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Courtney Love to sue Kurt Cobain estate's 'looters'
American rock musician-actress Courtney Love is contemplating dragging some of the people handling her late husband Kurt Cobain's estate to court.india Updated: Apr 08, 2009 21:20 IST
American rock musician-actress Courtney Love is contemplating dragging some of the people handling her late husband Kurt Cobain's estate to court, after realising that they have lost all the money that the Nirvana frontman had left for her and their daughter Frances Bean.
Her lawyer Rhonda J. Holmes, of Gordon & Holmes in San Diego, has revealed that Cobain''s estate had been looted of more than 30 million dollars in cash, and up to 500 million dollars in real estate.
According to reports, a team of investigators, forensic accountants and lawyers hired by Love made these findings.
"I have never seen such greed and moral turpitude. This case is going to make Bernard Madoff look warm and fuzzy," the New York Post quoted Holmes as saying.
"We will be filing civil cases . . . within the next 30 days. There are many, many millions missing. We''ve only been able to track down 30 million dollars, but there is more. And then there is the real estate," the lawyer added.
According to Holmes, bank accounts using Cobain, Love and Frances Bean''s Social Security numbers were set up and used to buy and sell real estate across the US.
"There is now a web of homes which were bought, flipped and used to launder money -- up to $500 million worth. Any of the property we can get back will be donated to people who have lost their homes in foreclosures," Holmes said.
When Holmes was asked how could that have happened, the lawyer said: "Courtney noticed the money was gone when there wasn''t any left. It''s no secret she struggled with substance-abuse issues, but in the last year she''s taken a more serious approach to sobriety and started noticing things were wrong. She hired private investigators, accountants and me."
Holmes added: "We are also working with local and federal authorities. When Mr. Cobain died in 1994, he left his enormously wealthy estate behind for the benefit of his mother, two sisters, a brother, his wife and young daughter. Many of those [involved with] the estate''s coffers mismanaged, stole and outright looted it shamelessly."
First Published: Apr 08, 2009 21:20 IST


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This babe is way too hot! Renee is a dreamgirl.
Renee Ross Rolls
Renee Ross looks like a fun girl to go roller skating with. Or you could sit on a bench and just watch her roller skate. Hell, Renee looks like a fun girl to do anything with. There's video of this young, busty hellcat on wheels at SCORELAND's BLOG (do a search for rollerskating), rolling around our editorial office right outside the studio and wheeling in the hallway. Renee's pretty good on those skates. We have no plans to ever make a roller derby movie (too hazardous) but if we did, Renee Ross would be at the very top of our list. Absolutely. She's not just blowing bubbles.
Featuring: Renee Ross
Date: August 24th, 2010
Duration: 78
Member Comments
5 years ago
8 years ago
There is no better way to begin the day than with a new Renee Ross photo set. I really adore Renee and I especially like this set because her playful personality shines through. It is hard to imagine a more rewarding sexual experience than being with Renee.

subset: commoncrawl


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Maths and Statistics
Through the study of Mathematics, students develop thinking skills, problem-solving ability and useful analytical strategies.
HOD: Ian Clark
The Mathematics Department offers Mathematics courses for Year 9 – 13 students. Course content follows The NZ Curriculum, Levels 4 -8. Qualifications entered for are NCEA Levels 1-3 and NZ Scholarship and for some students Cambridge qualifications.
The courses are integrated and cover Numeracy, Algebra and Graphs, Measurement and Trigonometry, Geometry, Statistics and Probability, and Calculus (at Years 12 and 13). Year 13 students are able to take either, or both, Level 3 Statistics and Level 3 Calculus.
Within each topic taught across all year levels, there are opportunities for:
- group and individual problem-solving
- developing communication skills
- understanding the notions of proof and logical argument
- gaining an understanding of the History of Mathematics.
- use of IT and web resources which are a significant feature in lessons.
There are differentiated courses to cater for differing abilities and needs. Able students may be placed on an accelerated programme, which can include Cambridge AS as a bridging course to Year 13. Students who have difficulty are supported by having access to specially designed alternative courses, the help of a remedial teacher, and Peer Tutoring by Seniors.
Students are encouraged to enter In-School, Regional and National Mathematics Competitions.


text:
I got this email from them last Thursday (October 24, 2013).
just verifying all your orders have shipped the transformers will be there shortly I also found and including there instructions in the order for free
the voltron was actually returned in the mail last night for not enough postage I sent it as an oversized envelope when it should have been first class package my mistake and very sorry for the trouble
all should be right in the world now thanks for your orders and truly hope to see you again
I ordered the Voltron on September 17, 2013, okay so they sent it wrong. I did end up getting the refund for it when I FINALLY got their attention through Facebook. Don't even bother with emails, they won't reply them.
I made two orders after that for some Transformers. One was made on Sept. 23 and the other Sept. 29.
Again, only after I got their attention on Facebook did my order status change from processing to shipped, this changed JUST last week October 24, 2013. From the email above, it sounds like they JUST shipped it. So it took them ONE WHOLE MONTH to ship my stuff. I doubt I would even be seeing my orders or money if I didn't post my "Bad experience" on their Facebook page (which of course they deleted right away).
Even IF I receive these items that they claimed they shipped, I will NEVER buy anything from them again.
In short, don't bother with them, it's a waste of time.
For background on this:
WBCollect.com Ordeal
WBCollect.com Ordeal (Update #1)


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Based on 3 critics – Overal Score: 79 / 100
GameInfo: Dungeons is an third-person 3D action Rpg pc game. Dungeons differs from Dungeon Keeper in that it is not monster's needs that the player has to look after but those of the heroes. (17-mission campaign) In order to gain the Soul Energy needed to purchase high end equipment for the dungeon, (over 300 objects) heroes need to be killed only after they are fully satisfied. Things that make a dungeon run satisfying to a hero are obtaining treasure or fighting a challenging but not overpowering opponent. Unlike Dungeon Keeper, the player also has an on screen avatar, the Dungeon Lord, (wimpy goblins) who can teleport bodies to the prison room to have their Soul Energy harvested or roam the dungeon defeating heroes. He will re-spawn at the dungeon heart if he is slain.
Review Scores
|NXT Gamer
|7 out of 10
|8.5 out of 8
|Hooked Gamers
|8.3 out of 8
Genre: Role-Playing
Style: Third-Person 3D Action RPG
Release Date: February 8, 2011
Developer: Realmforge Studios
Publisher: Kalypso Media USA Inc.


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The cathedral and the bazaar
- 1.9k Downloads
- Citations
I anatomize a successful open-source project, fetchmail, that was run as a deliberate test of some theories about software engineering suggested by the history of Linux. I discuss these theories in terms of two fundamentally different development styles, the "cathedral" model, representing most of the commercial world, versus the "bazaar" model of the Linux world. I show that these models derive from opposing assumptions about the nature of the software-debugging task. I then make a sustained argument from the Linux experience for the proposition that "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow," suggest productive analogies with other self-correcting systems of selfish agents, and conclude with some exploration of the implications of this insight for the future of software.
KeywordsSoftware Project Software Project Management Commercial World Selfish Agent Data Structure Design
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.


text:
Cannabis Blog
CA Appeals Court Says No to Dispensary Bans
On Monday a three-justice panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal in California upheld the legality of medical marijuana dispensaries and rejected bans imposed by municipalities on dispensaries.
The ruling reverses a preliminary injunction granted to the county by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ann Jones in May 2011.
"Los Angeles County's total, per se nuisance ban against medical marijuana dispensaries directly contradicts the legislature's intent," Justice Robert Mallano wrote in the 19-page unanimous decision.
This ruling, unless overturned by the California Supreme Court, has major implications for medical marijuana patients all over the state. It upholds safe access for those who do not rely solely on growing their own.
"The court of appeal could not have been clearer in expressing that medical marijuana dispensaries are legal under state law, and that municipalities have no right to ban them," said Joe Elford, Chief Counsel of the medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access. "This landmark decision should have a considerable impact on how the California Supreme Court rules in the various dispensary cases it's currently reviewing."
The ruling also presents a major roadblock in the way of plans to ban dispensaries in the city of Los Angeles, something that affects tens of thousands of patients. On July 24th, the city of Los Angeles is scheduled to vote on a dispensary ban similar to the one enacted by the County; the one just rejected by the court.
The court's decision will have a major impact on the way officials and politicians in California address the issue of medical marijuana dispensaries, and they will be thinking of other ways to solve whatever "problems" they see with them with something other than outright bans.
The feds continue their crackdown in the CA, but momentum seems to be shifting on a state level back to patients.
Source: http://glendora.patch.com
The Ultimate Guide to the Right Vaping Temperature
What are the Health Benefits of Medical Cannabis?
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The Ultimate Guide To Consuming Medical Marijuana
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James Township Historic Locations
The following historic locations are located in James Township, Michigan. Please select a historic place in James Township to view detailed information including address information, historical signifiance, and much more.
Michigan Historic Places
|Center Road--Tittabawassee River Bridge
Center Rd. over Tittabawassee River
James Township, MI
Michigan Historic Places


text:
Journal of the American College of Cardiology
Effects of endotoxin on human myocardial contractility involvement of nitric oxide and peroxynitrite
Author + information
- Received February 27, 1998
- Revision received September 1, 1998
- Accepted December 7, 1998
- Published online March 15, 1999.
Author Information
- Markus Flesch, MDa,* (markus.flesch{at}medizin.uni-koeln.de),
- Heiko Kilter, MDa,
- Bodo Cremers, MSa,
- Ulrich Laufs, MDa,
- Michael Südkamp, MD∗,
- Monika Ortmann, MD†,
- Frank U Müller, MD‡ and
- Michael Böhm, MDa
- ↵*Reprint requests and correspondence: Dr. Markus Flesch, Klinik III für Innere Medizin der Universität zu Köln, Joseph-Stelzmann-Strasse 9, 50924 Köln, Germany
This study examined the effects of endotoxin on cardiac contractility in human myocardium.
In animal myocardium, endotoxin and cytokine treatment led to enhanced inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression and contractile dysfunction. Effects in human myocardium are unknown.
Left ventricular myocardial preparations from failing (n = 18) and nonfailing (n = 5) human hearts were incubated for 6 and 12 h in tyrode solution or in tyrode plus lipopolysaccharides (LPS), with LPS plus NG-mono-methyl-l-arginine (l-NMMA), with LPS plus hemoglobin or with LPS plus the superoxide scavenger 4,5-dihydroxy-1,3-benzene disulfonic acid (Tiron). Force of contraction in response to isoprenaline (0.001 to 3 μmol/liter) was determined in electrically stimulated muscle preparations. The iNOS mRNA expression was examined by in situ hybridization and by polymerase chain reaction. The cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) levels were determined by radioimmunoassay.
Isoprenaline concentration dependently increased force of contraction. Six and 12 hours of LPS treatment of failing myocardium decreased maximum inotropic response to isoprenaline by 54% (p = 0.009) and by 69% (p = 0.0023), respectively. In nonfailing myocardium, 12 h of LPS treatment decreased maximum inotropic effect of isoprenaline by 66% (p < 0.001). The LPS effects were attenuated by l-NMMA, hemoglobin and also Tiron. The iNOS mRNA was expressed in all LPS-treated preparations but also in most control myocardial preparations. In situ hybridization revealed iNOS expression within cardiac myocytes. There was no increase in myocardial cGMP content in response to endotoxin.
Endotoxin exposure of human myocardium leads to a depression of cardiac contractility, which is mediated by enhanced iNOS activity and release of nitric oxide (NO). Consecutive reaction of NO with superoxide and formation of peroxynitrite may contribute to the decrease in force of contraction.
Septic shock as part of the "systemic inflammatory response syndrome" is the predominant cause of mortality due to multiple organ failure on intensive care units (1). Impairment of cardiac contractility is part of this multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (2).
Several mechanisms contribute to the impairment of cardiac function. The existence of a cardiodepressant factor in septic serum has been postulated (3). Increased plasma catecholamine levels (4)might lead to catecholamine refractoriness by desensitization of β-adrenoceptors due to an increase in inhibitory G-proteins (5)and a decrease in β-adrenoceptor density (6).
New insights into the pathophysiology of septic shock have been provided by the discovery that endotoxins alone or in combination with cytokines can induce the production of large amounts of nitric oxide (NO), predominantly by an enhanced expression of the inducible isoform of NO synthase (iNOS) (for review see Kelly et al. [7]). Finkel et al. (8)demonstrated a NOS-mediated negative inotropic effect of cytokines in hamster papillary muscles. In hearts from endotoxin-treated animals and in isolated myocytes, enhanced iNOS expression has been demonstrated in response to IL-1β, IFN-γ, IL-6 and TNF-α or to lipolysaccharides (9–14)leading to contractile dysfunction, which could be prevented by NOS-inhibitors (8–10). These observations suggest that enhanced formation of NO—possibly followed by activation of guanylyl cyclase (10,15)—might be responsible for impaired cardiac contractility.
This view has recently been challenged by Keller et al. (16)and Decking et al. (17), who did not observe an attenuation of depressed contractility by NOS inhibitors and an increase in iNOS activity in isolated left atrial preparations and in isolated ventricular myocytes from endotoxin-treated guinea pigs. Thus, there is still a controversy about the importance of NOS-induction for the development of septic cardiomyopathy. In particular, this controversy holds true for the situation in humans. There is evidence that iNOS expression is increased in hearts from septic patients (18)and during cardiac allograft rejection (19). Also, in human cardiac allografts, an association has been demonstrated between iNOS expression and contractile dysfunction (20). However, it has so far not been elucidated whether endotoxin exposure of human myocardium causes an impairment of cardiac contractility, which is independent from systemic circulatory changes, and whether in human myocardium endotoxin or cytokines lead to an induction of NOS.
To address these questions, an in vitro model of human endotoxemic cardiomyopathy was established by treating human left ventricular myocardium with endotoxin. In the endotoxin-treated myocardium, isometric force of contraction, iNOS mRNA expression, myocardial cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) levels and functional effects of the NOS inhibitor (NG-mono-methyl-L-arginine), the NO-scavenger hemoglobin and the free radical-scavenger Tiron (4,5-dihydroxy-1,3-benzene disulfonic acid) were investigated.
Human myocardial tissue
Experiments were performed on left ventricular myocardium from 18 failing (5 ischemic cardiomyopathy, 13 dilative cardiomyopathy) and 5 nonfailing human hearts obtained during cardiac transplantation. Nonfailing hearts were obtained from organ donors. These hearts were used for pulmonary and aortic valve allograft preparation because there was no appropriate recipient available for cardiac transplantation. Mean age of organ donors (3 men, 2 women) was 34.4 ± 7 years; mean age of organ recipients (16 men, 2 women) was 46.8 ± 3 years. The mean ejection fraction of organ recipients before operation was 24.4 ± 1%. Organ donors and recipients had no signs of bacterial infection or sepsis. Medical therapy of the patients with end-stage heart failure consisted of cardiac glycosides, diuretics, nitrates and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. General anesthesia was performed with flunitrazepam, fentanyl and pancuronium bromide with isoflurane. Cardiac surgery was performed while on cardiopulmonary bypass. Only noninfarcted tissue was used, and scars were carefully trimmed away. Tissue pieces were suspended in ice-cold cardioplegic solution (modified Bretschneider solution containing (in mmol/liter): NaCl 15, KCl 10, MgCl24, histidine HCl 180, tryptophan 2, mannitol 30 and potassium dihydrogen oxyglutarate 1) and were delivered immediately from the operation room to the laboratory.
Isolated left ventricular muscle strip preparation and incubation conditions
Left ventricular muscle strips of uniform size with muscle fibers running approximately parallel to the length of the strips were dissected under microscopic control using scissors in ice-cold aerated modified Tyrode solution (composition below). Connective tissue was carefully trimmed away. The muscles were suspended in an organ bath (75 ml) maintained at 37°C and containing a modified Tyrode solution of the following composition (in mmol/liter): NaCl 119.8; KCl 5.4; MgCl21.05; CaCl21.8; NaHCO322.6; NaH2PO40.42; glucose 5.0; ascorbic acid 0.28; EDTA 0.05. The bathing solution was continuously aerated with 95% O2and 5% CO2. Tyrode solution was supplemented with either lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Salmonella typhosa(1 μg/ml), with endotoxin plus NG-mono-methyl-l-arginine (l-NMMA, 100 μmol/liter), with endotoxin plus hemoglobin (2 μg/ml) and with endotoxin plus 4,5-dihydroxy-1,3-benzene disulfonic acid (Tiron, 10 mmol/liter) or was used without supplementation for control experiments. Under these conditions, left ventricular myocardial preparations were either incubated for 6 or 12 h. Immediately after incubation, some of the ventricular muscle preparations were used for functional experiments, whereas others were frozen by rapid immersion into liquid nitrogen and stored at −80°C.
For control purposes, microscopic analysis of the incubated muscle preparations was performed on hematoxylin-eosin and Luxol fast blue stained cryostat sections. In general, histological examination revealed the microscopic features as expected from the preexisting myocardial disorder (e.g., marked hypertrophy of the cardiomyocytes of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy). There was no morphologic evidence of acute ischemic or toxic myocardial injury or structural alterations in any of the tissue pieces independent from whether myocardial preparations were incubated in unsupplemented Tyrode solution or in Tyrode solution supplemented with endotoxin, endotoxin plus l-NMMA or endotoxin plus Tiron.
Determination of force of contraction
For determination of isometric force of contraction, myocardial preparations were stimulated by two platinum electrodes using field stimulation from a Grass S88 stimulator (Grass, Quincy, Massachusetts; frequency 1 Hz; impulse duration 5 ms; intensity 10% to 20% greater than threshold). Experiments were performed in Tyrode solution at 37°C. Each muscle was stretched to the length at which force of contraction was maximal. Isometric tension was measured with an inductive force transducer (W. Fleck, Mainz, Germany) attached to a Gould recorder (Gould, Cleveland, Ohio). Preparations were allowed to equilibrate for at least 90 min, with the bathing solution being changed once after about 45 min.
Detection of iNOS mRNA by in situ hybridization
For histological localization of iNOS by in situ hybridization, 6-μm thin cryosections of the pretreated myocardium were cut and mounted on slides that had been sterilized and pretreated with 3-aminopropyltriethyoxysilan. Slides were used for in situ hybridization immediately or dehydrated by an ethanol series and stored at −80°C. Before hybridization, sections were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde in phosphate-buffered saline, pH 7.4 (PBS), washed twice with PBS and treated with proteinase K (20 μg/ml in Tris/EDTA buffer) for 7 min, washed in PBS, postfixed in 4% paraformaldehyde in PBS, washed twice in PBS and 0.9% NaCl for 5 min each.
A full-length macrophage inducible NOS cDNA (21), which was kindly donated by Prof. Lowenstein (Baltimore, Maryland), was used for probe preparation. The cDNA was cloned into the Not 1 site of the Strategene vector Bluecript KS+ (Stratagene, Heidelberg, Germany). After linearization with Eco RV, 35S-labeled 500-bp antisense cRNA were generated by in vitro transcription using the T3 RNA polymerase. The 700-bp cRNA probes in sense orientation were transcribed after linearization with Dra I with the T7 RNA polymerase to serve as negative controls in each series of experiments. Incorporated label was purified by gel filtration. Some sections were hybridized with a cRNA probe specific for intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) as described elsewhere (22).
Sections were prehybridized in hybridization solution (50% formamide, 10% dextransulfate, 10 mmol/liter Denhard solution (Ficoll, polyvinylpyrrolidone, and bovine serum albumin; 1 mg/ml each), 0.9 mol/liter NaCl, 60 mmol/liter Na2HPO4, 6 mmol/liter EDTA, 0.5% SDS, and 200 μg/ml tRNA from yeast) for 1 to 2 h in a humid chamber (50% formamide). Denatured cRNA probes (5 min, 65°C) were added to fresh hybridization solution at a concentration of 700,000 dpm/50 μl. Hybridization was performed for 10 to 14 h at 50°C. Sections were washed twice for 10 min in 2× standard saline citrate (SSC) with 20 mmol/liter mercaptoethanol at 50°C, twice for 5 min in 2× SCC with 10 mmol/liter Tris and 1 mmol/liter EDTA (2× SSCTE) at 50°C, for 30 min in 2× SSCTE plus 10 μg/ml RNase A and 10 U RNase T1 at 37°C, once for 5 min 0.2× SSC at 37°C and twice for 15 min to a final stringency of 0.2× SSC at 65°C. The sections were dehydrated in an ethanol series in the presence of 300 mmol/liter ammonium acetate, air-dried for 10 min, and exposed to Kodak X-omat AR X-ray film for 3 days to get an orientation about the signal intensity. Afterwards, sections were coated with undiluted Kodak NTB-2 photoemulsion at 45°C. After 3 to 4 weeks of exposure at 4°C, the emulsion-coated slides were developed in Kodak D-19 (16 g/l), fixed in Kodak Unifix (150 g/l), and counterstained lightly with hematoxylin-eosin.
Determination of iNOS mRNA expression by RT-PCR
The RNA (2 μg) was reverse-transcribed to give cDNA in a final volume of 30 μl containing Tris-HCl 10 mmol/liter (pH 8.3), KCl 50 mmol/liter, MgCl25 mmol/liter, random hexamers 1.7 μmol/liter, 0.5 mmol/liter each of dATP, dTTP, dCTP and dGTP, RNase inhibitor 0.5 μmol/liter and Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase 3.3 U/μl. The reaction was carried out at 42°C for 1 h, followed by heat inactivation of the enzyme at 75°C for 10 min. The cDNA was stored at −80°C.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed using specific primers (Clontech, Heidelberg, Germany) yielding a PCR product of 259-base pair length leading from nucleotide 3589 to nucleotide 3848 of the human iNOS sequency published by Geller et al. (23). Primer sequences were: 5′-CGG TGC TGT ATT TCC TTA CGA GGC GAA GAA GG-3′ and 5′-GGT GCT ACT TGT TAG GAG GTC AAG TAA AGG GC-3′. The PCR was performed in Tris HCl 10 μmol/liter, MgCl21.5 μmol/liter, KCl 50 μmol/liter, dNTPs 160 μmol/liter, primers 10 pmol/liter and Taq-polymerase 1.25 IE/50 μl. After an initial cycle of 3 min at 94°C, 2 min at 64°C and 1 min at 72°C, reactions were performed for 35 cycles consisting of a 1-min denaturation step at 94°C, an annealing step of 1 min at 64°C and a synthesis step of 1 min at 72°C. The PCR was finished by a final extension step at 72°C of 7 min. Reactions were performed on a Perkin-Elmer Thermal cycler 480 (Perkin-Elmer, Überlingen, Germany). To control adequate isolation of RNA and conversion to cDNA, amplification of GAPDH was performed using the following primers: 5′-GCT TTT AAC TCT GGT AAA GTG G-3′ and 5′-TCA CGC CAC AGT TTC CCG GAG G-3′. PCR products were visualized by ethidium bromide staining after agarose gel electrophoresis. Identity was also confirmed by automatic sequencing of the PCR product using the following internal primer: 5′ GTG CAG CCC AGC AGC CTG -3′.
Determination of myocardial cGMP content
For determination of myocardial cGMP content, frozen myocardial tissue was pulverized and solubilized in 6% (v/v) trichloroacetic acid containing 10 μmol/liter HCl yielding a final concentration of 100 mg tissue in 1000 μl solution. After centrifugation at 2000 gover 15 min, the supernatant was washed with water-saturated diethylether to remove trichloroacetic acid. Afterwards, the cGMP-containing liquid phase was lyophilized. Determination of the cGMP content in the ventricular myocardium was performed using a commercially available radioimmunoassay (Amersham-Buchler, Braunschweig, Germany). To have a positive control, right atrial trabecula obtained during open heart surgery were acutely exposed to the NO-donator sodium nitroprusside (SNP, 100 μmol/liter). For cGMP content determination, atrial trabecula were essentially handled the same as ventricular preparations.
Lipopolysaccharides from Salmonella typhosa, NG-mono-methyl-l-arginine (l-NMMA), 4,5-dihydroxy-1,3-benzene disulfonic acid (Tiron) and hemoglobin were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Deisenhofen, Germany). Molecular biology enzymes were all purchased from Boehringer (Mannheim, Germany) if not indicated otherwise. All chemicals used were of analytical grade or the best grade commercially available. All compounds were dissolved in deionized and twice-distilled water.
The data shown are means ± SEM; EC50values are given as means ± 95% confidence intervals. For statistical analyses of concentration-response curves, area under the curves (AUCs) were calculated and analyzed by ANOVA. The least significant difference (LSD) test and the Shaffer procedure were used for the multiple pairwise comparisons (i.e., if the F test of the global hypothesis was significant, the one-sided p values of the pairwise comparisons were calculated by the LSD test and compared with Shaffer's significant levels [α/3, α/3, α/3, α/3, α/2, α]).
Acute effects of endotoxin on force of contraction
The addition of increasing concentrations of endotoxin (0.001 to 3 μg/ml) had no acute effect on basal isometric force of contraction. Also, the concentration-dependent increase in force of contraction in response to increasing concentrations of isoprenaline (0.001 to 3 μmol/liter) was not affected by acute addition of endotoxin (1 μg/ml) into the organ bath.
Effect of endotoxin treatment on force of contraction in failing myocardium
Six and 12 hours' incubation of myocardial preparations in Tyrode solution supplemented with LPS led to a significant attenuation of the concentration-dependent increase in force of contraction in response to isoprenaline (0.001 to 3 μmol/liter) compared to preparations incubated in unsupplemented Tyrode solution. Six hours' endotoxin treatment of failing myocardium decreased the maximum inotropic effect of isoprenaline by 54% (p = 0.0087; Fig. 1, upper panel); 12-h treatment decreased it by 69% (p = 0.0023; Fig. 1, lower panel). There was no change in the potency of isoprenaline due to endotoxin treatment as indicated by EC50values (12-h incubation, control vs. endotoxin: 0.044 (0.030 to 0.064) μmol/liter and 0.065 (0.039 to 0.108) μmol/liter).
Effect of l-NMMA and hemoglobin on force of contraction
To investigate whether the decreased inotropic response to isoprenaline and the decrease in basal contractility following endotoxin treatment might be mediated by activation of NOS, the effect of co-incubation of the ventricular preparations with endotoxin and the NOS-inhibitor l-NMMA and of co-incubation with endotoxin and the NO-scavenger hemoglobin was determined. l-NMMA significantly attenuated the effects of endotoxin on myocardial force generation. Similarly, hemoglobin attenuated the effect of endotoxin treatment, although this effect did not reach statistical significance (Fig. 1).
Effect of endotoxin treatment on force of contraction in nonfailing myocardium
The relative concentration-dependent effect of isoprenaline on isometric force of contraction was more pronounced in nonfailing than in failing myocardium, the maximum increase in force of contraction in response to isoprenaline being 523 ± 58% in nonfailing (n = 10) and 339 ± 37% (n = 17) in failing myocardium (p = 0.009) (Fig. 2, A). Twelve hours of endotoxin treatment of nonfailing left ventricular myocardium decreased the maximum inotropic response to isoprenaline by 66% (p < 0.001 endotoxin vs. control). The effect was similar to the endotoxin effect in failing myocardium (Fig. 2, B). Co-incubation of nonfailing myocardium with l-NMMA significantly attenuated the endotoxin effect. Again, there was no effect of endotoxin treatment on the potency of isoprenaline (EC50values: control 0.027 (0.016 to 0.046) μmol/liter vs. endotoxin 0.046 (0.028 to 0.074) μmol/liter).
Detection of iNOS mRNA in incubated left ventricular myocardial preparations
Also, to investigate whether the decrease in myocardial force development could be explained by an enhanced expression of iNOS in response to endotoxin treatment, presence of iNOS mRNA in control myocardium and endotoxin-treated myocardium was determined by RT-PCR and by in situ hybridization.
The RT-PCR with specific primers for iNOS led to the amplification of a cDNA segment corresponding in its electrophoretic migration characteristics to the expected iNOS cDNA segment of 259-bp length (Fig. 3). Identity of the PCR product with the expected cDNA fragment was confirmed by sequence analysis (not shown). In failing myocardium, iNOS mRNA was detectable in all samples (6/6) independent from whether samples were treated with endotoxin or not. Similarly, in the majority of samples from nonfailing hearts (4/6), iNOS mRNA was already detectable in those samples that had not been exposed to endotoxin. In samples from two nonfailing hearts in which iNOS mRNA was not already present in tyrode-incubated controls, a iNOS PCR product was obtained after treatment with endotoxin.
In situ hybridization revealed specific signals for iNOS mRNA in cardiac myocytes as well as in non-myocyte cells (Fig. 4). The signal obtained from cardiac myocytes was much denser than the signal obtained from other cell types, indicating that iNOS is predominantly expressed in cardiac myocytes. In contrast, the hybridization signal for intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) used as a control was mainly expressed in endothelial cells along intramyocardial blood vessels and was not reliably detectable in cardiac myocytes (not shown). Thus, the predominant expression of iNOS mRNA within cardiac myocytes is not due to a selective loss of endothelial cells during the incubation procedure.
Determination of myocardial cGMP content
Myocardial cGMP content was determined in left ventricular myocardial preparations that were incubated in parallel to muscle preparations used for functional experiments. Neither after 6 h nor after 12 h of incubation was an increase in myocardial cGMP level detectable (Fig. 5).
Effect of co-incubation of myocardial preparations with endotoxin and Tiron
To investigate whether oxygen-derived free radicals (O2−) and formation of peroxynitrite (ONOO−) contribute to endotoxin-induced contractile dysfunction, the effect of the superoxide (O2−) scavenger Tiron was investigated. Also, in this independent series of experiments, endotoxin treatment of human myocardial preparations for 6 h led to a pronounced decrease in the concentration-dependent positive inotropic response to isoprenaline by a maxim of 50% (p = 0.035, ttest) (Fig. 6). The addition of Tiron to the incubation medium abolished the effect of endotoxin on myocardial contractility (Fig. 6). Incubation with Tiron alone had no effect on the inotropic response to isoprenaline (Fig. 6).
The present study investigated whether cardiac contractile dysfunction in endotoxin shock might be a direct consequence of endotoxin exposure of the myocardium and which cellular mechanisms may be involved in the pathophysiology of septic cardiomyopathy.
Inotropic effects of endotoxin in human nonfailing and failing myocardium
Treatment of isolated human left ventricular myocardium for 6 or 12 h with endotoxin led to a decrease in basal and isoprenaline-enhanced force of contraction. The effect was attenuated by the NO-synthase inhibitor l-NMMA and abolished by the superoxide scavenger Tiron, indicating that negative inotropism of endotoxin is mediated by enhanced release of NO and possible interaction with oxygen-derived radicals.
Suffredini et al. (24)were the first to demonstrate that endotoxin-treatment led to a depression of left ventricular contractility in humans. The limitation of their examination was that administration of endotoxin in vivo did not allow them to discriminate between direct effects of endotoxin in the myocardium and indirect effects such as alterations in peripheral vascular resistance or toxic effects of released catecholamines or cytokines. In contrast, the present study provides evidence that prolonged endotoxin treatment is sufficient to directly induce contractile dysfunction in human myocardium.
The negative effect of endotoxin treatment on basal force of contraction and the inotropic response to isoprenaline was present in both nonfailing and failing myocardium. Thus, endotoxin also leads to a decrease in force of contraction in myocardial preparations in which force of contraction and especially the inotropic response to isoprenaline is already impaired (25)and in which NOS activity is already enhanced (26–28)as has been reported previously for failing human myocardium. Therefore, enhanced NOS expression and activity in heart failure does not seem to be a yes or no effect, but a gradual and modifiable effect that progressively leads to an impairment of cardiac function.
Molecular evidence for iNOS mRNA expression in response to endotoxin treatment
Findings in animal models of endotoxin- or cytokine-induced cardiomyopathy indicate that induction of iNOS is one key mechanism to produce cardiodepressant effects (7,9–11,14). In accordance, iNOS mRNA could be detected within human myocardium by RT-PCR and in situ hybridization in the present study. However, no significant difference was seen between iNOS mRNA signals from endotoxin-treated and from control myocardium as determined either by in situ hybridization or by RT-PCR. In failing myocardium in which enhancement of iNOS expression and activity has already been demonstrated (26–28), one might have expected this finding. However, also in the nonfailing myocardium, iNOS mRNA was already detectable in most of the samples treated in Tyrode without endotoxin supplementation. One explanation might be that, according to a previous report (27), iNOS gene expression can be observed in more than 50% of nonfailing donor hearts, which might be due to medical treatment before, or handling of the hearts following, explanation. Alternatively, one has to consider that endotoxin contamination of incubation basins and media could also have contributed to iNOS induction in control preparations.
The next question was in which myocardial cells does iNOS expression occur and whether NO effects on cardiac myocytes are rather paracrine or autocrine. Results of in situ hybridization for iNOS mRNA indicate that mRNA expression occurs in all cell types including fibroblasts and endothelial cells, but especially within cardiac myocytes from which the strongest signal was obtained. The observation that iNOS mRNA is primarily present in cardiac myocytes in human myocardium is in accordance with recent findings by Haywood et al. (27), who also detected iNOS within cardiac myocytes by immunohistochemical staining of human myocardium. Thus, NO can be generated within cardiac myocytes themselves, and NO effects on myocyte contractility are rather autocrine than paracrine.
Functional evidence for enhanced NOS activity
Because RT-PCR and in situ hybridization did not allow us to quantify differences between iNOS and mRNA levels, the question whether endotoxin treatment of human myocardium leads to an enhanced iNOS activity had to be addressed by functional experiments. In this context, the effects of the NOS-inhibitor l-NMMA and of the NO scavenger hemoglobin were examined. The addition of both the NOS inhibitor and of the NO-scavenger to the incubation medium attenuated the endotoxin effect in failing and nonfailing myocardium. This observation from functional experiments indicates that endotoxin effects are mediated by enhancement of NOS activity and formation of NO. Because contractile dysfunction in response to endotoxin did not develop acutely, but only after prolonged incubation, one has to assume that endotoxin leads to an increase especially in iNOS gene expression, which might have been overlooked by the molecular methods chosen for this study.
Conversely, NOS inhibition did not lead to a complete blockade of the endotoxin effects on human myocardium. This distinguishes the recent findings from observations in isolated myocytes (9,10,14)or isolated perfused hearts (29)in which effects of endotoxin or cytokine on contractility were abolished by NOS inhibition. There may be species differences or even other mechanisms not yet known that contribute to endotoxin-induced contractile dysfunction, which are independent from release of NO. However, the most likely explanation is that penetration of l-NMMA into the multicellular myocardial preparations used for the present experiments was less effective than penetration in isolated myocytes used in previous experiments.
Myocardial cGMP levels in response to endotoxin
Also, in contrast to observations in other species in which endotoxin- or cytokine-induced contractile dysfunction was accompanied by an increase in myocardial or myocyte cGMP levels (10,13), no increase occurred in myocardial cGMP levels in response ro endotoxin treatment in human myocardium. One explanation for this discrepency with previous reports is that the peak increase in NO release and myocardial cGMP levels was missed because it occurs earlier as after 6 or 12 h of endotoxin exposure. In this context, it has been demonstrated that once established, cytokine-induced contractile dysfunction persists even if NOS is inhibited later on (29). One also has to consider that there are unrelated effects of endotoxin that lower cGMP levels or that expression of iNOS mRNA in most of the examined samples led to an elevation of baseline cGMP levels. However, the most likely explanation is that enhanced iNOS activity and NO formation impair myocardial contractility by a mechanism that is independent from activation of guanylyl cyclase. This view is supported by the recent observation that the NO-induced reduction in the contractility of isoprenaline-stimulated rat hearts could not be modified by a guanylyl cyclase inhibitor (30).
Involvement of O2−and ONOO−in endotoxin-induced contractile dysfunction
One alternative mechanism by which NO leads to a decrease in force of contraction is the formation of peroxynitrite (ONOO−) (31), which is formed by the reaction of NO with superoxide anions (O2−) (32)and has been demonstrated to be released from activated macrophages as a result of the simultaneous generation of NO and O2−(33). There is evidence that similar to NO (34)ONOO−inhibits rat heart mitochondrial respiration (35). In contrast to the effects of NO, effects of ONOO−on cardiac contractility and mitochondrial respiration show no rapid reversibility; thus, ONOO−might be the more pathological radical (36,37). In response to endotoxin treatment, ONOO−formation in association with enhanced iNOS activity has been demonstrated in rat aorta in vivo (38).
The hypothesis that endotoxin-induced contractile dysfunction in human myocardium could be mediated by the formation of ONOO−is supported by the finding that the effect of endotoxin was abolished in the presence of Tiron, a chelate complex forming and antioxidant substance that scavenges O2−and ONOO−(36,39). Obviously, one has to consider that a radical scavenger also unselectively scavenges NO. However, there is evidence that Tiron does not interfere with the effects of NO or hydroxyl radicals (OH−) (36,39). Because the effects of endotoxin could be antagonized by both NOS inhibition and scavenging of O2−and ONOO−, one might assume that endotoxin leads to an increased release of NO and by reaction of NO with O2−to the formation of ONOO−. Formation of ONOO−would also explain the missing increase in myocardial cGMP levels in response to endotoxin treatment and NO release because reaction of NO with O2−might have channeled NO away from its target guanylyl cyclase, as has been demonstrated in human artery and vein preparations in vitro (40).
The results of this study demonstrate that endotoxin exposure of human myocardium impairs cardiac contractility independently from systemic endotoxin effects. This impairment of myocardial performance appears to be mediated by an enhanced release of NO and a consecutive enhanced formation of ONOO−. The use of specific scavengers of O2−and ONOO−might lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies for cardiac contractile dysfunction in septic shock and inflammatory heart diseases.
We thank Frau Diplom-Statistikerin Bettina Buchheister for professional advice in statistical analysis of the experimental data.
☆ Experimental work was financially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (M.B.) and the Laerdal Foundation (M.B., M.F.). This work contains data of the doctoral theses of H.K. and B.C. (University of Cologne, in preparation).
- Abbreviations
- cGMP
- cyclic guanosine monophosphate
- iNOS
- inducible nitric oxide synthase
- nitric oxide
- superoxide
- peroxynitrite
- Received February 27, 1998.
- Revision received September 1, 1998.
- Accepted December 7, 1998.
- American College of Cardiology
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There are many ways that you can cast a circle for your spell working. You may not know what it is that you can use. This can be frustrating, but you may find that normal household items will work just fine for what you are doing.
A good thing to try is candles for your calling of the quarters. This works well for a wide open space that will allow plenty of room without causing a fire. You could also decide to place the candles on the altar for the four elements. A separate candle may be used to represent spirit as well. There are some colors that you can use to represent the elements that you are using.
Yellow – Air
Red/ Orange – Fire
Light blue – Water
Green – Earth
Purple/ White - Spirit
Stones make a good option for those that don't want to use fire for their circle casting. These will need to be researched so that you are using the right stones for the element that you are planning on using the stone to represent.
Air – Moonstone
Fire – Amber
Water – Blue agate
Earth – Found stone
Spirit – Crystal Quartz ( This stone will also work for the other elements if you empower them to hold that element.)
Herbs can also be used for the circle if you are aware of what element they are associated with. These will also hold a circle if you decide that you want to use them. They also don't need to be burned to hold the circle open for your spell working.
Air – Dandelion, Lavender, Parsley
Fire – Allspice, Basil, Clove, Dill
Water – Avocado, Banana, Daisy
Earth – Alfalfa, Corn, Potato
Spirit – The herb that calls to you and that best matches your purpose.
Any combination of the different ideas will also work. Some people choose to use items that represent each element to them. These include fountains, dirt, incense that is burning, feathers, and other combinations. The trick is to find a combination that works well for you. If you like the way that one idea sounds, but don't have some of the items to cast your circle with, take a look around your home. Chances are that you have something that will work for what you are doing and the magic that you are trying to cast.


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iPod + DS = DSpod? iDS? ipoDS?
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo DS, Hacks, Fashion
OK, so the white DS Lite already looks an awful lot like an iPod, but the resemblance is even stronger now that hackers have made an MP3 player for the system that mirrors the iPod interface, right down to the blue-on-white menus. GBADev has more info and a download link, and YouTube has a video showing off the touchscreen-as-clickwheel hotness.
The player requires a specially-designed DS or GBA flash cart to work, and the memory on those things pales in comparison to even the smaller iPods. Still, a neat little hack to show off to your iPod-loving friends.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments


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'MEIN WEIN by Mathias' is our regular wine event that so far has been a great success. This Sunday we present a very special edition of it as we welcome not one, but five different wineries to Restaurant Le Faubourg to share their wines and wisdom with us and our guests.
Curated as always by Sofitel Kurfürstendamm's own sommelier Mathias Brandweiner, there is a very interesting selection to look forward to and Mathias is looking forward to seeing people experience and learn more about the wines he has chosen.
The featured wines are as follows:
Relats Gran Reserva, Brut Nature 2010 from Recaredo Winery (Spain)
Grüner Veltliner Schlossberg 2013 from Fritsch Winery (Austria)
Terrano IGT 2009 from Kante Winery (Italy)
Bajondillo 2013 from Jiménez Landi Winery (Spain)
Moscato Civranetta DOC Demi Sec from Fidora Winery (Italy)
'MEIN WEIN by Mathias' gives guests the chance to share Mathias' favourite wines and to meet the winemakers. "The reason I created the event was to introduce our guests to the art of drinking wine," says Mathias. "My selections will often be wines they may not know and wines that are not widely available, so they will have a more exclusive experience." As head sommelier, Mathias has really made his mark on our wine list with more than 150 individually selected wines now in our collection. Mathias has built good relationships with winemakers and has many great producers in his 'little black book' of wine industry contacts.
Chef de Cuisine Felix has created a specific menu to suit the wines and the 5 different courses are each carefully designed to best accompany Mathias's selection of wines. Highlights of the menu include the ceviche of beef with parsley, mushrooms, and fennel, prawn salad with peach, pancetta and chanterelle mushrooms and the medium braised 24 hour beef with spinach, port vine, shallots, garden radish, and potato.
All of the wines tasted will also be available for purchase at the event, and for the week after. Special prices will be offered to those in attendance at the event.
'MEIN WEIN by Mathias' will be held on Sunday 6th September at 6.30 pm with food served at 7pm. Tickets are €85.00 for all 5 courses including wine. Reservations must be made in advance, so please call Robert on 030 800 999 7700 to secure your place!


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|Posted: January 26, 2010
USDA's Agricultural Reasearch Service Purchases Fluidigm Solution for Development and Validation Testing of Cattle SNP Panels
|(Nanowerk News) Fluidigm Corporation has announced that the U.S. Department of Agricultures Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has purchased a Fluidigm microfluidic-based EP1™ System to help develop and validate focused 96- and 384-SNP (single-nucleotide polymorphism) panels for testing Americas dairy and beef cattle. To ensure healthy cows and top quality product.
|ARS scientists are collaborating with leading members of the U.S. biotechnology industry to develop low-cost, high-throughput SNP panels that can genetically indicate cattle growth rates, disease resistance, milk productivity, health and longevity. To date ARS has studied over 100 of the more than 50,000 previously discovered genetic markers for cattle. The projects goal is to turn out healthier cows that produce higher-quality milk and meat for consumers while also preserving the viability of the countrys thousands of cattle ranchers and dairy farmers. Validated SNP panels are expected to be utilized routinely in livestock breeding management. There are approximately nine million dairy cows and 35 million beef cattle in the United States.
|ARS purchased a Fluidigm EP1 System to perform focused SNP validation and testing of cattle samples. The flexibility of our system allows them to quickly reconfigure their SNP panels for each experiment and our low cost per data point will allow the industry to adopt Fluidigms technology broadly. Our hope is that genetic understanding and testing of these cattle can help consumers and producers of cattle in the U.S., and around the world, increase the output of their herds and help meet the global demand for high-quality cattle, said Gajus Worthington, president and chief executive officer of Fluidigm. Increasing our genetic understanding of plants and animals and applying that knowledge to improve the worlds food supply is one of the most important developments of the 21st century.
|The ARS project is led by animal geneticist Curtis P. Van Tassell. Under his leadership, ARS scientists are integrating newly identified molecular markers with existing data sources to determine how to raise the predictive accuracy of evaluated traits in cattle, thus increasing the rate of productivity improvement. The project involves top researchers in government, academia and industry to find the best and most cost-effective genetic testing markers and methods to improve the quality and productivity of the countrys cattle.
|About Fluidigm
|Fluidigm develops, manufactures and markets proprietary Integrated Fluidic Circuit (IFC) systems that significantly improve productivity in life science research. Fluidigms IFCs enable the simultaneous performance of thousands of sophisticated biochemical measurements in extremely minute volumes. These integrated circuits for biology are made possible by miniaturizing and integrating liquid handling components on a single microfluidic device (IFC). Fluidigms systems, consisting of instrumentation, software and single-use chips, increase throughput, decrease costs and enhance sensitivity compared to conventional laboratory systems. Fluidigm products have not been cleared or approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a diagnostic and are only available for research use.
|Source: Fluidigm (press release)
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The UnPopular Opinion: Walk The Line
THE UNPOPULAR OPINION is an ongoing column featuring different takes on films that either the writer HATED, but that the majority of film fans LOVED, or that the writer LOVED, but that most others LOATHED. We're hoping this column will promote constructive and geek fueled discussion. Enjoy!
There are certain types of movies that are what neatly fit into the category of Oscar Bait. You know the movies: melodramatic films that usually feature a romance between lovers, one of whom is often dying, the other dealing with a traumatic life event or drug addiction. These films are often set in a historical timeframe, often during World War II, and occasionally feature someone coming from nothing and reaching success only to have it snatched from their grasp before somehow regaining it for a happy ending. These movies have often taken trophies in every category, sometimes in the same year. But, in hindsight, they often lack something that would make them great movies. WALK THE LINE is one of those films.
James Mangold's biopic of Johnny Cash has everything that should automatically make it a Best Picture nominee before anyone had seen the film. In fact, WALK THE LINE fits nearly all of the criteria listed above. Hell, if it had featured anything about the Holocaust, it likely would have beaten the equally lackluster CRASH that year. While WALK THE LINE was not nominated for Best Picture in 2005, it did garner nominations in five categories and took home accolades from several other critical groups. I am still left baffled why this movie is so beloved and went as far as to sell three million copies when it hit DVD. Like RAY and the recent released GET ON UP, WALK THE LINE suffers from being a generic and watered down Hollywood fairy tale version of a true life story.
I sense a color scheme going on here but cannot quite put my finger on it.
Even non-country music fans know the rags to riches story of Johnny Cash. There is drug addiction, a tragic death during his childhood, and marriage followed by finding true love. Clearly this means Johnny Cash deserves to have his tale told on the big screen. The problem is, aside from the genre-defying music and famous musicians he played with during his career, there is just not enough to warrant a feature film. By choosing to only examine the first half of Cash's life and career leading up to his marriage to June Carter, James Mangold and co-writer Gill Dennis limited their own tale. Along with that, WALK THE LINE is based off of Cash's own autobiographies and yet smacks of Hollywood revisionism.
The hilarious spoof WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY took all of the same elements from WALK THE LINE and showcased just how generic Mangold's film actually is. There is really nothing special in this film that elevates to more than the caliber of a network television movie. Everything looks like it was filmed on a studio backlot without any of the flair or style we would see in Mangold's subsequent films like 3:10 TO YUMA, KNIGHT AND DAY, and THE WOLVERINE. WALK THE LINE doesn't even have any of the style from the director's prior films, IDENTITY and COPLAND. How could a filmmaker get stuck with such a creatively devoid on screen product? Likely due to studio involvement as Johnny Cash's children have openly stated their criticism at the film and how their parents were portrayed.
The Man in Black fled across the desert and The Gunslinger followed.
But, a movie like WALK THE LINE is generally lauded for the performances and not the movie, right? I mean, Reese Witherspoon did win the Oscar for playing June Carter, but it ranks as one of the most undeserving trophies in recent Oscar memory. Sure, she can sing, but her modicum of screen-time was at best a supporting actress award. Joaquin Phoenix himself was good in the lead role but not great. Phoenix has been far more deserving in roles before and after WALK THE LINE. In fact, when looking at biopics in general, you have actors who do great impressions of the person they are playing (Jamie Foxx in RAY) and those who embody their counterpart while also delivering an oustanding performance (Eddie Redmayne in THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING). Phoenix is a phenomenal talent, but his Johnny Cash feels neither like an impression nor a truly monumental performance. For those who have seen Oliver Stone's U-TURN, Phoenix feels like he is using his Toby N. Tucker character as a jumping off point for playing Cash.
The music is what makes WALK THE LINE so memorable. People who are not into country music or know much about Johnny Cash likely feel that the man was a larger than life character based on how the movie showcases him. We get his iconic musical moments including Folsom Prison and his proposal to June, but the movie feels like part one of a larger tale. Focusing a biopic on a specific part of a life has worked for other films, but WALK THE LINE builds up like an all-encompassing portrait of Johnny Cash only to abruptly end when it is staring to get good. While Cash's later life was not nearly as interesting as the first, maybe that was a signal that it wasn't film worthy.
Everyone looks so excited to be here. And look: more black!
WALK THE LINE is a fine movie, but is in no way memorable. What we take away from seeing it is the music of Johnny Cash which is neither enhanced by the film nor revolutionized. If there was a kit for filmmaking by the numbers, this is a prime example. Movies do not always have to inspire or rouse us or even do something different than films before it, but they should do something. WALK THE LINE does nothing. After the film ends and the credits roll, you are likely to ask yourself "was that it?" and no movie worth a damn should ever garner a reaction like that. In fact, if WALK THE LINE succeeds at anything it is showing us what to avoid when trying to tell a true life story. By walking the line, this movie goes down in a ring of fire.
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With the substantial sustainability improvements in the manufacture, use, disposal of products and other impacts, this award is for true innovation. This Award is to recognise initiatives that incorporate a genuine sustainability benefit, whilst meeting consumer needs for products and services. We use the terms "green" and "sustainable" to refer to products, services, and practices whose manufacturing, purchase and use allows for economic development while still conserving resources, for future generations. The product must exhibit sustainability through the entire supply chain, including the marketing and communications for the product and aspire to be a standard others will follow and seek to achieve. As a service, it will provide all the tangible benefits people accept as standard but in a way that lowers the negative impact that may be embodied in providing the service.
- The product must have been launched or commercialised between September 2009 and September 2011.
- Ground breaking initiatives in comparison to existing in-market alternatives, including non-sustainable options.
- A product that meets an existing in-market need, rather than creating a new niche for consumption.
- New products and processes that provide customer and business value and significantly decrease environmental impacts.
- Example of products on the market that support sustainable development include products made from recycled goods; products that can be recycled or reused; efficient products, which save water, save energy, save money and reduce environmental footprint; products with environmentally responsible packaging or organic products which offer promise of quality.
To access the entry questions for this category, right click the link below and select 'save as'.


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Jerusalem Light Rail Train
Amjad Shbita, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, an activist in the Israeli Hadash-Maki party (Jewish and Palestinian socialists), who has also worked at the Knesset as a parliamentary assistant, introduces this harrowing account on Facebook by asking a theoretical question: "Fascists in a colonial regime? Is that a historical precedent?"
The account was written by Nijmeh Ali, a woman. It follows, in translation:
"The light train in Jerusalem. I am sitting quietly. Some yelling is heard and the train gets stuck. Hundreds, maybe thousands are banging on the windows of the train. "Death to the Arabs", they are chanting. I am scared. I hide behind my sunglasses. I pray that they will not recognize my nationality. A woman is crying, screaming hysterically from the rear seats. I run towards her. She is a young mother with a head scarf. She is holding a 5 year old boy. Another woman is pushing her, wanting to forcibly shove her out of the train. Thousands are banging on the windows, baying for blood, and that woman wants to sacrifice the young mother. "She has no place with us, they murdered three of our sons". Is she the one who murdered your sons? Did her son murder them? She keeps yelling, the thousands keep banging on the windows. A terrifying sight, nothing is more frightening, and the thundering silence of tens of passengers on the train, as if nothing happened!
These were the longest 12 minutes of my life. 12 minutes on the road to a lynching."
Jewish Prayers from the Heart and Pen of Alden Solovy
This is a prayer in memory of Muhammad Abu Khdeir, the 16-year-old Arab boy burned to death at the hands of Jewish extremists. It's part lament — that some of our own Jewish people could commit such a heinous act — and part a prayer to honor his memory. As such, it is explicitly written to be said by Jews. To emphasize the theme that the murder of any child is intolerable, it borrows from my prayer "They Were Boys: A Yizkor Prayer," written in memory of Gil-ad z"l, Iyal z"l and Naftali z"l. This last line is from Ṣalāt al-Janāzah – the Islamic funeral prayer, as it appears on Wikipedia – and is shown in italics. I hope that I've used it in a way that is respectful of the Moslem tradition.
Another Boy Lost
Oh my nation, In this grievous hour of pain and loss,
Another boy is dead,
This time by our own hand.
Oh my people,
That some of our own could
Commit such an atrocity!
An atrocity by fire.
He was a boy.
Stolen from his family,
Stolen from his people, Stolen from life itself.
A boy.
G-d of All,
Grant a perfect rest under Your tabernacle of peace
To Muhammad Abu Khdeir
Whose life was cut off by violence
In an act of witless anger and hatred.
A boy.
Blood is blood.
Breath is breath.
Life is life.
May his memory become a source of
Courage to our nation and our people
To reject racism and hate.
G-d whose name is Peace,
In this hour of grief,
Remember Muhammad.
A boy.
Bless his family with consolation and strength.
Grant them endurance, hope and courage.
Let him find peace in the cradle of heaven.
Oh G-d,
Admit him to Paradise
And protect him from the torment of the grave.
Make his grave spacious and fill it with light.
© 2014 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.
Postscript: In writing this, I selected one line from the Ṣalāt al-Janāzah and removed some language. The line reads in full:
"Oh G-d, admit him to Paradise and protect him from the torment of the grave and the torment of Hell-fire; make his grave spacious and fill it with light."
I removed the reference to Hell-fire for two reasons: first, because of my discomfort with the language. Second, to avoid a potential misinterpretation by those outside Islam. The original name for this prayer was "Blood is Blood," also to emphasize that all life is sacred, but after thinking about the prayer, it seemed too harsh of a name for a memorial prayer. Thanks to Rabbi Bob Carroll of Interfaith Encounter here in Israel and Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder of Be'chol Lashon in the U.S. for your review and comments. Here's a link to "They Were Boys: A Yizkor Prayer," and other prayers for Israel. Please check out my new book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.
Leaving Jerusalem for Safety
Sayed Kashua, the Palestinian Israeli citizen who is the poster-child for the possibility of building bridges between Israelis and Palestinians because of the Israeli TV sit-com show he developed which for years has portrayed ordinary Palestinians in the kind of human problems that face every Israeli yet showing how the fact of being a Palestinian adds a dimension of complexity, and through his books like A Dancing Arab, writes about why he wants to leave Jerusalem where he championed inter-communal harmony and back to his Arab village where he feels it will be safer for his children.
I'm incapable of writing a word. I'll wait until my boys get back from day camp, then maybe I'll be able to calm down a little.
I should never have listened to my wife, I should never have let them go to their day camps, not today, not now. I left their big sister at home. She's already a teenager, and it just could have been too much. "But why?" she shouted in the morning, already on her way out with her backpack to her group leaders' course as part of an Education Ministry program. "Just because!" I retorted, and went back to listening to the news.
My children will soon be back and we will leave this place. This time it makes no difference what my wife says – I don't care, she can say that I'm paranoid, that I'm hysterical, but I'm not letting my kids stay in Jerusalem. I'm going to pack their things for them, and as soon as they get home, I'm going to my parents' with them. She can stay in Jerusalem if she wants, but I can't be here anymore.
I will be in Tira with the kids for two or three days, maybe a week. Maybe I won't come back at all. What is there for me in Jerusalem? In another month I'm flying abroad in any case. I have to call the travel agent and see how much it will cost to move up the date.
I also have to call my real estate agent, and tell him that the rental is no longer limited to a year – that the renters should be allowed to stay as long as they want. Because I'm not coming back to this building, not coming back to this neighborhood, not coming back to Jerusalem and maybe not coming back here at all. Maybe I'll tell the realtor that instead of a rental, he should look for a place that's for sale.
I will do whatever it takes not to come back here. I really have to work on my English over there. I absolutely have to start reading and writing only in English. I will use the year ahead while I'm teaching to adopt a new language for my writing. I know it's not easy – I've already gone through it with Hebrew – but there's no choice. I don't know how much longer I can go on writing in Hebrew, I don't know how many Hebrew speakers will still want to listen to me; I'm not sure there will be any point left to addressing them.
I will write in English, I will start to write love stories, the weather will become a major event in the plot, the snow will be a central character. I will write in English about the experiences of a migrant in a new country, about a political asylum seeker, about refugees from war.
I will write in English about the country I abandoned, I will try to write the truth, I will try to be accurate about the details in the hope that someone over there will believe me that this really happened. I will write about a far-off land in which children are shot, slaughtered, buried and burned, and the readers will probably think I am a fantasy writer.
But, hey, who said I have to write at all? I will do a little university teaching and then I'll find a job. I can do anything, I don't care. I'm ready to wash dishes, change tires and clean toilets.
I can be a taxi driver and live modestly in a small town; I will be a polite driver with an accent. If the passengers talk to me, I will answer them. And if they ask where the accent's from and what country I'm from, I will tell them that I come from a scary place where people in suits and uniforms call on the masses to hate, kill, plunder and take revenge – sometimes in the name of religion, sometimes in the name of God, and all for the sake of the children's future.
In the taxi I will only listen to music – even country music, for all I care – but never to the news. I mustn't know who the politicians in the new place are, mustn't know the names of the reporters, the anchors and the commentators, mustn't take an interest in their opinions, their viewpoints or their world views. I will do my best to be a perpetual tourist there. Not to take things to heart, never to feel that I belong.
My children will soon be home and I will take them to Tira. I don't want to stay here another minute. I will call the travel agent, maybe she can get us out of here tomorrow. My wife will scream that she has committed to working until the end of the month. She can stay here if she wants, she can join us next month.
"What don't you understand?" I said to her when I begged her not to go to work. "It's over."
"Have you lost it?" she shouted back at me. "What in the blazes is over?"
I was silent, knowing that my attempt at living together with others in this country was over. That the lie I'd told my children about a future in which Arabs and Jews share the country equally was over.
I wanted to say to my wife that this is really the end, it's finished. That I'd lost my small war, that everything people had told me since I was a teenager was coming true before my eyes. That all those who told me that there is a difference between blood and blood, between one person and another person, were right. That all those who told me that I have no place other than Tira spoke the truth.
But all I said to her was, "Good luck at work," apologized for my exaggerated fears, and added that I was sure everything would be all right.
The children will soon be back from day camp and I will take them far away from here. Right now, though, I'm home with my firstborn daughter. She's angry and has closeted herself in her room. I knock gently on the door, but she doesn't answer.
She's sitting on her bed with her computer. I sit down next to her on the bed, knowing I'm about to tell her what my father told me when I was a boy her age. It was my first day at a Jerusalem boarding school, where only Hebrew was spoken. My father drove me there from Tira, and a moment before parting from me, at the entrance to the school, he said, "Remember that for them you will always, but always, be an Arab, understand?"
"I understand," my daughter said and hugged me close, "I understood it already by myself."


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2009-03-16 13:00:00
In last week's entry, I mentioned my
interest in Fossil, a relatively new
DVCS written by the author of SQLite. In the comments on that entry, a guy
named Benjamin Pollack picked a fight with
me about why I think Fossil is interesting.
It turns out that this guy is actually one of Joel's minions over at Fog Creek. In
fact, he joined the company as one of the interns on Project Aardvark back in 2005.
To Benjamin, I would like to say that "interesting !=
good". Some things are interesting in spite of the fact that they are crap.
And some things are interesting BECAUSE of the fact that they're crap.
And to D. Richard Hipp, the author of Fossil, I would like
to say that I am not saying Fossil is crap. In fact, I am currently
taking no position on whether Fossil is good or bad. For now, I just think
it's interesting, mostly because I think the issues of DVCS integration with
the rest of the ALM tool suite are important.
But before I talk more about that, I can't resist offering a
few remarks about Fossil itself.
Industry-wide, there is a trend toward more
integration between version control and other stuff like project tracking,
wikis, discussion forums, build tracking, etc. Developers don't just checkin
code. They use a whole bunch of other tools which help them collaborate with
each other and with people in other functional areas.
While DVCS is one of the more interesting things happening
right now, it does represent a setback in this particular area. The benefits
of a DVCS are somewhat diminished if all of the other tools a developer needs
are still "centralized".
Yes, it's cool that I can commit my code while I'm on a
plane, but how do I update the FogBugz case to mark it fixed? So far, the
answer is that I have to wait until the plane lands, hope the airport has
Wi-Fi, login to my corporate VPN, bring up a web browser, remember the case ID,
find the case, change its status, and try to remember my code changes so I can
write something relevant in the comments.
As long as this is the answer, then I assert that the story
for DVCS is, well, incomplete.
As far as I know, Fossil is the only tool which is a DVCS
with bug tracking built-in. But it is not the only project exploring this area
of need. Others include:
I have spent some time looking at each of these, but not
enough to make detailed comments. Let's just say that I consider all of them
interesting in the same way that I think Fossil is interesting.
After looking at everything I can find in the area of
distributed bug-tracking, I found myself with more questions than answers. But
I am starting to collect some things that I think are correct. I think.
I think everybody's first thought about bug-tracking with
DVCS is that the bugs should be stored in the version control tree as text
files that can be merged. Whenever the tree branches, the bugs will
automatically branch as well. A bug can be marked as fixed in the branch where
it is fixed.
But the more I think about this design, the more I think it
would cause a lot of regrets later. I think bug tracking records probably need
their own place, living in their own DAG. There are just too many scenarios
where the bug-tracking info is being updated without changing anything in the
For example, consider the QA team. When they update a bug
to mark it as "fix verified", you don't really want them doing this operation
as a commit to the version control tree, do you? In fact, you probably want
the bug-tracking and version control areas to be controlled by a completely
different set of access permissions.
Fossil got this right, sort of. Tickets are separate from
the tree.
But Fossil's design isn't perfect. Tickets are actually not
managed with a DAG at all. Rather, the algorithm for resolving conflicting
changes is something
like "the version with the latest timestamp wins". Do we credit the author
for not over-designing? After all, this guy did SQLite, so he knows a thing or
two about how to implement "just enough to be incredibly useful". Or is this
design likely to make users really angry when it causes an unpleasant surprise?
Once again, the first thought here is probably not the right
A DVCS knows how to deal with merging changes to text
files. So if we want to store bugs, then obviously we should keep them in text
files so we can re-use all that merge code, right?
I don't think so.
Stuff in a database is very highly structured. We have lots
of information which can be used to implement really good merging. In theory,
merging changes to a bug-tracking database should work much better than merging
changes to code.
(Yes, code is very highly structured as well, but the only
way to get that information is to parse the code. I've seen some interesting
research in the area of language-specific version control tools that manage
code changes with a parse tree representation, but I don't think those things
will be practical mainstream solutions anytime soon.)
Anyway, if you take a bug record and throw it in a text file
and then use regular old file merge to resolve changes, it seems like you're
throwing away a lot of the information you could be using.
Admittedly, writing a special merge algorithm for this case
would be a TON of work. But the results might be worth it. It might be the
difference between a distributed bug-tracking system that constantly annoys its
users and one that Just Works.
The use cases for distributed bug tracking are different
than distributed version control.
For example, it seems very likely that we want to sync our
local instance of the bug-tracking database a lot more frequently than we want
to sync our local instance of the version control tree.
If I've got a live connection to the central server, then I
want to be pulling down updates to the bug db all the time.
If I add a comment to a bug, I probably want that comment
pushed up to the central server as soon as my network connectivity allows.
With version control, I want a private sandbox so I can work
on a bunch of code changes and only push them up to the central server when I'm
done fiddling with them. That kind of workflow strikes me as far less important
for a bug-tracking application.
I've just explained several ways that distributed bug
tracking needs to be different from the way a DVCS works. But I still think
that pairing a DVCS with a centralized bug-tracking solution makes very little
Consider the scenario where a company is doing development
in two cities and wants each of them to have their own server.
We actually get this request quite a bit from Vault
customers. Somebody calls and says they have a team in New York City and another
team in Strawn.
They want each team to be doing work on their own central server. And they
want the two central servers to synchronize with each other at some regular
These people are asking for a DVCS. They don't care about
the "coding on a plane scenario". They don't really care so much about private
workspaces or the performance benefits of having the entire repository on every
developer's machine. They still want a central server. The only difference is
that they want TWO central servers. And a DVCS can do that.
And if they are using more than just version control, then
what they really want is for ALL developer-related stuff to follow that same
workflow. Every four hours when the two central servers do their sync-up, a
bunch of changesets get pushed in each direction. Some of those changes are
modifications to the version control tree. Others contain changes to the work
items or the wiki pages or whatever.
My regular readers know that I am a fan of Geoffrey Moore's
classic book, Crossing
the Chasm. One of the ideas in that book is that new innovations don't go
mainstream until they become a "whole product". Right now, most of the
comments about DVCS that I am hearing out in the industry are negative.
Some of them are saying that "DVCS will never be
mainstream". More and more, I think those people are wrong.
Others are saying that "this DVCS stuff just isn't ready
yet". Right now, those people are right. For a large portion of the market,
version control alone is not a complete solution. They want the whole product,
and they want it to work together seamlessly.
If DVCS wants to reach that part of the market, it needs to
figure out what "distributed" means for bug-tracking and wiki and forums and
change management and build tracking and test management and requirements.
Or rather, I did until I saw his bitbucket page. Anybody who writes a
C implementation of an AVL tree FOR FUN has my complete respect. :-)


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More than 400 people riding motorbikes of all shapes and sizes helped a 6,500-member group break its annual ride the lights record.
The North West UK Motorcycles and Bikers' third annual event, held on Saturday night, saw a huge convoy travel down the Promenade from North West Honda Blackpool in Lytham St Annes Way to New Norbreck Chippy in Norbreck Road, Thornton, which offered the bikers discounted food and free parking.
Motorbike salesman Simon Carter, 33, from Lytham, said the group successfully smashed last year's previous record of 342 riders.
People riding bikes with engines ranging from 49cc scooters to 2,300cc cruisers were invited to take part, and travelled from across the country to take part.
Locals and tourists alike took to The Gazette's Facebook page to tell of their delight at seeing the group, which also organises ride outs for local charities and schools.
Lisa Stratton wrote: "We sat in our hotel at the window and watched all the bikes going through the lights.
"They were waving at the kids. Looked like fun. There were hundreds of them."


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So little time, so much to do
During an election campaign Winston Churchill was speaking in a church hall in rural England. The hall was decorated in the well accepted colour scheme of that era – mission brown up to shoulder height, then cream up to and including the ceiling. When he finished his speech Churchill called for questions. The first came from a middle-aged woman dressed in country tweeds. "Mr Churchill, I am a member of the Temperance League," she said, "My local branch has been examining your use of alcohol. Are you aware Prime Minister that, during your lifetime to date you have consumed enough alcohol to fill this hall up to here" stretching her arm dramatically to indicate the mission brown zone on the wall. "We want to know what you intend to do about it." Churchill looked at the woman, followed her arm to the top of the mission brown zone, and then slowly allowed his gaze to move up through the cream zone to the ceiling. "So little time, so much to do" he said.
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Today's 90-year-olds are surviving into very old age with better mental performance than ever before, Danish research suggests.
People born in 1915 scored higher in cognitive tests in their 90s compared with those born a decade earlier, according to a study in The Lancet.
Better living standards and intellectual stimulation may be key factors, experts say.
(READ the story from the BBC)