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> like I already said, if you have a better suggestion on where to
> store these flags, it's fine with me.
i don't think it's my responsibility to find a better way.
i'm just wondering if these features are worth to eat these bits.
YAMAMOTO Takashi | {
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} |
Tag Archives: chemical spill
Johanna de Graffenreid from the Citizen Action for Real Enforcement Campaign in West Virginia discusses the fallout of the January 9th chemical spill which left over 300,000 people without water, and the history of lax regulatory enforcement of extractive industries in WV.
Global Justice Ecology Project teams up with the Sojourner Truth show on KPFK Pacifica Los Angeles for a weekly Earth Minute each Tuesday and a weekly Earth Watch interview each Thursday. | {
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My only problem with this initiative is that it falls far short of the mark of protecting all Americans. Right now, only the major media outlets have full free-speech rights in an election. This bill would extend free speech to the Internet. Here's an idea: Why don't we give everyone back their first amendment rights, as I wrote here:
These past few weeks, we have been debating whether this media
exemption from speech restrictions should be extended to bloggers. At
first, I was in favor. Then I was torn.
Now, I am pissed. The more I think of it, it is insane that we are
creating a 2-tiered system of first amendment rights at all, and I
really don't care any more who is in which tier. Given the wording of
the Constitution, how do I decide who gets speech and who doesn't - it
sounds like everyone is supposed to:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
I
have come to the conclusion that arguing over who gets the media
exemption is like arguing about whether a Native American in 1960's
Alabama should use the white or the colored-only bathroom: It is an
obscene discussion and is missing the whole point, that the facilities
shouldn't be segregated in the first place.
Excuse me, but I have been on a crusade of my own of late to get people to stop comparing the current federal spending spree to drunken sailors. It unfairly gives drunken sailors a bad name. Not only has no drunken sailor ever expected me to pick up the tab, but probably not all of them together could have put me personally a few hundred thousand in the red, much less a all of us a few trillion. Besides that, drunken sailors eventually pass out and - here's the kicker - they STOP SPENDING! There is no evidence that this Congress or President ever will. In fact, when things pick up, Delay might countenance a tiny bit of fat sneaking back into the budget.
Thank you for your future attention to this detail.
http://www.zianet.com/ehusman/weblog/blogger.html Eric H
Excuse me, but I have been on a crusade of my own of late to get people to stop comparing the current federal spending spree to drunken sailors. It unfairly gives drunken sailors a bad name. Not only has no drunken sailor ever expected me to pick up the tab, but probably not all of them together could have put me personally a few hundred thousand in the red, much less a all of us a few trillion. Besides that, drunken sailors eventually pass out and - here's the kicker - they STOP SPENDING! There is no evidence that this Congress or President ever will. In fact, when things pick up, Delay might countenance a tiny bit of fat sneaking back into the budget. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
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“Now Laura Dern is part of this incarnation [of Twin Peaks] and there’s a love scene between you and Laura Dern. So now you’re married and you used to date her [Dern] and you’re doing a naked love scene with your ex,” DeGeneres said. “How was that? Was that weird?”
“Laura is just, as you know, just wonderful and very special person so we had this scene that we had to do together, we both knew going in was going to require some nakedness on both our parts,” MacLachlan, 58, replied.
“And it’s very funny because [director] David [Lynch] would sit down and just say, ‘Okay, this is what we’re doing to do,’ and he talks you through it. So you feel pretty comfortable and then you sit down and Laura and I kind of were like, ‘Okay, here we go. Welcome back 25 years later.’ She looked great by the way, I gotta say,” he continued.
RELATED VIDEO: Get a Behind The Scenes Look at The Casting Of Twin Peaks
“But that’s gotta be weird to be doing a love scene like that,” DeGeneres added.
“Yeah, it was pretty weird,” MacLachlan continued. “We laughed, we did, we had a couple laughs for sure.”
The actor also detailed the story about how he first met his wife in 1999. “We actually met at a chiropractor’s office, not many people know that,” he said.
“I was sitting in my little traction chair — I’d injured my back — and so she walked past the door,” he continued. “ So I got out of my traction chair, which wasn’t that easy, and walked out and sort of said hello to her at the front desk. And nothing really happened, but I ran into her the following night at a party and then we dated for one day. And then I invited her to the Vanity Fair party — I had one extra ticket — so that was our first date.”
“I was so taken by how she looked I figured it was worth rupturing another disk,” he added.
The finale of Twin Peaks: The Return aired earlier this month. There are currently no plans to create more episodes, according to TheNew York Times.
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10 best-performing S&P 500 stocks of 2014
Insight: There have been many surprises, as M&A heats up and yields decline
The S&P 500 Index
SPX, -0.88%
has returned 5% this year after soaring 32% in 2013, but there have been many surprises for investors, including the fact that two airline companies are among the best performers.
The benchmark index keeps hitting records, as stocks are being supported, in part, by an unexpected drop in interest rates. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes has declined 42 basis points this year to 2.48%, as investors have continued to snap up U.S. government paper even as the Federal Reserve winds down its monthly bond purchases aimed at keeping rates low.
There are daily warnings that the stock market may be overvalued. That’s because the S&P 500 trades for 14.5 times the 2015 consensus earnings estimates, among analysts polled by FactSet. That’s up from 13.3 a year ago, and the highest since the pre-crisis days of 2007.
Another sign that we could be at the late stage of a market rally is the vastly increased number of M&A deals this year. There have been 837 transactions involving U.S. and Canadian firms, compared with 220 a year ago, according to FactSet. Hot sectors for deals have included telecommunications and pay television, with AT&T Inc.T, -0.97%agreeing in May to purchase DirecTV
DTV, -0.83%
for $48.5 billion and Comcast Corp.CMCSA, -0.25%
announcing an agreement in February to snap up Time Warner Cable Inc.
TWC, +0.41%
through a $45 billion stock swap.
Here are the 10 S&P 500 stocks with the highest returns, including reinvested dividends, this year through Thursday’s market close:
The group is diversified, although there are two airlines among them, as well as two pharmaceutical firms and two companies involved in oil exploration and drilling.
Looking at the top performers won’t help you guess which stocks or sectors will outperform for the rest of the year, but the economic, market and M&A trends that have pushed these stocks so high can provide plenty of food for thought:
Forest Laboratories
The top S&P 500 performer so far this year is Forest Laboratories Inc., which closed at $95.75 Thursday, for a year-to-date return of 60%, following a 70% advance in 2013. The stock has returned 304% over five years, which compares with a 132% increase for the S&P 500.
The stock popped 28% on Feb. 18 after the company agreed to be acquired by Actavis PLC
ACT, -2.34%
for $25 billion in cash and stock. The deal, when announced, was valued at $89.40, for a premium of 25%.
And then on April 28, Forest Laboratories announced a deal to acquire Furiex Pharmaceuticals Inc.
US:FURX
for $1.1 billion in cash, which comes to roughly $95 a share, or a 19% premium. But there’s another possible sweetener for Furiex’s shareholders, consisting of “up to $30 per share (approximately $360 million in aggregate) in a Contingent Value Right (CVR) that may be payable based on the status of eluxadoline, Furiex’s lead product, as a controlled drug following approval,” according to Forest’s deal announcement.
There’s a built-in floor to the stock price for Forest Laboratories, assuming the merger with Actavis is approved. But there have been some challenges from investors who were hoping for a higher takeout price, as is typical for large M&A deals. Forest Laboratories last week agreed to disclose additional information about previous merger offers to shareholders.
Nabors Industries
Second-best this year among the S&P 500 is Nabors Industries Ltd.
NBR, +0.07%
which is a contract oil driller headquartered in Bermuda. The company also provides various services to manage oil wells through their entire life cycles. The stock is up 54% this year through Thursday’s close at $54.30, following a 19% return last year. The five-year total return is 48%, which is the second-worst performance among the stocks listed here.
The shares trade for 13.5 times the consensus 2015 earnings estimate of $1.94 a share, among analysts polled by FactSet. That is the second-lowest forward price-to-earnings ratio among this year’s top 10 S&P 500 stocks. The consensus 2014 EPS estimate is $1.16.
Nabors reported a 2% decline in first-quarter revenue to $1.59 billion, while net income dropped to $49.9 million, or 17 cents a share, from $99.1 million, or 34 cents, a year earlier. The revenue decline was attributed to expected “weather-induced interruptions,” Nabors CEO Tony Petrello said in the company’s earnings release.
Jefferies analyst Brad Handler on May 21 upgraded Nabors Industries to “buy” from “hold” on expectations for growing international demand and the “pending” announcement of the company’s internal strategic review.
Electronic Arts
Third-best among S&P 500 components this year is Electronic Arts Inc.
EA, -1.10%
The game software developer’s stock is up 52% this year through Thursday’s close at $34.76, following a 58% increase in 2013. The five-year return is a rather low 51%, when compared with the index.
EA’s shares trade for 15.6 times the consensus 2015 EPS estimate of $2.23. Analysts are expecting EPS to grow by 19% from $1.87 this year.
The stock soared 21% on May 7, after the company reported year-over-year declines in fiscal fourth-quarter net revenue and earnings, but a 21% increase in cash flow from operations, to $281 million. For all of fiscal 2014, which ended on March 31, net cash provided by operating activities more than doubled to $712 million.
EA also provided guidance, with adjusted net revenue for 2015 expected to grow 2% to $4.10 billion. The company expects, on a GAAP basis, to earn $2.37 a share in 2015, compared with 3 cents in 2014, but also projected non-GAAP EPS of $1.85, which will reflect a net revenue decline of $275 million, because of a change in the way online gaming revenue is recognized. Fiscal 2014 non-GAAP EPS totaled $1.73.
Keurig Green Mountain
Keurig Green Mountain Inc.
GMCR, -1.96%
ranks fourth, with a total return 50% this year, following a 2013 jump of 83%. The five-year total return is a staggering 511%, and Keurig Green Mountain is one of only two firms on the top 10 list to grow its annual revenue per share for five straight years, according to FactSet.
Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use.
Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. Intraday data
delayed per exchange requirements. S&P/Dow Jones Indices (SM) from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All quotes are in local exchange time. Real time last sale data provided by NASDAQ. More
information on NASDAQ traded symbols and their current financial status. Intraday
data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. S&P/Dow Jones Indices (SM)
from Dow Jones & Company, Inc. SEHK intraday data is provided by SIX Financial Information and is
at least 60-minutes delayed. All quotes are in local exchange time. | {
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BuzzFeed, and 4 More Bad Startup Ideas that Look Like Good Ideas
Y Combinator staged its annual Startup School event last Saturday, attracting more than 1,700 young startup founders and would-be founders. Andreessen Horowitz partner (and Xconomist) Chris Dixon, the founder of Web startups SiteAdvisor (sold to McAfee) and Hunch (sold to eBay), gave one of the most interesting talks, under the title “Good Ideas That Look Like Bad Ideas.”
Riffing on earlier arguments advanced by Peter Thiel and Paul Graham, Dixon said that the best way to succeed with a technology startup is to find an idea that everyone thinks is terrible at first, but later turns out to be indispensable—like, say, the telephone. (According to legend, in 1876 Western Union declined the opportunity to buy Alexander Graham Bell’s patent for a meager $100,000, calling the invention an impractical toy. There’s some dispute over the veracity of this story, but whatever—it’s great for business textbooks.)
Dixon pointed to Google, Airbnb, eBay, Dropbox, and Kickstarter as more recent examples of ventures that initially seemed weird, niche-y, unnecessary, and unlikely to make money. To persevere in the face of such perceptions, Dixon said, an entrepreneur needs to know a secret: “something you believe that most other people don’t believe.” At Dropbox, for example, founder Drew Houston believed that the way to appeal to millions of non-technical users and beat the dozens of incumbents in the cloud-based storage market was to make sharing things on Dropbox feel just like dragging-and-dropping files to a local hard drive. So far, it seems he was right about that.
In this view of the world, the important thing is to keep plugging away, while competitors who don’t know your secret skate off in the wrong direction. Eventually, if your secret is correct, the people who initially thought your idea was idiotic will start to appreciate your true genius.
The risk with this strategy, of course, is that you’ll lock onto a seemingly dumb idea that turns out to be a truly dumb idea. As Graham points out, “the vast majority of ideas that seem bad are bad” (emphasis mine). That’s the reason Y Combinator invests in so many startups. Its partners know most of them will fail—they just don’t know which ones.
And what makes things even more difficult for entrepreneurs and investors is that an idea can start to look good once you’ve worked on it for a while, but still turn out to be bad. Webvan, the dot-com-era grocery delivery startup, is the archetypal example. The company was beloved by its customers and was widely thought by investors to have the “first-mover advantage” that would make it the Amazon of groceries. Venture firms were so convinced that they ponied up $1.2 billion—right before the business imploded, leaving a crater so deep that VCs have been scared of food-related startups ever since.
The law of averages says that there are probably still a few Webvans out there today. These companies may be raising money, hiring engineers, and adding users— the outward signs, at least according to the topsy-turvy logic of the startup world, that they must have a good idea. But many of them haven’t yet tested their ideas on a truly massive scale, or haven’t confronted key challenges that could sink their whole enterprise. Their secrets, in other words, might turn out to be wrong.
I’m going to list a few startups and products that I suspect fit into this category. In each case, there’s something about the company or the invention that I just don’t grok. Either it feels like there’s something missing from the value proposition, or there’s something that early adopters find valuable that doesn’t make sense to me. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that a lot of other average folks (especially people outside Silicon Valley) share my views.
But I want to say up front that my suspicions could be wrong. In each case, I find myself disbelieving the company’s secret—but it could be that I just don’t understand it. Maybe I’m playing Western Union in these scenarios; maybe I’m so enmeshed in the technologies I currently use that I’m unable to see the alternatives. Or it might be, as I’m sometimes told by startup founders when I express uncomprehension or doubt, that I’m just “not in the target demographic” for these products.
I’d love to hear what you think about this list, or what other startup ideas you just don’t grok, so please leave your comments below.
If BuzzFeed is the future of journalism, just shoot me now. The site is dominated by photo-driven “listicles” with clickbait titles like “The 23 Most Boston Things To Ever Happen” and “15 Signs You Are Obsessed with Your Dog.” I don’t begrudge anyone a few giggles; I don’t have anything against lists (you’re reading one now); and I admit that it takes a special kind of skill to give an article BuzzFeed’s patented Ebola-like virality. But I wonder how often visitors would go back to the site if they understood that many of its articles are actually advertisements placed by BuzzFeed’s “featured partners.” And I just don’t see how BuzzFeed’s formula can keep working long enough to pay back the $46 million it’s raised from venture capitalists.
Uber is trying to use modern mobile technology and its network of private black limos to fix a real problem: the fact that procuring and paying for a taxi ride, in a lot of cities, can be a tedious hassle. The big stumbling block, in my eyes, is that Uber is about half again as expensive as a conventional taxi, with the difference growing even greater during hours of peak demand. As Reuters blogger Felix Salmon has pointed out, the company “doesn’t seem to have worked out how it wants to deal with the central question of cost.” Because it’s so pricey, Uber feels like a solution for the wealthy elite—a perception that’s unashamedly built into the company’s marketing and branding (and even its name).
Uber blogger Bradley Voytek says Uber costs more because it offers more: reliability, customer support, style, comfort, and reduced frustration. That may all be true. But for me, and I suspect for most people, the premium is too great. A much better service at a much higher price just doesn’t feel like a big innovation. The cheaper new UberX service available in some cities—which offers easy car ordering and payment, without the style and comfort of a black limo—may represent the beginnings of a fix for this problem. But it will still have to contend with opposition from the taxi industry, which sees the new, unregulated car services as unfair competition. I keep wondering why we can’t use technology to fix the existing industry.
If anyone knows that people are always looking for new ways to communicate, it’s Ev Williams, who co-founded Blogger (sold to Google in 2003), then Odeo (one of the first podcasting platforms), then Twitter. But it’s still unclear what need Williams is trying to fill with Medium, the online publishing platform he unveiled in mid-2012. “If you have thoughts to share that you want to impact or influence people with—beyond just your friends and beyond 140 characters—we want to provide the tools and the place,” Williams wrote in one post. Does that mean it’s supposed to be a magazine killer, as The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal speculates?
In support of that notion, Medium does pay some of its writers. There’s also a group editing function that lets members gather feedback from each other before they publish. And there’s a curation system, partly algorithmic and partly editorial, that determines what shows up on the front page. But there doesn’t seem to be any unifying point of view, which, to me, is a key hallmark of a magazine. And the quality of the content varies wildly. I wholeheartedly agree with Williams that “words (still) matter”—but so do structure, voice, mission, and standards, and those things are missing from Medium right now.
What it does have, though, is a really nice what-you-see-is-what-you-get composing interface. Perhaps the project’s real point is to disrupt a market dominated by an older generation of content management systems like WordPress. It’s difficult to tell.
Snapchat may be all about impermanence and the right to forget (the photos and short videos its users send to each other self-delete after 24 hours), but the Stanford-born, Los Angeles-based startup is building up a very large and permanent obligation to its investors—IVP, Benchmark, Lightspeed, General Catalyst, and SV Angel put $60 million into its Series B round this summer, on a reported valuation of $800 million. Perceptions that the app is primarily about sexting are probably misguided; according to one informal survey of Stanford students who use the app, most “snaps” are simply funny faces or doodles meant to evoke a quick laugh from friends, as a way of staying in touch. The messages aren’t serious in the first place, so it’s fine when they disappear.
But while that kind of ephemerality may click with college students, my question is whether the app has wider appeal, and whether its first-generation users will have any reason to keep using Snapchat once they age out of the college population. This doesn’t feel at all like a repeat of the Facebook story, where a photo-sharing service born on an elite college campus spreads like wildfire to the rest of the country, and then the world. Yet its investors are betting it will be even bigger. (When Facebook was Snapchat’s age, it had raised about $40 million, on a valuation of $500 million.)
Glass isn’t yet a business—it’s a project of Google X, the innovation lab overseen by Google co-founder Sergey Brin. But it represents Google’s bet that in the future, wearable devices will supplement or replace smartphones, feeding us news and messages and helping us query, sense, or record our environments in unobtrusive ways. Smartwatch makers think the same thing, but want to colonize our wrists rather than our direct visual fields.
I am not convinced by any of it. The fundamental problem is that a useful computer needs a rich, two-way interface. Smartphones and tablets are wonderful because they have big multitouch screens. The input modalities for Glass, by contrast, are incredibly narrow. The device understands a handful of spoken commands, and if you want to look like someone trying to wave away a mosquito, you can swipe forward and backward on the temple-mounted touchpad. That’s it. The tiny screens of today’s smart watches are no better. Short of huge improvements in speech recognition and natural-language processing technology, I’m not sure there’s any answer to the input problem, given the lack of available real estate.
At best, you could say that wearables are at the stage tablet computers were at in 2002: clunky, expensive, geeky, not all that useful, and desperately awaiting their iPad moment. Which is not to say that I expect Apple to come up with some kind of miracle wearable device—the iWatch remains a rumor precisely because Apple understands what it’s up against.
So, that’s today’s list. I could be wrong—and obviously it’s far easier to criticize than to build. I don’t mean to question the commitment or creativity of the people behind these technologies, or the acumen of their financial backers. Still, it will surprise me if any of these products achieve success, as measured by mass adoption or consistent profitability. Some of the organizations behind them may achieve exits that enrich the founders and investors, but that’s not the same as true product success, in my book.
At some point, good ideas that look like bad ideas have to start looking good to average consumers, or they’re just bad. And these five technologies aren’t there yet.
The Author
Good article. You could do a weekly or monthly of that kind of article: Pick the top trendy/sexy start ups and put in your thoughts.
Brenda Patterson
Agreed — I really like this piece and your perspective and would love to see this on a regular basis. Also a “look back” over time on where things netted out a year from now, for instance.
estimatorinmind
Google glass is marketing towards the wrong demographic. If it went towards the construction industry, towards users that need and can use real time data to better prepare construction bids, interact with foreman and other field personal (estimators, project managers, etc..) these are the people that need to be sold on its, picture taking and streaming video application.
http://daemons.net/ claymation
Medium, sure, but what about Twitter? The company bleeds money and remains largely an echo chamber for the technoelite. Why it is a publicly traded company baffles me.
Kelsoh
Uber’s at a $18 billion valuation now — who’s laughing now?
The problem with this article is that the mindset of it is too negative. To successfully pursue a concept to its fruition you need the ability to take a leap of faith to commit 100% to executing on the product successfuly. Few can do that. If you naysay and nitpick at every idea, you will never end up pulling the trigger on an idea at all.
Kelsoh
2 months later, Uber’s now at a $40 billion valuation.
Whoever wrote this article is about to become the laughing stock of internet history for being so wrong.
Kelsoh
Quite possibly the worst article written in business prediction history. Four out of these five projects have become highly (read: extremely) successful.
Underwriters and Partners
About Xperience
Here at Xperience—the consumer section of Xconomy—we explore the big picture about how technology is changing our lives, and guide you to the best tools for your lifestyle. Watch the video. | {
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Helena- West Helena Ark Police Officer Being Praised For His Actions
A Helena West Helena Police Officer is being praised for his actions today after talking a suicidal women down from jumping off the Mississippi Bridge.
Without the quick response and actions from Officer Jackson, the women would have plunged to her death. Police were alerted to the incident Monday morning when several motorists noticed a car parked on the bridge and seen a women on the bridge, the citizens called 911 and talked with the lady until the officer arrived.
Chief Green, stated officer Jackson was professional and handled the situation very well, to be a new officer with the agency. Chief Green stated the agency has had two previous suicide in the past couple of months, where women have jumped to their death. One body has been recovered ,while the other hasn’t been recovered The unidentified lady was transported to a local mental health facility for evaluation. | {
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House Overrides Clinton On Fraud Bill
In a stinging rebuke to President Clinton, the House voted Wednesday to override his veto of a bill limiting security-fraud lawsuits. It was the first override of Clinton’s presidency, still requiring Senate action to take effect.
Republicans hailed the bipartisan nature of the 319-100 vote, with 89 Democrats joining in the move to defy the president. They also took the opportunity to slam Clinton, saying he had capitulated to trial lawyers in his surprise veto of the measure aimed at stopping frivolous lawsuits.
“The president’s strongest supporters in 1992 were trial lawyers. This was a bill to rein in trial lawyers,” said Rep. Steve Horn, R-Calif.
If the Senate follows in getting the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto, the bill becomes law. Senators have not decided when they will vote.
The securities litigation bill attempts to deter so-called meritless lawsuits by giving judges power to sanction attorneys who make frivolous court filings and having defendants pay settlements according to the proportion of their guilt. | {
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Leaking Septic Systems Implicated in Bellingham, WA
The Northwest Straits Chapter's BWTF tests between 5-8 sites throughout the year. During the summer of 2009, they discovered a spike in fecal coliforms in a water sample collected from Larrabee State Park (pictured above & below). The chapter alerted the local authorities to the suspected pollution.The Washington State Department of Ecology’s BEACH Program and Whatcom County Department of Health, responded to the chapter’s concern by performing a source tracking study, which led to the discovery of a failing septic system in the nearby neighborhood. Since then, the septic system has been repaired and bacteria levels at Larrabee State Park have returned to normal.
Meanwhile, the Chapter’s efforts towards sharing their data and forming good relationships with their local environmental and health agencies, may bear even more fruit as another source of pollution is tracked down.The Department of Ecology is tracing the source of another event of high bacterial pollution after being alerted by the Chapter that their Nooksack River Delta sites have been testing high as well.Although not confirmed as of yet, another leaking septic system is suspected.
Thanks to the Chapter volunteers for continuously testing the sites around Bellingham, sometimes covering 30+ miles by bicycle to do so in a "green" manner.Thanks also goes out to Post Point for sharing their laboratory space with the Chapter. Read more about the Chapter's BWTF program here. | {
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Love Jerell's energy and drive to make change in his life! Not everyone is born with a visible path to self-sustenance and even more confront environmental challenges all too often, notwithstanding prison. So, to recognize a 2nd chance and approach it with child-like eyes- THAT takes courage! So hats off to you Jerell! Can't wait to see your future TGO posts as you go through this journey!
By Ira Liss (Idea) on 2010-09-04 01:08:51
noun: The emergence of individuals choosing to take small-scale action (s) intended to achieve a personal and/or social goal, resulting in a large-scale impact or ripple effect. | {
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Living Room Tips
"Designer Glen Peloso let's you in on 3 simple design tips that will enhance your living room and surely impress your guests.
Glen Peloso, Principal Designer of Glen Peloso Interiors, Inc., has been designing spaces for commercial, corporate, and residential clients for almost fifteen years. For more information check out his official site: http://www.glenpelosointeriors.com
Learn more about Carpet One Floor & Home and browse our collection! http://www.carpetone.com" | {
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} |
Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP):2017: 0.803SNIP measures contextual citation impact by weighting citations based on the total number of citations in a subject field.
Impact per Publication (IPP): 0.512
Impact per Publication (IPP):2015: 0.512The Impact per Publication measures the average number of citations received in a particular year by papers published in the journal during the three preceding years.
SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): 0.22
SCImago Journal Rank (SJR):2017: 0.22SJR is a prestige metric based on the idea that not all citations are the same. SJR uses a similar algorithm as the Google page rank; it provides a quantitative and a qualitative measure of the journal’s impact.
SUPRIYA ROY, HIMANI AWASTHI*
Neurodegeneration refers to a condition of neuronal death occurring as a result of progressive disease of long-term and is becoming a major health problem in the 21st century. Neurons degenerated are not replaced resulting in a cognitive loss, many neurodegenerative disorders, such as schizophrenia, depression, Alzheimer's disease (AD), dementia, cerebrovascular impairment, seizure disorders, head injury, parkinsonism. The common pathology of neurodegeneration includes deposition of misfolded proteins such as amyloid-β (Aβ) in Alzheimer’s disease, α-synuclein in Parkinson's disease (PD), transactive response DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) in dementia. Neuroprotection refers to the strategies and possible mechanisms that are able to protect the central nervous system (CNS) against neuronal injury and neurodegenerative disorders. The past decade has witnessed an intense interest in herbal plants having long-term health-promoting or medicinal qualities. Comprehensive research and discovery have demonstrated that natural products, medicinal herbs, plant extracts, and their metabolites, have great potential as the neuroprotective agent. Although the precise mechanisms of action of herbal drugs have yet to be determined, some of them have been shown to prevent formation of beta-amyloid plaques, promote nerve growth, some inhibit acetylcholinesterase (AChE) enzyme and malondialdehyde (MDA) formation in brain while other exhibits antioxidant activity by increasing the level of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx). Thus the herbal plants can be a valuable source of the drug against neurodegenerative disorders which will require high-throughput screening. This review will highlight the role of herbal plants and their phytoconstituents against neurodegenerative diseases and other related disorders, focusing on their mechanism of action and therapeutic potential.
INTRODUCTION
Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by progressive dysfunction and loss of neurons leading to the distinct involvement of functional systems defining clinical presentations [1]. Neurodegeneration is a process involved in both neuropathological conditions and brain aging. It is known that brain pathology in the form of the cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative disease is a leading cause of death all over the world, with an incidence of about 2/1000 and an 8% total death rate [2].
Studies have demonstrated that common pathology of neurodegeneration is deposition of proteins with altered physicochemical properties in the human brain. These pathological conformers are called as misfolded proteins such as accumulation and aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) in AD [3], α-synuclein in PD, huntingtin protein in Huntington’s disease (HD), and TDP-43 in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) [4]. In addition, it has been recognized that protein elimination pathways, like the ubiquitin-proteasome system and the autophagy-lysosome pathway, stress response proteins and chaperones have a high impact on the pathogenesis [5].
Damage of neurons also contribute to progressive long-term neurodegenerative processes, for example, the role of L-glutamate (or L-aspartate) mediated acute excitotoxicity in cerebral ischemia or status epilepticus is well known. Microglia-mediated neuroinflammation is also one of the most striking hallmarks of various neurodegenerative diseases, including PD, AD, and ALS [6].
The presently available drugs for the treatment of AD are symptomatic only and do not alter the course or progression of the underlying disease and produce adverse reactions in patients thereby having limited scope for the treatment of patients with Alzheimer's syndrome. Research is also expanding at other substances and treatments that prevent the formation of beta-amyloid plaques, nerve growth factor to keep neurons healthy such as statins, antioxidants (vitamins) and folic acid, anti-inflammatory drugs [7]. The past decade has also witnessed an intense interest in herbal medicines that have long-term health-promoting qualities. Herbal remedies for neurodegenerative disease is becoming more popular in the recent years as they show the possibility to slow down the brain’s degeneration. The benefits derived from using herbal treatments have been very promising as they are not only as effective as prescription drugs but also have fewer side effects [8]. The use of some medicinal herbs has been touted to extend beyond that of modern prescription drugs and may be used as a substitute for pharmaceutical drugs or can be used in conjunction. In the present review, attempts have been made to present the mechanistic role of few herbal medicines in the treatment and management of neurodegenerative disease [9].
Search criteria
This review included articles from 2003 to 2017 that were found in various electronic databases: PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, Scirus, and Google Scholar by using the search words: neurodegenerative diseases, neuroprotection, medicinal plants, antioxidant, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinsonism, dementia, amyloid-β, acetylcholinesterase. Only current articles that reported the effects of medicinal plants on neurodegenerative diseases were included in our study. Then, a comparison of the related vb mechanisms and evaluation of pharmacological effects in the treatment of disease was done.
Herbal neuroprotective agents and their mechanistic pathway
Neuroprotective agents refer to substances that are capable of preserving brain function and structure by reducing and preventing oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, various forms of neurotoxicity (e. g. excitotoxicity), and protein deficiencies. Specific examples of things that can cause neurodegeneration include: traumatic brain injuries, drug abuse, pharmaceutical medications, schizophrenia, strokes, and dementia but the most common cause of neurodegeneration is oxidative stress and to prevent the effects of any neurodegeneration, considering neuroprotective agents may be beneficial for long-term brain health. Administration of a neuroprotective agent may help minimize the effects of chronic conditions that could: kill brain cells, decrease brain volume, and lead to long-term functional impairment. There are more than 120 traditional medicines that are being used for the therapy of CNS disorders in Asian countries [10]. In the Indian system of medicine the following medicinal plants have shown promising activity in neuro-psycho-pharmacology:
Acorus calamus
Acorus calamus (Sweet flag) belonging to family Araceae, act as a rejuvenator for the brain and nervous system having beneficial memory enhancing the property, learning performance, and behavior modification. Acorus calamus contains a majority of α-and β-asarone, β-asarone has the capability of suppressing beta-amyloid-induced neuronal apoptosis in the hippocampus by reversal down-regulation of Bcl-2, Bcl-w, caspase-3 activation and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) phosphorylation [11]. Methanolic extracts of the roots containing α-asarone showed inhibitory effect on AChE with an IC50 value of 188µg/ml [12]. Acorus calamus has the potential of improving the function of dopaminergic nerve; by increasing striatal extracellular dopamine level and the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase in substanianigra therefore it can play role in PD. Acorus calamus also increases DJ-1 gene expression in the striatum and therefore acts as neuroprotective for PD [13].
Allium sativum
Allium sativum (family Amaryllidaceae), commonly known as garlic, is one of the most widely quoted herbs found in the old medical literatures mainly for its medicinal potentials in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and other metabolic diseases, atherosclerosis, hyperlipidemia, thrombosis, hypertension, dementia, cancer and diabetes [14, 15]. Allicin (allyl 2-propene thiosulfinate or Diallylthiosulfinate) and alliin are the principal bioactive compounds of Allium sativum. S-allyl cysteine (SAC) is the major constituent of aged garlic extract (AGE) which is extensively studied [16, 17]. SAC has both direct and indirect antioxidant activity. Apart from decreasing lipid peroxidation and DNA fragmentation, it also reduces protein oxidation and nitration. In 1-methyl-4-phenyl pyridinium (MPP) and 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) models of Parkinsonism, SAC protected dopamine levels, oxidative damage and lipid peroxidation. In 3-nitro propionic acid and quinolinic acid animal models of HD, administration of SAC decreased lipid peroxidation and mitochondrial dysfunction. It also increased manganese and copper/zinc superoxide dismutase activity and prevented behavioural changes. AGE, directly and indirectly, activates expression of important genes needed for neuronal survival [18, 19]. Allyl-containing sulfides in garlic cause the upregulation of neuroprotective proteins such as mitochondrial uncoupling proteins. Allicin also activates transient receptor potential ion channels in the plasma membrane of neurons [20, 21].
Bacopa monnieri
Bacopa monnieri (Linn), commonly referred to as “Brahmi,” from the plant family Scrophulariaceae is a creeping herb found in India and neighbouring tropical countries. Steroidal saponins and bacosides A and B are the active chemical constituents responsible for improving both learning and memory [22]. Other constituents include bacopa saponins D, E and F as well as alkaloids, flavonoids, and phytosterols [23]. Bacoside A increases the activities of superoxide SOD, CAT, GPx, and glutathione reductase (GSR). As a result, the levels of glutathione (primary endogenous antioxidant conjugate) in the brain are significantly increased. Bacoside A inhibits lipid peroxidation by modulating the effects of enzymes like Hsp 70 and cytochrome P450 in the brain. It also improves the activities of adenosine triphosphatases (ATPases), maintains ionic equilibrium and restores zinc and selenium levels in the brain. The researchers found Bacopa monnieri produce a reduction in alpha-synuclein protein aggregation. Bacopa monnieri also enable the body to better cope with the deleterious mental and physical consequences of stress by elevating levels of noradrenaline (NA), dopamine (DA) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) in the cortex and NA and 5-HT in the hippocampus [24]. Jadiya et al. investigated the effect of Bacopa monnieri on pharmacologically induced 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) PD model in Caenorhabditiselegans which expressed human version of alpha-synuclein. The researchers found that the extract showed a significant 3.5-fold reduction in alpha-synuclein protein aggregation, which may be due to induction of the stress-buffer protein Hsp-70 [25, 26].
Centella asiatica
Centella asiatica belonging to family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) has been demonstrated to possess the neuroprotective property and is used as an alternative medicine for memory improvement in the Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine for a long time [27]. The primary active constituents of Centellaasiatica are saponins (also called triterpenoids), which include asiaticosides, in which a trisaccharide moiety is linked to the aglyconeasiatic acid, madecassoside and madasiatic acid. Other components isolated are brahmoside and brahminoside, which may be responsible for CNS action [28]. Centella asiatica exhibits potent antioxidant activity, capable of scavenging free radical, reduces ferric ions, restores GSH levels by increasing the glutathione-S-transferase activity. Centella asiatica also decreases Aβ deposition in the brain. Chen et al. carried out a study which suggested that Centella asiatica ethanol extract can suppress Aβ-induced neurotoxicity by enhancing the antioxidative defence system in differentiated PC12 and IMR32 cells [29, 30]. Amelioration of the colchicine-induced decrease in AChE activity and inhibition of nitric oxide induced neuronal damage by asiaticoside may also explain the neuroprotective effect of Centella asiatica [31, 32].
Curcuma longa
Turmeric, derived from the plant Curcuma longa belonging to the Zingeberacea family, is a gold-coloured Spice that has been used as a traditional medicine. Curcumin, the principal constituent of turmeric, has several known neuroprotective actions [33]. In Alzheimer’s disease, it has been shown that curcumin has the ability to bind Aβ peptides, prevent aggregation of new amyloid deposits and promote disaggregation of existing amyloid deposits [34]. Scientific studies also reported that curcumin and its analogues demethoxycurcumin and bis-demethoxycurcumin can protect cells from Aβ-induced oxidative stress [35]. Curcumin has the ability to inhibit Aβ oligomerization and fibril formation, enhance Aβ uptake by macrophages and inhibits the peroxidase activity of A beta-heme complex [36]. Curcuminoids, polyphenol compounds from turmeric attenuate mitochondrial dysfunction induced oxidative stress and inflammatory responses to inflammatory cytokines, COX-2, and iNOS. Curcuminoids also bind to Aβ plaques to inhibit amyloid accumulation and aggregation in the brain [37, 38].
Celastrus paniculatus Wild
Celastrus paniculatus Wild commonly known as Jyotishmati belongs to family Celastraceae. In the traditional system of medicine, it was administered as a powerful brain tonic, appetite stimulant, and emetic [39]. Phytochemical studies show the presence of evoninoate, a sesquiterpene, alkaloids paniculatine A, paniculatine B and wifornine F, celastrine, celapanine, celapanigine, celapagine, polyalcohol like malangunin, malkanginnol, malkanguniol and paniculatadiol, triterpenoids, sterols such as β-amyrin and β-sitosterol [40, 41]. The scientific studies suggested that Celastrus paniculatus water extract protected neuronal cells against glutamate-induced toxicity by modulating glutamate receptor function and showed an improvement in learning and memory. It also stimulates a significant decrease in the brain levels of MDA which is an important marker of oxidative damage, with simultaneous significant increases in levels of glutathione and CAT; two endogenous antioxidants in the brain [42]. Research carried out by Jakka AL also elucidated the neurotrophic potential of flavonoids present in Celastruspaniculata Wild whole plant methanolic extract (CPPME) and treatment with CPPME demonstrated decrease in AChE and enhanced neurotrophic activity and thus, ultimately improving spatial memory formation in scopolamine-induced amnesia [43]
Coriandrum sativum L
Coriandrum sativum L. commonly known as dhanya belongs to family Apiaceae [44]. Major phytochemical present includes flavonoids like quercetin 3-glucoronide; polyphenolics like caffeic acid, protocatechinic acid, and glycitin. The flavonoid content of the seeds was reported to be 12.6 quercetin equivalents/kg and the polyphenolic content was reported to be 12.2 gallic acid equivalents/kg [45, 46]. A study showed that the extract of Coriandrum sativum increased enzyme levels of SOD, GSH, CAT and total protein levels, and reduces cerebral infarct size, lipid peroxidation (LPO) and calcium levels in the experimental rat. Memory deficits induced by scopolamine and diazepam was also reversed by leaves of Coriandrum sativum [47]. It also decreases reactive changes in brain histology like gliosis, lymphocytic infiltration and cellular edema which assist the protective role in cerebrovascular insufficiency states. The leaves also show antioxidant property having 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, lipoxygenase inhibition and phospholipid peroxidation inhibition activity, which may also contribute to its memory enhancement effect [48].
Galanthus nivalis
Galanthus nivalis commonly known as snowdrop belongs to family Amaryllidacea. The major constituent found in bulbs and flowers of Galanthus nivalis is galantamine which is a tertiary isoquinoline alkaloid. The neuroprotective effect of galantamine is associated with the dual action of this alkaloid. The drug is a competitive and selective AChE inhibitor. It is capable of stimulating nicotinic receptors which further enhance cognition and memory [49]. The drug also modulates allosterically nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, especially α7 and α3β4 subtypes, on cholinergic neurons to increase acetylcholine release [50].
Ginkgo biloba
This species, belonging to the Ginkgoaceae family, is considered as a ‘living fossil’ [51]. The extract contains 24% of flavonoids fraction which is mainly composed of three flavonols, quercetin, kaempferol and isorhamnetin and 6% of terpenic lactones that include diterpenic lactones-the ginkgolides A, B, C, J and M, and a sesquiterpene tri lactone-the bilobalide [52]. Extract exhibit the neuroprotection by several mechanisms that include inhibition of membrane lipid peroxidation, anti-inflammatory effects, and direct inhibition of amyloid-b aggregation and anti-apoptotic activities. The flavonoid fraction of Ginkgo biloba (G. biloba) extract is responsible for the antioxidant and free-radical scavenging properties and bilobalide can reduce damage caused by global brain ischemia and excitotoxicity-induced neuronal death [53, 54]. G. biloba extract significantly inhibit the AChE activity in the brain that indicates an increase in the basal level of acetylcholine [55]. Flavonoids alter a number of a biological process like their interactions with neuronal and signalling pathways, expression of proteins required for synaptic plasticity and repair, changes in cerebral blood flow, inhibition of neuropathological process in certain brain regions. A study carried out by Dash SK showed that the extract of G. biloba inhibits the production of brain Aβ levels by lowering cholesterol, as free and circulating free cholesterols that affect amyloidogenesis. It may also influence the formation of Aβ fibrils by increasing gene expression of transthyretin that prevent Aβ aggregation in vitro [56].
Glycyrrhiza glabra
Glycyrrhiza glabra (G. glabrais) commonly known as Yashti-madhuh or liquorice, belongs to family Leguminosae. The major flavonoid of G. glabra is Glabridin that possesses multiple pharmacological activities like antiviral, anticancer, anti-ulcer, anti-diabetic, antioxidant, immunomodulatory activity, antimicrobial activity, anti-inflammatory activity, and anticonvulsant. Liquorice significantly improved learning and memory but the research have indicated that its consumption improves the general intelligence rather than short-term memory [57]. Glabridin significantly decreases the level of MDA and it elevates the level superoxide dismutase and reduced glutathione in the brain [58]. A study indicated that administration of G. glabra restored the decreased levels of brain enzymes such as glutamate and dopamine and decreased AChE activity [59].
Hypericum perforatum
Hypericum perforatum (H. perforatum), is also known as hypericum or millepertuis is a member of the family Hypericaceae. Although it has a worldwide distribution, it is mainly native to Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa. Hyperoside is the main active component of H. perforatum. Hypericin, Kaempferol, Biapigenin and quercetin are its other constituents [60]. H. perforatum extract has also been reported to protect against enzymatic (NADPH-dependent) and non-enzymatic (Fe2+/ascorbate dependent) lipid peroxidation in the cerebral cortex [61]. The extract also protects brain cells from glutamate-induced cytotoxicity by reducing glutathione loss, calcium overload and ROS-mediated cell death [62]. H. perforatum ethanolic extract may improve microglial viability by reducing amyloid-beta mediated toxicity in Alzheimer’s disease [63]. Hypericumperforatum inhibits acetylcholinesterase enzyme [64] and MDA formation in the brain and increases the level of SOD, CAT, GPx. According to these findings, H. perforatum also act as an antioxidant and have the ability to bind iron ions and have scavenging action for hydroxyl radical [65].
Lycopodium serratum
Lycopodiumis is a genus of club mosses, also known as ground pines or creeping cedar, in the family Lycopodiaceae, a family of fern-allies. The leaves contain a single, unbranched vascular strand and are microphylls by definition. The genus Lycopodium (Lycopodiaceae), which produces a potential therapeutic agent, huperzine A, for the treatment of AD, has been extensively studied in recent years [66]. Huperzine A is an alkaloid extracted from Lycopodium serratum and has been used for centuries to treat fever, inflammation, blood disorders and schizophrenia [67]. It is a highly selective, reversible, and potent AChE inhibitor, and potency of AChE inhibition is similar or superior to that of physostigmine, galanthamine, donepezil and tacrine [68]. The huperzine A is a strong candidate for treatment of AD. Other potentially beneficial effects, as far as AD is concerned, include protection against Aβ-induced oxidative injury and neuronal apoptosis, regulation of nerve growth factor and reduction in glutamate-induced toxicity. Huperzine A caused a significant increase in ACh levels in rat brain [69]. Huperzine A has several protective effects such as regulating amyloid precursor protein metabolism, protecting against Aβ mediated oxidative stress, apoptosis and mitochondrial dysfunction, as well as anti-inflammation [70].
Melissa officinalis
The leaves of Melissa officinalis L. (Lamiaceae), also known as lemon balm, are used in traditional medicine for its nerve calming and spasmolytic effects. The leaves produce calming and soothing effects through GABAA benzodiazepine receptor [71]. Its extracts contain some compounds such as flavonoids such as quercitrin as well as apigenin, luteolin and phenolic acids. These derivatives inhibit enzymes monoamine oxidases (MAO) and AChE, scavenge these free radicals and prevent apoptosis. The inhibition of these enzyme leads to alleviation of depression symptoms [72]. Research also suggests that Melissa officinalis exert protective activities in the PC12 cell line and might protect neurons from oxidative stress [73].
Ocimum sanctum
Ocimum sanctum, also known as ‘Tulsi’ in Hindi and ‘Holy Basil’ in English belongs to family Labiatae. The plant is also reported to contain alkaloids, glycosides, saponins, and tannins, vitamin C, and maleic acid, citric and tartaric acid [74]. A research conducted by Kusindarta et al. indicated that an ethanolic extract derived from leaves of Ocimum sanctum may stimulate and restores the expression of choline acetyltransferase in ageing human cerebral microvascular endothelial cells and could provide nerve protection and increased production of Ach may enhance the memory and cognitive ability [75]. Scientific studies reveal that the hydroalcoholic extract of Ocimum sanctum exhibits strong antioxidant activity against DPPH and hydroxyl radicals which may be due to the high amount of polyphenols and flavonoids. It inhibits lipid peroxidation, ROS generation, DNA damage, and membrane depolarization. It also decreases the lactate dehydrogenase leakage and preserved the cellular morphology, restored superoxide dismutase and catalase enzyme levels thereby preventing neuronal damage [76].
Panax ginseng
Ginseng belongs to the family of Araliaceae growing in north-eastern Asia. It is one of the most widely used herbs for boosting energy [77] Ginseng root is characterized by the presence of ginsenosides. Ginseng may provide protection against neurodegeneration by multiple mechanisms. The ginsenosides improve performance in a passive avoidance learning paradigm and the neuroprotection was possibly, due to its ability to suppress cellular AChE activity and enhancement of cholinergic metabolism [78]. It also produces a dose-dependent reduction in the β-amyloid deposition or glutamate-induced excitotoxicity; thereby prevent apoptosis and neuronal death. In different experimental models against PD it suppresses nitric oxide (NO) production and tissue necrotic factor-alpha (TNF-α) secretion, inhibits the mRNA expressions of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), TNF-α, interleukin (IL-1β), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and reduces the generation of ROS [79].
Rosmarinus officinalis
Rosemary commonly known as Satapatrika, belongs to the family Lamiaceae. It contains several essential oils like carvacrol, eugenol, oleanolic acid, thymol, and ursolic acid; antioxidant constituents such as carnosic acid and ferulic acid [80]. Carnosic acid, which was first isolated from the plant by Wenkert et al. has also shown to have neuroprotective effects on cyanide-induced brain damage in cultured rodent and human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons in vitro and in vivo in various brain areas of a non-Swiss albino mouse model. Lian et al. have also shown that carnosol and rosemary essential oils inhibit the adhesion of tumour necrosis factor-α-(TNF-α-) induced monocytes to endothelial cells and suppress the expression of intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM-1) at the transcriptional level in vitro. Meng et al. reported the inhibitory effect of rosemary diterpenes on α-secretase which is one of the major proteolytic enzymes that process amyloid precursor protein. The mechanism behind its neuroprotective actions involves not only inhibition of AChE and β-amyloid deposits as well as anti-BuChE (butyrylcholinesterase) activity [81]. Apart from above activities, it possesses cytoprotective, anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory activities that also add on to its neuroprotective mechanism [82].
Salvia officinalis
Salvia is an important genus in the Lamiaceae family reputed for improving memory and has a long history of use as memory enhancing agents [83, 84]. The Rosmarinic acid and carnosic acid are the main active ingredient of S. officinalis having potential pharmacological effects that include anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties as well as weak AChE inhibitory effect [85,86]. It inhibits reactive oxygen species formation, lipid peroxidation, DNA fragmentation, caspase-3 activation and tau protein hyperphosphorylation [87]. All these clinical evidence may help to prevent or reduce the symptoms of dementia. One small pilot trial showed that oral administration of S. officinalis essential oil to 11 patients showing mild-to-moderate symptoms of AD significantly improved cognitive function [88].
Terminalia chebula
Terminalia chebula (T. chebula), called the “King of Medicines” in Tibet, belongs to the family Combretaceae and is one of the most important medicinal plants used in medicines of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy [89]. It contains compounds such as triterpene sarjunglucoside 1, arjungenin and the chebulosides 1 and 2, tannins, chebulic acid, chebulinic acid, tannic acid, ellagic acid, 2,4-chebulyi–β-D-glucopyranose, gallic acid, ethyl gallate, punicalaginterflavin A, terchebin. Some flavonoids like luteolin, rutins, and quercetinetc are also present. A study reported that T. chebula exhibit anxiolytic activity that is comparable to standard drug diazepam [90, 91]. T. chebula has good pharmacological activities relevant to dementia therapy. Sancheti et al. extracted 1, 2, 3, 4, 6-penta-O-galloyl-β-D-glucose extracted from T. chebula by chromatographic methods that were reported to be the potent AChE and Butyrylcholinesterase inhibitor. Sulaiman et al. showed that ethyl acetate extract with doses of 0.001, 0.005, 0.015, and 0.025 g/ml inhibited AChE by 29.36%, 32.44%, 45.82%, and 62.32%, respectively. Gallic acid derived from T. chebula exerts anti-inflammatory activity via the down-regulation of the nuclear factor-κB(NF-κB) pathway in the development of inflammatory diseases, both in vitro and in vivo [92]. T. chebula also acts as an antioxidant and its activity is comparable with reference radical scavengers such as quercetin, showing 95% activity with inhibitory concentration (IC50) value 2.2 μg/ml [93]. T. chebula fruit extract may also protect neuronal cells against ischemia, reduces NO production and death rate of microglia cells stimulated by lipopolysaccharide [94].
Tinospora cordifolia
Tinospora cordifolia (T. cordifolia) belongs to the family Menispermaceae, is commonly known as giloe. Chemical constituents derived from the plant are alkaloids, steroids, diterpenoid lactones, aliphatics, and glycosides [95]. T. cordifolia possesses a memory enhancing property which is due immune-stimulation and increased synthesis of acetylcholine [96]. T. cordifolia exhibits strong free radical scavenging properties against ROS and reactive nitrogen species as studied by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. It also increases the level of reduced glutathione, expression of the gamma-glutamyl-cysteine ligase and copper-zinc superoxide dismutase genes, which plays a major role in neuronal injury during hypoxia/ischemia [97]. In addition, T. cordifolia significantly decreases the mRNA expressions of iNOS. T. cordifolia also increases the level of dopamine in the brain. Thus, T. cordifolia has shown to prevent the neurodegenerative changes and enhance cognition, learning and memory [98].
Withania somnifera
Withania somnifera belongs to the family Solanaceae, popularly known as Ashwagandha is considered as the Indian ginseng. The major constituents of Ashwaganda root are two withanolides, withaferin A and withanolide D. Active glyco-withanolides of Withania somnifera have a significant antioxidant function, which is accomplished by increasing the activities of SOD, CAT, and GPx. Ashwagandha is also reported as a Nervine tonic that rejuvenates the cells and boosts energy [99]. According to Rajasankara, oral treatment of PD mice with Withania somnifera root extract (0.1 g/kg body weight) for 7 d or 28 d elevated dopamine, 3,4-dihydroxy phenyl acetic acid and homovanillic acid levels in the corpus striatum. Furthermore, it was reported that Withania somnifera treatment increased the level of anti-apoptotic (Bcl-2) proteins and decreased the level of the pro-apoptotic (Bax) proteins in the Maneb-Paraquat-induced dopaminergic neurodegeneration model of PD. [100]. Ashwagandha extract has shown to prevent the lipid peroxidation and increase the antioxidant activity by increasing the free-radical scavenging enzymes levels in the brain. Sitoindosides VII-X and withaferin, other constituents isolated from the aqueous methanol extract of roots of Withania somnifera tend to decreased AChE activity in the brain [101].
Zizyphus jujube
Jujube fruits are used in traditional Korean and Chinese medicine to reduce anxiety and strengthen the stomach and gastrointestinal system. Jujube seeds contain large amounts of terpenoid, flavonoid, phenyl glycosides and alkaloid compounds mucilage, malic acid, citric acid, sugar, protein, organic minerals and vitamin C [102]. The herb exerts inhibitory activity against histamine release and AChE and cyclooxygenase I and II inhibitory activity. Flavonoids present exert antioxidant properties [103] Cis-9-octadecenamide (oleamide), a compound extracted from jujube is reported to have high effect on the activation of acetylcholine transferase (34.1%) in the in vitro which leads to the increase in acetylcholine level and improves mild to moderate cognitive functions, learning and memory, motor coordination and behavioral disorders [104].
CONCLUSION
The management of neurodegenerative diseases remains a challenge in the modern medicine because of their complicated pathogenesis. Protein misfolding and their accumulation inside or outside of neurons is the key pathological feature in several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Huntington's disease. Herbal medicines are regarded as effective and promising sources of potential neuroprotective agents because of their cognitive benefits and more significantly, their mechanisms of action with respect to the fundamental pathophysiology of the diseases. Our review has acknowledged several herbal medicines such as such as Allium sativum, Ginkgo biloba, panaxginseng, Terminalia chebula with potential therapeutic effects for neurodegenerative diseases. It is anticipated that the information provided through this review should help the researcher to provide some evidence and conceptual detail of the benefit of a wide range of herbs as neuroprotective agents.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to extend our gratitude to traditional healers and all other informants who showed their willingness to share their knowledge on the use of herbal medicinal plants as neuroprotective agents.
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Customer Profile
CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) is one of the world’s premier full-service real estate companies, with 349 offices in 42 countries and over 44,000 employees. The company’s $223 billion in transactions span sales and leasing, loan originations, property and corporate facilities management and much more, making CBRE the global leader in real estate services and investment.
Business Situation
CBRE has over 100 mobile apps–some public facing–but most are unique to the company internal operations. However, disparate development platforms scattered around the world made it difficult to maximize economies of scale. The company needed a framework to deliver application portability to a spectrum of devices and operating systems, while at the same time, providing the “wow” factor field agents needed to close real estate deals.
Solution
When CBRE application development shifted increasingly to HTML5 and CSS3, the development team conducted a thorough review of the competitive landscape and after an exhaustive research they chose the Telerik Kendo UI® framework.
Benefits
Less resources needed to develop, test and keep things consistent for a wide array of machines, browsers and versions
Validation Framework will support reusable validations so that we can reuse them across the enterprise.
Validation Framework will support ad-hoc validations, meaning validations, that potentially will only be used once, that are not common validations, and very specific to a given entity with a unique use case.
Validation Framework can easily be plugged in e.g such as the MVC 4 run-time, not requiring developer’s to do anything different than they are today to validate their models.
We have a lot to cover so let’s dive right into the Validation project and its’ code!
Keeping track which property of the entity it’s its validation is for.
Setting the appropriate validation result and message.
Now really this is really all you need to start validating your entities/models. Although, there are some other classes that are in the Validation project, they are really not needed to start validating. They are there to help us later wire up our Validation Framework to MVC 4. With that being said let’s wire up our first validation, all you need to do is implement the the Validator class.
I’ve added a UnitTest project with two test class, one is simply a dummy model with fictitious property names, the property names are named after the type of validation we are performing on the property so that we can easily understand what type of validation is happening on each of them. The second class MyValidator is where are validations actually reside for validating MyModel.cs.
Notice all the validations are stored in the MyValidator.cs class and that our MyModel.cs knows nothing about any validation business. More importantly our validation is completely decoupled from our entities, giving us nice separation of concerns.
Validation.Tests.MyModel.cs
Note: Again, The property names here are named so that we can easily see what types of validations are happening for each of them. Obviously in the real world they would be named FirstName, LastName, Age, versus Compare1, Compare2, Regex, etc. :p
Here we have some simple validation implemented and wired up for our MyModel.cs entity. Here we are using some of the out of the box validations I’ve coded up, and some ad-hoc validations we are able to add to our Validator that the Validation Framework provides e.g. validating and Id, length, range, using Regex, required, IP address, email, etc.. Obviously you can easily add your own reusable validation, and again add ad-hoc (lines 34-37) validations that will probably only be specific to a given entity.
If we run our unit test, we can see that MyModel.cs was nicely validated…!
Now, this is great, but how do we seamlessly wire this up to MVC 4..?! Good question, let’s get started. To wire up our new Validation Framework with the MVC 4 run-time there are a couple of things we need to do.
When implementing the ModeValidatorProvider we see that we do need a factory of some sort to new up an instance of the right Validator to validate our model. We accomplish this with the ValidatorFactory. This class is responsible for discovering the ValidatorAttribute that the MVC model should be decorated with has the Validator type to be activated to validate the model.
Second, we need to implement the ModelValidator (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.mvc.modelvalidator(v=vs.108).aspx), this will provide the MVC 4 runtime to call into our Validation Framework and execute our Validator.Validate(object model) method and return a set of ValidationResults. Once our ValidationResult payload is returned we will then need to map it back to MVC’s ModelValidationResult so that it can display our validation messages correctly.
Now let’s start off by validating one of our existing entities Entites.Customer.cs. You can really place your validation objects anywhere you’d like, for simplicity sake I’ll go ahead and place them in the same project as our Entities under a folder named Validations.
Notice how we are calling the MVC ModelState.IsValid, and when we debugging this, we see that the MVC run-time will invoke our custom Validation Framework.
Our error message from Entities.Validation.CustomerValidator.cs.
All of the out of the box Validators that are included in the example download, follow the described pattern listed below, this is also how you would extend or add your own reusable validations to the framework.
Extend the Validator, by writing an Extension method
Instantiating a fluent helper class for the validation
Setting the property to be validated
Setting the validation logic
Adding the the validation to stack of validations to the Validator instance
Let’s take a quick look at one of the out of the box validations e.g. ValidateLength.
Support for Ad-Hoc Validations with Generic Funcs using AddValidation() Fluent Method
Finally, let’s quickly go over adding ad-hoc validations by adding in-line Lambda’s or Generic Funcs, all you hvae to do is call AddValidation() and using the fluent API, and make sure your generic func accepts a TModel (could be of any object type) and returns a Boolean. In the sample code below we are doing a simple ad-hoc validation for the property Email, validating if there’s a value or not and returning an validation message.
Update: 02/24/2014 – v3.2 released, improved API and reusable queries with the variation of the Query Object Pattern. Breaking change: Framework now ships returning all things TEntity or IEnumberable for compartmentalization, you will need to change the Repository.cs (see below, what methods signatures to change) if IQueryable is preferred over IEnumerable, IEnumerable is preferred as a best practice (http://genericunitofworkandrepositories.codeplex.com/documentation).
First off let’s elegantly setup our solution, and prep it for real world development. We have our solution broken up into four different projects, now let’s talk about the “why?”.
Data Project (Data Access Layer)
This is where all of our ORM tooling related objects reside. In our case the EF (Entity Framework 6.0 Alpha 3) DataContext, Mappings, Migrations, etc. This give is nice separation, control and isolation of where any persistence related objects live. If ever, one day we need to change the tool of choice, or even upgrade, there’s only one layer or project to do this in, the Data project.
Entities Project (Domain Layer)
The Entities project is where all of our POCO (Plan Old C# Objects) objects will live. POCO’s should be very ignorant objects that pretty much have nothing in them but the structure of your data. With that being said, typically anything outside our Repository layer e.g. presentation layer (MVC), services layer (will cover in next post) should be completely ignorant to any persistence tool or technology e.g. NHibernate, eXpressPersistent, OpenAccess, EF (our case), etc.
Repository (Layer)
This is where our UoW (Unit of Work) pattern will be implemented as well as our Repository implementation. Our UoW implementation will handle most of our usual CRUD activities.
Two important objectives we will try to with our UoW pattern implementation are:
Abstract away the ORM tool, in our case EF.
Ensuring that all interactions with the database are happening under one DbContext instance per page request.
Obviously there are many other benefits, such giving us the ability to implement different variations of our UoW, potentially wire up to different types of repositories. For purposes of this article, we’ll stake focus on our two primary objectives, and I’ll cover the other benefits in later posts.
Web Project (Presentation Layer)
This is our presentation layer, for the purposes of the blog, we will use MVC (ASP.NET MVC 4). Again, this project should not have any dependent code on EF assembly, therefore that should not be any references to the EF assembly, it should only reference our Repository project for data access.
Refactoring the NorthwindContext for an Abstracted and Cleaner Implementation
Now that we’ve gone over the solution and it’s projects, let’s do a little bit of refactoring and cleaning up with our EF code.
We can see that our DbContext is now much cleaner, and that it implements IDbContext. IDbContext will be the abstraction we will be working with when interacting with it’s concrete implementation, NorthwindContext.
Best Practice, Coding Against Abstractions or Interfaces
Abstractions serve as a nice flexibility point later, allowing us to implement different variations of the abstraction (interface). This will be very useful later when we implement DI (Dependency Injection and IoC (Inverse of Control) patterns. Coding to an abstraction will also help us easily create unit test, allowing us to inject faked or mocked instances as well. If your a bit unclear on how this helps set stage for DI, IoC and Unit Testing, no worries, I’ll cover these topics in the next post.
Let’s take a look at our IRepository Repository() method here in our UnitOfWork implementation. Here we are storing all the activated instances of repositories for each and every requests. One there is a request for a given repository we will first check to see if our Hashtable (container to hold all of our activated repository instances) has been created, if not, will go ahead and create our container. Next, we’ll scan our container to see if the requested repository instance has already been created, if it has, then will return it, if it hasn’t, we will activate the requested repository instance, store it in our container, and then return it. If it helps, you can think of this as lazy loading our repository instances, meaning we are only creating repository instances on demand, this allows us to only create the repository instances needed for a given web request. Last but not least, notice here how we are following best practices mentioned earlier, we are not return the concrete implementation for the Repository, but the abstraction, IRepository.
Our generic implementation for Repository allows us to have have all our basic heavy lifting of a Repository out of the box for any one of our Entities. All we have to do is request for the Repository of interest by passing in the Entity e.g.
UnitOfWork.Repository<Customer>
will give us the Customer Repository with all our out of the box plumbing available.
Let’s take a quick look at our Get method in the Repository implementation.
The Get method here, handles fetching data. It handles querying the data supporting a filtering, ordering, paging, and eager loading of child types, so that we can make one round trip and eager load the entity graph.
We notice here that the method is marked “internal”, this is because we only want the Get method here to be accessible to objects with the same assembly, Repository.dll. We will expose the Get method via the Query method and return the RepositoryQuery object to provide a fluent “ish” api, so that’s its a bit more easy and intuitive for our developers when querying with our Repository layer. Note, only methods in our RepositoryQuery will actually invoke the internal Get method, again, which is why we went ahead and marked the Get method internal.
Well, what happens if we need extra methods a specific Repository? Meaning, how do we address “extensiblility” in our Repository? No problem, we have a couple of options here, we can simply inherit a Repository and add your own methods to it, or what I prefer, create extension methods e.g. extending IRepository (with some pseudo code for validating an address with UPS).
Great, now that we have our project nicely structured with the our generic implementation of the Unit of Work and Repository Pattern, let’s see how we can leverage this by wiring up a simple controller to show a list of customers.
To help us with this go ahead and NuGet the PagedList for MVC so we easily create a view with a paged grid.
Let’s create a CustomerController Index Action load a paged list of customers to hydrate a grid.
Another item I wanted to go over was insert and updating graphs with our Repository pattern. There are four use cases for inserting graphs, they are as follows.
To abstract the complexity and EF experience required, and how the DbContext manages graphs e.g to know to set the root entity state and how it affects other entities in the graph (e.g. updating the root entity in the graph, and existing entities in the graph are to be updated or deleted) we added a interface IOjectState that all of our entities will implement.
These two classes will allow our development team to explicitly set the state of each of the entities in the graph when inserting or updating a graph. To make use of the classes we’ll need to extend the DbContext with a few methods, we’ll do this by creating extension methods.
Now we will override the SaveChanges in our NorthwindContext to invoke the ApplyStateChanges method to synchronize our ObjectSate with EF’s EntityState, so that the context will know how to deal with each and every entity when dealing with entity graphs.
Now when inserting, updating you can explicitly set the entities state, especially useful when dealing with graphs. This abstracts the skill-set of a developer using our Repository of having to know the what, when and how to set the state of entities in the graph in order for the context to update the graph and persist the graph correctly. Let’s take a look at an example of updating an existing Order and adding an OrderDetail item with an entity graph. Both these actions, are will be executed on the same graph, however notice that the action is different for both of the entity’s, one is updating and the other is adding, however we will only be invoking one method (IRepository.Update(TEntity entity) from our IRepository in one transaction.
So we’ll demonstrate and prove out updating an entity graph with our UnitOfWork implementation in these steps.
Code Snippet from LinqPad, notice how we are explicitly setting each of the entities state in the entity graph.
Query the OrderDetail table, make not there are only three (3) items, that belong to the same Order.
Update the ShipName value in the Order.
Add an OrderDetail to the Order.
(click image to enlarge)
Presto, we were able to successfully update an existing Order and add a new OrderDetail via an entity graph with one transaction using one method. Now, we can absolutely do this using EF out of the box, however, our goal here is was to abstract the complexity and skill set required from a developer in regards to EF specially how do deal with the DbContext in order to make this happen as well as obviously still support working with graphs through our IRepository implementation.
There you have it, and extensible genericized implementation of the UoW and Repository pattern with EF in MVC. In the next blog post, we’ll add DI & IoC to this solution and introduce the Services layer, this layer will house all of our business logic and rules. We will also implement the Services layer in a way, where we don’t violate our Unit of Work pattern, meaning all the work done in our Repository and Services are executed under one single instance the DbContext per page request. | {
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Brooke's Photos
50%
of clients received photo updates
Brooke is using the Rover app to track activity and send Rover Cards
Reviews
7
repeat clients
11 Reviews
Linda V.
Dec 30, 2018
Verified Stay
We came home after a week holiday to three happy puppies. We received photos almost daily and our one puppy who has some quirks warmed right up to Brooke. We can not complain. Not only wereOur puppies happy but our house well taken care of. We would recommend Brooke to take care of your puppies and home anytime.
Brooke P.
Joanne K.
Dec 16, 2018
Verified Stay
Brooke was so great with my little dog. She sent pics, took him on walks, and he seemed to be completely tired out from his overnight stay with Brooke. I will, without hesitation, have my little hound stay with her again. Such a relief to find someone such as Brooke.
Brooke P.
Jared P.
Dec 7, 2018
Verified Stay
Brooke was awesome as a puppy sitter for my two rascals. She kept me up to date while we were gone which was nice. We will be calling again when we need a puppy sitter that's fir sure! Thanks again Brooke!
Brooke P.
About Brooke
10
years of experience
Work from home animal lover
I am an experienced professional that gives extra care and attention to your little fur baby in a relaxed home without the stress of a kennel. Heres more about me: I have a full time job, I work from home and working with animals is a passion/hobby for me. I tend to book up fast and I give preference to repeat clients. I grew up on a farm and my extended family professionally trained ...
I am an experienced professional that gives extra care and attention to your little fur baby in a relaxed home without the stress of a kennel. Heres more about me: I have a full time job, I work from home and working with animals is a passion/hobby for me. I tend to book up fast and I give preference to repeat clients. I grew up on a farm and my extended family professionally trained cattle dogs. I work with and train bully breeds such as rottis and pitbulls. When I board pets I prefer to keep only one dog at time or a puppy family already acquainted. With larger dogs I offer obedience training with walks; I use positive reinforcement with snaps and commands. High energy dogs I can take for runs but we might need regular walks to get used to each other first. I am also a reiki practitioner and I use reiki hand placements to calmn down hyper active puppies. I have a special place in my heart for rottis and pit bulls they are so commonly judged and put down so fast with even minor aggression problems, with some consistency I can 100% assist you to help them understand whos alpha and be happy healthy obedient companions.
**my walk rate is for obedience training walks and the price reflects the extra care and attention. ****
****Final day of stay (boarding or house-sitting) ends between 10 am/noon or an additional night/check-in fee is charged. ****
What Brooke would like to know about your dog
No. Just if they are socialized or trained first. Any behavior problems that need to be addressed or quirks if the dog was a rescue.
Additional Skills
Oral Medication Administration
Special Needs Dog Experience
Senior Dog Experience
Can provide daily exercise
About Brooke's Home
Lives in a House
Non-Smoking Household
No Children Present
Has a Fenced Yard
Has No Dogs
When Brooke watches your pet
Walks/runs at the parks around my place. If its nice out maybe go on a nice hike somewhere. I only go to off leash parks if I am well aquainted with a dog.
Doggy daycare - two to three walks a day, food not included. Anything over 8 hours is considered boarding. I also limit to two dogs at a time and I only have one spot open for a second regular client. If you're interested let me know!
In Brooke's Home
Dogs Allowed On Bed
Takes Only 1 Client at a Time
Dogs Allowed On Furniture
Potty Breaks Every 0-2 Hours
Brooke's Neighborhood
At Rover, we're dedicated to giving your pet the best possible care. To help keep your pet happy and healthy, all stays and services booked on Rover receive our Rover guarantee. You can enjoy peace of mind knowing that if your dog becomes ill and needs to see a veterinarian, that care will be covered.
24/7 Customer Support
You can travel worry-free knowing that in the event of an emergency, Rover's customer support team will be available to assist you and your sitter, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Reservation Protection
In the unlikely event your sitter can't care for your pet, Rover will make it right. We'll do everything we can to find a replacement, so you can focus on your trip! | {
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NZ Int'l Arts Festival 10 - Apollo 13: Mission Control
125 images Created 1 Mar 2010
APOLLO 13: Mission Control takes audiences on a rollicking caper through space and beyond. Winner of two Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in 2008, this interactive production is lauded by critics, and loved by audiences, for its innovation and imaginative design.
As three astronauts trapped 200,000 miles from earth fight for their lives, audience members seated in 'Mission Control' must make the critical decisions necessary to bring the heroes safely home. In command of this epic adventure is Flight Director, Gene Kranz, who lives by the simple belief that "Failure is not an option".
To deliver a truly inter-galactic experience, the theatre is transformed into an authentic 1970s replica of Mission Control, complete with retro computers, giant video screens, and elaborate consoles. Seats are also available in the 'Press Gallery' for those who prefer a quieter trip into lunar orbit. | {
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★ Guide to Buying Lindon Upholstered Bench byHouse of Hampton - Bedroom Benches
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Before you start searching for new house cabinets, make sure you possess a nicely-thought-out strategy for your home renovation. You need to determine goals and priorities, with the help of your completed Day time within the Life of your house Questionnaire and residential Objectives Worksheet. You also must have a clear eyesight of the items your brand-new house may be like, after discovering numerous home designs and designs and preparing room and storage. Lastly, you ought to have a financial budget to work with.
home cabinets is an essential part of house design and remains a significant component of calculating a home's worth. There is however much more to think about than price, style and material choice. Even the standard house redesign can be a costly and time-consuming procedure, so consider these actions before thinking about any materials and merchandise. | {
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Sewing Up Steel - 125 Steps To Perfect Paint
Sewing up SteelThough less common than your average ding or dent, tears or cracks in steel do happen, and putting the two sides back together correctly is a little more complicated than just a quick weld. When metal is torn or cracked, it's typically the result of some sort of fatigue or impact trauma, which always results in stretching and deformation. To erase the tear in the metal we'll need to not only bring the two edges back together, but also massage the steel back into its original form. For a quick tutorial on this we again tapped metal shaper Ken Sakamoto at Sunchaser Tools in Pasadena, California. Ken has a unique approach that relies on a tiny torch and his Friction System of metalworking. Depending on the cause of the tear in the sheetmetal, there could be a great deal of hammer-and-dolly work necessary to get it back to the point where the two sides will meet again. For simplicity's sake, we'll work with a basic tear around a mounting hole on a Model A fender caused by metal fatigue.
1/11
Ken began by cleaning the paint and rust off with a stripping wheel to prepare the area. To flatten out the twist in the steel and bring the edges level with each other, Ken used a general purpose body dolly and body hammer.
2/11
Ken worked the area until it looked like this. The edges of the split were matched up, but there was still a significant amount of stretching and warpage in the metal from the tear.
3/11
To prevent the crack from spider-webbing any further even after the repair, Ken drilled a 1/8-inch hole at the very end of the split.
4/11
Rather than using a MIG or TIG system, Ken prefers this tiny jeweler's acetylene torch to gas-weld sheetmetal patches. The torch's size makes it easy to maneuver, plus in Ken's words, "It doesn't put instant heat into the steel like a MIG welder." The torch and stand are available on Sunchaser's Web site. When working with cracks, first tack the ends of the split to anchor the steel where you want it to stay and then fill the rest.
5/11
All filled in, it should look like this. The split was repaired, but then we had to remove the stitching without leaving a scar.
6/11
The jeweler's torch doesn't leave a tall weld, but Ken first used a flapper-style sanding wheel on a standard 4-inch Makita angle grinder to flatten it down.
7/11
Next it's time to take the warp out of the steel with Sunchaser's friction metal-shrinking disc that comes in the Friction System kit.
8/11
Ken worked the disc back and forth across the welded area with a 15-amp Milwaukee angle grinder at 6,000 rpm to heat the metal, pinpointing precisely where he wants the deformed metal to shrink.
9/11
Just as with the dented fender, Ken only uses the disc for a few seconds before stopping and wiping the area with a damp rag and allowing it to cool down to roughly ambient temperature.
10/11
After a couple of sessions with the shrinking disc and allowing the area to cool in between, Ken switches over to a 100-grit sanding disc for a few brief passes.
11/11
Lastly, it's back to the abrasive stripping wheel to smooth the finish. After just a few rubs, this is what we're left with: a repaired fender returned to original shape with no low spots that's ready for primer and blocking. | {
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Scream
We horror fans are a weird breed: we actually enjoy watching people get attacked by angry ghosts, or sometimes murderous dream demons! We also tend to remember the first time we watched a horror film; either by date, or by film. We also tend to favor a certain Movie Director or two as well. In my case, it’s Mr. Wes Craven; who fans will know as the man behind such classics like Scream, and my personal favorite, A Nightmare On Elm Street. I remember the first time I saw both of these films: Scream was at a friend’s place and I had to hide under the blankets during the opening death sequence, and Nightmare was late at night [in my room] when I was about 13 years old. Back then, I was terrified by the film, I feared for the night because; what could be scarier than someone attacking you when you’re most vulnerable? When you’re asleep? Although scared, I was curious, so as I got older, I began watching the sequels..quickly making the Nightmare film series [as cheesy as they got] my all time favorite horror film franchise.
Besides being known far and wide for creating the iconic Freddy Krueger and Ghostface, Cravenalso wrote and produced film features for television and occasionally, wrote novels. Wes Craven was a humanities professor before leaving academia to work in post production. As most horror fans can tell you, his first official credited film was the controversial film The Last House On The Left:which he wrote, directed andedited back in 1972! Naturally, he followed it up with the blackly comic The Hills Have Eyes and Swamp Thing, which – if you know your comic books – was an early entry in the comic book to film adaptation genre! I only started to notice Wes during Nightmare though, Where the surreal slasher film is credited with having started something called the “dream reality” style of 1980s horror filmmakers and in turn; helped launch independent film studio New Line Cinema, which is sometimes referred to as “the house that Freddy built.”
[artwork is credited to @CodySchibi; I love the art-style!]
However, as I’m sure you saw all over the internet: Wes Craven had been struggling with brain cancer for a long time.. and last night, it caught up to him; passing away [in his LA home] at the age of 76.. a true master of horror – has left us. One of the last projects Craven was working on was MTV’s TV series adaptation of Scream, on which he worked as an executive producer. The series was recently renewed for a second season, back on July 29th. [I still have to start the series..now more than ever!]“Wes Craven was a tremendous visionary whose sensibility for scares has connected with generations of MTV fans,”MTV has said in a statement. “We are honored to have worked with him and proud to carry on his legacy with Scream:Our hearts go out to his family and friends.”
It’s a truly sad day for us horror fans, we lost one of the greats.. From Ghostface to Krueger, horror won’t be the anywhere near the same without someone who helped push the envelope in the genre. Although horror will last without him, it won’t ‘feel’ right without Craven, who made us feel fear when we’re arguably, the most vulnerable..
So this post is for you Wes, you started scaring me at a fairly young age; and I wouldn’t have it any other way! You’ve inspired so many horror directors with your stylized cinematography, but you can’t replace an original. From everyone who loves the horror genre as much as you did; this is us saying “thanks”. Fun Fact: Craven actually told The Los Angeles Times in an interview: “My goal is to die in my 90s on the set, say, `That’s a wrap,’ after the last shot, fall over dead and have the grips go out and raise a beer to me.” and raise a beer we did, Wes, this one’s for you!
Ever since it was announced, I’ve been finding myself concerned for MTV‘s Scream: The TV Series. It may be because of my in depth review of the first film though, considering I called Scream one of the most important horror films of it’s time – if not all time! It’s not so much the series as a whole I’m worried about, but rather how is it going to translate from big budget film[s] to television? I’m not quite sure what kind of show MTV plans to deliver, but with the first episode releasing on June 30th, 2015; I’m becoming more and more curious as to how this show will all play out. As we learned in the Scream films, Everyone has secrets. Everyone tells lies. Everyone is fair game. And everybody dies – and this show seems no different, boasting murders at parties, and everyone being on the floor: either with slit necks, or knives in their heads! The odd thing about MTV producing this show is that Scream[the original film] was actually the winner of the 1997 MTV Movie Award for Best Picture. Another interesting thing to note about this new version of the series is that it doesn’t take place in the same town as the films, but rather a smaller town known as Lakewood. For those unfamiliar with Scream: The TV Series, I’ve included the synopsis below:
“After a cyber-bullying incident results in a brutal murder, the shocking violence stirs up memories of a killing spree from the past that has haunted some, intrigued others and maybe just inspired a new killer. A group of teens – with two old friends struggling to reconnect at its heart – become lovers, enemies, suspects, targets and victims of a killer who’s out for blood.”
I love Ghostface just as much as everyone, but apparently the signature mask will NOT be appearing in the show…
Since we still have a month and a bit before it’s release, I find myself with a few questions involving the show: with the most important being: will the “rules” apply? Or will the series be, or feel, as comedic as the films felt at times? It’s something we will have to wait til the end of June to find out with ten episodes being made for season one. The show will be written by JillBlotevogel, [who wrote a few episodes of 2002’s The Twilight Zone]and will have Canadian Director Jamie Travis on board as well. This series was originally planned to be released in mid-2014, however, this was changed to Summer 2015 with the pilot episode being called “Red Roses”.
Now the question is, are you excited for Scream: The TV Series? If you’re still not entirely sure how to feel about all this; check out the newest promo for the show, entitled: “Killer Party” below – it’s bloody, it’s vicious, and it looks [half-] decent so far. Let me know your thoughts about it in a comment or two! Also, if you found yourself to enjoy this piece, please take a minute and follow me over on Facebook where you can click the “like” button on my Facebook page. By clicking “like”, you’ll see every post from warrenisweird the very moment it’s been posted. I also share links and pictures that will not be featured here on the blog. So be sure to tell the horror enthusiast in your life to do the same, and share the page with family and friends!!
Ever since 1996, slasher film maker Wes Craven hasn’t made a movie like Scream. While not all of the movies were perfect, one thing is for certain: the movies certainly did flip the slasher movie genre around its head. Even today, the Scream franchise has had it’s influence on pop culture, and many different horror films. We haven’t seen a new film since Scream 4 which was back in 2011, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if they decided to make a fifth. With MTV announcing that they will be making a TV series based on the films, I decided to re-watch the first in the series, and analyze why it’s such an important film in the horror genre as an whole. I even wrote up a Friday Fun Fact on the movie – which can be read here – because it’s so damn entertaining to watch!
besides the fact that the film is self-aware, Scream had been credited with revitalizing the horror genre in the late 90s by combining a typical slasher film with filled with humor, it’s awareness of horror film clichés and a fairly clever plot! While Scream was one of the highest grossing films of 1996 and became, and remains; the highest grossing slasher film in the world, its success was only matched by Scream 2, which not onlybroke box-office records at the time but also had some critics argue that it was actually a betterfilm than the original. Unfortunately, Scream 3 ended up being considered worse [by many, including myself] than its predecessors, both critically and financially. Critics even were making comments that it had become the type of horror film Scream was making fun of in the first place.. It did however, receive some positive responses with claims that it was the perfect end to the film trilogy.. at least until Scream 4 came out..
Another important thing to note is that there has been a few films that tried to follow in the footsteps of Scream, including the ever famous I Know What You Did Last Summer [which would make sense, since it’s screenplay was written by the same guy] and surprisingly, Bride Of Chucky[considering it’s poster pretty well ripped off Scream 2, and it’s totally self-aware]
Being as we’re only talking about the first Scream film, one of the bigger twists that we, the viewers, learn was the fact that not only was Billy the killer, but Stu was one as well. [as seen above] This tends to raise question[s] like: who killed whom? Obviously, to make things less suspecting – one would stick around, while the other killed. To clear up confusion for first time viewers, I’ve made a list of the deaths [of characters] and who committed the kill, So hopefully, this helps clear the confusion.. If you don’t remember a name, be sure to click on the name of the individual to see the character in the film. Enjoy:
PHONE CALLS: There are three main phone calls in the film. The first is Casey‘s, the second is Sidney‘s, and the third is the one Sidney gets at Tatum‘s house. In the film, Billy and Stu are using a voice changer to disguise their voice which means it could have been either one of them at any time. But, if you look at the script, there originally was no voice changer. That wasn’t added in until later. In the original script, you find out at the end that it as Stu doing an impression the whole time, which means he did all of the calls. They probably changed it only because they were worried the audience would recognize Matthew Lillard[who played Stu], but that doesn’t change the fact that Kevin, the screenwriter, envisioned Stu making those calls. There’s other evidence, too. The cops checked Billy‘s phone records and found no calls to Casey or Sidney. And if Billy somehow did do the Sidney call, how come the cops couldn’t find a voice changer on him or at the scene? And because he didn’t have said voice changer in jail, he couldn’t have done the call to Tatum‘s house.
STEVE: First, lets get this out of the way. Both killers were there. Some say Stu couldn’t have been there because Tatum says Stu was with her that night, but what about what Randy said? “Was that before or after he SLICED and DICED?” We don’t know how long he was at Tatum‘s, which means Stu could have helped kill Casey and Steve and then went over to Tatum‘s, or he could have went to Tatum‘s first and THEN helped kill Casey and Steve. We already know he made the phone calls, but there’s also the fact that the killer gets around quickly in this scene, which Wes and Kevin explain in the commentary as they were needing more than one killer. So who killed Steve was probably Billy. Stu was on the phone, so Billy probably had more elbow room and free time. Plus, Steve is gutted practically as soon as the killer stops talking, which shows that there wouldn’t be enough time for Stu to make the kill.
CASEY: Kevin Williamson already confirmed on Twitter that it was Stu, and there’s enough evidence to support that., When Casey takes off the killer’s mask before being stabbed, there’s a big dramatic “she knows who it is” moment, and based on the fact that we know Casey used to date Stu.[which would explain why she was targeted in the first place]
SIDNEY’S ATTACK: Again, both were there, while Stu made the call. So who popped out of the closet? Look how fast the killer disappears and Billy appears – it couldn’t have been Billy. It had to be Stu. On a sidenote: Billy dropped the phone on purpose because he wanted to get arrested so the cops could find out he didn’t make the calls and he would be written off as a suspect. It’d also help guilt trip Sidney into sleeping with him. Not to mention, they were planning on killing Sidney on her mother’s anniversary, which wasn’t for another 2 days in-movie.
BATHROOM ATTACK: This one is difficult and also heavily debated. It couldn’t be Stu because Stu was wearing brown pants and the person in the bathroom was wearing dark blue washed jeans. This means it was either Billy or one of the pranksters. First off, when did they get in there? Sidney goes in, goes into the handicap stall, the two cheerleaders come out and leave, then Sidney comes out right after. No interruptions. So the person must have been waiting there the whole time. It raises the question of how could it be Billy when Sidney entered the bathroom in order to get away from him? This makes me believe it was probably one of the two pranksters. The following scene with the reporter seems to hint at this when she says “Many teens have been seen wearing scary masks..”
MR. HIMBRY’S DEATH: with Stu was outside inviting people to his party, Billy was the only one available to be the one killing Himbrey. quick, and easy.
BUSHES AND GROCERY STORE: Some assume this to be another prankster, but a prank usually involves someone popping out and going “BOO!”, so when the person in the bushes and in the grocery store was plainly stalking someone.. That’s not a prank. Therefore, I’d say it’s probably Billy again. Who knows? He was perhaps following Sidney around to see if she still suspected him.
TATUM’S DEATH: Stu was inside entertaining his guests, so it makes you wonder where was Billy? Isn’t it convenient that he doesn’t show up until right afterTatum‘s death? it can be inferred that Stu sent Tatum to get him a beer where Billy was waiting the whole time. They needed her out of the way so Billy could be alone with Sidney. “If Tatum sees you she’ll draw blood”, can also be taken as a dark, but humorous clue.
BEHIND RANDY: Some say it’s Billy because actor Skeet Ulrich was the actor in costume while filming the scene, but that’s just because Skeet really wanted to wear it at some point. [whereas Matthew Lillard never got the chance to] This doesn’t mean the character is in costume, or else that’s like saying that Billy and Stu didn’t kill anybody and it was a stuntman the whole time. This makes it seem it was probably Stu. After Sidney got away he came downstairs after her, then that’s when he heard Randy talking to the TV.
KENNY’S DEATH: Probably Stu. It was also the same person that was behind Randy, which can be proven by the editing of the movie.
DEWEYSTABBING/COP CAR SCENE: This one is also tricky. Let’s start with the order of events: Stu kills Kenny, Dewey and Gale come back from their walk, Dewey goes into the house, Gale crashes the van, and Dewey comes out of the house with the knife in his back followed by the killer. The stabbing could have been Stu, except for one thing: “I thought you said she was dead”. “She looked dead, man. Still does.” This means that Stu must have checked on Gale, but how could he have done so if he was in the house stabbing Dewey? He probably couldn’t even see the crash from in there, let alone check on her. So there’s the possibility that it was Billy. He heard Dewey calling names, got himself into costume, came down, and then stabbed him in the back. That’s when he saw Sidney, who was clearly terrorized her in the car while Stu was checking on Gale, then disappeared and found a way back upstairs while Randy and Stu were with Sidney. But that raises a question: when did Stu even tell Billy that Gale was dead, and how did he get back upstairs without anyone noticing? The most likely scenario is that the line was added in for a joke but wasn’t really thought out fully. If that’s the case, it was most likelyStu who did the stabbing.
Hopefully, the above list explains things a little better. It’s a complicated film in it’s own right, but it’s also very clever. Although the sequels weren’t all as good – the classic first film is probably my favorite. While I’m still a bigger fan boy of Wes Craven’s original film: A Nightmare On Elm Street, Scream is still just as good, making both cult classics within the horror genre! With the talks of a Scream TV Show, I’m both worried and excited – because now anything is fair game for Ghostface. Now I turn to you, the reader, do you like the SCREAM movies? If so, which sequel is your favorite? Let me know in a comment or two!
Also, if you enjoyed reading this piece, please take a minute and head over to Facebook to click the “like” button on my Facebook page. By clicking “like”, you’ll see every post from warrenisweird the very moment it’s been posted. if that’s not convincing enough, I also share things that will not be featured here on the blog. So be sure to tell the horror enthusiast in your life to do the same, and share the page with family and friends!
What’s your favorite scarymovie? Sound familiar? the story of the movie we’re talking about is about a girl named Sydney. When a serial killer [later to be known as Ghostface] shows up, Sidney starts to suspect that her mother’s abrupt death [which happened a year prior to the beginning of the movie] and two new deaths involving her friends are somehow related. In today’s edition of Friday Fun Fact, If you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re going to be analyzing a special gem [that still holds up well today] known to the world as Scream. I remember the first time I had watched the film; it was at a friend’s house and being the youngish kid I was, I remember being so severely shocked at the quality of the gore. It was one of the first times I had seen a film where the gore effects were done well enough enough to “feel real”. As I got older, and I started to understand horror movies a bit better, I came to realize that Scream isn’t so much a horror film, but more of a satire on horror films. It falls victim to many horror cliches, but that was the point of it: to make fun of typical horror tropes. Let me give you an example. According to the film, there are six specific “rules” that horror films tend to follow. These six “rules” are as follows:
1. You will not survive if you have sex
2. You will not survive if you drink or do drugs
3. You will not survive if you say “I’ll be right back”
4. Everyone is a suspect.
5. You will not survive if you ask “Who’s there?”
6. You will not survive if you go out to investigate a strange noise.
It’s pretty intense how on point the “rules” are; especially in typical slasher films of today. it’s surprising how many films actually fit those rules, It’s as if Wes Craven knew how typical horror movies work! [I assure you: that would be sarcasm, people!]
but did you know?
During the film’s initial production, Ghostface‘s signature black robe was originally planned to be white – the idea was that it’d make him look even more “like a ghost”. This was quickly changed though, because after testing the outfit out, the producers worried that people would start comparing the killer’s costume to those that the Ku Klux Klan wear. [good call, team! Saved an earful and a half!]
Here’s another fun fact for you youngsters! [specifically: the guys!] Remember the scene when Tatum enters the garage through the dog-door? When the movie was first released [and still to this day] many viewers mentioned that the actress’ nipples are shown to be extremely erect through her shirt! In case you were wondering, this wasn’t achieved by using prosthetics. That’s right, what I’m saying is: the “nipples” you’re seeing are in fact, the actress’ real nipples. [for all you perverts, and nipple enthusiasts, check them out for yourself down below!]
in case you were wondering: I had to Google “Tatum enters garage – Scream”.
The last bit of trivia, comes with some truth attached to it: The Ghostface killer was actually based on a Florida serial killer, known as the “Gainesville Ripper“. Later revealed to be Danny Rolling, the Ripperwas found guilty of murdering five students [one was a student of the Santa Fe College and the other four went to the University Of Florida] during a burglary and robbery spree in Gainesville, Florida. He was known for mutilating his victims‘ bodies, even going so far as decapitating one of them. Ultimately, he was executed by lethal injection in late 2006. [read more about the Gainesville Ripperover on CrimeLibrary]
In the end, Screamwasn’t based on actual events – just inspired by some. It’s a great film, which I’ve come to love; and the series is even getting itself a TV series in the near future! [which, in my opinion, is kinda weird] Ghostface is fucking terrifying, more so when you consider who he turned out to be. [in the movies] | {
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Tag: career
“All or Nothing”, “Go Hard or Go Home”, “Don’t Stop When You’re Tired, Stop When You’re Done”. These are the kinds of quotes that I often see pop up on my Instagram feed in gritty typography against a backdrop of an oiled-up muscular bodybuilder, flexing intensely in a dark room dimly lit by downlights.
These quotes sound nice. If I’m already at the gym, reading something like this might get me to increase the incline on the treadmill, load up some extra weights on my bar or keep going past my set number of reps until failure. After all, nothing worth having comes easy, and feeling sore today means being strong tomorrow, right? (Why are there so many of these fitness adages stored in my brain??).
The ‘all or nothing’ approach isn’t just found in fitness discourse, I also see quotes like “hustle and grind 24/7, 365” and “give 110% all the time” thrown around in other contexts like business, career progression and even in relationships.
Again, it all sounds really nice. Who wouldn’t want to hire someone who is self-motivated enough to work 24/7, 365? Who wouldn’t love being in a relationship with someone who puts 110% effort in every single day, not just on Valentine’s Day and anniversaries?
The problem that I have with the ‘all-or-nothing’ approach is that, for me at least, it isn’t sustainable. There might be some people out there who really can show up to the gym every single day, complete their set workout and stick to a certain diet plan perfectly. I am not one of those people.
I’ve had a gym membership for over 5 years now and the longest I’ve ever been able to stick to my ‘ideal’ diet and exercise goals perfectly has been about 2 weeks.
Max.
I used to think that maybe if I set myself really ambitious goals, like hitting the gym 7 times a week for at least an hour, then at least if I missed a few days, I’d still be going quite a lot… right? I think the saying goes “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it, you’ll land among the stars.”
In practice though, if I missed one day of hitting the gym for whatever reason, my ‘all or nothing’ mindset would kick in and I’d think that there was no point in continuing since I had already failed. “I might as well eat pizza and brownies while watching Netflix shows for now and start again next week…” Or, if I only had 30 mins spare to exercise, rather than a full hour, I thought to myself, “what’s the point? I won’t even work up a sweat or have a chance to get my heart rate up.”
It’s the perfectionist’s fatal flaw- holding oneself to impossibly high standards, inevitably followed by failure, guilt, demotivation (and sometimes a whole tray of Tim-Tams in bed).
Tim Tam Goals
Something Is Better Than Nothing
What I’ve found helpful in getting myself out of the “all-or-nothing” mindset, without giving up on my goals altogether, is a “something-is-better-than-nothing” mindset. Small, consistent actions towards fitness, career, business or relationship goals are much more effective than short-lived but intense spikes of activity followed by long periods of doing nothing.
By giving myself permission to go off track a little bit and not allowing myself to use it as an excuse to completely disregard my plans, I feel like I’ve been able to achieve more, increase confidence in myself and get more out of the journey as a whole. After all, hitting the gym 3 times per week for 45 minutes might not be as good as going every day, but it’s better than skipping out altogether (and feeling super guilty about it!)
Finally, in the spirit of including lots of tacky motivational quotes, I find it helpful to remember:
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
The first time I ever read about impostor syndrome, I recognised it in myself immediately. If you haven’t heard of it, impostor syndrome is defined as “an individual experience of self-perceived intellectual phoniness”. In other words, feeling like all of your accomplishments and successes come down to either somehow having cheated the system or just plain luck.
The phenomenon was introduced by psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes in 1978. It’s since been described as feeling like a fraud, feeling like praise is undeserved or wrongly attributed, feeling like any second, everyone is going to realise that you’ve been faking it this whole time and you’re actually a talentless, a try-hard, over-privileged sham.
Impostor syndrome is often associated with high achieving women with perfectionist tendencies. I’m not really sure why that is. It could be that we feel we have something to prove and so work harder, only to then feel like all that hard work was somehow ‘inauthentic’. It could be that we compare ourselves to other women, discounting our own accomplishments because they don’t fit what society seems to value in women.
Men also experience impostor syndrome. Again, it’s usually the high achievers, the ones who link their accomplishments with their own intrinsic self-worth. The ones who can never seem to be good enough.
The funny thing is, impostor syndrome isn’t just about thinking you’re not good enough. It’s also about thinking you’re so good that it can’t possibly be real. This weird combination of low self esteem and hubris makes it even more confusing to approach.
What it looks like
We try to rebrand our fear of putting ourselves out there as modesty. We work extra hard to attain good grades or excellent feedback but can’t be proud because we probably put in twice the effort of anyone else. We know that we deserve that promotion but we’re also sure that someone with real ‘natural talent’ could easily overtake us if they wanted to.
The worst part of all of this in my opinion, is that we’re so afraid of failure, that we refuse to even try in the first place. We say things like “Who do I think I am to be applying for this position?”, “Who am I to offer advice?” and “What’s the point of starting if I’m not going to be the best?”
See, therein lies the problem. We’re not satisfied with trying and failing. We’re not satisfied with average. We think that if we’re not at the top, then we’ve wasted our time, embarrassed ourselves and ruined our reputation. While people are always trying to frame perfectionism as a good thing, I think it’s actually holding so many of us back.
We think that holding ourselves to higher standards means that we’ll do better work, but the reverse is often true. Being afraid of failure means that we’re less likely to seek help and advice from people who could seriously help us improve. We hoard the work instead of delegating and end up stressed, burnt out and frustrated. It comes as no surprise, then, that impostor syndrome is linked to depression, generalized anxiety and low self-esteem.
How to overcome it
Impostor syndrome is hard to overcome. It’s very nature is illogical, so simply talking yourself out of it isn’t going to cut it in most cases. Just like overcoming any fear, I think it may be helpful to confront it head on with these actions:
1. Talk To People To Realise That Everyone Is Faking It
Whether you’re going for a professional role, inspired to start your own business or put yourself out there in some way, opening up to someone and admitting that you feel out of your depth can help take some of that pressure off. In most cases, you’ll be surprised to hear the other person tell you that they also have no idea what they’re doing. The fact is, everyone has their flaws and challenges and no one is perfect. When you take down that façade, you open up brand new potential for learning and growth.
Communication is key. Have you ever spoken to the CEO of your company? Have you ever had a conversation with a successful business owner that you admire? The chances are that if you did take the time to reach out and have that chat, you’d realise that behind all the titles, corporate suits and personal branding, there’s a person just like you who shows up every day and gives it a go. They might even have experienced a touch of impostor syndrome too!
2. Give Yourself Permission To Fail
This is a trick that I used to use before every high school exam. I would ask myself: what’s the worst that could happen? If I score less than my desired mark, will it be the end of the world? No. If I fail this exam, will it be the end of the world? No. At the end of the day, I still have my health, a family that loves me. And yes, I’m sure I’ll still pass the exam.
A scientist doesn’t throw in the towel when she gets results that aren’t in line with her original hypothesis. She simply makes some detailed notes, might adjust her approach, reset the experiment, and do it again. It’s nothing personal, it’s just science.
Practice failing on purpose. If you’re uncoordinated, sign up for a dance class. If you’re a terrible singer, go to a karaoke bar and get up on stage. The purpose isn’t just to learn something new, but also to learn that failure isn’t the end of the world. So what, your surfing instructor said you were the worst student he’s ever taught- you’re still closer to success than the people wading in the shallow end.
The truth is, most situations are not life and death. A lot of the stressing that we do and extra effort that we put in- staying up studying for hours or putting in overtime at work- probably has a very minor, if not negative, effect on our results. I’d challenge you to honestly ask yourself:
“What’s the worst that could happen if I politely decline checking my emails outside of hours?”
“What’s the worst that could happen if I leave this ‘urgent’ task until tomorrow?”
Even,
“What’s the worst that could happen if I start the business and then it fails?”
Maybe your concerned about what other people will think. In reality, people don’t judge us half as much as we think they do, and even if they did, isn’t that their problem and not ours? In any case, even when we do make mistakes and fail, we end up learning something new along the way, bringing us ever closer to success.
3. Just Do It.
I admire people who just jump in and strike while the iron is hot. People who don’t worry about what others will think or what could possibly go wrong. People who trust their intuition. Yes, some people are born fearless, but if you’re a serial overthinker and contingency planner like me, this doesn’t come naturally.
Set yourself a challenge to step outside of your comfort zone: start that blog/website/YouTube channel or side business. Apply for that job that’s just a little out of your reach. Send that random unsolicited email to that person whose career you admire. Put your hand up for promotions and awards.
Set yourself a date and time. Get your equipment ready. Make yourself a to-do list. Give yourself the same respect that you would give your employer by showing up on time and giving 100%.
If you fail, you fail. At least you can say you tried.
Do you suffer from Impostor Syndrome? What’s something that you’ve been holding off from trying due to feelings of inadequacy? Let me know in the comments below if you have any tips on how you overcome it! | {
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Your PC Must Be This Burly To Play Watch Dogs
Watch Dogs is finally arriving next month, after what seems like 65 years (give or take) of hype, delays, doubts, and discussion. It will be on last-gen and next-gen consoles, but it will also be on PC. What kind of PC must you have to run it? Well.
Today the game went up for pre-order on Steam, with its minimum and recommended PC specs laid bare for all the world to see. Here goes:
WATCH MORE: PC Gaming News
Comments
seeing such high spec demands gives me hope that this isnt going to be another shitty port which alot of games have been of recent, i have the hardware to play stuff and make it look pretty, just a lack of games with many technical graphical options
Oh it ran well and look good, however you can still see the compromises that had to be made for consoles... and that concerns me in regards to Watchdogs. However I believe they have said in the past, PC was their primary platform for this game!
Hmm not really, it just works differently. It really depends how the software is written to take advantage of this fact. All I was saying was that, after someone saying about the indication of 8 cores means its not simply a port from console game. I was simply pointing out that the new gen consoles actually run an 8 core processor.
Technically in AMD terms it's an 4 Module/8core processor, because each module has 2 cores, which share resources (so not a true 8 core setup). Not to mention the games can only use a maximum of 6...
They are also running very low powered AMD jaguar core with low IPC (instructions per cycle) at a lowish clock speed. A modern core i5 with only 4 cores would demolish the cpu used in both the xbone and ps4 easily.
eg...if you have a 4 core processor at say 2 ghz but it does 3 ipc, where the 8 core processor at say 2 ghz will do 1 ipc (because it's less efficient) even with a really highly multi-threaded application the 4 core processor will be way faster.
Since the xbone/ps4 both use x86/64 processors, and AMD gpus, it's very easy to compare the raw performance of the cpus and gpus to modern computer cpus and gpus.
...which use the jaguar architecture, designed for phones and ultrabooks. All 8 of them combined are about as powerful as a single core on that 3770. Both of the recommended CPUs are immensely more powerful than the console ones.
Hm thats a fair point, but i am guessing it has been written to use 8 cores if it can, Which is why they probably said optimal for that, As then it can use all 8 cores, much like it probably will on the xbone, that said one or 2 will allready be used by the OS on either PC or console. And am not saying you are wrong at all, but as well the OS on the consoles would be optimized for the hardware to run at maximum efficiency, however now that I have said that, it is Microsoft so who knows. hahaha
Thats why I just have a standard PC for all my pc gaming these days. Few games are actually customizable enough to actually make the investment into high end tech worthwhile.
Save money and spend it on a next gen console. Get the best of both worlds
To save yourself a bit of money I suggest the FX-8350, its an excellent overclocker, the 9370 is practically a overclocked 8350. The rest of the setup seems fine, same some $$$ get the 8350 and through in 16gb of ram.
I wonder if the game is actually optimised to actually use all those cores - or if they've simply put the recommended specs that high so people don't freak out because the game is not optimised for PC.
I'm hoping so, I have a AMD FX-8350, thinking in mind about the nextgen (current gen) consoles having 8 core cpu's.And the only game to date that takes advantage of the cpu is bf4. I'm hoping I made the right choice as I only put my build together nov last year.
Didn't even realise this was coming to pc, was planning on waiting for the Wii u version. Not anymore! Sorry Nintendo :(
Edit: Also by the time this is released I'll have my new top of the line alienware laptop, so I should have no trouble running this.
Ps it's great to know that the game is optimised for x64, I hope it will use at least 8gb of my 32gb of ram.
The i7-3770 is a 4 core processor, but it comes with hyper-threading enabled. This allows for 2 threads per physical core to perform different tasks, so it effectively appears as 8 logical cores in the task manager.
The AMD FX-8350 X8 on the other hand genuinely uses 8 physical cores.
So while it's technically true that the i7-3770 has 4 cores, I doubt it's a mistake.
And GPU is same-or-less than what consoles have. Therefore, I can only assume: PC visuals will be shitty console port and generally shit; and the code is fucking terrible and won't run smooth regardless.
6GB of ram is not as uncommon as you might think,
Generally with what iv seen, the 6GB combo generally comes in triple channel and was very popular on the old 1366 chipsets which can still pack a mighty grunt these days!
as my i7 920 @ 4.0GHz with 24GB of ram will prove that, not the best but plenty of power to keep up with the big boys
The most common standard is dual channel which you will see in most and with the socket 2011 boards you will see quad channel!
That's weird you guys, my i7 870 has been going strong for years. I got 60+fps on BF3 Ultra and I frequently get 45-60fps on Ultra BF4. Which GPU vendor do you both go with? My CPU generally only messes up on CPU intensive encoding, but rarely ever decoding. Note: I have disabled hyperthreading on my CPU because it has terrible support for this range.
Everything is good for recommended, except I have a i7-3770 @3.4 GHz not a 3.5GHz
lol
On Ubisoft, - from the AC games, FC3 etc. They aren't great at optimizing for PC.
One would hope that us in the master race get something closer to those videos released a year or more back. PC is dumbed down. But yeah Ubi make good looking games, but I think rely on brut PC force, over optimisation.
I'm not too worried about the 'eight core recommended' part, I think it's just Ubisoft showing off that they finally have a game that will use more than four cores. I'd be interested to see the performance different on an i7 with and without hyperthreading.
You really didn't like Black Flag? I think I got a lot more hours of fun out of the latter than the former. Reviews are in FC3 favour but not by a lot..
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/far-cry-3
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/assassins-creed-iv-black-flag | {
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Film and television auditions and casting call information, including commercials, modeling, and talent agents.
Tag Archives: Francine Maisler
Charlie Hunnam has dropped out of “Fifty Shades of Grey” due to his busy TV schedule.
Creative Commons
Michael De Luca Productions and Focus Features in association with Trigger Street Productions are in pre-production on the feature film “Fifty Shades of Grey”, which is based on the hugely popular best-selling novel of the same name by British author E. L. James. Universal Pictures announced on Saturday October 12, 2013 that actor Charlie Hunnam has dropped out of the lead role of Christian Grey due to his extremely busy television schedule not allowing him sufficient time to prepare for the lead role in “Fifty Shades of Grey”. The Primetime Emmy Award winning casting director is now seeking a new actor to play the lead role of Christian Grey. Dakota Johnson has previously been cast in the role of Anastasia Steele.
Norman Ollestad was an 11 year old “Boy Wonder” in surfing and competitive downhill skiing.
Creative Commons
Gerber Pictures is now in pre-production on the Warner Bros. Pictures true-story action survival feature film “Crazy For The Storm” based on the bestselling novel “Crazy For The Storm: A Memoir Of Survival” by Norman Ollestad. A massive talent search has been taking place since February, 2013 for a boy who can play 11 year-old Norman Ollestad. The talent search included online video submissions accepted through Cast It Talent. However, the right boy was not discovered and new casting director information is now available.
Gerber Pictures in association with Storyopolisis is in pre-production on the true-story survival drama feature film “Crazy for the Storm” for Warner Bros. Pictures. The movie centers on eleven-year-old Norman Ollestad, who survived a plane crash which left him stranded on an icy mountaintop by using the skills his father instilled in him. The film’s Primetime Emmy Award nominated casting director is conducting a national talent search for a 9-11 year old boy to play the lead role. The movie is based on Ollestad’s novel “Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival”. Shooting will take place in Los Angeles starting April, 2013.
Mandate Pictures and Four Fellas Productions in association with Laurence Mark Productions and Good Universe are in production on the comedy feature film “Last Vegas”, shooting in Atlanta, GA. The local casting directors are seeking a large number of extras to work on the film in December. In addition to the extras being cast, there are also roles for featured players at a higher pay rate. Principal actor casting took place in Los Angeles, with additional speaking roles being cast in Atlanta. Filming will continue through December 22, 2012. The film is scheduled to hit theaters on December 20, 2013. | {
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May 2011
May 31, 2011
Pawn to king 4. Last Tuesday, Bryant Park was a chess fest. Young and old, seasoned and novice players sat head in hands contemplating plastic pieces on the checkered mats. You could hear a pawn drop. Some, like Jay Bonin and Asa Hoffman, were guys I knew back in the day when I was dating my husband Bob Salpeter, a player who would haunt the clubs like the Marshall, a sponsor of this event. For me, a chess widow, this event was a reminder: in the game of chess, the queen has all the power, but the king is the prize.
May 27, 2011
He always shows up, said director Bill Haney, explaining why he bestowed a bald eagle crafted out of recycled moose antler by Iroquois Indian Stan Hill to Robert Kennedy, Jr. “He walks with kings and still has the common touch,” Haney went on praising Kennedy's commitment to the men and women in Appalachia threatened by the raping of coal from the mountains that secure their communities. Kennedy is also a star of Haney's new documentary, The Last Mountain.
May 24, 2011
The Hammerstein Ballroom was packed for the Drama Desk Awards on Monday night. Broadway, off Broadway and off off Broadway casts and crews rubbed more than elbows, just getting to the stage at the announcements of their names. Rushing to receive his outstanding actor award for The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Bobby Cannavale locked Sutton Foster in embrace and hoped that she would be awarded next up. She was.
May 22, 2011
Jazz lost one of its own last week, with the death of Bruce Ricker. Not a player per se, Ricker, a lawyer with a passion for jazz assembled Jay McShann, Count Basie, and Big Joe Turner in Kansas City for a jam session and filmed it. The resulting Last of the Blue Devils (1979) was a unique historic moment, a gathering of musicians, sequenced as an extended riff, as close to spontaneous as the music itself. The much praised film caught the attention of Clint Eastwood and Ricker then helped Eastwood with the scores of several of his films including The Bridges of Madison County and Mystic River, to name two films lauded for their soundtracks. Collaborating with Charlotte Zwerin, Ricker made Straight No Chaser (1988), a documentary about Thelonius Monk, and more recently films about Dave Brubeck, Johnny Mercer, and Tony Bennett.
May 18, 2011
Hello, I'm Buck, says the man in the large brimmed hat, brown leather jacket, brown stitch trimmed white shirt, and red silk tie with horses, completely disarming a guest to the private screening of a documentary film about him on Tuesday night. Buck, the movie, has been circulating the festivals, touted as a crowd-pleaser for its depiction of this man and his unusual way with horses. But what gets you when Buck shakes your hand is the intensity of his blue-eyed gaze.
May 14, 2011
Congratulations to Tony Kushner on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate from the City University of New York after a challenge from groups who miss the point of Kushner's impressive contribution to American arts and letters. His views on Middle East politics, however they reflect on what is good for the Jews, should be taken as a point of debate, in the same way that his literature poses thoughtful consideration of what it means to be alive today. Fortunately, his ample gifts are evident in his new play.
May 06, 2011
In a new documentary L'Amour Fou about the iconic Yves St. Laurent, it is hard to tell just what is the object of that besotted state: his work, his substantial art collection, his posh homes in Paris, Marrakech and Normandy, opulently decorated with antiques and woven fabrics. From the perspective of Pierre Berge, St. Laurent's lifelong companion, the film is perhaps an expression of the businessman's own mad devotion to the bespectacled designer who defined fashion in the mid century. In his view, YSL was an aloof workaholic, obsessed with sex and drugs, ambivalent to fame, and mainly depressed. Berge's own place in YSL's life comes off as more business than pleasure. This is not the ebullient Valentino and Giancarlo Giametti.
May 03, 2011
Bananas may be bananas in the revival of John Guare's play The House of Blue Leaves directed by David Cromer at the Walter Kerr Theater, but in the scheme of this wry drama, set in 1965 Sunnyside, Queens, she looks appropriately far gone. As performed by Edie Falco in a fright wig, whose work was just nominated for a Tony for “Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Play,” Bananas pops pills and rolls her bug eyes, taking a cue from Falco's character on Showtime's Nurse Jackie. When you meet her husband Artie Shaughnessy (Ben Stiller) and his girlfriend Bunny (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a scheming couple with ample dreams of fame and limited talent, you can see why they would want Bananas out of the way. Stiller must work hard to be so good at singing mediocre. Enter a gorgeous blond movie star, Corrinna (Alison Pill), the Shaughnessy's son Ronnie (Christopher Abbott in a role originated by a young Ben Stiller), a kid with a few issues, and Artie's successful friend Billy Einhorn (Thomas Sadoski). The nutsy quotient is amplified by the entrance through a barred window of a trio of nuns hoping to see the Pope who is planning a visit. Yes, that Pope. The “little nun” is maybe a head taller than the other two with a hilarious Halley Feiffer in her Broadway debut. She is antic and sour-faced even as she leaves her calling, and reason enough to see this zany play that by end, turns surprisingly poignant. | {
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First he had to get past former Boston Athletic Association director Will Cloney, who was positioned at the entrance. "He stood in the way," [Jock Semple] recalls 20 years later. "The year before, I had to tackle a guy running with fins on his feet. He was making a mockery of the race. He just came out to run with the leaders. A sergeant came on the bus and was going to arrest me. The next day, Tom Fitzgerald (the late Globe writer) called up the chief of police in Framingham and said, 'If I was in Semple's place, I would have done the same thing.' From then on, Will stood in the well of the bus so I couldn't get out."
The series of wire service photographs that were transmitted around the world and still adorn the walls of the Back Bay's Eliot Lounge are largely those of Semple trying to remove [K. Switzer]'s number and of the body block thrown by boyfriend and hammer thrower Tom Miller. What is forgotten is that Cloney led the charge. "He chased first and I followed him," says Semple. "He was too slow.
There were two of us who caught up with No. 261 following her race as she was wrapped in a blanket, shivering. She was whisked away in a waiting car, and we all passed into a page of history. Sales, who jumped off the bus to try to phone the Globe desk with the news but was slower than either Cloney or Semple, now is executive sports editor of the Boston Herald. Switzer is a television commentator on marathons. I am heading to the starting line again for what should be a less eventful bus trip to the finish line, and, most important, Jock is still our beloved Jock. REMH1 ;04/03 CORCOR;04/06,20:33 SWITZER0
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission. | {
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A lot of my memories are very physical in nature. I remember a lot more of what happened in the abuse via sensations/ emotions/ just knowing than I do via visual memories.
One of the memories that I have been struggling with lately is the sensation of wishing for my father to do good feeling things to me. Needless to say, this has brought up intense feelings of shame, horror, disgust, and self loathing. It took me a few weeks, but I finally managed to talk about it in session with Mama Bear last week and she brought up several good points that I will talk about in a bit, but she missed the most obvious one: I knew that the abuse could feel just bad or a mixture of good and bad, so when I knew that something was going to happen, I would hope that it would be something that mixed the good and bad sensations.
There were things that my father would do that were pleasurable for my body, sometimes very much so. Bodies, including children’s bodies, are set up to have defined physical responses when they are stimulated in particular ways at certain locations. Even some young children can be stimulated to orgasm some of the time. It isn’t a case of anything being wrong with the child, it is a case of the child’s body being used against her.
It is extremely confusing to experience physical and/or emotional pain in combination with sexual pleasure. In some ways it adds another layer of pain to what is happening. At the same time, for me, having some pleasure was easier for me than not only just feeling negative physical sensations, but also experiencing the loneliness of feeling like an object that was being used and thrown aside. If he cared enough to make me feel good, then in my mind that meant that he cared about me and he remembered that I was there and I was a person who felt things.
Being sexually abused is extremely objectifying and dehumanizing. It was more so with my grandfather who set out to make me feel like a ‘thing’, but even with my father, who had different goals, it was the case. After all, my father could not have really been looking at me and fully seen me, his daughter, in all of my individuality and personhood. If he had, he could never have done what he did. He had to have seen me as an object for him to use to deal with his demons. I could never have articulated this at the time, but I certainly sensed it.
However, there was no way that I could have understand the complexities of the situation that I was in as a child or even early teen. All I knew was that I was in an impossibly painful situation. My mind had to deal with what I had been dealt the best that it could; it seems that part of the way that I dealt- some of the time, at least- was by feeling like I wanted to be with him and feel pleasure. As Mama Bear pointed out, I had very little physical contact or even concentrated attention from my father other than through the abuse. I yearned for his love. Given that set up, it shouldn’t be a surprise that some parts of me value that interaction with him. When he intensely paid attention to me and did things that made me feel good, I felt closer to him than at any other time. But other parts of me loathed what was happening and are furious at me for trusting him and want to tear my skin off for physically feeling anything.
So I am left with these strongly conflicting feelings that I need to accept were all valid. It would be so much easier if I could only remember hating and rejecting the abuse by my father, but that wasn’t my reality. It was with my grandfather- there wasn’t the slightest bit of connection with him, because he was purely a monster with me. My father was much more confusing for me to deal with. He hurt me, physically and emotionally, but he could also make me feel loved and physical pleasure. I didn’t want what was going on and wanted for it to stop, but if it was going to happen, I wanted for it to happen in the “good” way. Worst of all, though, he threatened my relationship with my mother. This was something that I couldn’t tell her, because I was so convinced that she would pick him over me. Actually, I am convinced that I tried to tell her that something was wrong. I wouldn’t have said just what was wrong, but even crying after school every day for months at a time I only got sympathy, not her trying to find out what was so terribly wrong.
I couldn’t get her understanding and support for the terrible bind that I was in back then. I had no one to help me deal with the adaptations that I had to make in order to survive the situation as intact as possible. As Mama Bear keeps on reminding me, things in the now are very different. I have external support, but, even more importantly, I now have the internal resources to start to give myself what I so desperately needed then. Today, I need to set aside my repulsion for what I did and look at it with compassion as ‘what I had to do’. I did what I had to do. I would never have chosen to have sexual interactions with my father, if I hadn’t been forced into the situation. I simply found the ways to deal with it that made it all as tolerable for me as possible. Sometimes these options weren’t open to me and what I experienced was purely awful. Comparing the two, I am glad that I had something available that was able to soften the edge of the abuse, some of the time.
It swirls through my mind: it doesn’t matter what I did to get through what happened. I didn’t hurt anyone, after all, I just tried to find the molds to put myself into that would make me someone who could survive an untenable situation as well as possible.
——-
I felt stronger while I was writing this, but now I am feeling more vulnerable. This more compassionate understanding of myself is all too tenuous. We will see whether I can tolerate leaving this post up or whether the shame and fear of being judged wins out.
A few days ago, I ran across something in an old journal entry. I’m pretty sure that most anyone who deals with dissociated memories of abuse also deals with fears that the memories didn’t “really” happen- that they just “made up” the memories. The reality is that memory is complicated and malleable. Under the best of circumstances it doesn’t function like a video recorder and is subject to distortion. Under the pressures of intense trauma being done to a small child and then the child trying to contain and make sense of what happened, it’s quite likely that what is remembered is not quite exactly what happened in some way. Sometimes the memories aren’t clear, particularly when they are missing important pieces of information or only involve one sense, and so they are susceptible to distortion while trying to make sense of them. When good therapists work with clients who are dealing with dissociated memories, they never probe for the memories, but allow them to emerge in their own time. These therapists also won’t say which memories or parts of memories they think are accurate, because it is the person who is remembering that is the best judge.
When I started therapy with Mama Bear, it was at the height of the “false memory syndrome” frenzy. At some point during that first year, I heard about it, and it did terrible damage to my ability to trust what was emerging. In many ways, it was a handy excuse for the parts of me that needed for me to stop looking at my history. “You can’t trust your memory. You can’t trust your mind. It’s impossible for you to have never seen any signs that this abuse was there.”
Well, yes, I had started to be afraid of sex right after I got married, as soon as I was safe from my family. But maybe I just have sexual issues for some other reason. Besides, it started to get really bad after I found and read a book that contained something about sexual abuse in it. Maybe that book started the whole idea? And then around the same time, I saw an Oprah show with Truddi Chase. That’s also around the same time that I can identify first having disruptive dissociative symptoms while in public. Of course, at the time I had no idea that they were dissociative symptoms and simply was bewildered and frightened by what I was experiencing. But maybe the dissociation was suggested to me by that show and somehow my mind took it and eventually developed it into something that looks like a dissociative disorder?
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. I always had the doubt that somehow the idea had been planted in my mind and my mind developed it into this whole elaborate, tortuous experience. As I worked with various therapists and as I learned more about dissociation, the doubt eased, because it really is pretty preposterous that everything could fit together so well, match so exactly with what things would look like if the abuse had happened, and, most importantly, that significant healing and relief would be experienced when I accepted the reality of the abuse experiences. But underneath it all, there still was that nagging doubt, “But I first heard about sexual abuse and dissociation around the same time that I started to experience symptoms…”
Then I read that journal entry on Wednesday. When I read it, I understood that I was wrong about the time line. I described having an emotional memory of the abuse with my father triggered in a sexual situation with my then fiance, months before the wedding. I also described a part stopping me from being able to talk with my fiance about what had happened. I had no idea that there was a part involved, all I knew what that when I tried to talk, I felt as though I was being suffocated.
This all happened long before I was exposed to information about sexual abuse and dissociation. And I know from the description of what happened that I was triggered by a memory with my father, not my grandfather. Deep inside, I had still been hoping that maybe I was wrong about my father, but I’m not. Furthermore, the memory belongs to a group of things that happened that I had really been hoping I had somehow distorted under the stress of the memories coming out and that they hadn’t actually happened.
Over the course of two journal pages, I had the basis for all of my denial torn out from under me. Yes, denial doesn’t really rely upon logic, but by this point it has been weakened enough over all that hitting me in the face with evidence that counters the denial makes it pretty hard to keep it up. Being confronted in all of those areas at the same time was a big shock for me, though. Too big of a shock to deal with on my own.
I’m starting to try to puzzle through something and writing here often helps that process, so here goes with my thoughts and hopefully they will make sense to both me and you in the end. 🙂
Today, in session, I was triggered and I started to experience memories in the form of body sensations. At the direction of Mama Bear, I first tried just breathing and then focusing back on our conversation which was about trying to help establish that I am not under threat the way that I feel like I am. But that wasn’t enough and I fairly quickly spoke up, “I can’t focus on what we are talking about because I am being distracted by the memory sensations that are still plaguing me.”
“That’s good that you told me. What does the part of you that is frightened want from you in order to feel safer?”
I paused, pulled the soft blanket on the couch over my lap and started to stroke it. “To realize that those sensations aren’t happening right now, but I really am feeling the softness of the blanket that I am touching right now.” I continued to stroke the blanket and really focused on what I was feeling at that moment through my hands.
“That’s good. Keep on doing that.”
Touch may very well be the sense that I most naturally oriented towards. It certainly is the sense that my memories seem to be most vivid in and it is the one that I generally find most effective for grounding. It may be one of the reasons that dissociation was so important for me. You can close your eyes to not see what is happening, but the only way that you can avoid the sensations is to dissociate.
As I sat there, with the blanket over my lap, and was able to move on with the session, I found myself running my hand over the blanket that covered my leg over and over again. I spend a lot of time in my sessions either rubbing my arms or my legs, which I generally think of as one of the ways that I help to keep myself grounded in the face of emotionally challenging material. I’m sure that is part of it, but today the thought occurred to me that the feel of stroking my leg through the blanket simply felt good, too. I think that I was soothing myself by giving myself something pleasant to experience while also dealing with the chaos that kept on pushing at me from the inside.
But as quickly as I noticed that it felt good, I had to stop thinking about it, because the thought was incredibly threatening. After the session, it occurred to me to wonder why should it feel so wrong to think about how something that I was doing felt good? Or more even worse that I might be doing something because it felt good to me. It felt like I had caught myself doing something bad/dirty, but what is bad about simple touch? It feels like my reaction is a bit like how I would feel if I had been touching myself sexually, just a lot less strong. But there was nothing sexual about the touch at all. It was more like the way that I sometimes stroke my daughter’s arm or back when she is upset about something and needs contact.
So tonight I find myself going around and around in my head about the idea of touch and realizing that I naturally like touch. I want that physical contact and comfort. Many times it reaches me better than words do. And not just when I am upset, but when I am feeling happy or like celebrating something, too. I naturally want to be able to put an arm around a friend’s shoulders or give her a quick hug because I am happy for her, but up to now my traumatic reactions have hidden all of that from me. I want that contact with the people I care about and feel safe with. I want it very much. I’ve spent my whole life putting out “don’t touch me” messages because I was taught to be afraid of touch, not because I naturally don’t like it.
This evening, I was triggered by something else and stuck in a frightened, young state. Logistics first kept me from going to my husband for help grounding the way that I wanted to and then I was stuck in a bad state and unable to figure out how to reach out for help from him. However, when he came to bed, I put my head on his chest and just concentrated on feeling him there, a loving and safe presence. When I told him that being there with him helped me to feel more calm and safe than I had all evening, he began to gently rub my back, shoulders, and arms. I allowed myself to simply feel what it felt like for him to touch me that way. The part of me that often comes out in sexual situations started to be evoked, but I made myself really pay attention to how he was touching me and how I was experiencing it. There was nothing sexual about it. It was loving, warm, and connecting, but not sexual. Yes, there was something similar to what I experience with him in sexual situations, but that is because our touch at those times also has these same basic qualities of loving, healthy touch but with sexuality added on top of it.
What an idea. Touch can feel good without being sexual. I think that it can feel very good, as scary as that is to say. Just because something feels good doesn’t mean that it is dangerous, despite what I was taught as a child. I was exposed to sexual contact way too young and I think that everything just got all muddled together in terms of touch, so now I am shocked to discover 40 years later that it is not just safe to have physical contact with certain people, but it’s natural to find that sort of contact pleasurable. It isn’t forced sexual contact, in fact with most people it isn’t sexual at all, so it is safe for me to experience the pleasure that I find in it.
This is where I have a lot of work to do: learning to accept that there is no shame in experiencing physical pleasure, that there is a difference between simple physical pleasure and sexual pleasure, and that the people that I would even consider having any physical contact with are not the type of people who would want to have forced sexual contact with me. Part of me understands those concepts, but for the vast majority of me, they are foreign and frightening thoughts. | {
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Will We See The Lunar Eclipse??
I remember at school when I was a teenager we all got to go outside to view a Solar Eclipse. It was lunchtime and I was hungry, but I decided to see what all the fuss was about. The teachers warned us NOT to look at it directly, even with sunglasses on. Being teenagers, we listened (not), and decided we would be better protected if we looked through the tinted rear glass on my Bronco II. Thankfully it worked and nobody was blinded, and I will never forget how cool it was.
Tonight there is a nationwide total Lunar Eclipse. This is the first in 5 decades.
I've witnessed a partial Lunar Eclipse, but not a full one. With all the snow and cloud cover, Central Minnesota will NOT be able to view this marvel in science. (You can watch NASA's feed HERE)
Instead look for Randy Moss at TCF Bank for the 50th Anniversary of the Vikings. Maybe he will moon the crowd so we all can see an eclipse tonight!! | {
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FIVE HILLS TRAINING AREA, Mongolia - Colleen Ruru, with the Center for Civil-Military Relations in Monterey, Calif., and serving as the lead planner for Khaan Quest's command post exercise, briefs U.S. Army Recruit Officer Training Corps cadets and active-duty Marines on how to role play as members of the international press, Aug.12. The CPX participants conducted a mock press conference the following day. Khaan Quest, a multinational peacekeeping exercise hosted annually by the Mongolian Armed Forces and co-sponsored by U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific and U.S. Army Pacific, is the latest in a continuing series of exercises designed to promote regional peace and security. MARFORPAC is the U.S. executive for this year’s exercise, which has been taking place since 2003. Khaan Quest 2013 officially ended Aug. 14. Ruru is from Wellington, New Zealand. | {
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Disclaimer, referencing previous post
Let me be clear: I don’t want possession of the remote control, nor do I complain about those who possess it.
But I have noticed, in observing hundreds of domestic arrangements over the past three decades, that the remote normally falls under male supervision.
I’ve also observed that when the remote can’t be found, the female is often responsible for its disappearance. (She’s hidden it.)
The above is only semi-true in my household. When the remote disappears, I am responsible, but not deliberately. I simply tend to set it down in places where it can be easily obscured by collapsing towers of books and papers.
I don’t attempt to excuse myself. I should be more careful.
But I will note that, when our remote goes missing, both I and my spouse know where to look for it. | {
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it's cool. i've had a hard time tracking this one down, so i thought i'd try here. the impression i'm getting is canada wants to make it as difficult as possible for foreign lawyers to come up there.
part of this assertion is based on the fact that there appears to be no barbri for brit col and no barbri for the flsc.
fyi, if i could do it over again, i would start thinking about the bar a lot sooner than post-graduation or at least 3L. even more than where you go to law school, for most people where you are licensed to practice will have a huge impact on the rest of yoru life. | {
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Share
Shareholders for Alphabet, Google’s parent company, once again rejected a proposal that would require the company to prepare a report on its gender pay data.
This is the second year in a row shareholders nixed such a proposal. But this time, the motion comes in the midst of Google’s very public lawsuit with the Department of Labor over this very same issue.
Google Says Calculating Gender Pay Data Would Be Too Expensive
The excuse comes despite the company’s previous claim that it had already calculated this data on a global scale.
Interestingly, the company claimed in April that it had successfully closed its gender pay gap globally and even provided a step-by-step guide for other companies to follow to do the same.
The proposal, from investment firm Arjuna Capital, would require Alphabet to produce by November 2017 a report detailing the percentage pay gap based on gender with a breakdown by race and ethnicity.
“Genderpay disparity is not only one of the biggest social justice issues of our time, it poses a risk to [Alphabet’s] performance, brand and investor returns,” said Natasha Lamb, director of equity research and shareholder engagement for Arjuna.
“By not addressing the issue at the same level as its peers, Alphabet is put at a competitive disadvantage in the recruitment of candidates and the retention of employees,” Lamb said at the meeting.
But Alphabet’s board of directors recommended the shareholders vote no.
“We have long supported diversity and equality in the workplace,” Alphabet’s opposing statement reads. “We are committed to diversity and equality in all areas of our business, including hiring and compensation.”
Companies Boycott Google Over Ads Alongside Hateful Content
Advertisers are finally saying no to Google’s lack of accountability for its content.
Alphabet’s board of directors is about one quarter female. One of the four women on the 15-member board is Shirley Tilghman, former president of Princeton University. While working at Princeton, Tilghman hired Maria Klawe, who now serves as president of Harvey Mudd College, as a dean. When discussing salary, Klawe told Tilghman, “Just pay me what you think is right” and then grossly underpaid her compared to the other deans.
“I probably got a good $50,000 less than I would have if I had been doing my job,” Klawe said in a subsequent interview (at the same time Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella suggested women rely on “karma” when they want a raise).
Google, which has never applied to participate in the DiversityInc Top 50 competition, has an astounding lack of diversity in its leadership ranks. According to its owndiversity data, women make up just 24 percent of leadership throughout the company. Ethnic diversity is also dismal, with leadership being 70 percent white, 25 percent Asian, 2 percent Black, 2 percent two or more races, 1 percent Hispanic and less than 1 percent “other.”
While Silicon Valley continues struggling with diversity in its ranks, other companies have finally made the move toward transparency. Intel (one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies) shared its pay equity data and announced earlier this year that it had successfully closed its pay and promotion gap.
Google is currently battling a lawsuit with the Department of Labor, which accused the tech giant of withholding information about its pay history. As a federal contractor, Google is required to provide this data for evaluations.
The discrimination “is quite extreme,” even for a tech company, according to a report published last week.
But in May, a lawyer for the company said it would simply be too expensive to calculate the numbers.
The cost About 500 hours of work and $100,000.
“This is obviously a very time-consuming and burdensome project,” said Lisa Barnett Sween, the attorney.
According to the company’s own most recent report cost should be a non-issue. Google ended the first quarter of 2017 with $24.75 billion in revenues, with Alphabet (Google’s parent company) CFO Ruth Porat boasting that “revenues [are] up 22% versus the first quarter of 2016 and 24% on a constant currency basis.”
Given the company’s sky-high profits, “Google would be able to absorb the cost as easy as a dry kitchen sponge could absorb a single drop of water,” said Labor Department attorney Ian Eliasoph.
The female-to-male earnings ratio is 0.80, and women of color are impacted even more by the wage gap. Black women earn about 63 cents to the white man’s dollar; Latinas, 54 cents; and Asian women, 85 cents (some women of Asian subgroups may earn even less, the National Partnership for Women and Families reported). | {
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Tag Archives: sculpture
In the unlikely setting of a multistorey carpark on Rye Lane, Peckham, is the most amazing sculpture park you are ever likely to visit. I know, bold statement, right? But this is a bold statement for project that is successfully altering, if not changing, the way in which we view contemporary, public art. Bold Tendencies, now in its sixth and biggest year, is a non-profit, summer sculpture park that brings together emerging international artists and provides them with a platform that catapults into public consciousness.
The space is not glamorous, white walled and “fabulous dahhhling”. It’s shabby,worn down and the stairwell still retains that certain car park odour. However, it is also a location that can legitimately claim to have the best view of London. The panoramic horizon is one that has been carefully punctuated and fractured by the positioning of huge, beautiful installations such as Byobufrom Laura Buckley and Fountain I by Peles Empire. From certain angles the plethora of new, contemporary work can seem to be standing alongside the Gherkin, the Shard and the Millennium Dome.
The location of the project is intrinsically connected with the artwork it includes. Speaking to the artist Mary Redmond, the industrial nature of the space is vital to the experience of her work. The piece, Seven Split Overglide, combines bamboo and plasticised organic shapes with scrap metal that appears to have been blown in from across the neighboring railroad. Redmond explains that the piece has been inspired by the Glaswegian tower blocks and Le Corbusier styled buildings she used to live near as a child. As we speak, a train rushes by and dust, grit and hot air is blown through the space forcing the scrap metal and fake flowers in her work to tremble. This wind tunnel effect, says Redmond, is akin to that created in the towerblock carparks she would walk through as a child.
Bold Tendencies opened earlier this month and welcomed over 1,000 guests to its launch party. To find anyone willing to drop the Del Boy/Rodney stereotype of Peckham can be difficult, so 1,000 people for a first night? It must be pretty damn good.
Check back for reviews of events held at Bold Tendencies this summer. For more information visit the websitehere
Huge colourful screen prints of Muhammad Ali, Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s Soup tins vs: four fifteen ft tall fibreglass heads made of flowers, fruit and vegetables. Connection? Both could be seen at Dulwich Picture Gallery’s latest private view last Tuesday. Both are glorious exhibits for the summer in South London. However, further links between these two artist’s work perhaps need a little more mulling over….
Grapes 1979
(left to right) Autumn and Spring 2010
However, it can be done. Both artists employ not just a rich but a dazzling colour scheme and great variety of palette, as well demonstrating distinctive experimentation of particular artistic techniques to a standard of utmost sophistication and imagination. However, even aside from this, Andy Warhol and Philip Haas seem to have found a common ethos when we examine this selection of their work placed in the same summer exhibition. As Ian Dejardin, director of the Picture Gallery confirms, both Haas and Warhol are taking something imagery and making it into something else: iconic.
In the case of Haas, the New York artist looks back to the work of 16th century Mannerist painter Guiseppe Arcimboldo‘s style, in particular his paintings of ‘The Four Seasons’ c. 1572, each of which demonstrates a head in profile made up of the plants, foliage and crop belonging to the particular season. Haas has transformed this already spectacular vision into something enlarged on a huge scale and, even more importantly, made it 3-dimensional. One could only imagine previously what it was like to walk around the collar of Summer‘s neck, or wonder what was on the other side of the snail perched on the crest of Autumn‘s head. Haas brings a new level to Arcimboldo’s weird and wonderful creations, we as a modern audience are given layers of allegorical imagery, palpable solidity; we think of Ovid, metamorphosis, Surrealism (Dali saw Arcimboldo as a ‘kindred spirit’) and now science fiction and adventure films like Lord of the Rings (Winter most definitely looks like an Ent). Italian Mannerism is brought into 2012, and in Dulwich of all places…
The same can be said of Warhol, arguably one of the most significant and influential artists of the second half of the twentieth century. He chose images of noticeable people, objects and products which worked to successfully be re-produced on a grand scale through screen printing across canvas. Beginning his career working in commercial art, Warhol had true business acumen but also incomparable instincts with colour, scale and choice of image. By transforming Art into something that could be a brand, he subverted every cliche of ‘the great artist’, and his work has succeeded in immortalising the images he has captured.
Muhammad Ali c. 1978
Summer 2010
We have for example, a cluster of prints depicting Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight champion of the sixties and seventies. Bold, strong and impressive, the boxer stares challengingly at his audience in the bottom right print, chin confidently resting on one massive fist. However, the other three show what could be depicted as a different impression of ‘The Greatest’- in two Ali looks away from the viewer, head bowed in a defeated pose, and the other shows his nipple- a weaker angle of the magnificent fighting-machine body. Warhol tells a story here, even if it is one that is subjective and manipulative: it’s captured in colour so bright and lines so strong that we believe it.
Please note as well some of Warhol’s comparatively under-appreciated still lifes, including glittery grapes (!!) where the artist made ample use of his supply of DD- ‘Diamond Dust’. They’re just so gorgeous!
The perfect thing for a sunny spring afternoon: a fantastic exhibition on London’s Southbank. Little Ghost’s Freya Gosling stops sunbathing in this week’s glorious rays long enough to catch a mid-career survey of conceptual artistDavid Shrigley at London’s Hayward Gallery.
Shrigley is known to have remarked of his own work that perhaps it ‘looks like it’s made by somebody whom you wouldn’t want to meet’. Although it is true that Shrigley’s exhibition seems to display what seems like amateur paintings, trivial doodles, and mish-mash wobbly sculpture, there is deeper subtleties and genuine hilarity to this Macclesfield-born artist’s work. ‘Brain Activity’ delves into a range of Shrigley’s work from the mid 1990’s up until the present day, and succeeds in providing a cross-section from the artist’s varied methods in hisuse of photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, film and animation.
However, although he has experimented with many different art forms, the real genius behind Shrigley’s work is it’s accessibililty. His choice of imagery and style is very basic, crude even, yet the bluntness of his small text captions and his perfect one-liners succeed in transforming the entire reaction and approach to his work, giving it subtlety, sophistication. Shrigley is playful with his art; people are laughing out loud in the exhibition space at the sight of a stuffed Jack Russell holding up a sign claiming “I’m dead” or a lengthy video, of a cartoon headless drummer jamming on a drum-kit, or a bell labelled as being for the use of the return of Jesus but the artist simultaneously probes us with ideas of death, the weird, the limits of mankind, deep cynicism towards religion. Indeed, it wouldn’t be a surprise to find there is no clapper within the ‘Jesus bell’.
‘Squirrel Without a Nut’ 2001
Perhaps it is this recurring dark humour that Shrigley means by someone you ‘wouldn’t want to meet.’ But I couldn’t disagree more, the bleak and deadpan tones of Shrigley’s art is such a crucial part of particularly British humour, making dry and ironic mole-hills out of mountainous issues is what us Brits do best…. Man in the grand scheme of cosmically significant occurrences is basically irrelevant. Deal with it.
Mixed Media iS the latest exhibition at Haunch of Venison that explores contemporary sculpture through the works of nine different artists. Leading figures such as Richard Long, Giuseppe Penone and Jaume Plensa are presented alongside international artists and younger, emerging talent. Through the combination of works, Mixed Media highlights diversity within the practice and, beyond this, succeeds in reshaping our understanding of it.
Attempting to try and make sense of it all is not easy. Doll heads, feathers, eggshells, twisted mesh and glass beads are intertwined in a chaos of colour and that is just in the work of Rina Banerjee. For this exhibition, the entire gallery space has been flooded with materials. The vibrancy of Joana Vasconcelos’s brightly coloured crochet work, Carnaby, for example, is juxtaposed by State of Being which is dark and unnerving dystopia created by Chiharu Shiota.
Solitary sculptures by Richard Long, Giuseppe Penone and Jaume Plensa punctuate the mass of colour. Separately as individual works, and combined as a composition, they evoke peace, serenity and provide a sense of grounded security through their links with nature.
The exhibition’s non-linear format demonstrates that sculpture itself is not limited by boundaries. Indeed, the range of works provides evidence of the great scope that sculpture has. Mixed Media is an exciting exhibition that is filled with work that challenges our preconceptions of the medium and highlights all that it has to offer. | {
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Melissa
Nelson had worked for 10 years for Webster County dentist James Knight
before she was fired in 2010 because of her looks. Knight eventually
told Nelson's husband that "she's a big threat to our marriage" and that
Knight feared he would attempt an affair if Nelson continued to work
for him.
The court ruled that such conduct does not amount to
sexual harassment because it was based on specific emotions tied to a
specific relationship and not based solely on a person's gender.
The decision drew national attention that included segments on "Good Morning America" and the Comedy Central program "Tosh.0."
Nelson earlier this year asked the court to re-consider its decision.
On
Monday, Chief Justice Mark Cady signed an order resubmitting Nelson's
lawsuit for reconsideration by the court effective 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Cady's order says the case will be reopened for discussion by the court;
there will be no further oral arguments or additional input from
Knight. Nelson's appeal will simply be re-evaluated based on previously
submitted evidence and legal briefs.
A new decision could come as
early Friday, when justices theoretically are scheduled to wrap up all
pending cases submitted during the prior term.
A list of the coming rulings is scheduled to be released this morning.
An
Iowa Supreme Court spokesman said it's "rare" for justices to grant
petitions to rehear a case. Five such requests have been granted over
the past decade.
Ryan Koopmans, a Des Moines attorney who blogs
about legal cases at iowaappeals.com, said justices could have made
technical changes to the opinion without granting a formal rehearing.
"In
all likelihood, at least one justice has already changed his mind;
otherwise there would be no need to rehear the case after six months,"
Koopmans said. "So I expect that there will be at least one opinion
coming out in favor of Melissa Nelson. The question is whether that
opinion is the majority or the dissent."
Neither Nelson nor her attorney could be reached for comment Wednesday.
Randall
Wilson, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa,
called the court's decision to rehear Nelson's case "an encouraging
development" because "an issue of this importance probably deserves a
second look."
"On balance, while there's no right to dress the way you want to in the workplace, there is a right to be a woman," Wilson said.
Nelson, a former assistant, filed her lawsuit after she was fired based on Knight's stated irresistible attraction to her.
Court
papers say it was roughly 18 months before the end of Nelson's
employment that Knight began to complain about the distractions caused
by Nelson's appearance. According to the previous ruling, "Dr. Knight
acknowledges that he once told Nelson that if she saw his pants bulging,
she would know her clothing was too revealing."
Documents say
Knight's wife discovered in late 2009 that her husband had been
exchanging text messages with Nelson (usually about child-related
matters) and demanded that the assistant be fired.
Nelson's lawyer
had argued on appeal, according to court documents, that "if Dr. Knight
would have been liable to Nelson for sexually harassing her, he should
not be able to avoid liability for terminating her out of fear that he
was going to harass her."
The court's December opinion saw a difference between decisions based on personal relationships and one based on gender.
"The
civil rights laws seek to insure that employees are treated the same
regardless of their sex or other protected status," the justices wrote.
"Yet even taking Nelson's view of the facts, Dr. Knight's unfair
decision to terminate Nelson (while paying her a rather ungenerous one
month's severance) does not jeopardize that goal." | {
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We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: we believe that agile for the business is the key to building a thriving corporation in a fast-paced, competitive world. Business Agility is what helps you prioritize, fund, and commit to the right work, removes blocks so teams are faster and more productive, and allows you to trace, day-to-day, how your teams are delivering against plans.
It starts with market analysis, strategy and product management, and finishes with steering, releasing, and monitoring what is in the market. This session will provide techniques on how to manage through this entire process. You’ll learn:
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Poor and needing more
There is certainly no sin in that. It takes some brains to make money and it’s reassuring to know that the person in charge has enough smarts to rise toward the top of the heap. Plus, if you look at our national politicians, the majority of them are rich - or richer than you or me. That’s just the world we live in.
So, I don’t care if my politicians are rich. What I do care about is that they know what it’s like to not be rich. I want them to know what it’s like to spread three bills out on your desk and pick the two you can afford to pay, or know what it feels like to only fill your gas tank half full because that’s all the money you have.
I’ve said in the past that you shouldn’t be elected to public office unless you’ve worked for wages, met a payroll and served on a school board, and I still believe that. But I look at our national politics, and read things that some of our politicians say, and it makes me wonder if they know what it’s like to struggle. I was talking to a friend of mine, someone who’s done pretty well, but she told me she has a very clear memory of the first time she went to buy groceries and didn’t keep a running total in her head of how much she was spending compared to how much money was in her purse. Those days are a long way behind her, but the memories inform much of how she views the world.
And that matters. It matters for at least three reasons.
First, if you can remember how far you’ve come, you’ll also realize that a lot of people besides you have a long way to travel, too, and that it’s not easy. If you know what you did to get ahead, you can reach out a helping hand to those who still need to get a foot on the ladder.
Second, if you’re in a position of authority, that knowledge can help you set policies that truly work, that encourage those who try and hold those who won’t try accountable. There are some bums out there – I don’t know any other way to say it. There are people who will take advantage of the system any way they can, and if you’ve seen the world from the bottom up, you’re a little harder to fool.
Third, and maybe most important, if you remember where you came from and if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll recognize and remember that some folks aren’t going to climb very high, that there are a few people who are always going to need help. Just as there are some people who will take advantage any way they can, there are some who need all the help society can provide.
There’s no real virtue in being poor, but there isn’t any in being rich, either. People are people no matter how much money they make and you find the good and the bad at every income level. If you want to hang out with people just like you, feel free. But that’s a mistake if you’re going to be a politician, because you’re not supposed to be representing just the people like you or even the people who voted for you. | {
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“People actually changed their patterns of recreation as a result of the spill. The effects of that went much, much broader than the footprint of the spill,” said Don Pitts, the department’s director for managing the BP spill money.
Parks and Wildlife has come up with five initial projects, costing about $18.4 million. All are considered “recreational:” building new restrooms, showers and other facilities at storm-battered beach parks on Galveston Island and near Port Arthur. The three other projects involve building artificial reefs miles offshore for fishing and diving.
Less Restrooms, More Restoration
But at public meetings held in Texas coastal communities last week, the Parks and Wildlife proposals drew criticism from environmentalists, who said the recreational projects were shortsighted.
“We would love to see a bigger focus on sustainable ecosystem restoration projects. We think those can provide some long-term payoff to the state of Texas,” said Scott Jones, Director of Advocacy at the Galveston Bay Foundation. He was among a dozen people who each got three minutes to address state and federal officials at a meeting in Galveston.
Topics
“This money is now public money, and tomorrow during hurricane season it could all be gone again,” Mannchen said. “I’m looking for: Where are the large oyster reef restoration projects? Where are the large wetlands restoration programs? Where are the large coastal prairie restoration proposals? And they’re aren’t any.”
Others who were critical of the Texas approach pointed out that the other states — Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Lousiana — had all included ecosystem restoration projects in their initial proposals.
Dave Fehling / StateImpact
Amanda Fuller with the National Wildlife Federation
“We don’t really understand why Texas is positioned differently than the other states when it comes to restoration,” said Amanda Fuller, a Texas policy specialist with the National Wildlife Federation.
Parks Department: Be Patient
The Parks Department’s Don Pitts said restoration projects are not being overlooked. He told StateImpact Texas that the initial proposal is “just our first step,” and that subsequent proposals will include ecosystem projects.
“That’s a process that’s proven a bit more difficult than we anticipated, and we’re just not there yet with our ecological projects. It’s something that we work daily on,” said Pitts.
But critics worry that Texas is falling behind other states in getting the ecosystem projects moving.
“This is the way ecosystems work: everything’s interconnected. You can’t restore a piece over in Florida and ignore the other side (of the Gulf),” said Amanda Fuller with the wildlife group. | {
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} |
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Emmy Rossum and Kacey Musgraves hit the red carpet in bright pink dresses for the 2014 GLAAD Media Awards on Saturday night (May 3) in New York City.
The 27-year-old actress and 25-year-old singer recognized and honored media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their lives.
During the awards, Emmy presented Outstanding Film: Limited Release to the 2013 film Concussion, which centers on “Abby Ableman, a lesbian, who becomes disillusioned with her domestic life and career after suffering a mild concussion when her son, Jake, accidentally hits her in the head with a thrown baseball.”
FYI: Emmy is dressed head to toe in Elie Saab. Kacey wore an Azzaro dress with an Edie Parker clutch. | {
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} |
The State of HTTP/2 in Node
with James Snell at Node.js Interactive 2016
Guests
Brought to you by
In this episode of The Future of Node series recorded at Node Interactive 2016 Adam talked with James Snell (IBM Technical Lead for Node and member of Node’s TSC and CTC) about the work he’s doing on Node’s implementation of http2, the state of http2 in Node, what this new spec has to offer, and what the Node community can expect from this new protocol.
Featuring
Sponsors
StrongLoop – StrongLoop’s LoopBack is a highly-extensible, open-source Node.js framework you can use to create dynamic end-to-end REST APIs with little or no coding.
Node.js Foundation – The Node.js Foundation’s mission is to enable widespread adoption and help accelerate development of Node.js and other related modules through an open governance model that encourages participation, technical contribution, and a framework for long term stewardship by an ecosystem invested in Node.js’ success.
Transcript
[00:01:05] In this episode I talked with James Snell from IBM, the Technical Lead for Node. James is also a member of Node’s Technical Steering Committee, as well as the Core Technical Committee. He is currently working on Node’s implementation of HTTP/2. I talked with James about the state of HTTP/2, what this new spec has to offer, but more importantly, what the Node community can expect from this new protocol.
The current state is just trying to figure out how it would work in Node. There’s a lot of new things within HTTP/2, it’s a brand new protocol, even though it’s got the HTTP semantics, request/response, headers and that kind of thing, on the wire it’s very different, so it requires a completely new implementation. We’re teasing the edges of what that implementation would need to look like, how it would work, what the issues are, what impact the additional state management is gonna have on Node… We’re trying to figure out what that impact is going to be, and then if we were gonna put it in Core, if it’s something that was gonna land there, what would that look like in terms of APIs and in terms of the performance profile and that kind of thing. That’s where we’re at.
We had a discussion earlier with Thomas Watson and Sam Roberts from IBM… Sam was really passionate about talking about keeping Node small, and Thomas actually coined - I don’t know if it’s him or not - the term SmallCore. One of the discussions we had in that conversation was what should or should not be in NodeCore. As you’re developing HTTP/2, you’ve gotta be thinking about HTTP/1 being there, whether it should stay there, if you did deprecate it how you would do that, and that argument between them, because they didn’t really come to a conclusion of what should happen. Do you think HTTP/2 should be in NodeCore? Should it be a module?
It’s a primary use case, even though there’s so many different places Node is being used, and in different use cases, a lot of it always goes back to having Node. If you look, there is no standard library in Node, but there’s HTTP, there’s URL parsing, there’s support for these fundamental web protocol that are built in, and that’s the only thing that’s built in.
Now, if HTTP/1 wasn’t already there, I wouldn’t be thinking that we should add HTTP/2.
[00:03:44.25] Right. There are other protocols that are becoming increasingly more important to the web - WebSockets, for instance. We don’t have WebSocket support in there, and we shouldn’t have it, because it’s not already there. Quick is another one - it’s a protocol that’s starting to gain a lot of traction relative to TCP/IP. It’s got a long way to go, but it’s a very good protocol. I wouldn’t support any effort to actually get it in the core unless it became much more fundamental to the web architecture.
With HTTP/2, the decision basically just comes to – we already have HTTP/1; we know HTTP/2 is gonna continue to grow in relevance, we have a lot of people asking for it… It just makes a lot of sense to have it in Core and have it available.
We also talked about - and maybe you can even end this argument, too - how you define what should and shouldn’t be in Core, and you it sounded like you said - maybe I’ll answer this for you, and you can agree or disagree - around web fundamentals. If it’s fundamental to doing web stuff, it makes sense to put in Core, but what do you think about keeping the Core small, or how to define what should or shouldn’t be in NodeCore?
If it’s not already there, then it shouldn’t be added. Another example of this was URL parsing. We have URL parse, but it’s fundamentally broken in a number of important ways. It’s there, it fundamentally works, but there is quite a few use cases where URL parse just doesn’t function correctly, so we added a new Web WG URL parser. It’s the same parsing API that you use in the browser for a new URL, and that kind of thing. So now we have two URL parsers in Core, and there was a big debate whether that should just go out as a separate module, or does it belong in Core…? The question’s still not completely settled. The only reason that would be added to Core is because URL parsing is already in Core, and I think that is the key distinction.
We’re not adding something that’s brand new, that doesn’t already exist as part of the platform; we’re just evolving what’s already there. That’s where I think we draw the line.
The basic protocol supports DNS, UDP, TCP, TLS, HTTP - these fundamentals of basic web application programming. That is what Core is to me. Now, there are things that are in support of that. Obviously, we have to have a file System.io, we have to have a Venting System, buffer for just basic data management. I view those as being more utility capabilities in support of the web platform capabilities that are there. To me, that is a large part of what Node is, and if you look at all the different use cases where Node is being used, those are still the fundamental things that are being used the most.
Even if you look at Electron, there’s basically web applications that are bundled into a native app. You cannot get away from those fundamental pieces of that basic protocol support, and that to me is what defines Node.
That it’s actually a very different protocol than HTTP/1. It has the same name, but that 2 is really important. The fact that it uses a binary framing instead of a text framing, and just line delimitation… Stateful Header Compression adds an interesting dimension of – there is a whole lot more state management that has to occur over long-lived sockets, that just doesn’t exist currently in Node when you’re dealing with HTTP/1.
[00:08:08.14] With the Header Compression and the multiplexing stuff at the protocol levels you can get much more efficient use of your connections. When we start getting into the real-world benchmarks of real applications, rather than the peak load type of benchmarks I’ve been doing currently, I think we’ll see much more efficient use of Node and of the connection there. But it does require a different way of thinking about your web applications and your web APIs, because you’re not just pipelining individual requests one at a time.
The protocol provides no limit to the number of in-flight requests and responses you can have simultaneously over a single connection. Then you add things like push streams on top of that - it adds a significant new thing that you just have to consider of how you’re building your applications and what the interactions are going to be in terms of performance, concurrency and all these things that you just don’t currently have to deal with.
I think there’s going to be a lot of coming to terms with the protocol and getting experience with the protocol, and kind of figuring out what those best practices are, because it’s still a very young protocol and there’s not a lot of industry best practice to draw from. It’s just kind of “Let’s get it out there and get it in the hands of people to use, and see how it evolves from there.”
I talked to Mikeal Rogers earlier about kind of the “state of the union”, so to speak, for Node.js and he was coming at it from a direction and governance side and less of a code side. But one thing he said was a really important factor in this next year - security. How does the work you’re doing at HTTP/2 support the overall mission of being more secure?
There’s two things there. With HTTP/1 in Core right now, a number of design decisions were made early on to favor performance over spec compliance. It turns out that there are a number of compliance things in the spec that says “Don’t allow white space in headers”, right? And there’s very good reasons for that, because you get into request smuggling and response splitting, and there’s a lot of real specific security issues that come if you allow invalid characters into an HTTP/1 request. Node was like, “We want things to go fast, so we’re not gonna check this, we’re not gonna check that”, and it was a very deliberate decision not to fully support that HTTP/1 spec. And what we found is that that caused a number of security issues that we have been dealing with over the past year or two years.
With HTTP/2, we’re gonna be taking an approach where we’re gonna be very spec-compliant. We’re not favoring performance over that. We’re not sacrificing one over the other. It is going to be absolutely compliant to the specification, without taking those performance shortcuts. And that is something that I am emphasizing in my own development as I’m going through this, that making sure that we’re hitting all of those “You must do this” or “You must not do this” that are found in that specification. By adhering to the spec as closely as we possibly can, we mitigate a lot of those potential security issues.
[00:11:47.00] The other important thing is that even though HTTP/2 does not require TLS - per the spec you can do plain text if you want - the browser implementation’s the primary client of HTTP/2 right now… Chrome, Firefox, Safari and some of the others, they require that they will only talk to HTTP/2 server over TLS. It’s just mandated. They won’t even connect to a plaintext server, so automatically out of the gate you’re using secured connections, and that alone is going to be a significant improvement to security.
The one limiting factor there is Node hasn’t really had a great reputation as a TLS terminator. A lot of people, just as the best practice, put a proxy in front of it, and then they’ll reverse proxy back over a plaintext connection back to Node just to ensure the performance. A lot of that has to do with the way the crypto works with the event loop and OpenSSL and that kind of thing. So I think a lot of work is gonna need to go into trying to improve that if we want to improve the performance of Node as a TLS endpoint and improve on that story.
What gets you the most excited about HTTP/2 being available? I know you’re working on things like – we’ve talked about the state of things, but what’s the most exciting to you that’s gonna change things for…?
Just getting it into the hands of developers and seeing what they do with it. It is a very young protocol, it is brand new and I have my issues with it. I was actually involved with the working group for a while that was actually creating it, and I was one of the co-editors on the draft. It was early on, I had some interest in where it could go… Then I got out of it for a little while; I had some issues with how it’s designed, and I’m not completely happy with the protocol by any stretch, I do have my issues with it. But I wanna see what developers do with it.
I love seeing all the different ways that people are using Node today in ways we didn’t even imagine that they could or would. And I wanna see that also with the protocol, just the experimentation and all the different new types of applications that could be developed, or all the different ways that it could be innovated on and built on.
There are all kinds of opportunities for more interesting RESTful APIs… Push streams are something really interesting, and so far they’ve only been looked at as a way of pre-populating a request cache, right? “I’m gonna push it out so you don’t have to do it.” But I think with REST APIs push streams offer some really interesting opportunities for new kinds of APIs that are writing event notifications, or the server is more proactively pushing data to the client.
One person I was talking and one of the ways that they were prototyping stuff and using HTTP/2 is they would create a tunnel over an HTTP/2 connection where they would open a connection with a client, but then once the connection was established it would switch roles and allow the server to act as the client, and the client was acting as the server. They were doing this as a way of doing testing over their network environment.
You can’t do that with HTTP/1, but because of the multiplexing and the communication model that exists in HTTP/2, that kind of stuff is allowed, it’s something you can do. HTTP/2 is gonna enable new extensibility models, new possibilities for new kinds of protocols that kind of co-exist with the HTTP/2 semantics. And we already see some of that work already happening within the working group; there are proposals for other kinds of protocols that are layered into the mix. And you kind of wonder, “Well, who would do that kind of thing?” Well, look at WebSockets, right? Look how WebSockets emerged in its relationship with HTTP/1 and the difficulties that existed trying to get those two things to work together. With this, the framing model is going to allow you to more naturally experiment with those kinds of new protocols without the pain that we had with trying to introduce WebSockets.
[00:16:26.10] There’s a lot of new types of innovations I think that could come out of it, but we need to build a collective experience working with it in order to be able to tease those things out.
You mentioned some things you’re not happy with with the HTTP/2 protocol, and I couldn’t let you not tell me what those are. [laughter] What are the “gotchas”, what are the things that are just bugging you about this protocol?
Staple Header Compression - it’s very effective, right? Headers in HTTP are very repetitive; you’re sending the same data over and over again - cookies, user agent strings, all these kinds of things. When it comes to actually what’s transmitted over the wire, it’s a lot of waste, like a date. In HTTP/1 it’s 29 bytes, because it’s encoded as a string. That could be more compactly encoded as just a couple of bytes, if you’re using a more efficient encoding. So it’s very wasteful as it exists today.
HPACK, which is the staple Header Compression protocol in HTTP/2 uses this state table that’s maintained at both ends. There is actually two in each direction: the center has two, the receiver has two. The receiver gets to say how much state is actually stored, the center gets to say what’s actually stored in that table.
But for the entire life of the connection of that socket, however long that socket is kept open, you have to maintain the state, and that doesn’t exist in HTTP/1 today. HTTP/1 is a completely stateless protocol, and HTTP/2 switches that and makes it where you have to maintain state. You have to maintain this server affinity over a long-lived connection. Even though you’re multiplexing multiple requests [unintelligible 00:18:18.28] at the same time, you have to process those headers sequentially, and serialize the access to those things, because if that state tablet gets out of sync at any point, you just tear down the connection, you can’t do anything else on it.
Even over multiplexed requests, all of those requests and responses share the same state tables. It adds an additional layer of complexity that just didn’t exist previously. Personally, I don’t think it was needed; I think that there are other ways…
I actually worked on the spec as one of the co-authors and I had a proposal for just using a more efficient binary coding of certain [unintelligible 00:19:09.04] Instead of representing numbers as text, representing them as binary, right? The compression ratios work as good, but you could transmit that data without incurring the cost of managing the state. So it would be just like what HTTP/1 has today, where you’re still sending it every time, but you’re sending less every time.
Right. It makes sense to shrink it, rather than… [cross-talk 00:21:46.08] I kind of agree with you on the state, because it seems like it’s adding this extra layer of – it’s almost like somebody shakes your hand and doesn’t let it go.
[00:19:49.18] Yeah, in a lot of ways that’s exactly what it is. Now, Google has a ton of experience with Speedy, and a lot of what’s in HTTP/2 came out of the work that Google did on Speedy and I have a huge amount of respect for everything they did and have provided. HPACK also came out of Google, so they did a ton of research in terms of what would work. They had concluded that staple Header Compression was the only way to get real benefits out of HTTP/2.
I disagreed with some of those conclusions, but the working group decided, “You know what? This is what we’re gonna move forward with, and that’s what they did.” At this point it’s like, “I don’t like it, but that’s what it is, and that’s what we’re moving forward on.”
Some of the other things in terms of additional complexity is HTTP/2 has its own flow control, has its own prioritization; you can have streams depend on other streams, and when you set the priority on one, it sets the priority for the entire graph. There’s just a lot there that doesn’t exist in HTTP/1. How much of that do we expose to developers? In Node we have to provide an API for this stuff. Do we provide an API for flow control? That doesn’t exist in Node currently, right? How would we even do that in a way that’s efficient? About prioritization, what kind of APIs do we do there?
This additional complexity is something that in NodeCore we’re looking at this and we have to decide how much of that do we pass on to the user, versus how much of that do we do ourselves? If we do it all ourselves, we’re providing fewer knobs for the users to turn, to tune things, and we’re making it less interesting for them because we’re hiding some of those features, we’re hiding those capabilities, and is that the right thing to do…?
The additional complexity is not something we can easily deal with. It’s something we have to kind of…
The server affinity issue is actually the biggest issue here. A lot of the proxy software vendors had some real significant problems with HTTP/2 as it was being defined, and you had a lot of criticism being put forward – I can’t remember his name, but the author of Varnish proxy, he’s very public in his discontent with the protocol because of the binary framing and the way the headers are actually transmitted.
You can’t do what a lot of the proxies do currently, which is just kind of read the first few lines, determine where you’re gonna route that thing to, then stop and just forward it on… Which is a super efficient way of doing it. You have to process the entire block of headers, then make the determination of whether you’re gonna do anything with it or not. At that point, you basically have to terminate that connection and open another connection to your backend, so that proxies are actually having four state tables for compression, and a lot more stuff that they’re having to do that that existing proxy middleware currently doesn’t have to do.
[00:23:47.07] Performance. Using that socket much more efficiently. I was doing a peak load benchmark here the other day with just the development image of HTTP/2 in core. We’re at a hundred thousand requests at a server, there was fifty concurrent clients going over eight threads… Just to throw a bunch of stuff at the server and see what happens, see how quickly it can respond. With HTTP/1 implementation in core currently I was able to get 21,000 requests/second doing that, but 15% of them just failed, where Node just didn’t respond. A lot of that has to do with – I was running tests on OSX, and there were some issues there with assigning threads, how quickly you can assign threads, and when we get an extreme high load it could run into some issues. With HTTP/2 I was able to get 18,000 requests/second, so fewer transaction rate, but 100% of them succeeded. It was using fewer sockets; I was keeping them open longer. The downside of that was it was using significantly more memory, but it has a better success rate, and it was using the bandwidth much more efficiently.
The header compression, for example, we were able to save 96% of the header bytes, compared to HTTP/1. Actually, it’s 96% fewer header bytes sent over the wire with a hundred thousand requests. That’s massive savings.
If we’re looking at the platform as a service where people are paying for bandwidth, saving that much is significant.
[laughs] Yeah, they’ll make up for it in other ways. That increase in performance is significant, you can’t discount it. With the fact that TLS is required, there is an improvement in security, but there are definite tradeoffs, and anyone looking to adopt HTTP/2 has to be aware of what those tradeoffs are. It’s something that as we’re going through in core trying to figure this thing out, there’s also going to be tradeoffs in terms of API.
One simple example is the fact that the status message in HTTP/1 - you know how you have the preamble on a response, HTTP/1.1 200 OK - that OK doesn’t exist in HTTP/2. They’ve completely removed the status message. So no more “404 Not Found.” It’s just “404.” No more “500 Server Error”, there’s no “Server Error.”
Yeah. There’s no standard way of conveying the status message. They just completely removed it from the protocol. Well, there are existing applications out there that use the status message, and actually put content there that the clients read. Now, it’s not recommended, and HTTP/1 spec doesn’t assign any reliable semantics that anyone should use to say, “Hey, that’s a thing we should use.” But as users do, they’ll use whatever’s available to them.
They’ll say “200”, yeah. “404 Not Found”, the whole jokes… Nobody will get it anymore. So if you look at Node’s API, or things like Express, they have “Here’s how you set the status message.” Well, that’s a breaking change in those APIs when you go to HTTP/2, so we have to make a decision of how closely does the HTTP/2 API have to match the HTTP/1 API and act the same way, when we know that there are distinct differences that mean it can’t.
[00:27:55.04] Yeah, it’s gonna have to be very deliberate, and it’s only gonna be in very simple scenarios, which probably aren’t realistic that somebody would be able to say, “Okay, it works in both.” It’s gonna be a thing where you have to design your application specifically for HTTP/2 in order to take advantage of the…
We have lots of people that say they really want this. They really want HTTP/2, and we have a lot of people that are talking about it not necessarily for user-facing - [unintelligible 00:28:40.13] anyone can access - they wanna put it in their data center, and have server-to-server communication be much more efficient, which is a huge use case for HTTP/2, especially since that is within protected environments and you have more control over the client and the server.
There’s opportunities there where you don’t have to necessarily worry about the TLS; you could do a plaintext connection and you’ll get a far greater performance out of it. But again, it has to be a very deliberate choice.
With all this change, wouldn’t it make sense just to cut the chord and… You know, one thing Thomas and Sam were talking about was verbally and documentation-wise deprecated; don’t do anything to the way it responds, or using anything within the Core. Why not just verbally deprecate it and then…?
It’s way too early for us to do that. HTTP/2 is a very immature protocol. It still has to be proven, and the vast majority of the web is still driven by HTTP/1. Going out there and saying, “Okay, we’re gonna deprecate this” when HTTP/2 has not yet been proven would be very premature.
Both, yeah. And just say that Node is gonna be a platform for HTTP development, 1 and 2. There will be a mechanism - it’s built into the HTTP specification - that you can actually run HTTP/1 and HTTP/2 on the same port. You can have a server that will offer both, and the client negotiates which one they wanna use per socket. We’re not quite there yet in terms of how we’re gonna make that work in Node, but that’s a key capability of HTTP/2. So if we are going to fully implement that spec, that means also implementing that upgrade path, which means we can’t necessarily get rid of HTTP/1.
The fact of the matter is we can’t get rid of anything in Core. You see that in things like the recent buffer discussions whether we deprecate things… We can’t get rid of things that are so critical to what the Node ecosystem is doing; even having a deprecation message in there is problematic.
Yeah, I’ll retract that deprecation statement and say it more like, instead… Because when we were having a discussion about the options of deprecating things, it was not to put it in where it was a response, but more so in documentation, where it was frowned upon; it wasn’t forced.
You’re obviously so much more closer; I’m just outside, looking in, but I’m thinking, if it’s so deliberate to choose it, wouldn’t it make sense (or potentially make sense, and this will be a decision you all eventually make) to offer it as a module instead. That way, you can have a clean break when it is time to move over. I’m just thinking if it’s that deliberate, why not make it that deliberate where it’s actually required.
It’s a legitimate question. That’s actually one of the decisions the CTC has to make. I have an opinion on it, but unfortunately it’s not all up to me. We have to listen to the folks, to Sam and Thomas, and the ecosystem, and figure out what is the right approach to take. We’re not close enough yet to reaching that decision. I’m being very deliberate in how I write this code to ensure that if we need to pull it out, if that ends up being the right thing to do, we can. It’s not making breaking changes to any existing part of Node. It is a very distinct, separate code path from the existing HTTP/1 stuff.
It would be a native module, and all the things that come along with native modules. There would be some considerations there, but if we needed to, we could. Like I said, I have my opinion on what it ultimately should do, but it’s up to the community, it’s up to the Core team to make that decision, for whatever reasons they wanna make that decision.
We’ve really covered a lot of it. The big thing, I would say, is the folks are really passionate about this. We need to hear from users, we need to hear from folks that have ideas on how to implement it, or how to test, or what kind of applications they wanna build with this thing. I’ve had a lot of conversations so far, but it’s a big ecosystem, there’s a lot of people out there. We can’t have enough input on that direction. That information, that input is what’s gonna help drive that decision of what’s going to happen with this code.
Go to the repo, open issues… For the folks that really want to get it in there, pull requests are great. There’s been a lot of churn in the code. I’ve been getting in there and just hammering away for the past two weeks…
Yeah, pretty much. People have been asking… It’s like, “Well, where are the two dudes, so we know where to jump in?” I was like, “I don’t even know what the heck I’m gonna do tomorrow, let alone what to recommend you jumping on.” But it’s certain to stabilize more, and there are very distinct areas that I know for sure - tests, performance benchmarks, those kinds of things - that we absolutely could use some help on. So anyone that wants to jump in, just go to that repo, take a look at what’s happening…
Well, we’ll link up the repo in the show notes for this. James, thanks so much for… We’re literally closing down Node Interactive, so thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. It is important that we have this conversation, so I know that the Node community is gonna appreciate what you have to say. | {
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Example of an EEG theta wave.
A theta rhythm is an oscillatory pattern in EEG signals
recorded either from inside the brain or from electrodes glued to
the scalp. Two types of theta rhythm have been described. The
"hippocampal theta rhythm" is a strong oscillation that
can be observed in the hippocampus and other brain structures in
numerous species of mammals
including rodents, rabbits, dogs, cats, bats, and marsupials.
"Cortical theta rhythms" are low-frequency components of
scalp EEG, usually recorded from humans.
In rats, the most frequently studied species, theta rhythmicity
is easily observed in the hippocampus, but can also be detected in
numerous other cortical and subcortical brain structures.
Hippocampal theta, with a frequency range of 6–10 Hz, appears when
a rat is engaged in active motor behavior such as walking or
exploratory sniffing, and also during REM sleep. Theta waves with a
lower frequency range, usually around 6–7 Hz, are sometimes
observed when a rat is motionless but alert. When a rat is eating,
grooming, or sleeping, the hippocampal EEG usually shows a
non-rhythmic pattern known as Large Irregular Activity or
LIA. The hippocampal theta rhythm depends critically on
projections from the medial septal area, which in turn
receives input from the hypothalamus and several brainstem areas.
Hippocampal theta rhythms in other species differ in some respects
from those in rats. In cats and rabbits, the frequency range is
lower (around 4–6 Hz), and theta is less strongly associated with
movement than in rats. In bats, theta appears in short bursts
associated with echolocation. In humans and other primates,
hippocampal theta is difficult to observe at all.
The function of the hippocampal theta rhythm is not clearly
understood. Green and Arduini, in the first major study of this
phenomenon, noted that hippocampal theta usually occurs together
with desynchronized EEG in the neocortex, and proposed that it is related to
arousal. Vanderwolf and his colleagues, noting the strong
relationship between theta and motor behavior, have argued that it
is related to sensorimotor processing. Another school, led by John
O'Keefe, have suggested that theta is part of the mechanism animals
use to keep track of their location within the environment. The
most popular theories, however, link the theta rhythm to mechanisms
of learning and memory.
Cortical theta rhythms observed in human scalp EEG are a
different phenomenon, with no clear relationship to the
hippocampus. In human EEG studies, the term theta refers
to frequency components in the 4–7 Hz range, regardless of their
source. Cortical theta is observed frequently in young children. In
older children and adults, it tends to appear during drowsy,
meditative, or sleeping states, but not during the deepest stages
of sleep. Several types of brain pathology can give rise to
abnormally strong or persistent cortical theta waves.
Terminology
Because of a historical accident, the term "theta rhythm" is
used to refer to two different phenomena, "hippocampal
theta" and "human cortical theta". Both of these are
oscillatory EEG patterns, but they may have little in common beyond
the name "theta".
Here is how the confusion arose: In the oldest EEG literature dating back to
the 1920s, Greek letters such as alpha, beta, theta, and gamma were
used to classify EEG waves falling into specific frequency ranges,
with "theta" generally meaning a range of about 4–7 cycles per
second (Hz). In the 1930s–1950s, a very strong rhythmic oscillation
pattern was discovered in the hippocampus of cats and rabbits (Green & Arduini, 1954). In these
species, the hippocampal oscillations fell mostly into the 4–6 Hz
frequency range, so they were referred to as "theta" oscillations.
Later, hippocampal oscillations of the same type were observed in
rats; however, the frequency of rat hippocampal EEG oscillations
averaged about 8 Hz and rarely fell below 6 Hz. Thus the rat
hippocampal EEG oscillation should not, strictly speaking, have
been called a "theta rhythm". However the term "theta" had already
become so strongly associated with hippocampal oscillations that it
continued to be used even for rats. Over the years this association
has come to be stronger than the original association with a
specific frequency range, but the original meaning also
persists.
The upshot is that "theta" can mean either of two things:
A specific type of regular oscillation seen in the hippocampus
and several other brain regions connected to it.
EEG oscillations in the 4–7 Hz frequency range, regardless of
where in the brain they occur or what their functional significance
is.
The first meaning is usually intended in literature that deals
with rats or mice, while the second meaning is usually intended in
studies of human EEG recorded using electrodes glued to the scalp.
In general, it is not safe to assume that observations of "theta"
in the human EEG have any relationship to the "hippocampal theta
rhythm". Scalp EEG is generated almost entirely by the cerebral
cortex, and even if it falls into a certain frequency range,
this cannot be taken to indicate that it has any functional
dependence on the hippocampus.
Hippocampal
Because of its densely packed neural layers, the hippocampus
generates some of the largest EEG signals of any brain structure.
In some situations the EEG is dominated by regular waves at 4–10
Hz, often continuing for many seconds. This EEG pattern is known as
the hippocampal theta rhythm. It has also been called
Rhythmic Slow Activity (RSA), to contrast it with the
Large Irregular Activity (LIA) that usually dominates the
hippocampal EEG when theta is not present.
In rats, hippocampal theta is seen mainly in two conditions:
first, when an animal is running, walking, or in some other way
actively interacting with its surroundings; second, during REM sleep
(Vanderwolf, 1969). The frequency
of the theta waves increases as a function of running speed,
starting at about 6.5 Hz on the low end, and increasing to about 9
Hz at the fastest running speeds, although higher frequencies are
sometimes seen for brief high-velocity movements such as jumps
across wide gaps. In larger species of animals, theta frequencies
are generally lower. The behavioral dependency also seems to vary
by species: in cats and rabbits, theta is often observed during
states of motionless alertness. This has been reported for rats as
well, but only when they are fearful (Sainsbury et al., 1987).
Theta is not just confined to the hippocampus. In rats, it can
be observed in many parts of the brain, including nearly all that
interact strongly with the hippocampus. The generation of the
rhythm is depends on the medial septal area: this area projects to
all of the regions that show theta rhythmicity, and destruction of
it eliminates theta throughout the brain (Stewart & Fox, 1990).
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Type 1 and
type 2
In 1975 Kramis, Bland, and Vanderwolf proposed that in rats
there are two distinct types of hippocampal theta rhythm, with
different behavioral and pharmacological properties (Kramis et al., 1975). Type 1 ("atropine
resistant") theta, according to them, appears during locomotion and
other types of "voluntary" behavior and during REM sleep, has a
frequency usually around 8 Hz, and is unaffected by the
anticholinergic drug atropine. Type 2 ("atropine sensitive") theta
appears during immobility and during anesthesia induced by urethane, has a frequency in
the 6–7 Hz range, and is eliminated by administration of atropine.
Many later investigations have supported the general concept that
hippocampal theta can be divided into two types, although there has
been dispute about the precise properties of each type. Type 2
theta is comparatively rare in unanesthetized rats: it may be seen
briefly when an animal is preparing to make a movement but hasn't
yet executed it, but has only been reported for extended periods in
animals that are in a state of frozen immobility because of the
nearby presence of a predator such as a cat or ferret (Sainsbury et al., 1987).
Relationship with
behavior
Vanderwolf (1969) made a strong
argument that the presence of theta in the hippocampal EEG can be
predicted on the basis of what an animal is doing, rather than why
the animal is doing it. Active movements such as running, jumping,
bar-pressing, or exploratory sniffing are reliably associated with
theta; inactive states such as eating or grooming are associated
with LIA. Later studies showed that theta frequently begins several
hundred milliseconds before the onset of movement, and that it is
associated with the intention to move rather than with feedback
produced by movement (Whishaw &
Vanderwolf, 1973). The faster an animal runs, the higher the
theta frequency. In rats, the slowest movements give rise to
frequencies around 6.5 Hz, the fastest to frequencies around 9 Hz,
although faster oscillations can be observed briefly during very
vigorous movements such as large jumps.
There is also a distinction between sleep states: REM (dreaming)
sleep is associated with theta; slow-wave sleep is associated with
LIA.
Mechanisms
Numerous studies have shown that the medial septal area plays a
central role in generating hippocampal theta (Stewart & Fox, 1990). Lesioning the
medial septal area, or inactivating it with drugs, eliminates both
type 1 and type 2 theta. Under certain conditions, theta-like
oscillations can be induced in hippocampal or entorhinal cells in
the absence of septal input, but this does not occur in intact,
undrugged adult rats. The critical septal region includes the
medial septal nucleus and the vertical limb of the diagonal band of
Broca. The lateral septal nucleus, a major recipient of hippocampal
output, probably does not play an essential role in generating
theta.
The medial septal area projects to a large number of brain
regions that show theta modulation, including all parts of the
hippocampus as well as the entorhinal cortex, perirhinal cortex,
retrosplenial cortex, medial mamillary and supramamillary nuclei of
the hypothalamus, anterior nuclei of the thalamus, amygdala,
inferior colliculus, and several brainstem nuclei (Buzsáki, 2002). Some of the projections
from the medial septal area are cholinergic; the rest are
GABAergic. It is commonly argued that cholergic receptors do not
respond rapidly enough to be involved in generating theta waves,
and therefore that GABAergic signals must play the central
role.
A major research problem has been to discover the "pacemaker"
for the theta rhythm, that is, the mechanism that determines the
oscillation frequency. The answer is not yet entirely clear, but
there is some evidence that type 1 and type 2 theta depend on
different pacemakers. For type 2 theta, the supramamillary nucleus
of the hypothalamus appears to exert control (Kirk, 1998). For type 1 theta, the picture
is still unclear, but the most widely accepted hypothesis proposes
that the frequency is determined by a feedback loop involving the
medial septal area and hippocampus (Wang,
2002).
Several types of hippocampal and entorhinal neurons are capable
of generating theta-frequency membrane potential oscillations when
stimulated. Typically these are sodium-dependent voltage-sensitive
oscillations in membrane potential at near-action
potential voltages (Alonso &
Llinás, 1989). Specifically, it appears that in neurons of the CA1 and dentate
gyrus, these oscillations result from an interplay of dendritic excitation via a
persistent sodium current (INaP) with
perisomatic inhibition (Buzsáki,
2002).
Generators
As a rule, EEG signals are generated by synchronized synaptic
input to the dendrites of neurons arranged in a layer. The
hippocampus contains multiple layers of very densely packed
neurons—the dentate gyrus and the CA3/CA1/subicular layer—and
therefore has the potential to generate strong EEG signals. Basic
EEG theory says that when a layer of neurons generates an EEG
signal, the signal always phase-reverses at some level. Thus, theta
waves recorded from site above and below a generating layer have
opposite signs. There are other complications as well: the
hippocampal layers are strongly curved, and theta-modulated inputs
impinge on them from multiple pathways, with varying phase
relationships. The outcome of all these factors is that the phase
and amplitude of theta change in a very complex way as a function
of position within the hippocampus. The largest theta waves,
however, are generally recorded from the vicinity of the fissure
that separates the CA1 molecular layer from the dentate gyrus
molecular layer. In rats, these signals frequently exceed 1
millivolt in amplitude. Theta waves recorded from above the
hippocampus are smaller, and polarity-reversed with respect to the
fissure signals.
The strongest theta waves are generated by the CA1 layer, and
the most significant input driving them comes from the entorhinal
cortex, via the direct EC→CA1 pathway. Another important driving
force comes from the CA3→CA1 projection, which is out of phase with
the entorhinal input, leading to a gradual phase shift as a
function of depth within CA1. The dentate gyrus also generates
theta waves, which are difficult to separate from the CA1 waves
because they are considerably smaller in amplitude, but there is
some evidence that dentate gyrus theta is usually about 90 degrees
out of phase from CA1 theta. Direct projections from the septal
area to hippocampal interneurons also play a role in generating
theta waves, but their influence is much smaller than that of the
entorhinal inputs (which are, however, themselves controlled by the
septum).
Humans
and other primates
In animals, EEG signals are usually recorded using electrodes
implanted in the brain; the majority of theta studies have involved
electrodes implanted in the hippocampus. In humans, because
invasive studies are not ethically permissible except in some
neurological patients, by far the largest number of EEG studies
have been conducted using electrodes glued to the scalp. The
signals picked up by scalp electrodes are comparatively small and
diffuse, and arise almost entirely from the cerebral cortex—the
hippocampus is too small and too deeply buried to generate
recognizable scalp EEG signals. Human EEG recordings show clear
theta rhythmicity in some situations, but because of the technical
difficulties, it has been difficult to tell whether these signals
have any relationship with the hippocampal theta signals recorded
from other species.
In contrast to the situation in rats, where long periods of
theta oscillations are easily observed using electrodes implanted
at many sites, theta has been difficult to pin down in primates,
even when intracortical electrodes have been available. Green and
Arduini (1954), in their pioneering
study of theta rhythms, reported only brief bursts of irregular
theta in monkeys. Other investigators have reported similar
results, although Stewart and Fox (1991) described a clear 7–9 Hz theta
rhythm in the hippocampus of urethane-anesthetized macaques and
squirrel monkeys, resembling the type 2 theta observed in
urethane-anesthetized rats.
Most of the available information on human hippocampal theta
comes from a few small studies of epileptic patients with
intracranially implanted electrodes used as part of a treatment
plan. In the largest and most systematic of these studies, Cantero
et al. (2003) found that
oscillations in the 4–7 Hz frequency range could be recorded from
both the hippocampus and neocortex. The hippocampal oscillations
were associated with REM sleep and the transition from sleep to
waking, and came in brief bursts, usually less than a second long.
Cortical theta oscillations were observed during the transition
from sleep and during quiet wakefulness; however, the authors were
unable to find any correlation between hippocampal and cortical
theta waves, and concluded that the two processes are probably
controlled by independent mechanisms.
Research findings in
theta-wave activity
Theta-frequency EEG activity is also manifested during some
short term memory tasks (Vertes, 2005).
Studies suggest that they reflect the "on-line" state of the
hippocampus; one of readiness to process incoming signals (Buzsáki, 2002). Conversely, theta
oscillations have been correlated to various voluntary behaviors
(exploration, spatial navigation, etc.) and alert states (piloerection, etc.) in rats (Vanderwolf, 1969), suggesting that it
may reflect the integration of sensory information with motor
output (for review, see Bland & Oddie,
2001). A large body of evidence indicates that theta rhythm is
likely involved in spatial learning and navigation (Buzsáki, 2005).
Theta rhythms are very strong in rodenthippocampi and entorhinal cortex during
learning and memory retrieval, and are believed to be vital to the
induction of long-term potentiation, a
potential cellular mechanism of learning and memory. Based on
evidence from electrophysiological studies showing that both
synaptic plasticity and strength of inputs to hippocampal region
CA1 vary systematically with ongoing theta oscillations (Hyman et al., 2003; Brankack et al., 1993), it has been
suggested that the theta rhythm functions to separate periods of
encoding of current sensory stimuli and retrieval of episodic
memory cued by current stimuli so as to avoid interference that
would occur if encoding and retrieval were simultaneous.
History
Although there were a few earlier hints, the first clear
description of regular slow oscillations in the hippocampal EEG
came from a paper written in German by Jung and Kornmüller (1938) They were not able to follow up on
these initial observations, and it was not until 1954 that further
information became available, in a very thorough study by John D.
Green and Arnaldo Arduini that mapped out the basic properties of
hippocampal oscillations in cats, rabbits, and monkeys (Green & Arduini, 1954). Their findings
provoked widespread interest, in part because they related
hippocampal activity to arousal, which was at that time the hottest
topic in neuroscience. Green and Arduini described an inverse
relationship between hippocampal and cortical activity patterns,
with hippocampal rhythmicity occurring alongside desynchronized
activity in the cortex, whereas an irregular hippocampal activity
pattern was correlated with the appearance of large slow waves in
the cortical EEG.
Over the following decade came an outpouring of experiments
examining the pharmacology and physiology of theta. By 1965,
Charles Stumpf was able to write a lengthy review of "Drug action
on the electrical activity of the hippocampus" citing hundreds of
publications (Stumpf, 1965), and in
1964 John Green, who served as the leader of the field during this
period, was able to write an extensive and detailed review of
hippocampal electrophysiology (Green,
1964). A major contribution came from a group of investigators
working in Vienna, including Stumpf and Wolfgang Petsche, who
established the critical role of the medial septum in controlling
hippocampal electrical activity, and worked out some of the
pathways by which it exerts its influence.
References
Bland,
BH; Oddie SD (2001). "Theta band oscillation and synchrony in the
hippocampal formation and associated structures: the case for its
role in sensorimotor integration". Behav Brain Res127: 119–36. doi:10.1016/S0166-4328(01)00358-8. | {
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Kent Street, Sydney quarantined during black plague outbreak
The NSW government commandeered huge tracts of land when the bubonic plague struck Sydney in 1900.
1 of 1
After the bubonic plague first struck Sydney in 1900, its spread was slowed by isolating infected victims and their dwellings. At the behest of the New South Wales government, architect and consulting engineer George McCredie took charge of all quarantine activities. Under his supervision, precincts were barricaded off, and slums were demolished. Decades of unregulated building had created conditions that were ripe for the spread of infectious disease, and the outbreak hastened Sydney's urban renewal. The rights of tenants were not recognised and the government reclaimed ownership of an area almost spanning from Circular Quay to Darling Harbour, now Sydney's central business district. (State Library of New South Wales/Flickr) | {
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Quotes on INTUITION and SENSES “As your senses delight in the attractive loveliness of the earth, think of the world that is to come, that shall never know the blight of sin and death; where the face of nature will no more wear the shadow of the curse. Let your imagination picture the home of the saved, and remember that it will be more glorious than your brightest imagination can… | {
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“There’s no there, there” on Benghazi, Obama says
There you have it. I guess it depends on what your definition of there is.
Check it out:
President Obama on Monday forcefully dismissed the ongoing controversy over the talking points that the administration initially crafted to describe the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, calling it a politically motivated “sideshow” that “defies logic.”
“The whole issue of talking points, frankly, throughout this process has been a sideshow,” Mr. Obama said in a White House press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron. “What we have been very clear about throughout was that immediately after this event happened… nobody understood exactly what was taking place during the course of those few days.”
The Benghazi talking points were revised numerous times before United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice used them on political talk shows on Sept. 16. The White House has said the changes were merely stylistic, but some suggest emails from various agencies, obtained by CBS News, show that administration officials were interested in sparing the State Department from political criticism in the wake of the attack.
Mr. Obama noted Monday that the administration directly provided Congress with the emails months ago. He noted that Congress reviewed them and “concluded there was nothing afoul in terms of the process we had used.”
“Suddenly, three days ago, this gets spun up as if there’s something new to this story,” he said. “There’s no there, there.”
The president said that the talking points given to Rice “pretty much matched” the assessments of the situation that he was receiving at the time. Mr. Obama also noted that he sent his director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Matthew Olsen, to Capitol Hill days after Rice’s appearance on the political talk shows, where he called the attack an act of terrorism. | {
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Author
Lady Fairchild
Kris Jenner might be shrewd in managing her own daughter’s lives, but that is more of a built in momager position. Amanda Bynes is not brain dead just on mental overload right now? There are rumors that Kris Jenner’s has approached her… | {
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Are you wondering if you should consolidate your debt into one loan? You might end up paying less interest and get out of debt faster with consolidation. Use this calculator to determine if consolidating your debt into one loan would be beneficial to you.
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Churchill County Federal Credit Union
Serving individuals and their family members who live, work, worship, attend school or regularly conduct business in Churchill County, Nevada. See website for details. | {
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2004 Cadillac CTS SUPER LOW MILES BHPH
This Cadillac CTS SUPER LOW MILES is ready and waiting for you to take it home today. This is one of the cleanest, low mileage CTS SUPER LOW MILESs we have had in a long time and it definitely won't last at this price. You can breathe easy knowing that the 'new car' smell is genuine because thankfully the former owner was not a smoker. We know the stress of worrying about buying a 'lemon' car and can provide the complete SERVICE HISTORY to help put your worries to rest. Building upon our commitment to excel in customer satisfaction, every vehicle within our dealership is subjected to an unmitigated MULTI-POINT INSPECTION. We know safety is key for purchasing a vehicle. We also know that this vehicle has never been in any kind of wreck.
This vehicle can hold its own with its powerful 3.6L 6 cyl engine. The 3.6L 6 cyl engine gives good performance and saves on gas too. The sport wheels and road hugging suspension make handling those curves a breeze. The top of the line luxury package will completely surround you in both comfort and class. Compared with other vehicle's out there, you will not find another better equipped Cadillac CTS SUPER LOW MILES at the price we are offering.
The vehicle is mechanically perfect right down to the last bolt's threading. Completely free of any door dings or scratches, you will have a hard time telling this one from new. We at Best Auto of Manassas INC understand that buying a vehicle isn't just about transportation but comfort as well. With confidence we can assure the comfort gained from this vehicle's unadulterated interior will be unmatched. Our inspection of this vehicle confirms that all major mechanical features are in great shape and ready to go.
Want a CARFAX? Not an issue! We supply a free report with all of our vehicles. We take great pride in being a CARFAX CERTIFIED dealership. We can assure you that every car has been thoroughly inspected and comes with a CARFAX history report.
We have an optional extended warranty program available for an incredibly low price. Don't hesitate to ask. Following our company policy of building customer confidence, we offer a flexible BUY HERE - PAY HERE payment assistance program that will keep you driving without the stress of high payment plans. Everyone has credit problems but at Best Auto of Manassas INC we don't feel this should prevent you from affording transportation. Our GUARANTEED FINANCING will do the heavy lifting, get you approved, and have you back on the road in no time. With approved credit we can provide you a vehicle with low monthly payments and no hassle. Are you a bargain shopper? We have a deal for you. This vehicle is beneath the BLUE BOOK value.
Come swing by today and check out this great deal, we are only minutes from Ashburn! Not a single dent or scratch! Runs great and drives like new. Power everything! A/C is ice cold! Perfect first car!
Recent Services and RepairsTuneup, Oil and Filter Change, New Wiper Blades, THIS VEHICLE HAS INSPECTION AND EMISSION., 40 - Point Checkover, Completely Serviced
This Cadillac CTS SUPER LOW MILES is ready and waiting for you to take it home today. This is one of the cleanest, low mileage CTS SUPER LOW MILESs we have had in a long time and it definitely won't last at this price. You can breathe easy knowing that the 'new car' smell is genuine because thankfully the former owner was not a smoker. We know the stress of worrying about buying a 'lemon' car and can provide the complete SERVICE HISTORY to help put your worries to rest. Building upon our commitment to excel in customer satisfaction, every vehicle within our dealership is subjected to an unmitigated MULTI-POINT INSPECTION. We know safety is key for purchasing a vehicle. We also know that this vehicle has never been in any kind of wreck.
This vehicle can hold its own with its powerful 3.6L 6 cyl engine. The 3.6L 6 cyl engine gives good performance and saves on gas too. The sport wheels and road hugging suspension make handling those curves a breeze. The top of the line luxury package will completely surround you in both comfort and class. Compared with other vehicle's out there, you will not find another better equipped Cadillac CTS SUPER LOW MILES at the price we are offering.
The vehicle is mechanically perfect right down to the last bolt's threading. Completely free of any door dings or scratches, you will have a hard time telling this one from new. We at Best Auto of Manassas INC understand that buying a vehicle isn't just about transportation but comfort as well. With confidence we can assure the comfort gained from this vehicle's unadulterated interior will be unmatched. Our inspection of this vehicle confirms that all major mechanical features are in great shape and ready to go.
Want a CARFAX? Not an issue! We supply a free report with all of our vehicles. We take great pride in being a CARFAX CERTIFIED dealership. We can assure you that every car has been thoroughly inspected and comes with a CARFAX history report.
We have an optional extended warranty program available for an incredibly low price. Don't hesitate to ask. Following our company policy of building customer confidence, we offer a flexible BUY HERE - PAY HERE payment assistance program that will keep you driving without the stress of high payment plans. Everyone has credit problems but at Best Auto of Manassas INC we don't feel this should prevent you from affording transportation. Our GUARANTEED FINANCING will do the heavy lifting, get you approved, and have you back on the road in no time. With approved credit we can provide you a vehicle with low monthly payments and no hassle. Are you a bargain shopper? We have a deal for you. This vehicle is beneath the BLUE BOOK value.
Come swing by today and check out this great deal, we are only minutes from Ashburn! Not a single dent or scratch! Runs great and drives like new. Power everything! A/C is ice cold! Perfect first car!
Recent Services and RepairsTuneup, Oil and Filter Change, New Wiper Blades, THIS VEHICLE HAS INSPECTION AND EMISSION., 40 - Point Checkover, Completely Serviced
AM/FM CD
AM/FM Cassette
Active Belts
Adjustable Seats
Adjustable Steering
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Air Conditioning
All Wheel ABS
Anti-Lock Brakes
Auto Dimming Mirrors
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Dual Air Bags Front Head and Sides
Dual Exhaust
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Full Carpeting
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Side Airbags
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Best Auto of Manassas INC9124 Antique Way Manassas, VA 20110www.bestautova.com
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Ultimately, any credit, if offered, is usually calculated based on your credit worthiness, amount of down payment, negotiated price, trade-in allowance and any extras or discounts that affect the final purchace price and what your payment amount will be. | {
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I have been a member of St Brigid’s parish for over thirty years. My three children all went to St Brigid’s school. Whilst my children were very young I was one of the parents who helped Sr Conleth manage the preschool which was held in the presbytery when Fr Neylon was parish priest.
I trained as a teacher and am currently the Deputy Head Teacher at St Dunstan’s Catholic Primary School in Kings Heath. This has given me a good knowledge and understanding of managing and leading the teaching and learning within a primary school. For many years I was a governor at St Dunstan’s School and still attend these.
I try to support the parish in many ways including Reading at Mass and being an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist as well as helping out at fund-raising events. I believe that it is important to support both the parish and school community and look forward to working closely with colleagues on the Academy Committee as well as the teachers and support staff.
I enjoy spending my free time with my family (especially my grandson), gardening, reading and meeting up with friends. | {
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} |
Three Peaks conquered for Meeting Needs
Lime Venue Portfolio Kick Off ‘Christmas with Sparkle Campaign’ -
The Lime Venue Portfolio (LVP), Meetings Needs and Happy Days ‘Christmas with Sparkle’ campaign kicked off this weekend with the successful completion of the three peak challenge. Led by Richard Kadri-Langford, Head of Marketing at LVP, the man, three day, three mountain challenge raised just under £1,000 for the charities with more expected throughout the September promotion.
The team scaled Britain’s tallest mountains, Ben Nevis (27th), Scafell Pike (28th) and Snowden (29th) on each day. The money raised so far was through the sponsorship of the team, however LVP have committed to donating £10 for every enquiry taken in September that quotes the #sparkle*.
"The guys put in a monumental effort for an amazing Meetings Needs charity,” commented Jennifer Jenkins, Chair of Meeting Needs. “This is a brilliant initiative pulled together by event professionals that really care. We couldn't be more grateful - and genuinely astounded! - by their efforts. A real thank you from everyone at Meeting Needs."
The challenge is part of a wider campaign developed between Lime Venue Portfolio, Meeting Needs (MN), and Happy Days, one of MN’s partner charities, who create unique experiences for disabled or disadvantaged children. The campaign, ‘Christmas with Sparkle’, is running throughout September to raise up to £2,500 for Happy Days.
“We've had the most amazing support from the industry already for the campaign. The Three Peak Meeting Challenge has raised just short of £1,000, all of which will go to a very fitting charity,” commented Richard Kadri-Langford. “We're really proud of how far we've come already, and equally proud to support Happy Days and Meetings Needs. The rest of the campaign kicks off today and is well on course to reach its £2,500 target.” | {
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Glenn Greenwald Previews Not-Yet-Published NSA Document
Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald spoke to the Socialism 2013 Conference in Chicago Friday night about his work with former contractor Edward Snowden to uncover information about the National Security Agency's surveillance programs, and previewed a yet-to-be-published document.
Glenn Greenwald previewed a yet-to-be-published document about the National Security Agency surveillance program during a speech at the Socialism 2013 Conference in Chicago on Friday night.
Speaking via Skype (hence the blurry photo above), Greenwald said the Guardian is planning to publish a document showing that new technology allows the National Security Agency to direct one billion cell phone calls every day into its data repositories.
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"What we are really talking about here is a globalized system that prevents any form of electronic communication from taking place without its beings stored and monitored by the National Security Agency," Greenwald told the liberal crowd. "It doesn't mean they're listening to every call. It means they're storing every call and have the capacity to listen to them at any time."
In his speech, Greenwald excoriated the press for criticizing former contractor Edward Snowden's decision to leak the NSA documents, saying a climate of fear permeates investigative journalism and cripples the mainstream reporters' ability to speak truth to power.
“In their minds, the only kinds of leaks that are bad are leaks that the government doesn’t want disclosed to the public,” Greenwald said. “The only thing that is journalism to them is when they carry forth the message that has been implanted in their brains by the political officials whom they serve. And I think this behavior highlights the true purpose of establishment journalism more powerfully than anything I or anybody else have ever written.”
Elsewhere in the NSA controversy, German magazine Der Spiegel reported the U.S. agency bugged European Union offices and computer networks, citing a top secret document from 2010. Reuters:
The document outlines how the NSA bugged offices and spied on EU internal computer networks in Washington and at the United Nations, not only listening to conversations and phone calls but also gaining access to documents and emails.
The document explicitly called the EU a "target".
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa also said Saturday that Vice President Joe Biden called his office to request that Ecuador deny Snowden's request for political asylum, according to Reuters. | {
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If you Googled ‘supplements to clear up acne’ then you’d be pretty damn overwhelmed at how much information and advice there is out there; from both repeated and conflicting tips on what to take, to run downs of what every supplement, mineral and probiotic can do to balance and work with your bodily functions.
I’ve tried a bit of everything, but in the last few months I’ve found a combination of natural supplements that have helped my skin become clearer, smoother, softer and basically an easy breezy dream. I’m so close to the CC Cream dream!
The feeling of damp and gut issues has lingered since my first bout of acne outbreaks, and it clicked only after months that we had some acidophilus in the fridge – a natural good bacteria supplement that helps rebalance flora and kill off the bad stuff which allows acne-producing bacteria to keep resurfacing. Now I’ve taken two types of probiotics over the past two months and have seen a big difference in how they’ve performed, so do they work and what have they done for my skin?
Firstly I started on said acidophilus – Solgar Acidophilus Advanced Plus to be precise – once a day and in two days I noticed my skin had started to dry out from the bottom of my cheeks to my neck and also on my upper back, the main places I had acne breakouts. The rest? Normal, I literally had a north/south divide on my skin! A week later it was fully flaking off and very dry, but not unmanageable – I was having to leave intensive hydrating masks on which for once was nice! In that time about 2/3 spots that were stuck under hardened and thick skin had come to the surface and were easy to extract without damage to the skin, and my cheeks were overall softer and smoother. After that I upped to 2 tablets a day to really kick the last few out. Cue even more drying out for a longer period of time, but also the clearing up of another 3/4 under-skin bumps, plus less oil overall in hormonal prone areas. Once thing I did notice is that every morning I woke up with heads on spots that were usually tough and hard, which to me showed that the probiotics were helping to push everything out – I can only suggest it’s similar to how accutane works minus the side effects?
Unfortunately for me the supplements ran out before I had time to repurchase so went into a health shop for more advice; here they suggested an alternative brand – Bio Care BioAcidophilus – which had 10 times the amount of strains as Solgar (also reflected in price!) that should help balance my gut and skin. I’ve been taking these for over 2 weeks now so think I can give a fair enough review – despite being higher dosage, they haven’t been as effective. My skin is a bit dry, but not to the extent of before where it would dry and flake off an amount to reflect the dose taken before settling, but more at a maintenance level, plus something that apparently occurs with taking probiotics is excess bloating from air, and yeah, I definitely experienced that. Great when mixed with pre-cycle hormones *sobs* Obviously, I’m going to continue taking these and have upped to the higher recommended two-a-day dose, but I do feel that after seeing the effects of the previous probiotics, I’d rather pay less and clear my skin up quicker and more effectively. Plus, more oils!
Before I round up, I should do a few extra shout outs – after reading Caroline’s post on acne, I doubled my fish oil intake (I’ve been taking four Wiley’s Finest 630 mg capsules a day) and also started taking a higher dosage Zinc tablet as it is great for taking down inflammation and fighting bacteria. I take the fish oils every morning and zinc in the evening as it absorbs better, and both these have helped my skin stay soft and reduce the lingering redness and painful lumps – winner!
So do probiotics work for skin? Yes, if you find the right brand and blend of bacteria that helps you. Realistically, if you take any antibiotic, you should take probiotics to replace good bacteria killed off or if you – it’s even noted on the NHS website that different types of probiotics have different effects on the body and not to assume one brand/type of strain will do the same as another, so whilst my current ones aren’t as focused on acne bacteria, they are balancing my gut overall (she hopes) and I know to go back to my previous brand in the future. Get the bottle on pre-order renewal ASAP!
Would you consider probiotics for your skin? Have you taken acidophilus for your gut/acne before? Do you know of the benefits of good bacteria?
Lots of Love,
Lauren x
Some products in this post may have been sent for review or gifted, and will be marked with a * or c/o. All opinions are mine are not influenced by brands or companies. Please see my full disclaimer for more. | {
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Since its first store opened on Seventh and Wall streets in St. Paul, SuperAmerica or SA has had a number of owners over the years — including, for a time, Marathon. This is the first time the Minnesota-bred brand has ceased to exist, however.
Speedway has its headquarters in Enon, Ohio. It is the nation's second largest-company owned and operated convenience store chain with approximately 2,740 stores in 22 states, its website says.
There are about 170 company-owned SuperAmerica locations and 114 franchised stores largely in Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to the company, with more than 2,000 employees in total.
Regular customers are asked to transfer their rewards card balance at www.speedway.com. The company says SuperAmerica gift cards will no longer be accepted; call 1-800-428-4016 to have balances refunded. | {
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This WordPress.com site is the cat’s pajamas
Virginia to receive more than $120.5 million from National Disaster Resilience Competition
Governor Terry McAuliffe joined U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Julian Castro today to announce that Virginia will receive more than $120.5 million through HUD’s National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC).
Speaking about today’s announcement at an event in Norfolk, Governor McAuliffe said, “These funds will significantly aid our work to protect the economic vitality and quality of life in areas like Hampton Roads by preparing now for the real impacts of climate change and sea level rise. I want to thank HUD for this important grant and all of the Virginia leaders, including Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, who advocated for our application. I look forward to working with our federal, state and local partners to prepare every community to meet these historic challenges.”
Virginia competed with 40 other communities nationwide affected by natural disasters in recent years for funding from HUD’s $1 billion competition. The competition will fund the implementation of innovative resilience projects to better prepare communities for future storms and other extreme events, including climate change.
“This federal funding is great news for Hampton Roads and a testament to the hard work of the region’s municipalities, academic institutions like ODU and VIMS, Naval Station Norfolk, and leaders across the Commonwealth,” said Senator Tim Kaine. “I’m proud of the bipartisan work we’ve done to address the impacts of sea level rise in Hampton Roads, and I’ll continue serving as a loud voice in the Senate on the importance of combating climate change before its effects on our communities and military installations become even more extreme.”
“Sea levels are rising faster in Norfolk than almost anywhere else in the U.S., and recurrent flooding continues to damage the communities and homes in the region,” Senator Warner said. “By helping communities incorporate innovative policies to address the many challenges presented by extreme weather, we can create long-lasting resilience to protect Hampton Roads against the very real threat of climate change.”
“As home to some of the largest military installations in the world, Hampton Roads must remain prepared and vigilant to deal with the risks associated with living on a coast,” said Congressman Scott Rigell. “I appreciate the partnership among state, local, national and private-sector leaders to ensure that our region remains the best place to open or grow a command or business. I am glad this urgent matter has received bipartisan attention.”
“This federal grant is a down payment toward preparing for and alleviating the risk of climate change to Hampton Roads,” added Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott. “Our success in securing this critical federal funding demonstrates that by working together, our Commonwealth will be able to meet this challenge.”
In November 2015, Kaine, Warner, Scott and Rigell sent a bipartisan letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development in support of Virginia’s application for NDRC grant funding.
Throughout the NDRC application process, Virginia created an innovative living-with-water approach called “thRIVe: Resilience in Virginia.” The goal of this plan is to unite the region, create coastal resilience, build water management solutions, improve economic vitality and strengthen vulnerable neighborhoods. This comprehensive approach is designed to capitalize on the region’s strengths, convert risks and vulnerabilities into economic opportunities, and demonstrate best practices for at-risk areas nationwide. Participation in Virginia’s effort has been broadly based, bringing together multiple state and federal agencies, local governments, institutions of higher education, community groups, residents and private-sector partners.
“Resilience, like homeland security, is a ‘whole of community’ endeavor,” said Virginia’s Chief Resilience Officer and Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Brian Moran. “I am very proud of the multidisciplinary, multijurisdictional team that worked throughout 2015 to develop this winning grant application.”
“These funds will enable much-needed resilience strategies at the local and regional level that we hope to replicate throughout the Commonwealth,” said Secretary of Natural Resources Molly Ward. “I am proud that this collaborative effort will produce real solutions to some of the most pressing problems that climate change presents.”
“An essential quality for sustained growth in any community is resiliency,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice Jones. “We are excited about this announcement, as it will enable us to continue to work on positioning our communities to withstand challenges and to further economic growth.” | {
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About Optics & Photonics TopicsOSA Publishing developed the Optics and Photonics Topics to help organize its diverse content more accurately by topic area. This topic browser contains over 2400 terms and is organized in a three-level hierarchy. Read more.
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Abstract
Detection of glucose in water solution for several different concentrations has been performed with the purpose to determine the sensitivity of Near Infrared Bloch Surface Waves (λ = 1.55μm) upon refractive index variations of the outer medium. TE-polarized electromagnetic surface waves are excited by a prism on a silicon nitride multilayer, according to the Kretschmann configuration. The real-time reflectance changes induced by discrete variations in glucose concentration has been revealed and analyzed. Without using any particular averaging strategy during the measurements, we pushed the device detection limit down to a glucose concentration of 2.5mg/dL, corresponding to a minimum detectable refractive index variation of the water solution as low as 3.8·10−6.
Figures (3)
Experimental setup for BSW coupling in the Kretschmann configuration. The illumination beam has low divergence (~0.038 deg.) and a linear polarization parallel to the 1DPC interfaces (TE). A flow cell is contacted to the top surface of the 1DPC.
(a) Best-fit of the spectrally resolved reflectance profiles R(λ) at fixed angle θ0 showing the red-shift of the BSW resonance for increasing glucose concentrations. For the sake of clarity, the experimental points are shown only for the three largest concentrations. (b) Spectral shift Δλ of the BSW resonance as a function of the glucose concentration C and of the corresponding refractive index variation of the solution. The linear fit of the experimental data (solid, red on-line) and the calculated Δλ (dashed, blue on-line) are shown for comparison.
Measured reflectance variations ΔR(t) as a function of the glucose concentration C in water solution. Insets: temporal ΔR(t) traces recorded during sequential injection cycles water/glucose solution/water for the two concentrations corresponding to the indicated experimental points. The continuous line shows the best linear fit of the experimental data. | {
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For those of you on the RRS mailing list, I just received their 2005/06 catalog in the mail along with an equipment demo DVD. The RRS owners, Joe and Joan Johnson, host the DVD. Segments include a panorama tutorial and demos of the BH-55 ballhead, flash brackets and other gear.
Michael need not fear for his job as host of the LLVJ , but it was interesting and fun to see the people who sell this high-quality gear expertly demonstrate their own equipment.
For those of you on the RRS mailing list, I just received their 2005/06 catalog in the mail along with an equipment demo DVD. The RRS owners, Joe and Joan Johnson, host the DVD. Segments include a panorama tutorial and demos of the BH-55 ballhead, flash brackets and other gear.
I agree, it was appropriately informative - a shrewd marketing tool. Despite being a wealth of knowledge, the printed catalog is unmotivating. The DVD made me a likely return customer in 2006. Money well-spent on their part.
Yet, it was still a bit dull to watch all the way to the very end segment (BH55).
I liked it, too, although I would also like somebody to explain to me the different options and results for taking panoramas; the guy from RRS seems to do it one way, using a pivot, while other people seem to prefer a slide. Is there a difference? How much difference does it make?
One thing that did get on my nerves were the constant references to the different products by their numbers, rather than by the name...maybe that's some kind of marketing reinforcement? But if your attention drifts for a moment, you find youself wondering just what the JXN749 actually IS, and how it differs from the JXN749a. | {
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30 Small Enterprise Ideas (For When You Do not Know What Business To Start)
This text will listing out the ten most strong and rewarding dwelling based mostly enterprise ideas that you can use to begin your own small venture and work by yourself phrases. Cardiff has been a buying and selling metropolis for the very long time and for some, shifting there to start out their business has been excellent. With the rise in materials and production costs, making use of ‘ineffective’ supplies and create one thing out of them will proved to be a thriving business.
The checklist can go on. The price for starting a consulting enterprise may be very low as it would simply value you the price of a box of business cards printed together with your data on them. If you have connections or could make connections with the important thing particular person in a supermarket, you might want to build your online grocery business.
This is an ideal enterprise for moms since this can be made even in your individual room or in any snug place in your home. When you dwell and breathe the media business, one in every of these small business concepts may very well be your path to a better future.
Consider your corporation concept with automation in mind from the beginning even if you are not ready to automate. So, for example, massive inflatable cushions that kids can use to make play forts that compress flat afterwards. Sometimes, moving to a different place to start out a brand new enterprise is an effective choice.
Right here in Ethiopia, you might have good enterprise concept but finance is the big impediment(i.e. shortage/ no finance at all). You’ll not get rich driving for Uber, however you’ll be able to work through the hours you wish to work and it may permit you to pursue a small enterprise concept you might be extra enthusiastic about. | {
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What is the best internet provider in Donna?
Donna Residential Internet Coverage
Just north of the southern Texas border, you'll find the community of Donna. This is primarily a residential town with a handful of small and chain businesses located throughout the city. Whether you're new to Donna or you've lived here your whole life, high speed Internet can make a big difference in how you communicate, work, and study. Explore options on this page.
Many people begin by checking out AT&T. AT&T is a national DSL provider that now offers both DSL and fiber optic options to the entirety of Donna. The network is huge, stretching past Donna to include other Texas towns and villages. This company has some of the fastest download speeds in the area. Another popular DSL choice in Donna is Frontier Fios, although they have a smaller network than AT&T.
If cable is more your style, you might want to check out the plans available through Spectrum. Spectrum boasts a large, well-developed network that includes many of Donna's neighbors to the north, south, east, and west. | {
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Looking for "don't miss" caches.
I am going to be in Maine from September 9th to the 15th. I hope to attend the Last Cache Bashe of Summer Event on the 9. After that I will have time to cache in the area of the event to Bar Harbor to Portland. In that area are there any "don't miss" caches? You live in a beautiful, historic state and I would like to see it, I'm not interested in numbers or lamp post caches. Any help would be appreciated!
The Fort Williams Cache is Maine's first Geocache so if you want Maine Geocaching history this would be a good one. It is in Cape Elizabeth just a little south of Portland. The park is also home to the Portland Headlight. We love this park it such a beautiful place with plenty of room to spreadout and enjoy it. The cache is hidden away from all the tourist muggles. There is also a very nice multi in the park and a few other caches in the area you could catch.
The Fort Williams Cache is Maine's first Geocache so if you want Maine Geocaching history this would be a good one. It is in Cape Elizabeth just a little south of Portland. The park is also home to the Portland Headlight. We love this park it such a beautiful place with plenty of room to spreadout and enjoy it. The cache is hidden away from all the tourist muggles. There is also a very nice multi in the park and a few other caches in the area you could catch.
Over the Horizon (Worth seeing the HUGE, multi-billion dollar Over the Horizon radar antennas that were never used operationally). This is on a route with several other caches that is a GREAT drive along an old railroad roadbed - now a paper company road - along lakes and streams.
It also brings you to Got Moxie, which is also one of the prettiest waterfalls in New England.
Then back to the Scenic Byway north, and a loop back to Bangor via Greenville and Moosehead Pond (more caches along the way). | {
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New Chefs Mikeno Lodge Inaugurated
Last week was an important moment in the run-up to the opening of Mikeno Lodge. Four local Congolese chefs have finished their first 3 months of training to satisfaction and were rewarded with a contract, a brand new chefs outfit and a bright future ahead of them! Mikeno Lodge is a brand new lodge constructed, owned and operated by Virunga National Park. It is the first lodge of its kind in eastern Congo. The lodge will consist of 12 bungalows, 1 main restaurant/bar area and is positioned in primary forest on the hills of Rumangabo. Please find out more about Mikeno Lodge on this website or on the mikeno lodge website: www.mikenolodge.com | {
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K-Link
The story
K-Link Bahrain is part of Al Majid Group. They specialise in health and food products. Growing steadily, they had been appointed by many international companies within the GCC as their sole distributor. K-Link reached out to us to design and develop their e-commerce website as part of their initiative to expand their business.
Understanding Their Needs
Having discussed their products and after a little independent research, we understood that K-Link required an e-commerce website that was equally simple and informative. The website had to serve as a platform where they could promote all their health and food products. Since they already had their brand and logo ready, we got straight to work on brainstorming designs.
Our solution
Coco Chanel’s famous quote, “Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance”, inspired us to design a very simple and elegant flow for the website. We used some realistic images instead of graphics to make it feel more trustworthy for users. This was a website where the text had to be as attractive to they eye as the images. The content was organised in a straight forward manner so that users could easily follow the informative content. We created an easy to use flow so that customers can add items to the cart and proceed to checkout as quickly as possible. The website has been designed to be fully responsive. | {
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It’s still massive, just not skyline-altering-ultra-massive. A proposed student housing tower at 9th St and the downtown Canal Walk has been redesigned and reduced in size, whittling the original 26 story proposal down to a more palatable 10 stories. That reduction in height reduces the total capacity by about a third but still places it among the largest apartment complexes in downtown Indianapolis. Here is a rundown of the changes proposed in the developer’s MDC case to be heard March 21st:
Building materials would be a significant amount of brick, metal and glass, with less emphasis on exterior insulation finishing system (EIFS)
Below we have the siteplan and some renderings included in the MDC staff report. Staff recommends approval. What do you think?
For comparison, here is what the original 26 story proposal looked like. Comparing it to the “Canal View from the South” rendering above, it appears that new rendering removes 16 stories but adds brick on the exterior for the full height of the south facade.
Social Media
29 Responses to “ “Canal Tower Redesigned”
It’s hard not to like this project. Its design might not be impressive, but considering this is a high density residential/commercial infill project, it checks pretty much all of my boxes. I still think there is too much parking considering they will target primarily IUPUI students.
The project is obviously positive for the residential situation, however I am no longer impressed with the project. Honestly the development along the canal is rather dull. I guess a 10 story brick structure will make the current canal residents happy. It’s a shame to loose out on a opportunity to develop a unique structure. I still believe this is a gain for Indianapolis.
My response to this WHAAAATTT an F- ing joke just when i thought indy was finally stepping back up to the big leagues as they had done back in the 80s , that the boom was so powerful, it almost landed us a 70 plus story tower, that even would had given us #2 in the midwest and top 5 of cities in america for tallest, Thats how powerful the mind sets were of the guys of yester year were. Now only a hand few remain in this city. Just look at the developments in Auston tx., even Orlando and tampa, Houston, and other big cities and they putting them up like hot cakes 15 to 45 plus stories and yes some midrizers to with no issues about height and they have the full city leadership backing/support, for their projects as these mayors hunger for growth and popularty stats. But over all not a bad looking tower just another shorty thoe.
I don’t need to see a residential mega tower along the canal. But this structure, with her massive amounts of brick and odd relationship with the canal, resembles an old hospital or housing project. It feels like a bunch of tired, old developers/engineers got together and envisioned what could be built with Cabrini Green and Lucas Oil Stadium being the source of inspiration. Very uninspiring design as expected along Indy’s slowly developing canal(yes there is a reason for this). The residential density and commercial space is the only good out of this deal but what’s the point when the canal feels like a…….hmmm, what was it that Aaron Renn called it? It was the perfect description, needless to say.
My first post was friendly at best on the subject at hand. These people who complain about height and unbalanced development can move out of the city. Those who believe that downsizing a development can be an attracting move are completely blinded. As a college student looking for Urban environment will look elsewhere if these types of decisions are continually made. This news has sickened me, I wish this was a financial problem and not a suburban mindset problem!!! Beautiful canals across the states have beautiful structures. Same is said for the city as a whole, please don’t miss that.
“Beautiful canals across the states have beautiful structures. Same is said for the city as a whole, please don’t miss that.”
What does this even mean in light of the proposed project?
And while I don’t have any strong opinion on the height of the proposed project, you might think twice before lobbing complaints at people who raise questions about massing and scale. A lot of us have lived downtown for a very long time, and in some respects, have made it possible for new developments to be proposed and for you to even have something to complain about.
Yes yes I see what you mean Jeffery. My rant was out of hand, the beautiful structures comment was pointing towards what has been proposed. My opinion is that the proposal is somewhat of a bland structure. I am however thankful that the development is even taking place.
I think the problem with us (general public) is that we put too much emphasis on showcase architecture vs. urban design. Rybczynski talks about it in his book “Makeshift Metropolis”: “The real challenge for cities today is not to create more icons (aka “Bilbao Effect”), but rather to create more such settings.” Cities that we consider “beautiful and urban” are characterized by the quality of their streets and squares, and canals, and the orderly beauty of their everyday buildings.
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People expect every new development to be like Sydney opera house or Bilbao museum. Those are great buildings, and and such buildings can really benefit the city, but I think we would be better of thinking more like urban planners. I am generally pleased with this development. It’s a step forward (which is not what one would conclude by reading most comments here).
Major bummer that this got downsized. I liked the height of the original proposal but it could have done away with some of the parking and interfaced better with the canal. Also, dump the stucco garbage for glass and steel. A JW-Marriott-alike on the canal would have been killer and cutting-edge.
Like it or not, this is probably as good as large-scale residential architecture will get in Indy for the foreseeable future. My reasoning:
1. The super low property values here make high cost-per-sf buildings unrealistic. Developers are going to direct money to the parts of the building that generate income, which means exterior finishes, massing, etc, will always suffer.
2. This is exacerbated by conservative regional attitudes and the fact that people in this market generally do not value “good design” as much as say, unit size, parking convenience, etc. Much of the growth in Indy comes from people moving from smaller towns or peer cities who are used to a more suburban lifestyle.
3. Compelling, innovative architecture does not necessarily need to be more expensive, but comes with added risks (performance issues, divisive appeal, etc.) The local firms that get hired for these kinds of jobs fit in the strong-service niche and are not focused on “pushing the envelope.” Their skill set is to do the best they can within a very limiting set of constraints. A failure on a project this size would be devastating for an area trying to gain momentum, hence the safe, if relatively banal, approach.
I know these are sweeping statements, but the Midwest is by far the hardest region in the US to practice architecture and the least likely to produce consistent, outstanding design.
Overtime this could potentially change, this city has already changed in the last decade. I don’t like the limiting comments though. I acknowledge those who helped develop the city, but there are also the ones who will guide us into the future as well. The city is developing cutting edge developments such as CityWay, things are happening.
Brandon, their needs to be stronger urban advocates / voices for Indy to move in the right direction. If everyone read this blog to find themselves merely content for any new development…then what’s the point for discussion? It proves once again that many here are used to accepting mediocre development because we’re from the Midwest. I believe the downtown canal should be much more than a suburban office park amenity. But that’s my opinion: I do not suggest everyone agree with me at all. I’m sorry but I do not believe in apologizing for being from here. I think we should not have to wait another 10-15 years for more appropriate, urban design…especially along the canal. It’s all too safe for politics sake.
Way too much parking for housing that will be focused towards student housing. The reason people will want to live there is so that they won’t have to drive regularly. They need to recognize their market. Depending on the design, that may then open up more space for retail uses. The canal could easily be a vibrant place if there was actually bars, restaurants, and shops along it. Maybe once a hotel decides to build along it there will be sufficient use on the lower floors and the high level of architectural quality that Indy residents require.
There is a difference between parking spaces at IUPUI and spaces per unit at other developments near campus. IUPUI brings in commuters from all over Indianapolis metro and should be one place rooting and pushing for better mass transit in Indy. That way they can stop wasting so much land as surface parking (sorry for going off topic.)
Thanks Micah!!! I have been traveling all over the world, I just want to see my hometown develop and win in the process. I want whats best, the best development possible. What will draw youth? What will provide sufficient housing? Indianapolis has the potential to win again and again.
I live in Carmel and have a friend who lives on the canal that I frequently visit. I am taken back by the stark difference in new development of Carmel vs. Indy. In my opinion it is out of scale, over the top, ostentatious development in Carmel vs. banal, boring, uninspired development in downtown Indy (with the exception of JW Marriot). I would like to see something in the middle from both communities. For Carmel a focus on architecture and landscape is a positive thing but if you look at the building by the Palladium it is an out of scale missed opportunity. Downtown Indy can foster neighborhoods with unique personality by building up. A 26 story building provides an anchor and brings in a lot of residents who will then frequent surrounding shops, restaurants (few in that area now) that will then bring more commercial and residential development. The more demand there is for housing downtown the more they will wish they built up and still of scattered little 5-10 story buildings on prime real estate.
There is an excellent example in Nashville, TN of how one over-scaled project has led to further development and was able to appeal to a demographic that previously preferred living further from downtown. It is known as 12 South and if you want to check it out on Google maps it is at the intersection of South 11th and South 12th avenues.
Here are 2 sites that will help you get acquinted with the areahttp://www.nashvillegulch.com/http://www.explorethegulch.com/
You will notice the excellent architecture and sustainability efforts. The existing project has neither.
I live on the east side of the canal on Fayette Street, a conservation district. Homeowners there are mixed in their support. I’m not against the project, but I’m glad they redesigned it to look less like it took inspiration from the JW Marriott. Yes, it’s safe architecture, nothing we haven’t seen before. But now it won’t be casting such a big, wide, brick shadow on us.
I wish more could be done to encourage a greener, less car-dependent lifestyle for the people who will live there. No doubt there will be IUPUI shuttle transportation as there is now on Fayette Street.
Maybe someone could foward this message to the developer to at least build it to 15 storys vs 10,It would look much better and would show up on the sky line and aerial photo as another succesful and cool project/development for dt.indy as most dt. residential here at 15 stories or more would work wonders on thoes parking lots, and great fill in, hold more people in single type structures and give them even better skyline views and still have space for more developments.
It seems that the forms and function of a new (contemporary) mid-century modern architecture would be well suited for a landlocked place like Indianapolis. Just my opinion to acknowledge our agricultural & industrial heritage? The craftsman bungalow should be our staple style of the past. Downtown would be more livable with a regional identity. Not living in suburbia with an identity crisis! | {
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The Dairy and Food Science Department offers graduate programs in Biological Sciences leading to a Master of Science or Doctor of Philosophy degree with specialization in Dairy Science for both Dairy Manufacturing and Dairy Production. It also offers Master of Science or Doctor of Philosophy degree with specialization in Food Science. The department is equipped with excellent laboratories; a dairy processing plant which manufactures fluid milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, and other products; and a dairy production research and training facility where a herd of 300 Holstein and Brown Swiss dairy cattle is maintained for teaching and research.
Metabolism and surgical facilities in the Animal Science Complex, and specialized laboratory equipment in Chemistry and Biochemistry, Veterinary & Biomedical Sciences, Health & Nutritional Sciences Departments, and the Edgar S. McFadden Biostress laboratories, are also available. Graduate students accepted into the program will have opportunities to utilize these facilities to develop basic and/or applied research programs in dairy product processing and development, microbiology, chemistry, food safety, dairy cattle nutrition, management, and metabolism, while interacting with well qualified faculty.
The SDSU Dairy and Food Science Department, is an active part of the Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center, which is partially supported by National Dairy Council and Midwest Dairy Association. This provides graduate students in the Dairy Manufacturing area a unique opportunity to be involved with current issues and research needs of the dairy industry. | {
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Wishing for a Dragon
The cover gives lots of clues of the plot within; its night sky twinkles with silvery stars and three small children ride some huge winged creature. Down below graze four-legged beasts, both sporting single horns. Three small children should be ready for bed, but all three are wide awake and ready for adventure. ‘Where shall we go? And what shall we see?’ One wants jungles, another treasure, but little Ella’s dearest wish is to see a dragon. ‘Hop in,’ shouts Ella, as a hot air balloon floats to their window. Wishes come true…a search amongst pirates for gold and a narrow escape from a tiger in the jungle. Eventually the balloon crashes tipping them into a magical land full of the strangest creatures. Readers will love to search for all the tiny pixies in the detailed pictures. As dark falls, the three children gaze in wonder at the star-filled sky, three special constellations picked out; a treasure chest, a tiger….. and a dragon. Over swoops a huge shape. It is Ella’s dream dragon! Exchanging tales of adventures each has enjoyed, the children become sleepy, realising their balloon has crashed so their homeward journey a problem. Dragon to the rescue, and they are safely delivered home. There are lots of details to be found in the pictures which enhance the mystery of the tale, lots of ideas to spark off imaginative talk about dreams and their fulfilment. Having read the story and returned to the title page, we see the three children going upstairs, Barney carrying a skull and cross bones flag, Olive picking up their pet cat,…. and Bella clutching her cuddly toy dragon, inspiration for all their dream adventures. The repetition of the questions, ‘Where shall we go? And what shall we see?’ make for good participation for the youngest of children, whilst the keenest of picture spotters will see that the balloon body is made up of the patchwork fabric on Sophie’s bed! This story bears frequent reading to glean all the touches woven into it, both in the text and in the charming illustrations. | {
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Thursday 11th
May was
one of the best-attended
Community Council meetings ever seen on Lismore.
Top of the agenda
was the impending ‘opt out’ from out-of-hours services by the
Port Appin GP practice (Dr. Iain McNicol and Dr. Kate Howlett),
which serves the island.
Dr. McNicol attended the meeting.
Despite
pressure from Lismore
communityand
from the Appin GPs
over the last 15 months, Argyll and Bute Community Health
Partnership and the Scottish Ambulance Service have so far been
unable to propose a safe and effective alternative solution for
emergency medical cover on
the island.
Following
an opt out by the Port Appin practice, the only out-of-hours
access to a doctor for islanders would be via NHS 24 to the duty
GP based in the hospital in Oban. Although this doctor is said
to be available for home visits, the reality of the situation is
that they would take several hours to attend a patient on
Lismore and during that time, they would be unavailable to the
thousands of others on the mainland who might be depending upon
them.
The issue
has been brought to a head by the recent withdrawal by NHS Board
middle management of the 15 hours per week relief cover for the
island’s nurse practitioner, without any consultation with the
island community. This was considered an insidious reduction,
by the back door, of health care provision for Lismore.
The narrow
strip of water dividing Lismore from the mainland has always
prevented the ambulance service from accessing patients on
the island
and this
will
continue to be the case in the absence of a rapid response
vehicle ferry. While
helicopter evacuation could be an option if a helipad were
provided, experience shows
that it could take more than three hours to arrive.
Until now, seriously ill patients have either been treated by
the local GP in their own homes or depended upon a voluntarily
arranged patient evacuation plan devised, organised and
implemented by the doctor.
In his
closing remarks Dr McNicol suggested that the community might
wish to press for their own GP, resident on the island, with an
island surgery. “You are being short changed compared to every
other island,” he said, making it clear that despite a growing
population, health provision was already shrinking.
The
Community Council resolved to continue to press, at the highest
levels, for a clinically safe and sustainable out-of-hours
service, which would enable the Port Appin practice to opt out.
Meanwhile, islanders are left feeling vulnerable and anxious. | {
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U.S. allies in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have found and destroyed an massive cache of narcotics previously held by the jihadist group in Syria, the Pentagon said early Monday morning. The haul of "Captagon," an amphetamine-type narcotic often used by militants to stay awake and alert during prolonged battles, was worth an estimated $1.4 million, according to the U.S. military's statement.
The Pentagon statement said the allied Free Syrian Army group Maghawir al-Thowra found the drugs during anti-ISIS operations near al-Tanf, an area on Syria's southeast border with Iraq, on May 31.
"Despite Daesh's façade of Islamic purity, its criminal terrorists are known drug users and traffickers," the military statement said, referring to ISIS by an Arabic acronym. "The cache included more than 300,000 pills of Captagon, an illegal drug frequently trafficked and used by Daesh members."
A video uploaded by the Maghawir al-Thowra militia to Twitter, complete with dramatic music and on-screen text touting the destruction of the drugs and the group's commitment to defeating ISIS, showed thousands of pills being emptied into a barrel which was then set alight.
The brutal war in Syria turned the country into a far larger producer of amphetamine-type drugs, including Captagon. The narcotics have been used by the militants but also sold for profit to help fund their fight. ]
While relatively unheard of in the Western world, Captagon has been a big problem in the Middle East for years. A Saudi prince was arrested in 2015 after Lebanese officials said his plane was stopped at Beirut airport before two tons of Captagon pills were loaded onto it.
The drug, first manufactured in the West five decades ago to treat hyperactivity, narcolepsy and depression, was banned in most countries by the 1980s due to its addictive properties. It is no longer prescribed anywhere for medical use. The active ingredient in Captagon, fenethylline, is metabolized by the body into the stimulants amphetamine and theophylline. | {
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Pedestrian killed by inbound Metra train in Vernon Hills
A person was struck and killed this morning by an inbound Metra train near the station in north suburban Vernon Hills, officials said.
The collision, which happened on Butterfield Road between the Vernon Hills and Mundelein stations, halted train traffic on the North Central Line and could back up service throughout the morning.
Butterfield was closed to traffic in both directions at Illinois Highway 60.
Train No. 100, which was scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 6:55 a.m., was stopped near the Vernon Hills station immediately after the collision and its passengers were transferred to Train No. 104, which was running about 30 minutes late, said Metra spokesman Tom Miller. Trains started moving again on the line about 7:10 a.m. Train No. 102 was running 35 minutes late.
The person, whose gender and age weren't immediately available, was killed, according to Vernon Hills police. It's unclear how the collision occurred.
Metra officials said the length of the delay was unknown. Riders can check the status of their train on the Metra website. | {
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As humans conquered the globe, these parasitic hitchhikers went along for the ride. Past work had studied the genetics of lice, but relied on DNA that passes on from the maternal line, making it difficult to get a complete picture of human migration. [Tiny & Nasty: Images of Things That Make Us Sick]
Toward that end, Marina Ascunce, an entomologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History Museum, and her colleagues analyzed nuclear DNA, genetic material that is passed on from both male and female lice, in 75 specimen from 10 sites across four regions: Asia, North America, Central America, and Europe. They also collected clothing lice from people in Nepal and Canada.
Past migration
They found that lice from Honduras closely resembled Asian lice.
"Lice from Honduras may have been brought by the first people in America, and that's why we see this closer genetic affinity," Ascunce told LiveScience.
By contrast, lice from New York were more closely related to European parasites, likely reflecting North America's waves of European colonization over the centuries, Ascunce said.
In addition, because there is not much gene flow between different lice populations, insecticides could be more effective if they target genetic vulnerabilities specific to local populations, she said.
While the study is preliminary, a more thorough sampling of worldwide lice could provide insight into why head lice differ from clothing lice, which harbor in clothing and can spread deadly diseases.
Genetic analysis could also reveal when and where humans interbred with Neanderthals and other archaic hominid species, the researchers write in the paper. | {
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Review brief: Kylie Ireland wanted to come out smoking with this release. She does that hands down. Even though there is a scene which doesn't measure up to most of the other action, and the length is off in some scenes, there is no denying that she is truly a fuck force to be seen, and after seeing this DVD, you just may agree.read the complete review
Review brief: There are just two scenes on this disc, and thats just fine, because neither can give off the excitement necessary to give this a good review. Its a shame too. These gang bang titles from Devils Films had been very good when they first started (except for the shemales fucking the guys), so it does disappoint me that the recent releases have been lacking in quality. Danielle Foxx is featured in the first scene, but it doesnt matter because it doesnt show off her best asset. And that is a shame. SCENE ONE has the aforementioned Danny with two other shemales fucking some girl. The initial blowjob sequence is so long that it not only takes up most of the scene, it kills whatever heat that there was going in. The girl blows the girls while basically laying on some small table. When the action finally does turn to the fucking, it is so poorly captured that you just might give up in frustration. The camera is all over the place. There are very few penetration shots, and at the end of the scene Danny doesnt even pop her load. read the complete review
Review brief: It has taken me a long time to review this disc, because I really wanted to be on-point. This is the first of this series Ive seen, and its a real shame, for what ever reason, that more companies have not jumped on the bandwagon like DVSX and Evil Angel (by way of Rocco Siffredi) and started or at least released a reverse gang bang DVD, even though there are many on ADTs board and elsewhere who want to see such a series started. This is a solid feature, and for those who are RGB fans, and have seen other titles that have fallen short (and there are a few), you will enjoy this. Its not the best, but it will most certainly do. SCENE ONE includes Angela, Petty, Fran, Eve, and Nika with a hung Kid Jamaica. Each girl starts off clothed, but when those clothes come off, the cocksucking begins. Each lady gives her best, and once again, not being a fan of cocksucking, I was impressed by the shear energy of it, even though it did tend to drag on for some time. Each girl gets fucked in doggie and mish, and the fucking that goes on is also energetic. read the complete review
Review brief: This is the first time I have ever sen a She Squirts title. I must say, if the rest of the series is like this, I may have to become a much more frequent viewer. I initially got this disc because Flower Tucci was on the cover, and my thinking is, even if the rest of the disc sucks donkey balls, as long as she is in it, there is at least one scorching scene to get off to. This woman never seems to go half-ass (like she really has an ass that can be considered half) so if her scene sucked (which is beyond normal thinking) then I would be depressed. Thankfully, not only is her scene through the roof, the rest of the girls on this disc more than live up to the challenge. SCENE ONE has Roxy Jezel, a pretty, although thin (for my taste) starlet from across the pond. After slowly stripping off the very sexy outfit she has on, she masturbates her clit under her panties. She also gives a spit-shining BJ to the dildo that she is using. Great oral action here, and this is coming from someone who never has found giving a dildo a BJ very exciting. read the complete review
Review brief: And now for something completely lousy........... This dvd stinks. This is only a release for those out there that absolutely LOVE - huge-titted women flopping around in horrible sets that looked like they were stolen from some 80s porn company. Non-attractive women who couldnt make a gnats dick hard. Lousy sound, bad camera work, hardly any hardcore sex...... Oh, Im sorry for getting off-topic. Let me tell you what I really think. I recently went through a faze where, very honestly, I was writing three paragraph reviews. I was doing a disservice to those who come to ADT and get their reviews, and those who base their renting or buying purchases on reviews that I or many others may have written. It was when a very wonderful person (and you know exactly who you are - Thanks!) That made me see the error of my ways. You should give all the information you feel is important so people can make the best choices. I say that to say this. There isnt one redeemable thing in this feature that I can recommend, save for big-titty lovers who really dont care about shape or size. read the complete review
Review brief: This is the very first time I have seen Rita in any kind of action, and I must say, she is one sexy piece of lady. Nice-size tits, ans an ample ass that is ripe for the fucking. Being a fan of the My Plaything series, I always try to get my hands on the latest volume, even though I dont know the lady on the box cover. And even with the technical glitches that have plagued this series in the past, it is still the benchmark by which all others try to aspound to, but fail miserably. Lets see how she fares in this latest release. The disc breaks down to the four menus that you can choose from: Foreplay, Masturbation, Sex, and Tease. Not being a big tease fan, I still checked it out, because wanted to see what she has to offer. TEASE - Man, if thats what she has to offer, Ill pack up and move right next door to her. The Nice mode gives you Rita toweling off those tits of hers. Not being a big fan of teasing, this still got the motor running. If a woman does it right, it really sets the mood, and Rita does it in spades. In the Naughty mode she drips candle wax all over her ample bosom. read the complete review
Review brief: Nina Hartley is one of the most genuine people you may ever come across. She tells it like it is, and she doesnt go out of her way to make her fans feel as if they are beneath her. And, at one point, she was turning out some very hot porn. Now, her taste have turned into the instructional phase of porn. Her dvds are not barn-burners, and raincoaters will want to pass these up because the sex in these releases are more to a lighter taste, but there is chemistry between the performers, and seeing Ninas ass bounce back and forth every time she takes a step may be worth the price of purchase to many of her fans. SCENE ONE has Nina with Nicole Sheridan, offering instructional help on the wide-ranging topic of threesomes, and Nina reading mail from fans on there thoughts and feelings of the act with two women, which men just love, and how this fantasy is most likely to happen. read the complete review
Review brief: This second volume from Mason is the follow-up to her classic DVD, Riot Sluts. This feature was filmed over a year ago, and apparently it sat on some shelf over at PXP, because once this title was released, it arrived with very little advanced fanfare. And thats a shame. It also looks like Mason may not have complete control, because even though the heat is there for the most part, some of the editing and pacing of certain scenes kept this one from being as stellar a title as her first volume. Now, she is one of my favorite directors, because she has the balls to film what she wants to film and let the rest of the complainers be damned. Lets see how she fared in this feature. SCENE ONE has Katrina Kraven, a personal favorite, Kimberly Kane, Scott Lyons, Buster Good, and Jack Skagnetti. Each girl starts off by doing their rough girl act on each other. These girls play with their toy (I hope) guns like they were dildos, with Kat hitting her tits with it and then sucking it like a cock. read the complete review
Review brief: Flower Tucci. The name is the benchmark by which all other starlets should attempt to aspire to. Not is a woman who has a very pretty face, toned muscular body, long thick legs, and an ass that would cause a 60-car pile-up, she has what is truly rare - sexual heat that would burn your t.v. screen. And what I find most impressive about her is that she doesnt go around, posting on ADT that she blows away any other chick in the business. She shows it with her actions, and thats exactly what she has done in her premiere outing of her series. SCENE ONE has Flower, Tianna Lynn, and Mark Ashley in a three-way that takes place in what appears to be Flowers back yard. Both her and Tianna are looking particularly scrumptious, deck out black lingerie for Tianna and blue for Flower. These girls get down to some nice girl-girl action, eating each other out, and making Flower squirt once. Then, Mark enters the scene, and after a hot BJ, Mark eats out both women, causing some squirting to go on. Each girl then takes turns getting rammed by Mark. read the complete review
Review brief: When they put this title on this dvd, it was one of the few times they werent lying. These girls do get slammed in this feature, and for fans of double penetration, you just might be in heaven. These girls take it in both holes at the same time and seem to want more, but for fans of rough sex, you might want to stay away. There are two scenes that dont include DP. An all-girl scene where the setup was hotter than the actual fucking (three girls do each other on the floor of a bar), and even though they do seem to be into each other, there is no strap-on action, and the pussy eating leaves something to be desired. The ladies are beautiful, but the sex comes up short. The other has Roxanne Hall involved in a foursome. First, she gives it to her female counterpart roughly, including dildo sucking and some strap-on action, and then two guys join in. The scene tends to go on too long, and Im not the biggest fan of RHs, so I didnt get too much out of it. read the complete review
Review brief: The ladies are fair to fine, but this one suffers from so many other all-girl features. I have very rarely seen an all-girl black feature where the performers are into it as they should be, and this one will not be joining that list. These volumes keep coming out, I guess, because of the beauty of the women, but other than that, there is no heat in this feature, save for a few very brief moments. Add to that the over-the-top dirty talk and it seems some of the women were either trying too hard or not hard enough. There is a brief moment in the first scene where there is some nice, wet pussy eating, but it is so brief that it barely registers. And that sums up this whole disc. Hardly any extras, and the main feature is boring. Maybe next time theyll get it right. read the complete review
Review brief: This is one weird and wild dvd, and even though the heat does take a dip in parts, I give kudos to Mayhem for releasing a daring dvd that tells a story (even though it can get slightly confusing), and the guts to put sex in this feature that pushes the envelope. And this one does just that. The first scene takes place after a wedding, where our heroine, Missy Monroe, gets fucked hard and long by suited-up men that her new husband set her up with. What started out as a romantic honeymoon turns into a depraved threesome where Missys wet pussy and elastic asshole gets plundered by these two men. DPing is the order for this scene, and she gets it but good, the whole while still wearing her wedding dress. Now the dress does tend to get in the way every now and then, but it also adds to the ambiance of the scene. She has this shocked look on her face throughout, and that just makes the scene better, even when the guys dump their loads on her face. There is also a scene with the infamous Ariana Jolie. read the complete review
Review brief: Another fair all-girl effort from DS. Boy, how I would love for very beautiful women to be in an all-girl release and actually be into each other. These women spend so much time trying to look sexy and time looking back at the camera that it just killed the heat for me. I have always been of the opinion that if a performer is looking at the camera, someone isnt doing their job properly. DS has not put out great G/G releases IMHO, but if you dont have a problem looking at fine looking ladies half-heartedly going through the motions of all-girl sex, then by all means, give it a shot. But, if you want bone-stiffining, clit-engorging action, pass this one up. Beauty does not equal hot sex, and it really doesnt in this case. read the complete review
Review brief: For every fan of two girls on one guy, this is a great release from the fine purveyors of smut at EA. Each and every lady in this fine feature is gorgeous, and the fucking is brand EA. Hard and fast, with the title coming at the end of every scene. Its good to see some companies put out in their features what is promised in the title of said feature. I cant pick a favorite because all the scenes are top-notch. Each girl takes her turn getting fucked in a multitude of positions, and when it is time for the money shot, they swap cum between them. Now, Im not a big fan of cum swapping, but for those who are, it is featured in this release, so dont worry about another title not delivering what they promised. Buy this one. EA keeps on putting out great product, and even with the Justice Department breathing down the necks of the industry, they still dare to do what they do best, and that get people off. read the complete review
Review brief: This is another squirt lovers dream, and this feature is one of the first where the women squirt in the mens mouths, which is very sexy if it is done right. This one is, and even though there are some minor concerns with this title, I would really like for EA to produce a second volume, and maybe this time have a reverse gang bang squirting scene in it. But, Im getting ahead of myself. The first scene with Tianna Lynn and Arianna Jollee is a scorcher. Even though the flow of the scene seems to be interrupted at times by the squirting, the fucking is dead-on, and I have never seen Arianna squirt this much before. These two ladies give it good to the guys, and the dirty talk coupled with the sometimes rough female-on-,ale action gets this feature off to a rousing start. The scene with Flower Tucci is my personal favorite. Not only possessing one of the best bodies in porn, this lass really lets the juice fly once our hero sticks his dick into her asshole. read the complete review
Review brief: Some of the hottest women in porn grace this dvd feature, and while the ladies themselves, and the hot sex that incurs, is a welcome sight for all-girl fans, there are some problems in this feature that really need to be corrected the next time a volume is released, because if the continue, it could very well be a deal breaker. Every scene on here is smoking hot, and the squirting antics on Ariana really set the mood for the scenes she is in. There is some hot strap-on fucking, and enough pussy eating and finger fucking that it will get you off. I really like all-girl features that have an ample amount of masturbation in them, and as rare as it is, this one delivers. For fans of black chicks, the two at the end of the feature go at it good and tough, even though their scene is somewhat shorter than the others. Now, the concerns. I really wish that more than one camera were used in this feature. There are squirts that are missed, and it seems like the camera switches to the action after something has happened. read the complete review
Review brief: Being a big fan of the Extreme Behavior series, I was looking forward to checking this one out. It did not disappoint. There may be a few slow spots in it, but for the most part the sex is hot, and the feature itself is top-notch. This is another couples-oriented dvd, and it does have some slightly harder fucking than you would find in a couples flick, but it is not very hardcore, so the couples crowd will enjoy it. All the scenes are very well-done, but Masons scene with Mickey G. is my personal favorite. Not because it is slam-bang action, but the way she takes over the scene and controls him like her own personal fuck toy is very erotic. The true highlight of this scene is when she gets on top of him and rides him. This is some of the best Cg action I have seen, and it really is a damn shame that it doesnt last long at all, because to watch her pump her hips and pussy up and down on his cock is truly a thing of beauty. read the complete review
Review brief: I tend to give day-in-the-life dvds a try depending on who the star is. Britney is one fine piece of woman, and it was for this reason that decided to give her disc a try. Well, even though with the gorgeous women in every scene, and the fact that with these women I would have liked to have seen a wider variety of fucking with all the ladies, this is a solid enough feature to recommend. Britney is featured throughout the feature, and there are few women in the biz who can RC like she can. I do know, having read interviews with starlets, that this is a difficult position to pull off. Well, she does it in spades, and watching her ride a huge prick like Billy Glides is a thing of beauty. Also, for someone who is not a big fan of BJ action, this has some ball-slurping, shaft sucking heat that will make you go back a chapter just so you can view it again and again. For fans of that, check it out. If you like this kind of feature, there is enough chemistry with the performers to give you a good time. read the complete review
Review brief: Hardcore fucking. Thats what this is. More CG action than I have seen in some time. On top of that, one of my favorites, Lani Lei, is in this, and even though she doesnt squirt, she gives a barnburner of a scene that will rise tent poles and get twats wet. This is the balls-to-the-walls fucking that people have been looking for. Theres some great IR and DP action, and some serious anal fucking going on. This edition is for fans of rougher sex, and thats what the girls give as well as the guys. For fans of CG, though, make sure you check out Lanis scene. She rides her stud with serious heat, and watching that nice fat ass go up and down on this guys shaft is a sight to behold. Doggie and mish are included, but the CG will make you lose your load. Check it out. I just might have to go back and see volumes one and two. read the complete review
Review brief: Pass this one up. Thats all I can tell you. It may have been better being that its from overseas, but the editing is bad, the sex is luke-warm at best, and whatever story that is in this is not to be found. There are some beautiful women taking it anally and in many different positions, but this is about what you may find watching Skinamax late at night (just with the penetration shots added in). Skip it. read the complete review
Review brief: This is a DVD for fans of thick black women fucking. If you want rail-thin women, do not get this disc. You will only piss yourself off. But, for guys like myself, this is one decent disc. The best scene is the three-way in the middle of the disc, so skip right to that one first if you are in a hurry and need to bust a quick one before you head out. The three-way is very well-done. Each girls gives great head to the lucky stud, and takes turns riding his cock. The way these girls grind on his dick and bounce up and down will have you spewing in a heartbeat. One of the girls actually tries to push the guys hands down while she is grinding on his dick. The other girl pumps up and down, and you will see both pussies get very wet. Then, the guy stacks one girl on top of the other and drives his shaft home on doggie. Once again you see wet pussies getting fucked pretty good. He finishes by dumping his load on each girl. A great scene. Its a solid title for all-black fucking fans, so give it a look-see. read the complete review
Review brief: Another hot compilation disc from A&E, this one features all-girl action. There are some serious blast from the past on this disc, so if you are a fan of some ladies from yesteryear, I strongly suggest that you go out and pick this one up. I am a fan of well-done comps, and since A&E seems to be at the top of the market for this type of feature, I?ll keep recommending them, so long as they?re up to par. The best scene on this disc (and that?s saying something) is a scene featuring Debi Diamond, yes, THAT Debi Diamond, as a patient going for her check-up. She is assisted by two very hot nurses, who waist no time pulling her skirt up and eating her pussy. What makes this scene take off is that one of the nurses first pulls her panties to the side, and then takes them off and straddles Debi?s face while she lays upside down so she can eat her pussy. These girls slam dildos into there twats, rip off their clothes, and generally get themselves off. Debi is not climbing all over the place like she usually does, which makes the scene even better. read the complete review
Review brief: This is a fair DVD from I?m So Busy. What a name. It has five ladies with varying degrees of sexiness masturbating for the viewer at home. They are introduced by a decent looking, but thin young lady who tells us who they are. The scenes don?t last too long, so you will not get bored too soon. The girls try their best to be sexy, and are in their own special way, but the production values do leave something to be desired. Also, the disc itself has problems. It may just be my player, but other than the slowest FF setting, it would lock up if I tried to get to FF any faster. It doesn?t mean that anyone else will have the same problem, it just happened on my player. This is a rental. Check it out if you are a fan of female masturbation, but other than that, this could be something that you will view once. read the complete review
Review brief: An excellent feature from A&E. That?s all I can say. This is one sure fire fuck DVD. Get this one the next time you are at your local smut peddler. There is only one concern with this feature, but other than that, I can?t recommend it more highly. The first scene is with Randy Spears and Tianna Lynn. It must have made some time ago because Tianna is now an exclusive girl with Elegant Angel. She plays a catholic schoolgirl who apparently has the hots for Father Randy. After some great cocksucking, he eats her pussy and fingers her hot slot to a couple of great squirting orgasms. Next, he fucks her in mish while she rest on a pulpit. She has several more orgasms. After he hits her from behind (and she squirts once more), he shoots on her great chest. Very good scene, with only one problem. More on that later. The next best scene (even though there isn?t a slouch in the bunch) has Monica Sweetheart getting plowed in a locker room by two lucky studs. read the complete review
Review brief: This could have been a great dvd, but for some odd reason, this disc was killed for me after the first 60 seconds. And why? Because every single scene is filmed in a close-up. Whoevers bright idea it was to film Cytherea after she squirts into the camera was really thinking that day, because the rest of the scene is marred by the juice that is still on the camera. Every scene is filmed like this, and it is a shame. This could have been great if the camera person had of filmed full-bodied shots instead of up close shots. Oh well. read the complete review | {
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In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar for a couple of minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until mixed. Add the flour ( little at a time), baking soda and salt, until just combined.
Transfer the cookie dough to the skillet and spread out evenly using a rubber spatula or your fingers. Spread the marshmallows and chocolate chips evenly over the top. Lastly, crumble the graham crackers over the top.
35 Comments
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If you happen to be nevertheless upon the fence: grab your favored earphones, mind down in the direction of a Least complicated Invest in and inquire in the direction of plug them into a Zune then an iPod and see which just one appears greater to your self, and which interface will make on your own smile more. Then you are going to recognize which is right for you.
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The fresh Zune browser is remarkably constructive, nevertheless not as good as the iPod’s. It operates perfectly, nonetheless just isn’t as quick as Safari, and incorporates a clunkier interface. If by yourself once in a while method upon working with the world-wide-web browser that is not an issue, but if you are creating towards browse the world-wide-web alot towards your PMP then the iPod’s larger sized screen and greater browser might be critical.
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Apple now contains Rhapsody as an application, which is a best commence, nevertheless it is presently hampered by means of the incapacity in the direction of retail outlet locally upon your iPod, and is made up of a dismal 64kbps little bit price tag. If this alterations, then it will somewhat negate this ease for the Zune, but the Ten tunes for every thirty day period will still be a significant as well as within just Zune Pass’ prefer.
Between me and my partner we’ve owned further MP3 players over the yrs than I can depend, which include Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etcetera. But, the past number of years I’ve fixed down towards a single line of avid gamers. Why? Given that I was content in the direction of uncover how well-designed and enjoyable to use the underappreciated (and widely mocked) Zunes are.
The Zune concentrates on remaining a Moveable Media Player. Not a internet browser. Not a video game machine. Possibly within just the future it will do even improved inside of those areas, however for previously it’s a very good way to set up and listen to your songs and motion pictures, and is with out peer within that regard. The iPod’s advantages are its world wide web checking out and apps. If all those sound extra compelling, potentially it is your great determination.
Involving me and my partner we have owned more MP3 gamers about the many years than I can rely, together with Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etcetera. But, the final couple of years I have settled down to 1 line of gamers. Why? Because I was joyful to uncover how well-designed and fun towards employ the underappreciated (and greatly mocked) Zunes are.
Arms down, Apple’s app retailer wins as a result of a mile. It truly is a significant determination of all types of purposes vs a pretty not happy range of a handful for Zune. Microsoft is made up of Options, primarily in just the realm of video games, however I am not positive I would need toward guess on the foreseeable future if this element is critical toward on your own. The iPod is a a lot much better choice within that circumstance.
Sorry for the large assessment, nevertheless I’m incredibly loving the refreshing Zune, and expect this, as very well as the Wonderful evaluations some other us residents include prepared, will guidance on your own make your mind up if it can be the straight conclusion for by yourself.
Apple by now includes Rhapsody as an app, which is a great start, nevertheless it is at present hampered as a result of the incapability towards retailer domestically on your iPod, and incorporates a dismal 64kbps bit selling price. If this improvements, then it will fairly negate this usefulness for the Zune, but the Ten tunes per thirty day period will however be a substantial as well as inside Zune Pass’ prefer.
Involving me and my husband we’ve owned excess MP3 gamers earlier mentioned the decades than I can rely, such as Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, and so on. But, the ultimate few many years I’ve resolved down in direction of a person line of players. Why? For the reason that I was pleased toward take a look at how well-designed and enjoyment in the direction of use the underappreciated (and broadly mocked) Zunes are.
Zune and iPod: Optimum people today review the Zune in direction of the Contact, but right after observing how skinny and surprisingly minor and mild it is, I contemplate it towards be a in its place distinctive hybrid that brings together qualities of each the Touch and the Nano. It is really exceptionally colourful and beautiful OLED display screen is a bit smaller than the touch screen, nonetheless the participant itself feels Very a bit lesser and lighter. It weighs pertaining to 2/3 as a lot, and is noticeably smaller sized inside of width and top, though getting merely a hair thicker.
The clean Zune browser is shockingly Excellent, still not as Wonderful as the iPod’s. It functions properly, however isn’t as fast as Safari, and incorporates a clunkier interface. If your self once in a while software on taking the world-wide-web browser which is not an issue, yet if you’re coming up with toward read through the world-wide-web alot versus your PMP then the iPod’s larger sized show and improved browser may perhaps be considerable.
Sorry for the massive evaluation, nonetheless I’m very loving the fresh new Zune, and hope this, as effectively as the suitable opinions some other individuals comprise created, will assist your self make your mind up if it is really the directly conclusion for you. | {
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Yeah, he is a good shooter, kinda rigoni tbh, can use both feet decently good and his crosses looks pretty nice too. Aggressive and decently fast, but his short passes doesnt seems good abd he is kinda lazy and static in the line off the ball. | {
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Manchester United has to win; their group is still up in the air. Real Madrid is almost guaranteed a through spot, but they still won't want to lose since it's not a mathematical certainty. PSG can punch their ticket today with just a draw, but there will still be jostling in Group C.
Bayern and Man City have already guaranteed their spots in Group D, so they may give their benches a run-out.
I'm pretty sure that stadiums at this level of play are required to have undersoil heating, so it's difficult for snow to accumulate on the pitch.Which is probably also why it looks a bit like a plowed potato field - the ground is wet and soft instead of frozen solid. | {
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She was born Jan. 24, 1956, in Rutland, the daughter of Kenneth Erwin and Shirley Jean (Wadsworth) Ingalls.
She married Ernest Pratt on Aug. 6, 1977.
Mrs. Pratt was employed as a waitress at Howard Johnson’s and then at Friendly’s for many years.
She was a member of Clarendon Congregational “Old Brick” Church.
She enjoyed gardening, reading and cutting brush.
Survivors include her husband of Clarendon; two daughters, Tammy Hogenauer of Clarendon and Maureen Atsali of Kenya, Africa; a stepson, Ronnie Pratt of Fair Point, N.Y.; five siblings, Dianne and Lori Ingalls, both of Clarendon, Wendy Mitchell of Greer, S.C., Cathy Bleakley of Chateaugay, N.Y., and Wayne Ingalls of Largo, Fla.; eight grandchildren; several nieces and nephews.
Mrs. Pratt was predeceased by her mother in 1998 and her father in 2010; a brother, Kenneth Ingalls, in 2012; and a stepdaughter, Melanie Castle, in 2010.
Friends may call from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31, at the Aldous Funeral Home.
The memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 1, at Clarendon Congregational “Old Brick” Church. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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You are looking at a Gretsch G6659TFM Players Edition Broadkaster Jr. Center Block Single-Cut Semi-Hollow Body Electric Guitar, serial number JT17010352. This is the actual guitar you will receive should you decide to purchase. (7 lbs, 4.2 oz.)
The legendary "Broadkaster" name now graces a selection of Gretsch thinline center block models, all of which were designed with powerful sound and player comfort in mind.
The Gretsch G6659TFM Players Edition Broadkaster Jr. Center Block Single-Cut features a scaled-down thinline semi-hollow body crafted with stunning laminated flame maple along with a chambered spruce center block. All of these ingredients combined make the G6659TFM lighter and superbly comfortable to play while providing a sweet resonant tone. The thinner, smaller body design also helps combat feedback, making this guitar an exceptional choice if you're looking to crank up the volume and gain. The standard "U"-shaped maple neck is married to an ebony 'board with medium jumbo frets for an outstanding playing feel while aged pearloid thumbnail inlays cater to its classic Gretsch vibe.
This beautiful semi-hollow comes fitted with a set of American-made Full'Tron pickups, which offers an expansive tonal range with a unique growl, plus that beautiful chime and balance that we've all come to expect from a Gretsch guitar. Designed with rock guitarists in mind, these pickups provide a little extra midrange focus that'll cut through any mix. The control layout includes a 3-way switch, independent volume controls, and master volume & tone controls for precise tonal tailoring.
Get your Gretsch G6659TFM Players Edition Broadkaster Jr. Center Block Single-Cut Semi-Hollow Body Electric Guitar from Sam Ash Direct today. With over nine decades of experience in the music retail business, Sam Ash is dedicated to helping every player and collector find the distinctive instrument that they've been longing for. And remember, your purchase is protected by the security of our 45/60 day return/price protection policy | {
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Goal of improving access to safer water already met: UN
NGO employees distributing water containers to families before they are transported to Wau in South Sudan, in Khartoum March 1, 2012.
Reuters
Tuesday, Mar 06, 2012
UNITED NATIONS - Developing countries have already achieved their 2015 goal of drastically reducing the number of people without regular access to improved drinking water, though much of the credit lies with India and China, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The United Nations UNICEF children's fund and World Health Organization (WHO) said in a joint report that while the U.N. goal of slashing by half the number of people without cleaner water had been reached early, the target for achieving a similar improvement in sanitation by 2015 would not likely be met.
"Some regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, are lagging behind," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in the report."Many rural dwellers and the poor often miss out on improvements to drinking water and sanitation." "Reducing these disparities must be a priority," he said.
The aims of improving access to clean water and sanitation are part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of targets adopted by world leaders at the United Nations in 2000 to fight poverty, hunger and disease in poor countries.
Over 2 billion people gained access to what the United Nations describes as "improved" water sources between 1990 and 2010, with the percentage of the world's population still using clearly unsafe water sources now only 11 per cent, down from 24 per cent in 1990, the UNICEF/WHO report said.
There is, however, a caveat in the report. While the original Millennium Development Goals spoke of access to safe drinking water, the UNICEF/WHO report refers to access to"improved" water sources - an important difference.
The report defines improved water sources as those protected from outside contamination, particularly fecal matter, though the water they contain may not actually be safe for drinking.
"It is likely that the number of people using safe water supplies has been overestimated," the report cautions.
There are also significant geographic disparities. While 90 per cent or more people have access to improved drinking water in Latin America, the Caribbean, North Africa and much of Asia, only 61 per cent have sustained access to safer water sources in sub-Saharan Africa.
SANITATION TARGET UNLIKELY TO BE MET
Overall in the developing world, 86 per cent have regular access to safer water. But in the poorest countries - those labeled as "least developed" - only 63 per cent have better water.
That means that the drinking water target has not been met for more than 780 million people, the report said.
Last week the World Bank said developing countries appear to have already met the U.N. goal of halving extreme poverty in the world's poorest countries by 2015, thanks mainly to China's economic boom.
Similary, China, along with India, accounts for much of the improvement regarding access to water.
"The progress of India and China ... represents nearly half of the global progress towards the drinking water target," the report said. "If only the developing world is considered, China and India represent more than half of the people who have gained access."
This was not surprising, the report said, since the two countries account for 46 per cent of the developing world's population.
Although there has been improvement in the related goal of improving access to proper sanitation, the developing world is not on track to meet that target.
"Globally, 63 per cent of the population use improved sanitation facilities, an increase of almost 1.8 billion people since 1990," the report said.
At the current rate of progress, the report said, 67 per cent of the world will have access to better sanitation, which falls below the agreed 2015 goal of 75 per cent.
"With diarrheal diseases caused by inadequate sanitation now the biggest killer of children in Africa, progress has to improve," Barbara Frost, the head of the campaign group WaterAid, said in a statement about the U.N. report. | {
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The Immigrants
"With The Immigrants Howard Fast definitely re-establishes his standing as one of our best story tellers. It is an extraordinary mixture of toughness and tenderness, terrifying and touching, one of the most absorbing narratives I've read in years. More penetrating than most novels, it presents a sweeping vision of a widening America in a series of interrelationships among the aliens who become the builders of a nation. It is truly an unfolding historical saga." --Louis Untermeyer
The Immigrants is also a love story of great beauty and great tenderness, the kind of love story that entangles the reader in the lives of the characters, so that after the book is closed, one continues to live with those characters.
&nsbp; And, fortunately, the reader will not have to say farewell to them once the book is done. The Immigrants is complete in itself, an absorbing novel of high adventure, romance, joy, and tragedy. But it is also the first in a trilogy that will tell the story of three California families over the course of the twentieth century.
There are few books published today like The Immigrants. You will not only read it, you will participate in it. And you will finish it with a sense of having deeply experienced a decisive part of our times. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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News
Report: A6 chip is Apple-designed with fast new memory
A technical report from Anandtech suggests that Apple’s A6 chip is a custom ARMv7 processor of the company’s own design—quite possibly the product of earlier Apple acquisitions of semiconductor developers. Citing inside sources, Anandtech suggests that Apple did not move to a Cortex-A15 chip as was originally believed, and instead is continuing to run an iPhone 4S-like dual-core CPU with a dual-core graphics processor, albeit at a higher clock speed of 1.0Ghz, plus 1GB of RAM.
While Apple’s on-stage discussion promised “2x” CPU and graphics performance, suggesting speed gains in the 1.7x to 2.1x range, leaked early benchmarks appear to show considerably greater improvements of up to 3.68x under some tests. The results suggest that the iPhone 5 will be on par with, if not superior to, rival smartphones with less power-efficient processors. While the benchmarks are not guaranteed to be accurate, they are very plausible, and are believed to result in part from memory improvements.
Comments
1
It shows how Chinese whispers can really mess things up. And unfortunately your article is incorrect.
Anandtech DID NOT say that Apple had stuck with an Arm Cortex A9 design. In fact they said it couldn’t be an A9 because it uses features only available in the new Arm reference designs (A7, A15, etc), such as VFPv4 FPU. Indeed as the A15 was originally envisaged as a server cpu mobile use will only use dusl core versions initially. As I understand it Arm envisage a big.little configuration for low power use with a mixture of A15 cores for when performance is required and A7 cores when low power low processing overhead is required.
However, what Apple HAVE done is use their Arm microarchitecture license to create a completely new CPU that is neiter an A9 or A15 reference design. It is an Apple design which is obviously going to be optimised to run IOS efficiently and is also designed to consume as llittle energy as possible. It uses an extended instruction set (arm-v7s according to xcode).
One interesting thing not really noted is that as the A6 benchmarks so fast and is dual core it should mean that most apps, which are single threaded, may run considerably faster than any equivaent on other multicore platforms.
So a couple more years and we should have the same processing power as early Mac Pros.
For anyone who is wondering, I’m not buying an iphone 5, but it is interesting to see where Apple is going with this and the next ipad will be vey interesting from a pocessing power point of view. | {
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Invented for the military, used to defend wildlife
By the time Steve Gulick arrived, it was too late. The poachers had struck, and elephant carcasses carpeted the floor. "You could step from body to body without your feet touching the ground," he says. "Whole elephant families lay next to each other, gunned down for their tusks."
The massacre had taken place in the Mouadje Bai rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), at a spot well known among local poachers for the rich haul of ivory it can yield. Since 1994 Gulick has been helping the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WSC) to patrol the area in an effort to thwart these illegal hunters. It has been an unequal contest. Poachers target elephants under the cover of dense rainforest to avoid being detected from aircraft, and patrols like Gulick's have to trek through the forest on foot. Killings can go undetected for months or even years, and ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.
To continue reading this article, log in or subscribe to New Scientist | {
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Janet Kwasniak's blog on consciousness and the brain
Shared attention
Social interaction or communication requires the sharing of attention. If two people are not paying attention to one another then there is no interaction and no communication. Shared attention is essential for a child’s development of social cognition and communication skills. Two types of shared attention have been identified: mutual gaze when two people face one another and attend to each others eyes; and joint attention when two people look at a third person or object. Joint attention is not the same for both individuals because one initiates it and the other responds.
In a recent paper, researchers studied shared attention (Takahiko Koike etal; Neural substrates of shared attention as social memory: A hyperscanning functional magnetic resonance imaging study ; NeuroImage 125 (2016) 401–412). This cannot be done on an individual level as it involves social exchange and so the researchers used fMRI hyperscanning. Real time video recording and projection allowed two individuals in separate scanners to communicate through facial expression and eye movements while they were both being scanned. Previous studies had shown neural synchronization during shared attention and synchronization of eye blinks. They found that it was the task of establishing joint attention which requires sharing an attentional temporal window that task creates the blink synchrony. This synchrony is remembered in a pair specific way in social memory.
Mutual gaze is needed to give mutual attention – and that is needed to initiate joint attention which requires a certain synchrony – and finally that synchronizing results in a specific memory of the pair’s joint attention which allows further synchrony during subsequent mutual gaze without joint attention first.
Here is their abstract: “During a dyadic social interaction, two individuals can share visual attention through gaze, directed to each other (mutual gaze) or to a third person or an object (joint attention). Shared attention is fundamental to dyadic face- to-face interaction, but how attention is shared, retained, and neutrally represented in a pair-specific manner has not been well studied. Here, we conducted a two-day hyperscanning functional magnetic resonance imaging study in which pairs of participants performed a real-time mutual gaze task followed by a joint attention task on the first day, and mutual gaze tasks several days later. The joint attention task enhanced eye-blink synchronization, which is believed to be a behavioral index of shared attention. When the same participant pairs underwent mutual gaze without joint attention on the second day, enhanced eye-blink synchronization persisted, and this was positively correlated with inter-individual neural synchronization within the right inferior frontal gyrus. Neural synchronization was also positively correlated with enhanced eye-blink synchronization during the previous joint attention task session. Consistent with the Hebbian association hypothesis, the right inferior frontal gyrus had been activated both by initiating and responding to joint attention. These results indicate that shared attention is represented and retained by pair-specific neural synchronization that cannot be reduced to the individual level.”
The right inferior gyrus (rightIFG) region of the brain has been linked in other research with: interfacing between self and other; unconscious incorporation of facial expression in self and others; the release from mutual attention; and, neural synchronization during social encounters. The rightIFG is active in both initiating and responding to joint attention and in the synchrony during mutual gaze (when it is present). However it is unlikely to cause blinking directly. “Neural synchronization of the right IFG represents learned shared attention. Considering that shared attention is to be understood as a complementary action due to its social salience, relevance in initiating communication, and joint action, the present finding is consistent with a previous study by Newman-Norlund et al. who showed that the right IFG is more active during complimentary as compared to imitative actions.” Communication, communication, communication!
This fits with the theory that words steer joint attention to things present or absent, concrete or abstract in a way that is similar to the eyes steering joint attention on concrete and present things. Language has harnessed the brain’s mechanisms for joint attention if this theory is correct (I think it is). | {
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Fitness & Sports
When there are horse races being held, people come to the venue and see them. They even bet on which horse is going to win as per the judgement and all the predictions that they make depending on the type…Read more | {
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Bellwether Products offers both in stock and custom manfactured flexible packaging materials. Facilities and warehouses across America offer thousands of stock poly bags sizes available for immediate shipping within 24 hours of your order. Custom film types include polyethylene, polypropylene, nylon, polyester, and vinyl. We also offer free freight for orders totaling just $600 or more.
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Measuring Up
Finding the correct bag size is a great move for you and the environment. When you buy the size closest to your needs, not only do you save money by purchasing a smaller product, but you are helping to preserve the environment by using less material. Please remember to reuse and recycle our bags. By using less, you actually get more.
Small steps create big changes.
Box Liner – Gusseted
Note: Depth (D) is the shorter of the 2 sides.
Width (W) of the bag = width of the box + 1”
Depth (D) of the bag = depth of the box + 1”
Length (L) of the bag = height of the box + depth + 6” to allow coverage of the box contents.
Example:
Box: 18”WX12” DX14” H
Bag: 19” WX13” DX33” L
Square Container – Layflat
Note: Depth (D) is the shorter of the 2 sides.
Width (W) of the bag = width + depth of the container + 2” for a looser fit
Length (L) of the bag = height of the container + half of the depth to the height. Add 5” for overhang.
Example:
Container: 14”WX10”DX32”H
Bag: 26” WX42” L
Round Container – Layflat
Circumference (C) of the container = Diameter (D)X3.14
Width (W) of the bag = Circumference divided by 2 + 1” for a looser fit. | {
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Armando Manzanero
Beneath the table
Pat your knee and drink
Every sip your angelic look
And breathe from your mouth
The flower of wonder
Singing, fly, come, go.
And I'm dying to take
At the corner of my den
Where I hide a kiss
We are running out the drink
Not knowing that's what I do
If you hold back my instincts
O never let you go.
Luis Miguel Por Debajo De La Mesa found on http://batlyrics.net/por_debajo_de_la_mesa-lyrics-luis_miguel.html
And you do not know what I
You feel
If you could one minutes
Be in my
Maybe you melt
This fire in my blood
And live here
And I hugged you.
And you do not know what your
You make me feel
No time
You can not live without you
I absorb the space
And slowly make me yours
Dies pride in my
And I can not be without you. | {
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For nearly 40 years, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace have been held in solitary confinement, mostly in the Louisiana State Penitentiary (known as Angola prison).
The men, originally jailed in unrelated cases of armed robbery, were convicted of the murder of a prison guard in 1972, despite a lack of physical evidence. Robert King, another inmate and the third member of the so-called “Angola 3,” was released from 29 years of isolation after his conviction was overturned in 2001.
Throughout their prolonged incarceration in Closed Cell Restriction (CCR) Woodfox and Wallace have endured very restrictive conditions, including periods of 23 hour cell confinement.
Louisiana prison authorities have failed to meaningfully review the men’s continued isolation, simply rubberstamping the original decision to confine the men in CCR. Decades of solitary confinement have had a clear psychological effect on the men, and they both suffer from serious health problems caused or made worse by their years of close confinement.
Ask Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to end this human rights abuse that has cast a shadow on the international reputation of the state of Louisiana. End 40 years of solitary confinement for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace! | {
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San Diego native and Poway High alum Charley Hoffman got a long overdue haircut on Friday, posting pictures on Facebook of losing his long blond locks to a stylist’s scissors. “Haircut with my daughter” Hoffman posted with a photo, and later, “And …” with clean-cut Charley smiling with his daughter, Claire.
The picture got 70 likes and more than 20 comments, including:
"I have one of your wig & hat combos from the charity event. You can borrow it if you miss your hairdo."
“Wow, Charley, must have been hot under that mop.”
“Looking good, lose a bet?”
“I guess they’ll let you onto a few more courses.”
Hoffman is preparing to begin the FedEx Cup playoffs next week. He is 45th in the standings and has five top-10s this year. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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EDMONTON — Aurora Cannabis Inc. missed its own early guidance as it lost $2.2 million in the fourth quarter on $98.9 million in net revenues. Revenues increased from $19.1 million a year ago and were up 52 per cent from $65.
EDMONTON — Aurora Cannabis Inc. missed its own early guidance as it lost $2.2 million in the fourth quarter on $98.9 million in net revenues.
Revenues increased from $19.1 million a year ago and were up 52 per cent from $65.1 million in the prior quarter.
However, the Edmonton-based cannabis producer last month said its revenue from all sources would rise to between $100 million and $107 million.
Revenues for the fourth quarter ended June 30 included $20.1 million in wholesale bulk cannabis, $44.9 million in consumer cannabis and $29.7 million in medical cannabis.
The company says it sold nearly 18,000 of the 29,000 kilograms of marijuana it produced in the quarter. Production was on the higher end of its estimated production available for sale of between 25,000 and 30,000 kilograms.
Aurora failed to achieve a positive adjusted EBITDA, with a loss before interest, taxes and depreciation of $11.7 million, an improvement from a loss of $36.6 million in the third quarter.
For the full year, the company says its net loss was $297.9 million on $247.9 million in net revenues. That compared with a profit of $69.2 million on $55.2 million a year earlier.
It sold 36,628 kg of the 57,442 kg cannabis produced for the year.
Its full-year adjusted EBITDA loss was $156 million, worse than the $54.2-million loss in the fourth quarter of 2018.
It has been nearly one year since Canada legalized cannabis on Oct. 17 for recreational use, starting with flower, seeds and plants, and the ramp up has been slower than expected.
Although initial supply shortages across the country have eased, the rollout of brick-and-mortar retail stores in Ontario — the biggest market for legal pot — have lagged other parts of the country.
Canadian cannabis companies have been gearing up for the next wave of pot legalization, when edibles, vapes and topicals become legal later this year.
These new products will hit shelves in mid-December at the earliest, and companies hope the new categories will boost revenues.
Aurora has said it has been building inventory in anticipation, focusing on an initial supply of vape pens, edibles and concentrates.
Companies in this story: (TSX:ACB).
The Canadian Press
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Monday, 24 November 2014
And, of course, this applies to who you can not control! Killing may be replaced with "silencing"/repressing/oppressing...Again we see the 12 year old black boy shot by a cop for not dropping his toy gun...and one shot in Walmart for the same reason...We see torture being practiced by, and the training in the techniques, by the U.S. ...We see Nature being Repressed by "civilized man"....And the real-it-y of climate change and "our" responsibility by selfish, greedy "Christians" and Republicans and Conservatives.....you fill in the rest...
Monday, 10 November 2014
Isn't it "odd" that we get all sentimental about WWI. Yet "we" - i.e. Canadian and American governments, industry, business - forget the horrors of that and all war.
When the "attack" on 2 Canadian soldiers happened last month, Stephen Harper quickly said we need MORE war against Canadian people - through greater surveillance, increased power to CSIS and the police. Are people so brain washed to give up their civil liberties so quickly. Usually we hear the chant: "we are so free in a democracy such as ours"...
Yet doesn't anyone question the narrative provided ad nauseum by the corporate media. The CBC was sick....like the end of the world was happening...but "Canada" was uniting...Huh? Harper has been at war for 13 years...isn't it time their was reprisal?
But who defines "terror". Normally it is defined as attacks on civilians. Yet here, the loud voices want to exploit the compliant Canadians with more lies.
And who questions the narrative that this was a tragedy. Of course all death is. But perhaps this was staged. What?!!! Blasphemy! The nature of war/greed/propaganda rationalizes all such actions. Just look at the present and history. How many Iraq war vets commit suicide daily? 2? No! 22!!!
Does anyone wonder why the "events" happened right before the passing of more funding/powers to CSIS?
Hmm..."Get the people filled with fear...and they will do anything you tell them..." [I think I heard Harper whisper]...
Lest we forget how easily we are brain washed...and may we "get off our high horses" and be moved to compassion of the victims of war [including the soldiers]: | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Executive summary: they are actually both (or neither). It is easy to learn their definition but hard to grasp the consequences. Or we might say they are easy to know and hard to understand (grok). It is vitally important for both teachers and learners to understand and make this distinction.
Background
The plethora of monad tutorials (well-covered elsewhere) has been intimidating Haskell beginners for years. Beginners understandably assume that anything with over thirty wildly different tutorials must be very difficult to learn. Sadly, this attitude is a self-fulfilling prophecy: it is difficult to learn something which intimidates you, independently of its intrinsic difficulty.
Well-meaning members of the Haskell community have sometimes reacted by going to the other extreme, assuring beginners that monads are actually quite easy, and there’s no reason for all the hype. Unfortunately, this can backfire: if someone is really convinced that monads are easy, they are going to be in for a demoralizing shock.
Both attitudes, however, are wrong! The key is to reject the dualistic easy/hard distinction and replace it with something more nuanced.
Profundity
Monads are not hard; they are not easy; so what are they? They are profound. By this I mean that they have very large implications relative to the size of their definition. Here are some examples of other things that are profound in the same sense:
Board games like checkers, chess, go, and hex. It takes only a few minutes to learn the rules of these games, yet knowing the rules and being a good player are completely different. The simple rules of these games have many nontrivial and nonobvious "emergent" properties—which, of course, is what makes the games so interesting.
The lambda calculus, and Turing machines. Explaining how these work takes all of 30 minutes. Studying the implications, of course, has spawned multiple fields of active research.
Algebraic theories like group theory or category theory. Anyone with only a basic mathematical background can be taught the axioms of a group or a category. But, of course, these particular sets of axioms give rise to incredibly rich structure.
Thankfully, monads (as they arise in Haskell) are much less profound than these examples! But I think the analogy is correct. Understanding the definition of monads is simple: a monad is any type m of kind * -> * which supports the operations
return::a->ma(>>=)::ma->(a->mb)->mb
subject to some laws. But to really grok all the consequences—common example instances and how they are implemented and used; the relationship to Functor, Applicative, and Monoid; the relationship to the alternative definition in terms of join; all the common combinators like sequence, mapM, (>=>), etc.; and, in the end, to get some sort of intuitive sense for what the monad abstraction is really like—all that takes a long time and a lot of hard work!
Implications for pedagogy
So what does this all mean, practically speaking?
If you are learning about monads: take heart! There is a simple, easily accessible foundation from which to get started, namely, the definition of the Monad type class. Study the Monad methods and their types—and come back to this basic foundation whenever you get confused. But also realize that to gain deep understanding will take hard work over a relatively long period of time.
If you are teaching others about monads: encourage those who are intimidated—but don’t go overboard. Keep directing students back to the fundamental definition, but also provide them with many opportunities to engage with examples. (There is something else important here—examples of implementing monads are on a very different level than examples of using them, and in my experience it’s vitally important that students are explicitly taught to think about the two levels and keep them separate—but that’s a subject for another post.)
Postscript
There’s probably nothing here that hasn’t been said by someone somewhere before, and it seems rather obvious now that I have written it, but I really do think this perspective is sometimes missing from the discussion of pedagogy and Haskell. This perspective really crystallized for me as I was teaching an introductory Haskell course last spring.
Of course, this is much in the same vein as my previous post Abstraction, intuition, and the “monad tutorial fallacy”. I still believe what I wrote there, except for one thing: that post makes it seem like it is possible to have a sudden "aha!" moment where one goes from not understanding monads to understanding monads. I now realize this is wrong, just like no one suddenly goes from "not understanding chess" to "understanding chess". The learning process is simply discontinuous; learners often experience big, sudden jumps in comprehension, and it’s easy to interpret these jumps as going from "not understanding" to "understanding". Immediately after making such a jump, it’s easy to believe that one had no prior understanding at all (which is probably not true), and that there’s nothing more to understand (which is certainly not true).
As a final note, I’ve specifically discussed monads here, but of course everything I’ve said applies to many other concepts as well, such as Applicative, continuations, GADTs, iteratees/pipes/conduits, and so on. I’d love for this to spark more explicit, thoughtful discussion of pedagogy in the community, and not just around monads.
Is this the beginning of the meta monad tutorials? When will we start to see the how to write a monad tutorial tutorial tutorials?
You make some great points, and they’re definitely ones I’ll have to remember in the future. It’s all too easy to forget how hard groking something was the first time, and often the lightbulb moments aren’t obvious until after they’ve happened. It’s definitely important to teach both the implementations of | {
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Ideas for an Ice Breaker Introduction for a Business Meeting
by Alyson Paige, Demand Media
Business meeting icebreakers help guide attendees into meeting agendas.
Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images
The term “icebreakers” refers to ships designed to break up ice to facilitate travel through ice-packed regions. A flow of ice might well describe the atmosphere of a business meeting before it gets off the ground. Business meeting leaders use icebreakers to put attendees at ease, get their physical or mental juices flowing and to introduce meeting participants. Icebreakers transform the formality of a business meeting into an informal atmosphere designed to level the meeting field with enjoyable or thought-provoking exercises.
Get Acquainted Icebreaker
Sometimes business meeting participants do not know each other well or at all. The Team Building USA website provides an interview icebreaker to help attendees gather information about their colleagues. Attendees pair up and take turns interviewing and introducing each other, asking questions listed on a board or flip chart. Interviewers might ask partners’ nicknames, their jobs, time with the company and a piece of unique information about them. When participants introduce their partners, they must include answers gathered from questions with stars. Interviews take about five minutes. Introductions last one or two minutes.
Interrelationships Icebreaker
Movement and personal information can combine in an icebreaker with unifying outcomes. The Business Training Works website suggests an icebreaker called “Six Degrees of Separation.” Participants pair up and make a list of five points they have in common with each other. Items might include birth year, went to high school or college, favorite restaurant or food and favorite sport. Partners mingle with the rest of the group and try to find as many other participants who share at least one common item. Attendees share with the group what they found in common with each other.
Meet the Leader Icebreaker
Individuals who attend a business meeting may or may not know the meeting leader. The “Truth and Lies Icebreaker” on keynote speaker Garrison Wynn’s website engages attendees with the meeting facilitator. The leader lists three bits of information about him on a board, one of which is not true. The meeting leader answers questions about each statement from the assembled group. If the leader wrote, for example, “I climbed Mount Everest,” attendees ask questions about that experience. At the end of questioning, participants vote to determine the statement that was not true.
Worst Job Ever Icebreaker
An icebreaker about attendees’ worst jobs might lighten the mood and may give participants perspective about their current positions. Chart Your Course International suggests an icebreaker in which attendees write their worst jobs anonymously on index cards provided at their seats. The meeting leader reads the cards as participants try to match horror stories to attendees.
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Finally I rig the Code Red 11 mts lefting out the last pulley and all seems and feel ok. Even I think I don't need a new extension. Sail is very power and well balanced. I rig in a Gaastra 550 Gold Series (IMCS37) instead the Red Line 550 ( IMCS 34) but the sail looks and feel ok for me.
Thanks to all of you....
Michel
3rd September 2008 07:06 PM
michelb
What about if I leave the first out? I alredy have a crank ( chinook) for the Neilpryde extension but I think that maybe is better to left the first shave out ( considering that the pressure of the line is not even, and the second sheave is more centered with the center of effort of the tack pulley.......
I will try both ways on Saturday.
Any of you try with the Neilpride X6 extension? has the same nš of pulleys ( 2) but in rigth angle to the sail pulley position, this may alllow to share the load in better way.....
3rd September 2008 06:46 PM
fullmoon
Roger is spot on.
We have Overdrives from 10 down to 5.5and a 4.6 CR and they will always load up the last 2 sheaves.
I think the extreme downhaul on these sails make it difficult for all the sheaves to share the load evenly.Dont get me wrong we think Overdrives are a great sail ,and the CR as well but they need serious downhaul.(Dont all cammed sails?)
We use a crank type downhaul for these sails,overtension,then back off 10mm till the pulleys sit almost parallel to the extension.This would not be possible without a crank type downhaul tool.
3rd September 2008 07:58 AM
Roger
Hi michelb,
Try to leave out one of the middle sheaves (rollers) in your sails tack fitting.
I just rigged a Severne NCX 7.5m2 the other day, and I had no problems by using the outside pulleys (sheaves) and skipping one of the inside (the 2nd) pulleys.
If you (and Mim) are not using a downhauling tool (crank type works best for me) you really might want to consider the damage you may be doing to your lower back by trying to pull all that tension with your lower back muscles.
Put all the load on an easy to use tool and save your back.
The tool makes "micro adjusting" much easier as well.
Hope this helps,
3rd September 2008 06:15 AM
michelb
I will try as you said lefting out a roller in the sail pulley, i think maybe is easy if i left the last one out.... let's try.
Thanks for your suggestion.
3rd September 2008 03:21 AM
mim
I do not have experience with the Overdrive or Code Red...
My Severne NCX has also a pulley with 4 rollers and my old extension had only two rollers and a brake (it means one was missing on the extension). I have to say that NCX is not easy to downhaul and there is a lot of force needed to get it rigged properly.
I used to left out the second roller on the pulley...try it, pull it down with a screw drived or with a help of a harness hook and pull hard!!!...I believe you can get it done.
Wish you a good luck.
Ciao Michal.
3rd September 2008 02:40 AM
michelb
Again in english....
Severne sails ( Overdrive and Code red has 4 rollers in the tack of the sail. My neilPryde extension has only 2 rollers plus the cleat.
On saturday I try to rig the CR11 mts 2007 with a Nautix 3 rollers + cleat but the first 2 rollers did not doing force. the last 2 rollers did all the force, then the sail can not be rigged too.
Here in Chile there is no one Severne extension and our dealer can have something for December or January. I need to sail from now to this date and I can not figure how to rig the beautiful sail I have...... | {
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Media Releases
Labor Analysis Reveals Loss for Werriwa Local Councils
August 21, 2018
Shadow Minister for Local Government, Stephen Jones MP said that having cut nearly a billion dollars in funding to local councils, it is astounding that the Coalition is now congratulating itself for funding to councils through the Financial Assistance Grants scheme.
“In 2013, the Coalition Government imposed a three year freeze on indexation of Financial Assistance Grants,” Mr Jones said.
“This indexation freeze, which was imposed on local government without any analysis or consultation by the Turnbull Government, saw $925 million cut from their budgets.
“Labor’s analysis of this freeze showed that around two-thirds, or $680 million, was borne by regional communities who can least afford it.
“The Coalition’s Financial Assistance Grants freeze, although now ended, was a shock and a setback to local government.
“It put a squeeze on the ability of all local councils to provide essential community services and forced cuts to infrastructure and maintenance provision” Mr Jones said.
Member for Werriwa, Anne Stanley MP, said “For councils like Liverpool and Campbelltown the freeze had a major impact and saw over $7 million lost to these councils.”
Labor knows that Financial Assistance Grants funding are the bedrock of local councils financial capacity.
Around $50 billion in Financial Assistance Grants has been provided by the Commonwealth to Local Government since the Whitlam Government introduced these in 1974–75.
This program acknowledged the important contribution of local government to our civic life: a contribution that is not equally matched by your ability to raise revenue. | {
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Hospitals
Hospitals Recognized for Excellence in Nursing Services
Hospitals Recognized for Excellence in Nursing Services
by Checkbook Staff
Last updated in July 2016
Another indicator of hospital quality, not shown on our ratings tables, is recognition of a hospital by the Magnet Recognition Program, which was developed by the American Nurses Credentialing Center to identify healthcare organizations that provide the best in nursing care. About 400 acute-care hospitals have earned this recognition. We have found that these hospitals also have significantly lower risk-adjusted mortality rates than other hospitals in our “all cases” category, and they were rated much higher than other hospitals by the physicians we surveyed.
For more information on this program, and to obtain a current list of hospitals that have been recognized by this program, visit www.nursecredentialing.org. | {
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Good read though I don't buy the assertion that the triple threat position is not the most effective way to beat your defender to score. The triple threat doesn't always result in a face up jump shot which was probably the only scoring measured in the 128-279 stat, probably doesn't take into consideration how many points he scores on the jab and go or other options created by the triple threat.
There's no way anyone can justify 48 minutes of "Isolation" from Melo & JR .. they did nothing for the growth of the Denver Nuggets in 7 seasons, and the Knicks changing 65% of their roster of players each season for 3 straight seasons having a 40 minute ISO-Melo running the whole show ....
At the start of the 2012-13 season we added 10 new players, at the start of the 2013-14 season we are adding 8 new players .. this type of seasonal change-pattern to a roster from 2010-11 to 2013-14 does not indicate a same-page contender.
But isolation, even if it's sometimes statistically more efficient than other forms of offense, can have particularly devastating effects in the long-term scope of a game. Non-isolators miss shots due to lack of engagement in the flow of play; defensive effort suffers for similar reasons; shots become more ill-advised because players want to capitalize on their limited touches.
And that's what's so difficult about designing a Carmelo Anthony-led offense. How do you balance his strongest asset against the integration of the entire team? At the beginning of last season, the offense flowed through, instead of towards, isolation. If guarded one-on-one with little to no help, Melo would eat his defender alive. If doubled or pressured with weak side rotation, he would kick the ball out for three-point shots or secondary penetration.
But once those shots stopped falling (Jason Kidd's, most notably) Anthony stopped trusting teammates. With less trust came more possessions ending in isolation, which in turn fueled the perimeter shooting struggles, which fueled more isolation, and so on. Indiana funneled New York towards this cycle in the second round of the playoffs, and it eventually helped the Pacers grind the Knicks offense to a halt.
To make this long sophisticated article short, "Melo took 98% of his teammates out of the offense for several reasons" .. And the number #1 reason is ISO-Melo is only known as a NBA-Star from consistently being a top-10 to top-3 high scorer, it seems ISO-Melo being a career 45% shooter does not matter in this article (or ISO-JR's 41% shooting).
Plus ISO-Melo average 5 trips to the foul-line, which those 5 missed shots are never included in Melo's fg percentage stats .... the Knicks averaging 99 point games for 60% wins in two seasons has more to do with our team-defense & 3-ball shooting.
at least Melo is trying to become a better player, focusing on getting involved in more pick and rolls, etc.
decent article here:[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
Melo becoming a better player by focussing on getting involve in the P&R .. lets see, lastseason we had 6 players on the roster that played in the NBA FINALS, and 4 players with Rings. Not to mention we had 5 veteran bigmen on the roster who based their career off of the Pick n Roll.
None of these players will defend ISO ISO ISO for 48 minutes per game | {
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Abu Dhabi, UAE, 16 March 2017: The Barakah One Company (BOC), a subsidiary of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), held its first General Assembly today and announced the members of its Board of Directors. Led by the Chairman of the Board, H.E. Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi, BOC is responsible for the commercial and financial interests of the Barakah project.
The Board members of Barakah One Company are:
H.E. Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi, Chairman
H.E. Mohamed Al Hammadi, Vice Chairman
H.E. Khalifa Al Suwaidi, Member
H.E. Mohammed Sahoo Al Suwaidi, Member
Mr. Park Jong Hyuck, Member
Established as a Joint Venture Company, BOC is a part of ENEC’s new corporate governance structure that will lead the delivery and long-term sustainability of the UAE’s Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program. Its mandate is to manage the commercial interests of the Barakah project, secure project finance from institutional and commercial lenders and receive funds for the electricity generated from Units 1 to 4 in Barakah. The Board will govern the performance of the company and ensure the senior leadership team maintain, and are held accountable, for the responsible financing of the UAE’s first nuclear energy plant and future industry.
“The announcement of our Board of Directors at our first General Assembly is a significant milestone in the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program,” said H.E. Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi, Chairman of the Board of Barakah One Company. “With the establishment of Barakah One, we entered the final stages of realizing the goals and objectives of the Barakah project, issued almost a decade ago. We are pleased to have the government of the Republic of Korea and ENEC’s Prime Contractor, KEPCO, as long-term strategic partners as we turn our vision into reality.”
Nasser Al Nasseri, Barakah One CEO, said: “In October of 2016, ENEC and KEPCO announced the establishment of Barakah One, the result of a Joint Venture Agreement designed to capitalize on KEPCO’s 40 plus years of nuclear experience. As a world-class energy company, Barakah One will ensure the delivery and long-term sustainability of the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program by applying international best practices and standards to the financing and management of the Barakah project’s commercial interests.”
In November 2016, BOC signed the first nuclear energy Power Purchase Agreement with Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Company (ADWEC) for the purchase of the electricity to be generated at the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant. The agreement establishes the contractual framework between the two entities for nuclear-generated safe, clean, efficient and reliable electricity produced at Barakah.
The Barakah project is progressing steadily. Construction began in 2012 and Unit 1 is now more than 94% complete and all four units are more than 76% complete. Once the four reactors are online, the facility will deliver up to a quarter of the UAE’s electricity needs.
Posted by : Dubai PR Network Editorial TeamViewed 4770 times PR Category :Banking & InvestmentsPosted on : Thursday, March 16, 2017 10:28:00 AM UAE local time (GMT+4)
Replication or redistribution in whole or in part is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of DubaiPRNetwork.com.
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About Us
Kris and Garrett
Kris and Garrett have been working as paramedics in the City of Winnipeg for the past 10 years. The knowledge and experience that they have gained in the field is something that makes taking first aid classes with Aim For Life unlike other programs.
Mission Statement
Aim for Life is a first aid and CPR company that strives itself on giving people the confidence and skills to make a difference in an emergency. It is our mission to not only provide quality training, but that for every qualifying class, we donate an AED to a community that needs one. | {
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In August 2012, UNESCO invited creators across the world to co-create around the topic of empowerment by knowledge. The objective was to co-create posters that show why access to knowledge for all is important. The contest is connected to the event “Towards Knowledge Societies for Peace and Sustainable Development” which will be held in Paris, from 25 to 27 February 2013. This event will be the first review meeting held by UNESCO to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the World Summit on the Information Society Plan of Action.
The winning entry, as well as 13 other finalist posters, can be found on the official UNESCO website. The mentioned creators are considered as winners of the competition, and will receive official certificates from UNESCO!
And here comes the first winner: | {
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Robert (Fat Bobby) Paduano, a reputed organized-crime figure from Newport Beach, was indicted Friday on charges of using robbery, burglary, assault and extortion to shake down suspected drug dealers and force them into buying cocaine from his own criminal enterprise.
Paduano, 45, was named in a 73-count indictment along with co-defendant John Matua, a 22-year-old Westminster man serving 14 years in Folsom Prison for robbery, assault and false imprisonment.
In the indictment returned by the Orange County Grand Jury, Paduano and Matua were charged with conspiracy, robbery, assault, false imprisonment, assault with a firearm, extortion, and sale or distribution of narcotics. Paduano was arrested Thursday night and remained jailed Friday on $5-million bail.
Paduano, owner of a Tustin investment firm, was arraigned before Superior Court Judge Myron S. Brown. As the defendant sat in a holding cell with two dozen other prisoners, Brown set his trial for April 6 and a preliminary hearing for March 2.
Prosecutors alleged that between January, 1986, and October, 1987, Paduano and Matua conspired to rob suspected drug dealers and eventually used threats and intimidation to force them into buying cocaine from Paduano and giving him a cut of the sales profits.
Originally from the East Coast and known familiarly as "Fat Bobby," Paduano was named in a 1978 report by the state Organized Crime Control Commission as one of 92 Californians with underworld connections.
One veteran Orange County law officer, who has worked on Paduano investigations, described the suspect as "a guy who has moved around and made something for himself. He has the reputation for getting things done. He's into all kinds of different things--white collar crimes, drugs, burglaries. Supposedly he has some ties to Vegas."
But Alan May, Paduano's attorney, denied that his client had ties to organized crime and suggested that Paduano may have been framed by people with their own legal problems who were trying to make a deal for leniency with prosecutors.
"This is the third time in a row they have gone after him, first the feds and then Orange County. They take turns indicting him and acquitting him," May said, describing Paduano as a "very generous man."
"The problem is, most of the organized crime is from Asia," May said. "That is the real tough one. They really don't want to go after them (Asians). So they go after the old Italian names to justify your section and your budget and to justify why you aren't going after the real organized crime. That way, you have weekends off and Wednesday for golf."
According to the indictment, the victims of the conspiracy lived in Newport Beach, Fountain Valley and the Palm Springs area.
"The theory is that he (Paduano) would follow the robberies and coerce certain victims to sell drugs being provided by him," said Wallace J. Wade, an Orange County deputy district attorney.
One investigator who was involved in the case said Paduano "would use fear and implied threats to accomplish this . . . kind of, 'If you want to do business, you'll have to deal with us on this thing.' It was very subtle."
Wade said Paduano hired Matua and another man to break into and rob five houses. He said some of the victims were threatened at gunpoint, but no one was physically harmed during the robberies.
Prosecutors said tens of thousands of dollars in cash, jewelry and drugs were taken in the robberies.
Paduano was not accused of actually participating in the robberies, but rather conspiring to commit them. Paduano, the indictment said, met with Matua to target their victims and then paid Matua to actually pull off the robberies.
"We're not sure how they picked their victims," Wade said. "I don't think there was necessarily one set way in which these victims were picked out.
"There are certain elements, or small communities in the Newport Beach area, that have a very good grapevine," he added. "We think that some of this was grapevine information as to who knew who and who had what."
In addition to Paduano and Matua, two other people were named in the 17-page indictment as participating in some of the robberies, but no one else was indicted. Wade said only that there already has been some grants of immunity and discussions are under way about granting immunity to unnamed others.
Authorities said the investigation into Paduano and Matua had been under way for some time and had brought together law enforcement agencies from Newport Beach, Santa Ana, Huntington Beach, Irvine and the organized crime bureau of Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks' office.
The 73-count indictment was just the latest legal trouble for Paduano. By 1977, a full year before he was named as one of California's organized crime figures, he already had been convicted of arson and conspiracy to distribute cocaine,
In May, 1986, Paduano and another reputed underworld figure, Michael A. Rizzitello, were acquitted on charges of scheming to defraud a Montana company of hundreds of thousands of shares of the firm's stock.
Paduano, Rizzitello and another man had been charged with illegally transferring stock worth more than $3 million by bribing an official of a stock registration and transfer firm and then selling the shares for about $144,000. Some 11,000 shares were allegedly transferred to a Tustin firm headed by Paduano. | {
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o Research interference relating to high RSSI values.o Use software tools to assist in tracking interference causes.o Use drive test equipment and spectrum anaylizers to track both wide and narrow band signals.o Attend all training programs provided by AT&T for interference signal hunting.o Assist in training and communication with other team members on causes related to interference.o Proficient in using test equipment such as R&S PR100, FSH8 and DDF.
6-2001 ~ 3-2014 . Sr. RAN Engineer+o Perform Drive Test to verify handoffs and coverage of Cell Sectors.o Perform inspections of new cell sites for construction and design quality.o Worked with Construction and Tower Crews during building of Cell Sites.o Monitor stats to assist in trouble shooting cell activity and performance.o Assist with special projects, such as Bonnaroo and LP Field, COW and Cart setup and installation.o Maintain training on TDMA, GSM, UMTS (HSDPA, HSUPA+) and LTE technologies.o Proficient in using test equipment such as: X-Tell, TEMS, Spectrum Analyzers and PIM test gear.
7-1999 ~ 6-2001 . Switch Engineer Tritel Communications, Inc.
o Trouble shoot and repair of Ericsson Switch and Remote Base Station equipment. | {
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Total Recall
Jeff Bridges' 10 Best Movies
We run down the best-reviewed films of the Seventh Son star.
Not even a family tree full of dramatic DNA automatically adds up to the kind of talent Jeff Bridges has displayed over the course of his nearly 40-year career. Bridges has gone on to score six Best Actor Oscar nominations (winning one, for 2009’s Crazy Heart), all while assembling one of the more interesting, and critically successful, filmographies in the business. So successful, in fact, that Bridges’ top eight films all boast Tomatometers at or above 90 percent — and although we sort of doubt his work in this weekend’s Seventh Son will match that level of critical love or add another Oscar nomination to the pile, we still thought it offered the perfect opportunity to pay tribute to a life in pictures. It’s time for Total Recall!
Cheating death sounds like an incredible gift — but what do you do after you’ve accepted you’re about to die and walked away from the experience? As Peter Weir’s Fearless powerfully argues, that second lease on life can sometimes be harder to come to grips with than we might imagine — especially if you’re like protagonist Max Klein (Bridges), who survives a plane crash that ends up killing almost everyone on board. The type of thought-provoking adult drama that seems all but extinct in the modern studio system, Fearless didn’t make much of a dent at the box office after its 1993 release, but many critics rightly applauded it as a vehicle for one of its star’s finest efforts. “Bridges turns in another in what has become an astoundingly long list of brilliant performances,” wrote Hal Hinson for the Washington Post. “Using the simplest means imaginable, he steps into a role as nonchalantly as he might slip into his trousers.”
Every Total Recall list has its share of films you know are going to make the cut, but it’s often just as much fun to find the more esoteric entries in an actor’s filmography — the movies that, for whatever reason, slipped through the cracks and aren’t closely identified with the star in question. Case in point: 1973’s The Iceman Cometh, the four-hour film adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s play that was released as part of the American Film Theater series. Directed by John Frankenheimer and featuring a cast that included Lee Marvin, Fredric March, and Robert Ryan in one of his final performances, Iceman helped Bridges extend his early-career streak of solidly reviewed films with excellent pedigrees. As Roger Ebert wrote, “For four hours we live in these two rooms and discover the secrets of these people, and at the end we have gone deeper, seen more, and will remember more, than with most of the other movies of our life.”
Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate spent years being maligned as one of the biggest directorial follies in cinematic history, but some good things did come out of it, at least for Jeff Bridges. He took one of the sets and turned it into his home, for one thing — and United Artists execs impressed with his work in the movie ended up offering him a co-starring gig in Cutter’s Way, too. And while Cutter’s was far from a hit, taking in less than its reported $3 million budget, director Ivan Passer’s adaptation of the Newton Thornburg novel Cutter and Bone — about two pals (Bridges and John Heard) investigating the potential conspiracy behind a young woman’s murder — reaped plenty of critical praise; as Peter Bradshaw from the Guardian wrote, “The film moves with an easy uncoerced swing: moment by moment, scene by scene, we are unsure what to think or where we are going. It is a fascinating, organically grown drama.”
Bridges won the Best Actor Oscar for his work in Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart, and rightfully so; in a long line of deeply naturalistic performances, it’d be hard to argue that Bridges’ turn as the bloated, alcoholic misanthrope Bad Blake didn’t deserve a spot at or near the top. You might not think you’d ever be the kind of person who’d root for a middle-aged guy who passes out in his underwear on the bathroom floor, but Bridges made it work here, breathing extra dramatic life into another variation on the oft-told tale of the middle-aged guy who’s piddled away his prospects while delivering believable renditions of some hummable country-rock songs and anchoring a picture whose small, eclectic cast also included Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall. “On first viewing, Crazy Heart seemed like a pretty good movie with one great performance,” mused Slate’s Dana Stevens. “After a second time through, it’s sneaking up on the title of my favorite film of the year.”
Director Robert Benton has made a career out of crafting films that make brilliant use of quiet moments and seemingly ordinary people — and, sometimes, some pretty unusual situations. He showed his flair for character studies with his debut, 1972’s Bad Company, which focuses on the efforts of a group of young men (including Barry Brown and Jeff Bridges) to avoid being drafted into the Civil War. One of a handful of counter-culture Westerns during the period, Company carefully deconstructed the romantic myths of the genre while underlining its gently comedic tone with a surprisingly moral message of social responsibility. Roger Greenspun of the New York Times was one of the many scribes who applauded the film, writing, “A naturalistic, irreverent and sometimes broadly comic view of a largely ignored aspect of the Civil War gives Bad Company a refreshingly good name.”
He hasn’t been asked to do it many times, but Jeff Bridges plays a mean bad guy (check out his wonderfully creepy turn in 1993’s otherwise rather mundane The Vanishing for a good, albeit mostly wasted, example). He got to show his villainous colors again in 2008’s Iron Man, shaving his head and growing a wicked beard to play Obadiah Stane, the treacherous business partner-turned-armored nemesis of Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). Though Stane fell below “awesome fight scenes,” “shots of the armor in action,” and “funny one-liners from Downey” on the list of things people went to Iron Man to see, you can’t have a truly entertaining superhero movie without a worthwhile heavy, and Bridges sunk his teeth into the scenery with appropriately menacing results. In the words of the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern, “The gadgetry is absolutely dazzling, the action is mostly exhilarating, the comedy is scintillating and the whole enormous enterprise throbs with dramatic energy.”
We like to complain about the lack of original ideas in Hollywood, but The Fabulous Baker Boys is proof positive that you don’t need to do something new to make a great movie — you just need to do something really, really well. And Baker Boys does a few things well, actually — including exploring the tension between a pair of piano-playing brothers (played by real-life siblings Jeff and Beau Bridges), the fading hopes of musicians resigned to pursuing commerce instead of art, and — perhaps most importantly — highlighting the luminous beauty of Michelle Pfeiffer. It wasn’t a huge commercial hit at the time of its release, but it was profitable, and the overwhelmingly positive critical reaction has since been shared by the many millions who have seen it at home. “The Fabulous Baker Boys is like a beloved movie from the glory days of Hollywood,” wrote Rita Kempley of the Washington Post. “It transports you. It’s an American rhapsody.”
It takes some major stones to step into John Wayne’s boots for a remake of one of the Duke’s classic pictures, so even if the Coen brothers’ True Grit had well and truly stunk, we’d have to give Bridges credit for having something extra in his saddlebag — not just any actor would have been able to take the role of the cantankerous Rooster Cogburn and make it his own. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Bridges (in vintage late-period marble-mouthed form) was surrounded by an ace supporting cast that included Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld, or that the Coens went back to Charles Portis’ original novel for inspiration; in the end, the result was a career-launching hit for Steinfeld, a mainstream hit for the Coens, and a suitably successful follow-up to Crazy Heart for Bridges, who earned the admiration of the Patriot Ledger’s Al Alexander in a review that argued, “Duke has been usurped by the Dude, and I couldn’t be more thrilled by the experience of watching one of our finest actors take a role as iconic as Rooster Cogburn and indisputably make it his own.”
Long before he’d earned the right to play grizzled, down-on-their-luck ne’er-do-wells, Bridges paid his dues playing the young men who look up to them — as he did in John Huston’s Fat City, a beautifully unadorned look at a washed-up boxer (Stacy Keach) who takes a young contender (Bridges) under his wing. A babyfaced 23 years old and only one film removed from The Last Picture Show, Bridges displayed an uncommon grace and calm grasp of his craft in his scenes with Keach, and Huston — who ended the movie on the sort of unsettling note we see far too rarely today — made the most of Bridges’ emerging gifts. “The movie is crafty work and very much a show,” wrote J. Hoberman of the Village Voice, adding, “in one way or another, right down to the percussively abrupt open ending, it’s all about being hammered.”
If you love movies, you’ve probably seen The Last Picture Show — and even if you haven’t, you’re almost certainly aware of its impact. Selected to the National Film Registry, named to the AFI’s list of the 100 greatest American films of all time, and the recipient of eight Academy Award nominations (Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman both took home Oscars for their supporting roles), Picture Show launched the careers of Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, and director Peter Bogdanovich, whose previous credit was Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. Here, Bridges’ youth and easygoing charm are put to good use in the role of Duane Jackson, a high school football star whose restlessness sends him in and out of Shepherd’s bed — and, like many young men of the ’50s, off to Korea. “Ultimately,” observed James Kendrick of the Q Network Film Desk, “The Last Picture Show is remembered and probably always will be because it is truthful. It doesn’t shy away from the inherent awkwardness of life, but instead embraces it as its subject matter.” | {
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Saturday, November 30, 2013
Ah, Djibouti. It’s long been the “butt” of many jokes for
English speakers.These jokes were
usually placed at the“bottom” of
my joke list, though. However, I’m going to put this “behind” me, get it out of
my system, and move on; I will do my best to look forward and not to the “rear.”
Djibouti is one of four countries that make up the Horn of
Africa, along with Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. The country itself is fairly
small, slightly smaller than the US state of Massachusetts.Djibouti lies on the Gulf of Aden and
the southern entrance to the Red Sea. There are eight mountain ranges, the
highest being Mousa Ali (which includes a volcano), and the entire country is
covered by desert.The climate is
hot in the winter and hotter in the summer. The name “Djibouti” is named after
the capital city of the same name. Although linguists aren’t exactly sure, but
there is reason to believe Djibouti may be related to the Afar word gabouti, which is a doormat made of palm
fibers, or possibly stemmed from “Land of Tehuti,” the Egyptian god of the
moon.
Some historians believe Djibouti (and surrounding areas) is
the place the ancient Egyptians called Punt (or Puntland), who was a major
trading partner with Egypt at that time. (I wonder if people from Punt were
called Punters. – Sorry, a little football joke.) This area was mostly
inhabited with the Somali and Afar peoples.The Ifat Sultinate is one of the major ancient kingdoms to
reign in this region and of course there were several others afterwards.In the mid-to-late 1800s, the French
came in and set up their French administration in the capital city, later
taking over and renaming the country French Somaliland (rather unoriginal,
considering there was an Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland as well.)
Several decades later in 1967, it was renamed again to French Territory of the
Afars and Issas.(Slightly wordy,
it was at least more reflective of the original peoples). The people held a
couple of referendums regarding their independence, but finally in 1977,
Djibouti became its own country.Although
there was some political conflict that led to fighting starting in the early
part of the 1990s, it had generally been resolved in the 2000s in an agreement
of power.Djibouti does hold the
only US military base in sub-Saharan Africa, which is a key base in the
assistance in the global watch on terrorism.
The capital city of Djibouti City has about 600,000 people –
roughly the size of Portland, Oregon.This seaport is known for its sand beaches, which are major tourist
spots.The city is also known its
many markets, many of which are open-air markets selling everything from
fabrics, woven goods, and jewelry to fresh meats and vegetables and grains.
Much of the culture and architecture is a mix of Somali, Arab, and French
styles and traditions.Soccer is
pretty popular, and they have a stadium that holds many international sporting
events. Djibouti City is also a financial hub for many up-and-coming businesses
in all fields.
By far, Djibouti’s largest trade partners are neighboring
Ethiopia and Somalia. Djibouti also refines about four million tons of salt
from the Lake Assal region annually – which also happens to be the lowest point
in the entire continent of Africa.With the help of Chinese investment, they are looking to expand the salt
industry.They do have problems
with high unemployment; some estimates put it around 50%.Because of persistent problems with
drought causing an unfavorable environment for growing, most of their food is
imported from other countries.This
also causes the country to have a lot of long-term debt they have to deal with.
While Arabic and French are official languages, most people
also speak Somali or Afar as a first language.Different dialects of Arabic are also found spoken in
Djibouti, mostly in immigrant populations, as well as other minority languages.
The vast majority of Djiboutians practice Islam – about 94%
of the population. In fact, the Constitution of Djibouti specifically lists
Islam as the state religion, with Sunni Muslims making up the largest group and
non-denominational Muslims being the second.The remaining 6% of the population are Christian – there is
a small Catholic population overseen by the Diocese of Djibouti.
I read that one of the common “pastimes” in Djibouti is qat
chewing.Qat (also spelled khat)
is a medicinal plant, when chewed gives narcotic effects.In fact, it’s banned in a lot of
European countries (weirdly enough, not the UK).It’s also banned in the US, but from what I could gather, it
will be seized but not for the reasons you might think: it’s not seized as an
illegal substance, but because “it’s labeling fails to bear adequate directions
for use” according to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Sounds weird… So,
while I may not be getting so local as to chew some qat, but I am looking
forward to eating some Djiboutian food and learning more about a country that
up until now has long just been relegated to geographical jokes.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Well, my son finally turned five years old this
week, and I turned in his application for kindergarten and the magnet school
program for next year.Hopefully,
he’ll be accepted to the same school that his sister goes to, a
Spanish-immersion language school where their math and science classes are
taught in Spanish and the rest of the classes are taught in English.I really love it. I wish I had those
opportunities when I was in school.
And it was also a busy week, because the rugbrød
bread is now at the top of my list of “bread that takes the longest to
make.”I had to start the
sourdough starter last week because it was supposed to sit for seven days (ok,
mine sat for six).I’ve never made
a sourdough bread before: this one called for buttermilk, water, rye flour,
whole wheat flour, and some salt to be mixed together and then sprinkled with
course salt before its covered and put in a cool place (but not in the
refrigerator) and forgot about.Then
today, I had to get up and start this much earlier than I normally do.I mixed a bottle of Carlsberg beer,
some honey, salt, water, yeast, rye flour, and the sour dough mix
together.Then I stirred in some
cracked wheat (because I didn’t have cracked rye), some water, and some crushed
sunflower seeds into it.In
Denmark, they have special rugbrød molds, but I’m just using a regular loaf
pan.I didn’t take out any to
preserve as a starter, but I could have if I wanted to.Since I didn’t do that, I had to use
three loaf pans.The recipe says
to let this sit for six hours, but I’m hoping science can do its thing in five
hours.After that, it calls to
bake it at 350º F for two hours, spraying it with water every half hour or so
(of which I had to get kind of inventive since my husband took my spray bottle
to the garage where it’s lost and presumed dead.I improvised with a Hello Kitty soy sauce dispenser.). Technically, to do this the right way,
the bread is supposed to cool on its own for a couple of hours and then wrapped
in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for a day before slicing.
Obviously, I should’ve made this yesterday, and since I didn’t, I’m going to
try to accelerate all of this cooling business.Maybe I should give it the cold shoulder? (I did manage to put it in the refrigerator for a bit, and I think it was fine to cut.)
Hearty and perfect for cold weather -- it was 25 degrees colder in Indianapolis than in Copenhagen.
The rugbrød is the basis of an open-faced sandwich
called smørrebrød.There are
probably hundreds of types of smørrebrød from pickled herring to vegetarian
styles.The one I chose was called
frikadeller.It’s basically a
meatball made from pork and veal, but I couldn’t find any veal, so I went with
just the ground pork.(Of course,
I am shopping in the days before Thanksgiving, so some of the shelves are a
little bare.)The pork is mixed
with a little onion, egg, some soda water, salt, flour, a little allspice, and
pepper.Unlike the baked meatballs
that I made from Belarus, these meatballs are pan fried in butter and flattened
slightly to resemble small patties. I think there was a little too much soda
water because the first batch kept falling apart.I added a little more flour, and really, even at that, they
still turned out more like patties rather than slightly flattened meatballs.
But regardless, the flavor was excellent.
Yes, I ditched the veal, but these were really good.
And now it comes time to assemble the smørrebrød.It starts out by spreading some Dijon
mustard on a slice of the freshly made rugbrød (although I think I would prefer
yellow mustard), then topping it with a couple of the frikadeller meatballs and
some kind of garnish on top of the meatballs. I used a recipe called syltede
agurker, which is Danish Pickled Cucumbers to put on top of it.This recipe is 98.1% like a similar
recipe my mother would often make in the summer.It’s thin-sliced cucumbers, cider vinegar, water, sugar,
salt, and pepper stirred together and refrigerated for a couple of hours.Then it’s drained and sprinkled with
dill weed.I bought fresh dill for
this because it was 99¢ for a bunch, but it’s a HUGE bunch, and
I’ll never use it all.Maybe I can
find someone to pawn off some dill on. And maybe a loaf of rugbrød.
Tastes like childhood, and the fresh dill just made my childhood even better.
The bread
was extremely hearty. And even though each ingredient is delicious, yet
completely different from the others, when it was assembled, it all came
together.The reason I would’ve
chosen yellow mustard over Dijon is that between the Dijon mustard and the
vinegar cucumbers, it was a little too much bite.But that was my only measly complaint.Otherwise, it was the most wonderful
thing I’ve eaten today.And it was
really filling.One sandwich was
plenty enough. I think this will make the best lunch tomorrow, and probably for
the next couple of the days.Of
course, I chased this all down with a Carlsberg beer (but when I was at the
liquor store, I found a dark rye ale called Rugbrød – it tasted something like Guinness -- I only bought it for the name).
I suck at pouring beer into a glass since it was all foam. So, I drank it straight from the bottle.
And at least this is a short workweek for Thanksgiving. It’s a common time to
reflect on what you’re thankful for, and I suppose I’ve been thinking about it
a little myself.I’m thankful for
so many things including my family and this blog, and my ability to think and
read and write – it’s more than a lot of people have.
Mmmm. There are no words but mmm mmm. (Ok, that's also the sound I make with food in my mouth.)
Saturday, November 23, 2013
The earliest known music in Denmark has been traced
to the Bronze Age with the making of lurs.A lur is a long tube-like instrument made from bronze,
shaped similar to a sousaphone but much skinnier, and played by blowing into it
like a horn.It’s actually thought
to be one of the earliest forms of many of the modern-day brass instruments. Music
has been a very important part of Danish society, although most of the early
music was centered after the Reformation, and later, Dieterich Buxtehude was
one of the prominent organists and composers during the Baroque era.Opera was later introduced from Italy
and Germany during the early 1700s.Friedrich Kuhlau was a composer whose music was used in one of the
Danish national anthems. As a pianist, Kuhlau also brought Beethoven’s music to
the people of Denmark.
Carl Nielsen is often contributed as the most
famous Danish composers of all time. I actually am embarrassed to say that even
as someone who holds a degree in music, I was unaware of his name. I did listen
to portions of his “Symphony No. 1” and “Symphony No. 4,” both of which I
enjoyed.
In contrast to this, folk music and folk dancing
was something that was more on the “people’s” level.It was something that everyone could join in and was often
the centerpiece of community events.Many of these dances took place in a farmhouse or in some other public
building perhaps, and most of these dances were styled as chain dances or
rotational dance so that it could maximize the number of dancers in crowded
spaces.And actually, during the
17th and 18th centuries, only officially appointed town
musicians were allowed to play the music, so it was probably best to stay away
from crazy ideas of unauthorized fiddle playing.Denmark imported a couple of dances from Poland and other
countries – one was the pols (a variant of the polka, a pair dance), and
another was the minuet. And of course, the Danes came up with their own
versions of other country’s dances, such as the waltz and square dances. People
generally dressed in their Sunday best when it came time to coming to these
dances, and nowadays there are many folk dancing societies around Copenhagen
and other cities in Denmark, giving performances in traditional dress. Ballet
and other forms of classical dance are also quite popular in Denmark as
well.
Starting in the 1920s, jazz became quite popular –
and still is.Even during the
German occupation during WWII, jazz music was generally discourage, but some
musicians kept performing anyway while others escaped to nearby Sweden to
continue their music.After the
war, New Orleans/Delta style jazz and bebop from the US began infiltrating
Danish jazz.Jazz venues became
destinations, such as Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen, and American jazz musicians
began flocking to Copenhagen to perform.
Danish rock emerged in the 1960s and 1970s and drew
much of its influence from the highly popular styles of American and British
rock.I have found several bands that I liked, mostly in the indie
rock and folk rock genre, but also a couple hip-hop and R&B artists.The first band that I found that I
ABSOLUTELY love is The Raveonettes.I went to the library and checked out the albums Lust Lust Lust (2008) and Observator
(2012).I actually thought Observator was a better album, but it
was extremely short – only 9 songs.
And of course, the drummer for Metallica is Lars
Ulrich, born and raised in Denmark.In fact, he was the first Dane to be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame.I added their Black Album
to my playlist – it reminds me of my high school years.
As a pianist myself, I really enjoyed listening to
Agnes Obel’s album Philharmonics.It’s acoustic and simplistic and at
times resembles Celtic folk motifs. I may end up buying this album. It’s nice
to listen to while I’m working.
One pop singer I discovered is Fallulah whose album
The Black Cat Neighborhood is really
catchy, and my daughter is absolutely in love with it. Probably because it has
the word “cat” in it and she’s an 8-year-old girl. I tried to find this: my
library doesn’t have it, and iTunes doesn’t have it, but I did find some used
copies on Amazon for about $13.I
may also have to buy this.
I did find an artist who calls himself Burhan G.
It’s kind of R&B, I think. More or less a mainstream American sound, the
album does have a few catchy tracks. The same goes for another group call Nik
& Jay.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
The early years in Denmark weren’t merely just
exploring the open seas discovering new islands.There were also artists. One of the largest known pieces of
silver work is the Gundestrup cauldron found in a peat bog in the late 1800s.
The interesting thing is that it doesn’t exactly seem typical of the styles from
that area.Other Norse art is found
throughout what is now Denmark.The rune writing and images carved on the large stones at Jelling are
perhaps some of the best-known remnants of this era.The earliest forms for paintings survive in the form of
church frescos or murals, mostly dating back to Medieval and Renaissance times.
It’s estimated that around 600 churches have murals that survive today – the
largest concentration than any other country.
Denmark later looked to German and Swedish painters
as well as French and Italian sculptors to learn their arts.Some of the more famous painters of
this period include Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard, Christian August Lorentzen, and
Jens Juel.And likewise, Bertel
Thorvaldsen is often considered one of the most famous sculptors. The Royal Danish
Porcelain factor also got started around this time as well, and the Kosta
Glasbruk glass company, an offshoot company, was also founded at the same time.
Around the 19th century, Danish painters finally started making
their own style , a “national” style, thus it was deemed as the Golden Age in
Danish Painting.Many painters
emerged with this new style, with a more realistic style, utilizing the
contrasts in shading. Portraits, landscapes, and pictures of people in everyday
life were common subjects.
C.A. Lorentzen
As we stepped into the 20th century,
Danish art aligned itself with other European styles and influences.Many painters and other artists have
made their work known all over the world, including many sculptors and
large-scale artists. One of the most famous Danish architects is Jørn Utzon who
designed the famous Sydney Opera House, which is included as a World Heritage
Site.Queen Margrethe II had a
series of tapestries created depicting the history of Denmark from antiquity to
present-day. The tapestries took a total of nine years to complete and are now
located on display in the Great Hall of Christiansborg Palace.
And as mentioned above, the earliest forms of
writing came in the form of runic writings etched in the sides of rocks, like
the Jelling Stones. Once Christianization took place, runes were eventually
replaced with Latin.Most of the
subjects written about at this time were mainly historical accounts, myths
& legends, and ballads.The 16th
century bore the first Danish playwrights, and of course poetry is still alive
and well. 18th century writing has a lot of its influences from
abroad: poetry and drama were mainly stemmed from French and English standards,
while some poets took on the styles of German poets.
Denmark’s Golden Age (which lasted through the
first half of the 1800s) mostly aligned itself with the corresponding Romantic
period of literature.Nikolaj
Grundtvig is one author who is often considered one of the headliners of instilling
a sense of nationalism.And
probably the most famous Danish writer ever is Hans Christian Andersen, who
wrote many children’s stories and fairy tales.Among his more well-known stories include “The Ugly Duckling,”
“The Little Mermaid,” and “Thumbelina.”These stories are part of the canon of children’s literature all over
the world. My husband told me of a movie about Hans Christian Andersen starring Danny Kaye. Søren Kierkegaard was a
prominent philosopher and theologian.The major focuses of his work are centered around making concrete human
reality a priority over abstract thinking, as well as writing about the value
of making personal choices and commitments.
20th century and contemporary literature
embodies a diversity of styles. Karen Blixsen (who wrote under the pen name
Isak Dinesen) is most famous for her memoir novel Out of Africa. It was also made into a movie in 1985 of the same
name, starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep.Most Danish authors do write in Danish; however, there are
also a sizable number of books written in other languages such as English.Mystery and crime thriller novels seem
to be a popular genre for Danish writers today.
Monday, November 18, 2013
There are many holidays in Denmark, some with days
off and others that are not officially observed with a day off.I’m listing in detail the ones where
you do get a day off. I’ll just list in brief the others the ones where you
still have to show up to work.
New Year’s Day (January 1):According to the law, most shops and
businesses close at 3pm on New Year’s Eve.A lot of people start the evening off with an elaborate
homemade meal, followed by a lot of alcohol. (Sounds like my kind of
night.)Traditionally the Queen
gives a televised speech at 6pm on New Year’s Eve night, and the stroke of
midnight is welcomed with champagne and kransekage (a type of almond ring cake),
and of course, fireworks, and then probably more alcohol.
Maundy Thursday (varies, 3 days before Easter): According
to the Bible, Maundy Thursday is the day during Holy Week in which traditions
say this is the night in which Jesus offers Holy Communion to the Disciples during
the Last Supper.Some churches
hold evening services followed by a meal together because of this. And the
Danish word for this day literally translates out to “clean Thursday,” possibly
stemmed from Jesus washing the feet of the disciples before the meal.
Good Friday (varies, 2 days before Easter):On this day, candles are not lit inside
the churches due to the solemn nature of the day, commemorating Jesus’
crucifixion and death. A special service is held in the evening, although some
hold their services at 3pm.There
is usually a reading of the Passion and choral singing.
Easter Sunday (varies):This is the day Christians believe that Jesus rose from the
dead.Many homes have been
decorated in green and yellow, and you’ll see Easter eggs everywhere.Another Easter tradition that kids do
is a series of teaser letters starting a few weeks before Easter. These are
anonymously written with a verse as to the identity of the author, signed by
only a series of dots, each for the number of letters in your name. After three
letters, the recipient has to guess who the author is, and if you guess right,
you get a chocolate Easter egg. Church services are attended in the morning
followed by an elaborate meal for lunch.This usually consists of chicken, lamb, fish, vegetable dishes, cheeses,
and a lot of beer.
Easter Monday (varies):This day is more or less a continuation of Easter. There are
also special services in which readings from the Bible are a common way of
retelling the stories of what happen after Jesus was resurrected.
General Prayer Day (varies, 4th Friday after
Easter): Also known as Great Prayer Day.Basically, they took a lot of minor Christian feast days and other
holidays and rolled them all into one day.Many churches ring their bells on the eve of this day, and
people will often eat a type of bread called varme hveder.Some people used to walk the ramparts
of the city, but nowadays most people walk along the waterfront areas. This is
also a common day for churches to hold confirmations.
Labour Day (May 1):Not everyone gets this day off; only the blue collar workers
get to enjoy a free day.A lot of
people attend labor meetings to discuss the labor issued at hand. Labor unions
will join other labor unions in marches celebrating major labor reforms in the
past.
Ascension Day (varies, 39 days after Easter):This holiday takes place 39 days after
Easter and commemorates the Christian belief that this is the day which Jesus
Christ ascended into heaven after rising from the dead.Traditionally, this is also the day in
which the Easter candle (also known as the Paschal candle) is extinguished.
Constitution Day (June 5):This holiday goes back to 1849 and the
signing of the Danish constitution establishing the country as a constitutional
monarchy.Some political meetings
and functions may be held on this day, but generally, it’s not a huge
holiday.It also happens to be the
same day as Father’s Day.
Pentecost (varies, 7 weeks after Easter):Pentecost is thought of as the foundation
of the Church.Because of the
proverbial correlation between Jesus and the sun, many people stay up all night
to wait for the sun to rise.In
some of the rural areas, it was a common time to whitewash all the buildings.In recent times, large Whitsun
procession through the streets of Copenhagen.
Whit Monday (varies, day after Pentecost): Often
considered the second day of Pentecost, it got its name from wearing white
baptismal fonts on this day.It’s
a common time for people to be baptized.
Christmas (December 24-26): The use of candles at
Christmas goes back to pagan days and the early days after Christianization. In
fact, they utilized and merged many pagan traditions in with Christian
traditions.And from the
beginning, this has always been a holiday that is centered around family.They do put up Christmas trees (a
tradition borrowed from nearby Germany) and decorate their homes with paper
decorations and make sweets for the entire month of December.However, Danes have become friends with
the Christmas “nisse,” a mythical old man who wears a grey sweater, grey pants, red stockings, and a red cap who will hand out good fortune in exchange for porridge.(Hmm, I have some grits in my cabinet.
Wonder if that works? And he sort of seems like an old professor I had in
college.) Several other traditions, like mistletoe and Santa Claus, were
introduced from other countries.Of
course gifts are exchanged, and there are many other smaller traditions like
paper Christmas hearts, singing Christmas carols, the Christmas lunch featuring
herring, and a lot of sweet and succulent and savory foods.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
It’s the land that brought us both Vikings and
Legos. My mom and I have discussed this at length and decided this conversation
had to have taken place (in fact, this is the actual transcript): “[Viking
spokesman:] I know most people think the Vikings are somewhat defunct – what
little they know, right? – but I have this idea. Why rape and pillage anymore?
That was so 10th century.We’ll change our tactics: we’ll attack from inside homes. We’ve created
this incredibly heinous weapon called the Lego. It looks just like a child’s
toy – parents will be scrambling to buy as many of these possible, making us a
lot of money. Kids will drop these all over the floor in their slobovian ways,
and the adults will step on them and practically die in minutes. Kids are
immune to the diabolical powers Legos hold. It’s practically perfect in our
Danish mastery of taking over the world, one brick at a time.” Ok, maybe it
might not be EXACTLY that way, but it sure seemed plausible to me.
Denmark lies on a peninsula just north of Germany
in the North Sea and includes 407 islands (of which only 70 are inhabitable).
Denmark also lays claim to the island of Greenland (off the coast of Canada)
and the Faroe Islands, which are located between Scotland and Iceland.Although it’s not exactly clear, the
word Denmark is thought to be derived from the word “Dani” which refers to a
group of people who were indigenous to the area, and the word “mark” which may
refer to woodland or a border land. Denmark is also one of the handful of
countries that border only one country.Technically, it shares a land border with just Germany, but it is also connected
by Sweden by bridge.
As far as its early history goes, the people are
ethnically related to the Germanic peoples from the south and Scandinavians to
the north, and were invaded (and ethnically cleansed) by the Anglo-Saxons.
Between the 8th and 10th centuries, some Danes (as well
as some Swedes and Norwegians) were known as Vikings, who were ruthless,
invading, pillaging, and generally taking over wherever they wanted.They’re often depicted wearing helmets
with horns coming from the sides in large boats with highly ornamented
figurehead on the bow. (Just watch "How to Train Your Dragon.") Although they weren’t Danish, two of the most famous
Vikings were Eric the Red and his son Leif Ericksson. The Vikings were great explorers,
credited with discovering Iceland and the eastern shores of Canada (especially
Newfoundland). One of the early kings of Denmark and Norway is Harald
Bluetooth. In fact, the Bluetooth icon is actually an overlay of the Nordic
runes for the letters H and B (his initials).Too bad I can never get a bluetooth connection to actually
connect. It’s more like blurtooth.It’s rumored that it was Harald Bluetooth who officially wrote the name
“Denmark” on jelling stones, which are giant stones near the city of Jelling
that have rune writing on them.In
following the footsteps of the Dutch East India Company, the Danes laid its own
claims to regions in India as well (specifically the region of Tranquebar) and
the islands known as the US Virgin Islands, known then as the Danish West
Indies.During WWII, Denmark
signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, which they invaded Denmark
anyway.Nowadays, Denmark
generally does peacekeeping missions in various countries.
The capital city is Copenhagen, a city of about 1.9
million (about my size of city).The name Copenhagen means “chapman’s haven” or “merchant’s
harbour.”It’s located mostly on
the eastern shore of the island of Zealand and partly on the island of Amager.
It’s also right across the sound from the Swedish cities of Malmö and
Landskrona.I’ve always imagined
that it was super cold there, but because the island is situated where it is,
it doesn’t normally get below 10º F in the winter and average temps in the
summer are between 60-70ºF. I’d say this is one more reason why I should move
here. It’s a world-class city with museums, universities, nightlife, sports
teams, and of course, beer. Copenhagen is also home to one of the world’s best
restaurants, Noma, ranked number one for three years in a row by Restaurant magazine.
Denmark enjoys a fairly strong economy.They have the lowest level of income inequality
in the world and the highest minimum wage in the world as well (I read it’s
roughly around $19/hr). And they’re really into green/clean energy and energy
efficiency.Denmark has utilized
wind energy for a long time and is working on integrating this wind energy with
the national grid. Right now, they’re also working on creating and integrating
the electric plug-in car technology.They also huge on being a “cycling society” – getting rid of so many
cars on the roads daily and modifying their infrastructure to create bike
lanes.
The vast majority of the people speak Danish, which
is related to Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, and German.Because the people of the Faroe Islands
also speak Faroese and the people of Greenland also speak Greenlandic, these
are also official languages as well.There are quite a few German speakers near the German border, which
makes German one of the more popular foreign languages to learn, along with
English.
The vast majority – almost 80% of the population –
are Lutheran.Of course,
Lutheranism is the established religion of Denmark.There is a very small Muslim population, and recently there
is a “new” religion called Forn Sithrwhich
is basically centered around pre-Christian Norse paganism.
In some ways, Denmark has long been a progressive
country and is a country of many firsts and number-ones.It was the first country to legalize
pornography in 1969 as well as establish gender-neutral marriages twenty years
later.They also excel in the sciences,
giving the world the famous physicist Neils Bohr and philosopher Søren
Kierkegaard.Adopted in 1219, the
Danish flag is the oldest flag in the world that is still used by an
independent country.There have
been several studies which rank Denmark as one of the happiest countries in the
world. The Danish royal family can trace its uninterrupted line all the way
back to 934AD – the oldest royal family line in Europe.The architect for the famous Sydney
Opera House in Australia was designed by a Danish guy (Jørn Utzen), which was
recognized as a World Heritage Site, and he was only the second recipient who
was still living at the time of the induction. The longest suspension bridge in
Europe (called the Great Belt Fixed Link) links the Danish islands of Zealand
and Funen, making it also the third-longest in the world. And Denmark has the oldest and second-oldest amusement parks in the world -- the Dyrehavsbakken opened in 1583 and Tivoli Gardens opened in 1843. I’m very excited to cook food from
Denmark, listen to my Spotify playlists for Denmark, and discover other really
cool things about this country.In
fact, I’m going to go make my sourdough starter for my rugbrød right now.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
So, we
finally made it to my cooking day.It was a long week, but I survived it, and I’m definitely hungry for
some good food. I thought it was moderately funny in an allegorical sort of
sense that when I told people I was cooking food from the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, people sort of made a face like I was just invited to my own
funeral. However, when I described what I was making, all of a sudden, they
thought it sounded pretty good.Maybe that’s what I’m here for, maybe this is the point of this blog:
dispelling culinary stereotypes.
Gooey, vanilla-y fried goodness. There is definitely room for tweaking the recipe.
I started
out with my “bread” – a type of vanilla-flavored doughnut hole, more or less. I
found this recipe from a blog of a woman who visited the DRC and was introduced
to what was called makité.She was
given the recipe, but she had a lot of trouble recreating it. It just never
turned out the way she had it when she was there. Sometimes I think your
environment has a lot to do with whether bread and bread products turn out: the
humidity in the air, temperature, quality of ingredients, etc. I’m sure my
store-bought commercially packaged products and Indiana-in-November weather is
the prime environment to recreate a recipe from tropical Africa. But I’m
hell-bent on trying it as well. I mixed half whole wheat white flour and half
cassava flour (also called tapioca or yuca flour – I still had some from making
Costa Rican yuca bread) and yeast.Then I added in the sugar, salt, and I added a half-package of French
vanilla pudding powder. I have a feeling I used too much pudding, and I
accidentally picked French vanilla instead of regular vanilla. But we’ll see
how this turns out, and because of this, I left out the vanilla extract. Then I
added enough warm water to bring it to the consistency of a “thick pancake
batter,” then I covered it and let it sit for two hours. It was still too runny
to form into balls; I kept adding a bit of flour on top of it, patting it with
the back of the spoon and then stirring.I had to do that several times – like I was kneading bread dough. I did
manage to thicken it up a bit, enough to form a ball.However, I think my oil was too high and I used too much
pudding mix.If the outsides
burned, the insides were done. If it looks perfect on the outside, the insides
were still a little runny, like pudding. So, I don’t know. It tasted good
though. Like vanilla pudding balls. Maybe I should try coffee creamer next
time?
Who doesn't love sweet potatoes this time of year? Especially marinated in brandy and beer battered.
The next thing
I did was the side dish: Sweet Potatoes Congolese.First I put the sweet potatoes in boiling water for about
five minutes (which is called blanching). I took them out, peeled them, and
sliced them. Then I made a marinade of honey, brandy, and some lemon zest, and
let it marinate for about 30-40 minutes (the recipe calls for 60 minutes).
Afterwards, I made a batter of flour and light beer (I chose one of my favorite
Belgian beers, Stella Artois). I tried to save time and mess by dumping the
batter over the potatoes in the bowl (draining the marinade first of course)
and then frying them. Some were fried way more than others, and some probably
needed to be left in a bit longer (the trials and tribulations of a multitasker),
but otherwise I thought they were pretty good.
The best part of the meal. And for my first time using sorrel, I really liked it.
The main
entrée is called Mboto à l’oseille, or fish with sorrel. I went with tilapia
since I know my family likes it – it doesn’t have quite so much a “fishy” taste
to it. I fried the fish on both sides and then took it out and set it aside. It
doesn’t normally take that long to cook fish anyway.Then in the same skillet, I fried the onion and garlic and
added the chili pepper (I’m actually using a jalapeño), diced tomatoes and some
tomato paste with a little water to smooth the sauce out. After this started to
boil, I put the fish back in and added in the sorrel leaves. I actually thought
sorrel was a leafy green, like kale or chard or something, but it’s more of an
herb.But to be fair, it is a leaf
similar to basil.So, I wasn’t
completely out there.I also added
in a bay leaf and a little salt and pepper and nutmeg, allowing everything to
simmer for about 15 minutes or so.This was absolutely wonderful. I served this on a bed of couscous
instead of rice, because I sort of forgot about the rice until the end, and it
only takes 5 minutes to make some instant couscous.I loved this so much.Too bad it’s sort of socially unacceptable to heat up fish in the office
lunchroom, but I may do it anyway.If I have to deal with people constantly burning popcorn, then they can
deal with my Congolese fish.
Perfect meal for a cool day, perfect as a comfort food.
I learned
so much about this country.In
fact, it made the news just in the past couple of days, although you probably
wouldn’t know about it in mainstream American news. (I saw it on a Wikipedia
News blurb and got the details on BBC.) The M23 rebel forces finally
“surrendered,” giving a relief to the Congolese Army and the Congolese people,
especially in the Kiva region.Hopefully, they can renegotiate peace deals, and the people can enjoy
some relative peace for a while as they try to rebuild their communities.Even if the civil war ended with this
move, families have been shattered and any semblance of normal lives will take
a long time to bring back. It’s a complicated and complex situation essentially
going back a couple hundred years.But it’s not impossible to implement changes. Perhaps in my lifetime,
perhaps in my children’s, it’ll happen one day.I’m sure of it.
Friday, November 8, 2013
The
Congolese refer to their music simply as ndule,
the Lingala word for music. In fact, most of their own music is sung in Lingala
with some French mixed in as well. After WWII, music in the DRC became more or
less a fusion of African folk music mixed with Latin music, especially rumba
coming out of Cuba. They adapted their music to include Latin instrumentation
and styles.The Belgians actually
helped by bringing in electric guitars and equipment necessary to start
recording music. The first recording studios were in Kinshasa.Besides Cuban rumba, Congolese
musicians were also influenced by American swing music and jazz, cabaret music
from France, and a style known as highlife coming out of Ghana.This new blend of Congolese became
known as soukous and is highly influential in other areas around central
Africa.
African
jazz was super popular during the middle part of the 20th century,
and many jazz bands popped up all over the country, especially in the large
cities. There were a lot of musicians who jumped back and forth between
Kinshasa and Brazzaville.
Soukous
more or less became the base for almost all of the other styles of music in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. And then there were offshoots: rumba-rock, n’dombolo, etc.
One band named Zaiko Langa Langa emerged and changed the genre to include a
more smoother, pop-like sound, which many other bands and music groups followed
as well. The term soukous has now become more of a catch-all term for all
Congolese music.
And
essentially, all Congolese music is dance music. Dance is so integrated with
music that it’s hard to separate the two. Dance styles are generally named after
the music it’s danced to. Different ethnic groups had their own dances and
musical styles used to tell stories and act as part of special ceremonies. The clip above is a great piece I found about Congolese dance today, combining tradition dance styles and ballet, telling the most pressing stories of women and other important issues at hand.
Two super
huge musicians that shaped Congolese music as we know it are definitely in my
Spotify playlist. The first one is Joseph “Grand Kalle” Kabasele. I can
definitely tell the Cuban influence on his music, but there’s also definitely
an African quality to the guitar riffs.There are times that I’ve wondered if I accidently switched over to my
Cuban playlist instead. I love this music. I have the album Le Grande Kallé: His Life, His Music in
my playlist.
Another
musician I found is Papa Wemba.When I pulled up the photo of movie cover to La Vie est Belle, the DRC’s first major film produced (I mentioned
it in my last post), it listed Papa Wemba on the cover – he did much of the
music on the soundtrack.I really
like his music as well, and again, I can sense some of the Latin flavor in his
music in regards to instrumentation and rhythms.I liked the album Best
of Papa Wemba: Cantos Essentials.
Another
album in my playlist is Zaiko Langa Langa’s Tout
Choc. It’s upbeat, and really, who doesn’t love a little cowbell?It almost makes me think of outdoor
cabanas, eating some kind of spicy, charred meat with a side of some fried
plantains, drinking cold beer, taking in the warm breezes, and listening to
this music for hours.
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About Me
I'm really nerdy. I have several writing projects going on, and I also have a really long list of books I'm working my way through; I'm still adding books to it, so in essence, I'll never get through it. I'm an amateur food and culture blogger, an amateur baker and cook, an amateur musicologist, an amateur grammarian, an amateur know-it-all, and a professional dreamer. Follow me on Twitter: @KayoSmada. | {
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