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Operating room of the future 20 Oct 2013
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The (non-invasive) operating room of the future
The (non-invasive) operating room of the future
Israel's InSightec has a unique technology that will transform surgery radically. For now it is focused on treating certain tumors and neurological disorders
The ExAblate system works with an MRI machine
By Avigayil Kadesh
Within the next decade, most surgical procedures will not require a single stroke of a scalpel, predicts Kobi Vortman, president and founder of
, an Israeli firm whose unique ExAblate technology for the "operating room of the future" will replace standard operations with non-invasive outpatient procedures.
The ExAblate MRI-guided high-intensity ultrasound technology destroys targets (such as tumors) deep inside the body without incisions, while the patient lies in an MRI.
The procedure is controlled and monitored in real time, allowing the doctor operating the system to change treatment parameters on the fly, as needed. TIME magazine chose focused ultrasound technology as one of 50 best inventions of 2011.
Meanwhile, two of the company's three product lines – for women's health and oncology – have already received regulatory approvals around the world including Europe's CE Mark and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The third product line, the ExAblate Neuro, recently received the CE Mark for the treatment of neurological disorders.
ExAblate O.R., a non-invasive operating room, incorporates interchangeable "cradles" for each application that are interfaced with the common therapy table.
"We started with uterine fibroids, which afflict a quarter of all women sometime in their lives and usually is treated with a hysterectomy," says Vortman.
In January 2013, patient recruitment got underway for a comparative study at the Mayo Clinic and at Duke University to determine how ExAblate stacks up to the usual procedure, uterine artery embolization. "They've treated 15 patients so far," Vortman said in late February.
The two-venue study is to include about 200 patients over three years. "We believe for patients looking for alternative treatment to preserve the uterus, this is effective and safe," he says.
The technology has already been successfully used to destroy fibroids in more than 9,000 patients in the United States, Europe and Asia. The comparative data from the current study is for medical insurance reimbursement purposes.
ExAblate's use in alleviating pain from metastatic bone tumors completed a pivotal trial last year that led to FDA approval for this application in October 2012. The next step will be a randomized clinical trial to compare radiation therapy – currently the gold standard for this condition – with ExAblate as a first line of defense.
Patients are monitored in real time
during the non-invasive procedure
Vortman explains that the first trial focused on patients who had failed to improve with radiation or who had declined radiation treatment.
"We want to expand our study to treat newly diagnosed patients. That will be international and randomized," says Vortman, who has degrees in electrical engineering and electro-optics from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The trials will eventually include 10 to 15 sites in five to seven countries, including Israel.
New hope for brain disorders
At the same time, InSightec is moving forward with FDA-approved safety and effectiveness trials involving ExAblate Neuro for the non-invasive treatment of essential tremor, tremors related to Parkinson's disease, and neuropathic pain.
The procedure, recently approved for use in European hospitals for these three applications, leaves the patient's skull intact and requires neither electrode placement nor ionizing radiation.
Neurosurgeons and physicists at leading research hospitals in Switzerland, Korea, Tokyo, Canada and the United States are currently using ExAblate Neuro experimentally to treat essential tremor, a common movement disorder affecting millions of people worldwide.
More than one-third of patients with essential tremor become severely disabled and have difficulty performing everyday tasks like drinking, eating, dressing and writing. Those who do not respond to medication may consider surgical implantation of deep brain stimulating electrodes, or radiosurgery with ionizing radiation.
"Essential tremor is a relatively clear-cut disease with a single symptom," explains Vortman. "With ExAblate Neuro, we found that at the end of a single treatment, patients suffering for years from this debilitating disease are back to themselves again."
How long the effects last is not known yet because the 15 patients were treated at the University of Virginia only in the last year or two. Says Vortman, "For now, it looks very promising."
The first Parkinson's patients in a Phase III study are expected to be enrolled this year, with the hope of devising a full treatment protocol by the end of next year in order to receive FDA approval for this application.
In addition, says Vortman, "We are assessing the feasibility of treatment of epilepsy as well."
Possible future applications for ExAblate are dissolving blood clots that cause stroke, and targeted drug delivery. Vortman says the system could be used for almost any surgery aside from lung tumors and heart valve repair.
The company, based in Tirat Carmel in the north with a second office in Or Yehuda near Tel Aviv, was founded in 1999 and has 125 employees. The company's original R&D team all were Technion graduates like the founder Vortman.
InSightec is privately held by Elbit Imaging, General Electric, and MediTech Advisors. Last December, it completed a $30.9 million financing round. It has won several awards including The Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards and the European Union's IST grand prize.
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Key things you need to know aboutDr. Yannucci:
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- Acute Leukemia
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- Saint Joseph's Hospital - Savannah
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9 Facts About Hospital Quality
Patients' risk of dying during a hospital stay for heart bypass surgery could be 87.4% lower, on average, at a hospital rated 5 stars compared to a hospital rated 1 star for that procedure. Choosing the right hospital is critical to your health. View Slideshow
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Every other forum has one of these threads, wonder if it will fly here?
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Every other forum has one of these threads, wonder if it will fly here?
Free post. Cool. :woot:
E.J. Potter, "The Michigan Madman", on one of his early Widowmaker drag bikes. Fuel injected small block Chevy. Direct drive - he'd start the bike on the centerstand, bring up the revs, and roll off the stand with the tire spinning. I think this shot is from the 1960s. Later bikes used a Crowerglide-style centrifugal clutch.
"Ignorance can be a powerful tool; far too many projects have been aborted before birth because they were clearly impossible. Meanwhile, those who don't know it's impossible frequently go ahead and do it anyway."
- E.J. Potter, as quoted in Hot Rod Magazine, circa 2001
DOD jacket patch, from the world's first virtual motorcycle gang, circa 1992. We inhabited the usenet rec.motorcycles newsgroup. There were still machines with bang paths then, and minis and mainframes served clusters of users on terminals.
In a moment of what in retrospect was surely an early sign of senile dementia, Mary Shafer organized a DOD get-together and group tour of NASA Dryden. The stories of the Denizens vs. NASA's security people kept newsgroup traffic high for quite a while...
Damned squirrels... sometimes you have to teach them a lesson!
379 CID Cleveland stroker I put together some years back, for a DeTomaso Pantera. Australian 2V heads, aluminum rods, and a 250hp nitrous setup.
My new jeep
My car project that keeps getting sidelined by Gun Projects.
Planning on swapping a complete 6.0L in the very near future.


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False memory of Salvador Dalí on the Fecr-i Saadet
Photo by Deniz
On Tuesday, our last full day in Istanbul, Deniz and I went to the exhibition Salvador Dalí: A Surrealist in Istanbul at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Emirgan, a district of the city along the Bosphorus.
The passenger boat that took us from Arnavutköy up the Bosphorus to Emirgan was curiously named Fecr-i Saadet. In Ottoman Turkish* it means "the dawn of happiness". It was a nice 30-minute boat ride that gave us an opportunity to watch and photograph the forts and the old houses along the water front.
Deniz searching the skies for the approach of happiness.
The exhibition included not only many original works of Dalí , but also letters, photographs and even clips of films that Dalí worked on. We spent about 2 hours there. Unfortunately, because of time constraints, we had to skip most of the introductory text on Dalí's life, but we did learn quite a bit from the captions of the photographs. Overall, it was a good introduction to Dalí's life and art.
An original Dalí ink drawing at the exhibition: False memory of a cloud of smoke resembling a human face perceived during a walk in the country with my father (ca. 1939-1941).
*Actually, 2 Arabic words combined as they would be in Persian.


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Hi, My name is Alberto Egot Jr., currently working at Kisan Lu Lands Inc. as the Marketing Head for Events and Advertising. I would be glad in serving you to realize your dream house with Kisan Lu Lands. You may contact me here:
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PARTICIPATION GUIDELINES Please help us make your participation in our Facebook community a safe, positive and inviting exp...erience for all of our visitors by observing our participation guidelines: 1. NEVER DISCLOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION: We all have a responsibility to protect confidential financial information. Never share your personal information or details about your accounts. We take...
Jardin Medical Spa is a cosmetic and anti-aging center. We offer non-invasive treatments such as Thermage, Fraxel, Botox, Juvederm, Radiesse, chemical peels, Vi Chemical Peel, Revage Hair restoration, micropeels, laser hair reduction, cellulite treatments, Isolaz Deep pore cleansing, Permanent Makeup, facials and massages.
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Oak Bar Stools & Kitchen Stools
Kitchen stools made from solid oak
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Adjust-A-Brush Telescoping Cargo Hook
Catalog Item # 59174
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Weight: 1.25 lbs.
Manufacturer: Adjust-a-brush
Mfg Part #: PROD633
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Seeds of Corruption
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The Sajuuk-Khar!!!
Join Date
: Jul 2006
: hhhmmm....where do I live?...I cant remember!
: 1,304
Originally Posted by
"Mr. Stark, two men, a human and an Amphorian, and a female gynoid are here to see you. They're asking about 286." Stark's receptionist informed him on the intercom. "Send them in." Stark replied.
((Actually, Alkonium, it's just Cody at the moment.))
Cody waited impatiently as the guard quietly chatted to someone on his comm. The guard stopped and turned his attention to Cody.
"You can go up," he told Cody.
"Thanks," Cody replied dryly, walking through the open doors of the glass elevator. It rose slowly, going up and above the annoying squall of the casino. The elevator let out a quiet ding before stopping and opening up into...somewhere?
Cody stepped off, looking around a bit baffled, but soon another guard approached to escort him. "Right this way sir," the guard said, motioning for him to move on ahead, like a butler might, only this butler was armed to the teeth and was in a suit of light anti-personel armor.
Cody went on, the guard following and guiding, until finally Cody was lead into an office where the guard left the room, leaving him inside. Cody looked around, straight faced, he didn't seem too impressed with the place. He moved forward towards the large desk, moving around to the front of the
chair, Cody slumped down into the seat, looking at the man across from him.
'Guy looks just like his office, overdone'
Cody thought to himself, not even conveying his thoughts on his face one bit. "Mr. Stark, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," Cody said with a sarcastic grin.
"I'm here looking for a job, any job, well, almost any. Bounty snatching, transport, you name it; though, I'd prefer the job be kept within my expertise.....Oh, and I'm looking for a tin-man, you seen 'im?" Cody asked, smirking with mischief.
"But in you...I see the potential to see the Force die, to turn away from its will..."
"You are beautiful to me, exile. A dead spot in the Force, an emptiness in which its will might be denied."
"But no Jedi ever made the choice you did. To sever ties so completely, so utterly, that it leaves a wound in the Force..."
"I would have killed the galaxy to preserve you...You are more precious than you know..."-now...it's verbatim!-A quote from Darth Traya (Kreia)
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Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Gone Girl (2012)
by Gillian Flynn
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This book adds a whole new level of meaning to the term 'nuclear family'.
Terrific for the first two-thirds, then the plot hits a pothole from which it does not recover. A shame, but I liked the two narrator's voices.
Review to come.
I don't know which character I hate more. I don't know why I cared, but I really, really needed to finish this book. Ug. What a bunch of freaking slimebags.
Querido diario,
Acabo de terminar Gone Girl, sí, ese libro que comencé hace casi un mes. Yo sé que normalmente no me tardo leyendo un libro, pero es que, bueno, no atrapaba mi interés. Era una página buena por cada 4 aburridas, repletas de descripciones sin fin.
Había leído que este libro era de misterio, pero la verdad el misterio se resuelve justo a la mitad del libro, de manera bastante obvia, y luego solo seguí leyendo esperando que comenzara otro misterio o que la historia tomara un giro inesperado... Y simplemente nunca sucedió.
Los personajes son interesantes y el libro tiene varias frases espectaculares, pero el desarrollo de la trama deja demasiado que desear. Fue TAN frustrante que no tengo ni palabras para explicarlo...
Realmente decepcionante.
Pero supongo que esa es solo Diario Glire hablando, Asombrosa Glire jamás diría eso.
Ahora, la unica razón por la que le puse 3 estrellas y no menos:
"Love makes you want to be a better man – right, right. But maybe love, real love, also gives you permission to just be the man you are."
"Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she's hosting the world's biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don't mind, I'm the Cool Girl.
Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they're fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl."
"We searched every cranny of my father's house, which didn't take long, since it's so pathetically empty. The cabinets, the closets. I yanked at the corners of rugs to see if they came up. I peeked into his washer and dryer, stuck a hand up his chimney. I even looked behind the toilet tanks.
'Very Godfather of you,' Go said.
'If it were very Godfather, I'd have found what we were looking for and come out shooting.'"
"Nick didn't own a pair of scissors when we moved in together. No scissors, no iron, no stapler, and I remember asking him how he thought he was possibly civilized without a pair of scissors, and he said of course he wasn't and swooped me up in his arms and threw me on the bed and pounced on top of me, and I laughed because I was still Cool Girl. I laughed instead of thinking about what it meant.
One should never marry a man who doesn't own a decent set of scissors. That would be my advice. It leads to bad things."
"Bang bang bang. I understand now why so many horror movies use that device – the mysterious knock on the door – because it has the weight of a nightmare. You don't know what's out there, yet you know you'll open it. You'll think what I think: No one bad ever knocks."
...Gillian Flynn's latest novel of psychological suspense will confound anyone trying to keep up with her quicksilver mind and diabolical rules of play. Not that there's anything underhanded about her intentions: she promises to deliver an account of the troubled marriage of Nick and Amy Dunne, who alternate as narrators, and so she does. The trickery is in the devilish way she tells their story.
Flynn writes bright, clever, cynical sentences. Maybe too many of them in Gone Girl. The same facts and ideas seem to repeat themselves. But that's a minor gripe in a book that never slacks in tightening the suspense.
The basic questions the mystery asks are these: did the journalist husband murder his well-to-do missing wife or is she setting him up to pay a creepy price? On Flynn's slick way to reaching the answer, she pulls the rug from under us readers three times. Or was it four?
This American author shook up the thriller scene in 2007 with her debut Sharp Objects, nasty and utterly memorable. Gone Girl, her third novel, is even better – an early contender for thriller of the year and an absolute must read.
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"En un caluroso día de verano, Amy y Nick se disponen a celebrar su quinto aniversario de bodas en North Carthage, a orillas del río Mississippi. Pero Amy desaparece esa misma mañana sin dejar rastro. A medida que la investigación policial avanza, las sospechas recaen sobre Nick. Sin embargo, Nick insiste en su inocencia. Es cierto que se muestra extrañamente evasivo y frío, pero ¿es un asesino?"--Book cover.… (more)
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Uterine and fetal asphyxia monitoring in parturient ...
|Uterine and fetal asphyxia monitoring in parturient sows treated with oxytocin
|D. Mota-Rojas, J. Martinez-Burnes, M. E. Trujillo, Alfonso Lopez, A. M. Rosales, R. Ramirez, H. Orozco, A. Merino, M. Alonso-Spilsbury
|Animal Reproduction Science
|Start page
|End page
|Oxytocin is used to induce and control parturition, nevertheless, the increase of uterine contractions decreases blood flow and gaseous exchange through the womb predisposing to intra-partum mortality. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of oxytocin on myometrial activity, fetal intrauterine hypoxia and postnatal asphyxia in sows during farrowing. Hybrid (n = 120) sows approaching the time of farrowing were randomly assigned in two groups of 60 animals each. Group I (G(1): control) was treated IM with saline solution and Group II (G(2)) was injected IM with oxytocin (1IU/6kg LW) as a single dose at birth of the first piglet. Both average number of myometrial contractions and intensity in G(2) were greater (P < 0.01) as compared with G(1). The mean of intra-partum stillbirths (IPS's) and those where fetal cardiac frequency (FCF) or heart beats, could not be detected after birth, were greater (P < 0.01) in G(2) as compared with G(1). The average decelerations of FCF known as dips II, which indicate severe hypoxia, was greater in G(2) (P < 0.01) as compared with that of G(1). There was a greater (P < 0.01) number of intra-partum stillbirths, stained with severe meconium in G(2) when compared with G(1). Oxytocin treatment increased (P < 0.01) the number of pigs born alive with ruptured umbilical cords and those with different grades of meconium staining on their skin. It was concluded that administration of oxytocin at the onset of parturition increased the myometrial activity, decreased fetal cardiac frequency, predisposed the rupture of umbilical cords and the degree of meconium staining, and increased intra-partum mortality.
Using APA 6th Edition citation style.
Times viewed: 439


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In the lead up to COP18, climate scientists are desperate for solutions, but few countries are willing to take bold action. The world is on track for 6° warming: we have reached a point where radical and affordable solutions to fix our climate are urgently needed. The solutions described here are low cost, natural and solve both short and long term global warming.
Archive for 'NO2, Black Carbon & other GHGs'
Radical Natural Climate Solutions
Friday, November 16th, 2012
Shorter Lived Climate Forcers: Agriculture Sector and Land Clearing for Livestock
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
In this video presentation, Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop, World Preservation Foundation Senior Scientist, puts forward the case for how, with the devastating effects of climate change being felt ever-more quickly and with increasing intensity, the importance of embracing fast-acting solutions to mitigate climate change has increased dramatically.
In recent years, greater understanding of climate science has advanced considerably, and scientists and even policy makers now recognise that climate change in the short term is being driven by extremely potent, shorter-lived climate forcers. By reducing these climate forcers — namely black carbon, methane and tropospheric ozone — cooling begins rapidly.
Globally, the production of meat and dairy are significant contributors of these fast warming agents with far reaching consequences on planetary warming and environmental devastation. These include the major effects of black carbon due to biomass burning, on West Antarctica as well as the tropical monsoons; deforestation; soil carbon loss; and, food and water security. It's estimated that 47% to 60% of the black carbon reaching West Antarctica and causing rapid melting is due to biomass burning resulting from livestock pasture management.
CO2 from pasture maintenance fires, reforestation of pastures and soil carbon uptake on relief of grazing pressure may also play a part in a fast-acting solution to the climate crisis.
This video is a synopsis of the paper Gerard wrote that examines the contributions of agriculture, namely livestock farming, to planetary warming through the shorter-lived climate forcers, and the effect of animal agriculture abatement on alleviating global warming and environmental collapse. We also propose four policy measures to immediately reduce the shorter-lived warming agents.
(By: Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop: Senior Scientist, World Preservation Foundation )
Forget carbon, this is worse: researcher
Friday, June 17th, 2011
Attention should turn to nitrous oxide if climate change is to be properly addressed, according to a Brisbane-based member of a Nobel Prize-winning team who says the gas has 300 times the impact of carbon dioxide.
Queensland University of Technology professor Richard Conant was part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore.
Professor Conant's latest research suggests the best way to reduce greenhouse emissions is to improve the way nitrogen fertiliser, which releases nitrous oxide, is applied to crops throughout the world.
Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture come from two main sources: 38 per cent from nitrous oxide from poor soil fertilisation and 34 per cent from methane from stock.
Professor Conant said the nitrous oxide could be better controlled than methane-emitting pigs and cattle.
"The three greenhouse gases related to agriculture are carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane," he said.
"They have different impacts on the atmosphere. Now if we say carbon dioxide has an impact of one, methane has an impact of say 21 times.
"Nitrous oxide has an even bigger impact, something like 300 times the impact of CO2."
The figures represent the ability of a molecule to absorb the long wave energy radiation from the earth.
Nitrous oxide was, per molecule, a bigger destroyer of the cushioning greenhouse environment surrounding the earth, Professor Conant said.
"Nitrous oxide is not the main greenhouse gas, it is just that for every molecule of greenhouse gas, it just absorbs a lot more of the energy from the earth," he said.
Professor Conant's latest research suggests it is possible to produce more food and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving the way nitrogen fertiliser is applied in developing countries.
Professor Conant, who now works at QUT's Institute of Sustainable Resources, has used computer modelling to analyse the way nitrogen is applied throughout the world to cereal crops, like maize, rice, wheat, millet and sorghum.
Collectively, these cereals make up about 70 per cent of the world's food production.
"Literature in this field implies that with greater (nitrogen) fertilisation we can expect that we are going to be less efficient at growing food," Professor Conant said.
"So there is this fear out there that we are seeing diminishing marginal returns on our nitrogen inputs to the system."
However, Professor Conant's research into international cereal crop farming shows that is not the case.
"I think that while in some countries the nitrogen inputs are increasing, the benefits from those nitrogen are not increasing as much in the developing world as they are in the rich world," he said.
If better food yields could come from improved nitrogen fertilising, Professor Conant said more food could be produced with a lower greenhouse impact.
"By bridging this gap, food production in developing countries can grow more quickly than nitrogen inputs grow in those countries," he said.
Professor Conant's research will be housed at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and used by all member nations.
Source: Forget carbon, this is worse: researcher – Brisbane Times AU
Date: 16 June 2011
Curb soot and smog to keep Earth cool, says UN
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Sharply reducing emissions of soot and smog could play a critical role in preventing Earth from overheating, according to a UN report released on Tuesday.
Curbing these pollutants could also boost global food output and save millions of lives lost to heart and lung disease, said the report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
Even as climate talks remain deadlocked on how to share out the task of cutting CO2, parallel action on "black carbon" particles and ground-level ozone would buy precious time in the quest to limit global temperature rise to 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), it said.
Record output in 2010 of carbon from energy use and unprecedented CO2 levels in the atmosphere suggest that efforts to maintain the 2.0 C cap, widely seen as a threshold for dangerous warming, may already be doomed, say scientists.
On current trajectories, temperatures are set to go up 1.3 C (2.3 F) — on top of the 0.9 C (1.6 F) jump since human-induced warming kicked in — by 2050, bringing the total compared to preindustrial levels to 2.2 C (4.0 F).
But quickly tackling black carbon and smog-related ozone could slash 0.5 C (0.9 F) off the temperature increase projected for 2030, putting the two-degree target back on track, the new findings suggest.
"There are clear and concrete measures that can be undertaken to help protect the global climate in the short and medium term," said Drew Shindell, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the 50 scientists behind the new assessment.
"The win-win here for limiting climate change and improving air quality is self-evident and the ways to achieve it have become far clearer."
The report was unveiled in Bonn as delegates from more than 190 nations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) struggle to make headway in the deeply stymied negotiations.
Black carbon, found in soot, is a byproduct of incomplete burning of fossil fuels, wood and biomass, such as animal waste. The most common sources are car and truck emissions, primitive cook stoves, forest fires and industry.
Soot suspended in the air accelerates global warming by absorbing sunlight. When it covers snow and ice, white surfaces that normally reflect the Sun's radiative force back into space soak up heat instead, speeding up the melting of mountain glaciers, ice sheets, and the Arctic ice cap.
The tiny particles have also been linked to premature death from heart disease and lung cancer.
Ground-level, or tropospheric, ozone — a major ingredient of urban smog — is both a powerful greenhouse gas and a noxious air pollutant. It is formed from other gases including methane, itself a potent driver of global warming.
A threefold increase in concentrations in the northern hemisphere over the last century has made it the third most important greenhouse gas.
Unlike carbon dioxide, which lingers in the atmosphere for centuries once emitted, black carbon and ozone disappear quickly when emissions taper off.
"The science of short-lived climate forcers has evolved to a level of maturity that now requires … a robust policy response by nations," said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP.
Measures recommended for reducing black carbon include mandatory use of diesel filters on vehicles, phasing out wood-burning stoves in rich countries, use of clean-burning biomass stoves for cooking and heating in developing nations, and a ban on the open burning of agricultural waste.
For ozone, the report calls for policies that curb organic waste, require water treatment facilities to recover gas, reduce methane emissions from coal and oil industries, and promote anaerobic digestion of manure from cattle and pigs, both major sources of methane.
The report estimates that nearly 2.5 million deaths from outdoor pollution, mainly in Africa and Asia, could be avoided every year by 2030 if black carbon levels dropped significantly.
Far less ground-level ozone could also avoid important losses in global maize, rice, soybean and wheat production, it said.
Source: Curb soot and smog to keep Earth cool, says UN – PHYSORG
Date: 14 June 2011
Cut out meat to stop nitrogen pollution say scientists
Monday, April 11th, 2011
First they told us not to eat meat because of climate change. Now scientists are telling the public to adopt a 'demitarian' diet, that contains half as much meat, to stop an even more dangerous threat to the planet – nitrogen pollution.
The first study in the world to calculate the total costs of nitrogen pollution across a whole continent found that the problem is costing each person in Europe up to £650 every year because of health and environmental damage.
The main cause of the pollution is agriculture through the manure of animals and the nitrogen fertilisers spread on crops. Around half of nitrogen added to farm fields in Europe leaks into the surrounding environment rather than feeding plants. This causes algae slimes to grow in water and on trees, suffocating wildlife and disturbing delicate ecosystems.
Also nitrogen 'smog' released into the air by burning fossil fuels in power stations and cars cause breathing or heart problems that take six months off the life of all Europeans, as well as being a greenhouse gas.
The ground-breaking European Nitrogen Assessment by more than 200 scientists from 21 countries concludes that nitrogen pollution poses an even greater threat to humankind than carbon. The cost is greater than the benefits gained by using nitrogen fertiliser to grow food and therefore it is in the EU's interest to take action.
Dr Mark Sutton, the UK lead author, said the best way to control the problem is through eating less meat.
He explained that most of the nitrogen used in agriculture is used to grow feed crops for animals or comes from manure.
Therefore cutting down on animal protein, would significantly reduce the amount of pollution.
"The largest challenges are to manage nitrogen better in agriculture and to moderate Europeans' consumption of animal protein," he said. "Amazingly, livestock consume around 85 per cent of the 14 million tonnes of nitrogen in crops harvested or imported into the EU; only 15 per cent is used to feed humans directly. European nitrogen use is therefore not primarily an issue of food security, but one of luxury consumption."
Already celebrities like Sir Paul McCartney and Joanna Lumley have urged people to give up meat at least once a week for 'Meat Free Mondays'. The United Nations and well known academics like Lord Stern also advocate cutting down on meat to help the environment.
Dr Sutton, from the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology, and the other scientists involved in the project have signed an agreement pledging to be 'demitarians' or eat half as much meat.
He also said people can switch to public transport and use less energy in order to cut nitrogen use.
However he ruled out a tax on nitrogen fertiliser because of the threat to food security.
Source: Cut out meat to stop nitrogen pollution say scientists – The Telegraph UK
Date: 11 April 2011
Benefit to cutting 'black carbon'
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Cutting atmospheric soot, methane and ground-level ozone is the quickest way to tackle climate change in the short term, according to a new report.
The governing council of the UN Environment Programme (Unep) in Nairobi will hear that reducing these short-lived emissions could reduce warming by half a degree.
And it would be more easily achieved than reducing emissions of the gas principally implicated in long-term climate change, CO2.
It would also have spin-off benefits because soot and ground-level ozone harm human health – and ozone damages crops.
Loss adjustment
The assessment comes from Unep and World Meteorological Organization, in collaboration with a global team of scientists.
Its authors insist that nations must continue to strive to reduce CO2 emissions, which will continue to warm the atmosphere for more than 100 years from the time they are produced.
But it says that using existing technologies and institutions to cut ozone and black carbon (soot) can halve regional warming for 30 to 60 years whilst averting millions of premature deaths and avoiding tens of billions of dollars of crop losses annually.
Black carbon comes from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, mostly through diesel engines and biomass burning – including in cook stoves and brick kilns.
It heats the atmosphere directly and also increases warming when particles fall on to snow and ice and reduce their reflectivity.
Ozone in the upper atmosphere protects us from harmful rays. At ground level it is a serious pollutant formed by the action of sunlight on methane, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and oxides of nitrogen.
Methane recovery
The report says: "A small number of emission reduction measures targeting black carbon and ozone precursors could immediately begin to protect climate, public health, water and food security, and ecosystems.
"They include the recovery of methane from coal, oil and gas extraction and transport, methane capture in waste management, use of clean-burning stoves for residential cooking, diesel particulate filters for vehicles and the banning of field burning of agricultural waste."
It says the task of reducing these gases needs strategic investment and institutional plans and continues: "The identified measures complement but do not replace anticipated carbon dioxide reduction measures.
"Major CO2 reduction strategies mainly target the energy and large industrial sectors and therefore would not necessarily result in significant reductions in emissions of black carbon or the ozone precursors methane and carbon monoxide.
"Significant reduction of the short-lived climate forcers requires a specific strategy, as many are emitted from a large number of small sources.
It has been known for several years that non-CO2 gases are important short-term climate forcers but the impetus to control them was boosted by a paper in Nature Geoscience in April 2009.
A model by Drew Shindell from Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies suggested that 45% or more of the Arctic warming over the past 30 years was likely to have been caused by changes in black carbon and sulphate aerosol particles.
International strategy
There have been attempts to include short-lived forcing agents into the on-going UN climate talks but although methane is included in the basket of gases to be controlled by rich nations, other ozone precursors and black carbon have been kept out of the talks on the grounds that negotiations are quite complicated enough.
Unep envisages that strategies to tackle the short-lived forcers could be possibly tackled under regional pollution agreements without the need for a global deal.
But some experts still argue that including these pollutants in UN talks would be a benefit.
Dr Mike McCracken, chief scientist for the US NGO The Climate Institute told BBC News: "Most of the emissions on these short-term warming agents are coming from developing countries.
"Most governments want to cut the emissions anyway because of the health of their people and their crops. But because the pollutants aren't included in the climate talks, the developing countries can't get any credit for cutting them.
"We have to credit them in the climate talks for creating a global benefit as well as a regional benefit."
Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development said: "We also have to start now with aggressive cuts in CO2 if we want to win the longer term climate battle. But it's not one or the other – we need to cut both CO2 and the other climate forcing agents.
"This assessment makes clear that cutting CO2 now will not reduce warming in the next 20-30 years. This means passing the 2C level several decades earlier if we don't reduce these local air pollutants."
The latest UNEP initiative runs in parallel with another initiative to use the Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting substances to phase down hydrofluorocarbons, which are also other powerful climate forcers.
Professor David Fowler from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Midlothian told BBC News that the role of ground level ozone was particularly pernicious as ozone pollution was slowing the growth of plants which would otherwise be absorbing CO2 emissions.
"Many countries have introduced controls for the ozone precursors. These have helped knock the peaks off ozone concentrations in the UK, but during the last 20 years the tropospheric background ozone has been growing steadily…and is often in the UK spring close to or in excess of values which effect vegetation."
In other words, people and crops in the UK are suffering from ground-level ozone pollution provoked by the emission of gases somewhere else in the northern hemisphere.
"The effects of tropospheric ozone on the carbon cycle are similar in magnitude (in radiative terms) to its effects as a greenhouse gas," Professor Fowler said.
"This background pollution requires hemispheric scale control measures."
Source: Benefit to cutting 'black carbon' – BBC News UK
Date: 22 Feb 2011
Can we control black carbon in the Arctic by reducing agricultural fires?
Sunday, November 14th, 2010
Looking forward to seeing the presentations and meeting reports from the 'International Meeting on Open Burning and the Arctic: Causes, Impacts, and Mitigation Approaches' conference held in St. Petersburg last week.
The Clean Air Task Force blog post on the conference is included below for reference:
One long day down, and one to go at a global meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, where climate scientists, fire experts, farmers, regulators and NGOs have been discussing the role of springtime fires on climate change in the Arctic and what must be done to reduce the occurrence of set fires in northern latitudes.
The Arctic is warming at an alarming rate, threatening not just regional ecosystems but coastal areas around the world that are vulnerable to sea level rise.
Carbon dioxide is the main pollutant responsible for this warming, but recent research shows that black carbon, or soot, from incomplete combustion may also be responsible for much of the Arctic's warming.
Samples from snow indicate that most of the black carbon in Arctic snow comes from burning biomass, and much of that is from burning crops and grasslands in northern Eurasia.
These crop and grass fires have local impacts too, of course. These fires often get out of control and spread into forests and peatlands. In fact, many of the deadly fires that plagued Russia this past summer began with fires set on grasslands or croplands.
In response to the growing threat, Clean Air Task Force and Bellona Russia have organized this event to:
- 1 Examine the range of health, safety, and climate impacts associated with open burning.
- 2 Elevate the issue of black carbon emissions from open burning, and its Arctic impacts, among researchers, governmental bodies, and NGOs in Russia and elsewhere.
- 3 Increase coordination between different organizations (governmental, research, and NGOs) in the USA, Europe, and Russia, and within those countries, working on short-lived climate forcers.
- 4 Survey indigenous practices and motivations for burning.
- 5 Explore alternatives to burning and strategies to reduce emissions from burns, including the practical, economic, cultural, and environmental implications of these alternatives.
We're not exactly sure where we'll end up tomorrow, but conversations have been flying and we expect some useful closure by the end of the conference. More information about the meeting is available at http://www.fires-and-the-arctic.org.
After the meeting we'll post presentations, meeting reports, and any other outcomes on that site.
Calls to green 'concrete jungle'
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Trees can play an essential role in improving the quality of life in UK towns and cities, a report has said.
The Woodland Trust says planting more trees has been shown to improve air quality, reduce ambient temperatures and benefit people's health.
The trend of declining tree cover in many areas needs to be reversed in order to improve access to green spaces in urban areas, the study adds.
The trust is also launching a campaign to plant 20m native trees each year.
"Towns and cities tend to put into sharp relief some of the key problems we are facing as a society," said lead author Mike Townsend.
"So they are a good place to start when try to illustrate just where green spaces can deliver significant improvements for relatively little cost."
The issues outlined in the report included physical and mental health problems, childhood obesity, air pollution, soaring summer temperatures, flash flooding and diminishing wildlife.
The trust estimated that 80% of the UK population live in urban areas, yet less than 10% of people have access to local woodlands within 500m of their homes.
"If you look back over history, Victorian times saw a real move towards parks and street trees; some of the big street trees that you find in our cities today go back to these times," explained Woodland Trust conservation policy expert Sian Atkinson.
"What we have seen more recently is that there has been reduction in the number of trees being planted, and there has also been a loss of the lovely Victorian trees with big canopies," she told BBC News.
"We are starting to miss these from our towns and cities, and not enough thought has been given to replacements and to ensuring that there is going to be enough tree cover in the future."
The report also highlighted the role urban trees could play in preventing flash floods.
Ms Atkinson said: "Hard surfaces in towns and cities have increased in recent years, and we are seeing more flooding.
"One of the problems is surface water drainage. It has been shown that trees and woods are key to help control this sort of flooding.
"As well as absorbing groundwater, tree canopies help reduce the volume of rainfall hitting the ground and relieve pressure on urban drainage systems.
She called on civic planners to address the issues highlighted by the report.
"This is quite a lot of talk about green infrastructure," she observed,
"and our message is that we hope that trees and woods are a really big part of that."
In its Programme for Government report, the coalition government announced that it would initiate a national tree planting campaign.
During a speech in May, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said:
"If any organism has demonstrated an ability to multi-task, it's trees.
"They capture carbon and hold soils together, prevent flooding and help control our climate. They also add immeasurably to the quality of life of our towns and cities."
She added that in some parts of inner London, it was calculated that each tree was deemed to be worth as much as £78,000 in terms of its benefits.
Ms Atkinson welcomed the government's announcement:
"The UK has very low woodland cover compared with the rest of Europe. We are actually looking for a doubling in native woodland cover.
"There are some areas that have more cover than others, but – overall – there is quite a big job to do in order to increase tree cover to a level that provides all the benefits outlined in the report."
To coincide with the publication of the report, the Woodland Trust is also launching a More Trees More Good campaign, which will look to plant 20m native trees across the UK for the next 50 years.
Source: Calls to green 'concrete jungle' - news.bbc.co.uk
Date: 30 June 2010
Geoscientists call for reducing soot emissions
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
More aggressive action is required to reduce soot emissions in a bid to achieve climate policy goals such as those set forth in last December's Copenhagen Accord, says a study.
The Princeton University researchers assessed the climatic contribution of 'carbonaceous aerosols,' fine particulates emitted into the air, known as soot.
Soot is a term that refers to the impure carbon particles produced by the incomplete combustion of organic matter and comes from diesel engines and coal combustion to biomass cook stoves, crop burning and wildfires.
Soot has complex effects on the global climate when airborne or deposited on snow. It has two main components: black carbon and organic carbon.
Black carbon is dark and absorbs radiation, thus warming the atmosphere; organic carbon is light coloured and reflective, so tends to have a cooling effect.
Their effects on climate are complicated, in part because they depend on how they are mixed with other particles in the atmosphere, and in part because both types of aerosols can cool the climate through their effects on cloud formation.
Black carbon also warms the Earth's surface when it falls on snow or ice.
'Because of uncertainties in these many effects and because of differences in whether and how these effects get incorporated into various models, past studies of soot's contribution to global warming have ranged widely,' said Robert Kopp, post-doctoral researcher jointly in Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs and its Department of Geosciences.
'We took several key studies, put them all on a common footing, and assessed what emerged,' Kopp said.
Using four sets of highly cited but disparate studies that span the range of past estimates, Kopp and Denise Mauzerall, associate professor of environmental engineering and international affairs at Princeton, attempted to reconcile and standardise the results into one, common global metric.
'Unfortunately, most climate change mitigation scenarios used in policy contexts have focused exclusively on heat-trapping gases,' Mauzerall said, according to a university release.
These findings were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: Geoscientists call for reducing soot emissions - southkoreanews.net
Date: 26 June 2010
Canada to phase out coal-fired plants
Friday, June 25th, 2010
Canada plans to phase out its coal-fired electricity plants as part of its goal to become a "clean energy superpower," said Environment Minister Jim Prentice.
Prentice said two-thirds of the country's 51 current coal units should be retired by 2025.
"Our regulation will be very clear," said Prentice in announcing the regulations Wednesday.
"When each coal-burning unit reaches the end of its economic life, it will have to meet the new standards or close down."
Prentice said the retired coal-fired plants would have to be replaced with low-emitting electricity such as clean coal, natural gas, hydro, nuclear, wind and tidal power.
Regulations covering new coal power plants would come into effect at the end of 2011.
"A responsible, clear phase-out of the electricity sector's inefficient coal-fired generation will allow ample time for the implementation of cleaner generation technologies. This will create new jobs in the clean-energy sector, while helping Canada meets its commitment to greenhouse gas reductions," Prentice said.
The phase-out of traditional coal-fired electricity generation, along with coal closure commitments from provinces and companies, will reduce emissions by about 15 million tons, an amount equivalent to Canada taking about 3.2 million cars off its roads, the government said.
Under Ottawa's current international commitment, its emissions are supposed to fall to about 440 million tons by 2020.
Coal-fired plants make up 13 percent of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions.
Steve Snyder, president and chief executive officer of TransAlta, said the power supplier sees opportunities to replace its oldest coal plants with a mix of natural gas generation, clean coal technology and renewable energy.
But he warned that Canada's transition must be done in a "careful and orderly fashion" to maintain the critical reliability of the country's electricity infrastructure.
Noting that coal accounts for more than 50 percent of current global electricity production, Roger Gibbins, president and chief executive of think tank the Canada West Foundation, said the United States, China and India are not likely to take coal out of their energy mix going forward.
"They will work for cleaner coal, but coal will not disappear from their energy strategies. Why should it for us?" Gibbins told the Calgary Herald.
Prentice also announced that Canada would provide $400 million this year for an international climate fund to help poor countries combat climate change, as negotiated at the U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen last December.
Source: Canada to phase out coal-fired plants - upi.com
Date: 25 June 2010
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Queen Latifah is one tough woman and if anyone is thinking about crossing this talk show host, may we suggest they take a look at her hurling an axe across the room. During The Queen Latifah Show on Wednesday the talk show host had on some different king of women giving a demonstration. These ladies were part of the Axe Women Loggers of Maine. According to WABI on Wednesday, the ladies are professional competitors and can hit the dead center of a target about 20-feet away.
Whenever professional stunt people come on talk shows people get interested, but when someone like Queen Latifah starts slinging axes, then it's a good idea to watch. It was an unbelievable moment too as when she flung the axe across the room it nearly hit the dead center of the target.
The cool portion of the segment also included when the different tricks using an axe was shown. It is not very often when people show how to throw an axe. Queen Latifah obviously picked up on the short demonstration and she was a solid thrower.
The funniest part of this demonstration had to be the talk show host holding that axe. There are people in the world who you would never think would be whipping around an axe on television. However, as the fans saw on Tuesday, the list has narrowed down as Queen Latifah was holding it like she has one at home.
Take a look at Queen Latifah's axe throwing skills in the video clip. She is impressive!


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More New and Used
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Note: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.
Narrative Social Work: Theory and Application
ISBN13:by Baldwin, Clive
Univ of Chicago Pr
Questions About This Book?
What version or edition is this?
This is the edition with a publication date of 6/15/2013.
What is included with this book?
- The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any CDs, lab manuals, study guides, etc.
Interest in the contribution narrative makes to other disciplines has been booming in recent years, but its impact in social work has been limited and confined mainly to therapeutic intervention. Narrative Social Workis the first book to extend the narrative lens to explore the contribution of narrative to social work values and ethics, social policy, and our understanding of the self in social, cultural, and political contexts. Clive Baldwin argues that narrative is a richly textured approach to social work that can enhance both theory and practice.


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The independent containership owner and manager purchased the vessels for $195.6 million.
The U.S. Commerce Department's International Trade Administration released a report Wednesday, showing that 92 percent of more than $1.3 trillion worth of U.S. goods exported in 2015 were likely affected by foreign technical regulations.
The Arab ocean carrier's shareholders would own 28 percent of the combined company, while the existing shareholders of Hapag-Lloyd would own 72 percent of the new company.
Registration takes less than 1 minute.
The French ocean carrier said it intends to have Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines delisted from the Main Board of the Singapore Exchange as it pushes forward to acquire all of the shipping company's shares.
Peter Friedmann accused container lines of bungling the International Maritime Organization's new container weight verification requirement, and said some now realize they face high internal costs unless they offer a more flexible approach.
Since a February low, total returns on shares of A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S have climbed 24 percent despite declining oil and freight rates, and as of Tuesday, only four of 29 analysts recommended selling the stock.


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From STD tests to mammograms, find out which screening tests you need - and when to get them.
Here's what you need to know about the transition into menopause – and life after the change takes place.
Approaching your due date? Look for these signs of labor.
Forget the fountain of youth – try flossing instead! Here are 11 surprising ways to live longer.
From skin changes to weight loss to unusual bleeding, here are 15 cancer warning signs that women tend to ignore.
Learn why you should eat fish and seafood while pregnant, and how to do it safely.


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Irrfan Khan Dhyan Chand
3 Irrfan Khan Dhyan Chand Articles
Fans speak: Ranbir Kapoor beats Shahid Kapoor to play Dhyan Chand in biopic!1 year ago 2
Talks about Dhyan Chand biopic are on since long and we decided to ask fans who will be best suited for the role. Here's what you folks… Read Article ▶
Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor – who should play Dhyan Chand onscreen?2 years ago 15
Talks about Dhyan Chand biopic are on and we decided to ask fans who will be best suited for the role.... Bollywood has been smitten over biopics in… Read Article ▶
Is Irrfan Khan getting too big for his boots?4 years ago 5
It's Khan vs Khan in Bollywood, as Irrfan sets his sights on Shahrukh Khan's Dhyan Chand We love Irrfan. He's a Khan, even though he's dropped his… Read Article ▶


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Outlining your novel can be really easy, really difficult, or somewhere in between. Every writer who has outlined their novel before starting the first draft has had moments of joy and moments of chaos throughout the process. Following a few simple steps can help ease the discomfort in getting that Best Selling novel from your mind to your computer screen.
BRAINSTORM ~ Because our minds work faster than our fingers, the best way to start is just to start typing. Get all your thoughts out when they pop into your mind. It doesn't matter if they are an organized mess; you will organize them later, but just get it all out-every detail that is pops into your head in the moment it pops in.
TAKE BREAKS ~ In between some of the steps don't forget to take a few breaks. Allowing your mind to focus on something else will help you when you do return to your outline to see any plot holes or even to develop sub plot lines and plot twists to help ad drama and depth to your story.
PLOT YOUR PLOT ~ Once you've gotten all the details out, you can begin to organize them. Start thinking about different scenes for each of the novels' three acts-the beginning, the middle, and the end. Don't forget to add in your inciting incident, plot twist, climax, and ending.
CHARACTERS ~ While you are plotting out the main and sub plots, don't forget to include your character arcs. How you want your characters to think and act in the beginning, how they change and what changes them throughout the story, and how you want them to think and act in the end.
BREAK THE OUTLINE DOWN ~ Once you have your plot and character arcs, you can start breaking down the paragraphs of your outline into chapters.
BE OPEN MINDED ~ One point you always want to remember is to never get too attached to your outline, chapter breaks, scenes, and arcs. Once you get into writing your novel, you might find that the story and characters will take on minds of their own and do things you hadn't planned on when outlining, and that's okay.


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DELAWARE, Ohio (AP) — A judge has sentenced a central Ohio man to six months in jail for assaulting a police dog by punching it in the head and throat and breaking a tooth.
Judge Everett Krueger of Delaware County Common Pleas Court also ruled Monday that 45-year-old Jeffrey Metz of Delaware must serve five years on probation.
Deputies say Metz led them on a chase in January when they tried to pull him over for speeding and that he spun into a field.
They say he refused to get out of his vehicle. Officers sent a police dog named Thor into the car and say Metz punched the animal repeatedly.
Metz also had been convicted of failure to comply with a police order.
Sheriff Walter Davis III says the dog has recovered.
Know what is CRAZY?? Steve Croley only got FOUR MONTHS for the FOUR COUNTS of animal cruelty he was charged with...How inconsistent is that?
The part that I can't forget is that with the Steve Croley case - they found 7 dead dogs and 12 dogs that were suffering from starvation...that still makes me so sad...
Animals are still considered property in Ohio. It can be traced directly to our history as an agricultural state.
That being said, I believe police K9s are to be treated as an officer.
Looking at a police dog from a purely property point of view, they're extremely expensive "pieces of equipment."


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If you like to swim, but your dog is not a typical "water dog," it could be a difficult task to get your "best friend" to swim with you. If your dog is old, it may be even more difficult.
Swimming is not only wonderful exercise for people of all ages, it is also wonderful exercise for dogs; particularly old dogs.
However, even in warm climates in the Summertime, a pool could be too cool for a dog suffering with stiff, achy joints or arthritis. Heating a pool, just enough to get the chill out, would be more inviting to an old dog.
Still, your dog may need to be coaxed into the water, especially if he or she had not been around a swimming pool before. Be careful not to be too forceful, as you could end up scaring the dog even more.
You must gain your dogs trust, in order to get them into the water. They must feel safe and secure with the whole idea, or it will not work out well.
First, you must consider the fact that once a dog is off the steps into the pool, their feet cannot touch the bottom. This fact, along, may cause a dog to panic, and hurry over to the edge of pool to get out.
Allowing your dog to do this is positive thing, if they are young and strong enough to pull themselves out safely, with out hurting them selves. Then they would feel confident in knowing they could get out themselves.
However, an older dog would most likely not be able to pull itself out, and that would create more of a panic.
The best way to introduce an old dog to this "new trick" of swimming in a swimming pool, is by holding them up, and letting them feel their legs kicking through the water.
Always start out from the steps. Take them for a brief swim around the shallow end, and bring them back to the steps. Let them feel their feet on the step, and guide them out safely.
Do this exercise consistently, on a daily basis if possible, increasing the time spent in the water. Each time, allow your dog to feel more of his/her own weight in the water, each time guiding them safely to the steps to get out.
After three or four times, you may want to introduce a tube to help add a feeling of support to your dog. A tube may work well for a dog who has a strong upper body, but weak hips and hind legs.
Now your best friend can exercise it's weak hips and legs, and receive the best physical therapy, easily and enjoyably.
This will not only improve your pet physically, but will help exercise it's brain, and uplift it's mood to a feeling of well-being.
What better gift could you give your old dog?
See dogs learning how to swim here at Splashdogs!


text: Just what I've been waiting for, a new electronic mashup from The White Panda. Wouldn't you know it, since it is the holiday season they've mashed up some Weezy with some Holiday Tunes. Weezy We Have Heard On High is a combination of a classic holiday tune "Angels We Have Heard On High" with the track "Comfortable" from Lil Wayne. The duo is known to make some mashups that really hit with their audiences. They never try and justify a shitty remix or mashup with their "artistic vision". They appeal to the masses and the masses rejoice. Being that it is such a festive piece, and tis the season, this track will surely gain some warranted attention. I mean who would think to pair Weezy with the Holidays, other than Santa? The White Panda thats who…they've even wrapped it nicely and included a nice FREE DOWNLOAD bow on top. Like it, Love it, Listen to more of it. Happy Holidays! Get Your Earz Wet!


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We have recently released eight Basketball DVDs featuring Jim Calhoun, Tara Vanderveer, Sean Miller, Mike Dunlap, Brian Gregory, Don Showalter, Scott Schumacher, and John Spieza. These eight new Basketball DVDs are titled:
Championship Ideas for Player and Coach Development
All Access Stanford Women's Basketball Practice with Tara VanDerveer
Sean Miller: Beating Pressure Defenses
Mike Dunlap: Transition Offense – The First 6 Seconds
Brian Gregory: Early Offense and Set Plays
Don Showalter: Full Court Trapping Defensive System
Scott Schumacher: Building Blocks for Aggressive Half Court Defense
John Spezia: Motivational and Competitive Practice Drills
Championship Productions would like to congratulate the teams who qualified for the 2011 Women's NCAA Final Four! Championship Productions is proud to say it has partnered with two of the four 2011 Final Four Coaches on various basketball DVD projects. Learn the systems, tips, techniques, and drills that these outstanding coaches implemented within their programs…taking them to the top!
1 seed- Connecticut Huskies (Geno Auriemma)
1 seed- Stanford Cardinals (Tara Vanderveer)
The University of Connecticut, coached by Geno Auriemma, is ranked #1 in the 2010 Associated Press women's basketball preseason poll. The Huskies enter the 2010-11 season with a 78-game winning streak after posting a perfect 39-0 record in 2009-10 en route to the program's seventh NCAA National Championship! UConn has been ranked #1 for a total of 144 weeks in the program's history, the most of any team nationally.
The AP Top 25 is filled with programs / coaches who have partnered with Championship Productions to produce instructional basketball DVDs. Check out the Top 25 coaches who have worked with us below:
1. Connecticut (Coached by Geno Auriemma)
2. Baylor
3. Stanford (Coached by Tara Vanderveer)
4. Tennessee (Coached by Pat Summitt)
5. Xavier
6. Duke (Coached by Joanne Palombo-McCallie)
7. Ohio State (Coached by Jim Foster)
8. Texas A & M
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10. Oklahoma (Coached by Sherri Coale)
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19. Georgia (Coached by Andy Landers)
20. Iowa State (Coached by Bill Fennelly)
21. Maryland (Coached by Brenda Frese)
22. Iowa
24. Vanderbilt
25. Michigan State
The pairings for 2010 Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament were announced last evening (March 15, 2010). Many of the participating programs' coaches have produced basketball DVDs with Championship Productions. The programs / coaches include:
Connecticut (Coached by Geno Auriemma)
Stanford (Coached by Tara Vanderveer)
Tennessee (Coached by Pat Summitt)
Duke (Coached by Joanne Palombo-McCallie)
Ohio State (Coached by Jim Foster)
Oklahoma (Coached by Sherri Coale)
Iowa State (Coached by Bill Fennelly)
Georgia (Coached by Andy Landers)
Virginia (Coached by Debbie Ryan)
Texas (Coached by Gail Goestenkors)
LSU (Coached by Van Chancellor)
Rutgers (Coached by C. Vivian Stringer)
Middle Tennessee State (Coached by Rick Insell)
North Carolina (Coached by Sylvia Hatchell)
Depaul (Coached by Doug Bruno)
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Gravi 'The Gravity Earthbound Pony' by VISION-KINGWatch
Here's a surprise for many, a new OC Pony that I've found inspired and interested in making that revolves around a series; Digimon Xros Wars, staring the character: Gravimon. Yep, for many that wondered what he could look like, it was something I almost believed impossible, but now I've made something new. And for many that will be surprise to learn this, this character will have an element to represent himself; The Element Of Gravity. And after all, both the OC & the character fro mthe Digimon series both have their name and power similar to gravity, so it should make for an interesting. And who knows, he may even appear in JusSonic's future MLP: FIM fan make stories. And this makes him the fourth Death General from Digimon Xros Wars I've come into making like with Oleg (Olegmon), Splash (Splashmon) & Zamiel (Zamielmon). This character was made by me using Neros Urameshi's Pony Creator which is owned by [link]
Name: Gravi 'The Gravity Earthbound Pony'
Appearance: A very tall mostly thin unicorn stallion with white/gray fur coat. His mane is long & irregular in style, as is his long tail that are basically darken & light black/gray color. His left ear is chip a bit, and he has a tan bare mark on his mouth. The only things wore around him are gray specs tied around his head. His eyes are never seen, hidden behind what some say his specs are a mask. Then he wears just a dark tan gray lightly built armor piece in front of his chest and wears black gray bands around his legs & hooves. On his flank seems to be a round gray-turquoise sphere with an orb rotating around it, representing like a gravity movement as his Cutie Mark.
Personality: Gravi is a tactical genius, able to see through his opponents strategies & surreptitiously. He enjoys stimulating tactics, he uses the battlefield as his testing ground. He is an investigative stallion which continues to zealously research questions like, how many casualties can be produced easily, which tactics lets him listen to a multitude of enemy wails, what creative scheme will surprise the enemy as they perish, which method will cause all of the opponents to be finish off without shedding their insides around, & so on. He seem to enjoy doing such acts for a while, but when he came across the Mane Six & taught him to be more respectful of himself & his allies, and not just always think so much (Twilight especially saw he was using his head too much & not enough with his heart). So he became more of a calm, acknowledge, more reasonable type pony while sometimes showing his old side, but with a little improvement.
SKILLS: He is a unicorn, so his field is around using magic & such to defend himself. And his mind is also the key to performing tactics to win battles. And his skills in controlling the gravity around him, others & objects, can give him flight or levitation off the ground, simulate extreme strength & agility by making things earlier to lift & carry.
-Tactical Analysis: The ability to be an extremely skilled strategic genius & apply this skill for several objectives. As a user, he can create strategies & plans several steps ahead of the opponent seeming like he can see into the future. As a user, he is able to elaborate complex plans & strategies & apply them in not just in battle but any other activity that involves cunning intellect.E.g Strategic games. This ability are very analytical and can understand or anticipate the enemies moves. The applications are seen of strategic planners being masters of psychological intuition & are very charismatic, some are very skilled deceiving masters. Can adapt to any situation & be prepared for any eventual situation. Tend to plan even the smallest details, possess armies of loyal followers, and is, most of the time, two steps ahead of a certain situation. The limitations maybe vulnerable against Unpredictability. And may be corrupted or overwhelmed by his own intelligence, making him be arrogant or underestimate the opponent.
-Gravity Manipulation: The ability to manipulate gravity. As a suer, he can create, shape & manipulate gravitons, a natural phenomenon by which all physical bodies attract each other, and gravitons, hypothetical elementary particles that mediate the force of gravitation. He can bend gravity to make the environment very "heavy" or "light", causing objects to "fall" toward another object instead of the planet ("nexus inducing"), flattening objects, and generating miniature black holes to compress objects into oblivion. He can attract matter & energy regardless of its mass or move objects in a manner similar to telekinesis. Offensive uses of this power include repulsing people or objects with such force to shatter practically anything, increasing gravity to crush opponents, decreasing it to render them defenseless, or surrounding one's body in a gravitational field to amplify physical strength. Defensive uses include creating a gravitational force-field to attract all manner of attacks away from him, or anchoring oneself to the ground.
-Gravity Generation: The ability to generate gravitational fields. As a user, he's able to generate gravity in the area around him. Which could have crushing affects on all in the area where gravity is generated.
-Gravity Armor: The ability to create armor around his body from gravity. As a user, he can form armor around his body or shape it from gravity for protection & physical boost. From training, he can shape the armor into new forms for weapons, transportation, even contracts of the element. Note: It's said he used this power to contract his armor he wears now.
-Gravity Bomb Generation: The ability to generate explosives with a high amount of gravitation. As a user, he is able to create explosives that are infused with gravitons. The effects can be controlled by him, from increased gravity, reduced gravity, or even a complete reversal of gravity for everything in the explosion radius. These explosions can usually be thrown or projected. The applications can be done from pin down enemies for capture with increased gravity, reduce gravity in an area to remove cover, hurl enemies into the sky by reversing the properties of the explosives, and from training, singularities could be made for an instant.
-Gravity Ball Projection: The ability to project spheres of condensed gravitons. As a user, he can project spheres of gravitons that when it comes into contact, releases a field of increased gravity, reduced gravity, or just hit the target with the force of a cannonball depending on the size of the gravity ball.
-Gravity Beam Emission: The ability to create & project beams of gravity. As a user, he can project beams of gravity capable of repelling objects, opponents, & attacks. He can also attract enemies to the beam, bringing them closer for gravity-infused impact. He can also create gravity beams that are capable of pulverizing large areas with destructive concussive force.
-Gravitation Adaption: The power to adapt to graviton pressure. As a user, he can be adapted & able act normally in both high, low or no gravity without the normal effects caused by the high gravity or weightlessness on body, both instantaneous &/or short/long term. The limitation however, seems that it doesn't work against Black Hole Creation.
-Gyrokinetic Combat: The ability to utilize gravity manipulation in physical combat. As a user, he is able to utilize gravity manipulation with his physical combat, reducing or increasing the effective weight for his advantage (increasing the weight of the opponent or their weapon, decreasing their own) or chancing the direction of gravity.
-Gravitational Downforce: The ability to generate a crushing downforce of gravity. The user can drastically increase the gravity in a given area, making moving or even standing difficult for anyone in it, possibly causing damage to the targeted area/targets, prompting the ground to crack and cave in, crushing the targets.
-Weight Manipulation: The power to manipulate weight of anything & everything. As a user, he can manipulate the weight of anything to make it very light & easy to move or very heavy & impossible to move. He can make the object so heavy it can break through almost anything or so light it can just float away.
-Elasticity: The ability to stretch, deform, expand, or contract one's body into any form imaginable. As a user, he can become extremely malleable & elastic, allowing him to stretch, flatten, deform, expand, & contract his whole body, including limbs, torso, neck, etc. He is extremely hard to wound or hurt due to his body reflexively absorbing damage by stretching with attacks, but he may still feel pain.
*Limb Expansion: The ability to grow one's limbs independently of one's own body. As a user, he's capable of expanding his limbs to great sizes, allowing for increased reach & damage.
*Limb Extension: The ability to stretch one's limbs in dependently of one's own body. As a user, he is capable of stretching his limbs to great lengths. This ability allows him to extend his limbs to far away areas to strike opponents a distance & defeat long-range attackers.
-Cellular Regeneration: The ability to heal rapidly from any physical injury. As a user, he can rapidly regenerate, in other words, he can recreate lost or damage tissues, organs & limbs, sometimes slowing, or even stopping, aging. The rate and amount of healing varies widely around an advance level for rapid regeneration. He is generally in very good physical shape as his body is constantly reverting to heathy state. The only limitations are instantly lethal attacks are likely un-recoverable. And the brain cells can be repaired, but if the cerebral cortex (where information, memories, awareness & consciousness are processed) is damaged, unless reached at master-level, complex issues may arise: as long as the cerebral cortex (or 'Core') remains unharmed, he is practically immortal, being able to regenerate pretty much from that one portion alone.
*Reforming: The ability to rebuild oneself after being destroyed. As a user, he will automatically reform upon destruction of the body, completely restoring his body to it's former state & reconstructing eery piece of his body that was out of place.
Techniques: After gaining the power of being the Element User of Gravity, Gravi has develop skills of being lightweight & increasing gravity around his opponents. And combine them with himself being stretching of himself & having regenerating abilities makes him a very hard opponent indeed. (Think of Gravity Attacks from Gravimon, Golbez & Brago)
-Gravity Push: The user thrusts one or both of their hooves, palm facing forward, at their opponent, propelling them quickly away from their person with amplified gravity.
-Gravity Grasp: Gesturing with one hoof, the user lifts their opponent into the air by decreasing the amount of gravity on them. Having done this, the caster then increases the gravity around the target, inflicting excruciating pain unto them.
-Gravity Hold: Gravi increases the gravity of all enemies on sight to 20G, damaging them, then reverses the gravity, sending enemies that are defeated flying upward. This move is very useful for clearing weak enemies on the field if there are many at once present.
-Gravity Force: Fires a ball of dark energy, then teleports. If the opponent is close to Gravi, he'll appear behind the victim and shoot a second magical energy ball that knocks them towards the larger ball. If the opponent is far away from Gravi, he'll appear next to the victim and knocks them towards the ball with his hoof.
-Gravity System: Gravi flings his hoof downwards and summon three nodes that fire a laser upward. If the opponent is hit by the laser, he'll fire a dark projectile to either begin chase or cause an explosion that knocks the opponent back.
-Gravity Orb: It creates a small purple & black gravitational well (like a spiraling sphere) that fires from his hoof.
-Gravirei: It creates a small gravitational field that forces the opponent's body to the ground, immobilizing them and preventing them from counterattacking.
-Gravity Pull: A small sphere is released with a massive gravitational pull, dragging everything to it within a large radius.
-Gravity Canceler: With this spell, Gravi waves his hoof, creating a gravitational force that crushes attack spells when coming in contract while also destroying the nearby area it with intense gravity.
-Gigano Orb: An enhanced version of Gravity Orb, it creates a large, purple & gravitational well (spiraling sphere) that fires from his hooves.
Strongest Techniques: Gravi uses these moves to truly out power and defeat his foes to which some may not come out of it alive. Some are even as more dangerous as the next.
-Ion Gravirei: An enhanced version of Gravirei, it creates a powerful gravitational field in the form of a beam, capable of effortlessly leveling trees to the ground. Gravi can control this attack with his front hoof, spreading the field around him wherever he moves it.
-Beam Gravidon: An enhanced version of Gigano Orb, it creates a massive, purple & black gravitational well (spiraling sphere) with multicolor beams swirling around it that fires from his hooves.
-Ground Gravidon: An enhanced version of Gravirei, it creates a massive gravitational field around a fixed area, capable of leveling a multistory building.
-Wide Graviton: An enhanced version of Gravirei, it creates a gravitational field with a large range, capable of bringing airborne enemies down to the ground.
-Gravity Atoms: A high level attack spell that holds enough power to destroy a mountain. Gravi creates a large sphere of gravity that slams down on the opponent. From there, the enemy is torn apart by the large swirling spheres of gravity that distort the space inside.
-Core Gravity: It is a double-layered gravitational sphere with an extremely powerful ball of gravity at its core. It draws all surrounding matter in a large radius within itself, crushing nearly all of it.
-Combust Gravity: A upgrade of Core Gravity, and another of Gravi's most powerful spells. It is a large purple ball that sucks itself up (much like a black hole) shortly after being cast.
-Atmosphere Gravity: It is the strongest form of Gravirei, tall enough to level a skyscraper, and wide enough to level a palace.
-Gravity Fall: An advance version of Gravity Hold. The user spreads both front hooves, each hoof being splayed apart. Having done this, the gravity of the intended location is then increased around the area, disabling any foes within. This causes great damage to the targeted place, prompting the ground to crack and cave in, and makes it difficult for anyone within it aside from Gravi to move or even stand. Most individuals get smashed to the ground and held there by the force of such spell, even powerful, physically strong warriors like Ben, Golden Heart & Pinkamena. Only very few shown capable to stand & fight almost normal while under this effect are rare to be seen. This particular spell can also be used to cancel out other Magics, nullifying them by sending them down to the ground, and even powerful type of spells others would know, such like the Unicorn Burst, would be dispel.
-Black Hole Bomb: Gravi creates a massive size black hole sphere of dark black center with dark blue & purple outer lining that appears like a dome. This move once unleashed, pulls nearby enemies & enemy fire to it. It is also controlled by Gravi to move it by his will, and then open (detonate) up. This is a scary form of gravity power that absorbs any sized foe, regardless of if they're invulnerable to magical blast or have shields or barriers. If there are enemies too large to be sucked in will take damage instead. Once it's finished will implode in a giant explosion to which shall cause massive damage to the area and even leave a crater, even giants would suffer from such a horrible beating. Noted Fact: This attack generates its own gravitational field, drawing in everything around itself, and also appears to increase in strength and size after a short period of time.
-Octa Gravity: He summons forth eight red-wire tentacles hidden in his chest armor to manipulate the gravity on the battlefield, controlling the opponent's gravity based on the flow of the battle & making them lighter or heavier.
-High Gravity Pressure: Elastically extends both of his front hooves & burdens the opponent with intense gravity pressure, compressing them to their limit.
-Gravity Bang: Places Equestria's gravity pressure upon himself until he reaches his limit, then detonates the entirety of his magical energy all at once in a phantasmal bold move. This forbidden self-destruction technique has enough destructive power to partially destroy a star, but might obliterate Gravi himself. Although he can regenerate if he waits for many long years, even Gravi doesn't know how long he will suffer for until he regenerates.
Gravity Manipulative Armor: A lightly built armor which also includes his eight red-wire tentacles which can act as cannons or manipulators. It's mostly for his defense and being lightweight to allow him speed.
Bio: Long ago, a colt by the name of Gravi was not a strong pony, he was flimsy, weak, and all he could do was use his brain to figure out things that not even the strong types could do. Then one day, an unnatural moment happened that the ground began to break apart, and the region began to rise from the planet as if being lifted. Gravi was stuck in one of those places that he discovered a vast army of strong beast heading in the direction of what was causing the whole thing. A strange magical sphere like a small planet was seen coming out of the planet and disrupting the area's gravity in an uncontrolled rate. Many animals & beast yelp from the power that made them too heavy to move or too light to float off uncontrollably. But Gravi stood over a piece of land, but it split while he was above the sphere, and soon it swallowed him whole, but then it disrupted to the point where it felt like it was stretching the pony's body & the electrons of his brain were working in a faster rate. Soon the sphere vanished to show Gravi, as he floated in the air by a strange new magical ability, used his new power that reshaped all the rubble back into the ground like a jigsaw puzzle. Once done, Gravi discovered what he could do, and even discovered a Cutie Mark that seem to tell him…he became a user to control gravity, like Princess Luna's power of the Moon's gravity, but different. He learn he came across what was a hidden element buried underneath the planet and became the Element User of Gravity. Over the years, he had mastered the power, and his body's new developed stretchy abilities to even be amazed in how much his mind developed that he can formulate plans so complicated, that his tactics were perfect for battles, plus having the ability to regenerate. He earn a nickname as Gravi 'The Gravity Earthbound Pony', because of his skills that said for himself in many areas. As he is a tactician who has the ability to freely manipulate gravity, & with that ability, he has the ingenuity to survey the entire situation & control the course of the battle at will. The beauty of his plots are even said to be "ingenuity, as if gushing forth", so he makes sport of the enemy army by weaving formulaic tactics together with creative schemes. Beast types account for the majority of his army (such as griffins, & etc.), which has overwhelming strength in terms of military power. But he did harbor a different emotion in how he performed his attitude & personality, that may have been some twist part when he gain the element.
Present Bio: But later on, he came across the Mane Six, there events took place in seeing Gravi's work was almost too much of enjoying it like a sport. Gravi instead thought up an interesting challenge to the Mane Six's group, if they can defeat him where no other has with something other then brains & brawn, like their strength of friendship, he'll consider it to change himself. Course the task was a big step, the Mane Six could see that Gravi was very power even near alicorn magic standards, and his use of gravity was very hard to handle (he could be on pair with Tso Lan the Moon Demon?). But from learning that Gravi had something called a 'Core' he keeps hidden that's like his heart, he'll always regenerate & be invincible. From almost being near defeat, the gang found where Gravi hid his core, but it can move according to his will. And soon a chase happens, but Gravi used such a ploy to trap the heroes and was about to end their game…until Spike managed to catch his core in his claws to squeeze it. That reaction caused Gravi to yelp in pain, as he tried to have his Core escape, but Spike held on tightly until his friends caught him; and at last, had a turn in the tide. Twilight asked Gravi a question, like why would he consider having such an ability, the answer was because his element grant him such, and he needed to be near immortal to use his tactics to win battles, but he never imagine that from one small dragon could change the tide & snatch his Core to now…his life is in his enemies possession. Twilight instead spoke that they won't finish him, as they let the Core go to say they won Gravi's challenge, and now….he must be better, and also…learn about compassion & trust with those that are your friends then just using them all for some strategy. Gravi was left shock at such boldness & determination, and that the strength shown was indeed strong, that he smiled in hearing Twilight's words to begin considering a change of himself. The Mane Six gang cheered in hearing this, and soon Gravi began to open up little by bit to be less high & mighty in believing to be superior, and accept that having those you can count on, is more then just assembling any army of strength to win battles; when it's the strength of friendship that makes things a difference in the end.
Well I certainly hope many of you that are Gravimon fans found this OC Pony inspiration of such a character to be unique, and interesting. And believe me, trying to make his appearance with what could be found or what to picture him as seem very tricky. But I've managed somehow, and that's what counts. So send in reviews in what you think of this guy, and who knows, updates may happen in the future. Till then, enjoy what is here.