text:
resynchronization therapy (CRT) uses a special type of pacemaker called a biventricular pacemaker (say "by-ven-TRICK-yuh-ler") to treat heart failure. This pacemaker sends electrical pulses to make the
ventricles pump at the same time.
A biventricular pacemaker is
implanted in the chest, and it connects to three thin wires, called leads. The
leads go into different chambers of your heart. If there is a problem with your
heartbeat, the pacemaker sends a painless signal through the leads to fix the
problem. The pacemaker also can speed up your heart if it is beating too
In some cases, you may get a pacemaker that is combined with a device to shock your heartbeat back to a normal rhythm
if it is dangerously fast. The device is called an implantable
cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD. It can prevent sudden death.
Your doctor will put
the pacemaker in your chest during minor surgery. You will not have open-chest
Your doctor makes a small cut (incision) in your chest. The doctor puts the leads in a vein and threads them to the heart. Then your doctor connects the leads to the pacemaker. Your doctor
programs the pacemaker and then puts it in your chest and closes the
Most people spend the night in the
hospital, just to make sure that the device is working and that there are no
problems from the surgery. But sometimes the procedure is done as an
outpatient procedure, which means you don't need to
stay overnight in the hospital.
You may be able to see a little
bump under the skin where the pacemaker is placed.
When you have
heart failure, the
lower chambers of your heart (the ventricles) aren't able to pump as much
blood as your body needs. Sometimes the heart has a problem with the electrical
system that controls the pumping. This means the ventricles don't pump at the
right time or the heart has an abnormal rhythm. A pacemaker for heart failure
can help the heart pump blood better.
Whether a pacemaker for heart failure is right for you depends on many medical facts. Your doctor will check whether:1, 2
A pacemaker can help you feel better so you can be more
active. It also can help keep you out of the hospital and help you live
A pacemaker also can help your heart pump better by
changing the shape of your heart. In heart failure, the left ventricle often
gets too big as it tries to make up for not pumping well. Using a pacemaker may
reverse this.
There are several risks to getting a pacemaker. But risks
vary for each person. The chance of most problems is low.
The procedure to implant a pacemaker is safe, and most people do well afterward. Afterward, you will see your doctor regularly to check your pacemaker and make sure you don't have any problems.
If problems happen during the procedure, doctors likely can fix them right away.
Problems after the procedure can be minor, like mild pain, or serious, like an infection. But your doctor can solve most of these problems. And most people do not have long-term issues with their pacemakers.
Problems include:
activities and situations can interrupt the signals sent by the pacemaker to
the heart. You may need to adapt some of your activities. Follow your doctor's
specific instructions about care and precautions if you have a
If you get a pacemaker, you have to be careful
not to get too close to some devices with strong magnetic or electrical fields.
These include
MRI machines, battery-powered cordless power tools,
and CB or ham radios. But most everyday appliances are safe.
Complete the special treatment information form (PDF)(What is a PDF document?) to help you understand this treatment.
CitationsEpstein AE, et al. (2008). ACC/AHA/HRS 2008 Guidelines
for Device-Based Therapy of Cardiac Rhythm Abnormalities: A Report of the
American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on
Practice Guidelines (Writing Committee to Revise the ACC/AHA/NASPE 2002
Guideline Update for Implantation of Cardiac Pacemakers and Antiarrhythmia
Devices): Developed in Collaboration With the American Association for Thoracic
Surgery and Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Circulation,
117(21): e350–e408. [Correction in Circulation, 120(5): e34–e35.] Hunt SA, et al. (2009). 2009 focused update
incorporated into the ACC/AHA 2005 guidelines for the diagnosis and management
of heart failure in adults. A report of the American College of Cardiology
Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines.
Circulation, 119(14): e391–e479.McAlister FA, et al. (2007). Cardiac resynchronization
therapy for patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction: A systematic
review. JAMA, 297(22): 2502–2514.Tang ASL, et al. (2010). Cardiac-resynchronization therapy for mild-to-moderate heart failure. New England Journal of Medicine, 363(25): 2385–2395.Van Rees JB, et al. (2011). Implantation-related complications of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 58(10): 995–1000.Akoum NW, et al. (2008). Pacemaker therapy. In EG Nabel, ed., ACP Medicine, section 1, chap. 7. Hamilton, ON: BC Decker.McKelvie R (2011). Heart failure, search date August 2010. BMJ Clinical Evidence. Available online: http://www.clinicalevidence.com.Other Works ConsultedBogale N, et al. (2012). The European CRT survey: 1 year (9–15 months) follow-up results. European Journal of Heart Failure, 14(1): 61–73.Epstein AE, et al. (2008). ACC/AHA/HRS 2008 Guidelines
for Device-Based Therapy of Cardiac Rhythm Abnormalities: A Report of the
American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on
Practice Guidelines (Writing Committee to Revise the ACC/AHA/NASPE 2002
Guideline Update for Implantation of Cardiac Pacemakers and Antiarrhythmia
Devices): Developed in Collaboration With the American Association for Thoracic
Surgery and Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Circulation,
117(21): e350–e408. [Correction in Circulation, 120(5): e34–e35.] Lampert R, et al. (2010). HRS Expert Consensus Statement on the Management of Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Devices (CIEDs) in patients nearing end of life or requesting withdrawal of therapy. Heart Rhythm, 7(7): 1008–1026. Available online: http://www.hrsonline.org/Policy/ClinicalGuidelines/upload/ceids_mgmt_eol.pdf.
Last Revised:
September 12, 2012
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Rakesh K. Pai, MD, FACC - Cardiology, Electrophysiology & Stephen Fort, MD, MRCP, FRCPC - Interventional Cardiology
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


text:
Latest News
In post-Obama America, small inroads with blacks would be big for GOP
Down in Monroe, La., hard by Black Bayou Lake, U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander wonders why Republican leaders in Washington haven't sought his advice on their initiative to improve the party's anemic standing among African-American voters.
Compared with his Republican peers in the House of Representatives, Alexander is unusually adept at drawing black votes.
"It's something they should have been doing to begin with," Alexander said of his party's new outreach to black voters.
Alexander's congressional district is one-third black, the largest share among the 234 House districts held by Republicans – none of whom is African-American.
Nationwide, nine in 10 black voters chose Democrats over Republicans in congressional races in November, and 93 percent of African-Americans supported President Barack Obama over GOP nominee Mitt Romney, exit polls showed.
Alexander drew 43 percent of his African-American constituents' votes, four times more than the typical Republican lawmaker gets, on his way to winning easy re-election in November, according to a McClatchy analysis of the outcome in 93 virtually all-black precincts in his district.
"You would think (the GOP) leadership would recognize that someone who gets 78 percent of the vote in a 33 percent black district might ask me how I do that, but you're the first person who's asked," Alexander told McClatchy.
Eleven of the 234 Republican House seats are in districts where at least one-quarter of eligible voters are African-Americans, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. Those districts are all in the South, spread among Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Virginia.
McClatchy was able to obtain November 2012 precinct-level election results, broken down by race, for six of the 11 districts. McClatchy analyzed 193 precincts with an average of 94 percent African-American voters in those six districts.
Support for the white Republican lawmakers among black voters in the six districts varies widely, from Alexander's 43 percent and the 30 percent standing enjoyed by fellow Louisianan Rep. John Fleming, to virtually no support – in the 1 percent range – for Reps. Tom Rice of South Carolina and Martha Roby of Alabama.
Alexander and the other lawmakers who represent those districts have some ideas for their GOP colleagues about how to court black voters: Go into their communities, avoid inflammatory language, don't come across like a big shot and answer all questions forthrightly no matter how tough.
"I don't think you'll find anybody at my town hall meetings who thought that I used harsh rhetoric," said Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina.
While Republicans' outreach to Hispanics has received broad attention of late, the Republican National Committee, led by chairman Reince Priebus, has launched a less-heralded bid to break Democrats' electoral stranglehold on African-American votes.
Under Priebus' new motto "Open for Repairs," the initiatives are part of Republicans' broader rebranding effort following Obama's decisive defeat of Romney with strong support from women, youth, blacks, Hispanics and Asians.
"Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents, and many minorities wrongly think that Republicans do not like them or want them in the country," a task force of GOP leaders concluded in a March report.
As they begin to look toward the post-Obama era, even modest improvements among African-American voters could bring Republicans big electoral gains.
President George W. Bush got 16 percent of the Ohio black vote in 2004, helping him carry the decisive state in his narrow re-election win. Only 3 percent of African-Americans in Ohio voted for Romney in November, by contrast, and the former Massachusetts governor had drop-offs among blacks in Florida, Virginia and other swing states that he lost.
Republicans, though, face formidable challenges in their quest to increase support among African-Americans:
– Their intense criticism of Obama is viewed by many blacks as personal and hostile, likely offsetting any steps they take to build goodwill with African-Americans.
"Today it's racial because you have a black man in the White House and they are determined to make him a failure," said James Bradford, a black constituent of Alexander in Jonesboro, La. "They are attacking every program that affects black folks. That may not be their intention, but that's what they're doing."
– The GOP-controlled House of Representatives has voted 37 times to repeal what Republicans deride as Obamacare, even though the Senate Democratic majority makes those votes purely symbolic. Voting dozens of times to repudiate Obama's signature legislative achievement strikes blacks as political overkill.
– Most congressional Republicans' desire to slash government spending has led them to target safety net programs that disproportionately impact African-Americans because a larger proportion of blacks than whites are poor.
David Bositis, who has tracked black voting for two decades while doing extensive polling and focus groups among African-Americans, said Republican officeholders in the South are setting their party back among blacks for years by blocking the enactment of the 2010 landmark health insurance law.
"Black support for Medicaid expansion is 90 percent, and yet these state legislatures and governors are not going to expand Medicaid," said Bositis, an analyst with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington. "There will be dead black people because of them."
The Republican National Committee task force recommended developing "best practices of Republicans who were successfully elected in districts with a high population of African-American voters."
That description fits Alexander, a sixth-term congressman who suggests one good practice: Stop using rhetoric that offends many blacks.
As Exhibit A, Alexander offered Romney's "47 percent" campaign claim that most Obama supporters view themselves as victims who are on the government dole because they don't take responsibility for their lives.
"I supported Romney, but I was very disappointed he said that," Alexander said. "It hurt all of us (Republicans). That's one reason the Republican Party gets in trouble sometimes – assuming that if you are in need of help, you are asking for something you don't deserve."
Republicans don't expect a mass political conversion of African-Americans anytime soon. But especially once Obama leaves office, they see an opening for the party of Lincoln. It must start, party leaders say, with baby steps: Republican candidates going into black communities, explaining their positions and asking for African-Americans' votes.
In South Carolina, Mulvaney didn't fare nearly as well as Alexander among the blacks who make up one-quarter of his constituents, the ninth-biggest share among all Republican House members. Mulvaney drew just 4 percent of their votes in November, according to a McClatchy analysis of 19 heavily African-American precincts in his district.
Yet Mulvaney has attended town hall meetings hosted by the local branch of the NAACP, most recently in February, when he spent two hours answering questions from a mostly black audience of about 60 people.
"I'm not doing this to try and get votes," Mulvaney told McClatchy afterward. "I'm doing this because these are people I represent."
Melvin Poole, a tax-preparation firm owner and head of the Rock Hill, S.C., branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Mulvaney gained some respect and may have picked up a few votes.
People were impressed that the second-term lawmaker walked into Freedom Temple Ministries church in Rock Hill without aides or notes, carrying only a bottle of water, and then spent so much time there.
"He got some real tough questions – about the Affordable Care Act, about the budget cuts, about jobs," Poole recalled. "He didn't cut us off and run out of the building. He stayed until every question that anybody had was asked and answered. He was really down to earth. It was like standing next to a guy in the park and just talking."
Mulvaney was surprised in January when he attended Obama's second inauguration at the U.S. Capitol and a reporter asked him why he was there, given that most of his fellow Republican lawmakers were absent.
"That's absurd," Mulvaney responded. "Forty-five percent of the people I represent voted for this gentleman, so I'm going to come and represent them at this very important proceeding."
In Mississippi, Rep. Gregg Harper was the only one of three white Republican House members who attended an emotional memorial service last month at Arlington National Cemetery for Medgar Evers on the 50th anniversary of the civil rights leader's murder.
"What happened in that murder was a great tragedy," Harper told McClatchy. "It's part of our history – not one that we're proud of, but to see where we've come is pretty remarkable. And I just wanted to be there to pay my respects."
Echoing Mulvaney, Harper added: "I didn't do that hoping I might pick up minority voters. I did it because I thought it was the right thing to do."
Some Southern states' responses to the Supreme Court's June 25 decision weakening the 1965 Voting Rights Act also might hinder Republicans' progress with African-Americans.
Republican leaders in several Southern states covered by the high court ruling, including Texas and North Carolina, have indicated they will move forward with voter ID laws that the Justice Department or federal courts had blocked or restricted. Leading civil rights groups argue that such laws depress the black vote by requiring driver's licenses or other forms of identification that relatively fewer African-Americans possess.
"It is hardly reaching out to blacks to push these harmful laws forward, particularly since there is no voter fraud that needs to be addressed with drastic legislation that disenfranchises African-Americans," said Garrard Beeney, a New York lawyer who represented the NAACP and other groups in the South Carolina voter ID case.
In Washington, the GOP rebranding task force recommended that the Republican National Committee hire black communications and political operatives to head the African-American outreach, which it has done. The GOP leaders made a slew of other proposals:
– Establish ties with the NAACP and other civil rights groups.
– Recruit party members at historically black colleges.
– Develop a training program for African-American Republican candidates.
– Create a database of black leaders.
– Promote black staffers "who should be visible and involved in senior political and budget decisions."
– Assemble a "surrogate list" of African-Americans to appear in black news media.
For Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and possible 2016 presidential candidate, these steps are all well and good, but he's focused on more concrete measures.
Paul and Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, are pushing a bill to authorize judges to disregard mandatory minimum sentences for an array of federal crimes, many of them drug-related. Such sentences, which give judges no leeway in setting punishment even for relatively minor crimes, have helped swell the country's inmate population, with a disproportionate impact on young black men.
Paul is developing separate legislation to prevent federal grants to police and sheriff departments from being tied to arrest rates, which he says leads officers to detain a disproportionate number of African-Americans.
"We think it's at the very least implicitly racist, and we're going to put a stop to it," Paul told McClatchy.
Mulvaney, the South Carolina Republican, has learned to vet his language closely when speaking with African-American and Hispanic constituents – and to free it from Republican ideological baggage.
"In those ethnic groups, the word 'community' has a very powerful cultural meaning," he said. "To many white Republicans, we respond to that word as a synonym for the government. We sit here, and we extoll the role of the individual over the role of the community, because many of us equate community with government. And I think by doing that, we alienate some folks to our message."
Mulvaney, though, thinks it will take a "transformational figure" to draw significant numbers of blacks to the Republican Party.
Mulvaney believes that such a figure will have to be an African-American. He names Sen. Tim Scott, a fellow South Carolinian who is the only black Republican in Congress, and J.C. Watts, the former college football star and lawmaker from Oklahoma.
Scott dislikes focusing on the color of his skin, much like Obama. He does, though, believe that his personal story of having risen from an impoverished childhood to a prominent place in American politics could gain him an audience that other Republicans don't have.
"It's really taking the time to share my personal journey, which has a lot of roadblocks, a lot of hurdles and a lot of failure, and connecting that to the American dream and how it is available to all of us," Scott said in an interview.
"And perhaps if pain and failure lead forward, I have an opportunity to share that with others," Scott said. "I hope to be part of bringing that message to (South Carolina) and maybe one day to the nation."
While Watts remains a loyal Republican, he's skeptical that his party's new push for African-American loyalists will have much staying power.
"The key is to put teeth into it and to be real about it," Watts said last month while attending the North Carolina Republican Convention in Charlotte. "I'll believe it when I see it."
Chris Adams of the Washington Bureau contributed.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Structure of a cyclone
Radar image of cyclone
What is a Tropical Cyclone?
Tropical Cyclones are low pressure systems that form over warm tropical waters and have gale force winds (sustained winds of 63 km/h or greater and gusts in excess of 90 km/h) near the centre. Technically they are defined as a non-frontal low pressure system of synoptic scale developing over warm waters having organised convection and a maximum mean wind speed of 34 knots or greater extending more than half-way around near the centre and persisting for at least six hours.
The gale force winds can extend hundreds of kilometres from the cyclone centre. If the sustained winds around the centre reach 118 km/h (gusts in excess 165 km/h). then the system is called a severe tropical cyclone. These are referred to as hurricanes or typhoons in other countries.
The circular eye or centre of a tropical cyclone is an area characterised by light winds and often by clear skies. Eye diameters are typically 40 km but can range from under 10 km to over 100 km. The eye is surrounded by a dense ring of cloud about 16 km high known as the eye wall which marks the belt of strongest winds and heaviest rainfall.
Tropical cyclones derive their energy from the warm tropical oceans and do not form unless the sea-surface temperature is above 26.5°C, although once formed, they can persist over lower sea-surface temperatures. Tropical cyclones can persist for many days and may follow quite erratic paths. They usually dissipate over land or colder oceans.
Most of the northern coastline of Australia is covered by the Bureau's weather radar network. For real time images and radar information, see: www.bom.gov.au/weather/radar/
Further information: Tropical Cyclone FAQs: Definitions | Characteristics and Formation
Cyclone danger and impacts
Tropical Cyclones are dangerous because they produce destructive winds, heavy rainfall with flooding and damaging storm surges that can cause inundation of low-lying coastal areas.
Cyclones have wind gusts in excess of 90 km/h around their centres and, in the most severe cyclones, gusts can exceed 280 km/h. These very destructive winds can cause extensive property damage and turn airborne debris into potentially lethal missiles. It is important to remember that, during the passage of the cyclone centre or eye, there will be a temporary lull in the wind, but that this will soon be replaced by destructive winds from another direction.
Heavy rainfall associated with the passage of a tropical cyclone can produce extensive flooding. This can cause further damage and death by drowning. The heavy rain can persist as the cyclone moves inland and decays, hence flooding due to a decayed cyclone can occur a long way from the tropical coast as the remains of a cyclone move into central and southern parts of the continent.
The destructive winds accompanying tropical cyclones also produce phenomenal seas, which are dangerous both for vessels out at sea and those moored in harbours. These seas can also cause serious erosion of foreshores.
Storm surge and tides
Potentially, the most destructive phenomenon associated with tropical cyclones that make landfall is the storm surge. Storm surge is a raised dome of water about 60 to 80 km across and typically about 2 to 5 m higher than the normal tide level. If the surge occurs at the same time as a high tide then the area inundated can be quite extensive, particularly along low-lying coastlines.
Further information: Storm surge | Tropical Cyclone FAQs: Definitions | Characteristics and Formation
Tropical cyclone severity categories
The severity of a tropical cyclone is described in terms of categories ranging from 1 to 5 related to the zone of maximum winds. An estimate of cyclone severity is included in all tropical advices. Remember that the Warning Service is not designed to give an exact statement of conditions at individual locations but will give a general idea of the expected worst conditions. Using this severity scale, communities will be able to assess the degree of cyclone threat and take appropriate action. Damage will vary depending upon factors such as:
- How far you are from the zone of maximum winds;
- How exposed the location is;
- Building standards;
- Vegetation type; and
- Resultant flooding.
The category does not refer to the amount of flooding or storm tides. If a storm tide is expected it will be mentioned separately in the cyclone warning.
|Strongest gust (km/h)
|Typical effects
|1 Tropical Cyclone
|Less than 125 km/h
|Minimal house damage. Damage to some crops, trees and caravans.Boats may drag moorings.
|2 Tropical Cyclone
|125 - 164 km/h
Destructive winds
|Minor house damage. Significant damage to signs, trees and caravans. Heavy damage to some crops. Risk of power failure. Small boats may break moorings.
|3 Severe Tropical Cyclone
|165 - 224 km/h
Very destructive winds
|Some roof and structural damage. Some caravans destroyed. Power failure likely.
|4 Severe Tropical Cyclone
|225 - 279 km/h
Very destructive winds
|Significant roofing and structural damage. Many caravans destroyed and blown away. Dangerous airborne debris. Widespread power failures.
|5 Severe Tropical Cyclone
|More than 280 km/h
Extremely destructive winds
|Extremely dangerous with widespread destruction.
Further information: Cyclone intensity & impacts | Tropical Cyclone FAQs: Definitions
Research has shown that cyclones in the Australian region exhibit more erratic paths than cyclones in other parts of the world. A tropical cyclone can last for a few days or up to two or three weeks. Movement in any direction is possible including sharp turns and even loops.
Cyclone tracking maps
Bureau tropical cyclone warning services include cyclone forecast track maps. These maps provide a track of the cyclone showing recent movement, and forecast movement.
Tropical cyclone forecast track map
Many people like to plot cyclone tracks throughout cyclone events.
Information and background maps: Plotting a cyclone track


text:
A man was shipwrecked with his dog and a sheep on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere. Everytime the man moved close to the sheep, his dog would snarl and growl at him.
One day while walking the island he discovered a lovely naked lady who also had just become marooned.
"Finally, some company!" he thought.
While sitting on the shore and the watching the sunset with his new female friend, he slowly leaned over and whispered in her ear, ''Hey, could you go walk the dog?''


text:
The woman who King Tuheitia wanted removed from tribal office says she accepts the iwi's vote against her and won't contest it in the courts.
But the removal sets up a scenario which could see Tuku Morgan voted in as the tribal chairman of Te Kauhanganui, or parliament, in the same year the institution failed to support his bid to re-election to the tribe's executive board Te Arataura.
Ms Martin faced a motion that she'd bought the house into disrepute on Sunday, with 36 of 57 marae voting in in favour. It meant she was removed as chairwoman and also as a member of Te Kauhanganui.
Tuheitia had taken the unprecedented step of writing to the wider tribe asking for officers to stand down after years of infighting. The weekend's vote successfully accomplished what the king could not in 2010 when he fired her after she'd raised concerns about spending.
That earlier dumping proved to be outside of the rules but Ms Martin, 50, said she accepted this outcome. She said the letter has an impact on how the vote went.
"I just think in terms of fairness and unfair advantages ...I [am] disappointed at the way it was done. There's some good, honest people in the house. I think I've had an impact - some of our iwi have woken up to what was happening."
If Mr Morgan was returned to a leadership role she "didn't have much confidence" that infighting would stop.
The instability looks set to continue. Te Arataura chairman Tom Roa said the parliament is to vote on whether his board should be removed next month.
"There is a power struggle and that resolution to remove the Arataura is on December the 8th."
In his letter last week Tuheitia criticised Mr Roa and other board members including Kingi Porima and Hemi Rau for previous court action against his late mother years ago and called for board members to retest their mandate.
Mr Roa said he could understand the king's position. "I know he's still hurting over that. I know that he's frustrated with the apparent inability of the Arataura and the officers of the Kauhanganui to get on, so in that hurt, I respect that within his letter to the tribe led him to express that hurt."
The king also called for a referendum on the tribe's institutions but Mr Roa said work on the constitutional reform was already being undertaken and there was still a huge amount of enthusiasm or "hikaka" for that to continue, he said. Consultation would have to occur before a referendum.
It is not clear if the tribe's new parliamentary chair will be voted in at the upcoming meeting. Mr Roa said of Mr Morgan's bid: "I think Tuku has a magic. He is a political animal, he's a survivor and he will pull out all the stops to become the chair of the Kauhanganui."
Mr Morgan did not respond to Herald calls.


text:
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
September 01, 2000 - January 02, 2001
The Darker Side of Playland
Childhood Imagery from the Logan Collection
On Right Side:
Mouse I,
by Gottfried Helnwein
On Left Side:
Quiet Quiet,
by Yoshitomo Nara
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. December 2000
other Gottfried Helnwein sites:
Mouse I,
by Gottfried Helnwein, Mixed media on canvas.
The Art of Gottfried Helnwein and the Comic Culture
November 2000, issue 11
Alicia Miller
"The Darker Side of Playland:
Childhood Imagery from the Logan Collection"
at SFMOMA
In 'The Darker Side of Playland', the endearing cuteness of beloved toys and cartoon characters turns menacing and monstrous. Much of the work has the quality of childhood nightmares. In those dreams, long before any adult understanding of the specific pains and evils that live holds, the familiar and comforting objects and images of a child's world are rent with something untoward. For children, not understanding what really to be afraid of, these dreams portend some pain and disturbance lurking into the landscape. Perhaps nothing in the exhibition exemplifies this better than Gottfried Helnwein's 'Mickey'. His portrait of Disney's favorite mouse occupies an entire wall of the gallery; rendered from an oblique angle, his jaunty, ingenuous visage looks somehow sneaky and suspicious. His broad smile, encasing a row of gleaming teeth, seems more a snarl or leer. This is Mickey as Mr. Hyde, his hidden other self now disturbingly revealed. Helnwein's Mickey is painted in shades of gray, as if pictured on an old black-and-white TV set. We are meant to be transported to the flickering edges of our own childhood memories in a time imaginably more blameless, crime-less and guiltless.
But Mickey's terrifying demeanor hints of things to come. ...
Gottfried Helnwein at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2000
other helnwein sites: www.helnwein.com | www.helnwein.info | www.helnweinreview.com | www.helnwein.de | www.helnwein.net
other helnwein sites: www.helnwein.com | www.helnwein.info | www.helnweinreview.com | www.helnwein.de | www.helnwein.net
...Works in the exhibition present the dark side of cartoon characters. The prevailing narrative structure of many cartoons is a cycle of one's character's unrelenting attacks on another. Yet the violence of these scenarios is subverted and humor achieved by the lack of any permanent injury to the victim and the gleeful nonchalance of the adversary even during the most aggressive assault. Static representations of wounded or menacing cartoon characters can expose the violence and eliminate the humorous punch line.
In Machine Gunned Minnie (plate 21), Joyce Pensato inflicts physical damage on the image of Minnie Mouse by shooting the paper with bullets. But Minnie is not as resilient as her exuberant gesture would indicate her charcoal outline seems to fade into the gray background, as if she were slowly disappearing. Furthermore, as works on paper, it has an inherently ephemeral existence. But even Porky Pig, painted in the more durable medium of enamel on canvas (plate 22), is merely a ghostly black silhouette dripping down the white background, as if it were melting or bleeding.
William Cotton's painting Mortimer (plate 23), is more psychologically than viscerally disturbing. This painting is part of a group of works Cotton did based on things he found at flea markets. The artist's working title for Mortimer was Ugly Mouse, a description of the stuffed animal dominating the composition. With its missing eye, tattered für, and pants fallen down, the enlarged Mouse has a haunting presence. The final title refers to the figure in the lower left, Mortimer Snerd, the dummy made famous in the 1940s by the ventriloqist-comedian Edgar Bergen. An inanimate figure equipped with a human voice and gestures can be frightening or eerie. Adding an autobiographical note, the artist inserted the hoola hoop that appears at the lower right as a memory of a childhood nightmare.
Mice are ubiquitous in child imagery, perhaps because of the commercial success and global popularity of Mickey Mouse or perhaps because of their disproportionate physical features. The Japanese artist Takashi Murakami has developed his own cartoon character alter ego that looks like a mouse. Known as Mr. DOB, the figure vaguely resembles a pygmy doll that the artist once saw in a toy store, but more recognizably his enlarge black ears, white face, and gloved paws make him look like a cousin of Mickey Mouse. However, representations of DOB spell out his name across his head the D and B are written on his ears, and the circle of his face inserts an O in between so as not to confuse this character with the more famous rodent.
Excerpt from the cataglogue by Heather Whitmore Jain, Curatorial Associate "The Darker Side of Playland" Childhood Imagery from the Logan Collection SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART September 1st - January 2nd, 2001
other helnwein sites: www.helnwein.com | www.helnwein.info | www.helnweinreview.com | www.helnwein.de | www.helnwein.net
01. November 2003
Pittsburg Museum of Art
The Carnegie - Mellon Foundation
Negotiating Identity for a new Generation
museums-tour starting at the Pittsburg Museum of Art
31. January 2003
Kurt Shaw
Tribune-Review art critic
Artists explore the Development of the Cartoon Character and its Impact on Society
Gottfried Helnwein's "American Prayer" is a large hyper-realistic painting of a boy kneeling in bedtime prayer to a large and looming Donald Duck. Clark says: "In many ways, this is the signature piece for this whole show, because it shows how cartoon imagery has entered our culture, our world, our daily life."
Although cartoons and caricatures have played an important role in Western culture since the Middle Ages, the development of the comic strip and comic books are a unique American phenomenon and has contributed significantly to American visual culture.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Heather Whitmore Jain
Curatorial Associate, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The Darker Side of Playland, Childhood Imagery from the Logan Collection
30. May 2003
The Times-Picayune
Doug MacCash
Art critic
Fine Tooning
Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein's huge photorealist painting of a Pinocchio-like half boy/half puppet praying to a levitating vision of Donald Duck is is fabulous -- Durer meets Disney.
American Prayer,
by Gottfried Helnwein, Mixed Media on Canvas.
other helnwein sites: www.helnwein.com | www.helnwein.info | www.helnweinreview.com | www.helnwein.de | www.helnwein.net
other helnwein sites: www.helnwein.com | www.helnwein.info | www.helnweinreview.com | www.helnwein.de | www.helnwein.net
In Gottfried Helnwein's painting Mickey, Mickey Mouse's physical features, which usually contribute to his appeal become a thin veneer of looming attack. Blown up to a monster scale and rendered in an austere gray palette, Mickey's smile is deceptive.
mixed media
works on paper
marilyn manson
carl barks
barks exhibitions
blogs & forums
mixed media
works on paper
marilyn manson
carl barks
barks exhibitions
blogs & forums


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Charcoal, Denim Blue & Rose AB Scarf
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Hand painted, one of a kind silk scarf signed by the artist, previously only available to my private clientele. This line of scarves is offered in three color stories for each hair color group. Each scarf is an explosion of color that will compliment any outfit. This inspired collection is the perfect accessory and makes a great gift! Prices vary according to size. Due to the unique and original designs of each scarf, all sales are final. Please allow two weeks for delivery.
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Roger Ebert, the famous film critic who died Thursday at age 70, wrote a final blog post Tuesday that announced his latest battles with cancer but gave no indication of flagging in the face of the disease. In an indicator of the critic's popularity, the Chicago Sun-Times blog housing Ebert's final thoughts crashed Thursday afternoon.
In the blog post, Ebert first thanked his fans, then introduced several new projects despite scaling back his reviews. He called it a "Leave of Presence," saying "I am not going away." He said he would hand off some reviews but "I'll be able at last to do what I've always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review."
Ebert confronted his illness, saying:
"At this point in my life, in addition to writing about movies, I may write about what it's like to cope with health challenges and the limitations they can force upon you. It really stinks that the cancer has returned and that I have spent too many days in the hospital. So on bad days I may write about the vulnerability that accompanies illness. On good days, I may wax ecstatic about a movie so good it transports me beyond illness."
Ebert closed the balcony of his life with this line:
"So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I'll see you at the movies."


text: Raymond O'Malley has been described as the best playmaking center in Boston State College Men's Ice Hockey history while centering one of the greatest lines in the program's era with fellow Hall of Famers Dick Leahy and Bob Russell. O'Malley was named an All-New England skater in 1971 as well as the ECAC Player of the Week in each of his final three campaigns. He skated in 65 career games and tallied 89 points on 30 goals and 59 assists to average an impressive 1.4 points per game. Aside from his playmaking ability, the center was considered the best face-off man in the program's history, winning 92 percent of the face-offs he took over his career. A member of the first line power play & penalty killing unit his entire career, O'Malley led the Warriors with 30 points and 21 assists in 1970-71 while also leading the team in assists with 18 in 1969-70. His 59 career helpers and eight career game-winning goals both rank third all-time in BSC history. He was also selected to the 1970 Codfish Bowl All-Tournament team before being chosen as one of only three Division II All-Stars in New England to skate in the 1971 New England Division I All-Star game that featured future Bruins in Dave Forbes and Dave Reece. O'Malley would go on to sign his own professional contract with the Bruins in 1971 and eventually collaborated with Bobby Orr in compiling an instructional book called "Orr on Ice". Aside from a few high school head coaching and administrative positions, O'Malley would spend 34 years as a teacher, coach and administrator at John F. Parker Middle School in Taunton, MA before retiring.


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There's new help on the way for what used to be the Chesapeake Bay's most important fish, though how much good it will do remains to be seen.
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council has enacted a first-ever cap on how many American shad and related fish that ocean-going fishing trawlers can catch by accident when going after other species such as Spanish Atlantic mackerel.
Shad once thronged the Chesapeake every spring when they made their spawning runs up the bay's rivers from the Atlantic Ocean, but centuries of overfishing, pollution and habitat loss from construction of dams and other obstructions depleted them to the point that Maryland closed its fishery for them in 1980. Other states have taken similar measures, eliminating or sharply curtailing their commerical and even recreational catch of the fish that used to be hauled in by the millions.
Though striped bass and a few other fish have bounced back from the edge of oblivion when protected by fishing moratoria, shad have not done so, much to scientists' puzzlement and consternation. One long-time suspect has been what's known as "incidental bycatch," where fishermen going after other species hauled in some shad and their relatives, river herring, in the process.
Until lately, there hasn't been hard evidence, as no one had gathered data on numbers of shad and herring caught in the ocean. About 900 metric tons are taken annually in near-shore waters by the few remaining commercial fisheries, but how many were being caught out in the Atlantic by trawlers pursuing mackerel and other fish was a mystery. Recently, though, trips monitored by independent observers suggest roughly 300 metric tons of the fish are being taken, on average, said Jason Didden, a fisheries management specialist with the Mid-Atlantic council.
As a result, the council voted last week to set a cap on such bycatch, saying trawlers going after mackerel and other fish would have to quit if their net hauls brought in as much as 236 metric tons of river herring and shad. That comes out to roughly 2.5 million fish, Didden said.
The cap was intended mainly to protect river herrings - alewives and blueback herring - which have declined so drastically that the National Marine Fisheries Service is weighing whether to add them to the federal endangered species list. Like shad, they migrate from the ocean to fresh water in spring to spawn.
It's not clear whether the cap will be enough to help either river herring or shad, given their current low numbers and continuing problems with fish passage over dams, such as Maryland's Conowingo dam. But Didden said the council pledged to revisit the issue later.
"The council wanted to at least start addressing this bycatch issue by putting a hard cap on it," he said.
(NOTE: Post originally misstated the fish with which herring and shad were being caught. It is Atlantic mackerel.)


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Landmark News Service
Fire ravaged the home a Campbellsburg family early Thursday morning and sent two volunteer firefighters to the hospital.
Emergency responders received the call of a house fire at 288 Fewell Road, around 3:53 a.m. Thursday, Post 5 dispatchers said. Neighbors awoke to what they described as "shotgun" like explosions.
Three volunteer fire crews from Campbellsburg, New Castle and Bedford battled the blaze for at least an hour before they were able to control it, according to reports from emergency officials.
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Hookai. So, quick question for $1,000: What sticks, stands, and hangs?
The StickStrap, of course. The mobile device holder that is "portable and practical." The holder with suction cups that is "innovative and inspiring." The strap that "securely grasps your iPhone and can serve as a sexual toy at the same time." Maybe I made up the last one, but come on, this thing has so many uses that is hard to justify not spending $10 on it. If only to ask people to pull the red handle from your jeans. [Aprodukt]


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Integrating STEM through Inventing
The Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam initiative offers an unparalleled opportunity for high school students to cultivate their creativity and experience invention.
InvenTeam students rely on inquiry and hands-on problem solving as they integrate lessons from science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to develop invention prototypes. Interactive, self-directed learning coupled with STEM curricula are essential for experiencing invention.
Students learn to work in teams, while collaborating with intended users of their inventions. They partner with organizations in their communities to enrich their experiences. Most of all, students learn to move forward through challenges and celebrate "Eureka!" moments.
After the InvenTeam experience, inventive cultures often continue to prosper at schools through further development of InvenTeam prototypes or the pursuit of new invention projects.
Invention Cycle
As a grants initiative, InvenTeams work on a yearly cycle, though any young inventor could follow the same timeline. The grant period runs from October - June corresponding with the academic year. Each InvenTeam creates an individual path due to project variation, but most experience the cycle through three phases:
Concept phase
- Gather additional research about users' needs, competitive products, and existing patents
- Brainstorm ideas for appropriate solutions
Design Phase
- Conceptualize several solutions
- Investigate the feasibility of each solution
- Select the best solution
- Create a detailed design using tools, such as SolidWorks 3D CAD software
- Determine materials and resources, considering Sustainable Design
Build Phase
- Construct and test prototypes
- Field test prototypes
- Build alpha prototype
InvenTeams access information and resources through a private portal on the Lemelson-MIT Program's website where they also manage their finances and submit reports. Lemelson-MIT Program staff and Master Teachers visits each InvenTeam at its school during the grant cycle.
Reporting and Documenting Work
InvenTeams post updates and share photos and videos of their work on each InvenTeam's website. Many will also engage media to publicize significant milestones. InvenTeams have two major milestones to report progress on their invention:
- Mid-Grant Technical Review: InvenTeams host open houses in February to show the technical progress to mentors, technical experts, and users.
- Final Summary Presentations and Reports: InvenTeams present a summary of their work at EurekaFest. Presentation sections include: motivation, technical overview, team process, and next steps.
Celebrating the InvenTeam Experience at MIT
Students, teachers, and mentors representing each InvenTeam travel to Cambridge, Mass., in June for the Lemelson-MIT Program's EurekaFest, a multi-day celebration of the inventive spirit. InvenTeams present and showcase their prototypes at EurekaFest's public exhibit. Lemelson-MIT Student Prize winners, MIT faculty, and other teams offer feedback and inspiration during EurekaFest.
True success for each InvenTeam is students having fun throughout the grant cycle while collaborating to build a useful and unique device that positively impacts the lives of others.
InvenTeams Grant Opportunity
Up to 15 teams nationwide are selected each year as InvenTeam grant recipients. The application is a two-step process.
Step 1: Initial Application: Due April 8, 2019. Apply today!
- Educators are expected to document school and community support for year-long invention projects and the ability to identify and solve real-world problems with a team of students.
- Educators selected as finalists are considered Excite Award recipients and attend EurekaFest at MIT in June. The award is an all-expense paid trip to MIT and professional development on invention education.
Step 2: Final Application
- Only Excite Award recipients who attend EurekaFest in the summer prior to a grant year are invited to submit the final application
Final applications focus on the invention project and require student input to present:
- Invention project description
- Background research including a patent search
- Project and team organization plan
- Budget to build the invention
- Community engagement plan
InvenTeams Grant Expectations
- All teams are expected to present and showcase a working prototype of their invention at EurekaFest in June of their grant year.
- All teams are expected to hold a mid-grant technical review to demonstrate their progress and gather important feedback from beneficiaries and community stakeholders.
- All teams are expected to comply with the administrative guidelines outlined by the Lemelson-MIT Program, which include financial reporting, adhering to program deadlines, and external communications.
InvenTeams Grant Application Overview
Step 1: Initial Application
The initial application is available online each October and due at the beginning of April for grants to be awarded for the following academic year. The initial application for the 2019-2020 school year can be accessed here and will be due April 8, 2019.
Youth Involvement
Educators often begin the initial application with minimal youth participants. Youth input is encouraged for the initial application and required for the final application. Many educators recruit youth early to develop a stronger proposal for the initial application.
Invention Ideas
InvenTeam projects span many fields like assistive devices, environmental technologies, consumer goods, and wearable technology. Inventors are encouraged to identify important problems in their own communities. Local problems tend to highly motivate youth as they create technological solutions to improve the lives of others.
Review past InvenTeams and their invention projects for inspiration.
Initial Online Application
The initial application is available online and due April 8, 2019. It includes:
- Educator and high school information form
- Invention idea project proposal
- Educator's invention interest statement
- School administrator's letter of support for Educator's application
- Educator's current resume or CV plus resumes of supporting educators
- Special consideration (optional)
Applications are assessed on project planning, student organization, and potential for community partnerships and other types of collaboration. A strong application is sophisticated and prepared with student assistance. It demonstrates the educator's ability to facilitate a self-directed, hands-on learning project that spans an entire school year. The letter of support from the school's administration should enthusiastically endorse the educator and the potential of an InvenTeam opportunity for the school.
Teams of two or three educators are encouraged, but a lead educator must be designated for a team.
Grantee Selection Process
A panel comprising inventors; educators; InvenTeam student alumni; and MIT faculty, staff, and alumni reviews the applications. Diversity is considered among school types, community demographics, and project themes. Up to 35 educators are selected as finalists from the initial applications and receive Excite Awards.
Excite Awards
Finalists are Excite Award recipients. These educators attend EurekaFest, a multi-day celebration at MIT in June. Finalists meet current InvenTeams, see their inventions, and attend invention education workshops. Only Excite Award winners, or another educator listed on the initial application, who attend EurekaFest the summer before a grant year are invited to submit a final InvenTeam grant application. Travel, food, and lodging to EurekaFest are provided for one educator. Students are not invited at this time.
Final Online Application
The final application due in early September is a detailed project proposal that outlines five core areas:
- Background research summary
- Project description with project title
- Project organization and timeline, including team roster, team photo, and community collaborators
- Budget (not to exceed $10,000)
- Administrative acceptance of MIT's grant disbursement procedures
Student participation is essential for preparing the final application. Technical feasibility of the proposed solution is assessed.
2019-2020 InvenTeam Timeline
- Initial application opens: October 24, 2018
- Initial application deadline: April 8, 2019
- Up to 35 Excite Award recipients (educator finalists) announced: Mid-April, 2019
- Lead educator finalist attends EurekaFest 2019: June 19-22 2019
- Finalist teams develop their final applications: Summer 2019
- Final application deadline: September 4, 2019
- Up to 15 InvenTeams announced: October, 2019
- Invention development by InvenTeam grantees: October 2019-June 2020
- EurekaFest 2019 for InvenTeam grantees: mid-June 2020
InvenTeams Grant Eligibility Requirements
Who may apply: Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics educators at high schools and non-profit educational organizations. An educator and/or a school who has received an InvenTeam grant must wait three grant cycles before applying again.
InvenTeam size: Optimal size, 10-15 high school youth
Grants available: Up to 15 teams each school year
Grant award: Up to $10,000 each
Use of funds: Funds may be allocated for research, materials, and learning experiences related to the project. Funds may not be used to purchase capital equipment or professional services (e.g.: intellectual property legal protection, engineering services).
Fellowships: Educators who facilitate the project outside of the school day may allot up to $3,000 of an InvenTeam grant towards fellowships.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who funds the InvenTeam initiative?
The Lemelson-MIT Program awards InvenTeam grants and manages the initiative. The Lemelson-MIT Program is funded by The Lemelson Foundation and is administered by the School of Engineering at MIT.
InvenTeams are encouraged to partner with organizations in their local community for additional donations and resources. Local partnerships are neccessary to raise funds for the team to travel to EurekaFest and help sustain invention projects after an InvenTeam grant.
How many students participate on an InvenTeam?
There is no size requirement for InvenTeams. An InvenTeam can be comprised of a small group of students as an extracurricular activity or an entire class. Teams with fewer than five students or more than 20 students can be challenging. Ten to 15 students on an InvenTeam are productive and manageable.
What is the educator's role on an InvenTeam?
The educator applies for the grant. The educator also recruits students, monitors funds, and supports students throughout the process. The educator is advised to work with students in the spirit of self-directed learning. Consider the educator as a coach on a sports team or director of a musical ensemble.
How may the grant be used?
The grant may be used to purchase materials and supplies necessary for the discovery process and expenses related to product development and team-building efforts (including snacks, meals, and team polo shirts). Funds may be used for an unrestricted teacher fellowship of $3,000 if the project is conducted as an extracurricular activity or club. Funds may not be used to purchase capital equipment such as computers, pay for professional services, or substitute educators.
What are the grantees' obligations to ensure funding throughout the cycle?
Each InvenTeam is required to submit progress and expense reports on scheduled dates throughout the grant's cycle, culminating with a summary presentation and report that details process and design, addresses the viability of its invention, and discusses next steps. Each InvenTeam is also required to present and showcase a working prototype of their invention during the Lemelson-MIT Program's annual EurekaFest event.
Does the Lemelson-MIT Program cover EurekaFest costs?
No. Travel expenses to and from Cambridge, Massachusetts will require fundraising. The Program will cover room and board for eight team members (six students and two chaperones).
Is the InvenTeam initiative a competition?
No, the initiative is not a competition once grantees have been selected. The InvenTeam initiative relies on a collaborative approach to build problem-solving skills and foster creativity, which is essential to invent. InvenTeams display and discuss their prototypes with each other and award winning inventors at EurekaFest.
How can InvenTeams receive external support?
InvenTeams are encouraged to seek industry, academic, or civic partners in their community to help implement their projects. Involving partners that have experience inventing can be invaluable. Lemelson-MIT Program staff will assist in identifying mentors, including MIT alumni, to help advise InvenTeams on their projects. The InvenTeam website provides resources and materials made available from partners.
How are InvenTeam applications evaluated?
Initial applications are evaluated relative to the capacity of the educator(s) and school to support the project. The final selection is based on the inventiveness and feasibility of the proposed technical solution to a real-world problem. MIT professors and staff, inventors, researchers, entrepreneurs, and high school educators assess the applications.
How long have InvenTeam grants been awarded?
The Lemelson-MIT Program awarded its first InvenTeam grants to three New England high schools during the 2002-2003 school year. It became a national initiative during the 2003-2004 school year. On average, 15 InvenTeams receive funding each school year. 213 InvenTeams have been funded through the 2016-2017 grant cycle.
Who are Lemelson-MIT Master Teachers?
Master Teachers are a select group of experienced InvenTeam educators who provide peer-to-peer support for InvenTeam educators during their grant year. Read more about them here.


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'American Horror Story,' Season 2, Episode 5, 'I Am Anne Frank, Pt. 2': TV Recap
At Briarcliff, it's hard to tell what's real. Fitting for an insane asylum. When liars speak, we see their vision. We see fantasies.
Who is good, who bad? I'm now on team Jude.
We open as Jude visits Mr. Goodman, a Nazi-finder/death camp survivor. She's brought him Arden's meager file. His biography might be fake, as were those of many Nazi scientists recruited by the joint intelligence objectives agency after the war in "Operation Paper Clip," Goodman says. The camera pans to a map with pictures of young S.S. men pinned to it. Goodman asks if Jude's ever seen Arden shirtless. S.S. men always had their blood type tattooed on their arms. He warns her not to do anything to alert Grouper/Arden yet.
Sedated, strait-jacketed Anne, caught by Sister Mary Eunice after shooting Dr. Arden, tells Jude about a monster with no legs—we know it's Shelley. But when Jude searches the lab she finds nothing.
A man comes looking for his wife, Anne, whom he says is Charlotte Brown, née Cohen. They have a five-month old son with colic whose crying has driven her cuckoo. His wife became obsessed with Anne Frank after they saw the play in Boston. As he talks, we see clips of Charlotte/Anne tattooing herself, creating an Anne Frank clippings room in the den, and ignoring her child.
At the door, Dr. Thredson says it seems "more like a case of post-partum psychosis." "How long have you been standing there, Dr. Butt-insky?" Jude asks.
Anne is released to Mr. Brown, whom she doesn't recognize—until he shows her the happy family with baby picture.
Meanwhile, Grace tells Kit she thinks Jude is the devil. Close. Sister Mary Devil releases Kit from solitary, but Grace is still scheduled for sterilization surgery. Kit confesses his false memories to Thredson, who records them.
Rumblings and bright light: Grace sees Alma on a table in white gauzy light, talking to a very pregnant being who says she is now Alma.
Alien abduction it is, then.
Jude leaves a message for Dr. Goodman to forget the whole thing, but Dr. Arden overhears. Relieved to learn Jude found little in his lab, he still threatens to press charges for the attack.
Sister Mary Eunice changes the dressing on Dr. Arden's leg, apologizing for being "untoward," or lewd. Wisely for a man who has a woman with a scissors inches from his groin, Arden smiles and suggests they chalk it up to the barometric pressure.
He thanks her for protecting him.
"Protecting us," she replies with a smirk. Flashback to scene of her dragging Shelley away. We always knew the Devil and the Nazi were in love. Schoolchildren shriek when they see Shelly dragging herself up basement steps.
Mr. Brown brings his crazy wife back to Briarcliff. Arden performs a trans-frontal lobotomy on Anne, involving a chisel and crunchy noises.
Jude prays to St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes. She tells Frank the guard how as a little girl she fed a pet squirrel. She prayed and prayed when it died. Her mother came in and threw it in the garbage. Jude cried, saying "God didn't answer my prayers."
Pouring a whiskey, mother answered "God always answers our prayers, Judy, it's just rarely the answer we're looking for." Now we know Jude took a saint name that was her own name.
"It's over for me, Frank," she says.
Frank becomes progressive. "Men are never going to accept a woman being in charge, especially a woman as strong as you are."
Lana escapes with Dr. Thredson. He takes her to his mid-century cool apartment, and tells her to call him Oliver. "You're the person to write my story," he says.
Uh oh. "Your story?"
He turns on a lamp. Its shade is made of skin. There are nipples.
Lana excuses herself to snoop, but he finds her in a room holding skulls and scary tools.
"I see you've found my little hobby," he says. He makes lamps.
"Really?" She says tearfully. "What kind of material do you use?"
"Skin," he says, and flicks a switch. She falls through the floor.
In the common room, Kit finds post-surgery Grace bleeding. Policemen arrest him. Grace tries to scream, "Alma's alive, I saw her!"
With Lana in the white-tiled dungeon is Wendy. Dead. Wendy is there for Lana's therapy, Thredson says. "You can begin by kissing her cold lips." Somebody's been listening to "I Am Stretched On Your Grave" by Sinead O'Connor.
Thredson puts on the Bloody Face mask, which has Wendy's teeth.
Cut to young Jude, the singer, in bed with a man from a bar, robbing him.
Mr. Brown comes home to his Stepford wife. Charlotte assures him, with no trace of the Anne Frank accent, that she's never been happier.
The camera pans to a picture Anne Frank had pinned up of Hitler and his entourage. It zeroes in on a man standing behind him.
Is it young Dr. Arden?


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Press Release
Steve Paris�
Mark Mitchell
New Online Searches Provide Useful Tools for the Science & Technology Industries
OKLAHOMA CITY – August 13, 2009 – The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) recently launched a new Web site, Service Provider Network and Online Intern Database available at http://ocast.ok.gov. The site features audio broadcasts, online registration for workshops, service providers, solicitation listings and internship opportunities in technology. Other resources for researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs also are available.
"Science and technology are critical to the future of Oklahoma," said Michael Carolina, OCAST executive director. "We built our new Web site with a focus on providing visitors with useful tools for new ideas in technology-based economic development."
The Service Provider Network enables visitors to find qualified third-party resources to develop innovative and advanced technology ideas, management services, processes or products and build commercial enterprises.
The Online Intern Database provides an avenue to increase science and technology education and experience for college students and faculty members in Oklahoma. Students have the opportunity to be connected with a potential future employer. The new system provides services for students, faculty and businesses. Advantages include the following:
OCAST launched their new Web site utilizing OK.gov's Content Management System. The site is designed to meet and exceed Oklahoma's Web accessibility standards. The OCAST Web site, Service Provider Network, and Online Intern Database are products of a partnership between OCAST and OK.gov, Oklahoma's Official Web site.
About OCAST�
About OK.gov�
About NIC�


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Girdwood, Alaska - It is, according to federal prosecutors, the scene of the crime. But as potential illegal payout, it appears a paltry trade for what could be the ruin of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens's long legacy of public service.
The modest chalet-style house on a dirt road south of Anchorage has peeling brown paint, a front lawn in need of mowing, and a pair of handmade campaign signs. The house, the official Alaska residence of Senator Stevens, was expanded and remodeled through unreported gifts from VECO Corp., a company that was once a giant in both the Alaska oil fields and the halls of political power, according to a federal indictment issued in Washington Tuesday.
The charges against Stevens are part of a federal probe of political corruption in Alaska that so far has sent three former state lawmakers to prison. The investigation is forcing Alaskans, who receive more federal funds in earmarks per person than residents of any other state, to take a harder look at their heavy reliance on US tax dollars and to ask whether the mutual back-scratching that has long characterized business and politics here needs to be reconsidered.
With Stevens's indictment, some see an end of that era. Others predict it may also end the career of an Alaskan icon who has dominated the political scene since territorial days.
"The phrase that comes to mind is 'sic transit gloria.' It is the end of an era," says Jerry McBeath, a University of Alaska Fairbanks political scientist.
The indictment, the first issued against a sitting senator since 1993, charges Stevens with seven felony counts involving a failure to report gifts, worth more than $250,000, bestowed from 1999 to 2006 by VECO and its chief executive – mostly in the form of materials and labor used to double the size of his Girdwood home. While Stevens is not charged specifically with taking bribes, the indictment alleges that he helped steer lucrative federal contracts to VECO and took other actions that benefited the company.
Though the most powerful figure entangled so far, the senator is not likely to be the last. His son, former state Senate President Ben Stevens, has been fingered in court testimony by VECO executives as the recipient of $243,000 in VECO bribes that they said were disguised as payments for "consulting" work.
The elder Stevens, the longest-serving Senate Republican in history, proclaimed his innocence in a terse statement Tuesday. "I have proudly served this nation and Alaska for over 50 years. My public service began when I served in World War II. It saddens me to learn that these charges have been brought against me. I have never knowingly submitted a false disclosure form required by law as a U.S. Senator," said the statement, released by his Senate office.
He also said that in line with Senate GOP rules, he would temporarily give up leadership positions. Stevens is a senior Republican on the Commerce Committee and Appropriations Committee.
His campaign issued a statement as well, insisting that his bid for a seventh term, in which he was already lagging in the polls against popular Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, "is continuing to move full steam ahead."
After being appointed to office in 1968 and coasting to victory in every Senate election since, an indicted Stevens is now the decided underdog against Mayor Begich, a Democrat, and may not even survive the Aug. 26 GOP primary, says Ivan Moore, a pollster and political consultant who generally works for Democrats.
"Is Ted Stevens going to win in November? No. Is Ted Stevens going to win the Republican primary? He could, but I think it's unlikely," says Mr. Moore.
In fact, within minutes of the indictment, the Congressional Quarterly changed its rating of this race from Leans Republican to Leans Democratic.
"Even before the indictment, this race was already very competitive," says Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Senate races for the Cook Political Report in Washington. "What some people don't appreciate is that Senator Stevens has a primary race, and now it might be tougher to see him come out of it."
For Alaska, it would be a seismic shift.
Stevens has long been lionized as a pillar of the economy here. The state is reliant on North Slope oil and the money it generates, and it has been at least equally reliant on generous amounts of federal spending, otherwise known as "Stevens dollars," that is distributed throughout Alaska. "Stevens dollars" are particularly appreciated in the rural bush, where some Native villages still lack running water and rely on plastic-bag-lined "honey buckets" for toilets.
The nickname "Uncle Ted" is bestowed more in awe than in affection, according to Mr. McBeath.
"Stevens is not a likable person because of the nature of his personality. But I've rarely seen a public official as respected as he is because of his effectiveness," he says.
Alaskans have shown their appreciation over the years. At about the time the Justice Department says VECO's unreported gifts began, Stevens was honored as "Alaskan of the Century" by a civic group and by the state Legislature, and the airport in Anchorage was named after him.
In the Lower 48, Stevens has been much lampooned for his angry outbursts on the Senate floor, his promotion of big-ticket budget earmarks that appear preposterous outside of Alaska, and his oft-quoted speech about how the Internet is a "series of tubes."
True to the old Alaska saying "We don't care how they do it Outside," with "Outside" referring to every place that is not Alaska, Stevens shows little concern about being unpopular in the Lower 48. He even seems to relish his cantankerous image, donning an "Incredible Hulk" tie for major political clashes on the Senate floor.
If Stevens does not care what people say "Outside," however, several younger Alaska leaders do.
"Unfortunately, it's been that perception by mostly the Outside media that ... has been, 'What are you guys doing up there to clean up any corruption or perceived corruption?' " Gov. Sarah Palin said at a news conference in Juneau Tuesday. "We recognize that we have, perhaps, that reputation at this point." Governor Palin, a Republican who won her office on an anticorruption platform, touts several reform measures that she and lawmakers have put into place. She has also instructed budget writers to scale back the state's requests for federal dollars.
The governor drew ire from Stevens and US Rep. Don Young (R) for canceling state work on an expensive project that they had championed but was ridiculed as a "bridge to nowhere."
Other younger leaders also say Alaska needs to reassess its reliance on federal money and move on to a new era. Between Alaska's current oil wealth and the growing federal budget deficit and overall hardships in the Lower 48, it's the wrong time for the state to make big demands on the federal treasury, they say.
If oil prices average $120 a barrel for the current fiscal year, Alaska could reap a $9 billion surplus, notes state Sen. Hollis French (D). "Right now, we're sort of floating on a sea of oil," he says.
The move-on message was echoed Tuesday by Begich, who held a previously scheduled news conference intended to promote a new city program to convert to energy-efficient lighting. At the event, held on the sidewalk just below Stevens's office in the city's federal building, Begich found himself fending off reporters' questions about the man he hopes to replace in Washington.
"It's basically a sad day for Alaska, but we're going to keep focusing on the future of this great state," said the mayor, who was only 6 when Stevens was first sent to the Senate. "We're resilient. We're Alaskans. And we'll move forward."
• Staff writer Gail Russell Chaddock contributed to this report from Washington.


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The Robocop reboot finds a writer. Man of Steel casts another version of Clark Kent. Check out new images from The Hunger Games and John Carter. Plus get the last word from the stars and director of Chronicle!
Spoilers from here on out!
Top image from Chronicle.
Man of Steel
11-year-old actor Cooper Timberline is now confirmed to be playing the pre-teen Clark Kent in the film. Just to keep all the young actors straight, the slightly older Dylan Sprayberry is playing the 13-year-old Clark. [Style Weekly]
The Hunger Games
Here's a new promo photo of Lenny Kravitz as the stylist Cinna and Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen. Here's how Kravitz describes Cinna:
"He's very streamlined, he's very quiet. He knows what he's doing. He's confident. He's got a big heart. I just liked the way he moved – very smooth."
Jose Padilha, the Brazilian director of the Elite Squad films, has reportedly found a new screenwriter for his reboot of Paul Verhoeven's Robocop. Gran Torino writer Nick Schenk, who also worked on the as yet unmade action thriller Tri-Border with Padilha, is now reportedly working on the script. [Heat Vision]
Here's one more teaser for found footage film in which three teenagers get superpowers.
The Wire actor Michael B. Jordan discusses how he and the rest of the cast approached the film and whether they took inspiration from comic books:
I think so, yeah, though the movie is very grounded in reality. It's kind of an origin story, but there are no tights, no capes, no masks, none of that stuff. It's about real kids, and what they would do if they actually had superpowers. I know Akira really influenced [director] Josh [Trank], and there are a lot of similarities between the two. But it's such an original take; it kind of reminds me of Unbreakable in the way it plays on the idea of superheroes, and that you don't have to be a bad guy and do malicious things to be the villain. It depends on the person, at their core. Andrew had a tough upbringing, a rough life at home, so if you give power to somebody who is powerless, sometimes they don't know how to express themselves. He doesn't know who he is, so that leads him to make some bad decisions. It doesn't mean that he's the "villain," and there's no "good guy" in the movie either.
It's just about kids spiraling out of control, the way I think it would happen in reality. If I got powers, I would probably start off on a small scale, testing them out, trying to figure out just exactly what they were. I would probably try to mess around with some girls [laughs]… I might do that. But without somebody being grounded and reeling us back in, it might get out of hand.
There's some more at the link. [Fangoria]
And here's an 11-minute interview with the cast and director Josh Trank.
M. Night Shyamalan's latest, which stars Will and Jaden Smith as father and son warriors searching for each other on a charred post-apocalyptic version of Earth, is set to begin filming February 6 in Costa Rica. [Shadow and Act]
Ryan Reynolds says he's still optimistic about reprising his X-Men Origins: Wolverine role, but it sounds like he doesn't want to compromise what's unique about Deadpool:
"The script is there [for 'Deadpool'], everything just comes down to budget and time. If it comes together the way it should, which is rated R and a little bit outside of the box, then yeah, for sure."
Dark Shadows
Casino Royale star Eva Green discusses her role as Angelique Brouchard, the vampire who bites Johnny Depp's Barnabas Collins and buries him alive out of revenge for breaking her heart, in Tim Burton's update of the 1970s supernatural soap opera:
"I think it's very, very funny, with a dark sense of humor, but really funny. And I play Angelique Bouchard, and she's a cuckoo character. An extreme character, who is madly obsessed with Baranabas Collins, and it's a very electric relationship. And she wants to own every bit of Barnabas. It's not a typical villain, and that's what I like about how Tim dealt with her. She has a good reason to act like that. It's a really a love story."
Ryan Reynolds offers high praise for this film in which he and Jeff Bridges play dead cops patrolling the afterlife:
"[You'll be] pretty blown away by that one. It's an incredible film. That was a movie I'd been courting for something like five years now. To see that actually happen — that never happens! It never happens that a movie you've been courting for that long actually ends up being shot and produced. It was a beautiful experience. I know that's going to be an amazing movie."
Here's a rather grizzled promo image of Daniel Craig in the latest James Bond movie. [E! Online]
This low-budget sci-fi thriller starring Sasha Roiz, whose genre credits include Capricaand Grimm, is set to premiere at Austin's South by Southwest Festival (or just SXSW) in March. Here's the trailer and official synopsis. [Caprica TV]
Thomas Jacobs is a brilliant engineer who invents a device that enables him to enter the mind of a patient and observe them in their memories. Having run out of funds to complete the project, he reluctantly partners with the Justice Department who plans to use it to see criminals enact their crimes, BUT, during the first test on a convict, Tom gets trapped, leaving behind a pregnant wife and his unconscious body. For four years Tom is stuck in the criminal's mind, until he discovers a glitch in the system. It soon becomes a race for survival, as Tom is forced to work with the reluctant criminal to find a way out.
Me and My Shadow
Dreamworks has just announced this new animated films set for a November 13, 2013 release date. Directed by How to Train Your Dragon head of story Alessandro Carlonia and written by Get Smart's Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember, the film features the voices of Saturday Night Live's Bill Hader, The Book of Mormon's Josh Gad, and Almost Famous actress Kate Hudson. Here's the synopsis, which posits a world of intelligent shadows:
Me & My Shadow reveals the once secret world of shadows and their human counterparts. Stan, our hero's shadow, yearns for a more exciting life but happens to be stuck with Stanley Grubb, a timid guy with an extreme aversion to adventure. When a crime in the shadow world puts both of their lives in danger, Stan is forced to take control of Stanley. They go on a madcap adventure to investigate the crime and stop the shadow villain from leading a rebellion where shadows take over the human world. During this adventure, Stan empowers Stanley to let go of his fears and embrace life. Through their adventure, they both learn that one cannot be whole without a true friend.
The Devil Inside director William Brent Bell is reportedly working on this found footage film about werewolves, from a script co-written by Bell and his Devil Inside screenwriter Matthew Peterman. The film will start shooting in Romania in April. [ShockTillYouDrop]
Justice League: Doom
Here's a clip from DC's latest animated direct to DVD movie, featuring a ton of original DCAU alums - including Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly as Batman and Superman - plus Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan.
Here's a bunch of promo photos for tomorrow night's episode, "Making Angels." [SpoilerTV]
Here are brief synopses for all the episodes airing in February:
Friday, Feb. 3: "Making Angels"
Our Astrid (Jasika Nicole) gets an unexpected visit from her Alternate, while Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Olivia (Anna Torv) track a killer using a toxin that has yet to be invented. Both universes collide in a case that pushes the boundaries of what is possible.
Friday, Feb. 10: "Welcome to Westfield"
Peter, Olivia and Walter (John Noble) come face-to-face with a mysterious and terrifying Fringe event as they get trapped in a town from which there's no escape.
Friday, Feb. 17: "A Better Human Being"
As the Fringe team investigates a mentally ill patient (guest star Harrison Thomas) who appears to be connected to a series of murders, frightening clues and connections are uncovered that lead Olivia to some shocking revelations.
Friday, Feb. 24" "The End of All Things"
Peter and the Fringe team take extraordinary measures in an attempt to stop life-threatening events.
Star Wars: Underworld
There's an absolutely psychotic rumor flying about this proposed 50-episode live-action TV series, which almost certainly won't happen for at least five years because it's just too expensive to make with current technology. Still, according to George Lucas and producer Rick McCallum, the scripts are all more or less written, which opens the door for some truly insane spoilers on their supposed content.
According to an inside source — one that is apparently "unproven" but has "reasonable context" — an early episode will feature "a group of bandits acquiring the capability of time travel, and using it to travel back in time to stop Darth Vader from ever existing", which I suppose either means stopping Anakin Skywalker from being born or, perhaps more likely based on the wording, even turning to the Dark Side and becoming Darth Vader.
Presumably this would mean undoing the events of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi — in other words, one of the first acts of this new TV series would be to erase from existence the part of the franchise that everybody still actually likes. (OK...now I'm starting to believe it.) Of course, if this is just a single-episode plot that ultimately gets undone, it becomes much more believable, but even then it seems to conflict with Lucas and McCallum's statement that this show will be staying away from the Skywalkers and the specific events of the film franchise. So, yeah...take this all with a Kessel Run's worth of salt, I'd say. [/Film]
Here are descriptions for all the episodes airing in February:
Monday, Feb. 6: "Guy Hastings"
Guy Hastings (guest star Jim Parrack), an Alcatraz guard, reappears. Although a good man, Hastings is being asked to do bad things and will come face-to-face with an old acquaintance.
Monday, Feb. 13: "Paxton Petty"
When our unlikely trio of Madsen (Sarah Jones), Doc (Jorge Garcia) and Hauser (Sam Neill) tracks former inmate Paxton Petty (guest star James Pizzinato), a sick landmine bomber who has returned only to place bombs throughout populated areas of San Francisco, methods of the past are applied to the present.
Monday, Feb. 20: "Johnny McKee"
Madsen and Hauser hunt down Johnny McKee (guest star Adam Rothenberg), a former Alcatraz inmate and vicious killer with a background in chemistry. It's a race against time before McKee horrifically poisons more innocent victims. Meanwhile, more details emerge about Madsen's grandfather.
Monday, Feb. 27: "Clarence Montgomery"
Clarence Montgomery (guest star Mahershala Ali), the only innocent man in Alcatraz, returns to present day, but is now committing crimes. Why?
Once Upon a Time
It looks like the show's creative team is feeling pretty confident about a second season pickup — and given the show's ratings, there isn't much reason not to be — as they have reportedly cast their first guest star for season two. Black Swan and Hoosiers actress Barbara Hershey is reportedly set to make one guest appearance this season as the Evil Queen's mother, which she will then reprise for three episodes in season two. [EW]
Rachel Miner is reportedly set to reprise her role as the demon Meg Masters, who last appeared back in the season six episode "Caged Heat," alongside Castiel. It's possible but unconfirmed that she might make her return appearance when Castiel makes his own return in episode seventeen. [TV Line]
The Vampire Diaries
Here's an extended promo for tonight's episode, "Dangerous Liaisons."
Lost Girl
Here's a list of spoilery tidbits for what lies ahead in the rest of season two:
* War
* Prophecy/ Bo's destiny further addressed
* Very serious injuries for those close to Bo
* Major DeathS
* At least two MAJOR Betrayals
You can read the rest at the link. [SpoilerTV]
Additional reporting by Ben Vrignon and Charlie Jane Anders.


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No other chain has something like the McGriddle, McDonald's pancake/muffin hybrid, which likely is why the chain has followed the coffee giveaway that ended yesterday with a new marketing push for McGriddle sandwiches.
This, much more than free coffee, is McDonald's response not only to Taco Bell's entry into the breakfast market but also to all the other competitive activity in the mornings. If menu innovation is going to be key to the competition, McDonald's gladly will put McGriddles up against Taco Bell's Waffle Taco and A.M. Crunchwrap. Who wins? McDonald's average per-store sales are $1 million+ higher than the average Taco Bell's.
McDonald's isn't moving away entirely from its McCafé coffee. New TV advertising positions McGriddles as integral to the way some people take their coffee. Online promotion includes a site showcasing a series of life situations for which "Once you get a McGriddles, you'll get it" is the recurring tagline.
Interestingly, creation of McGriddles in 2003 is credited to then-SVP of Menu Management Tom Ryan. He since has founded McDonald's fast-casual competitor Smashburger.
Americans made 12.5 billion restaurant visits for breakfast last year, making the morning meal the only daypart showing traffic growth for the third consecutive year, according to NPD Group data. Breakfast visits were up 3% while traffic for both lunch and dinner declined by 1%. Breakfast accounts for 21% of customer visits, according to NPD. In terms of sales, breakfast can be even more significant, accounting for 25% (as at McDonald's) or more. In the restaurant business's slow-growth marketplace, those numbers mean breakfast is the time when gains in traffic and sales can be made, if at no other time.
That's why there has been a flurry of new breakfast items. They haven't come just to counter Taco Bell's overanalyzed breakfast menu; more importantly they're intended to increase share in what is now the most important daypart. Jack in the Box (which offers breakfast all day) last week added new Breakfast Melt sandwiches; Whataburger has added jalapeňo-spiked biscuits; Starbucks has a new line of upscale sandwiches.


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Design submitted by Cory from the USA.
Cory says "The Skull and Crossbones on a black background, 'Jolly Roger' is instantly recognizable as the calling card of pirates throughout history. From Blackbeard and Henry Morgan, to Calico Jack Rackham and Captain Kidd, most all pirates would fly a variation of the Jolly Roger to strike fear in the hearts of their quarry."
The Gunshot splatter marks the hours, while the line of drips marks the minutes. Hours 2,4, and 8, 10 are marked by cross bones instead of the traditional 12, 3, 6, 9 of most analog clocks. The analog movement of the watch could be accomplished with hands of transparent plexiglass on a white background.
The wide leather strap, dual clasps, and of course the chalk-white skull splattered with blood all amount to a distinctive statement of pirate style.