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It’s the dawn of a new year. From our perch on the frontier of electronic civil liberties, EFF has collected a list of a dozen important trends in law, technology and business that we think will play a significant role in shaping online rights in 2010.

In December, we’ll revisit this post and see how it all worked out.

1. Attacks on Cryptography: New Avenues for Intercepting Communications

In 2010, several problems with cryptography implementations should come to the fore, showing that even encrypted communications aren’t as safe as users expect. Two of the most significant problems we expect concern cellphone security and web browser security.

GSM, the technology that underpins most cellphone communications around the world, uses a deeply flawed security technology. In 2010, devices which intercept phone calls will get cheaper and cheaper. Expect to see public demonstrations of the ability to break GSM’s encryption and intercept mobile phone calls. We hope that this will prompt the mobile phone industry to replace its obsolete systems with modern and easy-to-use cryptography.

SSL (in its newer versions known as TLS), the basic security technology of the world wide web, is exhibiting similarly severe flaws. Several powerful practical attacks against real-world SSL implementations were published in 2009; more problems and concerns will emerge throughout 2010. SSL security must be improved.

Despite flaws in how SSL is used, it’s still the best system for web security around, and so it also needs to become more widely deployed. Google set a fantastic example this week when it set GMail to use SSL by default — in 2010 we hope to see other online service providers follow its example.

2. Books and Newspapers: .TXT is the new .MP3

Since 2000, the music industry has most spectacularly flailed (and failed) to combat the Net’s effect on its business model. Their plans to sue, lock-up and lobby their way out of their problem did nothing to turn the clock back, but did cause serious damage to free speech, innovation and fair use.

These days, the book and newspaper industries are similarly mourning the Internet’s effect on their bottom line. In 2009, Rupert Murdoch changed the tone of the debate when he called those who made fair use of his papers’ content “thieves”. We think 2010 and beyond will see others in the print world attempt to force that view, and break the fair use doctrine by lobbying to change accepted copyright law, challenging it in the courts, or by placing other pressures on intermediaries.

A cluster of similar battles around user control are also gathering around e-reader products like Kindle and Google Book Search, many of which rewrite the rules for book ownership and privacy wholesale.

So, in 2010, will the printed word step smartly into the digital future, or will it continue to stay stuck in the denial and bargaining phase that dominated digital music’s lost decade?

3. Global Internet Censorship: The Battle for Legitimacy

For years, the obvious benefits of an uncensored Internet have kept advocates of Net blocking on the defensive. But new filtering initiatives in Australia and Europe combined with growing rhetoric around child protection, cybersecurity and IP enforcement means that blocking websites isn’t just for authoritarian regimes any more.

That’s not to say tyrants aren’t paying close attention to the West’s new censors. When democratic governments complain about Iran and China’s net policing in 2010, expect defenses of “we’re only doing what everyone else does”.

2010 will see the publication of Access Controlled, a new book from the OpenNet Initiative chronicling the globalization of Internet censorship; we’re excited to see it but concerned about the ways restrictions in different countries reinforce each other.

4. Hardware Hacking: Opening Closed Platforms and Devices

An increasingly active hobbyist community is figuring out how to make a range of devices more useful and open. They are learning how to install new software or make third-party parts, devices, and services work with proprietary high-tech products like video game consoles, printers, portable audio players, home entertainment devices, e-book readers, mobile phones, digital cameras, and even programmable calculators. And, oh yes, contending with restrictions on both cars and garage doors.

Frequently, indignant manufacturers are threatening these tinkerers with legal troubles. Often, these threats are legally baseless — but this hasn’t stopped manufacturers from bullying hobbyists into keeping quiet about their innovations.

It confirms the prediction that EFF board member Ed Felten made in 2006: that the rationale offered for “Digital Rights Management” was shifting away from hard-to-defend claims that DRM could stop copyright infringement, and toward uses of DRM to control the functionality of objects in general (often in ways only tenuously connected to copying anything).

In 2009, EFF asked the Copyright Office to protect hobbyists who unlock and jailbreak their smartphones, and we stood up for developers who figured out how to load new operating systems onto TI programmable calculators. EFF’s panel of judges also chose to honor Limor Fried of Adafruit Industries with a Pioneer Award in part to encourage the hardware hacking community to continue their good work.

In 2010, phone jailbreaking will become even more mainstream, and the concept will be routinely applied to other sorts of devices. EFF’s Coders Rights Project will have no shortage of work to do defending users and developers who want to make their hardware do more than it was designed for.

5. Location Privacy: Tracking Beacons in Your Pocket

It’s easier and cheaper than ever for computers to keep track of where you are: there are so many more potential sources of information about your whereabouts, and so many reasons it might be useful or interesting to you, your friends, your boss, or the government.

EFF has fought for location privacy rights, including checks on the government’s ability to use your cell phone to find you and to access the information that social networks, mobile operators, and transportation systems collect about where you are and where you travel.

In 2010, awareness of location privacy as an issue will enter the mainstream in the U.S. as a critical mass of end users voluntarily adopt technologies that use or share their physical location — and start to wonder who has access to this information. Many more courts will grapple with these questions this year, building upon the important 2009 decisions in the Connolly case in Massachusetts and the Weaver case in New York. EFF is awaiting the decision in U.S. v. Jones in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where we asked a court to limit law enforcement use of these devices.

6. Net Neutrality: The Rubber Hits The Road

Anyone who watched John Hodgman’s famous Daily Show rant knows what Net Neutrality means as an abstract idea. But what will it mean when it makes the transformation from idealistic principle into real-world regulations? 2010 will be the year we start to find out, as the FCC attempts to implement the plan it adopts after its 107-page request for input about how to ensure a neutral Net.

But how far can the FCC be trusted? Historically, the FCC has sometimes shown more concern for the demands of corporate lobbyists and “public decency” advocates than it has for individual civil liberties. Consider the FCC’s efforts to protect Americans from “dirty words” in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, or its much-criticized deregulation of the media industry, or its narrowly-thwarted attempt to cripple video innovation with the Broadcast Flag.

With the FCC already promising exceptions from net neutrality for copyright-enforcement, we fear that 2010 could be the year when the FCC’s idea of an “Open Internet” proves quite different from what many have been hoping for.

7. Online Video: Who Controls Your TV?

Like the print business, the television business is being radically disrupted by the Internet. The disparate and powerful industries affected — telco, cable, satellite, ISP, software, and production — are engaged in a battle for dominance. But as big business dukes it out, consumer rights risk being left behind.

Two especially bad initiatives to keep an eye on this year: TV Everywhere is a new DRM-laden attempt by the mainstream television industry to trip up innovative upstarts like Boxee. Another scheme, Selectable Output Control, is Hollywood’s latest effort to start driving analog interfaces into extinction in favor of DRM-restricted digital interfaces — meaning that Hollywood would decide what you can record on your DVR, rather than you.

In 2010, expect industry to advance those initiatives, as well as to introduce new and similarly problematic schemes along the same lines. EFF, as usual, will be there to try to stop them.

8. Congress: Postponed Bad Legislation Returns

In retrospect, 2009 wasn’t disastrous for online civil liberties in federal technology law. With Washington entirely distracted by health care reform, a lot of the most problematic proposed federal technology legislation was delayed, postponed or temporarily forgotten.

In 2010, we may not be so lucky. Key provisions of the Patriot Act, having recently been granted a three-month extension, are up for re-authorization before April 1. The Snowe-Rockefeller Cybersecurity Act, which would grant the President the power to disconnect the Internet, is likely to return sometime in 2010. And, with immigration reform considered a top priority for Congress this year, we can expect to see the national identification card scheme REAL ID (or its twin, PASS ID) again soon.

9. Social Networking Privacy: Something’s Got To Give

For some, social networking sites are the Internet. Facebook now has over 350 million accounts — roughly the same as the total number of Internet users worldwide a decade ago. That means that the bad guys who were exploiting security weaknesses in the wider Net in the last decade will now turn in force on the bigger networking sites. And by bad guys, we mean everyone from criminals, to unethical data-mining companies, to ISPs who can’t resist snooping on that remunerative personal data passing down their pipes, to governments seeking new ways to track their citizens.

Will a major privacy scandal or two fix the social networking sites’ casual attitude to their customers’ personal data? Will new laws? Or will technologists and increasingly sensitive Net users find a their own way to protect their privacy?

10. Three Strikes: Truth and Consequences

In countries across the globe, the entertainment industry has been pushing for laws requiring ISPs to terminate their users’ connection at the whim of the entertainment industry. In 2009, they got their wish — in France and South Korea, at least. This year will see the spin battle over what is actually happening in those countries.

Expect media industry reports describing amazing local declines in filesharing, aimed at policymakers in other nations considering the same. And look out for local press reports from these three strikes ground zeroes, documenting the calamitous consequences of disconnections, the lack of financial return to working artists, and the political blowback for the politicians who championed these unjust laws.

11. Fair Use of Trademarks: Mockery At Risk

Parody and mockery have long been favorite tools for online political expression and activism. But the powerful entities being mocked sometimes lack a sense of humor about the situation. Increasingly, they’re turning to trademark law to badger would-be jokers into silence.

Of course, abuse of copyright law, which governs ownership of content, is nothing new. But until recently, we haven’t seen as much abuse of trademark law, which governs ownership of names and logos. Fair Use principles, which allow creative re-use of intellectual property, apply to trademarks just as they apply to copyrights. In either case, IP bullies are just as happy to ignore those principles and make bogus legal threats.

Recently, trademark threats have been levied against activists like The Yes Men, who mocked the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They’ve targeted NYTimes.se, which mocked The New York Times and corporations like DeBeers. They’ve targeted The South Butt, a clothing line which mocks The North Face. And, only a few days ago, they targeted environmental activist Brian DeSmet for mocking Peabody Energy.

In 2010, expect to see plenty of similar bogus threats. Some of them will lead to litigation, and those battles could in turn lead to important new legal precedents with serious implications for free expression online.

12. Web Browser Privacy: It’s Not Just About Cookies Anymore

In the late 1990s, when the conventions for the modern web browser were being determined, certain expectations were established for web browser privacy. Users who wished to take extra measures to protect their privacy could simply choose to de-activate or limit their browser’s use of cookies. This would protect them from most of the worst online tracking practices.

And that’s how it remained for some time. Or so most web users thought.

As it turns out, corporations seeking to track individuals’ use of the web were hard at work developing new and unexpected methods of profiling. For a long time, many of these methods either remained unexamined or were simply performed covertly and hidden from the public. But as we enter 2010, awareness and scrutiny of them is on the rise.

Try browsing the web while using a tool like the Firefox add-on RequestPolicy, and you’ll see that many major sites share your web activity with dozens of advertisers and advertising networks. With few technical or legal restrictions on the ability to track you around the web, companies you may never have heard of may have profiles of you which include things about your web use that you don’t even remember.

This year the Federal Trade Commission is taking a fresh look at privacy and the use of profiles to target ads based on individuals’ behavior on the web. We’ll be participating in the process by providing testimony to the FTC, as well as launching our own study of just how easy individual browsers are to track, and how they can be made more privacy-protective.

The only thing better than a cupcake is a cupcake with a rich cream filling. So, when you start out with a cupcake that is well known for having a delicious frosting – such as red velvet, which is almost always paired iwth a cream cheese frosting – you know that it can only get better when you manage to incorporate more into the cupcake.

Red velvet cake is a buttermilk cake with a light cocoa flavor that gets its name from its color: red. The red in the cake comes from food coloring and the more you use the redder your cake will be. This recipe is adapted from a Cook’s Country recipe for a red velvet cake. They call for using 2 tablespoons of food coloring, which is an entire little bottle of the stuff. You can get away with using half that amount, but don’t skimp too much or you’ll lose a lot of color. If you leave out the food coloring completely, the cake will have a reddish brown tinge to it (thanks to the combination of cocoa powder and baking soda, this is where the idea of a red cake came from in the first place).

These cupcakes are moist and tender, with a distinct cocoa flavor to them. It isn’t enough to make them taste like a chocolate cupcake, but it is enough to give the cupcakes a good, solid flavor. I really like this about these cupcakes because it is too often that red velvet cupcakes don’t have much flavor at all and simply trade off their unique color. With the cream cheese filling (the same as the frosting), the cupcakes become even more moist. They will keep well for a couple of days in an airtight container.

If you’ve never made a cream-filled cupcake before, I have a filled cupcake tutorial that will guide you through the process. It involves removing a piece of cake from the center of the cupcake and adding filling. With this method, which only takes a few seconds per cupcake to do, you get a lot of filling in each. An alternative is to simply stick the tip of a pastry bag or a can of frosting into the cupcake and squeeze, but you don’t get nearly the same amount of filling and it doesn’t save very much time. You don’t need to do anything special to finish these off, but if you dye a little bit of frosting red, or have a red gel frosting pouch, you can add a little squiggle to the top that is reminiscent of the squiggle on the classic, cream-filled hostess cupcakes.
(more…)

Another notable movement in the mobile advertising space, and an ironic one, given Google’s recent Admob acqusition: mobile advertising company InMobi has poached a Google (NSDQ: GOOG) executive to be its new European head.

Rob Jonas, who had previously been Google’s director of strategic partnerships for Europe, Middle East and Africa, will be establishing an office in London for the Bangalore-based ad network.

No comment from Rob Jonas himself on why he left Google, especially at a time when the company was just starting to get more serious about mobile advertising…

“This was not about leaving Google. It was about being attracted to inmobi,” Rob Jonas told paidContent:UK. “I genuinely feel that mobile is coming together from an advertising perspective in the digital economy. It’s still an untapped area.”…

But he also acknowledges the competition ahead of him: “Admob is a great business,” he said. “Google doesn’t tend to make mistakes in its acquisitions.”

At Google, Jonas was working on Google’s syndication and partnership deals with third party sites in the region, and mobile was not directly in his remit. Before Google, Jonas was at Yahoo!Europe, which he joined with its acquisition of Overture in October 2003.

InMobi, which allows advertising clients to buy ads in 22 markets today, has funding from Kleiner Perkins and Ram Shriram, who had been an angel investor in Google. It’t not releasing revenue figures but says it is currently profitable and claims to be the second-largest ad network in Europe today. Jonas declined to say how many people he intends to hire in Europe: “It’s a work in progress,” he said.

1. Be passionate about your topic

I said it before in “Real Successful Blogging”, and I am saying it again. Passion is not a bonus, it is a must.
If you are passionate about your topic, you will be knowledgeable, you will know your market (the other people who are into that specific topic), and you will be able to follow up on the developments in that area. Something that would bore you to death if you are blogging about a subject just for the money instead of the passion.

2. Reach out

Blogging is not about you, it’s about others (ok, and you too). Reach out to others, write about whose blogs or articles you liked. This works twofold: first, people are always looking for reviews and views on things. Do other bloggers like this blog or website or tool? Do other photographers like that camera? Second: the people you are blogging about will appreciate the mentioning and the link (that is, if it is positive ) and will return the favor.

3. Be heard, be social

Get your word out, and people will link to you.
This can be done by speaking at a conference, setting up a large project or contest, participate very actively on forums, perhaps even as a moderator.
Try to stay on top of things, so that you can not only participate in conversations, but you can start them. If you can then also blog about these topics, it will definately get you authority and links.

4. Look real

If you want people to remember you, to want to link to you, to believe you, you need to look real to them. The first way to do this, is by the way your website or blog looks and feels. For instance:
* What’s your domainname, is it something that looks real, not scammy? Can people easily remember it?
* Does the layout and the design of your site add to the content and the message you want to bring? For instance, a yellowish, bright playful webdesign doesn’t add to your message if you’re an undertaker.
* How’s your content? Interesting and unique? Or boring or copied from somewhere else?
* How is your about page? Does it say something about you? Will people remember you by it?
* How is the useability of your site? Is it easy to understand? Or does it look good, but is hell to use?
There’s no need to answer positive on all these questions right away. But they are a good strategy to follow to increase your credibility on the internet.

5. Conversation

Markets are conversations, your readers are your audience, and your market. Have conversations with them. You do this through your blogposts. They can do that through the comments. Invite them to comment on your posts. Make it a two-way conversation, make it a community. After a while, a part of your audience will start communicating with you through their blog, and this is where the links start coming in.

6. Keep building

Rome wasn’t built overnight. Nor was Microsoft, Apple, or any other great success story. You need to keep working on it, keep building on your website, on your credibility, on your market position. This can take years, but you will get there eventually. Just keep building on it. Day by day.

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Conan O’Brien fans showed their support for the fiery comedian on Tuesday night by tuning in to his Tonight Show in large numbers. According to The Los Angeles Times, last night’s Tonight scored a 1.7 rating / 7 share among adults 18-49, up 40 percent from Monday airing.

Early Tuesday, Conan released a statement saying he would not accept NBC’s request to move the show to 12:05 AM to accommodate Jay’s move back to 11:35 PM from primetime.

“I sincerely believe that delaying ‘The Tonight Show’ into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting,” he wrote in a humorous letter addressed to “People of Earth.”

Filed under: Motorsports, Performance, Lotus, Racing

Now that Lotus is turning out production examples of the Evora on a steady basis, the crew on the motorsports side has turned its attention to creating a new competition car. Built to FIA GT4 specs and eligible to run in several different GT series, the Evora Cup car debuts this weekend at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham, England.

To get the car ready for the track, the Toyota V6 has been punched out to a full 4.0 liters and fitted with a dry sump oiling system. In race trim the engine is rated at 395 horsepower, with power is routed through a six-speed Cima sequential race gearbox. Upgraded six-pot calipers help the binders hold up to track use and adjustable dampers allow the handling to be adapted to the prevailing conditions and the driver’s style. At about 2,600 pounds, Lotus has shaved 440 pounds off the road car.

In addition to competing against other makes, Lotus is also launching a single make Evora Cup series with events around Europe. A €100,000 prize fund will be offered for the series this year. The Evora Cup car will run £120,000 plus taxes. Make the jump for all the details.

[Source: Lotus]

Continue reading Lotus announces Evora race car, one-make series

Lotus announces Evora race car, one-make series originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chicago White Castle Restaurants cook up romance with candlelight, tableside service and themed decorations

Craving a little romance this Valentine’s Day? Then reserve a steamy date at your local White Castle Restaurant. Between 5 and 8 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 14, you and your valentine can enjoy a romantic candlelit dinner complete with special menus, tableside service and flowers.

Reservations are filling up quickly and can be made by 708-458-4450 ext. 0 Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

“Since we first offered reserved Valentine’s Day seating in 1991, this has become an annual tradition for many couples,” said Jamie Richardson, vice president of corporate relations.

“It’s been a huge hit because a lot of our loyal customers – fondly known as ‘Cravers’ – either met in a White Castle Restaurant or have other enjoyable memories they like to celebrate here.”

This year, White Castle will make Valentine’s Day truly unforgettable by snapping a complimentary digital photo of each couple that can be viewed later from the White Castle Web site.

White Castle expects demand for reservations to be even greater this year as Americans continue to seek ways to get more romance for less cash.

“At White Castle, you can indulge your special someone’s craving for a romantic dinner without breaking your budget,” Richardson said.

He noted that Sack Meal #3 provides a dinner for two – complete with 10 of the distinctive Slyder® hamburgers, two 21-oz. soft drinks and two regular French fries – for as little as $11.55. “It’s just one example of the value we’ve offered customers since we began selling our famous steam-grilled hamburgers for a nickel in 1921.”

Valentine’s Day is just one of many special programs through which White Castle engages and rewards its Craver customers and family of team members. Each May, the company is the official sponsor of National Hamburger month.

By submitting a recipe in the Crave Time Cook Off competition, customers have a chance to win a Crave Case every week for a year.

And customers can submit their ultimate Crave story in the 10th annual Craver’s Hall of fame competition for the chance to join such fellow Cravers as Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle stars John Cho and Kal Penn and members of the rock group The Smithereens in the hallowed Hall.

Visit whitecastle.com for details on these and other events.

About White Castle

White Castle is a family-owned business based in Columbus, Ohio that owns and operates 419 White Castle Restaurants in 11 states.

The company was founded in Wichita, Kansas in 1921 and was the first fast-food hamburger chain.

For more information on White Castle, please visit whitecastle.com.

I am very pleased to announce that I have become a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, commonly known as CSI (and formerly known as CSICOP). CSI is one of the foremost skeptical organizations in the country and the world, and it is both humbling and an honor to be a part of it.

I was chosen along with other 15 other people, many of whom will be familiar to regular readers, including Skeptic Dictionary creator Bob Carroll, Steve Novella, Massimo Pigliucci, UK Skeptic’s Christopher French, Seth Shostak, and my fellow astronomer Jay Pasachoff. You can get the full list at the CSI announcement.

I’m also very happy to note that another of the new Fellows is one James Randi! Randi helped create CSICOP, but left years ago due to personal reasons when Uri Geller (boo!) sued both him and CSICOP. Randi has maintained a cordial relationship with the group over the years, and I know he’s personally very happy to be a part of CSI once again.

I’ve received a few emails from folks asking if my leaving the JREF to do TV work would take me away from doing skeptical outreach. It will be impacted, of course, but I hope this announcement lets you know that I will continue to do what I can to make this world a more reasonable place. I could no more stop doing that than I could stop blogging, or stop breathing, or stop being amazed at how wonderful our Universe is.

My thanks to the good folks at CSI, and to all of you who support me!

When I saw this graph about the toll the recession has taken on entrepreneurs, the first thing I thought of was green energy.

Maybe that’s because a close friend of mine is starting a green energy company. But it’s also because a lot of economic analysts expect energy to be a major source of growth and job creation in the next ten years. The problem is (as my friend can attest), just as world governments’ interest in green technology is increasing, investment in green technology is falling off a cliff. As the Economist explains here, renewable energy has a high upfront cost, even if you save a lot of money with efficiency over time. That makes firms reluctant to become customers, which makes venture capitalists reluctant to become investors:

Companies cannot be expected to abandon them unless they get a clear
signal from consumers or governments that it is in their financial
interest to do so. And they are not getting such a signal.

The answer is elusive. A carbon price in England, for example, has not spurred a renewable energy revolution, the Economist reports. Still the United States should be creative. Programs like “Cash for Caulkers” that pay homeowners to retrofit their homes are a nice start. Or we could invest in green technology more directly, as Evan Osnos chronicled in this New Yorker story about China’s “crash course” in green technology. Or the government could poor money into energy storage research, and heed the predictions of Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer about battery technology being the key to the global technology revolution. The point is: There is a lot more that we can do, and a green tech policy could go a long way toward recovering America’s entrepreneurial spirit and creating a new fleet of jobs that last.

[Via Real Time Economics]

I…I just don’t know what to make of this Nunk on Droise performance art by Stéphane Perrin.

Simply put, the performance consists in dynamically generating noise music from the alcohol drunk by the performer during the performance. During the performance, the performer drinks alcohol and several breathalyzers are used to generate sounds and interacts with the visual. In addition, the abuse of alcohol inevitably leads to uncontrollable results and the body of the performer becomes itself a musical instrument.

Several alcohol sensors output each a voltage that depends on the alcohol content in the breath of the performer. These voltages are measured by an Arduino board and sent to a program written under OpenFrameworks that processes them and sends them through OSC (Open Sound Control) to a Pure Data patch. The patch dynamically generates sounds from the received data. In addition, the use of a microphone allows the sound emitted by one of the (un)desirable effects of the consumption of various alcohols in a very short time, namely vomiting, to be processed too by the Pure Data patch.

Yes…simple. All I know is that I want some sort of warning system where my toilet calls me up and magically plays the menacing Jaws theme when my stomach is on the verge of retaliating against my alcohol consumption. [Nunk on Droise via Make]

Losing hair is quite a common thing. In fact, losing 40-80 hair a day is physiologically justified and does not require any treatment or medical intervention. Such loss of hair is noticed during bathing, combing the hair, while sleeping or simply on your shirt or tops. However, the issue arises when the hair loss exceeds the said figure such as more than 100 hairs a day.

There are plenty of reasons for a person to lose hair. In order to learn how to stop hair loss, one should learn the physiology and factors that harm the hairs and hair-roots. Hair loss could be due to tension, depression, stress, anxiety or it could be due to simply heredity. Other causes include unhygienic conditions, improper washing of the hair, using chemical products for hair (such as shampoo, hair cream, hair lotion, hair oil) etc. Using hair dryer in improper way may also harm hair root and hair loss occur.

Let us learn how to stop hair loss:

How to stop hair loss tip 1: The diet plays important role in living healthy. Excessive salty, oily, junk and spicy foods may make you lost the hair and hence they are to be avoided. On the other hand, one should go for dark, green and leafy vegetables and fresh fruits (or their juices). They provide enough roughage and they are good for the intestinal health. They are also said to flush out the bodily toxins so the body remains toxin-free. Also, drinking plenty of water helps in keeping the body and hair healthy.

How to stop hair loss tip 2: There are plenty of herbs that can be used in stopping the hair loss. Herbs such as bhringaraja (Eclipta), amalaki (Indian gooseberry), mehendi (henna) etc are Ayurvedic herbs those have been used in treating hair loss since many centuries. Such herbs can be used internally as well as externally. For instance, there are some head massaging oils made up of brahmi, bhringaraja etc those are said to be beneficial as they strengthen the hair root and make hair strong enough to remain on the scalp.

How to stop hair loss tip 3: Many health care providers, especially holistic health care providers opine that holistic exercises such as Pranayama and Yoga help in strengthening the hair root and prevent the hair fall. Asanas such as sarvangasana, shavasana and shirshasana are specially designed to increase the blood flow into the brain and scalp and hence they are considered to be very beneficial in providing enough nutrients to the hair making them strong and shiny.

How to stop hair loss tip 4: Alternative therapies such as aromatherapy, acupressure, acupuncture, Ayurvedic Panchakarma, massage therapy, Chinese medicines are reported to have good effects in hair fall and hence can be adopted. Treating acu-points in a proper way is useful in preventing the hair fall.

One has to take care about their hair and it is better not to use any chemical based hair product. Also, devices like hair dryers may over dry the hair and make them brittle and hence, are to be avoided. Use herbal shampoo and soap to rinse or wash the hair and let them get a sun-dry.

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EFF has long fought for the privacy of your laptop and other digital devices at the border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has implemented program that authorizes searches of the contents of travelers’ laptop computers and other electronic storage devices at border crossings, notwithstanding the absence of probable cause, reasonable suspicion or any indicia of wrongdoing.

In U.S. v. Arnold we fought for a requirement that customs agents have some reason before searching your computer and in our FOIA work on border searches, we have pushed the government to reveal its policies and practices in this area.

Now, another civil rights group, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is seeking potential plaintiffs for a lawsuit challenging suspicionless laptop searches. As a first step in this effort, NACDL is seeking to identify defense lawyers who have had their laptops searched at the border and are willing to serve as individual plaintiffs. In order to demonstrate the effect of this policy on members of the criminal defense bar and to support the constitutional challenge, NACDL plans to assemble a group of individual plaintiffs who will develop affidavits describing the harm they suffer by having their electronic information exposed to government officials.

This lawsuit will not seek monetary damages for individuals who have been searched; instead, it will focus exclusively on fixing the unconstitutional policy. Participating members will be represented at no charge by NACDL and ACLU attorneys.

EFF supports the NACDL and ACLU’s joint effort. To determine whether you may qualify as a plaintiff, please consider the following:

1. Have you ever had your laptop, cell phone or camera searched when entering or exiting the U.S.?
2. Have you ever had the contents of your laptop, cell phone or camera copied when entering or exiting the U.S.?
3. Have you ever had your laptop, cell phone or camera seized when entering or exiting the U.S.?
4. If you are employed by someone else, does your employer have a policy about traveling internationally with laptops, cell phones or cameras?
5. Do you avoid carrying confidential business or personal information on your laptop, cell phone or camera due to the suspicion-less search policy?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, and might be interested in joining the NACDL suit, please contact Michael Price, NACDL’s National Security Coordinator, at (202) 872-8600 x258 or [email protected].