text:
Amarantus Appoints Brian E. Harvey, MD PhD to Strategic Advisory Board
SAN FRANCISCO, March 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
Amarantus BioScience Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: AMBS), a biotechnology company focused on developing products for Regenerative Medicine, Neurology and Orphan Diseases, today announced that it has appointed Brian E. Harvey, MD PhD to its strategic advisory board. Dr. Harvey will assist the company's management team in developing and executing its strategy to accelerate FDA regulatory approval for its orphan drug portfolio of products.
"I am excited to help Amarantus accelerate regulatory interactions with the FDA for its diverse orphan drug portfolio of products," said Dr. Harvey. "ESS and Eltoprazine are moving into mid and late stage development across several niche indications where the standard of care has not seen any significant innovation in over 50 years. ESS is a product candidate that demands careful, focused clinical and regulatory execution in order to bring this life-saving treatment to market as expeditiously as possible. With respect to Eltoprazine and its recent Orphan designation, Amarantus has an opportunity to redefine the regulatory pathway to approval for Eltoprazine with its recent orphan drug designation, and we intend to engage the regulatory authorities in discussions as it relates to this pathway forward."
"We are very pleased to have attracted Dr. Harvey to our Strategic Advisory Committee to further enhance our already strong regulatory science infrastructure as we prepare to engage the FDA in discussions regarding the pathway forward for the late-stage development of ESS and Eltoprazine," said Gerald E. Commissiong, President & CEO. "As we are rapidly approaching the initiation of the ESS clinical development program with the US Army for the treatment of severe burns, we foresee the burn community strongly advocating for an accelerated approval process to bring this life-saving treatment to market. We want to ensure that we have the experience and infrastructure at the ready to manage various potential scenarios as it relates to ESS."
About Dr. Harvey's Experience
Dr. Harvey recently served as Vice President of U.S Regulatory Strategy at Pfizer, where he led U.S. FDA regulatory interactions across all Pfizer business units, and was a Member of the CEO's Senior Leadership Council (SLC). He led the Pfizer efforts on the PhRMA Regulatory Affairs Coordinating Committee (RACC). In addition, he was responsible for the Oversight of U.S. Regulatory Policy & Intelligence functions, and the U.S. Advertising & Promotion activities. He played an early role in PDUFA VI Preparation, the PhRMA Steering Committee and the 21st Century Cures initiatives.
Prior to his time at Pfizer, Dr. Harvey served as Vice President of Regulatory Policy at Sanofi, where he was the Liaison with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), served on the International Biologics and Biotechnology Taskforce and Biologics Key Issues Team, was on the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Regulatory Affairs Committee (RAC). He was the Signatory authority for Sanofi written comments to the FDA docket and was a Member of the Sanofi Policy Development Committee.
Prior to Sanofi, Dr. Harvey spent 11 years with the FDA in increasing positions of responsibility across various divisions including Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) and the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). From 2000 to 2001, Dr. Harvey served as an American Political Science Association (APSA) Congressional Fellow on behalf of the FDA. Dr. Harvey received his PhD, then MD from the University of Connecticut.
His Internal Medicine Internship and Residency at Beth Israel Hospital/Harvard was followed by a 3 year Gastroenterology Fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital prior to joining FDA.
About Amarantus BioScience Holdings, Inc.
Amarantus BioScience Holdings (AMBS) is a biotechnology company developing treatments and diagnostics for diseases in the areas of neurology, regenerative medicine and orphan diseases. AMBS' Therapeutics division has development rights to eltoprazine, a Phase 2b-ready small molecule indicated for Parkinson's disease levodopa-induced dyskinesia, adult ADHD and Alzheimer's aggression, and owns the intellectual property rights to a therapeutic protein known as mesencephalic-astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) and is developing MANF-based products as treatments for brain and ophthalmic disorders. More recently, AMBS acquired the rights to the Engineered Skin Substitute program (ESS), a regenerative medicine-based approach for treating severe burns with full thickness autologous skin grown in tissue culture. ESS is entering Phase 2 clinical studies under a CRADA agreement with the US Army. AMBS' Diagnostics division owns the rights to MSPrecise®, a proprietary next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) assay for the identification of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) at first clinical presentation, has an exclusive worldwide license to the Lymphocyte Proliferation test (LymPro Test®) for Alzheimer's disease, which was developed by Prof. Thomas Arendt, Ph.D., from the University of Leipzig, and owns intellectual property for the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (NuroPro). AMBS also owns the discovery of neurotrophic factors (PhenoGuard™) that led to MANF's discovery.
For further information please visit http://www.Amarantus.com, or connect with the Company on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements, other than purely historical information, including estimates, projections, statements relating to our business plans, objectives, and expected operating results, and the assumptions upon which those statements are based, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believes," "project," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "strategy," "plan," "may," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Our ability to predict results or the actual effect of future plans or strategies is inherently uncertain. Factors which could have a material adverse effect on our operations and future prospects on a consolidated basis include, but are not limited to: changes in economic conditions, legislative/regulatory changes, availability of capital, interest rates, competition, and generally accepted accounting principles. These risks and uncertainties should also be considered in evaluating forward-looking statements and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements.
Investor and Media Contact:
Ascendant Partners, LLC
Fred Sommer
SOURCE Amarantus BioScience Holdings, Inc.


text:
Cash crunch has bars turning to strippers
Jun 12 2012
Ma Miller's Pub: Dancers scheduled to start June 20.Photograph by: Bruce Stotesbury , timescolonist.com (June 11, 2012)
A Langford pub is bringing in exotic dancers, joining several other B.C. bars that are looking to strippers to improve business.
The dancers are expected to debut June 20 at Ma Miller's Pub on Sooke Lake Road, where owner Dan Stephenson said he is struggling with declining revenue.
"I've tried to get people in there ... I've tried to reach out to the neighbourhood," said Stephenson, who has informed the city of his plans. "I have a lot of money that I want to get back out of that place. The landlord is not impressed that I'm going this [route] either, but it's down to survival mode now."
Stephenson said he believes there's a market for exotic dancers in Langford. "It's not just old perverts that go to these places. There's more women than men in most places now," he said.
Making the transition to erotic entertainment, however, has its obstacles. Some Langford council members say they would ban strip bars if they could, but the bar's licence permits it. "I think it's a good idea not to have that type of licensing permitted within our zoning at all," said Coun. Lillian Szpak. "I'm not sure we can do that, but I'd like to look into it."
Wayne Kalnciems, a Victoria-based promoter for exotic dancers, said there's been a recent increase in the number of B.C. strip clubs because bar owners are struggling. His company, W.K. Entertainment, books dancers at new clubs in Kelowna and Prince George. He also handled bookings for two up-Island bars for about a month after they introduced dancers in April.
Paul Manhas, the owner of the bars near Nanaimo, said he is attempting to reverse declining revenues by bringing in strippers. Manhas added exotic dancers to his Club 241 in downtown Nanaimo. He coordinated scheduling so the dancers could also work at his Arlington Pub on the Island Highway in Nanoose Bay.
"The pub business is a dying business - it's not the same as it used to be," said Manhas, who also owns four liquor stores in Nanaimo. "People aren't going out as much anymore. Liquor store sales have been up for a while, but bar sales are down."
At Ma Miller's, Missy Dunn will help manage the new entertainment. Dunn, who has worked at other strip clubs, argues a properly operated club does not attract problems. "I know what it's like out there. As long as you take care of the room and obey the laws and you're not over-serving and you're diligent at the door, there aren't going to be any problems," she said.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
To the members of the MIT community:
We are writing to inform you of plans to upgrade the MIT campus network, and in particular to upgrade MIT to the next generation of Internet addressing. (Please note that no action is required on your part.)
Machines on the Internet are identified by addresses. The current addressing scheme, called IPv4, was specified around 1980, and allowed for about 4 billion addresses. That seemed enough at the time, which was before local area networks, personal computers and the like, but the Internet research community recognized around 1990 that this supply of addresses was inadequate, and put in place a plan to replace the IPv4 addresses with a new address format, called IPv6. IPv6 uses a 128-bit address scheme and is capable of 340 undecillion addresses (340 times 10^36, or 340 trillion trillion trillion possible IP addresses). This stock of addresses allows great flexibility in how
Original URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/feedsapi/BwPx/~3/aPrftjh3UqY/e22e50cd52b7dffcf5a4db2b8ea4cce0


text:
I have previously mentioned one of my favourite Marks and Spencer pieces as being a blue silk kimono style jacket with white embroidery. I somehow think that it deserves its own little post because whenever I wear it, people compliment me on it and also the inevitable question arises "Is that from M&S?" I can proudly say that yes it is but I now add on that it is vintage which is a little presumptuous of me but it is over 6 years old! Anyway, this is another example of when Marks and Spencer do something right, they DO IT RIGHT. I have worn it on evenings out and also even to work (though it was probably a little too dressy for work but my excuse was that I was going for dinner straight from the office). The quality is amazing and it has totally lasted without any damage (and I am unfortunately very harsh on my clothes and shoes). Truly this jacket is a real survivor of many nights out in Hong Kong and London. Though it was pricey at the time (for Marks and Spencer standards), it has definitely been worth every penny spent. It simply is something that I can put on and instantly feel more elegant and lady like yet still remain me.
Please, please, please M&S bring back more of this type of clothing!!!
Layne Make Up Artistry's Carla Layne, What the frock designer Maria and Me (wearing said M&S jacket)
A Boy Named Sue Launch Party
Photo Courtesy of Sassy HK and Sabrina Sikora Photography


text: For Sale - Zon Headless Vinny VB4 Bass I had this built last September. Incredible sound from this bass (check out Manring's "Sugar" from Bass Day 98)... I just got so used to 5's and 6's lately, it's just sitting around. I'd rather see it in a good home. See the details here... http://www.ajbrown.us/zonvinny Brand new would be $2150 and a 3-4 month wait. I'm letting this MINT condition bass go for $1825. I'd prefer a money order or personal check over PayPal. But if you must, and don't mind paying the fees, I'll accept it. Thanks for looking.


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Hey- just a quick plea for some votes from you all- please can you all go onto Facebook and "like" the picture of Tor on the Lavish Alice Facebook page please. She needs the most likes to win the competition which ends on Friday.
Vote by clicking here
I'll repay you all with another epic fail disaster picture on Saturday..


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Female Hypno Spy – Episode 8 – Code Breaker – Kendra Fallow
Agent Kendra is one of the highest valued information extraction officer in the field of psy op. She is often tasked with the most difficult intelligence mission when all electronic methods had failed. Recently, an adversary nation is rumored to have developed a stealth torpedo system that would make every allied navy obsolete. Naturally, the specifics of that technology is highly valued. Agent Kendra's mission is to create a chance meeting with the admiral, politely request that the meeting to be extended in our field station, then proceed to make scares of that memory. She will also ensure that future meetings with his admiralty will proceed in a more accessible manner. A dose of hypnosis will take care of the red tape.


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Nebraska City's Volunteer Fire and Rescue personnel have been busy answering calls of late.
In 2017, the organization's call volume set a record with 1,314 runs, up 128 from the year before.
Up until now, the department had been answering calls with a fleet of three ambulances. The fourth ambulance in the fleet and first entirely new vehicle in at least a decade, if not longer, will help Nebraska City meet the needs of its citizens.
"The need is there. We are getting busier," said Andrew Snodgrass, EMS manager for Nebraska City Fire and Rescue.
An increasing number of transfers added to the 911 call volume has made for the increase in calls, Snodgrass said.
In terms of economics, the addition of the ambulance is a no brainer in that it didn't cost the city a penny to purchase. That's because Nebraska City's foundations have stepped forward once again.
The Paul, John, Anton and Doris Wirth Foundations donated $225K of the just over $236K of the new ambulance with other charitable donations making up the difference.
Snodgrass said donations made to the Nebraska City Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department have been significant and long standing.
"To my knowledge, the city has never had to pay for an ambulance," Snodgrass said, noting that he has been with the organization for nine years.
This ambulance is unique in the fact that it's new. Up until this purchase, Snodgrass said the city has done re-mounts of older ambulances as a cost savings and said that has served the department well.
The new vehicle purchase is exciting and Snodgrass said he hopes the ambulance will remain in the fleet for many years to come.
Getting into the nuts and bolts of the build, Nebraska City purchased the ambulance through a dealer, Danko Emergency Equipment in Snyder, Neb.
It was built in a period of 10 days in a factory in Canada and includes some unique features.
Snodgrass said the suspension system should allow for a smoother ride and that rescue personnel will ride safer too, thanks to harness restraints as opposed to lap belts.
The details are important.
This unit is fitted with the brightest light package and loudest siren sound available, which will lead to visibility of the unit and safety for the public.
Inside the ambulance, crews will be able to access the equipment they need a little bit easier and a communication system will allow for better driver to crew communication during any transport.
The hand grips on the ceiling are the same as other units, but are painted in blazing yellow, and are therefore easier to spot so that an EMT can get a grip on the bars.
None of this is meant to say that the other three vehicles in Nebraska City's fleet are in any way deficient.
Snodgrass said the other units the city has are extremely serviceable and says he looks forward to having four vehicles in service when the new ambulance rolls out on its first calls in the coming week.
Vehicle helps to answer growing call volume
Nebraska City's Volunteer Fire and Rescue personnel have been busy answering calls of late.


text:
Odoo Hilfe
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CRM | e-Commerce | Accounting | Inventory | PoS | Project management | MRP | etc.
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text:
The latest update in my 6 month nostalgia tour, which has brought numerous old and dear friends back into my life, is the best update of all. I've mentioned before that I used to coach debate when I was in college. I coached at Okemos High School, just ten minutes or so from MSU. At our first organizational meeting, we had about 40 kids show up who wanted to join the debate team. By the second week, we were down to 5. By the second year, only two. See, I knew I was only going to be there for 2 or 3 years, so I wasn't really concerned about building a long-term program. I didn't have the time for that anyway. So I scared off all but the best students so I could just work with them, and those two were Robin Wall and Sam Nadler. And for the next two years, it was just the three of us traveling the country to tournaments.
A couple days ago, I decided that I was going to track the two of them down and get in touch with them. It took some searching. I knew that Robin had gone on to Stanford and Sam to MIT. I didn't talk to Sam at all after he went off to college, and had only talked to Robin once, around 1995 or 1996. He had just gotten back from an extended time in Estonia teaching English after getting his degree from Stanford and was deciding what to do with his life after that. Well after a bit of searching, parsing textual clues and ruling out false tips (there was a Robin Wall Kimmerer who is apparently a prominent artist of some sort, and a Sam Nadler who teaches at West Virginia and each had numerous references to them on webpages as well), I managed to find them both and get their email addresses. I sent an email to both of them and got replies and we are now in the process of catching up on each other's lives over the last 14 years.For those of you who have never had the chance to mentor kids in some way (although hell, I was still a kid myself!), perhaps you can't understand how exciting it is to see them grow up and become successful. I certainly didn't fully appreciate at the time what an incredible gift it was for me to be able to spend 3 years working with these great kids. But now, looking back on it, I miss it very much, and I've missed them. And I'm so proud of what they've become. Robin came back from Estonia and went on to Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude and winning their annual moot court competition. He is now an attorney in Manhattan. Sam finished at MIT and went on to the University of Wisconsin for a combination MD/PhD program, which he finished a couple years ago. He is now a senior resident at the University of Washington medical center in Seattle.
I'm certainly not surprised at all by their success. They excelled at everything they did, including debate. But more than that, they were just great kids, the kind of kids that give you hope about the future. And now I get the great privilege of getting to know them again as adults. I only wish they were closer to Michigan and could make it back for this weekend. I am hosting a reunion dinner for some of the old late 80s debate folks in Michigan, including several that I have not seen in some 14 years now. So, the nostalgia tour continues, better than ever.


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Today's Expositor's Quote is from Charles Spurgeon's sermon on James 4:2-3, which reads in the KJV, "Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."
The prayers of the church measure its prosperity. If we restrain prayer we restrain the blessing. Our true success as churches can only he had by asking it of the Lord. . . .
But some reply, "There are prayer-meetings, and we do ask for the blessing, and yet it comes not." Is not the explanation to be found in the other part of the text, "Ye have not, because ye ask amiss"? When prayer-meetings become a mere form, when brethren stand up and waste the time with their long orations, instead of speaking to God in earnest and burning words, when there is no expectation of a blessing, when the prayer is cold and chill, then nothing will come of it. He who prays without fervency does not pray at all. We cannot commune with God, who is a consuming fire, if there is no fire in our prayers. . . .
Moreover, if our praying, however earnest and believing it may be, is a mere asking that our church may prosper because we want to glory in its prosperity . . . then our desires are nothing but lustings after all. Can it be that the children of God manifest the same emulations, jealousies, and ambitious as men of the world? Shall religious work be a matter of rivalry and contest? Ah, then, the prayers which seek success will have no acceptance at the mercy-seat. God will not hear us, but bid us begone, for he careth not for the Petitions of which self is the object. "Ye have not, because ye ask not, or because ye ask amiss."
Charles Spurgeon, "Ask and Have," #1682 on James 4:2-3, preached October 1, 1882, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Volume 28.
[Are we praying with fervency? Or are we not praying at all? Are we praying for our glory or God's glory? Lord, purify us by burning your fire within us! -- Coty]
Return to EQOTW Archive
Return to Expository Sermons and Worship Resources


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Usually I am all about how to solve any problem using AI. This time it's different.
A classical NP-hard problem of a JobShopScheduling is here to see and here to download and to play it by hand. What can I say? It's extremely hard for computers and for people as well.
Still, every child can try it on her/his Android and possibly be as good as a top mathematician.


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For more than 55 years, the Brockton chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, (SPEBSQSA) was active in the city and the area.
The all-male singing group, The Brockton Harmoneers, was meeting at the YMCA on Main Street when I joined them almost 50 years ago. About 20 years ago, we moved to the First Lutheran Church in Campello.
Capturing the music of the gay nineties and early years of last century, the men sang unaccompanied, the songs of love, home, family, their women and nostalgic old times among other things.
The annual shows were eagerly awaited by many �barbershop buffs.� For years, the auditorium at the West Junior High School was filled with music lovers. The first shows were called parades, as in Parade of Quartets. Many of the local chapters then, in Attleboro, Canton, Quincy, Newton, Boston, Scituate, Taunton and New Bedford, would send quartets free of charge to any chapter having a show. A lot of them are also gone now.
Then it was decided to make the shows more professional, and the Harmoneers hired the best quartets available in those years. They included, among others, The Buffalo Bills, of �Music Man� fame, The Four Rascals from Marblehead, second-place medalists in the societies annual competition. Also, the Dapper Dans of Disney World and the international champions The Four Statesmen, from four different states in New England.
One of the finest quartets that ever sang was our own neighbors, The Boston Common. Their rich full sound was hard to duplicate, and very few have even come close. They won the international competition in 1980. We had booked them the previous year and were so proud to have them on our show.
Several district championship quartets were also featured when we changed to the new Brockton High School as we had outgrown the West Junior High auditorium.
Several of our past members deserve special recognition. Manny Rafkin was instrumental in making The Associated Blind of Greater Brockton our local service project. Half of the proceeds of our annual shows went to support their excellent work helping the handicapped.
Manny worked for years with �Poppy� Stratis to help with the many needs of the blind. He was also our honorary show chairman and was responsible for getting all of the top talent.
Our show chairman was Lou Clay from Easton. He was a Brocktonian, however, with his company, Walker-Clay, a fixture in Montello for many years. Lou wrote and directed our many shows with a different theme each year. Among them were �A Salute to Irving Berlin,� �The Songs of the South� and patriotic songs of World War II.
In all the years that I sang with them, we only had four directors. The last, Bryan Marks of Scituate, was there for more than 22 years.
Several of our quartets won competitions along the way. The Clef Climbers, of which I was the lead singer, won the novice championship of our southern New England division of the Northeast district. A few years later, with a new group, The Cape Chordsmen, we won the division four championship. More recently, another Brockton quartet, The Mass Confusion quartet won that same trophy.
Competing almost every year, the chorus had it�s best showing in the Northeast District in Albany, N.Y., placing 10th in 21 choruses.
As the years went by, more and more of our members passed on to sing with the angelic chorus in the sky. We did not get enough new young people interested and slowly the chapter dissolved into a few dedicated men. At one time there were 45 men in the chorus, and the end came when only six of us were still available to sing. Although the Brockton Chapter is listed as inactive with the Barbershop Harmony Society, we haven�t had a meeting in two years. The name has been changed as you might have noticed, as the society has gone international with chapters in England, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Australia and South Africa to name a few.
Gone, but definitely not forgotten, are those ringing chords of barbershop harmony in Brockton.


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- Research
- Open Access
Use of molecular beacons to verify that the serine hydroxymethyltransferase pseudogene SHMT-ps1 is unique to the order Primates
- Eric J Devor1Email author
© BioMed Central Ltd 2001
- Received: 22 November 2000
- Accepted: 2 January 2001
- Published: 29 January 2001
The serine hydroxymethyltransferase processed pseudogene SHMT-ps1 has been suggested to be unique to the order Primates because of the failure to amplify this sequence by PCR from genomic DNAs of any non-primate mammal species. Here, 'molecular beacon' probes specific to SHMT-ps1 were used in an attempt to verify this suggestion.
In a search for SHMT-ps1-specific sequences using molecular beacons across a range of mammalian species, SHMT-ps1 was only found in primates. The molecular beacon assays also showed that SHMT-ps1 is present in both Old World and New World species but not among prosimians.
These results suggest that SHMT-ps1 originated close to the origin of the Anthropoidea, some 40 to 50 million years ago.
- Molecular Beacon
- Order Primate
- Serine Hydroxymethyltransferase
- Molecular Beacon Probe
- World Monkey Species
Serine hydroxymethyltransferase (EC 22.214.171.124, SHMT) is a pyridoxal-phosphate-binding enzyme that catalyzes the reversible reaction of serine and tetrahydrofolate to glycine and 5,10-methylene tetrahydrofolate [1]. SHMT-catalyzed reactions are important as a primary source of one-carbon units used in folate-dependent metabolism, including purine synthesis [2]. Two isoforms of SHMT are found in eukaryotic cells: one expressed in the cytoplasm (SHMT-cyt) and one in mitochondria (SHMT-mit). The gene encoding the former is located on human chromosome 17p11.2 and the gene encoding the latter is on human chromosome 12q13.2 [3,4]. A third member of this small gene family is a processed pseudogene, SHMT-ps1, located on human chromosome 1p32.3-p33 [5,6]. Analyses of known SHMT amino acid and nucleotide sequences indicate that eukaryotic SHMT-cyt is descended from a prokaryotic glyA-like ancestor and that both SHMT-mit and SHMT-ps1 have been derived from SHMT-cyt [3,4,5,7].
PCR-based analyses of evolutionary conservation of the SHMT-ps1 nucleotide sequence suggest that the reverse transcription event giving rise to SHMT-ps1 occurred after the divergence of the order Primates from the rest of the Mammalia, thus making this locus a genetic marker unique to the primates [7]. Here, this suggestion is verified using two end-point molecular beacon assays. In addition, results presented here further refine the time frame in which the reverse transcription and retrotransposition events occurred.
Results and discussion
Aligned sequences homologous to molecular beacons E8/E9 and E9/E10
(a) Beacon E8/E9 sequence
Human SHMT-ps1
Chimpanzee SHMT-ps1
Gorilla SHMT-ps1
Orangutan SHMT-ps1
Gibbon SHMT-ps1
Macaque SHMT-ps-1
Baboon SHMT-ps1
Capuchin SHMT-ps1
Spider monkey SHMT-ps1
Tamarin SHMT-ps1
Human SHMT-cyt cDNA
Rabbit SHMT-cyt cDNA
Sheep SHMT-cyt cDNA
(b) Beacon E9/E10 sequence
Human SHMT-ps1
Chimpanzee SHMT-ps1
Gorilla SHMT-ps1
Orangutan SHMT-ps1
Gibbon SHMT-ps1
Macaque SHMT-ps-1
Baboon SHMT-ps1
Capuchin SHMT-ps1
Spider monkey SHMT-ps1
Tamarin SHMT-ps1
Human SHMT-cyt cDNA
Rabbit SHMT-cyt cDNA
Sheep SHMT-cyt cDNA
The appearance of a processed pseudogene such as SHMT-ps1 is due to the reverse transcription of a processed mRNA followed by the random insertion of the derived cDNA into the genome via retrotransposition [12,13]. On the basis of the results presented here, refinement of the point at which those events giving rise to SHMT-ps1 occurred must now exclude the prosimians. Kay et al. [14] suggest that the divergence of the line leading to the monkeys and apes (Haplorrhini) from that leading to the prosimians (Strepsirrhini) occurred around the beginning of the Eocene some 55 million years ago. They also note that the divergence of the Old World monkeys and apes (Catarrhini) and the New World monkeys (Platyrrhini) probably took place before the end of the Eocene, or before 34 million years ago [14]. Given that SHMT-ps1 is found in both New World and Old World monkeys, the window in which the reverse transcription event could have taken place is further bracketed within a 12 to 15 million year period between the lower and middle Eocene. One species that has not so far been examined that would shed light on this question is, of course, the tarsier. Should the tarsier not have SHMT-ps1 in its genome, the window would be further constrained to a lower bound corresponding to the origin of the Anthropoidea, which is placed somewhat nearer the middle Eocene [14].
Finally, of interest here is the report of another primate pseudogene, a processed immunoglobulin J chain pseudogene, JΨ, whose origin is via the same process at about the same time. Max et al. [15] examined several primate species, including Old World and New World monkey species, and concluded that this locus, too, arose in the Primates some 40 to 50 million years ago. We have recently been able to confirm this conclusion by a PCR study of the same genomic DNA panel used in this paper (E.J.D. and H. Trill, unpublished observations).
Is the fact that two retroprocessed pseudogenes were produced in the order Primates at nearly the same time unusual? The answer to this is probably no. Goncalves et al. [16] suggest that retropseudogenes are a common phenomenon in mammalian genomes and estimate that the human genome contains some 23,000 to 33,000 such loci. They also note several common features among the genes giving rise to retropseudogenes: they are widely expressed; they are highly conserved; they are usually short; and they are relatively GC poor [16]. SHMT-cyt, the antecedent locus of SHMT-ps1, does, in fact, meet most of these criteria, as does the antecedent locus of JΨ. Thus, although SHMT-cyt is quite large [3,4] and neither gene is particularly GC poor [3,4,15], the appearance of these two retroprocessed pseudogenes at about the same time in the evolutionary history of the primates is probably not unusual. Both may, however, prove to be valuable molecular tools in primate phylogenetic research.
Materials and methods
Genomic DNA samples
Genomic DNA samples used in this study were obtained both commercially and through the generosity of a number of colleagues. DNA samples from humans (Homo sapiens) as well as from chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia), horse (Equus equus), cow (Bovis domesticus), dog (Canis familiaris), cat (Felis domesticus), sheep (Ovis aries), pig (Sus scrofa), rabbit (Oryctolagus cunniculatus), rat (Rattus norvegicus), hamster (Mesocricetus auratus), and the northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) were obtained by the author. DNA samples from gibbon (Hylobates lar), macaque species (Macaca mulatta, M. assamensis, M. nemestrina, M. arctoides, and M. fuscata), baboon species (Papio hamadryas and P. anubis), the African green monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops). New World capuchins (Cebus capucinus, C. apella, and C. albifrons), squirrel monkey (Saimiri boliviensis) and spider mokey (Ateles paniscus) were provided by Moses Schanfield. DNA from the ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata) was one of a number of lemur DNAs provided by Edward Lewis (Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha, Nebraska). DNA from the short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica) was provided by John Vandeberg (Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, Texas) and DNA from the blind mole rat superspecies Spalax ehrenbergi by Eviatar Nevo (University of Haifa, Israel).
PCR amplification and molecular beacon design
To date, analyses of SHMT-ps1 in primates and other mammals have focused on a region of the pseudogene that flanks a His-Lys dimer at positions 256-257 [4,6]. This dimer is the pyridoxal-phosphate-binding site and is thus a critical functional region of the protein [17,18]. PCR amplifications of this small region of the SHMT-ps1 sequence are carried out using the primers SHMT-C1 (5'-GGCGTGGTGCCCTCCCCATTT-3') and SHMT-B6 (5'-TGCAGTTGGCCACCACCTGGT-3'). Usual amplification conditions are 94°C for 3 min followed by 30 cycles of 94°C for 30 sec; 62°C for 30 sec; 72°C for 45 sec with a final 72°C extension for 5 min. PCR amplicons are visualized directly on 1.3% low melting temperature agarose gels (1x TBE) after ethidium bromide staining. Amplicons from PCR with the C1/B6 primer pair are three different sizes in primates. The shortest, 281 bp, has been seen in humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas as a result of the 11 bp deletion in those species. The longest, 317 bp, is only seen in C. aethiops, due to the presence of the 25 bp insertion. All other primate species so far examined (18 species in all) display a 292 bp amplicon [7].
In previous work, evidence for the absence of the SHMT-ps1 locus in non-primate mammals was taken from a consistent failure to amplify the pseudogene sequence from genomic DNAs via PCR using a variety of primers in addition to the C1/B6 primer pair. Among these other primer pairs were sequences specific to published non-primate mammal SHMT cDNAs. Here, this assay is taken further by employing the more sensitive and specific method of molecular beacons [9]. Molecular beacons contain a sequence-specific probe of up to 25 bases flanked by a self-complementary stem of 5-6 bases. On the 5' end of the probe is a fluorescent moiety and on the 3' end is a dark quencher. In the ground state, the molecule is folded such that the fluorophore and the quencher are in direct contact and the transfer of fluorescent energy from the former to the latter is subsequently emitted as heat rather than as light. Thus, in the ground state, molecular beacons are dark. In the presence of a target sequence, the molecular beacon undergoes a conformational change, with the internal probe sequence hybridizing to its target and the fluorophore and quencher becoming separated by a distance sufficient to prevent quenching. In this state, the fluorophore is free to emit light in its specific wavelength [19,20].
Girgis et al. [21] presented the genomic organization of SHMT-cyt. Their data show that the 281-317 bp SHMT-ps1 amplicon generated by the PCR primer pair C1/B6 contains parts of exons 8 and 10 as well as all of exon 9. SHMT-cyt genomic sequences also show that exons 8 and 9 are separated by a 4,500 bp intron and that exons 9 and 10 are separated by a 2,500 bp intron. To eliminate the possibility of false hybridization to SHMT-cyt genomic sequences instead of the intronless SHMT-ps1 sequence, two molecular beacons were designed to span exon-exon boundaries (Figure 2). Following the general design rules set out by Kramer and colleagues [19,20], the sequences of these two molecular beacons are SHMT-E8/E9: 5'-FAM-CCCGGCACGATCTTCTACAG/GAAAGGAGGGCCGGG-DABCYL-3' and SHMT-E9/E10: 5'-HEX-GCCGCACAACCACACCATTGCTG/GGGTTGCTGCGGC-DABCYL-3'. The self-complementary hairpin sequence in each molecular beacon is in bold and the exon-exon boundaries are indicated by the slashes. Finally, the fluorophores FAM (5-carboxyfluorescein) and HEX (5-hexachlorofluorescein) are paired with the universal fluorescence quencher DABCYL (4-(4'-dimethylaminophenylazo)benzoic acid).
As the analyses carried out in this study were end-point assays having a simple yes/no answer, the PCR amplifications were all performed in the presence of 100 ng genomic DNA. In addition to the target DNAs, 50 pmol of the PCR primers C1 and B6, 10 mM each dNTP, 2.5 U Taq polymerase, and standard Taq PCR buffer (Roche) were used. Amplification conditions were 94°C for 3 min followed by 40 cycles of 94°C for 30 sec, 62°C for 30 sec, 72°C for 45 sec and a final extension step for 7 min at 72°C. Following amplification, 250 pmol of molecular beacon probe was added to the reaction, the mixture was heated to 94°C for 3 min, and then held at 60°C before visualization of the reaction tubes on a UV transilluminator. Each set of reactions was photographed on the transilluminator in the same manner as ethidium bromide-stained agarose gels (Figure 1).
I thank Moses Schanfield, Edward Lewis, John Vandeberg and Eviatar Nevo for their generosity in providing samples of mammalian DNAs.
Authors' Affiliations
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- Byrne PC, Shipley JM, Chave KJ, Sanders PG, Snell K: Characterization of a human serine hydroxymethyltransferase pseudogene and its localization to 1p32.3-33. Hum Genet. 1996, 97: 340-344. 10.1007/s004390050047.PubMedView ArticleGoogle Scholar
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- Kostrikis LG, Tyagi S, Mhlanga MM, Ho DD, Kramer FR: Spectral genotyping of human alleles. Science. 1998, 279: 1228-1229. 10.1126/science.279.5354.1228.PubMedView ArticleGoogle Scholar
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- Täpp I, Malmberg L, Rennel E, Wik M, Syvänen A-C: Homogeneous scoring of single-nucleotide polymorphisms: comparison of the 5'-nuclease TaqMan assay and molecular beacon probes. BioTechniques. 2000, 28: 732-738.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Vanin EF: Processed pseudogenes: characteristics and evolution. Annu Rev Genet. 1985, 19: 253-272. 10.1146/annurev.ge.19.120185.001345.PubMedView ArticleGoogle Scholar
- Tchenio T, Segal BE, Heidmann T: Generation of processed pseudogenes in murine cells. EMBO J. 1993, 12: 1487-1497.PubMedPubMed CentralGoogle Scholar
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- Max EE, Jahan N, Yi H, McBride WO: A processed J chain pseudogene on human chromosome 8 that is shared by several primate species. Mol Immunol. 1994, 31: 1029-1036. 10.1016/0161-5890(94)90097-3.PubMedView ArticleGoogle Scholar
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- Hopkins S, Schirch V: Properties of a serine hydroxymethyltransferase in which the active site histidine has been changed to an asperagine by site-directed mutagenesis. J Biol Chem. 1986, 261: 3363-3369.PubMedGoogle Scholar
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- Tyagi S, Bratu DP, Kramer FR: Multicolor molecular beacons for allele discrimination. Nat Biotechnol. 1998, 16: 49-53.PubMedView ArticleGoogle Scholar
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Can we book excursions?
Yes, you can book a wide choice of excursions from La Boutique.
Is there a fitness centre on site?
Yes there is a fitness centre on site with use available for a charge.
Are the children's activities free?
The Team Marina club is for children aged between 4 and 11 years of age and they only ask that a Team Marina T-shirt for €4 is purchased for each child when they register.
Is there a heated swimming pool?
There is one pool that is heated in winter (usually November to May) next to Zacary's restaurant.
Is there free parking on the resort?
Yes, car parking is free.
How far is the beach?
All of the CLC World resorts are within easy reach of the beach.
Are there half board & full board options?
Guests can book Breakfast only, Half and Full Board arrangements through La Boutique on resort for a minimum of 4 days, meals are taken at either Zacary's or Safari restaurant.
Is there a babysitting service?
Yes, this can be arranged via Team Marina.
Is there bicycle hire?
Bicycles and motorbikes can be rented via Reception with an outside provider.
How far away is the nearest town?
Fuengirola town is approximately 2kms from the resort. A shuttle bus connects to Fuengirola street market on Tuesday mornings for a small charge (seasonally operated). Local buses between Fuengirola and Marbella operate every half hour, picking up at bus stops located along the motorway; the closest of these is at the petrol station adjacent to the resort.
Is there a shuttle bus?
A shuttle bus connects to Fuengirola street market on Tuesday mornings for a small charge (seasonally operated). Local buses between Fuengirola and Marbella operate every half hour, picking up at bus stops located along the motorway; the closest of these is at the petrol station adjacent to the resort.
Is there a safe in the apartment?
A safe is available in the apartment and can be rented from Reception for a small fee.
Are cots and highchairs available?
A travel cot, for babies up to two years, can be requested for a small fee. Highchairs can be requested free of charge, and stair gates can also be requested free of charge in accommodation with interior stairs.
Do you offer units adapted for disability?
Regretfully, the resort does not have adapted units for persons with special needs.
Do we need to bring our own towels and linen?
All towels and linen for use within the apartment are provided. Pool towels can be rented for €1.50 per towel, plus a refundable deposit of €10 per towel, from La Boutique or Team Marina.
Is there an on-site supermarket?
There are mini-markets on site for essentials and local supermarkets are within walking distance.
Is WiFi available?
WiFi is available free of charge in the main areas on resort and in all apartments.
Can we book car hire?
Yes you can book car hire prior to your arrival or while on the resort with our car hire representative. Visit www.clcworldtravel.com for further options.
Is a maid service included?
A complimentary midweek clean is provided where there is a minimum stay of 7 nights. For stays of 6 nights or less, no extra cleaning is provided. However, extra cleaning can be arranged at a supplemental cost.
Which airport is closest to the resort?
Malaga airport (28km) is the closest airport to all our CLC Club La Costa World resorts.
How will we get from the airport to the resort?
There is a local train service within the airport terminal that will take you to the closest town, which is called Fuengirola. There is a bus station near to the train station which will drop you close to the resort. Otherwise, taxi transfers can be arranged at a discounted rate. To book a taxi, please call our concierge department on 0800 009 6050. If you hire a car from the airport directions can be found here: http://www.clublacostaworld.com/useful-information/
Is there air conditioning?
Superior studio units have air conditioning.
Do all the apartments have kitchens?
Yes, all apartments include kitchens that feature a hob and microwave, fridge/freezer, freezer and all crockery and cutlery.


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Chairman's Annual Report 2016Feedback on the progress of the trust
Another year and once again I am pleased to be able to report on a successful one for the Trust. We increased our grants to over £96,000 but nevertheless, under the careful stewardship of our Treasurer, Ian Meier, our assets also increased and now stand at over £830,000. Membership remains very healthy at around 1,100.
Many of the grants to the churches we support are now for major restoration projects which, because of their nature, are often spread over a number of years. This is very true of All Saints Lydd where their extensive renovation work is well in hand. Last year, our grants to this church alone amounted to almost £35,000. Ten years ago in 2006, our grants to all churches amounted to only £36,000! Further funds will be made available as the restoration work continues.
Those of you who are able to come to our Annual General Meeting this year – to be held at All Saints on 13 May – will be able to judge progress for yourselves and with a very special speaker this year, I hope many of you will try to come. We are both extremely fortunate and privileged that Lord Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and of course our former Patron, has agreed to address us. Lunch will be held at the Lydd Community Hall; details are enclosed.
Another long-running project is the repair and restoration of the west window at St George's, Ivychurch, our venue for last year's AGM. The origins of the problems go back to 2008 and although all the permissions have been given and funds – including substantial grants from this Trust – have been raised, an issue with their chosen contractor has resulted in a further delay. However, it is hoped that work will finally get under way during the course of this year.
Progress at St Clement's, Old Romney where we made a grant of £21,000 last year, has also been slow but we have been assured that work will start this Spring and our hope is that this beautiful little church will soon receive the facelift it deserves.
Our grants budget has been set – provisionally – at £80,000 for the year. However, with ongoing costs at All Saints, Lydd and a number of other significant projects either planned or in hand, it is likely to be increased later in the year. Our Constitution allows us to use both capital as well as income and given the strength of our finances, we are quite prepared to use our capital as and when appropriate.
I mentioned the healthy state of our membership. Behind the scenes, David Hanbury, our Membership Secretary, does a fantastic job taking on new members, sending out reminders and in conjunction with Ian Meier, ensuring that our tax refunds for Gift Aid Donations are received. Our thanks go to him and all those who give of their time so freely. Elizabeth Marshall, our indefatigable Secretary, who does everything from organising our Annual General Meetings to sending out Christmas cards. John Hendy who organises our Tours which once again have proved so popular. Joan Campbell who speaks on our Members' Tours each year and her husband David, a regular provider of photographs for our Christmas cards. Small charities such as ours rely heavily on people who are prepared to help and support us and of course without our ever enthusiastic, President, John Doyle, where would we be?!
A few dates for the diary. Our two Members' Tours, as usual hosted by Joan and Elizabeth will be on 1st July and 2nd September whilst our annual service of Thanksgiving at Snave will be on Sunday 10th September. For the last two years, Snave has played host to the Latin Mass Society who have held a traditional Tridentine Mass there. A service is planned for later this year and details will be posted on our website – www.rmhct.org.uk.
Sales of our Christmas cards and other publications have held up well in recent years in spite of ever increasing postage charges. This year we will have an interesting selection of cards which I hope will be available by the date of our AGM.
Finally, this Trust would not have succeeded and indeed cannot survive without the support of you our Members and to all of you who contribute and continue to show a keen interest in the Marsh and its churches, my heartfelt thanks.
Peter Anwyl-Harris
Summarised Financial Statements 2016
You may view and print the Summarised Financial Statement
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Beautiful renovated cape in the heart of the "Amherst Village" on a dead end street offers an extra large, private 0.70 acre lot with lots of mature maple trees, newly refinished hardwood floors, brand new main bath with double sinks, jacuzzi, "Toto" commode and tile. New half bath with pedestal sink and tile, over-sized living room with hardwood floors and wood burning fireplace, dining room, breezeway, new architectural roof, oversized one car garage and mature landscaping.
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Jackie Daly, Managing Editor, KBB Magazine
Friday, 24 June 2011
Contemporary Kitchen Design
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The Lost History of 1914: Reconsidering the Year the Great War Began (Hardcover)
Hard to Find (call or email to check availability)
In "The Lost History of 1914," Jack Beatty offers a highly original view of World War I, testing against fresh evidence the long-dominant assumption that it was inevitable. "Most books set in 1914 map the path leading to war," Beatty writes. "This one maps the multiple paths that led away from it."
Chronicling largely forgotten events faced by each of the belligerent countries in the months before the war started in August, Beatty shows how any one of them-a possible military coup in Germany; an imminent civil war in Britain; the murder trial of the wife of the likely next premier of France, who sought detente with Germany-might have derailed the war or brought it to a different end. In Beatty's hands, these stories open into epiphanies of national character, and offer dramatic portraits of the year's major actors-Kaiser Wilhelm, Tsar Nicholas II, Woodrow Wilson, along with forgotten or overlooked characters such as Pancho Villa, Rasputin, and Herbert Hoover. Europe's ruling classes, Beatty shows, were so haunted by fear of those below that they mistook democratization for revolution, and were tempted to "escape forward" into war to head it off. Beatty's powerful rendering of the combat between August 1914 and January 1915 which killed more than one million men, restores lost history, revealing how trench warfare, long depicted as death's victory, was actually a life-saving strategy.
Beatty's deeply insightful book-as elegantly written as it is thought-provoking and probing-lights a lost world about to blow itself up in what George Kennan called "the seminal catastrophe of the twentieth century." It also arms readers against narratives of historical inevitability in today's world.
About the Author
Jack Beatty great up listening to his father's memories of serving in WWI as a sailor on a ship torpedoed in the Bay of Biscay. He is a news analyst for "On Point," the public affairs program on National Public Radio, and the author of The Rascal King: The Life and Times of James Michael Curley, Colossus: How the Corporation Changed America, and Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900. He lives in New Hampshire.
Praise For…
"Thought-provoking, and often mordantly ironic."--The New Yorker
"Beatty's achievement isn't so much in discovering new material about World War I as it is in taking apart what is known about 1914 and assembling it in a different form. We see, of course, what might have been--but more important, we see, in a different light, what was. It was a calamity."--David Shribman, The Boston Globe
"Beatty seeks to navigate the historiography of the first great conflict of the twentieth century away from the 'metaphysical no-man's land of historical inevitability' and back into the 'trenches of empiricism.'"--The New Statesman
"Beatty... captures the sweep of the events that gripped the world and illuminates the epic arrogance, the paranoia, the pettiness and the myopic self-serving views of the European heads of state who had laid the cornerstone of a conflict that would lead to the deaths of millions from Moscow to Maine."--Paul Collins, Nashua Telegraph
"Beatty has a great eye for the vivid details that reveal character...'Downton Abbey' notwithstanding, the prewar era really does seem like a lost time. Beatty manages to shed some light on that receding era."--Michael Hill, The Associated Press"THE LOST HISTORY OF 1914 brings alive much of the official world of a century ago."--Bruce Ramsey, Seattle Times
"Bold stuff...[An] exuberant and bulging rag-bag of counter-factual history that challenges the 'cult of inevitability' that Europe's war-leaders were retrospectively so eager to embrace."--David Crane, The Spectator
"[A] startling study of what Woodrow Wilson called 'an injury to civilization.'"--Eve Ottenberg, In These Times"Spritely, captivating…[Beatty's book] delivers his signature storyteller's insights. Hardly any writer working today can amass such an enormous array of information and shape it all so effortlessly into paragraph after compelling paragraph. The centennial of World War I is bound to produce a tsunami of verbiage – and, if we're lucky, some genuinely first-rate stuff. THE LOST HISTORY OF 1914…steals a march on all of them. Highly recommended."--Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly"THE LOST HISTORY OF 1914 will leave its mark on how we think about World War I and perhaps, beyond that, on how we think about history and history in the making."--Harvey Blume, The Arts Fuse


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A Chevy-Powered 3 Series
If you're an engineer at one of the Big Three car companies, and you've been a part of TV shows like Overhaulin' and Two Guys Garage, what kind of car would you wrench on in your off-time? If you said, "LS-powered BMW M3," then you must be Kevin Byrd, 'cause we're pretty sure this Bimmer is one of a kind. Here's how he built it.
Kevin had a thing for the German BMW M3. He respected its racing pedigree and loved its sporty looks, so when he had a chance to buy a clean '90 in Boston, he jumped at the chance, flew down, and drove the car home to Detroit. "I raced a 'Vette along the way—a great first road trip," Kevin says.
The E30 (that's the code used to identify '82–'94 3-series BMWs) worked as Kevin's daily driver for a few years, as he tried hard "for once in my life" not to go crazy and modify it, but he couldn't resist the call of more power, and that meant fixing some surprise rust. "The car looked good on the surface, but it had been tagged hard and repaired sometime in the past," he says. "I pretty much had to rebuild the driver side from flat sheet."
Kevin felt the GM LS3 was the perfect amount of testosterone boost for the BMW, replacing the anemic stock engine, but still light enough to take advantage of the M3's famously nimble handling. Of course, that isn't a standard swap, so everything had to be redesigned. He had to move the brake master cylinder centerline almost 4 inches to clear the V8 and fabricate a lot of one-off bracketry to make it all fit. To avoid having to contort himself in the cramped factory footwell, Kevin made a jig to work out pedal placement out in the open.
Kevin says the engine swap is what he really considers the start of the project. He bought a cammed-up LS3 from GM Performance and started pulling the M3 engine bay apart. To fit the V8 required reworking the firewall and trans tunnel, and then working side to side and front to back to make sure that HVAC, air induction, cooling, steering, Ford Hydroboost brake booster, and headers would all clear the sheetmetal and each other.
After playing a sort of automotive Tetris with the various engine-bay components, Kevin locked down the motor location and fabbed up motor mounts and a crossmember. "My strategy was to package everything as tight as possible, and then come in at the end and wrap it in the sheetmetal."
The M3 is a unibody car, so to add stiffness, Kevin grafted in a 2×2-inch box at the rockers and torque boxes to the front frame and rear crossmember. The four-point cage inside the car ties in to the boxed rails and the shock towers.
Although Kevin had a lot of fabrication experience already, the challenges of the BMW pushed him to expand his skills. "I'd built headers before," he says, "but nothing this elaborate. The stepped-down collectors have smooth transitions inside and out. The space was so tight and hard to get to, I couldn't see what I was doing—I had to reach up and feel it."
It can be tempting to strip a car completely at the very beginning of a project, but Kevin thinks it's best to resist, as a bare shell is begging for rust. "I had most of the parts fitment wrapped up before media blasting," he says. Once he was ready for real bodywork, the car was blasted, sealed, and primed.
We asked Kevin how many times the engine was in and out of the bay during the build, and he couldn't give us a number. "It took several times to get the cut-outs figured out for the oil-pan clearance alone, then the tunnel…" You can see blue painters tape around the engine bay to prevent scratches and scuffs.
In this shot, you can see the carbon-fiber hood on the primered car. The off-the-shelf piece fit so poorly that Kevin cut it apart and remade the entire underside and support structure. He worked with Kip Ewing on the composite work.
Kevin cut both front and rear fenders to make room for 18-inch BBS wheels wrapped in wide rubber and backed by Brembo brakes. Kevin says he played with lots of different shapes, looking for just the right balance between race car and factory appearance.
Kevin hated the factory rear floorpan, calling it dumpy and dinged up. He replaced the low-hanging spare-tire tub and dented floor with a custom pan and underbelly.
An engine compartment is a real weak point as far as body stiffness is concerned. Kevin added a plate to the cowl edge and tied together all the corners with joints and crossbraces.
All Kevin had to say about the hours that went into the custom oil pan on the LS3 was, "Way too much work just to hold oil."
To prove that all his hard work hadn't turned the M3 into a trailer queen, Kevin took the BMW on HOT ROD Power Tour® in 2013. He made it all the way and says the car is so fun to drive that naysayers from both the domestic and the European fan bases are completely won over. We certainly were.
Kevin was hoping to show the finished M3 at the '11 SEMA show, and he did get it painted and out to Vegas, but it wasn't until the next year that it made a real debut, complete with hood and interior.
Got Pics?
If you've built or restored your car and have documented it in pictures every step of the way, we might be able to use your story in HOT ROD. Contact us to find out. Mail: Hot Rod Start To Finish, 831 S. Douglas St., El Segundo, CA 90245. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Paw Prints
I didn't know much about raising a puppy, but my eagerness to learn was undeniable. I wanted to raise a true companion, and to give the pup all the experiences the world had to offer. My furry pal would go everywhere with me but first I had to find just the right dog.
When I went to look at a litter of Springer Spaniel puppies, Erin cried out to me. All of the puppies were yelping and yearning for my attention, but I kept noticing one little bundle of liver and white fur. She went home with me that day, and what a heavenly match it proved to be.
The first few years of Erin's life were typical of any dog's life: playing fetch, wrestling with canine pals, lounging in the sun and, of course, chasing squirrels. What wasn't quite typical, however, was Erin's calm center and ability to touch hearts.
An opportunity to work in Germany came my way and since I refused to leave her behind, Erin was onboard that flight. Our lives would change forever, and living in Europe was a dream come true. For 18 months, Erin was my constant companion and she sniffed her way across a dozen countries.
She took an Amsterdam canal boat tour, frolicked in the Swiss Alps, walked the footsteps of Alexander the Great in Greece, strolled the Heidelberg Christmas market, and wandered the World War I battlefields of Verdun, France. If dogs carried passports, hers would have needed extra pages.
Erin gained access to luxury hotels, restaurants, cafes and department stores, bowling alleys, supermarkets, trains, buses, cable cars ... she took full advantage of the access granted to dogs in Europe. If a dog was permitted indoors, Erin could be found by my side.
During her European tour, Erin melted hearts everywhere she went. Whether it was a street performer in Amsterdam, French hotel innkeeper, Croatian border guards or the multitude of American soldiers in Kosovo, they all gravitated toward her and wanted to be her friend.
When my job ended, so did Erin's adventures in Western Europe. There would be no more chasing deer in the Black Forest, munching on pancakes in an Austrian café or investigating the many Rhine River vineyards. But that turned out to be just fine, because the best was yet to come.
Back in the United States, we returned to our hometown of Savannah, Ga. Erin was 5-years-old when I realized she would make a wonderful therapy dog. Obedient and possessed of an extraordinarily even temperament, friendly demeanor and a loving, comforting nature, Erin had all the traits of a successful service animal. The certification tests posed little challenge and Erin's stint as a therapy dog was underway.
Hospice work was Erin's first job. She visited the terminally ill, adults and children alike. She brought countless smiles to the suffering, comforted grieving family members as they cried, and at times was even present when patients passed away. At these times, she provided a welcome distraction to all present.
Over the years, Erin's visits meant so much to the patients and their families. They may have been physically afflicted or depressed, but she raised their spirits, touched their hearts and gave them a moment of happiness in even the worst situations. She did her job as a therapy dog incredibly well.
Children absolutely loved Erin and the feeling was mutual. She was always available for a hug and helped them learn the gentle way to approach a dog. Kids enjoyed rubbing her long drooping ears and petting her large freckled feet. Erin never minded this attention and always responded with a broad smile, big tail-wag and kisses of her own.
Erin had an uncanny ability to disarm most people who encountered her. Gazing into her soulful, gentle eyes, even people who might not be that comfortable with dogs fell in love. Rare was the person who did not feel a connection and a tug on the heart strings.
Among those swayed by her charm were leaders of a major Savannah church, who permitted Erin to join the congregation for the morning service. She'd lie on the floor beside my feet, and often took a nap. The folks who went to church with Erin didn't mind. They knew she had already earned her angel wings and thus could skip the sermon.
The drama department approached me with the idea of letting her appear on stage in a production of The Miracle Worker. They had heard about Erin through the grapevine, contacted me and arranged an audition. She won the role of Belle, the Keller family dog, and this was very exciting for her.
I had some concerns about how she would do, but she did exactly what was required in her three scenes, and the play was a success. After each performance, when the cast lined up to greet the audience, Erin was right there alongside her costars. Hundreds of people filed by to pet her or pay a compliment. It was a proud moment for Erin and myself.
On August 16, my longtime companion and faithful friend, Erin, passed away from complications of diabetes after a brave fight. Many friends and family gathered around me, and my Facebook page was covered with wishes for comfort. The outpouring of love and affection was amazing!
So many people loved and cared for Erin, but what was really extraordinary was how much she loved everyone. She never met a stranger, everybody was a friend, and that's what really separated her from the pack. In Erin's wake are many hearts with her paw print upon them. She touched and moved people until her last moments on earth as the cremation personnel remarked upon her beauty and sweet soul.
Savannah's Historic District just isn't the same without Erin. She could be spotted having a cold bowl of water at Gallery Espresso, napping on the well-worn heart pine floor at E. Shaver bookstore, dining on an occasional snack at Zunzi's and checking out the tourists and SCAD students at Parker's Market. She loved to lounge near her human friends hoping for an occasional biscuit or kind word.
I'm still struggling to come to terms with Erin being gone, but I'm so proud of Erin's achievements—world traveler, therapy dog, church attendee and stage performer—but I take the most pride in what kind of dog she was inside. It's hard to imagine a living creature with more affection, loyalty, and passion for life than Erin.
Erin was my best friend for nearly 12 years, and her passing is a devastating loss. The pain and sorrow are often beyond belief but someday I'll find a puppy and my angel dog Erin will be alongside, reminding me of the way to train the youngster. She was an inspiration to so many and will never be forgotten. Rest in peace, my beloved Erin!!


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1. Beautiful Lines – Perfectly balanced and proportional, a Grand Banks won't be mistaken for any other trawler on the water. Compliments like, "Nice Grand Banks!" from passing boaters come often. Its classic lines are elegant and distinct, both from a distance and up close. The designers have fine-tuned aesthetic perfection; simply put, the boat just looks "right."
2. Gorgeous on the Inside – Inside a Grand Banks trawler, you aren't just staring out the windows admiring the view. After soaking up the sun on the flybridge, you come inside to find yourself surrounded by teak woodwork of the utmost quality. It's finely finished to a warm glow, creating an elegant ambience. This nautical aura is infused into whatever you choose to do indoors, whether it's sitting and chatting on the comfortable settee, cooking dinner or relaxing with a good book in the berth.
3. It's About the Journey, not the Destination – A steady seven to nine knots is the perfect pace to enjoy the wonder of the oceanscape. Faster boats are sure to pass you by, but you'll enjoy what those boaters are sure to miss: the playful dolphins frolicking in your bow wake, the glimpse of a bald eagle gracefully emerging from the mangroves, or the dynamic, colorful clouds of the early evening sky. In a Grand Banks, savor every moment, enjoy the ride.
4. Low Fuel Costs Keep you Moving – A Grand Banks trawler sips, not guzzles, its fuel. At the boat's ideal cruising speed, a 36′ Grand Banks consumes a paltry 3 gallons per hour. You can cruise for a week and the refueling cost will not break the bank.
5. Easy for a Couple to Handle – 360 degree visibility from the flybridge and full walkaround deck access takes the stress out of docking, especially when equipped with twin engines. Single-handing is possible unless the wind and current are exceptionally strong.
6. Seaworthy to Keep you Safe – Seaworthy and well built to keep you safe – Grand Banks are designed to be safer than (usually) necessary. But if you catch yourself in an unexpected storm or a change in conditions, you'll be thankful for the hull design and heavy fiberglass construction. You can be confident that a Grand Banks will return you to port safely in the types of nasty conditions that may pop up in coastal cruising.
7. Protected Running Gear Gives you Peace of Mind – Inshore ocean waters are constantly changing. Shoals emerge after a storm and charts aren't updated. Chances are you will brush against the bottom from time to time. With the protected running gear and rudder, the boat will protect itself from your mistakes.
8. You Will Sleep Well – Berths on Grand Banks are designed for sleeping. They're equipped with comfortable materials and mattresses long enough for those pushing past 6′ tall. The berths are situated low in the boat to minimize the easy motion and maintain a comfortable temperature
9. Designed for Long Term Cruising – Whether you charter for a week or are an owner who takes the yacht out for the weekend… the mechanical systems, comfort systems, and overall design will ensure your happiness and comfort.
10. The View from the Flybridge is Unmatched – Whether you're piloting through a peaceful waterway or just reached a new port, the panoramic view from the flybridge allows you to discover your surroundings on a whole new level. Admire the sun's reflection on the water, the landmarks you spot in the distance, and the beautiful lines of the yacht. You feel a light breeze in your hair, the sun's warmth on your face and the adventures ahead of you. Why would you want to be anywhere else?
Please email me at firstname.lastname@example.com to book your vacation today.
* Note: Primarily refers to 32′ to 44′ Granks Banks Trawlers.


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Google Inc(NASDAQ:GOOG) is assiduously promoting its tablet PC, Google Nexus 7, on its own home page.
It has taken advantage of the uncluttered, minimalist white architecture of its home page for running the ad for its Nexus tablet that competes with Amazon's Kindle Fire.
The ad may not always be visible but when it does, the tablet pops out of what looks like a slit on the screen. However in keeping with its creed of simplicity, there is only a line with the price above the image of the phone.
That line hyperlinks to the Google Play Store where the customer can buy the Nexus and all the other things that are available for sale.
Google rarely uses its home page to advertising anything, least of all its own products. The last time it had advertised was for its Nexus S cellphone and its Google Plus social network during its initial days.
It does use the home page for social causes or as in the case of the London Olympics to mark the major events each day.
The Google Nexus is crucial for the company in its plans to get gain a hold in the tablet PC market and reduce its dependence on Samsung, which is its biggest partner for mobile devices.
Google has seen a good response for the Nexus, especially because of its competitive pricing strategy, but Amazon which started off by launching the Kindle Fire last year, is now on the verge of releasing an upgraded version of it.
Apple will also be launching an iPad Mini and that is expected to compete directly with both Google and Amazon's products in terms of pricing and functionalities.


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Pat Travers Band's Can Do (out July 9 on Frontiers Records) sees the veteran rocker in fantastic shape, playing well, singing great, and writing some of the best material of his long career. Staying fit and doing the job is becoming the task for classic rockers who first made their mark in the seventies - some do it great, guys like Travers, Glenn Hughes, and many others, while some choose to still cling to bad habits and not minding that they're giving their fans as little for their dough as they can. Travers delivers here in spades - one of the best records of his career.
Travers has always been best known as a stellar six stringer, and while his playing on this record is a refreshing dose of pure tone and passion, it's his singing and songwriting that are blowing me away. His voice is in great shape, and he's written an album that delivers on melody and rock. I don't know what commercial even means anymore, but Travers has produced what back in the day would certainly have been called commercial - I guess that means it's filled with hooks and hits.
You can still hear the funk and Southern Rock influences that always served to remind that Travers was a product of a time when cross genre music making was a good thing, and Can Do never gets caught in the trap of being too same sounding, or relying on past tricks - a track like Waiting On The End Of Time sounds like it got steeped in New Orleans, then dipped in gooey Marshall goodness. Other times, it goes very commercial and pop without ever sounding like it panders. This all sounds incredibly organic. This is a solid return to rock, which may disappoint the blues rock crowd, but I've been waiting to hear this Travers record for a long time.
Can Do is a big sultry rocker, and an auspicious beginning. Hard rocking harmony guitars abound and the riffs are razor sharp. You immediately notice that Travers is in great voice, and is going for the throat with his vocals. The huge hooky chorus is filled with big chords and nicely layered gang vocals. The guitar solo section is straight out of the eighties classic handbook, and I mean that in the best possible way. One of my favorite hard tracks of the year, and a tremendously pleasing introduction.
Cocky guitars ring in Stand Up, and Pat's silky effected guitars bring back great memories - there are fills galore that have me on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what's next, and that never happens enough. This guy sounds like he's got something to prove, and he's proving it. More great singing, and the writing is wonderfully melodic and forceful. This sucker struts.
Things slow down and the mood changes with Diamond Girl, a melodic ballad that moves on staccato rhythm guitars and Travers' vocal melody. This is much more pop oriented than traditional PT music, but he wears it very well. Swirling synths and more grooving guitars. Nice sequencing - this record never gets caught up in any one mode, and the pacing is excellent.
Hard rock returns with power chords and slashing slide guitars that carry the vocals along on I'm With You. Travers mixes things up nicely and most of these songs are anything but one trick ponies - this cut contributes a musical interlude that intrigues, and brings in a snazzy slide solo that sticks in the brain.
Pat Travers albums always featured some very cool guitar effects, and there's some time based wizardry on the intro of Long Time Gone, another of the coolest hard rockers I've heard this season - this is the first cut that really takes me directly back to the Canadian rocker's past, rip snortin' rock 'n' roll at it's best. This harkens back to the days when guys like Travers and Rick Derringer were filling theaters and arenas with happy rockers.
Wanted (That Was Then, This Is Now) is one of the best grown up rock star songs I've ever heard - it reminds me of Ian Hunter's best looks back in time. Rock 'N' Roll growing up with dignity and beauty, Pat Travers is doing what we can all aspire to and admire - he's getting better with age. This is a classic tune that should be heard the world around. The best song Jon Bon Jovi never wrote - this one comes from the heart, and there's a huge difference.
Furious funk rock marries some serious Southern Boogie on Armed and Dangerous. More great guitars, singing, and songwriting - this one marches boldly as the guitars whipsnap around the husky vocals.
Here Comes The Rain is an unexpected cover, and while it should go over great live, I find that it slows this album down momentarily, simply because Travers' writing is more engaging and immediate. Having said that, he nails it, and there's loads of killer guitars and he sings the hell out of the song.
The guitars come out on the instrumental on Keep Calm & Carry On and the rhythm and blues rhythms are elevated to the cosmos by a wall of note bending guitars and synths - Travers sounds more confident and mature than ever as he never hurries, never rushes, he just smoothly delivers a package that keeps moving and growing - the tones are killer and the playing sublime.
Southern boogie is back with Dust & Bone, and I wish the last Aerosmith album had moved me this much - it's impossible to sit still on this one, and then Travers throws in some stratosphere seeking lead lines that thrill the hell out me. Another great vocal, and bassist Rodney O'Quinn keeps this one moving with some percolating low end.
Waiting On The End Of Time sounds like someone mixed up The Rolling Stones with The Atlantic Rhythm Section and brought in Dr John on the vocals. One hell of a cool stew, and it's all Travers - I might be begging comparisons, but be clear that this is his hour to shine. This is another instant classic - again, I wish commercial still meant commercial and this tune could be a great summertime hit. This is top down rock of the highest caliber.
Red Neck Boogie is just that and the jump is jumping - this is as close to a blues tune as Travers gets on this outing, and it's still chock full of high octane rockin'. It's actually a great way to end the album, as after almost a whole record of new world Pat Travers we're reminded that he's the same cat that snorted whiskey and drank cocaine - but he lived to tell the tale, and a few new ones to boot, and that's what mattered.
I hadn't planned on being blown away by a new Pat Travers Band album, but I'll take it as an auspicious way to start the week which will see me married - hell yes, this is a great record, certainly one of Travers' best, and one that will please a lot of guitar rock fans. Top ten on 2013, I'm guessing, and who'd have thunk? Congrats, Pat and band, on a great new record.
The Pat Travers Band is a band, but my access to liner notes is such that I can't say much except that everyone plays their asses off.


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ONE of the most difficult parts of a landscape gardener's
work is the treatment of what our grandfathers called
"pieces of water" in scenes where a purely natural effect
is desired. The task is especially hard when the stream, pond
or lake has been artificially formed; for then Nature's processes
must be simulated not only in the planting but in the
shaping of the shores. Our illustration partially reveals a successful
effort of this sort—a pond on a country-seat near Boston.
It was formed by excavating a piece of swamp and damming
a small stream which flowed through it. In the distance
towards the right the land lies low by the water and gradually
rises as it recedes. Opposite us it forms little wooded promontories
with grassy stretches between. Where we stand it is
higher, and beyond the limits of the picture to the left it forms
a high, steep bank rising to the lawn, on the further side of
which stands the house. The base of these elevated banks
and the promontories opposite are planted with thick masses
of rhododendrons, which flourish superbly in the moist, peaty
soil, protected, as they are, from drying winds by the trees and
high ground. Near the low meadow a long stretch of shore is
occupied by thickets of hardy azaleas. Beautiful at all seasons,
the pond is most beautiful in June, when the rhododendrons are
ablaze with crimson and purple and white, and when the yellow
of the azalea-beds—discreetly separated from the rhododendrons
by a great clump of low-growing willows—finds
delicate continuation in the buttercups which fringe the
daisied meadow. The lifted banks then afford particularly
fortunate points of view; for as we look down upon the rhododendrons,
we see the opposite shore and the water with its
rich reflected colors as over the edge of a splendid frame. No
accent of artificiality disturbs the eye despite the unwonted
profusion of bloom and variety of color. All the plants are
suited to their place and in harmony with each other; and all
the contours of the shore are gently modulated and softly connected
with the water by luxuriant growths of water plants.
The witness of the eye alone would persuade us that Nature
unassisted had achieved the whole result. But beauty of so
suave and perfect a sort as this is never a natural product.
Nature's beauty is wilder if only because it includes traces
of mutation and decay which here are carefully effaced. Nature
suggests the ideal beauty, and the artist realizes it by faithfully
working out her suggestions.


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Once and For All We're Going to Tell You / That Night Follows Day
Rarely have two pieces of theatre existed so tightly entwined as That Night Follows Day and Once and For All We're Going to Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen. For the past six months they have been repeatedly conflated as part of a larger discussion about the role of children and young people in theatre. Lyn Gardner has blogged about it here and here, while Brian Logan wrote a terrific feature on the pair for The Times.
Though both are performed entirely and exclusively by people under the age of eighteen, neither fits the mould of "youth theatre" as we know it in Britain. For it is not simply the taking part that counts – i.e. as extra-curricular activity – but the process as a genuine collaboration towards a product. Indeed, both are products that reach far beyond mere parental pride: they are built entirely around their performers. These are not children playing amateurishly at and adrift in an adult art-form; they own that art-form. Rather than scaled-down shortcomings of adult performers – pale imitations of professionals, ill-fitting the demands of a text – the young performers are totally integral to the pieces. Neither could function if performed by adults. Moreover, both pieces exist in close proximity to one another formally and stylistically. That the two pieces should emerge entirely independently, not only at the same time, but from the same place (Ghent, Belgium) makes them the feature writer's freebie.
Last week offered London audiences the unusual opportunity to see both pieces in quick succession. That Night Follows Day, a collaboration between Tim Etchells and Victoria, played at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of the SPILL Festival, while Ontroerend Goed (literally: Feel Estate) returned to the BAC with Once and For All….
On the criss-cross multi-coloured grid of a school gym, That Night Follows Day (TNFD) lines up sixteen Belgian children aged between eight and fourteen. They stand at the edge of the stage, arms dangling gawkily by their sides, addressing us with their eyes. Then they start to speak. They speak to us, at us and about us. Etchells' text, characteristically inexuberant in its candidness, is a list of home-truths and half-truths about adult behaviour towards children. By turns accusatory and appreciative, spinning from melancholy to humour and back, it reflects us through their eyes:
"You feed us. You dress us. You choose clothes for us. You bathe us. You lay down the law. You sing to us. You watch us sleep. You make us promises and sometimes hope we will not remember them. You tell us stories you hope will frighten us, but not too much. You try to tell us about the world."
Our words and actions bounce back at us like echoes, somehow ridiculous in this guise of objectivity. However, as a piece of text delivered, it stings even as it raises a smile. It blames us but it understands why we acted thus: that we could do no other; that all is done in reverend care of them; that we kill them with kindness. Yet the burning question remains: What gives us the right to impose our worldviews? How do we know? How did we even come to believe such things? Through this chorus of minors, we see ourselves but we also see how we became so and, in that, the real indictment is of the cycle of human behaviour unquestioningly accepted and inherited. TNFD seems a lament for what could have been had we not continually curtailed childish curiosity and stood in the way of possibilities, stamping on the what-ifs, why-nots and wouldn't-if-be-greats.
Ontroerend Goed's Once and For All… presents a similar parade, this time made up of Belgian teenagers between fourteen and eighteen. In some ways, it seems a sequel whereby placid acceptance has been supplanted by frustrated revolution.
On and around thirteen wooden chairs, mismatched and scarred, this chorus erupts into action. They flick one another with balloons, flirt, slap, nudge and wink. They scorch Barbies, snog, spit and skate. They whisper; they irritate; they observe; they hide; they go far, far too far. After about eight minutes of this, a buzzer sounds and they clear up. Then, they do it all again, exactly as before. This sequence of actions repeats in multiple styles – as ballet, as rave, as the remnants of a drug-fuelled party, as spoken text alone and entirely without performers. Each time, the soundtrack shifts – and it is this that truly draws you in – stoking up feelings of envy, of shared ebullience, of fear, of loathing, of nostalgia, of missed opportunities and of sympathy. Finally, after one of the most affecting and wholehearted texts I have heard in performance (see trailer), it doubles, even triples, in size. Plastic cups become water-cooler bottles, push-bikes become quad-bikes and commotion becomes complete, joyous pandemonium.
It is a piece that insists on tripping you up. Not once, but over and again. It forces you to look back and reconsider that which you have just seen. For while Once and For All… celebrates adolescence, it also fears for it. It revels in its recklessness and its uninhibited presence, without forgetting its insecurities and its anger; confirming clichés with one hand even as it bats them away with the other.
Curiously, both begin with offstage noise and unpeopled stages. TNFD transmits the generic sounds of a schoolyard over its speakers, while from the wings of Once and For All… scratched throats screech and balloons squeak. The effect is to conjure our own pre-existent idea of children as a starting point. We think of them as noisy inconviences, disturbances that have invaded our civilised leisure-time in a grown-up space where conventions rule and silence is golden. Yet, we are also confronted by our own willingness to group them together as an abstract idea according to age alone. Such presumptions then stand as precedent to be examined, shredded and subverted.
Indeed, when the performers traipse onto the stage – TNFD: with an attempted discipline; OAFA: untidily and unevenly – to form their respective line-ups, it is individuality that leaps to the fore. This is no surprise since, as form, the staged identity parade allows for, and even demands, comparison between performers, both as bodies presented and personalities revealed. Both casts are dressed to form a collage of colours – much like Castellucci's masses in Inferno – that provides a certainty unity through divergence. They form a chorus of individuals; distinct yet bracketed together.
Though both casts contain the same mix of the plain, the slightly odd and the beautiful found amongst the everyday populace, as part of these collections they all seem somehow better-looking, somehow more perfect. Together, the children of TNFD – some squat, some gangly, most with clunky haircuts and asymmetrical features – seem cutesy and glowing, Aryan models of childhood, adorable for all their individual quirks and oddities. In Once and For All… the teenagers, as Iona Firouzabadi wrote for Culture Wars, "look like an ad campaign: they are uniformly thin, beautiful and well-groomed." Except – when seen in isolation or offstage, when really examined and scrutinized – they don't. In part, this beautification is due to the exoticism of their looks – all perfectly European – and also the transformative power of being onstage, being present and being framed. However, presented thus, the children and teenagers become objects of fascination. In addition to being particulars, both individuals and a group, they also stand in for (perhaps represent) children or teenagers as a whole, both as 'species' and as concept, and in this they are, in no uncertain terms, different from us, the watching adults. (Theron Smidt has written about this exquisitely here.) There is a certain element of transferral at play – we project this aesthetic appeal onto them on account of their energy and their youth. Youth presented onstage so directly cannot but take us back to our own younger days; it dredges up and makes us long for our own pasts. Our nostalgia, tinged with envy, somehow transforms their collective and individual appearance.
This element of nostalgia brings us on to the adult perspective contained within process. Being directed, written and sculpted by adult hands, both pieces have a level of consciousness about and distance from the subject of youth. Though this manifests itself differently in each piece, both Ethcells and Alexander Devrient have been accused of puppeteering rather than genuinely collaborating. TNFD places an adult's script, albeit one written from a/the child's perspective, into the mouths of children. Given that the text is entirely about the manipulation of children's actions, thoughts and worldviews by adults, this adds further depth to the piece. Indeed, Etchells is too aware not to make use of it:
"You give us words to memorise. You make us stand in lines. You tell us that an actor is only a parrot saying words he cannot understand."
"You tell us that sometimes things are not as simple as they seem."
This layer is further heightened by the addition of surtitles, projected onto a blackboard above the stage, that translate the Dutch spoken by the children into English. For an English audience, meaning is further dislocated from the act of speaking. Equally, when they spring into action, they do not simply play, they embody an adult perspective on children's play that seems somehow like an edited view of a generic playground. These children do not mean what they say and do. Instead, someone else means for them to say what they say and to do what they do. (For me, the most honest moment of TNFD is the final line of arms raised to acknowledge those involved offstage. Never has the expression meant so much.)
To a certain extent the same is true of Once and For All…, which also places a text written by an adult into the mouths of its performers, albeit more sporadically. As for their actions, Devrient insists the teenagers are the authors and he the editor. Arguably, however, it is in this very editing process that Once and For All's meaning is fully created. The teenagers are told to play, to explore, to go too far when devising, from which the director harnesses actions and moments to shape into a whole that fits his own devices. Sure, the teenagers understand the piece and its aims, but they were not entirely complicit in its creation. Again, they act to convey the meaning of another.
Somehow this disruption of meaning and action adds the further problem of self-consciousness. Over the period of eight months in which I have seen Once And For All… three times, the teenagers have become more aware of their power over an audience. They have gained a higher degree of control over the piece: they understand how to manipulate it in relation to a reacting audience. They play moments for laughs, they use elements as direct confrontation. They seem to perform, even to act, where before they simply did and, in this, some of the piece's power dissolves. The same can be noticed amongst the elder children of TNFD; fourteen year olds that have become aware of the piece's workings to start to manipulate it for their own ends. With this in mind, I would suggest that manipulation is a key factor to the success of both, even that neither can function in the same way without some level of manipulation of their performers. Consciousness of self and of effect stifles the meaning of their actions.
Alongside this growth towards self-awareness is the presence of physical growth. Both pieces very consciously use a range of ages; they incorporate the crucial element of change in their view of childhood or adolescence. Thus, in TFND, there are a couple of breaking voices that could almost graduate to Once And For All…, which itself has hallmarks of childhood – braces and Barbies – in its midst. Furthermore, to see the pieces at different times is, thanks to the marks of time, a very different experience. These are pieces that can change quite shockingly as the performers seem entirely different. And, as pieces, they must reflect this. One girl in Once and For All… has gone from styling her Barbie to setting it alight – a direct rejection of her former, younger self. Indeed, arguably, the process of the piece has itself had a radical effect on those performers; it has allowed them, albeit sporadically, escape from the bounds they rail against. It has privileged them the treatment of adults, or perhaps, the teenagers that they long to be. Personally, in this, I find the teenager a more interesting species, for where the child sits between infant and adolescent, the teenager exists liminally between childhood and adulthood. They are neither one nor the other, yet – physically and mentally – they display qualities of both. The adolescent possesses a certain dynamic quality to the child's more stagnant status.
This is, I think, reflected in the dimensionality of both pieces. While both TNFD and Once and For All… are structured around a central point allowing multiple permutations, the latter seems a denser mix. TNFD remains flat – a progression of time through, in the main part, a single game of language. Once and For All… has the same progression of one game, but within each segment there exist an array of mini-games. Each of the nine or ten recreations is itself packed with different elements and it is for precisely this reason that it can be re-watched and re-discovered. Each time I have seen it, I have become more conscious of the quieter moments that sit contented in the background. While the teenager as loud, as boisterous, as revolutionary steps to the front, behind it lurks a reflection of teenage sincerity and maturity, insecurity and care. For me, while both make their mark succinctly and effectively, it is this very dimensionality that make Once and For All… the more exciting viewing experience.
Photograph: Chad Balka