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Happy Almost Mother's Day! Since we've already told you about our favorite young moms, old moms, and why celebs love their own moms, it's time to focus the attention on fake moms. You know. The ones who play moms in movies?
Photos: OK!'s Awesome Mother's Day Gift Guide
Click through our gallery to see our list of actresses who always play parents on-screen, from youngsters like Leslie Mann and Jennifer Lopez to seasoned vets like Julianne Moore and Diane Keaton. Then go hug your own mother because unlike these ladies, she is the real deal.
Photos: The Best Young Hollywood Moms
Which of these movie moms is your favorite? Any other major ones we missed? Tweet us @OKMagazine!


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Cynicism Is The Best Ringer T-Shirt
Product Color:
Product information
The Ringer T-Shirt Cynicism Is The Best is our old-school favorite. Perfect for use in sports where you are bound to sweat and need wide range of movement. Short sleeves to let cool air in on those hot and sunny days. Also great for every day use and to show everyone your love for Cynicism Is The Best.
This product is made of the finest combed jersey which feels soothing against your skin. Shoulder-to-shoulder taping guarantees long life and a good fit. Cynicism Ringer T-Shirt is available in 10 different color options. Bands on sleeves and neck made of reactive fabric, to avoid bleeding. Heather Grey: 80% Cotton/20% Polyester. Remaining Colors: 100% Cotton.
Sku: TK1BRBL00021132525250108YG0000000

subset: commoncrawl


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Home Basics
- Home Security Tips
There are many steps you can take to make your home more secure and less tempting to intruders. For example, you can secure your home's windows and doors, use lighting and motion detectors outside, and make sure that the outside area is clear of trees and bushes. And don't forget about alarm systems: An alarm activated by an intruder alerts the alarm company or the police right away.
- The Financial Realities of Relocating
With the housing market and overall economy starting to improve, more Americans are packing up and relocating. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people moving for a new job or transfer numbered 3.5 million in 2013-2014. Whether you're planning to move for a new job or transfer, or you're accompanying a spouse or partner who has accepted a new position, it's important to consider how your new location will impact your bottom line.


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- Treatments
- Restylane
- Pictures
- Under eye Restylane® and ...
Under eye Restylane® and Microdroplet BOTOX®
*Treatment results may vary
19 of 999
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40 year old woman who is concerned with her falling eyebrows and her under eye circles. MicrodropletTM BOTOX® is used at the eyebrow to create a forehead lift effect. The under eye circle is filled with Restylane using the DeepfillTM method. A numbing cream is applied to the skin to make the treatment comfortable.


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It's that time of year again when you send out personal greeting cards to all your family and friends. Have you ever addressed the envelopes by hand with the best of intentions, but found that by the tenth envelope your hand is so tired, your writing starts looking more like a scribble? Or had so many envelopes to address, some greetings didn't make it out on time?
That's where mailing labels come in handy. It's easy to address all your holiday mailings with labels, and make the envelope look as personal and inviting on the outside as the greeting card it holds inside.
Go from Mailing List to Mailing Labels
Sure, some people still hand address their personal greeting cards. But the truth is, creating a mailing list on your computer and printing address labels saves you time and effort, yet still gives your mailings that personal touch. Just choose a font that fits your style and print your addresses on Avery Easy Peel™ Clear Mailing Labels.
See how easy it is to go from mailing list to address labels with our step-by-step guide. Now instead of spending your time writing addresses, you can use it to write personal notes instead.
Design Personality into Your Envelope
Instead of labeling your envelopes with just the name and address, consider adding a little festive touch with holiday graphics. Decorate your mailing labels and return address labels with holiday lights, ornaments, or even snowmen images using the free Avery Wizard Software for Microsoft® Office with holiday images. It includes a wide selection of holiday-themed designs that are easy to use. The Avery Wizard guides you step by step through designing and printing your Avery products with Microsoft® Word. Learn how to design and print holiday address labels and matching holiday return address labels like a pro with our step-by-step guides.
Send Greetings with Photo Return Address Labels
Set the tone for your holiday greetings by adding a personal photo to your return address labels. Whether it's a photo of the kids, the family pet, or even a picture from your last vacation, the labels are sure to put a smile on your recipients' faces even before they open the envelope. And making these labels is so fun and easy to do, you'll want create them all year-round. Check out our step-by-step guide, which walks you through creating your own photo return address labels.
Get the Edge on Labels
After you've designed your labels, you still have to apply them to your stack of envelopes. Remember when you had to struggle to find the edge of the label to peel it from the sheet? You'll find applying labels are a breeze when you print them on Avery Easy Peel Mailing Labels. Just print your labels, separate the sheets into columns, and grab the edge of the label to peel and apply. It's fast and easy. Find out how Avery Easy Peel Mailing Labels work.
Holiday mailings don't have to be a chore. With these suggestions, mailing your seasonal greetings can be done in minutes—and you'll have more time to enjoy the holidays.


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Diary of a Dividend Diva: Poseidon Concepts
High yield typically means high risk, so sorting through the "accidental high yielders" often means determining whether the dividend is safe and the market is over-reacting, or whether there is something you don't know (yet).
Frack-fluid provider Poseidon Concepts (POOSF in the U.S. on the OTC, PSN.TO on the Toronto exchange) joined this club last week, after posting a big earnings miss and lowering guidance. Fracking service providers had been on a roll until earlier this year, when natural gas exploration and production companies starting cutting back on drilling in the face of persistently low gas prices. Fracking is not disappearing, of course, and in fact is focused mainly on oil production, but all the service providers are seeing a softening pace of business. Although Poseidon is Canadian (based in Calgary), 85% of revenue is derived in the lower 48, so it is subject to the same forces affecting U.S. companies. The company says that the Bakken and Rockies were slowing substantially for their frack-water storage tanks, but southern geographies -- the liquid plays in the Permian basin for example -- held up....327 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
There's no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert.
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>>> On Tuesday, November 20 at 6pm ET, TheStreet will host a webinar with Todd Lynady, Senior Underwriter for Zurich in North America and Mike DeLuca, Senior Partner of One Source. Register now.
"Countries can't just snap their fingers and put a mobile payments infrastructure in place or expect that because the technology is now ready the private sector will simply deploy it," Ezell writes. "Mobile payments entail a complex, system-interdependent ecosystem with many players--including mobile network operators (MNOs), handset manufacturers, financial institutions including major banks and credit card issuers, merchants, public transit authorities, government agencies, third party application providers, and consumers--whose success is dependent on joint action by all the players together at the same time. Everyone must act collaboratively in the ecosystem simultaneously, but this is not something at which markets tend to be very good." There is a potential role for government in helping to coordinate these players, but when Atkinson sat on a panel in March with Mark Egerman, a CFPB official charged with overseeing the mobile-payments market, he didn't get the impression the CFPB was interested in embracing it.


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The Value of Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy for Stage II Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
|Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
|Drug: cisplatin
|Phase 2
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:
|A Randomized Multicenter Phase II Study of Intensity-modulated Radiotherapy Combined With Chemotherapy Versus Intensity-modulated Radiotherapy Alone for Stage II Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
- Acute toxicities [ Time Frame: 2 years ]Acute toxicity will be measured by CTCAE3.0
- Long term treatment results [ Time Frame: 5 years ]1-, 3-year local-regional control, overall survival, disease-free survival, distant metastasis-free survival will be observed.
|Study Start Date:
|July 2010
|Study Completion Date:
|August 2014
|Primary Completion Date:
|May 2013 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
|Assigned Interventions
No Intervention: Arm1-radical radiotherapy alone group
Arm1-radical radiotherapy alone group, the eligibility patients will received radical intensity-modulated radiotherapy alone
Experimental: Arm2-concurrent chemoradiotherapy group
Arm2-concurrent chemoradiotherapy group, the eligibility patients will received radiotherapy the same as radical radiotherapy arm,and also will received the concurrent chemotherapy wiht the regimen consist of cisplatin 40mg/m2, weekly for 7weeks.
Drug: cisplatin
in experimental arm, the eligibility patients will be received the same radiotherapy as radical radiotherapy alone group, and also will received concurrent chemotherapy with the regimen of cisplatin 40mg/m2, weekly,from week 1 to week 7
Other Name: DDP
Detailed Description:
Clinical Stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma consisted of T2N0M0, T1N1M0, T2N1M0 three subgroups, the data came from conventional radiotherapy era showed that the prognosis of this three subgroups were different, the N1 groups suffered more distant metastasis than N0 group, and some literature showed that combined chemotherapy with radiotherapy in stage II patients can improve the treatment results.
Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT)now is an widely used technique in the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, the preliminary results showed that IMRT can improve the quality of life in nasopharyngeal through salivary gland preservation.
Compared IMRT alone with IMRT plus cisplatin concurrent chemotherapy in the treatment of stageII nasopharyngeal carcinoma, we hope to confirm whether stage II (and which subgroup) nasopharyngeal carcinoma will be benefit from concurrent chemoradiotherapy.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 70 Years (Adult, Senior)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- pathological confirmed squamous cell carcinoma, WHO II-III type,
- clinical stage II (UICC 7th edition, 2009)
- Karnovsky performance score > 70
- first course of radiotherapy, without radiotherapy and chemotherapy history for other head and neck cancer.
- anticipated life span more than 6 month
- Hemoglobin > 120g/L, WBC > 4.0x10*9/L, Plt > 100x10*9/L
- liver and renal function under the 1.25 normal upper limit
- with written consent information
Exclusion Criteria:
- have other cancer history
- have chemotherapy history
- have radiotherapy history
- have head and neck surgery history(exclusion lymph node biopsy)
- evidence showed distant metastasis or other cancer
- other severe medical comorbidity
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01187238
|China, Guangdong
|Cancer hospital, Sun Yat-sen University
|Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, 510060
|China, Zhejiang
|Zhejiang province cancer hospital
|Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, 310022
|Cancer hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
|Beijing, China, 100021
|Principal Investigator:
|Li Gao, MD
|Cancer Institute and Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
|Responsible Party:
|Li Gao, Professor, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT01187238 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|August 18, 2010
|Last Updated:
|September 9, 2014
Keywords provided by Li Gao, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences:
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma
Stage II
Intensity-modulated radiotherapy
Concurrent chemoradiotherapy
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms
Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial
Neoplasms by Histologic Type
Pharyngeal Neoplasms
Otorhinolaryngologic Neoplasms
Head and Neck Neoplasms
Neoplasms by Site
Nasopharyngeal Diseases
Pharyngeal Diseases
Stomatognathic Diseases
Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases
Antineoplastic Agents
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017


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Royals unhappy Ventura forced to bat vs. Giants
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Yordano Ventura became the first Royals pitcher to go to bat in the Cactus League this year. So why did manager Ned Yost let him hit in Sunday's 13-9 loss to the Giants?
"The Giants are making him hit; I'm not letting him hit," Yost said before the game. "They want to play a National League game and you have to get [their] permission."
Yost was not thrilled about doing without the designated hitter. Not only have his pitchers not batted, they haven't practiced baserunning either.
"I don't understand it, I can't grasp the concept of it. ... It's Spring Training," Yost said, although he admitted he thought much the same way when he was in the NL with Atlanta and Milwaukee.
"Cincinnati called the other day and they wanted to play a National League game, too. I said, 'Look, I've got my No. 1 starter [James Shields] on the mound and he hasn't even looked at a bat,' and they said, 'OK, fine.'"
The Giants weren't so accommodating.
"So we'll put him at the back of the box, put the shoulder on his bat," Yost said.
When Ventura batted in the second inning with two out and a runner at third, Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum threw a called ball, then three straight strikes that Ventura merely watched zip past. The inning was over.
Next time up, with two out and two on, Ventura gazed as three straight strikes were called. Inning over.
"Once the season starts," Yost said, "we're six weeks away from Interleague, and a month out we'll start taking a lot of batting practice with the starters and a lot of bunting practice, but we haven't done it to this point."
Anyway, the rest of the Royals weren't keeping the bats on their shoulders. They pounded out 13 hits, including a solo homer by Salvador Perez and a three-run shot by Jason Donald. Both came off Lincecum, who gave up seven runs.
Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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heya thanks for addin me u r the only people who are commenting soo plzzz others plss comment on my wall more i like it and it is a big suprise to me
I fly with the stars in the skies,
I am no longer trying to survive,
I believe that life is a prize,
But to live doesn't mean you're alive.
Don't worry bout me, and who I fire
I get what I desire, it's my empire
And yes I call the shots, I am the umpire
I sprinkle holy water, upon the vampire (vampire)
In this very moment I'm king,
In this very moment I slay Goliath with a sling,
This very moment I bring
Put it on everything, that I will retire with the ring
I am not a girl that can every be defined
I am not fly, I am levitation
I represent an entire generation
I hear the criticism loud and clear
that is how I know that the time is near
so we become alive in a time of fear
Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 7:11 PM
sup nicki luvers wanned to let every 1 dat luks at ma profile dat i also luv nicki alot even got ha autograph!!!!!!!!!!!!


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Cacao & Blueberry Oatmeal
Makes 4 servings
Cooking + Preparation time: 12-15 minutes)
This hearty and nutritional oatmeal breakfast with cacao and blueberries is an excellent first meal to start the day. It will keep you satisfied until lunch and will provide you with necessary nutrients, fibers to keep you functioning optimally.
4 cups of water
2 cups of rolled oats
¼ teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of Fair Trade Certified Casacao Cacao Powder
½ cup of blueberries
½ teaspoon of Fair Trade Certified ground cinnamon
Almond, soy, rice, or regular milk (optional)
1. Combine water, oatmeal, and salt in a saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil; then lower heat and cook slowly, stirring occasionally, until water has been reduced, or oatmeal has been cooked to the consistency of your liking (about 7-8 minutes).
3.Take oatmeal off the heat and stir in Casacao Cacao Powder (a little goes a long way!).
(Add the optional Soy, rice, almond milk)
4.Serve oatmeal in a bowl and add the blueberries and sprinkle ground cinnamon (equal parts per serving).
Add or substitute with other great fruits, such as bananas and strawberries for variety.


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Professor, Department of Medicine (Rheumatology)
Dr. Clement Tagoe is a full-time clinic educator based in the West Campus. He works as a rheumatologist in the faculty practice, and supervises fellows at Montefiore Hospital.
Material in this section is provided by individual faculty members who are solely responsible for its accuracy and content.
Montefiore Medical Center
3411 Wayne Avenue , Room 323
Bronx, NY 10467


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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - It's the beginning of a new era at Florida State College of Jacksonville, where a new interim president started Tuesday.
The Board of Trustees approved a contract for Dr. Willis Holcombe at the beginning of the month.
Holcombe is replacing former president Steve Wallace, who is under investigation for the misuse of funds.
Holcombe has more than 20 years experience in higher education. He spent 17 years as president of Broward Community College in South Florida.
He also served as chancellor of the Florida college system for four years.
In a statement, the university says Holcombe's respect among legislators and statewide leaders, "Will prove to be of great benefit to FSCJ during this transitional time."
Wallace agreed to resign at the end of the year and continue to be paid in another capacity until 2014.
Wallace came under fire after two audits of the college's finances and inappropriately granting more than $4 million of federal Pell grants to students.
There is an ongoing federal investigation into what went on.
Copyright 2013 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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An Agenda for Climate Action
Thank you very much. It is great to be here at Yale. I want to open my remarks today with some polling numbers. And I know what some of you may be thinking. You're thinking this is a typical Washington thing to do: talk about polls. And you're thinking about how polls really don't get at the real issues. And you may be right, particularly in this era of television and internet insta-polls.
I was watching BBC Television shortly after the death of Slobodan Milosevic and the announcer asked viewers to call in with their opinions on this question: "How will Milosevic's death affect the future of peace in the Balkans?" And I thought that's really a fairly sophisticated question. Sort of the kind of essay question you might have to respond to here at Yale. And fairly typical, I imagine, of BBC's expectations of its audience.
In contrast, if you turn on CNN or FOX or one of the other American cable networks, the questions tend to be of the quick yes or no variety. Here is an actual CNN online poll I found on the Internet: "Would you consider having microchips implanted in your body? Yes or no." I can only imagine how someone might use these results.
But seriously, I think we can all learn something from looking at the polling on an issue such as climate change, especially when it reveals a clear divergence between public opinion and what is happening in Washington to address this issue.
Just a couple of weeks ago, a national survey showed that Americans of all political beliefs are not happy with the U.S. government's leadership (or lack thereof) on the issues of global warming and alternative energy. More than three out of four – including two out of three conservatives – said the federal government is not doing enough on either of these issues. And nearly nine out of ten agreed with the following statement—and I quote: "U.S. leaders should take steps to reduce carbon pollution now and speed up the conversion to renewable energy and other alternatives."
Nine out of ten people. That's higher than the proportion of dentists who recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum. Seriously, it is an overwhelming majority of Americans. And they all want to see something done to address the climate issue and to put America on a path to a low-carbon future.
Of course, President Bush and Vice President Cheney say they don't pay attention to polls – and this is one time when I believe them. Because if they were to pay attention to polls, they would be doing something serious to solve the climate problem. In ever-increasing numbers, Americans recognize that we are facing a potential crisis here, and they are looking to their elected leaders in Washington to shape solutions.
I am here today to talk about what those solutions might entail—and I want to do that by focusing on a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States that the Pew Center released in February. But I want to start with a brief look at the science of climate change, as well as what is happening now at both the state level and nationally.
Then I want to reserve the rest of my remarks to talk about the Pew Center's Agenda – because what is happening right now in this country is clearly not enough.
The Science of Climate Change
So first the science. The polling data I talked about shows a pronounced shift in Americans' views on the climate issue and what to do about it. And the main reason for this shift is not that people are beginning to notice that it's getting warmer or that the pond over at the town park just isn't freezing as much in the winter as it used to.
No, what's happening is that people are beginning to pay attention to the science on this issue. And they are coming to understand that there is no longer any doubt about it: climate change is a very real and very serious problem.
Scientists now know for certain that the globe has been warming for the past century. They also know that human activities, mainly the burning of coal and oil, but also agriculture and deforestation, have dramatically increased concentrations of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere
In just the past year, the science linking observed climate change directly to human activities has become increasingly solid. And the impacts of climate change, distributed across the globe, are occurring in patterns that can only be explained by human activities and not by natural variations in regional climate. During the first half of the 20th century, natural factors may have been as important as anthropogenic factors. Unfortunately, the more dramatic warming that has occurred since then has been dominated by the human influence. The science is now clear on this point.
But what is really changing how people view this issue is that the impacts we are seeing now—today—are happening much sooner than anyone might have anticipated even a decade ago. These changes were predicted, but even the scientists who made the predictions are surprised at the rate at which they are now occurring.
What do we know about the impacts of climate change?
We know that ice cover around the world is changing at an unprecedented rate. Just last month, new satellite-based measurements of ice flow in Greenland were published in the Journal Science. And what they showed is that the second largest land-based ice sheet in the world is losing ice twice as fast as scientists had estimated before these new measurements were available. This ice sheet, if completely melted, could raise global sea level by almost 20 feet. That would permanently flood not just New Orleans, but virtually all of America's major coastal cities.
We also know that we are experiencing a worldwide loss of mountain glaciers, a trend that is accelerating. By mid-century, most mountain glaciers may be gone.
We know that hurricanes are becoming more intense, not just in the Atlantic, which gave us Katrina and Rita, but in all oceans where hurricanes occur.
We know that ecosystems around the world are showing signs of responding to climate change. One study found that 130 species - both plants and animals - have responded to earlier spring warming over the last 30 years. These organisms have changed their timing of flowering, migration and other spring activities. More startling than this, however, climate change is also driving some species to extinction. For instance, in the past 20 years dozens of species of mountain frogs in Central America have disappeared because of a disease that formerly did not occur where they live. Early this year, a paper in the journal Nature revealed that the disease-causing organism, a fungus, has spread to higher elevations as a result of climate warming. This paper not only provides an example of climate change driving species extinct, but also strong scientific evidence that climate change is promoting the spread of diseases to new areas. In the authors' own words, "With climate change promoting infectious disease and eroding biodiversity, the urgency of reducing greenhouse-gas concentrations is now undeniable."
And these are, if I may say this, just the tip of the melting iceberg.
So the bottom line is this: The earth is warming; the impacts—once only predictions—are now upon us and are likely to worsen; and human activity is largely to blame.
U.S. Action on Climate Change
So we have all this science, and we have Americans responding to it by saying that our government needs to do more. How has our government responded? Well, at the state level at least, the response has been encouraging. For example:
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have enacted renewable energy mandates requiring utilities to generate a share of their power from renewable sources.
- Twenty-eight state governments have adopted climate action plans; 15 have programs or policies in place to reduce, sequester or register greenhouse gases; and nine states have statewide targets for reducing their emissions.
Connecticut, I am pleased to say, has done all of these things. And more. As many of you know, Connecticut, along with six other northeastern states has signed onto a regional initiative called RGGI that is aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in the Northeast. This is the first "cap and trade" program to control these emissions in the United States. It couples a mandatory cap on emissions from the electricity sector with a market-based trading program that will allow companies to achieve their reductions at the lowest possible cost.
So Connecticut is really out in front on this issue—and all of you should be proud to live in a state with leaders who understand the need for climate action.
Among the other states that are taking this issue seriously, I have to mention California.
Like Connecticut, California has established greenhouse gas emissions targets, and they are very ambitious. And that state also has taken steps to begin regulating carbon dioxide emissions from cars and trucks. (a policy that Connecticut will follow if it survives the automakers' legal challenge)
And then there is New Mexico, a major coal-producing state. NM has established its own targets, and has also announced a partnership with neighboring Arizona to jointly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address the impacts of climate change in the Southwest.
These are just a few examples of the kinds of things states are doing. Now, you might think one state's actions cannot possibly affect a global problem like climate change. But consider this: California's emissions top those of Brazil. Texas comes in ahead of Canada, the UK and Mexico. And Illinois produces more CO2 than the Netherlands. States are a significant part of the climate problem, and many of them, including Connecticut, are showing they can be a significant part of the solution as well.
So what about our national government? To what extent have our leaders in Washington embraced the need for action? Well, I have some good news and some bad news.
First the good news: During the U.S. Senate's debate on energy legislation last year, senators approved a bipartisan measure calling for a national, mandatory, market-based program to slow, stop and, ultimately, reverse the growth in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The legislation was sponsored by senators Domenici and Bingaman, the chair and the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy Committee. And although it was a nonbinding measure, it marked the first time the Senate has gone on record to support mandatory action on this issue. That is an important achievement – and now Senators Bingaman and Domenici are seeking input on how to create a mandatory climate program that gets real results.
Still in play is the cap and trade legislation proposed by Senators John McCain and Connecticut's own Joseph Lieberman. And now Senator Dianne Feinstein has joined the issue as well, offering her own version of a cap and trade climate policy. And we are helping others in Congress develop other proposals. So clearly, we've seen an up-tick in Congressional interest in this issue. Granted, these proposals may not become law right away, probably not before 2008, but I believe it is only a matter of time before limits on greenhouse gas emissions are in place.
So that's the good news: people on Capitol Hill, especially in the Senate, are looking at this issue and thinking hard about how to address it.
The bad news is that the White House and leadership of the House of Representatives are strongly opposed to addressing climate change in any significant way. As a result, I do not believe anything substantive is likely to come out of Congress on this issue for some time. I would like to be proved wrong, but it is hard for me to see any leadership on this issue coming from the White House during the remainder of its term.
Despite the President's famous statement in his State of the Union Address that America is addicted to oil, Washington does not seem truly ready to fight the addiction. The Administration's budget proposals don't come anywhere close to providing the shot in the arm we need to accelerate clean energy research in this country. (Again, this is despite the American public's clear interest in alternative energy solutions.) More importantly, even if the technology programs were properly funded, they simply are not enough.
And this is the problem with what has been happening on this issue to date, whether at the state or the federal level. In addition to being late to start, what we are talking about and doing is simply not enough. As I said, I applaud what many of the states are doing, and I am pleased to see members of Congress beginning to understand the need for action. But we need to remember what this is about.
James Hansen, the NASA scientist who is one of the world's leading experts on climate change, says we have just 10 years to begin reducing greenhouse gases before global warming reaches what he calls a tipping point; the tipping point, as the phrase implies, is the point from which we may not be able to avert a catastrophe. To forestall a climate crisis, we must stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. And what does that mean? According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it means limiting the concentrations to about 550 parts per million –roughly double the pre-industrial level of atmospheric greenhouse gases.
To get to that level, we need to reduce global CO2 emissions by 55 to 85 percent below what is currently projected. Fifty-five to 85 percent. And we need to do this at the same time that energy demand around the world is growing at an unprecedented rate. We need to act now to come up with ways to limit emissions growth without endangering economic growth. And make no mistake: The United States, which is responsible for one-fourth of global emissions, needs to play a leadership role.
And that is going to require a fundamental shift. We need to move from an economy based on traditional burning of fossil fuels to one based on more energy efficiency; increased use of low-carbon energy sources; and the capture and storage of carbon from fossil fuels. This is not something that one piece of legislation, or even one strategy or one approach, will accomplish. We need a comprehensive approach.
An Agenda for Climate Action
In February, the Pew Center released the first comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Our Agenda outlines an ambitious yet practical approach to addressing this issue. It is based on seven years of Pew Center analysis and work with leading businesses and policymakers.
The number-one lesson we have learned from this work: There is no single technology fix, no single policy and no single sector that can solve this problem on its own. For example, addressing emissions from the utility sector is key, but doing only that leaves out about 60 percent of emissions. In the same way, if we adopt policies to limit emissions from transportation and do nothing else, we're hitting just 30 percent of the problem—which is significant, of course, but it is not enough.
The Pew Center's Agenda outlines 15 specific recommendations in six overarching areas where the United States must take action. These six areas are: 1) science and technology; 2) market-based programs; 3) sectoral emissions; 4) energy production and use; 5) adaptation; and 6) international engagement.
I want to provide you with a better sense of what our Agenda is about by highlighting some of the recommendations in each of these six areas.
In the area of science and technology research, we call for increased and stable funding to spur technological innovation. Because it is important to spend this money wisely, we suggest the use of a "reverse auction." Unlike a traditional auction, where buyers bid against each other to purchase an item, a reverse auction allows providers of goods or services—in this case, new, climate-friendly technologies—to compete for a pot of money by offering emissions reductions.
Since 1998, California has used reverse auctions to promote development of renewable energy. The program collects money through a charge on electric power, and solicits bids for renewable projects, with the money going to the bidder that can provide the renewable energy at the cheapest rate. Thus far, there have been 81 successful bids to produce renewable energy through this competitive and cost-effective system.
Second, we believe it is critically important to enact a mandatory cap and trade program that applies to large stationary sources – power-plants and major manufacturing facilities. Our work over the years has shown that market mechanisms such as emissions trading allow companies to reduce emissions in the cheapest, most efficient manner possible.
What a cap and trade system does in essence is send a signal to the market. It tells the market that there is a value in reducing emissions. And it tells inventors and investors that there is profit in creating and deploying climate-friendly technologies. It creates an essential pull for new technologies to enter the market. The push for those technologies, in turn, comes from the funding of innovation, through mechanisms like the reverse auction. And we need both the push and the pull to achieve real and cost-effective results. A cap and trade system coupled with a reverse auction is a great example of a comprehensive approach.
But the fact is that a cap-and-trade system by itself, and particularly at the level that would be politically practical, is not enough. In fact, many of the current proposals for cap-and-trade programs, tend to leave out the transportation sector, which is of course a major source of emissions.
And this is why the Pew Center's Agenda also calls for sectoral approaches such as transforming the much-maligned Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (or CAFE) program. CAFE, as you know, sets average fuel efficiency levels for carmakers across their fleets. But the standards have not changed significantly in over 20 years. And, because SUVs and light trucks now make up as much as half of the new-vehicle product mix, the average fuel economy of all the cars and light trucks sold in America—import and domestic— is no better today than it was in the early 1980s. Although NHTSA is currently considering changing the way it classifies different kinds of light trucks, it is unclear what that will translate into as far as actual emission reductions. But I am fairly sure it won't be enough.
We recommend strengthening and converting the United States' current fuel economy standards to a set of tradable standards based on greenhouse gas emissions. If you are looking to protect the climate, focusing on emissions rather than fuel efficiency seems more logical. By creating a market for emissions reductions through trading, and at the same time supporting the development of low-emission vehicles and fuels (the push and pull approach)—you can reduce the cost of getting the job done.
Of course, it is not only in the transportation sector where additional action is needed.
Our plan proposes tighter standards for appliance and equipment efficiency, as well as incentives for the manufacture of more climate-friendly products. Similarly, for the building sector, we call for stricter building codes to decrease energy use. We even touch on the role of the agriculture and forestry sectors in keeping carbon out of the atmosphere through climate-friendly practices. Again, all sectors of the economy have a role to play in this, and it is going to take all sectors to achieve the results we need.
But all sectors are not equal when it comes to having a hand in the climate problem and its potential solutions. One sector stands head and shoulders above the rest, and that is, you guessed it, energy. Eighty-percent of US greenhouse gas emissions come from the combustion of fossil fuels. The ways in which we generate, distribute and use energy have a profound impact on our emissions of greenhouse gases—and that is why the Pew Center's Agenda reserves a special set of recommendations for this all-important sector. Our recommendations cover all of the major energy sources.
Let's start with coal. And we need to be realists here. Coal is responsible for 50 percent of our nation's electricity. It is cheap and it is plentiful and I believe (along with many others) that it will continue to play a role in meeting U.S. and global energy needs for years to come. Let's look for a moment at our current and projected energy mix and needs. If we assume coal will continue to contribute roughly half of U.S. electricity requirements; and you look at the projected growth of energy demand in this country - by 2025 the U.S. will need to grow our coal capacity by 60% - that would mean emissions from U.S. coal burning alone in 2025 would equal 15% of our current global emissions. Globally, the numbers are even more dramatic. China is even more dependent on coal for electricity than the US. It contributes to 75% of their electricity needs, and despite efforts to ramp up generation in gas, renewables and nuclear, the overall share of coal in the mix is unlikely to change significantly. Think about this: China is building new coal power plants at a rate of one plant per week.
So we need to get serious—and I mean very serious—about reducing emissions from coal-fired power plants. First, we need to build the very best, most efficient coal burning power plants possible to reduce emissions per kWh of electricity. And then we have to prove that the carbon dioxide that still is emitted from these plants can be captured and stored (sequestered) in geological formations where it can be kept from entering the atmosphere for centuries or millennia.
We recommend an aggressive program of research, development and demonstration for these technologies. A few random demonstration projects done at a leisurely pace clearly are not enough. We need to build the most efficient plants and we need a concerted public-private effort to demonstrate that capture and sequestration can work, and then we have to insist that it be done.
But dealing with coal alone is not enough. Because capture and storage technologies are not quite ready, we need to work on expanding the role that renewables play in our energy future. We should also concentrate on expanding natural gas supplies and using natural gas more efficiently. And we will need to solve the problems associated with nuclear power. For each energy source, we propose specific measures in areas from R&D to incentives to regulation that can help expand the suite of carbon-friendly technologies that are necessary to put us on a low-carbon path.
It is of course important to understand that none of the things I have talked about can fully prevent all of the potential effects of climate change. In fact, as I mentioned at the start of my remarks, many impacts are already being seen. This is why, at the same time that we are working to reduce emissions in order to minimize the effects of climate change, we also need to develop a national strategy to adapt to those effects. Climate change is happening, and it is going to affect everything from agriculture to public safety and public health. Without a strategy, as well as a system for identifying the early warning signs of climate problems confronting our country, we are going to be caught unprepared.
Finally, the Pew Center's Agenda, while primarily focused on domestic actions, also calls for greater U.S. participation in international negotiations on this issue. It is obvious now that there is no chance the United States will sign on to the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto, of course, is the 1997 agreement that sets country-by-country targets for reducing emissions for industrialized countries. However you feel about Kyoto, the fact remains that climate change is a global problem that demands a global solution. It also needs a longer-term solution; Kyoto includes targets only through 2012.
We need to engage every country that is a major source of these emissions, not just the United States but China and India as well. And we need to come up with ways to make the process fair and equitable for all involved.
Finding common ground on global approaches to the climate problem has been the focus of a special Pew Center initiative we launched a couple of years ago and released in Montreal in December. I don't want to spend a lot of time on it here, but we organized a dialogue-with business and political leaders from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Australia, China, India, Mexico, Brazil, and other countries. And a key take-away from the group is that we need a more flexible framework than Kyoto, something that allows different countries to take on different types of commitments, all under the umbrella of a common global framework.
Working with us on global approaches are Senators Lugar and Biden, the majority and minority leaders in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And I cannot speak highly enough of what these Senators have done. They sent senior staff to participate in our dialogue. They co-sponsored a resolution urging US leadership in the international negotiating process, and are committed to getting a majority of Senators to support it this year. And they expect to hold hearings this year on energy security and climate change.
So those are the recommendations in the Pew Center's Agenda. Once again, they cover the areas of: 1) science and technology; 2) market-based programs; 3) sectoral emissions; 4) energy production and use; 5) adaptation; and 6) international engagement.
The Role of Business
What I want to emphasize about this agenda is that this isn't pie-in-the-sky thinking. All of the steps we are recommending are eminently doable. We just need the political will to do them.
And, if we do these things thoughtfully, this transition can actually become a platform for new economic growth, new jobs, new manufacturing and service industries, and new roles for sectors such as agriculture and forestry in our nation's efforts to protect the climate.
America's business leaders appear to understand this. They know that a mandatory program to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. is inevitable, and they know it is in their best interests to see that the program is designed intelligently and fairly.
That's why so many of them stood with us at the event in February where we unveiled our Agenda. And why so many companies responded to Senator Bingaman and Domenici's call for proposals and suggestions to fashion legislation setting mandatory caps on U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases. And that is why last June, five Fortune 500 companies provided testimony on climate to the Science Committee of the House of Representatives. ;
There are two unifying themes in these examples of corporate and investor leadership. First, most corporate leaders know that greenhouse gas regulation is inevitable. Second, they know that properly designed mandatory climate policies are consistent with sound business planning and good corporate governance. As more companies and investors come to this realization, pressure will mount for other companies to take a more responsible stance on the climate issue. And as corporate leadership aligns with activity at the state and international level, pressure will grow for serious policy change at the federal level.
Why? Because these companies want to ensure that the burden of responding to the climate problem is evenly shared across all sectors of the economy. And they also want another thing: they want certainty. Businesses, particularly electric utilities that have to make significant up-front investments in power plants, are saying they need to be able to plan for the future-and they cannot plan effectively without knowing what kind of policies this country is going to adopt to control emissions.
I opened my remarks with some polling data that shows Americans clearly understand the need for action on this issue. And I have concluded with examples of how business leaders, too, are concerned and how they're beginning to take action. And, when you consider what many of the states are doing to address this issue, you realize that the one place where climate change still hasn't achieved priority status is in Washington. Yes, we have seen a fair amount of discussion of this issue. And, yes, there are policymakers who take it seriously and who want to shape solutions.
But we need solutions now. We don't have time to wait. Climate change policy in this country is at a crossroads, and the American public, together with visionary business and state leaders, are pointing us in the direction we need to go.
The sooner we get started by reversing our current course and adopting a serious and comprehensive approach to addressing this problem, the better off and the safer we will be. And the sooner we'll begin transforming our economy for the realities and the opportunities that lie ahead.
And so, I will leave you today with another bit of polling described by Jay Leno. "According to a survey in this week's Time magazine, 85% of Americans think global warming is happening. The other 15%" according to Leno, "work for the White House." Thank you very much. I welcome your questions.


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A couple of years ago, I observed with my oldest daughter, then 12 years old, our annual ritual in celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. We drove to the "Sweet Auburn" district near downtown Atlanta to be part of the festivities. We heard speeches. We saw people of every conceivable ethnic background and nationality gather to honor Dr. King on the national monument grounds. Then we settled in on the sidewalk of Auburn Ave. near the steps of historic Ebenezer Baptist Church to take in the King Day parade.
As the parade began, we saw the regular assortment of King Day
parade participants--marching bands, floats, drill teams and the iconic civil rights marchers, predominately African-Americans, marching as they did during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. But this parade featured some new images. Also marching in the parade were Tibetan monks and Mexican migrant workers together with labor unions and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered marchers. There were representatives of senior citizen groups, veterans' groups, the physically challenged, the homeless and environmentalists. All of these disparate
(and very different) groups proudly assembled claiming to be heirs of Dr. King's dream.
As my precocious 12-year-old correctly observed, in its beginnings Dr. King's work focused on the inequities between black and white Americans. She and her sister had heard the stories from their grandparents of life under Jim Crow. However, on that day, myriad groups and causes identified with and laid claim to a broadened iteration of "the dream." So it is with our diversity dialogue. Diversity is no longer just an issue of "black and white."
Today, as we struggle for the first time in our history with four distinct generations in the workplace, the diversity dialogue also is a discussion of intergenerational diversity. (Think of your parents interacting with their grandkids at work.) As LGBT constituencies grow in visibility, economic clout and political currency, the diversity dialogue of the 21st century is also about sexual orientation. Today's diversity dialogue is about how we empower women. Today's diversity dialogue, as it was in Dr. King's day, is about the forgotten, the silenced and the institutionally marginalized, and all that we collectively stand to lose by not bringing their talent, energy, perspective and passion to the marketplace.
During my father's civil rights movement, lawyers led the way. Through creative and passionate advocacy, they lowered the institutional barriers of segregation, disenfranchisement and denial of basic humanity that crushed the hopes of the descendants of U.S. chattel slavery. I am a direct beneficiary of their work.
But what of my daughters' civil rights movement? What will that generation say of our collective resolve as lawyers to lower barriers and unleash the untapped energy of those not currently at "the table?" As in-house lawyers, are we not extraordinarily better equipped to drive diversity in comparison to our under-resourced, outsider, anti-establishment civil rights lawyer predecessors?
One of the less heralded heroes of the 20th century's civil rights movement was Charles Hamilton Houston. Houston is generally credited with conceiving and leading the legal strategy to end government-sponsored segregation. A 1915 graduate of Amherst and 1923 Harvard Law graduate, Houston became the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. (Decades later, Barack Obama became the Harvard Law Review's first black president.) As dean of Howard Law School and legal director of the NAACP, Houston's prot?g?s included Thurgood Marshall. In his charge to a 1930's graduating law school class, Houston framed our obligation as lawyers this way: A lawyer, he explained, was an agent for social change-- "either a social engineer or a parasite on society."
How do you want to be remembered?


text: DU Mobile Apps Stay Connected on Your iPhone, Android or Windows 8 Devices Experience the new, official Ducks Unlimited App. DU has combined all of its popular Apps into one go-to resource. The DU Migration Map, Waterfowler's Journal, DU Member features, Waterfowl ID, and more - all of the features and tools you have grown to love - all in one app. The new DU App includes a wide range of content and features that are important to DU supporters, waterfowl hunters, and conservationists throughout North America. Download for iPhone | Download for Android App Features Waterfowl Migration Map View waterfowl migration reports across the U.S. and Canada in list-view or map format View public report submission intensity at a glance using the heat map feature Search migration and hunting reports near you Submit your own report View reports from DU Field Editors, DU Biologists, and DU Migration Alerts View weather forecasts for report locations Waterfowl ID View information on the most popular North American waterfowl species View photos, listen to audio and detailed information on breeding, migration, population and food habits View distribution maps, including visual boundaries of breeding, wintering, and year-round activites Ducks Unlimited Events Find a local DU event in your area or browse events for all U.S. states and Canadian provinces View event details and purchase tickets online Waterfowler's Journal Log location, weather conditions, and other notes relative to your hunt Log the number of birds harvested, broken down by species and sex Take photos from your phone and attach them directly to your reports View and edit journal entries from previous hunts DU Members / My DU Create an account and customize your preferred content on the App home screen As a DU Member, you have access to your account information, membership expiration date, and digital version of your DU membership card Your My DU login is free to create, and is required for using the Waterfowler's Journal Hunting Tools View sunrise / sunset data for your current location or provide a city, state/province View snow cover maps for the U.S. Access band recovery data Access National Wildlife Refuge details for the U.S. Access season and bag limit information for the U.S. and Canada Multimedia View the popular Photo of the Day - a new photo featured daily submitted by DU members Access DU TV and DU Films full-length videos Access info on Ducks Unlimited magazine and the DU Member Photo gallery More Learn about Ducks Unlimited and the benefits of becoming a DU member Submit comments & feedback Join us on Social Media Windows 8 Apps DU Windows 8 App Migration, Waterfowl ID, News, Latest Stories and Events all from your Windows 8 tablet or Surface device! Mobile Text Alerts Subscribe to DU Mobile Alerts Receive mobile text alerts to your cell phone (no app or Smartphone required)


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A survey completed in June has shown what cycling related mobile phone apps CTC members use.
The top 5 apps used by CTC members from the iTunes top selling cycling apps were:
- CycleStreets UK: 40%
- Bike Hub: 35%
- Fill That Hole [2]: 31%
- Map My Ride GPS: 30%
- Strava: 27%
All of the top five answers include GPS based mapping, route planning or tracking.
Of the cycling related mobile phone apps that CTC members use that aren't in the top selling list, Endomundo, Google Maps and Sustrans National Cycle Route came out on top.
Not surprisingly for this survey, the top handset for cycling related mobile phone apps use is the Apple iPhone at 55%.
CTC's iPhone app "Fill That Hole" can be downloaded from www.fillthathole.org.uk [2].


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AUBURN HILLS -- First came Major League Baseball in 2002, followed by the NFL in 2008. Now, for the first time, thanks to the explosion in vegetarian options at sports venues across the continent, PETA has ranked the top 10 most vegetarian-friendly NBA arenas, and The Palace of Auburn Hills, home of the Detroit Pistons, has grabbed 10th place.
�"Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond clearly have bright futures ahead of them, and Pistons fans can, too, thanks to healthy and delicious meat-free meals at The Palace," says PETA Associate Director of Campaigns Lindsay Rajt. "When the Pistons faithful hit the concession stands, coming away with vegetarian fare that would give a lot of restaurants a run for their money is a slam-dunk."
Topping PETA's favorites in the general seating areas were the vegan sloppy Joes with soy-based tempeh, peppers, onions, and barbecue sauce, followed by the perfectly blended hummus and a quinoa and lentil salad. And don't forget dessert: The smoothies made with soy milk, berries, and bananas are almost too good to be true. Fans in the premium areas can also feast on a grilled-vegetable sandwich, meat-free stuffed grape leaves, vegan bruschetta, and chipotle black-bean burgers.
�Taking first place was STAPLES Center, home to both the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, thanks to vegan sloppy Joes, the hearty veggie burger, the grilled-vegetable sandwiches, and the savory edamame. Second place went to the Toronto Raptors' Air Canada Centre for its vegetarian burritos, grilled-vegetable and arugula panini, vegan fajitas, and Bollywood veggie dogs with potato, tamarind ketchup, papadum, and mint chutney.
�Rounding out the top 10 are the Wells Fargo Center (Philadelphia 76ers), the BMO Harris Bradley Center (Milwaukee Bucks), Oracle Arena (Golden State Warriors), the Rose Garden (Portland Trail Blazers), the United Center (Chicago Bulls), the AT&T Center (San Antonio Spurs), and Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Indiana Pacers).
�To see all the delicious vegetarian offerings, please visit PETA's blog.


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May 8, 2006
Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles Return to Texas Coast
NORTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas — Kemp's Ridley sea turtles are returning to the Texas coast to nest, and scientists are asking beach-goers to report turtle sightings, while also extending an invitation for visitors to witness releases of captive-raised turtle hatchlings crawling toward the sea.
As of May 4, 28 Kemp's Ridley nests had been located on the Texas coast during 2006, including 22 at Padre Island National Seashore, two on South Padre Island, two on Boca Chica Beach, one on Matagorda Island, and one on Galveston Island.
The recent run of sea turtle sightings signals the arrival of peak turtle nesting season in Texas in May and June. The news for the Ridley is mostly good—more of these turtles continue to nest on Texas beaches than in past years, including some who were reared in captivity and released years ago and are now returning to nest as adults.
However, the Ridley remains on the endangered species list, and its populations are still vulnerable to natural disasters and human development and activity. A network of government and university scientists and volunteers is helping to track sea turtle nesting and support conservation and research efforts.
For the past several years, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has worked with a host of other agencies including the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, Gladys Porter Zoo, University of Texas, officials in Mexico and others to restore the Kemp's ridley.
There are several likely reasons for the increased number of turtle nestings on Texas beaches. Recent rapid increases in the Mexico nesting population probably caused the Kemp's ridley to expand their nesting range. In 2001, TPWD put into action new commercial shrimping regulations that restricted the size and number of shrimping trawls per vessel in near-shore waters from the beach to nine nautical miles out into the Gulf of Mexico, an area where sea turtles feed, mate and come to the beach to nest. Another shrimping regulation includes a seven-month seasonal ban on shrimp trawling from lower coast Gulf beaches to five miles offshore. Both regulations were designed to reduce fishing pressure on shrimp near the beach; however, sea turtles were afforded more protection from the regulations as well. Also, the use of Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) by commercial shrimpers is another major reason the Kemp's ridley and other sea turtle populations are rebounding, since the devices allow turtles to escape shrimp trawls.
To protect as many sea turtles as possible, the Padre Island National Seashore incubates most of the sea turtle eggs found along the Texas coast and releases the hatchlings into the Gulf of Mexico. Donna Shaver, Ph.D. and Chief of the Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery at Padre Island National Seashore has been working with sea turtles for more than 20 years.
People are encouraged to report sea turtle sightings on Texas beaches by phoning toll free (866) TURTLE5. The public can also witness sea turtle hatchling releases at the national seashore on certain dates mid-June through August. The releases usually take place around 6:45 a.m. and are free to attend—see the national seashore sea turtle Web pages for details. General information about Ridley turtles is also on the TPWD Web site.
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I think we are all acquianted with the forestsangha.org site and the monasteries that are of this tradition in north america.
yet what about the other traditons such as Dhammayuttika Nikaya (Metta Forest Monastery in San Diego County belongs to this tradition). and other forest/meditation traditions.
Are there sites that list all of their locations within Canada, U.S., U.K. and associated western/european countries like forestsangha does?


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Gemistry Gameplay 1 iOS / Android
By: Sangwoo Hong
Genre: Puzzle
Video Tips
Let's play Gemistry! This is part 1 of my walkthrough guide for the iOS game, Gemistry by Sangwoo Hong.
I will update this post with more tips and tricks, so please bookmark this page and keep on checking in!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask for extra help in the comments section.
Hit like if this helped you!
Visit Gemistry walkthrough page for level videos, tutorials, cheats and more.
Gameplay Questions
Questions related to gameplay of Gemistry iPhone game.


text: Farley's and Sather's Candy Co. is proud to introduce a new pre-priced $1.19 or 2 for $2 line. Twenty-four top selling items are available from gummi worms to orange slices and are packaged 12 per case. Also new to the pre-priced $.59 or 2 for $1 line are four exciting new products: Bobs Cherry Balls,


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Brahms, Schuman and Mozart will make up the Stow Symphony Orchestra's winter concert on March 9, which will be at the Tallmadge Alliance Church, 1155 East Ave. in Tallmadge.
Under the baton of Music Director Darrell Lee Music the concert will feature Mozart's Overture to "The Magic Flute," William Schuman's "New England Triptych" and Brahm's Symphony No. 1 in c minor, Op. 68.
The Overture to Mozart's fairy tale opera "The Magic Flute" is the most widely performed of his overtures. It features the major themes from the opera, from the comic to the sublime, and is notable in its scoring for the inclusion of low brass instruments.
"New England Triptych" is Schuman's homage to the works of William Billings, an important contributor to American music. Of the three pieces which comprise this work, Schuman said they "are not a "fantasy" nor "variations" on themes of Billings, but rather a fusion of styles and musical language."
Brahms' First Symphony, by his own testimony, was 21 years in its composition. It captures both the darkest and the most joyous of human emotions, carrying the listener from the depths of despair to the heights of ecstasy.
Tickets for the upcoming concert, available at the door, are priced at $10 for adults, and $7 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free.
Due to limited seating, advance purchase of tickets is advisable.
Tickets are available for presale at www.StowOrchestra.org/tickets.htm, or by calling 330-678-0029, or in limited numbers at the door. For group rates call 330-678-0029. For more information, visit www.stoworchestra.org.
The Stow Symphony also is seeking chorus members for its Fifteenth Anniversary performance in May of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Those interested in singing should call 330-678-0029.


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BEHIND THE ENEMY LINE is a WWII RPG originally released by FASA. A later edition was done by The Companions (including rulebooks that were made to look like army field manuals).


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Reviewed by 9 customers
Even with the release of the new PS4, there really isn't much better than the good ole' PS3! We own this specific model, only in white. I love how slender it is, and it really looks nice on display. There is so much space to hold your PSN downloads, and the game play is just.. fantastic! Definitely, definitely a recommended purchase!!
I got this console as the Christmas present and loving it. The graphic is stunning and it also offers a lot of interesting things from Netflix to YouTube and ever playing 3D movie on my TV. Highly recommend. A must have in your home.
I am a gamer and have been since the days of Atari 2600 and Coleco. I have owned every Nintendo system and the PS1, but never bothered with the XBox, PS2 or PS3 until recently. I finally got a PS3 over the last month and I am blown away with the quality of the games, the amazing freebies from the PlayStation Plus program and every that Sony has done for me and online. I am completely won over by Sony after years of not being a buying customer of their products at all.
Great game with Blue Ray. Surely beat xbox
This is a great product, easily set up and connected seamlessly. I haven't used it much due to lack of free time but when I have, it has been enjoyable and worked beautifully. My students couldn't believe I actually played PS3 games. Admittedly I don't measure up to their skill levels but that's to be expected. :-)
I've had this console for about a year and a half now and to start of with, it offers so many great services and products from free from video games to services like PlayStation home and numerous free video games and demo to try out. in addition unlike its competitor the Xbox you can play online for free and thats amazing and that what really bring this console over the top. it allows me to chat with my friends and make new friends without making me pay for that and that a big plus. (though PS4 console you must pay for online which is actually worth it) but not only that the console has apps such as YouTube and Netflix which gives you a lot to do. its really an entertainment console at its best. you can even transfer files from a USB and use the PS3 as a media hub for music, Movies (videos), and pictures. the console also has a web browser, though not the best, it gets the job done. so yeah that the PS3 great console with great games, great service, and an even better computer this is a no brainer your kids will love it, you will love it, and most importantly your wallet will love it. thanks for reading.
Best Uses
This Product is in Perfect condition!
I like this because it is slimmer and the lenses are accessible so you may clean them if needed. It is solidly designed and the sliding top actually doesn't feel very cheap. It's very compact and light. I also wish it had a rear usb port but that also has been overlooked. It has, however, exceeded my expectations.
Both games included are awesome, Uncharted 3 and Dust 514 (free download certificate). For me, 250 GB is more than enough. PS3 ROCKS!!!


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Major League Baseball announced Monday it has suspended New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez through the end of the 2014 season for buying performance-enhancing drugs from the now-closed Biogenesis clinic.
The three-time Amiercan League MVP has said he will appeal the suspension, and it is possible he will play in tonight's game against the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. Rodriguez hasn't played a major league game in 2013 following offseason hip surgery. He has been rehabbing in the minor leagues.
PHOTOS: A-Rod through the years | Behind the scenes in '99 | Disgraced athletes
MLB also announced 50-game suspensions for the following players, who have agreed not to appeal: Nelson Cruz, Texas Rangers; Jhonny Peralta, Detroit Tigers; Jesus Montero, Seattle Mariners; Francisco Cervelli, Yankees; Everth Cabrera, San Diego Padres; Jordany Valdepsin, New York Mets; Antonio Bastardo, Philadelphia Phillies; Sergio Escalona, Houston Astros; and minor leaguers Fernando Martinez of the Yankees, Fautino de los Santos of the Padres, Cesar Puello of the Mets and free agent Jordan Norberto.
At issue is the defunct Biogenesis anti-aging clinic in Miami, which MLB says provided PEDs to the players.
Some players who had been linked to Biogenesis, including 2012 All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera, 2005 AL Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon and San Diego Padres C Yasmani Grandal, were not suspended because they already served 50-game suspensions for positive PED tests.
Two other players named in the Biogenesis documents, Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals and Danny Valencia of the Baltimore Orioles, were cleared of having violated MLB's PED rules.
Milwaukee outfielder Ryan Braun, the 2011 National League MVP, agreed two weeks ago to a 65-game suspension for violating baseball's rules on drug use after being connected to Biogenesis.


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The longer Congress twiddles its collective thumbs about passing the RESTORE Act, the greater the potential loss to all Americans.
BP's oil well poured some 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, killing wildlife, local businesses and a couple of tourism seasons. Another 770,000 gallons of chemical dispersants were added to the poisonous soup.
It will take billions of dollars to repair the damage.
So both houses of Congress, knowing their own predilections for mishandling money, came up with legislation — known as the RESTORE Act — that would place 80 percent of the penalties assessed on BP and its Deepwater Horizon partners and contractors into a trust account to be used for Gulf restoration projects. Not a penny of taxpayer money is involved.
But BP, with a possible total liability of around $71 billion, is working on a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle all criminal and civil claims arising from the Gulf oil disaster. If a settlement is reached before the RESTORE Act is passed, all of BP's fines will go to the U.S. Treasury — Congress's checking account. Any fines collected from other "responsible parties" like Transocean, Halliburton and Anadarko will also go to Washington DC instead of to the Gulf.
So how does this impact your life? You live a thousand miles from the Gulf. You've never sunned yourself on a sugar-white Florida Panhandle or Alabama beach, nor dragged a toe through the sand along the Gulf Islands National Seashore. You haven't danced at Tipitina's, trolled for tuna, nor played the tables at Beau Rivage. You wouldn't eat a raw oyster if your life depended on it.
A Duke University study, released in Dec. 2011, looked at 140 companies that have been involved in large-scale government-funded Gulf coast (wetlands) restoration projects. "Coastal restoration provides job opportunities in the Gulf Coast region and 32 other states," the study reported. A total of 391 employee locations were identified nationwide. Of course, most (261 locations, or 67 percent) were in the five Gulf States — Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. But 32 employee locations were concentrated on the Pacific Coast and 25 dotted the Midwestern states.
Two thirds of these firms are small businesses. More than 42 percent have fewer than 100 employees.
Unfortunately the Duke study didn't look at the jobs created by other Gulf industries. Consider the businesses associated with the seafood industry.
A third to 40 percent of the nation's seafood harvest comes from the Gulf. As an industry, seafood harvesting got hammered by the oil disaster. At one point, more than 88,000 square miles, or 37 percent, of Federal fishing waters in the Gulf were closed to commercial and recreational harvest. The news talked about shrimpers and oystermen losing their "crop." Fin fishing came to a standstill. Packers stopped packing. Truckers stopped trucking. There was an ice glut on the market.
But Gulf seafood is more than fish filets and shrimp cocktails. If you're growing an organic garden, there's a good chance the fancy organic fertilizer you're using to feed your prized basil and arugula is made in large part from a little Gulf fish called the menhaden. Gulf fishermen have been catching menhaden commercially since the late 1800s. Today menhaden are a prime ingredient in animal feed, especially in the beef and aquaculture industries, pet foods and fertilizers.
So what happened to the menhaden after the spill? Good question. It'll take five or ten years for us to find out. If Congress uses the BP fines on unrelated spending instead of Gulf restoration (funds another airport where there are no planes or a suspension bridge over a desert), we might never know. Remember the Exxon Valdez? Alaskans are still wondering if the Pacific Herring will ever come back.
Thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of jobs across America (and the world) are connected to a healthy Gulf. Tourism is a $34 billion a year business in the Gulf region, where the environment is the economy. Chilly up there in Michigan? C'mon down. Start planning online: visit travel sites, resort and recreation sites, check the weather, buy an airplane ticket, reserve a room, book a fishing charter, find a restaurant, download a book to keep you in your chaise lounge. A lot of jobs are touched along the way – programmers, hosting services, writers, photographers, software developers. If there's an airport in your city it employs jet plane mechanics, baggage handlers, ticket agents, pilots and latte servers helping you on your way to the Gulf.
Shopping at Wal-Mart or Target? Ten of the nation's 15 largest shipping ports by cargo volume are located along the Gulf coast. It takes a lot of people to get that stuff to you. And if you drive to the mall you might note that 90 percent (yes, that's almost all) of the nation's total offshore crude oil and natural gas production comes from the Gulf.
Of course, you could use that natural gas to heat your home and power your stove so you can enjoy a meal while you watch the snow fall.
The first paragraph of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Draft Phase I Early Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment says: "The Gulf of Mexico is a priceless national treasure. Its natural resources – water, fish, beaches, reefs, marshes, oil and gas – are the economic engine of the region. The Gulf of Mexico is likewise vitally important to the entire nation as a bountiful source of food, energy and recreation. The Gulf Coast's unique culture and natural beauty are world-renowned. There is no place like it anywhere else on Earth."
Let's add: and BP et al caused lots of damage.
The Gulf took a major hit but it is resilient. Many scientists I've interviewed are pretty sure the Gulf would fix itself in a couple hundred years — sooner if there are no more catastrophic natural or unnatural disasters and humans stop dredging, walling, filling and otherwise manhandling the Gulf's coastal wetlands.
We can hurry the process, though. It'll take a bunch of money but the good news is it won't come out of taxpayer pockets. As far as you're concerned, it's free.
The RESTORE Act calls for the establishment of a trust account into which 80 percent of Clean Water Act penalties are deposited so all RESTORE Act projects would be funded by penalties from BP and others responsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The remaining 20 percent of those penalties would go to the U.S. treasury (that's you) to be managed and spent by your senators and representatives.
Time is short however. BP is negotiating a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Reuters reported that Martijn Rats, head of European oil research at Morgan Stanley, said he saw a 70 to 80 percent chance that BP and DOJ would reach a settlement deal sometime between BP's full year results announcement in February and the scheduled start of legal hearings in New Orleans on February 27. Rats told Reuters he thought the settlement would be $20 billion to $25 billion.
Lots of experts think a settlement by Feb. 27 is unlikely because of the complexity and sheer number of the claims against BP and its contractors. But if a settlement is reached before the RESTORE Act is passed, Gulf restoration will be at the mercy of Congress and government bureaucracies starved for cash.
So what can you do?
Tell your Congressional representative to get the House version of the RESTORE Act out of committee and on to the floor for a vote. Then tell your Senator to pass the RESTORE Act. It has already been approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on a voice vote so it's available for consideration by the full Senate. Send an email. Write a letter. Make a phone call. Some staffer will be tallying the messages so everyone counts.


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Measurement of Soluble Factors and Particulate Matter in Induced Sputum and EBC in Inflammatory Diseases of the Lung
This study has been completed.
Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
Information provided by:
Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
First received: August 2, 2007
Last updated: NA
Last verified: August 2007
History: No changes posted
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
In the present study inflammatory mediators will be isolated in induced sputum and exhaled breath condensate and will be correlated with particulate matter measured in these samples.Particulate matter will be assessed by partcle size distribution method and shape analysis.
The aim of the study is to perform biological monitoring in environmental and occupational diseases in a non invassive fashion.
|Asthma Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Interstitial Lung Diseases Occupational Lung Diseases
|Other: no generic names
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Allocation: Random Sample
Primary Purpose: Screening
Time Perspective: Longitudinal
Time Perspective: Retrospective
Resource links provided by NLM:
Genetics Home Reference related topics: pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis
MedlinePlus related topics: Lung DiseasesU.S. FDA Resources
Further study details as provided by Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center:
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|7 Years to 80 Years (Child, Adult, Senior)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Ages 7-80
Exclusion Criteria:
- FEV1 < 75% predicted pO2 < 75
Contacts and Locations
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below. For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00511290
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00511290
|Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
|Tel-Aviv, Israel, 64239
Sponsors and Collaborators
Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
|Principal Investigator:
|Fireman Lizy, PhD
|Tel Aviv University
More Information
Keywords provided by Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center:
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00511290 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|August 2, 2007
|Last Updated:
|August 2, 2007
Keywords provided by Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center:
Primary disease or condition being studied: Asthma -COPD-Interstitial Lung Diseases-Occupational Lung Diseases
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Lung Diseases
Lung Diseases, Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive
Lung Diseases, Interstitial
Respiratory Tract Diseases
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017


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The Orientalist defines the Oriental. This is but one way the late Palestinian-American activist and scholar Edward Said described the relationship of power and domination between the West (the Occident) and the East (the Orient); the Westerner (the Orientalist) and the Easterner (the Oriental). Orientalism is still at work today as White supremacy defines the Muslim, the Arab, the Iranian, the South Asian, the African, the Asian, the Latino, the Native-American, the "Other."
In my original post (part 1) in November of 2009, I critiqued the way Muslims and non-Muslims alike tried to defend Islam after the shooting at Fort Hood. Though well-intentioned, many made the mistake of using a very problematic phrase: "Islam has been hijacked." The extremists, they say, are the ones who made it worse for all Muslims. The terrorists took over the religion of Islam and the only way to save the faith is if "moderate Muslims" take it back.
The problem with this narrative is that it functions to (1) justify stereotyping and demonization of Islam, (2) hold the vast majority of Muslims responsible for "properly" representing their faith, and (3) dismiss the racist double-standards that exist in our society, such as never asking a White Christian to answer for atrocities orchestrated by other White Christians, but always demanding a Muslim to do so. The label "moderate Muslim" is not only assigned to us by the dominant White supremacist culture, but it also represents the way racist and oppressive systems define who we are. When we use the term "moderate Muslim," we internalize the West's simplified categorization of Muslims. As Hoda of "The Ruh of Brown Folks" described during an online discussion, "Muslims can be neatly divided into polarizing categories of 'moderate' (read: Uncle Tom Muslims who are friendly to US foreign policy and law enforcement officials) and 'radical/extreme' (which lumps everyone else together)."
Similarly, the phrase "Islam has been hijacked" implies that militant extremists represent the majority of Muslims when, in fact, they do not. It also serves as a way to corner Muslims into exhaustively condemning and apologizing for crimes and murders committed by other people. Imagine if someone approached a White person and asked, "Why haven't you condemned the White supremacist who opened fire at the Holocaust Museum in New York? Are you an anti-Semite?" Muslims are asked such ridiculous questions, along with "Do you support Al-Qaida? Are you a terrorist sympathizer? Why don't you condemn Hamas or Hezbollah or the Taliban?"
These questions are asked because Muslims are viewed in a suspicious light. These questions are asked because in the minds of many non-Muslim Americans, Muslims are not welcome here. Last year's Washington Post poll revealed that 48% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Islam. While there are those who dismiss the disturbance of these numbers, the anti-Muslim rallies and rhetoric surrounding the incorrectly titled "Ground Zero Mosque" are just a couple of examples of how rising Islamophobia surfaces in the United States.
But it doesn't stop at hate speech. Wednesday's hate crime in New York where a 21 year-old non-Muslim White male, Michael Enright, repeatedly stabbed a Muslim cab driver after asking him, "Are you a Muslim?" reveals the danger of Islamophobia and how worse it's becoming. In light of this recent event, our time to constantly stress on why young White males are not being racially profiled is long overdue. We should also heavily emphasize on how "moderate White people"are not expected to condemn or answer for Enright's attempted murder. And while we're at it, let's mention the White man who flew his plane into an IRS building, as well as the White Christian militia group that plotted to assassinate police officers.
What of Timothy McVeigh, the Crusader language of Blackwater, and even the religious justification George W. Bush used to invade Iraq? When was the last time you heard someone say "Christianity was hijacked"? Or, what about the JDL (Jewish Defense League) former Chairman, Irv Rubin, and group member, Earl Krugel, who were arrested 3 months after 9/11 for planning bomb attacks on a Mosque in California and on the office of Arab-American US representative Darrell Issa? Did anyone say "Judaism was hijacked" by these extremists?
The reality is that the phrase "Islam has been hijacked" is a product of White supremacy. It is the dominant culture's way of speaking for us, imposing its definition of Muslims/Islam upon us, and implanting the idea that we are, indeed, inferior, inadequate, and subhuman. Once we internalize the racist and hateful messages and start using them, the idea becomes normalized and spreads. We have to unplug ourselves from the oppressive system and start defining ourselves. Islamophobia, for instance, does not exist because a small number of Muslim extremist militants carried out attacks and atrocities. Islamophobia exists because White supremacist culture does not make a distinction between the vast majority of Muslims and the small minority of violent extremists. As I pointed out in this post, White Christians are not treated as spokespersons for their entire race or religion whenever members within their communities carry out acts of terrorism.
If others do not say "Christianity was hijacked," or "Judaism was hijacked" or "Hinduism was hijacked," then why are we, the 1.5 billion Muslims, expected to say that about our religion? Like any religious group, Muslims need to challenge the problems within their community, but it doesn't mean they have to conform to how others label us. It doesn't mean that we should ignore the double-standards of the dominant culture and never speak out against the demonization of Islam and Muslims.
The idea that a small group of people can take control of our religion is absurd and completely denies the voice that we as a majority have. With that said, as the vast majority, let's make it loud and clear: No one hijacked Islam.


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California law consists of the state Constitution, statutes, and 29 codes, covering various subject areas.
State regulations are rules or orders issued by government departments or agencies to carry out the intent of state law. These same agencies also have the power to hear disputes and enforce their rules and regulations. Think of agencies such as the state Department of Motor Vehicles or the Franchise Tax Board. Many of the laws that come out of these agencies are not found in the California codes mentioned above. They are published in the form of codes of regulations or administrative codes. Regulations can have an important effect on the outcome of cases.
Click to search the California Code of Regulations.
An ordinance is a municipal statute, passed by a city council or similar agency, about matters not already covered by federal or state law. Ordinances commonly deal with zoning issues in a community, building standards, and safety matters of the municipality.
Local ordinances may be very important in unlawful detainer (eviction) cases, for example, since the town or city may have rent control laws that have a significant effect on the case. Access available online California local ordinances.
Each court, at both the state and federal level, will have its own rules. California has statewide court rules called California Rules of Court. Many courts also have local rules of court. Rules of court control the operation of the courts and how the individuals involved in the court process must conduct themselves.
Find the California Rules of Court, which apply to all California state courts.
You also need to check your local court rules. Many law libraries will have your local court's rules, but often the best place to check for court rules is the website of the court in which you are interested. Fnd your court's local rules.
Federal law consists of:


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Documentary to Capture Stories of Real Farmers and Ranchers Across America Oscar® winning and two-time Emmy® winning filmmaker James Moll is proud to announce the production of a feature-length documentary about the next generation of American farmers and ranchers. The yet-to-be-titled documentary will profile farmers and ranchers in their twenties, all of whom have assumed the generational responsibility of running the family business.
Announced at SXSW Film Festival
Made in cooperation with U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance® (USFRA®), the film will give us an up close and personal look at some of the young farmers and ranchers who grow and raise the food we consume daily, and into the latest farming procedures, practices, and technologies that are changing and improving the landscape of modern agriculture.
"We are very excited that James Moll is going to focus his next feature film on American agriculture," said Bob Stallman, chairman of USFRA and president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. "Today's agriculture industry needs to better connect with consumers and this is a great opportunity for consumers to get to know farmers and ranchers through such a creative medium."
Moll most recently received a Grammy® for directing and producing Foo Fighters: Back and Forth. In past years, Moll directed and produced numerous documentaries covering topics from the Holocaust to an epic trek across the Sahara Desert, teaming up with heavy-weights such as Matt Damon and Steven Spielberg along the way.
"I've always strived to make films that are unbiased testaments to the subject matter," said Moll. "It's about telling real stories that resonate. I've been looking for the right subject to tackle in my next documentary, and I've found the perfect topic in American agriculture."
Moll received an Academy Award for directing and editing the feature documentary The Last Days, executive produced by Steven Spielberg. Moll also received an Emmy Award for Inheritance for which he was director/editor and producer. He later directed and produced the feature documentary Running the Sahara, with executive producer Matt Damon.
Moll is also participating in The Power of Film (to Change the World) panel at SXSW where he will discuss the film and the importance of presenting unbiased insight into the lives of U.S. farmers and ranchers.
For more information about the film, visit www.AllentownProductions.com.
About U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance
USFRA consists of nearly 80 farmer and rancher-led organizations and their agricultural partners representing virtually all aspects of agriculture. It works to engage in dialogues with consumers who have questions about how today's food is grown and raised. USFRA is committed to continuous improvement and supporting U.S. farmers and ranchers efforts to increase consumer confidence and trust in today's agriculture.
About Allentown Productions?
Based at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, Allentown Productions is a film and television production company specializing in non-fiction filmmaking. Allentown Productions was established by filmmaker ?James Moll, who was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania hence, the name of the company. His work as a documentary director/producer has earned him numerous awards including an Academy Award®, two Emmy Awards®, a Grammy Award®, and Peabody Award, among others.


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When Genene Wiebe of San Marcos decided to donate a kidney to a friend and colleague 18 months ago, she had no idea that she and Scripps Green Hospital would be making medical history by being part of the first international kidney paired transplant chain.
It all started with a man in Greece and has grown to involve 10 organ donors and recipients. And, it's not finished yet. On Friday, it was announced that kidney donors from Trinidad and Tobago would also be entering the chain.
"This is a new and exciting era in organ transplantation," said Dr. Christopher Marsh, chief of transplant surgery at Scripps Green, who was part of the medical team for Wiebe and her friend, kidney recipient Bernard Tatum.
The physicians, along with the two San Diego County patients, addressed media Friday morning, announcing the transplant achievement.
"I hope this example motivates more people to donate their kidney to save lives," Marsh said.
The chain began when Greek patient Michalis Helmis received a kidney from an altruistic living donor — a 31-year-old woman from Oklahoma — after his wife agreed to give one of her kidneys to a 57-year-old man in Pennsylvania. That man's 43-year-old friend then gave one of his kidneys to a 57-year-old woman in Kentucky. That woman's husband then gave one of his kidneys to Tatum in San Diego, and Wiebe's kidney went to a woman in Ohio.
The chain is scheduled to continue with three more transplants, including Trinidad and Tobago patients, to take place in Atlanta and Denver, according to the Alliance for Paired Donation which arranged the exchanges.
Such transplant chains have become more common in recent years as kidney patients have sought new ways to obtain organs after failing to identify a relative who is a good match or spending years on a waiting list for organs from deceased donors. Kidney paired donations occur when a donor who is incompatible with a designated recipient promises to donate a kidney to a stranger in order for the designee to receive a compatible kidney from another stranger.
Previous efforts to expand the pool of paired donation participants internationally have been blocked by national laws restricting the movement of organs across borders in order to prevent nefarious organ trafficking.
The newly announced intercontinental chain was made possible after officials in Greece changed a law that required Greek patients to receive donated organs from close relatives. The move opened the door for the Greek national health insurance system to pay for Helmis' transplant and his wife's organ donation, which both occurred in Ohio.
Tatum's transplant occurred after Wiebe, without telling anyone but her pastor and her family, began researching kidney donation so she could help her sick friend.
"I thought you could only donate organs when you die. When I found out I could donate a kidney now, I knew I wanted to pay it forward. I just wanted to give Bernard a new chance for life," said the 49-year-old mother of four and administrative assistant at Mesa View Baptist Church in Rancho Bernardo, where Tatum serves as chairman of the board of trustees.
Tatum said he was "overwhelmed and speechless" when Wiebe revealed her plans.
"To give someone else life by sacrificing a part of you, that is probably the greatest gift anyone can give," said the 58-year-old San Diegan who was on dialysis and an organ transplant waiting list for more than two years before receiving his new kidney on May 1. "I can't explain what it means to start fresh with good health and a new outlook on life."
Although 17,000 kidney transplants are performed annually in the U.S. using organs from both live and deceased donors, there are still 96,000 people in need of a transplant. Donor scarcity causes an average wait of four years.
The average person with a kidney transplant not only lives 10 to 12 years longer than someone who continues on dialysis, but they also experience improved quality of life.
"If just one person who hears about this story can get tested and become a donor, it would really help," Wiebe said. "Every person, every donor, makes a difference and can save a life."