text: Hacking Diabetes October 5, '12 Comments [41] Posted in Diabetes Sponsored By NOTE: The top part of this post is background and basics. If you are a diabetic who wants the advanced techniques, they are further down a bit. Being a Type 1 diabetic sucks. But, if you know anyone who is diabetic then you likely already know that. Over the last twenty years I've tried many different drugs, diets, techniques, and hacks all meant to keep me alive as long as possible. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, liver failure, kidney failure and a bunch of other stuff that also sucks. It would be really awesome to die of regular old age rather than some complication of diabetes. Every few months a diabetic should get a blood test call an hA1c that is a measure of long term blood sugar control. A normal person's A1C is between 4% and 6% which roughly corresponds to a 3 month average blood sugar of between 70 and 120mg/dl, which is great. My A1c has been around 6.0 to 6.7 which is under the American Diabetes Association's recommendation for Type 1 diabetics of 7.0, but not as low as I'd like it. Related Reading The Sad State of Diabetes Technology in 2012 Scott's Diabetes Explanation: The Airplane Analogy YOUTUBE: How my diabetes equipment works I recently redoubled my efforts and lost about 30lbs, started working out more and removed more carbohydrates by implementing a relaxed paleo diet. This, combined with some medical equipment changes that I discuss below have resulted in my latest A1c - just in last week - of 5.7%. That means for the first time in nearly 20 years I have maintained near-normal blood sugar for at least 3 months. Basics A Type 1 diabetic doesn't produce any insulin, and insulin is required to process sugar and deliver it to the cells. Without insulin, you'd die rather quickly. There's no diet, no amount of yoga, green tea or black, herbs or spices that will keep a Type 1 diabetic alive and healthy. Type 1 diabetes is NOT Type 2 diabetes, so I'm not interested in your juicers, raw food diets or possible cures. I've been doing this with some success for the last two decades and I plan to continue - also with success - for the next two. If you blood sugar gets too high you'll die slowly and rather uncomfortably. If your blood sugar gets too low you'll die rather quickly (or at the very least lose consciousness). The number one goal for a Type 1 Diabetic is to effectively manage insulin and blood sugar levels by simulating a working pancreas where there isn't one. You eat food and your blood sugar rises. You take insulin and your blood sugar lowers. You can prick your finger and check your blood sugar directly then perform some calculations and inject yourself with insulin. If everything works out well then your blood sugar is stable just like a "normal" non-diabetic. Unfortunately it's never that easy, and in the case of Type 1 diabetes there's a number of factors that complicate things. Sometimes blood sugar rises on its own, sometimes due to illness, hormones, or any of a dozen other factors. The most difficult issue to deal with is that of lag time. When you check your blood sugar you're actually looking at the past. You're seeing your blood sugar in the past, sometimes 15-20 minutes ago. When you take insulin it won't start working for at least 30 minutes, often as long as 60 to 90 minutes. I talk about this in my post Diabetes: The Airplane Analogy. Try flying a plane where your altimeter shows you the past and altitude adjustments are all delayed. I would imagine it's not unlike trying to pilot the Mars Lander. Sadly, there is no such thing as "real time" when it comes to diabetes management. Basic Management Basic blood sugar management typically comes down to carb counting and insulin dosage. You'll learn from a Diabetes Educator that your body (everyone is different) will react to insulin in a certain way. You'll learn that, for example, your insulin to carbohydrate ratio might be 1U (1 unit of insulin) to 15g (grams) of carbohydrate. You'll read food labels and if there's a cookie with 30g of carbohydrates or sugars that you'll need to "cover" it with 2U of insulin. That's the basics. Things quickly get complicated because not all sugars are alike. A cookie with 30g of carbs will "hit you" - or cause a blood sugar rise - much faster than an apple with 30g of carbs or mixed nuts with 30g of carbs. The speed at which carbs hit you is known as the glycemic index of the food. Fruit juices, starches, candy, all have high glycemic indexes. Why should a diabetic care about how fast food raises their blood sugar? Because the faster your blood sugar moves the hard it is it control. If a cookie can raise blood sugar in 15 minutes but insulin won't start lowering it for an hour you can see how a daily rollercoaster of blood sugar spikes can get out of control. A reasonably low carb diet makes Type 1 diabetes much easier to handle and manage. I avoid bread, sugar and anything "white." That means no white rice, no white bread, no white sugar. If I'm going to have bread, it'll be whole grain or sprouted wheat. Portion Size and Cutting Carbs You should rarely be eating a meal that is larger than your own fist. Better you eat 6 fist-sized meals than 3 giant plates a day. Reasonable portions avoid high sugar spikes. Cutting carbs is surprisingly easy. I've done personal experiments with hamburgers, for example. A hamburger might require me to take 6U of insulin but that same hamburger minus the top bun was only 3U. It was still satisfying and yummy but that top bun was just empty carbs. That leaves more room for salad (with dressing on the side) which is a diabetic's "free food." You can eat raw veggies until you're bloated and in some cases take no insulin at all, while a Small French Fry could literally set you on a miserable rollercoaster of a day. Fries and starches are simply off limits. If you eat them, you will pay the price. Pizza, potatoes, tubers of any kind are all effectively raw sugar. Same with all fruit juices and any HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup.) In fact, any "-ose" is ill-advised, including Fructose, Glucose and Dextrose. The Poor Man's Pump Not that many years ago insulin came in many speed variations. Some were long acting and some short. In recent years we've standardized on two kinds, very long acting where one shot lasts for 24 hours, and fast acting where one shot starts in about an hour and is gone in about four. We need some insulin running in the background all the time just to stay stable. This is all the basal rate or background insulin. Then when we eat we need a bolus of insulin to "cover" a meal. Long acting insulin can act as the basal and short acting as the bolus. For those that don't have an insulin pump (more on that later) a pump can be simulated by a long acting shot of an insulin like Lantis/Glargene once a day to act as a basal and then short acting insulins like Humalog/Novalog/Apidra for means. You can simulate about 80% of a pump with this "poor man's pump." Insulin Pumps If you've got an insulin pump like I have then you actually have no long acting insulin in you. Instead you've literally got a pump and a tube dripping insulin into your body. I've worn one 24 hours a day, while asleep and awake for over a decade. So where's the basal or background insulin coming from? The pump actually contains only short acting insulin but delivers it in extremely precise and tiny increments all the time. For example, I usually have my pump delivering 0.5U/hr all the time. Note that none of this is automatic. Pumps are not automatic systems and will only do what you tell them, fortunately or unfortunately. If you're willing to put some thought and effort into it you can do some interesting things with pumps that you simply cannot do with MDI (Multiple Daily Injections.) Square Wave Basal (Buffet Mode) One of the things a pump can do that injections simply can't is basal adjustments. Once you've taken a long-acting insulin shot, it's in you and it's going to do its work for 24 hours. The only thing you can do with insulin in you already is add more food or more insulin. With a pump, though, you can program a either a Square Wave Bolus or a temporary Basal. This can be useful when at an event where you'll be "grazing" and eating little bits over a long period, or in situations where you're eating foods that will take a long time to digest, like pizza. Temporary basals are also useful for exercise and activity. You can temporarily lower your background insulin for a few hours while you're hiking, for example. Lowering your basal temporarily is your best way to avoid exercise-related lows. Often Type 1's get into trouble exercising because they'll work out, burn a hundred calories, have a low blood sugar, then eat a few hundred calories thereby negating the original exercise. Lower your basal an hour or so before exercise and set a timer to keep it low for an hour or two. Better an exercise-induced high than an exercised-induced low. Temporary Basals while crossing Time Zones I do a lot of international travel and often cross a number of time zones in a single trip as a diabetic. Diabetics on pumps often have multiple basals rates programmed on a schedule and this can cause issues when going overseas. For example, here's mine: 3am - 0.75U/hr 8am - 0.5U/hr 6pm - 0.6U/hr 12am - 0.5U/hr The 3am to 8am boost there is to manage the blood sugar rise known as the "dawn phenomenon." It's your body trying to get you ready for the day. It's part of your circadian rhythm and it's great for you. It's lousy for me though as it means my blood sugar will just start rising unchecked starting at about 4am. When travelling, though, what's dawn to me? ;) It takes about a day to adjust for every time zone crossed. So even though I was just in Europe for a week, my "dawn" was slowly moving from the west coast of the US over the Atlantic all week. I needed to be aware of this as I set my pump's clock. If you change your pump's clock to the destination time zone on the first day, your basals won't reflect your physical reality. You'll get more insulin at 3am local time, for example, but you likely needed it 4 or 7 hour before. I've found that for simplicity's sake I set my basals while travelling to two 12-hour values, night and day. For example, on this trip I set to 0.6U/hr during the day and 0.5U/hr during the night. This allowed me to see when the dawn rise was happening and deal with it using a bolus, rather than risking a nasty and unexpected low at a seemingly random time. Use temporary basals to smooth things out. I'll set 4 and 6 hour temporary basals as well to "tap it down" or "float up." Super Bolus One of the most advanced and most powerful techniques is the Super Bolus. I tend to be a little prejudiced against CDEs (Certified Diabetes Educators) (sorry, friends!) unless they are diabetic themselves. No amount of education can match 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 20 years. The Super Bolus is one of those techniques that we find after hard work and 3am suffering. Since even fast-acting insulin often isn't fast enough you'll sometimes want a way to give yourself more insulin now without an unexpected low in 2 to 4 hours. What you can do is turn off your pump effectively by setting a temporary basal of 0U/hr, and then give yourself the saved amount on top of your planned bolus. Here's an example. You want to have some ice cream. You take 5U of insulin, your basal is 0.5U/hr. You eat the ice cream and have a bad high sugar in an hour and then a nasty low 3 hours out. The insulin didn't move fast enough to cover the ice cream, and when it did finally start working it took you low because your basal was ongoing. Instead, you could take 6.5U of insulin and set a 3 hour temporary basal of 0U/hr. You have taken the 1.5U that would have been spread out over 3 hours and instead stacked it on top of the big bolus. The net amount of insulin is the same! You're just clipping that big high and bypassing that nasty low. You'll need to find numbers that work for you, but the Super Bolus is a powerful technique for avoiding highs and still being able to eat some carbs. Off-Label Drugs There are a number of interesting new drugs out for diabetics that aren't super common but if you're interested in hacking your diabetes and you have a willing endocrinologist they could help you. Symlin is a brand name synthetic amylin and replaces another missing hormone in Type 1 diabetics. Symlin is another shot you would have to take in addition to insulin. We tend to digest food really quickly and that causes nasty post-prandial (after eating) blood sugar spikes. Symlin will slow your digested to that of a normal person and clip those high sugars and allow your insulin to work. Talk to your doctor because it's serious stuff and not to be trifled with. Symlin induced low blood sugars can be really challenging to pull up out of. If you can get past the first two to four weeks of nausea it can be a powerful tool. I took Symlin for a number of years but now I only use it for a few large meals a year like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Victoza is a new drug for Type 2 diabetics and is explicitly not recommended for Type 1s. However, if your doctor feels it would help you as a Type 1 it can be given "off label." It is a GLP1 inhibitor that also slows absorption of food and its movement through the gut. Finding the right dose can be a challenge, but since Victoza is a daily injectable you can adjust the dose one day at a time. UPDATE/Correction from Karmel: "Minor point, but Victoza and Bydureon are GLP1 (with a P for glucagon-like peptide) agonists (that is, analogs)-- they mimic the action of GLP1, not inhibit it. Some T2 drugs with similar effects like Januvia are DPP-4 inhibitors, where DPP-4 inhibits GLP1, making a DPP-4 inhibitor a positive regulator of GLP1. But GLP1 we want" Bydureon has a similar effect to that of Victoza except you take it once a week. It's also a Type 2 drug that is off label for Type 1s. It takes about a month to build up in the system before you see its effects and it can also cause significant nausea. Order of Food What a silly heading, but yes, the order you eat can affect your blood sugar. If you drink juice and eat bread before eating a chicken breast your blood sugar will rise faster than if you eat the chicken breast first. If you have a meal with fat in it then eating the fatty part of the meal will slow down whatever comes next. While cheese isn't really good for you, you can slow down the food that comes after it by eating cheese before crackers and an apple, for example. Lowering A1C by Sleeping Here's another trick that was so fundamental to getting my A1c down. You're asleep for 6 to 10 hour a day. Nearly a third of your life you're asleep. This is the perfect time to have great blood sugar. There are few feelings worse as a diabetic than waking up after a long night only to discover that you've had high blood sugar all night long. You've been marinating in your own sugar and you didn't even know. What a horrible feeling. I try not to eat after 8pm so that I have from 8pm until I go to sleep to even out my numbers. You want your numbers to be either normal or heading clearly towards normal as you go to sleep. Just as they say for a good marriage you should never go to bed angry. I say for good A1c results you should never go to bed with bad blood sugar. Even if your numbers are garbage all your waking hours at least try to get them smooth and low as you sleep. Avoid doing anything to move them around after dinner. Eat your dinner, get back to normal, then have a basal rate you can count on and set it for as long as you can. Equipment Always be on the lookout for equipment that might allow you to better manage your blood sugar. Sometimes this is covered by insurance, sometimes it's not. It never hurts to ask your insurance company or your doctor. I've used a Medtronic insulin pump with an integrated CGM for years. It's a good integrated system but the CGM has as considerable lag time showing my blood sugar about 20 minutes in the past. I have also been unimpressed with my OneTouch Mini blood sugar meter. I grow tired of calibrating and coding the meters and I also feel they aren't nearly as accurate as one needs for tight control. This year I moved from my Medtronic Paradigm Continuous Glucose Meter (CGM) to a Dexcom Seven CGM. I also switched from a OneTouch Mini to a OneTouch Verio. The OneTouch Verio is a near codeless meter from OneTouch. That means I can just plug in a strip without entering any codes or calibrations. It is rechargeable with a standard mini-USB adapter and it even as a lighted sensor area so you can check your numbers at the movies. (This is a bigger deal than you might realize.) The Verio, in my opinion, skews high in its readings. When compared to the OneTouch Mini the Verio values are consistently 20mg/dl higher. This is actually a good thing because when calibrated with the Dexcom CGM it nudges me towards an even lower blood sugar goal. The Dexcom Seven CGM is the single greatest piece of new technology I've ever experience since I was diagnosed at age 20. It's so profoundly amazing and so utterly indispensible I truly can't imagine life without it. It reduced the lag time for my readings from 20 minutes to less than 5. It's far more accurate than the Medtronic and the sensors can stay in for a week or more. It doesn't provide as much historical data as the Medtronic but the accuracy of the Dexcom is a thing to behold. I'm looking forward to the new Animas Vibe with the Dexcom integrated and plan on switching the nanosecond it comes out. Even though the Dexco is yet another thing to carry and keep charged I credit this CGM with helping me get the best A1c test results of my diabetic life thus far. As with all random blog posts your read on the internet, remember this. I'm not a doctor. I'm just a random dude you don't know. Try all this at your own risk and under your doctor's supervision. If you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation to the American Diabetes Association and be a part of Team Hanselman, you can donate securely here http://hanselman.com/fightdiabetes/donate. It is appreciated! About Scott Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author. About Newsletter Sponsored By Hosting By Comments [41] Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or use the Permalink


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Wow...thats a lot of work...This thread and all the upcomming missions. I have belived for a long time and this reinforces said belief that Thief must be the largest single player mod community on the planet. Wooo hoooo !!
Keep em comming.
- Author's looking for help list added.
- one author added: RiCh E
- one author removed: YohnY (Old Tribe)
- changed the Current status for the following authors: ataricom, madwolf, R Soul, The Watcher, theImmortalThief
- changed the Estimated release date for the following author: MaJiC@work, The Watcher
- latest news link for the following authors: bassmanret, demagogue, madwolf, malau, R Soul, SlyFoxx, Spiders, theImmortalThief, Zontik
- Up for Adoption link for the following author: MaJiC@work
- fanmission 'House of Random' added to the Earlier released mission(s) list of Schwaa2
Notice the new Author's looking for help list at the start of the thread. It shows which authors are looking for assistance to finish their mission, and the abandoned missions that can be adopted.
Behind every author/mission mentioned is a link to another page where more information about the mission(s) can be found (except from the author MaJiC@work but that one will soon follow).
Pff...a lot of searching but I think (hope) it's worth it
Thief 2 missions by MaJiC@work, author of the Contest 2 entry The Wickerman, and Father's Pride.
The 4 missions he abandoned are Dominion of the Dead, Full Circle, Shadow of Karras, and Winter Harvest.Originally Posted by MaJiC@work
For more information about these abandoned missions, and several screenshots, visit http://www.mark-cole.co.uk/majic/index.htm, and look under MaJiC's FM Pages on the left side of the page.
Contact MaJiC by email (his current adress can be found in his profile) if you interested in finishing one of them.
Last edited by The Phantom; 19th Mar 2007 at 11:35. Reason: added Shadow of Karras as abandoned mission
So please do keep up the great job your doing on this thread and rest assured that many, MANY taffers here are very grateful for it.
Phantom, please don't roll your eyes at me, but as you may have noticed in mxleader's thread, I started a nice little Halloween mission that's now late of course, but has already had one round of testing and will be released within a couple of weeks.
Title: Realm of the Bone King
Status: Active
Release: Nov 06
Also, Saturnine's sequel to The 7th Crystal hasn't been abandoned. See this: http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthr...d=1#post599920
He responded to my pm (in which I praised his FM) saying that he is still (or has resumed) working on it. Exciting news!
That means as long as there's support and I have the time to keep everything up to date.
Now let's see if there's still room in your list of FM's in development
Dia: Yes that's definitely the best news of the week. First Apache returns and now Saturnine!
Last edited by The Phantom; 10th Nov 2006 at 10:53.
One other thing I noticed that needs correction - Death's Cold Embrace is not completely halted. Moghedian is almost done with a piece that will allow us to continue work when and if Polygon returns to active work. If he doesn't, Moghedian and I are pledged to complete the mission for him, since it's too far developed and too good (I say that with all humility since most of the work is Poly's) not to release it some day.
I'm glad to add some more information about my "Untitled mission" (the 3d part of trilogy).
Name - The Eternal Candle.
Progress bar - 5% done.
But it's too early to speak about release date.
Hey Phantom =)
Yeah, you can take "First Night Out" off the list. It's never goin' anywhere.
Plus, it was TG anyway, not T2 (or did i restart it as a T2? I forget...)
I tried to finish it up as an Alpha and pass it on, but it got hideously unstable... so i restarted, but stopped after only getting half the archetecture redone =(
There's an extraordinarily slim chance i'll revisit it one day, but... yeah, very slim. Nice to be remembered, though =)
- 1 author added: Quirk
- 1 author removed: darthsLair (Gold in Fort Knocks)
- removed the mission 'Faceless' from Dario's Fm(s) in development
- screenshot link for the following authors: kfort, Lady Rowena, Troutpack
- latest news link for the following authors: kfort, Sensut, Troutpack
- filled in the Current status of the following authors: azrarhn, Troutpack
- filled in an Estimated release date for the mission of the following author: jesps
- changed the Estimated release date for the missions of the following author: azrarhn
Last edited by The Phantom; 8th Dec 2006 at 08:40.
It's great to be back it's been about 8 months since the last time i was here.
I have been at college and also my computer had been stolen so i had to buy a new one plus my FM that i had been working on was on that computer. So i have to start it all over again.
I had been working on 2 FM's 1 for TG called Dawn Patrol and 1 for T2 called Ketcham Redrum a tribute to The Amityville Horror and The Shining.I will abandon dawn patrol altogether and restart ketcham redrum again lucky i had saved a copy of the custom objects for ketcham redrum. Here were the last screenshots of Ketcham Redrum
So this is the update I will restart Ketcham again after i finish betatesting
Andys Sisterhood of Azura Pt2, also i just finished playing Half life 2 episode 1
it will be good getting back to dromed over the christmas break.
also thanx to The Phantom for the encouragement .
Last edited by slipknot; 12th Dec 2006 at 21:03.
Add me as a friend on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/shanemullan
Karras (Rust In Peace)
- 2 authors added: kamyk, Vlad Midnight
- 1 author removed: And (Sisterhood of Azura part 2: The House)
- added the mission 'Mission 5b' to malau's Fm(s) in development
- removed the mission 'Dawn Patrol' from slipknot's Fm(s) in development
- removed the mission 'The Folly of Youth part 1: Serendipity' from The_Dude's Fm(s) in development
- changed sluggs' listed fanmission in development into 'untitled mission'
- screenshots link for the mission of the following author: malau
- replaced the screenshots link for the mission of the following author: slipknot
- latest news link for the missions of the following authors: dyald, slipknot
- replaced the latest news link for the mission of the following author: sluggs
- filled in the Current status for the mission of the following author: slipknot
- changed the Current status for the missions of the following authors: dyald, malau, sluggs, Thief of Dreams
- filled in the Estimated release date for the missions of the following authors: dyald, mkadlec
- changed the Estimated release date for the missions of the following authors: malau, sluggs
- details for the missions of the following authors: malau, sluggs
- replaced the screenshots link to Morrgan's homepage
- some fixes / several improvements
Last edited by The Phantom; 30th Dec 2006 at 11:21.
A Thief 2 mission by Istvan Varga, author of 'Retrieval of the Soul' and 'Out for Revenge'.
His mission is also stored at the The Thieves' Warehouse (Miss2153)Originally Posted by Istvan Varga
Last edited by The Phantom; 2nd Feb 2007 at 08:29. Reason: added mission name behind Thieves' Warehouse link
I just started on A Love Story III and I hope to have it finished by June 1, 2007.
slipknot - USB drives are very cheap now. It makes it easy to backup anything including FM's in the works.
Unfortunately the mission that I was going to release this month is not even close to being done. I have one quarter left at the UW (go Huskies!) and I just have not been able to work on it. Maybe next Christmas.
john9818a: That's good news
I won't add it to the list yet, it's too early in development. But thanks for informing us.
- 1 author added: Edversion
- 1 author removed: dyald (The Skygem Connection)
- added the mission 'A Debt Repaid 4.0' to Ottoj55's Fm(s) in development
- added the mission 'Untitled' to tdbonko's Fm(s) in development
- removed the missions 'Snobs part 3' and '2 untitled missions' from tdbonko's Fm(s) in development
- changed DrK's Fm in development 'A Night in Rocksbourg part 3' into 'A Night in Rocksbourg part 3: Ink and dust'
- changed sterlino's Fm in development 'The Abominable flying machine of Doctor Zepelinger' into 'Thief 2 - the flying age'
- new screenshots link for the mission of the following author: Ottoj55, Zmey
- latest news link for the mission of the following author: Caradavin, mxleader, Zontik
- changed the Current status of the following authors: Caradavin, mxleader, Shadowspawn, SlyFoxx
- changed the Estimated release date for the mission of the following authors: mxleader, tdbonko
- details for the mission of the following author: tdbonko
- added the mission 'The Mask of Agamemnon' to Yandros' earlier missions list
- added 4 'Other threads about upcoming missions': The i'm building an Fm thread, the waiting list, What are you working on right now? and Starting to lose track...
Last edited by The Phantom; 1st Jan 2007 at 08:32.
My current missions should include Realm of the Bone King, which should hit Beta 2 within two weeks. All the other ones listed are also still progressing. Moghedian and I are going to turn to DCE after RoBK is released, and I'm also planning a Halloween '07 release for DP2. (Although work won't start on it until sometime next spring.)
2) And thread in a Poland forum: http://www.thief-forum.ehost.pl/view...t=3824&start=0
My mission is a #23?? Thanks.
Phantom, you should probably scrub Polygon from the list and leave DCE as a co-production of Moghedian and myself. We've not heard from Poly for over a year and recent attempts to contact him have failed, but we're determined to complete DCE as it's close to done already. I only wish we had recent versions of the other two missions he was also working on, they were both amazing (especially one that would have broken new Dromed ground).
I understand that you and Moghedian would like to finish the mission as soon as possible, Yandros.
But i'm not going to remove Polygon from being part of DCE production at the moment. He has an important part in creating the mission, in fact he was the one who started the mission if i'm right.
The last time I had contact with him (june last year) he wrote me an extensive reply about the work he did for Thief. It didn't gave me the impression that he decided to quit with dromed. On the contrary.
But it worries me that he no longer replies to any emails.
About his other two missions, I know which ones you mean.
Yes that is really some impressive work in case of architecture and design. Let's hope it will be released eventually.
Last edited by The Phantom; 3rd Jan 2007 at 11:03.
That's perfectly fine. So you heard from him in June? Neither Moghedian nor myself have heard from him since November 2005. Maybe he'll reappear in time to bring his vision to fruition later this year.

subset: commoncrawl


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On Saturday, June 8, 2013 Hollywood's brightest stars joined luxury Glam brand iiJin, famed pop artist Cassian from Hong Kong and Amy Malin with Trueheart Events in co-hosting The Sweet Suite, a star studded and delicious event benefiting The Juvenile Arthritis Association. Patients and their families were showered with love and support while enjoying all of the sweets, treats and activities in Candy Land at the famed Avalon Hollywood on Vine street.
DJ Kid Fish rocked the party with her playful dance music. Some of the celebrities in attendance were actress Romi Dames, model Joell Posey, film producer Clinton H. Wallace, actor/model Kelly Grager, Princess of the Press Piper Reese, actor Jordan Fry, actress Jaida-Iman Benjamin, actor RJ Mitte, actor Chris Sheffield and film director Christy Oldham.
Frost Christmas Props and Shindigz were responsible for transforming the Avalon into the magical world of Candy Land. Co-title sponsor Cassian delighted guests with a chocolate fountain and even created three custom Candy Land pieces which were auctioned off at the event. 100% of the proceeds benefited The Juvenile Arthritis Association.
Amy Malin with Trueheart Events did a fantastic job in producing the sweet celebration. She has produced thousands of memorable events to help raise millions of dollars for worthy causes, Twitter: @trueheartEvents
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Lucent Dossier Experience, a Los Angeles cirque style interactive, avant-garde circus performance troupe, was an entertaining addition (connect with Lucent on Facebook) while Yvette Morales with Megaload Chocolate provided tasty peanut butter cups and caramel cups to partygoers. (connect on with Megaload Chocolate on Facebook, Twitter: @megaloadchoc).
Leanna Lin's Wonderland showcased their playful jewelry studio where guests created their own beaded sparkling jewelry and Italian Gelato provided their fat free, dairy free, sugar free gelato flavors from Italy.
The Juvenile Arthritis Association is a 5o1 © 3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to bring Community Awareness, Research and Empowerment (CARE) to children and young adults diagnosed with pediatric rheumatic diseases, as well as to their families. Pediatric rheumatic diseases, often broadly categorized as juvenile arthritis, affect an estimated 1 in 250 children, yet they receive only a tiny fraction of the funding, both private and federal, allocated to almost any other serious chronic childhood disease.
Find out how you can help The Juvenile Arthritis Association.


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Samsung introduced its 2012 TV range last night, with a total of 44 LED and plasma televisions to be made available over the next year.
Samsung director of audio-visual Phil Newton introducing the new TVs.
The line-up
The company's TV range for 2012 comprises 25 slim LED TVs (over 9 Series), 12 LED TVs (over 5 Series), 6 plasma TVs (over 3 Series), and a single LCD TV.
Slim LEDs are Samsung's heroes — the company began producing edge-lit LED TVs in 2009 — and the majority of 2012's TVs will use this technology. Models from the top-of-the-line Series 8 ES8000 in 65in, 60in and 55in sizes, down to Series 7, 6, 5 and cheaper Series 4 TVs will be available from April onwards.
Samsung's premium Series 8 (ES8000) Slim LED TV.
Half as many non-slim LED TVs will also be released, using thicker chassis to cut costs. These Series 6, 5 and Series 4 TVs will target budget buyers, along with a single no-frills Series 4 LCD TV using a non-LED fluorescent backlight.
The company is also releasing several plasma TVs this year. Six size and model variations will be produced — down from 10 last year, another nail in the coffin of plasma — and will include a range-topping Series 8 in 64in and 60in sizes as well as cheaper Series 5 and Series 4 models.
The tech
23 of 35 slim LED TVs, 4 of 13 LED/LCDs, and 4 of 6 plasma TVs incorporate some or all of Samsung's Smart TV technology. These features range from voice and gesture control, to a range of exclusive content deals, to compatibility with future upgrade kits.
Smart Interaction is the control element, primarily using voice and gesture to replace or complement a traditional remote control. Users can speak to the Samsung Smart TV using a range of predetermined phrases ("Hi TV", "Volume up", "Channel down", and so on) to access basic functionality. The voice control also works with free-text input in the inbuilt Web browser — a user can speak any phrase, then cloud-based voice recognition will translate the audio into text input.
Gesture control uses TVs' inbuilt camera to recognise an outstretched hand and fingertips, which can then be moved around as a mouse cursor on-screen. Clenching the hand into a fist 'clicks' the mouse.
Smart Connectivity is Samsung's AllShare Play service, wirelessly syncing media between Samsung home entertainment products, TVs, smartphones, tablets and some third-party mobile devices or PCs through Samsung-developed apps.
This service uses SugarSync cloud storage and offers 5GB of storage to user for each Samsung device they own. For example, a viewer could use their Samsung tablet on 3G or Wi-Fi to remotely watch a TV show recorded on their Samsung Smart TV.
Smart Content integrates the company's range of apps and Web browsing software into this year's Smart TVs. Part of the Smart Content package includes a subscription partnership between Samsung and Foxtel which will come in the form of an IPTV app suite in July, with starter, sports, movies and entertainment packages. 2012 Series 7 and Series 8 Smart TV owners will be able to watch the Olympics on eight exclusive Smart TV channels in July as well.
In addition to the existing content services on Samsung's 2011 range of TVs, five new apps have been added: BigPond Movies, TV and Sport, Samsung Music Hub, Quickflix, Wiggle Time TV, and Yahoo's Plus7 video on demand service. Samsung's app store has more than 1400 apps worldwide. Three value-adding apps are built into every Smart TV: the Kids infotainment and games library, the Family Story private social network, and the Fitness interactive weight-loss program (a la Wii Fit).
Smart Evolution uses a port on the back of compatible TVs to allow users to install additional hardware. These Smart Evolution kits will be released yearly from April 2013 onwards, and will include additional processors or circuitry to enhance a TV's picture quality or to enable future software features in line with that year's current Smart TV sets.
The cheap upgrade kit is tipped to cost $149, though it is not clear whether this is only next year's price and whether future software features will come at an additional price. While the Smart Evolution-compatible segment of Samsung's 2012 TV range uses dual-core processors, the 2013 Smart Evolution kit will likely include a daughterboard with a quad-core processor.
The models
A full list of Samsung TVs to be released in 2012, with specifications and model sizes, has been reproduced below. Click on each for a full-sized picture.
 Samsung's Slim LED TV range for 2012. Click to enlarge.
 Samsung's LED and LCD TV range for 2012. Click to enlarge.
 Samsung's plasma TV range for 2012. Click to enlarge.
Samsung Series 8 Smart LED TV 60" (ES8000) – RRP $5,399, available in June 2012 Samsung Series 8 Smart LED TV 55" (ES8000) – RRP $4,599, available in April 2012 Samsung Series 7 Smart LED TV 55" (ES7500) – RRP $3,999, available in April 2012 Samsung Series 7 Smart LED TV 46" (ES7500) – RRP $2,999, available in April 2012 Samsung Series 8 Smart Plasma TV 64" (E8000) – RRP $3,899 available in April 2012 Samsung Series 8 Smart Plasma TV 60" (E8000) – RRP $2,899 available in April 2012


text:
Un-tweeted pic with Ock Joo-hyun and Junsu!
Source: @zunoxiahmom
Shared By: JYJ3
Tagged: Junsu, Junsu's mom, Ock Joo-hyun
Un-tweeted pic with Ock Joo-hyun and Junsu!
Source: @zunoxiahmom
Shared By: JYJ3
Junsu marry me please. Oh God, give me Junsu in heaven, i only want him.
Mama Kim and JH noona looks really close. Junsu actually looks a little out of place in this photo 😀 omg Juju! Haha
is junsu's mother his manager ?????????
Kim Omoni likes this blue coat it seems. 🙂
@teemah – me like it a lot too! heh
Junsu looks f i n e with that hair!!!!
mother in law is so elegant ^^
I think Junsu's mom would be the perfect model for cosmetics and fragrances for the mature woman. Her face and smile are dazzling. Cosmetic companies, where are you? Here's your model!
I agree 100%
Mama Su was miss Korea…no wonder she's absolutely stunning. Oh and Mama Chun also very pretty…she has natural beauty.
junsu is cute…
Guys, vote for Jun Su here!
He deserves to win everything!
i have a weird feeling about this…:(
LOL! why???
me toooooooo!


text:
A San Francisco judge has ruled that the California State Lands Commission illegally exempted from environmental review a property transfer it approved in 2012 to facilitate the controversial 8 Washington project — a ruling that casts doubt over a dubious tactic the agency commonly uses to expedite development, as well as the legal judgment of an agency that is trying to subvert a new initiative that would subject waterfront height increases to a public vote.
Superior Court Judge James Robertson yesterday found the commission improperly cited obscure provisions that allow it to avoid a full review under the California Environmental Quality Act for cases involving "settlement of a title or boundary problem" when it transferred Seawall Lot 351 to developer Simon Snellgrove for his 8 Washington luxury condo project.
"The SLC in approving this exemption has acted contrary to the clear language of the statute," Robertson ruled, finding that property transfers are far more significant than rare cases involving contested property boundaries or titles.
"The State Lands Commission involves this exemption routinely for land exchanges [through the state]," said attorney Susan Brandt-Hawley, who represented opponents of the project, which was stopped by voters in November with the defeat of Prop. B, a referendum, and Prop. C, a developer-written initiative supporting the project.
State Lands Commission Sheri Pemberton confirmed that the agency commonly uses this exemption for property transfers, but she said that she couldn't comment on the ruling or the underlying issues because she said the litigation is ongoing. Asked whether that means the commission plans to appeal, she wouldn't comment.
Former San Francisco City Attorney Louise Renne, a key opponent of the 8 Washington project, told the Guardian that the commission has clearly been misusing this exemption and abusing its authority over "public trust" waterfront lands in order to expedite development proposals.
"I believe the State Lands Commission has lost sight of the importance of public trust lands," Renne told us. "How can you possibly say there was a title and boundary dispute? I'll be blunt: I think the fix was in."
She was also critical of the commission for sending a Jan. 13 letter to the city contesting the authority of San Francisco voters to use the initiative process to be able to protect waterfront heights limits by requiring a vote on projects that exceed those limits.
"What in the world would possess them to get involved in this matter at this time? Who is talking to whom over there?" Renne said.
We asked Pemberton whether Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a commission member who was a strong supporter of 8 Washington, had any role in requesting the letter and she said that she didn't know. Newsom hasn't returned our calls on the issue, but the Guardian today made a California Public Records Act request to the commission for all communications related to that letter, so stay tuned.


text: Elizabeth Hemphill Topping of Baltimore, Maryland passed away at home on March 16, 2011 following a year-long battle with lung cancer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 7, 1936, to George and Elizabeth Hemphill, "Betsy" grew up in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania and graduated from Germantown Friends School. Betsy was a graduate of Centenary College and the University of Pennsylvania, where she met her husband, Brian Barclay Topping; both were members of the Penn class of 1957. Following a short career with Strawbridge & Clothier as an imported goods buyer and Smith Kline & French (now Glaxo SmithKline) as a medical correspondent, Betsy stayed home to raise a family. She moved to Baltimore with her husband and children when he relocated from Philadelphia to become Vice Chairman and Head of the Trust & Investment Division of Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust in Baltimore. Betsy volunteered her time at the Maryland Historical Society, where Brian was President, and was a member of the Baltimore Museum of Art – Friends of the American Wing, Philadelphia Cricket Club, Elkridge Club, and the Mount Vernon Club. Betsy enjoyed spending time at the family's summer home in Winhall, Vermont and was an avid antique collector (specializing in American schoolgirl needlework) and gardener, as well as a prolific reader. In addition to her husband, she is survived by a brother, George, of Philadelphia, two sons, Stephen, of Baltimore, and Andrew, of Philadelphia, and two grandchildren, Andrew, Jr. and Alexander, both of Philadelphia. The burial services will be private. The family asks that any contributions be made to the Maryland SPCA.


text:
Diebold has re-branded its electronic voting subsidiary as "Premier Election Solutions" after attempts to offload the business failed. The firm also had to rein in its performance predictions, as uncertainty about the security of the machines starts to bite.
The firm said: "Efforts to sell this company... have proven unsuccessful due in part to the rapidly evolving political uncertainties and controversies surrounding state and jurisdiction purchases of electronic voting systems".
It also noted that large orders it was expecting in 2007 have moved into "2008 and beyond", and so needs to reduce its full year revenue forecast by around $120m. That is more than half: the business had expected to report revenue of up to $215m for the period.
Thomas Swidarski, Diebold's president and CEO said: "While we plan to fully support this business for the foreseeable future, we feel a more independent structure should allow it to operate more effectively."
He added that although the market is uncertain now, the US government is likely to pump more cash into voting technology at some point. The implication being that is worth hanging around to see what happens.
The news follows California's decision to decertify the voting machines made by the four biggest vendors, including Diebold.
The move by California Secretary of State Debra Bowen placed tough new restrictions on the use of machines of three of the manufacturers - Diebold Election Systems, Sequoia Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic, after security testers found serious vulnerabilities in machines from all three firms.
A fourth manufacturer, Election Systems and Software, could still be re-certified, having lost its stamp of approval for failing to turn over its source code in time for the review. ®


text:
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South African Journal of Science
versão On-line ISSN 1996-7489
versão impressa ISSN 0038-2353
S. Afr. j. sci. vol.108 no.1-2 Pretoria Jan. 2012
Five Ochna species have high antibacterial activity and more than ten antibacterial compounds
Tshepiso J. Makhafola; Jacobus N. Eloff
Phytomedicine Programme, Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort, Pretoria, South Africa
New measures to control infections in humans and other animals are continuously being sought because of the increasing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics. In a wide tree screening survey of the antimicrobial activity of extracts of tree leaves (www.up.ac.za/phyto), Ochna pulchra, a small tree found widely in southern Africa, had good antibacterial activity. We therefore investigated the antibacterial activity of acetone leaf extracts of some other available Ochna spp. Antibacterial activity and the number of antibacterial compounds in acetone leaf extracts of Ochna natalitia, Ochna pretoriensis, O. pulchra, Ochna gamostigmata and Ochna serullata were determined with a tetrazolium violet serial microplate dilution assay and bioautography against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, bacteria commonly associated with nosocomial infections. The percentage yields of the extracts varied from 2.5% to 8%. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of the five species ranged from 40 µg/mL to 1250 µg/mL. E. coli was sensitive to all the extracts. The O. pretoriensis extract was the most active with minimum inhibitory concentrations of 0.065 mg/mL and 0.039 mg/mL against E. coli and E. faecalis, respectively. The O. pretoriensis extract also had the highest total activities of 923 mL/g and 1538 mL/g, indicating that the acetone extract from 1 g of dried plant material could be diluted to 923 mL or 1538 mL and would still kill these bacteria. Based on the bioautography results, the two most active species, O. pretoriensis and O. pulchra, contained at least 10 antibacterial compounds with similar Rf values. Some of these antibacterial compounds were polar and others were non-polar. Variation in the chemical composition of the species may have some taxonomic value. The order of activity of the species to the bacteria were O. pretoriensis > O. pulchra > O. gamostigmata > O. serullata > O. natalitia. Even before toxicity and bioavailability issues are considered, some Ochna spp. leaf extracts have the potential to be used in treating skin infections.
Medicinal plants which form the backbone of traditional medicines have in the last few decades been subjected to many pharmacological studies. The search for novel antibacterial compounds in plants is relevant because of the increasing resistance of bacteria to synthetic antibiotics and the occurrence of fatal opportunistic infections.1,2
The genus Ochna comprises about 86 species of evergreen shrubs belonging to the family Ochnaceae and occurs widely in Africa, Asia and Madagascar. This family of plants has been used as food and for medicinal purposes for many centuries. Members of this family are characterised by the presence of flavonoids, biflavonoids and terpenoids as main secondary metabolites. Several members of this genus are also used for the extraction of edible oils.3,4
Previous phytochemical studies on some Ochna species found monomeric and dimeric flavonoids in the leaves of Ochna integerrima.5,6 Sibanda et al.7 isolated one anthrone and two vismiones from the root bark of Ochna pulchra. An isobiflavonoid, glycosides and saponins were also isolated from the stem bark of Ochna afzeli.8,9
In a study by Reutrakul et al.9, Ochna integerrima extracts had good antiviral and antiparasitic activities. The study involved the isolation of biflavonoids with antimalarial activity; a flavonoid glycoside with anti HIV-1 activity was also isolated from the same species.9 An infusion of the roots and leaves of O. integerrima is used locally as an antidysenteric and antipyretic preparation.10 There appears to be no previous report on the antibacterial activity of any of the 86 species of Ochna to date.
We have found that plants used traditionally to treat infections have very low antibacterial activity in in vitro assays. The low activity exhibited may be related to the extractant available to traditional healers because aqueous extracts of plants have very low activity.11,12 Consequently, we started investigating the antimicrobial activity of acetone leaf extracts of more than 600 South African trees. We used only acetone for extraction because it is the best extractant for antimicrobial compounds from plants, based on parameters such as efficacy of extraction, diversity of compounds extracted, ease of removal of solvent after extraction, human safety and safety to microorganism in bioassays.11 In these studies, Ochna pretoriensis had good antibacterial activity (Pauw and Eloff, unpublished results). The good activity of O. pretoriensis motivated the present investigation of the antibacterial activity and the number of antibacterial compounds present in other, easily available Ochna species: Ochna natalitia, O. pretoriensis, O. pulchra, Ochna gamostigmata and Ochna serullata.
Materials and methods
Plant collection, drying and storage
Leaves of the five plant species investigated were collected in summer at the National Botanical Gardens in Pretoria, the Lowveld National Botanical Gardens in Nelspruit and the University of Pretoria Botanical Gardens. The origin of each tree is documented in the database of the botanical garden and voucher specimens were deposited in different herbaria (Table 1). Only clean dry leaves without any lesions or dirt were selected. Leaves were not washed with water to limit the possibility of extracting some water-soluble compounds and especially to limit the possibility of fungal growth on moist leaves. The leaves were dried in the dark at room temperature and pulverised into a fine powder (with particles less than 1 mm in diameter) and stored in closed glass bottles in the dark until use.
The dry leaf powder (2.0 g) was extracted with 20 mL acetone (technical quality; Merck Pharmaceuticals, Pretoria, South Africa), which is very effective in extracting antimicrobial compounds from plants.11 The resulting suspension was shaken vigorously in 50-mL polyester centrifuge tubes and centrifuged for 15 min at 4000 rpm (Hettich Centrifuge, Rotofix 32A, Labotec, Johannesburg, South Africa). The extracts were decanted into preweighed glass vials through Whatman No. 1 filter papers and concentrated to dryness under a stream of cold air. The dried extracts were made up to a concentration of 10 mg/mL (stock solution) in acetone to be used in subsequent assays and stored at 5 ºC in tightly stoppered glass tubes.
Phytochemical analysis
Samples of 10 µL from the different stock solutions (10 mg/mL) were loaded onto thin layer chromatography (TLC) plates (Merck, Kieselgel 60 F254) and developed in three mobile systems used in the phytomedicine laboratory of the University of Pretoria. The mobile systems used to develop the plates were EMW (ethyl acetate:methanol:water) 40:5.4:4 (v/v/v), CEF (chloroform:ethyl acetate:formic acid) 5:4:1 (v/v/v) and BEA (benzene:ethanol:ammonia hydroxide) 90:10:1 (v/v/v).12
After development, the plates were visualised under UV light and sprayed with vanillin-sulphuric acid reagent spray (0.1 g vanillin in 28 mL methanol and 1 mL sulphuric acid) and heated at 110 ºC until optimum colour development was achieved.
Test organisms
Microbial cultures used in the determination of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and bioautography were obtained from the Department of Medical Microbiology at the University of Pretoria. The bacterial cultures were maintained on Müller-Hinton agar at 4 ºC and in Müller-Hinton broth at 37 ºC prior to use for the determination of MICs and bioautography. The bacterial strains used in this study were: Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC 29212), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 29213), Escherichia coli (ATCC 27853) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 25922). These are the most important nosocomial pathogens in South Africa13 and the specific strains used are recommended for comparing antibiotics.14
Bioautographic assay
Chromatograms were prepared as described above. The plates were then sprayed with actively growing bacterial cultures until wet and incubated at 37 ºC under 100% relative humidity.15 Following overnight incubation, the plates were sprayed with 2 mg/mL tetrazolium violet solution (Sigma, Pretoria, South Africa) and incubated for between 30 min and 60 min; the colour change was monitored to detect growth and inhibition of the test organisms after scanning in the bioautograms. Clear zones against a purple background on the plates indicate inhibition of bacterial growth by antibacterial compounds present in the extracts.16
Minimum inhibitory concentrations
To determine the MIC values of the different plant extracts on the test organisms, the microplate serial dilution assay developed by Eloff17 was used. This experiment was performed in triplicate and repeated twice for verification. The MIC was recorded as the lowest concentration of the plant extract at which the bacterial growth was inhibited. The MIC values were read after both a 12-h incubation and a 36-h incubation with the plant extracts to determine if the activity was bacteriostatic only or also bactericidal. Gentamycin was used as a positive control to confirm the sensitivity of the system. To compare the activity of different plants the total activity in mL/g was calculated by dividing the total mass in mg extracted from 1 g of plant material by the MIC value in mg/mL.18
Results and discussion
Quantity extracted
The percentage yields in acetone from the five species were: O. gamostigmata (8%) followed by O. pulchra (7.5%), O. serullata (7%), O. pretoriensis (6%) and lastly O. natalitia (2.5%). The yields were in the same order as acetone extracts from leaves of different members of the Combretaceae.1
Phytochemical analysis
The intermediate polarity solvent system CEF separated the compounds in all these plant extracts more efficiently than did EMW and BEA (Figure 1). The efficient extraction and separation of phytocompounds is largely dependent on the type of solvent(s) used during extraction, particularly its polarity.15
There were similarities between the TLC chromatograms of O. pretoriensis and O. pulchra extracts; each had 10 similar bands, which is indicative of similar chemical compositions. The chromatograms may be useful in the taxonomy of the plants examined.19 Some of the spots were yellow when viewed in daylight and light blue when viewed under UV light (365 nm). This difference may be as a result of the presence of a strong chromophoric group which is often observed with plant phenolics (especially flavonoids and their glycosides).
Whilst there were some major differences in the TLC fingerprints of the five species, there were also identical bands in similar mobile phases with the same Rf values across a number of species, because of similar biogenetic pathways and metabolite pool sizes in the genus.
TLC-based bioautography is a useful technique that allows the localisation of antimicrobial compounds present in the crude plant extracts.15 The clear spots on the bioautograms indicate the location of the active compounds.16 Bioautography showed that O. pretoriensis and O. pulchra had four major active bands (Figure 1). Because EMW separated compounds that could not be separated by the other solvent systems, there were at least 10 different antibacterial compounds present in the extracts of O. pretoriensis and O. pulchra. CEF was the best overall solvent for the separation of bioactive compounds in this study. There were five prominent active bands present in the O. gamostigmata extract. Three of the active bands had the same Rf value as that of bands characteristic of flavonoids - yellow under daylight and light blue under 365-nm wavelength UV light - which may mean that the same compounds occur in different species. There were also major differences between the chromatograms from different plant species sprayed with vanillin-sulphuric acid. These differences may have some taxonomic significance.19
Minimum inhibitory concentrations
The MIC values of the plant extracts ranged from 0.039 mg/mL to 1.25 mg/mL after a 12-h incubation and from 0.078 mg/mL to 1.25 mg/mL after the 36-h incubation (Table 2A). O. pretoriensis was the most active against E. coli and E. faecalis with MIC values of 0.065 mg/mL and 0.039 mg/mL, respectively. O. pulchra was the most active against P. aeruginosa and S. aureus with MIC values of 0.065 mg/mL and 0.078 mg/mL, respectively. E. coli was sensitive to all the extracts. The order of activity of the species to the tested organisms was O. pretoriensis > O. pulchra > O. gamostigmata > O. serullata > O. natalitia.
Different patterns of sensitivity of the test organisms to the plant extracts were noted after 12 h and 36 h (Table 2), which indicates that some of the bioactive compounds in the extracts are bacteriostatic and some are bactericidal. The MIC of O. gamostigmata was 0.31 mg/mL at 12 h against both E. coli and E. faecalis; the MIC remained the same after 36 h, indicating that the bioactive compounds had bactericidal activity. In contrast, the MIC of O. pulchra against P. aeruginosa was 0.063 mg/mL after 12 h, but rose to 0.1 mg/mL at 36 h, which indicates that the activity may be partly bacteriostatic.
Total activity and reciprocals of the MICs were calculated for all extracts (Table 2B and Figure 2). The total activity is important because it shows the quantity and quality of the active compounds present in the plant extracts.20 Total activity is also dependent on the quantity of material extracted from the dried plant leaves; the higher the total activity, the greater is the potential for application of the specific plant extract.18
O. pretoriensis, O. pulchra and O. gamostigmata had high activity with the total activity of O. pretoriensis being 1538 mL/g (against E. faecalis), O. pulchra 1153 mL/g (against P. aeruginosa) and O. gamostigmata 769 mL/g (against P. aeruginosa).
Three of the five Ochna species investigated - O. pretoriensis, O. gamostigmata and O. pulchra - had significant antibacterial activity based on their MIC values and bioautography. The bioactive compounds in two of the most active species, O. pretoriensis and O. pulchra, were similar. O. pretoriensis had the highest total activity of 1538 mL/g against E. faecalis and 923 mL/g against E. coli. Publications on other species in the Ochna genus have reported the isolation of flavonoids and biflavonoids with antimalarial and anti-HIV activities. We report for the first time, the antibacterial activities, the number of antibacterial compounds present and the Rf values of antibacterial compounds of some Ochna species. Because of their high total activity it appears that acetone leaf extracts of several Ochna species could be valuable in treating infections caused by these nosocomial pathogens. O. pulchra is notoriously difficult to cultivate and would not be a good candidate for the development of a herbal medicine. O. pretoriensis is easier to cultivate and therefore is a better candidate for an in-depth investigation. We also have isolated and characterised several of the compounds responsible for the antibacterial activity of O. pretoriensis; these results will be published elsewhere.
The National Research Foundation of South Africa and the University of Pretoria provided financial support. The curators of the Pretoria National Botanical Gardens, the Lowveld National Botanical Gardens in Nelspruit and the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden allowed us to collect plant material.
Competing interests
We declare that we have no financial or personal relationships or competing interests which may have inappropriately influenced us in writing this article.
Authors' contributions
T.J.M. performed the research and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. J.N.E. identified the project, guided the research, and revised and submitted the manuscript.
1. Eloff JN. The antibacterial activity of 27 southern African members of the Combretaceae. S Afr J Sci. 1999;95:148-152. [ Links ]
2. Newman DJ, Cragg GM, Snader KM. Natural products as sources of new drugs over the period 1981-2002. J Nat Prod. 2003;66:1022-1037. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/np030096l, PMid:12880330 [ Links ]
3. Oliveira MCC, Carvalho MG, Silva CJ, Werle AA. New biflavonoid and other constituents from Luxemburgia nobilis EICHL. J Brazil Chem Soc. 2002;13:119-123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0103-50532002000100020 [ Links ]
4. Estevam CS, Oliveira FM, Conserva LM, et al. [Chemical constituents and antimalarial activity of Ouratea nitida Aubl. (Ochnaceae)]. Rev Bras Farmacogn. 2005;95-198. Portuguese. [ Links ]
5. Kaewamatawong R, Likhitwitayawuid K, Ruangrungsi N, Takayama H, Kitajima M, Aimi N. Novel biflavonoids from the stem bark of Ochna integerrima. J Nat Prod. 2002;65:1027-1029. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/np010630u, PMid:12141866 [ Links ]
6. Likhitwitayawuid K, Kaewamatawong R, Ruangrungsi N. Mono- and biflavonoids of Ochna integerrima. Biochem Syst Ecol. 2005;33:527-536. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bse.2004.10.014 [ Links ]
7. Sibanda S, Nyayira M, Nicolletti M, Galleffi C. Vismiones L and M from Ochna pulchra. Phytochemistry. 1993;34(6):1650-1652. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9422(00)90866-5 [ Links ]
8. Messanga BB, Tih RG, Kimbu SF, Sondengam BL, Martin MT, Bodo B. Calodenone, a new isobiflavonoid from Ochna calodendron. J Nat Prod. 1992;55:245-248. [ Links ]
9. Reutrakul V, Ningnuek N, Pohmakotr M, et al. Anti HIV-1 flavonoid glycosides from Ochna integerrima. Planta Medica. 2007;73(7):683-688. http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-2007-981538, PMid:17562490 [ Links ]
10. Perry LM. Medicinal plants of East and Southern Asia. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 1980. [ Links ]
11. Eloff JN. Which extractant should be used for the screening and isolation of antimicrobial components from plants? J Ethnopharmacol. 1998;60:1-8. [ Links ]
12. Kotze M, Eloff JN. Extraction of antibacterial compounds from Combretum microphyllum (Combretaceae). S Afr J Bot. 2002;68:62-67. [ Links ]
13. Sacho H, Schoub DB. Current perspectives on nosocomial infections. Pietermaritzburg: Natal Witness Printing and Publishing; 1993. [ Links ]
14. National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS). Performance standards for antimicrobial disk susceptibility tests. 4th ed. Approved Standard. NCCLS Document M2-A4. Villanova, PA: NCCLS; 1990. [ Links ]
15. Masoko P, Eloff JN. The diversity of antifungal compounds in six South African Terminalia species (Combretaceae) determined by bioautography. Afr J Biotechnol. 2005;14(12):1425-1431. [ Links ]
16. Begue WJ, Kline RM. The use of tetrazolium salts in bioautographic procedures. J Chromatogr. 1972;64:182-184. [ Links ]
17. Eloff JN. A sensitive and quick method to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration of plant extracts for bacteria. Planta Medica. 1998;60:1-8. [ Links ]
18. Eloff JN. A proposal on expressing the antibacterial activity of plant extracts - A small first step in applying scientific knowledge to rural primary health care in South Africa. S Afr J Sci. 2000;96:116-118. [ Links ]
19. Eloff JN. [The large difference in chemical composition and antibacterial activity between two related Leonotis species (Lamiaceaea) may have taxonomic value]. S Afr Tydskr Natuurwet Tegnol. 2010;29:30-38. Afrikaans. [ Links ]
20. Masoko P, Picard J, Eloff JN. Antifungal activities of six South African Terminalia species (Combretaceae). J Ethnopharmacol. 2005;99:301-306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2005.01.061, PMid:15894142 [ Links ]
Correspondence to:
Jacobus Eloff
Postal address: Private Bag X04
Onderstepoort 0110, South Africa
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Received: 04 Apr. 2011
Accepted: 11 Aug. 2011
Published: 23 Jan. 2012
© 2012. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS OpenJournals. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.


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Team Penske, Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Green are the teams to beat week in and week out in the IRL. Rahal Letterman's Ryan Hunter-Reay acknowledged as much at the news conference after the Indianapolis 500. But he also served notice that RLR is on the rise.
Like Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, the Indy Racing League also has a "big three." Team Penske, Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Green are the teams to beat week in and week out in the IRL. Rahal Letterman's Ryan Hunter-Reay acknowledged as much at the news conference after the Indianapolis 500. But he also served notice that RLR is on the rise. "I've been working well with this team, they've been working well with me," said Hunter-Reay, who finished sixth in his first Indy 500. "It's a great bunch of guys, and I think there's going to be better things to come this year. With that said, we were punching above our weight. I'm not under any disillusions that we're going to be fighting Penske, AGR and Ganassi every weekend. They're in a league of their own at the moment." Hunter-Reay said he watched "years and years" of tapes of old Indianapolis 500s to prepare himself for Sunday's race. His preparation not only gave him a good finish, he earned Rookie of the Year honors. "This was a strong rookie field this season, perhaps one of the best in a long time," Hunter-Reay said when accepting the award, "and it is very important to me to win this award." The series races this weekend at its traditional post-Indianapolis track, the Milwaukee Mile. Getting in NHRA Funny Car driver Jack Beckman is riding a rough stretch of luck at this point in the season. The Don Schumacher Racing driver has failed to qualify for the past two races and definitely wants to make the field for this weekend's NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan. Beckman calls his car "just a step off," but the team tested it after the last race two weeks ago. "The results were positive," Beckman said, "but it wasn't under national-event conditions against 19 other Funny Cars. So everybody on the crew is smart enough to realize that one race is not going to put us exactly where we want to be. ... We need to qualify, we need to run well on Friday and we need to regain our momentum." Springfield Mile Sunday's AMA Flat Track Springfield Mile was rained out, rescheduled for Monday and rained out again. It has been rescheduled as part of the Labor Day weekend motorcycle races at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. There will be four days of racing that weekend -- an amateur short track race on Aug. 29, a GNC short track race on Aug. 30, and miles on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. The TT race at Springfield was held last Saturday and was won by Henry Wiles. The three-time Peoria TT winner took the lead from Jared Mees on lap five when Mees had trouble negotiating a sharp turn. Joe Kopp finished second, followed by Jake Johnson, Sam Halbert and JR Schnabel. Morton's Rob Pearson was seventh. On the mend Dario Franchitti is one week away from getting back in his Sprint Cup series car. Jeremy Mayfield will fill in for Franchitti this weekend at Dover. Franchitti will race in the Nationwise Series event this weekend. New president As expected, Bruton Smith's son Marcus was named president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway and president and CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc. He replaces Humpy Wheeler, who stepped down after 33 years from those positions after Sunday's Coca-Cola 600. Sponsor news Lucas Oil Products has signed on to be the primary sponsor for Derek Neville's ASA Late Model Series North Division Chevrolet starting at this weekend's race in Morris. Nick Neville is sponsored by Dixie Chopper Lawn Mowers. The brothers, who race out of Mackinaw, are in their third season in the series. Jane Miller is the Peoria Journal Star motorsports columnist. Write her at 1 News Plaza, Peoria, IL 61643, call (309) 686-3207 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Treatment for certain cancers can affect your sex life, causing a range of symptoms that can make sex with your partner more difficult — or nonexistent. But that doesn't mean you can't have a healthy sex life, says Jeffrey Albaugh, a urology clinical nurse specialist who runs the new Ross Clinic for Sexual Health at NorthShore Glenbrook Hospital, which treats both male and female sexual dysfunction.
Albaugh, who has been addressing sexual health for more than 25 years, has just published a book, "Reclaiming Sex & Intimacy After Prostate Cancer: A Guide for Men and Their Partners." It's a subject many people find awkward to talk about, but Albaugh is eager to start the conversation.
Q. Why write about sexual side effects, when there are so many other concerns with cancer?
A. Because prostate cancer is the number one cancer for men ... and sexual dysfunction is the most common side effect. It's the big white elephant in the room. Over the years, after working with thousands of men and their partners, I kept hearing how desperately this information is needed.
Q. Are men not well informed about prostate cancer and side effects?
A. Women are incredible advocates for health. Look what they've done with breast cancer ... they will not stop when it comes to health issues. They're the ones who'll ask their partners, "Have you had all your screenings?" But men like to minimize things. ... We tell ourselves "If I don't think about it, it doesn't exist." It's the male mantra.
Q. Why do you think there's such a big difference between the genders when it comes to confronting health?
A. First, because men just aren't as health conscious and second, because these are very private issues. No man wants to hear the words "digital rectal exam."
Q. What are the most common prostate cancer interventions?
A. Prostate cancer is most commonly treated with radiation, surgical removal of the prostate gland or androgen deprivation therapy. Prostate cancer needs male hormones (testosterone) in order to survive. Hormone therapy decreases the amount of testosterone, which can make the tumors shrink. Whatever the treatment, there are side effects — sexual, along with urinary and bladder issues. Now this part of the body is no longer functioning ... and can be devastating.
Q. If a patient is going through cancer treatment — and may be dealing with other side effects, such as nausea and fatigue — is it reasonable to ask someone to be amorous, as well?
A. It's not just about sex. ... It's about intimacy and connection.
Q. What else can cause sexual dysfunction?
A. Besides cancer, it can be heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes. ... These are all diseases that affect blood flow and nerve conduction, which sexual function is dependent on.
Latest Health
Q. A lot of these other conditions you mentioned are part of aging. Isn't a decrease of sexual activity just a normal part of the aging process?
A. It doesn't have to be. People are living longer and here you've had this life partner that you've been with for years and you don't have this connection anymore? It's a quality of life issue. So, you've got to start talking. And once again, it's usually women who initiate the conversation.
Q. So, how would you bring it up?
A. I'd just start with something like 'Maybe you're scared to touch me ... can we talk?' Maybe he'll say 'I'm afraid to hug you because I don't want you to think we can have sex.' He may not know that there's help out there ... but just talking about it will make things better for both of you. It will reduce anxiety and strengthen that connectedness.


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ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) The slumping Detroit Lions are rallying around Calvin Johnson, hoping he breaks Jerry Rice's NFL record for yards receiving in a season.
``It's definitely something that I take joy in that my teammates are right behind me on this thing,'' Johnson said Thursday after catching footballs from a machine in a post-practice drill. ``They want me to get it as much as I want to get it.''
Maybe more.
The Lions (4-9) don't have much else to root for this year, entering Sunday's game at Arizona (4-9) in a matchup of teams tied for the worst record in the NFC. Detroit has dropped five straight and will finish the season with a losing record one year after winning 10 games and breaking the team's 11-year postseason drought.
That leave Johnson's shot to make history a potential source of pride for the Lions.
``We have to hang our hat on something this year,'' Lions center Dominic Raiola said. ``I think it would be awesome for him to do it. I'd love to be able to say I was on the team and helped him do it.''
Despite often facing double- and triple-coverage and losing the other top three players at his position on the team, Johnson has a league-high 1,546 yards receiving. With three games left, he is 303 yards from breaking Rice's single-season mark of 1,848 yards receiving set in 1995 with the San Francisco 49ers.
``If it happens, that would be fantastic,'' Johnson said. ``It's definitely something I'd love to have.''
And, his teammates want him to have it.
Johnson's talents and humble ways helped him get a $132 million, eight-year contract in the offseason, entering the last season of the deal he got when Detroit drafted him out of Georgia Tech with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 draft. He is easy to root for.
``He's so down to earth,'' said tight end Tony Scheffler, one of several Lions to describe him in the exact same way this week. ``It doesn't matter if you're the janitor or Jim Schwartz, he says hi and bye when you enter and leave the room.
``I've seen him before and after he got paid, and nothing has changed. He's just a great human being and I think he's the best player in the NFL, which is a pretty remarkable combination.''
Johnson combines size, strength, speed, hands and relentless work ethic in a way few can. The 6-foot-5, 236-pound receiver dubbed Megatron has run the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds, has done a 45-inch vertical leap and works out constantly, as if his job is in jeopardy.
Cardinals star receiver Larry Fitzgerald has arguably been the best at his position over the last several years, but he wouldn't make that argument. Fitzgerald called Johnson ``the best in the business,'' and explained why he heaped that kind of praise on an opponent.
``He's very consistent, does it week in and week out against the most exotic defensive coverages the league has seen,'' Fitzgerald said. ``He's the most dynamic player, receiver, since Randy Moss. He really has no physical weaknesses. He does it all.''
This season, he's had to.
Receivers Nate Burleson, Titus Young and Ryan Broyles have all been put on injured reserve. Kris Durham got his first NFL start in last Sunday's game at Green Bay and the other lackluster options were Mike Thomas, Brian Robiskie, Lance Long and Kassim Osgood.
``Calvin has picked up a lot of slack,'' Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said. ``We've played him at a lot of different positions and I don't think he gets credit for how versatile he is. He plays probably three or four positions. It's even real common for him to do that even within a drive.''
Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson doesn't sound worried. Peterson said he hopes to cover Johnson one on one as much as possible in a challenge he's been looking forward to since the NFL schedule was released.
``It's definitely going to be a fun matchup and a matchup I've been waiting for pretty much all year,'' Peterson said. ``I want to see how I match up against one of the top guys in the league.''
Peterson ranked Johnson as the second-best receiver in the NFL, behind Fitzgerald, and boasted that he's the best cornerback in the NFL.
``Me and Calvin, we're the same caliber players, just he's a receiver and I'm a DB,'' he said. ``He likes the physical aspect of the game and, you know, that's something I like to do as well. I'm going to challenge him at the line.''
NOTES: Lions DT Nick Fairley (shoulder) and TE Brandon Pettigrew (ankle) didn't practice Thursday after both were injured against the Packers. ... CB Louis Delmas (knee), CB Chris Houston (hamstring) and CB Jacob Lacey (foot) were limited in practice after being held out of Wednesday's workout because of injuries.
AP Sports Writer Bob Baum in Tempe, Ariz., contributed to this report.
Online:http://pro32.ap.org/poll andhttp://twitter.com/AP-NFL
Follow Larry Lage on Twitter:http://twitter.com/larrylage


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Hi everyone,
I'm Hannah and I'm the proprietor of Sundara Wellness in the countryside of Maryland. I look forward to getting to know you all! Blessings <3
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Re: Hello everyone
Hi Hanna,
Where in Maryland? I'm in central WV!
Where in Maryland? I'm in central WV!
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Valorie A. Stokes
"Creating lesson plans for ReadWriteThink.org has been professionally rewarding. Although the process can be rigorous at times, I know the organization's standards ensure the high-quality lessons that appear on the site."
Valorie A. Stokes works as the library-media specialist in Platte City, Missouri. She has also recently taught introductory composition and reading courses at Missouri Western State University. Previously, Valorie worked for the St. Joseph School District teaching honors and advanced-placement English classes and serving as that districts content area reading enhancement facilitator.
Valorie has also served as an active teacher consultant and advisory board member for the Prairie Lands Writing Project (PLWP) located on the Missouri Western campus. As a part of her work for the PLWP, she facillitates its professional learning communities and serves as a facilitator for the Missouri Writing Project Networks Literacy Academies program, a professional development series sponsored in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. She is a member of the International Reading Association.
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Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Dynamic Duo Text Talks: Examining the Content of Internet Sites
An Observation and Inquiry Sheet guides students as they analyze and compare their reactions to the value, engagement, and credibility of three websites related to Anne Frank and the Holocaust.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Exploring Literacy in Cyberspace
It's not just words on a page (or screen)reading comprehension involves making sense of the text. When students become aware of the analytical strategies they are using, they can explore the similarities and differences between making sense of print and making sense of a website.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Magazine Redux: An Exercise in Critical Literacy
Paper and pixels get compared in this lesson in which students compare both printed and online versions of a magazine.


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Here is what you need:
wax (you can use candles and melt them), metal cookie lid, cookie cutters, newspaper, nylon thread, ribbon, wooden sticks, needle, plier, crimp beads, beads & findings.
Make sure that you work safe when working with hot wax. Cover the area that you are working on with newspaper. Put the cookie lid on top of it & heat the wax.
Fill the metal cookie lid with wax.
Let the wax set for a while until it is stiff but still feels warm. That allows you to press cookie cutters into it without the wax cracking. You have to work quick now as the wax cools down fast. Press as many cutters as possible in the lid.
You can then remove the wax around the cutted shapes.
When you push lightly, the shape will come loose.
If it's still warm, you can easily put a needle through the wax figure. Or you can heat the needle in the flame of a candle.
Or put the wooden stick in the cut out wax figure but only halfway.
Or you can push a hole from front to back.
All the left over wax can go back into the pan and you can re-heat it again if you need more figures.
Then the figures are ready to make decorations from. Add a little ribbon to the wax decorations. They will look super in flower pots.
Or make some ornaments to hang in a branch or on a gift. Cut a piece of metal wire.
Fold it double and place a ribbon in between.
Then pull it through the hole you made in the wax decoration.
Pull the double pieces of ribbon through the loop and make a knot at the end.
Tada! :)
Or make a nice garland with beads and findings. First make a loop and close it with a crimpbead.
Press the crimpbead with the plier.
Then start threading beads & findings according to your taste and add the wax decorations in between.
End the vertical garland again with a crimpbead.
Here is another garland with the flowers. First add a loop and then knots, wooden beads and wax flowers.
Here are the results:
(Poufiks by evaforeva on Etsy)
Source:- poppytalk


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NICOSIA (Reuters) - The European Union gave Cyprus till Monday to raise the billions of euros it needs to secure an international bailout or face a collapse of its financial system that could push it out of the euro currency zone.
In a sign it was at least preparing for the worst, the Cypriot government sought powers on Thursday to impose capital controls to stem a flood of funds leaving the island if there is no deal before banks reopen following this week's shutdown.
Parliament will reconvene later on Friday to debate a raft of government crisis measures after lawmakers adjourned a late-Thursday sitting saying they needed more time for consultation.
Even those measures looked likely to fall short of a promised "Plan B" to raise the 5.8 billion euros demanded by the EU in return for a 10 billion euro lifeline from the EU and IMF.
The European Central Bank said it would cut off liquidity to Cypriot banks without a deal, and a senior EU official told Reuters the bloc was ready to see the island banished from the euro to contain damage to the wider European economy.
Angry Cypriot lawmakers on Tuesday threw out a tax on deposits, calling the EU-backed proposal "bank robbery".
After more talks on Thursday, the currency union's finance ministers urged Cyprus to table a new proposal.
Trying to placate its lenders, the government proposed to parliament a "solidarity fund" that would bundle state assets, including future gas revenues, as the basis for an emergency bond issue, likened by JP Morgan to "a national fire sale".
It also sought the power to impose capital controls on banks, a type of measure unseen since before the country joined the single currency bloc five years ago.
The European Central Bank, which has kept Cyprus's banks operating with a liquidity lifeline, said the government had until Monday to get a deal in place, or funds would be cut off.
"Thereafter, Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) could only be considered if an EU/IMF program is in place that would ensure the solvency of the concerned banks," the ECB said.
In Brussels, a senior European Union official told Reuters that an ECB withdrawal would mean Cyprus's biggest banks being wound up, wiping out the large deposits it has sought to protect, and probably forcing the country to abandon the euro.
"If the financial sector collapses, then they simply have to face a very significant devaluation, and faced with that situation, they would have no other way but to start having their own currency," the EU official said.
Cypriot banks, crippled by their exposure to Greece, the center of the euro zone debt crisis, have been closed all week and are not due to reopen until Tuesday.
Long queues formed on Thursday at ATMs still dispensing cash, and there were angry scenes outside parliament where several hundred protesters, many of them bank employees, rallied after rumors the second-largest lender, Cyprus Popular Bank, was to be wound up.
Chanting "Hands off the bank", several demonstrators jostled with riot police.
"We have children studying abroad, and next month we need to send them money," protester Stalou Christodoulido said through tears. "We'll lose what money we had and saved for so many years if the bank goes down."
The central bank said it was readying measures to keep Popular Bank afloat. Some banking officials said it could be split between good and bad assets.
Under the levy rejected by parliament, EU lenders, notably Germany, had wanted uninsured bank depositors to bear some of the cost of recapitalizing the banks, but Cyprus feared for its future reputation as an offshore banking haven and planned to spread the burden also to small savers whose deposits under 100,000 were covered by state insurance. Lawmakers threw it out.
In Moscow since Tuesday, Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris said he was discussing possible Russian investments in banks and energy resources, as well as an extension of an existing 2.5-billion-euro Russian loan.
He said Cyprus had no plans to borrow more money from Russia and add to its debt mountain. The Russian Finance Ministry had said on Monday that Nicosia sought an extra 5-billion-euro loan.
The chairman of the euro group of finance ministers, Dutchman Joreon Dijsselbloem, told the European Parliament in Brussels that Moscow informed the EU it had no intention of ploughing more money into Cyprus.
Senior euro zone officials acknowledged in a confidential conference call on Wednesday that they were "in a mess" and discussed imposing capital controls to insulate the currency area from a possible collapse of the small Cypriot economy.
Cyprus itself refused to take part in the call, minutes of which were seen by Reuters. Several participants described its absence as troubling and reflecting the wider confusion surrounding the island's predicament.
Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski and Luke Baker in Brussels, Karolina Tagaris and Costas Pitas in Nicosia, Georgina Prodhan in Vienna, Lidia Kelly and Darya Korsunskaya in Moscow and Paul Carrel in Frankfurt; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Will Waterman


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J.R. Writer Gives The 101 On How To Be A Mc!
J.R Writer drops some rules on how to be an mc. Off The How TO Be An MC DVD
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Season 1 Episode 2 Photos - Extant
After Molly (Halle Berry) collapses and experiences a vision of her encounter on the Seraphim, Sam agrees to give her an ultrasound so she can learn more about her mysterious pregnancy. Also, Molly tracks down Kryger and he reveals the disturbing details of his own solo mission that the International Space Exploration Agency (ISEA) is keeping secret, on EXTANT, Wednesday, July 16 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Photo: Dale Robinette/CBS 2014 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved


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AMD will continue to develop chipsets for Intel processors, the company has apparently claimed, although it also admits it's not shooting for marketshare dominance.
So said AMD sales and marketing VP Jochen Polster this week, according to a DailyTech report. Polster said the company wants a decent share of the third-party Intel-oriented chipset market.
Of course, whether Intel will let it is another matter. Some observers have claimed Intel yanked the licence ATI signed in order to produce Intel chipsets when ATI was acquired by AMD, but others have said that's not the case.
"Our policy is that Intel has always been willing to license its technologies and the technologies of others in exchange for fair value," a spokesman told Register Hardware today. So if AMD is willing to cough up the right price why not license it bus technology?
Of course, AMD might not want to, but since it's working hard to stress how open it is to other firms' technologies, it can't very well remain closed to Intel processors.


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The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, meeting at its 27th Ordinary Session in Algiers, Algeria, from 27 April – 11 May 2000:
Considering the holding in Algiers, Algeria on 30 April 2000, of the Summit on the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the invitation of H.E. Mr.Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA, President of the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria and current Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU);
Considering that the said Summit provided an opportunity for an exhaustive evaluation of the implementation of the Lusaka Accord, in the light of the latest developments in the peace process;
Noting with satisfaction the efforts of H.E. Mr. Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA, President of the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria and current Chairman of the OAU as well as those of the African Heads of State who participated at the Algiers Summit for a rapid and peaceful settlement of the conflict ravaging the Democratic Republic of Congo;
Concerned at the persistence of the state of conflict which has caused deep suffering for the civilian populace and grave violations of human rights on the territory of the DRC;
Noting however the significant progress recorded in the Great Lakes Region and in other forums, both regional and international, in the search for a solution to the conflict in the DRC;
1. Expresses its profound appreciation to H.E. President Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA for all the initiatives taken by him and strongly encourages him to pursue his laudable efforts in the search for a rapid settlement to the conflict in DRC;
2. Welcomes the results achieved by the Algiers Summit of 30 April 2000 on the Democratic Republic of Congo and expresses its conviction that these results would represent a qualitative push forward for the peace dynamics in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes region;
3. Expresses its appreciation for the encouraging results achieved in the implementation of the Lusaka Accord and calls on the concerned parties to respect the cease-fire and to contribute to a successful outcome to the ongoing peace dynamics;
4. Urges all Member States of the OAU to give their full support to the peace process in DRC and to contribute actively to the restoration of peace and security to the Great Lakes Region.
Done in Algiers, 11 May 2000.


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SXSW 2013: Green Day looks to rebound at big Austin concert
The Billie Joe Armstrong who stares out from the cover of the most recent Rolling Stone magazine looks sober, serious, subdued. Flecks of gray dot his spiky black hair.
"Billie Joe," reads the headline, "The road back from hell."
That road reaches a critical juncture Friday when Armstrong, the charismatic East Bay rock star, and his band mates in Green Day, one of the most consistently successful popular music acts over the past 25 years, perform a major concert at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas.
The eyes of the music world will be watching to see if the band can rebound from Armstrong's late-2012 stint in rehab for substance abuse -- which Armstrong details with striking candor in Rolling Stone -- as well as from surprisingly lackluster sales of its three new albums.
"Comeback" might be too strong a term for what's happening Friday. Green Day has rarely tasted failure in a 25-year career that includes selling more than 75 million albums, playing sold-out arenas and stadiums worldwide, and even conquering Broadway with the Tony Award-winning musical "American Idiot."
Making amends
While it's not new for a big act to play SXSW -- Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Metallica have done it -- Green Day is different in that it is coming off a recent losing streak. Is the band looking at a career in decline? Probably not, but fans and industry insiders will breathe easier if they see a healthy Armstrong and his band mates on Friday deliver one of their characteristically fierce stage shows.
(The band performed a two-hour, small-venue warm-up show in Pomona this past weekend and was scheduled to perform two other such shows this week. Reports on the Pomona show were largely positive.)
"This should be the next step in the Green Day story," says BamMagazine.com Editor Dennis Erokan, who began watching the band even before its major-label debut, "Dookie," came out in 1994. "I'm betting on Green Day. I'm betting on Billie."
But it likely won't be easy.
Signs of trouble emerged in September at the iHeartRadio festival in Las Vegas, when Armstrong, angered that the band's set was cut short, let loose an expletive-filled meltdown. He smashed his guitar onstage and yelled, "I'm not (expletive) Justin Bieber."
Soon after, the singer enrolled in a treatment program at an undisclosed clinic. Any illusions that Armstrong just needed to clean up a little were shattered in the recent Rolling Stone piece, which was the only interview he gave on the subject.
"I couldn't predict where I was going to end up at the end of the night," he recalled of the period leading up to the meltdown. "I'd wake up in a strange house on a couch. I wouldn't remember how. It was a complete blackout."
Last straw
The much-publicized Las Vegas fiasco, which reportedly came a week after Armstrong rebuffed his manager's pleas to get help, finally forced Armstrong to confront his demons -- even if it meant derailing Green Day's plans to support its three new albums, "Uno," "Dos" and "Tre," and scuttling a small-venue warm-up tour that included dates in Santa Cruz and San Francisco.
"I remember tiny things," Armstrong told Rolling Stone of the Las Vegas incident. "The next morning, I woke up. I asked (my wife) Adrienne, 'How bad was it?' She said, 'It's bad.' I called my manager. He said, 'You're getting on a plane, going back to Oakland and going into rehab immediately.' "
Now Armstrong must lead his band through what may well be the busiest time of Green Day's career. Besides trying to pump commercial life into its three new albums and prepping for a world tour of arena-size venues that kicks off this month, the trio has two films debuting at SXSW.
The more highly anticipated of the two is "Broadway Idiot," which chronicles the band's adaptation of its 2004 concept album, "American Idiot," to the stage -- from its Berkeley Repertory Theatre premiere to its Broadway run, which resulted in two Tony Awards.
'Big time' for band
"Broadway Idiot" will have its world premiere Friday at SXSW. The second film is "Cuatro," a documentary about the making of Green Day's ambitious trio of new albums. That film also will screen Friday at SXSW.
"I think it is a really big time for the band," says KFOX-FM DJ Big Rick Stuart, who has followed Green Day since its early days. "When I heard that they were going to release three albums and do a world tour and release a documentary and I was like, 'Whoa. Are you serious?' Name another band that has done that. Even Bruce Springsteen hasn't done that."
Armstrong's personal problems don't seem to have hurt Green Day's drawing power at the gate. The band's local date on its world tour -- a big homecoming show set for April 16 at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley -- sold out in minutes.
"Green Day is such a seminal band," says Allen Scott, executive vice president of Berkeley's Another Planet Entertainment, which is promoting the Greek show. "I don't think they have anything to prove. They have really defined an entire genre of punk rock music. This band is one of the biggest in the world -- and one of the best live acts in the world."


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Publication Date:
May 2008
To recruit and retain talent, companies need to modernize work-life programs. Successful work-life strategies are a balance between the company's needs and the needs of the employee. Each generation of workers has a different set of values; understanding them is key to developing the best strategies. Talent management and employee engagement should be integrated, and work-life programs should go beyond scheduling to proactively support employees' career development. Investing in people development will lessen the chance of younger workers leaving the company.