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Steak. If, like me, you eat meat then you know the pleasure of a good steak. The quality of the steak is the measure of a restaurant's worth. I recently dined at Tito Puente's new restaurant on City Island. I was with a party of seven - most of whom chose seafood, which City Island is known for. The paella looked great with LARGE crab legs. The huge portion was split by three people. The aroma made me want the paella. Then my steak came. A N.Y. strip. Um. Later for the paella. I like well-done meat. This steak was tender and juicy. Go there. You'll have a nice time.
Okay lets get into the meat of the music. Modesto Cepeda, one of Puerto Rico's few flame-keepers of the bomba and plena tradition, has a new release aptly named Raices de Bomba Y Plena (TL-14370.10). Great dance material here.
In 1994 the Fania All Stars had a reunion concert that travelled from Puerto Rico to Miami to New York. There's now a CD of the PR show (TL-14331.10) that captures the intensity of these salsa legends. If you're tired of the current salsa offerings "La Mascara" will wake you up.
Echando Pa'Lante (TL-14249.10) is creme de la creme Eddie Palmieri with his stunning La Perfecta band. A sixties masterpiece.
There is a four volume Historia Musical Del Conjunto Classico that is superb. The chosen cuts are top notch. If you're not familiar with this no-nonsense straight-up salsa band, get this. Hear Tito Nieves at his best. With other Clasico vocalists such as Johnny Rivera, Rafael de Jesus and the legendary Daniel Santos who does a haunting "Lamento Borincano" on Volume 1.
I've always felt that maestro Willie Rosario has been overlooked by the music press. He's not the pop star type, but for decades this timbalero/bandleader has been churning out some of the best salsa from Puerto Rico. His brand new release, Sorpresas (TL-14302.10) is his best in years. What a band.
Since the founding of Descarga, one of the most oft-asked questions has been "Do you have Jerry Gonzalez's Ya Yo Me Cure?" The answer, until now, has always been "No." This 1979 classic (TL-14325.10) was briefly available on CD about five years ago. It's back. It's a gorgeous work.
What's new from Cuba, you ask? Opus 13's Reclama Por Tu Cuerpo (TL-14206.10) is very from-the-moment salsa. Ritmo Oriental fans will be happy to know that we have the new Tremenda Habana (TL-14209.10). Lastly, Manolin - El Medico De La Salsa should not be missed. His Una Aventura Loca (TL-14217.10) is a hit in Cuba. Hard to find.
Kip Hanrahan, my favorite I-don't-know-what-the-heck-he's-doin'-but-I-like-it artist has reissued All Roads Are Made of The Flesh (TL-14244.10). I don't usually go for concept work or stuff that's artsy, but Kip's work consistently generates authenticity and sincerity. And the participating musicians are top notch.
Carlos 'Patato' Valdés, Cuban percussionist José Luis 'Changuito' Quintana and timbalero Orestes Vilato got together and jammed in San Francisco. The result is Ritmo Y Candela (TL-14415.10). Put this jam session at the top of your list.
Latin jazzers have some new things to listen to here. The Afro Blue Band's Impressions (TL-14333.10) is the new release that features Arthur Barron, Steve Berrios, Jerry Gonzalez, Hilton Ruiz, Papo Vasquez and others. Big band arranger/conductor Chico O'Farrill is back with Pure Emotion (TL-14309.10) and an all-star cast including Manny Oquendo. Chico is a living legend and this is a gourmet release that is packed with talent. Fred Ramirez, vibist, offers his Tribute To The Legends of Latin Jazz (TL-14313.10) on this Dos Coronas release. Giovanni Hidalgo's long awaited Timeshifter (TL-14308.10) is finally out and features compositions by Bobby Paunet, Marty Sheller, Gil Lopez, Cole Porter, Armando Peraza, and Jerome Kern as well as Hidalgo. The Caribbean Jazz Project (TL-14214.10), is made up of Paquito D'Rivera, Andy Narell, Dave Samuels, Luis Conte on congas and others. It's out on the Head Ups label.
Reissues abound here at Descarga Central. On SAR we have piano master Alfredo Valdes Jr. y Su Orquesta (TL-14341.10) with two violins and flute-meister José Fajardo. Chocolate Armenteros is on board with his trumpet on this beautiful charanga release.
Hot Pastrana (TL-14337.10) was drummer Joey Pastrana's third album for Cotique. It dates from 1968 and has a Johnny Colón sensibility with some tunes in English.
Soy Boricua (TL-14346.10), Bobby Valentin's 1972 release for Fania is out on CD as is the Lebron Brother's 1973 Asunto De Familia (14339.10), which, some say, is their best record. Vocals by Pablo Lebron.
Ralfi Pagan's self-titled release (TL-14310.10) from 1974 epitomizes the Latin soul style that was popular in the 70s. Aqui Llegamos (TL-14258.10) is the 1974 release by one of my favorite salsa bands from that era, Orchestra Dicupe. Junior Gonzalez and Roberto Torres on coro. Produced by Larry Harlow.
Tierra Va A Temblar (TL-14347.10), the 1975 release by Johnny Colón who's known predominantly for his Boogaloo Blues recording, is out on CD. This is a strong son montuno salsa release produced by Colón and William Millan (of Saoco) who also contributed arrangements.
Alfredo De La Fé, one of my favorite violin players, has a new salsa release entitled La Salsa De Los Dioses (TL-14372.10). De La Fé, who played with the Fania All Stars, Charanga '76, El Gran Combo, Típica '73 and others, studied at the Amadeo Roldán de La Habana in the early '60s. His Orchestra Rytmo Africa Cubana is considered a classic. This new release is a fine salsa with great grooves. Recommended.
The Caney label has put out Cuban Rhythms by Peruchín and Charlie Palmieri (TL-14204.10). The Palmieri work is dated back from 1948 and features Sabú Martinez on congas. The Peruchín material was recorded in Havana, 1954.
Two new releases round up this issue's picks. They are both on the Nimbus label and feature music from Oriente de Cuba. The first, Familia Valera Miranda (TL-14215.10) features the son form, the other, Folkloyuma(TL-14216.10) features the rumba. They both have extensive liner notes.
In the meantime, make mine well-done.
Bruce, Resident Health Food Expert


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$util.date("MMMM d, yyyy",$topLevel.timeZone)
· 4 lb. white or Yukon Gold potatoes (about 10), peeled, cubed
· 6 garlic cloves, minced
· 1 cup low-fat sour cream
· 6-oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese
· 2 tsp. onion powder
· ½ tsp. salt
· 2-4 Tbsp. skim milk
· 2 green onions, sliced
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subset: commoncrawl


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Lansing native Edward McClelland, now a veteran Chicago journalist, knew President Obama in his early days.
"I knew him before he was 'fresh and elegant,'" he said.
The author's new book Young Mr. Obama tells the story of how America's first black president came to be. McClelland, an LCC and MSU alum, spent Saturday afternoon at the Everybody Reads bookstore talking about and signing his book. We talked with him about Obama's influence on the upcoming election.
"2008 was the romance and this is the marraige," he said. "And the marriage is never as exciting as the romance. Obama's never going to be as exciting as he was in 2008."
The president has spent the last few weeks campaigning on behalf of democrats at a time when republicans may regain control of congress.
"It's harder to for him to make himself the face of these other congressmen and senators he's trying to support," he said.
McClelland doesn't think there will be as many young voters this year simply because Obama's not on the ballot.
"I don't know if they make the connection between Obama and Mark Schauer," he said.
Lansing resident Gail Kleine says Michigan elections are rather predictable.
"You have four or eight years of one party and people say they ddin't do any good, we'll elect the other side," said Kleine, who is also McClelland's mother.
"I think it's just the natural instinct of the public to want to have divided government," McClelland said. "They don't want any party to get too powerful."
McClelland says a republican congress may actually work in Obama's favor come 2012.
"He'll have someone to run against, someone who has to share some of the responsibility," he said.
McClelland says he's working on another book, this one about the rise and fall of America's industrial heartland.


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Intelligent automation: A new era of innovation
Intelligent automation—the combination of artificial intelligence and automation— is already helping companies transcend conventional performance tradeoffs to achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency and quality. Applications range from the routine to the revolutionary: from collecting, analyzing, and making decisions about textual information to guiding autonomous vehicles and advanced robots.
Intelligent automation—the combination of artificial intelligence and automation—is starting to change the way business is done in nearly every sector of the economy. Intelligent automation systems sense and synthesize vast amounts of information and can automate entire processes or workflows, learning and adapting as they go. Applications range from the routine to the revolutionary: from collecting, analyzing, and making decisions about textual information to guiding autonomous vehicles and advanced robots. It is already helping companies transcend conventional performance tradeoffs to achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency and quality.
- References to artificial intelligence on wsj.com have quadrupled since 2010.1
- Since 2011, venture capital investment in ventures related to robotics and artificial intelligence has grown more than 70 percent per year, exceeding $600 million.2
- An exchange-traded fund that tracks the global robotics and automation sector was listed on NASDAQ.3
- Google acquired eight robotics start-ups in six months.4
- Littler Mendelson, a major employment and labor law firm, has formed a practice group focused on robotics and personal enhancement technologies.5
- Facebook acquired a speech recognition and machine translation company and is creating an artificial intelligence laboratory.6
- Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Volvo plan to introduce autonomous vehicles.
- IBM announced a $1 billion investment to commercialize its Watson cognitive computing technology.7
Automation powered by artificial intelligence is heralding a new era
Intelligent automation marries artificial intelligence—including natural language processing, machine learning, and machine vision—with automation. Artificial intelligence and automation are hardly new, but the technologies have progressed substantially in recent years. Advances in machine learning techniques, improvements in sensors, and ever-greater computing power have helped create a new generation of hardware and software robots with practical applications in nearly every industry sector. This progress has, in turn, excited the interest of venture investors, technology firms, and a growing number of clients that are implementing intelligent automation in both physical and information systems.
Some intelligent automation technologies, such as those powering a new generation of collaborative robots and Google's self-driving cars, analyze and respond to a stream of situational data from sensors. Others, like IBM's Watson, ingest and analyze massive amounts of textual information to respond quickly to complex inquiries, such as a request for a medical treatment plan.8 Intelligent automation is sometimes used to streamline business processes and make complex decisions faster. Commercial examples include a marketing system that presents offers to customers based on their profile and market basket analysis, a credit card processing system that identifies and blocks fraudulent transactions, and an e-discovery system that classifies documents according to their meaning and relevance to ongoing litigation.
The range of business problems to which intelligent automation can be applied is expanding as technologies for voice recognition, natural language processing, and machine learning improve and become usable by non-specialists. These technologies are increasingly available as open source or low-cost products or cloud-based services.
Investors clearly see potential in intelligent automation. Venture capital investment in ventures related to robotics and artificial intelligence has grown more than 70 percent in each of the last two years, exceeding $600 million since 2011.
The rapid development of intelligent automation is ushering in a new era of productivity and innovation. As intelligent automation applications set new standards of quality, efficiency, speed, and functionality, companies that successfully employ it may surpass competitors that do not. If companies take full advantage of intelligent automation, the overall impact on business could rival that of the enterprise resource planning wave of the 1990s.
Intelligent automation addresses societal and business challenges
A range of societal and business challenges are creating demand for intelligent automation.
Changing talent demographics create an opening for automated alternatives. Some sectors, such as manufacturing and agriculture, are facing a shortage of workers. In an aging workforce, fewer workers are able to perform physically demanding tasks.9 In some markets, the cost and scarcity of labor have risen to the point where investments in automation now make economic sense. This is the case even in parts of China, which built its manufacturing industry on the strength of its large, low-cost workforce.10
Increasing complexity necessitates cognitive "power tools." Data and information are being created at an accelerating rate, outstripping the ability of humans to keep up. For instance, one study found that the amount of medical information is doubling every five years.11 Just as power tools enable workers to keep up with increased production volumes, intelligent automation enables knowledge workers—from physicians to investment analysts to plant supervisors—to process, understand, and effectively use ballooning volumes of information.
Companies are seeking efficiency, growth, and differentiation. In an economy where growth has slowed and competition can be fierce, companies are applying intelligent automation to cut costs by improving efficiency, differentiate products and services with new features and experiences, and enter new markets to grow.
Companies in nearly every sector are investing in intelligent automation
Intelligent automation, though still rapidly developing, has matured to the point where it has penetrated nearly every sector of the economy. Some companies are using it to disrupt mature industries, such as household appliances (for instance, the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner or the Nest thermostat). Incumbents are investing in intelligent automation to breathe new life into mature product categories, such as tractors and automobiles. And businesses of all kinds are employing intelligent automation to increase efficiency, improve quality, reduce labor costs, and reassign workers from low- to higher-value tasks.
There are three primary forms of intelligent automation applications: deciders, doers, and movers.
Deciders are information systems that automate decision making
Intelligent automation systems that streamline decision making typically use tools for aggregating, extracting, and analyzing information—often, complex information such as human speech or unstructured text. The automated analysis and decision process can be embedded in a workflow that includes humans reviewing and approving machine decisions. Examples of decider applications can be found in multiple sectors:
Financial services: A large hedge fund automated its process of reviewing research notes for compliance and quality. While the sentiment expressed in the research note has to be consistent with the rating assigned to the stock, spot checks at the hedge fund revealed this was not always the case. Manually reviewing all 100,000 published research notes would have been prohibitively time consuming and impossible to do consistently. The hedge fund implemented a business process automation engine from Rage Frameworks to aggregate and extract the content from all of its research notes, applying computational linguistics technology to read and interpret it. The automated process discovered that in nearly half of the notes, the sentiment diverged from the analyst ratings, leading the company to review and redesign its processes and incentive structures. The intelligent automation system now provides an automated and efficient means of monitoring the quality of future research notes.12
Similarly, Credit Suisse uses a technology from Narrative Science to analyze millions of data points on thousands of companies and automatically write English research reports that assess company expectations, upside, and risk. The reports help analysts, bankers, and investors make long-term investment decisions. Credit Suisse says the technology is helping to triple the volume of reports it produces while improving their quality and consistency compared with analyst-written reports.13
Health care: WellPoint, which provides health insurance coverage to nearly 40 million Americans, has implemented a utilization management system powered by IBM's Watson cognitive computing technology. After nearly 15,000 hours of training by nurse clinicians, the system can understand physicians' unstructured English treatment recommendations and match them to WellPoint's medical policies and clinical guidelines to present consistent, evidence-based responses for clinical staff to review. The goal is to provide faster, better-informed decisions about patients' care and save significant clinician time and costs.14
Public sector: To accelerate detection of potential threats, a major city has deployed a network of cameras, sensors, and data feeds linked to an artificial-intelligence-powered system that can automatically flag images for a human analyst watching for threats. London deployed a citywide network of video cameras and employs intelligent technologies to automate the process of identifying crime suspects.
Technology: A high-tech manufacturer has automated the process of monitoring suppliers and customers for risks and opportunities, and for making decisions on customer credit. Its software extracts key metrics from counterparty financial statements and automatically generates credit models. Between quarterly financial filings, when credit-risk information can become outdated, the system ingests thousands of news sources and data feeds, applying sematic analysis to highlight potential risks associated with each supplier or customer. This provides the manufacturer with forward-looking credit-risk information. Human analysts monitor the credit ratings calculated by the system, approving them 95 percent of the time without change. The technology has made the credit function more efficient and responsive, enabling the business to use credit as a revenue-generating function by making it easier to identify clients who deserve attractive credit terms.15
Doers, such as collaborative robots, automate physical tasks
Traditional robots, such as those used in automotive manufacturing for over 30 years, perform one task repeatedly. A new generation of intelligent robots is able to perform a wider range of more sophisticated tasks and can collaborate with and even learn from human coworkers.
Retail and distribution: Kiva Systems developed a "mobile-robotic fulfillment system" to automate retail distribution centers for companies such as Crate & Barrel and Walgreens. Its robots travel around a distribution center, avoiding humans and each other, automatically transporting shelving units loaded with products to workers who are preparing customer orders for shipment. Crate & Barrel says the system has improved worker productivity by a factor of two, compared with its next-most automated facility.16 Amazon acquired Kiva Systems last year for nearly $800 million.
Automotive: Volkswagen has implemented "collaborative robots" in an engine production plant in Germany. They work alongside people, taking over a physically demanding step in the engine assembly process. Volkswagen's motivation for implementing the robot was to prevent "long-term burdens" on its employees by having machines take over tasks that are "ergonomically unfavorable."17
Movers use sensors and artificial intelligence to automate transportation
The capabilities of autonomous vehicles are progressing rapidly, with applications in multiple sectors that include defense, automotive, and mining.
Aerospace and defense: The US military is funding the development of numerous applications of intelligent automation to improve decision making as well as the safety and effectiveness of troops. For instance, Boston Dynamics—funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and recently acquired by Google—has developed a variety of autonomous, quadruped robots that can climb, navigate rough terrain, run nearly 30 miles per hour, carry heavy loads, and follow humans on command.18
Automotive: To position themselves for future growth, many automakers, including Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Volvo,19 are developing self-driving cars. BMW aims to have partly automated vehicles on the road by 2016.20 Google's autonomous driving technology has already powered driverless cars over hundreds of thousands of miles on public roads in California and Nevada.21
Energy and resources: International mining company Rio Tinto is using a fleet of autonomous hauling trucks developed with Komatsu to improve efficiency and worker safety in its Australian iron mines. Earlier this year, its fleet, which can move and navigate with limited human intervention, reached the milestone of moving 100 million tons of material.22 BHP Billiton, another major mining company, has also announced investments in mine automation.23
Adopters will face many questions
As the cost of intelligent automation declines and its capabilities grow, applications of the technology will proliferate. Savvy use of intelligent automation starts as a competitive advantage and will become, over time, table stakes. Companies will need to consider a range of issues in order to take full advantage of the possibilities of intelligent automation:
- Strategy: discovering how to use intelligent automation to improve operations, innovate, or grow
- Technology selection and integration: choosing and integrating appropriate artificial intelligence technologies
- Information management: acquiring and readying information assets for machine learning applications
- Human capital: developing talent strategies and staffing and training plans as intelligent automation changes the skills, job descriptions, and organizational models that companies need
- Risk management: assessing and mitigating a host of risks, from cyber threats and privacy breaches to product liability and even claims of discrimination, which could be leveled at poorly trained robotic recruiting agents.24
Some companies, like WellPoint in the example above, may need outside expertise in artificial intelligence and data science to extract greater value from the rich data assets they already control. For others, benefiting from intelligent automation may require identifying and securing rights to third-party data sources that could power a machine learning system. Such data might be available from commercial aggregators or from participants in a company's own value chain.
Advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation, supported by substantial capital investments, are fueling a new era of intelligent automation, which is likely to become an important driver of organizational performance in the years to come. It is important for companies in all sectors to understand and adopt intelligent automation, or risk falling behind.
EndnotesView all endnotes
- Based on a search of all media types on wsj.com from January 1 through December 30 for each of the last four years—31 references in 2010 to 128 in 2013.
- CB Insights, Deloitte analysis.
- Reuters, "ROBO-STOX launches first benchmark index tracking global robotics and automation sector," October 23, 2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/22/tx-robo-stox-launches-idUSnPnNYFckT+b9+PRN20131022.
- Jason Dorrier, "Google officially enters the robotics business with acquisition of seven startups," Singularity Hub, December 8, 2013, http://singularityhub.com/2013/12/08/google-officially-enters-the-robotics-business-with-acquisition-of-seven-startups/.
- Emmet Cole, "Major law firm debuts robotics practice group," Robotics Business Review, November 13, 2013, http://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/article/major_law_firm_debuts_robotics_practice_group.
- Marie Cabural, "Facebook Inc (FB) hiring staff for new artificial intelligence lab," OppTrends.com, December 10, 2013, http://www.opptrends.com/2013/12/facebook-inc-fb-hiring-staffs-for-new-artificial-intelligence-lab/.
- Quentin Hardy, "IBM is betting that Watson can earn its keep," New York Times, January 8, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/technology/ibm-is-betting-that-watson-can-earn-its-keep.html?_r=0.
- IBM, "IBM Watson hard at work: New breakthroughs transform quality care for patients," news release, February 8, 2013, http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/40335.wss.
- Thomas Meyer, "New generation of robots moving towards closer collaboration with people," L'Atelier, October 9, 2013, http://www.atelier.net/en/trends/articles/new-generation-robots-moving-towards-closer-collaboration-people_424473.
- Newley Purnell, "A Chinese province is trying to solve its labor problems with robots," Quartz, November 15, 2013, http://qz.com/147887/a-chinese-province-is-trying-to-solve-its-labor-problems-with-robots/.
- IBM Research, "IBM Watson healthcare collaboration with Cleveland Clinic," http://www.research.ibm.com/articles/watson_medical_school.shtml, accessed January 17, 2014.
- Rage Frameworks, Enabling the intelligent enterprise: Rage case studies, 2013.
- "Narrative Science," filmed September 10–11, 2013, FinovateFall 2013 video, 7:30, http://www.finovate.com/fall13vid/narrativescience.html, accessed January 17, 2014.
- IBM, "IBM Watson hard at work: New breakthroughs transform quality care for patients," news release, February 8, 2013, http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/40335.wss.
- Case study provided by Rage Frameworks in December 2013 for a client that cannot be publicly named.
- Kiva Systems, "Crate & Barrel EVP of Global Operations perspective," video, 5:29, http://www.kivasystems.com/resources/videos/featured-videos/crate-barrel-evp-of-global-operations-perspective, accessed January 17, 2014.
- Universal Robots, "First robot collaborates directly with employees in Volkswagen plant," August 29, 2013, http://www.universal-robots.com/GB/Universal_Robots/News.aspx?Action=1&NewsId=459&PID=14345.
- Matthew Humphries, "Boston Dynamics' BigDog robot learns how to throw concrete blocks," Geek, March 1, 2013, http://www.geek.com/news/boston-dynamics-big-dog-robot-learns-how-to-throw-concrete-blocks-1541431/; Boston Dynamics, "Changing your idea of what robots can do," http://www.bostondynamics.com/, accessed January 17, 2014.
- Volvo Car Group, "Volvo Car Group initiates world unique Swedish pilot project with self-driving cars on public roads," press release, December 2, 2013, https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/print/136182?print=1.
- Nick Jaynes, "BMW teams with Continental for fully autonomous cars by 2025," Digital Trends, February 28, 2013, http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/bmw-teams-with-continental-for-fully-autonomous-cars-by-2025/.
- Tom Simonite, "Data shows Google's robot cars are smoother, safer drivers than you or I," MIT Technology Review, October 25, 2013, http://www.technologyreview.com/news/520746/data-shows-googles-robot-cars-are-smoother-safer-drivers-than-you-or-i/.
- Rio Tinto, "Rio Tinto's autonomous trucks move 100 million tonnes," press release, April 23, 2013, http://www.riotinto.com/media/media-releases-237_8441.aspx.
- Peter Ker and Brian Robins, "BHP speeds up iron ore updating," Sydney Morning Herald, July 2, 2013, http://www.smh.com.au/business/bhp-speeds-up-iron-ore-updating-20130701-2p7gq.html.
- Garry Mathiason, "10 areas of employment and labor law," Robotics Business Review, November 13, 2013, http://www.littler.com/publication-press/press/10-areas-employment-and-labor-law.


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The Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Office (TTIPO) furthers the Institute's mission by fostering collaborations of NIAID scientists with partners in industry, academia, nonprofits, and other government agencies and facilitating the exchange of research materials and information. TTIPO staff members are experts in technology transfer and intellectual property and are NIAID's main resource for negotiating technology transfer agreements. TTIPO also oversees and manages NIAID's patent portfolio and licensing agreements.
To facilitate discovery and promote the commercialization of biomedical innovations for the betterment of public health.
TTIPO accomplishes its mission by doing the following:
NIAID Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Office5601 Fishers Lane, Suite 6DRockville, MD 20892-9804Phone: 301-496-2644Fax: 240-627-3117
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Last Updated April 19, 2016


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CORPORATE SPEAK: SR One Steady Amid Health-Care Slump
[This is one in a series of profiles that will examine the strategies of corporations plugged into the startup community, whether through investments, acquisitions or partnerships.]
Venture investment in health care cratered in 2012. While others cut back, SR One charged ahead.
The venture arm of GlaxoSmithKline formed in 1985 and has steadily invested $30 million to $50 million annually. Seeing strong prospects at a time when many conventional venture firms had to sit it out, SR One invested more than $50 million last year, making eight new deals and eight follow-on investments, said Jens Eckstein, its president.
U.S. medical companies raised $7.09 billion last year, the lowest total since 2003, according to VentureSource, which is owned by Dow Jones, publisher of Venture Capital Dispatch. The slide occurred as firms struggled to raise capital from a shrinking group of institutions willing to invest in venture funds.
SR One is an evergreen fund. As such, it doesn't depend on GSK or outside limited partners. It can bankroll companies for extended periods if needed, according to Eckstein. And since it's not restricted by a 10-year limited partnership, it's well-positioned to invest in new platform technologies and to wait for them to develop.
"The main mission of SR One is innovation, and we put the bar pretty high," Eckstein said. "We're looking for game-changers."
Last year, SR One backed RaNA Therapeutics, whose technology could lead to new types of medicines that increase the activity of genes that prevent or treat disease. Historically, drugs have usually quelled disease genes. Like any early-stage investor, SR One seeks syndicate partners that also take the long view. It funded RaNA with Atlas Venture and Monsanto.
Though known for biotechnology investing, SR One also considers medical devices and other technologies used to manage the entire patient. Portfolio company IlluminOss Medical, for example, develops minimally invasive means of stabilizing and treating bone fractures. This could complement drug treatments for osteoporosis.
Amid health-care reform and efforts to tie reimbursement to clinical outcomes, it's important to consider a patient's overall needs, not just the role of pharmaceuticals, according to Eckstein.
On an informal basis, SR One provides GSK with a view into the startup world, according to Eckstein. SR One can also facilitate confidential discussions between portfolio holdings and GSK, but in these cases the venture team has to step aside to avoid conflicts of interest, he said.
The thinning of the venture industry worries Eckstein. In addition to money, venture capitalists provide access to their networks, and people are just as important as cash, he said. The industry needs a large pool of investors and entrepreneurs who are willing to take risks and are eager to create something meaningful, he said.
"I'm concerned about the overall health of the venture world," Eckstein said. "I see we're losing good people, and that's a shame."
SR One plans to create some of its own investment opportunities. It has been exploring prospects in major medical markets over the past last year and expects to a launch some companies in-house, according to Eckstein. Product opportunities arising through the convergence of various technologies, such as electronics, materials and therapeutics, are one possibility that he finds intriguing, Eckstein said.
Write to Brian Gormley at email@example.com


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The Great Celebrity Eyebrow Swap
We set out to prove how important eyebrows really are -- by replacing the worst celebrity arches with the best in Hollywood
First, we sat down with eyebrow expert and owner of New York City's Boom Boom Brow Bar, Malynda Vigliotti, to choose the best arches in thick, medium, and thin shapes. Then, we took stars with just plain horrible brows and -- with a little Photoshop magic -- gave them a better set. The difference is remarkable. Even women who were beautiful to begin with look noticeably prettier with a new pair of face-framers.
Skip ahead to see the celebrity brow makeovers.
Disclaimer: Although our brow makeovers are an upgrade, some of them look a little wonky since they're not the celebrities' actual brows. "There isn't one exact template or stencil," says Vigliotti. "Everyone's face is so different -- you need to work with what you've got." While she'd love to get her tweezers on these stars, the visuals are also gratifying. "It demonstrates how important brow shape really is," she says. Check out these celebs' new brows and who knows, maybe you'll get inspired to do your own brow revamp too.
SEE NEXT PAGE: The best thick arch: Camilla Belle
Older comments
I disagreed with about half of the suggestions. Some of the middle celebrities looked the same either way. I've always thought Charlize has such class.
by Sonflower Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 06:09PM Report as inappropriate
by EricaF123 Saturday, December 29, 2012 at 06:53AM Report as inappropriate
No. Most of the women looked OLDER! ewww.
by JulesJules Friday, December 28, 2012 at 02:08AM Report as inappropriate
Most of the women looked worse after -- the only two exceptions were Kristen Stewart and Fergie. They looked so much better.
by VV001 Monday, May 28, 2012 at 07:28PM Report as inappropriate
I've always kind of wondered about this whole brow thing and after looking at this slideshow have concluded that it's all just a bunch of fluff. I didn't see a remarkable difference between the two, in fact, on several occasions, I thought they looked better before! Will keep my brows looking the same.
by kristen_holan Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 06:41AM Report as inappropriate
I am glad to see the prices of these serums. I received an eyelash one from Total Beauty and am not sure of the results. I have very thin eyelashes and short-perhaps not a lot either. Seeing what was said about Latisse, I guess it has to be used all the time. After reading this article, I am going to see if I can find more information about the brand. I have to say one thing is, I never wore mascara for a long time, and I seem to have less of a problem with my lashes. But, I don't have the money to purchase something that maybe will work. So, my final decision will wait till later
by evet Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 06:43AM Report as inappropriate
Ha! Those new eyebrows DID make Julia Roberts look like the devil, most of the "new and improved" eyebrows given to these women make them look awful!!
by mckae90 Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 12:53PM Report as inappropriate
The only women who look better with the "new" brows are Keira Knightley and Fergie. Jessica Alba and Megan Fox look especially bad with the eyebrows you gave them. You made Jessica Alba look hideous!
by jen1854 Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 12:28AM Report as inappropriate
These make overs are great. Eyebrows really do change the look of a person. They all look better.
by Toyvoo Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at 05:56PM Report as inappropriate
I'm going to have to disagree with his assessment of Julia Roberts. Curved brows make her look like the devil, she looks open and fresh with round brows. He's got a serious problem with round eyebrows. It's a natural look on some people, just because it isn't currently trending doesn't mean it looks bad.
by elph37 Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at 11:31AM Report as inappropriate
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text:
SAN JOSE -- The Sharks and Los Angeles Kings are having themselves a nice little fairly excellent hockey playoff series.
The referees, not so much.
If there is a common bond between the teams after three games, it's this: They both believe the officials' calls have been somewhat sort of conceivably questionable.
It's only natural. The Kings won Game 2 after the Sharks were whistled for two penalties that put them on a 5-on-3 penalty kill in the final minutes. The Sharks won Game 3 after two penalties forced L.A. to play short-handed in overtime.
After that Saturday defeat, Kings forward Dustin Penner smirked that the referee had the "gall to guess" on one of those penalties. When the game ended, L.A. goalie Jonathan Quick skated over and barked at officials to earn a misconduct penalty. Two days earlier, the Sharks had offered their own complaints about a delay-of-game penalty against Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
Of course, every fan in every sport -- basketball, baseball, football, soccer or whatever -- is certain that officials are making horrible and wrong calls against their favorite team. And sometimes, the referees do goof. But the old bromide is true: Iffy calls do tend to balance out, although often not as dramatically as in Game 2 and Game 3 of Sharks-Kings.
We're bound to see more of the same, moving ahead to Game 4 here Tuesday night. The Kings and Sharks appear equally matched. So it's possible that one referee's call, good or bad, could be a watershed moment. So whichever team finds the proper way to deal with a refereeing hiccup or two might win the series.
In that department, several Sharks could have a slight edge, if only because of their personal histories. For example, when defenseman Scott Hannan was a teenager in British Columbia, he earned a few extra bucks by refereeing or serving as a linesman in pee-wee and other youth hockey games. Did angry coaches and parents ever yell at him?
"All the time," Hannan said. "You just can't see everything out there. That's what I learned. If you get rattled by a call and can't concentrate on what happens next, that doesn't help your team."
Logan Couture, who scored Saturday's winning goal, tends to stay even keel by drawing on his family experience. His father was a longtime official in the National Lacrosse League. In Canada, lacrosse is a big deal. Arena crowds can get nasty.
"I saw how tough a job it is," Couture said. "When I was 12 or 13 years old, I'd sit in the crowd and watch my dad work and hear what people yelled. My mom would go with me and say, 'Keep your mouth shut and don't let on that you're related to him.' "
Those tender and warm episodes shaped Couture's calm attitude toward NHL officials. "You've got to respect them," Couture said. "Everybody makes mistakes. But they're the best in the world at what they do. And no matter what you say, you're not going to change their minds. You've got so much invested in the game that it's tough to stay calm sometimes. But you're going to have to."
Defenseman Dan Boyle has drawn a few add-on minor penalties over the years for voicing gripes too loudly after he's been whistled for violations. But he's found ways to deal. "As an alternate captain, I talk to the refs a lot," Boyle said. "Most of the time, I try to be calm. In the heat of the moment, it's hard. You can't make them change their minds. ... But maybe you can make them aware of something they missed and tell them to look out for it."
Occasionally, that works. Boyle once was assessed a four-minute penalty when a high stick hit an opponent in the chops, drawing blood. However, the stick wasn't Boyle's.
"I had lifted the guy's own stick and it came up and got him," Boyle said. "I told the referee, 'Just watch it on video. Watch it next time. You'll apologize to me.' Later in the season, the same thing happened and the same referee got it right and told me, 'I'm sorry, we did mess up.' "
In this series, don't expect the referees to offer apologies. But do expect the winning team to play through a few bad calls and still prevail. Among other reasons, that's how the winning team will become the winning team.


text:
There is no shame in staying comfortable.
Assos Chamois Cream will change your life. It eliminates the abrasive feeling of a sweaty chamois, but it does so without making you feel like you're slipping all over the chamois. You can bid farewell to friction between your body and your shorts, but your favorite shorts will still conform to you like a glove.
Bear one important fact in mind: This cream isn't just for Assos shorts, it's for any brand shorts with any type of chamois. Did you watch "The Lance Chronicles?" Did you see how Lance slathered the daylights out of his Nike bib shorts (made by Giordana, in case you were curious) with Assos cream? Quite an impressive endorsement.
A tip for Chamois Cream usage: Apply it to your skin, not to the chamois itself. It's not bad to put it on the chamois, but by applying it directly to your mortal coil it'll ensure that the cream reaches all of your personal nooks and crannies.
Assos tells you this on the label: The cream is specificially formulated for both real and synthetic chamois. It has 100% natural ingredients. It prolongs chamois life, prevents bacterial and fungal infections that cause saddle sores, and keeps you cool by reducing friction. Please Note: Assos has made a change to eliminate parabens and color additives in the formula. So rather than being the light blue Klinik, your favorite chamois cream is now... cream colored. Don't worry, everything you love about it has remained the same, and they didn't take out the tingle. 140ml jar.
- All natural ingredients
- Reduces friction between skin and chamois
Tech Specs
View more Embrocations and Creams
Reviews & Community
Love this stuff
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
Like many riders, I've tried many different brands of crème. After wandering through the crème forest I eventually settled back on the Assos stuff. Yes it is expensive, but in my estimation it is truly the best stuff. The thicker consistency is ideal in that it lasts on longer rides and stays where you put it. I ride in really hot summers and freezing winters due to a desert climate, and this stuff works in all seasons to keep my undercarriage fresh. I am worth the extra money darn it!
Could not live without it!
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
Chaffing is for suckers! Don't be caught out on a long ride without chamois cream. Nothing worse than the feeling of corduroy rubbing between your legs.
Assos is the king of chamois cream. Not overpowering in the tingly department, and lasts all day. If you haven't tried it, treat yourself.
Simply the best
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
Two things:
1) ALWAYS use chamois cream and every ride. Always.
2) Make sure it's Assos.
I've tried a bunch of them over the years, nothing else compares. Easy as that.
The Rolls-Royce of Chamois Cream
Let's be honest. Chamois Cream isn't that cool. You shouldn't have an Excel spreadsheet listing the merits, and ingredients of them all. Just find one that works and works well. I've tried quite a few chamois creams but none have stacked up to the feel, texture, smell, and longevity of Assos.
As regular to my morning as coffee
There are a few things that wake me up in the morning; my daily coffee, and the gentle tingle of chamois cream. Assos seems to do the best job!
In all seriousness, I have used everything under the sun, and will always stick to Assos or DZ Nuts depending on what I can get my hands on.
Assos differentiates by being very viscous, so it keeps lubricating for hours and hours, where most others are only effective for a an hour or two. This is reason I always reach for Assos first.
I've tried about everything.
Florida heat and 100% humidity often = swampy conditions. I've tried them all and this goes on easy (yes it tingles) and just works. Washes clean and holds up for hours. No issues down low.
Reduce the burn
If you've ever gone for a century ride, or even shorter rides on rough roads you know the burn I speak of. The Assos Chamois cream is the first and only chamois cream I have ever used and it works as advertised. I did not notice any slipping inside the chamois and had no burns. A tad gloppy, but you get used to it. If you ride long distance or often protect yourself! Rather expensive, but worth every cent.
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
Assos Chamois Creme is the best of all worlds...it is not too thick, not too thin and just the right amount of "medicated" feel. I have tried DZ Nuts and I really liked it but it is SO expensive. I also tried Mad Alchemy but it is very goopy (it feels like mayonaise or yogurt). Assos is almost as good as DZ without the HUGE price tag...even with that said, it is still a little pricy...but riding without chamois creme is NOT an option. Try it, you will like it and learn that you can't live without it.
John, uh...what do mayonaise and what do yogurt feel like on your nether bits? Have you tried riding with yogurt as butt butter, my friend? haha jk funny stuff
'Taint perfect, but it's close
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
Assos knows how to make gear. The cream applies easily, smells fresh, reduces friction, and does a great job regardless of how long the day in the saddle is. I'm a huge fan.
The only thing I'm not the biggest fan of, in contrast with some other reviewers, is the tingle. On a summer day it's not unwelcome, but there are times where I'd rather just slap it on and be able to forget it a little easier than I do. Interestingly, balancing it with some Nivea cream seems to do the job beautifully.
Assos Chamois Cream was the first Assos product I purchased, and was a gateway drug into all sorts of other Swiss concoctions — shorts, jerseys, socks, you name it. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
In all types of bibs, in the heat of the high desert - nothing beats it. Nothing!
This is the best and I have tried others in a bind, I now order in bulk. 100 degrees F at 5000+ feet of altitude, after a 50 mile day - no problems.
I know it is a bunch of chemicals, I make my own shaving oils, I tried numerous natural products - Assos chamois cream works better than any other product I have tried and or used. And I remember when chamois was leather.
I don't always use chamois cream...
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
?but when I do, I use Assos.
I would say on average my taint is more sensitive than most. So if I'm going out for a century or all day ride, I take extra precautions by putting some of this stuff to reduce the friction. I invest in shorts with a good chamois and find the Assos chamois cream makes the ride a bit more comfortable.
I've never had an allergic reaction, but after reading one of the other reviews I may pass on using chamois cream in the future do reduce the amount of chemicals put on my skin.
Stay Comfortable and Fresh
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
Pretty good product. There is a slight tingling that dissapates quickly after application. The protection is good and keeps me riding longer. Also it keeps your shorts smelling fresh. I use it less in Oslo Norway where it is cool than in Washington DC during the summer. I don't seem to need it as much.
Great Cream
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
Ive been using this product for a couple of years and love it. It feels great on the skin and stays in place for hours. I will continue to use this for years to come.
Good for summer and short rides
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
It's a lot of tingling. More medicine smell than natural herb smells. Thin and last 2-3 hours; that is why Lance used 1/2 tub on chamois. Not my century ride creme. I really like the rapha creme more than anything else but unfortunately CC doesn't carry it any more. I don't like in colder temps as it gives a rather moderate "cooling" effect. I also like the plain Jane Pace creme also(not the Europe version which has the same tingling/cooling effect as this creme.
Slight sensation
- Familiarity: I've used it several times
I usually apply this on my synthetic chamois after washing so that it remain soft . I have used it several time for my skin and like the slight sensation and cooling effect. It has work for me when I am doing long climb (> 2 hrs) and no side affect. It is rather expensive and too big for travel.
don't waste your money
- Familiarity: I've used it several times
talc powder toxic.
Pretty much the best you can buy
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
Assos has always been associated with top shelf quality and this chamois creme is no exception. Easily applied (big mouth container) to either the subject area or on the chamois itself, easily washed off/out of chamois, great "feel" on the bike (i.e., cooling). Depending on how much you apply, it'll last throughout a normal 3-4 hour ride. Great (essential) product for not a ton of "scrillas".
All natural? Not Really
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
Except for a synthetic biocide preservative: methylisothiazolinone. This is a strong allergen and causes contact sensitivity for about 10% of all Americans. This chemical was recently named as allergen of the year by the Contact Dermatitis Society and the Mayo Clinic recently advised people to avoid all consumer products that contain it. It made me very sick for several years until I was diagnosed and treated with cortical steroid injections and a topical steroid 1,000 times stronger than cortisone. I think that my skin will be abnormal for the rest of my life.
Have you every found a 'better' product that doesn't contain this chemical? We would all like to know, and thanks for the 'heads-up'...
The best
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
After using this, there will be no going back. It doesnt have a super strong smell nor an intense tingling sensation when applied to the nether regions.


text:
Knitter's Review
February 14, 2013
It's February 14th, and we all know what that means: Valentine's Day!
I wanted to bake you all a cake, but my oven wasn't quite big enough.
Instead, I wrote you a Valentine: 14 of my very favorite knitting things.
This Weekend in Tacoma
In the Forums: Machine Madness
Need help logging into the Forums?
As ever, I thank you for letting me be a part of your knitting life.
I'll talk to you again on February 28!
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Participate in our Knitter's Review Poll and you'll see an instant tally of all the votes.
On the Cover
My Valentine to you
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© Copyright 2000-2013 by Clara H. Parkes. All rights reserved.


text:
The Florence Presentation Case Master is beautifully crafted of red
fiber board laminated with leather-grain vinyl featuring deluxe
saddle-stitch padded handles. This attractive case is completed by a
smooth-running nylon zipper, a full-length inner pocket, a name card holder and
a sturdy multi-ring mechanism. Ten super-clear archival page protectors are
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Hello All, I came across this site "after" I signed up for my first 5K ever . I am 52yrs old 5'9 and 240lbs. I started a spin class @ my gym last March 278lbs then. Well at first I didn't know if I could make it thru the class, but now I go about 4 time's a week 1 hr each and can keep up with the instructor pedal for pedal. Somehow that accomplishment gave me the idea that I could run a 5K NOPE!! not even close. After a hundred yards I am hoping a car will come along so that I can throw myself under it. I am gasping for air and painful shin splints. I just went to a running shoe store and bought a pair of Brooks Ghost. I am hoping that they will help with the shin splints. I am going to start the c25k plan today with the goal of learning to enjoy running and getting below 200lbs, Doctor's order's. ( I wish I found this 2 months ago )
O yeah, did I mention that my 5k is Sunday.
Ok, I'm not an experienced runner nor am I a doctor. But I'll be glad to share my last 4 months as a new runner well over 200lbs. I started running in hopes to improve my hiking stamina and for some reason fell in love with the idea of becoming a runner.
August i weighted In at 260lb. Threw on some old sneakers and took off. Feet hurt, hips hurt, knees hurt. So I went to a running store and got a professional analysis. Now I have my very own pair of Brooks Ghost. Fast forward a few weeks and my chins are killing me. I began to look at every YouTube video on running, chin splints, form, etc. That's when i began to study barefoot running. I went out and bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers. I ran 1 mile and felt like I was floating on a cloud. NO pain in my hips, knees or chins. Wow, that was the answer. By this time I was at week 6 in my C25K. I also learned from this site to slow way down to let everything heal. So I started back on week one to give my chins a chance to heal. Made it all the way to week 8 and ran my first 5k race and turned a 29:31 chip time. And by the way I'm down to 242lb. I am still doctoring my chin splints with compression during and ice after I run. They are getting better, not worse. No other pain but sore muscles when I push my self. The barefoot shoes do work out your calves in the beginning. I gave away my Brooks, I'm a believer. If my work would permit, I would go barefooted to work.
I have seen those Vibrams and considered them and still might. Do you run on the road with them? Do they provide enough cushioning? I run on a combination of paved and dirt roads. I would love to have my leg pain go away It is the main thing holding me back.
If I'm off work I'm totally barefoot or wearing my VFFs. I mostly road run. I also have trail run as well. My first 5k I had to move off the shoulder a few times and it was packed gravel. It's amazing how its not as uncomfortable as you would think. It's actually more comfortable.
No there is no cushion. It's like wearing a foot glove with a thin piece of rubber under your sole.
Again, I'm no expert. I just spent a lot of time trying to figure out why I hurt and how to fix it. Lets face it we (on this thread) are 200 pounders and I do mean pounders. Running barefoot style keeps the stress off of the parts that should not have stress. As I have studied I have learned that our bodies came from the factory built to run as is. When we added cushioning we changed the biomechanics of how we are designed to run. That's where the problems start.
I know it seems foreign, but spend some time researching the subject with an open mind. It will be a revelation.
Followed a link here from Active and found it great and wanted to chime in. I'm a 47 year old, 6'2" 282 pounder that has been running for several years now in an effort to get healthier and try to get leaner - with limited success at both. I've competed in several 5k's after following a C25k app program and had my best finish at the Atlanta Kaiser Corporate 5k this past September @ 38:45, the followed that up the following Saturday at another local one with a 37 minute 5k. With two boys under 5, my motivation is to get healthier and live longer and better for them. I currently have High Blood Pressure and Diabetes which I was hoping could be eliminated with running, but am still struggling. I picked up running a few years back because it gives me a great way to reduce stress and unwind plus push myself. Walking turns to strolling and biking turns to coasting, but running is running. Thanks for the post and a place I can share with fellow 200+er's
Brian Smith
Loganville, Ga
Hi All,
I'm new to the web site and this group. I thought I would share my success story with those that might be struggling or questioning if it's worth it. A little bit about myself first. I've always been on the heavy / stocky side. I'm 48, when I got out of the Air Force 29 years ago I weighed 190 pounds on my 5'10" frame, smoked 2 packs a day and was never a guy that liked to work out and definately never wanted to run. Over the next 20+ years my weight bloomed to 270 pounds but at least I stopped smoking. I knew I wasn't the picture of health but didn't consider myself lazy and thought I ate pretty good but I ate for all the wrong reasons and ate too much because of it. Reality set in about 6 years ago when I had two stents put into my heart. The good news was I didn't have a heart attack but it was scary for sure. I have two beutiful daughters and the thought of not seeing them grow up was sobering. You would have thought that would have woken me up to getting healthy but it didn't. I ate better but still didn't move. Three years ago I went through a pretty nasty divorce after 22 years of marriage. My ex decided things were greener on the other side and decided to go find out for herself. My girls chose to live with me and we set up a new home and started living again. About the time the divorce was finalized I actually started dating a woman that was the picture of health. She ate right, exercised regularly and most importantly ran...like marathon ran. I had started going to the gym and using the eliptical trainier convincing myself that I was on the road to perfect health...that was wrong though because I still wasn't eating properly and the weight just wouldn't come off. One day I saw a picture of myself and my girlfriend...I have to admit I was emabarrased by what I saw. She was in such good shape and I was just a fat slug of a man, it wasn't pretty. I decided that it was time to change things up. I started paying attention to what I ate and exercised with a renewed interest. Most importantly I started running. I thought there would be two benefits to that. 1. It was something I could share with my girlfriend and 2. It would be good for me. Well about 6 months later we broke up but I kept running. I'm proud to say that two years later I'm still running (and loving it) and have lost over 70 pounds getting down to 200 pounds even while at the same time loosing 6 inches around my waist and generally feeling much better...I have more energy, more confidence and feeling good about myself for the first time in a long time. I set a goal this year of running 600 miles which I did. I ran numerous 5K races, a couple of 10Ks, two 10 mile races and most recently my first 1/2 marathon (2 hours 2 minutes 21 seconds). I never thought I would run a half and now can't wait to run another one to get under 2 hours. Added benefits to this is my cardiologist considers me an ideal cardiac patient. My coloesterol is down to healthy levels, my weight is good, blood pressure is great and most importantly my resting heart rate is a cool 44...not bad considering where I came from three years ago.
So keep it up...it takes a change in your mindset to do it but you can. I'm not a goal setter but it does help to have one. Embrace those days when you run and appreciate the fact that you can. You will be amazed at what the success can do for your self confidence, appearance and overall health and well being. Many people ask me what I did to shed the weight and I give them a real simple answer...Eat less and do more.
Good luck!
Hope all have been doing well - I flirted with the ever elusive 220 mark this weekend -- Flu helped! Now that I'm feeling better I did not manage to keep the near instantanious wieght loss...and am back around 225. One thing that helped was I used the sports drink tablets I use (nuun I think - lemon/lime) highly diluted (4x H2o to tablet ratio) to help keep hydrated. Made a big difference once I got thru the initial elimiation phase...
Just having the water bottle handy and taking one sip then another...good thing was flu passed quickly and I was back out waddling on monday -- very sedate pace 5.3k /43 min. still feel some minor side effects as system gets rebalanced. i really wanted to take pic of the scale when the needle was hovering by 220....
Have safe and happy holiday season Merry Christmas and Happy New year or other politically incorrect seasonal greeting of your choice!
races in 2013 - Always trying to keep moving
31 Dec 2012: Fairfax 4 miler: 49:34
10 Feb 2013 Run your heart 2013 35:30
Please check out this site: http://www.exceptionalcomfort.blogspot.com/
I will add that while I don't use the VFF -- I cannot get them to fit right in one size; I do use a minimal shoe as well. Little more padding than the VFF but more traditional in toe box. I made switch going on two years ago and love it. I'll wear my old running shoes now and they feel like my old flight boots (not that bad but noticeable). I cross train Karate and am pretty much bear foot (or sock) when at home. I have not had any running related issues since I switched -- I did jack up my knee in karate this spring and have greater empathy now when I hear that someone has sprained a knee. been 6+ month long road back to pain free walking let alone running etc. I've just started to push pace past fast walk (for me that is 12 min/miles) and hope to finish the year on a upward swing.
the right shoes make a difference especially for those of us on the upper end of the scale.
races in 2013 - Always trying to keep moving
31 Dec 2012: Fairfax 4 miler: 49:34
10 Feb 2013 Run your heart 2013 35:30
Please check out this site: http://www.exceptionalcomfort.blogspot.com/
Good for you.
I am a 180 lb female, so I feel I qualify.
This number should soon be changing, as I return to running after recovering from an injury and gaining lots of weight
Keep at it. I spent 2weeks on week one. Couldn't run 1:30 without stopping at 1st. Last Saturday I ran25 min. Nonstop and it was a huge rush. I have been doing c25k since late Sept. and I am just now on week 7, but I have not missed running my 3 days a week yet. Just repeat weeks you need to and advance when you feel ready. Down 23lbs, and feeling the best I have in years. Wish I had done this sooner.
I'm out for running for a bit. When I fell on 12/7, they discovered I fractured my wrist. My ortho said it took a lot of force to do it, so I told him I was running really fast. LOL
12/3/2012- Began C25K
12/7/2012-Fell and broke left wrist
2/17/2013- Back to C25K
3/2/2013 First 5K- Suncoast Classic finished in 48:59
4/6/2013- Seminole Stampede 49:17
5/25/2013- Color Me Rad- Tampa
Hello! Just thought I'd introduce myself. I'm fairly new to running (6 mo.) and not quite as new to working out in general (2 years in February). I started running just to bump up my cardio during the week, but I've participated in two 5ks now, and had no idea how much fun they can be! My goal is to run the whole thing some day, which for me is a substantial goal. I look forward to sharing info and encouragement with everyone here!
Determined to lose 100 pounds in a healthy way, thinking long-term. Run/walking 5ks as a part of the process. Follow my progress at The Little Blue Dress.
10/27/12 - Celia Hays Elem. Spooktacular 5k - Rockwall, TX - 49:49:93 - my first 5k!
12/1/12 - NFHS Jingle Bell Run 5k - Garland, TX - 45:23:00
2/6/13 - Dash for the Beads 5k - Dallas, TX - 44:34:00 - holy crap, the hills!
3/2/13 - Jones Elem. Jag Jog 5k - Rockwall, TX - 45:27:14 - this was not my day
4/6/13 - The Color Run 5k - Dallas, TX - just for fun
8/3/13 - Melon Dash 5k - McKinney, TX
11/9/13 - Urban Dare - Ft. Worth, TX
happy new years everyone:
I just missed my goal of 220 for the new year. I'm between 220 and 225 but have not had needle cross that 220 mark yet (except for the flu recently).
Just finished 6KM today in 46 min. one of the pluses was actually running/jogging for 3.5 km of the 6KM with one stretch were I got in a full mile - first time since last april when I sprained my knee. looking to switch shoes (mostly because I am curious) I currently wear the Nike free runs and have tried on couple different of the Merrill minimal shoes and liked the fit but never pulled the trigger. Anyone with any experience with the merrils? I cannot get good fit with VFF as when I have tried them I need two different sizes due to my missing part of toes on left foot due to frostbite in my teens.
races in 2013 - Always trying to keep moving
31 Dec 2012: Fairfax 4 miler: 49:34
10 Feb 2013 Run your heart 2013 35:30
Please check out this site: http://www.exceptionalcomfort.blogspot.com/
dude....i keep flirting with sub 200 - actually made it down to about 194 back in August 2012. i ran the MCM10K this year as well - 59:18. - first time i ran 10k since 1984. my body seems happy around 205-210, and as long as i can run, i'm happy. Glad to know there are 200lb runners out there. Will catch you at one of the races - sounds like ur local to NOVA - next race is the DC Rock 'n Roll half Marathon in March.
1 Jan 2013 =PR= New Year's Day 5k in Reston - 28:11
11 Nov 2012 Purcellville Turkey Trot - 28:25
10 Nov 2012 Nearly Naked Mile - 8:31
28 Nov 2012 Marine Corps Marathton 10k - 59:18
9 Jun 2012 =PR= Twilight Festival 4 miler - 41:27
26 May 2012 Round Hill 5k - 31:20
Checking in, I am still going, I did a New Years 10k and jumped in the ocean again, I also ran a training run this week which stretched into a half marathon. I am no where near my weight loss goals, but I keep on improving anyway. I am going to focus on weight loss in 2013 and finally reach a healthy body weight. I hope you are all doing great! I am also running the Hyannis Half marathon and hope to do a full in june!
My first post here http://community.active.com/thread/81129?start=8910&tstart=0
Age 40 Height 6'4'' Weight Start: 345 Current 230 Goal 199. First 30 pounds lost walking
Couch to 5k Start: August 4th 2011 Graduate: 10/06/2011
Using Endomondo!
10/1/2011 First 5k!!! Hearts and Hands for Hope 46:10 pace min/mi 14.58
9/21/2013 3.1 29.58 9:40 Frolic for Flippers 5k Fastest 5k
10/6/2013 13.1 2:31:03 11:32 Smuttynose Half Marathon Fastest Half Marathon
ACTIVE is the leader in online event registrations from 5k running races and marathons to softball leagues and local events. ACTIVE also makes it easy to learn and prepare for all the things you love to do with expert resources, training plans and fitness calculators.


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Julia Mancuso of Squaw Valley had her best race of the season Thursday, finishing seventh in a World Cup super G in Cortina, Italy, just ahead of the Sochi Games.
Mammoth's Stacey Cook added to the Americans' big day, taking ninth -- her best super G finish since 2007.
Austrian veteran Elisabeth Goergl got her second World Cup of the season. German Maria Hoefl-Riesch was second with Nicole Hosp of Austria third.
With star Lindsey Vonn sidelined because of a knee injury, the Californians are expected to lead the women's speed skiers in Sochi.
"Things are going in the right direction and I know I have a lot more in me," Mancuso said in a statement. "Training has been going really well and racing is getting better, so I'm getting there just in time for the Olympics."
Cook, who grew up in Truckee, credited equipment for her turnaround.
"It's the best stuff I've had on my feet in years," she said. "The plan was to trust everything, my skiing, my inspection, some adjustments from the coaches and then to just attack."
The U.S. alpine Olympic team will be announced Sunday.
Contact Elliott Almond at 408-920-5865 and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/elliottalmond.


text:
This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
June 22, 2011
Virginia Tech Wins EcoCAR Competition
On June 16, a team of students from Virginia Tech learned they were the overall winners of "EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge" after designing and building an extended-range electric vehicle using E85 (ethanol). Virginia Tech competed against 15 other universities in the three-year competition sponsored by DOE and General Motors. The competition helps train students to become the next generation of workers the United States needs to lead the global auto industry.
Virginia Tech's winning EcoCAR heads into Washington D.C., at the completion of the three-year competition.
The EcoCAR competition challenged participants to re-engineer a GM-donated vehicle to minimize the vehicle's fuel consumption and emissions, while maintaining its utility, safety, and performance. Throughout the competition, the Virginia Tech team hit incremental goals that helped the vehicle achieve the equivalent of nearly 82 miles per gallon, a 70% improvement in fuel efficiency over the stock vehicle. The Ohio State University was second, and the University of Waterloo took third place. See the DOE press release and the EcoCAR website.


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Tuesday, Nov. 22 • 5 p.m. CT
American Bank Center (8,100) • Corpus Christi, Texas
LIVE COVERAGE: Video | Stats
CORPUS CHRISTI – The Texas A&M - Corpus Christi women's basketball team will return home to host Iona College on Tuesday night at the American Bank Center. Tip-off is slated for 5 p.m. The Islanders dropped their first two home games, falling to Big 12 foe Missouri 75-58 at the Dugan Wellness Center and Colorado of the Pac-12, 71-58, at the American Bank Center. The team dropped their first road game on Sunday at Arkansas State, 84-71.
Tuesday's game will mark the first time the two teams have met. The game is part of a Turkey Tuesday two-fer doubleheader. The men's team will face Utah State at approximately 7:30 after the women's game.
Despite a career-day from senior Myeisha Myles and a 37-31 halftime lead, the Islanders dropped their first road game of the season Sunday against Arkansas State, 84-71. Myles had a career-high 24 points on 10-for-12 shooting and pulled down a season-high 10 rebounds. Joining Myles in double-digit scoring was sophomore Marquesha Anderson-Sparks with a season-high 12 buckets and junior Jessica Jammer tallied 11 points and grabbed down seven rebounds in her first start of the season.
The Islanders took the halftime lead for the first time this season on Sunday against Arkansas State. The Islanders shot 50 percent from three-point land and tallied 20 points in the paint behind 41 percent shooting in the first half. Trish Amboree and Marquesha Anderson-Sparks added two apiece. At the half, Myles led all scorers with 10 points and seven rebounds. Trish Amboree added nine points.
Iona is on a two-game winning streak and holds a 3-1 record, including a 2-1 record at home. The Gaels edged Stony Brook 52-48 on Friday at home and topped Bryant 55-63 on Tuesday in Smithfield, R.I. in their third game of the season. The Gaels opened the season in the Iona College Tip-Off Tournament with a win against North Carolina 85-69. Their only loss of the season came against Villanova in the Tip-Off Tournament, 76-47. On the season, Iona averages 62.5 points, shoots .427 from the floor (93-of-218), .281 percent (18-64) from three-point range and .687 (46-of-67) from the line. Individually the Gaels are led by Kristina Ford's 20.3 ppg average and 7.5 rebounds per game average.
In the Islanders' three games, five newcomers have contributed action. The newcomers have combined for 98 of the Islanders' 187 points. Sophomore Marquesha Anderson-Sparks leads the newcomers and is third on the team with a combined 27 points in 77 total minutes. Freshman Trish Amboree has added 25 points, while junior Verne'qua Taylor has chipped in 23 points. JC transfer Damequia Montgomery has been a force on the glass, adding 5.7 rebounds per game in 59 minutes of play. JC transfer Alisa Roberts has given the Islanders a spark off the bench, with 15 points and eight boards.
The Islanders led Arkansas State in the paint 42-34 and outscored the Red Wolves 21-12 on second chance points.
This season the Islanders have depth on their roster, something they have lacked in the past. In the Islanders first game against Missouri, the bench outscored Missouri's bench 14-9. The Islanders' bench was led by Jammer's six points, Roberts' five points and Huff's three free throws. Against Colorado, the bench added 26 points, led by Jammer's 22 points. Against Arkansas State, the Islanders outscored the Red Wolves' bench 12-7. The work of the bench will continue to help propel the Islanders' offense.
The Islanders had a season-high 12 assists against Arkansas State, including eight in the first half. Point guard Verne'qua Taylor and junior Alisa Roberts led the team with three assists each and sophomore Brandi Huff and junior Jessica Jammer each added two.
The Islanders were picked to finish last in the Southland West division after finishing last in the conference last season.
Texas A&M - Corpus Christi has a tough schedule this season, including their first few contests. The Islanders faced Missouri and Colorado at home and traveled to Jonesboro, Ark. for their first road game. They will participate in the Houston Baptist and Rice Tournaments next. The Islanders will then face Big Ten foe Indiana after Christmas. The Islanders host 12 games, including four which will be played at the Dugan Wellness Center.
The Islanders will travel to Houston to compete in the Houston Baptist Tournament on Friday, Nov. 25 against Texas Southern at 5 p.m. CT and Saturday, Nov. 26 against Houston Baptist at 5:30 p.m. CT.


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A Russian ship carrying 700 tons of gold ore has gone missing. The pirate's booty was on board a ship sailing from Neran to Feklistov Island in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Polymetal, the company who hired the vessel, would not estimate the value of the missing gold ore.
The vessel went missing shortly after sending out a distress call Sunday. The ship's nine-person crew is also missing.
Reports that the ship's captain simply absconded with the precious metal and sold it to Cash4Gold are unconfirmed.
[H/T Huffington Post // Image via Shutterstock]


text:
- Jul 5:
- BART service resumes; August strike threat remains
- BART to resume service, no deal reached with union
- Jul 4:
- BART strike ends; trains to begin running Friday afternoon
- Jul 3:
- BART strike talks stretch toward holiday
- BART strike hits Day 3 as overnight negotiations yield no deal; talks to resume this afternoon
- Negotiations ongoing, but BART strike likely to continue Wednesday
- Jul 2:
- BART strike talks resume as attention turns to Fourth of July travel
- Data Center: Current and projected average BART wages
- Director says his team must hold the line in BART negotiations
- BART strike: San Francisco garages raising rates over parking crunch
- With no BART, 4th of July plans shift
- BART strike: What can be done to get trains running?
- With BART on strike, A's encourage fans to carpool to games against Cubs
- BART strike: Labor talks set to resume after 36-hour break since shutdown
- Jul 1:
- BART strike leaves commuters weary, wiser for Day 2
- BART strike costing Bay Area economy more than $73 million a day
- Herhold: Time and geography will shape the BART strike
- BART strike a moneymaker for ride-sharing services and taxi apps
- Contra Costa Times editorial: Striking BART workers out of touch with financial reality.
- The Great BART Strike Race of 2013: A recap
- BART strike: Commute chaos rages on as strike begins with no end in sight
- Bart Strike Raw Video: What commuters have to say about transit strike
- Jerry Brown's office asks that BART talks continue
- Jun 30:
- Bay Area commuters scramble for alternatives on Day 1 of BART strike
- BART strike: With a day left, labor talks fail again Saturday but pay proposal doubled
- Roadshow: Getting ready for BART-ageddon
- Jun 29:
- BART's top-level employees' vacation bank tops 69 years of unused time off
- BART strike: Guide to getting around the Bay Area during shutdown
- Jun 28:
- BART riders worry strike could make travel miserable
With the transit system raising fares and facing serious financial obstacles, employees are collecting top salaries while receiving highly subsidized health care and contributing nothing to their pensions.
Sound familiar? Actually, we're not talking about BART this time. We're talking about AC Transit, where the labor contract with drivers, mechanics, janitors, clerks and purchasing agents also expired Sunday night.
The only thing saving the East Bay from a complete transportation meltdown is that the bus system drivers were still on the job Tuesday. But precarious negotiations could reach settlement or break down by Wednesday.
BART provides an average 400,000 trips a day, second highest in the Bay Area. AC Transit ranks third, at about 180,000 on a typical weekday, but on Monday, added buses to pick up some of the extra demand on the first day of the BART strike.
A shutdown of both systems would strand East Bay commuters. Which raises a key issue: Directors for the two transit agencies must make sure that they never end up with simultaneous contract expirations again.
It's bad enough that a strike by BART operators or AC Transit drivers can gridlock the region. But the possibility that the Amalgamated Transit Union, which has locals representing both sets of workers, could conduct concurrent strikes is unacceptable.
It puts management for both agencies at bargaining disadvantages, leaving them more vulnerable to threats of walkouts and facing greater political pressure to settle on terms unfavorable to riders and taxpayers.
While the two transit agencies operate different systems, their financial challenges and issues in their labor negotiations are similar.
BART must replace aging train cars and the control system, and faces billions of dollars of deferred maintenance. It also owes a $636 million debt for employees' pension and retiree health care benefits.
Meanwhile, salaries top transit agencies in the region and are among the highest in the nation. Employees also receive free pensions and family health care coverage for just $92 a month.
At AC Transit, fares have risen 20 percent in the past five years. Service has been trimmed. And the bus system faces a $293 million debt for its underfunded pension system, an amount equal to nearly 2½ years of base payroll.
Meanwhile, driver salaries rank in the top 10 percent in the nation while they also make no contributions to their pensions and, following the expiration of their contract Sunday, also pay nothing toward health insurance.
While much attention has focused on the fallout from the BART strike, the situation will be much worse if AC Transit negotiations fail, too. We don't think the public should ever be in such a precarious position again.


text:
Lehman Township private community Pocono Mountain Lake Estates has asked township supervisors for their help in securing a generator for its clubhouse to be used as an emergency shelter during weather disasters.
PMLE Treasurer MaryAnn Conza, who also works as the township secretary, explained in a letter that an emergency preparedness committee formed after Hurricane Sandy struck in late October has been "in communication with the American Red Cross, who is happy with our facility."
"The Red Cross is setting up training sessions for the committee," the letter said. "We would like to use our clubhouse as a shelter in case of an emergency for residents of the surrounding area."
Conza said the generator grant application falls under the jurisdiction of the community's board of directors but seeks the township's help in applying for a grant on the community's behalf.
The clubhouse does not have a generator, but having one would help it maintain power during extended blackouts that would make it a comfortable alternative on days that are extremely hot or cold.
About 100 township residents sought refuge after Hurricane Sandy at a temporary shelter set up by the Bushkill Volunteer Fire Company at its main facility at Evergreen Drive.
Conza said that the Red Cross looked at the clubhouse and spoke about it to members of the emergency committee, which reports to the board of directors.
"It can be an emergency shelter but the committee is going out and reaching out to community members to get information so that they would be able to help them during an emergency," Conza said.
Location, ST | website.com


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Friday, 25th February, 2011, 05:15 PM #1
A 1e title so awesome it's not in the book (Lvl 21)
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Running player commentary on PCat's 4E Campaign - Paragon Tier
Sagiro has been analyzing the play and mechanics of our first 52 runs over in the Heroic Tier thread, which can be found here. This is where we'll be ripping apart the Paragon Tier play for my Grey Guards campaign. Sagiro's doing the heavy lifting here, with my own expansions and commentary.
This is a how the game is working diary, not a story hour, although we'll be talking about all sorts of plot elements and character arcs.
-- o --
As of session #53, where we start the Paragon Tier at 11th level, there are six PCs in the party. The six PCs are:
- Gilran Amarth, Odassian elf (ie drow) chaos sorcerer (striker, played by Aravis). Paragon path: Arcane Wellspring
- Wolfram (aka Dr. Elijah Caldwell, who is in disguise), Human Two-Blade Ranger (striker, played by Blackjack). Paragon path: Traveler's Harlequin (designed to make him excel at skills)
- Logan, Human Pursuing Avenger (striker, played by Alomir). Paragon path: Zealous Assassin
- Cobalt Cartwright, Human Brawny Rogue (striker, played by Sagiro). Paragon path: Daggermaster.
- Strontium (aka Inquisitor Zacris), Warforged War Wizard (controller, played by KidCthulhu). Paragon path: Master of Flame.
- Bramble, Quith (ie wilden) Protective Shaman (Leader, played by Kodiak). Paragon path: Scarred Healer.
-- o --
What I did well and poorly while running heroic tier:
- We have ongoing adventure hooks for everyone's backstory except for Gilran, and that's started in game #53. Some of these came out later than ideal, but I think the pacing has been pretty good overall.
- The next tier's foundation is solidly in place. The adventures are unfolding smoothly, with multiple parallel plots that let the PCs pick and choose what they want to do at any given time.
- I have been a woeful slacker about world-building. I need to make maps and more maps, and write history. I have several no-players-allowed world-building threads in the General forum that are helping with this tremendously.
- I need to tweak the combat/roleplaying/skill challenge/puzzle balance a little away from combat and more towards the other things. I think the campaign plot/mystery balance is pretty good. This is also true for emphasizing more skill challenges, since Blackjack's character is specializing in those.
- The party has about the right amount of treasure for their level, perhaps a little low. I'll be doing a full analysis on their loot level before next game. I'll post the results in this thread.
- My magic items haven't been quite as flavorful overall as I would like. (I'm doing better with this in my other campaign, the Merchant Prince game.)
- I have come to the conclusion that alchemy sucks as written, which is a shame when two players were really interested in it. I'll be dramatically increasing the efficacy of alchemical attacks as a result. House rules, ho!
- We're pretty good, but there's more distraction at the table than I'd ideally like. I'm considering re-establishing the Pig as a result.
- Games are never long enough at 2.5-3 hours. We're all busy adults, and my players are fantastic with their attendance. We play every two weeks like clockwork. It works out fine.
- I couldn't run the game without the Compendium, at least not for magic items and monsters. It's a tremendous help for fast prep.
- As a result, running two campaigns simultaneously isn't a hardship or burden in the least.
- I would benefit vastly by tracking all the NPCs in the campaign and listing them on the sadly underused wiki. (See: lament about world-building, above.)
- Having copies of every character sheet up on the wiki is really, really useful.
-- o --
Character Development and History
One of the PCs has found out that he used to be a famous inquisitor, even though he doesn't remember it. In order to show Stron what his old self 'Inquisitor Zacris' was like, I've been handing the player scraps of history about twice a game. My thanks to everyone who has been helping with these.
Here's a sample
"It is said that in those days the Inquisitor Zacris was traveling in the company of Prince Aedric and Princess Solona when the Entathan countryside revolted. The Inquisitor and the Imperial Royalty led a Legion to crush the revolt and quickly broke the peasant mob, leaving the leaders of the revolt dead upon the field and the rabble in chains. The Legion's commander asked what should be done with the prisoners. Prince Aedric, always forgiving, said 'Let their right hands be struck off, that no more may they raise weapons against the Empire.' Princess Solona, though not yet as brutal as she would later be remembered for, said 'The penalty for treason is death. Let them all be slain.'
Inquisitor Zacris obeyed the suggestions of both Imperials. And thus did it come to pass that Inquisitor Zacris ordered the Legion to strike off the right hand of each rebel. When each rebel was chained with his own severed hand before him, the Inquisitor cast a great ritual. For 3 days and 3 nights the Inquisitor chanted without cease or pause. And then every severed hand returned to a semblance of life. And over the next month, the hands tortured their former owners, until finally the field contained nothing but horribly twisted corpses. Then Zacris spoke: 'It is mete and proper that the rebels die by their own hands, for they brought their fate upon themselves through their disloyalty. As they raised their hands against the Empress, so did they perish.'
The twisted and magical hands that still creep about the roads, fields, and villages of Entath stand as mute testimony to the consequences of rebellion. Long Live the Emperor!"
-- o --
In the early days of our great Empire during the golden era of expansion, a khannate of gnollish raiders from a nearby savannah had taking to raiding Capria's newest frontier, an agricultural province which had willingly joined our great union to seek safety against their foes. Lacking effective natural defenses against the gnolls, it was hoped that the Empire's army could prevent the assaults, perhaps by adding fortifications. Their diplomat was unaccountably rude to his Most Gracious and Celestial Paragon during the signing of the treaties.
Inquisitor Zacris was sent to put an end to the gnollish blight on the newly acquired province. Arriving in the dry season, Zacris utilized the portals in his walking tower to summon the 31st Phoenix Brigade, the Emperor's Elite Fire Sorcerers.
In a night known as Zacris' Pyre, he used a ritual to set a raging wildfire across not only the savannah, but through the newly acquired province and its pathetically offensive populace.
The province was thereafter renamed Grainburn, and loyal settlers from all over Capria flocked to it under a cheap land grant program to take advantage of its rich black soil. To this day, Grainburn Province is the breadbasket of the Eastern Extents, and its people build only with expensive imported stone.
-- o --
First paragon tier game:
At the end of heroic tier, the Emperor of Capria apparently died, and his intrinsic divinity did not appear to pass on to any heir (although by all accounts he had dozens of them.) When he died, any building whose architecture was sustained through the divine might of the Emperor began to crumble. The PCs stood in the recently acquired tower of the ancient Inquisitor Zacris, a warforged inquisitor who turns out to also be a PC, and watched sections of the millenia-old Heart of Civilization burn around them.
Game summary, as emailed out to my players:
- You stood and watched the city burn around you. The military slowly took to the streets to control fires and panicking mobs. Within a day, they changed to combatants in the multi-sided civil war that begin to form. At least five factions are currently claiming control of Capria.
- A debate about whether you should go out and help ensued, with Wolfram and Ratty insisting on non-involvement, and Gilran and Logan championing going out to help (especially since there were probably thousands of loose demons and elemental spirits.) A compromise was reached when Stron sent his Final Messenger to the local Grey Guard headquarters asking what they should do.
- People busied themselves while they waited by reading in the library, studying in the lab or playing in the treasury. Gilran explored the tower by himself. He found a magic mouth left by the Inquisitor's final servants indicating that they had gathered loose valuables and left them guarded in the jail cells. Gilran found out the hard way that the guards were three large constructed wolves.
- Turns out that Stron can turn the stairs into a slide. Traveling to the basement was fast and hilarious. Ratty's better nature won out and he tried to steal a dagger from the treasury. He arrived in the basement with the entire top layer of skin removed from his body, no dagger, and blinding amounts of pain (vulnerable 5).
- After destroying the somewhat decrepit wolves, the treasure chest was found. The lock was pickable only with four ridiculously hard DC 30 arcana and thievery checks, one per day; failure would destroy everything inside the chest. [Dorian's +1d6 bonus was used for this. My normal rule is that absent characters can neither help nor harm, but this was a meta- mechanic that could be passed to anyone in the group; I would have allowed it even if it hadn't meant the difference between success and failure.]
- Rituals were learned. Research was done. Meanwhile, outside, fires burned and additional buildings that had been build with the emperor's divine power began to crumble.
- A sending arrived from the tower where they said to stay out or get out of the city. With the growing battles for control of Capria, the tower is afraid that Zacris will be kidnapped and used as a pawn.
- Ratty departed and Malachai arrived a druid (and his bear) whose job is replacing Grimble Thimbletick.
- Gilran had a tense conversation with the drunken bodyguard of the man he killed before entering the guard. The conversation was private, but Gilran was given a token that made him easier to scry. Perversely, Gilran is keeping it since it links him to his past.
- A long debate about the best way to get Malachai to Grimble ensued. Your humble DM might have gently raised his voice to suggest you not over-think it.
- The box was opened; instead of a teleportation, two bound and very reluctant efreeti manifested inside the tower. They summoned a chariot made of flames and drew you across the continent to the swamp where Grimble lives. The city of Capria looked worse than expected from the air, and you could see at least three battles occurring across the city.
- Grimble came with you when you teleported to the sub-basement of the Floodford tower, where there was an old and almost unreadable teleport circle underneath the junk that had been cleaned out.
- A young, ten year old boy confronted you as you came upstairs, and he's trying not to cry with relief. Apparently all the other Guard Members but one have gone off to war, summoned by a Grey Guard commander for a common cause. The one adult Guard Member left here went out to confront monsters and hasn't come back. It's all right during the day, you see, but not at night.
The monsters in Floodford? Dog gobblers.
The commander who invoked the old accords and summoned the Guard as an army to destroy a foe he couldn't defeat alone? Captain Reymus.
Analysis of the game:
The one fight down in the tower's basement was an easy one, three level 9 brutes (Anaxim Hounds, beefed up a little) against the group. Cobalt's and Bramble's players weren't there due to a family vacation, and we had a guest player playing a sneak thief named Ratty. The group really missed the plentiful healing!
PC damage output has ramped up, though. There's a big jump in efficaciousness between 10th and 11th level. That's fun to see.
You know that "takes four days to unlock" locked chest? My thinking was that they'd take it with them, since I hadn't prepped all my treasure and it was a cheap way to delay the discovery of the loot until next game. Of course, they stayed in the tower for a whole week while they slowly picked the locks. That'll teach me.
In many ways this was a building game. The group is now out of Capria and they know the city is torn by civil war after something went horribly wrong. They know that Strontium used to be Inquisitor Zacris, a cross between Napoleon and Alexander the Great if those men had been intensely loyal to an emperor, and other people know this as well. Someone from Gilran's past knows he's alive. Bramble managed to not get assassinated. Wolfram is seeming moody (well, moodier than normal.) And while several plot threads have been closed, it looks like two old ones - dog-gobblers and Captain Reymus, an old enemy of Logan - have shown up again.
Last edited by Piratecat; Wednesday, 2nd March, 2011 at 03:08 PM.- Piratecat, EN World Admin. Now writing TimeWatch, an investigative time travel game.
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Friday, 25th February, 2011, 07:38 PM #2
Gallant (Lvl 3)
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I'm looking forward to this :-)
D&D, frankly, is the most fun when you get your ass handed to you but you still manage to find away to come out on top of the pile of corpses, looking like a typical Conan novel cover. - joachim
Friday, 25th February, 2011, 08:39 PM #3
Scout (Lvl 6)
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I'm so proud! Our little Gray Guardsmen are growing up!
Friday, 25th February, 2011, 09:19 PM #4
Minor Trickster (Lvl 4)
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Saturday, 26th February, 2011, 04:39 AM #5
A 1e title so awesome it's not in the book (Lvl 21)
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I just did an analysis of where the group is for treasure. At the start of 11th level, each member of the group should have about 32,000 GP in gear and coin. That's 192,000 GP for the whole group. Not counting the value for rituals, and not counting an unknown amount in the Party Treasure fund (a portion of each haul is put aside for common expenses), current loot breaks down like this:
Gilran: 24,588 GP
Wolfram: 47,635 GP
Logan: 26,725 GP
Cobalt: 31,869 GP
Strontium: 16,528 GP
Bramble: 32,306 GP
That's 179,651 GP, about one 10th lvl item short of ideal. This doesn't include Strontium's new tower, which the group can use as a headquarters. Add in the 34K GP that's worth in treasure and they're a bit over. It also doesn't include two "charged" items that can permanently turn a +1 item into a +3 item. Those are worth quite a bit.
There's some inequity between players which I'll want to address. I just think Strontium is hard to shop for.
Saturday, 26th February, 2011, 04:51 AM #6
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Saturday, 26th February, 2011, 04:40 PM #7
A 1e title so awesome it's not in the book (Lvl 21)
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This may be of some interest. Up early this morning, I charted out the various major plot points in the heroic tier. I'm sure I've missed a few, and that some of the connecting lines need tweaking, but this is a good fast view of what the PCs have done and learned over the past 10 levels. It's useful for seeing how plot threads overlap, interconnect and slide in and out.
This is safe for my group to look at; there's no secret info on it.
Saturday, 26th February, 2011, 04:54 PM #8
Gallant (Lvl 3)
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It'll be interesting to see how the game play and your campaign develop in the Paragon tier. Looking forward to it.
Twitter tag: @skyfullofdust
Saturday, 26th February, 2011, 05:27 PM #9
Orcus on an Off-Day (Lvl 22)
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@Piratecat, have you felt the need to adjust your DM'ing style to have the Pursuing Avenger's Oath of Enmity target run away more often than normal?
@Alomir, are you happy with the pursuing aspect? My Avenger is Unity, so he causes extra damage when at least one ally is adjacent to his OoE target. I am curious how Pursuit works in play.
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Saturday, 26th February, 2011, 05:37 PM #10
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Definitely looking forward to it. Glad to see you made a new thread since I got to the game late on the heroic thread and need a lot of time to start wading through it.