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Scholarly editions of the Amarna texts are published in transliteration in the Amarna Corpus, a component of Oracc: The Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Shlomo Izre'el's transliteration of the Amarna corpus is at The Amarna Tablets. All of this is also open access.
Readers interested more generally in Amarna may also wish to examine Barry Kemp's Virtual Amarna Project, openly published in October by the Archaeology Data Service, and some archival video footage of 1930s excavations at Amarna published online by the Egypt Exploration Society.
And see the Amarna Virtual Museum
Amarna in Pleiades


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Patient Booklet
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- Category: Information Booklets
- Published on Monday, 19 April 2010 11:04
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What Is Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition of widespread pain and profound fatigue, recognised by the National Health Service (NHS) and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The pain tends to be felt as diffuse aching or burning, often described as head to toe. It may be worse at some times than at others. It may also change location, usually becoming more severe in parts of the body that are used most.
The fatigue ranges from feeling tired, to the exhaustion of a flu-like illness. It may come and go and people can suddenly feel drained of all energy – as if someone just "pulled the plug".
Fibromyalgia is a common illness. In fact, it is more common than rheumatoid arthritis and can even be more painful. Prevalence of Fibromyalgia: A Survey in Five European Countries (see www.fmauk.org/prevalence for details) put the prevalence of FM at between 2.9 and 4.7%. People with mild to moderate cases of fibromyalgia are usually able to live a normal life, given the appropriate treatment.
If symptoms are severe, however, people may not be able to hold down a paying job or enjoy much of a social life. The name fibromyalgia is made up from "fibro" for fibrous tissues such as tendons and ligaments; "my" indicating muscles; and "algia" meaning pain.
Besides pain and fatigue fibromyalgia symptoms often include:
- unrefreshing sleep – waking up tired and stiff
- headaches – ranging from ordinary types to migraine
- irritable bowel – alternating diarrhoea and constipation, sometimes accompanied by gas in the abdomen or nausea
- cognitive disturbances including lack of concentration, temporary memory impairment and word mix up
- clumsiness and dizziness
- sensitivity to changes in the weather and to noise, bright lights, smoke and other environmental factors
- allergies
Fibromyalgia is not new, but for most of the last century it was difficult to diagnose. Part of the problem has been that the condition could not be identified in the standard laboratory tests or x-rays. Moreover, many of its signs and symptoms are found in other conditions as well – especially in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
Two Canadian doctors developed a way of diagnosing fibromyalgia in the 1970s and in 1990 an international committee published requirements for diagnosis that are now widely accepted. Once other medical conditions have been ruled out through tests and the patient's history, diagnosis depends on two main symptoms:
- pain in all four quadrants of the body for at least three months together with
- pain in at least 11 out of 18 tender point sites when they are pressed. The "tender points", or spots of extreme tenderness, are rarely noticed by the patient until they are pressed.
Recently this has been updated with the new ACR 2010 criteria to include more emphasis on the patient's history and the need for tender points removed.
What Causes Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia often develops after some sort of trauma that seems to act as a trigger, such as a fall or car accident, a viral infection, childbirth, an operation or an emotional event. Sometimes the condition begins without any obvious trigger. The actual cause of fibromyalgia has not yet been found. Over the past several years, however, research has produced some insights into this puzzling condition. For instance, it has been known that most people with fibromyalgia are deprived of deep restorative sleep.
Current studies may find out how to improve the quality of sleep and some of the prescribed medicine is specifically aimed at addressing the lack of restorative sleep.
Research has identified a deficiency in Serotonin in the central nervous system coupled with a threefold increase in the neurotransmiter substance P, found in spinal fluid and which transmits pain signals.
The effect is disordered sensory processing. The brain registers pain when others might experience a slight ache or stiffness. It is hoped that more research will discover the cause and result in more effective treatment.
Current Treatment
At the present time treatment for fibromyalgia aims at reducing pain and improving sleep. In other words, some of the symptoms are being treated, rather than the condition itself. See the current EULAR Recommendations for the Management of Fibromyalgia: www.fmauk.org/eular2016early with the original accessible at http://sh.fmauk.org/eular2016early
Pharmacological management
Over-the-counter medications may help relieve the pain of fibromyalgia but severe pain may require the expertise of a pain clinic. It is best to discuss any form of pain relief with your specialist or GP. It is most important to note that
medications work for some people and not others. Pharmacological management of FM in the UK often involves 'off-label' medications focused on the relief of discrete symptoms rather than treatment of the condition. A number of drug therapies have shown effectiveness in randomised clinical trials, leading to approval by the Food and Drug Administration in America of pregabalin, duloxetine and milnacipran for the treatment of fibromyalgia.
Medications most often prescribed for fibromyalgia are tricyclic drugs also used to treat depression although doses for fibromyalgia are much lower than for depression. In some cases these drugs will help both sleep and pain.
However, many people find available medications either insufficient to control their symptoms or difficult to tolerate due to a high incidence of adverse effects. Thus, all medications should be reviewed at regular intervals to monitor their efficacy. For more information on medications please visit www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Fibromyalgia/Pages/Treatment.aspx
Managing Fibromyalgia
Learning to manage the condition seems, so far, to be the most successful way of dealing with fibromyalgia.A combination of heat, rest, exercise and reducing stress can enable some people with fibromyalgia to maintain a productive life.
Support from family, friends and other people who have fibromyalgia is extremely valuable to those who have fibromyalgia.
Various talking therapies and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) have been found to be beneficial in many long term conditions as pyschological factors can have an impact on physical symptoms.
Relaxation is one technique that works really well for almost everybody with fibromyalgia. It reduces tension in the mind and body right away. The results are calming for all the symptoms, especially for the pain. Relaxation can be learned from books, tapes, videos or special courses.
Heat is important. A hot water bottle and hot baths or showers will help reduce pain and banish morning stiffness. Soaking hands and feet in hot water for a few minutes can ease their aching. Exercise is the most common prescription for fibromyalgia and Dr Pellegrino's section on this has invaluable advice about the form this should take.
Although no particular diet has been shown to help fibromyalgia, a healthy, balanced diet is important to provide protein, vitamins and minerals. It is best to avoid or at least cut down on coffee, tea and alcohol. Some sufferers have a tendency to gain weight and this can be distressing in itself. If you follow a healthy diet this should in turn help with your weight control.
People with fibromyalgia can have good days and bad days. On a good day it is important to pace yourself; overdoing it may simply make matters worse. Rest is also important. Listen to your body when it tells you to slow down.
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190west's guide explores how you can avoid the pitfalls of shallow marketing at your next trade show.
Trade shows need to be about more than just one-upping your neighbor with an amazing booth or better bag fillers. Trade shows are conduits of revenue. Companies have a captive audience and a huge opportunity for introductions and leads. Without these, there is no follow-up and no ROI to justify the investment in attending.
In this guide, 190west discusses common problems to avoid with trade show marketing:
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Every year that goes by, your chances for vision loss go up. It's a sad fact that by the age of 65, one in every eight adults will experience at least some amount of compromised vision.
Age-Related Eye Problems
The top causes of impaired vision include cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy. Here's how you can help preserve your eyesight against these threats.
There are 24.4 million Americans age 40+ with cataracts. By the age of 75, half of all people will have them.
The clouding of the lens of the eye, which is the calling card of cataracts, is the top cause of correctable reduced vision. Cataracts develop slowly over time, which is why they are sometimes not noticed until vision impairment has progressed.
Factors that delay or prevent cataracts would greatly enhance the quality of life for many seniors. Nutrition researchers have eyed antioxidants for a while when it comes to cataracts, since free radicals are a major culprit in their formation. Consequently, antioxidants offer strong protection against the development and progression of cataracts.
Topping the list are vitamins C and E and the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. Vitamin B2 also makes a strong case in the research for preventing cataracts.
Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness, is a progressive disorder affecting the central part of the retina, called the macula.
The macula gets damaged from constant UV light exposure, but certain nutrients act as a shield against this damage.
As with cataracts, the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin are heavy-lifters here. Keeping levels of those two nutrients abundant pays off by lowering the risk of fading vision in the future.
The omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil also merit mention. Diets that include fish regularly, as well as this nutrient in supplement form, guard against AMD and can sometimes regain lost vision in certain people.
Anyone over age 60 is considered at high risk of glaucoma—the condition that increases pressure in the eye (specifically on the optic nerve), which can result in blindness.
As with AMD, omega 3s show promise with this eye condition. Specifically, supplementing with DHA has been shown to reduce pressure in the eye, based on research in a population who already had glaucoma.
In addition, plenty of vitamin C—once again this antioxidant shows its support for healthy vision—is linked to protection from developing glaucoma.
Diabetic Retinopathy
People with diabetes (both Type 1 and Type 2) are at higher risk of diabetic retinopathy, making this condition a leading cause of vision impairment in adults.
The high levels of sugar in the blood can damage the tiny blood vessels in the retina. Keeping blood sugar levels under tight control is the most important way to minimize the risk of this vision hazard.
A few supplements can provide support, and once again several antioxidants (including the multi-talented lutein) claim top billing for being beneficial for diabetic retinopathy.
In one study, a daily antioxidant supplement (including vitamin E, coenzyme Q10, and Pycnogenol) improved eye health.
Similarly, stand-alone supplements of Pycnogenol have been documented to improve vision in those with early-stage diabetic retinopathy.
Symptoms of Impaired Vision
A surprising number of people live with undiagnosed age-related eye conditions—many of whom could be treated to improve their vision.
The following symptoms indicate a need to get your vision (or your loved one's) checked out:
- Reading material held very closely or at an angle
- Changes in writing quality
- Overfilling glasses when pouring a drink
- Spilling food and difficulty cutting food
- Complaints that the lighting is always too poor to see properly
- Difficulty quickly identifying faces or objects
- Mis-reaching when trying to pick up an item
- Bumping into things
- Shuffling when walking or stepping hesitantly
- Walking up/down stairs more cautiously than before


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Farkwar is a free position reporting service written by me. While sailing across the Pacific with my family in 2012, I noted that, while cruisers are phenomenally social as a group, the tools we use are not. The popular position reporting tools did not allow me to easily embed a map on my blog, or export my waypoints for future use. And what about Facebook & Twitter? Should I really have to post each and every link myself to let my non-sailor friends know where I am?
So in 2014, while at a programming camp in Queensland Australia, I decided to do something about it. I wrote the first version of farkwar.com that weekend, and within a few weeks, a couple of other boats picked it up and started using it. Now, two years later, farkwar.com is hundreds of boats strong with tens of thousands of waypoints.
Submit Waypoints any way you like. Farkwar currently accepts new waypoints from a simple web interface, delorme inReach, Iridium Go! or email. If you use email, we automatically parse the Airmail position footer, so you don't have to fiddle with the formats.
Fleets allow boats to self associate. Once a captain joins her boat to a fleet, she can opt to receive daily updates of the other boats in her fleet. No more wondering, "When will we run into s/v Acme again?"
Social Networking. Farkwar ties directly into your Facebook and Twitter profiles, allowing you to (optionally) post every position report to your Facebook wall or Twitter timeline.
Yep. Totally. Forever. I made Farkwar because I needed it. I've built it up and added features because I love this community. I know that a lot of us are sailing on a shoestring, and those of us that are, are the ones who need Farkwar the most. I'm prepared to keep on adding features and supporting my fellow cruisers indefinitely.
The time it takes to write this software, to respond to requests for help, and to troubleshoot the weird parsing errors I run across; the hard costs for hosting the serivce. These are my gifts to you!
I'm not too proud to ask for help though, and after watching Amanda Palmer's wonderful TED talk, I wondered if asking for help wasn't the best way for me to strengthen my relationship with you, my community. So, if you love Farkwar, if it makes your life easier and helps your parents/kids/friends rest easier while you are crossing oceans, consider supporting me.


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Edology gives you access to a wide range of career development opportunities. We're here to help you enrol on innovative distance learning degree programmes, professional qualifications, and short executive education courses from business schools and universities across the UK.
Through Edology you can get in touch directly with course providers, find out more about exciting new professions in our extensive careers blog, read features on real students studying online with our university partners, and even start the enrolment process right here.
Edology can help you find the perfect online programme to get you to where you want to be — wherever you are in your career, wherever you are in the world.


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I booked a comprehensive service for my Maruti Zen. I thought they would charge me very high because my car is relatively old. To my surprise, they charged very less and my service buddy gave me live updates on the work! We can't expect anything better. Good quality service at an affordable price.
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Hammarica.com Daily DJ Interview: EXCISION
Canadian bass master EXCISION kicks off 2013 with the massive "Execution Tour," a North American trek that includes over 50 confirmed dates. The "Execution Tour" will feature EXCISION's new stage "The Executioner," a behemoth production setup and a true technological breakthrough that will take live electronic music performance to a new level. "The Executioner" is a video-mapping masterwork that displays an impressive 420 square feet of world-class, true-3D, video-mapped animations guaranteed to daze and amaze fans. "The Executioner" will include the greatest projector available in the world and cast some of the most intricate and amazing animations available today onto a mechanical bunker in which EXCISION will perform a live set that will simultaneously sync audio with video using groundbreaking technology. EXCISION is revving up the audio experience and inviting back Canada's PK Sound—which worked with him on the sold-out 2012 "X Tour"—as the official audio provider for the "Execution Tour," packing more than 100,000 watts of full-on bone-crushing sound. Watch the official "Execution Tour" trailer here: http://youtu.be/tloy0ldDvVQ.
What kind of gear do you use for your performances?
The new stage "The Executioner" has been in progress since April of last year. When we built Xvision, we learned what projection mapping is truly capable of, and with a bit bigger budget this year we were able to produce something far more complex. We wanted to get away from the 2D "trippy visualizations" as much as possible. My team and I felt that we had learned enough from Xvision to tackle the entire project ourselves.
I worked with Ben from Beama and went through 66 revisions before we finally settled on the current design. I then went and hired 50 or so animators from around the world, created storyboards of what we wanted each animation to look like, how we wanted it to sync with a specific song and spent a huge amount of time on each of them really dialing it in. Justin is our Mr. Fixit guy who knows a lot about a ton of different things. He handled the window to the DJ booth, which goes up and down based at the push of a button, as well as the panels that open and close to reveal lasers within the stage, as well as CO2 jets, crazy, low-lying fog machines, and even snow machines! A Canadian crew can't truly put on a high production value show without snow. Justin also helped with the Serato/Ableton dual setup.
I wanted to keep everything as close to a traditional DJ setup as possible, and still have the freedom to play whatever tracks in whatever order the crowd wants them. We use Serato music videos for 70 songs; usually I get through 55 in a set. Each of these videos stay in perfect sync with the attached song and the Serato video technology is perfect so far. Where we ran into trouble was creating a fully synced lighting show. We bridged Ableton to Serato and hacked a bunch of things in order to get the time code sent out to the lighting desk and trigger all the cues. The result is a system that gives me full freedom to cater to the crowd and still be a real DJ, but at the same time give a fully synced audio-visual show.
You might think this has been done before, but every artist I've seen, and I've seen nearly all of them, have a 100% pre-planned set that they literally just press a play button at the beginning of the show and fake it for 90 minutes. Fuck that!
Due to how long it takes for movie-grade animations to be created, I had to be careful about which songs I had them made for. I won't ruin the surprise, but it's going to be an epic set that stays true to my roots, but still has enough diversity to make everyone happy. Expect to leave exhausted.
You are also part of the band Destroid together with Downlink and KJ Sawka. How do you enjoy performing as a band as opposed to DJ sets?
I've spent over three years getting this new Destroid project ready and I really believe that the way we are putting it together sets down a new path for electronic music performance. Yes, it uses computers, but you'd never know it, nor will you see them on stage. Two custom midi guitars and a fully custom digital drum kit. We'll be playing our songs, covers of other tracks, as well as songs shared with us by our friends. With intricate alien/robot costumes with tons of crazy technology embedded, and the freedom to play each song differently each night, every set will be truly unique. We've gone so deep into the storyline of this project with viral videos and a graphic novel series that they all tie in with the storyline in the tunes. We have our album nearly finished and are looking at a March/April release! We have our first gigs booked at festivals this summer across North America and can't wait to show the world everything we have in store.
What is coming up production wise for you in the next few months?
Destroid and the Executioner stage are my main focuses for the next year. As far as Excision goes, I am going to keep pumping out tunes under Excision and playing shows as Excision as well as working on building up Destroid. It's going to be extremely busy, but it will be worth it.
The weirdest thing that happened on the road recently?
The rule when the tour bus pulls over is, if you get out leave something on the passenger seat. Sound guy Jesus (as we call him) forgot this, with a dead phone in his pocket, the bus as he got off to buy something at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. He had no money or any way to charge his phone. Somehow he managed to call us from a random number an hour later. He never forgot the rule again.
Anything else you would like to mention?
The Executioner features every bit of cutting edge technology that we can cram into it, and it's our goal to deliver an experience that is as close as you will get to the future of EDM in today's world. As far as the future years and years ahead goes, we will always be working hard to stay at least a few steps ahead of the rest of the industry.


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I talked recently with Ng Shui Meng, the wife of Sombath Somphone, a Laotian man and close associate of AFSC who ran civil society programs in Laos until he disappeared in December, 2012. Despite having close circuit television (CCTV) footage documenting his abduction, the Laotian government has denied any knowledge of Sombath Somphone's whereabouts. Shui Meng came to the United States recently to request the assistance of AFSC, Amnesty International, Quakers and others to take action to support the return of Sombath Somphone. You can find many ways to support Sombath at the website: www.sombath.org. -Lucy
Lucy Duncan (LD): Tell me about the day of Sombath's disappearance… what happened?
Ng Shui Meng (NSM): He disappeared on 15 December 2012, a Saturday. We usually go out in one vehicle, but I had a meeting early in the morning. He regularly plays ping pong for exercise, so he took his beat-up Jeep to go play ping pong. Then he came to meet up with me at 5:30 or 6:00 and we were going home for dinner.
I was in front of him, he was behind me. Traffic was quite light because it was Saturday evening. He was in my rear view mirror until past the police post. When I didn't see him in the rear view mirror, I thought he maybe stopped to get gas. He should have been home no later than 10-15 minutes after I arrived. I called his phone—the message said that his phone was switched off.
I waited for dinner time, he still didn't show up. I thought maybe he met a friend. We had dinner. I waited. I decided, it's not right. I called up his family and friends, asked them to call various people. We went out looking for him.
I thought he could have gotten into an accident. I visited hospitals, checked whether he had an accident. I described him, his head of white hair. The hospital said, "No," they hadn't seen anyone like that.
The next day we reported the case to the district police. The police took down the case, but it was a Sunday, no one works on a Sunday. They said, "Oh, don't worry, take a report to the municipality and say that he is missing." We became a little bit nervous.
When we were looking for him, we noticed there was a CCTV on the main streets including the place where I last saw him. On Monday we made a police report, we went to the video room, manned by some low level police. I reported a missing person and asked them to show us the CCTV footages along this road. I said, maybe he got into an accident.
What I saw on the CCTV was that his Jeep was stopped at the police post. He got out eventually and walked to the police post. A motorcyclist approached and got off his bike, and drove the jeep away. Then a white truck approached, someone got in [with Sombath] and it took off as people were closing the doors. Then someone came and took the motorcycle away. It's all in the footage.
When I got the footage, I called up the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and said I have footage to show you. They said, bring them over.
At that point when I got the footage, I was optimistic. I thought they must let him out, no way they can deny this happened. They can release him. At that point I was optimistic he would be released.
Soon after we talked to the officials, we received complete denial. We asked the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Assembly, and the Prime Minister's office, to let Sombath come home. We received no response.
One week later, the police issued the first statement: They acknowledged that he was stopped because police were checking vehicle documents. They said he could have been kidnapped for personal reasons or business reasons.
To this day, they have maintained that story. I have contacted my own embassy to please use their good offices to seek for Sombath's return. The [Lao government] response is always, "We don't know what happened, we don't know what happened."
When disappearances happen, very few people know about it, the media does not cover any of it. Families are too afraid to talk about it. We don't know how many people. Most of the time no one has any evidence, but [in Sombath's case] we have tapes and still the government denies it happened.
LD: What were the circumstances surrounding his abduction?
NSM: In 2012 he was involved in the organization of the Asia Europe People's Forum, a civil society forum which brings together heads of states from Asia and Europe.
He was asked by the international NGOs and by a few non-profit associations (NPAs) to co-chair the national organizing committee; the other co-chair was appointed by government. He was going to do this as one of his last contributions to civil society work.
The meeting occurred on October 9-12, 2012. It had taken a year of consultation, meetings, organizing committees. The government expected 300-400 participants, but when the count up for participants was made, 800 people came, the largest one ever held.
It was a good opportunity to provide a forum for Lao civil society to learn about development issues and to come forth with their own ideas. With agreement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he brought together people from local governments and different segments of society to come and participate.
The meetings were organized to bring forth the perspectives of people, discover what's happening in their locality, what are the development challenges. The common issues were livelihoods, access to resources, issues of corruption, access to basic needs like education, sanitation, water. In Laos for the first time the voices of people were summarized, and their aspirations were incorporated into the vision statement from the forum itself. Sombath's Co-Chair agreed on the issues to be discussed, on the topics, the keynote speakers; all of that was approved.
Sombath knew that there was some risk involved—the Lao government was ambivalent to civil society meetings. From the government's perspective Laos should be more engaged regionally, globally and not so isolated. At the same time there is a feeling of insecurity about national security from the police and security forces. We found a lot of security people taking notes at every panel during the forum. Villagers came out and expressed ideas and were harassed on the spot. When they returned to villages, they were arrested, roughed up, and released.
The security apparatus of the state was uncomfortable with the opening up of the state, and uncomfortable with civil society opening up in Laos. The government was shaken by the fact that so many people came for the forum and that open questions were raised.
They looked for a scapegoat. Fear was palpable, even up to today. No one will be critical of what the government does. After news that he had disappeared, a number of civil society leaders left the country. As a leader of community development, it sends a clear message to the rest of civil society.
LD: Tell me about Sombath Somphone's work in Laos, particularly around agricultural development.
NSM: He founded an organization called "Padaek" (or PADETC, the Participatory Development Training Center). "Padaek" is the Lao word for fish paste, which is used in a lot of Lao cooking. He chose that name because his organization is all Lao, and his intention was to flavor the food, the community, in a very indigenous way. Sombath's whole orientation was that development should be very much with the participation of the people. Even though people are poor, they are part of the social fabric and have so much to contribute to the development of their country.
He believed you should trust the poor, trust those who aren't very educated— they will flavor your life. In his approach to whatever he does, key to it is people's participation. He brings together people who may not agree with him, if you have more divergent ideas and hear them all, it will add up, help to see an issue from different perspectives. His organization was one of the first recognized not-for-profit organizations in the country.
LD: Tell me about Sombath Somphone's relationship to Quakers. How did he form a connection and what has that connection meant to him? How has it influenced his work?
NSM: When he was a student at the University of Hawaii, we befriended Quakers Stewart and Charlotte Meacham. They were a major influence on our lives. Sombath was influenced by the Quaker values of nonviolence, social justice, and pacifism as a form of activism. We spent an enormous amount of time with Stuart and Charlotte right after the Vietnam War.
He was the son of a poor farming family, with no political position. He needed to go back to support his family and try to use the skills he [learned] at the university; he felt he could use whatever he learned to support post-war reconstruction of Laos. He turned down the green card offered him from the US. Because of that, he lost his USAID scholarship. He was under investigation by the FBI, who thought he must be a communist. AFSC friends made sure his name was removed from the FBI watch list.
His first project was with the support of AFSC. I joined him in the early 80s in Vientiane; I was also a consultant with AFSC on some programs. In Laos there were only two foreign agencies, AFSC and the Mennonites. After the US lost the war, all the international agencies left, but AFSC and the Mennonites stayed.
LD: How can Quakers and other US citizens be supportive of your efforts to find Sombath?
NSM: I am asking for support for all concerned organizations to ask about Sombath. Despite no response, if no one asks, he will be disappeared permanently. I know that people are talking about it. It continues to be an issue being raised in government circles.
Continue sending questions to the embassy, and raise the issue and say the family needs to know. People are sometimes returned after many years. It's important to keep asking for him to be released. There are many ways for people to support his return listed on our website. We ask Quakers to do all they can to keep asking.
Take action to support Sombath Somphone here.


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Most of us know the feeling of a numb mouth all too well. We also know just how difficult it can be to eat or drink while you're waiting to get your feeling back. Finding comfortable foods can get even more difficult after certain dental procedures, such as wisdom teeth removal or dental implant placement. Luckily, your dentist in Elbridge has a recipe book full of easy-to-eat foods after a dental procedure.
This cold favorite is popular for those who just had their tonsils removed, but it can also be great following dental procedures that may leave you feeling a little sore. The softness of the ice cream is easy to chew or simply let melt in your mouth. Pair that with the comforting cooling effect and it's a great way to get relief while also treating yourself to a delicious snack.
For our lactose-intolerant patients or for those looking to take a break from ice cream, Jell-O is another great food to eat after dental treatment. It's easy to make, it's cheap, and it comes in a rainbow of flavors sure to fit any palate. Plus, like ice cream, it's cold so it can help reduce inflammation and ease discomfort.
If you're looking for an option that feels less like a snack and more like something you'd have with a meal, mash up some potatoes. Either a regular russet potato or even a savory sweet potato will help give you healthy nutrients, fuel your body, and make you feel a little bit full. Your dentist in Elbridge is a fan of sweet potatoes because they have anti-inflammatory properties that can be good for oral health.
Another delicious and comforting option that comes in many flavors is soup. Whether you choose a broth or the classic chicken noodle, make sure all of the ingredients are soft and easy to chew. A big bowl of vegetable-loaded soup can make you feel as if you ate a complete meal and give your body all the nutrients veggies provide. There is one thing to note, however. If you're recovering from wisdom teeth surgery, make sure your soup is warm and not really hot. Things that are too hot can actually make the healing process longer and more complicated.
While fish isn't necessarily the first thing you think of when trying to find something to eat, it's a great option following dental treatment. Fish like tuna and salmon are very soft and very easy to chew. Plus, they're packed with healthy fats that are good for any diet.
Besides eating foods that are soft and easy to chew, if you even need to chew them at all, it's also important to make sure you're drinking enough water. Try your best to drink 64 ounces of water every day to keep your body and mouth healthy and hydrated.
Nobody necessarily wants to have dental treatment, but it's more common than you may realize. But choosing the best dentist in Elbridge for your needs can make all of the difference. If you know you're in need of dental treatment or it's simply been more than six months since you have been to the dentist, we welcome you to give us a call to schedule an appointment today.


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This post was authored by The Microsoft Cognitive Services Team.
Microsoft Cognitive Services enables developers to augment the next generation of applications with the ability to see, hear, speak, understand, and interpret needs using natural methods of communication.
Today, we are announcing the general availability of Bing Custom Search API and Bing Search API v7. Showcased at Microsoft Ignite 2017 just last month, these APIs are now both available on the Azure Portal.
"We're excited to bring to market this big Bing APIs release that includes new features, faster performance and new APIs. By leveraging the power of Bing AI connected with Azure, we can empower every developer to build richer experiences harnessing the power of Bing AI." -Gurpreet Singh Pall, VP, Bing and Cortana Product Ecosystem
Let's dive into the features and how to get to started.
Bing Custom Search lets you create a highly-customized and targeted web search experience to deliver more relevant results from your targeted web space, through a commercial grade service.
We listened to your feedback about the preview version we announced at Build 2017 and addressed the need for customized search solutions with Bing Custom Search. Businesses of any size, hobbyists and entrepreneurs can design and deploy web search applications for any possible scenario.
For example, Amicus has recently released a platform that changes the way charitable aid is funded and delivered, showing donors where every dollar is spent and giving non-profits real-time tools to report and measure performance. This allows donors to fund 'projects' instead of blindly giving money to an organization, and non-profits to build project requests based on measurable outcomes. This transition presented a very unique challenge: how to enable donors to research and learn about the projects and activities performed by non-profits? Amicus needed to help donors learn, find and fund projects that were of interest and relevant to them, something too complicated for traditional search engines.
With Bing Custom Search, part of Microsoft Cognitive Services, Amicus has been able to identify its own set of relevant web pages in advance: when users have a single concept of interest (like 'water', 'education' or 'India'), Bing Custom Search is able to deliver highly relevant results in the context of global aid.
"This is exactly what our audience needs in order to learn about a broader range of important work performed by relief organizations, beyond those the donors currently know about. Bing Custom Search, part of Microsoft Cognitive Services, delivers a 'Learn and Find' experience in ways never before possible." – says Beth Katz, Chief Product Officer at Amicus.
For more information about Bing Custom Search general availability pricing and included quantities for the Trial Tier, please visit the Bing Custom Search Pricing page.
For more information about preview keys you might have, please refer to the related documentation.
We're also excited to announce the general availability of Bing Search APIs v7, which allows you to bring the immense knowledge of the planet to your applications. Results come back fast with improved performance for queries on the Bing Web Search API.
We are pleased to announce several new updates to the program including new sorting and filtering options for finding specific results in trending topics or image searches, better error messages to ease troubleshooting and improve problem query diagnosis, and updated documentation to make it easier to bring the power of Bing Search APIs to your applications.
The v7 of Bing APIs include the following services:
- Bing Web Search API (webpage, pricing page, and upgrade guide) offers enhanced search details from billions of web documents.
- Bing Image Search API (webpage, pricing page, and upgrade guide) includes thumbnails, full image URLs, publishing website info, image metadata, and more.
- Bing Video Search API (webpage, pricing page, and upgrade guide) includes useful metadata such as the creator, encoding format, video length, view count, and more.
- Bing News Search API (webpage, pricing page, and upgrade guide) includes authoritative images of the news article, related news and categories, trending topics, provider information, article URLs, and dates images were added.
- Bing Autosuggest API (webpage, pricing page, and upgrade guide) helps users complete queries faster by adding intelligent type-ahead capabilities to an app or website.
- Bing Spell Check API (webpage, pricing page, and upgrade guide) helps correct spelling errors, recognizing the difference among names, brand names, and slang, and understanding homophones as they're being typed.
Please check out the documentation, migration guide and pricing links listed above which will help you better understand how to handle the existing v5 keys and migrate from API v5 to API v7.
For questions or feedback please visit Stack Overflow and Azure Support.
-The Microsoft Cognitive Services Team


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Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for national security adviser, held five phone calls with Russia's ambassador to Washington on the day the United States retaliated for Moscow's interference in the U.S. presidential election, three sources familiar with the matter said.
The calls occurred between the time the Russian embassy was told about U.S. sanctions and the announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he had decided against reprisals, said the sources. They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing internal U.S. government deliberations about the issue.
The calls raised fresh questions among some U.S. officials about contacts between Trump's advisers and Russian officials at a time when U.S. intelligence agencies contend that Moscow waged a multifaceted campaign of hacking and other actions to boost Republican Trump's election chances against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
On Dec. 29, U.S. President Barack Obama announced he had ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats suspected of being spies and imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies over their involvement in hacking U.S. political groups.
The administration told Russian Ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, an hour before the decision was made public, one of the sources said.
The phone calls between Flynn and Kislyak were first reported by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.
A Trump official confirmed one phone conversation between the two men on Dec. 29, and said their understanding was they did not discuss the sanctions.
The three sources stressed to Reuters that they did not know who initiated the five calls between Flynn, a former three-star Army general who headed the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency under Obama, and Kislyak. Nor did they know the contents of the conversations, and declined to say how they learned of them.
One source said there was nothing intrinsically odd or wrong about a Russian diplomat speaking to a member of Trump's team following the U.S. announcement. Moscow, the source added, probably would want to have some sense of what Trump's team thought about the measures.
That sentiment was echoed Friday by State Department spokesman Mark Toner. "This building doesn't see anything necessarily inappropriate about contact between members of the incoming administration and foreign officials," Toner said.
The other two sources, however, said the timing of the calls raised a question about whether Flynn had given Kislyak any assurances to soothe Russian anger over the U.S. moves.
If that were the case, it would have raised a possible entanglement with the Logan Act. The 1799 law bars unauthorized U.S. citizens from negotiating with foreign governments with which the United States has disputes. It is aimed at preventing the undermining of official U.S. government positions.
Alexey Mosin, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Washington, said: "The Embassy does not comment on multiple contacts, which are carried out on a daily basis with local interlocutors."
Flynn raised eyebrows among some U.S. foreign policy veterans when he was pictured sitting at the head table with Putin at a banquet in Moscow in late 2015 celebrating Russia Today, an international broadcasting network funded by the Russian government.
However, Flynn has also expressed skepticism about Moscow's intentions – a view that does not seem to fit Trump's vision of closer ties with Moscow.
Classified documents that the heads of four U.S. intelligence agencies presented last week to Trump included unsubstantiated information compiled by a private security firm suggesting Moscow had compromising personal and financial details about Trump. Trump called a dossier that contains salacious claims about him in Russia "fake news" and "phony stuff."
One of the sources said the U.S. actions "took the Russians by surprise." Russian officials threatened to shutter the Anglo-American School of Moscow, the source said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed tit-for-tat expulsions.
But on Dec. 30, Putin announced that he would not retaliate. Trump praised Putin for the decision, writing in a Twitter post, "Great move on delay (by V.Putin). I always knew he was very smart!"
Trump spokesman Sean Spicer earlier Friday said Flynn and Kislyak had spoken on Dec. 28, the day before Washington announced the expulsions and sanctions.
But a Trump official acknowledged later in the day that they held one conversation on Dec. 29 about setting up a telephone call between Trump and Putin after Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was aware of only one phone call between the two that day and did not know if they spoke again since.
After the Nov. 8 election, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the state-run Interfax news agency that the Russian government was in touch with members of Trump's political team during the U.S. election campaign and knew most of his entourage.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Trump declined to answer whether anyone connected to him or the campaign had contact with Moscow during the campaign and said he had no loans or business deals with or in Russia.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Friday said it remained unclear whether such a call between Flynn and the Russian ambassador would be objectionable .
"It depends on what they discussed," Earnest told reporters. He said he could not weigh in without knowing the content.
Click here to see the latest Latest Recruitment in Nigeria.


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[ Retro Scan ] IMSAI 8080
Thursday, April 7th, 2016Here's an oldie but goodie — the IMSAI 8080, a 1975 clone of the pioneering Altair 8800. Like the Altair, it used an S-100 bus, an Intel 8080 CPU, and a blue, boxy sheet metal case with front panel lights. Unlike the Altair, the IMSAI 8080 featured prominently in the 1983 movie WarGames. The machine apparently greatly annoyed Ed Roberts, the inventor of the Altair.
Discussion Topic: Have you ever used an IMSAI 8080 or Altair 8800? Tell us about it.


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Read Our Reviews!
A poor bathroom experience TRUMPS a great meal and a great location.
Consumers have been telling us this for years in survey after survery.
MARBLELIFE shares the experience with our trainees of Going out with our spouse and having a wonderful meal. We stop by the facilities before returning to our car, and before we get in our spouse says, "We are never coming back here again!" Without saying a word more we know what happened and have added this restaurant to our list of never-to-be-visited establishments.
Bathroom cleanliness matters. You already know this and may be struggling with a floor that is no longer
"CLEANABLE." This is a frustration we can resolve in less than 8 hours.
Our images may look like clean-and-wax BUT this is SO MUCH More. MARBLELIFE ColorSEAL and TilelLOK treatments marries 2 independent breakthrough for which we have 15 years and 8 years of field experience that allow us to restore CLEANability and makes cleaning faster and disinfection for efficient.
That said, often the problem isn't the failure to clean, but rather the fact that through the use of an inappropriate or overly aggressive cleaner we have destroyed the grout's seal, and now every time we clean we make matters worse, as we are transferring dirt from on top of the tile to the grout lines where it is being absorbed by the now unsealed grout. No amount of cleaning will correct this situation, until the situation is PROPERLY corrected.
This means cleaning it, but then resealing it to keep dirt, oil and bacteria on the surface, and then avoiding a re-occurrence. Problem is traditional sealers have already failed us once. We need an acid resistant sealer.
MARBLELIFE COLORSEAL Resolves this problem.
MARBLELIFE Colorseal is a colorize able acid resistant sealer that once installed restores a new, uniform color, seal that is resistant to acid attack making it easy to clean, disinfect and maintain. Installation takes less than 8 hours with dramatic effect.
Once ColorSEALed, the tile surface can be MARBLELIFE TilelOKed to re-glaze worn ceramic to provide a clean glossy durable appearance with anti-mold, anti-slip and anti-graffiti performance.
MARBLELIFE has offices throughout North America plus Grand Cayman, Dubai and Johannesburg. As such we can handle an individual building or a national chain or extended building portfolio with a consistent system.
Contact us for your free estimate
Call (888) 218-4616 to locate your nearest MARBLELIFE® office.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to CARE ACT and the fact that MARBLELIFE COLORSEAL and TILELOK services facilitate the cleaning and disinfection of floors and these services can be employed as part of your RE-START requirements to meet elevated consumer demand for building hygiene service demand is high. Be sure to reserve your service request as soon as possible. We recommend using an estimate of ($3 / sqft) for ColorSeal and ($3 /sqft) for MARBLELIFE TileLOK
DEMAND is understandably high, so all to reserve your service position.


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50 Years After a Santa Susana Nuclear Accident Holds Up Land Development
By Michael Collins
All hell was about to break loose at the Sodium Reactor Experiment on July 23, 1959. The reactor, tucked into a corner of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in the Simi Hills 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, was constructed without a radiation-containment dome and was in the 10th day of partial meltdown.
On top of the reactor core, a worker operating a 30-foot-high, lead-lined "coffin," used to extract uranium fuel rods, came across a fuel rod that wouldn't budge. He started rocking the coffin back and forth, when something went terribly wrong.
"The guy was pulling on the thing real hard, and it was stuck in the reactor," says John Pace, 70, the last known surviving lab worker present during the meltdown. A chemical known as Tetralin "made a bunch of goo in the bottom of a pool and the rods were damaged. Then the goo freed up and they went, 'What the hell happened there?'"
Looking into the coffin's "window," the Atomics International mechanic realized that the fuel rod had broken off and now was exposing the whole building to severe radiation. That radiation threatened to contaminate the 2,850-acre field lab. The reactor stood on the federal Department of Energy's 90-acre portion of the property.
"All he could think to do is run and, and as he was running, he was pulling alarms," Pace today tells L.A. Weekly. "They were realizing radiation was leaking out in the atmosphere. Somebody volunteered to go back in and put the fuel rod back down in the reactor."
Radiation flooded the building and contaminated everything in it. Pace helped seal off the control room with tape and ended up cleaning the floors and walls with sponges and mops until he realized that the best way to clean up the contaminated reactor was with Kotex pads. Pace sneaked in his Polaroid camera and took photos of frantic attempts to bring the reactor under control.
The Sodium Reactor Experiment meltdown damaged 13 of the reactor's 49 fuel rods. Although the exact amount of radiation released is not known, by some estimates, it amounted to 260 to 459 times more radiation than the famous meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania 20 years later in 1979.
Where the nuclear fallout blew is under dispute, and is fueling a controversy today over whether KB Home should proceed with a plan to develop the adjacent lands known as Runkle Canyon.
In later years, the subsequent owners of the Santa Susana lab, Boeing Co., said it didn't have the wind data from that day 50 years ago — and even if the company did, they considered it proprietary information and wouldn't part with it.
But Pace says he knew which way the wind was blowing during the meltdown because he was the designated weatherman. During that period, he says, the prevailing wind was traveling from the Simi Hills directly toward the highly populated San Fernando Valley.
Pace says, "At the time of the meltdown, it went … toward Los Angeles and the Valley. I know it went exactly over L.A. It was just a normal westerly wind blowing over the San Fernando Valley and beyond."
A California state study in 2006 estimated that hundreds of people in a 62-mile radius around the lab contracted cancer from the meltdown, but researchers were hampered by Boeing's refusal to hand over the data on wind direction. Local outrage led Boeing to finally release the information, confirming Pace's account that it was moving toward the Valley.
It was 1959, and coverup of the meltdown had begun almost immediately. Three weeks after the reactor was finally shut down July 26 of 1959, the Valley Green Sheet, forerunner to the Los Angeles Daily News, ran an article saying that "a parted fuel element" was observed and that "no release of radioactive materials to the plant or its environs occurred, and operating personnel were not exposed to harmful conditions."
But Pace alleges that radiation readings were so high, workers' radiation-exposure badges were confiscated and stored in a safe. Pace blames the radiation for a diagnosis of temporary sterility in 1966 after failing to conceive children with his wife Geneva, who subsequently had five miscarriages before giving birth to their three children.
In 1998, L.A. Weekly began its coverage of contamination coming from the huge field-lab facility. In that coverage, former employee Dan Parks revealed that reactor core gases were vented — or allowed to escape into the atmosphere — all the time, before and after the meltdown (see "Total Recall," Dec. 17, 1998.) At the time, Parks said that all 10 of the nuclear reactors followed that practice.
Earlier in 1998, Boeing's public-relations flack Dan Beck slid a copy of the 1959 Valley Green Sheet article across a table to this reporter in a meeting in Canoga Park as proof that the meltdown incident was not covered up.
Today, a cleanup effort arising from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signing of Senate Bill 990 in late 2007 is under way. The cleanup is intended to ensure that the entire acreage is returned to the highest environmental standards possible and that parkland is created.
One of the biggest concerns that remains is whether chemical or radiological contamination has drifted off-site over time.
In late 2007, Boeing supplied the state regulators in charge of the cleanup, known as the Department of Toxic Substances Control, with a 199-page Offsite Data Evaluation Report, which explained the results of 60 years of "off-site media sampling and testing data for chemical and radiological contamination" that had been collected by Boeing, NASA and the Department of Energy within a 15-mile radius around the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.
Bizarrely, the report claims that during those 60 years, Runkle Canyon's ground water and soil were never tested. But, in fact, at least one test was conducted, according to a 2007 report prepared for Boeing and obtained by the Weekly.
Signed under penalty of perjury by Thomas D. Gallacher, Boeing's director of Environment, Health and Safety at the laboratory, the report also says that the area where most of the nuclear work was done — Area IV — does not border the adjacent Runkle Canyon. Yet the report has maps illustrating that picturesque Runkle Canyon does indeed border Area IV. One map also shows evidence of toxic trichloroethylene in the Runkle Canyon ground water.
Boeing, which bought the huge laboratory acreage in 1996, has not yet responded to L.A. Weekly's questions about these issues.
The apparent discrepancies in the 2007 report trouble "Toxic Terry" Matheney, an aerospace worker who is a member of a Simi Valley activist group called the "Radiation Rangers," which has fought the plans of Westwood-based developer KB Homes to build 465 homes in Runkle Canyon. The Rangers have successfully delayed development of the site since 2006.
In echoes of the controversy over Ahmanson Ranch, a now-abandoned plan to build 3,050 homes on open hills tucked between the western San Fernando Valley and the Simi Hills, critics say that Runkle Canyon is polluted with strontium-90, cesium-137, arsenic, chromium and the rocket fuel oxidizer perchlorate (see "Earthly Secrets," June 12, 2002).
"Runkle Canyon is even more polluted than Ahmanson Ranch," Matheney insists. He believes constructing a residential development in Runkle Canyon "will send up a radioactive dust cloud weighing more than 112 tons, which will blow over and fall out on the Simi and San Fernando valleys. This isn't 1959, a time when the company and government could lie their way out of environmental crimes perpetrated against its workers and neighbors, not on our watch."
25 Years of Award-Winning SSFL/Rocketdyne Reporting
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(S)Edition: Prints as Activism, 2010
(S)Edition was curated in partnership with the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, Michigan. The exhibition featured 70 works by 54 artists from throughout North America.
Curatorial Statement:
Simply put, sedition is activity tending toward the subversion of the established order. This exhibition features a broad range of such activity, presenting us with works that critique the overt and covert actions of corporations and governments, others that raise our consciousness to dire issues facing this planet, and still others that inspire us to use the resources at our disposal to create, package, and share our own ideas – to create our own order.
To some artists, we as viewers become channels of distribution. There are magnets, postcards, and various hand-printed images to be taken freely. These works challenge the familiar gallery experience and undermine the capitalist system itself, rendering those who take the images away complicit in the work.
For more than 500 years, printed images and words have served to mobilize and enlighten the literate and illiterate alike. In a fair and just society, it is imperative that information be accessible to all. Without print technology – the means to reproduce and disseminate information for the masses – democracy would struggle to form, or function effectively.
Our primary sources for news and editorials – internet, radio, television, major newspapers - are increasingly corporatized, governed by greed and partisan interests rather than by conscience or civic responsibility. As a consequence, it is necessary that we - as engaged citizens - find other channels through which to communicate, to express those views too unpopular to make the evening broadcast or Sunday edition. Due to the capacity of printmaking to generate relatively rapid and inexpensive multiples, artists with a desire to give voice to their own concerns and those of others have been drawn to the medium, using it to level their dissent and ask questions.
Without intending to romanticize or diminish the power of a single image to transform culture (a modern day Guernica is always possible!) I would suggest that it is more likely that Art will induce change not through one radical work, but through the assiduous practice of careful examination and critique.
(S)Edition is a showcase of this critical practice. It is testament to the unwavering aspiration of artists to - as renowned historian Howard Zinn suggests - transcend the established framework of society, to think outside the boundaries of permissible thought and dare to say things that no one else will say.
Participating artists:
Heather Ault, Urbana, IL
Michael Barnes, Dekalb, IL
Jennifer Lynn Bates, Des Moines, IA
Kit Boyce, Burbank, CA
Lisa Bulawsky, St. Louis, MO
Brooke Bulovsky Cameron, Columbia, MO
Christopher Cannon, Green Bay, WI
Linda Carreiro, Calgary, Alberta Canada
Kristin Casaletto, Augusta, GA
Catherine Chauvin, Denver, CO
Dale Clifford, Atlanta, GA
Deborah Cornell, Boston, MA
Nick Danczyk, Stevens Point, WI
David Dubose, Lafayette, LA
Carrie A. Dyer, Little Rock, AR
Tate Foley, Athens, GA
Cindi Ford, Byron Center, MI
Lora Fosberg, Bloomington, IN
Xia Gao, Lincoln, NE
Randy Garber, Somerville, MA
Eric J. Garcia, Chicago, IL
JenClare B. Gawaran, Sterling Heights, MI
Ruthann Godollei, St. Paul, MN
Tim Gralewski, Royal Oak, MI
Alynn Guerra, Grand Rapids, MI
Phillip Hua, San Francisco, CA
Daniel Jasper, Minneapolis, MN
Stan Kaplan, Levittown, NY
Andrew Kosten, Evansville, IN
Anthony Lazorko, Mesilla, NM
Steven McCarthy, St. Paul, MN
Aaron McCleod, Duluth, MN
Florence Alfano McEwin, Green River, WY
Daniel Mellis, Chicago, IL
Michael Mercil, Columbus, OH
Frances Myers, Hollandale, WI
Ashley Nason, Dekalb, IL
Endi Poskovic, Ann Arbor, MI
Ross Racine, New York, NY
Claire Rau, Colorado, CO
Fanny Retsek, San Jose, CA
Katie Ries, Knoxville, TN
Abby Sadaukas, Unity, ME
Alan Skees, Pinson, AL
Stephanie Standish, Terre Haute, IN
Bridget Stewart, Overland Park, KS
Linsey Tankersley, Dowagiac, MI
Jason Urban, Austin, TX
Patrick Vincent, Tempe, AZ
Sara Alsum-Wassenaar, Tarpon Springs, FL
Erik Waterkotte, Mankato, MN
Oli Watt, Chicago, IL
Margi Weir, Detroit, MI
Sang-Mi Yoo, Lubbock, TX


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If you're thinking about buying a home, then you've probably heard the terms "pre-approval" and "prequalification." While often used interchangeably, there's a slight difference between the two. This blog will go over what it means to be prequalified versus pre-approved.
Prequalified And Pre-approved: What's the Difference?
Both terms refer to the initial steps taken to determine whether you're a strong applicant for a home loan and how much.
But there's a difference between prequalified and pre-approval. Prequalified essentially is an estimate of how much your mortgage can be (the same as a pre-approval), but it's nothing more than that --an estimate.
It's the easiest first step to take in your home buying journey. The mortgage professional will review your financial history (like your income and debt) and check your credit score, too.
It's important to note that prequalification doesn't guarantee mortgage approval. It's only an estimate. If you want something more definitive, get pre-approved.
What Is Pre-Approval?
Pre-approval is more involved because the mortgage professional will evaluate your credit score and do a complete verification of income and assets. Here's some of the documentation needed for pre-approval include:
- Tax returns
- W-2s or 1099s
- Recent pay stubs
- Recent bank statements from the accounts
- Your credit score
As you can see, pre-approval gives you a much stronger idea of what you can afford.
Does Getting Prequalified And Pre-approved Even Matter?
Getting prequalified is excellent if you only want an estimate of how much you can afford. It's a great way to start planning and preparing to buy a home.
However, pre-approval carries a lot more weight. With pre-approval, you'll have a clearer idea of how much you can borrow, what your interest rate might be, and you'll be taken more seriously as a potential buyer when you begin your home search.
Pre-approval also gives you insight into your credit and whether you have some work to do on that end before you apply for a home loan.
The Bottom Line: Prequalified Versus Pre-approved
Remember that neither prequalification nor pre-approval guarantees home loan approval, but it does matter! Ready to get pre-approved? Start your application online today! By running a full credit check and reviewing your finances, you'll be much more prepared for getting a mortgage.


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My grandmother posed for this glamorous photo to send to her true love, who was stationed in the Philippines.
Ruth Ginter Smith December 1944 |
Bubba, her true love, was serving in the Navy during World War II. His wife and daughter were busy keeping the home fire burning. Bubba often repeated how beautiful our grandmother was to him. Well, Bubba, I have to agree. She was gorgeous!
Happy Sunday!
Scrappy Gen
Let's Remember!


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Seeing Hal changed my life. After 4 years of strong chronic pain I now experience minimal pain and have no restrictions in doing all the activities I love in life. Here is my story.
I initially developed RSI type pain in my wrists from typing and computer use while writing up my Phd. It manifested as strong pain right through both my wrists whenever I typed or used my wrists for normal activities. It eventually got so bad that I could not do any typing at all, or do daily activities like holding a cup of tea, driving, or brushing my teeth without strong pain. I took 3 months off computer work as I thought this would allow it to heal, however the pain in my wrists persisted no matter how much rest I had.
Continue reading…
I then begun trying different therapies in a search for a solution, but nothing I tried worked, and no-one seemed to be able to definitively diagnose what was going on at all. I tried pretty much everything. This included acupuncture, massage, reiki, physiotherapy, hand therapists, hand surgeons, and chinese medicine. I had multiple MRI scans, ultrasounds and bone scans but none of them could identify the problem or offer any significant healing.
Despite my desperate efforts, the pain persisted for four long years. This greatly affected my ability to work during this time, and I was restricted with doing normal things in life like driving and riding my bike. I had pretty much given up and accepted that this pain might be my permanent reality.
I came across a book by Dr Sarno (The Mindbody Prescription) which got me interested in the idea that my pain could have a psychological component. However I did not get any significant results from just reading the book. The real turning point came when I started doing one-on-one sessions with Hal. Working with Hal really opened my eyes to the connection between my pain and unexpressed anger from my past. Over the next few sessions I released huge amounts of emotional pain and anger that I didn't even realise was there. I really liked the balance in the sessions between intellectual discussions (to get an understanding of the mind-body connection) and bodywork (to feel and release emotions). With Hal's guidance I also dived deeply into the work of Dr Sarno, reading almost all his books to develop a clear understanding of his approach (Dr Sarno's audiobooks are highly recommended).
It was a difficult process, but hugely rewarding. After only 4 sessions I experienced a massive drop in my pain levels. I felt like I had finally turned the corner with my chronic pain. On top of that I felt like I had released some old emotional burdens- I felt lighter and happier. I saw Hal again for a few more sessions and the pain levels continued to decrease. After about 6 sessions I felt the process was complete. The amazing thing was that after 4 years of frustration, it only took about two months of working with this method before I was healed.
While I still experience some pain now, it is minimal and does not really affect my daily life. I even went rock climbing the other day-which is something I thought I would never do again!! It feels amazing to be so free.
I am deeply indebted to Hal for carrying on the work of Dr Sarno and bringing this remarkable healing to my life. Hal is an extremely knowledgeable and professional practitioner and I would highly recommend him to anyone with chronic pain symptoms. Healing is possible. I am living proof of that. Don't give up!
Coburg, Victoria
I suffered chronic low back pain for 30 years and had reached the point of giving up on any chance of healing, living with average pain levels of 8/10 and relying on pain killers which were becoming less and less effective. Over these years I had seen numerous back specialists and other medical practitioners, who all said my pain was caused by a prolapsed disc. I even had surgery, a number of back injections, physio work, acupuncture, and a host of other treatments which I won't even mention here. Nothing helped to reduce my pain and the only constant was that my pain kept increasing with time, slowly taking over my life. Up until recently, I couldn't sit for more than a minute or so without extreme pain. Every facet of my life, both physically and mentally, was now dominated by pain and I felt like I was slowly sinking into an abyss.
Continue reading…
That was last December. I then came across a Dr John Sarno and discovered something called tension myositis syndrome, or mind body syndrome (TMS/MBS). Based on his clinical experience, Sarno claimed that repressed emotions in the unconscious such as anger or anxiety was the cause of many chronic pain disorders with low back pain being a common one. Whilst I was initially sceptical, to my amazement, after reading Sarno's books and trying his techniques, I was able to reduce my pain levels somewhat and even able to stop taking painkillers within a few weeks. I started to become a TMS believer. However my reduction in pain was only partial at best, and it became clear I would need some additional help.
Seeing Hal was a game changer. Being only one of a handful of psychotherapists in Australia aware of TMS/MBS, I decided to give it a go. Hal was able to help guide me back to a normal life again. He has been instrumental in teaching me how to get in touch with repressed emotions which is the key to eliminating TMS and the chronic pain it causes. In a matter of a few months, my life was turned around. My 30 years of back pain is now a non-issue – I am exercising regularly, riding my bike for the first time in 15 years, and even able to enjoy the cinema or theatre while sitting for hours and not feel any pain.
But it was not easy. We all experience negative emotions for one reason or another but it is how we deal with them that decides how they affect us. Learning to embrace your negative emotions and really feel and accept them is very challenging and confronting as we are programmed to repress and avoid them, albeit to our detriment. Hal's deep insight and understanding of TMS and his somatic approach to getting in touch with emotions repressed in the unconscious has been very effective. Hal has taught me the skills which I am confident will allow me to deal with any similar pain in the future. The icing on the cake is that I now also have some valuable skills for effectively dealing with the stresses life often throws at you.
I am indebted to Hal for his valuable guidance and help and highly recommend him for anyone who needs help with chronic pain symptoms.
Since I've started seeing Hal, I've quit drinking and smoking, gone off my antidepressants, stopped feeling shy, dramatically improved my relationships with my partner and with my mother, and largely gotten over my RSI issues.
Its been a transformational few months. I have to give credit to myself and to a course that I'm doing at the moment as well, but seeing Hal has really helped me get in touch with my emotions and given me the capacity to deal with life, rather than avoiding it. Ever since the first session, I've been blown away with how easily I can get in touch with and move through my deepest feelings through body work/somatic psychotherapy.
When I don't have to explain or analyse what I'm feeling, and can just let myself sit in those emotions, I find it much more useful than traditional psychotherapeutic work.
Preston, Victoria


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Submission deadline passed.
Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) intends to charter one vessel to participate in a fisheries research project investigating young-of-the-year (YOY) groundfish along the Newport Hydrographic Line (NH-Line) in coordination with ongoing zooplankton surveys in the area. The project will be in collaboration with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) employees from the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) and Oregon State University.
The timeline for the project will be approximately March 2012 through February 2013. These dates are subject to change based upon weather, logistical, or other contingencies. Mobilization and demobilization for the charter will be conducted in Newport, OR. The mobilization time frame is necessary for completing the following tasks: (1) loading gear (2) setting up electronics (3) orientating the scientific crew with the vessel (3) safety orientation. The demobilization time frame will include cleaning, unloading, and packing any scientific gear brought aboard the vessel for the project. Because the research trips are expected to be day trips, mobilization and demobilization will likely occur on the day of the trips. If possible mobilization and/or demobilization may occur the day prior to or the following research trips. In addition, storing some gear on the vessel between trips may occur if the vessel and scientific crew agree to this.
The Contractor agrees to furnish a vessel, crew, fuel, and gear necessary for sampling between 15 and 150 fm (1 – 25 nautical miles offshore) in the Pacific Ocean for young-of-the-year groundfish using a seven-foot video beam trawl system The Captain and crew for the selected vessel will support the scientific party in the deployment and retrieval of a beam trawl and rough sorting of the samples while at sea.
Download the full Request for Proposals (RFP) by clicking the Download RFP button below.
Updated version posted: 4.19.2012
Original posting date: 4.17.2012


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In Stock - Worldwide Shipping
Skins are premium grade decals that feature stunning, vibrant graphics printed on high quality cast vinyl.
Each Skin covers your DJI Smart Controller, provides low profile protection with no bulk and helps protect from scratches. The unique weaved adhesive allows for fast, easy and accurate application, and goo-free removal.
Wrap your DJI Smart Controller and make it uniquely yours.
iStyles Skin design of Black, Brown, Wood, Grey, Flooring, Floor, Laminate flooring, Wood flooring, with black colors, and tagged with lookslike, patterns, office.
DJI Smart Controller not included. Colors shown may differ from actual color depending on screen calibration.
Model: DJISC-BLACKWOOD
Country of Origin: USA
Date Available: 12 February 2019
iStyles5/P. Tavares, Portugal, 4 July 2023
iStyles5/Everything looks good. 2nd order from iStyles and happy customer.M. Rosati , United States, 13 October 2021
iStyles5/Very happy with my purchase. The selection was incredible, the shipping was fast, and everything was precise and fit perfectly. Initially ordered two drone skins, was so impressed I ordered a second time to skin my iPhone and AirPods. Highly recommend!!W. Dawson, United States, 4 October 2021
iStyles5/R. Sandmann, Germany, 17 May 2021
iStyles5/Very fast delivery even to Europe. And perfect product I will recommande it.R. Toni, Luxembourg, 26 February 2021
iStyles5/Thank you very much for smooth delivery and payment follow up. Very happy with your product and impressed with the quality of it.J. Van Rossen, Belgium, 28 July 2020
iStyles5/Everything was great. The shipping was fast. Much appreciated. I will eventually change the skin again and order from you again.R. Palacios, United States, 8 July 2020
iStyles5/Prompt delivery , Good Quality .A. Nichani, , 31 March 2020
iStyles5/One of the best products on the market I have seen to date, the wraps that istyles supply are the best quality I've seen on the market. Exact machine finish to fit my drone with no over hang or misjudged angles.M. Townsend , United Kingdom, 5 March 2020
The quality of the finish is superb, and in the result a unique style and touch to put my drone.
Also delivery times were exceptional, very accurate with tracking and I received my wrap well within the specified time of arrival here in the uk
Will defiantly purchase more from istyles in the future and spread the word regarding an awesome product
Thank istyles
iStyles5/Bought 4 of the same pattern in differing sizes. All are excellent. Quick delivery to Australia. Great service.M. Winsor, Australia, 11 December 2019
iStyles5/Always an easy purchase with iStyles. Good quality product, shipping time and service. Highly recommend to you!M. Winsor, Australia, 12 June 2019
View your Shopping Cart or Style Another Device with "Black Woodgrain"


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Meet The Most Awesome Person Ever, as well as The Most Stylish Person At NYFW, both such HIGH HONORS TO RECEIVE FROM SOMEONE AS GREAT AS I, OF COURSE, no, but, really, a very cool person, and oh my God let's add us some more commas, because this isn't annoying enough, but anyway, the most stylish person I saw all week -- Caroline Torem Craig. She is a party/backstage photographer I spoke to at Alexander Wang and one of the most good-hearted, unashamedly bonkers people I've been lucky to come across at any Fashion Week. She makes her own clothes and embroidered her name into this scarf (which wrapped around her neck five times) so no one would take it. If you click on this picture and go to "all sizes" on its Flickr page you can kind of see the beaded Jimi Hendrix bag (also her own creation) and close-ups of her massive jewelry. I mean, SO GOOD, right? Total good vibes and let's all just chill out and be happy, fashn ppl and totally REFRESHING. Plus, she had tinted pink glasses before the Marc Jacobs show.
"You need to run to Italy!" she told me, off-topic though it was. "You'd love it. I'm German but I was born in Amsterdam. Then I just moved here and married everyone I liked!" Now she is married to a Rasta. "When we walk down the street, people just run the other way!" Yes, but that can be quite helpful. Then you automatically filter out most of the narrow-minded people. "Well yeah, believe me, it's great!"
She listened to what I thought about the industry and had interesting replies. She obviously loves clothes and fashion but on a level that is totally different from the stuff about key season pieces and all that. She enjoys dressing in a way that seems so pure; something often lost in the fog of Fashion Week. I hope I can see her again.


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X34mm BLACK foam rings only.
After you have decided which Air-Tites to purchase, we also have albums, boxes and tubes designed specifically for our Air-Tite coin holders. For more coin sizes please check out our coin size guide or for coin capsule specifications take a look at our Air-Tite measurement and info page.
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I asked around and found that he was using Greek prayer beads or "Kombolói." I was able to purchase this set. It is made out of camel bones and has a nice feel to it.
When I was trying to find it, I described it as prayer beads. However, I found out that most people don't use them to pray with. They are generally used to help people stop smoking or deal with anxious feelings. I did find one or two people who acknowledged it could be used for prayer but "it is not used for that anymore."
That last statement, "it is not used for that anymore," caused me to think about my prayer life. Do I pray rightly or do I just pray to ward off anxiety, kind of routinely without really understanding what I am doing? Has my prayer life developed in a healthy fashion?
Prayer, at least the way that I understand it, is forging a lasting relationship with God. It is a two-way relationship where I talk and listen and God talks and listens. I have these conversations several times throughout my day. I don't use flowery phrases or talk in Elizabethan English. I imagine God sitting next to me and I just tell Him what I'm experiencing. When God talks to me, I generally don't hear an audible voice but I hear Him inside my head speaking thru my thoughts. I also notice, as I go thru my day, my wife will say something to which I talked to God about or a friend will say something similar to what I talked to God about. Also, when I spend time in the Bible, what I am reading is super relevant to what I had just shared with God. Other times, I hear God speaking thru things I read on the internet, books that I am reading or in my student's papers. It's amazing, also, how many times my Pastor's sermon is spot on to what I have been talking to God about or listening from God about.
So, I don't want you thinking that I see God answering everywhere, a kind of God behind every burning bush idea. There are days when I don't hear God speaking. Jesus talked about that when He said that "wicked and adulterous people are always looking for a sign." I live for those times when God reminds me of His love. I also know that when I don't recognize God's working, I can trust Him. He has impeccable character and is faithful even when I am unfaithful.
So, I ask you. What is your prayer life like? How do you experience prayer?
Do you pray just when things go bad or is your prayer life a relationship?
God is speaking to you, are you listening?


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Westminster Confession:
Oct. 31, 2021 - John 4
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and bbaptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed cagain for Galilee. 4 dAnd he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field ethat Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, fwearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.1
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, f"Give me a drink." 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (gFor Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you hliving water." 11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 iAre you greater than our father Jacob? jHe gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but kwhoever drinks of the water that I will give him lwill never be thirsty again.2 The water that I will give him will become min him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, ngive me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."
16 Jesus said to her, "Go, ocall your husband, and come here." 17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." 19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that pyou are qa prophet. 20 rOur fathers worshiped on sthis mountain, but you say that tin Jerusalem is uthe place where people ought to worship." 21 Jesus said to her, v"Woman, believe me, wthe hour is coming when xneither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 yYou worship what you do not know; zwe worship what we know, for zsalvation is afrom the Jews. 23 But bthe hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father cin spirit and dtruth, for the Father eis seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to him, "I know that fMessiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, ghe will tell us all things." 26 Jesus said to her, h"I who speak to you am he."
27 Just then ihis disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man jwho told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, k"Rabbi, eat." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33 So the disciples said to one another, l"Has anyone brought him something to eat?" 34 Jesus said to them, m"My food is nto do the will of him who sent me and oto accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that pthe fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that qsower and rreaper smay rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, t'One sows and another reaps.' 38 I sent you to reap uthat for which you did not labor. Others have labored, vand you have entered into their labor."
39 Many Samaritans wfrom that town believed in him xbecause of ythe woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed zbecause of his word. 42 They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, aand we know that this is indeed bthe Savior cof the world."
43 After dthe two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified ethat a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, fhaving seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For gthey too had gone to the feast.
Jesus Heals an Official's Son
46 So he came again to hCana in Galilee, iwhere he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus jhad come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, k"Unless you3 see signs and wonders you will not believe." 49 The official said to him, "Sir, come down lbefore my child dies." 50 Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants4 met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour5 the fever left him." 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." And he himself believed, mand all his household. 54 nThis was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright
Little Farms Chapel OPC, 2518 Arthur Street, Coopersville, MI 49404


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Good morning, Life--and all
Things glad and beautiful.
My pockets nothing hold,
But he that owns the gold,
The Sun, is my great friend--
His spending has no end.
Hail to the morning sky,
Which bright clouds measure high;
Hail to you birds whose throats
Would number leaves by notes;
Hail to you shady bowers,
And you green field of flowers.
Hail to you women fair,
That make a show so rare
In cloth as white as milk--
Be't calico or silk:
Good morning, Life--and all
Things glad and beautiful.


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I saw evidence of three great catastrophes this week, and they should start alarm bells ringing in all of our minds:
- Interest Rates
- Hezbollah and Iran Challenging Israel
- Hard Hearts in Our Churches
The last one is the most important, but you'll understand the first one better. And for the second… you won't understand the significance, unless you've read Ezekiel's Fire. And, you need to read Ezekiel's Fire.
I'm going to give an overview of the importance of those three catastrophes. And, I hope that you'll pay attention to them. They won't be fixed, but they can be avoided.


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Figure 3.1 Fluorescence-stained Cell Undergoing Mitosis A lung cell from a newt, commonly studied for its similarity to human lung cells, is stained with fluorescent dyes. The green stain reveals mitotic spindles, red is the cell membrane and part of the cytoplasm, and the structures that appear light blue are chromosomes. This cell is in anaphase of mitosis. (credit: "Mortadelo2005"/Wikimedia Commons)
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
- Describe the structure and function of the cell membrane, including its regulation of materials into and out of the cell
- Describe the functions of the various cytoplasmic organelles
- Explain the structure and contents of the nucleus, as well as the process of DNA replication
- Explain the process by which a cell builds proteins using the DNA code
- List the stages of the cell cycle in order, including the steps of cell division in somatic cells
- Discuss how a cell differentiates and becomes more specialized
- List the morphological and physiological characteristics of some representative cell types in the human body
You developed from a single fertilized egg cell into the complex organism containing trillions of cells that you see when you look in a mirror. During this developmental process, early, undifferentiated cells differentiate and become specialized in their structure and function. These different cell types form specialized tissues that work in concert to perform all of the functions necessary for the living organism. Cellular and developmental biologists study how the continued division of a single cell leads to such complexity and differentiation.
Consider the difference between a structural cell in the skin and a nerve cell. A structural skin cell may be shaped like a flat plate (squamous) and live only for a short time before it is shed and replaced. Packed tightly into rows and sheets, the squamous skin cells provide a protective barrier for the cells and tissues that lie beneath. A nerve cell, on the other hand, may be shaped something like a star, sending out long processes up to a meter in length and may live for the entire lifetime of the organism. With their long winding appendages, nerve cells can communicate with one another and with other types of body cells and send rapid signals that inform the organism about its environment and allow it to interact with that environment. These differences illustrate one very important theme that is consistent at all organizational levels of biology: the form of a structure is optimally suited to perform particular functions assigned to that structure. Keep this theme in mind as you tour the inside of a cell and are introduced to the various types of cells in the body.
A primary responsibility of each cell is to contribute to homeostasis. Homeostasis is a term used in biology that refers to a dynamic state of balance within parameters that are compatible with life. For example, living cells require a water-based environment to survive in, and there are various physical (anatomical) and physiological mechanisms that keep all of the trillions of living cells in the human body moist. This is one aspect of homeostasis. When a particular parameter, such as blood pressure or blood oxygen content, moves far enough out of homeostasis (generally becoming too high or too low), illness or disease—and sometimes death—inevitably results.
The concept of a cell started with microscopic observations of dead cork tissue by scientist Robert Hooke in 1665. Without realizing their function or importance, Hook coined the term "cell" based on the resemblance of the small subdivisions in the cork to the rooms that monks inhabited, called cells. About ten years later, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek became the first person to observe living and moving cells under a microscope. In the century that followed, the theory that cells represented the basic unit of life would develop. These tiny fluid-filled sacs house components responsible for the thousands of biochemical reactions necessary for an organism to grow and survive. In this chapter, you will learn about the major components and functions of a prototypical, generalized cell and discover some of the different types of cells in the human body.


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The Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) Non-Manufacturing PMI report shows that economic activity in the United States service sector beats expectations, 56.4 actual vs 54 expected, and a significant improvement from July's reading of 53.7. Non-Manufacturing PMI is coming off a 2-month slowdown, this data point is a sign of strength for the US service sector.
6 months of ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI data
Economic Implications
The strong ISM data comes as a sign of relief to the overall economy after Tuesday's worse than expected ISM Manufacturing PMI, 49.1 actual vs 51.1 expected, down from 51.2 in the previous month. Overall, economic data has not suggested the need for more rate cuts in the upcoming FOMC meetings. The main thing that has pushed the FOMC into cutting rates has been the US/China trade war. Economist believe that an elongated trade war can slow down economic activity and push the US into a recession, the FOMC is trying to get ahead of that.
Gold's Reaction
Gold had sold off in early trading as a result of the newly planned trade discussions between US and China, these discussions will take place in Washington, early in October. This piece of news lowered the chance of a 50-basis point cut in the upcoming FOMC meeting and makes it all but certain that we will see just a 25-basis point cut. After the ISM Non-Manufacturing beat, gold had more of a reason to sell off, down $40 from the daily high before recovering $10 to $15. Given the upcoming meeting is almost certainly going to be a 25-basis point cut, indications for the following meeting will be a catalyst for gold. If trade talks between the US and China go poorly, we will most likely see gold move back towards cycle highs.