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Welcome to PWInsider's live, ongoing coverage of TNA Bound for Glory 2013!
Jeremy Borash welcomed us to the pre-game show on SpikeTV and spotted Dixie Carter. He told her that AJ Styles claims he's going to win the belt and shove everything Dixie said down her throat. She noted that he could have left but now it's a No DQ match and the only person who's going to play is Styles.
Mike Tenay and Taz welcomed everyone to the show and they voiced over clips of all the big stars entering the Arena.
Backstage, Jeremy Borash was with all four teams competing to face James Storm and Gunner on the PPV. They announced the Bro-Mans would be last in the Gauntlet. They had Joseph Park and Eric Young grab out of a bucket and they pulled #3 so they would be third out. So, it will start with Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez vs. Bad Influence.
After a commercial, they aired a video where Ethan Carter III was taking photos and told the camera filming that he was going to make "Aunt D" proud tonight at BFG when he debuts.
Jesse Godderz and Robbie E. palled around with Mr. Olympia backstage.
They aired a video feature on the Ultimate X match, which will open the show.
They debuted a new interviewer, Gil, who interviewed Bad Influece. It was their usual awesome talking. You couldn't get a feel for the new guy.
They aired a video on Kurt Angle's TNA Hall of Fame induction with clips of Samoa Joe, Magnus and Sting discussing Angle. Angle looked to be having the time of his life and was sitting with Jeff Jarrett. They showed him giving brief comments about being inducted.
Backstage, Samoa Joe was with the Main Event Mafia. He said tonight he would bring home the X-Division title and hopefully Magnus and Sting will work out their issues. Angle walked in and they welcomed him home and told him he will get a chance to beat some respect into Bobby Roode.
Gauntlet for TNA Tag Title Shot
Bad Influence started with Hernandez and Chavo Guerrero.
Bad Influence worked over Chavo but Hernandez used his power to overwhelm them. Hernandez did a deal where he nailed double backbreakers on them at once. He charged down the ramp and hit a dive into the ring as Chavo hit a dive off the top.
Bad Influence eliminated Guerrero and Hernandez after shoving Guerrero off the top. Daniels rolled him up and scored the pin. This brought out Joseph Park and Eric Young. So of COURSE, my cable takes this exact moment to die on me and not allow me to order the PPV, so coverage will pause while I resolve this. Stay tuned.
I am told Robbie E and Jesse Godderz won the Gauntlet.
I had to run to a friend's house.
When I finally got to watch to a PPV, Chris Sabin was rolling Velvet Sky into the ring. Samoa Joe was nailed by Jeff Hardy. There was a ladder in the ring, so Sabin tried to scramble up the ladder. Jeff Hardy, who was being distracted by Sky, attempted to stop him but Sabin grabbed the ladder first. The story was that Sky didn't want to help Sabin but was tossed into the ring.
Your winner and new X-Division champion, Chris Sabin!
I have no idea whether the match was any good. I apologize for the lack of detailed coverage but I literally had to track down another place to run and watch the show with no advance warning and then get there. We'll be good to go going further.
They are showing classic TNA moments. They showed AJ Styles' first X-Division championship win.
They showed Styles arriving earlier today.
Bad Influence came out for a promo, complaining that they aren't in the TNA Tag title match. Daniels and Kazarian were just awesome here. Daniels said that based on the amount of swerves TNA throws on their shows, they were demanding Bad Influence be added to the match. This brought Eric Young. Young came to the ring and said he wasn't here to be a troublemaker. He said that he was here because he's a scientist. He said that earlier, they created a monster. He told them that they are the only two who don't realize that they should run. They apparently busted open Joseph Park during the pre-game. They attacked Young.
Out came Abyss, who hit the ring and destroyed them and hit a Black Hole Slam. He turned to Young, who backed away but Abyss offered him his hand. They embraced.
Backstage, Jeremy Borash interviewed TNA Tag Team champions Gunner and James Storm. Gunner said that they were going to take out Jesse Godderz and Robbie E. Storm said, "Sorry about your damn luck."
TNA Tag Team champions James Storm & Gunner vs. Robbie E & Jesse Godderz (with Mr. Olympia)
They started brawling at the bell. The challengers went to the floor and Gunner backdropped Storm over the top onto them. Back in the ring, Gunner clubbed Godderz. He scored several two counts on Godderz but E and Godderz cut him off.
They worked Gunner over in the corner. Godderz nailed him with several elbows. Gunner rebounded off the ropes and ducked a clothesline, then attempted a backslide. Godderz nailed a dropkick on Gunner, allowing E to continue working him. Gunner tried to fight back and make a tag but Storm was nailed by Godderz before he could make the tag.
Godderz drilled Storm into the turnbuckles. Mr. Olympia seemed to be having the time of his life at ringside. Godderz worked over Gunner on the top but was caught and nailed with a Fall Away Slam. Storm made the hot tag and worked over E with a nice neckbreaker for a two count.
Everyone battled in the ring. E drilled Gunner with a knee to the mid-section, sending him up and over. Godderz and E put Storm on the top rope for a double suplex. Gunner pulled E down and slammed him. Storm used an inverted suplex down and dropped him atop of Jesse. Storm came off the ropes but E kicked up.
Storm went for the Whirly Bird but E landed on his feet and nailed a DDT for a two count. Storm was bleeding from the right thigh, which he cut when he was knocked off the apron. Gunner grabbed E and nailed a backbreaker and then put him in the Human Torture Rack. Jesse broke it up but was nailed. Gunner powerbombed E and Storm dropped an elbow. He covered him but Godderz broke it up.
They went back and forth until Gunner was knocked out of the ring. They nailed the Hart Attack on Storm and scored the pin.
Your winners and new TNA Tag Team champions, Jesse Godderz & Robbie E!
Yes, really. This was far more competitive then you would expect. Solid match but obviously, a strange result. It felt like they switched the belt because Mr. Olympia showed up to appear.
They brought out Sting to induct Kurt Angle into the TNA Hall of Fame. The idea here was that the first member is inducting the new member. Sting gave a really nice speech putting over Angle's Olympic and professional wrestling accomplishments as well as Angle being a family man.
Angle was introduced. The crowd chanted his name. Angle thanked the fans and said the Hall of Fame means more to him than anyone will ever know. The fans chanted, "Thank you Angle." He said that the love and support he's gotten from the TNA fans, wrestlers and managers wouldn't do justice. Sting said he would love it if Angle would join him in the TNA Hall of Fame and said they were making it official. He handed Angle a box, which had a watch. Angle didn't look thrilled actually. The crowd chanted, "You deserve it."
Angle said that hearing what Sting just said and the response from the crowd made him realize how important the HOF really is as well as the responsibility that goes with it. He said that the truth is that he's let himself, his family and his peers down by not living up to his real potential and the standard that Sting set for the Hall of Fame, so he's going to decline the induction. Angle said that nothing that he accomplished in the past is nothing compared to what he's going to achieve. He said he's going to set a new standard and when he does, he will be happy to join Sting.
They showed a clip of Styles winning the TNA title at No Surrender 2009.
Backstage, Dixie Carter was told she had a phone call. She told whoever who was on the phone that since tonight was AJ Styles' last night, they need to get rid of his merchandise and she doesn't want to see any of it at the warehouse. Ethan Carter III showed up and she kissed him and said she hand-picked his opponent for tonight. She told him to remember, "We're the Carters. People need us."
Coverage continues on Page 2!
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Earlier today, I posted my monthly organic and natural food coupon roundup. A few months ago, I started adding the following reminder to the end of each coupon post:
Please remember that products labeled natural are very loosely regulated. Some of them may contain genetically modified ingredients (GMO).
When you see a food labeled as "natural" or it has the word "nature" in its name, there is no way to know if it meets your individual standards of "natural." Products that call themselves natural can have genetically modified ingredients in them, contain high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), or ingredients you've never heard of.
The FDA's website has this to say about the meaning of "natural" on the label of a food.
From a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is 'natural' because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth. That said, FDA has not developed a definition for use of the term natural or its derivatives. However, the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances.
Natural is a front-of-package marketing term; it's not a certification or even a promise of anything. It's a term used to lure consumers who are concerned about the ingredients in their foods, but it seems that consumers who are lured in by the term aren't educated about what it means. A recent string of lawsuits and complaints brought against companies that use the word natural on their packaging show that when consumers realize that the term is largely unregulated, they believe they've been tricked.
The most recent lawsuit has been brought against General Mills for its Nature Valley products. According to the New York Times, two California mothers want all the profits that General Mills has made from these products because they were deceived into feeding their families Nature Valley products that they though were "natural when they contain highly processed ingredients."
The highly processed ingredients are "the sweeteners high fructose corn syrup and high maltose corn syrup, and maltodextrin, a thickener than can also impart a slight sweetness to food."
These are all processed ingredients. Most people would not consider them natural, but based on the FDA's loose standards for natural labeling, it's hard to argue that they can't be labeled natural. But the two California moms are making that argument, and I'm torn about their lawsuit.
I believe consumers have the responsibility to understand what it is they are buying — especially when it comes to the food they buy. I think that when people are trying to decide if a product meets their personal standards they should turn the package to the back and read the nutrition information and the ingredients, not rely on the front of the package marketing words.
Smartphone apps like Don't Eat That and Fooducate can help simplify the process of understanding what some of the unfamiliar ingredients are. For those without smartphones, guides to food labels and ingredients like "Read it Before You Eat It" or "An A to Z Guide of Food Additives" can be helpful.
When I hear about lawsuits like the one against Nature Valley, my first thought is, "These people are suing the company because they were too lazy to turn the package over and see that there is high fructose corn syrup in it and now they want a whole bunch of money because of it?"
But Amy McKendrick, one of the mothers who has brought the lawsuit against General Mills, said one of the reasons for the lawsuit is to "make other parents aware that products they were buying to avoid dyes and processed ingredients for health reasons may not be as pure as they thought based on what they read on packaging."
I get that. People do need to be aware. The FDA isn't changing its rules about labeling foods "natural." For years now, the agency has been attempting to go after deceptive front-of-package labeling, but companies are still putting confusing claims on the front of packages. It's marketing, and selling products is what food companies are in business to do. It's not hard to understand why food packages have words like "natural" on them. Consumers like to see those words and they sell products.
We can't rely on the manufacturers to stop the deceptive or confusing labeling. The FDA isn't doing much about it. Consumers aren't as educated as they should be. As long as these conditions stay the same, we'll be seeing more lawsuits like the one against Nature Valley, or the recent ones against makers of Nutella. But, unless the outcomes of these lawsuits change how companies are allowed to use marketing terms and not just hand out cash settlements, I'm not sure how effective they are going to be.
In the case of Nutella, the company "agreed to change the Nutella label and some marketing statements about the product, as well as create new television ads and modify the brand's website." We'll have to wait and see the outcome of the Nature Valley lawsuit.
What do you think about lawsuits like the one against General Mills or Nutella? Do you think they are effective tools that will create change in labeling?
More healthy eating stories on MNN:

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Initial Washrooms - Service Driver - Multidrop
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ViewML provides enterprise deployment capabilities including user interface lockdown and extensive configuration import/export management.
The ViewML Industrial Browser includes comprehensive scanning capabilities for scanning bar codes into input fields and redirecting QR scan codes to web pages. Full compatibility with Safari with extensions for locking down the user interface and custom onscreen keyboards allows deployment of existing web applications into purposed environments.
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Chronicle 8. "CARTHAGO DELENDA EST"
Χρονικό 8. "CARTHAGO DELENDA EST"
THE WESTWARD EXPANSION of the Hellenes ought to be gradual and cautious. Crossing the Aegean was no problem for it was a Greek sea. After Troy had been destroyed, there was no-one to block the entrance to the Black Sea – only nature. That is why it was euphemistically named Pontus Euxinus, 'hospitable sea', to placate Poseidon. The Hellenes became masters of that sea and spread all over. But they knew very well that in the Mediterranean there was fierce antagonism. The Canaanite Phoenicians, who avoided trespassing into the Aegean and the Black Seas,(a) were found in all other places, having built up their trade web at a time when they were sailing almost alone. Their motive was profit out of exchange. Part of the gains, however, was spent as tribute to the succession of empires ruling Phoenicia.
The Greeks had more to motivate them: famine, wars and civil disorders drove many to other lands; migrations took place in order to avoid those ills. Population growth and cramped spaces at home, combined with a desire to expand their sphere of economical influence, were what motivated them and that is why they appeared in Italy ca 800 BCΕ. It was the next place to colonize and Hellenize after Asia Minor and the Black Sea. Within the next 150 years, several cities founded colonies along the coast of southern Italy and most of Sicily, controlling trade routes and dominating the Strait of Messina. This zone came to be known as Magna Graecia. The Phoenicians generally avoided military confrontations with the Greeks, unless a strategic land was at stake, e.g. Sicily. To the north, the Hellenes faced another adversary, the Etruscans, who had risen to the status of a regional power in the same period. The mining and commerce of metals led to their enrichment and expansion in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean. The Greek presence was in fact disturbing their interests, especially since the Phocaeans of Italy founded colonies along the coast of Corsica, Gaul, and Iberia. This led the Etruscans to ally themselves with the Carthaginian Punics,(b) because their interests too collided with those of the Hellenes.
The situation began to change dramatically sometime after 640 BCΕ, when the first Greek trader sailed to Tartessos. Probably it was the first arrival of a 'historical' Hellene at Iberia, after the voyages of the Mycenaeans and those of legendary heroes such as Heracles to the peninsula. This sailor was Colaeus (Κωλαῖος), a Samian silver explorer and trader who arrived at Tartessos ca 640 BCΕ, according to Herodotus. In an era when merchants were anonymous, the historian thought Colaeus was important enough to note. Since no other Greek trader had previously sailed to Tartessos, Colaeus was able to obtain a cargo of metal (150 kg of silver) and return it safely to his island, realizing one of the greatest trade profits at the time. The Phocaeans of Massalia followed Colaeus' route many years later and dropped anchor at Tartessos. Herodotus says that the Phocaeans were the first Hellenes to make long sea-voyages, having discovered the coasts of the Adriatic, Tyrrhenia, Iberia, and Tartessos. He also notes that Arganthonios, the famous Tartessian king, welcomed the Greeks and urged them in vain to settle there. But why "in vain"? They finally settled there. And why was the king so eager to have them there? The answer to this question would be given by the historical developments.
Hearing that the Persians were becoming a dominant power in the area of their metropolis, Phocaea, he gave them 1500 kg of silver to build a defensive wall about their city. Despite this wall, however, Phocaea was conquered in 546 BCΕ. Rather than submit to Persian rule, most Phocaeans abandoned their city. Some of them fled to Chios, others to their colonies in Corsica and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, with some eventually returning to Phocaea. Many became the founders of Elea ca 540 BCΕ. It is the period when Persia conquered the Hellenic cities on the coast of Asia Minor. Ironically, the Greeks were not alone in this misfortune; the Canaanites suffered even more: Tyre was destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 572 BCΕ; then in 539, the Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered Canaan; Phoenicia declined further and was obliged to pass the baton to Carthage; many Canaanites also moved to the new rising metropolis and other colonies. The consolidation of the great Empire of the Achaemenids would re-arrange the map of the entire Mediterranean, not only in the Orient but also in the Occident. The 6th century proved to be a great turning point…
The consolidation of the great Empire of the Achaemenids would re-arrange the map of the entire Mediterranean, not only in the Orient but also in the Occident. The 6th century proved to be a great turning point…
If Plutarch's Lives were about peoples, one could very well parallel the Minoans to the Canaanites and the Mycenaeans to the Punics; a basic difference was that, unlike the Canaanites who lacked such potential, the Punics opted to expand by conquest. Generally speaking, there are two main differences between an ancient colony and one of our times: First of all, the former was a city founded by a metropolis, not a land conquered by another country; and, most important, the ancient colony was usually sovereign from its inception. Particularly in the Phoenician world, the colonies, although self-governing, had to pay tribute to the metropolis. Carthage e.g. was a dependency of Tyre. This was out of necessity: the Phoenicians lacked the population to establish large self-sustaining cities abroad and most of their colonial towns had fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, with Carthage being one of the few exceptions. The settlements were made on the two paths to Iberia's mineral wealth: a) along the North African coast, and b) on Sicily, Sardinia and the Balearics.(c) They paid tribute to either Tyre or Sidon, but neither had actual control on them. This rule changed ca 650 BCΕ when Carthage gained independence from Tyre, establishing hegemony over other Phoenician colonies in the West. While some of them willingly submitted, paying tribute and giving up their foreign policy, others in Iberia and Sardinia resisted. Carthage sent troops there and appointed magistrates, retaining direct control over them. It was a policy rigidly enforced during the Punic Wars, when Carthage had become the undisputed ruler of all Phoenicians, and resulted in a number of Iberian towns siding with the Romans. If that was the treatment reserved for their own people, their kindred, one can easily imagine what would happen to all the rest.
According to Greek historians, Elissa, renamed as Dido in Virgil's Aeneid, was the founder of Carthage. The city was built on a promontory – a location that made it master of maritime trade in the Mediterranean. All ships crossing the sea had to sail between Tunisia and Sicily, affording the city great power and influence. Founded in 814 BCΕ, it was one of the largest cities in Hellenistic times (by some estimates, only Alexandria was larger). The Punics, unlike other Phoenicians, had a landowning aristocracy who established a rule of the hinterland in Northern Africa and trans-Saharan trade routes. In addition, unlike the Romans, and despite the lack of manpower, Punic citizenship was exclusive, and the goal of the state was more focused on protecting commerce. The citizens were exempt from taxation and were primarily involved in this domain as traders or workers. As a result, Carthage could not afford to wage long wars, as commercial activities slowed down.(d) The war machine, however, was very efficient. Its navy was one of the largest in the Mediterranean, using serial production to maintain high numbers at low cost, while the army included the now extinct North African elephants trained for war. The city turned west and became the 'middleman' between mineral resource-rich Iberia and the East. The eastward expansion along the African coast (through Libya) was blocked by the Greek colony of Cyrene, established in 630 BCΕ. The wars against the Hellenes were due to the vulnerability of the Punic economy to Greek competition, as the products 'Made in Carthage' were inferior to Hellenic goods. The Greek colonists posed a twofold threat: a) undercutting the Phoenicians by offering better products; and b) taking over the distribution network.
The wars against the Hellenes were due to the vulnerability of the Punic economy to Greek competition, as the products 'Made in Carthage' were inferior to Hellenic goods. The Greek colonists posed a twofold threat:
a) undercutting the Phoenicians by offering better products; and
b) taking over the distribution network.
The empire depended heavily on its trade with Tartessos and Iberia in general, from which it obtained vast quantities of silver, lead, copper and, even more importantly, tin ore, which was essential for the manufacture of bronze. Carthage's trade relations with the Iberians and the naval might that enforced its monopoly on this trade and with tin-rich Britain allowed it to be the sole significant broker of tin and maker of bronze. This monopoly, one of the major sources of power and prosperity for Carthage, should be maintained at any cost; a Punic sea merchant would rather crash his ship upon the rocky shores of Britain than reveal to any antagonist how it could be safely approached. In addition to being the sole significant distributor of tin, its central location in the Mediterranean and control of the waters between Sicily and Tunisia allowed it to check the eastern nations' supply of tin, as well. Carthage was also the largest producer of silver, mined in Iberia and North Africa, and, after the tin monopoly, this was one of its most profitable trades. The purple dye was also one of the most highly valued commodities, being worth 15-20 times its weight in gold. Ancient sources concur that Carthage via its trade had become perhaps the wealthiest city in the world. However, without the monopoly on trade with Tartessos and Iberia at large, the Punic Empire was inconceivable. The leaders of Carthage should have been conscious of that when they replaced the Canaanites as overlords of Iberia ca 575 BCΕ. The voyage of the Massaliote Phocaeans to Tartessos might have taken place sometime afterwards. The friendship between king Arganthonios and the Greeks must have greatly annoyed Carthage that felt its monopoly was at stake. It was urgent to take some action against the 'intruders', in order to establish itself as the greatest economic and military power in the western Mediterranean.
Without the monopoly on trade with Tartessos and Iberia at large,
the Punic Empire was inconceivable.
This 'action' took place in the Tyrrhenian Sea ca 537 BCΕ. It was the historic Battle of Alalia. When the metropolis Phocaea fell to Persia, most citizens chose to move to Alalia (Aléria since Roman times), their colony in Corsica. This resulted to a decline of Punic and Etruscan trade there and led Carthage and Etruria to become allies. Their joint fleet of 120 ships, disguised as a pirate force, was defeated by just 60 Phocaean ships carrying migrants to the colony. It would have been a great victory in tactics for the Hellenic side, which destroyed an enemy force twice as large; but the Greeks lost almost two-thirds of their own fleet. Herodotus commented that it was a Cadmean victory – what would soon be also described as a Pyrrhic victory.(e) Realizing that they could not withstand another attack, the Hellenes evacuated Corsica, and sought refuge in Rhegion. According to a legend, Greek prisoners were stoned to death by the Etruscans, while the (more practical) Punics sold them into slavery. Etruria got hold of Corsica, and Carthage kept Sardinia. The Punics would fight two more major naval battles with Massalia, losing both, but still managing to safeguard Iberia and close the Pillars of Heracles, the Straits of Gibraltar, to Hellenic shipping, thus containing the Greek expansion in Iberia by 480 BCΕ; the Massaliotes, nevertheless, made no gains and just kept control of their Iberian colonies. It seemed as if the status quo remained in place. But in reality, in southern Iberia a great tragedy had just unfolded with the collapse of the Tartessian civilization.
Some authors consider that this victory/defeat of the Phocaeans in Alalia and the lack of Greek traders in Tartessos led to the collapse… Here we go again! During all those centuries of development, these authors saw only Phoenicians trading there. But, all of a sudden, the Hellenic commerce became so vital for the Tartessians' survival that they died out when the Punics cut the "oxygen" off! Some other scholars offer the alternative of an "armed conflict", but in general terms, for they avoid being precise as to who was fighting whom. There are also versions of the Tartessian tragedy that specify both the perpetrators and time: "The Punics brought about the collapse by 530 BC". Carthage must have put Tartessos in 'quarantine' sometime after the death of Arganthonios in 550 BCΕ. This is the reason why ten years later, with the Punics and Etruscans allied against the Greeks, the Tartessians did not remain 'prudently neutral': they stood by the Hellenes – and paid dearly for that. The situation did not allow 'luxuries' such as neutralities.
Emboldened by the outcome of the Battle of Alalia, the Punics unleashed such a 'reign of terror' that even their own kindred in Gadir turned against them. The Punics besieged promptly the fraternal Canaanite city and captured it. The Gaditans suffered so much and for so long that in 206 BCΕ, during the second Punic War, they rebelled against Carthage and, when their city fell to the Romans, they welcomed the victors. Of course, the new overlords were no better: in just one year the Romans' presence was shaken by a mutiny and an Iberian uprising against them… There was at least one aspect where the Canaanites proved to be greater than the Punics: Some time after the latter had taken over Gadir, the Persian king Cambyses became master of Egypt and Cyrene in 525 BCΕ. Carthage was then spared a trial of arms against the Persian Empire, since the Canaanites refused to lend ships to the Persians for an African expedition against their own kindred. It seems that at least for the Canaanites, unlike the Punics, blood ties were still important. However, even without losing a war, the Punic Empire may have paid tribute irregularly to the Great King of Kings.
Carthage was spared a trial of arms against the Persian Empire,
since the Canaanites refused to lend ships to the Persians
for an African expedition against their own kindred.
Carthage proceeded to destroy Tartessos and drive the Greeks away from southern Iberia, defending its trade monopoly in the western Mediterranean vigilantly, with attacks on the merchant ships of its rivals. Historical reports indicate that Tartessos had little military defense as its success was always based on trade and friendly relations with its neighbours. This is hard to believe, however, for the kingdom was so wealthy that many Iberian tribes would covet this land. There should have been defensive walls and deterrent land and sea forces, that is, army and navy. As for the date of the catastrophe, in several historical texts we can find one that sets the date as 533 BCΕ that is consistent with what was cited above ("by 530 BC"), and another one sometime later, around 500 BCΕ. We cannot be sure if the two dates refer to the same event or if there was an "armed conflict" between the Tartessians and the Punics that lasted about thirty years. "It is reported", we can read in one of those texts, "that around 500 BC Tartessos was attacked by the Carthaginians, who destroyed the capital and left it without protection from the sea". It makes sense if we remember those accounts that Tartessos had a sophisticated system to regulate the river flow, and also its supposed similarity to Atlantis.
The abrupt disappearance, and the fact that its capital has never been found, led to lots of speculation: how could such an important civilization disappear without leaving traces? If the capital eludes us, there are other Tartessian cities that can 'speak' the truth. Balsa and Tavira in the Algarve were violently destroyed in the end of the 6th century, probably together with the capital and other sites, when the Punics proceeded to impose their iron will. It is claimed that Mainake, the Hellenic colony founded near Málaga under the aegis of Tartessos, was destroyed at the same time, too. We also know that during that century many Canaanite colonies were deserted. We cannot be sure if this was connected with Phoenicia's decline, or Carthage's 'ethnic cleansing' operations, or both. It is a pity that, despite the numerous excavations, it has not been possible to locate with certainty either Mainake or Akra Leuké in Alicante, or even Tartessos, of course. Whatever the result of these efforts, the ancient texts that mention these cities cannot be ignored; otherwise, the story of Tartessos and its demise should be treated as fiction, as well…
"Tartessos was attacked by the Carthaginians, who destroyed the capital and left it without protection from the sea". ("Tartesso delenda est")
There is a tendency to present the Canaanites as "peaceful colonists", while the Punics as "warlike colonialists". We have seen the Phoenicians acting in a manner anything but peaceful whenever they could "manage" the adversary.(f) In a text about the History of old Onuba (Huelva), apart from numerous open questions and hypotheses,(g) we have certain interesting data presented. It seems that Tartessos began gradually sinking into crisis and decline in the 8th century BCΕ at a time when there was a co-existence of Phoenician and Hellenic colonies like Gadir and Portus Menesthei, which is identified as a Phocaean site.(h) The author is impressed by the closeness of the Greek site to the Tartessian capital and notes that the archaeologists in Huelva have observed a decrease in Phoenician pottery, in parallel with an increase in Hellenic ceramics of far better quality. The worsening of the situation in the next century is manifested by the almost total disappearance of open settlements together with the walling of cities. In the 6th century we notice the outbreak of another crisis evidenced by the decrease of mineral exports. Its tragic climax is attested with the destruction of Tartessos by the Punics because it sided with the Hellenes. It is worth noting that the conquerors had no intention to eliminate just the identity features of the conquered, indicating how merciless this confrontation had been, equal to what we now describe as 'genocide'. The descendant culture of the Turdetani in southern Andalusia marks a return to the socio-economic features of the late Atlantic Bronze Age within the Iron Age conditions of the 5th century BCΕ, which is translated as a regression of at least three centuries.
After imposing 'Pax Punica' in southern Iberia, Carthage turned its attention to another land of strategic importance mostly controlled by the Hellenes: Sicily. The Punics planned the largest overseas expedition thus far: after three years of preparations, they sailed for Sicily. It was the outbreak of the first Sicilian War,(i) which coincided with Xerxes' expedition against Greece in 480 BCΕ, prompting speculation about a possible alliance between Carthage and Persia. But even without an official pact, Carthage should have timed its expedition with that of the Achaemenids to exclude the possibility of any aid sent from Hellas to Sicily. The outcome of both expeditions was disastrous for the invaders. For the Phoenicians it was a double defeat: not only of the Punics in Sicily, but also of the Canaanites fighting in the naval Battle of Salamis under Persian orders. The repercussions brought sweeping changes in Carthage: an oligarchic Republic was then established, and also an isolationist policy was followed for the next 70 years when Carthage took no action against the Greeks, nor even aided any of their rivals. Economically, sea-borne trade with the East was cut off by the Greeks in Hellas, while the cities of Magna Graecia boycotted Punic merchants. This led to the development of trade with the West and of caravan-borne trade with the East. Focus was shifted on the exploration and expansion in Africa and Europe. This isolationism explains why the two great maritime empires in the 5th century BCΕ, Carthage and Athens, were not engaged in war. In this period Athens began massive exports of pottery to Iberia, especially in the southeast. But again, as in the previous Canaanite era of Iberia, the archaeologists do not know yet what ships transported the ware, Punic or Athenian.
While Carthage was engaged in another Sicilian War, the rise of Macedon under Philip II and Alexander the Great saw the defeat of the city-states in Greece and the fall of the Achaemenid Empire. All the Phoenician cities in Canaan had submitted except Tyre that was besieged and sacked in 332 BCΕ. The rise of Hellenistic Greece gradually ousted the last remnants of Phoenicia's former dominance over the trade routes of the eastern Mediterranean, and its culture disappeared entirely in the motherland. The Punics were the last of the Phoenicians. Alexander was raising a fleet in Cilicia for the invasion of Carthage, Italy and Iberia when he died in 323 BCΕ, sparing Carthage a perilous ordeal. Battles of the Diadochi and the three-way struggle among Antigonid Macedon, Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria were again good news for Carthage avoiding conflicts with the successors. Trade relations were reinstated with Egypt, together with sea-borne access to the eastern markets for the first time since 480 BCΕ. It seemed as if Carthage had also inherited the Phoenicians' good fortune, since two superpowers, the Persian and Macedonian, could not realize their plans to campaign against its domain. The confrontation with Rome, however, would prove to be inevitable. The Punic Wars were a series of three wars that lasted from 264 to 146 BCΕ. The first one was fought for the control of Sicily. Finally, Carthage evacuated it and paid a large war indemnity. The end of the war found Rome with a large navy able to prevent sea-borne invasion of Italy, control sea trade routes, and invade foreign shores. Sardinia and Corsica were also seized, while Carthage had plunged into another war with its mercenaries. Rome finally emerged as the most powerful state in the western Mediterranean.
The rise of Hellenistic Greece ousted the remnants of Phoenicia's former dominance over trade routes and its culture disappeared in the motherland. The Punics were the last of the Phoenicians. Alexander was raising a fleet
for the invasion of Carthage, Italy and Iberia when he died…
Carthage spent the years after the war improving its finances and expanding its empire in Hispania (Iberia), preparing for the next war that is most remembered for Hannibal's crossing of the Alps with elephants. He resoundingly defeated the Romans in several battles, but was not able to cause a break between Rome and its allies. Far more important, despite his many pleas, he never received sufficient reinforcements, as Carthage opted to send extra forces only to its source of wealth, Iberia. Thus Hannibal was unable to achieve his goal of ultimately conquering Rome and winning the war. This gave self-confidence to the Romans, while they were fighting simultaneously in Italy, Iberia, Sicily, and also against Carthage's ally, Macedon. Finally, the war was taken to Africa, where Carthage was defeated and its control reduced to only the city itself. The resurgence of hostilities fifty years later was linked with anti-Roman agitations in Iberia and Hellas, and the recovery of Punic wealth and power. Cato the Elder gave the motto for the annihilation of Carthage ending all his speeches, no matter what the topic, by saying: "Carthago delenda est" – "Carthage must be destroyed". Rome presented a series of unacceptable demands, finally claiming that Carthage be demolished and rebuilt away from the coast, deep into Africa. In 146 BCΕ, after a three-year siege, it was systematically sacked and burned to the ground, with the fields salted to make the land completely infertile and useless for future generations.(j) No Punic war records exist, since the books of Carthage's library were distributed among the African tribes and none remain on Punic history: Elissa-Dido was finally deprived of her immortal fame…
"Ceterum censeo, Carthago delenda est". (Cato the Elder)


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This math center was created with that tradition in mind. To create, I simply cut white yarn into various lengths and put them in a bowl. Add chopsticks, measuring tools, a Math Talk card and you have an instant center in minutes! (If your kiddos have not used linker cubes as learning tools make sure you give them time to play with them first.)
Happy Teaching and Learning!


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The creators of Mirror Mirror asked me to create a project based on this movie. I am honored to be a part of this production and love creating projects so I was very excited. After watching the preview of the movie, my daughter and I both agreed we should create the Evil Queen's Castle. Here is our result.
To create the castle we naturally thought of using recycled tubes. If you see the picture of the castle below you can see why we chose to use tubes of all kinds.
We began by gathering the tubes and cutting them in different sizes. Also we created other size tubes by rolling up newspaper (you could use any paper)
Then we dipped the tubes in glue and stuck them on the cardboard base. Very much like our Recycled Tube Sculpture.
Then to create the towers on the castle, we used crumpled up newspaper like this and then added a twisted point too. We used glue to attach the twisted point and crumpled newspaper ball. Then we had to let the castle dry for a few hours before painting. C was excited to paint!
After the structure of the castle was dry, we began to paint. We used very light grey for the main color of the castle and gold for the towers.
To give the towers a "special touch" we sprinkled some gold glitter onto the paint.
Lastly, we added some polyfil stuffing with white glue on the cardboard base for snow and some snowflake spangles. In all the pictures the castle seemed to be covered in snow so I thought this brought the whole castle together.
*This post is sponsored by Relativity Media.


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A Developer.com Site
An Eweek.com Site
Ok, that's me again.
Best regards,
Where is the picture taken? At work?
Marius Bancila
Home Page
My CodeGuru articles
I do not offer technical support via PM or e-mail. Please use vbBulletin codes.
Nice one, Igor
Please use code tags to wrap code sections.
New* - Debugging 101 using Visual Studio - Video article for beginners
visit me @http://www.kirants.com
Originally Posted by cilu
Where is the picture taken? At work?
No, at customer site (have been visiting them on troubleshooting). It's Tel Aviv.
Originally Posted by Igor Vartanov
No, at customer site (have been visiting them on troubleshooting). It's Tel Aviv.
Yeah, those letters on the background should have told me something.
Just messing around with my torches.
If the post was helpful...Rate it! Remember to use [code] or [php] tags.
Originally Posted by wildfrog
Well, the waters around here holds about 10 degrees celcius, and that's just a bit too cold for me . But in a couple of months I'm heading for Sydney, Australia, and hopefully I'll spend a day or two both snorkeling and diving .
- petter
Stop by and say g'day if you're going to be in Sydney
Love the wedding pics and all the rest.
Microsoft LVP - Least Valuable Professional
Please rate this post... Pleeeeeeaaassee!!!
Paul, it seems you love messing around with the torches...
Lookin' all snazzy for bfore a fancypants party.
I'm gonna get my halloween costume photos. You should too.
Windows XP, Visual Studio 2008, SVN
Me and my little nephew (one of them) playing around..
All my Articles
Nice photo.
I can't want to see my nephews this Christmas. One was born the week of my wedding so I still have not meet him yet.
At the beginning of this week I was in Bucharest for some business, and here is me in front of the third largest building in the world, The Palace of Parliament.
Nice pic...
BTW, "The Palace of Parlament" holds a distinction that is greater than that of being the World's Third Largest Building - it is the World's Heaviest Building...
Nice ones, HanneSThEGreaT and cilu
Just came back from a month's vacation. This time around, I got to do some touring of India, apart from the routine visit-home-and-relatives thingy. Some of the snaps from the tour I took of the lovely, royal state Rajasthan.
On a camel safari in Sam Dunes in the heart of Thar desert, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India.Inside a Jain temple in Ranakpur, Rajasthan, India.In front of Sheesh Mahal ( palace of mirrors ) within the palace in Amer fort ( Jaipur, Rajasthan, India ).A newly built marble structure used for replacing some of the ones broken during the various invasions on temples by Mughal rulers like Ghori, Khilji ( Osiyan, Rajasthan, India ).Jain temple, wholly built with sandstone and marble ( Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India ).
Last edited by kirants; December 30th, 2006 at 08:25 PM.
Few more:
The structure is in fact a tomb of the ministers of the erstwhile Jaisalmer emperors ( Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India ).Inside Patwon Ki Haveli. It is a five-storeyed building, full with intricate carvings on sandstone. This is no royal place. Just one of the kinds of houses the rich could afford to live in Apparently, the whole structure is made of panels which can be taken apart and re-assembled again, if needed ( Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India ).Inside another haveli, with a difference though. In this, the whole place is filled with paintings ( walls, ceilings , pillars etc ) instead of carvings ( Nawalgarh, Rajasthan, India ).
Last edited by kirants; December 30th, 2006 at 08:26 PM.
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Ever since the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, in July 2000, world attention has been riveted on the rapid expansion of the HIV/AIDS epidemic across the globe. Of course, troubling news had been coming out of Africa and other regions of the world for some time. But the hosting of the conference in Africa highlighted the growing disparities between the developed world, where antiretroviral therapies are increasingly available, and the Third World where they remain largely unknown.
This series of short articles, some of which were previously published in the magazine A&U_, tackle several of "the big issues" involving the fight against global AIDS. Among the topics explored below are the overwhelming magnitude of the global epidemic, the parallel epidemics in different world regions, how HIV has spread from region to region, the impact of HIV on international relations, and prospects for the future._
76 Miles of Wall: Coming to Grips with the Global AIDS Epidemic
Throughout the epidemic, views of AIDS have often taken two diametrically opposite perspectives -- the highly personalized form of individual stories and memoirs and works of art versus the highly impersonal form of charts and graphs and statistical tables. But are there other ways to attempt to come to grips with the incredible magnitude of the worldwide scope of AIDS, other means of trying to understand the vast numbers involved? Consider the possibility below, one that many Americans can relate to.
In a literal sense, numbers in the millions are beyond human experience or comprehension. But so, too, are numbers even in the tens of thousands. Still, when the number of AIDS deaths in the U.S. hit the 60,000 mark, over a decade ago, a new statistic began to be widely circulated. The epidemic had at that point claimed more Americans than the Vietnam War.
This statistic might seem, on its surface, a bit of a strange -- or perhaps strained -- comparison. What, after all, did U.S. military casualties in a Southeast Asian civil war really have to do with civilian deaths from an immune deficiency. Conservative pundits were, unsurprisingly, quick to dismiss the figure as meaningless.
|The geography of AIDS: While the epidemic is global -- "pandemic" in technical terms -- there are major regional variations.
But many others understood why this was a powerful comparison. First, the death toll of the sixteen-year-long Vietnam War had been deeply etched into the public consciousness as the collective trauma of a nation. Even more importantly, though, evoking the number of deaths in Vietnam was also one way to help people comprehend the scope of mortality figures -- 60,000 individual lives -- that had scaled too high for anyone to meaningfully grasp, except perhaps in the purely abstract.
American deaths in Vietnam became etched in stone, literally, with the 1982 dedication of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC, which is today the most visited in the country. Nearly two decades after its dedication, the memorial retains its power.
The monument itself is simple: two sheer 247-foot-long walls of black granite meeting at a right angle. The viewer starts walking alongside a low wall only a few feet off the ground inscribed with a handful of names, then walks step after step after step as the wall grows in height and encompasses more and more names -- first hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands of deaths.
At the vertex of the two walls, the memorial stretches to more than ten feet high, towering over the viewer. And at that point, the list of names seems to go on forever in either direction. If the viewer still has not grasped the exact dimensions of 58,209 deaths, their sheer magnitude, at least, becomes inescapable.
Now, consider that in the U.S. the cumulative number of AIDS deaths reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by the end of 1998 was 410,900 -- or the equivalent of over seven Vietnam memorials, a wall which would stretch on for two-thirds of a mile.
And now, consider that AIDS deaths in the U.S. account for only about five percent of the world's totals. A comparable memorial for global AIDS deaths would consist of over 13,900,000 names and would require 238 Vietnam memorials, about 22 miles of wall.
Yet even the number of AIDS deaths to date pales before United Nations estimates of the number of those now living with HIV/AIDS: 33.4 million people. This figure would require nearly 574 additional Vietnam memorials and about another 54 miles of wall.
Thus, in all, a memorial commemorating all those who have had HIV, living or deceased, would require a total of 842 Vietnam memorials or 76 miles of wall. Reading all the names aloud, at one a second, day and night, would take over six weeks.
Such are the basic contours of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic at the start of the twenty-first century. Still, 76 miles of wall is far beyond what the eye can take in, and it would take days to visit 842 Vietnam Memorials. And with 5.6 million people worldwide newly infected with HIV in 1999, some ninety new memorials and nine more miles of wall would have to be built annually. When our rational ability to comprehend numbers fail us, we have no choice but to turn to metaphors and imagery. Yet what does it tell us if, even in the metaphorical realm, the global AIDS epidemic has become too huge to grasp?
The Parallel Pandemic: The Many Global "AIDS Epidemics"
While it is common to speak of the "global HIV/AIDS epidemic," that term obscures as much as it enlightens about HIV in the world today. Consider that all forms of weather are, ultimately, part of one big "global" system -- but that doesn't mean that the weather in Buenos Aires, Kuala Lumpur, and the Aleutian Islands have very much in common. And so, it is more accurate to speak of multiple, separate, if overlapping, AIDS epidemics as being part of one worldwide "parallel pandemic."
In the U.S., many people have long recognized the existence of parallel epidemics among, say, hemophiliacs, gay men, and injecting drug users. These epidemics interact but they are driven by very distinct forces. The same is true, on a far vaster scale, on the international scene. In order to help make sense of this trend, the book AIDS in the World (Oxford University Press, 1996) edited by Daniel Tarantola and the late Jonathan Mann, organizes the globe into 10 "geographic areas of affinity," (GAAs) clustering countries with "similar HIV/AIDS epidemiology, societal factors, and programs for responding to the pandemic." These 10 GAAs offer a cogent guide to the parallel pandemic.
The first three GAAs are the best known to Americans, as they comprise the Western industrialized democracies: GAA1 (the U.S. and Canada), GAA2 (Western Europe), and GAA 3 (Australia and New Zealand). Treatment and prevention services for HIV/AIDS are widely available in these areas and the AIDS epidemic has been somewhat stabilized for the moment. The next best known epidemic to Americans is probably now that of GAA5, sub-Saharan Africa, which is almost the mirror-image of GAAs 1-3: new HIV infections are exploding and treatment -- even basic pain relief -- remains beyond the reach of almost all of the millions of people with HIV/AIDS. But even beyond these two extremes, there are several other parallel courses in the pandemic. Consider AIDS in these other areas of the world:
Latin America and the Caribbean: Both in sheer numbers, GAA4 (continental Latin America) and GAA6 (the islands of the Caribbean), are among the most heavily impacted in the world, linked to GAAs1-3 by widespread tourism. Haiti and the Dominican Republic have particularly horrific AIDS epidemics, together accounting for 85 percent of HIV cases in the Caribbean region. The situation in continental Latin America varies, but Brazil has emerged as a regional leader by employing its extensive pharmaceutical industry to provide inexpensive versions of antiretroviral medications.
North Africa and the Middle East: The predominantly Islamic nations of GAA5 are by most measures the least impacted in the world. However, serious questions have been raised about whether AIDS is actually much more serious than official numbers indicate in these socially conservative countries, where extramarital sexual activity and all forms of drug use are highly stigmatized and thus hidden. Time will undoubtedly tell.
Northeast and Southeast Asia: Although adjacent regions, GAA9 (Northeast Asia) and GAA10 (Southeast Asia) have very different epidemic profiles. Southeast Asia follows only sub-Saharan Africa in HIV/AIDS caseload, most notably in India and Thailand. Throughout the region, HIV is concentrated heavily along drug smuggling routes. Northeast Asia includes Japan and Korea, which in many respects resemble the industrialized democracies, as well as China, in which some regions are relatively insulated from AIDS and others heavily affected. Whether China will follow the model of Japan and Korea or that of its neighbors to the south remains to be seen, but will be hugely important to the future of the pandemic.
Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union: GAA 7 encompasses formerly Communist countries stretching from the Baltic states in the far northwest, to Central Asia in the south, to Siberian Russia in the northeast. This region constitutes a unique one in the world, being the last to become involved in the AIDS epidemic (see more below).
Of course, even this division of the global AIDS epidemic into ten regions only begins to point out the multiple challenges posed by HIV around the world. But these subdivisions can at least suggest that beyond the AIDS epidemic we see around us in the U.S., and the horrible African plague we are increasingly seeing on television, exist many other complex -- and equally urgent -- AIDS crises. (For more on regional differences, see the article from the United Nations in this issue.)
|Ticket to ride: Historically, many epidemics were contained by slow transportation and long distances -- but not anymore.
Getting from Point A to Point B: What Links the World's Separate HIV Epidemics?
AIDS may be a global phenomenon, but the connections between the various "global areas of affinity" are often far from clear. Yet these are powerful forces, linked to economic and political globalization that are essential to understanding the "global pandemic."
For most of us, it's not hard to imagine how HIV spreads within our own particular neighborhood or specific social group. The microlinkages that bind people together in everyday life are well known to us from our own experience. Much less intuitive, however, are the macrolinkages that can bridge different continents and distinct populations of people. Immigration is an obvious source of population transfer, but in a globalized world, other forces interconnecting such seemingly separate communities -- and separate epidemics -- can be surprisingly powerful. Consider three of the most important: mass tourism, work migration, and refugee displacement.
Mass tourism: In the early 1980s, the role of tourism -- particularly so-called "sex tourism" or travel expressly for the purpose of having sex -- was often discussed as a major cause of the spread of HIV. The most notorious case was that of the much-traveled gay French Canadian flight attendant Gaetan Dugas, regarded as the so-called "Patient Zero" of the North American epidemic.
Yet the Dugas story, like that of sex tourism in general, has been invested with far too much significance. It's highly unlikely that Dugas was the "first" North American with AIDS, and certainly was not the only person to bring HIV to the continent. Sex tourism may have been a crucial link in the very first spread of the virus, and no doubt still accounts for individual new infections. But many major destinations frequented by sex tourists (such as Bangkok, Thailand) have undertaken major safer-sex campaigns. At this point in the epidemic, there's little reason to believe that tourism continues to play a major role in the spread of HIV, at least not relative to the larger-scale population flows discussed below. This explanation for the spread of HIV may appeal to those who see "hedonism" as the root of the AIDS epidemic, but the realities are based in much harsher economic and political realities.
Work migration: Dire economic circumstances force many people to spend long periods of time away from their homes and families, whether it be African miners, Indian long-distance truck drivers, Chinese drug smugglers, or Mexican migrant farm workers. In places such as highway stops and farm camps where these migrants gather, far from loved ones and with few sources of entertainment, there can invariably be found rampant prostitution and drug use -- and thus unprotected sex and needle sharing. This is especially true along drug smuggling routes on which the supply of injectable heroin is plentiful but clean syringes scarce.
Eventually, of course, most migrant workers return home at least for visits, where they can become crucial links to previously sheltered regions. Countless male migrant workers have knowingly or unknowingly infected their wives with HIV, endangering the health both of those women and of any children they may bear. Apartheid-era policies in South African mines provide the worst example of enforced work migration, but such labor patterns are an integral part of an inequitable global economic system. HIV prevention outreach in such settings can help, but real change depends upon systemic reforms on a scale almost no one is even discussing.
Refugee displacements: From Angola and Cambodia in the 1970s to Kosovo and East Timor in the 1990s, political turmoil, civil unrest, and outright warfare have a unique ability to displace populations amidst conditions of chaos. Refugees face many of the same problems as migrant workers, yet under even less controlled situations. With armed soldiers on one side and economic desperation on the other, prostitution rings sometimes expand into gigantic networks of sexual slavery. Likewise, rape is increasingly being recognized as a common war crime. Under such circumstances, short-term survival becomes the paramount concern, trumping longer-term concerns about safer sex or drug use. And when outside forces intervene, it's to stop killings or famines with little thought to "secondary" concerns like HIV transmission.
Taken together, mass tourism, work migration, and refugee displacements account for a good deal of the world's exchange of people -- and of HIV. And while it's true that HIV has already spread worldwide, attempting to understand these mass patterns is more than just an academic endeavor. HIV has many clades (subtypes) with different transmission properties that can shift the dynamics of the epidemic as they are introduced into new regions. Similarly, the use of antiretroviral therapies is, inevitably, promoting new strains of drug-resistant HIV (and other infectious agents) that will circulate throughout the world. But perhaps most importantly for the future, the lessons we learn about the spread of HIV may help to stop whatever next great epidemics may be looming over the horizon.
|The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989: When the wall came down, freedom came through, but so too did new opportunities for the spread of HIV.
The Third Wave of AIDS
During the explosive spread of HIV in the 1980s, one area of the world was largely insulated; the region identified above as "Geographic Area of Affinity 7" or the formerly Communist areas of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. But now even they are no longer immune.
The 1999 report by the United Nations Joint Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) on HIV/AIDS in the formerly Communist countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union was grim.
"Although current rates of HIV infection in the region are low compared with the shocking rates in some African countries," the report states, "the region is ripe for an explosive AIDS epidemic unless effective preventive measures are urgently put into place. The number of HIV infections in Eastern Europe has increased nine-fold in just three years, growing from less than 30,000 HIV infections in 1995 to an estimated 270,000 infections by December 1998."
The UNAIDS report cites as major factors contributing to the epidemic widespread and worsening poverty, exponentially increased prostitution and injecting drug use, crumbling educational systems, a collapse of the health care system, and skyrocketing rates of sexually transmitted disease -- all amidst an environment in which information about HIV prevention is often nearly nonexistent and effective treatment options are prohibitively expensive.
Of course, on the international scene, most of these problems are depressingly familiar; the world has been hearing about such concerns for years in the context of developing countries around the world. What is different here is the timing: these events are happening in the late 1990s, not the mid- or late 1980s, a fact which may offer some hope for blunting the impact of AIDS in the region.
To understand this timing, it's necessary to realize that HIV/AIDS has broken upon the world in three distinct waves. The first wave focused mainly on the general population of sub-Saharan Africa (the region in which HIV originated) and among certain high-risk, socially marginalized populations in the largest urban centers of the industrialized world. The second wave of AIDS encompassed those regions and populations which were at some distance, either geographically and culturally, from the first wave but whose steady interaction with the first wave allowed for an expansion of the epidemic. The second wave includes parts of Southeast Asia, India, the Caribbean, and Latin America, as well as rural and suburban areas and lower-risk populations in first-wave regions.
The third wave of AIDS, which is breaking upon the world now, focuses mainly on those areas of the globe which were isolated from the first and second waves, sometimes for geographic reasons but mainly for political and historical reasons. Thus, the third wave is primarily striking those countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union that, until the period 1989-1991, were ruled by Communist systems characterized by closed borders, state-organized economies, and severe restrictions on the flow of information. This tight control allowed for little contact with the outside world in the form of immigration, tourism, trade, or other types of interaction, thus artificially sealing off these countries from the first and second waves of AIDS.
The former Communist systems were economically inefficient and politically oppressive, but nonetheless capable of a certain level of functioning and able to insulate their populations from outside influences, both positive and negative. However, the sheer suddenness and rapidity of the disintegration of Communism after the breach of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 -- six Communist systems fell within a matter of months -- allowed no time for thoughtful or measured transitions to a more decentralized political and economic system.
As a result, the region's pre-existing systems of health care delivery, education, and disease control have in many cases simply collapsed. Thus, while the HIV/AIDS epidemic would inevitably have arrived in the formerly Communist countries, the unique set of prevailing circumstances threatens to lead to an epidemic of catastrophic scope.
Still, even within this context, there is a silver lining: AIDS is not emerging in this region as a mysterious, seemingly inexplicable illness as it did in the first wave in 1981. Today, there is an abundance of solid evidence about how HIV is transmitted and what types of prevention can stop transmission before the epidemic reaches African proportions.
The Western world is often, and quite rightly, criticized for neglecting impoverished regions of Africa, Latin American, and Asia. But the West has proven its willingness and ability to project its influence into Eastern Europe, be it in the form of the expansion of the NATO military alliance and the European Union or through outright military interventions in Kosovo and Bosnia. Will the West do the same for AIDS -- or will it sit by as a preventable epidemic explodes?
|Beyond bombs and missiles: National security concerns have traditionally involved military and diplomatic issues, but now include global AIDS.
Viral Defenses: AIDS as a National Security Issue
The disappearance of the Soviet Bloc, and the economic and political disintegration that has followed in many of those countries, has definitively called an end to the Cold War. Yet for many in the U.S., the mentality of the Cold War lives on.
A decade after the collapse of the Berlin Wall -- and much of Communism along with it -- there is almost a nostalgia among some in America for the "simplicity" of the Cold War. Back then, it seemed that "we" were on one side, "they" were on the other, both sides were playing a zero-sum game, and national security was all about atomic weapons and army battalions, nuclear-powered submarines and stealth aircraft.
So it was jarring for some old Cold Warriors to hear that the United States now officially regards the global AIDS epidemic as a threat to national security. Predictably, some of the isolationists who somehow continue to dominate the U.S. Congress dismissed the very idea out of hand. This, said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi, was just Clinton's way of pandering to "certain groups."
Many such reactionaries cling to such Cold-War relics as space-based missile-defense systems and denunciations of Castro's Cuba as the cornerstones of contemporary national security. Yet while such traditional anti-Communist concepts of security may be reassuring, geopolitics has never been a clear-cut affair, not even during the Cold War itself.
In tidy retrospect, it's easy to say that the Korean and Vietnam Wars were simply about containing Communism, as were the U.S. decisions to face off the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis, to deploy Pershing missiles in Europe, to invade Grenada, or to arm the Nicaraguan Contras and the Afghan Mujahedeen. But in its own time, each of these historic events was bitterly contested, with many sides identifying different implications for U.S. security. Likewise, even at the height of the Cold War, there were many issues that never really fit into the framework of the superpower rivalry: environmental degradation, the population explosion, international trade, decolonization, drug smuggling, and others.
So, it's more than a little disingenuous for contemporary politicians to claim that it is bizarre to think of AIDS as a security issue. HIV may not have the short-term destructive power of a volley of Tomahawk missiles, but it now kills more people than wars each year on the war-torn continent of Africa. HIV may not conduct espionage, but it can and does infiltrate every corner of societies, threatening to wipe out the gains in international development and economic integration that have promoted peace and stability in Europe, Latin American, and Asia. AIDS may have no implications for the spent ideological debate between the U.S. and the USSR, but it can still provide a devastating critique of the indifference of the capitalist system to basic human needs.
For all these and many other reasons, AIDS has suddenly of late become a focus of concern in the security establishment. New funds for combating the international epidemic include provisions for the Department of Defense to assess the impact of AIDS on potential troop deployments and operations. The U.S. Department of State recently updated a report on the "U.S. International Response to HIV/AIDS" outlining the role of the foreign policy apparatus. Last January, the United Nations Security Council held sessions on AIDS, focusing for the first time on a health issue rather than on a conventional military or diplomatic concern.
Most recently, the National Intelligence Council released an unclassified version of a report on the "Global Infectious Disease Threat and its Implications for the United States." Encompassing diseases such as tuberculosis, influenza, hepatitis, malaria, and cholera along with HIV, the report states that "these diseases will endanger U.S. citizens at home and abroad, threaten U.S. armed forces deployed overseas, and exacerbate social and political instability . . ." In particular, the report outlines that infectious diseases may:
account for the deaths of at least 170,000 Americans annually;
cause more military hospital admissions than battlefield injuries;
weaken the capabilities of international peacekeepers, and thus their ability to mount military interventions;
reduce the gross domestic product of some countries by as much as 20 percent;
cause demographic upheavals, particularly in the form of 42 million "AIDS orphans";
cause diplomatic conflict between nations if HIV and other infectious diseases become barriers to immigration and travel;
conceivably be developed into weapons of bioterrorism.
Compared to this tangle of political, economic, social, and military issues, the nuclear stand-off of the Cold War may seem appealingly, if misleadingly, simple. But that's no cause for nostalgia about the past or denial about the future.
|A world at risk: What will AIDS mean for the future of the global population?
Between Hope and Horror: Future Scenarios of the Global AIDS Epidemic
The need for new thinking, in touch with changing realities and transcending old left-right divisions, becomes clearest when we think about the fact that the horrors wrought by AIDS might just well be the beginning. But at the same time we need to remember that the future is not preordained.
"Steady Progress." "Progress Stymied." "Deterioration then Limited Improvement." With these simple labels, the unclassified version of a national security report sketches out three scenarios for the future of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic that would have profoundly different consequences for the U.S. and the world.
The report by the National Intelligence Council, "The Global Infectious Disease Threat and Its Implications for the United States" is the first widely circulated government report to assess the likely future course of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, along with such other infectious diseases as tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, influenza, and cholera.
The first broad finding, known to all those familiar with the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, is that "developing and former Communist countries will continue to experience the greatest impact from infectious disease -- because of malnutrition, poor sanitation, poor water quality, and inadequate health care." Among the regions, trends it identifies are the continuing weaknesses of the health care system in sub-Saharan Africa, the proliferation of multi-drug resistant microbes in Asia and the Pacific, and the explosive spread of infectious disease in the former Soviet Union amidst that region's ongoing economic collapse. It also notes a few bright spots, including progress in Latin America to control disease outbreaks and the insulation of parts of the Arab world due to climate, conservative social mores, and oil wealth.
The report then weaves together these various regional profiles into its three overarching scenarios for the future. The first, "Steady Progress," revolves around a decline of infectious diseases due to aging populations, declines in fertility, advances in general health and living conditions and improvements in medical technology. But the report calls this the "least likely scenario" because of the severity of the demographic and socioeconomic challenges facing developing countries and the increased emergence of drug-resistant microbes.
The second scenario, "Progress Stymied" is described as "more pessimistic -- and more plausible" with "little or no progress in countering infectious disease." In this scenario, "HIV/AIDS reaches catastrophic proportions as the virus spreads throughout the vast populations . . . whole multi-drug treatments encounter microbial resistance and remain prohibitively expensive for developing countries."
Still, the report holds out hope that this scenario will be supplanted by "Deterioration, Then Limited Improvement." Under these circumstances, the world faces a grim decade in the 2000s, but with hope for the 2010s. The next decade would continue to be characterized by grinding urban poverty and overstretched health care systems, with uneven global development causing the poorest countries to become "reservoirs" of infectious disease. But after about a decade, the report is hopeful that the advances described in the "steady progress" scenario can be realized.
This last scenario, hardly rose-colored but also not without hope, is contingent on there being no surprising developments such as the "appearance of a deadly and highly infectious new disease, a catastrophic upward lurch by HIV/AIDS, or the release of a highly contagious biological agent capable of rapid and wide-scale secondary spread."
In short, this period would have to be more like the period 1960-1980, the era of antibiotics and concerted public health campaigns against smallpox and other diseases, than like the period 1980-2000. Such circumstances, however, will not "just happen," but will need to be made to happen. But this is a task of such magnitude that it may seem to be impossible to influence, not much different than fighting the law of gravity or the earth's revolution around the sun.
The "Steady Progress" scenario is dependent upon what the World Bank and World Health Organization characterized as a "health transition" made up of several distinct components, each of which can plausibly if not easily be advanced. Lowered fertility demands family planning education and technology, along with greater freedom for women. "Socioeconomic progress" is simply a blanket term of such issues as food and water safety, improved nutrition, and enhanced literacy. Economic gains must be at or close to the levels found in East Asia, in which real per capita income levels rose 200 percent from 1970 to 1995. Improved health care capacity, most notably immunization programs, prenatal care, drug availability, and contraception, may be most essential of all.
Each of these are tangible, achievable goals. The future is not an abstract inevitability, but a product of the past and the present -- and none of these scenarios are set in stone. There is also no mystery about how to accomplish any of the tasks associated with the so-called "heath transition." What the world needs now is the social conscience, the political will, and the financial commitment to make hopes into reality.
Raymond A. Smith, Ph.D. is the editor of Body Positive_._


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December 26, 2013, 10:38 pm
Nijinsky photos a time capsule of dance history, captured in new app
Not many new books use critical blurbs from 1950 to promote their contents, but "Nijinsky: God of Dance" isn't a typical book.
It's more like a gallery of great photographs and it's only available as an app for $7.99. The release is built around a collection of photos of Vaslav Nijinsky, who lived from 1889 to 1950 and left a legacy as perhaps the greatest dancer of all time.
Nijinsky teamed with ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev around the turn of the (last) century, and stunned the world working in the famed Ballets Russes, based in Paris. He danced for less than a decade, the story goes, before a crippling schizophrenia ended his career. There is no known video footage of him at work.


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Hyères xxxii
32nd International Festival of Fashion & Photography in Hyères
Hans Boodt Mannequins is official partner of the International Festival of Fashion & Photography in Hyères for the second time.
Over the last 32 years, the International Festival of Fashion and Photography in Hyères has become one of the most influential rendez-vous for fashion professionals and media. Internationally respected personalities have participated to its jury: Karl Lagerfeld, Raf Simons, Dries Van Noten and Ricardo Tisci are a few of them.
Bertrand Guyon, design director of la Maison Schiaparelli presided this year's fashion jury. The contest revealed some of the top designers from the last decades, such as Anthony Vaccarello, Felipe Oliveira Baptista and Viktor & Rolf. The competition was completed by inspiring exhibitions and round panel discussions with experts that made the weekend a fulfilling experience and offered great opportunities to get closer to any deciders of the fashion industry.
Hans Boodt Mannequins was actively involved in the 32nd edition directed by Jean-Pierre Blanc and presided by Pascale Mussard. During the festival our customised mannequins were featured in all exhibitions including the expo Schiaparelli at la Piscine in Villa Noailles, Hyères. Hans Boodt Mannequins also supported the Hyères Festival supplying mannequins and couture busts to the Fashion, the Accessories and the Formers showcases and DIX exposition. Supporting the Hyères Festival, Hans Boodt Mannequins demonstrated how it can adapt to the most demanding contemporary talents.


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Noblis ESI is hiring for Engineering Specialists with Top Secret SCI clearances in Springfield, Virginia.
The Engineering Support Specialist will serve as support to a government customer within the Intelligence Community (IC). This customer is responsible for designing, building, and operating national security-related systems based in space, in the air, and on the ground. The Engineering Specialist will assist the customer in:
- Performance Assessment
- Integration and Test
- Systems Engineering
- Future Concepts and Planning
- Mission Collaboration
- Requirements Management
- Lifecycle Readiness
- Lifecycle Management
- Architecture Development
- Acquisition Support
- Configuration Management
- Specialty Engineering (SIGINT, GEOINT, Communications)
- Serve as technical expert in their assigned area
- Possess excellent writing and verbal communication skills as well as the ability to manage multiple customer requests simultaneously
- Other responsibilities include administrative and technical support to the Government leadership team, internal cross tower coordination, external mission partners and other DoD/IC customers
- Must possess an active TS/SCI security clearance with a Counter-Intelligence Polygraph
- Frequent interaction with government, SETA, FFRDC, and external stakeholders
- Minimum of 9+ years' experience without a bachelors or 7+ with a bachelors or 4+ with a masters degree working with the DoD and the IC
- Mastery understanding of DoD and IC tactics, techniques, and procedures including CONOPS, architectures and cloud-based environments
- Advanced skills in writing, reviewing and editing of technical reports, statements of work, white papers and other technical and programmatic documents
- Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to summarize and brief senior level Government leaders, civilians and military officers
- Ability to work independently with minimal supervision and perform other duties as assigned
- Masters Degree in BSTEM
- Desired - understanding of DoD and IC missions and organizational responsibilities
- Desired - advanced skills in writing, reviewing and editing of technical reports, statements of work, white papers and other technical and programmatic documents
Noblis and our wholly owned subsidiary, Noblis ESI, are solving difficult problems that help our government and our country. We bring the best of scientific thought, management, and engineering expertise with a reputation for independence and objectivity. We support a wide range of government and industry clients in the areas of national security, intelligence, transportation, healthcare, environmental sustainability, and enterprise engineering. Learn more at Noblis -About Us
Why work at a Noblis company?
Our employees find greater meaning in their work and balance the other things in life that matter to them. Our people are our greatest asset. They are exceptionally skilled, knowledgeable, team-oriented, and mission-driven individuals who want to do work that matters and benefits the public.
Noblis has won numerous workplace awards. Noblis maintains a drug-free workplace and is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.
Apply on company website


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1953 Ford F-100 - Barnes & Mobile
Who Says Old Trucks Can't Be Practical
Getting older is something we all look forward to (insert sarcastic tone here). After you turn 21, you look forward to it about as much as a tax audit. When you're a kid, you look around at car shows and notice that practically every guy who owns a ride with all the trappings you wish you could afford has gray hair. And then one day, you're that guy too. Like our old trucks, us drivers are aging right along with them and occasionally our parts wear out.
Paul Barnes knows all too well that old age can affect your personal mobility, but that certainly didn't slow down his interest in our favorite pastime—old rides. For many years, he owned a tricked-out green and lavender 1930 Model A he called "The Joker." When time and circumstance required him to use a scooter to get around, hauling it to car shows in a Model A just wasn't feasible. What to do, what to do? Give up going to shows and enjoying himself? Yeah, right.
Paul began his search for a new classic ride that'd be practical enough to haul his scooter and still have the style he was after—namely a cool old truck. After clicking through webpage after webpage, Paul finally came upon the 1953 Ford F-100 you see here. It had the perfect combination of refinement and power he was after. From the 3-inch chopped top to the shaved handles to the tucked-in bumpers to its aggressive stance, he knew he'd found the next candidate to get him back into the car show circuit.
For modifications, Paul added a few touches to the truck he knew would keep it practical as well as give it a custom flair. The frontend had an early Camaro front clip on it with non-power disc brakes. Paul went to ABS Power Brake in Orange, California, and had them add their electronic power brake system to the setup. Add to that an airbag system from Bag Man Suspension Specialists in Anaheim, California, and a full complement of Intro Wheels (17x8 front, 17x10 rear) and this Effie's got rolling stock down pat.
We know all diehard Ford fans will cringe with this next bit of information, but underneath the custom forward-tilting hood, the truck is powered by a Chevy 383 topped with an Edelbrock manifold and 600-cfm carb, and also features a serpentine belt system with a crossflow radiator keeping things cool. With the 700-R trans and early El Camino 4.11 rearend, Paul has no problem getting down the road something quick.
Then came the question of how Paul could pack up his scooter for easy access in and out of the truck's aftermarket bed with LED taillights. When he got the truck, it had an upholstered wood bed cover that got the job done, but wasn't up snuff for what he really needed. He approached Gaylord's in Santa Fe Springs, California, about making him a custom unit with a spoiler and third brake light. After some brainstorming, they came up with the fiberglass unit that sits on the truck and was painted to match the existing color perfectly. Inside the bed sits the hoist that lifts Paul's scooter out with ease when he wants to cruise around the show grounds. And wouldn't you know it, not only is the bedliner flamed to match the front graphics, but Paul's scooter has a color scheme to match the truck as well!
You're probably wondering about the interior. The VDO gauges monitor the vitals and a Chevy column with an aftermarket Ford wheel keep this beast between the lines. The truck came with the custom-made center console and modern leather bucket seats. With A/C, one-piece electric windows, cruise control, and an Eclipse stereo with 12-CD changer, you'd be hard pressed to find anything about the cab's creature comforts you didn't like.
We certainly can't slow down time, but Paul is living proof you don't have to let it take the proverbial wind out of your sails and stop doing what you enjoy. So if you're feeling like maybe it's time to throw the keys to your classic to someone else, take a page out of Paul's playbook and rethink things a bit. Getting around just takes a little imagination.


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Japan estimates monster quake could kill 320,000
August 29, 2012 - 14:11
Japan's government on Wednesday unveiled a worst case disaster scenario that warned a monster earthquake in the Pacific Ocean could kill over 320,000 people, dwarfing last year's quake-tsunami disaster.
Tokyo's casualty toll estimate was based on a catastrophic scenario in which a powerful undersea quake of about 9.0 magnitude sparked a giant tsunami that swamps Japan's coastline south of Tokyo
The Cabinet Office's hypothetical disaster would see the quake strike at nighttime during the winter with strong winds helping unleash waves that reach 34-metre (110 feet), sweeping many victims away as they slept.
Many of the estimated 323,000 victims would be drowned by the tsunami, crushed under falling objects or in fires sparked by the disaster, it said.
On March 11 last year, a 9.0 magnitude quake struck seismically-active Japan in the early afternoon, triggering tsunami waves that reached 20 meters.
About 19,000 were killed or remain missing while the tsunami slammed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, sending reactors into meltdown and sparking the worst atomic crisis in a generation.
"As long as we live in Japan, we cannot deny the possibility of a huge earthquake and tsunami," Masaharu Nakagawa, state minister for disaster management, told reporters Wednesday.
The report was designed to paint a worst-case scenario and help officials boost their disaster preparedness.
An estimate in 2003 assumed casualties of about 25,000 people, but that scenario envisioned a less powerful 8.4 magnitude quake striking a smaller area.
The deadliest quake in Japanese history struck the central Kanto region in 1923, killing at least 100,000 people.
(Source: The Associated Press)


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XC6 - ESMini COM Carrier Board for 3.5" PCs
Evaluation PlatformThis product has been discontinued.
XC6 is an ESMini carrier that can be used together with any type of ESMini COM module.
Main Features
Technical Data
ESMini Carrier Card
- One ESMini slot
- J1 and J2 assembled
- One SATA connector
- One USB Flash disk slot
- Via one USB onboard connector
- One microSD card slot
One DVI-I connector
- Analog VGA signals via LVDS interface
- Four USB 2.0 host connectors, one optionally usable as client
- 10/100Base-T Ethernet
- Two interfaces on RJ45 connectors
- Audio
- Audio in
- Audio out
- Via 3.5 mm jack
- One interface via 9-pin D-Sub connector
- Configurable via software
- Max. transfer rate 4800 bit/sec
- Active or passive
- Electrically isolated
- 8 lines on a 10-pin connector (5 V level, for connection of an SA-Adapter)
- 16 lines on an 18-pin connector (3.3 V level)
One PCI Express Mini Card slot
- With SIM card slot
- Via one PCI Express x1 links and one USB port
- Goldcap
- Battery holder
- Power button signal on pin header
- Reset in/out on pin header
Electrical Specifications
- Supply voltage/power consumption:
- ATX standard power supply via 4-pin connector
- +5 V, 2.1 A max.
- +12 V (12 V only for LVDS backlight), (depends on the display) 0.7 A with SHARP LQ121S1LG61 (12.1" / 800x600) with full brightness
- Power supply cable should have a cross section of at least 1.5 mm²
- MTBF: 683,499 h @ 40°C according to IEC/TR 62380 (RDF 2000)
Mechanical Specifications
- Dimensions: 146x102 mm
- Weight: 142 g (without ESMini module)
Environmental Specifications
- Temperature range (operation):
- Airflow depending on ESMini module
- Temperature range (storage): -40..+85°C
- Relative humidity (operation): max. 95% non-condensing
- Relative humidity (storage): max. 95% non-condensing
- Altitude: -300 m to +2,000 m
- Bump: 10 g/16 ms
PCB manufactured with a flammability rating of 94V-0 by UL recognized manufacturers
- One LVDS ZIF connector
- For direct connection of an LVDS display
- Instead of VGA signals on the DVI-I connector
- One LVDS backlight 10-pin connector
- One USB client port instead of one of the host ports
- Connection of SA-Adapter on 10-pin GPIO connector (e.g. with IBIS or CAN bus functionality)
Some of these options may only be available for large volumes.
Please ask our sales staff for more information.
Ordering Information
PCI Express Mini Cards
PX6, Security Smart Card Reader, 2FF Card holder, PCI Express Mini Card connector pass through, -40..+85°CDetails
USB HID to analog audio PCI Express Mini Card, 1 stereo input and 1 stereo output, conformal coatedDetails
PCI Express Mini Card, mobile wireless functions, audio interface, Mini-SIM card holder, -40°C to +85°CDetails
GLONASS & GPS PCI Express Mini Card, Dead Reckoning, +5 V phantom power supply, -40 °C to +85 °CDetails
GLONASS & GPS PCI Express Mini Card, Dead Reckoning, -40 °C to +85 °CDetails
PCI Express Mini Card for converting PCI Express Mini to M.2 and PCI Express x1 to USB3.0, USB 3.0 extension for Box PCs, -40 to +85, conformal coatedDetails
Data Sheets
User Manuals
Errata & Technical Information


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$ 80.00
Hoops and charms are sold separately. Pick your hoops here.
Nina Nguyen Design's patent-pending earrings have an element on the back of the stud or charm to allow these pieces to transformed into multi-use, stackable and convertible styling. It can be turned into a pendant and worn on a necklace, or used as a charm on our wrap gemstone bracelets.
Our jewelry is designed in Denver, CO and ethically made by our skilled jewelers in our studio in Vietnam.
Collections: All, All Charms, All Earrings, Angel Wings, Silver, Silver Charms, Silver Earrings
Nina Nguyen Designs' rings are a size 6.5 unless otherwise noted.
Our rings are specially designed with an easy-to-size band. Our rings can easily be sized one up or down. If you need a different size please let us know. We suggest going to a trusted local jeweler who can then size your ring to your personal needs.
We currently carry four sizes of bangles.
Size 5: Very Small Wrist
Size 6: Petite Wrist
Size 7: Average Wrist
Size 8: Wide Wrist
At Nina Nguyen Designs, we produce a variety of necklace lengths. The image below is an example of what various necklace lengths look like when worn.
The image provided is for example use only and does not show exact length and appearance of Nina Nguyen Designs jewelry.


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The incoming cold and snow will make it tough to get a look at the ice building along the Lake Michigan shore, but a recent aerial video taken by a Hope College sophomore brings the shoreline spectacle to your warm living room.
Jeff Zita used a small four-propeller drone to capture about 8 minutes of video of the expanding ice cover at Holland State Park on Jan. 12 � one of the few sunny days this month.
�I thought I�d get some awesome shots of Big Red and the ice,� Zita said.
The images at http://bit.ly/1kHwThV show the channel from the Macatawa River to Lake Michigan filled with pock-marked ice, lined by thick white piers with huge sheets of ice on the calm lake waters.
�It gives some different perspectives,� he said.
That icy view will be hanging around for several weeks, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids. Colder-than-average temperatures are expected to increase ice on the Big Lake.
Ice cover on Lake Michigan has been low for several years, according to charts from the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Ice cover has been less than 50 percent since 2009. About 90 percent of the lake had ice cover in 1977 and 1979 and again in 1994, the peak of ice cover in the past 20 years.
Ice coverage was about 14 percent of Lake Michigan on Friday, according to GLERL data.
For the entire Great Lakes, 1979 had the maximum ice coverage on record with 94.7 percent of water covered with ice. In 2012, coverage was 12.9 percent.
The GLERL projection for 2013-2014 is for 57-62 percent of the Great Lakes to be covered with ice.
The ice is good for lake levels, which have been recovering from a record low hit in 2013. The ice keeps water from evaporating in the spring, and water temperatures lower to stem further evaporation.
The recent ice photo exercise was only the second time out for the drone, a DJI Phantom 2, that Zita purchased to enhance his photography hobby. The drone does not come with the camera.
Zita first used it to shoot night images at Hope College earlier in January. The college posted the Instagram image on its Facebook page.
The drone without its four propellers is small enough to fit in a backpack. It has GPS that keeps it on course, a gyroscope to keep the camera steady and can be controlled from an iPhone. The machine automatically adjusts for wind speed so it can stay stable at one point in the sky.
The day Zita shot the ice images at the state park, winds were about 15 mph.
The drone can fly for 25 minutes on battery power.
�I like cool gadgets,� the mechanical engineering student said.
He also loves spending time outdoors, from sailing to kite boarding.
The 19-year-old is not sure what the next video will focus on, though Zita is thinking about heading to Laketown Beach for more shots of the lakeshore and dunes.
�Living in West Michigan, there are countless places I want to go,� he said.
� Follow Jim Hayden on Twitter@SentinelJim.
Aerial drone catches ice images at Holland State Park
The incoming cold and snow will make it tough to get a look at the ice building along the Lake Michigan shore, but a recent aerial video taken by a Hope College sophomore brings the shoreline spectacle to your warm living room.


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Hey everyone, it's Friday, time for another entry in the Reader Recommendations series!
Readers Recommendations: "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
The Reader Recommendation series is intended to help me formally pursue all the great films that commenters bring up each week in discussion which I've never seen. If there's a movie that comes up that I haven't seen, but you think I should, email me @ firstname.lastname@example.com or let me know in the comments that you'd like to participate!
This time up, our movie recommendation comes from Kevin Clare over at Claratsi's Movie Review, who's suggested 2011's "We Need to Talk About Kevin".
"We Need to Talk About Kevin" was making the rounds when I first began blogging, but being a limited release film, I never got to it. Still, I've heard good thing and have been curious to see it. I was glad Kevin recommended it!
Click through to see what we had to say!