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Heavenly Questions, Gjertrud Schnackenberg's recently published sixth book of poems, is a remarkably moving and, perhaps surprisingly, exhilarating work, given that it is an elegy for the poet's late husband, the philosopher Robert Nozick, who died in 2002. In the exchange that follows, I ask Trude to talk about some of the sources and inspirations that inform this complex and deeply beautiful book.
-Jonathan Galassi, President and Publisher of FSG
Galassi: Your new book, Heavenly Questions, is one of the most powerful elegies in recent poetry. It represents loss—anticipated, arrived at, and lived with—with a directness and at the same time with a universalizing reserve that are unlike anything I can think of. It seems almost an assault to ask you to talk about work that is motivated by such extreme experience from a critical distance. And yet I feel the work also demands this. How do you think we should begin talking about it?
Gjertrud Schnackenberg: Maybe we could begin by talking about the iambic pentameter line, and what it means, and what it does, and why it's there. I know that poetry isn't music, and that the rhythm-sound of a poem is secondary—by which I mean that poetry is not primarily a soundscape. But we can't gainsay the emotional meaning—sometimes corroborative, sometimes opposing—of its rhythm-sounds. Many of our contemporaries believe that the five-beat line is an invention rather than a discovery, but I believe that the iambic pentameter, which your assistant Jesse Coleman once described to me in conversation as "propulsive," is innate to English poetry (it won't always be innate, as the language continues to change and evolve—but so far it hasn't loosened its six-hundred-year-old grip).
Two aspects of the pentameter line obsess me. The first is the underlying buoyancy, the intimated joy, of the unsinkable four-beat line, ever present and truly cheerful, beneath the graver and heavier pentameter. It is a weird truth that the five-beat line can almost always be read also as a four-beat line. The five-beat line is the standard, I think, because in English the four-beat line is a little too short to write all the poems that need writing, although its manifest halfway pause is invaluable, whereas, in my hands at least, the six-beat line is too long—it breaks in two, and the second half sinks away, like a sack of stones. And second, I am preoccupied with the pauses the meter gives (and I am completely obsessed with semicolons).
Lineation in poetry is of course a form of punctuation. Punctuation is silence—laden, rhythmic silence—as in Mozart's purported remark (which I cannot find in any of my Mozart books) that the most important part of music is "no music." The caesura for us in English is an immensely abbreviated version of what the Selah was to the psalmist: Pause here. Weigh this. (Sometimes the caesura isn't all that brief: most readers of English poetry know the percussive fountain-jets of silence separating the phrases in John Webster's "Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young.") I remember that when I first read Yeats's saying that passion is in the syntax, I didn't understand what he meant, but I think I do get it now, and would add that punctuation too is one of the most emotional instruments poets have (and that not all punctuation has been invented yet, I am sure).
opens in a new windowWhen I gave a reading of some of the poems from Heavenly Questions in Seattle recently, Andrew Feld asked me afterward if I had any elegiac models in mind as I was writing the poem. I couldn't think of any poetic models, but I did realize that the way I write lines and stanzas comes directly out of the religious music I have heard all my life, in the polyphonic harmonies of the great Lutheran composers, especially Bach—the "Fifth Evangelist"—and Handel. Historically, for a member of the Lutheran church, sacred music is worship, doxology, veneration, and prayer, and is, to a great degree, not only the very sound, but the sounding, of religious emotion. The first poems I wrote were in quatrains, which I am certain came out of those indomitable Lutheran chorales and the massive foursquare tetrameter hymns (and I believe that anyone writing poetry can learn a great deal about resolution and endings from this music—about how and where and why to end a poem); I love the St. Matthew Passion more than I love any other work of art; and I feel the melodic influence of the liturgy as well, especially in the tenth-century plainsong of the Nunc Dimittis, and in S. S. Wesley's setting of the Magnificat, these chants often given to a solo soprano voice, floating down toward the congregation from the balcony (and a nearly audible rustle of wings).
This treasury of baroque religious music is a phenomenon of spirituality, giving perpetual proof that art is meaningful and heart-begotten, and that music, among all the arts, is most truly the Holy Spirit—invisible, intangible, yet present and laden, intimately communicative, equally as exalting as it is here-and-now centered. And the magnificent harmonic structures of these composers reach back through the cantus firmus of Renaissance motets into the medieval and ancient Gregorian chants which, in turn, reach back into the earliest liturgies of the church which, in turn, reach back into the ancient Hebrew collective worship in melody to the accompaniment of strings and horns and bells and drums, all the way back to the list of musicians in 1 Chronicles 25, where the Davidic musicians are gathering with their instruments—this music of the church takes us all the way back to David himself. Make a joyful noise indeed. But again, the sound is only a facet of poetry's spirituality, and poetry is much more than sound.
Galassi: You seem to be saying that buoyancy and joy inhere essentially in the pentameter line, and I am convinced of this when I read Heavenly Questions. Though the poem is a song of the deepest grief, it is also undeniably "propulsively" buoyant, and hence joyful. How do you experience elegy as praise?
Schackenberg: There is a phrase in Psalm 77: "I remember my music in the night." If I may offer an unauthorized and subjective paraphrase, I would write it this way: "In the darkest place, my music recalls itself to me." Gradually the psalmist recollects what his life is for, long after entreaty and petition apparently have fallen away in a comfortless night, in an autonomous surge of praise that recalls his God into the dark sphere of his desolation. Nearly three thousand years later, in the 1930s in Stalin's Soviet Union, in circumstances comparable in hardship to the biblical anguish recorded that night in ancient Israel, the Russian poet Mandelstam put it this way: "Poetry is an autonomous force in the universe."
Significant poems usually are embedded in a cosmology, assumed or implicit (the Iliad, the Psalms, the Mahabharata) or sometimes explicit (none more explicit than Dante's Comedy). In the modern world, the cosmologist Carl Sagan described one of the most brilliant facets of the modern scientific universe-picture, in saying that "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." The strangeness of this insight has never been far from my thoughts, no matter where my thoughts have gone, since I first read it more than two decades ago: that consciousness is a latent property of matter, that the inorganic and the inanimate as such are mysteriously laced with what is potentially animating (and is indeed, in us on earth, already animated). I need to say, perhaps, that this is not the same as "animism" (the belief that souls or spirits exist in all things, and that souls travel and transfer from one object to another) and not the same as Thales's inspired statement that "all things are full of gods"; this is an insight, rather, about an attribute that material existence possesses—a latency, a dormancy, a potentiality—which somehow has manifested consciousness here on earth, in us, and is presently studying itself.
What is even more striking about Sagan's sentence is the implication that the cosmos desires to know itself, has sought and found a way to know itself, that the knowing and being known is necessary, intrinsic, embodied, felt, built into the matter of existence and the existence of matter (suggesting also that the source of our compulsion to know is aboriginally of a piece with the jolting power and intransigence of the life force).
At around the same time as I encountered this sentence in the 1980s, I was also reading—I still am reading—the scholarship of Gershom Scholem, whose brilliant explications of the medieval and later Jewish mystics have exerted a constant gravitational pull on my thoughts (and in whose work I found, by the way, that in this mystical Jewish world, the Holy Spirit is female). The sixteenth-century mystic Isaac Luria discerned that, as a consequence of the tsimtsum—God's self-withdrawal and self-exile, which allowed a primordial space where the universe would be enabled to exist—our cosmos came into being as a residue of light, and that "the sparks of the Shekinah [the Holy Spirit] are everywhere, scattered among all the spheres of metaphysical and physical existence . . . they disperse, fall, go into exile" (fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion); and that "the world of nature and of human existence is the scene of the soul's exile" (cliffs of fall / Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap / May who ne'er hung there. Nor does our small / Durance deal with that steep or deep . . .).
There is a Greek word, pleroma (my favorite word), which is a word for the cosmos as the divinity-permeated totality (but the word has myriad definitions and is used in quite different ways in early Christianity, in gnosticism, and in medieval Jewish mysticism, to mean the cosmos as God's wholly manifested habitation, or to mean a spiritual universe residing above the physical realm, or to mean the divinely shed residue of light in the primordial space). In fact, I have to telescope the word's multiple meanings and definitions until an image emerges, the pleroma as I am able to understand it: the fully divine cosmos, here and now, or the divine and supernatural fullness of all that exists, here and everywhere. I believe that what is, is divine; that is, that being, existence-in-itself, is divine; I believe that, in effect, nature is supernatural. Jesus said the kingdom is here and now, if only we can know it. So much follows (worlds follow): I understand this to mean that acts of perception take their place alongside acts of mercy and compassion, that to perceive that the kingdom is here and now is in itself, in the language of mysticism, a force for the ingathering of what is exiled, and for the recovering of what is tragically lost or separated. According to Scholem, the medieval mystics interpreted such acts of perception, as well as acts of mercy and compassion, to be the work or destiny or purpose of each and every one of us.
I understand this to mean also, especially in light of Jesus's conversation with Pilate in John 18, that we have a responsibility to seek, know, and tell the truth, if we are able to do so (and that to not seek the truth if we are able to seek it, or to deny it, or to pretend to it, or to not tell it, is nothing less than to sever the cosmos from one's self). It follows too that if, from a mystical viewpoint, existence is itself divine, and nature is itself supernatural, then it does not need to be transcended, transformed, overcome, fought off, superintended, cut to size, regarded as fallen, or changed into something else, but only to be met where it is, here and now, its totality and thereness an ever-presence, a waitingness. Richard Strier gave his book about George Herbert's theology and poetry the title Love Known, and for me these words are enough. I know nothing about an afterlife, but the thought that we have come from this and that we return to this—this thought, in the face of our pressing, one-by-one mortality, is to me indescribably consoling.
Perhaps I am simply trying to say that I know that poetry is not a diversion but a calling back (Emily Dickinson's epitaph: Called Back), a recalling of ourselves to what we are made of, a reminder that we are made out of this.
But how poetry can touch this utmost experience of being, before which language falters, I do not know, and can't know, I am unable to know—unless I turn to poetry again, and then I need only to read one stanza of—to take an unparalleled example—"The Wreck of the Deutschland" to experience the potential of poetry's contact with this imminent truth, to experience how electrifyingly total this contact can be. Although Gerard Manley Hopkins's words seize upon terror and grief, his instressing-inscaping phrases embody the context, the pleroma, the spiritual universe of the tragedy—the spiritual universe of the Knower and the Known, where, beyond grief, a loving promise is lovingly claimed, and it is this context that evinces the depths of his praise, adoration, and love. Elegiac praise, like sublime music, and like the joy we puzzlingly take in tragic poetry, calls us back, relocating us in the ground and source and cause for praise—and recovering for us again, by the way, the reason for reading poetry in the first place.
Galassi: Please tell us something about the texts—from very different traditions—that directly inspired parts of your poem, how you came to them and how they function in your own work.
Schnackenberg: I first encountered Buddha's parable of the arrow, and his view of certain kinds of metaphysical questions, about thirty years ago. Buddha tells the parable of the arrow (which appears, paraphrased and altered somewhat, on page 15 of Heavenly Questions) after he is approached by a disciple-interlocutor, who seizes upon him in order to plaster him with metaphysical questions—when did the universe begin? when did time begin? what is eternity? how long is time? is there an afterlife?—and Buddha refuses to answer, saying such questions are useless in the face of our urgent need to seek salvation. To paraphrase:
"You remind me," he says, "of a man who has been shot by an arrow, but who refuses emergency medical treatment until he can find out what kind of arrow has injured him, from what wood the shaft is carved and from what metal the point is forged and from what kinds of birds the shaft feathers are taken, and who is the archer, and what is his caste—while you lie dying, refusing treatment, at the feet of your doctor."
Buddha compares our physical existence—our bodies—to a suppurating wound, and he says plainly that no questions, heavenly or otherwise, should distract us from our pressingly immediate need for attendance, cure, and salvation. To put it another way, he believes that all of us are arrow-struck, that we all carry an arrowhead within us (my telling of the parable says that the arrow can't be dislodged, although Buddha's original parable implies that it can be removed, and should and must be removed; I also added the question of whether the arrow struck randomly or intentionally).
When we read this parable in our own times and places, we may read this as an arrow of mortality, or necessity, or fate—or it could be the arrow of mortally wounding love, or it could be a divine arrow striking home in a mortal body, or it could be the arrow of a lethal disease (this is the case to which I have applied the parable), the diagnosis of which is usually enough to provoke floods of questions, many of them unanswerable or useless. The image of the arrow from Buddha's parable is among the first images that began to catalyze other images in the poem, and it led me, gradually, backward, to the archer at the opening of the Bhagavad Gita.
This is the archer who understandably balks when he sees, in the battlefield, that the opposing army advancing on him is populated with his own family members and spiritual teachers. He lowers his bow and arrow and refuses to fight, sinking down in his chariot, paralyzed and despondent. Krishna, his companion and guide in battle, admonishes him that it is his duty, and his fate, to take up his bow and arrow and to fight back (Heavenly Questions does not tell about Krishna's own fate, which is to be struck and killed, in the distant future, by an arrow). Krishna says as well that the battlefield is an illusion (that all is an illusion), that this is not a killing field, that no one here is a killer, and that no one is being killed. Krishna's assertions about illusion and non-consequence are shocking, and I wanted to try to absorb the shock of this tremendous Hindu vision into the comparatively understandable battle on a chessboard, chess having been developed in India. The archer, eventually persuaded by the god's revelation—the Bhagavad Gita—will pick up his weapons again. As I wrote this poem I could feel and hear the tension, the energy, and the implied momentum and reverberation of the archer's bowstring being drawn back, and I wanted the poem's lines to try to register that sensation.
Certain religious texts are difficult to disentangle from poetry. Poetry and religion are not the same thing, but they speak in the same language, dialect, vernacular, and idiolect, and often they are speaking synchronously and having the same visions and telling the same tales: human-centered stories which are simultaneously divine-centered (the Iliad, the Mahabharata, the Psalms, the Homeric Hymns, the Greek tragedies, Dante's Comedy). Again, the records of mystical experiences which have been among the most significant to me are the medieval Jewish mystics—my own upbringing is Christian, my personal religious experience is Protestant, Nordic, auditory (listening, listening)—but I want to read what I can of the mystical and religious texts from other vast traditions (Hindu, Buddhist, pagan Greek).
But having said that I am unable to disentangle religious texts from poetry and poetry from religious texts, I should say also that my poems think their own thoughts, evolve along their own paths, believe their own beliefs, exist in their independent existences, and are, in my opinion, thoroughly out of control, and decidedly out of my control. It bewilders me that my poems continually double back to the subject of fate, about which I know little and have no beliefs, and that furthermore an aura of fate is often emphasized in what I write by the presence of rhymes, which are intrinsically consequence-emphasizing, and which seem to make themselves felt as auditory counterparts to fate, at least insofar as fate and rhyme reveal themselves in retrospect. More bewilderingly, my poems seem to return, as if galvanized, to the subject of reincarnation, although I know next to nothing about reincarnation. I have no such beliefs, yet it appears that my poems do believe these things.
My father believed that mysticism is nearly valueless or at least morally pointless unless its insight is returned (if it can be expressed, and accepted) to the human community from which it came, for the good of others. Many years ago, I read that in ancient Mesopotamia there was a legend that writing was invented in order to record the fates of human beings. It seems to me that "to record the fates of human beings" is a devout act as well as an act of poetry. If this ancient legend has any truth to it, then perhaps poetry can indeed be the kind of offering my father meant.
Galassi: How does science function as a source for your poem? Do you see science as, in effect, another sacred text that the poet somehow "reads"?
Schnackenberg: Oh, yes, indeed. When I said that poetry tries and wants to make contact with reality, that is, with uttermost-being (truth, God, whatness, somethingness-nothingness, chaos-order)—to the Veda seers, the vibrating void; to the eighth-century Chinese poets, that-which-is-self-engendering; to mathematicians, a veil of numbers; to the Jewish mystics, the En-Sof; to Christian mystics, the indwelling of God and emanation of Christ in all things; to the animal kingdoms on earth, the starry night; to contemporary physicists, the excitation of superstrings; to cosmologists, the residue of an explosion of something to whose pre-explosion existence there is perhaps, as my friend Elaine Scarry once said to me, "no door"—I am referring very specifically and particularly to the material we are made from, this animated-in-us matter which we, in turn, express such a passionate drive to know (and which, in turn, has evolved a way to be known, through us, and is the source and object of our wonder and compulsion). But if it is the case that poetry is in pursuit of truth, still, poetry can give us only something which we feel to be true, with our emotions and our envisioning and embodying imaginations, without opportunity or latitude (or need) for proof beyond the imprint that our subjective passions receive from it.
But scientists, in making contact with reality, describe a very different relationship to what may be true, and in so doing provide poets with a crucial missing piece: an agreed-upon, although provisional, objectivity. Although scientific truths are tentative, contingent, ever open to modification and sometimes drastic revision, and not demanding of faith although seeking proof—even as science aspires to objectivity rather than to the subjectivity poetry embodies and intensifies (or, to turn this inside out, does the objective universe vanish unless or until there is a subjective viewpoint?)—still, science is mentally touching and scrutinizing the same material which poetry mentally touches, the same bolt of cloth.
I think of Darwin's vision of the preeminence of the ever-freshly emerging, mutating individual entity as the power and engine of evolution, while at the same time, Hopkins (who would have trembled at Darwin's probing of time and evolutionary genesis as evidenced in variations among tortoises) was describing his similar but independently arrived at perception of "selving" as the foundational and surpassing truth about created existence, its purpose and destiny, a vision elaborated from Jesus's overpowering response to Pilate: "For this I came . . ."
In truth, the scientists are presenting the rest of us with descriptions of the material of reality which far exceed the images recorded in even the wildest, most far-out tracts of historical religious visions, poetries, fabulations, and prophecies—with the exception of ancient Hindu cosmology, which apparently is not only wild but wildly accurate.
What the scientists have come back from their scrutinies and experiments to tell us—again, not as a matter of faith but with all due and trained skepticism, and provisionally—is flabbergasting. Can it be that, when we look "in" past subatomic particles, we are not able to find a finally smallest entity, that there is no end "inside" and that matter-energy is somehow infinitely deep? Foundationless? That superstrings may exist "above" an underlying "foam" which is the "texture" of space-time? That what is perceived is "there" only when perceived? And when perceived, is an illusion? Amassed how?
And looking in another "direction"—"out"—is it so that our world is populated with innumerable imperceptible parallel universes? Multiverses? Which are entangled? In infinities of deaths and rebirths of infinities of multiverses? The bolt of fabric that scientists have been slowly and collaboratively unrolling before us is infinitely bigger-smaller, and incalculably more flamboyantly beautiful—its time scales and space ideation more extreme, its forces more creative, its order more charged, its fabric more buzzing and beguiling, and its allness-in-allness a still more intricate and seamless continuum—than our emotions, intuitions, experiences, and poetries have been able to tell us, and more than our envisioning imaginations have been able to encompass. The pleroma. But again, I think that poetry tells us, intuitively, insufficiently perhaps, but compulsively, that we are made of this. As does science. And my own belief is that this material is divine. And, by the way, that it suggests not so much the Creator's "inordinate fondness for beetles" as it suggests an inordinate fondness for explosions.
Galassi: We've talked at length about so much that flows "through you," as it were, into your book. I'm tempted to ask you now about what flows "out of you" into it, what attaches itself to these vectors of inspiration. Your work has always been intensely personal. But as you've progressed as a poet, you have made use of other artworks, other texts, and visual art as well, to inform and give shape to your inward directions.
And yet there are stylistic aspects of your work—repetition, for one, and also the insistence of your intensely regular pentameter—that seem to me to show pressure points in your feeling and thinking. I guess I'm asking you to do something rather difficult, to look at how you write and see what you can tell us what it says about your desires and intentions as a writer. In Heavenly Questions you have written a great book of grief—with great dignity, openness, and still a certain impersonality. Can you talk about this paradox, this duality in the book?
Schnackenberg: Let me try to answer three aspects of this complex question: first, the on-and-off presence of impersonality in Heavenly Questions; second, the source of the insistent meter I use; and last, the purpose of repetition in the lines I write.
First, as for the coming-and-going presence of impersonality in Heavenly Questions: probably I consider these things—the personal and the impersonal—to be facets rather than paradoxes, or a Möbius strip more than a duality. Poetry is primarily emotion, feeling, sensation, passion, but it has to alternate between, to interleave, the personal and the impersonal, subjective and objective—partly out of respect for sheer common sense; and partly because in most of us there is an inner necessity to seek perspective, connection, objectivity in tragic circumstances; and partly because it's when passion has hurt us most that we learn the meaning of dispassion, and learn to pray for detachment. But there is also an always present moral principle that cuts poetry into facets both personal and impersonal, depending upon which way we turn it and which angle we hold to the light, this principle being—to paraphrase a sentence of the sixteenth-century mystic Moses Cordovero—that one's self has something of all other selves within it, and that other selves have something of one's self within them. This could be poetry's motto. And again it reminds me of Gershom Scholem's comment about the spiritual universe, that "the sparks of the Shekinah are everywhere, scattered among all the spheres of metaphysical and physical existence . . ."
Second, as for the insistence of meter in the lines I write, meter is pure emotion (technique, for artists, is an emotion, a passion—technique means only the way a thing is done, and the way a thing is done is one of the most passionate preoccupations an artist can have—not separable, despite critical habits of discussion, from what is being expressed). Meter's energy and urgency, its redoubling emphasis of the way thoughts feel, is like a wordless vow underlying the words, perhaps translatable into words as: So help me God (four stresses in a row there, and no pause). And this trait of insistence you mention, the tenacity, relentlessness, is personal; I don't give up, and in Heavenly Questions the more so, since its another's life that I can't give up on.
And last, as for my use of repetition: repetition can be a prodigious, last-ditch effort to remember what happened, in circumstances of pain or panic, here on earth in "the scene of the soul's exile," among the cliffs of fall; or an effort to find, or to establish, a pulse; or to try to create a pattern—as if to arrange a chain of molecules which, if lightning strikes, could become animated. Or it can be a magic spell, when all else fails. Or repetition can be a way of saying: I will keep telling this until I get it right; or until I have made this thing that must happen, happen; or until this prayer is answered; or until the tale I am telling has come to its own end, or has come true; or if nothing can come of this tale, then at least I will keep saying it until I know that the tale has been heard, whether here on earth or in the upper spheres—so help me God.
At the end of his 1941 lectures on Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem tells a story, which was told to him by the novelist S. Y. Agnon, about repetition:
When the Baal Shem had a difficult task before him, he would go to a certain place in the woods, light a fire, and meditate in prayers—and what he had set out to perform was done. When a generation later the maggid of Meseritz was faced with the same task, he would go to the same place in the woods and say, "We can no longer light the fire, but we can still speak the prayers"—and what he wanted done became reality. Again a generation later Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov had to perform this task. And he too went into the woods and said, "We can no longer light a fire, nor do we know the secret meditations belonging to the prayer, but we do know the place in the woods to which it all belongs—and that must be sufficient"; and sufficient it was. But when another generation had passed and Rabbi Israel of Rishin was called upon to perform the task, he sat down on his golden chair in his castle and said, "We cannot light the fire, we cannot speak the prayers, we do not know the place, but we can tell the story of how it was done." And, the storyteller adds, the story which he told had the same effect as the actions of the other three.
See Also:
Read "Archimedes Lullaby," from Heavenly Questions
Gjertrud Schnackenberg reads Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz's poem "Encounter":


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For years, ethanol boosters have promised Americans that "cellulosic" ethanol lurks just ahead, right past the nearest service station. Once it becomes viable, this magic elixir — made from grass, wood chips, sawdust, or some other plant material — will deliver us from the evil clutches of foreign oil and make the U.S. "energy independent" while enriching farmers and strengthening small towns across the country.
Consider this claim: "From our cellulose waste products on the farm such as straw, corn-stalks, corn cobs and all similar sorts of material we throw away, we can get, by present known methods, enough alcohol to run our automotive equipment in the United States."
That sounds like something you've heard recently, right? Well, fasten your seatbelt because that claim was made way back in 1921. That's when American inventor Thomas Midgley proclaimed the wonders of cellulosic ethanol to the Society of Automotive Engineers in Indianapolis. And while Midgley was excited about the prospect of cellulosic ethanol, he admitted that there was a significant hurdle to his concept: producing the fuel would cost about $2 per gallon. That's about $20 per gallon in current money.
Alas, what's old is new again.
I wrote about the myriad problems of cellulosic ethanol in my book, Gusher of Lies. But the hype over the fuel continues unabated. And it continues even though two of the most prominent cellulosic ethanol companies in the U.S., Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings and Verenium Corporation, are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. As noted last week by Robert Rapier on his R-Squared Energy blog, Verenium's auditor, Ernst & Young, recently expressed concern about the company's ability to continue as a going concern and Aventine was recently delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
On March 16, the accounting firm Ernst & Young said Verenium may be forced to "curtail or cease operations" if it cannot raise additional capital. And in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company's management said "We continue to experience losses from operations, and we may not be able to fund our operations and continue as a going concern." Last week, the company's stock was trading at $0.36 per share. It has traded for as much as $4.13 over the past year.
Aventine's stock isn't doing much better. Earlier this month, the company announced that it may seek bankruptcy protection if it cannot raise additional cash. Last Friday, Aventine's shares were selling for $0.09. Over the past year, those shares have sold for as much as $7.86.
The looming collapse of the cellulosic ethanol producers deserves more than passing notice for this reason: cellulosic ethanol – which has never been produced in commercial quantities — has been relentlessly hyped over the past few years by a panoply of politicians and promoters.
The list of politicos includes Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, President Barack Obama, former vice president Al Gore, former Republican presidential nominee and U.S. Senator John McCain, former president Bill Clinton, former president George W. Bush and former CIA director James Woolsey.
There are plenty of others who deserve to take a bow for their role in promoting the delusion of cellulosic ethanol. Prominent among them: billionaire investor/technologist Vinod Khosla. In 2006, Khosla claimed that making motor fuel out of cellulose was "brain dead simple to do." He went on, telling NBC's Stone Phillips that cellulosic ethanol was "just around the corner" and that it would be a much bigger source of fuel than corn ethanol. Khosla also proclaimed that by making ethanol from plants "in less than five years, we can irreversibly start a path that can get us independent of petroleum."
In 2007, Kholsa delivered a speech, "The Role of Venture Capital in Developing Cellulosic Ethanol," during which he declared that cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels can be used to completely replace oil for transportation. More important, Khosla predicted that cellulosic ethanol would be cost competitive with corn ethanol production by 2009.
Two other promoters who have declared that cellulosic ethanol is just on the cusp of viability: Mars exploration advocate Robert Zubrin, and media darling Amory Lovins.
Of all the people on that list, Lovins has been the longest – and the most consistently wrong – cheerleader for cellulosic fuels. His boosterism began with his 1976 article in Foreign Affairs, a piece which arguably made his career in the energy field. In that article, called "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?" Lovins argued that American energy policy was all wrong. What America needed was "soft" energy resources to replace the "hard" ones (namely fossil fuels and nuclear power plants.) Lovins argued that the U.S. should be working to replace those sources with other, "greener" energy sources that were decentralized, small, and renewable. Regarding biofuels, he wrote that there are "exciting developments in the conversion of agricultural, forestry and urban wastes to methanol and other liquid and gaseous fuels now offer practical, economically interesting technologies sufficient to run an efficient U.S. transport sector."
Lovins went on "Some bacterial and enzymatic routes under study look even more promising, but presently proved processes already offer sizable contributions without the inevitable climatic constraints of fossil-fuel combustion." He even claims that given enough efficiency in automobiles, and a large enough bank of cellulosic ethanol distilleries, "the whole of the transport needs could be met by organic conversion."
In other words, Lovins was making the exact same claim that Midgley made 45 years earlier: Given enough money – that's always the catch isn't it? – cellulosic ethanol would provide all of America's transportation fuel needs.
The funny thing about Lovins is that between 1976 and 2004 — despite the fact that the U.S. still did not have a single commercial producer of cellulosic ethanol — he lost none of his skepticism. In his 2004 book Winning the Oil Endgame, Lovins again declared that advances in biotechnology will make cellulosic ethanol viable and that it "will strengthen rural America, boost net farm income by tens of billions of dollars a year, and create more than 750,000 new jobs."
Lovins continued his unquestioning boosterism in 2006, when during testimony before the U.S. Senate, he claimed that "advanced biofuels (chiefly cellulosic ethanol)" could be produced for an average cost of just $18 per barrel.
Of course, Lovins isn't the only one who keeps having visions of cellulosic grandeur. In his 2007 book, Winning Our Energy Independence, S. David Freeman, the former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, declared that to get away from our use of oil, "we must count on biofuels." And a key part of Freeman's biofuel recipe: cellulosic ethanol. Freeman claims that "there is huge potential to generate ethanol from the cellulose in organic wastes of agriculture and forestry." He went on, saying that using some 368 million tons of "forest wastes" could provide about 18.4 billion gallons of ethanol per year, yielding "the equivalent of about 14 billion gallons gasoline [sic], or about 10 percent of current gasoline consumption." Alas, Freeman fails to provide a single example of a company that has made a commercial success of cellulosic ethanol.
Cellulosic ethanol gained even more acolytes during the 2008 presidential campaign.
In May 2008, the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi touted the passage of the subsidy-packed $307 billion farm bill, declaring that it was an "investment in energy independence" because it providing "support for the transition to cellulosic ethanol."
About the same time that Pelosi was touting the new farm bill, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol industry lobbying group in Washington, was claiming that corn ethanol was merely a starting point for other "advanced" biofuels. "The starch-based ethanol industry we have today, we'll stick with it. It's the foundation upon which we are building next-generation industries," said Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the lobby group.
In August 2008, Obama unveiled his "new" energy plan which called for "advances in biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol."
After Obama's election, the hype continued, particularly among Democrats on Capitol Hill. In January 2009, Tom Harkin, the Iowa senator who's been a key promoter of the corn ethanol scam, told PBS: "ethanol doesn't necessarily all have to come from corn. In the last farm bill, I put a lot of effort into supporting cellulose ethanol, and I think that's what you're going to see in the future…You're going to see a lot of marginal land that's not suitable for row crop production, because it's hilly, or it's not very productive for corn or soybeans, things like that, but it can be very productive for grasses, like miscanthus, or switchgrass, and you can use that to make the cellulose ethanol."
Despite the hype, cellulosic ethanol is no closer to commercial viability than it was when Midgley first began talking about it back in 1921. Turning switchgrass, straw or corn cobs into sizable volumes of motor fuel is remarkably inefficient. It is devilishly difficult to break down cellulose into materials that can be fermented into alcohol. And even if that process were somehow made easier, its environmental effects have also been called into question. A September 2008 study on alternative automotive fuels done by Jan Kreider, a professor emeritus of engineering at the University of Colorado, and Peter S. Curtiss, a Boulder-based engineer, found that the production of cellulosic ethanol required about 42 times as much water and emitted about 50 percent more carbon dioxide than standard gasoline. Furthermore, Kreider and Curtiss found that, as with corn ethanol, the amount of energy that could be gained by producing cellulosic ethanol was negligible.
In a recent interview, Kreider told me that the key problem with turning cellulose into fuel is "that it's such a dilute energy form. Coal and gasoline, dirty as they may be, are concentrated forms of energy. Hauling around biomass makes no sense."
Indeed, the volumes of biomass needed to make any kind of dent in America's overall energy needs are mind boggling. Let's assume that the U.S. wants to replace 10 percent of its oil use with cellulosic ethanol. That's a useful percentage as it's approximately equal to the percentage of U.S. oil consumption that originates in the Persian Gulf. Let's further assume that the U.S. decides that switchgrass is the most viable option for producing cellulosic ethanol.
Given those assumptions, here's the math: The U.S. consumes about 21 million barrels of oil per day, or about 320 billion gallons of oil per year. New ethanol companies like Coskata and Syntec are claiming that they can produce about 100 gallons of ethanol per ton of biomass, which is also about the same yield that can be garnered by using grain as a feedstock.
At 100 gallons per ton, producing 32 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol would require the annual harvest and transport of 320 million tons of biomass. Assuming an average semi-trailer holds 15 tons of biomass, that volume of biomass would fill 21.44 million semi-trailer loads. If each trailer is a standard 48 feet long, the column of trailers (not including any trucks attached to them) holding that amount of switchgrass would stretch almost 195,000 miles. That's long enough to encircle the earth nearly eight times. Put another way, those trailers would stretch about 80 percent of the distance from the earth to the moon.
But remember, ethanol's energy density is only about two-thirds that of gasoline. So that 32 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol only contains the energy equivalent of about 21 billion gallons of gasoline. Thus, the U.S. would actually need to produce about 42.5 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol in order to supplant 10 percent of its oil needs. That would necessitate the production of 425 million tons of biomass, enough to fill about 28.3 million trailers. And that line of semi-trailer loads that stretch about 257,500 miles, plenty long enough to loop around the earth more than 10 times, or to stretch from the Earth to the Moon.
But let's continue driving down this road for another mile or two. Sure, it's possible to produce that much biomass, but how much land would be required to make it happen? Well, a report from Oak Ridge National Laboratory suggests that an acre of switchgrass can yield about 11.5 tons of biomass per year, and thus, in theory, 1,150 gallons of ethanol per year.
Therefore, to produce 425 million tons of biomass from switchgrass would require some 36.9 million acres to be planted in nothing but switchgrass. That's equal to about 57,700 square miles, or an area just a little smaller than the state Oklahoma. For comparison, that 36.9 million acres is equal to about 8 percent of all the cropland now under cultivation in the U.S. Thus, to get 10 percent of its oil needs, the U.S. would need to plant an area equal to 8 percent of its cropland.
And none of that consider the fact that there's no infrastructure available to plant, harvest, and transport the switchgrass or other biomass source to the biorefinery.
So just to review: There are still no companies producing cellulosic ethanol on a commercial basis. The most prominent companies that have tried to do so are circling the drain. Even if a company finds an efficient method of turning cellulose into ethanol, the logistics of moving the required volumes of biomass are almost surely a deal-killer.
And yet, Congress has mandated that it be done. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 mandates that a minimum of 16 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol be blended into the U.S. auto fuel mix by 2022.
Don't hold your breath.
ROBERT BRYCE's latest book is Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of "Energy Independence" which just came out in paperback.


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Cherry blossoms are like ignorant girls. They are quiet and open in spring. The white and pink cherry blossoms full of trees are the most beautiful language to tell lovers about love. Someone in my heart, like the lonely Cherry Blossom rain, slowly disappears in the depths of time, leaving an eternal memory.
Cherry blossom is the general name of several plants of Rosaceae Sakura. Cherry blossoms mainly grow in Japan, which is also the national flower of Japan. Therefore, Japan has become the "country of cherry blossoms". Each branch has 3 to 5 flowers, forming an umbrella, the apex of the petals is notched, and the flower color is mostly white and pink.
Source: @sacredink.in


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Philip K Dick's daughter to sue Google?
Estate not contacted about use of 'Nexus One' name
Is the Google Phone, currently known as 'Nexus One' an unauthorised replicant?
Philip K. Dick's daughter certainly thinks so, with the Blade Runner author's estate having not been contacted or consulted over the use of the name 'Nexus One' – which Google seems to have lifted directly from Dick's sci-fi masterpiece Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Google's new smartphone device is called Nexus One in at least two government filings, although the name is far from set in stone and the company is likely to change it before the phone gets a commercial release later in 2010.
Dick's book features a bounty hunter asked to track down a number of rogue Nexus-6 cyborgs.
Out of basic courtesy, if nothing else, one would have expected Google to have discussed the use of the 'Nexus One' name with the author's estate.
Shock and dismay
The author's daughter Isa Dick Hackett, said she was "shocked and dismayed" and that the estate "were never consulted, no requests were made, and we didn't grant any sort of permissions.
"In my mind, there is a very obvious connection to my father's novel…My father was a big fan of technology," she added. "It's certainly something we would have been happy to discuss and interested in exploring. They only needed to reach out."
Google filed this application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to trademark the name "Nexus One" for use with a phone.
Via NYT
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By David Nield


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Detective Constable Sadie Sparrow is on a forced holiday after some trouble handling a case of an abandoned child on her job at the Met. Retreating to her grandfather's home in Cornwall, she can't let go of the case and continues to mull over what she might have missed. One day, while on a run, she discovers an abandoned estate. Sadie is intrigued by the beautiful but overgrown grounds of Loeanneth and becomes even more so when she discovers the reason it was abandoned. Seventy years earlier, the young son of the Edevanes, the homeowners, disappeared without a clue. Sadie is drawn to the story and begins investigating, hoping to find the answer to the cold case and provide closure to the remaining family members as well as restore her own self-confidence as an investigator.
Back in London, A.C. Edevane is at work on her latest mystery novel. At 86, A.C., or Alice as she is known to family and friends, has had a successful career as a novelist and has a reputation for being independent and self-assured. But she harbors a guilty secret, one that has bothered her for seventy years.
The first snow hit our area on Saturday, November 21. |
Like Morton's other novels, The Lake House jumps back and forth between the present and an earlier time period--in this case, the 1930's--when a young romantic Alice spends her days writing stories and secretly following a young gardener on whom she has a crush. Loeanneth is an idyllic setting filled with the sights and sounds of a happy family, including the nature-loving father Alice adores, until the happiness is shattered by the loss of her baby brother. In the present-day setting, Sadie and Alice's paths inevitably cross as Sadie digs deeper into the mystery.
Tiny crabapples make for a study in red and white. |
The book jacket describes The Lake House as "multi-layered," and I can think of no better adjective to describe it. Every character, it seems, has his or her own secret, including Sadie the detective. Little by little, the secrets are revealed, but it isn't until the very end that all of them come together to provide a very satisfying conclusion. While the reader begins to suspect what happened to the missing Edevane brother before that time, the whole mystery isn't resolved until the last few pages, including a surprising twist that I wasn't expecting.
Hydrangeas and coneflowers always look so much better with a dollop of snow. |
Big thick flakes fell for a few hours, spotting the camera lens. |
This is the fourth novel by Kate Morton that I've read, and I've never been disappointed--in fact, this one might be my new favorite. After reading several crime/detective/spy novels before this, it was nice to read a good mystery without violence or evil villains, but with characters who believe in love, loyalty, and personal sacrifice.
The snow was gone in a few days, but it was magical while it lasted. |
If you have a friend who enjoys mysteries, The Lake House would make an ideal Christmas gift. Better yet, buy or check out a copy for yourself for those long winter nights ahead--you won't be disappointed!
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@Barrie Summy


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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — That's not smoke coming out of Cliff Phillips' mouth.
But that hasn't stopped others from cringing, making remarks, waving their hands in their faces and coughing at the sight of the vapor from his electronic cigarette.
"They're just conditioned if they see you inhale and exhale something, it's got to be smoke and it's going to stink. ... They're not even smelling anything," said Phillips, a 61-year-old retiree and former cigarette smoker from Cuba, Ill.
Electronic cigarettes don't burn and don't give off smoke. But they're at the center of a social and legal debate over whether it's OK to "light up" in places where regular smokes are banned. Despite big differences between cigarettes and their electronic cousins, several states, workplaces and localities across the country have explicitly included e-cigs in smoking bans.
Some have clarified that the battery-powered devices don't fall under those bans. Others are retooling smoke-free laws to include them.
E-cigarettes are battery-powered plastic and metal devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution in a disposable cartridge, creating vapor that users inhale. Users call the practice "vaping" rather than smoking. Some e-cigarettes are made to look like a real cigarette with a tiny light on the tip that glows like the real thing.
It's not clear what risks secondhand e-cig vapor holds. It's mostly just water, even though it looks like smoke. The Food and Drug Administration has said its tests found the liquid in some electronic cigarettes contained toxins besides nicotine as well as carcinogens that occur naturally in tobacco. But nobody has studied what onlookers might be inhaling.
Some public health experts say that even for users, the level of those carcinogens was comparable to that found in nicotine replacement therapy like inhalers, because the nicotine in all of the products is extracted from tobacco.
E-cigarettes devotees tout them as a way to break addiction to real cigarettes. They insist the devices address both the nicotine addiction and the behavioral aspects of smoking — the holding of the cigarette, the puffing, exhaling something that looks like smoke and the hand motion — without the more than 4,000 chemicals found in cigarettes.
Industry estimates put U.S. sales of the devices and accessories at $200 million to $250 million annually.
But e-cig users are being lumped in with traditional smokers when they want to "vape" and are being asked to not use them in places where smoking is prohibited.
New Jersey is the only state that specifically bans use of e-cigarettes where regular smoking isn't allowed. Some local governments have banned the devices under their smoke-free laws.
However, in Virginia, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli wrote an opinion saying that because e-cigs don't burn tobacco, the "vapor emitted by an e-cigarette would not fall within the definition" of the law.
"The whole purpose of a smoking ban is to protect people from secondhand smoke, and there isn't any smoke from an electronic cigarette," Elaine Keller, vice president of Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association, an Alabama-based nonprofit that works to ensure the availability of alternatives to smoking. The group says it hasn't received funding from e-cigarette companies.
"Your nose will let you know whether somebody is smoking or not. ... and your eyes will tell you, too, as soon as you get close enough."
Some e-cig users have even taken to "stealth vaping," a method in which they hold the vapor in their mouth long enough for it to mostly dissipate or exhale the vapor discretely.
Still, the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation, a group that has helped states and localities draft laws on smoking bans, includes electronic cigarettes in its model legislation due to the fears over the safety of the devices.
"They raise significant health concerns for us. We don't know what is in the vapor mist, we don't know what else is in the contents of that electronic cigarette," said Cynthia Hallett, executive director of the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation. "The good news is more research being done. ... We may learn more, and if in the end they're safe, we'll have to revisit."
But she said that to be allowed in places where regular cigarettes are banned, electronic cigarettes wouldn't just have to be safer; they'd have to "do no harm."
The Food and Drug Administration announced plans in April to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products instead of under stricter rules for drug-delivery devices — news that was considered a victory for makers and distributors of the devices.
Hallett also said because the devices look similar to real cigarettes, it makes it confusing for individuals and more difficult to enforce smoking bans.
"It truly makes no sense," Ray Story, CEO of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association and head of e-cig maker WannaVape, said of e-cigarette bans.
Allowing e-cigs in workplaces also would save millions in productivity from employees not having to take smoke breaks, Story said.
And Keller, who uses her e-cigarette regularly at a northern Virginia bowling alley and other public places, said being able to use it in places where traditional cigarettes aren't allowed is a "powerful incentive to switch to something that can save their life."
After smoking cigarettes for about 45 years, Phillips said electronic cigarettes helped him quit after numerous attempts using nicotine patches and prescription drugs had failed.
"Not one cigarette in almost two years now," he said. "How could you be against that?"


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Hello all, thanks for the kind comments on this morning's post on better home photography! I have a great guest today, one I've had the pleasure to work with and observe create magic in front of and behind the lens.
Please welcome back Matthew Mead, the incredible stylist, writer, author, and photographer behind Holiday Magazine. I invited him to share a few of his best tips for improving your photography, especially those detailed close ups he's so brilliant at, and that desirable bokeh backdrop created with twinkle lights that we all love so much during the holidays.
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"When it comes to taking beautiful images with your camera it truly is a "practice makes perfect" proposition. But there certainly are some tricks of the trade that I have found repeatedly useful in photographing food and still life imagery.
I own a Canon Rebel XTI camera which is truly my right arm when it comes to my work. I have several different lens which I use for things like room shots and up close imagery like miniature items or tight details but the magic for me resides in the 50 mm 1.4 lens. This lens allows me to select a sharp focal point with everything else in the frame falling off softly in a very palatable "out of focus" style. I use multiple F-stops between 1.4 and 3.0 in order to achieve the desired degree of focus depending on the subject.
To begin, set your camera to manual. This will give you the most control over the image and allow you to manipulate the light to the best possible outcome. I am a huge fan of auto focus and find it most helpful when shooting food to allow me to work quickly and select multiple focal points in just a few minutes. The benefit of a manual shot also allows you to shoot RAW files which are the largest format file that you can create and will allow you the ability to manipulate your image in many different types of photo programs.
I shoot all daylight imagery so make sure you set yourself up in a situation that allows for plenty of light. A shear curtain or "scrim" is useful in cutting the light if it's too bright or harsh. Remember that subjects that are light or white are best on the opposite side of the light source as they will become over lit or "blow out" in too much light.
For under lit spots in your image, I use fill cards, reflectors, even a wall mirror to fill in those spots from the front of the image and add a bit more sparkle.
A mix of professional and novice items are included in my arsenal… including reflectors, a wall mirror and foam core covered with aluminum foil ~ all of them offer different degrees of fill light.
For me, selective focus truly allows me to pinpoint and showcase my subject, be it food or a DIY project. I think the softness that can be created in the background elevates not only the subject but also the environment around the object. For food subjects it truly allows me to showcase a portion of the food which in some cases can look busy and messy without a clear focal point.
Here is an image with a sharp focus throughout and the greatest depth of field with and F-stop of 16 and shutter speed of 2.0. The light source is on the right and the subject can be clearly seen front to back with the same degree of sharpness due to the higher F-stop. I selected the very front of the strawberries as the focal point.
The exposure of the same subject and focal point is manipulated by a change in camera settings. The light source and positioning are the same but focus begins to fall off past the strawberries and the softness beyond allows the eye to be drawn into the most focused part of the image when the aperture or F-stop is changed. Dialing down the F-stop to 4.5 begins to blur the background to allow greater focus on the strawberries in front as a focal point. I like the way the light illuminates the subject with a subtle glow and makes the subject and its environment so desirable.
Next, I stretched the capacity of the 50mm lens to an even wider aperture, setting the F-stop lower at 1.4 to create the shallowest depth of field. Again, the same perspective and light situation but the background now has a more "blown out" quality and the brightness and color intensity of the subject really pops. The foreground of the wire basket is much softer looking and the details of the strawberries are most defined. To me the image has become more painterly looking with softness and highlights and strong but select focal perspective.
Bokeh is the use of a shallow depth of field that allows the background to take on a magical "out of focus" look ~ it's a purposeful technique that creates ultra soft dream like backgrounds and in our examples create spherical light shapes. I used a 50 mm lens set at a 1.4 F-stop to gain focus in the foreground of the image while the colored lights hung behind have an "out of focus" glow.
For each snowflake bokeh image below, I also employed the use of a wall mirror to add light on the front of the image, but a small and well directed flashlight could also be used to illuminate the focal point. In these two snowflake examples the light source was from the left.
The mini lights were hung at least three feet behind the foreground subject and we shot several exposures to get the desired effect, this is a 1/60 shutter speed. The background colors are changed by altering the temperature and saturation with photo editing software (Photoshop in this case).
An easy Bokeh effect for the novice who just wants to capture the light circles and not a centrally focused still life is to select the 1.4 F-stop and place the camera on a manual focus setting. Find the shutter speed (1/60 for this image) which gives you the desired effect and then shoot all kinds of holiday lights. This is the Christmas tree in the center square of my town.
A colorful bokeh image like this one below could be turned into an invitation or label for a wine bottle. You could also manipulate the color of the entire image by opening in a photo program and adjusting the hue and saturation.
Use this next image to create a fun gift tag for a gift of your homemade French macaroons or to identify your offerings at a cookie swap.
In this image we have lit the snowman from the front with a mirror. We were actually able to use the warm light from the mini Christmas lights to reflect back on the snowman giving him a more vintage, holiday appeal.
I hope these tips from my process help you to achieve the desired effects that you are looking to capture this holiday season. As I have said, "practice makes perfect" in the field of photography and likewise, there really are no "mistakes" if you are able to achieve the look you are looking for.
For more of my work check out my blog and be sure to pick up a copy of my magazine HOLIDAY WITH MATTHEW MEAD ~ order by December 12, 2011 for delivery before Christmas.
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Thank you so much Matthew for sharing your experience and insight with us today, I'm so inspired by your ability to create real magic with your camera!
Don't miss even more of Matthew's talents inside the pages of Holiday Magazine.
On sale now, buy it here!


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FINALLY, THERE'S bipartisan agreement in Washington.
Republicans and Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee are mutually unhappy about the FBI's refusal to tell the public what it knew about Tamerlan Tsarnaev prior to the Boston Marathon bombings. They should be.
There are tantalizing questions about whether there was any way to stop Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzhokhar, before the deadly attack they allegedly carried out. And the answers begin with the FBI.
As Representative Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, said at last week's hearing: "The information requested by this committee belongs to the American people. It does not belong solely to the FBI."
Echoed Representative Peter King, a New York Republican who sits on the committee: "I think the FBI has a lot to explain for here."
At the same hearing, Representative William Keating, a Massachusetts Democrat, reiterated his frustration over the FBI's unwillingness to share critical information about what they knew about Tsarnaev and when they knew it.
"What I want ultimately is a timeline — a very distinct timeline — of everything that happened," said Keating, who traveled to Russia on a fact-finding mission that still lacks critical facts.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev is dead, killed in the aftermath of a firefight with police in Watertown. Last week, his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, pleaded innocent to charges of using weapons of mass destruction to kill four people and injure more than 260 others.
The Russians say they warned the United States in 2011 that Tamerlan Tsarnaev might be planning to travel to Chechnya to meet with Islamist radicals. The FBI insists the warning was vague, but won't produce it.
The FBI contends its requests for more information from the Russians went unanswered. Who made them? To whom were they sent? The FBI won't say, and the Russians told Keating they have no record of such follow-up inquiries.
The FBI interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the spring and summer of 2011, but concluded he wasn't a threat. His case was closed and stayed that way — despite, as the Globe reported, more Russian warnings; a CIA decision to add Tsarnaev to a database of potential suspects; and a tip in 2012 from the Department of Homeland Security that he traveled to Russia. The FBI declines to say why it closed the book on the case.
The murders of three Waltham men, whose bodies were discovered on Sept. 12, 2011, provide another possible link to Tamerlan Tsarnaev. A recent New York Times report renewed speculation that the Marathon bombings might never have happened if that murder investigation by local police "had been more vigorous."
A definite connection between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the grisly Waltham murders might have been ascertained after the Marathon bombings. But just when Ibragim Todashev was allegedly about to implicate Tsarnaev in the murders, he was killed in May during an FBI interrogation. His death unfolded in a mysterious way that has yet to be officially addressed.
The quest for answers should not evolve into an exercise in blame-shifting between federal and local law enforcement authorities. It should be, as McCaul said, about finding out "what happened, what went wrong, and how to fix it."
The FBI should not be able to hide behind the veil of ongoing criminal investigation. Indeed, Keating, a former prosecutor, bluntly said he believes the FBI is using the case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as an excuse to stonewall the Homeland Security Committee.
How often does it happen that Republicans like McCaul and King agree with a Massachusetts Democrat like Keating? For once, these representatives are on the same page — the people's page.
Count Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis among those who believe the FBI should share more information about potential terror threats with local police departments, and that should be a potent enough mix to shake answers out of the FBI.
But the bureau arrogantly refused to provide a witness for last week's Homeland Security Committee hearing. Instead, as the Globe reported, the bureau sent a letter saying it would not be responding to all the requests for information.
The FBI closed the case on Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Now they want to close the case on the consequences. They shouldn't get away with it.
Joan Vennochi can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @Joan_Vennochi.


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Still alive!
I know I haven't done an entry in a long time. I was teaching in Korea and if you write something that doesn't agree with a small, but vocal, bunch of Korean netizens (aka The Anti-English Spectrum), they'll find where you work and will do their best at getting you fired. It happened while I was there with a few blog writers. Better them than me is how I looked at it.
After that I was supposed to move to London with a girl, but she got a work visa and I didn't. I turned down her generous offer of a long distance relationship because I don't think they work. Instead, I took a job in Saudi Arabia. Another country I don't feel is a wise decision to write about. I'll be here until I save enough money to just finish the trip in one go. I'm thinking I'll be on the road summer of 2012 unless I renew my contract.
I'll leave the comments open as long as I can, but eventually it'll get flooded with spam and I'll have to end them. I'll take my time in Saudi to redo the blog since I'm using ancient software probably written for Windows 98. Once I redo it, then comment moderation will return to normal.


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Fri, 15 July 2011 at 8:20 am
AnnaLynne McCord & Dominic Purcell: New Couple Alert!
AnnaLynne McCord and her new beau, actor Dominic Purcell, wrap their arms around each other on Thursday (July 14) in Westwood, Calif.
The 23-year-old actress, who previously dated Kellan Lutz, got cozy with Dominic, 41, while taking a break from filming scenes for 90210 on the UCLA campus.
"They've been together a few months," sources tell JustJared.com about AnnaLynne and Dominic, known for playing Lincoln Burrows on Prison Break. "They're really cute together and have been keeping it fun."
DO YOU THINK AnnaLynne McCord and Dominic Purcell make a cute couple?
10+ pictures inside of AnnaLynne McCord and Dominic Purcell in Westwood…


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Beware the Ice Cream Truck – The Toxic Ingredients in Soft Serve Ice Cream
Natasha Longo, Prevent Disease
Waking Times
The chimes of a friendly neighborhood ice cream truck on a warm summer's day guarantee flocks of children will soon be gathering within its vicinity. No child wants to be excluded from the delicious frozen treats their friends are receiving do they? However, when you become informed of what is actually in those soft serve delicacies–preventing and restricting their consumption should be the priority of any parent concerned with the health of their child.
All owners of ice cream trucks and portable shops are outfitted with similar kitchens, refrigeration, power inverters and music. They're proud of their operation and consider safety a priority, especially with the thousands of children approaching their vehicles every month. Unfortunately, most of these owners are unaware of the harmful formulas that make up their soft serve. They may know the basics–milk, whey, sugar, cream, vanilla or chocolate, but are completely unaware of the more discreet ingredients critical to each formula.
All soft serve ice-cream makers must use emulsifiers to replace surface proteins and aid in forming the frozen smooth state of ice cream. Most are quite toxic substances such as polysorbates, carrageenan, guar gum, mono- and diglycerides and others. They also contain artificial sweeteners and chemical preservatives making these frozen treats a chemical concoction of poisons for children and their growing bodies.
Besides the usual milk, sugar, whey, and cream which have their own problems (since they're manufactured from conventional sources), here's a list of additional ingredients in more than 95% of all soft serve formulas which include a minimum of 3-5 stabilizers and emulsifiers and artificial flavors.
Calcium Sulfate
A common lab and industrial chemical, calcium sulfate is used as a desiccant and a coagulant (in other words, to dry and to clot). In its unrefined state, it's a translucent white rock sourced from gypsum and anhydrite. Partially dehydrated gypsum is also known as plaster, which is just great for repairing drywall or making casts but has no place in food. The commercial sources of calcium sulfate in soft server ice cream are either animal-derived (from cow or pig) or synthetically manufactured.
Polysorbate 80
Polysorbate 80 has been found to negatively affect the immune system and cause severe anaphylactic shock which can kill. According to Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, Volume 95, Number 6, December 2005 , pp. 593-599(7), "it is of current relevance as a 'hidden' inductor of anaphylactoid reactions", and "Polysorbate 80 was identified as the causative agent for the anaphylactoid reaction of nonimmunologic origin in the patient. The study included a pregnant woman who suffered anaphylactic shock after being given a IV drip of multi-vitamins containing polysorbate 80.
In addition to this, there have been studies in Food and Chemical Toxicology which showed that Polysorbate 80 causes infertility. Baby female rats were injected with polysorbate 80 at days 4-7 after birth. It accelerated the maturing of the rats and caused changes to the vagina and womb lining, hormonal changes, ovary deformities and degenerative follicles.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, which is part of the United Nations, scientists from the organization are developing vaccines specifically to damage fertility as a method of contraception. A suggested ingredient for the vaccine is Polysorbate 80 (also known as tween 80). As it is a preferred ingredient, scientists are obviously aware of its ability to cause infertility.
Magnesium hydroxide
An inorganic compound, magnesium hydroxide is a common component of antacids and laxatives that interferes with the absorption of folic acid and iron. In addition, it can be used as a deodorant, a whitener in bleaching solutions and it even has smoke-suppressing and fire-retarding properties!
Xanthan Gum
Xanthan gum is produced by fermentation of glucose or sucrose by the Xanthomonas campestris bacterium. One of its most remarkable properties of is its capability of producing a large increase in the viscosity of any liquid by adding a very small quantity of gum, usually less than one percent. For this reason, it is used as an emulsifier in a very large percentage of ice creams around the world.
As a polysaccharide, one of the problems with this food additive is that it is typically made from corn. People who have corn allergies may not be aware that these additives can cause diverse reactions when consumed. Moreover, a very large percentage of corn around the world is nowgenetically modified (GM) which is then reflected in the production of many types of xanthan gum. GM foods are a cause for great concern.
Some people develop an allergy to conventional xanthan gum, with various gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating, gas, and diarrhea. Even consumption of a very minor amount can lead to days and days of recovery and many trips to the bathroom. For others a xanthan reaction can also precipitate migraine headaches and skin itchiness.
Plant sourced organic xanthan gum is non GM and non corn-derived without any chemical reproduction in a laboratory. Some people who develop reactions to synthetic xanthan sources and then consume organic sources experience no symptoms at all.
Corn Syrup Solids
Corn syrup, corn syrup solids, and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are all made from corn, and bottom line, all are sugar and geneticall modified.
Results presented at the 2013 Canadian Neuroscience Meeting shows that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) can cause behavioural reactions similar to those produced by drugs of abuse such as cocaine. HFCS causes insulin resistance, diabetes, hypertension, increased weight gain, and not to mention is manufactured from genetically modified corn. The CRA felt that changing the name would somehow create "clarity" for consumers.
Each of these ingredients will give your child cravings for more sugar. These ingredients actually interfere with hormones that tell a child's brain that they're full! Therefore, it's very common to overeat on foods that contain HFCS (or even the latter two).
In the U.S., HFCS is labeled, however in Canada and Europe it may be masked under glucose-fructose.
Potassium Sorbate
The food industry and its scientists will parrot endless myths that potassium sorbate is not a health threat because of its safety record and non-toxic profile. As always depending where your source your information, facts that contradict safety records are easy to find.
Food and chemical toxicology reports have labeled potassium sorbate as a carcinogen, showing positive mutation results in the cells of mammals. Other studies have shown broad systemic and toxic effects on non-reproductive organs in animals. No long term studies have ever been initiated on either animals or humans, so there is simply not enough evidence to theorize what could happen after years of ingesting this preservative. However, based on short-term carcinogenic and toxic effects, is it worth the risk to find out?
Mono- and Diglycerides
Mono-diglycerides remain the most widely used emulsifiers in food production. They are called mono-digylcerides because they are made from oils that have a high mono saturated fat content, but they are still hydrogenated. They are hidden trans fats where an alcohol (in this case glycerol) has been combined to form an emulsifying agent.
One of the largest food oil producing companies worldwide is Gillco. With the exception of their distilled non-hydrogenated monoglycerides (not incorporated in ice cream applications), a large variety of theiremulsifiers are hydrogenated and this is stipulated on the company's fact sheet for each product.
Mono-diglycerides are not nutritious in anyway. Their only purpose is to improve volume, uniform structure and develop the right meltdown characteristics. Regardless of their quantity, the inclusion of hydrogenated oils in any food product is only detrimental to our health and their adverse effects are well documented. Avoid any ice creams (or any food products for that matter) with mono-diglycerides.
Guar Gum
Also called guaran, this is the ground endosperm of guar beans. Typically produced in powder form, manufacturers like it because it's so cheap–it has almost eight-times the water-thickening potency of cornstarch so only a small amount is needed to create sufficient viscosity. It is used as an emulsifier, as it prevents oil droplets from coalescing, or as a stabilizer because it stops solids from settling.
The use of conventional guar gum as an ingredient in non-prescription diet aids was officially banned in the early 1990s in Canada and the U.S. The guar gum would bind with liquids in the stomach and swell, causing a feeling of satisfying fullness. However, this mass of swollen guar gum would also cause dangerous intestinal and duodenal blockages, as well as abdominal cramps, nausea, flatulence and diarrhea. Guar gum was declared unsafe and ineffective for use as a non- prescription diet aid, but then allowed in small doses in the food supply.
Conventional and synthetic guar gum used extensively in soft serve has been linked through studies to a high molecular weight agent that can cause occupational rhinitis and asthma. Its ingestion may also cause a significant reduction in the absorption and bioavailability of calcium, iron, and zinc.
Sodium Phosphate
Listed under names like "sodium phosphate," "calcium phosphate" and "phosphoric acid," there are dozens of different phosphate-containing food additives used in hundreds of processed foods and one of them is soft serve ice cream. Studies show that even among healthy adults, people with higher phosphate levels have higher mortality rates. Sodium phosphates cause a more rapid progression of the specific ailments such as chronic kidney disease. Phosphate additives have also been linked to an increased risk of heart disease and they're linked to accelerated aging and interfering with the way your body activates vitamin D.
Soy Lecithin or Soya Lecithin
Soybean lecithin comes from sludge left after crude soy oil goes through a "degumming" process. It is a waste product containing solvents and pesticides and has a consistency ranging from a gummy fluid to a plastic solid. Before being bleached to a more appealing light yellow, the color of lecithin ranges from a dirty tan to reddish brown. The hexane extraction process commonly used in soybean oil manufacture today yields less lecithin than the older ethanol-benzol process, but produces a more marketable lecithin with better color, reduced odor and less bitter flavor.
A very large percentage of soy lecithin is produced from soy which is GMand unfermented. Fermented soy is the only soy fit for human consumption. Unfermented soy has been linked to digestive distress, immune system breakdown, PMS, endometriosis, reproductive problems for men and women, allergies, ADD and ADHD, higher risk of heart disease and cancer, malnutrition, and loss of libido.
Carrageenan is another emulsifier and stabilizer. It comes from algae or seaweed extract common in the Atlantic Ocean. It is typically extracted from natural sources using powerful alkaline solvents. Carrageenan is often touted as 100% vegetarian and natural. So does that mean it's safe? Just because something comes from a natural source does not mean that it is safe. There are also natural sources of MSG andAspartame which are chemically identical to the artificial brands. These are equally poisonous to humans as those marketed in the food industry.
Several studies on humans have demonstrated that digestive enzymes and bacterial action convert high weight carrageenans to dangerous low molecular weight carrageenans and poligeenans in the human gut. These carrageenans, even at low doses, have been found to destroy human cells and are linked to various human cancers and digestive disorders.
Carrageenan has also been found to impair and depress cell-mediated immunity and cause the proliferation of tumour growth. The mechanism responsible for carrageenan-induced immune suppression is believed to be its selective degenerative effect on white blood cells.
Artificial Flavors, Dippings, Toppings
If you opted for, say, a soft-serve ice cream with strawberry syrup or chocolate syrup (or dipped in for hardshell), you'd have to contend with these ingredients: High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sugar, E330 citric acid, E405 propylene glycol alginate, E412 guar gum, E413 tragacanth, E414 acacia, modified corn starch, E296 malic acid, E211 sodium benzoate & E202 potassium sorbate, artificial flavours, E129 FD&C Red No. 40, E133 FD&C Blue No. 1.
Some of the largest ice cream chains in the world such as Baskin-Robbins, Ben & Jerry's, Dairy Queen and Haagen-Dazs all use the above toxic ingredients in their flavours. All local ice cream parlors also include them in their formulations. There are literally hundreds of other conventional ice cream manufacturers and brands around the world. With the exception of companies that emphasize organic all-natural products (i.e. Mapleton's), we have yet to find one ice cream producer that does not use any of the above ingredients in their manufacturing process.
Make Your Own Ice Cream
These days, there is only one way to eat healthy ice cream….make it yourself. Here's how:
Borrowed from "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon:
* 3 egg yolks
* 1/2 cup maple syrup
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1 tablespoon arrowroot
* 3 cups heavy cream, preferably raw, not ultrapasteurized
Beat egg yolks and blend in remaining ingredients. Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to instructions. (Remember to choose the highest quality ingredients you can find like raw cream, eggs from pastured chickens, or at least organic eggs, and organic (grade B, if you can find it) maple syrup. Pure vanilla extract and arrowroot powder or flour can be found in most health food stores.)
About the Author
Natasha Longo has a master's degree in nutrition and is a certified fitness and nutritional counselor. She has consulted on public health policy and procurement in Canada, Australia, Spain, Ireland, England and Germany.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of WakingTimes or its staff.
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Thursday, October 28, 2010
REVIEW: The Inn of Lost Heroes
As its name suggests, The Inn of Lost Heroes is a location-based scenario, set entirely within the Inn of Heroes, a rest stop laboring under a curse as a result of a past tragedy that took place there. In this respect, the module reminds me somewhat of my own The Cursed Chateau (and, of course, my own inspiration, Castle Amber). In each case, a potential difficulty is in getting the player characters to the location of the adventure, since they might well be suspicious about entering it. That suspicion is somewhat easier to overcome in the case of The Inn of Lost Heroes as the adventure takes place in what appears to be an ordinary roadside inn, no different than any other.
Once inside, though, the characters will eventually realize that appearances can be deceiving. As a result of the inn's curse, the building shifts between three different realities: the living world -- the "real" world, though one that still shows evidence of the curse's effects -- the burning world, and the ash world. Each world operates under its own rules and part of the challenge of the scenario is adapting to those altered rules. In addition, each world alters the appearance and nature of the various rooms of the inn, all of which are described in some detail throughout the module. Consequently, the inn is effectively three different inns that all use the same map. Keeping the differences straight is an important part of using the adventure effectively and I suspect many referees will require some preparation beforehand in order to do so. Though intended as a one-shot scenario, The Inn of Lost Heroes is definitely not what I would call a "ready to run" module and referees would be well-advised to read through it several times in advance of actually using it.
As in his previous module, Spahn's great strength is in providing dozens of encounters for the referee to use in running this adventure. Each version of the inn comes with a collection of encounters -- some keyed, some random, some event-based. Certain encounters are more detailed (and important) than others, but they all contribute greatly to the sense of the inn as a place rather than merely as an adventuring locale. Likewise, they give the referee an extensive toolbox with which to make the module his own, using what elements he wishes, dropping others, and crafting new ones to suit the particulars of his current campaign. It's an approach I've really come to appreciate, because, even though I enjoy very bare bones adventure modules, there are times when I need some inspiration to get my creative juices flowing and both of Spahn's modules released thus far do just that. Also included with the adventure are a couple of new magic items and several new monsters.
All in all, The Inn of Lost Heroes looks like a great deal of fun. It's imaginative in its conception, easily adaptable to almost any fantasy campaign setting, and looks to be a real challenge for the ingenuity of the players -- all the qualities I associate with the best old school modules. If I have a complaint about this adventure, it's that it's organized in a way that requires either extensive notes beforehand or lots of flipping through its pages in play. I'm not sure that this could have been helped, given the three different worlds in which the scenario takes place, but it's frustrating nonetheless. For that reason, I reiterate the need to read and re-read The Inn of Lost Heroes to get a solid command of its contents if one is considering running it for one's gaming group. That quibble aside, it's a very good offering and one that's perfect for a Halloween-inspired gaming session. I recommend it most highly.
Presentation: 7 out of 10
Creativity: 9 out of 10
Utility: 9 out of 10
Buy This If: You're looking for a lower level supernatural-themed adventure that can be easily dropped into any campaign.
Don't Buy This If: You're not interested in lower level adventures, regardless of their theme or ease of adaptation.
3 comments:
It sounds like there may be a bit of a Silent Hill inspiration in there. It's something I've attempted to emulate myself on a couple of occasions -- once for Call of Cthulhu and once in a more generic manner -- so I'm interested to see how something similar is handled here. I think I'll be getting this!
ReplyDeleteBingo kelvingreen. The Inn of Lost Heroes is something of a tribute to SH which I believe is one of the best horror franchises to come along in awhile.
James thank you very much for taking the time to review this with a double thank you for all the kind words. Yes, the organization of the 3 different worlds did present something of a problem. Those who are familiar with SH Will probably find it easier to manage than those who are not. I probably should have included some suggestions To print out the Inn of Lost Heroes description section So it would be easier to reference The encounters during gameplay.
Again, thanks for the review. I am currently working on a more traditional adventure That I will be sending your way as soon as it is finished.


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Treatments used to decrease the development of type 2 diabetes continue to be effective an average of 15 years later, according to the latest findings of the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study, a landmark study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The results, presented at the American Diabetes Association's 74th Scientific Sessions®, come more than a decade after the Diabetes Prevention Program, or DPP, reported its original findings. In 2001, after an average of three years of study, the DPP announced that the study's two interventions, a lifestyle program designed to reduce weight and increase activity levels and the diabetes medicine metformin, decreased the development of type 2 diabetes in a diverse group of people, all of whom were at high risk for the disease, by 58 and 31 percent, respectively, compared with a group taking placebo.
The Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study, or DPPOS, was conducted as an extension of the DPP to determine the longer-term effects of the two interventions, including further reduction in diabetes development and whether delaying diabetes would reduce the development of the diabetes complications that can lead to blindness, kidney failure, amputations and heart disease. Funded largely by the NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the new findings show that the lifestyle intervention and metformin treatment have beneficial effects, even years later, but did not reduce microvascular complications.
Delaying Type 2 Diabetes
Participants in the study who were originally assigned to the lifestyle intervention and metformin during DPP continued to have lower rates of type 2 diabetes development than those assigned to placebo, with 27 percent and 17 percent reductions, respectively, after 15 years.
"What we're finding is that we can prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes, a chronic disease, through lifestyle intervention or with metformin, over a very long period of time," said David M. Nathan, MD, Chairman of the DPP/DPPOS and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "After the initial randomized treatment phase in DPP, all participants were offered lifestyle intervention and the rates of diabetes development fell in the metformin and former placebo groups, leading to a reduction in the treatment group differences over time. However, the lifestyle intervention and metformin are still quite effective at delaying, if not preventing, type 2 diabetes," Dr. Nathan said. Currently, an estimated 79 million American adults are at high-risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
Microvascular Complications
The DPPOS investigators followed participants for an additional 12 years after the end of the DPP to determine both the extent of diabetes prevention over time and whether the study treatments would also decrease the small vessel -or microvascular- complications, such as eye, nerve and kidney disease. These long-term results did not demonstrate significant differences among the lifestyle intervention, metformin or placebo groups on the microvascular complications, reported Kieren Mather, MD, Professor of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and a study investigator.
"However, regardless of type of initial treatment, participants who didn't develop diabetes had a 28 percent lower occurrence of the microvascular complications than those participants who did develop diabetes. These findings show that intervening in the prediabetes phase is important in reducing early stage complications," Dr. Mather noted. The absence of differences in microvascular complications among the intervention groups may be explained by the small differences in average glucose levels among the groups at this stage of follow-up.
Risk for Cardiovascular Disease
The DPP population was relatively young and healthy at the beginning of the study, and few participants had experienced any severe cardiovascular events, such as heart attack or stroke, 15 years later. The relatively small number of events meant that the DPPOS researchers could not test the effects of interventions on cardiovascular disease. However, the research team did examine whether the study interventions, or a delay in the onset of type 2 diabetes, improved cardiovascular risk factors.
"We found that cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, are generally improved by the lifestyle intervention and somewhat less by metformin," said Ronald Goldberg, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami and one of the DPPOS investigators. "We know that people with type 2 diabetes are at much higher risk for heart disease and stroke than those who do not have diabetes, so a delay in risk factor development or improvement in risk factors may prove to be beneficial."
Long-term Results with Metformin
The DPP/DPPOS is the largest and longest duration study to examine the effects of metformin, an inexpensive, well-known and generally safe diabetes medicine, in people who have not been diagnosed with diabetes. For DPPOS participants, metformin treatment was associated with a modest degree of long-term weight loss. "Other than a small increase in vitamin B-12 deficiency, which is a recognized consequence of metformin therapy, it has been extremely safe and well-tolerated over the 15 years of our study," said Jill Crandall, MD, Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a DPPOS investigator. "Further study will help show whether metformin has beneficial effects on heart disease and cancer, which are both increased in people with type 2 diabetes."
Looking to the Future
In addition to the current findings, the DPPOS includes a uniquely valuable population that can help researchers understand the clinical course of type 2 diabetes. Since the participants did not have diabetes at the beginning of the DPP, for those who have developed diabetes, the data show precisely when they developed the disease, which is rare in previous studies. "The DPP and DPPOS have given us an incredible wealth of information by following a very diverse group of people with regard to race and age as they have progressed from prediabetes to diabetes," said Judith Fradkin, MD, Director of the NIDDK Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases. "The study provides us with an opportunity to make crucial discoveries about the clinical course of type 2 diabetes."
Dr. Fradkin noted that the study population held promise for further analyses because researchers would now be able to examine how developing diabetes at different periods of life may cause the disease to progress differently. "We can look at whether diabetes behaves differently if you develop it before the age of 50 or after the age of 60," she said. "Thanks to the large and diverse population of DPPOS that has remained very loyal to the study, we will be able to see how and when complications first develop and understand how to intervene most effectively."
She added that NIDDK had invited the researchers to submit an application for a grant to follow the study population for an additional 10 years.
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Materials provided by American Diabetes Association. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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Dezeen's top ten: stories with most comments
Dezeen's top ten: our latest monthly top ten rounds up the Dezeen stories that have attracted the most comments from readers since we launched:
1. In first place is Bruketa & Zinić's annual report for food company Podravka, which has to be baked before it can be read (above; 104 comments so far).
2. Jean Nouvel's High Rise Office Building proposal for Doha in Qatar (109 comments so far - most of them smutty).
3. A sneak preview of Kanye West's New York apartment, designed by minimalist architect Claudio Silvestrin (95 comments).
4. Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Vilnius by Zaha Hadid Architects (80 comments).
5. The Cloud by Atelier Hapsitus, a speculative design for a resort city elevated 300 metres in the air above Dubai and supported on slanting legs resembling rain (76 comments).
6. Manned Cloud, a flying hotel proposed by French designer Jean-Marie Massaud (75 comments).
7. A series of conceptual mousetraps by Roger Arquer, which are intended "only to catch mice, not to kill them" (74 comments).
8. A set of seven wine glasses inspired by the seven deadly sins by Kacper Hamilton (72 comments)
9. Casa 11 Mujeres (Eleven Women House), a cliff-top house near Santiago in Chile by architect Mathias Klotz (71 comments).
10. A condom applicator designed to help prevent aids (68 comments).
That's it for now; another top ten next month.
See also:
Most popular stories during our first twelve months
Top ten Dezeen stories from December 2007
Dezeen's top ten skyscrapers (February 2008)
Dezeen's top ten: houses (March 2008)
Dezeen's top ten: Milan 2008 (April 2008)


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