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Introducing a new generation of the market's best system. Even higher performance and easier operation to make it's first appearance in the Audi A8 luxury sedan.
Germany, Jul 21, 2008. Audi is increasing its lead in infotainment technology even further. A new generation of the MMI, the supreme solution for multimedia, communication and operation, has been announced. With a high-capacity hard disk, a DVD drive and fast processors, it is much more versatile and its performance is higher than ever before. The new MMI's first appearance will be in the A8 luxury sedan, but before long it will also be available for two other model lines.
In 2002, when the Audi MMI (Multi Media Interface) was launched, journalists and the general public were unanimous: the new Audi concept was the best on the market. With its control knob on the center tunnel and large function keys to select the main operating areas, it was effortless to control, with self-evident logic that was repeated on the MMI display. Audio, TV, information, telephone and navigation – never before had the driver been able to control all these areas so intuitively.
MMI set new standards from the very start, and proved to be the yardstick the competitors had to equal. Its status was confirmed by many wins in comparative tests. The system was also adopted for the A6 and Q7 model lines, and for the new A4. In this area of technology, the brand with the four-ring emblem pioneered progress from the front.
Audi has been intensively developing every aspect of its MMI system. The full version, MMI navigation plus, is now a state-of-the-art high-end system. The basic operating principle has been retained, but the innovative joystick makes it even more convenient. This joystick is located on the central knob and can be moved in eight directions – with high precision and the sense of quality that the Audi driver expects.
Apart from the control terminal, the monitor screen is the second important interface between the system and its users. For the new MMI, Audi has provided a large TFT display measuring seven inches from corner to corner. It is located in an ergonomically favorable position high up on the center console. With the very high resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and LED backlighting, this monitor supplies an exceptionally sharp image with plenty of contrast. Even in poor light conditions, the colors are intense against the black background.
As before, there are elegant crossfades between the individual screen displays, an effect that makes the overall impression created by the graphics even more fascinating. If the driver alters the automatic air conditioning settings, the new ones appear in a small screen panel for several seconds. This pop-up window doesn't occupy very much space, so that the MMI user can still see the main screen content at any time.
3D map displays.
On the big screen, the stage is set for another of the new MMI system's attractive innovations: the way that maps are presented when the navigation system is in use. The driver can choose between the conventional two-dimensional view and the new 3D images. These feature a birds-eye perspective of the map area, with plenty of carefully presented detail. As in an atlas, the various heights above sea level are shown in different colors, and the most important buildings in large cities appear in three dimensions.
Audi has extended many of the navigation system's functions. For instance, additional detail maps are faded up at crossroads, with small extra arrows indicating the correct lane to follow. Whenever it seems sensible, the navigation system offers the driver a choice of three routes, including the one that's likely to keep fuel consumption to a minimum.
If the driver uses voice input to load a destination into the navigation system, this can now be done without spelling out the individual letters. The new MMI understands complete words in a number of national languages. The same applies to the new high-performance telephone directory, which can store up to 5,000 entries each with five numbers for each user.
The technology used here is called "synthetic language". In a studio, pairs of individual sounds – these are called "diphones" – are recorded and saved to part of the MMI's memory as data sets. High-speed software identifies them in the driver's commands, combines them and compares the complete words with the term in the list, for instance "August Horch Strasse Ingolstadt". The same synthetic language principle is used in reverse for the audible guidance instructions, which sound smooth and natural. The driver can choose between detailed or compact audible guidance modes.
Music and entertainment: the DVD drive.
In the entertainment area too, the latest Audi MMI sets new standards. It has an integral drive for video DVDs; the new joystick function on the control knob is especially practical for this. When played back with the optional sound systems, DVD soundtracks can be heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 multi-channel sound and other frequently used formats. For safety reasons, the picture is only displayed to the driver when the car is standing still. The system also plays music from CDs and SD cards, including those coded MP3, AAC and WMA. Additional technical modules have made the MMI even more attractive. The optional Audi Music Interface makes a perfect connection with an mp3 player, for instance the customer's iPod. The complete menu structures and contents appear on the MMI display, and control is at the MMI terminal or the multifunctional steering wheel. A universal socket in the glove box and an adapter can be used to connect various players with a USB interface, and analog audio and video equipment.
Another audio highlight is the option of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) reception. Digital radio signals are far superior to the analog standard in quality. Audi always uses a DAB double tuner in the MMI. This concept has the advantage that the DAB reception frequency can be changed without any interruption. One tuner receives the music signal, while the second searches continuously for alternative frequencies on which the same program is being broadcast. If a changeover takes place, it takes only a fraction of a second. Another advantage is that the list of stations is continuously updated.
The MMI system's modular structure makes it possible to integrate a CD changer and an analog/digital TV tuner. Audio quality is assured by a choice of sound systems. The top version in the Audi A8 comes as before from the Danish manufacturer Bang & Olufsen. With its rich, subtly differentiated sound spectrum and extended treble response from the tweeters, it provides pure delight for the ears.
The telephone is even more convenient to use with the new MMI. Using a Bluetooth chip, the system can fully integrate customers' cell phones that support the SIM access profile. The MMI phone is ready for action as soon as the ignition key is inserted. It reads data from the SIM card and the memory into the A8's own memory, then shuts the cell phone down completely. Telephone operation via the car's antenna is the key to optimal reception quality. A digital voice processor ensures the best hands-free quality; voice outputs are through the car's sound system.
In the background: concentrated hi-tech.
The fantastic selection of functions that the new MMI offers is backed by hi-tech in concentrated form. The "main unit" computer is installed in the center console, and integrates all the functions that were previously performed by five separate units, including the DVD drive. One of its key components is the hard disk; 10 GB of its 40 GB capacity can be used as a jukebox, to store up to 4,000 tracks, all sorted for easy access. The hard disk also contains navigation data and an electronic logbook for the car.
Two processors, an 800 MHz chip and a 500 MHz digital signal processor, allow all applications – navigation, voice input, telephone and audio functions – to operate simultaneously, although each of them needs high performance from the computer. Using the 3D graphics processor from Californian 3D chip manufacturer Nvidia gives the MMI access to the third dimension. Audi has used this chip's outstanding performance with graphics for the first time to provide a genuine 3D map display – a "digital topographical model". With this processor, the screen display sets new standards: it is attractive, with high resolution and presentation quality, smooth animation and crossfading.
A second block, the "radio unit", combines the tuner and sound system functions. A central interface connects the two units with the rest of the car's network. All the new MMI components have been developed to comply with strict specifications issued by Audi in Ingolstadt. Audi's quality standards are as stringent as they always were. This is important because in-car operation, with extreme temperatures and vibration, imposes severe stresses on the electronics.
The new MMI will extend Audi's lead over its competitors. It can be ordered as of now for the A8 luxury sedan, and will be available before long in the Audi A6 and then in the new Audi Q5 performance SUV.
(source: Audi )
i have a 2010 audi a5 with the navigation package, but doesnt have hd radio.
is there a way to retrofit the mmi to include whatever module is now found in audi models (2011 a5) to get hd radio?
frankly, I would take a used V8 R8 any day of the week. Chassis balance, weight, and sheer good exterior and interior design are more usable and appreciated every day than an "extra" hundred or so horsepower that is hardly ever used on public streets anyway.
I wonder from where I could get this unit to replace my Bose navigation system I have in the old 2008 Audi RS4 Avant. Does Audi sell the package as such and is there any 3rd party versions to install? Hopeing for a good advice! thank you in advance.
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Please Select Standard Painting Size museum quality:16x20(40x51cm)=$69 museum quality:20x24(51x61cm)=$89 museum quality:24x36(61x91cm)=$139 museum quality:30x40(76x102cm)=$149 museum quality:36x48(91x122cm)=$219 museum quality:48x72(122x182cm)=$399
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Maurice Braun:
1877-1941 Maurice Braun (1877-1941) was an American artist who became known for wonderful Impressionist landscapes of southern California. He was born in Hungary on October 1, 1877, however by the age of four young Maurice and the Braun family had migrated to the United States and settled in New York City. His professional studies took him to the National Academy of Fine Arts where he studied the French tradition under Francis C. Jones, George W. Maynard and Edgar M. Ward. In 1901 Braun trained under the famous American painter William Merritt Chase (1849-1916). He established himself as a figure and portrait painter in New York City, but in 1909 he left for California where he was inspired and reveled in the new colors, forms, light and atmosphere of the region -- his paintings reflect a deep respect and appreciation for nature. Maurice Braun died in San Diego, California on November 7, 1941. china oil painting Maurice Braun Land of Sunshine
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The U.S. Justice Department has approved Mississippi's redistricting plans for the state House and Senate. Legislative leaders received word of the approval Friday, the Associated Press reported. The 122 House districts and 52 Senate districts had to be redrawn to reflect population shifts revealed by the 2010 Census. Lawmakers approved new plans in the […]
Archive | September 14th, 2012
Justice Department upholds Mississippi's new state House, Senate districts
September 14, 2012
Mississippi ready for iPhone 5
September 14, 2012
It didn't take long for Mississippi wireless carriers to announce their planned retail release of the new Apple iPhone 5. National providers AT&T, Verizon and Sprint are prepping displays and readying for presales ahead of a September 21 release. Customers for prepaid carrier Cricket and Ridgeland-based C Spire Wireless will have to wait an extra […]
Clinton losing ADP as company shifts up to 100 jobs to Georgia
September 14, 2012
Automatic Data Processing, a business-outsourcing provider more commonly known as ADP, is shutting down in Clinton and moving its approximately 100 jobs to Augusta, Ga. New Jersey-based ADP has not responded to phone calls over the last couple of days but a spokesman for the Mississippi Development Authority confirmed the company's departure from the WorldCom […]


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Achkar, Firas (2006) Hysteresis-based selective Gaussian-Mixture model for real-time background update and object detection. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
| PDF - Accepted Version 4Mb |
Background subtraction refers to background update and object detection, and it is a commonly used object segmentation technique. In this technique a background model frame is built and updated over time such that it only corresponds to static pixels of the monitored scene. Moving objects are then detected by subtracting each new frame from this background model frame. In this thesis, we propose two real-time effective techniques for video object segmentation: the first is a background subtraction technique that includes background update and object detection stages to extract object binary blobs; the second is an improved contour tracing and a new filling algorithms to extract object features such as area, compactness and irregularity. The proposed background subtraction technique effectively models the static background and detects true moving objects while retaining computational efficiency for the real-time criteria. In the background update stage of the proposed background subtraction technique, the reference background pixels are modeled as multiple color Gaussian distributions (MOGs) with a new selective matching scheme based on the combined approaches of component ordering and winner-takes-all. This matching scheme not only selects the most probable component for the first matching with new pixel data, greatly improving performance, but also simplifies pixel classification and component replacement in case of no match. Further performance improvement to background update stage is achieved by using a new simple yet functional component variance adaptation formula. A periodical weight normalization scheme is used to prevent merging temporary stopped real foreground object into the background model, and the creation of false ghosts in the foreground mask when these objects start to move again. The proposed background update technique implicitly handles both gradual illumination change and temporal clutter problems. The object detection stage uses two schemes that improve object blob quality: a new hysteresis-based component matching to reduce the amount of cracks and added shadows; and temporal motion history to preserve the integrity of moving object boundaries. In this stage, the problem of shadows and ghosts is partially addressed by the proposed hysteresis-based matching scheme, while the problems of persistent sudden illumination changes and camera perturbations are addressed at frame level depending on the percentage of pixels classified as foreground. After background subtraction the detected moving object pixels (initial foreground binary mask) are highly abstract and must be grouped together to form the actual objects. We propose an improved contour tracing and new filling algorithms for grouping object pixels. The proposed improved tracing algorithm can detect and reject dead or inner branches, false non-closed contours, noise related small contours, and then efficiently categorize each contour into inner or outer contours. The new filling algorithm is efficient and never leaks, it uses the extracted contour points and their chain-code information as seed points for horizontal line growing. Experimental results show that the proposed tracing and filling techniques improve computational performance with no tracing or filling errors compared to other reference techniques.
Divisions: | Concordia University > Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science > Electrical and Computer Engineering |
Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
Authors: | Achkar, Firas |
Pagination: | xii, 101 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm. |
Institution: | Concordia University |
Degree Name: | M.A. Sc. |
Program: | Electrical and Computer Engineering |
Date: | 2006 |
Thesis Supervisor(s): | Amer, Aishy |
ID Code: | 9285 |
Deposited By: | Concordia University Libraries |
Deposited On: | 18 Aug 2011 14:47 |
Last Modified: | 02 Dec 2011 16:45 |
Related URLs: |
Repository Staff Only: item control page


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January 16, 2014 | Vol. 40, No. 3
January 10, 1914 – The Co-operative Wharf Company, being desirous of pleasing its many patrons, the management has decided to put in an electric light plant. This plant will be installed in the near future and will light the wharf, scow, slips a...
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In Which We Don't Have Room for a Biergarten Table
BA restaurant and drinks editor Andrew Knowlton's summer crush is a worthy one: It's this vintage biergarten table–the kind of place you want to park on the dog days of summer, crack open a beer, and linger until sunset. But not all of our hearts–er, yards–are big enough for benches. So we scoured the wide world of furniture to find you the best of this season's outdoor chairs. Find our picks above. –Nina Wolpow


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Platinum - 808 State remix Avex records present a remix album of Japanese band Move, produced by t-kimura. The 12-track CD features the 808 State remix of Move's hit single Platinum amonst various other mixes by other artists. Price: 2,039 Yen. Full details can be found on the Move homepage.
Move: Remixers Play Move CD: 2000 JP (Avex Records;
AVCT-10073) Listen to streaming clip of original version - or download |


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The real reason I don't sell weight loss anymore? I don't want to. It just doesn't feel right to me. And I don't think any weight loss program, regardless of the promises it makes, works if you don't deal with all the other stuff first.
These unique photos are Alan's heartfelt contribution to the world in an effort to draw attention to the reality that raising a child with Down syndrome, though difficult at times, is not a burden but a joy to him and his family.
I've been thinking about the unsung birth heroes. I've been thinking about the birth stories that don't necessarily receive all the thumbs up and high fives and Facebook shares. I'm thinking about the cesarean section stories and the brave women who birth their children with such strength and beauty.
The answer to whether our social media use is harmful or benign might just lie in the question we need to ask ourselves: "How good do I really want to feel?"
As the Supreme Court prepares to decide the future of the ACA, the conversation has focused on the potential impact of the outcome. Specifically, that striking down federal subsidies for policy holders could create a nation of haves and have nots -- those with coverage and those without.
Schools provide many opportunities, and share a responsibility, to help children learn healthy habits, if for no other reason than because such habits are intrinsically linked to academic success.
At first, I leaned toward keeping our kids vaccine-free. I thought the concern about vaccination made sense. But after hearing both sides of the argument, I decided facts were my friends. I couldn't rely on word-of-mouth, friend-of-a-friend information. It was going to require actual research from vetted sources; I wanted the truth.
It's interesting, really, that after removing the emotion out of the equation, and tackling my weight loss more pragmatically -- in a more businesslike manner -- I'm finally seeing results. I'm training myself to be motivated by my own pats on the back, instead of needing them from others.
WASH continues to be one of the most practical ways we can fulfill our commitment to the world's children. If everyone had access to safe drinking water, a staggering 90 percent of diarrhea deaths could be prevented.
My parents face tough choices every day. They have endured my love for travel knowing that when I travel sometimes I will be out of their protection. But they are equally determined to celebrate these joys with me. They love and support that I work at overcoming the limitations epilepsy tries to impose.
So you're ready to take your first barre class. Congratulations! You are on your way to longer, leaner muscles! But first, there are a few things this barre instructor thinks you should know before you step into the studio.
Decide to make healthy choices at your next social function. Deciding in advance that you're going to make good choices and not giving yourself an option to do otherwise is helpful. If it's not a scheduled "cheat meal" then don't make it one.
You can load up your diet with foods that have been shown to fight inflammation, specifically plant-based foods containing bioactive compounds that help turn down the immune response.
It isn't just movies contributing to a false perception of disability, but also the lack of disabled faces in popular culture at large. Maybe someday there will be a hip show with a funny, romantic or even slutty disabled protagonist. But, until then, I'll just keep flashing my tech toys around.
It is possible to eat healthy when eating out -- but it certainly isn't easy. Tempting foods, countless choices and large portions are just some of the reasons we'll tend to overdo it when eating out. The fast food to healthy food restaurant ratio definitely also skews to the greasy, salty, sugary side of things.
Beauty exists in the middle of tragedy. A child gets cancer. A friend commits suicide. A parent is plagued by anxiety and depression. Sooner or later, such messes find us. If we wade into them with an exploring mindset, our discoveries can be startling in their beauty and alter our perspective on life.
We encourage second opinions about treatment, but most people don't realize that when they ask for a second opinion on the diagnosis, the opinion should be based on examination of the actual biopsy slides, not simply the original pathology report.
It can be a relief to "allow" ourselves to actually fuel our bodies -- instead of restricting and focusing on cutting back. It's a much more satisfying way to eat and live.
Regardless of what side of the fence you're on, it is still important to understand the potentially serious consequences of taking compounded bio-identical hormones.


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Pine Nut (30) |
The Shu'halo use pine nuts in so MANY dishes: meat, fish, vegetables, even baked into breads or sprinkled over sweet pastries.The Earth Mother has blessed us in that the very BEST pine nuts come from the trees upon these very mesas. Simply gather pine cones and toast them over a cooking fire to release the nuts within.
Would you please be so kind as to gather some? There are hardly ever enough to go around...
You will receive: 15 40Epicurean's Award |
Upon completion of this quest you will gain:- 250 reputation with Thunder Bluff
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- Filed Under
Deep in the woods sloping down to Harrods Creek next to Kerry Brauner's rural home near Norton Commons, small pink flags have popped up like wildflowers, apparently designating the route of an underground sewer pipeline.
Brauner trooped down through the woods recently to show off blue heron nesting areas beside the creek, while bemoaning the proposed intrusion of the Metropolitan Sewer District pipeline.
She and her dad live in an older, frame house with a wraparound deck at the end of private Mint Springs Branch Road. They have 8 acres off Chamberlain Lane, just into Oldham County, which ...


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NIST Authors in Bold
Author(s): | Justin M. Shaw; Hans T. Nembach; Thomas J. Silva; Stephen E. Russek; Roy H. Geiss; |
Title: | Effect of microstructure on magnetic properties and anisotropy distributions in Co/Pd thin films and nanostructures |
Published: | November 19, 2009 |
Abstract: | The structure of Co/Pd multilayers has a strong effect on the localized anisotropy distribution within a film and the resulting switching properties of nanostructures fabricated from identical material. By varying the underlying seed layer, the microstructure can be controlled from being highly (111) textured to having a random grain orientation. We find a strong correlation between the lateral homogeneity of grain orientations and the localized anisotropy distribution in the material. X-ray diffraction and reflectivity indicate that the interface is better defined and more uniform in the textured case, consistent with the presence of a strong interface-like anisotropy. |
Citation: | Physical Review B |
Volume: | 80 |
Issue: | 18 |
Pages: | 8 pp. |
Keywords: | magnetic nanostructures,Perpendicular anisotropy,multilayers,bit patterned media,Co/Pd |
Research Areas: | Nanomagnetics, Nanostructures, Magnetic materials, Thin-Films |
PDF version: | Click here to retrieve PDF version of paper (881KB) |


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Cities without landmarks
Niagara Falls, U.S./Canada
Topics: Medicine, Science, Cancer, Life News
Kristof Kossut arrived at an unlikely address for his first psychedelic experience. The 60-year-old New Yorker and professional yachtsman opened the door not to an after-hours techno party, but to the bright reception room at the Bluestone Center for Clinical Research, a large spa-like space occupying the second floor of New York University's College of Dentistry. Kossut was among the first subjects of an NYU investigation into the question: Can the mystical states of mind occasioned by psychedelic drugs help alleviate anxiety and depression in people with terminal and recurrent cancer?
Kossut had no idea, but in the spring of last year, he was looking for something, anything, that might improve his mental state. In 2008, he was diagnosed with cancer of the tonsils and put on a biweekly chemo and radiation regimen. He quickly lost his appetite, dropped weight and sank into a deep depression. When a friend sent him a news brief about the experimental NYU study, he applied.
Shortly before Kossut's arrival on the morning of his session, two clinic employees entered a high-security storage room, which just happens to face a painting of a white rabbit. From a massive steel combination safe they removed a bottle containing one gram of synthesized psilocybin, the psychoactive agent animating the 200-member fungus family commonly known as "magic mushrooms." The duo carefully measured the small container against the previous day's weight, as if securing a store of weapons-grade plutonium. They then pill-pressed an amount of powder containing 20 milligrams of the molecule, first identified in 1958 by the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman, most famous for his other psychedelic synthesis, LSD-25.
They delivered the pill to a converted exam room gutted of its dental chair and refitted for comfort with holistic panache: plush pillow-strewn sofa, Persian carpet, Buddha statuettes, books on spirituality and mysticism, a high-performance sound system. Only the ceiling lighting track betrays the former identity of New York City's federally sanctioned psilocybin room.
Receiving the pill is Dr. Stephen Ross, a 40-year-old assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU Medical School and the cancer study's principal investigator. Ross has a precise scientific manner softened by an upbringing in Southern California, where his mother (also a doctor) took him to hospice centers as a child, sparking an interest in end-of-life issues. Now director of the addiction division at Bellevue, Ross is among the youngest of a new generation of psychedelic researchers. With his cancer study still two years away from publishing results, he is already looking ahead to testing psychedelic treatments for drug addiction and alcoholism.
For now, Ross is fully focused on treating existential anxiety in people like Kossut, who lies on the couch, ready for his initiation into the psychedelic mysteries. In the research jargon, Kossut is "psychedelic naive." After swallowing the pill Ross presents — in the cap of a ceremonial ceramic mushroom — all he can do is close his eyes, lose himself in the preselected tabla drum and sitar music, and try to remember the advice to not fight it, to move ever deeper into the light, to let go …
"It was absolutely incredible," remembers Kossut. "The first rush was a little scary as I realized it wasn't the placebo. That passed and next I was crossing boundaries of time and space and reality. I felt this weightlessness, this sense of being close to an unspeakable beauty that was unlike anything in my experience. For the first time since my diagnosis, I was not afraid of anything. The wall of depression that was building up day by day, the fear that I was going to die soon, that my daughter is only 8 — all those things disappeared. I wanted to stay there. I wanted it to last longer."
It did. More than one year after his psilocybin session, Kossut reports greatly improved states of emotional and psychological well-being. "I walked out of the session happy, unafraid of death," he says. "I don't know why, but a transformation took place after being in that peaceful place. I relaxed. I started enjoying food again and was able to gain weight. The session taught me to be fully in the present. I'm optimistic. Mentally and physically, just better."
This glowing report — based on a single dose of a naturally occurring, non-addictive, low-toxicity substance — sounds impossible. Surely one pill can't succeed where months of traditional psychotherapy and antidepressants usually fail. According to science, that's not how drugs work. It's foreign to the model. But high success rates in ongoing concurrent studies at NYU and Johns Hopkins strongly suggest that Kossut's psilocybin-assisted psychological rebound is no fluke. So do the findings of a pilot project conducted by Dr. Charles Grob at UCLA. Between 2004 and 2008, Grob administered psilocybin to 12 cancer patients suffering fear, anxiety and depression. His data, published last year in the Archives of General Psychiatry, showed long-term diminished anxiety and improved mood in every subject. The NYU and Johns Hopkins studies build on Grob's pilot program with more subjects and higher doses. Midway through the research, their results are just as strong, signaling larger, multi-site trials to come.
"What appears to be going on with the psilocybin studies is a model system for creating 'quantum change,'" says Dr. Roland Griffiths, the behavioral biologist who oversees the Johns Hopkins study. "We've shown we can safely produce replicable effects."
This is the subdued, clinical language of a psychedelic science renaissance quietly entering its third decade. If its practitioners and advocates avoid the utopian claims and liberationist rhetoric that defined the LSD gospel of the 1960s, this is no accident. A new generation of psychedelic researchers understands that public and official support depends on exorcising the ghost of Timothy Leary, whose democratic acid crusade grew out of and ultimately helped destroy the first wave of psychedelic science in the 1950s and '60s. Their goal is not to promote the legalization of these drugs or tout their value for everyone, but to revive the once-great and now largely forgotten promise of psychedelic science. And that just might, among other things, change the way we confront and think about death.
- – - – - – - – - -
Dosing anxious cancer patients with psychedelics may sound counterintuitive, to put it mildly. The hallmarks of the psychedelic experience — the loss of bearings in time and space, the breaking up and slipping away of the sense of self — can themselves produce acute anxiety and panic. Everyone has heard stories, most of them apocryphal, of psychedelic experiments gone wrong; of kids on acid jumping off of 12-story buildings, or showing up in emergency rooms a twitching, psychotic mess, requiring enough Thorazine to sedate a horse.
But the current studies are not self-experiments. They are carefully designed and professionally guided therapy sessions crafted to minimize anxiety and avoid so-called bad trips. Subjects are screened and prepared before ingesting the psilocybin in a plush environment overseen by two specially trained therapists. Even the dose employed is the result of trial and error: The Johns Hopkins team has identified the golden mean — between 20 and 30 milligrams, roughly equal to a good fistful of strong 'shrooms — to maximize peak experience while minimizing transitory anxiety.
Which is not to say that subjects don't sometimes get scared. Clark Martin, a retired psychologist who suffers recurrent kidney cancer, panicked during the onset of his first psilocybin session at Johns Hopkins. "Initially it was like falling off a sailboat," he remembers. "You turn around, the boat is gone. Then the water's gone. Then you're gone. I wanted things to make sense again. My urge was to run outside."
But his guides calmed him and the anxiety passed. Today what Martin remembers best is what came next.
"Everything became tranquil and calm, and I had the sense that I was floating on a giant bubble," says Martin, who spent the next several hours in this peaceful place meditating on life, death, the nature of human relationships and consciousness. "I left the session animated and intellectually stimulated. Today I don't have a sense of death like I used to. I see it as part of the flow of nature. There's grieving and sadness, of course, but what's being lost is this false sense of separateness we create. I don't get too worked up about my illness anymore. My relationship with my daughter is better. I'm also more fully present and empathic when I spend time with my elderly father, who has dementia."
What's going on here? How does psilocybin induce states of consciousness capable of dramatically reorienting one's mental frame? The beginnings of an answer may be found in the morning mists of recorded history. In the ancient world, disparate cultures from the Amazon to Siberia consumed psychedelic mushrooms and plants in sacred rituals they viewed as openings into spirit worlds where mysteries were revealed and ineffable wisdom communicated. Often these rituals were conducted by "medicine men" and focused on themes of disease, death and healing, as in the case of Amazonian cultures where doctors still engage in ritualized use of the "healing plant" Ayahuasca.
No one is claiming that psychedelics cure disease. But around the time Western science discovered psychedelics in the 1890s, psychology of religion scholars began to notice a recurring cross-cultural motif — the psychic salving power of what American psychiatrist Richard Maurice Bucke called "cosmic consciousness." To research his landmark 1902 study "Varieties of Religious Experience," the psychologist and philosopher William James surveyed a vast global record of spiritual literature. Again and again, he encountered reports of death anxiety evaporating upon the direct experience of mystical states of consciousness. The reports of Kristof Kossut and Clark Martin overlay neatly with James' description of the afterglow provided by mystical consciousness, "of which the central [characteristic] is the loss of all the worry, the sense that all is ultimately well with one, the peace, the harmony, the willingness to be, even though our outer conditions should remain the same." Throughout history and in every culture, James found, those who experience "the full flood of ecstatic liberation" tend to benefit afterward from "a new zest which adds itself like a gift to life … and a temper of peace."
This insight led James to advocate for experimental mysticism, which helped him treat his own bouts with severe depression. In the 1870s, James began using nitrous oxide (a hallucinogen that shares characteristics with ketamine and PCP) as a shortcut to the experiences cataloged in "Varieties." He found the practice salutary. Mind-blowingly so. But nitrous is just laughing gas compared to the classical hallucinogens that concerned James' heir in the annals of chemical mystics.
In the middle of the otherwise staid 1950s, the writer Aldous Huxley emerged as a muscular advocate for psychedelics. His conversion followed his first mescaline trip, immortalized in the slim but influential 1954 work "The Doors of Perception." Like James, Huxley's experiments built on a lifelong interest in mystical states. His cross-cultural examination of mystical testimony, "The Perennial Philosophy," found the same aspects to the experience as recorded in today's psilocybin studies: a sense of access to ineffable and intuitive knowledge; a sense of unity, transcendence and sacredness; overwhelming, ecstatic positivity felt as joy, love and peace.
Timothy Leary was the first scientist to test the power of psychedelics to trigger these states. In 1963, his last year at Harvard, Leary supervised an experiment in which psilocybin was administered to 10 seminary students attending the Good Friday sermon at Boston University's St. Marsh Chapel. Of the 10, eight claimed to experience something like mystical consciousness. Forty years later, Roland Griffiths updated the Marsh Chapel experiment at Johns Hopkins by administering psilocybin to healthy individuals with an interest in spiritual states. As he reported in the journal Psychopharmacology, nearly 80 percent of subjects listed their psilocybin session as among the top-five most meaningful experiences of their lives, and described the experience in language straight out of the mystical literature. Follow-up monitoring by the subjects' families and friends found sustained positive changes in personality, behavior and mood.
The fact that psychedelics act as shortcuts to mystical states provides only one-half of the logic underlying the psilocybin-cancer studies. The young field of palliative care provides the other half with its research into "good deaths." The palliative-care literature finds that those with a sense of a transcendental force have less depression and anxiety. This can mean belief in a Judeo-Christian god, or a direct memory of the nameless, overwhelming sense of eternal, cosmic love occasioned by the ingestion of 20 or 30 milligrams of psilocybin.
"Psychedelics are a powerful mechanism for forging a connection to a transcendental force, and people with such a connection are protected against end-of-life distress," says NYU's Ross. "We all have cognitive illusions that protect us from the knowledge that we will die, and medicine is failing those who have to deal with this abruptly."
Psilocybin metabolizes quickly, and follow-up doses are not needed to maintain long-term effects. This means that the psilocybin studies are not really drug studies in the traditional sense. They are more like experiential studies, in which the benefit is derived from the memory of something that isn't easily explained away by reference to serotonin receptors. "Eternity, a state of awareness outside of time, often described as pulsating with love and life, no longer is an abstract concept," explains Bill Richards, a therapist with the Johns Hopkins team who has been working with psilocybin since 1963. "Rather [it] is a memory of an experience, perhaps more vivid than the memory of visiting a foreign city on a vacation. Typically fear becomes replaced with curiosity and trust in deeper strata of consciousness."
Among those who have benefited from a new trust in these deeper strata of consciousness is Janeen Delany, a Phoenix woman who flew to Baltimore for psilocybin therapy in 2008 after a leukemia diagnosis.
"I was struggling emotionally with my fear," she remembers. "No matter how hard I tried to do the work myself, I couldn't get to that place of acceptance." More than two years later, Delaney describes her psilocybin experience as the turning point in coming to terms with her illness. "It changed my frame of mind," she says. "This disease no longer defines me when I wake up in the morning. I understand myself as part of a greater whole made up of energy and frequencies. It's impossible to put these insights into words, but they were real; are real. It felt like a thousand pounds lifted off my shoulders. I'm now the person I always wanted to be."
- – - – - – - – - -
Using psychedelics to treat terminal anxiety was popularized in the West in Aldous Huxley's 1962 utopian novel "Island," in which the natives of the fictional paradise Pala ingest a psilocybin-like drug called moksha during stages-of-life rituals, including infirmity, sickness and death. Huxley himself would famously request and receive a large intravenous dose of LSD on his own deathbed the following year.
Shortly after Huxley's passing, Eric Kast of the Chicago Medical School began a four-year study administering LSD to cancer patients in extreme pain. He discovered that along with reorienting the patient's relationship to death, the psychedelic had an analgesic effect resulting from an "attenuation of anticipation." Following their LSD treatments, Kast wrote, subjects developed "a peculiar disregard for the gravity of their situations and talked freely about their impending death with an affect considered inappropriate in our Western civilization but most beneficial to their psychic states."
A former graduate student of Tim Leary's named Walter Pahnke picked up Kast's work in 1968 at Spring Grove Hospital in Baltimore. As part of a psychedelic dream team including Stanislav Grof and Bill Richards, Pahnke successfully administered LSD and psilocybin to more than 100 cancer patients between 1968 and 1977. The National Institute of Mental Health funded much of their work.
The cancer anxiety studies of the '60s and '70s were part of a global postwar flowering of psychedelic science. Researchers published hundreds of peer-reviewed papers, with LSD receiving the bulk of the attention. Psychedelic drugs were considered a revolutionary tool, frequently compared to the invention of the telescope or microscope. They were seen as keys to understanding and finding treatments for everything from alcoholism to autism to schizophrenia. This was not a fringe view, but that of respected researchers backed by the Food and Drug Administration and funded by institutions like the Rockefeller Foundation. There were research grants galore and conferences sponsored by the American Psychiatric Association. (We'd later learn that the CIA funded many psychedelic research projects. But that's another article.)
The golden age of psychedelic studies proved brief. Even before recreational use exploded in the mid-1960s, the government had begun moving toward the view of the military and intelligence establishments that psychedelics were mere "psychotomimetics" (i.e., they mimicked psychosis) holding no scientific use (let alone spiritual or humanistic value). A series of laws throughout the decade steadily restricted and discouraged scientific access to psychedelics culminating in the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, which grouped psychedelics together with heroin as a Schedule 1 drug. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, created in 1972, Schedule 1 drugs "have a high potential for abuse [and] have no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States."
The closing of the psychedelic mind involved the weaving of a fine-spun stigma and the application of indistinct professional pressure. "A subtle microphysics of power guided scientists away from further work on these compounds," says Nicolas Langlitz, an anthropologist at the New School who studies psychedelic science. "The allocation of funding, having to guard one's reputation, approval of research projects, recruitment of test subjects — it all led to a near-total breakdown of academic hallucinogen research." Before the end of the '60s, two leading lights in the field would bemoan the fact that interested and capable scientists were "turning their backs on psychedelics for fear of identification with irresponsible researchers."
Then as now, "irresponsible researchers" was synonymous with Timothy Leary, the ex-Harvard professor turned self-styled laughing leprechaun and high priest of an everybody-must-get-stoned psychedelic revolution. Among the new generation, resentment of Leary's legacy remains palpable, as is the determination to avoid the mistakes, indeed the tragedy, of the 1960s.
"Leary so undermined credible scientific use of these compounds that it poisoned research for decades," says Griffiths of Johns Hopkins. "The iconic scientist goes AWOL and promotes unrestricted recreational use. As a result, I don't know of any other set of scientific questions that have been banned for decades because it was judged too dangerous to study. Maybe germ or chemical warfare. But I doubt those were actually stopped."
Bill Richards, the avuncular Hopkins therapist who knew Leary and has overseen thousands of psychedelic sessions over 50 years, has learned to take the long view. "One of our sayings during the sessions is 'Let go,' which we needed to do," he says. "The old fires needed to die down. Leary's ashes needed to get launched into outer space. Now I'm hopeful. The research proceeds with integrity."
- – - – - – - – - -
This quickening psychedelic revival was a long time coming. Activists and scientists began laying the groundwork during the second Reagan administration, when their efforts seemed most futile. In 1986, Rick Doblin founded the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies to advocate and educate the public. Not much happened until 1990, when Rick Strassman of the University of New Mexico Medical School broke ground with a study on the affects of DMT, the so-called nuclear bomb of the psychedelic family. Then, early in the first Clinton administration, the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Food and Drug Administration quietly signaled a readiness to approve new psychedelic research. Encouraged by the signs, a group of scientists founded the Heffter Research Institute in 1993 to fund projects and hold them to the highest scientific standards.
The early naughts witnessed a further eroding of the psychedelic research taboo. The big foundations and government agencies maintained their distance, but groups like MAPS, Heffter and the Council on Spiritual Practices stepped in to underwrite medical school studies involving Schedule 1 drugs such as Ketamine, MDMA, marijuana and psilocybin. Mid-decade, Harvard's John Halpren finally exorcised Tim Leary's Cambridge ghost when he won approval for a small cancer anxiety study employing MDMA. The data from these and other studies is now beginning to appear in medical journals and on professional association conference agendas. This year, a chapter on psilocybin therapy for cancer patients will appear for the first time in a standard psycho-oncology textbook.
Much of this activity is centered at NYU, where a vibrant community of therapists and scientists has emerged around an ongoing speaker's series called the Psychedelic Research Group. In 2008, Dr. Jeffrey Guss, a Manhattan therapist and co-investigator on the NYU study, taught "Psychedelics and Psychiatry," the first course on psychedelic therapy offered at a modern medical school. Guss also directs the university's 12-week psychedelic psychotherapy training program, the only program of its kind in the country. "We're establishing a conversation across disciplines — oncology, psychiatry, palliative care — to reintroduce psychedelics into the medical discourse," says Guss. "The field is emerging as a doable career, and I've started to mentor people who want to move exclusively in this direction."
For political and scientific reasons, cancer anxiety is the research avenue with the most potential to scale up in the near future. Advocates like MAPS' Doblin optimistically envision a scenario in which the therapy could be more widely available in a decade. Getting there will require larger trials and a full rescheduling review by the DEA and the Department of Health and Human Services. "Getting a drug rescheduled is very difficult," says Bill Piper, national director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "But by its charter, the DEA is bound to follow the science."
Establishing psilocybin-assisted therapy as an accepted option for end-of-life care could have some surprising consequences. Among them is a fundamental reorienting of our culture's relationship to death. It could move discussion on what constitutes a "good death" and how to better provide them. Because Western medicine focuses narrowly on defeating disease with little consideration for how we die, the sick often spend their last weeks and days surrounded by machinery and hospital staff instead of a comfortable hospice setting surrounded by family.
"There is an increasing understanding that there is a paucity of approaches to psycho-spiritual well-being at end of life," says Anthony Bossis, a palliative-care expert at NYU and co-investigator of the psilocybin study. "Medicine doesn't talk about how we die. Palliative care brought psycho-spiritual stress into the conversation, and now psychedelic research is enlarging that conversation by exploring the ontological shifts, like that brought about by psilocybin, which can affect one's outlook on life, death, disease."
Adds Griffiths of Johns Hopkins: "So much money gets poured into those last few months of life where people are terrified and grasping at anything to prolong life. It's heartbreaking to see, but our culture has such a disordered relationship to end-of-life issues. Change that, and people will change their utilization of the medical system. They'll use it more in some ways, less in others. The result would be a huge net decrease in expensive interventional procedures in the final weeks."
If and when psilocybin enters the larger healthcare debate, it will trigger the mother and possibly deciding battle of the 1960s culture wars. The prospect of Medicare dollars going to psychedelic therapy would send right-wing opportunists into a stomping rage. Sarah Palin would tweet about Hippie Death Panels. The GOP might revive its 1972 battle cry about liberals marching under a banner of "acid, amnesty and abortion."
But here the history of the medical marijuana movement is instructive. Drug warriors could only deny the medicinal value of marijuana for so long; soon they were forced to beat a retreat before the combined forces of the medical literature, lobbying and advocacy, and the reality of millions of suffering Americans. If the science is solid, it usually wins, if only in fits and starts. This is especially true when the science is accompanied by the moving testimonies of people like Roy, a 52-year-old television news producer and Stage-4 lung-cancer patient who this summer underwent psilocybin treatment at NYU after three years of chemotherapy. Like Krystof Kossut and dozens of others, Roy had grown increasingly anxious and depressed before his revelatory psilocybin session. Today he describes that session as among the most precious and important experiences of his life. His journal is excerpted in a forthcoming chapter in Springer's textbook, "Psychological Aspects of Cancer," co-authored by Bossis and Guss of the NYU study and Charles Grob of UCLA.
"From here on love was the only consideration," Roy writes of his psilocybin session.
Love seemed to emanate from a single point of light. The bliss was indescribable … I took a tour of my lungs. There were nodules but they seemed rather unimportant … I was being told (without words) to not worry about the cancer … it's minor in the scheme of things, simply an imperfection of your humanity and that the real work to be done is before you. Again, love … [On the day after the session] I felt spectacular … both physically and mentally! It had been a very long time since I'd felt that good … a serene sense of balance … Undoubtedly, my life has changed in ways I may never fully comprehend. I now have an understanding, an awareness that goes beyond intellect, that my life, that every life, and all that is the universe, equals one thing: Love.
It's true we don't know much about psychedelic states of consciousness. Are they merely biochemical carnivals producing internal hallucinations, or are they — as people often describe them — "more real than real"? The psychedelic experience has always been just that — the ultimate subjective experience, ineffable and very difficult to account for when over. But those who doubt its power or "reality" might remember that we also have precious little understanding of the neurological basis of "normal" consciousness. And when it comes to bringing comfort to the ill, of giving the gift of "indescribable bliss," a case can be made for the irrelevance of ultimate metaphysical and scientific questions. The first psychologist to advocate for experimental mysticism also advocated for that most American of thought systems, pragmatism.
Truth, concluded William James, is what works.
Slide 8
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Okra With Prunes and Apricots in a Tamarind Sauce (Bamia b'Mishmosh)
One of my goals is to try every single vegetable and fruit at Bestwin, a local grocery store that has tons of ethnic food spanning India to Japan to Thailand. I oftentimes have no clue what they are, nor what to do with them, so it will definitely be a challenge. I stopped by this week and noticed okra was on sale, so I picked some up to start my cuisine challenge. Thankfully I also had 2 cookbooks in my trunk so I quickly looked for an appealing recipe with okra and made sure to get all the ingredients.
Okra is native to Africa but is used in Middle Eastern, Indian and African cuisine. While okra is commonly served with tomato, I adapted a Syrian Jewish sweet and sour recipe with okra, prunes and apricots in a tamarind sauce from Aromas of Aleppo by Poopa Dweck (the original recipe has also been posted here by the Jewish Book Council). There is some tomato paste as well, so the classic tomato flavour is there as well. I thought the sauce was fabulous with the sweet apricots and prunes, with the sour tang from the tamarind. The bit of tomato pasta also added a bit of homeliness to the dish. The sauce worked well with the delicious okra.
The sweet and sour sauce took a while to prepare but the long cooking meant there was no need for any additional sugar as the sweetest was entirely from the fruits. I served this with a bed of rice as a meal, but I think next time I'd love to add a bean like chickpeas to the mixture. It can also be served as a side dish to an elaborate meal.
I was a bit worried about the okra after reading about its acquired tasted and its gooey characteristics if opened, but I didn't have any problems. The try to minimize any mucilaginous texture, quickly spray with water when washing and quickly pan-fry them with a bit of oil. Keeping them intact while cooking is also important, and shaking the pan instead of stirring helps. A few of my larger okra where a bit tough and stringy, so I should have heeded Dweck's advice to purchase the smallest okra possible. When I was in Turkey, they were each an inch or two long and I hear in Syria they are even smaller. Here in Canada, they were much longer but still good. Frozen baby okra could also be an option.
To be fair, I don't normally travel with cookbooks in my trunk, but I was enroute from buying them. I couldn't be more happy with my purchases. This was the second recipe I have tried from Aromas of Aleppo by Poopa Dweck, and I was not disappointed (the first was Eggs Scrambled with Rhubarb). Aromas of Aleppo is a unique cookbook featuring Jewish Syrian cuisine.
As the last Jews left Aleppo in 1997 and took their cuisine with them, this makes the cookbook a treasure trove of historical dishes. Dweck is keeping the Syrian Jewish culinary traditions alive through recipes pulled together from the expatriated community, a project which began over 30 years ago. Syrian Jews separate themselves from other Sephardic Jews through their flavourful dishes, with their unique uses of tamarind, cherries, and spices such as allspice, cinnamon, saffron and cardamom. What's not to love?
I am submitting this recipe to Yasmeen's Health Nut challenge all about tropical fruit and to this month's Side Dish Showdown.
Okra With Prunes and Apricots in a Tamarind Sauce (Bamia b'Mishmosh)
1 pound fresh small okra, stems or trimmed, or frozen Egyptian baby okra (about 2 cups)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped (about 2 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons tamarind paste, soaked and then strained
1 cup water
Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup pitted prunes
3 cups rice, cooked
1. In a medium sauce pan, gently saute the okra in the vegetable oil over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Add garlic and saute until the okra is lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes. To prevent the okra from emitting its characteristic starchy, mucilaginous liquid, do not stir with a spoon, shake the pot occasionally as it cooks.
3. Dollop the tomato and tamarind pastes over the okra. Add 1 cup of water, the lemon juice, and salt. Cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, then add the apricots and prunes. Cook for 30 minutes more until okra is crisp, tender not mushy.
4. Serve immediately, perhaps over rice.
Serves 4-6 as a main (or 8-10 as a side).
7 Responses
That is absolutely amazing looking okra recipe :)
This looks gorgeous! What lovely photographs! I love your goal of cooking through all the produce at the market. I lived for a while in my city's Asian district and did a similar thing there – got to try long beans and bittermelon and all kinds of good stuff. Do you know the cookbook Asian Vegetables by Sara Deseran? It was invaluable to me in my exploration!
This is one of the best looking okra dishes I've seen! I really like the sweet and sour flavors. Delicious! Thanks for sending it to the Showdown!
[…] and I still have the rice cooker, without having made Tamarind Lentils myself. But lots of rice, mind […]
[…] and have incorporated them into many salads, granola and energy bars. I have even added them to savoury dishes. When I do find myself with fresh apricots, baking is the best way to fully bring out its sweetness […]
[…] my closest ethnic grocer, it is still an ethnic grocer with produce I have yet to try eating. I once had a goal of trying all the new-to-me veggies at Bestwin and Sunny's, but I can only tackle […]
[…] I have cooked and baked with prunes before, I subconsciously think of my bowels when I see prunes. I know it […]


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"Anecdote-rich account of a vanished era at Poland Spring"—Boston Globe
An interdisciplinary examination of Gilded Age American enterprise, in a study of how one family farm developed into a world-famous business.
Between 1860 and 1900 the Ricker family's rustic frontier farm became the world-renowned summer community of Poland Spring, Maine, a middle landscape where upper-middle-class patrons and their urban values of status, leisure, and consumption confronted, flirted with, embraced and ultimately subsumed traditional, rural New England. First and foremost a cultural study, Poland Spring chronicles the rise of a nineteenth-century tourist mecca. By successfully linking its fortunes to the railroad and tourism, Poland Spring became home to both a classic manifestation of the magnificent Victorian summer hotel culture of the Northeast, the Poland Spring House, and to the legendary business that originated one of the most popular and enduring brands in the mineral water marketplace, the eponymous Poland Spring. This complex story represents a fascinating microcosm of the blossoming of the vacation trade and tourism in nineteenth-century New England, the emergence of the "springs" phenomenon, the development of entrepreneurialism into corporate capitalism, and the extension into the rural Northeast of the modern values that still predominantly shape the American cultural landscape. Scholars interested in regional, business, and tourism history as well as modernist studies will find much to admire in this progressive cultural history of the Gilded Age, to which historian David Richards brings impeccable scholarship and an energetic narrative style.
Read about Poland Spring Heritage Day, celebrating publication of the book. Also, learn more about the book at the Poland Spring Preservation Society web site.
Click here for TABLE OF CONTENTS
"[A] purely pleasureful look backward into an age which took itself and its pleasures very seriously and insisted that everyone else do as well."
—Courier-Gazette (Rockland, ME)"Poland Spring is a captivating case study of entrepreneurial ingenuity, hard work and hucksterism, a business success story that accurately exposes the excesses of the Gilded Age in Maine."
—The (Maine)Times Record"[Poland Spring] pulls no punches, is carefully researched, placed in an understandable historical setting and presented in a readable, enjoyable manner." —Maine Sunday Telegram
DAVID RICHARDS is Assistant Director of the Northwood University Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, Maine. He earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of New Hampshire. |


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March 2010
Odds & Ends: Gaudin, Stairs, Lowell, Darvish
Links for Monday…
- FoxSports.com's Jon Paul Morosi spoke to one executive who thinks the lack of open 40-man roster spots is inhibiting trades. There are only 28 open spots across the league, and more than half of the teams are maxed out.
- Chad Gaudin said he considered "a couple" of other teams before deciding to rejoin the A's, reports MLB.com's Jane Lee.
- MLB.com's Corey Brock reminds us that the Padres will have to remove someone from their 40-man roster before Opening Day to make room for Matt Stairs.
- The Rangers have a scout on hand to watch Mike Lowell play third base tonight, tweets ESPN Boston's Gordon Edes. This deal has to get done eventually, right?
- The Braves were concerned the Marlins would take Jason Heyward at #12 in the 2007 draft, writes Yahoo's Jeff Passan.
- Yu Darvish hinted for the first time that he might be willing to come to MLB, says Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker. Newman passes along a Sponichi report in which Darvish said, "Well, I'm planning on climbing the ladder, step by step," when asked about moving to MLB one day. Newman notes that Darvish isn't close to free agency, so the Nippon Ham Fighters would have to post him.
- SI's Jon Heyman writes that the Mariners and Jarrod Washburn "are believed to remain apart on the dollars for a new deal."
- Brian Cashman and Johnny Damon met in person for the first time since Damon left the Yankees, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
- MLB.com's Peter Gammons names six clubs that might be better than you think.
Full Story | Comments | Categories: Atlanta Braves | Boston Red Sox | Chad Gaudin | Jarrod Washburn | Jason Heyward | Johnny Damon | Matt Stairs | Miami Marlins | Mike Lowell | New York Yankees | Oakland Athletics | San Diego Padres | Seattle Mariners | Texas Rangers | Yu Darvish
Helping Jarrod Washburn Find Work
Piggybacking on this afternoon's Jermaine Dye discussion, let's run through the reasons why Jarrod Washburn is still a free agent:
- He's 35-years-old, and he posted a 7.33 ERA with a .940 OPS against in eight starts following his trade to Detroit. His season ended in mid-September with a knee injury that required surgery.
- He's extremely homer prone, giving up one long ball for every 7.2 innings pitched or so over the last four seasons. While his walk rate was solid at 2.51 BB/9 last year, he doesn't miss many bats (5.1 K/9) and will give up more than his fair share of hits.
- Despite turning down a $5MM offer from the Twins, Washburn maintains that it's not about the money. He's also indicated that he would prefer to play near his Wisconsin home next season.
- Lighten up his salary demands, and accept an offer from a team regardless of their proximity to his home. There are plenty of unsettled rotation spots out there, so there should be interest in a guy who hasn't made fewer than 25 starts in a season since 2000.
- Embrace a move to the bullpen. Being lefthanded is already a good start, but being able to shutdown lefties (.178/.224/.311 against last year) adds some validity to the idea.
On the day he was traded, Washburn had the second lowest ERA (2.64) in the American League and was on his way to helping a contender make a playoff run. Instead, he finished the season on the surgeon's table, and teams would rather roll the dice with questionable in-house options than meet Washburn's asking price.
Helping Jermaine Dye Find Work
Why is Jermaine Dye still a free agent? Let's run through the reasons:
- He's 36 years old, leading some to speculate that a permanent decline set in last season. It's true that Dye was useless at the plate for the season's final two months, but we're talking about fewer than 200 plate appearances. Veteran hitters have bounced back from worse.
- He's an indisputably poor defender. In a February interiew with Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, Dye had yet to fully come to grips with this fact: "No doubt, I've probably slowed down a little bit (defensively), but not enough to not be getting (attractive) offers." Dye talked about his willingness to play first base or left field.
- He's been asking for too much money. Dye already turned down offers of $2MM and $3MM. Pride may be an issue. In the Rosenthal article Dye talked about how "it's not about money with me" but "there are still guys getting money that I feel I'm better than."
- Embrace a designated hitter/fourth outfielder/pinch-hitter role. Dye's former teammate Jim Thome gracefully accepted a reduced role and salary after a season comparable to Dye's.
- Dye needs swallow his pride, drop his price, and take a minor league deal. It's not fair, but he probably wouldn't need to spend a ton of time in the minors. Two of his former employers, the White Sox and Royals, could use a good backup plan at DH.
On August 1st, Dye was hitting .281/.357/.533 with 23 home runs in 389 plate appearances. He had an $11.5MM salary and a starting right field job. Eight months later Dye is reportedly considering retirement; that would be a shame.
Brandon Moss Designated For Assignment
The Pirates designated Brandon Moss for assignment to make room for waiver claim Hayden Penn, reports MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch.
Moss, 26, hit .236/.304/.364 in 424 plate appearances for the Pirates last year, playing both outfield corners. Moss is out of options, so he'll have to clear waivers if he's to be sent to the minors. He joined the Pirates at the '08 trade deadline along with Craig Hansen, Bryan Morris, and Andy LaRoche, with the Pirates giving up Jason Bay.
Pirates GM Neal Huntington recently admitted to WEEI's Alex Speier that in hindsight, there was a better deal on the table for Bay. Moss and Hansen have not panned out, and as Speier says, "the value of the deal for Pittsburgh will be determined largely by what happens with LaRoche and Morris."
Nationals Claim Chris Coste
12:53pm: The Nationals claimed Coste, reports Brian Costa of the Newark Star-Ledger.
7:53am: The Mets placed catcher Chris Coste on waivers, reports Adam Rubin (via MetsBlog). Coste signed a big league deal worth $650K back in December. Rubin says Coste is likely to accept an assignment to Triple A if he clears waivers.
Coste, 37, hit .224/.301/.317 in 230 plate appearances for the Phillies and Astros last year, catching 352 innings. Coste went 3 for 14 with a walk this spring.
On Saturday, ESPN's Jayson Stark said the Mets were hoping to move an excess catcher like Coste or Omir Santos for Triple A pitching depth. The Mets have Rod Barajas, Henry Blanco, Santos, Josh Thole, and Shawn Riggans on the depth chart.
Full Story | Comments | Categories: Chris Coste | New York Mets | Transactions | Washington Nationals
Pirates Claim Hayden Penn
The Pirates claimed pitcher Hayden Penn off waivers from the Marlins, tweets Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. Penn is out of options, and the Marlins weren't able to get him through.
Penn, 25, posted a 4.11 ERA, 8.0 K/9, and 3.3 BB/9 in 70 Triple A innings last year. The Marlins acquired him a year ago from the Orioles for Robert Andino. Penn was a highly-regarded prospect four years ago, as Baseball America said he had "three plus pitches that he throws for strikes." Nice pickup by Neal Huntington.
Offseason In Review: Los Angeles Dodgers
Next in our Offseason In Review series, the Dodgers.
Major League Signings
- Vicente Padilla, SP: one year, $5.025MM.
- Jamey Carroll, IF: two years, $3.85MM.
- Brad Ausmus, C: one year, $1MM. Includes $1MM club option with a $150K buyout.
- Ronnie Belliard, IF: one year, $825K.
- Reed Johnson, OF: one year, $800K.
- Total spend: $11.5MM.
Notable Minor League Signings
- Justin Miller, Ramon Ortiz, Russ Ortiz, Josh Towers, Jeff Weaver, Nick Green, Argenis Reyes, Alfredo Amezaga, Garret Anderson, Brian Barton, Luis Ayala
- Andre Ethier, RF: two years, $15.25MM.
- Jonathan Broxton, RP: two years, $11MM.
- Matt Kemp, CF: two years, $10.95MM.
Trades and Claims
- Claimed Rule 5 P Armando Zerpa from Red Sox; returned 3/15/10
- Acquired Rule 5 P Carlos Monasterios from Mets for cash
- Acquired P John Ely and P Jon Link from White Sox for OF Juan Pierre and $10.5MM
Notable Losses
- Orlando Hudson, Juan Pierre, Mark Loretta, Juan Castro, Jim Thome, Mitch Jones, Randy Wolf, Guillermo Mota, Jon Garland, Eric Milton, Jason Schmidt, Will Ohman
GM Ned Colletti chose to let key free agents Wolf, Garland, and Hudson leave, replacing them with cheaper options. Let's take a look at the team's biggest moves.
Wolf earned $8MM in 2009 and pitched like an ace for the Dodgers. He'd signed one-year deals three years in a row and was a near-lock to turn down an arbitration offer from the Dodgers. Colletti reportedly feared a $15MM reward for Wolf, but said, "Our decision was made strictly from a baseball perspective." The misstep cost the Dodgers a pair of draft picks. Hudson was also a Type A free agent, but the choice not to offer him arbitration was defensible. The Dodgers have more than enough options to replace him.
So, Colletti missed out on the #36 and #65 picks in the 2010 draft. The Dodgers will survive. Colletti's first big move of the offseason was to shave $3MM off the '10 payroll and $5MM off for '11 by unloading Pierre on the White Sox. Colletti went on to allocate $11.5MM to free agents, most of which will be paid in '10.
With a million bucks in innings incentives dangling, I think Padilla will have a decent year. Brett Myers and Jon Garland, who signed for similar dollars, don't seem any better or worse. Carroll's two-year deal was unnecessary. The 36-year-old is a useful player, but if you're pinching pennies there are better ways to spend $3.85MM. Saving the money for midseason acquisitions would've been a better move.
Colletti deserves praise for adding 2011 cost certainty with the Ethier, Broxton, and Kemp deals. He chose the right players and didn't overpay.
The Dodgers' offense appears respectable, with no clear area for upgrade. Getting sufficient innings out of the Billingsley-Kershaw-Padilla-Kuroda front four is a concern, though few teams are satisfied with their rotation depth. Colletti may need to make a deal this summer.
Rosenthal On Lowell, Cain, Cristian Guzman
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports supplies his latest hot stove buzz…
- Rosenthal's source says the Rangers' interest in Mike Lowell is "light," and the Red Sox don't expect any team to make a suitable offer. Yesterday, ESPN's Jim Reeves said the Rangers keep coming back to Lowell in their search for a right-handed hitting role player. Rosenthal notes that the Red Sox will not release Lowell, who is owed $12MM.
- With Matt Cain locked up, Rosenthal sees a weak 2012 free agent class for starting pitching. Mark Buehrle, Edwin Jackson, and Wandy Rodriguez appear to head the group, though C.C. Sabathia has the option of electing free agency and voiding the remaining four years and $92MM on his Yankees contract. Of course, a lot can change in two seasons. The larger point: there's a better selection of free agent starters after the 2010 season than after 2011.
- The Rangers looked into trading for Washington's Cristian Guzman before acquiring Andres Blanco from the Cubs. Guzman is currently projected to serve as an $8MM utility man for the Nationals.
Full Story | Comments | Categories: Boston Red Sox | Cristian Guzman | Matt Cain | Mike Lowell | San Francisco Giants | Texas Rangers | Washington Nationals
Phillies Release Brad Wilkerson
The Phillies released outfielder Brad Wilkerson and 11 other minor leaguers, tweets MLB.com's Todd Zolecki. Wilkerson was thought to have retired, but he signed a minor league deal with no Spring Training invite back in February.
Rangers Searching For Backup Corner Infielder
The Rangers are looking to acquire a backup corner infielder before Opening Day, writes Jim Reeves of ESPN.com. Manager Ron Washington had hoped that one of the club's young players – such as Matt Brown or Max Ramirez – would step up to fill the role, but that has not happened.
One Rangers source said that the team keeps coming back to Boston's Mike Lowell. The same source indicated that Texas believes that they can basically get Lowell for the same player they agreed to deal over the winter, Max Ramirez.
Kevin Millar is also on the Rangers' watch list, though he may earn himself a bench spot with the Cubs. Wes Helms of the Marlins and Fernando Tatis of the Mets could also fit the bill as corner infielders off of the bench. Meanwhile, "super-utility" players like Houston's Geoff Blum and Kansas City's Willie Bloomquist are likely too rich for Texas' blood.
Full Story | Comments | Categories: Fernando Tatis | Geoff Blum | Kevin Millar | Matt Brown | Max Ramirez | Mike Lowell | Texas Rangers | Wes Helms | Willie Bloomquist


text:
Decrease in serum potassium concentration during epidural anaesthesia. | |
MedLine Citation:
PMID: 3324613 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
A mean decrease in the arterial serum potassium concentration (S-K) of 0.40 mmol/l (range 0-1.0) was found in 45 elderly men who were studied before and after induction of epidural anaesthesia (using mepivacaine 2% with adrenaline). The decrease was similar in patients who received acetated Ringer solution or dextran 40 in normal saline as intravenous fluid supplementation. No difference in S-K change was found between patients with a normal (less than 115 mumol/l) or elevated serum creatinine concentration. The decrease in S-K prevailed at the end of surgery except in patients with an elevated serum creatinine. Corrections of S-K for changes in arterial blood pH and rectal temperature during induction of anaesthesia did not explain the decrease in S-K. Correlations of clinical parameters such as the extension of anaesthesia, amount of intravenous fluid given and blood pressure changes gave conflicting results. A smaller decrease or no change in S-K was usually seen in arterial (n = 7) and venous (n = 7) samples when no intravenous fluid was given, as well as in venous samples when acetated Ringer solution was given (n = 6). |
R G Hahn |
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1642913 - Heart rate periodicities during induction of propofol-nitrous oxide-isoflurane anaesthe... 19665883 - Acupuncture in the management of post-partum headache following neuraxial analgesia. 12137273 - Rapid thermogravimetric measurements of boiling points and vapor pressure of saturated ... |
Publication Detail:
Type: Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
Title: Acta anaesthesiologica Scandinavica Volume: 31 ISSN: 0001-5172 ISO Abbreviation: Acta Anaesthesiol Scand Publication Date: 1987 Nov |
Date Detail:
Created Date: 1988-03-10 Completed Date: 1988-03-10 Revised Date: 2004-11-17 |
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID: 0370270 Medline TA: Acta Anaesthesiol Scand Country: DENMARK |
Other Details:
Languages: eng Pagination: 680-3 Citation Subset: IM |
Department of Anaesthesiology, Huddinge University Hospital, Sweden. |
Export Citation:
APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex |
MeSH Terms | |
Aged Aged, 80 and over Anesthesia, Epidural / adverse effects* Blood Glucose / metabolism Body Temperature Humans Hydrogen-Ion Concentration Hypokalemia / etiology* Insulin / blood Male Mepivacaine Middle Aged Prostatectomy Sodium / blood |
Chemical | |
Reg. No./Substance:
0/Blood Glucose; 11061-68-0/Insulin; 7440-23-5/Sodium; 96-88-8/Mepivacaine |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
Previous Document: Buprenorphine as premedication and as analgesic during and after light isoflurane-N2O-O2 anaesthesia...
Next Document: Effects of PEEP on extravascular lung water and central blood volume in the dog.


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NTSB Investigating Deadly Air Show Crash In California
Fairfield, California (CNN) A horrific scene this weekend in California.
Thousands of spectators watched as a plane crashed upside-down on a runway during an air show at Travis Air Force Base. The crash happened while the 77-year-old pilot, Eddie Andreini, was attempting an acrobatic maneuver. Andreini was killed. Now, federal investigators are on the scene to figure out what led to the deadly accident. "The NTSB will initiate investigations to determine the facts and conditions, which will lead us to the probable cause and possible recommendations in the future to prevent this accident from happening again," explained Howard Plagens, NTSB Investigator. Officials say the pilot had been flying nearly all of his life. And he had been performing in air shows for 25 years. |
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