text:
"No one cared who I was until I put on the mask."
What lies behind the keratinized edifice of the beak? What secrets will it betray…
A frequent theme and constant source of needed intellectual dismantling in this blog is the perpetuation of false dichotomies. Regular readers will note that I have went up against false dichotomies in my various posts on Spinosaurus locomotory methods (belly sliding and bottom punting versus obligate bipedalism/quadrupedalism and ill-equipped swimming) and most recently highlighting naked skin on the face of theropods as a viable alternative to the hemmed in scale/feather extremes. Similar to the feather vs. scale debate the lip debate has become hemmed into two fiefdoms: the croc-like keratinized oral margin and squamate like lizard lips. As I will address in this and subsequent posts the croc-like keratinized lip and lizard lip gestalts likely occurred in some theropods. But far more prevalent - especially on some of the more well known theropods - is a completely different and novel lip design that I will be arguing for.
The "lizard lips" hypothesis rests fairly squarely on the presumption that non-avian theropods had scales on their face right up to the oral margin. However in my last post I attacked this notion, noting that modern aves lack scaled heads and even crocodiles lack scaled heads. While I do think some theropods had croc-like keratinized oral margins and some basal theropods likely had squamate lizard like lips, regular readers will know that I have been dressing my theropods in a unique oral fashion for some time now. I want to in fact give this unique theropod lip design - the third option I alluded to earlier - a name, and in typical antediluvian salad fashion the name does poke fun and have a certain mischievous, provocative and subversive appeal: meat curtains.
|Kill It With Fire!! Monolophosaurus displaying its meat curtains. credit Duane Nash
Maybe some of my younger readers are naive to the term "meat curtain" but, well, inquiring minds will find out. Let's just say the term "vagina dentata" has brand new and startling meaning: this pussy bites back!! The comparison is apt because in both vaginal lips and theropod lips ; a loose seal was maintained; the tissue was non-muscular; the tissue was tough and elastic; and the tissue was highly enervated and extremely sensitive with blood vessels and nerves. In addition you have the double entendre of "meat curtains"; it was literally curtains to any meat that fell between the lips of theropods. This set up also has some vague similarities to mammalian carnivoran type lips. However, I must stress that I am not implying some sort of muscularity to such lips. The upper lips just sort of hangs there and plops down on top of the droopy lower lip when the jaw is shut. An oral seal is achieved, teeth are obscured, the upper teeth do not cut into the lower lips as would be in a problem in many theropod depictions.
In the rough coronal anatomical schematic above you can see how this lip design works and is consistent with theropod jaw and tooth anatomy. The nutrient foramen on both the dentary and mandible feed and enervate the lip tissue. A certain amount of tooth crossing is implied allowing the diabolical theropod "scissor cut" technique. That theropod teeth did cross past the lower teeth is probable and rarely appreciated in most theropod lip depictions. Indeed the manner in which most theropod lips are depicted would have the upper teeth shred the lower lips and gums. This is not an issue in the above design.
This model of Allosaurus at the Fukui Dinosaur Preferctural Museum of Japan stumbled upon a similar design albeit I would prefer no snarl and less scales:
That the upper teeth went past the lower teeth somewhat is supported by the patently obvious observation that the neuro-vascular foramina on the lower jaw directly correspond to the length of the longest teeth from the upper jaw. The foramina on the lower jaw in fact demarcate the extent to which the upper teeth slid past the lower teeth and rested against the lower jaw. Alternatively the foramina on the upper jaw simply line up along the alveolar margin of the upper jaw.
|Giganotosaurus credit OldEarth
|What's my name?
|credit Jaime Headden
These foramina are not just haphazardly placed along the jaw as should be expected if they indeed had a croc - like oral margin. No, tissue was growing out from these foramina. In the upper jaw this lippy tissue - possibly fairly rigid and even somewhat keratinized - just sort of hung out draping over the teeth. In the lower jaw the lippy tissue did not form a pocket but instead grew out somewhat laterally and hung inferiorly. This sort of saggy, droopy lower lip allowed the upper lip to just loosely drape over it but also provided great tactical support for feeling, sensing, and reacting to struggling prey in the jaw. The upper and lower lip combined to form an extensive neural net.
Note that the lippy tissue allows substantially more tactile and proprioception than either the lizard lip design or the weird baggy "tooth pocket" design that has recently come into vogue. The nerve pads of felids and sensitive muzzle/lips of canids are especially useful for allowing tactile information for these animals.
This tactile ability of the lips came in handy not just in securing and maintaining prey within in the jaw but also potentially safeguarding the predator from injury. Theropods did not just eat harmless sauropodlets all the time, they bit into some pretty strong, feisty, and retaliatory animals, including other theropods. One of the persistent myths that has become somewhat enshrined in theropod folklore is that theropods could literally run up to large prey and, almost effortlessly, carve out long and deep gouges with minimal contact. The thick hides, nodules, and osteoderms of many dinosaurs argues against such quick and effortless interactions. In order to deliver a devastating bite the prey may have to have been engaged for longer than generally appreciated. Biting such animals was dangerous and large lips could have mitigated risks. Large and tactile lips could have served as an early warning device when the animal within the jaws was tensing for a blow or other damaging movement. Having lips that could sense such movements and struggles better allowed theropods with such lips to react and counter such movements. Or, if the stresses were too strong, abort the bite. Remember many theropods had a good chin but they had glass jaws. They could take could dorsal ventral blows and trauma but a lateral blow could have been devastating.
"What about such floppy lips getting cut up during jaw closures? Wouldn't they get cut to ribbons?"
If you look at slow motion video of dogs biting the upper lips actually don't have to be pulled back by muscular action to prevent teeth biting into lips. Actually what looks to be going on is that the momentum of opening the jaws throws the upper lips up and away from the point of impact. Additionally, even if an accidental bite of the lips occurred such structures are very tough and heal quickly. A non-avian lipped theropod throwing open its jaws and biting would have looked vaguely canid like but still kinda alien looking.
Incidentally I do think lips getting cut up is a big problem in the "tooth pocket" design most notably implemented for T. rex in the game Saurian. What is preventing such a loose, non scaled lower lip from flopping inwards during the bite and getting penetrated? Scales might offer more structural support but if the face was not scaled? I know komodo dragons are often asserted to feature this "tooth pocket" design but is that what is really going on in that mouth? Do komodo dragon teeth actually slide past one another for a true "scissor bite" or do the upper and lower teeth not really cross during the bite sequence? What is all that gummy tissue doing? (hint I will more into komodo dragons on a future post)
In discussing this novel lip structure I like to discuss the genesis of an idea because that is something I always find interesting. Let's revisit the "Hellhound Rex" picture that started the ball rolling for me:
The image disturbed a lot of people, some really rallied against it. That was the clue that I was onto something... and it is not that I think "this is how rex looked for sure" indeed, the best critique I got was from Jaime Headden who, to paraphrase, told me to concentrate on one or two soft tissue structures instead of such a plethora. Admittedly I did take a "throw a bunch of shit at the wall and see what sticks approach". What I think got underneath a lot of people's skin is one specific part of the oral margin. Something that quite happened by accident but which stimulated a kernel of an idea in my head. In other words, something did stick.
You have seen such morphology before. In fact it is directly reminiscent of the rictus in modern avian theropods. It is the rictus that is most often referred to as the "lip" of modern birds and could it be a sort of evolutionary residue? a relict structure from a formerly lippy pedigree of non-avian theropods? Certainly the picture below suggests that rictus tissue can be co-opted for display purposes. Which also suggests that lippy structures in non-avian theropods could have also been co-opted for display purposes.
Theropods - at least those giving rise to beaked birds - likely once all had lips and the evolutionary residue of a formerly lippy dynasty still persists in modern birds in the rictus at the convergence of the upper and lower jaws.
|Steppe Eagle (Aquila nipalensis orientalis) credit Quartl CC3.0
In order to illuminate and bolster this claim that meat curtain, quasi-canid style lips occurred in non-avian predatory theropods I am going to go about it in sort of a round about and non-traditional way.
It relies heavily on the principles of convergence and exaptation - two increasingly robust paleontological concepts. The way and manner to ask and investigate the question of why grow a beak is by investigating the fossil record of the beaked and the non-beaked among terrestrial tetrapods. Upon investigating and then illuminating the patterns encountered then offering explanatory hypotheses on why and how these patterns emerged, answers will start to emerge from the fuzz. As I will argue embedded in the question of why grow a beak? is what type of lip was there before the beak?
The Beak Impoverished Kingdom of Synapsids
Let's start with synapsids - mammals and the various stem mammals. They suck at growing beaks. Let's discount beaked whales of course - not too sure if they have true rhampotheca anyways and we are limiting our discussion to terrestrial tetrapods. I guess it is worth mentioning the platypus and some interesting work on the evolution of its "bill" but again that hardly constitutes the keratinized rhampotheca we are talking about.
So why so beak impoverished, furballs?
I will venture it probably has a lot to do with lactation and suckling - that nested quite deep in mammals and maybe even stem mammals is the ability to form a tight seal on female teats/other organs of "nursing" that was advantageous for such feeding. This in turn begat a very muscular and evolutionarily flexible oral margin. I'm sure that this idea has been suggested before just not sure where or by whom.
We will revisit mammals upon discussion of other beaked animals but just keep this in mind. When mammals make the transition to herbivory or delicate and precise foraging techniques they pretty much universally invest in more intricate and elaborate oral-facial musculature. Think elephant trunks, tapir noses, or even the prehensile lips of bears.
|credit Anna Schultz. CC3.0 Tapirus terrestris flehmen response
Prehensile lips and trunks - these are structures on the opposite spectrum from relatively immobile and non-muscular beaks. Yet both extremes can achieve a lot of the same goals ecologically. Both muscular lips/trunks and non-muscular beaks can do some very dextrous and agile manipulations. Keep this thought in your back pocket.
|credit Mojcaj CC3.0
To really come up with a beaked dynasty in synapsids we have to go way back to dicynodonts. These stem mammals are truly beaked but their relatively less derived position also begs the question: Did these stem-mammals even lactate/nurse their young? Seems doubtful or, at the very least, painful. This observation supports the earlier contention I made that muscular mouths/lips/oral margins in synapsids has a lot do with suckling.
|edentulous upper mouth pad of domestic cattle. credit Woolshed 1 blog
The roughened and sometimes edentulous oral pad of many mammalian herbivores comes the closest to approximating a beak. But even here not quite a beak.
Over all though the lack of beaks among synapsids - especially derived mammals - is notable but there are good hypothesis to explain the dearth of beaks.
The On Again Off Again Beaked Diapsids
It's really when we get into diapsids that some interesting patterns emerge. Forgive me for using somewhat generalized and familiar names (as i usually do) but this is only for ease of understanding at all levels.
Turtles - always beaked. Probably archosaurs or archosaur cousins. Used to have teeth and beaks but have been eduntulous for some time. However it is worth noting that even after beaks evolved in turtles teeth were not totally lost, this is a concept that I will revisit later on..
Crocodiles - never beaked. Crocodiles figure prominently in the lip debate as well. What is noticeable is that various stem crocs engaged heavily in omnivory/herbivory/insectivory. However unlike the case when theropods became engaged with these lifestyles this move from carnivory to herbivory did not result in beaks for any known crocodyliformes. I will suggest that there is potentially a difference in oral anatomy, i.e. lips the presence or absence there of, that negated a convergence in evolving beaks. Again keep that factoid in your back pocket - crocodiles never evolved beaks even when they switched to an omnivorous/herbivorous diet.
Lizards & Snakes - never beaked. This is an important observation that should not go unstated. Snakes are of course dedicated predators. Lizards on the other hand have experimented with all manner of foodstuffs. However even herbivorous lizards don't grow beaks and become edentulous. They might "tighten" up the keratizined scales around the oral margin but they don't form a true rhampotheca and become edentulous. I will go more into lizards in a bit but the patently true observation that lizards - which by definition have "lizard lips" - never evolved beaks but theropods - asserted to have lizard lips - often evolved beaks.
Sauropods - never beaked. Despite spurious claims of a "beak" in Camarasaurus - which is most likely just highly keratinized scales along the oral margin - there are no beaked sauropods. This is an important observation. Indeed if there is one dynasty of herbivores that begs to have beaks it is sauropods. They live by the motto of bite quickly, don't chew, and swallow so an eduntulous beak would have been perfect for them. Yet in over 140 million years of evolution beaks did not occur in this group and they kept their teeth. That sauropods, like lizards, never grew beaks hints at a commonality in the oral margin in these two groups. Sauropods were, and likely always were, truly lizard lipped with a tight band of scales all the way up to the oral margin.
*Ornithischians - always beaked!! (work in progress)
Pterosaurs - sometimes beaked!! (work in progress)
Crurotarsi - maybe aetosaurs, although might just be a highly keratinized snout? otherwise not much beakyness. (work in progress)
Dinosauromorphs - Did silesaurids have beaks…. hmmm. (work in progress)
*these sections are still works in progress and thinking things through...
"Lizard Lipped" Theropods? Lizards Fail Where Theropods Prevail
|Lizard Lips in Theropods a Work of Fiction? Ol' Skool Lizard Lip Carch Shark Cage by Duane Nash
|Green Iguana (Iguana iguana) credit Bjørn Christian Tørrissen
The thought dawned on me while driving to work one day. If theropods did indeed have lizard lips we should expect convergence in oral anatomy when dietary changes occur in these respective lineages. In non-avian theropods the transition from a carnivorous diet to an omnivorous-herbivorous diet is commensurate with an increasingly edentulous and beaked oral set up. However when lizards - which by definition are "lizard lipped" i.e. a somewhat tight, keratinized, and scaled oral margin - transition from a carnivorous or "faunivorous" lifestyle to omnivore and herbivory they never evolve beaks. Never. Nunca. Not Once. Most obvious are iguana but you have various member of the agamidae such as Uromastyx lizards that are lizard lipped but did not evolve beaks with the advent of ominovry-herbivory. Hell, even the recently discovered fruit eating monitor lizard of the northern Philippines shows no evidence of a beak, and monitor lizard style lips are the style of lip most ascribe to theropods!!
|Varanus bitatawa credit ACD CC3.0
|Uromastyx acanthinura. credit MAJ Kathleen A. Hoard, U.S. Marine Corpspublic domain http://www.defenseimagery.mil
When faced with a change in diet lizard lipped lizards never evolve beaks. We have to ask ourselves why did non-avian theropods - presumed by many to have lizard lips - always evolve beaks when faced with a similar change in diet? Convergence is a powerful trend in evolution and to not see any degree in convergence between these two lineages when faced with similar adaptive pressures is an observation not to be dismissed.
It is not like theropods dabbled in growing beaks, they fully embraced beaks. Not just avian theropods but Therizinosauria, Oviraptorsauria, Ornithomimosauria, and Elaphrosaurinae. The reason for this convergence in shared oral anatomy - both the reduction and eventual fully edentulous nature of tooth loss and growth of beaks - is tied intimately with diet and feeding anatomy. However the anatomical feature that precipitated this transition in theropods is lips. The question is what did these lips look like?Not the tight fitting, slightly keratinized and scaled lips as we see in lizards. Lips of this sort don't precipitate beaks as shown by the noted absence of beak evolution in lizards.
If we eliminate lizard lips in theropods - at least from those theropods that evolved beaked forms - we are left with meat curtains and croc lips. However no crcodylomorphs evolved beaks and they messed around with all sorts of diets during their long evolutionary tenure. Now I do think that a number of theropods messed around with keratinized croc like oral margins - but among those that evolved into beaked forms I don't think that such an oral margin occurred.
So by eliminating croc-lips and lizard-lips from the ranks of those theropods that evolved beaks what are we left with? meat curtains.
The style of lips that precipitated the evolution of beaks were of a much more looser and pendulous variety - a far cry from the tight fitting shellac of lizards lips. That theropods equipped with such "meat curtains" unanimously replaced them with keratinized rhamphotheca i.e. "beaks" speaks not to the superiority of this lip design with regards to omnivory-herbivory but to the cumbersome and inefficient design of such lips when engaging in such a diet.
Let's play a little thought experiment: Imagine that you are a putative "lizard lipped" theropod that fits this niche of transitional omnivore-herbivore. As compared to your carnivorous brethren you have to spend a lot more time out and about foraging for food. This diet requires a lot of quick and precise nips and bites. Sometimes you are trying to only eat certain parts of a plant and avoid other parts. Sometimes you are selecting nutritious fruiting bodies or fresh green growth, other times you are precisely picking up fallen fruitifications or seeds off the ground. Since the oral margin you have - your "lips" - is a tight fitting rim of scales there is nothing to really impede this foraging ability. More so than that there is no evolutionary imperative to grow a beak or lose your teeth. In fact your "lizard lips" are already a sort of proto-beak of their own.
Long story short if you were a theropod or a lizard equipped with such an oral anatomy no real evolutionary pressure to tighten and clean up the oral margin - the tight fitting scaled lizard lips do the job just fine. No need to lose your teeth either.
Now contrast this scenario with a putative theropod trending into omnivory-herbivory but instead of giving the animal clean and trim "lizard lips" endow it with the cumbersome and sloppy "meat curtains" lips. Now making all those precise nips, pecks, and bites on small items gets a lot more trickier. Your fully carnivorous brethren have no problem operating with large, drooping lips - a quick and violent bite and snatch is all that is needed. But now you find yourself out and about foraging for a lot longer to get your nutrients. This puts you at risk for predation. Because your lips are big and cumbersome and don't quite form a nice clean cutting edge you find yourself having to bite repeatedly at things. Plucking small seeds and fruits from the ground is sloppy. You can't always make the precise bites on select bits of foliage. All the extra time spent foraging puts you at greater risk from predators.
Faced with such a maladaptive situation the solution is simple: tighten up those fleshy, pendulous lips into a nice trim, neat, and keratinized lippy margin. In other words grow a beak. The exaptation for growing a beak in this scenario is not actually some putative proto-beak or such, no it is the exact opposite, a cumbersome "meat curtain" ill-equipped for precise and repeated bites and pecks. Optimal foraging theory dictates that such an evolutionary change would occur in such animals.
Yes For Limusarus, Herbivory & Beaks, and the Quest for Carotenoids
Now I have been planning to consolidate these ideas for a while now and I knew it was going to be a bit tricky to splice apart how all the different birdy, sort of birdy, weird theropods transitioning into herbivory fit along this gradient from toothy to reduced teeth to edentulous. But then I saw the talk on Limusaurus at SVP 2016 SLC and the subsequent paper came out and it was like a god-send. Limusaurus encapsulated this whole transition from a toothed predator to an edentulous beaked herbivore with gastroliths all nicely wrapped up in one complete ontogenetic package!!
Extreme Ontogenetic Changes in a Ceratosaurian Theropod.
This paper (Wang et. al., 2016) encapsulates in one animal the transition from a carnivorous to a more omnivorous/herbivorous lifestyle. In addition to the growth of a beak and loss of teeth evidence of gastroliths and stable isotopic chemistry provide independent lines of evidence converging on the same conclusion: beaks and the evolution there of are not evolutionary eventualities but are coincident with a transition of carnivorous to herbivorous lifestyles and loss of teeth. This trend is very noticeable in theropods and mention of the seed eating avialian Jeholornis is also warranted as it retains some teeth in immature specimens. Harpymimus too and probably a bunch of others I am forgetting.
|Jeholornis credit Matt Martyniuk
As the lippy oral margin gets more keratinized it renders the teeth obsolete furthering the loss of teeth and edentulous condition in omnivorous/herbivorous theropods and ultimately modern birds. That the loss of teeth in theropods transitioning into herbivory is commensurate with a transition into herbivory is bolstered by the retention of teeth in many predatory stem birds/enantiornithines as well as the evolution of "pseudo-teeth" and shredding choannal papillae & serrated tongues in many hunting, fishing, and scavenging birds. Limusaurus and its revelations are so important and, well to put it frankly, startlingly fortuitous in documenting this transition from a predator to a beaked herbivore but in reality there were probably many species that fell upon a gradient of lipped predator to quasi-beaked increasingly keratinized toothed omnivore to fully beaked herbivore. I made some rough illustrations to illustrate this transition:
Stage 1: Fully predatory and fully lipped. Will occasionally augment diet with select fruitifications and stomach contents from herbivore prey for display colors and carotenoids. A diffuse coevolutionary partnership has begun with the propagules of several plants enlisting the aide of such carnivores to help spread seeds (i.e. the rotten flesh/cheese odor of ginkgo fruits). Has undergone evolution of protofeather "dino-fuzz" and has subsequently lost scales on the head and around oral margin. No "lizard lips".
Stage 2. Sexo-social signalling devices have stimulated an increased emphasis on colored display for both skin, osteological, and integumentary display. In turn the increase in dietary plants for carotenoids in the diet to support such color displays has created a shift in foraging patterns. Small animals, insects, and scavenging are still important but hypercarnivory and large game hunting has been supplanted by an increased emphasis on high quality plant material, seeds, fruitifications (i.e. cycad, gingko, podocarp propagules) and other vegetative resources in the quest for carotenoids. Commensurate with this shift into herbivory the loose lips around the oral margin have withdrawn and became more keratinized. Some teeth remain, especially at the jaw dip for both grasping, occasional hunting, and defense but other teeth have been lost. Rictal tissue remains at the juncture of the upper and lower jaws is present and is even important for display. The jaw shortens and becomes deeper.
Stage 3. A fully beaked and fully herbivorous realization. Sexo-social signaling and the quest for carotenoids has finally turned a lipped and predatory theropod into a beaked and herbivorous sexual T. rex. Small animals and occasional scavenging are still opportunistically exploited - especially in growing animals and females - but dedicated herbivory is overwhelmingly important. The pubis has tilted back, gut expanded, gastroliths are present, and adults are completely edentulous.
I think it important to iterate that this is not necessarily a straight line progression and there are lots of room for reversions, deviations, and exceptions to this lipped predator to beaked herbivore transition. How you might choose to slot a particular species in this rough spectrum depends on both the ecology of the animal in question and, as Limusarus suggests, its ontogenetic sequence. For some more thought and reference on beaked, half beaked, beaks and teeth in stem-birds go read Matt Martyniuk's post Theropods That Fit the Bill on DinoGoss.
I think it fair to say that there is no eventuality in evolving beaks; beaks are related to an increased dietary emphasis of herbivory (not flight); and neither the crocodile style oral margin nor the "lizard lips" style oral margin produce beaks as neither herbivorous crocodiles or herbivorous lizards/sauropods produced beaked forms.
The End of Lizard Lipped Theropods? Not So Fast...
Am I suggesting we cast a death knell for lizard lipped theropods? At first I thought yes, but I have recently recast my decision.
What translates a good hypothesis into the realm of theory is that it has predictive power. As I have frequently mentioned in this piece sauropods never grew beaks even though their foraging strategy seems like it should compel them to. Since sauropods are only known to have scales, likely never evolved a full coat of filaments, and therefore never cleared up the scales around and on the face, they likely retained an oral margin not unlike lizards. Sauropods, like lizards never evolved beaks because their oral margin was fine as it was for biting, pecking, and plucking as a herbivore. They also never lost their teeth. Now if we work from that observation and realize that theropods and sauropods are in fact kissing cousins we should presume that at least very close to the base of the theropod and sauropod split - before theropods evolved an integumentary coat and lost the scales on their face - there was in fact a putative lizard lipped theropod. A further prediction for this putative lizard lipped theropod is that if it embarked on a quest for carotenoids for display purposes and transitioned to a more herbivorous diet that it would not actually evolve a beak but instead retain teeth in its jaw. Such an animal would deviate from the trend in all other coelurosaurian "feathered" theropods that evolved beaks and trended into omnivory and herbivory.
Ladies and gentleman such an animal exists and its name is Chilesaurus diegosuarezi.
|Chilesaurus credit UNO
Chilesaurus has become somewhat lost in the mire in discussions of herbivory, beaks, and theropods. I will offer it is very important in that it is clearly a theropod that made the transition from carnivore to herbivore but it deviates from the trend of beakyness seen in other more derived theropods that likewise changed dietary ecology. For starters this animal was not new to herbivory, it had a rear pointing pubic bone and expanded gut. Furthermore it occurs exactly where we should expect such early experiments in herbivory to exist mid to late Jurassic suggesting that the earliest transitions to herbivory in theropods may have started in the early Jurassic or even Triassic. Finally, as should be expected for an early off-shoot from lizard lipped theropods this animal did not evolve a beak but retained and expanded large cropping spatulate teeth in the front of the jaw. Just like a lizard - or a sauropod - would.
An enigmatic plant-eating theropod from the Late Jurassic period of Chile
|a, Partial right (?) maxilla in lateral view. b, Left premaxilla in medial view. c, Right dentary in lateral view.d, Details of dentary teeth in lingual view. e, Crown of unerupted dentary tooth. f, Detail of the carina of an unerupted…
|credit Fernando Novas
I would be remiss not to mention Incisivorosaurus guathieri. This animal being a coeulerosaur is on the branch that underwent feathering, so it potentially could have had dispensed with scales on the face and lacked true lizard lips. Yet it follows more of the trend we see in Chilesaurus… interesting. More derived oviraptors lost all of their teeth.
|Incisivosaurus gauthieri credit Jaime A. Headden
As I mentioned on my last post it is hard to ascribe hard and fast rules to these things. As soon as you start to press down and announce "Aha that's it!!" exceptions start to arise. Biology is squishy and messy.
But I do think that this approach looking at the beaked and the beak less with respect to ecological imperatives gives a faint signal of likely facial appearance and 'lippiness" emerging through the murk of deep time.
In short my parting thoughts on the lip question in theropods are; basal theropods near the sauropod split likely had lizard lips; spinosaurids, unenlagines, piscivorous & small game hunters, kinked snouted theropods, and abelisaurids theropods of that gestalt may have had partially or even completely keratinized oral margins or perhaps even split the difference i.e. lips on lower jaw & keratin on above jaw for abelisaurids; derived predatorial theropods that had underwent evolution of "proto-feathers" may have lost scales on the face and therefore lost lizard lips and adopted a quasi-canid looking "meat curtain" lip gestalt; these same "meat curtain" theropods underwent evolution of rhampotheca i.e. "beaks" when sexo-social display structures stimulated increased consumption of carotenoids leading to increased herbivory. Beaked theropods survived the K/T extinction, not coincidentally their survivorship has been attributed to an ability peck and forage for seeds and other small food stuffs with their beaks.
What wears a mask of a beak, hides a former lippy pedigree. No one cares about me until I wear the mask.
|credit Danielle Dufault
Larson, D.W.; Brown, C.M.; Evans, D.C. (2016) "Dental disparity and ecological stability in bird-like dinosaurs prior to the end Cretaceous extinction. Current Biology V-26 Issue 10 pp1325-1333. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.03.039
Theropods That Fit the Bill. Mathew Martyniuk. DinoGoss. January 17, 2011
Novas, F. E.; Salgado, L.; Suárez, M.; Agnolín, F. L.; Ezcurra, M. N. D.; Chimento, N. S. R.; de la Cruz, R.; Isasi, M. P.; Vargas, A. O.; Rubilar-Rogers, D. (2015). "An enigmatic plant-eating theropod from the Late Jurassic period of Chile". Nature. 522: 331–4. doi:10.1038/nature14307.PMID 25915021.
Wang, S.; Stiegler, J.; Amiot, R.; Wang, X.; Du, G.-H.; Clark, J.M.; Xu, X. (2017)."Extreme Ontogenetic Changes in a Ceratosaurian Theropod" (PDF). Cell Biology. 27: 1–5.doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.043.
"A Long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom". Thomas Paine


text:
I was in the mood to make some red velvet cupcakes this weekend. Red velvet cake is so pretty on it's own, you really don't need to do much to decorate it. A luscious cream cheese frosting works just fine most of the time.
But since Valentine's Day is coming up soon, I wanted to do something simple and fun for the occasion.
So I made some cute cupid's arrows to adorn them.
To make these love struck cupcakes, you just need to insert a 6-inch lollipop stick through the top part of the cupcake papers.
You can use a toothpick to pierce through the paper on each side to make it easier to push the stick through. Hold the paper on each side as you push the stick through so the paper doesn't separate from the cupcake.
Then you can cut out sweet little hearts to attach to each end.
Actually, cut out the hearts ahead of time so you're prepared.
Attach the small heart to one end with a small piece of tape and cut two slits through the larger heart to allow the stick to slide through.
Cut along the white lines on the larger heart for a more feathery look. I decided not to because I thought they looked cleaner this way.
Here's a pdf if you want to download the ones I made. There's a pink and a red version of the hearts in the pdf.
Or if you are more prepared, you can look for two different size heart paper punches and some pink or red heavyweight paper and save a lot of cutting time.
Obviously, I wasn't prepared.
But in a pinch, these hearts work great, too.
To decorate the cupcakes, I used an Ateco Tip #807 to swirl on a mountain of creamy cream cheese frosting.
And then I sprinkled a few of these tee-niny heart sprinkles right on top.
But if you want to make them even easier, you can simply insert the arrow straight down through the frosting and into the cake below.
You can turn them into bleeding heart cupcakes, too. So easy!
Just attach a few hearts sprinkles upside down onto the frosting.
I used jumbo, regular and miniature heart sprinkles.
Red Velvet Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-2 oz. red food coloring
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line trays with cupcake papers.
- Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.
- Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together with another wire whisk.
- Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
- Pour into cupcake pans and drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
- Bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Makes 24 cupcakes
Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups confectioners' sugar
- Sift sugar and set aside.
- Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy. Add vanilla.
- Then, add the sugar in batches. Scrape down the sides in between each addition.
- And frost away.
Either way you want to decorate, enjoy!
oh… and eat your heart out.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Sijun Forums :: View topic - YOUR WORKING SPACE!! Post it. don't be shy.... Log in to check your private messages Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Sijun Forums Forum Index >> Random Musings View previous topic :: View next topic Author Topic : "YOUR WORKING SPACE!! Post it. don't be shy...." NagmemberMember #Joined: 25 Apr 2004Posts: 287Location: Iceland Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:09 am Here´s my current desktop at work. We´re moving in a few months and we´ll be able to design our workspaces and make something fancy then =). Back to top AndromedamemberMember #Joined: 18 Jan 2000Posts: 708Location: Lower Ward, Sigil Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:33 am Naglfar ... thats a huge monitor... Digital decoy, Love your space ... the colours the little toys, the floor reminds me of Alice in Wonderland ... Back to top NagmemberMember #Joined: 25 Apr 2004Posts: 287Location: Iceland Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2005 5:50 pm Andromedia.. You can´t imagine how happy I was when my previous monitor broke and I got this one instead (now all the guys at work are systematically sabotaging their screens) digitaldecoy.. is that a Cintiq tablet? And if it is.. how is it? Back to top Giant HamstermemberMember #Joined: 22 Oct 1999Posts: 1782 Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 9:02 pm As previously stated...when I moved into the new place I'd take a picture of the workspace...so here it is. Back to top digitaldecoymemberMember #Joined: 08 Nov 2002Posts: 118Location: germany Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 11:43 pm @ Naglfar: The Cintiq is the mother of all tablets and besides that it is a top notch lcd display (super IPS -> huge viewing angle and brilliant color and contrast). I made some fotos for a review I posted on my forums. I would post the review but it´s in german only. Hope you don´t mind these fotos in this thread. Well, technically these are details from my workspace. [that was the header of the review, hence the typo] [I love those haptic dots - great design]_________________¡Que la fuerza te acompañe! Back to top MaxmemberMember #Joined: 12 Aug 2002Posts: 3210Location: MIND Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 12:58 am Hamster: nice, it won't stay that clean though I quess : ) Back to top abunaijunior memberMember #Joined: 04 Jun 2005Posts: 26Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 11:58 am Nothing ever stays clean long, anywhere. I'll post some pictures when I can get at dad's camera. ^_^_________________-Gio afterglow Back to top Giant HamstermemberMember #Joined: 22 Oct 1999Posts: 1782 Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 12:14 pm max: heheh. Just watch me! :D My last desk stayed pristine clean like that for Two and a half years! It's cause I smoke crack and shoot up with little kids at the playground - they keep me in line. Back to top FrancismemberMember #Joined: 18 Mar 2000Posts: 1155Location: San Diego, CA Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 9:46 am hee Giant Hamster, I have that same desk! Here are some photos taken with my crappy pda camera. The grain hides a lot of stuff... _________________Francis Tsai TeamGT Studios Back to top abunaijunior memberMember #Joined: 04 Jun 2005Posts: 26Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 1:38 pm Well, I used to work here: But as you can see, it's covered in crap, and just generally too small. So then I moved here: It's also covered in crap. So I moved here: It's clean, but too small for anything practical. Now, I work here. It's perfect. ^_^ _________________-Gio afterglow Back to top Capt. FredmemberMember #Joined: 21 Dec 2002Posts: 1425Location: South England Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 5:18 am recently found this relic in my dad's garage, which now takes pride of place on my desk. Nay, dominates my room. Lucky that my table is backwards-compatible enough to hold this Ironage cathode-ray equipment. had a tidy up. Back to top neffmemberMember #Joined: 11 May 2002Posts: 1444Location: Germany Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:01 am hehe... dual monitors requiring dual wacom _________________* Back to top AffectedmemberMember #Joined: 22 Oct 1999Posts: 1854Location: Helsinki, Finland Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:07 am That photo is unnerving, neff... In some ways it looks like there's a mirror behind the monitors etc., only the reflection shows the wrong kind of monitor, lava lamp etc... Back to top B0bmemberMember #Joined: 14 Jul 2002Posts: 1807Location: Sunny Dorset, England Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:42 am wow Cpt Fred - Radius Monitor won't last v long if u keep it that close to the wall tho' monitors need a min of 4" distance between the back and a wall to keep the air circulating Back to top B0bmemberMember #Joined: 14 Jul 2002Posts: 1807Location: Sunny Dorset, England Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:19 am updated my display as my Hitachi died.. Back to top Capt. FredmemberMember #Joined: 21 Dec 2002Posts: 1425Location: South England Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 12:15 pm thanks bob. noted! Back to top balisticmemberMember #Joined: 01 Jun 2000Posts: 2599Location: Reno, NV, USA Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 5:15 pm my computer had a baby Back to top FrancismemberMember #Joined: 18 Mar 2000Posts: 1155Location: San Diego, CA Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 7:42 pm oo! specs man! is it good for painting?_________________Francis Tsai TeamGT Studios Back to top balisticmemberMember #Joined: 01 Jun 2000Posts: 2599Location: Reno, NV, USA Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 5:54 am It's a Toshiba R-15. 1.6 Ghz, 512 RAM (definitely will be adding another gig), 60 gig HDD, wireless, et cetera. Works great with Painter 9, though I haven't had too much time to sit and sketch with it yet. Feels just like a Graphire. There's a little bit of input lag when you use the stylus, but it only bugged me for about five strokes before I got used to it. The battery seems to last a little over 3 hours, though I may be able to extend that by tweaking some settings. Been having some health issues lately, so the notion of being able to paint in bed appealed to me. Also looking forward to doing some plein air/life drawing with it. Oh, and music._________________brian.prince|light.comp.paint Back to top UnsoundmemberMember #Joined: 16 Mar 2002Posts: 102Location: BC. Canada Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:47 pm I just moved into a 2500sqft warehouse, so I have a great new studio space set up. Ill post picks soon. Back to top DekardmemberMember #Joined: 01 Nov 2001Posts: 274 Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 5:03 pm just updated my space a bit.. _________________.::astrochimp.net::. Back to top stephan vachonmemberMember #Joined: 17 Apr 2005Posts: 99Location: montreal Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 12:12 pm here are 2 picts of my studio and one of my tools http://www.deviantart.com/view/22920872/ http://www.deviantart.com/view/22920841/ http://www.deviantart.com/view/22920915/ Back to top neffmemberMember #Joined: 11 May 2002Posts: 1444Location: Germany Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:18 am Well, didn't want to open a new thread to show my new workspace, so I just digg this one out Finally got my new secondary screen to complete my new vintage workspace with nice nature view _________________* Back to top Chutzpanikjunior memberMember #Joined: 25 Dec 2012Posts: 2Location: Israel Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 1:14 pm @Neff, I love your corner! So cozy. Mine is, well, bleh: _________________It ain't possible to manage all the carnage and the damage and an animal like me can use it all to my advantage. -Hollywood Undead Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Sijun Forums Forum Index -> Random Musings All times are GMT - 8 HoursGoto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Page 5 of 5 Jump to: Select a forum Digital Art----------------Digital Art DiscussionWork in ProgressGallery/Finished Work Miscellaneous----------------Random MusingsArchive : Sep99 - Dec00 You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum Powered by phpBB © 2005 phpBB Group


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Holiday Wrap #1Friday, December 16th, 2011
This is the last Holiday Wrap post of the series. Thanks for tagging along!
Wrapped with: Magazine pages
Tied with: Twill tape
Topped with: Origami Star of David and a manila tag
Select magazine pages for their colors and themes.
Look for twill tape at your local fabric store. It will often be available in white, natural and black. If you look at a specialty store or online, you will find a large selection of colors, widths, and thicknesses. I ordered mine here.
Origami makes a great package-topper. In this case, I folded a magazine page that matches the wrap. I learned how to fold this star here. This particular project was tricky, but there are many great origami tutorials in books and online that are much simpler. The manila tag pictured here is available at most office supply stores.
See all twelve wrap ideas for 2011 here.


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The Cost of a Four-Year College Degree
In a study of incoming freshman in 2009, conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, two-thirds of respondents reported that they were very worried or at least somewhat worried about their ability to pay for their college degrees. There are good reasons for worry. Higher education is more expensive now, when compared to income, than it's ever been before, and there seems to be no end to the rise in sight.
Worry and fear shouldn't keep students away from the educations they deserve, however, as there are a variety of techniques that can be used to keep costs down and opportunities up.
What's In This Guide
Parsing the numbers
Public high schools are paid for with taxpayer dollars, meaning that students are often not responsible for anything other than assorted fees. They can show up to these schools and get their educations without ever writing an exorbitant check for their schooling. Much of this changes in college. In fact, students are often expected to shell out quite a bit for an undergraduate degree. This number can seem scary, but unfortunately, it's also incomplete.
- Housing
- Food
- Books
- Internet access
- Health insurance
Source: College Board, as reported by Forbes
Some students might hold off on even entering school until they can come up with some funding to pay for their education. Sadly, students who don't enroll now might be asked to pay even more in the years that follow since tuition rates seem to go up each and every year. In fact, the price of education is rising higher than the price of almost anything else.
|Price increase since 1978
|Medical expenses
|601 percent
|Food-related expenses
|244 percent
|College fees and tuition
|1,120 percent
Source: Bloomberg
- Decline in taxpayer support for higher education
- Administrative costs by colleges and universities
- Teacher compensation packages
- Building refurbishments
- Rising cost of real estate
- Demand for well-funded sports teams
- Recruitment costs for the "top" students
This is the sort of issue that economists and other experts might debate for decades, and each person might have his/her pet theory about what's really happening. Students don't really need to get embroiled in these debates but they will need to make smart decisions about their money. Often, this involves remembering what a college education is really worth.
The benefits
It's no secret that college is expensive, but those who choose to take the plunge may find that their investment pays big dividends. After all, those students who have a college degree tend to experience a variety of benefits.
In addition, there are a number of positions that are simply out of reach unless applicants have a college degree standing behind them.
For example, Georgetown University suggests that 63 percent of all jobs open in 2018 will require a college degree of some sort.
Those students that enter school now may be ready for those jobs, while those who don't attend may not.
The Benefits of a College Degree
Some of the benefits of college might even be difficult to measure. As Albert Einstein once said:
"The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think."
— Albert Einstein
When the benefits are so diverse, it simply pays for students to get involved and get enrolled.
How do they pay?
While few students would dispute the benefits of a college degree, many may find that they can't readily afford school without a little help.
Source: Princeton Review
Source: The New York Times
Smart choices
In 2012, the average amount of debt held by students stood at $29,400, according to the Institute for College Access and Success. That's certainly a lot of money, but there are some things students can do in order to ensure that they're borrowing in a reasonable way.
First off, it pays to compare the cost of schools, and find the institution that might be best suited to offer a degree without causing severe financial distress. In a case highlighted by CBS Moneywatch, a student had been offered a scholarship for an institution in New York which would have allowed him to graduate without debt, but the family was considering a $200,000 loan in order to allow the student to attend Cornell University. While big-name schools can sometimes be advantageous, nabbing value when it comes might also be smart.
Even students who don't have scholarship letters to compare can do some smart researching via the U.S. Department of Education's College Affordability and Transparency Center. Here, they can generate their own side-by-side comparisons between many schools.
Steps to Reduce Amount Paid
- Applying for even more scholarships. Our "Find a Scholarship" tool could be vital in this effort.
- Live at home during school, or at the very least, share a room.
- Obtain a part-time job to help pay for room and board.
- Ask for informal scholarships from family, friends and local businesses.
Borrow smart
Even when students do their homework and hope to keep down their costs, they might be forced to take out loans to pay for their educations. Even these students can take steps to cut their costs and make sure that they're making smart borrowing decisions.
Getting advice from an elder is a good place to start, as there's often a discrepancy between how much students think they should borrow and how much their guardians think is appropriate.
Students who drop out are four times more likely to default on their student loans than those who complete school.
Source: National Public Radio
If students must take out loans, they also must stay in school. It's just that simple.


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THE SQL Server Blog Spot on the Web
One of the first models I created for the many-to-many revolution white paper was the Survey one. At the time, it was in Analysis Services Multidimensional, and then we implemented it in Analysis Services Tabular and in Power Pivot, using the DAX language.
I recently reviewed the data model and published it in the Survey article on DAX Patterns site. The Survey pattern is the foundation for others, such as the Basket Analysis, and it is widely used in many different business scenario. I was particularly happy to know it has been using to perform data analysis for cancer research!
In this article I did some maintenance on the DAX formulas, checking that the proper error handling is part of the formulas, and highlighting some differences in slicers behavior between Excel 2010 and Excel 2013, which could be particularly important for the Survey scenario. As usual, we provide sample workbooks for both Excel 2010 and Excel 2013, and we use DAX Formatter to make the DAX code easier to read. Any feedback will be appreciated!
I have implemented this pattern and it is indeed very useful. One thing to consider incorporating into the survey pattern are measures. For example, in health care you will have a patient assessment and will say score the ability for example to function from a scale of 1-10 or 1-100. It still works within the pattern with each number in the scale is a row in the answer table and even allows for banding. The challenge is to treat these answers as measures and not attributes. I've implemented this but not too satisfied with the complexity of the DAX statement. Hope the feedback helps Marco.
This is an interesting feedback. I am not sure there is a way to define a "standard" pattern, I'm just worried that at that level, requirements might be very different and this should be adapted on a case-by-case basis. Moreover, also consider the performance implications of adopting a dynamic banding approach using only measures.
If you have more detailed example, it could be interesting for future enhancements/extensions of the pattern.


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CHICAGO, Ill. (December 5, 2013) – Major League Soccer announced today that Chicago Fire forward Mike Magee was voted the Volkswagen MLS Most Valuable Player for the 2013 season.
Today at approximately 4:30 p.m. CT, Magee will receive the award and be presented to media in the Kansas City area covering MLS Cup 2013.
Magee came to the Fire in a trade on May 25 from the LA Galaxy. In 22 games with the Men in Red, Magee scored 15 goals and tallied four assists. Prior to joining the Fire, Magee scored six goals with the LA Galaxy, bringing his season total to 21 goals, just one shy of Vancouver Whitecaps FC forward Camilo Sanvezzo, the 2013 MLS Golden Boot winner. Magee's previous season-high was seven goals scored in his 2003 rookie season with the MetroStars.
The eleven-year MLS veteran earned his first career MLS All-Star nomination when he was named to the 2013 MLS All-Star Fan XI and faced Italian Serie A side AS Roma in July. Magee was recently named to his first career MLS Best XI.
Magee's selection marks the fifth time a Fire player has been nominated for the award with the 29-year-old becoming the first player in club history to be named MLS MVP.
Magee, who was voted MLS Player of the Month by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) for the months of March and June, was also honored as the Fire's 2013 MVP and Golden Boot winner, and had three game-winning goals and two game-winning assists for the Men in Red.
The award was voted on by media, MLS players and MLS club management based on regular season performance. The other two finalists were LA Galaxy forward Robbie Keane and Montreal Impact forward Marco Di Vaio. Below is a breakdown of the voting for the top four candidates:
|Player (Club)
|% of Club Votes
|% of Media Votes
|% of Player Votes
|Weighted Total
|Mike Magee (CHI)
|Robbie Keane (LA)
|Marco Di Vaio (MTL)
|Tim Cahill (NY)
|All-Time MLS Most Valuable Players
|2013: Mike Magee (Chicago)
|2004: Amado Guevara (MetroStars)
|2012: Chris Wondolowski (San Jose)
|2003: Preki (Kansas City)
|2011: Dwayne De Rosario (D.C. United)
|2002: Carlos Ruiz (LA Galaxy)
|2010: David Ferreira (FC Dallas)
|2001: Alex Pineda Chacon (Miami)
|2009: Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy)
|2000: Tony Meola (Kansas City)
|2008: Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus)
|1999: Jason Kreis (Dallas)
|2007: Luciano Emilio (D.C. United)
|1998: Marco Etcheverry (D.C. United)
|2006: Christian Gomez (D.C. United)
|1997: Preki (Kansas City)
|2005: Taylor Twellman (New England)
|1996: Carlos Valderrama (Tampa Bay)


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May 8, 2012
2011-2012 Scholastic All American Applications
Each year, USA Swimming recognizes its members who excel both in the classroom and in the pool. The Scholastic All-America Team is made up of high school student-athletes who have a grade point average of 3.5 or higher and who have achieved the required time standard in a single event.
To be eligible for this recognition, swimmers must have completed 10th, 11th or 12th grade and must be a USA Swimming member athlete. Eligible times must be swum between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012. The application must be completed by August 15.
The application for the 2011-2012 year will be available online on June 1, 2012. The only method for application will be the online application on the USA Swimming website. Applicants will be required to have a USA Swimming account. Qualifying times for the applicant will be validated through the Times on the USA Swimming website. The applicant will be required to upload a copy of his or her high school transcript for the current academic year. All grades for both semesters (2011-2012) must be on the transcript.
Swimmers who have a 3.5 GPA and are applying as a Disability swimmer or Open Water swimmer will be required to upload results from the meet in which they participated. The eligible meets for Disability swimmers are the following: World Deaf Championships, August 6-13, Coimbra, Portugal; Global Games, September 24-October 4, 2011, Liguria, Italy; US Paralympic Trials, June 14-16, 2012, Bismarck, North Dakota. The eligible meet for Open Water is the 2012 Open Water National Championships, April 27-29, 2012, Fort Myers, Florida.
Please address all questions regarding the Scholastic All America application process to Betty Kooy, firstname.lastname@example.com .


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I have no dog in the fight but they asked me to bring my car around. Free BBQ and local radio station will be there.
A lot of imports will be there so I was hoping there would be more than myself there representing American power
It's basically Zeibart on calagry trail and they are rebranding themselves.
This is all going down Saturday late morning - early afternoon


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Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
December 17, 2012
The National Rifle Association, which has claimed for years to be the preeminent champion of the Second Amendment, shut down its Facebook page following the shooting in Connecticut last week. The NRA has also stopped posting on Twitter.
Prior to the shooting, the gun rights organization boasted of having 1.7 million likes on Facebook.
As we noted last week, there was a tsunami of tweets calling for the murder of David Keene, the president of the NRA, following the murders. "Calling for more senseless violence and murder will not bring these shooting victims back to life, neither will enacting stricter gun laws that shooters obviously do not follow when they commit these terrible crimes in the first place anyway," Melissa Melton wrote for Infowars.com.
The NRA's social media silence is likely a calculated response to a barrage of anti-gun messages on both Facebook and Twitter. In other words, the NRA apparently believes retreat and silence are preferable to responding to the irrational hysteria of the anti-gun crowd.
"The Daily Dot noted on Friday that the Facebook page had turned into a hotbed of anti-gun sentiment in the wake of the shooting, which may be what prompted the NRA to take it down," Will Oremus writes for Slate today.
"Some have accused the organization of cowardice for taking down the Page and ceasing to tweet," writes Josh Constine for Techcrunch. "However, this crisis-management strategy may be succeeding. It's prevented creating a centralized place under the NRA banner where perspectives of its independent supporters could have been taken as its own. The last thing the NRA wants is to be characterized as sharing an extremist or offensive position posted by someone who doesn't speak for it or the rest of its fans. Other brands and organizations might follow the NRA's lead by retreating from social media when they face times of crisis."
Despite a "war on its wall," the NRA's response can only be viewed as unprincipled retreat and surrender to the anti-gun crowd.
The NRA launched a tepid response to the vitriol of Fox Sports writer Jason Whitlock, who told CNN's Roland Martin the NRA is comparable to the Ku Klux Klan.
Instead of using Whitlock's tirade against the Second Amendment to underscore the viciousness of the anti-gun crowd's agenda, the NRA issued a polite response.
"In the future we hope that Whitlock and others educate themselves on the sordid history of gun control, along with the defensive use of firearms during the civil rights era, before making inflammatory comments about an organization that has worked for generations to protect the rights of all people," the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action blogged on December 6.
The NRA has demonstrated in the past that it is willing to compromise with enemies of the Second Amendment.
In 2010, the organization came out in support of HR 5667, the Firearms, Microstamping, Evaluation and Study Act. "Gun control advocates believe microstamping technologies combined with a registration list of guns and their owners would create a rapid identification system for firearms used in crime," Illinois Gun reported on September 27, 2010.
The NRA also threw its weight behind the unconstiutiuonal firearms background check system. In 2007, the organization teamed up with notorious gun-grabbers such as Rep. Carolyn McCarthy and Sen. Charles Schumer to push through a bill to "fix" the background check system.
"We'll work with anyone, if you protect the rights of law-abiding people under the second amendment and you target people that shouldn't have guns," NRA chief Wayne LaPierre told CBS News.
"The NRA habitually rubs elbows with other declared gun-grabbers, for instance Chucky Schumer and Pat Leahy," we noted at the time.
Instead of running scared from the gun-grabbers and their irrational and emotional supporters, the NRA would do better to confront them head-on. If that response entails hiring an army of people to post principled pro-Second Amendment responses on its Facebook wall, then the NRA should expend the extra effort.
What are we expected to think when the supposed preeminent gun rights organization backs down at the very moment enemies of the Constitution exploit a national tragedy to empower their effort to ultimately rob Americans of their natural right to self-protection – not only against insane psychopaths but also a tyrannical government?
This article was posted: Monday, December 17, 2012 at 12:30 pm


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A large percentage of tech sites feature RSS feeds. Even your friendly TouchMyApps staff have put together a subscription system so that you never have to browse our site at all unless really bored. Well, I woke this morning with an email in my mail box from a trusted site's RSS feed which led me to an article over at the Sun. Usually, I stay away from publications that begin and end in the same syllable, but today I couldn't get back into sleep and, not wanting to wake my wife, I read on.
Many of you have read the Spider email that made rounds a little over half a year ago. The culprit, a person by the name of David Thorne is at it again with mixed, but good results. His first joke is rather duff, but, David flourishes his humour in top form as the page scrolls south.


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Drinking the Bottom Shelf: Lady Bligh Spiced Rum is Better Than Captain Morgan's
Will Gordon drinks his way through the bottom shelf of the liquor store...so you don't have to.
On Monday night Bottom Shelf research coordinator Emily took me to dinner at one of those deluxe places with clean bathrooms and terrines of things and no televisions at the bar. I ate lamb and eggplant and fifty other things and I've rarely been happier.
There could have been a dozen TVs showing video of my conception and it still would have been a great night, because you can't go wrong when you're stuffing your face with lamb next to a pretty girl who's paying. But the televisionlessness certainly added a touch of class to the proceedings and made me glad I wore my special date pants (the ones that aren't denim or dirty).
Our television at home has been pretty quiet lately, because we mostly watch sports, and basketball—Emily's favorite for sporting reasons, my favorite because the games aren't three hours long—seems not to be happening this year. Other than that, we aspire to watch "The Daily Show" and the other "Daily Show" that's on right after, because it is our duty as urban white people. But we usually go to bed too early. Sometimes Emily claims to watch TV on her computer, but I think that might just be an excuse to put headphones on. I talk a lot.
I may not keep up with much TV these days, but I've liked some shows in the past. Remember "Spenser for Hire"? Man, I loved "Spenser for Hire." And the Cosby spinoff with all the pretty college girls. As far as shows made within the past 20 years, I could never really keep track of what was going on in "The Sopranos," soap opera-wise, because my HBO access has always been spotty, but I saw plenty of scattered episodes and that was a great show, huh? The only thing I didn't like about it was the way it made me accidentally keep rooting for bad guys.
I'm usually immune to the imaginary charms of organized criminals. I admit that I looked into the Crips at one point a few years ago after I learned they have their own special kind of walk, but it turns out I would make a very shoddy Crip, due to my aversions to violent crime and wearing blue. I've never been into mob movies, and the Whitey Bulger story bores me to tears. The only really compelling criminals are the ones who kill people and eat them; if you just kill people, you're evil but not interesting.
The one exception to my anti-gangster policy is my embarrassing soft spot for Somali pirates. They are terrible criminal opportunists like any other, but I have to admit I'm a sucker for the idea of high seas piracy. When we started hearing about this a couple years ago, didn't at least a small part of you think, "Wait a minute. You can do that? You can just take over a ship and hold it for ransom? Why didn't I think of that?"
Which brings us to spiced rum. I bet you've had Captain Morgan's, probably mixed with Coke and probably before you were of legal drinking age. But did you realize there are several other equally nautical and largely piratical spiced rums on the market? I was not aware of this, because for some reason I told myself I hated spiced rum so I never bothered to look into the category. The Captain has been joined by Sailor Jerry for about the same price ($24ish per 750mL), Admiral Nelson for a couple bucks less, and a lone girl pirate rum, the $13 Lady Bligh.
So what kind of lady do you get for half price? A very nice one, in this case. I tasted the Bligh next to Captain Morgan, and both were good but the cheaper one was a little bit better. They have similar overall flavor profiles, with the major distinction being that Lady Bligh somehow manages to buff out the rough alcohol edge that lurks just below the Captain's surface. This made me suspicious enough to do a quick proof-check, and it turns out that the LB is actually a tiny bit stiffer at 72.5 proof to 70.
Both rums were less "spicy" than I'd remembered, and therefore much more versatile. Lady Bligh's good enough to drink neat. It smells like butterscotch and vanilla and it tastes a tiny bit like cream soda, which is the best kind of soda and the best kind of cream. It mixes nicely with ginger beer.
Come on, get off your high booze horse and give it a shot.


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It's not easy to idle like this in Need for Speed: Most Wanted the excellent open-world racing game from EA's Criterion Games.
Even at high speeds—well, especially at high speeds—this game was great to look at. That earns Most Wanted a Cinemagraph (a subtly-animating-animated-GIF, if you don't know) for our Year in Beauty series.


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Thursday, June 16, 2011
7 comments:
- BOB's bigguest fan said...
The Satan in the story does keep the thread from unraveling, just as well.
We don't want to come apart, no? There's two "walks", one is torn between,
wanting to send a wink your way for your astute article (keeping it real),
and taking the bus (heeding the call) from the other, who is wholly other?
- 9:00 am, June 17, 2011
- Jasun said...
very cryptic; which BOB are you a fan of?
- 9:16 am, June 17, 2011
- Jasun said...
also somewhat synchronicitous, as I just wrote to a friend the following about whitley:
whitley has been having a nervous breakdown since 1986
the pity is that he keeps pulling himself back together again
he's Frankenstein's whitley!
- 9:18 am, June 17, 2011
- Palmer's BOB said...
Through the darkness of futures past
The magician longs to see
One chance/chants out between two worlds ...
Fire, Walk With Me!
- 9:33 am, June 17, 2011
- Jasun said...
note to post-ers: there have been quite a few "batty," free-ass comments coming in and I'm starting to delete them rather than publish them, not because i want to censor anyone, but because they aren't adding anything besides "color" and they are likely to discourage other people from posting more sincere or relevant questions or comments.
I know maybe i set an example for wacky free-ass posting, but even so, this isn't a place for you to show off your right-bran proclivities, it's a place for dialogue.
sincere posts only, please.
I have just now directly challenged whitley: here
- 3:50 pm, June 17, 2011
- Monkeybone said...
Oh I get it. Lucifer is your soul
take from the tempter and lose it
can't have your soul & eat it too
the apple IS your soul IS heaven!
- 12:00 pm, June 24, 2011
- production value said...
There's reincarnation insomuch as
there's consciousness insomuch as
we made of the same doggone stuff
what individuates our varied egos
is our consumer nature what can't
never be subdued, save, something
something something, train wreck!
- 1:17 pm, June 24, 2011


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Reaching an ExaScale computer by the end of the decade, and enabling the continued performance scaling of smaller systems requires significant research breakthroughs in three key areas: power efficiency, programmability, and execution granularity. To build an ExaScale machine in a power budget of 20MW requires a 200-fold improvement in energy per instruction: from 2nJ to 10pJ. Only 4x is expected from improved technology. The remaining 50x must come from improvements in architecture and circuits. To program a machine of this scale requires more productive parallel programming environments - that make parallel programming as easy as sequential programming is today. Finally, problem size and memory size constraints prevent the continued use of weak scaling, requiring these machines to extract parallelism at very fine granularity - down to the level of a few instructions. This talk will discuss these challenges and current approaches to address them.
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Michael Sullivan wrote Algebra and Trigonometry (Ninth Edition) in 2010 and it was published by Addison Wesley. Now you can get your own copy of Algebra and Trigonometry (Ninth Edition) used and ready to provide you with insight into this part of math. Previously owned copies are available at the cheapest prices, and you can rent this edition of Algebra and Trigonometry online too if you prefer. With discounted prices in every case, make your college studies cheaper and more affordable now. We buy back Algebra and Trigonometry (Ninth Edition) from former math students as well, so make sure you bookmark us now. Michael Sullivan is the author of 'Algebra and Trigonometry (9th Edition)', published 2011 under ISBN 9780321716569 and ISBN 0321716566.[read more]
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Along with a the new Nexus 4 and Nexus 10, Google also unveiled the latest version of Jelly Bean – Android 4.2. Yes, Google decided to stick with the same name so as to avoid confusion and because the new release does not bring any major changes to warrant a whole new name. So, what exactly is new in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean? Read below to find out.
Photo Sphere
With Ice Cream Sandwich, Google introduced panorama mode to the stock camera app. Apple did the same with iOS6 and the iPhone 5, except that in iOS6 users could take panorama photos in portrait mode as well. With Android 4.2, Google has brought its amazing Street view technology to Android devices. Photo Sphere will allow Android 4.2 running devices to click photos of multiple axis and then stitch them into one, to form one single 360 degree image. The best part about the Photo Sphere images is that they are taken in the full 8MP resolution of the camera, and not downscaled to a lower resolution.
Below is a video of Photo Sphere in action on the Nexus 4 -:
Gesture Typing
Google has been constantly tweaking the stock Android keyboard with each and every Android OS release. While Android 2.3 and Android 4.0 brought about a major re-vamp in the looks and minor layout changes, Android 4.1.1 brought SwiftKey like next-word prediction system. With Android 4.2, Google is bringing Gesture Typing to the stock Android keyboard. Think of Gesture Typing as Swype – Just glide your fingers over letters you want to type and only lift them at the end of each word. With Gesture typing and the keyboard's ability to predict the next word a user is going to type, Jelly Bean makes typing a breeze rather than a chore.
Multiple User Profiles
With Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, Google is bringing multiple user profiles to Android tablets. This will allow users to easily share their tablets with their family members without worrying about their saved games progress or other private data. This feature is only for tablets, but I am pretty sure it is just a matter of time before custom ROM developers bring this feature to Android phones as well.
While I first got excited hearing about Daydream, the feature is relatively useless. Daydream will allow your Android device to show either updates from Google Current or say a photo stream while your device is docked or idle.
Lockscreen Widgets
Finally! With Android 4.2, Google has finally made the lockscreen infinitely more useful thanks to widgets. At the moment there is not much known about how lockscreen widgets, except that they can be accessed by swiping right or left across the lockscreen. However, The Verge does have a video which shows the lockscreen in action for a short amount of time.
Miracast Wireless Display Support
Android finally gets an Airplay competitor with Miracast Wireless Display support. Even though Miracast is a relatively new technology, it should become a frequent feature in TVs by next year. If your current TV does not feature Miracast, you can add it by using an after-market dongle.
Notification Quick Controls
With Android 4.2, Google has finally provided users with quick access to toggling certain settings such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and more. This feature is something which every Android OEM has added to stock Android via their skin, and considering its usefulness, the amount of time that Google took to implement it is just mind boggling. Users can access the notification toggles by pressing a button on the notification bar. Alternatively, they can swipe down the notification bar using two fingers to directly access the toggles.
Below is a video showing the quick controls in action -:
New Clock App
The current Clock app in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is nothing short of ancient. It lacks all basic features like a stop watch and timer which in 2012 is nothing short of shameful. Thankfully, with Android 4.2, Google has completely over-hauled the Clock app and added new features to it including World Clock along with stop watch and timer.
Google Now
With Android 4.2, Google has made Google Now smarter. It can now directly read and display flight confirmations, hotel reservations, shipping details, movie times, nearby attractions and more. Google Voice Search, which is an integral part of Google Now, is also more powerful now allowing users to directly launch apps or schedule calendar appointments.
Since Google Now is not a part of the core Android OS, the update is already available to all Jelly Bean running devices via the Play Store.
New Linux Kernel
With Android 4.2, Google has updated the stock Android kernel to be based on the Linux 3.4 kernel. The new kernel improves memory utilization, security and more. From what I have read, the Linux kernel 3.4 should also allow Android OEMS to easily port the latest version of the Android OS to their devices. It will also allow Google to keep the Android kernel version in sync with the mainline linux kernel.


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Typical personal finance advice would have you divide your budget categories into two groups: Your fixed expenses and your discretionary expenses. I generally don't like that dis
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I always love whenSpring is on the way.
Such a fun and inspiringtime to decorate.
Just like most women out there,
I've really gotten intoqueefing lately.
There's a lot offun and interesting ways
we can decorate our queefs
and just make them moredynamic for the holidays.
What we're gonna do is justcut up some paper...
like this.
You can cut out little starsor little moon shapes...
and then just...jam those... up.
And then I've got some simplelittle sparkles
from the hobby store.
They come ina little tube,
which make them veryeasy to just...
shoot...right up the ol'...
There we are.
And, of course, you can feelfree to add little flowers
or maybe somefestive Easter grass.
But the point is that whenwe're done,
we can let one rip.
( queefs )
See how prettythat was ?
It's a good thing.
Spring Is On The Way
Martha Stewart presents some interesting and festive decorating techniques.


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Toronto, ON – The Ontario Hockey League today announced that Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Josh Leivo of the Sudbury Wolves is the OHL Player of the Week for the week ending October 7 after scoring six goals in three games with a plus-minus rating of plus-5.
Leivo helped lead the Wolves to three straight road wins beginning Thursday night in Peterborough where he scored twice including the game-winner as first star of a 4-1 win over the Petes. The Wolves continued their East Division road swing on Saturday in Kingston against the Frontenacs where Leivo scored the game-tying goal midway through the third period setting up a 3-2 victory. In the league's only contest on Sunday the Wolves wrapped up their road trip with a 6-4 win over the Ottawa 67's with Leivo recording his second career hat-trick netting the game-winner as first star of the win.
Leivo, a 19-year-old from Innisfil, ON, is playing in his third OHL season with the Wolves. A third round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Leivo is currently tied for the OHL-lead with seven goals after scoring 32 last season as part of a 73-point campaign.
Also considered for the award this week was Montreal Canadiens prospect Alex Galchenyuk of the Sarnia Sting who scored three goals and three assists for six points in two games, and 2013 NHL Entry Draft prospect Max Domi of the London Knights who scored three goals and two assists for five points in two games. In goal, Christopher Festarini of the Niagara IceDogs won two games including a shutout victory with a goals-against-average of 1.00 and save percentage of .966.
2012-13 OHL Regular Season Players of the Week:
Oct. 1 – Oct. 7: Joshua Leivo, Sudbury Wolves
Sept. 24 – Sept. 30: Ryan Kujawinski, Kingston Frontenacs
Sept. 20 –Sept. 23: Seth Griffith, London Knights


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Famous Dave's Barbecue Party Cookbook is the ultimate barbecue party cookbook. They say
the average person has 10,000 taste buds . . . the recipes in this cookbook will WOW every one of them! Jam-packed with over 100 phenomenal recipes, full-color photographs, finger lickin' appetizers, mouth-watering party entrees, heavenly desserts, moonshine party drinks, grilling tips, and the 15 party tips you absolutely must know, it's everything you need and more for a butt-rockin' party that will WOW all your guests the next time you say, "Come on over and let's have a barbecue!"
Click Your Favorite Book Seller to Order.
"When someone thinks they know everything about barbecue, they need to sit down and chat with you! You are truly the BBQ Man … You have inspired me and millions of others who love to cook barbecue. I love your new Famous Dave's Barbecue Party Cookbook and can't believe you actually shared all your secret recipes. Everyone should get this book now!"
– Myron MixonThe Winningest Man in BBQ, Host of BBQ Pitmasters, Jack's Old South BBQ, and Myron Mixon Smoker's
Congratulations, Famous Dave! To me you are one of the very greatest of many greats in the barbecue world. You personify the passion and creativity of someone who really loves barbecue. And we have become friends personally, sharing our love of people, BBQ and faith in God. When I read your new Famous Dave's Barbecue Party Cookbook, I loved it and I can't wait to try out your new barbecue party recipes. I highly recommend this cookbook, I think everyone is gonna love it just like I did!
God bless you, Dave Anderson—your family, loved ones, business and all. "Friends is friends" as I like to say, just another guy from Chicago
– Dave Raymond, aka, Sweet Baby Ray,America's #1 Barbecue Sauce
There is no better way to celebrate with family and friends than around the outdoor grill, especially if Dave Anderson is cooking! So read this book and fire up the Q. He'll make you Famous!!
– Chris LillyWorld Champion Pitmaster, Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q, and Spokesperson for Kingsford Charcoal
Imagine being invited to a BBQ party hosted by Famous Dave. For most of us this would only be a fantasy. until now. The icon of meat and smoke himself has written a book revealing all of his party secrets and it is a good one! BBQ parties everywhere are going to be tastier from here on out and I am very happy about that. You might just see his Hawaiian BBQ Party Chicken and Avocado Potato Salad in my back yard very soon. Thanks for sharing "Famous".
– Ray LampeThe Legendary Dr. BBQ, Pitmaster Extraordinaire and Author of "Slow Fire, The Beginners Guide to Barbecue"
Barbecue is all about food, family, fun, and friends. "Famous Dave" Anderson captures that celebratory spirit of barbecue as fun, party food, and for many a way of life. His innovative seasoning variations, specialty products, and serving suggestions add a new fun dimensions to outdoor feasting, partying, and entertainment. If you love backyard barbecues… you're gonna love this new book from Famous Dave!
— Carolyn WellsExecutive Director, Kansas City Barbecue Society and Legendary Barbecue Maven, Judge, and Author
'Dave is back! Hooray! Famous Dave's Barbecue Party Cookbook Eat Laugh Party is a legendary backyard-grilling book that will buddy to my dog-eared, sauce-splattered, smoke-laced Famous Dave's Rib-O'Licious! Award-Winning Barbeque and Grilling Recipes. It's time to dance in the streets and chow down on Dave's fantastic Avocado and Steak Fajitas with Festive Party Guacamole, Smoked Turkey Panini with Blueberry Chipotle Mayo, Black Skillet Apple Crisp and tons more creative, foot-stompin' party foods that only
America's Favorite Barbecue Icon could have dreamed up and perfected right down to the last detail. Kudos to Dave! Let's party!" Thanks for sharing "Famous".
– Ardie A. DavisFounder of the American Royal International Barbecue Sauce, Rub and Baste Contest, Cookbook Author, Barbecue Pitmaster and Judge
My good friend Famous Dave Anderson has put together this must have cookbook for any barbecue fan. Regardless of your barbecuing skills this tool can help you become the hit of the next party. I say that because no secrets or basic steps have been left out! Dave shares tons of how to recipes with tons of personal tips complete with awesome before and after pictures that will help ensure your success. This one will stay in the kitchen at my house instead of the bookshelf for sure!— Kell PhelpsPublisher, National Barbecue News


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The Board of Governors of Grant MacEwan University is a corporation, as set out in the Alberta Post-Secondary Learning Act. As the senior authority for the University, the Board is accountable to the Minister of Innovation and Advanced Education and ultimately, the people of Alberta. The Board manages and operates the University within its approved mandate, establishing policies to govern the affairs of the University. On an annual basis, the Board submits a Comprehensive Institutional Plan and Audited Financial Statements to the Minister.
The Grant MacEwan University Board of Governors consists of a Chair appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, the President as an ex-officio member and twelve governors representing students, faculty, the MacEwan Staff Association, and the general public.


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It's been four months since Mike (Quick) Swick's last fight, just a trickle in the sands of time compared to his previous layoff.
A painful stomach disorder and blown-out knee kept Swick out of action for 910 days then.
To put his absence in context, Swick missed 40 numbered UFC events before returning this summer to beat DaMarques Johnson. The man who was once just one win away from a welterweight title fight was missing in action for a long time.
After Paulo Thiago choked him unconscious on Feb. 6, 2010, at UFC 109, Swick was sidelined until Aug. 4, 2012, when he beat Johnson in the second round on a televised card.
"That was a proud moment," he said of the comeback win.
Swick (15-4) returns to the cage next Saturday when he faces Matt (The Immortal) Brown on a televised card in Seattle.
Having survived the nerves and uncertainty of his comeback bout — and yet more surgery that followed — the 33-year-old Swick is looking forward to entering the cage in peak condition.
"All those (health) issues are packed up," said the Texan who now calls San Jose home. "I feel like I went in there (against Johnson) and dealt with everything. I had success and got the victory. It's going to be that much easier now, not having to deal with all that stuff that I had to deal with then.
"So it's an easier path but I feel like a tough opponent and a good test. I think this is a fight that will kind of showcase where I belong in the division."
Brown (17-11) is a hard-nosed fighter who has won three straight and four of his last five to improve his UFC record to 8-5.
The 31-year-old Brown is a gamer. He has gone to decision just four times in his career (winning two and losing two).
"He's the kind of fighter that I've wanted to fight for a while," said Swick. "Because he has never been knocked out, he's one of those guys that is known for taking punches and just bulldozing through them."
Swick, who says he has "always got reaction from my punches," sees Brown's chin as a good test to see how his striking stacks up.
Like Swick, Brown knows all about emerging from dark days.
Brown once overdosed on heroin. He has spent time behind bars and recalls getting "jacked up on meth" for underground fights back in the day before deciding to clean up his life and try MMA as a career.
His nickname "The Immortal" is more about surviving brushes with death outside the cage rather than for his fighting style.
Swick's nickname Quick, meanwhile, came from a string of rapid finishes. His first two UFC fights lasted just 42 seconds in total. The next two lasted 2:09 and 2:19, respectively.
Despite his comeback win, it has not been all smooth sailing for Swick in recent months. After Johnson, he underwent knee and elbow surgery.
The knee surgery was linked to previous anterior cruciate ligament surgery.
"It never healed correctly so I never had full extension," he explained. "Basically I didn't have a quad for that whole (Johnson) training camp. So I couldn't extend the knee, I couldn't flex the quad and that was obviously a huge issue."
"It worked enough to get through the motions of fighting," he said of the Johnson win.
Immediately after the fight, a surgeon cleaned up scar tissue in his knee that was hampering his flexibility.
Swick has had three elbows surgeries, the results of too much mitt work in training, he says.
"The elbow just needed to be cleaned out," he said.
Like "The Six Million Dollar Man," Swick has been fixed more than a few times.
"I've had so many surgeries," he said with a laugh. "I've been rebuilt so many times."
When the UFC called to offer up Brown, Swick said it was "sooner than I expected but there was no way I was going to turn it down."
Swick has had to deal with more than bone chips and torn ligaments over the years.
After years of distress, he was diagnosed with a bad case of esophageal spasms — painful muscle contractions that affect the esophagus, which connects the throat to the stomach. The spasms can feel like severe chest pain.
After beating Canadian David Loiseau at UFC 63 in September 2006, he knew something was wrong and was cutting things out of his diet that were causing his body to react badly.
It started with him not being able to sleep. If he ate certain foods or ate late at night, he would experience painful spasms when he lay down.
"It feels like a heart attack kind of and it doesn't go away for several hours. You can pretty much forget sleep when it happens," he said.
If it happened during training camp, his workouts suffered. And it was especially bad if it came during fight week.
"It got to a point where it was really tough to deal with," he said.
He started having trouble eating enough to maintain his weight. Then a middleweight, he weighed 182 pounds the day of his Yushin Okami fight at UFC 69 in April 2007. Okami would have cut weight to make 185 and then put on pounds in the hours leading to the fight.
Swick lost a decision and decided to move down to welterweight. He also started visiting a string of doctors in a bid to figure out what was wrong.
"It was just a nightmare," he said.
"The doctors don't have as much as info as you would think for a condition like this. So most of what they were doing for me was experimental."
That included getting Botox injections in his esophagus.
"So while training for fighting and going and having these fights, I'm on all these medicines and procedures and it was just a big mess because none of them were helping. And they were making things worse, making it almost impossible to train.
"A lot of the medicine were sedatives so I was really weak during training."
Swick's penchant for over-training didn't help either.
"My mind wants to train harder than my body can hold up. And so I basically I break my body and destroy it."
Amazingly he won four more fights before taking on Dan (The Outlaw) Hardy at UFC 105 in November 2009 with a title shot on the line.
"I was going through the worst part of it during that fight," he said of his health problems.
Swick lost by decision. Less than three months later, he was beaten by Thiago.
At one point between fights, he was afraid to go to the doctor for fear of what he might hear.
"Because I had just been misdiagnosed, I had tried all these experimental treatments, and then the new doctor diagnosed me with the esophageal spasm and I didn't believe him any more. So I literally thought, thinking in my mind just because I had been through so much, I had something serious — like maybe something terminal.
"I thought these guys, they don't know what's going on. There's no chance something this bad and this painful can be just no big deal."
He returned after the fight and his doctor convinced him it was a bad case of esophageal spasm.
Swick put fighting aside while he tried to find a balance, determining what foods he can eat and those he can't.
He managed to do that and returned to training, only to blow out his knee. Surgery and another lengthy delay followed.
The good news is it gave him more time to learn how to deal with the esophageal spasm.
"It works great, I have it under control," he said. "It's something I continue to live with and always will but it doesn't affect my training any more. It doesn't affect my strength, my conditioning, my cardio. In fact it's put me in better shape because I've been forced to eat healthier than I've ever eaten before.
"And the side effect of that is you feel great."
He can no longer eat garlic, spice and pepper or anything acidic. Oranges are out. He avoids caffeine and can only manage chocolate in very small quantities.
Today his diet includes vegetables and unseasoned chicken, meat and fish. Coconut water is a fave, as is wheatgrass, and he uses avocado a lot.
At first, he says his diet was "horrible." But he gradually learned what he could use to make things interesting without upsetting his body.
"It's about mixture," he said. "I have a lot of stuff to work with so I can mix and match and create new recipes."
"Me ordering in a restaurant is very interesting."
One positive from his long layoff is that Swick believes it has helped preserve a body that has seen 19 pro fights and more than 20 amateur bouts.
"You feel them all on the body, considering I'm getting older now," he said. "But I feel great. I definitely can say I'm in the best shape I've ever been in."
While he has escalated his cardio and conditioning, he is taking or precautions in sparring, just to be on the safe side. He wears more protective gear than he used to and is more cautious grappling.
Today he says he is stronger than before, having survived all his health issues.
"This was definitely a test. And it was tough."


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Governor hopeful testing waters
June 16, 2009
Allen Weh said Tuesday he's not officially running for governor yet.
But he also said he's made his first campaign promise, and he's running his exploratory campaign as if he is a candidate — and people can draw their own conclusions.
"We're doing this in a campaign mode," said Weh, "so we don't look back and say, 'We should have done this, we should have done that.'"
Weh visited several New Mexico communities, including Clovis and Portales. Weh, 66, is the chief executive officer of CSI Aviation Services Inc., and completed a four-and-a-half year stint as chairman of the state Republican Party in January.
Weh is a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. He served in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War and Somalia, and Iraq in 2003 and 2004.
He addressed two issues on his trip to Clovis:
• Business: Weh said a government should provide basic services, including education and public safety, and leave other elements alone.
"Frankly, there are some people in society who do not understand commerce is the engine of our economy," Weh said. "Those are dangerous people, because if they don't understand it, they hamper the economy."
He said too many environmental regulations have been created by agencies without the input of the Legislature. And, he said, the regulations do more to hurt the business climate than improve the environment.
He said an executive order would take care of many of those problems.
• Education: Weh, who holds bachelor's and master's degree from the University of New Mexico, said education is tied into the economy because businesses depend on skilled labor.
Education Week's "Diplomas Count" report showed New Mexico had a 56 percent high school graduation rate in 2006. Weh said that meant 44 percent aren't graduating, and rounded up to say half of New Mexico's kids aren't graduating.
"If you've got a labor pool that's handicapped by that kind of dropout rate," Weh said, "it becomes harder to attract business."
Weh said he supports school vouchers to give competition and an option for parents who live in bad school districts.


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