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For many decades the covert activities of those in power were covered up, but today,
much of what was covert, hidden, covered up, camouflaged and whitewashed has become obvious public information, and it is all easily accessible through many sources.
Yesterday on the local TV channel I heard the truth. I commend that channel for broadcasting the truth about our local Sheriff's Office. Much disinformation had been circulated to confuse the populace, but yesterday I heard the real truth on the subject.
Our Sheriff Bryant of York County, South Carolina was able to get the truth out and that is a very good thing. Below is what he said about the very controversial subject of gun control and our second amendment rights:
York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant prepared a statement in response to the proposed gun control plan:
"First and foremost no President of the United States has any authority over Sheriffs in America. He may address federal law-enforcement agencies but not local agencies. Sheriffs do not possess the authority to enforce federal laws or Presidential orders. The Office of Sheriff is a Constitutional Office of the State of South Carolina. I will safeguard of my county by upholding the United States Constitution and our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. I will also do everything in my power to protect the children of my county."
"One should also remember that the US Constitution does not say one word regarding the Office of Sheriff which is purely a state office. In some states, the Office of Sheriff is statutorily created. In South Carolina, the Office of Sheriff is constitutionally created. The federal government cannot force or coerce a state or local official to perform a function to which they may object."
"Responsible gun ownership is our constitutional right, so this issue should be addressed with your United States Congressmen and Senators. They jointly have the power to protect your rights. We must prohibit gun ownership and access to guns for people who are mentally impaired or convicted felons."
"This being said, I will not enforce any law that will infringe upon our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms."
Just because there were a few evil subversives in the rogue or shadow government for many decades; it doesn't mean there were not those who opposed it all, and so they were kept in the dark about all of the illegal activities.
We who are targeted individuals can plainly see how the perpetrators and handlers are very experienced in hiding their crimes. This is the same tactic that was used in the government offices.
Those who they knew would not cooperate were kept out of the loop. There are many good men and women who are being lumped in with those who were responsible for the gang stalking, the pedophile rings, the porn production rings, the human trafficking rackets, mkultra, etc.
I have learned that approximately 80% of Americans are innocent of the subversive crimes of a small percentage of the population. However, the perpetrators attempt to deceive through a huge amount of lies and disinformation.
I believe the majority of Federal, State and city workers want law and order in America. However, the rogue or shadow workers hid their illegal activities
from most of their fellow workers.
The crimes of gang stalking like pedophile rings, etc. are very covert and hidden crimes. These crimes are covered up, and whitewashed. These criminals use
"fronts" to hide their illegal activities.
A townhouse can have various types of "rings" going on as many, different vehicles frequent certain town homes, houses, church buildings and businesses.
The money is laundered through various seemingly legitimate organizations. It is all totally whitewashed, and so most of the people in the communities are
unaware of these covert crimes which include: gang stalking, kiddy porn production, snuff film production, pedophile and human trafficking rings, meth labs,
drug traffickers, gun traffickers and thief rings.
The perpetrators are all hired from the same criminal pools. They can be used in many different covert activities as the actual activities are all hidden
completely from the public view and knowledge.
If most people in America were in favor of these
rackets, crimes and lawlessness; why would these criminals work so hard to cover up everything they do and launder their illegal money?
The crimes against me are kept totally hidden from the public. They are done through my phone, my townhouse Internet connection, and through many
very covered up tactics. My gang stalking goes on 24/7 within my building and the surrounding area.
Most of my neighbors are good citizens, and it seems that only a very low percentage are actually involved in the crimes of gang stalking. However,
I believe this is also true of our local sheriff's office personnel and other officials. Most are just trying to do their job.
The Sheriff of York County (Sheriff Bryant) is not in favor of these covert gangs and their crimes. Also, our Governor Haley and Senator Scott are not in agreement with these covert harassment and illegal surveillance crimes. Our past Senator DeMint was very much opposed to the lawlessness going on in some areas
of South Carolina.
There is such a tremendous deceit campaign all over America, and so many do not what to believe. The perpetrators spread lies on a continuous basis.
Question: Why is there hope for those being gang stalked?
Yes, there is great hope because everything that has been hidden for many decades is now public knowledge.f
I heard on the national TV news recently that 250 pedophiles were arrested all over the
world. Many in very high places. They were arrested by the FBI. There are
countless good men and women in the FBI, and in the many Gov. Agencies.
Also, I heard on the Internet that there were countless people in the Pentagon,
Gov. Agencies, local police and sheriffs' offices, etc. who do not go along with
all of the rackets of gang stalking, pedophile rings, porn rings, human trafficking and the list goes on and on.
We also know how the general public feels about the
lawlessness via the Internet and the disgust concerning the way America has been
going down hill over the last 5 decades.
The Governors of 48 of our 50 states are completely against the lawlessness in the
USA; and they wanted to secede from the union; not to mention the Senators,
Representatives. etc. who find the lack of law and order
totally unacceptable.
Lawlessness and the policy of allowing rackets to flourish is disgusting to all Americans.
We all know this evil lawlessness has been
slowly proliferating over many decades to this point, but now most every
American is fully aware of the problems in this country.
The cat is out of the bag big time, and there is no way to get the cat back into the bag. Covert
activities are now known by all. God will bring justice, judgement, and
prosecution in behalf of all the innocent people and for those innocent people who have had their blood shed.
There is so much disinformation campaign that is being distributed throughout the Internet which tries to cause Americans
to believe that every person in any Federal, State, or city job is involved or they are cooperating with the gang stalking racket
and the many other rackets.
The enemies of America do not have to have the numbers or the power; all they have to do is to deceive the people into believing that
they have the authority and power to just come into our country and "take over". The anti-Christ is all about bullying, deception and
intimidation. We need to wake up and stand strong for our country.
I do not believe most of those in authority are "cooperating" with the
criminals, but they are allowing time to pass, and preparing for what they need
to do in the future. There are Mighty Men (and women) of Valor which are being raised up
for such a time as this.
Why do you know so much about gang stalking?
I have been severely gang stalked since I moved to Regent Park, Fort Mill, SC in 2005.
Since that time, I have been researching this subject every day over the last 8 years.
I had been a missionary in Seoul, Korea for many years between 1990 and 2003, and so
I was away from the states. I had never heard of gang stalking.
That is why I started searching for any information, and I read every book on the subject.
I learned that there are perpetrators posing as targeted individual who were planted all
over the Internet to spread erroneous information. It was all focused against the people of
America who were being gang stalked.
These perpetrators saturated the Internet with bogus websites trying to depict the perpetrators
who are attacking the innocent targeted individuals as being authorized by the government.
However, that is not true.
There are countless men and women in the government who would be shocked and horrified to
know what is happening covertly to innocent citizens, children, etc. in the many rackets going
on in many neighborhoods.
Most of the government workers are not aware of the rackets going on in their own communities
because it is all kept very secret and hidden.
These are the people who are now trying to help our country come back to decency and law and
order. These officials are in the process of trying to bring mass arrests and
prosecution to all those who have violated our laws, our Constitution
and the Bill of Rights.
This country cannot be compared to any other country because this
country was founded on the Gospel and the Word of God at Cape Henry in
Our country was great, and so it became a target due its power,
influence and its ability to help other countries. However, due to the
insidious attacks of these subversives and enemies of the state;
this country has allowed ungodly people to come in
and try to turn the people away from God. Without God; there is lawlessness
confusion, demoralization and a downward spiral ensues.
There are always ungodly people in any and every government, but in America the
law abiding workers are in the majority. They are the ones that love America and its
Only the true Christians are given the authority over the forces of evil
as described in Eph. 6. There are principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness
and wickedness in high places in all countries.
The latest Gallop poll reveals some 80% of Americans believe in the Christian belief system.
However, America has the most just system, and there are the 80% majority of Christians
in America that desire to get back to our heritage our Constitution, prayer and law and order.
Praise, prayer, loving God and obeying Him are the greatest weapons against the evil
forces of darkness. His commandments are for our own good. Violation of the laws of God bring
great and very severe repercussions that would ruin our lives.
The Lord gave me Ps. 37 concerning my gang stalking saga. When you pray; it moves mountains,
and that is why it seems like all hell breaks out. However,
consistency, faith, patience and perseverance brings the victory.
Much of what is put out on the Internet consists of the old MKUltra and other projects, and the
material is usually very old.
By putting the blame on the nebulous concept of the government employees and leaders; it removes the
blame from the true criminals and puts it on those who are innocent workers and decent citizens. It is a
complete fabrication.
However, these days, these projects are still being used, but there
are new community, neighborhood groups who are involved in many crimes and rackets. These handlers are
using the multiples and others that have been under their control to infiltrate every institution
and area of our society to try and control the population and especially those who love God and who
love America.
These days the local communities have set up community centers. They have the handlers and they
then find the perpetrators who are black mailed, bribed, or hired to try and destroy the targeted
individual in their community.
A mass project is initiated to slander the targets good name, and to try and send out complete lies
about the individual. That is the first step.
After that, there is an all-out attack on the target with wiretapping, hacking, illegal surveillance,
trespassing, robbery, threatening-s, stalking, blood and feces on the door posts, pets killed and the
list goes on and on.
It seems that my case is worse than the others that I have heard about.
However, I have not suffered as much as countless Christians in N. Korea
and other restricted countries.
I have had to learn how to pray very strong spiritual warfare prayers
just to stay alive and well.
Praise God that He has taught me so much through this experience. I
could never have learned all about these people if I had not been
targeted in such a severe way. Also, I could never have learned how to
pray powerful prayers without first being targeted.
This is a wonderful benefit to me, and I thank God for teaching me
daily how to pray more and more. Since this is a spiritual battle;
prayer is of the essence.
In the coming end times; prayer will be our greatest asset and weapon.
Praise God that He is raising up countless prayer warrior all over
America and the world.
Why do so few people in America know about gang stalking?
Since gang stalking is totally covert; the good people of America never see it.
Like the abortion clinics; gang stalking is kept out-of-sight for obvious reasons
in both instances.
In the book entitled, "The slave Next Door", we find that a human trafficking slave
or a person being gang stalked could live next door, and it would be kept completed
hidden from the public. Let's wake up America to what is going on in our midst and put
a stop to it.
I hear so many people on the Internet who are trying to figure all of
this evil out using their own understanding. It is all a spiritual battle.
Gang stalking involves psychological warfare on the target. The perpetrators think
that they can control the thinking of the target.
Everything the perpetrators do to the target are aimed to bring fear, hopelessness, helplessness,
distress, and terrorize them consistently every day and throughout the night.
The handlers use reverse behavior modification to push their perpetrators to do the horrible things that
they do. The handlers reward their worst actions against the innocent targets. If the perpetrators is unusually
successful in harming the target; they get a big reward such as a red vehicle.
Unless a person has the fear of God; he or she does not have any
wisdom. The fear of God is the "beginning" of wisdom.
Very few people have a real fear of God, and so they have no wisdom.
Wisdom is needed to know what to do in all decisions. It is a
supernatural gift of God, and it only begins when we know who God is,
and we understand His great authority and omniscience, omnipotence and
His omnipresence.
All dictatorial anti-Christ systems started by trying to turn the people
against each other in every way possible. They know that a house
divided against itself cannot stand.
How can people not know that simple fact when it has been repeated over and over again in history.
There is no excuse not to know there is an all powerful God, as He is
revealed even in His creation. No person will have an excuse when they
stand before the living God.
Satan is such a bully and a bluffer, and those that are his servants are the same. They get a buzz
when they can trick a target.
Satan is a loser, and when we see him as he really is at the end of this age; everyone will wonder how we
allowed him to intimidate us. It is all a lie, a con game and trickery.
Satan only has the power that people give him. Without his dupes; he is powerless.
People choose darkness when they could have chosen The Truth, The Way
and The Life. That is the great sin that you lived your whole life and
you never turned toward the Truth, The Way and The LIfe because your
were so bogged down with the brain washing, mind control, witchcraft
and programming of the anti Christ system.
The people are waking up because all of the evil deeds of darkness are
being exposed for what they are, and The Lord came to destroy "all" of
the works satan.
They will all be destroyed (Rev. 19:18-20) in the final analysis.
My prayer for all those being gang stalked and for all of the innocent children being used in the pedophile rings, etc.
Dear Father,
Please bring total justice for all those being gang stalked and for all of the innocent people
in America being killed, abused and harmed in any way. Please expose all of these evil deeds
of darkness to all Americans so that the majority will be able know the truths that are being
covered up.
Please pray for freedom, liberty and justice to come back to our nation of America.
Please bring all of the neighborhood gang stalkers, pedophiles, porn producers and all criminals
to prosecution for their crimes against humanity, etc.
Thank You for your wonderful goodness and mercy. They Kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth
as it is in heaven. Amen and amen.


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Lauren Kate has joined two of my favorite themes, soul mates and fallen angels, in her new series kick-off Fallen. (I've mentioned before that I have a weak spot for fallen angels and I could not be happier that it's an ever-expanding sub genre of fantasy YA novels.) The book starts off with plenty of intrigue and mystery which just keeps leading to more and more mystery as the story progresses. For every question answered a new one appears, but not in an annoying way. Kate manages to keep you interested even though there are tons of new loose ends to tie up in the second book Torment, out in late September.
The main characters are vague enough that you can jump into the scene, as opposed to jumping off the page themselves. I think both styles have merit but I think its personal preference to which is better. ;) Kate also did a great job of making me care about the characters by showing their vulnerabilities and short comings. No one is perfect... not even angels.
The subject matter also manages to stay on topic (ya know, about angels) without becoming grossly over-religious. The mythology can exist without the over-tones that put off many audiences and Kate did a wonderful job with that.
Kate spent a lot of time building a world for her characters and it seems like they wont be living in that world anymore in the second book. I'm not sure how this will play out or if it will even matter, but it seems like a shame to have taken so much time creating something to abandon it in the end. However, the series seems very well planned out. Sometimes it seems like one book was written and then the publisher asked for a series. I don't get that feeling with Fallen and I definitely look forward to reading the next book soon!

subset: commoncrawl


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1974 - Graduation from Architecture faculty of Melli University of Iran. 1982-84 - Educating in Aydi...
Salim Nazerian
1974 - Graduation
from Architecture faculty of Melli University of Iran.
1982-84 - Educating in Aydin Aghdashlou's painting courses
1985 - Published a black-ink-drawing in Architectural Review (Nov.1985)
and also architectural critiques in this journal and Architectural Record.
1989 - Exhibition of ink-drawings in Golestan Gallery, and the
following individual and group exhibitions.
1997 - Honor Diploma from Autumn Exhibition in Venice.
2000 - Exhibition of Iran's Modern Architectural Painting in Asar
Artists Statement
Villages in North of Tehran.
Landscapes of northern Tehran villages were always the best resources for me to paint. I enjoy wandering in back alleys in Darakeh, Darband, Farahzad, Darabad, seeking for a subject to paint: labyrinth of narrow alleys, cobwalls covered by straw or tins, brick entrances of gardens inviting the viewer to come in, balconies decorated by beautiful architraves, etc. These houses composed by fruiters, rivers and hills make a wonderful "Architecture-Nature" composition. Unfortunately in these last ten years I have seen many of these houses, over-doors and cobwalls ruined by urban developers. Maybe a few old trees remain and tell the future-comers about these landscapes and maybe these ink drawings would be their single witness.
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We are a family business with three country stores across Aberdeenshire, providing quality products for horses, pets, livestock and people. Part of a larger business with a 40+ year reputation as specialists in animal nutrition and proud holders of a Royal Warrant to Her Majesty the Queen for the Manufacture of Animal Feeds and Supplements.
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Sunrise Dental offers inexpensive dental solutions in Oregon and Washington. At Claim Listing, our patients have complete faith in what we do and keep coming back happily. This is because we always keep our patients' best interests in mind and we go the extra mile to ensure that they are completely satisfied with our services. From root canals to teeth whitening, oral surgery to cavities and fixing broken braces to a broken tooth, we deliver excellence in everything we do. We make dental health and safety our top priorities while ensuring none of the procedures cause discomfort of any kind to our patients.
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Your dental health, comfort and safety are top priorities for Sunrise Dental – whether you are having routine cleaning at our Spokane office, a root canal at our Tukwila Dentist Office, or a dental implant at our Bellingham office. Comprehensive service offering, state-of-the-art offices, and caring staff set us apart. We employ only the best dentists in town, and our offices are equipped with cutting-edge equipment such as intraoral cameras, digital x-rays and minimally invasive implant products. Our teeth repair materials look and feel like your natural teeth. Add to this a comprehensive service offering and a caring staff, and you'd find that every time a patient walks out of our office, it is with a beautiful smile on their face.


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People Who are interested in cars are invited in here.Here U can find all information about cars.
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Memoirs of a HitmanForced into being a contract killer, Jack devises a dangerous plan to escape his crime boss.
Being a loyal reader of crime fiction, I was blown away with this fantastic novel. Johnny Mack has done it again and produced a storyline that takes the 'normal folk' into the depths of organised crime in London. Harrison
Latest NewsPlease check out the screen treatment translation of Memoirs of a Hitman. It's been taken out of the UK crime theme and transformed in to Irish/American.Read More
Since the release of my fiction novel 'Memoirs of a Hitman' on January 31st and my UK book launch 21st February, I have been snowed under with request of 'When's the next one coming?' Well before I answer that question, I'd like to give you all some...Read More


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AP file
Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister, was accused of saying God had abandoned the children of Sandy Hook Elementary School. But his comments were more nuanced than that.
What is to blame for the Connecticut school attack?
In the wake of catastrophe, people want explanations, and as news spread of the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, some religious conservatives were ready with an answer: the exclusion of God from public schools and the embrace of liberal social policies.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is ordained as a minister in the Southern Baptist Church, said Friday on Fox News that "we've systematically removed God from our schools."
"Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?" he asked.
Huckabee's comments drew criticism from progressive religious leaders, who accused him of suggesting that God wasn't there with the 26 victims at Sandy Hook.
Martin E. Marty, the prominent religious scholar, wrote Monday for the Center for the Advanced Study of Religion at the University of Chicago (which is named for him) that Huckabee "wins, hands down, the prize for his absurdist judgment that 'Newtown' should have been no surprise."
Full coverage: Tragedy at Sandy Hook
Steve McSwain, a former Baptist minister who is now a nationally known interfaith activist, addressed Huckabee directly, writing:
"With such remarks, you not only show little regard for those broken by this tragedy, but you make God into some kind a cosmic psychopath — vengeful, sickeningly repulsive, one who takes out his madness on innocent little children.
"Your reasoning is repulsive: Because we have removed your god from our schools, this is how your god gets even?" he wrote.
The intensity of the rhetoric underscores how quickly discussions of the religious underpinnings of tragedy can turn heated. Little noticed among Huckabee's critics is that he didn't say God turned his back on Newtown; he expressly said God was there in the good works people were doing.
"God wasn't armed. He didn't go to the school," Huckabee continued. "But God will be there in the form of a lot of people with hugs and therapy and a whole lot of ways in which he will be involved in the aftermath."
Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com
Other social conservatives echoed Huckabee's thoughts on the root cause of Friday's attack.
James Dobson, the evangelical founder of the powerful organization Focus on the Family, said on his radio show, "Family Talk," that because "we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty, I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that's what's going on."
Dobson blamed two issues in particular: abortion and gay marriage.
"I mean, millions of people have decided that God doesn't exist or he's irrelevant to me, and we have killed 54 million babies, and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition. Believe me, that is going to have consequences, too."
Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative news site WND (formerly World Net Daily), wrote Sunday that the U.S. should expect "more Sandy Hooks, not fewer," because of America's "secularism" and restrictions on guns.
Grounding his opposition to gun control in religious terms, Farah likened arguments for gun control to philosophies underpinning "Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union (and) Mao's China," declaring:
"We are reaping the seeds of the whirlwind we ourselves planted. ... It's not that there are too many guns in our hands. It's that there is not enough repentance in our hearts."
For teachers, classroom security concerns come to the fore
The temptation to leap to such judgments is understandable, the Rev. Jenny Warner of First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Ore., said in her sermon Sunday. But she argued that that's the coward's way out.
David Friedman / NBC News
A nation mourns after the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history at Sandy Hook Elementary, which left 20 children and six staff members dead.
"How many people are saying, 'Oh, we need more gun control'? How many people are saying, 'If only God was more in our schools'? How many people are blaming it on this politician or that politician?" Warner asked her congregation.
"Another article I read was about how Mike Huckabee was blaming this on our politics, and so from both sides you've got the questions and the blame game happening."
Those are "all ways that make it easier ... to stay a little bit more removed from it, to not have to enter it in such a profound and intimate way," she said. But that's what makes it all the more important for religious people to confront tragedy, not seek to explain it.
Sure, "we need doctors," she said. "We need symposiums on world poverty. We need people to go in and address issues and to help provide a response. ...
"But we need healing, and healing comes with relationships. Healing comes by reaching out to someone and listening. Healing comes by calling and following up.
Healing comes when those four friends grab their friend and say, 'We're in this with you,'" she said, an allusion to Mark 2:1-12, in which four men lower their paralyzed friend through the roof of a crowded building where Jesus is preaching so he can be healed.
Real healing, Warner said, "steps into the pain and is with someone in it."
Related content from NBCNews.com:
- Nervous parents in Newtown, Conn., send kids back to school
- Video: Principal's daughter says children were the 'light of her life'
- Neighbor comforted kids who fled shooting
- Join the #26Acts of kindness campaign
- Divorce, other details emerge about shooter's family
- Gun control offers no cure-all in America
- 'They started talking about blood': Neighbor comforted kids who fled shooting
- 'We're broken': Newtown begins burying its littlest victims


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Justice in the workplace will be the theme of the 33rd annual conference of the National Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales, it has been announced.
The network brings together Catholics from a wide range of backgrounds. Around 400 people are expected to attend the event at Swanwick 15-17 July 2011
This popular conference (the full title for which is 'Justice at Work - A Place of safety, fulfilment and growth') will feature a mix of talks, workshops, and market place.
The event aims to raise awareness of working conditions in the context of today's economy and modern society. It will explore the dignity and reality of contemporary work from a Christian perspective, using Catholic Social Teaching.
The conference is child-friendly, the organisers stress, with children and youth programmes running alongside the adult programme.
The NJPN, a leading grassroots campaigning network, was established to encourage prophetic witness, raising awareness of justice and peace as central to the life of the Catholic Church.
Speakers at the event include David McLoughlin, Senior Lecturer in Theology at Newman University College and a founder member of the Movement of Christian Workers; Jon Cruddas MP, a member of the Transport and General Workers Union from 1989 until his election to parliament in 2001 and a supporter of the minimum wage; Frances O'Grady, deputy General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress and the first woman ever to hold this post; John Battle, former National Co-ordinator of Church Action on Poverty and MP for Leeds West from 1987 until he stood down in 2010; CAFOD partner Sheila Kambobe, Deputy Director of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection in Zambia who has worked on UN programmes in Sierra Leone, East Timor and Cambodia.
More than 20 workshops will cover such issues as: 'The Living Wage Campaign', 'Workers in the Informal Economy', 'The UK Arms Industry – Ethical Issues and Alternatives', 'God's Compassion for Women involved in Prostitution' and 'A Balanced Approach – Does your work leave any space for life?'. Martin Foley, Director of Apostleship of the Sea, will address the challenges facing the global seafaring community; Rosie Bairwal, National Coordinator of the Catholic Association for Racial Justice, will explore discrimination in the workplace; John Fowler of the Farm Crisis Network will share experiences of rural workers; and Christine Allen, Director of Progressio, examine the impact of development workers in the global south.
A workshop on Migrant Domestic Workers will be led by Marissa Begonia, a migrant worker herself who is spokesperson for Justice for Domestic Workers, a British-based self-help group that has been working with trade unions in the UK to win support for an International Convention on Domestic Work.
Just this week a new treaty she lobbied for was adopted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva which will protect millions of domestic workers around the world. Under the new international legal instrument, domestic workers will have rights such as an entitlement to social protection, to rest days and annual leave, collective bargaining and protection from abuse.
On the Saturday evening of the conference there will be a Question Time panel chaired by Bishop William Kenney, auxiliary in Birmingham Archdiocese. The panel will include Rachael Maskell, National Officer for 60,000 Community, Youth Workers and Not for Profit sector workers of the public sector union Unite. These include many who work for charities, housing associations and faith workers.
* Places are still available and all are welcome, says NJPN. The booking form can be downloaded (*.PDF Adobe Acrobat file) at:
* See also: www.justice-and-peace.org.uk
(c) Ellen Teague is a freelance Catholic journalist who works regularly for The Tablet, JUSTICE magazine, Independent Catholic News, Redemptorist Publications and the Messenger of St Anthony. She is also a member of the Columban Missionary Society Justice and Peace team, and chairs the Environment Working Group of the National Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales.


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At Northern, we make the application process for the home-schooled student easy. In fact, it nearly mirrors the application process for the "traditionally schooled" student. Homeschooled students must supply:
- A high school transcript. This transcript can be from a home school curriculum agency, or can be parent (or instructor) generated. If the transcript is parent or instructor generated, we ask that it contain a notarized signature of the person responsible for the official academic record so we can accept it as an official document. The transcript should list courses completed and grades earned. A student may apply while their final coursework is still in progress, but we must receive a "final" transcript indicating date of graduation prior to enrollment at Northern.
- An official ACT or SAT score report. Check with the ACT or SAT organizations for test dates and for information on how to have your scores sent to us.
That's all there is to it! Our admission requirements are a 2.25 grade point average and a 19 ACT or 990 SAT. Keep in mind that while these are the general admissions requirements, certain departments require a specific college GPA before admission is granted into those academic programs. Click here, or contact the admissions office for more information.
Northern also offers an Honors Program for students who meet the criteria, and an academic probation program for students who can demonstrate the ability to succeed, but who might not have met both of the admissions requirements.
Application Instructions
- Complete the undergraduate application for admission form. If you have previously applied, please notify the Admissions Office. We keep previous applications on file for one year. Homeschooled students who are applying to be dually enrolled at NMU while still attending high school should also complete the dual enrollment-permission to enroll form available from the NMU Admissions Office. Your parent can sign the form as your educator.
Canadian citizens may complete the online application for admission and the supplement for Canadian students.
- Application Fee - Applicants may pay the non-refundable $35 application fee online, or by phone (1-800-682-9797 or 1-906-227-2650) or may mail a check or money order. Application fee waivers and exceptions may be available.
- Transcripts – Homeschooled student transcripts may be generated by a parent or instructor or may be supplied by a home school curriculum agency. Parent or instructor generated transcripts should be notarized as an official document.
Secondary School Academic Preparation - Michigan students should follow the Michigan Merit Curriculum, and it is preferred that all students take core courses as follows: four years of English; four years of college preparatory mathematics; four years of social studies; four years of science; two years of language. Credits (1 semester = .5 credits) from these areas should total 12-16 by the end of the senior year. Beyond these core courses, students are encouraged to take courses or get experience in the arts and information technology.
High School Grade Point Averages - For purposes of admission and scholarships, NMU will use the overall cumulative GPA.
Standardized Achievement Testing - NMU will accept either the ACT or SAT results and will always consider the highest ACT composite or SAT combined score ( math/critical reading) from a single test date for admission and scholarship purposes if a student submits multiple test results. Writing scores are not required or considered.


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Get wages, employment trends, skills needed, and more for any occupation.
Find training programs, colleges, and universities in your local area.
Find job postings in your area.
American Job Centers can help you look for work and offer job search workshops, free computer access, and more.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics Information and Analysis


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Hostess workers in Maine, across the country, go on strike
Union workers in contract dispute with company
Thousands of Hostess Brands employees, including workers in Maine, have gone on strike in a contract dispute with the bankrupt company.
Employees at the Hostess Brands company in Biddeford said they will be continuing a strike around the clock until the company meets them "in the middle" on a contract that was rejected by 92 percent of the union's Hostess members.
Members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union began the strike on Friday.
Union spokesman Frank Hurt said, "The contract calls for extreme wage and benefit cuts which amount to 27-32 percent overall, with an 8 percent wage reduction imposed immediately. The company unilaterally ceased making contributions, required by their union contracts, to the workers' pensions in July 2011. Hostess has also imposed draconian cuts in health benefits and eliminated the eight-hour workday."
Members of the BCTGM Local 334 said this is the second time they have been asked to reduce their wages and can't afford to keep doing so.
They said the company hasn't shown loyalty to its workers, despite many of them being there for several decades.
Employees said their pension plan has already been taken away and they have been left with nothing for the future.
Hostess Brands released a statement in response to the strike.
It said, "A widespread strike will cause Hostess Brands to liquidate if we are unable to produce or deliver products. If that's the case, the company will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,300-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders. We urge our employees to remain on the job to rebuild the company."
Employees said they hope it won't come to that, but can't afford to keep taking pay cuts.


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Main Index
Latest News
Browse the site choosing a game from the menu, here you'll find Story, Screenshots, Arenas, Props and Fighters of the game, each fighter page includes: A complete Spritesheet, Biography, Animations, Props, Movelist, Fatality Videos, Ending, Renders, Cut-Out Pictures, Wallpapers and more!
Latest Updates
Mortal Kombat 11
- Fatalities, Friendships, Stage Fatalities and Brutalities
- Kollection Characters Art
- Kombat Kard Backgrounds and Kombat Kard Icons
- Pre-Fight Dialogue
- Kombat League Banners
Mortal Kombat Mobile
Mortal Kombat X
It's pretty much confirmed now, it was up on GameStop up for pre-order earlier this week and now it's everything but official: an HD remake of the MK1, MKII and UMK3 is coming exclusively to PS3, I'll leave you with the (european) boxart that appeared online today on JeuxVideo:
I for one I can't wait for the official announcement, trailer and/or screenshots! Did they make new sprites? Will the original ports be included? Is there going to be netplay? And if this thing is fake I will probably cry.
With that said, expect a huge revamp of the games section to go with this new release!
Thanks to the various posts on my twitter timeline for bringing this to my attention, this is huge news!
EDIT: TRMK reports that the red corner of the boxart reads "includes the demo for the upcoming Mortal Kombat Game". Which means that not buying this is a very bad idea.
23 responses to "Mortal Kombat HD Arcade Kollection boxart revealed!?"
"exclusively to PS3"
…ouch. I'm shit out of luck.
WHAT are fucking kidding me why for ps3 only? why not for xbox 360 fucking gay!!!!
Bienvenido A Mortal Kombat para Arcade es HD
If this is true, then the Xbox 360 version of Mortal Kombat BETTER come with Avatar Awards. It's only fair.
I agree with WeaponTheory!!!! If its exclusive ONLY to PS3!!! Then there should be at least free DLC, Avatar awards, and a secret character exclusive to the xbox 360 to be fair because thats complete bullshit if its only for ps3 so if theres anything wrong with wat i said plz type it below because thats wats fair and if you argue i am pretty much gonna win!!!!!
I could not believe this from the beginning. It's so freaking awesome!
Look on the art, there is not "only for playstation3" so i think this notice is only for sold more play3 before the confirmation a multiples plataforms.
Entonces es HD Arcade De Mortal Kombat
Donde HD Arcade
i agrre its kinda of mest up that ps3 is getting all three mk's and a additional full mk9 demo.thats ****** up alot but i aint sweatin it becuase us 360 users will get our chace when the game is realesed. oh yea i love reptiles new costume its awesom.
Cool. Can't wait for this.
ps3 sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well the trailer looks good and this will not be a failure……just like MK vs DC but tbf it was alright but that game made midway lose alot of mk fans so this game will make up for the loss of the fans PS…..WTF isnt this 'arcade kollection' on x-box vote x-box…the 360 of course :D
i want mortal kombat project please
For everyone with complaints about this being a PS3 exclusive, bear in mind that it is part of the 'Classics HD' series, which is Sony's title series for last gen game collections that are emulated on the PS3 (ex. God Of War collection). However, 360 fans/owners there may be a very slight chance at this for you, as this is one of two 3rd party entries to the series (meaning it's published by the original developers instead of Sony).
Possibility of ripping the sprites when they come out?
ps3 is beast this proves it
well they just released a trimmed down conversion of UMK3 for Apple iOS. Its got 3d graphics on a 2d plane. Plays well and moves are fairly easy to execute even on a lousy touch screen. If this is in any coordination with digital release on PSN or otherwise, then theres some evidence they're releasing remade versions of the classics.
if this TRMK does come out i gonna buy it i am going to please this game all night if does come out oh hell yeah.
Exclusive to PS3? Would ya ever give it a f**kin reat, is there something wrong with X-Box 360 users?
hello has any one heard about xbox 720 games is this really going to be released by microsoft, if so when? Thanks
The official announcement said that the arcade collection would be available for PS3, XBox 360 and PC.
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Milwaukee alderman calls for criminal charges in co-sleeping case
State Rep. Samantha Kerkman working on bill to make prosecution easier
There's a call for change following the latest co-sleeping death in Milwaukee.
Bob Donovan is calling for criminal charges in this case.
He's calling on the legislature to consider new laws, and he's calling out Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett for not doing enough to address the problem.
"We need to send a message loud and clear. Enough's enough," Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan said.
Donovan is speaking out after a 7-day-old died last week while co-sleeping with his mother. The medical examiner's report said the mother had taken a sedative and had been drinking hours earlier.
"To me, it's a no-brainer that charges of neglect and child abuse need to take place here," Donovan said.
Donovan is calling on the district attorney to bring charges against the mother, and also lashing out at Barrett, who spearheaded a high-profile informational campaign in 2011 to target the growing number of co-sleeping deaths in the city.
"I happen to feel that we have an obligation to hold people accountable and provide for justice. That's the role of government, Mr. Mayor, not flashy advertising campaigns that don't amount to a hill of beans. They don't work," Donovan said.
The mayor told WISN 12 News the city is working with many partners to address the problem, and believes the district attorney will file charges in the latest case if they're appropriate.
"I think the district attorney is the one who makes that call. He is the appropriate person to make that call, and I will work with him. I invite Alderman Donovan to contact the district attorney directly if he thinks he has made a mistake, rather than simply send out a press release," Barrett said.
Donovan said state lawmakers may have to consider changing the laws to deal with the problem.
WISN 12 News reporter Kent Wainscott spoke with state Rep. Samantha Kerkman, of Burlington, who is working on a bill right now that she said that would make prosecution easier in cases where a child is hurt or killed due to intoxicated co-sleeping.
She said she hopes to introduce that bill during this legislative session.


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Oracle Acquires Social Monitoring Company Collective Intellect
Software giant Oracle said today that it has reached a deal to acquire Boulder, Colo.-based Collective Intellect, a company that has built a cloud-based social analytics platform. Its customers include Hasbro, CBS and Dole. Oracle said it will integrate Collective's technology with its own social platforms to help companies create better marketing campaigns. Financial terms were not disclosed.


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In the 30-plus years that Richard Atkinson has been studying obesity, he has always maintained that overeating doesn't really explain it all. His epiphany came early in his career, when he was a medical fellow at U.C.L.A. engaged in a study of people who weighed more than 300 pounds and had come in for obesity surgery. "The general thought at the time was that fat people ate too much," Atkinson, now at Virginia Commonwealth University, told me recently. "And we documented that fat people do eat too much — our subjects ate an average of 6,700 calories a day. But what was so impressive to me was the fact that not all fat people eat too much."
One of Atkinson's most memorable patients was Janet S., a bright, funny 25-year-old who weighed 348 pounds when she finally made her way to U.C.L.A. in 1975. In exchange for agreeing to be hospitalized for three months so scientists could study them, Janet and the other obese research subjects (30 in all) each received a free intestinal bypass. During the three months of presurgical study, the dietitian on the research team calculated how many calories it should take for a 5-foot-6-inch woman like Janet to maintain a weight of 348. They fed her exactly that many calories — no more, no less. She dutifully ate what she was told, and she gained 12 pounds in two weeks — almost a pound a day.
"I don't think I'd ever gained that much weight that quickly," recalled Janet, who asked me not to use her full name because she didn't want people to know how fat she had once been. The doctors accused her of sneaking snacks into the hospital. "But I told them, 'I'm gaining weight because you're feeding me a tremendous amount of food!' "
The experience with Janet was an early inkling that traditional ideas about obesity were incomplete. Researchers and public-health officials have long understood that to maintain a given weight, energy in (calories consumed) must equal energy out (calories expended). But then they learned that genes were important, too, and that for some people, like Janet, this formula was tilted in a direction that led to weight gain. Since the discovery of the first obesity gene in 1994, scientists have found about 50 genes involved in obesity. Some of them determine how individuals lay down fat and metabolize energy stores. Others regulate how much people want to eat in the first place, how they know when they've had enough and how likely they are to use up calories through activities ranging from fidgeting to running marathons. People like Janet, who can get fat on very little fuel, may be genetically programmed to survive in harsher environments. When the human species got its start, it was an advantage to be efficient. Today, when food is plentiful, it is a hazard.
But even as our understanding of genes and behavior has become more refined, some cases still boggle the mind, like identical twins who eat roughly the same and yet have vastly different weights. Now a third wave of obesity researchers are looking for explanations that don't fall into the relatively easy ones of genetics, overeating or lack of exercise. They are investigating what might seem to be the unlikeliest of culprits: the microorganisms we encounter every day.
One year ago, the idea that microbes might cause obesity gained a foothold when the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana created the nation's first department of viruses and obesity. It is headed by Nikhil Dhurandhar, a physician who invented the term "infectobesity" to describe the emerging field. Dhurandhar's particular interest is in the relationship between obesity and a common virus, the adenovirus. Other scientists, led by a group of microbiologists at Washington University in St. Louis, are looking at the actions of the trillions of microbes that live in everyone's gut, to see whether certain intestinal microbes may be making their hosts fat.
If microbes help explain even a small proportion of obesity, that could shed light on a condition that plagues millions of Americans. Today 30.5 percent of the American public is obese; that is, nearly a third of Americans have a body-mass index over 30 (which for someone of Janet's height is 186 pounds). The Department of Health and Human Services says obesity may account for 300,000 deaths a year, making it the second-most-common preventable cause of death after cigarette smoking. It's been linked to various diseases: diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis and some cancers. "Individuals who are obese," the department states on its Web site, "have a 50 to 100 percent increased risk of premature death from all causes, compared to individuals with a healthy weight."
If microbes do turn out to be relevant, at least in some cases of obesity, it could change the way the public thinks about being fat. Along with the continuing research on the genetics of obesity, the study of other biological factors could help mitigate the negative stereotypes of fat people as slothful and gluttonous and somehow less virtuous than thin people. There is, of course, the risk of overemphasizing how potent the biological forces are that make some people prone to gaining weight. Biology sets the context, and that is critical, but obesity still boils down to whether a person eats too much or exercises enough. The danger in bending too far in the direction of a biological explanation — whether that explanation is genetics, infectobesity or some theory yet to be discovered — is that it could be misinterpreted, by fat and thin alike, as saying that behavior is irrelevant.
Jeffrey Gordon, whose theory is that obesity is related to intestinal microorganisms, has never had a weight problem. He's a rangy man, and when I met him he was dressed in a plaid shirt and clean chinos stretching over long, long legs. He wanted to be an astronaut as a kid, but he was too tall, 6-foot-2 by the time he was a teenager, and he says that back then, NASA was training only astronauts short enough to squeeze into the little space capsules of the day. Gordon has a big friendly face and curly brown hair that make him look younger than 58. He was a competitive swimmer as a child, from age 9 through his undergraduate years at Oberlin, but these days he seems more nerd than athlete: he continually makes puns, for one thing, and he alludes frequently to "Star Trek."
"Are you ready to begin our Vulcan mind meld?" he asked when he collected me at my hotel in St. Louis, where I went to meet him and his colleagues at the Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University, which he directs. In a way, I was indeed hoping for a mind meld; I wanted to find out everything Gordon knows about the bugs in our guts, and how those bugs might contribute to human physiology — in particular, how they might make some people fat.
Of the trillions and trillions of cells in a typical human body — at least 10 times as many cells in a single individual as there are stars in the Milky Way — only about 1 in 10 is human. The other 90 percent are microbial. These microbes — a term that encompasses all forms of microscopic organisms, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa and a form of life called archaea — exist everywhere. They are found in the ears, nose, mouth, vagina, anus, as well as every inch of skin, especially the armpits, the groin and between the toes. The vast majority are in the gut, which harbors 10 trillion to 100 trillion of them. "Microbes colonize our body surfaces from the moment of our birth," Gordon said. "They are with us throughout our lives, and at the moment of our death they consume us."
Known collectively as the gut microflora (or microbiota, a term Gordon prefers because it derives from the Greek word bios, for "life"), these microbes have a Star Trek analogue, he says: the Borg Collective, a community of cybernetically enhanced humanoids with functions so intertwined that they operate as a single intelligence, sort of like an ant colony. In its Borglike way, the microflora assumes an extraordinary array of functions on our behalf — functions that we couldn't manage on our own. It helps create the capillaries that line and nourish the intestines. It produces vitamins, in particular thiamine, pyroxidine and vitamin K. It provides the enzymes necessary to metabolize cholesterol and bile acid. It digests complex plant polysaccharides, the fiber found in grains, fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be indigestible.
And it helps extract calories from the food we eat and helps store those calories in fat cells for later use — which gives them, in effect, a role in determining whether our diets will make us fat or thin.
In the womb, humans are free of microbes. Colonization begins during the journey down the birth canal, which is riddled with bacteria, some of which make their way onto the newborn's skin. From that moment on, every mother's kiss, every swaddling blanket, carries on it more microbes, which are introduced into the baby's system.
By about the age of 2, most of a person's microbial community is established, and it looks much like any other person's microbial community. But in the same way that it takes only a small percentage of our genome to make each of us unique, modest differences in our microflora may make a big difference from one person to another. It's not clear what accounts for individual variations. Some guts may be innately more hospitable to certain microbes, either because of genetics or because of the mix of microbes already there. Most of the colonization probably happens in the first few years, which explains why the microflora fingerprints of adult twins, who shared an intimate environment (and a mother) in childhood, more closely resemble each other than they do those of their spouses, with whom they became intimate later in life.
No one yet knows whether an individual's microflora community tends to remain stable for a lifetime, but it is known that certain environmental changes, like taking antibiotics, can alter it at least temporarily. Stop the antibiotics, and the microflora seems to bounce back — but it might not bounce back to exactly what it was before the antibiotics.
In 2004, a group of microbiologists at Stanford University led by David Relman conducted the first census of the gut microflora. It took them a year to do an analysis of just three healthy subjects, by which time they had counted 395 species of bacteria. They stopped counting before the census was complete; Relman has said the real count might be anywhere from 500 species to a few thousand.
About a year ago, Relman joined with other scientists, including Jeffrey Gordon, to begin to sequence all the genes of the human gut microflora. In early June, they published their results in Science: some 78 million base pairs in all. But even this huge number barely scratches the surface; the total number of base pairs in the gut microflora might be 100 times that. Because there are so many trillions of microbes in the gut, the vast majority of the genes that a person carries around are more microbial than human. "Humans are superorganisms," the scientists wrote, "whose metabolism represents an amalgamation of microbial and human attributes." They call this amalgamation — human genes plus microbial genes — the metagenome.
Gordon first began studying the connection between the microflora and obesity when he saw what happened to mice without any microbes at all. These germ-free mice, reared in sterile isolators in Gordon's lab, had 60 percent less fat than ordinary mice. Although they ate voraciously, usually about 30 percent more food than the others, they stayed lean. Without gut microbes, they were unable to extract calories from some of the types of food they ate, which passed through their bodies without being either used or converted to fat.
When Gordon's postdoctoral researcher Fredrik Bäckhed transplanted gut microbes from normal mice into the germ-free mice, the germ-free mice started metabolizing their food better, extracting calories efficiently and laying down fat to store for later use. Within two weeks, they were just as fat as ordinary mice. Bäckhed and Gordon found at least one mechanism that helps explain this observation. As they reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2004, some common gut bacteria, including B. theta, suppress the protein FIAF, which ordinarily prevents the body from storing fat. By suppressing FIAF, B. theta allows fat deposition to increase. A different gut microbe, M. smithii, was later found to interact with B. theta in a way that extracts additional calories from polysaccharides in the diet, further increasing the amount of fat available to be deposited after the mouse eats a meal. Mice whose guts were colonized with both B. theta and M. smithii — as usually happens in humans in the real world — were found to have about 13 percent more body fat than mice colonized by just one or the other.
Gordon likes to explain his hypothesis of what gut microbes do by talking about Cheerios. The cereal box says that a one-cup serving contains 110 calories. But it may be that not everyone will extract 110 calories from a cup of Cheerios. Some may extract more, some less, depending on the particular combination of microbes in their guts. "A diet has a certain amount of absolute energy," he said. "But the amount that can be extracted from that diet may vary between individuals — not in a huge way, but if the energy balance is affected by just a few calories a day, over time that can make a big difference in body weight."
In another line of research, Gordon and his postdoctoral researcher Ruth Ley compared the microflora in two kinds of mice: normal-weight mice and mice with a genetic mutation that made them fat. Like humans, the mice had microflora consisting almost exclusively of two divisions of bacteria, the Bacteroidetes and the Firmicutes. But the proportions differed depending on whether the host was thin or fat. The normal-weight mice had more Bacteroidetes than Firmicutes in their gut microflora. The genetically obese mice had the opposite proportions: 50 percent fewer Bacteroidetes, 50 percent more Firmicutes.
It isn't clear what the functional significance is of having more Firmicutes in the gut, nor whether the observed difference is a cause of the obesity or an effect. But Gordon wanted to see whether something comparable happened in humans of different weights. Over the past year, he and his colleagues have evaluated stool samples from 12 obese patients at a weight-loss clinic at Washington University, along with some normal-weight controls. They want to see if there's such a thing as lean-type and obese-type microflora, and whether weight loss leads to a change in a person's microbial community.
Gordon says he is still far from understanding the relationship between gut microflora and weight gain. "I wish you were writing this article a year from now, even two years from now," he told me. "We're just beginning to explore this wilderness, finding out who's there, how does that population change, which are the key players." He says it will be a while before anyone figures out what the gut microbes do, how they interact with one another and how, or even whether, they play a role in obesity. And it will be even longer before anyone learns how to change the microflora in a deliberate way.
You might think a microbial theory of obesity could change people's views about the obese, perhaps even lessen the degree to which people think that obesity is the fat person's own fault. But anti-fat sentiments seem to be deeply ingrained and resistant to change, as reflected in a rather unlikely place: New Scientist, a British magazine. In an article last year describing the work of Gordon and two groups of researchers in England who were also investigating the link between obesity and gut microflora, the author, Bijal Trivedi, was quite sympathetic to Gordon's hypothesis. But the article — which is, remember, about a possible biological cause of obesity — was presented with a headline that still managed to depict obese people as lazy and gluttonous. It was called "Slimming for Slackers" and was illustrated with a fat man in a sweatsuit — the "slacker" of the title — sitting beside a partly eaten chocolate doughnut, waiting passively for thinness to arrive.
This is not to single out the New Scientist editors; they are just reflecting the generalized belief that there's an element of laziness in anyone's obesity. "Gluttony and sloth are two of the seven deadly sins," said Ellen Ruppel Shell, author of "The Hungry Gene." "We ascribe obesity to a character flaw." This is what leads to the psychic pain of being fat, the social isolation of having a condition that everyone believes to be completely within your control — as if it were a voluntary purgatory, a case of willfully digging your own grave with your dinner fork.
I found that this attitude exists even among obese people, including a woman who was a research subject in Gordon's clinical study. Joan was one of the obese patients at Washington University who sent Gordon stool samples as she lost weight (15 pounds over the course of a year, which she eventually gained back when she stopped dieting) so they could be tested for various microbes. She said she hasn't been curious enough to try to find out about her microflora; she's too busy, and besides, she already knows where to place the blame for her excess weight — not on a microbe but on herself. "I know that I'm not being obedient, I'm not using my body the way God intended," said Joan, who asked me to refer to her only by her middle name. "I know how I'm supposed to eat, but I'm not having a healthy appetite, you know what I'm saying? I'm not wanting to be obedient."
But it's not about obedience — or at least not only about obedience. "The biochemistry of the body of the obese person is very different from that of a lean person," said Richard Atkinson, Janet S.'s former physician. "If the obese person gets down to a lean person's weight, their biochemistry is not the same." Losing weight is hard, keeping it off is harder and, especially for some unfortunate souls, the body seems to work against itself in the struggle.
There's another way that biological middlemen might be involved in obesity — in this case, not the gut microbes (mostly bacteria) with which we co-exist but the viruses and other pathogens that occasionally infect us and make us ill. This is the subspecialty that is being called infectobesity.
The idea of infectobesity dates to 1988, when Nikhil Dhurandhar was a young physician studying for his doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Bombay. He was having tea with his father, also a physician and the head of an obesity clinic, and an old family friend, S. M. Ajinkya, a pathologist at Bombay Veterinary College. Ajinkya was describing a plague that was killing thousands of chickens throughout India, caused by a new poultry virus that he had discovered and named with his own and a colleague's initials, SMAM-1. On autopsy, the vet said, chickens infected with SMAM-1 revealed pale and enlarged livers and kidneys, an atrophied thymus and excess fat in the abdomen.
The finding of abdominal fat intrigued Dhurandhar. "If a chicken died of infection, having wasted away, it should be less fat, not more," he remembered thinking at the time. He asked permission to conduct a small experiment at the vet school.
Working with about 20 chickens, Dhurandhar, then 28, infected half of them with SMAM-1. He fed them all the same amount of food, but only the infected chickens became obese. Strangely, despite their excess fat, the infected obese chickens had low levels of cholesterol and triglycerides in their blood — just the opposite of what was thought to happen in humans, whose cholesterol and triglyceride levels generally increase as their weight increases. After his pilot study in 1988, Dhurandhar conducted a larger one with 100 chickens. It confirmed his finding that SMAM-1 caused obesity in chickens.
But what about humans? With a built-in patient population from his clinic, Dhurandhar collected blood samples from 52 overweight patients. Ten of them, nearly 20 percent, showed antibody evidence of prior exposure to the SMAM-1 virus, which was a chicken virus not previously thought to have infected humans. Moreover, the once-infected patients weighed an average of 33 pounds more than those who were never infected and, most surprisingly, had lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels — the same paradoxical finding as in the chickens.
The findings violated three pieces of conventional wisdom, Dhurandhar said recently: "The first is that viruses don't cause obesity. The second is that obesity leads to high cholesterol and triglycerides. The third is that avian viruses don't infect humans."
Dhurandhar, now 46, is a thoughtful man with a head of still-dark hair. Like Gordon, he has never been fat. But even though he is so firmly in the biological camp of obesity researchers, he ascribes his own weight control to behavior, not microbes; he says he is slim because he walks five miles a day, lifts weights and is careful about what he eats. Being overweight runs in his family; Dhurandhar's father, who still practices medicine in India, began treating obese patients because of his own struggle to keep his weight down, from a onetime high of 220.
Slim as he is, Dhurandhar nonetheless is sensitive to the pain of being fat and the maddening frustration of trying to do anything about it. He takes to heart the anguished letters and e-mail he receives each time his research is publicized. Once, he said, he heard from a woman whose 10-year-old grandson weighed 184 pounds. The boy rode his bicycle until his feet bled, hoping to lose weight; he was so embarrassed by his body that he kept his T-shirt on when he went swimming. The grandmother told Dhurandhar that the virus research sounded like the answer to her prayers. But the scientist knew that even if a virus was to blame for this boy's obesity, he was a long way from offering any real help.
In 1992, Dhurandhar moved his wife and 7-year-old son to the United States in search of a lab where he could continue his research. At first, because infectobesity was so far out of the mainstream, all he could find was unrelated work at North Dakota State University. "My wife and I gave ourselves two years," he recalled. "If I didn't find work in the field of viruses and obesity in two years, we would go back to Bombay."
Dhurandhar's battle against the conventional wisdom was reminiscent of the struggle a decade earlier of two Australian scientists, who were also proposing an infectious cause for a chronic disease, in their case, a bacterium that causes ulcers. The Australians were met with skepticism at first, but eventually they accumulated enough evidence to make it hard to ignore the connection between ulcers and the bacterium, Helicobacter pylori. It helped that one of them, Barry J. Marshall, dramatically swallowed a pure culture of H. pylori — and promptly came down with symptoms of gastritis, the first stage of an ulcer. (The H. pylori story ended with the ultimate vindication: Marshall and his collaborator, J. Robin Warren, won the Nobel Prize in 2005.)
One month before his self-imposed deadline in 1994, Dhurandhar received a job offer from Richard Atkinson, who was then at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Atkinson, always on the lookout for new biological explanations of obesity, wanted to collaborate with Dhurandhar on SMAM-1. But the virus existed only in India, and the U.S. government would not allow it to be imported. So the scientists decided to work with a closely related virus, a human adenovirus. They opened the catalogue of a laboratory-supply company to see which one of the 50 human adenoviruses they should order.
"I'd like to say we chose the virus out of some wisdom, out of some belief that it was similar in important ways to SMAM-1," Dhurandhar said. But really, he admitted, it was dumb luck that the adenovirus they started with, Ad-36, turned out to be so fattening.
By this time, several pathogens had already been shown to cause obesity in laboratory animals. With Ad-36, Dhurandhar and Atkinson began by squirting the virus up the nostrils of a series of lab animals — chickens, rats, marmosets — and in every species the infected animals got fat.
"The marmosets were most dramatic," Atkinson recalled. By seven months after infection, he said, 100 percent of them became obese. Subsequently, Atkinson's group and another in England conducted similar research using other strains of human adenovirus. The British group found that one strain, Ad-5, caused obesity in mice; the Wisconsin group found the same thing with Ad-37 and chickens. Two other strains, Ad-2 and Ad-31, failed to cause obesity.
In 2004, Atkinson and Dhurandhar were ready to move to humans. All of the 50 strains of human adenoviruses cause infections that are usually mild and transient, the kind that people pass off as a cold, a stomach bug or pink eye. The symptoms are so minor that people who have been infected often don't remember ever having been sick. Even with such an innocuous virus, it would be unethical, of course, for a scientist to infect a human deliberately just to see if the person gets fat. Human studies are, therefore, always retrospective, a hunt for antibodies that would signal the presence of an infectious agent at some point in the past. To carry out this research, Atkinson developed — and patented — a screening test to look for the presence of Ad-36 antibodies in the blood.
The scientists found 502 volunteers from Wisconsin, Florida and New York willing to be screened for antibodies, 360 of them obese and 142 of them of not obese. Of the leaner subjects, 11 percent had antibodies to Ad-36, indicating an infection at some point in the past. (Ad-36 was identified relatively recently, in 1978.) Among the obese subjects, 30 percent had antibodies— a difference large enough to suggest it was not just chance. In addition, subjects who were antibody-positive weighed significantly more than subjects who were uninfected. Those who were antibody-positive also had cholesterol and triglyceride readings that were significantly lower than people who were antibody-negative — just as in the infected chickens — a finding that held true whether or not they were obese.
Were fat people just more prone to infection? Probably not, because the scientists also screened for antibodies to two other strains of adenovirus, and there was no difference between those who were obese and those who were not. Could the differences be explained by genes instead of by viruses? Probably not, because the scientists controlled for genes in a follow-up study that involved 90 pairs of twins. In the twin study, they found 20 identical-twin pairs who were "discordant" for antibodies to Ad-36, meaning one twin had been exposed to the virus and the other twin had not. In the discordant pairs, the infected twin tended to be fatter, with an average of almost 2 percent more body fat (29.6 percent versus 27.5 percent) than the uninfected twin — even though they shared exactly the same genes.
If Ad-36 is a cause of obesity, Atkinson says, you're more likely to catch it from a newly infected and still-contagious thin person than from someone who has already gained weight because of its effects. Exactly what the virus does to create this kind of long-term perturbation is still being investigated. In a paper published last year in The International Journal of Obesity, Atkinson and Dhurandhar, along with five of their colleagues, presented evidence for how Ad-36 might affect fat cells directly, "leading to an increased fat-cell number and increased fat-cell size."
As for the other pathogens implicated in infectobesity — nine in all — certain viruses are known to impair the brain's appetite-control mechanism in the hypothalamus, as happens in some cases of people becoming grossly obese after meningitis. Scientists also point to a commonality between fat cells and immune-system cells, although the exact significance of the connection is unclear. Immature fat cells, for instance, have been shown to behave like macrophages, the immune cells that engulf and destroy invading pathogens. Mature fat cells secrete hormones that stimulate the production of macrophages as well as another kind of immune-system cell, T-lymphocytes.
Another line of investigation in the field of infectobesity concerns inflammation, a corollary of infection. Obese people have higher levels of two proteins related to inflammation, C-reactive protein and interleukin-6. This may suggest that an infectious agent has set off some sort of derangement in the body's system of fat regulation, making the infected person fat. A different interpretation is not about obesity causation but about its associated risks. Some scientists, including Jeffrey Gordon's colleagues at Washington University, are trying to see whether the ailments of obesity (especially diabetes and high blood pressure) might be caused not by the added weight per se, but by the associated inflammation.
Infectobesity has its critics, among them Stephen Bloom, a researcher at Imperial College London. Bloom said that if he were working at a research agency, he'd give money for studies into the viral causes of obesity, just in case there's something there. But he said he wouldn't put the theory into a medical-school textbook just yet. His main objection, he said, is that "I don't think we need that explanation, since we have a perfectly good other explanation." Like Dhurandhar and Atkinson, Bloom suspects that obesity has a biological cause — but rather than turning to gut microflora or adenovirus infection for an explanation, he is partial to what he calls "the lazy-greedy gene" hypothesis, his slightly disparaging shorthand for what is more generally known as the thrifty genotype.
The thrifty-genotype hypothesis holds that there was, once upon a time, an adaptive advantage to being able to get fat. Our ancestors survived unpredictable cycles of food catastrophes by laying down fat stores when food was plentiful, and using up the stores slowly when food was scarce. The ones who did this best were the ones most likely to survive and to pass on the thrifty genotype to the next generation. But this mechanism evolved to get through a difficult winter — and we're living now in an eternal spring. With food so readily available, thriftiness is a liability, and the ability to slow down metabolism during periods of reduced eating (a k a dieting) tends to create a fatter populace, albeit a more famine-proof one.
Bloom, by the way, does not give much credence to Dhurandhar's analogy between the Ad-36-obesity connection and the recent history of H. pylori and ulcers — even though each started out looking like just another wacky idea. "There are so many crazy theories," he said. "But just because one in a hundred turns out to be correct doesn't mean all the crazy theories are correct."
Obesity has turned out to be a daunting foe. Many of us are tethered to bodies that sabotage us in our struggle to keep from getting fat, or to slim down when we do. Microbes might be one explanation. There might be others, as outlined in June in a paper in The International Journal of Obesity listing 10 "putative contributors" to obesity, among them sleep deprivation, the increased use of psychoactive prescription drugs and the spread of air-conditioning.
But where does this leave us, exactly? Whatever the reason for any one individual's tendency to gain weight, the only way to lose the weight is to eat less and exercise more. Behavioral interventions are all we've got right now. Even the supposedly biological approach to weight loss — that is, diet drugs — still works (or, more often, fails to work) by affecting eating behavior, through chemicals instead of through willpower. If it turns out that microbes are implicated in obesity, this biological approach will become more direct, in the form of an antiviral agent or a microbial supplement. But the truth is, this isn't going to happen any time soon.
On an individual level and for the foreseeable future, if you want to lose weight, you still have to fiddle with the energy equation. Weight still boils down to the balance between how much a particular body needs to maintain a certain weight and how much it is fed. What complicates things is that in some people, for reasons still not fully understood, what their bodies need is set unfairly low. It could be genes; it could be microbes; it could be something else entirely.
Janet S. is one such person. Thirty years after her obesity surgery, 170 pounds lighter than when she started, she still needs to restrict her food intake to keep from gaining it all back.
"I definitely have to diet — damn it, I should have a pass on that, don't you think?" said Janet, now 55, a human-resources administrator in Southern California, married and with a teenage daughter who is tall and slender. Even with the surgery, and even maintaining a weight that is borderline obese (at least according to the government definition; Janet weighs 180 pounds, plus or minus 15, meaning her body-mass index hovers around the magic number of 30), she can never enjoy food with complete and carefree abandon.
This is typical of people who have lost weight — not only a lot of weight, as Janet has, but even a little weight. According to Rudolph Leibel, an obesity researcher at Columbia University who was involved in the discovery of the first human gene implicated in obesity, if you take two nonobese people of the same weight, they will require different amounts of food depending on whether or not they were once obese. It goes in precisely the maddening direction you might expect: formerly fat people need to eat less than never-fat people to maintain exactly the same weight. In other words, a 150-pound woman who has always weighed 150 might be able to get away with eating, say, 2,500 calories a day, but a 150-pound woman who once weighed more — 20 pounds more, 200 pounds more, the exact amount doesn't matter — would have to consume about 15 percent fewer calories to keep from regaining the weight. The change occurs as soon as the person starts reducing, Leibel said, and it "is not proportional to amount of weight lost, and persists over time."
For many people, then, losing weight and keeping the weight off requires a constant state of hunger — and when you're hungry, you're miserable. You think of nothing but food every moment of the day. All morning you think about lunch, all afternoon you think about dinner, and when you're asleep, you dream of food.
Or, as Judith Moore put it in her memoir, "Fat Girl": "Some people daydream heroic deeds or sex scenes or tropical vacations. I daydream crab legs dipped in hot butter." She wrote about fellow warriors who, like her, struggle to keep off the weight they worked so hard to lose. As they approach the all-you-can-eat buffet, she wrote, "they square their shoulders. They ready for combat with Virginia baked ham, sweet-potato soufflé and those puffy dinner rolls with butter and a three-layer chocolate mousse cake. Food is the enemy. Food is also the mother, the father, the warmhearted lover, the house built of redbrick that not even the wolf can blow down."
Current public-health messages deny this harsh reality. They make losing weight sound easy, just a simple matter of doing the math and applying some willpower. A pound of fat contains 3,500 calories, government documents say, and if you cut down a week's worth of food intake or increase exercise by a total of 3,500 calories, then, voilà — you lose a pound. "To lose weight, you must use more energy than you take in," states the Web site of the Office of the Surgeon General. "A difference of one 12-oz. soda (150 calories) or 30 minutes of brisk walking most days can add or subtract approximately 10 pounds to your weight each year."
But if genes or viral infection or gut microflora are involved, then for some people 3,500 calories might not equal a pound of fat, and 150 fewer calories a day might not mean they'll lose 10 pounds in a year. As scientists continue to investigate how obese people are different, we can only hope that a side benefit will be a more largehearted understanding of what it means to be fat and how hard it is to try to become, and to remain, less fat.
A more concrete benefit would be to develop ways to interfere with the action of the offending microbes. Atkinson, for one, foresees a day when Ad-36 antibody screening becomes as routine as cholesterol screening. He has a financial stake in making this happen; when he moved to Virginia two years ago, he started a company called Obetech to market his Ad-36 antibody test, for which he charges $450. But he said he has an altruistic motive as well. The people most likely to benefit from such testing, he said, are not fat people but thin people, whose infections are so recent that they haven't yet begun to gain weight. But they are the least likely to pay to have it done without it being part of a routine checkup.
Based on animal studies, Atkinson assumes that people infected with Ad-36 have a better than even chance of becoming obese. "But if they watch their diet, and if they exercise, they can avoid it." Further in the future, he said, there might be a way to administer antiviral drugs to infected individuals early enough to block the effect of Ad-36 on the fat cells.
Gordon, too, is hoping that his research will eventually lead to new strategies for treating obesity. It's a long way off, he said, but it's the beacon that keeps him and his colleagues working.
"How can you manipulate the microbial community to more broadly affect energy balance?" he asked, enumerating the research questions still to be tackled. "Can one size fit all, or can you match nutrition to the microbes in your gut?" After obese-type microflora are differentiated from lean-type, Gordon said, the next step would be what he calls "personalized nutrition" — matching diet to the digestive properties of each person's unique microflora.
Such deliberate manipulation of the gut microflora is a long way off — years and years off, according to Gordon — but its possibility "is what this first phase of our work is underscoring, and we hope it will turn out to be an important tool in the fight against obesity."


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Before I made it to NIU life was a little bit simpler to manage. I could handle all my affairs including homework, a job, and scheduling without much thought or worry. Now, with 5 classes, 3 student organizations, 2 internships, and social life to juggle I feel like I need my own secretary. Unfortunately, I do not have the money or the influence to afford such a luxury. In lieu of my budget and anonymity, I've learned to harness technology to help manage my busy life. I'm hoping that with this blog I can help you all do the same. Here are a few applications and technologies that I've utilized to make life a little bit easier.
Google Drive lets you store, access, and share your files anywhere, whether it be on the web, on your hard drive, or on a mobile device. Here's how you can start:
- Go to Google Drive on the web at drive.google.com.
- Install Google Drive on your computer and mobile device (Free for iPhone and Android)
- Place files in Google Drive on your computer and boom, it goes straight to your mobile and vice versa!
You can store up to 5 GB of data for free! Collaborate with others on documents to do group assignments remotely. I've literally completed entire papers and assignments without ever meeting with my teammates. Another benefit of Drive is that you'll never have to worry about forgetting an attachment on your computer at home (the second worst excuse next to my dog ate my homework). With Google Drive, your documents are anywhere you have a computer or mobile device.
Astrid is the personal assistant that I've always wanted. I can use it to make grocery lists, to-do lists that include errands or assignments, and others. Best of all, its free and I can use the application to schedule all the tasks that I have to complete. Astrid helps you get your life organized so you will never miss a due date. Because it offers the ability to add deadlines and priority levels to your tasks that pair with reminders and alarms, you will never forget to follow through with your obligations again! The lists you create in Astrid go straight to the cloud, so like Google Drive, you can access your lists anywhere you have a computer or mobile device. Simply log into your account and surprise, all of your grocery lists, book lists, and assignment deadlines are all there!
Right Inbox is free extension for Chrome and Firefox that works with your Gmail account to schedule emails for sending later. The add-on places a "Send Later" button in your Gmail account with options to schedule the email at any time and date you please! You can use it to send yourself reminders or send emails to others at just the right time. I've used right inbox to send time sensitive emails that can only be sent between certain hours of certain days (shout out to Mktg 450 students). Many recruiters for companies have their email on their phones and I'd hate to leave a bad impression and wake them at 2 AM in the morning (when I do most of my work). So instead, I'll write the email at 2 AM but I'll schedule the email for 4 hours later using Right Inbox! It's a win-win! They get to sleep and I get to look like a stud for supposedly being a productive member of society at 6 in the morning (or so the email says).
Use these applications and plug ins and I'm sure they can add a few months, a few more hours to your beauty sleep, and a few less stress induced wrinkles! 2.0out
Do you have any suggestions for apps that have made your life easier? Share in the comments below!