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Under/Overdriveâ"¢ Facts
Straight facts about GEAR VENDORS more power enhancing gas saving transmissions!
You want more power to climb hills or tow with heavy loads, plus at the touch of a button taller gearing for cruising down the highway with the lower engine RPMs and improved mileage. You'll need an auxiliary transmission capable of gear splitting and overdrive. The toughest built best performing auxiliary transmission you can buy is the UNDER/OVERDRIVEâ"¢ from GEAR VENDORS INC.
Each UNDER/OVERDRIVEâ"¢ auxiliary transmission represents the combined effort and technology of GEAR VENDORS, INC. (the largest producer of overdrives in the world). The very finest in manufacturing, assembly, and R&D facilities are available. Our customers ride with confidence knowing that GEAR VENDORS, INC. offers the only auxiliary transmission available that is approved and used by new car and motorhome manufacturers. Component quality is unsurpassed, Sheffield steel planetary gear set, 4500 ft. lb. roller clutch, forged ring gear assembly, common vertex (cone) full throttle shift clutch.
No matter how much enjoyment you derive from the improved performance of gear splitting on hills and overdrive when cruising, if your auxiliary transmission leaves you stranded in the middle of the highway, you'll wish you never made the purchase. GEAR VENDORS current "P"-Type UNDER/OVERDRIVEâ"¢ is the toughest rated product in the industry. Guaranteed to 30,000 lbs. GCVW, the unit relies on a mechanical lockup roller clutch (Sprague) just like automatic transmissions do to handle the extreme torque peaks of initial take off and change of direction from reverse to drive. It is a completly self contained system with its own integral pump and pressurized lubrication, (features not found in any other auxiliary transmissions). Ask these questions of any other auxiliary transmission manufacturer:
- Can the unit get stuck in neutral?
- What if the unit loses all its fluid (leak)?
- Can I shift the unit under any throttle condition (including full throttle)?
- If a major problem occurs, can I simply shut it off and continue driving?
GEAR VENDORS knows the RVer wants a gear splitting/overdrive product that works as well as the rest of his vehicle and can never leave him stranded, period! Price is secondary, Reliability First.
Power is certainly the No. 1 reason more people choose the GEAR VENDORS UNDER/OVERDRIVEâ"¢.There is no other auxiliary transmission available which can split gears as effectively.
In vehicles with automatic transmissions the unit is intended to shift at any throttle position including full throttle and delivers a crisp responsive shift. Shift it as much as you like . . . the internally activated common vertex clutch is designed to last 250,000 miles. Vehicles with manual transmissions also benefit from the constant mesh planetary gear design as both in-shifts and out-shifts are as simple as depressing the vehicles clutch pedal and pushing a button. No syncros to wear out, no grinding gears or misshifts possible. The systems sophisticated planetary design has very low friction which means not only will a GEAR VENDORS last longer, but it's quieter and has less power loss (less than 1hp per 400hp) than any other auxiliary transmission. All GEAR VENDORS UNDER/OVERDRIVESâ"¢ offer a .78 to 1 (22%) overdrive ratio, designed to be the ultimate gear splitting and overdrive ratio for today's RV's. Anything less than 22% would be less effective at slowing RPMs while cruising in overdrive . . . anything more than 22% wouldn't be effective as a gear splitter when you need power to climb hills or to pass slower traffic. Performance through proper gearing is the cornerstone of GEAR VENDORS UNDER/OVERDRIVEâ"¢.
There are many devices advertised as remedies for poor gas mileage. Fact is, anyone who tells you how much you are going to gain is just trying to sell you something. Every vehicle represents many different situations, different drivers, different conditions of tuning, different climates and altitudes. The GEAR VENDORS UNDER/OVERDRIVEâ"¢ is not some magic pill, but twice the number of forward gears for combating all these different conditions.
We at GEAR VENDORS believe that proper available gearing is the best solution to problems of power and economy. Why modify your engine for more horsepower and possibly deter from its reliability or void the manufacturer's warranty when every time you shift there are such big changes in transmission ratios that your engine RPMs fall completely out of the power range. You need that half gear between each of your current gears which will not only keep the engine making power but improve its useful life and reliability. You'll no longer be overreving the engine in too low a gear or lugging it in too tall a gear. Plus out of the same device get a gear that lets the engine slow down without slowing down the vehicle which not only can save you a lot of fuel, but greatly reduce engine wear. Imagine the same engine work (RPMs) that currently take you 15.56 miles – can take you 20 miles in overdrive (that's a lot less wear) not to mention the fuel savings and longer range. There is a lot less engine noise in overdrive also. These are some of the reasons Volvo, whose cars have the longest average life expectancy of any automobile company in the world (21 years) bought more than 1 million of these units over the years.
Get geared for power and economy with a GEAR VENDORS UNDER/OVERDRIVEâ"¢


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Free Download Girl Outdoor Field iPhone Wallpaper
Table of Contents Show
Free Download Girl Outdoor Field iPhone Wallpaper for Free iPhone, Android, PC, Laptop, desktop
Girl Outdoor Field iPhone Wallpaper Free Download
Girl Outdoor Field iPhone Wallpaper is free mobile wallpaper. First of all this fantastic wallpaper can be used for Apple iPhone and Samsung smartphone. Second of all, it's free and easy to download. Choose any Wallpaper for your iOS or Android device.
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File Name : Girl Outdoor Field iPhone Wallpaper
Resolution : 844×1500 Pixel
Category : Girls
Commercial usage: Not allowed

subset: commoncrawl


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J. Alex Halderman to Teach Course on Electronic and Internet Voting through Coursera
The University of Michigan is venturing into the realm of free online courses through the education company Coursera, which was founded in 2011 by two faculty from Stanford University. Among the courses to be offered this fall is Securing Digital Democracy, taught by U-M Prof. J. Alex Halderman.
Over 4000 people have already registered for the course, which is free and open to the public. Prof. Halderman is enthusiastic about the project and has stated, "This is an exciting opportunity to experiment with new teaching technologies, and it's an important opportunity to pursue our fundamental missions of education and public outreach in a 21st century medium."
The 5-week course, which is categorized by Coursera under both Computer Science and under Society, Networks, and Information, will provide the technical background and public policy foundation that today's citizens need to understand the electronic voting debate. This excerpt from the course introduction provides a general overview of the topic:
Computer technology has transformed how we participate in democracy. The way we cast our votes, the way our votes are counted, and the way we choose who will lead are increasingly controlled by invisible computer software. Most U.S. states have adopted electronic voting, and countries around the world are starting to collect votes over the Internet. However, computerized voting raises startling security risks that are only beginning to be understood outside the research lab, from voting machine viruses that can silently change votes to the possibility that hackers in foreign countries could steal an election.
The course will cover how electronic voting and Internet voting technologies work, why they're being used, and what problems they aim to solve. It will also cover the computer- and Internet-security risks these systems face and the serious vulnerabilities that recent research has demonstrated. Finally, it will outline how computer technology has the potential to improve election security, if applied intelligently.Professor Halderman's research spans applied computer security and tech-centric public policy. His interests include software security, data privacy, electronic voting, anticensorship, digital rights management, and cybercrime, as well as technological aspects of intellectual property law and government regulation. He teaches Introduction to Computer Security (EECS 398) and Computer and Network Security (EECS 588).
Prof. Halderman's recent research projects have included exposing security weaknesses in Washington DC's Internet-based absentee voting system and in India's electronic voting machines, and in creating technology to circumvent state-level Internet censorship.
Additional Information
The University Record: U-M among first to offer courses through groundbreaking online approach
New York Times: Online Education Venture Lures Cash Infusion and Deals With 5 Top Universities
National Public Radio: From Silicon Valley, A New Approach To Education


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To get the newest news, traits and provides straight to your inbox. We have all been there—you're taking off your winter coat and that flowy gown is bunching up in bizarre locations because of static cling. Right this moment we're talking winter style traits – what's hot and what's not this season, in addition to the place to find them. Giambattista Valli, Fendi & our personal Alex Perry are main us again to ultra-female shapes such as structured A-line skirts, pinched waist dresses and ladylike coats.
Taking inspiration from the catwalks, new season casuals feature trends in texture and detail. Get $20 off your subsequent shoe design at Sneakers of Prey. Now you can purchase one get one 50{1cb7359b79a5c7c00ddef131b34d53a70f46f002f397a87c475f89b590c3e773} off children and child clothing at Bonds. Now with eight editions throughout Melbourne, the weekly magazine includes a secure of a few of Australia's most talented and greatest-known writers who will cowl subjects ranging from tradition and design to meals and wine, as well as interviews with personalities who make Melbourne tick.
So we went to the specialists to get their best suggestions for winter woes. For the savvy buyers out there seeking to buy Taobao goods, this is the chance to energy up your purchasing expertise. Over the knee boots is one winter pattern that is been on rotation for a couple of years now and we're happy about it. You can buy them in suede or leather-based and go for either a slouchy or pores and skin-tight style.
Be part of our exclusive e mail record for the perfect in style, beauty & popular culture—day-after-day. Although we offer information on the merchandise offered by a wide range of issuers, we don't cover every accessible product. This look is all about good tailoring from head to toe, as well as selecting quality fabrics. Get immediate entry to all the most recent and trendy merchandise from China's largest online marketplace, Taobao.
With the runway exhibits long forgotten, allow us to give you the recap on what we're all carrying this season to keep warm and look scorching. Florals, bandana prints and paisley chanelled a hippy vibe as the prints performed with conventions, flirting with kitsch on the border between bohemian and bourgeoisie. Glamour could earn a portion of gross sales from products that are bought via our site as a part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers.


text: Artist: Drake f/ Sampha Album: Nothing Was the Same Song: Too Much Typed by: Cedmaster3K [Chorus: Sampha] Don't think about it too much, too much, too much, too much There's no need for us to rush it through Don't think about it too much, too much, too much, too much This is more than just a new lust for you.. don't think about you [Drake] Done saying, I'm done playin', last time was on the outro Stuck in the house, need to get out more, I've been stacking up like I'm fundraising Most people in my position get complacent, come places with star girls End up on them front pages, I'm quiet with it, I just ride with it Moment I stop having fun with it, I'll be done with it I'm the only one that's putting shots up and like a potluck, you need to come with it Don't run from it, like H-Town in the summertime, I keep it 100 Met a lot of girls in my times there, word to Paul Wall, not one fronted I was birthed there in my first year, man I know that place like I come from it Backstage at Warehouse in '09 like "Is Bun coming? Fuck that, is anyone coming 'fore I show up there and there's no one there?" These days, I could probably pack it for like twenty nights if I go in there Back rub from my main thing, I've been stressed out Talking to her like back then they didn't want me, I'm blessed now Talking to her like this drop, bet a million copies get pressed out She tell me, "Take a deep breath, you're too worried about being the best out" [Chorus] [Drake] Someone go tell Noel to get the Backwoods Money got my whole family going backwards No dinners, no holidays, no nothing There's issues at hand that we're not discussing Uh, I did not sign up for this My uncle used to have all these things on his bucket list And now he's acting like, "Oh, well, this is life, I guess," Nah, fuck that shit Listen man, you can still do what you wanna do, you gotta trust that shit Heard once that in dire times when you need a sign, that's when they appear Guess since my text message didn't resonate, I'll just say it here Hate the fact my mom cooped up in her apartment, telling herself that she's too sick to get dressed up and go do shit, like that's true shit All my family from the M-Town that I've been 'round, started treating me like I'm "him" now Like we don't know each other, we ain't grow together, we just friends now Shit got me feeling pinned down, pick the pen up or put the pen down Writing to you from a distance like a pen pal, but we've been down, damn [Chorus] [Outro: Sampha] Don't give up, on your hopes And you tell me something's gone wrong Wholehearted, wholehearted.. You care, you care.. Cause I'm such a dreamer, a believer in a sense.. Well if it's all a dream.. then I'm on fire, feels like, I'm on fire Tell me when I'm lying, tell me when I'm trying


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This chapter includes the following sections:
This section describes how to use the Fusion Middleware Control Test Web Service page to verify that you are receiving the expected results from the Web service.
The Test Web Service page allows you to test any of the operations exposed by a Web service. You can test Web services that are deployed on any accessible host; the Web service does not have to be deployed on this host.
The Test Web Service page can parse WSDL URLs that contain ASCII characters only. If the URL contains non-ASCII characters, the parse operation fails. To test a Web service that has non-ASCII characters in the URL, allow your browser to convert the WSDL URL and use the resulting encoded WSDL URL in the Test Web Service page.When testing Web services that use policies, the Oracle WSM component must be installed in the same domain from which Fusion Middleware Control is being run. Otherwise, an invalid policy exception will be returned.
You can navigate to the Test Web Service page in many ways. This section describes one typical way to do so.
In the navigator pane, expand WebLogic Domain to show the domain in which you want to test a Web service.
Select the domain.
From the WebLogic Domain menu, select Web Services, and then Test Web Service. The Test Web Service input page appears.
Enter the WSDL of the Web service you want to test and click Parse WSDL. If you do not know the WSDL, click the search icon and select from the registered Web services, if any.
If the WSDL is secured with HTTP Basic Authentication, click HTTP Basic Auth Option for WSDL Access and enter the username and password before parsing the WSDL.
The Test Web Service page appears as shown in Figure 12-1. Note that the test option sections are collapsed by default.
Figure 12-1 Test Web Service Page in Collapsed View
Select the service and port to be tested. If the WSDL has multiple services and ports, these fields are available as drop-down menus. If the WSDL has only one service and port, these fields are read-only, as shown in Figure 12-1.
Select the operation that you want to test from the Operation menu. The available operations are determined from the WSDL.
To test a RESTful Web service, select the GET or POST service port operations.
If you want to change the endpoint URL of the test, click Edit Endpoint URL and make the change.
Select the Request tab if it is not already selected.
Expand the test option sections by clicking the plus sign (+) next to the section name. The expanded view of the Test Web Service page is shown in Figure 12-2.
Figure 12-2 Bottom Portion of Test Web Service Page in Expanded View
In the Security section, select the security token to verify. The security setting is not determined from a policy in the WSDL; you can specify the type of token you want to test. The default is None. Depending on the option selected, additional fields are displayed. If you do specify a username and password, they must exist and be valid for the WebLogic Server. For more information, see "Enabling Authentication".
When testing RESTful Web services, because the SOAP protocol is not used, the only security options are HTTP Basic Authentication or None.
In the Quality of Service section, specify whether you want to explicitly test a Reliable Messaging (WS-RM), WS-Addressing, or MTOM policy. For details about the options available, see "Enabling Quality of Service Testing".
This section is not available when testing RESTful Web services.In the HTTP Transport section, the test mechanism uses the WSDL to determine whether a SOAP action is available to test. If available, specify whether you want send the request with the SOAP action HTTP header. For more information, see "Enabling HTTP Transport Options".
This section is not available when testing RESTful Web services.In the Additional Test Options section, select the Enable Stress Test option if you want to invoke the Web service multiple times simultaneously. If you select this option, you can also provide values for the stress test options, or accept the defaults. For more information, see "Stress Testing the Web Service Operation".
In the Input Arguments section, enter the input arguments for the Web service in the Value fields. The parameters and type, and the required input values, are determined from the WSDL.
Select Tree View or XML View to toggle between a hierarchical list of input parameters and the XML content.
Click Test Web Service to initiate the test.
The test results appear in the Response tab upon completion.
If the test is successful, the Test Status field indicates Request Successfully received and the response time is displayed, as shown in Figure 12-3.
When running SOA composite tests, the Response tab will indicate whether a new composite was generated. You can also click the Launch Flow Trace button to open the Flow Trace window, where you can view the flow of the message through various composite and component instances.If the test fails, an error message is displayed. For example, Figure 12-4 shows an error resulting from a type error in the var-Int parameter. In this particular instance, string data was entered when an int was expected.
The results on the Response tab are a simplified version of the standard Web service results.You can view the input arguments in a user-friendly form, or you can edit the XML source code directly. If you edit the XML source directly, you must enter valid XML. Use the drop-down list in the Input Arguments section of the page to toggle between Tree View and XML View.
You can use the Test Web Service Page to test policies that use username tokens to authenticate users.
Only policies that expect a username and password are supported by the test function, including custom policies. Policies that require certificates or other tokens are not supported. You cannot use this page to test a Web service with a message protection policy.The security setting is not determined from a policy in the WSDL; you can specify the type of token you want to test. The default is None. If you do specify a username and password, they must exist and be valid.
The password must be passed in plain text. Authentication credentials may be supplied in the request by selecting one of the options in the Security section of the page (Figure 12-5). Select one of the following:
WSS Username Token – A WS-Security SOAP header is inserted. Username is required, and password is optional.
HTTP Basic Auth – Username and password credentials are inserted in the HTTP transport header. Both the username and password are required.
Custom Policy – A custom policy can be used to authenticate the user. You must specify the URI for the policy. The username and password are optional.
None – No credentials are included.
When testing RESTful Web services, because the SOAP protocol is not used, the only security options are HTTP Basic Authentication or None.Figure 12-5 Security Parameters on the Web Services Test Page
This section is not applicable when testing RESTful Web services.Three characteristics of Quality of Service (QoS) can be tested: reliable messaging (WS-RM), WS-Addressing, and Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) in the Quality of Service section of the Test Web Service Page (Figure 12-6). For each type of Quality of Service, there are three options:
WSDL Default – Execute the default behavior of the WSDL. For example, if WSDL Default is selected for MTOM, and the WSDL contains a reference to an MTOM policy, the policy is enforced. If the WSDL does not contain a reference to an MTOM policy, then no MTOM policy is enforced.
None – No policy for the specific QoS, even if it is included in the WSDL, is executed. For example, if None is selected for WS-RM, no reliable messaging policy is enforced. If the WSDL contains a reference to a reliable messaging policy, it is ignored.
Custom – Enforce a custom policy. For example, if a WS-Addressing policy is referenced in the WSDL, this policy will be ignored, and the policy specified in URI will be used instead.
URI – Specify the location of the policy to be enforced.
Figure 12-6 Quality of Service Parameters on the Test Web Service Page
This section is not applicable when testing RESTful Web services.The test mechanism uses the WSDL to determine whether a SOAP action is available to test. If the WSDL soap:operation has a soapAction attribute, then this is displayed and Enable SOAP Action is enabled.
When a request is sent with Enable SOAP Action enabled, then the SOAP action HTTP header is sent.
To change this behavior, clear the Enable SOAP Action box, in which case the HTTP header is not sent. Or, you can override the behavior by providing a different value in the SOAP Action field. (You must already know the SOAP action that you want to test, and the syntax.)
Figure 12-7 HTTP Transport Options on the Test Web Service Page
Select the Enable Stress Test check box (Figure 12-8) to invoke a continuous series of invocations of the Web service operation (Figure 12-8). The following options are available:
Concurrent Threads – The number of concurrent threads on which the invocations should be sent. The default is 5 threads.
Loops per Thread – The number of times to invoke the operation. The default is 10 times.
Delay in Milliseconds – The number of milliseconds to wait between operation invocations. The default is 1000 milliseconds (1 second).
Figure 12-8 Stress Testing Parameters on the Test Web Service Page
When you invoke the test, a progress box indicates the test status. When the stress test is complete, a confirmation page displays the results of the test.
The Response tab provides additional information about the stress test, including the number of tests with errors, and the average, minimum, and maximum response times. Details about each test are provided in tabular form. For each test, you can view the thread and loop numbers, the duration of the test, the start and end times for the test, and the invocation status. You can filter the fields displayed in the table using the View menu.
Figure 12-9 Stress Test Results on Test Web Service Page
This section does not apply to Java EE Web services.Disabling the test page for a Web service allows you to increase security by reducing the externally visible details of an application that exposes Web services.
Disabling the Endpoint Test Enabled control affects only the Web service's externally-visible test page. It does not affect the Web service test feature described in this chapter.To disable the Test Page using Fusion Middleware Control
Navigate to the Web Services summary page, as described in "Navigating to the Web Services Summary Page for an Application".
In the Web Service Details section of the page, click on the plus (+) for the Web service to display the Web service ports if they are not already displayed.
Click the name of the port to navigate to the Web Service Endpoint page.
Click the Configuration tab.
In the Endpoint Test Enabled field, select False from the list.
Click Apply.


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First it was Justin Timberlake, and now it's Eric Trump: it appears the Republican presidential nominee's second son may have broken New York law by taking a photo while he was voting and sharing it online.
Trump tweeted a photo that showed his paper ballot with a bubble above his father's name filled in on Tuesday morning, along with the caption "It is an incredible honor to vote for my father! He will do such a great job for the U.S.A!"
But he deleted the tweet later Tuesday morning after ProPublica's Electionland blog retweeted the image and reminded voters taking photos of ballots is illegal in the Empire State.
It comes less than a week after a federal judge refused to overturn a state ban on so-called "ballot selfies." Voters contended that they had the First Amendment right to post photos of their ballots, while lawyers for the state and New York City successfully argued that a century-old law barred people from showing their marked ballots to others.
New York isn't the only state to bar photography at polling places. New Jersey and a handful of other states bar voters from taking ballot selfies. Other states, including Connecticut, allow them.
The issue gained prominence last month when Timberlake posted a photo of himself inside a polling booth in Memphis, Tennessee, during early voting, violating a newly-passed state law prohibiting photography and video inside polling locations.


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The crew and expedition leaders aboard the MV Akademik Shokalskiy are considering an air evacuation of the passengers on board the ship, which is stuck in Antarctic ice.
As we've reported, two different vessels with ice breaking equipment have been dispatched to rescue the ship but both have had to abort their mission because of thick ice. Now, a third more advanced Australian vessel is trying to make its way to the Shokalskiy. If that vessel fails to break the ice, passengers may have to be transferred to other ships by helicopter.
"Expedition leader and University of New South Wales Professor Christopher Turney has taken to social media to document the experience and continued to report that the stranded 74 were in good condition, but 'still waiting.'
"The Shokalskiy was trapped during the Australian Antarctic Expedition, a mission led by Turney , who explored the Antarctic 100 years ago. It left the port of Bluff, New Zealand on Dec. 8 where it is due to return in January.
"The Snow Dragon icebreaker came within seven miles of the Shokalskiy, which has been stuck since Christmas Eve, but had to retreat after the ice became too thick, expedition spokesman Alvin Stone told the Associated Press."
The Guardian has a reporter on board the vessel. He filed this video report of the situation:
As you can see, for the most part, the passengers are taking the situation in stride and with a sense of adventure.
Chris Turney, the expedition leader, posted this video, making light of the situation:
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Researchers have developed new methods to trace the life history of individual cells back to their origins in the fertilized egg. By looking at the copy of the human genome present in healthy cells, they were able to build a picture of each cell's development from the early embryo on its journey to become part of an adult organ.
During the life of an individual, all cells in the body develop mutations, known as somatic mutations, which are not inherited from parents or passed on to offspring. These somatic mutations carry a coded record of the lifetime experiences of each cell.
By looking at the numbers and types of mutations in a cell's DNA, researchers were able to assess whether the cell had divided a few times or many times and detect the imprints, known as signatures, of the processes of DNA damage and repair that the cells had been exposed to during the life of the individual. Furthermore, comparing each cell's mutations with those of other cells in the body enabled scientists to map out a detailed tree of development from the fertilized egg.
"With this novel approach, we can peer back into an organism's development," says Dr. Sam Behjati, first author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "If we can better understand how normal, healthy cells mutate as they divide over a person's lifetime, we will gain a fundamental insight into what can be considered normal and how this differs from what we see in cancer cells."
The team looked at mouse cells from the stomach, small bowel, large bowel and prostate. The single cells were grown to produce enough DNA to be sequenced accurately. Eventually, single-cell sequencing technology will develop so that this type of experiment can be conducted using just one cell. However, the tiny amounts of DNA in single cells mean that mutation data are not currently precise enough to reconstruct accurate lineages.
The researchers recorded differences in the numbers of mutations in cells from the different tissues studied, likely attributable to differences in rates of cell division. Moreover, different patterns of mutation were found in cells from different tissues, suggesting that they have been exposed to different processes of DNA damage and repair, reflecting different lifetime experiences.
This experiment used healthy mice. If mutation rates are similar in human cells, these techniques could be used to provide an insight into the life histories of normal human cells.
"The adult human body is composed of 100 million million cells, all of which have originated from a single fertilized egg," says Professor Mike Stratton, senior author and Director of the Sanger Institute. "Much more extensive application of this approach will allow us to provide a clear picture of how adult cells have developed from the fertilised egg. Furthermore, by looking at the numbers and types of mutation in each cell we will be able to obtain a diary, writ in DNA, of what each healthy cell has experienced during its lifetime, and then explore how this changes in the range of human diseases."
Genome sequencing of normal cells reveals developmental lineages and mutational processes
Source: Sanger Institute


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CINCINNATI (AP) -- First responders in U.S. communities reeling from waves of heroin overdoses say some people tell them they should just say no to using so many resources on drug abusers.
Authorities say people have expressed frustration about rescuing addicts who often immediately resume using the potentially deadly drug. There are also concerns voiced about the wide-ranging social and government budget costs involved, including for the overdose antidote naloxone.
Some signs of heroin overdose backlash:
- Gov. Paul LePage in hard-hit Maine vetoed legislation this year to expand access to naloxone, usually under the brand name Narcan. He has explained that when people are receiving a dozen or more doses, they should start having to pay for it. The Legislature overrode his veto.
- An effort by authorities in Ohio's Hamilton County to get a dangerous heroin batch off the streets by offering immunity for people who turn in drugs drew a rebuke from Sheriff Richard Jones in neighboring Butler County, who argued it only enables dealers and users and gives them an excuse if they are caught.
- A police photo of a grandmother and her boyfriend unconscious after overdosing with a 4-year-old boy in their car went viral this month after the police department in Ohio's East Liverpool posted it on Facebook, drawing thousands of comments including from people decrying lenience toward users who endanger children or steal to support their habits.
- A retired attorney wrote an op-ed column in The Cincinnati Enquirer examining the costs of treating heroin addiction, the strain on public resources and the rise in "drugged driving" accidents as he urged aggressive punishment. "What social policy is advanced by subsidizing recklessness?" John M. Kunst Jr., of suburban Cincinnati, wrote earlier this year. "Why do we excuse and enable addiction?"
"I understand the frustration," said Police Chief Thomas Synan Jr. of Newtown, Ohio, who heads a Cincinnati-area heroin coalition task force. "I understand the feeling that someone is doing something to themselves, so why do the rest of us have to pay? But our job is to save lives, period."
He started hearing more of the frustration amid an overdose spike in the Cincinnati area that saw 174 reported overdoses within six days last month. And the outbreaks continue, with seven overdose deaths Saturday in the Cleveland area.
Synan said unlike with repeat heroin overdosers, he has never had members of the public say he shouldn't try to save a habitual drunk driver after an auto accident or someone who has repeatedly attempted suicide.
Marion, Ohio, Fire Capt. Wade Ralph said heroin has an "extremely expensive" toll on his department, struggling to keep up while being understaffed and relying on donations from health organizations for naloxone to revive those who overdose.
"There's a human factor to that that some people, I think, just forget about or maybe they ignore it and say, 'Hey screw it, let them die.' I'm like, you can't do that. We have people here, we have guys at the firehouse, whose kids have been hooked on stuff like that," said Ralph, whose city of some 37,000 people was hit last year by 30 overdose hospitalizations and two deaths in a 12-day stretch.
In the Cincinnati area, first responders have held the death toll to what appears to be low double digits, pending lab results. The spreading practice of mixing heroin with the powerful painkiller fentanyl or with carfentanil, so strong it's used to tranquilize elephants, has resulted in frequent needs for multiple doses of naloxone.
"If they weren't doing their job, they'd all be dead," said Christel Brooks, a recovering addict in Cincinnati who said she's been clean for 12 years now. She said the problem is lack of treatment facilities and other resources for intervention before rescued addicts resume drug use.
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Fire Chief Jay Delaney wrote this year to federal and state lawmakers for funding for the naloxone, expecting to administer doses this year worth about $10,000 to $11,000 at $40 each.
"Whether a firefighter is saving one from a burning building or administering Narcan, you're still saving that human being's life, so that's a big deal to us," said Delaney, whose department has received grant money this year but needs a steady funding answer. "We never thought ... that we would have so many that we would have to deal with so it became a funding crisis."
Lawrence, Massachusetts, police last week released cellphone video of an overdosed mother lying in a store aisle while her toddler daughter tried to revive her before paramedics arrived and did so.
Family Dollar clerk Nicaurys Anziani, who called 911, told The Eagle-Tribune newspaper she felt terrible for the little girl, who "was just crying and crying and crying."
Police said they hoped sharing the video will alert people to the consequences of drug use that they see on the front lines, as East Liverpool police explained about their photo of the overdosed couple with a child.
Ron Calhoun, an anti-drug activist in northern Kentucky, disputes suggestions he hears often that reviving people with naloxone is enabling heroin use.
"The only thing Narcan enables is breathing," he responds. "We just want to keep them alive and get them into treatment."
He said one young woman he knows had been revived 15 times with naloxone.
"And today, she's in rehab," Calhoun said. "Corpses don't do well in rehab."
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writer Kantele Franko in Columbus, AP photographer John Minchillo in Cincinnati, and AP researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York.


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Repost from NRDC Switchboard, Danielle Droitsch's Blog
The tar sands invasion that can be stopped
By Danielle Droitsch, April 28, 2015
Many across the United States are aware of the tar sands threat posed by the proposed Keystone XL pipeline but what many may not know is the U.S. faces a looming threat that is bigger than just this one pipeline. We call it a tar sands invasion. The plan would be to complete a network of pipelines (both new and expanded), supertankers and barges, and a fleet of explosive railway tank cars. What is at risk? San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound, the Great Lakes, the Hudson River and other places we all call home. While the threat of this invasion is already here with the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, the good news is that citizens across North America are rising up to respond and repeal the assault with a clear message: Not by pipeline, not by rail, not by tanker. The good news is that public opposition to tar sands oil is rising and projects like Keystone XL and Northern Gateway have been delayed. The tar sands assault is not inevitable. In fact, the U.S. doesn't need this dirty form of fuel and neither does Canada. The time has come to limit tar sands expansion in favor of a cleaner and brighter energy future.
A new report released by NRDC reveals that the amount of tar sands crude moving into and through the North American West Coast could increase by more than 1.7 million barrels per day if industry proposals for pipelines, tankers and rail facilities move forward. For more information about this new information see posts by my colleagues Anthony Swift and Josh Axelrod. Why the west coast? With the majority of the world's heavy oil refinery capacity, the United States including the west coast is a critical market for the tar sands industry. To be clear, Keystone XL still remains at the heart of the industry plan to expand tar sands and gain access to the global market. But industry is still pushing hard for other ways to expand especially as KXL flounders. It is important to keep in mind the tar sands industry – which currently produces about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) – plans to triple production to exceed 6 million bpd in the next fifteen years. The oil industry has made clear it needs all of its rail and pipeline proposals to achieve its massive production goals.
We know that the tar sands industry and Canadian government has long had a plan to quadruple or more tar sands extraction in Canada. KXL has always been a huge part of that. But it is now very clear that they also plan to access the U.S. and global market through every means possible.
This threatened invasion puts our communities, waters, air and climate in jeopardy. The Tar Sands Solutions Network has done an outstanding job outlining many of the different campaigns that are emerging across North America. This plan threatens to expose communities from California to New York to health, safety and environmental risks unless the public rallies to stop it. Here are some of the specific impacts that North America faces as a result of the tar sands invasion:
- Across the West Coast, tar sands laden tanker and barge traffic could increase twenty-five fold, with a projected 2,000 vessels along the Pacific West Coast– including the Salish Sea and the Columbia River–shipping nearly two million barrels of tar sands crude every day.
- A dozen proposed rail terminals would substantially increase tar sands by rail traffic going through densely populated American citizens like Los Angeles and Albany New York risking explosive derailments of hazardous crude unit trains
- Nearly a million barrels of tar sands would be destined for California and Washington refineries, exposing fenceline communities in Anacortes, San Francisco and Los Angeles to increasing toxic air pollution.
- In the Midwest, the pipeline company Enbridge is moving to nearly double the flow of tar sands moving through the Great Lakes region, an area that already has suffered from a 2010 spill of more than 800,000 gallons of the tar sands into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan sending hundreds of residents to the hospital. Four years later, the cleanup, which has cost more than $1 billion, is still unfinished.
- On the East Coast, the tar sands industry is seeking to build the Energy East pipeline across Canada. The pipeline would run from Alberta east across Canada to New Brunswick and Quebec, carry 1.1 million barrels of tar sands oil per day and require hundreds of oil tankers traveling along the East Coast and Gulf Coast annually, through critical habitat of the extremely endangered Right Whale.
- In Albany, New York, a proposed oil transfer facility could lead to the shipment of tar sands oil on barges down the Hudson River or rail cars along the river destined for facilities in the New Jersey and Philadelphia areas.
- In Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, the constant threat of a proposed reversal of the aging Portland-Montreal Pipeline is likely to arise again as Enbridge completes work on a pipeline reversal that will connect the tar sands directly to Montreal this summer.
- This network of pipelines will feed refineries that produce millions of tons of hazardous petroleum coke waste – known as "petcoke" – which are piling up in residential neighborhoods like Chicago.
- In Canada, pipeline companies are trying to access the west and east costs with pipeline proposals that would ship the heavy tar sands oil across pristine landscapes in British Columbia or across the Prairies into Ontario and Quebec. Communities are raising concerns about the threat of a spill to waters from the pipeline or tankers leaving the Bay of Fundy of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
- And last but not least, communities in Alberta at ground zero have been facing the enormous consequences of tar sands development which has brought about significant contamination of water, air, and land. Increasingly, there are calls for a moratorium on development.
Targeting at risk communities
The tar sands invasion puts a high toll on low-income and aboriginal communities located in railway corridors, near oil refineries, and next to petcoke waste sites. In refinery fence-line communities, emissions associated with tar sands are suspected to be even more detrimental to human health than existing harmful emissions from conventional crude. Derailments of tar sands unit trains – mile long trains carrying over a hundred tankers full of explosive tar sands crude – pose a catastrophic risk for communities throughout the country. And as more tar sands oil is refined in the United States, the public will also face increased health and environmental risks from massive piles of petroleum coke, a coal-like waste full of heavy metals that results from tar sands oil refining and can cause serious damage to the respiratory system.
Industry would like for you to believe that tar sands development is inevitable and there is nothing that can be done. Wherever they turn today they are being faced with public opposition. Expansion is not inevitable, especially because of this growing and formidable opposition.
A climate problem
It is clear that tar sands reserves – some of the world's most carbon intensive – are at the top of the list of reserves that must remain in the ground. Mounting scientific and economic analysis shows that the tar sands industry's proposed expansion plan is incompatible with global efforts to address climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that 75% or more of discovered fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground in order to limit warming to the international two degrees Celsius goal. The clear inconsistency between tar sands expansion and efforts to address climate change have made opposition to tar sands expansion projects a clear rallying point for a broad group of allies advocating for action on climate.
A water problem
A tar sands spill from train, pipeline, or tanker could devastate local economies, pristine wilderness, harm human health, and lead to an especially costly and challenging cleanup. Tar sands spills have proven more damaging than conventional spills, as heavy tar sands bitumen sinks below the water surface making it difficult to contain or recover. A spill from shipping the tar sands crude could devastate communities, contaminate freshwater supplies or marine habitats and damaging local economies.
Undermining efforts to grow our clean energy economy
The growing exploitation of Alberta's tar sands threatens to undermine North American efforts to build a clean energy economy and combat global climate change. Because most tar sands crude is destined for the United States, its expansion would create a greater dependence on the world's dirtiest crude oil and undermine our transition to environmentally sustainable energy and a cleaner transportation fleet. Responding to the tar sands invasion will require solutions reduce fossil fuel use and spur low-carbon transportation and energy solutions such as broadened electric vehicle use and development of renewable and clean fuels.
This tar sands invasion can be stopped: Clean Transportation Solutions
The good news is this tar sands invasion can be stopped starting with leadership from government officials to embrace climate and sustainable transportation solutions. NRDC's report for the west coast outlines detailed recommendations for decision-makers at all levels. The first step is for decision-makers at all levels to become familiar with the unique issues associated with tar sands oil and then to actively identify the full range of solutions to confront this problem. Without action, the U.S. will unintentionally become a thoroughfare for this oil undermining climate policies and presenting risks to communities and water. With support for regional clean energy policies, we can prevent the influx of tar sands crude and build the green infrastructure and public support necessary to begin transitioning to a clean energy economy.


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Microsoft FY07Q1 Results
FY07Q1 Pre-results: Quarterly results time! Stories leading into the quarterly financial results:
- Earnings Preview Microsoft Financial News - Yahoo! Finance - Buyback: "...investors are most likely itching to hear exactly how many shares the company bought during the quarter that were not included in an aborted tender offer."
- Microsoft profit growth to ride on Vista and Office - Oct. 25, 2006 - "Microsoft is expected to report lackluster results Thursday ... but Wall Street isn't likely to mind."
- Upbeat Investors Seek Microsoft Assurances - News by InformationWeek
- And the first shoe drops... from MSFTExtremeMakeover on the Vista upgrade coupons and the $1,500,000,000USD shifted from Q2 to Q3.
- Microsoft earnings on tap from Todd Bishop, who I'm sure will have a nice summary of the analysts call and news.
What are you interested in hearing more about or having the analysts ask Microsoft to get more direct answers? My shortlist:
- Dates + Enthusiasm: Vista. Office. Dates. Please Lord Almighty finally tell the world when the software will hit the street.
- Partners?: McAfee and Symantec are shaking the EC tree. Other partners might wonder when we fix our gaze on their market. Justification on our part is totally detached from the halls of justice. Where are the risks? A few bits from Mr. Ballmer here: MercuryNews.com 10-25-2006 Microsoft's top exec talks about Vista.
- Live: how the heck is this coming together? Is it an emerging success or still a swirling particle cloud? How is it adding to the bottom line?
- Xbox: what are the projected shipments? SeekingAlpha reports that Microsoft To Miss XBox 360 Production Targets By As Much As 25%. I imagine we should hear dates and projected shipments on the HD-DVD unit, too.
- Zune: how are the projections here? What's the future Zune feature-set and ecosystem looking like?
- Billions and Billions of Dollars: what's the plan for the warchest? More buy backs?
Post-results: nice?
Coverage at this point:
- MSFTextrememakeover Q1 Earnings - "Phew! No huge surprises. The stronger EPS result mentioned above, seems to have been due to shifting some planned marketing expenses to Q2 and beyond."
- Microsoft Monitor Microsoft Fiscal 2007, Q1 Results - always a great summary from Mr. Wilcox. On MBD: "My expectation is that most businesses planning to get Office 2007 made that decision when renewing licensing contracts earlier this year. I'm quite bearish on deployments of the new productivity suite."
- Microsoft profit rises, online group posts loss from Mr. Todd Bishop. Ooo, that ends with a 10-Q quote that's a red flag being waved in-front of my lean-and-mean-bull-ringed nose: "OSB operating income decreased for the three months ended September 30, 2006 [...] Headcount-related costs increased 43%, reflecting both an increase in salaries and benefits for existing headcount and a 40% increase in headcount." Yes, please, throwing more bodies and more money at the catch-up effort is suuuure to succeed.
- Xbox helps Microsoft profits surge The Daily Telegraph - wha? Xbox might help revenue to surge, but it certainly isn't helping our profits to surge, unless we're rolling into that some heavy profits from periphery attachment. On that note:
- Gamerscore Blog Quarterly Financial Report - John Porcaro goes into greater financial depth around the Xbox 360.
- Microsoft Earnings Rise, Beating Views Financial News - Yahoo! Finance - has probably the most representative quote of the Q1 review: '"It's not a bad quarter, not a bad outlook,"' by Alan Davis with D.A. Davidson.
Not bad. Well, some of it is super-fantastic again thanks to SQL Server, Windows Server, and VS (good job on all that SP1 work, too!). Nothing really stuck in my mind from the conference call. Good numbers, a little lumpy, sounds like we're being pretty conservative regarding if things are going to go well or not for the 360, Vista, and Office. And of course, no firm dates for Vista or Office but at least we affirmed corporate availability for November and consumer availability come January. 2007.
Sorry Building 9 countdown clock! You've got to reach zero and then we'll let 'er rip.
Updated: added post results material.


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Phronima and its salp barrel. Photo by Katie O'Dwyer, used here with permission |
Imagine a parasite which can create its own mobile nursery for its young, a parasite which is thought to be the inspiration behind the chestbusting xenomorph in the popular movie Alien. Well imagine no more! Introducing Phronima, the pram bug. These amphipods are members of the Phronimidae, a group of ten species of hyperiid amphipod, which occur in the water column throughout the open ocean. This sets them apart from their close relatives, which typically inhabit the benthic environment of the seafloor. So what has allowed this particular family to adapt to the pelagic or open water environment?
Those adorable little babies! Photo by Katie O'Dwyer, used here with permission |
Well, as mentioned, these organisms live in the open ocean which presents several challenges to collecting samples for answering these questions. However, some dedicated researchers have indeed managed to study these fascinating creatures on the rare occasion that such an opportunity arises. From their research they have found that the salp in fact still contains live cells, although it hardly resembles a salp anymore with just a barrel of tissue remaining. The presence of live cells means that the barrel maintains its structure and that is important for Phronima to have a sturdy home. As the barrel barely resembles a live salp any longer, Phronima should really be considered as parasitoids rather than parasites.
Do a barrel roll! Photo by Katie O'Dwyer, used here with permission |
As for the energy involved in carrying around this barrel, the barrel provides a larger structure than the amphipod itself and this enables the Phronima to be more buoyant in the water column. However, some energy is still required to carry around this jelly barrel. Overall energy usage by Phronima is higher than that of benthic amphipods but on the lower spectrum compared with other pelagic or open water amphipods. This suggests that Phronima have indeed adapted to a unique niche which enables them to travel in the water column with their young and access new food resources without this behaviour being too energetically costly.
One unusual finding in the research thus far is that male Phronima are also found in barrels. If Phronima is known as the pram bug, which suggests the barrel is important for carrying offspring, then why should males carry a barrel too? Could they use it as part of some mating strategy, where they pass the barrel on to the female they mate with? Due to the difficulties associated with studying organisms that dwell in the open ocean many questions remain unanswered and this leaves us ever more curious and fascinated by creatures such as Phronima.
Hirose, E., Aoki, M. N.,
& Nishikawa, J. (2005). Still alive? Fine structure of the barrels
made by Phronima (Crustacea: Amphipoda). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 85: 1435-1439.
Bishop, R. E., & Geiger, S. P. (2006). Phronima energetics: is there a bonus to the barrel? Crustaceana 79: 1059-1070.
This post was written by Katie O'Dwyer.


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Roundup Update: Dynalite, Interfit & Rime Lite, More News From The Lighting Front
Dynalite lighting gear has been built in the U.S.A. for the past 35 years and the equipment's ruggedness and dependability has long made it a favorite of pros and advanced amateur shooters. The MP800 power pack is part of Dynalite's RoadMax series and produces 800 ws of power and has four head outlets, allowing you to direct its output—symmetrically or asymmetrically—over a six-stop range. In addition to flexibility for different kinds of lighting setups, that output is produced with short flash durations and a 1.2-second recycle at full power. A variator knob on the power pack lets you make exposure adjustments in 2/10 stop increments. As with the rest of the RoadMax series, the MP800 has a built-in 32-channel PocketWizard transceiver permitting wireless shooting but an optical slave and included sync cord give you a choice on how you want to interface your camera with the power pack.
Dynalite's MH2050 RoadMax Flash Head is fan cooled and has a 2000 ws capacity flash tube. It has a built-in recessed reflector with 140-degree coverage for even light dispersion but other reflectors can be mounted to produce different coverage. The MH2050 has several improvements over the 2040, which it replaces, including lighter weight, smaller size, and a direct-plug method for head-to-pack cables. The elimination of the "pigtail" ensures a better connection to the power pack and saves space when packing for a location shoot. The SH2000 Studio series head is a fan-cooled, bare tube flash head with a frosted glass dome for even light dispersion and can be used with a variety of reflectors or in all kinds
of softboxes.
The RoadMax 800 ws Kit (MK8-1222) includes the MP800 power pack, two MH2050 flash heads, two light stands, two 40" white/black umbrellas, and a carrying case. The system is powerful and versatile enough to handle a wide variety of on-the-run assignments like fashion, corporate, portraiture, weddings, and interiors.
Interfit Photographic Limited is a British company that makes lighting gear and accessories for everything from speedlights to monolights. Their EX300 is a 300 ws monolight that offers user-changeable flash tubes, switchable modeling lamps, infrared slave, and fan cooling all wrapped up in a purple-trimmed polycarbonate body. It's available à la carte or as a two-light kit that includes two light stands, an umbrella, a light bank, and a carrying case. Need more power? The 400 ws EXD400 monolight offers user-changeable flash tubes, switchable modeling lamps, fan cooling for prolonged use, and both IR and white light sensitive slave sensors along with an additional easy-to-use rear handle for positioning. The EXD400 features a preset flash function that lets it reduce the pre-focus flashes produced by some cameras, enabling the slave to correctly pick up the first, second, or third flash and ignore any pre-flash used for focusing. The monolight is available individually or as a two-light kit that includes two light stands, an umbrella, a light bank, and a carrying case.
Looking for a continuous light source? The rear panel of Interfit's Super Cool-lite 9 MKII houses six illuminated switches, allowing you to see which of the 32w fluorescent (4800-5200K) lamps are on or off. The 16" high-contrast reflector has a reflective dimpled silver surface, producing a soft diffused light that should be ideal for product photography when soft shadows are desired. Interfit offers a twin head kit (INT221) that features two softboxes and two high-contrast reflectors with diffuser panels and two light stands.
Rime Lite
I first encountered Rime Lite's awesome monolights and light banks when I reviewed their Fame monolights for Shutterbug in the November, 2011, issue. (In case you missed it, there's a copy online.) Their new Storm monolights are available in 200 and 400 ws models and, like the Fame lights I tested, are compatible with Rime Lite's RF Swing wireless triggering system. The back of these monolights feature two different control wheels much like a digital SLR and let you adjust power output (top) from the Xenon flash tube and the 50w halogen modeling light (below). Output may be controlled over a five-stop range in 1/10 stop increments and the power is shown on a 1.8" digital display on the monolight's back. Eight different reflectors are available ranging from standard, standard reflector (hard), medium reflector, beam reflector, snoot reflector, background reflector, narrow reflector, and wide reflector a.k.a. beauty dish.
• Dynalite: www.dynalite.com
• Interfit Photographic: www.interfitphotographic.com
• Rime Lite: www.rimelite.com/en
All photos courtesy of the respective manufacturers.


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Friday 24 August 2012
Refashion Friday Inspiration: Lace Overlay Sweatshirt Top
25 comments:
- Trees said...
Such a pretty refashion - I really like the buttons.
- 24 August 2012 at 06:53
- Judith said...
Super idea! Thanks for sharing...
- 24 August 2012 at 06:58
- Tamsin said...
Hi, I love the refashions that you have been doing here. I was just wondering what kind of lace have you used, for example, would a repurposed lace curtain be suitable? Does it need to be stretchy?
I also wanted to say good luck with yours and Pat's self employment plans, I think you are v brave and am sure every thing will work out for you! - 24 August 2012 at 08:47
- Marie said...
- 24 August 2012 at 09:24
- Kirsty said...
Zoe, I can't tell you how long I've wanted to do this! thanks.
- 24 August 2012 at 09:25
- Christina said...
I'm not a sweatshirt girl, but your refashions make me crave to go to the next second hand store and sew one (or two, or three) up...
I especially love the lace you used here!!!
Have a nice weekend. - 24 August 2012 at 09:31
- Hanna said...
I loved the first sweatshirt with lace you did a while ago, and I'm loving this one as well. I've been thinking about sewing something similar for myself since I first saw this type of design on your blog, but I haven't gotten around to it, yet. This post really gave me the itchy fingers again, so a sweatshirt makeover might be in my near sewing future. Thanks!
- 24 August 2012 at 10:21
oh wow, thanks for this! I got a load of gorgeous pink sparkly lace last time I went to Ditto and have been planning something similar (although from new...I am too fat to be very good for the environment) but couldn't figure out how to make the details work. Looking at yours and reading your post gives me all the inspiration I need now! :-)
- 24 August 2012 at 11:08
- Zoe said...
Thanks everyone!
@Tamsin, yes this lace is stretchy with a bit of an elastane content. I don't know that is has to be though, as long as you don't make the final garment too fitted so it risks ripping when getting the garment on and off.
Theoretically repurposed curtains should work, though I'd try washing the curtains first. I've had problems with panels made from lace curtains ripping during laundering in the past and you don't want to go to the effort of making a garment that rips at first wash, and who wants to hand-wash a sweatshirt?! All the best, please let me know if you make a similar creation.
Thanks again everyone
Zoe xxx - 24 August 2012 at 12:22
- Janine said...
I love the lacey look and what a great way to use a garment that would otherwise be thrown away ( or perhaps for gardening etc ) .
- 24 August 2012 at 13:20
- melissa said...
I love this look!! I've got a bunch of smallish stretch lace leftovers from other projects I wasn't quite sure what to do with... thanks for opening the idea floodgates!
- 24 August 2012 at 14:51
- Molly said...
Great idea!
- 24 August 2012 at 15:40
- Becky said...
That looks amazing, Zoe! What a fantastic idea!
xx - 24 August 2012 at 16:07
- Meg the Grand said...
I have a grey sweatshirt with a stain on the front, and I think this is the perfect solution! Your version is lovely with the pearl buttons added - I'm excited to see what you wear it with!
- 24 August 2012 at 17:39
Love this refashion, Zoe!
I'm not much of a sweatshirt person--I live in the Sonoran Desert, so winter weather is rather limited most years--but I would wear this, weather permitting!
There might be a sweatshirt refasion in my future--when the weather cools off a bit in late October (still 90 degrees or so most days).
Taja - 24 August 2012 at 17:42
such a cute refashion! This works for all seasons - winter, fall, spring, and summer. The buttons centered on the shoulder seam is what gets me though!
- 24 August 2012 at 18:06
- LLBB said...
- 25 August 2012 at 07:15
- Audrey said...
Gray sweat shirting never looked so good! Great refashion.
- 25 August 2012 at 15:10
- Mode Chocolat said...
Usually, I like your interpretation much already but this one is really great!
- 26 August 2012 at 11:03
Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your blog. Love the Friday Refashion, especially. And wanted to tell you how brave I think you and Pat are for going out on your own. I have been self-employed most of my life. And while it can be really scary at times out there on the high wire by yourself, it's not nearly as scary to me as working for someone else.
- 26 August 2012 at 21:19
- frk.bustad said...
This is a brilliant refashion! The button detail in addition to the laces make this top so classy and elegant.
- 28 August 2012 at 14:14
- Martin said...
Wow this is nice and I think here many people looking for high quality Badger Sweatshirts and other awesome casual clothes so check out this and I am sure you guys will like this store of clothes.
- 8 December 2012 at 09:11
- Helen said...
love this sweatshirt! the lace, the short sleeves, the color combo. do you have an etsy shop? i would totally buy this from you!!!
whathelenworetoday.com - 10 June 2013 at 22:43
- Miche said...
Seriously BEAUTIFUL! I absolutely adore everything about this (Especially the buttons!). You should probably consider selling them :)
- 22 October 2013 at 21:01
- Unknown said...
Love it! Thank you for sharing! mj
- 20 October 2014 at 10:59


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History by Year
Historical Events
Day Of Week
Birthday Astrology
What Happened In 4th February In History
History by Year
» 4th February
Historical Events for February 4th
Year 46
» Julius Caesar defeats Titus Labienus in the Battle of Ruspina.
Year 871
» Battle of Reading (871) called Battle of Reading: Æthelred of Wessex fights, and is defeated by, a Denmark named Danish invasion army.
Year 1490
» Anne of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the List of French monarchs or King of France will be considered guilty of the crime of Lese-majesty.
Year 1649
» English Civil War: The Rump Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial.
Year 1717
» The Dutch Republic Netherlands, Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain, and France sign the Triple Alliance (1717) Triple Alliance.
Year 1762
» Great Britain declares war on Spain and Naples.
Year 1798
» Constantine Hangerli arrives in Bucharest, Wallachia, as its new Prince of Wallachia called Prince, invested by the Ottoman Empire.
Year 1847
» Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.
Year 1854
» The Heard Island and McDonald Islands known as McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the 'Samarang'.
Year 1863
» The New Apostolic Church, a Christian and Premillennialism e.g chiliastic church, is established in Hamburg, Germany.
Year 1865
» The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City named New York, New York.
Year 1878
» Sofia is emancipated from Ottoman Empire or Ottoman rule.
Year 1884
» The Fabian Society is founded in London e.g London, England, United Kingdom.
Year 1889
» The Oklahoma Land Run opens 2 million acres of unused Oklahoma Territory to first serve first come settlers on April 22.
Year 1896
» Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
Year 1912
» The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the Commonwealth of Nations or British Commonwealth by Royal charter.
Year 1944
» World War II: Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins.
Year 1948
» Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
Year 1951
» Korean War: China called Chinese and North Korean forces Third Battle of Seoul known as capture Seoul.
Year 1955
» The Greece named Greek National Radical Union is formed by Konstantinos Karamanlis.
Year 1958
» 'Sputnik 1' falls to Earth from orbit.
Year 1959
» 'Luna 1' becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
Year 1965
» President of the United States called United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address.
Year 1966
» A military coup takes place in French Upper Volta named Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso), dissolving the National Parliament and leading to a new national constitution.
Year 1970
» A 1970 Tonghai earthquake named magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes Tonghai County, China, killing at least 15,000 people.
Year 1972
» Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, England.
Year 1974
» United States President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over materials subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate scandal e.g Watergate Committee.
Year 1987
» The 1987 Maryland train collision: An Amtrak train 'en route' to Boston named Boston, Massachusetts from Washington, D.C., collides with Conrail engines in Chase, Maryland, killing 16 people.
Year 1989
» Gulf of Sidra incident (1989) Second Gulf of Sidra incident: a pair of Libyan Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 MiG-23 "Floggers" are shot down by a pair of United States Navy US Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation.
Year 1998
» North American Ice Storm of 1998 known as A massive ice storm hits eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, continuing through January 10 and causing widespread destruction.
Year 1998
» Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 4 January 1998 called Wilaya of Relizane massacres in Algeria: over 170 are killed in three remote villages.
Year 1999
» Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.
Year 2000
» Two trains on the Røros Line Åsta accident named collide in Åsta, Norway, resulting in an explosive fire and 19 deaths.
Year 2004
» Spirit rover e.g 'Spirit', a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 Coordinated Universal Time known as UTC.
Year 2004
» Mikheil Saakashvili is Georgian presidential election, 2004 e.g elected President of Georgia following the November 2003 Rose Revolution.
Year 2006
» Prime Minister of Israel named Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke. His authority is transferred to acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Year 2007
» The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the United States House of Representatives or Speaker of the House in U.S. history.
Year 2013
» A gunman Kawit shooting named kills eight people in a house-to-house rampage in Kawit, Cavite called Kawit, the Philippines.
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Format used to prepare the affidavit
We <>, son of <>, aged about <> years and <>, w/o <> aged about <>.both residing at: <>, do hereby solemnly affirm and state on oath as follows:
Our name has been mistakenly recorded as <> and <> in the record of our son/daughter <> BIRTH CERTIFICATE NO. <>
We solemnly swear that our correct names are <> and <>
Therefore we are hereby swearing this affidavit before the concerned authority.
The statement made above is true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief.
<Date> Deponent
Sworn to before me


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This post is just a mixed bag of add-on compatibility issues that developers should be aware of, most of which will be included in future compatibility updates in this blog, but are worth giving a heads up in advance.
Asynchronous Places [21]
A large number of Places APIs will be removed in Firefox 21, as Places continues to become fully asynchronous. The list of API changes and discussion is happening on this dev.extensions thread.
Per-window Private Browsing Mode [20]
Much has changed in the past couple of releases in preparation for per-window private browsing mode. In Firefox 20, most of what was left has been taken out, including nsIPrivateBrowsingService and some observer notifications.
Lazy Tab Restoration [20]
Firefox already implements this feature where old tabs are only loaded on demand after a Firefox restart. To further optimize this feature and save more memory, the browser elements in these tabs will be set to display: none. This means that many assumptions about accessing such tabs are now broken, like the existence of a docShell, browser.contentWindow, etc. If your add-on looks into content of existing tabs, you should make sure it works with tabs that haven't been loaded yet. This will ship in Firefox 20, currently on beta.
Java Click-to-Play
The continuous click-to-play blocks that we have been doing for Java may be breaking some add-ons that rely on Java code. We strongly recommend that you move away from Java and implement your add-on code either using JavaScript or external libraries and JS-ctypes. If you still rely on Java for your add-ons and have run into problems with click-to-play, this bug might help.


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text: After seeing a Facebook photo of a woman he met at a charity event, 4th Judicial Court Public Defender Matt Shirk asked then-director of investigations A.L. Kelly to set up a job interview, according to Kelly. The woman did have experience in the legal field, but she was hired by Shirk directly, an "irregularity" at best. After also hiring the woman's friend, Shirk was accused by other staff members for behavior described as "inappropriate," including the exchange of flirtatious text messages and emails with a third woman, and inviting them to drink alcohol in his office. Then there's Shirk's prolonged absences from the office, possible violations of the law related to the destruction of public records, and the issuance of an access card to the building to his wife Michelle, who was not an employee or volunteer at the PD's office. One of her visits led to a public confrontation and the alleged firing of one of the women. Shortly thereafter, the three women were let go. Shirk's chief of staff Ron Mallett resigned. Shirk has admitted to some of the "inappropriate behavior" but insists he did not engage in any improper relationships or break any laws, an assertion that's being investigated by a special prosecutor.


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DETROIT (AP) — Toyota is adding 1.2 million vehicles to a major recall in the U.S. to fix possible fuel pump failures that can cause engines to stall.
The company said Wednesday that the added vehicles bring the total to 1.8 million.
In January Toyota recalled nearly 700,000 vehicles in the U.S. for the same problems. Engine stalling can increase the risk of a crash, although the company wouldn't say if there have been any. The automaker said Wednesday that about 118,000 vehicles in the January recall shouldn't have been included.
The vehicles include trucks, SUVs, minivans and cars across the model lineups of Toyota and its Lexus luxury vehicle brand.
The company says owners of vehicles not involved in the January recall will be notified in early May about when to make a service appointment. Dealers will replace the fuel pump with an improved one.
Models now included in the recall are certain 2018 and 2019 Toyota Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Highlander, Sequoia, Tacoma and Tundra vehicles, as well as the 2018 and 2019 Lexus ES 350, GS 350, IS 300, IS 350, LC 500, LC 500h, LS 500, LS 500h, RC 300, RC 350, RX 350L.
Also covered are the 2013-2015 Lexus LS 460, the 2013-2014 Lexus GS 350, the 2014 Toyota FJ Cruiser and Lexus IS-F, the 2014-2015 Toyota 4Runner and Land Cruiser and Lexus GX 460, IS 350 and LX 570. Other vehicles include the 2015 Lexus NX 200t and RC 350, the 2017 Lexus IS 200t and RC 200t, the 2017-2019 Toyota Sienna and Lexus RX 350, and the 2018 Lexus GS 300.


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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Retrospective: Pharaoh
Pharaoh is, in some respects, more and less an example of the Hickman Revolution than is the later Ravenloft. It's less, because, even moreso than Ravenloft, it's a first class old school dungeon crawl. The Pyramid of Amun-Re, though small in size, packs a lot of punch in terms of its fiendish inventiveness. It's chock full of great puzzles and well-conceived traps, some of which are sufficiently elaborate to require diagrams to explain properly. That's something you don't see much nowadays. The maps of the Pyramid's various levels are very nice too. They're rendered in 2-D without the need for the over-hyped isometric cartography of Ravenloft, since a simple cross-section drawing of the Pyramid achieves the same effect without any fuss. The levels themselves adhere to a number of old school design principles too, allowing lots of lateral movement and offering plenty of choices about how to proceed. One level is made up of a large maze that causes magical confusion and disorientation, demanding that the players keep their wits about them if they ever hope to find their way out.
On the other hand, Pharaoh is explicitly billed as "The 1st module in the DESERT OF DESOLATION series." While it is eminently playable in its own right, its sequels, Oasis of the White Palm and Lost Tomb of Martek are much less stand-alone. Likewise, even within Pharaoh, there's a powerful undercurrent of a larger story above and beyond the characters' stumbling upon a cursed pyramid while wandering in the desert. A lot of the module is given over to providing background and in-game "texts" intended to advance this story along. Within Pharaoh alone, this can be ignored without too much difficulty, but, once a referee has committed himself to the module's sequels, there's no escaping it. In this respect, I3 is far more committed to the project of remaking the concept of an "adventure module" than is I6, which, for all its melodramatic excesses, is but a single -- and fairly simple -- story, not the kick-off to an epic story of prophecies and legends in the making.
I still like Pharaoh a great deal; it's proof that, for all the changes his work wrought on D&D, Tracy Hickman knew how to craft a very fine dungeon crawl. As a younger man, I played the heck out of this series and loved every minute of it. Pharaoh is definitely a product strongly grounded in the old school but you can see that it's trying fitfully to break free from its conventions. In its day, that was seen as a very good thing; goodness knows I loved it. Now, I feel a lot more ambivalent about its approach.
20 comments:
This module has a lot of problems.
While in one way it seems to be a marvelous little sandbox (teeheehee, but really, check out the first map set inside the cover!), the actual options within the desert are very shallowly described, except for the set-pieces of each of the modules.
On one hand, that's good traditional design. "Here's the area, here are the important bits for our current purposes... go wild with the rest of them."
But it really is a linear series. You need to go to point A before point B and you're screwed if you get to point C before doing specific other things - campaign over. So it's really a "false sandbox."
But the module, and series, pretty much DEMANDS that the party go to that sunken city (made up of seven rooms...) and free the Pasha. That's pretty weak, and I wonder how much back-bending DMs back in the day really had to do to make that happen. Surely the impact of this thing running around in the series is completely lost if it wasn't the PCs who goofed and caused it...
Not to mention the "read this" prologue for the adventure is downright insulting. And what group of 6-8 level 5-7s is going to get arrested and tossed on their ass in a desert without a fight? Who could do that to them?
If this had just been a pyramid, and some desert locations (filled out a bit more in the space freed by dropping the plot), this could have been simply awesome. As it is... ay ay ay ay."Likewise, even within Pharaoh, there's a powerful undercurrent of a larger story above and beyond the characters' stumbling upon a cursed pyramid while wandering in the desert. A lot of the module is given over to providing background and in-game 'texts' intended to advance this story along..."
Agree with the previous poster. I own the I3-5 modules as part of my collection, but I've never had the faintest whiff of desire to run them. If I get attracted the module cover (and it's nice), I open up the text, see the railroady plot thread inside, and immediately put it down. There's just too much time, energy, and pagecount dedicated to the Hickman story for me to consider excising it away.I think this was the first (and last) Hickman mod I was a player in. It has some funhouse-esque elements (exploding pineapples, I'm looking at you...wasn't their some kind if fruity flies also?) which had us rolling our eyes...
Not a great module...although we'd always get a rise out of the DM when we called it the Temple of Ham-on-Rye.
Although Pritt the insane gnome? was commandeered as a lackey, which provided some fun in later modules....- AnonymousJanuary 14, 2009 at 3:18 PM
I think Pharaoh is a great base for an adventure, but definitely requires customization and tweaking. The intro of the adventure is extremely railroady, but also easily jettisoned.
It definitely features the best PNP maze I've ever seen; unlike a traditional maze, the one in Pharaoh really exploits the strengths of old school mapping and exploring.
And I love JM's term "extraordinary ordinary" concerning Holloway. The module cover is indeed, great, but the interior art is amazingly bland and spiritless. James, you have mail.
Interestingly the Daystar-West version of the mod did not have any introduction aside from the chant found in the intro (it was 10 times longer though according to the Acaeum). If you want to play this in its daystar glory, cut out all the wilderness encounters and focus only on the Pyramid. That is all it was when it was written in 1980, a pyramid in the desert. The Intro to I3 and the subsequent mods are completely the beginning of TSRs Empire Builder days.I played through this and its sequel with the DM having converted it to 3.5 D&D; we found it a slog and heavy going - I believe the DM cut out a chunk when we were clearly getting bored, and we were glad to finish it. I certainly never had any sense of an open, sandbox sort of environment, in play it felt very linear.
ReplyDeleteI'll take a stab at grodog's question. The crown-jewel-distinction is that I3-5 has a prescripted "climax scene" and, say, G/D does not.
The waterfall from that is that I3-5 has a whole bunch of particular places the PCs must go, specific things they must say and do in a particular order, NPCs they must interact with in a particular fashion, and pagecount spent on meta-plots which are going to unfold regardless of PC desires. G/D doesn't have any of that.
But it's always a prescripted "climax scene" at the end which is the biggest signal that that's going to be how a given adventure is designed.If this had just been a pyramid, and some desert locations (filled out a bit more in the space freed by dropping the plot), this could have been simply awesome. As it is... ay ay ay ay.
I know what you mean, believe me. The module is quite flawed and laid the groundwork for a lot of mischief that followed. I still think there's some salvageable material in the Pyramid dungeon, which is generally quite well done and a good example of late old school design.It definitely features the best PNP maze I've ever seen; unlike a traditional maze, the one in Pharaoh really exploits the strengths of old school mapping and exploring.
That alone keeps me from dismissing this module entirely, despite its many other flaws.
And I love JM's term "extraordinary ordinary" concerning Holloway. The module cover is indeed, great, but the interior art is amazingly bland and spiritless.
The interior artwork is terrible. I find Holloway very hit or miss and in this module it's entirely miss.I certainly never had any sense of an open, sandbox sort of environment, in play it felt very linear.
I don't think it's meant to be very open, but it can be played that way if you give short shrift to the pre-scripted plot, which is what I did back in the day. Play "straight," though, I suspect it's not much fun.Allan,
I think Delta pretty much hit all the points I'd have made. The difference between this series and, say, the GDQ series is that the "Desert of Desolation" assumes not only a conclusion, but also that certain "scenes" will occur along the way. The GDQ series makes no such assumptions.- AnonymousJanuary 20, 2009 at 4:13 PM
It has been a long while since I played in Desert of Desolation...in fact, not since they were published.
I actually think it depends when you joined the hobby is when you feel the way that you do. For I absolutely hate the beginnings of D&D which were dungeoncrawls without story. Pharoah, as you stated here and elsewhere was the beginning of something different. It is a pity that this type of sweeping campaign did not go farther IMHO.
I remember agonizing over how to integrate different modules into a seemless campaign (even as a Teen) I did not have much time. The Hickman Revolution came at the right time...although, I despised Dragonlance, as I saw it as a subtle attempt to displace Greyhawk (my players home base) and the whole background was too extensive without reading the novels (which again I did not have time for ~ how ironic for a future librarian). The Desert of Desolation series were essentially the first modules I went through as a player back when I was a kid. (I was almost always the DM of our group of friends.) It made a big impact on me back then, not just because I was finally getting a chance to play, but also because I was (and still am) a big fan of all things dealing with ancient Egypt. I recently got a chance to purchase these modules again and it represents the first time in almost 30 years that I have had to actually read the things myself... and I have to say I am a little underwhelmed.
The fact that the series is a railroad doesn't bother me too much... I remember that from back in the day. I don't really think it would require all that much effort to make things more of a "sandbox-style". What really struck me was the lack of imagination when it came to the various monsters and traps. (Especially in the Pharaoh module.) Don't get me wrong, back in the day I had a great time figuring things out, but now as an adult I find most of the traps kind of boring and lacking in Egyptian flavor. Not to mention the extremely lengthy "runes" that are spread everywhere that pretty much hand-hold the players through all the tricks. Perhaps I have been spoiled by the Necropolis adventure that was put out by Gygax under the Mythus system. (Now, Necropolis... THAT was a freaky, dangerous module with perplexing traps and a truly Egyptian flavor!) The Desert of Desolation series is more like Egypt-lite with a very strong mix of Arabic-style culture. These two cultures aren't completely incompatible, but it doesn't feel like the authors actually knew all that much about either.
I also mentioned that the choice of monsters in this series was lacking in imagination as well. For example, the same set of undead appear as wandering monsters in almost all of the encounter areas and efreet and djinni keep turning up as the only genie choices. (Perhaps this was before the jann, marid, and dao made their first appearance in the game system?) I mean, Egyptian and Arabic mythology are both rich in monster ideas that could be used to flesh out the flavor of these modules. (Where are the crocodiles, jackals, falcons, lions, and snakes... just to name a few basic animal types?) Heck, even Babylonian mythology could be tapped here without stretching the style of the series' mish-mash cultural background.
Despite my rather critical observations above, I still find much to like in this series regardless. The overall tone of the adventures are pretty cool... rival dervish clans battling over lost temples in a sea of dust while a war of genies takes place in the sky over everyone's head. And a good number of the tricks and traps are indeed compelling (the black abyss and the mobius tower come to mind) even if they due require a bit of spit and polish to fix minor inconsistancies. Overall, the Desert of the Desolation series needs a bit more work than I normally expect out of a finished module, but the good things that are hidden in there are good enough to merit the effort in my opinion.
(I should also mention that the way the encounter descriptions are presented in the modules is extremely clunky and awkward to read. I guess this was supposed to be the brilliant new design system TSR came up with to make adventures easier to read for the average fellow? Bah! I still look to The Forgotton Temple of Tharizdun for the best example of concise and easy-to-read encounter descriptions.)


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It's time to write the book you've always wanted to write, to play the instrument that is sitting in your closet or to paint the picture that you see in your dreams.
In your busy life, it's hard to be creative. Jobs, family, community—they all demand your time and attention. Often they require linear thinking and Olympic-level time management.
Linear thinking and time management are great for managing your life, but they don't lend themselves to creative pursuits. Without right-brain activities, your life becomes dull and mechanical. And predictably, the more dull and mechanical you feel the less likely you are to be creative.
Donna Eden in her book "Energy Medicine" has an easy way to unlock your stuck creativity. Donna works with the body's energies and her principles include those of Traditional Chinese Medicine. By activating acupressure points and stimulating meridians, you can increase your health, boost your energy and super-charge your vitality.
Basically, you thump and stretch your way into feeling more alive and creative.
The Three Thumps
"The Three Thumps" is part of Donna's Daily Energy Routine. Thumping these 3 points makes you feel less tired and more vital, and supports your immune system when you are stressed. Vitality is the first step to feeling creative. Usually you do the Three Thumps as part of a bigger routine, but think of these 3 simple exercises as your portable creativity toolkit. You can thump anywhere and anytime you need a lift.
Thump #1: K-27 Points
The K-27 points are versatile acupuncture points that relieve throat, chest and back pain, help you breathe deeply and help release endorphins. To find these points, place your fingers in the depression above your breastbone, where a man knots his tie. Move your fingers out to each side and down 1"—just below your collar bone. You should feel a small soft spot.
Firmly tap or massage these points while you take three deep breaths. Don't worry about being exactly on the points. Use several fingers to tap in the approximate area and you'll get the benefit.
Thump #2: Thymus Gland Thump
Your thymus gland supports your immune system. By thumping the thymus you awaken your body's energies, support your immune system and increase your energy, strength and vitality.
Place your fingers in the center of your sternum, about 2 inches below level of the K-27 points. Use your thumb and fingers to tap your thymus as you take 3 slow, deep breaths.
Thump #3: Spleen Points
The spleen meridian lifts your energy, regulates your blood sugar, removes toxins and supports your immune system. Stimulating spleen acupuncture points lifts your energy and decreases your stress levels.
The neurolymphatic spleen points are beneath the breast, in line with the nipples and down one rib. If you are below your rib cage, you have gone too far.
Thump the points firmly while taking 3 deep breaths. If any spot is tender, take a little extra time to massage it.