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ABC News:Urban Decay: Structures in Ruin
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The Weather Channel:Abandoned Schools in Decay
The Daily Mail:School for Abandoned Toys
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Saketekilla:Historic Places In Decay Unravelled
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You wouldn't believe what an unusual year 2015 was for my photography adventures! It was a rollercoaster ride of twisting and turning moments: globe-spanning highlights, emotionally exhausting lows, physically draining explorations and decreased creative output. I'd like to share the journey with you now.
(Just want the 2015 list of feature interviews, articles, statistics and other highlights? Skip below to the summary section.)
The year began with a purposeful eye toward a less hectic travel schedule coupled with a determination to thoroughly review and catalogue an overwhelming photo archive. The plan was rooted in reactive and proactive approaches; I would decrease my creative output so I could be better prepared for ambitious future photography projects.
2010–2014 was a busy period of adventures across virtually all of North American and several regions of Asia and Europe. Tens of thousands of photos and hundreds of hours of video were sitting in the archives waiting to be organized, processed, and published. Despite having the great fortune to be featured in hundreds of magazine, newspaper, and online publications in recent years, the incredible adventures I had experienced were for the most part untold. An endless array of amazing stories about exploring abandoned places and empty spaces around the world were desperately waiting to be shared with an ever-growing fanbase.
I wanted to spend the majority of 2015 taking a "photography sabbatical" so I could write about some of the adventures and catalogue the photo archive. Autumn would be reserved for the most ambitious and lengthy adventure of my photography career – a two-part journey across western Europe and four key Asian countries.
This became the outline for 2015:
Intertwined amongst these plans was a potential relocation to Japan to work with a company in the Kyoto region.
As you might anticipate, some plans came to fruition and other plans unexpectedly vaporized.
Simply put, I vastly underestimated the time required to review and catalogue the photo archive. Fragmentary organization prior to 2015 gave the project an initial boost but it still required 6 non-consecutive months to complete! Parallel work began on the photography book; an outline and initial skeletal chapters soon materialized.
An impromptu trip to Japan for business, and to visit a dear friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer, happened in January. Naturally, I took my DSLR and managed to slip in a few hours of exploration at a sacred abandoned place for Japanese urban explorers, the rapidly decaying Maya Tourist Hotel (摩耶観光ホテル). It's the oldest and most famous abandoned hotel in Japan.
As Spring approached, a little Asian serendipity appeared; I came into contact with Ran, a local fan from Beijing, who suggested I should pursue the Chinese market. Her gracious assistance, guidance, and translations suddenly exposed my work to a massive audience in a way I hadn't even considered a few months earlier!
We created and curated new accounts on Chinese social media, such Weibo and WeChat (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are blocked in China). One particular post on Weibo, which featured several photos of Detroit ruins, caught the attention of a writer for Photographic Travel (摄影旅游), a magazine with a half million circulation. That lead to a beautiful 8-page feature in their September issue (65mb PDF). My plan to explore Asia during the Autumn season suddenly included a growing selection of locations in China.
(I must also give a huge shoutout to my friend Rosie in London who is also originally from China. She was incredibly kind to share her expertise in artist promotion and Chinese culture. I'm truly fortunate to have so many amazing friends like her around the world!)
This sudden focus on China was a welcome diversion because I wasn't pleased with the photography book's progress. The writing wasn't matching the high standard I set for myself at the outset of the project and I wasn't certain how to rectify the situation. I decided that a quick trip to New York City to do some street photography could be the antidote.
Street photography has never been a major interest for me but I've done it occasionally as a means to shock my system, so to speak, in the hopes that doing something uncharacteristic might recharge my creative juices. I recommend trying this with any art form you practice; for me it's akin to a formula for conquering writer's block.
When I returned home, an unwelcome situation – my 14-year old cat Summer's rapidly declining health – forced me to halt all activities.
Summer was a troubled little calico when an ex-girlfriend and I adopted her in 2002. It took a few years to make her healthy and to make her feel safe around humans. We predicted that she wouldn't live past 5 years due to her fragile health. She lost all of her teeth and experienced digestive problems for many years but infinite love and affection kept her strong. Eventually, she became an adorable and affectionate little cat.
Our relationship ended in 2011 but we managed to cooperatively share and look after Summer. As 2015 approached, and with the possibility of moving to Japan becoming more likely, we agreed that she would permanently stay with my ex-girlfriend. This lead to me taking what would become my personal favourite photo of 2015:
Summer's kidneys rapidly declined after she moved in with my ex-girlfriend. Within a couple of months, the inevitable moment arrived and she had to be put down. I lost both of my parents at a relatively young age and two other beloved cats but, because Summer needed us the most, her death was probably the hardest one I've experienced. You pet owners out there will understand.
Like any photojournalist, I captured the entire sequence of Summer's life, including the serenely surreal moment immediately after she took her last breath. Later, it led me to ponder how photographers manage to maintain their composure and focus during moments of crisis. I have to credit my father's influence in these types of situations. During the night of my mother's funeral he was the calming voice of comfort for many distraught family and friends. It was remarkable to witness him suppress his own sorrow to become everyone's rock. Maybe his actions that night allowed him the space to privately deal with his loss after the dust settled. But the dust never really settles.
Summer's death segued into the next major change of 2015; negotiations with the Japanese company fizzled and I wouldn't be moving to Japan. June closed out with these two major endings which, as is my nature, I would try to turn into new, positive beginnings.
I decided to get back to basics. I began to document abandoned places in my local region again and to pore over international maps for the purpose of plotting future explorations.
Ran joined me during several of these mini-trips (to study my photography techniques) and also provided insightful guidance while we marked points of interest on maps of China. In exchange, I took her to one of the best Bortle-scale dark sky preserves in Ontario on Manitoulin Island. In one night she was able to see, for the first time in her life, a trifecta of astro-wonders: a radiant band of our Milky Way galaxy, the mystical Northern Lights, and the tail end of the Perseid meteor shower shooting across the night sky like little silk strings. It was a magical night of galactic awe!
You might be familiar with my extensive explorations of abandoned theme parks around the world, such as the mist-shrouded Nara Dreamland in Japan and the haunting Six Flags New Orleans in America. Closer to home, I managed to explore the first theme park I visited as a child, the mid-sized Sauble Beach Fun World.
It's quite surreal to see a treasured setting from the balmy summers of your childhood end up in a rapidly decaying and abandoned state. Forgotten memories come flooding back like g-forces on a go-kart track and, as you stand amongst the mangled metal, overgrown weeds and cracked pavement, you're left wondering what the future holds for the next generation of beach-bound fun-seekers.
As the summer months came to their seemly always-abrupt end, and with the journey through Asia become increasingly extensive, I decided to postpone further work on the photography book. I wanted to ensure the book would include what was quickly shaping up to become the biggest adventure of my photography career.
Autumn and its cool nights soon approached which meant the first leg of my year-end adventures was about to begin.
I attended a week-long conference in Barcelona and then set out for a road trip across France. Additional stops were scheduled in Belgium and England before returning home to Toronto.
The original itinerary included explorations of an abandoned train station and nuclear power plant in Spain. However, I read several reports about the Spanish police's increasingly strict requirement for having an international driver's licence. I couldn't find mine before I departed Toronto so I opted, at the last minute, to do a road trip across north, west and central regions of France.
The whirlwind journey landed me in these diverse locations:
Upon returning the rental car, I was immediately en route to Belgium to meet up with Val, an artist whose study of abandoned places I highly respect and recommend.
We explored a few interesting abandoned homes in Belgium but the highlight for me was the gorgeously decayed Château Miranda (aka Château de Noisy).
The journey concluded with a brief stopover in London to visit friends and do some night photography on the River Thames. It was fantastic to meet up with Sophie and Rosie (mentioned above) again!
Final planning for the 6-week second leg of the autumn adventure began as soon as I returned from Europe: visas were obtained, remote destinations in China, North Korea and Japan were selected, and Ran arranged for a 1-month apartment rental in Beijing.
And then, I accidentally ate parasitic squid.
During a final planning session, Ran and I met for dinner at Teppan Kenta, a highly rated Japanese restaurant in Toronto. I ordered their DX Okonomiyaki dish and within hours experienced an acutely violent reaction to, according to my doctors, a food-born parasite. It led to a hellish 11-week digestive system meltdown; the worst illness of my adult life!
This rare illness (I never get sick) forced an abrupt cancellation of the Asia adventure. All other photography activities, for the most part, ground to a screeching halt.
Admittedly, I experienced a few very dark moments. At one point, it seemed destined to be a chronic illness but I kept reminding myself that an unfathomable number of people around the world were suffering more than me in immeasurable ways. I knew that one day my good health would return.
Ironically, I received a battery of tests that revealed – apart from the parasite problem – that I was experiencing the best health of my adult life! I was tested for Colon cancer, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and Celiac Disease and all test results were negative. The blood tests were virtually perfect and my blood pressure was the best its been in the past decade.
Fortunately, the illness subsided shortly before Christmas and I was able to get out of the house to shoot one last photo for 2015.
The year ended with a call from a casting producer from Los Angeles. Maybe I'll have something interesting to talk about in 2016…
Extended periods of inactivity didn't cause a major slow-down in momentum. I was fortunate to be featured in several print and online publications. Additionally, there were several statistical highlights.
Countries Explored
Adventure highlights
Social Media Statistics
Massively popular Instagram accounts, such as It's Abandoned (1.2 million followers), Abandoned Earth (411k followers), and All Abandoned (359k followers, featured several of my abandoned theme park posts:
Flickr Explore
Flickr Explore is a section of the site that features the top 500 photos posted of 2 million daily uploads. I was fortunate to have 11 photos reach Flickr's top 500.
Infiltrating a hotel rooftop at night in Belgium was an incredibly peaceful experience. Observing people walking and mingling, while cars were zipping through the streets, was an extended moment of zen.
Many rooftoppers climb to great heights - the top of a construction crane or an office building that rises dozens of stories into the sky. My preference is to be a little closer to the ground; at least so that I can see people's expressions and get a real sense of the city below.


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Welcome to the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies! We have been supporting the study of this important region at UCLA for more than 15 years, serving as a place to encourage the discussion and dissemination of scholarly work on the countries of the region. Our Center has been critical to sustaining and expanding Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA, which has now become one of the major U.S. sites for the study of this region. While we have an interest in the entire region, UCLA is particularly strong in the study of Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. We are a federally designated National Resource Center for Southeast Asia, and are financially supported through the Title VI program at the US Department of Education. We are also supported by private donors, including the Robert Lemelson Foundation, which has helped to fund our Indonesian studies programs. We host foreign visitors, invite scholars to give talks, fund graduate student language study and research, and serve as a resource for those whose work intersects with Southeast Asian in some fashion. UCLA faculty and graduate students affiliated with the Center work on many of the region's eleven countries across numerous departments, ranging from history to ethnomusicology to linguistics. The Center is also happy to support language instruction at UCLA by providing fellowships for the study of Southeast Asia languages, including Vietnamese, Tagalog, Thai and Indonesian. We welcome inquiries from both on and off campus relating to our programs and to Southeast Asia more generally, and hope to see you soon at one of our many events!
A year after its founding in 1999, CSEAS joined with its counterpart center at the University of California, Berkeley, in a consortium that was designated a National Resource Center (NRC) by the U.S. Department of Education. An extraordinary honor for a young institution such as CSEAS, the designation was accompanied by Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships that since then have allowed graduate and undergraduate students to immerse themselves in the region. As part of its mission as an NRC, the Center organizes training workshops and develops curricular materials for California's K-12 schoolteachers.
In recognition of its leadership, the Center has been the beneficiary of two Ford Foundation grants for post- doctoral research and public programming on Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma and Vietnam. Gifts from other donors have helped to support our Indonesian Studies and Thai Studies programs.
While working to maintain the excellence of its programs, CSEAS continues to develop new ideas for expanding Southeast Asian studies at UCLA. These programs are also opportunities for individuals and foundations to support our mission. They include:
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subset: commoncrawl


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OTTAWA - The Justice Department announced 13 new judicial appointments last week. Twelve of them were men — and the lone woman represented a promotion to a higher court, not a new face in the pool of judges.
The appointments came as controversy dogged Justice Minister Peter MacKay over a Toronto Star report about comments he reportedly made to a group of Ontario lawyers about women failing to apply to become judges.
On Friday, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to strip MacKay of his Justice portfolio.
"It would be really appropriate for the prime minister to come up with somebody else for the job," Mulcair said in an interview.
"Equality between men and women should be something the justice minister should be defending, and I really think Harper's got no choice but to consider removing him."
The issue goes beyond MacKay, said one legal expert.
Linda Robertson, who chairs the women lawyers forum for the Canadian Bar Association in B.C., said the prospects for female judges have diminished under the Conservatives as the pace of women's appointments has slackened.
"The frustration that we have is that under the Liberal government, they were making very healthy female appointments; it wasn't a problem under the Liberals," Robertson said from Vancouver.
"It's only been since the Conservatives came in that the number of female appointments have slowed down. They haven't stopped, but they've sure slowed down."
MacKay's department begs to differ, saying 34 per cent of sitting judges are now women, up from 29 per cent when the Tories came to power. There are currently 383 women on a bench of 1,120 federally appointed judges.
The head of the association, however, made note of the enduring lack of diversity among judges in a speech Friday to the organization's constitutional and human rights conference in Ottawa.
"Our courts at all levels have yet to reflect the gender balance and diversity of Canadian society," Fred Headon said.
"We need hard information so we can gauge where we're at and what progress we are making or not making. We need to see where the bottlenecks are so we can identify them and remove them."
Better data is critical, Robertson noted.
"We want the federal government to start simply reporting annually the number of men and women that apply across the country," she said.
"For years they have been telling us that they would promote more women, but they just aren't getting the applicants. But because it's so opaque, we don't know if that's even true."
Robertson said women make up only 37 per cent of the legal profession in Canada, meaning there is a much smaller pool of female applicants. Nonetheless, she said, judicial appointments under the Tories have been disproportionately going to men.
The lack of women in the judicial system came under a spotlight after the Star reported that MacKay rankled a group of Ontario lawyers during a private meeting when he said women weren't applying for judgeships.
The Star, quoting lawyers who were at the meeting, said MacKay attributed the dearth of women on the bench to a lack of applications, He reportedly went on to link that to a fear among women that they might be appointed to a circuit court, which entails more travel.
He is also reported as saying during the same meeting that women have a special bond with their children.
The justice ministers of Quebec and Ontario have criticized his comments as outdated and inaccurate, while MacKay has denied saying any of it. The Ontario Bar Association has not released audio or a transcript of his comments.
MacKay's wife, Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay, came to his defence Thursday in an open letter to the Globe and Mail, a response to a similarly framed open letter to her that was published the previous day.
"Peter was speaking to a closed session of lawyers, some of whom are now publicly attacking him, yet they refuse to release the actual tape of the speech he gave," Afshin-Jam MacKay wrote.
"He asked them for the transcript so that he can put the accusations to rest and they flatly refused to release it. Instead, they run to the anti-Conservative media with hearsay and, of course, he is savaged by his accusers, political opponents and press."
On Friday, Afshin-Jam MacKay declined a request for an interview.
MacKay was still on the hot seat as he visited Nova Scotia on Friday. He was asked to clarify his remarks on female judges, as well as the starkly different Mother's and Father's Day messages he sent to department staff earlier this year.
The message to mothers praised their ability to juggle the practical demands of work and family, while the message to fathers praised them for helping to shape the minds of a future generation of leaders.
MacKay's wife says female staff members in the Justice Department wrote the message. MacKay himself, who was in Antigonish on Friday, had little more to offer.
"Look, I think enough has been said about what I didn't say," he said.
Robertson, meantime, also urged the Ontario Bar Association to distribute the audio of MacKay's comments. MacKay's office says it didn't record the speech.
"They really need to release that audio so we can get some clarity on what was said and begin a dialogue," she said.
— With files from Mike Blanchfield @mblanchfield
Follow Lee-Anne Goodman on Twitter at @leeanne25
Also on HuffPost


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Activision is bringing its popular "Call of Duty" series to China as a free online game.
Activision Blizzard Inc. said Tuesday that it will publish the game through a partnership with Tencent Holdings Ltd., a Chinese online game company. There is no release date yet, and the contents of the game must still be approved by the Chinese government, as is the case with all games released in the country.
The game is being developed in Shanghai specifically for the Chinese market. Players will be able to customize their weapons and characters by purchasing virtual items in the game.
Though "Call of Duty" is played on game consoles in Western countries, in China people play games online, in Internet cafes. Consoles like the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 are almost non-existent there.
"The only way to be successful here is to be local," said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. Activision had set up the Shanghai studio to develop the game two years ago. Kotick said China is "underappreciated as an inspired, creative source of ideas" for games.
Though it is working with Activision to operate "Call of Duty" in China, Tencent has a competitor in the country called CrossFire. It's a military shooter played online for free, with extra weapons and other items available for purchase.
"Call of Duty" won't be Activision's first venture into China. It already runs the online games "World of Warcraft" and "StarCraft" in the country.
Shares of Santa Monica, California-based Activision climbed 52 cents, or 4.3 percent, to $12.46 in afternoon trading. The stock has traded in the 52-week range of $10.40 to $14.40.


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So.. Mozilla had its first ever Hackday in New York City last Saturday and I had the opportunity of attending it. There were some really good talks which ended with some hacking post lunch. It was an awesome experience getting to meet all the wonderful folks who participated in the hackday and to see their great hacks, and the excellent job by the Mozilla team in running the show.
Some of the talks that were presented were (slides linked):
- Christian Heilmann: "The Web is the platform"
- Jeremie Pattonnier: "Contributing to MDN"
- Robert Nyman: "JavaScript APIs: the web is the platform"
- Rob Hawkes: "Open Web games"
At the end of the day, I presented an extension that would calculate the Readability scores of text that was selected within the browser. This "Text Readability Scorer" Firefox extension was something that I already had in mind, but which was languishing and waiting to be completed using the latest Addons SDK. The hacking started post lunch and I managed to do complete something that could be presented at the end of the day. While this add-on didnt use any of the cool HTML5(and friends) stuff that was presented earlier that day, I still managed to get a working Extension for Firefox 11 and presented it in the end.
A more complete write-up of the event can be read at the hacks.mozilla.org site, with the extension I presented getting a mention under the "Here come the hacks" section.
Below are a few screenshots of the Readability extension in action, The source code can be found on GitHub.
There is still a lot of work that has to be done, such as calculating the number of syllables more accurately etc. Lets see where this goes, I might be submitting it to the Add-ons' site once it has some more complete functionality. Thank you for reading! 🙂


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Edmonton Oilers 0, L.A.Kings 2 - "Maybe they need Hollywood in the playoffs, I'm not sure"
* * *
With those headlined words in the post-game, Tom Renney showed some of the competitive fire he keeps well-hidden in his belly most nights. While he came up well short of where he could have gone — the consensus at Cult of Hockey's live blog seemed to be "take the fine, Tom!" — the look on his face when he delivered those words said plenty while likely saving himself a pile of money. (Historical note:Renney was later fined $10,000)
Now it must be said that Renney had plenty of reasons to be frustrated with his own troops and even himself on this night, but his exasperation with the officials was shared by an explosion on Twitter and our chat room that went far beyond the usual hotheads like me and reverberated around the 'sphere. The officiating in this game was nothing short of atrocious, as the Vaudeville act of Leggo and Peel allowed any manner of slewfoots (slewfeet?), head shots, high sticks, slashes, and pretty much anything that didn't involve Deigning To Check Dustin Brown, which has been a penalty for years and was again tonight. Three times in a row, in fact; call it the Dustin Brown Natural Hat Trick, as the Kings' easy-falling captain closes in on yet another Greg Louganis Trophy as the league's most accomplished diver. The softness of these calls coupled with a couple missed the other way — Devan Dubnyk slewfooted from behind, Nick Schultz rattled by an apparent head shot that sent his helmet flying into a different time zone, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins conked on the noggin by a stick that apparently fell out of the rafters of the Staples Center but somehow went unseen and unheard by the four officials. All told, it was a poor display of officiating unacceptably far below minimum standards.
And all that said, er, ranted, the Oilers lost this one on (de)merit. Thanks largely to another Herculean effort by Devan Dubnyk, Edmonton somehow survived that second period run of Kings powerplays still tied 0-0, and lost it in the third. The Kings opened the scoring in the opening minute of that final frame just after Ales Hemsky emerged from the box after serving an incredibly chintzy hooking penalty, but it was the Oil who had the one big opportunity with the man advantage in the final frame, a four-minute chance when Colten Teubert had the forethought to provide irrefutable circumstantial evidence by bleeding. Those minutes were entirely wasted without a sniff, or a shot — the powerplay hadn't been worth waiting for, after all. The Oilers were done by then, worn down by a bigger, stronger, more desperate, more rested, and frankly superior opponent. The last minutes brought nothing but more futility until a series of bad decisions and poor executions led to the Kings 2-on-1 that put it away at 2-0.
For a third consecutive game the Oilers were outshot by exactly 18 shots, 37-19 this time and 102-48 over the three games since Ladi Smid and Jeff Petry went down. That margin was no fluke, as shots that didn't hit the target were 36-18 Kings. Faceoffs were 35-18 Kings. This all jives with the observation that the home team seemingly had the puck two-thirds of the time.
Monday night Corey Potter joined fellow concussion victim Theo Peckham along with the stalwarts Smid and Petry on the sidelines, as the Oilers iced a defence crew reminiscent of the brief but terrifying Sebastien Bisaillon Era. With every single defender playing at least one storey above his comfort level, these last games have been a more or less continuous adventure of the puck being stuck in Edmonton territory for extended stretches, and Monday night was certainly no exception. The scoring chance meter was even less kind than the shot clock, as the Oilers generated just 7 chances on the night compared to 21 by the Kings. Did I mention they lost on merit?
* * *
Oilers' box
All stats compiled by David Staples
Oilercentric summary (scoring plays and errors):
* * *
1. 40:34 EVA Jones (Horcoff, Schultz, Whitney)
2. 57:28 EVA Rodney (Schultz, Gagner)
* * *
Neilson numbers (individual scoring chances for/against):
Player Gradings
Here are the player grades for the Oilers, with 10 being a "perfect" game, 9 extraordinary, 8 great, 7 good, 6 above average, 5 average, 4 below average, 3 poor, 2 terrible and 1 deserving of almost instant demotion. Compiled by Bruce McCurdy.
#4 Taylor Hall, did not play — The Oilers sorely miss the emotional leader of the forward group.
#5 Ladi Smid, did not play — The Oilers sorely miss the emotional leader of the defence corps.
#6 Ryan Whitney, 4 – The mobility-challenged defender has been struggling to get by on the second pairing, and is out of his depth at the moment against the toughs. Played 26½ hard minutes and almost 50 over the two nights, so I'm reluctant to be too harsh. Still, it was his bad giveaway just inside Oilers' line which started the sequence of pain that became the game-losing goal.
#10 Shawn Horcoff, 5 – Was involved in a couple of the Oilers' better chances, including a nice feed to Barker on a shorthanded 2-on-1. Was solid on the PK in general, but was caught out slightly after the expiry of the last one by Anze Kopitar, just the kind of guy who'll make you pay. Had his stick slashed right out of his hands on his best opportunity, a penalty 9 times out of 10 but not tonight.
#13 Cam Barker, 6 – Was easily the best of the Oilers' defence group, not something I thought I'd ever be saying in one of these ever-dwindling game reports. Credit where due, though, Barker looked good for entire shifts at a time, and had good stats to back it up. He and partner Sutton had the toughest zone starts (10 defensive, just 3 offensive), saw plenty of L.A.'s finest, and emerged ahead on the shot count by 9-6 on Barker's watch. That made him the only such plus player on the entire team, which was outshot 28-8 with Barker on the bench. Did a great job denying entry to the zone on a couple of solid hits just inside the blueline, was mostly sound with the puck with zero (official) giveaways and some decent outlet passes, had two of the defence group's three shots on goal, and backed it all up with a modest but pristine Neilson number of +2/-0 on a night the rest of the defence crew was torn apart.
#14 Jordan Eberle, 5 – Had some nice jump early in the game but his energy seemed to wane along with the minutes.
#15 Nick Schultz, 4 – Seemed to visibly tire in the back half of the California doubleheader, a set which saw him log 45 hard minutes. Posted the worst Corsi on the team at a scary -18, and while he put up three hits, three blocked shots, and a bag of defensive tricks, he was caught out on both goals, a poor clearing pass on one and failure to cut off the 2-on-1 pass on the second.
#16 Darcy Hordichuk, 4 – Played 5:21 and posted the following stats: 0 shots, 0 hits, 0 anything, and all zeroes across the Neilson board. His statistical claim to fame is surely the fact that his EV shot differential of -2 was actually the best among Oilers forwards. Before you get too excited, that's +1/-3, so his ratio was as bad or worse than the higher event players, he just had the fewest minutes, as usual.
#19 Bryan Rodney, 1 – Egads. Played a shade over 13 minutes in his Oiler debut in a weak third pairing that couldn't possibly be sheltered heavily enough. Held away from the Kopitar line and deployed mostly against Plumber Bob types like (ahem) Jarret Stoll and Dustin Penner, the Oilers were nonetheless outshot 14-2 and outscored 1-0 during Rodney's 11½ adventure-filled minutes. He was caught in no-man's land on the clinching goal, though in fairness with three minutes left and a 1-0 deficit, it's not the worst idea for the defenceman to join the rush as the fourth man.
#20 Eric Belanger, 4 – An utter non-factor at even strength, largely in defensive zone assignments. Made his own job tougher by struggling on the dot (3/8=38%; in fact all six Oilers who took a faceoff were below 50%).
#23 Linus Omark, did not play — I thought of him more than once as the Oilers struggled to generate any offence whatsoever, especially after the plumbers found the pine and the top lines were clearly flagging. A rested Omark might have been a useful option to have on the bench.
#25 Andy Sutton, 6 – Was easily Oilers second best defenceman, on the only effective pairing. His shots, Neilsons etc. weren't quite as good as Barker's, but he held his own against tough zone starts and comp, and found time to land five hits and block five shots to lead the club in both departments.
#28 Ryan Jones, 4 – Was caught napping on the first LA goal when he came far too low in the slot to adequately cover his man, Slava Voynov, who snuck off the point to unleash an uncontested bomb from the top of the circle. Was part of an effective penalty kill but he had nothing going offensively at all.
#33 Colten Teubert, 2 – Struggled nearly as much as his partner in that overmatched third pairing. Similarly sheltered, and similarly lit up on shot clock (+3/14) and Neilson (an ugly +0/-6). Tended to get sucked too far out into the zone, and often was a late arrival to the front of the net after the puck had been and gone. Did land four hits, and showed a real good stick on three different occasions where he averted an even more serious emergency with a nice check. On one of them he was guilty of Deigning To Check Dustin Brown, however, so Teubert found himself in the box after making what against an ordinary mortal would have been a perfectly legal (not to mention excellent) play by sprawling to sweep the puck away first and upend the man second. Did show some patience with the puck a time or two, in the rare moments he was given time to think.
#37 Lennart Petrell, 5 – Did play, but one had to be paying attention to notice. Generated a couple of half decent shots, a hard wrist shot from outside and a decent backhand from tighter range, and didn't give up much at all.
#40 Devan Dubnyk, 8 – DD doubled down on his dominant display against the Ducks with another show-stopping performance. Was brilliant through 40 minutes in turning aside 28 shots, before finally being overpowered by Voynov's blast to open the third. Got lucky a time or two, losing a couple of rebounds only to have Smyth save his bacon on both occasions. For the most part, though, he was square to the shooter and sealing up the slivers. Stopped 67 of 70 shots over the two nights, stealing one game outright and giving his team a decent chance to theft another.
#55 Ben Eager, 4 – Seven minutes on the ice, seven more in the box. Had a long tilt with Jordan Nolan after the Kings' rookie had wallpapered Eager in the corner. Brought a little more energy to this game than in Anaheim, where he was entirely invisible, but the Oilers were badly otuplayed in his time, with Edmonton attempting just 2 shots and the Kings 12.
#56 Teemu Hartikainen, 4 – After scoring both goals in Anaheim in his debut with RNH and Eberle, was inexplicably removed from that unit and placed on an ineffective trio with Gagner and Hemsky. As one who tries to think along with the coach I have to admit I could make zero sense out of this move. Have no idea what the logic was, but there's a big fat zero on the scoreboard that says that it didn't work. Ended the night with zero shots or attempted shots (a metric which seems to be a good barometer for this player), one hit, and little impact on the game.
#83 Ales Hemsky, 5 – Got right back on the horse after his bad shoulder ended his night early in Anaheim, and played … passably. Led the Oilers with 4 shots and 7 attempts, and tied for the team lead with one incredibly lame penalty for Deigning To Check Dustin Brown. (In case you need a reminder as to why I'm so ticked, that would be the same Dustin Brown who sidelined Ladi Smid with a questionable hit which, needless to say, went unpenalized.)
#89 Sam Gagner, 2 – Just a brutal game, ineffective on the attack and derelict defensively, both by eye and by stat. His Neilson number of +1/-5 was by far the worst of the forwards, as was his shot differential (-7 ) and Corsi (-15). On one extended own zone sequence he was rooted to one spot and spinning around to the point that he reminded me of an early-style table hockey player. In the o-zone he fired wide on his best opportunity, a distressing habit of late. Later still he chose by far the worst option in a four-man rush, shooting from the boards, missing the short side by about ten feet (seriously!), and having the puck ricochet right out of the zone and into a waiting 2-on-1 the other way. Game. Over.
#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 6 – Had some jump on a rejigged line with Eberle and Smyth, generating Oilers' most dangerous shot at even strength when he tested Jonathan Quick with some quick of his own. Posted the top Neilson number on the team at +3/-0. Was dogged in his defensive zone coverage, and had some real good moments in transition as usual. Took a marginal penalty for Deigning To Check Dustin Brown.
#94 Ryan Smyth, 6 – Bonus point for his two goal-saving defensive plays, one of which worked out better than it might have when he managed to dislodge the net before the puck went in, but the second of which was a fine puck battle involving some crafty use of his skate just inches from the goal line.
Tom Renney, 3 – Showed some spirit during the game and again when deftly sidestepping the fine afterwards. Started the right goalie, didn't have a whole lot of choice with his defence, but made some questionable personnel decisions up front, especially the switch-out of Hartikainen.
* * *
Next up: Anaheim at Edmonton, Thursday, April 5, 19:30 MDT
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Follow Bruce on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/brucemccurdy


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Energy regulator: Steps underway to protect grid
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top federal energy regulator said Thursday that her agency is taking steps to improve handling of classified national security information, following a report that officials improperly allowed widespread access to a document that outlined specific physical threats to the nation's electric grid.
Cheryl LaFleur, acting chairwoman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, told the Senate Energy Committee on Thursday that employees are "wiping and scrubbing all databases" and taking other steps to protect sensitive information.
The commission also has directed a nonprofit entity that oversees electric reliability to develop physical security standards for the grid by early June.
In issuing the order, the agency recognized that most utilities already have taken steps to identify critical structures and protect them from attack, LaFleur said.
"A mandatory standard will reinforce these efforts and ensure that all owners and operators of the bulk power system take such important steps where appropriate," she said.
LaFleur's testimony came a day after a government investigator said commission employees improperly allowed widespread access to a sensitive document that outlined specific locations where the nation's electric grid is vulnerable to physical threats.
A document created by the commission in response to an April 2013 attack on a California substation should have been kept secret as a national security matter, Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman said Wednesday. Instead the information was provided in whole or in part to federal and industry officials in unsecured settings.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that a federal analysis indicated that a coordinated terrorist strike on just nine key electric transmission substations could cause cascading power outages across the country in each of the nation's three synchronized power networks.
LaFleur denounced the newspaper report as "highly irresponsible" but did not refute its contents.
"While there may be value in a general discussion of the steps we take to keep the (power) grid safe, the publication of sensitive material about the grid crosses the line from transparency to irresponsibility and gives those who would do us harm a roadmap to achieve malicious designs," LaFleur said.
Wrongful use of sensitive information by an energy commission employee or former employee could result in penalties, including firing, LaFleur said, but added: "I have no reason to believe" the leak was a criminal matter.
LaFleur acknowledged that the agency needs to improve training for handling of classified information but said as a longtime commissioner that the agency has a strong culture of ensuring that sensitive information remains confidential. Information about potential mergers or important licensing decisions, for instance, is not leaked before its official release, she said.
"We deal with confidential information all the time," she said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the senior Republican on the energy panel, called the inspector general's report "extremely troubling" but praised LaFleur's response.
Still, Murkowski said it is "likely impossible to ensure that every part of the grid could withstand physical or cyberattack." The government as a whole needs to redouble efforts to ensure grid reliability and security, Murkowski said, adding that it is not clear whether new legislation is needed.
"Clearly the commission must do better going forward to protect nonpublic information from disclosure. The challenge before us is how to maintain and improve reliability and affordability while keeping environmental performance in balance," Murkowski said.
The panel's chairwoman, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said it was fortunate that the 2013 attack on a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. substation near Metcalf, Calif., did not result in a blackout in Silicon Valley, "the horrors of which could only be imagined." Former FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff has said the attack was terrorism. The FBI has said in repeated statements it had found no indications to back that up.
Landrieu did not address the question of terrorism but said the widely reported incident "came very close to causing the shutdown of a large portion of the Western Grid."
Possible attacks on the grid must be taken seriously, "but the response must fit the size and the nature of the threat. One size does not fit all," Landrieu said.
Meanwhile, PG&E offered a $250,000 reward Thursday for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the April 16, 2013 attack. Fiber-optic lines were cut to knock out phone and 911 service in the area, and shots were fired into a substation.
"One year later, the perpetrator or perpetrators of this crime remain at large and we want to help change that," said Gregg Lemler, PG&E's vice president of electric transmission operations. The reward would be funded by shareholders. AT&T has offered its own $250,000 reward for information leading to arrests.
The sniper bullets knocked out 17 transformers powering parts of Silicon Valley and caused more than $15 million in damage.
Associated Press writer Garance Burke in San Francisco contributed to this story.
Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC


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MS bashes BlackBerry in tablet fight
PlayBook less popular than Windows tabs
Microsoft saw more tablets ship with one of its operating systems during Q2 than RIM shipped BlackBerry PlayBooks.
So reveals market watcher Strategy Analytics (SA), which pegged RIM's share of the tablet market at 3.3 per cent, MS' at 4.6 per cent.
No surprises for guessing the top two.
Apple took 61.3 per cent of the tablet biz during the April, May and June, a healthy lead over Google, which came away with a 30.1 per cent share.
Google, of course, is one thing - actual tablets vendors are another. SA didn't break down Android's share of the market into the contributions made by Motorola, Samsung, Asus and co., but whichever way you slice it, not one of them is shipping as many tablets as Apple has managed to do.
Android fanboys can at least take pleasure from Apple's declining marketshare - down from 94.3 per cent in Q2 2010 - but since Apple had so little competition a year ago, such a shift was always on the cards. And its share loss has been more than compensated by the year-on-year leap in unit shipments: 3.3m to 9.3m.
MS deriders hoping Redmond's lead over RIM comes from old-style Tablet PCs will be disappointed: SA isn't counting those, as shown by Microsoft's zero per cent share in Q2 2010.
Overall, tablet sales were up 331 per cent year, from 3.5m units to 15.1m. Watch out, netbooks, they're coming to get ya. ®


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I was honored to have shared my home with folks from Washington DC, Alabama, and Saint Louis. Pictured above are Steve and Hong Perry with Daniel and Sara Broaddus.
Steve retired from the Army as a medic after serving overseas in Iraq. He is presently teaching Leadership Tactics in the ROTC department at the University of South Alabama . His wife Hong had her own story to tell as she was a refugee from Vietnam.
Daniel served 2 tours in Vietnam as an Army sergeant. Today Dan is a 100 % disabled veteran with prostrate cancer that has been linked back to his exposure to agent orange while he was in Vietnam.
Martha and Warren who are not pictured, met and married while in the Army. Today Warren has retired from the Army and is now also teaching leadership skills in a ROTC program. Martha is still active and involved in a nuclear program.
I had no idea that I would be so touched by this experience, giving back a little to those that have done some much for us felt really good.


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You can wear your headphones under your full face, snowboard, or ski helmet. Make sure you put your helmet on carefully, as it can pull your headphones out of your ear or place additional pressure on the earpiece, which can push them further into your ear canal.
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This Is Why Conservatives Hate NPR?
There's something quite confusing about the current NPR controversy.
What's odd is that James O'Keefe's undercover crew surreptitiously recorded an NPR fundraising executive who has no role in the newsroom expressing what he explicitly labeled to be his personal opinion about Tea Party members and other current events topics. And because of that, partisans are crying foul. But if the right-wing jihad against NPR supposedly centers around the type of journalism it airs (biased!), why would anyone care what someone like Ron Schiller says in private about the Tea Party?
Shouldn't NPR be judged not by a hidden camera trick but by the actual journalism it produces?
I realize the whole claim of liberal media bias revolves around the idea that journalists are privately liberal and therefore can't contain or hide their prejudices when they report the news. So if that's the case, conservatives must be furious with the way NPR has portrayed the Tea Party movement, right?
But how could they object, for instance, to NPR reports like this from last September:
Who Is The Tea Party? There's No Short Answer
In this utterly mundane report (I mean that in a good way), NPR's Linda Wertheimer sat down with the National Journal's Jonathan Rauch and asked him these types of straight-forward questions about the movement:
Let's start with an obvious question that I guess doesn't have an easy answer. Who is the Tea Party? Is there a short answer?
Do you have any idea how big it is?
What do you know about the Tea Partier? Who is that person?
Wertheimer also made observations, like this:
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the Tea Party is that it seemed to appear suddenly, that it's very modern in that it uses the Internet and apps and free conference calling, as you point out in an article in the National Journal, to do some very, very up-to-date political organizing.
The following day NPR invited two Tea Party members on the air to discuss the movement in even more detail. Again these were the types of questions posed, this time by Steve Inskeep:
Well, let me bring Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association into our discussion here from Mississippi. And Mr. Fischer, what issues have you pressed when you became involved in the Tea Party movement?
What cultural and social values are you thinking of that were embraced by the founders, as you put it?
But what kinds of discussions have you followed or been involved in on this question of how deeply involved in social issues the Tea Party movement should be?
That's an example of how NPR has treated the Tea Party movement. That's an example of the actual journalism NPR has produced with regards to the conservative movement in America.Yet in response to that respectful, professional approach, right-wing partisans essentially want NPR destroyed because of its liberal bias?
I suspect the relentless drive to defund NPR has very little to do with how the network has covered conservatives. Instead, it has much more with the conservative contempt for serious, independent journalism.


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FY02 Access Grants
Billings Symphony Orchestra, $10,000
To support the Yellowstone Music Initiative. This comprehensive outreach project will reach underserved audiences in non-traditional venues in a variety of programs for youth and seniors.
Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Orchestra, $10,000
To support faculty artists in the preparation and presentation of Young Artists Orchestra concerts. The Boston University Tanglewood Institute will continue to expand its roster of faculty artists to provide intensive coaching for the orchestral program.
Canton Symphony Orchestra, $10,000
To support after-school and weekend music instruction for elementary students and their families who are living in low-income neighborhoods of Canton. The symphony's musicians will offer instruction in steel drum, recorder and keyboard in four six-week sessions.
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, $50,000
To support a series of outreach programs that will include concerts and other services to neighborhoods throughout the region. The orchestra will provide a three-part initiative to communities in the Cincinnati metropolitan area, including areas of northern Kentucky.
Detroit Symphony Orchestra, $60,000
To support The Detroit Symphony Orchestra Downriver project. This is the first year of a three year outreach effort by the orchestra to underserved communities south of Detroit.
Fairbanks Symphony, $10,000
To support an orchestra tour to communities in rural Alaska. Concerts and educational outreach programs will be presented by the Arctic Chamber Orchestra, the orchestra's touring ensemble, in parts of the state that do not have access to the concert experience.
Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, $22,500
To support the Intensive Community Program. The project will provide string training for children in underserved communities of greater Boston.
Houston Symphony, $32,500
To support Community Connections, an outreach project for underserved communities. During 2002-03, the Houston Symphony's musicians will perform at various sites, including hospitals, schools, community centers and long-term care facilities.
New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, $20,000
To support a statewide tour to small, rural and underserved communities of New Mexico. In addition, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra will conduct educational activities in Albuquerque area schools.
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, $20,000
To support community concerts, two national tours and residency activities. Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will tour with pianist Richard Goode and soprano Dawn Upshaw, and be in residence at University of California-Los Angeles and the Krannert Center at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
The Philadelphia Orchestra (consortium), $35,000
To support outreach performances in the Washington Township School District, NJ. During 2002, the Philadelphia Orchestra will perform a free neighborhood concert in the district's Center for the Performing Arts and additional smaller performances, all free of charge.
The Phoenix Symphony (consortium), $25,000
To support One Nation. The series of education programs for the local Native American community will include master classes for grades seven to 12, a classroom concert for elementary students and a free community concert.
Queens Symphony Orchestra, $20,000
To support an audience development campaign, presenting subscription concerts throughout the borough. This decentralization plan will mirror the enclaves of Queens, one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the nation.
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (consortium), $50,000
To support a community partnership initiative with the Innsbrook Institute in Warren County, MO. The Saint Louis Symphony will perform an outdoor community concert, as well as a summer festival of orchestral and chamber music.
San Antonio Symphony, $15,000
To support a residency at St. Philip's College. The Symphony Society will conduct master classes, open rehearsals, lectures and concerts for primary and secondary school children.
Santa Rosa Symphony, $7,500
To support a community outreach project using Sir Michael Tippett's poem, A Child of Our Time, as a catalyst for interdisciplinary study at Santa Rosa High School. The activities will culminate with performances by the Santa Rosa Symphony, guest soloists and two community choruses.
South Dakota Symphony, $7,500
To support the expansion of South Dakota Symphony Orchestra's state touring program. Two chamber ensembles and a chamber orchestra, composed of the symphony's musicians, will perform concerts and conduct educational programs in two communities.
Tucson Symphony Orchestra (consortium), $15,000
To support the Southern Arizona Residency. The project consists of an educational component and a public concert in four rural communities in southern Arizona.
Vermont Symphony Orchestra, $20,000
To support the Made in Vermont Music Festival Tour. The orchestra will present educational activities and community concert programs in ten underserved rural communities throughout Vermont.
West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, $12,500
To support a statewide tour to underserved rural communities. The symphony will reach audiences in ten communities in fall and spring tours.
Related Grants
Flint Institute of Music (Multidisciplinary), $10,000
To support music outreach activities for underserved communities. Performances and other activities for children and adults will be presented at public housing projects, recreation centers and senior centers.


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Sprinkles Cupcake ATM
Whether you are baking them at home or buying them from the store, cupcakes seem to be a welcomed treat by many. With the various combination of flavours and the creative designs that bakers have presented the world with, the cupcake trend continues to rise. But how else can a cupcake company innovate to meet the demands of their customers, around the clock? Sprinkles in Beverly Hills just introduced their cupcake ATM last week that allows customers to buy their delicious treats 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
Photo Courtesy of Droog.com
We've talked about these MUJI and Echo Design touchscreen gloves before and since then, there seems to have been a variety of similar type products on the market. If you haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet and grabbed yourself a pair, you are in luck! Vidafine is giving away the Glovetip, an alternative to the touchscreen gloves that is a simple accessory for your already existing pair of gloves/mitts.
The Birthday Project and 33 Wishes
Birthdays are a special time and are definitely a cause for celebration! Many people like to call upon their good friends and family to join them in sharing their special day, while others prefer to stay low-key and simply enjoy life's simple pleasures. Either way, you or someone close to you spends the days before your big day to help you plan a memorable event. This year, for my birthday (which happens to be on New Years Day), I decided to do something a little different than the years passed. I came across the idea of The Birthday Project just a month before my 2012 birthday and it immediately inspired me to get planning on what I would do for my 'big day'.
The Treehotel in Sweden
I love tree houses! There is something nostalgic about those tiny houses perched high up in the trees overlooking serene surroundings. The Treehotel is located in Harads, near the Lule river, about 100 kilometers from Luleå airport, in Sweden. There's no better way to experience nature than to be one with nature. Inspired by "The Tree Lover" by Jonas Selberg Augustsen, the Treehotel hopes to connect humans to the significance of trees in our world. Don't be fooled though, design and comfort are not compromised here. Together with some of Scandinavia's leading architects, these "treerooms" have been uniquely designed to suspended 4-6 meters above ground – all with spectacular views of the Lule River. The company also places high regard for ecological values and takes caution in their construction and operation of the hotel.
Electree Solar Charging Station
Inspired by nature and the process of photosynthesis, this usb charging station has been designed to look and act like a bonsai tree. Electree as it is called, was designed by French designer Vivien Muller based in Metz. It has taken Muller 3 years to perfect this design as he wanted to incorporate as much of his ecological inspiration, aesthetic vision and practical functionality prior to its release. I love the look of this product and the meaning behind it.
Gayana Eco Resort Lets You Replant Coral
As the days grow shorter and the wind blows stronger, winter is inevitably upon us, especially here in North America. With only about a month before the winter holidays, many are looking to vacation at potential sun destinations for some much needed rest and relaxation. Gayana Eco Resort in Malaysia seems to fit the bill as it rests at the edges of a lush jungle forest on a coral reef island off the coast of Borneo. Doesn't that already sound exquisite? What's even more appealing is its commitment to eco-tourism, evident with its on-site Marine Ecology Research Centre that proactively is committed towards saving endangered giant clams and restoring natural coral reefs.
Ecriture Infinie
We've all heard of time capsules, those tin boxes that people bury with their most prized possessions only to dig them up years later. The items inside the capsule bring meaning and life to days passed, mostly to the individual who buried it in the first place. But what if you could leave your mark in the world for all to see? Something that you or those who come after you could look at and learn from?
Back in 2006, artist Bili Bidjocka and curator Simon Njami began travelling the world and inviting various creative personalities to write in blank pages of enormous books. They started in Tokyo's Mori Art Museum and from there, went on a journey around the world.
Echo Design and MUJI Touchscreen Gloves
Owning an iPhone or any other touchscreen device during the colder months of the year will no longer be as cumbersome as it used to be. Remember the time when you had to take off your mittens to type a lengthy text that usually results in numb fingers? Thanks to MUJI and Echo Design's line of touchscreen gloves, we have one less thing to worry about this winter!


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- Read the latest issue of the ProbesOnline E-Newsletter.
Anti-tricellulin antibodies
what they are
Invitrogen offers a number of primary antibodies against cell junction proteins, including tricellulin.
how they work
Tight junctions form an important barrier of paracellular transport in epithelial cells, and the sealing of two adjacent cells at bicellular tight junctions is well described. The main structural components of bicellular tight junctions are claudins and occludins—tetra–membrane-spanning proteins. Less is known about the structure of tricellular tight junctions, a point where three adjacent cells are in contact with each other. Tricellulin is the first protein identified that specifically concentrates in tricellular tight junctions. Like claudins and occludins, tricellulin protein has four membrane-spanning domains, and it is highly expressed in epithelium-derived tissues such as small intestine, kidney, and lung.
- good specificity for imaging tricellular junctions
- validated reagents with multiple applications and species specificities
- part of a wide-ranging portfolio of antibodies for cell junction research
To browse antibodies by specificity or application, visit www.invitrogen.com/antibodies.
Figures show localization of tricellular junctions using an antibody specific to the carboxy-terminus of tricellulin, in green (Cat. no. 48-8400). Bi-cellular tight junctions are revealed by the localization of occludin, in red (Cat. no. 33-1500).
|Species reactivity
|Cat. no.
|Rabbit Anti-Tricellulin (C-term)
|100 μg
|Hu, Ms, Rt, Cn, Ch, Bv, Eq, Mk
|Polyclonal, ZMD.699 (Rabbit IgG)
|Rabbit Anti-Tricellulin (N-term)
|100 μg
|Hu, Ms, Rt
|Polyclonal, ZMD.698 (Rabbit IgG)
|Mouse Anti-Occludin
|100 μg
|Hu, Ms, Rt, Cn
|Monoclonal, OC-3F10 (Mouse IgG1-κ)
|Mouse Anti-Occludin-FITC
|100 μg
|Hu, Ms, Rt, Cn
|Monoclonal, OC-3F10 (Mouse IgG1-κ)
|Mouse anti-Occludin-HRP
|100 μg
|Hu, Ms, Rt, Cn
|Monoclonal, OC-3F10 (Mouse IgG1-κ)
|Rabbit Anti-Occludin
|100 μg
|Hu, Ms, Rt, Cn
|Polyclonal, Z-T22 (Rabbit IgG)
|Mouse Anti-ZO-1
|100 μg
|Hu, Cn
|Monoclonal, ZO1-1A12 (Mouse IgG1-κ)
|Mouse Anti-ZO-1-FITC
|100 μg
|Hu, Ms, Rt, Rb, Ch, Cn, X
|Monoclonal, ZO1-1A12 (Mouse IgG1-κ)
|Rabbit Anti-ZO-1
|100 μg
|Hu, Ms, Rt, Cn, Gp
|Polyclonal, Z-R1 (Rabbit IgG)
|Rabbit Anti-ZO-1 (Mid)
|100 μg
|WB, IF, IHC (frozen)
|Hu, Ms, Rt, Cn
|Polyclonal, ZMD.436 (Rabbit IgG)
|Rabbit Anti-ZO-1 (N-term)
|100 μg
|Hu, Ms, Rt, Cn
|Polyclonal, ZMD.437 (Rabbit IgG)
|*WB = western blot, ICC = immunocytochemistry, IP = immunoprecipitation,
IHC = Immunohistochemistry, IF = immunofluorescence, E = ELISA.
what it is
The immune system is regulated and maintained through apoptosis, a normal process in which cell populations are deleted in response to self-recognition, failure to bind MHC, and cytokine/growth factor withdrawal. To facilitate detection of apoptosis, we have developed a multiplex sandwich immunoassay that permits the simultaneous detection of three important biomarkers: cytochrome c (a protein that normally resides within the intermitochondrial space that is released to the cytosol in response to apoptotic stimuli), cleaved caspase-3 [175/176] (an important reporter for initiator caspase activation), and cleaved poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) [214/215] (an important reporter for caspase-3 activation).
how it works
The Invitrogen Apoptosis 3-plex Panel is a solid-phase sandwich immunoassay that is designed for use with the Luminex® 100™ or 200™ instrument. Beads of defined spectral properties conjugated to analyte-specific capture antibodies, and samples (including standards of known analyte concentration, control specimens, and unknowns) are pipetted into the wells of a filter-bottom microplate and incubated for 2 hours. During this first incubation, analytes bind to the immobilized capture antibodies. After washing, a detector antibody is added to the mixture for 1 hour. At the end of this incubation, the beads are again washed and then incubated with an RPE conjugate (containing anti-rabbit RPE plus streptavidin RPE) for 30 minutes. During this final incubation, the RPE conjugate binds to the detector antibodies associated with the immune complexes on the beads, forming four-member solid-phase sandwiches. After washing to remove unbound RPE conjugate, the beads are analyzed with the Luminex® 100™ or 200™ instrument. By monitoring the spectral properties of the beads and the amount of associated RPE fluorescence, the concentrations of the three analytes can be determined.
what it offers
- simultaneous quantitation of three key biomarkers of apoptosis
- microplate-based format for efficient sample processing
- Luminex® platform analysis for sensitive, accurate analysis
Apoptosis 3-plex Panel ( LHO0007)
Assays for phospholipase A1 and A2 (PLA1 and PLA2)
what they are
As researchers examine the role of phospholipases in atherosclerosis and other diseases, Invitrogen's fluorescence-based assays for PLA1 and PLA2 are finding a new application.
how they work
Blood plasma levels of cholesterol and their carrier particles, LDL and HDL, are critical in many disorders, from atherosclerosis and diabetes to Alzheimer's and metabolic diseases. It has been observed that cholesterol-lowering drugs and dietary cholesterol control strategies have not eliminated hardening of the arteries or atherosclerosis. It is postulated that there are instead other more critical risk factors, especially for the 50 million people in the US alone suffering with metabolic disorders or obesity.
High on the list of risk factors are members of the A1 and A2 phospholipase families, including endothelial cell ligase (EL), a PLA1 found on endothelial cells lining arterial blood vessel walls, and secreted members of the phospholipase A2 family, which have been shown to play a significant role in modulating the levels and toxicity of plasma HDL and LDL, respectively. Up-regulation of EL (by cytokines and other proinflammatory drugs) lowers HDL levels while elevating free fatty acids and reactive cholesterol. However anti-inflammatory drugs can down-regulate this cell-surface enzyme and reverse this effect by elevating intact, healthy plasma HDL. In parallel, the proatherogenic role of PLA2 is postulated to occur by acting on oxidized apoB-LDL particles to form proinflammatory lysophosphatidylcholine and oxidized nonesterified fatty acids. Both of these roles are consistent with patchy foci of plaques on endothelial walls that are the hallmark of nascent disease.
Thus, lowered cholesterol may reduce some but not all of the negative consequences associated with their presence in blood. Instead, these proatherogenic enzymes are now considered prime and novel targets for controlling and monitoring the progression of many disease states, including coronary disease, which remains a serious health problem worldwide. Maintaining good HDL and reducing LDL isn't the whole story: in the presence of agents that upregulate these enzymes, such as inflammation, additional bad outcomes are a risk.
Invitrogen offers Molecular Probes® PLA1- and PLA2-selective substrates with good responsiveness (16-fold increase in fluorescence upon cleavage of the Red/Green PLA2-selective substrate, A10072) and greatly improved signal-to-noise ratios. These are true feed-and-read assays: simply add the substrates in liposomes to the microwell plate, wait 30 minutes, and read the increase in fluorescence (or decrease, for candidate inhibitor compounds). At pennies per well these assays are ideal for large screens, but sensitive and selective enough for downstream lead characterization. While the assays are excellent in microplate format, other studies have shown their potential utility in whole-cell and even whole-animal studies.
As the attention turns towards phospholipases and away from cholesterol-lowering regimes, Invitrogen's PLA substrates offer a vital tool for your research. They are nonradioactive, antibody-free assays that don't require mass spectrometry, just standard fluorescent microplate readers. We also offer kits and substrates for the other phospholipase family members, PLA-C and PLA-D. See the product list below for complete offerings and enzyme selectivity.
References: Curr Atheroscler Rep 6, 126 (2004); 126-30; Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids 72, 173 (2005); Curr Drug Targets 8, 1307 (2007); Circulation 117, 678 (2008); Circulation 116, 1832 (2007).
- PLA1 vs. PLA2 selectivity created by removal of the sn1 or sn2 cleavage sites
- fluorescence-based readouts for high sensitivity
- freedom from mass spectrometry and assays that require radioactivity and antibodies
- screens at pennies per well
phospholipase A1 and A2 (PLA1 and PLA2)
- Red/Green BODIPY® PC-A2 (1-O-(6-BODIPY® 558/568-aminohexyl)-2-BODIPY® FL C5-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine) *ratiometric phospholipase A2 substrate* (A10072)
- PED-A1 (N-((6-(2,4-DNP)amino)hexanoyl)-1-(BODIPY® FL C5)-2-hexyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine) *phospholipase A1 selective substrate* (A10070)
- Amplex® Red Phosphatidylcholine-Specific Phospholipase C Assay Kit - 500 assays (A12218)
- Amplex® Red Phospholipase D Assay Kit - 500 assays (A12219)
Salic, A. and Mitchison, T.J. (2008) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105: 2415.
Can cell proliferation assays tell us more? Accurate assessment of the degree of DNA synthesis in proliferating cells provides important information in a wide range of pharmacological and regulatory studies. While the two methods currently used for measuring cell proliferation have given researchers useful insights, each method has its limitations. [ 3H]-thymidine labeling is laborious and slow, offers poor resolution, and suffers from all the potential health and waste-disposal concerns inherent in radioligand methodology. BrdU labeling is faster and more sensitive, and offers better resolution; however, the success of this approach necessitates extensive sample denaturation that can be difficult to reproduce and can significantly degrade sample structure. In the present study, Salic and Mitchison demonstrate the advantages of "click" chemistry—incorporation of 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) followed by labeling with a fluorescent azide derivative—as an alternative to existing cell proliferation assays. Their data show that EdU is extensively incorporated into the DNA of proliferating NIH 3T3, HeLa, and Xenopus cells. Subsequent visualization of the fixed cells with Alexa Fluor® 488 or Alexa Fluor® 594 azide derivatives revealed efficient and highly reproducible labeling regardless of the Alexa Fluor® dye used. Comparison with BrdU staining carried out on the same cells revealed excellent colocalization of the signal from the two methods; however, the click methodology yielded substantially more intense fluorescence, with excellent preservation of sample structure. The authors further demonstrate that the click methodology can be used to visualize proliferation in unfixed cells, large tissue/organ explants, and even in live animals, greatly expanding the scope and utility of this already promising approach.
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- "I'm able to measure things more quickly, so I measure more things or things at more steps."
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text:
A 25-year-old Glen Burnie man was found shot to death early Sunday morning on the front porch of a man that Anne Arundel police say was responsible for the attack.
Kendall Arnaz Green was found on the porch of a home in the 400 block of Arbor Drive just before 2 a.m., police said. Matthew Martin Pinkerton, 34, the homeowner, was arrested shortly after and was charged with second-degree murder and other charges in connection with the incident.
Anne Arundel police are still investigating a motive, but said the victim and suspect knew each other and characterized it as "a domestic related situation."
Green was shot after he was allowed to enter the home, police said. No attorney was listed for Pinkerton in court records.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to call the Anne Arundel County Police Department's Homicide Unit at 410-222-3450 or Metro Crime Stoppers.


text:
ARGONNE, Ill. (Aug. 4, 2008) – Oxide scales are supposed to protect alloys from extensive corrosion, but scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have discovered metal nanoparticle chinks in this armor.
Oxide scales develop on the outer surface of alloys at high temperatures creating a protective barrier that keeps destructive carbon-bearing molecules from slipping into the alloy. The diffusion of carbon into oxide scales should be negligible, but studies have shown that carbon can sneak through the oxide line of defense leading to brittleness and corrosion.
"The United States loses four percent of the gross national product due to alloy corrosion," Argonne Distinguished Fellow Ken Natesan said. "A network of continuous metal nanoparticles allow the carbon to dissolve and diffuse through the protective oxide scales without the need of a crack or a pore."
It was commonly believed that carbon-containing molecules escaped into cracks or pores in the oxide scales, but using three separate techniques -- nanobeam x-ray analysis at the Advanced Photon Source, magnetic force microscopy at the Center for Nanoscale Materials and scanning electron microscopy at the Electron Microscopy Center -- Natesan, along with Argonne scientists Zuotao Zeng, Seth Darling and Zhonghou Cai, discovered networks of iron and nickel nanoparticles embedded within the oxide scales.
Carbon can easily diffuse through the metals and create a path for carbon atom transport which does not involve defects in the scale.
"By examining the oxide scale, we find the metal nanoparticles," Zeng said. "If they are eliminated we can create a more corrosion-resistant and longer lasting alloy."
Based on the study, ANL has developed laboratory size batches of materials that exhibit as much as ten times longer life than commercial alloys with similar chromium contents, Natesan said. At present, 50-lb batches of the alloys have been cast successfully by an alloy manufacturer and will be commercialized in due course. The ANL-developed alloys are of considerable interest to the chemical, petrochemical, and refining industry.
The findings might also have broad influence on not only metal dusting and carburization, but also in other research areas such as alloy development and surface coatings for high-temperature fuel cell applications.


text:
How kids can support their friends with Leukemia
Dear OncoLink "Ask The Experts,"
Hi, my best friend is 14 and she was just recently diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and I feel so bad for her and I was just wondering what exactly it was, what is going to happen to her, Is she going to die?
Selina M. Luger, MD, Director of the Leukemia Program and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, responds:
Leukemia is a cancer of the bone marrow. It is usually treated with chemotherapy. The leukemia in the bone marrow prevents normal bone marrow from maturing and as a result people with leukemia have problems with infections, bleeding, fevers and fatigue. Treatment makes some of these worse at times. Fortunately treatment of ALL in children is usually very successful and often we can get rid of the leukemia, although the treatment takes a long time.
Let your friend know that you care and that you are there for her. She is going to go through some hard times (like losing her hair, and being sick to her stomach at times). She may not always want to have people around---don't take it personally. Just knowing there is someone she can talk to is helpful.


text:
In a few weeks, shoppers at Loblaws, Provigo and Maxi stores in Quebec will have to pay five cents for every plastic grocery bag they take. Wine lovers have already been bringing their own bags – since Jan. 1, the SAQ has no longer given out single-use bags.
Since 2006, when Metro became the first major grocery chain in Quebec to encourage shoppers to use reusable bags, Quebecers have embraced the environmentally friendly move. More than one in three shoppers in Quebec used reusable bags in 2007, according to Statistics Canada.
Now grocery stores, pharmacies, home renovation stores and bookstores sell reusable bags. It has made it easier for shoppers to avoid plastic bags, and cut down on the more than 1 billion plastic bags that Quebecers use every year, clogging the province's landfills.
Judy Lazar watched reusable bags catch on in Quebec, and realized that there was another place grocery stores and farmers' markets could cut their use of plastic bags: in the produce section. Dispensers holding rolls of plastic bags are scattered among fruit and vegetable aisles, and shoppers who carry their groceries out in reusable bags often fill them up with plastic-bag-wrapped produce.
Lazar picked up some reusable grocery bags at her local supermarket a few years ago and wondered what to do about the plastic produce bags. Lazar, who had worked in Montreal's fashion industry for more than 20 years before taking a few years off to raise her kids, had been looking for a new business opportunity.
"A year and a half ago, there were no reusable produce bags on the market," Lazar said in an interview at her Town of Mount Royal office. "No one was selling them retail."
So Lazar decided to make produce bags that would make grocery shopping a little more environmentally friendly. That meant taking into consideration the bags' footprint – how the cotton used to make them was grown, where they would be manufactured and who would make them.
Lazar's company, Credobags, makes bags using cotton grown in Turkey that is shipped to Montreal and spun into yarn here. Local workers weave the yarn into fabric, and then sew it into bags, which come in two sizes and sell for between $5 and $6 each.
Even as other companies were sending textile work overseas, where labour is cheaper, Lazar found herself looking for textile workers in Montreal. People told her she was crazy for trying to produce fabric in Montreal, that there was no way she could compete with foreign producers.
"No one is really making fabric per se in Canada anymore," Lazar said. "The whole textile industry is gone, but there are a few people left, and I found them."
Besides employing several local women sewers, Lazar also has a contract with Les Petites Mains in Villeray, a non-profit organization that teaches immigrant women French and gives them job experience.
"I love it," Lazar said. "It's all these women from different parts of the world and they're teaching them all kinds of skills."
The bags have been slowly taking off. In the past nine months, Lazar has sold more than 30,000 cotton produce bags, mainly in health stores, green general stores and hardware stores in Ontario and Quebec. She hopes to be in major retailers later this year, although a spokeswoman for Loblaws said the chain has no plans to phase out the plastic produce bags it supplies, nor to charge customers for them.
À Votre Santé, a natural-foods store in Montreal's west end, began selling Credobags this month, along with another reusable bag that can be used for bulk items, like grains and rice, store employee Theresa Whitney said.
"We're trying to cut down as much plastic as possible," Whitney said, adding that the reusable bags are selling well.
Some people find the idea of buying a produce bag unnecessary, opting instead to skip produce bags altogether and place their fruits and vegetables loose in their shopping carts or baskets. Others reuse the plastic produce bags they already have. Lazar said she understands reducing the use of plastic produce bags like that, but notes a minority of people do so.
"I think most people just aren't that green," Lazar said. "They don't get the idea of 'no packaging.' "
Plus, if you're buying something like mushrooms, it's nice to have a container to carry them in, she said.
"For me, this was looking to replace something that's disposable with something that's reusable."
You can find Credobags in several retail locations in Montreal. Check the website www.credobags.ca for a store locator. They're also available online at www.eco-handbags.ca.


text: Viking has a fantastic selection of office storage products, including bookcases, filing cabinets, roll door cupboards and even classroom storage units to keep your office tidy and organized. No matter what your storage requirements, we have the office storage solution for you. Find the right office storage products for your office using the menu options below and buy online today. Free delivery is available on orders over R300.


text:
When it comes to ornaments, I like ...
... angels.
Last year's Advent Calendar post:
Advent Calendar Day 8: Christmas Cookies
Thursday, December 8, 2011
An Ornament a Day - Day 8
2 comments:
Greta, I love Angel ornaments and these are beautiful! In the next few days, I will be posting an ornament for you! We are the ornament queens!ReplyDelete
I very much enjoy your "Ornament a Day" posts.
Gini - Thank you so much for that special post - and you picked one that is exactly to my taste. I have really been enjoying your beautiful posts - what a treat for the month of December.ReplyDelete
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Every Saturday and Sunday, 1–2 p.m.
No registration required. Meet in the Centre Street lobby.
Walk-in tours feature unique themes and aspects of the museum's extensive collection, and are open to visitors of all ages. Tours are conducted in Spanish the first Saturday of each month, allowing visitors of all ages and language levels to learn and practice Spanish, and to explore artwork from around the world.
September 29, 2019
1–2 p.m.


text:
Developed by Hothouse Creations for Konami, this turf wars game follows the gangs of Grand Central City, an urban jungle steeped in violence. Detroit rap crew D12 lends its music and likenesses to this brutal game of life on the streets. The game stars Tre, the young leader of the Outlawz, once Grand Central City's most powerful gang. Gamers maneuver Tre through the dangerous streets, using his fists and brains to protect his crew and build his reputation. The player must protect his own people from exploitation and abuse, and defend his crew from the violence and treachery that permeates the society he lives in.
Who knew life on the streets was so dull? Read More »
Also known as: Crime Life, D12 in Crime Life: Gang Wars
Release Region: United States
Release Date: November 22, 2005
Publisher: Konami
Release Region: United Kingdom
Release Date: September 30, 2005
Publisher: Konami
Also available on: PC, PlayStation 2
For more info on these technical requirements and features, please view GameSpy's Specs FAQ.
Crime Life: Gang Wars at IGN
Crime Life: Gang Wars at GameSpy
Crime Life: Gang Wars at TeamXbox
Crime Life: Gang Wars at GameStats


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text:
Top: Kmart ($13.99, saved $5.08 with Kmart coupon codes)| Capris c/o Lee | Sandals: Kmart ($16.99, saved $3.48 with Kmart coupon codes) | Hat: Kmart ($7.69, saved $3.59 with Kmart coupon codes) | Bag: Rouge and Whimsy | Necklace: Swell Caroline | Bracelets: J.Crew Factory, c/o Olive + Piper | Watch: Feral Watches
A few weeks ago, Coupons.com contacted me to be a part of a "Show Your Saavy Style" collaboration. Coupons.com gifted me $100 to Kmart and told me to shop til I dropped – and that's what I did. I made it a goal for myself to pick some pieces that were my style to a T and some that were a little bit out of my style comfort zone, but still cute. I wanted to make the most of my money and with the Coupons.com Kmart coupon codes it meant that I kept saving money as I added more things, especially with codes where offered a specific discount the more you spent (10% off for $75+) or a specific amount off depending on how much you spent ($5 off $50+). In this outfit here, my top, sandals and fedora are from Kmart. To be honest, I had never looked to Kmart to buy clothing for myself, but I was pleasantly surprised. I'd compare their style to Target (at an even lower price point) and you know how much money one can drop there on clothes and shoes. Have you shopped at Kmart before for clothes, shoes, handbag, jewelry, etc?
I'm so excited that the weather is getting warm now. It's time to bring out the capris and shorts and box up those corduroys and fleece tights. And going sleeveless means I need to focus more time at the gym on pumping iron. 😉
Don't forget to enter the Datevitation giveaway for a custom love coupon book or use the coupon code to get $10 off your own book! And jewelry lovers need to enter the That's Mine Boutique giveaway for $75 towards your favorite piece. Or don't forget that you can get a FREE signature necklace with a purchase of $40+.
And my Shop My Closet Instagram Auction (@shopsandyalamode) sale ends on Friday 5/31/13 at 11:59PM CST! Get your BID + Paypal email in on time. Thanks to all those who have placed bids already, good luck! 🙂


text:
Celebrity Style Recap | Nov. 24, 2012
Get Caught Up With the Latest on CelebStyle
Get Caught Up With the Latest on CelebStyle
If you're as celebrity-style-obsessed as we are, then it's high time you met our sister site, CelebStyle. They make it their mission to bring you up-to-the-minute celebrity outfits, the latest celebrity-spawned trends, exclusive interviews, and straight-from-set styles to satisfy our celebrity-style obsession. This week, they're helping us to outfit a few of our favorite celebrity looks — like Taylor Swift's and Olivia Palermo's, for starters — plus, they're giving us an all-access pass to the latest looks on our favorite shows like Hart of Dixie and Gossip Girl. To see what you missed, just start clicking.


text:
Pablo Larrazábal, Scott Jamieson, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño and Graeme Storm will share the lead heading into the final round of the KLM Open after the latter was punished for his first mistakes at Hilversumsche GC.
When Storm, three clear overnight, opened up a five shot advantage by reaching 14 under this afternoon, the remainder of the field looked as though they may have been playing for second place.
However, after birdies at seven, ten – where he almost registered a hole in one – and 12, the previously untroubled Englishman finally dropped his first shot of the week on the 13th.
A wayward drive then led to another bogey at 14 and Storm was duly caught by three players finishing strongly on a glorious day in the Netherlands.
Larrazábal birdied five of his last six holes en route to a 64 – the equal best round of the day - while Jamieson and Fernandez-Castaño each picked up shots on 17 and 18 to shoot 66.
Peter Hanson, part of Europe's Ryder Cup Team and another player to birdie the final two, was one off the pace at 11 under, with an absorbing final day in prospect.
Storm, 114th on The Race to Dubai, attempted to remain positive, despite losing his healthy lead.
"I had two bad swings on 13 and 14," he explained. "I had the tournament in the palm of my hand before that, but it should be a good day tomorrow. I've only had two bogeys in 54 holes, which is quite impressive.
"It's difficult leading like I was. I have a lot of things on my mind at the moment with keeping my card, so I'm just looking at getting the best result I can.
"Tomorrow, keeping my card will be in the back of my mind, but I have given myself the chance to win and if I am in there with six holes to go I will go for it."
Larrazábal was understandably delighted with his late charge.
"I played great, on the front nine as well as the back," said the Spaniard.
"I will attack whatever I can attack tomorrow. I've not been in contention for a while, so I am going to have some fun and try to compete for the title."
Larrazábal 's fellow countryman, Fernandez-Castaño, was similarly satisfied with his efforts and took time to praise Storm, who he regards as a close friend.
"Right now I am where I want to be," said Fernandez-Castaño. "It is going to be fun tomorrow.
"Graeme was disappointed, but I told him in the recording area that he has the game to win this. I know he is thinking about his card but he has to forget about that.
"He is a good friend of mine, so he knows I wish him all the best and he has done it before."
After seeing Paul Lawrie and Richie Ramsay triumph in recent weeks, Jamieson is aiming to become the third Scottish winner in succession on the European Tour.
"It would be great to get a Scottish hat-trick," he admitted.
"Winning is always difficult, but I will be trying tomorrow. I've been working on the right things."
Ramsay and Henrik Stenson matched Larrazábal's 64 to climb into contention.
Last week's winner and Danny Willett, who tied for second at Crans-sur-Sierre, ended the day nine under, with Stenson one worse off alongside Nicolas Colsaerts.
|Player name
|HANSON, Peter
|RAMSAY, Richie
|LARRAZÁBAL, Pablo
|JAMIESON, Scott
|STENSON, Henrik
|STORM, Graeme


text: Once again hinting that Bryan Fuller intends to look at the lighter side of cannibal serial killers, Molly Shannon has joined the cast of NBC's upcoming Hannibal in an as-yet-unspecified but potentially recurring role, appearing in at least one episode of the Silence Of The Lambs prequel to start. Shannon has also been added to a roster of comedic performers like Kids In The Hall's Scott Thompson, Wonderfalls' Caroline Dhavernas, and her fellow Pushing Daisies' alum Ellen Greene that will keep things from getting too heavy with all the psychological mind games, Laurence Fishburne frowning, and cannibalistic serial killing. "Sometimes when she gets nervous she sticks her fingers under her arms and then she eats them like this," he said, denying everyone else the chance to make that joke, but knowing there are still Delicious Dish and "Schweddy Balls" jokes to go around. She was on Saturday Night Live!