text:
What makes horror games so scary?
The horror game tricks and levels that fill players with fear
How do you scare a god? Make no mistake, that's what we are in horror games. We can't be hurt. We can't be killed – at least not for more than a few seconds.
We know it's all just a game, and any time we want, we can just turn the lights on and calm down with a bootleg copy of Sesame Street.
Experiences that in real-life would have us in therapy for decades are just another level to be conquered. And yet, done properly, there's nothing quite like a scary game – nothing that sticks in the mind more than that sheer sense of fear, of revulsion, of fighting through the mental pain barrier and setting foot in the spider's lair, or through the facehugger infested corridor, or opening that sinister door with the scratching sounds on the other side.
Horror has power too, and developers have never shied away from using it. Settings, genres and graphics aside, there are several basic ways to scare a player.
Most blatantly, there's the traditional ooga-booga routines of something lurching out of the darkness with slathering jaws and a mind to kill. The most effective of these in recent years is Monolith's Condemned, which started off with psychopathic bums and reached its zenith in the sequel with a giant bear on the rampage.
The first real example of this style, however, came back in 1982, with 3D Monster Maze; the monster being a T-rex that hunted you down as you tried to find the exit. The graphics were simple, but the real power came in the little text bar that silently warned: "He is hunting for you…" or "Footsteps approaching…"
Demons of the night
Easily the most terrifying of the jump-scare monsters are the 'face attack' type. There are two basic kinds, both incredibly intimidating. The first is a monster that gets right into your face, biting or whacking at it with some kind of limb or tentacle – usually some horribly mutated, moaning horror you'd much rather keep at a distance, or something with some atavistic horror element to it, like a giant spider or a rat.
Quake had The Fiend, the first time this had been done in 3D. The more refined Half-Life 2 uses two different types of headcrab to get this effect: the regular ones, which take off a bit of damage and then bounce off, and the black 'poison' headcrabs. These are particularly evil because they can't kill you, only sap your health, letting Valve's designers use them wherever they think will be scariest. See a crate? Smash it. Ooh, hea-POISON HEADCRAB ATTACK!
AVP: All together now: "They're coming outta the walls. They're coming outta the goddamn walls!"
Your high-pitched scream is the designer's reward. Far worse, however, are the outright facehuggers, named after the most terrifying alien from the Aliens vs. Predator series. We don't see many of these – thankfully, because for many people (including your humble writer) they're a game-killer.
One minute you're happily walking along, the next your screen is entirely filled with a slurping horror, and your wireless mouse is arcing through the window. No other game has had anything quite so horrible, although we've seen disembodied hands, slime monsters, and a few other attempts in other games.
Oddly, the most recent of these turned out to be built around a very different kind of hug - Alma, the psychic villain of FEAR 2, would often spring out of nowhere to try and absorb your character into her, kicking off an impromptu Quick Time event as you struggled to push her off. Still creepy, but mostly annoying. Especially since if you read FEAR 2's backstory, it's hard not to be on her side.
Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?
The problem for games built around short sharp shocks is that eventually, you get used to them. Doom 3 for instance made heavy use of 'monster closets': sealed off bits of the map that would open up as you walked through rooms or grabbed items.
The first couple of times a snarling demon leaps on you is scary, but if the game keeps pulling the same trick, you start expecting it. The more times you beat an enemy, the less scary it is. The further you get into a game, the more likely it is that you're tooled up to deal with it. Likewise, the more times you die to something, the more it sinks in that no, you're not really in any danger.
The smart horror games anticipate this, especially the action games. There's a distinct competence curve built into the genre, which usually means that you stumble around for a few levels effectively unarmed and prey to everything with fangs and talons, then slowly tool yourself up until you're ready to take the action to the enemy.
This usually brings a genre shift along with it, either into straight shooting for FPS games, or some way of widening the story. Realms of the Haunting, for instance, begins as a straight haunted house mystery complete with spooky typewriters rattling out gibberish and rooms filled with dead rats, but quickly turns into a fantasy story about demons and the apocalypse.
Clive Barker's Undying does something similar, only with time travel and a series of cackling mini-bosses lining up in an endless shooting gallery. Whatever the case, while the opening level will usually be whichever 'Them' is responsible for the day's chaos invading your world/life (metaphorically or not) in some overpowering way, while the ending will usually be you ramming rockets down their leader's throat, probably at the seat of his power.
For adventure games, like Phantasmagoria or I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream or Sanitarium, replace the guns with discovering what the baddie is up to, and finally pulling apart whatever they're trying to achieve with all the ooga-booga nonsense.
Either way, the hunted almost inevitably becomes the hunter because it's only so much fun being the prey. There are exceptions to the rule, like Silent Hill 2, but not very many.
Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox
Get the hottest deals available in your inbox plus news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more from the TechRadar team.
Most Popular
By David Nield


text:
« Prev | The Writings of Irenæus against the Schismatics… | Next » |
Chapter XX.—The Writings of Irenæus against the Schismatics at Rome.
1. Irenæus16611661 On Irenæus, see Bk. IV. chap. 21, note 9. wrote several letters against those who were disturbing the sound ordinance of the Church at Rome. One of them was to Blastus On Schism;16621662 Eusebius, in chap. 15, informs us that both Blastus and Florinus drew many away from the church of Rome by their heretical innovations. He does not tell us either there or here the nature of the opinions which Blastus held, but from Pseudo-Tertullian's Adv. omnes Hær. chap. 8, we learn that Blastus was a Quartodeciman. ("In addition to all these, there is likewise Blastus, who would latently introduce Judaism. For he says the passover is not to be kept otherwise than according to the law of Moses, on the fourteenth of the month.") From Pacianus' Epistola ad Sympronian. de catholico nomine, chap. 2, we learn that he was a Montanist; and since the Montanists of Asia Minor were, like the other Christians of that region, Quartodecimans, it is not surprising that Blastus should be at the same time a Montanist and a Quartodeciman. Florinus, as will be shown in the next note, taught his heresies while Victor was bishop of Rome (189–198 or 199); and since Eusebius connects Blastus so closely with him, we may conclude that Blastus flourished at about the same time. Irenæus' epistle to Blastus, On Schism, is no longer extant. A Syriac fragment of an epistle of Irenæus, addressed to "an Alexandrian," on the paschal question (Fragment 27 in Harvey's edition) is possibly a part of this lost epistle. If the one referred to in this fragment be Blastus, he was an Alexandrian, and in that case must have adopted the Quartodeciman position under the influence of the Asiatic Montanists, for the paschal calendar of the Alexandrian church was the same as that of Rome (see the Dict. of Christ. Biog. III. p. 264). If Blastus was a Montanist, as stated by Pacianus, his heresy was quite different from that of Florinus (who was a Gnostic); and the fact that they were leaders of different heresies is confirmed by the words of Eusebius in chap. 15, above: "Each one striving to introduce his own innovations in respect to the truth." Whether Blastus, like Florinus, was a presbyter, and like him was deposed from his office, we do not know, but the words of Eusebius in chap. 15 seem to favor this supposition. another to Florinus 238On Monarchy,16631663 Florinus, as we learn from chap. 15, was for a time a presbyter of the Roman Church, but lost his office on account of heresy. From the fragment of this epistle of Irenæus to Florinus quoted by Eusebius just below, we learn that Florinus was somewhat older than Irenæus, but like him a disciple of Polycarp. The title of this epistle shows that Florinus was already a Gnostic, or at least inclined toward Gnostic views. Eusebius evidently had no direct knowledge of the opinions of Florinus on the origin of evil, for he says that he appeared to maintain (ἐδόκει προασπίζειν) the opinion that God was the author of evil. Eusebius' conclusion is accepted by most ancient and modern writers, but it is suggested by Salmon (Dict. of Christ. Biog. II. 544) that Eusebius was perhaps mistaken, "for, since the characteristic of dualism is not to make God the author of evil, but to clear him from the charge by ascribing evil to an independent origin, the title would lead us to think that the letter was directed, not against one who had himself held God to be the author of evil, but against one who had charged the doctrine of a single first principle with necessarily leading to this conclusion. And we should have supposed that the object of Irenæus was to show that it was possible to assert God to be the sole origin and ruler of the universe, without holding evil to be his work." Since Eusebius had seen the epistle of Irenæus to Florinus, it is difficult to understand how he can have misconceived Florinus' position. At the same time, he does not state it with positiveness; and the fact that Florinus, if not already, certainly was soon afterward a Valentinian, and hence a dualist, makes Salmon's supposition very plausible. Florinus is not mentioned in Irenæus' great work against heresies, nor by Tertullian, Pseudo-Tertullian, Hippolytus, or Epiphanius. It is probable, therefore, that he was not named in Hippolytus' earlier work, nor in the lectures of Irenæus which formed the groundwork (see Salmon, l.c.). The silence of Irenæus is easily explained by supposing Florinus' fall into heresy to have taken place after the composition of his lectures against heresies and of his great work; and the silence of the later writers is probably due to the fact that Irenæus' work makes no mention of him and that, whatever his influence may have been during his lifetime, it did not last, and hence his name attracted no particular attention after his death.
It has been maintained by some (e.g. Lightfoot in the Contemporary Review, 1875, p. 834) that this epistle to Florinus was one of the earliest of Irenæus' writings but Lipsius (Dict. of Christ. Biog. III. 263) has given other and satisfactory reasons for thinking that Florinus' heresy, and therefore Irenæus' epistle and his work On the Ogdoad, belonged to the time of Victor, and hence were later than the work Against Heresies. A Syriac fragment of an epistle concerning Florinus, addressed by Irenæus to Victor (Harvey's edition, Fragm. 28), is extant, and supports Lipsius' conclusion. It would seem that Irenæus, subsequent to the writing of his great work, learning that Florinus was holding heretical opinions on the origin of evil, addressed him the epistle mentioned in this chapter. That afterward, Florinus having embraced Valentinianism, and having written "an abominable book" (as the fragment just referred to says), Irenæus wrote his work On the Ogdoad, and subsequently addressed his epistle to Victor, calling upon him to take decisive measures against Florinus, now seen to be a regular heretic. What was the result of Irenæus' epistles and book we do not know; we hear nothing more about the matter, nor do we know anything more about Florinus (for Augustine's mention of Florinus as the founder of a sect of Floriniani is a mistake; see Salmon, l.c.). or That God is not the Author of Evil. For Florinus seemed to be defending this opinion. And because he was being drawn away by the error of Valentinus, Irenæus wrote his work On the Ogdoad,16641664 This treatise, On the Ogdoad, is no longer extant, though it is probable that we have a few fragments of it (see Harvey, I. clxvi.). The importance which Irenæus attached to this work is seen from the solemn adjuration with which he closed it. It must have been largely identical in substance with the portions of his Adv. Hær. which deal with the æons of the Valentinians. It may have been little more than an enlargement of those portions of the earlier work. The Ogdoad (Greek, ὀγδόας, a word signifying primarily a thing in eight parts) occupied a prominent place in the speculations of the Gnostics. Valentinus taught eight primary æons, in four pairs, as the root and origin of the other æons and of all beings. These eight he called the first or primary Ogdoad; and hence a work upon the Ogdoad, written against a Valentinian, must, of course, be a general discussion of the Valentinian doctrine of the æons. The word Ogdoad was not used by all the Gnostics in the same sense. It was quite commonly employed to denote the supercelestial region which lay above the seven planetary spheres (or Hebdomad), and hence above the control of the seven angels who severally presided over these spheres. In the Valentinian system a higher sphere, the Pleroma, the abode of the æons, was added, and the supercelestial sphere, the Ogdoad of the other systems, was commonly called the Mesotes. or middle region. For further particulars in regard to the Ogdoad, see Salmon's articles Hebdomad and Ogdoad in the Dict. of Christ. Biog. in which he shows that he himself had been acquainted with the first successors of the apostles.16651665 Literally, "in which he shows that he himself had seized upon (κατειληφέναι) the first succession (διαδοχήν) of the apostles." In order to emphasize the fact that he was teaching true doctrine, he pointed out, as he did so often elsewhere, the circumstance that he was personally acquainted with disciples of the apostles.
2. At the close of the treatise we have found a most beautiful note which we are constrained to insert in this work.16661666 It was not at all uncommon for copyists, both by accident and by design, to make changes, often serious, in copying books. We have an instance of intentional alterations mentioned in Bk. IV. chap. 23. It is not at all strange, therefore, that such an adjuration should be attached to a work which its author considered especially liable to corruption, or whose accurate transcription be regarded as peculiarly important. Compare the warning given in Rev. xxii. 18, 19. The fragments from Irenæus' works preserved in this chapter are translated in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, I. p. 568 sq. It runs as follows:
"I adjure thee who mayest copy this book, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by his glorious advent when he comes to judge the living and the dead, to compare what thou shalt write, and correct it carefully by this manuscript, and also to write this adjuration, and place it in the copy."
3. These things may be profitably read in his work, and related by us, that we may have those ancient and truly holy men as the best example of painstaking carefulness.
4. In the letter to Florinus, of which we have spoken,16671667 The epistle On Monarchy mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. Irenæus mentions again his intimacy with Polycarp, saying:
"These doctrines, O Florinus, to speak mildly, are not of sound judgment. These doctrines disagree with the Church, and drive into the greatest impiety those who accept them. These doctrines, not even the heretics outside of the Church, have ever dared to publish. These doctrines, the presbyters who were before us, and who were companions of the apostles, did not deliver to thee.
5. "For when I was a boy, I saw thee in lower Asia with Polycarp, moving in splendor in the royal court,16681668 ἐν τῇ βασιλικῇ αὐλῇ. This expression is a little puzzling, as the word βασιλική implies the imperial court, and could not properly be used of the provincial court of the proconsul. No sojourn of an emperor in Asia Minor is known which will meet the chronology of the case; and hence Lightfoot (Contemporary Review May, 1875, p. 834) has offered the plausible suggestion that the words may have been loosely employed to denote the court of Titus Aurelius Fulvus, who was proconsul of Asia about 136 a.d., and afterward became the emperor Antoninus Pius. and endeavoring to gain his approbation.
6. I remember the events of that time more clearly than those of recent years. For what boys learn, growing with their mind, becomes joined with it; so that I am able to describe the very place in which the blessed Polycarp sat as he discoursed, and his goings out and his comings in, and the man239ner of his life, and his physical appearance, and his discourses to the people, and the accounts which he gave of his intercourse with John and with the others who had seen the Lord. And as he remembered their words, and what he heard from them concerning the Lord, and concerning his miracles and his teaching, having received them from eyewitnesses of the 'Word of life,'16691669 1 John i. 1. Polycarp related all things in harmony with the Scriptures.
7. These things being told me by the mercy of God, I listened to them attentively, noting them down, not on paper, but in my heart. And continually, through God's grace, I recall them faithfully. And I am able to bear witness before God that if that blessed and apostolic presbyter had heard any such thing, he would have cried out, and stopped his ears, and as was his custom, would have exclaimed, O good God, unto what times hast thou spared me that I should endure these things? And he would have fled from the place where, sitting or standing, he had heard such words.16701670 This would have been quite like Polycarp, who appears to have had a special horror of heretics. Compare his words to Marcion, quoted above, in Bk. IV. chap. 14. He seems to have inherited this horror from John the apostle, if Irenæus' account is to be believed; see Adv. Hær. III. 3, 4, quoted by Eusebius in Bk. III. chap. 28, and in Bk. IV. chap. 14.
8. And this can be shown plainly from the letters16711671 We know of only one epistle by Polycarp, that to the Philippians, which is still extant. Upon his life and epistle, see Bk. IV. chap. 14, notes 5 and 16. which he sent, either to the neighboring churches for their confirmation, or to some of the brethren, admonishing and exhorting them." Thus far Irenæus.
« Prev | The Writings of Irenæus against the Schismatics… | Next » |

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Although the game between the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos is still fresh on people's minds, New York Jets fans really only care about two Super Bowls.
First and foremost is Super Bowl III, when the Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts, 16-7. Then there's Super Bowl XLIX. That's 49 for those of you who are Roman-numeral illiterate, or, put another way, the next opportunity that we have to get to — and win — a second Super Bowl.
One man who played a big role in leading us to our championship is Emerson Boozer, the running back who visited Jets House in Manhattan during the week of the big game and discussed Super Bowls past, present and future.
His favorite moment from Super Bowl III?
"Hearing Baltimore's defense plead and cry and scream to pick up the steam because they were going to lose it," he said. "It was slipping away."
Boozer gained 19 yards on 10 carries that day, but his blocking helped lead fellow back Matt Snell to 121 yards and a touchdown on the ground along with an additional 40 yards receiving. In fact, his block was the last one Snell needed as he scored the Jets' only touchdown on a 4-yard run in the second quarter.
Boozer's thoughts on New York and New Jersey hosting Super Bowl XLVIII?
"It's probably the number one spot to host it," he said. "There are some great cities in this country that do a good job hosting large events, but none can do it like the Big Apple."
For the Jets specifically, having the sport's biggest game played in their backyard gives them "a taste of what can be and what will be eventually," he added. "That's why I'm participating, because I know this club will get back there. It's just I don't know when."
And his feelings on the Jets winning their next Super Bowl, whenever that may be?
"It would mean the world to this organization," he said. "They've had one, but they've waited a long time to get back to another, and I'm hoping that it's done before my life expires. I was 26 when we won it the last time, and now I'm 70, so time is fleeting. I'd like to see another Jets championship before my demise."
Boozer was named to two AFL all-star teams, as a rookie in 1966 and in his third season as a pro, 1968. He led the league with 10 rushing touchdowns in 1967 despite playing in only eight games in an injury-shortened season. He earned team MVP honors in 1973 following a career-high 831 rushing yards on 182 carries (4.6 average). He scored three times apiece rushing and receiving that year.
For all these reasons and more, it's no surprise that he received a warm welcome on an otherwise chilly trip to the New York/New Jersey region.
"It has been an outpouring of appreciation, love, and hopefully understanding," he said. "Certainly it has been nothing except sensational from the friendship that's been shown, the love that's been shown for being one of the guys from the yesteryear Jets teams."


text:
Redeem is a renewable biofuel that is cheaper than gasoline, and burns 90 percent cleaner.
An innovative new fuel is now available here in Southern California. It's clean, cheap, and made from an unlikely source -- trash.
Trash that is thrown away generates pollution as it decomposes, releasing tons of methane gas into the atmosphere. Cars also spew out soot and smog that pollute the air.
Now, a Southern California company has figured out a way of capturing methane that escapes from landfills and farms, and turning it into clean fuel.
Harrison Clay, President and CEO of Clean Energy Renewable Fuels, explained how the science-fiction-turned-reality is done.
"At landfills we drill holes and wells into the landfill, we drop in slotted pipes and we vacuum and we pull the gas that's being produced within that landfill," Clay said. "We pull that gas out and then we process it until it's pipeline quality, which means it's the same as what comes out of your stovetop and what you cook your food with probably every night."
This renewable gas -- called Redeem -- is heavy-duty. It can power 18-wheelers and any natural gas vehicle.
Hugo Gonzalez fills up his trucks with Redeem near the Port of Long Beach. He is a manager for Lily Transportation. His company invested in eight trucks that can run on natural gas.
"Fuel is one of the main costs, one of the biggest costs that we have, and switching over to CNG has saved us probably $40,000 a year," Gonzalez said.
That saving comes because Redeem is about a dollar less per gallon than diesel, thanks to state and federal clean air incentives.
California has imposed strict regulations to help reduce carbon emissions by the year 2020. Redeem burns 90 percent cleaner than conventional gasoline when used to power cars and trucks.
"You could see the difference. When you turn the truck on, you don't see anything, you don't smell anything. You smell a very light scent of gas, but other than that you don't see black smoke, you don't see anything. Not even when you start, when you take off from the truck," Gonzalez said.
Redeem is now being sold at some 35 clean energy stations in California – thousands of cars, shuttles and commercial fleets are running on the fuel now. Last year, 15 million gallons were sold, which in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, is equivalent to taking 30,000 passenger cars off the road, according to Clay.
"The largest biomethane fueling operation in the world -- and something that we expect to double, triple, quadruple in terms of volume in the coming years," Clay said.


text:
Blue Skies Lite
- Publisher: Chris Egerter
- Genre: Action
- Released: 12 Feb, 2019
- Size: 33.7 MB
- Price: FREE!
- App Store Info
NEWS: Doodle/retro version now available! Search for Doodle Chopper on the App Store.BLUE SKIES LITE - The award winning original multidirectional iPhone helicopter shooter! Now you can enjoy the first 7 levels of the best shooter available on the iPhone for FREE.
You are a new recruit at the elite Blue Skies Air Force Academy. Master Sergeant Harris is teaching you to fly a helicopter when the evil Hans Kraven interrupts and begins invading your country! It is your job to prevent Hans and his eccentric henchmen Bruno, Rachel, and the mysterious ninja Takeshi from world domination.
Use the accelerometer to pilot your helicopter and out maneuver enemy tanks, planes, helicopters, blimps and mines.
Full version includes:
*30 Levels of addictive search and destroy action
*Pick up bonus health, gas, and cash from downed enemies.
*Use cash to research better weapons in the R&D lab.
*A pulse pounding soundtrack of 10 techno rock songs
*10 different weapons including missiles, bombs, lasers and
*Save at any point, play through story at your own pace.
*Arcade mode for instant action and unlimited levels
*3 difficulty settings
*Rain and weather effects
*5 hours of gameplay in story mode
Developer Notes:
To pause the game, click the power button on top the device.
The full game gets much harder with 200 enemies on a level, helicopters that chase you, and enemies with stronger weapons.
More RPG Games:
Doodle Chopper, Puppet Jump, Puppet Sprint, Puppet Labyrinth, Super Soccer Kick 3D, Super Football Kick 3D, Pocket Farm, iFishing, iFishing Saltwater, Dark Raider, Dark Raider S, Blue Skies, Blue Skies 3GS, The Guy Game, The Girl Game, Asteroids 3K


text:
The World Gold Council (WGC) reaffirmed the power of the Love Trade in its 2011 Gold Demand Trends report released this week. Gold demand grew 0.4 percent in 2011 despite a 28 percent year-over-year increase in bullion's average price.
After flirting with the top spot for some time, China emerged as the world's largest gold market for jewelry and investment during the fourth quarter of 2011 as demand in India weakened. This is the first time China's demand outpaced India's in 11 quarters. However, India did retain the gold demand crown for the entire year, purchasing 933 tons compared to China's demand of 770 tons.
I always say the trend is your friend, and I believe China's increasing demand for gold is one trend that is just getting started. Although gold imports from Hong Kong were cut in half in December, HSBC Global Research reports that overall gold imports from Hong Kong were 10 times the historical average from January through November 2011. HSBC expects a continued rise in Chinese incomes will keep demand at a robust pace. The WGC sees domestic demand for gold jewelry and investment driving 20 percent growth in Chinese gold demand during 2012.
China should consider its leadership as the No. 1 gold market a short-term position, though. While China's presence in the bullion market is strong and growing for jewelry and investment, India's ancient relationship with the yellow metal is such that "domestic drivers of demand are largely independent of outside forces," says the WGC. The WGC does not see India's role in the gold market diminishing over the long term.
Ajay Mitra, the WGC's managing director for the Middle East and India, recently expressed India's strong ties with gold in a 60 Minutes feature. Gold has always been a part of India's history, culture and tradition. I have witnessed firsthand the strength of this bond many times over the years. As the famous saying goes, "no gold, no wedding."
Don't Forget About the Fear Trade
The Fear Trade was also recently reaffirmed by the Federal Reserve when it publicly stated its intention to keep inflation at "exceptionally low levels" through 2014. Inflation is the kryptonite to the Fed's monetary efforts and it's likely the Fed will take any measures necessary to prevent inflation spikes.
The Fed has targeted a 2 percent inflation rate, which means the U.S. dollar will lose 33 percent of its value over the next 20 years, says The Daily Reckoning's Charles Kadlec. In the next four years alone, nearly 10 percent of the "value of Americans' hard earned savings" will be destroyed, says Charles.
Put another way, Charles estimates that it will take $150 in the year 2032 to purchase the same amount of goods you could get for $100 in 2012.
Charles isn't the only one opposed to the Fed's "monetary manipulation." In his latest letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett faults the government and its "systemic forces" for destroying the purchasing power of investors. He argues stock investments offer the best long-term investment opportunity because interest rate levels don't offset the loss of purchasing power due to inflation.
However, there is one group that benefits from the low interest rate environment—borrowers. This means the largest borrowers in the world, developed world governments, will be able to service their enormous amounts of debt more easily. This year alone, the U.S., Japan and Europe will roll over $8 trillion in federal debt.
CIBC World Markets sees the secular bull market in gold continuing for "several years," as the firm believes debt in major economies have reached a point "where financial and economic pressures will manifest themselves in ways that have up until now only been dreamed about." With these manifestations, Ian McAvity equates gold to insurance. He suggests to readers that they wouldn't cancel fire insurance because their house hasn't had a fire. "Gold proffers the best ability to protect long-term purchasing power against deliberate devaluation of the paper alternatives," he concludes.
For evidence of this, one needs to look no further than the significant gold purchases by central banks over the past few years. Emerging markets' central banks have been the strongest buyers, experiencing a record increase in gold purchases last year. After building up their reserves during most of the post-World War II period, central banks' gold holdings remained stable. Following the end of the cold war, they began a selling spree, helping to "explain bullion's profound price weakness" during the 1990s, says HSBC Global Research.
The trend started to reverse about the same time the Fed cut interest rates in 2007, says Adrian Ash from Bullionvault. Now, total gold holdings sit at a six-year high with the total current amount of gold reserves sitting around 31,000 tons. In 2011 alone, the WGC says central banks had a net purchase of 440 tons, the highest figure since 1964.
The WGC says central banks are concerned about the creditworthiness and low yields of their existing reserve assets held in dollars and the euro. Their solution: diversify with gold.
Value is in the Eye of the Beholder
In Bangkok Thailand, the Buddhist temple Wat Traimit is home to the largest golden Buddha in the world. In its lotus position, the statue is over 15 feet tall and weighs five tons; if it were solid gold, it would account for 3 percent of the world's mined gold.
For two centuries, the statue was thought to be worthless because it was covered in plaster to protect the figure from a Burmese attack.
As the story goes, when the Buddha was moved to a new temple in the 1950s, it slipped from the crane and fell. That night, a monk dreamed the statue was divinely inspired, which prompted him to visit the Buddha image. Through a crack in the plaster, he saw a glint of yellow and the statue's true beauty was revealed. At today's price of gold, the Buddha is worth more than $277 million.
Sometimes the true value of things isn't always apparent. Like the Golden Buddha, the true value of gold miners has remained hidden while the price of bullion has shined. CIBC noted in its February report that gold equities have "undergone significant multiple compression and now trade well below historical averages."
Here's just one illustration of how cheap gold stocks appear compared to gold. The yellow line represents the number of gold and silver index units that can be purchased with one ounce of gold. While the historical ratio averaged 4.5, today an investor can buy more than 8 units of the XAU to one ounce of gold. In other words, shares of gold mining companies can be purchased at one of the cheapest levels in nearly 30 years.
Dave Rosenberg from Gluskin Sheff also favors gold equities. He particularly likes miners who can grow production and reserves while keeping costs under control. "Because input costs tend to be more positively correlated in the early years of a rally, history has shown that the equities tend to dramatically outperform the bullion in the later stages of a gold bull market." He suggests buying undervalued gold mining stocks in politically safe areas with higher-grade projects and a relatively simple way of extracting the metal.
For thousands of years, pharaohs, explorers, rulers and investors have been attracted to gold, as the precious metal has been a vital tool in building and protecting wealth. While gold naysayers focus on the day-to-day fluctuations in price, I believe gold equities and bullion will continue to enjoy "maximum popularity," as the Oracle of Omaha puts it, for years to come. The allure of gold—whether it is from Fear or Love—cannot be underestimated.
Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!


text:
Michael Jackson died while he was still young, famous and weird. He died while many of his fans were still unfamiliar with seeing their heroes exit the stage. He died on the cusp of a possible comeback. All this, plus the unexpectedness of it he was only 50 made his death on June 26 one of those events that's difficult to process as an individual. Grief for a public figure, like gossip or a great song, is much more powerful when it is shared.
Jackson's death was also the first of its kind to occur in the new media world, where news can come from anywhere and gets passed around the Web on Twitter feeds and Facebook updates and story comments with millions of individuals volunteering their particular insight or spin or emotion. Instead of a few media monoliths speaking for us all, Jackson's fans, detractors and impartial observers all spoke for themselves. This story should have provided a blueprint for how new media has overthrown old. But what it actually did was shine a white hot spotlight on the myths of the current media landscape:


text:
Over at IEEE Tech Talk, Dexter Johnson points out a flurry of interest in "nanobots" over the past week, casting quite a wide net that ranges from Nadrian Seeman's experimental lab work to Ray Kurzweil's hopeful dreams for the far future. He also tosses a bit of credit in my direction — thanks! — and then proceeds to detail why he thinks all this interest has suddenly appeared:
But if I may apply some dime-store psychology to this sudden surge of interest, it might be due to things just being so terrible at the moment were in. It is far better to imagine some day in the future when we can use nanobots to bring our lost loved ones back to life, or to press the button on our home-installed nanofactory that says "Ferrari".
We can dream about that or face the grim realities of the now.
I can see that it's time for a little economics lesson.
We are not, as far as I know, faced here on planet Earth with a Vogon Constructor Fleet poised to blast us to nanoparticles. There is no raging plague decimating the population, as happened in the Black Death. There is no worldwide total war, as there was just 65 years ago. Even disco appears to have abated somewhat.
Just what, then, are these things that are so terrible?
What's happened is that lots of people made bad investment decisions, and the investments didn't pay off. Of course this happens all the time, but in a crash like the one we're having now, it's the result of a lot of people making the same bad decisions based on the same bad, but generally believed, information. Then the bubble pops when it is finally understood that whatever it was that people believed, such as the monotonicity of the value of tulips or housing, was wrong. But the bubble itself doesn't have anything to do with tulips or whatever per se — it's a knowledge bubble, the widespread belief in an untruth.
How can a knowledge bubble can be stable enough to build to catastrophic proportions? There are various feedback mechanisms, but one that is particularly pernicious is the all-too-human tendency of a community of experts to marginalize and deride anyone who disagrees with them. This insulates them from lots of annoying cranks but also from the occasional legitimate criticism. Over time, this insulation can form a self-sustaining knowledge bubble.
One of the minor knowledge bubbles that contributed to the foam of the past decade can be seen in the following articles about the same company by the same writer, in 2003:
In a relatively short time, carbon nanotubes–thin tubes of carbon atoms that have unusual characteristics because of their unique structure–have emerged as a miracle material that could revolutionize a number of industries.
Perfecting these applications and mass manufacturing nanotubes, however, will take years, scientists and nanotechnology experts have said. As a result, carbon nanotubes are still more like science projects than commonly employed industrial materials.
Yes, I have these in the right order.
Now I'm sure that someone reading this is going to object as follows: "But the experts who were putting forward these claims for nanotubes weren't marginalizing people who said that nanotubes weren't going to revolutionize industry; they were marginalizing people who made even more outrageous claims." I'm sure the nano-critics believe exactly this when they inveigh against proponents of molecular manufacturing.
But this conceals a very basic and very crucial error (one that Foresight has been warning about for a long, long time). It conflates science, engineering, and futurism — and they are very different things.
- Science is the search for knowledge about the universe. It involves making theories and predictions and doing experiments to test them. Science is necessarily mostly bottom-up — it doesn't do much good to have a theory of how the parts of a complex system interact if you can't predict how the parts work individually.
- Engineering is the practice of using existing knowledge to build specific machines. Engineering is often top-down — you decide what you need to build, break it into subsystems, design the subsystems, and so on to known mechanisms at the bottom.
- Futurism is the art — neither science nor engineering — of using a broad range of types of knowledge, including both science and engineering but also history, economics, and even psychology, in the attempt to spy the broad profiles of possible futures that might lie ahead.
I claim that the nano-bubble, which thankfully lies mostly behind us, had mostly to do with scientists attempting to be engineers while feeling that they had to compete with futurists. By and large, scientists do not make good futurists; the requisite habits of thought differ too drastically. The key difference in the case of nanotechnology, was that the futurists were saying "you have to build productive machines with atomic precision, and then much becomes possible." This was completely in the futurists area of concern. In the next decade or two, it will move into the engineer's area. But the only scientists who should have been talking about whether self-replicating molecular machines were possible would have been the molecular biologists.
But if futurists are not scientists or engineers, what good are we? Should a hurting world "face the grim realities of the now" by throwing us out of work, too?
A century ago, there was no air travel. The Wright brothers were in the process of demonstrating their Flyer to a still largely unbelieving world. Like nanotechnology, aviation had its biological proof-of-principle — birds — but the scientific establishment firmly rejected its possibility.
25 years later, aviation had become a military reality but, economically, had stubbornly remained a fringe or money-losing proposition. The counsels of despair would have said to forget this dream — times are bad. Face the grim reality.
Instead, Douglass Aircraft, in the depths of the Great Depression, invested in the development of the DC3, the plane that turned air travel into an economically viable proposition. This, of course, was engineering — but aeronautical engineering was at that time steeped in the culture of the dream of air travel as promulgated by the futurists.
When times are bad, people need futurists more than at other times. Bad economic times come because people have been walking in the dark, in lockstep, and hit a wall. There is a surfeit of people whose efforts the current state of knowledge cannot organize productively. The job of a futurist is to turn on the lights, to show what paths could actually lead to prosperity.


text:
Out of the entire first wave of Windows 8 hybrids that launched late last year, Acer's Iconia W510 was the one that interested me most.
With a 10.1-inch screen, it's smaller than all the other hybrids, and more manageable when used as a tablet. When plugged into its dock, the W510 becomes a small laptop (a netbook, if you will), with a keyboard, trackpad, a full-sized USB port and extended battery life. The W510 is also a bit cheaper than some other Windows 8 hybrids, at $750 for the 64 GB version and dock, or $500 for a 32 GB tablet alone.
It's all the more heartbreaking, then, that Acer's Iconia W510 isn't very good. As a tablet, it feels underpowered, unable to play even some basic games like Jetpack Joyride at consistently smooth framerates. As a laptop, it's even worse, not only because of a weak processor and meager amount of memory, but because of a glaring flaw in the dock's trackpad, which I'll talk about later.
The W510 looks cool, at least. The tablet, while not as slim as an iPad or some Android tablets, feels so much more inviting to hold than Windows 8 tablets with 11.6-inch displays. The mechanism by which the tablet connects to the W510 keyboard dock has a clever design: The tablet slides right into the dock's wide brace, and automatically latches on. To remove the tablet from the dock, you just slide a little latch on the front of the brace, and pull the tablet up. Although the tablet does wobble in its brace if you jiggle it, the laptop hinge is stiff enough to keep the screen upright at any angle.
But that's where the solid design ends. Both the tablet and the dock are made of cheap plastic, and the tablet itself is particularly flimsy. Hold it in both hands and flex gently, and you can watch the whole thing bend out of shape. When the tablet and dock are connected, the entire construction becomes screen-heavy, so if you place the W510 on your lap, it easily tips forward. (It fares much better on a table.)
Also, like all Windows 8 tablets, Acer's has a home button on one of its bezels, but it's a capacitive button, so you can accidentally press it just by gliding a finger over it. Yet, at times when I actually wanted to hit it, it didn't always work on the first try.
In theory, devices like the W510 are what Microsoft's dual-sided operating system was made for. When you want to use the W510 as a tablet, you mainly stick to the "modern-style" interface, with its touch-friendly apps and games. When it's time for work, you pop over to the desktop, where all your existing Windows software is supported.
The problem is that neither side works very well at this point in time. Windows 8's app selection doesn't measure up to the catalogs on iOS and Android, though it does have some of the basics like Netflix, Angry Birds and the New York Times. You might be able to scrape by with what's available, and the W510 is smooth enough for reading, video and basic web browsing; just be aware that other platforms have a lot of cool tablet apps you'd be missing out on, like Flipboard and Pocket. There aren't even official apps for Facebook or Twitter yet.
The whole point of getting a Windows 8 hybrid like the W510, though, is that it can double as a laptop. But again, the value of having two machines in one is dragged down by the W510's cheap design and lack of computing power.
Worst of all is the W510 dock's trackpad, which unlike pretty much every other laptop trackpad on the market today, doesn't give you any way to scroll through web pages or documents. There's no two-finger scrolling, nor is there a scroll bar on either edge of the trackpad. To scroll through a document, you must use the keyboard's arrow keys, use the cursor to drag the on-screen scroll bar or reach up to the touch screen and swipe on it. The trackpad itself isn't great, either — it's a small matte pad that gets a bit jumpy at times — but the inability to scroll never stops being a major nuisance. An Acer representative tells me the company has no plans to add multi-touch gestures, so there's no hope for the W510 dock getting any better.
The keyboard won't take home any awards either. As a netbook-sized device, the keys are cramped, and there's lots of flex around the center of the keyboard. On a couple of occasions, one of the keys got stuck, causing a string of repeated letters until I massaged the key back to normal behavior. My model didn't even come with correctly sized USB slots – the custom flash drive from USBmemorydirect.com that I got wouldn't fit.
More frustrations piled on as I forced myself to get some work done with the W510. Performance suffered as soon as I loaded dense web pages or opened lots of browser tabs. Switching between pages caused a moment of stuttering, and scrolling through pages with touch became unbearably choppy.
This is the unfortunate reality for first-generation Windows 8 hybrids. The Intel Atom chip inside the W510 provides great battery life — I've been using it for two straight work days now — and doesn't need a fan to stay cool, but it's too weak to stand in for a typical laptop processor, especially with only 2 GB of RAM on board. PC makers can instead go with something more powerful, such as Intel's Core processors, but then the result is lower battery life, bulkier devices and higher prices. That's fine for laptop-centric devices like Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga, but the tradeoff would be tougher for hybrids with detachable screens.
It's not an unsolvable dilemma, and my hope is that better processors and more refined hardware designs will make the next generation of Windows 8 hybrids a lot more practical. The Acer Iconia W510, however, is just a rough draft of what Windows 8 hardware could be. For that, $750 is an awful lot to ask.


text:
Roger Cicala at Lensrentals has been taking a lot of things apart lately. He's tackled a Sony 16mm f/2.8 NEX lens and the Olympus 17mm f/2.8 m4/3 lens this time around. One common question I get is easily answered by looking at the tear down (link at end of story): can lenses get smaller?
Absolutely. On many designs (like these pancakes) it isn't the lens elements that control the diameter of the lens, it's the electronics, motors, and positioning elements. The simplest way to express it is like this way: you'd pay more for significant size shrinkage, because smaller requires precision parts. Both the Sony and the Olympus lenses could be probably one-third the diameter, maybe even smaller. There's not a lot of advantage to making the lens much smaller than the lens mount diameter, as it would make for an awkward handling aspect, but it could be done.


text:
This site uses cookies to give you the best experience. Privacy Policy.
BOWENS COMPATIBLE FLASHTUBEA reliable and affordable alternative to branded flash tubes, Peartree are now able to provided compatible flashtubes and domes for all top branded lighting systems at an amazing price.Most flashtubes fitted with spring contacts are polarised, therefore they have two contacts of different diameter. The flash heads also have female connectors of different diameter, and even a non-polarised flashtube has:- a 4mm contact at the minus connection- a 3.5mm contact at the plus connectionIn most cases, Peartree offers clear flashtubes (6000K)as well as colour corrected flashtubes (5500K), and also clear pyrex domes, as well colour corrected (-500K) domes.Please Note: The impulse spring must touch the flashtube. With a few millimeters gap between the flashtube and the impulse spring, the flash unit will usually work, but with a risk of occasional failure.DisclaimerThe brand-names mentioned in our documents are trademarks of their respective companies. None of them are affiliated with Peartree in any way, nor do they endorse Peartree products.When Peartree offers compatible parts, the word ""compatible"" means that Peartree parts will work with the mentioned equipment. Peartree parts can be different to the original ones and may generate a different effect. Specifications are subject to change without notice.
Technical Info
This product is currently out of stock. Your item will be shipped when it is back in stock. (Please note some items ship direct from manufacturer so they may be in stock even if this message displays, please get in touch for more info)


text:
After four years of cutbacks, oil companies are poised to open their purses again and develop new offshore fields, although the benefits won't be spread equally across the companies who provide them everything from seismic surveys to pumps and turbines.
The long-awaited spending rebound will re-energize oil-services providers that have survived the deepest crisis in a generation thanks to cost cuts, mergers and sometimes painful debt restructuring. But for some debt-laden suppliers, the investment pickup may come too late.
Notwithstanding recent oil-price volatility, spending on offshore oilfield services will rise by 6 percent in 2019 reaching $208 billion, before surging by another 14 percent in 2020, according to Norwegian consultant Rystad Energy AS. That's after almost halving since 2014.
Oil in London is currently heading for its longest run of daily gains on record, buoyed by OPEC supply cuts and hopes of easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China, rising Wednesday above $60 a barrel for the first time since December.
Oil producers will probably commit to 110 new undersea projects this year, up from 96 in 2018 and just 43 in 2016 -- when the industry slashed capex as oil slumped.
The market for subsea equipment may expand by between 13 percent and 14 percent each year through 2023, said Audun Martinsen, head of oilfield service research at Rystad, in an interview. This is in part as suppliers resume to hike prices.
Oilfield surveyors and providers of support and maintenance services should rebound at a slower pace as an overcapacity of vessels continues to glut the market and the rigs sector, the worst performing segment in offshore last year, should improve at last, Martinsen said.
London-based oilfield services provider TechnipFMC Plc forecast that 2019 revenue at its subsea division will climb but margins may fall. This year the company is anticipating "continued strong activity" for investment decisions in small-to-mid-size projects, and "an increasing number of the larger greenfield subsea projects," Chief Executive Officer Doug Pferdehirt said in December.
"A lot of these offshore projects are located at deep waters," benefiting subsea gear makers such as TechnipFMC and Subsea 7 SA, Rystad's Martinsen said.
While oil and gas companies press ahead with new developments, they may initially focus on already-discovered fields, while keeping a cautious stance on riskier exploration projects, for which returns are harder to reap, forcing surveyors and drillers to send more vessels and rigs to scrap.
"With oil prices trading below $60 per barrel, there continues to be some uncertainty on 2019 E&P spending, particularly offshore," Kristian Johansen, CEO of Norwegian oilfield surveyor TGS Nopec Geophysical Co. ASA said on Jan. 9.
However, TGS should benefit from its "solid balance sheet," while Petroleum Geo-Services ASA may face "challenges ahead in terms of an oversupplied seismic vessel market and approaching debt maturities," Nordea analysts Glenn Lodden and Even Mostue Naume wrote in a note this month. France's CGG SA should be more attractive once it completes a plan to shed its remaining seismic vessels. Although restructuring takes time and the company may incur additional costs, the analysts said. A CGG spokesman declined to comment.
There should be a "slight rise in demand from drilling," meaning that just 30 percent of deepwater rigs may remain idle this year, down from 35 percent last year, Mhairidh Evans, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said in an interview. "Some more overcapacity needs to be taken out of the supply chain."
Transocean Ltd, which last month announced an $830 million drilling contract, may benefit from the rebound as it focuses on deepwater, while Shelf Drilling Ltd. may also gain from its exposure to the Middle East, said Rystad's Martinsen.
Petroleum Geo-Services is "cautiously optimistic" that last year's market rebound will continue this year, a spokesman said.
On the other hand, the market for equipment used on shallow water platforms such as pumps, turbines and heat exchangers provided by the likes of General Electric Co., ABB Ltd. and National Oilwell Varco Inc. may lag, partly because they tend to be ordered later in project cycles, Martinsen said.
Bourbon Corporation, a French operator of support vessels for offshore industry, is also looking for signs of recovery as persisting low rates has forced it to suspend the payments of its debt. Bourbon's situation is "worrying" as it operates in an oversupplied market, said Kevin Vo, an analyst at AlphaValue in Paris. Bourbon declined to comment.
"As a company sanctions a project or an exploration campaign, that cash doesn't flow through the supply chain until perhaps one or two or three years, so the supply chain isn't out of the woods yet," said Woodmac's Evans. "So 2020 looks like the year where many parts of the supply chain will start to feel better."
Source: Bloomberg
Recovery and Investigation Update: Helicopter Wreckage Retrieved off Norwegian Coast
Cougar flights resume following fatal Norwegian helicopter crash
Wood Mackenzie: Robust growth across Asia Pacific region will see demand growth of 1.9 million bpd in 2024
Saipem expects Aramco orders to drop 20% after capacity target cut


text:
The Letter 'X'
Resin keyrings in a range of colours. All key rings come with a keyring chain and mixed colour tassel. All letters available 🌴
About Meridienne Designs
Meridienne Designs is a Darwin based online store selling handmade objects inspired by the bold colours found in nature.
All items are designed and handmade by me using art resin, objects found on bush walks and coloured pigments.
No two pieces are exactly the same.


text:
Your browser does not support iframes.
by Mark Montieth | firstname.lastname@example.com
November 16, 2012
Editor's Note: Have a Pacers-related question for Mark? Want to be featured in his mailbag column? Send your questions to Mark at firstname.lastname@example.com.
The impotent offense, the putrid shooting and the obvious confusion that had cast so much doubt on the Pacers season were all washed away in about an hour during the Pacers' game-day shootaround on Friday.
Coach Frank Vogel went back to the basics in his offense, calling fewer plays and allowing his players more freedom to move and react to the defense. It resulted in a 103-83 win over Dallas at Bankers Life Fieldhouse that was the Pacers' first double-figure win of the season and offered the first glimmer of hope that Danny Granger's absence won't send them reeling back into lottery world.
Six players scored between 11 and 15 points, the 47 percent field goal accuracy was the best since the opening-game win at Toronto and the enthusiasm of last season was back. If they hadn't missed 12 foul shots, it would have been even more one-sided.
It was only one game, sure, and might turn out to be an aberration, and yes, their record is only 4-6. But for one night, at least, it had the aura of a turning point.
"It felt like a new Pacer team out there," said point guard George Hill, who finished with 15 points, five rebounds and seven assists. "If you were watching the game I'm sure it didn't look like the same Pacer team that's been playing the last nine games. Different energy, different pace on the offensive end, demanding to be solid at the defensive end – that's what gives the fans hope and a lot of urgency to come back out here and support us. We just have to continue doing what we've been doing, trusting each other and playing that type of basketball."
The Pacers had lost five of their six previous games, a slide that ended with a thud on Wednesday at Milwaukee, where their performance was much worse than their 14-point loss indicated. They had the NBA's lowest-scoring (87.8) and worst-shooting (.398) offense at that point, so, enough being enough, Vogel revamped the offense in Friday's morning practice session. To his credit, he predicted the result when he met with the media before that night's game.
"We're getting back to the fundamentals of our system that we've gotten away from," he said, speaking confidently and deliberately. "We're going to implement a change that can happen immediately in terms of more flow in our offense.
"It's a subtle change we're putting in that can happen immediately. We know execution will take time, but the force and speed with which we play and the movement we should exhibit should happen right away."
And it did. David West drove with force and speed to the basket 13 seconds after tip-off for a layup, sparking a 7-0 lead. It didn't last long – hey, bad habits die hard – but the Pacers closed the half strong. Hill hit a jumper that drew a foul from former teammate Darren Collison with seven seconds left. Hill missed the free throw, but Roy Hibbert got an easy tip-in to make it a one-point game at the half.
An 11-3 run to start the second half forced a Dallas timeout, which was followed by another 11-3 run that forced another Dallas timeout. The lead was 70-57 by then, and never threatened.
So that's all it took? One one-hour session on the morning of a game? Maybe Vogel should go to work on the deficit. The question remains, however, why the Pacers had ever gotten away from what worked for them at the end of last season in the first place. Granger's absence apparently had caused the coaches to try to overcompensate strategically, the players had contributed by failing to execute the plays and the lack of practice time had doubled-down on the issues.
"Playing so many games in so many days, you always have slippage," Vogel said. "That slippage was showing up on the offensive end. That's what this league is about, guarding against slippage."
The challenge will be that much greater with six of the next eight games on the road, and a continuation of what happened on Friday will be contingent on further contributions from Hibbert. He had been at the literal center of the slow start, averaging just 8.2 points on 39 percent shooting from the field and 40 percent shooting from the foul line.
He had 14 points against the Mavericks, hitting just 5-of-15 shots, but still offered hope. He started slowly, missing his only shot attempt in the first 10 minutes, had two points at halftime and had hit just 2-of-10 shots heading into the fourth quarter. For three quarters, his demeanor had ranged from exasperated to anguished.
He came alive in the fourth period, scoring seven points on 3-of-5 shooting. The first basket was a tip, but the second was a 10-foot jump hook that drew a foul and was converted to a three-point play and the third was a 10-foot one-hander. Time and box scores will tell if it was the start of something good.
"We've continued to emphasize to his teammates that we're going to start clicking when he gets going," Vogel said. "He's going to start going. He took a big step tonight. He has stretches every year where he struggles. He's going to be fine. We have to continue getting him the ball."
Hibbert acknowledged afterward that he was frustrated by his lack of touches in the previous offense. He entered the game ranked fourth on the team in shot attempts, with just four more than backup Gerald Green. He had averaged less than 10 shots per game, so getting 15 on Friday was a step forward.
"I feel I can affect the game when I have the ball in my hands," he said. "Obviously I wasn't getting the looks before, but I was trying to stay positive. It's a long season and, you know, you're going to have ups and downs and I've been having a lot of downs lately.
"Some of the plays we were running, the other team knows it and they make it really difficult for me to catch (the ball). Hopefully I don't have to work so hard to get the ball now. I'm happy with the change. It's a subtle change, but it helped."
Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Indiana Pacers. All opinions expressed by Mark Montieth are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Indiana Pacers, their partners, or sponsors.
Have a question for Mark about Pacers past, present, or future? Email him at firstname.lastname@example.com for a chance to be featured in a mailbag article.


text:
Take a tour of super-model Gisele Bündchen's home in Brentwood, California, that she shares with her husband, Tom Brady and their children. In their eco-conscious home, they use solar energy for all their electricity needs, recyle water, grow their own vegetables, rear chickens and have composting to utilize organic waste.
Surely, such aspects display 'model' behaviour, well worth emulating, but their 'life' per se is hardly 'normal' as AD would have us believe. Not that I'd complain for such 'normalcy' in my life!
Here she is, in all her super gorgeousness...
all images and content via


text:
Skip to content
Related Links
Fresno Police Corruption Discussion
Dylan Noble Killing
Dylan Noble Press Conference
Fresno P.D.: Most Dangerous Police Force in America
Freddy Centeno Killing
Corrupt Fresno Police Officers
Fresno Police Drug Scheme
Whistleblower Predicts His Death By Fresno Cops
Related Article: Fresno People's Media
Trigger Happy
Fire Liar Dyer
Cop Block
Indy Bay
Killer Cops
UPDATED: Fresno Police Corruption and Chief Jerry Dyer
Did Fresno Police Chief JERRY DYER Murder Lt. Jose Moralez?
NEW INFORMATION: Murder Cover Up by the Fresno County Sheriff?
Murder by the Fresno Police Chief?
Social Media
Justice for Joe
Why Hasn't the FBI…?
Jerry Dyer – Corrupt…
Based Upon Information & Belief - Fresno Police Lt. JOSE MORALEZ was Murdered by Fresno Police Chief JERRY DYER and the Fresno County Sheriff - Staged a Suicide to Protect Jerry Dyer
There Was Never a Legitimate Investigation into His Disputed Death - Click the Button Below to Start Exploring our website and Learn More
Start exploring
Phone 8-21-17 407
You must
log in
to post a comment.


text:
Related links:
Giant Crater Found on Asteroid Vesta!
News story originally written on September 9, 1997
A huge crater has been discovered on asteroid Vesta with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope. The crater is 285 miles across. This is massive when compared to the Vesta's 330 mile diameter. If Earth had a crater of proportional size, it would fill most of the Pacific Ocean basin. Something large impacted Vesta long ago. In fact, the impact gouged out one percent of the asteroid's initial volume. This means that over half a million cubic miles of rock were thrown out into space. About six percent of meteorites that are found on Earth have a similar composition to that of Vesta. The impact that caused the crater on Vesta may be the original source of many of these meteorites.
Scientists are excited about this discovery. "This is a unique opportunity to study the effects of a large impact
on a small object," says Michael Gaffey of Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, Troy, New York. "This suggests that more asteroids from the
early days of the solar system may still be intact."


text:
There have been a few questions like this asked before but not in the same way. I want to put a Facebook Like or Share or Recommend button on all of my website pages. The site is somewhat like Yelp but for different topics.
I am wondering which button to put there. Does it do any good to have individual pages "liked" and does it show anywhere besides on that page? I basically just want people to be able to click a button and have the page show up on their wall and their friend's feeds and I am not sure what the best plugin for that is.


text:
My mom was the 7th of Grammy and Grampy's 13 children, who all lived in a house in Brookline, Mass. That house was a treasure trove. It famously had just one bathroom, but that's not what made it special to me. It was the kitchen table, where Grammy would feed us warm tea thick with sugar; or the scary cellar steps you had to brave to reach Grampy's old accordion and risk a stand off with a potentially girl-eating cat. It was the framed portraits of the 13 kids hung on the living room wall, which we could take down to investigate the older photos buried behind the ones that were displayed. It was being assigned the best room for sleeping - the one that adjoined Grammy's - so we could fall asleep to the sound of her hushed Hail Marys when she said the rosary back and forth with us. It was walking to the candy store and the playground with cousins, and the wisteria that seemed to swallow the front porch whole.
So yeah, we're Irish. And for us, St. Patrick's Day was a big deal. Long before green beer passed these virgin lips, we were getting jiggy with it.
I went to the St. Patrick's day parade and festival with my little brood on Saturday, so the Irish has been brewing in me for a couple of days now, and Monday's e-mail and facebook exchanges with the family are making me all nostalgic.
It started with mom:
I just made an Irish bread! Uncle Tom sent his recipe last year, so I decided to try it. Boyoboy, did that bring back memories of my mom making her Irish bread, especially the raisins part, we'd be swiping them as she'd be trying to add them to the batter, lol. It smells berry good around here. I also bought some corned beef and cole slaw and rye bread and pickles for tomorrow - no cabbage for this Irish woman.... love mom
Then, Julie alerted us to the banter on the facebook page, which is a really cool outlet where our generation… the 66 children of those first 13… have been reconnecting as of late:
Karen A: 2:53pmJacquie:
I'm getting out Ireland photos, music, maps, flags and Grammy's soda bread recipe so Chris can share St. Pat's Day with his preschool class tomorrow!·
Meghan B: 2:56pm
I love it!! We all have the same recipe for the Irish bread; I bet a ton of Flatleys are making it this week. :)
Timothy M: 3:04pm
Someone at my work brings in Irish Soda Bread made in their family bathtub -- is this normal? please advise ...
Julie C: 3:45pm
oooh I'll make it too! Recipe handy? Will you post it on the Descendant's site for us?
Julie C: 3:49pm
wait -what? bathtub? that is not normal. And anyway, our Grammy's house only had one bathroom. For a family of 15. She'd have never had the bathroom available long enough to swing it. and also, that's gross.
Karen: 4:36pm
Yeah, never heard of making the soda bread in the bathtub - and I'm even married to a 1st gen. Irishman! I will post Grammy's recipe that came to me via my mom and Aunt Moni...
Karen A: 5:00pm
Okay, I posted the recipes at the Flatley descendants page. I had 2 - one that my mom always kept on a recipe card and one that I got from Aunt Moni one day when I was curious about Grammy's version and needed more exact measurements. It's interesting to see the differences in the 2 recipes! Happy St. Patrick's Day to all my fabulous Flatley cousins!
oooooggggg, feeling the pressure to drop my plans for tomorrow's blog post. Sisters, mother - got a second to share a st pat's memory or two?
Well, mostly I think of Irish tunes cranking, mom having made or bought some class of treat & hearing stories about Grammy & Grampy. I do the same for my kids- just bought them "I'm Irish" socks, shamrock light up necklaces for the boys & a hair scrunchy for corey & green shamrock cookies. I love St patricks day! (then Jane said: Sent from my iPhone, and then I disowned her)
I don't remember what we used to eat for dinner, but I remember we decorated for St. Patrick's Day (Mom used to let me do it) (because I was the biggest geek) then dancing and jigging all the night long to The Happy Sounds of Ireland LP.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Mom, but didn't Grammy's recipe say "shortening the size of an egg". Put that in your blog and smoke it, Jacquie.
I LOVE that you kids stole your mom's raisins, Mom.
When I asked Ellie for more details about the decorations, simply to verify or negate my oft deluded childhood memories, she said:
I remember cutting out green tissue paper into ovals for placemats, and green carnations. I can't remember any "permanent" decorations.
okay good, just wanted to be sure I was not re-inventing my childhood memories. I do that sometimes. Are you sure the tissue paper wasn't cut into shamrocks? Ovals are so uninspired.
I'm totally sure. As was the red tissue paper on valentine's day. I'll go with anything you say, though.
Cooked cabbage is truly repulsivo. But lately I've kept a head of purple cabbage in my veggie drawer, and I slice several slices off for our salad every night. I love it. It's so crunchy and sweet and pretty, and has all sorts of good things in it for your personal person. Or so I'm told.
who is Timothy M?
No earthly. But he does weird things in his tub.
She did say that Ellie, and her flour measurement was " a sifter full of flour". St. Patrick's Day was a big day at 52 Kendall - dad would pull out the accordion and he would even have a beer - he could make that squeeze box sing. I don't think corned beef and cabbage was the order of the day, but I could be wrong. love mom
Were all 13 of Grammy's kids born at home?
No, grammy had her first few babies in the hospital when they lived in Chestnut Hill. In those days, your hospital stay after childbirth was 2 weeks - you could dangle your legs after 7 days! Can you imagine?? She said no thanks and had most of the rest of us at home - can you imagine?? xox mom
Mom (who is not on facebook, no grown ups allowed):
um, someone tell Karen, and her mother Kitty, that grammy never put carroway seeds in any Irish bread that I ever ate...... xo mom
I don't know how one manages to have a family without e-mail. I love our daily banter, it cracks me up. My only complaint is that they always have these great conversations in the godforsaken early morning hours, so that by the time I get up and online like a normal West Coast person, they've all run away. I told them I feel like the teacher who walks into the classroom and everyone shuts up.
I did not start out intending to display all of our e-mail, but I really liked it. I had to weed out lots of minutiae about girl scout cookies, brackets, and the thing that was really on all of our minds yesterday. Memories bring comfort when you're facing something scary. Especially when those memories solidify the bonds of a strong family, every member of whom will be okay. Every member of whom heard the whisper of Grammy's Hail Marys last night.
Shortening the size of an egg
A large egg
Almost a cup of sugar
Heaping teaspoon baking powder
A sifter full of flour
Beat shortening and sugar, salt, baking powder and egg. Add flour and milk alternately until the batter is thick. Add 2 handfuls of raisins. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, and then at 300 for 10 minutes


text:
[Answer ID: 15228]
I cannot choose users to set access restrictions under the shared folder settings on the NAS.
Created 10/24/2013 04:23 | Updated 12/02/2015 09:45
- Using Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 8.1
- Using Internet Explorer 11 (Release Preview) for Windows 7
Solution A: Configure the settings in Internet Explorer 10 (recommended).
Solution B: Follow the procedure below and change the Document mode settings.
- Access the Configuration Interface of the AirStation in Internet Explorer 11.
Click here to check how to access the Configuration Interface of the AirStation. - Choose [NAS]-[Shared Folder].
- Press the "F12" key.
- Choose [Emulation] from the F12 developer tools.
- Set [Edge] for the Document mode.
Now you can choose users to set access restrictions.
OS / Hardware
Was this answer helpful?
Please tell us how we can make this answer more useful.


text:
Real Estate: Check out one of the North Fork's more unique offices
The only rehearsing going on nowadays in this former Mattituck theater involves courtroom drama.
In a building where 19th-century North Fork families once put on plays and operas, two trial lawyers now ply their trade as personal injury attorneys, giving a whole new meaning to the term "break a leg."
The unique offices of attorneys William Goggins and Anthony Palumbo are located on the north side of Main Road in Mattituck, two doors east of the former Glenwood Hotel. The building was moved to its current location in 1920 from its former spot on the northwest corner of Love Lane and Pike Street. The moving was done with a windlass — a pulley apparatus used to drag heavy objects — since it was too heavy to be pulled by oxen.
Mr. Goggins, 51, who has lived in Laurel since the age of 8, had eyed the building for a while. He first tried to purchase it in 1986 to open a restaurant but couldn't agree on a price with the owner. Instead, he headed to law school.
He and Mr. Palumbo, 41, purchased the vacant building, which had once housed the popular Jim's Diner, in 2006 and renovated it as their 21st-century law office. Inside the building, a network server, tucked in a cabinet in the back room, centralizes documents, calendars and billing and connects to smartphones and the office copy machine.
"I didn't envision this in law school," Mr. Palumbo said. "The technology enhanced exponentially when I got out."
There are no remnants of the old theater's stage, where members of local families with well-known names — Wells, Moore, Reeve and Tuthill among them — performed in productions like "How She Cured Him," "Bolts and Bars" and "Down by the Sea," according to the Mattituck-Laurel Historical Society. But in a tribute to the region's seafaring roots, the lawyers decorated the former community theater in a maritime theme.
In one room, a harpoon purchased from a local nautical store leans against a merlot-colored wall, adding to the ambiance.
In an adjacent conference room, nearly 700 law books line hunter green walls from floor to ceiling. The books stand side by side in the library's original hand-made barrister bookcase with decorative dentil molding.
"That's only one-fifth of my collection," said Mr. Goggins, insisting that using the books is faster than searching the Internet. A long table built in the 1920s and plucked from Riverhead Free Library sits in the center of the room and a paneled window was installed at the top of the wall for privacy.
The seagoing theme continues in Mr. Palumbo's office, where a five-pound bass Mr. Palumbo caught in Montauk hangs on a wall. In a small kitchen is a wormwood-framed burlap bag used for catching oysters, unearthed from the basement of the Glenwood Hotel, which Mr. Goggins used to own.
"We try to mix in the historical stuff," Mr. Palumbo said.
Despite these nods to the past, the lawyers say staying abreast of modern technology is essential, since they work in a small office in a small town and compete with attorneys at giant Manhattan firms.
"I think lawyers [at smaller firms] are learning they need to keep up with the pace of technology," Mr. Goggins said.
One of the office's conference rooms is equipped with a 42-inch flat screen television, which the attorneys can use to video-conference with colleagues — and if there's any downtime, maybe take in a show or two. Just like old times.


text: Elizabeth Altman earned her M.A. in Comparative Literature from UCLA. She has ten years' experience in web site design, programming, and accessibility. In addition to serving as webmaster of the CSUN Oviatt Library, she is the Project Manager for CSUN ScholarWorks, the university's institutional repository. Her two most recent projects were the co-organization of a faculty workshop on copyright and a web cast presentation on digital learning objects created and used by CSUN faculty.


text:
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (JTA) — Sometimes, Benjamin Rosenthal thinks about leaving the small town of Indianola, Miss., pop. 11,000, where he spent most of his life.
He wants to go somewhere bigger, with more Jews.
"It's very easy to lose your identity in the Bible Belt in a town when you are the religious minority," said Rosenthal, 25.
In the Bible Belt, religion rules and Jesus is king, particularly in the small towns and cities that make up the region in the U.S. South. Jews comprise less than 1 percent of the population in the South, according to Louis Schmier, a professor of history at Valdosta State University in Georgia, with most living in large cities like Atlanta and Charlotte. Some so-called circuit rabbis travel hundreds of miles to different congregations, often with fewer than 50 members. One of the first
questions a newcomer in the South is typically asked is "What church do y'all go to?"
A self-described "displaced New Yorker" from Manhattan's Lower East Side, Schmier, 70, moved South in 1962 with his own stereotypes. "My image was that on Saturday night every Southerner got himself liquored up, put on his sheet and went out looking for — " he said, using two unquotable terms for Jews and blacks. In reality, he said, "They're a nice people down here."
Nice, and often curious, says Rosie Perlstein, whose husband, Shaul, is rabbi of Chabad Lubavitch of Chattanooga.
"People are always calling and always want to learn about" Judaism, she said. "People ask in a nice way. They're polite. They'll ask about different holidays."
The Perlsteins moved to Chattanooga from Brooklyn in 2009.
While many people have a respectful curiosity about Judaism, others think it's their duty to spread the word of Jesus, the rabbi said. "It's impossible to stop in the South," he said.
The Perlsteins say that drive is not born of malice, but simple ignorance of other beliefs. This is a common sentiment expressed by Southern Jews.
"The rank-and-file citizenry here knows Judaism and respects Judaism, but doesn't understand Judaism, doesn't understand why we don't accept Christ into our heart as our savior," said Robert Goldsmith, executive director of the Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services of Dothan, Ala.
His wife, Lynne, is one of the traveling rabbis, as is Debra Kassoff. Based in Jackson, Miss., Kassoff makes a nearly 450-mile round-trip to Greenville, Miss., every other weekend. Rosenthal is among her congregants, traveling 30 miles to Greenville's Hebrew Union Temple.
Kassoff previously had been director of rabbinic studies at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, which runs the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, from 2003 to 2006. While there, she traveled a six-state region, conducting services in different cities that did not have a full-time rabbi.
"There's a world of difference between a Boston sensibility and a Jackson or Greenville sensibility," said Kassoff, who served as the rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead, Mass., from 2006 to 2010.
"In Boston there is a large Jewish community. People can be Jewish, but not really show up," she said. "In a place like Greenville, that is not as possible. It's not possible to take for granted that there will continue to be services. We don't have the same critical mass."
It is the lack of critical mass that led Kassoff to suggest holding services only every other week at Hebrew Union, and also led the Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services to launch the Family Relocation Project in Dothan, which offers up to $50,000 financial assistance to Jewish families willing to relocate to Dothan for at least five years.
Stephanie Butler, 34, her husband Ken, also 34, were one of less than five families to take up the offer. In 2010, they left St. Petersburg, Fla. for Dothan. The Jewish community in their new home, she said, is close-knit, but very small indeed. Of more than 66,000 residents, only 65 families in the area are Jewish.
"Here there are people who have never met someone who is Jewish," she said. "Whether or not I feel responsible for educating them, they always have a lot of questions. They have an interesting perspective about Jews being the chosen people. They're like, 'Oh, I respect you so much.' And I'm like, 'you don't know me.' They have preconceived notions about who and what Jews are."
Still, she said, she has not experienced bigotry or anti-Semitism during her time in Dothan. Likewise, said Kassoff, many of her congregants in Greenville have told her they have encountered confusion, but not cruelty.
Rosenthal, however, said he has experienced some mild instances of anti-Semitism. "As a child, "I got told I was going to Hell because I killed Jesus. It frustrated me to no end," he said.
One time, he added, a colleague asked him what he was doing for Easter. "You know," she said, "because that's the day y'all killed our lord and savior."
The Perlsteins' experience has been a little different. They say their family's devotion to their religion evokes a certain respect, particularly in an area where faith has such a stronghold.
"I think people see that we're Jewish, and that we're proud of our religion and we hold it strong, and I feel like people have a strong respect for that," Rosie Perlstein said. "Maybe it's because they're so religious. The idea of being proud of who you are instead of working on assimilating, I've found people to really respect that."
She said her family is in Chattanooga to stay — on a mission to enrich the Jewish community in a small city in the Bible Belt.
Rosenthal, on the other hand, says he's not certain he'll remain in his small town. He had left Indianola for the University of Memphis, where he was active in Hillel and surrounded himself with Jewish friends – an experience that differed greatly from the private, Christian-based school he had attended growing up, where students prayed in Jesus' name daily. After college, he moved back to Indianola, where he works as assistant director of information services at South Sunflower County Hospital.
"It is a lot better than it was when I was a child," he said. "Coming back and being more mature helped."
He says he doesn't associate with the people from his childhood who tried to use his religion against him and he has a serious girlfriend who is in the process of converting to Judaism. Sometimes, he says, he struggles with a feeling of responsibility he feels toward his tiny community.
"I don't want the Jewish culture and the Jewish community to die off in the Bible Belt," he said. "But then, a part of me wants to get out."


text:
The Strongest Seal Master is a Manga/Manhwa/Manhua in (English/Raw) language, Adventure series is written by Updating This Comic is About
Username or Email Address *
Password *
Remember Me
Lost your password?
← Back to Top Manhua
Register For This Site.
Username *
Email Address *
Log in | Lost your password?
Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.
Username or Email Address


text:
But a major breakthrough that turns vaccine design on its head has now been published in Nature on the 6th of February - a new computational method that, from the protective antibodies of patients, can design the vaccine specific to induce them (and protect against the disease).
Showing the potential of the new design Bruno Correia from the Instituto Gulbenkian Ciência and Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica (IQTB) in Portugal and colleagues from the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Washington and The Scripps Research Institute designed a vaccine for the human-infecting respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The vaccine was tested in rhesus monkeys (which have a very similar immune system to us), and proved to induce protective antibodies. RSV was a particular good example of the vaccine potential, because not only it causes an often deadly respiratory infection among very young children so it is a dangerous virus, but is also one with which scientists have struggled to make a vaccine for a long time without success.
So how do vaccines normally
work, and why there are some more difficult to make?
Nature is full of disease-inducing agents, like viruses or bacteria (collectively known as pathogens or germs) and it is easy to get infected. If we do, our immune system (the cells and organs that protect us against disease) mounts a protective response that, once the pathogen is eliminated, will leave behind a protective immune memory. This memory, if we reencounter the pathogen, can now trigger a much faster and effective attack (called secondary response) that eliminates the threat before disease develops. That is why often we only have a disease once.
Vaccines work similarly, the difference being that that first encounter is not with a live infectious pathogen, but instead with a vaccine that contains a dead, attenuated (weaken) or partial pathogen. Without giving disease these are enough, nevertheless, to create an immune memory that protects the individual if he/she ever comes in contact with the "real thing".
Image: Post World War II United Kingdom poster promoting vaccination against diphtheria.
But despite all vaccines already developed, some serious diseases, in particular some by fast changing/mutating viruses, like HIV or hepatitis C, remain without protection. The problem is that these viruses change so fast that vaccines (and the immune memory they trigger) become obsolete very quickly. Unless that it is, if they are against those epitopes (the parts of the pathogen targeted by the immune system) crucial for viral survival, what means that they cannot be changed. This is why flu vaccines only work for one year - because the flu virus (influenza) has an extremely high mutation rate.
But even if we use the right epitopes, there is still no certainty that a new vaccine will lead to a protective immune response. The problem is that we still do not fully understand how the protection works - neutralizing antibodies (antibodies capable of blocking the effects of the pathogen) are crucial, but the rest is much less clear. This means that at the moment vaccines are developed empirically (by observation/experimentation), and when this fails we are stuck.
A possible solution (although so far only in theory) are "epitope-focused vaccines", which turn the process backwards and use the end product – the neutralizing antibodies –to create the vaccine that induces them.
For that it is necessary to identify the epitope targeted by the antibody, and then construct a protein scaffold (a holding structure) to carry it just like in the virus, to be sure to trigger the right antibody response. But despite its potential and many attempts, until now this has not been attained
In the study now published Correia and colleagues develop a computational program called "Rosetta - Fold from Loops" to design new protein scaffolds that - contrary to previous attempts - are flexible, meaning that they can be fitted around the epitope to better mimic the natural viral site. They chose an antibody used to treat RSV infection, that targets a known viral epitope.As the crystal structure of the virus and the neutralizing antibody bond together was found, this informed researchers of what shape should the scaffold be.
Next came the hard part: to design a structure that held the epitope, while having the right biophysical and structural characteristics to induce the protective antibodies.
With the new software Correia produced 40.000 possible structures that were then screened in the computer and a few (8) were characterized in the laboratory until only 6 of best final designs were chosen. All the designed epitope-scaffolds bound to the neutralizing antibody, and all had similar, although not identical, scaffold.
But are the new constructs clinically relevant for the disease?
To test that, the researchers looked into individual that had the disease (so have RSV-specific antibodies), testing their sera with the new epitope-scaffolds. Impressively several individuals had antibodies that recognized the "new vaccines", while none reacted to scaffolds alone
Now could these "new vaccines" induce neutralizing antibodies?
To test for this the different "epitope-scaffolds" formulations were injected into mice and rhesus macaques, which were then tested for a RSV immune response. While some mice could produce antibodies against the virus, none of their antibodies could neutralize the virus. In contrast, after a few vaccination rounds with the new structures the majority of the macaques were producing neutralizing antibodies what was very promising considering the similarity between our immune systems
"Actually the macaques were producing antibodies more potent than the prophylactic antibody that is used to treat high risk patients, the one from where we started," says Correia, "This when the natural infection exposes multiple viral epitopes, while our scaffolds only have a single epitope supposedly triggering a much more limited immune response. The fact that the results obtained are so good proves the ability of our method to fully explore the immune system abilities when producing therapeutic antibodies. "
What is particularly remarkable in Correia and colleagues' latest work is how close we become to a real life result as Correia explains, "obviously our structures still need to be optimized and tested in humans, but these results are the first part of the protocol to develop a vaccine against RSV putting us in a good position to create a cheap and effective RSV vaccine."
This is even more important because of RSV characteristics - a virus responsible for about 7% of all deaths among children between 1 month and 1 year that presents multiple challenges for vaccine design. In fact, not only RSV mutates very fast, but even its non-live vaccines (usually the safest alternative) can not be tested in very young children – the highest priority target population –- since clinical trials had to be stopped because vaccinated infants went to develop a more severe disease instead of being protected. Synthetic vaccines with just one protective epitope,, like the one here described, should however be much safer.
These remarkable new results prove the viability of epitope-focused and scaffold-based vaccine design, opening the door to use these strategies on other illnesses, including HIV. In a world where infectious diseases caused 18.5% of all human deaths and 23% of disability-adjusted life years as recently as 2010, this is no doubt very good news.
Citation: Bruno E. Correia, John T. Bates, Rebecca J. Loomis, Gretchen Baneyx, Chris Carrico, Joseph G. Jardine, Peter Rupert, Colin Correnti, Oleksandr Kalyuzhniy, Vinayak Vittal, Mary J. Connell, Eric Stevens, Alexandria Schroeter, Man Chen, Skye MacPherson, Andreia M. Serra, Yumiko Adachi, Margaret A. Holmes, Yuxing Li, Rachel E. Klevit, Barney S. Graham, Richard T. Wyatt, David Baker, Roland K. Strong, James E. Crowe, Philip R. Johnson, William R. Schief, 'Proof of principle for epitope-focused vaccine design', Nature 5 February 2014 doi:10.1038/nature12966