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369Book X.
Chapter I.—The Peace granted us by God.
1. Thanks for all things be given unto God the Omnipotent Ruler and King of the universe, and the greatest thanks to Jesus Christ the Saviour and Redeemer of our souls, through whom we pray that peace may be always preserved for us firm and undisturbed by external troubles and by troubles of the mind.
2. Since in accordance with thy wishes, my most holy Paulinus,27992799 Paulinus, bishop of Tyre, became afterward bishop of Antioch, as we are told by Eusebius, Contra Marcellum, I. 4, and by Philostorgius, H. E. III. 15. According to Jerome's Chron, year of Abr. 2345, he was the successor of Philogonius and the predecessor of Eustathius in the episcopate of Antioch. He was still alive when Eusebius completed his History, that is, at least as late as 323 (see above, p. 45), but he was already dead when the Council of Nicæa met; for Eustathius was at that time bishop of Antioch (see e.g. Sozomen, H. E. I. 17, Theodoret, H. E. I. 7, and the Acts of the Council of Nicæa, ed. Labbei et Cossartii, I. p. 51), and Zeno, bishop of Tyre (see the Acts of the Nicene Council, ibid.). Philostorgius (ibid.) informs us that he became bishop of Antioch but six months before his death, and there is no reason to doubt the statement. Eusebius speaks of him in the highest terms, both here and in his Contra Marcellum, and it was at the dedication of his church in Tyre that he delivered the panegyric oration quoted in chap. 4, below. He is claimed as a sympathizer by Arius in his epistle to Eusebius of Nicomedia (Theodoret, H. E. I. 5), and that he accepted Arius' tenets is implied by Eusebius of Nicomedia, who, however, feels obliged to admonish him for not showing greater zeal in the support of the cause (see this epistle quoted by Theodoret, H. E. I. 6). This is the extent of our information in regard to him. we have added the tenth book of the Church History to those which have preceded,28002800 On the date of the composition of the tenth book of the History, and its relation to the earlier books, see above, p. 45. we will inscribe it to thee, proclaiming thee as the seal of the whole work; and we will fitly add in a perfect number the perfect panegyric upon the restoration of the churches,28012801 εἰκότως δ᾽ ἐν ἀριθμῷ τελεί& 251· τὸν τέλειον ἐνταῦθα καὶ πανηγυρικὸν τῆς τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν ἀνανεώσεως λόγον κατατ€ξομεν. The meaning of this sentence is very obscure. Valesius translates: Nec absurde ut opinor, absolutam omnibus numeris orationem panegyricam de ecclesiarum instauratione hic in perfecto numero collocabimus. Stroth, followed by Closs, renders: "Mit Recht werden wir hier auch eine vollständige feierliche Rede, von der Wiedererneuerung der Kirchen, als einen ordentlichen Theil miteinrücken." Crusè reads: "Justly, indeed, shall we here subjoin in a perfect number a complete discourse and panegyric on the renovation of the churches." The "perfect number" seems to refer to the number of the book (the number ten being commonly so called in ancient times), to which he has referred in the previous clause. Could we regard the "perfect panegyric" as referring to the book as a whole, as Crusè does, the sentence would be somewhat clearer; but the phrase seems to be a plain reference to the oration given in chap. 4, especially since Eusebius does not say τῆς ἐκκλησίας, but τῶν ἐκκλησὶ& 242·ν, as in the title of that oration. I have preserved the play of words, τελεί& 251·—τέλειον, in order to bring out Eusebius' thought more clearly, but it must be remarked that the word τέλειον does not imply praise of the quality of his oration on the author's part. It is used rather in the sense of complete or final, because it celebrates a completed work, as the tenth book completes his History, and thus crowns the whole. obeying the Divine Spirit which exhorts us in the following words:
3. "Sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm hath saved him. The Lord hath made known his salvation, his righteousness hath he revealed in the presence of the nations."28022802 Psa. xcviii. 1, 2.
4. And in accordance with the utterance which commands us to sing the new song, let us proceed to show that, after those terrible and gloomy spectacles which we have described,28032803 Literally, "spectacles and narratives" (ὄψεις τε καὶ διηγήσεις). we are now permitted to see and celebrate such things as many truly righteous men and martyrs of God before us desired to see upon earth and did not see, and to hear and did not hear.28042804 Cf. Matt. xiii. 17.
5. But they, hastening on, obtained far better things,28052805 Cf. Phil. i. 23 being carried to heaven and the paradise of divine pleasure. But, acknowledging that even these things are greater than we deserve, we have been astonished at the grace manifested by the author of the great gifts, and rightly do we admire him, worshiping him with the whole power of our souls, and testifying to the truth of those recorded utterances, in which it is said, "Come and see the works of the Lord, the wonders which he hath done upon the earth; he removeth wars to the ends of the world, he shall break the bow and snap the spear in sunder, and shall burn the shields with fire."28062806 Psa. xlvi. 8, 9.
6. Rejoicing in these things which have been clearly fulfilled in our day, let us proceed with our account.
7. The whole race of God's enemies was destroyed in the manner indicated,28072807 See chaps. 10 and 11 of the preceding book. and was thus suddenly swept from the sight of men. So that again a divine utterance had its fulfillment: "I have seen the impious highly exalted and raising himself like the cedars of Lebanon and I have passed by, and behold, he was not and I have sought his place, and it could not be found."28082808 Psa. xxxvii. 35, 36.
8. And finally a bright and splendid day, overshadowed by no cloud, illuminated with beams of heavenly light the churches of Christ throughout the entire world. And not even those without our communion28092809 τοῖς žξωθεν τοῦ καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς θι€σου. were prevented from sharing in the same blessings, or at least from coming under their influ370ence and enjoying a part of the benefits bestowed upon us by God.28102810 By the edict of Constantine and Licinius full religious liberty was granted, not only to the Christians, but to all men of whatever creed or cult.
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Wave down the shuttle or text (785) 379-DASH to request a ride
Sit back and enjoy the ride. You're helping the environment and the community all at once.
Feel free to tip your driver - then go explore the Little Apple.
Show All Answers
Our service is fun, easy and free. We use an electric car to cut out the cost of fuel and work with some great sponsors to make the service possible.
During this first phase of implementation, the MHK DASH will operate during evenings and Saturdays:
• Monday – Thursday | 4:00pm – 9:00pm
• Friday | 4:00pm – 10:00pm
• Saturday | 8:00am – 10:00pm (May through September)
• Saturday | 12:00pm – 10:00pm (October through April)
The hours of operation are subject to change and dependent solely on volunteer availability.
During this first phase of implementation, the service routes for the DASH will be limited to approximately one square mile within the urban core of Manhattan. Bounded to the north by Anderson/Bluemont Avenue, to the east by 3rd Street, south by Ft. Riley Blvd, and west by 17th Street.
Just wave us down or text the TextFree phone number located on the outside of the shuttle (785-379-3274 or 785-379-DASH). TextFree is a free application that will record all calls and texts to the phone number listed
above. Community members can text this number when they wish to schedule a pick up. Once the shuttle's there you can hop on and hop off anywhere within our service area.
Local volunteers who love to meet new people and want to enhance our vibrant community! Our drivers are fun, responsible and efficient. While the ride is free, you are encouraged to tip them for a job well done!
Interested in joining our team? Submit an application here: https://forms.gle/J5GvdkFU5XYyr5Ea9
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Apply online at: https://forms.gle/J5GvdkFU5XYyr5Ea9
Further questions about the DASH can be answered by emailing email@example.com or calling (785) 370-7783.

subset: commoncrawl


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"Mad Money Manifesto" by Jim Cramer:
For years I have been trying to help people like you, who own stocks and feel like they're on the outside looking in, become better investors. That's the mission statement, plain and simple. My job is not to tell you what to think, but to teach you how to think about the market like a pro. This show is not about picking stocks. It's not about giving you tips that will make you money overnight – tips are for waiters.
Our mission is educational, to teach you how to analyze stocks and the market through the prism of events. I come out every night to help level the playing field, so you can try to have a fighting chance against the big boys, the fat-cat hedge fund managers who think they own the market. To them the world of investing in stocks is a posh country club. They don't want to let you in. They don't want you to know what they know because then you could make money and they would lose their edge. Mad Money is all about breaking into the country club.
See, to the insiders, the mutual fund managers and the hedge funds, too, investing is a big game. It's not a game to you. It's your future, your retirement, your kid's college fund, a way for you to make that extra bit of money you need to live your life the way you always wanted to rather than being chained to your paycheck. But the big boys don't see it that way. They play the market like it's a game. And because they manage so much of the money in the market, it's their game. For all intents and purposes, the huge institutional money managers, the masters of the universe, are the market. The stocks they like go higher, and the ones they target get crushed, bear raided, forced down by unrelenting short selling.
That's why we try to help you understand the rules of their game. The real reasons why stocks behave the way they do, how to find the stocks that work given what the plutocrats are doing, what's in style in the Wall Street fashion show. Like it or not, when you invest, you're sitting down to play a game of Monopoly against a bunch of major, big-shot money managers. Some people will tell you to ignore the board, that you can make money if you just close your eyes, buy some good-looking stocks and hold onto them forever. They tell you that's the responsible way to invest – buy and hold – and forget about everything else because it's all short-term noise. Those people are not your friends.
You can't make money in the market if you don't understand it. It's like playing Monopoly without knowing what Pennsylvania's worth, or how much it costs to put a hotel up on Boardwalk. My job is to make sure you have not just the facts, but also the rules – and those rules are always changing. I try to help you keep up so you know what matters. Nothing is more important than understanding the forces that move stocks. Nobody on the inside wants you to know this stuff. They don't want you to be empowered because it makes it harder for them to game the system.
My goal is to give you the knowledge and the tools that will empower you to be a better investor. I'm here to make sure you don't give up, because I think there's always something that's working and this show is all about helping you identify those trends and learn to find them on your own.
That's the mission. Have I made mistakes? Absolutely. But when I get something wrong, I put the Post-it note on my face and put on the hair shirt because I know the market is a humbling place. That said, I don't come out here every night to tell you what to buy and what to sell. I have my opinions about stocks and I happily share them. But all of that is ancillary to educating you about the market.
I sometimes play a clown, too, and I'm proud of it. I can't teach if you're not watching. So even though the purists think I can't be rigorous because I have sound effects and props, I'm going to keep up the humor, keep up the education and keep trying to help you make money for as long as they let me.


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EATON — Walking takes place on the grounds of the Preble County Senior Center from 9-10 a.m. each Wednesday morning in June. The weather is cooler this time of morning, making the walk enjoyable. Bring a group of your friends and join us as we walk and explore the grounds of the Senior Center.
Friday at the Movies will be held at the Senior Center at 1:30 p.m. on June 26. Stardust, the feature presentation, will be shown on our large screen television. Escape into the enchanted world of chivalry and romance with Stardust. The movie stars Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, and Sienna Miller. There is no charge to attend.
The Preble County Senior Center, Council on Aging offices and the Decade's Diner will be closed on Friday, July 3, in observance of the Independence Day Holiday. We will reopen at 8 a.m. on Monday, July 6.
The time has been changed on the Senior Scams Fraud Prevention Meeting that will be held at the Preble County Senior Center on Friday, July 10. The new time of the meeting is 10 a.m. The speaker will be Danielle Murphy, Consumer Educator, Consumer Protection Office of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. This informational meeting is open to the public and everyone is invited to attend.
The Thursday Night Weekly Dance takes place in the barn on the grounds of the Preble County Senior Center, 800 East St. Clair Street, Eaton, Ohio. This new location is temporary during the period of time needed for paving of the parking lot and other improvements at The Grange (formerly named The Gathering Place). The dance features delicious food (with a $1 menu) and tasty snacks, the 50/50 drawing, door prizes and great bluegrass and country music by Don Pease and the Country Ramblers. Restrooms are available in the Senior Center. We look forward to seeing you at our next Thursday Night Dance.
The Decade's Diner, complete with juke box, graffiti wall, and striking "fab 50s" decorations, is a fun location for lunch. The new menu features many delicious items and we always have a couple daily specials. The Diner is also the site of our daily Congregate Meal. The Decade's Diner is located at Preble County Senior Center, 800 East St. Clair Street, Eaton. It is open for lunch from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Diner is open to the public and all ages are welcome.
The Decade's Diner hosts a weekly Friday Night Cruise-In from 6:00-9:00 pm at the Preble County Senior Center. We invite owners of street rods, classic cars, historical vehicles, unique vehicles, motorcycles, etc. to join us at the weekly Cruise-Ins. The Decade's Diner will be open with a special Cruise-In menu. The 50s music will be rocking inside on the jukebox. Spectators are welcome.
A Matter of Balance Fall Prevention Classes are available on a continuous basis at the Preble County Senior Center. Classes are held for two hours a day, once a week, for an 8 week period. The cost is $10 per person for the 16 hours of instruction. New classes are scheduled. Please call 937- 456-4947 to register or to receive more information on A Matter of Balance.
We need volunteers to help deliver meals to seniors and shut-ins in the county. Meals are delivered Monday through Friday, except holidays, to seniors in Preble County. Drivers work two to three hours a day delivering meals in their vehicle to senior citizens. Drivers have a dedicated route, and can work one, two or more days per week, or just one day per month. Adult drivers of any age are eligible to volunteer. Drivers receive mileage reimbursement. If you would like to volunteer, or need more information, please call Ashley Bowers, Home Delivered Meal Coordinator at 937-456-4947.
Many exciting events, trips, and activities are planned for seniors in Preble County in coming months. Check out our website or Facebook pages for the latest news. Membership at the Senior Center is only $10 a year. In addition to other benefits, members automatically receive our bi-monthly "Senior Scene" newsletter, which features all the latest news. The menu is also included in the newsletter. New for 2015: You can fill out a membership form and pay your $10 online. Just visit our new improved website for details: www.prebleseniorcenter.org.


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Episode 1: Man inside the hard drive
scientist recently pointed me out to his colleagues. "That is not Carl Zimmer," he declared.
The scientist was Mark Gerstein. He was sitting at a table in his office at Yale University, flanked by two members of his lab. "Really," Gerstein said, pointing to a slim hard drive on the table, "this is Carl Zimmer."
By "this," he meant the sequence of my genome, which was being transferred from the drive onto a MacBook.
"I'm quite serious," Gerstein said. "In about five minutes, he will be in this computer."
I had come to Yale to give Gerstein and his colleagues my genome to explore. I wanted them to help me find out what was in there.
I was doing something far different — and far more exciting — than getting a conventional genetic test from a doctor or sending my spit to a genealogy company. Those tests typically only determine snippets of a person's DNA, providing the sequence of less than 1 percent of the genome. Instead, I had gotten my entire genome sequenced and had then managed to get hold of all the raw data — the information that scientists use to understand how people's genes help make them who they are.
If you could have read the data flowing into Gerstein's MacBook, you would have seen a spreadsheet from hell. Each row contained a string of A's, C's, G's, and T's in various combinations, running a couple hundred letters long, accompanied by a few cells containing short numbers and codes. All told, there were 1.2 billion rows.
Watching my genome flow into Gerstein's computer made me a little giddy. I began writing about DNA sequencing in the 1990s, at a time when sequencing the human genome — any human genome — seemed about as easy as a manned mission to Mars.
It took hundreds of scientists — and about $3 billion — to assemble the first human genome sequence in 2001. Since then, the cost of DNA sequencing has crashed, while the accuracy has skyrocketed. Scientists have now sequenced the genomes of an estimated 150,000 people.
Despite this sequencing explosion, very few of the people who have their genomes sequenced get their hands on their own genomes. And those few people typically only get a highly filtered report. To get the raw data, as I managed to do, is almost unheard of. I am, to my knowledge, the first journalist, to do so.
So over the past several months, I enlisted Gerstein and two dozen other scientists to help me see what's lurking in my own genome. They have generously volunteered their time and expertise, acting like scuba diving guides, leading me through undersea canyons.
The experience has revealed to me quite a lot about myself — but also, more importantly, about human genomes in general, and the advances scientists are making in understanding them.
What have I learned? I've used my genome to look back a million years to our pre-human origins. I've discovered exactly which pieces of DNA I inherited from Neanderthals and how they may influence my health. I've learned that I have extra copies of some of my genes, and I'm even missing vast chunks of DNA found in other people. I've inspected the three-dimensional shape of some of my proteins, observing how mutations have changed the way they work and made me vulnerable to some diseases.
Perhaps just as importantly, I've learned just how hard it remains for experts to make sense of anyone's genome.
Over the coming days, I'll be unspooling what I've learned in a series of stories. I'll also introduce you to some of the country's leading genomics experts, who are discovering remarkable things about our DNA. I hope you come along and see what's hiding in that hard drive.
Episode 2: A code is broken
oon after I decided to get my genome sequenced, I found myself in a hospital in Boston, with a geneticist staring long and hard at my face.
"What I'm doing is looking for any facial features that would suggest an underlying genetic illness," Dr. Robert Green told me, as he gave me an exam at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "The shape of your eyes, whether your ears are low-set or not. The complexity of your ears."
Green then had me walk back and forth across the office. I felt like a terrier trotting at the Westminster Dog Show. Green explained that some hidden genetic disorders leave telltale signs in our gait.
"Future clinicians may judge this to be unnecessarily cautious," he said as he watched me pace. "But there is no standard for how we do whole genome sequencing. So this is how I've decided to do it."
I had never watched a geneticist improvise before. But improvisation is par for the course when it comes to genomes. In the history of our species, we've never had the chance to look at all of our DNA before. Scientists are still figuring out how our genomes affect our health. And doctors like Green are still working out the rules for using genomes in medical treatments.
A month before my visit, Green had invited me to get my genome sequenced, as part of an educational program run by Illumina, the leading manufacturer of DNA-sequencing machines. We arranged for an exam, and now, having failed to find anything suspicious, Green ordered a blood draw. My blood was shipped from Boston to San Diego, where it was sequenced by Illumina. The process, including my registration at an Illumina-sponsored seminar, cost $3,100.
The Illumina team began the process by cracking open my blood cells and extracting their DNA. They can't just read the DNA from one end to the other. For starters, a human genome is so big that it would take too long. The DNA might also snap apart into pieces during the process.
Instead, Illumina does something counterintuitive: It smashes the DNA into lots of fragments, makes lots of copies of those fragments, reads them all, and then tries to put their sequences back together.
To do so, they take advantage of DNA's own capacity to make copies of itself. Each DNA molecule is actually a pair of strands assembled from building blocks known as bases. The bases are like the alphabet in which our genes are written. Instead of our 26-letter alphabet, there are only four different kinds of bases in DNA: A for adenine, T for thymine, C for cytosine, and G for guanine.
When our cells divide, they build a new copy of their DNA. They do so by splitting the old molecule into its two strands, and then building a new strand for each one. This process is remarkably simple. Each base can only pair with one other base: A with T, C with G. To read my DNA, Illumina mimicked this chemistry.
First, the Illumina team broke my DNA into short fragments, each about 340 bases long. Then they made extra copies of those fragments, so they could sequence each one many times over. To do so, they glued the fragments to a plate, which they then submerged in a bath.
In that bath were free-floating bases. Gradually, those bases locked onto the fragments, creating a corresponding strand. And each time a floating base locked onto a fragment, Illumina's devices could record the reaction. A computer recorded those reactions, and used them to decipher the sequence of each of the original strands.
A team of researchers at Illumina then reviewed the data, evaluating my risk for 1,200 disorders, ranging from familiar ones like lung cancer to obscure ones like cherubism. (Don't be fooled: Cherubism doesn't make you look like an angel. It fills your jaw with cysts.)
I couldn't help but worry about what they might find. As I approach my 50th birthday, I feel lucky to be in pretty good health, yet I wonder what the next few decades have in store for me. On my father's side, my grandfather died in his 40s of a heart attack, and my grandmother died a decade later of cancer. My mother's family has been more fortunate; my grandfather lived to 88, while my grandmother celebrated her 90th birthday last summer. How, I wondered, did I do in the genetic lottery?
A few weeks after my visit to Brigham and Women's, I got a call from Sheila Sutti, a genetic counselor who works with Green. She had my results back from Illumina.
"The reason we're doing this over the phone and not in person is that we didn't find anything of clinical importance," she said. "You had a very benign report, Carl."
Illumina found that I might not respond well to certain medications, but didn't find any firm evidence that I suffered from a genetic disorder. I was also a carrier for two diseases, I discovered, which means that I had one copy of a mutation that could make my children sick if they also got the same mutation from my wife. But since those diseases would have made themselves known when my children were young, I knew that those mutations were nothing for my family to worry about.
And that was that.
I felt relieved that Sutti didn't have any terrible news for me. But after the relief passed, the whole experience made my genome seem very boring. That seemed wrong. I knew that every human genome is infinitely fascinating, if you can just look into it deeply enough.
Before I had my genome sequenced, I had an inkling that I would be let down. A few years ago, I was having lunch with Beth Shapiro and Ed Green, a husband-and-wife team of geneticists at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
"You know what you should do someday? You should get your genome sequenced." Shapiro declared. "But then you know what you should do? You should get your BAM file. If you do that, you can bring it to scientists like us. Then you can really see what's going on."
I didn't have the courage at the time to admit that I didn't know what a BAM file was. But now, a few years after the conversation, it was time to find out.
Episode 3: BAM reveals all
BAM file, I learned, is all the raw data that comes out of genome sequencing. (BAM stands for Binary Alignment/Map.) It's a tremendous chunk of information, weighing in at 70 gigabytes, the equivalent of over 400 feature-length movies. As big as it may be, nothing else will do for scientists who want to explore a genome in its full complexity.
Yet getting your own BAM file, it turns out, can be surprisingly hard.
After Illumina sequenced my genome, it sent me a medical report and a link to a website where I could peruse its results. It did not simply hand over the BAM file — nor would it if I asked on my own. Delving into its paperwork, I found the reason why: Illumina states that it will provide BAM files "solely for use in clinical research."
It's not surprising that companies like Illumina are wary of simply handing over BAM files to the public. In 2007, the genetic testing company 23andMe began providing genetic tests directly to customers, rather than through a doctor. For each customer, it identified hundreds of thousands of genetic variants and interpreted the results to estimate how much risk they put people at for a variety of diseases. In 2013, the FDA demanded it stop selling the tests because the agency hadn't validated them.
For its tests, 23andMe looked only at several hundred thousand genetic markers sprinkled across the genome. A BAM file, by contrast, contains information about all 3 billion base pairs in a person's genome. What's more, all that raw data contains errors that require an expert to weed out. Handing over such a huge pile of flawed data directly to customers can be a recipe for disaster. Customers struggling to interpret a BAM file for themselves may mistakenly self-diagnose themselves and run after treatments they don't need.
But all this caution puts curious people in a difficult spot. Even a genome expert can be left out in the cold.
Brad Gulko is a graduate student at Cornell, where he is developing new methods to analyze genomes. For years, he's been squirreling away some of his income into a fund to pay for his own genome sequencing. He wanted to get his own BAM file and study it.
"I have my hands in this stuff every day," he said. "I would love to see where I am in this spectrum."
Gulko waited patiently as his fund grew and the cost of sequencing DNA fell. By last year, the time was right. In July he contacted a sequencing center about getting his genome sequenced.
He was informed he could get his BAM file only if he could enroll in a research study and gain approval for his participation from an institutional review board. Try as he might, Gulko couldn't figure out how to pull the right strings to get one. He remains a genome expert without access to his own genome.
"It's a little crazy-making to know this information could be had and you can't get to it," Gulko told me. "You're not allowed to know this stuff about yourself."
If a scientist like Gulko couldn't get his hands on his own genome, what chance did a civilian like me have? For help, I turned to Robert Green, the geneticist at Brigham and Women's Hospital who had overseen the sequencing of my genome. He said he had a workaround. "It may be a bit of a clunky process," he warned.
In addition to treating patients, Green is doing research on how genome sequencing will affect medicine. One of the studies Green is running, called PeopleSeq, is designed to find out how healthy people respond to getting their genome sequenced.
Most people in the study are only getting information about their genome filtered through their doctor. Some are looking at Illumina's carefully curated website. But Green recently decided to expand the study to let participants get their hands on a hard drive with their own BAM file.
"We have created the protocol to return the hard drives, but have actually never done it yet!" he emailed me. "You might be the first."
I joined the PeopleSeq study, and Green's team then asked Illumina for the BAM file. They also had me sign a form stating that I understood that the data hadn't undergone the quality checks that Illumina had used to generate my clinical report.
Green and I first talked about this plan in August. Summer turned to fall, fall to winter. Finally, in mid-January, a UPS box arrived at my house. Inside was a tube of green bubble wrap, inside of which was a black fabric case shaped like a kidney bean. I unzipped the case, and inside I found a hard drive with a brushed-metal gleam. The process might be clunky, but it had worked.
I was ready to enlist scientists to look at my BAM file.
The first to agree to join the expedition was a scientist named Konrad Karczewski at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass. I realized the BAM file was so gigantic that I couldn't simply email it to him. The easiest thing to do would be to go old school. I would deliver my genome by hand.
I put the hard drive back in its bean-shaped case, dropped the case in my shoulder bag, and hopped on a train to Boston. I became my genome's own personal courier.
Episode 4: Rosetta Stones
unshine poured through a wide window at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., illuminating a wall covered in scribbles. Konrad Karczewski, a young bioinformatics expert, had just spent an hour doodling diagrams to show me how he had pieced together my genome, which was now displayed on his laptop.
The whole process had taken Karczewski — or, to be more accurate, the Broad's servers — two weeks to complete.
DNA sequencing is so familiar to us now, in the news and on TV crime shows, that it's easy to get the impression that reading a genome is as simple as pulling a book off a shelf and thumbing through its pages. In fact, Karczewski showed me, scientists are still learning how to assemble that text accurately and completely. If the genome is a book, it's written in mysterious hieroglyphics, and scientists are still inventing Rosetta Stones to read it.
"Biology is complex," Karczewski told me, with a resigned shrug. "We already knew that, but I don't think I really appreciated how ridiculous the problem is until I started doing this."
When Illumina sequenced my genome, what it actually did was read the sequence of 1.2 billion fragments of my DNA. At this stage, these fragments (known as reads) are like loose jigsaw puzzle pieces waiting to be put together. Making this puzzle even more challenging, some of those fragments contain mistakes due to bad chemical reactions.
To solve a jigsaw puzzle, we can refer to the picture on the box it came in, in order to find a part that matches each piece. Scientists like Karczewski have a puzzle box of their own, called the human reference genome. It's a highly accurate sequence of a single person's genetic material. Since all people have relatively similar DNA, Karczewski could use the human reference genome to pinpoint the location of many of my own reads.
But because the reads are so short and the human genome is so long, Karczewski didn't want to simply run a brute-force search for matches. That would have taken centuries to complete. Instead, using some clever shortcuts, Karczewski needed only 30 hours to figure out where most of the reads belonged.
Next, Karczewski stripped errors out of the reads. He took advantage of the fact that Illumina produces so many reads that they overlap on my genome many times over. If you were to look at a map of my genome at this point, it would resemble an irregular brick wall, with overlapping reads stacked on top of the reference genome. Illumina's machines sequence each base on average more than 30 different times.
That redundancy allows Karczewski to spot the errors in DNA sequencing. If one read has an A at one spot, while the other 30 have a T at the same spot, you can safely conclude that my genome has a T there.
This process can fix a lot of errors in a genome sequence, but it doesn't work on many others. If you scan a genome at this stage, you may find a location where some reads point to an A, some to a C, some to a T, and some to a G. They offer no clue to what the correct base should be.
This kind of error can be caused by a mutation that chops out a large piece of DNA, or one that accidentally duplicates it. They confuse computer programs that try to match reads to the human reference genome; the programs end up pinning the reads to the wrong place.
Fortunately, scientists have recently written a number of programs that can spot places where insertions and deletions create this confusion. But it's no small task to fix these errors — Karczewski needed 15 hours to identify insertions and deletions in my own genome.
Only after two weeks of this scrubbing and fixing did Karczewski finally allow the Broad's servers to write out my genome sequence. I was then able to give other scientists access to this new and improved version of my genome, so that they could explore it.
I came back to the Broad when Karczewski had finished, to inspect his handiwork. To show me my genome, Karczewski opened a special kind of browser. Think of it as Google Chrome for DNA. It displayed my genome as a string of bases arrayed on a line that ran off of either side of the screen. The browser highlighted stretches of DNA in genes; Karczewski could zero in on any one of them for a close inspection.
To give me a sense of how good his reconstruction of my genome was, Karczewski navigated to a gene called HTT.
HTT is not just any gene. Certain mutations in HTT cause Huntington's disease, a devastating disease that starts in middle age, leads to dementia, and ends with death. Unfortunately, these mutations are also very hard to recognize with standard genome-sequencing techniques.
The problem with HTT is that the mutations strike a region of the gene that is made up of the bases C, A, and G, repeated over and over. Healthy people have a wide range of CAG repeats. It's only when people get 37 or more CAG repeats in HTT that they are at risk of developing Huntington's. Repeating DNA is very hard to sequence accurately with short reads, because there aren't any distinctive sequences to anchor them.
When Illumina sequenced my genome, it had not been able to reconstruct my HTT gene completely. Rather than make a bad guess, it simply left parts of it blank. When it used my genome to identify my risk for genetic disorders, it didn't even try to determine if I would develop Huntington's disease.
But now, thanks to Karczewski, I was looking at a complete sequence of my HTT gene. If I wanted to, I could just lean forward and count my CAG repeats.
"You know … I should have probably started with a crap-ton of genetic counseling before we did this," Karczewski said.
Such are the risks you face when you take your genome into your own hands. Nonetheless, I quickly did some bioethical calculations.
It takes just one defective copy of HTT to cause Huntington's disease. But none of my ancestors I knew of suffered from the disorder, making it unlikely they could pass it down to me. Yet I also knew that about 10 percent of cases of Huntington's disease occur out of the blue, the result of a new mutation that adds a number of CAG repeats to a person's HTT gene. But such events are very rare.
I was pretty confident that I would have a normal HTT gene. But in the unlikely event that I did have Huntington's disease, I decided, I'd rather know now than wait to be horribly surprised.
"Let's look," I said.
And so we did.
The reference genome has 19 CAG repeats. We counted only 17 in mine.
If Karczewski's reconstruction was accurate, then I don't have to worry about developing Huntington's disease.
Whole-genome sequencing is not yet accurate enough to serve as a reliable medical test for a particular disease like Huntington's. People who have relatives with Huntington's and want to see if they carry the mutation should get precise tests that determine only the sequence of HTT, ignoring the rest of the genome.
But just because whole-genome sequencing isn't 100 percent accurate doesn't mean it's not valuable. Thanks to the careful assembly by Karczewski and other scientists, I at last had a reconstruction of my genome that I could explore.
Episode 5: Individual Z dissected
walked into a conference room at Yale not long ago to find eight graduate students and postdoctoral researchers waiting for me on either side of a long table. They invited me to sit at the head. In front of me, on the opposite wall, was a giant monitor. On it read the words, "Individual Z Overview."
For two weeks, these researchers had been poring over my genome, and now they were ready to share with me what they had found. I had been gratified by how eager they had been to help me, but puzzled, too. It was only when I looked up at the screen that I realized the answer. To them, I was Individual Z.
It was as if I was a frog that had hopped into an anatomy class with my own dissecting scalpel, asking the students to take a look inside.
The students all worked at a lab run by Mark Gerstein at Yale. I had asked Gerstein to look at my genome because he has studied thousands of human genomes over his career. He and his colleagues are experts at making catalogs of genomes — recognizing the genes and millions of other pieces that make them up, and figuring out how those parts vary from one person to the next. Yet when I approached Gerstein about my project, he admitted he had never looked at his own genome this way.
"I'd never have the courage to do this — I'm just too timid," Gerstein admitted to me. "I'm a worrier. Every time there would be a new finding, I'd look in my genome to see if I had it."
While Gerstein might be too nervous to look at his own genome, he seemed to take vicarious pleasure in looking at mine. "I really want to do this," he said when I handed him the hard drive with my genome's raw data. "I think this is the future."
Gerstein transferred the data onto his computer and gave the hard drive back to me. Like Karczewski, Gerstein and his team then used a set of computer programs to analyze my BAM file and build a highly accurate reconstruction of my genome. Once they had reconstructed the sequence of my DNA, they could start identifying the parts that made it up.
The parts of a genome we're most familiar with are, of course, genes. Each protein made by our bodies — such as the collagen in our skin and the myosin in our muscles — is encoded by a gene. Our 20,000 or so protein-coding genes take up only about 1 percent of our genome, however. They are scattered amid vast stretches of so-called non-coding DNA. Non-coding DNA is a mishmash of different elements. Some of them, like on-off switches for genes, are essential to our well-being. A lot of them are just along for the ride.
In order to map the parts of my genome, Gerstein and his colleagues took advantage of the fact that one person's genome is pretty similar to anyone else's. If you want to find your COL1A1 gene for collagen, for example, you'd best look about midway down your chromosome 17. That's where it is in everyone else.
But while my genome is a lot like everyone else's, it's not identical. When a scientist like Gerstein sets out to catalog a genome, a lot of his work goes into tallying up my differences.
When I returned to Gerstein's lab for my Individual Z Overview, Fabio Navarro, a Brazilian postdoctoral researcher with a scruffy beard, kicked things off by introducing me to a big number: 3,559,137. That is how many positions in my genome differ by a single base from the human reference genome — a single nucleotide polymorphism, or SNP for short.
For example, I have rare SNPs in a gene called MEFV. At one location in that gene, the vast majority of people have a base called thymine. But one of my copies of the MEFV gene has a cytosine at that spot. This variant gives me the rare distinction of being a carrier for a disease called familial Mediterranean fever, which causes runaway inflammation. (You need two copies to actually get the disease.)
It was a struggle for me to think clearly about the 3,559,136 other SNPs in my genome. I was tempted to think of them as making me an exquisitely unique genetic snowflake.
Sushant Kumar, another postdoctoral researcher who works with Gerstein, dispelled that illusion by picking out two people from a database of genomes to compare me to. One was a person from China, the other from Nigeria. Kumar found all three of us shared a lot of SNPs in common — 1.4 million, in fact. Kumar and his colleagues cut down my uniqueness even more by searching for my SNPs in a database they helped build, called the 1000 Genomes Project. They found over 91 percent of my SNPs in at least one other person's DNA.
This enormous genetic overlap is the result of humanity's sloshing global gene pool. Every new baby gains a few dozen new SNPs. They can pass on some of those SNPs to their own children. Over thousands of years, the variants spread from continent to continent.
Gerstein and other scientists want to understand how these SNPs influence our body. For now, most of what we know about the variations is limited to our protein-coding genes. But even in that 1 percent of our genome, our knowledge is limited.
I discovered, for instance, that I have a variant in a gene called HMGA2 that makes me a little taller. On average, people with my variant are about a quarter of an inch taller than people without it. But scientists don't yet know exactly how it boosts the growth of people like me who carry it.
It's likely that variants like the one in my HMGA2 gene influence my biology by changing the shape of my proteins. When proteins change shape, they work differently. During my visit with Gerstein's team, one of his graduate students, Declan Clarke, provided me with a startling demonstration: He showed me the shape of some of my mutant proteins.
One of my mutations changes the shape of an enzyme in my liver. Our livers keep our blood clean by breaking down potentially harmful molecules so that they can get flushed out of our bodies. One of those enzymes, called NAT2, helps break down caffeine and other toxins with a similar molecular structure.
I have a variant in my gene for NAT2 that changes the enzyme's shape. Clarke showed me how a pocket on my enzyme has an odd bulge. That bulge changes the way my NAT2 enzymes behave. In most other people, that pocket repels water molecules. In mine, it attracts them.
As a result, my NAT2 enzymes work slowly, allowing toxins to build up and linger longer in my body. Making matters worse, my defective pocket raises the risk that NAT2 enzymes will stick to each other, or to other proteins. To protect me from this damage, my cells destroy a lot of my NAT2 enzymes.
"Let's say you have an old beat up car and you're driving it around on the road," said Clarke. "It's like the other proteins are saying, 'We have to impound this thing.'"
While getting rid of a lot of my NAT2 enzymes may reduce my risk of dangerous clumping, it also leaves me with even fewer of them. As a result, I end up doing an even worse job at breaking down certain toxins. And it's not just toxins that can pose a problem: NAT2 helps break down certain medicines, too. Geneticists have found that my variant puts people at risk of bad side effects from those drugs.
While some mutations alter proteins, others destroy them. They disrupt genes so badly that our cells can't use them to make any functional proteins at all.
A broken gene (technically known as a loss-of-function variant) can be a very dangerous thing. If you don't have a functional F8 gene, for example, you can't make an essential clotting protein. You get hemophilia and can bleed to death from a little cut.
In my own genome, Gerstein and his colleagues discovered 13 genes in which both copies appear to be broken. I have another 42 genes in which only one copy looks like it's defunct.
It may sound strange that my genome has dozens of broken genes that cause me no apparent harm. If it's any consolation, I'm no freak. The 1000 Genomes Project revealed that everyone has a few dozen broken genes.
Our genomes are not finely engineered machines that can't tolerate a single broken flywheel or gear shaft. They're sloppy products of evolution that usually manage to work pretty well despite being riddled with mutations.
I've probably passed down some of my uniquely broken genes to my children. Perhaps, long in the future, one of those broken genes will become more common in humans, and end up in every member of our species. That's certainly happened in the past. My genome catalog includes about 14,000 genes that have been broken for thousands or millions of years, known as pseudogenes. Once they lost the ability to make proteins, they simply became extra baggage carried down from one generation to the next. Thanks to a genetic roll of the dice, they ended up becoming common. Now these 14,000 pseudogenes are found in all humans today.
"It's neat — this is evolution in process," Gerstein said. The unbroken continuum from my own broken genes to humanity's shared pseudogenes is testament to the long, error-filled journey that produced our complicated, baffling genomes today.
I left my Individual Z Overview with a sense of how SNPs can change my proteins, and thus change my biology. But now that I had an assembled, catalogued genome, I knew that there was still a lot more to explore. There were pieces of non-coding DNA in my genome that influence my health. There were huge pieces of DNA that have vanished from my genome. I could even discover mutations that protect me from diseases. To join me on this next stage of the adventure, come back for the next installment.
(Some of the scientists who analyzed my genome kindly provided their technical results, which you can see here.)


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Kevin Pederson has been building Abyss Guitars for 12 years, but with a name change on the horizon, how will the transformation affect business? An interview with Kevin Pederson
Forest City, Iowa sits quietly at the intersection of Highway 69 and Route 9 in far northern Iowa, surrounded by waving fields of corn in the summer and buried beneath snow and ice in the winter. This town of 4500 has all of the hallmarks of a Midwestern locale; a Pizza Hut and non-descript Ford dealership stand at the highway entrance, while mention of Winnebago Industries – the area's largest employer – seems to find its way into every conversation. Forest City has a sleepy, contented air about it, and may be exactly the last place one would expect to find one of the industry's premier custom builders.
Presentation Elect #14 with Last Supper inlay |
What's even more refreshing is the excitement he has for his work. While some artists grow jaded and cynical when discussing the intersection of craft and commerce, Kevin operates with genuine excitement, gladly welcoming you into his home to talk about the world of custom building. Without any prodding, he excitedly flips open case after case to show you his latest projects, full of eye-popping inlays and gorgeous, figured woods. Every guitar embodies luthiery taken to a higher degree, but they are not museum pieces. When he senses any hesitation to touch his instruments – to instinctively reach out, as one might with a more familiar instrument – he thrusts the guitar deep into your hands. "These are instruments," he says with a smile. "They are meant to be played."
It has been an incredible evolution for a man who once took a job in a cabinet shop, knowing little about the technology or processes of woodwork. These days, Kevin spends his time honing his designs and brainstorming ways to implement the myriad ideas in his head – his new Drea Armani archtop is proof of this, combining unique beauty with player-focused functionality. His Presentation Elect models – guitars commissioned by customers but left entirely to Kevin's muses – remain in heavy demand by both domestic and international buyers, and he hints that an expansion to a larger shop and the hiring of another set of hands may be closer than even he's expected.
In the next evolutionary step for his company, he will no longer be producing Abyss Guitars. As you read this, Kevin will be changing the name on each headstock to Kevin L. Pederson Custom Guitars, all in an attempt to identify himself more closely with his work. As with any name change, there's a sense of uncertainty and anxiety surrounding the move – questions about the loyalty of customers and corporate identity arise – but he remains upbeat and positive about the possibilities ahead of him. We talked with Kevin about how far he's come, what the name change means for him and his thoughts on doing business one guitar at a time.
I'd like to start by going back to the beginning. What was the inspiration for you learning how to build guitars?
Well, the inspiration has always been my love for the guitars and art. I've played in bands and stuff – rock bands and metal bands – and my love for the guitar has always been there. But I got to a point where I was pretty ambitious with basically nothing to do, sitting around and thinking, "What can I do to make some money?" So my wife suggested that I make a guitar – that's usually how it starts! [laughs]
At first, I was like, "You can't make a guitar – you've got the neck and all of that!" I was trying to talk her down, but lo and behold, a couple years later I got into a cabinet shop, where I got some woodworking experience. After that, I thought, "Hey, this might be doable."
When was that?
That would be around 1992 or '93, and I actually took her up on that challenge around 1995. That's the year I started tinkering with guitars. I would order a body and a neck and just see how it all fit together.
Like the kits you can buy today?
Yeah, except that back then they didn't distribute all the parts as a kit. It was like, here's the body, here's the neck, here's some parts – there were no instructions. I built one guitar and thought, "Hey, that's pretty cool!" It was like an Eddie Van Halen guitar, because I wanted to buy one of those EVHs back in the early nineties but I couldn't afford it. So then I bought supplies to make a guitar and I thought, "If this totally fails, at least I've got the tools."
That seems like a gutsy move, especially considering you didn't even know where to source your woods. How did you develop those contacts?
One thing that helped me when I first started was that I was pretty ignorant and I asked people some pretty crazy questions. Those questions got me moving in the right direction. One thing that I felt helped me was that once I located a vendor, I was willing to put down a little extra money to buy in bulk, instead of just buying one top. I went to the vendor and said, "Hey, if I buy ten [tops] from you, would you give me a little better deal?" And that helped develop a relationship with that guy, because he sent me great wood. He's thinking, "If I deliver and this wood's great, he's going to be back for more, and then we're both happy."
So all of the sudden you had ten really nice tops.
Yeah, I started out with ten really nice quilt tops, amongst a lot of other woods. And then my building started morphing; after I made the second guitar, and it worked, I thought, "I can improve." Then I made another one, and that was a little better. And then I ran out of money! That's when a friend of mine said, "Hey, I'll buy the parts if you'll build it." So he bought a piece of koa from Hawaii…
The thought of someone just picking up a nice piece of koa is baffling these days!
It wasn't the commodity it is now – it's like oil now, you know? Gold! But he bought the piece and I put it together. That was also the first time I did inlay work. He originally just wanted to go with the standard dots to be safe, but I thought, "Why don't you give me the opportunity to try some inlay on that thing." He kind of said, "Eh, I don't know," but I convinced him I could do it, even though I had never done it before. [laughs]
Did you have a book in front of you – "So You Want to Do Inlay?"
No! I've pretty much approached all of this just jumping in the dark, really.
It seems that your initial "let's just see what happens" approach has really paid off. Your guitars have a real uniqueness about them.
Definitely. This is a handmade guitar. As a matter of fact, I've got a short shop tour you can flip through on my website, and you come to a close up picture of my hands that says, "The most important tools in my shop." And that's really the truth. These days, guys are doing great things with CNC routers – you've really got to hand it to them – but if you can do it by hand, it really takes things to a different level.
Drea Armani archtop |
I do, because you don't develop them by pushing a giant button that says START. You just don't. But I do give those guys credit – they make excellent, consistent products. This is just a different thing.
I'll never say I've mastered the technique of building a guitar. I don't consider myself a master builder – I'm just a dude that has a little vision. I've improved my skills and put them together in a guitar that I feel is probably as great as anything that's out there. But I won't settle for that, I gotta keep pushing my skills to the limit.
That drive really shows in your new archtop, the Drea Armani. It's really a stunning design with a striking cutaway. How did this model come about?
I took a 15" body, which is common with a small-body archtop, and wanted something more player-focused, especially in a stage setting where a bigger box or an acoustic can be kind of cumbersome. I wanted this guitar to be more ergonomic, closer to your body, where you can feel it and it's not obtrusive.
The cutaway came about by just trying to be non-traditional, to have a little different look from everything else. It's also ultimately about access towards the top of the guitar. You can't get your hand in there a lot of times on a traditional guitar, so I thought, "Let's utilize those notes."
You showed me a half-finished version of your archtop, and the body design is pretty ingenious.
It's a neck-thru system; the pickups are actually mounted to the neck-thru block, and they're not touching the guitar top anywhere; nor is the guitar's top or back touching any part of the neck-thru truss. There's nothing connecting the top to the back of the guitar except the sides, meaning the top and back can vibrate freely.
I carve the back in a special way that transmits and pushes that focused sound. Then you have the neck-thru system, which fits in the body tightly, so sustain is maximized. It's a hollowbody archtop with an independent top and back, and a trem is optional.
I carve the back in a special way that transmits and pushes that focused sound. Then you have the neck-thru system, which fits in the body tightly, so sustain is maximized. It's a hollowbody archtop with an independent top and back, and a trem.
That's something you don't see everyday. What kind of a trem unit are you using?
It's a top-mounted Skyway tremolo. There's no back route here – nothing needs to be routed in the back of the guitar; no springs, no claw and no cover plate. And the electronics can't be loaded in from the top, because you can't fit the electronics through the pickup holes or the f-holes, so I had to make a side mount where all of the electronics go through. That hole eventually turns into the output jack.
If you don't choose the trem version, then you would receive the more traditional archtop bridge and tailpiece (all of which is handmade). The cool thing with this design is that I can put in the LB6 saddle transducer, which is an acoustic guitar bridge saddle piezo, so you can blend the humbuckers and the piezo together through the output jack. So if you have a stereo cord, two amps and an A/B box, you can send an acoustic signal to the acoustic amp. With everything you're playing, there's going to be an acoustic guitar doubling it. With a mono chord, you can mix the mag signal with the piezo using the blend knob and route that blended signal to one amp. The possibilities are endless.
It seems like a case of form and function working hand in hand.
It's functional, although I didn't invent it – any builder can do that right now. I'm just trying to maximize the guitar's design and sparkling clean tone. The other thing with this design is that I'm trying to get it to where you never lose that archtop vibe on the clean playing, but you can drive the guitar a little harder – you can overdrive it. A lot of people know that if you get overdrive anywhere near acoustic or archtop guitars, they want to take off. I'm not saying you can stand in front of a Marshall stack or hand it to James Hetfield, but you can overdrive this guitar significantly more than a regular archtop, if that's your thing. However, I figure most people will want to play it cleanly and it was designed for that purpose.
It's obvious that you've been thinking about this design for a long time.
Oh, definitely – you know, the sky's the limit as far as ideas go. They're just my vision – imagine going to Rembrandt and saying, "I want you to paint me this, and it's gotta look like this." You're stifling his art. You want to buy what he delivers, and that's basically what these guitars are.
And really, my ideas are just starting to evolve after doing this for twelve years. Right now, I'm working on acoustics. I want people to have the same reactions you're having when I go to guitar shows with these guitars. It's a double take.
I'll be honest, when I saw you down at the Dallas International Guitar Festival last year, I was hesitant to pick your guitars up, because they look like works of art.
But they're absolutely instruments. If it's your thing, go play it in a smoky bar every night.
Where do all of these ideas come from? Are they of the "Eureka!" kind, or do they form from hard work – sitting down with a sketchpad and putting pencil to paper?
You know what? I gotta be honest with you, there's several things I think about all the time. I think about God, my family, sex and guitars.
So you're the average guy!
[laughs] I'm the average guy. And those aren't in any specific order, but I'm always thinking about guitars. It's very strange – my kid will be shooting a basket and I'll be watching, thinking, "I wonder how that part is gonna fit with the other one." I honestly don't have enough life in me to get all of the ideas out. I won't live long enough to get them all out. It's kind of like a songwriter – that's what they are, that's what they emit. That's the essence of who they are.
Does that mean this is what you were born to do?
I honestly think this is what I was meant to do. It's about passion, it's about drive and it's about weathering the storms.
I take it you've had a few?
Yeah, but you've got to hang in there, you've gotta be who you are. From my perspective, a lot of guys aren't necessarily who you think they should be. I guess I'm trying to say that I just want to build great guitars and develop actual relationships with these people.
Is it hard to let these guitars go when they're done?
Dude, it seriously is. After it's gone, all I've got left is a photograph. And I can sit here and describe that guitar to you all day long, but until you put your hands on it and play it, you can't explain it.
You're apparently gearing up to change your company's name from Abyss Guitars to Kevin L. Pederson Custom Guitars. Why the shift from such an bold title to more of a personal one?
Well, when I named the company Abyss in the beginning, I thought people might be more interested in the instruments if it was more of a "corporate" thing – I didn't want to put my identity on it. I thought, "People aren't going to take my guitars as seriously if it's just me." But over the years of doing this, I realized that people are actually more interested in the fact that it's just one guy doing it, and they actually like that better than some big corporate thing. So I thought, "Why not just be who I am?" We're in the age of the custom builder, the boutique, the investment grade, and that's who I am, so why separate my identity from it now? It just says, "These are Kevin's guitars."
Are you at all worried about people getting confused once you change the name?
Kind of, yes. I want people to realize that it has always been me doing Abyss. The only thing that's changing is the name, not the guitars, and they're going to get better and better. It's putting my identity directly on the guitar, rather than stepping away from it.
With the name change, it feels like you'll be stepping into a more exclusive club of high-end custom builders. Are there any guys out there that you look up to?
I look up to all of them, really, because we're in a fraternity. We should all support each other; I don't feel like I'm better than any of them. But I want to be honest with the situation – my focus is on producing a handmade custom guitar that nobody else has. For instance, there are several builders out there that are hand making more model-specific guitars. It's a single cutaway, got flame binding and all that.
But they're all homogenous in a way.
Yeah, but not in a bad way – that's their intent. My focus is just more on the individual ideas and the instrument as a whole – the crazy inlays, the way it's put together.
I would imagine business is pretty good for you – will the name change also bring with it a change in pricing?
It has been pretty good, and you know, over the years of doing this, as each guitar gets more intricate the prices reflect that. But the people ordering realize that it's like a Harley. If you want a Harley, you have to buy a Harley. Sure, you can buy a Honda that looks like a Harley, you can buy a Yamaha that looks like a Harley, but if you want a Kevin L. Pederson Custom Guitar, you're going to have to give me a call and we'll start putting the ideas down. And the truth is I have a shelf life; I'm going to pass on one day, and you only live once, so sometimes you've just got to go for it.
Since we're speaking about the essence of your guitars, you're known for some pretty intricate, biblically-inspired inlays. Has it been natural for you to merge your religious beliefs with your craft?
I think it has been, because it's art, it's who you are; it's your background. The guitars are a part of me, so obviously it's going to come out in the guitars. I just feel like we all have a higher purpose. I believe God exists and I feel like you can have a personal relationship through Christ with Him, something you have to receive individually – but I'm not pushing that on people.
I've really changed as a person, man. I used to be a party rocker, a total party dude. And God came knocking on my heart and said, "You know what, Kevin, I got a bigger thing for you." And this is it.
Was guitar building a vehicle out of that previous life?
It was. Some people get hit on the head and it's an overnight thing. I'm a bit more stubborn – it was a longer road before I was able to change.
Is there something purifying about working with your hands?
Yeah. When I first started working at the cabinet shop in 1995, I had to ask a guy how to change the blade in a jigsaw. So you can see how I see it as a God-inspired change in my life.
Since you're producing investment-grade instruments, your natural pool of buyers is fairly limited. As a small builder, how do you continue to grow your business?
The website is obviously the hub, the nerve center or whatever you want to call it. Through that I can communicate with my customers – I put my latest news on there, which shows I'll be attending and so on. I have a lot of people who will email me to let me know they'll be at the Chicago show in May, for example. Word of mouth is also great, as I have repeat buyers. I have a customer in Orlando who has a $16,000 Presentation Elect on order, and he bought an $11,000 guitar before that.
What kinds of reactions do you get from customers returning to buy another?
My repeat customers are very impressed. They've been waiting and they're expecting something good and they have a lot of anticipation. My goal is to make him smile every time he opens the case. If you can do that, he'll be happy.
Has it been easy selling these high-end pieces online? One would think that people would still be a bit wary about shipping a deposit check to someone they found on the internet.
Ten years ago you couldn't fathom somebody paying $8000 for a guitar over the internet. Now that trust is being built, and I think validation of that is that you guys are talking with me. People are now more apt to drop $10,000 on a guitar because the dude in Texas they just emailed said it's the greatest thing he's ever seen. So it seems they're willing to take that trust and come over for a guitar.
As a matter of fact, I have a lot of customers who I've never talked to on the phone, never gotten emails from. I get one email, they tell me what they want, I send them a quote, they send me a check, I send them an email telling them it's done and that's it.
I think that speaks volumes about the quality of your craftsmanship – there's an incredible amount of confidence in your work.
Thank you. If I didn't feel I could do a great job, then I wouldn't pursue the business. You know, each guitar gets better – the guitars I make now are better than the guitars I made five years ago. I try to get better with each one.
Could you do any of this without the internet?
No. I mean, I could, but think how many years behind I'd be with conventional advertising. You would have to take all my international sales away – guitars sent to Germany, Japan, U.K., Sweden – unless they saw it in a print ad. So it would definitely be tough.
Considering your youthfulness, do you see yourself doing this the rest of your life?
You bet, dude. I can't even think of retiring.
Kevin L. Pederson Custom Guitars


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On Zend's DevZone site there's a new post about the Call for Creativity for this year's ZendCon PHP conference:
If you, or someone you know with connections to the developer community at large, have something to show, we would love to hear so we can showcase at this year's ZendCon. We are looking for music, digital artwork or video media submissions (including fun videos) which will be played or displayed at various places around the conference, with attribution, of course. Physical media submissions are also welcome though we will be limiting that to local artists.
They include some of the guidelines for submitting your work (with an obvious preference on digital media) including the formatting and what sort of topics it should be relevant to. Prizes will be offered to the winners - a spotlight in a ZendCon newsletter and press releases as well as exposure via each category on Zend's social media properties.
If you'd like to send in your submission, you can use the form on this page and link to the media you've created.


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VONN Venezia 3.5" VAP2201GL Integrated LED Pendant Light - Gold
Rise takes a thoughtful approach to assessing and choosing home improvement products and brands that prioritize homeowners' health, wealth, and the planet.
The VONN Artisan Collection is an LED energy-efficient solution for any residential as well as commercial setting. While contemporary, this unique Collection will complement any transitional or modern decor. Emphasis on design and function absolutely cannot stand short of quality.
The Venezia pendant light has a modern style with an oval-shaped glass shade. The glass shade is clear with bubble accents and polished chrome bottom.
These handcrafted masterpieces have a lightweight construction and can easily be installed in minutes. A combination of glass, fabric, and metals, the Artisan Art Deco LED lighting Collection employs a variety of colors and finishes to create a distinctive and futuristic effect while preserving the elegance and style of the past.
- Integrated LED fixture
- Gold finish
- Clear and Gold shade
- The cable locking pin allows the suspension height to be easily changed post-install
- Brightness: 288.4 lumens
- Dimmable LED (15%-100%) * Dimmer is not included
- Only compatible with ELV dimmers - wifi-smart, and universal dimmers are not compatible
- Certifications: ETL Certified, cETL, Title 20 Compliant, Title 24 Compliant, Prop 65 Compliant, Energy Star Compliant
- 6.01 Watts low power consumption ETL listed for dry locations
*Installer Tip: do not cut wires attached to the fixture under any circumstance. Excess cable should be neatly looped and tucked into the canopy
Order Processing and Shipping
Rise ships manufacturer direct. We work hard so you receive your product(s) as quickly as possible. Shipping times are subject to each carrier's daily cut-off time, and dependent upon warehouse turnaround. Learn more about our order processing & shipping times here.


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Eight players have been charged with disciplinary offences following incidents in First Utility Super League Round 20 fixtures.
Gareth Hock of Salford Red Devils has been charged with the Grade E offence of making deliberate physical contact with a match official in the 38th minute of a fixture against Hull FC on Saturday July 12.
Vincent Duport of Catalan Dragons has been charged with making Grade D dangerous contact with Wigan Warriors player Josh Charnley in the 42nd minute of a fixture played on Saturday July 12.
Catalan Dragons player Gregory Mounis has been charged with making a Grade C dangerous throw on Wigan Warriors player John Bateman in the 42nd minute of the same fixture.
Widnes Vikings player Phil Joseph has been charged with making Grade B dangerous contact on Wakefield Trinity Wildcats player Taulima Tautai in the 43rd minute of a fixture played on Thursday July 10.
Stefan Marsh of Widnes Vikings has been charged with making Grade A dangerous contact on Reece Lyne of Wakefield Trinity Wildcats in the 73rd minute of the same fixture.
Three players have been charged with striking in the 21st minute of the Warrington Wolves v London Broncos fixture played on Sunday July 13.
London Broncos player Olsi Krasniqi and Warrington Wolves player Chris Bridge have been charged with Grade A striking and London Broncos player Atelea Vea has been charged with Grade B striking.
All eight players were charged after the incidents were viewed by the RFL Match Review Panel, which also issued a formal caution to Widnes Vikings player Hep Cahill for raising the knee during a tackle.
Joseph, Marsh, Bridge, Krasniqi and Vea have until 11.00am on Tuesday July 15 to submit Early Guilty Pleas. Hock, Duport and Mounis do not have the option of submitting an EGP and will face an independent disciplinary tribunal on Tuesday July 15.


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Well-Known Hunter
So, it was kicked around about using the TDH material for TK409's neck seal. The big question: Is the material sewn with the shiny side on the inside? This was discussed but I did'ent really get weather or not this IS HOW it's done. Anybody know if this is the most common way or is it shiny side out like the vest? Thanks for any input


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Due to my focus on litigation between large operating companies, I rarely find the time to look at disputes involving smaller players and, particularly, non-practicing entities (NPEs). But a friendly patent litigator (whose firm is, to the best of my knowledge, not involved with any of the lawsuits I cover) sent me a publicly-accessible court filing that caught my interest because it relates to a legal issue of increasing importance in big-company disputes: the question of standing (the right to sue) after patent transfers.
This year, the ITC threw out five patents that Google had formally assigned to HTC, which immediately assert them against Apple, the reason for the dismissal being that Google retained some substantial rights in those patents, including the apparently unfettered right to grant sublicenses.
Four other patents that were (sort of) transferred under the same agreement are still at issue in a case HTC brought against Apple in Delaware. That district court will soon decide on Apple's motion to dismiss those patents and, as a result, an entire federal lawsuit.
Interestingly, the same Google that engaged in this kind of dubious dealing with HTC appears to advocate a very high standard for standing when it's on the receiving end of litigation. The filing I mentioned above is an October 26, 2012 motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by recently-founded NPE Suffolk Technologies, LLC against Google and AOL in the Eastern District of Virginia in June. The two patents-in-suit, U.S. Patent No. 6,334,132 on a "method and apparatus for creating a customized summary of text by selection of sub-sections thereof ranked by comparison to target data items" and U.S. Patent No. 6,081,835 on an "Internet server and method of controlling an [I]nternet server", used to belong to British Telecom (BT), which set off a chain of transfers involving, among other entities, a BT subsidiary, a patent monetization firm named IPValue (with which BT has been working closely since 2001), and ultimately the current owner and plaintiff, Suffolk, which according to the joint Google-AOL motion "came into being, and acquired its rights in the asserted patents, as part of IPValue's program of generating revenue for British Telecom". A 2001 press release stated that "[t]he new venture hopes to generate revenues of $100m per annum within six years by licensing BT's extensive array of patents in areas such as telecommunications, multimedia and wireless".
Google was already approached about those patents, by BT and IPValue, in 2008, prior to all these transfers. Google now speculates that "[w]hen those discussions did not go as it had hoped, British Telecom--apparently unwilling to participate in any potentially ensuing litigation and related document preservation and discovery obligations--transferred the asserted patents to its subsidiary BT Newgate LLC via intermediary companies". This claim has a plausibility problem: BT is also suing Google directly -- over six other patents in a litigation it brought in December 2011. BT must have had other reasons, such as limited bandwidth in its litigation department, for partnering with Suffolk. One of those possible reasons is that it's difficult to assert large numbers of patents in U.S. courts, which generally consolidate cases across districts and pressure plaintiffs to narrow their cases. Apple's enforcement efforts against HTC -- with 32 patents-in-suit waiting for adjudication in federal court -- is a good example.
Google alleges that "[b]y reserving numerous substantial rights for itself, [...] British Telecom has made it such that Suffolk does not have standing to maintain this suit". This is precisely what Apple argued in the ITC investigation of HTC's second complaint and is still arguing in federal court in Delaware.
Just like Apple felt that the whole purpose of the Google-HTC patent deal was just for HTC to sue Apple on Google's behalf, Google now says that "even a cursory review of the contractual arrangements shows that what Suffolk has it at best a mere 'hunting license' to act as British Telecom's agent in licensing". According to Google, British Telecom "may want to use Suffolk as a convenient shell entity".
Google mostly argues with U.S. case law on standing, but it also says, more generally, that "in any case these arrangements [between BT and Suffolk] also violate public policy", essentially arguing that this is not in line with the goals and principles of patent law.
The motion is heavily redacted and provides even less information about the alleged deficiencies of the BT-Suffolk deal than the non-redacted parts of the Apple-HTC standing dispute revealed. Maybe Google is right and BT retained one or more of the substantial rights that Suffolk would need to have in order to sue. If so, the pot is calling the kettle black.
If you'd like to be updated on the smartphone patent disputes and other intellectual property matters I cover, please subscribe to my RSS feed (in the right-hand column) and/or follow me on Twitter @FOSSpatents and Google+.
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- Home
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This division is responsible for the operation of various engineering functions including design and construction oversight of capital projects, development services, transportation / traffic engineering, and infrastructure construction inspection.
Capital Engineering
The primary goal of the City of Woodland Capital Projects Design, Construction and Inspection staff is to provide public works infrastructure (transportation system and utilities) and related facilities and services in a cost effective manner, to meet the current and projected needs of the City and its residents.
Members of the City of Woodland Capital Projects: Design, Construction and Inspection staff are available to assist you at any stage of the process to answer questions and to receive and provide feedback to assure a complete, professional end product. Suggestions in any area which can improve processes and contribute to the continued harmonious relationship amongst our Team, which includes General Contractors, Professionals/Consultants, and residents of Woodland are welcomed and encouraged.
Development Engineering
The primary goal of the City of Woodland Development Engineering staff is to provide the overall management and coordination of the following services: Permit and Project Processing, City Property Management, Mapping, and Planning.
Transportation Engineering
The primary goal of the City of Woodland Traffic Engineering staff is to attain the safest and most efficient over-all traffic flow possible.
Utility Engineering
The primary goal of the City of Woodland Utility Engineering division is for long-term infrastructure planning for the City's water, sewer and stormwater utilities and to successfully meet all laws set by regulatory state and federal agencies governing municipal utilities.


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