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Entertainment Photos
Photos: Dukes of Hazzard invades Texas! General Lee fans ham it up
Photo: Ron Baselice/Staff Photographer
Laithan Coleman, 5, left and his brother Creek Coleman, 8, of Hillsboro, watch John Schneider (Bo Duke) sign their toy General Lee at the Hazzard Homecoming Texas Style Saturday October 19, 2013.
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Erica America
WATCH: Zac Efron TAKES IT OFF At MTV Movie Awards!!!!
Posted April 13th, 2014 @ 10:22pm
Get More: 2014 MTV Movie Awards, Latest Movie News
AY PAPI!!! Not only did Zac Efron win the award for 'Best Shirtless Performance' at The MTV Movie Awards... but Rita Ora snuck up behind him and started to ripped it off!!!! Zac then got into it and straight-up let us STARE for a hot minute or so!!!

subset: commoncrawl


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Thank you for this simple great hit counter. I would like to edit the plugin so that it does this:
1 - Show the word "views" or "veiwing" next to total hits. This will make the widget show articles like this for exmaple (1234 views).
2- Use the comma "," for thousands digits.
Can you please help me?


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African River Kraft's customer-driven inflatable designs are never quite finished. In fact, we are happy to tell you that our research and development is an ongoing process. We're always looking at ways to improve our originals, putting new ideas into production, and ceaselessly testing new waters. In short, we're constantly on the search for your dream inflatable craft.
By designing and refining our craft along with white-water enthusiasts and professional engineers, we've maintained a staggering lead on the competition, totally dominating the Southern African commercial rafting market, and at the same time expanding our product offerings and extending our business worldwide.
Pumpseats are a result of our latest parternership with Mike Rule and the Pumped Industries team.
Pumpseats can be deployed to a location in a fraction of the time and with minimal personel and logistics of other furniture.
A conventional pickup truck with two operators can deploy seating for a 100 people in a few hours.
Whether you like to run rivers, if you like to float and fish, if you want to explore your secret river, lake or waterway the Dragonfly presents an expedition-grade raft that provides you with freedom, speed and agility.
The Dragonfly's open floor design allows you to fin the kickboat into position keeping your hands free for casting and landing fish.
|Tents can be joined on all four sides
ARK has rolled out the latest in its Airframe tent range.
Designed for maximum space and stability.
These 5 x 5 m tents designed to fit together on all four sides allowing for a vast array of configurations.
The units can be inflated in 7 minutes.
An entire village can come to life within minutes.
|From bag to tent in 7 minutes
|Spacious interior


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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the disk image format, see Windows Imaging Format.
|This article relies too much on references to primary sources. (September 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
swm (the Solbourne window manager) is an X Window System window manager developed by Tom LaStrange at Solbourne Computer in 1990. The most important innovation of swm was the introduction of the virtual desktop. It also introduced a primitive form of session management (restoring programs in use at the time of shutdown) to X.
Another window manager with a similar name is the small window manager, developed for use in systems with little memory and small screens.
- Thomas E. LaStrange (1990) swm: An X window manager shell. USENIX Summer.
- http://users.polytech.unice.fr/~buffa/cours/X11_Motif/motif-faq/part4/faq-doc-1.html
|This free-software-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.


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Over a year ago
Hey ya'll!
I'm kinda new…I've been on the site for a while but never really posted here. I just went off to a four year college and I want to give up meat since I no longer have to follow my parents rules. (I had to eat what they made) Is it easy to give up meat while in college?
Please log in to reply.
Over a year ago
no its not hard at all, i think it really depends on the person and their mind set. instead of eating a chicken sandwich just grad a salad instead , you have to get your tastebuds use to the big change, i personally didnt have a hard time with the transition at all and i was so happy when i stopped eating meat, i went vegetarian in january of 2009 and i am so proud of myself for how far ive come and i am able to tell people my expirences and help so good luck to you i think you will do great!You must be logged in to reply to this topic.


text:
- Report: #1008485
Report - Rebuttal - Arbitrate
Complaint Review: Citimortgage
CitimortgageP. O. Box 6243 Sioux Falls, South Dakota United States of America
Citimortgage Ripoff on refund of escrow Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Ripoff Report
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2 big ripoffs.
a) Taking for ever in this computeres age to refund my escrow.
b) $40 for faxing a piece of paper.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 02/04/2013 08:36 AM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Citimortgage/Sioux-Falls-South-Dakota-57117/Citimortgage-Ripoff-on-refund-of-escrow-Sioux-Falls-South-Dakota-1008485. 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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text:
Fix _warning_check(...) method.
The _warning_check method in MySQLdb/cursors.py on trunk does a couple of things wrong:
1) It tries to call self._get_db().show_warnings() which seems to have moved to self.connection._show_warnings().
2) It passed exceptions directly through to the warn(...) function as the warning message. Warn implicitly assumes that the message is a str or unicode object by using code like "%s" % message. If message is an exception, e, this results in a call to str(e) regardless of whether e.message is unicode or not -- and throws an exception if it is unicode with non-ASCII characters [1].
The attached patch fixes both issues. For issue 2) it passes unicode(e) instead of e to the warn(...) function.
[1] Technically, it causes an error if there are characters which cannot be represented in the default encoding, which is usually ASCII.
Fix _warning_check(...) method.


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Incredible Zombie Makeovers of Comic and Video Game Icons
The following zombie portraits come to us courtesy of Andre De Freitas, a graphic designer from Peru. The illustrations offer some awesome-looking interpretations of some of our favorite pop culture icons, all of which have undergone some truly creepy zombie transformations.
via [LooksLikeGoodDesign]


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What is the height of the feet?
Very sturdy; color just right. Great storage. Would recommend...
Tufted Leather Storage Bench Cremeby I Love Living
ITEM#: 11372461Perfect for extra seating, this tufted leather storage bench doubles as an excellent way to store any excess items you may have. Store extra linens or pillows inside to free up closet space, or store books and magazines for guests while you finish preparing dinner. This hidden storage bench is also durably constructed and features a padded seat for comfort and removable wooden feet to protect your floors.
- Living room furniture crafted of a kiln-dried hardwood frame
- Upholstery material: Fully dyed thru cow leather with polyurethane coating
- Flip-top storage
- Tufting adds durability
- Removable wood feet
- Perfect for storing extra blankets, pillows, media items and more
- External dimensions: 20 inches high x 50 inches wide x 19 inches deep
- Internal dimensions: 39.75 inches wide x 17 inches deep x 10.25 inches high
- Assembly consists of screwing on the feet
Avoid placing your furniture in direct sunlight and maintain at least two feet between furniture and heat sources. Aniline and Protected leathers are especially sensitive to direct sunlight. Use a professional cleaner to help resist staining and prevent overall soiling. For oil based stains, use a professional degreaser. This tufted leather storage bin is stylish and functional, providing an easy way to organize your living room clutter. The flip-top lid makes this storage bin ideal for storing guest blankets and pillows, or your family games and movies. Completely assembled, this leather storage bin comes ready for use; all you have to do is screw on the removable feet.
Due to the nature of the leather, artificial lighting may have a slight effect on the color hue of the stools.
|Leather, Plastic, Polyurethane, Wood
|Espresso Finish
|Bench Type
|Storage Benches
|Furniture Frame Material
|20 in. H x 50 in. W x 19 in. D
|Model Number
|Country of Origin
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Customer Reviews
Most Recent
Just as pictured
Very sturdy; color just right. Great storage. Would recommendRead More
Nice ottoman
Used as a bench in guest bedroom. Very roomy for storing extra linen and blankets. Rated four stars only because I wish it were a little darker.Read More
Leather storage ottoman
This is very well made. It's a bit tight & stiff to open, but we like it & would order it againRead More
Thank you Overstock
I love my new bench. It is at the foot of the bed and is just what I needed. It is well made, great storage and a great place to sit while getting dressed.Read More
Love it
Very well made. I would highly recommend this bench.Read More
Most Helpful
Don't worry about the color
After reading all the comments about the color of the bench, I was ready for anything. Imagine my surprise when I opened it up and out popped a cream-colored bench. Cream, as in "warmish off-white." Not green or yellow. The lighting in your room, and the colors of the walls and furniture in it, will affect the way every piece of new furniture looks. I opened the bench at home in artificial light and it looked cream. I took it to my office, where it now lives under two massive skylights showering it with Pacific Northwest natural light (said to be more blue than in the South), and it still looks cream to me. So no weird surprises here. The wall behind the bench is cactus green and my other furniture chocolate brown, so the cream color works great as a neutral. If you've got lots of cooler colors, especially blue or purple, or else weird lighting, this bench might not fare so well. But play with the lighting; even changing out your bulbs can completely transform the colors of your furniture. My biggest surprise (apart from how quickly it arrived) was that the tufts are not secured with leather-covered buttons. The tufting consists of indentations with nothing in them. The action of the lid is tight, not because of the hinges, which work fine, but because of the proximity of the lid to the sides. You feel and hear the friction between the top and sides whenever you open or close it. Because I open and close the bench multiple times a day, I'm also concerned about dirtying the front with my hands, since there is no pull tag for the lid. For these reasons, I give this beautiful bench 4 rather than 5 stars. But if you don't open the bench often, both these things will be no problem for you at all. This is a smart and stylish piece that's mainly for show, and for longer-term storage. If that's what you're looking for, this bench is a 10-star value.Read More
Beautiful & elegant
This is a beautiful leather bench seat! We bought this to place at the foot of our King bed, and it is a wonderful addition to our bedroom. The storage area is the perfect size for storing the decorative bed pilllows at night. The leather is high quality and looks very high-end. Several reviews complained about the stiffness of the hinges on the bench lid, but we've had no issues at all with opening and closing the unit. At the same time, when you open it, it stays open until you want it closed. Assembly was a cinch - took me maybe 10 minutes to put the feet on. I love this leather bench and would highly recommend it to anyone! Woudl love to have a spot for the red one....!Read More
Nice bench
Bench arrived today and it is very handsome. Very easy to put the legs on, just four long bolts. Some reviewers said the color was more yellow than creme and I have the same impression too. However, I have it located in a yellow room, so the surrounding color might play a part. If you absolutely need a pure creme color (bordering on white), I suggest you go with a different bench product that is listed as white or opt for a darker color of this bench altogether. The lines of the bench are very modern and classy. The seat is very comfortable. Deeper storage would have been nice, but I'm very happy nonetheless. The packaging was good plus it was well wrapped in foam and bubblewrap so it arrived in perfect condition. Interior is felt lined in black. I'm using it for shoe storage by my front door and can fit about 20 pairs (with stacking), or about 10-11 single-level.Read More
Outstanding quality
I'm a professional interior designer and very particular about quality. This is a high end piece of furniture with fine workmanship, design and quality materials, all for a great price! The leather is buttery-soft. I was surprised and delighted when I received it. Note that it doesn't work well to set this bench tight against a wall unless you don't intend to open it often, because of the depth of the seat cushion lid that requires space to open.Read More
Met Expectations
The "Tufted Leather Storage Bench Creme" delivered was exactly what I expected based on the picture and description. The quality is outstanding. You can sit or stand on it; it is very sturdy and I am a large person. The quality is 100% better than any of the typical product I have seen in the store. This is truly a piece of furniture. It has a very rich appearance in the room at the end of the bed. The seams are well done; I do not feel it will tear the leather over time. The padding is comfortable, but firm, and does not leave an indention after putting, say, your knee on it with all your weight. Storage capacity: I have three sets of sheets, one large blanket, one throw, and four sham covers. It was packaged well and was delivered undamaged. The only assembly needed is adding the feet and they screw on easily.Read More
Questions & Answers
the feet are 3" high. These arrive unattached and you screw them into the holes provided. If you wanted a different height, I'm sure you could replace them. They are solid stained dark wood. Really like this item; it is holding up very well and is extremely well made. It is what I call a true ivory color with a slightly pearlized finish. We keep it at the bottom of our bed and our dogs use it to jump up to our raised bed (they are elderly( and even with that, no break in the finish nor in the leather!
Is the storage area lined with cloth or is it plywood? If so, it the wood smooth and finished.
The storage compartment is lined.
The storage compartment is lined with a soft fabric and it feels perfectly fine for storing linens and other soft items.
How much does this bench weigh? Thanks.
Hello sergerlady, the bench weighs approximately 78 pounds. Thanks for shopping with us!
Hi, Can you tell me the height to the seat without including the arms, which appear to be a bit higher than the seating area? Also, any more recent info. on the weight limit? I've seen a variety of responses and want to make sure it would work for a larger person to sit on to change shoes, etc. Thanks.
Hello Serge lady, the arms extend approximately 1-2 inches above the seat. We do not weight test our products, sorry. Thank you for shopping with us.
Is this real leather and not a synthetic leather ? Thanks
Hello OVthings, this bench is made from fully dyed cow leather with a polyurethane protective coating. I hope this info helps. Thanks for shopping with us!
Can anyone tell me if the leather is matte or shiny? Some inexpensive leather almost has a plastic-like sheen like vinyl, whereas good leather is soft and supple. Thanks!
Hello PMAC, we can appreciate the fact you want a firsthand account of the product. You will receive an email notification every time you get a response. Thank you for shopping with us.
Why did you choose this product?
Was just what I needed and seems good quality.
I need stoage for extra bedding. This storage bench is the right material, color, and size.
Extra storage at the foot of my bed. Sleek; modern; simple. Nice color; leather.
Pillow storage will be important
The size for the end of CA King bed is just right. Will hold extra linens. Just hoping the color is right.
Additional storage for linens, bedding, etc.
Look a trove, need storage in bedroom
we liked it
I believe it will matched my bed frame the most than the other options you had. I have also been looking for a leather storage bench for awhile...this is it!
Liked the look of this bench and the customer reviews on this item were all very good
Handsome looking piece good size and the color seems warm
It meets my needs!
Right color, right size, just what I'm looking for.
good quality, real leather, nice design
Right color for me, and I have looked everywhere and can't find the right color
Liked that this is assembled and gives the space and color needed.
Just like it. Also read reviews on it. There was more positive comments. Hoping their are correct.
Is it possible to get a color swatch?
Hello vacationjunkie, unfortunately we cannot provide color swatches for this item. Please let us know if you have additional questions. Thanks for shopping with us.
What is the length and width of the storage area inside?
Hello micobe1992, I hope your day is going well. The inside dimensions are: 16 3/4 inches W x 39 inches L x 10 1/4 inches H. the measurements are approximate. Thank you for shopping with us.
Hi, does this ottoman come with any manufacture warranty? If yes, for how long? Thanks.
Haven't a clue on warranty -- but be aware that it is HARD surface -- not conducive to sitting on it for any length of time.
Hello, I love the style of this ottoman but am looking for it in black. Do you have it in black?
Hello lazzari1, yes, there is a very similar ottoman in black on Item # 13008683. Thank you for checking with us.
My husband is a big boy. 6'3", 225 lbs.Is this bench high enough and does this have weight restrictions? Could he sit to put on his boots (shoes) daily? If not, could you recommend a different storage bench?
Hello understockedgirl, thank you for your inquiry! Unfortunately, we do not weight test our items; typically this type of bench holds up to 200-250 pounds. I hope this helps. Happy shopping!
Hello, In which country is the bench made? Thanks!
Thank you for contacting us thepersonalshopper. This is made in China. Please let us know if you have any further questions.
What is weight limit for this item?
Thank you noname5 for the opportunity to help you out today with the Tufted Leather Storage Bench Creme colored. The weight limit for this item according to the manufacturer is no more than 200lbs spread out over the entire top of the bench. We hope this was helpful and thank you for shopping at Overstock.com.
I noticed a question here that asks who the manufacturer is and your reply is "Unfortunately, we are unable to provide that information." I am interested in purchasing it but I want to know who makes it. Why don't you want this known?
Thank you for your interest. Some manufacturers do not choose to provide this information to the consumer for contractural reasons---we apologize. However, Overstock.com stands behind every product we sell. When necessary we can contact suppliers if a product issue arises. Please feel free to contact us again with any further questions.
Hello... I was wondering if I could buy one with the same model by using fabric instead of leather. Thank you!
Brooke Tufted Loft Sand Storage Bench
Pertaining to color.... Comparing this with the Guernsey ivory ottoman, http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Guernsey-Ivory-Bonded-Leather-Storage-Ottoman-Bench/4783885/product.html Is this color a creme beige or pure white or off-white? There seems to be a few of these benches posted but they all appear to be varying degrees of white/beige.
This one is cream. The other one is pure white.
Good Evening...I wonder if you could please clarify the product dimensions, which don't make sense to me. Is the inside one whole storage area, or are there compartments? Could you please restate the exterior and interior dimensions, providing height, depth (front to back), and width (side to side)? Thank you.
External dimensions: 20 inches high x 50 inches wide x 19 inches deep Internal dimensions: 39.75 inches wide x 17 inches deep x 10.25 inches high.
Hi, Comparing with this Guernsey ivory ottoman, http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Guernsey-Ivory-Bonded-Leather-Storage-Ottoman-Bench/4783885/product.html Does this creme ottoman has a darker/yellowish shade? I have seen some reviewers mentioned that the seat is a little hard. Comparing with the Ivory ottoman, is this creme ottoman seat harder or softer? Thanks.
Both the Tufted Leather Storage Bench Creme and the Guernsey Ivory Bonded Leather Storage Ottoman Bench are tufted leather ottomans. They should be the same or close to the same in regards to comfortability. Our items are not rated or tested on a comfortability scale. We are very sorry.
Can you tell me who manufactures this bench?
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide that information.
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Creative Shoe Storage Ideas
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How to Clean a Leather Storage Bench
How to Clean a Leather Storage Bench from Overstock.com. Our guides provide customers with information about how to clean a leather storage bench.
How to Repaint a Bench
How to Repaint a Bench from Overstock.com. Our guides provide customers with information about how to repaint a bench.
How to Use a Storage Bench
How to Use a Storage Bench from Overstock.com. Our guides provide customers with information about how to use a storage bench.
Mixed Material Home
Reclaimed Wood and Cement. Marble and Metal. Leather and Wood. These materials didn't used to be mixed but now they've come together for a winning combination.
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Capture the enchanting aura cast by red rock and turquise stone in home furnishings and decorative accessories inspired by the American Southwest.
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I have a self-hosted wordpress blog, and I have downloaded the theme called "Vista-Like".
I'm very new with all this, but I want to change the header on the theme to my own picture. It says I can choose between three headers to fit my personal style - but none of them does.
Does anybody know how to change the stylesheet or something to make it possible to choose my own header?


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11 Cute Long-Sleeve Dresses You Can Wear From Fall to Spring
This skincare product will tighten your pores and make your skin look more luminous.
Clarins Beauty Flash Balm, $45; sephora.com
Say goodbye to dark circles and puffy eyelids.
Garnier Fructis Anti-Eye Puff Roller, $12.99; ulta.com
Adding a touch of white eye liner to the inner corners of your eyes will brighten up your entire face.
Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Liner Pencil, $4.29; walgreens.com
7 Pleated Leather Skirts You Need In Your Life


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Fast and safe with the Hiawatha secure web server
Service Warehouse
The next thing Hiawatha needs to know is which website to serve up. To define the website, you first specify the subdirectory with the files. Apache users will be familiar with this directory as DocumentRoot, but Hiawatha calls it WebsiteRoot:
WebsiteRoot = /usr/local/var/www/hiawatha
In principle, you can select any folder on your disk; you will find a sample index.html file below /usr/local/var/www/hiawatha. Hiawatha needs the name (or alternatively the IP address) on which the website will be accessible:
Hostname = www.mywebsite.com
This detail is particularly important if you are using virtual hosts (see the box titled "Virtual Hosts" for more details). If you use IPv6 addresses, just use them; you can even mix them with IPv4 addresses.
That's it. This minimal configuration contains just six lines. Listing 1 is a complete httpd.conf file. Comments start with a pound sign, as in shell scripts.
Listing 1
Minimal Configuration for Hiawatha
01 # Listen for requests on port 80 of the network interface with IP address IP 192.168.2.123: 02 Binding { 03 Port = 80 04 Interface = 192.168.2.123 05 } 06 07 # Serve up the following page: 08 WebsiteRoot = /usr/local/var/www/hiawatha 09 Hostname = localhost
Kick Starter
Just to see whether the configuration is working, launch the web server with the following command:
sudo hiawatha
If you receive an error message:
Error binding IP_address
either Hiawatha does not have sufficient privileges (for ports below 1024) or a competing web server is already listening on the same port. A competing web server is actually a common occurrence if you are using a distribution that comes with a pre-configured web server, such as Apache. In that case, you can either change the port or stop the competitor. To stop Apache in Ubuntu, for example, you could enter the command
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 stop
although you might still see an error message:
Warning: can't write PID file /usr/local/var/run/hiawatha.pid
The preceding message says that Hiawatha does not have access privileges for the /usr/local/var/run directory; one common cause for this message is that the directory just doesn't exist. You can either create the directory manually or live with the error message for the time being. The web server simply stores its process ID in the specified PID file. Alternatively, you can use httpd.conf to point to a different file location:
Launching a browser and pointing to localhost will tell you if Hiawatha is running properly. You should see the test page shown in Figure 1.
A kill signal, as in
<C>sudo killall hiawatha<C>
will stop Hiawatha. Of course, this is a fairly brutal approach, and it is not very elegant if you are thinking of adding the web server startup to your distribution's boot process. The hiawatha script included in the extras subdirectory below the source code directory gives you a more elegant approach to launching and stopping Hiawatha, but you should be aware of a couple of obstacles. First, the script assumes that the web server was able to create the PID file. Also, the script is designed for Debian. If you want to run the script on any other distribution, you need to modify the paths in the first four lines to match your local conditions.
Going Walkabout
As you would expect of a modern web server in these Web 2.0 times, Hiawatha supports the execution of CGI programs. Of course, the administrator first has to explicitly enable this feature
ExecuteCGI = yes
and then specify which file suffix the CGI programs will have:
CGIextension = cgi
In the case of scripts, such as PHP or Python applications, Hiawatha also needs the name and path for the interpreter:
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/php5-cgi:php,php5
When Hiawatha finds a file with a .php or .php5 suffix, it will launch the php5-cgi interpreter in the /usr/bin folder and pass the script in to it. The same approach is used for other script languages:
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/perl:pl CGIhandler = /usr/bin/python:py
To prevent buggy or malicious CGI programs or scripts from crashing or hijacking the computer, you should restrict their run time. A value of five seconds should do for a start:
TimeForCGI = 5
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LinuxCon North America Convenes in Toronto, Canada
Linux Foundation's big event celebrates the 25th anniversary of Linux
Linux Turns 25
Linux has evolved from a "won't be a professional" project to one of the most professional software projects in the history of computers.
Mirantis Joins Hands with SUSE To Offer RHEL Support; Red Hat Not Happy
Competitors get in the game with RHEL without Red Hat
Linux on Windows 10 Poses a Security Risk
Security researchers have already notified Microsoft; some fixes are available
Mirantis to Refactor OpenStack Fuel for Kubernetes
The company is collaborating with Google and Intel to use Kubernetes as an engine for Fuel
Canonical Joins Document Foundation Advisory Board
The upcoming release of LibreOffice will be available as a snap package
SUSE Joins the Microsoft Test Drive Program
Customers can take a free test drive of SLES for HPC on the Azure Cloud
SiFive Launches a Line of Open Source Chips
San Francisco-based chip company announces their first fully open source chip platform.
Fedora 24 Released
The whole distro gets rebuilt on glibc 2.3
Canonical Announces Cross-Distro Support for Snaps
Ubuntu Vendor tries to solve app packaging and distribution problem across distributions.


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What Do You Want From Your County Library? Attend a Town Hall Meeting Collecting Input for the Library's Strategic Planning Process. Contra Costa County is conducting a series of Town Hall meetings throughout the county to gather input on how the library can better serve our communities. Please attend one at the library in your community to provide your suggestions! See … [Read more...]
Contra Costa Library wins National Award
The Institute of Museum and Library Services today announced Contra Costa County Library as one of 10 recipients of this year's National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The nation's highest honor conferred on museums and libraries for service to the community, the National Medal celebrates institutions that make a difference for individuals, families and communities. The … [Read more...]
Contra Costa Reading Festival, May 16-18
The Contra Costa County Library will present its first-ever countywide Contra Costa County Library Reading Festival. To be held May 16 – 18, 2008, the Reading Festival celebrates the importance of reading and libraries by bringing 50 authors into 25 community libraries for a weekend of free and fun programs. The Reading Festival will offer something for readers of all ages … [Read more...]
Project Second Chance offers adult literacy tutor training beginning Apr 11
Project Second Chance, located in Pleasant Hill, will offer tutor training to volunteers wishing to help adults learn to read, beginning with an introduction to the training on April 11, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Followed by an additional 12 hours of instruction on two successive Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 April 14 and 21. The full 14-hour training is required to be … [Read more...]
Diablo Valley Literacy Council offers literacy tutor training beginning March 1
The Diablo Valley Literacy Council will hold tutor training classes beginning Saturday March 1st from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. followed by additional training sessions on Tuesday evening March 4th from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and on Saturday March 8th from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Please pass this info along to any friends interested in becoming a literacy tutor. E-mail [email protected] … [Read more...]


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Keep your skin soft, smooth and healthy looking with Ultimate Hydrating Lotion from Gold Bond. Part of the Men's Essentials collection, it contains seven moisturizers and four vitamins in a non-greasy formula. Suitable for use with all skin types, it can be used every day on your hands, face and body.
Used For: Moisturizing
For Use On: Whole Body
Product Form: Lotion
Scent: Fresh
Health Concern: Dry Skin
Product Warning: no warning applicable
Battery: no battery used:
Container Type: Pump Bottle
other Info.
- Online Item #: 14507966
- Store Item Number (DPCI): 037-13-0215
- Item can be gift wrapped.
- Made in the USA


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Book your room at Chinthurst B&B - Guest house
Get an overview of this hotelLuxury guesthouse in Skipton with free parking
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Simply enter your Nectar card number when prompted. Your points will be credited 30 days after you return from your trip.*Offers may apply
Situated in Skipton, this luxury guesthouse is within a 10-minute walk of Craven Museum and Gallery and Skipton Castle. The Mart Theatre is 1.6 mi (2.6 km) away.
Property Features
Along with a snack bar/deli, this smoke-free guesthouse has a rooftop terrace and a garden. Free WiFi in public areas and free self parking are also provided.
Room Amenities
All 10 rooms offer free WiFi, DVD players, and free newspapers.Would you like to give us feedback? Share it! Opens in a new window
Chinthurst B&B - Guest houseOtley Road Skipton England BD23 1EX
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
The guesthouse offers a snack bar/deli. Public areas are equipped with complimentary high-speed wireless Internet access. This luxury guesthouse also offers a rooftop terrace and a garden. Complimentary self parking is available on site.
Chinthurst B&B - Guest house is a smoke-free property.
- Total number of rooms - 10
- Number of floors - 2
- Breakfast available (surcharge)
- Front desk (limited hours)
- Free WiFi
- Snack bar/deli
- Garden
- Rooftop terrace
- Free self parking
- Smoke-free property
- Number of buildings/towers - 2
Family Friendly Amenities
- Free Wi-Fi
- Snack bar/deli
- DVD player
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Free self parking
Room Amenities
- DVD player
- Air conditioning
- Private bathroom
- Hair dryer (on request)
- Desk
- Iron/ironing board (on request)
- Free WiFi
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Free newspaper
Where to Eat
Breakfast is available for a surcharge between 7:30 AM and 9:30 AM.
Hotel Policies
Check-in time ends at 6 PM
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Check-out time is 10:30 AM
Payment types
- Pets not allowed
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Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
Hotel Name
- Chinthurst B&B Guest house Skipton
- Chinthurst Hotel Skipton
- Chinthurst Skipton


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Judge Ann Watkin, who sentenced Balau at Dublin District Court, remarked that while he had previous convictions, his behaviour was "getting worse".
Balau, with an address at Merchant's Quay, Dublin 8, pleaded guilty to assaulting the man, breach of the peace and public drunkenness at Temple Bar Square on August 8, 2012.
Clunes ditched from car advert
ACTOR Martin Clunes has been dropped from a car insurance campaign after being disqualified from driving.
The Men Behaving Badly star had featured in Churchill Insurance's television adverts for almost a year. But it is understood the 50-year-old was deemed no longer compatible with car insurance advertising.
The decision was taken after he informed the company he had reached 12 points on his licence for speeding offences and was banned by magistrates under totting up rules.
Animals saved after US storm
SIXTY dogs and cats that were displaced by Superstorm Sandy have arrived in San Diego.
A plane carrying the animals landed at Lindberg Field and they were taken to a shelter in Rancho Santa Fe.
A spokeswoman for the Helen Woodward Animal Centre said the pets were facing euthanisation at New York and New Jersey animal shelters that lost power after the storm struck last month.
Mexican crime links denied
THE Mexican attorney general's office said federal police who fired on a US embassy vehicle, wounding two CIA officers, had nothing to do with a kidnapping investigation in the area.
Assistant prosecutor Victoria Pacheco Jimenez said federal officers charged with attempted murder were not working on the kidnapping of a government official in the area south of Mexico City on August 24.


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I searched and couldn't find a answer that helped. I created a site in HTML with 3 rows and 3 columns. I successfully converted my HTMl5 code to wordpress. Now I've ran into a problem when it comes to implementing the loop(s). I have 3 rows with 3 columns each. I want to display on the homepage three categories in these rows.
Category one
[1] [2] [3]
Category Two
[1] [2] [3]
Category Three
[1] [2] [3]
I would also like to add that I have more than three categories, but would only like to display these three on the homepage and exclude the others. I would appreciate any help on how to go about this if it's possible.
Thank Yuu


text:
Chapter 8. General Principles of Sensory Processing, Touch, and Pain
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By Nancy Szokan Sensory deprivation is Sushma Subramanian's topic in the October issue of Women's Health magazine, and she offers a couple of extreme examples. Julie Malloy, 33, from York, Pa., describes living without the sense of touch: "I was born with a rare sensory illness that leaves me unable to feel pain, temperature, deep pressure, or vibrations in my arms, legs, and the majority of my chest and back. I use vision to compensate as much as I can. . . . "I always wash my face with cold water; I once burned myself without realizing it. . . . When I drive, I can't really tell how hard I'm pushing on the pedals. I watch others really enjoy it when someone kisses their arm or get tingly when someone hugs them, but I can't even feel anything during sex." Erin Napoleone, 31, from Havre de Grace, Md., describes losing her sense of smell: "As a teen, I was in a car accident. A few days later, I watched my father make homemade tomato sauce — but I didn't smell a thing. Then I couldn't detect my mom's familiar perfume. A head CT scan confirmed my sense of smell was gone for good." The magazine points out that some senses naturally deteriorate with age and that taking care of your skin — say, by keeping it moisturized and protecting it from damage — can help preserve the sense of touch. But olfactory nerves facing "prolonged exposure to rank odors (think freeway fumes or curbside trash)" can be permanently damaged.
Keyword: Pain & Touch; Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 21504 - Posted: 10.13.2015
It can start with flashing lights, a tingling sensation and a feeling of unease, followed by excruciating pain. Migraines can be triggered by lack of food or too much stress but their underlying cause has remained a mystery. Now researchers have found that a migraine may be triggered by a protein deep in the brain that stimulates the neurons controlling facial sensations. The discovery creates a potential new target for safer migraine medicines and adds weight to the theory that neurons, not blood vessels, are responsible for migraine attacks. "Where a migraine starts is a key question," says Debbie Hay at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. "There has been a great deal of debate around the mechanisms of migraine. If we can pin this down, we may have better chances of preventing it." To investigate, Simon Akerman at New York University and Peter Goadsby at Kings College London, UK, studied two neuropeptides released by neurons thought to play a role in the pain associated with migraine. These protein-like molecules, called VIP and PACAP, first raised suspicion after they were found to be elevated in blood drained from the brains of people having a migraine attack. When researchers administered these peptides to volunteers, they found that they could cause a headache or migraine about two hours later. Both peptides widen blood vessels, which was thought to be significant in migraine. In fact, the only drugs specifically developed for migraine that are in use today – triptans – were designed to shrink blood vessels in the brain. As a result, they cannot be used by people with cardiovascular disorders. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 21489 - Posted: 10.08.2015
Jo Marchant Most new painkiller drugs fail in clinical trials — but a growing placebo response may be to blame. Drug companies have a problem: they are finding it ever harder to get painkillers through clinical trials. But this isn't necessarily because the drugs are getting worse. An extensive analysis of trial data1 has found that responses to sham treatments have become stronger over time, making it harder to prove a drug's advantage over placebo. The change in reponse to placebo treatments for pain, discovered by researchers in Canada, holds true only for US clinical trials. "We were absolutely floored when we found out," says Jeffrey Mogil, who directs the pain-genetics lab at McGill University in Montreal and led the analysis. Simply being in a US trial and receiving sham treatment now seems to relieve pain almost as effectively as many promising new drugs. Mogil thinks that as US trials get longer, larger and more expensive, they may be enhancing participants' expectations of their effectiveness. Stronger placebo responses have already been reported for trials of antidepressants and antipsychotics2, 3, triggering debate over whether growing placebo effects are seen in pain trials too. To find out, Mogil and his colleagues examined 84 clinical trials of drugs for the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain (pain which affects the nervous system) published between 1990 and 2013. © 2015 Nature Publishing Group,
Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 21484 - Posted: 10.07.2015
By Sarah C. P. Williams Looking at photos of starving refugees or earthquake victims can trigger a visceral sense of empathy. But how, exactly, do we feel others' agony as our own? A new study suggests that seeing others in pain engages some of the same neural pathways as when we ourselves are in pain. Moreover, both pain and empathy can be reduced by a placebo effect that acts on the same pathways as opioid painkillers, the researchers found. "This study provides one of the most direct demonstrations to date that first-hand pain and pain empathy are functionally related," says neurobiologist Bernadette Fitzgibbon of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, who was not involved in the new research. "It's very exciting." Previous studies have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to show that similar areas of the brain are activated when someone is in pain and when they see another person in pain. But overlaps on a brain scan don't necessarily mean the two function through identical pathways—the shared brain areas could relate to attention or emotional arousal, among other things, rather than pain itself. Social neuroscientist Claus Lamm and colleagues at the University of Vienna took a different approach to test whether pain and empathy are driven by the same pathways. The researchers first divided about 100 people into control or placebo groups. They gave the placebo group a pill they claimed to be an expensive, over-the-counter painkiller, when in fact it was inactive. This well-established placebo protocol is known to function similarly to opioid painkillers, while avoiding the drugs' side effects. © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Keyword: Pain & Touch; Emotions
Link ID: 21458 - Posted: 09.29.2015
By Jane E. Brody Mark Hammel's hearing was damaged in his 20s by machine gun fire when he served in the Israeli Army. But not until decades later, at 57, did he receive his first hearing aids. "It was very joyful, but also very sad, when I contemplated how much I had missed all those years," Dr. Hammel, a psychologist in Kingston, N.Y., said in an interview. "I could hear well enough sitting face to face with someone in a quiet room, but in public, with background noise, I knew people were talking, but I had no idea what they were saying. I just stood there nodding my head and smiling. "Eventually, I stopped going to social gatherings. Even driving, I couldn't hear what my daughter was saying in the back seat. I live in the country, and I couldn't hear the birds singing. "People with hearing loss often don't realize what they're missing," he said. "So much of what makes us human is social contact, interaction with other human beings. When that's cut off, it comes with a very high cost." And the price people pay is much more than social. As Dr. Hammel now realizes, "the capacity to hear is so essential to overall health." Hearing loss is one of the most common conditions affecting adults, and the most common among older adults. An estimated 30 million to 48 million Americans have hearing loss that significantly diminishes the quality of their lives — academically, professionally and medically as well as socially. One person in three older than 60 has life-diminishing hearing loss, but most older adults wait five to 15 years before they seek help, according to a 2012 report in Healthy Hearing magazine. And the longer the delay, the more one misses of life and the harder it can be to adjust to hearing aids. © 2015 The New York Times Company
Keyword: Hearing; Language
Link ID: 21449 - Posted: 09.28.2015
By Simon Makin Most people associate the term "subliminal conditioning" with dystopian sci-fi tales, but a recent study has used the technique to alter responses to pain. The findings suggest that information that does not register consciously teaches our brain more than scientists previously suspected. The results also offer a novel way to think about the placebo effect. Our perception of pain can depend on expectations, which explains placebo pain relief—and placebo's evil twin, the nocebo effect (if we think something will really hurt, it can hurt more than it should). Researchers have studied these expectation effects using conditioning techniques: they train people to associate specific stimuli, such as certain images, with different levels of pain. The subjects' perception of pain can then be reduced or increased by seeing the images during something painful. Most researchers assumed these pain-modifying effects required conscious expectations, but the new study, from a team at Harvard Medical School and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, led by Karin Jensen, shows that even subliminal input can modify pain—a more cognitively complex process than most that have previously been discovered to be susceptible to subliminal effects (timeline below). The scientists conditioned 47 people to associate two faces with either high or low pain levels from heat applied to their forearm. Some participants saw the faces normally, whereas others were exposed subliminally—the images were flashed so briefly, the participants were not aware of seeing them, as verified by recognition tests. © 2015 Scientific American
Keyword: Pain & Touch; Attention
Link ID: 21438 - Posted: 09.24.2015
David Cyranoski A dispute has broken out at two of China's most prestigious universities over a potentially groundbreaking discovery: the identification of a protein that may allow organisms to sense magnetic fields. On 14 September, Zhang Sheng-jia, a neuroscientist at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and his colleagues published a paper1 in Science Bulletin claiming to use magnetic fields to remotely control neurons and muscle cells in worms, by employing a particular magnetism-sensing protein. But Xie Can, a biophysicist at neighbouring Peking University, says that Zhang's publication draws on a discovery made in his laboratory, currently under review for publication, and violates a collaboration agreement the two had reached. Administrators at Tsinghua and Peking universities, siding with Xie, have jointly requested that the journal retract Zhang's paper, and Tsinghua has launched an investigation into Zhang's actions. The dispute revolves around an answer to the mystery of how organisms as diverse as worms, butterflies, sea turtles and wolves are capable of sensing Earth's magnetic field to help them navigate. Researchers have postulated that structures in biological cells must be responsible, and dubbed these structures magnetoreceptors. But they have never been found. In research starting in 2009, Xie says that he used a painstaking whole-genome screen to identify a protein containing iron and sulfur that seems, according to his experiments, to have the properties of a magnetoreceptor. He called it MagR, to note its purported properties, and has since been examining its function and structure to determine how it senses magnetic fields. © 2015 Nature Publishing Group,
Keyword: Animal Migration
Link ID: 21431 - Posted: 09.22.2015
By Larry Greenemeier Advanced prosthetics have for the past few years begun tapping into brain signals to provide amputees with impressive new levels of control. Patients think, and a limb moves. But getting a robotic arm or hand to sense what it's touching, and send that feeling back to the brain, has been a harder task. The U.S. Defense Department's research division last week claimed a breakthrough in this area, issuing a press release touting a 28-year-old paralyzed person's ability to "feel" physical sensations through a prosthetic hand. Researchers have directly connected the artificial appendage to his brain, giving him the ability to even identify which mechanical finger is being gently touched, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In 2013, other scientists at Case Western Reserve University also gave touch to amputees, giving patients precise-enough feeling of pressure in their fingertips to allow them to twist the stems off cherries. The government isn't providing much detail at this time about its achievement other than to say that researchers ran wires from arrays connected to the volunteer's sensory and motor cortices—which identify tactile sensations and control body movements, respectively—to a mechanical hand developed by the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at Johns Hopkins University. The APL hand's torque sensors can convert pressure applied to any of its fingers into electrical signals routed back to the volunteer's brain. © 2015 Scientific American
Keyword: Pain & Touch; Robotics
Link ID: 21411 - Posted: 09.15.2015
By Olivia Campbell Leave it to childbirth to cause a woman who's never felt pain in her life to now experience persistent discomfort. When a 37-year-old woman with a condition known as congenital insensitivity to pain gave birth, her labor was as painless as expected. But during the delivery, she sustained pelvic fractures and an epidural hematoma that impinged on a nerve in her lower spine. Since then, she has added an unfortunate variety of words to her vocabulary: Her hips "hurt" and "ache;" she feels a "continuous buzzing in both legs and a vice-like squeezing in the pelvis." When resting, she is left with "tingling" and "electric shocks." She now has headaches, backaches, period pains, and stomach cramps; and even describes "the sting" of a graze and "the sharpness" of an exposed gum. According to doctors who treated her, the woman's sensitivity to pain -- tested on the tops of her feet -- is 10 times higher than it was before she gave birth. Congenital insensitivity to pain is an incredibly rare genetic disorder — there are only 20 recorded cases — that causes individuals to be totally unaware of pain. Co-author of the paper Michael Lee explained how pain pathways start with specialized nerves, called nociceptors, that sense damaging temperatures or pressure and then fire off signals to the brain. Those signals make us feel pain to prevent further damage. In people with CIP, a defective gene prevents these signals from going through. But pain can also arise when nociceptors or nerves are damaged, as was the case when this woman's lumbar nerve was pinched during childbirth.
Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 21379 - Posted: 09.03.2015
A placebo can make you feel a little better – and now we know how to boost the effect. Drugs based on hormones that make us more cooperative seem to enhance the placebo effect. The finding could lead to changes in the way some trials are performed. Sometimes a sugar pill can be all you need, even when you know it doesn't contain any medicine. We're still not entirely sure why. The brain's natural painkillers, such as dopamine and opioids, seem to be involved, but other factors may be at work too. Evidence that a compassionate, trustworthy carer can speed recovery suggests that there is also a social dimension to the placebo effect. "This interaction between the patient and care provider seems to be based on a more complex system," says Luana Colloca at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. Hormones that modulate our social behaviour might play a role. Last year, a team led by Ulrike Bingel of the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany, found that oxytocin – the so-called "cuddle chemical" that is thought to help us trust, bond and form relationships – seems to boost the placebo effect, at least in men. In the study, Bingel's team applied an inert ointment to the arms of male volunteers. Half of them were told that the cream would reduce the degree of pain caused by the painfully hot stimulus subsequently applied. Men who were told that they were receiving pain relief said that the heat was less painful than those who knew that the cream was inert. When oxytocin was squirted up volunteers' noses, the men reported being in even less pain. The team didn't test oxytocin in women. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
Keyword: Pain & Touch; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 21336 - Posted: 08.25.2015
By Robert F. Service Move over, poppies. In one of the most elaborate feats of synthetic biology to date, a research team has engineered yeast with a medley of plant, bacterial, and rodent genes to turn sugar into thebaine, the key opiate precursor to morphine and other powerful painkilling drugs that have been harvested for thousands of years from poppy plants. The team also showed that with further tweaks, the yeast could make hydrocodone, a widely used painkiller that is now made chemically from thebaine. "This is a major milestone," says Jens Nielsen, a synthetic biologist at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden. The work, he adds, demonstrates synthetic biology's increasing sophistication at transferring complex metabolic pathways into microbes. By tweaking the yeast pathways, medicinal chemists may be able to produce more effective, less addictive versions of opiate painkillers. But some biopolicy experts worry that morphinemaking yeast strains could also allow illicit drugmakers to brew heroin as easily as beer enthusiasts home brew today—the drug is a simple chemical conversion from morphine. That concern is one reason the research team, led by Christina Smolke, a synthetic biologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, stopped short of making a yeast strain with the complete morphine pathway; medicinal drug makers also primarily use thebaine to make new compounds. Synthetic biologists had previously engineered yeast to produce artemisinin, an antimalarial compound, but that required inserting just a handful of plant genes. To get yeast to make thebaine, © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Keyword: Drug Abuse; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 21297 - Posted: 08.15.2015
Richard Harris Hospitals have a free and powerful tool that they could use more often to help reduce the pain that surgery patients experience: music. Scores of studies over the years have looked at the power of music to ease this kind of pain; an analysis published Wednesday in The Lancet that pulls all those findings together builds a strong case. When researchers in London started combing the medical literature for studies about music's soothing power, they found hundreds of small studies suggesting some benefit. The idea goes back to the days of Florence Nightingale, and music was used to ease surgical pain as early as 1914. (My colleague Patricia Neighmond reported on one of these studies just a few months ago). Dr. Catherine Meads at Brunel University focused her attention on 73 rigorous, randomized clinical trials about the role of music among surgery patients. "As they studies themselves were small, they really didn't find all that much," Meads says. "But once we put them all together, we had much more power to find whether music worked or not." She and her colleagues now report that, yes indeed, surgery patients who listened to music, either before, during or after surgery, were better off — in terms of reduced pain, less anxiety and more patient satisfaction. © 2015 NPR
Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 21293 - Posted: 08.13.2015
Joe Palca The sea snail Conus magus looks harmless enough, but it packs a venomous punch that lets it paralyze and eat fish. A peptide modeled on the venom is a powerful painkiller, though sneaking it past the blood-brain barrier has proved hard. The sea snail Conus magus looks harmless enough, but it packs a venomous punch that lets it paralyze and eat fish. A peptide modeled on the venom is a powerful painkiller, though sneaking it past the blood-brain barrier has proved hard. Courtesy of Jeanette Johnson and Scott Johnson Researchers are increasingly turning to nature for inspiration for new drugs. One example is Prialt. It's an incredibly powerful painkiller that people sometimes use when morphine no longer works. Prialt is based on a component in the venom of a marine snail. Prialt hasn't become a widely used drug because it's hard to administer. Mandë Holford is hoping to change that. She and colleagues explain how in their study published online Monday in the journal Scientific Reports. Holford is an associate professor of chemical biology at Hunter College in New York and on the scientific staff of the American Museum of Natural History. As is so often the case in science, her path to working on Prialt wasn't exactly a direct one. She's a chemist, and her first passion was peptides — short strings of amino acids that do things inside cells. "I started out with this love for peptides," Holford says, then laughs. "Love! Sounds weird to say you love peptides out loud." © 2015 NPR
Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 21255 - Posted: 08.04.2015
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: Every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control, 44 Americans die because they have overdosed on prescription painkillers. The CDC calls it an epidemic, and drug companies are responding by trying to develop versions of the most addictive painkillers, opioids, that will diminish a user's physical craving for the medicine. Now, to do this, to create these less addictive drugs, pharmaceutical companies are recruiting thousands of self-identified drug users to test their products. David Crow is a reporter for the Financial Times. He's just published a big report on this, and he joins me now to talk more about it. Thanks so much for being with us. Opioids, as we mentioned, are the worst in terms of their addictive quality. These companies are trying to come up with drugs that will achieve the same painkilling effect without the addictiveness. So this is actually possible? CROW: What they're trying to do is develop a new generation of opioid painkillers that have features that make them harder to abuse. Some of the strategies that have been pursued include hard shells that make it harder to crush up the pill so that you can snort it or gumming agents that make it harder to put into a syringe so that you can inject it. And some companies are experimenting with putting different chemicals in the center of the pill that will remain dormant. But if it's tampered with, that chemical would be released, and it would counteract the effect of the opioid. They're testing these drugs on recreational drug users. And the participants go through a screening process where they have to wash out, where they don't have any opioid in their system, and also where they're given a drug called naloxone, which cuts off the effects of opioids. And at that point, if you were addicted or physically dependent, your body would show signs of withdrawal. And that is the screening process. © 2015 NPR
Keyword: Drug Abuse; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 21253 - Posted: 08.02.2015
Mo Costandi When we say that we are "in pain", we usually mean that an injured body part is hurting us. But the phenomenon we call pain consists of more than just physical sensations, and often has mental and emotional aspects, too. Pain signals entering the black box of the brain can be subjected further processing, and these hidden thought processes can alter the way we perceive them. We still know very little about these non-physical aspects of pain, or about the brain processes responsible for them. We do know, however, that learning and mental imagery can both diminish and enhance the experience of felt pain. Two new studies now extend these findings – one shows that subliminal learning can also alter pain responses, and the other explains how mental imagery can do so. It's well known that simple associative learning procedures can alter responses to pain. For example, newborn babies who have diabetic mothers and are repeatedly exposed to heel pricks in the first few days of life exhibit larger pain responses during subsequent blood tests than healthy infants. Learning also appears to explain the placebo effect, and why it is often so variable. Several years ago, Karin Jensen, who is now at Harvard Medical School, and her colleagues showed that subliminal cues can reactivate consciously-learned associations to either enhance or diminish pain responses. In their latest study, the researchers set out to determine the extent to which this type of learning can occur non-consciously. © 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited
Keyword: Pain & Touch; Emotions
Link ID: 21247 - Posted: 08.01.2015
Victoria E Brings & Mark J Zylka A study finds that pain hypersensitivity in male and female mice is differentially dependent on microglia and T cells, and describes a sex-specific response to microglia-targeted pain treatments. This sex difference will be important to consider when developing treatments for pain and other neurological disorders involving microglia and immune cells. Animal studies1, 2 have spawned great interest in using microglial inhibitors such as minocycline to treat pain in humans. However, these studies were conducted largely on male rodents. Now, Sorge et al.3 have evaluated several microglial inhibitors in nerve-injured mice of both sexes. The study—led by Jeffrey Mogil, who has championed the testing of males and females in pain studies4—found that microglial inhibitors did reduce allodynia, a form of pain hypersensitivity to touch, in males. Surprisingly, however, these inhibitors were ineffective in female mice, despite a robust activation of spinal microglia (Fig. 1). The authors instead found that cells of the adaptive immune system promote pain hypersensitivity in females. Although focused on pain, these findings could have implications for other neurological disorders that disproportionately affect one sex, such as autism and neurodegeneration, and in which microglia and immune cells are implicated5, 6. Figure 1: Pain mechanisms differ in male and female mice. Pain mechanisms differ in male and female mice. Nerve injury activates microglial cells in the spinal cord of male and female mice, but microglial inhibitors only block allodynia in males. P2RX4 is upregulated in males only. Female mice have about twice as many T cells as males. Testosterone increases PPARα and decreases PPARγ gene expression in T cells. Compounds that activate PPARα inhibit mechanical pain hypersensitivity (allodynia) in males, whereas those that activate PPARγ inhibit allodynia in females. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited
Keyword: Pain & Touch; Glia
Link ID: 21229 - Posted: 07.29.2015
By Annick Laurent Can you tell a pygmy blue whale from an Antarctic blue whale? If not, you aren't alone. Marine biologists have had trouble distinguishing these enormous mammals with mottled skin patterns ever since they began studying them—and that has complicated efforts to figure out where they breed and how to best protect them. Now, researchers have caught a break thanks to a pygmy whale named Isabela. Researchers first photographed the whale and collected her DNA in 1998 in the waters off the Galapagos Islands. Then, in 2006, another team photographed and collected samples from a similar looking whale off Chile (both photos above). Now, in a study published online before print in Marine Mammal Science, scientists compared those samples and photographs, and discovered that they both belonged to the same whale. That means Isabela (named after the lead author's daughter to represent hope for future preservation efforts) migrated a minimum of 5200 km, the longest recorded latitudinal migration made by any Southern Hemisphere blue whale on record. The findings suggest Chile's and the Galapagos' blue whale aggregations are connected, meaning those feeding in the Gulf of Corcovado off Chile may be breeding in the Tropical Eastern Pacific. Knowing where this species migrates—including its feeding and breeding grounds—can help conservationists and governments better establish marine protected areas, the team says. © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Keyword: Animal Migration
Link ID: 21213 - Posted: 07.25.2015
By Sarah Schwartz Scientists think they have a new understanding of a potential long-lasting, targeted treatment for chronic pain. When injected into the spinal cord of a mouse with nerve damage, cells extracted from mouse bone marrow flock to injured cells and produce a pain-relieving protein, researchers report July 13 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The results may lead to better chronic pain treatments in humans. The specialized cells honed in on their ultimate destination by following chemical signals released by the injured nerve cells. There, the injected cells produced an anti-inflammatory protein, called transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFB1), which provided long-term pain relief. Researchers had known that the marrow cells relieved pain, but didn't know how, says study coauthor Ru-Rong Ji, a neurobiologist at Duke University Medical Center. "These cells make drugs at sites of injury," says biologist Arnold Caplan of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "They're drugstores." Ji and colleagues found that they could relieve chronic nerve pain in mice by injecting 250,000 cells or fewer into the narrow space under the spinal cord membrane. This site is protected by the blood-brain barrier, preventing immune attacks on the injected cells and allowing these cells to live longer, Ji says. Some clinical trials inject cells like these into the bloodstream, Caplan says, requiring the use of many more cells, many of which get stuck in the lungs and liver. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2015
Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 21167 - Posted: 07.14.2015
By Esther Hsieh Strap on a headset, immerse yourself in an alternate reality and cure your pain—that's the idea of a recent study in Psychological Science. Most people think of pain as something that happens in the body—I twist my head too far, and my neck sends a "pain signal" to the brain to indicate that the twisting hurts. In reality, pain is simply the brain telling us we are in danger. Although certain nerve endings throughout the body can indeed detect bodily harm, their signals are only one factor that the brain uses to determine if we should experience pain. Many cases of chronic pain are thought to be the result of obsolete brain associations between movement and pain. To explore the mind's influence over pain, Daniel Harvie, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of South Australia, and his colleagues asked 24 participants who suffer from chronic neck pain to sit in a chair while wearing virtual-reality glasses and turn their head. The displays were manipulated to make the participants think that they were turning their head more or less than they actually were. Subjects could swivel their head 6 percent more than usual if the virtual reality made them think they were turning less, and they could rotate 7 percent less than usual when they thought they were turning more. The findings suggest that virtual-reality therapy has the potential to retrain the brain to understand that once painful movements are now safe, extinguishing the association with danger. © 2015 Scientific American
Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 21155 - Posted: 07.11.2015
By JAMES GORMAN Call it the case of the homing lizards. It's a small mystery. No one of any species is murdered. But the central question is one that has prompted plenty of scientific research: How do animals find their way home? The lizards in this case are anoles — abundant, mostly small reptiles that thrive in the Caribbean. The species is Anolis gundlachi. The lead detective is Manuel Leal, a biologist at the University of Missouri. He has been studying the behavior of anoles for more than 20 years. For about three years, Dr. Leal has been trying to understand how the anole finds its way back to its own territory after being carried into the rain forest. And as he told an audience in June at the annual meeting of the Animal Behavior Society in Anchorage, the case is far from closed. First, a bit of background. Anoles are particularly abundant in the dense vegetation of the rain forests in Puerto Rico, where Dr. Leal studies them. Each species is tied to a very specific environment. For instance, many live on tree trunks, but only a particular part of the trunk. Trunk-ground anoles live only in the space from the ground up to six feet or so. Trunk-crown anoles live above them, up to the crown of the tree. Twig anoles live way up high. Several years ago, Dr. Leal was studying competition between two species. If he removed all of the trunk-ground anoles, he wondered, would the trunk-crown lizards extend their territory farther down the tree? He ran into a problem, however. He would take the trunk-ground lizards far from their home territory to make room for their upstairs neighbors, and then release them. But in a reptilian version of the children's song, "The Cat Came Back," the lizards wouldn't stay away. "Lizards kept showing up in the territory that had just been scoured for lizards," he said. Dr. Leal wondered whether new anoles were appearing in empty territory or the old ones were returning. But how could a lizard that had never left home find its way back through 25 yards or so of dense rain forest? © 2015 The New York Times Company
Keyword: Animal Migration
Link ID: 21141 - Posted: 07.07.2015


text:
Kanji Tatsumi
|Kanji Tatsumi
|Persona character
Kanji as seen in Persona 4
|First game
|Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (2008)
|Created by
|Shigenori Soejima
|Designed by
|Shigenori Soejima
|Voiced by (English)
|Troy Baker (2008–14)
Matthew Mercer (2014–present)[1]
|Voiced by (Japanese)
|Tomokazu Seki
Kanji Tatsumi (巽 完二 Tatsumi Kanji?) is a fictional character in the 2008 PlayStation 2 release Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 by Atlus. In the game Kanji is a high school student who becomes famous in television after fighting delinquents in the streets. Kanji becomes a victim of a series of kidnappings where the person is thrown to a dimension known as the TV World and the main cast of characters goes to save him from his alternate self, his Shadow. After Kanji is saved from the experience with the Shadow being turned into a power known as Persona, he joins the Investigation Team, befriending them in the process. He has also appeared in other works such as the fighting game Persona 4 Arena and the crossover Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, He is voiced by Tomokazu Seki in Japanese, and Troy Baker in English in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, Persona 4: Golden, Persona 4: Arena, and the first twelve episodes of Persona 4: The Animation; his English voice actor for the remainder of Persona 4: The Animation, as well as subsequent games, is Matthew Mercer.[1]
Kanji has received generally positive reception for his role in Persona 4 including his Social Links where he undergoes character development. However, his ambiguous sexual preference has become one of the game's most controversial themes with several writers commenting on whether the game does a good job in explaining Kanji's personality.
Concept and creation[edit]
Early designs of Kanji were drastically different from the final one. He was initially given the classic gang-style pompadour. His design was made by Shigenori Soejima.[2] Both of Kanji's Personas are based on his own visual appearance.[3]
Yu Namba, the Persona 4 Project Lead for Atlus USA, commented that while Kanji's Shadow might offend some players due to it being a gay stereotype, Kanji was nothing like a stereotype. Kanji's sexual orientation was left ambiguous to all players.[4] Namba added "We would like everyone to play through the game and come up with their own answers to that question; there is no official answer ... What matters is that Kanji's other self cries out, 'Accept me for who I am!' I think it's a powerful message which many, if not all of us can relate to."[5] Nich Maragos, Persona 4 Editor for Atlus USA, agreed with Namba, but personally held the opinion that Kanji was homosexual.[5] The localization team of Persona 4 made a point of keeping as true to the original translation as possible.[5] He cited Shadow Kanji's flamboyant personality and stated, "That flamboyance was also what the viewers of the Midnight Channel wanted to see: a typical gay person on TV that people would laugh at. The TV station broadcasts what the audience prefers to watch -- it's a stark portrayal of modern society."[5] Namba also made some scenes which involved Kanji's sexual orientation more subtle without removing the scenes' value.[5]
He is voiced by Tomokazu Seki in Japanese, Troy Baker in English,[4][6] and Matt Mercer in later English releases.[7] Seki's portrayal was highly praised by the game's staff due to the delivery of his lines.[4] Youichiro Omi was cast as Kanji Tatsumi for the Persona 4 musical.[8]
Kanji Tatsumi first appears in the PlayStation 2 video game Persona 4. He is a delinquent who has a reputation as being a bully, and is the center of numerous rumors regarding a confrontation with a local biker gang.[9] As a result, he was initially given the "classic gang-style pompadour" in the making of his design.[2] The fourth victim to be sent to the TV world, Kanji is revealed to have a complex with his Shadow revealing he hates girls as a result of criticizing his sewing and is more interested in boys.[10] After the protagonist's group comes to save Kanji when he is trapped in the Midnight Channel, he accepts that his other self is an important part of his identity.[11] Kanji learns of the Investigation Team's actions in Persona 4 and joins them to find the culprit.[12]
His sexual orientation remains ambiguous across the series, with Kanji being first interested in Naoto Shirogane when first meeting her, believing her to be a boy, but is still attracted to her when it is revealed that she is a girl.[13] His Persona is Take-Mikazuchi (タケミカヅチ?), an imposing, black, robotic humanoid which has a skeleton-like design, like Kanji's shirt, and is armed with a large lightning bolt.[11] Throughout Yu's interactions with Kanji, he reveals to be skilled at tailoring inspired by his family who runs a textile shop but stopped making dolls when accused by fellow students. Kanji eventually learns to take pride in his skills, rather than hide them.[14] Shortly afterwards, Take-Mikazuchi evolves into Rokuten Maoh (ロクテンマオウ Rokuten Maō?), who has a fiery motif instead of Take-Mikazuchi's skeleton and lightning.[15] In Persona 4: Golden, Kanji's new Persona is Take-Jizaiten (タケジザイテン?), which resembles Rokuten Maoh but has elaborate white armor with red flame details.[16]
The friendship made with Kanji serves as the Social Link to The Emperor;[17] this is signified in Persona 4: The Animation by Yu's Persona King Frost (キングフロスト Kingu Furosuto?).[18]
He appears as a playable character in Persona 4 Arena and its sequel Persona 4 Arena Ultimax with Take-Mikazuchi.[19] In the game's story mode, Kanji accidentally falls into the TV World's P-1 Grand Prix tournament and believes he is having a dream as he encounters his friends.[20] He later believes that the main cause of this is his Shadow who has been impersonated by an unknown person.[21][22] He also appears in the spin-off games Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth and Persona 4: Dancing All Night.[23]
Kanji has received generally positive reception for his role in Persona 4. According to Gamasutra's Samantha Xu, reception for Kanji by Persona 4 players has been "neutral or positive."[5] Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton found Kanji to be a particularly funny character in Persona 4 Golden. He cited Kanji's animal crackers and "general grump obliviousness."[24] GamesRadar staff claimed that Kanji, as well as Chie and Teddie, were "well-defined by scenes that shift between comedy and drama fluidly."[25] Game Informer's Kimberley Wallace felt that Kanji had one of the best Social Links in Persona 4. She stated, "From Kanji's hilarious overreactions to seeing him show his true emotions about his struggle, the social link is fun and heartwarming."[26] He was also listed as the third best Persona character by Kimberley Wallace from Game Informer who praised his praised the way he starts expressing he likes "adorable things" despite looking like delinquent.[27] IGN listed him as the best Persona character, commenting that while initially looking like the "resident tough guy" of Persona 4, "he represents everything excellent about Persona's outstanding characters and storytelling."[28] Atlus senior project manager Masaru Nanba remarked on how popular the interpretation of Kanji and his Shadow were in the west in an interview with Famitsu in 2013.[29]
Kanji's sexuality is one of the most controversial elements of Persona 4 by North American players according to 1UP.com's Andrew Fitch.[4] Fitch worried that both gay and straight players in North America may be offended by how he was designed.[4] Atlus senior project manager Masaru Nanba remarked on how popular the interpretation of Kanji and his Shadow were in the west in an interview with Famitsu in 2013.[29] CVG Online's Matthew Pellett called the examination of his sexuality a "first" for Japanese role-playing games.[30] Game Career Guide's Patrick Hayes stated that Shadow Kanji represents his "confusion over manhood and sexuality."[31] Larry Hester of Complex ranked him the sixth best LGBT character in video games.[32] IGN's Keza MacDonald cited Kanji as one of the few playable gay characters in a Japanese video game.[33] Kotaku's Jason Schreier suggested that his lack of understanding of his sexuality comes from his young age.[34] Colette Bennett, editor for Destructoid, felt that most American gamers would think Kanji was gay.[5] She also felt that American designers were not "comfortable with portraying characters like Kanji."[5] VG247's Julie Horup listed Kanji as an example of a homosexual character in video games.[35] Huffington Post also featured it in a list of LGBT video game characters.[36] Salon's Luke Winkie chose Kanji as his favourite LGBT character in video games. He stated, "By the end of the game you remember Kanji as your friend, not a kid in the closet."[37]
Gamasutra's Xu noted that Kanji was one of the first video game characters to address his sexual identity in an "engaging and meaningful manner." She followed by stating that while he "may not be politically progressive enough to dub him the Harvey Milk of gaming ... his unique existence in Persona 4 is a small and positive move forward toward a more socially diversified gaming universe."[5] Brenda Brathwaite, author of "Sex in Video Games" stated: "It would have been amazing if they would have made a concrete statement that he is gay. That we could play as a gay main character in a video game would be a big deal." She added, "I can find twenty things that I didn't like about how Kanji was portrayed, such as the game's juvenile nature in dealing with his sexuality, but there is a part of me that is thrilled there is a gay character in a game and that a game would portray how they are dealing with their inner struggles and interactions with friends."[5] Dr. Antonia Levi, author of "Samurai from Outer Space: Understanding Japanese Animation", discussed the differences between homosexuality's acceptability in the United States versus Japan. She claimed that unlike the US, Japan had no legislation related to homosexuality and did not view sexuality as a matter of "right or wrong." She explained that this was the reason for Kanji's sexual ambiguity.[5] Xu cited Levi in her article to explain that Japanese people tend to be outwardly traditional, and their private sexual life is not judged. She stated, "For Kanji, working at his family's textile shop was a very traditional and respectable job, one that could have been at risk had he made a lifestyle choice to have an openly gay relationship with another man."[5] She further cited Japan scholar Dr. Mark McLelland, who stated that "recent research has shown, the notion of 'coming out' is seen as undesirable by many Japanese gay men and lesbians as it necessarily involves adopting a confrontational stance against mainstream lifestyles and values, which many still wish to endorse." Xu explains that this culture may explain that Kanji was not rejecting the existence of his homosexuality or that the developers were not homophobic.[5]
GameSpot's Carolyn Petit felt that his depiction "leaves a great deal to be desired" and stated that it "rejects" Kanji's sexuality instead of "embracing" it. She stated that she was intrigued by the idea behind Kanji initially, but was disappointed that Kanji's "shadow self" was based on his fear of women rather than his attraction to men. She felt that this theme didn't make sense, given the imagery of his dungeon. She claimed that the rejection of Kanji's sexuality "sends the message that homosexuality is shameful and should not be accepted." She also criticized the handling of how Yosuke reacts to Kanji's sexuality, claiming that his homophobia toward Kanji was left unaddressed and uncriticized by the end of the game.[38] Metro Weekly's Sean Bugg felt that while elements of Kanji weren't homophobic, they weren't "exactly a PSA for tolerance, either."[39]
Author Jordan Youngblood described Kanji and Naoto's depictions as "meta-commentary on the means by which the idealized vision of queer utopia within the digital is disrupted by the player's engagement in the game's encoded processes." He added that the "ruptures this creates in exposing and involving the player in queer play (so to speak) offer a fascinating tension between the game's intended outcomes and the result brought about through engagement in its procedural rhetoric." He made a point of using it to examine how game theory and queer theory can interact in a discussion. He discusses Kanji's dungeon and suggests that the steam in it represents "concealment and uncertainty." He added, "As the player moves through the dungeon, her spatial experience mimics the larger confusion of Kanji's sexual needs: objects appear and disappear, bodies are harder to locate." He felt that the stage became a "body itself for the player to queerly experience via the avatar." The use of the word "queer" by Shadow Kanji was described by Youngblood as a word used to describe Kanji's "failure to live up to" the opposite sex's "assumptions of male identity" rather than a failure to live up to it to the same sex. The two enemies that accompany Shadow Kanji's boss battle - "Nice Guy" and "Tough Guy" - were claimed by Youngblood to be evocative of bara and yaoi, and that the "split black/white appearance of all three bodies also indicates a mixing and rupturing of sexual expectations along the lines of race as well as gender." He also discusses a scene wherein Yosuke questions his sexual identity, stating that "for the rest of the game, then, Kanji will be on a quest to "prove" that his desires follow a non-queer path—but as hard as he tries, the body he feels the closest attraction to is still his queer partner, Naoto."[40]
- ^ a b Matthew Mercer [matthewmercer] (June 27, 2014). "I just heard we are green lit to talk about it! I am voicing Kanji Tatsumi in "Persona 4 Arena Ultimax" and "Persona Q"! 😁" (Tweet). Retrieved August 13, 2016.
heyitscena (June 27, 2014). "@matthewmercer AhhhAHAH????? I don't know how feel!? I mean I love both your Kanji and @TroyBakerVA's Kanji ;O;" (Tweet). Retrieved August 13, 2016.
Matthew Mercer [matthewmercer] (June 27, 2014). "@pt_Cena @TroyBakerVA will always be my Kanji. I'm doing my best to honor him!" (Tweet). Retrieved August 13, 2016.
- ^ a b Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 Visual Data. Atlus. 2008. p. 29.
- ^ Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 Visual Data. Atlus. 2008. p. 66.
- ^ a b c d e Fitch, Andrew. "Persona 4 Afterthoughts". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Xu, Samantha (2009-01-28). "Opinion: Sexuality And Homophobia In Persona 4". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
- ^ "Sentai Filmworks Licenses Persona 4: The Animation". Anime News Network. 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-09-29.
- ^ Card Games For Charity 6. 2012-08-12. Event occurs at 5:26:15, 6:27:20, 6:31:10. Retrieved 2012-10-12.
- ^ "VisualLive Persona 4 Twitter Dec. 1 update".
- ^ Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 Visual Data. Atlus. 2008. p. 26.
- ^ Atlus (2008-12-09). Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. PlayStation 2. Atlus.
Shadow Kanji: Ohh, how I hate girls... "You like to sew? What a queer! Painting is not for you. But you're a guy... You don't act like a guy...." Men are much better... They'd never say those awful, degrading things. Yes, I vastly prefer men...
- ^ a b Atlus (2008-12-09). Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. PlayStation 2. Atlus.
Kanji: It ain't a matter of guys or chicks... I'm just scared shitless of being rejected. You're me... and I'm you, dammit! Narration: Kanji has faced his other self... He has obtained the power to overcome life's hardships, the Persona Take-Mikazuchi!
- ^ Atlus (2008-12-09). Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. PlayStation 2. Atlus.
Kanji: Anything I can do to help? If there's some bastard out there who put me through this, I ain't gonna rest until I make 'em pay. / Yosuke: Seriously? Awesome! You'd make a great addition to our team!
- ^ Atlus (2008-12-09). Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. PlayStation 2. Atlus.
Rise: Silly Kanji. Just tell her you wanna see her in the stage. So, is it a deal? The four of us will be in the beauty pageant? /.../ Naoto: Wh-What are you saying?! /.../ Kanji: Um... I beg you, please be in it.
- ^ Atlus (2008-12-09). Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. PlayStation 2. Atlus.
Kanji: No more being scared of everyone, hiding my hobbies, staying away from people... Anytime, anyplace, I'm gonna bust right through as my own self!
- ^ Atlus (2008-12-09). Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. PlayStation 2. Atlus.
Narrative: Kanji's Persona has been reborn...! Take-Mikazuchi has transfigured into Rokuten Maoh!
- ^ "Persona 4: The Golden Could've Been Called "The Garden"". Siliconera. February 26, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2012.
- ^ Yūko Kakihara (November 24, 2011). "We've lost something important again". Persona 4: The Animation. Event occurs at 0:18. MBS.
Margaret: I see you have obtained yet another Arcana: The Emperor.
- ^ "ペルソナ4アニメーション 公式サイト | ペルソナ". Retrieved 2012-03-12.
- ^ Gantayat, Anoop (September 15, 2011). "Atlus Shares Persona 4 Ultimate Move Chart". Andriasang. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
- ^ Arc System Works, Altus. Persona 4 Arena. Atlus.
Kanji: This is just a dream! (No other explanation makes sense. I was so sleepy, I guess couldn't avoid it.) / .../ Kanji: A Grand Prix to decide the strongest fighter, huh? Heheh, that's not a bad dream at all. This is gonna be fun!
- ^ Spencer (May 17, 2012). "In Persona 4: Arena Yukiko Is A Chef & Kanji Fights His Other Self". Siliconera. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- ^ "『ペルソナ4 ジ・アルティメット イン マヨナカアリーナ』天城雪子と巽完二のストーリーモードを紹介". May 18, 2012. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- ^ "See Kanji And Yukiko Switch Personas In Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth". Siliconera. April 11, 2014. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
- ^ Hamilton, Kirk; Schreier, Jason (2012-11-21). "Persona 4 Golden: The Kotaku Review". Kotaku. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ "The best videogame stories ever". GamesRadar. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ Wallace, Kimberley (2012-11-20). "The Best Persona 4 Social Links". Game Informer. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ "Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Review". Game Informer. October 1, 2015. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
- ^ "Top Ten Persona characters". IGN. July 22, 2015. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
- ^ a b "『ペルソナ4 ザ・ゴールデン』が北米でも大人気の理由・前編【翻訳担当者インタビュー】 - ファミ通.com". Famitsu.com. Retrieved 2013-02-02.
- ^ Pellett, Matthew (2011-03-27). "Catherine: Is the world ready for a JRPG this disturbing?". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ Hayes, Patrick (2010-09-24). "Game Narrative Review - Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4". Game Career Guide. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ Hester, Larry (2013-06-08). "The Coolest LGBT Video Game Characters Ever". Complex. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ MacDonald, Keza (2012-01-25). "A Gay History of Gaming". IGN. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ Schreier, Jason (2012-11-16). "Why We Love Persona 4". Kotaku. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ Horup, Julie (2011-10-29). "Not just a trend: Why queer visibility matters in games". VG247. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ "10 LGBT Video Game Characters". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ Winkie, Luke (2014-04-18). "From a pink dinosaur to "Gay Tony": The evolution of LGBT video game characters". Salon. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
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Wounded veterans find a peaceful place to play
Photo: Richard Michael Pruitt/Staff Photographer
Sam Moore, a Marine veteran (left) and friend Jason Clark take time out of fishing for some conversation.
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