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Andrew Papa, Lisa Lauren Smith and Sharla Mills in '1300 Lafayette East,' a coproduction from Jewish Ensemble and Plowshares theaters. / Jan Cartwright
1300 Lafayette East
Three stars
out of four stars
7:30 p.m. Thu., 5 & 8:30 p.m. Sat., 2 & 7 p.m. Sun., 2 p.m. Wed. Through Feb. 23.
Jewish Ensemble Theatre
6600 W. Maple Road, West Bloomfield
The high-rise building that still sits at 1300 E. Lafayette on the eastern edge of downtown was built in the early 1960s and hailed as the ultimate in modern city living. Some of the Motown greats of the day resided there, including Diana Ross, and they rubbed shoulders daily with other prominent Detroiters, black and white, who consciously chose urban living over the suburbs.
Thats the setting for the new play 1300 Lafayette East by Brooke Berman, which is making its debut via a handsome Jewish Ensemble Theatre-Plowshares Theatre coproduction. Unlike playwright Lisa DAmours Detroit, which was produced locally last season, Bermans play has a strong sense of place. Where Detroit was barely about Detroit at all, 1300 Lafayette East is rich in Motor City details and history and also offers insights that are relevant to the city today.
It begins in the apartment buildings lobby, where Reena (Lisa Lauren Smith), an aspiring Motown singer, is locked out of her apartment and stranded in her nightgown. Coming to her aid is Elly (Sharla Mills), a Jewish newlywed and housewife, who invites her upstairs for coffee. Reena, ever aware of their racial differences, notes that invitation sounds more like an order.
Still, the two become friends. Elly uses her connections to help Reena transition from backup vocalist to solo act, and Elly matures, too, launching a possible career in public relations while standing up to her lawyer husband David (Andrew Papa), who often treats her like a child.
The production benefits from strong leads. Smith, who has previously appeared with JET and on other local stages, brings experience and a certain world-weariness to Reena. She shines brightest at the beginning of the second act while delivering a vocal performance that brought spontaneous applause from an audience last weekend.
Newcomer Mills is also perfectly cast as the energetic but sheltered Elly, whose motives for helping Reena get called into question as the play goes on. Like Smith, the model-thin Mills looks stunning in the vintage outfits supplied by costume designer Christa Koerner.
The show is also spot-on in terms of set design, with Alexander Carr employing a few stark pieces of 60s modern furniture along with a trio of screens on which he projects textures as a backdrop. Historic photos of the city accompany the scene changes, which are set to pop hits of the period. (Youll definitely hear a lot of Motown.)
Directed by Plowshares artistic director Gary Anderson, 1300 Lafayette East is not completely devoid of cliches or predictability. Because it is set in 1967, the year racial unrest sent many white Detroiters packing for the suburbs, you have a Titanic-sized idea about how the show is going to end. Also problematic are a couple of secondary characters who come across more as concepts than actual people. A monologue about police violence delivered by black teenager William (Bello Pizzimenti) is a contrived way to put across issues of inequality already expressed more organically in the script by Reena.
Playwright Berman, who was born in Huntington Woods, based 1300 Lafayette East on stories she heard from her mother and grandmother about Detroit in its heyday. She uses the building as a towering symbol of the citys desire to create a sophisticated place where diverse residents could live in relative harmony.
Though much of the plays audience will consist of mature JET subscribers, it ought to be required viewing for the young professionals who are slowly making their way back to the city, picking up where Reena and Elly so dramatically left off nearly half a century ago.
Contact John Monaghan: email@example.com


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Superman Returns - take a look at Lois Lane !Posted by:
THX to our German partners from Movie-Infos we can present you the first picture of Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane in Bryan Singer's upcoming Superman Returns. While an old enemy plots to render him powerless once and for all, Superman faces the heartbreaking realization that the woman he loves, Lois Lane, has moved on with her life. Or has she?
Superman's bittersweet return challenges him to bridge the distance between them while finding a place in a society that has learned to survive without him. In an attempt to protect the world he loves from cataclysmic destruction, Superman embarks on an epic journey of redemption that takes him from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space.....

subset: commoncrawl


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A friend's friend has a bit of dilemma. We'll call the woman in the situation Sue. Sue is currently single. Her ex boyfriend is in a new relationship. Sue and the ex split amicably a couple years ago.
While the two do not keep in touch regularly, he sent her a Christmas present for the second year in a row.
This time: two tickets to a major concert she'd love to go to. In it, he included a note that said "take someone special"
She's debating whether to keep the tickets or send them back.
Since she's single, she's not deceiving or wronging another guy by accepting such a generous gift from an ex. Thing is, keeping the tickets keeps the lines of communication open. And, well, if she's willing and wanting to do that then fine. But … if she wants to totally separate herself from this man — a guy who still seems to harbor feelings based on his "take someone special" note, she should return the tickets.


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CHICAGO -- Jonathan Toews might still be out of the lineup, but his Chicago Blackhawks teammates are starting to figure out a formula that works pretty well without him.
It involves a strong 200-foot game, controlling the puck and doing something the Blackhawks have added to their repertoire in the last two games that makes them even more dangerous -- scoring early. After scoring two quick goals on Friday in Dallas to spark that win, the Hawks did it again two days later at United Center.
This time, early goals by rookie Andrew Shaw and Viktor Stalberg gave Chicago a quick two-goal cushion that led to a big 5-2 victory Sunday night against the Washington Capitals.
"Especially the last couple games, [success] is attributed to our starts," said Hawks star forward Patrick Kane, who scored his 19th goal and now has 6 goals and 10 points in the last 10 games. "Getting up 2-0 in games really helps. Especially from where we were the past couple games before that, we had to play from behind a lot and it takes a lot of strength and effort to come back in those games. It's nice to get a lead and hold onto it too."
Shaw added a second goal in the second period on a pretty wraparound into the far side of the net to make it 4-1 and added an assist on an empty-net goal by Bryan Bickell (1 goal and 2 assists) for each of the wingers on the Hawks' third line to finish with three points.
Mike Knuble and Alex Ovechkin scored for the Capitals (36-30-6), who lost their second straight game on a season-long five game road trip and again failed to put any distance between themselves and the Winnipeg Jets in the battle for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Corey Crawford (16 saves) started for Chicago and picked up his third straight win, while Michal Neuvirth (24 saves) took the loss. It was also the Caps' first defeat to the Hawks in three straight games spanning the last three seasons.
The Blackhawks (40-25-8) are now starting to put some heat on Nashville for third in the Central Division and fifth in the Western Conference standings with just nine regular-season games left. Chicago still sits four points back of Nashville after the Predators won in Anaheim on Sunday night, but the Predators need to keep winning to hold off the streaking Hawks.
The Detroit Red Wings, fourth in the West just two points ahead of Nashville, would be wise to follow suit. The Blackhawks are now 7-1-1 in their last nine games, but are also more focused and confident despite not having Toews -- who's missed 13 straight games with what's believed to be concussion symptoms.
"Right now you can look in the rearview mirror or you can look ahead," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "Detroit, Nashville and St. Louis have done a nice job of extending the lead on the division or the conference. I think we're just looking ahead and trying to win the next game. I think that's the smaller picture that we're focusing on. You're always looking to move ahead ... and don't feel comfortable."
The last two games, thanks to early success by Chicago's offense, it's been the opposing goalie feeling most uncomfortable -- which is exactly the way Quenneville envisioned it. As his team has learned of late, it's a lot easier to protect an early lead than it is to claw your way back late in games to earn points -- something the Hawks happen to be well-versed doing.
On Friday in Dallas, Dave Bolland scored just 10 seconds into the game followed by Patrick Sharp's goal 1:32 later to give Chicago the early cushion and spark a 4-1 rout. On Sunday at home, it took only a little longer for Shaw and Stalberg to do the same.
The effect was similar, as the Hawks dominated the rest of the period. They didn't even allow a shot on goal until Mike Green's slapper with 3:58 left in the first and Chicago wound up leading 12-3 in shots at the first intermission.
Shaw's goal came just 3:35 into the game after his own shot was saved and the rebound slid out to the top of the circles -- where Duncan Keith fired it through traffic. Shaw leaped in the air and the puck caromed off his left shin protector, heading straight through Neuvirth's pads for a 1-0 lead.
"A goals a goal," said Shaw, who's making a habit out of hanging out in the so-called dirty areas to score most of his goals. "They don't ask how, just how many. Right?"
Stalberg made it 2-0 a little more than four minutes later with his 18th goal of the season after a remarkable individual effort.After racing past Dmitry Orlov in the Capitals zone to scoop a loose puck in the right circle, Stalberg cut sharply toward the net at near top speed and tucked it between Neuvirth's pad and the left post to light the lamp again.
Those two goals were just two examples of how dominant Chicago was to start the game. They played keepaway from the Caps for most of the first 20 minutes and nearly blanked the sluggish visitors in shots for the entire first period.
As expected, that did not sit well with the Capitals -- who head to Detroit for the second half of a back-to-back on Monday night at Joe Louis Arena.
"It's probably just showing them a little too much respect and not coming out with much jam in our game," said Knuble, whose fifth goal drew the Caps within 2-1 just 2:22 into the second thanks to a turnover by the Hawks in their own zone. "Look up at the scoreboard three-quarters of the way through the first period and we're down 12-0 in shots, you can't come out like that this time of year. It can't be acceptable."
After Knuble scored, Kane and Shaw got the momentum right back for the Hawks by scoring unanswered goals just 3:36 apart to make it 4-1 not even halfway through the second. Shaw's came first, his second of the game, on the nice wraparound while Kane scored into a wide open net by sliding the puck under diving Caps defenseman Karl Alzner after a getting it back on a nifty give-and-go from Andrew Brunette.
Ovechkin's 30th goal, which he roofed to the short side over Crawford's shoulder, then pulled the Caps within 4-2 at 14:28 of the second but was memorable only because of the move he made to set it up.
After entering the offensive zone with a head of steam, the Russian star first zipped around Keith with a reverse between-the-legs move before beating Crawford -- but Chicago made sure it was nothing more than a play for the highlight reel.
The Hawks played well defensively in the third and Bickell added the only goal in the final period into the empty net for the final score. The Hawks won their third straight game and travel next to Columbus on Tuesday feeling pretty good.
Their third line, centered by Bolland with Bickell and Shaw on the wings, is especially looking strong, which is good news as the playoffs loom ahead. The checking-line specialists did another solid job defending the Caps' top line featuring Ovechkin and both benches took notice.
"Their checking line, David Bolland's line, was very good," Caps coach Dale Hunter said. "I saw [Shaw] play last year [in junior]. He's a hard-working kid. He knows his role and with hard work you get rewarded with a couple goals."
The game was also the final one for linesman Dan Schachte, who worked 2,009 NHL games in his career for the most by an American-born official in League history. His career also started in Chicago in 1982 at the old Chicago Stadium across Madison Street and he was given a standing ovation in the second period when his retirement was announced and shown the scoreboard screens.


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Erwin quarterback Austin Brown throws a pass during practice o0n Thursday. Brown and his teammates will try and beat Asheville for the second straight week tonight.
- Filed Under
Asheville High and Erwin are like two peas in a pod (system).
Neither football team was exactly pining for an instant rematch after the Warriors crushed the Cougars, 61-35, in the Mountain Athletic Conference 3-A finale for both last Friday.
And yet here they are a week later and at the same site (Erwin's Kerr Stadium) for tonight's fourth meeting in two years. ...


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Adobe InDesign CS5.5
Adobe InDesign CS5.5 : Mixed page sizes Adobe InDesign CS5.5 now lets you use different page sizes within one document. You can now create a spine for a bound book or magazine, an advertising flap or other kind of special page, in the same document with other pages of varying sizes. Another advantage of having mixed pages is a document is it lets businesses store multiple types of creative files, like business cards and letterhead, in one document.
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The transport of gametes as well as the zygote is facilitated by motile cilia lining the inside of the fallopian tube. Progesterone reduces the ciliary beat frequency within 30 minutes in both cows and mice. This rapid reduction suggest the involvement of a non-genomic signaling mechanism, although it is not known which receptors that are involved. Here we investigated the possible involvement of the classical progesterone receptor in this process.
The ciliary beat frequency of mice fallopian tube was measured ex vivo using an inverted bright field microscope and a high speed camera. The effects of the agonists progesterone and promegestone and an antagonist, mifeprestone, were investigated in wildtype mice. The effect of progesterone was also investigated in mice lacking the classical progesterone receptor.
Progesterone, as well as the more specific PR agonist promegestone, significantly reduced the CBF at concentrations of 10–100 nanomolar within 10–30 minutes. In the absence of progesterone, the PR antagonist mifeprestone had no effect on the ciliary beat frequency at a concentration of 1 micromolar. When ciliated cells were pre-incubated with 1 micromolar mifeprestone, addition of progesterone did not reduce the ciliary beat frequency. Accordingly, in ciliated cells from mice not expressing the classical progesterone receptor, exposure to 100 nanomolar progesterone did not reduce the ciliary beat frequency.
This is the first study to provide comprehensive evidence that the classical progesterone receptor mediates the rapid reduction of the tubal ciliary beat frequency by progesterone.
Keywords:Progesterone; Fallopian tube; Ciliated cell; Rapid response; Nuclear progesterone receptor
A major function of the mammalian fallopian tube is to regulate the speed of the egg transport [1]. In addition, the fallopian tube maintains viability and controls the ascent of spermatozoa to the site of fertilization and delivers the fertilized embryo to the uterus [2,3]. The transport of gametes and embryos is aided both by muscular contractions as well as movement of ciliated cells, where the ciliary propulsion seem to be most important [4,5]. It has been proposed that progesterone regulates ciliary beat frequency (CBF) in several mammalian species, and both classical genomic effects and more rapid responses, likely involving some other means of signaling, have been reported [6,7]. In guinea pigs injected in vivo with progesterone, the beat frequency of the fimbria of the fallopian tube were decreased 1.5 days after the onset of treatment [8]. In humans, a reduction of CBF by 40-50% was observed 24 hour after treatment with 10 μM progesterone in vitro, suggesting a direct effect of the hormone [6]. In cows, progesterone caused a rapid reduction of CBF within 30 minutes after exposure to 20 μM progesterone [7]. These in vitro studies have used rather high concentrations of the steroid, and it was therefore not clear if physiological levels of progesterone could evoke similar effects. Recent studies in our lab on mice have, however, demonstrated that the CBF is reduced within 30 minutes by 100 nM progesterone [9]. This concentration can be found in blood serum of cycling women, whereas in mice, the highest serum levels of progesterone during the reproductive cycle appear to be somewhat lower, varying between 25 nM in early estrus and 50 nM in metestrus and diestrus, [6,10]. This quite rapid response suggests that progesterone might regulate CBF in the fallopian tube via another pathway than the classical genomic mechanism. We have speculated that secreted progesterone from the travelling cumulus complex could act as a local beacon to the cells of the fallopian tube, thereby communicating its detailed position [9,11,12].
Previous studies indicate that at least two different classes of progesterone receptors are expressed in the ciliated cells of mice and humans, i.e. membrane PRs, (mPRs) [11,12] together with the classical PR (PR) [13], and both types of receptors are therefore candidates for mediating rapid effects of progesterone in the fallopian tube [14]. The mPRs, (mPRα, β, and γ), were initially described by Zhu et al. [15,16]. After stimulation with progesterone mPRs seems to be involved in processes such as oocyte maturation [17,18] and has also been proposed to regulate sperm motility through interactions with G-proteins [19]. Apart from the well characterized genomic mechanism of progesterone action, the classical PR mediates rapid non-genomic signaling in several cell types such as immortalized breast cancer cells [20-22]. These non-genomic effects seem to be mediated by the PR-B isoform [23,24]. Evidence suggest that PR do not only transfer between the cytoplasmic and nuclear compartments to activate transcription, but also contains an SH3 domain interaction motif that mediates the non-genomic actions of progesterone through activation of the Raf-MAPK signaling pathway [23,25]. This suggests that PR has dual functions as a nuclear transcription factor and as an activator of cell signaling molecules [24,26]. In the fallopian tube, PR has been proposed to have an unusual localization on the cilia rather than in the nucleus [13], supporting role in regulating ciliary function independent of gene transcription.
It is important to reveal the mechanisms regulating transport of gametes and ciliary motility since dysfunction of the fallopian tube and cilia can lead to ectopic pregnancies and other forms of infertility [27-31]. Furthermore, interference with gamete transport is a possible target for novel contraceptive treatment strategies. In a previous paper we developed a method to study CBF in mice and found that progesterone caused a reduction in CBF within 30 minutes after administration [9]. Currently, there are few tools available to specifically manipulate mPRs (specific agonists/antagonist, knock-out mice etc.), however such tools are available to pursue the role of the PR. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the possible involvement of the PR in the rapid regulation of CBF by progesterone.
The experiments were performed in principal as described by Bylander et al.[9] with some minor improvements. Fallopian tubes were obtained from immature (3.5-5 weeks-old) female C57BL/6 mice from Charles River, Kisslegg, Germany and from PR knock-out mice, (PRlacZ), kindly provided by the group of Dr Michael Schumacher from University Paris-Sud, France. The animals were kept under a 12:12-h light–dark schedule at 21 ± 2°C with ad libitum access to chow and water. Before the start of the experiment, the animals were allowed to acclimate to the animal facilities for ≥ 5 days. All experiments were approved by the local animal ethics committee in, Gothenburg Sweden (246/2007, 392/2008 and 50/2011) to DGJL.
Genotyping of PRlacZ mice
In the PRlacZ mice the lacZ reporter has been knocked into exon 1 of the murine PR gene. With a strategy to insert the lacZ reporter 120 amino acids downstream of (and in-frame to) the initiating codon for the PR-B isoforms a short region of the N-terminal domain, containing the initiating codon for the PR-A form, was deleted [32]. The mice received in our lab, i.e. three heterozygote females and two heterozygote males PR(+/−) and one male knock-out PR (−/−) constituted three breeding pairs. The offspring were genotyped by genomic DNA isolated from their ears, analysed by touchdown polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The following PR-specific primers were used: P1: 5' tag aca gtg tct tag act cgt tgt tg 3', P3: 5' gat ggg cac atg gat gaa atc 3' and PRlacZ 5' ctt cac cca ccg gta cct tac gtc tc. Only female knock-out mice (PR−/−) were used for the experiments.
Tissue collection and sample preparation
The mice were anesthetized by inhalation of isoflourane and then killed by inhalation of carbon dioxide followed by dissection. Both fallopian tubes were immediately isolated and washed in PBS (Phosphate Buffered Saline, pH 7.0). The broad ligament, fat and blood vessels were removed and the segments reaching from the ampullary to the infundibulum region of the fallopian tube were transferred to petri-dishes containing 37°C pre-warmed F-10 Nutrient Mixture (Ham, 1X) plus 10% fetal bovine serum (Invitrogen, Sweden). After an additional washing step, the tube-like segments were longitudinally opened and chopped into smaller pieces and retransferred to fresh medium and kept in an incubator (37°C, 5% CO2 and 100% humidity) until measurements the following day.
The CBF recordings were performed at a temperature of about 37°C. Pieces of tissue were placed in petri dishes (35 mm) with glass bottom microwells (14 mm) (MatTek Corporation, Ashland, USA) containing 1 ml of pre-warmed G-MOPS™(Vitrolife, Gothenburg, Sweden). This is a medium specially developed for handling and manipulation of oocytes and embryos in under normal air. When a sample with beating cilia was located, the piece of tissue was secured to the bottom of the dish by a sterilized needle (TransferTip®, iD 15 μM, oD 20 μm, Eppendorf AG, Hamburg, Germany) connected to a motorized microinjection system (TransferMan, Eppendorf). Only cells at the perimeter of the tissue were used for analysis and on each sample, the CBFs of one or two different cells were measured. A total number of 124 cells and 48 mice were used in all the experiments.
Detection system
For the CBF measurements we used a method developed in a previously study by Bylander et al. [9]. In short, an inverted bright field microscope (Nikon TE-300, Nikon Instruments, Inc, New York) equipped with a 100× oil immersion objective ( NA1.3) was used. To allow measurements at a temperature of 37°C, the microscope objective was heated by an adjustable heater loop attached to the objective and regulated by a controller unit (Bioptechs, Butler, Pennsylvania). Images were acquired with a 12 bit high speed camera (Prosilica EC1020, Prosilica Inc, Burnaby, Canada). A region of interest of approximately 50×50 pixels was recorded with a speed of 100 frames per second. From the recorded images the spatial positions of cilia attached to a single cell were determined by a center-of-mass algorithm in LabView (National Instruments, Austin, TX). The center of mass for an image of ciliated cells is a point in space at which the cilia´s whole mass can be considered to be concentrated to and facilitate calculating the ciliary movement. Finally, with a fast Fourier transform (FFT) in which the recorded ciliary movements are decomposed into components of different frequencies the distribution of beat frequencies present was calculated.
Drug exposure
Progesterone acts as an agonist both to the mPRs and the PR. Promegestone (R5020) is similarly an agonist to the PR, but have low affinity to mPRs [33-35]). Progesterone (>99% purity, Sigma-Aldrich, St Louis, MO) and promegestone (R5020, >99% purity, Sigma-Aldrich, St Louis, MO) was first dissolved in ethanol and then through further dilutions steps into G-MOPS™. To add a drug to the cells, half of the medium in the dish was replaced with an equal volume of medium containing ethanol and drug, resulting in a final exposure concentration of 0.01% (v/v) ethanol and a series of concentrations of progesterone ranging from 10 nM up to 100 nM and a concentration of 100 nM R5020. Control cells were exposed to ethanol (0.01% (v/v)) only.
A baseline frequency for each cell was established based on repeated measurements during 10 minutes, after which the drug was added together with medium. The CBF was then recorded every 5 minutes for the following 60 minutes. We knew from previous studies that 100 nM progesterone affects the CBF within 30 minutes in both cow and mice [7,9], so to allow a response to develop, the average CBF of the last 30 minutes of the recording period was calculated and statistically compared with the baseline frequency for each cell to determine the effect of added drug.
To investigate whether or not the CBF reduction by progesterone could be blocked by an antagonist to the PR we used mifepristone also referred to as RU486 (Sigma-Aldrich, St Louis, MO). Mifepristone has very low affinity to the mPRs [34,35]. First, a study was performed to investigate if 1 μM of RU486 alone affected the CBF. After a baseline frequency was established, RU486 was added to a final concentration of 1 μM in G-mops™ medium and the CBF was measured during 90 minutes. The time period of 90 minutes rather than our standard 60 minute protocol was used here since we were interested in comparing the results from these particular experiments with a second experiment where cells were pretreated with RU486 for 30 minutes (1 μM) after which medium with both RU486 and progesterone was added to final concentrations of 1 μM and 100 nM, respectively, and the CBF measured during an additional 60 minutes. A tenfold higher concentration of RU486 compared with progesterone was used in order to provide suitable conditions for blocking the action of progesterone. In both experiments, control cells as well as cells treated with RU486/progesterone were exposed to ethanol (0.01% (v/v).
PRlacZ mice
Ciliated cells from PRlacZ mice were exposed to progesterone at a concentration of 100 nM, known to affect the CBF in wildtype mice ([9]; present study). When a baseline frequency was established, progesterone was added and the CBF was measured during 60 minutes. The control cells were exposed to ethanol only (0.01% (v/v)).
The mean baseline CBF for all wildtype and PRLacZ mice used in the experiment was 27.3 and 20.6 Hz respectively. Furthermore, as the baseline CBF for different mice and even different cells from the same mouse vary considerably, the CBF after treatment the CBF for each cell was always normalized against its own baseline CBF. Thus, for each ciliated cell, regardless of the type of treatment, the difference in frequencies (Δ frequency) before and after treatment was calculated as the difference between the mean CBF during the last 30 minutes of the measurement and the baseline CBF. In some cases the frequency was measured in parallel on two cells on a piece of tissue, and if so the average Δ frequency of the two cell replicates was used for further calculations. For each mouse the difference in CBF between tissue exposed to a drug and the control tissue was calculated. This paired approach was used for graphical illustration of the changes over time in response to treatment with the drugs. In order to statistically assess the dose-dependent effect of progesterone, one way Anova followed by a Dunnett's post hoc test was applied. For the four experiments with R5020, RU486, and progesterone-treatment of PRlacZ mice we were able to obtain results from both exposed and control tissue for each of the mice included. Thus, a paired two-sided t-test was used when analyzing these experiments, providing additional statistical control for any additional variability due to variations between individual donor mice.
Progesterone treatment significantly reduced the CBF within 30 minutes in wildtype mice at all tested concentrations tested (Anova p = 0.031; Dunnett's post Hoc test relative to control p = 0.040, 0.041 and 0.016 for 10, 30 and 100 nM respectively; Figure 1). The average reductions in CBF were 2.10 Hz (10 nM), 1.7 Hz (30 nM) and 1.95 Hz (100 nM). Treatment with the more specific PR agonist R5020 at a concentration of 100 nM similarly reduced the CBF by 3.12 Hz (p = 0.02; Figure 2).
Figure 1. Average change in ciliary beat frequency (CBF) for ciliated cells in fallopian tube of mice after treatment with progesterone. The change in CBF is the difference between the average CBF during 30–60 minutes after addition of progesterone and the average baseline CBF. The CBFs are presented as mean ± SEM. Control cells were exposed to ethanol (EtOH) only. The significance is shown as * P < 0.05. The number of cells used in the experiment were: control = 12, 10 nM = 5, 30 nM = 8 and 100 nM = 10 derived from a total of 13 mice. When several cells were obtained and used from the same mouse, the cells were distributed to different treatment groups.
Figure 2. Average change in ciliary beat frequency (CBF) for ciliated cells in fallopian tube of mice after treatment with 100 nM R5020. The change in CBF is the difference between the average CBF during 30–60 minutes after addition of R5020 and the average CBF for the baseline period. CBF is presented as mean ± SEM. Cells exposed to ethanol (EtOH) are used as a control. The significance is shown as * P < 0.05. The number of cells used were 8 in each group from in total 8 animals. For each animal, one cell was allocated to each treatment group.
To investigate if the PR antagonist RU486 affects the CBF by itself, cells were incubated with1 μM RU486 during 90 minutes while the CBF was measured. In both the cells treated with RU486 and the control cells there was a small increase over time in CBF with 1.69 Hz and 0.53 Hz respectively, but the effect of RU486 treatment was not significant (p = 0.23; Figure 3). To investigate if RU486 could block the effects of progesterone, cells were pretreated with 1 μM RU486 for 30 min before addition of 100 nM progesterone, then the CBF was measured for 60 minutes. Control cells were incubated with RU486 only. Similar to the results of the previous experiment, RU486 alone resulted in a non-significant increase in CBF with 1.02 Hz over time whereas RU486 together with progesterone increased the CBF by 1.9 Hz. There was no significant effect of added progesterone in the presence of RU486 (p = 0.41; Figure 3).
Figure 3. Average change in ciliary beat frequency (CBF) for ciliary cells in mice fallopian tube after exposure to RU486. Panel 3A shows cells treated with 1 μM RU486, compared to control cells treated with ethanol (EtOH). Panel 3B shows cells incubated with 1 μM RU486 for 30 minutes before addition of 100 nM progesterone in combination with 1 μM RU486, compared to incubation with RU486 only (1 μM) during the entire period. The CBF was measured during 90 minutes and the change in CBF is the difference between the average CBF during the last 30 minutes of the measurement and the average baseline CBF. CBFs are presented as mean ± SEM. The number of cells used in 3A were 7 in each group from in total 7 animals. For each animal, one cell was allocated to each treatment group. For 3B, the number of cells were 8 in each group from in total 10 animals.
In ciliated cells from PRlacZ mice there was no decrease in CBF after treatment with 100 nM progesterone. (p = 0.69; Figure 4) in contrast to the observed reduction in CBF in wildtype mice (Figure 1). The CBF increased slowly over time (3.0 Hz) and a similar (2.4 Hz) slow increase was found in control cells treated with ethanol only.
Figure 4. Average change in ciliary beat frequency (CBF) for ciliary cells in the fallopian tube from mice lacking the PR, after treatment with 100 nM progesterone. After establishment of a baseline frequency the CBF was measured during 60 minutes and the change in CBF calculated as the difference in CBF during the 30 last minutes and the baseline CBF. For each group 10 cells were used from in total 10 animals. For each animal, one cell was allocated to each treatment group.
Figure 5(A-C) and Figure 6 illustrates the dynamics of the change in CBF over time of cells treated with different concentrations of progesterone (Figure 5) or R5020 (Figure 6). The average reduction in CBF 30–60 minutes after addition of drug, i.e. the period used for statistical comparisons, is illustrated by vertical lines, based on paired controls with tissue from the same mice. The reduction in CBF seems to start already within 10 minutes after addition of both progesterone and R5020.
Figure 5. Change in ciliary beat frequency (CBF) over time after treatment with progesterone. CBF was measured every 5 minute for 60 minutes after addition of progesterone (A: 10 nM B: 30 nM and C: 100 nM) and normalized against its baseline CBF. The CBF values presented are normalized to the control cells (treated with ethanol) and expressed in relative numbers to the control groups as mean ± SEM. The drug was added at time point zero and the mean change in CBF after 30 minutes are indicated by crosshatched lines. The time points where the change in CBF is significantly different from zero is shown as * P < 0.05.
Figure 6. Change in ciliary beat frequency (CBF) over time after exposure to 100 nM R5020. A baseline frequency was established then R5020 was added and the CBF measured every 5 minutes during 60 minutes. The drug was added at time point zero and the mean change in CBF after 30 minutes are shown as a crosshatched line. The CBF values were first normalized against its baseline frequency then for each mouse the exposed cell were compared to the control cell at each time point. Then the average change in CBF at all time points was calculated and expressed as mean ± SEM. The time points where the change in CBF is significantly different from zero is shown as * P < 0.05.
To investigate the possible role of PR in regulating rapid effects on tubal CBF, we studied the effects on wildtype mice of low concentrations of progesterone, a specific agonist for the PR as well as a PR receptor antagonist. We also investigated the effect of progesterone on mice lacking both isoforms of the PR. All our results support the hypothesis that the PR mediates the rapid response of progesterone on CBF in the fallopian tube.
An involvement of the PR in the long-term regulation of CBF has previously been suggested [6,8,36]. For example Nakahari et al. 2011 injected female guinea pigs subcutaneously with progesterone three times over 1.5 days and the guinea pigs were killed 13 hours after the last injection. Progesterone treatment in vivo decreased the CBF and this reduction was blocked if the guinea pigs were injected with RU486 [8]. As the animals were injected in vivo, and the response studied 1.5 days after the initial treatment, it is not possible to deduce if the regulation was direct (i.e. via PR within the fallopian tube) or indirect via stimulation of PR in other tissues. In another study Mahmood et al. investigated the effects of progesterone on human fallopian tubes in vitro and found that progesterone reduced the CBF with 40-50% 24 h after administration [6]. This suggests a direct effect of progesterone on cells within the fallopian tube. Neither of these studies, however, studied rapid responses, in the time frame required if the cilia are to respond and adjust their beating according to locally excreted progesterone from the travelling cumulus complex. The present study shows that within 10 minutes after administration of low levels of progesterone, there is a decrease in CBF, and this decrease is blocked if the ciliated cells are pretreated with RU486, an antagonist for the PR. Furthermore, an important piece of evidence, not presented earlier, is the lack of response in PR knockout mice. This strongly support the specificity of the action found in the wildtype mice, i.e. that the main effect of the agonists and the antagonist is indeed through the PR and not via some other receptor, such as the mPRs. Supportive of a role of the PR and not the mPRs was furthermore our finding that R5020, which bind the PR but not mPRs, gave effects similar to progesterone. Taken together, this is the first study that provides comprehensive evidence for a role of the PR in the rapid regulation of CBF in the fallopian tube of any mammal.
In a study by Wessel et al. 2004, progesterone reduced CBF 15 minutes after administration in vitro to cow fallopian tubes, but in contrast to our study, the effect of progesterone was not reversed by RU486 [7], leading the authors to suggest the involvement of another receptor. Importantly, in their study, 20 μM of both progesterone and RU486 was used, and it is quite possible that equimolar concentrations of antagonist did not provide sufficient competition. Furthermore, the concentration of progesterone used was very high compared to the maximum serum levels of progesterone (100 nM) in the lutheal phase found in normally cycling women [6] and in relation to the binding affinity of progesterone to PR, which is in the nM range (the kd 1-5 nM [15]), thus raising questions about specificity. The same argument may be also raised regarding the study by Mahmood et al. [6]. Indeed, high non-physiological concentrations of steroids can lead to stimulation of several receptors or have non-specific effects on perturbation of cell membranes [37,38]. For example progesterone is a fairly potent agonist for the androgen receptor, and at higher concentrations, progesterone is also reported to act receptor-independently with membrane vesicles, leading to decrease membrane fluidity, induced aggregation of these vesicles and renders cells permeable to hydrophilic molecules [39]. On the other hand, the local concentration of progesterone in the follicular fluid may is considerably higher than the serum levels. In the peritoneal fluid of women the concentration of progesterone one week after ovulation reached over 900 nM [40,41]. Thus, the ciliated cells in the fallopian tube are exposed to rather high levels of progesterone during the post-ovulatory phase, perhaps particularly so in the mouse where the ovary and the fallopian tube both are located within a common fluid-filled bursa. Hence, it is still an open question what concentration range of progesterone that is physiologically relevant here. Nevertheless, we show here that 10 nM is sufficient to affect the CBF, and this is by no means an unlikely physiological concentration.
The exact localization of the PR in fallopian tube has been debated. There is immunohistochemistry data suggesting that both in the airways and in the oviduct, the PR is located to the lower half of the cilia rather than in the nucleus of the ciliated cell [13,42]. The specificity of the unusual staining in the airways is supported by the movement of the PR-staining to the nucleus after progesterone administration. On the other hand, there are also reports on immunoreactivity to PR-antibodies in the nuclear compartments of luminal epithelial, stromal, and smooth muscle cells in the mouse fallopian tube [43]. More research is apparently needed to clarify the localization of PR in the fallopian tube.
In ciliated cells of the airways, progesterone reduces the CBF with maximum reduction found 24 hours after treatment a response that is evidently genomic in nature [42]. This conclusion is based on a much slower response, a clear translocation of the PR to the nucleus after progesterone administration, and that both the translocation and the effect on CBF could be blocked by the antagonist for PR RU486. Furthermore, the CBF was also blocked by the transcription inhibitor, actinomycin D. A puzzling observation with the study on airways [42], also acknowledged by the authors, is that a much higher concentration of progesterone was required (20 μM) than in the fallopian tube (10 nM) studied here.
In the fallopian tube progesterone rapidly reduces the CBF via the classical PR but probably via a non-classical mechanism. The function of such a rapid response here might be to enable progesterone, secreted from the travelling cumulus complex, to locally reduce the CBF. This would in turn be expected to modulate the transport speed of the cumulus complex, in order to increase the likelihood for fertilization to take place within the ampullary region. The evidence presented in this study indicates a crucial role of PR in this process. Further studies on gene transcription and second messenger systems, as well as the use of transcription and translation inhibitors could shed further light on the detailed mechanisms involved. Such knowledge may improve our possibilities to understand the mechanisms involved in ectopic pregnancies associated with disturbed progesterone signaling, and possibly reduce the risks for such conditions to develop [44].
Competing interests
All authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
AB, DGJL, HB and MG designed the study. AB carried out the tissue preparations and CBF measurements, analysed the data, performed the statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript. DGJL also took part in the statistical analyses and helped to draft the manuscript. MG helped to draft the manuscript. KL helped with some of the tissue preparation and the CBF measurements. DGJL supervised the study with help from MG and HB. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
This work was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council (VR - medicine) and the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS) to D.G.J. Larsson, Adlerbertska Research foundation and William och Martina Lundgren research foundation to Anna Bylander. We also thank the group of Dr Michael Schumacher from University Paris-Sud, France for their kind provision of PRlacZ mice.
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text:
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - The top Republican in Maine's House of Representatives says he's concerned Democrats are going to unfairly spike his proposal to change the state's welfare requirements.
The measure would require some welfare recipients to prove they've applied to at least three jobs before getting benefits.
House GOP Leader Ken Fredette said in a statement Monday that he expects Democrats to use a rule prohibiting the introduction of duplicated measures in order to kill it.
Democrats say it's similar to one introduced and rejected last session, but Fredette says his is different.
A legislative panel will meet Wednesday to decide which bills should be considered next session.
A spokeswoman for Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves says he opposes the bill on its merits because such requirements make it harder for already-struggling families.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Sigh... is anyone else not ready to let go of the summer yet? I know I'm not. I looked up the hours for Seven Peaks yesterday and realized they had closed for the season, the day before. Sad day. The summer always goes too fast. I love the ages my kids are at and the memories we are making though.
But with the fall comes the holidays and all of the fun that comes with them, so of course there is plenty to look forward to! And I'm excited to announce a fun contest coming up, so stay tuned!


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Table For Two Workshop
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Annabelle, Barbra, Becky, Alexis, Krystle, Ellen, Olive, Eve and Kirsten, not stumbling, sliding, sinking, falling or oblivious / 2014
Commissioned by Transition Gallery for Folkestone Fringe Festival
Folkestone Triennial Fringe 29 August – 4 October 2014
Video: Shot on Sony FS700 at 200 FPS
Running time: 05:00 min
Art Director: Noam Toran
Director of photography: Per Tingleff
Soundtrack: Sam Conran
Color Grading: Martin Sansom
The relationship between mobility and women is intriguing and complex. In media such as cinema, television and fashion photography (and even in early Muybridge photography), the female subject can often be found lying down, sometimes sexually inviting, sometimes lethargic, and sometimes, as seen in a recent Marc Jacobs' advert or in any of the countless TV crime serials, literally lifeless. Her immobility suggests a lack of energy, agency or power, or worse, personality. The inert female subject becomes a mannequin, inanimate, objectified and fetishised, and this demeaning representation suggests darker social forces at work. Annabelle, Barbra, Becky, Alexis, Krystle, Ellen, Olive, Eve and Kirsten, not stumbling, sliding, sinking falling or oblivious (2014) questions contemporary social constructions of women, and to what extent notions of mobility play a role. The video piece references moments in cinematic history where a women's mobility has been compromised for various reasons: to provide suspense, to bring about a character assassination, to satirise, to provide comedic relief, to silence a voice.
A Measurable Factor Sets the Conditions of its Operation / 2013
13 February - 6 April 2013
Stanley Picker Gallery
Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture
Kingston University, Knights Park
Kingston upon Thames KT1 2QJ
A Measurable Factor Sets the Conditions of its Operation is an exhibition of investigative pieces, processes, tests and trials for a new footwear collection informed by engineering principles. Marloes ten Bhömer's aim is to completely replace the standard and regimented approaches to footwear design and manufacturing with the working processes of engineering. This method, which purposefully shirks fashion trends and styles, is based on research into the structural parameters required to support a foot (in a high-heeled position) while in motion.
Displayed throughout the exhibition are artifacts from a series of structural, aesthetic and cultural experiments and outcomes, conducted and produced over the course of a year. The White Prototypes (2013) displayed on the shelves are test pieces, mapping out specific combinations of foot and ground contact points derived from anatomical and kinematic studies. Alongside them are a collection of sketches, construction rigs, slow-motion video footage, pressure-mat analyses, prototypes of various complexities, film compilations, prints and slides. Intuitive experiments and analytical studies, observations and inferences, triumphs and failures, are all presented together in the gallery installation.
As demonstrated in the projected video Material Compulsion (2013), the high-heeled woman is a complex construct, one designed for, and ultimately sanctioned to, the man-made environment. When placed in alternative settings (through the narrative of a film, for example) or when forced to walk through unique substrates, a woman in heels loses her equilibrium (both physically and culturally) and begins to slip, trip, sink or tumble, thereby transforming her perceived identity.
The consequences of ten Bhömer's extensive research methodology, developed over the course of her Stanley Picker Fellowship at Kingston University, are two-fold: First, the approach reveals a link between rationalised parameters, aesthetic intuition and structural understanding. Second, by considering 'the woman in motion' as an engineering problem, she exposes and questions the role high heels play in the cultural construction of female identity.
A Stanley Picker Fellowship Research Project (Kingston University)
A special thank you to: Ioannis Belimpasakis, James Brouner, Marc Bultitude, Kenny Evans, Laura Hodson, Phil Hollins, Graeme MacKay, Stephanie Jayne Price, Emma Rummins, Nicola Swann, Jane and James at Sugru, Per Tingleff, Noam Toran, Nick Williamson
and the Stanley Picker Gallery team.
Photography: Ellie Laycock.
Concept development during the Jerusalem Center For The Visual Arts residency 2010
Material Compulsion / 2013
Video: Shot on Phantom HD at 500 FPS
Running time: 12:19 min
Director of photography: Per Tingleff
Art Director: Noam Toran
Marloes ten Bhömer talks about her research practice and Stanley Picker Fellowship as part of the Design Symposium in memory of Alex Ward, Senior Curator of Design and Architecture, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1999−2012
Held on November 11, 2013 at the Springer Auditorium, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Material Compulsion / 2012
Videos: Shot on digital camera
Materials: Cake, mud, gelatine, lard, coal, foam, flower, foam and baked beans
Material Compulsion is a series of film tests produced as part of Stanley Picker Fellow Marloes ten Bhömer's research into the cultural positioning of the high-heel.
Blackmouldedleathershoe / 2011
Materials: leather and plastics
Best of British, 26 July - 9 September 2012
British Business Embassy Lancaster House
Curated by the Crafts Council
Blackmouldedleathershoe is made using a leather processing technique in which leather is soaked in water and pressed in between a two-part mould, forming it into a three-dimensional shape. The leather parts are then dried, cut and assembled into a shoe. The heel is placed as a wedge between the two leather parts. The technique is based on production principles of industrial components, despite the usually association of leather with luxury and hand making.
Pressedleathershoe / 2011
Materials: leather and plastics
Pressedleathershoe is made using a leather processing technique in which leather is soaked in water and pressed in between a two-part mould, forming it into a three-dimensional shape. The leather parts are then dried, cut and assembled into one shoe, embedding the structure that gives the shoe it's strength. Blackpressedleathershoe is made from three preformed leather parts. The project is a commissioned by Formula Fashion and on display are material tests, mould parts, vacuum formed design tests and the final shoe.
Formula Fashion
Silverstone Circuit, 8 June 2011 – 9 June 2011
Silverstone Circuit, 8 July 2011 – 9 July 2011
Silverstone Circuit, 22 July 2011 – 24 July 2011
The University of Northampton, 22 August – 5 September 2011
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, 8 September – 21 September 2011
The National Centre for Craft & Design Sleaford, 24 September – 6 November 2011
Formula Fashion is part of Igniting Ambition, a Cultural Olympiad programme in the East Midlands. Formula Fashion is showcasing new commissioned works inspired by a fusion of motorsport, art, leatherwork and cutting edge design. Other exhibitors: Kei Ito, Aasen Stephenson, Genevieve Bennett and Jo Cope.
Partners: Silverstone Holdings Ltd, Northamptonshire County Council, South Northamptonshire Council, Northamptonshire Enterprise Limited , University of Northampton (incorporating the School of Arts) , Design Factory.
Industrious|Artefacts, the evolution of crafts, 26 May 2011 - 12 February 2012
Zuiderzeemuseum, the Netherlands
Curators: Studio Makkink & Bey
Other exhibitors; Claire Warnier and Dries Verbruggen, Studio Glithero and Studio Makkink & Bey.
Guest curators Rianne Makkink and Jurgen Bey address the evolution of production processes and small industries through the work of Dutch and international designers.
Works on display:
Rotationalmouldedshoe / 2009
Rotationalmouldingmachine / 2009
Mutant Parade / 2009
Mutant Parade / 2009
Materials: Polyurethane rubber and stainless steel
Rotational moulding is a process in which a negative mould is filled with a small amount liquid and as the mould starts to rotate, this material solidifies against the inner walls of the mould, forming a shell, a hollow form. Rotationalmouldedshoe was specifically designed for the "After Hours" installation in the Krannert Art Museum in Illinois, USA. After Hours presents the step-by-step procedure for making Rotationalmouldedshoe, from material developments and experiments to the pouring, moulding and de-moulding process, along with a menagerie of material tests and failures "Mutant Parade", culminating in the finished pair.
Rapidprototypedshoe / 2010Printed on an Objet Printing System
Mechanical Couture; Fashioning a New Order, 14 October 2010 – 8 January 2011
Design Museum Holon, Israel
Curators: Curatorsquared; Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox
Other exhibitors; Dai Fujiwara, Shelley Fox, Ying Gao and Simon Thorogood
Rapidprototypedshoe is made using an additive manufacturing technology in which successive layers of a photopolymer material are UV cured. The shoe is built in one go, but is comprised of two materials, which are organised into different microscopic structures, thereby enabling different material properties. As a result, the shoe has both flexible and rigid sections. The shoe has been designed to be disassembled for the purpose of replacing parts, despite having never been assembled in the first place.
When moving from rapid prototyping to rapid manufacturing, inherent construction possibilities and aesthetics of the production method needs to be explored. Certain design and production details such as the punch holes and screws in this design are not a derivative of this production method, but still make constructive sense.
Construct #2 / 2010
Construct #2 shows the step-by-step digital procedure for creating Rapidprototypedshoe. The series includes microscopic images of the material Rapidprototypedshoe has been made from, in both a liquid and cured state.
Shoe last.
Digitising shoe last.
VeroBlack material cartridge for Objet's Connex500 multi-material 3D printing machine.Creating 3D file in Rhino.
Digital microscopic image 50X zoom of VeroBlack material in liquid state.
Digital microscopic image 50X zoom of VeroBlack material in built state.
Digital microscopic image 50X zoom of VeroBlack scaffold material.
Exhibition shot, Design Museum Holon.
Other works on display:
After Hours / 2009
Materials: various
After Hours presents the step-by-step procedure for making Rotationalmouldedshoe, from material developments and experiments to the pouring, moulding and de-moulding process, along with a menagerie of material tests and failures, culminating in the finished pair. The stylized representation of the manufacturing process resembles a factory abandoned in the middle of production, and comments on the aesthetics, value, and economics of the machine-made.
Jerwood Contemporary Makers , 17 June - 25 July 2010
Jerwood Space, London
Selection panel: Hans Stofer, Richard Slee and Freddie Robins
Established in 2008, Jerwood Contemporary Makers is a three year initiative developed to support the applied arts and encourage new and stimulating ways of showing work across a range of disciplines. It replaces the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize, which was run in partnership with the Crafts Council for 11 years. The 2010 exhibition will be the last in the series. The 2010's selection panel investigates the notion of making by bringing together a broad range of work from across craft and the visual arts.
Work on display:
Rotationalmouldedshoe / 2009
Materials: Polyurethane rubber and stainless steel
Rotationalmouldedshoe was specifically designed for the After Hours installation in the Krannert Art Museum in Illinois, USA.
High, 26 April – 29 May 2010 1822-Art Forum, Frankfurt
Artist, curator and exhibition designer: Zuzanna Czebatul
Photography: Jonas Leihener
Works on display:
Mouldedleathershoe / 2003
Materials: Vegetable tanned leather and carbon fibre
Sections of vegetable tanned leather, pre-formed on a variety of shoe lasts (mould that is shaped in the form of an abstracted foot), are cut and assembled to create a fractured shoe. Even though its form is distorted, one can still recover the shapes of the lasts that the parts were constructed on initially.
Bluemâchéshoe / 2003
Materials: Leather and stainless steel
The MARLOESTENBHÖMER™ leather-mâché technique is a leather laminating technique. Bluemâchéshoe traces the silhouette form of the foot on the inside, but diffuses the silhouette form of the foot on the outside.
Blackfoldedshoe / 2010
New colour version of -foldedshoe, is now available to order. Click here to go to the ONLINE BOUTIQUE.
Suspendedaminationshoe / 2010
Study that explores the possible formal qualities when producing a shoe with the parameters of a foot in a high-heeled position in mind. Suspendedaminationshoe has been commissioned by Sang Blue Magazine.
Photographer: Adrian Wilson
The first special edition MARLOESTENBHOMER® shoes are now available to order. Click here to go to the ONLINE BOUTIQUE.
Thursday July 16th 2009 at Spring Projects
Spring Projects presents an exclusive evening with critically acclaimed designer Marloes ten Bhömer launching her first commercially available shoe.
Marloes ten Bhömer launches 'Beigefoldedshoe', a shoe made from a single piece of folded leather and stainless steel heel construction, which stems from one of her visionary footwear concepts, transformed into a wearable shoe through two years of design and engineering development. Hand made in the UK, and incorporating technical expertise from international manufacturers.
The evening provides insight into her methods of creation, showing the end result of her fascinating use of materials and forms of construction, rarely seen in shoe design.
Spring Projects, London UK
Curator: Andree Cooke
In Her Shoes, 30 May - 8 November 2009
Modemuseum Hasselt, Belgium
Curator: Kenneth Ramaekers
The exhibition presents the development, trends and fashion image of the woman's shoe since 1900, but also works by contemporary designers, artists and photographers who have designed or were inspired by women's shoes.
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© Marloes ten Bhömer 2000-2015


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Company Website: Cam Commerce
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Today see's the launch of the 1st UK Madame Tussauds outside of London and the 12th Worldwide!It will be a completely new, special attraction. The quality of the figures and the interaction is something we are very proud of. The new attraction will really light up the Promenade! Madame Tussauds Blackpool is quite different from any other attraction and will be full of surprises and new figures never seen before! Stop by and mingle with the A-listers, hop on stage with your favourite pop stars, challenge your sports heroes and laugh it up with Britain's best loved comedians. Who do you want to meet?
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Romulus, My Father
Dir: Richard Roxburgh. 104mins. Aus. 2007.The directorial debut from Australian actor Richard Roxburgh (Moulin Rouge, Van Helsing), Romulus, My Father boasts strong performances, elegant camerawork and striking early 1960s production design. But it's a tough working-class tale that grows ever more harrowing as it intensifies and, despite the formidable presence of Eric Bana in the title role, will remain strictly an arthouse item after its May ...
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WASHIINGTON -- The Obama administration's auto team will hold face-to-face talks with top executives from both General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC this week, even as the automakers face down a March 31 deadline to win key concessions from the UAW and bondholders.
GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson and Chief Financial Officer Ray Young are to have a lengthy meeting Thursday with key members of the administration's auto restructuring team, people familiar with the meeting said Monday.
Two administration officials confirmed that auto team members from the Treasury and the White House's National Economic Council will meet with GM and Chrysler executives this week. The initial face-to-face session is expected to focus on questions surrounding the restructuring plans submitted to Treasury on Feb. 17.
One of the urgent issues under discussion is the immediate cash needs of both automakers.
GM and Chrysler last week asked for billions in new loans by next month, warning they will have to file bankruptcy protection without another infusion of cash.
GM said it needs $2 billion in March and $2.6 billion in April on top of the $13.4 billion the automaker has already received in loans from the federal government.
Chrysler said it needs another $5 billion on top of the $4 billion it has received in government aid.
As part of their loan agreements, both companies must prove they are viable and win billions in concessions from the UAW and bondholders.
This week's meetings with the Treasury Department and White House's National Economic Council auto teams also will include other stakeholders, which are expected to include bondholders, dealers and the United Auto Workers.
The National Automobile Dealers Associations, which represents nearly 20,000 dealers, said its top officials will meet with the Obama administration auto team this week, as well.
"NADA realizes this task force is critical to the industry and we appreciate the fact that we get the opportunity to sit down to talk about the retail side of the business," said Bailey Wood, a spokesman.
Auto team expanded
The White House on Monday confirmed it had expanded its auto team, naming a private equity investor as the head of the Treasury Department's auto efforts.
Steve Rattner, managing partner of a $6 billion New York hedge fund, will join the Treasury Department as counselor to Secretary Timothy Geithner, "where he will serve as an adviser on a variety of economic and financial matters, and will lead the Treasury's efforts with regard to the automobile sector."
Rattner will work with Ron Bloom, a special assistant to the United Steelworkers president, who is working as a special adviser to the Treasury on auto issues. Bloom, a former investment banker, has been involved in dozens of complex union negotiations.
Geithner and White House National Economic Council director Larry Summers will co-chair the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry.
Geithner is the president's designee for purposes of enforcing the $17.4 billion in loan agreements with GM and Chrysler and could call back the loans on March 31 if the companies haven't made significant progress.
Rattner, a former New York Times reporter, had been widely viewed as a candidate for car czar in recent months. Rattner was managing principal of Quadrangle Group LLC, which has investments in at least 20 media and communications companies as part of its private equity business.
First face-to-face talks
The Treasury Department has had an auto team since late last year when it began talks with the automakers about possible loans.
The Treasury also has hired two law firms and an investment banking firm to advise it on a number of options.
Obama administration officials have been talking to the automakers since they filed the restructuring plans, asking questions, but this week's sessions are the first face-to-face talks.
The Treasury Department's outside firms have been in talks on Wall Street on whether they could raise tens of billions of dollars in debtor-in-possession financing if GM or Chrysler needed to seek bankruptcy protection. An administration official emphasized that no decisions have been made and the consultants are conducting contingency planning.
The government has two options: support GM with more loans or finance a government-sponsored bankruptcy filing.
The U.S. Treasury hired Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP to review different restructuring possibilities. Cadwalader is working with Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, a Chicago-based law firm. They also retained Rothschild Inc., a New York investment bank.
Rather than a car czar, President Barack Obama opted to appoint a 10-person cabinet level task force and appointed 10 key staff members to assist the task force. The auto task force must also decide whether to loan billions to struggling auto suppliers.


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The Cosby Show: Season 8, Episode 2
There's No Place Like This Home (26 Sep. 1991)
Ratings: 7.1/10 from 41 users
Reviews: write review
Cliff and Claire plan to build and extra room for their house, but there are some unforeseen issues.
Director:John Bowab
Writers:Ed. Weinberger (created by), Michael Leeson (created by), 3 more credits »
Stars:Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad, Sabrina Le Beauf | See full cast and crew »


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News, Information, Hotels, Real Estate
Beachfront and sea view are very overused descriptions in Tenerife, but at Restaurant 88Â just a glance up from your dim sum, noodles or sushi and the rugged beauty of La Caleta adds a whole new dimension to your dining experience. Don't just take our word for it, have a look at this short video and imagine how impressed your guests will be when you take them there.
La Caleta may be one of the hidden gems of Costa Adeje but Restaurant 88 still gets the full Venture Restaurants treatment of good food, service, and ambiance and a great range of luxury oriental cuisine. La Caleta is a traditional fishing village full of charm and those in the know head here to enjoy swimming, surfing, and sunbathing on the sea smoothed rock slabs.
That warm welcoming smile from Alex is something that all the staff have in common, with a setting like La Caleta and food like Restaurant 88 you will come away smiling too.
Follow Restaurant 88 on : Twitter | Facebook | Youtube | Flickr


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broncos & seahawks
well, it was still a good season
lmao bruh
even though cam pushed another game winning drive against a good team with a big time qb still dont take away how shitty he was today......
this coming from the same redneck that said josh freeman will be better than cam newton and that star lotulelei looks like a bust
don't ride...
i weigh 155, fuck yall niggas thats 30+ pounds heavier
because they're the saints, same saints that tried running up stats and putting jimmy graham in and out the game everytime the sideline got an update...
piff >
im happy seattle stomping these niggas
started from the bottom now we here
say what?
newportz somewhere drunk as hell on suicide watch
man get the fuck outta here foo|,
you said cam newton would be a fuckin bust and aint had shit on freeman
where freeman ass at now? matterfact...
you do that hoe ass shit every chance you get foo|,
just like your whole "i prefer freeman over newton" shit and where freeman trashy ass at now?...
i did not hate the kuechly pick, i didn't even think he was in consideration once it was mentioned that carolina was serious about coples
the whole...
man quit changing your fuckin tone, you said you were glad the bucs didn't get kuechly cause he was soft and reminded you of barrett ruud
wow @ 4 of our last 5 games of the season being division games
thats 7 in a row hoe!!!!!!!!!
they done for
Separate names with a comma.


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Notre Dame Fighting Irish linebacker Manti Te'o (5) speaks to the media during media day for the 2013 BCS Championship game at Sun Life Stadium Jan. 5, 2013.
- Filed Under
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. --The outlandish prediction came quickly, and far too easily. They knew it even then. The incoming freshmen were sitting around a dorm room, playing video games and trading boasts. When Manti Te'o said it "We're gonna win a national championship" everyone agreed.
Never mind that Notre Dame's last national title had come before they were born. Or that the Irish hadn't been truly elite in years. On that summer night, the group had had created and inserted souped-up versions of themselves into their new team, which was winning big against those opponents on the Xbox.
Four ...


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Extended Stay America Washington D.C.-Chantilly is designed specifically for people who need more than just a room while away from home. In addition to the comfortable recliner and large work desk, the oversized studio suites feature a kitchen that allows you to prepare meals at your convenience. As a guest of Extended Stay America, you receive complementary movie channels, free local phone calls, voice-mail, and a two-line phone with a computer dataport. Guests also have access to a 24-hour, coin-operated laundry facility. Weekly housekeeping ensures that you have fresh linens throughout your stay.
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The York Fair reported record attendance this year.
With near-perfect weather almost every day, it wasn't a surprise that thousands ventured to the fairgrounds in West Manchester Township last week. A reported 642,363, according to fair officials.
But, the fair reported having roughly 700,000 visitors in 2000.
So, did the fair really set a record this year?
Yes, said Fair President Gene Schenck.
Officials changed the way they calculate attendance, and they have different formulas they now use when determining how many people come out on the "free" days, he said. By "free," he means days when people get in without charge as a special promotion.
"We do the best we can to count, but there is some estimation," Schenck said. The numbers from 2000, he believes, were an over-estimation.
Some fair-goers and vendors said attendance seemed down this year. Schenck said it may have appeared less crowded because the fair has been redesigned, with fewer bottlenecks.
The midway is now 50 feet wide, Schenck said, which is twice the width it was in past years. "We tried to create a physical layout that was somewhere between an amusement park and a fair," he said.
The total revenue figures aren't in, so Schenck doesn't know how the attendance numbers are going to translate into dollars just yet.
On Wednesday, workers were still clearing the grounds to get them ready for White Rose Thunder, which is scheduled to start setting up Thursday. The motorcycle event will be held Sept. 27-30 on the grounds, which goes back to being called the York Expo Center after the fair.
More on the fairSee all coverage of the 2012 York Fair
A look back at the 2012 York Fair
Record attendance for 2012 York Fair
York Fair photo slideshow captures 10 days of fun
Gang violence, truancy issues nix Student Day at the York Fair
After 2011 washout from tropical storm, York Expo Center works to keep finances in check
York countians are proud of the York Fair, and there's a lot to be proud about


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|June 6, 2007
|EverQuest II Arasai and Neriak- A New Twist On An Old Evil
By Linda "Brasse" Carlson
Almost from the moment that the Fae race made its appearance in EQII's Echoes of Faydwer expansion, players have been wishing out loud for "evil Fae." We all knew they had existed, but that they mysteriously disappeared some time in Beta, leaving only faint impressions and shadows that folk eagerly sought.
At last they reappear, right by the gates of… Neriak! What better place for the newest children of darkness than by the almost mythical citadel of ancient evil?
Long thought lost to Norrath, Neriak was merely sealed off from the rest of the world when their great Queen, Cristanos Thex, brought the gates crashing down upon the invaders (and a great many defenders) during the last war. No one knew, though some suspected and the faithful hoped, that the bulk of the grand city of shadow was still hidden in the deep heart of the Ashfall Crags.
Neriak now re-emerges, unscathed by the passage of time and cataclysms that rent the rest of Norrath asunder, protected by the blackest magics and the steely will of its ruler.
One can only guess why this time was chosen by Queen Cristanos, and how Lucan D'Lere will react to the rise of a stronghold within an area he considers his. It is certain that many dark elves, the Tier'dal, formerly aligned with Freeport, will switch allegiance to their ancestral ruler.
The new "dark Fae" are called Arasai, and are only dark in word and deed - character creation offers them a wide and splendid array of bright colors, using palettes not available to their good-hearted kin in the Faydarks. True reds and vibrant purples contrast and meld with appropriately malevolent blacks and greens. A number of brand new wing styles are available as well, which was a pleasant surprise to all who expected them to simply re-use the Fae wings.
A male Arasai by the Wellspring of Nightmares:
Arasai gain racial traits similar to those of their cousins. Take my advice and choose "Glide" at level 10, for it increases the distance that the character can fly. "Flight" for these races is like a power-jump done in slow-motion and cannot be performed in combat; it is extremely useful, not to mention fun!
"Game Update 35" is not a grand title to place upon such a worthy release, but it is free! This, together with the release of the Estate of Unrest, fulfills the promise made back at the Consumer Electronics Show in January: that EQII would release additional free content when possible and aim for larger expansions at slightly longer intervals. We have already heard about the ambitious Rise of Kunark expansion looming on the autumn horizon, but this free update gives all EQII aficionados something shiny to play with in the interim.
Best of all, the free Game Update includes an additional character slot to enable you to make an Arasai without deleting an existing character. Players who subscribe to the Station Pass will gain two additional slots! I advise setting one of those aside for Kunark, as you will want to try a jewel-eyed Sarnak (yes, another new race!) when the expansion releases. Standard EQII subscriptions increase from 6 to 7 character slots. Station Pass subscriptions increase from 10 to 12 character slots.
Neriak is a massive city, deeply evocative of (but not the same as!) the original from EQ - very satisfying for those of us who have followed the franchise from EQ to EQII. The architecture is impressive and well designed, and the citadel offers every amenity one would expect in Qeynos, Freeport or Kelethin.
A female Arasai crossing the bridge to Neriak:
The surrounding Darklight Forest is the setting for the Arasai's starting village of "Hate's Envy", and is perfect for all level 1-20 characters. On par with Greater Faydark, Antonica and Commonlands, it is the perfect breeding grounds for the dark Fae.
It is well worth the time to make a deliciously evil Arasai and set out to explore the lands. The forest is wide ranging and varied in level; a good rule of thumb as a young adventurer is to follow where the quests lead you.
The Darklight Wood features a few creatures heretofore only seen in Echoes of Faydwer, such as the werewolves that lurk among abandoned houses to the north in the Nerian Highlands. Are they invaders or the former residents of the ruined homes?
The Tower of Bone is sure to offer some mysteries, surrounded as it is by
Briarthorn devotees:
Strange rites take place in the Sableflame Crater, involving the eventual
release of an uncontrollable fire elemental who devours his willing worshippers.
Do be careful not to stray too close to the edges of Innoruuk's Scar. While any Arasai worth its wings can survive the fall by gently floating down, it's a bit of a climb to get back up!
These are but a few of the interesting areas available to explore in the Darklight Wood. The zone connects to Neriak, the Commonlands and Nektulos Forest. In the south-central part of the zone is a Warpstone spire, indicating that Wizards and Druids may be able to create portals to this place.
Outlanders coming to the region should be wary of the Dread Guards that patrol the pathways. It is really best to leave it to the creatures to whom the territory belongs: Tier'dal, the Arasai and other creatures of the night's edge.
Here a few Tier'dal chat at Wanderlust Fair, found in the center of the
Darklight Wood:
An important note for EQII players: Due to the sheer size of the files, the free Neriak and Darklight Wood patch is designated as optional content, so that you can download it when you are ready. When you launch the game, before hitting "PLAY", click on Preferences in the left column and check to make sure that the box beside "Additional Live Game Content" is selected!