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Year of publication
Document Type
- Preprint (8)
- Doctoral Thesis (6)
- Article (3)
- Quark-Gluon-Plasma (17) (remove)
- J/psi suppression in heavy ion collisions - interplay of hard and soft QCD processes (1998)
- We study J/psi suppression in AB collisions assuming that the charmonium states evolve from small, color transparent configurations. Their interaction with nucleons and nonequilibrated, secondary hadrons is simulated us- ing the microscopic model UrQMD. The Drell-Yan lepton pair yield and the J/psi /Drell-Yan ratio are calculated as a function of the neutral transverse en- ergy in Pb+Pb collisions at 160 GeV and found to be in reasonable agreement with existing data.
- Energy dependence of multiplicity fluctuations in heavy ion collisions at the CERN SPS (2008)
- In this work data of the NA49 experiment at CERN SPS on the energy dependence of multiplicity fluctuations in central Pb+Pb collisions at 20A, 30A, 40A, 80A and 158A GeV, as well as the system size dependence at 158A GeV, is analysed for positively, negatively and all charged hadrons. Furthermore the rapidity and transverse momentum dependence of multiplicity fluctuations are studied. The experimental results are compared to predictions of statistical hadron-gas and string-hadronic models. It is expected that multiplicity fluctuations are sensitive to the phase transition to quark-gluon-plasma (QGP) and to the critical point of strongly interacting matter. It is predicted that both the onset of deconfinement, the lowest energy where QGP is created, and the critical point are located in the SPS energy range. Furthermore, the predictions for the multiplicity fluctuations of statistical and string-hadronic models are different, the experimental data might allow to distinguish between them. The used measure of multiplicity fluctuations is the scaled variance omega, defined as the ratio of the variance and the mean of the multiplicity distribution. In the NA49 experiment the tracks of charged particles are detected in four large volume time projection chambers (TPCs). In order to remove possible detector effects a detailed study of event and track selection criteria is performed. Naively one would expect Poisson fluctuations in central heavy ion collisions. A suppression of fluctuations compared to a Poisson distribution is observed for positively and negatively charged hadrons at forward rapidity in Pb+Pb collisions. At midrapidity and for all charged hadrons the fluctuations are larger than the Poisson ones. The fluctuations seem to increase with decreasing system size. It is suggested that this is due to increased relative fluctuations in the number of participants. Furthermore, it was discovered that omega increases for decreasing rapidity and transverse momentum. A hadron-gas model predicts different values of omega for different statistical ensembles. In the grand-canonical ensemble, where all conservation laws are fulfilled only on the average, not on an event-by-event basis, the predicted fluctuations are the largest ones. In the canonical ensemble the charges, namely the electrical charge, the baryon number and the strangeness, are conserved for each event. The scaled variance in this ensemble is smaller than for the grand-canonical ensemble. In the micro-canonical ensemble not only the charges, but also the energy and the momentum are conserved in each event, the predicted $omega$ is the smallest one. The grand-canonical and canonical formulations of the hadron-gas model over-predict fluctuations in the forward acceptance. In contrast to the experimental data no dependence of omega on rapidity and transverse momentum is expected. For the micro-canonical formulation, which predicts small fluctuations in the total phase space, no quantitative calculation is available yet for the limited experimental acceptance. The increase of fluctuations for low rapidities and transverse momenta can be qualitatively understood in a micro-canonical ensemble as an effect of energy and momentum conservation. The string-hadronic model UrQMD significantly over-predicts the mean multiplicities but approximately reproduces the scaled variance of the multiplicity distributions at all measured collision energies, systems and phase-space intervals. String-hadronic models predict for Pb+Pb collisions a monotonous increase of omega with collision energy, similar to the observations for p+p interactions. This is in contrast to the predictions of the hadron-gas model, where omega shows no energy dependence at higher energies. At SPS energies the predictions of the string-hadronic and hadron-gas models are in the same order of magnitude, but at RHIC and LHC energies the difference in omega in the full phase space is much larger. Experimental data should be able to distinguish between them rather easily. Narrower than Poissonian (omega < 1) multiplicity fluctuations measured in the forward kinematic region (1<y(pi)<y_{beam}) can be related to the reduced fluctuations predicted for relativistic gases with imposed conservation laws. This general feature of relativistic gases may be preserved also for some non-equilibrium systems as modeled by the string-hadronic approaches. A quantitative estimate shows that the predicted maximum in fluctuations due to a first order phase transition from hadron-gas to QGP is smaller than the experimental errors of the present experiment and can therefore neither be confirmed nor disproved. No sign of increased fluctuations as expected for a freeze-out near the critical point of strongly interacting matter is observed.
- Kaon and pion production in centrality selected minimum bias Pb+Pb collisions at 40 and 158A GeV (2009)
- Results on charged kaon and negatively charged pion production and spectra for centrality selected Pb+Pb mininimum bias events at 40 and 158A GeV have been presented in this thesis. All analysis are based on data taken by the NA49 experiment at the accelerator Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. The kaon results are based on an analysis of the mean energy loss <dE/dx> of the charged particles traversing the detector gas of the time projection chambers (TPCs). The pion results are from an analysis of all negatively charged particles h- corrected for contributions from particle decays and secondary interactions. For the dE/dx analysis of charged kaons, main TPC tracks with a total momentum between 4 and 50 GeV have been analyzed in logarithmic momentum log(p) and transverse momentum pt bins. The resulting dE/dx spectra have been fitted by the sum of 5 Gaussians, one for each main particle type (electrons, pions, kaons, protons, deuterons). The amplitude of the Gaussian used for the kaon part of the spectra has been corrected for efficiency and acceptance and the binning has been transformed to rapidity y and transverse momentum pt bins. The multiplicity dN/dy of the single rapidity bins has been derived by summing the measured range of the transverse momentum spectra and an extrapolation to full coverage with a single exponential function fitted to the measured range. The results have been combined with the mid-rapidity measurements from the time-of-flight detectors and a double Gaussian fit to the dN/dy spectra has been used for extrapolation to rapidity outside of the acceptance of the dE/dx analysis. For the h- analysis of negatively charged pions, all negatively charged tracks have been analyzed. The background from secondary reactions, particle decays, and gamma-conversions has been corrected with the VENUS event generator. The results were also corrected for efficiency and acceptance and the pt spectra were analyzed and extrapolated where necessary to derive the mean yield per rapidity bin dN/dy. The mean multiplicity <pi-> has been derived by summing up the measured dN/dy and extrapolating the rapidity spectrum with a double Gaussian fit to 4pi coverage. The results have been discussed in detail and compared to various model calculations. Microscopical models like URQMD and HSD do not describe the full complexity of Pb+Pb collisions. Especially the production of the positively charged kaons, which carry the major part of strange quarks, cannot be consistently reproduced by the model calculations. Centrality selected minimum bias Pb+Pb collisions can be described as a mixture of a high-density region of multiply colliding nucleons (core) and practically independent nucleon-nucleon collisions (corona). This leads to a smooth evolution from peripheral to central collisions. A more detailed approach derives the ensemble volume from a percolation of elementary clusters. In the percolation model all clusters are formed from coalescing strings that are assumed to decay statistically with the volume dependence of canonical strangeness suppression. The percolation model describes the measured data for top SPS and RHIC energies. At 40A GeV, the system size dependence of the relative strangeness production starts to evolve from the saturation seen at higher energies from peripheral events onwards towards a linear dependence at SIS and AGS. This change of the dependence on system size occurs in the energy region of the observed maximum of the K+ to pi ratio for central Pb+Pb collisions. Future measurements with heavy ion beam energies around this maximum at RHIC and FAIR as well as the upgraded NA49 successor experiment NA61 will further improve our understanding of quark matter and its reflection in modern heavy ion physics and theories.
- Properties of hadronic matter near the phase transition (2010)
- In order to fully understand the new state of matter formed in heavy ion collisions, it is vital to isolate the always present final state hadronic contributions within the primary Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) experimental signatures. Previously, the hadronic contributions were determined using the properties of the known mesons and baryons. However, according to Hagedorn, hadrons should follow an exponential mass spectrum, which the known hadrons follow only up to masses of M = 2 GeV. Beyond this point the mass spectrum is flat, which indicates that there are "missing" hadrons, that could potentially contribute significantly to experimental observables. In this thesis I investigate the influence of these "missing" Hagedorn states on various experimental signatures of QGP. Strangeness enhancement is considered a signal for QGP because hadronic interactions (even including multi-mesonic reactions) underpredict the hadronic yields (especially for strange particles) at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, RHIC. One can conclude that the time scales to produce the required amount of hadronic yields are too long to allow for the hadrons to reach chemical equilibrium within the lifetime of a cooling hadronic fireball. Because gluon fusion can quickly produce strange quarks, it has been suggested that the hadrons are born into chemical equilibrium following the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) phase transition. However, we show here that the missing Hagedorn states provide extra degrees of freedom that can contribute to fast chemical equilibration times for a hadron gas. We develop a dynamical scheme in which possible Hagedorn states contribute to fast chemical equilibration times of X X pairs (where X = p, K, Lambda, or Omega) inside a hadron gas and just below the critical temperature. Within this scheme, we use master equations and derive various analytical estimates for the chemical equilibration times. Applying a Bjorken picture to the expanding fireball, the hadrons can, indeed, quickly chemically equilibrate for both an initial overpopulation or underpopulation of Hagedorn resonances. We compare the thermodynamic properties of our model to recent lattice results and find that for both critical temperatures, Tc = 176 MeV and Tc = 196 MeV, the hadrons can reach chemical equilibrium on very short time scales. Furthermore the ratios p/pi, K/pi , Lambda/pi, and Omega/pi match experimental values well in our dynamical scenario. The effects of the "missing" Hagedorn states are not limited to the chemical equilibration time. Many believe that the new state of matter formed at RHIC is the closet to a perfect fluid found in nature, which implies that it has a small shear viscosity to entropy density ratio close to the bound derived using the uncertainty principle. Our hadron resonance gas model, including the additional Hagedorn states, is used to obtain an upper bound on the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio, eta/s, of hadronic matter near Tc that is close to 1/(4pi). Furthermore, the large trace anomaly and the small speed of sound near Tc computed within this model agree well with recent lattice calculations. We also comment on the behavior of the bulk viscosity to entropy density ratio of hadronic matter close to the phase transition, which qualitatively has a different behavior close to Tc than a hadron gas model with only the known resonances. We show how the measured particle ratios can be used to provide non-trivial information about Tc of the QCD phase transition. This is obtained by including the effects of highly massive Hagedorn resonances on statistical models, which are generally used to describe hadronic yields. The inclusion of the "missing" Hagedorn states creates a dependence of the thermal fits on the Hagedorn temperature, TH , and leads to a slight overall improvement of thermal fits. We find that for Au+Au collisions at RHIC at sqrt{sN N} = 200 GeV the best square fit measure, chi^2 , occurs at TH = Tc = 176 MeV and produces a chemical freeze-out temperature of 172.6 MeV and a baryon chemical potential of 39.7 MeV.
- Probing the QCD Phase Diagram with Compact Stars (2010)
- In this work we study compact stars, i.e. neutron stars, as cosmic laboratories for the nuclear matter. With a mass of around 1 - 3 solar masses and a radius of around 10km, compact stars are very dense and, besides nucleons, can contain exotic matter such as hyperons or quark matter. The KaoS collaboration studied nuclear matter for densities up to 2-3 times saturation density by analysing kaon multiplicities from Au+Au and C+C collisions. The results show that nuclear matter in the corresponding density region is very compressible, with a compressibility of <200MeV. For such soft nuclear equations of state the maximum masses of neutron stars are ca. 1.8 - 1.9 solar masses, whereas the central densities are higher than 5 times nuclear saturation density and therefore point towards a possible phase transition to quark matter. If quark matter would be present in the interior of neutron stars, so-called hybrid stars, it could be produced already during their birth in supernova explosions. To study this we implement a quark matter phase transition in a hadronic equation of state which is used in supernova simulations. Supernova simulations of low and intermediate mass progenitors and two different bag constants show a collapse of the proto neutron star due to the softening of the equations of state in the quark-hadron mixed phase. The stiffening of the equation of state for pure quark matter halts the collapse and leads to the production of a second shock wave. The second shock wave is energetic enough to lead to an explosion of the star and produces a neutrino burst when passing the neutrinospheres. Furthermore, first studies of the longtime cooling of hybrid stars show, that colour superconductivity can significantly influence the cooling behaviour of hybrid stars, if all quarks form Cooper Pairs. For the so-called CSL phase (colour-spin locking) with pairing energies of several MeV, the cooling of the quark phase is suppressed and the hybrid star appears as a pure hadronic star.
- Collective phenomena in the non-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma (2008)
- In this work we study the non-equilibrium dynamics of a quark-gluon plasma, as created in heavy-ion collisions. We investigate how big of a role plasma instabilities can play in the isotropization and equilibration of a quark-gluon plasma. In particular, we determine, among other things, how much collisions between the particles can reduce the growth rate of unstable modes. This is done both in a model calculation using the hard-loop approximation, as well as in a real-time lattice simulation combining both classical Yang-Mills-fields as well as inter-particle collisions. The new extended version of the simulation is also used to investigate jet transport in isotropic media, leading to a cutoff-independent result for the transport coefficient $hat{q}$. The precise determination of such transport coefficients is essential, since they can provide important information about the medium created in heavy-ion collisions. In anisotropic media, the effect of instabilities on jet transport is studied, leading to a possible explanation for the experimental observation that high-energy jets traversing the plasma perpendicular to the beam axis experience much stronger broadening in rapidity than in azimuth. The investigation of collective modes in the hard-loop limit is extended to fermionic modes, which are shown to be all stable. Finally, we study the possibility of using high energy photon production as a tool to experimentally determine the anisotropy of the created system. Knowledge of the degree of local momentum-space anisotropy reached in a heavy-ion collision is essential for the study of instabilities and their role for isotropization and thermalization, because their growth rate depends strongly on the anisotropy.
- Hadron production from a hadronizing quark-gluon plasma (1997)
- Measured hadron yields from relativistic nuclear collisions can be equally well understood in two physically distinct models, namely a static thermal hadronic source versus a time-dependent, non-equilibrium hadronization off a quark gluon plasma droplet. Due to the time-dependent particle evaporation off the hadronic surface in the latter approach the hadron ratios change (by factors of / 5) in time. The overall particle yields then reflect time averages over the actual thermodynamic properties of the system at a certain stage of evolution.


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Courses: Language and Electronic Media (ANTHH236A01)
Fall 2010
20th century politics and culture were intimately linked to the rapid development of radio, television, and film. These electronic media have creatively engaged with local cultural practices around the world in reshaping the nature of artistic expression, national, gendered, and racial difference, and political power. This course uses anthropological notions of language to examine cultures of electronic media around the globe. We will create a theoretical frame that will allow us to look at radio, video/film, television, the internet, and mobile phone technologies as forms of social mediation. Mass media will be considered in relation to the formation of new types of embodiment, value, production, and consumption. In particular, we will trace how actor-centered performance approaches to language, reference, and authority give insight into the making of contemporary, electronically-mediated ways of understanding the world. This class draws together the fields of philosophy of language, linguistic anthropology, media studies, and various approaches to performance studies.
Prerequisites: This course requires at least one anthropology course and instructor's permission.
Fulfills: SO I Limit:25
Taught By
Haverford, Chase 101
Meeting Times
TTh 2:30-4:00

subset: commoncrawl


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7 Steps to Reduce Stroke Risk
By: Bill Gottlieb
- Overview
- Swallow Nature's Blood Thinner
- Swig Less Soda
- Count to 3
- Hold Your Breath
- Beat Homocysteine
- Pick Up an Iron Supplement
- Never Miss Another Flu Shot
More Health Lists
Beat Homocysteine
Research suggests that people with high blood levels of this amino acid are more likely to stroke out than those with low readings. Extra folate will help reduce the risk, but only for some people. "Fifty to 60 percent won't respond with lower homocysteine," says Seth J. Baum, M.D., medical director of the Mind/Body Medical Institute, a Harvard affiliate.
Dr. Baum recommends 1,000 micrograms (mcg) of folate, plus 25 milligrams (mg) of vitamin B6, 1,000 mcg of B12, and 1,800 mg of the amino acid N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC). "With folate, B6, B12, and NAC supplements, almost everyone will have normal homocysteine levels," says Dr. Baum.
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Rain caused the postponement of the first game of the championship series between Harvard, Yale and Princeton which was scheduled on Saturday. The game will be played in Princeton this afternoon at 3 o'clock.
After the extra two days' rest, the pitchers of both teams should be in excellent form, so that a close game may be expected.
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|Lisa Carol Hall
|Wednesday, 20 August 2014 12:33
Lisa Carol Hall, 52 of Bowling Green, departed this life on Tuesday, August 19, 2014 at her residence. The Warren County Native was the daughter of Helen Hardcastle Bardin, who survives, and the late William Wayne Hardcastle. She was a laborer and a member of Hillview Heights Church.
She is also survived by one sister, Sharon Renfro and her husband Eldridge of Smiths Grove, KY; an uncle, Hugh Hardcastle and his wife Ula Mae; a nephew, Brad Renfro and his wife Robin; a niece, Leslie Spainhoward and her husband Eric; three great-nephews, Seth Renfro and his wife Taylor, Sawyer Spainhoward and Griffin Spainhoward; a great niece, Ellie Claire Spainhoward; cousins, Carolyn Honchell and her husband Kenny, Ann King and her husband Rich, Trey King, Austin King, Savannah King, Ken Honchell, Jr., Dylan Honchell, Ryan Honchell, David Embry, and Bailey Embry.
Graveside service will be at 10:00 am Saturday, August 23, 2014 at Fairview Cemetery in Bowling Green.


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ShoWest is billed as the largest motion picture convention and trade show in the world. It brings together theater owners – represented by NATO, the National Association of Theater Owners – and the major international film distributors – represented by the MPAA, the Motion Picture Association of America. Together they celebrate their past year's achievements and talk about the big ideas for the future of the motion picture exhibition business.
There was plenty to celebrate at ShoWest 2010. The global box office set another all-time record in 2009, reaching almost $30 billion. North American box office increased for the fourth consecutive year, and was a full 10% higher than in 2008, finishing at a record $10.6 billion. 11% of the North American box office came from 3D showings.
There are many formats available for making a movie, starting with whether it is on film or digital video. There are many different considerations when choosing a format, including image quality, cost, ease of use, workflow familiarity, aesthetics, archivability, and where you intend to share your story.
But this story is not about how people are making their movies. This is about how many people are making movies.
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With our attempts to cultivate nature, humankind causes the rising of a next nature, which is wild and unpredictable as ever. Wild systems, genetic surprises, autonomous machinery and splendidly beautiful black flowers. Nature changes along with us.
Technology has always been closely attached to our bodies, in the form of decades-old headphones or recent devices. It has always been a part of our lives, and our attachment to it seems to grow every day.
Intimate Technology refers to systems that define and influence our behavior and identity. Technology is increasingly placing itself in us and between us, is mimicking our behavior and gathering information about us. As we allow technology into our private world, our relationship with it becomes more and more intimate.
The Anthropocene is a geologic chronological term that and serves to mark the evidence and extent of human activities that have had a significant global impact on the Earth's ecosystems. It follows on the Holocene and Pleistocene.
We have entered the Anthropocene epoch, in which humanity and its instrumentalities are the most potent and influential geological force. Most available sunlight and soil goes for crops. The ever-increasing tonnage of human flesh outweighs all other wild mammals. Nature become a subset of culture, rather than vice versa.
Nongenetic Evolution refers to evolutionary processes that are not based on changes in genes.
For instance, when products or ideas evolve like organisms, such as the development of Gillette razor blades or the Shell corporate logo. Is evolution evolving out of gene-based life forms onto a next level?
Innovative Nostalgia is a design strategy that aims to smooth technological change by linking newfangled technologies with familiar phenomena.
We feel more comfortable with technological changes when they are wrapped in a recognizable packaging by referring to accepted objects, habits, values, traditions or intuitions.
Linking modern technologies with old familiar phenomena: the nostalgia can refer to a phenomenon from your youth, your grandparents life, or even the ancient history of humankind. Back to the natural future?
Humanity has an insatiable hunger for meat. We're emptying the oceans, turning the rainforest into ranches, and raising animals factory-style to satisfy our appetites. Is there a humane, eco-friendly way to get our protein fix?
Along with insect farming and vegetarian substitutes, in vitro meat is a promising solution to the protein crisis. Though still expensive and difficult to produce, lab-grown muscle tissue might one day be a cheap, low-impact way of producing enough meat to feed the world.
Much of the so-called 'nature' in our lives has taken on an artificial authenticity. Engineered tomatoes are redder, rounder, and larger than the ones from our gardens. We have made fluorescent fish, featherless birds, and botanical gardens that contain species from every corner of the globe.
Human design has made nature hypernatural. Hypernature is an exaggerated simulation of a nature that never existed. It's better than the real thing: a little bit prettier, slicker and safer than the old kind. Hypernature is culture in disguise.
Food is marketed as 'wholesome', 'farm fresh', and 'all natural', but there's a whole lot more going on in that can of Pringles than plain fried potatoes.
Of all technologies, food technology does the best job of wrapping futuristic advancements in a veneer of old nature. Fake flavors become natural, while "fresh" food lasts for years. But don't be deceived: bread comes from a can, eggs come from a tube, and everything else comes from the lab. With the development of molecular gastronomy and 3D printers, gastronomes have even taken industrial food science and turned it into an art.
We use metaphors to introduce unfamiliar technologies: the horseless carriage, the electric candle. Analogies place novel developments within existing structures of meanings and relationships.
For digital natives, the online realms may become more familiar than aspects of the 'real' world. Warfare is like a first-person shooter, New York is one of many Sim Cities, and peer groups are best understood in terms of how they relate on Facebook. When analogies are transferred from the virtual to the physical world, the traditional flow of meaning is reversed. The metaphor has boomeranged.
Anthropomorphobia is the fear of recognizing human characteristics in non-human objects. The term is a hybrid of two Greek-derived words: 'anthropomorphic' means 'of human form' and 'phobia' means 'fear'.
Its symptoms are irrational panic attacks, disdain, revulsion, and confusion over things that change what it means to be human: plastic surgery, robots, and intelligent animals. Will anthropomorphobia eventually become public disease number one?
Humans create some pretty clever designs, but until now, our constructed environment has largely been static. It's time to take a hint from old nature and teach our buildings and products how to grow, adapt, and repair themselves.
Using the principle of guided growth, fruits manufacture their own packaging, and chairs are designed to mimic bones. Even our buildings may eventually have the same urge to eat and breath as the residents inside.
Modernity tried to whitewash our tribal selves, to erase the vestiges of the savannah in our genome. But like graffiti in a city, our inner caveman is irrepressible. The ancient hominid self springs up unpredictably and in unexpected places.
The tribe underlies the most fundamental parts of our identities, but that doesn't mean it's easy to pin down. How far have we moved from our small bands of foragers? Digital technologies like social networking sites and cell phones return us to an age of tribal-style social immersion.
Humans hack the landscape to be more productive and predictable. Though we have intentionally transformed the landscape since the first farmer put a seed in the ground, in the last century our efforts have become planet-scale.
While we manipulate old nature through dams, planned forests and irrigation, we create a next natural landscape of highways, vast cities, and garbage dumps. How do we control these? And is control even possible?
We like to think that we are in control of our offspring. But just like children grow up, so do our systems. Human technologies have become so complex that they now behave like independent ecologies.
Algorithms run the stock market. Computer viruses keep going long after their creators have set them free. Genetically modified organisms thrive in the wild. In this new world of wild, technological beasts, will humans be at the mercy of our monsters?
Humans have long augmented our bodies with eyeglasses, clothing, and prosthetics. Thanks to recent scientific advancements, we are now on the cusp of a second wave of body-modification.
Nanotechnology may give us contact lens cameras and robots small enough to patrol our bloodstreams. Genetic modification could tweak us to be smarter, smaller and more eco-friendly, while neural interfaces might allow us to plug our brains directly into the web. Nature made us. Next Nature made us better.
The media have become our filters through which we survey the world around us. We see more images every day than a person living in the Middle Ages in a whole lifetime. Plastic surgeons sculpt flesh to match retouched photographs in glossy magazines.
Virtual computer worlds are becoming increasingly 'real' and blended with our physical world. People drink beverages with non-existing fruit flavors. We wage war on video screens. Birds mimic mobile–phone ring tones. Do we still have genuine experiences at all, or are we living in a Society of Simulations?
Humans have relied on microbes for millennia. Yeast brews our beer and raises our bread. Bacteria in our guts keep us healthy. Microscopic phytoplankton in the ocean produce half of the world's oxygen.
Thanks to genetic engineering, technology, and good old evolution, humans are about to enter into a new phase of our ancient partnership. We may soon create bacteria that eat plastic, emit light, and even tell us whether or not we're healthy. When it comes to microbes, big things come from small packages.
Photoshopped models are more alluring than living people. Luxury labels are worth more than the clothing they brand. The images on food packaging look better than the meal tastes. Welcome to the world of Image Consumption.
Among all animals, humans are uniquely capable of "consuming" image instead of substance. In our media-saturated society, it can be hard to see things for what they really are. But what makes reality any more "real" than our perception of it?
Welcome to the suburban utopia, where everyone owns a home, a car and an iSomething. All of your needs have been met, and every detail has been planned.
But is something missing? Or are you not good enough for the perfect world? The image of the suburban utopia may be cracking under the pressure of perfection. Even here there are risks and unexpected phenomena. Nature, and human nature, has a way of disrupting even the most squeaky-clean environment.
During human evolution, work and leisure were not separate concepts. With the rise of modernity, factory and office work has domesticated us to follow clock time and artificial light. Yet how "natural" is it to sit in front of a computer screen eight hours a day?
We need technology that resonates with our senses, rather than numbing them, that empowers the human condition, rather than undermining it. How can we create an office garden that teems with life and possibility?
Fake nature is a replica of old nature. Where 'authentic' nature is organic, genetic, and alive, fake nature is not. It projects the illusion of life, be it plant or animal, on man-made and inanimate objects.
Yet fake nature is not a dull, devalued shadow of living nature. It is rich in cultural associations that grow, morph, and interact with society and the natural environment. Phone antenna trees grow alongside real pines, dioramas are carefully studied, and the mountains themselves are under girded with steel.
From the moment humans and wolves first decided to play nice with one another, humans have been directing the development of other animals. After 30,000 years, we have tiny chihuahuas, angora rabbits puffed like pompoms, and Belgian blue cattle with 'double-muscling.'
Our best friends are just as carefully designed as the latest piece of technology. There's no doubt that we will bring whole ecosystems of manufactured animals into the world. Where selective breeding stops, genetic modification begins. Next nature will be overrun with next animals.
Much of the data in our lives comes from square, electronic screens. We get our news from the television, our books from e-readers, transportation schedules from LED screens, and everything else from computers and mobile phones.
Nature encodes information in some elegant ways: the fish that changes color when it's ready to mate, the banana that turns yellow when it's ripe. 'Information decoration' takes its inspiration from old nature to present data in an unobtrusive manner, helping to restore depth of meaning to the built environment.
The United States throws out 25 billion plastic water bottles each year; a 'patch' of plastic garbage twice the size of Texas now swirls in the center of the Pacific Ocean. From its invention in 1907, plastic and plastic-derived chemicals have worked their way into the rungs of every food chain on Earth.
Plastic might be the newest nutrient in the planet's ecosystems, but so far, nature has yet to find a use for it. The only sensible way to think of plastic is as a raw Next Nature material, waiting for its balancing counterpart to evolve. We only have time: the average plastic bag will linger for your great grandchildren to clean up 1,000 years from now.
Humans evolved in an environment where food had to be gathered & hunted. As we are evolutionary still attuned to this way of food finding, in many respect the concept of the supermarket is just as outlandish for us as for a caveman.
If only the supermarket wasn't such a mundane part of our life, we would realize how exceptional this environment really is: The supermarket is our next savanna.
Nature is a terrific marketing tool and corporations know this. Somehow the natural reference provides us with a familiar feeling of recognition and trust. We call this phenomenon Bio-mimic-marketing: using images of nature to market a product.
Due to the countless campaigns that promote a one-sided positive image of the natural world, nature itself has become the most successfully marketed product of our time.
Some centuries ago landscape painters taught us to appreciate the quality of an untouched landscape. Ever since we have been doing everything to recreate it.
We camouflage cell phone antenna mast to look like tries. We fly thousands of miles to experience a pristine landscape. Some countries even go so far to reconstruct prehistoric landscapes at obsolete industrial sites – revived extinct animals included.
We debate saving nature, we dream about escaping to nature, but rarely do we ask "What is nature?" In an era when the influence of humanity is impossible to escape, our established notion of nature must be reconsidered.
We must no longer see ourselves as the anti-natural species that merely threatens and eliminates nature, but rather as catalysts of evolution. With our urge to design our environment, we cause the rising of a next nature that is wild and unpredictable as ever.


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Tim Richards '10: Blending Environmental Activism and Academics
Tim Richards '10 certainly made his mark at Haverford, both as a member of the campus environmental groups EarthQuakers and EHaus, and as author of the Sustainable Haverford plenary resolution that prompted the college to invest in 100% wind energy to power the campus. After graduation, Richards went on to study sustainable communities around the world during a year of travel supported by a Watson Fellowship.
And now, with the publication of his senior philosophy thesis in the International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, it's clear Richards' ideas have taken root far beyond Gest 101. "I was lucky to be able to fuse my environmental activism with academics," he said, "because before this research they were pretty separate for me."
Richards' advisor, Gest Professor of Global Philosophy Ashok Gangadean, called the thesis "remarkable." "I felt that his thesis showed creativity and was at the cutting edge of his topic," said Gangadean, "so I was delighted to learn that it was appreciated by others and will be published."
The paper, an abridged version of which appears in the journal, is titled "Beyond Environmental Morality: Towards a Viable Environmental Ethic(s)." The paper explains that, in Richards' view, the environmental movement has sought to scold people—"to tell them to be less bad."
"I don't think that's a very good framing of the issue," said Richards. "I think the message can and needs to be more inspiring. Yes, that's how things have been in the past, but I want people to understand that we can change that."
Richards has practiced his philosophy first-hand, founding the organization Citizens for a Green Mt. Airy in his Maryland hometown with the help of a Center for Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC) grant during his sophomore year. The group focuses on education, teaching residents about everyday energy and food solutions. Richards, who took a semester off from his studies at Haverford his junior year, spent those months back in Mount Airy developing the organization.
The following year, after his senior research was complete, Richards received an email from Professor of Philosophy Kathleen Wright. "She shared a link about the conference for the Journal," said Richards, "so I thought, 'why not?' and submitted my paper." "Maybe they thought I was a professor or something," said Richard with a laugh.
When his paper was accepted, the philosophy department and CPGC both pitched in to help Richards attend the conference, held in Ecuador. "It was a great experience," he said. "I got to network with a lot of like-minded people."
Publication notwithstanding, Richards said he doesn't plan to attend graduate school in the near future. "If I end up having a career in the traditional sense, it will likely be in conservation," he said.
Richards recently resettled in Davis, California, where he lives in a cooperative community house and works for Tuleyome, a conservation nonprofit. But Richards—whom Gangadean described as "a model of an outstanding philosophy major"—won't be leaving his academic background behind.
"The biggest thing for me right now is getting philosophy into the world, for the world, and using it to solve the biggest issue we face, which is the sustainability challenge," he said.
"Sometimes the discipline can be so abstract," said Richards. "But we're living in a society that really needs something like philosophy."
—Mara Miller '10
Office of College Communications 610-896-1333 email@example.com


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Westwood Introductions International is a private member's only matchmaking service and realtionship coach which serves as your passport to the most exclusive women in the world. A membership with us provides you with unlimited access to an unrivaled selection of exceptional women. Our elite tiers of membership are designed so that everything is catered to your preferred level of assistance, tailoring our service to your personal requirements.
Some Questions You May Have About The Women You Will Be Meeting Through Our Service:
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The women in our database come from all over the United States, Canada and the UK.
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Our professional matchmakers find our beautiful single women in three ways:
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The women in our database and that are found by recruiters in their searches are tired of the dating scene and ready to meet the love of their life for a monogamous committed relationship that will lead to marriage, many women in our database are also very family oriented and would love to have children with the man of their dreams.
What age range of the women you work with?
Our database has women as young as early twenties to women in their early sixties, most of the women in our database are from the age range 22-45.


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Press On: Helping Students Thrive
Press On is a holistic and multifaceted approach to leadership development for middle school students. Founded upon evidence-based and current best practices for positive youth development, resiliency and prevention, Press On provides a variety of intentional and experiential activities in an environment where students are supported, encouraged and challenged to grow.
Press On's unique model includes:
With the unique facility and community support, Press On is helping to create an asset-rich environment and encouraging, supportive network of staff and volunteers for students and families in our community. Press On is one piece of an overall effort at The Kroc Center to get people of all ages connected to a positive, healthy community where they can thrive.
Interested in Press On? Sign-up today!
If you just want to learn more about the Press On program, please call 208.763.0675 or email email@example.com.
Interested in becoming a mentor?
Who: Men and women who love Jesus and are excited about connecting with a middle school student.
Why: Middle school students in our community are growing up in a culture promoting high risk behaviors and unhealthy attitudes. Mentors support and encourage students as they learn to take ownership of their lives in positive and meaningful ways.
When: 4-8 hours per month, scheduled at the convenience of you and your student's family.
How: Call 208-763-0677 or sign up online to get started. Questions? Email firstname.lastname@example.com
Thanks to our 2014 Sponsors!


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Fred E. Nayfa of Sweetwater, Texas, went home to be with his Lord on April 10, 2012. He was born on August 30, 1917, in Greenville, Texas to Elias and Almaz Nayfa, immigrants from Lebanon. While attending Oklahoma City University in 1938, he met Jo Farris. They were married eight years later in Gainesville, Texas on April 17, 1946 by a retired Methodist minister. Fred and Jo had a special love and commitment to each other and he was a loving and caring person who will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him.
A private family memorial service will be held later this week for Norma Faye Grantham, 68, of Sweetwater, with family members officiating. Interment will follow at Roscoe Cemetery under the direction of McCoy Funeral Home.
Grantham died Monday, April 9, 2012, at her home.
BROWNWOOD — The Sweetwater High School girls golf team held on to second place Monday in the final round of the District 5-3A tournament at Brownwood Country Club.
As a result, the team will advance to the Region I-3A tournament on April 18-19 in San Angelo.
Sweetwater carded a 374 over the last 18 holes to end with a 54-hole total of 1,106 strokes and finish behind only Snyder, which shot 339 and wound up at 1,038. The top two teams and top two individuals not from a qualifying team advance to the regional tournament.
Track athletes from Ros-coe, Blackwell and High-land recently had top-four finishes in district events to qualify for area track meets scheduled this Thursday.
Roscoe's athletes went to Albany for District 9-1A competition. Boys qualifiers were Jesus Leanos, who was first in both the 1600 run (5:04.64) and the 3200 (10:54.94); Dillon Freeman, first in the 300 hurdles (43.81); Devon Freeman, second in the pole vault (12-6); and Eduardo Galle-gos, fourth in the 400 dash (52.66).
Sweetwater Animal Control currently has three dogs available for adoption.
Available for adoption is a male dachshund mix, one male mixed breed dog and one female collie mix. According to Sweetwater's animal control officer, Don Kite, animals that are picked up are kept for a minimum of three days, but he tries to keep them from a week to 10 days.
Dogs and cats are available for adoption for a $15 fee and the cost of getting the pet vaccinated for rabies.
The pets are required to have their vaccination before they leave to their new homes.
On May 3, 2012, Sweetwater Independent School District will hold Kindergarten Roundup at Southeast Elementary. Personnel from Southeast Elementary will be registering students that will be attending Kindergarten next year in the 2012-2013 school year. The registration will be from 4-6 p.m. in the gym at Southeast Elementary, 1201 Mustang Drive. All Kindergarten students in Sweetwater attend school at Southeast Elementary and this will be an opportunity for the students to be registered for school early.
Pictured are Lathan Limones (third grade) of Colorado City, Seth Chaney (fourth grade) of Colorado City, Kay Shields, Bible Drill Leader at First Baptist Church of Colorado City, Caleb Shields (third grade) of Colorado City, Brooklynn Petty (fifth grade) of Sweetwater, Natile Woodrow, Bible Drill Leader at First Baptist Church of Sweetwater, and Braden Upshaw (sixth grade) of Colorado City. The students competed in Rolling Plains Network Drill at First Baptist Church, Sweetwater. Lathan, Caleb and Braden each scored Honorable Mention. Seth Chaney scored Good and Brooklynn Petty scored Superior
Robert R. McBride and the Nolan County Veterans Service Office announced that AT&T is partnered with the Texas Veterans Commission to fill over 600 jobs.
Through a partnership between AT&T and the Texas Veterans Commission (TVC), AT&T has committed to hire Texas Veterans to fill more than 600 Premises Technicians positions for AT&T's new U-verse integrated digital TV, high speed internet and voice service.
The Sweetwater Kiwanis Club presented a check for the A's R Us Program at the March SISD School Board Meeting. Pictured making the presentation is local Kiwanian Leader Bill Haley.
The Kiwanis Club provides an opportunity for students to perform each year in the local Star Search. Proceeds from the Star Search support the A's R Us program which is another program the Kiwanis Club began.
Pictured with Haley is Sweetwater ISD School Board President, Becky Jimenez.
Kayden George Hill, one month, of Sweetwater, died Sunday, April 8, 2012, in Sweetwater.
He will be cremated. Services will be planned at a later date under the direction of McCoy Funeral Home.
Hill was born Feb. 26, 2012, in Sweetwater.
Survivors include his father, Brian Hill, Jr. of Sweetwater; his mother, Lisa Gonzales of Sweetwater; and brother, Rian Hill of Sweetwater.


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Running a successful online business requires planning, hard work and determination. Preparing for success starts with brainstorming business ideas that interest you and have profit potential. It involves figuring out how much competition you will face in your venture and finding ways to make your business stand out among similar companies. In addition, an important part of running a successful online business is making sure you can reach your target market through a range of marketing methods.
Choose an online business based on your interests. You may have a better chance at success if you are genuinely interested in your business instead of just the profit potential of your products and services.
Research the demand for the product or service you want to sell. If there is little demand, you will have a difficult time succeeding in your online business.
Check out the online competition. Ideally, you will want to start a business that has high demand but little competition. If you are determined to start an online business for which there is already a lot of competition, consider ways you can make your business differ from similar companies or add services that make your business more attractive to customers.
Create a business plan for your online business. Because online businesses are often easier to start than brick-and-mortar businesses, you may feel tempted to skip creating a business plan. Starting your Internet business without a solid plan, however, increases your risk of failure.
Learn whether you will need a business license to run your online business. Some jurisdictions require Internet business owners to obtain licensing.
Use print and online advertising methods to attract customers. Limiting yourself to online advertising may make success harder to attain. Encourage your customers, friends and family members to provide word-of-mouth referrals as well.
Set regular hours for operating your business, and stick to the schedule you set. If you treat your online business like a hobby and only work when you want to, you are less likely to succeed.
Price your products and services low enough that customers consider them affordable but high enough that you earn a profit. Factor in web design and hosting costs as well as other costs of running your business.
Make contacting your business easy. If potential customers cannot easily reach you to ask questions, they are less likely to patronize your online business. In addition to email, provide a contact phone number and mailing address on your website.
Jordan Meyers has been a freelance writer, specializing in health, education, business and parenting topics for more than a decade and a copy editor since 2008. Meyers has written Web and print copy for hundreds of businesses, including many Fortune 500 companies. She holds a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of Maryland and is studying for a bachelor's degree in psychology.
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Kelley Rogers Niiyama has appeared across the United States and in Japan as a recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral musician and musical theater pit orchestra player. She has shared the concert stage with many notable performers including Ray Charles, Arturo Sandoval, and Dominic Spera. A veteran of wind ensemble playing, she has worked with preeminent conductors including Ray Cramer, William Revelli, and Stephen Pratt.
Ms. Niiyama has appeared with several orchestras including the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Pine Bluff Symphony Orchestra, many Indiana University orchestras, the Lafayette Symphony, Muncie Symphony orchestra and other Indiana-based orchestras. Ms. Niiyama has held the principal position with the Bloomington Pops Orchestra since 2006; she played principal clarinet with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra of Indiana, where she currently serves as President of the Board of Directors. Kelley appeared as soloist with the University of Central Arkansas Symphony Orchestra as winner of the 2002 Concerto Competition.
This past summer, Niiyama took part in a national recording project of the complete etudes by Cyrille Rose. The recordings will be available for download on iTunes and Amazon in the coming months.
Niiyama has been active as a teacher of clarinet for more than 20 years. She taught clarinet at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music and clarinet and saxophone at the former Community Music School of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. She served as the Clarinet Specialist at Columbus North High School. Niiyama has taught master classes in the United States (most recently at Illinois State University, Indiana University and DePauw University) and throughout the Chiba prefecture in Japan.
Niiyama has been interested in the scholarly study of all periods of music history. To this end, she has presented lectures and lecture/recitals at several venues including the College Music Society, where she presented a paper on the connection between the Jewish synagogue and Byzantine liturgical traditions. Keeping her love of music history alive, Ms. Niiyama teaches online Music Appreciation courses at Ivy Tech.
Ms. Niiyama studied clarinet with James Campbell and Howard Klug at Indiana University, where she earned the Master of Music degree in Clarinet Performance and has completed the coursework towards the Doctor of Music degree in Clarinet Performance. She studied historical clarinet at Indiana University's Early Music Institute with Eric Hoeprich. Kelley earned the Bachelor of Music degree in Clarinet Performance from the University of Central Arkansas where she studied with Kristina Belisle-Jones and Maureen Hurd Hause. Ms. Niiyama also studied with Tina Ward and George K. Mellott.
D.M. (in progress) Indiana University, M.M. Indiana University; B.M. University of Central Arkansas.


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Lovers of "classic" radio gear and facilities should visit the website of the Maritime Radio Historical Society to view Bruce Ecker's panoramic views of the KPH/KSM transmit and receive sites. I'll give you the link in a moment.
This is not a broadcast facility but rather a coastal station that was involved in maritime communications. That station, KPH, is located in the Point Reyes Nation Seashore preserve, north of San Francisco.
KPH has roots dating to the early 20th century; it was relocated from San Francisco, following the 1906 earthquake that devastated that city. (The call sign is said to have stemmed from the Palace Hotel where the operation was once headquartered.)
It was later acquired by RCA, and those with a keen eye will be able to spot some of that company's gear in the very detailed photos available on the website.
Following the gradual decline in the radiotelegraphic commercial maritime communications in the age of satellite and computerized data communications, the station was acquired by owners of another such West Coast communication facility, Globe Wireless. Following the 1997 acquisition, KPH subsequently was retired from active service.
Fortunately, former wireless operators and volunteers, operating as the Maritime Radio Historical Society, have kept the facility from being dismantled and scrapped. It still lives on and the website photos clearly reveal the fruits of these volunteer efforts.
Virtually every operating and maintenance area of the station building has been captured through these photographs.
They're unusual too, in that a site visitor can manipulate his/her viewing perspective by zooming, planning and tilting controlled by the computer mouse thanks to the Pano2VR player. It's really a virtual reality sort of display — you can even look up at the ceiling lighting fixtures or the floor tiles. (Just don't go panning or tilting too fast, as vertigo can result!)
Virtual tour visitors easily can pick out both vintage and more modern gear that made up the station. In addition to the transmitter gallery (look for the RCA "meatballs"), there's the maintenance shop with its tools and construction/repair materials.
A storage area shows the ranks of spare tubes, capacitors and transformers kept in readiness. There are plenty of Teletype machines represented, ranging from 1930s vintage to some of the last machines that company produced.
Of particular interest is the "CW Operating Position," with a stack of "Marconigram" message forms alongside a vintage typewriter and hole-punch. Visible too are the temporary files for received messages. Judging from the number of bins, KPH must have handled a really large amount of traffic during a typical day's operation. A nice touch too in this photo is the operator's jacket bearing "RCA Global Communications" on its back above the large "meatball" company logo.
Another photo allows website visitors to enter "the SITOR room," chock full of the more modern computer terminals and printers that were employed in the final years of the station's operation.
There's even a portal to the outside where transmission line feeders can be inspected close-up.
All in all this website is a "must visit" for radio yesteryear junkies — the scenes are so real that you can almost smell the aroma of insulation and other olfactory cues from other transmitter and power system components.
Panoramic Views of KPH/KSM Receive/Transmit Sites
Thanks for the mention of our project! Readers should know that both the transmit and receive sites are in full operation on frequencies from 426kc to 22Mc, using CW and RTTY, each Saturday. Even better, visitors are welcome! If you plan a visit please let us know so we can be sure to arrange a proper reception for you, including the Transmitter Department's justly famous "shock & awe" demonstration of our vintage transmitters dating from the 1940s and 1950s.
Copyright © 2015 NewBay Media, LLC. 28 East 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016 T


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As a superintendent of schools, I am speaking out to report on and fight for hungry students in Vermont, but not likely for the reasons most readers might think. It's time to tell the real story here. This fall, schools throughout Vermont began grappling with the implementation of the new federal nutrition guidelines for school food service programs. This has got to be the worst case of serious unintended consequences resulting from the best of intentions I have seen in my 28 years in public education and here's why.
Like NCLB (No Child Left Behind), we are once again faced with one-size-fits-all legislation that does not consider the vast differences between a state like Vermont and other states. But, what is far worse is the inability for those individuals working in positions of authority within our wonderful state to not recognize and advocate for more reasonable flexibility in implementing these standards, knowing that the needs of individual communities differ, and so do the individual needs of students.
The new regulations are a no-brainer. Any reasonable person could support more fruits and vegetables, red and yellow vegetables, whole grains and less sodium and trans fats in school breakfasts and lunches. However, the ill-thought-out, rigid, one-size-fits-all plan as to how to achieve this is already creating seriously hungry students in our schools who are choosing more and more each day to not participate at all in our programs. They are flooding to fast food restaurants and quick stops if campuses are open, hitting vending machines hard and carrying in backpacks with less than healthy choices because they are desperate. As if this is not bad enough, those of us who can see the up-close and personal ramifications of this already know that the farm-to-school and localvore initiatives will be in serious jeopardy, local businesses will see a serious decrease in revenues from local schools, and local budgets will revert back to large subsidies to support school food service programs as they did in the past, because they no longer will be self sustaining, costing Vermont taxpayers and increasing the demands on the Ed Fund. Let me give you some specifics.
For the past six years, the seven schools in the Washington West Supervisory Union have worked hard to provide award-winning food services programs. We employ highly talented food service directors and on-site chefs. We already are nearly all wheat/whole grain, largely organic and offer students an all-you-can-eat wide array of colorful fruits and vegetables. Our once robust salad bar at Harwood Union High School, which in my own opinion is a close second to the Windjammer Restaurant in South Burlington just to give you a point of reference, is down 50 percent in participation in just four weeks of school. The HUHS hot lunch line is down 10 to 20 percent depending on the day. Every day my email inbox and voicemail are filled with messages from parents with their own personal stories, begging me to help. Why is this really happening you ask? Consider these points.
First, because of the severe calorie restrictions, not only are portion sizes smaller and certain ingredients eliminated or used sparingly, students are not allowed to self serve at the salad bar as they knew it in the past. The Harwood Union salad bar is a mere shell of itself. It still offers the same unlimited wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, but can no longer contain hard-boiled eggs, lean turkey and ham, blue, feta and cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, broccoli, cabbage and whole wheat pasta salads, beans, nuts and seeds, whole wheat rolls and, yes, homemade pumpkin bread once in awhile. The main reason for this is that students in kindergarten through 5th grade are allowed up to 650 calories, in grades 6 to 8, 700 calories, and in grades 9 to 12, 850 calories. The school cannot enforce this requirement if students are self serving. If students are actually eating three square meals a day, this might work fine, but for most kids this isn't the case. Many high school students skip breakfast, rely on lunch as their main meal of the day and don't return home until 9 p.m. because of co-curricular activities. For many of our free/reduced lunch students, this is their big meal of the day.
The new enforcement paperwork requirements for our chefs now add an additional 30 to 40 minutes most days. In addition, the stringent requirements to calculate all the measurements of all ingredients are forcing programs to do the following:
Condiments need to be premeasured. Schools that have made them from scratch and/or served them in bulk can no longer do so because the students might exceed the calorie restrictions. Our elementary students were not allowed catsup with their mac and cheese because they would have been over the limit.
Canning and freezing from our gardens are impacted due to time constraints and lack of scientific expertise in easily calculating nutrient contents. Paul Morris, food director and chef at Harwood Union, prepares and freezes pesto for the year from basil from a local farm. This year he was unable to do so.
We will need to purchase more prepackaged/processed foods because the nutrient information is already located on the side of the bag or box, increasing the amount of preservatives in the food. Scratch recipes will simply take too much time to calculate to this level of detail.
Menus will become "forced rotational," say every six weeks, and far less "scratch" cooking will be possible, creating boredom and seriously reducing the ability to reuse ingredients, including fruits and vegetables. Yesterday's roasted vegetables will not show up in that whole wheat balsamic pasta salad on the salad bar the next day.
We will increase waste, driving up costs and straining the environment. In schools like Warren, serving family-style meals, which has long successfully been in practice and has kept costs down, will no longer be possible for several reasons under these guidelines.
On the financial front, at first blush one might conclude that if schools are using more fruits and vegetables, this would be great for our local farms. Not so if the students simply don't buy the lunch. It really isn't going to matter what we want to have kids eat if we cannot get them through the line!
The Harwood Union program already reports purchasing 50 percent less Cabot products. They also annually spend about $50,000 between KC Bagels, Red Hen Bakery and Flatbread Pizza, all within a five-mile radius. While all of these local businesses are working closely with us to change what they can, when the now 52 percent whole grain requirement goes to 100 percent next fall, we likely will not be able to use these products. For example, the organic wheat bread that we have used from Red Hen for years uses about five ingredients. The flour is milled differently than the enriched wheat flour we are now required to use. Therefore, we will be forced to purchase bread products from a commercial distributor whose bread contains some 32 ingredients and more preservatives. This is just one example of many.
In order to give the reader a point of reference, the seven schools in the WWSU spend approximately $1,076,197 on our food service programs. The Harwood program in 2005-06 was running a $113,000 deficit. We hired a chef, reinvented the program with "buy local" and farm-to-school and finished FY 2011 in the black by $7,000. We, along with other large schools in Vermont, are quickly going to return to those deficits if we do not act. Hence, thousands of increased dollars will be needed from the Ed Fund.
In summary, the student, parent and chef testimonials are many and extremely heartfelt as well as practical. Reports from our coaches are filled with examples of athletes nearly passing out, and loading up on junk food right before a meet. These regulations and smaller portions would have you believe that the 6 foot 5 inch senior football player has the same caloric needs as the 4 foot 10 inch seventh-grade non-athlete. Our kids are hungry, and they are not making smart choices after school and before practice. Our cross-country runners expend a huge amount of calories during training (and meets) and not being properly fueled is dangerous to these young athletes. Hunger leads to fatigue in all athletes and fatigue leads to injuries as surely as poor training and holes in a playing field. The lack of protein available during school lunch through the salad bar for cross-country runners that may run up to 50 miles/week is dangerous and unacceptable. Coaches and parents are bringing in food because their students have so little energy. John Kerrigan, HUHS cross-country coach for the past 37 years, reported, "I had one girl almost pass out this week in a workout. I asked her what happened, and her words, not mine, "I did not have enough to eat at lunch."
The schools in our SU, like many in Vermont, gave up french fries and onion rings from a fryer years ago. We are about scratch cooking, using fresh fruits and vegetables, buying local, improving the bottom line and, most importantly, customer satisfaction with students and parents. Childhood obesity is a serious problem. The solution, however, cannot be to put ALL students on a serious calorie-restricted diet. We also should be teaching students how to make healthy choices, not to have those choices prescribed and regulated, to achieve balance and moderation in food selections necessary for their individual needs and, most importantly, what to take and not what to throw away because it had to be on their tray.
The situation we find ourselves in is NOT one of growing pains, nor can it be resolved with creativity and tweaking as has been suggested by those in charge. The train is coming, and we are standing right on the tracks. It is only a short matter of time before our food service programs in Vermont will all be "failing" under this rigid one-size-fits-all legislation. It is time to rewrite this legislation. The solution is simple. Most schools in Vermont had already achieved the goal, while continually striving to improve each and every year. The problem does not lie with the minimums, mandated choices of fruits and vegetables, etc., but rather with the maximums and the inability for individual families and local communities to make choices beyond that. I encourage each of you to speak out to our senators and representatives on both state and national levels. Vermont can lead the charge. While we wait for relief, supervisory unions like mine will be forced to investigate and evaluate the costs, financially and otherwise, of non-compliance.


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Browse the just recently released BMW M6 Coupe and Convertible catalog (international version) inside. Full version in PDF format.
Site member hkyplaynazn was recently in Germany for european delivery and as part of the experience was given a tour of the BMW M Studio at M Headquarters in Garching, Germany. Garching is always a treat for BMW enthusiasts as there is not only the cool M cars and Individual displays within the M Studio, but also prototype/testing cars parked on the premise or driving around the neighborhood.
On this particular visit, hkyplaynazn was able to get a first look at an M6 convertible in Singapore Grey … CONTINUED
Live from the 2012 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS), we're happy to share more photos of the amazing 2013 BMW M6 Coupe and the 2012 BMW M6 Convertible. Powererd by the 560hp 4.4-litre TwinPower Turbo V8 internally dubbed S63 and mated to a 7-speed double clutch transmission, the 2012 M6 Convertible will be the first new M6 model to hit US showroom floors in June and the M6 Coupe to follow in September. The stunning colors seen are sakhir orange on the coupe and san … CONTINUED
On the occasion of the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS), BMW has announced U.S. pricing for the 2013 BMW M6 Coupe and the 2012 BMW M6 Convertible. Including destination and handling, the all-new BMW M6 Coupe and BMW M6 Convertible will carry a MSRP of $106,995 and $113,995, respectively.
Compared to the last U.S. price (2010 M6 models) of $102,350 and $108,150 respectively, that's a price increase of $4,600 or 4.5% for the M6 Coupe and $5,800 or 5.4% for the M6 Convertible.
The 2012 M6 … CONTINUED
We bring you the latest live look and listen at the upcoming new M6 coupe (F13) and convertible (F12) undergoing some final testing at the Nurburgring. We've also posted below a set of photos from the testing.
Not much camouflage remains, so its general shape and styling is easy to imagine. As for sounds, the M6 sounds quite similar to the F10 M5, owing to sharing the M5′s 4.4L 560hp twinpower twin turbo V8 S63Tu engine [specs]. This prototype appears to be testing carbon ceramic brakes, which … CONTINUED
Last week we spied the exposed BMW M6 coupe's front end M styled bumper. Working off those images, we've produced a render which reveals what the M6 coupe should resemble when all the camouflage comes off. Look for an M6 coupe reveal sometime later this year/early next year.
We have just spied a 2012 M6 coupe bearing its and rear end designs clearly on the streets of Munich for the first time. We recently had a brief look at the M6′s bumper styling when it first appeared uncovered while testing (and crashing unfortunately) on the Nurburgring.
We can now tell clearly that the M6 coupe does not simply adopt the F10 M5′s front lower bumper design whole cloth, but has its own sleek take on it. The biggest difference are the side air ducts, which … CONTINUED
The 2012 BMW M6 has dropped some camouflage, revealing much of its front and rear bumper/diffuser styling for the first time. The front bumper appears to be a bit more aggressive than the F10 M5′s front bumper, with larger and more prominent 'fins' coming out/down from the bumper. The rear diffuser also features some aggressive styling, with prominent fins in the rear as well. The M6 coupe may also be featuring a carbon fiber roof, as the roof's camouflage still remains.
The occasion unfortunately ended with a … CONTINUED
Based on recent spy photos of the upcoming M6 coupe and cribbing some details from the F10 M5, we've generated some renders of BMW's upcoming range topping M coupe. Enjoy!
Be sure to follow our F12/F13 M6 coverage @ http://www.bimmerpost.com/m6/
Surprisingly, despite the slew of M6 spy photos we've brought you since last year, not a single prototype has been in any color other than black. That's no longer the case as this space gray F12 M6 convertible was just spied on the streets of Munich.
The camouflage level remains the same as recent M6 convertible mules, with the front and rear fascia still mostly masked, but, as we've discussed previously — the details on the rear bumper can be made out through the tape, and appears … CONTINUED
The 2012 BMW F13 M6 coupe has lost much of its camouflage, providing the most revealing look yet at the upcoming range topping M coupe. The F13 M6 coupe has now entered FEP (final evaulation phase). We think that the M6 may look wider than the regular 6-series coupe, perhaps to accomodate the super wide rear tires.
Compared to the regular F13 coupe, the rear bumper reflectors have been moved up to just under the rear tail lights for a sportier look. This particular F13 M6 coupe … CONTINUED
The M6 coupe coupe prototype has once again taken to the Nurburgring for some serious performance testing.
Although much of the front fascia remains covered in camouflage tape, it will resemble the recently revealed 6-series Coupe (official info and photos), but with an M styled bumper of course. The front brakes feature huge calipers with cross drilled rotors front and rear. Traditional quad exhausts are seen at the rear, surrounded by a still-camouflaged rear bumper which will also sport M-styling. The camouflage on the roof could possibly … CONTINUED
It's been a while since the upcoming F13/F12 M6 coupe and cabrio have been spotted, but we now bring you a set of photos for both.
One of the M6 prototypes has lost the camouflage on its rear lights, giving us an idea of just how aggressive it will look. Although much of the front fascia remains covered in camouflage tape, it will resemble the recently revealed 6-series Coupe (official info and photos), but with an M styled bumper of course. The front brakes feature huge calipers … CONTINUED
Spied here is the 2012 M6 coupe with less camouflage than previously seen. Although much of the front fascia remains covered in camouflage tape, it will resemble the recently revealed 6-series Coupe (official info and photos), but with an M styled bumper of course. The front brakes feature huge calipers with cross drilled rotors front and rear. Traditional quad exhausts are seen at the rear, surrounded by a still-camouflaged rear bumper which will also sport M-styling. The wheels appear to be for testing only as their … CONTINUED
It's been nearly 4 months since the all new 2013 M6 convertible was spotted, but it's appeared yet again, and in the most unlikely time and place possible – Northern Sweden in the dead of winter. Now that the 6-series convertible has been officially debuted, BMW has moved onto the development of the top of the line 6-series cabrio.
The M6 prototype now sports the production M6 bumper underneath heavy front camouflage. Other signature M features already seen are the quad exhausts and huge front brakes. The … CONTINUED
This 6-series convertible image has been posted without much fanfare on Autobild.de. Could it possibly be a leak of the upcoming 2012 6-series convertible? Possible as we don't recall seeing a similar image upon which the render could be based. If this is indeed the 6-series convertible, it looks to be the 650i cabrio (with style 356 wheels), which will begin production in March 2011. The F13 6-series will come with a traditional cloth roof.
Here is the BMW announced production schedule for the F12 / F13 … CONTINUED
Here are our latest spy photos of the 2012 M6 Coupe (F12) and Convertible (F13). The coupe is showing a camouflaged front bumper but the production wheel design, and the convertible is not yet testing with its production bumper. The coupe will look essentially like the 6-series coupe concept debuted at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, albeit with M body styling and other bits.
The new M6 Coupe will debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2012. The M6 Cabrio will follow later in 2012. An … CONTINUED


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For the last two decades, those committed to warm ties with Beijing have tried to tell Americans that the development of capitalism in China—albeit a capitalism that must operate in a system in which the rule of law and property rights are a matter of government fiat—would eventually transform the totalitarian system. But today, as the New York Times reports, another milestone has been passed in which such hopes have been revealed as utterly unfounded.
The Chinese capital was the setting on Wednesday for the trial of Liu Xiaobo, one of the country's leading human-rights advocates. Liu faces up to 15 years in prison for calling for open elections and free speech. His role in promulgating Charter 08, a manifesto in favor of Chinese political freedom, is the chief reason for the government's latest attempt to silence Liu. As the Times notes, the document's language that states "We should end the practice of viewing words as crimes" is itself viewed as a crime by the Communist Party.
The persecution of Liu is something of a history of China's abuse of human rights since 1989. At the time of the Tienanmen Square demonstrations in 1989, he was a visiting scholar at Columbia University but returned home to join the hunger strikers. When the Chinese army struck, he was arrested and held for 21 months without trial. In 1996, he was sent to the laogai—China's gulag—for three years for calling for the release of others still imprisoned for their participation in the Tiananmen events. Since then he has been a thorn in the side of the Communist Party but the charter, which evokes similar protests by Czech opponents against the Soviet empire, has motivated the government to try and put him away again. Reporters were barred from the trial, as were other dissidents who bravely came to support Liu. This is all we know of the proceedings:
Liu Xiaoxuan, the defendant's younger brother, was one of two family members allowed in the courtroom. After the trial adjourned, he tried to recall details of the proceedings — court officials had prevented those in the room from taking notes — and he repeated his brother's final words, spoken to a judge. Mr. Liu, according to his brother, said that he came from a long line of persecuted thinkers and hoped he would be the last. "He said that if he was sent to jail, it might bring others freedom of speech," Liu Xiaoxuan said.
It would be nice to think that were true. But neither the Obama administration—which allowed Beijing to humiliate the president during his recent trip there—nor its predecessors have had any interest in the fate of Chinese dissidents or the drive for pushing the world's largest tyranny to change its behavior. The Chinese authorities have stepped up their suppression of freedom in the last year with a vengeance. Yet most Americans either don't care or still actually believe the propaganda about the Chinese not caring about freedom, which business interests put forward about China and democracy. As with the successful campaign to stifle concerns about Chinese human rights that preceded the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government can count on the self-interest of the business community and the indifference of Washington to allow it to continue its abuses with impunity.
Yet the attempt by Liu to courageously invoke the example of those who challenged the seemingly unshakable grip of Soviet communism in 1977 ought to remind us all that even the most powerful of tyrants can be resisted and toppled. Provided, that is, that dissidents such as Liu Xiaobo be not forsaken by the forces of freedom elsewhere. Just as the West once embraced men like Vaclav Havel and Natan Sharansky, Americans must not allow Liu's oppressors to triumph in silence.


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Five Keys to Drug Reimbursement
By Jennifer C. Smith-Parker
June 20, 2013 | Getting an FDA stamp of approval is not sufficient to ensure a drug will do well on the market. The onus is on drug makers to ensure their drug is priced well and paid for, even while it's still in the development stage. I've identified five steps used by drug manufacturers to ensure reimbursement:
1. Strategize Early. Payers focus on value and appropriate use, so between Phase II and III trials drug makers should consider pharmacoeconomics in trial design. Drug sponsors should consider how their drugs compare to standard of care and what endpoints could best evaluate drug value and quality of care.
2. Consider Payer Input. It is becoming more common for drug makers to factor payer input into clinical trial designs to understand the reimbursement landscape, drug codes, and competitor products. While payer reactions to a blinded product profile will differ from the final drug, the engagement may help payers better understand the initial benefits the drug offers over its competitors.
3. Understand the Current Climate. Drug makers should be aware of how the current healthcare landscape is changing in terms of state insurance exchanges, Medicaid expansion and accountable-care organizations. The dynamic reimbursement environment will complicate the provider/patient relationship, so a thorough understanding is critical for drug makers.
4. Know the Competitive Strategy. Drug makers need to think ahead about the best contracting strategy to gain payer coverage, and how it compares with competitor strategies. They need to consider whether their drug is adequately compared to a comparator and keep abreast of possible generic competition 6-to-12 months ahead.
5. Create Portals for Patient Access. Drug makers have a responsibility to understand the venues by which patients will access their drugs; payment structures differ according to whether the portals are hospitals, pharmacy benefit managers, group purchasing organizations, etc.
Of these, considering payer input early in the process may be the most uncommon, but valuable step, particularly in orphan drug development.
A recent U.S. payer survey by Infusion Pharma Consulting revealed that payers will continue to reimburse for high-value orphan drugs in most approved indications. Costs are manageable today but orphan drug pricing is appearing on payer radar screens. The interest in orphan products, particularly by large pharma, is occurring at a time of budget constraints.
With pricing pressures increasing worldwide, pharmaceutical companies are starting to engage payers early in the development process to obtain feedback and begin a dialogue in the hopes of bringing treatments to patients as quickly as possible. Earlier engagement also could offset payer pushback.
While pricing and budget concerns are relevant, there are few initiatives to manage orphans as a class. No payer wants to feel hostage to a drug sponsor's request for reimbursement, but the products are difficult to refuse. And the vocal nature of patient advocacy groups underscores the pressure to provide orphan coverage.
As upper-tier price points become routine, payers are increasingly skeptical of the patient value offered by some orphan drugs. Cost does not equate value. Payers must consider the combinations of cost, disease prevalence and treatment options in sponsor negotiations.
Payers gradually will become more discriminatory in coverage. Increasingly they want to see real, not modeled, data on saved hospitalization costs with outpatient use.
Orphan drug sponsors will need to show endpoints that are clinically meaningful to payers. Premium value drivers are the clinical imperative behind a drug and treatment alternatives, the drug benefit in terms of percentage of patient response, mechanism-of-action clarity and tangible cost offsets. Payer-sponsors contracts that require orphan drug developers to offer, as an example, a 20% drug discount to cover an expectedly high-priced orphan drug, might be one of the few options to bring down costs.
Rebates, risk sharing agreements and the tried-and-true payer policies of prior authorization and patient case management are the few options U.S. payers have to push back against the creeping prices of orphan drugs, reimbursement and healthcare. Still, even these options may not work all the time since public and internal pressure to pay for rare disease drugs is inevitable. The oncology spectrum already has seen tighter payer controls such as ensuring on-label drug use and drug adherence.
Sharing the Risk
Risk-sharing agreements are another scenario payers can consider. A sponsor would have to reimburse payers for drug costs if a patient were shown to be non-responsive to treatment. This engagement would require more case management intervention to ensure on-label use.
Payers may be able to push for rebates if a pharma company has a portfolio of products that include an orphan—in other words, "cobble together" a drug network for price protection. Another option for payers is to bargain with sponsors that their orphan drugs should not increase more than a certain percentage in price over the years if the drug is given a preferred formulary tier.
But those strategies are short term because of competition from products becoming generic and from other orphan drugs. Drug competition may help payers, especially in orphan indications such as Gaucher's disease where there are several therapeutic options. There is a growing trend among payers to pit products against each other to find the best value for price.
Orphan drug sponsors can choose to offer a rebate or full refund for patients that do not have a certain therapeutic response. Pharma also could assume some of the responsibility to ensure patients are medication compliant rather than have payers and providers assume that burden. Payers are saying the days are over where a company can charge what they want for a drug and get away with it.
In the short term, payers will increasingly require prior approvals and step therapy depending on the size of the dollar spend in case management. While health plans would prefer manufacturers simply cut the drug price, price points will be guided by whether the drugs can fall under medical or pharmacy benefits. Also, government regulations on how pharma companies can do contracts and rebates may limit their creativity.
Payers are placing orphan drugs on formulary tiers that require patient copays and co-insurance. There also are many people such as those on Medicaid who are on waiting lists for access to orphan drugs.
ACOs and Pharma
Conceptually, Accountable Care Organization (ACO) and pharma partnerships make great sense considering the ACO goal is to lower price and improve health. But providers need to make sure any new ideas pass muster under fraud and abuse laws (anti-kickback statutes) and self-referral (Stark) laws, either by meeting the safe harbors or exceptions or waivers permitted under the ACO regulations. In particular, arrangements involving rebates and refunds may be implicated under the broad language of the anti-kickback laws, which have pretty broad limits on what can and cannot be offered for services rendered.
It would be difficult for branded companies to suggest savings on total health population costs, but if a branded drug company could suggest a clinical benefit a generic did not have, ACOs might be more inclined to choose the former.
Overall, the trend to control drug spending and enhance patient compliance has been to focus on over-the-counter medications as first-line treatments, and then on prescribed generics. Thus it may be a hard sell for branded companies to make their case to ACOs on reduced costs if patient compliance on branded drugs falls off.
These strategies can help drug makers achieve the best value for their products once they enter the market. Regardless of your reimbursement strategy, it's wise to plan for that point well before reimbursement is an immediate concern.
Jennifer C. Smith-Parker is an award-winning, biopharmaceutical industry journalist and assistant editor at BioPharm Insight. BioPharm Insight offers companies in the global biopharmaceutical community an online business intelligence system of market analytics, key industry contacts, and reporting from an independent journalist news service. Smith-Parker can be reached at email@example.com.
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