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Stocks moved up on good economic news.
Stocks moved up after the release of positive economic reports Friday. Consumer sentiment improved; it is now at 75.0 from 73.8, but remains low in comparison to low 80s levels in October and November. The Empire State Manufacturing Survey for February reported an incredible surge to 10.04 from 7.8.
In international news, the eurozone's gross domestic product fell 2.3% in the fourth quarter, which does not bode well for Europe's economic health.
The Dow (INDEXDJX:.DJI) gained 20 points and is now at 13993.93. The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) moved up 0.10% to 1522.88. The Nasdaq (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) moved down 0.13% to 3202.76.
Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) surged 12.05% to $42.88 after Carl Icahn bought a nearly 13% stake in the health food maker.
Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE:ANR) posted a fourth-quarter loss of $0.58 per share. Revenue fell 25% to $1.56 billion from $2.07 billion. Shares declined 2.69% to $9.41.
Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) said that its Nook e-reader business will perform worse this year than it did last year as it faces stiff competition from Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle, Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Nexus tablet, and Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad Mini. Shares edged up 0.99% to $13.27.
CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL) cut its dividend by 26%, from $0.72 to $0.54. Its stock moved up 1.52% to $32.76.
After H.G. Heinz Co. (NYSE:HNZ) accepted a takeover deal from Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A), shares fell 0.28% to $72.30.
Sketchers USA Inc. (NYSE:SKX) returned to a profit in the fourth quarter, beating analyst estimates. Its revenue increased 40% to $395 million. Its stock fell 0.18% to $21.93.
Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE:OWW) reported a fourth-quarter loss of $314 million, or $2.96 per share, from a loss of $46.5 million, or $0.44 per share, a year ago. Revenue increased to $189.7 million from $177.1 million. Shares ascended 6.67% to $3.36.
Whole Foods' (NASDAQ:WFM) fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 24%, but the outlook for earnings per share growth was weak, citing tougher gross margin comparisons in the second and third quarters of last year. Shares rose 0.42% to $87.87.
Zillow's (NASDAQ:Z) fourth-quarter profit fell 40%, but revenue increased 73% to $34 million. Its stock moved up 2.01% to 43.15.
Kraft Foods Group (NASDAQ:KRFT) reported fourth-quarter earnings of $0.15 per share from $0.54 per share a year earlier; revenue fell 11%. Shares inched up 0.29% to $47.30.
Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB) beat Wall Street forecasts, reporting earnings of $0.60 per share in the fiscal second quarter. Revenues moved up 10%, meeting analyst predictions. Its stock rose 1.21% to $39.19.
J.M. Smucker Co. (NYSE:SJM) shares moved up 1.36% to $93.41 after it earned $1.47 per share, easily topping analyst estimates of $1.39 per share in the fiscal third quarter. Its gross margin increased to 34% from 31.7% a year earlier due to strong sales of K-Cups and peanut butter, the company reported.
It's good to be king. Burger King Worldwide (NYSE:BKW) said fourth-quarter profit almost doubled and earnings per share increased to $0.14 from $0.07 a year earlier. Shares are up 2.35% at $16.97.
JC Penney (NYSE:JCP) fell 0.80% to $19.77 not long after it increased its credit facility to $1.85 billion.
Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) reported a decrease in net income of 44% for the fourth quarter after a downturn in natural gas prices.
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Turnstyle Tees needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 41 designs submitted by 23 freelance designers.
Online t-shirt company needs a new logo.
We are seeking a logo for a startup online t-shirt site. Website will sell novelty joke shirts about pop-culture, politics, office, and drinking themes. Website can be seen at http://www.turnstyletees.com.
- Slight urban theme
- Integrates turnstile or other urban object into logo
- Text is separate from logo so that the two can be used independently
- Text to read "Turnstyle Tees"
- 100% logo rights
- No Glossy Web 2.0 Stuff
- Not too many colors
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.

subset: commoncrawl


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I didn't even know I needed a new coffee table. (I do however know that I need a new couch) Not until this table was finished and it told me it wanted to be mine. I had intended to paint it and sell it at my space at Abundance Vintage but it's perfect for us. Truthfully I was concerned it might not sell because it is kind of tall. The height however turns out to be exactly why I want to keep it.
The first reason the height works so well is my Hubby and I typically eat our dinner on the couch in front of the TV. Unless it's our anniversary than we use the dining table. Having the table a little higher actually feels more comfortable. You can never be to comfortable while eating at the couch. Second we often use the coffee table as a desk. We have an office but the desk always seems to be covered with my projects. Even when it's not we both prefer to do out work at the coffee table. I do all my blogging from the corner of that couch.
The paint I used is Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint. The color is Luckett's Green. Love this color green. I decided to use the bonding agent because the finish on this table was a very glossy orangey stained wood. Since I used the bonding agent there wasn't any chipping or flaking but the paint distressed nicely with 150 grit sandpaper. I sealed the paint with minwax clear wax first then added some dark wax. I mentioned on facebook that this color, Luckett's Green, looks like a yellow beige before you add water. When I opened the box I thought there was a mistake. I was so upset because I wanted to use it right away. I called the seller and she assured me I just needed to add water. I felt like such a dork. I know that the colors change when you add water but it was not even green who knew? Just wanted to warn you so you don't freak out like me.
The table opens and it had a leaf that folded out. The veneer was very badly damaged so I ended up removing it. Since I had planned on selling the table I realized it would not be cost effective to fix. I kept all the parts so if I feel froggie I might repair it for myself someday.
I love the trestle base. My tiny ugly upholstered foot stool that I am not showing you fits perfectly underneath.
I know that rule number one in this business is don't keep what you are supposed to sell but just this once I can right?
Playing at the following parties:
Farm House Porch - Cowgirl Up
Knick of Time Interiors - Knick of Time Tuesday
Primitive and Proper - POWW
Savvy Southern Style - Wow us Wednesdays
Full Circle Creations - All Star Block Party
My Romantic Home - Show and Tell Friday
My Repurposed Life - Catch as Catch Can
French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Friday
Funky Junk Interiors - SNS
Party Time Linky Party


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Was up in Tahoe last Friday and toured the Thunderbird Lodge. While the lodge was interesting for it's history and location on the shore of the Nevada side of the lake, an unbelievable windstorm completely diverted my attention from the tour.
The only way I can understand it is to think that there were these rolling horizontal cylinders of northeast winds rolling off the ridges and descending down to the lake. They accelerated around a point just north of this lodge, creating a venturi effect.
The result was a constant parade of isolated gusts going up to what I guess must have been 60-70 mph. It was blowing zero to 70, and when the gusts hit, they arrived like a hammer that could blow you off your feet. Out on the water, you could see white squalls making their way across the lake and forming waterspouts. Every once in awhile, the frothing mass (right next to completely glassy water) would completely reverse itself and blow 180 degrees for about 100 yards before reverting to normal flow.
It was the most amazing wind show I've ever seen. The docents at the Lodge claimed they'd never seen anything like it and they'd been there for about 30 years. I've seen a lot of wind, but I've never seen glassy water next to 70 mph gusts, and especially gusts that would roll back over on themselves and reverse directions. It made me imagine how a boat caught in that situation could be hit by a reverse wind while still keeled over from the gust on the other side and pulled under.....the wind would circulate back on itself from the top down and concentrate the reverse gust at the surface level of the lake.
The really weird thing is that these microbursts (if that's what they were) weren't documented on wind observations by NOAA or ikite that I could find for Nov 22nd, although there were warnings for hurricane force winds at elevation.
All I know is that if I'd had even a 1m kite, it would have luffed in the lulls and absolutely kicked the shit out of me in the gusts. Hell, I'd have ejected if I was holding up a paper airplane. It was hard enough just to stand up. I was with a group of about 50 people, and it was amazing how few of them appreciated what a spectacular and unusual event were witnessing. I think they all considered me a little nutty to be impressed by the wind so much, but the sight of those completely self contained white frothing writhing gusts was like nothing I've ever seen anywhere anyplace.
Really beautiful. Trying to see if anybody got any good footage and will post......


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Injured Mirallas out of Everton run-in
Everton manager Roberto Martinez has confirmed that forward Kevin Mirallas will miss the rest of the season with a groin injury.
The Belgium international was substituted in stoppage time during Everton's 2-0 win over Manchester United on Sunday after sustaining the problem, having scored his side's second goal just before half-time.
Mirallas' 43rd-minute strike was his eighth in all competitions in 2013-14, but he will not add to it.
"Roberto Martinez today (Tuesday) revealed that the Belgian (Mirallas) has a small tear in his groin and will be out for the next three weeks," the club confirmed on their official website.
"Meaning he will be sidelined for matches against Southampton this weekend, the visit of Manchester City on 3 May and the last game of the season at Hull City."
Mirallas is expected to be part of Belgium's FIFA World Cup squad, although this injury means he faces a race against time to be fully fit.
News of Mirallas' setback will come as a blow to Everton as the Merseyside club look to beat Arsenal to the final UEFA Champions League place in the Premier League.


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Trooper Injured In Hit And Run Out Of Surgery
South Dakota State Trooper Andrew Steen remains in critical condition following surgery Thursday to relieve pressure on his brain.
Doctors at Sanford say this type of surgery is common with head injuries like Steen sustained in an early morning chase through Sioux Falls Wednesday morning.
Steen was injured following a traffic stop that escalated when the 25 year old female driver first hit Steen's patrol vehicle, then ran him over as he stood next to his vehicle.
The traffic stop then escalated to a high speed pursuit through western Sioux Falls that ended when the suspect was shot by officers. Her name and condition has not been released at this time.
Donations to help the family can be made at any Wells Fargo Bank in the country.
You can keep up to date on Steen's condition through his Caring Bridge site.


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If you or someone you know is interested in opening a Jet-Black franchise in your area, please click here.To contact the Jet-Black national headquarters, call 952-212-0410 or email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Jet-Black has been named the
2016 Corporate Partner of the Year
The Azlynn Noelle Children's Home
(ANCH). We are so proud of our relationship with this life saving orphanage. ANCH provides much more than just a safe home for these young children that are at risk for abuse, neglect, disease, human trafficking and even death. They not only protect and shelter these children, but they educate them and, most importantly, they make these kids feel loved. The value of that cannot be calculated. Please know that when you choose to work with Jet-Black that you play a roll in saving these children; literally. Contact us if you are interested in supporting this organization and we will get you in touch with the proper people at ANCH.
Read more.


text: Employer Mandate Delayed; Health Care Costs Impact Hiring Small Businesses Affected By Soaring Costs Feb 11, 2014 – by Counselor Tweet The Obama administration announced yesterday that it is granting another delay in the Affordable Care Act's employer mandate provision. Companies with 50 to 99 employees will now have until 2016 before they're forced to provide health insurance to employees. And, companies with more than 100 employees will now be allowed to phase in their health care coverage throughout 2015 and 2016. The announcement marks the second time that the administration has postponed enforcement of the mandate – it was originally scheduled to be implemented last month and was then delayed until January 1, 2015 before the announcement of this latest extension. The changes in enforcement of the health care law come as a new study shows that soaring health care costs are preventing small businesses from hiring, impacting profits and causing firms to refrain from increasing existing employees' salaries. The survey, from the National Small Business Association (NSBA), revealed that 91% of companies experienced a spike in health plan expenses at their most recent insurance renewal, with one in four getting hit with an increase exceeding 20%. Since 2009, the average monthly cost per-employee of health insurance premiums for a small business has risen 90%, from $590 to $1,221. Daunting numbers like that – and worry over future rises under the newly implemented Affordable Care Act – are weighing heavily on some small businesses. A third of owners say they will not add staff because of cost concerns tied to the act, the NSBA survey reports. Another 10% say they're reducing hours for staff, while 14% indicate they're hiring more part-timers rather than full-timers. Significantly, 66% of small companies say they have less profit available for general business growth, while more than half indicate that they held off on salary increases – all because of skyrocketing health care costs. "These costs have real-world implications," NSBA President Todd McCracken in a statement. The management team at Stitch Designers (asi/741145), a contract apparel decorator that serves advertising specialty distributors, is staring some of those difficult implications in the face. "We have historically carried insurance for our employees, with the company covering larger and larger percentages annually to keep the employees' contributions the same, but that will definitely change," says Joe Thompson, Stitch Designers' national accounts manager/marketing director. "It has been forecast that premiums will at least double, but most likely quadruple next year and decisions will be made in the name of survival." While the health care cost crunch is impacting businesses, not all firms are necessarily feeling burned. Nearly half (48%) of the 780 small businesses that responded to the NSBA survey said that the Affordable Care Act is not compelling them to restructure their workforce. Within the ad specialty industry, firms that include Top 40 distributor firm Proforma (asi/300094) say that health care expenses are not detracting from their operations or success. "While the overall rising cost of health care in our country is concerning, at Proforma we pride ourselves on the affordable health care plans we offer our team members," said Brian Smith, president and chief operating officer. "We don't foresee health care implementation having a significant impact on Proforma because of the variety of plans and options we already have in place."


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SUNY Board of Trustees Audit Committee to Meet
October 22, 2015
Albany – The Audit Committee of the State University of New York Board of Trustees will meet Monday, October 26, 2015 at 11:00 a.m. All SUNY trustees and members of the public are invited to attend.
The meeting will take place at:
The SUNY Global Center
116 East 55th Street, Multi-Purpose Room
New York, New York 10022
Video conferencing will be available from the following location(s):
Buffalo State
Cleveland Hall, Room 516
Buffalo, New York
The State University Plaza
353 Broadway, S402
Albany, New York 12246
It is anticipated that the Chairman of the Committee may call for a motion to convene an executive session, under provisions of Section 105 of Article 7 of the Public Officers Law.
The agenda for the meeting, together with resolutions and other meeting materials are available online.
Instructions for accessing the live meeting webcasts will be available the morning of each meeting date at the same web address.
About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, with 64 college and university campuses located within 30 miles of every home, school, and business in the state. As of Fall 2017, more than 430,000 students were enrolled in a degree program at a SUNY campus. In total, SUNY served nearly 1.4 million students in credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs in the 2016-17 academic year. SUNY students and faculty across the state make significant contributions to research and discovery, resulting in $1 billion of externally sponsored activity each year. There are 3 million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu.
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Recall 03V455000
Engine May Stop Running Without Warning
Recall Details
The circuit board for the crank position sensor and cam position sensor may have improper solder joints. This could cause the Service Engine Soon lamp to come on, the engine may not start, you could experience reduced power, or the engine may stall without warning, which could result in a crash. Dealers will replace the the crank position sensor, cam position sensors, and in some cases, the variable timing control sensors. The recall began on December 22, 2003. The Nissan recall number is R2022 and the Infiniti recall number is R3021.
Our Quick Take
Due to problems in the crank position sensor and cam position sensor, the engine may not start, may have reduced power, or may stop running without warning.
What Should You Do?
Please contact your Nissan or Infiniti dealer. They will check to see if your specific vehicle is affected and advise you on what to do next. Always have your vehicle identification number (VIN) handy when you call.


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Alcohol in the Atlantic
David Carey Jr.
Dating from the earliest times in Latin America, alcohol has played a crucial social, economic, political, and cultural role. Often reserved for politico-religious leaders, alcohol was a conduit through which power flowed in many pre-contact indigenous societies; indigenous drinkways (production, commerce, and consumption habits) were associated with communal ritual events and social prestige. Introduced to the Americas by Europeans, distillation profoundly altered the potency of alcoholic drinks for people who were accustomed to fermentation. Even as the social and cultural practices of alcohol consumption changed over time, alcohol continued to have political and economic implications in the colonial and national periods in Latin America. Fearing that inebriation bred disorder and recognizing that moonshining undercut their own revenues, colonial and national governments alike sought to regulate, if not control, the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol. In nations as diverse as Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, and Guatemala, indigenous women came to play integral roles in the (oftentimes illicit) sale and production of alcohol. A cash nexus for moving labor and land and a crucial component of the economic system by which (often unscrupulous) labor brokers recruited workers, alcohol was a currency of local economies. As a commodity of local, national, and international significance, alcohol shaped the fate of nation-states.
People's class, ethnic, race, and gender identities all played into their access to alcohol. Although a person's choice of libation could define their position, some of the more fascinating histories of alcohol are punctuated with women and men who used alcohol to disrupt social conventions. Through the consumption of alcohol, rituals and ceremonies created and reconstituted community both within and across ethnic groups. Imbibing could also divide people. Even while they sipped their cognacs and brandies, elites portrayed indigenous people, the poor, and other marginalized people getting drunk on moonshine to discount and denigrate them. Often associated with (particularly violent) crime, alcohol was seen as a vice by many and excoriated during temperance movements. Yet defendants across Latin America took advantage of judicial systems that considered alcohol a mitigating circumstance in many crimes. As 20th-century evangelical sects that preached abstinence as the route to wealth and marital bliss grew to unprecedented numbers, traditional healers and biomedical practitioners continued to tout alcohol's medicinal value. In short, alcohol was a marker of social position and cultural identity, a crucial component in community and state building, and a commodity around which different cultural traditions, healing practices, and policing policies developed and evolved.
Architecture in Mexico City, 1940–1980
Kathryn E. O'Rourke
Architecture in Mexico City in the mid-20th century was shaped by rapid economic and urban growth, demographic change, new construction technologies, and politics. Architects adapted modernist idioms and those that evoked historical precedents for new purposes. Key figures who had begun practice earlier in the century, including Mario Pani, Juan O'Gorman, José Villagrán García, and Luis Barragán, designed major new works and strongly influenced the profession, even as a new generation led by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, Ricardo Legorreta, and Teodoro González de Léon came of age. As they had been since the 1920s, public patrons were the most important clients of modern buildings, which often addressed needs for better housing, education, and health care. The period also saw the rise of modern suburbs and the evolution of the single-family house, as well as the creation of major buildings for increasingly important cultural institutions, especially museums.
As they had in preceding decades, architects used the non-architectural arts, particularly painting, to distinguish their works. The legacy of the Mexican muralist movement was most evident on the facades of major buildings in the new University City, where the influence of international modernist planning principles was also striking. In 1968 Mexico City hosted the Olympics, for which architects, planners, and designers created a network of buildings and images that functioned interdependently to present Mexico as cosmopolitan and historically rooted in its indigenous history. Sprawl and pollution worsened in the 1970s, as the capital came to be dominated by buildings that were not designed by architects. While some observers questioned the relevance of architecture in the face of seemingly unstoppable and uncontrollable growth, talented young architects responded with buildings notable for their monumentality, mass, and sophisticated engagement with historical types.
Argentine Intellectual Circles and the European Crisis of the 1930s
Jorge Nállim
Beginning in the second half of the 19th century, Argentina became closely linked to the North Atlantic world, as the founding fathers of the modern state established a political order modeled on liberal principles, developed a dynamic export economy, and presided over a large immigration—mainly from Spain and Italy. These processes provided the historical framework for the impact of the European crisis of the interwar years in Argentine cultural groups and debates in the 1930s. The cosmopolitan features of Argentine society and intellectual groups, the country's political crisis in the 1930s, and the particularly heavy influence of the Spanish Civil War explain how the European situation and ideologies such as Fascism and anti-Fascism were processed in a variety of cultural publications and institutions.
The Autonomous Department of Press and Publicity (Departamento Autónomo de Prensa y Publicidad)
Ana Laura de la Torre
The Autonomous Department of Press and Publicity (DAPP) created by Lazaro Cardenas's administration responded to the need for a fixed ideological framework that would allow for the construction of a modern, prosperous, and politically unified nation based on the Six-Year Plan. The materials produced by the DAPP designated collective identities; defined relations between the government and its enemies, rivals and allies; preserved and molded past memories, and sought to project fears and hopes into the future. The department used a variety of mass media technology to produce messages with the aim of controlling criticism of the regime, shaping public attitudes, generating a collective "us," and effecting change in the thoughts and actions of the public. The continuous use of the media was a response of the Cardenista administration to the constant rejection that its public policies generated, either because they affected particular economic interests or because they were considered as an affront to the way of thinking of various social sectors, particularly those identified with Catholicism. President Cárdenas and his associates perceived that they were a besieged and criticized administration, both inside and outside the country. Hence, they deemed it essential to start up a strong propaganda apparatus in order to reverse the opposition and generate supporters. Its creation is framed by the efforts taken by various governments during the 1930s that viewed propaganda as an effective tool for producing political consensus, generating feelings of national unity, and changing public habits.
Civilian Aviation in Mexico
Peter Soland
The Mexican government's civil aviation program implemented elite development strategies during a period of national reconstruction. In the decades following the revolution, political leaders and industrialists attempted to strike a balance between preserving a unique national identity and asserting their country's place in global affairs as a competitive, modern nation. Nation builders were primarily concerned with improving the nation's communication and transportation capabilities, although they quickly learned to exploit the spectacle of aviation through the mass media and in public ceremonies, as well. The symbolic figure of the pilot proved an adept vessel for disseminating the values championed by the country's ruling party. Aviators validated the technological determinism underpinning the government's development philosophy, while projecting an image of strength abroad.
This article traces the trajectory of aviation development from 1920s through the 1950s. In the process it demonstrates how the social and cultural significance of technology in Mexico changed over time. The establishment of the Department of Civil Aeronautics under the Secretariat of Communications and Public Works (SCOP), in 1928, reflected the ambitions of reform-minded officials who were intent on modernizing the country. Although the onset of the Great Depression slowed aviation development for about a decade, policymakers recommitted to the technology during World War II. President Manuel Ávila Camacho (1940–1946) used it to achieve two of his primary goals: securing the country from the threat of international fascism and shifting the nation from an agrarian to an industrial economy. Wartime aid alleviated material obstacles hamstringing national aviation development, and the rapid growth of tourism to the country in 1940s and 1950s benefited commercial airlines. Presidents Miguel Aléman (1946–1952) and Adolfo Ruiz Cortines (1952–1958) touted the success of the aviation industry as a consequence of their development policies. The near financial collapse of the country's largest airline, Compañía Mexicana de Aviación (CMA), at the end of the decade nevertheless hinted that the country's sustained economic growth was less miraculous than officials and foreign observers liked to believe.
Digital Resources: The José Guadalupe Posada Collection at the Ibero-American Institute
Ricarda Musser
Disney Health Films in Mexico
María Rosa Gudiño Cejudo
In August 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, concerned with Nazi infiltration in the Americas and continental defense, created the Office of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA) and appointed Nelson Rockefeller coordinator. To strengthen ties between the United States and Latin America, including Mexico, Rockefeller implemented cultural programs that included Health for the Americas and Literacy for the Americas to teach illiterate rural inhabitants to read and write in Spanish, and to inform them about health, prevention, and hygiene. Both programs used educational cinema as their main teaching tool, and the OIAA hired filmmaker Walt Disney to produce the films. The health series included thirteen animated cartoons with an average duration of ten minutes, dubbed in Spanish and Portuguese. The themes were drawn in part from the guidelines set out at the XI Conferencia Sanitaria Panamericana (Eleventh Pan-American Health Organization Conference; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1942) to address health care and sanitation. A group of psychologists, cartoonists, health authorities, teachers, and OIAA representatives carried out surveys and field work in various countries before production and test screening began. In this process, Mexico differed from the other countries involved because of Walt Disney's connections with Mexican schools. Eulalia Guzmán, representative of the Secretaría de Educación Pública (Secretary of Public Education), led in reviewing the educational films, and Disney attended classes with local teachers to discuss the use of film as a teaching tool. In 1943, through the Programa Cooperativo de Salubridad y Saneamiento (Health and Sanitation Cooperative Program) of the Secretaría de Salubridad y Asistencia (Ministry of Health and Assistance, the films were shown in health campaigns throughout Mexico.
The Economy during the Mexican Revolution
Mark Wasserman
The Mexican economy consisted of activities at the international, national, and local levels, including the export of minerals and agricultural commodities, manufactures and agriculture for domestic markets, and production of goods for everyday consumption, respectively. The impact of a decade of civil wars between 1910 and 1920, which comprised the Mexican Revolution, on the economy varied according to which level, the time period, and the geographical region. The crucial aspects of the economy consisted of transportation and communications, banking, mining, export agriculture, and government policies and actions. The important factors were the intensity of the violence, inflation, and the availability of capital.
Chronologically, there were several stages to the economic history of the Revolution. The first consisted of the years of the Madero rebellion and presidency, 1910–1913, when there was little damage done and growth continued. The second and worst period was during 1914, 1915, and 1916, when the counterrevolutionary Huerta regime battled the rebel Constitutionalists and after the latter's victory the ensuing civil war between the divided winners. The third stage occurred with the defeat of the radical factions of the Revolution led by Zapata and Villa and the restoration of a semblance of order in 1917. The fourth included the establishment of the Sonoran dynasty of de la Huerta, Obregón, and Calles and the slow reconstruction of the economy.
Emiliano Zapata and Revolutionary Mexico, 1910–1919
Paul Hart
Emiliano Zapata led the Liberating Army of the South during the Mexican Revolution. Zapata's movement began with a demand for land reform, and his beliefs are most often captured by reference to the Plan de Ayala, which he promulgated in 1911. It was largely because of the Zapatistas (Zapata and his adherents) that land reform was written into the Mexican Constitution of 1917. Later, especially under President Lázaro Cárdenas, (1934–1940), the Mexican government carried out major land redistribution, which helped earn the post-revolutionary state legitimacy in the countryside. Over the course of nearly a decade fighting in the revolution, Zapata's vision for remaking Mexico extended far beyond the Plan de Ayala and land reform to include judicial reform, decentralization of power, political democracy, the redistribution of wealth, and the promotion of the interests of rural workers and small agricultural producers while protecting Mexican sovereignty against powerful foreign interests. Zapata, however, led the most poorly armed of the main factions in the revolution and was unable to realize his goals. His enemies received large amounts of foreign military supplies, while he received no assistance from abroad. The inability of his poorly equipped volunteer army, mostly peasants and hacienda workers, to carry out large pitched battles dictated that they had to fight a grueling guerilla war. Zapata was unable to win on the battlefield, but was never totally defeated. He was assassinated in 1919. Although his larger vision for the future of Mexico did not prevail, his fight for land reform helped shape modern Mexico.
Fernando Ortiz on Afro-Cuban Music
Robin Moore
Fernando Ortiz is recognized today as one of the most influential Latin American authors of the 20th century. Amazingly prolific, his publications written between the 1890s and the mid-1950s engage with a vast array of subjects and disciplines. Perhaps Ortiz's most significant accomplishments were the creation of the field of Afro-Cuban studies and major early contributions to the emergent field of Afro-diasporic studies. Almost everyone else associated with similar research began their investigations decades after Ortiz and in dialogue with his work. Ortiz was one of the first to seriously examine slave and post-abolition black cultures in Cuba. His studies became central to new and more positive discourses surrounding African-derived expression in the mid-20th century that embraced it as national expression for the first time in Latin America.
This essay considers Ortiz's academic career and legacy as regards Afro-Cuban musical study beginning in the early 20th century (when his views were quite dated, even racist) and gradual, progressive changes in his attitudes. Ortiz's work on music and dance have been underrepresented in existing academic literature, despite the fact that most of his late publications focus on such topics and are considered among his most valuable works. His writings on black heritage provide insight into the struggles within New World societies to overcome the racial/evolutionist ideologies that justified colonial subjugation. His scholarship resonates with broader debates throughout the Americas over the meanings of racial pluralism and the legacy of slavery. And his changing views over the years outline the trajectory of modern Western thought as regards Africa and race, specifically the contributions of Afro-diasporic peoples, histories, and cultures to New World societies.


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Also tonight, Leon Ware, Madlib, Marcos Valle, DJ Logic, The Philadelphia Experiment featuring Pat Martino, Amy Winehouse, Johnny Williams, and Louie Vega.
Welcome to our new on-line listeners in Boston, Detroit, Madison, Santa Barbara, Nashville, NYC, Jersey City, San Mateo, Helsinki, Seattle, Geneva, Milano, Bordeaux, and Stuttgart!
Tell a friend to join us at capradio.org/ondemand


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Transit Provider Access


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Visit our main website at www.StDavids.com
Krisha McCoy, MS
X-rays use a small dose of radiation to create pictures of the inside of the body.
Copyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.
X-rays can be taken of any part of the body. They are especially good for looking at teeth and injuries to bones.
X-rays can also be used to:
By using oral, rectal, bladder or IV contrast materials, x-rays can also used be for other reasons, including:
An x-ray uses radiation to make images. The low levels of radiation from a single x-ray will not affect most people. If you are pregnant or think you may be pregnant, then talk to your doctor before the x-ray. Radiation may be harmful to developing babies.
Before your x-ray is taken, you may be asked to remove jewelry and put on a hospital gown.
Let your doctor know if you are pregnant.
You may be given a type of contrast material.
A lead shield may be placed on parts of your body that are not being x-rayed. This will help reduce your exposure to radiation.
The x-ray device will be placed over the part of your body being studied. You will be asked to remain as still as possible while the images are taken. The x-ray device will send x-rays through your body. The x-rays will be captured on the other side of your body by a computer or on film.
You will be able to resume your daily activities after the x-ray is complete.
A few minutes
The x-ray will be sent to a radiologist. A report will be sent to you and/or your doctor.
Call your doctor if you have any questions or concerns.
In case of an emergency, call for emergency medical services right away.
Food and Drug Administration
Radiology Info—Radiological Society of North Americaf, Inc.
Canadian Association of Radiologists
Canadian Institute for Health Information
Patient safety: radiation dose. Radiological Society of North America website. Available at:
Updated August 10, 2014. Accessed February 16, 2015.
Last reviewed February 2015 by Michael Woods, MD
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
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Since then we have lived in a few different cities across the U.S. but I had yet to find a chicken shwarma as good as I had remembered at Oasis, until now!
San Diego has quite a few Greek restaurants and while most of them are a bit too commercial for my taste there is a small cafe called Nikkos my husband and I love. The chicken shwarma is exactly as I remember at Oasis. Warm, soft flat bread, flavorful chicken, and the most delicious garlic sauce I have ever had.
I attempted to make it at home and the results were quite good.
4 Flat Bread


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Press Release
February 6, 2013
Valdez, Alaska - In what is likely one of the longest sentences handed down for sexual abuse in the history of the State of Alaska, Superior Court Judge Eric Smith sentenced former Valdez resident Derek Werder on February 4, 2013 to serve 150 years in prison.
A Valdez jury convicted Werder last June of 16 counts of sexual abuse of a minor, nine counts of sexual assault in the first degree, three counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree, four counts of assault in the third degree, and one count of assault in the fourth degree. For more than a decade, Werder sexually and physically abused his young stepdaughter, videotaped some of his crimes, and forced others to participate in some of the sexual assaults.
At the sentencing hearing in Valdez, where Werder was sentenced to a composite term of 219 years, with 69 years suspended, Judge Smith commented that the case was the worst he had ever sat through in his 16 years on the bench. Werder's actions inflicted severe emotional damage on the young victims and tore apart the family. The convictions stem from an investigation conducted by the Valdez Police Department in 2011. The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Melissa Wininger-Howard of the Palmer District Attorney's Office.
CONTACT: Assistant District Attorney Melissa Wininger-Howard at (907) 761-5648 or firstname.lastname@example.com
# # #


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Difference between revisions of "Ecotourism"
Revision as of 18:55, 30 December 2004
"Ecotourism involves visiting natural areas with the objectives of learning, studying or participating in activities that do not bring negative effects to the environment; whilst protecting and empowering the local community socially and economically." (Cristina, 2004)
Environmental issues
By encouraging travellers to behave in an environmentally responsible way. EcoTour operators offer relevant information and advice on how travellers can minimise their impact on the ecosystem as well as how they can contribute to the protection of fragile ecosystems.
By offering travellers the opportunity to participate in conservation or preservation projects. An important element of this type of project is education. The goal is that through participation, eco travellers will return home with increased awareness and concern for environmental issues and therefore continue to behave in an environmentally conscious way.
Social issues
By involving the local community in aspects of planning, decision-making and management of ecotourism. This encourages the empowerment of individuals.
By educating travellers through leaflets, interpretation and advice from Tour operators or guides about the culture, customs and etiquette of locals. This prevents conflict or offence between local and traveller interactions that may be caused through misunderstanding or ignorance.
Economic issues
By employing local people whenever possible and paying fair wages. This prevents exploitation and benefits the local economy by preventing leakages of the revenue acquired through tourism.
Many Ecotour operators are involved in working on initiatives and projects with the local community such as training and education programmes.
A few of the places subscribing to the principles of ecotourism
External Links


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$13.99 to $52.99
Natural Balance® Ultra Premium Formula has multiple proteins and multiple grains to provide complete and balanced nutrition for all stages of a dog's life. Read More
This product is currently unavailable for purchase.
Natural Balance® Ultra Premium Dry Dog FoodDick Van Patten's Natural Balance® Ultra Premium Dog Food provides complete and balanced nutrition for all stages of a dog's life as substantiated by the nutrient requirements established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profile.
Contains fresh chicken, duck, carrots and potatoes, lamb meal, oatmeal, brown rice, flax seed, pearled barley, glucosamine and grape seed oil.
Does NOT contain soy, corn, wheat, eggs, white rice, dairy, or sunflower oil; all suspected of causing allergies in dogs. Packed with vitamins A, E, B, and C, beta carotene, potassium, omegas 3 and 6, calcium, phosphorous and iron.
Has 23% Crude Protein, 13% Crude Fat and 3% Crude Fiber.
- Size: 5 lb,15 lb,30 lb
- Brand: Natural Balance
- Ingredients: Chicken,Duck,Carrots,Potatoes
- Protein Content: 23%
Reviews (2)
I have fed a lot of foods to my dogs through the years. But this one is one of the best, I have raised a litter of English bullies on this and have the happiest and healthiest puppies i have had in a long time. Mom never lacked for milk even feeding 8 rollie pups. I have another friend that had a Newfoundland that has severe alleries and recommended this to her and with in days her dogs hot spots were drying and no longer red. Thanks Natural Balance
"Impressive Natural Dog Food!"
I am very impressed with this natural balance Ultra dog food. After feeding it to my Westie for only three days, his red skin went away and he stopped scratching. He likes the taste much more than his old food, probably because the ingredients are really healthy. We?ÇÖve been buying this for a few months now and will continue to do so, as we?ÇÖve very happy with the results!


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Option payoff diagrams explained48 comments
Binary option strategies questionnaire paypal
A call option , often simply labeled a "call", is a financial contract between two parties, the buyer and the seller of this type of option. The seller or "writer" is obligated to sell the commodity or financial instrument to the buyer if the buyer so decides. The buyer pays a fee called a premium for this right. The term "call" comes from the fact that the owner has the right to "call the stock away" from the seller. Option values vary with the value of the underlying instrument over time.
The price of the call contract must reflect the "likelihood" or chance of the call finishing in-the-money.
The call contract price generally will be higher when the contract has more time to expire except in cases when a significant dividend is present and when the underlying financial instrument shows more volatility. Determining this value is one of the central functions of financial mathematics. The most common method used is the Black—Scholes formula.
Importantly, the Black-Scholes formula provides an estimate of the price of European-style options. Adjustment to Call Option: When a call option is in-the-money i. Some of them are as follows:. Similarly if the buyer is making loss on his position i. Trading options involves a constant monitoring of the option value, which is affected by the following factors:. Moreover, the dependence of the option value to price, volatility and time is not linear — which makes the analysis even more complex.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about financial options. For call options in general, see Option law. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. October Learn how and when to remove this template message. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey A Practical Guide for Managers. Energy derivative Freight derivative Inflation derivative Property derivative Weather derivative. Retrieved from " https: Articles needing additional references from October All articles needing additional references. Views Read Edit View history.
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Dear Alex,
I knew it was only a matter of time before my sweet boy who used to pull on my ears to plant a big wet one would turn away. Yes, that baby who used to cling so closely to my chest now extends an arm between us as if declare "I am I and you are you," before pushing me away. I'm at once disappointed and impressed that you are showing such willful defiance and independence. I'd ask where you got it from, but I'm quite ashamed how obvious the answer is.
What has the last month introduced? For one you are getting into everything within your chubby baby hands' reach. You are also climbing up steps and anything within reach above your head. Beans are strewn on the floor, mail and magazine are torn and tossed like giant confetti, heavy wine bottles pulled off shelves; it seems like each moment is a harmful disaster diverted at the very last millisecond. We've been late to the game, but now we are on a mad dash to baby proof the house.
Also notable is the evolution of your communication skills. Following months of applying sign language, we are garnering dividends as you respond in like fashion. In addition to shaking your head for "no," your favorite sign has been to indicate "all done" when you are feeling full during meals. It's proof that not only are you watching and emulating us, but you understand intentions.
I also love the way everything fascinates you. You often send out 'oooohs' when greeted with something new. Sometimes you will pause in the middle of the 'O' freezing your rounded mouth and drawing out the sound as if to bring us along as you think longer.
Amidst all of these changes I did receive a gift last night when you fell asleep next to me in our bed, something that you had not done in months. It reminded me of the days after we brought you from the hospital when the only way you would stay asleep was if you were snuggled right next to me. No matter how hard those days were I cherish them. This time I surveyed how much you have grown and it was nearly implausible that this was the same baby taking so much more room on our bed. Wow.
Still my favorite thing about you is how you smile at nearly every person you meet, and that is something that will never get old. I am especially proud to have such a happy baby.


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Hey there Bo Bunny Fans! It's me, Patti and today it's my turn to be in the spotlight. Let me tell you a bit about me and my family and then I'll show you some new projects that I've made.
I'm married to a truly wonderful man named Joe. Later this month, we'll celebrate our 17th anniversary. He has the patience of a saint and sweetly tolerates my crazy obsession with paper and glue. We met at college our senior year and it's been very much my "happily ever after" story since then. Here's Joe with Alex this summer at a nearby amusement park. This was just a few minutes before Alex got completely drenched on the log flume bridge.
We currently live in southeastern Pennsylvania and as you can see we have two sweet yet zany children, Sheridan (15) and Alexander (10) who we love dearly and keep us on our toes. They keep busy with the usual sports and school activities as well as being in band. Strangely enough, they are both musically talented. I say strange because neither Joe nor I can read music and we can barely carry a tune...lol! But Alex has excelled with the trumpet in just a few short months and Sheridan plays flute and piccolo for band as well as learning to play a handful of other instruments. Her brother is quickly following in her footsteps.
Here they are together when we visited a orchard near us. We picked a TON of cherries this season and made a very scrumptious cherry filling that I used for a super simple tart recipe. I gave them the task of pitting the cherries...I'm pretty sure they snuck eating more than just a few!
Next, meet Lucky.....he's the 4 legged family member who has us wrapped around his little paw. We adopted him last fall from a local rescue and he is a bit goofy but the sweetest dog ever. He sticks to me like glue and is my constant companion while Joe is at work and the kids are at school. He's typically under my scrap table, safe from most scrappy things except for the occasional wayward sticker that I'll find stuck to his tale later in the day.
As for me...you might not guess it but I tend to be pretty shy (camera shy too!) and reserved. I'm very much an introvert and a homebody. I ♥ being home! Outside of being with my family and crafting, my favorite thing to do is read. I love books...all kinds but you'll often find me with a Lynn Kurland book, basically a PG romance novel involving medieval history with a bit of time travel thrown in for fun. What can I say...I'm partial to a lighthearted story with a happy ending. :) Aside from the above, I also like to take photos, cook and try out new recipes, watch movies, play Wii with my kids (happy to report my virtual golf game is improving), vacationing with my family and I have a horrible weakness for chocolate and coffee. This summer, I expanded our container garden and we're having great success with a few vegetables and some herbs. The kids love it!
We always have tomatoes for salad, I fried up some zucchini sticks last week, lots of Basil for fresh pesto and we have more Jalapeno peppers than we know what to do with. Any pepper recipe suggestions? :) Now that we've had some success, I'm looking forward to starting a vegetable garden in the yard next year...wish us luck!
My scrapping adventures started back in 1996 following shortly after the birth of my daughter. I found a CK Magazine at my local craft store and I was hooked. I already loved taking photos and doing my own version of journaling in my photo albums but once I realized what more I could do I became obsessed with pattern paper and cardstock. I'm not certain that I have a distinct style but most of my projects tend to have a few things in common...lots of detail, layers, usually pretty linear, my own handmade embellishments and my stuff tends to be a bit on the fussy side.
I started designing for manufacturers in 2004 and had the opportunity to join the Bo Bunny Design Team in 2009. It has been a fabulous experience and I can't say enough wonderful things about the Bo Bunny company and the incredible designers I've been able to work with. I'm looking forward to another fantastic year with the team!
Just a few days ago, my box of Bo Bunny arrived with the latest releases just in time for me to dive in and create 6 new cards to share with you today.... If you love soft hues of blue and green and lots of flourishes, you are sure to love the Welcome Home collection. I made a card with lots of detail, layers and flowers...and went a little crazy with my glitter too!
Bo Bunny Supply List:
Pattern Paper: Stripe, Dreams, Key, Flourish, Front Door, Portrait, Welcome Home, Family and Dot/Welcome Home
Stickers: Welcome Home Combo Stickers
Noteworthy: Welcome Home Die Cuts
Brads: Welcome Home
Jewels: Welcome Home
Chipboard: Welcome Home 12"
My daughter is thinking about hosting an end of summer ice cream social and we thought these candy filled jars would make a cute and tasty addition to our party planning. We filled them up with candy coated sixlets from the party store. This one will be a gift for one of her friends.
"Sweet Thing Card & Candy Topping Jar"
Bo Bunny Supply List:
Pattern Paper: Cut Outs, Delish, Sweet Tooth, Temptations, Recipes and Just a Pinch/Sweet Tooth
Stickers: Sweet Tooth 12" Combo Stickers; Sweet Tooth Cherry on Top Stickers; Welcome Home 12" Combo Stickers
Rub-Ons: Sweet Tooth
Chipboard: Sweet Tooth 12" Chipboard
Trinkets: Sweet Tooth
I chose the Garden Girl Card Kit for this next card. I used the design suggested in the kit but changed a few things up to give it my own personal style.
But even with the changes, it took me just 10 minutes to put it all together. That's record time for me! I loved that I didn't have to start from scratch and so much is already done for you. If you haven't already gotten your hands on one of these card kits, I highly recommend them.
"You Make Me Happy"
Bo Bunny Supply List:
Pattern Paper:Poppy, Garden Girl and Stripe/Garden Girl
Cardstock: type and color
Stickers: Garden Girl 12" Combo Stickers
Jewels: Garden Girl
Card Kit: Garden Girl
It's pretty difficult choosing a favorite collection but Et Cetera is definitely up at the top of my list! It has a great vintage look with beautifully muted pops of color.
I used the Et Cetera Stamp set for the background of my card.
Bo Bunny Supply List:
Pattern Paper: Mail Room, Extra, Index, Geography and Odds & Ends/Et Cetera
Stickers: Et Cetera 12" Combo Stickers; Et Cetera Just Be You Stickers
Stamps: Et Cetera
Brads: Et Cetera
Jewels: Et Cetera
Chipboard: Et Cetera 12" Chipboard
I've gotten a head start on a couple of Christmas cards with the Father Christmas and Blitzen collections...
"Joys of the Season"
Bo Bunny Supply List:
Pattern Paper: Poinsettia, Jingle Bells, Holly, Celebrate, Father Christmas, Dot, Berries, Merry & Bright, Stripe and Sleigh/Father Christmas
Stickers: Father Christmas 12" Combo Stickers; Father Christmas Comfort & Joy Stickers
Chipboard: Father Christmas 12" Chipboard
I punched a bunch of circles, distressed them a bit and then adhered them across the card. I secured them with stitching and added a few more embellishments to complete the look.
Bo Bunny Supply List:
Pattern Paper: Snow Globe, Gifts, Turtle Doves, Blitzen, Sentiment, Stockings, Stripe and Reindeer/Blitzen
Stickers: Blitzen Dimensional Stickers; Blitzen 12" Combo Stickers
Buttons: Blitzen
Brads: Blitzen
Jewels: Blitzen
I'm going to follow the leader and also share some previous projects that I've made. These are some that I've made for fun or for other assignments...
"Autumn Pins"
Bo Bunny supplies: Learning Curve and Olivia collections
"Paper Pumpkins"
Bo Bunny supplies: Olivia and Double Dot Cardstock
"Winter Birdhouse Home Decor"
Bo Bunny supplies: Noel collection
"Trick GRRR Treat" Card
Bo Bunny supplies: Whoo-ligans collection
And this "King of HEARTS" layout of my son.
Bo Bunny supplies: Persuasion and Love Bandit
And finally, some favorite projects that I made for previous challenges here on the Bo Bunny Blog...
"Noel" Angel
Bo Bunny supplies: St. Nick
"Paper Quilted Ornament"
Bo Bunny supplies: 'Tis the Season
"Spiderman" layout
Bo Bunny supplies: Whoo-ligans
And this "Snowflakes" layout of my daughter.
Bo Bunny supplies: Winter Joy
Now.....is anyone out there interested in winning some Bo Bunny goodness?? If you'd like to have a chance at winning a prize at the end of this month, be sure to leave me a comment below. Bo Bunny will hold a drawing for each Designer Spotlight giveaway posted this month.
Also, if you'd like another chance to win a prize pack from me on my blog and take a peek at another card that I've made using Bo Bunny's Forever Fall collection, then stop by my blog too! You can see the details there. :)
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I hope I've inspired you just a bit!


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Visiting Ontario's last P.O.W. camp: Camp 30
Ehrenwort is a German word meaning "Word of Honour"; this was what everything at Camp 30 revolved around. Unlike what you'd typically expect from a P.O.W. camp these prisoners were permitted to leave for the day on the honour system provided they returned for the evening's roll call. Although there were a few escape attempts during its operation, not one prisoner successfully escaped from Camp 30.More+


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Virus and bacteria team up to save aphid from parasitic wasp
Viruses and bacteria often act as parasites, infecting a host, reproducing at its expense and causing disease and death. But not always – sometimes, their infections are positively beneficial and on rare occasions, they can actually defend their hosts from parasitism rather than playing the role themselves.
In the body of one species of aphid, a bacterium and a virus have formed a unlikely partnership to defend their host from a lethal wasp called Aphidius ervi. The wasp turns aphids into living larders for its larvae, laying eggs inside unfortunate animals that are eventually eaten from the inside out. But the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) has a defence – some individuals are infected by guardian bacteria (Hamiltonella defensa) that save their host by somehow killing the developing wasp larvae.
H.defensa can be passed down from mother to daughter or even sexually transmitted. Infection rates go up dramatically when aphids are threatened by parasitic wasps. But not all strains are the same; some provide substantially more protection than others and Kerry Oliver from the University of Georgia has found out why.
H.defensa's is only defensive when it itself is infected by a virus – a bacteriophage called APSE (or "A.pisum secondary endosymbiont" in full). APSE produces toxins that are suspected to target the tissues of animals, such as those of invading wasp grubs. The phage infects the bacteria, which in turn infect the aphids – it's this initial step that protects against the wasps.
Oliver set up populations of pea aphids that were all genetically identical. Some of them carried H.defensa in their bodies while others did not, and of the infected individuals, some were also ridden with the APSE-3 phage. He unleashed the wasp A.ervi upon all of these individuals, and waited.
The results clearly demonstrated the importance of having both virus and bacteria – with the full alliance intact, less than 10% of the aphids fell victim to the wasp. If one or both of the partners was absent, the wasp successfully parasitized 90% of its potential hosts. Without the phage, the aphids might as well not have been infected by H.defensa at all, for all the good it did.
The phage bestows protective powers on the bacteria thanks to a single gene that encodes a toxic protein. It also makes a lot of it – the toxin-producing gene is almost three times as active as one of the most active genes in the bacterium's own genome. How exactly this poison kills the wasp is unclear and it's worth noting that H.defensa's has toxins of its own. The most intriguing possibility is that somehow the viral and bacterial poisons work together to kill the wasp, but that's a theory to be tested in the future.
In lab conditions, the alliance between bacterium and virus is a very stable one, but in the wild, H.defensa has a bad habit of spontaneously losing its all-important phage lodger. Even within a single aphid, only some bacteria have viral genes integrated into their own. No one knows why the virus should disappear so frequently. Perhaps it's not an entirely welcome tenant and its presence carries some sort of cost that occasionally outweighs its benefits. Perhaps only phage-free H.defensa can be passed on from aphid to aphid.
Regardless, case of the pea aphid is a great example of the role of phages as vehicles for genes, shuffling them between bacteria and providing the carriers with extra superpowers. In almost all cases, these gene transfers affect the ability to cause disease. It's a phage that carries the CTX toxin that the bacterium Vibrio cholerae needs to cause cholera. It's a phage that carries the Shiga toxin that turns harmless strains of Escherichia coli into a bug capable of causing severe food poisoning.
The APSE-3 phage is different – its toxin, far from turning its host into a more effective parasite, actually turns it into an anti-parasite defender. Faced with an enemy that threatens them all, the virus, the bacterium and the aphid have formed an evolutionary alliance, with infection as its foundation.
Of course, not all parasitic wasps are foiled by viruses – some have managed to turn them into biological weapons, stealing their genes and using them to subdue their caterpillar prey…
Reference: Science 10.1126/science.1174463
More on beneficial viruses:
- The upside of herpes – when one infection protects against another
- Anthrax bacteria get help from viruses and worms to survive
- Wasps use genes stolen from ancient viruses to make biological weapons
Comments (7)
Links to this Post
- And so on, ad infinitum | Mystery Rays from Outer Space | August 19, 2010
- Biological Warfare | Living With Insects Blog | November 11, 2010
Minor correction, Ed – although Dr. Oliver might not consider it so minor:
"She unleashed the wasp A.ervi upon all of these individuals, and waited."
Actually, he unleashed the wasp. You linked to his faculty bio page, but apparently never looked at it, because Kerry Oliver is awfully rugged-looking and bearded for a 'she.'
How is the virus transmitted? Seems like there would be selection for protecting the host only if it's transmitted to host offspring, presumably inside with the bacteria. If it ever evolves the ability to infect and reproduce in the wasps, I'd expect it to suppress rather than strengthen host defenses.
Oh God – n00b error! You know, I once sent a female scientist a write-up of their work for fact-checking and referred to them as "he" throughout. She sent it back with a couple of technical corrections but didn't spot the gender-bending one.
My impression is that the phage is usually transmitted along with the infected facultative symbiont from parent to offspring, though it can be lost (rendering the Hamiltonella worse than useless). Since this is a phage, there would have to be a susceptible microbe in the wasps for it to infect.
Ed, you use the construction "H.defensa's" in a way that seems odd to me more than once in the article. Is it just a cut'n'paste anomaly, or am I missing some meaning?
Once again I am led to doubt that the phage should really be treated as an organism independently from the bacterium. You don't always wear your hat, but it's still your hat.


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Impostor Syndrome: Part 2 of 4Dec. 30th, 2012 12:48 pm
Berkeley 2001-2003"it's cool to discover someone
it's hard to support them
everyone is playing life
like it's some stupid sport"
-- Ani DiFranco
As for most new Ph.D students in the US, my first year at Berkeley consisted mostly of coursework, and that was what I was used to, so for the most part it went smoothly. At the end of the year, it should have been a warning sign when nobody wanted to be my advisor. One professor I talked to -- the one I'd mentioned in my statement of purpose as who I wanted to work with, and who encouraged me to come to Berkeley when I visited during prospective student day -- said "no" outright, saying he wasn't interested in what I wanted to study (functional programming languages). Another one didn't say no, but had a reputation of being someone who didn't answer email; I was hoping for someone who actually seemed interested in having a student. I ruled out two more professors who seemed close to retirement, and one more because she did scientific computing and that pushed my "I went to a liberal arts school and don't know anything" buttons too much. I ended up with an advisor who told me he was willing to advise me, but given what I was interested in doing, he wasn't going to be very involved and he would basically just be there to sign paperwork. At the time, I thought that was fine. Remember, I didn't like talking to people. I thought I would just work on my own, and that would be easy. Easier than getting up the courage to talk to somebody, anyway.
Later on, I saw it as a personal mistake to have chosen this advisor rather than looking harder for a more involved advisor, or even changing research areas. But part of why I made that decision was structural. I was socially shut out, as I'll discuss, which meant that I wasn't getting any tacit knowledge that would have helped me understand that I did need an advisor who was involved. I know this is a structural factor and not a personal issue because Barbara Lovitts talks about it in her book Leaving the Ivory Tower. That is, she discovered that a major component of grad students' success or failure is the extent to which they can use informal social networks to attain the tacit knowledge that's essential to completing almost any graduate program; faculty and staff rarely communicate this knowledge to students in any systematic way. Official lists of graduation requirements stick to course requirements and the specifications for what constitutes a dissertation -- they don't talk about the unofficial things, like having an advisor you can work with (and who has time for you) and which advisors are likely to be compatible with which kinds of people. Thus, people who find themselves misfits and outsiders in the (figurative) lunchroom in any particular department tend to get pushed out, even if they're just as able as the insiders to complete the academic requirements.
So here's where my impostor syndrome really began. My second year, I failed prelims. And then I failed prelims again. You needed to get special permission to retake after failing twice, but I did, and failed them a third time my third year. Of course, one fail was enough for me to start seriously feeling like I didn't belong there, which more or less guaranteed my failure the second two times. The third time, I really didn't even prepare. And no one appeared to tell me I did belong, that I was valued, or that it was worth it to try to pass. My advisor said "let me know if there's anything I can help with", which meant I didn't ask for help since I didn't know what to say, and anyway, didn't want to be judged for my questions.
After I failed the first time, I went to ICFP (the International Conference on Functional Programming) and realized that there were actually people in the world who were interested in functional programming. I started thinking that maybe I should leave Berkeley even if I didn't get kicked out, and I started trying to make arrangements to be a visiting grad student at another school. At some point, going to another school for good started looking like a better idea than just visiting for a semester. While I was casting about in this way, my advisor (the one who told me up front that he didn't care about my proposed research) actually did try to get me to stay at Berkeley for a while. But after I failed the prelim for the third time, I guess he changed his mind -- I was applying to other grad schools, and when I asked him if he was willing to write recommendations for me, he said that he didn't think there was any point in me applying to other top-tier computer science programs like Berkeley, because he thought the prelims were a good test of ability to complete a Ph.D.
At Berkeley, prelims were completely different for each area group (e.g. programming languages, systems, theory, AI, and so on). Here's how the programming language prelim worked: You got handed a piece of paper with a list of maybe fifty research papers on it. You were told you had to be familiar with the contents of all of these papers, but the professors who were running the prelim in any given semester were also free to ask about papers that weren't on the syllabus (and to not ask about any of the papers on the syllabus). Each semester, two professors would be responsible for prelims, and they would examine all the grad students who were taking the prelim that semester. Each student got to spend an hour in the office of one of the two professors, with those two professors and nobody else. The professors would ask two questions and the student would have to answer them on the spot. Other area groups did their prelims totally differently: if I recall correctly, the theory prelim involved writing a research paper on a topic of your choice, and possibly an oral part consisting of answering questions about the paper.
I took the prelim three times, and panicked during it every time. I remember very clearly that during one of the times, I was so anxious about the exam that I gave precisely the wrong answer to a question I'd gone out of my way to study because I thought it might be asked about (the subtyping rule for function types). I had massive social anxiety growing up, and while that's gotten better over time, ten years ago when I was a second-year grad student, conversations with just about anyone I didn't know well filled me with so much anxiety that it took all of my mental effort to not run away, much less actually think about solving a problem in real time. In retrospect, I think that's one way in which my impostor syndrome manifested. Even just in everyday social interactions, I was always terrified of being asked a question I didn't know how to answer, as well as terrified of having someone not understand what I said. I'm not sure what I thought -- or think -- is going to happen that's so terrible in one of these two scenarios, but there you have it. Anxiety isn't rational. But I think one of the things I was terrified of, in conjunction with those possible scenarios, is that I would be discovered, unveiled as someone who really wasn't as smart as everybody thought I was, who had managed to lead everyone on. In that moment of being unveiled, I just wouldn't know what to do or say, and that's what made the scenario so terrifying.
For me, impostor syndrome became a self-fulfilling prophecy. My fear of being unmasked as incapable caused so much anxiety as to make it impossible for me to express myself in speech (already something that was often challenging for me), which led to my being perceived as... incapable. When my advisor told me not to bother re-applying to Cornell, that was almost precisely the scenario that I'd envisioned (never assume that the thing you worry about won't come true by virtue of having been worried about!): by telling me that he didn't think someone who'd failed the prelim repeatedly could possibly be capable of completing a Ph.D, he was basically telling me that I was an admissions committee mistake, even if not in so many words. There's no reason why the admissions committee would have admitted a student who they thought couldn't finish the program -- so the only explanation left was that I'd done a good job of looking impressive when I just really didn't have the competence or talent.
I'd like to be able to say that once my worst fear came true, I learned that it wasn't really that bad, but that would be a lie. It was that bad. Almost a decade later, I'm still not over it. Whenever I ask someone a technical question, I still worry that I'll say something that will reveal me for the ignoramus I really am. Overhearing conversations full of vocabulary I don't understand makes my brain shut down rather than making me want to ask questions and learn about these areas I don't know. When I go to a research talk, I usually can't listen because the minute the speaker says something I can't understand (within the first 5 minutes, usually) I'm consumed by worrying about how bad I am at absorbing spoken information. Usually, I'm not consciously aware of that worry, but it manifests itself as an intense desire to escape -- mentally if not bodily -- by opening up my laptop or reading things on my phone. The same is often true for me with one-on-one conversations (only when it's about design or problem-solving, usually not when it's about anything else): I get so consumed by the stress of being around another person and potentially having my deep, essential ignorance revealed, I can't have a meaningful interaction. When one person has already told you that you weren't good enough to do the thing you'd been dreaming of, what's to stop anyone else from doing the same thing? The result is paralyzing fear that continues to limit my ability to work with other people.
I think there are people who could have -- and did -- get through the challenges of grad school, and even of failing the prelim at least once, with more resilience than I did. And I think that's political. How much support you have, which people will reassure you that it's all okay, which people will actively take steps to make sure you do better next time, even whether you feel like you can ask for help at all, is partly a function of random individual brain differences but is largely political. Social capital is not distributed evenly.
On a different note: was my advisor's statement -- that the prelim accurately measures who can complete a Ph.D -- true? Well, I guess I'm not qualified to answer, not being a faculty member or even someone who completed a Ph.D, but my guess is that it's not. I likely would have been able to pass a prelim that consisted of working on a research paper in advance, then answering questions about it: that's exactly the style of the Research Proficiency Exam (the prelim equivalent) at Portland State, where I went to grad school later, and I passed it. If my area group had had that style of prelim, I might have graduated. So that's a sign that the prelim isn't the universal litmus test it was touted as. I do think the PL prelim measures something, though: confidence and ability to think on one's feet. While these are traits that certainly contribute to success as a researcher, I don't see any particular reason why one has to prove that one has these traits by the end of one's second year. The PL-style prelim favored people who have been taught from birth to be confident and to have little fear about being alone in a room with two (likely white and male) professors: that is to say, white, cis men. Finally, the PL-style prelim was unaccountable: it was completely subjective and made it easy for professors to get rid of students who were from the wrong social groups. After all, departments can admit women (and people perceived as women) to boost their diversity statistics, but it's not as common for anyone to scrutinize attrition rates: it's always an option to say that if a student leaves, that's their fault. In fact, this is exactly what Barbara Lovitts discovered in Leaving the Ivory Tower: that faculty members attribute the success of successful students to their own (the faculty members') efforts in mentoring, while blaming the failures of students who leave grad school on the character traits of the individual students. When it comes right down to it, I'm not sure why standing up in a room and talking coherently on a question with no advance preparation is so important that it has to be used to weed out students during the first two years, why what might be phrased as "bullshitting skills" are more important than ability to do research.
So just like social capital is unevenly distributed, impostor syndrome is too. For any given person, coping is a fixed resource; when you go through life getting told in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that people of your gender or your race, or people whose bodies look like yours or who think and communicate the way you do, or people with your sexuality or your economic class, just aren't good enough (and must, if they do well, only be doing well because they were given a "handout"), you tend not to have a lot of coping left to sustain yourself in a challenging and often hostile academic environment. The ways in which different grad programs assess students vary a lot, and at Berkeley, it even varied from research group to research group -- so, as it happened, the PL prelim was a particularly impostor-syndrome-unfriendly exam in my opinion. The exam required not just confidence, not just ability to think on one's feet, but a certain set of social skills that are not evenly distributed. But having that particular set of social skills doesn't have a lot to do with ability to be a researcher. The closest part of a researcher's job that resembles the PL prelim at all is giving academic conference talks -- but even that isn't so similar, because giving a talk on a subject you've worked on for years and know intimately, with advance preparation time, to an audience that almost uniformly knows less than you about your topic, is very different than answering questions, on the spot, with no preparation, from your social superiors. Plus, many researchers are pretty bad at giving talks and they still get jobs.
A friend who's a teacher who read a draft of this essay commented that the PL prelim was "inauthentic": it didn't tell the examiners what they needed to know, because it was so slanted towards people with a particular skill set that didn't have a lot to do with what the test was supposed to measure. I agree, but of course, that assumes the goal of the exam was to measure something objective. Given the lack of accountability inherent in an exam that (in any given semester) only two people have authority over, it's also easy to see the PL prelim as a means of gatekeeping and putting a veneer of academic legitimacy over weeding out students who are a bad fit for the culture.
A lesson that got reinforced for me later on when I went back to grad school was that the people who survive a flawed system often believe the system works... because it works for them. In the case of grad school, the survivors are faculty members: they did the work, met the requirements, graduated, and got one of the jobs that the system promises to those who complete a degree. Because the survivors are comfortable where they are, they have little reason to look at those who got forced out of the system needlessly. And that's why it was that people like my advisor at Berkeley could say they thought the prelim measured what it should measure: it was indeed true that those who passed the prelim tended to do well later on, but logically, that tells you nothing about whether the people who were gatekept by the prelim and forced out of the program could have done well too, or even better.
Dichotomies and DisparitiesBesides the obvious reasons of belonging to socially devalued groups, starting with the group of people perceived as female, a lot of my impostor syndrome probably also arose from a childhood in which I was placed on a pedestal as a "gifted child", was taught to value myself only for my academic achievements, and was never taught that things might be difficult -- even for a "smart kid" like me. My story isn't the most frequently occurring one: I didn't go to school before college, so I didn't really have any sources of validation or reassurance other than my mom, who I knew from an early age didn't have a good grip on reality. I didn't believe almost anything she said, so why should I have believed her when she told me how smart I was? I imagine it's different for most cis girls, trans women, and trans men -- being in school, they probably get validation from multiple sources, and impostor syndrome might not set in until college or grad school. Nevertheless, I'm tired of people othering me by telling me my story couldn't possibly apply to anybody else, and I think I have the authority to talk about impostor syndrome firsthand even though my experiences aren't exactly like everyone else's.
It's possible that I would have had less social anxiety if I'd gone to school as a kid, but I don't think so. For one thing, I might have been labeled in some pathologizing way (pick one of ADD, autism spectrum, or just "noncooperative" -- not that it's bad to be any of these things, just that kids who are labeled in any of these ways are frequently treated badly by school systems). For another thing, I probably would have been bullied -- my transsexuality, which I was able to ignore (somewhat) blissfully until I got to college, probably would have been an issue much earlier, and I likely would have faced wrath from girls for being someone who was assumed to be a girl but didn't know how to do girliness (I'm guessing that would have happened in primary school because it's what I faced as a student at a (historically) women's college). For a third thing, I likely would have been really bored and would have been stopped from doing things that would have engaged me (for example, I actually did go to the first half of first grade at a parochial school -- and got in trouble for reading books at times when such activity wasn't allowed). On the plus side, it's also likely that I would have had adults other than my mother -- that is, reliable people -- encouraging me and telling me I had value. On the whole though, as wistful as I feel when other people are talking about their school memories and I have nothing to share, I can't say I really think I would have been better off in school.
What is common across the experiences of lots of people, not just people who didn't go to school as kids, is that being told you're smart is apparently hazardous to children. Kids who are told they're smart are much more likely to be anxious and perfectionistic, as they see difficult tasks not as chances to grow and learn, but rather, dangerous situations in which their essential, core level of smartitude might be exposed and judged by others not to be good enough. That's impostor syndrome right there.
A closely related issue that contributes to impostor syndrome, I think, is the cultural value we attach to being "smart" or "intelligent" and the stigma we attach to being "stupid" or "idiotic". We insult people by calling them "stupid" or "idiotic", even when we know perfectly well that the person we're talking to probably has an IQ above 30 (which was once the definition of "idiot"). We even call ideas "stupid" or "idiotic", presumably to suggest those ideas could only have come from a stupid or idiotic person, and thus can't possibly be valid. Why is it good to be smart and bad to be stupid? I haven't figured out a logical reason for that yet (except within an ideological framework that defines a person's value as their ability to generate wealth for others in a capitalist system, which I reject). My logical mind knows it's ridiculous, but my illogical mind is still deeply attached to the idea of "smart" as "worthy" or "valuable", which is why it provokes so much fear in me whenever I think of someone maybe judging me as not so smart. Being "smart" has nothing to do with being kind, caring, or compassionate, and yet our culture teaches us to value it so much. This leads directly to massive insecurity, as there is no way we can ever convince ourselves that we are "smart enough". Valuing smartness rather than, say, effort (or anything else on this list) is essentially encouraging an attitude where "intelligence" is an innate quality one is born with and can never change, only observe. Behind impostor syndrome, I think, is the fear that someone else will notice that this innate quality in you is lacking, and then, there will be no hope for you; you'll just never be welcome in the circles reserved for those who Can Do Things. If we valued those capabilities in ourselves that can get stronger as we learn and grow, on the other hand, there'd be less reason to be afraid. Someone seeing where you fall short would just be an opportunity to grow.
And I think that valuation of "intelligence" as a homogeneous thing is deeply political. Who benefits when everyone thinks what matters is being "smart", or at least convincing people you're "smart"? Well, for one thing, a belief in the value of "smart"ness makes it easy to believe that we live in a meritocracy, or at least that particular organizations, or professions, are meritocracies. Belief in meritocracy is a way of willfully not seeing inequality and injustice, and it's obvious who benefits from that: the same people who always benefit from unfair distribution of resources. Moreover, even if society was a meritocracy (though it quite obviously isn't), would that be fair? If intelligence is some single quantity that you're born with (not that I think it is, but that's how it's usually understood by people who value being "smart" a lot), what's fair about assigning rewards and punishments based on its presence or absence? (For more on this line of thought, see William Ryan's book Equality.)
To be continued!


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One day I was not doing much, so I decided, well, I will write an article. I chose a topic and started to write and after a while I saw that I could not put one together. I had wadded up two and thrown them away before I really realized that something was wrong.
I was trying to write on my own strength instead of Jesus' strength. When I read those articles they sounded awful.
Sometimes we as Christians want Jesus in our life when we have nothing else very important to do. But I think we all know that Jesus wants the first and the best from us.
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Geeta Uhl, KF14, Peru
At FINCA Peru, there is a lot more than just microfinance happening. In addition to women's empowerment and business development workshops, FINCA Peru offers the children of borrowers financial and global education training with the goal to educate the next generation of entrepreneurs in Ayacucho, Peru.
FINCA Peru uses the Aflatoun Program, a 6-month course for children ages 6-12 to develop their awareness of savings and planning for the future, personal development, the environment, and the world. Aflatoun is actually a global network of social and financial education based in the Netherlands. According to their website, the program reaches 500,000 children in 31 countries. FINCA Peru is one of Aflatoun's four partners in Peru.
Does Aflatoun stand for anything? At first I thought it was just another long acronym but apparently it was chosen by the children in the Indian program, and is a character in a Bollywood film. It has an Arabic origin and refers to "the explorer"
FINCA Peru first implemented the Aflatoun program in May 2009 in their Ayacucho office. The program targets the children of the women who are members of the village banks. The program is offered during the school year, and consists of 24 one-hour after school sessions from March until July, and is currently taught by two FINCA Peru volunteers.
The 6-month curriculum covers personal development, teaching the students about children's rights, working in teams, and their roles in their family and community. The program also delves into environmental education- teaching about conservation, recycling, and keeping public areas free of litter.
Every student saves money each week and develops a micro-enterprise project. In the past, the children made Christmas cards to be sold in Canada. This year they are thinking about making piggy banks or another craft using recycled plastic bottles. The profit is all returned to the children. In the last class, 150 kids saved 3,000 PEN in total (~$1079) and earned profits of 264 PEN (~$95) for selling the Christmas cards.
The program does have some challenges. Sporadic attendance is common since it's an optional after-school program held in a non-academic setting. The wide age range of 6-12 can also make it difficult to tailor the lesson plans.
For more information on the Aflatoun program visit their website here: http://www.aflatoun.org/
For more information on FINCA Peru visit their Kiva page here: http://www.kiva.org/partners/70
Geeta Uhl is a Kiva Fellow currently serving with FINCA Peru in Ayacucho, Peru