text:
Baron Constantine
- Hasan Mahmud
- Litton Das
- Mehidy Hasan Miraz
- Mushfiqur Rahim
- Mustafizur Rahman
- Najmul Hossain Shanto
- Shakib Al Hasan
- Shoriful Islam
- Taskin Ahmed
- Towhid Hridoy
Alphabetically sorted top ten of players who have played the most matches across formats in the last 12 months
Full Name
Learie Nicholas Constantine
September 21, 1901, Petit Valley, Diego Martin, Trinidad
July 01, 1971, Brondesbury, Hampstead, London, (aged 69y 283d)
Batting Style
Right hand Bat
Bowling Style
Right arm Fast, Right arm Medium
Playing Role
Wisden Obituary
Lord Constantine, MBE, died in London on July 1, 1971. The parents of the child born in Diego Martin, Trinidad, almost seventy years before, may in their highest ambitions have hoped that he would play cricket for the West Indies. They cannot have dreamt that he would take a major share in lifting his people to a new level of respect within the British Commonwealth; that along the way he would become the finest fieldsman and one of the most exciting allrounders the game of cricket has known: and that he would die Baron Constantine, of Marvel in Trinidad and Tobago, and of Nelson, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, a former Cabinet Minister and High Commissioner of his native Trinidad.
Learie - or "Connie" to 40 years of cricketers - came upon his historic cue as a man of his age, reflecting and helping to shape it. He made his mark in the only way a poor West Indian boy of his time could do, by playing cricket of ability and character. He went on to argue the rights of the coloured peoples with such an effect as only a man who had won public affection by games-playing could have done in the Britain of that period.
Learie Constantine was the son of Lebrun Constantine, a plantation foreman who toured England as an allrounder with the West Indian cricketers of 1900 - when he scored the first century for a West Indies team in England - and 1906. In 1923 they both played for Trinidad against British Guiana at Georgetown, one of the few instances of a father and son appearing together in a first-class match; both of them long cherished the occasion. In constant family practice the father insisted on a high standard of fielding which was to prove the foundation of his son's success.
The younger Constantine had played only three first-class matches before he was chosen for Austin's 1923 team to England when he distinguished himself largely - indeed, almost solely - by his brilliance at cover point. On that visit he learnt much that he never forgot, by no means all of it about cricket: and he recognised the game as his only possible ladder to the kind of life he wanted.
As C.L.R. James has written "he revolted against the revolting contrast between his first-class status as a cricketer and his third-class status as a man." That, almost equally with his enthusiasm for the game, prompted the five years of unremitting practice after which, in 1928, he came to England under Karl Nunes on West Indies' first Test tour as an extremely lively fast bowler, hard-hitting batsman and outstanding fieldsman in any position.
Muscular but lithe, stocky but long armed, he bowled with a bounding run, a high, smooth action and considerable pace. His batting, which depended considerably upon eye, was sometimes unorthodox to the point of spontaneous invention: but on his day it was virtually impossible to bowl at him. In the deep he picked up while going like a sprinter and threw with explosive accuracy; close to the wicket he was fearless and quick; wherever he was posted he amazed everyone by his speed and certainty in making catches which seemed far beyond reach. His movement was so joyously fluid and, at need, acrobatic that he might have been made of springs and rubber.
Although he did little in the Tests of that summer he performed the double and in public esteem was quite the most successful member of the party. He provided splendid cricketing entertainment. Everyone who ever watched him will recall with delight his particular parlour trick - when a ball from him was played into the field he would turn and walk back towards his mark: the fieldsman would throw the ball at his back, "Connie" would keep walking and, without appearing to look, turn his arm and catch the ball between his shoulder blades; no one, so far as can be ascertained, ever saw him miss.
Crowds recognised and enjoyed him as a cricketer of adventure: but the reports alone of a single match established him in the imagination of thousands who had never seen him play. At Lord's, in June, Middlesex made 352 for six and West Indies, for whom only Constantine, with 86, made more than 30, were 122 behind on the first innings. When Middlesex batted again, Constantine took seven for 57 - six for 11 in his second spell. West Indies wanting 259 to win were 121 for five when Constantine came in to score 103 out of 133 - with two 6's, twelve 4's and a return drive that broke Jack Hearne's finger so badly that he did not play again that season - in an hour, to win the match by three wickets. Lord's erupted: and next day all cricketing England accepted a new major figure.
That performance confirmed the obvious, that Constantine was, as he knew he needed to be, the ideal league professional - surely the finest of all. He wanted a part-time living adequate for him to study law. England was the only place, and cricket his only means, of doing both. His batting could win a match in an hour; his bowling in a couple of overs, his catching in a few scattered moments. This was the kind of cricket nearest his heart: and he expressed himself through it. No man ever played cricket for a living - as Constantine needed to do more desperately than most professional cricketers - with greater gusto. Any club in the Lancashire leagues would have been grateful to sign him. Nelson did so with immense satisfaction on both sides. Constantine drew and delighted crowds - and won matches: Nelson won the Lancashire League eight times in his ten seasons there - an unparalleled sequence - and broke the ground attendance record at every ground in the competition. Less spectacularly, he coached and guided the younger players with true sympathy. Among the people of Nelson, many of whom had never seen a black man before, "Connie" and his wife, Norma, settled to a happy existence which they remembered with nostalgia to the end. In 1963 the Freedom of the Borough of Nelson was bestowed on the man who then was Sir Learie Constantine.
Because of his League engagements he played little more than a hundred first-class matches, in which he scored 4,451 runs at 24.32, and took 424 wickets at 20.60. In eighteen Tests between 1928 and 1939 his overall figures were poor - 641 runs at 19.42; 58 wickets at 30.10. On the other hand he virtually won two important Tests and shaped a third. At Georgetown, in 1930, when West Indies beat England for the first time, George Headley made a major batting contribution; but it was Constantine who twice broke the English batting with four for 35 and five for 87, figures not approached by any other bowler in the match. At Port of Spain in 1934-35 he levelled the series - which West Indies eventually won by one match - when, after scoring 90 and 31, he took two for 41 and ended his second innings three for 11 (in 14.5 overs) with the master stroke of having as great a resister as Maurice Leyland lbw with only one ball of the match remaining. In his last Test, at The Oval in 1939, when he was 37 years old, his five for 73 took West Indies to a first-innings lead.
As he grew older he grew more astute. As his pace dropped - though he was always likely to surprise with a faster ball or deal a yorker of high speed - he developed a superbly concealed slower ball; and at need he was an effective slow bowler with wrist or finger spin. He continued to play in charity matches well through his fifties when he could still make vivid strokes, bowl out good batsmen and take spectacular catches.
In his younger days some thought him bouncy or unduly colour conscious; if that were so, Nelson warmed him. It would have been strange if so dynamic and effective a cricketer had not bubbled over with confidence. Certainly, though, he gave unhesitating and helpful counsel, and generous praise to his amateur colleagues in the Nelson team. Meanwhile he fought discrimination against his people with a dignity firm but free of acrimony.
Half Learie Constantine's life was spent in England and, although his doctors had long before advised him that a lung condition endangered his life if he did not return to the warmer climate of the West Indies, he died in London. He remained in England during the Second World War as a Ministry of Labour welfare officer with West Indian workers. In 1944 he fought one of the historic cases against colour prejudice when he won damages from The Imperial Hotel in London for "failing to receive and lodge him".
He was deeply moved - and never forgot it - when the other players - all white-skinned - elected him captain of the Dominions team that beat England in the magnificent celebratory, end-of-war match at Lord's in 1946. He rose to the occasion in a fine forcing partnership with Keith Miller and his shrewd captaincy decided a narrow issue with only minutes to spare.
By then, however, his serious cricketing days were drawing to an end. He did occasional writing and broadcasting. Among his books are Cricket In The Sun, Cricket And I, How To Play Cricket, Cricketers' Carnival, The Changing Face Of Cricket (with Denzil Batchelor), and Colour Bar. Years of dogged study were rewarded when he was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1954. Returning to Trinidad he was elected an M.P. in his country's first democratic parliament; became Minister of Works in the government and subsequently High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago in London from 1962 until 1964. He was awarded the M.B.E. in 1945; knighted in 1962; made an honorary Master of the Bench in 1963; and created a life peer in 1969. He served various periods as a governor of the B.B.C., a Rector of St. Andrews, a member of the Race Relations Board and the Sports Council.
A devout Roman Catholic, of easy humour and essential patience, he lived a contented domestic life with his wife and his daughter. His outlook was that of a compassionate radical and he maintained his high moral standards unswervingly.
To the end of his days he recalled with joy the great moments of his cricket and the friends he had made. His wife survived him by barely two months: and Trinidad posthumously awarded him the Trinity Cross, the country's highest honour.
Wisden Almanack 1972
Baron Constantine Career Stats
Batting & Fielding
Format | Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | 100s | 50s | 6s | Ct | St |
Tests | 18 | 33 | 0 | 635 | 90 | 19.24 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 28 | 0 |
Format | Mat | Inns | Balls | Runs | Wkts | BBI | BBM | Ave | Econ | SR | 4w | 5w | 10w |
Tests | 18 | 29 | 3583 | 1746 | 58 | 5/75 | 9/122 | 30.10 | 2.92 | 61.7 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
Explore Statsguru Analysis
Debut/Last Matches of Baron Constantine
Test Matches
FC Matches
Recent Matches of Baron Constantine
Match | Bat | Bowl | Date | Ground | Format |
West Indies vs England | 79 | 5/75 & 1/97 | 19-Aug-1939 | The Oval | Test # 274 |
West Indians vs Gloucs | 9 & 13 | 5/40 & 1/41 | 12-Aug-1939 | Cheltenham | FC |
West Indians vs Warwickshire | 0 & 32 | 0/2 & 0/22 | 09-Aug-1939 | Birmingham | FC |
West Indians vs Glamorgan | 7 & 19* | 4/33 & 5/52 | 05-Aug-1939 | Swansea | FC |
West Indians vs Somerset | 4 & 10 | 2/98 | 02-Aug-1939 | Taunton | FC |


text: Come Visit Jumper's Jungle For Indoor Bounce Houses And Jumpers One of the things that young children like to play in is a bounce house. This is very common all across the nation. Kids will be seen jumping up and down and them at carnivals, and at special facilities where they are available. There is a company by the name of Jumper's Jungle that also provides them for the public, specifically kids that are having birthday parties. If you would like to take advantage of this jungle theme that they have constructed around this bounce house motif, you can call Jumper's Jungle to set an appointment. What Will You Find There? You are going to find several unique bounce house aspects such as jungle bouncers, super slides and more. It is a destination that can hold as many as 30 children, plus all of the adults that will be attending their birthday party. These are located in Riverside, Peoria, Las Vegas and Santa Fe Springs. If you happen to live in or near these areas, you can call this local company that will provide you with this type of birthday entertainment. How Do You Set A Date For Using The Facility? You can set a date and time for going to this facility by calling them on the phone. It is recommended that you call them several weeks early just to make sure they have an opening on the day that you want the party. The cost of using the facility on Friday through Sunday is going to be slightly more, and they also have different packages. If you choose one that is low cost, you will have to share the room with others that will also have their kids therefore a birthday party. The party packages that they have which are available will include VIP and VIP deluxe. Once you have decided on which one will work best for you depending upon whether or not you want to have pizza served with soft drinks, or if you are just going to have 20 people, you can decide on which one of those would be best for you. What Type Of Food And Drinks Can You Bring? When you go to these parties, you can bring cake, all of the party utensils, and soft drink that you want to. The only thing you cannot bring are homemade edibles. Other than that, you are free to bring whatever you want, and any packaging or wrappers that are left over will be taken care of by the people at the facility. If you haven't been to a bounce house before, at least one this sizable, you will realize why people become addicted to bringing their kids here for a birthday party. It's really designed to accommodate a large number of people, but it's primary focus is making sure the little kids are extremely happy. Contact Jumper's Jungle Today If you are now ready to place your order, you will be able to find this business that will provide you with a wonderful time for your kids. They have designed it so that kids of all ages will have something that they can do, and even if they have never been in a bounce house before, they will definitely want to participate. The prices are very reasonable for all that is offered, plus they clean up everything for you as you are leaving. It's a fantastic way to save time, and also provide your kids with a memorable experience. Find out more about Jumper's Jungle today and the many packages that they currently have available.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I never figured myself to be the type of man who would want to try Tough Mudder, a popular military-style fitness endurance event. As the heir to a treasure-trove of Polish-Jewish genes of hapless, short men (housepainters, tailors, Talmudists), my father unconsciously imparted to my brother and me that "fitness" was for tall Swedes and Herculean WASPS. We, the descendants of Jacob, were by virtue of temperament, proclivity, and body types to stay home, study the texts, and tend the sheep.
But then I started running in my 20s and lost my Yeshiva-bochur weight, and kept it off. Still, upper body strength and feats of derring-do, irrationally, were off-limits.
About a year and a half ago, after having been prodded by my dear wife to "bulk up, man," I reached out into the world for a trainer. I posted the request on a local listserv and a tall, Syrian-Iranian young man, a mortal with the body of a Greek god, answered the call.
As it turns out, Moshe, too, was an observant Jew. He told me how he had transformed himself from a depressed, over-eating, body-abusing teenager into someone, who, I had to admit, looked like Charles Atlas. "Lev V'nefesh," body and soul, he told me the first time we met as he pointed to a volume of Talmud on my desk. "You need to have both."
It wasn't long before he told me about Tough Mudder. "It's a blast, you'll have the time of your life," he said. I confided in him the silent, unconscious imprecations of my father and his ancestors (and the men in shul: "You'll die," they told me) that haunted me: Don't extend yourself physically. This is the way of Esau. Though I'm almost twice Moshe's age and half his size, he encouraged me: "You can do it. I see what you're made of."
I met him at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ, an unholy convocation of bandana wearing, beer-swilling Esau-types. I joined Moshe's platoon, four Sephardim from Deal, NJ—his friends. There was Noah, a multi-year veteran of the U.S. Navy and a graduate of Torah Academy of Bergen County, and Robert and George, all observant, handsome, marvelously fit, and in their 20s.
"You're crushing most of the guys here," Moshe assured me as we ran through the obstacle course, sprinting through the mud while being shocked with 10,000 volts of electricity, jumping through a wall of fire (stopping only to switch off carrying a 45-pound pack), plunging into a dumpster filled with ice water and swimming submerged to the other side. We walked off a plank from a 20-foot high deck into cold, muddy water. (A man died last spring doing this stunt.)
My beautiful 18-year-old daughter Avigayil endured a four-and-a-half hour wait while I completed the event. When I emerged I was unrecognizable to her, caked with mud and grime. I reassured her: My hands are the hands of Esau, but my voice is still Jacob's.
Alter Yisrael Shimon Feuerman, a psychotherapist in New Jersey, is director of The New Center for Advanced Psychotherapy Studies. He is also author of the Yiddish novel Yankel and Leah.


text:
As biodiversity scientists, we rely on a breadth of data living in various domain-specific databases to assemble knowledge on particular ecoregions, taxa, or populations. We visit genetic and genomic, morphological, phylogenetic, image, and specimen databases in search of up-to-date information to answer our questions. What we find, in general, is a morass of data, disconnected between systems, as if each database were a walled garden. The main goal of BiSciCol is linking digital objects and datasets, breaking down walled gardens, and building a true network of biodiversity data where we can ask questions across domains, and following object instances where-ever they are referenced.
How do we enable linking data, on a global scale, across domains? For BiSciCol, this comes down to two approaches: 1) build better ontologies and vocabularies so we can use the same language when talking about the same thing, and 2) enable identifiers that are robust enough to persist in time and allow linking across walled gardens. For this blog-post, we'll focus on issues we have with identifiers as they're currently used in practice, and how they can be improved to enable better linking.
To provide a point of reference for our discussion, let's look at two databases that contain some overlap of references to the same objects: VertNet and Genbank. VertNet is a project that aggregates vertebrate specimen data housed in collections and Genbank is a project that houses sequences, often containing references to specimen objects housed in those same museums which are part of VertNet. For our exercise in linking, we'll use a popular method for identifying museum objects, the Darwin Core (DwC) triplet; a DwC triplet is composed of an institution code, collection code, and catalog number, separated by a colon.
In the VertNet database, the DwC triplet fields are stored separately, and the DwC triplet can be constructed programmatically by appending each field value together with colons separating them. The INSDC standard, which Genbank adopts, specifies the specimen_voucher qualifier value should be provided with the full DwC triple: that is the institution code, collection code, and catalog number separated by colons as one field. Since these approaches are very similar, it should be a simple task to map the VertNet format to Genbank. Harvesting all relevant institutions from Genbank that map to VertNet institutions, and which also has a value in the specimen_voucher field gives us over 38,000 records. VertNet itself has over 1.4 million records (at the time we harvested data) that we also have access to. We can assume that the Genbank records containing voucher specimen information should match well with VertNet data since the institutions providing data to Genbank are the same ones that are providing data to VertNet.
In fact, on our first pass, we found only 483 matches using the DwC triplet method of linking. That is 1% of the potential number of matches we would expect! If we toss the collection code field and match only on institution code plus catalog number we get 2,351 matches (6% match rate). Although we need to look a little more closely, tossing the collection code does not seem to cause collisions between collections within an institution (but, in other instances could lead to false positive links). If we combine removing collection code with a suite of data parsing tools we can can increase this a bit further to 3,153 matches (8% match rate). This is still a dismal match rate.
The primary reason for the low match rate is that Genbank will take any value in the specimen_voucher qualifier field and providers will respond in kind, inserting any value they choose. Consequently, field values are notoriously noisy, making it difficult to parse. VertNet data was much higher quality for two reasons: 1) records were curated according to distinct values for institution, collection, and catalog_number, with clear instructions for recommended values for each field, and 2) there is a process of data cleaning and customer support for VertNet data publishers. However, we can see that the DwC triplet method suffers from some serious issues when used in practice. Clearly we need a better strategy if we're going to take identifiers seriously.
Are there other options for unique identifiers? Lets looks at identifier options currently in play, and the ramifications of each; but first, let's take a look at what RDF tells us about identifiers. Currently, the TDWG-RDF group is discussing what constitutes a valid URI for linking data on the semantic web. The only hard and fast recommendation in RDF is that the identifier must be an HTTP URI. After all, this is the semantic web, built on the world-wide web, which uses the HTTP protocol to transfer data, so what can go wrong here? Nothing, except that we must have persistence if we want to ensure identifiers are linkable in the future, and simply being an HTTP URI says nothing about persistence. It may be available today and next month, but what about in a year? In 10 years? In 50 years? Will machine negotiation be through HTTP in 50 years? There are some work-arounds to ensure long-term persistence such as casting the identifier as a literal or using proxies to point to an HTTP resolver for identifiers. However, its clear that RDF by itself does not answer our need for identifier persistence. We need more specialized techniques.
So. Some strategies:
DwC Triplets: We've talked about this strategy here and some of the drawbacks. Also, they are not guaranteed to be globally unique, encode metadata into the identifier itself, which is bad practice, leading to persistence issues into the future. Worse: they are not resolvable, and they can be constructed in various, slightly different ways leading to matching problems.
LSIDs: LSIDs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSID) have not solved the persistence question either and resolvers are built on good-will and volunteer effort. More backbone needs to be provided to make these strong persistent identifiers. For example, requiring identifiers to be resolvable rather than merely recommending resolution.
UUIDs: Programmers love UUIDs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier) since they can be created instantly, are always globally unique (for all practical purposes), and can be built directly as database keys. However, by themselves we don't know where to resolve them. A vanilla UUID sitting in the wild tells us practically nothing about the thing it is representing. Solutions advocating UUIDs can be a great option, as long as there is a plan for resolution, usually requiring another solution to be implemented along with it.
DOIs: DOIs (http://www.doi.org/) were designed for publications and contain built in metadata protocols, and are used the world over by many, in fact most publishers. There is an organization behind it, the International DOI Foundation, which is geared towards persisting for a long time. There is a network of resolvers which can resolve any officially minted DOI. DOIs are available at minimal costs through Datacite or Crossref.
EZIDs: EZIDs (http://n2t.net/ezid/) support Archival Resource Keys (ARKs) and DOIs through Datacite. By registering with EZID you can mint up to 1 million identifiers per year at a fixed rate. Subscription costs are reasonable. EZIDs are supported by the California Digital Library, which not only helps assure persistence, but also provides useful services that are hard to build into homebrew resolvers.
BCIDs: BCIDs (e.g. see http://biscicol.org/bcid/) are an extension of EZIDs, and use a hierarchical approach (using a technique called suffixPassthrough) to simultaneously resolve to dataset and record-level entries. Since identifier registration is done for groups, and extended using locally unique suffixes it enables rapid assignment of identifiers that are keyed to local databases while offering global resolution and persistence. With this solution, we can also sidestep the 1 million identifiers per year limit.
We conclude by noting that each aggregator out there seems to want to mint its own flavor of GUIDs, perhaps as much to "brand" an identifier space as for any other reason. We wonder if this strategy of proliferating such spaces is a great idea. A huge advantage of DOIs and EZIDs is abstraction. You know what they mean and how to resolve them because they are well-known and have organizations with specific missions to support identifier creation. This strategy ensures that identifiers can persist and resolve well into the future, and be recognizable not just within the biodiversity informatics community but any other community we interoperate with: genomics, publishing, ecology, earth sciences. This is what we're talking about when we want to break down walled gardens.
-John Deck, Rob Guralnick, Nico Cellinese, and Tom Conlin


text:
Murray delighted with 'brutal' win in Miami
Updated: 2013-04-01 10:04
MIAMI - An exhausted Andy Murray credited his mental strength and physical freshness for his tie-break victory over David Ferrer in the Sony Open final on Sunday after a gruelling two hour, 45 minute battle.
"It was a brutal, brutal match. Both of us were kind of on our last legs," Murray told reporters after his 2-6 6-4 7-6 win.
"It was a good job it wasn't a best-of-five-set match, because I don't know how the last few sets would have ended up.
"It was one of the toughest matches I have had to play in a Masters Series, for sure," added the Scotsman who will move to number two in the world, above Roger Federer, in Monday's latest ATP world rankings.
The match, played at mid-day in South Florida heat and humidity, became a war of attrition with neither player near their peak in terms of shot-making but both doggedly sticking at the task.
"I showed good mental strength to get through that match, because it easily could have slipped away from me," said Murray.
"It was a big match for both of us, and I think that showed in some of the way that we played.
"We didn't play necessarily our best tennis. I was up a lot and couldn't close the match out. Matches like these ones are tough, because, you know, the humidity here is brutal," added the U.S. Open and Olympic champion.
Murray is acknowledged as one of the sport's true fitness fanatics, spending his off-season in Miami working out but he said his physical condition at the end of the contest owed more to his scheduling.
"I think just general freshness, really. I think being fresh helped even though the tennis wasn't great," he said. "I just managed to get over the line in the end."
Ferrer was left regretting his decision when on championship point, 5-4 up against Murray's serve, to challenge a Murray shot rather than play it.
The ball was ruled in and the Scot went on to take the game into a tie-break which he won 7-1.
"I chose my decision in that moment. It's a bad moment now and don't want to think anymore about that. I want to forget it as fast as possible," the Spaniard told reporters.
Ferrer's determined display led Murray to urge greater respect for his opponent, currently ranked fifth in the world.
"I don't think he gets the respect that he deserves within the game. He's been in the top five in the world now for at least three years.
"He's improved his game every single year. That takes, you know, a great attitude to be able to do that," said Murray.
"Providing his body holds up, he'll be around the top of the game for as long as he wants or he can, because he's a very, very, good tennis player and has a great attitude."
- 'Taken 2' grabs movie box office crown
- Rihanna's 'Diamonds' tops UK pop chart
- Fans get look at vintage Rolling Stones
- Celebrities attend Power of Women event
- Ang Lee breaks 'every rule' to make unlikely new Life of Pi film
- Rihanna almost thrown out of nightclub
- 'Dark Knight' wins weekend box office
- 'Total Recall' stars gather in Beverly Hills
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
American abroad |
Industry savior: Big boys' toys |
New commissioner
Liaoning: China's oceangoing giant |
TCM - Keeping healthy in Chinese way |
Poultry industry under pressure |
Today's Top News
Boston bombing suspect reported cornered on boat
7.0-magnitude quake hits Sichuan
Cross-talk artist helps to spread the word
'Green' awareness levels drop in Beijing
Palace Museum spruces up
First couple on Time's list of most influential
H7N9 flu transmission studied
Trading channels 'need to broaden'
US Weekly
Beyond Yao
Money power |


text:
The title is taken from words spoken by Pope Francis as reported at rawstory.com on Oct. 21 of 2013. In his brief words, the Pope took issue with those who are so focused on ideology that any indication of love, compassion, understanding and other higher level facets of humanity are lost.
These are powerful, near shocking words to come from the leader of the centuries old Catholic church. The new Pope likely uses messages such as this one to let the world know how he is working to change the institution that has done so much in recent years to attack gays and women.
Bishops of the Catholic Church had put themselves so far out into the public spotlight that they appeared to be campaigning for Republicans in their efforts to defeat the Affordable Care Act. This view has been borne out by a recent article in the National Catholic Reporter on Nov. 14.
The article reveals that many bishops are afraid that focusing on economic issues in support of the poor will alienate their Republican donors and help the Democrats. Those donors would then not support the bishops' focus on gays, abortion and religious liberty.
An article in Enlightened Catholicism tells us that the billionaire Koch Brothers gave a million dollars to the Catholic University of America. In their cozy relationship with the Republicans and their billionaire supporters, the bishops came dangerously close to sedition, if not treason, as they pounded away at "religious freedom" in their attempts to subvert the law of the land that had given women access to insurance to help them control the timing and process of reproduction.
They have been equally strident in their incitements to violence against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals.
In all of these very public and highly publicized efforts, the bishops very piously called upon the Bible and church teachings to support their position. Until they put themselves forward so belligerently to promote their rather peculiar ideology, they had not chosen to take such a high profile stance on any other subject. The ideology is peculiar because it focuses so exclusively on human sexual behavior and put forth so self-righteously by supposedly celibate clerics .. .human celibacy being itself rather peculiar.
The bishops laid themselves open to the obvious charge that their loud, almost angry attacks on the sexuality of gays and women were meant to hide the long history of the abuse of children by church clerics, including some of those bishops making the charges. The Pope appears to be serving notice that there is a new sheriff in town.
His predecessor, Pope Benedict, the German who in his youth served in the Nazi youth corps, had been suspect in the cover-up of clerical sexual abuse of children. The church scandals had to do not only with sexual abuse, but dark financial dealings by the Vatican bank as well. As a result, the church had been losing vast amounts of its wealth, as well as tithing adherents due to the scandals.
The Pope is being touted as a breath of fresh air by true believers. But, as the head of a centuries old, fabulously wealthy institution, the Pope is the head of a once-thriving business that was about to go under without a change in leadership.
The Board of Directors, otherwise known as the College of Cardinals, chose the Pope to advance the aims of the business by breaking the influence of the U.S. council of bishops. The middle managers of the church, the bishops, are about to have their heads handed to them.
There has to be something especially heinous about running a business that is based on bilking the people who fervently believe in Jesus Christ and a supreme God. But, the new leader, Pope Francis, appears to be turning it around. The Catholic churches have people returning to the pews and filling the collection baskets.
Now, let us apply the lessons learned to another thriving business that is in serious danger … the Republican party. The parallels are uncanny.
The Republicans have been caught red-handed, taking vast sums from the super wealthy in return for legislation that promotes the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the same rich people who back the bishops. These super wealthy, also known as oligarchs, use the additional wealth so generously provided by their Republican stooges, to attack any and all efforts to expose their schemes to plunder the riches of the nation.
The Republicans have packed the Supreme Court to reverse laws that protected the poor and middle classes. They have funded the Tea Party, extremists tantamount to treasonous subversives, whose aim appears to be to bring down a legitimately elected government or, failing that, to prevent the government from functioning. They have fomented wars in Afghanistan and Iraq based on blatant lies promoted by a puppet Republican administration.
They appear to be intent upon rigging elections, so as to install another compliant Republican administration that will initiate another "preemptive" war against Iran at the urging of the Israelis. The near continuous Republican wars do nothing more than bring misery to our supposed enemies, break our soldiers, plunder the wealth of the U.S. and enrich the oligarchs.
The second most heinous type of leadership is one that will bilk the people who fervently believe that the U.S. is the most powerful, most democratic and most righteous country in the world and the beacon of hope for the world's suffering masses.
The Catholic Church and the Republican party; who could have guessed that they would have so much in common?
It is too bad that the Republican party does not appear to have the foggiest notion of what new leadership might do to bring it back from the brink of abject failure.
Mitt Romney and the rather curious contenders for the nomination in the 2012 election were bad enough. Now, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul appear to be contenders for the 2016 nomination.
In control of the Republican congress, Cruz, supported by Paul, succeeded in shutting down the government and bringing the U.S. perilously close to default. He is the darling of the Tea Party, funded by the oligarchs that control the Republican agenda. Unlike the church, the Republicans do not seem capable of righting their failing business.
Those who fervently believe in the U.S. can only hope that the Republicans never stumble upon the key to saving themselves. Their ideology is so toxic that competent new leadership will only prolong the agony — better that they should go kicking and screaming into the dark night of oblivion.


text:
The latest build teach us a little more about Tier 11 sets, we already had the set bonuses, we now have an early preview of the models of the Rogue and Druid sets and the name of all the sets. Shanai already posted the preview on forums and I'll just steal it for the moment because the streaming client still hurts my workflow on a few things.
The sets are obviously unfinished, so there're a few graphical glitches and bugs.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Death Knight
- Magma Plated Battlegear - DPS
- Magma Plated Battlearmor - Tank
- Stormrider's Battlegarb - Feral
- Stormrider's Vestments - Restoration
- Stormrider's Regalia - Balance
- Reinforced Sapphirium Battleplate - DPS
- Reinforced Sapphirium Regalia - Healing
- Reinforced Sapphirium Battlearmor - Tank
- Mercurial Vestments - Healing
- Mercurial Regalia - DPS
- Vestments of the Raging Elements - Restoration
- Battlegear of the Raging Elements - Enhancement
- Regalia of the Raging Elements - Elemental
- Earthen Warplate - DPS
- Earthen Battleplate - Tank
Peacebloom Vs. Ghouls
A lot of people wondered what the "Peacebloom vs. Ghouls" achievements from the latest beta build are and we finally have an answer. Have you ever played Plants vs. Zombies? No? Cataclysm will give you a chance to fix that! A new quest was added to the game in the latest beta build, it's a brand new mini-game heavily based on Plants vs Zombies and I'm sure a lot of players will waste an insane amount of time on it.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
- Bloom and Doom - Survive 100 waves on Endless Mode the Peacebloom Vs. Ghouls quest.
- Dont' Want No Zombies on My Lawn - Survive 25 waves on the Endless Mode of Peacebloom vs. Ghouls
WoWTal - Build 12984
It looks like we had a small issue with the update during the latest beta build, the Cataclysm Talent Calculator has been updated to Build 12984.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Running Wild / No Worgen Mounts
This isn't a matter of saving time. The animations still had to be made in order to make this feel cool.
It's a matter of preference and creating an immersive gameplay experience. Giving the worgen a distinct creature to ride just didn't feel right, but they can still ride other mounts if they meet the criteria. Right now we're okay with the fact that this particular race is different when it comes to mounts. We feel that makes it interesting, even if the Alliance gets less racial mounts as a result. There are plenty of mounts out there and we can always add more. (Source)
Saturday PTR/Beta Patch and bugs
We didn't have people working Saturday so we could push the patch. People were working Saturday so we decided to push the patch. Given how much work is going into this expansion right now, many changes are added to the system seven days a week. It is better that we collect those changes by creating new builds and releasing them to test the content, at this point, than it is to thoroughly bug test each new build internally. We know it can create various issues each new patch which can be sort of rough on testers, but we appreciate you working through these things with us because it's helping to shape Cataclysm to be the best expansion possible. (Source)
Stats balancing
As an almost universal rule, we don't want to solve "I don't like that stat" problems by just not making gear with that stat. The eventual result of such a design would be that all of your gear looks alike. That's a problem WoW has in general, so we like to actually get the most out of what few stats we have.
Several players could get in a state where they were hit capped in LK and then just kept getting more and more hit on higher level items. We are trying to fix that this time around in a number of ways:
1) Making all stats more attractive, rather than having the good stat vs. the garbage stat.
2) Getting rid of so many passive hit buffs, such as the draenei racial and class raid buffs.
3) Requiring higher combat ratings for additional content tiers. What hit caps you for 4.0 won't be sufficient in 4.1, so the extra budge on the 4.1 gear will be helpful.
4) Reforging. If all else fails and you just find yourself over the hit cap (or over-enriched in any other stats) you can remove part of the less desirable stat.
In all of these cases I'm talking about stats that actually show up on your gear. It's fine if mages don't care about Agi or warriors don't care about Spirit. But crit, haste and mastery should be universally desirable, and one of those should not trump the other two by being 2x more valuable. (Source)
Healing (I strongly suggest reading the whole post about healers)
Medium Heals Nerf
As others have pointed out, we nerfed all of the medium heals.
Very early in beta, some healers were freaking out about running out of mana. To counter this, we made the medium heals really cost effective. We probably overdid it, because more recently, healers were able to handle almost everything with just that one heal. We want it to be part of your package, not your whole package. (Source)
Is it intended that our efficient heals only have about 20% more HPM than our big heals? Or should we expect those to be nerfed as well soon?
If healers stop casting the medium heals completely, then it's likely we nerfed them too far. Up until this change they weren't using the big heals enough.
We had the numbers set at what we thought made sense from a cost per benefit standpoint, but reality is always a little more complicated. Perhaps it was just easier using a single heal and being a B+ healer rather than having to worry about which of multiple heals to use in order to be an A+ healer. (Source)
Big Heals
The big heals get a decent amount of use, and they don't seem to run players out of mana unless the rest of the group is taking unnecessary damage (by say ignoring all the encounter mechanics because they can do so when running Heroic Nexus today).
If there's a heal we're worried about, it's the flash heals, but that's partially because so many of the talented or spec heals are also emergency heals that fill a similar niche -- things like Swiftmend, Penance and Holy Shock. (Source)
You're fortunate if you have to triage. Many healers don't today. The typical experience is to use your fastest heal on everyone who takes any damage. You may get some amount of triage by choosing who to heal, but you won't be losing that either. If you are really choosing today which of your many heals to use, then A) you're in the minority, and B) you won't really have to relearn things for Cataclysm. You'll be ahead of the game.
The Lich King game today has additional problems. Since overhealing doesn't matter, mana regen doesn't matter. Since overhealing is typical, large heals also don't matter, which means critical heals are often wasted. This makes two of the stats that appear on your gear (Spirit and crit) not attractive, which in turn makes the minigame of choosing which piece to use and how to gem and enchant them less compelling as well.
If you just really think it's fun to just cast one heal over and over with no real repercussions for doing so while stacking a single stat on all your gear, then I guess I'll just have to accept that. It's hard for us to understand why you find that satisfying though. (Source)
Healing spam
When we say "spammy" in this context, we mean using the same spell over and over. We're not talking about sitting around on your hands waiting for your mana to come back (and without the five second rule, that won't do much for you anyway).
Think of playing a healer like a real time strategy game. In the Lich King environment, your strategy is basically to crank out infantry as fast as you can and never let up. No matter what your opponent does, your job is to counter him with infantry. It doesn't matter what kinds of units he makes or whether he's going for a fast or slow buildup. Just make infantry. If your race has upgrades that affect things other than infantry, obviously they are of no use to you and you should ignore them. Cost is largely irrelevant too, since you are making one solider over and over.
In the Cataclysm environment, we want you to make a variety of units. Sometimes infantry will do the job well. Other times you may need to mix in some cavalry or siege units as well. In fact, you need to tailor what you're making to the environment. Sometimes you want cheap units. Sometimes you want expensive ones. We want you to consider your upgrades as well. Investing all of them on infantry will make less sense because you have other types of units as well. Yet you won't have enough resources so you'll have to make a decision.
That is really what we're trying to get out of the new healing model: making decisions. We think players have more fun when they are making decisions. When you make the right decision based on the information available, you feel smart. When you make the wrong decision, you feel dumb, and you might cause the rest of the group to have to work harder, or even ultimately cause a wipe.
Blizzard is investing a lot into this change... they must have better reasons then that! I want them to sell it! Front page headline "New Improved Healing System". If they can't do that, then maybe they should question all the hard work they are doing. (Source)
[...] For the most part, you'll still be constantly casting. We do want to buy a little bit of bandwidth though. Making decisions takes actual time (fractions of seconds perhaps, but still time). In the LK healing environment even if you had a variety of effective healing spells, by the time you looked at someone's bar, decided what heal would be most appropriate, and started to cast it, the dude could very well be dead.
In Cataclysm, large health pools will keep most players up for a few hits. That gives you the opportunity to decide if someone needs a little heal or a big heal, or a slow heal or a fast heal, or if they are likely to live long enough for a powerful spell to finish its cooldown. If you use the wrong spell, the target is unlikely to die immediately, but over time you'll realize that your mana has really started to dwindle and the boss has a large health bar still left.
I've said this before, but I remember when tanking back in vanilla, a priest would call out on Vent, announcing that he had a big Greater Heal being cast. Other healers might call out when they were healing someone who suddenly took a lot of unexpected damage. That kind of coordination is very hard in today's raids because you'd only get through the B in "Big heal coming," before the target would be dead.
It's possible to slow down combat enough to provide room for decision making and communication without going to the extreme where healers are doing nothing for large stretches of time because they are so paranoid about running out of mana if they cast a heal that isn't at 100% efficiency or doesn't save a life at that moment. (Source)
Healer mana efficiency in solo
Keep in mind that we're not super concerned with healer mana efficiency when not in a group. Fights are pretty short when you're solo and there are a lot of breaks. What I'm getting at is we're not super concerned with how you perform when self-buffed, so long as you're functional. We're more concerned with how you perform when group buffed, since all of the most rewarding endgame content requires groups. (Source)
Val'anyr competitive @ LVL 85?
Let's put it this way... if it is competitive at level 85, it won't be for long. (Source)
Death Knight (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Runic Empowerment
We think Runic Empowerment is an important mechanic because without it, the rotation becomes very predictable perhaps even metronome-like. We are trying to make sure all specs have some random mechanics so that they need to react to what happens instead of just pressing the same buttons over and over as fast as they can. Some players react badly to random mechanics because they make the rotations less predictable and therefore more challenging to manage. That's the entire point.
However, coming out of LK, Frost had a more random rotation that was more about priorities than set rotations, and Unholy was the opposite. This let players gravitate towards the play style they preferred and made the specs feel more different when you swapped from one for the other (more than just replacing Frost damage with Shadow damage). We are working on an Unholy talent that will essentially turn off the Runic Empowerment system in place of something more predictable, like the runes just refreshing more quickly. Ideally the talent would be optional, so that Unholy DKs could stick with Runic Empowerment if they prefer it. It will still require you to keep on your toes a little bit rather than letting you know for certainty what buttons you will be hitting at second 148 a battle. (Source)
Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Replenishment on Lifebloom
We gave Replenishment to Restoration because we took it away from Survival hunters. It didn't make a lot of sense for a non-mana class to offer mana. We want to make sure Replenishment is easily available, though to be fair it is about half as effective as it was in Lich King. (Source)
Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Protection Damage / Shield Slam damage nerf
We also buffed Revenge back to a 30% coefficient. We weren't trying to nerf Prot's damage overall -- just make sure that the other attacks actually did something besides consume GCDs waiting for the next Shield Slam.
We're happy with Heavy Repercussions. It lets you use a defensive cooldown offensively when you don't need it defensively.
I'm not sure it makes sense for Heroic Leap to hit harder than anything else a Prot warrior could do. It might make you want to do things like move out of melee and leap back in all the time. It might make you use a utility ability only for dps. (I don't think that's the same thing as Shield Block, because you're not literally giving up its defensive uses with Heavy Repercussions.) (Source)
The MMO Report
It's monday, and it's time for your weekly MMO Report.
Dark Legacy Comic #256 and Teh Gladiators #168 are out!


text:
(The skull with the tag for a nose in the lower right shelf of this photo reminds me of one of my witches.)
Flickr source.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Skulls Abound
novelty shop,
3 comments:
- Jon Glassett said...
I REALLY need to find that store. I'm looking for some good quality foam skulls for my haunt.
- July 24, 2008 at 8:00 AM
- Rot said...
Agreed. Skulls are very hard to come by. They're either too heavy and expensive, or they are made of some light material and don't even resemble a human skull. I've said it for years, but the guy that invents a realistic human-sized skull at a low cost is going to make tons of cash every single Halloween.
- July 24, 2008 at 8:30 AM
- crudedoodle.com said...
I always thought i was an oddball getting annoyed that a fake skull's eye sockets are usually never deep enough. wtf is up with that?
- July 24, 2008 at 9:50 AM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)


text:
When the coach set down Tom and Maggie, it was five hours since she had started from home, and she was thinking with some trembling that her father had perhaps missed her, and asked for "the little wench" in vain. She thought of no other change that might have happened.
She hurried along the gravel-walk and entered the house before Tom; but in the entrance she was startled by a strong smell of tobacco. The parlor door was ajar; that was where the smell came from. It was very strange; could any visitor be smoking at a time like this? Was her mother there? If so, she must be told that Tom was come. Maggie, after this pause of surprise, was only in the act of opening the door when Tom came up, and they both looked into the parlor together.
There was a coarse, dingy man, of whose face Tom had some vague recollection, sitting in his father's chair, smoking, with a jug and glass beside him.
The truth flashed on Tom's mind in an instant. To "have the bailiff in the house," and "to be sold up," were phrases which he had been used to, even as a little boy; they were part of the disgrace and misery of "failing," of losing all one's money, and being ruined,–sinking into the condition of poor working people. It seemed only natural this should happen, since his father had lost all his property, and he thought of no more special cause for this particular form of misfortune than the loss of the lawsuit. But the immediate presence of this disgrace was so much keener an experience to Tom than the worst form of apprehension, that he felt at this moment as if his real trouble had only just begin; it was a touch on the irritated nerve compared with its spontaneous dull aching.
"How do you do, sir?" said the man, taking the pipe out of his mouth, with rough, embarrassed civility. The two young startled faces made him a little uncomfortable.
But Tom turned away hastily without speaking; the sight was too hateful. Maggie had not understood the appearance of this stranger, as Tom had. She followed him, whispering: "Who can it be, Tom? What is the matter?" Then, with a sudden undefined dread lest this stranger might have something to do with a change in her father, she rushed upstairs, checking herself at the bedroom door to throw off her bonnet, and enter on tiptoe. All was silent there; her father was lying, heedless of everything around him, with his eyes closed as when she had left him. A servant was there, but not her mother.
"Where's my mother?" she whispered. The servant did not know.
Maggie hastened out, and said to Tom; "Father is lying quiet; let us go and look for my mother. I wonder where she is."
Mrs. Tulliver was not downstairs, not in any of the bedrooms. There was but one room below the attic which Maggie had left unsearched; it was the storeroom, where her mother kept all her linen and all the precious "best things" that were only unwrapped and brought out on special occasions.
Tom, preceding Maggie, as they returned along the passage, opened the door of this room, and immediately said, "Mother!"
Mrs. Tulliver was seated there with all her laid-up treasures. One of the linen chests was open; the silver teapot was unwrapped from its many folds of paper, and the best china was laid out on the top of the closed linen-chest; spoons and skewers and ladles were spread in rows on the shelves; and the poor woman was shaking her head and weeping, with a bitter tension of the mouth, over the mark, "Elizabeth Dodson," on the corner of some tablecloths she held in her lap.
She dropped them, and started up as Tom spoke.
"Oh, my boy, my boy!" she said, clasping him round the neck. "To think as I should live to see this day! We're ruined–everything's going to be sold up–to think as your father should ha' married me to bring me to this! We've got nothing–we shall be beggars–we must go to the workhouse––"
She kissed him, then seated herself again, and took another tablecloth on her lap, unfolding it a little way to look at the pattern, while the children stood by in mute wretchedness, their minds quite filled for the moment with the words "beggars" and "workhouse."
"To think o' these cloths as I spun myself," she went on, lifting things out and turning them over with an excitement all the more strange and piteous because the stout blond woman was usually so passive,–if she had been ruffled before, it was at the surface merely,–"and Job Haxey wove 'em, and brought the piece home on his back, as I remember standing at the door and seeing him come, before I ever thought o' marrying your father! And the pattern as I chose myself, and bleached so beautiful, and I marked 'em so as nobody ever saw such marking,–they must cut the cloth to get it out, for it's a particular stitch. And they're all to be sold, and go into strange people's houses, and perhaps be cut with the knives, and wore out before I'm dead. You'll never have one of 'em, my boy," she said, looking up at Tom with her eyes full of tears, "and I meant 'em for you. I wanted you to have all o' this pattern. Maggie could have had the large check–it never shows so well when the dishes are on it."
Tom was touched to the quick, but there was an angry reaction immediately. His face flushed as he said:
"But will my aunts let them be sold, mother? Do they know about it? They'll never let your linen go, will they? Haven't you sent to them?"
"Yes, I sent Luke directly they'd put the bailies in, and your aunt Pullet's been–and, oh dear, oh dear, she cries so and says your father's disgraced my family and made it the talk o' the country; and she'll buy the spotted cloths for herself, because she's never had so many as she wanted o' that pattern, and they sha'n't go to strangers, but she's got more checks a'ready nor she can do with." (Here Mrs. Tulliver began to lay back the tablecloths in the chest, folding and stroking them automatically.) "And your uncle Glegg's been too, and he says things must be bought in for us to lie down on, but he must talk to your aunt; and they're all coming to consult. But I know they'll none of 'em take my chany," she added, turning toward the cups and saucers, "for they all found fault with 'em when I bought 'em, 'cause o' the small gold sprig all over 'em, between the flowers. But there's none of 'em got better chany, not even your aunt Pullet herself; and I bought it wi' my own money as I'd saved ever since I was turned fifteen; and the silver teapot, too,–your father never paid for 'em. And to think as he should ha' married me, and brought me to this."
Mrs. Tulliver burst out crying afresh, and she sobbed with her handkerchief at her eyes a few moments, but then removing it, she said in a deprecating way, still half sobbing, as if she were called upon to speak before she could command her voice,–
"And I did say to him times and times, 'Whativer you do, don't go to law,' and what more could I do? I've had to sit by while my own fortin's been spent, and what should ha' been my children's, too. You'll have niver a penny, my boy–but it isn't your poor mother's fault."
She put out one arm toward Tom, looking up at him piteously with her helpless, childish blue eyes. The poor lad went to her and kissed her, and she clung to him. For the first time Tom thought of his father with some reproach. His natural inclination to blame, hitherto kept entirely in abeyance toward his father by the predisposition to think him always right, simply on the ground that he was Tom Tulliver's father, was turned into this new channel by his mother's plaints; and with his indignation against Wakem there began to mingle some indignation of another sort. Perhaps his father might have helped bringing them all down in the world, and making people talk of them with contempt, but no one should talk long of Tom Tulliver with contempt.
The natural strength and firmness of his nature was beginning to assert itself, urged by the double stimulus of resentment against his aunts, and the sense that he must behave like a man and take care of his mother.
"Don't fret, mother," he said tenderly. "I shall soon be able to get money; I'll get a situation of some sort."
"Bless you, my boy!" said Mrs. Tulliver, a little soothed. Then, looking round sadly, "But I shouldn't ha' minded so much if we could ha' kept the things wi' my name on 'em."
Maggie had witnessed this scene with gathering anger. The implied reproaches against her father–her father, who was lying there in a sort of living death–neutralized all her pity for griefs about tablecloths and china; and her anger on her father's account was heightened by some egoistic resentment at Tom's silent concurrence with her mother in shutting her out from the common calamity. She had become almost indifferent to her mother's habitual depreciation of her, but she was keenly alive to any sanction of it, however passive, that she might suspect in Tom. Poor Maggie was by no means made up of unalloyed devotedness, but put forth large claims for herself where she loved strongly. She burst out at last in an agitated, almost violent tone: "Mother, how can you talk so; as if you cared only for things with your name on, and not for what has my father's name too; and to care about anything but dear father himself!–when he's lying there, and may never speak to us again. Tom, you ought to say so too; you ought not to let any one find fault with my father."
Maggie, almost choked with mingled grief and anger, left the room, and took her old place on her father's bed. Her heart went out to him with a stronger movement than ever, at the thought that people would blame him. Maggie hated blame; she had been blamed all her life, and nothing had come of it but evil tempers.
Her father had always defended and excused her, and her loving remembrance of his tenderness was a force within her that would enable her to do or bear anything for his sake.
Tom was a little shocked at Maggie's outburst,–telling him as well as his mother what it was right to do! She ought to have learned better than have those hectoring, assuming manners, by this time. But he presently went into his father's room, and the sight there touched him in a way that effaced the slighter impressions of the previous hour. When Maggie saw how he was moved, she went to him and put her arm round his neck as he sat by the bed, and the two children forgot everything else in the sense that they had one father and one sorrow.
Return to the The Mill on the Floss Summary Return to the George Eliot Library


text:
Cover Reveal for Breeze by Ashley Hampton
Book: Breeze
Series: Southern Rock Lyrics Series #1
Author: Ashley Hampton
Genre: Romance
Release Date: October 2015 - exact date coming soon!
SynopsisDr. Hannah Walker is starting her first year as a Visiting Professor at Thurston University. A graduate of Thurston, she's familiar with the town, has friends, and is waiting on her perfect job to open at Wilmington College. She's run from every serious relationship she's had in pursuit of her career goals.Igor Finley recently moved back to his hometown after his last military deployment and discharge because of his PTSD. He's returning to Thurston University for his degree, so he can provide for his two young children. There were fireworks when the two met, but will they be able to keep them out of the classroom? Will Hannah stay in Thurston once she realizes her feelings, or will she be carried away like a Breeze towards her career goals?
Add to your Goodreads TBR
Cover Reveal
Cover Design by Amy Donnelly of Alchemy & Words
Cover Picture by James Price of AEP Book Covers
Author BioAshley Hampton works as a Licensed Psychologist in private practice during the day. When she leaves work, she puts on her writer and photographer hats and enjoys living in the worlds created in her mind. She lives near her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama with her cat, Gemma. Ashley wanted to find a creative way to meld her love for music and psychology with writing, and the Southern Rock Lyrics series was born. With other series planned, Ashley wants to write in the romance, erotica, and psychological thriller genres. Connect with Ashley in the following ways:Leave a Reply. |


text:
- Downward pressure on disposable income could see private label further erode the market shares of branded products in mature markets.
- Innovation in air care has increasingly focused on the desire of consumers to enhance the home environment.
- Alternate fragrances to combat "olfactory fatigue" are proliferating, but their high price points may increase the industry's vulnerability to an economic downturn.
- A new niche of air hygiene spray, products that blur the distinctions between air care and household antiseptics/disinfectants, may prove to be a boon.
The socioeconomic tailwinds that drove growth in air care in recent years went sharply into reverse during 2008 as credit markets froze and housing values went into free fall in a number of markets. According to Euromonitor International data, the global air care market was worth just under $8 billion during 2008. However, the rate of annual growth in value sales slowed from 4.8% in 2007 to 2.9% during 2008, well below its CAGR of 5.4% during the 2003–08 period.
The role played by the residential housing market in the current economic crisis is of particular importance to the air care industry, as evidenced by the fact that some of the worst-performing air care markets in 2008 were also those with the weakest housing markets.
For example, in the U.S., growth in sales of air care products fell from 2.3% in 2007 to -0.4% during 2008. Since peaking during 2006, the Case-Schiller 20-City Housing Index has lost more than 40% of its value. This decline in housing values has gone hand-in-hand with a surge in housing repossessions, helping to push the rate of home ownership in the U.S. down to 67.5% during the first quarter of 2009, its lowest level since 2000. Meanwhile, in Germany, which has been hit at least as badly by the downturn as the U.S., sales growth in air care was relatively stable between 2007 and 2008, easing from 1.2% to 1.1%. Crucially, Germany avoided a boom-and-bust housing cycle. In Spain and Ireland, two Eurozone economies that are suffering housing busts, the performance of the air care segment deteriorated markedly between 2007 and 2008. In Ireland, the rate of annual growth almost halved, down from 7% to 3.8%, while annual growth collapsed from 10.2% to 1.7% in Spain. This strong correlation is most likely the result of a combination of a negative wealth effect and a reduction in levels of home ownership.
Developing Markets Gain in Importance
Rapid rates of urbanization and economic development, particularly in the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China), have helped to support growth in sales of air care products in developing markets. As a result, double-digit rates of value growth in air care were maintained in the Indian (12.2%), Eastern European (15%) and Latin American (10.8%) markets during 2008.
Millions of consumers in these markets have been lifted out of absolute poverty, and these emerging lower middle-class consumers have been the main driver of growth in sales of air care. For example, the proportion of Brazilian households with an annual disposable income of more than $10,000 expanded from 15.7% to 53.9% between 2003 and 2008.
Moreover, Brazil's urban population grew from 149 million to nearly 165 million between 2003 and 2008, while its rural population declined from nearly 33 million to just more than 29 million. This is important to air care marketers because urban consumers are far more likely to purchase air care products than their rural counterparts. In India, Euromonitor International data shows that, although sales of air care products have been growing strongly in rural areas, urban consumers in this market still accounted for 90.5% of sales during 2008. However, the short-term prospects for growth in developing markets should not be exaggerated. Developing economies have not "decoupled" from their developed counterparts, and it is likely that growth in air care in many of these markets will slow, perhaps significantly, during 2009 as unemployment rises, income growth declines and urbanization slows.
SC Johnson Retains Global Market Leadership
In terms of global market share, SC Johnson & Sons dominance of the air care sector has weakened slightly during recent years, declining from a peak of 32.9% in 2005 to 28.9% during 2008, according to Euromonitor International. Although its Glade/Brise brand remains strong in many emerging markets, it is coming under increasing pressure from indigenous rivals in those markets—notably from Jiangsu Tongda Aerosol in China. In Russia, its market share more than halved (from 42.6% to 19.2%) between 2001 and 2008 as both indigenous challengers (such as Arnest AOA) and multinationals (such as Sara Lee) have built their market presence.
However, the biggest cause of its dip in global market share has been the weak U.S. market, where it has lost sales to Reckitt Benckiser's Air Wick brand—largely due to SC Johnson's poor performance in electric air fresheners and candle air fresheners.
Reckitt Benckiser Reaps Rewards of Aggressive NPD Strategy
Reckitt Benckiser has grown its market share from 15.2% to 18.9% between 2001 and 2008. This success has been due in large part to aggressive strategy of new product development. Recent examples include a mini version of its Air Wick Freshmatic Automatic Spray, which features a timer to enable consumers to set the air freshener to release its fragrance at regular intervals, and Air Wick Hidden Pleasures Nite Light Scented Oil. Sara Lee, the third-largest player globally, has struggled to maintain its market share, which stood at 7.5% during 2008. Its main air care brand, Ambi-Pur, is positioned in the mid-priced-to-premium segment, and is thus particularly exposed to the chill winds of a recessionary economic environment. Outside of the top three, Procter & Gamble is rapidly expanding its presence in air care, accounting for 5% of sales during 2008 in a market it only entered in 2004. This was due in part to the successful launches of Febreze Noticeables (2006) and Febreze Candles (2007) in the U.S. market.
Private Label Growing
Private label represents a growing threat to brand manufacturers. Already well-established in Western Europe, where they accounted for 13.5% of sales during 2008, private label has no more than a marginal presence in North America, with a market share of slightly more than 2% in 2008. However, downward pressure on disposable income could see private label further erode the market shares of branded products in these mature markets.
In China, Carrefour has launched private label spray/aerosol air fresheners, which could force price reductions for branded products. Brand loyalty does not play an important role in air care markets such as China, where consumers make their purchasing decision regarding air care products on an impulse basis—increasing the threat posed by private labels.
Decorative Fragrances Help Drive Value Growth
In recent years, innovation in air care has increasingly focused on the desire of consumers to enhance the home environment, rather than simply mask bad smells. As a result, new air care launches have tended toward decoration and away from function. This has also led to a high level of technological innovation. Products that alternate fragrances to combat "olfactory fatigue" (when the nose can no longer smell one fragrance), such as Procter & Gamble's Febreze Mist & Refresh and Febreze Plug & Refresh, are proliferating. These products tend to have high price points, boosting value growth but perhaps also increasing the industry's vulnerability to an economic downturn.
Emergence of Air Hygiene Niche Could Be Timely
Kobayashi's Bacterito has been one of the most innovative launches in the air care space in recent years. Launched in Japan during 2007, Bacterito is a spray that produces negatively electrified mist to destroy household germs, and also contains deodorizing agents. It has blurred the distinctions between air care and household antiseptics/disinfectants to create a new niche of air hygiene sprays. Health threats, as exemplified by the spring 2009 swine flu scare, could significantly boost demand for such products.
Poor Ecological Credentials Remain Achilles Heel
Growing environmental awareness on the part of consumers also presents a significant challenge to the industry, as air care has not traditionally been an ecologically friendly category. The industry's ongoing reliance on non-renewable ingredients and synthetic perfumes are both, if not diametrical, sore points with a segment of consumers, and there is an emerging niche of environmentally friendly products to take advantage of changing demands. Ecover, for example, introduced a new range of room fragrances based on plant extracts and essential oils in 2007. However, the scope for environmental trends is limited in air care as environmentally aware consumers tend to prefer natural smells and are unlikely to use many air care products.
Carrie Lennard is a research analyst at Euromonitor International.


text:
Thy Boy Scouts are No Longer 'Morally Straight'.
May 28, 2013 by Staff
Filed under Christian Talk, News, Opinion, Weekly Columns
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
-. Boy Scout Oath
When the Boy Scouts of America's leadership voted to allow openly homosexual kids to become Boy Scouts, they in that one act sold their souls to the devil. Consequently, there will be hell to pay as a result of that bone-head decision.
Making matters worse, they decided to continue to enforce their policy of not allowing participation by openly homosexual adults as troop leaders.. In its bylaws, the BSA has for more than 100 years precluded homosexuals, atheists, and agnostics from being involved with the Scouts. In recent years, pro-homosexual activists have increased pressure on the Scouts to rescind the policy and they won the vote with more than 60 percent of the 1,400 eligible voters supporting the new policy.
For the moment, let's remove the issue of homosexuality from this conversation and instead focus on the underlying principles – or lack of principles – involved in this debate.
According to the Scouts' vision statement, "The BSA goal is to train youth in responsible citizenship, character development, and self-reliance through participation in a wide range of outdoor activities, educational programs, and, at older age levels, career-oriented programs in partnership with community organizations. For younger members, the Scout method is part of the program to inculcate typical Scouting values such as trustworthiness, good citizenship, and outdoors skills, through a variety of activities such as camping, aquatics, and hiking."
How can you train youth in responsible citizenship, character development and self-reliance when you have adult cowards voting to shift the group's moral compass to make radical homosexuals feel good?
According to news reports, the BSA hired a polling company to gauge the level of support from kids and adult leaders within the scouts. What decent parent would allow their kid to be polled on sex and sexuality at the ripe old age of 12 or 15?
You don't give kids choices at that age, you give them direction. Kids should not be used by adults as pawns in an adult game perpetrated by immoral homosexual activists.
Furthermore, when did morals, values, and beliefs become subject to the latest opinion poll or political whim? For more than 100 years, the BSA has been very clear in its position excluding homosexuality, atheism, and agnosticism.
It is estimated that gays account for 2 percent of the U.S. population. Assuming that percentage applies to youth as well, that means the BSA has decided to make 98 percent of its troop members uncomfortable in order to satisfy the perverted needs of 2 percent?
As I predicted, less than 16 hours after the scouts changed their policy, The Secular Coalition of America issued a press release under the title: "Atheists Disappointed with Boy Scouts' Continued Discrimination Policy."
It began, "The Secular Coalition for America today said the Boy Scouts' recent decision to allow openly gay boys is a positive step in the right direction, but does not go far enough. The SCA expressed disappointment that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has decided to continue its policy of discrimination against atheists and gay Scout leaders. On Thursday, Boy Scouts leaders voted to open their ranks to openly gay boys for the first time. However, the Scouts' longstanding ban on atheists and gay adults remains."
Edwina Rogers, executive director of the Secular Coalition for America said the Coalition, said: "Discrimination is wrong – whether it's directed at children or adults, atheists or the religious. We will continue to encourage the Scouts to address the full range of discrimination against atheists and LGBT adults."
I happen to agree with Rogers' claim of discrimination, though not for the same reasons. The BSA's bylaws preclude three groups from participation—homosexuals, atheists, and agnostics. In order to be fair, you should not admit one of the banned groups and not the others. This is indeed rank discrimination.
Is this is the lesson the BSA wants to teach our children? Do we want to say some discrimination is ok, if a large segment of the public agrees? How do you look into the eyes of our young people and for 100 years tell that generation that the beliefs and behavior of homosexuals, atheists, and agnostics are incompatible with Christian values and then suddenly reverse youself and say, "Oooops, never mind?"
Each Scout took a pledge, "On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country."
By walking away from its core principles, Scout leaders did not do their best – to God or our country.
Staff Writer; Raynard Jackson
Mr. Jackson is also founder of a political and industrial consultant firm which is based in Washington, DC; Raynard Jackson & Associates.


text:
Keep Your Managed Services Customers From Reverting To Break-Fix
By The Business Solutions Network
This MSP's four-step approach to selling managed services created a 98% customer retention rate and 40% sales revenue growth last year.
It's not uncommon for some MSPs (managed services providers) to do such a good job at fixing a customer's network and other IT issues that things stop breaking like they used to. The only problem with that scenario is that eventually the customer starts thinking, "Now that everything is working so well, why do I need to keep paying you a fee each month?" Some MSPs attempt to prevent — or at least delay — this reversion back to break-fix by locking clients into twoto three-year contracts. This approach may work on a customer once, but you can probably guess what the renewal rate is on a customer who feels they've been paying too much to your company for the past two years. BlueWave Computing is an MSP that takes a different approach to selling managed services, following four steps that are unconventional compared with how its counterparts run their businesses. Then again, operating a 150+ employee company that's been on Inc.'s Top 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in the United States for the last five years in a row isn't exactly conventional either. MSPs of all sizes could learn a thing or two from BlueWave's approach to selling managed services.
Step 1: Hire IT Extroverts
Although it's become a cliché for businesses to attribute their success to the quality of their employees, the reality is that many struggling companies really can trace some portion of their failure to poor leadership or, in the words of author Jim Collins, "Not having the right people on the bus." BlueWave Computing takes this belief to heart, which is evidenced by its hiring processes. "We discovered years ago that paying outside agency fees of nearly 20% of a new hire's salary just wasn't working for us," recalls Sean Vojtasko, executive VP at BlueWave. "So, we hired a full-time recruiter and started using social media tools like LinkedIn Recruiter and attending college fairs to find new employees." The MSP also developed an up-front screening process to help its recruiter and managers use their time more wisely. All applicants complete a 20-question technical screening test, which is usually administered during a 15-minute phone interview before the candidate is considered for an in-person interview. The test consists of a combination of multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions, which are designed to test an applicant's technical skills (e.g. What are the minimum number of hard drives in a RAID 5 array?) and logical faculties (e.g. Users are complaining Outlook is running slow. Here are the details of the server and network. What steps would you take to resolve this problem?). "Based on a person's test score, we can get a good starting point regarding their skillset and experience," he says. If a candidate's skill level is a match for an available position, the MSP will bring the candidate in for a more in-depth technical assessment as well as to get a feel for the candidate's personality. "IT people can range from extreme introverts who work best behind closed doors away from people to extroverts with a combination of IT and customer service skills," says Vojtasko. "The vast majority of our hires are those in the latter category who have a good balance of IT and customer service skills." In fact, one of the things Vojtasko emphasizes to job candidates is that BlueWave Computing is not an IT company; rather, it's a customer service company that just happens to be good at IT. Besides the fact that BlueWave requires all prospective hires to have a fouryear degree in computer science or a related field, the company hires employees ranging from no experience (i.e. just out of college) to 20+ years. "Candidates go through several interviews with our management team to ensure we're hiring someone who's the right fit for our culture," says Vojtasko. Once a new person comes on board, the MSP makes a significant investment in training that person. And not all of the training takes place in a conventional classroom. "At least a few times a quarter, we plan outings with our employees that include team bonding activities such as whitewater rafting. On a daily basis, we'll have multiple engineers who need to work together solving a client's problem, so it's important that team members have a strong camaraderie with one another."
BlueWave also subscribes to Skillsoft Online Learning, which has more than 5,000 computer training and certification courses available ranging from industry best practices training, such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) and Six Sigma, to vendor-specific training, such as VMware virtualization certification. "We also provide employees with industry-specific training, such as HIPAA compliance education," says Vojtasko.
Since Vojtasko started with BlueWave nearly three years ago, the company has hired more than 90 new employees, including 30 new hires last year. This year, the MSP already has hired 18 new employees and projects to hire 17 more by year's end.
Step #2: Say 'No' To Tiered Support
One of the mainstays within the managed services space is the tiered support system, which works something like this: A tier-one (i.e. entry level) technician answers the help desk phone and attempts to diagnose a customer's IT problem. If that person is unable to resolve the situation, the call is transferred to a tier-two technician. If the tier-two support person can't resolve the problem, the call is transferred to the most experienced tech — the tier-three support person. "We did away with the tiered support model because we felt it was flawed in two ways," says Vojtasko. "First, it leaves customers feeling like they've been given the runaround. And second, it makes it more difficult for entry-level engineers to gain experience."
At BlueWave, any technician can answer a customer support call, and the only rule is that the person has 15 minutes to either solve the problem themselves or help the customer come up with a plan. "What often happens is that if a junior-level technician fields a call, they will bring in a more senior-level technician to help solve the customer's problem," says Vojtasko. "So, just like the tiered model, you still have multiple people working on a problem, but now they're working together, which means that the customer doesn't have to explain the same problem over and over, and it gives the less-experienced technician an opportunity to receive on-the-job training from the senior technician."
So, how well does this approach to service work? The company's average resolution time on a help desk problem is less than 9 minutes. "We find that, when we compare a new employee candidate's skillset with one of our employees with similar experience, our employee will more often have a much broader skillset," says Vojtasko.
Step 3: Gauge Success With Customer Satisfaction
Unlike many MSPs that use traditional sales-driven metrics to judge their success (e.g. profitability, cost per sale, sales revenue), BlueWave Computing believes these metrics are secondary to customer satisfaction. After every ticket item it closes, the MSP sends customers a short survey (via email) that asks the customer to rate the engineer who completed the task on a scale from one to five in categories such as skill, timeliness, and courtesy. There is also an opportunity for customers to provide additional feedback if they want to. The ticket results are copied to the engineer; their manager; BlueWave's quality assurance analyst and training manager; BlueWave's CEO, Dr. Steven Vicinanza; and to Vojtasko, who says that most results are either straight fives or no survey is returned. "If we receive a negative response, one of the managers follows up with the customer to find out if there was a problem. If it turns out the customer wasn't satisfied, and their complaint is justified, we credit their account for the price of the ticket, and we use the incident as a coaching opportunity for the engineer," he says. "It's a rare occurrence for someone to get coached and not correct the problem."
Over the last two years, the company has averaged a score of 4.98 on its customer satisfaction surveys. "Our engineers have a performance review each quarter, which takes into account their score on quality assessment surveys, number of ticket reopens, client credits, and overall productivity," says Vojtasko.
Step 4: Ditch Your 3-Year Managed Services Contract
Another standard practice within managed services is to lock customers into long-term contracts, similar to how telcos do with cell phone plans, including financial penalties for early contract termination. BlueWave Computing once again does things differently and offers what has to be the most unconventional of all its practices: monthly contracts. As mentioned earlier, one of the biggest fears MSPs have is that a managed services customer will start questioning the value of paying monthly for "something that doesn't seem broken" and will want to revert back to being a break-fix customer. BlueWave's approach is to be transparent with customers and to embrace the fact that a customer's IT needs are going to change dramatically within the first six months of signing a managed services contract. "After our initial assessment of the customer's IT environment [e.g. computers, servers, firewalls], we present them with a recommended monthly budget they should be spending to achieve their IT goals," says Vojtasko. "What we usually see is that they go over budget the first three months, they hit the budget the next three months after that, and from the sixth month on they start going under budget." During quarterly business review meetings with clients, BlueWave account managers tell customers who are consistently running under budget about additional services they could allocate to their surplus budget. BlueWave allows budget surpluses to accumulate for up to three months, similar to how a telco may allow unused minutes to roll over to the next month. "Some customers choose to apply their unused budget toward special projects such as a server replacement, a new phone system, or cloud services," says Vojtasko. "If a customer is consistently under budget, we have a frank discussion and tell them we need to either figure out an extra service we can provide them, or we're going to need to cut back their monthly payment."
BlueWave finds that not only does this approach force it to constantly look for ways to find new services to offer its customers, it also goes a long way to boosting customer satisfaction. "It all boils down to gaining trust with new customers early on," says Vojtasko. "Once they learn that we're not going to let them overspend or make bad IT decisions, we become their trusted advisor." How does BlueWave know that it's achieved this coveted status? Measurable results. Twice a year, the MSP conducts a net promoter survey (NPS), asking its customers one question: "How likely on a scale from 0 to 10 are you to recommend BlueWave Computing to a friend or colleague?" IT service providers as a whole average around 37%, according to Vojtasko. "BlueWave averages in the 70% range, comparable to Apple's NPS score," he says.
When you break apart some of BlueWave Computing's business practices, they may seem like recipes for failure, but the metrics prove otherwise. The MSP has a 98% customer retention rate, and it's adding 30+ new employees each year while achieving 35%+ annual revenue gains and 40%+ profit margins on its managed services sales. Additionally, BlueWave's customers are nearly twice as likely to refer BlueWave to a friend or colleague compared with the average MSP. Also noteworthy is the fact that the Atlanta Journal Constitution (Atlanta newspaper) ranked BlueWave Computing among Atlanta's top places to work for two of the past three years. How many MSPs who follow more conventional practices can cite even half of BlueWave's credentials?


text:
Zybrestat(fosbretabulin tromethamine)是由Oxigene公司開發的名為血管破壞劑(vascular disrupting agents)的新一類小分子藥物,通過與血管內皮細胞的細胞骨架蛋白相互作用,Zybrestat選擇性作用于腫瘤中的血管,并破壞這些血管,從而使腫瘤失去氧氣供給而凋亡。該藥已表現出對未分化甲狀腺癌、卵巢癌及其他各種實體瘤的治療潛力。
英文原文:OXiGENE Announces Positive Topline Results From Randomized Phase 2 Study GOG186I of ZYBRESTAT(R) in Combination With Avastin(R) for Recurrent Ovarian Cancer
Trial Achieves Primary Efficacy Endpoint of a Statistically Significant Increase in Progression-Free Survival
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO -- OXiGENE, Inc.OXGN +136.78% , a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics to treat cancer, today announced positive results from a randomized Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating Avastin (bevacizumab) with or without ZYBRESTAT (fosbretabulin; CA4P) to treat patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. The study, known as Gynecologic Oncology Group protocol 186I, met its primary endpoint of a statistically significant increase in progression-free survival (p-value less than 0.05; hazard ratio 0.685) for the combination as compared to bevacizumab alone.
The Phase 2 study is being conducted by the GOG under the sponsorship of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). It is the first and currently only randomized trial to test an antiangiogenic therapeutic agent combined with a vascular disrupting agent, without including any cytotoxic chemotherapy.
"These findings validate both the novel approach and the complementary mechanisms of combining the vascular disrupting agent fosbretabulin and an antiangiogenic agent like bevacizumab in patients with ovarian cancer," said Bradley J. Monk, M.D., FACS, FACOG, principal investigator for the trial, and professor and director, Division of Gynecologic Oncology and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Arizona Cancer Center. "This promising combination warrants further evaluation particularly given the significant need for new treatment options in relapsed ovarian cancer."
As previously reported, the GOG protocol 186I enrolled 107 patients with platinum-sensitive and -resistant recurrent ovarian cancer at 67 clinical sites in the U.S. Patients were randomized 1:1 into one of two treatment arms: one arm received Avastin, and the second arm received Avastin plus ZYBRESTAT. Both therapies were administered intravenously every three weeks and patients were treated until disease progression or until adverse effects prohibited further therapy.
Secondary endpoints in the study include safety, objective response rate (measured according to RECIST criteria) and overall survival. Patients receiving the combination of ZYBRESTAT and Avastin achieved a higher objective response rate, which was not statistically significant. All patients will continue to be followed for overall survival. Consistent with prior clinical experience with ZYBRESTAT, patients in the combination arm experienced a higher incidence of hypertension compared to the control arm. All cases of hypertension were managed with antihypertensive treatments, as specified in the study protocol. It is expected that the full study results will be submitted for presentation at a future scientific meeting.
For this study, ZYBRESTAT is provided to CTEP under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with OXiGENE and bevacizumab is being provided as an investigational agent under a CRADA with Genentech. Bevacizumab is not approved to treat women with ovarian cancer in the U.S.; however, it is approved in other countries for treatment of ovarian cancer.
"We are very excited about these positive results and greatly appreciate all the patients who enrolled in this study and the support, resources and commitment of GOG and CTEP to conduct this important program," said Peter Langecker, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer of OXiGENE. "ZYBRESTAT is the first vascular disrupting agent to show a statistically significant progression-free survival benefit, and we are evaluating next steps to advance this combination to patients in need."
About ZYBRESTAT
ZYBRESTAT (fosbretabulin tromethamine/combretastatin-A4 phosphate / CA4P) is OXiGENE's lead vascular disrupting agent (VDA) product candidate, and is currently being evaluated as a treatment for solid tumors. ZYBRESTAT exerts its antitumor effects through the validated therapeutic mechanism of tumor blood supply deprivation. By selectively affecting and disabling tumor vasculature, ZYBRESTAT reduces the blood supply necessary for tumor growth and survival. The resulting oxygen starvation and build-up of tumor metabolic by-products causes the cancer cells within the central core of the tumor to die.
About the Gynecologic Oncology Group
The Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) is a not-for-profit organization with the purpose of promoting excellence in the quality and integrity of clinical and basic scientific research in the field of gynecologic malignancies. The GOG is committed to maintaining the highest standards in clinical trials development, execution, analysis and distribution of results. The GOG is one of the National Cancer Institute's funded cooperative groups. The GOG is the only group that focuses its research on women with pelvic malignancies, such as cancer of the ovary, uterus, and cervix. The GOG is multi-disciplinary in its approach to clinical trials, and includes gynecologic oncologists, medical oncologists, pathologists, radiation oncologists, nurses, statisticians, basic scientists, quality of life experts, data managers, and administrative personnel.
About OXiGENE
OXiGENE is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics to treat cancer. The Company is focused on developing vascular disrupting agents (VDAs), which are compounds that selectively disrupt abnormal blood vessels associated with solid tumor survival and progression. The Company's lead clinical product candidate, ZYBRESTAT, is in development for solid tumors. OXi4503, its second-generation product candidate, is in development for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). OXiGENE is dedicated to leveraging its intellectual property and therapeutic development expertise to bring life-extending and life-enhancing medicines to patients.
滬公網安備 31011202007132號


text:
Reporter shares photo of dogs left behind as family flees flood
DICKINSON, Texas -- It is a heartbreaking picture that shows the devastation caused by flooding from Hurricane Harvey.
CNN reporter Ed Lavandera shared a picture that shows two dogs sitting in a boat in Dickinson, Texas.
The dogs apparently had to be left behind when their owners had to evacuate due to flooding caused by heavy rains from Harvey.
In a comment on his Instagram post, Lavandera provided an update. "I should add, I think the people have every intention of coming back to get the dogs. Food was left behind and I suspect it had to be a tough choice and that they will come back for them as soon as they can."


text:
Thirty-three-year-old Shea Rigsby has spent her entire life in Walker, Texas—a small college town that lives and dies by football, a passion she unabashedly shares. Raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the daughter of Walker's legendary head coach, Clive Carr, Shea was too devoted to her hometown team to leave. Instead she stayed in Walker for college, even taking a job in the university athletic department after graduation, where she has remained for more than a decade.
But when an unexpected tragedy strikes the tight-knit Walker community, Shea's comfortable world is upended, and she begins to wonder if the life she's chosen is really enough for her. As she finally gives up her safety net to set out on an unexpected path, Shea discovers unsettling truths about the people and things she has always trusted most—and is forced to confront her deepest desires, fears, and secrets.
Thoughtful, funny, and brilliantly observed, The One & Only is a luminous novel about finding your passion, following your heart, and, most of all, believing in something bigger than yourself . . . the one and only thing that truly makes life worth living.
About the author:
Emily Giffin is the author of six New York Times bestselling novels: Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Baby Proof, Love the One You're With, Heart of the Matter, and Where We Belong. A graduate of Wake Forest University and the University of Virginia School of Law, she now lives in Atlanta lives with her husband and three young children.


text:
Username or email *
Password *
Worldwide Standard & Expedited Shipping
Call us
+1 (307) 222-4422
Dear Visitors, Please also visit our other Brand named Hypnose Lens. Many other color option you could see there also.
Showing 1–15 of 64 results
Notification: during pandemic, standard shipping could be takes 15-90 days because of local postage service delays. Please kindly be patience to receive your packages, we also have express shipping solution. Dismiss