to easily snap into pre-drilled holes and the cable glands are available with metric and PG thread.

Upgrade garden cart in a snap

Here's a neat way to upgrade your plain old garden cart.

Clean out aluminum cans and attach to the sides to hold tools, seeds, gloves and even a refreshing beverage. Use nuts and bolts, cable ties or screws to hold the cans around the edge of the cart so they will be easily accessible.

You'll find that they'll really come in handy and will allow you to take everything you need to the worksite in one trip.

You can add these to your riding lawnmower, too. Paint them to match if you want.

Dear Carrells: My home office had to be inexpensive since I was just starting my home business. I needed a large desk but had no money in the budget. I bought two inexpensive file cabinets and found an old door at a garage sale. The door was large, and I set it on top of the file cabinets to create my desk. It was perfect. It was large and very sturdy, and I still have it today, even though I use it more as a hobby table now. - J.T.

* A super hint: Super glue is super at sticking to all sorts of things. And it's pretty good at sticking your fingers to things, too. If this ever happens to you, just grab some nail-polish remover and use that as your solvent. It will dissolve the glue and let you be free again.

* Got a question or a handy tip? Visit www.thesuperhandyman.com. Those of general interest will be used in future columns.

* Dear Al: I don't know what you are supposed to use to patch gutters, but I found a very easy way to do it. I had a small leak, just a pinhole, but it was a leak that was starting to cause more problems. I got a leftover tube of roofing tar and rubbed that onto the gutter hole. It seems to be holding pretty well, and there is no more rust. Boy, that was simple! - N.M.

* Q: I have a leak in one of the underground pipes in my automatic sprinkler system. The company that installed it is now out of business, and I would like to try to fix it myself. What is involved in repairing the plastic pipe? - T.G.

A: The first step is to dig down to get to the problem. You need to have enough room to be able to saw out the leaking section. If it's just a small section, a coupler fitting may be used to reconnect the ends. You may have to dig back a ways in order to flex the pipes to make the connection. If the problem involves a longer section of pipe, you could use two coupling units plus a section of pipe. Joining the pieces is easy to do with PVC adhesives.

* A Tip From the Super HandyMom: I would rather repair than replace a whole wooden fence. But putting new pickets beside the old ones looks really bad to me. I found a great way to "age" the boards. Mix baking soda and water, and brush the new wood with this solution. It ages it in just a few minutes. Wash it off when it is at the right stage of gray, and you'll barely be able to tell the new pickets from the old. (This won't work with pressure-treated wood.)

* Shoptalk: Window films that cut down on heat gain in your home can be difficult to install and even harder to remove later on ... until now. Gila's Energy Saving Titanium Peel and Cling Window Film stays in place by means of static cling. It dramatically cuts down on glare, incoming heat and UV rays while still allowing natural light to enter. It's easy to install, works great and is one of the most affordable solutions on the market. It's available at several outlets, including Home Depot. You can find out more at www.gilafilms.com.