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From PopSci.com:
SOLO-TREC is outfitted with a series of tubes full of waxy phase-change materials. As the float encounters warm temperatures near the ocean's surface, the materials expand; when it dives and the waters grow cooler, the materials contract. The expansion and contraction pressurizes oil, which drives a hydraulic motor. The motor generates electricity and recharges the batteries, which power a pump. The pump can change the float's buoyancy, allowing it to move up and down the water column.
"In theory what you have now is unlimited endurance for something that has this type of engine," said Thomas Swean Jr., team leader for ocean engineering and marine systems at the Office of Naval Research, which funded the project. "Other things can break, but as far as the energy source, it will only stop working if the ocean ran out of energy, which is unlikely to happen … One of the Navy's goals is to have a persistent presence in the world's oceans. This is the type of technology that leads you to that."
[via Neatorama]


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Cow milking prep can make money on your farm
Proper milking procedure can be achieved when employees receive adequate training and communications from managers.
Would you like to decrease somatic cell count (SCC)? Would you like to increase milk flow rate and shorten milking time while improving teat end health? The moneymaker on a dairy farm production of large quantities of high quality milk. So, why is milk prep of your cows often a forgotten priority?
To quickly assess your farm's milking procedure, ask yourself the following questions:
Are all milking employees trained in the prep procedure established for your farm?
- Proper milk prep increases milk flow rate considerably. Improving the milk prep procedure can speed up milking times by up to 20% while also improving teat end health.
How often do you, as a manager, evaluate what's happening in the parlor? Many successful producers would argue that spending at least a few minutes every day in the parlor communicating with employees is among the most profitable and productive time spent managing the dairy farm.
Are cows stimulated for at least 20 seconds?
- At least 20 seconds of rubbing and/or cleaning is needed to trigger oxytocin, which stimulates milk let down. Let the cow give you the milk instead of taking it. Without this stimulation, milk can be harvested from the udder but requires longer milking times and may harm udder tissues and teat ends.
Is teat dip left on the teat for at least 20-30 seconds before wiping the teat end dry?
- A minimum of 20-30 seconds is needed to kill bacteria on the teat surface
Is an effort made to clean and dry the teat end specifically?
- If unsure, have employees prep the cows normally. Then swab the teat end with an alcohol pad. Is there dirt or dip left on the pad?
Is machine attachment occurring within 60-90 seconds after teat stimulation begins?
- Oxytocin has a short-lived effect; waiting too long to attach the milking machine after stimulation simple wastes its effect.
How often are employees retrained?
- Refresher courses for employees can help maintain high milk prep standards. Make sure employees on all shifts are trained in the established procedure.
Is there a written standard operating procedure for milking preparation posted in the parlor?
- Proper milk prep is one area of management that will pay off handsomely with very little cost. Quicker milking times, lower somatic cell counts and improved teat end health are all dividends of proper milk prep.
Lastly, a focus on fore-milk stripping, which is the practice of removing two to three squirts of milk from each quarter during the milk prep process. Fore-milk stripping should not be omitted because it serves several important purposes.
- The cisternal milk, or milk residing in the lower portion of the teat prior to milking, often has a higher bacterial count. Eliminating this milk in two to three squirts of fore-stripping may improve bulk tank SCC and overall milk quality.
- Fore-stripping serves as additional stimulation to improve milk let-down and flow rate.
- Fore-stripping can allow a quick check for signs of clinical mastitis.
Research shows that fore-milk stripping is a proven management practice that serves several purposes, all of which lead to increased milk quality and therefore income.
For additional information on milking procedures, the National Mastitic Council has excellent resources.

subset: commoncrawl


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Confessions of A Would-be Salonnière: My Favorite Twenty-first Century Salons
When I openened a twitter account a few months ago, it wasn't difficult to find the phrase that best captures me: "Born in the wrong century, a would-be salonnière." Ever since college, when I first learned about Marquise de Rambouillet–the refined hostess who led the most talented artists and writers of her day in scintillating intellectual discussions in the elegant alcove of her drawing room–I knew that I had missed my opportunity and true calling in life. Sure, women may be able to be and do whatever they want today. Society is less sexist, more democratic. But in an era when entertainment news outdoes even socio-political news in popularity and readership, what hope is there for placing art, literature and philosophy at the center of public attention again?
The main problem I encountered in being a contemporary salonnière was: Where are the salons? Most academic discourse struck me as too technical and specialized to draw a large audience. Fortunately, while an undergraduate at Princeton University, I had the enormous privilege to study with scholars who epitomized the salon tradition of worldly intellectuals: Professor Robert Fagles, translator of Homer's epic poems, and Professor Victor Brombert, a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, who encouraged my love for world literature and culture to the point where I decided to pursue Comparative Literature for both my undergraduate and graduate studies. Many years later, I discovered quite a number of online salons, where writers, artists and intellectuals converge to discuss their works, in a clear, interesting and sophisticated fashion. I'd like to share with you some of my favorite contemporary salons.
Litkicks.com. I discovered Litkicks ( http://www.litkicks.com/) in October 2009, when I found on the internet an article about a fellow Romanian-born writer, Herta Müller. The article was called "Herta Who?" by Dedi Felman and it was about the dissident writer's recently awarded Nobel Prize in Literature. At that point, the founder of Litkicks, Levi Asher, also wrote a brief note on the blog about my recently published novel on similar themes, Velvet Totalitarianism, 2009/Intre Doua Lumi, 2011. We got in touch by email and I became a regular reader and occasional contributor on the blog. Litkicks features articles on literature, poetry, art, philosophy, music, cinema and politics.
Levi was a software developer (and culture lover) on Wall Street when he started Litkicks.com in 1994, which became, along with Salon.com, a pioneer culture blog. The website was originally launched to support Beat Generation poetry and experimental fiction. Over the years, it has expanded its scope to include contemporary literature in general, essays on nineteenth and twentieth-century French poetry and fiction (including Michael Norris's excellent essays on Proust), lively political articles, and Levi's top-notch Philosophy Series. Litkicks includes articles on established authors published by the big publishing houses as well as reviews about talented independent writers published by smaller presses. The blog has thousands of readers a day, but thanks to a loyal following of regular contributors and commentators, it retains the intimate feel of a community of friends engaged in intellectual discussions and debates.
Catchy.ro. Founded in 2010 by the Romanian journalist Mihaela Carlan, Catchy.ro (http://www.catchy.ro/) is quickly catching on as Romania's premier blog. Discussing all aspects of art, entertainment, politics and culture, Catchy.ro is inspired by the highly successful The Huffington Post, founded by Arianna Huffington in 2005 and recently acquired by AOL for a whopping 315 million dollars. Part of The Huffington Post's enormous success stems from Arianna Huffington's pull and connections with wealthy investors. To offer just one notable example, in August 2006, SoftBank Capital invested 5 milliion dollars in the company. However, its success can also be attributed to the high quality of its articles and the popularity of its over 9000 contributors. Without question, The Huffington Post gathered some of the best bloggers in every field it features. Moreover, the blog has not merely adapted, but also stayed one step ahead of the curve in its use of technology, recently introducing "vlogging"–or video blogging–which is taking off and making journalism even more multimedia and interactive.
If I mention Catchy's precursor in some detail, it's because I believe these are also some of the features that have helped the Romanian blog grow so quickly during the past year, since its inception. Catchy "like a woman" targets primarily a female audience. But ultimately its panel of excellent journalists–with expertise ranging from art, to literature, to philosophy, to music, to fashion to pop culture and, above all, to the most fundamental aspects of human life itself, like health, love and marriage–draws a much broader audience of both genders and every age group. Like The Huffington Post, Catchy.ro also treads perfectly the line between intellectual writing and pop culture, providing intelligently written articles for a general audience. As some of the more traditional Romanian newspapers have struggled and a few even collapsed, the up-and-coming blog Catchy.ro shows that in every country adaptation is the key to success.
Agonia.net. Started by the technology expert and culture promoter Radu Herinean in 2010, Agonia.net (http://english.agonia.net/index.php) is a rapidly expanding international literary blog. It includes sections on prose, screenplays, poetry, criticism and essays. Agonia.net has the following assets: a) it publishes well-regarded writers and intellectuals, b) it's contributor-run so that it can grow exponentially and internationally (with sections in English, French, Spanish, Romanian and several other languages in the works) and c) it has a team of great editors that monitor its posts and maintain high quality standards. Agonia. net improves upon the model of online creative writing publishing pioneered by websites like Wattpad.com, which are contributor-run but have no editorial monitoring. Because of lack of editorial control, Wattpad.com has not been taken seriously by readers and publishers despite its vast popularity with contributors. Any literary blog that has a chance at being successful has to have the capacity for handling a large number of incoming contributions while also maintaining reliable editorial standards. Agonia.net seems to have mastered this delicate balance.
In participating in these exciting artistic, literary and intellectual forums, I'm starting to feel like my calling as a 21st century salonnière might not be an anachronism after all. I invite you to explore each of them and see which ones fit your talents and interests best.
Claudia Moscovici, postromanticism.com
Romanian Contemporary Fiction by Dumitru Radu Popa
I have just written a post about Proust and his biographers, who attempt to render this classic 20th-century writer palatable and relevant to 21st-century readers. Proust stands the test of time partly because he delves into the depths of our dreams, desires, fears and all the hidden regions of our subconscious, which seem to have their own logic and are perennial. He also puts a writer's magnifying glass on the world of 20th-century French aristocracy–studying them as an entomologist would insects–to magnify the neuroses, deviancy and intrigue that lie beneath a thin veneer of worldliness and respectability.
Today I'd like to present the works of a Romanian-American fiction writer and literary critic, Dumitru Radu Popa, who continues the genre of psychological fiction in our times. Psychological fiction is, in many respects, timeless. As much as our social and political institutions may change, arguably the basics of human nature remain more or less the same. However, the challenge for a fiction writer remains to render basic human fears, emotions, obsessions and desires interesting and engaging for a contemporary audience. Dumitru Radu Popa relies upon his broad cultural training in literature, philosophy, philology and law–as well as his keen artistic sensibility–to accomplish this task, in his short stories, novellas and novels that have won critical acclaim both in his native Romania and in the United States.
As a writer, literary critic and intellectual, Dumitru Radu Popa has been well-known since the 1970's. His works in Romanian include a book of literary criticism about Saint-Exupery, several collections of short stories (Calatoria, 1982; Fisura, 1985 and Panic Syndrome! 1997), the anthologies Skenzemon! (2005) and Lady V. and Other Stories (2006) as well as two novels, one of which–Sabrina and Other Good Suspicions–has been recently translated into English (Outskirts Press, 2011) and the second of which, Traversind Washington Square (Crossing Washington Square), I'm currently translating into English.
One of my favorite books, Lady V. and Other Stories harks back to the talent of exquisite, well-crafted psychological fiction reminiscent of the modernist style of Henry James and Marcel Proust. This beautifully written collection of short stories is universal in its appeal. It is subtle, even exquisite in the way physical descriptions and details (of gestures and movements) speak volumes about the characters' states of mind and feelings. The narrative, fluid and delicate in style, places itself in the tradition of literary fiction without being in any way arcane or pretentious. Moreover, Dumitru Radu Popa's ironic touches are incisive and honest, without ever becoming brutal. They are similar in tone to Chekhov's fiction, which depicts human beings as they are–flaws and all–without hating us for our foibles and fallibility.
Dumitru Radu Popa's newest novel, Traversind Washington Square (Crossing Washington Square) is, in my opinion, the closest in style and introspective bent to Proust's La Recherche. On the surface this is the story–or, more like it, fantasy–of an illicit love affair between a professor and his graduate student. When one delves deeper into the text, however, one discovers a meditation on the nature of time, about how the ingrained memories of childhood infiltrate our memory in unexpected ways and shape our identities as adults as well as lyrical analysis of human mortality itself. To give you a feel for the narrative, I'm including below the first chapter of this intriguing novel.
Crossing Washington Square, by Dumitru Radu Popa
(Tr. Claudia Moscovici)
Swedish Hood
Like every morning, crossing Washington Square from University Place towards 4th Street, losing myself in the anonymity of the red building, with the brick facade, of the Philosophy Building–a perfect edifice made to reduce everything to the absence of worries and metaphysical torments–I thought that time materialized, gaining a consistency difficult to pinpoint yet lacking, at core, any ambiguity. It could be the beggar on the other side of the fence, exhibiting malodorous wounds or urinating, through his pants, on the bench where he slept all night, covered by newspapers, with a stitched together rag, or sometimes even with a torn American flag, left by God knows what Puerto Rican parade that transformed for an evening the whole neighborhood into a deplorable trash bin: beer cans and Pepsi tumbling with an irritating noise; left-over junk food; packages and trampled cigarettes.
Or perhaps it could be the policeman with a Hispanic name, moving back and forth, on his electric scooter or astride a horse—as useless as it is traditional in the municipal annals of the institution—with a tattered leather agenda peeking from his back pocket, indifferent to the industrious marijuana vendors, who, unperturbed, accost you with the question, whistled through their teeth "Smoke? Smoke?", but always ready to give a blistering ticket for a car parked unknowingly or carelessly in an illegal spot. Or it could be people with somber demeanors—always the same ones!—walking their dogs on the grass, with a resigned air to their daily punishment, so freely accepted. Not to mention the joggers that gallop with a regular stride, sweating in their plastic jogging suits, old or young, almost all of them with a walkman on their ears, breathing in deeply the most polluted air in New York, yet convinced, in spite of that, that they're ameliorating their health, as if health, like time itself in a way, had become, all of a sudden, something tangible, perfectly quantifiable and, consequently, susceptible to being altered… Or, finally, it could be the hyper-realist anomaly of the landscape: the minuscule Arch of Triumph, mounted upon Fifth Avenue, the most famous street in New York, a dwarf or an aborted child of its richer cousin from Etoile de la Paris, which the Japanese tourists, like stuffed pheasants, photograph from summer to winter, from all angles, so as not to miss its specificity.
Yes, indeed! Bucharest was dying, or was already dead within me, slowly and gradually, I can't recall exactly which year, month or day since in such cases one no longer knows how many grains make a pile… And all this bazaar (to say bizarre would be too facile), surrounding me, neither friend nor foe, but pure and simple like a fact. All this probably gave time its material consistency, especially crossing the square, every weekday, today being no different from every other day.
Yet time, this unflappable and intangible flow from nothing to nothing, or from nowhere to nowhere, however it was—the beggar, the policeman, the jogger, the derisory Arch of Triumph, perhaps even the empty, abandoned cigarette packs, and the left-over junk food on the ground—it all seemed to me, in the final analysis, an immense embodiment of the urgency with a raised right hand, the pointer finger itself an exclamation point trying to deny access to the impersonally soothing building where I'd spend the next eight hours of the day in the library, in an office, or in classrooms. And the message of this exclamation could have been something like: "Cave! Remember, I go over each detail and each discrepancy of the landscape, but this doesn't mean anything!" Perhaps not quite as dramatic and rhetorical, but in any case, something similar.
I'm speaking now of the mixed sensations, not even clear to me: someone with more common sense could have easily concluded that, in fact, I was doing nothing more than becoming aware that I was getting old. But it's one thing to notice that, with the same naiveté—so delectable!—that leads adolescents to see in a thirty year old a "finished man", and another to approach 50: then, probably, the only chance of avoiding a psychic depression is contemplating time, as if this could somehow save the individual from a personal acceptance of this flow that leads to the ugly words "old age", ascribing it all to an immanent and incontestable general paradigm.
As mentioned, recently Sabrina and Other Good Suspicions, a political thriller and love story, was published in English translation by Outskirts Press. This novel, like the author himself, straddles two worlds. Part of the plot takes place in post-revolutionary Romania, while the other is set in the United States. Far from being an idyllic place of newly gained democratic freedom, the Romania depicted in the novel is filled with practical problems and mutual suspicions. Although the Securitate (or Romanian Secret Police) has been officially abolished, spying still continues as usual: without, however, the same devastating impact as during the communist era. The oppression that used to be the subject of dystopic fiction (such as Orwell's 1984) is now better described, by Popa's novel, in an ironic and cynical vein. In the confusing post-revolutionary political context, the love between Sabrina and Vlad faces many challenges. Yet this is also the plot element that gives the novel a very human touch and captures the readers' interest and emotions. Several stylistic elements–including love story, philosophical dialogue and political intrigue–all work together to create an irresistible fiction. I'm including below an excerpt of the English translation of Sabrina and Other Good Suspicions, which appeared online in Levurelitteraire.com, Numero 2, below:
"Come on, Plato. Let's go home. Iphigenia's waiting for you."
"I can't right now, woman! Leave me alone. Can't you see I'm playing backgammon with Homer? And he's got some luck today. It's like he stepped in you know what: I clearly mean … or maybe he just didn't wash his hands after you know what."
"Stop being such an ass, Plato! You're only saying that because you're losing. If you smell anything here it's not me. It must be Idomeneo's shad; he's dried them out like hell and they're so hard they're going to break my dentures…"
"Shad always needs dill," blubbered one of the old man onlookers known as Menny, though his paperwork clearly stated that his name was Menelaus Kakanis.
The roll of the dice drew a cry of joy from Plato while he utterly ignores Iphigenia's emissary who is standing by the door with her hand to her mouth.
"Aha! There you are! This is the end of you! Briseis, hand me one of Idomeneo's dry shad. I'll tenderize it with this pot… too bad I don't have a bust of Cicero…"
"Well, Cicero is out buying new tires," Menny tried to intervene but he was quickly stifled as usually happens to those in his position.
"Iphigenia said to come home right away to wash up and get ready for Aristotle, Penelope and Orpheus, not to mention his cross-eyed sister Cassandra, who are coming over tonight. And then we're all going to go to St. Basil's Church. Herostratus is coming too, you know, the one who just opened that big grocery near Ditmars."
"Oh alright, I'm coming. Just let me finish up with this coward. Homer's coming to church too with Aphrodite and Hecuba. But we have plenty of time, my clothes aren't even ready. The guys at the cleaners on Hoyt Avenue said five o'clock. Catharsis, you know the place. It's the best one, doesn't even compare with those lousy Chinese at French Cleaners."
"Aha, did you hear that? Catharsis!" said in Romanian a guy with the beginnings of a belly, maybe even a full gut, who spoke while holding a toothpick in the corner of his mouth.
It was bright as day, Colonel Munteanu.
He and his companion had sat at a table in the back, near the bathrooms that smelled strongly of disinfectant, and this combination of chlorine and dried fish was enough to turn your stomach.
"Since when do you understand Greek?" asked his associate. He was much younger, thin, with prominent cheekbones and an unusually conspicuous Adam's apple, so that the shadow he cast on the wall looked like nothing as much as a cartoon from the Sunday funnies.
"Shut up and listen! Or are you playing the fool? You don't need to speak Greek to know he said Catharsis: those Greek dry cleaners where that big cheese, your godfather, sended his clothes. Don't you remember from the file? It seems that he used to bring in his clothes with blood stains every night. He'd pick them up clean in the morning, but the stains always returned in the exact same spots. Totally absurd!"
"It's not absurd at all! There's clearly some dough involved, if only we could find its traces… But I don't think it's here… Anyway, I was just saying," whinged the other, code name Lazar. "I've seen backgammon before and I don't really like this Greek food, either. I've gotten more used to Chinese, especially since it's also cheaper!"
"We're not talking about what you may or may not like!," chastised a resentful Munteanu. "We have to start somewhere…"
With these words he approached, somewhat shyly, the table of the more or less ancient Greeks who lived in the picturesque neighborhood of Astoria, with all of their glorious history of which, it seemed, they weren't too much aware. Then, as if he had changed his mind, he returned and prodded his companion, "Listen… my English is, how should I say, kind of passive. I understand, but I can't really express myself clearly."
"I see," answered Lazar, with a touch of irony that did not escape the attention of the older man. "It's like with those engineers. They look intelligent enough but, when they try to express themselves, just can't be done!"
He winked jokingly as to erase any misunderstanding, and then went up to the ad-hoc Agora where English wasn't anything to emulate Shakespeare or Milton. Munteanu, aka the Sphinx, did not appreciate the joke and threw a suspicious look at the young man as he was walking away. He found his apprentice a little too full of himself, especially in front of a superior! "It would not hurt him to be a bit more careful!"
After a short moment of confusion, the steady clicking of the dice resumed.
"Do you speak Romanian?" all of a sudden a man asked the colonel. He had been sitting near the greasy window, so dirty that the man could not have really been looking through it, but rather into himself, lost in God knows what thoughts.
Sure, people come to taverns to socialize, but also to possibly come to terms with themselves. Or maybe just to eavesdrop on others.
"Yeah I do speak Romanian? Isn't that clear? So what? It's none of your business!" growled Colonel Munteanu who would have preferred that his young apprentice hurried up and talked to those Greeks about Catharsis.
"Well it may not be a big deal," said the dirty window watcher, "but anyway, if you want any information about… how should I put it… the Romanian community here, you'd do best to ask me."
The guy was somehow "clean-cut", he didn't look like a beggar, and the colonel signaled to Blossom, alias Lazar, as if to say "Hold on a second! Let's see what this guy has to say." So the latter gave up any attempt to speak about the Iliad, the Odyssey and any other epic that might have grown in the tavern, and came back to the table.
"Pour, Blossom!" the colonel said gesturing toward a bottle and the young man immediately obliged pouring out two full glasses of ouzo for his table mates, but only a drop for himself, because he could not stand this perfumed liquor with oily texture.
Silence fell over the room again so that the only sound was the jangling of the dice, a background possibly replacing the typical chorus of ancient Greek tragedy. Everything was as ridiculous and derivative as the illuminatiliving in this small community in Astoria, Queens.
The man who had joined them at the table was massive, with a bald spot that threatened to spread shortly from his forehead to the rest of his head which still spotted some remnants of stringy, greasy hair that had resisted the miraculous cures promised by all sorts of shampoos and conditioners. However, below this, there were a pair of lively eyes; he wasn't stupid by any means, and was not intimidated by the colonel's authoritarian bearing.
"Now it's your turn to pour, you know what I mean! And you'd better tell us everything exactly as it happened if you want to get out of here alive," declared the colonel harshly, despite his apprentice's generous gaze meant to convey something along the lines of: "Why don't you just leave him alone? Maybe he's just some poor fool who knows nothing of our business. What if he speaks Romanian, does that mean we have to harass him? We'd be better off going after the big wigs."
"First of all, I'd like to introduce myself," said the man. "I am, together with my associates, in charge of everything that happens in Romanian business here… I hope you understand what I mean: a deal, some legal matter, or when someone needs to keep their mouth shut…"
And here he made a deft gesture with his hand miming the path of a zipper that starts at the left-most corner of one's mouth and ends over the tightly closed lips of the right-most corner.
"As for other things," he added, "like, for example, the Greek dry cleaners, Catharsis, I'm still the right person to ask. They are the best, if that's what you're interested in, by the way. When I gave my hat to those morons at French Cleaners, the place it is run by the Chinese you know, they shrunk it so bad that I can't wear it anymore. My associates had to bid on e-bay to try to get me a similar one… But if you really want to talk about all these we should probably go to Melon Head's pub. It's the only place around here with real food. Plus I'm getting special treatment…
"Yes, yes!" ventured code name Lazar. "Let's go there!"
In the meantime, Munteanu's mood had been growing worse. The source of his anger was, on one hand, the arrogance of his young subordinate who had begun to give himself airs and to make decisions without even consulting him; and on the other hand, the fact that they were about to leave behind informants that could turn out to be essential to this whole mess that the guys in Bucharest had handed him. Just imagine: people who disappear in dreams, send their clothes to cleaners that make it so that the blood stains reappear the next day. Or, even worse, the task to follow an individual who had run to the other side with the institution's money. What's more to be said, he was simply tired and… overwhelmed by the situation!
Once closed the trunk of the giant Chrysler that she hated so much (and whose disappearance after their vacation, or rather their stop in Los Angeles, she had every reason to look forward to!), Meg sat down in the passenger seat, buckled her seatbelt, and, even before Bob started the car, opened the book she was holding on her knees. Throwing the car in reverse, Bob could not help but grumble, "I see, I'm going to be doing all the driving for days on end, but you could at least help me navigate until we get out of the city."
Meg gave him an amused look. Bob's personality tics no longer bothered her nor made her suspicious as they had when the two were first married. She understood that his inability to take control during their intimate moments had nothing to do with an overwhelming wish to show her, right then, some important paper they had received from the bank; or with a sudden migraine that sent him running to the bathroom where he tarried long enough for her to fall asleep. No! It was a physiological problem, a pretty ordinary one for a couple their age. Sensitive and understanding, she always gave him the impression that everything was alright, that he himself controlled the situation, as, in his mind, it had to be for things to be truly alright. It should be said, however, that Bob too was an active participant in this game, often feigning distress or misunderstandings, as if to test her, to prove to himself that she had figured out what was going on and had no objections. This unspoken agreement, a delicate chess game that kept everything in balance, made their life together not only bearable, but downright happyto the extent that this word can be applied to those who are married.
"Oh honey, I'm sorry not to be more helpful. But knowing you're such a good driver, I thought my inability to read those maps would only irritate you further more!" She was lying shamelessly, of course. We know how carefully she planned every detail of the trip – and please note that we didn't even mention it at the time so that we won't bore the reader – not only every stop and hotel, but also every road and exit that would save them the most time and gas. Despite all of these, she lied graciously and suddenly they found themselves in a shared good mood: he would grumble and drive; she would continue her reading uninterrupted. What could be a better omen for a long trip than such a beginning?
"Ok, Ok," replied Bob satisfied. "It doesn't matter now anyway, I've already merged onto the Maddox Turnpike. But I'm very curious what book has caught your attention so much that last night you fell asleep with the light on."
Meg had begun reading the book the day before the trip, but she had not realized that she fell asleep reading the night before.
"It's a book," she answered, "recommended as summer reading by the company that sent me the tourist information. I don't know how interesting you'd find it… the beginning is pretty boring and it doesn't have anything to do with the title. But what can you do, that's how literature is nowadays."
"Got it!" snorted Bob. "Really Meg, this is so typical of you, and probably that's why I love you so much. You take everything so seriously, like you didn't know that everything is just a trick to make you buy things."
But before Bob had a chance to really get going on with the critique of government manipulation, the IRS, and everything else, Meg cut him off: "I think it's a very good book, but don't ask me why."
"That sounds a little ominous," murmured Bob, sticking his left hand out the window, middle finger upraised, in the direction of the blue Chevy he had just passed.
Meg did not want to leave him completely in the dark, nor did she want him to think that she was talking nonsense.
"I mean that it's strange. It's a translation and the action is multilayered. I'm just a few pages into it, but I'm sure it will go on like this. It's the author's style…"
"Or the translator's," answered Bob sharply. "What's left of the author's style when you're talking about a translation?"
This threw Meg off a bit. She suddenly became suspicious. What did Bob know about books? But she stopped frowning and rephrased the question. Did she really know everything about Bob? "Yeah, maybe that's it! It seems that the translation is very good, that's probably why the book is so easy to read…"
"And from whence came this author to enlighten us with his multilayered book?" asked Bob his voice dripping with irony.
"The cover says he's Romanian, but I didn't want to read too much. You know how it is. The blurb gives away the whole story and there's no joy left in reading the book."
"Oh that's just what we needed," exhaled Bob. "For Romanians to come and teach us!"
"It's not about teaching," answered Meg, "it's just a novel, something made up. But maybe not completely…"
"I bet it was translated from the Russian," posited Bob.
"You think?" exclaimed a puzzled Meg. "I would have thought that they spoke Hungarian over there. I remember reading something in The New York Times Magazine…"
"Nonsense! This Romania used to be part of the Soviet Union," replied Bob completely sure of himself. "There was some big scandal with their KGB about ten years ago, I remember well… It's translated from Russian, I'm sure. Check it out! It's gotta say somewhere in there."
"Probably," acknowledged Meg, but was unable to completely stifle a stray thought of how much Bob knew about geography and geopolitics. "Ah, here it is!" she went on. "Oh well. It says right here that it was translated from Romanian!" And all of a sudden she grew much less worried about her familiarity with Bob's knowledge. "It's obvious! Since the author is Romanian, of course the book was also written in Romanian!"
"Didn't I tell you!" answered Bob triumphantly.
"No," Meg said dryly. "You were just explaining how it was translated from the Russian."
"But I told you that Romania used to be part of the Soviet Union, that's why I thought it was Russian. Of course, after the Berlin Wall fell, all those little countries that were held together by the KGB started reusing their own languages…"
Meg wanted to mention something about the fact that all those countries did not go off in their own direction after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but only several years later, and Romania was not even among them. But she decided not to insist. "Anyway, I like this book! I don't care if it's translated from Russian, Hungarian, or Romanian. I'll read about that afterwards!"
Hearing her say afterwards in that tone, Bob's eyes shot open and he almost lost control of the steering wheel, a move that frightened Meg. She reminded herself she should stand to be a little more careful not to let herself get so riled up with these conversations because you never know where they'll lead…
"After I finish the novel, I mean," she clarified ready to resume her reading.
"Hmm… Ok," muttered Bob. "And what did you say was the title of this very special book?"
Meg ignored the sarcasm in his question. "I Haven't said yet! In translation it's Sabrina and Other Good Suspicions, but I don't think the title is very important. So far there haven't even been any characters named Sabrina, just a couple of Romanian spies and (you'll be shocked when I tell you!) a couple just like us that are getting ready to go on vacation. But I think I'm going to skip over the sections about them."
Turning towards Walhalla Circle, Bob added, "Sounds like some great summer reading! Not that American literature is any better, but at least it has clear titles: Tom Sawyer is a story about Tom Sawyer. Sabrina: that's a name that could come from anywhere! And to make it worse, she doesn't even come up in the beginning of the book…"
Meg totally ignored the rest of the diatribe, returning to her book and picking up exactly where she had left off.
Claudia Moscovici, postromanticism.com
The Multimedia Launch of Velvet Totalitarianism (Intre Doua Lumi) in Romania
I'm happy to report that my first novel, Velvet Totalitarianism, was launched in Romanian translation (by Mihnea Gafita) under the title Intre Doua Lumi (Curtea Veche Publishing, 2011). The presentation will include my talk about the book as well as a book trailer produced by Claudiu Ciprian Popa and a music video produced by Andy (Soundland) Platon (see the below). This was the first multimedia launch, in which a book trailer and music video accompanied the presentations of the novel.
The political commentator Adrian Cioroianu, the literary critic Alex Stefanescu and the film producer Stere Gulea introduced my novel in light of their respective fields. The book launch took place at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Bucharest (ICR Bucuresti) on September 21, 2011 at 18:00 p.m. (Aleea Alexandru nr. 38, sector 1, 011824, Bucuresti, România).
This novel is being made into a movie by the Romanian-American cinematographer Bernard Salzman (http://bernardsalzman.com/)
I'm pasting below the Advance Praise for my novel as well as Diana Evantia Barca's article about it in Catchy.ro and Anca Lapusneanu's article about it (and intellectual freedom) in Revista VIP.
Advance Praise for Velvet Totalitarianism/Intre Doua Lumi
A deeply felt, deftly rendered novel of the utmost importance to any reader interested in understanding totalitarianism and its terrible human cost. Urgent, evocative, and utterly convincing, Velvet Totalitarianism is a book to treasure, and Claudia Moscovici is indeed a writer to watch, now and into the future.
–Travis Holland, author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Archivist's Story, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection.
Claudia Moscovici's first novel, Velvet Totalitarianism, triumphs on several levels: as a taut political thriller, as a meditation on totalitarianism, as an expose of the Ceausescu regime, and as a moving fictionalized memoir of one family's quest for freedom.
–Ken Kalfus, author of the novel A Disorder Peculiar to the Country
(2006 National Book Award nominee), of The Commissariat of Enlightenment (2003) and of PU-239 and Other Russian Fantasies (1999).
Western intellectuals have often blurred the fundamental differences between the imperfect free world they have been fortunate to enjoy and the totalitarian world of communism they never had the misfortune to endure. Claudia Moscovici's Velvet Totalitarianism is a powerful corrective to that ivory tower distortion of reality. Moscovici makes her readers viscerally feel the corrosive psychological demoralization and numbing fear totalitarian regimes impose on those who live under them. At the same time, with style and wit, and informed by her experiences as a child in communist Romania and then as an immigrant in the United States, she tells a story of resilience and hope. Velvet Totalitarianism is a novel well worth reading, both for its compelling narrative and for its important message.
–Michael Kort, Professor of Social Science at Boston University and author of the best-selling textbook, The Soviet Colossus: History and Aftermath
This vivid novel by Claudia Moscovici, historian of ideas and wide-ranging literary critic, traces a family of Jewish-Romanian refugees from the stifling communist dictatorship of their homeland through their settling in the United States during the 1980's. This fascinating and compelling story is at once historically accurate, exciting, sexy and a real page-turner. Ms. Moscovici is as sensitive to the emotions of her characters as to their political entanglements.
–Edward K. Kaplan, Kevy and Hortense Kaiserman Professor in the Humanities at Brandeis University and author of Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America, 1940-1972, winner of the National Jewish Book Award
Moving between extraordinary and ordinary lives, between Romania and the United States, velvet totalitarianism and relative freedom, dire need and consumerism, evoking her Romanian experience in the seventies, the emigration to the U.S. of her family in the eighties, and the 1989 uprising in Timisoara and Bucharest that marked the end of Ceausescu's regime, Claudia Moscovici offers her readers a multifaceted book—Velvet Totalitarianism—that is at once a love story, a political novel and a mystery. Love is the last resort left to people in order to counter totalitarianism under Ceausescu's rule. It keeps families united, allowing them to resist indoctrination and hardship and to make sure their children enjoy the carefree beautiful years that are their due. Love gives the protagonist of the novel the strength to overcome cultural differences between Romania and the U.S. and to invent in turn a form of personal happiness in a context that, while far from being as harsh as her initial one, does not lack its own problems.
– Sanda Golopentia, Professor of French, Brown University
Cold historical facts and figures tend to leave us emotionally indifferent. The impact of a nation's tragic events on one single person or family is much better understood and more profoundly felt. This is what makes Claudia Moscovici's book, Velvet Totalitarianism, so very special. Her novel is prefaced by a well-researched history of Romania under communism. Depending on one's point of view, Moscovici's work could be considered as the fictionalized story of a real Jewish-Romanian family under communism, based on her own recollections and that of her family and supported by true historical facts; or a brief history supported by the fictionalized story of a real family. It's a book well worth reading. The novel is a page-turner, witty and well written.
–Nicolae Klepper, author of the best-selling book, Romania: An Illustrated History.
Unveiling the Veil in Contemporary Iranian Art and Literature
In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini mandated that all Iranian women must observe an Islamic dress code, which included wearing the veil, under the threat of death for those who refused to abide by these laws. This happened at about the same time that the totalitarian leader of my own country, Nicolae Ceausescu, was starting to impose draconian measures on Romanian women. Between the years 1979 and 1989, Ceausescu instituted a series of laws that controlled women's sexuality and reproduction by banning birth control and abortion. This was part of his narcissistic fantasy of doubling the population of the country, so that he could have more power. Eventually, as I described in my novel Velvet Totalitarianism, such measures lead to tens of thousands of unwanted children, many of which were placed in unimaginably bad conditions in the infamous Romanian orphanages. To my mind, both measures—in Iran and in Romania–represented a way of establishing power over women rather than being a reflection of religious or ideological (communist) values.
Having been sensitized early in life to these displays of totalitarian power, many years later, when I read Azar Nafisi's memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003), I was especially moved by the author's critique of the uses of the veil to control Iranian women's bodies. I was also very impressed by her creative allusions to Anglo-American literary history—the book is divided into four sections–Lolita, Gatsby, James and Austen–to launch her compelling cultural critiques. Many of you have probably already read this book, but if you haven't, I highly recommend it. Vladimir Nabokov's classic novel, Lolita, about a sociopathic sexual predator whose fetish is prepubescent girls functions as Nafisi's main metaphor for Iranian laws, which, she states, imposed "a dream upon our reality, turning us into figments of imagination." These female figments are objects of simultaneous control and temptation: temptation through prohibition by hiding the female body.
Recently, I ran across the images of an artist who, I believe, launches an equally powerful and creative critique of the veil by unveiling women. Majeed Benteeha is an Iranian-born photographer, poet and aspiring film producer. Moving back and forth between Tehran and New York City, he simultaneously combines and clashes both worlds, in a spectacular mix that challenges cultural assumptions on both fronts. His images often feature veiled women posing nude in an iconic fashion that seems more sacred than profane. Benteenha's strikingly original photography violates religious orthodoxies–about feminine modesty, about the religious and social connotations of the veil–only to show us another way to respect women and all that they represent: love, maternity, sensuality, desire, intelligence.
His images are simple, beautiful, erotic and dramatic. They include symbols associated with the Muslim faith, but also seem very European in many respects. Perhaps unwittingly, Beenteha's photography alludes to works like L'Erotisme, by the French anthropologist and philosopher Georges Bataille, which presents the sacred as inextricably related to the profane: not just for Muslim societies, but for all cultures in general. Bataille famously states: "The essence of morality is a questioning about morality and the decisive move of human life is to use ceaselessly all light to look for the origin of the opposition between good and evil." It seems that is precisely what Beenteha's artistic short film below underscores, in its mirroring and contrast between a universal modernity and Muslim tradition; between light and dark; between masculine and feminine; between tenderness and predation; between desire and contempt. You can view his photography and artistic films on the links below.
Claudia Moscovici, postromanticism.com
Bernard Salzman's Mihaella: Chekhovian Fiction Meets Kabbalah
When one thinks of Eastern European fiction that tackles the big ontological questions—what is divinity, what is the nature and purpose of existence—as well as difficult metaphysical questions—such as the problem of theodicy, or why suffering exists in a God-created world—one thinks of writers like Dostoievsky and Tolstoy. However, often these questions seem too big for human beings to handle. Even a philosophical character like Ivan Karamzov seemed to give up on finding any satisfactory answers to such questions and, along with that, he also gave up on individual human love. In a famous quote from The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan states: "But it always happened that the more I detest men individually the more ardent becomes my love for humanity." For Chekhov, on the other hand, the balance seems to be tipped in favor of depicting with compassion individual human beings. In the Russian literary tradition it is Chekhov, I believe, who brings large metaphysical questions down to Earth. His short stories and plays stage moral dilemmas in all-too-human characters, which he portrays with some irony and a lot of tender-hearted indulgence.
This is the tone of Bernard Salzman's newest screenplay, Mihaella, currently in development by his film company, Eye Opener Films. This screenplay centers around the character of Mihaella, a young girl who lost her mother and is being taken care of by her uncle, Noah, and his wife Elizabeth. They live in a small town, reminiscent of Russian and Romanian villages where people go through difficult lives and pray to be spared some of their suffering by a divine miracle. Yet when faced with a being as miraculous as Mihaella–a hybrid of girl and angel—how will they react?
The answer isn't simple, as nothing that crosses the boundaries of the explicable ever is. Neither religious dogma, epitomized at times by Father Gregory and some of his followers, nor empirical science can explain Mihaella's mixture of special powers and human vulnerability. She's not able to answer all of the villagers' prayers to heal their ailments, as angels are supposed to do. Yet she grows angels' wings, learns how to fly, and seems a mixed blessing for her new friend, Wright, a handicapped young man. Moreover, when pursued by a group of thugs, Mihaella manages to escape from harm thanks to her angelic demeanor and superhuman powers. But she can't save Wright from being beaten by them, nor his father, Dean, from having his house burned to the ground. The best this human-angel can do is help people save themselves.
Like human knowledge of divine mysteries itself, Mihaella's powers are only partial. And that seems to be why the villagers, including the local priest, regard her with ambivalence. They can accept the supposed certainties of religious dogma or the apparent truths of empirical reality much more readily than Mihaella's hybrid nature and limited–yet clearly extraordinary–powers. When I asked Bernard about the religious and philosophical overtones of his screenplay, he replied that "The script is actually based on a short story I wrote many years ago. There are many universal questions I struggle with and I have spent many years studying Kabbalah in an attempt to understand."
By depicting our human fear of the limits of our knowledge, this screenplay confronts one of the biggest metaphysical questions facing humanity: why does the suffering of innocents exist if the world ruled by an omnipotent and omniscient God? Why does Mihaella's young mother have to die? Why does the sweet and innocent boy, Wright, have to endure so much humiliation and pain at the hands of others? Mihaella offers no easy answers about the nature of divinity and God's ability to answer our prayers. In the Kabbalah, God is, like angels, a liminal being: neither matter nor spirit; the creator of both. God is unknowable to human beings, yet there is a revealed aspect of divinity that human beings can come to know and interact with. In the screeplay by the same name, Mihaella represents this aspect of divinity: one which the villagers must learn to embrace in order to learn the biggest lesson of this upcoming movie: "I think it's not how much you pray, it's how much you love," Mihaella tells Father Gregory. But will he and the villagers get the angel-child's message or chase her away, in their simultaneous longing for the unknowable and fear of the unknown? Watch and see for yourselves when Bernard Salzman's new movie–filled with wisdom and hope–is released.
Claudia Moscovici, literaturesalon


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There's a reunion of sorts happening for Steve Carell and Toni Collette, who last starred together in 2006 Oscar-winner, Little Miss Sunshine. Carell and Collette will join Jim Rash (Community) and Nat Faxon's (Bad Teacher) directorial debut, The Way, Way Back. Their script landed on 2010's Black List, and after earning an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay of their effort for The Descendents, I'm sure we can look forward to much more from the duo. The Way, Way Back is an indie drama about a dysfunctional family, but that's where the similarities to Little Miss Sunshine seem to stop. The plot centers on a teenage boy on summer vacation who is coming to grips with his emotionally-distant mother and his cheating step-father. The parental roles will be played by Collette and Carell, while the film also stars Sam Rockwell, Allison Janney and Annasophia Robb. Hit the jump for more.
News of Carell and Collette's casting comes via Variety. Collette's character is described simply as unattentive, while Carell's step-father figure is more interesting, as a drinker, drug user and "carouser" who seeks the company of other women. Production is scheduled to start this summer, with Kevin Walsh producing.
Carell, who recently wrapped on The Incredible Burt Wonderstone can next be seen in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Upcoming projects include Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher and Charlie Kaufman's musical satire, Frank or Francis. Collette is currently filming for director Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock, previously known as Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho.


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In 2006, Microsoft released Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), a graphical subsystem feature of .NET Framework 3.0 that took advantage of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). A year later, Microsoft produced Silverlight, their answer to Adobe Flex. Silverlight (www.microsoft.com/silverlight) offered a cross-browser cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIA) for the Web.Now that WPF and Silverlight have .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) and Extensible Application Mark-up Language (XAML) as common threads, developers can finally build thin Internet and thick rich-client applications using a common framework and tooling. But how can developers apply these applications to scenarios in the the capital markets industry?
Silverlight 1.0 was primarily a media player, but from a trading/prime brokerage perspective, it was unimpressive. User adoption was limited, with deployments mostly relegated to corporate websites and trading research pages. However, the 2.0 release of Silverlight will give financial institutions the prospect of delivering full-featured, desktop-quality applications through the browser. Silverlight 2.0 offers a number of compelling benefits in the development of RIAs:
- Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR).
- Rich User Interface control model based on WPF.
- Rich base class librarySilverlight 2.0 includes a rich .NET base class library of functionality (collections, IO, generics, threading, globalization, XML, local storage, etc.).
- Support for LINQ.
- Improved networking stack supportout of the box support for calling REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS, and standard HTTP services.
- Rich Visual Studio 2008 IDE support.
With constant threats from Adobe and Google in the RIA space, Microsoft has positioned Silverlight as the next generation application. The UI Framework in Silverlight 2.0 is a compatible subset of the WPF UI Framework features in the full .NET Framework, enabling developers to reuse skills, controls, code, and content to build rich cross-browser web applications. The enhancement to Silverlight finally allows Microsoft to offer desktop-rich applications within a browser. In addition, RIA's offer corporations the ability to break away from the dual UI development trackWindowsForms for the desktop, ASP.NET for the Internetthat is currently followed when deploying identical trading functionality for internal and external clients. The ability to build rich applications in Silverlightfor deployment both internally and externally will also reduce development and support costs. This will become increasingly important in the post-subprime climate, as firms are looking for different ways to improve efficiency and decrease costs.
Based on the release of WPF, Microsoft was also able to identify areas within Silverlight 2.0 to improve. For example, a DataGrid will be delivered with Silverlight 2.0, whereas WPF did not originally include one (later resolved with WPF 3.5 SP1).
By late 2008, we will expect to see both Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight as standard plug-ins within corporate browsers. With a zero-touch deployment model for Silverlight 2.0, it's also likely to drive significant inroads into the usage of Microsoft's ClickOnce deployment modelthe utility of which will only remain for the deployment of extremely rich heavyweight WPF applications within the enterprise, although this scenario will become less prevalent given the increasing sophistication in the RIA space.
Trading websites specific to financial institutions are primarily built using thin-client technology (ASP.NET) and typically offer fairly minimal trade entry, portfolio views, reporting, and market data facilities. Applying Silverlight 2.0 to these sites will enable organizations to improve customer offerings in two critical ways. An application model can easily externalize what institutions can offer clients, while increasing breadth of products and trading options. Also, new visual user experience paradigms, made possible by using XAML styles and templates, will increasingly replace trading applications that are flat and two-dimensional.
On the other hand, Silverlight 2.0 can drastically improve its COMET support, an application architecture where a web server sends data asynchronously to a browser (or other client program) without the need for an explicit request. COMET support is essential for live market-data delivery; however, a number of financial applications use competing tools such as Liberator, Lightstreamer, or the nearly released Kaazing technology. Because all three solutions are built in Java using streaming AJAX-to-browser RIA solutions, Microsoft could consider implementing COMET support and integrating it within Silverlight to provide a complete Web 2.0 architecture or front-to-back Microsoft RIA solution.
Silverlight is possibly the most interesting web technology to come out of Microsoft in many years and is anticipated to drive dramatic growth in a new category of financial applications. The only real question is whether Microsoft can unlock Silverlight's true potential in time to beat Adobe and Google in this race.


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Ovarian Cancer Cells Are Killed By Platinum-Phosphate Compounds
A new class of compounds called phosphaplatins can effectively kill ovarian, testicular, head and neck cancer cells with potentially less toxicity than conventional drugs, according to a new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The compounds could be less harmful than current cancer treatments on the market such as cisplatin and carboplatin because they don't penetrate the cell nucleus and attach to DNA, said lead author Rathindra Bose. Conventional drugs can interfere with the functions of the cell's enzymes, which lead to side effects such as hearing and hair loss and kidney dysfunction.
Though scientists don't fully understand the mechanism by which the phosphaplatins kill cancer cells, they suspect that the compounds bind to the cell surface membrane proteins and transmit a "death signal" to the interior of the cell, Bose said. The compounds are created by attaching platinum to a phosphate ligand, which can readily anchor to the cell membrane. Future studies will focus on identifying the exact process.
"The findings suggest a paradigm shift in potential molecular targets for platinum anticancer drugs and in their strategic development," said Bose, a professor of biomedical sciences and chemistry and vice president for research at Ohio University who conducted the work while at Northern Illinois University.
The first drug developed for the treatment of ovarian and testicular cancers, cisplatin, was approved for use in 1982. Though it's 95 percent effective, it works best during the early stages of the disease, and some patients develop a resistance to it. Two drugs introduced later, carboplatin and oxaliplatin (which is used for colorectal cancer), overcame some of those problems, but their potency can harm the immune system of patients, said Bose, who has been studying alternative compounds and targets for these cancers for 25 years.
Phosphaplatins have the potential to be more efficient, more targeted and create fewer side effects in the patient, Bose said. The new study shows that the phosphaplatins can kill ovarian cells at half of the dosage of conventional drugs, but are just as potent. Unlike cisplatin, which can decompose quickly and create additional toxic side effects through the decomposition products, the new compounds show no signs of degradation after seven days, he added.
A U.S. patent is pending on the work; two provisional patents have been filed. Bose and his colleagues next will test the compounds in mice models.
Co-authors of the study are Leila Maurmann of Kansas State University, and Robert Mishur, Linda Yasui, Shefalika Gupta, W. Scott Grayburn, Heike Hofstetter and Tara Milton, all of Northern Illinois University.


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Seasonal Allergy Quiz
As the blooms and blossoms of spring spill out across gardens and yards, pollens and mold spores are also on the move. For people with seasonal allergies, spring can be a time of sniffles and sneezes. Find out more about seasonal allergies by taking this quiz.
Seizure Quiz
A seizure is an uncontrolled electrical discharge from brain cells that causes mental or physical symptoms. Epilepsy is a group of chronic conditions in which a person has unprovoked recurring seizures. Find out more about epilepsy and seizures by taking this quiz.
Senior Fitness Quiz
You don't have to be reminded about the aging process. It's inevitable. But just because you're over 50 doesn't mean you can't be fit. Learn more about senior fitness by taking this quiz.
Senior Oral Health Quiz
Getting older can affect your oral health. Some health conditions can affect your mouth, making problems you already have worse. That's why is especially important to get good dental care as an older adult.
Sexually Transmitted Infection Quiz
Answer this one: Which is the most common bacterial STD?
Shingles Quiz
The first sign of shingles is often burning or tingling pain, or sometimes numbness, in or under the skin. You may also feel ill with fever, chills, headache, or upset stomach.
Shoulder Quiz
A glenoid labral tear and a torn rotator cuff are just two common injuries that can happen with the shoulder. Can you think of others? Find out how much you know about shoulders by taking this quiz, based on information from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
Sickle Cell Disease Quiz
Red blood cells are usually doughnut-shaped. In a person with sickle cell anemia, the red blood cells are shaped like a C--like a sickle.
Sleep Apnea Quiz
When your sleep is upset throughout the night, you can be very sleepy during the day. Maybe you have sleep apnea.
Sleep Quiz
A good night's sleep—everyone needs it, but not everyone gets it. We stay up late and get up early, and then wonder why we always feel tired. Why is sleep important? See how much you know about snoozing by taking this quiz.
Sleep: Test Your Knowledge
Why is sleep important? See how much you know about snoozing by taking this quiz.
Smallpox Quiz
Smallpox was once found throughout the world, causing illness and death wherever it occurred.
Smokeless Tobacco Quiz
The health consequences of using smokeless tobacco include increased heart rate, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, and mouth sores.
Smoking and Pregnancy Quiz
Do you know the health risks of smoking? Avoiding them can help you have a healthy pregnancy and baby.
Snakebite Quiz
They fascinate. They repel. Some pose a danger. Most are harmless. And whether they are seen as scary creatures or colorful curiosities, snakes play important environmental roles in the fragile ecosystems of the nation's wildlife areas.
Snow Sports Safety Quiz
Each year, thousands of skiers and snowboard enthusiasts are injured, some seriously. Learn more about snow sports injuries and how to prevent them by taking this quiz.
Spine Health Quiz
Back pain is one of the most common nerve-related illnesses in the United States. Keeping your spine in good health is one way to avoid back pain. Learn more about your spine and back pain by taking this quiz.
Sports Eye Safety Quiz
You have your kneepads and your helmet. Or your faceguard and your gloves. Before you walk onto the playing field, don't forget to protect your eyes.
Sprains and Strains Quiz
Sprain? Strain? The terms for these injuries sound so similar, what's the difference? Find out by taking this quiz.
Stinging Insects Quiz
Picnics and barbecues and pottering in the garden are some of the delights of summer. For some people, though, these pleasant pastimes are ruined by a fear of bees and wasps and other things that sting. Should you worry? Find out by taking this true-false quiz.
Streptococcal Infections Quiz
Answer this one: If you have a streptococcal infection, what is a good way to prevent its spread?
Stress Quiz
Stress is a fact of life for most of us. Too much stress can have harmful effects on the body, mind, and emotions. Learn more about stress and its effects by taking this quiz.
Stroke Quiz
Stroke is the third-leading cause of death in this country and a leading cause of disability.
Stroke: Test Your Knowledge
True or false: There's no way of predicting if or when someone will have a stroke.
Stuttering Quiz
True or false: Stuttering affects 4 times as many males as females.
Substance-Use Disorder Quiz
Substance-use disorder is also called drug addiction. It can break apart families, ruin personal relationships, and make it difficult to keep a job.
Summer Sun Exposure Quiz
Hot weather, clear skies, and extra leisure time in the summer mean that many people spend hours in the sun. Lengthy sun exposure can raise the risk for skin cancer if you don't take steps to protect yourself.
Swimming Quiz
Water workouts are easier on joints because of water's buoyancy. By how much does water reduce the body's weight?
Taste and Smell Quiz
Smell and taste problems can have a big impact on our lives. Because these senses contribute substantially to our enjoyment of life, our desire to eat, and be social, smell and taste disorders can be serious.
Tattoos and Body Piercing Quiz
Tattooing has been performed as a decorative practice since ancient times. It is now also being used for some cosmetic medical procedures and for permanent make-up applications.
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Our Group organises 3000+ Global Conferenceseries Events every year across USA, Europe & Asia with support from 1000 more scientific societies and Publishes 700+ Open Access Journals which contains over 50000 eminent personalities, reputed scientists as editorial board members.
Klinefelter syndrome result from two or more X chromosome in males. Sometimes symptoms are more prominent and may include weaker muscles, greater height, poor coordination, less body hair, smaller genitals, breast growth. Klinefelter syndrome usually occurs randomly. Klinefelter syndrome is one of the most common chromosomal disorders, occurring in 1:500 to 1:1000 live male births.
An average of 48 members are effected every year in Italy. Adolescent treated with implants of controlled release testosterone, has shown good results when appropriately monitored. Hormone therapy is also useful in preventing the onset of osteoporosis. Physical therapy, speech and language therapy, counselling, and adjustments of teaching methods may be useful.


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Joe made it home just fine. I missed him :)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Or not...
Posted by Pam at 7:48 PM 1 comments
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
A Sense of Foreboding
I feel like my life is playing out some warped storyline right this minute. I am sitting here waiting for the inevitable call that turns a pretty innocent book into a heart wrenching story of love and loss... I think I read too much.
Joe and I are happily married now for 7 1/2 years. It has been a GREAT 7 1/2 years. There have been a lot of struggles (what couple doesn't), and there have been a few tears (mostly ones caused by stubbed toes or small paper cuts filled with lemon juice or nail polish remover, and even a set of tears from a bell pepper seed in the nose...). Mostly though, there has been a whole lot of greatness. A bunch of love, and tons and tons of hugs.
Last night Joe and I had one of those struggles. I am not really sure I would call it a fight. Neither of us was yelling, there was no "His side vs. My side." He stated a fact that I was startled to hear and, quite frankly, very bothered by. I told him so, he told me I was over reacting, I tearfully agreed- mostly... He went to bed. I stayed up, calmed down and followed him to bed a few hours later. He slept on his side, I slept on mine. The dog slept between us.
This morning he left for an overnight business trip. He hopped a plane to Vegas and will be flying back home tomorrow. I know this is totally melodramatic, but well, yeah... I can't help but worry that something will happen to him, and I won't ever get the chance to patch up what happened last night. In fact, I am SURE that I am overreacting, but it all seems like the perfect plot to a story. I can even hear myself, years down the road, tearfully giving advice to my children and grandchildren never to let a fight leave the house unresolved. Yeah- I know. Melodramatic. But I can't help it. I am praying I DON'T get a call today. No Las Vegas PD calling to say that he was killed, no Delta Airlines calling to say there was a plane crash. No Highway Patrol calling to say that he had a motorcycle accident on his way to or from the airport... Yeah- All this is what keeps floating through my head. UGH! I really need to put the books away.
I am sure it is all my overactive imagination, and that I am just a bit wound up from my lack of sleeping last night.
Oh, and for those of you who are insanely curious, as I know I would be one of them if this were not my story, Joe just told me something coming up at his job that upset me. Nothing morally wrong or anything of that nature. Just a shift in his hours. A not at all great shift in his hours...
I think I may just bite the bullet and call him. Turn this warped story in my head into a happy ending. Then maybe, just maybe, I will go find me some sappy novel to read while I await a whole slew of books bound to appear on my doorstep in the next week. Two of which are love stories and the third? A mythical action/adventure with a touch of love intertwined... me and my love stories!
Oh, and interestingly enough, I read a whole book series in this last week that quite frankly, surprised me. A few years back I watched the movie Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Not that bad a movie, really... I also remembered vaguely that the movie was based on a novel. This last week I found the novel at the library, and out of sheer boredom (since I was having a hard time finding a good book to borrow for myself) I picked it up and brought it home. I was surprised at how well the movie's storyline fit the book. Well, I was also pleasantly surprised at the writing style. It was a pretty good read. 2 days later, I returned it and got the other 3 books... yeah- all three. I finished reading the 4th book this morning. Quick reads. Good writing. Interesting plot. And a mostly happy ending. Just the way I like em. In case anyone is bored and looking for a time killer, check out the Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants series. And no worries, there isn't any cliff hangers. The series is complete and each book stands on its own. So there is nothing at the end of 2 that is desperate to be resolved in 3, etc. All in all a pleasant read.
Off to make a call and find a book...
Posted by Pam at 9:57 AM 2 comments
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Lucky me
So my kids are sick. AGAIN. I am tellin' ya, I can't figure it out. This summer is acting like winter for my family. And whats worse, usually I am the one member of the family that never gets the cold, or the flu, or the virus. Joe and the girls pass it between themselves and I manage to avoid it. NOPE- not this summer... Its all about the girls. Joe has been spared from everything but the food poisoning incident in mid June. Since then, I have had two colds, pink eye, an ear infection, and now, a burst ear drum... G-R-E-A-T! Both girls have had the colds, pink eye, and the baby had croup... Yuck. I have gotten in the habit of sanitizing my house from top to bottom at least once a week. When I say sanitize, I am talkin' chlorox wipes to the bed frames, door knobs, doors, walls, dressers, tables, counter tops, chair rails, baseboards, etc. (basically anywhere that is touched ever), mopping with bleach water, color safe bleach in the laundry (especially bedding), and all that jazz. Then it occurred to me that it just CAN'T be something in the house, it HAS to be something being brought in the house on a regular basis! Soooo- I went back in my mind to June to see what has changed that may be causing all the virus issues. The verdict? Library books. It seems a bit weak, but it hit me today while reading said library book to Lil for nap time. I was mid-sentence when I got that ol' familiar tickle in my nose that caused a sneeze attack so large my poor hand couldn't have possibly contained it all. Needless to say I instantly realized that the next few people to read this book may very well get my cold. I think I am gonna lay off the library books for a while. buying new books is an expensive habit, but so is visiting the doctor 3 times a month at 20 bucks a pop!
On a much lighter note, Lacey is officially a walker. She still crawls a lot, especially when she is feeling impatient, or needs to turn sharply, but otherwise she walks herself all through the house. Now if I could just convince her that talking is okay... :) Joe thinks he is the favorite because when ever she sees him for the first time (ie. When she wakes up, and when he gets home from work, etc.) she says "Hi Da!" to him. So obviously she likes him more since she calls him Da. Um, nope. When I go get her out of the crib, or when I come back from running errands and see her for the first time, guess what she says to me? Yup, you guessed it! "Hi Da!"
Lil is learning the hard way that being sick is not a party. She has found she can get out of many undesirable tasks by claiming to be sick. She has decided to use the excuse for most anything she is not in the mood for. For example, "Momma, I can't clean the bedroom, I am sick." Or, "I can't go to church, I am sick (insert fake cough here)." Well today she pushed it to a new level. "Mom, I can't eat my rice cause it will make me sick! Can I have a popsicle instead?" Um, RIGHT. :) Luckily I can use this same excuse on her almost as often as she uses it on me. She will refuse to clean up her mess cause "she is sick" then will ask to go play with the neighbors... "Nope- sick kids can't go play, they will make all the other kids sick." It's amazing how quickly she is cured! The only real problem with it all is that with as on again off again sick as me and the girls have been these last couple months, I really have a hard time figuring out when she is faking it and when she really means it. Thankfully, when she really IS sick, she doesn't ask to go play outside- she tends to camp out under a blanket on the couch, content to watch TV and play on her computer... yes- my almost 4 year old has a computer. :S That's what you get when you have a computer engineer for a husband...
Sick kiddo's camping out on the couch.
Posted by Pam at 10:46 PM 2 comments
Monday, July 21, 2008
The Big Oh-One
Lacey turned one last Thursday, and of course as tradition dictates, I threw her a kickin' first birthday party. We invited the family over last night for dinner and some cake and ice cream complete with typical birthday festivities. So without further ado, here are the highlights...
The Birthday girl.
I will start with my favorite part. The traditional first birthday cake. This is the same cake pan that my mom used for my first birthday, and the same one I used for Lilia for her first birthday. Call it a family tradition. Mom made this same cake for all of us kids on our birthday, so when I got pregnant with Lil I got online and found the cake pan so I could continue the tradition. It takes me about 1 hour to cook it, 2 hours for it to cool, then about 4 hours to decorate it. All so we can cut it up and eat it in less than 30 minutes.
The cake:
We started the party out with dinner. Nothing special. Just spaghetti, fruit salad, breadsticks, and homemade rootbeer. After everyone ate dinner and the kids spent a decent amount of time playing at the park across the street, we gathered to watch Lacey open gifts. A few pics of her and I opening her gifts:
After presents, we sang to the birthday girl. She LOVED being the center of attention! Just check out that smile:
Then we gave her free reign on her cake. Unlike her sister, who refused to touch her cake, Lacey dug right in!
The damage to to cake. We let her play for a minute then took it away to start the carving of the cake...
We then gave Lacey a cupcake decorated for her by her big sister, and she proceeded to get that cake EVERYWHERE. It was GREAT! And of course a few pictures of the mess she made...
After a while we put a scoop of ice cream down on her tray. Before we could get her a spoon she decided her hands did the trick.
OH! Brain Freeze!
A picture of the happy, and well fed birthday girl:
And here we are, on our way to the tub:
After tub time she got to try out her new Ridin' Fun Car (Grandma and Grandpa W. bought it for her)
She seems to think that THIS is the proper way to ride it...
It was great to get the family together. We have a LOT of family. Including all the step siblings on Joes side, Lil and Lace have 32 aunts and uncle and somewhere around 26 cousins. We had most of them over last night as well as my cousin Ju, and a few neighbors. Lots of fun!
Now for something fun! Here is a picture of me and Lilia at 1 year with our cakes...
and me:
Posted by Pam at 11:56 AM 11 comments
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Mom's bad example...
(This blog was inspired by a very similar situation that can be read about HERE.)
So, lately I find myself in that awfully awkward situation where Lilia chooses to either repeat me, or question me. Sadly, I am not the perfect mom, nor the perfect person, and I DO, on occasion, see the need to blurt out some choice expletives. Granted, they aren't THAT bad. I choose words such as "Crap", "Crap-tastic", or "Crapity Crapum's". There is the good ol, "Idiot!" or "Fudgecicles." Yeah- I know! Half of you are horified that I have such an AWFUL potty mouth, and the other half of you are laughing at my choice of verbage. To which I appologize, to both sides. Now on to the stories:
Every morning our dog alerts us that it is time to go for her morning constitutional by running at top speed from one end of the house (my bedroom) to the other (the front room). Well, about a month ago, that darn dog managed to take a wrong turn and ended up cornered in the girls room. She was moving too fast to stop and was faced with two choices, run into the box under Lil's bed, or JUMP on Lil's bed... WITH the sleeping Lil still in it! What did she choose? Yup- she jumped. This, of course, woke Lilia up. Lil pushed the dog off the bed and said (quite dramatically), "Crap!" Then she rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. I happened to be standing right outside her room and witnessed the whole ordeal. Lacey was there too. She was trying to crawl up my legs, and into my arms. She failed. Miserably. She DID, however, manage to fall over and land on her well padded rump. This, of course, made her start crying (probably in frustration). And that cry caused Lilia to sit BOLT UP RIGHT in bed and yell, "CRAP!" She then flung the covers off and got out of bed. Not the best start to her day, I guess... Joe, of course, thought this whole ordeal was funny. I totally sympathised with poor Lil. I don't like being forced awake either. He also was quick to point the finger from where she learned her new favorite word...
About two weeks ago I was driving along on my way home from Wherever, and found myself at a point in the road where one lane becomes two. At that same point in the road, the speed limit jumps from 55 to 65 mph. I was stuck behind this mega huge truck going about 40. So when the lane opened up, and he chose to move to the right lane, I decided to hit the left lane and ramp myself up to the proper speed! I was ALMOST out of his blind spot when for heaven-knows-why, he chose to move over into the left lane. I had two choices, swerve and hit oncoming traffic, or slam on my breaks and pray the person behind me is far enough back that they don't hit me. I chose the second option. (You can let go of the edge of your seats now, this story has a happy ending) As I slammed the breaks on, I honked my horn and yelled, "Idiot!" (Bet you can't see whats coming here...) Lilia then informed me that she was scared when the truck almost "hitted" us. I told her it scared me a bit too. She then asked, "Momma, whats an E-diot?" (Crap...) "Um, well, an idiot is someone who isn't driving well because they aren't paying attention to the other cars." She says, "Okay" and life goes on as usual. Well... A couple days later I was out driving toward Wherever, and found myself trying to reach a sippy cup (that will hopefully calm the screaming Lacey) while driving. I of course wasn't paying as much attention as I probably should have and realized a little too late that I should have my foot pressing down on the breaks. So I slammed on the breaks, and narrowly avoided the vehicle in front of me. Lil recognized that same lurching feeling of the breaks being slammed on, followed by the rocky feeling of the Antilock breaks kicking in, and said, "Momma, who was the idiot? You or them?" Now how am I supposed to answer that?!
I guess its not the end of the world that Lil has learned certain words from me. I mean, think about it... it could be a WHOLE lot worse. Besides, I truly believe that everyone needs a "go-to" word to help relieve the stress of a situation. And quite frankly, "Crap" just isn't that bad of a word.
And what would this blog be without a pic of my sassy, yet smart Little Monkey (This is one of the three pictures I took on our road trip last month).
Posted by Pam at 3:33 PM 4 comments
Friday, July 11, 2008
All growed up!
Lacey took her first steps this week! She took me completely by surprise. I had taken the girls to the park for lunch and was dealing with the typical "chase Lacey away from the dirt and bark" game. She has a bad habit of putting bark and dirt clods in her mouth, so everytime she approaches the bark (or dirt) I go pick her up and move her back to the picnic tables and grass. So thats what I did! I picked her up and moved her. And when I go to put her down I set her on her feet. As soon as I let go of her hands she slowly drops to the ground (kinda like she is melting) and crawls off. Well not this time! She stood there for a second, then started walking! She made it five steps before she finally lost her balance and landed on her hands and knees. It was so awesome! And I am glad to say that I have witnesses... there were three other women with their kids at the park, and all of us got the opportunity to witness Lacey's first steps. Joe was very jealous, but he did get her to repeat her performance later that night. I love my baby!
Posted by Pam at 11:03 PM 4 comments
Guilt is an awful tool!
Posted by Pam at 10:54 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
So sad
I just got back from a funeral. It was the most emotional funeral I have ever been to. I am pretty sure I cried more today than I did at my own father's funeral. Joe has a cousin who turned 46 late last year, and just after her birthday she got a REALLY BIG surprise. She found out she was pregnant. Her baby at the time was in 8th grade, and their oldest was on a mission. Well, she was way shocked and really had a hard time coming to term with having another baby, but eventually she started getting excited and started buying all new baby stuff. When we saw her at her baby shower she was so excited. They found out it was going to be a girl, and had chosen a name for her.
Well, last week she went in for her last appointment before her induction, they couldn't find the heartbeat. She was tangled in her umbilical cord. They took her right over to the hospital and started her labor, and she gave birth to a beautiful, 5 lb 13 oz baby girl, stillborn. They had the funeral for the baby today. It was so HARD! I was doing well at keeping my emotions in check until the hearse showed up and the Pall Bearers carried this tiny little white casket to the grave site. It was maybe 2 feet long at the most. Marcie (the mom) just broke down, and though she was crying I could see the peace she was feeling. I cried through the whole funeral. Every time I looked at the casket I could picture a tiny little baby. So much smaller than my baby. And then I would think of how devastated I would be if I had lost either of my girls. And that of course got me thinking about how close I have come recently to losing Lil. And how Lacey took so long to breath when she was born... I was a wreck. And I would stop looking at the coffin, and find myself focusing on Marcie, and how hard this has to be for her. She is such a pillar of strength! And I am so sorry that she has to be one... She is so good and so sweet, and she is so obviously hurting. Her husband got up at the end of the funeral and dedicated the grave. It was such a tender moment, and he was so sincere.
Afterwords a line began to form for people to give their condolences for the family. Joe and I waited our turn and though I tried SO HARD to not cry, the second I hugged Marcie we both just broke down. She just whispered, "I wanted her, I wanted her so badly..."
I am so grateful for the gospel in my life that helps to ease the pain of such awful moments as these. I know that Marcie and Chris are sad, but I also know that they are grateful for the pregnancy and the opportunity to bring that spirit a body. I know there is a lot of controversy about when the spirit enters the body, and though I am not sure anyone will ever know in this lifetime for sure, Our whole family believes that this sweet baby had a spirit, and that she served her purpose and has returned to her Heavenly Father.
A few quotes regarding this topic:
The question of whether stillborn children will be resurrected and belong to their parents in the hereafter is really the crux of the matter. This question is, as yet, impossible to answer with certainty. Elder Joseph Fielding Smith wrote that "there is no information given by revelation in regard to the status of stillborn children. However, I will express my personal opinion that we should have hope that these little ones will receive a resurrection and then belong to us." (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:280.) He said nothing about miscarried children.
One issue involved is whether an unborn child in the mother's womb is a living soul. The answer to that question may depend in part on the answer to another question—When does the spirit enter the body? On this second question some Church leaders have made comments. President Brigham Young said he believed that "when the mother feels life come to her infant it is the spirit entering the body." (Journal of Discourses, 17:143.)
The message "The Origin of Man" issued by the First Presidency in 1909 stated: "The body of man enters upon its career as a tiny germ embryo, which becomes an infant, quickened at a certain stage by the spirit whose tabernacle it is, and the child, after being born, develops into a man." (James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1970, 4:205.)
Elder Bruce R. McConkie, referring to "The Origin of Man," expressed his opinion that the message "appears to bear out the concept that the eternal spirit enters the body prior to a normal birth, and therefore that stillborn children will be resurrected." (Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966, p. 768.)
Posted by Pam at 4:38 PM 3 comments
Monday, July 7, 2008
The 4th...
Yeah- this year we were way lax with our plans for the 4th of July. We spent the day doing our grocery shopping (lemme tell ya- Walmart on the 4th is a BAD IDEA). We then had my cousin up and she chose to hang out with us til it came time to go watch the fireworks show at the point of the mountain. When we got back from the fireworks show my cousin spent the night on our couch after her and I found ourselves up chatting til 1 in the morning. :) She stuck around most of Saturday too, and then we went to her place to go swimming. We followed that up with dinner at Spag Fac with my mom and brothers... All in all a very laid back weekend.
A couple pictures of Lilia showing off her super cute self in her super cute suit...
And of course Lacey- the first one is a great shot of her bling bling and her mohawk, and the second is her latest view of the world...
Posted by Pam at 6:27 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
So yesterday I noticed that my littlest rascal had some interesting marks on her leg. I should have taken a picture of it then, as it was a WHOLE lot more clear. As is, this morning the marks were nearly gone and I couldn't get the munchkin to hold still. But- what I found was that she had a full on set of teeth marks that looked suspiciously like Lil's mouth size. Upon further investigation it was revealed that Lil had indeed bitten her little sister on the leg. After a proper punishment (including me threatening to bite HER leg) she revealed her reasoning. It seems Lacey was trying to crawl away when Lil was trying to play with her and so Lilia bit her. The logic may not have been perfect but seeing as how she doesn't have MORE bite marks I must assume that after the bite Lacey stayed put.
Another interesting thing my mother and I discovered this last weekend is that my baby has not one nut TWO birthmarks. BOTH on her head. Lacey was born with a stork bite on the back of her neck right at the hair line. I had noticed it when she was about 2 days old, and its just as big now as it was the day she was born. I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon. But this second birthmark... its fairly big, about half an inch wide and maybe an inch or two long... not really sure just how big it really is. The reason it took us so long to find it is because its in her HAIR! She has a white patch of hair on her head. Since her hair is so short, we had never noticed it before now! Due to the lack of hair she still struggles with, it was hard to take a picture of. But I sure tried! (Pay no attention to the laundry behind her head. At least its CLEAN laundry, right?!)
I hope you can spot it, though I won't be bummed if you can't seeing as how it took me nearly a year to spot it myself...
Posted by Pam at 8:23 AM 1 comments


text:
day 262:
i think that we may have to move to a kibbutz or some sort of commune living (my ex-housemates are shuddering at the thought).....Limi loves having people around and when it's just us she keeps looking towards the hallway and front door....as if to say...'hey, where's everyone? you mean it's just us? oh boy...this is going to be a long day.' (or something like that!)
so, this morning she was super excited to wake up and find our great friends' Gen and James had stayed overnnight. cue plenty of arm flapping and huge grins!


text:
Welcome to the Rocktopia News Section
Mass - new release on Escape Music
02 March 2010
Escape Music are excited to announce the release of the brand new Mass album Sea Of Black, set for European release on April 23.
Track list: 1-Falling From Grace 2-All The Years Gone 3-The Right Side 4-Coming Home 5- Thru The Rain 6-All That I Needed 7-More Than A Friend 8-Justify 9-Ashes To Ashes 10-Till We Meet Again 11-Captain Jack (Instrumental) 13-Sea Of Black.
The band is: Louis D'Augusta - Lead Vocals, Gene D'Itria - Guitars & Back up Vocals, Michael Palumbo - Bass & Back up Vocals, Joey "Vee" Vadala - Drums.
Formed in 1980, this dedicated hard rock band from the Boston area has had numerous accomplishments. Most notably, they have sold over 100,000 albums worldwide and performed with great acts such as Hanoi Rocks, Molly Hatchet, Winger, Stryper, Cheap Trick, Girlschool, Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush, Hurricane, Grim Reaper, Steven Stills and The Ramones along with many many others.
Their first self titled EP with producer Jon Mathias was recorded at The Record Plant in New York City. The EP sold over 10,000 copies in the Boston area alone, and was enough to get record companies' attention.
In 1985, the band was signed to RCA records and released their first major label debut, "New Birth", produced by Tony Platt. The 45 single, "Do You Love Me", was number one for over six weeks at many radio stations along the east coast. The video for that single was also in rotation on MTV and hit Billboard's charts. In 1987, "Mass" was signed to Enigma records and released their third album/CD, "Take You Home", produced by John Rollo and "Mass". This record/CD sold tens of thousands in the United States as well as England, Japan, and other countries around the world. In 1988, "Mass" released their fourth record/CD," "Voices in the Night", on Enigma records. Michael Sweet of the band "Stryper" was the producer. Again, this CD sold well all over the world. Songs such as "Reach for the Sky", "Turn it all Around", and "Voices in the Night" were available as CD singles. Songs from this CD also appeared on various compilation CD's. That same year, "Mass" was nominated for 'Best Heavy Metal Act' at the Boston Music Awards.
Mass has continually worked to improve themselves and in 2007 signed with Escape Music and the result was the highly enjoyable "Crack Of Dawn" (ESM153). This release excited old fans of the band as well as attracting many new ones. Swedish producer Martin Kronlund twiddled the knobs to make this a fine sounding CD.
It's now 2010 and the band have been working harder than ever for the new release Sea Of Black, an album that is chock full of ripping guitars and driving rhythms. Mass have always been a tight sounding four piece that have excelled in great songwriting and blinding musicianship. Once again using Martin Kronlund at the production helm what we have here is a winning formula that can only enhance their popularity. Although essentially a hard rock band Mass know how to hit the right notes with a ballad or two and they pour on the passion with ease. Astounding music...
With thirty years experience in this competitive world of rock music Mass has come shining through.
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