text:
28 February 2006
Watching A Prosecutor Try to do Right
The woman walked up and announced that she was going to defend herself. The judge reads the charge of misdemeanor obstruction of justice and asks her how she is going to plead. "Not Guilty." The prosecutor gets a pained look on his face and asks the judge to hold everything for a minute. Then he walks the young woman away from the bench and says, "The judge's gonna find you guilty of this. Plead guilty and we'll take it under advisement for 6 months. If you don't get in any further trouble it'll go away and there won't be anything on your record." The woman looks upset, but I think I see her nod. They both walk up to the bench and the judge again asks her how she pleads. She pauses for half a second, then takes a breath, and starts crying. And not gentle sobs - nope, she's out-and-out WAAAIILLing. The judge is sitting there in shock, looking at this girl balling her eyes out four feet away and, after a couple seconds the prosecutor suggests that they pass this case over. The judge agrees and the girl bolts from the courtroom - followed by mom and dad, who were sitting on the front row of the gallery.
A little later the court is in recess and Dad is back in the courtroom. The prosecutor walks over to talk to him and Dad says something about how the girl just can't bring herself to plead guilty. I can't hear the whole conversation (and I'm not trying to eavesdrop) but I think the prosecutor makes another effort to get the family to talk her into taking the deal.
Court goes back into session and the case is called again. The girl walks up and I'm sure they've got it all squared away. The judge asks her how she's going to plead. "Not guilty." OMG. The prosecutor looks more frustrated than anything else and puts on his case. A state trooper was dealing with another young woman and was trying to get her to exit a vehicle. The other woman refused to exit her vehicle so the trooper took her by the arm and tried to remove her. At this point the other woman launched herself at the trooper and used her fingernails to gouge into the trooper's head (I remember seeing the trooper the week after this happened and he had 3" furrows in the sides of his skull). The trooper then "takes control" of the situation and handcuffs the woman. The girl on trial apparently ran up and started screaming at the trooper while he was engaged in combat with this woman and then she tried to pull her friend away from the trooper while he was trying to handcuff her. Her primary defense? "I've never seen anyone handled as roughly as he treated Joan." That was it - an open and shut case. The judge finds her guilty.
The girl starts to cry again (although more like a quiet sobbing). The judge is ready for it this time and tells her that crying isn't going to change anything. Then the judge sentences her to six months and suspends all of it.
The lesson for today boys and girls (besides hiring a defense attorney)? If a prosecutor finds that tiny corner of his heart where he hides the tendency toward mercy take the deal.
30 comments:
- Kurt Hunt said...
Since my posts about criminal law are so few and far between, I thought I would point this one out to you:
A Shake-Up in Criminal Recidivism Laws
Recent movements in California and Ohio indicate that recidivism laws may be in for an overhaul. Any thoughts on the changes, or repeat offenders in general?
- February 28, 2006
I don't see anything good about any of this. This prosecutor was just trying to sweet-talk people into pleading guilty. There may be defenses to these crimes, and maybe the proof just isn't there. Even in Virginia, which is the state that has declared that its constitution doesn't mean anything.
The "taking under advisement" deal would need to be adequately papered, and since I am a lawyer (though not on in Virginia) I would have to know more about what this means. From watching appellate opinions, it seems that such actions might come back to hurt someone in later proceedings.
Moreover, most employers I know would never hire any of these people, and this prosecutor basically ruined their lives. Trying to convince someone's family to convince them to plead guilty, is, in my opinion, a little dirty.
This prosecutor just wanted to make his life easier by beating up on a few of the kind of people that are stupid enough (or black enough) to get arrested.
- February 28, 2006
- Ken Lammers said...
Advisement would basically mean finding facts sufficient and then dropping the charge after a certain amount of time if the defendant doesn't get in any other trouble. The charge goes away: no conviction.
There was no doubt on those facts that she would get convicted in that court.
And, the girl was white.
- February 28, 2006
- Windypundit said...
Attacking a trooper and putting 3-inch scars in his head is "misdemeanor obstruction"? That sounds surprisingly mild.
- February 28, 2006
From how I read it, it wasn't the woman on trial that gouged the trooper, it was the "other" woman. The woman on trial just yelled and grabbed at him.
- February 28, 2006
- TWM said...
Of course, I am just a cop, but this girl should have done a couple months in jail. Especially after the prosecutor offered her such a sweet deal.
Yelling and grabbing at the officer while he is trying to subdue another subject(who has already seriously injured him) can get someone killed. She is luckier than she knows.
- February 28, 2006
She is only lucky if she 1) actually did it; and 2) is credible. In many jurisdictions these "obstruction" misdemeanors are often embellished, and are a headache for prosecutors to try, because the cops testimony often doesn't bear out. (I have seen cops crack after 4-5 hours of cross examination, when they can't get the details right.)
As the visiting cop above points out, she could have gotten more time. But, my guess is, that the prosecutor smelled a few holes in the cop's story.
Anyway, at my old firm, if you agreed to such a plea on behalf of a client, without vetting it with at least two other lawyers, and writing a memo on the collateral consequences you would have been fired. This girl's life is, for all intents and purposes, ruined, because 1) some cop decided he didn't like her; and 2) some prosecutor felt that the best route was compromise.
Oh, TWM, "Yelling" at officers generally isn't a crime. My guess is that the witness didn't have any physical evidence, so he wrote up a rather weak police report.
- February 28, 2006
- TWM said...
If the yelling interferes with the officer's duties it is a crime. I have had people get up in my face yelling while I was trying to perform my duties and while 99% of the time you can just ignore it, sometimes you have to deal with it by arresting the person for obstruction or whatever state law applies. This seems like one of those times.
Oh, and with all due respect, your comment about the officer arresting her in this instance because he didn't like her is, well, nonsense. You have no proof for your statement and based on the facts presented here, he was well within his legal right to arrest her. She was breaking the law by interfering with him while he was dealing with an obviously dangerous subject -- unless you think he scratched himself.
Finally, this girl's life is hardly ruined. She made a mistake and can recover from it. However, if it were ruined no one ruined it but her.
- February 28, 2006
While I wouldn't assume that the officer in this situation didn't improperly escalate the situation or embellish it after the fact, I wouldn't assume that he did either without knowing more facts and whether or not he has a history of doing this sort of thing. While police officers might not like hearing it, it DOES happen sometimes.
I also would not say that a conviction "ruins" someone's life. Heck there are states where a convicted felon can get admitted to the bar (for example a college student gets convicted of cocaine possession, gets clean, graduates, goes to law school, etc). This wouldn't happen in Virginia these days, but that is an argument for another time. From the facts presented, it appears that this lady was convicted of a misdemeanor and received a suspended sentence. It sounds more like a bump in the road of life than ruination.
- February 28, 2006
TWM, Before I conclude that you made it up, can you provide authority about how "yelling" can be a crime, "if it interferes with a police officer's duties."? This seems rather vague, as it would mean that a police officer could decide that he is doing his duty in a way that would infringe upon a person's right to get some message across.
Of course I have no proof. In fact, I don't have any proof that the prosecutor did what Ken says he did. I wasn't there. Ken could have made the whole thing up. I don't even know what town it was in. I don't know the name of the girl, the cop, or the prosecutor. However, as a practical matter, people do get arrested for misdemeanors are not the kind of people that cops like. It would seem that if the prosecutor was willing to deal so low on this case the proof was so weak because he saw that this person didn't do anything that would require a higher sentence.
Indeed, the point of having social skills is to avoid the negative attention from police or anyone.
To me, this girl's life is ruined. I would never hire her because of her arrest. If she did go to law school (unlikely since she is the kind of person that couldn't afford a lawyer, and is stupid enough to piss off a cop), it will be more difficult to get past the character and fitness exam. She probably won't be able to become a prosecutor. If I was her lawyer, my position should have been that not only should have all charges been dropped (or whatever term they call it in VA) but her record should have been expunged.
Her only mistake, it would seem, is taking the legal advice of someone (a prosecutor) that doesn't have her best interests in mind. A real person, with a real lawyer, would have not made that mistake.
- February 28, 2006
The fact is that yelling in public is often considered "boisterous" behavior and is enough to get you in trouble for disorderly conduct or something similar in most places. I'm quite the civil libertarian, but let us be honest with ourselves - you are playing with fire if you get in a cop's face- if you don't know better, you will learn eventually.
As far as this person's life being "ruined," it is pretty ridiculous to assert that a single misdemeanor conviction ruins someone's life. Granted, this lady is probably a hopelessly ignorant redneck, but the other "anonymous" doesn't know that, nor does he know if she has other convictions. If anything is going to ruin her life, it is people like him who "would never hire her because of her arrest."
The law school example was simply an illustration that having a criminal record doesn't ruin you life (it is rare, but not unheard of for convicted felons to attain bar membership in some states and a well-known public defender in CA with several heroin possesion convictions from before he received his JD just passed away). This sort of fatalistic attitude in an advocate could seriously discourage clients who must move on with their lives after a conviction.
- February 28, 2006
Well, just because it will "get you into trouble" with a cop doesn't resolve whether it is a crime or not. You know, and I know, that cops deliberately or not-so-deliberately often don't know what constitutes a crime. Unfortunately, for most people the only way to resolve what is or is not a crime is the criminal justice system, and you people don't even get definitive resolution if charges are dropped. Seeking a declaratory judgment or an injunction is beyond the reach of most.
In general, I agree with you about this person being a probable redneck. Heck, if Ken didn't prove repeatedly that he was a lawyer, I would presume him to be a redneck simply because of his address. While, of course I wish people the best for their lives, post-conviction, I am frightfully aware of the collateral consequences that people face for even minor convictions.
- February 28, 2006
- TWM said...
A simple Google search shows that just making loud noises, including yelling, is a crime in many jurisdictions. But you probably knew that.
And I just as quickly found this language defining interfering with a police officer. It's for Connecticut, but my guess is most states have similarly worded statutes.
"With respect to the first element, there are four words describing the ways interference may be committed. ''Obstructs'' means to interpose obstacles or impediments; to hinder, impede or in any manner intrude or prevent. This word and its definition does not necessarily imply the employment of direct force or the exercise of direct means. ''Resists'' means to oppose by direct, active forcible or quasi-forcible means. ''Hinders'' means to make slow or difficult the progress of. It means to hold back, to delay, impede or prevent action. ''Endangers'' means to expose to danger or harm."
You can call that vague I suppose, but it seems to me that "obstructs" could and probably does include yelling at an officer under certain conditions. It's all in how you articulate it.
Oh, and she didn't take the legal advice of the prosecutor. Had she done so her record would have been clean in six months.
And while is is true that many cops don't know what constitutes or does not constitute a particular crime, it has been my experience that many attorneys don't either.
Mr. Lammers being a notable exception, of course.
- February 28, 2006
Dear Mr. Cop,
The Connecticut statute you provided did not specify yelling. You also didn't cite to any caselaw which allowed someone to be convicted under that statute for yellowing at an officer of the law. I generally don't use Google, because too many publications from non-lawyers are found there, and it therefore useless. But, to humor you, I did do a Keycite of that statute on Westlaw, and found no reported cases where a yeller was convicted under that statute, especially in view of a rather strong protection for must forms of speech, including telling a police officer that he is an idiot and a waste of taxpayer money. (I have suggested that the constitution be amended to provide no protection to people that criticize the police or government bureaucrats, teachers, politicians, and the Department of Motor Vehicles, but people were more interested in an anti-gay marriage amendment, so criticism of the police, even in loud form, remains protected.)
Does this mean that what you "think" is the law is incorrect? Perhaps.
While it may be true that police and attorneys differ as to what constitutes a crime, the positions that lawyers take in court on behalf of their clients, are not an example of what the "know" to be a crime or not. Instead, they are an offered interpretation of the law, which the court may or may not accept. As you know, the police are not the final arbiter of what constitutes a "crime." The courts are (insomuch as they must interpret the language of the statute, and reconcile conflicting statutes and constitutions). So, while you might say that a given lawyer doesn't "know" what the law is, you really mean to say that you either disagree with him, or a court later disagreed with his proposed interpretation.
This issue is a little nuanced, sine in many situations, the "law" isn't at all clear, and even when the courts rule on it, there is a question of whether certain state actions were void from the beginning, or whether simply enforcement has been suspended. As we now know, a state can't prohibit black people and white people from marrying each other (unless marriage as a whole, is abolished in that state.) However, for the longest time it was assumed that the constitution didn't allow Virginians to marry people of certain races. (Though minorities could intermarry under Virginia's statute.) Then one day someone challenged this. You, as a cop, would probably loudly declare that those lawyers and litigants "didn't know the law." But, ultimately it was determined that the state was wrong, and, in fact, it "didn't know the law."
The sad part about this is that while courts usually have the luxury of time, police usually have to make quick decisions.
- February 28, 2006
I think that this cop might not be telling the truth. He cites C.G.S.A. § 53a-167a, but he should have realized that the Connecticut Supreme Court, in State v. Brocuglio, 264 Conn. 778, 826 A.2d 145 (2003), specially held that there is a common-law privilege to resist illegal search, and therefore a conviction under this statute (in addition to another statute) was invalid. The cop should have mentioned it. Now I don't know whether I will ever be able to trust a cop again. In State v. William, 205 Conn. 456, 534 A.2d 230 (1987) the court upheld a conviction under this statute, but noted that the conduct must only be be "intended to obstruct the police in the performance of their duties." The court explained that the statute isn't vague, because… "To avoid the risk of constitutional infirmity, we construe § 53a-167a to proscribe only physical conduct and fighting words that " ' "by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace." ' "" Therefore, contrary to the words of this officer that claims he knows the law better than lawyer, there needs to be an intend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.
I can only wonder why this cop, that cited a Connecticut statute, didn't mention this caselaw? Did he do it negligently or deliberately? Why? I feel betrayed. I am sure it was just a mistake. I hope.
- February 28, 2006
- Ken Lammers said...
Please stop the "cop" stuff. Disagreements, yes. Rudeness in the discussion, please avoid.
- February 28, 2006
- Ken Lammers said...
For everyone's knowledge:
If the young woman had taken the prosecutor's offer he would not have gotten a conviction if she didn't get into trouble for 6 months and neither would she. It would have gone away. Anyway, it's my understanding that the number of convictions credited to a prosecutor's office in Virginia are only the felonies.
The obstruction didn't need to reach the issue of her speech. She tried to pull her friend away from an officer who was trying to handcuff the friend.
- February 28, 2006
- TWM said...
One of you two "anonymous" guys asked me to provide "authority" that yelling can be a crime if it interferes with a police officer's duties. We all know yelling can be a crime under certain noise and disorderly conduct laws, so let's just concentrate on the interference.
You did not ask me to cite a law that specified yelling at a cop in and of itself is a crime so I did not even look for one. I looked for statutes that defined interferring and the CT statute I did cite is broad enough to INCLUDE yelling in my humble opinion. Certainly it does not exclude yelling.
My interpretation of that particular statute is that yelling COULD be considered interfering under certain circumstances. For example, if I am trying to arrest someone and his friend gets in my face and starts yelling at me and as a result it makes it harder for me to make the arrest (urging his friend to resist, etc.), well, then, that seems to fit obstructing in that statute. If the guy was yelling from across the street then no, it probably would not, although if he was urging the guy to fight I might just argue that it would.
One of you cited the following:
"In State v. William, 205 Conn. 456, 534 A.2d 230 (1987) the court upheld a conviction under this statute, but noted that the conduct must only be be "intended to obstruct the police in the performance of their duties." The court explained that the statute isn't vague, because… "To avoid the risk of constitutional infirmity, we construe § 53a-167a to proscribe only physical conduct and fighting words that " ' "by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace." ' ""
Maybe I am misreading this, but doesn't that mean just what I said? It certainly seems to mean exactly what I meant anyway.
I don't have access to Westlaw or a big legal library so pardon me for using the only research tool I had at the moment. Still, from what I have seen so far, I haven't been proven wrong. Besides what I quoted was certainly written by a lawyer. Why else would it be so hard for a layperson to undertand?
And I never claimed to know the law better than a lawyer. I wouldn't presume to, although many lawyers claim to know police work better than the police.
And, Ken, I don't mind them calling me a cop. Although actually I am a fed and most street cops would not claim me, I am proud to be called one.
- February 28, 2006
- TWM said...
Again, through Google, I found this very interesting discussion on "fighting words" at the First Amendment Center.
While it is a different matter from what I was talking about -- interfering with an officer's duties -- it does allow for the criminialization of fighting words even towards a police officer. Narrowly but still.
- February 28, 2006
Seriously, officer, stop using Google and become a lawyer the rest of us.
If you were a lawyer, would have known that the Supreme Court expressly said that police cannot be provoked (because they are trained and such) and therefore the "fighting words" doctrine isn't applicable. (I think the original posters left this out on purpose to see if you would take the bait.) Anyway, in City of Houston, Tex. v. Hill, 482 U.S. 451 (1987), the court held that "the First Amendment protects a significant amount of verbal criticism and challenge directed at police officers. "Speech is often provocative and challenging•••• [But it] is nevertheless protected against censorship or punishment, unless shown likely to produce a clear and present danger of a serious substantive evil that rises far above public inconvenience, annoyance, or unrest." Terminiello v. Chicago, …(1949). In …Lewis v. City of New Orleans, 415 U.S. 130,… (1974), for example, the appellant was found to have yelled obscenities and threats at an officer who had asked appellant's husband to produce his driver's license. Appellant was convicted under a municipal ordinance that made it a crime " 'for any person wantonly to curse or revile or to use obscene or opprobrious language toward or with reference to any member of the city police while in the actual performance of his duty.'" Here is your full text of the case: http://www.justia.us/us/482/451/case.html
Probably most of the "fighting words" doctrine in Chaplinksy has fallen into disfavor, except amongst those who insist that everyone else is uttering "fighting words" by saying things they don't like.
Anyway, I sure hope that that trashy girl conviction would have stood up under Hill. If not, the prosecutor tricked her. But maybe she deserved it and she seems uneducated, which in many families is a crime.
- March 01, 2006
- TWM said...
Seriously, counselor, stop being so condescending to those of us who chose not to go to law school and instead got a Masters degree, became an officer in the United States Air Force, worked criminal, counterintelligence, and anti-terrorism operations and investigations for 12 years, travelled the world and now work as a civilian federal agent.
I tell you my background only to point out that being a lawyer isn't the be-all and end-all of existence as you seem to believe. Nor does it make you, an attorney, the only person capable of offering an opinion on a criminal law matter. So you can stop flashing your diploma, okay? I get it. You are an attorney. Esquire and all that.
That being said, the link I provided showed that while the fighting words doctrine has been narrowly defined by the Supremes it did not do away with it altogether -- even when directed at a police officer. If you actually read the information at the link you would see that.
And even if they do, it still does not make false my assertion that yelling at an officer can be inteferring under certain circumstances. Certainly some of the statutes are written broadly enough to include that possibility and I suppose it is up to you, counselor, to argue that it does or does not apply depending on which table you are sitting at in court.
At any rate, it is obvious that I am simply out of my league being the slouch that I am so I will leave this argument to the legal professionals.
Ken, I apologize for sullying the hallow halls of justice.
- March 01, 2006
- Ken Lammers said...
I've only had one case wherein an officer arrested a client purely for his speach. They had a confrontation and he yelled a string of obscenities at the officer from across the street. The officer arrested him.
The case was thrown out at trial because the words alone were not enough. The test was whether the officer believed, in good faith, that the words would provoke violence. On cross the officer admitted that he was too much of a professional to let Client provoke him into throwing a punch and nobody else was around. The judge didn't like it but he had to dismiss.
- March 01, 2006
- Windypundit said...
Wow, I wish I could capture people who say mean things to me. That would be cool!
- March 01, 2006
TWM, Neat. You were in the Air Force, too. But, I don't understand why I should regard your comments any differently because of what you did in the past. Giving me your resume doesn't make you smarter, or your arguments any more correct. In the future, I would urge you never to use Google. It is a dirty search engine.
Anyway, in my family (and in the families out there that "matter") being an attorney is, indeed, the be-all-and-end-all of existence. I know it sounds a little crude, but if someone in my family got past 30 without a law degree, they would be disowned. This is why this country is, and always will be run by lawyers, no matter what political party the lay people voted for.
While some legislatures like to play around with writing statutes that criminalize all kinds of things, the "law" (that is, the commiestitution) doesn't let them do this.
Ken (and others) , The cross you saw was basically an attempt to fit the case into the Supreme Court's dicta, which essentially said, "police shouldn't be the type of people that would be provoked into anything."
But, I agree with Windypundity. It would be cool to put people in jail that make me angry. I would conduct mass arrest of people at Jimmy Buffet concerts, because those people are bad.
- March 01, 2006
- TWM said...
Sheesh, let's forget the legal issues here and just have you talk about your ego. It certainly would guarantee Ken the longest comment section in history.
One would almost think you were a doctor.
- March 01, 2006
- Ken Lammers said...
Nope. We'll probably never see doctors here. If you've ever seen the look that doctors give someone when they find out he's a lawyer you realize they don't want to be within 20 miles of us. ;-)
- March 01, 2006
- Steve Armstrong said...
I know it isn't right, but in my years on the street, I saw many a potty-mouth go to jail for "contempt of cop". Now, once they got to trial... well, that's a different story. Most of the charges were either nolle prossed or dismissed, or reduced.
- March 01, 2006
Indeed, the bald eagle sheds cries every time someone is arrested for "contempt of cop." By now officers of the law should know that merely when someone is rude to them, or tells them what they think, they have not committed a crime. Indeed, many think that such arrests, in their aggregate do more damage to democracy than 9/11.
- March 01, 2006
I don't know whether this was a contempt-of-cop charge or a legit interference/obstruction charge (the allegations do appear to involve real, but minor, interference). Regardless, the girl probably should have taken the deal (with the help of a lawyer) to keep a clean record.
I wonder, however, whether the prosecutor even considered just dropping the charges? The offense was relatively small, and the girl had obviously already been subjected to a difficult and onerous experience. Maybe that in itself was enough punishment? Given that the sentence was (predictably for a minor first offense) suspended, the only difference between dropping the charges and not was the (vast) set of collateral consequences accompanying conviction.
She may have been dumb to act as she did (both with the cop and with the prosecutor), but does that justify branding her as a convicted criminal? Was she punished for her crime, or for her refusal to submit to the system? Was the prosecutor afraid that dropping the charges in any obstruction case would result in blowback from the police? Although the girl appears to have had some trouble acting in her own best legal interest, I have lingering questions about whether justice was really served here.
- January 08, 2009
I think your anons here were being willfully ignorant and trolling. Especially when their disagreement is based on taking TMWs remarks and deleting the part that makes it matter, they wanted to get into a fight about yelling, but TWM said "Yelling and grabbing at the officer", not just yelling.
Of course what had happened:
"she tried to pull her friend away from the trooper while he was trying to handcuff her."
From the Virginia code § 18.2-460 - Obstructing justice :
A. If any person without just cause knowingly obstructs ... any law-enforcement officer in the performance of his duties as such ... he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Having "never seen anyone handled as roughly" is not just cause, it is evidence of the person's lack of experience.
But hey, what do I know, I didn't get my law degree before 30. I just know that under the plain reading of the law she was guilty as hell with the facts presented. She should have taken the deal and walked away ecstatic.
- July 02, 2010


text:
Part 1 of our journey from today's New Testament back in time to Jesus looked at the problems of translations, canonicity, and finding the best copies. The next problem to crossing this gulf is textual variants. There are 400,000 differences between the thousands of New Testament copies—more differences than there are words in the New Testament. Almost all are insignificant, but thousands of meaningful differences remain.
Historians use several tools to resolve these differences:
- Criterion of Embarrassment. Of two passages, which one is more embarrassing? We can easily imagine scribes toning down a passage, but it doesn't make sense for them to make it more embarrassing. The passage that is more embarrassing is likelier to be more authentic. For example, different copies of Mark 1:40–41 has Jesus either "moved with compassion" or "moved with anger" (for more, see the NET Bible comment on this phrase). A copyist changing compassion to anger is hard to imagine, but the opposite is quite plausible. The Criterion of Embarrassment would conclude that "moved with anger" is the likelier original reading.
- Criterion of Multiple Attestation. A claim made by multiple independent sources is preferred over one in a single source.
In addition, a contested passage in an older manuscript is preferred, the one contained in more manuscripts is preferred, and so on.
Notice that these tools need multiple manuscripts to work. They ask: given two manuscripts with different versions of a particular passage, which is the more authentic one?
Consider the long ending of Mark, for example. Given a manuscript of Mark ending with verse 16:20 (version A) and a manuscript ending with 16:8 (version B), the historians' tools can be applied to determine which is the likely older and more authentic version. But what if you don't have multiple versions? Suppose we only had Mark version A, with no copies of B and no references to it. Scholars wouldn't even know to ask the question!
Consider the three most famous of these embarrassing scribal additions: the long ending of Mark, the Comma Johanneum (the only explicit reference to the Trinity in the Bible), and the story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery. Apologists will argue that these are neither embarrassing nor problems because they've been resolved. We know that they weren't original. But this is true only because historians happen to be lucky enough to have competing manuscripts without these additions. For what added biblical passages do we not have correct manuscripts to make us aware of the problem?
There are consequences. Pentecostal snake handlers trust in the long ending tacked onto Mark ("In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new languages; they will pick up snakes with their hands, and whatever poison they drink will not harm them"). What additional nutty demands in our New Testament do we not know are inauthentic?
Of several manuscript categories, our oldest complete copies are Alexandrian manuscripts, including the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus mentioned in the last post. That's not because they're necessarily better copies but because they were preserved better. The dry conditions of Alexandria, Egypt preserved manuscripts better than many other places where New Testament documents were kept—Asia Minor, Greece, or Italy, for example. We accept these manuscripts simply because anything that might refute them has crumbled to dust, which is not a particularly reliable foundation on which to build a portrait of the truth.
Read the first post in the series here: What Did the Original Books of the Bible Say?
Next time: The Bible's Dark Ages
Photo credit: Wikipedia

subset: commoncrawl


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OMG people. O.M.G. That seems to be the only appropriate thing to say over this one.
For the last several years, I've been working hard to work out regularly and eat right. I've been doing well for almost three years now thanks to 5+ days a week of exercising and daily logins with MyFitnessPal.com. But this past Thanksgiving weekend reminded me of how quickly we can fall from healthy habits and how much they can totally derail your best laid plans.
So I stepped on the scale this morning. I weigh in once a week mid-week, anywhere from a Tuesday-Thursday. I will admit to peeking over the weekend as I must be some sort of glutton for punishment. The day after Thanksgiving I had gained 3.5 lbs already since my weigh in four days before. But I laughed it off and figured it was Turkey day bloating and it would pass.
Today as I got ready to step on the scale, I had a feeling it would be bad. I'm still feeling gross from Thanksgiving. I stepped on and…. wait for it… shouted aloud when I saw I have gained 7 lbs in a week's time.
I deserve some sort of medal for that, right? Like, that's a feat of epic proportions? I've pretty much gained an entire mashed potato and gravy newborn baby in 7 days. It feels pretty disgusting. Who does that?
How about you guys?
Absurd. Not eating. Ever again.
But for real, I'm back on track and eating right and am posting this because I want to read it the week before Christmas so I can remind myself not to chow down. Not worth it for sure – nothing tastes that good and it makes me feel like crap afterwords! Do you hear me Christmas Eve Whitney??!!


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3 Black Friday Winners
The numbers are in, and this year's Black Friday was a hit with shoppers. According to the National Retail Federation, 89 million people joined in the mayhem this year, up from 86 million in 2011. For the broader holiday weekend, a record 247 million people shopped either online or at stores, as compared with 226 million last year. With positive macro trends like that, there's plenty of cheer to spread around.
Here a few of the biggest winners from retail's biggest weekend.
1. Web retailers
True to form, online sales were up huge this year. IBM, in its Smarter Commerce report, said that e-commerce sales grew by 17% on Thanksgiving and 21% on Black Friday itself. According to comScore, Black Friday spending topped $1 billion online for the first time.
That bodes well for major online stores such as Amazon.com (NAS: AMZN) and eBay (NAS: EBAY) , which drew a bigger audience than ever over the weekend. But all that extra revenue may come attached to a profit pinch. While total sales were up, online shoppers spent a bit less on average this year. Customers also ordered fewer items compared with last year, thanks to free shipping deals that lowered the bar on minimum purchase requirements.
2. Department stores
Department stores were also major winners over the Black Friday weekend. The National Retail Federation says 53.5% of shoppers visited one this weekend, up from 48.7% last year. Customers were pulled in to department stores by large discounts and time-sensitive deals. They also shopped those retailers online, contributing to a 17% jump in department-store online sales.
That should be welcome news to struggling companies J.C. Penney (NYS: JCP) and SearsHoldings (NAS: SHLD) . As they grapple with declining sales, both need to log a big holiday quarter if they want to stay relevant with consumers.
3. Mobile shopping
Mobile devices surged in popularity as shopping tools this year. Almost a quarter of online sales over the weekend came from mobile devices, up big from last year's 14.3%. Mobile purchases accounted for 16% of sales this year, up from less than 10% in 2011.
And that's great news for Apple (NAS: AAPL) . The company's iPad accounted for 10% of all online shopping traffic, beating out the iPhone's 8.7% and Android's 5.5%. Considering the iPad's much smaller install base, heavy usage of the device now could portend further sales gains for Apple down the line.
With a strong Black Friday behind us, companies aimed to keep that solid momentum going as virtual shopping carts filled up in today's Cyber Monday.
J.C. Penney has been a train wreck whose comeback always seems just around the next earnings corner, but people are beginning to doubt whether CEO Ron Johnson can weave the same magic he did at Apple. For investors wondering whether J.C. Penney is a buy today, you're invited to claim a copy of The Motley Fool's new must-read report on the company. Learn everything you need to know about J.C. Penney's turnaround -- or lack thereof -- and as a bonus, you'll receive a full year of expert guidance and updates as key news develops. Simply click here now for instant access.
The article 3 Black Friday Winners originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Demitrios Kalogeropoulos owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Amazon.com. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Apple, Amazon.com, and eBay. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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The new book by Paul Springer and Mel Carson (@digipioneers), Pioneers of Digital, Success Stories from Leaders in Advertising, Marketing, Search and Social Media, may seem too early of book to write.
Business benefits from cloud platforms are just dawning, right?
Well, the book's scope and timing are more than on track. While a nod is given to the earliest of computer innovators such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Pioneers of Digital showcases 20 digital professional luminaries whose choices and outcomes are changing the face of how small business is getting done. I picked the book up while perusing NetGalley online, attracted by its promise of remarkable profiles. It was a promise well kept.
Springer and Carson have combined experiences that compliment the men and women they selected to honor. Springer, author of Ads To Icons, is head of Research & Postgrad Development for the Faculty of Design Media & Management at Buckinghamshire New University in the UK. Mel Carson was a key figure at Microsoft Advertising as a Digital Marketing Evangelist and is currently writing and speaking about online advertising.
Although a few people noted may be familiar to those who spend countless hours at a Web browser, many are unknowns representing regions as varied as the industries the authors selected. The result from reading the book is a broad perspective that shows how organizations can best apply technology to strategic advantage.
For example, Thomas Gensemer represented a cause–centered online funding campaigns, instrumental in raising $600 million for President Barrack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. He learned from fail-fast experiences, like the quote below, about Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. Lessons that made Obama's online fundraising tactics a political game changer:
"Despite not winning elections with (Howard) Dean and (General) Clark's Presidential campaigns, they provided valuable lessons. One lesson included keeping all correspondences up to date. After one campaign, Gensemer discovered a mailbox filled with unread e-mails that were responses to a feedback link…From this Gensemer learned not to create opportunities for people to engage if you can't service them…."
Analytic practitioners should love that perspective, as well as the treatment given to Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0. Other standouts include June Cohen, who lead the team that grew the well-known TED videos. And Vanessa Fox, an ex-Googler who was influential in the Web development solution, Webmaster Tools.
Many of these leaders come from startup environments that can seems more akin to Silicon Valley than to Main street. But the profiles are well organized so that reading does not require drudgery. Each segment starts with a brief bio and ends with three "sound bytes" – takeways and insights from the featured pioneers. Sandwiched between bios 'n' bytes are career descriptions as well written as a good novel and as intriguing as watching your favorite band on a VH1 Behind The Music episode (though without video or music, but that is a nit pick).
I adored reading Vanessa Fox's story, an intriguing mix of math and linguistics that spurred her early reputation for computer user interface. Her viewpoint of linking online with offline activity showed promise in 1995, way before a user interface was in vogue:
"By combining her love of writing with her new found technical know how, she was able to start improving user experiences by helping make connections which today might seem so obvious, but in 1995 didn't exist because most programmers simply didn't think that way. A traditional offline staple like printing collateral to take to an event was elevated to a whole new level by digitalm, "Some of us started thinking there was so much more we can do. We could host conference brochures online just in case we run out at an expo. We could make it so you could link between different ones and maybe you wouldn't need to print them at all."
Another worthwhile story is Gurbaksh Chahal, a multi-millionaire before the age of 30 through creating Web agencies ClickAgents and BlueLithium. His profile highlights the importance of good business practices over being enchanted over the newest tech:
"I remember March 2009 when the Dow hit 6600, people thought it would go to 5000. Fast forward to now…and you have a birth of companies trying to do what the original dotcom companies did in the first boom…but they have no idea how to even generate revenue let along profit…It's incentivizing the wrong type of entrepreneur and creating the wrong type of business. It's basically trying to go ahead and flip to the greater tool, and that is not a real business."
From these kinds of profiles, readers will gain an overall gimpse into similarities and differences that matter in entrepreneurship. Many of these profile pioneers were hands-on and self-learners – not so much self-made as much as a personal realization that the learning never stops. That perspective is understandably integral to digital-related industries, but Pioneers of Digital makes the mantra a living one in the professional lives shared.
Readers interested in social media or seeking interesting business people for professional inspiration will be more that satisfied. Pioneers of Digital has an approach that reminds me of Jewels, a book on African American women and their professional lives. But for fun tech history reading, combine this book with Bricklin on Technology, a homage to tech from the "Godfather of spreadsheets," Visicalc founder Dan Bricklin.
Ultimately read Pioneers of Digital to know what it takes to truly stand out in your field.


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The day after a 5:5 star gate in this wondrous master intuitive 11 year produces more fireworks in the form of a master builder 22 day. We have so many 22 energy days this year with the daily energies of 11 combining with the 11 year. Some years might produce 22 energies in more hidden ways, but this 11 year is putting those master intuitive and master builder energies front and center. Think of how many children are born into the world every day; many are absorbing these intense energies of masterful intuition and masterful expansion into their energy fields and life purposes. What will we do to honor their missions today? Begin simply by witnessing and appreciating the interconnectedness of all things. Find the nexus in your mind-heart that projects the universe you see before you, and feel yourself beaming out into the everything. That is you creating the space for the new world these incoming beings will inhabit. That is you building heaven on earth with your heart. The mind and hands will follow the heart, as it is the natural order of this millennium. So make the space and be the architect of our evolution. The New Moon in Taurus conjunct Sedna occurs just before Uranus enters Taurus. This will be a 22 day for the ages.
My name is Jameson (1+1+4+5+1+6+5=23=5) and as an identity abundant in 5 energy, it's my pleasure to welcome you to the beautiful, expansive energies of the fifth month of May. But Jameson, you may say: By your own logic, May is not a 5 energy at all. May (4+1+7=12=3) asserts itself as a spiritually catalytic identity, a 3, and that is worthy of note. In a dualistic universe, nothing is ever "one" thing except everything, so for the purposes of divination through numerology, it's important to consider all factors associated with any given concept. It is the dynamic between these factors that defines the energy of the moment.
Let's set that thought aside for now. For practical purposes, we will discuss May as a 5 energy. 5 denotes the month in the coded date itself, and as numerologists, we're interested in how the codes we discover in this universe divine the meaning of the moment for us personally and collectively. Identity is meaningful, but identity doesn't have a direct and measurable effect out in the physical world. If 3 is the identity May wears, 5 is the measure by which May operates in this space-time reality, and that energy is building off the catalytic 3, our number of Original Cause, connecting (2) us to the fulcrum of the original cycle of 9, the midpoint from which our beginnings and endings are equally visible with our newly shifting perspectives. The 5 energy asserts a dynamic system of identity (3) in the midst of the creative process, utilizing connection (2) to manifest diverse identities (masculine/feminine, light/dark) interacting in developing harmony (6). 5 is not harmonious; it is the necessary step before harmony is achieved. It is a vital ingredient and precursor to our understanding of harmony.
1 begets action and new beginnings. 2 asserts the realities of receptivity, connection, and opposition. 3 takes the observer's stance of these 2 preceding identities and creates the system of catalytic introspection and inner diversity that defines a spiritual being. As 3 moves into 4, we have physical manifestation and the foundation of physical creation. We have space. We have separate bodies, but only a singular spiritual identity has fully developed from this series of numerical identities thus far.
After 4, this is where the 5 energy asserts itself. 5 defines the indwelling masculine, expansive energy of the bourgeoning feminine identity (6). It is the active feminine, the masculine connective counterpart to the receptive, feminine 2 (and also elucidated by the decimal expression of ½, .5, or inner development leading to evolution of identity/value–in this example, you'll notice that a single digit, 1, is necessarily comprised of masculine, feminine, and spiritual essence, and so it is true of every one of us). The 5 energy is the creative force, the essence of pleasure, pain, and physical movement itself, the emotional dynamic between fear and fun/love, and the tipping point between beginning and completion. It is evolutionary, and it commands our attention through displays of physical force. It communicates the needs of the counterpart to instigate interactions where there is, temporarily, an uneven exchange of specific types of energy, and it defines the remaining minority of factors that are required to finalize a process. It consults with the space afforded by the 4 energy, and it adds time to the mix, with varied results.
Doesn't that all feel very much like May? How do we typically associate with May? In the northern hemisphere, May is still a distinctly spring vibe, but we're not talking the first musings of warmer weather that typically show up around March. No, May is the month where you truly feel spring in the air, and the possibility of summer is just around the corner. That said, the weather extremes only become more noticeable—you may not question the occasional blizzards or unseasonably warm days in March, but by May, a blizzard may feel like a slap in the face, and you may be anticipating that first 80 degree day with bated breath.
That is the 5 energy at work. After the energy of the 4 firmly plants itself in the earth, the energy of 5 is decidedly physical in nature, with an anticipatory flair. We experience contrast fully on this wave, comparing all that came before with all that is coming next while feeling ourselves in the midst of all that has been, is, and will be created. We experience change, growth, and evolution personally and collectively through exchange, communication, and activity. If March produces the buds and April watches them sprout, May puts the "petal" to the "mettle", so to speak; we see the shape of the Tree of Life take its form, and what comes next is determined by our reaction to the manifestation at hand. Makes sense, as Taurus, represented by the symbol of the Tree of Life in Cosmic Consciousness, leads the energies of May before effervescent Gemini, the 5 o'clock hour in the Cosmic Consciousness Clock, takes the baton and moves us from Conscious Obedience into the energy of Conscious Wisdom, symbolized by the Diamond. Learning to receive in gratitude evolves our feminine wisdom and substantive strength.
Take in all the wonders of the natural world this month, the trees and stones, the earth and air. Watch the seasons change in earnest as the promise of spring gives way to actual spring and summer, and bask in the 5 energy, the idealistic notion of eternal progress. 5 is the harbinger of the 6 energy, the introduction to the notion of equality amidst diversity through necessary change and adaptation. 5 gives you the gift of precognition, but it asks you to be here now. May asks you to go out in the world and interact with it, change (5) it as you see fit, all the while knowing that each action produces spiritual catalysis (3), instigating further change in the physical realm. In this masterful 11 year, the 5 month puts the spiritually catalytic May (3) on the spiritual path itself (11+5=16=7) through action supported by diverse harmony. The change within will be reflected in the change without.
Cosmic Numerology for the year 2018
This is the second master intuitive year of the new millennium. 2+0+1+8 =11, and 11 is not reduced when practicing numerology, necessarily. 11 is the number that reflects the nature of our dualistic universe, the mirror that exists in each individual's perception of the reality we share. It is the elevated 2; numerologically equal in value, but illustrative not only of connection but of activity and receptivity in one definable unit, illustrative of the true nature of consciousness, a collection of identities or archetypes within a cohesive system, one beside another, all serving a divine purpose, defining order amidst seeming chaos.
So if this is the second master 11 year of the millennium, that begs the question: How was your 2009 (2+0+0+9=11)? Let me tell you a little about mine:
In 2009, I graduated with high honors, receiving my bachelor's degree at the age of 25; I was a bit late to receiving my degree compared to many people my age. I was nevertheless very proud of the accomplishment. I had earned my degree by way of pursuing a triple major in literature, creative writing, and psychology, in the face of what many considered a crippling mental illness. Despite severe bipolar disorder and a slew of medications that altered my perceptions and personal gifts immeasurably, I persevered and accomplished something I wasn't sure I could. And unfortunately for me, I did so just in time to watch my country's economy crash. Turns out, when the shit hits the fan, English and psychology majors aren't exactly in high demand out there in the U.S. economy, though in all fairness, most of my friends graduated into similarly dire circumstances, regardless of our educational pursuits.
Do you remember 2009? It was a personally polarizing year, by my estimation, but how about collectively? Do you remember the U.S. swearing in its first black president, the 44th president Barack Obama (let's just remember that derivatives of 11 are likewise not reduced to put that number in perspective), a moment that brought tears of joy to so many of us who grew up in a racially divided world? Do you remember the backlash to his administration, the huge political demonstrations, the polarization of the electorate in response to his campaign's resounding victory, which then called the resounding victory into question as the administration seemed to collapse under the weight of the expectations placed upon it?
Yeah, me neither. I remember drinking myself stupid in my parents' basement, feeling sorry for myself. I remember searching for jobs in the morning, getting tipsy in the afternoon, and trying to come up with some excuse for my miserable existence in the evening while pretending to be sober enough to carry on reasonably intelligent conversations with my parents, who were kind enough to house me during some very uncertain times, personally and collectively. I remember my determined atheism, my persistent depression and substance-fueled mood swings, my endless confusion.
Many people will be dwelling in these themes this year, and not all will come out with a smile on their faces, as I did. 11 isn't an especially kind number to the resistant, if we're looking at this from a 3D perspective. It is the number of enlightenment, and enlightenment can come in the form of revelatory bliss or agonizing disintegration. It is not for the faint of heart.
But there is good news, folks.
As a life path 11, I can tell you that working with the energies of 11 becomes a privilege once you recognize what is being asked of you, and that is total surrender. That is a request on behalf of God, the Universe, that can only be answered by the emerging Divine Feminine energies that represent the new order of this millennium. In the year 2000, I lost my mind, and the only company I had left was my broken heart. The energies of 11 rebirth the heart like a phoenix from the ashes and teach you to live through the heart, where truth enters the physical plane, rather than the mind, where darkness resides, coloring in the shadows that determine our perception of depth in the physical world and create the stories that inform our worldly interactions.
2009 sent a shockwave across the Earth. Find your heart, and begin to live through it, was the request. It is the test and the trial of our times. Many of us intuitively answered the call, some of us (like me) stumbling there in the midst of our pain. 2012 would mark the end of an epoch, the Kali Yuga, and there would not be much time to heed the call before the energies sealed our fates a few years later, either way.
We are still here, in these intense times of transition, and this second master intuitive year asks you to connect with the energies of the first to produce a new conscious identity that will cohere the expanse of the human collective. We are overseeing this birthing process now, as Stephanie Azaria has evidenced for us in her daily analysis of the planetary behaviors.
Let's back up a bit. So how will this master 11 year present differently than 2009?
Well, for all you astrology fans out there, I have a way of conceiving of this distinction. Imagine the most dynamic connections you can find in a chart. You might argue that these would be the four corners: stepping stones/squares and bridges/oppositions. Makes sense numerologically. These angles produce a 9 energy, the completion of a cycle, and are made more dynamic by the involvement of the 0 Prime Creator energy supporting the essence of the angle. Stepping stones give us a 90 degree angle, represented by the combination of the 9 and 0 energies. Bridges give us 180 degree aspects, also delivering us to a 9 energy through the 1, 8, and 0. Seeing some numbers in common with our first two master intuitive years of this millennium?
Think of 2009 like an intersection, the combination of two stepping stones. There was a fork in the road preceding the 2012 end to the Kali Yuga (universal 5 year of change). We chose what we chose, and it delivered us to this moment in 2018.
2018 leads with the energies of the emerging feminine order, 2, integrates the prime creator energy of 0 (no longer doubled in mastery a la 2009, as our own mastery is now beckoned to engage where the Prime Creator was infusing this energy the first time), supported by new beginnings (1) and a balancing and unifying of the collective (8). We are seeing the dynamic of a double bridge in this second master intuitive year of the 2000s. Where there was a fork in the road before, now the energies have set two high-speed energetic streams moving back and forth next to each other, and hopping on one will lead you straight into the polarity of the moment. We are separating into light and dark, masculine and feminine, and those who have not done the work of centering themselves in the heart will find themselves disintegrating. But when you take the higher perspective of the 11, you see that these fast-moving energies are really encompassing a singular, larger dynamic that can be all things to all people. It is the opportunity for healing of the highest order.
For those of us that have opened our hearts, who have been learning the language of the universe, the gift we have to share with the world is our recognition that all (8) are one (1/8), and in searching our own expanded, masterful hearts, we have the keys to awaken every single human mind in an instant by unifying these polarities we are experiencing. Compassion is the emerging energetic language, written by the Divine Feminine herself, and we are learning it every single moment we spend in this magnificent year.
You can reach Jameson Bair for comments or questions at email@example.com


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Flowers Foods to buy some Hostess brands for $390 million
Flowers Foods Inc on Friday said it has agreed to buy Wonder and other well-known bread brands from Hostess Brands Inc for $390 million, as part of the latter company's bankruptcy reorganization.
The Thomasville, Georgia-based company said it entered one contract to pay $360 million for the Wonder, Butternut, Home Pride, Merita and Nature's Pride brands, as well as 20 bakeries and 38 depots. It also agreed to pay $30 million for the Beefsteak brand.
Flowers already owns brands such as Cobblestone Mill, Nature's Own and Tastykake. It said it expects the purchases to add to earnings in 2013, and that it would finance them with cash on hand plus debt.
The purchase is subject to a court-supervised auction, and is subject to higher bids. Court approval of the winning bid is required.
Hostess, which also made Twinkies and Drake's cakes, shut down its baking business late last year and abandoned efforts to reorganize under Chapter 11 after a crippling strike by its baker's union.
The case is In re: Hostess Brands Inc et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-22052.
(Reporting By Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Jonathan Stempel in New York)


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In principle, initially there is no mandatory retrofitting for machines that have been certified to the "old" MD, provided they have not undergone a significant change
in the context of the Product Safety Act (ProdSG) .
However, if it is actually the case that only the manufacturer's declaration is available for your machine, then it is always mandatory for this machine to undergo a conformity assessment procedure. The manufacturer's declaration says that it is partly completed machinery in the context of the MD, which the integrator is making into a complete machine.
From the operator's perspective, all machines are governed by the industrial safety regulations (BetrSichV). This requires a hazard assessment for all power-driven work equipment (machinery), so that its safety is analysed at regular intervals. If any safety defects are established, they need to be rectified.


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LT 2017 : Special Session on Language Technologies
|Link: http://icist.if.ktu.lt/index.php/ICIST/pages/view/SpecialSessions
Call For Papers
The Special Session on LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGIES will be held at the 23rd International Conference on Information and Software Technologies (ICIST) scheduled on the 12-14 October, 2017 in Druskininkai, Lithuania.
Since human language is the most natural way of communication, linguistically competent software would greatly facilitate humans' interaction with computers and help in our needs. The field of Language Technologies (LT) gained a lot of interest and made enormous progress during the last decades. LT is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical or rule-based modeling and involving practitioners of artificial intelligence, computer science, engineering, information retrieval, linguistics, phonetics, or psychology. The special session on LT provides a focus for this work, and encourages interdisciplinary approach to speech and language research and technology bringing together experts from both academia and industry. The paper submissions reporting original results and system development experience as well as real-world applications are kindly welcomed to this session.
Authors are invited to submit full papers describing original research work associated with Language Technologies including, but not limited to:
- Natural Language Processing (tagging systems, stemming, parsing and syntactical analysis, corpus-based language engineering)
- Natural Language Understanding (text analysis, ontology, formal semantics)
-Language-based Knowledge Engineering (text and data mining, knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation and reasoning)
-Cognitive models and AI techniques (graph based models, semantic nets, neural networks, and cognitive maps)
-Language Generation (dialogue-based systems, creative and writing systems, language synthesis, translation)
-Multi-modalities Computational Linguistics (speech recognition, speech-text conversions, speech analysis and textual tagging)
- Applications and Systems (search and information retrieval, web applications, forensics, cognitive systems, question-answer systems, translation systems, documents classifiers)
Authors are invited to submit their papers in English through the conference submission system. Submissions must be original and should not have been published previously. All papers will be peer-reviewed the ICIST Program Committee and judged with respect to their quality, originality, and relevance. For further details, please consult the conference web pages.
All accepted papers will appear in the ICIST Conference Proceedings Volume (published by Springer as a part of CCIS series) and submitted for indexing to Thomson Reuters ISI.
Previous Proceedings:
ICIST 2014: http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319119571
ICIST 2015: http://www.springer.com/br/book/9783319247694
ICIST 2016: http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319462530
Selected authors of best papers will be also invited to submit extended versions of their papers to Information Technology and Control journal (ISSN 1392-124X; Thomson Reuters ISI Impact factor 0,633 (2015)).
Assoc. Prof. Jurgita Kapočiūtė-Dzikienė
Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Peter Dirix
University of Leuven, Belgium
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Web site: http://icist.if.ktu.lt/


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Services on Demand
Related links
- Cited by Google
- Similars in Google
SAMJ: South African Medical Journal
On-line version ISSN 2078-5135
Print version ISSN 0256-9574
SAMJ, S. Afr. med. j. vol.100 n.5 Pretoria May. 2010
Sudden death on an aeroplane
To the Editor: I was much interested in the report by Tiemensma et al.1 Considering the extent of the tension pneumothorax as seen in Fig. 1, one would have thought that the doctors on board should have diagnosed it - was the clinical examination done properly? Was the position of the trachea palpated, the thoracic cage percussed, auscultation of lung and heart sounds done?
With the wonderful and rapid progression of technology and sophisticated diagnostic facilities, it seems that the importance of a proper and detailed medical history, and the value of a complete, meticulous and careful physical examination, are no longer appreciated.
My impression is that the subject is neglected in present-day teaching of medical students. Too time consuming? Life too hurried?
I know of a case in which after a (normal) computed tomography brain scan in a stuporous patient, the correct diagnosis of diabetes was eventually made. I can cite several similar examples.
Patients also constantly complain that their doctors appear so busy that there is no time for questions or explanations.
My 'window of medical experience' over several decades convinces me that there is still a place for a basic down-to-earth clinical approach. Many doctors are going to work far from tertiary care centres.
J G Prinsloo
Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics
University of Pretoria
1. Tiemensma M, Buys P, Wadee SA. Sudden death on an aeroplane. S Afr Med J 2010; 100(3): 148-149. [ Links ]


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Show SummaryAdam opens the show talking with Alison about a strange dream she had last night that Adam was a part of. Dana Gould is also in studio, and talks with Adam about performing in Seattle and the experience of raising his adopted daughters. In the news, the top story is about the police raid on the Occupy LA protesters. They also discuss Occupy Montreal, and an argument that Adam had with Sonny about Jay Leno's garage. Also in the news, Chick-fil-A is suing someone for stealing their slogan. Dana brings up the recent death of boxer Ken Norton, which may or may not be true. Later, they talk about Jesse Eisenberg suing filmmakers for putting his name and image on a movie poster for a film he's barely in, and Adam recalls the sexy tunics of Logan's Run. As the show wraps up, the guys discuss the ban being lifted on horsemeat inspections, and Alison shares Priceline's most affordable days to travel.
LinksVisit http://DanaGould.com for ticketing and show information.
Show CreditsExecutive Producer: Donny Misraje Producer: Mike Lynch Producer/Voice Over/Post-Production: Mike Dawson Audio: Jeff Fox Newsgirl: Alison Rosen Sound Effects: Bryan Bishop Technical Director: Chris Laxamana Researcher: Gary Smith Show Summary: Matt Fondiler
Image Gallery


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LOS ANGELES, CA: New Image Art gallery's latest exhibition "The Goblin Universe" featuring the works of Matt Furie (SF) and Michelle Devereux (TX) opened Saturday, June 2, 2012. Furie returns to New Image Art with new colored phantoms, monster sluts, to other mythical creatures which shown along side the color penciled and airbrushed works of artist Mchelle Devereux's "Dudes on Pizza" series something you don't want to miss. We were there to check out the opening but The Goblin Universe runs through July 7th.
The Goblin Universe
Works by Matt Furie & Michelle Devereux
New Image Art
7920 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90046
The Goblin Universe featuring works of Michelle Devereux and Matt Furie opened June 2nd at New Image Art. Thanks to artist Luke Pelletier for snapping probably the clearest and nicest photo in my entire set. haha.
New Image Art's new gallery space.
Close up of Matt Furie's piece featuring some of the raddest collection of weird creatures.
Before I even saw Michelle's work, I've seen this one floating around in interweb space.


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This quilt was inspired by the mid-century modern boomerang design motif. It's the first time I've made a quilt using all solids and I was excited to try out three different white/off-white fabrics for the background. I was hoping the subtle variations would add some depth to the piece as a whole.
You might notice that these colors look vaguely familiar. I really like the way they all work together and was fortunate enough to have plenty of leftovers so this quilt came entirely from my stash!


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A little bit of care can keep your Wigwam socks performing well for years. For best results turn socks inside out before washing. Wash in warm water and tumble dry on lowest heat setting or lay flat to air dry.
Maximum water temp is 120° F / 50° C
Do not bleach
Use normal cycle setting, set dryer to lowest heat setting or lay flat to air dry
Looking for cushioned cotton comfort? Wigwam's Low-Cut has you covered.


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A top Israeli official said Saturday that cyber attacks are similar to terrorism and merit the same response, just a few days after tens of thousands of credit card numbers were released by a hacker going by the name "oxOmar."
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who spoke at an event in the city of Beersheba, said "no agency or hacker will be immune from a response," according to the English-language Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
Israel's Banking Supervision Department said last Tuesday that the information released last week involved around 15,000 active cards and came from three credit-card companies: Cal (Cartisey Ashrai Le'Israel) — Israel Credit Cards; Isracard, and Leumi Card.
Ayalon himself also appears to have been targeted following his comments. On Monday morning, Ayalon's personal website for a short time redirected to a different domain containing Arabic messages and the note "Hacked by Foxy + TKL and Gaza HaCKeR Team."
"We declare war in cyberspace," according to a Google translation of the page. "Do not be afraid of these monkeys."
Efforts to reach spokespeople at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ayalon through his restored website were unsuccessful.
An Israeli blogger claimed to have tracked down "oxOmar," who was believed to be a 19-year-old living in Saudi Arabia. Blogger Amir Fedida wrote that he believes oxOmar is actually from the United Arab Emirates and living in Mexico.
Fedida wrote that a few hours of sleuthing showed the "not-so clever hacker, to put it mildly, made many mistakes," according to a story in The Haaretz, another English-language Israeli publication.
The Israeli government was the target of website hacks late last year, when its sites were downed shortly after a threat by the collective Anonymous, although the source of the outage was not confirmed.
Send news tips and comments to firstname.lastname@example.com


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Blockbuster laughed at Netflix partnership offer
Netflix proposed in 2000 that Blockbuster should use Netflix as its online service and Blockbuster "nearly laughed us out of the office," recalled Netflix's outgoing CFO.
Netflix's toppling of the traditional video-rental market and especially the Blockbuster chain will likely be studied by business students for years to come.
So, here's another fun fact to look at: Blockbuster CEO John Antioco was approached in 2000 by Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings about forming a partnership, recalled Barry McCarthy in an interview he gave to the Unofficial Stanford blog two years ago. I turned up McCarthy's interview while researching a story about why he's leaving Netflix after 11 years as chief financial officer.
"I remembered getting on a plane, I think sometime in 2000, with Reed [Hastings] and [Netflix co-founder] Marc Randolph and flying down to Dallas, Texas and meeting with John Antioco," McCarthy said in the interview "Reed had the chutzpah to propose to them that we run their brand online and that they run [our] brand in the stores and they just about laughed us out of their office. At least initially, they thought we were a very small niche business. Gradually over time, as we grew our market, his thinking evolved but initially they ignored us and that was much to our advantage."
It's easy to kick Blockbuster, which filed for bankruptcy protection in September, now that they're down, but the company's overconfidence regarding Netflix can provide lessons today. The past week saw executives from the cable and entertainment industries predict that the early success of Netflix's streaming service would be short-lived. They argue that Netflix's supply of content from studios and TV networks will soon slow down to a trickle.
But ask Antioco. Netflix's management is not a group to take too lightly. There were signs of this in 2000 but apparently Blockbuster managers overlooked them. At that point, Netflix had just tweaked the business model and had begun selling subscriptions in September 1999.
"It was Reed's insight that the subscription model would resonate with consumers in a compelling way," McCarthy said. "He re-engineered the Web site and software to support a subscription model...we began to grow exponentially overnight. In 1998, I think the business did $1 million in revenue. In 1999, we did $5 million, then $35 million and then $75 million and $150 million and then almost $300 million...We were I think five years to $500 million and another three years to a $1 billion, all because of the subscription model."
McCarthy told the Unofficial Stanford blog that for Blockbuster it was a classic case of the innovator's dilemma: "You end up competing with a business that you initially ignored."


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I pretty use MyPublisher for my own photo books now, but Blurb just introduced a new book type that looks interesting. According to an email I received from the company, "ImageWrap is a new hardcover book option that lets you print text and images directly on the front and back of your books. You'll still get to create a front cover, spine, and back cover just as you always have, but with ImageWrap, each area will wrap smoothly over the edge of your book. ImageWrap books also feature a durable matte finish. They're beautiful." More info from the Blurb blog:
On May 8th, Blurb will launch ImageWrap, a new product that will allow you to print an image directly on the front and back of any hardcover Blurb book, creating a smooth, sophisticated effect. Our ImageWrap books feature a durable matte finish that creates a rich tactile experience, adding visual impact that you typically see with high-end art books. Trust me when I tell you they're stunning.
The ImageWrap pricing is a tad bit higher as these books cost more to produce. ImageWrap books start at $24.95 for a 7×7, $31.95 for an 8×10 or 10×8, and $56.95 for a 13×11. Don't worry - our hardcover with dust jacket option is not going away. ImageWrap is simply another hardcover product now available.
Here's an example:


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This replacement ICSP cable for the PRESTO and FORTE programmers has an 8-pin single row, 0.1" spaced, female connector (SIP) on one side. This connector fits onto the PRESTO's programming connector, or onto one row of the FORTE's programming connector.
Attached to the 8-pin SIP connector are seven wires (1 contact of the 8-pin SIP is not connected) of 150mm length. The wires are each terminated with female square crimp connectors that fit onto standard 0.1" spaced, male square post headers.
One of these cables is included with the PRESTO and FORTE. You only need to purchase this if you want a spare.


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Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Lucinda Doesn't Play With The Other Children
Posted by Rot at 6:56 PM
Labels: creepy, trick or treat
2 comments:
- Letty Cruz said...
DAMN that mask is so simple to be so spooky o__O
I wonder if she got much treats trick or treating, 'cause that would scare the poo out of me!
- July 24, 2008 at 1:59 AM
- Rot said...
I would have turned off the porch light on her.
: )
- July 24, 2008 at 8:44 AM
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text: 24 Hour Fitness Client: 24 Hour Fitness Campaign: 12 Million Lives This testimonial campaign features actual members who have benefitted in profound ways from the healing powers of exercise. Joan is a 24HR Fitness member who recently underwent brain surgery to remove a tumor. She swims daily at her local 24HR Fitness in Southern California, where I had the great pleasure of photographing her.


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[Edit] July 1, 2014: The campaign is now passed. There's still a PayPal campaign offering 10€ discount in shop.jolla.com with promo code: "Jolla <3 PayPal"
Original post, June 30, 2014:
Original post, June 30, 2014:
News and Reviews on Sailfish OS / Sailfish X, a gesture based mobile operating system from Finland
Notes Delivery only to EU countries, Switzerland and Norway
|Marc Dillon at MWC 2014 with Makia and Rovio
The Other Halves, image by @myphonegr
|Fuleco, the official mascot of the
2014 FIFA World Cup
|Mar Dillon
Co-founder, Head of
Software at Jolla
|Saapunki lake near
Kuusamo, Finland (yle.fi)
|Above, the peak in the middle is from November when Jolla was introduced
|India was very interested when Jolla phone was introduced, but the interest is getting lower as the phone is not yet available in any of these big markets. In Russia, lately there are already too few searches for calculation. Interest stays in better levels in India, at least so far. By the way, search term "La Jolla" is filtered from the charts.


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The folks behind the Grammy Awards want to make one thing clear: When it comes to the dress code for this year's telecast, there are no ifs, ands or butts.
Producers have reportedly sent out detailed and militant guidelines to this year's nominees and attendees advising them on the proper attire to wear to Sunday's show, in an obvious attempt to avoid a Janet Jackson–esque wardrobe malfunction of FCC-catastrophic proportions (or at least a suggestive costume like the one Pink wore while performing at the show in 2010).
In a straight-faced, if unintentionally riotous, email purportedly sent out by Grammy honchos and obtained by Deadline, attendees are requested to "adhere" to an apparent "network policy" on curbing those wild duds.
On the no-fly-zone list? Butt cracks, thongs, underboobs, side boobs, sheer frocks, nipples and, ahem, overly demonstrative groin areas.
The purported memo's language, however, is the real clincher, as—among other things—it advises:
"Please be sure that buttocks and female breasts are adequately covered. Thong type costumes are problematic. Please avoid exposing bare fleshy under curves of the buttocks and buttock crack. Bare sides or under curvature of the breasts is also problematic. Please avoid sheer see-through clothing that could possibly expose female breast nipples. Please be sure the genital region is adequately covered so that there is no visible 'puffy' bare skin exposure."
Additionally, the missive warns against stars blatantly shilling for products via "commercial identification of actual brand name products on T-shirts," as well as hawking personal causes in the form of lapel pins and other similar accessories.
Outfits emblazoned with expletives and foreign words will also get the red flag, as the Grammys' clothing police will be keeping an eye out for any foul language that the camera might inadvertently catch.
Whew! Did all you Grammy performers and nominees get that on your checklist?
The Recording Academy has not yet commented on the reported missive.
Lest we forget, though, that the Grammy Awards are actually a celebration of musical talent and not just a flesh fest, the Recording Academy has also announced that Elton John, Mumford & Sons, Zac Brown and Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard will be performing together in a special tribute to the late, great Levon Helm of The Band.
Well, guys: Guess now's not the time to show off that snazzy new thong you've been meaning to bust out.


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Facing the heat, jailed Sahara chief Subrata Roy on Wednesday made a plea before the Supreme Court to pass an early order on his petition challenging his detention, saying temperature in the capital has gone up and he is not feeling well in jail.
"The temperature has sore up and the gentleman is not well," senior advocate Rajiv Dhawan, appearing for Sahara group, told a bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar.
. . .
Subrata Roy feels the Delhi heat, pleads SC to pass order soon
Photographs: Pawan Kumar/Reuters
Roy and the other two directors of the Group have been in judicial custody since March 4 for not abiding by the apex court's order for depositing Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) of investors money with Securities and Exchange Board of India.
Dhawan made his submission at the end of court's proceedings in a contempt case against a person who had thrown ink at Roy when he was brought to the apex court on March 4.
. . .
Subrata Roy feels the Delhi heat, pleads SC to pass order soon
Photographs: Reuters
The court granted four weeks time to the alleged contemnor Manoj Sharma to file his response in the case in which it had taken suo motu cognisance.
The Supreme Court had on April 21 reserved its order on Roy's petition challenging its decision to send him to jail in the case relating to non-refund of investors money.
It had also agreed to consider Sahara's proposal for paying Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) for getting bail to its chief Subrata Roy and two directors who are in Tihar jail in judicial custody since March 4.
. . .
Subrata Roy feels the Delhi heat, pleads SC to pass order soon
Photographs: Reuters
In its new proposal, Sahara group had assured the court that it will pay Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) within three-four working days and another Rs 2,000 crore in cash by May 30.
It also submitted that they would furnish a bank guarantee of another Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) on or before June 20.
The apex court had imposed a condition that Roy will be freed on bail only if he pays Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) out of which Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) has to be in bank guarantee and rest Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) in cash.
. . .


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Phenylketonuria 2011
- 1 still under construction
- 1.1 Summary
- 1.2 Phenotype
- 1.3 Biochemical disease mechanism
- 1.4 Diagnosis of phenylketonuria
- 1.5 Treatment of phenylketonuria
- 1.6 The PAH gene
- 1.7 Mutations
still under construction
Phenylketonuria is a serious metabolic disease which causes several syndromes if untreated in newborns:
- Delayed mental and social skills
- Head size significantly below normal
- Hyperactivity
- Jerking movements of the arms or legs
- Mental retardation
- Seizures
- Skin rashes
- Tremors
- Unusual positioning of hands
The enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase catalyzes the conversion of phenylalanie to tyrosine. If the function of phenylalanine hydroxlase is reduced by at least ... % the organism has phenylketonuria. The amount of phenylalanine in the blood rises to harming concentrations, which leads to several symptoms (see above). The more aggrevate symptoms are due to disturbances in the brain development.
See also description of this disease in
Biochemical disease mechanism
Phenylalanine hydroxylase is involved in the phenylalanine pathway. It catalyses the conversion of phenylalanine to tyrosine. It's the major way to reduce the concentration of phenylalanine. In phenylketonuria the function of this protein is reduced by at least ... %. The missing reduction of phenylalaine leads to harmful concentrations of phenylalanine. The enzyme ... is responsible for the transport of large neutral amino acids across the blood brain barrier. Through the high concentration of phenylalanine other large neutral amino acids are less frequently transported to the brain. These missing amino acids cause severe problems in the brain development.
Diagnosis of phenylketonuria
Treatment of phenylketonuria
The PAH gene
The PAH gene, also known as phenylalanine hydroxylase, is located on the long arm of the autosomal chromosome 12 between positions 22 and 24.2 in humans. The precise location is defined from base pairs 103,232,103 to 103,311,380 which results in a total length of 79,277 bps on the chromosome. This gene consists of 13 exons and 12 introns, after the introns of the pre-mature mRNA are spliced away a length of only 2,681 bps is left on the transcript. This means only 3.38% of the original gene size is left on the mature mRNA. However, the full length of a functional phenylalanine hydroxylase protein is after translation 452 residues.
Individuals who suffer from Phenlyketonuria require two mutated alleles of the PAH gene of which the protein product has to be severe dysfunctional in its ability to catalyze the transformation from phenylalanine to tyrosine. This is only possible when both healthy parents carry one dysfunctional allele on their chromosome 12. Their offspring's will then have a 25% chance to be affected from phenylketonuria because these individuals inherited both dysfunctional PAH alleles from their parents. Furthermore, there is only a 25% for their offspring's to be a non-carrier of a dysfunctional allele and obviously a 50% chance to inherit exactly one dysfunctional allele of the PAH gene.
Protein function
A properly functional phenylalanine hydroxylase protein realizes the transformation from phenylalanine to tyrosine by hydroxylating the substrate, in our case phenylalanine. More precisely, it adds a OH group to the 4th position of the 6-carbon aromatic ring of phenylalanine, thus resulting in a tyrosine.
However, phenylalanine hydroxylase requires three helper molecules for the process which are O2, Fe+2 and tetrahydrobioterin (BH4). BH4 is synthesized from guaninethreephosphate (GTP) in a three step process which require the enzymes GTP cyclohydrolase I (GTPCH), 6-pyruvoyl-tetrahydropterin synthase (PTPS) and sepiapterin reductase (SR). During the hydroxylating process of phenylalanine to tyrosine the molecule BH4 is consumed and has to be recycled in order to be reused again in another hydroxylating process. This recycling process is catalyzed by the two enzymes carbinolamie-4adehydratase (PCD) and the NADH-dependent dihydropteridine reductase (DHPR).
- Nenad Blau, Francjan J van Spronsen, Harvey L Levy . Phenylketonuria. Lancet 2010; 376: 1417–27
- PAH gene description by NIH
- PAHdb
- Wikipedia
The PAH gene is located on a highly heterogenic locus, by now there are 642 mutations for the PAH gene known (as stated by HGMD, 10th of May 2011). 509 of these mutations could be associated with the disease phenylketonuria (as stated by HGMD, 10th of May 2011).
Mutation types
The 3 most common mutation types for the PAH gene locus are missense, deletion and splice junction mutations with 60%, 13.48% and 10.99% respectively.
Gene region of mutations
After analyzing the gene regions of known mutations we found out that most mutations are located on exons of the PAH gene. The exons E7, E6, E11 and E3 contain 15.43%, 13.83%, 8.87%, 8.69% and 7.80% respectively of all mutations. In contrast, almost all introns of PAH (with only a few exceptions) contain less than 1% of all known mutations. However this seems to be somehow not surprising since more than 60% of all mutations are of type missense.
Position of the mutations on the phenylalanine hydroxylase protein
70% of all disease associated mutations are located on the catalytic domain of phenylalanine hydroxylase. Whereas the regulatory domain and the tetramerisation domain contain 16% and 14% respectively of all disease associated mutations.
- Nenad Blau, Francjan J van Spronsen, Harvey L Levy . Phenylketonuria. Lancet 2010; 376: 1417–27
Mutations by ethnicity
The occurrence of mutations for the PAH locus on chromosome 12 is unevenly distributed among populations. For example most mutations could be found among people with English or German ethnicity with 5.98% and 5.79% respectively. The distribution for the first eight ethnic groups is as follows:
- English: 5.98%
- German: 5.79%
- Spanish: 5.14%
- American: 4.48%
- French-Canadian: 4.20%
- Italian: 4.14%
- Norwegian: 3.74%
- Belgian: 3.71%
Reference sequence
The following links contain the reference sequence of the PAH gene
Neutral mutations
Disease causing mutations
There are 509 disease causing mutations known (HGMD).


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Joslin Researchers Find Critical Diagnostic Marker for Differentiating Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes in Young Asian Americans Plus Basis for Changes to Treatment Approaches for Type 2 Asian Patients
BOSTON, MA – December 2, 2011 - Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have determined key differences between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in the Asian American population. This study, published today in PLoS ONE, identified ways to differentiate the types of diabetes, which can be clinically similar in young Asian Americans.
During a pilot study of 30 healthy-weight diabetic and non-diabetic Asian Americans, the researchers proved that insulin resistance was consistently higher in those with type 2 diabetes, despite their normal body mass index (BMI).
Diabetes in Asian and Asian American populations is rising. China currently has the largest population of diabetics in the world, at 92 million, followed by India (50 million), compared to the United States' 27 million. This study has identified reliable diagnostic tools for identifying type 2 diabetes, making correct diagnoses quicker. It has also identified critical physical differences in Asian patients with diabetes that should be considered in making recommendations for proper treatment.
"Diabetes in Asian Americans is somewhat of a mystery," said Dr. William Hsu, first author on the study. Dr. Hsu and his colleagues have been working on the problem of diagnosing Asian and Asian American diabetes for more than a decade as part of the Asian American Diabetes Initiative at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.
Caucasians with Type 2 diabetes are typically overweight, older, and have a strong family history of the disease. Caucasians with Type 1 diabetes usually present with the opposite characteristics. But, in many cases, Asian Americans with Type 2 diabetes are young and have a normal body weight, causing difficulties in differentiating the two types.
There are also some differences in the presentation of Type 1 diabetes in Asian Americans – Caucasians show strong evidence of autoimmunity against beta cells, whereas Asian Americans only display less than 50 percent of time.
This has led to a number of misdiagnoses within the Asian American community. Dr. Hsu and his colleagues sought to pinpoint unequivocal differences in the diseases that could allow for more accurate diagnoses.
"If patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes all look very similar in phenotype , namely they're generally non-obese and with less evidence for autoimmunity, then we need to know whether the classic understanding of the physiology in type 1 and type 2 diabetes actually apply to this population. " said Dr. Hsu.
Using an insulin clamp, the most reliable method for measuring insulin resistance, the scientists saw that the subjects with type 2 diabetes had higher insulin resistance than those with type 1 or no diabetes at all. They also noted a correlation between insulin resistance and the levels of a protein, known as fatty acid-binding protein, suggesting that the two were connected. More study is needed to reveal whether or not targeting this protein could help treat insulin resistance.
This study confirmed that insulin resistance is an important factor in normal-weight Asian Americans with type 2 diabetes, but raised the question of how to deal with it. Patients with type 2 diabetes are usually encouraged to lose weight, but losing weight isn't recommended for people in a normal BMI range.
The researchers also found that Asian Americans with type 2 diabetes had a higher level of fat tucked away inside their torso, where it was not as visible. "Bad fats are hidden away," Dr. Hsu said. This indicates that while they might not be overweight, they are not in great physical shape.
So, "the message needs to be modified," he said. "Not that they necessarily need to lose weight; it should be 'let's get fit, let's exercise.' "
The Joslin researchers also confirmed that when glucose levels are under control in Asian Americans with type 1 diabetes, they are not necessarily insulin resistant, providing further distinction between the two types of diabetes.
This study was done as part of the Asian American Diabetes Initiative and the Dianne Nunnally Hoppes Laboratory for Diabetes Complications at Joslin Diabetes Center.
About Joslin's Asian American Diabetes Initiative
Asian American Diabetes Initiative (AADI) was founded in 2000 to enhance the quality of life and health outcomes for Asian Americans living with diabetes through research, education, outreach and culturally appropriate treatments.
For more information, visit http://aadi.joslin.org