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6 Gauge Body Jewelry
Fire. sono wood 6g body jewelry.
GARUDA : Wood Earrings & Organic Jewelry
6 Gauge Body Jewelry handmade in fine Sono Wood. Light weight and smooth, this richly colored exotic dark wood in tones from deep chocolate to purplish-red-brown is finely carved and polished by hand to create our wood jewelry. Color: brown
6 Gauge Body Jewelry | Fire. sono wood 6g body jewelry.6 Gauge. Natural Organic Tribal Body Jewelry and Gauged Earrings for large piercings. Unique, handmade, beautiful tribal jewelry. WESTERN BOHEMIAN Organic and Wood Earrings. 6g.
6g - Measures : 1 1/4 inches W X 1 1/2 inches L
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Fire. sono wood 6g body jewelry.SKU # bj-83-sw-6g


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Biologists use flies and mice to get to the heart of Down syndrome
A novel study involving fruit flies and mice has allowed biologists to identify two critical genes responsible for congenital heart defects in individuals with Down syndrome, a major cause of infant mortality and death in people born with this genetic disorder. In a paper published in the November 3 issue of the open access journal PLoS Genetics, researchers from UC San Diego, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and the University of Utah report the identification of two genes that, when produced at elevated levels, work together to disrupt cardiac development and function.
Down syndrome, the most common genetic cause of cognitive impairment, is a disorder that occurs in one in 700 births when individuals have three, instead of the usual two, copies of human chromosome 21.
"Chromosome 21 is the shortest human chromosome and intensive genetic mapping studies in people with Down syndrome have identified a small region of this chromosome that plays a critical role in causing congenital heart defects," said Ethan Bier, a biology professor at UC San Diego and one of the principal authors of the study. "This Down syndrome region for congenital heart disease, called the 'DS-CHD critical region,' contains several genes that are active in the heart which our collaborator, Julie Korenberg, had suspected of interacting with each other to disrupt cardiac development or function when present in three copies. But exactly which of these half dozen or so genes are the culprits?"
"Identifying the genes within the DS-CHD critical region contributing to congenital heart defects is challenging to address using traditional mammalian experimental models, such as mice," added Bier, "since the number of possible genetic combinations that would need to be generated and tested is very large."
To simplify their search, the scientists turned to fruit flies, a simpler and rapidly reproducing biological system with many of the same genes as mice and humans. With help from collaborators Amir Gamliel,Geoff Rosenfeld and Kirk Peterson at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, Rolf Bodmer and Karen Ocorr at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, and Julie R. Korenberg at the University of Utah, biologist Tamar Grossman in Bier's lab devised a sequential genetic approach to untangle the problem.
"First, fruit flies were used to test for all possible pairwise genetic interactions between these genes that might disrupt the function of the simple fluid pumping fly heart," said Bier." These comprehensive genetic studies pointed to a particular pair of genes known as DSCAM and COL6A2 that resulted in the most severe defects when over-produced together."
Then the researchers tested the effects of increasing the levels of these genes in the hearts of experimental mice. They first generated genetic lines of mice having elevated activity of each of these genes in the heart and then genetically crossed these mice to create offspring that over-produced both genes together. The parental mice as well as their offspring were then tested for heart function and visible heart defects.
Mice having elevated levels of each gene separately were largely normal. But the offspring with extra levels of both genes suffered from severe cardiac defects. These heart defects were of two kinds. The first resembled one of the salient features of Down syndrome cardiac patients, in which blood shunts between the two atrial chambers of the heart through small holes in a septum that normally isolates these two chambers. The second defect, which is not frequently observed in Down syndrome patients, but is a common and very serious condition in the general population, was a thickening of the heart wall -- referred to medically as cardiac hypertrophy.
"Such thickening of the heart wall greatly reduces heart function and can lead to fatal heart attacks, which indeed was observed among some of the more seriously affected DSCAM and COL6A2 over-producing mice," said Bier.
Bier added that the tiered genetic approach, using fruit flies, then mice, could be useful in identifying genes involved in other common genetic disorders that are thought to be caused by multiple genes.
"These conditions arise due to a surprising variation in the copy number of small intervals of human chromosomes that are carried by virtually all people," he said. "Depending on which small regions of the chromosome have extra or fewer copies of genes, various conditions can result including obesity, autism, and schizophrenia. Typically in these diseases, as in Down syndrome, the difficult puzzle is which of the possible genes with altered copy number are involved in causing the disease."
Funding for the research project was provided by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Source: University of California - San Diego
Other sources
- Biologists Use Flies and Mice to Get to the Heart of Down Syndromefrom Science BlogFri, 4 Nov 2011, 15:01:04 UTC
- Biologists use flies and mice to get to the heart of Down syndromefrom Science DailyFri, 4 Nov 2011, 14:30:38 UTC
- Biologists use flies, mice to study Down syndromefrom PhysorgFri, 4 Nov 2011, 13:30:31 UTC

subset: commoncrawl


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Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Scott Kirsner has an article about ToonBreak, a new video website that's set up to feature animation and share revenue with contributors. This is a long tail type of aggregation, where Shawn McInerny is attempting to create a destination for people seeking out animation. Individual contributors may not experience financial success, but the site is non-exclusive. If you've got a film, you've got nothing to lose by posting there. Should the site be successful, the entire animation community would benefit from a high traffic location that shares revenue.
1 comment:
It certainly is inspiring. I couldn't help but notice that the most interesting clips on Toon Break belong to Shawn McInerny himself. It also links (in a roundabout way) to Toon Boom's website, which sells the software that Shawn used to create at least one of his clips.
- March 01, 2007 10:52 AM
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K'nex Brands, the only U.S. construction toy company focused on Building Worlds Kids Love, is proud to announce that for the sixth year in a row it will donate a percentage of online sales to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA), a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization dedicated to finding the cure for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
Now through April 30, 10 percent of all online sales made on www.knex.com will be donated to the CCFA. Donations are accepted with or without making a purchase.
In addition, a team of K'nex employees will be participating in the Take Steps for Crohn's & Colitis walk in Philadelphia. These events take place at 158 walk sites across the country, where thousands of people gather every spring and summer to join the fight against digestive diseases. You can find your local walk by logging on to www.cctakesteps.org.


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Photoshop Fur and Furry Effect Free Action
These are free actions for creating fur and furry effects in Photoshop that can be downloaded by all our registered users. The pack includes 2 fur action that are fully editable, fully customizable so you can play with the final result. You can easily add any fur texture that you like with the help of smart objects.
You can always try these fur brushes if you are not quite pleased with the result.


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Friends of Desert Bookshelf - Featured Title
This title
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Pop Score = 1.03The Pop Score calculation is based on the intial entry date into the FRIENDS WITH BOOKS database and the average number of views it has recieved since. "Danny" has scored 1.03 views/day.
by Linda Nance
|A young child trapped in a nightmare life had a special friend. His friend said, "You can call me Danny." Danny was his only friend. Feeling alone, abused, isolated and lost, a young child needed someone. No one but Steven could see or hear Danny. Was Danny imagination, a friendly ghost there protecting, or was there more to this entity than anyone might suspect? Steven began to think Danny might be a Guardian Angel but angel or evil…only time would tell….. because Steven would tell no one and betray his friend and that friend was there to stay.
Tragedy and chaos, murder and an end to life as Steven had known, erupted in his household in the dark of night.
Three young boys fled and that night would change their lives forever. It was filled with death and disaster. If it was a new beginning or a new nightmare of a different kind, only time would tell….and we can not forget Danny.
This is a story you will not soon forget.
Danny is a story of a young child living a nightmare life of abuse and neglect. The pain of abuse at any age, is one that has consequences. There are those who are stronger and live lives determined to never repeat the horrors they endured but there are others who survive in other ways. Feeling alone and vulnerable allows a person to be victimized even more in many instances.
Danny is a story of all that and more. There may come a day we suspect a person is being abused and want to help, finding it is more difficult that we dreamed. If we dare to care and not give up, one by one we might make a difference. If we make a difference for even one person, it may mean the world to that one soul.
The idea that there might be more things in this world than meet the eye or that we might be able to see and understand, can give insight to a story that will take you beyond the abuse into the world lived by this child. This is more than a story of abuse and survival. This is a story that may haunt you in memory but remind us of what there can be in this world. I hope it reminds us to find heart, hope and tolerance to those who suffer or need help. I hope we have the courage to look and see, trying to make a difference. This is a story you will know this child and feel from the depths of his inner-being instead of hearing his story.
There may be a cold chill travel your spine as you begin to understand even more of this tale. We can call him Danny, but can we say who he really is?
Other titles to consider by Linda Nance
The Pumpkin Field
Down The Path
I Will Not Give Up... Not Today... Life Is A Journey
An Adventure In Writing
Life Goes On
|Lilo Abernathy
Lorraine Adair
Garrett Addison
Suzi Albracht
Karen Aldous
T.J. Alexander
Tasha Alexander
K.K. Allen
Pam Alster
George Angus
Christine Ardigo
Kathryne Arnold
Tace Baker
David Baldacci
Daisy Banks
Jeanne Bannon
Judith Barrow
Mark Barry
P.S. Bartlett
Jon Batson
Gonzalo W. Bénard
Warren Bell
Donalie Beltran
Alex Berenson
Mary Ann Bernal
Steve Berry
Derrick R Bickley
Kimberly Biller
Harry Bingham
Paul Bishop
Alan Black
Maxwell Black
Savannah Black
Sonya Black
B.A. Blackwood
Jennifer Bohnet
Maureen L. Bonatch
Bruce A. Borders
Claude Bouchard
Martha Bourke
Gillie Bowen
CJ Box
Noah Boyd
Philip Boyle
Peter C Bradbury
T.J. Brearton
JC Brennan
Laurie Breton
Frederick Lee Brooke
E. Douglas Brown
Mackenzie Brown
Susan Buchanan
Taylor Ann Bunker
John Burdett
Harvey Burgess
Anna Burke
Carol Burnside
Grace Burrowes
Frances Caballo
Dani J Caile
David Callinan
S.W. Cannon
Lauren Carr
Suzie Carr
Michael Carrier
R.C. & J.P. Carter
Rasheed Carter
Wendy Cartmell
D.K. Cassidy
David C. Cassidy
Philip Catshill
Paul Centeno
Daniel C. Chamberlain
Diane Chamberlain
Stephen Charlick
Jennifer Chase
Penny Childs
Max China
Billy Ray Chitwood
Kathy Clark
Clint Clay
John-Paul Cleary
Harlan Coben
JaQuavis Coleman
Alfredo Colitto
Stephanie A. Collins
Lori Connelly
Phil Conquest
J. Conrad
Cathrina Constantine
James R. Conway
Doug J. Cooper
Lynn Cooper
Patricia Cornwell
Kathleen M. Cosgrove
Doreen Cox
Stephen Craig
Robert Crais
Chelle C. Craze
Bill Cronin
Sally Cronin
Bette Lee Crosby
Paul Cude
JG Cully
Murielle Cyr
Michael Dalton
Mike Dalton
Steven Daniel
Arkopaul Das
Seyi Sandra David
Elizabeth Davies
Timothy Davis
Mark Dawson
Tamie Dearen
Joyce DeBacco
Charlie Deer
H. I. Defaz
Maya DeLeina
Darlene Deluca
Richard Devall
Barbara Devlin
Deirdre Devlin
Jake Devlin
Amanda DeWees
David Dire
Marjorie Doering
John Dolan
Charles Dougherty
Stephen Douglass
Tricia Drammeh
Lillian Duncan
Steve Dunn
Amber Lea Easton
Clive Eaton
Stacy Eaton
Peggy A. Edelheit
Dave Edlund
Kendra Elliot
Wayne Elsner
Martha Emms
Sarah England
Linda Fairstein
Will Farrar
Tamara Ferguson
Charity Ferrell
P.J. Fiala
Hannah Fielding
Warren Fielding
Joseph Finder
|Mary Firmin
Christoph Fischer
Maureen Fisher
Robert C. Fleet
Ricardo Fleshman
Penny Fletcher
Teodor Flonta
Kenneth Fore
Melissa Foster
Echo Fox
William Frederick
Taylor Evan Fulks
Diana Gabaldon
Emelle Gamble
Malika Gandhi
Colleen Gareau
Julie Garwood
Jennifer Gibson
Carole Gill
Lee Gimenez
DelSheree Gladden
Robert Goolrick
D. A. Grady
Electa Graham
Avery E Greene
Sarah Greyson
Gen Griffin
Mr. Dana Griffin
W.E.B. Griffin
James Grippando
Cherley Grogg
Roger Grubbs
Heather Gudenkauf
Alastair Gunn
Jenny Hale
Kathy Lynn Hall
Rebecca Smith Hall
Steve Hamilton
Craig Hansen
Alan Hardy
Andrew Harkless
Dianne Harman
C.A. Harms
Charlaine Harris
J.B. Hawker
Wodke Hawkinson
Samuel Hawley
Garrard Hayes
Gayle Hayes
Tim Heath
Brian Heffron
Libby Fischer Hellmann
Elysa Hendricks
Gary Henson
BZ Hercules
Anna Herlihy
Teri Heyer
Janet Muirhead Hill
Martin Roy Hill
Sandra Hill
Sasscer Hill
J A Hinsman
Tami Hoag
A. A. W Hodge
John Holt
Kay Hooper
NLB Horton
eden Hudson
J.C. Hulsey
Carol Anne Hunter
Stephen Hunter
June Hyjek
Terry Irving
Jane Isaac
Elizabeth Isaacs
Dani Jace
N.N. Jackson
Lilian Jade
Amalie Jahn
Lila James
Lori James
Angela Janacaro
Stephen Jared
Stephen Jennison-Smith
Jean C. Joachim
Peter John
Clive S. Johnson
Shelli Johnson
Katy Huth Jones
Patrick Jones
Wendy H. Jones
Jeff Joseph
H.E. Joyce
Denise Kahn
EM Kaplan
Angelica Kate
H.A. Kay
Kristy Kay
Danny Kemp
Celia M Kennedy
Celia Kennedy
William Kenney
Sophia Kimble
Crit Kincaid
Tara Kingston
Christina Baker Kline
Christine Kling
Charlotte J. Knaub
Dan Knight
Skye Knizley
Allison kohn
Mira Kolar-Brown
Dean Koontz
Elizabeth Kostova
Carla Kovach
Thérèse Kraemer
Therese Kraemer
Michael Kroft
J.P. Lane
John Lansing
E.D. Lappin
Linda LaRoque
P. V. Lattimore
Anthony Lavisher
Larry LaVoie
Gunnar Lawrence
Gunnar A. Lawrence
David Leadbeater
Andrew Lennon
Bridgitte Lesley
Allan Leverone
Marilyn Levinson
Caroline F Levy
Caroline F. Levy
Meghan Lewis
Annie Douglass Lima
Gary Lindberg
Sharon Linnea
Jenny Lloyd
Neil Low
Sherrie Lowe
Elizabeth Lowell
Travis Luedke
Tarrin P. Lupo
Rebekah Lyn
Shay Lynam
Terri Lyndie
Jenn Lyons
Ria MacAlister
Juliet B Madison
|Paddy Magrane
Paulette Mahurin
David Lee Malone
Morgan Mandel
Henning Mankell
Don Mann
Giselle Marks
Elisabeth Marrion
C. Henry Martens
Peter Martin
Kate L. Mary
Yvonne Mason
Don Massenzio
Randy Massey
Constance Masters
M. R. Mathias
Nicola C. Matthews
P. T. Mayes
Wyatt McIntyre
Stephanie Parker McKean
Brianna Lee McKenzie
Scott McPherson
Jean Mead
Jean Henry Mead
K. Meador
David Menon
Ruby Merritt
Emma Michaels
Maria Michaels
Maureen A. Miller
Julia Mills
Mark Mills
Nikki Minty
Felicia Mires
Deborah R Mitton
Rose Montague
Jim Moore
Juliet Moore
Marsha A. Moore
Patrick H. Moore
Jan Moran
Kelly Moran
Faith Mortimer
PJ Morvant-Alexander
Janet Muirhead Hill
Cerece Rennie Murphy
DJ Murphy
Roy Murry
Linda Nance
Jake Needham
Willie Nelson
Johnny T. Noctor
Christina North
Lydia North
J.M. Northup
Vonda Norwood
Brien O'Raighne
Katie Oliver
Mardi Orlando
Elaine Orr
Jude Ouvrard
James Paddock
Jennifer Paddock
Mary Paddock
Mary O Paddock
Terri Paddock
Kate Papas
Robert B. Parker
James Patterson
Fanita Moon Pendleton
Sharon Cupp Pennington
Mike Penny
Brenda Perlin
David P Perlmutter
Christopher David Petersen
Penny Clover Petersen
C. J. Peterson
Anne Pfeffer
Roanna M. Phillips
Carol Marrs Phipps
Jodi Picoult
Dominic Piper
Caleb Pirtle III
Michele Poague
Wendy Potocki
Julie Elizabeth Powell
Ann Pratley
Ann M. Pratley
Douglas Preston
Karen Prince
Jill Pritchett
David T Proctor
Lord David Prosser
Robert Pruneda
Regina Puckett
John Rose Putnam
Nicci Rae
J.R. Rain
Charlotte Raine
Rebecca Raisin
Melodie Ramone
Lindsay Randall
Andy Rane
Mimi Ray
Jan Raymond
Lucille Redmond
Paul Rega
Tony Riches
D.J. Ridgway
Micheal Rivers
J.D. Robb
Julia Robb
Stacey Roberts
Sarah Robinson
Tracey Rogers
Cricket Rohman
James Rollins
Jan Romes
Luke Romyn
Chris Rose
Georgia Rose
M.J. Rose
Susan Rose
James Ross
Joann Ross
Melinda De Ross
Luca Rossi
Alynia Rule
Wally Runnels
Nick Russell
Jan Ruth
Carrie Ann Ryan
Francesca Salerno
Elyse Salpeter
Richard J. Schneider
Jinx Schwartz
D.J. Scott
Michael Allan Scott
Marc Secchia
Gigi Sedlmayer
Jill Shannon
Robert Shaw
Lauren Shelton
Jack Simmonds
Diane Sismour
Deanna Lynn Sletten
Richard Smiraldi
Donna Smith
Helen Smith
|Joseph Souza
Bev Spicer
Dana Stabenow
Staci Stallings
L.A. Starkey
Gary Starta
Michael J. Stedman
Carl Stevens
Laurie Stevens
Maggie Stiefvater
Elise Stokes
Aidan Stone
Ray Stone
Rik Stone
Robert Storey
Susan Stovall
Cheryl Strayed
William Stuart
Faith Sullivan
Ian Sutherland
Steven Suttie
Ann Swann
Cleve Sylcox
P S Syron-Jones
Gina Tang
Cheryl Kaye Tardif
Barb Taub
Laura Taylor
Jerome Teel
Steven M. Thomas
Eric B. Thomasma
Robert Thornhill
Eileen Thornton
Ralph Thornton
JJ Toner
D.G. Torrens
Linsay Townsend
Joan Treacy
Maureen Turner
Richard Turner
Pavarti K. Tyler
Terry Tyler
M. W. Tyrrell
Jessie B. Tyson
Tom Upton
Sylvia Valevicius
Deb Vanasse
Sedona Venez
Larisa Walk
J.H. Walker
Shiloh Walker
W. F. Walsh
Grace Walton
Randi D. Ward
Susan Ward
The Brothers Washburn
K J Waters
Linda Watkins
Ruth Watson-Morris
B. Swangin Webster
J.L. Weil
Charles E. Wells
Mike Wells
Thomas Whaley
Carol White
Edwina J White
Mark Whiteway
Claudia Whitsitt
Douglas Wickard
Caron Kamps Widden
George Wier
Julia Wild
Elizabeth Egerton Wilder
Eric Wilder
Jasinda Wilder
Alison Williams
Arleen Williams
Jackie Williams
Rusty Williamson
David Niall Wilson
Gracie Wilson
Jeffrey R. Winters
Tom Winton
C.L. Withers
R.T. Wolfe
Harlan Wolff
Donna R. Wood
Rubianne Wood
Gae-Lynn Woods
Stuart Woods
Cynthia Woolf
Medeas Wray
Hilary Wynne
Raani York
Emmy Yoshida
P.C. Zick
Wayne Zurl


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Falcons agree to terms with Umenyiora
Flowery Branch, GA – The Atlanta Falcons agreed to terms with defensive end Osi Umenyiora on a two-year contract on Wednesday.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but NFL.com reported that the deal is worth $8.5 million -- including $5 million guaranteed -- with a maximum value of $12.2 million.
Last season, the 31-year old Umenyiora played in all 16 games with four starts for the New York Giants and had 55 tackles, six sacks and one forced fumble.
Umenyiora, who lives in Atlanta, had spent his entire 10-year career with the Giants, who selected him in the second round in the 2003 NFL Draft. A two-time Super Bowl Champion and two-time Pro Bowl selection, Umenyiora has 430 tackles, 75 sacks and 31 forced fumbles over 129 career games.
"There was nothing better than to be able to win (in New York)," Umenyiora said in a radio interview last week. "The only thing I can think of that would be better than being able to win in New York would be to be able to win here in Atlanta. We'll see how that plays out. Hopefully, it works out in a positive direction."
The 6-foot-3 Troy product also set an NFL record with 10 forced fumbles in 2010 and a Giants' franchise record for sacks in a single game with six, set in 2007 against the Philadelphia Eagles.


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"I don't believe I would call it a recovery, but our graphic arts business appears to have stabilized over the past year," said Ron Levitt, regional sales leader at Shamrock Technologies. "Business toward the end of the year picked up, and we see this continuing in the first quarter of 2013."
"From a water-based ink perspective, wax additive losses for inks on packaging were not so significant that you could claim a significant recovery," said Alan Kalmikoff, president of Keim Additec Surface USA, LLC.
"We have seen improvements in some areas of our graphic arts business," said Patrick J. Heraty Jr., key account manager, coating additives - Tego, Evonik Goldschmidt Corporation. "Packaging and inkjet applications have increased. Publication continues to trend downward as expected."
"For Kustom Group, the overall graphic arts side of our business slipped a little in 2012, but the additives part of our business continued to show some growth," said David Aynessazian, vice president sales and marketing, Kustom Group. "At Kustom Group, we consider a product used at a level of less than 5% of a formulation to be an additive. Additives can help to push an ink to perform in a specific way that the printer requires without having to completely reformulate. No ink type is immune from a need for an additive regardless of chemistry (oil-based, aqueous or energy cure) or press configuration (flexo, offset, screen, gravure, spindle, pad or inkjet). The result is that additive use increased in 2012."
Growth Areas for Additives
There are a number of areas of interest for ink manufacturers, and additives suppliers are working to deliver products that will help their customers meet their needs.
Alex Radu of Shamrock Technologies' Product Marketing Center said that flexible packaging is one of the strongest areas of interest.
"The main growth area for the ink industry will be packaging, mostly flexible," Mr. Radu said. "It is an exploding segment, driven by the general consumer trend of food and drink pouches becoming smaller and smaller."
"Our strong customer focus provides Shamrock the ability to listen to our customers to develop innovative products to meet their needs," Craig Baudendistel, director of sales at Shamrock Technologies, added. "Delivering value added performance-based products are key to meeting our customer's expectations."
"Our company has been very active in the REACH initiative overseas and in complying with those requirements on this side of the pond as well, so that customers who have global interests or aspirations have little to fear when using materials from Keim-Additec Surface," Mr. Kalmikoff said.
Mr. Heraty noted that packaging and inkjet are two of the areas Evonik expects to continue their growth path.
"The need to differentiate a commodity item is pushing for more varied and eye-catching packages," Mr. Heraty observed. "Brilliant colors, metallic sheens and special effects all require unique solutions by the printing ink manufacturers. And of course, the more environmentally friendly these inks, the better. Inkjet technology offers the ability to efficiently customize anything, from a circular in the newspaper to a bread wrapper. The combination of speed and target marketing of a product is a great tool for the manufacturer."
"We see two trends in the market; first is toward more 'green' products which have lower VOCs, less odor and less objectionable chemicals in them, and secondly, a trend toward products with greater utility for multiple uses in different applications," Mr. Aynessazian said.
"The reemergence of 'green' has been driven by packaging print buying companies who are insisting that the packaging that they are using for their products contain only a specific list of chemicals on them and are lower in residual odor," Mr. Aynessazian noted. "To comply with these new restrictions, suppliers to ink makers have to develop new products which offer similar performance while following these new rules.
"Other ink raw material buyers are pushing to consolidate the number of products that they purchase and the number of suppliers that they deal with as a way of reducing inventory dollars," Mr. Aynessazian added. "This is forcing producers to look at their products in a new way. We all have to ask ourselves, 'besides the intended purpose of my product, what else might it be used to do.' This has caused many to slightly modify products so that other uses may be possible, which offers the added utility to the customer that they are looking for."
Raw Materials
Concern over pricing and supply of raw materials subsided somewhat during the last year, but regulatory issues are becoming more of an issue.
"The past year has seen some waxes become more available again versus the severe shortages of the previous few years; some of their costs continue to rise but there is more stability than has been seen in previous years," said Melanie McCarroll, director of operations/purchasing at Shamrock Technologies. "Shamrock's years of multiple sourcing of a wide range of wax raw materials balanced with its commitment to having materials in place for our customers' needs remains one of our top priorities."
"Generally, pricing and availability were better in 2012 versus 2011, but as additives are only a small portion of the ink and make a huge difference in performance, typically the price pressures on these materials are not as intense as for those materials that encompass the other 95+ percent of the formulation," Mr. Aynessazian said. "The bigger issue for the additives market lately has been increased regulation. Regulations like REACH, Swiss Ordinance and EUPIA have forced many raw materials out of the market as the cost of registering and testing some materials is simply too high for the small amount of sales they produce regardless of how unique they are. As a result, even in the additives business, it is necessary to find a way to do more with a smaller stable of chemical choices. To cope, Kustom Group has had to partner with our suppliers in an even greater way to jointly understand the market for a given material and find multiple uses to increase the volume used to help assure a continued supply."
Major Challenges
Being innovative while controlling costs is a major challenge throughout the additives market.
"A key challenge for Shamrock is to continue to develop new and creative products that will give customers new tools to use in their new innovations," Mr. Levitt said.
"Continuing to be innovative and differentiated while addressing customer requirements is the challenge we face everyday," Mr. Kalmikoff said. "Our company has been very innovative in both addressing the chemistry and the technology to do both."
"Cost-effective performance is of course a major challenge," Mr. Heraty added. "Printing ink manufacturers need to offer their customers cost-effective solutions. Evonik TEGO products are designed to work at low levels to provide the most 'bang-for-the-buck.' The cost of a raw material itself is immaterial; it is the formula cost of the ink that matters. Highly effective products that provide performance benefits add value to the printing ink and help our customers win the battle at their customers."
Mr. Heraty noted that regulatory issues are a challenge for additives manufacturers.
"The continued effects of regulation, and differences in regulations, will be a major challenge for the foreseeable future" Mr. Heraty said. "From FDA to REACH to Swiss List compliance, it can be difficult to supply a global customer with a global product. Evonik TEGO's regulatory groups assist our customers by providing the required information to insure that their product meets compliance requirements across the globe. This enables the printing manufacturer to develop global product platforms, minimizing their SKUs and increasing their manufacturing and logistic efficiencies."
Communicating with customers is essential, and Mr. Aynessazian said that Kustom Group is placing great emphasis in that area.
"A major challenge for additives manufacturers is communicating with our customers," Mr. Aynessazian said. "Today, with the ability of people within organizations to communicate with each other from around the world, decisions about formulating products can come from anywhere on the globe. It is important to be able to find ways to let those decision makers know that you have answers to solve their problems and to offer detailed instructions about how the products are used. Kustom Group has been employing a multi-layered strategy to making this possible around the world. Kustom has dramatically upgraded our website, has completely overhauled its product catalogs and has opened up communication channels with our customers via Skype and conference calls."Expectations for the Coming Year
All things considered, additives manufacturers are anticipating growth during 2015
"We anticipate that 2013 will be a slow and steady growth year for packaging, and that ink and their raw materials will follow suit," Mr. Kalmikoff said.
"We hope to see continued, broader improvement in the NAFTA market," Mr. Heraty said. "With business being so global now, much of this is dependent on the situation in Europe stabilizing. We remain cautiously optimistic."
Mr. Aynessazian said that Kustom Group expects 2013 to be a good year.
"We have projected a significant increase in sales as some of the new products that we recently introduced to the market start to go from the lab evaluation stage to adoption by our customers," Mr. Aynessazian said. "We offer many unique additive materials that are finding homes in more and more formulations."
Mr. Levitt said that Shamrock Technologies is very optimistic about 2013.
"The beginning of the year started off strong" Mr. Levitt said. "We have a number of new products in our pipeline, and we have placed a strategic focus on business growth through product and technology development in line with market and customer needs. Business in the beginning of 2013 has been encouraging, and we expect this trend to continue."
For more information on the additives market, including the latest news on raw materials as well as major challenges, see the online version at www.inkworldmagazine.com.


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Call us 7 days a week
A full text version of each limited warranty referenced herein may be obtained by mailing a self addressed, stamped envelope to Global Industrial 2505 Mill Center Parkway, Suite 100, Buford, GA 30518-3700 Attention: Customer Service-Warranty Information (include item number in the request). Except as specifically set forth herein Global makes no warranties, express or implied, and disclaims all other warranties, including without limitation implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and conformity to models or samples. Some states do not allow limitations on implied warranties so these limitations may not apply to you. The limited warranties set forth herein give you specific legal rights and you may have other rights that vary from state to state.


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Watto's Junk Yard / Re: Everything Rebelscum« on: May 19, 2012, 05:29 PM »
Okay, the JoeY discussion has been locked down and Phil Wise stickied this to the top of the page:
Pretty diplomatic compared to the Prop Replica post.
I've just been made aware of the issues with Joe Y's posting that caused him to be suspended for month. I've also seen the diatribe that followed.
Stop it now.
I'm getting ready to lock that thread down. Do not start any further discussion on this topic.
Here's what you need to know about why this happened:
Yes, I let this section self-moderate. And it's been very good for years.
However, self-moderation is not no moderation.
Self-moderation did not happen, and the thread got out of hand by a member who good and well knows better.
Pretty diplomatic compared to the Prop Replica post.


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bobbin necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 115 diseños de 41 diseñadores freelance.
Big Computing
Here at Big Computing we provide a boutique data centre solution to (mainly) local businesses. We are a new arm of an established company. We are based in Canberra (Australia's nations capital) . We provide co-location services, dedicated servers and virtual servers. As well as this we are teaming up with a US company to provide automated backup services for clients.
We aim to provide reasonably priced quality service to small as well as large customers and are willing to start small and grow with our customers.
Our personel have set up centres for mutinational clients and yet much prefer to work with the smaller businesses. We are a hands on company and you are just as likely to talk to the CEO when you contact us as you are to the receptionist.
We are a company that cares about the business of our clients and aim to provide a hassel free service so that they can get on with runing their own business not worrying about their servers.
But in all things we are professionals. We stand by what we do and the service we provide.
Our tag line is "Making cyberspace local" but this does not have to be included in the design.
Small to medium businesses, as well as the businesses who provide them with computer expertise.
Ideally businesses who have inhouse server solutions and need to move them to a more secure and properly environmentally controlled location.
We will be pitching to the business owner, or the middle management who do not speak tech and just want a solution that works, no bells and whistles.
We are also pitching to the computer technitions who consult to these small to medium businesses.
Company logo / name design that will be used on everything eg website, business cards, letterhead, uniforms (pocket logo), trade show posters etc.
Must look good in black and white as well as colour. Must look good small as well as big.
Strong colours - no pastels - think reliability and flexibility. Safe and secure yet dynamic.
Clean lines - not fussy or overly cluttered.
Nothing "cute".
Professional, slightly conservative but not "stuffy".
This may all seem a bit contradictory - but I have faith that you will rise to the challenge and come up with some fantastic designs.
Thankyou for accepting the challenge!
Designs must contain no copyright images or fonts. They must be provided in formats that can be easily scalled and converted into the most common computer programs. This will include .tif and .eps file formats
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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37 Boston Marathon runners to run Pittsburgh race
PITTSBURGH (AP) — About three dozen participants in this weekend's Pittsburgh Marathon will be runners who weren't able to finish last month's Boston Marathon due to the bombings.
Marathon spokeswoman Kelsey Jackson said race sponsor Dick's Sporting Goods is paying transportation and lodging costs to help the 37 runners participate Sunday.
"A lot of them are raising money for charities in Boston," Jackson said. "They wanted to stick with their commitment and are coming to Pittsburgh to finish the race."
Most of the runners, who are from as far away as Alaska, are taking part in the full marathon although a few are running the half-marathon.
Jackson said some were within the final mile when the course was closed due to the bombings.
"To not be able to finish, we understand how disappointing that was," Dave Natale of Dick's Sporting Goods told KDKA-TV. "We felt it was really important for us to step up."
Organizers announced earlier that race directors for May marathons in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Cleveland were joining an effort to raise money to help families affected by the attack.
A moment of silence is planned at the start line before the race begins Sunday morning. About 26,000 runners are expected to take part in the marathon, half-marathon and relay race.


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gosh is to god as jizzles it to jesus. oh em jizzles is a term used to show some bodies surprise approval or dis-approval to something.
"hey guess what, arctic monkeys is doing a show here in milwaukee and i got free tickets YO" "oh em jizzles really...i love you scott lets makeout."
by indimatch November 30, 2009
buy the domain for your recipe vlog


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Margarita N. Florence
Margarita N. (nee Garcia) Florence, 58, of Mukwonago, was born to eternal life Sunday, July 8, 2007, after a courageous, nine-year battle with a spinal cord injury and multiple myeloma.
She touched many lives through her work, cooking, coaching and mentoring. Mom always put others first and wanted everyone to be happy. She was a caretaker, a peacemaker and the bridge across languages, cultures and family.
She is lovingly survived by her husband of 38 years, Gene. She is also the loving, dedicated and most cherished mom of Helen Renee (Bryan) Behl, Chelsee Rebecca Florence and Amanda Regina (Joel) Goodenough; beloved nana of Brooklyn; devoted and loving daughter of Cirila and the late Joseph Garcia; and dear sister of Joseph (Rita), Juanita (Eddie) and Mary Garcia, Josephina Lamphear, Roman (Michelle) and Senaida Rivera. Margaret was loved and will be remembered by other relatives and many dear friends.
Visitation will be held from noon until the 2 p.m. memorial service Sunday, July 15, at Church and Chapel Funeral Home, 380 Bluemound Road, Waukesha. Burial will be private.
The family sends special thanks to the entire staff of Purity Dialysis Center of Mukwonago and to all the dedicated physicians that have cared for Margaret over the years, especially her good friend Dr. Waring.
Church and Chapel Funeral Home is serving the family. For more information, call 549-0659 or visit www.churchandchapel.com to view the online obituary, leave condolences or receive directions.
"Our mom loved life!"


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Playing time: 54' 33"
Antoni Rossell (symphonia); musical reconstruction by Antoni Rossell.
Recording site and date:
Romane church of Sotosalbos (Segovia) [1995/1996], rel. 1996.
Reviewed in:
Diapason (#-p.):
Gramophone (Vol./#-p.):
Fanfare (Vol./#-p.):
Goldberg (#-p.):
Information from owned CD. This is volume 2 of a currently under production set of 8 CDs that will cover all the epic poem. Antoni Rossell is a well known musicologist and philologist teaching at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is a specialist of Troubadours.
To purchasing information for this disc.
To FAQ references to this recording.
To FAQ CD index page.Pierre-F. Roberge


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Armin plays his amazing show and you can download A State of Trance episode 532 (asot 532) with Armin Van Buuren here
Artist: Armin van Buuren
Title Of Album: A State of Trance 532
Date Of Release: 27-10-2011
Label: DI.fm (RadioShow)
Genre: Trance
Quality: MP3 / Joint Stereo
Bitrate: 192 kbit/s / 44.1 Khz
Total Size: 220.22 MB
Official WebSite: www.arminvanbuuren.com
Buy Armin Albums: Legal High Quality Mp3 Albums
Get ready to nice mix from Armin today!! When radio show start and links for live streams at Di.FM view at page "About"!
Today in ASOT 532 new tracks by Maor Levi, Arnej, Beat Service, Snatt & Vix, FABIO XB, James Dymond plus 2 features! Cosmic Gate about their album "Wake Your Mind" and John O'Challaghan on his new mix CD "Subculture 2011″! And information about locations and date of #ASOT550!! If you want to know just tune in with us! Enjoy!
01. The Blizzard & Yuri Kane feat. Relyk – Everything About You
02. Cosmic Gate with Emma Hewitt – Calm Down – from their album "Wake Your Mind"
03. Cosmic Gate with Arnej – Sometimes They Come Back For More [Tune Of The Week] – from their album "Wake Your Mind"
04. Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren with Rank 1 – Witness
05. Maor Levi & Bluestone – On Our Own
06. Beat Service feat. Neev Kennedy – But I Did
07. Paul van Dyk feat. Sue McLaren – We Come Together (Arty Remix) [Future Favorite]
08. BeeGee – Ivy (Mark Sixma Remix)
09. Armin van Buuren feat. Susana – Desiderium 207 & Mirage (Leon Bolier Remix)
10. Snatt & Vix – Loco Motion
11. Ralphie B – Delphi
12. Solis and Sean Truby – Timeless (Protoculture Remix)
13. Jamie Walker – Mind Games – from John O Callaghan's "Subculture 2011″
14. Mark Leanings – Guiding Light – from John O Callaghan's "Subculture 2011″
15. Fabio XB pres. Trance Gate – Luminary (RAM's NRG Remix)
16. Abstract Vision & Elite Electronic – Never Forget
17. Gary Maguire – Face Yesterday
18. Fady & Mina – Overdrive
19. James Dymond – Gundam
20. Magnus – Velvet
21. Armin van Buuren – Blue Fear (Orjan Nilsen 2012 Remix) – from the album "Mirage Deluxe"
22. Driftwood – Freeloader [ASOT Radio Classic] – from "ASOT Classics vol. 6"
Links for download "A State of Trance 532″:
Wupload.com: download – good quality!!
Uploaded.to: download
Filesonic.com: download
FileServe.com: download
Rapidshare.com: …
Cue sheets for asot 532: download <– right mouse button and click "save as"
Tags: a state of trance 532, Armin, ASOT, asot 532, asot 532 cue, asot 532 Cue sheets, asot 532 tracklist, ASOT 550, asot 550 dates location, asot download, Cue sheets for asot 532, di fm, free download, LIVE, megaupload, mix, mp3, mp3 download, music, radio shows, rapidshare, sets, tracklist, trance, trance download, Trance Music, Trance Musica state of trance 532


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Searching for nearby schools...
School rankings provided by The Fraser Institute. Rankings are from 1 to 10.
Introducing Canary District. Anchored at Front and Cherry Streets, Canary District will evolve into Toronto's largest urban village with thousands of new condominiums, the 180-acre Don river Park, retail, dining, sports, art and culture.
Trademarks owned or controlled by The Canadian Real Estate Association. Used under license.
The information provided herein must only be used by consumers that have a bona fide interest in the purchase, sale or lease of real estate and may not be used for any commercial purpose or any other purpose.
Information is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed accurate by TREB.
Toronto Real Estate Board - IDX Last Updated: 11/15/2018 1:14:59 PM


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A new round of Chapter Grants dishes out more cash
Congratulations to the three chapters who were awarded Chapter Grants this month! Each chapter was awarded up to $500 to put on their unique, amazing and brilliant journo program. Once they've finished, we'll post a recap here so you can steal some great ideas.
Grants were awarded to the following chapters:
2. Oklahoma Pro
Congrats again! Now go do great stuff!


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Massachusetts Credit Union League Hosts Visit From Bahamas Cooperative League
April 24, 2006
Less than one year after officially signing the WOCCU International Partnership agreement, the Massachusetts Credit Union League and the Bahamas Cooperative League have successfully shared branding, awareness and marketing materials in an effort to raise the credit union profile in the Bahamas. Representatives from both Leagues have worked diligently to ensure the success of the partnership. Most recently, the Massachusetts Credit Union League hosted Francis Davis and Bruce Delancey, representatives of the Bahamas Cooperative League.
During their visit, Davis and Delancey were able to visit several credit unions and gain valuable insight into credit union operations in Massachusetts. They will be able to further promote the goals of the partnership program by sharing this insight with credit unions in the Bahamas.
On their first day in Massachusetts, they met with Credit Union Marketers during a Credit Union Brand Seminar Luncheon at the Massachusetts League Headquarters. After the Seminar, Davis and Delancey met with EverythingCU.com's Morris Partee to discuss particular branding challenges and opportunites encountered by credit unions in the Bahamas.
The second day of the visit included a tour of the Boston Firefighters Credit Union and a meeting with CEO Bernie Winne to discuss marketing, branding and other strategic credit union issues. Davis and Delancey also visited the Harvard University Employees Credit Union and met with CEO Gene Foley over lunch at the Harvard Faculty Club.
In addition to being extremely informative for both parties, the visit proved to be an excellent opportunity to cement their relationship, ensuring the continuation of a mutually beneficial relationship into the future.
World Council of Credit Unions is the global trade association and development platform for credit unions. World Council promotes the sustainable development of credit unions and other financial cooperatives around the world to empower people through access to high quality and affordable financial services. World Council advocates on behalf of the global credit union system before international organizations and works with national governments to improve legislation and regulation. Its technical assistance programs introduce new tools and technologies to strengthen credit unions' financial performance and increase their outreach.
World Council has implemented 300+ technical assistance programs in 89 countries. Worldwide, 89,026 credit unions in 117 countries serve 260 million people. Learn more about World Council's impact around the world at www.woccu.org.


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Two years have gone by. I can't believe it. How did that happen so fast? My cell phone contract ran out and now I have to get a new phone.
That's not quite true. I don't really have to get a new phone, but if I don't get a new one, the phone I have will probably stop working. I think it was obsolete before I bought it. That's what happened the last time my contract ran out, and I hadn't even figured out how to use the one I had, at least not all of it.
Who am I kidding? I hardly knew how to use any of it. I could barely make a phone call. I figured out how to store numbers, but I could never get to the number I wanted and I forgot who the numbers on the speed dial represented, so I just dialed every call I had to make. I know . . . it's ridiculous. I have phoneaphoblyitus or some such disease, and it's makin' me crazy.
After I got over the anxiety attack, I jumped on my trusty computer and Googled "the best cell phone" and literally 62,000,000 sites came up. This is nuts, I thought. Which of these websites am I supposed to believe? So I went to my cell phone company website and clicked on "shopping - phones." That was a mistake.
Page after page of cell phones came up with explanations of their capabilities. I was shocked. They offered NASCAR Cup Mobile, GPS, Web, email capable, built in camera, video, bluetooth, WiFi, group connect, with TV and interactive videos, voice activation, touch screens, and broadband speeds, just to mention a few of the features.
However, I found a couple of important things missing. Not one
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . phone offered to make excellent phone calls, and not one said that it was easy to use. Maybe something is wrong with me, but I would think those features would be important to the average customer. Apparently, I am wrong.
Everybody on the planet except me knows what all of the aforementioned esoteric terms mean. And when I asked my friends to explain it to me, they just looked at me as if I had three heads. The world is filled with insufferable phone snots.
I suspect that nobody else actually knows what any of this stuff means either, but they don't want to admit it, so they just look at me and shake their heads. At least I'm brave enough to ask.
The only people who know how these phones really work are the little geeks at the phone stores. You know the ones I'm talking about. They have a minimum of 100 body piercings, most of which are on their heads, tattoos on every appendage, and spiked hair in colors that would make the NBC peacock look as if his plumage needed a paint job.
There is no way I am going to go to one of those stores to be humiliated, which brought me back to the 62,000,000 websites purporting to know the best cell phones. I had no choice. I was desperate.
After perusing 45 pages of websites all promising to tell me to buy their product, I went back to the first page and found this really helpful site that said, "Let us help you find the right phone for you." I passed over it the first time because it just seemed too good to be true in this virtual world of predator sites, each threatening to devour any unsuspecting consumer who appeared to not have the foggiest idea about what he/she was doing. That fairly accurately described me.
The site began with a comforting message that said: "Choosing the best cell phone or smartphone is a complex process, because there are so many different factors to consider. But you don't have to do it by yourself. Simply answer the following questions about features that are important to you." At last, I was saved. I was going to find a phone suitable for the technically challenged.
The questions were reasonable. Do you want GPS? Then it gave an explanation about how global positioning satellites work. In simple terms I found out how this feature would allow me to listen to voice activated directions so I could zip through traffic changing four lanes at a time, and if I avoided causing a major traffic accident of catastrophic proportion, or manage to keep from getting killed, I would arrive at my destination. Sounded good to me. So I clicked, "yes."
Then I proceeded to answer an additional 20 questions or so that described the features I didn't understand, and I liked all of them, so I just answered every question with "yes." At the end, a dialogue box opened that said: "We have found your phone. You will have to change phone companies, get a top secret clearance, and apply for a job with NASA if you want to use it. A mortgage is involved if you have excellent credit."
That is not what I wanted to hear. I still do not have a phone. I'm just going to use the phone I have until it quits working. Cell phones are a big reason why we live in a system we can't understand.


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- Prices
- Medicare
- Savings Tips1
- Drug Info
- Side Effects
- Images
- Latest News1
Helixate FS Side Effects
What should I watch for?
Some products are derived from human plasma, and there is a small risk that these products may contain certain types of virus or bacteria. All products are processed to kill most viruses and bacteria. If you have questions concerning the risk of viral infections, discuss them with your doctor or health care professional.
If you are a hemophilia patient, carry an identification card with you at all times. The card should have your name, the name and dose of your medication(s), the name and phone number of your doctor or health care professional, and a contact person in case of emergency.
Common and Rare Side Effects
Along with its needed effects, a medicine may cause some unwanted effects. Although not all of these side effects may occur, if they do occur they may need medical attention.
Check with your doctor immediately if any of the following side effects occur:
More common
Less common or rare
Changes in facial skin color
fast or irregular breathing
puffiness or swelling of the eyelids or around the eyes
sensation of burning, warmth, heat, numbness, tightness, or tingling
tightness in the chest
troubled breathing
unusual tiredness or weakness
Incidence not known
Bluish color of the fingernails, lips, skin, palms, or nail beds
blurred vision
chest pain or discomfort
deep or fast breathing with dizziness
difficult or labored breathing
difficulty with swallowing
dizziness, faintness, or lightheadedness when getting up suddenly from a lying or sitting position
fast, pounding, or irregular heartbeat or pulse
noisy breathing
numbness of the feet, hands, and around the mouth
puffiness or swelling of the eyelids or around the eyes, face, lips, or tongue
slow or irregular heartbeat
swelling of the face, throat, or tongue
unusual tiredness or weakness
Some side effects may occur that usually do not need medical attention. These side effects may go away during treatment as your body adjusts to the medicine. Also, your health care professional may be able to tell you about ways to prevent or reduce some of these side effects. Check with your health care professional if any of the following side effects continue or are bothersome or if you have any questions about them:
More common
Less common
Burning, stinging, or swelling at the injection site
dizziness or lightheadedness
dry mouth or bad taste in the mouth
lack or loss of strength
redness of the face
Change in taste
loss of taste
Other side effects not listed may also occur in some patients. If you notice any other effects, check with your healthcare professional.
Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.


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Value Line is regarded as the best independent research available. More than just recommendations, Value Line provides the rationale behind its picks for greater understanding.
PPG Industries (PPG) is a widely recognized performance and industrial coatings company. Founded in 1883 as a plate glass company titled Pittsburgh Plate Glass, it eventually changed its name to PPG in the late 1960s, as its plate production techniques had essentially grown obsolete. Indeed, it still carries that moniker today, although now the glass segment only accounts for about 7% of revenue.
In 1900, PPG acquired Patton Paint Company, enticed by the fact that both paint and glass products reach customers through many of the same distribution channels. The company established its global footprint early on, when it acquired a Belgian glass plant early in the century, making it one of the first U.S. companies to enter the European market. Throughout the decades, PPG has had an instrumental role in introducing many surface coating technologies still commonly in use. This is embodied by its clever slogan, "Bringing innovation to the surface." Many of us will come into direct contact with a PPG affected surface every single day of our lives, often without giving it much thought.
PPG is still headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, however, its reach is particularly diverse globally, operating in nearly 70 countries around the world. Aside from glass, PPG reports revenues from Optical & Specialty materials, and three separate coatings segments: Performance, Industrial, and Architectural EMEA. Recently, it has been expanding through M&A. Previously second in market share only to Akzo Nobel, it procured that company's North American business operations last year, while simultaneously inheriting the distinction of calling itself the largest coatings company in the world.
The global recovery has been rewarding for PPG. The stock, which held up better than the average equity during the latest recession, is up over 500% from its 2009 low. Lately, earnings and share price gains have accelerated. Present industry trends indicate global demand is continuing to improve, or at worst remain consistent in every major geography. The depressed European markets may have finally bottomed out, where nine consecutive slumping quarters were finally halted by flat sales in the most recent interim. Organic growth looks healthiest and most attractive for end markets in the U.S., which augurs well because, domestic revenues still account for 43% of its total, despite its scale. Of course, with its vast geographic mix, PPG is in a strong position to benefit from global economic growth, too.
The divestiture of its commodity chemicals business early in 2013 denoted a milestone in the secular shift of its portfolio. The value-added proprietary chemicals it chiefly promotes can provide distinct, marketable advantages for its customers. Year-over-year revenue was lower in 2013, but that is mostly owing to the business separation. Also, at this point in time, PPG has already "replaced" the earnings absent as a result of the sale. Later this year, PPG will sell Transitions Optical, pending customary closing conditions.
Typical annual research and development expense run around 3% of sales. Much of this spending supports new coatings and materials innovation, and this in turn, leads to increased product adoption and incremental share gains in extended end markets. As one example, while the company's coatings are used on the exterior of many consumer food and beverage containers, it as of yet has virtually no stake in coatings used on the interior of containers. Producers will be encouraged to implement non-BPA coatings for food-touching interiors due to increasing consumer and FDA concerns, and potential legislation somewhere down the road. As this happens, PPG has an opportunity to capture new avenues. Any win, whether it be soda, beer, or soup, would potentially add another long-lasting revenue stream.
Acquisitions remain a favored method of capital deployment. Lately, share repurchases have also consumed large sums of cash, $1 billion in 2013. As no significant amount of debt is due presently, we doubt PPG will adjust its leverage for the time being. Also, with ample cash on the balance sheet, another acquisition would likely not require taking on more debt. Since its acquisition philosophy is heavily valuation based, don't expect the company to reach too far for an opportunity if it isn't available at the right price. Management practices financial conservatism and is willing to lose a bid if value is not apparent. Because of this, if no M&A fits its criteria, management expects to intensify its share buybacks.
PPG has a long-standing tradition of increasing annual dividends, though as of this writing the payout is not noteworthy. In fact, because of the shares' two-year long rally, the yield is currently much lower than the company's historical distributions.
All told, PPG is a solid long-term investment for more conservative accounts. A rising dividend payment is enough to put this on the radar for some investors. Decent growth prospects may interest others. Most importantly, perhaps, is the safety inherent in the issue via geographic and end-market diversity. The company is less tied to economic cycles, and there is an ongoing need for the coatings it produces. For more information on PPG's prospects, investors are encouraged to check out our full report in The Value Line Investment Survey.
At the time of this article's writing, the author did not have positions in any of the companies mentioned.


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ST. LOUIS (AP) -- After months of
drought, companies that ship grain and other goods down the Mississippi
River are being haunted by a potential nightmare: If water levels
fall too low, the nation's main inland waterway could become impassable to
barges just as the harvest heads to market.
Any closure of the river would upend the transport system that has
carried American grain since before steamboats and Mark Twain. So shipping
companies are scrambling to find alternative ways to move crops to the Gulf Coast.
The focus of greatest concern is a 180-mile stretch of the river between
St. Louis and Cairo, Ill.
That's where lack of rain has squeezed the channel from its normal width of
1,000 feet or more to a just a few hundred feet. And it's shallow.


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The GO32 header/beacon now shows uplink frequencies for the new modes. Thanks to ground control for this update and reminder for those of use using multiple modes on. WinPack Users: See the SCRIPT folder under \WINPACK or wherever you installed the program for a script TM-D700.TXT For GO-32, this file requires some editing; specifically "SEND UNPROTO change this from the variable $BBS to APRS VIA 4XTECH etc ", "SEND HB 9600", "SEND MYCALL change it from the variable $MYCALL to your hardcoded call" , and at the end you could optionally add "SEND CONV" You can also add 2 lines to the top of the script "HOTKEY F?" where ? is an unused F-Key in your WinPack scripts and a second line similar to "TITLE GO-32 APRS" so that you can initialize your TNC with a single F-Key. Perhaps someone using the D7 could post their working script for WinPack. ... from an olde packet user from the '80's who as found a new use for the olde MFJ1270C with the 9600 daughter board. Just dusted it off and it works great with the FT-847 and WISP32 too. See y'all on GO-32 ... Enjoy and 73, Alan VE4YZ AMSAT 35968 http://www.mts.net/~ve4wsc/ AMSAT A-485 _______________________________________________ Sent via email@example.com. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
AMSAT Home


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Symbolizing An Historic Public-Private Partnership, UTD Will Join Texas Instruments In Unprecedented Simultaneous Groundbreakings
UTD To Begin Construction of $85-Million, State-of-the-Art Natural Science and Engineering Research Building
RICHARDSON, Texas (Nov. 3, 2004) – As a symbol of the innovative, public-private partnership that produced the largest economic-development agreement announced in the United States last year, The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) this month will join with Texas Instruments (TI) in unprecedented simultaneous groundbreaking ceremonies for the construction of two facilities expected to provide a boon to Texas' high-tech economy for decades to come.
On the morning of Nov. 18, TI will break ground for its new $3-billion chip fabrication plant in Richardson near the UTD campus. The huge facility will build the world's most advanced semiconductors on 300-millimeter (12-inch diameter) silicon wafers. At exactly the same time, UTD will break ground for its $85-million Natural Science and Engineering Research Building, a facility that is expected to add momentum to UTD's drive to become one of the nation's "Tier One" academic research institutions.
TI and the university will hold a celebration breakfast and joint ceremonies on the UTD campus.
The location of the two state-of-the-art facilities in North Texas was made possible by a much-publicized, extremely complex, economic-development agreement code-named "Project Emmitt." Under the agreement, which was announced on June 30, 2003, by TI, the State of Texas and the University of Texas System at a heavily attended news conference at UTD, TI agreed to build the chip fabrication plant in Richardson – despite some strong inducements from locations in other parts of the world -- if the state and local private sector would ensure that UTD received an infusion of up to $300 million to expand and improve its Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.
Jonsson School Dean Bob Helms, who was one of the key behind-the-scenes players in making Project Emmitt a reality and who will serve as master of ceremonies of the event, said that many of the same officials who were present for the Emmitt announcement 15 ½ months ago also were expected to attend the Nov. 18 ceremonies and deliver remarks. They include Gov. Rick Perry, UT System Chancellor Mark Yudof, UTD President Dr. Franklyn Jenifer, TI Chairman of the Board Tom Engibous and Richardson Mayor Gary Slagle. Other dignitaries, including James Huffines, chairman of the UT System Board of Regents, Plano Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Doug Otto and Collin County Community College President Dr. Cary Israel also are expected to attend.
UTD's new four-story, 192,000-square-foot Natural Science and Engineering Research Building will be located on the southeast corner of Synergy Parkway and Rutford Avenue on the northern end of campus. The facility, which is expected to be completed by the summer of 2006 and fully occupied by the end of that year, will be the second largest building at the university (after UTD's School of Management building, which opened last year). It will contain laboratories, a clean room, space for a business "incubator" and other areas dedicated to research.
Under Project Emmitt, $50 million of the $300 million UTD expects to receive is coming from the Texas Enterprise Fund, which was established to provide economic-development monies to induce companies to do business in the Lone Star State and to locate facilities here. The grant to UTD is the largest made to date from the Enterprise Fund, which was heavily pushed by Gov. Perry. (Project Emmitt was named after former Dallas Cowboys star running back Emmitt Smith, who, when the TI agreement was being considered, had just departed for another football team, the Arizona Cardinals. The implied exhortation was that Texas should not allow TI's new $3-billion manufacturing plant similarly to go elsewhere or to be built anywhere but in North Texas).
TI has been a strong supporter of U. T. Dallas since the university's inception 35 years ago and, in fact, three of the company's founders also founded the research institute that in 1969 became The University of Texas at Dallas. The three, all now deceased, were former Dallas Mayor Erik Jonsson, for whom the engineering and computer science school is named, Cecil Green and Eugene McDermott. Green and McDermott also have buildings at UTD named after them.
"Because of all the attention Project Emmitt has received and the importance of North Texas' developing a Tier One research university to supplement the internationally renowned University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, I think the Nov. 18 event will be as much of a celebration as a groundbreaking ceremony," said UTD President Jenifer, who will be retiring soon. "Certainly, it will be for me."
Jenifer said the new research building would be one of UTD's "crown jewels," and he emphasized that it would not have been possible without the "dedication, hard work and vision of literally hundreds of people, including, of course, Gov. Perry and Tom Engibous.
"We want to make sure that everyone involved – particularly the City of Richardson, Collin County, the Plano Independent School District and the Collin County Community College District, all of which made important concessions as well as contributions – knows how much we appreciate the role that they played." Jenifer said.
"This is going to be a day to remember – a day to reminisce about – when U. T. Dallas enters the ranks of Tier One research universities. And I think that day is going to arrive sooner than many people expect."
When construction is completed, UTD expects to fill the Natural Science and Engineering Research Building with high-level faculty and researchers, including some currently at UTD and others recruited to the university as a result of Project Emmitt. Dean Helms has pledged that the research building will be among the "best facilities of its kind anywhere in the country, on a par with similar research facilities at some of the nation's top universities, including the University of California, San Diego, and Cornell." According to Helms, the new building eventually will house as many as 350 faculty, graduate students and post-doctoral researchers from the fields of electrical engineering, material science, chemistry, biology and behavioral and brain sciences, as well as provide space for small, start-up businesses, or incubators, that often spring from university research efforts.
The principal architect for the building is PageSutherlandPage of Dallas. The construction management contractor is Centex Corporation of Dallas.
The Natural Science and Engineering Research Building is just one of three facilities U. T. Dallas is adding to significantly boost its research capacity. The university also has purchased and is renovating two existing buildings located off campus, one near UT Southwestern Medical Center to house UTD's Center for BrainHealth, the other just a few hundred feet west of UTD's Richardson campus to house offices and research laboratories of some faculty and staff from the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Together, the three buildings will add more than 300,000 square feet of research space to UTD in the next two years. At present, UTD's research expenditures amount to about $33 million a year. Tier One institutions usually do at least $100 million in research annually.
In May, in a report prepared for The University of Texas System, the nationally prominent consultancy Washington Advisory Group stated that U. T. Dallas had the potential to achieve Tier One status, but concluded it would take at least a decade for the university to reach that level and that significant additional resources would be needed.
Jenifer and Helms both say that although it will be difficult, UTD can surpass the $100-million benchmark sooner than that.
News Contact: Jon Senderling, UTD, (972) 883-2565, [email protected]
- Updated: February 10, 2014


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I am just about to pick up a my new(lightly used) 2013 16m Crossbow and wondering if anyone has had success self launching this type of kite with a beach anchor/ sand bag method.
I have 3 Cabrhina Vectors and an Ocean Rodeo Flite and they all work excellent with this method. The Crossbow being a high aspect kite is much longer thinner profile and looks like it may not sit on the edge as steady as my other kites. Any feedback would be appreciated.


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USFS - Mendocino/Six Rivers NF - Patrol District
Every single Law Enforcement grant should have a commitment and focus to catch the "Willfully Ignorant" visitor. We see every day folks doing what ever they want and they feel immune because it is their feeling "there is no one around to catch me" That has to change. Yes, we have Green Sticker Violations, sound violations, and other normal day to day violations that by now should be all in compliance. It is the "Willfully Ignorant " that does not abide by the rules of the areas they ride in, i.e. "Stay on Designated Trails " "Respect Private Property" "Know the rules of area you are riding in " be it Forest Service, BLM, City and County. All of us can put pressure on the "Willfully Ignorant" but it is Law Enforcement that needs to focus their talent to those that want to ruin it for everyone. We can not let them rule our destiny or how we are being portrait in the eyes of the public and government elected officials.
The other area of grave concern is our children, we need to make sure that all children 16 and under on Quads have the proper certification. We need to make sure that they are properly dressed to ride, no tank tops, tennis shoes and short pants. Parents need to be told of their responsibility in the strongest possible manner, ticket.
Thank you all for working this very difficult issue. [Ed Waldheim "OHV activist for access to public lands for all" - 3/28/10]
We are opposed to providing OHV money to the USFS to close the trails!
We have paid to have the trails put in to their inventory. Now they ask for OHV money to have them closed! As we have seen in the "Route Designation" process the USFS is not a good investment for OHV funds.
Give the grants to groups that actually enhance OHV opportunity, like the BLM. [Brendan Hathaway - 3/17/10]
Please do not give any state money to a federal agency to close our public land to us. I whole heartedly reject what the federal government is doing to our lands. They are tying to kill local economies and discourage people from living free. It appears as if they all want us to sit and a desk and enjoy the forest on a screensaver. [Casey Crandall - 3/11/10]


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Stanford University
https://wasc.stanford.edu/files/FoundingGrant.pdf From the Stanford University Founding Grant November 11 1885: ...the Nature Object and Purposes of the Institution Hereby Founded to Be: Its nature that of a university with such seminaries of learning as shall make it of the highest grade including mechanical institutes museums galleries of art laboratories and conservatories together with all things necessary for the study of agriculture in all its branches and for mechanical training and the studies and exercises directed to the cultivation and enlargement of the mind: Its object to qualify its students for personal success and direct usefulness in life; And its purposes to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence in behalf of humanity and civilization teaching the blessings of liberty regulated by law and inculcating love and reverence for the great principles of government as derived from the inalienable rights of man to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
School Information355 Galvez Street
Stanford, California 94305
Locale: Suburb: Large
Open Admissions: Yes
Sector: Private not-for-profit, 4-year or above
Carnegie Basic: Research Universities (very high research activity)
Religious Affiliation: Not applicable
Accrediting Agency: Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities
Students & Faculty
Total Tuition $57,755.00
SAT Scores:
25th-75th percentile
ACT Scores:
25th-75th percentile30-34
Note: 25th-75th percentile ranges show the range of scores achieved by the middle 50% of students who were admitted to the school.
Other Requirements:
Degrees & Programs
|Advanced Legal Research/Studies, General
|Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical/Space Engineering
|African Studies
|African-American/Black Studies
|American Indian/Native American Studies
|American/United States Studies/Civilization
|Applied Mathematics, Other
|Area Studies, Other
|Art History, Criticism and Conservation
|Art/Art Studies, General
|Asian-American Studies
|Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Other
|Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering
|Biological and Physical Sciences
|Biology Teacher Education
|Biology/Biological Sciences, General
|Biomedical Sciences, General
|Business Administration and Management, General
|Business Administration, Management and Operations, Other
|Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, Other
|Cell Physiology
|Chemical Engineering
|Chemistry Teacher Education
|Chemistry, General
|Chinese Language and Literature
|Cinematography and Film/Video Production
|Civil Engineering, General
|Classics and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General
|Cognitive Science
|Communication and Media Studies, Other
|Comparative Literature
|Computational and Applied Mathematics
|Computer Science
|Developmental Biology and Embryology
|Drama and Dramatics/Theatre Arts, General
|Earth Science Teacher Education
|East Asian Studies
|Economics, General
|Education, General
|Electrical and Electronics Engineering
|Elementary Education and Teaching
|Engineering, Other
|Engineering/Industrial Management
|English Language and Literature, General
|English Language and Literature/Letters, Other
|English/Language Arts Teacher Education
|Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering
|Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies, Other
|Film/Cinema/Video Studies
|Financial Mathematics
|Fine/Studio Arts, General
|Food Science and Technology, Other
|Foreign Language Teacher Education
|Foreign Languages and Literatures, General
|French Language and Literature
|French Language Teacher Education
|Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences, Other
|Geology/Earth Science, General
|Geophysics and Seismology
|German Language and Literature
|German Language Teacher Education
|Health and Medical Administrative Services, Other
|Hispanic-American, Puerto Rican, and Mexican-American/Chicano Studies
|History Teacher Education
|History, General
|Human Biology
|Human/Medical Genetics
|Humanities/Humanistic Studies
|Industrial and Product Design
|Industrial Engineering
|International Relations and Affairs
|Italian Language and Literature
|Japanese Language and Literature
|Latin American Studies
|Liberal Arts and Sciences/Liberal Studies
|Materials Engineering
|Mathematics Teacher Education
|Mathematics, General
|Mechanical Engineering
|Medical Informatics
|Microbiology and Immunology
|Molecular Pharmacology
|Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies, Other
|Music Theory and Composition
|Music, General
|Natural Resources Conservation and Research, Other
|Oncology and Cancer Biology
|Petroleum Engineering
|Philosophy and Religious Studies, Other
|Physics Teacher Education
|Physics, General
|Physics, Other
|Political Science and Government, General
|Psychology, General
|Public Policy Analysis, General
|Religion/Religious Studies
|Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General
|Russian Language and Literature
|Science, Technology and Society
|Social Science Teacher Education
|Spanish Language and Literature
|Spanish Language Teacher Education
|Statistics, General
|Structural Biology
|Systems Engineering
|Urban Studies/Affairs
|Women's Studies


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SSL Duende, with 32 channels of SSL mix power for your DAW, creates a big stir as it receives a superb review and features on the front cover of the latest issue of Sound On Sound.
Paul White writes in his conclusion:
"The audio quality of these plug-ins is first rate, and because they are based on the algorithms already used in SSL's own digital consoles, they're more than just emulations that don't quite hit the mark."
"You can spend all day twiddling the knobs on an indifferent EQ without getting the results you're after, but here it all seems effortless."
"If you like the SSL sound but are never likely to be in a position to own one of their consoles, you can now have all the sonic benefits from within your own Mac-based DAW at a very affordable price. I've only been playing with it for a few days and I'm already hooked."
To read the full review please pick up the August 2006 issue of Sound On Sound.
About Duende
Duende is a powerful DSP platform designed to serve up genuine, SSL console-grade audio processing within audio workstations. Based on the superior DSP algorithms from SSL C-Series digital consoles, Duende is not a modelled recreation of the SSL sound - it's the genuine article.
Duende offers complete integration into the most popular workstation environments with one simple FireWire cable connection. The processing blocks appear as VST/AU plug-ins (RTAS support via FXPansion wrapper) - including an authentic SSL channel strip with filters, E and G series EQ and dynamics processing, as well as the legendary SSL Stereo Bus Compressor.


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Three days of music and fun in the sun (and an evacuation) are in the books for Lollapalooza Music Festival 2012 in Chicago. The Tribune was all over Grant Park, bringing you live updates, reviews, photos and video. Here's our report.
More great photos Pictures
(Mike Rich/RedEye)
Shots from Jack White, Florence + the Machine, Childish Gambino and more from Sunday.
Greg Kot's Day 3 breakdown Sunday ...


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Why Alison Gold's 'Chinese Food' Caused a Stir
I must confess: When I first encountered Alison Gold's "Chinese Food," the latest sonic eruption from Patrice Wilson, the impresario behind Rebecca Black's notoriously terrible debut song and video "Friday," I was sure it was a conspiracy to engineer viral success by trolling Asians.
(I'm still convinced this is an actual thing, by the way; the strategic desire to cultivate rage-views certainly explains inane — and flat-out racist — garbage like Day Above Ground's despicable "AsianGirlz.")
But after speaking with Wilson himself this week, I've changed my mind. Yes, "Chinese Food" is brain-meltingly awful, and it's impossible to view it without tasting a little vomit in your mouth, especially if you're Chinese. Or if you eat food. But I don't believe he made it in order to intentionally offend Asians.
Wilson's former Ark Music Factory collaborator, Clarence Jey — himself Sri Lankan American — put me in touch with his ex-partner. The "Friday" experience and the free-fire litigation that followed its unexpected pop-culture explosion led Jey and Wilson to amicably part ways; Jey, who retains the song rights to "Friday," has focused on building his recording studio and production company Music Intersection, while Wilson has doggedly continued to seed the Petri dish of YouTube with new sources of viral contagion.
"The video has certainly caused a 'stir,'" laughs Jey. (I see what you did there, Clarence.) "But that was the intent. The concept made me laugh — I think it has entertainment value, whatever you say about the songwriting. It's all subjective when you look at it as entertainment. But is it intentionally offensive? I don't think so. Well, maybe the scene with the geishas, which is confusing. I can tell you that he practices what he preaches, though. When we Patrice and I would hang out, we used to 'chow' a lot of Chinese food." (Oops, you did it again.)
I reached Wilson as he was driving from another interview in Los Angeles, on his way back to his home in Orange County. Wilson is charming and disarmingly frank over the phone. He also has a hard-to-place accent: Though he was born in Nigeria and spent his childhood there, his way of talking sounds more meta-European — which Wilson explains is due to both his parentage and his peripatetic adulthood. "My mother is Irish," he says. "I went back and forth between London and Africa, and then after I graduated college, I moved to Slovakia to go to med school. While I was there, I met a guy" — Eastern European pop star Ibrahim Maiga — "who turned me on to music. I ended up being a backup singer for him, and I learned to speak fluent Slovak. I traveled through Budapest, Hungary, Poland. And then finally I ended up back here. So that explains my accent — it's because I speak a lot of mixed-up different languages."
Wilson originally moved to the U.S. to attend Whitworth University, a Christian college in Spokane, Washington. (His mother was a minister, who met his chemical engineer father while on an African mission.) But eventually, his love of music led him to quit college and move to Hollywood.
"I just realized that since I was in the U.S., I had the opportunity to make music here. This is the land of opportunity. But it didn't work out so well," he says. Wilson's talents, shaped by his background in Eastern European pop, didn't mesh with the more polished and cynical tastes of American audiences. It was then that he had his eureka moment: Instead of bringing his Eastern European-forged sensibilities to the U.S., he'd find and develop American pop idols to bring to Eastern Europe. "So that was my goal — everyone loves American music, and if I could bring some new American artists to Slovakia, I'm sure they would be big."
Wilson connected with Jey over the Internet and convinced him of the value of his vision. He recruited videographers, makeup artists and other creative talent via Craigslist. And then he put out a casting call for wannabe stars — wannabes who could afford to pay a small fee to offset Wilson's costs. "That was the model I created," he says. "I find the artist, they pay me — it was $2400 back then — and for that they get a song, a music video, our promotional package. And we would submit the artist for review to some independent record labels in Europe."
The YouTube thing was accidental. "We just put the videos on YouTube to show the parents," he says. "But then other people started watching them."
An artist named Kaya Rosenthal unexpectedly managed to accrue over 100,000 views. And that led Wilson and Jey to realize they'd stumbled onto a unique proposition. "Yes, you had a lot of people criticizing us, but that's okay — our artists realized, where else are you going to get 100,000 people listening to you?" he says. "All of a sudden we had four or five artists a month. It was a business! We were making some money! And then 'Friday' hit, and it wasn't just 100,000 views, it was 100 million, we were all astonished and confused."
The views were driven by negativity — at least at first. But they were coming, and coming faster than anyone could imagine. So were the opportunities, for both Rebecca Black and Ark. The business looked like it was poised to make some serious money.
"It was then I realized, I had no contracts with anybody!" says Wilson. "This is L.A., everyone is nice here, right? We did everything on handshakes. Before I even noticed, everyone around me had lawyered up. I got hit by lawsuits left and right. After it was all over, I had nothing — I only made about $40,000 from 'Friday' and that went to lawyer's fees."
Wilson left Ark to its new owners, whom he'd brought on board after Jey left, in an attempt to hold things together. "I had to start from scratch," he says. "All of the subscribers, the views — they were all on the Ark account. When I launched PMWLive, it was zero all over again."
PMWLive revived the original Ark model, but at a higher price point. "My artists, they pay around $5400 to $7000 per project," he says. "But it's still a great deal. They get everything for that. And they get a lot more exposure, because I do one song a year that is a viral song."
Think about that for a second. Yes, Wilson hit the viral jackpot with "Friday" back in 2011. But in 2012, he wrote a song called "It's Thanksgiving" for a young girl named Nicole Westbrook, with a video featuring Westbrook singing into a drumstick and dropping some white-girl rap, and Wilson making his typical cameo wearing a turkey costume. That song generated 14 million views, and landed Westbrook on "Access Hollywood," ABC News and MTV.com. Not quite "Friday," but still a confirmation that Wilson knew how to make lightning strike twice.
And now, with "Chinese Food" sitting at over 8.5 million views just four days after posting, he may well have made the case that he can do it at will — cranking out one viral song a year, every year. Yes, the firehose is largely due to hateclicks, but there are still 23,000 people who've clicked "like" on the video, and it is almost certain to show up on the venerable Billboard Hot 100 charts next week, which this February was adjusted to incorporate social media views in its ranking.
So what's Wilson's formula?
"I think a big part of it is that I come from a different background," he says. "Everyone follows the American pattern here, and I don't know how to do that. I'm from Africa, London, Slovakia, I have my own pattern. I have cheesy ideas! I mean, I don't think they're cheesy, but other people do. And that's okay, because if a song isn't controversial and you have no money to promote it, it most likely will not do well. I make music that people want to talk about. Sure, they hate it. But I'm used to the hate."
Wilson doesn't set out to make people hate him, but he welcomes it as the price of getting his artists the exposure they're looking for. And that explains "Chinese Food," as well as "Thanksgiving" and "Friday." The music is metronome-simple. The beats are white-label generic. The performances are prairie-flat and virtually indistinguishable. What people are really keying into in the songs is Wilson's unfettered id.
Viewers frequently attack Wilson's cameos as awkward and skeevy — the image of a middle aged man capering around with a bunch of chirpy adolescents brings up bad associations. But seen from another angle, Wilson's charges — he calls them "clients" — are hardly naive. "I always tell the artists, 'You know my whole history with Rebecca Black, with Nicole Westbrook — you know what people will say," says Wilson. "You will sing this song, and they will hate this song. Are you ready for that?"
If they are, they have no illusions that they're paying for a chance at Rebecca Black-like fame with $5400 in cash and a firehose of online vitriol.
And meanwhile, Wilson gets to write songs about whatever random thing he feels like, the more random the better. "I wrote 'Chinese Food' because I love Chinese food," says Wilson. "There's a restaurant I go to, they have chicken wings, they have beef with broccoli, that's what I love. The song is based on my experience — what I know about Chinese food. Yes, I know geishas are Japanese, but you can find Chinese restaurants in Japan! People say I'm squinting, well okay, I have small eyes. All this controversy, I didn't even think about it. The pissed off people saying I'm racist, the last person who wants to be racist is me."
What about the panda? "In 'It's Thanksgiving,' I was a turkey, So in 'Chinese Food,' I felt I had to be an animal too," says Wilson. "And I didn't want to be a dragon, because in the video, I'm supposed to be the singer's imaginary friend. Pandas are cute. You could see a girl like Alison [Gold, 'Chinese Food''s singer] having an imaginary panda as a friend."
So "Chinese Food" may be cringeworthy and culturally awkward. But if it is, it's only because it's been launched, unfiltered, directly from Wilson's fervid imagination. "What I do comes from a different place," he agrees. "I don't think the way regular musicians think — I think in a more dynamic way. I guess my ideas are pretty out there. But I know that if a big star like Lady Gaga put out a song like 'Chinese Food,' everyone would love it. When Patrice Wilson does it, everyone hates it."
The hate just makes him stronger. "We're already planning our next song with Alison," he says. It's a prequel to 'Chinese Food' — very simple, very catchy, and all about me just being me."
And regardless of how bad it is and what crazy thing it ends up being about, it's almost certain to be heard and talked about, just because Wilson is behind it. Which drives the music establishment up the wall.
"Whatever you may think of Patrice's songs, he is a firecracker up the a---s of the majors, who would like to just control everything with their pure corporate mentality," says Clarence Jey. "This once-a-year viral video he does, it makes the Sonys and Universals of the world crazy, because it's a reality check that music is no longer a big-label monopoly."
That's a good enough reason for me to root Wilson on. Pass the duck sauce.