text:
|Adult male Sparrowhawk
|Adult female sparrowhawk
|Adult male Sparrowhawk
|Adult female sparrowhawk
Well done on another rescue, Nick! Those sparrowhawk photos are stunning.
Just been watching Mrs P doing a spot of housework in the scrape - looked like she was tidying the nest and checking it out for comfort. Already planning ahead?
I too noticed the "housework" going on today. Hope they don't start too early - we must be due the bad weather eventually!
Looking forward to the new season. Well done on the recent sparrowhawk rescue!
Mary T (Belper)
I'm so grateful for that final "throwaway" comment Nick explaining the difference between hawks and falcons, I've often wondered and it's so simple now you explain. Mary T and Julie both comment on the possible early signs of nesting. I don't know what might be around the corner, but it certainly feels as if Spring is on the move. The light is increasing apace and the birds are so active. We have the definite beginnings of a creditable dawn chorus round here; blue tits are investigating the tit box and at a local gravel pit site I've seen the herons carrying nesting material. I've also see a (dreaded) ring necked parakeet peeping out of a nesting hole. "My" mute swan family that arrive daily at the bottom of my garden still have last years young in tow at this point although the family are getting quite tetchy with each other with much neck gripping going on; we still have to go through the process of actually seeing the young off before any thought of nesting occurs. Oh yes, and I have three robins in the garden that are having terrible battles (although I concede that this could happen at any time, not just as a prelude to nesting)
I think that the Derby pair will need to start de-feathering the nest well before breeding, it is a bit of a mess, and I suspect some help will be called for.
Not much happeing on the platform, just a ton of feathers. Sue in Bucks has morphed into Sue Peregrino, just so you know. :)
We've just heard that our bid to HLF (the lottery) for funding for this project will be assessed on March 22nd. We should here the outcome soon afterwards.
Until then, fingers firmly crossed!
Nick B (DWT)
Some great footage of a Roman peregrine chasing starling flocks over the city can be seen on BBC1's Earthflight programme broadcast on Thursday last (12th) about 12 minutes in.
Nick B (DWT)
I watched the falcon scraping the scrape a nice dip is forming in readiness for the coming season! Good to see!
There is a peregrine on the tower and the other just visible on the scrape RHS just visible at the very bottom of the screen. Am missing the other webcam now.
I see it's roosting time at weebcam 2.
I too have everything crossed for the HLF bid. I'm into swifts as well as peregrines - and am told there's a good piece on tonights "One Show" on the telly.
I actually watched a sparrowhawk tucking into its breakfast one sunday morning about 8:15am it was sat at entrance to Fish Market in The Cornmarket I managed to get a couple of grainy pics on camera on my phone it just looked at me and carried on eating its pigeon. Since then I now carry my proper camera just in case I get 'lucky' again


text:
You are hereHome ›
Narrow Search
Now showing results 1-10 of 25
This is a book about the importance of the Sun's energy as it relates to its impact on the Earth's environment. Learners will read or listen to a story about a young boy, Joshua, who finds out that the Sun provides the Earth with energy in the... (View More) form of light and heat, which is necessary for all forms of life, for maintaining Earth's environment, and for allowing humans to produce their own forms of energy. Additionally, an extension activity is included, Searching for the Sun, where learners can conduct a hands-on experiment observing how plants grow towards sunlight in order to make conclusions about why the Sun's energy is a necessary component for life. Reading and vocabulary activities are also included. (View Less)
Materials Cost: Free per group of students
This is an activity about sunlight as an energy source. Learners will create a plant box and observe that a plant will grow toward the Sun, its primary source of energy. This hands-on activity is an additional lesson as part of the book, The Day... (View More) Joshua Jumped Too Much. (View Less)
Materials Cost: $1 - $5 per group of students
This is an activity about seasons. Learners compare the seasons though identifying seasonal activities and drawing scenes in each season. Then, they compare the temperature on thermometers left under a lamp for different lengths of time to explore... (View More) how Earth heats more when the Sun is in the sky for longer periods of time. Finally, learners use a flashlight and a globe to investigate how the spherical shape of Earth causes the seasons to be opposite in each hemisphere. This hands-on activity is an additional lesson as part of the book, Adventures in the Attic. (View Less)
This is a book about seasons. Learners will read or listen to a story about two twins, Matt and Matilda, who are tasked with creating a model of the Earth-Sun system for a science fair project. Through some wild seasonal changes they experience... (View More) while creating the model, the two come to a better understanding of the causes of Earth's seasons. An extension activity is included (Reasons for the Seasons), as well as reading and vocabulary activities. (View Less)
In this activity about the Sun's influence on plant growth, learners will create a plant box and observe that a plant will grow towards the Sun, its primary source of energy. By periodically collecting data on the growth of the plant, they can come... (View More) to their own conclusions about why the plant grew towards the sunlight. One to two weeks are needed to grow plants for this lesson; also, time is needed to construct the plant box. Potting soil and bean seeds are needed for this activity. (View Less)
This is an activity about the motion of the Earth around the Sun. Learners will act out the motions of Earth as it orbits around the Sun over the course of one year, starting with modeling one day, then one year, and finally the months.
In this hands-on activity, learners begin by estimating the size of each planet in our Solar System and Pluto and making each out of playdough or a similar material. Then, learners follow specific instructions to divide a mass of playdough into the... (View More) size of each planet and Pluto and compare the actual modeled sizes to the students' own predictions. This activity requires a large amount of playdough material per group of learners. Three pounds is the minimum amount required for each group. (View Less)
In this hands-on activity, learners will build a solar cooker by lining a box with reflective material and adding a translucent cover. The cooker can be used to make food products. This activity recommends use of empty (clean) pizza boxes. This... (View More) activity requires a sunny outdoor location for an extended period of time. (View Less)
Materials Cost: $5 - $10 per group of students
This is an activity about the motion of the Sun, Earth and Moon, specifically rotation and revolution. After identifying what they already know about the Sun, Earth and Moon, learners will observe and manipulate a styrofoam ball model of the Sun,... (View More) Earth, and Moon system. This activity requires a location with an open space approximately ten feet by ten feet in area, and is Activity 9 of a larger resource entitled Eye on the Sky. (View Less)
This is an activity about the size and scale of the Sun, Earth and Moon. Learners will collectively paint and label a model of the Sun and determine the comparative sizes of these three bodies. Learners can then complete a worksheet to further... (View More) explore the mathematical concepts of less than, greater than, and equal to. This activity will require various materials of specific measurements to ensure accuracy. This is Activity 3 of a larger resource entitled Eye on the Sky. (View Less)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
look. i can show you things.
posted by natalie blair at 11/05/2006 12:32:00 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home
i love to travel as much as possible to as many places as i can - without exception. i am a designer, painter, singer, writer, photographer, knitter, reader, helper, watcher... and i prefer to think of myself as more of a lover than a fighter (though, i am not afraid to bring the pain if necessary). my family and friends are the most important things in my life.
View my complete profile
are we there yet?


text:
Digital Marketing is a new life-line for any business in today's world. And when you work with a reputed Digital Marketing Company in Aurangabad then you are 100% ensured that your company will definitely see a exponential sales growth. As a Digital Marketing Company in Aurangabad we ensure that our clients have an aggressive strong online presence both in Google , Facebook, Youtube and other popular sites. Also if you intend to go beyond passive search or web-based promotion and want to connect with prospect lead proactively then definately at WebXion, you will find all required digital promotion services available with just our company. At WebXion we have dedicated Digital Marketing Team with expert Digital Marketing Professionals to help you built your entire Business Model to get maximum ROI against Online Marketing Service in Aurangabad that your company could possibly dream about.
We are not a typical Digital Marketing Agency in Aurangabad that is limited to provide only on paper business model and sales strategy designing. We have a complete suite of business solution services to help you boost your sales. That plays a very vital role in providing 360 degree Digital Marketing experience to our client. And this service is majorly focused as Brand Management Service.
Many of the websites that claim to provide cheap SEO Service in Aurangabad are often run by freelancers that have no formal expertise in digital marketing. Hence many innocent clients end-up losing money buy wasting time and money in name of digital marketing.
At WebXion, we ensure as a top digital marketing company in Aurangabad. Our clients get clear visibility how they will be getting maximum web-traffic and quality business leads. And this ensures they get maximum ROI.
We being an India's leading Digital Marketing Company Aurangabad offering our 360° Digital Marketing Services since 2009. As a Digital Marketing Service Provider Aurangabad / Social Media Marketing Agency in Aurangabad, we have team of highly skilled and experienced Digital Marketing Consultants Aurangabad with years of hands-on experience in delivering results.
We are DIGITAL MARKETING COMPANY in Aurangabad or referred as DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY in Aurangabad. We specialize in BRAND MANAGEMENT SERVICE in Aurangabad via SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING in Aurangabad or FACEBOOK MARKETING SERVICE in Aurangabad. We also provide GOOGLE ADWORDS SERVICE in Aurangabad along with YOUTUBE MARKETING SERVICE in Aurangabad. Most of our clients refer our ONLINE MARKETING SERVICES in Aurangabad and we are popularly known as INTERNET MARKETING COMPANY and specialize as SEO COMPANY in Aurangabad.
Our entire Digital Marketing Service is based on ethical practice and this includes conducting detailed analysis of client websites and product to be promoted.
Our BRAND MANAGEMENT SERVICE in Aurangabad comprise of end-to-end brand promotion activities on digital and mobile platforms.
In today's world for any company to grow business and gain client confidence Digital Marketing is extremely critical and generate higher returns compare to typical paper advts or local events. And being a Top Ranking Digital Marketing Company our role is to ensure our client campaigns reach target audience and delivery highest returns interm of campaign visibility.
As we all know with 2017-2018 admissions for students has started across India. All Educational Institutes in Aurangabad have also started promoting their colleges and institutes via multiple modes of promotion like Banner Holdings, Newspaper Print Advertisements, Leaflet Advertisements, Radio and TV Advts.
However with changing tread and prospect students and their parents getting more and more IT savvy. It's becoming more and more important for your college and institute to have strong online visibility via up-to-date website with latest snaps of college building, college events, new courses and most important of all Toll-Free or Missed Call Number highlighted on your college website.
Below are list of key Online Marketing Services we recommend for your College in Aurangabad:
If you are planning to use traditional modes of promotion or marketing of your college in Aurangabad city. Then you must also add these key Digital Marketing Services in your banner poster, before you go ahead with printing.
1) Missed Call Number - Our Missed Call Service will help you to do automated lead capturing and lead management via our CRM portal that is available free with this service. And it's completely web-based hence you track your leads online, Anytime - Anywhere.
As this is call missed call service. Hence the prospect student or his/her parents can just give a missed call on your displayed missed call number and get maximum leads of interested prospect students. For more details visit MISSED CALL NUMBER SERVICE section on our website.
2) Toll Free Number or Cloud based IVR Service : This is advance solution and if you use this service then you can be 100% sure that your new student registration team will never miss any lead. Also prospect lead would be real-time connected with your admission team and your management will get CRM portal to view overall status of performance of your team that is handling new admission process. For more details visit TOLL FREE NUMBER SERVICE or IVR SERVICE section on our website.
3) Built / Update your College or Institute Website Today : As 90% of all student ts who would see your advertisement are directly or indirectly going to visit your college or institute website atleast once before they will contact your college. It's very important that you have smart and responsive website that is fully Smartphone compatible.
4) Built strong online visibility of your College or Institute on Facebook, LinkedIn & YouTube :
No matter how much money you spend on print marketing. But with smartphone in each student hands, its obvious they will 100% verify your college or institute online reputation and feedback and rating that people are posting on your official college or institute facebook page or youtube video. And incase they find that your institute is having poor or almost nil online visibility then they might loss interest to even apply for admission registration. And this is now known fact that colleges or institutions that are not visible online are getting lower preference against those that are building a strong and positive visibility on Internet.
5) Promote more using ONLINE MARKETING TECHNIQUES then follow the old fashion print advts as online promotion cost you less, its faster and more accurate and best of all you can monitor performance of your campaigns real-time
Below are list of key online marketing services we recommend for Educational Sector :
To capture and convert leads you would also require these Online Services :
more details about Digital Marketing Services packages, kindly
click below...
Pune, Mumbai, Baroda, Vadodara, Delhi, Indore, Jaipur, Bhopal, Lucknow, Surat, Bharuch, Ahmedabad, Amravati, Nasik, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bihar, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Noida, Kanpur, Baroda, Punjab, Patna, Agra, Varanasi, Nashik, Meerut, Faridabad, Allabhad, Amritsar, Vishakhapatnam, Ghaziabad, Rajkot, Jabalpur, Coimbatore, Srinagar, Aurangabad, Ranchi, Jodhpur, Gwalior, Chandigarh, Trivandrum, Mysore, Navi Mumbai, Jalandhar, Bareilly, Kota, Bhubaneshwar, Gorakhpur, Rajpur, Kochi, Cuttack, Ajmer, Kolhapur, Dehradun, Jamnagar, Udaipur, Jhansi, Jalgaon, Anand, Thana, Gurgaon, NCR, Noida, Gurugram .
Below are list of some State Universities in India :
Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Guntur, Rajahmundry, Etcherla, Vijayawada, Kuppam, Anantapur, Kakinada, Warangal, Machilipatnam, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Nuzvid, India, Kurnool, Karimnagar, Tirupati, Nizamabad, Nellore, Kadapa, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Patna, Muzzafarpur, Madhepura, Chhapra, Darbhanga, Gaya, India, Pusa, Bhagalpur, Arrah, Chandigarh, Raipur, Jagdalpur, Bhilai, Khairagarh, Bilaspur, Ambikapur, New Delhi, Delhi, Goa, Anand, Bhavnagar, Ahmedabad, Nadiad, Jamnagar, Gandhinagar, Patan, Bhuj, Vadodara, Vallabh Vidhyanagar, Palanpur, Rajkot, Veraval, Surat, Sonipat, Hisar, Sirsa, Murthal, Kurukshetra, Rohtak, Faridabad, Palampur, Solan, Hamirpur, Shimla, Rajauri, Pulwama, Srinagar, Katra, Jammu, Ranchi, Chaibasa, Palamu, Dumka, Hazaribagh, Bangalore, Davangere, Gulbarga, Hampi, Dharwad, Hubli, Mysore, Bijapur, Bidar, Shimoga, Konaje, Belgaum, Tumkur, Bellary, Tenhipalam, Kochi, Kannur, Thrissur, Wayanad, Kottayam, Kalady, Thiruvananthapuram, Rewa, Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Katni, Ujjain, Chitrakoot, Aurangabad, Lonere, Dapoli, Akola, Nagpur, Nashik, Rahuri, Parbhani, Jalgaon, Amravati, Kolhapur, Mumbai, Solapur, Nanded, Baroda, Berhampur, Rourkela, Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Baripada, Sambalpur, Puri, Faridkot, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Udaipur, Ajmer, Kota, Karaikudi, Chennai, Annamalai Nagar, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Kodaikanal, Salem, Thanjavur, Vellore, Allahabad, Banda, Jhansi, Kanpur, Meerut, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Agra, Faizabad, Greater Noida, Bareilly, Varanasi, Siddharth Nagar, Mathura, Saifai, Etawah, Jaunpur, Dehradun, Pantnagar, Nainital, Haldwani, Haridwar, Kolkata, Haringhata, Purulia, Bardhaman, Malda, Kalyani, Siliguri, Cooch Behar, Medinipur, Barasat.
Digital Marketing Service for colleges in Aurangabad
Educational institutes online marketing service Aurangabad
Best digital marketing company in Aurangabad for college's and institutions


text:
New Research In
Featured Portals
Articles by Topic
Featured Portals
Articles by Topic
Featured Portals
Articles by Topic
- Agricultural Sciences
- Anthropology
- Applied Biological Sciences
- Biochemistry
- Biophysics and Computational Biology
- Cell Biology
- Developmental Biology
- Ecology
- Environmental Sciences
- Evolution
- Genetics
- Immunology and Inflammation
- Medical Sciences
- Microbiology
- Neuroscience
- Pharmacology
- Physiology
- Plant Biology
- Population Biology
- Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
- Sustainability Science
- Systems Biology
Oxfords Shirt Yamamoto Durban Y's Yohji Japan Designer Medium M Brown Men Buttondown For Mens AAR Size TH7q1q
Edited by Rodolfo Dirzo, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved February 11, 2011 (received for review November 3, 2010)
Several prominent hypotheses have been posed to explain the immense variability among plant species in defense against herbivores. A major concept in the evolutionary ecology of plant defenses is that tradeoffs of defense strategies are likely to generate and maintain species diversity. In particular, tradeoffs between constitutive and induced resistance and tradeoffs relating these strategies to growth and competitive ability have been predicted. We performed three independent experiments on 58 plant species from 15 different plant families to address these hypotheses in a phylogenetic framework. Because evolutionary tradeoffs may be altered by human-imposed artificial selection, we used 18 wild plant species and 40 cultivated garden-plant species. Across all 58 plant species, we demonstrate a tradeoff between constitutive and induced resistance, which was robust to accounting for phylogenetic history of the species. Moreover, the tradeoff was driven by wild species and was not evident for cultivated species. In addition, we demonstrate that more competitive species—but not fast growing ones—had lower constitutive but higher induced resistance. Thus, our multispecies experiments indicate that the competition–defense tradeoff holds for constitutive resistance and is complemented by a positive relationship of competitive ability with induced resistance. We conclude that the studied genetically determined tradeoffs are indeed likely to play an important role in shaping the high diversity observed among plant species in resistance against herbivores and in life history traits.
- comparative experimental study
- phylogenetic corrections
- plant defense theory
- plant–insect interaction
- Spodoptera littoralis
Given that green plants are the ultimate source of energy for most other organisms, it is not surprising that plants evolved a variety of resistance strategies, which can be constitutively expressed or induced after damage (1). Although herbivory selects for enhanced plant resistance, plants vary greatly in their resistance, both among species (2) and among genotypes within species (3). This indicates that being well defended may not always be the best strategy—most likely because allocation to resistance may physiologically constrain other investments (reviewed in refs. 4 and 5) and because constraints on resource allocation may produce negative genetic correlations between resistance mechanisms and other life-history traits (6–8). The current assumption in evolutionary ecology is that such tradeoffs contribute to the generation and maintenance of species diversity (8).
Several hypotheses on tradeoffs associated with constitutive and induced resistance have been formulated. Among the most fundamental ones is the long-predicted tradeoff between constitutive and induced resistance itself (6, 9). This hypothesis is derived from the idea that resistance is costly and that a species already well defended by high constitutive resistance will benefit only negligibly by further induced resistance (1, 10). However, general empirical evidence for this predicted tradeoff is still ambiguous (11), largely because most studies considered only single or very few species. Moreover, some studies reporting a tradeoff between constitutive and induced resistance were apparently compromised by spurious correlations due to including the same data for calculating constitutive and induced resistance (12). In addition, most studies that did not find such a tradeoff compared cultivated plant species or genotypes that had been subjected to artificial selection. In cultivated plants the selection pressures maintaining a tradeoff might be alleviated because nonnative cultivated plants might have escaped natural enemies (e.g., refs. 13 and 14), are artificially protected from enemies, or might have undergone artificial breeding that changed or broke up tradeoffs. As a consequence, those cultivated species might be relieved from evolutionary forces that shape tradeoffs in nature (15). However, to date no study has explicitly tested whether tradeoffs differ between cultivated and wild species.
Another fundamental hypothesis is the growth-rate or resource-availability hypothesis (16). It predicts that slow-growing plant species, which typically evolved in resource-limited environments, are less able to replace lost tissue than fast-growing plant species from more productive and competitive environments and should therefore invest in constitutive rather than induced resistance. As a corollary, induced resistance is expected to be higher in fast-growing and more competitive species. Several studies tested for correlations between constitutive resistance and growth, but to date only one study tested whether both constitutive and induced resistance are correlated with growth in the predicted manner (17). Moreover, although it is frequently assumed that fast growth is equivalent to high competitive ability (13), no study has explicitly tested whether competitive ability—rather than growth—of plant species trades off with constitutive resistance and whether competitive plants therefore might have evolved the strategy of induced resistance.
To address the generality of the relationships among constitutive and induced resistance, growth rate, and competitive ability, we took a comparative experimental approach. We performed three independent experiments to assess several important plant traits of 58 plant species from 15 different plant families. In the first experiment, we assessed constitutive and induced resistance to the bioassay caterpillar Spodoptera littoralis, whose feeding response, although possibly not representative for all herbivores, is considered to be a good approximation of plant resistance against generalist herbivores (17); in the second one growth rate; and in the third one competitive ability. To test whether evolutionarily important tradeoffs have disappeared in cultivated species, we compared cultivated horticultural plants (40 species) with wild plant species (18 species). Correcting for phylogenetic relatedness among species, we addressed the following specific questions. (i) Is there a tradeoff between constitutive and induced resistance among our study species, and if so, does it differ between wild and cultivated species? (Yamamoto AAR Designer Mens M Men For Buttondown Shirt Oxfords Japan Medium Brown Yohji Durban Size Y's ii) How are constitutive and induced resistance related to growth rate and competitive ability of wild and cultivated plant species?
Phylogenetic Signal.
We found a significant phylogenetic signal for relative growth rate (K = 0.453, n = 51, P = 0.002) and competitive ability (K = 0.289, n = 53, P = 0.044), indicating that part of their variation was predicted by evolutionary relationships among species. However, we found no significant phylogenetic signal for constitutive (K = 0.268, n = 58, P = 0.068) or induced resistance (K = 0.163, n = 58, P = 0.787).
Tradeoff Between Constitutive and Induced Resistance.
Across all 58 plant species, induced and constitutive resistance were negatively correlated with each other [correction for spurious correlation (12): observed correlation = −0.451, one-sided P = 0.031]. This tradeoff was also significant when we corrected for phylogeny (estimate ± SEM = −0.249 ± 0.058, P < 0.001), indicating the robustness of our result. Interestingly, this tradeoff was significant among wild plant species [correction for spurious correlation (12): observed correlation = −0.696, one-sided P = 0.016] but was not evident among cultivated plant species (observed correlation = −0.309, one-sided P = 0.208). This strongly suggests that the tradeoff has been lost for species under cultivation. This was also reflected in a significant interaction of species status (wild vs. cultivated) with constitutive resistance using induced resistance as dependent variable, both in a phylogenetically uncorrected (estimate = −0.249 ± 0.099, P = 0.015; Fig. 1 and Table S1) and a phylogenetically corrected analysis (estimate ± SEM = −0.288 ± 0.092, P = 0.003; Table S1).
Relationship of Resistance with Relative Growth Rate.
Cultivated species seemed to follow the predictions of the growth-rate hypothesis—species with higher constitutive resistance had lower growth rates—but this was not significant (accounting for phylogeny and analyzed separately for cultivated plants: estimate ± SEM = −0.043 ± 0.040, P = 0.289; Fig. 2 and Table S2). On the other hand, wild plant species with higher constitutive resistance tended to have higher instead of lower relative growth rates (accounting for phylogeny and analyzed separately for wild plants: estimate ± SEM = 0.113 ± 0.052, P = 0.051; Fig. 2 and Table S2). These different patterns for cultivated and wild plant species were reflected in a significant constitutive resistance × species status interaction using relative growth rate as dependent variable (accounting for phylogeny: estimate ± SEM = 0.162 ± 0.055, P = 0.005; Table S1). Consequently, across all species, constitutive resistance was not significantly related to relative growth rate (Table 1).
Across all study species, induced resistance was not positively, as expected, but slightly negatively correlated with relative growth rate (accounting for phylogeny; Fig. 2 and Table 1). This marginally significant correlation did not differ between wild and cultivated plant species (induced resistance × species status interaction using relative growth rate as dependent variable: estimate ± SEM = −0.123 ± 0.133, P = 0.362; Table S1). Overall, our results do not support the predictions of the growth-rate hypothesis.
Relationship of Resistance with Competitive Ability.
Although it is frequently assumed that fast growth is equivalent to competitive ability, relative growth rate was not significantly positively correlated with competitive ability across all study species (accounting for phylogeny: estimate ± SEM = −0.004 ± 0.009) but followed a humped relationship, with highest competitive ability at intermediate growth rates (accounting for phylogeny: estimate for the quadratic term of growth rate ± SEM = −0.263 ± 0.131, P = 0.049). This relationship did not differ between wild and cultivated plant species [nonsignificant (relative growth rate)2 × species status interaction using competitive ability as dependent variable: estimate ± SEM = −0.222 ± 0.333].
Species with higher competitive ability had significantly lower constitutive resistance and significantly higher induced resistance (accounting for phylogeny; Fig. 2 and Table 1). These relationships did not differ between wild and cultivated plant species (constitutive resistance × species status interaction using competitive ability as dependent variable: estimate ± SEM = −0.715 ± 0.834, P = 0.396; induced resistance × species status interaction using competitive ability as dependent variable: estimate ± SEM = 0.857 ± 1.796, P = 0.635; Table S1). These results indicate a genetically determined tradeoff between competitive ability and constitutive resistance, which for good competitors is counterbalanced by their high ability to induce resistance.
Tradeoff Between Constitutive and Induced Resistance.
Different types and strategies of resistance, large variation among species in the degree of resistance, and their potential consequences for the evolution of other plant traits have inspired biologists for decades. We demonstrated the long-predicted tradeoff between constitutive and induced resistance (6, 9) using a large taxonomically diverse number of herbaceous plant species. As hypothesized, the tradeoff between constitutive and induced resistance was significant among wild species but not among cultivated species. Concordantly, most previous studies that did not find a tradeoff between constitutive and induced resistance used genotypes or varieties of cultivated crop species (6, 18–21). The presence of the tradeoff in wild plant species and its absence in cultivated plant species indicates that evolutionary rather than physiological forces cause the tradeoff in nature. This clearly calls for using wild species when addressing natural evolutionary patterns in life-history traits and shows the advantage of using cultivated plant species as controls.
Two previous studies found a positive, instead of a negative, correlation between components of constitutive and induced resistance (2, 22). Possibly, this apparent contradiction with our results reflects that those studies looked at single defensive compounds rather than at an integrative measure of plant resistance obtained, for example, by using generalist bioassay caterpillars. This explanation would be in line with recent claims that, although the univariate tradeoff model may not hold for individual elements of plant defense, there might be tradeoffs between so-called defense syndromes (alternative strategies) (2, Playsuit Suit Swimsuit Tiki Summer 60s 1950s Rainbow Vintage Kahala Swim Pinup 7vZaqZ, 24). We conclude that constitutive and induced resistance, both consisting of a combination of various, possibly even positively covarying, resistance traits, represent two alternative adaptive strategies that tradeoff with each other.
Constitutive and Induced Resistance in Relation to Relative Growth Rate.
Several previous studies reported a tradeoff between constitutive resistance and growth rate, which supports the growth-rate or resource-availability hypothesis (e.g., refs. 16, 17, and 25), and its universality has been claimed (26). Cultivated plant species in our study showed a trend to follow the predictions of the growth-rate hypothesis, with slow-growing species having more constitutive resistance than fast-growing species. Interestingly, however, we found the opposite for wild plant species. Moreover, rather than a positive association between induced resistance and relative growth rate, we found a marginally significant negative one. Our results therefore indicate that there is no universal support for a tradeoff between constitutive resistance and growth rate or for a corresponding positive association between induced resistance and growth rate.
It has been suggested that the tradeoff between growth and constitutive resistance should not hold if resistance is provided by low-cost, qualitative compounds (27). In addition, it is assumed that fast-growing species, if they have any antiherbivore resistance at all, accumulate low concentrations of highly potent, qualitative compounds (e.g., alkaloids, cardenolides, glucosinolates), which are mainly effective against generalist herbivores, such as our bioassay caterpillar. Slow-growing species instead are assumed to accumulate mainly quantitative compounds (e.g., lignin, condensed tannins), which reduce the digestibility of the plants for generalist and specialist herbivores (28). Therefore, one hypothesis might be that in natural habitats, to be able to grow and defend, there is selection in fast-growing plants toward qualitative rather than quantitative compounds. In cultivated garden plants, which during their breeding programs are frequently protected from herbivores and usually do not experience nutrient deficiency, selection for qualitative compounds might be relaxed. The relation of growth and resistance in those plant species might rather follow physiological constraints, as predicted by the growth-rate hypothesis. For these reasons, our results are in line with recent suggestions that fast growth and constitutive resistance are not necessarily alternative strategies (27, 29, 30).
Surprisingly few studies assessed the association between induced resistance and growth rate across multiple species. Karban and Baldwin (1) reported in a review that slow-growing species frequently have the ability to induce resistance, but that it tends to be stronger in species categorized as fast growers. In a comparative experiment with 18 species (17), plant species from a low-resource and stressful environment produced less biomass and had lower induced but higher constitutive resistance than plant species from a more productive habitat, as predicted by the growth-rate hypothesis. The discrepancy of our results with the one described (17) could reflect that the latter did not measure growth rate explicitly but measured biomass production. Furthermore, it could be that under certain habitat conditions, tolerance to herbivory rather than resistance might be the optimal strategy. In a modeling approach, Ito and Sakai (31) showed that this is likely to be the case, when the probability and effect of herbivory is consistently low.
Although, concordant with our findings, resistance against a generalist herbivore seems to not necessarily constrain growth, there is plenty of evidence that resistance is generally costly for plants (4, 5, 32). Therefore, although not constraining growth, it is very likely that resistance is constraining important life-history traits other than growth. Because plants in nature hardly ever grow alone, and—as demonstrated by the humped relationship between competitive ability and growth in our experiments—the fastest-growing plant species are not necessarily the best competitors, competitive ability might be more likely than growth to shape resistance-deployment strategies of plants.
Constitutive and Induced Resistance in Relation to Competitive Ability.
Competition and herbivory are among the most important ecological forces affecting plant evolution (9). It is assumed that increased constitutive resistance compromises the competitive ability of plants (33), resulting in a competition–constitutive resistance tradeoff. Compared with constitutive resistance, induced resistance might be more valuable for plants faced with strong competition: in the absence of enemies more resources can be allocated to competitive ability, because the plant only induces defense when attacked. Consequently, plants can be competitive and well defended at the same time, when necessary. Indeed, among both wild and cultivated plant species, the more competitive ones had lower constitutive resistance and higher abilities to induce resistance.
A positive relationship between induced resistance and competitive ability has been addressed in very few previous studies. Cipollini (34) found that mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana lacking the ability to induce resistance are poorer competitors than the wild type, and he suggested that pathways essential to produce induced resistance also mediate some plant responses to competitors. Kong et al. (35) demonstrated that herbivore-inducible compounds in Ageratum conyzoides can possess allelopathic potential and directly suppress the growth of neighboring plants. We did not aim at disentangling whether more-competitive plant species are better competitors because (i) they induce resistance and directly or indirectly affect their neighbors, as described above (34, 35), or (ii) because low constitutive resistance combined with the ability to induce resistance is selectively favored in competitive environments on the basis of cost-effectiveness. However, our study shows not only that the competition–defense tradeoff is holding for constitutive resistance, but also that it is complemented by higher induced resistance of more competitive species. This seems to be an often-overlooked valuable strategy, especially of species in resource-rich competitive environments.
The advance in doing phylogenetically corrected comparative multispecies experiments enables testing for general tradeoffs in plants. In related fields, such an approach should be used analogously to better understand the generality of tradeoffs among further life-history traits. Our results, that constitutive and induced resistance are alternative adaptive strategies and that competitive ability rather than growth rate of plants is tightly linked to resistance against herbivores, provide insights into general patterns of defense-deployment strategies. Because differences in such strategies among species are genetically determined, we conclude that the studied tradeoffs are indeed likely to play an important role in shaping the high diversity observed among plant species in resistance against herbivores and in life-history traits.
Plant Species.
We obtained seeds of 77 herbaceous plant species from 15 different plant families (2–11 species per family). Thirtyone of the species are wild plant species native to Switzerland, and the remaining 46 species are exotic plants used as ornamental garden plants in Switzerland. To avoid confounding effects of the wild and cultivated status of species with taxonomy, we had both wild and cultivated species in almost all families. Because we wanted wild plant species to be representative of wild genotypes, we obtained them from Swiss seed suppliers providing these species for restoration projects and ecological compensation areas (UFA Samen, Wyss Samen und Pflanzen, and Samen-Steffen). Seeds of cultivated species were instead obtained mainly from nurseries (B & T World Seeds, Thompson & Morgan, and Wyss Samen und Pflanzen) and are likely to have undergone intense breeding. In three experiments, we assessed, respectively, herbivore resistance, growth rate, and competitive ability of all plant species. Because of low germination rates for some species, we used 51–58 of the 77 species in these experiments (Leather Leather Genuine Coat Maxi Warm Leather Coat Suede Real Hooded XXL Vintage Blue Coat Size Trench Green Oversized Coat 80s pXzwZpqE). Most of the species with low germination rates were wild plant species, which led to an imbalance between the number of wild and cultivated plant species.
Assessment of Constitutive and Induced Resistance to Herbivory.
Herbivore species.
As bioassay herbivore for the assessment of constitutive and induced resistance, we used larvae of the Egyptian cotton leafworm Spodoptera littoralis Boisduval (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), which are known to feed on plants of at least 40 plant families (36). The extreme polyphagy of S. littoralis makes it an excellent bioassay species for comparing leaf palatability across plant species from different families (e.g., refs. 37–40), and its feeding response and performance are used as integrative and functionally relevant measures of plant resistance (15). Another advantage of S. littoralis for the present study is that it is native to (sub)tropical Africa and therefore unlikely to share a coevolutionary history with any of our study species. Therefore, it is unlikely that S. littoralis would have had an a priori biased preference for wild or cultivated species. Caterpillars for our experiments originated from a laboratory stock (Institute of Cell Biology, Bern, Switzerland) bred on a bean-based artificial diet to avoid adaptation of the insects to any of our study species.
Experimental design.
In August 2008, seeds of our plant species were germinated in trays filled with potting soil. For 18 wild and 40 cultivated species with sufficient numbers of seedlings (Leather Leather Genuine Coat Maxi Warm Leather Coat Suede Real Hooded XXL Vintage Blue Coat Size Trench Green Oversized Coat 80s pXzwZpqE), we planted 10 seedlings into 1-L pots with potting soil (totaling 580 plants) and placed them in a greenhouse (15 °C night, 28 °C day, and a constant day length of 14 h). All plants were watered as needed. Because the species did not germinate simultaneously, the experiment was performed over a period of 4 mo until all 58 species had been tested. Confamiliar wild and cultivated species were tested at the same time.
After 8 wk of growth, we enclosed all 580 plants individually into perforated polyester bags. To induce possible resistance mechanisms in half of the plants of each species, we allowed two third- to fourth-instar caterpillars (hereafter called induction caterpillars) of S. littoralis to feed on these plants for 1 d. Directly after removal of the induction caterpillars, we added one third-instar larva of S. littoralis as bioassay caterpillar to each plant—both to the induced and noninduced plants—and allowed them to feed for 5 d. We assessed the increase in biomass of the bioassay caterpillars by recording fresh mass of the caterpillars before and after feeding (41).
For each plant species the effect of induction on final caterpillar mass was assessed by means of an analysis of covariation with type I sums of squares after considering effects of initial caterpillar mass as covariate (42, 43). The resulting adjusted final mass therefore represents caterpillar growth during the experiment. As a measure of constitutive resistance, we used mean adjusted final mass of caterpillars feeding on undamaged plants per plant species. Induced resistance was assessed as adjusted mass of caterpillars feeding on damaged plants minus the adjusted mass of caterpillars feeding on nondamaged plants (see refs. 12 and 40). Because large increases in caterpillar mass indicate low resistance of the plants, we multiplied caterpillar mass and the differences in caterpillar mass, respectively, with −1 for easier visualization (i.e., high values correspond to high resistance).
Assessment of Relative Growth Rate.
To determine relative growth rate, we germinated species as before, in May 2008. Because of low germination rates of some species, this experiment included 51 of the 58 species for which we had assessed resistance to herbivory (13 wild and 38 cultivated species; Leather Leather Genuine Coat Maxi Warm Leather Coat Suede Real Hooded XXL Vintage Blue Coat Size Trench Green Oversized Coat 80s pXzwZpqE). Because species did not germinate simultaneously, they differed in starting times. Two weeks after germination, we harvested six offspring per plant species and determined total dry weight as initial size measure. For each species, we then transplanted six additional offspring individually into 1-L pots filled with a 1:1 mixture of sand and plain field soil. Six weeks after germination of each species, we harvested the plants and again determined total dry weight. From these data, we calculated the relative growth rate (RGR) of each species (44) as:
Assessment of Competitive Ability.
For the determination of competitive ability, it was important that the experiment started simultaneously for all species. Therefore, we germinated the plant species sequentially between March and June 2009, starting with the plant species having the longest and ending with the ones having the shortest time to germination. Because of low germination rates for some species, this experiment included 53 of the 58 species for which we had assessed resistance to herbivory (15 wild and 38 cultivated species; Leather Leather Genuine Coat Maxi Warm Leather Coat Suede Real Hooded XXL Vintage Blue Coat Size Trench Green Oversized Coat 80s pXzwZpqE). For each species, we then transplanted 16 seedlings into 1-L pots filled with a 1:1 mixture of sand and plain field soil. Around eight of the 16 seedlings, we planted a circle of 10 competitors consisting of two seedlings of each of five native plant species that are frequently dominant in Swiss grasslands managed at low intensity (Holcus lanatus, Lolium perenne, Plantago lanceolata, Poa pratensis, and Trifolium repens, obtained from UFA Samen). Two weeks after transplanting, all pots were transferred from the greenhouse to an adjacent common garden (Muri near Bern, Switzerland) and randomly assigned to eight blocks, with the restriction that each species-by-treatment combination was represented once in each block. Plants were watered when needed.
At the end of the experiment, at the beginning of September 2009, we determined above-ground dry weight of all target plants growing without (Mcontrol) and with competitors (Mcompetition). As an index of competitive ability, we calculated the log-response ratio for each species (45) as: .
Statistical Analysis.
When analyzing characteristics of different species, it is necessary to consider their phylogenetic relationship, because more closely related species are likely to be phenotypically more similar than others. Therefore, we constructed a phylogenetic tree of all our species (SI Methods and Fig. S1). We tested for a phylogenetic signal for each measured variable using K statistics on a random walk model of phenotypic evolution (46).
Raw and phylogenetically corrected correlations were estimated among species traits. We used generalized least squares (GLS), implemented in R (47) with and without correcting for phylogeny (Table S4), because this allowed us to consider multiple factors and interaction models. The GLS method codes the phylogeny as a variance–covariance matrix to account for the relatedness among species. Because this method corrects the dependent variable for phylogeny, we always used the variable with the phylogenetic signal as dependent variable (48). To test whether relationships between two variables differed between wild and cultivated plant species, we used the independent variable as a covariate and included its interaction term with the factor "species status" (wild vs. cultivated). We corrected for phylogeny if at least one of the analyzed variables had a significant phylogenetic signal and used raw (i.e., uncorrected) correlations when variables had no phylogenetic signal. We also did separate phylogenetically corrected analyses for wild and cultivated species. The results corroborate the ones of the combined analyses and are presented in the supporting information (Table S2).
Because data used for estimating constitutive resistance were also used for calculating induced resistance, constitutive and induced resistance are mathematically not independent from each other, which may cause a spurious correlation (12). To account for this, we used a permutation test implemented in MATLAB by Morris et al. (12). The test is based on a modified Monte-Carlo procedure that also takes sampling variation due to limited sample size and measurement error from environmental and genetic differences into account. To test whether a possible tradeoff between induced and constitutive resistance is differently pronounced for wild and cultivated plant species, we also did this analysis separately for wild and cultivated species. Ideally, one would correct simultaneously for phylogeny and spurious correlation, but we are not aware of any current technique able to do so (2).
We thank Bill Morris for conducting the statistical tests for the tradeoff between constitutive and induced resistance; Christopher Ball for assistance in the greenhouse; Beatrice Lanzrein for providing eggs of S. littoralis; Enrico Rezende for helpful comments on the phylogenetic analysis of the data; and Sergio Rasmann, Anurag Agrawal, the editor, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the paper. This study was funded by Swiss National Science Foundation Grant 3100A0-117722.
- ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com.
↵2Present address: Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
Author contributions: A.K., M.S., M.F., and M.v.K. designed research; A.K. and T.C. performed research; A.K. and M.v.K. analyzed data; and A.K., M.F., and M.v.K. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1016508108/-/DCSupplemental.
- ↵
- Karban R,
- Baldwin IT
- ↵
- Rasmann S,
- Agrawal AA,
- Cook SC,
- Erwin AC
- ↵
- Yamamoto Medium Oxfords Designer AAR Brown For Yohji Y's Men Japan Mens M Buttondown Shirt Durban Size Han KP,
- Lincoln DE
- ↵
- Bergelsonstreetwear 90s shirt mariyln fashion high Vintage manson HYaqx6 J,
- Purrington CB
- ↵
- Strauss SY,
- Rudgers JA, Blouse Vyshyvanka Blouse Romanian Ukrainian Embroidered IIq40
- Lau JA,
- Irwin RE
- ↵
- Brody A,
- Karban R
- ↵
- Koricheva J,
- Nykänen H,
- Gianoli E
- ↵
- Bell MA,
- Eanes WF,
- Futuyma DJ,
- Levinton JS
- Agrawal AA,
- Conner JK,
- Rasmann S
- ↵
- Herms DA,
- Mattson WJ
- ↵
- Mattson WJ,
- Levieux J,
- Bernard-Dagan C
- Mattson WJ,
- Lawrence RK,
- Haak RA,
- Herms DA,
- Charles P
- ↵
- Lankau RA,
- Kliebenstein DJ
- ↵
- Morris WF,
- Traw MB,
- Bergelson J
- ↵
- Blossey Durban Oxfords Size Designer Brown Japan For Yamamoto Y's Shirt Yohji AAR Medium M Mens Men Buttondown B,
- Nötzold R
- ↵
- Chun YJ,
- van Kleunen M,
- Dawson W
- ↵
- Leimu R,
- Koricheva J
- ↵
- Coley PD,
- Bryant JP,
- Chapin FS 3rd.
- ↵
- Van Zandt PA
- ↵
- Agrawal AA,
- Gorski PM,
- Tallamy DW
- Havill NP,
- Raffa KF
- English-Loeb G,
- Karban R,
- Walker Japan Men Oxfords Durban Shirt M Designer Buttondown Y's AAR Size Mens Brown Yamamoto Yohji For Medium MA
- ↵
- Size Brown Designer Yamamoto Buttondown Medium Shirt Yohji For Mens Men AAR Y's M Durban Oxfords Japan Underwood N,
- Morris W,
- Gross K,
- Lockwood JR III.
- ↵
- Siemens DH,
- Mitchell-Olds T
- ↵
- Agrawal AA
- ↵
- Agrawal AA,
- Fishbein M
- ↵
- Coley PD
- ↵
- Fine PVA,
- et al.
- ↵
- Valverde PL,
- Fornoni J,
- Núñez-Farfán J
- ↵
- Lambers H,
- Poorter H
- ↵
- De Jong TJ,
- van der Meijden E
- ↵
- Muola A,
- Mutikainen P,
- Laukkanen L,
- Lilley M,
- Leimu R
- ↵
- Ito K,
- Sakai S
- ↵
- Zangerl AR,
- Rutledge CE
- ↵
- Cipollini DF,
- Bergelson J
- ↵size Cardinals 75908 ~ Louis Jacket MEDIUM Satin 80s St qE87X
- Cipollini DF
- ↵
- Kong C,
- Hu F,
- Xu X
- ↵
- Brown ES,
- Dewhurst CFClothing Gift Matching Couple Shirts Couples Costumes Pajamas Matching Birthday Sloth Pajamas Matching Mom And Set Matching Couples Dad tPEEFqw
- ↵
- Hendriks RJJ,
- de Boer NJ,
- van Groenendael JM
- ↵
- Schädler M,
- Roeder M,
- Brandl R,
- Matthies D
- ↵
- Kempel A,
- Brandl R,
- Schädler M
- ↵
- Kempel A,
- Schmidt AK,
- Brown Durban Medium Oxfords For Men Yamamoto M AAR Shirt Japan Buttondown Size Yohji Mens Designer Y's Brandl R,
- Schädler M
- ↵
- Hamilton JG,
- Zangerl AR,
- DeLucia EH,
- Berenbaum MR
- ↵
- Raubenheimer D,
- Simpson SJ
- ↵
- Horton DR,
- Redak RA
- ↵
- Gibson DJ
- ↵
- Weigelt A,
- Jolliffe P
- ↵
- Blomberg SP,
- Garland T Jr.,
- Ives AR
- ↵
- R Development Core Team
- ↵
- Revell LJ
More Articles of This Classification
Biological Sciences
Related Content
No related articles found.
Cited by...
The evolution of constitutive and induced defences to infectious disease
Plasticity of thermal tolerance and its relationship with growth rate in juvenile mussels (Mytilus californianus)
Competition does not come at the expense of colonization in seed morphs with increased size and dispersal
Mechanisms to Mitigate the Trade-Off between Growth and Defense
Hybrid mimics and hybrid vigor in Arabidopsis
Determinants of plant establishment success in a multispecies introduction experiment with native and alien species
Plant mating system transitions drive the macroevolution of defense strategies
Temperature-driven range expansion of an irruptive insect heightened by weakly coevolved plant defenses
Exotic Plant Invasion in the Context of Plant Defense against Herbivores


text:
The Blackout
The first time I saw Abel Ferrara's The Blackout (1997), it struck me as high-pitched, overwrought and phony. I reacted to it as I would in knee-jerk fashion to a hysterical melodrama. My next viewing was late one night, when I was exhausted from a long day, and my defenses were down. Suddenly, it didn't feel melodramatic at all, but made of pure and true emotion—wrenching, disturbing, and most painful of all—disallowing of cathartic relief.
More than with any other filmmaker that I can think of, Ferrara's cinema is one of wondrous messiness. You see it seconds into this film, when Matty (Matthew Modine, in a role written for another Matt, Dillon) comes to Miami to spend time with his French girlfriend Annie (Beatrice Dalle). She's sitting at a table, chatting with other actor types, when he walks in and practically lifts her off her chair. They kiss, slowly, clumsily, noisily, lips and tongues and teeth completely unchoreographed and uncoordinated, the messiest kiss you ever saw. And it goes on and on to the point when it makes you uncomfortable. Then you realize that Ferrara could never have scripted the details of that kiss—it had to have happened in the actors' improvisation. It also reminds you of how damn clean (and untrue-to-life!) were the last thousand kisses you saw on a movie screen.
Much later, after Matty has joined AA and moved in with his clean and wholesome art dealer girlfriend Susan (Claudia Schiffer), Ferrara shows you another kiss. This one is whispery-soft, affectionate, lips barely touching, and Matty strokes Susan's cheek at the end as if he were kissing a child, a daughter perhaps. It is a gentle, anomalous moment—a peaceful interlude that feels unnatural and thus temporary.
Most interestingly, the "messiness" of Ferrara's vision is mirrored in Dennis Hopper, who plays filmmaker Mickey Ray (named for Nick Ray, and in a role written for Mickey Rourke). Mickey makes pornos and his set looks as chaotic as (I've read) Ferrara's does. He's got five video cameras going at once, capturing all manner of improvisation and accident. When two actors have a marital spat off-camera, he barks (as Ferrara well might in real life): "Make this work-related…Use it, use it! Don't spew it all here!"
Mickey is a strange hybrid of Ferrarian method and hack-like venality. He is remaking Emile Zola's Nana as a skin flick set in Miami. And he's a bit hazy on details. Of the cinema's capacity for truth, he declares: "Godard says 24 frames a minute….or is that a second?" If Godard made films about prostitution, for Mickey they are one and the same: financial backers of his film get to have sex on-screen.
One of my favorite cinematic low-cal after-dinner mints is Jonathan Demme's Married To The Mob, but each time I watch it, I'm reminded of how colorless and dull Modine is in it. Ferrara pushes hard against Modine's bland boyishness in The Blackout. By making this blond, clean-cut, terminally genial actor a coke-sniffing, booze-swilling, self-destructive debaucher, Modine's performance ends up being truly troubling because of these tensions.
Finally, Ferrara's strategy of having several cameras recording simultaneously on the set is complemented here by his recent discovery of AVID. This is a movie with dozens of lush lap dissolves, layering sometimes four or five images together to give form to Matty's crowded nightmares—or to his waking moments by externalizing his subjectivity. When he gets in the back of a limo and takes a ripping snort of coke, we dissolve to a sunburst as the lens catches the sun (and Matty catches his high).
Last fall I saw Ferrara's new film, Mary, at the Toronto film festival. It was the very last of my 35 films there and maybe because I was tired, it really frustrated me. Then I remembered that my response to it was almost identical to the first time I saw The Blackout. (Like Hopper's half-hack, half-auteur in The Blackout, Matthew Modine plays a filmmaker who's half-Mel Gibson, half-Ferrara.) I consciously remember liking the few calm, collected, "unmessy" sequences in the film, in which Forest Whitaker as a TV show host interviews various theology experts. But right now, after coming to love and appreciate The Blackout, it's the rest of Mary, emotionally messy and tortured, that I feel like revisiting.
- Mubarak Ali at Supposed Aura.
- Zach Campbell at Elusive Lucidity.
- Charles Bronson vs. God.
- Matt Clayfield at Esoteric Rabbit.
- Brian Darr at Hell On Frisco Bay.
- Martin Degrell at Detoured.
- Filmbrain at Like Anna Karina's Sweater.
- Flickhead.
- Richard Gibson.
- Ed Gonzalez at Slant.
- Aaron Graham at More Than Meets The Mogwai.
- Michael Guillen at The Evening Class.
- Eric Henderson at When Canses Were Classeled.
- Aaron Hillis at Cinephiliac.
- Darren Hughes at Long Pauses.
- Rich Juzwiak at Four Four.
- David Lowery at Drifting.
- Peter Nellhaus at Coffee Coffee And More Coffee.
- Notes On Cinema.
- Matt Zoller Seitz at The House Next Door.
- Harry Tuttle at Screenville.


text:
This article from the Washington Post gives several logical and spiritual reasons for incorporating atheist chaplains. The most obvious reason; service members asked for it.
Views: 324
We can't have it both ways. We say that atheism is a religion the way that bald is a hair color in one breath and then we ask for Atheist Chaplains in the next? I don't think so. Maybe we should be asking for Secular Humanist Chaplains. . .am I mistaken that Secular Humanism has been recognized as a religion? I personally don't like that distinction. .I think of it more as a world view. Nevertheless we'd be half way to the goal post if I'm correct.
I agree with Peggy, but also recognize that there is more than a little truth in the article. I tend to think carefully about things I read that irritate me, at least to get at just what the irritant is and why it bugs me so much. The article makes a good case for atheist chaplains, not only because the soldiers want it but because the Army doesn't and the religious will experience a minor paradox when they hear it's a serious request. It will humanize the non-believer to them.
"...such questions are not simply for the small-minded or the fearful, as atheists often charge, or that they can be addressed in purely clinical or scientific ways, as they often insist." This is particularly well said. Even Sam Harris mumbles about the 'developing science of the brain' when discussing this. I'm guilty as hell! :)
"We need atheists to admit that theirs too is a kind of faith." Well, that really pisses me off, but it's not completely ridiculous. I've had conversations with believers and said that the faith they were talking about is different to the way non-believers use the word. I ended up not entirely convincing myself, which is strangely just where I like my head to be when dealing with such matters.
All in all, a good article and a good case made. Thanks for sharing it, Chris!
Atheists may not have faith, but they still need someone to talk to, especially at the age many servicemen and women are. Personally, I would prefer they were called "atheist advisers" or something like, but the fact remains that they should have someone they can ask an honest question to, regarding family, the stress of combat, or struggling with the decision to sign up for another tour without being sandbagged with a useless bible verse.
Could the REAL question be, why do we have Chaplains at all?
I spent 20 years on active duty. At the time I still identified as a Christian even though I was not practicing. On the whole I got on well with the Chaplains I met, but to be honest they were mosly very worldly, rank concious people. Thinking back, in light of the new clergy project, I wonder if the chaplaincy might have been a refuge for ministers who had discovered they no longer believe.
I can't speak for anyone else but mostly what I got from Chaplain's was a friendly face at coctail parties.
Imagine having difficult questions that inevitably arise in situations where we are near to death, having our friends killed beside us, witnessing atrocity. Dealing with the aftermath of a suicide attack. I cannot imagine going to a religious chaplain with these concerns, given that there would be an intense push to get me to accept god as a baby to take it's medicine. Psychologists are a much more attractive option, but perversely paint the patient as weak in the eyes of fellow soldiers, while talking to a chaplain themselves is accepted? Atheist chaplains represent a middle ground, acknowledging personal difficulty without admitting to weakness. From what I've gathered of the Military hierarchy, they tell soldiers with such issues to 'soldier up, soldier!' and get over their childish issues. There simply must be a middle-ground here.
I wonder if Capt. Jean would consider entering this discussion? Trying to locate him now...
Case in point: Jean's own experience with the chaplaincy.
"...Those and other responses, Jean says, won him a trip to see the post chaplain, who berated him for his lack of faith. 'He basically told me that if I don't get right with God, then I'm worthless,' said Jean, now an intelligence officer at Ft. Meade, 'That if I don't believe in Jesus, why am I in uniform, because this is God's army, and that I should resign my commission in order to stop disgracing the military.'"
Shit, man! It's either the frying pan or the fire!
I understand the arguments for it I'm just not convinced the good that may result can out weigh the negatives that will result.
I wrote a short blog post on this topic just recently.
© 2019 Atheist Nexus. All rights reserved. Admin: The Nexus Group. Powered by


text:
Maggiel needed a new print or packaging design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 19 designs submitted by 4 freelance designers.
Training online Pty Ltd
We need a brochure for our food safety training I have all of the copy and will attach it to this brief, the design needs to be sleek with and clean. That incorporates both clean food and e learning.
Food industry industry employers and staff
we would prefer a bi fold brochure but a tri fold is also okay, we would like a picture of someone working on a computer preferably in a kitchen or a chef, colorful food , food preperation etc


text:
Over recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of people searching for property online and making property decisions over the Christmas period. With approximately 44 million* more visits to property portals between the month of December and January now really is the perfect time to market your property.
Contact us today for a free market appraisal and further information on this seasonal opportunity.
*Data Taken from Rightmove data August 2015. December 2014 to January 2015.


text:
We know that ratings and reviews are important to our families. That's why we use surveys by Press Ganey, a respected research firm, to see how we measure up.
Nemours Otolaryngology Care Ranks in Top 20 percent
Compared with other pediatric health care providers, we rank highly in these key satisfaction areas:
- Care Provider gave information about medications
- Likelihood of recommending Care Provider
- Likelihood of recommending practice
- Staff worked together


text:
Walnut/Advanced Topics/Build your Own uriGetter
From Erights
Build your Own uriGetter
So you think it would be cool to access your own data using the syntax of the style <getter:description>. No sweat: just implement an object with the single method get(description), and assign it to a variable with the name xxx__uriGetter:
# E sample def myDir := <file:/home/usr/me/myDir> def myDir__uriGetter { to get(objectPath) { return myDir[objectPath] } } def myFile := <myDir:theFileOfMyDreams.txt>
EAction and the trouble with listener callbacks
the entropy random number generator
Instead of using
def x := blah; if (blah != null) {...},
instead use
if (blah =~ x:notNull) {...}
for java calls to objects using deflectors on eventlistener interfaces, the calls are converted into sends
having multiple constructors and inheritance at the same time
Rights amplification
how to wait on a device like a socket
building your own quasiparsers
weak pointers
operators for twine like split and rjoin
twine versus string, run versus substring, etc.
Note that the revoker system presented earlier only works if the facetized object and the revokable user are not collaborating; if they are collaborating, use membranes.
S-expression/XML quasi-parser


text:
Saw [PS3 / XBOX 360 / PC Video Game Trailer]
Developer: Zombie Release: Q4 2009 Genre: Survival Horror Platform: PS3/X360/PC Publisher: Konami
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text:
Today I'm happy to share with you my plans for another shawl swap!
Following on from the wonderful #summershawlswap2015, I am organising the #autumnshawlswap2015.
Everything will be the same as in the Summer Shawl Swap.
All of us shawl addicts will make one shawl for a partner and receive one from another in return. The one rule is that the shawl must be made with approximately 100 – 150g of 4ply/sock yarn.
It can be crochet or knit, any pattern, any colour and any fibre!
Sign up is now open and will be open until Friday 7 August, partners will be announced by the 14th of August at the latest and the last posting date will be Friday 16 October. That gives us a full 9 weeks to make our shawls!
Please tell all of your crochet and knit friends about our swap. The summer shawl swap was such a nice way for us all to meet and make new crafting friends!
In the summer swap we had 26 participants from 5 different countries and for this swap there are already over 40 confirmed participants from 7 different countries! Will you join us?
Feel free to share the details on all of your social media: facebook, twitter, blogs.
Have a wonderful day!


text:
Open letter to anyone who works at a newspaper:
Please forward this to the Editor-in-Chief or HR department at your newspaper.
I'm an editorial cartoonist and am interested in submitting my portfolio and resume for review by your newspaper.
Please have a look at my editorial cartoons and let me know if there are any freelance, part-time, or full-time positions at your paper that would make good use of my talents.
My portfolio and resume can be viewed at:
If you'd like me to submit my works in any other format, please let me know.
Yonatan Frimer
Phone: +972-545-683-040
Link to Source of this maze cartoonist for hire posting
Additional source for this posting of a Cartoonist 4 Hire
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Cartoonist 4 Hire - Editorial maze cartoonist, Yonatan Frimer, portfolio and resume
Posted by STOM Research at 5:28 AM
Labels: artist, cartoonist, cartoonist for hire, editor, for hire, hire me, job search, jobs, maze, maze artist for hire, mazes, newspaper, newspapers, open letter, publication, recession
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Hi all,
I have a TDM800 connected to 6 analog FX0 Lines. Can/does the phone company send the dialed number information over analog lines? We have a couple of different 1800 numbers that all hunt the six lines, but I would like to handle the IVR for each 1800 number differently, and I would also like to setup a couple of extensions to have a direct inward dialed number. I know all this is possible over a T1, I was just hoping it would also be possible over analog line.
Thanks, for your help.


text:
CHICAGO--CME Group Inc. CME, +0.89% on Friday said it will "assume responsibility for actual losses" suffered by customers after the exchange operator reported an incorrect number of wheat contracts available for delivery.
"CME Group will establish a claims process for customers and details will be posted to the website as soon as possible," the company said in a statement. It didn't say how big the losses might be, and a company spokesman declined to comment beyond the details in the statement.
The company said it issued an incorrect report on Thursday after 4 p.m. CST showing 164 wheat shipping certificates registered. That number did not include 2,000 other registered certificates, and the company corrected the report on its website at 5:46 p.m. CST, it said.
Shipping certificates represent physical supplies registered with the exchange as available for delivery upon expiration of a futures contract.
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires


text:
"Big Horn" to return as Children's Museum entry
Mayor Don Wesely today announced plans for the 18th annual Star City Holiday Parade produced by Updowntowners, Inc. The parade is set for 11 a.m. Saturday, December 7 in downtown Lincoln. The theme for this year's parade is "Stars in Action," and entries will include five giant balloons, a new Santa Claus float and the return of "Big Horn," a nine-ton rolling collection of bells, whistles, horns, strobe lights and music.
"Last year was the first appearance of 'Big Horn' in our parade, and it was a huge hit," said Mayor Wesely. "The parade is the largest of its kind in a five-state area, and we expect 85,000 people to visit downtown Lincoln for the event. The support of community organizations and businesses allows us to present this great holiday tradition for families."
"Big Horn" is again the Lincoln Children's Museum's entry in the parade, and it will be on display following the parade at the Museum, 1420 "P" Street.
Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center is the presenting sponsor for the parade this year and is also sponsoring the new Santa float. Santa will ride the parade route accompanied by playful penguins and a huge polar bear. Other major sponsors include Alltel, Cellular One, Experian and the Cornhusker Hotel. Another new float this year is "Good Works" being sponsored and built by WAL*MART. The parade will again be televised live by KOLN-KGIN-TV.
Seventeen bands will march through downtown, including the UNL Cornhusker Marching Band, bands from all Lincoln public high schools and Pius X and a 204-member band all the way from Lakeville High School in Minnesota. Another highlight will be the entries from this year's Star Community, Beatrice, which will enter a band and a float called "From Dreams to Action."
A panel of band professionals will judge the bands in competition. All other judging will be done by a panel of children ages 8 through14.
Eighteen events are planned as part of the Star City Holiday Festival, beginning with the Holiday Lighting Ceremony from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, December 1 at Wells Fargo, 13th and "O" streets. The parade web site at www.starcityholidayfestival.org includes information on all the events, plus a parade route map and parking map.
Audio, video, pictures and information on "Big Horn" are available at www.BIG-HORN.com.
Media Release


text:
Welcome disc golfer! You can login or create an account.
Questions? Call us: (785) 258-2494
The Innova R-Pro Cro is a slightly overstable mid range driver. This disc golf disc is well suited for both backhand and forehand shots. Many players have switched to the Cro for accurate, predictably stable drives and approaches. The stability of the Cro is comparable to that of a Roc or a Shark, but it will fly a little faster and with less glide. A lot of top pros use the Cro when they want the flight of the Roc without the added glide of the Roc. The rim depth and shape offer a smooth release.
It is a great choice for consistent flights, placement shots, and spike hyzers. It is a fantastic disc for a variety of mid range shots.
Speed 5, Glide 3, Turn 0, Fade 2
Diameter: 21.2 cm
Rim Width: 1.4 cm
Date of Approval: 06/21/06
About R-Pro plastic - its special blend of plastic provides maximum grip with increased flexibility in all weather. They are more flexible and consistently softer at low temperatures than most Pro blends. This makes R-Pro ideal for cold weather play. R-Pro Drivers are stiffer while Mid-Range and Approach discs are more flexible.
About Color and Weight Availability - This model may not be available in all colors. Likewise, each weight range may not be available in all colors. Therefore we ask you to list and prioritize your color preferences and to give us guidance if the color or weight range you want happens to not be available. Feel free to contact us if you need more specific info.
What others have said:
"The Cro just might fit in your hand better than any other mid-range out there. A surprisingly fast flyer that is easy to throw, and will stick on the line you put it on like glue." - Christian Dietrich
If you are looking for a disc that has
more Speed, try the Leopard, Cheetah, Gazelle, Whippet, Viper
more Glide, try the Wombat3, RocX3, Manta, VCobra, Wombat, Kite, Panther, Skeeter, Foxbat, Atlas, Mako3, Shark3, Roc3
more Turn, try the Wombat3, Manta, VCobra, Wombat, Kite, Panther, Skeeter, Foxbat
more Fade, try the RocX3, Gator, Roc3
Other Speed 5 Models: Wombat3, RocX3, Manta, VCobra, Wombat, Kite, Panther, Skeeter, Foxbat, Atlas, Spider, Gator, Mako3, Shark3, Roc3


text:
Despite our misgivings about an R8 GT with a removable roof, Audi's going ahead with plans for a 552-hp version of its Spyder. Teamspeed's spies in Germany caught what looks to be a pre-production model in all its wing'd glory.
The question is, can engineers cull the same 220 pounds from the Spyder as the standard V10? It would be an ungodly but welcome act. Other specs should remain the same, including the 552 hp and 398 lb/ft from the 5.2-liter V10, ceramic brakes, manually adjustable coilovers and carbon-backed bucket seats. What about the coupe's 3.6-second 0-60 time? Perhaps.
Misgivings or not, more sub-4 second cars are better than fewer. And by fewer we mean only 333 of the Spyders will likely be built, to match the 333 coupes set for production. That means 666 Audi R8 GTs will be wandering the earth. Kind of a provocative number so close to Judgement Day, is it not? Still, if we make it to June, some say the reveal will be at Le Mans.


text:
With a distinct urban and rock 'n roll feel, Brooklyn-based Wrecords by Monkey creates unique handmade accessories using reclaimed vinyl records. The company, made up of friends Patrick Chirico and Brian Farrell, was started in 2004 when the two started to make jewelry in their dorm hallway at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Their first and signature product, the Wrecord bracelet, ranges in styles from quirky to sophisticated– some even glow in the dark! Today, the duo's work has come to include bracelets, necklaces, earrings, rings and t-shirts– all eco-chic items for the music lover.
Instead of letting unwanted or damaged records go to waste, Wrecords collects vinyl from DJs and distributors– taking post-consumer back stock that is either scratched or warped. Since 2004, Wrecords has released several collections of bracelets and more recently expanded into creating other accessories in collections including Music is the Key, Off the Train, Classic Patterns, Heritage, City Life, and Native American. A recent collection, NYC Artist Collection, represents a roster of 12 New York City artists including graphic designers, photographers, graffiti artists and fine artists. The collection is designed to help the selected urban artists while also encouraging young talent with 45 percent of the profits going to the artists, and 10 percent going to art and music programs in Brooklyn schools.
The Heritage Collection
The NYC Artist Collection is not the only way Wrecords gives back, however, Patrick and Brian have spoken at colleges about entrepreneurship and innovative materials in the past, and continue to be involved with charitable organizations and philanthropic ventures including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, LIFEbeat, and the S.T.O.K.E.D. Foundation.
We construct a way of life through innovation and creativity.
Our products are a reflection of our environment,
inspired by our love for fashion, art and music.
We are Wrecords by Monkey
The Heritage Collection
Classic Patterns
The Heritage Collection