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Commissioned by the Oxforshire Sports Partnership
The Programme
GO Active (Get Oxfordshire Active) is a project led by the Oxfordshire Sports Partnership, which aims to help everyone lead a more active lifestyle, by creating more social and fun activities to make getting fit more enjoyable! It's easy to get out of the habit of regular exercise, but often hard to get started again. Together with NHS Oxfordshire and the five Local Authorities across the county, the programme provides a gateway for local people to find the types of activity that they want to do to get fit and healthy – anything from Aerobics to Yoga, or Ballroom to Salsa Dancing.
The Evauation
The reasons for undertaking the evaluation are to:
- Assess if the Programme has made a difference to increasing participation levels in the short and longer terms
- Justify future investment and influence future budget decisions
- Identify areas for service improvements.
The aim of the evaluation is to assess whether the GO-Active programme has lead to a sustained increase in physical activity levels of participants and whether this intervention is cost effective.
The evaluation objectives are:
- Evidence that participants who have been in contact with GO-Active have increased their levels of physical activity.
- Evidence of sustained behaviour change by participants who have maintained an increase in their levels of physical activity over:
a. Three months.
b. One year.
- Evidence of health improvement.
- Views of users on the Programme and suggestions for future improvements.
- Evidence of impact on others beyond those involved in the Programme.
- Current extent and effectiveness of GP referrals and gauge the potential for future involvement.
- Views of stakeholders on the value and effectiveness of the Programme and on how the partnership has worked.
Proposed Approach
Priority 1 – is to obtain baseline information from new participants entering the programme and following this up to assess the impact on behavioural change and health and well being; other than the baseline data this method will not generate key information for the Interim Report which is required by November in order to influence the budget planning cycle. A concerted effort by everyone will be required to achieve the minimum sample for the follow ups surveys in three and 12 months.
Priority 2 - is to obtain qualitative information from focus groups of existing participants. These can be used to capture 'participant journeys, behavioural change, barriers and achievements, views on the Programme and sphere of influence. The behavioural change dimension will be based on individual reflections and less accurate than the survey. A concerted effort will be required to get the right people involved in the focus groups. Ideally these should be planned over a couple of days during the beginning of November.
Priority 3 – is the stakeholder questionnaire which should capture local knowledge and experience, what's worked and what hasn't and to consider practical ways of sustaining the elements that have had impact.
Key Dates
- w/c 13 September 2010 baseline questionnaires go live
- w/c 15 & 29 November 2010 focus groups
- w/c 10 January 2011 first three month follow up of questionnaires
- w/c 10 January 2011 Stakeholder questionnaires
- w/c 17 January 2011 final focus group and Co-ordinators workshop
- w/c 5 September 2011 first 12 month follow up questionnaires
- End of January 2011 – Report
- Autumn 2012 – Supplementary Report with findings from 12 month repeat survey.


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LAS VEGAS, APRIL 13, 2016mRes™
This unique, uncompressed recording architecture allows mRes to provide various file formats without any loss of quality or signal degradation. This is due to the fact that each copy is created from the original uncompressed file. For any given production, the various departments often require different codecs, wrappers and resolutions. When using mRes, a production team now has access to the content they need, in any of the required compression formats, instantaneously.
mRes is controlled by Pronology's new clip controller application, which allows the encoder to be operated with a simple-to-deploy, easy-to-use standalone control application. mRes integrates with most storage systems, such as Avid® ISIS and Small Tree. It also integrates with various NLE systems, including Avid®, Apple® and Adobe® Premiere® Pro CC, supporting growing clips for Edit-While-Capture workflows.
mRes was most recently used at the 88th Annual OSCARS®, the 21st Annual Critics' Choice Awards, FOX's Grease: Live! as well as the 2016 MTV Movie Awards. "The flexibility of mRes allows for the concurrent acquisition of media in different codecs, such as DNxHD, ProRes, XDCam and AVC-Intra, with various wrappers at most frame rates," adds Aroesty. "We are looking forward to launching the mRes solution at this year's NAB and speaking one-on-one with customers about these advanced features and more."
# # #
Nicole Rosen
Account Manager
D. Pagan Communications, Inc.
Paul Dellafiora
Marketing Director

subset: commoncrawl


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Will your employer help you live longer?
One of the more intriguing developments at this month's White House Conference on Aging was the introduction of a first-of-its-kind workplace training program focusing on living longer.
The purpose of the Longevity Training Program, a collaboration between Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, is to raise greater awareness and understanding of the nation's aging workforce among human resources and benefits professionals. The course offers online training, including a series of videos by professors at the USC School of Gerontology and other thought leaders. At the end of the course, participants receive a certificate of participation.
Once implemented, the program helps employees and their families focus on seven life priorities developed by Merrill Lynch, as follows:
Do a good job in these seven areas, according to Merrill Lynch, and you've increased the odds that you'll live long and prosper.
"Providing HR professionals greater access to this knowledge can help them better connect with employees as they progress through their careers and toward their later years," said Andy Sieg, head of Global Wealth & Retirement Solutions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Forward-thinking employers realize they can better attract, retain and manage an aging workforce if they help their employees cope with the challenges of living longer, a trend visible around the world.
"Increased longevity leads to longer retirements, changing health care choices, more housing transitions and many other challenges to financial security," said Pinchas Cohen, dean of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. "As more people reach retirement age, there needs to be deeper knowledge inside every company regarding the realities of longevity in order to engage in relevant and supportive discussions with employees about their goals and concerns."
An earlier report by Merrill Lynch and Age Wave identifies the top steps that employers can take to accommodate an older workforce, including:
- Flexible work schedules
- Telecommuting
- Improving work space ergonomics for lighting, seating, flooring and other environmental factors
- Employee wellness programs
Some baby boomers are redefining retirement, and many report they want to work during their retirement years. Many of them also need the income and benefits from a job to supplement their meager retirement resources, but they also want the social interaction that work can provide and to remain engaged.
Smart employers can benefit by accommodating and tapping into the skills and experience of an aging workforce, but it takes planning and effort to do just that. Learning more about the challenges and opportunities of leading a longer life is a good place to start.


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Children's Place Retail Stores PLCE
Apparel Industry Financial Retail Company Stocks Retail Store Directory Children's Clothes Children's Place Jobs Children's Place News Retail Sales Forecast
The Children's Place
Website: http://www.childrensplace.com
October 2013 Summary: The Children's Place Retail Stores, Inc. operates as a children's specialty apparel retailer in North America. The company provides apparel, accessories, and shoes for children from newborn to 10 years of age. It designs, contracts to manufacture, and sells merchandise under The Children's Place brand name. The company serves the wardrobe needs of girls and boys, baby girls and boys, and newborn. It also engages in international franchise business through territorial agreements with franchisees. As of February 2, 2013, the company operated 1,095 stores and an Internet store at childrensplace.com. The Children's Place Retail Stores, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is based in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Learn about fashion industry public companies here on Apparel Search.
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Friday, November 3, 2017
Andy May and staff at Dignity Memorial and Hillcrest Gardens cut ribbon with Chamber members.
Hillcrest Gardens celebrates more than 50 years of service
Hillcrest Gardens Cemetery in Mount Holly has been serving Gaston County residents for more than 50 years.The Dignity Memorial and Hillcrest Gardens staff, along with Montcross Area and Gaston Regional Chamber members, paused today to honor that tradition and to celebrate recent renovations to the offices and grounds of the cemetery. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was conducted, a catered lunch provided and many prizes awarded.
Office and grounds improvements celebrated at Hillcrest Gardens on Highway 27 in Mount Holly.


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The Ulster Unionist Party leader is expected to rule out "begging" for concessions in exchange for supporting any coalition government after the general election.
Mike Nesbitt will say he has good relations with the Conservatives and Labour during his party's manifesto launch on Friday.
The DUP is seeking extra money for Northern Ireland and changes to welfare proposals in exchange for supporting the next government during a hung parliament.
Mr Nesbitt will say: "We will do our best for the people of Northern Ireland, but our values are not an auction item.
"We will not take short-term advantage if it means long-term damage to the Union and to our children, and grandchildren and future generations.
"So, no begging bowl approach from us, come May 8."
The UUP had no members of the last parliament.
It has agreed a pact with the DUP which will see it standing aside in East Belfast and North Belfast in exchange for support for its own "unionist unity" candidates in Newry and Armagh and Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
Mr Nesbitt will outline his party's manifesto for the next parliament at an event in Portadown, Co Armagh.
He is likely to say: "If we are returning to the green benches we will have an important role to play in the next Westminster mandate.
"Who will we support as the next Government?
"We have good relations with both of the parties who have the only realistic hope of occupying 10 Downing Street on May 8.
"We will see what they have to say."
He will acknowledge uncertain times for the Union following Scotland's vote on independence and moves towards greater devolution.
"Like other nations and regions, we want more power, not least the power to set our own rate of corporation tax," he will say.
"But we do not want to see the break-up of the Union.
"If we are returned to the House of Commons, Ulster Unionists will do what we have done for over 100 years.
"We will contribute: politically, economically, militarily, culturally, socially.
"The Union is not a one-way street.
"The Union is not just about the money."


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Last week, Anne dropped her bag with her MacBook in it on the floor. She didn't think anything of it until hours later when she went to turn on her computer and the LCD display was cracked inside. Lots of scary broken lines appeared with only a small section on the left actually working.
I did some research and found the cheapest way to get this fixed was to buy a replacement screen. I picked one up on eBay for $75 from iReqQ.com. For some reason they sell them for more on their own site (?).
It shipped quickly and I had it on Thursday. I followed the helpful video from iResQ to take the machine apart and install the new screen.
The most difficult part by far was getting the inverter cable plugged in as it's behind the hinge. My Dad helped by pulling the hinge back and keeping the video cable out of the way.
A random magnet fell out of the side when I took out the display. Apparently it's a "sleep magnet" which, when closed with the lid, activates the computer's sleep mode. It took me a while, but I found the spot in the lid where it went in, coming down just to the left of the fn key.
More annoying than difficult was getting all the little clips around the edges back in place. I found it helped to arch them a bit and then spread them back out again once they were in. All in all, it probably took me 2 hours to complete.
While I had it open, I made one little extra modification I read about online. Apples should be red, right?
What I was looking for was a piece of cellophane, but we didn't have any. I searched around and found something that worked just as well – a piece of red plastic from a bag of frozen french fries. I cut it to size, taped it in, and now Anne has the coolest MacBook (with working display!) on the block.


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I haven't played much EQ lately but when I have been on I've been playing solo on the Firiona Vie server in an…unusual way.
So let me explain. I've been trying to recapture that feeling of when I first started playing EQ. Part of that feeling was the feeling of having accomplished something in game. Even if it was something small like scraping together 400p to buy a set of +6 wisdom rings for my cleric. I still remember the feeling when I managed to get my first Bone Bladed Claymore down in the bowels of Befallen. It was difficult to get. I had to kill the shadowknight and manage all the adds in the area. I spent quite a bit of time killing placeholders and waiting around. And I think that part of that new EQ feeling was that things were harder back in the day. It was a struggle to accomplish things and that made the things you had all that more valuable to you. Things were not impossible…just more difficult. And that is what lead me to Firiona Vie and experimenting with my play styles.
So with the realization that struggle leading to a possitive end result leads to that new EQ elation, I created a set of 3 characters on Firiona Vie and decided to create my own rules on how to play. The rules are designed to make the game more challenging and to induce a sense of value in the items that I aquire.
Here are the Firiona Vie rules that my 3 characters play by:
- I will only 3 box. I do not group with any other characters or accept their help.
- I only use equipment that:
- I make with one of my 3 characters or;
- I loot from a mob that I manage to kill in my 3 box group or with one of those characters solo.
- I do not use the new potions or potions that I have not made. Since I don't have a shaman that means no potions.
- The only thing I will buy from the bazaar are tradeskill components. I will only buy a component if I have already killed a mob that dropped that component and I have looted it.
- The only thing I will buy from vendors are food, spell components such as tiny daggers, store bought tradeskill items such as molds for smithing etc., or dropped tradeskill items that I have already killed a mob that dropped that component and I have looted it.
- No rez's except the ones I can provide myself.
- No veteran AA's.
- No buffs that I cannot cast with one of my 3 characters.
- Tribute is allowed.
- Guild creation and the functions of the guild hall are allowed.
I know, I know. Most people will probably think I'm nuts for playing this way. But I enjoy it. I also still play in a normal fashion on my main server, Innorruk.
Does anyone else do anything crazy like this in EQ?


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Nest reportedly interested in buying Nokia's health division
Nearly one year ago, Nokia aquirred Withings, a French company selling smart health products. It was Nokia's first major dive into consumer electronics in years, HMD's Nokia-branded devices aside. The health division was put under strategic review in February, leaving its future uncertain. Now we know at least one company interested in buying it - Nest.
Nokia is now close to selling its Health division, with a number of companies bidding for ownership.Read More
Nest reportedly interested in buying Nokia's health division was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Tags: fitness, google, health, nest, News, Nokia, nokia health, withings


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Yesterday, Trust Agents was named a Top 10 Book by Amazon.com, thanks in great part to YOUR kindness by ordering it. In just over two months, the book has made the New York Times Bestseller's list, the Wall Street Journal Bestseller's list, the top 5 sellers on Audible.com, and now the Top 10 Business & Investing books of 2009, according to Amazon.
I consider every one of those successes to be yours. You did all the hard work. Julien and I just typed. Thank you for what you've done to make the book successful, and for believing in us.
For those of you who haven't yet grabbed up a copy of Trust Agents for your friends and colleagues yet (I know you have your copy), this week's a great time to correct that oversight. (Okay, just kidding.)
Thank you. So very much.


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This hotel in Moscow offers panoramic views of Tsaritsino Park and is just a 15-minute drive from Domodedovo Airport. It offers a relaxing spa and apartments with a balcony.
The apartments at the Tsaritsino Hotel have classical-style furnishings and offer a kitchen and a TV with satellite channels. Guests can relax and enjoy Moscow views from their private balcony.
The Tsaritsino's restaurant serves local cuisine for lunch and dinner. The hotel's bar serves a wide range of alcoholic and soft drinks.
The Tsaritsino also has a spa, where guests can enjoy a range of relaxing massages.
The hotel is near Orekhovo and Domodedovskaya metro stations. Free private parking is available on site upon request.
Shipilovsky Proezd 47, 115551 Moscow, Russia
Shipilovsky Proezd 47Moscow, Moskva, Russia


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Tuesday, June 5, 2012
woyww - ATC's from across the seas
But, look what has already arrived from Annie, Jo and Trish. Gorgeous soft dumfling atc's and a beautiful "smile" atc. Thanks to everyone who has agreed to swap with me and I hope mine arrive soon. The biggest thanks goes to Julia who without fail posts woyww.....
40 comments:
Looks like you had a great mail week. Of course, I think your reading must have been a big hit, too. Happy WOYWW from #4.ReplyDelete
So glad the ATCs arrived safely and you like them :-)ReplyDelete
A x #59
Happy WOYWW to you,ReplyDelete
What fantastic ATC's you have there. It's such a special idea and executed so beautifully.
Julia had such a brilliant idea and helped create not only some brilliant art but also some really close friendships.
Thanks for popping over to my place earlier...I really appreciate it.
~ Neesie #10
Beautiful collection of atc's you have there and what an interesting desk. The book on journaling and collage - does it say "Vintage"? Mm ... latest Kindle - and a list of books down the side - you are an avid reader me thinks.ReplyDelete
Thanks for sharing, Hugs, Neet #6 xx
That really is a beautiful collect of ATCs you have there. I think we should all do a 3 cheers for Julia, without whom none of this would have happened. Happy WOYWW, Anne x #24ReplyDelete
Lovely ATCs there, Love your cute desk and of course the kindle would have honorary place lol. One day all us Aussie WOYWWers should meet up, I'm in Canberra.ReplyDelete
Bridget #21
Super desk, great goodies too, including the Kindle, must get mine out and charge it! Take care my WOYWW friend. Zo xx 65ReplyDelete
WOW!! What a fabulous selection of ATC's... great desk... I love my Kindle.. I thought I would miss holding my book... But no I really enjoy reading from the kindle... Hugs May x x x#34ReplyDelete
I do like the idea of space saving with a Kindle but I love the feel of proper books.... your ATC's are wonderful! Helen, 16ReplyDelete
Happy WOYWW!ReplyDelete
Your desk looks very organised.
Hugs, Sarn #80
Such wonderful ATCs! There is a world of talen out there and when I participate in something like this forum, I realize how small I really am! Thanks for sharing!ReplyDelete
Great looking ATCs wish now I had jumped in maybe next time have a great weekReplyDelete
you have received some gorgeous atcsReplyDelete
have a fab crafty week
kay #52
- AnonymousJune 6, 2012 at 6:50 AM
beautiful, gifts and beautiful desk too!ReplyDelete
OK, hate to ask this in case I sound stupid, but what is dumfling? It's not in the dictionary, lol Thanks for sharing a picture of the ATC's you recieved, it's so much fun checking out what everyone made for the exchange! waving hi from the hills of North Carolina :)ReplyDelete
I keep checking the mail...I only sent mine on Saturday though so I guess it will take a week or so for mine to get to their destinations....I love the anticipation though.ReplyDelete
It sounds like I need to tell Sandee to link up on my blog to find out about dumflings!! I have been busy making more this week. x JoReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 6, 2012 at 11:58 AM
Lovely warm and cosy looking desk and I love the cat picture from last week that I didn't get to see.ReplyDelete
Brenda 94
Thank you for your visit last week, and sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. Jubilee, holiday left overs, school reunion etc has demolished my time. You have lots of goodies on show this week. Have fun with them all. xx MaggieReplyDelete
Ooh i wonder what youre reading? I have to really discipline my reading..or i just read to the exclusion of doing snything else...holidays are good for reading, huh...just finished 'We need to talk about Kevin' ....fascinating and a brilliant format. Love that you habe ATC arrivals already, what a great bunch of people !ReplyDelete
Lovely ATCs there. I am sure Annie and Jo have a special deal with the postman as theirs seem to have got to places pretty quick around the world!ReplyDelete
My Kindle is a little neglected lately as it interferes with crafting and by the time I get to bed I am too tired to read. Have a long bus journey soon so will make sure it is charged up!
Lots to play with on your desk this week, thanks for sharing. Happy WOYWW!ReplyDelete
Hi Sandra,ReplyDelete
I'm so late I nearly didn't bother, but then I got my first ATC (from Finland) this morning so I did a quick post. That book looks good! Hope to see it soon!
Lovely ATC's. Great looking deskReplyDelete
Oh Love your crafty space. I got my kindle for xmas was a huge surprise to get it I don't know what I would do now I'm hooked. Love the ATC's. Sandy :) #98ReplyDelete
You received some beautiful ATC's. Great crafty desk there. I'm an old fashioned book person myself, plus it's hard to get a bookmark into a kindle:)ReplyDelete
Have a great week.
Von #1
Hi Sandra - I am late visiting folk today but I was late posting too! Wednesday already I can believe it. Glad my ATC found you. Pat on the back to the Aussie Postman you have a fab collection of ATCs there. Your collage book looks like a good read. Hope you get time to put your feet up and enjoy. WOYWW Hugs from Helen 105ReplyDelete
It will be the fasted day of your life, try and pause, relax, breath and take it all in, cos if you are like me, you have anticipated it for ages and then when it happens it is over in a flash! Tim is such an awesome man, he will pose with you for a photo if you ask him! Mario too! Enjoy every moment and take something with you for him to sign so you can scrap it with the photo.ReplyDelete
Hi again, My week is topsy turvy. No work yesterday, so no internet access, therefore late WOYWW (this morning) but it was still Wednesday somewhere, so that's OK. Hope you can shake the cold over the long weekend. I'm looking forward to those workshops too, but trying not to stress about them. Will send you a message after the Friday one and we must make some arrangements for lunch before TH on Sunday. (We might be too excited to eat lunch?)ReplyDelete
Have a nice long weekend! (I think I might have tomorrow off too.)
Wow Sandra, what gorgeous ATCs! I do wish I'd been well enough to take part in this swap - I really feel I missed out - but certainly not entirely, because I received the most gorgeous surprise in the post today - a stunning ATC from you!!! Thank you soooo much - I adore the colours and the bling! It is very, very pretty and will be treasured, I can assure you. As I am sure you know from reading my blog, I love gesso - using it with a stencil is something I am planning to do now I am cutting my own stencils for my mixed media work. Have you done it with perfect pearls? I adore trhe shimmer! I feel so honoured to have received an ATC when I didn't take part in the swap. I love the little card that it came in, too, with the pierced design - very subtle and pretty. Thank you, thank you!!!ReplyDelete
Thank you for your lovely comment on my blog, too, about my latest zentangle art. Glad you like my efforts! The new pencils are awesome to use. I feel really spoilt at the moment!
Happy WOYWW,
Shoshi #89
My ATC from you arrived this morning - it's sooooo pretty, I love it. And it was very thoughtful of you to highlight my love of music too - I'm very touched and appreciate the kind thoughts and wishes. I have sent something to you!! Yes indeedy...but it's not an ATC!! *grin* Aha, you'll just have to wait and see lolol!!ReplyDelete
With love, LLJ #70 xx
What lovely ATC's you got! Love all of them.ReplyDelete
Happy WOYWW
Happy late woyww, thanks for popping by, Im still trying to get round as many people as I can. looks like you are already in the swing of things with the swap. have a good week, markReplyDelete
Great looking ATCs that you received. What a fun variety. Enjoy your books!ReplyDelete
Fabby ATC's, I must have a go at these soon. Also, love your well organised workspace.ReplyDelete
Those ATCs look great. It was fun last week!ReplyDelete
Happy belated WOYWW wishes. Thanks for visiting me.
Sarn #80
ah they are simply awesome indeed, Sandra.. I must have popped over here and ran out of time to comments as thought I had...dont you love the dumfling atc's I do mine came and was so excited. Jo was very quick off the mark!! your desk looks nice and productive. Thanks so much for popping over and thanks for sharing ~ happy WOYWW! Shaz in Oz. x #8ReplyDelete
I have kind of lost the plot - been away and come back - got your email - I will email you my addie - sorry for delay - i think I did mail yours, but cannot now remember as some of the envelopes are still on my desk waiting to get mailed via the post office ( the overseas ones)and tours is not with them but Neets (UK) is - so i think I may have post box mailed yours and kept back neets - argghhhReplyDelete
can you let me know if it arrives?
if not I will try again...
Apologies for being so late visiting but as they say better late than never eh?ReplyDelete
Your desk looks like there's masses of creativity going on.
All the ATC's look amazing too. It's such a wonderful exchange of talents ;D
If you nip over to my place you might be interested in joining in with my first 'giveaway'.
Have a great week! Neesie #7
Talk about a great mail week. I just received your unbelievable package. I can't believe the cost to mail those goodies to me. Rest assured, I will be using everything you sent. Thank you beyond belief for the skeleton leaves. I've lusted after them since forever. And thank you for taking such an active part in my blog, not just on Wednesday. You are a super friend.ReplyDelete
Yes, I asked for your address, but I have not made anything art wise since April, except the one ATC I just HAD to make. So, something is coming, just not sure when I'll feel like making it (grin). And your ATCs were all over the top. I really loved the one with the stamp.


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It's been a rough year for our leading financial institutions. Large companies such as Bank of America
Perhaps no company has been demonized more than Goldman Sachs
One could argue that Goldman's reputation has suffered an even greater beating during that time. Overall, the past three years since the beginning of the financial crisis have been an extremely tumultuous time for this iconic bank. Among other things, Goldman Sachs has been:
- bailed out by the government.
- described as a "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."
- sued by the SEC.
To keep track of all of the events surrounding this notorious company, we've created a special infographic:
Goldman's bad run continued this week, when it reported a very rare quarterly loss -- it was only its second loss since it went public back in 1999. Did this loss represent an unlucky quarter or a troubling sign of serious business challenges ahead?
To follow all of the news surrounding this fascinating company, make sure you add it to our new free My Watchlist service. It'll send you updated news and analysis on all your favorite companies.
- Add Goldman Sachs to My Watchlist.
John Reeves owns no shares in any of the companies mentioned above. The Motley Fool owns shares of Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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Mahaparinirvan Express
Indian government has realized the needs of Buddhist travelers and started a special train for them. It takes people on an exquisite journey to the pilgrimage sites and also to some parts of Nepal. The surroundings are amazing and captivate the imagination of people. Buddhism as a religion originated in India and there are many places which exhibit legacy of the past gone by. It is a wonderful trip alluring people to unravel different mysteries of Buddhist religion. Train traverses Bihar, Lumbini , Varanasi and Kushinagar where Lord Buddha took his last breath. IRCTC owns direct responsibility of running the train which is created by modifying rajdhani express. Spectacular toilets and shower are present for customers so that they could enjoy their trip in an easy and hassle free manner. During the tours, people are transported to hotels where they freshen up to continue onward journey.
People could visit different hotels for washing and changing clothes, nevertheless they would be checking late or early depending on train timings. Climate controlled cabins welcome travelers who can occupy seats in 3rd, 2nd or First AC.
3rd AC: It is a huge cabin wherein 6 people could sleep on the left side and 2 on the outer side with lower and upper berth. There is no privacy like a coupe, however the coach would be climate controlled.
2nd AC: Billed as an air conditioned coach, it guarantees privacy because 4 and 2 people can sleep respectively on inside and outside of the coach.
1st AC sleeper: Climate controlled cabin is adorned with 2 upper and lower berths with a sliding door for privacy. It would allow people to complete their journey safely.
1st coupe: One upper and lower berth is available with an impeccable sliding door.
- Tour is initiated from Safdarjung railway station where people are welcome and after initial check, in escorted to their respective carriages. Departure is scheduled at 3 P.M and passengers spend night in train. Tea and dinner are also served to them.
- Gaya Railway station is the next stop for the tourists. They can wash and freshen up with breakfast. Some of the prominent sightseeing attractions are Mahabodhi temple, Thai, Japanese temple and Niranjana River. People can return to Bodhgaya hotel and stay overnight.
- Next morning after breakfast visit Rajgeer to see Bimbisara jail and Gridhakut Hill. Lunch at a local restaurant is followed by journey to nalanda where one can witness the ruins of world's oldest university. The train departs from Gaya at 11:30 P.M
- Varanasi and Sarnath come next in line where people can visit Dhamek stupa and Sarnath Museum. Biggest attraction is evening lamp immersion ceremony at ancient ghats. After sightseeing one should board a bus and reach railway station by 8 P.M.
- Visit to kushinagar is memorable because one is able to see Rambhar stupa and Mata kutir temple. Mahparinirvan shrine is also located here. People can return to hotel after lunch and engage in meditation.
- On day 6, people arrive at Lumbini where they can visit Maya devi temple and see Ashokan Pillar. Train departs by 11: 30 P.M from the city.
- During return trip tourists could pay a visit to Agra and enjoy Tajmahal to the hilt.
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Parts of the UK will be colder than Iceland this weekend, but what about Suffolk?
PUBLISHED: 20:13 10 November 2017
Temperatures will struggle to reach double figures in most places this weekend the Met Office has revealed.
There will be cold winds coming straight from the Arctic, these northerly winds will also carry a few showers with them.
The showers will be cold enough to fall as sleet and snow over some northern hills.
The majority will affect northern, western and eastern coasts. If you are inland you can expect a crisp sunny November weekend.
The cold northerly plunge will move its way southwards during Saturday, clearing the cloud but introducing Arctic air.
Saturday starts off gloomy and damp in most places but by the afternoon the cloud and rain is forecasted to be replaced with sun.
Sunday is set to be cold with northerly winds taking hold however you should still see some sunshine – with a generally dry forecast good news for those marking Remembrance Sunday.
To hear the weekend forecast in further detail watch our video.


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New York: With the Pakistani Supreme Court
talking tough to the country`s government over its inaction
against high-profile corruption cases, experts foresee a
situation of "head-on confrontation" where the judiciary,
military and executive will try to assert themselves.
The New York Times quoted Lahore-based political and
military analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi as saying in a report that
"the situation is fast moving towards a head-on
confrontation," given the Supreme Court`s threat to take
action against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for failing
to act on a court order to reopen high-profile corruption
cases, including those against President Asif Ali Zardari, and
the government`s rigid refusal to act on the court`s orders.
"If the court disqualifies the prime minister and the
prime minister continues to enjoy the support of the
Parliament, then the stage is set for a very dangerous
confrontation," Rizvi said.
He added the legal standoff has shifted the government`s
focus from important issues like rescuing a failing economy
and fighting Taliban insurgents to concentrating only on its
political survival.
"The court, the military and the executive are trying to
assert themselves," he said.
"It has become a free-for-all."
The New York Times report said Pakistan`s judiciary, led
by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is not buying
into claims by Zardari that he enjoys immunity as president.
The judiciary has instead aggressively pursued cases
against his party, "leading many government officials to
speculate that the judiciary was being used by the country's
powerful military to dismiss the government before the March
elections for the Senate, in which the Pakistan Peoples Party
is expected to win a majority."
Political analysts also said the fate of Gilani was "in
A day after the five-member panel of the Supreme Court
said Gilani was "dishonest" for failing to act on the court
order to reopen the corruption cases, the Pakistan`s coalition
government, led by Pakistan People`s Party, decided to
urgently call a session of parliament tomorrow.


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Grandpa Runs the World, Dances to Beyonce While Recovering From Stroke
StoryfulNewsPublished: January 12, 201810 views
Published: January 12, 2018
A grandpa in Soli, Indonesia, proved it's not only girls who run the world when he busted some moves to Beyonce while recovering from a stroke in hospital. Twitter user @ADlTHEBADDIE shared a clip of her grandfather dancing to Beyonce's 2013 single 7/11 and wrote: "My grandpa dancing to Beyoncé after a brain stroke was really the highlight of my summer." Speaking to Storyful, she said the video was recorded on August 11, shortly after her grandfather suffered the stroke. Credit: Twitter/ADlTHEBADDIE via Storyful


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Read this tip to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Baby Gates and other Child Safety Products topics.
When your home features a banister or loft whose spindles seem unsafe for baby, you many wonder what to do. It used to be that you would have to board up your lovely architecture until baby grew up, but not anymore. There are now clear, strong plastic panels that you can put on your banisters and lofts to keep baby from falling through. These can be found on many websites, and in many stores, and are easily customized for your needs.
|Guru Spotlight
|Susan Sayour


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Welcome To Karachi review by Anupama Chopra: A live-action cartoon
Welcome 2 Karachi is the kind of brain-dead movie in which dumbness is the main joke.movie reviews Updated: May 30, 2015 17:13 IST
Film: Welcome To Karachi
Cast: Arshad Warsi, Jackky Bhagnani
Director: Ashish R Mohan
Rating: 1.5/5
Welcome 2 Karachi is the kind of brain-dead movie in which dumbness is the main joke. The more foolish the protagonists act, the more we are supposed to laugh. It's exhausting in an almost soul-sucking way. When I returned home, my son remarked that I looked older than when I had left. Basically, Welcome 2 Karachi is a pro-aging pill.
Jackky Bhagnani, the prime reason this film exists, plays Kedar Patel, a lowIQ lad from Jamnagar. Arshad Warsi is Shammi, his best friend. Shammi is a naval officer who was thrown out for sinking a submarine. Kedar's father, an event manager, assigns them to take a wedding party out on a boat. The two dance with several blondes. Then a tackily rendered digital storm comes. The boat sinks and the two end up in Karachi. Here, they are mistaken for the mujahadeen, the Taliban and Pakistani army commanders. Eventually, of course, their inner heroes emerge and they foil dastardly terrorist plots before returning to India.
There are approximately two and a half good jokes in the two-hour-twelve-minute running time of this film. At one point, Shammi gets them into trouble by cheering for the wrong side during an India-Pakistan match. In another scene, they mistake Barack Obama for Morgan Freeman from Mandela. But there isn't enough of this and soon enough, the cheerful Dumb and Dumber-inspired foolishness becomes tedious.
The best that can be said for Jackky is that he's earnest. Arshad dutifully goes through the motions. The glamour quotient is provided by Lauren Gottlieb, who drops in infrequently, playing a Pakistani intelligence officer (the female characters are basically extras). In any case, how much can actors do, in what is essentially a live-action cartoon? Director Ashish R Mohan is mostly interested in jokes, and all the best ones are in the film's trailer.
I recommend you watch that instead.
Read other film reviews here
First Published: May 30, 2015 16:04 IST


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Sustainability 2015, 7(3), 2322-2337; https://doi.org/10.3390/su7032322
Soil Quality Indices for Evaluating Smallholder Agricultural Land Uses in Northern Ethiopia
Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency, P.O. Box 708, Off Meskel Flower Road across Commercial Graduates, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, 1432 Ås, Norway
Carbon Sequestration and Management Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Douglas L. Karlen
Received: 12 January 2015 / Revised: 11 February 2015 / Accepted: 15 February 2015 / Published: 27 February 2015
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enhancing Soil Health to Mitigate Soil Degradation)
AbstractPopulation growth and increasing resource demands in Ethiopia are stressing and degrading agricultural landscapes. Most Ethiopian soils are already exhausted by several decades of over exploitation and mismanagement. Since many agricultural sustainability issues are related to soil quality, its assessment is very important. We determined integrated soil quality indices (SQI) within the surface 0–15 cm depth increment for three agricultural land uses: rain fed cultivation (RF); agroforestry (AF) and irrigated crop production (IR). Each land use was replicated five times within a semi-arid watershed in eastern Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Using the framework suggested by Karlen and Stott (1994); four soil functions regarding soil's ability to: (1) accommodate water entry (WE); (2) facilitate water movement and availability (WMA); (3) resist degradation (RD); and (4) supply nutrients for plant growth (PNS) were estimated for each land use. The result revealed that AF affected all soil quality functions positively more than the other land uses. Furthermore, the four soil quality functions were integrated into an overall SQI; and the values for the three land uses were in the order: 0.58 (AF) > 0.51 (IR) > 0.47 (RF). The dominant soil properties influencing the integrated SQI values were soil organic carbon (26.4%); water stable aggregation (20.0%); total porosity (16.0%); total nitrogen (11.2%); microbial biomass carbon (6.4%); and cation exchange capacity (6.4%). Collectively, those six indicators accounted for more than 80% of the overall SQI values. View Full-Text
Keywords: soil quality; soil functions; land degradation; land use; Ethiopia►▼ Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.
Share & Cite This Article
MDPI and ACS Style
Gelaw, A.M.; Singh, B.R.; Lal, R. Soil Quality Indices for Evaluating Smallholder Agricultural Land Uses in Northern Ethiopia. Sustainability 2015, 7, 2322-2337.
AMA Style
Gelaw AM, Singh BR, Lal R. Soil Quality Indices for Evaluating Smallholder Agricultural Land Uses in Northern Ethiopia. Sustainability. 2015; 7(3):2322-2337.Chicago/Turabian Style
Gelaw, Aweke M.; Singh, B. R.; Lal, R. 2015. "Soil Quality Indices for Evaluating Smallholder Agricultural Land Uses in Northern Ethiopia." Sustainability 7, no. 3: 2322-2337.
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- This event has passed.
Free Outdoor Music in Hancock
August 2 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
|Recurring Event (See all)
An event every week that begins at 6:30pm on Thursday, repeating until August 9, 2018
Every Thursday you can find music on the Town Common. Bring a picnic and a chair!
July 5: Army National Guard Jazz Band
July 12: Su'al – Celtic and old timey
July 19: Easy Street Bayou – Cajun, Zydeco and Swamp Pop
July 26: Tattoo – Acoustic Dance
August 2: Skip Philbrick Blues Band – Blues
August 9: Otis and The Elevators – American Roots


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Cleveland Clinic. Health Library. Do not resuscitate orders and comfort care. Internet. Accessed on June 23.
Fins JJ, Nilson EG. Withholding and Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Care. Hanks G, Cherny NI, Christakis NA, Fallon M, Kaasa S, Portenoy RK (Ed). Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine. Oxford University Press, Fourth Edition, 2010, pp.320-329.


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Averaging an incredible 17 metres of snowfall annually, the powder at Niseko Village is internationally acclaimed and is among the world's best. Siberian winds interacting with moisture from the Sea of Japan has provided snow with a quality and consistency that is among the driest and lightest in the world.
From 1 December until May, Niseko Village transforms into a ski mecca for powder hounds with exceptional off piste terrain and a wide range of groomed runs suited to all levels of skiers and boarders. For extreme skiers, the backcountry can be accessed through a series of gates near the peak of Mount Niseko Annupuri leading to phenomenal terrain and a huge series of back bowls or snowshoe up Mount Yotei for mind-blowing volcano crater skiing at the summit.


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Logo design for web/business card
Bajet $30-250 USD
IT Consulting company is looking to have a logo designed. More specifically, it needs to look good on the web and consideration given for use on business cards (size, color, etc).
We are looking for a clean design - nothing too busy or wild.
Please include samples of your work.
39 pekerja bebas membida secara purata $65 untuk pekerjaan ini
Good on Logos, Let start, Check PMB for some samples. Thanks and Good day.
hi,just check PM for portfolio,and read our reviews. Its would be your guidance. (Why we are best for your project)
Hi, I'm very interested to this project..Please check PM for samples and qualities..Cheers
Hello. If you need the original graphics and professional execution, please, check the PMB. Thanks, Svetlana.
Professional Work Guaranteed! Please check your PMB!
I´m a graphic designer expert in logotypes, ready to start!
If you are looking for top quality, professional results we can provide them.
creative artist, smart, check pm:) i will do unlimited samples and revisions, choose me today! thanks, claude


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One of the biggest misconceptions I've seen in the world of makeup is that you have to spend a lot of money and get the nicest brands (MAC, etc.) to get a quality product and look good. This is so UNTRUE! I've never used a MAC product. Actually, my uncle got some free MAC products after a fashion show back when I was in middle school and gave me some, but I just didn't like them that much.
I found ELF a little over a year ago, and I've been very pleased with the products (in general).
At first, I was a little skeptical about trying the shadows. I mean, $1 quad? How good can that be? I thought all the people who gave great reviews had to be liars... until the day I tried them for myself. And let me tell you how wrong I was. The day I tried out the ELF quads was such a turning point in my life.
In French, we would say "Je n'ai rien à dire", meaning I have nothing to say because it's just so good. When you try it, it basically speaks for itself.
So I'll try to describe these quads to the best of my ability.
This is what ELF has to say: "Luxuriously smooth, pigmented formula provides your eyes with a bright and beautiful sweep of rich color. The formula blends into skin for a long lasting, beautiful effect. Each quad is comprised of 4 coordinating shades that allow for both natural and dramatic looks. Built-in mirror and applicator included."
My response: I wouldn't say it's luxuriously smooth, but they are relatively smooth. Some colors more than others. Pigmented - EXTREMELY! Bright and beautiful: YES! Long lasting: they last long with primer. I haven't tried them without. But I've put my makeup on at 6am, gotten too lazy to take it off before going to bed, wake up, and my makeup is still perfect.
Natural and dramatic : yes.
The built-in mirror is too small to use to apply to eyeshadow. No big deal.
The applicator is just a sponge-tip applicator. I never use those... I just throw them away.
- Pigmentation is INSANE
- Price (who could beat $1?!?!!)
- They BLEND beautifully!
- I always get compliments when I wear this eyeshadow
- Long lasting with a primer (I just use the ELF primer - it's great)
- Easy to take off, doesn't stain
- You only need a little bit! (Meaning that the teeny tiny little eyeshadow pots last a lot longer than you think)
- Fallout - that's to be expected
- They are powdery, there may be a little eyeshadow under your eyes when you get done, but for $1, who's to complain?!!?
- Some people complain that the pans are too small to get brushes in. This has NOT been a problem for me at all!!! They're small triangles, but it doesn't bother me at all.
This is what they look like in the pan:


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Clemens believes that it's all about teamwork. Through planning, coordination, and control, Clemens brings the build team and the design team together to provide a successful project to the client.
The greatest asset our company is its people. Our experienced professionals, along with our web based management tools, know how to effectively manage a project until completion. Serving the Philadelphia market place in 1979, Clemens has always taken the hands-on approach and has confidently tackled even the most challenging of projects.


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Friday, August 27, 2004
Back of the envelope for the Artistamps Flower call from IOR with actual rose attached below the address.
Posted by Norman Sherfield at 4:18 AM
No comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Mostly things related to Mail Art and Artistamps but no guarantees. Last image is from my Fotola and image changes whenever I upload a new image. Pictures under my profile are from my Flick! photo album.


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What Price Profit? Fired Worker Asks DeVry
CLEVELAND (CN) – DeVry University fired a worker for reporting that a student tried to sexually assault her on campus, telling her she had "stepped outside of her position" by reporting it, the woman claims in court.
Amy Nagy sued DeVry University and two of its administrators on Sept. 11, in Cuyahoga County Court. It is a profit-seeking school.
Nagy says she was an operations support coordinator for DeVry, a job title that is not explained in the 8-page complaint.
She claims that a man whom she recognized as a student told her that he had forgotten his student ID, so she let him in to the door to the student lobby door at about 8:30 a.m. on April 5. She opened a classroom door for him, whereupon he "grabbed Nagy by the arms and shut the door behind them" and "began thrusting himself against her," Nagy says in the complaint.
After more sexual aggression, described in the complaint, Nagy says she broke free and saw a security guard, whose presence reassured her. Buoyed by his presence, she says, she "re-entered the classroom and briefly confronted the student about what had happened."
Nagy says she did not report the attack immediately because she "was embarrassed and just wanted to get past the incident."
But it was not until April 28, when, encouraged by a co-worker and her husband, Nagy told the story to Human Resources, she says.
The next day, April 29, defendant Chris Gilmore, the campus director, called her into his office and fired her, claiming "that she [had] 'stepped outside of her position,'" Nagy says in the complaint.
She seeks punitive damages for hostile workplace, retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and a corrective injunction.
She is represented by Brian Spitz, of Warrensville Heights.


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Happy to be here
During my time as a Trinity University soccer player, I was dubbed "Most Likely To Be 'Pumped' About Everything." Perhaps this was simply a hint that I should try to expand my vocabulary when expressing excitement, but I think my teammates actually hit the nail on the head. Although there are certainly some things that I'm not so pumped about, I'm almost always enthusiastic to make new friends, taste exotic foods, try unfamiliar sports, and venture to faraway places.
I feel *extra* pumped to be writing this blog post from Madrid, as I've been daydreaming about returning to this lovely city ever since I studied abroad here during the summer of 2013. Just a few days into my 7-week program, I knew I would want to come back sometime soon, and for a much longer stay.
CIEE Teach Abroad provided the ideal opportunity to merge my desires to live in Madrid long-term, to expand upon previous experience in the educational world, and to pursue an unconventional lifestyle. The way I look at it, the chance to teach in Spain, part-time, for 10 months represents so much more than an English teaching opportunity.
4 awesome side effects of teaching abroad:
1. True immersion
When I studied abroad in Madrid, and also in Nicaragua, everything was programmed perfectly and curated lovingly by my professors. My classmates and I were set up with host families, internships, daily activities, weekend outings, etc. Now, I'm being thrown into life in Madrid with a bit of guidance, but very little hand-holding, which totally fits the bill for my current goals.
2. A break from the traditional 9-5
Don't get me wrong: I adored my position - and the amazing team - at my previous job (shout-out to Codeup!). That said, I didn't want to look back on my early twenties and feel that I'd settled for a more conventional path instead of pushing myself to achieve one of my lifelong dreams. So, after nearly 2 years of working in San Antonio, Texas, I said bittersweet goodbyes to my wonderful friends and coworkers, packed up my cozy apartment, and headed to Europe with my boyfriend, Tim.
3. Removal from the infamous comfort zone
New country, new language, new job, new schedule. As I gain a deeper knowledge of this distinct social, political, and cultural climate, I'll need to focus on remaining open-minded, asking many questions, speaking as much Spanish as possible, and absorbing information and ideas like a sponge. I can be fairly harsh on myself when my Spanish sentences don't come out perfectly, so this will also be a great time to practice cutting myself some slack and celebrating mistakes as a crucial part of the learning process.
4. Loads of free time
This makes me giddy! My journal is full of notes and doodles detailing various projects I'd like to tackle, as well as activities I want to participate in. So, I'm incredibly excited to explore the city and find ways to get involved in the community (most likely through dance, soccer, work, and entrepreneurship, among other things).
I'll be sharing bits and pieces of my journey in Madrid throughout the next 10 months, and I'd love to hear your feedback, as well as any questions you might have about the CIEE program, working as an auxiliar de conversación, my previous time abroad, or anything else!


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Jonael and Natalia Jimenez Win La Voz Kids
The winner of the third season of "La Voz Kids" is…Jonael!!!
The littlest contestant this year beat out the singers from Daddy Yankee and Pedro Fernandez's teams.
Natalia Jimenez was the winning coach and you can see the happiness on both of their faces right as his name was announced!
Congratulations, Jonael…and Natalia!
Related posts:
Next: Jennifer Lopez Very Unlike Herself at Tony Awards


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Ad: Bungalow by Beach | Casper | Free Parking
Private stand alone bungalow 2 1/2 blocks to beach w/ Netflix, Kuerig, 1 queen Casper, kitchenette +
Dimensional Weight – The Dark Matter of Shipping
Have you ever scheduled freight for shipment, only to have your forwarder come back and tell you that the "chargeable weight" was three or four times more than the shipment weighed in your warehouse?
What the heck is going on here? Is your forwarder some kind of crook? Hopefully not. Odds are, your freight was subject to dimensional weight charges.
Dimensional what?
Dimensional weight, also known as "volumetric weight", is a unit of measure that has been adopted worldwide by the transportation industry to account for the space occupied by cargo in the hold of an aircraft, truck or ocean vessel. Essentially, it protects the carrier from catastrophic losses that would occur on low weight, high volume cargo if freight were only charged by gross weight. While it has been used historically for air freight shipments, and to a lesser extent trucking, a form of volumetric weight can also be applied to ocean shipments as well.
So how do you calculate this dimensional weight thing? The answer, like so many things in life is, it depends.
Air Freight Calculations
First, let's look at air freight. That is where the concept of dimensional weight, or "dim weight", originated. There are two primary means of calculating dimensional weight: international and domestic. The international calculation differs, primarily to account for the difference in operating costs for domestic versus long-distance international flights. The two calculations used are as follows:
Domestic Air Freight (inches): (Length x Width x Height) / 194
International Air Freight (inches): (Length x Width x Height) / 166
The 194 or 166 denominator is what is commonly referred to as the "dim factor".
As an example, international shipping on a standard 48 x 40 x 60 inch pallet weighing 300 pounds, would be charged at a dimensional rate of 694 pounds: (48 x 40 x 60)/166.
There are also separate formulas for centimeters/kilograms for those of you who speak metric, but let's not confuse things here.
Interestingly, shipments to Hawaii, Alaska and Guam are normally charged at the "domestic rate". I've never understood the rationale for that one.
by Paige Cotcamp


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Gyms for kids use gaming to keep them hooked — Update
Beeline Reader
We're constantly looking for innovative ways to improve the Springwise experience, and so we're now introducing BeeLine Reader, a new technology that helps you read more quickly and efficiently. To learn more about BeeLine Reader, an award-winning startup funded by Intel Capital, see BeeLineReader.com.
Earlier this year, we reported on NexGym—a youth fitness franchise that keeps youngsters moving through video game-inspired workouts. It turns out they're not the only players capitalizing on kids' fitness by incorporating video games. Canadian Bulldog Interactive Fitness and Colorado's XRKade are getting in on exergaming, too.
Spotted another good idea???
Join our network and earn rewards


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Category: science
Evelyn Witkin's Lasker Award
I was thrilled to hear the news that Dr. Evelyn Witkin won this year's Lasker Award for her pioneering work in DNA damage response. Witkin started out as a biology student at NYU; originally planning to continue on at NYU for her graduate work she was "bounced out of college" her senior year for her role in protesting NYU athletics' acquiescence to segregation in the South. Fortunately, her move to Columbia and then Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory was a turning point in her career (mind you, NYU didn't even have a genetics department).
At CSHL, Witkin discovered a strain of bacteria that was immune to the damaging effects of UV radiation. This was the starting point for understanding the molecular pathways that regulate DNA damage and repair (which so often go haywire in cancer).
I first contacted Witkin in 2013, while I was trying to dig up information about another CSHL alum, Martha Chase. While Martha remained elusive, I got a broader sense of what it was like to be a female scientist at CSHL in the 40s and 50s (surprisingly good by her account). On top of being a top-notch scientist, it was evident from my correspondence with her that Witkin is a remarkably kind, I'd say graceful, person. I've included an email from her below to give you an idea.
Hello Kristen,
I remember Martha Chase very well, as an attractive young woman who worked with Al Hershey, but I'm afraid I will have to disappoint you when I tell you that I really did not know her very well. I don't recall ever talking with her about the work she was doing with Al, either before or after the publication of their 1952 paper. We exchanged smiles and greetings when our paths crossed, which somehow did not happen very often. Perhaps that was because by 1952, I was no longer living on the grounds at the lab, but across the harbor in CSH village.
I appreciate your interest in what CSH was like in the forties and fifties. I will try to answer your specific questions as soon as I can, but it occurred to me that you might want to read my memoir Chances and Choices: Cold Spring Harbor 1944-1955, which was published in 2002 in the Annual Review of Microbiology. I have attached it here. Perhaps you will find some of your questions answered there. After you have had a chance to read it, it might be useful for you to send me an amended list of questions, which I will then be glad to answer as best I can.
I have to call your attention to an error in that article, which I discovered only after it was published. In the list of future Nobel laureates that I met at CSH. I mistakenly included O.T. Avery, C. M. McCleod and M. McCarty. I has assumed that the prize had been awarded to them, and was shocked to learn, that it had not.
I have always felt that i was amazingly fortunate to have been at the CSH Lab as a graduate student, postdoc and staff member, during those indescribable tears of ferment and promise. I made my first visit there in 1943, which, if my arithmetic is right, is now seventy. years ago. Yet I have vivid memories of so much that happened there, and of so many of the people who helped make molecular biology happen. There was a shared excitement that made every day an adventurea
I'm sure that you must be having a wonderful experience in your graduate work in 2013. Whenever I visit, I sense that a lot of the magic that I remember is still there, on steroids.
Thank you for writing, Kristen. Let's keep in touch.
All best wishes, Evelyn
CSHL Symposium Haikus
Monday and Tuesday marked the 26th annual Cold Spring Harbor In-House Symposium when the lab community comes together to hear research updates from half of the faculty. As corny as it sounds, I think that the couple days before leaving to spend Thanksgiving with family is the perfect time to celebrate the scientific progress of our colleagues. During last night's banquet, as we gathered around to hear David Spector's Symposium top ten list, there was a palpable sense of gratitude. It's a tradition I'll miss when I leave CSHL.
Anyway, I was the chair for Tuesday's morning session, and had to scramble for something creative to do for my introductions. Swinging away from the previous day's "roast" I decided (for some reason) to do haikus. Here they are for the speakers; you can click on the photos to read about each lab's research.
Across vast stretches
The genome yields not protein
What does it ENCODE?
More than location
The promoter sequence charts
The cost of binding
In the zone they wait
Until spark disrupts slumber
A neuron is born
Bump, set, spliceosome
Better to skip than be skipped
Whose alternative?
The truth is out there
Unlock the text, give structure
From many labs, one
Diffracting crystals
Bare structures, mechanisms
In purple-walled rooms
-Eugene Plavskin
Particles and Waves
Interfere, Diffract, and Give
Crystal clear answers
-Jonathan Ipsaro
Here are some more haikus from Symposium attendees:
What is sarin?
At around 2 a.m. on Wednesday August 21st, a barrage of rockets exploded "like water tanks bursting" and released chemicals into two neighboring suburbs of Damascus. Still sleeping civilians inhaled these chemicals, and many never made it out of their beds. As reported by the New York Times, those who did arrived at hospitals, with "their bodies convulsing and mouths foaming. Their vision was blurry and many could not breathe."
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the former commander of the chemical, biological and nuclear counter-terrorism unit at Britain's defense ministry was quoted as saying, "If it is a chemical weapon, it's most likely to be a nerve agent – and we know that sarin has been used in the past in Syria. We know that Assad has very large stockpiles of sarin, and a delivery of sarin would create these kinds of casualties."
So what is the nerve gas, sarin, and what makes it so deadly?
Sarin is an organic compound that contains a carbon-phosophorous bond. Compounds like it are often used as insecticides and are extremely potent blockers of communication between nerves and organs.
Sarin, and other nerve agents implicated in the Damascus attacks (tabun, soman, and VX) block communication between nerves and organs by allowing the build up of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
Normally, an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase rapidly breaks down acetylcholine after it's been released from a nerve ending. At the junction between nerve and muscle acetylcholinesterase works as a sort of "on-off switch" for muscle contraction. When acetylcholine is released from a nerve cell it binds to receptors on muscle and makes it contract. Normally, acetylcholine molecules are kicked off of the muscle receptors and broken down by acetylcholinesterase, allowing the muscle to relax until the next incoming nerve impulse releases acetylcholine.
Sarin breaks this on-off switch by attaching itself to acetylcholinesterase, blocking its ability to break down acetylcholine. This allows it to build up in the space between the nerve and muscle and continuously stimulate muscle, leading to spasms and eventual paralysis. The same process simultaneously takes place at nerve-nerve cell junctions throughout the body: salivary glands are overactivated, causing hyper salivation and mouth-foaming; pupils constrict, impairing vision; and bronchial tubes squeeze shut, suffocating the victim. Sarin is devastatingly effective, and its symptoms line up with those reported for hundreds* of people in the Damascus suburbs.
For a short while, before supplies ran out, the victims were administered an antidote to sarin, called atropine. Atropine acts by competing with acetylcholine for binding to receptors on the muscle (or other nerve cell), while not activating the muscle or nerve cell itself. This gives the muscles and nerve cells relief from stimulation.
Unfortunately even if atropine is administered, sarin – particularly its effects on breathing – can have longterm negative consequences on brain function. There are fears that current atropine supplies are very limited, and that any existing stockpiles are likely controlled by the Syrian military.
Secretary of State of John Kerry has condemned the attacks as a "moral obscenity", and the Los Angeles Times reports that Kerry's emotional language may be an attempt to "build up public support for a muscular attack" on Assad's forces.
Chiral publishing group "Physiological Effects of Nerve Gas"
corrected: Wednesday, not Monday August 21st
*We now know the attack likely affected thousands, with the death toll at 1,429 as of 8/31
NYTimes reports death toll was so high because rockets delivered large payloads of sarin gas.
Re-turning the favor
Since I can remember, summers for me meant the shore. When my siblings and I weren't playing leap frog with the waves or making drizzle sand towers, we patrolled the beach. We buried the jellyfish that washed up on shore, lest anyone fall victim to an ill-placed foot. We picked up stray trash so that it wouldn't hurt animals like those 6-pack rings did. My favorite duty, however, was gingerly righting the horseshoe crabs that had the misfortune of winding up on their backs.
Looking like a primordial holdover, the horseshoe crab easily evoked my sympathies. It reminded me of The Little House: sturdily built to last the ages, it was made to look lumbering by the civilization that sprung up around it. And to think 300 million years ago it was the dominant creature on the planet. Further proof they get no respect: they aren't even crabs! The horseshoe crab is an arthropod that's more closely related to spiders or scorpions than any of the crustaceans.
My grandma's house sits on the southern tip of New Jersey on the Delaware Bay, which happens to be prime breeding ground for the horseshoe crab. Every year as my family descended on the beach on the bay, the horseshoe crabs came to mate and lay their pearly green eggs.
When horseshoe crabs emerge from the surf and slowly traverse the sand, their legs remain hidden from view beneath their shells. It gives them the appearance of helmets commandeered by stowaways (like the old cartoon bucket or traffic cone shtick). I remember crouching down close to them, squinting hard to see if I could make out an eyeball where the bump on the shell suggested one would be (they actually have 10). Often one would sit so still, I'd be sure it was a once-but-no-longer "living fossil", when suddenly it would lurch forward.
When they were on their backs, however, the difference between life and death was stark: they were either an empty plate where a seagull's dinner used to be or a frenzy of legs. The horseshoe crab's tail can prop itself up, helping the wake to flip it over. Farther from shore, a little human intervention goes a long way.
The more pressing issue for the horseshoe crabs, and the migratory birds who rely on their eggs to fuel their journey, is how many make it ashore to spawn. Starting in the 90s, the number of horseshoe crabs began to dwindle, triggered by their use as bait for eel and conch that was sold for sushi. This period of decline went largely unnoticed by my siblings and me (NJ declared a moratorium on harvesting them in 2006). We were growing up; we spent less of our summer at the shore, and we simply didn't look out for them the way that we used to.
I miss the days when I saw myself as the horseshoe crab's protector, when the only problem that needed to be solved was what lay – bottom's up – in front of me. Anyway, I'd had it wrong: I was under the horseshoe crab's protection. Most of us are.
The horseshoe crab is something of a court taster in the biomedical industry. Which is rather funny considering it's the real blue blood.
In the Middle Ages, the court taster's job was to intercept poisoned food before it was served to his lord. We may not worry about hemlock or foxglove nowadays, but injectable drugs and implanted devices (e.g. pacemakers) threaten to serve up a different kind of poison, called endotoxin. Endotoxin is a molecule that decorates the outer surface of gram-negative bacteria, so named because they don't stain purple in the Gram bacteria identification test.
Since the advent of the hypodermic needle, endotoxin has been a headache for the pharmaceutical industry. In the late 19th century, doctors noticed that injecting sterile drugs still caused some people to develop "injection fever". What they didn't know at the time is that even if the bacteria is killed, the remnants of its outer membrane – including endotoxin – can stick around. Injection fever, and in the most extreme case sepsis, isn't actually caused by something that the bacteria does to our body. It's our body's immune response to the endotoxin that can prove deadly (read more about sepsis in Maryn McKenna's SA article). Because they can't filter endotoxin or heat-kill its fever causing effect, pharmaceutical companies need to ensure that it isn't there in the first place. This is where they defer to the horseshoe crab.
The horseshoe crab "taste test" depends on a remarkable extract of its powder blue blood called Limulus amoebocyte lysate, or LAL. What makes LAL such a sensitive test – and worth its whopping $15,000 price tag per quart – is that horseshoe crabs know our potential poisoner very well. In fact, they've been locked in battle with gram-negative bacteria for millions of years. In its oceanic home, the horseshoe crab is constantly under threat of bacterial invasion. It also has a relatively open circulatory system that allows blood to directly contact large areas of tissue. Taken together, it would be easy to imagine how a minor crack in its shell could give bacteria easy access to tissue, spelling out disaster for the horseshoe crab. Luckily horseshoe crabs have evolved a type of immune cell that senses when bacteria is present in the blood. It knows this by gram-negative bacteria's calling card – endotoxin.
When the horseshoe crab's immune cells, called amoebocytes, detect endotoxin they swarm the bacteria, releasing clotting agents that stop up breaches in the shell and trap bacteria. Once the bacteria is sequestered, amoebocytes release killer proteins. The LAL used in the lab is the clotting agent collected by lysing, or rupturing, the amoebocytes. The LAL is freeze-dried in powder form, and gets reconstituted in endotoxin-free water when it's time to test a sample. If endotoxin is present, the sample becomes a gel, and the drug batch or device gets flagged as contaminated.
This unique property of horseshoe crab blood was observed by Dr. Fred Bang in the 1950s. He infected several horseshoe crabs with a gram-negative bacteria from sea water. He noticed that one in particular became sluggish and looked ill. On inspecting the dead horseshoe crab, Bang was surprised to discover that almost its entire blood volume had become a gel. He went on to show that this clotting effect was triggered by endotoxin and carried out by amoebocytes. Today, producing LAL is a $50 million industry. Companies capture horseshoe crabs and bring them back to the laboratory where they collect up to 30% of their blood. The horseshoe crabs are released back into the wild within 72 hours, and figures suggest that as many as 10-15% of horseshoe crabs die following collection.
Flipping over horseshoe crabs won't ensure their future, but that doesn't mean that we can't act as their protectors. After hundreds of million of years on this planet, their survival depends on the preservation of their spawning habitat and the regulation of their harvesting. The public's awareness of the horseshoe crab's life-saving contribution is an important piece of the puzzle.
Remember that the same horseshoe crab that looks so helpless on its back might have saved your life. Return the favor.
Hurricane Sandy posed the latest challenge to horseshoe crab spawning, as it stripped them of up to 70% of their mating habitat. After negotiating the man-made barriers of debris, the crabs would be met with thick clay and vegetation where there had once been sand. Fortunately, environmental agencies stepped in to replace sand on breeding grounds ahead of the arrival of the crabs and birds. However, the long term impact of habitat destruction remains to be seen.
PBS "Crash: a Tale of Two Species"
McKenna, M. Researchers Struggle to Develop New Treatments for Sepsis. Scientific American.
MBL, The Horseshoe Crab
Solon, O. Annual Blood Harvest of the Horseshoe Crab. Wired.
Other sources in links
The Martha Chase Effect: Part 1
It started with a blender. A Waring blender, to be exact. The thing is, until a retro green model caught my eye in a kitchen store, I'd never seen one. I'd heard the name years before in a high school classroom in the context of bacteria, protein, and DNA. It was the brand used in the Hershey-Chase blender experiment that convinced scientists in the early 50's that DNA, not protein, was the molecule of heredity. As a high schooler, I had no clue what a real-life research lab was like, and when I heard "Waring blender" in a breathless phrase, I pictured something industrial-grade, special. It didn't occur to me that in 1952, while Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase agitated bacteria, people were making Mai Tais with the same appliance.
As a graduate student at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), the very place Hershey and Chase performed the blender experiment, I've come to know that scientists are a scrappy, resourceful bunch. We use what works, and the mundane blender at the center of the famous experiment did exactly what Hershey hoped it would.
Back in 1952, "genes" weren't synonymous with DNA. Genetic information was thought of as the material that enabled an organism to reproduce, but it was still controversial as to what that material was. Experiments by Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty at Rockefeller University in 1944 provided evidence that this material was DNA, but they faced considerable resistance from the scientific community. Hershey himself favored the theory that proteins, with their more complex forms, harbored genetic information. When Hershey and Chase set out to conduct an experiment that could settle this issue once and for all, Hershey probably had in mind disproving the Avery-MacLeod-McCarty result. However, the blender experiment results proved to be a "mental shock" that rocked Hershey's views. Once the careful experimentalist convinced himself that DNA was the molecule of heredity, he convinced the world.
The simple viral-host system of T2 bacteriophage and E. coli was the perfect battleground on which to pit the protein theory of heredity against its DNA competitor. The reason being that T2 phage is made up of only two parts: a protein coat and the DNA contained therein.
Just months before the blender experiment, electron micrographs taken by Thomas Anderson showed that phage never invades bacteria as a whole: it always remains attached at the surface. Some part of the phage – either its DNA or certain proteins – must enter the bacterium in order to hijack its cellular machinery and produce new virus.
In an experiment many biologists would gladly give their pipetting arm to have designed, Hershey and Chase tracked the location of T2 phage DNA during its hostile takeover of E. coli by tagging it with a radioactive form of phosphorous. DNA contains vastly greater amounts of phosphorous compared to protein, so the presence of high levels of radiation would give away phage DNA's location. Hershey and Chase wanted the tagged phage to infect bacteria, but they didn't want it to stick around at the surface – they only cared about what the phage transferred to the bacterium during the initial stage of infection.
This is where the Waring blender got its chance to shine.
The blender wasn't their first choice for removing phage from the outside of bacteria. According to Hershey, "We tried various grinding arrangements, with results that weren't very encouraging". It was only after a fellow CSHL geneticist, Margaret McDonald, offered her blender that the experiments started to work. The Waring blender had just the right amount of shearing force to remove phage coats from the bacterial walls, without rupturing the bacteria completely. They then spun the bacteria/phage smoothie in a centrifuge to separate infected bacteria from everything else: bacteria formed a pellet at the bottom of the tube, while everything that was smaller (including protein coats) stayed in the liquid above it. Upon measuring radioactive phosphorous, Hershey and Chase found that only bacteria showed high levels of radiation. DNA made it into the bacteria, protein didn't. Most importantly, phage were able to replicate in bacteria even when their protein coats were kicked off soon after infection.
It looked like protein itself wasn't necessary for phage reproduction after all. It might just serve as a passive vehicle to get the genetic material into the cell. At first, Hershey thought there must be a mistake. After presenting the blender experiment results in a staff meeting, a young scientist named Waclaw Szybalski recalled Hershey said, "I don't believe in that DNA". Meanwhile, Barbara McClintock thought it was a nice experiment.
Hershey's skepticism is a testament to his scientific rigor, considering that he stared at a near perfect explanation for his results around this time. In a letter to Hershey, Roger Herriott wrote,
I've been thinking – and perhaps you have been too – that the virus may act like a little hypodermic needle full of transforming principles; that only the tail [of the virus] contacts the host and perhaps [sic] cuts a small hole through the outer membrane and then the nucleic acid of the virus head flows into the cell.
Hershey and Chase repeated their experiment, only this time they tagged the phage protein by radiolabeling an element found only in protein: sulfur. They found the exact opposite result: radiation was found in the liquid portion that contained the protein coats and not in the bacteria. Again, the virus was able to replicate in the bacteria cells after blending had removed protein coats from the cell walls. Further experiments showed that phage offspring contain radioactive phosphorous passed down from the tagged parental phage. Virtually no radioactive phosphorous is found in the protein of viral replicates. This finding further solidified the notion that DNA was the genetic material responsible for reproduction.
A mere 11 months after reading a letter from Hershey detailing the results, James Watson along with Francis Crick solved DNA's structure, unlocking its hidden code. The Hershey-Chase experiment convinced Watson that the 3D structure of DNA was worth chasing, and to say that DNA was the next big thing in biology would be an understatement. Still, Hershey's cautious personality shone through the last sentence of his and Chase's groundbreaking paper, "Further chemical inferences should not be drawn from the experiments presented."
This post is a result of a CSHL tour I gave to a high school class this week. The teacher asked me in which building Hershey and Chase performed their blender experiment. I took a safe guess at McClintock Laboratory, which back in the day was the animal house. While correct, it made me want to refresh my memory of the experiment. As a working scientist, I have a much greater appreciation for its simplicity and elegance than I could at 15.
Just as I naively took "Waring blender" to be a single entity, I saw an equal scientific partnership in the symmetry of the "Hershey-Chase" experiment's name. Instead, Martha Chase was Hershey's young lab technician. Hershey wrote that the two were "groping toward the idea of the blender experiment" in 1951, implying that she did aid in the experiment's design. However, I have yet to find any account of the work in Martha's own words. While Hershey went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1969 with other Phage Group pioneers, Max Delbruck and Salvador Luria, Martha's life took a more tragic trajectory.
In my reading I came across a post on a blog about the scientist Linus Pauling called "The Martha Chase Effect." The author found that while their blog was dedicated to the life and work of Linus Pauling, the search term that most frequently brought people to the site was, "Martha Chase". This is because Chase's digital footprint, particularly for images, "represents a much smaller body of water" than Pauling's.
A puddle, really.
In a future post, I hope to explore the "Martha Chase Effect" and learn more about the young woman whose name is forever eponymous with the Waring blender experiment.
Take a gander at the actual blender used in the experiment: not as sleek as the one I showed (notice the warning label for radioactive P32).
Thanks to The Linus Pauling blog, for background information and inspiration for the Martha Chase Effect.
"A Phage Shows its Claws" by Lee Simon in New Scientist and Science Journal, 1971.
"The Injection of DNA into Cells by Phage" by A.D. Hershey from Phage and the Origin of Molecular Biology CSHL Press.
"Martha Chase Dies" by Milly Dawson in The Scientist Aug 20, 2003.
"Independent Functions of Viral Protein and Nucleic Acid in Growth of Bacteriophage" by Hershey and Chase in The Journal of General Physiology. 1952
CSHL Oral Histories: Waclaw Szybalski on Martha Chase.
Carl Zimmer's advice for aspiring science writers
It's a daunting time to be a professional science writer. Science, it seems, is working too well. As Carl Zimmer told an auditorium full of science graduate students, "It's hopeless to cover it all, and it's only getting worse."
Or as an exasperated Ed Yong put it:
This point in the history of science represents an embarrassment of riches – exciting discoveries are made every day, but there aren't enough people to take scientific reports and craft them into stories that non-scientists understand and actually want to read. As Zimmer told those of us gathered in the auditorium of Yale's Peabody Natural History Museum, "Let's not restrict the wealth to this room."
There is, in fact, a world outside of our departments, and there's a lot at stake out there.
Nearly half of Americans believe that humans were created in their present form by God within the past 10,000 years. The percentage of Americans who hold a hard-line Creationist view of the world has been flat for the past 30 years, despite major the gains science has made in understanding our human origin, including sequencing of the human and chimp genomes. The mounting scientific evidence that humans and chimps evolved from a common ancestor ~5-7 million years ago has failed to make those data points budge. Consequently, Americans still debate what place human evolution has in the classroom. Similarly, evidence of a 150-year trend in rising global temperatures hasn't stopped people from pointing to a cold winter's day as a refutation of climate change.
The public policy that will determine what we teach our kids and how we deal with climate change will hinge on whether or not voters understand the scientific method, or at least value scientific evidence. Scientists can't afford to discuss amongst themselves and grumble about how the public doesn't get it. Fortunately, if the attendance at Carl Zimmer's writing workshop is any indication, scientists are looking to add their voices to the public discourse. If not to increase science literacy then, heck, to at least share the exciting things happening in their labs with family and friends. Scientists can chip in to cover "all the amazing papers", lest Ed Yong sends himself to an early grave.
So great, we have scientists who are onboard and want to deliver science to the public. One problem: scientists, we're told, are pretty bad at communicating science.
Take this tweet from Quartz News tech/science journalist Christopher Mims, posted that very same afternoon:
Or consider this quote about scientists-as-writers from Robert Kunzig from "Gee Whiz Science Writing" in A Field Guide for Science Writers:
It was sometimes almost sweet, how incompetent they were- how unable to offer a clear, logical account of their work that would be understandable and interesting to an intelligent layperson.
I read this passage on the eve of the writing workshop. It fell under the subheader "Don't Be Afraid" and it was aimed at convincing science journalists that they shouldn't be intimidated by egg-headed scientists. As an egg-headed scientist it left me feeling, well, intimidated at the prospect of a professional writer ever reading my own attempts at science writing.
But here was acclaimed science writer Carl Zimmer telling us that we too could learn to be effective writers. It would just require a bit of "deprogramming". The thing is, scientists sometimes forget to speak English. As students we put in a lot of effort to learn the scientific language, or jargon, of our fields – terms like "synaptic plasticity" or "epigenetics" encapsulate a textbook worth of material. We embraced jargon because we earned the right to use it, and as Zimmer said it, we wanted to "sound like the grownups".
Jargon is super convenient when experts wish to convey concepts quickly among themselves, but it's also a sure-fire way to make the eyes of non-scientists glaze over faster than you can say "Krispy Kreme". First and foremost, scientists need to dispense with scientific lingo when they write for the public. Some jargon is easy to spot, like "RNA interference". However, scientists sometimes have "jargony" uses for everyday English words that are confusing to lay readers. I thought this table from "Communicating the science of climate change" by Richard Somervile and Susan Hassol was an eye-opener.
Instead of jargon, scientists should find metaphors that bring concepts to life and help readers get an intuitive sense of the science. A spot-on metaphor or figure of speech doesn't exclude readers, but like jargon it quickly conveys a complex concept. Zimmer pointed out, "our brains are built for metaphors". To avoid "in-speak" scientists need to place themselves in the mind of a non-scientist, which requires a forgetting of sorts. Think: what did words mean before science colored them? Zimmer keeps a running log of banned words in science writing that you can refer to. I'm guilty of relying on "forbidden" words like modulate and elucidate, among others.
Zimmer said he's noticed that jargon is leaky, often seeping out into surrounding sentences. That is, scientists tend to write in overly formal language. A real-life example he used was the graduate student who wrote that flu spreads in "household settings". Another bad habit of scientists is that they often use the passive voice. I think this happens for two reasons: 1) scientists are typically modest and sometimes feel like saying I or we did/found X sounds arrogant 2) scientists aim to be unbiased; when the passive voice is used in scientific articles it's as if to say "any person who followed the stated protocol would have found the same results". However, when passive voice creeps into non-academic writing, it can leave the reader with the impression that phenomena unfolded without any apparent cause.
Once a scientist unlearns his or her bad habits, the next step is to practice the craft of story building. Zimmer said that when we look at a beautiful piece of architecture, what we appreciate is how the craftsmanship at different scales work together. In writing, the craft starts with word selection and scales up to the paragraphs and overall structure of the story. Like a building, we can take apart the elements of a story and figure out how it was constructed and what makes it compelling. If you want to learn how to write a magazine article, reverse engineer a magazine article.
Zimmer said that before starting, you should be able to state your story in ten words or less. If you can't, you don't know what you're writing about yet. The introduction should provide a road map for the journey you'll take the reader on. The end of the story can look towards the future, "What are the implications if this finding holds up?" Stories, scientific ones included, are about people doing things – so bring the players to life. Also, writers should make sure to orient the reader throughout the story, especially if the piece jumps around in time. Finally, don't be afraid to read your writing out loud. The most enjoyable writing flows naturally and takes on the cadence of speech.
Scientific trainees spend much more time wielding pipettes than wielding pens. Yet, the ability to write clearly for a lay audience is vital if scientists want to inform public opinion on issues ranging from food production to climate change. At a time of looming budget cuts, scientists need the support of the public. We should be seeking to communicate how our science can improve lives, whether that means finding new energy sources or simply providing people with a "gee whiz" science moment. We might need to unlearn some habits in order to do it, but scientists can help spread the wealth of science to the public.
Zimmer's workshop laid out specific tools and guidelines to start the process, but it will take a lot of work from there. Luckily, as scientists we already possess something that's key to good story-telling, and that's enthusiasm. Former science editor for The Guardian Tim Radford wrote:
Most scientists start with the engaging quality of enthusiasm — to get through a degree course, the PhD and all the research-council hoops, you would need it…Enthusiasm is infectious, but to command an audience of readers, scientists should exploit their other natural gifts. One of these is training in clarity. Another is training in observation. And a third is knowledge.
I'll keep these words in mind as I work to put Zimmer's writing advice into practice.
Why a promising experimental result is like a new boyfriend.
There may have been others before you, but I can you tell this time is different. You won't deceive me, and what I've found in you will be true. You won't be like the others, who raised my hopes and had me planning for a future together. A future that was never realized. The follow-up experiments that were never performed, the papers that went unwritten.
And I admit it. It was my fault.
Prematurely, I placed significance on relationships that were new and uncertain, that hadn't yet been tried and tested. I did this because I wanted so badly for each one to work out. My heart swelled at the slightest suggestion of a correspondence between my deepest hypotheses and desires and my experimental results. I wanted to find meaning in it all, to know that all of the time and effort I had invested in the lab wasn't in vain. That my work would lead me to that feeling of discovery that happens when you find the right one. The one who opens your eyes to new possibilities and forever changes the course of your thesis project.
But I'm not a first year graduate student anymore. I guess you can say I've built up my defenses. I don't fall so easily. They say that love is blind, and you know what – it's probably best that the experimenter is too.
Still, that didn't stop me from getting butterflies the first time I saw you. But this time I kept my cool. I took my time getting to know you. I checked that you were consistent, saw how you behaved in different conditions. I made sure that you'd stick around before I ran to tell my labmates about you. And now I can say that I think I've found the real deal. This relationship looks like it's too significant to fail.
My n is high and my p value is low, and this time, baby, I think we're going to make it.


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all i can say is .... WHEW!!!!!!!!!!
1 out of 5 semesters is over!
that was one of the hardest things I've ever done.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... nursing school is NO JOKE!!!
These last 2 weeks of school have been so exhausting. I've studied so much, it's came close burn-out overload
We took our final 2 tests yesterday. They were computerized, standardized, kind of like a mimic NCLEX [the RN licensure exam]. I'm glad we're taking them because they will prepare us for the actual NCLEX when we graduate. [hopefully..] but they were incredibly hard. And until the last minute and the last question, I wasn't sure I even passed, but I did :)
Our final exams [in nutrition and nursing 101] were amazingly hard too! Brutal even.
Our c/o 2013 has been good about giving AWESOME rationale for wrong test questions.. because we're smart :) Our final grades were just posted...
I MADE 'A's IN BOTH MY CLASSES!!!
not some huge accomplishment because 2 classes is nothing. 4 classes - that WILL BE something. But it won't be until January 9.
I will not miss waking up between 5 & 5:30 every morning.
Those Final exams made everyone in my class nervous. No one was sure of what to expect going in to them, and NO ONE was happy with what we saw. Yes, they're supposed to be cummulative of everything we've learned thus far, but seriously, I thought it would be general, main ideas we covered. Some of that was on there, but it went into much more depth than I could have ever imagined. When I was done with those exams, I wasn't that sure of my grade anymore. [bu-bye A's...] Then, to magically see an A on my nutrition final exam and a B on my Nursing final exam, I have no idea HOW that happened!!
A friend in my class is letting me borrow her Microbiology books. I have them now. I'll start looking over them and the notes I have in a few weeks. I need to get a jump start on this one because with all that will be going on next semester, I'm gonna need it.
So far, my break has been consumed with cleaning. With all the studying I've been doing, there just hasn't been time to keep up with all the dirty dishes and dirty clothes and dust bunnies. Now, I'm making up for it. Cleaning is not one of my favorite things to do.
There are some magazines I need to catch up on. Might as well not even have subscriptions anymore. I don't have time to read anything other than my school books and notes. I have missed my favorite girl too! She was with mimi & papa the last few days so I could finish up the semester.
There is still Christmas shopping to be done. Hopefully it will be finished in the next 9 days. Christmas is coming!!!


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Scarlett Johansson's Having A 'Rough Night' In The R-Rated Comedy's First Images
While Scarlett Johansson has basically usurped the title of top female action star, we haven't had as much of an opportunity to see her comedic side. We've seen it in brief glimpses, like in Hail Caesar!, but it's been a while since she led a full-on comedy. That changes with her next film, the R-rated wedding comedy, Rough Night, formerly known as Rock that Body, and today we have the first look at Johansson and her talented co-stars out on the town.
The image features Johansson, sporting a banner reading "Bride to Be", surrounded by the rest of her bridal party made up of Kate McKinnon, Zoe Kravitz, Jillian Bell, and Ilana Glazer. They play a group of friends reunited after 10 years for Johansson's bachelorette party, only for things to get a little too wild when they accidentally kill a male stripper. Together the ladies must find a way to cover up the incident.
Along with the photo are character posters that clue us in to their characters. For instance, Zoe Kravitz is "Dressed to Kill", Jillian Bell is "Lethally Horny", and Ilana Glazer is a "Dope Chick" wearing a weed lapel pin. And apparently McKinnon will be playing an Aussie because she's the "Party Down Under" and carries a can of Vegemite.
Directed by Broad City's Lucia Aniello, Rough Night opens June 16th 2017. [People]