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March 2, 2006
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - When the ECAC Hockey League All-Stars gathered at Ingalls Rink last fall to prepare for an exhibition game against Team USA, Harvard head coach Katey Stone had some questions for Yale senior goaltender Sarah Love.
"She asked me `Where did you play [while in high school]? How did we miss you?'," Love recalled.
As surprising as it seems given Love's all-star status and place as one of the best goaltenders in college hockey, she flew under virtually every school's recruiting radar screen -- including Harvard's and, for a time, Yale's.
"When July 1 came around, I really had only heard from two coaches," Love said of the summer before her senior year of high school. "Harry didn't call me until some time in August."
"Harry" was Yale Associate Head Coach Harry Rosenholtz, who handles the bulk of the team's recruiting. When Rosenholtz saw Love play at a tournament in Coburg, Ontario, in the fall of 2001, it set in motion a series of events that would change the course of the Yale women's hockey program.
Playing for the Cambridge Fury, Love showed Rosenholtz that she had all the skills on the ice to make an impact at Yale. She also showed a personality that was perfectly suited for Yale's chemistry-oriented locker room, where egos of any kind are frowned upon.
"From the very minute that I met her I knew that she was the kid," Rosenholtz said. "I knew that she had the type of character we wanted. She's one of the most real people you'll ever meet. She's genuine, she's honest, she's humble and she's appreciative of what she's had here at Yale."
Shocked that a talent like that was still available, Rosenholtz happily guided Love through the college application process. It was a whirlwind tour for the 18-year-old.
"Within about three weeks, I had seen Harry at the tournament, filled out an application, taken my tests, visited Yale and decided to apply," Love said. "It was really fast."
So fast, in fact, that Love had little time to research the history of what was then a struggling program. The year before, the Bulldogs had gone 3-23-2, but when Love visited the campus in October 2001 that was the furthest thing from her mind. She saw enough during her trip to convince her that Yale was the place for her.
"It was more the people than anything else," Love said. "I still didn't really know much about the team at that point, because we don't follow ECACHL or Ivy League hockey in Canada. When I came down, I roomed with Symie [Nicole Symington '05] and Nicolette [Franck '04]. I just fell in love with the place and the people. I thought it would be a great place to go to school for four years."
Rosenholtz' approach also made an impression on Love and her family. Her father Charles, a minister, recalled the way Rosenholtz helped them through the unfamiliar process of applying.
"We knew nothing about all of the criteria," he said. "Harry guided us through it step by step."
Sarah appreciated Rosenholtz' candor as well.
"He was really honest," she said. "You didn't feel like he was trying to cheat you out of anything. If he didn't feel like you were going to fit in to the school, he would suggest somewhere else. He just explained the whole process to us. I felt like I could relate to him, and it's been a good relationship ever since."
After Love decided to attend she began hearing more about the vision that Rosenholtz and Hilary Witt, who was promoted from assistant coach to head coach for the 2002-03 season, had for the program. The Bulldogs made some progress in 2001-02, inching up to 9-20-2 overall, but more work remained. On average, Yale was out shot 33-23 per game that season.
The thought of facing 300 more shots than the other team's goalie over the course of a season might have been daunting to some, but not Love.
"As a goalie, you'd rather get shots than go to a team where you face 10 shots a game," she said. "I said if I go to Yale, I'll get shots. I'll have a chance to develop as a goalie. That seemed like a great plan."
It's a plan Love had made work before. Growing up playing hockey, she developed a reputation for elevating the level of play of those around her and helping her team overachieve. During one game at the Bantam level, Love was sitting in the stands with an injured knee when her coach called her down to the ice. He inserted Love into the game, injury and all, just because of what her presence in the net would mean to the rest of the team.
"They believed in her that much," Reverend Love said.
That attribute quickly became apparent to Love's Yale teammates as well. Classmate Lisa Jacque, this year's captain, has seen the effect Love has had on the squad for the past four years.
"She's meant everything to our team," Jacque said. "When we were a struggling program, all we could really count on every game was that Sarah Love was going to make big saves and help keep us in the game. It's been really great for four years -- knowing that you have one of the best goaltenders in college hockey playing on your team makes you a lot more secure and it makes you a lot more ambitious about what you can achieve with her in the net."
Love's success comes from equal parts skill and hard work. Her easygoing nature belies the heart of a fierce competitor.
"Sarah has an incredible drive and determination that is unmatched," said sophomore goaltender Shivon Zilis, who has been learning alongside Love for the past two years. "Not only does she do all that is asked of her, but she goes beyond the requirements of the team to ensure that she is at a personal best; that's what a real team player does."
Rosenholtz has been with Love every step of the way, as he is also the team's goaltending coach.
"Harry's great," Love said. "He knows a lot and he does a lot to educate himself, which is really good for us. He's not stuck on one thing - he's constantly trying to learn new things and learn new tricks that could help you out. He never tried to change my style. He just worked with what I was good at and made me better."
There were signs of that work paying off in Love's freshman year, when she posted a .901 save percentage and 3.45 goals-against average in 28 games. But her sophomore campaign was a true breakthrough, as she set the school single-season records for save percentage (.931) and goals-against average (2.25) - shattering marks established by All-American Laurie Belliveau '98.
That was also the season that Love displayed the one attribute that distinguishes all great Yale athletes: the ability to play big against Harvard. When the Bulldogs traveled to the Bright Center on March 6 to take on their archrival, they brought with them a 38-game losing streak against the vaunted Crimson. Harvard entered that game with a 23-3-1 record; Yale was just 12-12-3. The Crimson lineup was loaded, including Olympians Julie Chu and Angela Ruggiero.
What ensued was a legendary Yale-Harvard battle. Witt would later say that it seemed as if there was Plexiglas in front of the Yale net. Love withstood a 15-shot barrage in the first period to keep the game scoreless, and the Bulldogs rallied behind her effort.
"In the locker room after the first period, [Erin] Duggan reminded everyone how when we were kids, we would just go out and play hockey saying `I'm going to be like Patrick Roy' or `I'm going to be Gretzky' -- you'd just pretend," Love said. "She had everyone go around and say who we wanted to be. It took us back to having fun with it. I had fun that game."
Love's fun included an incredible 21 saves in the second period, one in which Yale put just five shots on net. The teams entered the third period with the game still scoreless.
Nine more saves in the third brought Love's total to an astounding 45 before the unthinkable happened. A penalty on Yale with 23 seconds left gave Harvard its ninth power play of the game. The Crimson scored with seven seconds remaining to hand the Bulldogs a heartbreaking 1-0 defeat.
Still, Love left the ice to an ovation from the Harvard crowd, her name firmly established in the world of women's college hockey.
"Everything worked that game," she said. "It's hard to say - it was probably the best game I've ever played. I couldn't tell you why."
Making 45 saves and losing would try the patience of any goaltender, but Love's grasp of the bigger picture enabled her to keep everything in perspective. That did not go unnoticed by her teammates.
"Sarah believes that we win as a team and we lose as a team," Jacque said. "She just goes out and gives her best every game."
There have been plenty of other games in which Love made a lot of saves only to come out with a loss. Still, she left no room for doubt when asked whether the thought that she may have gotten a few more wins had she played somewhere else ever troubled her.
"No," she said, "because being here and being part of building up the program for four years is something that most players don't get a chance to do."
And few would argue that what happened the next time Yale and Harvard met - November 12, 2004 - didn't make the sacrifice worth it. On that memorable night at Ingalls Rink, Love stopped 48 of 50 shots. The difference was that this time Yale was able to score three goals on the Crimson, ranked No. 3 in the country at the time, for a historic 3-2 victory. The 20-year drought was over; the result even earned a mention in the New York Times.
"It was awesome," Love said. "I remember running around the top [concourse at Ingalls] afterwards and getting high fives, signing autographs for little girls. It was so much fun. It was a big relief - we finally did it. We were on our way."
The Bulldogs continued on that way the rest of the year, setting the school record for wins in a season (16) and earning the program's first top-10 ranking, first home playoff series, first win in a playoff game and first win in a playoff series. Love values those accomplishments more than the individual records she had established before.
"Personal records are something that just happens," Love said. "It's the team records - the most wins, getting the playoffs at home, getting a playoff win - those are the ones that mean more."
Those accomplishments have kept coming in 2005-06, as Yale ended a 41-game losing streak against Dartmouth thanks to a 1-0 shutout from Love and also beat Brown for the first time since 1988 during a school-record seven-game unbeaten streak in February.
Love also earned ECACHL All-Academic honors for the third time this season, making her one of only five Bulldogs in school history to accomplish that feat. A history of science/history of medicine major, she has completed all the requirements to eventually apply to medical school and is interested in a career in sports medicine.
First, though, Love plans to continue playing hockey. Professional leagues such as the NWHL and WWHL in Canada are options, and Rosenholtz also believes she has the drive and ability to play for the Canadian National Team.
"I feel like it's been a privilege to work with her," Rosenholtz said. "What people don't see are the individual sessions once or twice a week. Those are things I'm going to miss --- her willingness to learn and her willingness to be coached. With some outstanding players, a lot of times they don't want to keep improving. Sarah's just the opposite. Sarah always wants to learn and always wants to grow."
While her career in a Bulldog uniform is drawing to a close, Love's effect on women's hockey at Yale will not end when she graduates. By raising the profile of the program she has made it easier for the Bulldogs to bring in top talent -- including Zilis, her heir apparent in net.
"Sarah was a lot of the reason I was attracted to the hockey program at Yale," said Zilis. "As any apprentice looks for the best expert to learn from, so was I looking for the absolute authority in goaltending. I realized that my game could improve most by learning from the best then running with that knowledge, and Sarah was always supportive and willing."
With Love departing as one of the conference's top goalies after being a relative unknown as a recruit, some of those ECACHL coaches that overlooked her four years ago may find her observations about Zilis a bit ominous.
"It's really exciting watching her in practice," Love said. "She makes some great saves. I can see some of what I do is rubbing off on her. Basically I just play my best and hope that she can see that."
report by Sam Rubin '95 (email@example.com), Yale Sports Publicity


text: I started my own micro business in 2009. I design and make all natural jewelry. It is extremely important to me to use sustainable, earth-found and chemical free materials in my jewelry making. . I spread awareness for the need of natural jewelry, but also for animals that help make them. I LOVE donating my jewelry to auctions and raffles that help wildlife. Please ask. Jewelry is made from Hickory nuts that hungry squirrels have carved, or Real wild grapevines.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Blue Buffalo Company is known for all natural dog food with natural ingredients. All of their foods have meat, fish or poultry as the first ingredient, plus wholesome whole grains and their unique "cold formed" LifeSource Bits- a blend of nutrients, including vitamins, minerals and antioxidants to strengthen your dog's immune system.
Blue dog food contains no chicken or poultry by-product meal, no wheat, corn or soy. Blue dry dog food comes in many different formulas and includes food for puppies, adults and senior dogs. Main ingredients are lamb, chicken and fish. There's a flavor that every dog will love!
The Blue Buffalo Company is offering $5 off a bag of Blue dog food when you take the True Blue Test. Go here and compare your dog food to theirs and if you are convinced their food is better, they will send you a welcome letter, plus a coupon worth $5 off any bag of Blue dry dog food.
The Blue Buffalo Company also has a variety of dog treats, canned dog food and cat food.


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Orchestral Saxophone
"It cries, sighs and dreams. It possesses a crescendo and can gradually diminish until it is only an echo of an echo. I know of no other instrument that possesses this particular capacity to reach the outer limits of audible sound."
-Hector Berlioz
The saxophone has great potential, but is often shunned. Here we can discuss how weave the saxophone into the orchestra with the maximun effectiveness.


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CO₂ recycling: road to independence
Win-win with Linde
Prefabricated modules for speedy assembly
The majority of the process plant will be engineered remotely – in the form of large individual modules, which will then be hooked up on site. Linde subcontractors in Germany's Dresden area will provide the gas purification and liquefaction process units, for instance. Meanwhile, a Turkish supplier was responsible for ensuring the precast storage tanks were fully insulated before loading them onto trucks and shipping them.
Once the various components engineered at the different sites are ready, they are transported by land and sea to the Manchester location. "This approach accelerates on-site assembly activities, substantially speeding up delivery overall. It also means the plant can be easily relocated at a future point in time – and that makes this modular design unique", enthuses Andreas Lodig. BOC also sees the value of this approach: "At the end of the day, all we need to do is lay the foundations here in Manchester – and as soon as all the components are delivered, the entire plant will be up and running in just a few months", confirms Matthew Onions. Once the facility goes on stream, it is designed to yield 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide per day at full capacity. That works out at 36,000 tonnes per year.
Smooth handover with 100% recovery rates
In addition to securing its own independent LCO2 supply, BOC is particularly keen to maximise efficiencies. The aim is for every single CO2 molecule generated by the alcoholic fermentation process to find its way into the storage tanks in future. Part of this efficiency drive includes seamless handover of plant operations to BOC. The Linde experts who will initially take the plant on stream will train the BOC team in parallel, ensuring no time or resources are wasted right from day one. As an industrial hub, Manchester is also home to many prospective buyers for the purified carbon dioxide. This will ensure short supply routes – whether the LCO2 is ultimately used to flash-freeze fresh produce, create a modified atmosphere for meat packing or put the fizz into soft drinks.
Some of the prefabricated modules like the tank platforms are from Germany.


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Parents Warned About Technology and Drug Use
Read the story. Click the "LISTEN" button at the bottom of the page to hear the story. When you are done, click the "NEXT" button.
Cell phones and the Internet are great ways to stay in touch with people. There are other things that teenagers have been doing with this kind of technology too. Some things teenagers have been doing while on the Internet and cell phones are bad.
Everyone used to be worried about sexual predators when their teens used the Internet. Today they have even more to worry about. One big concern about kids using technology today is drug use.
The Internet and cell phones have become ways that some kids get drugs or learn how to use them. They are able to contact drug dealers without their parents knowing about it. This is a very serious concern to many people.
The government is saying that parents need to watch what their kids are doing on the Internet and who they talk to on the phone. Many parents have no idea what their kids are doing while online. One man was shocked when he saw how much information was online showing how to use drugs, make drugs, and buy drugs.
There are some things that parents can do to help. Software products are available that can help with this problem. They can monitor activity on the Internet. This will let parents see what kind of sites their kids have been visiting. Also, parents should keep computers in a common room of the house. It is much harder to be secretive when the family is always near.
(This was adapted from an original story provided by News10 KXTV Sacramento.)


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At Microsoft Ignite 2018, Jen caught up with community legend Denny Cherry to hear what Denny has to say on all things SQL Server and Azure!


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Sergio Miedico
Chief Information Officer
Turning Solvency II regulations into strategy
UNIQA finds opportunity to industrialize data governance, support management's decisions
In the Q&A below, UNIQA's Emanuela Saccon, Risk Manager, and Sergio Miedico, Chief Information Officer, discuss the company's path to Solvency II compliance and the additional benefits it's reaped.
The criterion that guided us to select SAS was the need to adopt a solution that would be capable of optimizing the governance of all data in the company, not just the data related to the issues of Solvency II.
Sergio Miedico
Q: How is UNIQA launching the Solvency II adaptation process?
Saccon: The adaptation activities are underway, and they accelerated following the development of the regulatory framework in terms of timing and processes. In the initial phase, we focused our efforts on the issues of the first pillar, relating to the calculation of the capital requirement. We then addressed issues related to governance and reporting.
Q: What are the areas of greatest commitment?
Saccon: One of the key themes of the Solvency II legislation is data governance. This is a crucial requirement because it affects the activities of all three pillars in the Solvency II Directive. The calculation of the capital requirement assumes accurate and timely input data to produce reliable results and to define the risk profile on the basis of which management can develop strategies with certainty in terms of investment or new products.
To achieve this goal, we had to integrate and standardize a range of heterogeneous information flows that are not only generated by different areas of the business but also come from various companies in the UNIQA group. UNIQA made a major investment to ensure the consistency and traceability of data and the completeness of the information required by Pillar III.
Q: On closer inspection, the traceability requirement, by its very nature, imposes a cross-sectional view. What does this mean to UNIQA?
Miedico: In a nutshell, Solvency II requires that all processes be tracked, documented and formalized. In technological terms, this means collecting, assessing, streamlining, standardizing and industrializing an abundance of information flows produced by the four companies of the group. This is done with the aim of designing a single, coherent and controllable flow.
Q: Was this the biggest problem you faced?
Miedico: Undoubtedly, one of the critical factors was the need to build a common language and a shared data dictionary - supplied by sources located in different areas of the company - in various places and often in multiple formats. On this front, however, we didn't start from scratch. Before the issues of Solvency II came to our attention, we had already embarked on a path of data consolidation and rationalization that resulted in the creation of a commercial data warehouse intended to monitor our business processes. Onto this existing core, we grafted the Solvency II adaptation activities, from the integration of legacy systems to data certification, and from governance processes to data presentation for reporting.
Q: And in terms of risk management?
Saccon: On the one hand, the plurality of information sources made it extremely complicated to map all the necessary information and organize it into a single flow. However, not all of the data was available in the management systems; some of it was the result of queries or came from manual processing or tables generated by spreadsheets. On the other hand, the standardization and consolidation processes were generally performed manually - an obvious waste of time and resources - and had an increased probability of error. We needed a technology-based solution that could replace these manual steps with automated tools to ensure data quality and process traceability.
Q: What value did SAS® provide?
Miedico: I must say that choosing SAS, in close collaboration with the risk management division, proved very rewarding. The criterion that guided us was the need to adopt a solution that would be capable of optimizing the governance of all data in the company, not just the data related to the issues of Solvency II. That said, after a careful analysis of the market, our preference was SAS because of the flexibility of its solutions, particularly the capability not only to ensure Solvency II compliance in terms of certification and traceability, but also to industrialize the processes involved in integrating legacy systems into the data warehouse.
Q: The concept of 'industrialization' seems to be a major theme in UNIQA's journey to compliance. Can you elaborate?
Miedico: Going beyond the obligations and compliance requirements, Solvency II offered an opportunity to streamline and automate a set of operations that are extremely costly in terms of time and labor resources, from loadings to reconciliations, and re-checks to settlements. The industrialization of information processes accelerates the processing time, allows continuous monitoring of risk parameters, improves the timeliness and frequency of queries, and increases the granularity of the analyses. This is ideal for the decision-making process.
Saccon: In today's world - where capital is a scarce resource and market conditions change very rapidly - management must be able to base its decisions on certified and reliable information that becomes available as soon as possible. What we're trying to accomplish with SAS, beyond compliance with regulations, is an executive dashboard that has the appropriate KPIs to support management in making investment decisions and defining product offerings. It achieves governance optimization and legislative compliance, and it ensures the accuracy and timeliness of the information underlying our decisions.
Q: Pillar II, in particular the Own Risk and Solvency Assessment report, presupposes the creation of a framework capable of supporting strategic decisions with future projections. What does this mean to UNIQA?
Saccon: The long-term vision and the ability to understand "emerging risks" are crucial to defining the strategy. The business plan must be enriched with new metrics and consider both possible adverse scenarios in achieving the objectives and also the resources available to address them. From this point of view, Pillar II marks a turning point, because it moves the emphasis to the need for a holistic and integrated risk profile obtained through the contributions of all divisions of the company (e.g., a future projection of capital and risk factors).
Q: So this integrated view of risk not only deals with risk management?
Saccon: It seems to me that one of the great innovations of Solvency II is that it strongly links numerous business areas, from actuarial services to IT, up to planning and control. In this sense, risk management becomes a transverse role, a kind of network that stimulates all business areas to advance toward a shared goal.
- Meet Solvency II compliance requirements while industrializing data governance and supporting management's strategic decisions.
- Reduce error-prone, manual processes for collecting data across disparate sources.
- Achieve Solvency II compliance.
- Better understand emerging risks.
- Support management in making investment decisions and defining product offerings.
- Proactively monitor data quality metrics.
About UNIQA
UNIQA is a European insurance group of Austrian origin which, with its four companies - Insurance, Protection, Pensions and Life - is active in all segments of the life and non-life insurance markets, from health care to savings, complementary pension funds to car insurance, family insurance to professional insurance.
Les résultats présentés dans cet article sont spécifiques à des situations, problématiques métiers et données particulières, et aux environnements informatiques décrits. L'expérience de chaque client SAS est unique et dépend de variables commerciales et techniques propres, de ce fait les déclarations ci-dessus doivent être considérées dans un contexte. Les gains, résultats et performances peuvent varier selon les configurations et conditions de chaque client. SAS ne garantit ni ne déclare que chaque client obtiendra des résultats similaires. Les seules garanties relatives aux produits et services de SAS sont celles qui sont expressément stipulées dans les garanties contractuelles figurant dans l'accord écrit conclu avec SAS pour ces produits et services. Aucune information contenue dans le présent document ne peut être interprétée comme constituant une garantie supplémentaire. Les clients ont partagé leurs succès avec SAS dans le cadre d'un accord contractuel ou à la suite de la mise en œuvre réussie du progiciel SAS. Les noms de marques et de produits sont des marques déposées de leurs sociétés respectives.


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My oldest son will be 12 years old in a few months, but when it comes to the whole dating scene, he's been way behind his peers. It seems like all his friends have been dating since Kindergarten, but my son didn't start showing a mild interest in girls until this year and seemed in no rush to have a girlfriend, which was fine by me!
All that changed last Friday. When he came home from school he said, "I want to tell you something, but you can't ask me a million questions." (Don't you love that?… it's worse when they say, "…but you can't get mad.")
Anyway, he said, "I have a girlfriend."
I clapped a hand over my mouth to stop the million questions from spilling forth. He stared at me. I took a deep breath and composed myself.
"Oh… that's cool." I feigned nonchalance. A minute passed… "Um, so, like… no questions at all?" I said tentatively.
He rolled his eyes… "OKAY, but not too many!"
I selected them carefully.
"What's her name? …" (Liz.)
"How do you know her?…" (She's in my classes.)
"What do you like about her?" (She's nice and smart.)
I backed off and left him alone even though I was dying to know more. Over the weekend he showed me her picture in the year book. I had been wanting to ask him if she was Anglo, Latina, or something else, (He had a crush on a Korean-American girl last year), but I didn't want him to think that I thought race was important. His father and I don't care what race he dates or eventually marries, but we are curious to see how much more mixed up our family will become!
When I saw her picture in the year book, it was fairly obvious that she was Anglo, (of course, you never know for sure.) But based on her features, (not so unlike mine – blue eyes and freckles), and her surname, that would be my best guess.
Later that night I reported back to my husband everything I had learned about our son's first girlfriend. We laid in bed, the house quiet, as we had our nightly chat before falling asleep.
"I wonder what her parents will say," my husband said aloud.
"About what?" I said.
"When they find out their daughter's boyfriend has the last name López."
I hadn't thought about that. We laid in bed, staring at the darkness for a minute.
"I'm sure it will be fine," I said.
On Monday, our son came home from school. He closed the door behind him and set his backpack on the floor. "Well, we broke up," he said.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Oh yeah! I'm not upset about it at all. Whatever," he said, heading towards the kitchen.
"That's good… but, what happened?"
"She said that her parents told her she can't have a boyfriend."
"But she must have known that. Why did she say 'yes' when you asked her on Friday?"
"Good question," he said shrugging his shoulders as he emptied the cupboards and refrigerator in pursuit of an after-school-snack.
I'm relieved that the question of racism hasn't entered his thoughts as a possibility. I'm just sad that it's entered mine.


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Choice is a wonderful thing. And our choice of handmade and upholstered headboards is almost too much wonderful to handle. Choose one of our gorgeous designs, pick a fabulous fabric, then select your base to go with it and BAM! Instant bedtime perfection.


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The program in Biological Chemistry offers Tulane undergraduates an opportunity to obtain a broad educational background with emphasis on the chemistry of biological systems. Biological Chemistry, or biochemistry, is the study of life at the molecular level. The major in Biological Chemistry focuses on providing training so students can apply the concepts and methods of the physical sciences to the solution of biological problems.
The major provides a broad foundation in modern science and an excellent introduction to graduate work in biochemistry, biotechnology and medical research as well as a strong preparation for medical school. Furthermore, in addition to career opportunities specifically related to biochemistry, graduates with a major in Biological Chemistry have opportunities generally open to graduates with a major in either Chemistry or Biology. These areas include jobs in analytical and forensic chemistry, biotechnology, business, education, government, industry and toxicology. A degree in biological chemistry also provides students with an excellent background for less traditional careers such as information scientists, patent attorneys, patent agents, health & safety specialists and science writers.
The program is operated jointly between the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. The major involves taking selected science courses in both these departments as well as in physics and mathematics. In addition, students are required to participate in two semesters of research. This gives you the opportunity get involved in a research project in any area of your choice. Students have worked with research groups not only in the Chemistry and Cell Molecular Biology departments but also Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Psychology, Physics and various departments in the Medical School.
Any student in the Biological Chemistry program is welcome at seminars sponsored by the departments of Chemistry and Cell and Molecular Biology.
2015 Percival Stern Hall, 6400 Freret Street, New Orleans, LA 70118, 504-865-5573 firstname.lastname@example.com


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Pumpkin Yoghurt
It's that time of year folks. I'm officially no longer in Italy, I graduate in two months, and it's getting colder by the day. The downside is, like I mentioned, I am no longer in Italy making pasta with nice gentlemen in beautiful wineries. Okay, I'll get over it.
The good news is I'm in full on job search mode, and it's mostly fun at this point. I'm enjoying finding lots of exciting options, and crossing my fingers that I land a certain job that will let me travel around a bit. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Another good thing is that it's December so everything suddenly smells like apple cider, and people are stressing out about gifts for their loved ones, and those people that invited you to a party and you now feel obligated to get them something pleasantly mediocre.
In the spirit of gifts, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites, Ilana approved if you will (I want to get an "ilana approved" stamp made but I can't imagine anything more obnoxious, yet also incredible).
I love my Opinel knife, it's awfully handy.
This cool fella , just came out with a cookbook. I can't wait to check it out!
More amazing new cookbooks, that I would love to own: What Katie Ate, The Sprouted Kitchen, and Jerusalem.
If you're going to use measuring spoons, they might as well be adorable. Chelsea got these for me, and they 100% make baking more fun.
The sleekest bottle opener I've ever seen.
If I felt inclined to spend $58.00 on a super cozy sweatshirt, then I would be inclined to buy this one.
This beautiful watch would make a very lovely gift.
Sphere ice cube molds. This is what makes a house a home.
Cognac glass or alcohol dreidel?
I think this wallet is awesome.
And my final stamp of approval lands on this pumpkin yoghurt I started whipping up for breakfast this fall and I'm still enjoying it well into winter.
Also, I'd like to point out the neato antique nut grinder below. I found it at my Grandma's house and thought it was pretty rad. Who needs a food processor or a knife and cutting board? This baby makes sundaes possible in seconds. I think it's grrrrreat.
Stay warm out there!


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In my experience, Real Madrid fans aren't the most vocal in Spain, in fact, there aren't even the best in Madrid (Atléti and even Rayo Vallecano fans create more atmosphere). Has the fan base at the Bernabéu noticeably changed in recent seasons? Yes, to an extent. It's got a lot more expensive and to some extent more gentrified. It is full most matches now but rarely makes as much noise as you might expect. There is a theory that says that one of the reasons why there is more noise on Champions League nights is that season ticket holders (who don't necessarily chose the European option) don't go so Madrid fans from all over Spain do (bear in mind that you can prepare a trip to the Champions League games and you can't for league games because the LFP doesn't even fix kick off times or dates until eight days before) and they are noisier and, as less regular visitors, more up for it. It's also true that because of UEFA rules there is much better banter because there are actually away fans there – and lots of them. Taking away standing areas of course makes a difference too. the first game I ever went to in Spain was at the Bernabéu with 115,000 there against Zaragoza. Now, that was noisy.
I went to see Getafe play over Christmas and was astonished at the cost of match tickets. €40-80 to see them play Valladolid. Spain must be one of the most expensive countries in Europe to watch football nowadays no? Yes, it's changed massively. A few years ago I bought a Rayo season ticket for the equivalent of £38. Madrid and Barcelona in particular have really increased but other clubs too. There is no uniform pricing structure either so smaller clubs hike prices like mad (and adopt the truly criminal policy of Día del Club whereby even season ticket holders are obliged to buy their seats) against the big two. All they achieve is a half empty stadium, and the half that is there supports the other team. Oh, and pissed off fans. Getafe are amongst the worst, price-wise.
Is it true that there is more Live English Premiership football than Spanish La Liga coverage on Spanish terrestrial television? On terrestrial TV in Spain you get one La Liga game a week: on La Sexta/autonomous region channels on Saturday night. And you normally get two English games: one on TVE and one on Teledeporte. If you buy Gol television you get a whole load more English games but you also get more Spanish league games – as many as four more per week. *interviewer rushes off to ring Spanish father in law*
The Marca and AS (predominantly) football papers are incredibly popular in Spain. Their output leans towards the English version of a tabloid, whereas El Mundo and El País don't really cover football in depth. Where do you head for intelligent football debate in Spain? Good question … actually, in fairness El Mundo and El País have increased their coverage recently and it is mostly very good. El Mundo now have a Monday sports supplement. I'm very impressed with a lot of the writers on those papers – Diego Torres, David Gistau, Cayetano Ros and more … Santo Segurola is at Marca, too, and he's excellent. The problem with Marca and AS or El Mundo Deportivo and Sport is, in my onion, not so much that they are tabloid in style (they're not always) but that they have sides. And that they have agendas that are so comically obvious, so utterly shameless, that you wonder if it's all a big wind-up. Marca has taken a massive nose-dive lately. It is worth adding something here: those papers are mostly very good at what they do. Much as I dislike certain things about their editorial line, their self-importance, and the ludicrous 'Villarato' campaign (in which they accuse the refs of being in cahoots with Barcelona), AS is an impressive paper in some ways.
The actual dates and kick off times of matches in Spain are only decided a week or so before they take place. This makes any sort of pre-planning a logistical nightmare for fans. Is that why there are virtually no away fans at most matches? It certainly doesn't help. I think it's a complete shambles. But it's also partly a cultural thing, partly the fact that Spain is so much bigger than, say, England. Spain is very passionate about football but that does not necessarily translate into attendance at games.
You've worked as a translator for Becks and Michael Owen. Any anecdotes about those two you'd care to share with EFW? Tragically, the best one has already become public and has done the rounds on Spanish telly. Basically, I used the wrong form of the verb 'to be' and had Michael Owen saying that Frank Lampard was, well, sexy. I suppose the best, nearly right but importantly still very wrong comparison would be me having Owen saying "Lampard is fit" but not meaning that kind of fit. Everyone fell about. One magazine asked the question: Is Owen Gay? No, it said, asking its own question, but his translator might be. I saw Michael in England a few months after he had signed for Newcastle and pretty much the first thing he said to me was: "hey, tell my dad what it was you said about Lampard." David was always keen to do as much as he could in Spanish and actually worked at getting it right in preparation for press conferences but wasn't comfortable in Spanish – not in front of a big audience anyway. He did try. The one that I found the funniest was translating for Tommy Gravesen. He just kind of growled angrily at everyone. It hardly needed translating and I was trying very hard not to laugh.
Real Madrid also gave you a fold-away bike did they not? Have any other gifts been forthcoming? Bizarrely, yes. At Christmas press meals they always give presents out. Mostly it's relevant stuff – pens, phones, books, that sort of thing. And then one year Calderón handed out fold-up bikes. He must have had a job lot of them knocking about somewhere that he couldn't shift. Should I admit that I haven't used it? (Yeah, it's no big deal, we've all got Real Madrid bikes knocking about in the shed - Ed).
They've started playing "Sid Lowe Bingo" on the Football Weekly Podcast and Barry Glendenning told me (in jest before anyone writes in) to "defunny" your answers in this interview. Do you have a message for the boys back home? Well, that's Barry screwed then, isn't it? I deliberately defunnied my own answers so he wouldn't have that satisfaction. If I remember rightly, the bingo didn't go too well, despite them trying to take me down lots of dark alleys and serve up some caveats, woofs and hang on a minutes. The other day I was watching the elections on UK TV, by the way, and it was a caveat landslide. They were all at it. Dimpleby, that arrogant, argumentative tosser on Sky, even Mandelson. I'm just claiming back a much maligned word. Or maybe I missed my real calling? In truth, it comes from living in Spain. Caveat is the best translation of 'matiz' which in Spanish sounds nowhere near as poncey as it does in English. Someone mentioned to me the other day that they had used it twice in a Masters degree thanks to me … I was proud. Or at least I was until I checked my PhD and found that I hadn't used it. Not bloody once in 147,000 words. I didn't eat for days. As for the pod: I'm at an unfair disadvantage: I'm just down the phone, the sneaky bastards. And then they get producer Ben or Pete to edit it so they look good. And sabotage me. Now, that is when Barry defunnies my answers.
You've finally got onboard the good ship Twitter. Good fun or a pain in the arse? A bit of both. I've got to stop. It gets addictive but, as I have found out recently to my immense cost, it can be, well, costly.
Do you report or are in you interested in any other sports? I'd love to say yeah I'm an all-rounder me but not really. When I was younger I had spells of being really into tennis and even a bit of cricket, although I haven't played either for over a decade. I used to do a lot of running too – cross-country and track but my interest in athletics as a spectator sport has largely faded. At moments, I can watch most sports and almost get excited. I went to the Olympics in Athens and absolutely loved it. But that was partly the event itself and partly the sense of discovery with some sports. I was trying to work out what it was that made me like sports or not and I think I came to the conclusion that I liked fast, aggressive sports: the water-polo was sensational. I hadn't realised how bloody dirty it was. Volleyball was very enjoyable, even handball. And I loved track cycling. On the roads I find it a bit dull – they just fly past you – but on the track I found it fascinating. I have always liked basketball (mainly because my brother played properly and I used to be a regular at the Sheffield Forgers/Sharks), so it was fantastic to get to see the US team play. But the king of sports is weight lifting. And I really do mean that. It was just brilliant. It does exactly what it says on the tin. It's great drama … you can see the pressure all over their faces which look like they're going to explode. And then afterwards, they were in the bar smoking tabs and drinking beer. Brilliant. Actually, am I allowed to plug an old piece of mine here? (Oh go on then - Ed) I loved it. I still wear my weightlifting t-shirt with pride. But I also actively dislike some 'sports'. Like Formula 1, for instance. Which is bollocks. When Hamilton and Alonso were having that spat, I kept getting asked about it and had to show some vague interest but not only did I think it was tedious, distasteful (the way the two presses handled it struck me as embarrassing – so much so that I found it hilarious when NEITHER of them won) and vaguely pathetic, I also just didn't give a toss. Then there's that horsey thing in the Olympics when all the horse does is ponce about a field wearing a pretty bow and occasionally cocking its leg. What's that for?
Do you have a view on bullfighting? I wouldn't go so far as to say that I have a view on it in the sense that it doesn't massively preoccupy me. But, put it this way, I have lived in Spain for a decade and never been to a plaza de toros … at least not to watch a corrida. I've seen a few concerts.
In retrospect, the Spanish Olympic basketball teams "eye-catching faux pas" was a little ill conceived no? I thought so. Although it is also true that my handling of it might have been too. The removal of one key paragraph from the reporting on it didn't help, either. Pau Gasol made one very interesting remark that went almost unreported but I thought was significant: "We didn't think it was a good idea but the sponsor insisted and insisted."
Do you support a Spanish or English football team? Yes. Both.
Oh, Which Spanish ground do you most enjoy reporting from then? Oh, ok, the answer to the last question is Real Oviedo. And in England, I think I'll hold my peace. But most people know. There is a point that's worth making here, mind you: in most cases, who journalists support really isn't relevant. I'm not sure I understand the obsession with working out who we support. I've been accused of being blatantly pro-Madrid and obviously anti-them, rabidly Barcelona-biased and a Catalan hater… I've got it in for Atlético, I clearly love Atlético, and so on and so on … all of which might be a good sign. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, bias is even more. Andoni Zubizarreta said something this season: "As fans we demand accuracy and fairness … but with one caveat [yes, he did say caveat. Well, matiz]: that it is in out favour." He was talking about refereeing but he could just as well have been talking about readers. I think it's a brilliant quote. He wasn't a bad goalkeeper either.
How much Spanish football do you watch each week? Far, far too much. Usually four live La Liga games plus everything that happens mid-week. And sometimes it's dreadful.
You've waxed lyrical about Danny Alves and Racing Santander's wonderkid Sergio Canales, any predictions on the next star to illuminate La Liga? I'm not sure how unknown they are but I do like the look of Ander Herrera at Real Zaragoza and although most people have seen a lot of him by now Javi Martínez at Athletic is very, very good. Keep an eye for that Leo Messi kid too: he's pretty special.
Talking of predictions, Spain should win the 2010 World Cup shouldn't they They should. But, hey, shit happens … one slip and they could be out. Del Bosque said something very important: Spain shouldn't let themselves get into a dangerous state where it's either win the tournament of be a failure. I think they are the best side in the world but who knows if they will actually win it. Torres and Villa will be vital.
What do you make of England's chances? I have a feeling that England might go one step further than normal this time. So, quarters or semis, then. We might actually beat one genuinely good team. I wrote about this earlier this season and I find it hard to avoid the feeling that with England success or failure depends on the teams that await once it gets to knock out rounds, rather than how well we really play. I wrote:
The bottom line is that England have not beaten a 'big' country in a knock out game at the World Cup for years. England have been remarkably consistent at the World Cup and yet the reactions have been very different. In 1998 they fell at the first hurdle. In 1990 they were gloriously close to the final. There's always a hardluck story; a robbery, a villain but there is also an inescapable fact. Since 1986 (in 1982 the format was different), England have gone out to the first 'good' side they have played. Argentina in 86, Germany in 90, not even there in 94, Argentina in 98, Brazil in 02 Portugal in 06. The sides they had beaten in knock out games? Paraguay, Belgium, Cameroon, Denmark, Ecuador. It's not really glorious. Yet 1998 was a failure, 1990 a triumph. The difference is who they played. In 1990, after a dreadful group phase, a late goal from a set-play took England through against Belgium and a couple of dodgy penalties beat Cameroon. Then it was Germany and Arriverderchi. But it was a glorious, heady summer in England.
Rooney or Ronaldo? Ronaldo. I think he takes bad decisions but is such an astonishingly talented and physical imposing figure that he is genuinely special.
That's it Sid, thanks a million for speaking to EFW and muchas gracias por todo and especially for putting some meat on the bones of our La Liga coverage. Pleasure.
You can read his work in The Guardian HERE and also catch him in Four Four Two and World Soccer Magazine.
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This New Years the honey and I celebrated our 6 month wedding anniversary :) Is it too early to break out the top tier of our wedding cake?
If you're planning a wedding in the coming months, definitely take advantage of this time! There is a LOT of Christmas stuff still available, most of which is seriously marked down. I really wanted our wedding to be magical and beautiful, but also on a budget. It's one of the most special days of your life, but it`s also just one day (or in our case, a couple of days :). They key was looking for bargains without necessarily skimping on everything, and knowing when and where to splurge. Ask yourself which details you'll really remember in the long run.
We strung the balls in alternating colours and sizes along the rope, tying them in place with a little bit of gold ribbon (super cheap from Dollarama).
It turned out fabulously! The garlands were so bright and fun, and they really dressed up the tent with a festive look. Best of all they didn't cost a fortune. I wish I had a proper picture of the entire tent to show you!
|Jodie Miller Photography via ruffledblog.com
Hiring someone to light your wedding can cost hundreds of dollars, but with a ladder and a bit of time we were able to easily do it ourselves! (We did have our handyman double check the electric side of things though to make sure we didn't blow any fuses :) We strung lights all around the tent and throughout the garden, as well as lining the entry. Again, wish I had proper pics to show you, but it was really lovely :)
Christmas lights will be on sale in a lot of stores right now, so take the opportunity to stock up. I must have bought at least 15-20 strings of lights, in addition to what we already owned. I got some with green cords to use in the trees and some with white cords to use in the tent. You could even borrow them from friends – just label each cord with a little piece of masking tape to make sorting and returning them much easier. I went with white lights, but try colours too for a really fun look.
I didn't actually shop for these during Boxing week, but you totally could. Look for sales on Christmas tulle and ribbons you could use to wrap up your favours. We ordered little jars of honey and customized them with homemade labels, using a verse from the Quran on the beauty & benefits of honey :) Family and friends were a huge help in putting together hundreds of these little sweethearts!


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Cruise Critic: Why Sail the High Seas?
T+L's Cruise Critic tells how she learned to stop worrying and love cruising.
The last person you'd expect to love cruising is an adventure addict whose most cherished memories involve trekking via yak cart across the Mongolian steppe, slogging through jungles to see gorillas in Cameroon, and watching a weather-clearing ceremony conducted by a tribe in West Papua that's just a generation away from cannibalism. (The sky did actually clear just above their village.) But a cruise ship the size of a Manhattan suburb?
Yet here I am, shimmying in a Bollywood dance scene of gowned, tuxedoed, and—because this sailing has drawn an inordinately large group of Indian guests—sari-clad passengers aboard the Crown Princess. We're sailing through the Baltic Sea and sipping champagne from a pyramid of glasses that reaches nearly two decks high. It's downright undignified. And, quite literally, a boatload of fun.
Granted, this 3,080-passenger cruise ship isn't a natural fit—not with my passion for vanishing cultures or my urban life full of work meetings and art gallery openings. But when 12 of my friends wanted to plan a trip, Princess Cruises' 11-day voyage to Scandinavia and Russia offered an unbeatable format. In a dozen days, we'd visit seven countries, but unpack only once. There's no awkwardness around expenses; each couple has chosen a cabin that fits their budget; meals are included; drinks and wine go on individual tabs. The back-sore are spared long slogs through shops or museums (they can sign up for easy excursions, hang out in a tavern, or simply hole up in their cabins). And when you compare the cost to a decent hotel in any major European city, the price—about $200 per person per day—is a bargain.
Value and variety have long been the promise of the cruise industry, but until recently that was mostly wishful thinking. Decades ago, when I sailed on my first liner—Cunard's original Queen Elizabeth 2—nearly all passenger ships were wildly expensive and so stiff-upper-lip you expected Jeeves to turn up and tsk-tsk at any moment. By the time I embarked on my next sailing, in the 1990's, cruising had done a one-eighty. Stodgy was out. My beau and I rocked to "Midnight Train to Georgia" and "Footloose" along with guest star Gladys Knight on the now defunct Norwegian Seaward and struggled with the weighty decisions of whether to spend the rest of our time snorkeling, sunning, or tossing back another piña colada.
But over time, the beach-party concept wore thin, especially for a cruise critic like me. The island-hopping itineraries, beef-and-mash menus, and even the ships themselves seemed stuck in the same endless loop, regardless of which company owned them. The beau turned husband refused to sail again until I bribed him with a Croatian coast itinerary with the luxe SeaDream Yacht Club. For one carefree week, we strolled ancient island towns, returning to the ship only to sleep, nibble on caviar, and sip Belvedere martinis with fellow passengers. To this day, we still cherish our dawn voyage through the Grand Canal to our Venice mooring just steps from Peggy Guggenheim's palazzo museum. And then laugh at the memory of the next part of that same trip: a bargain-basement voyage from Genoa to Nice—$35 a day, no meals included, on an early incarnation of EasyCruise. We paid $15 for loaded nachos and bunked in a cabin so narrow that when all six foot four of my husband lay crosswise on the floor, his feet touched one wall and his head the other.
Granted, I was on assignment as a cruise critic at the time and few people would follow that strange course. But the extremes prove that cruises have evolved a great deal since my grandmother wrapped herself in a fox collar and embarked on a European vacation decades ago. What was then a mere handful of transatlantic liners has been supplanted by a flotilla of sophisticated passenger ships that are as much resorts as they are transportation, with vessels whose facilities and activities are designed to appeal to savvy travelers and novices, cozy couples and tech-mad kids, singles and multigenerational families.
Cuisine at sea is also as inventive—and varied—as at fine restaurants in major cities. Windstar Cruises and SeaDream are just two of the many lines whose chefs lead culinary foraging excursions; Oceania Cruises takes the trend up a notch by including onboard cooking classes and local chefs and restaurateurs as guides. Holland America has added vegetarian menus and a dinner presenting dishes from six continents in a single meal. Celebrity Cruises is bringing its snappy Qsine eatery (think sushi lollipops) to several ships. Among the many lines with wine-themed cruises is AmaWaterways, which offers sailings that highlight vintages of the Rhine and Rhône, and Paul Gauguin Cruises, on which experts from Napa wineries come along for the ride.
Even island-hopping cruises have become far more than a floating antidote to a winter chill. Magic shows (Crystal Cruises), true high-speed Internet access (Royal Caribbean), and aromatherapeutic yoga classes (Princess) are just a few of this season's new shipboard amenities. And in an effort to outdo one another, ships have become floating resorts with endless (and over-the-top) offerings: a golfing simulation of Scotland's Old Course, a zipline above a courtyard rimmed with staterooms, bowling lanes, art studios, and, soon, a boardwalk set over the sea. I've even signed up for an acupuncture treatment to lose weight (on a cruise—what was I thinking?).
The biggest news isn't the ships themselves, but where they're going and the touring options once they arrive. Cruises offer once-in-a-lifetime itineraries that make it possible to visit remote locations in comfort, from Borneo and Papua New Guinea (Orion Expedition Cruises) to Antarctica (Seabourn) and Easter Island (Oceania). And who wants to dash through world wonders? No need. Crystal has overnight trips to Peru's Machu Picchu. Next year, Silversea's new Galápagos trips will allow you to explore the origins of Darwin's theories. And Azamara Club Cruises' ships have specialty sailings that take in the British Open, the Monaco Grand Prix, and Carnival in Rio.
But just when I think I've done it all as a cruise critic, new itineraries catch my eye. In the coming year, Regent Seven Seas will sail from Mumbai to Luxor with stops in Qatar, Dubai, Oman, and Abu Dhabi—all on my must-see list. Another lust-worthy journey: Seabourn's Indonesian trip to Komodo, Flores, and Java (though the chances of my snagging 26 days away from my daily life are right up there with writing a best seller). More likely is French Country Waterways' leisurely, bubbly-filled barge trip through the Champagne region. And why not? When I'm worn to a nub, I've found there's no better salve than the do-as-I-wish pace of a womblike ship, where I can explore a new city by day and tuck into my stateroom by night, the windows open to the breeze.
Jane Wooldridge is Travel + Leisure's cruise editor and the business editor at the Miami Herald.
47 B.C.: Caesar and Cleopatra navigate the Nile on a thalamegos, a vessel with catamaran-style hulls and sumptuous interiors.
1492: Christopher Columbus, Spain's official "Admiral of the Ocean Sea," makes his voyage to the land that would be America.
1819: Setting sail from the U.S. to Liverpool, England, the Savannah is the first steam-engine ship to cross the Atlantic.
1840: Always aiming to please, Cunard Line's Britannia travels with a live cow to provide fresh milk for passengers.
1869: Mark Twain documents his cruise through Egypt, Greece, and the Holy Land in Innocents Abroad.
1870: White Star's Oceanic raises industry standards by providing first-class cabins, oil lamps instead of candles and—yes!—running water.
1950's: Cruising becomes a luxury as air travel takes off.
1963: The perils of celebrity: while Rita Hayworth is traveling on the United States, a crew member steals her toilet seat for a keepsake.
1977: Millions of viewers tune in to watch ABC's The Love Boat, based on the novels of a real-life cruise director.
1996: Land ho! Disney Cruise Line purchases its own island, Castaway Cay, in the Bahamas.
2009: Royal Caribbean International launches the world's largest cruise ship, the Oasis of the Seas, complete with a "Central Park"—and 12,000 plants and trees.
2012: Stateside river cruising comes full circle as the American Queen Steamboat Company plies the Mississippi, antebellum-style.


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Spotting between periods could be very unpleasant and disturbing. Usually vaginal spotting occurs when a small amount of blood (in most cases brown oxidized) passes through the vagina between periods.
Brown spotting between periods
Some females are suffering from brown spotting between periods which can be very unpleasant and disturbing. Spotting occurs when a small amount of blood passes through the vagina between periods. Sometimes it doesn't reach the underwear, but is swiped with toilet paper after a bowel movement or urination.
The spots can be pink-tinged mucus, rust brown or bright red.
Spotting can happen once, or it can last for several hours or even several days.
It can appear during using pills and also can appear without any medication.
Spotting does not define the first day of menstruation, which begins on the first day of full bleeding generally every 28 days.
Brown Spotting after period
Normal spotting may occur following your period. A day or two of spotting after 3 to 5 days of menstruation is normal.
Brown Spotting before period
One common cause of spotting several days before a period is low progesterone. Progesterone helps to maintain the uterine lining for pregnancy, and when progesterone levels drop, the menstrual cycle occurs. Progesterone-deficient women will see spotting several days to a week before their period is due. This can affect fertility and in some cases causes miscarriage.
Brown Spotting ovulation
Spotting in the middle of your cycle, or ten to fourteen days prior to the start of the next cycle, is normal too. This spotting may occur during ovulation. Mid-cycle spotting may occur for several reasons. When the egg bursts through the follicle, some bleeding may occur. Alternatively, during ovulation, levels of estrogen rise and sometimes prompting the uterus to shed a bit of lining, which shows up as spotting.
Brown spotting between periods
If your period is late you might get a brown, rather than red, discharge. It could also mean that for whatever reason during your last menses the entire uterine lining failed to make a timely exit. Brown Discharge may happen right after periods, and is just "cleaning out" your vagina. Old blood looks brown. This may occur when you are ovulating in the middle of menstrual cycle.
Brown vaginal discharge between periods can also be a symptom of a medical concern that is much more sinister than leftover endometrial cells. Some of these conditions include Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID), menopause, sexually transmitted diseases (gonorrhea, Chlamydia or genital warts) or cervical cancer.
Brown Spotting and vaginal infection
Vaginal infection (yeast infection, bacterial vaginosis) or a sexually transmitted infection (trichomoniasis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, or herpes) can cause your cervix to become irritated or inflamed. An inflamed cervix is particularly prone to spotting after sex or a Pap smear. You may also spot or bleed after sex or a Pap smear if you have a cervical polyp (a benign growth).
Brown Spotting during pills
Break-through bleeding, or bleeding when you are not scheduled to bleed, is very common in the first 6 months of continuous birth control pill use. Your body is getting used to the constant level of hormones. Spotting is when the amount of blood is so tiny that no pad or tampon is needed. The longer you take the continuous pills the less bleeding and spotting will happen. You do not need to stop the pill to have a period because bleeding happens, instead try to figure out what caused the bleeding and keep taking the daily pill if you want to have no bleeding. Stopping the pill only begins the whole process again.
Brown Spotting pregnancy
Up to a quarter of pregnant women have some spotting or bleeding in early pregnancy, and about half of these women miscarry. But if you have an ultrasound that shows a normal heartbeat between 7 and 11 weeks, your chances of continuing the pregnancy are greater than 90 percent.
Spotting or bleeding can be an early sign of miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy, especially if accompanied by abdominal pain or cramping. Bleeding can also signal a molar pregnancy, a relatively rare condition in which abnormalities in the fertilized egg at conception make it impossible for the embryo to develop or survive.)
Brown Implantation spotting
You may have some light spotting for a day or two at about the time when the fertilized egg burrows into the wall of your uterus. This is a process that starts just six to seven days after fertilization, so you wouldn't even know you were pregnant yet. Spotting that occurs about a week before the cycle is due, and lasts for less than one day, could be implantation spotting, which happens when a fertilized egg burrows into the uterine lining.
Another cause of implantation spotting may be the slight rise in estrogen and drop in progesterone before the corpus luteum takes over the production of progesterone. This happens when the implanted fertilized egg signals the body that pregnancy has occurred and that the lining must be maintained. However, spotting that continues for days is not implantation spotting.
Other cases of Brown vaginal spotting
Uterine fibroids can also cause abnormal spotting. They are often harmless, but should be monitored. Other potential causes are endometriosis and birth control pills. The most dangerous causes of spotting are sexually transmitted diseases and cancer.
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Saturday, April 14, 2007
On the Street……Fifth Avenue, New York
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17 comments
Great shoes!
I love this person's use of brown. The tie has just enough use of brown to play off his jacket and trousers, but also has a bit of yellow to compliment his blue shirt. I think that a predominantly brown color scheme gives off a more relaxed elegance to a man's wardrobe.
Ehhh. Not your best.
there's really nothing better than a handsome man in a suit in a big city!
Well, we've gotten to the point where, as in this example, it's not always clear whether shorter pants is a deliberate move or not.
Everything else with this gent's dress seems fairly traditional, so…
Must also add that I'm not in favor of shoes in this shade of tan, which seems to me a mite too yellow…
great shoes to go with the suit
i love the shoes. perfect color
isnt that the guy who works at luciano barbera?
hmm like the use of browns but it's like his pants can't decide if they want to be long or short. If you're going to go short commit and go all the way.
Aren´t his pants about one inch too short? Or is he pulling them up by his hands in the pockets to show off the high shine shoes?
He looks vigorous and positive nevertheless.
love the shoes… not so much the outfit.
Isn't this Michael, the president of Barbera USA? His tailoring is perfect.
from my perspective he's doing a 70s throwback (e.g. the tie, the colouring) in a modern way (e.g. narrow trousers). I like it!
Sorry I'll never get used to the flood pants look. Far too Pee Wee Herman. They also completely expose the shoes which are way too pale for this get up. I may be a purist but the old rule about shoes being tonally darker than the pants still holds good. He is a handsome guy with a substantial physique so the overall look stays well on the right side of clownish but Mickey D is definitely in the air I fear. Some posters suggest this is the head of Barbera in the USA, in which case I have to believe Luciano would have a fit.
He looks smashing, tailoring is perfect and the pants actually look good on him.
The brown shoes are fantastic…maybe too european for the american market, but they are amazing.
What a great ensamble (love the tie!!!)
Well put together, sir.
The photo, though, brings up what is for me the question with regard to the way designers tinker with the fit of men's suits from year to year.
On the runway, accompanied by a manifesto, the length of his trousers might be attributed to the designer "experimenting with proportion," or something like that.
All well and good, experimenting in the atelier or on the runway. But when the clothes get onto the frame of a man who is not a model and are then worn during a day at, say, the office, some may be inclined to think that he is just an unfortunate man in the wrong size suit.
I actually like the color of his shoes but are they square toed? Square toes have been done to death for the moment, I think.
nice personality


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Latest Articles
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Hands-on with Rusted Emeth, the JRPG where you fight giant monsters in huge mechs for cash and glory
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Animal Boyfriend is amazing and sweet and weird and creepy and you should probably start playing it right now
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The Garden of Gethsemane is not really a garden but an orchard. Olive trees still grow there today. During Jesus' day it was a place of business, an olive press producing the local areas supply of oil. This is where the word Gethsemane comes in. A gat (Hebrew) is a press, a large five-foot high square stone pillar, and a semane, or seman, is oil. So on the evening before his crucifixion he went to the orchard of the Olive Press with Peter, James, and John, to pray.
If you lived in the first century and worked with a gethsemane your day would be spent gathering olives, placing them in a woven fishnet like bag, and putting them on top of a stone table. This specially designed table is round with beveled edges that curve down to a trough. The trough is angled and funnels into a pot which holds the oil. The top is designed to receive the gethsemane. The tall square stone is lifted up and set on top of the basket and for several hours its tremendous weight is left there to crush the liquid from the olive.
It is no mistake that Jesus spent his last evening in the Garden of Gethsemane. From there he would leave to go to the cross and receive the weight of the world, the gethsemane of our sins, blood crushed from his body running down the cross to the world below. Luke describes the pressure Jesus suffered that evening: "Being in anguish his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." It is an image of the gathsemane crushing the oil from the olive fruit.
Gethsemane ever since has come to symbolize suffering. And my friends the world is crowded with gethsemanes, Herods slaughtering the innocent. Look around the United States: Oklahoma City, Heath High School, Columbine, New York City. And around the world: Dunblane in Scotland, Halabja in Iraq (i.e., the gassing of the Kurds), Srebrenica in Bosnia, and the town of Beslan, Russia. The world is full of gethsemanes, times when and towns where the innocent have suffered.
In the face of such unspeakable horror we ask ourselves these questions:
First who do we turn to? It is safe to say that all of us here mourned with those mothers and fathers in Russia who lost over 300 of their children, just as the world suffered with us on September 11, 2001. In a small town the loss of 300 children turned that village into a mausoleum. A thousand years from now people will say, "Beslan, the place where all those children died." So who do we turn too? Can anybody help in the face of such a dreadful thing? It doesn't seem like it does it? The sorrow is so deep God seems absent.
Psalm 77, written in the Iron Age more than 2,500 years ago, stares straight in the face of some unspeakable horror that occurred to Israel. "Will the Lord cast off for ever?" the Psalmist asks. "And will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail forever more? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? And I said, this is my infirmity."
Who do we turn to when things are unexplainably painful? God? How can we when even he seems to be absent? My friends. I am not asking this question the Bible is. The Psalmist in essence is saying that there is no consolation, not even in God, when your soul has been torn from you. But even in great despair something faithful is happening. Even when we cry out "God is not there" we reveal our deep desire for God.
John Donne experienced his own Gethsemane. Donne was a 17th century poet, who experienced great pain. Because he married the daughter of a disapproving lord, he was fired from his job as assistant to the Lord Chancellor, yanked from his wife, and locked in a dungeon. (This is when he wrote that succinct line of despair, "John Donne/ Anne Donne/ Undone.") Later, he endured a long illness, which sapped his strength almost to the point of death. In the midst of this illness, Donne wrote a series of devotions on suffering which rank among the most poignant meditations on the subject. In one of these, he considers a parallel: The sickness, which keeps him in bed, forces him to think about his spiritual condition. Suffering gets our attention; it forces us to look to God, when otherwise we would just as well ignore Him.
That's it. Suffering gets our attention. Suffering forces us to look toward one another; forces us to ask the deeper questions about life; forces us to turn toward God. Even if it is to express our displeasure and despair, we turn to Him and in those pleas we display our faith in Him.
The first question is: Who do we turn to? The second is: What are we to do? The answer here is obvious. We are to pray. When Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane he went there for one reason, to pray. Why are you sleeping, Jesus asked his disciples. Get up and pray! Prayer prepares the soul for suffering. Jesus understood what lie ahead and he knew that prayer was the only way to prepare them.
Prayer does two things for us. It helps us cope with hardship. There is a story about a missionary family in Pakistan who lost their 6-month-old baby. A wise man in the area heard of their grief and came to comfort them. He said, "A tragedy like this is similar to being plunged into boiling water. If you are an egg, your affliction will make you hard-boiled and unresponsive. If you are a potato, you will emerge soft and pliable, resilient and adaptable." It may sound funny to God, but there have been times when I have prayed, "O Lord, let me be a potato."
Prayer helps us cope with hardship and then, here's the second thing, it guides away from temptation. Notice that Jesus told his disciples to pray so "you will not fall into temptation." Now that's odd. You would expect Jesus to say, pray that you are able to endure the hardship to come. But hardship brings temptation: Temptation to compromise our principles, temptation to pursue pleasure over adversity, temptation to renounce our faith in God. Peter, James and John quickly learned this lesson as they denied that they knew Jesus. They left the scene of his betrayal afraid for their own lives. They did not pray so they did not stay.
Prayer helps us cope with life's hardships and it keeps us from temptation. But here is one more thing you can do. Pray for the families of all those who have suffered at the hands of terrorist these past few years. Today, September 11, 2009, we remember the horrible events of 911. We shall never forget that day. And, I don't think there is a parent today who doesn't grieve for those Russian parents either. Both tragedies are horribly linked in our psyche. Terrorism continues to tear at our world. I would like to see the church in every country rise up an army of prayer soldiers to pray for the defeat of this evil. Those who suffer need our prayer but Christians must also go on the offensive and pray God's kingdom come His will be done. The world is dealing with a cult of death the church must offer a culture of life.
First question: Who do we turn to? Answer: God, even in our despair. Second question: What do we do? Answer: Pray to cope. Pray against temptation. Pray for one another. And pray for the Kingdom to come. Third question: Where do we go from here? Answer? Well this one is a little more complicated. The answer isn't easy because life isn't. When Jesus left Gethsemane he went to Golgotha. At times we all seem to be running from the garden of despair to the hill of suffering.
Look at the stories of the bible. At some time or another there has been a Gethsemane for all God's people. For Abraham it was when he was asked to sacrifice his only son. For Joseph it was those unjust years in jail. Paul had any number of Gethsemanes in his experience; he once listed the number of times he had been stoned, whipped, robbed and shipwrecked. The following is from the poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, entitled "Gethsemane":
Down shadowy lanes, across strange streams
Bridged over by our broken dreams;
Behind the misty caps of years,
Beyond the great salt fount of tears,
The garden lies. Strive as you may,
You cannot miss it in your way.
All paths that have been, or shall be,
Pass somewhere through Gethsemane.
All those who journey, soon or late,
Must pass within the garden's gate;
Must kneel alone in darkness there,
And battle with some fierce despair.
God pity those who cannot say,
'Not mine but thine,' who only pray,
'Let this cup pass,' and cannot see
The purpose in Gethsemane.
It would be dishonest to say that God makes everything all right in this world. The death of 3000 innocent souls who were simply going to work on September 11, eight years ago, tells me the world is crowded with Gethsemanes. The death of 4500+ soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan tells me that peace has an enormous price. The burial of 350 children in Beslan tells me that evil still wins in this world. Don't get me wrong. I as much as any man find hope in the resurrection. I am simply cannot deny the picture painted by the Psalmist when he asks, "Will the Lord cast off for ever?" And will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail forever more? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? And I said, this is my infirmity."
So the answer to the third question? Where do we go from here? Perhaps Wilcox's poem has it right: All paths that have been, or shall be, pass somewhere through Gethsemane. Amen.


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text: For this week's Project We theme we are supposed to share a photo or write about something that goes along with the color yellow. So for this post I edited a picture using Picnik of one of my friends and me at the Marine Corps Ball. I am in the JCC program at school which stands for Junior Cadet Corps. Some of the Cadets got to go to the Marine Corps Ball last Friday in Dallas, Texas at W.T. White High School. It was a lot of fun! We ate dinner and danced. Best part was we didn't have to be in uniform. I truly enjoy JCC. We even got to see my teacher act goofy and dance, which you don't see every day.


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Skye Bolt has 2 RBIs, North Carolina claims ACC title by beating Virginia Tech 4-1
DURHAM, N.C. – Skye Bolt drove in two runs and North Carolina beat Virginia Tech 4-1 on Sunday in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.
Taylore Cherry worked five solid innings in his first career start to help the top-seeded Tar Heels (52-8) earn their sixth ACC tournament title but just their second since 1990.
North Carolina claimed its 19th straight victory against the Hokies (38-20) and denied them their first conference title since they won the Atlantic-10 tournament in 2000.
The Tar Heels finished up with an exhausting 4-0 record this week in Durham, and the middle two wins lasted a combined 32 innings.
They needed 14 innings to beat Clemson on Friday night and 18 to defeat rival N.C. State in a game that ended just before 2 a.m. Sunday — roughly 11 hours before the title game.


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Every day computer users do a variation of a simple task: selecting an element from a list of choices. Examples include installing packages with 'apt-get install packagename', launching an application from the Dash with its name, selecting your country from a list on web pages and so on.
The common thing in all these use cases is intolerance for errors. If you have just one typo in your text, the correct choice will not be found. The only way around is to erase the query and type it again from scratch. This is something that people have learned to do without thinking.
It's not very good usability, though. If the user searches for, say, Firefox by typing "friefox" by accident, surely the computer should be able to detect what the user meant and offer that as an alternative.
The first user-facing program in Ubuntu to offer this kind of error tolerance was the HUD. It used the Levenshtein distance as a way of determining user intent. In computer science terminology this is called approximate string matching or, informally, fuzzy matching.
Once the HUD was deployed, the need to have this kind of error correction everywhere became apparent. Thus we sent out to create a library to make error tolerant matching easy to embed. This library is called libcolumbus.
Technical info
Libcolumbus has been designed with the following goals in mind:
- it must be small
- it must be fast
- it must be easy to embed
- it is optimized for online typing
The last of these means that you can do queries at any time, even if the user is still typing.
At the core of libcolumbus is the Levenshtein distance algorithm. It is a well known and established way of doing fuzzy matching. Implementations are used in lots of different places, ranging from heavy duty document retrieval engines such as Lucene and
Xapian all the way down to Bash command completion. There is even a library that does fuzzy regexp matching.
What sets Columbus apart from these are two things, both of which are well known and documented but less often used: a fast search implementation and custom errors.
The first feature is about performance. The fast Levenshtein implementation in libcolumbus is taken almost verbatim from this public domain implementation. The main speedup comes from using a trie to store the words instead of iterating over all items on every query. As a rough estimate, a brute force implementation can do 50-100 queries a second with a data set of 3000 words. The trie version can do 600 queries/second on a data set of 50000 words.
The second feature is about quality of results. It is best illustrated with an example. Suppose there are two items to choose from, "abc" and "abp". If the user types "abo", which one of these should be chosen? In the classical Levenshtein sense both of the choices are identical: they are one replace operation away from the query string.
However from a usability point of view "abp" is the correct answer, because the letter p is right next to the letter o and very far from the letter c. The user probably meant to hit the key o but just missed it slightly. Libcolumbus allows you to set custom errors for these
kinds of substitutions. If the standard substitution error is 100, one could set the error for substitution error for adjacent keys to a smaller value, say 20. This causes words with "simple typos" to be ranked higher automatically.
There are several other uses for custom errors:
- diacritical characters such as ê, é and è can be mapped to have very small errors to each other
- fuzzy number pad typing can be enabled by assigning mapping errors from the number to corresponding letters (e.g. '3' to 'd', 'e' and 'f') as well as adjacent letters (i.e. those on number keys '2' and '6')
- spam can be detected by assigning low errors for letters and numbers that look similar, such as '1' -> 'i' and '4' -> 'a' to match 'v14gr4' to 'viagra'
Libcolumbus contains sample implementations for all these except for the last one. It also allows setting insert and delete errors at the beginning and end of the match. When set to low values this makes the algorithm do a fuzzy substring search. The online matching discussed above is implemented with this. It allows the library to match the query term "fier" to "firefox" very fast.
Get the code
Our goal for the coming cycle is to enable error tolerant matching in as many locations as possible. Those developers who wish to try it on their application can get the source code here.
The library is implemented in C++0x. The recommended API to use is the C++ one. However since many applications can not link in C++ libraries, we also provide a plain C API. It is not as extensive as the C++ one, but we hope to provide full coverage there too.
The main thing to understand is the data model. Libcolumbus deals in terms of documents. A document consists of a (user provided) document ID and a named collection of texts. The ID field is guaranteed to be large enough to hold a pointer. Here's an example of what a document could look like:
id: 42 name: packagename description: This package does something.
Each line is a single word field name followed by the text it contains. A document can contain an arbitrary number of fields. This is roughly analogous to what MongoDB uses. It should be noted that libcolumbus does not read any data files. The user needs to create document objects programmatically. The example above is just a visualisation.
When the documents are created and passed to the main matcher object for processing, the system is ready to be queried. The result of queries is a list of document IDs and corresponding relevancies. Relevancy is just a number whose meaning is roughly "bigger relevancy means better". The exact values are arbitrary and may change even between queries. End-user applications usually don't need to bother with them.
There is one thing to be mindful, though. The current implementation has a memory backend only. Its memory usage is moderate but it has not yet been thoroughly optimized. If your data set size is a few hundred unique words, you probably don't have to care. A few thousand takes around 5 MB which may be a problem in low memory
devices. Tens of thousands of words take tens of megabytes which may be too much for many use cases. Both memory optimizations and a disk backend are planned but for now you might want to stick to smallish data sets.


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I am wondering whether a website you are accessing can tell if you are using a VPN or not based on your IP address? I have done some Google research and it appears, that this is the case.
However, I am not exactly sure whether it is different if you use a dedicated IP from a VPN service instead of a dynamic IP address. Can it be possible that your IP looks like a "private" IP from a private household?