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Local adaptation to divergent environmental conditions can promote population genetic differentiation even in the absence of geographic barriers and hence, lead to speciation. Perturbations by catastrophic events, however, can distort such parapatric ecological speciation processes. Here, we asked whether an exceptionally strong flood led to homogenization of gene pools among locally adapted populations of the Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana, Poeciliidae) in the Cueva del Azufre system in southern Mexico, where two strong environmental selection factors (darkness within caves and/or presence of toxic H2S in sulfidic springs) drive the diversification of P. mexicana. Nine nuclear microsatellites as well as heritable female life history traits (both as a proxy for quantitative genetics and for trait divergence) were used as markers to compare genetic differentiation, genetic diversity, and especially population mixing (immigration and emigration) before and after the flood.
Habitat type (i.e., non-sulfidic surface, sulfidic surface, or sulfidic cave), but not geographic distance was the major predictor of genetic differentiation. Before and after the flood, each habitat type harbored a genetically distinct population. Only a weak signal of individual dislocation among ecologically divergent habitat types was uncovered (with the exception of slightly increased dislocation from the Cueva del Azufre into the sulfidic creek, El Azufre). By contrast, several lines of evidence are indicative of increased flood-induced dislocation within the same habitat type, e.g., between different cave chambers of the Cueva del Azufre.
The virtual absence of individual dislocation among ecologically different habitat types indicates strong natural selection against migrants. Thus, our current study exemplifies that ecological speciation in this and other systems, in which extreme environmental factors drive speciation, may be little affected by temporary perturbations, as adaptations to physico-chemical stressors may directly affect the survival probability in divergent habitat types.
Ecological speciation describes the process during which reproductive isolation evolves as a result of ecologically based divergent selection [1-3]. Evidence for ecological speciation comes from theoretical considerations, empirical studies in natural systems, and from laboratory evolution experiments [3-6]. Most studies on ecological speciation in animals focused on biotic selective agents causing divergence among populations, for example in populations with differences in resource use [7-10], differences in predation risk [11,12], or exposure to different kinds of parasites [13-15]. While the literature on ecological speciation in response to abiotic selective agents and stressors is extensive for plants [16-20], only few studies to date investigated ecological speciation along abiotic environmental gradients in animals [21,22]. Although stressful environments have long been known to be associated with bouts of directional selection [23], the concept of stress and the maintenance of homeostasis through adaptation is often ignored in the study of speciation in animals and more emphasis is put on its role in population decline and extinction [24]. Here we investigate a system where adaptation to ecologically divergent habitat patches--with presence or absence of abiotic stressors--drives the divergence among locally adapted populations of a small Mexican freshwater fish, the Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana, Poeciliidae) [25-29].
In the Cueva del Azufre system in southern Mexico, ecologically divergent aquatic habitats are characterized by the presence or absence of toxic hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and/or light (i.e., cave versus surface habitats [26,27,30]), resulting in several non-toxic surface habitats, a toxic creek (El Azufre), as well as a toxic and a non-toxic cave: the 'Cueva del Azufre' (also called 'Cueva de Villa Luz' or 'Cueva de las Sardinas' [31]), and the 'Cueva Luna Azufre', respectively ([26,32]; Fig. Fig.1).1). The hydrogen sulfide in this system stems from natural (volcanic) sources [33]. Both the presence of H2S and the absence of light exert strong selection on organisms exposed to them. Hydrogen sulfide is acutely toxic to most metazoans and leads to extreme hypoxia in the water [34-36]. The absence of light in caves inhibits the use of visual senses, and cave-dwellers are under selection to cope with the impossibility for visual orientation and communication [37-40], especially if they evolved from a diurnal surface-dwelling form like in P. mexicana (Poeciliidae) [41,42] and Astyanax mexicanus (Characidae, [43-45]).
No major physical barriers prevent fishes in the Cueva del Azufre system from moving between different habitat types that are only a few hundred meters apart (Fig. (Fig.1);1); still, only Poecilia mexicana has successfully colonized all of these different habitats [26,30,31,46,47]. Although locally adapted populations can be crossbred in the laboratory [48], remarkably strong genetic differentiation has been uncovered at molecular markers (microsatellites and cytochrome b: [25,26]), and habitat type is the strongest predictor of genetic similarity among populations. Several studies reported on site-specific adaptive trait divergence in morphological [26,49,50], physiological [28,29], behavioral [42,46,48,51,52], and life history traits [53-56]. Altogether, this suggests that adaptation to divergent environmental conditions drives genetic differentiation in this system. Natural selection against immigrants from ecologically divergent populations plays a major role in stabilizing the observed small-scale genetic structuring ([27,57]; see discussion for details), and female mate discrimination against divergent male phenotypes also plays a role [27].
At the end of October and beginning of November of 2007, the rivers around the Cueva del Azufre system and the state of Tabasco in general were subject to intense flooding, which resulted from heavy rainfalls generated by two subsequent cold fronts moving into the area within a nine day period (with locally > 1500 mm of precipitation during the first rainfall episode and > 1100 mm during the second one; [58]). Taken together, these have been considered as the most intense rainfalls in more than 50 years. Overall, rainfall in Tabasco was 82% above the long-term average of October and five times as high as the historical average over a period of 24 hours ([59]; see also Fig. Fig.22 for historic and 2007 rainfall patterns). These high rates of rainfall led to the flooding of more than 60% of the state of Tabasco and water discharges of up to 8,000 m3/s in the Río Grijalva system, which the Cueva del Azufre system is a part of. According to reports from the local population, water levels in the Ríos Amatan and Oxolotán, the two major rivers around the Cueva del Azufre system, rose up to 8 m above the normal water level.
In aquatic ecosystems, the effects of small-scale floods, which are often common, seasonal events, have been well documented; not only do they reshape the physical environment, but they also influence fish community structure [60-65]. However, the impacts of larger floods are less well understood (e.g., [66]). Severe floods are not only associated with peaks in flow conditions within the riverbed, but also with a lateral expansion of the water body. Therefore, while seasonal floods are fundamental for the maintenance of biodiversity in floodplains [67,68], larger floods are thought to have an opposite impact at least on headwater habitats (see [69,70] for discussion). Here, floodwaters can displace individuals and wash them downstream, potentially leading to drastic reductions in local population sizes, genetic bottlenecks, and even local population extinction [69,71], if upstream populations are only subjected to downward drift without counteracting upward colonization movements (i.e., Müller's "drift paradox" [72]).
In this study, we were particularly interested in how the catastrophic flood affected genetic structure and life history trait divergence in parapatric, locally adapted P. mexicana populations. The flooding of the water bodies around the Cueva del Azufre system presumably led to temporarily increased connectivity among habitat patches (as commonly observed by the authors after heavy rainfalls during the rainy season). Two effects are likely to have occurred due to the flood: (i) Increased flow regimes could have led to displacement of locally adapted P. mexicana to habitat patches further downstream (e.g., washing cave fish from the cave to the outside or fish from the sulfidic into the non-sulfidic habitats), and (ii) the flood waters were likely to have temporarily diluted the hydrogen sulfide concentrations, potentially enabling immigration by fish from the non-sulfidic habitats. Hence, small-scale genetic structure caused by local adaptation to H2S levels could have been lost, or at least reduced due to admixture of gene pools. As a result, this could lead to a reversal of the observed processes of differentiation due to hybridization/homogenization, as has been observed between different ecotypes in other systems [6,73,74]. Alternatively, natural selection in this system might be strong enough to maintain population-specific differences despite severe temporal disturbances. Hence, to test whether the Tabasco flood led to homogenization of locally adapted populations, we compared patterns of genetic differentiation, genetic diversity, and especially genetically detectible individual dislocation before and after the flood. First, we used a population genetic approach based on allelic variation of nine neutral nuclear markers (microsatellites). Secondly, we used a quantitative genetic approach focusing on life history traits as markers.
The Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana, is a widespread freshwater fish occurring along the Atlantic versant of Mexico, where it can be found in various streams, lakes, and coastal lagoons [75,76]. Our study sites are located near the village of Tapijulapa in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco (Fig. (Fig.1).1). We sampled three different habitat types that are characterized by the presence or absence of H2S and/or light (see Fig. Fig.33 for a comparison of site-specific selection pressures by abiotic stressors before and after the flood). All sites are connected by watercourses located within 10 km of each other (river distance), and the average distance between sites is about 3.5 km (Table (Table1).1). Sites sampled include normal (non-sulfidic, surface) rivers (N = 3 sites), a sulfidic surface creek (N = 2 sites), and a sulfidic cave (Cueva del Azufre), in which we sampled from multiple (N = 3) cave chambers (V, X, and XIII; [31]). The non-sulfidic cave (Cueva Luna Azufre) was not accessible after the flood. Inside the Cueva del Azufre, several springs discharge water rich in hydrogen sulfide (H2S), so cave mollies not only live in darkness [77], but also have to cope with the adverse effects of a naturally occurring toxicant [30] and thus face two strong selective forces [25,26]. In addition, the abiotic differences among habitat types are correlated with differences in biotic environmental conditions, such as resource availability [78], predators [47,79-81], and parasites ([82]; M. Tobler et al., unpublished data).
The water from the cave eventually drains into the El Azufre (EA I), which is a sulfidic surface creek also containing high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide. In addition to sulfidic discharge from the cave, there are several independent sulfidic springs upstream of the confluence with the creek leaving the Cueva del Azufre (EA II). The El Azufre meanders for approximately 1.5 km and eventually drains into the Río Oxolotán (RO; [26]; Fig. Fig.1).1). Besides these divergent habitat types, we sampled non-sulfidic surface habitats, including the Arroyo Bonita (AB) and Arroyo Tres (AT). Eventually, all habitats sampled drain into Río Oxolotán.
Pre-flood samples were available from January 2006 and May/June 2007 [26]; our post-flood samples were collected in January 2008 (2 months after the flood). Because habitat structures differed between sampling sites, different capture methods were employed. In the cave, where the water is very shallow and low ceilings preclude seining, fish were caught with dip nets (13 × 14 cm, 1 mm mesh-width). In the other habitats, fish were caught using a seine (4 m long, 4 mm mesh-width). Fin clips for extraction of DNA were stored in 96% ethanol at 4°C. Between 18 and 24 fish from each site were genotyped before the flood and 8 to 33 individuals after the flood (Tables (Tables22 and and3).3). Post-flood sample sizes varied depending on the accessibility of sites and the abundance of fish after the flood. All specimens used for life history trait characterization were euthanized using MS222 immediately after capture and fixed in a 10% formaldehyde solution.
The research followed internationally recognized guidelines and applicable national legislation. We received ethical approval from the deputy of animal welfare of the University of Potsdam.
DNA was extracted from tissue samples using the DNeasy DNA Extraction kit (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany) according to the manufacturer's recommendations. Between 36 and 576 ng (mean ± S.E.: 187 ± 115 ng) of genomic DNA were used as template for each PCR. Ten microsatellite loci were amplified in five (partly multiplex) PCR according to the cycling parameters described in [83] but with modified annealing temperatures to accommodate for multiplexing: (1) GAIV42, GAI29B and GTII33: 3 cycles at 52.3°C and 37 cycles at 49.3°C, (2) GAI29A and GAII41: 3 cycles at 56.4°C and 37 cycles at 53.4°C, (3) GAI26 and GAIII28: 3 cycles at 55.6°C and 37 cycles at 52.6°C, (4) GAV18 and GTI49: 3 cycles at 48.5°C and 37 cycles at 45.5°C. One locus (GTI13b) was amplified separately, because multiplex PCR did not yield satisfying results. For this marker, two-step amplification was performed with 3 cycles at 55.6°C, followed by 37 cycles at 52.6°C. We initially included the locus GTI49 [25], but the results were ambiguous for a considerable number of individuals (i.e., in some cases more than two peaks were detected). Therefore, it was excluded from the analysis. Fragment sizes were determined on an ABI 3700 automatic sequencer using GENEMAPPER 3.7 and an internal size standard (500 LIZ, Applied Biosystems).
Data for N = 163 individuals (collected before the flood) were re-analyzed from a previous study [25], and N = 173 additional specimens (after the flood) were genotyped for this study. We tested for the independent inheritance of all loci (linkage disequilibrium) with a likelihood ratio test using GENEPOP on the web [84]; as reported before [25], no indication of linkage was detected for the loci employed. FSTAT [85] was used to calculate observed (HO) and expected heterozygosity (HE), to conduct a probability test for deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), and to calculate allelic richness (A). To compare the genetic variability of the examined populations before and after the flood, locus-wise values for HO, HE, and A were subjected to paired t-tests for each population separately.
We also used FSTAT to calculate pair-wise genetic distances (FST), and P-values were based on 1,000 permutations. The proportion of the intra- and inter-population variance was calculated with an AMOVA [86] as implemented in ARLEQUIN [87]. We tested whether genetic differentiation after the flood was correlated with the differentiation prior to the flood by comparing pair-wise genetic distances using a Mantel test with 2,000 randomization as implemented in FSTAT [85]. Moreover, we tested for the effects of habitat type (same or different; i.e., 'isolation-by-adaptation'; [5,88]) and geographic distance between sites (i.e., 'isolation-by-distance'; [89]) on genetic differentiation pre- and post-flood by separately subjecting pre and post pair-wise FST-values to partial Mantel tests.
To calculate first-generation migrants within each data set (before and after the flood), we employed GENECLASS 2.0 [90] using the L_home likelihood computation, the Bayesian method of classification [91], and a threshold P-value of 0.05. We calculated the proportion of inferred migrants as a fraction of all specimens sampled in the respective population. If we assume that migrants and residents have the same probability to be sampled, this proportion should provide an unbiased estimator for the percentage of migrants in the population. As for pair-wise genetic distances, we used a Mantel test to correlate relative numbers of post-flood migrants (as a fraction of migrants in the 'recipient' population) with relative numbers of pre-flood migrants (arcsine square root-transformed). Also, we used a partial Mantel test to compare the relative number of migrants between pair-wise sites prior and after the flood (see [26,70]). Predictor matrices were based on distance between sites and habitat type (same or different). To test whether abiotic environmental conditions affected the directionality of first generation migrants, we also included matrices describing the difference in habitat types with respect to the presence of H2S (-1: movement from a sulfidic to a non-sulfidic habitat; 0: no change; +1: from non-sulfidic to sulfidic) and the absence of light (-1: movement from a cave to a surface habitat; 0: no change; +1: from surface to cave).
STRUCTURE version 2.3.2 Beta [92,93] was employed to identify the number of genetically distinct clusters (k) according to HWE and linkage equilibrium for each data set (before and after the flood) with the method presented by Evanno et al. [94]. For each value of k, three iterations were run using the admixture model, with a burn-in period of 10,000, followed by 90,000 iterations for values of k = 1 through 8. Each simulation was performed using an ancestry model incorporating admixture, a model of correlated allele frequencies, and the prior population information.
Female reproductive life history traits show pronounced differences across habitat types [54,56]; in particular differences across populations in offspring size and fecundity were found to have a strong genetic basis in this system [53,55]. Most importantly, female life history traits are site-specific (while male life history traits are slightly more variable: R. Riesch, unpublished data) and thus allow correctly assigning individuals to their population of origin [56]. Therefore, we utilized female life history traits as another means of testing for potential dislocation of individuals by the flood.
Life history data were reanalyzed from a previous publication [56]. Pre-flood collections were made in May 2007 from (a) the Cueva del Azufre (chambers V and X), (b) El Azufre (sites I and II), and (c) the Río Amatan (RA), a river that joins the Río Oxolotán approximately 3 km downstream of the El Azufre/Río Oxolotán confluence ([26]; Fig. Fig.1).1). Due to the flooding, this particular site was inaccessible in January 2008. Hence, our 2008 (post-flood) collections stem from (a) the Cueva del Azufre (chambers V and X), (b) El Azufre (I and II), and (c) Arroyo Bonita (AB). Following standard life history protocols (see [56] for details), we assessed the following life history traits: standard length [mm], female lean weight [g], female fat content [%, a measure for female condition], fecundity [number of offspring], embryo dry weight [mg], embryo fat content [%, a measure for offspring condition], and embryo developmental stage. Furthermore, to evaluate female investment in reproduction, we calculated reproductive allocation [%] by dividing offspring weight by the sum of offspring weight plus somatic dry weight [95].
To provide an intuitive metric with respect to the magnitude of life history divergence, we conducted two discriminant function analyses (DFAs): one to evaluate separation of habitat types prior to the 2007 flood and a second one to evaluate separation of habitat types after the 2007 flood. We used a jackknife ('leave-one-out') sampling scheme as a cross-validation technique (i.e., each case is classified by the functions derived from all cases other than that case; see [54,56]. For both DFAs, a priori-probabilities were calculated based on group sizes. Furthermore, we tested for life history variation within each habitat type due to flooding by conducting cross-validation DFA as follows: all post-flood data were withheld, and a DFA model was built on pre-flood data only (training data set). The data from the withheld post-flood samples (testing set) were then inserted into the discriminant functions and assigned to the most parsimonious training data set category [96]. To accommodate for the potential effects of standard length (SL) and embryo stage on the other life history traits, we used residuals of a preparatory General Linear Model (GLM) as dependent variables. In this multivariate GLM, SL and embryo stage were included as covariates. The dependent variables for the GLM, and their residuals for the DFA, were female lean weight [g], female fat content [%], fecundity [number of offspring], reproductive allocation [%], embryo lean weight [mg], and embryo fat content [%]. For this preparatory multivariate GLM, all dependent variables and covariates were z-transformed to adjust for the influence of differential scale on measurements. All life history analyses were conducted using SPSS 16 for Mac (SPSS Inc. 2008).
We found reduced genetic variability in the sulfur creek (El Azufre) population compared to non-sulfidic surface creeks, and a further decrease in the sulfidic cave (Cueva del Azufre). This pattern was observed before as well as after the flood (Fig. (Fig.4).4). Before the flood, genetic variability also varied within the Cueva del Azufre, with roughly equal values for observed heterozygosity (HO), expected heterozygosity (HE), and allelic richness (A) in chambers V and X, but distinctly lower genetic variability in the small rearmost chamber XIII. After the flood, however, values for HO, HE, and A in chamber XIII were similar to those of the other cave chambers (Fig. 4a-c). Indeed, pair-wise comparisons (paired t-tests) of pre- and post-flood data in chamber XIII indicated a statistically significant increase in HE and A after the flood (Fig. 4b-c), and a tendency toward significance (P = 0.06) in the case of HO (Fig. (Fig.4a4a).
Before the flood, individuals from chamber XIII were fixed at three of the nine microsatellite loci examined, but in all cases shared alleles from the other cave chambers after the flood. For example, at locus GAI29B, all fish from chamber XIII invariably were homozygous for an allele of 217 bp length before the flood, but after the flood also exhibited two additional alleles (225 and 227 bp), both of which had previously been detected only in chamber X. Likewise, all chamber XIII fish before the flood were homozygous for one allele (175 bp) at locus GTII33, while after the flood an additional allele (173 bp) was detected that had previously been found only in cave chamber V. Across loci, we found 12 different novel alleles to occur in chamber XIII after the flood that had previously been recorded exclusively in one or both of the other cave chambers, which was also reflected by large and significant pair-wise Fst-values for the comparison of pre- and post-flood data (e.g., 0.173 in chamber XIII; Table Table4).4). Altogether, this suggests extensive flood-induced population mixing among the different cave chambers within the Cueva del Azufre.
Genetic diversity was also affected by the flood in the central river of our study system (Río Oxolotán), where water currents were the strongest during the flood. Here, an impoverished genetic diversity was detected after the flood, and pair-wise comparisons (paired t-tests) for HO, HE, and A were highly significant in all cases (Fig. 4a-c).
The AMOVA on pre-flood data assigned 21.48% of the total variation to variability among populations (FST = 0.215, P < 0.0001). This can be divided further into (high) variability among habitats (18.64%) and (low) variation among populations within these habitats (2.83%). After the flood, a slightly lower overall FST-value was detected (FST = 0.196, P < 0.0001). The proportion of the total variation among habitats was 17.86% and that among populations within habitats made up 1.74% of the total variation.
The Mantel test on pair-wise FST-values explained 86.6% of the variation in post-flood FST-values. Pre- and post-flood FST-values were highly correlated (r = 0.931, P < 0.001), suggesting that general patterns of genetic differentiation were largely unaffected by the flood. Notably, there were significant effects of perturbation within the cave system, as significant genetic differentiation among the three sampled cave chambers (V, × and XIII) was detected before the flood (pair-wise FST-values between 0.066 and 0.134), but not after the flood (FST-values close to zero; Table Table4).4). Moreover, significant FST-values were detected for the comparisons of pre- and post-flood samples from the same locality in the case of chambers V and XIII (Table (Table4).4). This further substantiates the idea that the flood brought about increased population mixing (immigration and emigration) between different cave chambers.
The partial Mantel tests indicated that the effects of habitat type and distance, overall, did not differ prior and after the flood (Table (Table5).5). In both cases, pair-wise FST-values were significantly lower between sites of the same habitat type than between sites of a different habitat type (pointing towards a pattern of 'isolation-by-adaptation'), while distance between sites did not have a significant influence on genetic differentiation.
Results from STRUCTURE for both data sets found the best statistical support for clustering all individuals into k = 3 groups according to habitat type (Fig. (Fig.5).5). While the first cluster (white) was composed of fish from the Arroyo Bonita, Arroyo Tres, and Río Oxolotán, the second cluster (gray) was made up mostly of El Azufre I and El Azufre II, and the third (black) of individuals from the cave. The occurrence of several cluster 3 (black) specimens also in El Azufre I (and to a lesser degree in El Azufre II) is indicative of some degree of unidirectional migration out of the cave into the adjacent sulfur creek (i.e., El Azufre I). This pattern was detected already before the flood, but appeared more prominent afterwards (Fig. (Fig.5).5). If we consider the highest probability of assignment (to the gray vs. the black cluster; see [97] for method) of any specimen in the sulfur creek, the percentage of specimens assigned to the black cluster had a tendency to increase from 15% (6/40) before the flood to 32% (18/57) after the flood (two-tailed Fisher's exact test: P = 0.093).
The STRUCTURE analysis already pointed towards a tendency for increased migration out of the cave into the sulfur creek in the course of the flood (see above and Fig. Fig.5).5). According to our GENECLASS analysis, relative numbers of first-generation migrants were highest within the same habitat type and distinctly lower among different habitat types (Fig. (Fig.6).6). No migrants were detected between the clear water surface sites and the sulfidic surface or cave sites. Overall, migration patterns pre- and post-flood were strikingly similar in the GENECLASS analysis; with the exception of migration among the three cave chambers, which was increased after the flood (Fig. (Fig.66).
The Mantel test explained 71.1% of variance in numbers of migrants between sites, and pre- and post-flood numbers of migrants were highly correlated (r = 0.843, P < 0.001). The partial Mantel tests indicated that migration patterns were affected similarly by the predictor variables before and after the flood (Table (Table5).5). The only significant predictor of the number of migrants between sites was whether or not they belong to the same habitat type. There was no significant effect of distance, and migration was not more common from sulfidic to non-sulfidic (Δ H2S in Table Table5)5) or from cave to surface habitats (Δ light).
After the flood, females of two populations [sulfur creek (EA I and EA II) and non-sulfidic surface habitats (RA and AB)] suffered a strong decrease in female condition (i.e., female fat content), while embryo condition (i.e., embryo fat content) was decreased in all ecotypes. However, regardless of the flood event, the Cueva del Azufre and El Azufre were clearly distinct from the benign surface habitats (RA and AB) in that they produced few but large offspring before and after the flood (Table (Table6).6). Furthermore, there was a pronounced difference in offspring size and fecundity in the benign surface habitats. After the flood, AB females produced more but also larger offspring than did RA females before the flood (Table (Table66).
Classification success for a separation by habitat type did not vary greatly before the flood (89.8%) and after the flood (87.0%), while the cross-validation DFA success was 66.2% (Fig. (Fig.7).7). Cross-validation success was highest in the El Azufre (100.0%), still good for the Cueva del Azufre (81.0%), but low in the non-toxic surface habitats (40.5%). In all cases, the most important life history traits for successful separation were fecundity and embryo lean weight (Table (Table66).
Extreme natural events can have profound effects on biological systems ranging from individuals to ecosystems [98,99] and--at least temporarily--reshape an organism's environment. However, the documentation of such events is often difficult, and precise data are rarely available to compare pre-disaster with post-disaster situations (but see [68,100]). Classic examples of well-studied catastrophic natural disasters include the explosion of Mt. Saint Helens in 1980, which stimulated a large body of research [101-105], or the impacts of seasonal hurricanes on species like the Puerto Rican Parrot [106] and Anolis lizards [107,108]. The impact of large scale floods on local adaptation and (parapatric) ecological speciation processes, however, has thus far not been examined.
Two months after the catastrophic flood in Tabasco in fall 2007, we found only little evidence for genetically detectible dislocation of individuals among the three divergent habitat types. In fact, habitat type, but not geographic distance, was the major predictor of genetic differentiation both before and after the flood. Furthermore, the pronounced genetic and life history differentiation among different habitat types (i.e., 'isolation-by-adaptation' [5,88]) was very similar for the pre- and post-flood datasets.
Our major question was whether the flood of 2007 has led to a homogenization of locally adapted populations, for which we found little evidence. A potential exception is the immigration of cave fish into the sulfur creek. It remains to be seen whether these immigrants are able to significantly contribute to the gene pool of the sulfur creek population or whether "cave alleles" will eventually vanish from the surface population with time (see below: Mechanisms of selection against immigrants).
Within the Cueva del Azufre, we did find that homogenization had occurred, since fine-scale (cave chamber-specific) genetic structure was lost after the flood in January 2008. While the small rearmost chamber XIII is usually separated by a 1.5 m waterfall from adjacent cave chambers, the flood in fall 2007 probably flooded the waterfall. Our current study provides several lines of evidence for the immigration of individuals into chamber XIII (e.g., several "newly" occurring alleles stemming from adjacent chambers). Hence, chamber XIII apparently is less separated from the other cave chambers than previously thought (e.g., [25,77]). The evidence for increased individual dislocation between different cave chambers (setting the stage for potential gene flow) also raises interesting new questions with regard to phenotypic divergence within the cave. From front to rear chambers, there is not only a morphological gradient with variation in eye and head size [77,109], but also heritable differentiation in opsin gene expression [110]. To date, it is not clear how the increased connectivity within the cave affected trait expression.
On the (slightly coarser) scale of the life history analyses, we observed several shifts from pre- to post-flood samples within habitat types (as exemplified by the lower classification success of the cross-validation DFA compared to the pre-flood-only DFA). At first sight, this might be interpreted as an indication of flood-induced migration/displacement between the habitat patches. Still, there was no breakdown of trait divergence between habitat types, since the extreme ecotypes (Cueva del Azufre and El Azufre) clearly remained distinct with respect to female life history traits even after the flood (post-flood DFA). In particular, highly plastic traits like female and offspring body condition (fat content) were decreased after the flood in almost all populations. This could either be a signal of the disturbance of the ecosystems due to the rising water levels and increased flow forces or regular seasonal variation of body condition [111]. Most importantly, the two traits known to be heritable in the Cueva del Azufre population (offspring size and fecundity [53,55]) did not show a flood signal at all, suggesting a lack of immigrants from the other habitat types.
In the surface habitats, however, the cross-validation classification success was by far the weakest. Potentially, this could be due to a plastic response to the flood, but it more likely represents general life history differences between the two surface habitats: RA is a large river, and fish were sampled in stagnant pools on a sandbank in the river, while AB is a small, fast flowing creek. Similar differences have been documented between guppy (P. reticulata) populations from river versus creek habitats [69], and we also have evidence for this scenario from recent studies on general life history differences between these two habitats derived from fish sampled in January 2009 (R. Riesch, unpublished data).
We found a drastic impoverishment of genetic diversity in the Río Oxolotán after the flood. How can this pattern be explained? In the Río Oxolotán, water levels rose up to eight meters. Massive currents during the flooding probably washed away a considerable proportion of the total population. At first sight one might be tempted to interpret the observed reduction in measures of genetic diversity, above all observed heterozygosity (Ho), as an indication of a genetic bottleneck. It needs to be recalled, however, that our post-flood sampling was done only two months after the flooding, while any mollies born after the flood would have needed more time to grow to adulthood (i.e., > 6 months under laboratory rearing conditions; R. Riesch, unpublished data). Hence, our samples originated from adult fish, and are probably not offspring of the few(er) remaining individuals in such (overall, genetically impoverished) populations. Reduced values of Ho are, therefore, not as straightforward to explain as it may first seem. A possible scenario is that a big proportion of the population from our collection site in the Río Oxolotán was indeed swept away during the flood and was replaced almost entirely by fish from further upstream (the mountainous regions of Chiapas), and we hypothesize that fish in those upstream regions are characterized by lower genetic diversity. We plan to test this idea in the future by analyzing genetic diversity in more distant populations from all along the Río Grijalva drainage system.
Lower population sizes in the extreme (sulfidic) habitats generally coincide with a reduction in overall genetic variability (i.e., allelic richness and heterozygosity; for population sizes refer to [26,112]). Such small populations are inevitably prone to loss of genetic diversity over time due to genetic drift. Indeed, reduced genetic variability appears to be a typical feature of cave fishes and has been attributed to small population sizes, founder effects, and/or repeated genetic bottlenecks [113-117].
Particularly interesting in the study of ecological speciation are the mechanisms leading to and maintaining genetic differentiation, i.e., the question of how exactly divergent natural and sexual selection translate into reproductive isolation [9,10,118-120]. So, what are the potential mechanisms maintaining this small-scale genetic structuring even after such a catastrophic flood? Using reciprocal translocation experiments, we found natural selection against migrants between non-sulfidic and sulfidic habitats (with very high mortalities within 24 hours for fish from non-sulfidic waters when transferred into El Azufre and vice versa), whereas migrants between sulfidic cave and surface habitats did not exhibit increased mortality within the same time period [27]. A heritable basis to higher physiological sulfide-resistance in sulfide-adapted fish was confirmed by common-garden-rearing ([121]; reanalyzed in [28]). Further adaptations to survive under sulfidic, hypoxic conditions include plastic behavior, like aquatic surface respiration [122,123] and enlarged heads (a heritable trait) allowing for a larger gill surface area [26]. On the other hand, oxidative stress (e.g., due to down-regulated expression of antioxidant enzymes under hypoxia [124-126]) may explain the high mortality during translocation from sulfidic, hypoxic to normoxic sites ([27] for discussion).
But what about genetic differentiation between surface and cave habitats? This question is of particular importance because even before the flood some migrants/dislocated individuals from inside the cave into the sulfidic creek (El Azufre) were detected, and dislocation into El Azufre tended to increase due to the flood (Fig. (Fig.5).5). Given that genetic differentiation between both populations obviously remains stable over time ([25,26]; this study), strong selection against immigrants at the light/dark interface must be postulated. Generally, negative phototactic behavior was hypothesized to play a role for cave colonization [127,128]. Surface and cave fish could, theoretically, just differ in phototactic behavior, thus effectively preventing cave fish from venturing outside and vice versa. However, such a mechanism apparently plays no role in the Cueva del Azufre system, because both (at least lab-reared) surface- and cave fish are positively phototactic [129]. It has been demonstrated though that mollies in all habitat types experience predation by a giant water bug of the genus Belostoma [79,80,130], and a recent prey choice experiment under semi-natural conditions found that water bugs are more likely to capture dispersers, i.e., cave fish at the surface and surface fish inside the cave [57]. This may be due to sensory systems being maladaptive in the "wrong" habitat type. Cave mollies--living normally in perpetual darkness--have reduced eyes along with more elaborated non-visual senses like a hypertrophied head canal system of the mechano-sensory lateral line [25,49,77,109,110,121]. This allows for earlier detection of predators in darkness compared with the surface ecotype, while smaller eyes hamper predator detection in light [57].
In traditional models of ecological speciation, reproductive isolation evolves incidentally as a by-product of divergent natural selection [1-3,131]. But whenever divergent selection occurs among populations, there may also be direct (sexual) selection for premating isolation (i.e., reinforcement, [2,132]). In fact, females of both sulfidic populations (El Azufre and chamber II of the Cueva del Azufre) discriminate against immigrant male phenotypes during mate choice [27]. Altogether, selection against immigrants may indeed be a powerful mechanism facilitating speciation among locally adapted populations even over very small spatial distances, and we hypothesize that natural selection against immigrants plays the main role in maintaining the small-scale genetic structure.
Both the population genetic analyses and the life history trait analysis (both as proxies for population genetic and quantitative genetic divergence) found the same pattern: increased flood-induced migration/displacement was found within the same habitat type, but not among ecologically divergent habitats (with the exception of slightly increased dislocation of cave fish into the sulfur creek). However, we did find some interesting patterns of flood-induced within-population homogenization (i.e., loss of small-scale genetic structuring within the cave). Overall, this supports the hypothesis that natural selection between habitat types in the Cueva del Azufre system is so strong that even severe ecosystem disturbances do not lead to a breakdown of the documented population differentiation. Hence, speciation processes in this and similar systems with presence of abiotic stressors (e.g., the Baños del Azufre system [54,133] may be more robust than those described for other systems in which differentiation is also based on ecologically based divergent natural selection [6,73,74].
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
BH and CS carried out the microsatellite analyses, and RR conducted the life history analyses. MP, BH, CS, RR, MT and RT conducted the statistical analyses and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. MP, RR, MT, FJGL and IS were equally involved in field work and sample collection.
MP, RR, MT, FJGL, IS and RT were equally involved in implementing the project, and developing later drafts of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
We are grateful to the people of Tapijulapa for their hospitality during our visits. The Mexican Government (Permiso de pesca de fomento numbers: DGOPA/16986/191205/8101, DGOPA/02232/230706/1079, and DGOPA/06192/240608/1562) as well as the Municipal of Tacotalpa (SM/1133/208) kindly provided permits to conduct this research. We thank Lee Krumholz and Nydia Castaneda for assistance with sulfide measurements and Kirsten Paulus for assistance with the molecular analyses. Financial support came from NSF to I.S. (DEB-0813783 and DEB-0743406), from the DFG (PL 470/1-2), the Herrmann-Willkomm-Stiftung and the Biodiversity & Climate Research Center in Frankfurt (BiK-F) to M.P., and the Swiss National Science Foundation to M.T.
PubMed Central Canada is a service of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) working in partnership with the National Research Council's national science library in cooperation with the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the U.S. National Library of Medicine(NCBI/NLM). It includes content provided to the PubMed Central International archive by participating publishers.


text:
Outline. 1. A Tale of the Tong Dynasty: Yuan Zhen\'s, The Story of Yingying\"2. Lyrics of Song Dynasty3. Drama of YuanDynasty. 1. Yuan Zhen??(779-831)\'s The Story of Yingying\"???. This classical tale, which is supposedly autobiographical, is without doubt the single best-known story in Chinese lit
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
In case anyone is wondering what the nation's public attitude about this bill is:
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Welcome to the AbsoluteWrite Water Cooler! Please read The Newbie Guide To Absolute Write
In case anyone is wondering what the nation's public attitude about this bill is:
Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
-- Terry Pratchett
Tonight, about 3000 (wild guess) of us marched around the capitol to protest the Senate bill at an event organized by Planned Parenthood. The short march ended with several speakers, including members of the Senate.
Meanwhile, a couple hundred more people took part in a faith-based event opposing the bill on moral/ethical/religious grounds on the Capitol lawn. Many people participated in both.
For those who are writing letters on this or other issues, I got a good tip at a town hall earlier this week: focus on specific events in your life related to the issue. For me, I was on Medicaid when I was unemployed two years ago, and Medicaid paid for my pre-employment physical when I finally got offered a job. Cuts would have forced me to pay for this physical out of pocket, which will make many people's journey to employment that much harder.
The speaker at the town hall said it is those types of stories that get read and make a difference.
Last edited by Chris P; 06-29-2017 at 07:00 AM.
Join any time! Take the 2017 AW Reading Challenge. Pick 12 books from a list of topics and read/discuss with us throughout the year.
Protesters showed up at Cory Gardner's office, so the so-called public servants who work there turned off the AC and tried to roast them out:
-- Myrea"When it comes down to it its always, always you and the white page. At the end of the day if the page is blank, its won. Dont let the page win."
Alasdair Stewart
White House press conference today, note the ACA framing change from Mnuchin:
The ACA was a tax on the economy, led to slow growth. So now the rich people are the economy.
"Giant tax hike to the economy"
The POV that taxes are always a drain on the economy is pure unsupportable bullshit.
Out of the other side of his mouth, Mnuchin assures us something to the effect, "we will never put economic concerns over the health of people". That he says that with a smile on his face is all the more disgusting.
Last edited by MaeZe; 06-29-2017 at 10:58 PM.
I hope not, but I fear this is a sign Congressional insiders expect the ACA to be repealed.JUST AS THE HOUSE Republican bill to slash much of the Affordable Care Act moved forward, Rep. Mike Conaway, a Texas Republican and member of Speaker Paul Ryan's leadership team, added a health insurance company to his portfolio....
He wasn't the only one. As the health care system overhaul advanced last month on the other side of Capitol Hill, Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma purchased between $50,000 to $100,000 in UnitedHealth stock. ...
[Backstory] ... Congress eventually acted with the STOCK Act, legislation designed to curb insider trading abuses. But the law was quickly watered down with amendments, and some provisions of it were later repealed. As we've reported, the House of Representatives has actively fought efforts to enforce the law after the Securities and Exchange Commission attempted to investigate one congressional staffer accused of passing health care information to a set of hedge funds.
- Brightdreamer
Brightdreamer's Book Reviews
"Inspiration will strike you, and leave you for dead. The police will do nothing."
- from The Daily Humorscope
Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
-- Terry Pratchett
Kasich spokesman: Pence's healthcare claims 'false'
The false assertion:VP Pence made a fake news claim today and has been called on it by multiple sources including GOP governor Kasich."I know Gov. Kasich isn't with us, but I suspect that he's very troubled to know that in Ohio alone, nearly 60,000 disabled citizens are stuck on waiting lists, leaving them without the care they need for months or even years," Pence said in a speech Friday at the National Governors Association summer meeting in Providence, R.I.Not to mention all the GOP bill would so is make said waiting lists longer.Ohio Gov. John Kasich's (R) office has flatly rejected Vice President Pence's claim that nearly 60,000 disabled Ohioans are on waiting lists for Medicaid's home and community-based services.According to the Post, waiting lists for such Medicaid services are common and are typically longer in states that did not take ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion than in those that did.
Ohio was among a number of Republican-controlled states that took the ACA's Medicaid expansion, which dramatically expanded the number of people who qualify for the program.
Senate GOP leaders' healthcare bill – the Better Care Reconciliation Act – calls for deep cuts to Medicaid, prompting some more moderate Republican members to voice misgivings about the measure.
VP Pence spreading 'fake news' about OhioAbout a week after the White House spread misinformation about Ohio's Medicaid program, Vice President Mike Pence falsely said Friday that 60,000 Ohioans are going without care because of the state's Medicaid expansion.
That prompted Kasich's press secretary, Jon Keeling, to tweet: "That's what we call #fakenews." Keeling included a link to The Dispatch's Capital Insider column from last Sunday citing state Medicaid data to refute an article cited by the White House. In what "the West Wing is reading," the inaccurate piece said that after expanding Medicaid, Ohio "rolled back eligibility for some 34,000 seniors and individuals with disabilities as a cost-cutting measure."
Medicaid officials also said there was no truth to a separate claim about recipients of Ohio's Medicaid expansion "being put ahead of 60,000 disabled Ohioans who rely on Medicaid but are currently on a waiting list."...
Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said the vice president's source was a Wall Street Journal editorial July 7 slamming Kasich, even questioning whether he was still a Republican because of his stance on Medicaid. The editorial said, "Nearly 60,000 disabled Ohioans are on waiting lists that last for months or years to receive supplemental state services."
Those Ohioans, however, are on a list seeking Medicaid waivers, mostly for home- and community-based services for the developmentally disabled. The number of people who can be served via the waivers is restricted, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act Participatory Action Research Consortium. ...
But Kaiser itself analyzed the data and concluded "there does not appear to be a relationship between a state's Medicaid expansion status and changes in its ... waiver waiting list." Kaiser noted that about 40 percent did not qualify for a waiver when they signed up for one, while as many as 90 percent of those with certain types of disabilities already are getting some form of non-waiver Medicaid help.
The foundation also learned that waiting lists in non-expansion states are often longer than those in expansion states.
I wasn't surprised by Pence's stunt. Kaisch has been very public in his condemnation of the bill and this was that Administrations way of attacking him for it. Lie about what's happening to make Ohio and by default Kaisch look bad and I bet they hoped they'd panic people in Ohio.
My Blog-Updated on 10/9/14 An Open Letter To Hasbro
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Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
-- Terry Pratchett
Two more GOP no votes announced, bill can't get to the floor.
Never thought I'd be welcoming the extreme-right view but that appears to be how the vote is going, three far-right-wing no votes, one GOP moderate no vote.GOP Sens. Jerry Moran (Kansas) and Mike Lee (Utah) announced on Monday night they will not support taking up a bill repealing and replacing ObamaCare, effectively blocking the legislation.
"This closed-door process has yielded the [bill], which fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare's rising costs. For the same reasons I could not support the previous version of this bill, I cannot support this one," Moran said in a statement.
Lee added on Twitter that he and Moran will not support proceeding to "this version" of the Senate GOP legislation, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act.
Last edited by MaeZe; 07-18-2017 at 05:35 AM.
it's dead for now.
interestingly, the votes they couldn't get came from three fringes of the party: collins the moderate, paul the libertarian, lee to the far right.
Thorn Forest: A Gift for AW
My poems on Twitter. Please proceed in an orderly fashion.
I don't think for a moment the Republicans are going to abandon the attempt to repeal the ACA, however. If they have to start over from scratch, that's what they'll do. Will they give up the cuts to Medicaid and work with Democrats to improve the ACA without repealing it? That would be the sensible thing, but somehow I don't see it.
Last edited by blacbird; 07-20-2017 at 12:36 AM. Reason: addendum
Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
-- Terry Pratchett
Laughing because a dear friend of mine called Jerry Moran at home over the recess. He hung up on her. Nothing startling. They go back years. -He hears from her often. We had a long ranting phone call about him just days ago. Now he is not voting for Trumpcare. They say he got an earful in western Kansas. I'd like to think my 77 year old horse- riding, liberal, blue eyed Kiowa friend was the straw that broke his back. --s6
The hard-core right wing of the GOP have changed their talking point to "we were elected to repeal Obamacare".
Just drop 'replace' and pretend repeal is what you campaigned on all along. Pretend you never claimed to have a magical replacement plan. Pretend the public hates the ACA despite the fact 50% support it and that number is even higher if you ask about the ACA rather than Obamacare despite the fact they are one in the same.
In the meantime sabotage is the name of the game.
Pro-ACA website: GOP Blocks ObamaCare Cost Sharing for 7 Million in Courts
The Atlantic, last May: A Legal Victory Against Obamacare—for NowThe GOP is using a tactic called "starving the beast", what that means is that, instead of trying to repeal a law directly, they try to defund it and break it. Then, over time, as the pain gets to great for America, America demands the law's repeal. It is a hardline, but viable tactic.
Trying to dismantle programs in this way is a messy process. The way the branches of government work, lawsuits must be brought to the Judicial branch via the court system. Even then, they can only rule, they can't correct or create laws themselves.
There are a bunch of right-wing law firms and think tanks that organize these lawsuits. And that is what we mean when we say GOP-backed lawsuit.
So far GOP-backed lawsuits:
Made it so states could opt-out of Medicaid expansion (leaving millions of sick and working poor without coverage). NFIB V. Burwell.
Tried to gut subsidies and make it so no one had premium cost assistance. King V. Burwell.
Tried to make it so employers could override their employee's right to contraception. This happened in a number of different cases, including the Hobby Lobby case.
Tried to repeal the law about 60 times and replace it with tax cuts for big businesses (instead of spending cuts or a better healthcare plan).
Paul Ryan might be a "real conservative", and there might be some great ideology on the right, but in practice they act like they just let the far-right (who overtook their party going into the Eisenhower years, and the rest that routed from the Democrats in 1964) overrun their party. They have become the party of obstruction, and obstruction is a nice word for crony capitalists who seek to destroy legislation that helps the working poor and middle class without replacing it in a meaningful way.
Going after assistance wasn't the only way to starve the beast of the ACA, but they picked the low hanging fruit and may spill some blood in the process.Without Obama, how long with this last?At issue in the case, House of Representatives v. Burwell, is Section 1402 of the ACA, which requires insurance companies in the ACA's exchanges to reduce co-payments and deductibles in their plans. The reductions effectively shift those costs from the customer to the insurer.
Section 1402 then allows the federal government to provide "periodic and timely" reimbursements to insurers "equal to the value of the reductions," thereby shifting the costs from the insurer to the federal government itself.
When Congress passed the act, however, it did not explicitly appropriate funds for those reimbursements. The Obama administration implemented it by drawing upon funds appropriated for Section 1401, which subsidizes health insurance for low-income taxpayers through a tax credit.
In its lawsuit, the House argued Section 1402 could not be funded through Section 1401's tax credit. Obama administration officials countered that context and legislative history justifies their implementation of it, and that it made no logical sense for Congress to draft the provision without implicitly authorizing funds for it. Judge Rosemary Collyer in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sided with the legislators.
"The Affordable Care Act unambiguously appropriates money for Section 1401 premium tax credits but not for Section 1402 reimbursements to insurers," Collyer wrote in her opinion. "Such an appropriation cannot be inferred. None of Secretaries' extra-textual arguments—whether based on economics, 'unintended' results, or legislative history—is persuasive."This is the reason some insurers have pulled out of some markets. Their financing is uncertain.Collyer stayed her ruling while the Obama administration challenges it in D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, allowing the reimbursements to continue for now.
I had to turn off Trump TV a few minutes ago. His speech about the evils of the ACA and the evils of Obama, one need not listen to Trump's bullshit to know what it was he was going to say. It only depresses me.
DJT is obsessed with destroying everything Obama did. Maybe we should have had Obama build the wall and DJT would have it torn down.
My Blog-Updated on 10/9/14 An Open Letter To Hasbro
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The GOP has skewered itself on its own pitchfork with this episode. They began to get into trouble on the issue because they were only listening to the ubervocal right-wing base, and deluding themselves into thinking that group represented the public as a whole. Once the bill, designed in deep secret, got released, the overall public reaction was predictably negative. So Republicans are left with Now what? And, of course, the Blamer-in-Chief is doing is all to piss off even his own party's Senators. Watching this is going to be fun.
Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
-- Terry Pratchett
Fun, except that now the GOP is likely to work (even more) systematically to sabotage the ACA, and revive the repeal attempt later when more people have decided that the (GOP-sabotaged) ACA sucks.
There's really very little upside, if any, to these jokers being in charge.
Today Donald Trump gave a speech in which he explained how Obamacare was destroying the country, and as a photo op had a group of people behind him as an example of some of those whose lives have been destroyed by Obamacare.
Interesting optics no people of color, (except for a little Asian girl with white parents) and judging by the well-dressed, well coiffed, squeaky clean adults and children, they didn't appear to be particularly poor people either. This was not a coincidence they're exactly the backdrop for people he was speaking to. I found it oddly creepy.
To be fair, I don't know if I'd judge how well-off people are who know they're going to be standing behind the president during a televised speech/photo-op by their clothes and cleanliness. You take a shower, you spend more time on your hair, you borrow a suit or dress. Or perhaps the White House provides hair, clothing, and make-up to create the image they want behind the president in a photo.
Paranormal Bromance and Joy (PB&J) - NaNoWriMo - 47,134 words
"This isn't Scooby Doo. We're not meddling kids who are going to find clues and solve the mystery."
"This is Scooby Doo, except the monsters and witches are real, and they have your family! You and Joy are the only ones who can do anything about it."
John McCain flew back to DC to announce he could not vote for the bill as it currently stands. Then voted to send the bill...whatever it is and wherever it might be, they still don't know yet but who cares because the current system has to be abolished and replaced because stuff...to debate. Because a man whose cancer treatment is being paid for by taxpayers' money thinks everybody else shouldn't have their cancer treatments paid for by taxpayers' money.
But maybe not: the senate has voted to reject a proposal from Mitch McConnell.
Last edited by BenPanced; 07-26-2017 at 08:41 AM.
I still poop rainbows.
I won't steal any of your ideas. I have enough of my own I'm not using.
As for the second bit, I'm getting whiplash trying to follow the news, here... so I will probably curl up in a corner for a while, hoping against hope the absolute worst doesn't happen. (Didn't work in November, but there's a first time for everything...)
- Brightdreamer
Brightdreamer's Book Reviews
"Inspiration will strike you, and leave you for dead. The police will do nothing."
- from The Daily Humorscope
The Republicans have been trying to kill the ACA since it was passed. Time to try something new. Why don't they put forth a bill to amend and repair the ACA and see how that goes.
My Blog-Updated on 10/9/14 An Open Letter To Hasbro
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text:
Listing information
- Beds: 4
- Stories: 0
- Foreclosure: No
- Lot Size: 88x36
- School District: Springport
- Style: Single Family
- Baths: 3 (Full: 2 3/4: 0 1/2: 1 Other: 0)
- Parking Type Description: None 0 cars
- Total Square Footage: 2,809 ($42.01 per sq. foot)
- Estimated Annual Taxes: $2,329
- Subdivision: B06 - Marshall/Albion E.
- Year Built: 1960
- Status: Active
- New Construction: No
- Above Ground Sq. Feet: 2,018
- County: Calhoun
Access Feat: Accessibility Features No
Additional Items All Window Treatments, Water Softener/Owned
Air Conditioning Central
Appliances Dishwasher, Dryer, Oven, Refrigerator, Washer
Basement Yes
Design Traditional
Driveway Easement
Exterior Features 3 Season Room, Deck(s)
Exterior Material Vinyl
Garage: Garage No
Heat Source Natural Gas
Heat Type Forced Air
Lot Description Recreational
Manufactured: Manufactured Y/N No
Mineral Rights No
Other Basement Rooms: Basement Bedrooms - 1, Basement Rooms: Basement Finished SQFT - 791.00, Basement Rooms: Basement Full Baths - 1, Basement Rooms: Basement Half Baths - 0, Basement Rooms: Total Basement SQFT - 934.00, Lower Rooms: Lower Half Baths - 0, Lower Rooms: Lower Bedrooms - 0, Lower Rooms: Lower Finished SQFT - 0.00, Lower Rooms: Lower Full Baths - 0, Lower Rooms: Total Lower SQFT - 0.00, Main Rooms: Main Bedrooms - 0, Main Rooms: Main Full Baths - 0, Main Rooms: Main Half Baths - 1, Main Rooms: Main Level SQFT - 1084.00, Road Frontage - 36.00, Upper Rooms: Upper Bedrooms - 3, Upper Rooms: Upper Full Baths - 1, Upper Rooms: Upper Half Baths - 0, Upper Rooms: Upper Level Square Feet - 934.00, Waterfront Options: Water Frontage - 36.00
Property Sub-Type Single Family Residence
Roofing Comp Shingle
Sale Conditions None
Street Type Paved, Public
Substructure Full Basement
Terms Available Cash
Util Avail at Street Cable, Electric, Natural Gas, Public Sewer, Telephone Line
Utilities / Sewer Public
Utilities Attached Cable, Natural Gas, Telephone Line
Water Fea. Amenities All Sports, Private Frontage, Public Access 1 Mile or Less
Water Heater Natural Gas
Water Type Lake, Public, Well
Waterfront Options: Water Access Y/N Yes
Windows Replacement
Bedroom 2 U 9x9
Bedroom 3 U 8x7
Master Bathroom U 11x6
Master Bedroom U 9.6x3.6
Kitchen M 7.6x11
Living Room M 29x13
Bedroom 4 B 21x10
Laundry Room B 13x11
Additional Room 10x7
Dining Area 7.6x9
Listing Courtesy of Jim Szlaga of Berkshire Hathaway Homeservices Michigan Real Estate


text:
July 2015
In this issue, we have all kinds of cool advice for recording acoustic and electric guitars. New writer Brian Marshak, owner of a successful small studio in Los Angeles, sketches out the basics of acoustic guitar recording for the singer/songwriter, and contributes a nifty article on doubling guitar tracks. Also from LA, our Beto Hale discusses his mic closet and the choices he makes when tracking electric guitar cabinets. And Frank Marra returns to our pages with a fascinating discussion on recording what he terms "atmospheric guitar parts."
We bring you the coolest guitar gear out there. Jonathan Little's genius guitar routing box, the Pepper, can do almost anything you can think of in the studio, and we bring you an in-depth study of what it can do. We also have microphones from Placid Audio and MXL, a guitarist-friendly portable interface from MOTU, studio-quality guitar pedals from TC Electronic, Strymon, and GFI Systems, virtual guitar pedals from Universal Audio, Eventide's UltraReverb plug-in, and a comparison of API's Channel Strip with the API offerings from Universal Audio.
This issue also features First Steps with Paul Stamler, the newest edition of Specs--Removing The Mystery with Mike Rivers, Readers' Tapes with Marty Peters, our regular monthly features, and more. If you're into guitar recording... or any other kind of recording... you'll find something to love in the July RECORDING!
Pick it up now on the newsstand... and so you get your next issue early (and save on cost), why not hit the big red SUBSCRIBE NOW button on this page and have RECORDING delivered to your door each month?
Placid Audio Copperphone Mini |
This unusual microphone brings a sweet and haunting vintage vibe to your recordings.
Placid Audio is a microphone company well known for the Copperphone, a microphone with a homemade handyman look and distinct lo-fi sound. J......Expand
The sound of classic API modules working in harmony, built into a rackmountable all-in-one tracking solution.
For close to five decades, Automated Processes Incorporated has been creating professional studio gear. In fact, A......Expand
Plug-In Outlet: Universal Audio API Vision Channel Strip |
A modern emulation of a take-no-prisoners analog mixing desk's input signal chain, complete with a modeled preamp working with the Apollo interface hardware.
Elsewhere in this issue, we are looking at API's The Channel Strip......Expand
From DI tracking and reamplification to routing, blending, and turning effects pedals into studio-friendly processors... or turning vintage rack gear into effects pedals!... this little box does it all, and does it beautifully.
TC Electronic Alter Ego 2 and Viscous Vibe |
Whether you love delay in all its many forms or are hunting for a modern version of the famous Uni-Vibe sound, these programmable pedals have you covered.
A lot has happened since the last time we reviewed TC Electronic's gu......Expand
Universal Audio UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins Guitar Roundup |
An overview of the many guitar-centric UAD plug-ins, and reviews of the new Marshall Plexi Super Lead 1959 and the Distortion Essentials Plug-In Bundle.
When we think of UAD plug-ins, the first thing that comes to mind is mo......Expand
The magic of tape -- thick saturation tone, flanging, double-tracking and more -- in a compact and beautiful pedal.
I realize it's only been two months since we took a look at Strymon's BigSky Reverb Pedal in our May 2015 is......Expand
GFI System Specular Reverb 2 |
From halfway around the world comes a compact and utterly gorgeous reverb pedal, suitable for use in pedalboards and pro studios alike.
Longtime RECORDING readers know that when we do a guitar issue, I love to feature at lea......Expand
This pocket-sized interface is durable, beautiful, and packs surprising power.
One of the more popular form factors for modern computer interfaces these days is what I like to call the 1+1 design: one mic preamp and one guit......Expand
Plug-In Outlet: Eventide UltraReverb |
This effects suite harks back to famed algorithms from the company that wrote the book on digital reverb.
In the world of professional audio effects, Eventide sits squarely at the top. Its history of groundbreaking digital a......Expand
Acoustic Guitar For The Recording Songwriter |
Brand-new to recording acoustic guitar at home? Here's everything you need to know to get started.
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MURRIETA -- Doug McAllister leans back in a cushy chair at City Hall, pondering his first two months as Murrieta's mayor.
"One thing I knew going into my term as mayor is that it would characterized by change," said McAllister, 48.
Indeed, it has been a busy, sometimes chaotic, two months at City Hall. In that time, the City Council:
- severed ties with Lori Moss, the former city manager, amid differences over direction and leadership style;
- revised its ethics code;
- is contemplating replacing its attorney of 12 years.
But through it all, the five members have appeared cohesive -- a stark contrast from the feuds and philosophical rifts that have distracted the council since the city's incorporation in 1991.
"In the past, handling these issues … would have resulted in bloodletting. It would have been a war," McAllister said only half-facetiously. "If you noticed, our council handled all of that professionally. That represents a step forward for the city of Murrieta."
The tone of civility may have been set in early December, when McAllister proclaimed council chambers as "The No Feud Zone."
"Disagreements are OK," he said. "It doesn't mean it's the 'No Impassioned Position Zone.' What I mean is, no personal attacks."
Such attacks have been absent since McAllister became mayor, Councilman Rick Gibbs said.
"There may be differences of opinions, but this council -- unlike past councils -- takes disagreements in a measured approach," he said. "We'll talk out the issues."
The issues are many.
McAllister has pledged to bolster the city's economics, starting with the development of the Golden Triangle, the 65-acre parcel wedged between the two freeways and Murrieta Hot Springs Road.
The possibilities at the triangle are tantalizing -- a convention center, five-star hotel and high-end restaurants have been considered.
But the triangle has been a black mark for the city. Some residents have snidely likened the lot to the Bermuda Triangle, as four previous plans -- including a proposed Western-themed entertainment center -- collapsed.
"I was never happy with what was coming out of there," McAllister said. "They didn't have the vision of what could go there. … What's coming is world class."
He believes there will be groundbreaking at the triangle this year.
"This is going to be a place where you can come and not necessarily shop -- a place people want to be," he said. "They're going to experience it, not just attend it."
McAllister also wants to streamline City Hall operations -- a process that's already begun under interim City Manager Ron Bradley, the former Temecula City Manager brought in to replace Moss.
But the mayor believes improved efficiency at City Hall starts with the council.
In October, officials were criticized by residents and council members for negotiating an agreement with Regency Centers, a Los Angeles shopping center developer and operator, that they deemed lopsided in the developer's favor. That deal was renegotiated and could save the city at least $2 million.
Yet, McAllister defends the city officials who negotiated the original deal, saying the council hadn't directed them to toughen the city's stance.
"Early on (as a city), you're begging people to show up," McAllister said. "We can't exact much from them then. Then, who's Murrieta? Even two or three years ago, we wouldn't have gotten Regency to come here."
In future deals that require development agreements, the council likely will appoint two members to participate in negotiations -- as was ultimately done in the Regency matter and has been the case with potential developers of the triangle.
"We'll fine-tune our policies," McAllister said.
No more feuding
McAllister insists much of the work ahead for the council would be especially daunting if rifts remained.
Mending the most recent rift -- a long-standing clash between Councilman Warnie Enochs and former member Kelly Seyarto -- was a primary reason McAllister says he ran for a council seat in 2003. McAllister won a seat, but the tension remained between some members of the council.
"I was naive," he admitted.
But at least in the past two months, the members have been collaborative. That professionalism, McAllister believes, is no fad.
For years, Enochs resisted proposed council retreats, but he now supports McAllister's push for a day-long retreat to consider amending city policies and protocols.
"I tend to be optimistic, but now -- absent the feud -- every one of us knows that the city of Murrieta is tired of being embarrassed," McAllister said. "No one (council member) wants to be the one to bring it back."
The recall
The rifts on the council were a microcosm of a fractious city.
Six months after McAllister was sworn in, members of Rescue Murrieta moved to recall him, Seyarto and Jack van Haaster -- three council members the group perceived as a developer-leaning voting bloc. McAllister easily held his seat in the May 2005 recall election, but van Haaster lost his and Seyarto barely survived being ousted.
That Seyarto and van Haaster were targeted by Rescue Murrieta was not that surprising: Leaders of Rescue Murrieta had long battled with the two councilmen. But McAllister?
"From the beginning, I don't remember him having his own thought," said Barbara Nugent, a member of the group and an occasional critic of McAllister. "If he was six months into it and already part of the bloc, I couldn't foresee any change in him."
McAllister, though, says he had sought to be viewed as an independent who was not a member of any camp.
"I'm not with anyone," said McAllister, who perceives himself as the council's mediator. "I do my homework. I'm an individua, I vote with my conscience."
Nugent recently praised the mayor for changing his voting behavior since the recall, but she says she remains suspicious of him -- particularly his connection to the development community.
"I have yet to be convinced that he's sincere, up front and honest in his dealings with people," Nugent said. "He hasn't won me over yet."
When McAllister was elected, he ran a glass-etching business. But 10 months later, he announced he got his real-estate license and would sell his business.
Until recently, McAllister -- a public relations specialist -- worked for local developer Gates & Haas Investments. Now he is president of Murrieta-based Advanced Development Solutions, an engineering company specializing in surveying and planning, he said.
Despite promises all around of a "return to civility" after the recall, 2006 wasn't any less divisive for the council than was 2005. There were ethics violations and arrests in 2006.
Early in 2006, Enochs was arrested on a host of allegations stemming from a messy divorce. That prompted McAllister, who worried that the ensuing court drama could further distract the council, to call for Enochs' resignation.
In January 2006, McAllister said, "I can understand his quandary -- by doing this, is he admitting guilt? But I'm more concerned about the city right now."
But now, the mayor isn't campaigning for Enochs' resignation.
"We didn't need (another) circus," McAllister said. "Now … my hat is off to Warnie that he hasn't allowed it to become a circus. He deserves the respect of his seat."
Enochs is equally boastful of McAllister.
"Everything seems to be a totally different feeling among the council members," Enochs said. "It was an intense situation with feelings before. … I'm happy to be a councilman again. I don't feel like an outsider anymore."
Contact staff writer Brian Eckhouse at (951) 676-4315, Ext.2626, or firstname.lastname@example.com .


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An Interview with Bob Stallings, Alex Gurney, Jimmy Vasser and Rocky Moran Jr. ADAM SAAL: Good afternoon, everybody. As all of you know, the Rolex 24 At Daytona is coming up on the last weekend of January, the weekend of January 26 through...
An Interview with Bob Stallings, Alex Gurney, Jimmy Vasser and Rocky Moran Jr.
ADAM SAAL: Good afternoon, everybody. As all of you know, the Rolex 24 At Daytona is coming up on the last weekend of January, the weekend of January 26 through 29. It has become a star-studded affair the last couple of years with champions from all forms of the sport taking up the challenge to run alongside sports car racing's best to win the big prize in America's only major 24-hour race. Several announcements have already been made, but this one we have today in concert with GAINSCO/Blackhawk Racing is going to be as significant as any.
We are joined by Bob Stallings, the team owner and driver of the No. 99 GAINSCO Pontiac Riley, and Alex Gurney, his co-driver. They're going to run a championship bid for the entire season in the Rolex Sports Car Series. We're also happy to announce today they've called on a couple of Alex's fellow Californians to help them win the crown jewel of sports car racing here in the United States. Jimmy Vasser, the 1996 Champ Car champion, is going to join the team for this race, and is no stranger to the Rolex 24. We'll also have Rocky Moran Jr., a second-generation driver out of California on the team as well. All four gentlemen are with us today for a great announcement. Let's start with comments from Bob, who is joining us from Dallas.
Bob, congratulations on not only running a full season with Alex this year, but also putting together a great team of drivers for the Rolex 24 At Daytona. This is going to be your first run at this race. Do you guys really feel you can come here and win this race your first time out?
BOB STALLINGS: I'm so excited about having this team. That I actually get to run with these guys is extremely exciting to me. When we started to think about doing the 24 for this year, we were getting emails from people as far away as Australia and Switzerland, drivers asking us if we would consider letting them drive with us in the 24-hour race. I've got to be honest with you, I was tempted by a number of them because a number of them actually offered to put up all the money that is required to run the race. Since that is a pretty expensive race, since I have to kind of come up with the money, I was extremely tempted by that.
But I had the good fortune to have a partner on my team named Alex Gurney who really wants to win. He said, "Bob, look, a lot of these guys are good drivers. I kind of know who some of them are. If money is that important to you, maybe we should talk to them." He said, "I sure think we ought to think about the 24 the way we thought about the series, and that is when we got into the series," he said, "Let's buy the best equipment, let's buy the best motor, let's find the best engineer, let's put together the best possible people, and let's go out there every race and actually try to win the race."
Way back then, I was thinking about other alternatives that were maybe a little less expensive. I took his advice. We had an absolutely fantastic year. We had a lot of fun. Alex had the pole a couple of times. Alex was usually the fastest guy at the track. There was just a tremendous amount of great feeling that came out of that.
I took his advice this time. We talked to a number of people. Our preference was to run, if we could, two Americans - not because we're prejudiced against anybody else, but for all kinds of reasons we thought it would be better if we could have an All-American team. Rocky Moran is a guy that Alex has talked to me about for the last three or four years as he's been coaching me. He kind of tells me about people that he's met. One of the things he said about Rocky, is that he is a guy that always stands on it. He's always on the throttle. The guy is a winner. I'm just so excited that Rocky is with us because he's just a terrific driver. He's distinguished himself in all kinds of different kinds of cars. Both Alex and I know he's going to do a great job here.
Then most recently, we actually--our engineer (Kyle Brannan) who knows Jimmy Vasser said, "Look, there's a remote possibility, but maybe a slight possibility, that Jimmy Vasser could be talked into running with us." I said to Kyle, "Cut it out. I've never met that guy, but I know who he is. He's famous, probably got a big head. He's not going to run with us." He goes, "Let me just mention it."
To make a long story short, Jimmy and I got a chance to get together right before he went to Europe to have a birthday celebration with somebody. I'm sure he'll tell you about it here in a minute. We talked. He said he had kind of observed us a little bit this year. He talked about what he wanted to accomplish. He just said, "Look, I've got money and I've done a lot of different things in my life. What I like doing is winning. If you guys really think that you have a shot of winning, then maybe I'm interested."
I think Jimmy is convinced that everybody on our team, including Rocky, are people who are used to winning. We're going to give everything we've got to win. Even though I've never been there before, even though we've never been there before as a team, that doesn't mean we're not going to be one of the fastest cars on the track. I think with the experience of the three guys that are there, and maybe some of the enthusiasm that I bring from my lack of experience, we're going to have as good a chance as anybody else on the track.
Sorry I got long-winded there, but I am so excited about this team. These are great drivers all getting together to win one of the greatest events in road racing.
ADAM SAAL: No need to apologize. We're here to talk about, again, a great announcement in what is going to be a star-studded race as I've mentioned several times now. This is going to be as strong as any entry out there.
Alex, let's move to you right now. This car was competitive out of the box, no question about it. Laguna Seca, you were strong, and came close to winning at Watkins Glen. First of all, do you think you're going to get your first win as a team this year in Daytona Prototype competition? If so, do you think it can be at the Rolex 24?
ALEX GURNEY: Absolutely. I certainly hope we get our first win. I mean, that's what we have all been working towards. Definitely this lineup that we have, you know, they're very quick guys and they tend to stay out of trouble, which is something that we talked about at length. I mean, I think that's what this race requires, is guys that can keep up a very quick pace and still not hit anything. I think they've all proven that in their careers.
I think we definitely have as good a chance as anybody. We've got a great team behind us. We're ready to go.
ADAM SAAL: Rocky, you're back in action, and this is going to be your first sports car start. It couldn't be better. Once again, the Moran family name is linked with the Gurney family name. Talk about how this came about. We mentioned you were first to the table before Jimmy. Talk about the connection and where you hope to go with it.
ROCKY MORAN JR.: Yeah. Well, I really have to thank Alex and Bob and Jimmy for participating, obviously GAINSCO for being such a strong sponsor of the team. It's not so often that you have an insurance company on a race car. That's pretty neat. It gives you a little bit of extra confidence there.
It really all came about from my relationship with Alex. My dad drove for Alex's dad in the late '80s, early '90s, way back into the early '80s. Alex and I were teammates in Toyota Atlantics. In 1999 we raced in Barber Dodge together. Went through the Team KOOL Green Academy together. There's a lot of history there. He comes to my race track every once in a while and lays down some blazing laps.
When this opportunity came up, he was looking for drivers. I actually was walking the pits last year with my tongue out hoping to get a ride. I've had my eye on the series for a while. I have great respect for Alex as a driver and with this team, with Kyle Brannan as the engineer. You know, I just basically started talking to Alex and things came together.
Once again, I want to thank Bob for giving me the chance. Listening to Alex on this one, I've really got some weight on my shoulders here. I'm going to go out there, do my best, keep my nose clean and have some fun.
ADAM SAAL: Good to have you here. We're looking forward to seeing you at Daytona.
Finally, we'll conclude our opening statements with Jimmy Vasser. Tell us where you are today, Jimmy. Obviously, we know where you're going to be early next year, at Daytona for Test Days hopefully, as well as the race on January 26th through 29th. You've been here before. You even picked up a class win with the Comptech Camel Lights team several years ago, but you're back now with a team that can win. Talk a little bit about what you're doing today with your Champ Car team as well as what your perceptions have been of the Daytona Prototypes and the Rolex Sports Car Series. It seems like everybody was in this race last year. Now you're going to bring your championship credentials, as well this year.
JIMMY VASSER: Not to bounce around too much about where we're at, we're talking about this great opportunity that Bob and Alex have given me to drive for them, and GAINSCO. The most intriguing part of this whole package really was to me the fact that they have put together a great group of young drivers in Alex and Rocky, and Bob is a great owner. I've been checking on you, Bob, a little bit, you're not that far off the pace. We're going to expect you to be as near to us as you can and probably right there I'm sure.
In doing my due diligence, I really believe, especially with Kyle engineering, and I kept my eye on him throughout the season a bit, they had some great outings, and they were quite quick. I think the package is there with the equipment that we can fight for the race win. That's really what I'm interested in. I'm very excited about it. Having an All-American lineup to me is very cool. I think it's unique in this way. Not many teams these days are taking that approach, and I think they should. I'm a big fan of Alex's father and Rocky's father for many years. I think it's a great honor for me to be in this driver lineup. I think we got a great shot. I'm looking forward to it.
I got third place one time overall with Stefan Johansson and Max Papis one year. I'm really looking forward to having an opportunity to win. I think the Grand-Am Series has a lot of great momentum.
ADAM SAAL: We appreciate you giving the spotlight to Bob and the team here on their day of announcement. Before we open it up for questions, talk a little about what you're doing, where you're calling from today.
JIMMY VASSER: I'm in Sebring. We're out here testing some young drivers. We have been running Giorgio Pantano, Ryan Briscoe, Ryan Dalziel. They've all done a fantastic job up till now. We're just finishing up this afternoon, running the guys through a very rigorous test plan that's exactly the same for each guy. Really, the approach and the mentality is we're trying to evaluate young talent and speed to better our team.
I'm contemplating--I don't want to use the word "retirement"--I'm contemplating retiring my car seat. We want to make sure that we get the best possible guy. We've got a lot of opportunities for the driver lineup in front of us with Cristiano da Matta, who is interested in coming back with us, obviously myself and a lot of young talent, guys that are in the series that still haven't been signed. Champ Car has a tremendous amount of momentum these days, and it shows in the fact that the long list of top talent around the world, they want to be here, they want to compete. It's an exciting time for us in Champ Car and PKV. Basically it's what we're out here doing.
ADAM SAAL: The Rolex Sports Car Series is actually going to be on the same card with the featured Champ Car event at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach this year. We ran alongside the Champ Cars at Mexico City this year. We're looking forward to serving as the Saturday opening act when we go to Long Beach. Before that we have the 24 Hour race. We'll go ahead and open it up for questions for all four of our drivers today.
Q: Rocky, what are your plans post Daytona 24, so to speak?
ROCKY MORAN, JR.: Right now, it's a bit wide open. I'm speaking with a Busch North team about possibly doing some races. I started a little bit of stock car racing in 2005. But I'd really like to do more races in Daytona Prototype. I watched the last race of the year. I've been following the series. I just love the tracks they go to. I love the cars. I think it's a series that's got tremendous growth potential. I love road racing. That's really what I am, I'm pretty much a road racing purist. I don't have anything against ovals, I love ovals, too, but that's where I grew up. I'm just going to basically keep my options open and see what happens with our sponsors.
Most of the time, I've got to go where the sponsors need to go. We're going to keep the doors open and keep knocking hard. The duty is if I'm not racing there, I'm at least in a car driving, so I'm racing all the time.
Continued in part 2


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Tagus Ranch Massacre Trailer (2012)
21 December 2012 76 mins
Several friends decide to take a short bus to the local hot springs in Northern California. As they get closer and night falls, an unexpected radiator leak occurs, forced to take shelter because of a upcoming storm. They find themselves in an unknown building for the night, what they don't know is the building has a unsettling spirit waiting to take body form and slowly torture each living soul within.
Watch the official Tagus Ranch Massacre 2012 trailer in HD below or find more Tagus Ranch Massacre videos on Vidimovie.


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Letter: Cuomo needs to allow medical marijuana now
Cuomo needs to allow medical marijuana now
So, Gov. Andrew Cuomo went fishing in August 2012 and had to purchase a fishing license and was charged for a whole year even though the license expired on Oct. 1. Of course he was upset that he had to pay for a whole year's fee even though it was only valid for less than 60 days.
Quickly, he rewrote the law to make a fishing license valid on a 12-month rolling basis from the date of purchase because it affected him personally. Fishermen have been complaining for years before this instance. This change in law happened rather quickly.
Next thing you know, we have the SAFE Act, passed overnight due to a message of necessity. Many of these laws still have not taken effect more than a year after this emergency law was passed in the middle of the night with many politicians who didn't get a chance to voice their opinion.
A recent News article, which broke my heart, told of the terrible agony that parents of young children suffering from medical problems were experiencing. This could have been quickly addressed had Cuomo passed laws governing medical marijuana in a "message of necessity" in the middle of the night.
Patrick Swartz
West Seneca


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SWU observes National Physical Fitness and Sports Month
Southern Wesleyan University's physical education teacher certification program joined the rest of the country in reminding people that healthy, physically active children are better learners.
Located in South Carolina, Southern Wesleyan University is a Christ-centered, student-focused learning community dedicated to transforming lives.
The faith-filled community at SWU is comprised of students, faculty and staff who are passionate about learning and growing, both inside and outside of the classroom.
Warriors at heart. Your campus experience may only last a few years, but your connection to Southern Wesleyan can last a lifetime. Stay connected to SWU through events, publications, and social media.
Whether you come for a campus visit, fine arts program, or athletic event, SWU seeks to provide educational and cultural opportunities not just to our campus community but to the greater community around us.


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Vintage Deadstock Cleveland Cavs Cavaliers Starter T Shirt
This is a vintage, deadstock, new unworn Cleveland Cavs Cavaliers royal blue t-shirt. This is available in Large and X-Large. These are authentic vintage so they run a size smaller than todays sizing. These are unworn new vintage, very thin 100% cotton material.


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I think the sun and rain have been fighting with one another nowadays. Technically, May is the beginning of the raining season but, aaa… but…
It rains heavily at night and I am expecting a cool humid weather in the day. Then the sun says No! I am going to shine my brightest, emit more heat to cancel out the coolness from the rain.
In other news, look at my yummly kelewele to spice up the weekend. Cheers!
Kelewele is ripe plantains that is mixed with spices and fried. You get sweetness from the ripe plantains and heat from the spices. Mind, you it is for the strong at spice. You can get down the spices in this recipe, you can make it simple with just ginger, pepper and onions.
This is the real deal, like the ones from the road side.
- 2 ripe plantains
- 2 inches ginger
- 1 teaspoon anise seed
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 4-6 grains of selim
- 1/2 small onion
- Chilli pepper as required
- 2 dashes salt
- Oil for frying
Remove plantain peels and cut into desired sizes. Blend or grind or the spices together. Pour over plantains and add salt.
Heat oil in a deep fryer. When hot, drop in plantains. Fry till plantains are golden. Serve with roasted groundnuts.


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Daily tip to Quit Your Job and Start a Businesss
Entrepreneurship requires sacrifice. You have to be willing to give things up today in order to have more of what you want in the future. Seven days a week, How to Quit Working: Daily Tips to Make the SHIFT offers a tip to Quit Your Job and Start a Business. Click for more information and to subscribe.


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PLANS to cut the opening hours of the library in Scotland's national book town have been scaled back.
Dumfries and Galloway Council had come under fire after it said it intended to switch the library in Wigtown from a full-time service that was open for 40-and-a-half hours a week to one that is open 17.5 hours.
However, the local authority has now said that the library will stay open for 28 hours a week.
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The move is being made as part of wider savings measures by the council and follows a public consultation.
Wigtown is the home of Scotland's biggest book festival, and the decision to cut its library's opening hours sparked fury from readers and authors.
Book festival director Adrian Turpin branded the council's proposal "myopic" and said that the resource was valued. A petition launched on the internet attracted hundreds of signatures within a few hours, with many calling for the library service to remain unchanged.
The proposals were agreed by members of the council's community and customer services committee.
Laura Mustian, owner of Byre Books in the town and chairwoman of the Association of Wigtown Booksellers said: "I'm glad that the council have reconsidered. It's not as good as it could have been but it is the best we could hope for."
Wigtown is one of a number of libraries which will see its opening hours reduced. Operating times in Langholm and Moffat are set to fall to 20 hours per week and Whithorn to 12.