text:
Drake and Rihanna at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. Image by: Getty
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Chapter 4,372 in the Drake/Rihanna love story: Drake, arguably the world's friendliest ex, gave RiRi a birthday shoutout during his concert in Dublin yesterday. (MELTING.) And since nothing is private anymore, obviously it was captured on someone's cell and blasted out to the world for us to replay over and over.
"It's somebody's birthday today—somebody I have a lot of love for and a lot of respect for," he said. "So, instead of singing 'Happy birthday,' though, we just going to do this in Dublin. Instead of singing 'Happy Birthday,' we're going to set it off just like this..."
of note from tonight, drake did all his songs with rihanna and shouted her birthday out@TMZ see me fam pic.twitter.com/1o5bXwbFIa— 🐘 (@aymangolassi) February 21, 2017
Do you see a reunion in their future? Is the whole J.Lo thing over? We only know this: so happy RN.
The launch tile for Instagram's latest update.
Instagram introduces a new posting option that will transform the way you curate your feed.
Instagram just announced its latest update, and it's a big one. You'll soon be able to share multiple photos and videos in a single post. A post can now act as a mini-album that documents anything from a party to a vacation, with users scrolling through to see it unfold.
How is this different from Instagram Stories, you ask? Unlike Stories, which disappear after 24 hours, these posts will remain on your feed.
Some might see this as the answer to repetitive posts (no more uploading the umpteenth party pic with the caption "Sorry, last one") as well as a way to curate posts around a theme (just imagine a step-by-step makeup tutorial from Kylie Jenner in one post.)
A profile with Instagram's latest feature (note the new icon on the first post)
A new icon will appear which will allow you to select up to 10 photos and videos for a single post. You can filter and edit photos in a batch, or individually, as well as change the order of photos. Captions, location likes and comments apply to all the photos and videos in a post, but you'll be able to tag friends individually. You won't be able to remove individual photos or videos from within the post once it's live.
Instagram's new multiple selection option
The update rolls out today for iPhone and Android and will go global within a few weeks.
Happy posting!
If it's good enough for Gigi, it's good enough for us.
Kickboxing is definitely not just another passing fitness trend. The workout, which gained major popularity back in 2015, is championed by today's hottest celebs–see Gigi Hadid and pretty much every Victoria's Secret Angel. Not only is it a fun way to release any built up stress and anger (because life), but it's also an extremely effective form of exercise: Boxing is a full-body workout that builds lean muscles by combining different cardiovascular activities with high reps and low resistance.
Not sure if you can go full-on Rocky? Toronto-based Studio KO's master trainer DJ Laperle gave us four tips to help you train like a supermodel.
At this point, you've probably already given up on that fitness New Year's resolution. Instead, make a "new week" or "new day" resolution AKA start right now. "If you're having a hard time keeping yourself on track, set a goal of finding someone you can workout with to help keep each other motivated," says Laperle. Hitting the gym will be a lot easier if you know you're going to get some quality face time with a friend – just ask VS Angels Jasmine Tookes and Josephine Skriver who are known for being gym buddies and even have an Instagram account dedicated to their BFF workouts.
Don't stress about picking up a pair of gloves and getting in the ring just yet. Kickboxing combines a range of activities, some of which are so simple they can be done at home.
Skipping is a great way to ease yourself in; it requires very little equipment, improves your footwork and increases your coordination. If you have the attention span of a toddler, switch it up by playing with speeds, intervals and patterns. Laperle recommends starting with 8 rounds of 2 minutes each. He says that skipping fast for 20 minutes straight is the cardio workout equivalent of spending 50 minutes at that spin class you hate.
Shadow boxing is another easy option. Grab some light hand weights (start with 1- 2 pounds) and spar with an imaginary partner for 5-8 rounds of 3 minutes each. You'll be surprised at how quickly you work up a sweat.
Nike Speed Rope 2.0 ($17.99), at sportchek.ca.
While you don't want to eat too much before your workout – hello nausea and cramping – your body needs fuel to power through all those uppercuts. According to experts, complex carbs are your friend here, so try eating a small snack, like a wrap with fresh veggies and some turkey, 30-60 minutes before your workout. The combination of carbohydrates and protein will keep your glucose levels steady as your exercise.
Eating afterwards is just as important. Aim to eat some protein within 30 minutes of exercising – protein supplies the body with amino acids which help to rebuild and repair the muscles you just worked. Laperle, who is a Genuine Health Ambassador, recommends their fermented Greek Yogurt proteins+.
There's really no need to hit the gym every single day. Laperle says that a 45-minute workout 3-4 times is enough to start seeing results within a few weeks. You want to workout frequently enough to produce results, but not so much that you cause injury. Rigorous exercise causes tears in your body's muscle fibres, but rest days allow your body to repair that damage. The good news? This rest helps your muscles grow bigger and stronger for your next trip to the gym.
For a conversation that's ostensibly about her big TV show The Crown, Claire Foy and I spend an awful lot of time talking about cake. Part of it is a question of timing: It's late on a Friday afternoon, a.k.a. sweet-craving o'clock. It's also the day after I had tea with an ex-chef of Queen Elizabeth's (relevant because Foy plays the Queen on the breakout Netflix hit about the early years of her reign) and was full of fun facts about her eating habits. (Side fact: The real Liz Windsor's favourite treat is chocolate biscuit cake. When it's served at tea, it's the only one she eats more than a sliver of.)
Foy also has sugar (or a lack thereof) on the brain. She's a self-described "addict" who recently got "back on the wagon" (all the better to fit into the wasp-waist fashions her character wears on the show, currently in production for its second season). "I was on, like, an eight-month bender where I just ate anything that had any sugar in it," she confesses over the phone from London, where she lives with her husband and daughter. "I definitely live to eat, but giving up sugar just makes you feel so much better. I've become sort of evangelical about it." In fact, "giving up sugar" is one of the things that Foy and her co-star Vanessa Kirby (who plays Princess Margaret) talk about between takes.
She also mentions that she really struggled to keep a straight face while filming scenes with John Lithgow (Winston Churchill). "You'll notice that there are no lingering shots of the two of us," she shares, pinning the blame on Lithgow. "They cut quite fast because I just can't be in a room with that man without laughing. He's got funny bones."
Of course, not every scene could be taken quite so lightly, especially given that the series is high in interpersonal and political drama. I mean, in the 10 episodes of the first season alone, we see Elizabeth's uncle abdicate, her father die, her husband's attentions wander and her sister's heart break—not to mention the symbolic weight of her taking on the changing British Empire at the age of 25.
"I remember when we shot the coronation," recalls Foy, referring to the showstopper scene in the first season of the most expensive Netflix series ever. "I thought that Elizabeth would have been more nervous when it came to making her vows to God, but that moment actually gave her strength, as opposed to being a massive weight on her shoulders. She might have felt quite lonely before, but in that moment she felt a union and a reassurance. She suddenly got it and realized that that was what she was supposed to be doing."
The series, for which Foy just won a Golden Globe, emphasizes the young queen's strong sense of duty and how it is sort of a North Star that guides her life. Foy, well, not so much. "It did make me think, 'Would I stick with something I didn't want to do because I felt it was my duty?'" she says. "The answer is I don't know. It's day by day, isn't it? You can't look at the next 60 years of your life and say 'I shall do this forever.' You just have to live each day well and hopefully get to the end of it."
And, yes, that includes going sugar-free.


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314.792.7005 · 20 Archbishop May Drive · St. Louis, MO 63119
Archdiocese of St. Louis


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IN A BBC radio phone-in on Monday night, she was referred to as Christine O. The caller could have been an employee of UK Athletics because that is what she is known as in-house. As she appeared at a press conference yesterday to announce the Great Britain athletics team for the Athens Olympic Games, Max Jones, Britain's head coach, stumbled over her name. Then somebody from the audience asked her how to pronounce it.
People may still be working out how to say Christine Ohuruogu (pronounced Oh-hoo-roo-goo) but, come the Games in four weeks' time, she could be a name


text:
More Videos...
1979 Camaro Z28, Numbers matching 350 - Cold Start
My 1979 Camaro Z28. Numbers matching 350/TH350, 2.5" flowmaster 40 series Exhaust with an X pipe. The 350 has 305HO close chambered heads and a comp 292 cam. This is a cold start its about 30 degrees with some flurries. No choke used. For more info head to NastyZ28.com
79' Camaro 350 Supercharged
1979 totally rebuilt Chevrolet Camaro 5.7 L + Weiand Supercharger & intake manifold, Holley 4 barrel carb, Hooker headers and etc. Moletai Lihuania. Nastyz28.com
First cold start of the 79 chevy 350
Will it go? Hasnt been started in winter for years


text:
Tanya Morgan
Product Details
- May 12, 2009
- Hip Hop & Rap
- 603993592165
- 3.1 oz
- new (we only sell new items)
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- Donwill; Ilyas; Von Pea
- Blu; Brittany Bosco; Carlitta Durand (of Zo! + Phont); Che Grand; Chop; Elucid (of Armand Hammer); Jermiside; Kay (of The Foundation); Napoleon; Peter Hadar; Piakhan; Spec Boogie
- Aeon; Brick Beats; Von Pea
The album is based on the creation of a fictitious city combining elements from both Cincinnati, Ohio and Brooklyn, New York. To Promote the album, the group has created a multimedia campaign with a city website including a digital city map, video newscasts and other Brooklynati themes.


text:
Hi Melody,
I do need their address - thanks in advance.
I also need yours. Thanks so much for organizing this and making it
happen -
----- Original Message -----
From: "Melody" <email@example.com>
To: <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 5:38 AM
Subject: [CHAT] Sending a card
> If anyone would like Tony and Janice's mailing address, please contact
> me individually and I will send it to you, in case you'd like to send a
> card or something. I plan to go first thing in the morning and arrange
> to have some flowers sent to the church.
> Melody, IA (Z 5/4)
> "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."
> --Albert Einstein
> _______________________________________________
> Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com
> The most personalized portal on the Web!
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To sign-off this list, send email to firstname.lastname@example.com with the
> message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT
To sign-off this list, send email to email@example.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT


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Traxxas Steering Block Spindles TRA2536
This is the Steering Block Spindles TRA2536 by Traxxas
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These are replacement steering blocks and wheel spindles for the Traxxas Nitro Rustler, Nitro Stampede and Nitro Sport.
Features: Black plastic steering blocks with aluminum wheel spindles
Includes: Two steering blocks and two wheel spindles
Requires: Traxxas Nitro Stampede, Nitro Sport, or Nitro Rustler
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|Stefan Bodewig <bode...@apache.org>
|Re: on <copy> and timestamps
|Mon, 10 Dec 2001 07:33:28 GMT
On Fri, 7 Dec 2001, Steve Loughran <email@example.com> wrote: > We dont actually test for this, not that I can see We are not-testing a lot of things, unfortunately. > Also, the datestamp check in sourceFileScanner adds some offset for > FAT's 2 second accuracy for a warning, but the fromFile, toFile copy > doesnt perform this check. Right, we should move all those timestamp comparisons into a single place so that we don't add more inconsistencies. SourceFileScanner was a first, but obviously incompletely handled, step. > I'm writing some tests for verifying copying over datestamps (using > tofile) works as expected. It does on my box, but it will be > interesting to see if any failures show up on other systems. passes on my RedHat 7.2 as well as my FreeBSD-STABLE boxes, but this is expected as opposed to systems using a FAT file system, right? Stefan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:email@example.com> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>
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text:
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We have decades of experience serving Carlsbad and have helped THOUSANDS of patients. Now we want to help YOU.
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Where to rent Kayaks
Where to rent kayaks
Newport Aquatic Center
1 Whitecliff Drive.
Newport Beach.
Phone: 949-646-7725.
Rental hours: 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
One person kayak: $14 per hour.
Two person kayak: $20 per hour.
Stand up paddle board: $20 per hour.
Annual memberships also available. Free parking.
Southwind Kayak Center
100 East Coast Highway.
Newport Beach.
Phone: 949-261-8701.
Rental hours: Call ahead for seasonal schedule.
Offers basic, sea and pedal-drive kayaks: $14-$25 per hour.
Stand up paddle board: $20 per hour.
Free parking.
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Is Restora Coir India Laminated incorrect or missing key business information? Update your Hotfrog listing today.
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President Muhammadu Buhari was on a state visit to Zamfara State yesterday.
Below was the speech he made.
I am glad to be here today to commission projects executed by the administration of His Excellency the governor of Zamfara state.
To me, coming to Zamfara state is homecoming for numerous reasons.
Read Also: Presidency reverses self on Benue Fulani attacks.
I have always enjoyed the overwhelming support of Zamfarawa since my first contest for presidency in 2003.
I am very grateful to the people of Zamfara: Men and women, old and young alike.
I am deeply impressed by work done by Governor Abdul'Aziz Yari Abubakar.
I have known him as one of the performing governors since his first term in office.
I commend Governor Yari's efforts and hope he will sustain the tempo in order to leave behind a more developed and more prosperous Zamfara state.
Since this Administration's assumption of office in May 2015, the journey to fix the country and restore the hope of the common man in the Nigerian project began in earnest.
I therefore wish to call on everyone to think closely about Nigeria's changing situation.
There is no easy money to throw around.
We must go back to farming, livestock rearing from which we could develop industries.
We must collectively put our hands on deck to ensure the success of our mission of re-engineering Nigeria.
If genuine efforts were made in the past to diversify the economy from absolute reliance on a single commodity, we would not have found ourselves in our current situation.
I however assure all Nigerians that the grim economic problems are a passing phase which all societies go through.
Meanwhile our security situation is improving not only in the north-east but all over the country.
We are confident that our macroeconomic policies as well as the monetary policies being implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria will lead to revitalization of industries and steady growth in significant sectors of the economy.
Our commitment to secure the country has already started yielding results.
Let me use this occasion to reiterate that government is determined more than ever before to deal decisively with any threat to the security of this nation from any quarters.
Part of the reasons I am personally here in Zamfara State to flag-off the military operations aimed at rooting out the menace of cattle rustlers and armed bandits not only in Zamfara State but the entire axis of north-west.
I also wish to reiterate to the people of Zamfara state and to Nigerians in general the commitment of my administration to restoring sanity in governance.
We shall continue to prosecute the war against corruption.
Read Also: See what Aisha Buhari was spotted doing in Abuja again.
We do not wish or desire to humiliate or disgrace anybody but we must recover stolen funds and put them to correct public use.
My dear people of Zamfara state, I have listened to the series of requests put forward by your governor.
I assure you that we shall carefully study them and respond appropriately.
I am fully aware of the potentials of Zamfara State, most especially in agriculture livestocks and solid minerals.
As our administration is determined to diversify the economy of the country, Zamfara State is certainly
a fertile ground that must be harnessed to contribute to the over-all national effort.
May I also register my appreciation to the people and government of Zamfara State for the reception accorded me and my entourage.
Finally, it is my prayer that all the projects I commissioned will be of immense benefit to the people of Zamfara state.
Thank you for listening and Barka da Sallah.
Allah ya Bamu damana da kaka masu albarka, Amin.
By President Buhari


text:
Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
Interested in learning how to skateboard or want to better you skateboarding skills? The Ryan C. Joubert Skateboarding Clinic is the perfect place! Open to youth ages 5-17. Brought to you by the Ryan C. Joubert Memorial Skate Park Foundation.
Find information on the current youth sports opportunities.


text:
Events Calendar
Events on Saturday, April 13, 2013
- Sunday
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
Swimming to Cambodia
Apr1320131:00 pm - 2:30 pmParamount Center
Bright Family Screening Room
Sponsored by ArtsEmerson
ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage presents Swimming to Cambodia. Actor and raconteur Spalding Gray delivers his acclaimed monologue Swimming to Cambodia for the camera. Slipping in history and socio-political context of the political turmoil Cambodia was experiencing at the time, Gray recounts his experience as an extra on the Sam Waterston film The Killing Fields filmed on location. A modern master of language and story, Gray's riveting tale speaks to the power of storytelling and importance of using the arts—theatre in particular—to bring about social awareness.
Intramural 3 v 3 basketball tournament
Apr1320131:00 pm - 3:00 pmMax Mutchnick Campus Center
Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker Gym
This event is not open to the public.
Sponsored by Athletics
For more information please contact:
Christine Mccomb617-824-3231
Register your team for the 3 v 3 basketball tournament by friday april 12th. Go to the intramural website www.emerson.edu/student-life/athletics-fitness/intramurals to register your team today.
Zabriskie Point
Apr1320136:00 pm - 8:00 pmParamount Center
Bright Family Screening Room
Sponsored by ArtsEmerson
ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage presents Zabriskie Point. Following one of the student protests during the 1960s, a young man steals an airplane and flies off into the desert. Unexpectedly, he meets a fellow traveler on the journey and ends up falling in love with her. In this idyllic tale of self-discovery, growing pains and young love, Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni makes his only American film, providing a unique outsider's perspective on the turbulent 1960s and the generation wanting to form its own sort of utopia.
Far From Heaven
Apr1320139:00 pm - 11:00 pmParamount Center
Bright Family Screening Room
Sponsored by ArtsEmerson
ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage presents Far From Heaven. In a tribute to the "women's films" of the 1950s, writer/director Todd Haynes produces a visually tantalizing and emotionally involved look at the life of one '50s housewife in abnormal circumstances. When she finds out her husband (Dennis Quaid) is having a homosexual affair, Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) realizes that, although she has the perfect veneer of a happy life, she wants more. She seeks solace in the company of a black gardener (Dennis Haysburt), and soon rumors about the two of them begin spreading like wildfire. Providing a personal look at the racial and sexual prejudices of the era, this modern reinterpretation of Douglas Sirk's classic film All That Heaven Allows stands out with tight writing and manicured visuals. Add in the acting talents of Viola Davis and Patricia Clarkson, and Far From Heaven becomes an irresistible, tenderly wrought tale of suppressed love and desire.


text:
For regular readers it may feel like it's been Strawberry-A-Go-Go on my blog for the last few weeks. I apologize if I've put you into strawberry overload but 'tis the season! This is the last recipe for strawberry fare for now and hopefully worth waiting for.
I felt creating some strawberry infused vodka would be a fun use of the beautiful ripe berries and a fresh mixology option for the hotter months. Never having consumed strawberry vodka, I created a few cocktails to use it as well.
Infusing alcohol is very simple. You are transferring the flavor of whatever you are using as a source into a neutrally flavored alcoholic. After combining your infusing blend I store mine in a cool, dark place (like a pantry or cupboard). I turn the jar over and back upright once a day to move things around and that's it. I published a recipe earlier this year on infusing vodka with apples. I stored it two weeks before using and elected to remove the apples as they turn brown and frankly look unappetizing. The vodka was delicious and I grew very fond of an occasional Apple Vodka Tonic during the winter.
When making the strawberry vodka within a day the color of the strawberries began to transfer to the vodka and within a week the strawberries look albino and the vodka dark pink. I've left my strawberries in the vodka but you can also remove them if you choose.
· 1 quart capacity jar with lid
· 2 cups of fresh strawberries, hulled and cut in half
· 2 ½ cups neutral flavor vodka
Wash and dry jar. Add strawberries and vodka. Seal. Place in a cool dark place. Let sit for one week. Enjoy!
The strawberry vodka after 24 hours. Note the color transfer already.
Strawberry Vodka Ginger Cooler
Serves: 1
· 1 ½ ounces strawberry-infused vodka
· 1 ½ ounces ginger ale
· Seltzer water
Fill a tall 16 ounce glass with ice. Add strawberry-infused vodka and ginger ale to the glass. Fill with seltzer water.
This combination is very refreshing. The lemon Italian soda is lighter than lemonade and does not have the same heavy, sugar taste a regular lemonade does……though that would probably be good too!
Serves: 1
· 1 ounce strawberry vodka
· Lemon Italian Soda (I used a 'Limoncello Italian Soda' which does not contain limoncello but is lemon flavored)
· Ice
Place 2 or 3 ice cubes in a 6 ounce cocktail glass (a stemmed glass). Add the strawberry vodka and fill with lemon Italian soda.
A great seasonal twist on a classic cocktail!
Serves: 1
· 1 ½ ounces strawberry vodka
· Tonic water
· Ice
Fill an 8-12 ounce highball glass with ice. Add strawberry vodka and tonic.


text: So I had an interesting call from the nurse today. Apparently my test results are inconclusive. I told her AF arrived yesterday. She said that probably means I had implantation however it didn't stick. I have to have another blood test Tuesday as they have to be sure my HCG levels go back to nil. I'm disappointed but I'm kind of looking forward to next week to see what the FS has to say about this.


text:
- 1a social networking site or application through which users can communicate with each other by adding information, messages, images, etc.
- 2a network of social connections and personal relationships between people People in the region usually have a broad social network.
social networknoun
BrE; NAmE
Check pronunciation: social network


text: 88.5 KCSN KCSN 88.5 Northridge KCSN 88.5 FM is a non-profit, non-commercial radio station based at California State University, Northridge in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California. KCSN is LA's only non-commercial station providing an eclectic blend of Modern Rock, great rock legends, Americana, and singer-songwriters. We help listeners discover new music and ideas. We, also, partner with and promote the music and arts communities in Los Angeles. Like what you hear? Then be sure to follow us on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter for up-to-date news! https://www.facebook.com/885KCSN http://885kcsn.tumblr.com/ https://twitter.com/885KCSN http://kcsn.org/ 88.5 KCSN's tracks Inverview With Bob Eubanks on 88.5 KCSN by 88.5 KCSN published on 2015/10/19 20:52:08 +0000 Dan Guerrero Interview On 88.5 KCSN by 88.5 KCSN published on 2015/10/01 20:53:33 +0000 88.5 KCSN Presents Moon Block Party! Like free tickets? by 88.5 KCSN published on 2014/08/20 20:55:45 +0000 Jim James Live Session With Sky Daniels On 88.5 KCSN by 88.5 KCSN published on 2013/09/20 19:53:58 +0000 Fitz and The Tantrums with Mr. Shovel (5/10/2013) by 88.5 KCSN published on 2013/05/22 02:42:27 +0000 Paul Weller in-studio 88.5 KCSN with Sky Daniels by 88.5 KCSN published on 2012/10/17 23:53:50 +0000 KCSN 88.5 Band of Horses-Studio Performance and Interview by 88.5 KCSN published on 2012/09/28 03:12:28 +0000


text:
Watching a hacker claw his way to the top against all the odds can bring a tear to the eye and there were a few of those at our winter league presentation supper on Friday night when Lennie Ingram collected the winners' trophy.
The word "claw" contains a clue to Lennie's achievement because he has rheumatoid arthritis and his hands are so bent and gnarled that it is a wonder he hits the ball at all.
With that generous sympathy for which winter leaguers are renowned, his fellow players have honoured him with the nickname "the claw" but even that hard-boiled bunch can't contain their pleasure at his triumph.
Lennie, a leading local footballer and cricketer in his day, didn't take up golf until six years ago when he was 61 and already suffering from arthritis. With special grips on his clubs he has managed to play well enough to enjoy his golf but never thought he would make an appearance on an honours board or even see his handicap drop from 28.
Our winter league foursomes, the snakes and ladders, is played in two halves – the 10 Sundays before Christmas and the 10 leading up to Easter. The winners of the first session play the winners of the second for the overall title, and Lennie and his partner Peter Goodfellow pulled off a surprise victory.
Lennie can't manage more than half a swing at the most but keeps the ball straight and is a good putter. His partner Peter, formerly a first-class rugby player, hits a long and accurate ball off 13 and between them they proved a formidable pair.
Peter couldn't attend the presentation so Lennie received the trophy on their behalf. "I've never seen a happier winner," said chief snake Bob Bubbins who, in addition to the trophy, gave Lennie a toaster and a pair of oven gloves to keep his hands safe until next winter.
The rest of us hackers can only be inspired by Lennie's example but, inevitably, there is a trace of shame amongst those who do not have any physical impairments that can explain our difficulty in hitting the ball properly.
For us, the lonely struggle goes on, and for me in particular the Easter weekend was a demoralising one.
The course had been closed for most of the previous week and torrential rain on Good Friday encouraged us to think that the Saturday Stableford would be cancelled. It came as a rude shock not only that it was on but that trolleys were banned so we had to carry our bags. Over our hilly course that is an increasing burden.
My heart wasn't in it and I'd acquired just seven points from 11 holes when the heavens opened and we squelched off. The weather improved by Easter Monday but I hadn't. My tempo was all to hell, despite repeating the words Alexander Lebedev, and I had a terrible round culminating in a 13 on the ninth after five-putting.
We are off to St Andrews today so I desperately needed to restore my confidence, but when I played John on Wednesday I was three down after three holes. Then, miraculously, my tempo returned as John's abandoned him. I won five and four and covered the back nine in 41 shots. Hope is restored.
Tip of the week
No 45: How high do I need to tee my driver?
The ideal ball trajectory with modern drivers is to launch it high with low spin. The trampoline-effect faces of the current drivers produce very low spin rates, so the ball needs to be launched high to carry long distances.
You'll often see pros tee their drivers low, but they have club-head speeds in excess of 120mph to keep the ball in the air for long carries. The average male club golfer produces 90mph, ladies 70mph. Without enough launch angle, the ball will fall short of the desired carry. You need to be launching the ball at 14-16 degrees so with your 10-12 degrees drivers, a tee height of a half to a whole ball above the top of the driver's crown will encourage an upward hit and a high launch.
Here are the answers to last week's rules: (1) You do not receive relief from an animal's paw print in a bunker; (2) If your ball finishes on an Out Of Bounds line, all of the ball must be on or over the OOB line to be deemed Out Of Bounds.
Simon Iliffe, Head Professional, Purley Downs GC, Surrey. www.theshortgame.co.uk
- More about:
- Gloves And Mittens
- Holiday
- Kitchen (room)
- Snakes


text:
Chitarrine With Pancetta And Brussel Sprouts
|Whole wheat pasta
|1⁄2 Pound (Organic variety, can substitute spaghetti or linguine)
|Brussel sprout package
|2 , washed (dried and leaves removed)
|1 Clove (5 gm), thinly sliced
|Sweet onion
|1 , thinly sliced
|Dried porcini mushroom
|1 Ounce, reconstituted (save the liquid)
|Chicken stock
|1 Cup (16 tbs)
|Olive oil
|4 Tablespoon
|Salt and pepper
|To Taste
|Hot pepper flakes
|1 Pinch
|Parmigiano reggiano
|To Taste
1) Begin by having salted boiling water and cook the pasta al dente.
2) In a saute pan place the olive oil and heat.
3) To the saute pan now add the onion and saute until nicely browned.
4) Now throw in the garlic and cook just until translucent.
5) Add the pancetta and cook until nicely browned, stirring frequently, add more olive oil if required.
6) Add the brussel sprout leaves and cook until wilted.
7) On a cutting board roughly chop the porcini mushrooms and add them to the pan. Add about 2 Tbls of the reserved soaking liquid from the mushrooms.
8) Season with salt and pepper and the hot pepper flakes.
9) Now add your pasta to the saute pan with some of the liquid clinging to the strands of pasta.
10) Mix thoroughly and add cheese to taste.
11) Serve hot and enjoy!
Recipe Summary
Rate It
Nutrition Rank
Nutrition Facts
Serving size
Calories 713 Calories from Fat 311
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 36 g55%
Saturated Fat 4.7 g23.3%
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 4 mg1.3%
Sodium 347.2 mg14.5%
Total Carbohydrates 94 g31.5%
Dietary Fiber 13.8 g55.2%
Sugars 4.6 g
Protein 20 g40.8%
Vitamin A 6.5% Vitamin C 34.6%
Calcium 9.2% Iron 18.8%
*Based on a 2000 Calorie diet


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text:
Reply page particularly Which Versions of AVG & Spybot. Also any S&D settings other than Immunize(Bad Download Blocker, Hosts File, Tea Timer etc)? What other protectors have you got either running or only for on demand scanning. What OS & Service Pack? SP2 or SP3? Thanks!
I bought a new computer, an HP with an AMD Dual-Core processor 6000+ with 3 MEG RAM. When I first bought it I was able to load "advanced" stock charts from www.bigcharts.com in 1.5 secs. After I installed Spybot the charts are taking 5 secs to load.
Has anyone else experienced a computer slow down after installing Spybot. I also clicked in the Spybot "immunize" button.
I am also using AVG antivirus and it seems like after running AVG, Spybot can find almost nothing. Maybe a cookie or two. Should I un-install spybot to recover my speed?
Thanks, in advance, for any ideas.


text:
Psychophysical findings have revealed a functional segregation of processing for 1st-order motion (movement of luminance modulation) and 2nd-order motion (e.g., movement of contrast modulation). However neural correlates of this psychophysical distinction remain controversial. To test for a corresponding anatomical segregation, we conducted a new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to localize direction-selective cortical mechanisms for 1st- and 2nd-order motion stimuli, by measuring direction-contingent response changes induced by motion adaptation, with deliberate control of attention. The 2nd-order motion stimulus generated direction-selective adaptation in a wide range of visual cortical areas, including areas V1, V2, V3, VP, V3A, V4v, and MT+. Moreover, the pattern of activity was similar to that obtained with 1st-order motion stimuli. Contrary to expectations from psychophysics, these results suggest that in the human visual cortex, the direction of 2nd-order motion is represented as early as V1. In addition, we found no obvious anatomical segregation in the neural substrates for 1st- and 2nd-order motion processing that can be resolved using standard fMRI.
Position shifts of luminance-defined patterns are the most effective stimuli to produce a visual motion percept. According to the standard models of visual motion processing (Adelson and Bergen 1985; van Santen and Sperling 1985; Watson and Ahumada 1985), initial motion sensors have a spatiotemporal receptive field that optimally detects local shifts in luminance distribution (luminance motion energy). However, several examples have also been reported in which motion is seen without luminance-defined movements. In diverse reports based either on human psychophysics (Derrington and Badcock 1985) or single units from a wide range of animals including monkeys (Albright 1992), cats (Zhou and Baker 1993), and larval zebrafish (Orger et al. 2000), it is reportedly possible to discriminate movements of higher-order features, such as spatial modulation of luminance contrast. This type of movement was named 2nd-order motion (Cavanagh and Mather 1989) as opposed to luminance-based 1st-order motion. Such 2nd-order motion is visible even in microbalanced motion stimuli, in which the luminance motion energies are locally balanced with regard to direction and speed; thus any mechanism based on luminance motion energy computation should fail to detect coherent motion (Chubb and Sperling 1988). This finding suggests that the visual system may separately process 1st-order motion and 2nd-order motion (Cavanagh and Mather 1989; Chubb and Sperling 1988).
Although it is theoretically possible that a single mechanism detects both 1st-order motion and some classes of 2nd-order motion (Johnston et al. 1992; Taub et al. 1997), most psychophysical and single-unit electrophysiological findings support the notion of functional segregation in visual motion processing (Baker 1999; Lu and Sperling 2001b; Nishida and Ashida 2000). Because 2nd-order motion analysis requires an extra stage for detecting 2nd-order features before extracting motion signals, it is often suggested that 2nd-order motion is processed at cortical areas higher than those for 1st-order motion (Smith et al. 1998; Wilson et al. 1992).
However, it remains controversial whether there is a specialized anatomical subdivision for 2nd-order motion processing, distinct from that for 1st-order motion. In single-unit electrophysiology, neurons sensitive to the direction of 2nd-order motions are found in V1 and MT of monkey (Albright 1992; Chaudhuri and Albright 1997; O'Keefe and Movshon 1998) and areas 17 and 18 of cat (Mareschal and Baker 1998; Zhou and Baker 1993, 1994), but typically these neurons also respond to 1st-order motion stimuli. In brain-damaged human subjects, some studies indicated a substantial overlap of the cortical areas involved in 1st- and 2nd-order motion processing (Greenlee and Smith 1997), whereas others described patients whose 1st- or 2nd-order motion processing appeared to be selectively impaired (Plant and Nakayama 1993; Vaina and Cowey 1996; Vaina et al. 1999).
This controversy has not yet been settled by functional imaging studies. Smith et al. (1998) reported that 2nd-order motion stimuli produced significantly greater responses than 1st-order motion in V3/VP, whereas this tendency was less evident or absent in other visual areas. They interpreted this to suggest that 1st-order motion sensitivity arises in V1, whereas 2nd-order motion is first represented explicitly in V3/VP. Using similar patterns for 1st- and 2nd-order motion stimuli, Dumoulin et al. (2002) found relative cortical specialization for 1st- or 2nd-order motion in both occipital and parietal lobes. On the other hand, Seiffert et al. (2003) did not find significant differences between the 2 types of motion in the fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) responses in a wide range of visual areas including V3/VP (V1, V2, V3, VP, V4v, V3A, LO, and MT/MST). Seiffert et al. suggested that 2nd-order motion processing occurs as early as in V1.
One limitation of the past fMRI studies lies in the link between the measured MR activity and visual motion processing. Earlier studies compared 1st- and 2nd-order motion stimuli, in a standard fMRI approach (e.g., comparing moving vs. stationary stimuli). However, even when such stimuli produce greater MR activity to motion stimuli, this bias could be generated by motion-irrelevant features involved in the stimuli, if the appropriate controls were not included. One cannot overcome this limitation by simply testing for increments in MR activity for moving stimuli relative to static stimuli: such increments might just reflect a neuron's preference for rapid stimulus changes in general—not specifically for motion. Furthermore, 2nd-order motion stimuli inevitably activate 1st-order motion mechanisms. These mechanisms do not signal a coherent direction of motion, but presumably support the percept of local texture changes. In earlier studies, the increment in MR activity in early visual cortex for 2nd-order motion stimuli could simply reflect the activity of 1st-order motion mechanisms, totally irrelevant to the perception of 2nd-order motion.
In both psychophysics and electrophysiology, direction selectivity has been recognized as direct evidence for motion processing. Here we tried to reveal human cortical areas that show direction selectivity to 2nd-order motion, and compare them with the areas showing direction selectivity to 1st-order motion, including all the necessary control conditions.
To identify direction-selective cortical areas, we used a motion adaptation technique. Tootell et al. (1995b) and others (Culham et al. 1999; He et al. 1998; Huk et al. 2001) revealed direction-selective cortical activity for 1st-order motion in motion-selective visual areas such as MT+, by measuring fMRI responses during a subject's perception of static motion aftereffect (an illusory movement of stationary pattern after prolonged viewing of a motion stimulus). However, the same technique cannot be used for the current purpose, given that adaptation to 2nd-order motion does not generate this type of motion aftereffect (Derrington and Badcock 1985; Nishida and Sato 1992; Seiffert et al. 2003).
However, adaptation to 2nd-order motion can be direction-selective (Turano 1991). For instance, after prolonged viewing of a clockwise, luminance-modulated movement, the detection threshold of contrast modulation increases for the clockwise direction more than for the anticlockwise direction. Moreover, this effect is selective with regard to motion type. That is, adaptation to 2nd-order motion produces only a small direction-selective threshold elevation for detecting 1st-order motion (Nishida et al. 1997). On the other hand, 2nd-order motion can induce direction-selective aftereffects in 1st-order test patterns based on suprathreshold contrast—for example, the speed aftereffect (Ledgeway and Smith 1997) and flicker motion aftereffect (Ledgeway 1994; McCarthy 1993; Nishida and Sato 1995).
These facts suggest that direction-selective sensitivity is reduced at an initial stage of 2nd-order motion processing that is independent of 1st-order processing, as well as at later stages where 2 processing pathways are integrated (Nishida and Ashida 2000). The anatomical correlates of these processing stages should be identifiable by localizing the cortical areas in which adaptation to 2nd-order motion gives rise to direction-selective reduction, in the fMRI response.
Selective adaptation is an important and well-established technique in visual psychophysics. Recently, adaptation techniques have been used to reveal incisive information in brain imaging studies (Culham et al. 1999; Grill-Spector et al. 1999; Hadjikhani et al. 1998; He et al. 1998; Huk and Heeger 2002; Huk et al. 2001; Kourtzi and Kanwisher 2001; Sakai et al. 1995; Tolias et al. 2001; Tootell et al. 1995b, 1998b). With regard to 1st-order motion, both classical single-unit electro-physiological studies (Barlow and Hill 1963; Petersen et al. 1985; Van Wezel and Britten 2002; Vautin and Berkley 1977) and recent fMRI studies (Huk et al. 2001; Sasaki et al. 2002; Tolias et al. 2001) have revealed a postadaptation response reduction. This supports the technical feasibility of our attempt.
It has been suggested that the fMRI response observed during the perception of the motion aftereffect (Culham et al. 1999; He et al. 1998; Huk et al. 2001; Tootell et al. 1995b) might reflect not only the cortical activity itself, produced by the motion signals, but also the attentional enhancement evoked by the aftereffect (Huk et al. 2001). According to this claim, even if we find a change in MR activity consistent with the direction-selective adaptation, we cannot exclude the possibility that a correlated change in the attentional state contributes to the measurement. To avoid this possible artifact, we constantly directed the subjects' attention to the motion stimulus by having them perform a motion-related task throughout all scans. A staircase procedure kept the task difficulty centered on the threshold throughout a scan, to maximize and stabilize the level of subjects' attention (see methods).
In psychophysics, a popular index of direction-selective adaptation is a reduction in the response for the adapted direction relative to the response for the opposite direction (Pantle and Sekuler 1969; Sekuler and Ganz 1963). We applied this analysis to the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD)-based fMRI responses. That is, the MR signals in response to a motion stimulus measured after adaptation to the same direction were compared with those measured after adaptation to the opposite direction. We made measurements for 1st-order and 2nd-order motion stimuli in separate scans using the identical procedure. To our surprise, the results revealed direction-selective adaptation for 2nd-order motion in a wide range of visual cortical areas, including V1. Moreover, the topography of motion-processing activity in the visual cortex was similar, whether it was produced by either 1st- or 2nd-order motion.
Preliminary results of this study were presented in abstract form at the annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society held in May 2002 in Sarasota, Florida.
Six healthy subjects with normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity viewed visual stimuli in the MR scanner. Subjects were scanned in 26 1.5- to 2-h sessions to achieve a total of 16,640 functional brain volumes (349,440 slices) in this study. All subjects gave informed written consent. This study was approved by Massachusetts General Hospital Human Studies Protocol 2000p-001155.
Visual stimuli
Visual stimuli were projected into the scanner bore using an LCD projector (Sharp NoteVision 6) onto a rear projection screen (Da-tex), viewed by an adjustable mirror angled about 45° to the subject's normal line of sight. Stimuli were driven by a computer (Apple Computer, PowerBook G3) using the Vision Shell environment (ML Micro).
The main experimental stimuli were moving radial gratings presented within a circle (diameter 25°) centered about a red fixation bull's-eye. Subjects were required to maintain fixation on the bull'seye throughout each scan. The mean luminance of the display was 48 cd/m2.
Three types of motion stimuli were used. One was a 2nd-order stimulus and the other 2 were 1st-order stimuli (Fig. 1). The 2nd-order stimulus was a moving contrast modulation of a static carrier (CMS). The carrier pattern was a binary random dot array (mean luminance contrast = 50%). Each dot was a 13 × 13 min-arc square. The contrast modulation was a sinusoidal grating of 6 cycles/360°, with a modulation amplitude of 100% (i.e., luminance contrast changed between 0 and 100%). It rotated at a speed of 0.66 rotations/s (3.95 Hz in terms of temporal frequency). At a frame rate of 75 Hz, the rotation angle of a single frame step was thus 3.16° (except for occasional transient increases in step size introduced for the attentional control task; see following text). The CMS is a microbalanced stimulus, which is theoretically invisible to luminance-based motion processors (Chubb and Sperling 1988). The luminance within each dot was uniform rather than being modulated by the sinusoid, which introduces a 1st-order artifact (Smith and Ledgeway 1997).
Otherwise similar 1st-order motion stimuli served as controls. One 1st-order stimulus was a radial sinusoidal luminance modulation, linearly added to a uniform static random dot array of 50% contrast (LMS). The modulation amplitude was 10%, which made the visibility of LMS nearly equivalent to that of the CMS. The modulation amplitude threshold of motion detection was about 1 log unit higher for CMS than for LMS. To check the effects of stimulus contrast, we also tested the effects of a 90% luminance modulation without random dots (LM0). Other aspects of these stimuli were equated with those of the CMS.
The gamma function of the stimulus projection system was carefully corrected to ensure that the local mean luminance of CMS was not altered by the depth of contrast modulation. Additionally, we ran several psychophysical tests of luminance artifacts (Cropper and Johnston 2001; Smith and Ledgeway 1997). First, we confirmed that a movie sequence in which a CMS grating and an LMS were alternatively presented with a quarter-cycle phase shift did not appear to move in a coherent direction. This ensured that the luminance artifact contained by CMS was negligibly small at least at the modulation spatial frequency (Ledgeway and Smith 1994; Lu and Sperling 2001a). Second, as in many other 2nd-order motion stimuli (Derrington and Badcock 1985; Nishida and Sato 1992), we confirmed that prolonged adaptation to rotating CMS gratings did not produce static motion aftereffects in stationary CMS gratings, or in stationary low-contrast LM0 of various spatial frequencies, whereas adaptation to LMS gratings induced the expected visible aftereffect. Third, the contrast detection threshold of rotating LM0 gratings measured after adaptation to rotating CMS was only 11-13% higher for the adapted direction than for the opposite direction, when the test spatial frequency was either matched with the adaptation frequency or doubled or halved relative to the adaptation frequency. These threshold differences were close to the values previously reported (Nishida et al. 1997). Moreover, these differences were also significantly smaller than the difference obtained when adapted to LMS (38%), and this value would be still larger if adapted to equivalent contrast LM0. The results of these adaptation experiments ensured that the luminance artifact contained by CMS was negligibly small not only at the modulation spatial frequency, but also at the higher or lower spatial frequencies.
A single scan (512 s) consisted of 16 blocks, each lasting 32 s (Fig. 2). A single motion type was used throughout a scan, and the scan order was varied between subjects. During the first 2 blocks, the stimulus rotated in one direction (clockwise or anticlockwise). During the next 2 blocks, the stimulus rotated in the opposite direction. This pattern was repeated 4 times. Thus motion direction was reversed at the onset of odd-numbered blocks (which we therefore call "Changed direction" blocks), but was held identical to the previous block in even-numbered blocks ("Repeated direction" blocks). In the analysis of the time course, we removed slow temporal changes in the raw fMRI signal irrelevant to our stimulus manipulation (<1/64 s = 0.0156 Hz).
Because direction reversal releases adaptation of direction-selective mechanisms, the response was expected to be greater in the Changed direction blocks than in the Repeated direction blocks, with their difference indicating the magnitude of direction-selective adaptation. Note that the stimulus motion in each block was used both as an adaptation pattern and a test pattern. Note also that the MRI measurement started at the beginning of the first block; thus to make the adaptation state of the 1st block equivalent to those of other Changed direction blocks, we included a dummy prescan block in which the stimulus moved in the direction opposite to the 1st block. To exclude the possibility that nonspecific responses to direction reversals artifactually elevate the responses during the Changed direction blocks, the luminance contrast of the overall stimulus was slowly ramped on (linearly increased from zero to full contrast over 1.5 s) at the beginning of each block, and slowly ramped off (linearly decreased from full to zero contrast over 1.5 s) at the end. For CMS and LMS, the same random-dot array was used throughout a single scan, to exclude the possibility that a nonspecific change in the random-dot pattern elicited a response.
To control attention, the subject was required to detect a probe stimulus that was presented at unpredictable times. The probe was a transient increase in step size made by skipping a given number of motion frames in the sequence. It was presented every 1 s with a probability of 0.2, except for the periods of onset/offset ramping. Thus on average, 5.8 probes appeared in each 32-s block. When the subject pressed a response button within 1 s after the probe, the program counted the response as a "Hit." The absence of response within 1 s was considered a "Miss," and a response without a corresponding probe was a "False Alarm (FA)." No feedback was given to the subject. To keep task difficulty constant across scans, stimulus types, and subjects, and to maximize the attention load directed to the stimulus, the probe step size was adaptively changed to converge to the detection threshold of that condition. That is, a single "Hit" response reduced the probe step by one frame, whereas a single "Miss" or "FA" response increased it by the same magnitude. When no probe step was presented and the subject made no response ("Correct rejection"), the probe step was not changed.
General imaging procedures
Experimental details of the imaging procedures were similar to those described elsewhere (Hadjikhani et al. 1998; Mendola et al. 1999; Somers et al. 1999; Tootell et al. 1997). Scans were acquired using a 3T Siemens Allegra. A custom-built, quadrature-based, semi-cylindrical surface coil was used to acquire high-sensitivity MR images including occipital, parietal, and posterior temporal lobes bilaterally. Voxels were 3.1 mm2 in-plane and 3 mm thick. Functional MR images were acquired using gradient echo sequences (TE = 30 ms). Each scan constituted 128 images in 21 contiguous slices, oriented approximately orthogonal to the calcarine sulcus. The TR was 4 s for the main fMRI experiments, and each scan took 512 s. Each subject was run for 10-20 scans (3-8 scans for each motion stimulus).
Defining regions of interest (visual areas)
In each subject, visual areas were defined in a separate scan session, and those areas were treated as regions of interest (ROIs) in the subsequent analysis. Retinotopic visual area borders were mapped using phase-encoded stimuli and field sign analysis (Dale and Buckner 1997; Hadjikhani et al. 1998; Sereno et al. 1995; Somers et al. 1999; Tootell et al. 1997, 1998a,b,c). This analysis identified visual areas V1, V2, V3/VP, V3A, V4v, V7, and V8 (DeYoe et al. 1994, 1996; Engel et al. 1997; Schneider et al. 1993; Sereno et al. 1995; Tootell et al. 1997, 1998a,b,c). Low-contrast, moving, and stationary concentric rings were also presented to localize area MT+ because it was identified as a region that responded more strongly to moving low-contrast gratings than to stationary rings (Beauchamp et al. 1997; Dupont et al. 1994; Lueck et al. 1989; McCarthy et al. 1995; Tootell et al. 1995a,b). The TR was 4 s for retinotopic scans (duration: 8 min 32 s) and 2 s for the MT+ localization (duration: 4 min 16 s).
Flattening the visual cortex
In a separate session, structural images of the whole brain were obtained at high resolution (1.0 × 1.0 × 1.3 mm3, 1.5 T) to provide data used in each subject's 3-dimensional brain reconstruction (Dale et al. 1999; Fischl et al. 1999). This allowed us to generate an unfolded and flattened cortical surface for each subject (FreeSurfer, http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/freesurfer), and to identify a retinotopic map on the cortex.
To analyze cortical mechanisms responsible for 1st- and 2nd-order motion perception, we localized the fMRI response produced by direction-selective adaptation. Figures 3, 4, and 5 (respectively) show the time courses of the BOLD responses for 2nd-order motion (CMS), 1st-order motion with an equivalent visibility (LMS), and 1st-order motion with a high contrast (LM0), in 7 visual areas. In each figure, the top row shows the averaged time course of the signal modulation around the mean during the complete cycle of 64 s. The first half corresponded to a Changed direction (odd-numbered) block and the second half corresponded to a Repeated direction (even-numbered) block (see Fig. 2).
We can deconstruct the 64-s time course into 2 orthogonal components that are expected to be reflecting different aspects of the stimulus. The middle row shows a 32-s time course of the BOLD response averaged over all blocks [i.e., (Changed + Repeated)/2]. This indicates a nondirectional component that mainly reflects the effects of the motion stimulus, regardless of the motion direction. On the other hand, the bottom row shows a 32-s time course of the difference between Changed and Repeated direction blocks (Changed - Repeated). This differential response reflects the effects of the direction change. If the BOLD response for the Repeated direction blocks was reduced by direction-selective adaptation (compared with the response for the Changed direction block), the direction-selective response should be positive. The following analysis is mainly concerned with this directional component.
Directional response
For CMS (Fig. 3), we found that the directional response was significantly larger than zero at some time points (P < 0.05 by 1-tailed t-test) within each visual area tested, ranging from V1 to MT+. This suggests that much of visual cortex has direction selectivity for 2nd-order motion.
For LMS (Fig. 4) and LM0 (Fig. 5), the directional response was significantly larger than zero at some time points, in all areas except V4v of the LMS condition. This suggests that much of visual cortex also has direction selectivity in response to 1st-order motion, in agreement with previous fMRI studies (Huk et al. 2001; Tolias et al. 2001).
Directional response: area specificity
To compare the effect of directional adaptation across areas and motion types, we averaged the directional response over the whole block (Fig. 6, top panels). For CMS, the averaged value was significantly positive in all areas, and one-way ANOVA with a repeated measures design indicated a signifi-cant effect of area (P < 0.0001; see the legend of Fig. 6 for detailed results of the statistical analysis). Post hoc analysis (Tukey HSD test, alpha = 0.05) indicated that the averaged directional response was larger in V3A than in V1, V2, V3, VP, and V4v, and larger in MT+ than in V3. The effect of area was also highly significant for LMS (P < 0.0001), with a significantly larger response in V3A and MT+ than in other areas. Two-way ANOVA revealed a significant interaction between motion-type (CMS vs. LMS) and area (P < 0.0001), suggesting some difference in the pattern of area specificity between the 2nd-order and 1st-order stimuli.
However, time averaging over the whole block could underestimate some directional adaptation effects. Although the initial peak response to the LMS indicated a clear directional adaptation effect in V1 and V2, the subsequent decrease rendered the time average insignificantly different from zero. Because adaptation effects from the previous block were expected to be most evident in the initial period of a block (Culham et al. 1999; He et al. 1998; Huk et al. 2001; Tolias et al. 2001; Tootell et al. 1995b), we concentrated on the directional responses averaged over 4 to 12 s, during which marked directional responses were observed in many areas both for CMS and LMS (Fig. 6, bottom panels). With this analysis, directional response was evident even in early visual areas, for both motion types. One-way ANOVA indicated that the effect of area was marginally significant for CMS (P = 0.0518) and highly significant for LMS (P = 0.0003). Two-way ANOVA indicated a weak interaction of motion type and area (P = 0.0439); this suggests that the pattern of area specificity was marginally different between the 2 types of motion.
One trend especially distinguished the area specificity of LMS from that of CMS: a relatively strong directional response to LMS in MT+. However, this trend was not observed in the response to high-contrast 1st-order motion (LM0). The time-averaged response of this condition showed only a small variation across areas, irrespective of whether it was measured across a whole block or just the initial peak.1 The exception was the negative directional responses in MT+. This area had an unexpected time course, including a negative response in the initial period, and positive responses only in the latter half of the block. Because the peak value was as large as other areas, we do not think that our results indicated a disappearance of direction selective adaptation in MT+ for the high-contrast stimulus. Nevertheless, this result suggests that a small discrepancy in the area specificity between the CMS and LMS should not immediately be regarded as a general difference between 1st-order and 2nd-order motion stimuli.
Directional response: time course
The time course of the directional response showed a characteristic pattern for each stimulus (Figs. 3, 4, 5). For CMS, the response peaked about 8-12 s from stimulus onset, in most areas. Although there was a small dip in the middle, the directional response was almost always positive. For LMS there was also a positive peak at around 8-12 s in all areas, but some areas showed a negative trough in the latter half of the block. For LM0, the peak and trough became sharper and appeared earlier compared with LMS, and a second peak also appeared. Additionally, a directional response was obtained only at the location of the second peak in MT+. These time course differences undoubtedly reflect differences in the dynamics of adaptation between the 1st-order and 2nd-order motion, although it is difficult to interpret them further.
Effects of block location
In our block design, the 1st block of a scan was always a Changed direction block, and the last block was always a Repeated direction block. If the response to the initial block was stronger, that could have introduced a significant bias in our estimation of direction-selective effects.
To test this possibility, we recalculated the response time courses after omitting the 1st and last blocks, regarding the penultimate block as a pair of the 2nd block. In this case, the effect of block order (if anything), should be reversed, or disappear. The resultant data were nearly indistinguishable from those shown in Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, with no systematic changes in the magnitude of directional responses: the difference in the total time-averaged response was only 0.0032% for CMS, 0.0027% for LMS, and 0.0030% for LM0. Thus it is unlikely that our estimation was strongly biased by the effect of block order.
Nondirectional response
The time course of the nondirectional response (second row in Figs. 3, 4, 5) revealed an interesting difference between the 1st-order and 2nd-order motions. For CMS, it varied across different areas. There were mild stimulus-driven offset/onsets in V3, VP, V3A, and MT+, but not in V1, V2, and V4v. On the other hand, for LMS, there was a response increase at stimulus offset/onset and a response reduction at the middle of the block, with little difference in the time course across different areas. For LM0, there were sharper offset/onset responses in all the areas, again with little difference between them.
Our analysis assumed that directional and nondirectional factors modulated the fMRI signals additively and independently. Although this assumption might not be completely true, clear differences in the shape of the time course between the directional and nondirectional responses for the CMS condition (correlation coefficient: r = 0.037), and the LMS condition (r = -0.177) suggest that they were in fact nearly independent. However, the correlation was considerably high for the LM0 condition (r = 0.545), suggesting either an accidental similarity of the time courses of the 2 components for this specific stimulus, or the existence of nonlinear interaction of the 2 components. This may be related to other anomalies found for this condition.
Attentional task performance
To control attention, the subject was required to detect a stimulus jump. The difficulty of this task (i.e., the jump size) was adaptively changed using a staircase procedure. The averaged jump size, hit/miss/FA rates, and the reaction time (RT) for each stimulus condition are summarized in Table 1. The results suggest that the performance during the LM0 condition was easiest, and the LMS condition was hardest initially. However, because of the adaptive procedure, the actual behavioral responses made by subjects in the scanner were similar across different stimulus conditions.
It is known that motion adaptation improves the detection of small speed changes, relative to the adapted speed (Bex and Baker 1997; Clifford and Langley 1996; Huk et al. 2001). Therefore one might expect some difference in the task performance between the Changed and Repeated direction blocks. However, this difference was very small (the 2nd and 3rd rows of Table 1). This is presumably because different neural mechanisms contribute to detection of transient and large speed changes (present task) and to detection of sustained and small speed changes (tasks showing postadaptation sensitization). It should also be noted that postadaptation sensitization was not found for 2nd-order motion (Kristjansson 2001).
Using a motion adaptation paradigm, we found that movement of contrast modulation (CMS, 2nd-order motion) produced direction-dependent fMRI activity in a wide range of visual cortical areas, including V1, V2, V3, VP, V3A, V4v, and MT+, with strongest activity in V3A. The distribution of brain activity was not largely different from that produced by movement of 1st-order (luminance) modulation of matched visibility (LMS). These results suggest that in human visual cortex, the direction of 2nd-order motion is represented as early as V1. We did not find evidence for anatomical segregation in the neural substrates for 1st- and 2nd-order motion processing, at least at the scale of measurement here.
Second-order directional response: artifacts?
It could be argued that we found similar directional responses for conditions CMS and LMS simply because "CMS" contained a significant amount of 1st-order artifact produced by imperfect calibration of the projection system. However, if this was true, interleaved presentation of CMS and LMS gratings with a quarter-cycle phase shift should have resulted in the perception of a coherent direction of motion—and this was not found. Contrary to the predictions from the 1st-order artifact hypothesis, adaptation to CMS did not induce static motion aftereffect, nor induce clear direction-selective elevation of the contrast detection threshold of 1st-order motion. In addition, our fMRI data indicate a difference in the nondirectional response, which should also have been similar if the CMS response was elicited by a 1st-order artifact. All this evidence suggests that CMS was not contaminated with 1st-order artifact.
In these experiments, subjects were forced to maintain attention on the motion stimulus, to discriminate near-threshold changes in motion speed, at frequent and randomized times during all motion conditions. Thus it is highly unlikely that the directional response we obtained reflects a change in the level of attention between the Changed and Repeated direction blocks. Furthermore, the magnitude of direction-selective component for CMS did not largely differ between V1 and higher-tier cortical areas; this is inconsistent with the evidence that attention effects tend to be larger in higher visual areas, compared with V1 (Gomez Gonzalez et al. 1994; Gratton 1997; Hillyard and Anllo-Vento 1998; Huk et al. 2001; Tootell et al. 1998a). Also consistent with the current results, Huk et al. (2001) found directional adaptation effects in both cortical areas they tested (V1 to MT+), using a 1st-order motion stimulus and an attention-control task.
Second-order motion processing
This is the 1st functional imaging study that tests the direction selectivity of human visual cortex to 2nd-order motion. The results do not support a prevailing hypothesis that 2nd-order motion is processed at cortical areas higher than those for 1st-order motion (Wilson et al. 1992). On the other hand, the results do agree with past electrophysiological studies that reported direction-selective neural response to 2nd-order motion in a wide range of visual cortex of cat and monkey, without clear anatomical segregation of 1st- and 2nd-order motion processing (Albright 1992; Chaudhuri and Albright 1997; Mareschal and Baker 1998; O'Keefe and Movshon 1998; Zhou and Baker 1993, 1994). The direction-selective activity we found in V1 is consistent with the intriguing possibility suggested recently (Demb et al. 2001) that the initial stage of 2nd-order processing (e.g., contrast rectification) occurs precortically, and cortical neurons combine the rectified outputs to generate 2nd-order direction selectivity. The results of the CMS condition suggested that the directional adaptation effect for 2nd-order motion was not particularly strong in area MT+. Whether MT+ is "the center of processing" for 2nd-order motion, as well as for 1st-order motion, remains an intriguing open question.
In general, our results support the conclusion of a recent fMRI study on the same topic (Seiffert et al. 2003), but not the conclusion of prior studies (Dumoulin et al. 2002; Smith et al. 1998). As discussed above, however, those prior studies did not test the direction-selective response. This is a significant issue in interpreting these data, given that the MRI response to 2nd-order motion potentially includes various components irrelevant to 2nd-order motion perception. In our data, the non-direction-selective responses presumably included some of these irrelevant components. Interestingly, for the 2nd-order stimulus, we found no correlation between the time courses of nondirectional responses, relative to the directional responses. In addition, nondirectional responses show some difference between the 1st-order and 2nd-order motion. Unless direction-selective responses are selectively examined, one could come to inappropriate conclusions about 2nd-order motion processing and its relationship with 1st-order processing.
Psychophysical studies have shown that 2nd-order motion can be detected by motion sensors that are partly monocular, spatial-frequency selective, and specialized for a given type of 2nd-order motion stimulus. Thus presumably these 2nd-order sensors are located at low levels (Chubb and Sperling 1988; Lu and Sperling 1996; Nishida 1993). Psychophysically, the reduction in sensitivity of these sensors produced direction-selective adaptation to a 2nd-order stimulus (Nishida et al. 1997). The directional response to CMS we found in V1 may arise from adaptation of these low-level motion sensors. Adaptation effects in early stages presumably propagate through subsequent areas, where additional adaptation may also occur.
On the other hand, the perception of 2nd-order motion can also be mediated by attentive tracking of salient features (Cavanagh 1992; Lu and Sperling 2001b). Moreover, the present results do not exclude the possibility that the neural substrates for the high-level 2nd-order motion perception are anatomically segregated from those for 1st-order motion processing, in more anterior (higher-tier) brain regions. In fact, a network of many cortical areas (including parietal and frontal regions) may well be involved in attentive tracking (Culham et al. 1998). Cortical specification for 1st- or 2nd-order motion processing, suggested by fMRI (Dumoulin et al. 2002) and by brain-damaged patients (Plant and Nakayama 1993; Vaina and Cowey 1996; Vaina et al. 1999), may be related to (dis)function of the high-level 2nd-order motion process.
Johnston and colleagues (Benton 2002; Johnston and Clifford 1995; Johnston et al. 1992) postulated that a common gradient-type motion mechanism processes both 1st-order motion and some 2nd-order motion, including the moving contrast modulation of the static carrier used here. The present results are superficially consistent with this single-mechanism hypothesis. However, it remains controversial whether their proposal can also be reconciled with other lines of evidence supporting segregation of the mechanisms (Lu and Sperling 2001b), including differences in the effect of motion adaptation (Derrington and Badcock 1985; Nishida and Sato 1992; Nishida et al. 1997). Overall, the currently available evidence suggests that 1st-order motion processing and 2nd-order motion processing are functionally segregated (as indicated by the psychophysics), but anatomically mixed at a scale of about 3 mm (as indicated by the current fMRI).
Nondirectional response
The nondirectional responses typically had V-shaped time courses. This pattern was most evident in the response to LMS, but it was also apparent in the response of some visual areas to CMS or LM0. The initial response increase immediately following at the block transitions was presumably a response to the "time-outs," when the stimulus including random dot field disappeared transiently. The subsequent response reduction may be in part attributable to a well-known poststimulus "undershoot" in the MRI signal (Kwong et al. 1992), which is thought to result from a temporal mismatch between the cessation of CBF (cerebral blood flow) increase, coupled with a slower recovery of CBV (cerebral blood volume) equilibrium associated with brain activity (Buxton et al. 1998; Hoge et al. 1999; Kruger et al. 1999; Mandeville et al. 1998, 1999a,b). Recovery from this undershoot might account for the response increase before the stimulus offset.
Within each 1st-order motion condition, the time course of nondirectional response was similar across different visual areas, showing a clear offset/onset activity even in early visual cortex. For 2nd-order motion, on the other hand, offset/onset activities were not evident in V1, V2, and V4v. The reason for this discrepancy was not obvious, but it might be related to a difference in the temporal characteristics of early visual response to different spatial-frequency patterns (Kelly 1979). Strong low spatial-frequency luminance modulations in 1st-order stimuli may effectively evoke transient neural responses in early visual cortex. Alternatively, the effect of the onset of random-dot field may be different between CMS and LMS. For many V1 neurons having small receptive fields, the most salient changes in the sequence of LMS condition were changes in the contrast of random dots at the block boundary. In the sequence of CMS condition, on the other hand, the movement of contrast modulation always produced a 4-Hz contrast oscillation. Strong neural activities to such a dynamic contrast change might mask the response to a slow pattern disappearance at the block boundary.
Regardless of the underlying mechanism, the involvement of strong nondirectional responses suggests that in some cases the measured fMRI responses may reflect processing of the stimulus offset/onset more than the processing of stimulus motion. Even so, the adaptation paradigm enabled us to isolate the directional responses that reflected the processing of stimulus motion.
Direction-selective adaptation
MT+ (primarily) and V3A (secondarily) are considered the most motion sensitive areas in human occipital cortex (Tootell et al. 1995a,b, 1997; Watson et al. 1993). In the present study, the directional response was larger in MT+ and V3A when we used the low-contrast 1st-order motion (LMS). However, this tendency was weak for the 2nd-order motion stimulus (CMS) and totally absent for the high-contrast 1st-order grating (LM0). Why were our measures of (motion) direction selectivity not much higher in areas MT+ and V3A?
Several possibilities come to mind. First, it is conceivable that the attention task incorporated here "flattened" the typical pattern of (passive viewing) motion-selective responses across visual areas. This possibility seems unlikely, however, because previous neuroimaging data (Corbetta et al. 1990; Huk et al. 2001) reported a relative increase in activity in MT during attention to stimulus speed (as tested here), rather than the hypothetical decrease necessary to obtain the present results. Additionally, in preliminary tests here, we tested the effects of attention to the present stimuli (relative to passive viewing) and found no obvious effect of attention in MT+ or other areas.
It is also known that MT(+) responses saturate at very low contrasts (Sclar et al. 1990; Tootell et al. 1995a). This may partially explain why the direction-selective adaptation effect was paradoxically reduced in MT+ when we increased the luminance contrast of 1st-order motion. Perhaps the response saturation apparently suppresses the magnitude of directional adaptations (a ceiling effect), by increasing nonlinear interactions between the directional and nondirectional components. However, this argument might be too simple, considering the effect of contrast normalization by a gain control process (Edwards et al. 1996; Heeger 1992; Simoncelli and Heeger 1998). Additionally, previous studies found stronger directional response in MT+ even when using high-contrast 1st-order stimuli (Huk et al. 2001; Tolias et al. 2001).
Another possibility is that direction reversals (as tested here) may not produce the same topography of activity, compared with previous tests of "motion" sensitivity, which have been based on quite different stimulus comparisons. Almost all previous fMRI tests of "motion selectivity," including MT+ "localizers" (Beauchamp et al. 1997; Dupont et al. 1994; Lueck et al. 1989; McCarthy et al. 1995; Tootell et al. 1995a) and the original fMRI tests of static motion aftereffects (Culham et al. 1999; He et al. 1998; Huk et al. 2001; Tootell et al. 1995b) were tested with moving-versus-stationary stimuli, not using direction reversals as used here and elsewhere (Huk et al. 2001; Tolias et al. 2001). For instance, static motion aftereffects did not produce significant aftereffect-related fMRI responses in V1 (Tootell et al. 1995b), although direction-selective adaptation did (Huk et al. 2001; Tolias et al. 2001). A possible account of this apparent disagreement is given by a 2-stage model of the motion aftereffect generation.2 An alternative hypothesis is that the fMRI responses in higher-tier areas during the perception of static motion aftereffect are mainly evoked by attention (Huk et al. 2001).
However, even using direction-selective adaptation paradigms, previous studies reported stronger direction selectivity in MT(+) than suggested by our data. Some of the apparent discrepancy may be attributable to differences in the way in which the direction index was computed for each ROI. Tolias et al. (2001) examined the response rebounds evoked at abrupt direction reversals in fMRI signals in anesthetized macaques and computed the ratio of the magnitude of rebound response relative to the initial motion response (response increment at motion onset from the blank period). When the absolute magnitude of the rebound response is compared, there is only a small difference between areas. The apparently large direction index for MT (and for V4) is mainly a consequence of its small initial response. The idea behind such normalization was to take into account a difference in the responsivity to the stimulus of each area. We avoided this approach, given that one main concern in past fMRI studies of 2nd-order motion was that much of the neural activation evoked by the stimulus might be totally irrelevant to motion perception.
Huk et al. (2001) also normalized the adaptation effect by stimulus responsiveness in each area. However in their case, this did not greatly affect the area specificity. In the experiment where they found the strongest direction-selective adaptation in human MT+ ("Adapted versus Mixed Direction Experiment"), they compared the fMRI response during blocks of trials in which the stimulus repeatedly moved in the single direction ("Adapted") with blocks in which the stimulus direction varied among 6 directions from trial to trial ("Mixed"). The direction-selective adaptation effect, indicated by the BOLD signal change (Mixed - Adapted), was much larger in MT+ (and V3A) than in other regions. A possible factor is their use of multiple directions in the nonadapted (mixed) blocks. In fact, in another experiment ("Adapted versus opposite direction"), where they compared the fMRI response for gratings moving in the adapted and the opposite directions, they found that the direction-selective signal change was much smaller than the mixed-direction experiment, and more important, the signal change was not smaller in V1 than in MT+ for 2 of 3 subjects (A. C. Huk, personal communication). There are a few possible reasons why mixed-direction experiments can give stronger adaptation effects than 2-direction experiments, such that direction-selective adaptation was reduced for 2-direction experiments because of long-term storage of the adaptation effect in previous conditions, and/or that exposure to multiple directions was effective in releasing stored adaptation effects. However, the reason that the mixed-direction paradigm can give stronger MT+ activities is not obvious.
Although selective adaptation is potentially a powerful technique of future functional imaging studies, it is not known exactly how postadaptation changes in MR signals are related to postadaptation changes in psychophysical sensitivity or perception, nor how it is related to postadaptation changes in the actual neural responses. In fact, there are very few single-unit studies analyzing the effects of stimulus adaptation, to which the human psychophysics and fMRI could be compared. Moreover, there are also species differences (between humans and macaques) to consider when attempting such comparisons. For effective and appropriate use of the adaptation technique, it will become increasingly necessary to establish these missing links.
We thank Drs. T. Hirahara, N. Sugamura, and Y. Tohkura of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation for support.
↵1 Averaging the response over the interval of 4 to 12 s resulted in an underestimation of the initial response for the LM0 condition because there was a dip at around 12 s for many visual areas. When the average was taken over the interval from 4 to 8 s, the directional response was significantly positive for all the areas except MT+.
↵2 The model consists of "low-level" units, each responding to a given direction of motion, and "high-level" units, each responding to an activity difference between a pair of low-level units tuned to opposite directions (motion opponency). Suppose that motion adaptation reduces the sensitivity of low-level units tuned to the adapted direction. The direction-selective adaptation paradigm compares the postadaptation response for the adapted motion with that for the nonadapted motion. The 2-stage model predicts a response reduction for the adapted direction in both the low-level and high-level units. The model, however, predicts that the motion aftereffect paradigm, which compares the responses to a stationary pattern before and after motion adaptation, can yield a response decrease in the low level and an increase in the high level. Before adaptation, the stationary pattern equally activates the low-level units for both directions; thus high-level units remain almost silent. After adaptation, desensitization of the low-level units tuned to the adapted direction will reduce the population activity of low-level units. The response reduction for a stationary test stimulus in early visual areas was actually observed in the case of dynamic noise adaptation (Sasaki et al. 2002). However, the activity imbalance of the low-level units will yield a postadaptation response increase of the high-level units tuned to the nonadapted direction. This may account for the increase in the fMRI signals during the perception of motion aftereffect (Tootell et al. 1995b). Here we simply assume that the low- and high-level units correspond to neurons in lower-tier areas such as V1 and those in higher-tier areas such as MT+, respectively. This scheme is supported by psychophysical properties of static motion aftereffect (Cameron et al. 1992; Molden 1980; Over et al. 1973; Pantle 1974; Wohlgemuth 1911), suggesting that the adapted mechanisms are low-level motion detectors; and by electro-physiological and fMRI studies (Heeger et al. 1999; Qian and Andersen 1994, 1995), suggesting that some form of motion opponency exists at or before MT(+). Currently available single-unit data (e.g., Petersen et al. 1985; van Wezel and Britten 2002) do not exclude a possibility that the responses of MT neurons to stationary stimuli are increased after motion adaptation.
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
- Copyright © 2003 by the American Physiological Society


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hey guys,
I know these two are some, if not the most popular X-MEN, i'm guessing that Wolverine is probably the most well known.
I just notice that Gambit is pretty popular w/the fans, and was wondering, do you think Gambit will ever get as big as Wolverine in terms of popularity ?!
hey guys,


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|[Couchdb Wiki] Update of "FrequentlyAskedQuestions" by JanLehnardt
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Dear Wiki user, You have subscribed to a wiki page or wiki category on "Couchdb Wiki" for change notification. The following page has been changed by JanLehnardt: http://wiki.apache.org/couchdb/FrequentlyAskedQuestions The comment on the change is: Add FaQ about connecting to a remote CouchDB installation securely. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ choice of language for helper scripts is Python, but any will do, whatever suits you best. + == I use CouchDB on a remote server and I don't want it to listen on a public port for security reasons. Is there a way to connect to it from my local machine or can I still use Futon with it? == + + On you local machine, set up an ssh tunnel to your server and + tell it to forward requests to the local port 5984 to the remote + server's port 5984: + + {{{ + $ ssh -L5984:127.0.0.1:5984 ssh.example.com + }}} + + Now you can connect to the remote CouchDB through + http://localhost:5984/ +
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