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Bioprinting, Part 1: The Promise and the Pitfalls
Mar 26, 2014 6:26 AM PT
It's long been the dream of humans to be able to regenerate body parts. Scientists have been researching this possibility for years, but the subject is complex, and they are just beginning to get to a glimmer of understanding as to what's required.
"There are different layers of complexity in developing tissue-engineered products, so the easiest thing is to make it something that's one single type of cell and is a flat sheet," Charlie Whelan, healthcare and life science director of consulting at Frost & Sullivan, told TechNewsWorld.
Hospitals do grow single sheets of epithelial cells for use in patching burns and wounds or to wrap around organs, but that's a far cry from human skin, which is "multilayer, complex, has different types of cells, and is vascular," Whelan continued.
Step Aside, Gutenberg
In the meantime, the advent of 3D printers has opened up fresh possibilities.
Researchers at Edinburgh's Herriott-Watt University reportedly have invented a printer that creates living embryonic cells, according to LiveScience.
Bioengineers and physicians at Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medical College, respectively, have jointly created an artificial ear using 3D printing.
Researchers in China's Hangzhou Dianzi University claim to have developed a biomaterial 3D printer they call "Regenovo" that they say can print out small amounts of human tissues.
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration last year awarded US$100,000 for research into 3D printing of biomaterials.
All the Organs That Are Fit to Print
Many of the companies offering 3D biomaterial printers restrict themselves to printing out dental materials and bones.
Regenhu goes further. Its line of BioInk biomaterials can be used with its BioFactory bioprinters to create 3D constructs of cells and proteins, and complex models of organs for automated in-vitro assays for clinical diagnostics and drug discovery, and to create in-vitro models of human diseases.
The idea is to conduct biochemical tests on 3D tissues printed from a patient's own cells rather than on the patient, explained Jordan Miller, assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice University. "Right now, animal models can't fully predict drug toxicity and function in humans."
3D printing of skin will be readily translated to clinical use, but "3D printing of other tissues may take longer for clinical and commercial translation due to the fact that many other tissues have more complex structures," Roger Narayan, Ph.D., M.D., a professor in the joint biomedical engineering department at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told TechNewsWorld.
Narayan led a team from both universities and Laser Zentrum Hannover in research that discovered Vitamin B2, or riboflavin, can be used in 3D printing to create nontoxic medical implants.
Hope for the Hurt
Nearly 2 million people in the U.S. have lost at least one limb, according to the Amputee Coalition. About 185,000 amputations are conducted in the U.S. each year. Rejection of transplanted organs is the main problem for patients undergoing this procedure.
Bioengineered tissues may reduce the danger of tissue rejection following surgery, offer a higher rate of healing, and improve patients' chances of survival, Narayan said.
"The Department of Defense has committed significant resources over the years to the use of tissue engineering for treatment of traumatic injuries," Narayan continued. "3D printing-based and other tissue-engineering technologies will have a high impact on the treatment of traumatic injuries, as well as tissue loss associated with cancer and tissue degeneration."
The Blood Is the Life
Providing bioprinted organs a network of blood vessels so they can thrive has proved to be a major problem.
"Everyone in our field is trying to solve the vascularization challenge," Rice University's Miller told TechNewsWorld.
What about Regenovo, then?
"I would ... caution [against] taking the Regenovo report too far, and I wouldn't consider it all done," Miller remarked. "They admit they are still 10-20 years away from [developing] whole organs."
Other Issues With Bioprinting
The technical side of printing small-volume organs "may be achieved within the next two years," Kevin Healy, chair of the department of bioengineering at the University of California at Berkeley, told TechNewsWorld. However, the ability to develop vascularization of such organs is at least five years away.
"The harder problem is to figure out what cells to use to avoid immune rejection," Healy continued.
Once this has been solved, researchers have to get donor cells and learn how to differentiate donor stem cells to the appropriate cells for the specific organ being printed.
"We know how to do this for a number of cell types, but, for a number of other cells like hepatocytes (liver cells), this is much more difficult," Healy pointed out.
Then there is the problem of nerve regeneration. Bioengineered products will require nerves, but "nerve regeneration is more difficult than blood vessel, soft tissue or hard tissue regeneration," Narayan said.
A Long Time A-Coming
"Parts of the body which require human cells to perform biomechanical functions, such as the liver or kidney, are still several decades away from reaching human patients," Miller said. "We are still in the feasibility stage -- not sure how to keep cells alive at high cell density and adequate size needed to match human organs."
A 3D structure will require nearly 1 billion functioning cells to approximate the function of a liver or kidney, and "there are dozens of cell types in these organs," Miller pointed out. "We are typically only looking at one or two cell types being put into a 3D printed structure."
It takes some time to grow enough cells from a biopsy to build something the size of a human organ, so the prospect of treating acute injuries with 3D printing is currently remote, Miller said. However, some researchers are looking at 3D printing a patient's cells and tissue directly into a wound in the operating room, though this would require having a "large stock" of these cells available in deep freeze.
Regeneration Is a No-Grow Zone
As for the dream of human limb and organ regeneration, forget about it.
"The cascade of signals and gene regulation which lets a newt regrow an entire limb was recently shown to not be present in the human genome," Miller observed. "So, for human limb replacements, we are probably going to need to think about reconstruction rather than stimulation of regrowth."
Bioprinting, Part 2 - The Ethical Conundrum


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Summer Spaces Still Available
Although our places are filling up for the summer we do still have some places available. Please give us a call or send us an email to check the availability of our summer placements.
You will need to apply quickly if you want to be in Cusco, Peru in time for the Inti Raymi Festival which takes place at the end of June. It is the second largest festival in South America after Carnival in Rio de Janiero. What better way than to celebrate this festival with your host family. We have a broad range of projects based just outside of Cusco in the Sacred Valley. To find out
more click here.
If you are keen to go out to Mongolia you will be able not only to join one of our projects but also to see the famous Naadam Festival from 9th -16th July. We have projects teaching English, helping in an orphanage or even working on a local newspaper. To find out more about our projects in Mongolia click here.
If you join us in China in August you may catch some of the Olympic soccer tournament which is based in Shanghai where Projects Abroad is based. You might even find yourself writing for an English language newspaper about the games you have watched. We can't promise how easy it will be to get a ticket! To find out more about our China projects click here.
Please give us a ring on 01273 007230 to find out about summer projects or email us at

subset: commoncrawl


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Last fall, the Economic Cycle Research Institute loudly and unequivocally said the US was headed into a recession. It wasn't. Now ECRI's leading indicators have recovered and turned positive, though the last two weeks have seen a slight dip...
ECRI Weekly Leading Indicator: The Growth Index Slips Again
The Weekly Leading Index (WLI) growth indicator of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) is now at 0.6 as reported in today's public release of the data through April 20. This is the second consecutive week-over-week decline since January 6th. However, the underlying WLI rose fractionally from an adjusted 123.8 to 124.1 (see the fourth chart below).
The History of ECRI's Recession Call
ECRI's weekly leading index has become a major focus and source of controversy ever since September 30th of last year, when ECRI publicly announced that the U.S. is tipping into a recession, a call the Institute had announced to its private clients on September 21st. Here is an excerpt from the announcement:
|Early last week, ECRI notified clients that the U.S. economy is indeed tipping into a new recession. And there's nothing that policy makers can do to head it off.
ECRI's recession call isn't based on just one or two leading indexes, but on dozens of specialized leading indexes, including the U.S. Long Leading Index, which was the first to turn down — before the Arab Spring and Japanese earthquake — to be followed by downturns in the Weekly Leading Index and other shorter-leading indexes. In fact, the most reliable forward-looking indicators are now collectively behaving as they did on the cusp of full-blown recessions, not "soft landings." (Read the report here.)
The Certainty and Dramatic Language of ECRI's Recession Call
What was particularly striking about ECRI's current recession call is the fervor and certainty of the language in the public press release:
|Here's what ECRI's recession call really says: if you think this is a bad economy, you haven't seen anything yet. And that has profound implications for both Main Street and Wall Street.
Note the complete absence of wiggle room in the announcement, nor have there been any public communications from ECRI to qualify or soften its recession call. ECRI has put its credibility on the line.
Seven months have now passed since the ECRI recession call, which — coincidentally — occurred on the same day that the Federal Reserve announced Operation Twist (see this update on the effectiveness the Fed's strategy). Has Fed policy been a factor in delaying or eliminating the recession ECRI saw in its crystal ball?
Mainstream Economists on the Recession Risk
Earlier this week I featured a commentary on the April Wall Street Journal survey of economists. I singled out their opinions on GDP, but I also included the results of the WSJ survey questionnaire about the probability, on a scale of 1 to 100, of a US recession in the next 12 months. None of the economists in January offered a negative GDP forecast; however, the average response to the recession probability question was 16%, a small drop from January's 19%.
The ECRI recession call has, at this point, been of little value for financial planning. In fact, if the public announcement of their recession call sent investors to the sidelines, they missed a gain of over 22% in the S&P 500 as of yesterday's close.
The "Yo-Yo Years"
Last month ECRI posted a public commentary (March 22) with the intriguing title The Yo-Yo Years. The commentary is a version of Lakshman Achuthan's presentation at the Bloomberg Sovereign Debt Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, and is a must-read for anyone following the ECRI data.
Essentially Achuthan argues that we are entering an era of more frequent recessions as a result of two things: 1) declining economic trend growth and 2) increased cyclical volatility following the end of the Great Moderation (circa mid-1980s to 2007). The "we" in the sentence above is not only the US but also much of the developed world, especially Europe. Moreover, the idea of global "decoupling" is largely a myth because of the export dependence of most economies.
Particularly interesting is Achuthan's discussion of the Bullwhip Effect, "where small fluctuations in consumer demand growth get amplified up the supply chain into big swings in demand as we move away from the consumer." Achuthan goes on to explain the mechanics of amplification of the Bullwhip effect on more frequent recessions in developed countries to the countries that supply intermediate and crude goods.
Year-over-Year Growth in the WLI
Triggered by another ECRI commentary, Why Our Recession Call Stands, I'm now focusing initially on the year-over-year growth of the WLI rather than ECRI's previously favored, and rather arcane, method of calculating the WLI growth series from the underlying WLI (see the endnote below). Specifically the chart immediately below is the year-over-year change in the 4-week moving average of the WLI. The red dots highlight the YoY value for the month when recessions began.
As the chart above makes clear, the WLI YoY is currently at a lower level than at the starting month for five of the seven recessions during the published series. Of course, the same can be said for its interim YoY trough in 2010. In any case, the behavior of this indicator over the next quarter or so will be especially interesting to watch.
The WLI Growth Metric
The best known of ECRI's indexes is their growth calculation on the WLI; it's that arcane calculation referenced above. For a close look at this index in recent months, here's a snapshot of the data since 2000.
Now let's step back and examine the complete series available to the public, which dates from 1967. ECRI's WLI growth metric has had a respectable record for forecasting recessions and rebounds therefrom. The next chart shows the correlation between the WLI, GDP and recessions.
A significant decline in the WLI has been a leading indicator for six of the seven recessions since the 1960s. It lagged one recession (1981-1982) by nine weeks. The WLI did turned negative 17 times when no recession followed, but 14 of those declines were only slightly negative (-0.1 to -2.4) and most of them reversed after relatively brief periods.
Three other three negatives were deeper declines. The Crash of 1987 took the Index negative for 34 weeks with a trough of -6.8. The Financial Crisis of 1998, which included the collapse of Long Term Capital Management, took the Index negative for 23 weeks with a trough of -4.5.
The third significant negative came near the bottom of the bear market of 2000-2002, about nine months after the brief recession of 2001. At the time, the WLI seemed to be signaling a double-dip recession, but the economy and market accelerated in tandem in the spring of 2003, and a recession was avoided.
The question had been whether the WLI decline that began in Q4 of 2009 was a leading indicator of a recession. The published index has never dropped to the -11.0 level in July 2010 without the onset of a recession. The deepest decline without a recession onset was in the Crash of 1987, when the index slipped to -6.8. ECRI's managing director correctly predicted that we would avoid a double dip. The positive GDP since the end of the last recession supports ECRI's stance.
A Look at the Underlying index
With the Growth Index's general resilience in 2012, let's take a moment to look at the underlying Weekly Leading Index from which the Growth Index is calculated. The first chart below shows the index level.
For a better understanding of the relationship of the WLI level to recessions, the next chart shows the data series in terms of the percent of the previous peak. In other words, a new weekly high registers at 100%, with subsequent declines plotted accordingly.
As the chart above illustrates, only once has a recession occurred without the index level achieving a new high -- the two recessions, commonly referred to as a "double-dip," in the early 1980s. Our current level is 12.6% off the most recent high, which was set 4.8 years ago. The longest stretch between highs was about 5.2 years from February 1973 to April 1978. But the index level rose steadily from the trough at the end of the 1973-1975 recession to reach its new high in 1978. The pattern we're now witnessing is quite different.
Additional Analysis on Recession Forecasting
Here are some links to some useful articles for evaluating the substance of the ECRI's controversial recession call:
- April 17: The Unemployment Rate: A Coincident Recession Indicator
- March 6: ECRI's Recession Call: "Is There Something Magic About 2 Percent?" Georg Vrba digs into ECRI's claims about the year-over-year growth rate of its indicators.
- March 3: The Elusive 2012 Recession: When Can We Expect It? Georg Vrba and Dwaine van Vuuren introduce the RecessionAlert.com website.
- February 21: Evaluating Popular Recession Indicators Georg Vrba offers a critique of three recession indicators, including ECRI's WLI and WLI Growth.
- February 17: No Wonder ECRI's Weekly Leading Index Data is Free Kishor Bhatia points out the remarkable similarity between the WLI and the S&P 500.
- February 14: Recession: Just How Much Warning is Useful Anyway? Dwaine van Vuuren questions the benefit of recession forecasts for portfolio management.
Earlier discussions of the ECRI recession call include these commentaries:
- January 18: Why the Average Investor Is Bamboozled by Recession Forecasts by Jeff Miller.
- January 17: Further Improving the Use of the ECRI WLI by Dwaine van Vuuren and Georg Vrba)
- January 10: Using the ECRI WLI to Flag Recessions by Dwaine van Vuuren
- January 3: US Recession - An Opposing View by Dwaine van Vuuren.
Here is Dwaine's snapshot of the WLI, which should be studied in the context of his expanded analysis at his RecessionAlert website:
Another Source for Recession Forecasts
For a carefully researched and frequently updated alternative perspective on recession risk, see the Recession Alert website maintained by Sharenet and PowerStocks Research.
Note: How to Calculate the Growth series from the Weekly Leading Index
ECRI's weekly Excel spreadsheet includes the WLI and the Growth series, but the latter is a series of values without the underlying calculations. After a collaborative effort by Franz Lischka, Georg Vrba, Dwaine van Vuuren and Kishor Bhatia to model the calculation, Georg discovered the actual formula in a 1999 article published by Anirvan Banerji, the Chief Research Officer at ECRI: The three Ps: simple tools for monitoring economic cycles - pronounced, pervasive and persistent economic indicators.
Here is the formula:
"MA1" = 4 week moving average of the WLI
"MA2" = moving average of MA1 over the preceding 52 weeks
"n"= 52/26.5
"m"= 100
WLIg = [m*(MA1/MA2)^n] – m


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When Lynche was saved from elimination by Idol judges after scoring the lowest vote total, the energetic crowd of fans that had gathered at two Burger King "support centers" in Queens that night breathed a sign of relief. When judge Simon Cowell said, "We're gonna see you next week," intense cheering could be heard up and down Astoria Boulevard and on Northern Boulevard in Bayside.
It all started in March, when a Burger King at 33-10 Astoria Boulevard (between 33rd and 34th streets) in Astoria became the unofficial headquarters of the "Big Mike" fan club, hosting viewing parties on American Idol Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Along with residents of the neighborhood, the restaurant owners, employees, and management all took an interest in this particular contestant - an Astoria local.
"We started following him when we found out he was on the show, became excited for the community, and took ownership of his story," said Burger King owner Debbie Sena. "Signs were hung up all over the restaurant welcoming people to come in and watch American Idol with us."
Sena even had a big-screen television installed for the newly formed fan club. Before long, the idea flourished into a community activity. "Whatever is important to Astoria, is important to us," she said.
Sena and her brother, Jay Della Monica, own 15 Burger King Restaurants across Queens. "Big Mike" viewing parties have also spread to Bayside, to a Burger King on 222nd Street and Northern Boulevard. Fortunately, that location already had a big screen TV. The siblings believe in reaching out to the residents and giving back to their community.
On Idol nights, Astoria fans gather in droves to vote for and cheer on Lynche, while munching on Whoppers and fries. BK regulars from the neighborhood, Brandon Najera, a junior at Long Island City High School, and Eni, a sophomore at Queens Vocational, stopped in on a Tuesday evening after skateboarding down Astoria Boulevard, to hang out with their friends until 'Idol'-time.
"I think Big Mike is an inspiration to everybody in Astoria," said Najera.
"I love Big Mike, I hope he wins," said his buddy Eni. "He's representing all of us here."
Dozens of Astoria BK "members" recently appeared on Fox News. When a reporter asked her how many people usually come in to watch and cheer, Sena replied, "This is the crowd, it gets bigger every week. It's the regular crowd!" In the background, the motley group of fans held up hand-made signs and chanted, "Big Mike! Big Mike!"
BK manager Julia Mitchell, who lives in Astoria, has been working at the Astoria Boulevard location since 2006.
"The owners were having more fun than we were - they got us into it," she said. "He's a soulful singer; he sings from the heart. We're hoping Big Mike sticks around."
As of press time for this issue, Lynche was one of four remaining contestants. The pressure is on, but he remains confident that his ambitions will take him far.
"I've sat on the couch for years watching it [American Idol], wondering if I had what it takes," he told Letoya West of About.com. "So here I am proving that I have what it takes."
Sena briefly spoke to Lynche over the phone, during which he expressed the gratitude he feels for his fans. Sena relayed this message to members of the unofficial "Big Mike" fan club.
"He is very appreciative of all of our support," she said. "He doesn't take anything for granted. He is thankful for the parties we have been throwing and loves Astoria. He will keep in touch and stop by our Burger King when he gets back."


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GASTON AARP: 9:45 a.m., First Presbyterian Church, 1621 E. Garrison Blvd., Gastonia. The speaker will be Joy Sparrow.
BLOOD DRIVE: 2:30-7 p.m., New Hope Presbyterian Church, 4357 S. New Hope Road, Gastonia. Donors will be entered into a drawing to win a $1,000 gift card from a home improvement store. For an appointment, call Jane, 704-825-2583. For more information on donating blood, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-733-2767.
WE R FORGIVEN IN CONCERT: 6 p.m., The Country Kitchen, 116 E. Main St., Dallas.
FREE SIMPLE WILLS, LIVING WILLS, HEALTH AND FINANCIAL POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR SENIORS: Gaston County Senior Center, 1303 Dallas-Cherryville Highway, Dallas. For Gaston County seniors of low to moderate means. Offered by Legal Aid of North Carolina. Space limited. Call 877-579-7562 to apply.
GASTONIA TOASTMASTERS: 7-8:15 a.m., YMCA, 615 E. Franklin Blvd., Gastonia. Helps people become more comfortable with public speaking. Meets Thursdays.
GASTON COUNTY REPUBLICAN WOMEN: Noon, City Club of Gastonia, 532 S. New Hope Road, Gastonia. Kevin Spalding, the president of the Gastonia Toastmasters Club will be the guest speaker. He will share techniques for effective communication. A lunch buffet is available for $12. For lunch reservations, contact Gayle Walker, email@example.com.
TRYON RESOLVES CHAPTER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: 3 p.m., First United Methodist, 601 N. Pink St., Cherryville. Historian Robert Carpenter will be the guest speaker. He is a genealogy expert and author of the book, �Carpenter�s A Plenty.�
WIDOWED GROUP OF THE GREATER GASTON AREA: 6:30-7:30 p.m. , Gaston County Citizens Resource Center,1303 Dallas-Cherryville Hwy., Dallas. Doors open at 6 p.m. Gospel music by Marty Vanderlip. Refreshments served after the program. There is no charge. Love offering appreciated. For more information, call 704-865-5663.
ABRAMS BROTHERS IN CONCERT: 7:30 p.m., First Assembly, 777 S. Myrtle School Road, Gastonia, presented by the Gaston Concert Association. The Canadian band is known for their own blend of bluegrass Americana and root music. The group features brothers, John and James Abrams, joined by their cousin, Elijah Abrams. Tickets for the concert cost $45 for adults and that price also includes admission to the four concerts in the 2013-�14 season. Reduced prices of $15 are available for high school and college students. Children in grades K-12 are admitted free with an adult. The upcoming season will feature Bach to the Future, a classical and jazz quartet; the Gothard Sisters, performing Irish dance, fiddle and song; Charlotte Bronze, a handbell ensemble; and Amantha Hill, a vocal/instrumental act. Call 704-867-7166.
INDOOR YARD SALE: 6 a.m., Generation Church, 625 Neal Hawkins Road, Gastonia, to benefit the children�s ministry.
COMMUNITY-WIDE BREAKFAST BUFFET : 7-10 a.m., First United Methodist Church, 601 N. Pink St., Cherryville, in the church fellowship hall. Donations will be accepted and the public is invited. You can get more information by calling the church office, 704-435-6732.
POLAR PLUNGE: 9:30 a.m., Betty G. Ross Recreation Center, Lincolnton. Cost is $25 for ages 10 and older. Pee Wee Plungers - age 9 and under - pay $10. All proceeds benefit the Special Olympics. Activities get started at 9:30 a.m. and registration begins at 10:30 a.m. Register online at www.firstgiving.com/sonc/solcpoloarplunge. For more information, call Celeste Frazier, 704-736-1860 or e-mail email@example.com
SENIOR VALENTINE BANQUET: 6 p.m., Mount Calvary Baptist, 408 N. Marietta St., Gastonia. Call 704-864-4222.
QUICK-QUILTED PLACEMAT CLASS: 3-5 p.m. or 6 to 8 p.m., Feb. 28 at the Lucile Tatum Home Center, 959 Osceola St., Gastonia. Choose from one of the two sessions. The cost is $5 per person and the class will be taught by Marsha McLamb, a member of the Quiltmakers ECA � Extension and Community Association. Proceeds will benefit the project room fund.
SOUTH POINT BAPTIST STREET FAIR: 7 a.m.-noon March 2, 124 Horsley Ave., Belmont. The sale will include used electronics, toys, furniture, home and kitchen items, clothes and baby items. Biscuits will be sold from 7 to 10 a.m. and hot dogs from 10 a.m. to noon. Call 704-825-9516.
SECOND BLESSINGS ANNUAL SPRING CONSIGNMENT SALE: 7-11 a.m. March 2, Carpenter Hall, First United Methodist Church, 807 South Point Road. Items will be half price from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Calling the church office, 704-825-2106 or Lori Hanafin, 704-689-0404.
BARBECUE SALE: 10 a.m. March 8, New Life Baptist, 614 S. 11 th St., Bessemer City. Plates cost $7 each. Dine in or carryout available. Delivery is being offered for orders of five plates or more. Call 704-629-6892 or 704-747-5576.
PORT-A-PIT BARBECUE CHICKEN SALE: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. March 8, St. Stephens AME Zion, 201 W. Franklin Blvd., Gastonia. Cost is $8.50 per person. The fundraiser is sponsored by the St. Stephens A.M.E. Zion Church Home Missions Department. Call 704-861-2005.
MISS MOUNT HOLLY PAGEANT : 3 p.m. March 10, East Gaston High School, 1744 Lane Road, Mount Holly. The pageant is open to girls ages 17 to 24 who live, go to school or work full-time in Gaston, Meckenburg, Lincoln, Cleveland and Union counties. Categories include personal interview; swimsuit, talent and evening gown. The young woman crowned Miss Mount Holly 2013 will receive a $1,000 scholarship. There is no entry fee to compete in the pageant. Also taking place on March 10 is the Miss Mount Holly Outstanding Teen Pageant, open to girls ages 13 to 16. The entry fee for the teen pageant is $125. Organizers are also sponsoring a Carolina Princess Program in conjunction with the pageant. Each contestant will crown a girl between the ages 6-12 in this mentoring program. Each participant will receive a crown, pizza party and be on stage with all the contestants. The fee is $50. This is not a competition. The deadline to enter is Feb. 24. Contact Debbie McCaleb, executive director, 980-833-1562 or e-mail email@example.com. You can also follow the organization on Facebook at missmounthollypageant.
BARBECUE SALE: 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. March 15, Grace Baptist, 2200 Auten Road, Gastonia, sponsored by the Grace Baptist and Community Senior Adults. Cost is $7 per plate and delivery is available for orders of 10 plates or more. The group will use proceeds for activities. Call 704-671-4338 or 704-865-9226.
WHALE OF THE SALE: 6 a.m.-noon March 16, Gastonia Farmers Market, 410 E. Long Ave., Gastonia, presented by the Junior League of Gaston County. Billed as the county�s largest thrift sale, a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Junior League�s Y-Life Program. If you have items you�d like to donate, they can be dropped off at Art�s Desire on Hoffman Road in Gastonia. Admission to the fundraiser is $1 in advance or $2 at the door.
BELMONT CITIZEN OF THE YEAR AWARD BANQUET: 8 p.m. March 19, Park Street Methodist Family Life Center, Park Street and Catawba Street, Belmont, presented by the Belmont Historical Society. The banquet is held yearly to honor a worthy citizen chosen from Belmont or the surrounding Belmont area for their outstanding service to the Belmont citizens and community. Nominations may be made and submitted to the Selection Committee of the Belmont Historical Society by citizens of the Belmont community. Nominating forms are available at the Belmont Historical Society, 40 Catawba Street, Belmont, or by calling 704-825-4848. Information by phone is available from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Wednesday or from 1 to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Tickets for the event will be available several weeks prior to the banquet. Call 704-825-4848 for ticket information.
CHARLOTTE YOUTH BALLET PRESENTS �THE WIZARD OF OZ�: 10 a.m. March 22, Knight Theater, 430 S. Tyron Street, Charlotte, an original ballet created by Gay Porter with music by the late Loonis McGlohon. Other performances are at 2 and 7 p.m. March 23; and 2:30 p.m. March 24. Tickets range in price from $8 to $25. Call 704-372-1000 or visit charlotteyouthballet.org or tixcarolinatix.org.
RIDER SKILLS DAY: 8 a.m.-4 p.m. March 23, Gastonia Police Department, 200 E. Long St. The day will involve training in the classroom and on the streets. Topics will include motorcycle control and factors that contribute to collisions. Participants will get an assessment of their present skills and advice from the department�s motorcycle officers. After getting feedback and instruction, the on-street assessment will be repeated and more feedback offered. The day is made possible through the BikeSafe North Carolina, a program to make riding in North Carolina safer and more enjoyable. Anyone interested in participated in the March 23 event can register online at bikesafe.com or by calling 704-854-6665.
HOUSE OF MERCY WALK FOR AIDS: April 13, starting with registration at 9:30 a.m. m. at the stone shelter on the Sisters of Mercy campus in Belmont. This is the 20th annual walk which raises awareness about AIDS and money for the nonprofit residence which serves low-income person living with the disease. The three-mile walk will take participants through downtown Belmont. Walkers collect donations in support of their walk. The first 250 walkers who raise $50 or more will receive a free Walk for AIDS T-shirt. A picnic lunch and music will follow the walk on the House of Mercy grounds. For more information visit www.thehouseofmercy.org. You�ll find a map of the route, a donation form and team information, as well as information on the House of Mercy.
EAST GASTON BOOSTER GOLF TOURNAMENT: 8 a.m. April 20, Green Meadows Golf Course, Mount Holly. Cost to participate is $55 which includes entry, 18 holes of golf, riding cart, lunch and opportunity to win prizes, including $250 cash for a hole in one. Registration starts at 7 a.m. For a registration form, email email@example.com or call 704-913-5156.


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Local man waiting for wife to disembark Carnival Triumph
A Springdale man anxiously awaits the return of his wife, who witnessed firsthand the disaster on the Carnival Triumph
The crippled cruise ship has docked in Mobile, Alabama, and 40/29 News spoke exclusively with a man whose wife was on board.
It was a frustrating and scary situation for Brad Crabtree, knowing that his wife, Kim, was stranded on the Carnival Triumph.
It was supposed to be a dream vacation with two of her sisters, but it quickly turned into the cruise from hell.
"There's people that are injured, she knows of one gentleman that has passed away that was on her floor, and she said the smell is just unbearable," Crabtree said on Thursday, just a few hours before the ship docked."They have no rest rooms. They're having to use a bag. She said they were eating mayonnaise and pickle sandwiches."
Aerial views from CNN and other news affiliates gave us a glimpse of the not-so-luxurious life aboard the cruise ship.
"She said there are people everywhere, sleeping on tables and in elevators. It's bad," Crabtree said. "I honestly did not think it would take this long to resolve the situation. This is ridiculous."
He said they knew ahead of time that the ship was having engine trouble, but the Triumph set sail anyway.
"When they left the port, they were already one engine down, and they went out anyway, and the alternator caught fire. They didn't even radio for help or anything for almost 24 hours," Crabtree said. 'I just want to get her home safely."
Crabtree says he's only spoken to his wife a couple of times because her cellphone kept dying. She tried to charge it, but there were only three working outlets being shared by more than 4,000 people.
Crabtree said his wife should be back in Northwest Arkansas by Tuesday evening.


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On The BeachPhotographs by Richard Misrach
Availability: Limited quantities
Limited Quanties Available To inquire about price contact [email protected]
Richard Misrach, one of today's contemporary masters, is renowned for his carefully considered, beautifully rendered epic works. On the Beach, a lavishly produced, oversized monograph, is the long-awaited publication of this spectacular series. Misrach hones in on our delicate relationship to the sea, using a gorgeous, slowly shifting color palette gleaned from changes in depth and tide; abstract patterns of waves and rippling water, and beaches both empty and cluttered. He carefully balances the minutiae of human gesture against the massive scale of the sea. In some images, a lone figure floats in a liquid field of brilliant turquoise—or in others, lies beached and partially buried. The details in the images are frequently ambiguous—are the figures relaxed or drained of life? Cavorting in the surf or panicking in the riptide? The balance is a fragile one between control and surrender to the elements. As Misrach says, the work is "suffused with a sense of the sublime, but it also begins to expose our vulnerability and fragility as human beings."
Richard Misrach (born in Los Angeles, 1949) is credited with helping pioneer the renaissance of color photography and large-scale presentation in the 1970s. He has exhibited extensively, and his work is held in the permanent collections of prestigious institutions. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship. Misrach is represented by Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco; Pace-MacGill Gallery, New York; and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles. He lives in Berkeley, California.


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Podcast: Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android
Laura Nicholson returns to guest host with Jason and Q, and this time she has the chance to share her fan story! This is followed by a range of news stories, reactions to and our reviews of the Lifetime TV film starring Navi, Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland, details around what you'll need to send in for an upcoming Q&A episode, finds of the week and some sweet, sweet tunes.
- Association On The Line is hosting the MJ Music Day event in Paris, France.
- New Who Is It concept art has apparently leaked.
- Michael Jackson themed Egyptian movie Sheik Jackson is on the way.
- Prince Jackson attends the 2017 Billboard Music Awards and presents Drake with the Top Artist Award.
- Shana Mangatal has released never before seen footage from the original Ghosts shoot, with an interesting back story around it.
- Janet Jackson reportedly set to document divorce, motherhood and more on Netflix special.
- MJ's nephew, Austin Brown, collaborates with fraudster Eddie Cascio.
- Iconic Michael Jackson film from photo sessions needs $500 000 to be developed.
- Michael Jackson fan loses home in London's Grenfell Tower Fire tragedy.
- Thriller 3D to be released in the US this summer.
- Review of The Jacksons Glastonbury performance from their 50th Anniversary tour
- TJ and Frances Jackson launch The Family Rules, a platform with blogs, posts, Q&A videos on marriage, children and family.
- Paris Jackson appears in The xx's new short film, I Dare You.
Main Discussion Topic
- Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland. The good, the bad and the ugly.
Finds of the Week
- Jason – How to Make Michael Jackson's Scream
- Q – Sean Kenneth O'Hara's HelpHOPELive Kidney Transplant Fund campaign
- Laura – Touch of Brass Big Band – Thriller (Arranged by Neil Finn)
- Jamon – "Most Difficult Mix Ever" – Mixing Michael Jackson's They Don't Care About Us
Additional Links
- Laura Nicholson on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube
- The Michael Jackson Estate issues a press release about Lifetime and Netflix MJ films
- Jankins of Moonwalk Talks podcast does a terrific in-depth review in his Episode 023
- YouTube review of Searching for Neverland from listener Aaron Clements
Music Breaks & Ads
- Jackson 5 – I Want You Back (Accents Bring the Sun Remix)
- Michael Jackson – P.Y.T. (The Reflex Revision)
- Michael Jackson – Liberian Girl (Master Chic Mix)
- Jackson 5 – Alpha Bits Commercial
- Michael Jackson – Human Nature (Cover)
Connect with Us
If you have any thoughts, opinions, or feedback on the show, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com or find the links to our many social networks on www.themjcast.com. Keep Michaeling!


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FREE Digital Scrapbook Papers
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Thank you for these 2 papers. I love your papers a lot. I guess because I love stripes and dots. yet I use your music notes a lot. I am getting ready to use it again. Thank you. Edwina BrownReplyDelete
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Check out the latest RPG news | Podcasts | Twitch Streams
Quote from: Starmongoose on March 24, 2013, 03:56:11 PMI don't even see your elipsis-abuse any more, Klyde. Got used to you.Quote from: Dice on March 25, 2013, 10:08:52 AMAttack on TitanJesus Christ this comic is intense. Are you reading it? Why aren't you reading it???The terribly grotesque nature of the story and plot features what is nothing short of psychologically frail human beings that make the plot and characters of Neon-Gen: Evangelion look like a bunch of pussies. That is a bold and enticing statement! Certainly enough to grab my attention. I will go and look into this "titans" and report back... and I'll do so with even LESS ellipses next time!! progress my friends.... progress...
I don't even see your elipsis-abuse any more, Klyde. Got used to you.
Attack on TitanJesus Christ this comic is intense. Are you reading it? Why aren't you reading it???The terribly grotesque nature of the story and plot features what is nothing short of psychologically frail human beings that make the plot and characters of Neon-Gen: Evangelion look like a bunch of pussies.
The new inspector girl:
Girl who's friend got killed by Ouryou Rikako (the corpse artist):
I think it's great Ame and Yuki decided their own lives and decided in very different ways how they would do it: Yuki decides to live as a more-human girl and Ame as a wolf of the wild; but they both leave home as mum [u]lives alone[/u]. For a movie about family (especially with how Summer Wars took the point to an 11), I would have loved just a small epilogue of them coming back home or something just a bit more for all that was put into showing them grow up...Daresay, I was sad they left the nest, even if that was part of the point of the film.... they were so young to do so. Ame decided to piss off by the age of 10, and Yuki went to middle-school dorms by 13 I guess. Also, I wish there was one last scene about a brother/sister bond. Their last major scene was them fighting.
So we are currently in the middle of the Zagan arc which is one of my favorite arcs in the manga, and the anime is just comepletely messing this whole thing up. I realize that things have to change in the conversion from manga to anime. They have had some changes earlier in the series that I didn't mind (even if I thought it worked better in the original). The changes in this arc however have just completely destroyed it. I guess I did get an alright fight in one of the episodes I watched today, but everything else....ugh. By placing the "mentor battes" where they did they got rid of the emotional ties that those fights had in the manga. Having Ren lose his arm in the dungeon removes all of the guilt that he feels following the dungeon for nearly killing both Sinbad and Alibaba. And then there is Alibaba.....having Alibaba fall just misses the point of his character. He had already been in that exact situation once before, only with much stronger emotional ties to what was going on and rather than fall into depravity he saught a better solution for everyone. That is why he is Alladin's king choice. Having him fall into depraviy in this situation just misses the point of his character so badly. And the previews had Morgiana fighting fallen Alibaba next episode, which makes perfect sense considering she is supposed to be in near death conditions right now. Yeah I'm sure Zagan healed her but....ugh. I'm getting two potential vibes from this episode. Either a. this is the start of a FMA style split in the story from the source material(which would be a wonderful excuse for me to stop watching) or b. someone on the production staff has a hard on for Ren Hakuryuu and is altering the storyline to make Ren 100x more awesome in this arc since the person thought Red got a raw deal in this arc (which is sort of missing the point of both the arc and Ren). Potentially both. *sigh*
So, little known secret to those who read the original Suzaku series, and since the Genbu Saga is a PREQUEL, we know the heroine will die. And she does -- quite tragically I might add. Interestingly enough, the series finishes on the same note that the Byakko priestess met hers: she may have been separated from her one true love, but they "meet again in Heaven". What's interesting is that the anime actually added that in, and Yuu Watase was pretty upset she didn't think of the same thing (where the couple were separated and simply lived out their lives). So it's kind of funny that she chose to end the Genbu Saga the same way the anime wrapped up one of its other characters. Essentially, she copied the idea from the anime based on an addition in her source material. o_O
I like the Suzaku Seven better... but Takiko is a better lead than Miaka. Goddammit, ya just can't win.


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Tagged: Joey Espada
GFS 2011 Game 2 – Giants at Marlins (8/14/11)
On August 14, 2011, we woke up at our hotel in Miami, Florida. We had another Giants vs. Marlins game on tap for the afternoon. But, first, we had some business to attend to…beach business. We hopped into our rental car and headed to Miami Beach. South Beach to be exact:
I'm not a big beach fan, but South Beach was awesome. The water was perfect and we had a blast. We arrived early and by the time the beach was really starting to get hopping, we headed out.
It was time for our second and final game at Sun Life Stadium:
I was not expecting there to be batting practice so I was pleasantly surprised as the Marlins were running off of the field and the Giants were just beginning their stretching routine as we entered the seating bowl behind home plate. We headed over to the Marlins dugout where a few players and coaches were still walking off of the field and into the dugout.
I've learned over the years that listening is key. I had no clue who any of the remaining Marlins were. But someone else did. I heard a lady say hi to "Joe," and then "Joe" walked over to chat with her. I noticed that "Joe" had a baseball in his glove. So when he finished talking to the lady, I called out, "Hey, Joe!" He
walked over to say hi. And soon enough, Joe's baseball was in Tim's hand.
By the way, "Joe" ended up being third base coach, Joey Espada.
Thanks, Joe!
I was ecstatic for us to finally get a baseball at Sun Life Stadium.
As we continued to stand around behind the dugout, I noticed that Marlins manager Jack McKeon was just below us chatting with a guy. I waited until they had a natural break in their conversation (in fact, they even took a step or two away from each other for a moment) and then I held up the baseball from "Joe" and asked McKeon if he would sign the baseball for us.
McKeon held up one finger as if to say, "yep, in just a minute," and then he re-engaged his conversation with the guy. And unhappy looking (and quite large) Marlins stadium attendant…
…who was standing by McKeon on the field stepped toward us and barked with a menacing scowl: "He's busy talking to someone right now." Of course, that is why we had patiently and politely waited for a natural break in McKeon's conversation.
Anyway, despite the evil eye from the stadium attendant, McKeon did not seem to think we had done anything wrong. After another thirty seconds of conversation, he looked up and put his hands out for me to toss him the baseball and our pen. He signed the baseball, tossed it back and was on his way.
As the Giants started to hit, Tim and I headed out to deep RCF. Tim is not a fan of the sun, and it was beating down pretty hard at this point, so he grabbed a shady seat at the back of the section…
…and watched as I snagged a BP homer off of the bat of a Giants lefty. That ball landed in about the seventh row just as I approached and then rolled all the way down to the first row with me hoping the rows following it. It hurt like crazy as I bashed shin-after-shin and knee-after-knee on the seats.
Shortly after getting that baseball, Tim and I decided to walk around a little bit.
We headed over to the LF foul corner and checked out the drop off created by the folded-up seats:
Nothing was going on over there, so we headed to the kids' play area. But when we reached the McDonald's play area that we had visited the night before, we found that…
…it was gone. But over by the batting cage, we found a batting tee and bouncy house that were a lot of fun for Tim:
After bouncing, we headed over to section 142 quickly to check out our seats for the game. Then it was time for lunch. On the way out of the seating bowl, I got this picture that shows Tim's new give-away Marlins bag:
Our nacho lunch was much better than our nacho dinner from the night before because I invested $1.00 for some extra cheese:
And then it was time for the game, this was our view from section 142, row 4:
Tim and I decided that we wanted the Marlins to win this game. So we were happy when Cody Ross grounded out to lead off the game for the Giants:
There was an unexpected guest hovering over this game – the Goodyear blimp:
Since we got a baseball (or two) during BP, we were excited to be able to get a Sun Life Stadium bonus point picture for the myGameBalls.com photo scavenger hunt. Here is our first attempt:
We tried again later and I decided to go with the second attempt instead of this one.
The night before, we were sitting right behind Mike Stanton and I was telling my Dad what a beast Stanton is. Living in Seattle and not getting to many N.L. games, my Dad had never heard of Mike Stanton (well, not this Mike Stanton at least. He had heard of the other less beastly Mike Stanton or maybe it was this Mike Stanton).
Tim and I saw Stanton hit at least three homeruns last season (including a monster upper deck shot in Philadelphia). Well, make it one more:
Stanton hit this one to the absolute deepest part of CF at Sun Life Stadium. And then there was nothing left to do but trot:
That put the Marlins up 1-0 at the end of the first.
In the bottom of the second we had a little excitement come our way. We were in the fourth row between the Marlins dugout and the Marlins bullpen. Our assigned seats were 5-6-7, with 7 being the closest to home plate. Tim's seat of choice is always seat number 5. My Dad took seat 7. So that naturally left me with seat 6. But there was no one sitting to our left in 1-2-3-4, so I opted for seat 4 and the open route to the aisle so I could run for a foul ball in the general area.
What I didn't expect was that a foul ball would come directly to us.
But when former-beloved-Mariner Mike Cameron came to the plate and put this swing…
…on the ball, that is exactly what happened.
The ball was a towering foul pop up that travelled directly to us off the bat. It did not hook, it did not slice, it did not blow in the wind. From the second it hit
the bat, it was plain as day obvious that this ball was destined to land right at seats 6-7 of row 4 in section 142. I am an inch or two taller than my Dad and would have had the natural advantage if I was standing directly next to him in my assigned seat. But instead I was blocked off by Tim (grandpa's little helper!). My Dad and I both put our gloves up next to each other. Mine came down empty, and my Dad's came down cradling this little beauty:
It is my Dad's third foul ball of the season, but his first caught on the fly.
Aside from the foul ball potential, section 142 is a fun place to sit at Sun Life Stadium because it seems to be the entertainment hub of the ballpark. D.J. Petey is set up in the "beach" section of the ballpark during the games and between innings he was constantly setting up games and other stuff right in front of us:
It is also an access point to the field for the mascots, dancers and other on field entertainers. This game was Billy the Marlins birthday so there were about 15 different mascots on hand to celebrate. At one point, about 6-7 mascots were right in front of us tossing shirts into the stands. But mascots can't throw very far!
So most of them all landed in the lower seats. And I came away with this Marlins t-shirt:
An interesting thing about this game was that both starting pitchers' names started with the letters "Vo"…
Ryan Vogelsong vs. Chris Volstad. In the battle of the Vo's, Vogelsong dominated.
This was one of my best games for getting action shots. Here is a cool picture of Aaron Rowand just about to ground out:
The Marlins have a scantily-clad dance troop called the Mermaids…
…that also used section 142 as a main point of access to do their in-game entertaining. Those Mermaids must have changed outfits about 3-4 times throughout the game. And (as you can see in the picture above) whenever D.J. Petey did a contest, they had two Mermaids flank him and the contestant(s).
While I was busy catching that Marlins t-shirt above, my Dad and Tim were hiding away in the shady concourse. When they returned, they were bearing gifts of ice cream:
Between innings at some point of the game, they did a little video tribute to Jack McKeon on the big screen in honor of this being the 2,000th game that he has managed in the Major Leagues:
I thought that was pretty cool to find out that we got Jack's autograph at his 2,000th game.
Thanks again, Jack!
In order to keep a full roster of Mermaids ready for Major League action, the Marlins have a minor league (so to speak) dance crew in training, the Minnows:
These little gals are just 6-8 years and a Mermaid-twisted ankle away from getting called up to the Show!
Back to the action, Dwayne Wise turned around this pitch…
…for a harmless pop fly out to LF.
Like at ballhawkfest last month, Tim had a spray bottle full of water and was blasting himself in the face most of the day to stay cool. Of course, he took the opportunity to spray down his hair and make a little mohawk:
In the top of the seventh inning with the Giants leading 4-1, Marlins reliever Burke Badenhop drilled Ryan Vogelsong in the back with a pitch. Vogelsong was furious. He slammed his bat to the ground like he was chopping wood with an axe. I was super-excited at the possibility of getting one of the most difficult shots from the myGameBalls.com photo scavenger hunt – fake punching another fan in the stands while the players brawl in the background. "Quick," I said, "Tim, act like you're punching Grandpa in the face!"
We did our part, but Vogelsong totally failed us. The brawl just didn't materialize. So sad.
Here is a weird picture:
Can you tell what's going on in that picture? It is hard to tell. You have to click to enlarge the photo. Throughout most of the game there were about 50 dragonflies buzzing all around over our heads. It was alike a Dragonfly convention.
Not only was section 142 a hot spot for D.J. Petey, the Mermaids, and the mascots, it was also home base for a cameraman. Between almost every inning, the cameraman focused in on different fans in section 142 and put them up on the big screens at the end of both endzones – on in baseball terms, RF and the 3B line. At one point, he caught staying himself in the face with his water sprayer…
…but right when I took a picture of the big screen, Tim turned around and looked at me with a big smile so all you could see on the big screen was the back of Tim's head.
There were so many mascots all around that Tim just had to get his picture with one of them. While he would have favored Billy the Marlin or the Miami Dolphins' dolphin, his best opportunity involved Sebastian the Ibis from the University of Miami. A little background is in order.
First, I have strongly disliked the Miami Hurricanes since the 1980s. Actually, I'm pretty sure I have a lot of company. It seems like everyone dislikes the Hurricanes.
Second, a couple months ago, Miami hired Al Golden, Jr. as its new head football coach. Golden (or Cousin Al) is related to us through my wife's family. It is not like we're so close that we are spending Thanksgiving with the Goldens. But we are related. Here is the situation as I have figured it out: Tim's great-great-great
grandparents (on Tim's mom's dad's mom's side) are Coach Golden's great-grandparents (on his dad's mom's side). In terms of generations, Coach Golden is on the same generational level as Tim's grandpa (my wife's dad, Kevin Gill a/k/a Poppy). So, Poppy and Coach Golden share the same great grandparents. Kevin's mom is first cousins with Al Golden Sr. – their parents' are sisters. So that clears it all up, right? Anyway, the family connection (despite the fact that Coach Al recently dumped my alma mater, Temple) has made it so I can at least stomach the Hurricanes a little bit, at least enough for Tim to get a picture with the Hurricanes mascot, Sebastian.
Anyway, there is a little handicapped access area just below section 142 (and running all the way to the LF foul corner). Sebastian was hanging out just below the handicapped area in the field level seats below. No one from up above can get down to those seats. So Tim camped out on the stairs…
…waiting for Sebastian to wander by close enough for us to arrange a picture.
This is what it looked like just above the handicapped accessible area where we were waiting for Sebastian:
Eventually, Sebastian made his way down to us and posed for a picture with Tim:
And at the very same moment, D.J. Petey was running a "Hug Your Kids" segment with one of the cameramen right in front of section 142. So after Tim posed for the picture with Sebastian, the big Ibis (which we kept referring to as a duck) picked up Tim and started hugging him and swinging him around like a ragdoll. The
cameraman turned and the little scene was broadcast throughout Sun Life Stadium:
Tim thought it was hilarious! In those pictures, he is looking at me and my Dad smiling and laughing with joy. Ah, good times at Sun Life Stadium!
Late in the game, we were excited to see former Mariner Jose Lopez come to bat for the Marlins…
…he popped out on that swing. It must have been his first at bat of the season because the scoreboard said he was batting .000 and had played in only one game, which I was thinking must be this game.
In the eighth or ninth inning, Tim and I headed over to section 156 to see if we could get an umpire baseball from Angel Hernandez. We stopped at the top of section 156 to get this picture…
…and to look at this cricket:
By the way, as you can see two pictures above, Tim was wearing his University of Hawaii baseball shirt that he got from our friends from myGameBalls.com and MLBlogs, Todd and Tim Dixon, from Hawaii. (Great names those guys have, eh?) Tim loves his UH baseball and t-shirt. And whenever I mention that we only have a couple more baseball stadiums to visit before we have seen all 30 MLB teams play a home game, Tim also mentions, "But we haven't been to the Rainbows stadium yet in Hawaii." So someday in the future, we're going to have to Roadtrip to Hawaii to see the Rainbows.
The umpire tunnel was considerably less congested at this game. There were two people in the front row on the outfield side of the tunnel and no one else was in the first 5-6 rows. So we grabbed some seats in the first row one section over (in the orange seats just next to the off-limits blue seats). Our plan was to bolt down the second row of blue seats and jump over to the first row next to the tunnel right when the game ended.
This is what our view looked like from the first row in section 101 (which is directly next to section 156 on the outfield side of section 156):
The night before, we saw Aaron Rowand ground out to Greg Dobbs in the ninth inning. At this game, we saw Greg Dobbs fly out to Aaron Rowand in the ninth inning:
At this point, the Giants were leading the Marlins 5-2. When we left section 142, my Dad had told us that he was going to stick around on the 1B side to see if he could get Mike Cameron's autograph after the game. I assumed he meant on the Mike Cameron foul ball he had caught earlier in the game. With the Marlins losing, I knew that the only way he would even have a chance to get Cammy's autograph after the game was if (1) the Marlins came back to win the game or (2) the game ended with Cameron on base so he had to walk back to the dugout.
Well, on the Mike Cameron front, the stars were perfectly aligned for my Dad on this day. In the bottom of the ninth, Cameron singled up the middle on this swing:
He would eventually make it to second base.
Jeremy Affeldt was warming up in the Giants bullpen…
…and eventually came into the game (instead of Brian Wilson) even though it was a save situation.
Tim was fully committed to the Marlins winning this game. He gave his best "GO MARLINS" chant:
But his youthful exuberance was not enough, and the Marlins fell to the Giants by a final score of 5-2.
The game ended with Mike Cameron on second base, and the former-Seattle fan favorite (it is amazing how well Cameron fit in as a Mariner, particularly considering that he was replacing every Mariners fan's favorite player, Ken Griffey, Jr.) stopped to sign a baseball for my Dad on his way back to the dugout:
I was slow on the camera trigger and only caught the above photo after Cameron had tossed the baseball back up to my Dad. But I had a good excuse. We were busy getting the third and final umpire ball tossed into the stands by Angel Hernandez. That makes two years in a row that Angel Hernandez has given Tim a baseball on the GFS Roadtrip. He might get a lot of flack for his actual umpiring work, but Angel is a-okay in our book!
Thanks, Angel!
After the game, an usher took this (would be excellent) photo of the three of us behind home plate:
Unfortunately, a single drop of rain landed directly on my lens. The guy took two photos to make sure we got a good one, but both are marred by the rouge rain drop.
And our picture wasn't the only thing the rain ruined. The scoreboard in RF in the following panorama from the top of section 150 tells the sad story…
…Kids Run the Bases cancelled due to inclement weather. Shortly after we got in the car and hit the road, the skies opened up and dumped a near-Biblical flood's worth of water all over Florida.
So, with no Kids Run the Bases to cap our day at the ballpark, we simply took a follow-up photo for our myGameBalls.com photo scavenger hunt Sun Life Stadium bonus picture…
…and then we hit the road.
Thanks, Sun Life Stadium! Despite your many flaws, we had a lot of fun.
On to Atlanta and Turner Field!
|2011 C&S Fan Stats
|21/4 Games (Tim/Kellan)
|18/6 Teams [Tim – Mariners, Orioles, Rangers, Brewers, Nationals, Phillies, Mets, Rays, Braves, Diamondbacks, Astros, Royals, Cubs, Angels, Indians, Reds, Giants, Tigers, Yankees, Marlins; Kellan – Mariners, Orioles, Angels, Mets, Indians, Yankees]
|16 Ice Cream Helmet(s) (Orioles (2), Nationals, Phillies (2), Rangers (2), Mets (1), Reds (1), Tigers (1), Marlins (1))
|58 Baseballs (7 Mariners, 7 Rangers, 4 Orioles, 4 Umpires, 2 Nationals, 2 Brewers, 5 Phillies, 2 Mets, 1 Rays, 2 Braves, 2 Diamondbacks, 1 MLB Authenticator, 1 Easter Egg, 1 Glove Trick, 2 Royals, 2 Cubs, 5 Angels, 4 Indians, 2 Giants, 1 Tigers, 1 Marlins)
|10/3 Stadiums [Tim – Camden Yards, Nationals Park, Citizens Bank Park, Minute Maid Park, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Citi Field, Great American Ball Park, Comerica Park, Yankee Stadium, Sun Life Stadium; Kellan – Camden Yards, Citi Field, Yankee Stadium]
|13/9 Player Photos* [Tim – Felix Hernandez, Adam Moore, Garrett Olson, Chris Seddon, David Aarsdma, Michael Pineda, Miguel Olivo, Ryan Langerhans, Greg Zuan, Mark Lowe, Michael Saunders, Chad Durbin, Russell Branyan; Kellan – Luke French, Milton Bradley, Franklin Gutierrez, Justin Smoak, Matt Tuiasosopo, Ryan Langerhans, Michael Saunders, Tony Sipp, Chad Durbin]
|3/1 Management Photos* [Tim – Howard Lincoln, Jack Zduriencik, Eric Wedge; Kellan – Jack Zduriencik]
|6 Autograph(s) (Michael Pineda, Michael Saunders, Mark Lowe, Felipe Paulino, Aroldis Chapman, Jack McKeon)
|1 Bat* (Milton Bradley)
|7/2 Mascot Photos* [Tim – Mariner Moose, Teddy Roosevelt, The O's Bird, Mr. Redlegs, Gapper, Slider, Sebastian (U. of Miami); Kellan – Mariner Moose, The O's Bird]
|1/0 Divisions Closed Out** [Tim – A.L. West (Safeco Field, Oakland Coliseum, Angel Stadium & Rangers Ballpark in Arlington); Kellan – N/A]
|2 Line-up Cards (Royals vs. Rangers; Indians vs. Orioles)
|*includes Spring Training**divisions where we have seen each team play a home game.


text:
CULTURE- FRIDAYS UPDATE Come Friday: Buffett band takes the clam shell
The mere notion of a Jimmy Buffett tribute band seems so overwhelmingly jovial that one has to wonder how it could possibly survive as an artistic enterprise. The Key West Band, however, has managed to make it work; their third original CD was released back in February, and their songs have landed on Sirius Radio's Buffett-centric Radio Margaritaville program.
"This whole tropical thing is something I'd wanted to do for years," says Chris Gregory, describing a sabbatical he once spent bumming around the Virgin Islands on a sailboat.
That passion paid off– about a year and a half ago, the Key West Band landed the services Buffett's pedal steel guitar player, a seasoned vet by the name of Doyle Grisham who has graced recordings by many of country music's biggest stars during the last few decades.
"We all have plenty of tales from the road, but his are better than ours," laughs Gregory. "Of course, Jimmy Buffett gets first shot at him, but when he's not with Buffett, he'll usually work with us."
And while that may lend a twist of authenticity unusual in the tribute band world, the band still has to face one crucial shortcoming: they're Bahamian by way of dreary ol' central Virginia– Gregory was born and raised in landlocked Roanoke. He says that just increases the demand, though.
"A lot of people in the Virginias and Carolinas have a real longing for tropical life," he says, "so we kind of bring that to them."
So there you have it: checking out Fridays After Five might mean that by next week you'll no longer be dying to run off to the Keys. If you are, it's your own damn fault.
The Key West Band performs around 5:30 at Fridays After Five June 7, at the Pavilion in front of City Hall on the Downtown Mall.


text:
Cheese & chilli melts
Nutrition and extra info
- Vegetarian
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal298
- fat18g
- saturates8g
- carbs24g
- sugars3g
- fibre1g
- protein12g
- salt1.84g
- 250g strong cheddar, grated
Once cheddar was 'Cheddar', a large, hard-pressed barrel of cheese made by a particular…
- 4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
A member of the nightshade family (along with aubergines, peppers and chillies), tomatoes are in…
- 1 green or red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- ½ large bunch coriander, leaves roughly chopped
- 8 flour tortillas (we used Discovery)
In Spain, a tortilla is a kind of omelette, with ingredients added - frequently sliced cooked…
- oil, for brushing
Put the cheese, tomatoes, chilli and coriander leaves into a bowl with some seasoning, then mix well.
Warm tortillas in the microwave according to pack instructions – this makes them more bendable. Divide the cheese mix over one half of each tortilla. Fold over the other half to make 8 half-moons, then press down to seal.
Brush the tops with a little oil, then sit, oil-side down, on a hot area of the barbecue. Cook for a couple of mins until crisp and golden, brush the uncooked side with oil, then flip over for another few mins. Slice into wedges, then pile onto a platter while you cook the rest.


text:
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By Tom Fegely
Monsters like this aren't supposed to be around in the second season.
Billy Joe Austin knew he and his father, Dennis, and brother, Michael, would probably have the woods to themselves on that miserable morning of Dec. 5, 2003. But none of the Austins were convinced they really wanted it. It was the next-to-last day of Illinois' second shotgun season, and the weather was lousy.
"It was just a cold, wet and nasty day," Billy recalls. "It was so bad, none of us felt like leaving the house, much less walking on sleet and ice. But we did it anyway."
The then 28-year-old corrections officer tread cautiously as he left his grandfather's farmhouse in the glistening dawn, lugging his Ol' Man climber on one shoulder and a scoped Remington 870 shotgun on the other. Avoiding frozen limbs and treacherous ice, Billy made his way up and down several slick slopes to the woodlot 500 yards from the farmhouse door.
He carefully scaled the glassy tree and secured the climber at 25 feet. As he settled in, the freezing rain showed no sign of letting up, glazing nearly everything in a coating of hard ice. Billy could only hunch his back and shoulders to prevent becoming a giant popsicle. He wasn't sure how long he could remain safely aloft.
Elsewhere on the 400-acre Austin family farm, Dennis and Michael questioned their sanity as well. The trio kept in touch via walkie-talkies and eventually agreed the only sensible move was to head back to the farmhouse to dry off and devour an early lunch.
With only that afternoon and the following day remaining, chances of shooting a buck weren't promising. Upon changing into dry garb and satisfying their hunger, each of the Austins decided to do their own thing for the remainder of the day — or at least until conditions improved.
Dennis snuggled into his easy chair and dialed up a hunting show on TV. Michael drove to his fiancee's house to spend the afternoon. And Billy headed back out into the elements, driven by the knowledge that a world-class buck was out there somewhere.
Billy had seen the tall-tined buck twice from a stand — during the '02 bow season and in October 2003. The encounters had been short and too far for him to even think about loosing an arrow. Prior to seeing the deer in October, the family thought it had been poached.
While working in their cattle pasture one hot August afternoon, the Austins discovered the body of a huge and decapitated buck within a few yards of the gate. They were convinced it was the giant whitetail.
"We weren't the only ones who knew about the buck," Billy said. "Plus, trespassers sneak onto our property regularly. We thought he was gone for good."
When he saw the distinctive whitetail in October, Billy was relieved. That's the only reason he was willing to return to the stand on that dreary December day.
He was thinking about the buck as he trudged to the wooded ridgetop where he planned to start laying a scent trail. He paused briefly to attach pads doused with doe gel to his boots before hiking another 100 yards into the woods where he'd found some large rubs. When he arrived, he dabbed more gel on tree trunks and found one suitable for climbing.
Billy settled into his stand at 11:30. During the next few hours, he saw only a couple does. At around 3:00, just when his patience and tolerance were wearing thin (it was still sleeting), he spotted something moving at 125 yards. It was the monstrous buck, tearing up a big cedar tree. When it was finished ravaging the cedar, the buck began walking toward Billy, pausing to check out a branch he'd doctored.
Billy took advantage, quickly aimed and fired. The deer took several leaps through the understory and dropped at 73 yards, later verified by rangefinder. Only 90 seconds had elapsed from sighting to shooting.
"I also think I set a new world record in getting out of that tree," Billy chuckles.
Nothing else about the afternoon was fast or easy.
"It took me an hour to gut him. I was really shivering by then," Billy said. "I kept trying to call my dad to help me, but I couldn't get anybody to answer."
The onslaught of ice continued as Billy began the laborious task of dragging the buck 50 yards, returning to retrieve the gun and treestand, and repeating the task for a total of 500 yards, all the way back to the house. Although it was too late to help, Billy finally managed to make walkie-talkie contact with Dennis as he neared the house.
"Dad, I got the monster," Billy excitedly announced, awaiting formal congratulations.
"Yeah, right," was Dennis' response. "There aren't any deer moving around in this stuff."
With some necessary assistance, father and son were able wrestle the carcass into Billy's 4x4 truck. It didn't take long for word to get out that Billy had harvested the drool-maker. The sight of the Austins motoring into town attracted crowds who wanted to hear the entire story. Many of them, including the neighbors, also admitted they'd seen the deer, but had kept their mouths shut.
The 7½-year-old buck weighed 240 pounds, field-dressed.
Read Recent Articles:
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• Only One Buck Would Do: Young Texan's patience pays off in drop tines.
This article was published in the Winter 2009 edition of Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine. Subscribe today to have Buckmasters delivered to your home.
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Reviewing the past academic year in terms of finding academics who became stars in opposing arbitrary and capricious repression of sexually related matters on campus, there are very few who attained star status. The dankprofessor has given recognition to Deputy Provost Richard Holder of the University of New Mexico who was resolute in opposing campus faculty who wished to impose sanctions on English Professor Lisa Chavez for her after academic hours work as a phone sex worker and sm posing model. However, I do not think that this matter has reached a final resolution and there may be more tests for the Deputy Provost as to how resolute he is in defending civil liberties in academe.
Unquestionably there was one shining academic star this past year- William & Mary president Gene Nichol. Of course, I should refer to him as past president of William & Mary. In part because of his opposition to the termination of the Sex Workers' Art Show, he was relieved of his duties as president of William & Mary.
The Hook, a weekly newspaper out of Charlottesville, Va., has published an article which reviewed a number of recent cases in Virginia relating to sexual repression. Following is their summary of what happened at William & Mary.
According to its website, the Sex Workers' Art Show features performers who were once strippers, porn stars, and prostitutes who "offer a wide range of perspectives on sex work, from celebration of prostitutes' rights and sex-positivity, to views from the darker sides of the industry."
When Delegate Brenda Pogge (R-Williamsburg) first heard such a show would take place in her district, she dashed off an open letter to then-William & Mary president Gene Nichol, demanding that he step in to cancel the performance.
"Not only has this controversy brought considerable embarrassment to our community," she wrote, "but in my estimation this will inflict damage to the dignity and decorum that the college enjoys."
Nichol did ban any photography from the event, even by members of the media, but refused to drop the curtain on the performance. On the night of Monday, February 4, with William & Mary police waiting in the wings to arrest anyone violating the obscenity statute, the Sex Workers' Art Show put on a censored version of their show, as per a contract negotiated by representatives of state Attorney General Bob McDonnell.
Still, the cries of outrage only seemed to grow. On Thursday, February 7, four potential appointees to the William & Mary board awaiting the General Assembly's approval were brought before the House of Delegates' Privileges and Elections Committee. They got an earful, according to media accounts.
"Quite frankly, members of this committee– and many more in the House– are not sure what to make of all these events," said Del. Mark Cole (R-Spotsylvania), the committee's chair, "and how they advance the teaching, research, and public service mission of William & Mary."
Five days later, Nichol offered his abrupt resignation, and issued this parting shot in a farewell e-mail to the William & Mary community:
"A committed, relentless, frequently untruthful, and vicious campaign– on the Internet and in the press– has been waged against me, my wife, and my daughters," he wrote. "It has been joined, occasionally, by members of the Virginia House of Delegates– including last week's steps by the Privileges and Elections Committee to effectively threaten Board appointees if I were not fired over decisions concerning the Wren Cross [which Nichol had decided to remove to make the College's oldest building more nondenominational] and the Sex Workers' Art Show. That campaign has now been rendered successful. And those same voices will no doubt claim victory today."
The rector of William & Mary's board, and ultimately Nichol's boss, is Michael Powell, a 1985 alum of the College and the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commissions, who famously levied a $550,000 fine– the largest in the agency's history– against CBS for airing Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004.
In a statement on the day of Nichol's resignation, Powell wrote, "the Board believed there were a number of problems that were keeping the College from reaching its full potential and concluded that those issues could not be effectively remedied without a change of leadership," adding that, "It is critical to explain that this decision was not in any way based on ideology or any single public controversy. To suggest such a motivation for the Board is flatly wrong."
Weeks after his resignation from the College's presidency, Nichol left his faculty post at William & Mary's law school for a position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Law School, where he was once dean.
For his part, Whitehead believes it's an indicator that William & Mary is out of step with the times.
"The university wants to exist in this ivy-covered world outside of reality," he says. "This guy just seems like he's stirred the pot, and that sex show was the death of him."
With William & Mary being a state university, the controversy has not gone unnoticed by Governor Tim Kaine (D). While he did not act in any official capacity in the Nichol matter, he did tell the Hook in a Charlottesville visit last month that he's skeptical of the reasons why the Board axed its president so soon.
"I don't think the majority of people in Virginia feel the way that the Board felt with the issues that came up in the Nichol firing," Kaine says. "But some people do, and it's a matter of finding the right balance."
If you wish, you can write to me directly at email@example.com
Guest commentaries should also be submitted for consideration
to the same email address.
Barry M. Dank aka the dankprofessor™
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Sept. 2, 2011 -- Stanford University researchers say they have identified key differences in the brain gray matter of children with and without autism. That could potentially prove useful in the diagnosis and treatment of the developmental disorder.
Using brain imaging, the researchers found that a specific network within the brain associated with social communication and self-regulation has a unique organization in autistic children.
The research team is the latest to attempt to identify differences in the brains of children with autism using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other imaging techniques.
Using a specific strategy, the researchers were able to distinguish between the brains of autistic and typically developing children with 92% accuracy.
Imaging the Autistic Brain
According to the CDC, about one in 110 children in the U.S. has an autism spectrum disorder, which includes autism, Asperger's syndrome, and related developmental disorders that affect the ability to communicate and relate to others.
The diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is currently made on the basis of behavioral assessment, usually around age 2 or 3.
But several recent studies have raised hopes that brain imaging may prove useful for identifying the disorder earlier in life.
In the new study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, the Stanford investigators analyzed MRI images of 48 children between the ages of 8 and 18.
Half the children had autism, but children with Asperger's syndrome and other related disorders were excluded from the study.
The brain imaging analysis revealed differences in gray matter between children with and without autism in a key brain system, says Stanford professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Vinod Menon, PhD, who led the study.
"It was striking because we saw the most differentiation between the two groups in this system that is involved in a number of different aspects of communication and self-related thought," Menon tells WebMD.
The children with the most severe autism had the most profound brain structure differences, he adds.
Menon and his team hope to replicate the findings in larger groups of children and in younger children.
Goal Is MRI Autism Diagnosis
A major goal of this research and other autism imaging studies is to find ways to use brain imaging to distinguish between autism and other developmental disorders with similar early symptoms, such as speech delay and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Behavioral pediatrician Andrew Adesman, MD, tells WebMD that it is not yet clear if imaging will prove useful in the clinical setting.
Adesman is chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Steven & Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York.
"That is the $64,000 question," he says. "We are still pretty far away from that, and I don't think this study brings us that much closer."
Adesman says the fact that the Stanford study did not include children younger than 8 or children with Asperger's and other non-autism disorders limits the interpretation of the findings.
Autism imaging researcher Nicholas Lange, ScD, says it remains to be seen if brain imaging can help distinguish between autism and other developmental disorders since most studies have compared autistic children to those who were developmentally normal.
Lange is an associate professor of psychiatry and biostatistics at Harvard Medical School.
Although he says he is optimistic that brain imaging will one day prove clinically useful, Lange adds that much more research is needed.


text: Sergio Leone once told Martin Scorsese that "The King of Comedy" was Scorsese's first mature movie. There was no fancy camera moves or cutting in what I find to be one of Scorsese's most disturbing movies. Over at The New Yorker, Richard Brody picks "The King of Comedy" as his DVD of the week. I haven't seen it in years but I get the willies just thinking about it. Maybe it's time to check it out again.


text:
Flik Flak£30.00
Order within 5 hours and 29 minutes to get it Tuesday 14th July
Flik Flak Flamily FPNP029 is a great Childrens watch from Tropical collection. Material of the case is Plastic/Resin, which stands for a high quality of the item while the dial colour is White. This model has got 30 metres water resistancy - it can be worn in scenarios where it is likely to be splashed but not immersed in water. It can be worn while washing your hands and will be fine in rain. The watch is shipped with an original box and a guarantee from the manufacturer.
There are no reviews for this product yet. Be the first to add a review for it.
Flik Flak children's watches have been designed since 1987 to be more than just a portable clock for kids. The Flik Flak brand describes itself using the single word 'passion' and that passion can be seen in each and every item of the collections. Flik Flak watches aim not only to enable children to tell the time but also to be part of that learning process, with fun characters, stories and concepts behind every design. Each durable Flik Flak watch has a unique creativity to appeal to all children no matter what their favourite colours, hobbies, likes or tastes. Blending fashion with timeless quality, there is sure to be a Flik Flak watch that your child will adore. Styles range from ultra-bright to pastel, cute characters to simple patterns, but each with the characteristic Flik Flak flair for making telling the time fun. Flik Flak is part of the world-renowned Swatch group which also includes the Certina watch brand.
Watch Shop is an authorised Flik Flak stockist.
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text: RNA from Human coronavirus 229E strain 229E (ATCC® VR-740D™) Organism: Human coronavirus 229E, Human coronavirus / General Information Documentation Print Email Share Share this product Facebook Twitter Google+ Permits and Restrictions View Permits Product Format frozen PRODUCT INFORMATION:Total RNA from infected cells, 100 µL per vial, shipped frozen Storage Conditions -70°C or colder Applications It is suitable for use in RT-PCR or other RNA-based procedures. Comments Genomic RNA isolated from a preparation of cell lysate and supernatant from MRC-5 cells (ATCC CCL-171) infected with Human coronavirus 229E strain 229E (ATCC VR-740). This product was prepared using methods known to inactivate viruses. Biosafety Level 1 Biosafety classification is based on U.S. Public Health Service Guidelines, it is the responsibility of the customer to ensure that their facilities comply with biosafety regulations for their own country. Permits These permits may be required for shipping this product: Customers located in the state of Hawaii will need to contact the Hawaii Department of Agriculture to determine if an Import Permit is required. A copy of the permit or documentation that a permit is not required must be sent to ATCC in advance of shipment. Basic Documentation Product Sheet Certificate of Analysis SDS