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Bright lights outshine Trans-Siberian Orchestra in ho-hum show
Taking on Christmas staples with a blend of symphonic bombast and progressive rock drama, Trans-Siberian Orchestra brought a much needed edge to the pleasant, ho-hum holiday music landscape beginning in 1996 , and in the process TSO has become one of the highest-grossing touring acts in North America.
But right before the start of the first of two TSO shows at the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Sunday, there was a curious sound, or really a lack of a sound. Following some meek applause when the lights went dark, the crowd strangely grew quiet, to the point that the only noise was the awkward, quiet hiss of fog machines. »Read Full Article(14)
Five singers declared winners in local Met Opera auditions
Five singers were selected by judges to advance to the next round at Saturday's Wisconsin District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Countertenor Kangmin Justin Kim, mezzo-soprano Corrie Stallings, soprano Caitlin Ruby Miller, tenor Ian D. Koziar and tenor Joe Shadday will compete at the Upper Midwest Regional in St. Paul, Minn. The five vocalists also won $2,000 each. »Read Full Article
'Belle of Amherst' best when profiling Dickinson's poetry
Walt Whitman may have rightly claimed that his poetry contains multitudes, but Emily Dickinson can stake an equally valid claim to being America's greatest poet.
She is also the hardest one to know. Harold Bloom once wrote that no poet "seems so separate from us as Dickinson," adding that "we have no accurate approaches to her." »Read Full Article


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One of this year's least likely best-sellers is The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid's slender, smart, and subversive second novel. The narrator, Changez, is a Pakistani who went to Princeton, took a top job in finance, fell in love with a troubled young American woman — then watched his warm feelings for his adopted homeland cool after 9/11. In a Lahore cafe, he tells his story to an unnamed American who may or may not be a spy, just as Changez may or may not be a terrorist. EW book critic Jennifer Reese recently talked by phone with the 35-year-old author, who lives in London.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How startled have you been by the success of The Reluctant Fundamentalist?
MOHSIN HAMID: It has been something of a surprise, as I was a bit nervous about how it would be received in the States in particular. Part of it is good timing. A novel like mine published a few years ago would have had a much more difficult time. Now, I think, there's a hunger to hear these kinds of stories.
Did you encounter much hostility from American readers, given that your novel's hero smiles as he watches the Twin Towers collapse?
Every so often there was someone at a reading who would take a starting position that was quite hard. But once you began to talk to people they softened quite quickly. I wouldn't call them confrontations, but some people were angry or upset and wanted an explanation and the explanation I tried to give them was, please don't mistake the views of the narrator for the views of the author. I wrote from a position of great affection for America, and I think that saying these things to an American audience is helpful to America. A lot of people get that. I don't want to be a Michael Moore-style artist, which is not to disparage Michael Moore. But he seems rather unsuccessful at winning people over who don't already agree with him.
You must get asked this a lot: Changez smiled when the Towers fell — what was your personal response?
I felt frightened. I was 30 when 9/11 happened and I had lived exactly 15 years of life in America, so I was half American. I was a full-fledged New Yorker. My ex-roommate worked in the World Financial Center, and my first thought was: What happened to him? I hoped people I cared about weren't dead, and then I thought: My whole world is about to change. I had this gut feeling it would be some kind of Muslim terrorist group, and after that who knew what would happen? My mother was in Pakistan and when she witnessed it she started crying hysterically. She used to visit me for a month every year and she'd fallen in love with New York. I had to console her.
What's the significance of "Changez," your protagonist's name?
Many America reviewers said it meant "changes." But it's the Urdu name for Genghis, the Mongol conqueror who attacked the Muslim world. And with this name Changez can't really be a religious fundamentalist.
Do you think the title of this novel is a little misleading, given that the main character isn't a religious fundamentalist?
First, all Muslims are suspect to a certain extent. We're all fundamentalists until we prove otherwise, until we order that beer, or our girlfriend shows up in a miniskirt. I think we've all felt it. Second, even though he's not particularly religious, Changez begins to act in ways we think of as fundamentalist. Reluctantly, he starts following a fundamentalist path, though he's a secular guy — a good yuppie. He's becoming a Muslim nationalist, and that's a term we don't hear.
NEXT PAGE: "People are confused as to their identity and try to cling to one aspect of that identity to describe what they are: American, Republican, Muslim. These are really incomplete."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
- Report: #972033
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Complaint Review: Wal-Mart
Wal-MartJacksonville, Florida United States of America
Wal-Mart Wal-Mart Family Mobile is lying to customers about coverage of their cellular service tp get them to buy!!! Jacksonville, Florida
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This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 11/20/2012 11:12 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Wal-Mart/Jacksonville-Florida-32218/Wal-Mart-Wal-Mart-Family-Mobile-is-lying-to-customers-about-coverage-of-their-cellular-ser-972033. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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Founders of "The Jake" honored
Alumni recognized on the heels of the 25th anniversary of the Jake Milford Canucks Charity Invitational Golf Tournament
Wednesday, 09.24.2008 / 10:23 AM PT / Features
By Derek Jory
Most fans watched in awe as their favorite players danced across the ice during warm-up, but those lucky enough to be seated close to the Visions Lounge saw something extra special.
Prior to the game 20 of the founding members of the Jake Milford Canucks Charity Invitational Golf Tournament were honored for their years of hard work and dedication. A who's who of Canucks alumni gathered to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the annual golf tournament and they were honored with commemorative Vancouver Canucks leather jackets.
There weren't too many faces missing from the old hockey fraternity, everyone from original directors Norm Jewison and John Whitman to committee members Dave Cannon and Bernie Pascal were in attendance as the original founders came together to reflect on 25 years of success and to commemorate their dear friend Jake Milford.
A member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Milford was the fourth general manager in Canucks history, he guided the team from 1977-78 to 1981-82 and led them to a Stanley Cup finals appearance in his final year on the job. He was promoted to Senior Vice-President following that season, a position he held until his tragic passing in late 1984.
Milford left a lasting impression with everyone he met and it was in his honor that "The Jake" began. For the past 25 years the golf tournament has brought together Canucks alumni, players, coaches, management, longtime supporters, sponsors and donors and on the Silver Jubilee celebration of the first round of golf, which took place on September 14, 1983, original chairman Norm Jewison couldn't be prouder.
Today the event, which takes place on September 25 at the Northview Golf Club in Surrey, is one of the premiere golf tournaments around. It not only gives both past and present players the chance to connect, but it also raises money for the Canadian Cancer Society's Camp Goodtimes.
The Jake has raised over $800,000 since it first teed off, much of that money is given back to the community through grants and scholarships and into Camp Goodtimes, but is also helps keeps the Canucks alumni association up and running.
"The funds that have been raised have really been the lifeblood of our Canuck alumni, which is what we would like to call the best in the National Hockey League. There are 100 card carrying members of the Canucks alumni here in Vancouver, one of the largest in the National Hockey League and the Milford tournament keeps those people going in a lot of ways through their fundraising efforts."
Jim Brown, one of the original director of the committee, chummed with old friends during Tuesday's event, but he also took time to reflect on who wasn't there in his dear old friend Jake Milford.
"I knew Jake quite well, he was a true and dear friend," said Brown. "Unfortunately he passed away shortly after we got the tournament going, but he was around for the first banquet.
A slideshow of pictures ran on the TVs throughout the get-together, everyone took a moment to reflect on all the good times they've had since the tournament first kicked off, but while Brown couldn't peg down one treasured moment from The Jake in particular, Jewison's excitement level went through the roof when he was questioned on his favorite memory.
"My favorite memory is the year that we won it," said Jewison, beaming with pride. "Back in 1987 I was with an old Canuck named Barry Peterson who came here from Boston, and we won it that year and I don't think I've ever been close since. It really is a true golf tournament and it really is special to win this tournament and get your name on the plaque, the prizes are secondary to the bragging rights. That was by far my favorite year."
It was a classy gesture to recognize the outstanding individuals who have been involved with The Jake since the beginning, one that the alumni will remember for quite some time.
The only thing left to do now is prepare for Thursday's tournament, both Brown and Jewison said they've been hitting the links and they feel good going in.
Jewison isn't sure who he'll be golfing with, but Brown is with Canucks new Assistant General Manager and VP of Hockey Operations Laurence Gilman, who Brown said "better bring his best game with him."
You can take the player away from hockey, but clearly you can't take the competitive hockey spirit out of the player.


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- Report: #768327
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Complaint Review: DOBA
DOBAInternet United States of America
DOBA Refuses to to give me my money even though they had a money back guarantee Internet
*Consumer Suggestion: Dont let too much time go by with this company
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This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 08/22/2011 01:26 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/DOBA/internet/DOBA-Refuses-to-to-give-me-my-money-even-though-they-had-a-money-back-guarantee-Internet-768327. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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#1 Consumer Suggestion
Dont let too much time go by with this company
AUTHOR: MaritalVictim - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Thursday, September 08, 2011POSTED: Thursday, September 08, 2011
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- Report: #310545
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Complaint Review: Privacy Matters, Credit Diagnosis
Privacy Matters, Credit Diagnosisprivacymatters.com & creditdiagnosis.com Nationwide U.S.A.
Privacy Matters, Credit Diagnosis both privacy matters and credit diagnosis charged my credit card without my knowledge, or authorization. Internet
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No one answers the phone after ten (10) minutes of being on hold.
I never heard of these 'companies' nor did I seek them out for any service.
Easton, Pennsylvania
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 02/20/2008 02:47 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Privacy-Matters-Credit-Diagnosis/nationwide/Privacy-Matters-Credit-Diagnosis-both-privacy-matters-and-credit-diagnosis-charged-my-cre-310545. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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Lillie Mae Ryan - March 31, 2010
To Lara Ryan of Gothenburg on Wednesday, March 24, 2010, at Gothenburg Memorial Hospital, a daughter, Lillie Mae Ryan, weighing eight pounds, 8.6 ounces.
Maternal grandparents are Keith Ryan, and Eric and Laine Millsap, all of Gothenburg.
Great-grandparents include Harvey and Betty Wing, and Doug and Cathy Millsap, all of Gothenburg.
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I'm using wordpress to manage content on my website. (If you want to take a look to see what I'm talking about here's the url: Blind Eye Games)
The home page is posts from the News category. I'd like to have two other pages on my site with different categories (Development and Media). The tricky part is that I'd also like for one of the pages to have wordpress page content on top and the category posts below.
I know that I can do this by making php pages and writing custom loops but is there anyway of doing while remaining the standard wordpress template structure?
Thanks a lot,


text:
The Girl Who Played With Fire
by Stieg Larsson
Gender Quotes in The Girl Who Played With Fire
How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
Salander: "I don't suppose my sisters will get a role in the family business." (31.84)
Zalachenko looked startled at the suggestion. (31.85)
This brief exchange highlight's Zala's view that women are only valuable as objects to be beaten, or used for sex. He can't even imagine a woman as having the brains and/or the brawn to do business.


text:
Evolve Cracks Steam's Top 20 After Going Free To Play
It's the year 2016, and people are actually playing Evolve. What a world.
It's the year 2016, and people are actually playing Evolve. What a world.
Evolve, the 4v1 multiplayer game that launched last year to tepid responses, is now free-to-play on PC. It's also getting some major gameplay changes and an entirely new progression system.
Nick De Spain is a concept artist at Turtle Rock, the developers of games like Evolve and the original Left 4 Dead.
Lately I've been playing a lot of Rainbow Six Siege. It's really good, but I'm not feeling very optimistic about its long-term prospects.
It's a tale of two season passes. 2K Games announced a second season pass for Evolve—five new characters, one new monster—while io Interactive told Videogamer its new Hitman will not have a season pass at all, as the game's extra content is free.
On today's Highlight Reel we have flying zombies in Dying Light, flying cats in GTA V, nude Trevor and much more!
Today on Highlight Reel we have Battlefield: Hardline couches, indestructible NPCs, juvenile bugs in H1Z1, heist teamwork in GTA V and more!
On today's Highlight Reel we have baby tanks, magic rockets in Battlefield, confused monsters, crushing monster trucks in GTA V and more!
I've been playing a lot of Evolve over the last week and the questions I hear are all the same: Are you tired of this game yet? Is it really repetitive? The answer to each is, simply, no and yes, respectively.
When you start playing Evolve, you'll probably suck. Even as you get better, you'll still run into players who also suck. It can be frustrating. So, let's skip the learning through trial by (sometimes literal) fire, and get ahead of the curve.
In Evolve, each of the four player classes is supposed to play a specific role in hunting down big, brutal monsters, with the various hunter types playing specific roles to help the team win. So when a glitch lets two support characters spawn and create a five-man team instead of the usual four-man squad, it's a…
Some Evolve players' progress is being wiped when they attempt to try to access their game's data from a second console, myself included. It's not clear why yet, but you should probably avoid playing between consoles if you value your time.
It's time for another graphical throw-down, this time featuring the latest big monster hunting game, Evolve.
If you're planning on grabbing Evolve when it launches tomorrow, you'll pretty much be getting a multiplayer experience similar in concept to Left 4 Dead where you can take on one of three monsters as one of 12 hunters (or vice versa). But it's a bit more complicated than that.
Evolve can be simplified in many ways, and you've probably heard them all before. It's a first-person shooter. It's like Left 4 Dead, four players banding together, but you're up against a Tank—played by a fifth player—each round. It's one big boss battle, over and over. But the details that go into the new game,…
Above: Excerpt from a press release sent out today by 2K Games, the publisher of the upcoming shooter Evolve.
After an annoying delay, the much-hyped multiplayer shooter Evolve is nearly upon us. Which leads to a more immediate question for all us PC gamers: will we be able to run the thing? Well, the game's developer released its official specs today. And while they're sorta steep, they're certainly not insurmountable.
Pre-ordering video games is, in general, a Very Bad Idea, as we've learned from the likes of SimCity, Battlefield 4, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Assassin's Creed Unity, Aliens: Colonial Marines, and many many more. So these days, video game publishers have to get a little more creative when it comes to getting…
Evolve is finally starting to feel like a full-sized game, with a new multi-stage campaign called Evacuation, three new modes, a third monster and another four hunters.
Evolve's open beta will be running between January 15-19 on the Xbox One, accessible to Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Two monsters, the Goliath and the Kraken, and eight hunters will be available to play across 12 maps. There will also be smaller, invite-only closed tests on the PC and PS4 around that time.


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10 May 2013, 6.58 pm GMT
London, 10 May (Argus) — The majors are putting their capital-intensive upstream investment plans under increased scrutiny as falling oil prices and rising costs constrain their free cash flow.
BP and Chevron are reviewing their 130,000 b/d Mad Dog phase 2 project in the US Gulf of Mexico after market conditions and cost inflation made the original development plan less attractive. "This decision is in keeping with our commitment to shareholders to maintain capital discipline and ensure we only develop projects which meet suitably competitive benchmarks," BP chief executive Bob Dudley says. "Restructuring that project and looking at it differently is absolutely the right thing to do."
Cost pressures have forced Shell and BP to scrap plans to build onshore processing facilities for the 12mn t/yr Browse LNG project in Australia. "We are now looking at the potential for a floating solution for what is actually a great resource," Shell chief financial officer Simon Henry says. "There is a great potential development there. We just have to find an engineering technical solution that will make it economic."
Disappointing drilling results have prompted Shell and ExxonMobil to reassess development plans for the 35,000 b/d of oil equivalent Fram field in the UK North Sea just a few months after making a final investment decision on the project. Shell says the field remains commercially attractive but a stand-alone development may no longer be viable.
Total is pulling out of the 200,000 b/d Voyageur oil sands upgrading plant in Alberta. Rising tight light crude output from the US has challenged the project economics of Canadian upgrading plants. Total's decision to sell its 49pc stake in the Voyageur oil sands joint venture took $1.65bn out of its first-quarter profit, but it could reduce the firm's capital expenditure (capex) by more than $5bn over the next five years. Total's organic capex budget is 17pc higher this year than in 2012 at $28bn. But "our capex programme is not going to keep this pace forever", chief financial officer Patrick de la Chevardiere says.
Project reviews and cancellations could help the majors stay within their stated capex budgets (see table). But with spending forecast to reach record levels this year and combined operating cash flow for the group down by 23pc on the year at just under $40bn in the first quarter, they may need to consider other measures to rein in their outgoings while satisfying shareholders' demand for rising dividends.
Share buy-backs — currently undertaken by ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell — are the most flexible element of cash allocation that can be trimmed if cash flow tightens. ExxonMobil expects to reduce the amount it spends buying back its own shares by $1bn to $4bn this quarter, the lowest level since the third quarter of 2010.
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Chapter 11. Motor Control and Plasticity
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Boer Deng Palaeontologist Stephen Gatesy wants to bring extinct creatures to life — virtually speaking. When he pores over the fossilized skeletons of dinosaurs and other long-dead beasts, he tries to imagine how they walked, ran or flew, and how those movements evolved into the gaits of their modern descendents. "I'm a very visual guy," he says. But fossils are lifeless and static, and can only tell Gatesy so much. So instead, he relies on XROMM, a software package that he developed with his colleagues at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. XROMM (X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology) borrows from the technology of motion capture, in which multiple cameras film a moving object from different angles, and markers on the object are rendered into 3D by a computer program. The difference is that XROMM uses not cameras, but X-ray machines that make videos of bones and joints moving inside live creatures such as pigs, ducks and fish. Understanding how the movements relate to the animals' bone structure can help palaeontologists to determine what movements would have been possible for fossilized creatures. "It's a completely different approach" to studying evolution, says Gatesy. XROMM, released to the public in 2008 as an open-source package, is one of a number of software tools that are expanding what researchers know about how animals and humans walk, crawl and, in some cases, fly (see 'Movement from inside and out'). That has given the centuries-old science of animal motion relevance to a wide range of fields, from studying biodiversity to designing leg braces, prostheses and other assistive medical devices."We're in an intense period of using camera-based and computer-based approaches to expand the questions we can ask about motion," says Michael Dickinson, a neuroscientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. © 2015 Nature Publishing Group
Keyword: Movement Disorders
Link ID: 21370 - Posted: 09.01.2015
By Diana Kwon Each year doctors diagnose approximately 60,000 Americans with Parkinson's disease, an incurable neurodegenerative condition for which the number-one risk factor is age. Worldwide an estimated seven to 10 million people currently live with the malady. As U.S. and global populations grow older, it is becoming increasingly urgent to understand its causes. So far, researchers know that Parkinson's involves cell death in a few restricted areas of the brain including the substantia nigra (SNc), one of two big cell clusters in the midbrain that house a large population of dopamine neurons. These cells release dopamine and are involved in a variety of functions including reward processing and voluntary movement. Their death leads to the motor control and balance issues that are core symptoms of the disease. New research shows that these brain cells, most at risk in Parkinson's disease, require unusually high amounts of energy to carry out their tasks because of their highly branched structures. Like a massive car with an overheating engine, these neurons are susceptible to burnout and early death. This discovery emerged from a comparison of energy use in nigral dopamine neurons and in similar neurons found in the nearby ventral tegmental area (VTA), also in the midbrain. "We were trying to understand why dopamine neurons of the substantia nigra die in Parkinson's disease patients while there are so many other brain cells that have no problem at all," says Louis-Eric Trudeau, a neuroscientist at the University of Montreal and senior author of the study published in the August 27 Current Biology. © 2015 Scientific American,
Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 21353 - Posted: 08.28.2015
By Emily Underwood It is famous for robbing Lou Gehrig of his life and Stephen Hawking of his mobility and voice, but just how amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) destroys motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord remains a mystery. Now, scientists are converging on an explanation, at least for a fraction of the ALS cases caused by a specific mutation. In cells with the mutation, the new work shows, pores in the membrane separating the nucleus and cytoplasm become clogged, preventing vital molecules from passing through and creating a fatal cellular traffic jam. For now, the work applies only to the mutation dubbed C9orf72—a DNA stutter in which a short nucleotide sequence, GGGGCC, is repeated hundreds to thousands of times in a gene on chromosome 9. Nor do the multiple labs reporting results this week agree on exactly what plugs those nuclear pores and how the cells die. Still, the work is "a major breakthrough" in ALS research, says Amelie Gubitz, program director of the neurodegeneration division at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders in Bethesda, Maryland. The groups worked independently, starting with different hypotheses and experimental designs, yet reached similar conclusions, making the finding more convincing. And it suggests that boosting traffic through nuclear pores could be a new strategy for treating some cases of ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), another neurodegenerative condition C9orf72 can cause. Based on past work by their own and other groups, neuroscientists Jeff Rothstein and Tom Lloyd at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, suspected that the long strands of excess RNA produced by C9orf72 cause neurodegeneration by binding to, and thus sequestering, key cellular proteins. The team tested the idea in fruit flies with the mutation, which display damage in the nerve cells of their eyes and in motor neurons. © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Keyword: Alzheimers; ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 21349 - Posted: 08.27.2015
A healthy motor neuron needs to transport its damaged components from the nerve-muscle connection all the way back to the cell body in the spinal cord. If it cannot, the defective components pile up and the cell becomes sick and dies. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) have learned how a mutation in the gene for superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), which causes ALS, leads cells to accumulate damaged materials. The study, published in the journal Neuron, suggests a potential target for treating this familial form of ALS. More than 12,000 Americans have ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and roughly 5-10 percent of them inherited a genetic mutation from a parent. These cases of familial ALS are often caused by mutations in the gene that codes for SOD1, an important enzyme located in the neuron's mitochondria, the cell's energy-producing structures. This mutation causes the death of motor neurons that control the patient's muscles, resulting in progressive paralysis. "About 90 percent of the energy in the brain is generated by mitochondria," said Zu-Hang Sheng, Ph.D., an NINDS scientist and the study's senior author. "If the mitochondria aren't healthy, they produce energy less efficiently; they can also release harmful chemicals called reactive oxygen species that cause cell death. As a consequence, mitochondrial damage can cause neurodegeneration." In healthy neurons, storage containers called late endosomes collect damaged mitochondria and various destructive chemicals. A motor protein called dynein then transports the endosomes to structures called lysosomes, which use the chemicals to break down the endosomes. Dr. Sheng's team discovered that this crucial process is faulty in nerve cells with SOD1 mutations because mutant SOD1 interferes with a critical molecule called snapin that hooks the endosome to the dynein motor protein.
Keyword: ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 21294 - Posted: 08.13.2015
Sarah Schwartz In 2011, science journalist Jon Palfreman saw a doctor about a tremor in his left hand. The doctor diagnosed Palfreman, then 60, with Parkinson's disease. The disorder, which is newly diagnosed in 60,000 Americans each year, promised a crippling future of tremors, loss of mobility, dementia and more. Palfreman decided to use his reporting expertise to investigate how Parkinson's disease affects the body and learn about efforts to find a cure. With Brain Storms, Palfreman follows Parkinson's history from the careful observations of 19th century physicians to today's cutting-edge research. Palfreman relates complex research studies as gripping medical mysteries. He describes how scientists connected Parkinson's with the dramatic loss of the brain chemical dopamine and with tenacious protein knots called Lewy bodies that are a hallmark of the disease. Palfreman also explores treatments past and present, including the widely used drug levodopa that restores motion (sometimes uncontrollably), gene therapies, brain surgeries and promising experimental antibody treatments that attack and dissolve misfolded Parkinson's-related proteins. Ultimately, Brain Storms is about more than Parkinson's disease; it's about the people living with the disorder. Palfreman describes patients who must teach themselves to walk without falling over or who freeze in place. He writes about a researcher driven to search for a cure after the disease affects his own father. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2015
Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 21284 - Posted: 08.12.2015
By David Noonan Leaping through the air with ease and spinning in place like tops, ballet dancers are visions of the human body in action at its most spectacular and controlled. Their brains, too, appear to be special, able to evade the dizziness that normally would result from rapid pirouettes. When compared with ordinary people's brains, researchers found in a study published early this year, parts of dancers' brains involved in the perception of spinning seem less sensitive, which may help them resist vertigo. For millions of other people, it is their whole world, not themselves, that suddenly starts to whirl. Even the simplest task, like walking across the room, may become impossible when vertigo strikes, and the condition can last for months or years. Thirty-five percent of adults older than 39 in the U.S.—69 million people—experience vertigo at one time or another, often because of damage to parts of the inner ear that sense the body's position or to the nerve that transmits that information to the brain. Whereas drugs and physical therapy can help many, tens of thousands of people do not benefit from existing treatments. "Our patients with severe loss of balance have been told over and over again that there's nothing we can do for you," says Charles Della Santina, an otolaryngologist who studies inner ear disorders and directs the Johns Hopkins Vestibular NeuroEngineering Laboratory. Steve Bach's nightmare started in November 2013. The construction manager was at home in Parsippany, N.J. "All of a sudden the room was whipping around like a 78 record," says Bach, now age 57. He was curled up on the living room floor in a fetal position when his daughter found him and called 911. He spent the next five days in the hospital. © 2015 Scientific American
Keyword: Movement Disorders
Link ID: 21248 - Posted: 08.01.2015
Five men with complete motor paralysis were able to voluntarily generate step-like movements thanks to a new strategy that non-invasively delivers electrical stimulation to their spinal cords, according to a new study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. The strategy, called transcutaneous stimulation, delivers electrical current to the spinal cord by way of electrodes strategically placed on the skin of the lower back. This expands to nine the number of completely paralyzed individuals who have achieved voluntary movement while receiving spinal stimulation, though this is the first time the stimulation was delivered non-invasively. Previously it was delivered via an electrical stimulation device surgically implanted on the spinal cord. In the study, the men's movements occurred while their legs were suspended in braces that hung from the ceiling, allowing them to move freely without resistance from gravity. Movement in this environment is not comparable to walking; nevertheless, the results signal significant progress towards the eventual goal of developing a therapy for a wide range of individuals with spinal cord injury. "These encouraging results provide continued evidence that spinal cord injury may no longer mean a life-long sentence of paralysis and support the need for more research," said Roderic Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D., director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at NIH. "The potential to offer a life-changing therapy to patients without requiring surgery would be a major advance; it could greatly expand the number of individuals who might benefit from spinal stimulation. It's a wonderful example of the power that comes from combining advances in basic biological research with technological innovation."
Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 21242 - Posted: 08.01.2015
By Smitha Mundasad Health reporter A type of diabetes drug may offer a glimmer of hope in the fight against Parkinson's disease, research in the journal Plos Medicine suggests. Scientists found people taking glitazone pills were less likely to develop Parkinson's than patients on other diabetes drugs. But they caution the drugs can have serious side-effects and should not be given to healthy people. Instead, they suggest the findings should prompt further research. 'Unintended benefits' There are an estimated 127,000 people in the UK with Parkinson's disease, which can lead to tremor, slow movement and stiff muscles. And charities say with no drugs yet proven to treat the condition, much more work is needed in this area. The latest study focuses solely on people with diabetes who did not have Parkinson's disease at the beginning of the project. Researchers scoured UK electronic health records to compare 44,597 people prescribed glitazone pills with 120,373 people using other anti-diabetic treatment. They matched participants to ensure their age and stage of diabetes treatment were similar. Scientists found fewer people developed Parkinson's in the glitazone group - but the drug did not have a long-lasting benefit. Any potential protection disappeared once patients switched to another type of pill. Dr Ian Douglas, lead researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "We often hear about negative side-effects associated with medications, but sometimes there can also be unintended beneficial effects. "Our findings provide unique evidence that we hope will drive further investigation into potential drug treatments for Parkinson's disease." © 2015 BBC
Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 21199 - Posted: 07.22.2015
Results from tests of the drug, announced this week, show that it breaks up plaques in mice affected with Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease, and improves the memories and cognitive abilities of the animals. Other promising results in rats and monkeys mean that the drug developers, NeuroPhage Pharmaceuticals, are poised to apply for permission to start testing it in people, with trials starting perhaps as early as next year. The drug is the first that seems to target and destroy the multiple types of plaque implicated in human brain disease. Plaques are clumps of misfolded proteins that gradually accumulate into sticky, brain-clogging gunk that kills neurons and robs people of their memories and other mental faculties. Different kinds of misfolded proteins are implicated in different brain diseases, and some can be seen within the same condition (see "Proteins gone rogue", below). One thing they share, however, is a structural kink known as a canonical amyloid fold, and it is this on which the new drug acts (Journal of Molecular Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2014.04.015). Animal tests show that the drug reduces levels of amyloid beta plaques and tau protein deposits implicated in Alzheimer's disease, and the alpha-synuclein protein deposits thought to play a role in Parkinson's disease. Tests on lab-made samples show that the drug also targets misfolded transthyretin, clumps of which can clog up the heart and kidney, and prion aggregates, the cause of CJD, another neurodegenerative condition. Because correctly folded proteins do not have the distinct "kink", the drug has no effect on them. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
Keyword: Alzheimers; Prions
Link ID: 21190 - Posted: 07.20.2015
Carl Zimmer A single neuron can't do much on its own, but link billions of them together into a network and you've got a brain. But why stop there? In recent years, scientists have wondered what brains could do if they were linked together into even bigger networks. Miguel A. Nicolelis, director of the Center for Neuroengineering at Duke University, and his colleagues have now made the idea a bit more tangible by linking together animal brains with electrodes. In a pair of studies published on Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers report that rats and monkeys can coordinate their brains to carry out such tasks as moving a simulated arm or recognizing simple patterns. In many of the trials, the networked animals performed better than individuals. "At least some times, more brains are better than one," said Karen S. Rommelfanger, director of the Neuroethics Program at the Center for Ethics at Emory University, who was not involved in the study. Brain-networking research might someday allow people to join together in useful ways, Dr. Rommelfanger noted. Police officers might be able to make collective decisions on search-and-rescue missions. Surgeons might collectively operate on a single patient. But she also warned that brain networks could create a host of exotic ethical quandaries involving privacy and legal responsibility. If a brain network were to commit a crime, for example, who exactly would be guilty? © 2015 The New York Times Company
Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 21160 - Posted: 07.11.2015
Skinny jeans can seriously damage muscles and nerves, doctors have said. A 35-year-old woman had to be cut out of a pair after her calves ballooned in size, the medics said in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. She had spent hours squatting to empty cupboards for a house move in Australia. By evening, her feet were numb and she found it hard to walk. Doctors believe the woman developed a condition called compartment syndrome, made worse by her skinny jeans. Compartment syndrome is a painful and potentially serious condition caused by bleeding or swelling within an enclosed bundle of muscles - in this case, the calves. The condition caused the woman to trip and fall and, unable to get up, she then spent several hours lying on the ground. On examination at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, her lower legs were severely swollen. Although her feet were warm and had enough blood supplying them, her muscles were weak and she had lost some feeling. As the pressure had built in her lower legs, her muscles and nerves became damaged. She was put on an intravenous drip and after four days was able to walk unaided. Other medics have reported a number of cases where patients have developed tingly, numb thighs from wearing the figure-hugging low-cut denim trousers - although the chance of it happening is still slim for most people. Priya Dasoju, professional adviser at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, said: "As with many of these warnings, the very unfortunate case highlighted is an extreme one. © 2015 BBC
Keyword: Movement Disorders
Link ID: 21084 - Posted: 06.23.2015
by Laura Sanders The motor homunculus is a funny-looking fellow with a hulking thumb, delicate toes and a tongue that wags below his head. His body parts and proportions stem from decades-old experiments that mapped brain areas to the body parts they control. Now, a new study suggests that the motor homunculus' neck was in the wrong place. Hyder Jinnah of Emory University in Atlanta and colleagues used fMRI to scan the brains of volunteers as they activated their head-turning neck muscles. (Pads held participants' heads still, so the muscles fired but heads didn't move.) This head turn was accompanied by activity in part of the brain that controls movement. The exact spot seems to be between the brain areas that control the shoulder and the trunk — not between the areas responsible for moving the thumb and the top of the head as earlier motor homunculi had suggested, the team reports in the June 17 Journal of Neuroscience. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2015.
Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 21060 - Posted: 06.17.2015
by Penny Sarchet Simon Sponberg of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and his team have figured out the secret to the moths' night vision by testing them with robotic artificial flowers (see above). By varying the speed of a fake flower's horizontal motion and changing brightness levels, the team tested moths' abilities under different conditions. It has been theorised that the moth brain slows down, allowing their visual system to collect light for longer, a bit like lengthening a camera's exposure. But the strategy might also introduce blur, making it hard to detect fast movement. If the moths were using this brain-slowing tactic, they would be expected to react to fast flower movements more slowly in darker conditions. The team found that there was indeed a lag. It helped them see motion in the dark while still allowing them to keep up with flowers swaying at normal speeds. The size of the lags matched the expected behaviour of a slowed nervous system, providing evidence that moths could be slowing down the action of neurons in their visual system. Previously, placing hawkmoths in a virtual obstacle courseMovie Camera revealed that they vary their navigation strategies depending on visibility conditions. Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa3042 © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd
Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 21041 - Posted: 06.13.2015
By Sandra G. Boodman The test had become something of an annual ritual. Every year beginning when he turned 45, Thomas Clark Semmes, an IT consultant for the federal government, would visit his internist for a physical. In a standard test of the sensory system that is often part of a physical, the Baltimore doctor would prick the soles of Semmes's feet with a pin. "He'd look at me and say, 'Tell me when you feel it,' and I'd say 'I will when I can,' " Semmes, now 56, recalled of the pinprick test. Because he never felt anything, he said nothing. "It never really concerned me very much," he recalled. His doctor would then dutifully jot something in his chart, never exploring it further. But in 2013, nearly a decade after that first test, a quick evaluation by a podiatrist revealed the reason for his unfeeling feet and provided an explanation for an anatomical oddity in one of Semmes's close relatives. In retrospect, Semmes wishes he had asked his internist about the lack of sensation, but he assumed it wasn't important — otherwise, the doctor would have said something. And as Semmes would later learn, not knowing what was wrong had cost him valuable time. "I definitely wish I'd been diagnosed sooner," he said. "There are things that could have been done to lessen the impact." Before 2013, Semmes never had much reason to think about his feet. He knew he had hammertoes — toes that bend downward at the middle joint as a result of heredity or trauma — as well as extremely high arches, but neither condition was painful or limiting. At least, he thought, he did not have bird legs like his father, whose limbs were so storklike that they were a running family joke. "I had big, muscular legs," Semmes said.
Keyword: Movement Disorders; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 21029 - Posted: 06.09.2015
Fergus Walsh Medical correspondent Scientists in Austria have created an artificial leg which allows the amputee to feel lifelike sensations from their foot. The recipient, Wolfang Rangger, who lost his right leg in 2007, said: "It feels like I have a foot again. It's like a second lease of life." Prof Hubert Egger of the University of Linz, said sensors fitted to the sole of the artificial foot, stimulated nerves at the base of the stump. He added it was the first time that a leg amputee had been fitted with a sensory-enhanced prosthesis. How it works Surgeons first rewired nerve endings in the patient's stump to place them close to the skin surface. Six sensors were fitted to the base of the foot, to measure the pressure of heel, toe and foot movement. These signals were relayed to a micro-controller which relayed them to stimulators inside the shaft where it touched the base of the stump. These vibrated, stimulating the nerve endings under the skin, which relayed the signals to the brain. Prof Egger said: "The sensors tell the brain there is a foot and the wearer has the impression that it rolls off the ground when he walks." Wolfgang Ranger, a former teacher, who lost his leg after a blood clot caused by a stroke, has been testing the device for six months, both in the lab and at home. He says it has given him a new lease of life He said: "I no longer slip on ice and I can tell whether I walk on gravel, concrete, grass or sand. I can even feel small stones." © 2015 BBC.
Keyword: Pain & Touch; Robotics
Link ID: 21028 - Posted: 06.09.2015
by Helen Thomson Imagine a world where you think of something and it happens. For instance, what if the moment you realise you want a cup of tea, the kettle starts boiling? That reality is on the cards, now that a brain implant has been developed that can decode a person's intentions. It has already allowed a man paralysed from the neck down to control a robotic arm with unprecedented fluidity. But the implications go far beyond prosthetics. By placing an implant in the area of the brain responsible for intentions, scientists are investigating whether brain activity can give away future decisions – before a person is even aware of making them. Such a result may even alter our understanding of free will. Fluid movement "These are exciting times," says Pedro Lopes, who works at the human-computer interaction lab at Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. "These developments give us a glimpse of an exciting future where devices will understand our intentions as a means of adapting to our plans." The implant was designed for Erik Sorto, who was left unable to move his limbs after a spinal cord injury 12 years ago. The idea was to give him the ability to move a stand-alone robotic arm by recording the activity in his posterior parietal cortex – a part of the brain used in planning movements. "We thought this would allow us to decode brain activity associated with the overall goal of a movement – for example, 'I want to pick up that cup'," Richard Andersen at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena told delegates at the NeuroGaming Conference in San Francisco earlier this month. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd
Keyword: Consciousness; Robotics
Link ID: 20992 - Posted: 05.28.2015
by Andy Coghlan A man in his mid-50s with Parkinson's disease had fetal brain cells injected into his brain last week. He is the first person in nearly 20 years to be treated this way – and could recover full control of his movements in roughly five years. "It seemed to go fine," says Roger Barker of the University of Cambridge, who is leading the international team that is reviving the procedure. The treatment was pioneered 28 years ago in Sweden, but two trials in the US reported no significant benefit within the first two years following the injections, and the procedure was abandoned in favour of deep brain stimulation treatments. What these trials overlooked is that it takes several years for fetal cells to "bed in" and connect properly to the recipient's brain. Many Swedish and North American recipients improved dramatically, around three years or more after the implants – long after the trials had finished. "In the best cases, patients who had the treatment pretty much went back to normal," says Barker. After the fetal cells were wired up properly in their brains, they started producing the brain signalling chemical dopamine – low levels of this cause the classic Parkinson's symptom of uncontrolled movements. In fact, the cells produced so much dopamine that many patients could stop taking their Parkinson's drugs. "The prospect of not having to take medications for Parkinson's is fantastic," says James Beck of the Parkinson's Disease Foundation in the US. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd
Keyword: Parkinsons; Stem Cells
Link ID: 20989 - Posted: 05.27.2015
by Helen Thomson A brain implant that can decode what someone wants to do has allowed a man paralysed from the neck down to control a robotic arm with unprecedented fluidity – and enjoy a beer at his own pace. Erik Sorto was left unable to move any of his limbs after an accident severed his spinal cord 12 years ago. People with similar injuries have previously controlled prosthetic limbs using implants placed in their motor cortex – an area of the brain responsible for the mechanics of movement. This is far from ideal because it results in delayed, jerky motions as the person thinks about all the individual aspects of the movement. When reaching for a drink, for example, they would have to think about moving their arm forward, then left, then opening their hand, then closing their hand around the cup and so on. Richard Andersen at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and his colleagues hoped they could achieve a more fluid movement by placing an implant in the posterior parietal cortex – a part of the brain involved in planning motor movements. "We thought this would allow us to decode brain activity associated with the overall goal of a movement – for example, 'I want to pick up that cup', rather than the individual components," said Anderson at the NeuroGaming Conference in San Francisco, California, where he presented the work this month. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 20972 - Posted: 05.23.2015
Scientists at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida created a novel mouse that exhibits the symptoms and neurodegeneration associated with the most common genetic forms of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease), both of which are caused by a mutation in the a gene called C9ORF72. The study was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the journal Science. More than 30,000 Americans live with ALS, which destroys nerves that control essential movements, including speaking, walking, breathing and swallowing. After Alzheimer's disease, FTD is the most common form of early onset dementia. It is characterized by changes in personality, behavior and language due to loss of neurons in the brain's frontal and temporal lobes. Patients with mutations in the chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9ORF72) gene have all or some symptoms associated with both disorders. "Our mouse model exhibits the pathologies and symptoms of ALS and FTD seen in patients with theC9ORF72 mutation," said the study's lead author, Leonard Petrucelli, Ph.D., chair and Ralph and Ruth Abrams Professor of the Department of Neuroscience at Mayo Clinic, and a senior author of the study. "These mice could greatly improve our understanding of ALS and FTD and hasten the development of effective treatments." To create the model, Ms. Jeannie Chew, a Mayo Graduate School student and member of Dr. Petrucelli's team, injected the brains of newborn mice with a disease-causing version of the C9ORF72 gene. As the mice aged, they became hyperactive, anxious, and antisocial, in addition to having problems with movement that mirrored patient symptoms.
Keyword: ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
; Alzheimers
Link ID: 20964 - Posted: 05.21.2015
By Lisa Sanders, M.D On Thursday we challenged Well readers to solve the difficult case of twin sisters who, in the prime of youth, developed a weakness that forced them to use their arms to rise from a chair. Nearly 300 of you wrote in with thoughts on this difficult case. Many of you recognized that this was likely to be a genetic disorder, though I greatly admired the "House"-ian thinking that led to a host of possible reasons why two sisters, living in different states, might develop the same symptoms independent of their shared DNA. It took this patient, Katie Buryk, four years to get her answer, which was: Late onset Tay-Sachs disease Although several of you made this difficult diagnosis, the first to do so was George Bonadurer, a second year medical student at Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minn. He says he recently read about this disease in a book of unusual cases that had come to the Mayo clinic for help. This is actually Mr. Bonadurer's second win of this contest. Strong work! Tay-Sachs disease was first identified by two physicians, independently, in the 1880s. Dr. Warren Tay was an ophthalmologist in London. Dr. Bernard Sachs was a neurologist in New York City. Each described a disease in infants that caused profound weakness, blindness and, usually by age 4, death. Careful consideration of cases over the following decades showed that the disease was inherited and often seen in children of Ashkenazi descent. Studying the patterns of inheritance, it became clear that both parents had to have the abnormal gene and that each of their children would have a one in four chance of being born with the disease. The terrible manifestations of the disease derive from an inherited inability to make an essential protein in the brain. This protein acts to break down discarded components of the cells. Without this protein, these discarded cell parts accumulate, interrupting normal nerve and brain cell functioning. This mechanism and the missing protein was identified in 1969, allowing for the development of a test for carriers. Since the development of this test, the incidence of Tay-Sachs in the United States has dropped by 90 percent. © 2015 The New York Times Company
Keyword: Movement Disorders; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 20902 - Posted: 05.09.2015


text:
West Wittering Cricket Club
Another successful season finished
After a nail biting finale of the last game again their closest rivals a draw to secure the league.
1's Division 3 Champions - 2016
Requiring 9 points against a team above them, the seconds win by 8 wickets to jump a place in the league
2's Division 7 Runners up - 2016
2016 - Division 3 Winners
2016 - Division 7 Runners Up
2015 - Division 8 Winners
2014 - Division 4 Winners
2014 - Division 9 (Promotion)
2013 - Division 5 Winners
2013 - Division 10 (Promotion)
2012 - Division 6 Winners
2011 - Division 7 Runners Up
Congratulations to
West Wittering School!
WWCC hosted the 2016 Kwik Cricket Tournament last week where teams from 3 of our local schools, West Wittering, East Wittering and Siddlesham, come to our ground to play competitive pairs cricket.
Kwik Cricket aims to provide children of all levels of ability and experience with an opportunity to participate in cricket and to encourage fair play by all.
The round robin competition saw 2 teams from each school, all with at least two girls in the team, play each other where all players get to bowl and bat. It was the West Wittering School "A side" who eventually triumphed with Theo Jennings, (WWCC U13 Colts player), gladly accepting the West Wittering Ashes on behalf of his team.
Club Kit
All your kit requirements in one shop
Delivery to the clubhouse within 2 weeks
West Wittering Cricket Club is an ECB Clubmark, thriving and developing cricket club in West Sussex.
The club runs two Saturday league sides, one Sunday Academy side and one Midweek T20 side, as well as in the West Sussex Invitation League Sunday T20 Cup.
We boast an ever growing colts sections with 80+ juniors training on a Friday evening and teams run at U11, U13 & U15 in 2016.
For more information on each team, please see below:
Saturday 1st XI
After four successive promotions and three as league winners, our 1st XI will need to push again for promotion, playing in West Sussex Invitation League Division Three in 2016.
To view the 2016 fixtures please click here.
To view the league table please click here
For more information, contact Captain Carl Tupper.
Saturday 2nd XI
The 2nd XI will be playing in West Sussex Invitation League Division Seven after their third successive promotion.
To view the league table please click here.
For more information please contact Captain Mark Brien.
Academy XI
Our Academy is designed to bridge the gap between junior & senior cricket, playing in Sunday friendly matches. Bought in to provide more cricket for the 14-19 year olds at the club, the majority of the team will be young developing cricketers, with a few of the 'more experienced' players dropping in.
If you are interested in playing for our Academy side, please contact Captain Marc Slowey.
Midweek T20 XI
Our midweek t20 XI play the majority of their games on a Thursday evening against local and touring sides. If you are interested in playing against WWCC, please contact the fixture secretary.
WWCC Juniors
Our juniors train on a Friday evening at 6pm from April to August. We have 80+ colts led by seven ECB qualified coaches, with teams at U11, U13 & U16 in 2016.
Congratulations to the following juniors on being selected last year for the Western Warriors area squads:
U11: Theo Jennings, Sam Caddy, Seb Nichols, Milo Nutt & Nick Fitzgerald.
Further Congratulations to Theo Jennings, who represented Sussex at U10. WWCC's first County player!
The ECB continues to work with Sport England on the pioneering club accreditation scheme 'Clubmark' to develop a vibrant and healthy club cricket infrastructure.
Cricket clubs can play a key role in the successful delivery of Building Partnerships – cricket's strategic plan for 2006-2009 - by supporting the delivery and implementation of the following programmes:
The ECB Clubmark and community cricket clubs play a central role in all of these programmes and Clubmark will provide the standards that clubs involved in these programmes will aspire to.
In addition, it is expected that clubs who achieve the ECB Clubmark will be recognised and rewarded for their hard work and commitment to club cricket in England and Wales.
By registering to work towards ECB Clubmark, clubs join a growing number of cricket clubs across England and Wales that are prioritising junior development, creating a benchmark for high quality community club cricket.
County Cricket Development Managers can help clubs through the process of achieving ECB Clubmark Accreditation.
ECB Clubmark gives clubs an opportunity to write and implement new procedures as well as acknowledge existing practices. Cricket clubs are required to present evidence and demonstrate implementation across four different themes, culminating in the production of a Club Development Plan.
The four themes are:
For more information see www.ecb.co.uk/clubmark


text:
Vivian, the guide was very nice. She speak very good English. She explained us all kind of trips and tricks and she even made pictures for us. Arriving one hour before the other tours was very helpful. In some parts we were the only ones on the wall. This trip has NO shopping stops, which is very good. Highly reccomended, even if is a little bit more expensive than other tours. Well worth the money.
This was a fantastic tour and highly recommend. Leaving early, we bypassed the Tombs which other tours take you to first, on the way to the wall and headed straight for a less busy part of the wall, It meant that for approximately 15 - 30 minutes, we had the wall virtually to ourselves. It was a surreal experience looking out across the mountains, visiting different sections and taking it all in. Our guide was fantastic! She arranged for our lunch to be outside of the tourist area, to a restaurant in a village. The food was the best I'd had and had the opportunity to get to know some of the school children as the school was next door. It was an amazing day, I could not have asked for better.
Excellent day trip to the Great Wall of China. We were lucky to have a wonderful guide for the two of us and travelled by private car to this wonder of the world. We arrived before the tourist crowds which gave us the opportunity to take many photo's and walk many of the various stages of the wall unimpeded. We experienced the varied steps as part of the cobbled walkway, magnificent views and enjoyed an informative commentary and great interaction all day from our guide. Lunch was delicious in a small town- a perfect finish!
The early start was hard...however SO Worth it! A 2 hour bus ride, we got to The Great Wall before all the crowds and the heat kicked in. We definately had enough time to see everything.Sofia our guide was great! She also helped with advise on other sights to visit. Wear comfy shoes and sunscreen!
manocachaca Schweiz
It was great fun, great execise and amazing local food. Even if you only have one day in Beijing, rather skip other things than seeing this monument, man-made and with a long history.
Thank you to guide Vivienne, she did her best, shot fotos of all groupmembers and provided us with a lot of information.
Was a wonderful experience! The tour lets you go at your own pace as difficult a hike as you want! A Must!
Excellent tour. Great guide with lots of historical detail on the Wall. We arrived early and were able to take great photos of the wall without too many people around. You MUST take the toboggan down!
Excellent tour. Our guide Vivian was very knowledgeable and engaging. The transportation to the wall was good, the wall itself is a must do if you visit China, and the lunch was one of the best meals we had on our trip. Leaving the city early to beat the crowds is very smart. Very good value on this tour.
This tour departs early, which was great so that their were no crowds and at times we were virtually alone between guard houses or with just one or two other people walking along the wall. Love that the group was small 4 people total, though one person did not show, so really only three people total.
Clena Stein Switzerland
Great trip - great guide!
Tour guide was great
A great day! The Great Wall is compulsory when in Beijing. The lunch was good. We loved our local guide Kevin who spoke perfect English. He even took us to a silk-market after the tour, which meant that he had to work 2 hours more than required. He booked a restaurant for us in the evening and called in to ensure that we were doing fine. Fantastic service!
The tour was fantastic. We got the the wall early, before other tours got there resulting in us having a nearly empty wall experience for the first portion of the tour. We had flexibility to take time to do what we wanted on the wall and it didn't feel at all rushed.
Great experience. The early start was well worth it as we were one of the few people on the wall for the first couple hours of being there. The lunch spot we went to was also very good. Obviously no frills but very tasty and a nice way to end all the walking.
Walking on the Great Wall is an amazing experience, one that my son and I will never forget. We enjoyed our guide, Kevin, but he and his driver's role were primarily to get us from Beijing to the Great Wall. He provided some interesting commentary on the way, but when we got to the wall, we were really on our own. Walking on the wall is quite challenging physically--not only does it do up and down with the topography, the so-called restored section we were on was extremely tricky to navigate--rough, uneven steps, etc. Take the chair lift up to the wall and the toboggan down--both fun and a little scary, but that added to the experience.
My experience was incredible. I was in Beijing for a couple of days on business, with one free day. This tour is perfect for a single person or couple looking for a very personal memory. Kevin, my guide, was exceptional and went above and beyond to make sure I was comfortable, knew where to go on the wall and generally had a worry free experience. were quick to respond to my email and communications pre-tour.
I was the only person on the tour, and the benefit of leaving early 7am pick-up from Sunworld was that I was literally the only person on the wall, asides from the maintenance crew, for the first hour of my visit. Breathtaking. I recommend walking out to Tower 1, then walking past the No Admittance sign to the first un-renovated tower. Take a seat, and soak in the peace for a very spiritual experience.
The lunch post-tour was great, very local and tasty. Kevin does all the ordering so no need to worry if you can't speak the language. He also organized a taxi to T Square, and came along for the ride, to make sure I was safe and dropped off at the correct point. Such a great guy. Very thoughtful, knowledgable about the wall and Beijing and a very caring human.
Kevin was very flexible with the tour time as well. I felt I only needed two hours on the wall he gives you three so was able to head back into Beijing early and tick Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City of my list. All before 4pm. You are probably best to take the cable car up to the wall and the toboggan down an additional 100 Yuan to make the most of the time you have.
Overall my experience was 5/5 and I thoroughly recommend this tour, tour company, guide and driver!
Excellent tour for a once in a lifetime experience
Amazing day visiting the Great Wall! Winter is spectacular there (but very cold!) and not crowded in the least. Kevin was an outstanding tour guide and very knowledgable. Highly recommend this tour!
I had the best time at the Great Wall of China with Dennis as my guide. I was lucky as I was the only traveller. Dennis gave me plenty of information about the Wall and China and answered all of my questions. We arrived at 9am and were greeted by a winter wonderland. The Great Wall covered in snow was breathtaking. I am glad we left Beijing that early because we were almost the only people on the Wall for about three hours. I had plenty of time to take pictures and to discover everything. The lunch at a local restaurant was also very good. As the description says there are no shopping stops. Thank you for such an amazing once in a lifetime experience.
Dennis was a fantastic guide! Very knowledgeable and considerate. Highly recommend this trip - I'm not a morning person, but it was worth getting up early for!!
This is a fun exciting and must do thing. You will be one with history and be able to see and walk the Wall. It is a bit challenging but you probably need the exercise - take the toboggan down - fun and not scary at all. Only negative is that the tour starts early and a simple sandwich or something would have made a great difference. Lunch was very interesting and good on the local restaurant. Guide great!
The Great Wall walk was breathtaking with magnificent views and Tracey was a great tour guide. Certainly one tour not to miss!
Fantastic day! Of course the wall was amazing, as expected. I loved the flexibility to go off on my own at the wall. My calf muscles were in agony the next day from all the walking on the wall .... it was unexpectedly steep and challenging! Our guide, Kevin, was amazing! He was so friendly and helpful. I was chatting to him on the bus on the way back about wanting to see an acrobat show. He actually took the time to take me and a couple of others to the theatre, bought us good tickets, got us upgraded and then waited for us until the show was over.
Awesoke your arriving at wall before the big bus loads came in! Lunch was great looking up at the wall! The chair lifts up and taken the toboggan down was the best way to get up and down the wall! Loved it and highly recommend it! We are are family of 3 including. 5 year old daughter
Great price for what it included! The transport from Beijing to the Wall was roughly 2 hrs each way. I spent about 2 hrs hiking the Great Wall and it was absolutely amazing! Beautiful views around and just an amazing feat to visit one of the Ancient Great Wonders of the World. Viator tour also included a family-style lunch at a nice restaurant at the bottom of the mountain where we the buses park. Overall, highly recommend this trip!
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DETROIT (AP) -- Police say a shooting following a fight outside a Detroit strip club has left five men wounded.
Sgt. Eren Stephens says the shooting happened as people were leaving Onyx shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday. She says the men ranging in age from 20 to 22 had gunshot wounds to the legs, arms or hands, and were initially listed in temporary serious condition.
Stephens says investigators didn't have any information on a possible suspect.


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The winger is set to be sidelined for three to four weeks after scans revealed the winger strained the medial ligament in his left knee on Saturday.
But one player who looks set to be involved is midfielder Billy Knott, signed on loan from Sunderland this week. The 20-year-old has previously enjoyed loan spells with AFC Wimbledon and Woking and should come into contention.
Captain Stuart Lewis will not be involved against their biggest rivals as he is serving the second game of a three match suspension.
- Sports & Recreation
- Billy Knott


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I sent this to my brother and he loved it!
I ordered this is a gift for a friend and she loved it! It arrived quickly and was a really high quality gift.
Excellent choice and the family said it was the best they ever had... Will order this assortment again for the price and quality and delivered on time... Thank You!
I sent this to my parents for Christmas. They need to eat a diabetic type diet, so this was perfect for them. They loved what they have tried so far.
I sent two of these baskets last year and got such rave reviews on the contents from the recipients that I sent three this year. The recipients received them within a few days of ordering and they loved all the items included. They said it was some of the best meat they have ever had. I've been extremely pleased with the quality and service and would highly recommend this product.
The Ultimate Gourmet Food Gift Basket by Nueske's is 10 great gifts in one, and sure to impress that special person on your gift list in a loving and memorable way. This reusable woven wicker gift basket contains a tasty combination of smoked meats, Wisconsin cheeses, and condiments. A great gift to send at the Holiday or any other special occasion for a family share!
Nueske products usually deliver 2-3 business days from ship date with STANDARD SHIPPING. No need to request Expedited shipping. Please note: Orders ship Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday only.


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- Report: #389882
Report - Rebuttal - Arbitrate
Complaint Review: International Travel Network
International Travel Network478 Elden St. Suite 202 Herndon, Virginia U.S.A.
International Travel Network Itn Independent Travel Program a scam Herndon Virginia
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There were different levels of the program depending upon the amount one is willing to invest. I went for the professional package which entitles me to 60% commission on sales and authorized a charge of $495.00 to my debit card. Later I realized that I had been charged $540 and learnt that the additional $40 was to ship the membership package to me.
When I got the membership package I was instructed to send a W9 and to sign an authorization for $19.99 to be charged to my account every month. I sent the W( but it was returned to me with a this note from the Post Office RETURN TO SENDER, NOT DELIVERABLE AS ADDRESSED, UNABLE TO FORWARD.I therefore called ITN to make a report but no one answered so I left a message but no one ever returned my call.
I managed to make a few sales but never received any commission statement or any money from ITN.
About 3 weeks a go a customer called to complain that he was tried to make a booking but my website was not available. I tried and couldn't access the website too. I tried to call ITN so many times but no one answered the phone and for the first time there was no answering service to leave a message. I sent emails to their email address but got no replies. It was then that I realized that I had been scammed.
I therefore seek justice in the form of a refund of the $540 I paid to ITN to get started. aFter all it has been 10 months and I never made a cent in commisions. I am prepared to return their travel package in return for the $540.00
Portland, Oregon
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 11/10/2008 06:30 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/International-Travel-Network/Herndon-Virginia-20170/International-Travel-Network-Itn-Independent-Travel-Program-a-scam-Herndon-Virginia-389882. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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Entertainment Photos
Oscars Photos: Selfies, pizza delivery and big winners
Photo: PATRICK T FALLON/NYT
**EMBARGOED UNTIL END OF OSCAR CEREMONY** Jared Leto with his Oscar for best supporting actor for his part in the film "Dallas Buyers Club" in the awards room during the 86th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, March 2, 2014. (Patrick T. Fallon/The New York Times)
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As the mid-Hudson Valley recovers from Tropical Storm Irene's assault, Metro-North Railroad is suspended as crews survey and clean damage on the rails.
We'll have additional updates throughout the day on the status of rail service. Click here for photos by MTA of the damage on the Hudson Line and flood waters surrounding the Port Jervis Line.
Location, ST | website.com