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SOUTH BERWICK – Nicholson Baker is trying to be a good person in a mixed-up world.
The novelist and critic, who makes his home in an 18th-century house in South Berwick, has a new novel out this month, a meandering tale about a recurring character named Paul Chowder, who lives in a similarly mixed-up world and is simply trying to be good.
The book, "Traveling Sprinkler," is not an autobiography, but Baker makes no effort to hide its autobiographical nature. He began by writing a memoir, and found he had more latitude creating a novel.
The key elements in the book are things Baker has been consumed with these last few years: predator drones, songwriting, the decadent joy of cigars, and sitting quietly in Quaker Friends meetings on Sunday mornings, just waiting for someone to say something, anything.
With a new novel and a series of public appearances, one of Maine's quietest and most thoughtful writers is back in the spotlight. He showed up at Monument Square in Portland a few weeks ago to protest President Obama's intended strikes against Syria.
Last week, despite a bellyful of nerves, he mustered the courage to go on national TV with talk-show host and comedian Stephen Colbert.
"I have no idea why he would want me on the show," Baker said on the eve of his TV appearance, professing ignorance and befuddlement as to why Colbert's people extended the invitation. "There is nothing for him to gain — it helps him not one bit to have a writer like me on the show," he said with a laugh.
Baker might have rethought his decision to go on the show when Colbert began by asking him about his Santa-white hair, facial and otherwise. Baker, whose face is naturally red, turned crimson as Colbert pushed this line of questioning, teasing the writer for the various euphemisms that Baker has employed in his writing to describe the male sex organ.
On Thursday, he'll read and talk at Longfellow Books in Portland as part of a national tour to promote "Traveling Sprinkler."
Baker, who is 56 and has lived in Maine for 15 years, may be best known for his 1992 novel, "Vox," in which the leading characters engage in vivid phone sex. It was a New York Times best seller and drew attention for its role in a real-life presidential sex scandal. Monica Lewinsky is said to have given the book to Bill Clinton as a gift.
In 2001, Baker received a National Book Critics Circle Award for his nonfiction tirade "DoubleFold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper," which was part of his long-standing attack on libraries for reducing their paper media.
He established a nonprofit organization, American Newspaper Repository, to rescue old newspapers from destruction. So committed is he to paper that a portion of the centuries-old barn on his property in South Berwick collapsed a few years ago under the weight of his accumulated papers and books.
He wants to write only novels about happy people with upbeat endings. But as he drifts happily into middle age, he finds that harder and harder to do.
"I'm a cheerful writer," Baker said, seated on a sunny a riverside bench at Counting House Park, a few blocks from his home. "I like not dwelling on things that are miserable. Why would you ask someone to read a book that makes them feel horrible?
"But there are terrible things in the world, and there are people, inspiring stories of people who have resisted those things or even had to suffer for their beliefs or maybe even died for their beliefs. It's worth paying attention to those people," he said. "Somewhere along the way, I started to think I should allow that part into my life, too."
That's why he lit candles at Monument Square to protest a potential U.S. attack on Syria. He had done nothing for too long, he said, and decided it was time to stand up and make his voice heard. An avowed pacifist, he did not show up at the rally as a speaker, but as a protester, one among many, for the sake of being counted as one who found the possibility of U.S. military action against Syria unacceptable.
He is not happy with President Obama, and has found him to be "a horrendous disappointment. I looked at the poster, it said 'Hope.' I certainly felt hope. But I have not seen anything.
"You are never going to get anywhere by blowing more things up," Baker said. "All these countries, we do the same thing. We pick a side, give lots of weapons to a so-called good person, who is a rebel, and allow that person to unseat what we think of as the bad guy. And then lo and behold, the person we armed and corrupted, in a sense, becomes a terrible person himself. This pattern has gone on for generations," he said.
"If you think of two angry gangs and you come out of a building with crates of guns and give them to one side, well obviously, the gang warfare is going to get worse," he said.
Those are some of the issues, at least philosophically, that his book's character, Paul Chowder, deals with in "Traveling Sprinkler."
The book takes its name from a lawn-watering contraption that Baker's father bought at Sears decades ago. Equipped with tractor-like wheels, the sprinkler travels along a course determined by the arrangement of a hose and dispenses water through a twirling device.
When Baker's barn floor collapsed, among the things he found in the rubble was his father's traveling sprinkler. Not only did it survive the fall, the sprinkler presented itself as the name for a novel and an effective literary device because it gave Baker the freedom as a writer to go wherever the hose determined he should go. Which is to say, all over the place.
Baker wrote a book about a middle-age writer with ideas about politics, music, poetry, religion and smoking.
Life is not neat, he said. It's full of many turns, some that make sense and are predictable, and others that are less so. More often, life resembles a garden hose — with twists and tangles.
"The human lives I see do not have most of the events that are included in movies and books, so I leave them out," he said. Instead, he writes books about everyday people doing everyday things.
"Traveling Sprinkler" tells the story of Paul Chowder and his frustrations as a lover and a poet. He is overtaken by a desire to return to his musical past, and turns to songwriting in an attempt to win his girlfriend back, with song titles like "Long Live the Weeds" and "Put Away that Gun."
Baker was born in New York and graduated from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., with the intent of becoming a classical composer and musician.
He played the bassoon, and envisioned his life as a bassoonist in a midlevel orchestra in a midsize city. He joined the musicians' union and bought a tuxedo. Music would support his forays into creative writing.
Failed auditions derailed that plan, and Baker turned to creative writing sooner than he expected. He published his first novel when he was 30, in 1988, and has mostly supported himself and his family as a writer ever since.
But he has not given up on music.
For this book, in addition to having his character explore songwriting, Baker wrote and recorded a dozen songs. Those who buy the enhanced e-book version of "Traveling Sprinkler" will also get Baker's recordings. To some degree, they satisfy one of Baker's long-held artistic desires, though he harbors no hope of a career change.
"I am very much an amateur musician," he said. "I make the usual apologies for my own presumption."
His character's fascination with cigars also crosses over into Baker's real life. Baker began smoking a few years ago because, as he tells the story, he was struggling to write a profile of David Remnick for a British fashion magazine.
He knew that Mark Twain smoked 20 cigars a day, and he views Twain "as probably the greatest writer in American history. It took him 20 cigars a day to get there, but he got there. I could probably smoke a few. But it does stink you up."
Baker lit a cigar, and his fingers flew across the keyboard. He lit another, and the profile nearly wrote itself.
He had a new favorite drug. He kept the writing device going for this novel, and took it a step further. He wrote nearly the entire book while sitting in the driver's seat of his car.
"My Kia has the most comfortable seats. I can sit in the driver's seat all day long and write," he said. "I love the driver's seat of my car because it's comfortable and it's quiet. But when I was smoking cigars, the ashtray was overflowing. I was a mess."
He still smokes, and expressed no remorse for his habit other than his tobacco odor, which he admits can be offensive. But he still figures it's better than cigarettes.
The other element that ties the book back to Baker's life is a Quaker outlook. A few years ago, Baker and his family began attending the Dover Friends Meeting, just across the border in New Hampshire. His mother was a Quaker, and Baker attended a Quaker college, Haverford College in Pennsylvania. But he never really thought about being a Quaker.
That is, until he attended a meeting in Dover. He is an avowed pacifist and has written publicly about that aspect of his life. But the Quaker thing was unexpected and profound.
He calls himself a non-theist Quaker. He does not believe in a personal god, but believes in the inherent goodness of Quaker meetings, which sometimes are marked by still silence. So much so that the sound of a ticking clock can feel dramatic.
At other times, people stand and speak.
"My wife and my daughter went to a Dover Friends Meeting, and they came back and said, 'People said such beautiful things.' I thought, 'Wow, people just stand up and say things.' That's the kind of liturgy I like. I understand that.
"So I went, and it had the same effect on me," he said. "You are forced to be quiet, but forced to be quiet with a group of other people who are also consenting to be quiet. There is something amazingly powerful about that. It's not meditation. It's something else. They call it expectant waiting. The great thing is, the uncertainty is, the suspense is — is anyone going to say anything at all? The pure meetings are ones when no one says anything, but I'm always terribly disappointed. I need at least one person to say something, anything. So I tried to put that in the book."
Friends and fans anticipate Baker's new book with great hope.
Richard Lethem, a painter from Berwick, has read Baker's books and magazine essays, and attends Quaker services with him on Sundays. He enjoys the thoughtful banter that Baker brings to the community and appreciates his willingness to speak publicly about pacifist issues.
"He's intelligent and smart, and he's a hell of a good writer," said Lethem, whose son, Jonathan, is also an award-winning writer. "He's got a lot to say, and I enjoy his company at our meetings on Sundays."
Liberty Hardy, events coordinator at the RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, N.H., brought Baker in last week for his first stop on the book tour. The store was full to capacity, which is typical when Baker shows up for a reading.
"He's not just a staff favorite here, but he's very well respected nationally. Whenever I tweet about him, so many people respond, 'Oh, my God, I love him.' 'Please tell him hello.' I think it's really cool that he lives in the area," she said.
Baker is revered in the literary community for his wit and insight, Hardy said. "His attention to detail is unmatched."
Baker and his wife moved their family to Maine because they liked the idea of living a quiet life in a nice place with good schools. Their kids, now 26 and 19, are living on their own.
Maine has been very good to him and his family, he said, and he cannot imagine living anywhere else. "It's the first place since I was a kid that really feels like home. It is the way life should be. It's a state slogan that's actually true," he said.
They bought a house that was built in 1730. There isn't a single right angle in the place, which is impossible to keep warm in the winter. But Baker loves it. He enjoys living in a house that is older than the country. He thinks of the number of shoes that have crossed the threshold over the years, and it makes him feel part of something much larger and more important than his solitary life.
At last week's reading in Portsmouth, someone in the audience asked Baker about his sense of humor. With perfect timing, Baker laughed gently and paused to consider his answer.
"I have never been able to tell a joke, and I don't even understand what jokes are. … The key to writing is telling the truth," he said.
"Sometimes it strikes me as mildly funny, and that's the end of the chapter."
Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or at:
Twitter: pphbkeyes
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PHILADELPHIA — One of the challenges of understanding cancer is trying to determine the mechanisms that drive metastasis, or the process by which tumor cells are able to spread throughout the body. In order to investigate metastasis, researchers at The Wistar Institute focused on a process involving the phenotypes – the outward, physical appearance based on genetic coding – of tumor cells. According to the researchers, "phenotype switching" may be involved in changing appearance of melanoma tumors by altering the number and type of protein receptors that dot the surface of the individual melanoma cells within the tumor. Identifying the phenotype patients exhibit may help determine which patients are more likely to benefit from existing medications while also providing an opportunity to create new targeted therapies.
The findings were published in the journal Cancer Discovery and are currently available online.
"We were able to demonstrate for the first time that different receptors within a single signaling pathway – in this case, the Wnt signaling pathway – can guide the phenotypic plasticity of tumor cells, and increased signaling of Wnt5A in particular can result in an increase in highly invasive tumor cells that are less sensitive to existing treatments for metastatic melanoma," said Ashani Weeraratna, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis Program of Wistar's NCI-designated Cancer Center, and senior corresponding author on the manuscript.
While melanoma accounts for less than 5 percent of all cases of skin cancer, it is the deadliest form of the disease, resulting in a large majority of all the deaths related to skin cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. The five-year survival rate for patients with metastatic melanoma is between 15 and 20 percent, and while new, targeted therapies designed to combat the disease based on a person's genetics have become available in recent years, some of these drugs are not particularly effective in many patients, and many who do respond well to the drugs often eventually become resistant to them. This makes understanding advanced stages of melanoma and what internal processes could be at work all the more important for developing new treatments.
Weeraratna and her team focus on Wnt5A, a Wnt signaling molecule that has been found in increased levels in metastatic melanomas. In order for Wnt5A to promote the phenotype switch from early in the tumor's formation to the time it becomes metastatic, the tyrosine kinase receptor ROR2 is required. When ROR2 is not present, Wnt5A is unable to promote tumor metastasis. The only other member of the family that has been identified is ROR1, and this research was done to determine what role ROR1 might play in the progression of melanoma.
The researchers were able to determine that ROR1 inhibited the invasion of melanoma cells, and this receptor was targeted for degradation by Wnt5A and ROR2. When ROR1 was silenced, the researchers observed that there was an increased rate of invasion of melanoma cells both in vitro and in vivo. The researchers also found that hypoxia – areas of low oxygen supply in the tumor – is able to induce a switch from ROR1 to ROR2 and results in an increase in levels of Wnt5A, suggesting the switch from a non-invasive ROR1-positive phenotype to an invasive ROR2-positive phenotype occurs when the tumor is exposed to hypoxic conditions. The researchers also found that a protein HIF1α is required to increase the Wnt5A expressed. When HIF1α was removed, ROR2 was decreased, indicating that the upregulation of ROR2 via HIF1α requires Wnt5A.
To determine the clinical implications, the researchers hypothesized that melanoma cells driven by the mutant BRAF gene that were also high in Wnt5A might be less sensitive to treatment with vemurafenib, a drug approved by the FDA in 2011 for the treatment of BRAF-positive metastatic melanoma. By measuring BRAF cell lines to determine their Wnt5A and ROR2 status, as well as their sensitivity to BRAF inhibitors, the researchers found a significant correlation between BRAF inhibitor resistance and Wnt5A expression. Additionally, in a small cohort of patients, they found that seven out of nine patients who demonstrated less than a 33 percent clinical response to vemurafenib had a positive expression of Wnt5A, and only two of the remaining 15 patients who had a 38% or greater clinical response to vemurafenib exhibited any Wnt5A expression. When they silenced ROR2 in tumors xenografted in mice, the tumors responded far better to simultaneous treatment with the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib. Conversely, when ROR1 was silenced, the tumors became more resistant to the drug.
Additionally, in eight patients who had undergone BRAF inhibitor therapy, the levels of Wnt5A were much lower in tumor cells prior to therapy compared to cells that were tested for Wnt5A after those same patients had relapsed.
"By using Wnt5A as a biomarker, we could determine which patients are likely to respond better to therapy with vemurafenib and help prolong that response," Weeraratna said. "There is also the potential to explore small molecule inhibitors of ROR2, since there is now a clear association between that and the ability of melanoma to become not only metastatic, but also therapy-resistant. This link between metastasis and therapy resistance is what we find the most exciting and intriguing, as therapies designed to target one process may have a significant impact on the other as well. "
The co-authors of the study are members of the Tumor Metastasis and Microenvironment Program and the Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program at Wistar. They include Michael P. O'Connell,Ph.D.; Katie Marchbank, Ph.D.; Marie R. Webster, Ph.D.; Alexander A. Valiga; Amanpreet Kaur; Adina Vultur, Ph.D.; Ling Li, M.D.; Meenhard Herlyn, D.Vm., D.Sc.; and Sandy Widura in the Tumor Metastasis and Microenvironment Program, and Jessie Villanueva, Ph.D.; Qin Liu, M.D., Ph.D.; and Xiangfan Yin in the Molecular Cellular Oncogenesis Program. O'Connell is the lead author of the study. The researchers also collaborated with the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health; Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center; the Lehigh Valley Health Network; and the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
This study was made possible in part by grants from the National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program, the PA Department of Health (CURE) funding, and the Joanna M. Nicolay Foundation.
The Wistar Institute is an international leader in biomedical research with special expertise in cancer research and vaccine development. Founded in 1892 as the first independent nonprofit biomedical research institute in the country, Wistar has long held the prestigious Cancer Center designation from the National Cancer Institute. The Institute works actively to ensure that research advances move from the laboratory to the clinic as quickly as possible. The Wistar Institute: Today's Discoveries – Tomorrow's Cures. On the web at www.wistar.org.
Media Contact: Ben Leach [email protected], ph: 215.495.6800

subset: commoncrawl


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Among the first companies globally to adopt a new approach to finance green assets.
Among the first companies globally to adopt a new approach to finance green assets.
Landsvirkjun's results for the first half of the year reflect the difficult economic conditions throughout the world.
Hörður Arnarson, CEO, Landsvirkjun, explains how the power company's ongoing innovation allows it to maximize the sustainable harvest of natural resources and add value to the economy in an interview with Country Reports in partnership with Newsweek.
" The current economic situation has shown us that supporting innovation and improving the utilisation of natural resources in Iceland is more important than ever" says Kristín Linda Árnadóttir, Deputy CEO of Landsvirkjun.
Landsvirkjun, Norðurorka (Utility Company), Húsavík Energy and SSNE have signed a new contract to continue their cooperation on the EIMUR innovation project which was formally established in 2017.
Landsvirkjun has started the process of developing a hydrogen production facility at Ljósifoss Hydropower Station.
Acceptable first quarter results under challenging external conditions.
At Landsvirkjun's board meeting, on April 20, 2020, the board of directors agreed on a new dividend policy for the company.
Landsvirkjun has exercised an issuer call option to redeem a bond on 28 October 2020 of the amount of USD 50,000,000.
Landsvirkjun's contribution to reigniting the economy.
Jónas Þór Guðmundsson re-elected chairman of the board.
Landsvirkjun and MýSilica join forces to support innovation and development in the Mývatn area.
The offering was very well received, with an order book which was multiple times oversubscribed.
Landsvirkjun will deliver 100% certified renewable energy to the high-performance computing data center.
The visitor center is temporarily closed due to COVID-19. This is only a precautionary measure.
The ratings apply to long- and short-term commitments, with and without the guarantee of collection.
Acceptable results in challenging external conditions.
A dialogue between the companies amid challenging conditions in aluminium markets.
An open meeting presenting the details of a new action plan.
Could increase expertise on volcanoes
The first report to be published only via the web
Assessment indicates no or limited risk to Landsvirkjun´s facilities and operations
Profit for the period amounted to USD 34.5 million
Visiting centers open all of August
Halslon and Blanda reservoirs likely to fill up in August
Standard and Poor's credit rating agency has changed Landsvirkjun's outlook from stable to positive. On July 18, Standard and Poor´s announced a similar change for the outlook of the Republic of Iceland´s credit rating.
Operations are expected to begin in the year 2016
Dr Gunnar Guðni Tómasson has been appointed as Executive Vice President of the Project Planning and Construction Division.
Moody's credit rating agency has confirmed Landsvirkjun's credit rating at Baa3, stable outlook. Without the guarantee of collection the rating is Ba2.
Preparation measures for the Þeistareykir Geothermal Power Station will continue this summer.
Over 400 guests attended Landsvirkjun's Annual Meeting this year ...
The 2014 Reykjavík Arts Festival will mark twenty eight years of celebrating this 'multidisciplinary' festival ...
The proposal put forward by the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, with regard to the election of board members ...
Today, Landsvirkjun finalized agreements on amending three outstanding bonds ...
Landsvirkjun, the National Power Company of Iceland, has signed a new power purchase agreement (PPA) with United Silicon hf.
Landsvirkjun has decided to release a tender for a 45MW turbine equipment ...
Landsvirkjun, the National Power Company of Iceland, today announced that it has signed a new power purchase agreement (PPA) with PCC Bakki Silicon hf.
The outlook for Landsvirkjun's water budget has worsened ...


text:
Destination China as Level Sensors and Transmitters Markets Make a Comeback, Says Frost & Sullivan
15 Nov, 2012, 09:27 GMT
- Increased investments in manufacturing and greater automated production to fuel demand in emerging economies
LONDON, Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Multiple advantages will fuel the continued dominance of non-contact level sensors in the global level sensors and transmitters markets. Overall, the market will make a recovery on the back of revived projects that were shelved or postponed during the economic recession.
However, economic turmoil in Europe is causing many multinationals to reconsider their investment plans. In contrast, emerging economies such as China and India are witnessing greater investment and increasingly automated production. The continuous investments in manufacturing facilities are expected to be a strong driver for the instrumentation market in China, in particular.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.sensors.frost.com), Global Level Sensors and Transmitters Markets, finds that the global level sensors and transmitters markets earned revenues of $4,048.7 million in 2011 and estimates this to reach $5,319.5 million in 2018.
"Field instruments, such as level sensors and transmitters, are set to experience positive growth in China," noted Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst V. Sankaranarayanan. "This will be due to rising investments in areas such as petroleum, natural gas, and petrochemicals."
Non-contact level measurement, in particular, is expected to continue increasing due to the benefits these devices offer.
"Non-contact level measurements essentially ensure a contamination free-environment because there is no contact from the sensor, as found in other forms of level indication such as mechanical, capacitance or conductivity," explained Sankaranarayanan. "The non-contact nature of the level indication is also attractive to industries where the medium being measured is of a corrosive nature as found in the chemical/petrochemical industry."
Overall, the restoration of health in end-user industries, along with a growing number of projects, will promote market growth. The establishment of new process plants, re-investment in plant renovation and modernisation, capacity expansions, and technology developments will further support the uptake of level sensors and transmitters, globally.
If you are interested in more information on this study, please send an e-mail with your contact details to Julia Nikishkina, Corporate Communications, at email@example.com
Global Level Sensors and Transmitters Markets is part of the Sensors & Instrumentation Growth Partnership Service programme, which also includes research in the following markets: World Flow Sensors and Transmitters Markets, World Temperature Sensors and Transmitters Markets, World Pressure Sensors and Transmitters Markets and Global Sensors Outlook 2012. All research included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants.
Our "Growth Partnership" supports clients by addressing these opportunities and incorporating two key elements driving visionary innovation: The Integrated Value Proposition and The Partnership Infrastructure.
- The Integrated Value Proposition provides support to our clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation.
- The Partnership Infrastructure is entirely unique as it constructs the foundation upon which visionary innovation becomes possible. This includes our 360 degree research, comprehensive industry coverage, career best practices as well as our global footprint of more than 40 offices.
For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organisation prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies?
Contact Us: Start the discussion
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Global Level Sensors and Transmitters Markets
Julia Nikishkina
Corporate Communications – Europe
E: email@example.com
SOURCE Frost & Sullivan


text:
During a recession, everyone reaches for their green eyeshade. Unless it's cheap, we don't buy it. If it's not certain to pay off, we don't invest. Hoping to be more practical, we risk becoming like Oscar Wilde's cynic who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
There's nothing wrong with trying to measure the value of the humanities in dollars and cents. But remember that the value of dollars and cents can only be measured in human terms. And it is from such human considerations—moral, historical, and political considerations—that great deeds usually spring.
It was, for instance, not the idea of monetary gain at all that convinced the gentleman Thomas Graham, at the age of forty-three, to become a soldier, but the realization that the French Revolution, for all its noble ideals, contained a barbarism that had to be defeated. At the Battle of Cádiz, Graham helped undermine Napoleon's Iberian campaign, which Napoleon himself would call his "Spanish ulcer" and blame for his undoing.
Nor was it financial prudence that set J. P. Morgan on course to become one of America's greatest art collectors. Such passion and taste and expense as has filled the Morgan Library & Museum with incredible art and priceless manuscripts defies simple cost-benefit analysis. Yet such wealth—spread out like a banquet, awaiting hungry minds— leaves us all enriched.
Morgan gave away the things he wanted, as did Dolley Madison. By bestowing kindness and affection on everyone around her, ally and opponent alike, she instilled American politics with a thoughtfulness clearly lacking in the early days of the Republic. Thus did she succeed George Washington as America's most beloved public figure and come to be called the "Queen of America."
Such generosity of interest does not describe every story that might appear in HUMANITIES magazine, but it does describe many a reader. For it is, I think, a species of philanthropy that beckons us to learn about and admire a digital project reconstructing the ancient temples of the Egyptian city of Karnak, to know more about the Dictionary of Old English, and to consider the modernist writings of Victor Segalen.
The payoff is not strictly intellectual, but it is at least that. Important stories, interesting stories, by reading and writing them we seek ways to think about value itself.


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End Of Story: The 1912 New York Yankees.
This post contains new material and much reworked from Friday's.
I thought we had cleared this up yesterday, but evidently not. Now my old friend Joe Buck has repeated a mistake that has unfortunately attained the aura of official history. Simply put, when the Boston Red Sox opened Fenway Park 100 years ago Friday, the faithful would have called the visiting team "The New York Yankees" – not "The New York Highlanders" (we'll leave out any more troublesome things they might've called them).
The April 12, 1912 edition of The New York Times wrote of the club's home opener: "The Yankees presented a natty appearance in their new uniforms of white with black pin stripes."
Below you'll see the 1911 baseball cards issued with the brands of the American Tobacco Trust, labeling the New York players "Yankees," plus a newspaper supplement from 1907 showing a team picture of the New York Yankees.
My friend Marty Appel is just out with his comprehensive history of the franchise, Pinstripe Empire. He has some succinct insight into the etymology of the New York American League club's name:
"Today we think the field was commonly called Hilltop Park, and the team commonly called the Highlaners. But in the first decade…the team was also better known as the New York Americans or the Greater New Yorks. On opening day (1903), the Telegram called them the Deveryites. Sam Crane in the Evening Journal was determined that they be the Invaders. In those days, team nicknames were far less formal. It was, for example, more common to say the Bostons or the Boston Americans than to call them the Red Sox or the Pilgrims.
"Hilltoppers was also used on occasion, and as early as April 7, 1904, the Evening Journal used YANKEES BEAT BOSTON in a headline. ("Highlanders" didn't even appear in the New York Times until March 1906)."
Appel also quotes a piece from the legendary writer and historian Fred Lieb, from Baseball Magazine, in 1922:
"(Highlanders) was awkward to put in newspaper headlines. Finally the sporting editor at one of the New York evening papers exclaimed 'The hell with this Highlanders; I am going to call this team 'the Yanks' that will fit into heads better.'
"Sam Crane, who wrote baseball on the same sheet, began speaking of the team as the Yankees and Yanks. When other sporting editors saw how much easier 'Yanks' fit into top lines of a head, they too (decided against) Highlanders, a name which never was popular with fans."
The further back you go before the rust formed around the official history, the further it becomes clear that until the owners officially christened the team in 1913, they were known informally by many names. "Yankees" seems to have been an early favorite, "Americans" being the default second choice (just as it would've been for the Cleveland "Americans" or the Detroit "Americans" or – translated to the other league – for the Philadelphia "Nationals"). "Highlanders," "Hilltoppers" and "New Yorks" brought up the rear.
It's also pretty clear that the New York team we know as the Yankees was never formally called "Highlanders."
I first heard the story of the slow evolution from "Gordon's Highlanders" (the name of a famed British army regiment of the time, which stuck because the first team president was named Joseph Gordon, and because their ballpark was at one of the highest spots in New York) to the Yanks in Frank Graham's first version of The New York Yankees in 1943. At that time, a lot of people who had seen the full 40-year history of the franchise were still alive – Graham, who became a sportswriter in 1915, included. I read the copy my father had had since childhood, either in 1967 or 1968.
The relevant passage is on Page 16:
"With 1913 coming up, there was an almost complete new deal. Jim Price, Sports Editor of the New York Press, had been calling the team the Yankees because he found the name Highlanders too long to fit his headlines; and by 1913 the new name had been generally adopted."
So the Yankees were the last people to call themselves the Yankees and as Graham wrote nearly 70 years ago, the nickname had been generally adopted before the club went through the formality – in 1913.
The key to all this is Appel's observation that nicknames were informal until the clubs began to realize they were marketing and merchandising opportunities, which probably didn't take place until the 1920's. Official MLB history and fans have totally reversed the team name equation. It used to be all about the cities (the 1889 World Series was "The New Yorks versus The Brooklyns") and this is something that just does not compute to the modern mind. In fact, think of the Dodgers, who began as a new franchise in the then-major league American Association in 1884 with the uninspired nickname "Grays." By 1888, after a spate of players got married in the off-season, they were the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. In 1899 when Ned Hanlon took over as manager, there was a famous vaudeville troupe called "Hanlon's Superbas"- thus they became the Brooklyn Superbas. The name outlasted Hanlon, and only faded when Wilbert Robinson took over as manager in 1914 and the name changed again: Brooklyn Robins. Throughout this whole time, the fans and sportswriters used, as a kind of alternative nickname, the term applied to Brooklyn fans who were in constant danger from the labyrinth of streetcar lines throughout the city: "The Trolley Dodgers," or, simply "Dodgers." So when Robinson left after the 1931 campaign, the club formally declared themselves "The Dodgers" (but didn't put the name on the uniforms until 1938). How did the Dodgers treat this confusing history? They declared their 100th anniversary to be 1990, which wiped out the 1884-89 time frame and the team's first trip to the World Series.
And just think, we can go through this entire history controversy year after next. 2014 will be the 100th Anniversary of Wrigley Field. Only it wasn't called Wrigley Field in 1914 and the Cubs didn't play there until 1916.
First, back across the country and the Yankee photographic evidence.
Tip of the cap to my fellow SABR member Mark and this evidence-filled blog on the issue. He gives prominent attention to headlines from the New York Sun about the 1912 "Highlanders." Getting lesser play? This clip from the New York Tribune, which echoes the aforementioned Times headline:Interestingly the Sun folded in 1950. The Tribune was still breathing (after a series of mergers) in 1966. The Times is still in business.
Then there's this from 1907:
That is a postcard advertising the following Sunday's edition of The New York American newspaper, which was to include a full-sized version of the 1907 Yankees team picture. This was just after 1907's opening day, five years before the christening in The Fens.
Below, the 1911 baseball cards. In some of the biographies (as shown in the lower left hand corner) there are references to "Highlanders." But the fronts tell the story:
By the way, "Quinn" in the top row? That's Jack Quinn, whose oldest-victory mark was just broken by Jamie Moyer. These are 1911 cards. Quinn is also in the 1933 set.
In point of fact, the Yankees were the Yankees before the Red Sox were the Red Sox. Created in 1901 when the American League was founded, the Boston team was known variously as the Pilgrims, and simply "The Americans" (as opposed to "The Nationals"), the new team drew much of its talent from the successful, but eminently cheap National League team in Boston. From its earliest days in the National Association (1871) and N.L. (1876) that team had worn red stockings, and were once formally known by that name.
In 1907, the N.L. team's manager Fred Tenney became worried about the threat of blood poisoning supposedly posed by the red dye in the socks getting into spike wounds. By year's end, he had convinced owners John and George Dovey to eliminate the color from the uniforms. A block away, where the nascent A.L. team was struggling to gain a foothold in what was still a National League town, owner John I. Taylor immediately jumped on the opportunity and announced his team would don "the red socks" in 1908 – and a name was born.
The Yankees were the Yankees by 1906. The Red Sox weren't the Red Sox until 1908.
Parenthetically, the N.L. team's next nicknames – the Doves, for the Dovey Brothers, and, in 1911, the Rustlers (because Doves increasingly sounded stupid) – didn't catch on. The Doveys sold out in 1912 to a bunch of New York politicians from Tammany Hall. Since that organization had a Native American for its logo, its operatives were known as "braves" – and thus the Boston N.L. club adopted that name, and have carried it since. In fact, a week ago Wednesday was the 100th Anniversary of the first appearance of the Braves.
24 Comments
Surprised Ken Burns hasn't chimed in on this topic. Or maybe he has. Always wondered how the Dodgers came by their team name. That's a much appreciated bit of info for this California Girl.
Well done, sir.
The Highlanders only got the prominent attention because I searched for them first. The Yankees got the same amount of attention. The Tribune just gave them fewer inches.
Again, well done.
Did Fred Tenney also persuade Hippo Jim Vaughan not to dye his collar or hat blue?
Love the History
What newspapers call them is irrelevant. Everyone might have been calling them the Yankees. Until they actually changed their name, that wasn't who they were.
By this, I don't mean the history isn't relevant, only Highlanders is what appears in any statistical records. They might have not had an "official" name, but that's official enough for me.
Isn't this what is known in the psychitric feld as an OCD. Or would it be a Highlander complex. Goody goody for Jim Price.
Keith, great history but the fact is you were looking, lovingly, through a scrapbook filled with white faces. No black players so no real major leagues until the 1950's. And nothing to get weepy or nostalgic about.
Hi Keith-
I love the 1907 team postcard. Can you, or anyone else, name the players in the photo?
Ken Burns is not likely to be interested since there is no black history to exploit.
Now that this here Yankee baby has been put to bed, I wanted to mention that there was a controversy on Jeopardy not long ago. A woman responded to an answer with a question about the early baseball cards that were related to the tobacco industry. It seems this woman knew that connection and at first she was considered wrong. Later, Alex came back and gave her credit. The poor lady was almost penalized for KNOWING the truth about the history. This issue seems straight enough now, unless someone wants to end up in a straight-jacket over it. The truth will out. Thanks, Keith! As George S. said this morning on THIS WEEK, you are one of the two greatest baseball minds…in my book, you are THE greatest baseball mind! Happy Sunday!
The Brooklyn took their name because of the trolley cars of the time, and people had to constantly " Dogde" them as pedestrians
I inadvertently omitted the name Dodgers from my original post….oooops
Love the Post of History….. THIS Is Your REAL CALLING… Tv Show of Baseball HISTORY, Produced & Told by "Keith Olbermann." Beats "H" Out of Politics…
Ed Fazio
Ed, dynamite idea! Our public TV had a show about the history of baseball here in our town and told the story of Andy Strong, who was struck by lightning through the metal pin on the top of his cap. Changed the caps for all! Bringhurst Field is right down the street from me and I learned stuff I never would have known! He could do a program, like put one per week in a can and tell the history of ballparks, famous players and plays from the past. Folks would love it!
Keith while this is a very cool historical baseball story, I want to know why American liberals are such wimps. It sad that you allow yourself to be effectively censored, despite the fact that there are viewers interested to listen to your point of view. Sure, I get without money to fund a team, you can't be the same. Anyway, surrender if you want. That's what American liberals do. They surrender. They are even afraid to call themselves liberals and allow their opponets to strawman and misrepresent them to death.
Keith-good points on the slippery designations assigned to franchises a century ago (witness the fact that the Red Sox club was never ever popularly called "Pilgrims," despite what many think.) One correction to make-the 1932 and 1933 Brooklyn Dodgers featured "Dodgers" on their home jerseys, then switched to "Brooklyn" both home and road through 1937.
Keith, Finally! Nice to see you got all that Jello nailed to the clubhouse wall!
My name is Rick Worth. I'm the author of BASEBALL TEAM NAMES – published by McFarland in January 2013. My book explores in detail the origin of 10,000 professional baseball teams names from 1869 to date. Thank you!
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I have come to find out that I am a very well intentioned person. From the meals I plan, to the sprawling to-do lists I make in my head. This trait carries over into my cooking as I strive to understand the magical role food plays in New Year's Eve and New Year's Day traditions.
For New Year's Eve last night I decided to make Corned Beef Hash. Having never made this meal before, I knew it was the perfect one to make on a night deemed so extra special by society's standards. After accidentally "simmering" the meat in the pot on low for 2 hours, I was worried my already Easter Egg pink meat was destined to poison me. After missing our scheduled dinner time by 2 hours, I decided to take on the hash part of the dish. I won't fail to mention that I took the word HASH literally and bought a mammoth bag of Ore-Ida Hash Browns to smash my either under or overcooked corned beef into. Those hash browns never really got that nice brown color. They never turned any color other than frozen. My good luck meal was utterly doomed.
Lets just say, we were pushing 9PM and the concoction was pretty much unpalatable.
We rang in the New Year with a big round bowl of buttery salty popcorn.
And I considered that pretty lucky.
This morning, in the span of 10 minutes, the toddler required a quick dunk in the bathtub, and a garbage bag nearly exploded all over me as I ran it to the garbage can in the garage while trying to avoid being followed by a certain speedy toddler. Lastly, I forgot to add coffee to the coffee maker when I fixed my husband's daily cup of coffee this morning. (It still produced a somewhat satisfying shade of coffee colored murk, though.) Who does all that? I feared that perhaps I needed a different kind of lucky meal for today. A genuinely serendipitous one.
Because I am a very well intentioned person, I got my act together for dinner early on today.
Cherry Cornish Hen.
Into the crock pot it went a few minutes before 11AM. We ran some errands and were looking for a late lunch option. We turned down a road we don't normally travel, about 10 minutes off our normal route, Friendly's!
Friendly's. The epitome of auspicious meals.
When we walked in, eyeing the freezer with all of the to-go treats, toddler thoughtfully read the words: Ice Cream Cake. (Yes, said toddler can read. And spell. But that's a whole other blog post.) And that's just what he got. Ice Cream. And then we ordered our meals, and we too indulged in ice cream. (That's twice this week, goodness!) Who says dessert before a main course is a bad idea?
Well, of course it's a bad idea. But, in the interest of luck and the importance of New Year's traditions …
Needless to say, we didn't eat the hens tonight. Nothing is luckier than watching your 2 year old carefully spoon ice cream into his mouth when you know he really shouldn't. It's fun. But not for every day. For days like New Year's. A strange day where the mood of the year is determined by the food you eat on an arbitrary day. And finding a random Friendly's when you're looking for a late lunch stop is about as lucky as you can get in my book.
A lot more fun than spending 5 hours making an inedible Corned Beef Hash.


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Sleep awareness is everywhere these days. From studies documenting how we don't get enough sleep, to new luxury amenities designed to help us sleep better, to the multitude of books and other products dealing with the dynamics of sleep, it's clear sleep is on a lot of people's minds--entrepreneurs included. What's going on?
"We are seeing a lot of movement in sleep products and services," says Reinier Evers, founder of Trendwatching.com, an industry-trend forecaster. It all fits into the trend of "massclusivity," says Evers--that is, more people wanting more luxury products and more exclusive products in general. "Category by category . . . room by room, it's all succumbing to consumers' insatiable appetite for the best of the best. Next: the bedroom," he says.
Evers also cites the growing number of aging boomers who have cash in their wallets and a desire for a good night's sleep. They're looking for comfortable, health-conscious and professional-grade beds, and are often willing to pay the hefty price tag. According to the International Sleep Products Association, U.S. mattress and foundation wholesale shipments grew from $4.76 billion in 2002 to $5.04 billion in 2003, a 5.8 percent increase.
Rest assured, entrepreneurs are finding success in a variety of sleep-related avenues. Case in point: husband-and-wife team Adam Boyce, 44, and Trina Greenbury, 35. In 2002, they launched DreamEssentials.com, an online retailer for sleep and relaxation products, as a way to make extra money so Greenbury could be a stay-at-home mom. After a successful holiday season selling products made by local Rainier and Yelm, Washington, artisans, they decided to grow their idea by branding their own line of sleep masks and selling other sleep products, such as body pillows, alarm clocks and soothing sound machines. Sales have more than doubled every year since, with 2005 sales expected to exceed $1 million. "The biggest challenge we face is the inability of our customers to try things on," says Boyce. However, he adds that while many people initially shop the site for a single item, once they see all the other products available, they return again and again to purchase.
From throwing grown-up pajama parties to purchasing high-end pj's, consumers are embracing their comfort zones. Just ask Brandon Evans, 27, the founder of Threadcountzzz Corp., a New York City manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer of high-thread-count pajamas. His luxury sleepwear, designed to feel like sleeping in high-thread-count sheets, garnered an immediate following--after his 2003 startup holiday season, he had more than 1,500 people on his waiting list. "The reception has been unbelievable," says Evans, who adds that 2005 sales will push $2 million.
Though it's hard to predict where the trend might go next, Evers notes that some large hotel chains are adding high-end beds to their rooms to entice guests. "Once most consumers have updated their sleep products," he says, "the hotels will have to offer quality bedding just to keep demanding guests happy." So if you're dreaming of a sleep-related business, think beds, comforters, duvets, pillows, alarm clocks, pj's, sleep masks--the list is endless. Just think sleep.
Copyright © 2013 Entrepreneur.com, Inc.


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Seth Petruzelli (12-4 MMA, 0-2 UFC), a former UFC fighter who rose to fame after famously knocking out Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson at an October 2008 EliteXC show, has rejoined the UFC and meets fellow light heavyweight Ricardo Romero (10-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) next month at UFC 116.
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed with Romero's manager, Mike Constantino, that verbal agreements are in place, though bout agreements have not been signed.
Petruzelli initially announced the July 3 bout via Twitter this afternoon.
UFC 116 takes place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The night's main card, including a heavyweight title-unification bout between champ Brock Lesnar and interim title-holder Shane Carwin, airs on pay-per-view. Petruzelli vs. Romero, though, is part of the night's un-aired preliminary card.
Petruzelli takes a spot initially reserved for Steve Cantwell. As MMAjunkie.com recently reported, the Nevada State Athletic Commission pulled Cantwell from January's UFC 108 card for an undisclosed medical reason. However, the issue was resolved, and the commission recently re-licensed Cantwell.
Nevertheless, a planned bout with Romero fell apart in recent weeks, which opened the door for Petruzelli.
Petruzelli initially found his way to the UFC after a semifinal finish on "The Ultimate Fighter 2." While fighting as a heavyweight, the current 205-pounder defeated Dan Christison but then dropped a close split decision to eventual show runner-up Brad Imes in the semis and was knocked out of the eight-man tourney.
After losses to Matt Hamill and Wilson Gouveia, Petruzelli received his UFC walking papers. He's since posted a 4-0 record over a three-year span. No win, though, garnered as much as attention as the victory over Ferguson, who at the time was undefeated.
After replacing Ken Shamrock on just a few hours' notice, Petruzelli scored a 14-second TKO victory over the former street fighter. The CBS-broadcast event was mired in a bit of controversy when Petruzelli suggested to a Florida radio station that EliteXC officials paid him to keep the fight standing, which drew heavy criticism because of Ferguson's limited ground game and the promotion's heavy financial interest in "Kimbo." However, Petruzelli later said his comments were taken out of context, and after an investigation, Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation officials determined there was no wrongdoing.
"It was 7 in the morning, and I didn't get home until 4 or 5 the night
before," Petruzelli recently told MMAjunkie.com. "I just worded it wrong. Instead of talking about a
knockout bonus, I said they wanted me to stand. I should've been more
EliteXC would collapse under mounting financial losses a month later.
And while Ferguson later signed with the UFC and appeared as a cast member on "The Ultimate Fighter 10" (but recently was cut from the organization), Petruzelli spoke openly about his desire to return to the octagon, as well.
He gets his chance against Romero, who signed a four-fight deal with the UFC that was announced this week. Romero recently began training at AMA Fight Club alongside UFC veterans Jim Miller, Dan Miller and Charlie Brenneman. He holds a victory over current UFC heavyweight James McSweeney, and more than half of his professional victories come by way of first-round stoppage. In his most recent fight, Romero notched a first-round submission against Silmar Rodrigo at Ring of Combat 27.
For the latest on UFC 116, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.
(Pictured: Seth Petruzelli)


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It's December, so that means it's time for the deluge of year-end features from the media, including a flurry from us, from the best music, films, and television to podcasts, comedy albums, and more. Many media outlets have their "best of" lists wrapped up before December even starts—including us, at least with our music list—so we're wondering: What's the point of assessing a year before it's over? As a sort of preparation for our film list, Scott Tobias has people checking out The Arbor for a new segment called Homework. (Stick around for Josh Modell's pitch for a movie tailored perfectly to Scott's tastes.) The film theme continues after that, as we talk about some of our favorite lesser-heralded Woody Allen films. Extracurricular Activities closes things out as Tasha Robinson discovers a book series that's all frosting, no cake.
Programming note! We're starting on a biweekly schedule this week, so the next episode will be December 14th.
:00 - Intro
:47-11:20 - Steven Hyden and Scott Tobias discuss why we hand out "year's best" titles before the year's even over
11:29-20:08 - Homework: The Arbor with Scott Tobias, Tasha Robinson, and Noel Murray
20:12-21:27 - Josh Modell pitches the ideal Scott Tobias Movie: a glacially paced torture-porn flick
21:33-29:27 - Scott, Keith Phipps, and Nathan Rabin talk about their favorite lesser heralded Woody Allen films
29:38-39:34 - Extracurricular Activities with Keith, Scott, and Tasha
Related stuff:
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
The Arbor
Primer: Woody Allen
I Want My MTV [Amazon]
Vampire Hunter D
Direct your comments to firstname.lastname@example.com, or leave us a voicemail at 314-AVCLUB0.
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Long information
What is it and how is it used?
PritorPlus is a combination of two active substances, telmisartan and hydrochlorothiazide in one tablet. Both substances help to control high blood pressure.
- Telmisartan belongs to a group of medicines called angiotensin II receptor antagonists. Angiotensin-II is a substance produced in your body which causes your blood vessels to narrow, thus increasing your blood pressure. Telmisartan blocks the effect of angiotensin II so that the blood vessels relax, and your blood pressure is lowered.
- Hydrochlorothiazide belongs to a group of medicines called thiazide diuretics, which cause your urine output to increase leading to a lowering of your blood pressure.
High blood pressure, if not treated, can damage blood vessels in several organs, which could lead sometimes to heart attack, heart or kidney failure, stroke, or blindness. There are usually no symptoms of high blood pressure before damage occurs. , Thus it is important to regularly measure blood pressure to verify if it is within the normal range.
PritorPlus is used to treat high blood pressure (essential hypertension) in patients whose blood pressure is not controlled enough when either telmisartan or hydrochlorothiazide is used alone.
|Table of Contents
|What do you have to consider before using it?
|How is it used?
|What are possible side effects?
|How should it be stored?
|Further information
What do you have to consider before using it?
Do not take PritorPlus
- if you are allergic (hypersensitive) to telmisartan or any other ingredients included in PritorPlus tablets (see "Further Information" for a list of other ingredients).
- if you are allergic (hypersensitive) to hydrochlorothiazide or to any other sulfonamide-derived medicines.
- if you are more than 3 months pregnant. (It is also better to avoid PritorPlus in early pregnancy ? see pregnancy section.)
- if you have severe liver problems such as cholestasis or biliary obstruction (problems with drainage of the bile from the gall bladder) or any other severe liver disease.
- if you have severe kidney disease.
- if your doctor determines that you have low potassium levels or high calcium levels in your blood that do not get better with treatment.
If any of the above applies to you, tell your doctor or pharmacist before taking PritorPlus.
Take special care with PritorPlus
Please tell your doctor if you are suffering or have ever suffered from any of the following conditions or illnesses:
- Low blood pressure (hypotension), likely to occur if you are dehydrated (excessive loss of body water) or have salt deficiency due to diuretic therapy (water tablets), low-salt diet, diarrhoea, vomiting, or haemodialysis.
- Kidney disease or kidney transplant.
- Renal artery stenosis (narrowing of the blood vessels to one or both kidneys).
- Liver disease.
- Heart trouble.
- Diabetes.
- Gout.
- Raised aldosterone levels (water and salt retention in the body along with imbalance of various blood minerals).
- Lupus erythematosus (also called ?lupus? or ?SLE?) a disease where the body?s immune system attacks the body.
You must tell your doctor if you think you are ( or might become) pregnant. PritorPlus is not recommended in early pregnancy, and must not be taken if you are more than 3 months pregnant, as it may cause serious harm to your baby if used at that stage (see pregnancy section).
Treatment with hydrochlorothiazide may cause electrolyte imbalance in your body. Typical symptoms of fluid or electrolyte imbalance include dry mouth, weakness, lethargy, drowsiness, restlessness, muscle pain or cramps, nausea (feeling sick), vomiting, tired muscles, and an abnormally fast heart rate (faster than 100 beats per minute). If you experience any of these you should tell your doctor.
You should also tell your doctor, if you experience an increased sensitivity of the skin to the sun with symptoms of sunburn (such as redness, itching, swelling, blistering) occurring more quickly than normal.
In case of surgery or anaesthetics, you should tell your doctor that you are taking PritorPlus.
The use of PritorPlus in children and adolescents up to the age of 18 years is not recommended.
As with all other angiotensin II receptor antagonists, telmisartan may be less effective in lowering the blood pressure in black patients.
Taking other medicines:
Please tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are taking or have recently taken any other medicines, including medicines obtained without a prescription. Your doctor may need to change the dose of these other medications or take other precautions. In some cases you may have to stop taking one of the medicines. This applies especially to the medicines listed below taken at the same time with PritorPlus:
- Lithium containing medicines to treat some types of depression.
- Medicines associated with low blood potassium (hypokalaemia) such as other diuretics, ('water tablets'), laxatives (e.g. castor oil), corticosteroids (e.g. prednisone), ACTH (a hormone),
amphotericin (an antifungal medicine), carbenoxolone (used to treat mouth ulcers), penicillin G sodium (an antibiotic), and salicylic acid and derivatives.
- Potassium-sparing diuretics, potassium supplements, salt substitutes containing potassium, ACE inhibitors that may increase blood potassium levels.
- Heart medicines (e.g. digoxin) or medicines to control the rhythm of your heart (e.g. quinidine, disopyramide).
- Medicines used for mental disorders (e.g. thioridazine, chlorpromazine, levomepromazine).
- Other medicines used to treat high blood pressure, steroids, painkillers, medicines to treat cancer, gout, or arthritis, and vitamin D supplements.
PritorPlus may increase the blood pressure lowering effect of other medicines and you should consult with your doctor if you need to adjust the dose of your other medicine while taking PritorPlus.
As with other blood pressure lowering medicines, the effect of PritorPlus may be reduced when you take NSAIDs (non steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, e.g. aspirin or ibuprofen).
Taking PritorPlus with food and drink
You can take PritorPlus tablets with or without food.
Pregnancy and breast-feeding
You must tell your doctor if you think you are ( or might become) pregnant.,Your doctor will normally advise you to stop taking PritorPlus before you become pregnant or as soon as you know you are pregnant and will advise you to take another medicine instead of PritorPlus. PritorPlus is not recommended in early pregnancy, and must not be taken when more than 3 months pregnant, as it may cause serious harm to your baby if used after the third month of pregnancy.
Tell your doctor if you are breast-feeding or about to start breast-feeding. PritorPlus is not recommended for mothers who are breast-feeding, and your doctor may choose another treatment for you if you wish to breast-feed, especially if your baby is newborn, or was born prematurely.
Driving and using machines
No information is available on the effect of PritorPlus on the ability to drive or operate machinery. Some people feel dizzy or tired when they are treated for high blood pressure. If you feel dizzy or tired, do not drive or operate machinery.
Important information about some of the ingredients of PritorPlus
PritorPlus contains milk sugar (lactose) and sorbitol.
If you are intolerant to some sugars, consult your doctor before taking PritorPlus.
How is it used?
Always take PritorPlus exactly as your doctor has told you. You should check with your doctor or pharmacist if you are not sure.
The usual dose of PritorPlus is one tablet a day. Try to take the tablet at the same time each day. You can take PritorPlus with or without food. The tablets should be swallowed with some water or other non-alcoholic drink. It is important that you take PritorPlus every day until your doctor tells you otherwise.
If your liver is not working properly, the usual dose should not exceed 40 mg/12.5 mg once a day.
If you take more PritorPlus than you should
If you accidentally take too many tablets, contact your doctor, pharmacist, or your nearest hospital emergency department immediately.
If you forget to take PritorPlus
If you forget to take a dose, do not worry. Take it as soon as you remember then carry on as before. If you do not take your tablet on one day, take your normal dose on the next day. Do not take a double dose to make up for forgotten individual doses.
If you have further questions on the use of this product, ask your doctor or pharmacist.
What are possible side effects?
Like all medicines, PritorPlus can cause side effects, although not everybody gets them. These side effects may occur with certain frequencies, which are defined as follows: very common: affects more than 1 user in 10
common: affects 1 to 10 users in 100
uncommon: affects 1 to 10 users in 1,000
rare: affects 1 to 10 users in 10,000
very rare: affects less than 1 user in 10,000
not known: frequency cannot be estimated from the available data.
Common side effects may include:
Uncommon side effects may include:
Decreased blood potassium levels; anxiety; fainting (syncope); sensation of tingling, pins and needles (paraesthesia); feeling of spinning (vertigo); fast heart beat (tachycardia), heart rhythm disorders, low blood pressure, a sudden fall in blood pressure when you stand up; shortness of breath (dyspnoea); symptoms of an upset stomach such as diarrhoea; dry mouth, flatulence; back pain, muscle spasm, muscle pain; erectile dysfunction (inability to get or keep an erection); chest pain, and increased blood uric acid levels.
Rare side effects may include:
Inflammation of the lung (bronchitis); feeling sad (depression); difficulty falling asleep (insomnia); impaired vision; difficulty breathing; abdominal pain, constipation, bloating (dyspepsia), feeling sick; abnormal liver function; rapid swelling of the skin and mucosa (angioedema), redness of the skin (erythema); allergic reactions such as itching or rash; increased sweating, hives (urticaria); joint pain (arthralgia) and pain in extremities, muscle cramps; flu-like-illness; pain; increased levels of uric acid, low levels of sodium, increased levels of creatinine, hepatic enzymes or creatine phosphokinase in the blood.
Side effects of unknown frequency may include:
Sore throat, inflamed sinuses; inflammation of the stomach (gastritis)
In patients taking telmisartan alone the following additional side effects have been reported:
Side effects of unknown frequency may include:
Upper respiratory tract infection (e.g. sore throat, inflamed sinuses, common cold), urinary tract infections; increase in certain white blood cells (eosinophilia), deficiency in red blood cells (anaemia), low platelet count (thrombocytopenia); serious allergic reaction (e.g. hypersensitivity, anaphylactic reaction, drug rash); high potassium levels; slow heart rate (bradycardia); upset stomach; eczema (a skin disorder); inflammation of the tendons; kidney impairment including acute kidney failure;
weakness; decreased haemoglobin (a blood protein), sepsis* (often called "blood poisoning", is a severe infection with whole-body inflammatory response which can lead to death).
*In a long-term study involving more than 20,000 patients, more patients treated with telmisartan experienced sepsis compared with patients who received no telmisartan. The event may have happened by chance or could be related to a mechanism currently not known.
In patients taking hydrochlorothiazide alone the following additional side effects have been reported:
Side effects of unknown frequency may include:
Inflammation of the salivary gland; decreases in the number of cells in the blood, including low red and white blood cell count , low platelet count (thrombocytopenia); serious allergic reactions; (e.g. hypersensitivity, anaphylactic reaction), inflammation of blood vessels (vasculitis necrotising), decreased or loss of appetite; restlessness, weakness, light-headedness, blurred or yellowing of vision; inflamed pancreas, upset stomach; yellowing of the skin or eyes (jaundice); skin disorders such as inflamed blood vessels in the skin, increased sensitivity to sunlight, or blistering and peeling of the top layer of skin (toxic epidermal necrolysis); kidney inflammation or impaired kidney function; fever; impaired electrolyte balance, high blood cholesterol levels, decreased blood volume, glucose in the urine (glycosuria), increased levels of glucose, or fat in the blood.
If any of the side effects get serious, or if you notice any side effects not listed in this leaflet, please tell your doctor or pharmacist.
How should it be stored?
Keep out of the reach and sight of children.
Do not use PritorPlus after the expiry date which is stated on the carton after ?EXP?. The expiry date refers to the last day of that month.
This medicine does not require any special storage conditions. You should store your medicine in the original package in order to protect the tablets from moisture.
Occasionally, the outer layer of the blister pack separates from the inner layer between the blister pockets. You do not need to take any action if this happens.
Medicines should not be disposed of via wastewater or household waste. Ask your pharmacist how to dispose of medicines no longer required. These measures will help to protect the environment.
Further information
What PritorPlus contains
The active substances are telmisartan and hydrochlorothiazide. Each tablet contains 80 mg telmisartan and 12.5 mg hydrochlorothiazide.
The other ingredients are lactose monohydrate, magnesium stearate, maize starch, meglumine, microcrystalline cellulose, povidone, red iron oxide (E172), sodium hydroxide, sodium starch glycollate (type A), sorbitol (E420)
What PritorPlus looks like and contents of the pack
PritorPlus 80 mg/12.5 mg tablets are red and white, oval-shaped, two-layer tablets engraved with the code number 'H8'.
PritorPlus is available in blisters packs containing 14, 28, 30, 56, 90 or 98 tablets, or unit dose blister packs containing 28 x 1 tablets.
Not all pack sizes may be available in your country.
Marketing Authorisation Holder
Bayer Schering Pharma AG
13342 Berlin
Bayer Schering Pharma AG
51368 Leverkusen
SmithKline Beecham
Crawley Manufacturing Site
Manor Royal West Sussex
United Kingdom
For any information about this medicine, please contact the local representative of the Marketing Authorisation Holder.
Luxembourg Luxemburg Bayer SA-NV TélTel 32-02-535 63 11 Magyarország Bayer Hungária Kft. Tel.36-14 87-41 00 Malta Alfred Gera and Sons Ltd. Tel 356-21 44 62 05 Nederland Bayer B.V., Bayer Schering Pharma Tel 31-0297-28 06 66 Norge Bayer AS Tlf. 47 24 11 18 00 Österreich Bayer Austria Ges. m. b. H. Tel 43-01-711 46-0 Polska Bayer Sp. z o.o. Tel. 48-22-572 35 00 Portugal Bayer Portugal S.A Tel 351-21-416 42 00 România SC Bayer SRL Tel. 40 21 528 59 00 Slovenija Bayer d. o. o. Tel. 386-1-58 14 400 Slovenská republika Bayer, spol. s r.o. Tel 421 2 59 21 31 11 SuomiFinland Bayer Oy, Bayer Schering Pharma PuhTel. 358-20 785 21 Sverige Bayer AB Tel 46-08-580 223 00 United Kingdom Bayer plc Tel 44-01 635-56 30 00 België Belgique Belgien Bayer SA-NV TélTel 32-02-535 63 11 . 359 02 81 401 01 eská republika Bayer s.r.o. Tel 420 271 730 661 Danmark Bayer AS Tlf 45-45 23 50 00 Deutschland Bayer Vital GmbH Tel 49-0214-30 513 48 Eesti Bayer OÜ Tel 372 655 85 65 Bayer 30 210 618 75 00 España Química Farmacéutica Bayer S.L. Tel 34-93-495 65 00 France Bayer Santé Tél 33-03 28 16 34 00 Ireland Bayer Limited Tel 353 1 299 93 13 Ísland Icepharma Sími 354 540 8000 Italia Bayer S.p.A. Tel 39-02-397 81 NOVAGEM Limited 357 22 74 77 47 Latvija SIA Bayer Tel 371 67 84 55 63 Lietuva UAB Bayer Tel. 37 05 23 36 868


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Apple's campaign to make native mobile apps seem sexier than the temperamental world of the mobile browser has been very successful. Tens of thousands of developers have been lured to the company's App Store as a result.
Since these frameworks deliver content through the browser, there are no bizarre App Store approval processes or installer packages to contend with, and you really can "write once, run anywhere." Any mobile operating system with a modern browser is game – iOS, Android, WebOS, it doesn't matter.
Sure, for most games and animation-heavy apps, native is still the way to go. But for all other kinds of content, even complex stuff like maps and videos, the mobile web may be the better choice.
The latest entry into the mobile-framework field is Sencha Touch, brought to you by the same people that created Ext JS, jQTouch and Raphael, all of which have been combined under the name Sencha.
Sencha Touch, released this week, bills itself as "the first HTML5 framework for mobile devices," which isn't quite true. Several other mobile frameworks make use of HTML5 APIs like offline storage, or companion APIs like geolocation. But Sencha is nevertheless well worth a look if you're thinking of building a cross-platform mobile app.
Sencha offers built-in support for the geolocation API and the offline storage API, and takes advantage of CSS 3 for smaller, image-less design elements. Because all the major mobile platforms – iOS, Android and WebOS – use similar WebKit-based browsers, there's little to worry about when it comes to support for cutting edge features like HTML5 and CSS 3. Even when Firefox arrives on mobiles, you should expect support to be on par.
Sencha has some demos available if you'd like to see what's possible. The GeoCongress demo makes use of the geolocation API to find out where you are and then show a list of your senators and representative. There's also a very slick Solitaire demo that shows how to preserve an app's state using the HTML5 local storage API.
The Sencha Touch code is available under a GPLv3 license. If you'd like to experiment with the code, head over to the new Sencha Touch site and grab a copy.
If Sencha Touch doesn't cover all your bases, there are several other frameworks out there that do similar things. Although not specifically geared to mobile-web apps, SproutCore can be used to create lightning-fast mobile-web apps.
SproutCore generated quite a bit of interest a few years ago, when Apple incorporated it into the company's MobileMe tools like iWork.com. It's also the framework behind Kiva's Loan Browser tool.
If you're used to jQuery-style JavaScript, SproutCore will look a bit strange at first. Like server-side frameworks such as Rails and Django, SproutCore is based on the model-view-controller ("MVC") paradigm. As with other frameworks in this category, SproutCore cuts down on latency by moving business logic to the client, but in keeping the MVC pattern of server-side frameworks, SproutCore should make developers feel right at home.
SproutCore is written in Ruby. You can grab a copy from the SproutCore site, or install it as Ruby "gem."
Another possibility is iWebKit, which offers many of the same features you'll find in other frameworks, but puts more emphasis on Apple's mobile devices. Unfortunately, while most iWebKit apps will work just fine in Android, the built-in UI elements are clearly iPhone-specific.
Like the others iWebKit is customizable. You can always dive into the CSS files and tweak things to your liking (though doing so may call in to question the benefit of using a framework in the first place).
Another framework worth noting is Apple's own PastryKit. Although PastryKit's UI isn't cross-platform, it does have some nice tools for iPhone-specific web apps. Keep in mind, though, that PastryKit is not officially documented. Daring Fireball has a nice video overview, and developer David Calhoun has dug a bit deeper into how PastryKit works.
Before you rush off to develop a mobile-web app, it's worth pointing out that there are definitely some significant advantages to native apps – whether its on iOS or Android. Native apps have access to lower-level system tools (in the iPhone's case, that means stuff like the accelerometer, gyroscope and more). If your apps need those tools, then by all means, use native code.
If you're not writing an app that makes heavy use of platform tools, the web is a viable option. And, thanks to frameworks like Sencha Touch, SproutCore and iWebKit, building a cross-platform mobile-web app doesn't have to be a Herculean task.
See Also:


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Year of publication
- 2006 (1) (remove)
- Georg-Speyer-Haus (1)
- Medizin (1)
- Correction : phase I clinical study of the recombinant antibody-toxin scFv(FRP5)-ETA specific for the ErbB2/HER2 receptor in patients with advanced solid malignomas (2006)
- Following publication of the data presented by von Minckwitz and colleagues it has been brought to our attention that some patients should be scored differently. Stable disease was seen in three of the eighteen patients instead of two of the eighteen patients: one patient with transitional cell carcinoma treated at 4 µg/kg scFv(FRP5)-ETA per day, and two breast cancer patients treated at 4 and 12.5 µg/kg scFv(FRP5)-ETA per day. Disease progression occured in 9 of the eighteen patients evaluated (see corrected Table 2 overleaf). This does not affect the conclusions of our study. In addition we would like to correct the following errors: patient IDs for patients U01 and U02 in the original Table 2 were interchanged. In addition, patient N03 had a grade 3 elevation of gamma-glutamyl transferase, and not grade 2 (see corrected Table 2 overleaf).


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Canada is losing the war against obesity because we're ignoring one of its major drivers, doctors say: the state of our mental well-being.
Some say obesity and mental health are so intricately entwined, they should be considered a "double epidemic."
Depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, attention deficit disorders, post traumatic stress, addictions — all can cause changes in appetite, energy and metabolism that can prime people to gain weight. What's more, antidepressants, mood stabilizers and newer generation anti-psychotics — drugs Canadians are being prescribed in record numbers — can themselves cause rapid and dramatic weight gain.
No one is suggesting that everyone with a weight problem has a mental illness.
But missing in the relentless drumbeat to "eat less, move more" is any public discussion about the role common mental health problems are playing in the obesity dilemma, observors say.
"We absolutely have not looked at this issue at all," says Dr. Valerie Taylor, chief psychiatrist at Toronto's Women's College Hospital.
"This is probably one of the number one reasons that we're not getting anywhere in terms of battling the obesity epidemic."
The relationship works both ways.
Fat tissue isn't inert. It's biologically active. It produces cortisol, a stress hormone, as well as inflammatory chemicals, both of which have been linked to mental illness. Cortisol is neuro-toxic. It can act on the brain in vulnerable people — putting them at increased risk for depression.
Conversely, people with depression produce excess cortisol. And one of the effects of cortisol on the body, Taylor and her colleagues recently reported in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, is a propensity to accumulate fat around the abdomen.
The interplay between obesity and mental health is complex, but "we have not had a public discourse on how tightly these two epidemics are linked," says Dr. Arya Sharma, professor of medicine and chair in obesity research and management at the University of Alberta.
Nowhere in the recent report from Canada's mental health commission is there a mention of obesity, he says. "And vice versa. With all the talk about healthy weights, there's a lot of focus on diet and exercise, but I don't see any focus on improving the mental health of our kids and our adults. And that is a huge part of what is really driving the obesity epidemic."
Studies have found that 66 per cent of those seeking bariatric, or weight loss surgery have had a history of at least one mental health disorder. Attention deficit disorder occurs in an estimated one in four. "These people really struggle with being able to eat healthy — they make impulsive choices, they can never make it to the gym, or they get to the gym, they've forgotten half their stuff," Taylor says. "If you get that illness under control they can be successful in losing weight."
Currently, 62 per cent of the nation's adult population is either overweight or obese, a trend that's tracking at an even faster pace among children and adolescents. Today, there are more overweight than "normal" weight Canadians, and the heaviest weight classes are growing the fastest.
In many cases, the weight gain happens so insidiously, people can't put their finger on exactly how it happened.
Humans have been hard-wired through evolution to eat as much, and as often, as we can, and the food industry, critics say, has done a formidable job creating extraordinarily seductive foods loaded in sugar and fat. Some of the world's leading addiction researchers believe today's highly processed foods interact with the brain in ways similar to cocaine or heroin.
It takes significant impulse control to resist the smorgasbord before us, "because your brain wants all of those things and can't get enough," says Sharma, who will be among the featured speakers at a three-day conference on obesity and mental health in Toronto later this month sponsored by the Canadian Obesity Network, the International Association for the Study of Obesity and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
"Even the slightest problem with impulse control and decision-making is going to expose you, and make you much more likely to gain weight," Sharma said.
"I can't think of a single mental health problem which would not, in some form or fashion, contribute to weight gain, or make weight management extremely difficult for someone who has the genetics to put on weight."
Mood affects metabolism and changes the way the body responds to certain foods, he said.
Depression or bipolar disorder can cause changes in appetite, energy and motivation. Depression and anxiety cause play havoc with sleep, and the link between sleep problems and weight has never been stronger.
In a normal, sleep-wake cycle, leptin — the satiety or "I'm full hormone" that tells the brain to reduce food intake — increases, while ghrelin, which triggers appetite, decreases. That's so that people don't feel hungry when they're sleeping.
But when sleep is disrupted, the opposite occurs, Taylor's team wrote, so that people are not only awake, but they're also hungry.
Taylor says the links are also strong between adult obesity and abuse in childhood — emotional abuse, physical abuse and neglect. "Sexual abuse is probably the biggest one," she says. "Often times children incorrectly blame themselves for causing the abuse, so they want to change the way they look."
Psychiatric drugs — among the most commonly prescribed pills nationwide — are adding to the problem. Antipsychotics — medications that are now even being used for insomnia — can trigger "hedonic hyperphagia" — eating in pursuit of reward, rather than to ease hunger.
"With some drugs, they can put on massive amounts of weight," says Rohan Ganguli, professor of psychiatry and Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto. One of his patients gained more than 100 pounds over the course of a year.
The drugs are often necessary. "But we have to mitigate risk," Taylor said. "We need to be aware of these side effects and prescribe correctly."
Food soothes anxiety and stress. It becomes a coping mechanism. Certain foods like carbohydrates can boost serotonin, which affects mood. For brief periods of time, we feel relaxed and comforted. But it doesn't last, and so people get into a cycle, Taylor says, "where they're constantly using food to feel better.
"We have to teach people how to stop doing that."
Taylor says she can't think of a more stigmatized group than those who have both obesity and mental illness. "Lots of times people don't come forward and say they have a psychiatric illness going on when they're looking for obesity treatment. Family doctors don't ask about it.
"We need to raise awareness. This is a complicated illness. It's not a blame thing. There are associations and things occurring that people aren't aware of," Taylor says.
"You have to care about the whole person, and not just one symptom."


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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve foresees unemployment remaining high into 2015, suggesting it will keep short-term interest rates near record lows at least until then.
In its latest economic forecasts released Wednesday, the Fed predicts that the unemployment rate will stay above 6.5 percent for about two more years. Fed policymakers also expect the economy to grow modestly this year and next despite economic gains so far in 2013.
The Fed's updated forecasts are nearly identical to projections it made in December. The Fed has said it plans to keep its benchmark rate near zero as long as unemployment exceeds 6.5 percent and the inflation outlook is tame.
The policymakers expect the economy to grow as little as 2.3 percent this year — not enough to quickly drive down unemployment — or as high as 2.8 percent. In 2014, growth could range from 2.9 percent to 3.4 percent in 2014, they predict.
The Fed has slightly upgraded its outlook for unemployment. It now sees the rate falling to between 7.3 percent and 7.5 percent by the end of this year. That's down from a previous range of 7.4 percent to 7.7 percent.
The rate fell to 7.7 percent in February, the lowest in four years.
By the end of 2014, the Fed expects the rate to fall between 6.7 percent and 7 percent. That's a narrower range than in December, when it forecast a range of 6.8 percent to 7.3 percent.


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Earlier this month it was the Internet making people into Satanists. This week it's technology in general that's the problem. We're becoming too god-like, see, and the Pope has predicted eternal damnation for the lot of us if we continue.
"From the beginning men and women have been filled — and this is as true today as ever — with a desire to 'be like God', to attain the heights of God by their own powers. Mankind has managed to accomplish so many things: we can fly! We can see, hear and speak to one another from the farthest ends of the earth. And yet the force of gravity which draws us down is powerful." If man wanted a relationship with God he had to first "abandon the pride of wanting to become God." - Reuters
I guess that means my iPad is not a magical tablet at all, but a test? Anyway, at least he acknowledged gravity.
In related news, here's a link to a decent (if not slightly dumbed down) new book I just started reading: Physics of the Future, by Michio Kaku [Reuters]


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In a day when love is fleeting, when words and promises often mean nothing, Jesus calls us to a life of authentic, sacrificial love. But God doesn't just command us to love others. He also shows us how to do it!
31 Days to a Love Inspired Life presents a devotional conversation about God's unfathomable love for you.
INTERNATIONAL ORDERS: Orders may take 6 to 8 weeks to arrive.


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After a long series of post-MWC changes, Samsung has finally readied its long-awaited flagship Galaxy Note 10.1 Android tablet and officially announced its global availability. The release schedule is set to start immediately with the United States, United Kingdom, Korea, and Germany, followed by other markets "starting in August." The initial release includes only the Wi-Fi only and the 3G/HSPA+-enabled variants, with the LTE flavor coming later this year.
Note: The press release is a little ambiguous on whether the "starting in August" bit refers to the four aforementioned countries or the following global availability, but we're inclined to side with the latter.Read More


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Jordan Johnson Named BIg Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Week
It was no contest. The Big Sky Conference has named University of Montana quarterback Jordan Johnson the ROOT Sports offensive player of the week for his performance on Saturday night, September 14, against the University of North Dakota.
In a press release sent out Monday, September 16, Montana Sports Information reported that Johnson, a 6–1, 200-pound junior from Eugene, Ore., set a Big Sky Conference single-game pass efficiency record in Montana's 55-17 non-conference win at North Dakota. Johnson completed 15-of-19 passes for a career-high 354 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions for an efficiency rating of 322.3.
Johnson guided the Grizzlies to touchdowns on all eight drives he played. He threw touchdown passes of 70, 52, 35, 6, and 51 yards.He also rushed for 21 yards to finish with 375 yards of total offense. As a team, Montana finished with 609 yards of offense. This is Johnson's second player of the week award.
Joining Johnson were Northern Arizona safety Lucky Dozier as the Defensive Player of the Week, while Idaho State kicker Brendon Garcia was tabbed the Special Teams Player of the Week.
The Grizzlies will be back at home Saturday for a game against Division 2 independent Oklahoma Panhandle State, with kickoff at 1 p.m.


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When Windows Phone 8.1 was announced, we learned of a separate Podcasts app which was going to be made available as a pre-installed app, and instead of relying on the Zune back-end, it was going to be powered by Bing.
Having installed the Developer Preview of the Windows Phone 8.1 on my Lunia 920, I wanted to check out the podcasts app. After all, in order to become my daily driver, a phone has to be able to provide me a superb podcast experience. There is much to like in the app, but much more to dislike.
First off, some of the things I like:
International support I haven't tried this myself but it is well-known that this new app is now made available everywhere Windows Phone is available, which is a boon to all international customers. Given that the back-end is not Zune's, I suspect that the US-only nature of the earlier podcast functionality may have something to do with the database. Still beats me, but regardless that is a thing of the past now. All Windows Phone customers are now welcome to use podcasts "natively".
Database maintenance Since the discovery and addition of podcasts is powered by Bing, there is usually no issue with addition of a new podcast feed. I did find it odd that a popular Windows-related podcast, Windows Developer Show was found but had no content. I know in this specific case that the podcasters changed their feed a few weeks ago but it is a bad sign that the feed was not updated even after so long. Regardless, at least it is not a person or a team that has to manage the database, which is a good thing.
Playback speed Yay, yay, yay. Finally, we can speed through podcasts with a 1.5x and a 2x setting.
Manual refresh Repeat after me: yay, yay, yay. Prior to this app, there was really no way to detect when the phone checked for new episodes and more importantly, there was no way to trigger a check. As a result we were forced to resort to hacks like unsubscribing and re-subscribing, connecting to power and WiFi and waiting, etc. Not an issue anymore, since each podcast now has a setting to refresh which checks for new episodes.
However, there are a bunch of major annoyances which I am hoping get fixed before Windows Phone 8.1 (after all, it is still in a developer preview state!) becomes final.
Episodes to keep In default series settings as well as for a specific series settings, for how many episodes to keep, I see none for streaming-only as well as discrete numbers from 1-5, 10, and "all". However, my usual setting is to keep x number of unplayed episodes, including "all unplayed". There is no way to have a series keep the latest unplayed episode (daily news podcast, for example, where archive is not important) or keep all unplayed episodes in case of podcasts that are not too frequent but are generally not-to-be-missed. I would love to see that selection change from how many episodes to keep, to what type of episodes to keep based on unplayed status.
Playback speed setting I will chalk this up as a bug, where the speed setting is not remembered between app launches. In other words, after I exit the app and resume, it gets switched back to 1x, or the normal speed. This one is highly annoying, and hopefully gets squashed before general release.
View only new episodes Under collection, there are two sections, one for audio and one for video. Unfortunately, once you tap into one of those sections, there is no way for you to see only the new (or "unplayed") episodes. In fact, even on the main screen where the app shows favorites, there is no indication which series has new episodes. So I am forced to browse all the podcasts and view under the icon if it says there are new episodes. This is very annoying and I don't think it is a bug. It seems like it is functionality that was left out, perhaps due to time constraints. Hope a setting is included under "audio", to see only new episodes across all podcasts. Also, hoping some indicator is made available in the favorites section, to show which podcasts have new/unplayed episodes waiting to be consumed.
Played episodes not removed After I set up several favorite podcasts, I had to naturally and understandably go through each podcast and mark everything except the recent few episodes as played. That went fine, but unfortunately, the played episodes were not removed from the view. As a result, after tapping into a podcast and swiping over to the list of episodes, I have to scroll through all the played episodes in order to get to the unplayed episodes.I could use the filter and choose just "downloaded" episodes, which is what I essentially need, but that filter does not retain its setting :-(
(Side note: if I am going into the podcast from the favorites area, why show me the podcast information screen and make me swipe left in order to see the episodes? Why not just land me directly to the list of episodes? I would understand if the landing spot is the information screen if it is launched from a search but if it is from favorites or collection, I don't need to see the information, right?)
Universal, please Finally, now that we know of Universal Apps and shared settings and configurations, I cannot see why this app cannot exist on Windows 8.x as well. I would love to continue listening to my podcasts on my PC/tablet and get the play position and subscription settings sync-ed across my devices via my Microsoft account. Hope that also happens around the time the app becomes final.
As you can see there is much to love in the app, but some key functionality is missing and needs to be present in order for this power user to truly embrace it.
Are you happy with the app? Any pluses or minuses I may have missed? Let me know!