text:
Horton returns to WNC as Macon county manager
By Jennifer Garlesky & Becky Johnson • Staff Writers
An influential yet controversial figure in public policy is reclaiming a leadership post in the mountains three years after his forced departure as Haywood County's manager.
Jack Horton has been hired as the county manager of Macon County. It's a post he held once before in the mid-1980s, prior to moving on to Haywood. Before Macon, Horton served as county manager in Swain. Horton said he is glad to get back to the region.
After being fired in Haywood County nearly three years ago, Horton was quickly scooped up for a county manager's job in Caldwell County. But his long tenure in the mountains drew him back to the region when a position became available with the retirement of Macon's current county manager, Sam Greenwood.
"I got a chance to come back to the mountains," said Horton, 57. "It was a good opportunity to get back to that area."
In Haywood County, Horton was known as a savvy county manager with a strong leadership style, skilled in advancing the county's agenda of the day. His overt methods were seen by admirers as a strength but by critics as a fault, however.
Related Items
It was ultimately what led to his downfall in Haywood County, where some commissioners believed he was orchestrating county policy as he saw fit rather than deferring to the judgment of the elected commissioners. Haywood County commissioners voted 3 to 2 to call for his resignation after he disregarded a directive from the commisioners and instead acted to the contrary.
The two commissioners who wanted to keep Horton trusted his judgement, however, and didn't mind Horton making his own decisions about what was in the county's best interest and acting accordingly. They accused the other three commissioners of "micromanaging" Horton and felt his firing was political rather than substantive.
Horton's supporters retaliated against the three commissioners responsible for his ousting, leading to the defeat of two of them in the subsequent commissioners election. It wasn't the first time Horton was an issue in a county commissioners election. Four years earlier, replacing Horton was a campaign theme for some candidates, who saw him as responsible for pushing through a controversial $18 million justice center in the face of strong public opposition.
Horton's roots in WNC date back to the late 1970s. After graduating from Appalachian State in 1978, he started working in Swain County as a tax collector before being appointed as their first county manager. He left Swain to become the county manager in Macon County — a bigger county with a bigger salary — where he served from 1985 to 1991. He left Macon County for Haywood — once again a bigger county with a bigger salary. In Macon, he will receive a salary of $125,000 a year.
A big plate ahead
While Horton already has a deep knowledge of Macon County government from his previous post there, the county has certainly changed since his departure 16 years ago.
Horton will be faced with several hurdles when he returns.
A countywide subdivision ordinance that would regulate mountainside development is being created by the county planning board and will soon come before county commissioners.
The county recently enacted a temporary moratorium on floodplain development to halt a high-density RV park from being built along Cartoogechaye Creek until the county could implement a floodplain protection ordinance.
Commissioners also are overhauling the county's approach to tourism development by creating the county's first tourism development authority and instead of funneling tourism development money through the chambers of commerce.
The county also is building its first animal shelter and creating an animal control division from scratch.
Possibly the toughest challenge, however, will be what to do in the wake of several failed bond referendums defeated by voters this fall.
Commissioners hoped voters would approve a $42 million school bond referendum in the November election, along with another $22 million for a new recreation complex, a Southwestern Community College building, a senior center and a new library in Highlands. Voters rejected all of them, however.
That leaves commissioners with the tough choice of whether to go forward the projects anyway despite the lack of public support, or to rethink their plans. The county can still peruse the building projects without the public's support in the bond vote, but will have to pay a higher interest rate when borrowing the money than if the bond had passed.
Commissioners had said the projects were pertinent for the county's future and unanimously supported them, but moving forward with them without the support of voters in the bond referendum could prove controversial. Commissioners said they would have to raise taxes to pay for the building projects.
Despite the pending challenges, Horton is excited about the return.
"The county has a pretty good system of responsibility and progressive style government," he said. "They (the county) got a lot of good things going on."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Clean Pro Gutter Cleaning Kansas City
Do the really smart thing — Let a Pro deal with those stopped up gutters!
Rain Gutter Cleaning for Kansas City Homes- Now's the perfect time to Get a FREE Online Quote and Give Your Gutters and Downspouts a little TLC with Help From the Pro's at Clean Pro Gutter Cleaning. Do the right thing and let our professionals clean your gutters!
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Our Primary objective is to make sure your gutters and downspouts are working appropriately and to attempt to save you money at the same time. Clearing your gutters is easy with us. Online quotes, scheduling and bill payment are all possible.
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central city of the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Missouri–Kansas state line and has a population of 2,392,035. Most of the city lies within Jackson County, with portions spilling into Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a port on the Missouri River at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west.
Ashland Ridge, Blue Hills, Boone Hills, Broadway Gillham, Brookside Park, Coachlight Square, Columbus Park, Cunningham Ridge, Downtown Kansas City, East Swope Highlands, Fairway Hills, Forgotten Homes, Hanover Place, Holmes Park, Independence Plaza


text:
Ptplot 5.10 is a 2D data plotter and histogram tool implemented in Java. Ptplot can be used as a standalone applet or application, or it can be embedded in your own applet or application.Ptplot a part of Ptolemy II, but Ptplot is also available as a separate download.
Patches and Extensions
(06/05) Use Ptplot on the Sharp Zaurus PDA.
We've made a small standalone example available that uses Ptplot3.1.
(11/02) exportPNG-0.0.1.patch.gz
is a gzipped patch to Ptplot 5.2 by Bernard Guillot that
"allows Easy Export to PNG. This in turn becomes an easy path to export to GIF and JPG.". Portions of the patch are under the
GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1, see
for details.
is a gzipped tar file that contains sample code to use Ptplot as a servlet.
The code was written by Alberto Gobbi, and has _not_ been tested
by the Ptplot pteam at UC Berkeley.


text:
Go Ahead, Tax Us,
We Need the Infrastructure.
By John Lattta, Tina Grady Barbaccia and Tom Anderson
A nother major transportation industry is prepared to support a hefty tax increase on itself to help provide the healthy infrastructure it must have.
Barge operators are prepared to accept a 30 to 45 percent increase in the diesel tax paid by barge and tow operators. A plan set to go before Congress calls for a six to nine cent addition to the 20-cent-per-gallon diesel tax now paid by barge operators. The American Trucking Associations and the Truckload Carriers Association have both supported a diesel tax hike for the same reason – the new revenue would help provide better roads and less congestion.
"More than half of the 240 Army Corps of Engineers-operated inland navigation locks have outlived their economic design lives by more than 50 years. In fact, the American Society of Civil Engineers' recent report card graded the inland waterways a D-," says Cornel Martin, President and CEO of the Waterways Council, a national public policy organization that advocates for a properly funded and well-maintained system of inland waterways and ports.
Raising the grade and the efficiencies of our locks and dams is essential, says Martin. "If adopted by Congress, these recommendations will help improve the reliability of our waterways so that our nation continues to benefit from our energy-efficient, congestion-relieving waterways transportation system."
A starting point is a set of recommendations that would prioritize, over a 20-year period, navigation projects across the entire inland waterways system, improve Corps of Engineers' project management and processes to deliver projects on time and on budget, and recommend an affordable funding mechanism to meet system's needs. The recommendations were prepared by the Inland Marine Transportation System Investment Strategy Team comprised of key U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel and members of the congressionally established Inland Waterways Users Board, a federal advisory committee that provides advice to Congress and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works.
"If adopted by Congress, these recommendations will help improve the reliability of our waterways so that our nation continues to benefit from our energy-efficient, congestion-relieving waterways transportation system," says Martin. "New funding parameters included in the proposal will necessitate an increase in the 20-cents-per-gallon fuel tax currently paid by industry, the only segment of system users who are taxed, but it is viewed as worth the investment to ensure the future viability of America's inland waterways system. And, if adopted, it would tax the system in a more equitable manner than recent White House proposals which would more than triple the tax levied on freight moving on our inland waters.
"Modern infrastructure, whether it be locks and dams or roadways and bridges, is essential to the economic health of our nation, from U.S. competitiveness in world markets, to energy efficiency, to congestion relief, to environmental protection, to modal competition and to the sustainment of jobs. This is good public policy for our nation and its future," says Martin. v
According to Cornel Martin, President and CEO of the Waterways Council, waterborne transportation is better for the environment and our consumption of energy. Just one barge has the same capacity as 70 trucks or 16 rail cars, with the lowest carbon (C02) emissions among the three modes. Moving a typical 15-barge tow means 1,050 less truck transits on our highways. And towboats pushing barges have the best energy efficiency record among all transportation options, traveling 576 miles on one gallon of fuel as compared to 413 for train or 155 for truck.
Deputy DOT chief:
"Markets alone" will not create essential transit-oriented development
Public investors need the 'spur' of cooperating government agencies to create essential transit friendly communities according to John Porcari, deputy secretary of transportation.
Porcari was speaking to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public works on March 24 about opportunities to improve energy security and the environment through transportation policy. DOT, he said, will create an Office of Livable Communities within the office of the Secretary of Transportation.
He said: "We propose, within our FY2011 budget request, that the Office would coordinate the distribution of $200 million for capacity enhancement at state and local transportation agencies. Through this support, state and local agencies could be better equipped with the tools, data and training needed to understand how transportation, housing, economic development and other infrastructure investments impact one another.
"Planning and capacity enhancement grants to state and local governments may, at first glance, appear to involve small sums of money, but they leverage far larger sums of private and public transportation and real estate investment over periods of many years. Because transit-oriented development requires private investment spurred by the cooperation of multiple governmental bodies, we cannot depend on markets alone to create these communities. Sustainable development that is transit –oriented and friendly to pedestrians and bicyclists will help foster economically competitive, healthy, opportunity-rich communities, while reducing petroleum consumption, increasing energy security, and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants." v
Our Man Wins Big
Jack Roberts, our trucks editor, has won a Jesse H. Neal Award, the Business to Business media's highest award for journalism, for an article that was our feature story last December. Robert's won for "Best Technical Content." The story was an incisive look at the battle between the two different engine technologies that are fighting for supremacy in trucks this year as Environmental Protection Agency regulations demand cleaner and cleaner exhaust.
"It's always an honor to be recognized for your efforts as a journalist – particularly for a story as
important to our readers as this one. This is really a team award, because no editor works alone," said Roberts after the awards ceremony in New York City.
This is Roberts' second Neal Award. He is the truck editor for Randall-Reilly magazines in both the construction and trucking industries.
A new Hall of Fame
Move over Babe Ruth, Joe Namath and Michael Jordan, there's a new "Hall of Fame" coming to America that will honor the visionaries and game-changers in the transportation design and construction industry.
The American Road and Transportation Builders Association's Transportation Development Foundation (ARTBA-TDF) is creating a "Hall of Fame" to honor individuals or families from the public and private sectors who have made extraordinary contributions to U.S. transportation development and demonstrated exceptional leadership throughout their lifetime.
"The transportation design and construction industry is full of talented, and often daring, men and women who helped build an infrastructure network that dramatically improved the economic, cultural and social fabric of America," says ARTBA-TDF Chairman Leo Vecellio.
Anyone can nominate a candidate. ARTBA membership is not required. Individuals can be living or inducted posthumously. Information about the criteria and nomination forms are available at www.artbatdf.org. Nomination forms must be received by close of business Friday, July 2.
Are Tolls Inevitable?
It was an overwhelmingly favorable audience, but regardless Michigan Chamber of Commerce president Rich Studley wasn't going to miss the opportunity to reinforce his belief that tolling highways is part of the solution to the funding crunch crumbling his state's thoroughfares.
"Nearby states like Ohio, Indiana and Illinois all make good use of toll roads," Studley stated in a live online chat hosted by the Michigan press organization MLive.com on the heels of a series of articles on transportation funding. "One of the recommendations from the Transportation Funding Task Force is that we should consider that option as part of a comprehensive solution."
Of the online participants issuing their votes, 71 percent agreed that toll roads are a good solution for Michigan's funding issues.
Asked by Better Roads for examples of highway stretches Studley would consider as tolling candidates, the co-chair of the Michigan Transportation Funding Task Force cited the interstates that freely move commuters through his automobile-patriarchal state en route to its toll-toting neighbors in the Great Lakes region.
"Toll roads would not be appropriate for local streets or county roads," wrote Studley. "They would be more appropriate for sections of our interstate highway system, especially in areas where there is a need for new construction to complete the system or major expansion projects. The east-west route from Detroit to Chicago along I-94 carries a lot of interstate traffic and might be appropriate for consideration."
Joining Studley in the forum was the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association's Mike Nystrom, newly named the organization's executive vice president. "Toll roads are just one component that should be part of a comprehensive plan to invest at a more appropriate level here in Michigan," wrote Nystrom. "(It's) very challenging to take our current interstate that has been paid for with significant federal dollars and turn it into a state-owned toll system.
Nystrom doesn't foresee toll booths in the state for at least five if not 10 years, "but the concept should be considered for our future." v
McCain – Feingold…
Hey look, two senators from opposite sides, working together on something worthwhile. And they have a track record. It's McCain-Feingold II
You'll remember the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. These two senators were chief sponsors of the 2002 law that that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 that regulates the financing of political campaigns. Now they're head-hunting for employees the administration appoints, but, according to these two gunslingers, doesn't need.
Russ Feingold (D-Wis) and John McCain (R-Az) are reintroducing an effort to cut down on wasteful spending and reduce government bureaucracy by cutting the number of Executive Branch political appointees. Feingold and McCain have previously introduced the legislation to cut thousands of unnecessary political positions, doing so in both the Clinton and Bush administrations.
"Unnecessary bureaucratic positions not only waste taxpayer dollars, but also make government less effective and less responsive to the people it represents. In the face of record deficits, this bill offers a good way to save while improving the way government works," said Feingold.
"In this time of economic crisis, we must do everything possible to eliminate waste and make the federal government smaller and more efficient," said McCain. "This bill is simple – it will save money and result in a more streamlined executive branch."
Exports: A "lifeline" for the construction equipment industry
U.S. construction equipment exports dropped more than 38 percent in 2009 compared to the previous year for a total $12.8 billion worth of machinery shipped to other nations, with declines of between nearly 30 to 50 percent for major world regions.
The good news is that overall, quarter-to-quarter declines steadily improved, ending with a fourth-quarter 2009 gain of 26 percent over the third quarter, according to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), which consolidates U.S. Commerce Department data for off-road equipment with other sources into quarterly export trend reports.
"Exports have literally been a lifeline for the construction equipment industry, which saw U.S. business plummet more than 40 percent last year and unemployment soar to more than double the national average," stated AEM President Dennis Slater. "Global trade has been a significant source of industry expansion in recent years, and many economies are now rebounding faster than the U.S."
Slater said it was "essential" that federal government policies make it easier for American companies to pursue international business, and for international buyers to come to America.


text:
C Oracle Wait Events
This appendix describes Oracle wait events.
It includes these topics:
Information about wait events is displayed in three dynamic performance views:
displays the events for which sessions have just completed waiting or are currently waiting. -
displays the total number of times all the sessions have waited for the events in that view. -
is similar toV$SYSTEM_EVENT
, but displays all waits for each session.
See Also:
"V$SESSION_WAIT", "V$SYSTEM_EVENT", and "V$SESSION_EVENT"
Many of these wait events are tied to the internal implementation of Oracle and therefore are subject to change or deletion without notice. Application developers should be aware of this and write their code to tolerate missing or extra wait events.
The following SQL statement displays an alphabetical list of all Oracle wait events and the wait class to which they belong:
SQL> SELECT name, wait_class FROM V$EVENT_NAME ORDER BY name;


text:
Getting a Structure from Multiple Tomograms of HIV Capsids (Copenhagen 2024)
In this walkthrough you will get familiar with managing multiple tomograms through the Dynamo catalogue and developing strategies for alignment projects to reach a reasonable structure from a set of tomograms. You will make use of the knowledge that you acquired during the workshop and apply it to a more realistic case. It is recommended to get familiar with the advanced starters guide and the walkthrough for lattices on vesicles before starting this walkthrough.
We prepared a set of 6 tomograms, each containing one Immature HIV-1 virus like particle (VLP) with a layer formed by a lattice of capsid proteins. The capsid proteins have a C6 symmetry, a diameter of roughly 15nm and a molecular weight of about 150kDa. The pixelsize of the tomograms is 2.7 angstrom. You can find the tomograms in:
The tomograms are part of the data that was used in the publication An atomic model of HIV-1 capsid-SP1 reveals structures regulating assembly and maturation by Schur FK, Obr M, Hagen WJ, Wan W, Jakobi AJ, Kirkpatrick JM, Sachse C, Kräusslich HG and Briggs JA. (2016). The full dataset can be found on the Electron Microscopy Public Image Archive (EMPIAR) under EMPIAR-10164. The 6 tomograms were extracted from the tilt series TS_03 and TS_43.
From the data given you should be able to get a final average in which you start seeing hints of alpha helices, i.e., it should be possible to reach a resolution close to roughly 10 angstroms.
Set up a catalogue
Create a new catalogue
dcm -create catVLP
and open it in the catalogue manager
dcm catVLP
You can add each volume manually to the catalogue under Catalogue -> Browse for new volume or you can make use of a volume file and add all tomograms at once under Catalogue -> Input list of tomograms -> Browse for text file (.vll file). The volume file should be created beforehand by opening a blank text file named for example VLPtomograms.vll
and copy the paths of all tomograms into it:
vlp_1.mrc vlp_2.mrc vlp_3.mrc vlp_4.mrc vlp_5.mrc vlp_6.mrc
In case you imported the tomograms using a volume file you have to click the button list volumes to refresh the tomogram list in the catalogue manager. Now you should see the 6 tomograms in the catalogue manager. Prebin the tomograms once (1x) under Catalogue -> Create binned versions -> with factor 1. You can now look at single tomograms in tomoslice by selecting a tomogram of choice in the catalogue manager and then go under View volume -> Load full prebinned Volume [if available] -> open in tomoslice. If needed, adjust the lowpass level and contrast in tomoslice to improve the depiction.
Annotate tomograms
To know where we want to later extract the subvolumes we have to first annotate the surfaces of the VLPs inside the tomograms. We do this by opening a tomogram inside tomoslice where a so called dipole Set model is defined. How to do that is described in detail in the section DipoleSet models, Corrections during picking and Corrections after picking of the walkthrough for lattices on vesicles. A new dipole set model has to be made for each tomogram. Save each model before closing tomoslice and when opening a new tomogram in tomoslice select Delete from memory if asked. In case you see markers of the previously defined dipole set inside the newly opened tomogram make sure the model pool is empty and click on reset scene before defining the new dipole set. Once you went through all tomograms click on the button list volumes inside the catalogue manager to refresh the list of tomograms. In the column model files of the tomogram list of the catalogue manager you should now see that you have one defined model per tomogram.
Define crop points
To extract subvolumes (crop particles) we need to first define the crop points on the surface of the VLPs using the previously defined models. The crop points are then stored in a table. This is all done with the following script which is an extended version of the one found in the walkthrough for lattices on vesicles. Note that we oversample the VLPs, i.e., we define enough crop points such that every protein has the chance to end up in at least one subvolume. We will take care of proteins that end up in more than subvolume in a later step. Note that this script assumes that there are exactly 6 tomograms with only one model for each tomogram. In cases where a different number of tomograms or models is used, the script has to be adapted accordingly.
% read dipole from catalogue into workspace dcmodels catVLP -tc dipoleSet -ws o -gm 1 c=1; % counter for table for tomo = 1:6 % loop over tomograms ds = o.models{tomo}; % read models NDipoles = length(ds.dipoles); for i=1:NDipoles % loop over models (in our case just one per tomogram) v = dmodels.vesicle(); % create empty vesicle model v.center = ds.dipoles{i}.center; % add center from dipole to vesicle model v.radius = norm( ds.dipoles{i}.north - ds.dipoles{i}.center); % add radius v.separation = 60; % separation of crop points (in px) v.crop_distance_from_surface =0; v.updateCrop(); % update vesicle model tv{c} = v.grepTable(); % create crop table from using vesicle model tv{c}(:,22) = i; % add model number to table tv{c}(:,20) = tomo; % add tomogram number to table c=c+1; end end
In the standalone version you need to proceed as follows:
1.) Open a text file named commands.m
and copy the following into the file (avoid commenting with % or #):
o=dcmodels('catVLP','tc','dipoleSet','gm',1); c=1; for tomo = 1:6 ds = dread(o{tomo}); NDipoles = length(ds.dipoles); for i=1:NDipoles v = dmodels.vesicle(); v.center = ds.dipoles{i}.center; v.radius = norm( ds.dipoles{i}.north - ds.dipoles{i}.center); v.separation = 60; v.crop_distance_from_surface =0; v.updateCrop(); tv{c} = v.grepTable(); tv{c}(:,22) = i; tv{c}(:,20) = tomo; c=c+1; disp(sprintf('Dipole %d will provide %d crop points',i,size(v.crop_points,2))); end end dwrite(tv,'cellOfTables.mat');
2.) Execute the text file in a system shell or in the Dynamo console:
dynamo commands.m
3.) When you are back in the Dynamo console, you can load the results from the script into the workspace with
tv = dread('cellOfTables.mat');
Type whos to display the actual matlab workspace and to check if the variable tv was loaded correctly.
Write table with crop points
The tables beloning to each dipole model are stored in the cell array tv. To create one single table containing all crop points we merge all tables into one with the command
tAll = dynamo_table_merge(tv,'linear_tags',1);
and visualize the table to see the crop points and their orientations (when visualizing actual results of an alignment project use option 'corrected_oriented_positions ' instead of the one shown here).
dtplot(tAll,'pf','oriented_positions'); axis equal
You should get something like:
Extract subvolumes
Before extracting the subvolumes (cropping particles) using the previously generated table we have to define a so called tomogram table map file which links the tomogram identification number in column 20 of the previously created table to an actual tomogram on the disk. Create a file named VLPtomograms.doc
and copy the tomogram numbers and full paths of the tomograms into it:
1 vlp_1.mrc 2 vlp_2.mrc 3 vlp_3.mrc 4 vlp_4.mrc 5 vlp_5.mrc 6 vlp_6.mrc
Define a destination for the cropped particles:
targetFolder = './particlesSize128';
Now we can crop the particles with sidelength 128 pixels from the tomograms using the table previously defined.
The cropping on one core should not take longer than 5 minutes.
We create a plain average of all cropped particles to asses the quality of the cropped particles. First we read the table of the cropped particles:
finalTable = dread([targetFolder '/crop.tbl']);
We can also visualise the particles:
Then we form the average
oa = daverage(targetFolder,'t',finalTable,'fc',1);
and inspect the average with
You should see a faint and noisy curvature of a thick membrane-like structure in the X and Y view.
We will use this average as a first reference (template) in the next alignment project. We therefore save the average with
dwrite(oa.average,[targetFolder '/template.em']);
Hint: When dealing with preferred orientations, randomizing the azimuth of the particles bevore averaging can help (in this tutorial this is not needed):
tRandAz = dynamo_table_randomize_azimuth(t);
First alignment project
Now we create our first alignment project through the command line in a similar way as described in detail in the walkthrough for lattices on vesicles. First we define a project name
pr = 'aliVLP';
Then we create the alignment project with the particles, template and table that we defined before. The masks are set to default.
dcp.new(pr,'d',targetFolder,'t',[targetFolder '/crop.tbl'],'template',[targetFolder '/template.em'],'masks','default','show',0);
Next we set up the numerical parameters for the project and the computing environment (type dvhelp in the console for an overview of all parameters). We use 2x binned particles and a rather coarse angular search. The shift limits are very generous in order to make sure all particles have the chance to 'see' each other.
dvput(pr,'ite_r1',4); dvput(pr,'dim_r1',32); dvput(pr,'cr_r1',40); dvput(pr,'cs_r1',20); dvput(pr,'ir_r1',360); dvput(pr,'is_r1',40); dvput(pr,'rf_r1',4); dvput(pr,'rff_r1',2); dvput(pr,'lim_r1',[40,40,40]); dvput(pr,'limm_r1',1); dvput(pr,'dst','standalone_gpu','cores',1,'mwa',2);
Everything can of course also be set up through the alignment project GUI. The numerical parameters would correspond to:
Check, unfold and run the project through the alignment project GUI or through the command line:
dvcheck aliVLP dvunfold aliVLP dvrun aliVLP
On one GPU (and 2 cores for averaging) the alignment project should not take longer than half an hour. Check the status of the alignment project with
dvstatus aliVLP
You can also see the average of the last computed iteration in dmapview with the command. If needed, adjust the lowpass and contrast to improve the depiction.
Recenter and recrop
After the alignment project finished successfully we can inspect the last computed average with the same command introduced before:
The command can be extended to see the averages of all iterations including the starting reference. Once in dmapview, press the button norm to properly compare the averages.
In the last average, you should already start to see a hexagonal lattice. We now want to make sure that the center of one C6 subunit of the lattice coincides with the center of the subvolume and that the subunits symmetry axis is parallel to the Z axis of the subvolume. This will allow us to later recrop the subvolumes with a smaller box size and to choose finer alignment parameters in the next alignment project. The recentering and realigning can be done in two steps. First, we subbox the particles using a new, manually defined box center and recrop the particles with a smaller boxsize. Second, we align the symmetry axis using a synthetic template. Both procedures are described in detail in the advanced starters guide in the section Aligning the axis of symmetry and Subboxing and are now applied here.
Step 1: Subboxing
Open the last computed average in dmapview as previously described. Activate the radio buttons for the Center/North tools under Clicks. You can now click anywhere on the average and see the corresponding coordinates. Find the coordinates of the center of one subunit of the lattice. Switch between X,Y and Z view to make sure the center is correct. In our case we found the center of a subunit at [88,75,72]. For you these coordinates might be different.
Copy the found coordinates of the center of the subunit into the first vector of the command below. To compute the vector from the center of the subvolume to the center of a subunit we need to subtract the coordinates of the center of the subvolume. The center of a subvolume with a sidelength of 128 pixels is defined as [65,65,65].
rSubunitFromCenter = [88,75,72] - [65,65,65];
This vector will now be used to shift (or recenter) all particles in the table. Read the last computed table of the alignment project
ddb aliVLP:rt -ws t
and apply the new center to the table
ts = dynamo_subboxing_table(t,rSubunitFromCenter);
The table now contains the coordinates of the recentered particles. We use this new table to recrop the particles. We first define a new target folder:
targetFolder = './particlesSize96r';
Then we recrop the new particles. Since the particles are centered now, we can also choose a smaller boxsize of 96 pixels. This will save space and speed up the following processes.
Again we average and visualize the cropping results:
finalTable = dread([targetFolder,'/crop.tbl']); oa = daverage(targetFolder,'t',finalTable,'fc',1); dwrite(oa.average,[targetFolder '/template.em']);
Step 2: Align symmetry axis
We see that the new average is niceley centered (there is one subunit of the lattice in the center of the volume). However, the symmetry axis is not aligned with the Z axis (the whole average looks a bit 'tilted').
We can fix that by aligning the last computed average to a synthetic template and then apply the found transformation to the table, resulting in a new and correct orientation for all particles. First we create a synthetic template using the mask tools of Dynamo. We choose a curved membrane with a hole in the center, representing the 'hollow' central subunit of the lattice.
mr = dpktomo.examples.motiveTypes.Membrane(); % create membrane object mr.thickness = 22; % choose thickness of membrane mr.sidelength = 96; % choose sidelength of box mr.getMask(); % compute mask mem = (mr.mask)*(-1)+1; % invert contrast cyl = dynamo_cylinder(7,96,[48,48,48]); % create a cylinder (this will be the 'hole') templateSum = mem+cyl; % sum the two masks template = templateSum; template(template>0) = 1; % binarize the new mask
We look at the newly created template to make sure it was computed correctly.
Now we align the last computed average of the previous alignment project to the newly created template. We save the computed transformation parameters in the matlab object sal.
sal = dalign(oa.average,template,'cr',30,'cs',5,'ir',0,'dim',48,'limm',1,'lim',[15,15,15]);
A quick look at the newly aligned average should show a nicely centered particle with the symmetry axis aligned to the Z axis.
The transformation parameters that have been saved in the matlab object sal can now be applied to the table
tr = dynamo_table_rigid(finalTable,sal.Tp);
We now have an up-to-date table with nicely centered and aligned particles. This new table can be used in a new, finer alignment project.
Dealing with oversampling
Before starting the new alignment project we apply one more operation on the table. Since we oversampled the VLP surfaces in the beginning we might have ended up with some proteins being in more than one subvolume. Using the following function we can exclude subvolumes that are closer than 20 pixels to each other. In case the distance between two (or more) subvolumes is below this threshold, only the volume with the highest cross correlation (resulting from the previous alignment project) is kept. Read more about how to deal with oversampling here.
trEx = dpktbl.exclusionPerVolume(tr,20);
We save the new table and use it to create a new reference, which will be used in the next alignment project.
targetFolder = './particlesSize96r'; dwrite(trEx,[targetFolder '/crop_trEx.tbl']); oa = daverage(targetFolder,'t',trEx,'fc',1); dwrite(oa.average,[targetFolder '/template_trEx.em']);
Second aligment project
We now have particles which are centered and aligned. We dealt with the oversampling and recropped them to a smaller box size. These are good conditions to run one more alignment project with finer alignment parameters. We will narrow down the angular search, use a finer angular sampling, impose a C6 symmetry and use a tighter alignment mask. We begin by creating an alignment mask which is tighter than the previously used default one. Through the following commands we create a mask that looks like a thick curved membrane.
mr = dpktomo.examples.motiveTypes.Membrane(); mr.thickness = 55; mr.sidelength = 96; mr.getMask(); mem_mask = mr.mask;
We save the alignment mask
and inspect it in dmapview. We open first the previously created template
and then in the mask section we activate file, put the path of the mask in it (mem_mask_thick.em) and then click layer. You should see the mask overlaid to the average. The mask should contain all the signal of the sample. If this is not the case create a new mask with adjusted parameters.
We have now all the material to set up a new alignment project in the same way as done before. We define a new project name:
pr = 'aliVLP_fine';
We create the new alignment project with the newly cropped particles of 96 pixles sidelength, the new template and the new table. The masks are set to default for now. The new alignment mask is added in the next step.
dcp.new(pr,'d',targetFolder,'t',[targetFolder '/crop_trEx.tbl'],'template',[targetFolder '/template_trEx.em'],'masks','default','show',0);
Adding the new tight alignment mask:
Next we set up the numerical parameters for the project. In this case we define two rounds. The first round has 2 iterations and works with 1x binned particles and a more restricted and finer angular search than the first alignment project. The second round has only 1 iteration but is using the full size particles and even finer angular search parameters. We use C6 symmetry in both rounds.
Parameters round 1:
dvput(pr,'ite_r1',2); dvput(pr,'dim_r1',48); dvput(pr,'cr_r1',30); dvput(pr,'cs_r1',10); dvput(pr,'ir_r1',30); dvput(pr,'is_r1',10); dvput(pr,'rf_r1',4); dvput(pr,'rff_r1',2); dvput(pr,'lim_r1',[15,15,15]); dvput(pr,'limm_r1',1); dvput(pr,'sym_r1','c6');
Parameters round 2:
dvput(pr,'ite_r2',1); dvput(pr,'dim_r2',96); dvput(pr,'cr_r2',12); dvput(pr,'cs_r2',4); dvput(pr,'ir_r2',12); dvput(pr,'is_r2',4); dvput(pr,'rf_r2',4); dvput(pr,'rff_r2',2); dvput(pr,'lim_r2',[5,5,5]); dvput(pr,'limm_r2',2); dvput(pr,'sym_r2','c6');
We set the computing environement:
Check, unfold and run the project:
dvcheck aliVLP_fine dvunfold aliVLP_fine dvrun aliVLP_fine
While the project is running, we can monitor the results in the same way as we did for the first alignment project. This project should again take no longer than half an hour on one GPU (and 2 cores for averaging). If you are under time pressure you can skip the second round. You should have already nice results after the first round.
After the second alignment and without any postprocessing or elaborate refinement your final average may look similar to the one shown below. If not, it may need one more refinement round, adjustments to the mask or one more step of recentering and recropping. This representation was lowpass filtered to ~8 angstroms (or 32px in fourier space).


text:
Published on Digestive system.
Gallstones is another word for Gallbladder stones
Gallbladder - gallbladder stones
Published on Digestive system.
Gallbladder stones are more characteristic of a quarrelling and angry feeling, but, nevertheless, they go hand in hand with a yin behaviour, feminine, excessively passive and impotent. Basically, the person feels impotent and furious.
Gallbladder stones are aggressiveness in a petrified form. It happens a lot to mothers with families, as many of these women feel their families as a structure that stops them from letting their aggressiveness go wild, but that will not do anything to change it. They merely suffer and live off their petrifying anger. Bile symbolises aggressiveness. Gallbladder stones thus symbolise aggressiveness whose causes have not been sorted out.
See Gallbladder and Gallbladder – hepatitis.


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Last updated: April 22, 2013
1902: Chromosome Theory of Heredity
1902: Chromosome Theory of Heredity
Walter Sutton, a graduate student in E. B. Wilson's lab at Columbia University, observed that in the process of cell division, called meiosis, that produces sperm and egg cells, each sperm or egg receives only one chromosome of each type. (In other parts of the body, cells have two chromosomes of each type, one inherited from each parent.) The segregation pattern of chromosomes during meiosis matched the segregation patterns of Mendel's genes.
Sutton had been observing grasshopper cells, where chromosomes have quite distinct shapes. He published his findings in 1902 and a year later, made an even stronger argument to connect Mendel's laws of heredity and the behavior of chromosomes in his paper The Chromosomes in Heredity.
In many ways, Sutton reiterated the work of Theodor Boveri, a German scientist who in the late 1880s and early 1890s observed that chromosome numbers are cut in half as egg cells mature, and concluded that sperm and egg nuclei have half sets of chromosomes.
More Information
To view this PDF, you will need Adobe Reader.
Sutton, Walter, "The Chromosomes in Heredity", Biological Bulletin 4 (1903): 231-251.
L.C. Dunn said this paper marked the "beginning of cytogenics". Sutton suggests for the first time in a concrete way that hereditary anlagen (genes, after 1909) lay on the chromosomes, and that this gives a cytological explanation to Mendel's principles.
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text:
Luke, I Am Your Father, Now Pick Up Your Toys
The father-son strife between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker in Star Wars is legendary. But what if Darth Vader was the purveyor of evil in the galaxy and trying to raise a young son at the same time? Cartoonist Jeffrey Brown speaks with host Michel Martin about putting a new spin on the classic story in his graphic novel Darth Vader and Son.
Switching gears now, Father's Day is a little over a week away and we try to take the day to appreciate the dads in our lives, but if you think you had some tough times with your dad, you've got nothing on this famous film father and son.
JAMES EARL JONES: (as Darth Vader) Obi Wan never told you what happened to your father.
MARK HAMILL: (as Luke Skywalker) He told me enough. He told me you killed him.
JONES: (as Darth Vader) No. I am your father.
HAMILL: (as Luke Skywalker) You're lying. No. It's not true. That's impossible. No.
MARTIN: But what if, instead of intergalactic father-son strife, Darth Vader was just a sort of kind of ordinary dad trying to raise his four-year-old son, Luke? That is the premise of a new graphic novel titled "Darth Vader and Son," but even if you are not a "Star Wars" fan, you will probably get a kick out of Lord Vader trying to teach Luke to hit a baseball with a light saber.
Jeffrey Brown, the author of "Darth Vader and Son," joins us now. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.
JEFFREY BROWN: Thank you for having me.
MARTIN: Of course, you want to know - I want to know what gave you the idea for the book. Was it some tense moments or was it - some tense moments with your son or was it thinking, well, what if this scary guy wasn't really so scary at all?
BROWN: Well, yeah. Actually, the idea came from Google. I was invited to do some sketches for a possible Father's Day homepage design for Google and their idea was just showing how awkward family dinners would be if Luke and Vader were just sitting down and, you know, just the ordinary father-son moments and so I did those sketches and that's where the initial idea came from.
MARTIN: Well, the funny thing about the book is that Darth Vader is still the dark lord of the Sith, which puts an interesting twist on take your son to work day, I would imagine, but I understand - was it - do I have this right that your own son, Oscar, was four when you were working on this book? So that had to give you some ideas.
BROWN: Yeah. I mean, having a four-year-old, there are many frustrating times and you just kind of have to take it, so the idea of giving Darth Vader this four-year-old who, you know, he can't strangle - he just has to kind of bite his tongue and put up with it and so a lot of that is things that maybe I went through with my own son.
MARTIN: And, of course, there's always the - there's the famous ice cream cone situation when they haven't quite mastered the art of the cone. And here's a promotional trailer for the book and this is a scene where Darth Vader takes Luke out for his special treat. Here it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Luke, join me and, together, we can eat our ice cream cones.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Now, help me take this mask off, Luke. It is the only way.
MARTIN: And there are some other scenarios. Which one is your favorite? Do you have a favorite?
BROWN: I guess one of my favorites is actually the one that's on the back cover. It's a scene with Luke. He's got all of his toys spread around the room and Darth Vader is asking him, pick up your toys this instant. I am your father. Do you want a time out? And - yeah. I mean, that's the constant.
MARTIN: Yeah. The powers only go so far when somebody's four.
BROWN: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, Vader can't pick the toys up for Luke because then he won't learn to clean up after himself, so - yeah.
MARTIN: And one of my other favorites is where you kind of imagine, you know, Darth Vader actually being a little bit human and, of course, there's that moment when a baby's not a baby anymore, but he's used to falling asleep in a certain position and Darth is holding onto Luke and then he says...
BROWN: My arm is totally asleep.
MARTIN: Totally asleep.
BROWN: Yeah.
MARTIN: And he's like - and you kind of think that Darth should be able to handle this a different way, but he can't because he's a dad. And then there's one where - what does every kid give his dad at some point? What has it got to be? It's got to be what for Father's Day?
BROWN: It's got to be a tie.
MARTIN: It's got to be a tie.
BROWN: Although I haven't gotten a tie yet, so - but, yeah. You know...
MARTIN: Well, it's coming. And, of course, it's got to be polka-dotted or it's got to have palm trees...
BROWN: Right, right.
MARTIN: ...on it or something like this and that really doesn't go with being the dark lord of the Sith, does it?
BROWN: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've been fortunate. Our son hasn't picked out any gaudy clothing for me to wear, but he does occasionally pick out jewelry for his mom, like, Dad, Mom would really like this bracelet. I'm like, well, he picked that out, honey. You have to wear it now to work.
MARTIN: You know why this book was particularly funny to me, though? I'll just let you in on a little family thing. Is that my son is now eight. He's a twin and he's got a sister, but he's now into getting he and his father to dress alike, and, last year for Halloween, guess what he decided they both had to be? Darth Vader.
BROWN: Like, Darth Vader?
MARTIN: Darth Vader. Yes.
BROWN: Not Luke Skywalker?
MARTIN: No, not Luke. They had to be Darth because the helmet...
BROWN: It had to be the more expensive costume.
MARTIN: ...is much - it had to be...
BROWN: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...the more expensive costume. It had to be scarier and my husband is not one for dressing up in costumes, but guess who he was for Halloween?
BROWN: Darth Vader.
MARTIN: Darth Vader. Yes. Thank you. Right there.
BROWN: There you go.
MARTIN: There you go. Before we let you go, you know, some "Star Wars" fans, as I'm sure you know, are very, very serious about their "Star Wars." Have you heard from any fans who say Darth Vader would never teach Luke to use his light saber for baseball? You know, the molecular makeup of a light saber would destroy the ball or this is just - you know, this just can't be. Have you heard any of that?
BROWN: I - no. I mean, so far, the reaction has been really great and I think I went into this book as it's kind of a love letter to "Star Wars." I grew up with "Star Wars" and so I tried to be very true to "Star Wars" and I think, you know, even though it's outside of canon, it's very much a pure "Star Wars" book and I think that the people who love "Star Wars" will get that.
MARTIN: Well, what's going to be next? Is Darth Vader going to be teaching Luke how to drive or, God forbid, the facts of life?
BROWN: Well, you know, Luke does have a sister who we see only briefly and some people have actually asked, where's Leia in this book? And so I think the next step is showing Leia and Vader and giving her time to torture Vader as a child.
MARTIN: I look forward to it. Jeffrey Brown is a cartoonist and graphic novelist. His latest book is called "Darth Vader and Son" and he was kind enough to join us from member station WBEZ in Chicago. Thank you and dare I say may the force be with you.
BROWN: May the force be with you, too.
Copyright © 2012 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
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text:
Food safety specialist says food poisoning cases underreported
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
MANHATTAN — You've probably heard of norovirus, salmonella and E. coli, but would you know if you were sick with one of these foodborne illnesses? A Kansas State University food safety specialist says there are distinct symptoms for food poisoning and reporting them to your doctor is an important step in improving food safety.
"We really want to reduce the number of foodborne illness outbreaks," said Karen Blakeslee, extension specialist in food science and coordinator of the Rapid Response Center. "It's important to understand foodborne illness and its symptoms because the whole topic of foodborne illness is really underreported."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 19,056 cases of infection were reported in 2013. However, Blakeslee says many people don't report getting sick from contaminated food because they don't realize they have food poisoning. Symptoms of a foodborne illness are similar to those with other illnesses, such as vomiting, diarrhea, headache and fever, but there are some distinct symptoms of foodborne illness.
"Symptoms like double vision, dizziness, lethargy and dehydration are all symptoms specific to a foodborne illness," said Blakeslee.
It takes two or more people with similar symptoms to be considered a foodborne illness outbreak. Blakeslee says another challenge with decreasing the number of outbreaks is trying to determine the food that was contaminated.
"It's not necessarily what you ate that day or the day before," she said. "Some of the symptoms for the different kinds of bacteria may take up to a couple of weeks to occur, so that's why it makes it really hard to identify the cause of the outbreak."
If you do suspect you have food poisoning, Blakeslee says to see a doctor or call your local health department.
photo credit: Microbe World via photopincc


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Washington D.C., Jan 23, 2017 / 06:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Ahead of the 44th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. a survey shows a "consensus" favoring a 20-week abortion ban, which President Trump has pledged to sign into law if passed by Congress.
"There is a consensus in America in favor of significant abortion restrictions, and this common ground exists across party lines, and even among significant numbers of those who are pro-choice," Knights of Columbus CEO Carl Anderson stated Jan. 23. "This poll shows that large percentages of Americans, on both sides of the aisle, are united in their opposition to the status quo as it relates to abortion on demand. This is heartening and can help start a new national conversation on abortion."
A new Marist poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus surveyed over 2,700 adults on abortion restrictions like bans on taxpayer funding of abortions and laws restricting elective abortion to the first trimester of pregnancy. The poll was released days ahead of Friday's March for Life, the 44th annual pro-life march in Washington, D.C. held on or around Jan. 22 since 1974. It commemorates the date the Supreme Court decided a woman's right to an abortion in the Roe v. Wade decision on Jan. 22, 1973.
Almost six in ten Americans (59 percent) supported a ban on abortions performed after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with an exception of when the life of the mother is at stake, according to the poll. "Pain-capable" legislation enacting a similar ban has been passed by the U.S. House and in 19 states. Medical research has shown that unborn babies can feel pain at around 20 weeks of pregnancy.
There was "strong support across the board" for this ban in the poll, Andrew Walther, vice president of communications and strategic planning for the Knights of Columbus, said in a conference call with reporters, including among "a majority of those who identify as pro-choice." 63 percent of African-Americans and 58 percent of Latinos favored such a ban, poll numbers showed, and even 49 percent of Democrats supported it. 59 percent of Independents favored the ban.
Almost three-fourths of respondents favored restrictions on abortion either to the first trimester of pregnancy (22 percent), in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother (30 percent), only to save the life of the mother (12 percent), or never under any circumstances (10 percent). Over one in three thought restrictions limiting abortion to the first trimester except to save the life of the mother to be an "immediate" priority.
There was a "groundswell of support across a number" of demographics for abortion restrictions, Walther said, including among many African-Americans, Latinos, and even a significant portion of political Democrats. The vast majority of African-Americans (79 percent), Latinos (79 percent), and political Independents (72 percent) wanted "significant restrictions" on abortion like limits to the first trimester, or bans except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake, the poll revealed.
Since 2008, poll respondents favoring one or all these restrictions has totaled "consistently about three-quarters or better," Walther explained. Also, a majority of Americans do describe themselves as "pro-choice," the poll revealed, with 52 percent saying they were "pro-choice." 42 percent of respondents said they were "pro-life."
However, the survey shows that "when we go beyond those labels" of "pro-life" and "pro-choice" that Americans identify with and start "asking questions about what people actually feel in terms of their positions," Barbara Carvalho, director of the Marist Poll explained on the conference call, "there's actually a consensus that people really do want restrictions" on abortion.
"A lot of people" who identify as "pro-choice" may not favor legal abortion in all scenarios, Walther explained, and may actually want significant restrictions on when it can take place. And, when respondents were asked about their "intensity" for their pro-life or pro-choice position, pro-lifers were "about 10 points more intense in that support" than pro-choicers, Walther said, revealing "stronger intensity on the pro-life side." While the majority of Millennials said they were "pro-choice," a majority of them wanted abortion limited either to the first trimester (23 percent) or to cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother (29 percent). Almost six in ten Millennials supported a 20-week abortion ban, and almost just as many non-practicing Catholics (61 percent) as practicing Catholics (62 percent) supported the ban.
Almost six in ten Americans expressed "moral objections" to abortion, including 59 percent of political Independents, 63 percent of African-Americans, 62 percent of Latinos, and even 40 percent of Democrats. Half of Millennials said abortion was "morally wrong." Half of respondents said abortion "does more harm than good" to a woman's life in the long-term, including more Millennials (44 percent) who said it does than who said it improves a woman's life (40 percent).
Other restrictions, like on taxpayer funding of abortion, were met with widespread support in the poll. 61 percent of respondents — including 87 percent of Trump supporters and 39 percent of Clinton supporters — opposed taxpayer funding of abortions in the U.S., which is currently policy under the Hyde Amendment. The No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act, expected to be voted on by the House on Tuesday, would solidify this provision in law, as it currently must be passed every year by Congress as a budget rider. Regarding the direct taxpayer funding of abortions in foreign countries — prohibited in U.S. foreign assistance by the Helms Amendment — 83 percent of respondents opposed such funding.
President Trump signed an executive order on Monday reinstating the Mexico City policy, which prohibits U.S. assistance to international non-governmental organizations that perform or "promote" abortions. Doctors and medical providers who conscientiously refuse to perform or participate in abortions should be allowed to do so, 6 in 10 respondents said, including 45 percent of pro-choice respondents and 62 percent of Independents.
Other recent polls on abortion have shown a majority of Americans in favor of some restrictions, though to what extent they support these restrictions is not always clear. Earlier in January, a Quinnipiac poll showed 34 percent of Americans saying abortion should be "legal in most cases," while 32 percent said it should be illegal in all or most cases. However, statistics show that the vast majority of abortions are performed in the first trimester of pregnancy.
In that same poll, Americans were equally divided on a 20-week abortion ban in their home state, with 46 percent both supporting and opposing such a ban. Back in October, a Pew Research poll showed 36 percent of Americans saying abortion should be legal in most cases, with 22 percent saying it should be legal in all cases. 23 percent said it should be illegal in most cases, and 14 percent said it should be illegal in all cases.
The Marist Poll numbers also broke down the views of practicing and non-practicing Catholics on the issue. Six in ten practicing Catholics said they were pro-life while 37 percent said they were pro-choice. However, among non-practicing Catholics those numbers switched, with 64 percent identifying as pro-choice and 31 percent as pro-life. 84 percent of practicing Catholics said abortion should be limited to the first trimester of pregnancy, allowed only in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother, or not allowed at all. 71 percent of non-practicing Catholics favored some or all of those restrictions.


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Mission Possible
by Julie Gudmestad
Published in Yoga Journal, June 2006
Is Gomukhasana nearly impossible for you? These tips can help you come closer to clasping your hands.
WHENEVER I ANNOUNCE THAT we're going to work on our arms in Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose), my students look at me with reluctance—and reach for their yoga belts. Behind their resigned determination, I suspect they're wondering, What makes this pose so challenging? Why is it so hard to clasp my hands behind my back? I work on my shoulder flexibility often, so why doesn't this pose get any easier?
The simple answer is tight shoulder muscles. The more complicated explanation is that Gomukhasana requires shoulders to move into positions they never assume in daily life. They're not even visited very often in other yoga poses. In Gomukhasana the "up" arm moves into full shoulder flexion with external rotation and full elbow flexion. The "down" arm moves into full shoulder internal rotation with extension.
If that description thoroughly confused you, you'll understand why you need to learn the anatomical principles of flexion and extension, as well as internal and external rotation, before working on your limitations in Gomukhasana. Start by standing in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) with your arms by your sides. Bring your right arm forward and up overhead. When you do this action, you're flexing your right shoulder. With the shoulder in flexion, bend (flex) the elbow, so that your palm touches your upper back, with your fingers pointing toward the floor. Next, reach your left arm behind you, creating extension in your left shoulder. Bend your left elbow and slide your forearm up your back. If you can, reach up between the shoulder blades to grasp the right fingers, hand, or wrist.
Now, to understand the concept of rotation, return to Tadasana with your arms by your sides and palms facing your thighs. Rotate your right arm so the palm faces forward; this is external rotation of the shoulder. Hold this rotation and flex your shoulder to 90 degrees (your arm will be parallel to the floor with palm up). Continue to hold this external rotation and lift your arm overhead into full flexion. If you've managed to hold the external rotation, your palm will spiral toward the wall behind you and your elbow callus and triceps brachii muscle (on the back of the upper arm) will be facing straight ahead, not out to the side. Next, keeping your left arm by your side, rotate it so your palm faces backward and keep rotating until the palm faces out to the side, with your little finger forward. This is internal rotation of the shoulder. Bend the left elbow and bring your forearm and hand around and up your back to clasp your right hand, fingers, or wrist.
Trouble Spot No. 1
NOW THAT YOU KNOW the joint positions and terminology and the way your shoulders are supposed to move in Gomukhasana, let's see what's preventing you from making the clasp and what you can do about it. As with any other joint, moving your shoulder in one direction can be difficult because of tightness in the muscles that move it in the opposite direction. In the case of the "up" arm, moving your shoulder into full flexion with external rotation can be limited by tightness in the muscles performing extension and internal rotation. These are the latissimus dorsi (the broad sheet of muscle that originates in the low and midback and sweeps up and across the rib cage and through the armpit to attach to the upper humerus, or upper arm bone) and the pectoralis major (the major muscle covering the chest, originating on the collarbone and breastbone and also attaching to the upper humerus). These strong muscles might be tight and short from strengthening activities like chin-ups or rowing, or from a rounded posture or a lack of stretching. You can stretch them by lying in a supported backbend—over a rolled blanket, a therapy ball, or a block placed beneath the upper back—and relaxing for a few minutes with your arms reaching overhead. Be sure to hold the external rotation of the shoulders in these stretches, with palms parallel and triceps facing forward.
Trouble Spot No. 2
THE TRICEPS (THE MUSCLE on the back of the upper arm, between the callus on the elbow and the back of the shoulder) can also be a limiting factor in the movement of the "up" arm in Gomukhasana. The triceps assists with shoulder extension and also extends the elbow. If it's tight, it can significantly restrict your ability to flex the shoulder and elbow at the same time, which is the desired position of the up arm in Gomukhasana.
While you may already be practicing stretches that facilitate shoulder flexion, chances are that if Gomukhasana's arms are difficult for you, you aren't working on stretches that combine shoulder flexion with elbow flexion. Try doing Gomukhasana's "up" arm one at a time after working on poses that bear weight on the arms, like Sun Salutations, when the pecs, lats, and triceps are warm and tired. Start by standing in Tadasana. Externally rotate your right arm and flex the shoulder to 90 degrees. Grasp the back of the upper right arm with your left hand, to help hold the external rotation as you fully flex your shoulder until your arm is overhead. Still holding the upper arm near the elbow with your left palm on the triceps, keep the triceps facing straight ahead as you bend the elbow and bring the right palm to your upper back. Your left forearm will be in front of your forehead. Don't grasp the right elbow as you may have been taught in some yoga classes, as this will release the external rotation. Hold the stretch for a minute or two as you visualize lengthening from your back waist to your shoulder (the lats) and from your shoulder to your elbow (the triceps), but don't collapse the left side of your waist.
Keep the right arm next to your ear without letting it splay out to the side or pulling it behind your head, which will lose the rotation. Keep your chin level, and don't bend your head to the side. Don't overarch your low back; if you tip your torso backward it can make you think your elbow is pointing straight up when it isn't.
If you have very tight or muscular arms, give yourself support to help yourself stay in the stretch longer. Stand in a doorway with your right arm up in the stretch. Place your right triceps on the doorjamb, with your body and face looking through the doorway. Gradually press your armpit into the doorjamb, so there is less and less space between your armpit and the doorjamb, and your elbow moves up toward the ceiling. Again, don't overarch your low back. In this position, you should find a good stretch of your right shoulder and triceps.
Trouble Spot No. 3
NOW LET'S WORK ON the "down" arm, with the shoulder in extension and full internal rotation. The muscles that limit movement into this position are those that perform external rotation and flexion of the shoulder. The muscle primarily responsible for shoulder flexion is the deltoid (the shield-shaped muscle that forms the "cap" over the shoulder), assisted by the clavicular (originating on the collarbone) part of the pectoralis major, and the biceps brachii and coracobrachialis (both are muscles of the front of the upper arm). The prime movers in external rotation are the teres minor and infraspinatus. Both originate on the scapula, cross the back of the shoulder joint, and insert on the upper outer humerus.
To help stretch and lengthen the shoulder flexors and external rotators, spend one minute twice a day with your forearms stacked behind your back and your hands reaching toward your elbows. Keep your chest lifted and open, and breathe into your upper chest and front shoulders. As the stacked-forearm position becomes more comfortable, start to work one hand up your back, gradually moving it up between the shoulder blades. Again, keep your chest lifted and your shoulders back and down. Once you can get your hand up between your blades, you have a shot at catching the fingers with the "up" arm.
To put the pieces together, stretch your right arm forward and up, maintaining external rotation as you flex your elbow, and bring the right hand down onto your upper back. Take your left arm out to the side and internally rotate it so your thumb points down and to the back. Then quickly swing your hand in and up between your shoulder blades to catch your hands. It's fine to use a belt between the hands until they meet naturally. Stand tall, with your chest lifted, shoulders broad, and both sides of the waist lengthening evenly. Practicing this pose a little bit two to three times a week goes a long way. The next time your teacher announces, "Gomukhasana," you'll be the one smiling while everyone else is looking apprehensive.


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Compare Packages
Expand your world of entertainment with DStv. We have a number of different packages available and we want to help you find the package that will best suit your entertainment needs.
To get started, SELECT two packages below to compare and find out more about what you'll get before you join the DStv family!


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"Like Barbara Boxer within her Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on climate change this afternoon, Baby makes the rules," we captioned this majestic image of our late beloved boy back in March of 2007
As the Gramscian Anthropogenic Global Warming/Climate Change house of cards topples in the wake of the unprecedented scientific fraud of Climategate, we're delighted to republish yet another early-warning post signaling the alarm. As we wrote the other day, our own awareness goes back at least as far as July of 1990:
March 21, 2007. Two of our heroes in one day are fighting the good fight:
1. Senator James Inhofe — blogged here — is not letting Barbara Boxer and Al [Big Sigh] Gore get away with grandstanding at today's "global-warming" hearings, as the Lord of Longwindedness tries to use up all of Inhofe's airtime by blowing hot air. 'Will watch the whole thing in reruns during the wee hours for the thrill of it all. Meanwhile, here's what the Committee Chair had to say, to much snickering from the peanut gallery:
Elections have consequences, so I make the rules.
Touché. Inhofe parries:
When people don't want to talk about science in a debate format, they just say it's settled . . . My time is almost expired completely. Are you [Gaseous Gore] aware of that?
Here's the follow-up to our teaser post a couple of days back about Tuck's bolster project. He figured out how to do it through a combination of checking things out online, consulting with his upholstery man (the one who made the gorgeous cushion underneath the bolsters above) and a huge bunch of common sense. The biggest nut to crack was how to get a thread through the center of the foam cylinders to pull the buttons front and aft together. The solution was to slash through the fome with a serrated knife from our own kithcen. Ain't they beautiful?
2. "Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus said on Wednesday that fighting global warming has turned into a 'religion' that replaced the ideology of communism and threatens to clip basic freedoms" — check out our own take on the divine Mr. Klaus here:
The right-wing president, a free-market champion, wrote to the U.S. Congress that adopting tough environmental policies to fight climate change would have destructive impact on national economies.
'Communism has been replaced by the threat of an ambitious environmentalism,' Klaus wrote in response to questions from the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The most beautiful boy in the world. Baby Cakes, being a pussycat, doesn't pose, of course, but sometimes our digital cam lucks out and catches him in the perfect moment as above in the countdown to supper.
Meanwhile, the hearing continues. Bernie Sanders [Socialist, VT] opines that Fellow Traveler Albert has given the new generation "the hope that it can become the new Greatest Generation," able to overcome dependency upon fossil fuel. Can you say inspiring? Tom Brokaw's Greatest Generation — the armed forces and their homefire burners stateside during WW II who defeated the fascist enemy overseas — gives way to Bernie Sanders's and Al Gore's Greatest Generation, who will exchange "carbon credits" to neutralize their "carbon footprint." It doesn't get any sweeter than VP Gore's response:
I think this generation is becoming involved in this as a moral issue.
What hath God wrought?
Update December 1, 2009: A third hero of the unGore Greatest Generation blipped onto our Twitter radar screen this morning, Australia's totally awesome new conservative party leader, Tony Abbott, "the first politician to reap the benefits of the world's growing scepticism towards ManBearPig."
More good news from Andrew Bolt Down Under: "Finally, the Climategate scientists produce a real hockeystick."


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A Look at Uranus' Magnetosphere
The magnetosphere of Uranus is medium sized, but still much bigger than the Earth's. It holds all of Uranus' moons. It is probably made in the middle of the planet, and with ice, rather than with iron at the core.
The magnetosphere of Uranus has a very strange tilt. The extreme tilt, combined with the extreme tilt of Uranus itself, makes for a completely strange magnetosphere, one which has twisting structure!
Mathematical theory suggests that the rings of Uranus sweep the particles in the magnetosphere into the atmosphere!
The Auroraon Uranus is difficult to detect, and so are radio signals from Uranus, which means that the magnetosphere of Uranus may be almost empty!


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"My main thing is to make it simple. I try to go out
there, find an opening and attack it. That's just how I approach it." - Derek Brunson
If the fight game is an educational realm where excellence comes with tenacity and experience provides the highest yields, Derek Brunson is on the advanced track.
At 29 years old and approaching four years in the professional ranks of the sport, the Wilmington, North Carolina native has shown a level of talent and moxie that has earned him a place on the biggest stage in mixed martial arts. That being said, no journey comes free of setbacks, and Brunson has used those hard knock nights to further a lesson plan that is already as on the fly as it gets.
He is fully aware that the window to make an impact on the sport is one that only stays open for a limited amount of time. That makes every potential opportunity a big step worth taking and Brunson intends to put everything he has into every chance he gets. In order to rise through the scene in the manner Brunson has accomplished, he's had to seize the proverbial moment when it shows itself. And that is exactly what he did when the chance to fight Chris Leben at UFC 155 came about.
Not only had Brunson been eager to make his official UFC debut, but the chance to do so against a name like the one "The Crippler" carries was simply too sweet of a deal to pass up. Yet, with only two weeks' notice before fight night, Brunson had a tall order in front of him. But those gut check moments are what he had used to navigate the path up until that point, and his confidence and belief in his skill set were enough to press forward.
And that is precisely what he did as he picked up the unanimous decision victory over the season one TUF alum in front of a lively Las Vegas crowd. While the bout itself was criticized by fight fans, Brunson knew it served the ultimate purpose. His game plan against Leben was methodical and effective, as he used the strengths that would provide the best path to victory. Once that initial "W" was under his belt, it would be on to bigger things, and with a full training camp to prepare, that's exactly what he was about to provide.
"I don't even think the UFC knew that I took it on short notice," Brunson said in jest. "They seemed to think I just went out there and got tired after a full training camp. But it was a big fight, definitely in the sense of a name opponent. Every time Chris Leben comes out to fight he brings it and anyone who is going to fight him better be prepared. I took the fight on short notice but I went out there and got it done. At the end of the day I was happy to get the win.
The North Carolina-based fighter then kicked off November's Fight for the Troops 3 card in explosive fashion with a 46 second finish of Brian Houston. Brunson came out of the gates hot as he landed a huge head kick that put his opponent on the deck, and with Houston dazed he sunk in the fight ending choke. His performance in Kentucky provided the exact opposite look his previous effort had shown, but nevertheless, they both resulted in victory.
"It was big win and a good performance," Brunson said. "I put a lot of hard work into preparing for all of my fights and to go out there and get it done in quick fashion was great. It was good to get everyone excited, and making them want to see me fight again is a great thing.
"If anyone has followed my career, I'm a guy who goes out there and has gotten some quick finishes. Out of my 11 wins, eight of them have been in the first round and under two minutes. I go out there looking to get the job done. Granted, I may not be looking to stay on my feet the entire time, but if I get a full camp and study my opponent, I'm going to take the fight to where I can wear them down and get the win."
With his hand being raised in back-to-back efforts, Brunson has continued to shoot for bigger targets. He will face former Olympic Silver medalist turned MMA powerhouse Yoel Romero at UFC Fight Night on January 15 in a matchup that pits two of the middleweight division's best prospects against one another. The Cuban wrestling standout brings a pure power-based style into the cage and Brunson believes he has precisely the right tools to shut the heavily muscled Romero down.
"Yoel brings a lot to the table," Brunson said. "He won a silver medal in the Olympics and he's done very well in all the fights I've seen of his. But I'm also very explosive and I definitely like this fight. This is one of those fights for the fans. We are - at least in my opinion - two of the most explosive guys at 185 pounds and we are stepping in there to get after each other. I think it has the potential to be a very good fight.
"I definitely think I can push the pace in this fight. I'm a naturally strong guy. I always played football and stayed in sports and what not, but he does carry around a lot of muscle. I push my cardio day in and day out and I hope he comes into this fight in shape because if he doesn't, he can get blown out of the water real quick because of my cardio. I'm going to be looking to push the pace and not let him rest and recover. I'm really looking to pick up the pace in this fight."
After making the most of the opportunities that came his way in 2013, Brunson is eager to get his next campaign off to a solid start. Where his stock will ultimately be judged when he steps into the cage with Romero in less than two weeks, the work he's put in to keep his career on the fast track is the fuel that allows him to keep pushing forward, and while climbing the ranks and trying to establish a name can be a chaotic process for a fighter to endure, Brunson approaches the fight the same way he handles the climb by making sure to keep everything simple. He is a complete believer in hard work paying off and the investment put into the process will make sure the progress will continue on all fronts.
"My main thing is to make it simple," Brunson said. "I try to go out there, find an opening and attack it. That's just how I approach it. I train really hard, look for openings and try to be a complete mixed martial artist out there rather than being someone in a Toughman competition. Those guys go out there and just slug. I go out there, set things up and try to seize the opportunity when it's there to get the quick finish.
"I've only been fighting professionally a little over three and a half years and here I am. I've put a lot of hard work into it and I have so much left to achieve. I'm not even close to reaching my full potential. I'm learning things everyday and I'm in the gym constantly. I have a long way to go in this sport, but it's looking up every day."


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Is it really only Wednesday??? This teacher is already pooped!! We are gearing up for our annual Open House! It is a ton of work to get ready for the kids to "show off" but it is so worth watching them shine! We always like to have a little theme going on. This year we are focusing on our national bird, the bald eagle. We will cover our ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies objectives with this one bird! I put together a little unit to help coordinate all the activities. Here are a few pics from the 90+ page unit! We got started on some things this week!!
We will start next week with a very quick little Leap Day fun!! Kids will practice graphing, skip counting and more!!
We'll be graphing those little plastic jumping frogs. |
I have so much more to share from the past couple of weeks, but I am runnin' on empty! Anyone else in that same boat???? Spring break is in sight, but... so much to do before then! Hope this post helps to make your days a little easier! Thanks for stopping by and taking a little peek into our world. I promise I'll share more very soon!


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LAS VEGAS — Webb Simpson maintained a four-stroke lead Saturday in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, birdieing four of the last seven holes at TPC Summerlin
Making his first start since helping the U.S. win the Presidents Cup, the 2012 U.S. Open champion shot a 4-under 67 to reach 19 under. He opened with rounds of 64 and 63.
"The conditions were perfect," Simpson said. "I knew guys were shooting low numbers. I felt like I was playing good enough. I just was shooting pretty bad — parred 9, dropped the shot at 11. So, it was frustrating.
"But my caddie just told me to stay patient and let the birdies come. And that's what happened. I made some putts coming in."
Chesson Hadley was second after a 67, reaching 15 under with an eagle on the par-5 16th. The Web.com Tour Championship winner last month, Hadley is making his fourth career PGA Tour start.
Jeff Overton was third at 14 under after a 68.
Jason Bohn had a 69 to reach 13 under, and Sean O'Hair shot a 63 to join first-round leader J.J. Henry, defending champion Ryan Moore, William McGirt, Ryo Ishikawa and Russell Knox at 12 under.
O'Hair eagled the par-4 15th.
"I've been playing some nice golf, and it was nice to come out today and get started off quick," O'Hair said. "I was 3 under pretty quickly and turned at 4, and kind of started off slow on the back nine, but that eagle helped on 15. So, it was just all in all a great day."
O'Hair had to play the four-event Web.com Tour Finals to regain his PGA Tour card.
"I think it was a tough time this year for me, especially late because I was realizing I was going to lose my card," O'Hair said. "I just had to get my mind right going into those Web.com events. I knew I had an opportunity to get my card back, but I had to be in a right spot mentality. It was a disappointing time for me.
"I was able to get my mind right, and I played fairly well. ... I really feel good about my game right now, everything about it, from putting, ball-striking. I really feel like I can play some great golf right now. I think it helped me to kind of go back to basics and simplify my game."
Henry has shot 71-70 after opening with a course-record 60. McGirt shot 64, Ishikawa had a 68, and Moore and Knox shot 69.
Daniel Summerhays had a 68 to reach 11 under. He eagled the par-5 13th and 16th holes.
Jimmy Walker, the winner of the season-opening Frys.com Open last week in California, was 10 under after a 64.


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REPORT: In Immigration Coverage, Fox Shuns Pro-Immigrant Voices
Written by Solange Uwimana
A year ago, News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch claimed that Fox News is not "anti-immigrant," a statement seemingly contradicted by near-daily segments on the network portraying immigrants in a negative light. Now, a Media Matters analysis of Fox News guests from April 2010 to June 2011 has found that of the guests Fox chose to discuss immigration, an overwhelming majority took anti-immigrant positions or held anti-immigrant views. In fact, our data show that anti-immigrant guests outnumbered those with a pro-immigrant point of view by a 3-to-1 margin.
On April 13, 2010, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the controversial immigration bill S.B. 1070 into law. S.B. 1070 makes the failure to carry documents proving legal status or citizenship a crime and requires police during any "lawful stop, detention, or arrest" to determine a person's immigration status if they have "reasonable suspicion" that the person is an undocumented immigrant, among other provisions. Before the act took effect, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Arizona arguing that the statute was unconstitutional, and a federal judge issued an injunction preventing several provisions of the law from taking effect.
In the months that followed, several other states began considering stricter immigration laws, with new statutes passing in a number of them. Members of Congress also introduced and held hearings on legislation that would end birthright citizenship or require employers nationwide to confirm the immigration status of prospective employees.
On June 9 of this year, Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama followed suit, signing an anti-immigration bill critics have called a "sweeping attack on immigrants and people of color." The bill makes it illegal to knowingly transport an undocumented immigrant or rent them an apartment, and it requires schools to check the immigration status of their students and employers to check the legal status of prospective employees.
Overwhelming Majority Of Fox News Guests Held Anti-Immigrant Views
Only 18 Percent Of Fox Guests Were Pro-Immigrant, Compared To 62 Percent Anti-Immigrant. Media Matters examined Fox News coverage between April 13, 2010, and June 9, 2011, that included elected officials, members of advocacy groups, business leaders, pundits, and others discussing immigration. Of these appearances, 1,052 out of 1,697 -- over 62 percent -- held anti-immigrant views or adopted anti-immigrant positions. Only 18 percent of all guests (301 appearances) were pro-immigrant, while 20 percent (344 appearances) were neutral.
Anti-Immigrant Booking Was Consistent Across All Programs
No Fox Program Featured More Than 31 Percent Pro-Immigrant Guests. Special Report with Bret Baier and The O'Reilly Factor proved to be the most welcoming of pro-immigrant views. Of its 278 guests, Special Report hosted 87 who held pro-immigrant views -- 31 percent -- while the Factor had 47 pro-immigrant guests out of 158 for 30 percent.
Outside Of Special Report, Shows With More Than 100 Immigration Guest Appearances Featured Wider Anti-Immigrant Disparity. Greta Van Susteren hosted 239 guests to discuss immigration on her show, On the Record; of those appearances, 74 percent were anti-immigrant. On his show, Sean Hannity hosted 112 guests, of which 83 were classified as anti-immigrant -- 74 percent. Of the 270 immigration guest appearances on Megyn Kelly's America Live, 75 percent were anti-immigrant. Fox & Friends' 162 guests were 64 percent anti-immigrant.
Glenn Beck Featured Widest Disparity, With 88 Percent Anti-Immigrant Guests. Glenn Beck had 24 total guest appearances on the issue of immigration during the period we considered. None of the guests espoused a pro-immigrant position, three were neutral, and 21 -- 88 percent -- were anti-immigrant.
Case Study: Fox's Coverage Of S.B. 1070
In Weeks Following Passage Of S.B. 1070, Only One-Third Of Fox's Immigration Guests Were Pro-Immigrant. From the April 13 passage of the bill through April 30, Fox hosted 156 guests to discuss immigration policy. Eighty-four were anti-immigrant (53 percent), compared to 51 who were pro-immigrant (33 percent). On only one show did pro-immigrant guests outnumber those with anti-immigrant views: Happening Now featured eight pro-immigrant guests in contrast with seven who were anti-immigrant.
Van Susteren, Hannity Led The Anti-Immigrant Charge. During that period, Van Susteren hosted 21 guests to discuss immigration, 15 of whom were anti-immigrant. Sean Hannity hosted 19 guests, 13 of whom were anti-immigrant.
Guests Often Highlighted Supposed Lack Of Border Security. During that period, Hudspeth County, Texas, Sheriff Arvin West and several Arizona Republican lawmakers including Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl, state Sen. Russell Pearce and state Rep. John Kavanagh, all appeared on Van Susteren's show to argue that S.B. 1070 is necessary because the border is, in McCain's words, "out of control."
- AZ Daily Star: Border Mayors Called On Sheriff To "Stop Fanning The Flames Of Fear About The Border." On February 9, according to the Arizona Daily Star, several border town mayors sent Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu a letter asking him "to stop fanning the flames of fear about the border." The letter read in part:
As Mayors of border communities from Arizona, we would appreciate it if you would not cultivate a culture of fear in our state and to start being accurate about border security. While your misstatements about efforts to keep communities along the U.S.-Mexico border may keep national media coming to Arizona, at the same time your consistent inaccuracies hurt cities and towns like ours by causing those who live and travel to the border to fear for their safety when in our communities. This damages our economy - driving visitors away and leaving our businesses and residents to suffer. The facts show that violent crime is down or remains flat in our border region as we are sure it is in your area as well. In 2002 it peaked at 742 per 100,000 residents but has since drastically dropped to 219 per 100,000 in 2009 (per the F.B. I. Uniform Crime Reports Program).
We know and understand that there is more work to do. We have seen significant progress being made every day. We trust that the federal government will continue to strengthen the ways it protects our citizens from the violence we see in Mexico. What our communities do need, is for Sheriffs like you to focus on building strong relationships and partnerships with local, state and federal governments and law enforcement agencies to help the efforts on strengthening security on our border. [Letter from border mayors, 2/14/11]
- AP: "U.S.-Mexico Border Is More Fortified Now Than It Was Even Five Years Ago." In June 2010, the Associated Press reported: "You wouldn't know it from the public debate, but the U.S.-Mexico border is more fortified now than it was even five years ago. Far more agents patrol it, more fences, barriers and technology protect it and taxpayers are spending billions more to reinforce it." [Associated Press, 6/23/10]
For more on the myth that the border is not secure, click here.
Media Matters conducted a Nexis and Factiva search of transcripts of weekday programs on the Fox News Channel, from 6 a.m. ET through the 10 p.m. ET hour between April 13, 2010 (when Brewer signed S.B. 1070 into law) through June 9, 2011 (when Bentley signed the Alabama immigration bill into law). For programs that were not available in either search database, we conducted a search through our internal archives. We identified and reviewed all segments that included at least three mentions of the word immigration or immigrant. When transcripts were incomplete, we reviewed video.
The following programs, which comprise Fox News' daily lineup, were included in the data: Fox & Friends, America's Newsroom, Happening Now, America Live, Studio B with Shepard Smith, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Glenn Beck, Special Report with Bret Baier, The Fox Report with Shepard Smith, The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity, and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.
The Fox Report at 7 p.m. ET yielded no relevant segments for the purposes of our study and therefore was not included in the final tally.
Media Matters counted all guest appearances during segments that offered substantial discussion of immigration issues. Appearances by Fox News correspondents and packaged reports that included at least one guest appearance were included in the tally.
We used bios and profiles available online to confirm each guest's affiliation or title after they were identified by Fox. Guests analyzed included Fox News correspondents, contributors, and commentators, journalists, attorneys, activists, pundits, and elected officials (i.e. current and former congressional, state, administration members; current and former local, state, federal law enforcement) who appeared in on-air interviews, call-in spots, or packaged reports to discuss an immigration-related topic.
Guests were coded into three categories: anti-immigrant, pro-immigrant, and neutral. For the purposes of our study, a guest was labeled "anti-immigrant" if he or she was a member of a group that favors more stringent immigration policy, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA, or the Center for Immigration Studies, among others. Guests were also labeled anti-immigrant if they took positions in favor of S.B. 1070, the workplace immigration verification program E-Verify, the repeal of the birthright citizenship component of the 14th Amendment, the denial of certain social benefits to undocumented immigrants and their U.S.-born children, or to an enforcement-specific agenda that includes indefinite detainment and mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, or a militarized border security presence. Those who reinforced negative stereotypes of immigrants were also put into the anti-immigrant category.
We coded as "pro-immigration" guests who were experts from progressive groups or pro-immigration groups such as America's Voice or the Center for American Progress, among others. They were labeled pro-immigrant if they favored comprehensive immigration reform, the DREAM Act, or some other path to legalize undocumented immigrants. Guests were also labeled pro-immigrant if they expressed opposition to S.B. 1070 or similar legislation or to E-Verify, or if they discussed the benefits of immigration to the country.
Neutral guests were those who offered either a centrist opinion or no opinion at all or otherwise had no political orientation. These guests were more often than not immigration attorneys, government officials, or Fox News reporters or correspondents.
Political Correction researcher Salvatore Colleluori and Media Matters research intern Jake Miller contributed to this report.


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Last Friday saw the long awaited conflict between Penny Arcade and Sony erupt into fierce conflict, as rackets were drawn from the sheath and the respective battlecries were gutturally delivered. Our warcry was not sufficient to claim victory: the bloodthirsty gods it was directed toward were otherwise engaged. The final score was two rounds to five, their favor, but more than any previous match we made our opponents acutely aware of their own fleeting mortality.
Robert won the match at the top of the ladder, but doing impossible things has always come easily to him. Gabriel claimed victory as well, in a savage round, thanks to his natural brutality and also his unique regimen. I don't know if it's possible to be "proud" of a friend without it feeling strange or condescending, but I shall endeavor to learn the trick.
The cross section of SOE Seattle that we were able to meet was really an incredible cast, sufficient to create the foundations of an epic drama. When I heard that they had opened a studio up here, I thought that perhaps Sony simply fired one of their hateseeds from an orbiting warship and let it hatch as they had done elsewhere. But, no: SOE Seattle was already a studio called FireAnt long before Sony arrived with the flowers and chocolates. An ex-Microsoft cadre which fled after Mythica got the axe, this team is now the clandestine force behind The Agency. They're also handy with power tools, creating an eight foot tall statue of Diabolus from a previous comic - complete with its six bepaddled arms, gripping a chain which held the Fruit Fucker in a position of submission.
I probably should have caught the foreshadowing there. My own match began with two losses, and then two victories, the optimal trajectory for the thrilling comeback I was unable to deliver.
Smedley wasn't able to make it up, though our beef was originally with him, which virtually guarantees a rematch. Even so, the presence of our true foe would have altered the character of the event deeply. As it stands, I met several people who I would love to meet again without a sporting pretext. I would gladly meet them with the pretext established, also: to laugh hard across the battle plain, drawing the paddle up so that its red eye gazes out from the heart, then spinning its face to black with the grim finality of the tomb.
(CW)TB out.
we'll eat you up, we love you so


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Classy bunch we Canadians are. At a recently Toronto Maple Leafs game vs Nashville in Toronto, the singer's equipment cut out during the US anthem. Did this end the song? Heck no! The Canadian crowd finished the US national anthem along with her.
These sorts of things make me proud to be a CanEHdian.


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February 22-24, 2013
Hilton Los Angeles International Airport
In this new presentation from Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager, author of The Art of Community, and founder of the Community Leadership Summit, Bacon discusses the challenges that face the Linux community in building a pervasive, ubiquitous platform and how we can build great communities to cross the chasm together to build a Free Software platform that benefits everyone.
Bacon will cover a brief history of Linux, chronicling the evolution of the desktop, server and consumer devices and explore the competitive landscape of Linux as it stands today. He will then explore the lessons learned over the years as our communities have faced the challenges of delivering great experiences while balancing the needs of transparency and openness. Finally, he will balance these observations and data with his experience as a community manager and explore ways in which everyone in the audience can put their brick in the wall to help make Linux successful, irrespective of which distribution they use, which project they are part of, and where in the world they live. Together as a community we have faced great challenges and made fantastic progress, now it is time to re-group, explore where we are and cross the chasm to the next level.
All of this will be encased in an entertaining, amusing, and anecdote-laden presentation that will be informative and entertaining with the goals of inspiring everyone to contribute to the future success of Linux.