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My Suncoast also had the 12" VOTCs last night, about six in all. No new figures, the same old Unleashed. I want to say there were X-wings and TIEs but don't hold me to it.
I'm off this weekend so I'm going out hunting.
My Suncoast also had the 12" VOTCs last night, about six in all. No new figures, the same old Unleashed. I want to say there were X-wings and TIEs but don't hold me to it.
I'm off this weekend so I'm going out hunting.
I saw the VOTC 3PO in the store for the first time. Boy, he's not that pretty, is he? I will get him, just the same, to complete the set.
Kinda disappointed with last week's big Target sale. The days I did stop (and had money to spend!) only peg warmers to be found. I did pick up an extra Dagobah Yoda to open.
Yep, 3PO is probably the least exciting of the line. Haven't seen too many of him though, but I'm sure he'll become a pegwarmer eventually.
I hit several stores in the area, but didn't find much. This was a holiday weekend for many; kids were out of school Friday through Monday so stores were probably emptied over the weekend.
Paris, IL Super Wal-Mart: Spotted the ROTJ VOTC, plus Vader and Lando.
Terre Haute, IN:
I picked up some new OTC at Wal-Mart: Hoth Vader, AT-ST Han, and 2 General Madine. Passed on #10 Vader, Gamorrean Guard, Bib Fortuna, and General Lando due to poor paint apps.
K-Mart had the new Galactic Heroes Stormtrooper 2-pack.
Last edited by Ji'dai; 10-12-2004 at 02:53 PM. Reason: Can't sleep, clown'll eat me...
3PO's head doesn't look in proportion with the rest of the body. I like the body's color, a nice, worn, beat-up look, but the head. It needs some work.
I've temporarily scratched the two WMs closest to me off my list. If they have any figures at all, they're pegwarmers. Very disappointing. I haven't bought a figure at one of them since it's grand opening in August.
Except for one, all my VOTCs have been bought at Target.
Terre Haute -
Wal-Mart has freshly stocked pegs of OTC, mainly the Rebel Generals, Bespin Leia and Lobot. I picked up a Lando and another AT-ST Han to replace the one I got the other day with poorly painted eyes. Still have yet to see the Scanning Trooper.
K-Mart had remnants of the OTC Dagobah wave.
TRU has the re-released electronic Darth Vader bank on the shelves. Meh..
Suncoast had the Gentle Giant Stormtrooper bust for $50 and the new SW Miniatures Starter and Booster Sets. They also got a case of the OTC Dagobah wave. Also spotted the Simpsons Town Square playset there, which should be the last one in that toy line.
The new Wal-Mart in Clarksville has TONS of new VOTC. I saw loads of Stormies, as well as Boba, R2, Chewie, Lando, and Vader. No Threepios, but I don't think anyone's going nuts trying to get one anyway. Picked up a Fett meself...nice.
[FONT=Arial Black][COLOR=red][I]Knightfall: Star Wars Stockboy Supreme[/I][/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][COLOR=#0000ff][URL="http://www.xanga.com/red_megaranger"][/URL][/COLOR][/FONT]
Dammit, and I stopped going to the Clarksville store since they hadn't had anything for so long!
A friend said the $5 mini busts are showing up at area Hot Topics. I'm going to stop in and check it out tonight.
Pardon my language on my last post. Nothing but the same old stuff at the Clarksville WM; I checked on the way into work.
I did get one of the mini-busts at Hot Topics Thursday night. It was Han! Hot Topics also had SW key chains and other stuff, too. I will have to check them out more regularly.
Saw the Y-Wing repaint at TRU today. I think the silver fuselage is pretty ugly.
Did pick up another VOTC Yoda at K-Mart, but Lando and 3PO were gone.
I hit the jackpot at the Jeff Meijer on Saturday: OTC Han AT-ST driver (2); Madine (2); General Lando (1). I'm opening the Han/AT-ST and Madine figures.
The store also had Bib Fortuna, Slave Leia, skiff Lando, Gamorrean Guard, and plenty other HTF OTC figures.


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Jeff Goodwin
Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
By the way,I've decided that I no longer have a Black Labrador.He is an English/American Labrador.I thought we were suppose to keep color out of everything.
Last edited by Illinois Bob; 11-09-2008 at 08:51 AM.
There are 105 dogs starting the Open today. Can you tell me which ones are black and which ones are yellow???
Unless you are a regular FT participant, I'll bet you can't.
Too bad we can't view people like we do our dogs. THAT would be "keeping color out of it."
Dont wave your phony patriotism in MY face! If you really love America, open your wallet and hire an American kid to build what you buy. Doug Fraser (paraphrased) 1980
Real Americans buy American.
I thought Clinton was the 1st black President
When BHO is in office can I also say the '' THE MAN'' is keepin me down
"Communism only works in Heaven, where they don't need it, and in Hell, where they already have it" Ronald Reagan
AKC did a whole election candidate pole on Obama dogs and Biden dogs. In addition they also did an intro to possible McCain dogs...he does own a Yorkie apparently.
Anyhow---I think they should get a rescue poodle...that is my 2cents worth. Here is the link if anyone is interested.
My last name is Baker!!
My X wifes first name was SANDY!!!
She drives a Chevy truck!!!
If U is HER!!!
I'm not Postin here NO MORE!!!
It is far easier to spit on the work of others than it is to produce something better yourself.
Brynmoors Prairie Sage JH (Sage) Just a dang fool huntin Dawg
HRCH Calypso Seven Bales High SH (Bailey)
HR Calypso Zoomin Loosies Mad Hader (Maddi) We loved you baby. R.I.P.
HRCH FlatLanders Broken Pistol Ricochet MH (Flinch)
My Christian Name is Michael Baker..
I have gone by "Gooser" since I was a "gossling"

subset: commoncrawl


text: One of the ways I try improve my overall health is by making fresh juice most mornings and sometimes again later in the evenings for a refreshing drink. Right now (winter season), grapefruits and oranges are at their best so they are absolutely delicious and juicy. My favorites are the ruby red grapefruits and blood oranges, which are almsot the same ...Read More »


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Web Stories
Gathering for Katzenbach set for June 21
Posted May 14, 2012; 01:31 p.m.
A gathering in honor of former U.S. Attorney General and Princeton University Trustee Emeritus Nicholas Katzenbach will be held at noon Thursday, June 21, in Richardson Auditorium of Alexander Hall on the University campus. Katzenbach, a member of the Princeton Class of 1943, died May 8 at the age of 90.
The location of Alexander Hall can be found on an interactive map of the Princeton campus. Directions are available on the Richardson Auditorium website or by calling 609-258-5000.
Visitor parking is available on campus. Guests should use the Faculty Road (southern) entrance to campus, and they will be directed to parking. A shuttle will be available to transport guests to and from Alexander Hall and the parking areas. In addition, metered street parking and public parking garages are available near campus.


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Republished from the pages of National Geographic magazine
It begins with a bite, a painless bite. The mosquito comes in the night, alights on an exposed patch of flesh, and assumes the hunched, head-lowered posture of a sprinter in the starting blocks. Then she plunges her stiletto mouth-parts into the skin.
The mosquito has long, filament-thin legs and dappled wings; she's of the genus Anopheles, the only insect capable of harboring the human malaria parasite. And she's definitely a she: Male mosquitoes have no interest in blood, while females depend on protein-rich hemoglobin to nourish their eggs. A mosquito's proboscis appears spike-solid, but it's actually a sheath of separate tools—cutting blades and a feeding tube powered by two tiny pumps. She drills through the epidermis, then through a thin layer of fat, then into the network of blood-filled micro capillaries. She starts to drink. To inhibit the blood from coagulating, the mosquito oils the bite area with a spray of saliva. This is when it happens. Carried in the mosquito's salivary glands—and entering the body with the lubricating squirt—are minute, worm like creatures. These are the one-celled malaria parasites, known as plasmodia. Fifty thousand of them could swim in a pool the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Typically, a couple of dozen slip into the bloodstream. But it takes just one. A single plasmodium is enough to kill a person.
The parasites remain in the bloodstream for only a few minutes. They ride the flume of the circulatory system to the liver. There they stop. Each plasmodium burrows into a different liver cell. Almost certainly, the person who has been bitten hardly stirs from sleep. And for the next week or two, there's no overt sign that something in the body just gone horribly wrong.
We live on a malarious planet. It many not seem that way from the vantage point of a wealthy country, where malaria is sometimes thought of, if it is thought of at all, as a problem that has mostly been solved, like smallpox or polio. In truth, malaria now affects more people than ever before. It's endemic to 106 nations, threatening half the world's population. In recent years, the parasite has grown so entrenched and has developed resistance to so many drugs that the most potent strains can scarcely be controlled. This year malaria will strike up to a half billion people. At least a million will die, most of them under age five, the vast majority living in Africa. That's more than twice the annual toll a generation ago.
The outcry over this epidemic, until recently, has been muted. Malaria is a plague of the poor, easy to overlook. The most unfortunate fact about malaria, some researchers believe, is that prosperous nations got rid of it. In the meantime, several distinctly unprosperous regions have reached the brink of total malarial collapse, virtually ruled by swarms of buzzing, flying syringes.
Only in the past few years has malaria captured the full attention of aid agencies and donors. The World Health Organization has made malaria reduction a chief priority. Bill Gates, who has called malaria "the worst thing on the planet," has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the effort through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Bush Administration has pledged 1.2 billion dollars. Funds devoted to malaria have doubled since 2003. The idea is to disable the disease by combining virtually every known malaria-fighting technique, from the ancient (Chinese herbal medicines) to the old (bed nets) to the ultramodern (multidrug cocktails). At the same time, malaria researchers are pursuing a long-sought, elusive goal: a vaccine that would curb the disease for good.
Much of the aid is going to a few hard-hit countries scattered across sub-Saharan Africa. If these nations can beat back the disease, they'll serve as templates for the global anti-malaria effort. And if they can't? Well, nobody in the malaria world likes to answer that question.
One of these spotlighted countries—perhaps the place most closely watched by malaria experts—is Zambia, a sprawling, landlocked nation carved out of the fertile bushland of southern Africa. It's difficult to comprehend how thoroughly Zambia has been devastated by malaria. In some provinces, at any given moment, more than a third of all children under age five are sick with the disease.
Worse than the sheer numbers is the type of malaria found in Zambia. Four species of malaria parasites routinely infect humans; the most virulent, by far is Plasmodium flaciparum. About half of all malaria cases worldwide are caused by falciparum, and 95 percent of the deaths. It's the only form of malaria that can attack the brain. And it can do so with extreme speed—few infectious agents can overwhelm the body as swiftly as falciparum. An African youth can be happily playing soccer in the morning and dead of falciparum malaria that night.
Falciparum is a major reason nearly 20 percent of all Zambian babies do not live to see their fifth birthday. Older children and adults, too, catch the disease—pregnant women are especially prone—but most have developed just enough immunity to fight the parasites to a stalemate, though untreated malaria can persist for years, the fevers fading in and out. There are times when it seems that everyone in Zambia is debilitated to some degree by malaria; many have had it a dozen or more times. No surprise that the nation remains one of the poorest in the world: A country's economic health has little chance of improving until its physical health is revitalized. Zambia's goal is to reduce malaria deaths by 75 percent over the next four years.
To witness the full force of malaria's stranglehold on Zambia, it's essential to leave the capital city, Lusaka. Drive north, across the verdant plains, past the banana plantations and the copper mines—copper is Zambia's primary export—and into the forested region tucked between the borders of Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is the North-Western Province. It is almost entirely rural; many villages can be reached only by thin footpaths worn into the beet-red soil. A nationwide health survey in 2005 concluded that for every thousand children under age five living in the North-Western Province, there were 1,353 cases of malaria. An annual rate of more than 100 percent seems impossible, a typo. It is not. What it means is that many children are infected with malaria more than once a year.
In the North-Western Province, competent medical help can be difficult to find. For families living in the remote northern part of the province, across more than a thousand square miles (2,590 square kilometers) of wind terrain, there is only one place that can ensure a reasonable chance of survival when severe malaria strikes a child: Kalene Mission Hospital. This modest health care center, in a decaying brick building capped with a rusty tin roof, represents the front line in the conflict between malaria and man. Scientists at the world's high-tech labs ponder the secrets of the parasite; aid agencies solicit donations; pharmaceutical companies organize drug trials. But it is Kalene hospital—which functions with precisely one microscope, two registered nurses, occasional electricity from a diesel generator, and sometimes a doctor, sometimes not (though always with a good stock of antimalarial medicines)—that copes with malaria's victims.
Every year for a century, since Christian missionaries founded the hospital in 1906, the coming of the rainy season has marked the start of a desperate pilgrimage. Clouds gather; downpours erupt; mosquitoes hatch; malaria surges. There's no time to lose. Parents bundle up their sick children and make their way to Kalene hospital.
They come mostly on foot. Some walk for days. They follow trails across borders, into rivers, through brushwood. When they reach the hospital, each child's name is printed on a card and filed in a worn wooden box at the nurses' station. Florence, Elijah, Ashili. They come through the heat and the rain and the dead dark of the cloudy night. Purity, Watson, Miniva. Some unconscious, some screaming, some locked in seizure. Nelson, Japhious, Kukena. A few families with bicycles, Chinese-made one-speeds, the father at the pedals, the mother on the seat, the child propped between. Delifia, Fideli, Sylvester. They fill up every bed in the children's ward, and they fill up the floor, and they fill up the courtyard. Methyline, Milton, Christine. They pour out of the bush, exhausted and dirty and panicked. They come to the hospital. And the battle for survival begins.
From the mosquito's salivary glands to the host's liver cell: a quiet trip. Everything seems fine. Even the liver itself, that reddish sack of blood-filtering cells, shows no sign of trouble. It's only in those few rooms whose locks have been picked by falciparum where all is pandemonium. Inside these cells, the malaria parasites eat and multiply. They do this nonstop for about a week, until the cell's original contents have been entirely digested and it is bulging with parasites like a soup can gone bad. Each falciparum that entered the body has now replicated itself 40,000 times.
The cells explode. A riot of parasites is set loose in the bloodstream. Within 30 seconds, though, the parasites have again entered the safehouse of cells—this time, each has drilled into a red blood cell, flowing through the circulatory system. Over the next two days, the parasites continue to devour and proliferate stealthily. After they have consumed the invaded cells, they burst out again, and once more there is bedlam in the blood.
For the first time, the body realizes it has been ambushed. Headache and muscle pains are a sign that the immune system has been triggered. But if this is the victim's first bout of malaria, the immune response is more ineffective. The alarm has sounded, but the thieves are already under the bed: The parasites swiftly invade a new set of blood cells, and the sequence of reproducing and release continues.
Now the internal temperature begins to rise as the body attempts to cook away the invaders. Shivering sets in—muscle vibrations generate warmth. This is followed by a severe fever, then drenching sweat. Cold, hot, wet; the symptoms are a hallmark of the disease. But the parasites' exponential growth continues, and after a few more cycles there are billions of them tumbling about the blood.
By this point, the fever has reached maximum intensity. The body is practically boiling itself to death—anything to halt the attack—but to no avail. The parasites can even commandeer blood cells to help aid their survival. In some cases of falciparum, infected cells sprout Velcro-like knobs on their surfaces, and as these cells pass through the capillaries of the brain, they latch to the sides. The adhesion keeps them from washing into the spleen, which cleans the blood by shredding damaged cells. Somehow—no one is quite sure how—the adhesion also causes the brain to swell. The infection has turned into cerebral malaria, the most feared manifestation of the disease.
This is when the body starts to break down. The parasites have destroyed so many oxygen-carrying red cells that too few are left to sustain vital functions. The lungs fight for breath, and the heart struggles to pump. The blood acidifies. Brain cells die. The child struggles and convulses and finally falls into a coma.
Malaria is a confounding disease—often, it seems, contradictory to logic. Curing almost all malaria cases can be worse than curing none. Destroying fragile wetlands, in the world of malaria, is a noble act. Rachel Carson, the environmental icon, is a villain; her three-letter devil, DDT, is a savior. Carrying a gene for an excruciating and often fatal blood disorder, sickle-cell anemia, is a blessing, for it confers partial resistance to falciparum. Leading researchers at a hundred medical centers are working on antimalarial medicines, but a medicinal plant described 1,700 years ago may be the best remedy available. "In its ability to adapt and survive," says Robert Gwadz, who has studied malaria at the National Institutes of Health, near Washington, D.C., for almost 35 years, "the malaria parasite is a genius. It's smarter than we are."
The disease has been with humans since before we were human. Our hominin ancestors almost certainly suffered from malaria. The parasite and the mosquito are both ancient creatures—the dinosaurs might have had malaria—and this longevity has allowed the disease ample time to exploit the vulnerabilities of an immune system. And not just ours. Mice, birds, porcupines, lemurs, monkeys, and apes catch their own forms of malaria. Bats and snakes and flying squirrels have malaria.
Few civilizations, in all of history, have escaped the disease. Some Egyptians mummies have signs of malaria. Hippocrates documented the distinct stages of the illness; Alexander the Great likely died of it, leading to the unraveling of the Greek Empire. Malaria may have stopped the armies of both Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan.
The disease's name comes from the Italian mal'aria, meaning "bad air"; in Rome, where malaria raged for centuries, it was commonly believed that swamp fumes produced the illness. At least four popes died of it. It may have killed Dante, the Italian poet. George Washington suffered from malaria, as did Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. In the late 1800s, malaria was so bad in Washington, D.C., that one prominent physician lobbied—unsuccessfully—to erect a gigantic wire screen around the city. A million Union Army casualties in the U.S Civil War are attributed to malaria, and in the Pacific theater of World War II casualties from the disease exceeded those from combat. Some scientists believe that one out of every two people who have ever lived have died of malaria.
The first widely known remedy was discovered in present-day Peru and Ecuador. It was the bark of the cinchona tree, a close cousin of coffee. Local people called the remedy quina quina (bark of barks)—and it was later distributed worldwide as quinine. Word of the medicine, spread by Jesuit missionaries, reached a malaria-ravaged Italy in 1632, and demand became overwhelming. Harvested by indigenous laborers and carried to the Pacific coast for shipment to Europe, the bark sold for a fortune.
Several expeditions were dispatched to bring seeds and saplings back to Europe. After arriving in South America, the quinine hunters endured a brutal trek through the snow-choked passes of the Andes and down into the cloud forests where the elusive tree grew. Many perished in the effort. And even if the quinine hunters didn't die, the plants almost always did. For 200 years, until the cinchona tree was finally established on plantations in India, Sri Lanka, and Java, the only way to acquire the cure was directly from South America.
Quinine, which disrupts the malaria parasites' reproduction, has saved countless lives, but it has drawbacks. It is short-acting, and if taken too frequently can cause serious side effects, including hearing loss. In the 1940s, however, came the first of two extraordinary breakthroughs: A synthetic malaria medicine was introduced. The compound was named chloroquine, and it was inexpensive, safe, and afforded complete, long-lasting protection against all forms of malaria. In other words, it was a miracle.
The second innovation was equally miraculous. Swiss chemist Paul Müller discovered the insecticidal power of a compound called dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, better known as DDT. Müller was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in medicine for his discovery, for nothing in the history of insect control had ever worked like DDT. Microscopic amounts could kill mosquitoes for months, long enough to disrupt the cycle of malaria transmission. It lasted twice as long as the next best insecticide, and cost one-fourth as much.
Armed with the twin weapons of chloroquine and DDT, the World Health Organization in 1955 launched the Global Malaria Eradication Programme. The goal was to eliminate the disease within ten years. More than a billion dollars was spent. Tens of thousands of tons of DDT were applied each year to control mosquitoes. India, where malaria had long been a plague, hired 150,000 workers, full-time, to spray homes. Choroquine was widely distributed. It was probably the most elaborate international health initiative ever undertaken.
The campaign was inspired by early successes in Brazil and the United States. The U.S. had recorded millions of malaria cases during the 1930s, mostly in southern states. Then an intensive antimalaria program was launched. More than three million acres (1.2 million hectares) of wetlands were drained, DDT was sprayed in hundreds of thousands of homes, and in 1946 the Centers for Disease Control was founded in Atlanta specifically to combat malaria.
America's affluence was a major asset. Almost everyone could get to a doctor; windows could be screened; resources were available to bulldoze mosquito-breeding swamps. There's also the lucky fact that the country's two most common species of Anopheles mosquitoes prefer feeding on cattle rather than humans. By 1950, transmission of malaria was halted in the U.S.
The global eradication effort did achieve some notable successes. Malaria was virtually wiped out in much of the Caribbean and South Pacific, from the Balkans, from Taiwan. In Sri Lanka, there were 2.8 million cases of malaria in 1946, and a total of 17 in 1963. In India, malaria deaths plummeted from 800,000 a year to scarcely any.
But it was also clear that the campaign was far too ambitious. In much of the deep tropics malaria persisted stubbornly. Financing for the effort eventually withered, and the eradication program was abandoned in 1969. In many nations, this coincided with a decrease in foreign aid, with political instability and burgeoning poverty, and with overburdened public health services.
In several places where malaria had been on the brink of extinction, including both Sri Lanka and India, the disease came roaring back. And in much of sub-Saharan Africa, malaria eradication never really got started. The WHO program largely bypassed the continent, and smaller scale efforts made little headway.
Soon after the program collapsed, mosquito control lost access to its crucial tool, DDT. The problem was overuse—not by malaria fighters but by farmers, especially cotton growers, trying to protect their crops. The spray was so cheap that many times the necessary doses were sometimes applied. The insecticide accumulated in the soil and tainted watercourses. Though non-toxic to humans, DDT harmed peregrine falcons, sea lions, and salmon. In 1962 Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, documenting this abuse and painting so damning a picture that the chemical was eventually outlawed by most of the world for agricultural use. Exceptions were made for malaria control, but DDT became nearly impossible to procure. "The ban on DDT," says Gwadz of the National Institutes of Health, "may have killed 20 million children."
Then came the biggest crisis of all: widespread drug resistance. Malaria parasites reproduce so quickly that they evolve on fast-forward, constantly spinning out new mutations. Some mutations protected the parasites from chloroquine. The trait was swiftly passed to the next generation of parasites, and with each new exposure to chloroquine the drug-resistant parasites multiplied. Soon they were unleashing large-scale malaria epidemics for which treatment could be exceedingly difficult. By the 1990s, malaria afflicted a greater number of people, and was harder to cure, than ever.
The story of malaria is currently being written—by hand, in ballpoint pen—by the staff of Zambia's Kalene Mission Hospital. Every morning, soon after dawn, a nurse's aide who has just finished the night shift records a brief update on each child in the intensive care ward. The report is written on lined notebook paper and clipped into a weathered three-ring binder. The day workers add frequent notations on the small patient cards, kept at the nurses' station. Together, the night report and the cards form a compelling, immediate account of a deadly disease.
Many entries are simply terse, staccato jottings. "Mary: Has malaria. Unconscious." "Belinda: Malaria. Seizures." But others are far longer, enumerating clinical details about medicines and dosages and checkup times, as well as offering vivid glimpses into the struggle for survival in one of the world's most malarious places. Leaf the pages; flip through the cards—there are thousands upon thousands of entries—and the stories emerge.
Here's Methyline Kumafumbo, a skinny three-year-old who was taken to Kalene hospital by her grandmother. They journeyed ten miles (16 kilometers) from their home village, and by the time they arrived, malaria parasites had already latched onto Methyline's brain. "Admitted yesterday," the night report reads. "Fevers and seizures. Malaria." The right side of Methyline's head was shaved, and an IV line inserted. Quinine, which remains Kalene hospital's frontline drug for severe cases, was administered, dose after dose, each treatment dutifully recorded.
For almost a week, Methyline languished in a coma. A malarial coma can be a horrible thing to observe: arched back, rigid arms, twisted hands, pointed toes. A still life of agony. The reports continue their unblinking assessment. "Unconscious. Continues on IV quinine." "Still unconscious though not seizuring." "Still unconscious."
Then the seizures started again. There are times when the night report reads almost like a personal diary. "I was worried," the aide wrote about Methyline. "So I informed Sister"—the honorific bestowed on the hospital's two nurses—who came and ordered Valium, which was given with relief."
Finally, the entries turn hopeful. "She's opening up her eyes but she still looks cerebral." "Drinking and eating porridge." And then: "Is conscious and talking!!" Three days later, Methyline was released from the hospital. "Looking bright," says the report. "But still not walking well."
One insidious thing about malaria is that many who don't die end up scarred for life. "Her walking issues point to larger problems," Robert Gwadz says after reviewing the progression of Methyline's sickness. "She may have permanent neurological damage." This legacy of malaria has sobering repercussions for people and nations. "It's possible," says Gwadz, "that due to malaria, almost every child in Africa is in some way neurologically scarred."
And Methyline has to be considered one of the fortunate ones. The Kalene hospital night report is filled with heartbreak. Christabel: "The patient is in bad condition. Grunting and weary. Irregular breathing. Sister was informed. Midnight she collapsed and died. The body was taken home. May her soul Rest in Peace." There's an entry like this on nearly every page. Ronaldo: "Semi-conscious. IV for quinine. Seizure. Valium. Pain suppository. Fever. More pain suppository. At 0500 hrs, child had gasping respiration. Finally, child suddenly collapsed and died. His body was taken home."
All of Zambia, it seems—from the army to the Boy Scouts to local theater troupes—has been mobilized to stop malaria. In 1985, the nation's malaria-control budget was 30 thousand dollars. Now, supported with international grant money, it's more than 40 million. Posters have been hung throughout the country, informing people of malaria's causes and symptoms and stressing the importance of medical intervention. (The vast majority of the nation's malaria cases are never treated by professionals.) There are even Boy Scout merit badges for knowledge about malaria. Zambia's plan is to educate the public, then beat the disease through a three-pronged assault: drugs, sprays, and mosquito nets.
The country has dedicated itself to dispensing the newest malaria cure, which also happens to be based on one of the oldest—an herbal medicine derived from a weed related to sage-brush, sweet wormwood, called artemisia. This treatment was first described in a Chinese medical text written in the fourth century A.D. but seems to have been overlooked by the rest of the world until now. The new version, artemisinin, is as powerful as quinine with few of the side effects. It's the last remaining surefire malaria cure. Other drugs can still play a role in treatment, but the parasites have developed resistance to all of them, including quinine itself. To help reduce the odds that a mutation will also disarm artemisinin, derivatives of the drug are mixed with other compounds in an anti-malarial barrage known as artemisinin-based combination therapy, or ACT.
Zambia is also purchasing enough insecticide to spray every house in several of the most malarious areas every year, just before the rainy season. It has already returned to DDT—though just for indoor use, in controlled quantities. In the face of the growing malaria toll, access to DDT is gradually becoming easier, and even the Sierra Club does not oppose limited spraying for malaria control. Finally, the Zambian government is distributing insecticide-treated bed nets to ward off mosquitoes during the night, when the malaria-carrying Anopheles almost always bite.
The plan sounds straightforward, but progress against malaria never comes easily. Many Zambians living far from hospitals depend on roadside stalls for medicines. There, ACTs can cost more than a dollar a dose—virtually unaffordable in a country where more than 70 percent of the population survives on less than a dollar a day. So people buy other drugs, for as little as 15 cents. They provide temporary relief, reducing the malarial fever, but may do little to halt the parasites.
Then there are widespread traditional beliefs. One of the posters plastered across Zambia reads: "Malaria is not transmitted by witchcraft, drinking dirty water, getting soaked in rain, or chewing immature sugarcane." When children suffer from seizures—a symptom of advanced cerebral malaria—some parents interpret it as a hex and head straight to a traditional healer. By the time they make it to the hospital, it's too late.
Even the gift of a bed net can backfire. There's no question that the nets can save lives, especially the latest types, which are impregnated with insecticide. But first they need to reach the people most in need, and then they must be properly used. "Distributing nets to remote villages is a nightmare," says Malama Muleba, executive director of the nonprofit Zambia Malaria Foundation. "It's one thing for me to convince Bill and Melinda Gates to donate money, it's quite another to actually get the nets out."
The Zambian army has been employed to help, but even after delivery, people can be reluctant to sleep beneath nets, which make a hot and stuffy part of the world feel hotter and stuffier. If a leg pops out at night or the fabric is torn, mosquitoes can still reach the skin. And the nets are sometimes misused, as fishing gear. Theater troupes are spreading out into the Zambian countryside, emphasizing the proper use of bed nets through stage productions in settlements large and small.
Despite the difficulties, Zambia's campaign has started to produce results. In 2000, a study showed that fewer than 2 percent of children under the age of five slept under an insecticide-treated bed net. Six years later, the number had risen to 23 percent. The government of Zambia says an ACT known as Coartem is now available cost-free to the entire population. In a country that was steadily losing 50,000 children a year to malaria, early indications are that the death rate has already been reduced by more than a third.
But what if donor money dries up? What if Zambia's economy collapses? What about political instability? Both Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which flank Zambia, have a history of war. In the 1970s, during a civil war in Angola, six bombs landed near Kalene Mission Hospital; in the Congo war years some of the nearby roads were mined.
"This is a critical moment," says Kent Campbell, program director of the Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa. "There are no national models of success with malaria control in Africa. None. All we've seen is pessimism and failure. If Zambia is a success, it will have a domino effect. If it's a failure, donors will be discouraged and move on, and the problem will continue to get worse."
No matter how much time, money, and energy are expended on the effort, there still remains the most implacable of foes—biology itself. ACTs are potent, but malaria experts fear that resistance may eventually develop, depriving doctors of their best tool. Before the ban on DDT, there were already scattered reports of Anopheles mosquitoes resistant to the insecticide; with its return, there are sure to be more. Meanwhile, global warming may be allowing the insects to colonize higher altitudes and farther latitudes.
Drugs, sprays, and nets, it appears, will never be more than part of the solution. What's required is an even more decisive weapon. "When I look at the whole malaria situation," says Louis Miller, co-chief of the malaria unit at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, "it all seems to come down to one basic idea: We sure need a vaccine."
It's easy to list every vaccine that can prevent a parasitic disease in humans. There is none. Vaccines exist for bacteria and viruses, but these are comparatively simple organisms. The polio virus, for example, consists of exactly 11 genes. Plasmodium Falciparum has more than 5,000. It's this complexity, combined with the malaria parasite's constant motion—dodging like a fugitive from the mosquitoes to the human bloodstream to the liver to the red cells—that makes a vaccine fiendishly difficult to design.
Ideally, a malaria vaccine would provide lifelong protection. A lull of malaria transmission could cause many people to lose any immunity they have built up against the disease—even adults, immunologically speaking, could revert to infant status—rendering it more devastating if it returned. This is why a partial victory over malaria could be worse than a total failure. Falciparum also has countless substrains (each river valley seems to have its own type), and a vaccine has to block them all. And of course the vaccine can leave no opening for the parasite to develop a resistance. Creating a malaria vaccine is one of the most ambitious medical quests of all time.
Recent malaria history is fraught with grand pronouncements that turned out to be baseless. "MALARIA VACCINE IS NEAR." announced a New York Times headline in 1984. "This is the last major hurdle," said one U.S. scientist quoted in the article. "There is no question now that we will have a vaccine. The rest is fine-tuning." Seven years of fine-tuning later, another Times headline summarized the result: "EFFORT TO FIGHT MALARIA APPEARS TO HAVE FAILED." In the late 1990s, Colombian immunologist Manuel Patarroyo claimed, with much media fanfare, that he had found the answer to malaria with his vaccine, SPf-66. Early results were tantalizing, but follow-up studies in Thailand showed it worked no better than a placebo.
At least 90 teams around the world are now working on some aspect of a vaccine; the British government, by way of incentive, has pledged to help purchase hundreds of millions of doses of any successful vaccine, for donation to countries in need. The one closest to public release, developed by the pharmaceutical company Glaxo-SmithKline Biologicals in collaboration with the U.S. Army, is called RTS,S. In a recent trial in Mozambique, it protected about half the inoculated children from severe malaria for more than a year.
Fifty percent isn't bad—RTS,S might save hundreds of thousands of lives—but it's not the magic bullet that would neutralize the disease once and for all. Many researchers suspect an all-encompassing cure isn't possible. Malaria has always afflicted us, they say, and always will. There is one man, however, who not only believes malaria can be defeated, he thinks he knows the key.
Stephen Hoffman is the founder and CEO of the only company in the world dedicated solely to finding a malaria vaccine. The company's name is Sanaria—that is, "healthy air," the opposite of malaria. Hoffman is 58, lean and green-eyed, with a demeanor of single-minded intensity. "He's impassioned and impatient and intolerant of negativity," is how one colleague describes him.
Hoffman is intimately familiar with the pitfalls of the vaccine hunt. During his 14-year tenure as director of the malaria program at the Naval Medical Research Center, he was part of the team working on the vaccine promised in the 1984 New York Times article. He was so confident in the vaccine that he tested it on himself. He exposed himself to infected mosquitoes, then flew to a medical conference in California to deliver what he thought would be a triumphant presentation. The morning after he landed, he was already shaking and feverish—and, soon enough, suffering from full-blown malaria.
Now, more than two decades later, Hoffman is ready to return to prominence. He couldn't have found a more uninspiring launchpad: Sanaria is headquartered in a dismal mini-mall in suburban Maryland, near a picture-framing shop and a discount office-supply store. From outside, there's no mention of the company's mission. A window badly in need of washing bears the company name in tiny adhesive letters. Hoffman realizes it's probably best if the office-supply customers aren't fully aware of what's going on a few doors away.
Inside, generating a hubbub of activity, are some 30 scientists from across the globe. The lab's centerpiece is a room where Hoffman raises mosquitoes infected with the falciparum parasite—yes, in a quiet mini-mall. Hoffman claims it's the world's most secure insectary. To enter, a visitor must pass through multiple antechambers that are sealed between sets of doors, like a lock system in a canal. Every one has to wear white cotton overlayers, masks, shoe covers, and gloves. White makes it easier to see a stray mosquito. The air is recirculated, and the insectary is checked daily for leaks. Signs abound: "WARNING! WARNING! INFECTIOUS AGENT IN USE." And hanging on a wall is a time-honored last line of defense: a flyswatter.
The mosquitoes are housed in a few dozen cylindrical containers, about the size of beach buckets, covered with mesh lids. They're fed falciparum-infected blood, then stored for two weeks while the parasites propagate in the insects' gut and migrate to the salivary glands, creating what are known as "loaded" mosquitoes. The loaded insects are transferred carefully to a kiln-like irradiator to be zapped with a quick dose of radiation. Then, in a special dissecting lab, the salivary glands of the mosquitoes are removed. Each mosquito's glands contain more than 100,000 parasites. Essentially, the vaccine consists of these irradiated parasites packed into a hypodermic needle.
The idea is based on research done in the late 1960s at New York University by Ruth Nussenzweig, who demonstrated that parasites weakened by radiation can prompt an immune response in mice without causing malaria. Hoffman's vaccine will deliver the wallop of a thousand mosquito bites and, he says, produce a complete protective response. Thereafter, any time the vaccinated person is bitten by a malaria-carrying mosquito, the body, already in a state of alert, will not allow the disease to take hold.
Hoffman's lofty goal is to eventually immunize all 25 million infants born in sub-Saharan Africa every year. He believes that at least 90 percent of them will be protected completely from malaria. If so, they'll be the first generation of Africans, in all of human history, not to suffer from the disease.
But which generation will it be? Although Sanaria's vaccine may undergo initial field testing next year, a federally approved version won't be available for at least five years—and maybe never. Given the track record of malaria vaccines, that's a distinct possibility. After so many million years on Earth and so many victories over humanity, the disease, it is certain, will not surrender easily.
When it comes to malaria, only one thing is guaranteed: Every evening in the rainy season across much of the world, Anopheles mosquitoes will take wing, alert to the odors and warmth of living bodies. A female Anopheles needs to drink blood every three days. In a single feeding, which lasts as long as ten minutes, she can ingest about two and a half times her pre-meal weight—in human terms, the equivalent of downing a bathtub-size milk shake.
If she happens to feed on a person infected with malaria, parasites will accompany the blood. Two weeks later, when the mosquito flies through the open window of a mud hut, seeking her next meal, she'll be loaded.
Inside the hut, a child is sleeping with her sister and parents on a blanket spread over the floor. The family is aware of the malaria threat; they know of the rainy season's dangers. They've hung a bed net from the ceiling. But it's a steamy night, and the child has tossed and turned a few times before dropping back to sleep. Her foot is sticking out of the net. The mosquito senses it, and dips down for a silent landing.
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Views: 11027
I'm more in the middle. I'm not hiding it, but to be honest I'm not the type to say out loud that I'm atheist unless someone asks me what my beliefs are...it could be partly because I'm really shy.
They were removed because someone thought they were off topic. I thought they were relative, because we throw these terms around as though everyone has a grasp on what they mean, so discussion on defining these terms a bit further, I think, is highly relative to this topic.
Half in the closet. I've been agnostic for some time, but have been part of a couple of pagan communities. Most people know me as an agnostic pagan, but I haven't come completely out about being an atheist. I haven't worshipped any gods since my 20's (I'm 41) and I doubt that when I do finally tell my family that it will come as a surprise. One of my closest friends, who happens to be borderline Evangelical Christian, already knows. She didn't have a problem with it (she's not the type to try to convert people). I don't see this affecting anyone any more than when I told them I had joined a Pagan group.
When it comes to discussion about religion, I'm all in.
Well I'm not in the closet. If anyone asks me I won't hide what my beliefs are. Same thing with family, although they are more in denial (The younger ones know and accept it; they don't give me any problems at all). I used to be in the closet for a long time then realized it makes no sense worrying about offending people when it means you can't even be true to yourself. Where I live, you will get scorned for it but its not as bad as say, a Muslim dominant country... If they aren't afraid to go door to door waking people up 6 in the morning than I sure as hell won't be afraid to voice my own opinion when the situation arises...
I like your enthusiasm and confidence and know you have the strength to stand up to opposition. You can be proud.
im semi too. there are certain people in my life who have known me for a long time. they at some point figured out i was an athiest. either i told them or they did the math. i dont broadcast my lack of faith. though there are people mostly from my work who have known me for a while and dont know. it seems as though a lot of people at my work are very religious and outspoken about it. im not sure i would like for these people to find this about me. i however think that im a ticking bomb sometimes. i think in the right circumstance i would probaly exspose myself.
I hope when religious people discuss their beliefs at work you will be able to calmly and rationally state your beliefs, with the knowledge that you have the ability to reason for yourself, think through the evidence and arrive at your conclusion, without feeling defensive.
I like discussing my thoughts with people of faith who are able to stay rational. If they don't like what I say, or try to bully me into submission, I know I deal with factors deep within their minds that cause them to protect themselves, even as they can't produce evidence that makes sense.
This video offers an example of Richard Dawkins' debating style with John Lennox. He debates on debate points and stays calm as Lennox debates on issues of faith. Oxford Museum of Natural History hosts this fascinating and controversial debate on the existence of God.
Has Science Buried God (John Lennox vs Richard Dawkins) FULL DEBATE
From my perspective, to believe in god gives meaning to some people's lives. I don't think existence works that way. Life is, has evolved from simpler forms, and we exist as part of all that is, made of the basic elements of the universe. Our time as "being" is very short and each moment is precious. The purpose of life is not to please god or anyone, it is to be. That is what life is, being. The simple fact of being is my meaning and purpose and opportunity. My senses experience life by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling with my skin and feeling with my heart.
Think through the different issues that come up with those who believe god exists, who answers prayers and keeps track of our sex lives. Figure out what you think and then stand proudly, firmly, confidently and competently on your values.
I am 76 years old and have an 86 year old relative who is convinced he will bring about my conversion before one of us dies. His wife tells him not to discuss religion around me, but I seem to be like a flame to his miller. He gives the nice hug and greeting and then starts asking me if I have met my lord, or if I have come to reason. I respond as clearly as I possibly can to each of his comment, exhortations, and frustrations. Generally, he turns in exasperation and walks away. The next time I see him he has a beautiful or whimsical birdhouse for me. The next time we are together, we have the loving greetings and usual starting conversations, and then he starts in all over again, with the same questions, the same imperatives, the same frustrations, and next visit I get a birdhouse.
I'm becoming more open now.
Steph, how do you feel when you do reveal your status? Are you OK?
I can't say I understand this "being in the closet" completely, however one must be carefull not to bring your status into the conversation prematurely as you may lose ground and start looking like an attraction seeker. Maybe my view differs slightly because I come from a country with a secular based constitution. The topic has been debated in government concerning religious public holidays (easter and christmas) and its legitimacy/ fairness. The christian faith is by far the majority, however this is a country of multiple significant religious groups. On the topic of GOD I would just like to add my latest thoughts. The GOD personality that has been created by this collection of "byble" books depicts god as black and white. There are no mitigating circumstances, you are guilty, even for the apparent wrongs of your parents, you will burn. It sounds somewhat like the whims and wishes of emperors and the likes of those days. The creators of this god knew no better, yet religionists today still buy into it believing the character of god was revealed through god himself to them. It boggles my mind.
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This skillet dinner has it all - orzo, bacon and asparagus blended in a quick meal.
Asiago is an Italian cow's milk cheese. It's rich nutty flavor sharpens as the cheese ages. Young Asiago makes a mild table cheese while aged Asiago is a flavorful grating cheese. Try aged asiago in place of Parmesan in your favorite recipes.
It's easy to roast a red bell pepper for this recipe. Securely pierce a pepper through the stem with a fork and hold it over a gas burner flame, rotating it until it's blackened on all sides.
Immediately transfer the pepper to a small paper bag; close the bag. let the pepper steam in the bag for 5 minutes, then peel it.
© 2017 ®/TM General Mills All Rights Reserved


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Hi codic. Hopefully you get a chance to read this. First I'll comment on the C/C++ thing :-) I'll be the first to admit that I know C better than I know C++, but I feel that I am a fairly competent C++ coder and am comfortable writing from a C++-mindset (as opposed to a C-mindset). Feel free to quiz me about C++. I'm actually in the middle of a C++ project (the xbattle stuff that I mention in my diary). I could send you code if you are interested...
Concerning the rating system, one of the points that I tried to get across in my diary entry is that I don't think that Advogato's rating system is set up to handle a negative rating. EBay can deal with a negative rating because of the way in which people are allowed to rate each other.
codic said:
I also feel that a rating system that allowed negative ratings would be most effective if everyone could rate users, but the weighting of a user's rating (I can't help but notice that that rhymes) should be proportional to their status (i.e., a rating coming from a Master should mean much more than a rating coming from an Outcast).
I would have to diagree. If I'm not mistaken, this was exactly the case when Advogato brought in the Dimwit rating. A Master could demote an Observer with one click, but a whole swarm of Observers couldn't touch a Master's rating.
By only allowing positive ratings, one encourages people to value their account---switching to a new account wouldn't do anything productive. If one wants to create a real "community," an important thing is to make people value their accounts. The "community" can become very artificial if people frequently change accounts to avoid negative ratings.


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By Brad Locke/NEMS Daily Journal
STARKVILLE – Kendall Graveman vividly recalls sitting in the dugout at Florida's McKethan Stadium two years ago, glumly watching Florida celebrate a super regional victory over Mississippi State. He does not want a repeat of that simmering day in Gainesville.
"That taste is still in your mouth," Graveman said. "You don't ever lose sight of that, no matter now long you play. The guys that were on that team, we still remember that feeling that we sat there in Gainesville in the other dugout and just sat after the game.
"That's one thing you don't lose sight of."
Graveman and the No. 14-ranked Bulldogs have another crack at a super regional when they play Virginia this weekend. Game 1 in Charlottesville is set for noon Central time Saturday.
Two wins, and MSU (46-18) will find itself in the College World Series for the ninth time in program history. But Virginia poses a formidable obstacle.
The No. 6 Cavaliers (50-10) have exceeded expectations this season, finishing second in the ACC Coastal Division despite a relatively young roster. They hit .313 as a team, led by sophomore Mike Papi, who's hitting .393 with six home runs and 55 RBIs.
"They have the flexibility to be left-handed and right-handed against you. They started five left-handed hitters against the right-handed pitcher from Army," MSU coach John Cohen said. "So just watching them on film they're a great club, they don't make mistakes. They're very good at home."
Virginia is 35-3 at home this season, and those losses came by a combined four runs.
UVA plays at the very roomy Davenport Field, which measures 335 feet down the lines, 377 to the gaps, and 408 to center field. That means the Cavaliers rely less on power and more on stringing together hits and using speed on the basepaths.
That's MSU's style as well, so the Bulldogs should feel comfortable at this ballpark.
"It's going to be a line drive, groundball ballpark, and that's how our team's made," MSU outfielder Hunter Renfroe said. "Every once in a while you hit one, it may leave the park, but that's not what we're looking for."
On the mound, the Cavs are led by left-handers Scott Silverstein (10-1, 2.86 ERA) and Brandon Waddell (6-2, 3.80).
Coach Brian O'Connor has a solid bullpen, too, with closer Kyle Crockett notching 12 saves so far this year.
"They've got a lot of left-handed pitching. They're going to try to get ahead of us, bury the breaking ball," Renfroe said.
It's a tough matchup, but one Graveman is eager for. The super regional loss two years ago is on his mind this week, and he's going to make sure the younger players have the right mindset in Charlottesville.
"We didn't finish in Gainesville that year," he said, "but for this year that may be one of the words that we use for the younger guys, is, hey, it's not over. You get a lead, anything – anything can happen this time of year."


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Sending you a PM, will pot my fabrics in a couple minutes...
Rosie the Wyldwytch
Welcome to the Quilting Board!
Sending you a PM, will pot my fabrics in a couple minutes...
Rosie the Wyldwytch
Grab a bull by the horns and enjoy the ride....
Sending you a PM...
Here are my fabrics minus the two orange batiks.
Rosie the Wyldwytch
Grab a bull by the horns and enjoy the ride....
So sorry to miss this - would have been fun except for the time zone issue! Off to Berlin on Friday but will take the iPad. Lots of luck and look forward to seeing pics of finished projects. Jacki
me 2. Look forward to seeing how it goes.
HELLO! it is Tuesday, couple days left till our retreat looking forward to seeing more fabric selections.
I have emailed the PDF version of the instructions to everyone who PM'd me an address. For security sake, I sent all the email as BCC, wasnt sure if anyone was worried about that or not, figured it would be best choice.
Let me know if you have any questions HUGS!
First time trying to upload a picture.
I did it. I am so darned impressed with myself!
No one has ever become poor by giving. - Anne Frank
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thanks Aunt Piggy. I chose my fabric from my stash since I have declared a fabric purchase moratorium, two months and counting. Only after I chose did I realize that everyone, except one, opted for the same colors. How many green or purple bathrooms are out there?
Count me in! I'm using fabric from my stash that I won't be missing much. I'll be making a couple of these mats for my dogs. They have raised cots, day care cots, that they've been sleeping on. A couple days ago I removed the nasty foam pads from the top and pitched them. Now one of the two spoiled princesses will not use the cots. These mats should work out great, as I will be able to throw them in the wash when they are dirty. Believe me, they will get dirty! That's why I chose some dark fabrics that I won't miss.
Thank you Carolyn, it sounds like a lot of fun! Tracy. Here's my fabric choices:


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- Home
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OSU's International Degree is a unique double-degree undergraduate option for current OSU students. The International Degree, started in 1992, was designed to take the education abroad experience further, through advanced language proficiency, increased cultural awareness and a comprehensive analysis of international reach of academic study. Students enrolled in the International Degree program receive a supplementary degree, titled as a "Bachelor of Arts in International Studies" in their primary major field.


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And now for some really disturbing news. Even vice is getting gripped by the downturn. Yes, first we get a report that Playboy Magazine is taking such losses that it may be forced to sell out.
Then, a report circulates that the bordellos of Las Vegas have fallen on soft times. The truckers and tourists who used to frequent them no longer have the dough. The poor girls just sit around...waiting for the phone to ring.
And now cometh from England news that cocaine has fallen in price. It's now cheaper than beer, says the Telegraph. Either the supply has increased, or the demand has fallen; we don't know which. "What's the world coming to when cocaine is cheaper than beer or wine," writes a friend. "Looks like we'll have to change our vices, to economize..."
But here at The Daily Reckoning, we remain loyal to the old-fashioned vices. We're not going to give up alcohol just because it's become more expensive than hard drugs. We'll stick to booze, thank you. Besides, a man who isn't faithful to his vices is prey to every bad habit that comes along. You can't trust him.
Yo, KJ...say it ain't so. I haven't visited your 'bordellos' in several years, so I'm not sure if this report is correct or not.
But like my friend Bill Bonner, I'm sticking with booze. I CAN be trusted.


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New Scientific Data Supports Previous Fairewinds Analysis, As Contamination Spreads In Japan And Worldwide
– New Data Supports Previous Fairewinds Analysis, as Contamination Spreads in Japan and Worldwide:
New Data Supports Previous Fairewinds Analysis, as Contamination Spreads in Japan and Worldwide from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.
Newly released neutron data from three University of California San Diego scientists confirms Fairewinds' April analysis that the nuclear core at Fukushima Daiichi turned on and off after TEPCO claimed its reactors had been shutdown. This periodic nuclear chain reaction (inadvertent criticality) continued to contaminate the surrounding environment and upper atmosphere with large doses of radioactivity.
In a second area of concern, Fairewinds disagrees the NRC's latest report claiming that all Fukushima spent fuel pools had no problems following the earthquake. In a new revelation, the NRC claims that the plutonium found more than 1 mile offsite actually came from inside the nuclear reactors. If such a statement were true, it indicates that the nuclear power plant containments failed and were breached with debris landing far from the power plants themselves. Such a failure of the containment system certainly necessitates a complete review of all US reactor containment design and industry assurances that containments will hold in radioactivity in the event of a nuclear accident. The evidence Fairewinds reviewed to date continues to support its April analysis that the detonation in the Unit 3 Spent Fuel pool was the cause of plutonium found off site.
Third, the burning of radioactive materials (building materials, trees, lawn grass, rice straw) by the Japanese government will cause radioactive Cesium to spread even further into areas within Japan that have been previously clean, and across the Pacific Ocean to North America.
And finally, the Japanese government has yet to grasp the severity of the contamination within Japan, and therefore has not developed a coherent plan mitigate the accident and remediate the environment. Without a cohesive plan to deal with this ongoing problem of large scale radioactive contamination, the radioactivity will continue to spread throughout Japan and around the globe further exacerbating the problem and raising costs astronomically.
Tags: Environment, Fukushima, Global News, Government, Health, Japan, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Politics, Radiation, Society, U.S.
One Response to "New Scientific Data Supports Previous Fairewinds Analysis, As Contamination Spreads In Japan And Worldwide"
Marilyn Gjerdrum Says:
August 23rd, 2011 at 12:14 pm
The fact this information is not on the front page of every news source is criminal. The Japanese are making the problem for the entire world worse. There is no credibility in our leaders. The corporate oligarchy has control of western Civilization in Europe, North America, USA, Japan……this will cause the death of millions. It might even kill the corporate stooges hiding this information and allowing Japan to burn the waste, pouring it into the atmosphere once again. It is insanity.
Thanks for staying on this story, nobody else has the courage.
Marilyn Gjerdrum


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Apologies for the YouTube fail. Feel free to skip the dead air from 5:33 to 8:13.
Here is the video that didn't show in the Hangout:
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Q1 Feasible? Q2 providing it has no drastic flaws in this idea.... would that be less or more efficient?
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Updated on 29 April 2013
Ms Anne Trimmer, CEO, Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA), Australia
The Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA) is the national association of Australia representing companies in the medical technology industry. MTAA aims to ensure the benefits of modern, innovative and reliable medical technology are delivered effectively to provide better health outcomes to the Australian community. Ms Anne Trimmer, CEO, Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA), speaks about the latest developments in Australia's medical technology industry and about MTAA future plans.
What is the total number of members of Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA)? What is the eligibility to become a member? What is the size of the medical technology industry in Australia?
The Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA) has currently 77 members and 10 associate members. The membership represents approximately 75 percent of the products listed on the private health insurance Prostheses List and approximately half of all medical products in the Australian market. Membership is open to all medical technology companies and subsidiaries in Australia. The size of the medical technology industry is estimated to be around $10 billion (AUS $10 billion).
Could you tell us about the major focus areas of MTAA?
MTAA focuses on public affairs and advocacy relevant to the industry. These focus on market access, commercial and regulatory issues, and on policies to advance growth of the industry. MTAA also administers the Medical Technology Industry Code of Practice, a self-regulatory industry code of ethics that regulates the interactions between industry and healthcare professionals, and (if applicable) consumers. MTAA delivers a range of professional development, communication and networking opportunities.
Could you kindly elaborate on the major developments, activities and achievements of MTAA in the last two years?
Over the past two years, MTAA has contributed significantly to policy development in the area of market access for technologies in the public and private health systems. Because of the duality of public and private systems in Australia, pathways to market are quite different. Both face challenges in the sustainability of healthcare delivery. MTAA's participation on an extensive range of policy committees ensures MTAA actively contributes to the development of policies in areas such as HTA, regulatory reforms, and private health insurance reimbursement. Other activities include the continuous development and review of ethical principles that underpin the industry self-regulatory Code of Practice.
Over the past two years MTAA has developed its Value of Technology (VOT) project to establish the cost-effectiveness of specific medical technologies. The research has supported submissions to government and has been used in advocacy activity. In 2012 MTAA developed a strategic industry policy agenda to increase government awareness of the industry's economic contribution and to argue for increased support for the development of the Australian medical technology sector. MTAA released a white paper Building a sustainable Australian medical technology industry as a roadmap for government and industry to work together more strategically to develop the policy levers industry needs to achieve growth in the sector.
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I really like this new forum! It has taken me a while to figure it out but I really like it. It seems much easier to navigate and I like the copy/paste feature that's available now.
Thank you to the T&TH staff for making this available to us.
Thanks again,


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The Druze, a religious minority that lives in harmony in Israel, is an ethnic group known for their hospitality and warm welcome of visitors. The fascinating history of this group, its unique religion, ancient tradition and delightful hospitality customs arouse natural curiosity and a desire to learn more, to visit Druze villages for a closer look at their special lifestyle and customs.
The Druze live in a few villages in Israel, most of them in the Golan Heights (Majdal Shams, Buq'ata and Ein Qinya, among others) and in the Carmel region (Isfiya and Daliat El Carmel). The Druze have become known far and wide thanks to the warm welcome offered to guests visiting the villages.
The foundation of this hospitality is a tradition of great respect for guests and the desire to give. The doors to Druze homes will always be open to your, and if you ask politely to visit in one of the home, you will not be refused. On the contrary, you will be warmly welcomed. Members of the extended family will appear from all the rooms and join the fun, offering coffee, beverages and fruit from their own orchard, and the table will soon be groaning with delicacies.
Only Druze priests know all the details of their religion, but all Druze are familiar with their culture, including their handicrafts and ethnic foods, which are a source of pride. Their openness toward tourists has developed in recent years, and many villages have special hospitality tents where visitors can taste the traditions and glimpse the authentic Druze life style.
Some of the villages, such as Usfiya and Daliat El-Carmel have developed local ethnic tourism, which combines a Druze dining experience with overnight stays in guest houses and a visit to the colorful open markets that are so characteristic of this ethnic group and are another special aspect of Druze hospitality.
The Druze villages now offer visitors a host of activities: lectures on the Druze religion and its prophets, customs and beliefs, and the transmigration of souls and discussions of the status of Druze women, education toward equality between the sexes and their roles. There are also workshops that teach the colorful embroidery and handicrafts at which the women are so expert and cooking workshops that offer a taste of authentic Druze dishes and an opportunity to try your hand at making the paper thin Druze bread, the perfect accompaniment to olive oil, labane and ground hyssop. This is one experience you will never forget.


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Started coding on IRM again, wanted to test out some abstraction's on getting results out of MySQL, so I wrote Quotes System(http://happybox.org/quotes/) It was kinda fun. I've since come up with bunches of ideas for it in the TODO file, but I'm sure it will be a while before I get around to coding on it anymore.
PHP is kinda fun to write, but I keep finding myself screwing up the syntax, cause I've been spoiled after writing in python for so long. I guess one of these days I might actually be able to code something decent.
It's still hard for me to code. I have to use a lot of brain power to come up with simple algorithm's, etc. But I kinda enjoy it. Which is scary, I've never used to enjoy coding.
Anyways today is bill paying and visiting the doctor day, hopefully I'll get some more on IRM done, I need to have it useable for next week(tuesday). we'll see I'm thinking it needs a re-write, but I'm not that energetic.


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ACHICA > Lisbeth Dahl > Lisbeth Dahl Oval Clear Glass Box, Harlequin Pattern
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Somalia: Caring for children affected by conflict and drought
Jawle camp lies on a windswept plain north of the town of Garowe, in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland. Some 1,500 displaced families from all over the country live in temporary shelters at the camp. Many have travelled great distances to escape conflict or severe food shortages in their villages to enjoy the relative security of Garowe.
Most of those living in Jawle are women and children. The men, who arrived at the camp with their families earlier this year, have returned to their farms for Somalia's main planting season in April and May.
Alafia and her children travelled for 10 days overland from Mogadishu, the capital, to reach Garowe. Her husband, a stonemason, stayed behind in Mogadishu to look for work. Alafia is now left to provide for her young children.
"I would like to go back to Mogadishu, but must remain here and do my best for the children," said Alafia, a 28-year-old mother of four. "My husband continues to look for work at home, but we cannot afford to return."
Until recently, the camp offered few services for the families. But Save the Children worked closely with the community to access funding through the OCHA-managed Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF) to improve conditions, particularly for children.
The NGO recently set up a Child-Friendly Space (CFS), where children from the camp receive informal schooling as part of a feeding programme. The CFS is still in its initial stages and caters for 50 children a day, but it is expected to expand its services to benefit more of the 650 children registered in the camp.
Conflict can have overwhelming and emotionally devastating effects on children. The CFS provides a sanctuary, with psychosocial support delivered through structured and supervised play and learning activities. It provides a place to relieve stress and fear, and an opportunity to recover through a sense of normalcy.
The regular school in Garowe is out of reach for many of the camp's children. "I can't send the children to school because it is too far away," Alafia said. "As soon as space becomes available, I want my children to attend school here at the camp."
Save the Children provides monthly food rations and treatment for malnourished children. It is also working to provide latrines and fencing for the camp's residents.
Reporting by OCHA Somalia/ Orla Fagan
More >> Somalia Humanitarian Update (Source: Reliefweb) - OCHA Somalia


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The Life for a Child Programme would like to acknowledge the generous support of associations, companies, individuals and families around the world. Their contributions enable the Programme to help more and more children with diabetes in developing countries to receive the clinical care and diabetes education they require to stay alive.
Partners and major contributors
Other supporters
Non-Government Organisations
Associazione Medici Diabetologi (AMD)
Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes (BDC)
Caring & Living as Neighbours (CLAN)
Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute
Children with Diabetes
Crumlin Diabetes Centre Parents Group
Diabeter-Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes Care and Research, the Netherlands
Diabetes Australia
Diabetes Education and Camping Association (DECA)
Diabetes Hands Foundation
Direct Relief International
Dutch Diabetes Association (Diabetesvereniging Nederland)
Finnish Diabetes Association (Suomen Diabetesliitto)
Foundation of European Nurses in Diabetes (FEND)
HOPE worldwide ltd. (in USA and Philippines)
Luxembourg Diabetes Association (Association Luxembourgeoise de Diabète)
Macquarie University
Marjorie's Fund
Partnering for Diabetes Change (US Online Diabetes Communities)
Rotary International
Stichting Sugarfriends
Swedish Diabetes Association (Svenska Diabetesförbundet) and Ung Diabetes
T1D Exchange
University of Florida
University of Pittsburgh
Young Diabetes Sweden (Ung Diabetes), part of the Swedish Diabetes Association (Svenska Diabetesförbundet)
Becton Dickinson
Boehringer Ingelheim
DSV Healthcare
Gattorna Alignment
Landmark Group
Ranbaxy Laboratories
Sanofi Diabetes
Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics
Team Type 1


text: Brian, good points and logic don't count with the libs. Their irrational hatred of all things conservative knows no bounds especially if it comes from something they fear... an attractive woman, who is well eduacated (an attorney), and is not afraid of them. They will continue to attack her while frothing at the mouth just as they do with Palin. Like a pack of crazed animals... Obamazombies or whatever you want to call them.


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EU Objects To UMG's Purchase Of EMI
June 20, 2012 -- 9:33 am
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EU Objects To UMG's Purchase Of EMI
Following news earlier this year that Universal Music Group will sell three of its publishing catalogs to help finance its November 2011 acquisition of EMI Music's recorded music division, the European Commission has reportedly released their objections to the label's $1.9 bid, according to a Reuters report. The commission is examining the proposed takeover, with some regulators expressing concern over the market power the combined group would have. UMG could potentially offer to sell additional catalogs or offer licensing details with better terms to rival online services to ensure the deal is approved. The commission is expected to make a decision by Sept. 6. (6/20)


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For Technical Specifications, please refer to the Catalog or Installation documents on the Literature tab.


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Sir Mildred Pierce CC via Flickr
A Curious Apology
Dear Alibi,
In a letter to the Alibi (Nov. 28-Dec. 4, p. 6), former UNM President F. Chris Garcia offers an apology for "discomfort, embarrassment or pain" that he caused by his involvement in the website of Southwest Companions, a meeting locus for local men and traveling sex workers. I believe in second chances, and since he seems free of charges under New Mexico law, he deserves to be presumed innocent. However, the professor "protests too much" about his lack of responsibility for abetting prostitution in Albuquerque from his UNM office.
Dr. Garcia insists that he was "never a partner or associate" of Mr. Flory, nor was he "involved" in the recruitment or trafficking of women. From his letter it is hard to know what his role in the enterprise was beyond "being on that website," although he does express regret for his "uncharacteristic, inappropriate and aberrant behavior." One wonders if and how he profited from the business. Was it just a hobby? Or did he consider it to be a community service?
I knew Chris for most of his years as a faculty member (while he was running a polling organization), later as Dean, Provost and President. I believe that, as a local Hispanic, he was underpaid in the last position. Present administrators receive high enough salaries and retirement so they should not have to supplement their pensions with similar undertakings. As for his exile from the UNM campus, I have no opinion; but I recall that Bob Anderson of Stop the War Machine suffered a similar ban as a result of bravely expressing his anti-war feelings at a public meeting. That ban was entirely unjust.
—Philip K. Bock, UNM Professor Emeritus
No Perfect Proximity
Dear Alibi,
Twice in the past eight months, Monte Vista Elementary School has been put on lockdown due to dangerous people and situations directly related to its proximity to the New Mexico Corrections Department Adult Probation and Parole Office (3010 Monte Vista NE). The latest incident on Nov. 21, where two pipe bombs were found across the street from a kindergarten playground where dozens of 5 or 6-year-olds have recess, resulted in a 2-hour shelter in place and increased anxiety and fear amongst children, teachers and parents.
Luckily nobody was injured during these incidents, but it seems that it is only a matter of time before one of these dangerous situations results in serious harm coming to the several hundred children that attend Monte Vista, or their teachers. Unfortunately these incidents are becoming so frequent that the reaction to them is often a shrug of the shoulders and moving on to the next news story.
I understand that NMCD has been trying to move this office for some time and that there is resistance to moving it downtown due to its proximity to youth programs nearby. I don't advocate that the office be moved there for the same reasons that it doesn't belong in its current location, and NMCD needs to carefully consider where the office is ultimately moved to. But since this resistance was raised last summer, the current solution seems to be inertia. While decision makers sit on their hands, these children are in danger.
This level of risk is unacceptable and unnecessary. Elementary school children and adult probationers and parolees do not belong on the same street. Already, in just four days, over 200 parents of Monte Vista Elementary School children and other concerned neighbors have signed a petition at change.org to demand that APS, NMCD and other decision makers put the safety of our children first and do everything in their power to move the office immediately. This needs to happen as soon as possible, and we will continue to raise awareness and exert pressure until NMCD moves this office to an appropriate location.
—Scott Cameron
Mina Yamishita's Obituary
Dear Alibi,
Thank you for publishing Mina's obituary. The Alibi is where Mina did most of her writing and had her greatest following. It would have meant a lot to her.
—Michael Wing
Watching the Wells
Dear Alibi,
David Correia's cover article on the Kirtland fuel spill (Nov. 28 edition) sheds valuable light on a critical environmental issue that has been a priority for me during my tenure as a County Commissioner and member of the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority Board. Because it represents such an enormous potential threat to our groundwater supply, the "bulk fuels spill" has been a subject of great concern for the water utility over the past several years.
I think it's important to correct a misperception that may have been left by the article's statement that if ethylene dibromide (EDB) "migrated into existing drinking water wells, we wouldn't know." In fact, the Water Authority tests its Ridgecrest wells regularly for EDB at a more stringent level of sensitivity than that required under the Safe Drinking Water Act, with no detections to date. In addition, the Water Authority paid the United States Geological Service (USGS) to drill and monitor an independent well between the known area of contamination and the drinking water wells to provide an early warning in the event the contamination continues to migrate towards them. There have been no detections of contamination at any level at the new monitoring well.
If contamination of the Water Authority wells becomes imminent, those production wells will be taken out of service long before we allow any EDB to enter the water supply. Clearly surrendering access to that section of the aquifer would be a great loss to our community's drinking water supply. That is why the Water Utility Board will continue to pressure the New Mexico Environment Department and the Air Force to fulfill their commitments to mitigate the fuel spill before this occurs.
Although the Water Authority has no direct role in the remediation process, we will continue to provide expertise and support as they endeavor to resolve this profoundly important problem.
—Maggie Hart Stebbins, Board Member for Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority
What About the Doves?
Dear Alibi,
It came as a great, not nice, surprise when I was called upon to accept a "wedding dove" into the Heart and Soul Animal Sanctuary from a wildlife rehabilitation service.
The so-termed "wedding dove" had been released as a symbol of perfection and peace. But the pure white dove fell to the ground somewhere and was attacked by a dog who pulled out all the feathers on its back as well as the tail feathers.
I accepted the dove, which is actually a rock pigeon, bred to be pure white. The wounds were so extensive, I brought the downed dove to the Smith Veterinary Hospital in hopes of rehabilitation. There, Dr. Julie Blossom assumed responsibility for our dove, "Dew Drop," and she did an admirable job of rehabilitating her.
After several hospital days, which included antibiotic injections in Dew Drop's chest, Dew Drop was flourishing with fluffy new feathers on her back. Dr. Blossom said I could now bring Dew Drop back to the Sanctuary. She would run, hop, jump and flutter about, but was still unable to fly.
This inhumane practice of releasing doves at weddings is lucrative for wedding services. But ornithologists, biologists and bird lovers worldwide are shocked by the selfish inhumanity of this trend.
If these doves were all trained homing pigeons and could fly away from the wedding and find their way home again, that would pose less of a problem, humanely and ethically.
Our rescued Dew Drop is not a homing pigeon … and, according to one ornithologist, was probably inbred to the point where she cannot fly well.
The doves released at weddings are not native species. Where can they go? And what will they eat? Where is their family, their flock, their own kind? Death is inevitable.
According to one professional dove keeper, "This is like murdering the birds; I won't work with those people." In the words of the Cornell ornithologist: "It is ridiculous, putting those birds out there to die."
This practice of abusing an innocent bird to the extent that it dies at the feet of human arrogance casts a very dark cloud over the entire event.
The beautiful bird is sacrificed and for what? Are humans really entitled to do this?
—Natalie Owings, Director of the Heart and Soul Animal Sanctuary, Santa Fe
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Music's Biggest Night, the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards, will air live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
In the weeks leading up to the telecast, we will take a stroll through some of the golden moments in GRAMMY history with the GRAMMY Rewind, highlighting the "big four" categories — Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist — in 10-year increments before capping off with a look at the last five years. In the process, we'll discuss the winners and the nominees who just missed taking home a GRAMMY, while also shining a light on the artists' careers and the eras in which the recordings were born.
Join us as we take an abbreviated journey through the trajectory of pop music from the 1st Annual GRAMMY Awards in 1959 to this year's 53rd telecast. Today, the GRAMMY Awards celebrates its 40th anniversary.
40th Annual GRAMMY Awards
Feb. 25, 1998
Album Of The Year
Winner: Bob Dylan, Time Out Of Mind
Babyface, The Day
Paula Cole, This Fire
Paul McCartney, Flaming Pie
Radiohead, Ok Computer
The venerable Dylan edged out a diverse field in claiming his second Album Of The Year award for Time Out Of Mind, produced by Daniel Lanois. (His first came in 1972 for his participation on The Concert For Bangla Desh.) Dylan's unforgettable performance on the telecast included an encounter with a stage crasher bearing the words "Soy Bomb" on his torso. Smooth R&B songwriter/producer Babyface made the cut with The Day, which featured the touching title track written about the day his then-wife Tracey Edmonds told him she was pregnant with their first child, Brandon. Babyface won back-to-back Producer Of The Year awards in 1995 and 1996. Singer/songwriter Cole, who impressively scored nods in all four General Field categories, was recognized for her sophomore album. Current MusiCares Person of the Year honoree McCartney, who won Album Of The Year 30 years prior with his friends from Liverpool, was cited for Flaming Pie, a stripped-down song cycle inspired by the then-recent GRAMMY-winning The Beatles Anthology. Though Radiohead would lose out in this category, the British alternative rockers won their first GRAMMY for Best Alternative Music Performance.
Record Of The Year
Winner: Shawn Colvin, "Sunny Came Home"
Paula Cole, "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?"
Sheryl Crow, "Everyday Is A Winding Road"
Hanson, "MMMbop"
R. Kelly, "I Believe I Can Fly"
"Sunny Came Home," which depicts the tale of a woman who sets her home ablaze in an attempt to escape her haunting past, was Colvin's highest-charting single (No. 7) on the Billboard Hot 100, and paved the way for her long-standing career. Cole's "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?"— which name-drops the Duke, John Wayne — marked her only charting single in the Top 10. Coming off three GRAMMYs the year prior, Crow was shut out twice in 1997, but would pick up awards in 1998 and 1999. The brother trio Hanson, who literally emerged out of the Middle Of Nowhere, was recognized with the smash "MMMbop," which soared to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Kelly's inspirational anthem "I Believe I Can Fly" would miss the cut here, but it racked up three GRAMMYs, including Best Rhythm & Blues Song. "I Believe…" just missed the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 2.
Song Of The Year
Winner: Shawn Colvin, "Sunny Came Home"
Paula Cole, "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?"
R. Kelly, "I Believe I Can Fly"
No Doubt, "Don't Speak"
LeAnn Rimes And Trisha Yearwood, "How Do I Live"
It was a big year for the South Dakota-born Colvin and "Sunny Came Home," which she penned with John Leventhal. Cole and Kelly also reprised their Record Of The Year nods. "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?" was written by Cole, whose album showed a lyrical depth similar to contemporaries such as Jewel and Sarah McLachlan. "I Believe I Can Fly," with its elements of R&B and soul, was written, produced and performed by Kelly. Hailing from Anaheim, Calif., No Doubt made the grade with their heartbreaking ballad "Don't Speak," written by vocalist Gwen Stefani and her brother Eric. The alt-ska outfit would win their first GRAMMY five years later. Country teen sensation Rimes, who won Best New Artist in 1996, and Yearwood were each nominated for "How Do I Live," which was penned by Diane Warren. This marked a GRAMMY first, with two artists representing the same song in a category. Rimes' version would chart higher, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, but Yearwood's rendition won a GRAMMY for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
Best New Artist
Winner: Paula Cole
Fiona Apple
Erykah Badu
Puff Daddy
Emerging from a genre-rich pool, the Massachusetts-native Cole would not walk away empty-handed in securing the coveted Best New Artist award. Apple, who had been a bad, bad girl throughout 1996, was good enough to get a nomination, and also a win for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Criminal." While R&B/soul songstress Badu would not win for Best New Artist, she won two awards in 1997, including Best R&B Album for her debut Baduizm. Marking the beginning of his empire-to-be, hip-hop all-star Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, now simply known as Diddy, lost out but would not walk away empty-handed by scoring a GRAMMY for "I'll Be Missing You," a tribute to the fallen Notorious B.I.G. containing samples of the Police's GRAMMY-winning "Every Breath You Take." The brothers Hanson, whose sunny pop sound contrasted with the murky sounds of grunge in the mid-'90s, rounded out the nominees.
Come back to GRAMMY.com on Feb. 2 as we revisit the 45th Annual GRAMMY Awards.
Follow GRAMMY.com for our inside look at GRAMMY news, blogs, photos, videos, and of course nominees. Stay up to the minute with GRAMMY Live. Check out the GRAMMY legacy with GRAMMY Rewind. Explore this year's GRAMMY Fields. Or check out the collaborations at Re:Generation, presented by Hyundai Veloster. And join the conversation at Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
These are the most read, shared and discussed articles on GRAMMY.com right now.


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Welcome to Ecosystem Science and Sustainability
Ecosystems include the many processes of life that support and enrich humankind. These processes include interactions among organisms and species, the flow of energy and the cycling of matter, and the maintenance of diverse and complex communities of microbes, plants and animals.
Our responsibility is to understand the world's ecosystems and the effect of human societies on ecosystem processes and their long-term sustainability. Research and education are central to that understanding, enhancing our ability to manage for the sustainability of ecosystems, societies and the biosphere.
Students will integrate the latest science into real-world decision-making and public policy, with the ultimate goal of managing our planet's natural resources – the air, water, land and biological diversity upon which all life depends – sustainably into the future. The Department currently offers comprehensive undergraduate and graduate programs in the discipline of watershed science, as well as an undergraduate program in ecosystem science and sustainability.
... When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. -Naturalist John Muir


text: In Florence, del Sarto probably worked from a life sketch but often departed from the 'coloured drawing' and composed his paintings using patches of colour and shade. The Madonna, perhaps modeled on his wife, occupies a compressed space between green curtains and a stone parapet as she supports a child of classical rather than natural proportions. His twisting pose and the strong colours point the way to Mannerism.