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We Design & Develop Customized Mobile Apps for Corporate Brands as a Game!
Empowering Brand Engagement with Your Customers!
Wha Entertainment provides Full-Service Mobile Development Services for Corporate Brand Engagement with customers.
Goal: We are helping Brands converge their assets with our studio resources, including working with leading entertainment properties, celebrities and original IP concepts to create the best in class branded games for consumer enjoyment and social media buzz.
By teaming with Wha Entertainment for your video solutions, we have the answers of how and why to release games world-wide for revenue success.
In addition we have created our sister company HH Mobile Media to take advantage of Mobiles Unique Social / m-commerce opportunities for brands, products, services.
Creating solutions for Multiple Media and Advertising Agencies that want to help their clients reach and engage with their customers 24/7, a Digital Experience for the companies content.
By branding your companies message through our analytical Gamification reward system, our studios exceeds your advertising and marketing challenges, increasing your companies visibility and consumer engagement.
Integrating consumer Brand consumption through our unique "Zapp Rewards" program for social and mobile games is what WHA Entertainment can do for you.
WHA Entertainment is a full-service game development company engineered for video, social, mobile as an entertainment platform or for corporate brands, products and entertainment properties.
Whether your brand is creating new content or publishing existing content in digital space, our company's innovative game play / business application solutions / will energize your customers to participate in your brand, grow your audience and engage more effectively.
With many years of industry gaming experience, WHA Entertainment gives you the expertise and creative talent that will take your branding strategies to the next level.
By teaming with WHA Entertainment, for your digital branding solutions, game monetization and consumer experience solutions, you have a powerful company that will keep you a step ahead.
It's the client's vision we play for.


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Tired of this constant burning hell !!
Don't wanna get sucked into the med route if it worked so well then why are so many of us in pain..
It's like asking how bad do you feel like screwing yourself over ..
Don't bitch I keep telling myself except this burning hell is just that a burning hell.
Tired of this

subset: commoncrawl


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About Gift Sets from Bath & Body Works
Gift shopping should be fun, not stressful, especially when you've got Bath & Body Works helping you out. Whether you're looking for the perfect birthday gift or holiday gifts for everyone on your list, you're sure to find everything you need to make anyone smile!
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Finding that perfect something for that special someone is easy when you have this many options! The gift sets from Bath & Body Works are always changing, so keep coming back to see what we've put together – you might even find a gift set for yourself!


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Share Secured Loans
Perfect for building credit history
As a member, you have the advantage of opening a loan with a rate lower than a personal loan or credit cards.
Why is it called a secured loan?
This loan requires that you keep a minimum balance in a share savings account or certificate of deposit. The minimum balance is equal to the loan amount.
Why is this loan beneficial?
Members take out this loan to start building their credit history at a low loan rate.
Another reason is for members who work hard to save money and don't want to deplete their savings for a major expense. With a Share Secured Loan, you can borrow money at a low rate and keep your savings growing.
Loan Rate: The loan rate is equal to the current Savings or Certificate rates plus 3%.
Loan Amount: 100% of share savings or certificate of deposit account
Terms: Up to 24 months
Keep in Mind:
- Dividends will continue to be paid on the full amount in the share or certificate of deposit account.
- Collateral funds (amount in share savings or certificate account) will be unavailable for withdrawal during the loan term. The funds become available as the loan balance is paid off.


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Game #162: Rays at Jays pregame
Fitting that the Toronto marathon is taking place on the day the Blue Jays' 2007 marathon comes to an end…
Tampa Bay (65-96) at Toronto (83-78)
at 1:07 p.m. ET at the Rogers Centre
Today's lineups:
Akinori Iwamura, 2B
Jorge Velandia, SS
Carlos Pena, 1B
Greg Norton, RF
Raul Casanova, DH
Dioner Navarro, C
Jonny Gomes, LF
Joel Guzman, 3B
Justin Ruggiano, CF
PITCHING: RHP Jason Hammel (2-5, 6.08 ERA)
Reed Johnson, DH
Russ Adams, 2B
Alex Rios, CF
Adam Lind, LF
John-Ford Griffin, RF
Curtis Thigpen, C
Hector Luna, 1B
Joe Inglett, 3B
Ray Olmedo, SS
PITCHING: RHP A.J. Burnett (10-7, 3.49 ERA)
NOTES: CoachGate finally is over and there are no surprises. Hitting coach Mickey Brantley is not coming back (and rumor has it that you should tune in to Off the Record on Wednesday), Ernie Whitt is moving to first base, Marty Pevey is switching to third base and Brian Butterfield will be the new bench coach. … Toronto manager John Gibbons said that he believes Toronto's rotation should be the same heading into next season: Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett, Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum and Jesse Litsch. He hinted that RHPs Casey Janssen and Brian Wolfe would likely remain in the bullpen next year.
New York at Cleveland
Los Angeles at Boston
COMING LATER: My postseason award picks and playoff predictions
9 Comments
Well, it sure doesn't look good for the Mets. Glavine gives up 7 in 0.1 inning. I guess Folorida are making a statement about the fight yesterday.
Conflicting statements from Abner and JP.
Abner states the rotation should be the same next year.
JP states (on 590) that Janssen will be stretched out over the winter. Personally, I think this is the right move, it certainly can't hurt to have Janssen reaady to go if one of the starters show up lame, or get hurt at the start of the season.
Interesting though, there has been no statement from either of them regarding Chacin. It's like he doesn't exist.
Is he odd man out next year?
So if the starters are the same, who stays and who goes in the pen.
The locked positions are likely:
Does that mean Romero, Kennedy, Tallet, Frasor and Chacin will all be fighting for the 7th and last spot?
I would guess it be 1 of Romero/Kennedy/Tallet, and Frasor for the first month (because it's unlikely BJ will be ready to come north April 1).
Chacin will have to not just put up HUGE numbers in the minors but also show that he is capible of controlling his pitch count – something he hasn't yet been able to do.
I agree with your assesment of streching out Janssen, but I think since his stuff translates better to the pen than Litsch's does (Casey can set-up while Jesse could really only do long-relief) that he'll wind up in the pen atleast untill BJ is back.
With Delmon Young getting taken out of the game yesterday, I think he hurt his chances for R.O.Y. Pedroia will end up getting it.
Young as we all know has so much talent and it is scary what he could end up being.
His attitude STINKS!!!
The dude with the tude!!!
Those Young boys have alot of hate/anger in there bodies.
Classy thing for Abner to do-putting Towers out there for the last two innings.
Certainly was a classy thing to do, considering Josh's major league career is now over.
Although they didn't officially commit any errors, this loss had a lot to do with some pretty lousy defense by the Jays' AAA guys and journeymen — botched double play balls, missing the cut off man, poor throws around the infield, etc.
Oh well. A disappointing end to a disappointing season. At least the pitching's looking good….
And I really think Towers will pop up again somewhere, probably in the N.L. He'll at least get another shot (or two or three) from someone considering how terrible a lot of the pitching is these days. I mean, come on, if the wonky arms of Victor Zambrano, John Thomson, and Ohka can get multiple chances, a rubber arm like Towers will definitely get his share of opportunities in his post-Jay career….


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Swing It, Sailor!
Item #: AB60653
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|Husky Stone (Ray Mayer), strongest man in the Navy, and as short on brains as he is as long on muscle...
|Directed by:
|Raymond Cannon
|Wallace Ford, Ray Mayer, Isabel Jewell, Mary Treen, Max Hoffman Jr., Cully Richards, George Humbert, Tom Kennedy, Alexander Leftwich, Kenneth Harlan, Archie Robbins, Kernan Cripps, Rex Lease


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"Amanda is super friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. We were looking for a new home and are pretty particular, but Amanda was able to find the perfect place for us. Buying a house is a pretty stressful process, but she walked us through everything and had great advice on everything from financing to renovations. I would happily recommend Amanda to anyone; she's the best!"
Liselot Allen
"I must tell you the experience working with your company has been exceptional. Thanks again for all you did to make our experience such a wonderful one."
Jim & Charlotte Tucker
"I would recommend Brad Short to anyone who is looking for a home to buy. He was so knowledgeable about the area, and he listen to what I wanted in a home. He was very responsive when I called, emailed, or texted him. He is a great sales person, very considerate, kind, and most of all he was patient. I can't say enough good things about this man. He always followed through with the utmost respect for his client."
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"Every step of the way, Steve Vincent and his staff worked diligently on my mother's behalf as we embarked on the path of selling her life-long home so she could downsize. Steve provided wise counsel, while exhibiting the kind of gentle patience and sensitivity that made the selling process a breeze for us. In fact, thanks to him, we were able to sell her home the first week it was on the market. I'm absolutely convinced that it was Steve's knowledge of the market - and real estate in general - that resulted in such a great outcome. He put more work into that sale than we could ever have expected. And, looking back, his suggestions and guidance were always right on the money.
Steve's a consummate professional; and he and his group earned five stars from our family!"
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"Thank you all for your help in getting us transitioned from "for sale" to "sold." We really appreciated your suggestions, attentiveness and quick answers to our questions. We are very pleased we chose you to sell our home."
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JM Jardina


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What to Wear on a Date (Video)
4 Date Night Outfit Ideas For Valentine's Day!
Valentine's Day is coming up — do you know what you're wearing to celebrate? Dressing for a date can be tricky. First, you have to take into consideration the place and location. Is it fancy? Casual? Once you've got the dress code down, it's time to incorporate your personal style, after all, you want to look like yourself. Whether you're spending the day exploring your local museum, or are heading out for a night on the town, use today's outfits as inspiration for your next date. On Allison McNamara: Prabal Gurung dress from Rent the Runway. Hair and makeup by Kasia Bohos.


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One morning last fall, Zarghoona Salehi stepped down from a van outside Afghanistan's education ministry, a complex of cavernous buildings behind heavily guarded gates. Inside and upstairs, she filled out an application to visit several schools around Kabul. She didn't go into detail about why. That would only lead to delays, or outright refusal.
Zarghoona covers education and health for Pajhwok Afghan News, Afghanistan's largest independent news agency. She attends press conferences and ribbon-cuttings, but she prefers investigating. The government doesn't always like what she writes.
Zarghoona is small but sturdy, like a brief, forceful sentence. At 29, she is an avatar of the new Afghanistan, waking at dawn to pray and cook breakfast for her family before catching a company van to the office. She comes home at night satisfied that her salary helps pay the bills, pretending not to hear her neighbors' whispers: "Look at her. She came in the dark, very late, and her father let her go…"
The news agency where Zarghoona works is only six years old, part of Afghanistan's rapidly expanding media sector, whose growth is a rare post-Taliban success story. Before, Afghans gleaned information from a government-run newspaper and the Taliban's Radio Sharia. Now, 35 TV channels, dozens of radio stations and hundreds of newspapers and magazines compete for their attention.
Zarghoona's sparkly red cell phone is as indispensable to her as the prayer rug where she kneels several times a day. But she is constantly reminded of Afghanistan's powerful attachment to the past. Men like the ones who commandeered her family's home one freezing night when she was a child are still here. They sit in parliament and control ministries. They ride in fancy cars bristling with guns.
"I'm afraid from these people," Zarghoona told me, as an SUV full of them swerved in front of us outside the education ministry. "They have a gun and they can do everything."
In the West, we assume that what comes next will be better than what came before. U.S. military commanders tell Afghans to get off the fence and work for a better future. But many Afghans are suspicious of foreigners and their promises, of everything shiny and new. In their experience, bright things tarnish. The sudden rush of modernity since the U.S. invasion has made some Afghans cling even more tightly to the past. The past may be violent, but at least it is known, at least it belongs to them.
Zarghoona and her colleagues at Pajhwok (the name means "reflection" or "echo" in Afghanistan's two main languages) spend their days documenting this collision between old and new.
This fall, one reporter wrote about the disastrous effects of new hormones on Afghan weightlifters, who used to bulk up on honey and eggs. Another documented the growing number of men who harass women on streets and buses, an aberration in Afghanistan's deeply modest culture. A reporter visited abandoned buildings, where police and soldiers smoke opium alongside ordinary addicts.
And then there was Zarghoona's story. After a short drive, we pulled up outside one of the best schools in Kabul. Lycee Esteqlal is an old, wealthy institution with tree-shaded grounds and a pristine modern art gallery. Students learn French and Dari, the language of Afghan officialdom.
The topic of Zarghoona's story was the rising violence in Kabul schools. She had heard students were hiding knives and other weapons in their book bags. Some students had even attacked their teachers.
School violence is a sensitive subject in Afghanistan. Respect for elders is paramount here, so the idea that young people would disobey or even attack their teachers strikes at the roots of social order the way it might have 100 years ago in America.
In the principal's office, Zarghoona turned on her recorder, opened her notebook and began asking questions, softballs first. She frowned slightly at the principal's responses, her head scarf slipping back to reveal a flash of dark hair. Rings of sweat formed under her arms, darkening the pink fabric of her blouse.
Afghanistan is a nation of storytellers. But Western-style, fact-based journalism, with its implicit challenge to authority, is a radical act here. Zarghoona had talked to a man whose nephew attended Esteqlal. The boy had carried a knife to school, his uncle said, to protect himself from other students carrying such weapons.
"We haven't seen such things," the principal told her calmly. It was hard to know whether he was telling the truth. Boys were subjected to a cursory check at the gates, he said, but searchers couldn't find everything, and staff couldn't be everywhere at once.
Zarghoona has learned to control her nerves when questioning powerful people. She wasn't always so brave.
Late one winter night when she was 12, gunmen showed up at her father's house in Kabul. It was 1994, when militia commanders who had expelled the Soviets were fighting each other for control of the capital. "Leave this house," they told Zarghoona's father. They commandeered the place to attack a rival commander.
Three weeks later, her father went back to their house. "How was our home?" Zarghoona asked when he returned. "Everything is burned," her father told her. "We don't have anything now."
The family moved to Pakistan, joining millions of refugees. "Our life completely changed," she said.
The Taliban fell and the family returned to Kabul. Zarghoona got a job writing for a women's weekly, and found that she liked it. After nine months, she joined the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, a British nonprofit that trains journalists in conflict zones and developing countries. That led to a job at Pajhwok.
Zarghoona's father enthusiastically supports her work and ambition. An old man now, he came of age at a time when Kabul was as progressive as any city in Europe. "One day, my father told me, 'I am proud of you. You are a good journalist, and you work in a society for people,' " Zarghoona told me. "Every day he help me and encourage me."
Others are only too willing to impede her.
When she was starting out at Pajhwok, President Hamid Karzai's wife visited a hospital with the wife of the Iranian president. Zarghoona's editor told her to go to the hospital and take the women's pictures. It was the kind of assignment that would raise no hackles in the West, but guards barred her way. Zarghoona's editor called a friend who worked in the hospital and asked her to sneak Zarghoona inside. The guards grabbed her and forced her out. "You are not a good journalist!" they yelled. "Why did you do this?"
"That time I became very sad and crying a lot," Zarghoona told me. Next time, she was better prepared. When a presidential security guard tried to stop her from getting close to high-level speakers at a press conference at the Ministry of Women's Affairs, she threatened to write about him. The fact that he was making trouble for her at an event she had been invited to cover was an indication of how poorly understood journalism remains in Afghanistan.
Her job has put her an uncomfortable half step ahead of the culture in which she lives. Her cousin, a good man with a steady job, recently proposed to her. In Afghanistan, marriage between cousins is common, but Zarghoona has covered the health ministry long enough to know that the children of such unions often suffer birth defects.
"Because of that, I refuse that proposal," Zarghoona told me. "But now he is not getting married and he is waiting for me."
Zarghoona's sister wants her to reconsider.
Afghan culture is often portrayed as aggressive. In reality it is ornately polite. Rules must be observed. Zarghoona's scandalized neighbors did not confront her; they smiled and whispered disapprovingly. People don't talk openly about social ills like drug use or kids bringing knives to school.
Zarghoona had heard about attacks on a high school teacher and an administrator. The previous year, a student had cut his teacher's face when he failed an exam, then knocked out the principal's tooth when they punished him. A week earlier, another boy had hit the principal in the head with a stone.
More than 20,000 students attend the government-run school. The classrooms are plain stone, without glass in the windows or proper doors. On the day we visited, some girls were studying in an empty shipping container. Others sat at desks on a windswept lawn, their makeshift classrooms marked off by bed sheets hung from ropes.
Zarghoona met with the principal of the boys' school, the one who had been attacked. He was an older man in a shirt and tie, with a shiny bald head and a white beard. Zarghoona asked whether boys were bringing box cutters and other weapons to school.
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The principal said that some did. It was impossible to control so many students, he said, and parents were little help. Student "scouts" — the Afghan version of hall monitors — were assigned to the main gates of the school every day, but there were only 10 of them, and they couldn't catch everyone.
Like other administrators, the principal blamed school violence on Afghanistan's 30 years of war. "These boys saw fighting, guns and all of this violence," Zarghoona told me later. "They learned, and they do these things in the school also."
But she noted this, too: Indian and Western movies about gangsters and thugs are now widely available on Afghan TV. Kids were watching these films, Zarghoona told me, and "acting like superstars."
When Zarghoona was done interviewing the principal, I tried to ask him about the boy who had hit him with a stone. Zarghoona translated my request. She and the principal spoke quickly in Dari, and then Zarghoona turned to me: "He doesn't want."
I asked Zarghoona about it later. The recent attack was such an affront to Afghan culture that he didn't want anyone outside the country to know about it. "We are ashamed of these things," she explained.
The principal didn't know that Zarghoona's story would be published in English for foreigners like me to read. But the English translation of the story also didn't explain that it contained information that foreigners in Afghanistan routinely miss.
We went back to Esteqlal school so Zarghoona could talk to some students. Guards manning a checkpoint near the presidential palace stopped us. Zarghoona showed them her press card. The men asked us to wait, but Zarghoona, flushed with anger, told the driver to turn around.
"In Afghanistan, it is simple," she said. "If someone has a gun — has power — they always do like this."
She predicted that she would be dead before the country made the kind of progress she and her colleagues hoped for.
By now, we had reached the school. Zarghoona strode down the sidewalk, stopping to interview some small boys on their way to class. Did they know anyone who brought knives to school?
"No," the boys chorused.
A security guard working for the school scolded Zarghoona loudly. This was a public sidewalk, but in Afghanistan that didn't matter.
"Okay, we're going," Zarghoona told him. We started walking, the little boys running alongside.
Zarghoona stared out the window on the way back to the office. On days like this, she didn't feel strong or brave. She felt like an Afghan woman, five feet tall in heels, pushing against centuries.
On my last day in Kabul, breaking news electrified the Pajhwok newsroom. A fight had erupted at a school. One student was dead, another badly wounded. Baseer, the crime reporter, got on the phone. Two gangs of students had fought. One group came from the southern province of Helmand, the other from Paktika in the east.
I thought of the gang wars in American cities. Afghanistan has been asked to undertake a radical form of time travel that is pulling it apart. This is not the first time. Every few decades, the cities surge forward, the villages dig in, and the country quietly goes to war with itself.
Americans barely have time to understand U.S. policy in this faraway place, where their sons and daughters are dying, let alone these small internal arguments. But big things are made up of small things. Afghan reporters are documenting these small things, one at a time.


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Program outline
This action packed adventure captures Youtube mania and positions it in a flexible teambuilding context. Youtube documents some amazing evidence of what can be achieved when individuals work together as one. In You Bet You Can teams browse through a menu challenges categorised on our own unique e-platform. They then view specific 'action' clips to establish a 'viability factor'. The crux of the game focuses on teams betting on their own performance. Achieve the success criteria within the given time frame and they double their bet. Fail and they lose not only the time and effort invested but also their original investment!
Learning and development outcomes
In You Bet You can teams have to learn to work together efficiently and effectively, identifying and capitalising on individual strengths. They must be realistic in their appraisal of their collective abilities, reassessing their game plan with each challenge they bet on and approach. Teams that accurately assess their abilities, learn to focus their energy and manage their resources effectively are the ultimate winners.
Corporate Social Responsibility ideas
Add a 'bolt on extra to this activity' where the points accumulated by teams are matched with cash donations from your company. Here's how it works:
Teams are rewarded with star icons according to their performance in each challenge. All teams total their stars at end of the competition; a winning team is recognised and applauded. A spokesperson for the company announces that all stars earned during the competition will be matched on a cash ratio e.g. 1 star = $1 Several Perspex 'post boxes' are provided, representing 2 or 3 charities your company has chosen to support. Teams divide their stars evenly between individuals in their team. All participants are invited to post their stars according to the charities they personally wish to support.


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Getting Astronomers Involved in the IYA2009: Astronomer in the Classroom Program
17 March 2009
The University of Hawaii Institution for Astronomy and Interstellar Studios will be facilitating the exciting new International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) educational program, Astronomer in the Classroom, starting next month. We are seeking astronomers that are interested in volunteering 3 hours to this worthy activity.
The Astronomer in the Classroom Program will provide astronomers with the opportunity to interface with school children across North America during the IYA2009. Using Abode® Connect, a web conferencing solution, Interstellar Studios will host three 20-minute webcasts every school day in 2009 starting in mid-April.
The webcasts will be conducted at the same time each day, to accommodate national time zone differences and grade levels (3-5, 7-8, 9-12) allowing educators to drop-in when their curriculum and testing schedules allow it. This flexible scheduling will afford convenience to the teachers while avoiding bandwidth congestion.
A schedule of participating astronomers will be posted at www.astronomerintheclassroom.org with brief descriptions of the lectures allowing both the student and teacher a chance to plan for webcasts, which they would like to participate in.
The Adobe® Connect web-based interface will allow the astronomer to be viewed and heard over the web, as well as run a PowerPoint® presentation live. Students can interact by typing questions to the conference. A Moderator will be provided to help facilitate the follow-up Q & A period.
Graduate students, post docs and active researchers who can give three hours to this worthy cause are invited to volunteer. The program should only require one hour of prep to create the presentation, ½-hour to upload and test the provided webcam and 1 1/2-hours to do the three webcasts.
IfA has donated the cost of the Abobe® licensing and Interstellar Studios is managing this free program. Volunteers need only provide a PC/Mac with a webcam and microphone. An Internet connection rated
DSL or better is required
No special training is needed. Astronomers who are passionate about their research, and enjoy sharing their discoveries and news of their institution, have already met the most important criteria for participation. Participating astronomers are simply asked to keep in mind the grade levels-- attention capacity, and to describe the subject matter with grade appropriate vocabulary.
For astronomers whose institutions are expected to perform outreach, and /or participate in the IYA2009, the Astronomer in the Classroom Program offers a convenient, high-impact means to meet those objectives.
Make a difference during the IYA2009! Inspire a child to look up and ask why!
Contact Information:
Interstellar Studios
11 Ilahee Lane
Chico, CA 95973
Telephone - (530) 343-5635
Search IYA2009 Updates
National Nodes: 148
Organisational Nodes: 40
Organisational Associates:33
National Websites: 111
Cornerstone Projects: 12
Special Task Groups: 11
Special Projects:16
Official Products:8
Media Partners:22


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What's in Brian's Brain?
By Brian Hayes
Despite the progress of neuroscience, I still don't know my own mind.
Despite the progress of neuroscience, I still don't know my own mind.
Of all the computing devices I encounter from day to day, the most mysterious is the one in my own head. Other machines—from gadgets in my pocket to unseen Internet servers—process information in ways that I think I understand. When it comes to the brain, however, I haven't got a clue.
Advocates of the new brain science initiatives cite the Human Genome Project as a precedent. But the comparison between neuroscience and molecular biology is more illuminating if we take a broader historical view.
A century ago, biologists knew next to nothing about the molecular basis of genetics and metabolism. Some of what they thought they knew was wrong: As late as the 1940s the stuff of genes was believed to be protein, not DNA. Then, over a span of a dozen years, the central mechanisms of life were suddenly revealed in vivid detail. The double helix and the genetic code provided the key to understanding both inheritance and the control of chemical synthesis within the cell. The essential idea was surprisingly simple: For many purposes one could ignore all the biochemical details and look upon genetic information as an abstract sequence of symbols, a message written in the four-letter alphabet of DNA. Without that level of abstraction, the Human Genome Project would have been unthinkable.
Neuroscience has followed a different trajectory. Early in the 20th century, knowledge of neural anatomy and physiology was already quite advanced. The main elements of the nervous system were recognized as individual cells (neurons) with input fibers (dendrites) and output fibers (axons). Stimuli reaching the dendrites cause the cell to "fire," producing an impulse, or "spike," on the axon. The physics of the nerve impulse was also understood: Ions flow across the cell membrane, creating an electrical disturbance that propagates as a wave along the fiber. One cell communicates with the next through a synapse, where axon and dendrite are pressed together. In the 1940s Warren S. McCulloch and Walter H. Pitts showed that small networks of neurons could implement basic logic functions. And then Donald O. Hebb proposed a mechanism of learning and memory in which neurons that frequently fire together develop stronger synaptic ties.
At mid-century, neuroscience seemed poised for a breakthrough. And indeed there were dozens of momentous discoveries—a torrent of new knowledge about the detailed structure and function of nervous tissue. What hasn't emerged is a big idea with the explanatory power of the double helix or the genetic code. We still can't read out the information stored or embodied in a brain—the skills an organism has acquired, the facts learned, the experiences remembered—as we can read out information encoded in a strand of DNA. None of the pending brain study projects have promised to supply such a mind-reading capability. But perhaps they will at least offer some hints about how information is represented and stored in the brain.
As modern neuroscience has grown up alongside molecular biology, it has also been strongly influenced by another blossoming field: computer science. Brains and computers are called on to perform many of the same tasks: doing arithmetic, solving puzzles, planning strategies, analyzing patterns, filing away facts for future reference. At a more theoretical level, biological and electronic machines surely have the same computational power. And yet attempts to explain brains in terms of computers, or vice versa, have not been wildly successful.
The neural circuits sketched by McCulloch and Pitts look much like the diagrams of logic gates (AND, OR, NOT, etc.) that appear in designs of digital computers. The resemblance is misleading. McCulloch and Pitts showed that their networks of neurons can compute the same set of logical propositions as certain abstract automata. However, neurons in the brain are not wired together to form such simple logic circuits.
A typical electronic logic gate computes a function of two or three inputs. For example, a three-input AND gate has an output of true if and only if all three inputs are true. There are eight combinations of three true-or-false signals, yielding 256 possible functions of those inputs. A typical neuron has thousands of synaptic inputs. For 1,000 signals there are 21,000 combinations—an immense quantity, far exceeding the number of cells in the human brain. The number of functions that a 1,000-input neuron might be computing is larger still: 2 raised to the power 21,000. For such a neuron there's no hope of constructing a complete truth table, showing the cell's response to all possible combinations of inputs; the appropriate tool for describing the action of the neuron is not logic but statistics.
The spiky nature of neural signaling is a further complication. Standard electronic logic gates work on persistent signals: Apply a voltage to each of the inputs, wait for the system to settle down, then read the state of the output. Neural signals are brief impulses rather than steady voltages. Thus the output of a neuron depends not just on which input signals are present but also on their precise timing.
Abstract models of the brain, such as artificial neural networks, smooth away many of these complexities. If the function that a neuron computes is just a weighted sum of the inputs, only a tiny fraction of the possible combinations need to be considered. (For a fixed set of input weights, the number of distinguishable combinations falls from 21,000 to 1,001.) Likewise the problem of synchronizing spikes is eased by assuming that the neuron merely measures the average rate of spiking. The extent to which biological neurons adopt these simplifying strategies remains a matter of controversy and conjecture.
Still another challenge awaits when trying to interpret brain architecture through the lens of computer technology. Digital computers rely on directly addressed data storage. A pattern of bits is written to a specific location; subsequent reading of the same location retrieves the data. Neuroscientists have searched everywhere in the nervous system for such an addressable read-write memory, without success.
The prevailing model of information storage in the brain is associative memory. Conventional computer memory works like a coat-check room. When you hand over your coat, you get a numbered ticket; later, when you present that ticket, you receive whatever coat is on the hanger with the matching number. Associative memory is a coat-check room that issues no tickets. To retrieve your coat, you list some of its attributes—blue wool jacket, missing top button—and the clerk brings out all the coats that match the description.
The brain's implementation of associative memory is thought to be based on the adjustment of synaptic transmission in response to experience, as proposed by Hebb. This mechanism seems well suited to storing perceptual and motor patterns that we learn by repeated exposure or rehearsal: memories of places and faces, the habitual motions of the fingers when tying shoelaces or playing guitar chords. Each repetition is believed to strengthen the synaptic connections between neurons that fire simultaneously. The eventual result is a "cell assembly," a set of neurons that tend to respond as a group whenever a sufficiently large subset of the assembly is stimulated.
Experiments are starting to reveal the biochemical nature of learning-induced changes in synapses. A harder question is how a shifting pattern of synaptic weights encodes an abstract concept or a narrative. Somewhere in my brain is an enduring record of the important fact that 7×9=63. There's also a memory of the long, dreary struggle to implant that fact—the hours spent drilling with flash cards. I am intensely curious about how those two kinds of knowledge are represented in my head.
What about memories that are formed without the need for practice or repetition? People can narrate the plot of a movie (often in excruciating detail) after a single viewing. For that matter, honeybees can remember and report the location of flowers after a single foraging trip. Can these feats also be explained by some variant of Hebbian learning?
The late Valentino Braitenberg took a distinctively quantitative approach to the great puzzles of neuroscience. With his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, he spent more than two decades counting and measuring the cells of the mammalian cerebral cortex. The facts and figures he gathered did not solve all the mysteries, but any proposed answers will have to take his data into account.
A neuron in the human cortex (specifically, a pyramidal cell) has a frizzy nimbus of dendrites that extends throughout a volume of roughly 1 cubic millimeter. But the cell does not fill this entire volume; on the contrary, it shares the space with 100,000 other cells in a densely woven thatch of dendrites and axons. The combined length of all the dendrites in this volume is about 450 meters; the total length of the axons is even greater, more than 4 kilometers. In this tangled skein of nerve fibers, you might imagine that every cell would cross wires with every other cell. But Braitenberg found that most of the cells make no contact with one another. Choosing any two neurons that have fibers extending into the same cubic millimeter, the probability that they share a synapse is only 2 percent.
However, this sparse connectivity does not mean that the cortex breaks down into isolated clusters of cells. A signal from any neuron can reach all the other neurons in the entire cortex—all 20 billion of them—after passing through no more than two or three synapses. The cortex is a "small world" network, like social networks in which everyone is connected by chains of friends of friends.
On this evidence Braitenberg argued that the cortex is "a device for the most widespread diffusion and most intimate mixing of signals." He suggested that this architecture is just what would be expected in an associative memory. Incoming signals spread rapidly throughout the cortex, reaching nearly all the neurons. Each possible combination of inputs evokes a different response: One set of cells is activated when we encounter quacking and waddling creatures, another set recognizes the barking and tail-wagging ones.
Questions remain about how such a system would reliably distinguish a boundless spectrum of possible patterns. At one extreme, every concept is associated with a single neuron; this is the notion of the "grandmother cell," which lights up when granny enters the room. Cell assemblies might be seen as a broader version of the same idea, with overlapping populations of cells representing percepts and concepts. Braitenberg favored an even more diffuse scheme, in which concepts are embodied in the global state of the entire network.
Not everyone goes along with this view of the cortex as a large, undifferentiated memory organ. Indeed, there is much compelling evidence that regions have special functions, such as vision and speech. Braitenberg believed these opposing theories of the cortex could be reconciled.
Frances Crick, who took up neuroscience after conquering molecular biology, wrote in 1979 about the prospects for understanding the brain: "It is no use asking for the impossible, such as, say, the exact wiring diagram for a cubic millimeter of brain tissue and the way all its neurons are firing." Current brain-mapping projects do exactly what Crick believed impossible.
A goal of the Connectome Project at Harvard is to image the microanatomy of a cubic millimeter of mouse brain in sufficient detail to resolve individual synapses and create a full connectivity map. The first step is to slice the tiny block of tissue into 20,000 sections, each 50 nanometers thick. Each slice is imaged by an electron microscope with a resolution of 5 nanometers. The resulting data set will be about 800 terabytes. The second phase of the project is more difficult: Identifying features of cells in the individual images and correctly aligning the features in successive slices to reconstruct the full three-dimensional geometry. For these tasks to be completed at reasonable speed and cost, both phases of the operation must be automated. A group led by Jeff W. Lichtman and Hanspeter Pfister of Harvard has recently reported on a pilot project with a cube of tissue 30 micrometers on a side.
As for the second part of Crick's impossible request, a manifesto for the Brain Activity Map declares: "We propose to record every action potential from every neuron within a circuit—a task we believe is feasible." Admittedly, the task is not feasible with present instruments, which either average the activity of large ensembles of cells or isolate small numbers of single cells. One approach to bridging the gap would rely on arrays of nanoelectrodes to record simultaneously from many cells. The alternatives are optical techniques, in which molecules or nanoparticles implanted in neurons emit light in response to ion flows or voltage changes.
The new European project, led by Henry Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, seems to go well beyond Crick's impossible dream. Within a decade, Markram proposes to build a computer simulation of the entire human brain at a level of detail fine enough to include structural and physiological features of individual cells. Then he envisions linking the model brain to a virtual body in a virtual environment. He even mentions looking for cognitive abilities like those of a human infant.
Such a model can be built without first having a full wiring diagram of the brain, Markram says; its assembly will be guided by the same genetic and developmental rules that operate in the embryo. And it can be built without first ascertaining the nature of memory or the neural encoding of information; as a matter of fact, the simulation should help resolve those enigmas, according to Markram. Europe is now making a €1 billion bet that these grandiose plans will succeed.
Markram's Human Brain Project is not the first program with that name; the U.S. National Academy of Sciences launched an identically named research effort more than 20 years ago, when President George H. W. Bush declared that the 1990s would be "the decade of the brain." It's a little discouraging to be starting down the same path again, with the big questions still unanswered. But, as the owner of a brain that's still curious about itself, I believe the quest must go on.
Click "American Scientist" to access home page


text:
First, sorry for my bad english =)
I live in Finland, city called Tampere ( http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...186.328125&z=3 )
I'm founder & admin of local RC rock crawling forum / community.
So i have many years of knowhow for crawling, hi-powered brushless setups/conversions and general RC stuff.
I did get Summit for my boy, but as you can guess, i drive that some times.
Boy & summit (order from amainhobbies.com, because local dealers do not have Summit):
After 10min driving:
One week later:
Last edited by jesi; 04-13-2009 at 09:53 AM.
First, sorry for my bad english =)
Your more understandable than alot of americans.
Nice lookin truck.
Nobama '08 Welcome to the greatest depression.
i bet theres some awsome terrain in finland
pm me with what BRUSHED motor for rusty
Some driving pics:
Boy drive with 2* 8.4v/4000mah & 2* 7.2v/4000mah nimh, because lack of lipo cut-off.
I'm using 2s/4000mah lipos.
Here is my charger:
I can charge all four batterys at same time, it takes about 25min (all four empty batterys to fully charged).
Last edited by jesi; 04-13-2009 at 09:54 AM.
I have some extra time, so i did "clean up" summit stock wiring:
Some extra protection for RX & T-Lock module:
I did also put T-Lock wires "wrong way", so first lock is off, then only rear lock, then both locks.
Now it is better to drift with only rear lock
Also i did put some silicone grease for RX-box O-ring and wire inlets, just for overprotection =)
Change stock esc & motor connectors to 6mm bullets:
I'm planing to mount Mamba Monster esc and some nice brushless motor.
Only problem is, MMM is not waterproof, maybe not water resistant at any means?
Anyway, here is my solution:
(testing with some old esc)
Get some nice box, make inlets for wires, fill that up with PURE silicone
oil, remove cooling fan, sink MMM in that oil, close the box?
So, box & oil is protecting esc from water, also it is transferring heat away...
And some playing around:
Last edited by jesi; 04-13-2009 at 09:56 AM.
What get's me is that you get your replacement parts in 1 week and I've been waiting for 3 and I'm in Canada!
Oh, and nice work on the re-wire of your truck.
I just did send email to trx support, and explain what happend and ask to send parts for rear and front....
thats one lucky kid! hope you and your son enjoy the summit, i know i will once i get it
Last edited by Misbehavin'; 07-20-2009 at 01:23 PM.
Lead, follow, or get out of my way!
what charger is that your using??
Originally Posted by traxxasfan1
Price at that shop, 460usd.
Price at that shop, 436usd.
Maybe you can find cheaper from some local shop?
Last edited by jesi; 04-14-2009 at 11:48 AM.
Crawling is also about fine.
But more testing....
First i did try that XL 2800kv motor with Mamba Max (also CC-BEC), at 4S 4000mah.
I drive about 7min _very_ light bashing, then esc goes temp cutoff (newsflash?, not.)
Today i did get little box (IP66) and make rugged prototype v0.00001:
I make inlets, filled that box with PURE silicone oil, drop esc in and close the box.
I drive about 15min, very hard bashing.
The esc box was about hand warm after that, and no temp cutoff or anything else problems........
So, now i have fully waterPROOF brushless Summit.
Now i need some nice sensored motor & esc for better crawling =)
What you recommend?
Last edited by jesi; 04-15-2009 at 03:33 PM.
Wow dude, that is awesome!!!! Grate job!!!!!
[QUOTE=Corrijo]Welcome to the crazed family of summit owners.[/QUOTE]
Looking good! Well done, I'm jealous.
Very impressive!
Traxxas Rally, Grave Digger, and LaTrax Alias
okay explain to me how I get rear lock only, I dont want front lock only.. I want rear lock
Sorry for delay.
Open RX-box, there is T-lock module:
Put "A" wire to "B", and "B" wire to "A".
yeha, I was tired when I read your post and posted my post asking how,
thanks , works great!
great job there, do you just turn the module around or the wires.Originally Posted by jesi
baja 5B
Rally 1/10
Why do you put the esc in silicon, instead of just leaving it empty, and wouldnt it ruin the esc with the fan? and where did you get the box you put the esc in?
Are you an RC addict?
If there is no liquid, where the heat is going?
Now oil is taking heat from ESC and transfer that to box, and box has so big surface area that it evaporates that heat away.
I did buy that box from local electronic parts supplier.
Now i have bigger box and better inlets, so it is v0.00003 now
But, now i do have so much Real work to do, so i did put this oil-cooling-project to break.
(about 100-120hour per week, cleaning roads and yards with:
Yes, i did wash my car at lunch break )
Btw, just order Red summit (for myself)....
So, now i can race with my son
You mentioned that you run a rock crawling group. What is your opinion of the Summit compared to the dedicated rock crawlers? (I see you bought another Summit so that must say something )
Summit, CEN MG10-TR, Losi Micro-T
Yes, i have been driving many years crawling with "real" rc-crawlers, as in 2.2 to super series.
I'm Very satisfied Summit's crawling capability.
Ok, need some tuning and can't race with Super-series crawler, but very good for "sunday crawling" =)
Tires are good!
Only crawling-tuning what i planed to do is fine tune suspension and put some weight to front.
Not sure what to use, but normaly i do use:
- 1:1 car wheel balancing weights, mounted inside of tire, to wheel out-ring.
- salt water, inside of tire.
- BB lead pellets, inside of tire.
- External temporary weight.
Also planing to use brushed e-revo motor mount, so i can use dual crawling motors.
(with my friends Axial SCX10)
Last edited by jesi; 05-02-2009 at 01:35 PM.
Nice!! The only thing better than a Traxxas Summit is two Traxxas Summits.
Summit, CEN MG10-TR, Losi Micro-T
Originally Posted by savage t-mack
ok got it thanks!!!.
baja 5B
Rally 1/10
Now many hours of crawling with both summit's...
I did put temporary weights to front of car, just for testing:
I used 1:1 car wheel balancing weights, about 1.3lb/600g.
- because tires have so good grip, steering servos stall some times in "bad places".
- torque twist
But, both are easy to fix.
I say, stock tires are better than moab 40 series.
Today we drive in our best crawling area (what i know), i have been driving at that place many many years, super & 2.2 series comp crawlers.
So, can compare Summit crawling performace to my old cars, and it is GOOD!
Okay, there is some places what summit did not handle, and some did need some brutal throttle using =) But average value of performance is in my scale: 4.5 (scale 1-5).
(now both summit's are 120% factory stock, except that temporary weight in red car)
Some pics:
(last pic: this place has six old anti-aircraft gun mountings, from war time (1939 – 1944), there is also monument for lost soldiers)
BTW, here is specs from that oil what i use in my "project: oil-cooled summit":
Baysilone Fluid M 500
Product Description* Baysilone Fluid M 500 is a 100% polydimethylsiloxane of viscosity
500 mm²/s. The product differs from organic materials in its physical
and chemical properties such as high and low temperature stability,
good dielectric properties, low interfacial energy, and chemical
inertness. Baysilone Fluid M 500 can be used in a wide range of
applications ranging from heat transfer media and hydraulic fluids to
polish and antifoam formulation.
* *
Key Performance
• High and low-temperature stability*
• Low pour point*
• Low temperature and pressure dependence of viscosity*
• Good dielectric characteristics*
• Low interfacial energy*
• High surface activity*
• High compressibility*
• Chemical inertness
• Heat transfer media*
• Hydraulic fluids*
• Dielectrics fluids*
• Water repellents*
• Polishes*
• Lubricants*
• Antifoams* *
• Mould release agents
Typical Product Data*
Property Unit Value
Viscosity at 25°C: 500 mm2/s
Density at 25 °C: 0.97 g/cm3
Pour point: ~ -50°C
Flash point: 315°C
Ignition point: > 400°C
* *
* *
Containers:* Baysilone Fluid M 500 is available in 50 kg cans, 200 kg drums, and
950 kg totes.
Last edited by jesi; 05-07-2009 at 03:53 PM.
I´m still laughing! Jesi!
Still waiting for the Summit release here in Sweden.
Last edited by Misbehavin'; 07-20-2009 at 01:27 PM.
Never underestimate stupid people in large groups!
ha ha!
Our local shops do get trx from Minicars, from Sweden.
So, we have first summits in shops at end off this month or next month. And the price is BIG!
Originally Posted by jesi
Yeah I know. (I manage a local hobby shop in Uppsala)
And I´m friends on a personal basis with two of the guys packing and shipping at Minicars so I get updates on a daily basis... The price is going to be pretty high but still worth it I think.
Never underestimate stupid people in large groups!
Order from US?
Heck no!
Maybe waiting is gonna kill me but its gonna very ,very cheap when it gets here!
(some perks for managing a lhs,right?)
Never underestimate stupid people in large groups!
More trial driving in old forest machine trails:
I did put mamba max with stock motor.
(4s lipo and CC-BEC at 6v)
The dragbrake is avesome!
When i drive at first gear, WOT, then release throttle, all wheels stop instant and car stops with rear in the air =)
Also, i did get rid of reverse delay.
Some data:
- 1.5h
- 3550mah
- 575w
- 44a
- 55wh
that looks like a awsome place to drive^^^^^^
Wow man, you guys have some awesome places to run your Summits! Where abouts is that??
Originally Posted by trdoffroad_24
he is from finland a land far away.
baja 5B
Rally 1/10
Originally Posted by trdoffroad_24
Today i receive my items from ebay:
I'm planing to use this motor mount and gear cover to use real crawler motors.
They have lots of torque and efficiency is great!
Brushed e-revo tranny with 2-speed gearing.
I put this 2-motor plate to summit tranny.
For hi-speed driving:
Now i have another tranny with brushless motor, ready for fast swap.
(e-revo tranny has different gear ratio)
Tekin RX8 combo (2250kv) ordered
(Also E-Revo VXL for my wife, )


text:
ALZEY, Germany -- More than 130 paratroopers, comprised of 130 Soldiers, Airmen and partner nation jumpers, air dropped toys and performed an airborne jump during the fourth annual Operation Toy Drop at the Alzey Drop Zone, Dec. 13.
Operation Toy Drop is an annual event sponsored by U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern's Army Community Service and coordinated by the 21st Theater Sustainment Command's 5th Quartermaster Detachment.
Toys were provided by the jumping service members and donated to ACS for use in their yearly holiday toy shop, where families in need are able to select toys to be given to their children this holiday season.
"It's cool because all of these toys are going to a good cause," said Staff Sgt. Tylor Buckingham, the operations planning noncommissioned officer for the 5th QM and a native of Linn Creek, Mo. "We're donating (the toys) to ACS, and then they're going to pass them out to kids in the KMC area."
The 5th QM, U.S. Army Europe's only asset for providing aerial delivery support to various U.S. and allied military units throughout Europe, provided logistical support for the airdrop as well as Soldiers who jumped with the U.S. and partner nation paratroopers from U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft during the operation.
"We have right around 20 individuals jumping," said Buckingham. "But with the detail and everybody (involved), it's about coming together."
"This year we have Germans, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, plus the U.S. airborne community in USAREUR (participating)," said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Scott Bockelman, the drop zone safety officer from the 5th QM and a native of Pawnee, Okla. "This is one of our opportunities to bond with them and learn their tactics and procedures as well as raise toys for needy children."
Planning for the operation began four months prior, with the 5th QM coordinating with ACS and various units throughout Europe. ACS began collecting toys in October through donations provided by the Kaiserslautern Military Community and will add them to the toys dropped to be used for their holiday toy shop.
"We started putting boxes out in October throughout the community in high visibility areas," said Charlene Licciardi, the financial readiness assistant for ACS and an Orlando native. "Units also asked for boxes so they could have people donate, so a lot of unit participation was key."
Family members were also at the event to see their loved ones perform the holiday jump, which also fulfilled their annual requirement to remain on airborne status. The jump also gave service members the opportunity to exchange airborne qualification badges with their fellow foreign airborne soldiers.
Being able to jump and earn foreign wings as well as providing gifts for the children at the event was a wonderful experience for Air Force Capt. Kyle Yates, a security forces officer with the 435th Security Forces Squadron and a Tangerine, Fla., native.
"This is my first jump after getting in from jump school so I'm pretty excited," Yates said. "It's a wonderful experience and I'm happy to be here."
Santa Clause, represented by Warrant Officer Eric Christianson, a jumpmaster with the 5th QM and a native of Ada, Okla., made a special appearance during the event, parachuting into the landing zone during the operation and riding to the viewing area in the back of a Humvee with the air dropped toys before handing them out to the gathering children.
"For me it was not different than my other jumpmaster duties, I just had a Santa suit on," said Christianson. "I think it's important to show not only the Army community but also the KMC and our partner nations that we care."
"It makes me proud to be in the 5th QM and to bring a little Christmas joy to the community," Christianson added.


text:
Ok, ok, ok, one more post.
This is a little Halloween pic I did for Tara and sent to her with a bunch of candy and goodies.
It's also the invite for our post Halloween leftovers party this weekend. Its gonna be spooktastical!
Probably won't update for a while in the next 2 weeks, but who knows? Maybe I will.
Have a good gobble gobble, everyone!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Lovin's in the Black Lagoon
Ok, ok, ok, one more post.
Posted by Zach Bellissimo at 10:44 PM 6 comments
Labels: black lagoon, halloween, party, tara billinger
Saturday, November 14, 2009
More Inking Practice Doodles
I did these during my boring classes!
The fat, drunken, bumbling Voodoo Croc...
Jillyan age 9, for some reason. Also my scanner is really bad.
These are designs for a devil character for a short animation assignment. I figured he should have a saw for a nose so he can saw open portals from Hell to the mortal world. Fun!
Ok, I gotta get back to cleaning my house, a very special someone is coming over next week and its gotta be nice and tidy and cat hair free, hehehe.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Isn't that nice?
I got an awesome new brush pen and was compelled to try it out whilst working on my inking skills.
Ratch seems very interested. Tell him more!
I need to draw my characters more often. This is Jillyan. I dunno what she's doing here, but it sure was fun to draw.
And how!
So I haven't been posting anything lately cuz things have been really busy for me and my laptop broke and my neighbor's fixing it, and he let me borrow some dell lappy that one of his clients found in the trash...yea...works fine to me.
But I'll try to post more soon. I miss me blog.
Posted by Zach Bellissimo at 11:20 PM 8 comments
Labels: brush pen, characters, inking
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The Night Zach Wore His Wolf Suit...
He made mischief of one kind....
And pissed off his mom so he was sent to his room without any sloppy joes.
A forest grew around his room and he hopped on a private boat (not shown in this teleplay)
And sailed to Where the Wild Things Are!
They rolled their terrible eyes and gnashed their terrible teeth and yadda yadda...the goat one is mad creepy.
He told them to shut the fuck up, and they did cuz Zach was awesome.
they crowned him king and Zach said "Let the Wild Rumpus Start!"
He soon grew tired of being king and he got tired of looking at those damn wild things and wanted to go home and eat food.
Thuh end.
So this is the Halloween costume Tara and her mom made for me and I absolutely love it!
I didn't get to do anything for Halloween so I couldn't wear it around town, but my brother and his girlfriend were cool enough to take some photos of me in our woods.
We're gonna have a November Halloween party so there will be more photos coming soon!
Happy Late Halloween!
Posted by Zach Bellissimo at 7:22 PM 11 comments
Labels: costume, halloween, photos, where the wild things are


text:
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Don't live with Diabetes
April 28, 2015
Spotlight on Reversing and Preventing Diabetes:
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Diabetes has been cited as the most challenging health problem in the 21st century. Over 25 million people in the United States have diabetes.
Excess weight promotes insulin resistance and is the chief risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Currently 68.8% of adults are overweight or obese.
The number of people with this disease has been increasing steadily, largely due to the increasing numbers of overweight people. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the prevalence of type 2 diabetes has more than tripled in the past 30 years, and if current trends continue unabated, one-fifth to one-third of all Americans will have diabetes by the year 2050.
Diabetes Severely Damages One's Health and Shortens Life Expectancy
Diabetes is a serious disease, and both type 1 and type 2 accelerate the aging of our bodies. Having type 1 or 2 diabetes greatly speeds up the development of atherosclerosis, or cardiovascular disease; in fact, diabetes doubles the risk of heart attack and stroke.
More than 80 percent of adults with Type 2 diabetes die of heart attacks and stroke, and these deaths occur at a younger age compared to people without diabetes. Diabetes also ages the body more rapidly, causing harm to the kidney, nervous system and other body systems. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure and blindness in older adults. Over sixty thousand amputations each year are performed due to complications of diabetes. Diabetes also increases cancer risk, especially colorectal cancer.
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Premature death and the devastating complications of this disease simply do not have to happen. Those with diabetes are told to watch their diet, exercise and use drugs to better control the glucose levels in their bloodstream. My message is that the nutritional advice received from the American Diabetes Association (ADA), and typical dieticians and physicians is inadequate and permits countless of unnecessary premature deaths and much needless suffering. I declare, "Don't live with your diabetes, don't simply control your diabetes — get rid of it."
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The SAD and the standard dietary recommendations given to diabetics promote fat storage. Excess fat on the body interferes with insulin's actions; the body's cells become less responsive to insulin and it is more difficult for insulin to transport glucose into the cells. The pancreas is then forced to produce more insulin to compensate.
The pancreas is pumping out much more insulin than a thinner person might need, but it's not enough to compensate for extra body fat. The pancreas' ability to secrete insulin is diminished further over time as individual remains overweight and the diabetes continues. Total destruction of insulin secreting ability almost never occurs in Type 2 (adult onset diabetes) as it does in Type 1 (childhood onset diabetes). However, the sooner a Type 2 diabetic loses the extra weight causing the stress on the pancreas, the more functional reserve of insulin secreting cells remain. When you give an adult diabetic, who has been suffering from the damaging effects of excess insulin for years, more insulin to drive the sugar down, you create more problems. Insulin increases appetite and can cause significant weight gain, making the patient more diabetic. Usually, they require more and more medication and their condition worsens. Findings from numerous studies also show that high insulin levels promote atherosclerosis, even in non-diabetics.
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High insulin levels are also associated with increased cancer risk.
Insulin is not the answer for type 2 diabetes.
Conventional Care of Type 2 Diabetes
Well-meaning physicians prescribe drugs in an attempt to lower the dangerously high glucose levels, the high cholesterol and triglyceride levels and the high blood pressure typically seen in diabetics. Unfortunately, treating diabetes with medication gives patients a false sense of security. Patients mistakenly think their somewhat better controlled glucose levels are an indication of restored health, providing them with implicit permission to continue the same disease-causing diet and lifestyle that led to the development of their diabetes. With the combination of the standard dietary advice and the weight-promoting medications, many continue to gain weight. They believe that they are protected from harm by their medications; meanwhile diabetes progressively damages their cardiovascular system, kidneys, nervous system, and more. It can be different. The vast majority of my type 2 diabetic patients, who adopt my nutritional and exercise recommendations for diabetes reverse their disease; they become thin and non-diabetic. They are able to gradually discontinue their insulin and eventually other medications and most no longer need any diabetes medications after the first six months. They simply get well. I work with people who have diabetes who want to live a long and healthy life and enjoy the sense of achievement and the confidence that they can take control over this disease. The
membership services
offered here on this website, and the information in my book,
The End of Diabetes
can get you started on this road to wellness and potentially enable a complete recovery from diabetes.
One of Many Fascinating Success Stories
James was referred to my office from his nephrologist after originally referred to the nephrologist by his endocrinologist (diabetic specialist) at the Joslin Clinic because of kidney damage that resulted from very high glucose readings in spite of maximum medical management.
At his first visit, Jim weighed 268 pounds and was taking a total of 175 units of insulin per day. He had already suffered from severe complications of Type 2 diabetes, including two heart attacks and Charcot (destructive inflammation) joint damage in his right ankle. In spite of this huge dose of insulin and six other medications, Jim's glucose readings averaged between 350 to 400. "This was the case no matter what I ate," he said. Jim told me that he was already on a careful ADA diet and was following the precise dietary recommendations of the dietician at the Joslin Clinic. He started my program right away, and I immediately reduced his insulin dose down to 130 units per day. Jim and I spoke on the phone over the next few days, and I continued to decrease his insulin gradually. Within five days, Jim's glucose was running between 80 and 120, and he had lost ten pounds. At this juncture, I put him on 45 units of Lantus insulin at bedtime and 6 units of Humalog regular insulin before each meal for a total of 63 units per day. At his two week visit, Jim had lost 16 pounds. I stopped his blood pressure medications, and he was taking a total of 58 units per day of insulin. After the first month , I was able to stop all of Jim's insulin and start him on Glucophage. He lost 25 pounds in the first five weeks, and his blood glucose readings were well controlled without insulin. His blood pressure also came down to normal, and he no longer required any blood pressure medications. Five months later, Jim was off all medications for diabetes, no longer had high cholesterol or high blood pressure and was more than 60 pounds lighter. His kidney insufficiency had normalized as well. This case illustrates not merely how powerful my Nutritarian™ dietary approach is, but how the standard dietary advice given to diabetics from conventional physicians and dieticians is insufficient and even dangerous.
The End of Diabetes
How can a type 2 diabetic lower high glucose levels, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, lose weight and not need to take drugs such as insulin and sulfonylureas which cause weight gain?
Here is the simple answer—a health-promoting eating style coupled with frequent exercise. The best diet for humans to live longer in superior health is also the best diet for reversing diabetes. It is not a low-carbohydrate diet or a low-fat diet; it is a high-nutrient (Nutritarian) diet, an eating style that focuses on the quality of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats; an eating style with a high micronutrient to calorie ratio.
When one eats a diet predominating in nature's ideal foods—green vegetables, beans, mushrooms, onions, berries, eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, raw nuts and seeds, it becomes relatively easy to quickly shed excess pounds without hunger or deprivation, and bring glucose numbers back down into the non-diabetic range. My experience has demonstrated that those choosing to follow my nutritional recommendation will have their diabetes controlled astonishingly quickly even before they have lost most of their excess weight.
My new book,
The End of Diabetes
outlines in detail my program for reversing (or preventing) type 2 diabetes with a Nutritarian eating style and exercise. If you have diabetes you must read it, then share what you learn with your doctor, and get ready to enjoy excellent health. This eating style is not just for type 2 diabetics – those with type 1 diabetes and gestational diabetes can make dramatic improvements in their health by following this program.
Type 1 Diabetes (Childhood Onset or Juvenile Diabetes)
About ten percent of diabetes cases are type 1. In type 1 Diabetes, which generally occurs earlier in life, the immune system attacks the beta cells in the pancreas, which produce insulin, producing an insulin deficiency. For that reason, in almost all cases, type 1 diabetics will always require insulin to prevent serious hyperglycemia and life-threatening ketoacidosis. Unlike type 2, type 1 diabetes is not caused by excess body fat. However, excess body fat is still dangerous for a type 1 diabetic, since type 1 diabetes also carries the risks associated with type 2 diabetes: heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, and other complications. In almost all cases, consequently, a nutritionally superior diet is essential to the health and longevity of type 1 diabetics.
Conventional Care of Type 1 Diabetes
With conventional care, the long-term prognosis for a Type 1 diabetic is dismal. Type 1 diabetes usually begins to do its damage during childhood, and carries the same risks as type 2 diabetes for complications and other medical problems. However, a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes is not a guarantee of poor health and a shortened lifespan. It is not Type 1 diabetes itself that causes such negative health consequences. Rather, it is the combination of the diabetes and the typical nutritional "advice" given to these patients – advice that requires them to needlessly large amounts of insulin. As discussed above, excess insulin accelerates atherosclerosis, increases cancer risk and damages the body. With this in mind, it should be clear that while the Standard American Diet (SAD), which has spread to all industrialized nations, is dangerous for everyone, it is particularly deadly for diabetics. In short, if you eat conventionally you die conventionally, but if you eat the SAD with diabetes, you will be committing to poor health and a premature death at a much younger age.
Live a Long and Healthy Life with Type 1 Diabetes
With proper care, a type 1 diabetic can live a long and healthy life, with almost no risk of heart attack, stroke, or complications. Type 1 diabetics need not feel doomed to a life of medical disasters and a possible early death. With a truly health-supporting Nutritarian lifestyle, even the Type 1 diabetic can have the potential for a disease-free life and a better than average life expectancy. I find that when Type 1 diabetics adopt my high-nutrient dietary approach, they reduce their insulin requirements by at least one half. They protect their body against the heart attack promoting effects of the American diet style. They no longer have swings of highs and lows, their weight remains stable, and their glucose levels and lipids stay under excellent control. Even though the Type 1 diabetic will still require exogenous (external) insulin, they will no longer need excessive amounts of it. Remember, it is not the Type 1 diabetes that is so damaging, it is the SAD, the typical dietary advice given to Type 1s and the excessive amounts of insulin required by the SAD that are so harmful. It is simply essential for all Type 1 diabetics to learn and adopt nutritional excellence; they can use much less insulin, achieve a normal, healthy lifespan and dramatically reduce their risk of complications later in life.
A Type 1 Diabetes Success Story
John Sermos was a 22 year old college graduate with Type 1 diabetes since the age of 6. He was five foot, eight inches tall and weighed 190 pounds. He was taking a total of 70 units of insulin daily. He was referred to my office by his family physician as he was having swings in his glucose levels, too high at times and at other times dangerously low. He also wanted to learn more about nutrition to improve his health and reduce his future risks from having diabetes. I was impressed by his intelligence and desire to change his eating habits to better his health. We spent lots of time discussing the typical problems that befall most diabetics, and I explained to him that using 70 units of insulin a day was part of the problem. I explained that if he follows my recommended diet-style he will stabilize his weight at about 145 pounds and he will only require about 30 units of insulin a day. With this lower level of insulin, to mimic the amount of insulin a non-diabetic makes in the pancreas, he can have a life without the typical health issues that befall diabetics. We cut his nighttime insulin dose down by ten units and his mealtime insulin from 10 to 6 as he began the diet. Over the next two weeks we gradually tapered his insulin and found that he only needed 20 units of Lantus insulin at bedtime and 4 units before each meal for a total of 32 units a day. Almost immediately, with my dietary recommendations, his sugars were running in the favorable range, and he no longer experienced dangerous drops in his blood sugar. He had lost 13 pounds over the first month and by month three weighed 167, a loss of 23 pounds. He was excited about what he had learned and was more hopeful about his life while living with his diabetes. I am convinced that with a Nutritarian diet-style, those with Type 1 diabetes can have a long and disease-free life. I feel it is imperative that all Type 1 diabetics learn about this life-saving approach.
Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes refers to higher than normal blood sugars occurring during pregnancy in women who were not diabetic before becoming pregnant. It is usually detected by discovering higher than normal glucose levels between the twenty-third and twenty-eighth weeks of pregnancy, and occurs in over five percent of pregnancies. In the vast majority of women found to have this condition, there are no symptoms of diabetes, and the diabetes usually goes away after the baby is born.
The body requires more insulin during pregnancy as weight is gained and as the placenta grows and produces hormones that reduce insulin sensitivity. It is normal for the pancreas to produce higher levels of insulin during pregnancy. However, typical American food habits push these insulin demands over the top. Many women have no problem producing the extra insulin needed during pregnancy, but for women with gestational diabetes, their pancreas can't secrete the higher levels demanded. Women with gestational diabetes have a strong likelihood of developing adult onset diabetes later in life; in fact, one study found that about half of women with gestational diabetes developed type 2 diabetes within eight years.
It reflects a pancreas that is already overworked that has difficulty handing the increased insulin needs of excess fat on their body and a diet rich in processed carbohydrates.
The same dietary factors that cause Type 2 diabetes cause gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes reveals the tendency for type 2 diabetes to develop. Instead, if women eat the high-nutrient dietary style that I recommend, they will be protected from developing gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes later in life. Nutritional excellence is important during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes is a sign of nutritional inadequacy; it leads to overweight babies (macrosomia) and increases the likelihood of need for a C-section. Gestational diabetes also presents health risks for the child, including the potential for hypoglycemia immediately after birth, increased risk of respiratory problems in newborns, and increase the risk of obesity and diabetes later in life. It is important that lifestyle changes are initiated to restore normal glucose levels as soon as possible during pregnancy, which is accomplished effectively and easily with Nutritarian eating style. If you have gestational diabetes, the best medicine is no medicine; who knows what subtle, long-term effects diabetes medications may have on an unborn child? Superior nutrition is the safest and most effective choice. I have outlined a plan for women with gestational diabetes to achieve healthy glucose levels almost immediately and have a healthy pregnancy in my book,
The End of Diabetes.
The dietary program described in my book
The End of Diabetes
is a vegetable-based diet designed to maximize nutrient per calorie density. It is the most effective dietary approach for those with diabetes and is much more effective than drugs. For a Type 2 diabetic, this approach results in complete reversal of the diabetic condition for the majority of patients. For a Type 1 diabetic it eliminates the excessive highs and lows and prevents the typical dangerous complications that too frequently befall those with diabetes. Both type 1 and type 2 diabetics can maintain excellent health and quality of life into old age. Women with gestational diabetes can reverse their disease, have a healthy pregnancy and prevent type 2 diabetes later in life.
This simple and effective plan is based on delicious, healthful foods, starts working right away, and starts you on the path to a long, happy, disease-free life. Of course, the road to wellness involves making the commitment to regular exercise as well. In
The End of Diabetes
I describe exercises you can do even if you are starting with a low level of fitness.
If you have diabetes, begin by reading
The End of Diabetes
, and consider joining the
Member Center
here at DrFuhrman.com for support from both peers and my medical staff. It is important that you do not change your diet, if you are on medication, without medication adjustment under the guidance of a competent physician. I wish you enduring health and a long life... it can be yours.
American Diabetes Association: Diabetes statistics [http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/diabetes-statistics/]
International Diabetes Federation: Morbidity and Mortality [http://www.idf.org/diabetesatlas/diabetes-mortality ]
Khaodhiar LS. Cummings S, Apovian CM. Treating diabetes and prediabetes by focusing on obesity management. Curr Diab Rep, 2009. 9(5): 348-54.
Flegal KM, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Ogden CL. Prevalence of obesity and trends in the distribution of body mass index among US adults, 1999-2010. JAMA. 2012 Feb 1;307(5):491-7.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Diabetes Data & Trends. 2008 [http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/prev/national/figpersons.htm]
Boyle JP, Thompson TJ, Gregg EW, et al. Projection of the year 2050 burden of diabetes in the US adult population: dynamic modeling of incidence, mortality, and prediabetes prevalence. Popul Health Metr, 2010. 8(1): 29.
American Diabetes Association: Diabetes statistics [http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/diabetes-statistics/]
Campbell PT, Deka A, Jacobs EJ, et al. Prospective study reveals associations between colorectal cancer and type 2 diabetes mellitus or insulin use in men. Gastroenterology. 2010 Oct;139(4):1138-46.
Flood A, Strayer L, Schairer C, Schatzkin A. Diabetes and risk of incident colorectal cancer in a prospective cohort of women. Cancer Causes Control. 2010 Aug;21(8):1277-84.
He J, Stram DO, Kolonel LN, et al. The association of diabetes with colorectal cancer risk: the Multiethnic Cohort. Br J Cancer. 2010 Jun 29;103(1):120-6.
Boyle JP, Thompson TJ, Gregg EW, et al. Projection of the year 2050 burden of diabetes in the US adult population: dynamic modeling of incidence, mortality, and prediabetes prevalence. Popul Health Metr, 2010. 8(1): 29.
Stolar MW. Atherosclerosis in diabetes: the role of hyperinsulinemia. Metabolism. 1988 Feb;37(2 Suppl 1):1-9.
García RG, Rincón MY, Arenas WD, et al. Hyperinsulinemia is a predictor of new cardiovascular events in Colombian patients with a first myocardial infarction. Int J Cardiol. 2011 Apr 1;148(1):85-90.
Cao W, Ning J, Yang X, Liu Z. Excess exposure to insulin is the primary cause of insulin resistance and its associated atherosclerosis. Curr Mol Pharmacol. 2011 Nov;4(3):154-66.
Ruige JB, Mertens I, Considine RV, et al. Opposite effects of insulin-like molecules and leptin in coronary heart disease of type 2 diabetes Preliminary data. Int J Cardiol. 2006 Jul 28;111(1):19-25.
Zoler ML. Insulin may boost cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetes patients. Family Practice News, May 15, 2001.
Cao W, Ning J, Yang X, Liu Z. Excess exposure to insulin is the primary cause of insulin resistance and its associated atherosclerosis. Curr Mol Pharmacol. 2011 Nov;4(3):154-66.
Vigneri P, Frasca F, Sciacca L, et al. Diabetes and cancer. Endocr Relat Cancer 2009;16:1103-1123.
Campbell PT, Deka A, Jacobs EJ, et al. Prospective study reveals associations between colorectal cancer and type 2 diabetes mellitus or insulin use in men. Gastroenterology, 2010. 139(4):1138-46.
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I'm just curious, if there was a web-site/web-portal related to RAW image processing what features you would prefer to use on it:
- RAW image processing (from different Cameras)
- Implementing different filters on-the-fly
- Using different Noise Reduction algorithms
- Converting to different formats (JPEG, PNG)
- Getting intermediate file formats (YUV, RGB)
- ISO3200 to ISO800 programmatically
- any others?
Is the portal like this is absolutely meaningless? Or you will use it for some use cases?
Could you please share your opinions?
I have an idea to develop such a service and what I'm looking for is people that might be interested in using such a thing.


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Sheila Jackson Lee proposes new term for 'welfare'
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who has decried the failure of Congress to extend unemployment benefits before its December recess, is talking about changing the vocabulary of assistance.
In a speech Jan. 8 on the House of Representatives floor, Jackson Lee suggested renaming government welfare.
"Maybe the word 'welfare' should be changed to something of, 'a transitional living fund,'" Jackson Lee said, according to a post on The Minority Report blog. "For that is what it is - for people to be able to live," she said.
The congresswoman went on to speak well of the Earned Income Credit, food and nutrition programs, jobs training and education programs, Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act as "huge safety nets - not handouts, but safety nets," the Minority Report said.


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(CNN) -- Visitors to Washington D.C. hoping to take a tour of the White House will soon be out of luck. The White House Visitor Center has canceled all tours effective Saturday March 9, a move meant to cut costs in the wake of forced spending cuts that hit the entire federal government last Friday.
An automated message at the visitor center's hotline informed callers of the news on Tuesday.
"Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration we regret to inform that White House tours will be canceled effective Saturday March 9, 2013 until further notice," the message said. "Unfortunately we will not be able to reschedule affected tours."
A White House spokesman said this is the first consequence of the forced budget cuts on the White House. The reductions will hit Secret Service staffing and staffing at the visitors office that processes the names of tour participants.
Below is the email sent to lawmakers on Capitol Hill:
ATTN Interested Parties,
Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013 until further notice. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours.
We very much regret having to take this action, particularly during the popular spring touring season. For updates regarding this situation, please contact the White House Visitors Office 24 Hour Hotline at (202) 456-7041.
White House Visitors Office
Max Milien, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said officers normally assigned to tours will be reassigned to other security posts at the White House.
"This staffing measure will reduce overtime costs overall and may ultimately reduce the number of potential furloughs necessary by our agency," Milien said.
The Secret Service has been developing a plan to deal with the cuts and maintains that the agency's protective duties will not be affected, according to a Secret Service official.
Public, self-guided tours of the White House's East Wing are generally offered Tuesday through Saturday. Visitors can get tickets from their representative in Congress, and if they're lucky, they may even run into the president or first lady, who've both been known to personally greet visitors on occasion.
Hoping to reverse the decision, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, submitted an amendment to the continuing resolution that would prohibit the president from using federal funds to transport to or from a golf course until the White House resumes public tours.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich echoed that call on Twitter: "Canceling white house tours is childish and dishonest-the golf weekend in florida cost enough to keep the white house open for months."
As he returned to the White House Tuesday after visiting wounded veterans at a Washington hospital, President Barack Obama did not respond to shouted questions about the tours being canceled.


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HOUSTON – A federal judge on Thursday ruled that BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico four years ago was the result of gross negligence or willful misconduct by the London oil company.
The decision could cost BP billions of dollars more in fines for fouling the ocean, though it could be years before legal battles over the spill are resolved, as BP plans to appeal. Investors erased as much as $9.4 billion from BP's market value Thursday.
The 153-page ruling comes more than four years after a subsea well blowout triggered an explosion at BP's leased Deepwater Horizon platform on April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers and sending millions of barrels of oil into the ocean, along with the drilling platform that sank a few days later.
It was the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, lasting 87 days and spreading across hundreds of miles of beach in Louisiana, Texas and surrounding states. It spurred thousands of lawsuits and billions in fines and cleanup costs for BP, Transocean and Halliburton.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier of New Orleans said in his ruling BP committed a series of negligent acts and omissions that resulted in the discharge of oil, including drilling a final 100 feet in the Macondo well "with little or no margin."
A ruling of gross negligence is one of the key factors that could lead to the maximum penalty of Clean Water Act fines for BP, $18 billion, if Barbier later sides with U.S. prosecutors that 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf. Barbier has yet to rule on the amount of oil spilled, but could hand down a judgement at any time. BP made $23.5 billion in profit last year.
Barbier's decision to slap BP with gross negligence, rather than simple negligence, means fines could rise to $4,300 per barrel, rather than the minimum $1,100 per barrel.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Department of Justice is pleased with the ruling.
"The court's findings will ensure that the company is held fully accountable for its recklessness," Holder said. "We are confident this decision will serve as a strong deterrent to anyone tempted to sacrifice safety and the environment in the pursuit of profit."
Barbier, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, also said BP is "subject to enhanced civil penalties" under the Clean Water Act. He ruled that BP's conduct was reckless while Transocean and Houston oil field service firm Halliburton, which provided cement for the Macondo well, were negligent.
In apportioning fault, Barbier said BP was 67 percent responsible for the spill, while the owner of the Deepwater Horizon, Transocean, is 30 percent responsible and Halliburton would take 3 percent of the fault.
A BP spokesman said the company "strongly disagrees" with the decision and plans to file an appeal immediately. The firm has set aside more than $42 billion to cover oil spill costs and has paid some $27 billion in fines and compensation already.
"BP believes the finding that it was grossly negligent" was not "supported by the evidence at trial," a spokesman said in an emailed statement. "The law is clear that proving gross negligence is a very high bar that was not met in this case. BP believes that an impartial view of the record does not support the erroneous conclusion."
The ruling comes two days after Halliburton settled with Gulf residents and businesses for $1.1 billion, a move that allowed it to sidestep liability it may have faced if Barbier ruled it was negligent. Halliburton had provided cement for the doomed Macondo well, which federal investigators later concluded was unstable.
In an emailed statement, Halliburton said it was "pleased" with Barbier's decision that it wasn't grossly negligent, which means "the Macondo case is essentially over for Halliburton."
"The lack of a gross negligence finding against Halliburton should resolve all remaining punitive damages claims against the company," Halliburton said.
A spokesman for Transocean said it's "a favorable and welcome ruling for Transocean, its employees, and all offshore drilling contractors."
"The court has again ratified the industry-standard allocation of liability between drilling contractors and the owners and operators of oil wells," Transocean said.
BP had been in the process of temporarily abandoning the deep-water Macondo well in the Gulf when a subsurface reservoir kick of pressure forced fluids into the wellbore, eventually causing a blowout. The following explosion on the Deepwater Horizon should have triggered the platform's blowout preventer on the ocean floor just above the well, but it didn't, and the emergency device failed to plug up the gushing oil well.
The Deepwater Horizon rig, which went into service in 2001, had drilled about 50 wells in its lifespan in the Gulf. It sank to the bottom of the ocean days after the crude gusher began to flow.
Barbier ruled that BP was also negligent by pumping cement into the Macondo well without a successful stability test. He said that although the instability of the cement provided by Halliburton didn't cause the oil spill, "it is another instance of BP proceeding in the face of a known risk and therefore lends further support to the conclusion that BP's conduct was reckless."
Barbier is scheduled to hold a final phase in the civil trial in January, to hear testimony on potential Clean Water Act penalties. BP said during the penalty phase it will attempt to show "its conduct merits a penalty that is less" than the maximum.
"The court has now laid bare the full extent of the level of BP's misconduct," said James Roy and Stephen Herman, lead attorneys for thousands of oil spill claimants. "We hope that today's judgement will bring some measure of closure to the families of the eleven men who tragically lost their lives, and to the thousands of people and businesses still trying to recover from the spill."
BP shares fell $2.33 in early trading Thursday to $45.38 on the New York Stock Exchange. Transocean shares rose 50 cents to $38.54. Halliburton shares dipped 11 cents to $67.47.


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