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I have been taking the end of the world seriously, but not really that seriously, for a while now. Last fall, I wrote an essay on Nicola Gardini's Long Live Latin, called "Loving Latin at the End of the World". Last Spring, I tried to think about the fate of Classical Studies in some kind of an apocalypse, sketching out ideas for "The Future of the Past." Eidolon has had the market cornered on Classics and the end of the world, with Nandini Pandey's article "Classics in a time of Quarantine" hard on the heels of their End of the World Edition. But, then things jumped off the screen into the real.
For the past few weeks the best adjective I can use to describe my general feelings is "elegiac"—and I mean this in the rather modern reception of the word which emphasizes its funereal tone, its use in epitaphs, rather than its metrical/generic use. Being part of a slow-motion disaster, a horrendous and at times horrifying transformation of our human communities, is in some ways indescribable, ineffable. In emails and with others I find myself trying to calm with the same phrases we all use about being in "unchartered territory" and how we need to be patient and reserve judgment for later.
But the refrain in my head is this:
T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
As I have talked about on Scott Lepisto's Itinera podcast, my formative years were spent reading, in the isolation that living in a rural area before the dawn of the internet can bring you. I started graduate school at NYU a few weeks before 9/11 and my primary coping strategy—apart from drinking too much—was throwing myself into Homer. And for this disaster, I am a professor.
So, in a way, I should be really well-prepared emotionally for COVID-19's brand of slow-motion destruction. I think this is probably true, on an intellectual level; on an emotional one, however, I am probably a wreck. And part of my particular brand of being a wreck is (1) I sleep even less well than usual and (2) fragments of poems fill my waking hours and sleep.
These are not fragments of my own, but poems ancient and modern that have been part of my life, either in education or from reading. I have engaged with the world through written words for nearly as long as I can remember—they are comfort, paradigms for guidance, distraction, etc. But poetry has a special place in my heart. Long before I poorly translated Latin and Greek for twitter, I spent time trying to write poetry (and was quite limited at it). These years gave me practice reading, memorizing, and keeping poetry close to heart.
And in the heart, there's no timeline, there's no catalog to separate things. So, when Langston Hughes jumps to mind with his Advice:
Folks, I'm telling you,
birthing is hard
and dying is mean-
so get yourself
a little loving
in between.
I can't help but thinking of Catullus' Vivamus mea Lesbia (Carm. 5) and his "We must sleep a lonely endless night" (nox est perpetua una dormienda) summoning to mind 11th grade's Andrew Marvell's great beginning, from To His Coy Mistress "Had we but world enough and time" eventually receding into what I still find ridiculous in his "vegetable love should grow." Poems join me when, like Billy Pilgrim, I come unstuck in time.
There's no shortage of poems exhorting us to live. There's Ashurbanipal's famous epitaph, dishing out the wisdom straight: "Know well that you are mortal: fill your heart / By delighting in the feasts: nothing is useful to you when you're dead." (εὖ εἰδὼς ὅτι θνητὸς ἔφυς σὸν θυμὸν ἄεξε,/ τερπόμενος θαλίῃσι· θανόντι σοι οὔτις ὄνησις). For every serious injunction to memento mori or carpe diem with Horace there are humorous ones too, like Martial's poem 5.58 which ends, "Postumus, even living today is too late; / he is the wise man, who lived yesterday" (Cras uiues? Hodie iam uiuere, Postume, serum est: / ille sapit quisquis, Postume, uixit heri.)
Ending the World in a Poem
The problem is that I don't know many poems about the end of the world. There is not too much about the world ending in the modern sense in ancient Greek and Roman texts that I know of prior to the period that gives us the Biblical Revelation. Greek and Roman Cosmogony tends towards the cyclical and not the epoch-ending stuff we see in Norse Ragnarok. There are certainly a lot of disasters and they tend to reflect natural disasters like the flood which appears inset in the Gilgamesh Narrative, as part of the Sumerian Atrahasis, in the Biblical Genesis, or in the tales we have of the Greek Deucalion who survived a flood too.
Ovid's version of this flood in the Metamorphoses is an unmaking of the creation that begins his poem. In the creation, everything which before was all mixed together and "compressed because of its own weight" (et pressa est gravitate sua, 1.30) is reorganized when 'some god' "separated the mass and apportioned the portion into parts" (congeriem secuit sectamque in membra redegit, 1.33). In anger over Lykaon's sacrifice of human flesh, Zeus attacks the land until "the land and sea were showing no difference" (Iamque mare et tellus nullum discrimen habebant, 1.291). Of course, humans and their cities rise again, under the threat/promise that destruction is always imminent for hubristic and impious souls.
It is not that ancient authors are not concerned with death, but rather not with species death, with the eradication of humans as we know them. Perhaps this is because such an act prior to our anthropocene era of extinction was unthinkable, beyond the ken of the ancients. Perhaps, it is really too big for most of us to handle. (Which helps to explain our rapid, even if wildly imperfect, response to COVID-19 and our absurd denial about climate change.)
The end of a single life functions as easily as a metaphor for the end of humankind as the end of humankind does for the end of an individual life. (And this later function, I think, is important in popular, modern eschatology which uses civilization ending narratives to force us to think about mortality.) Mediterranean thought does show some evidence of the metaphor of one life as all of humankind, Philo sees the death of the individual as of no consequence to art "unless unless we believe that the death of one individual person in turn visits ruin upon humankind" (εἰ μὴ καὶ ἀνθρώπου τινὸς τῶν ἐν μέρει θάνατον φθορὰν ἐργάσασθαι φήσομεν ἀνθρωπότητι, The Worse Attack the Better 206). In this, he echoes lines in the Qu'ran and the Talmud making similar interrelational claims.
Living and Dying in Poems
My point is that while the ancients do not talk about civilization-ending plagues, they do talk a lot about death, and that is, for better or worse, part of what has drawn me to ancient poetry. In modern poetry on death, we get ruminations like Hektor's in the Iliad: just as he says "may I not die ingloriously," so too Mary Oliver writes (in When Death Comes):
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world
I first read Oliver with the poet Olga Broumas when I was an undergraduate at Brandeis. Olga encouraged us to read a book of poetry a week and I kept that up through my first semester of graduate school until Hektor took over completely.
Is there any reason for poetry to exist beyond the contemplation of life and death? I am sure there is, but many days I might be unable to hear it, searching instead in its words for that reflection of what I fear and seek myself. Modern poetry can differ from the major themes of ancient death in contemplating in how it communicates its stark simplicity: poets like Ibykos and Mimnermus acknowledge death is all around us while a modern talent like Gwendolyn Brooks turns our ear to the deaths of the unknown in The Boy Died in my Alley:
Without my having known.
Policeman said, next morning,
"Apparently died alone."
"You heard a shot?" Policeman said.
Shots I hear and Shots I hear.
I never see the dead.
Greek poetry often celebrates the infamous and the famous alike, leaving forgotten the passing of most. (Although there are memorials of even minor figures if you look hard enough.) Brooks remarks on the momentous deaths that fail even to bring us pause. (And in this I shudder to think of the humanitarian disaster being prepared in our American prisons and on the streets for the homeless and unknown.)
But many poems home in on our personal relationship with death. Death's coming is unexpected, as Pablo Neruda writes in Nothing But Death "Death arrives among all that sound / like a shoe with no foot in it, like a suit with no man in it." Yet, of all things in life it should be fully expected, fully anticipated. We know it is coming: we can prepare.
Perhaps we cannot. Perhaps the end of the life of an individual is ultimately unthinkable. We cannot see our way out of our bodies because they are all we have and no matter how many times we read Plato's Phaedo the basic assertion—that because we think and exist now we must always have existed and just don't remember it—does not square with the intuitive knowledge that I did not exist before so I will not exist again. Sometimes, we can embrace this, or at least make it more concrete as F. G. Lorca does in Gacela of the Dark Death, when expanding on the image of death as sleep:
I want to sleep the sleep of the apples,
I want to get far away from the busyness of the cemeteries.
I want to sleep the sleep of that child
who longed to cut his heart open far out at sea.
But this peace, this sense of surrender is beyond me. When wading into the news these days, I am too often reminded of the words Dylan Thomas wrote for his father in is final years:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Rage in/Against Poems
Can a Homerist think of rage without thinking of Achilles? If I think back to the notion of the death of the individual as a metaphor for humankind (and the reverse), the Iliad itself is something different for me Everyone knows that Achilles has two choices: he can live a long life, without fame; or he can die young with glory. But the choice he does not have at all is about whether or not he has to die.
The Rage the poem sings from line 1 is variously anger over Agamemnon's slight to his honor or his anger at Patroklos' death. This second cause is his more famous rage, that which kills Hektor and drives much of the action of the poem. On the other side of that rage, as my friend Emily Austin emphasizes in her work, is longing, a desire for what is lost in the form of Patroklos. And Patroklos, like Enkidu for Gilgamesh, is a stand in for the hero himself.
There are 16 books of the Iliad before Patroklos dies. Perhaps a unifying feature of Achilles' rage is anger over death and life itself? When we find Achilles in book 9, contemplating his own life, he insists "The coward and the noble man are held in the same honor / the lazy man and the one who does a lot die the same." (ἐν δὲ ἰῇ τιμῇ ἠμὲν κακὸς ἠδὲ καὶ ἐσθλός· / κάτθαν' ὁμῶς ὅ τ' ἀεργὸς ἀνὴρ ὅ τε πολλὰ ἐοργώς, Il. 9.320-321). This is typically taken as indicating Achilles' existential issue with the "heroic code" or Achaean society. But if we take the Achilles from the Odyssey more seriously, the one who tells Odysseus not to "sweet-talk me about death" (μὴ δή μοι θάνατόν γε παραύδα, 11.488), Achilles' rage is more like Thomas'. It is that deep, fundamental incredulity that I who am now alive must one day be dead.
And in giving in to rage, Achilles lost much of the time he would have had to be alive—this, is, perhaps one of the lessons of the Odyssey. Perhaps Achilles would have benefited from reading Audre Lorde's A Litany for Survival:
And when the sun rises we are afraid
it might not remain
when the sun sets we are afraid
it might not rise in the morning
when our stomachs are full we are afraid
of indigestion
when our stomachs are empty we are afraid
we may never eat again
when we are loved we are afraid
love will vanish
when we are alone we are afraid
love will never return
and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak
we were never meant to survive.
Creating Something with Poems
One of the more amusing memes to circulate over the past few weeks has been about the accomplishment of some famous people during plagues. Newton invented Gravity! Shakespeare wrote King Lear! The least we can do is put on pants!
The call to use this time of isolation well is predictably met by the objection that such expectations are a little bit unreasonable. (And also conditioned by some of the very dysfunctional aspects of capitalism central to our problems.) The desire to read something long and complex is understandable, but the reality is that our attention spans are fragmented. Why not start small? Why not read a poem?
Now, for me, a 'poem' is an expansive term: a song is a poem. This is especially true in Ancient Greece where song culture was a pervasive part of all life. No one 'read' Homer and Sappho in early Greece: they listened, they recited, they returned to it. (So listening is equal to if not better than reading in some ways). Modern high and low culture distinctions have obscured this; they too often deny the title "poem" to creations that do what poems do.
A poem should be defined not by some external aesthetics but by the internally sensed impact of what a poem does in the world: it creates. Our word poem comes from Greek poiêma, related to the verb poieô, "to make". The Greek noun poiêtês, then, can be seen as "maker, creator". This is an important meaning to me because poetry creates space, it creates worlds. A poem's space is that of communion between its audience and others; it helps us see ourselves in humanity through that Aristotelian "identification" and it helps us develop humanity in ourselves, by seeing the world through other perspectives. Poetry should invite us, challenge us, and encourage us to see more than ourselves. And this, for me, is the goal of all reading, to bridge the gaps between our subjective consciousnesses, to help us see others as real and worthy of our attention, worthy of our regard, and worthy of our love.
Poetry in this sense is an act of creation, a reaffirmation of creation, by constituting and then providing access to the commonwealth of human understanding. My favorite metaphor for this from the ancient world is that passage from Plato's Ion where Socrates describes poetic inspiration as being like a magnet imbuing successive links of metal with its force. The last link in the chain is the audience, the middle link is the performer/medium, the penultimate is the poet/creator and the source is "god/the muses". For me, that source, that deity, is the human collective, the grand and sometimes random total sum of our shared memory (the Muses!), the shared wisdom and experience that helps us to define ourselves, to situate ourselves within a larger whole.
So I guess what I'm saying is that you should read a poem. Feel something, remember it. Share it with others. Carry it around in your head, in your heart. In these days of uncertainty and isolation, this is one way to be less alone. Or, in a way, even when alone, to be more together.
Aelian, Fragment 187/190 (from Stobaeus 3.29.58)
"Solon the Athenian, the son of Eksêkestides, when his nephew sang some song of Sappho at a drinking party, took pleasure in it and asked the young man to teach it to him. When someone asked why he was eager to learn it, he responded: "So, once I learn it, I may die."
Σόλων ὁ ᾿Αθηναῖος ᾿Εξηκεστίδου παρὰ πότον τοῦ ἀδελφιδοῦ αὐτοῦ μέλος τι Σαπφοῦς ᾄσαντος, ἥσθη τῷ μέλει καὶ προσέταξε τῷ μειρακίῳ διδάξει αὐτόν. ἐρωτήσαντος δέ τινος διὰ ποίαν αἰτίαν τοῦτο σπουδάσειεν, ὃ δὲ ἔφη 'ἵνα μαθὼν αὐτὸ ἀποθάνω.'
We will be putting up a call in the next few days for people to send in their own passages, favorite poems, and even posts for the site during the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you want something posted or would like to write a guest post, email me or Erik.
A random list of poets whose work was in earlier versions of this:
Franz Wright, James Wright, Nikki Giovanni, Mark Strand, Linda Gregg, Jack Gilbert, Maya Angelou, Rainer Maria Rilke, W. S. Merwin, Louise Gluck, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, e. e. cummings, Adrienne Rich. At some point I just started keeping only American poets of the 20th century, ignoring way too much from the rest of the world but, for what it's worth, keeping true to my own education. Happy to have further suggestions.
Also, Patrick Stewart is reading sonnets online:
Reader Suggested Poems:
William Dunbar's Lament for the Makaris


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Haiti's government is hurting for cash. It just hired yet another lobbyist in D.C.
The country's designated prime minister still can't get confirmed. Civil servants and diplomats in its foreign embassies aren't getting paid. And hospital staffs are dealing with rolling blackouts and a dire shortage of blood .
Despite the ongoing turmoil, however, Haitian officials appear to once again be more concerned about their image in Washington. Continue reading
Haitian Parliament to build $89 million structure to house legislature
A building of about 40,000 square meters that will house the legislative palace that was the site of the former parliament destroyed by the earthquake will cost $89 million. The construction of the building will spread over 36 months, according to Clément Bélizaire, General Manager of the Construction and Housing Public Buildings Unit (UCLBP).
According to Bélizaire, the institution he runs launched the project because the building is classified under the national security label that allows the state of emergency to jump the locks of a traditional procurement.
"The bidding process was special because we could not disclose the plan of this strategic building to everyone," he said. Continue reading
Journalist harmed in latest string of attacks on media
Journalist Kendi Zidor was attacked Tuesday evening by individuals who were riding in motorcycles in Delmas 60. Zidor was unharmed in the attack after the individuals opened fire on his vehicle after he refused to stop at their request. Continue reading
Gangs disrupt courthouse
The judges sitting and standing, bailiffs, clerks and other members of the apparatus as well as lawyers and litigants are on the alert at the Palais de Justice in Port-au-Prince as there have been heavy gunfire from armed gangs.
Government commissioner Paul Eronce Villard stated that he has taken steps to strengthen the courthouse's sub-office and has deemed it necessary to have 30 police officers with adequate equipment in order for the courthouse to be a safe environment. Continue reading
CRLDI employees demand 26 months of salary
On Monday, employees at the Arcahaie Identity Receipt and Delivery Center blocked trucks using the national road number one at Robert and Carrefour Bois. Employees of the CRLDI began the strike by demanding 26 months of salary arrears, letters of appointment and better working conditions. Continue reading

subset: commoncrawl


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Police say a 3 year-old boy has died after being left in a hot day care center van for 3½ hours parked outside the center in northwest Houston.
A statement from the Harris County Precinct 1 Constable's Office said the child was found unresponsive when his father arrived at Discovering Me Academy about 7 p.m. Thursday to pick him up. The van was parked since 3 p.m., and deputies said its interior was 113 degrees when they arrived.
The child was pronounced dead a short time later at a hospital. An employee was questioned, but no charges were filed.
The academy had been cited in 2015 for not reporting a wreck involving the van in a timely manner and for a driver not knowing how many children were in her group.
The Harris County District Attorney's Office said in statement sent out Friday that the Houston Police Department (HPD) is investigating this death in coordination with the child fatality unit of the DA's Office and all the evidence will be presented to a grand jury.
Constable says the temp inside the bus when officers got here was 113 degrees #khou11 pic.twitter.com/AHNLjRsfPC
— Brett Buffington (@BBuffingtonHTX) July 20, 2018
UPDATE: @Pct1Constable says child is 3-years-old, discovered when the father came to the daycare to pick his little boy up. The group of 28 kids had just returned to the daycare from a field trip. #khou11 pic.twitter.com/vWNHIxa0lN
— Brett Buffington (@BBuffingtonHTX) July 20, 2018
It takes very little time for a car to get too hot for children
• Never leave a child alone in a car
• Ensure car is locked when not in it so kids don't gain access
• If you see a child alone in a car, call 911
• Set reminder on phone to ensure u dropped child @ daycare. https://t.co/sEV9H6rAd9
— Chief Samuel Peña (@FireChiefofHFD) July 20, 2018


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BLOG: Leadership InsightsGet Email Updates
Look for Examples of Leadership in the World Around You
I am excited to bring you the fourth story in our "Leaders Who Inspire Us" series. In these candid one-on-one interviews, we feature senior leaders who have had a lasting impact on their teams and their organizations. We share stories that are about more than doing a job or building a career. They are about fulfilling a personal mission to drive change and creating a better future for the talent in today's workforce.
Today, we share Elliot Jaffee's story. Elliot is the EVP and Head of Commercial Banking at US Bank. In a recent interview, he shared his insights with us following his participation in our first-ever Men Leading Inclusively program, co-located at our Women in Leadership Institute™. This unique offering is designed for senior executives interested in exploring the conversation around women in leadership and advancing this important work in organizations through inclusive leadership. —Ed
"One of the most valuable things that we can do as leaders is to create an environment that brings out the best in our talent and reduces bias," says Elliot. Last fall, Elliot and 45 other senior executives had the opportunity to participate in an open dialogue around topics including unconscious bias and how to create and sustain an inclusive culture.
"This experience gave me the opportunity to surface and process some important themes and to have really candid, open conversations about topics that are not commonly discussed over the normal course of business," says Elliot. "For example, one big theme was unconscious bias. We all have it—and we have to think about it or we risk making the wrong decision. There are some biases that I am aware of and some that I am not as aware of as I want to be. If you don't test your own bias and become conscious of it, you won't discover it. This can have a big impact on how you show up as a leader."
In addition to exploring unconscious bias, Elliot and the other participants completed practical exercises designed to help them better understand and appreciate their own privilege—and to raise awareness about the complexity of the issues that women face in the workforce.
"I left the program believing that it is very relevant to coach women on how to manage through bias; it's not just the men who need to adjust. If you are a victim of bias, take the opportunity to figure out how to manage through it," says Elliot. "Find the appropriate way to get your point across and seek the right balance to deal with the instances that need to be addressed."
If you find yourself in an uncomfortable setting, have the difficult conversation later in a respectful and helpful way. For example, if you are approaching someone who had a negative impact in a meeting, try initiating the conversation with: "May I offer a thought: the way that you referenced X in the meeting earlier today could have been misinterpreted by others as X."
Elliot's heightened sense of self-awareness and willingness to reflect has helped him develop an even greater appreciation for recruiting, hiring and coaching a diverse team that he knows will help equip the organization for future success. He also believes that it's paramount to create an inclusive environment that reduces bias and to help people better manage themselves through others.
When asked to reflect on who has had the greatest impact on him as a leader, he is quick to mention his wife. Her willingness to give him honest feedback and to process important topics has helped him learn new things about himself and gain additional perspective.
"As leaders, we can make changes, but we can't become someone new," says Elliot. "Do not be unrealistic about what to expect in your career." Instead, open your perspective and try adopting the mindset that we will all work through our differences together and manage expectations carefully.
"At the end of the day, we can learn from each other—and every leader needs a trusted advisor." We need the people that will give us the truth. Ask for feedback, be open to receiving it, and decide which parts you want to change. "Some of my style, I will not change. I am open with my team about this so that they are not surprised by my approach and they know what to expect from me."
Look for examples of leadership in the world around you—even if it means learning lessons from unexpected places, whether it's extracurricular activities or through church, sports, or the nonprofit world. Pay attention to these examples and select the pieces that work for you. Pick a behavior that you want to emulate—something that will help you show up as the leader that you want to become—and you will gradually begin to see the change that you want to create.
Women in Leadership Institute™
NOV. 13–16, 2023 | Orlando, Florida, or Virtual
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I had the privilege of teaming up with some wonderful Twin Cities wedding vendors to create this beautiful lakeside wedding styled shoot at White Bear Yacht Club. With lake views, manicured gardens, sprawling lawns, and breathtaking sunsets from the docks, it's quite the unique waterfront venue just northeast of the Cities.
For the styled shoot, we took advantage of all of these wonderful features! Uy-Lennon Floral & Events arranged a beautiful summer floral arrangement with a mixture of ivory, blush, and hot pink blooms. Ivory blooms and greenery were also used to decorate the venue's staircase and the reception tables. Inspired by the lakeside venue, Hunt Wright Design Co created a nautical stationery suite featuring a navy color scheme with ropes and sailboat wheels. The inner envelope for the stationery even features a map of the White Bear Lake area where the venue is located.
Dream Day Dressing Rooms brought in rented vanities and furniture to enhance our bride's getting ready experience. Amy Rachael Makeup Artist gave our bride a soft, more natural romantic look to pair with the twisted wedding updo by Cayla Rouleau. The bride wore two gowns. The first is a light, flowy gown from Bridal Emporium. The second gown is a romantic ivory lace fit to flare bridal gown from the Blush by Hayley Paige line.
Venue: White Bear Yacht Club | Photographer: Jeannine Marie Photography | Planning/Floral/Styling: Uy-Lennon Floral & Events | Stationery: Hunt Wright Design Co | Makeup Artist: Amy Rachael Makeup Artistry | Hair Stylist: Cayla Rouleau | Bridal Suite: Dream Day Dressing Rooms | Bridal Gown: Bridal Emporium | Models: Alicia and Brian


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A lipopeptide biosurfactant produced by Bacillus natto TK-1 has a strong surface activity. The biosurfactant was found to be an anti-adhesive agent against several bacterial strains, and also showed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. The biosurfactant induced a significant reduction in tumor cells viability in a dose- dependent manner.
Biosurfactant; anti-adhesive; antimicrobial activity; antitumor
Um lipopeptídio biosurfactante produzido por Bacillus natto TK-1 apresenta intensa atividade de superfície. Verificou-se que o biosurfactante apresentou atividade antiadesiva contra várias cepas bacterianas, e também atividade antimicrobiana de amplo espectro. O biosurfactante causou uma redução significativa na viabilidade de células tumorais, de forma dose-dependente.
biosurfactante; atividade antiadesiva; atividade antimicrobiana; atividade antitumoral
Evaluation of a lipopeptide biosurfactant from Bacillus natto TK-1 as a potential source of anti-adhesive, antimicrobial and antitumor activities
Avaliação de um lipopeptídio biosurfactante de Bacillus natto TK-1 com fonte potencial de atividade antiadesiva, antimicrobiana e antitumoral
Xiao-Hong CaoI; Zhen-Yu LiaoI; Chun-Ling WangI; Wen-Yan YangII; Mei-Fang LuI
ISchool of Food Science and Biotechnology, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, PR China
IISchool of Marine Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, PR China
Corresponding Author Corresponding Author Xiao-Hong Cao School of Food Science and Biotechnology, Tianjin University of Science and Technology Tianjin 300457, PR China Tel.: (86) 022-60601428; Fax: (86) 22-60601332 E-mail: email@example.com
A lipopeptide biosurfactant produced by Bacillus natto TK-1 has a strong surface activity. The biosurfactant was found to be an anti-adhesive agent against several bacterial strains, and also showed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. The biosurfactant induced a significant reduction in tumor cells viability in a dose- dependent manner.
Key-words: Biosurfactant, anti-adhesive, antimicrobial activity, antitumor.
Um lipopeptídio biosurfactante produzido por Bacillus natto TK-1 apresenta intensa atividade de superfície. Verificou-se que o biosurfactante apresentou atividade antiadesiva contra várias cepas bacterianas, e também atividade antimicrobiana de amplo espectro. O biosurfactante causou uma redução significativa na viabilidade de células tumorais, de forma dose-dependente.
Palavras-chave:biosurfactante, atividade antiadesiva, atividade antimicrobiana, atividade antitumoral.
Microbial compounds which exhibit pronounced surface activity are classified as biosurfactants. Biosurfactants including a structurally diverse group are produced by several types of microorganisms such as bacteria, yeasts and fungi as membrane components or secondary metabolites (9,19,25). They attracted attention as hydrocarbon dissolution agents for the first time in the late 1960s (1). In recent years, the interest in biosurfactants has been remarkably increasing due to many advantages compared with chemical surfactants, including lower toxicity, biodegradability, ecological acceptability, complex molecules and specific activity at extreme conditions (temperature, pH, salinity) (32,45).
Among the many classes of biosurfactants, lipopeptides represent a class of microbial surfactant with remarkable surface properties and biological activities, such as surplus crude oil recovery, food-processing, de-emulsification, antimicrobial and antitumor, antiviral, antiadhesive activities and so on (3,4,17,18,33,41). Surfactin, produced by various Bacillus subtilis strains, is one of the most powerful and effective lipopeptide-type biosurfactant so far known, which is consisted of a seven amino acids linked via a lactone bond to a b-hydroxy fatty acid with 13, 14 or 15 carbon atoms (5,15). Apart from many characteristic functional activities of biosurfactants, surfactin can also inhibits fibrin clot formation, induces formation of ion channels in lipid bilayer membranes and inhibits cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) (1,4, 24). In addition, a good number of authors have documented that the antiviral action of surfactin is primarily due to a physiochemical interaction between the membrane active surfactant and the virus lipid membrane (37).
Atomic force microscope (AFM) is a powerful imaging tool which has been frequently employed to image a wide variety of samples under a wide variety of conditions. In the past years, AFM has created remarkable interest in applying it to the study of biological structures. Images have appeared in the literature showing DNA, single proteins, structures such as gap junctions, and living cells (22,27,28,29).
Natto is a traditional Japanese food. Recently, its medical benefits are widely recognized in Japan resulting in its increased popularity. Some of its beneficial effects are prevention of heart attacks, strokes, cancer, osteoporosis, obesity and intestinal disease caused by pathogens (10,14). Bacillus natto, an edible strain, identified as B. subtilis, is claimed to be the organism mainly responsible for natto fermentation. Moreover, ingestion of Bacillus natto cells is safe for humans under normal host condition (40).
Bacillus natto TK-1, which produces an effective biosurfactant, was provided by TUST Collection Center (Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, China). The biosurfactant was determined to be a lipopeptide consisting of a fatty acid tail linked to a peptide moiety consisting of 7 amino acid residues (6).
For preparation of the inoculum, Bacillus natto TK-1 was grown in a nutrient broth medium at 37ºC, 170 rpm for 16 h. The fermentation medium used for biosurfactant production was composed of 5.0 g/L sucrose, 20.0 g/L peptone, 0.5 g/L yeast extract, 0.02 g/L MgSO47H2O, 1.4 g/L Na2HPO412H2O, and 0.4 g/L KH2PO4, which was inoculated by 1.8 ml of the seed medium into a 500-ml flask with 60 ml fermentation medium. The bacterial cells were then incubated under the same condition as the seed cultures for 24 h.
Ten microorganisms were used as test organisms in this study. Five bacterial strains were obtained from ATCC (American Type and Collection Center), including Micrococcus luteus (ATCC 28001), Salmonella typhimurium (ATCC 14028), Escherichia coli (ATCC 27325), Bacillus cereus (ATCC 7004), Staphylococcus aureaus (ATCC 10780). Five fungal strains, Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium moniliforme, Penicilliumcandidum, Gibberellazeae and Colletotrichum truncatum were provided by TUST Collection Center (Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, China). Bacterial strains were cultivated at 37ºC and maintained on LB broth. Cultures of fungi were grown on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 28ºC.
Human chronic myelogenous leukemia cells (K562), human hepatic carcinoma cells (BEL-7402), buffalo rat liver cells (BRL) and human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293) were obtained from Cell Bank of Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology (Shanghai, China) and cultured in RPMI 1640 medium containing 10% (v/v) heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum, 100 kU/L penicillin, 100 mg/L streptomycin and 1% glutamine. All cells were cultured at 37ºC in a humidified incubator containing 5% CO2. Cells in logarithmic growth phase were used for further experiments.
The preparation of biosurfactant was described previously by Cao et al. (6). Briefly, the bacterial cells were removed by centrifugation at 10 000 rpm at 4ºC for 10 min. The supernatant was subjected to acid precipitation by adding 6 M HCl to pH 2.0 and putting the precipitate to form at 4ºC overnight. The precipitate was collected by centrifugation and resuspended by a little distilled water adjusted to pH 7.0 to make most of precipitate dissolved and finally lyophilized. The brown lyophilized material was then extracted three times with methanol. After evaporation, the crude biosurfactant was isolated by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) on a silica gel plate with a developing solvent consisting of chloroform-methanol-water (65:25:4 [vol/vol/vol]). Then the purified single point was scratched off from the TLC plate to test whether the point contained the biosurfactant by oil spreading (26). The crude biosurfactant was used for further studies.
The surface tensions of various concentrations of biosurfactant were determined by the Ring method using a SIGMA70 system unit tensiometer (KSV Instruments, Trumbull, CT). Measurements were performed at 20ºC. The whole experiment was repeated at least three times. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) was determined as the intersection of the linear part of this curve of surface tension vs. the concentration. Furthermore, the surface activity of biosurfactant was also measured by an oil spreading test (26). Briefly, 30 ml distilled water at pH 7.0 was added to a petri dish (90 mm diameter) and then 1.0 ml paraffin oil to the surface of water. When the water was covered by the oil completely, 5 µl biosurfactant with various concentrations was put on the center of the oil membrane. The size of the resultant oil-displaced circle area reflects the surface activity of biosurfactant. Each sample was repeated in triplicate and the control plate was evaluated with buffer (PBS).
The anti-adhesive activity of the crude biosurfactant against the bacterial strains was quantified according to a previously reported adhesion assay (23). Briefly, each well of a sterile 96- well microtiter plate was filled with 200 µl biosurfactant of several concentrations (ranging from 2.5 to 40 g/L) and incubated for 24 h at 4ºC, and then washed twice with PBS. Control wells contained PBS only. A 200 µl aliquot of a washed bacterial suspension was added and incubated in the wells for 4 h at 4ºC. Unattached organisms were removed by washing the wells three times with PBS. The adherent microorganisms were fixed with 200 µl of 99% methanol per well, and after 10 min the plates were emptied and left to dry. Then the plates were stained with 1% crystal violet solution at room temperature for 5 min. Excess stain was rinsed of by placing the plate under running tap water. Subsequently the plates were air dried, the dye bound to the adherent microorganisms was resolubilized with 200 µl of 33% (v/v) glacial acetic acid per well. The absorbance of the dissolved dye, corresponding to the number of adherent microorganisms, was measured in a microplate reader at 595 nm. The percentage reduction in adherence was calculated using the following equation:
%reduction in adherence = [(A control) - (A sample)]/A control × 100
The disc diffusion method (42) was used to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of biosurfactant. Briefly, the microorganisms were prepared by mixing 1 ml of inoculum (adjusted to 2-5×107 CFU/ml) with 15 ml respective medium (LB for bacteria and PDA for fungi) at 45ºC and allowed to set in a petri dish (90 mm diameter). Wells were then made (8 mm diameter) with a sterile cork borer. 30 µl of the test solutions and control were added to each disc, respectively. Petri dishes were incubated at 37ºC during 24 h for bacteria strains and at 28ºC during 36 h for fungi strains. At the end of the incubation period, the presence of clear inhibition zones around the discs was measured. The experiments were carried out in triplicate.
Then, we further observed the morphological changes of S. typhimurium in response to biosurfactant treatment by AFM. The AFM analysis was performed as described by Li et al. (2,22). Briefly, S. typhimurium in LB were collected by centrifugation (10 000 rpm, 10 min) and resuspended in deionized distilled water. Two samples were prepared: one was untreated, the other was treated with biosurfactant (3.2 g/L for both organisms). After the samples were incubated at 37ºC for 50 min, all organisms were collected by centrifugation (10 000 rpm, 10 min) and resuspended in deionized distilled water again. A 6 µl drop of bacteria suspension was applied onto a glass slide. All organisms morphology was observed with AFM (JSPM-5200, Nanoscope, Japan) in tapping mode. A single-crystal silicon cantilever was used and the AFM data were collected at a typical line scan rate of 1.0 Hz.
Cell viability was determined by a colorimetric 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay (31). Briefly, exponentially growing cells (1×105/ml) were added to each well of 96-well tissue culture plate with a total volume of 100 µl per well. The biosurfactant at various concentrations was added to each well. After cultured with biosurfactant for 48 h, MTT (5 mg/ml in PBS) was added and incubated for 4 h. The formazan precipitate was dissolved in 150 ml DMSO and the absorbance at 570 nm was measured by an ELISA reader (Multiskan EX, Labsystems). The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of biosurfactant in cells was calculated by MTT assay. In addition, 5-fluorouacil (5-FU) was used as a standard drug.
The chromatin condensation of BEL-7402 cells was analyzed by fluorescence microscopy. Briefly, BEL-7402 cells were treated with biosurfactant (20 mg/L) for 48 h with a combination of the fluorescent DNA-binding dyes Hochest 33258 (Sigma). Cells were harvested and washed two times with PBS (pH 7.2), and then were labeled by 10 mg/L Hochest 33258 for 5 min. The cells were then observed under a fluorescence microscope (Olympus, Japan) using an ultraviolet (UV) filter pack.
After isolation of the biosurfactant by acidic precipitation followed by solvent extraction, the purification was followed by TLC. The surface-active substances migrated at the position of Rf 0.58-0.60 as a single point on the TLC. The relationship between surface tension and concentration of the crude biosurfactant was determined by the Ring method. CMC is defined by the solubility of a surfactant within an aqueous phase and is commonly used to measure the efficiency of a surfactant. The CMC of the crude biosurfactant was estimated to be around 512 mg/L and the minimum surface tension of biosurfactant was 30.1 mN/m (Fig. 1a). Although the isolated biosurfactant was not as effective as many of biosurfactants described in the literature, for example, surfactin produced by B. subtilis ATCC 21332 with a CMC of 250 mg/L and the minimum surface tension 27.9 mN/m (8), it should be noted that the biosurfactant studied here was not as much purified as the ones described in the literature. In addition, the area of the oil- displaced circle was in good proportion to the concentration of the biosurfactant (Fig. 1b). The higher diameters represent the higher concentration of biosurfactant.
In recent years, the remarkable increase in drug-resistant bacteria makes a search for novel means and drugs of fighting bacterial infections imperative. Attempts to reduce or inhibit microbial adherence is a viable means to control infection, since such adherence is one of the initial stages of the infectious process. Biosurfactants have been found to inhibit the adhesion of pathogenic organisms to solid surfaces or to infection sites (34). A biosurfactant of P. fluorescens was found to inhibit the adhesion of Listeria monocytogenes LO28 to polytetrafluoroethylene and stainless steel surfaces (30). There are reports of inhibition of biofilm formed by uropathogens and yeast on silicone rubber by biosurfactants produced by Lactobacillus acidophilus (43). Lactobacillus fermentum RC-14 releases surface-active components that can inhibit adhesion of uropathogenic bacteria, including Enterococcus faecalis (11). The mechanism of anti-adhesive properties of many drugs appears to be alteration of cell surface hydrophobicity.
To further test anti-adhesive activity of the biosurfactant, we measured the adherence of a variety of bacteria to 96- well microtiter plates in vitro. As shown in Table 1, the biosurfactant was found to significantly inhibit the adhesion of S. typhimurium,E.coli and S. aureaus. The highest anti-adhesive activity was exhibited against S. typhimurium with inhibition percentage till 51.9%. Results obtained from all treated bacteria indicated that the anti-adhesive effect depended on the dose applied and the bacteria tested. The anti-adhesive activity against M. luteus will occur when the concentration of biosurfactant is higher than 6.4 g/L.
Zones of inhibition diameter produced by different concentrations of biosurfactant were measured using disc diffusion method. As shown in Table 2 and Fig. 2, biosurfactant exhibited interesting antibacterial and antifungal activities. The antimicrobial activity increased with increasing concentration of biosurfactant. It has a strong activity against B. cinerea, F. moniliforme, M. luteus and S. typhimurium. Recently, several lipopeptide biosurfactants produced by B. subtilis (21,36,44) and B. licheniformis (9,13,46) have been shown to have antimicrobial activity. Vater et al. (41) had described the anti-fungal properties of surfactin. Hiradate et al. (12), Yu et al. (47) and Cho et al. (7), reported about another lipopeptide, iturin, produced by Bacillus strains to suppress phytopathogenic fungi. In our study, the lipopeptide biosurfactant from Bacillus natto TK-1 exhibited both antibacterial and antifungal activities.
Previous studies showed that various interesting biological properties of lipopeptide biosurfactants were presumed to be the result of interactions with the membranes of target cells (37). By Scanning electron and optical microscopies, Thimon et al. (39) discovered iturin produced by B. subtilis, which affects the morphology and membrane structure of yeast cells. Studies by Kim et al. (20) also proved that fengycin from B. thuringiensis CMB26 was capable of affecting the cell surface of the phytopathogenic fungus C. gloeosporioides, an of the bacteria E. coli O157 and P. rapaecrucivora. In our study, the bactericidal effects upon S. typhimurium were examined using AFM. It can be observed from the images that before treatment of biosurfactant the S. typhimurium showed normal smooth surfaces. Meanwhile, clustering of cells was observed. In contrast, cells treated with biosurfactant for 50 min exhibited dramatic changes in the structure of the cell walls. The outer membrane of the bacteria was extremely rough and some membrane residues were found around the cells. Cells were scattered and few clustering were seen (data not shown).
In recent years, there are few reports about lipopeptide biosurfactants with effect on tumor cells. As part of our program to evaluate the cytotoxic potential of the biosurfactant, K562 and BEL-7402 cells were treated with a series of biosurfactant concentrations for 48 h, and then cell viability was evaluated by MTT assay. The results in Fig. 3a showed that biosurfactant was able to suppress the viability of K562 and BEL-7402 cells in a dose- dependent manner. The IC50 for K562 and BEL-7402 cells at 48 h were 19.1 mg/L and 30.2 mg/L, respectively. In addition, the effects of biosurfactant on the survival rate of normal cell lines were also examined, including BRL and HEK293. The IC50 for BRL and HEK293 cells at 48 h were 105.4 mg/L and 93.8 mg/L, respectively (Fig. 3b). Compared with K562 and BEL-7402 cells, biosurfactant at the same concentration had lower toxicity to the normal cell lines invitro.
Direct observation of the cells under the fluorescent microscope tends to suggest that biosurfactant induces apoptosis of BEL-7402 cells. The nuclear morphology was analyzed by Hochest 33258 staining. Cytoplasm and chromatin condensation, were detected in BEL-7402 cells at 48 h of treatment with 20 mg/L biosurfactant (data not shown). Apoptosis is a tightly regulated form of cell death, also called the programmed cell death (35). It has a central role in the pathogenesis of human disease when the genes controlling the apoptotic process are suppressed, overexpressed or altered by mutation (38). Disordered apoptosis is implicated in a variety of human diseases. Research into apoptosis is proceeding at a fast pace and this has led to the possibility of new therapeutic approaches to some tumor diseases (16). Our study demonstrated that the biosurfactant induced morphological changes. BEL-7402 cells treated with biosurfactant were characterized by chromatin condensation and cell shrinkage in the early stage, and then the nucleus and cytoplasm fragment, forming membrane-bound apoptotic bodies which can be engulfed by phagocytes.
In the present study, the biosurfactant produced by Bacillus natto TK-1 has a strong surface activity. From the results of anti- adhesive, antimicrobial and antitumor activities assay, biosurfactant exhibits attractive therapeutical and biotechnological properties, which represents a promising candidate as a new drug. The information of the morphological changes of bacteria provided by AFM indicated that the disruption of the outer membrane of S. typhimurium cells was the possible mechanism of the action of the lipopeptide biosurfactant. In addition, by fluorescence examination, biosurfactant induced chromatin condensation of BEL-7402 cells and showed common features of apoptosis.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant number 20676103. We would also like to thank Xiao-Qing Zhang for the use of the atomic force microscope.
Submitted: November 07, 2007; Returned to authors for corrections: December 06, 2007; Approved: February 15, 2009
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Publication Dates
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24 July 2009
Date of issue
June 2009
15 Feb 2009
06 Dec 2007
07 Nov 2007


text:
Zayn Malik Shines With M.I.A. on 'AIM' Track, 'Freedun'
"I'm M.I.A. / I don't need any audition / I just got my own little mission / It grew bigger than a politician / History is just a competition," M.I.A. declares off the top of "Freedun," her entirely unexpected collaboration with former One Direction star, Zayn Malik.
The track, which premiered today (September 1) as Annie Mac's Hottest Record In The World on BBC Radio, is the latest offering from her upcoming (and possibly final) album AIM, out September 9.
While M.I.A. grabs the verses, Zayn supplies his lonesome, heavily layered vocals to the chorus, providing a vulnerable touch to the otherwise cocky, free-duh-duh-duh-dun filled production.
"All the stars are still shining / But you're the only one I see," he croons.
"It just kind of happened," she said to Annie of the collaboration's origins. "I made this song a long time ago and it was always sort of, like, too mainstream sounding for me. It just seems like it's perfect — if I was gonna have a collaboration, and have someone like Zayn — this is the perfect song. It sort of takes me out of my comfort zone, but kind of takes him out of his as well."
"We've just been going back and forth on, you know, WhatsApp," she told Entertainment Weekly last month. "I really wanted to write a song for Zayn…we had a couple people in common. And that's how it came about. I didn't really approach him for my own record until later on. First, I thought I wanted to try writing a song for him."
Prior to "Freedun," M.I.A. dropped her massive Skrillex-assisted "Go Off" in July and the Diplo and Blaqstarr-produced "Bird Song" last month.
Listen to "Freedun," featuring Zayn Malik, up top.
Zayn's Hottest Instagram Photos:


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Have your say on Publication Draft Local Plan Consultation
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council is reminding people there is still time to get in touch with their views about the Publication Draft Local Plan.
The draft plan sets out a vision for the future development of Stockton-on-Tees Borough in relation to things such as housing, the economy, community facilities and infrastructure up to 2032.
The six-week public consultation will close on Monday, 6 November 2017. During the consultation period a number of drop-in sessions will be held throughout Stockton-on-Tees, as follows:
- Tuesday, 17 October at Stockton Central Library from 4pm to 7pm
- Thursday, 19 October at Billingham Library from 4pm to 7pm
- Tuesday, 24 October at Yarm Library from 4pm to 7pm
- Thursday, 26 October at Thornaby Central Library from 4pm to 7pm
- Wednesday, 1 November at Norton Library from 4pm to 7pm
- Thursday, 2 November at Ingleby Barwick Library from 4pm to 7pm
Councillor Bob Cook, Leader of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, said: "There is still plenty of time to have your say about the Publication Draft Local Plan. I would urge people to get involved in this consultation because when adopted, the Local Plan will be the starting point for consideration of planning applications for the development of land.
"We want to have a Local Plan in place to put us in a strong position to manage future development, deliver our priorities for the Borough and make Stockton-on-Tees a great place to live and work."
Copies of the Publication Draft Local Plan are available to view in all Stockton-on-Tees libraries. Consultation forms are also available in branch libraries for people to complete and return.
For more information please email firstname.lastname@example.com or telephone 01642 526050.
Submission of the Local Plan to Government will follow, with examination in public targeted for Spring 2018 and formal adoption in Summer 2018.


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TENNESSEE, USA — With a smile that could light the room, 3-year-old Noah Clare reunited with his family after being found in California.
Cheers filled the air as Noah ran into the arms of his mother, Amanda Ennis, giving her the biggest hug.
The 3-year-old from Gallatin, Tennessee had been missing for more than a week after the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said his non-custodial father, Jacob Clare, had abducted him instead of bringing him home after a visit in Kentucky.
An AMBER Alert was issued days after he was reported missing on Nov. 7. The search for Noah spanned across Kentucky, Tennessee, Arizona and eventually California -- lasting for nearly two weeks.
Noah was found safe outside of San Clemente, California on Thursday morning after a observant Southern California mother from the Dana Point area, Julia Bonin, spotted him with his father and another missing girl at Doheny State Beach.
In a media briefing, Bonin said she remembered the AMBER Alert and acted on her intuition by reporting the sighting to authorities. Bonin said that she knew Noah's mom could not wait to have her baby back.


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Artist: Djinji BrownTitle: Uncle Junior's Fish Fry (The Market)Rating: 4 StarsReviewed by: Paine
Djinji Brown has been laying the cut for a minute. As a producer, he has crafted some sounds behind Pete Rock and CL Smooth, A Tribe Called Quest, J-Live, and even Barrington Levy. As a DJ, he has been a young face keeping alive the spirit of Bambattaa and Herc with the hip-hop dance party. Last year, Djinjis album Sirround Sound surprised many for its innovation in the instrumental hip-hop arena. Djinji returns, to mix a compilation of the same records Seven Heads founder, Wes Jacksons father used to play at his memorable Fish Frys; Uncle Junior's Fish Fry (The Market).
Djinji pulls from a wide array of shelves to make this mix. While its not the quickly cliché mash-up variety, Djinji does put Jazzy Jeff, Brass Connection, and Vinija Mojica all on the same mix. Without a doubt, Brown never breaks the cohesive blend, and the listener gets a true house party vibe that feels both part 1975 and part 2005.
While these records are probably not in your personal crates, the tracks will sound familiar. If they arent youre in for a deep treat. The Gregory Issacs Crof served that purpose for me, providing a newfound deep dub delicacy. Other highlights include the underground disco jam The Meaning by Brass Connection, and the horn heavy, too-short, Dont Take Your Love From Me by Marion Brown. While The Market is etched together with a strong hip-hop sensibility, the mix truly pays greater homage to West Indian rhythms and Afro-percussion. Even for the most belligerent b-boy, theres nothing not to love here at all.
Many argue that hip-hop remains for the young. Djinji Browns deft mixing skills on Wes Jacksons household records prove otherwise. The Market is a mature record for a hip-hop fan to grow old with. It shares the attitude, the flamboyance, and even a few rhymes in the mix, but the mix gives ground to the older, deeper-rooted b-boy. While The Market will be the initial installment in the Fish Fry series, Djinji Brown and his efforts will be hard to top. One can only wait for the follow-up.


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Two companion pieces from the Daily Caller shows what happens when a presidency is given a free pass from the press for a protracted period. One of the two articles features a video of an exchange between White House health care adviser Phil Schiliro and MSNBC's Kristen Welker (below the fold). In it, Schiliro claims with a straight face that the Obama administration never said that its target number for enrollments in the health care exchanges was 7 million by the end of March.
Here is the relevant portion of the transcript:
WELKER: Are you confident that you're going to be able to meet your target of getting 7 million people by the end of March? And is that still your target number?
SCHILIRO: Well, that was never our target number. That was a target that was put out by the Congressional Budget Office and has become the accepted number. But there's no —
WELKER: Well Kathleen Sebelius has said 7 million people, that that's the goal.
Which is precisely what Politico's Jennifer Haberkorn reported on June 24:
For Obamacare the magic number is 7 million.
That's how many people the Obama administration hopes to enroll in its new health insurance marketplaces by the end of March. It is starting a huge public education campaign to get people on board with hopes for an assist from the NFL and other professional sports leagues.
The second DC piece involves an exchange between Joel Benenson, president and CEO of Benenson Strategy Group (aka, "the president's pollster"), and Mike Allen, again of Politico. The DC's Alex Pappas provides the context and the wishful thinking on the part of Benenson:
After a year of seeing President Obama's approval ratings plummet, the president's pollster is offering a strikingly candid and pessimistic New Year's resolution.
Reporters should go the next 'year without reporting any public polling data,' Joel Benenson, president and CEO of Benenson Strategy Group, said.
Benenson explained that he thinks the polling often reported by news organizations lacks the proper context.
Asked his New Year's resolution: 'Here's one — with a variation, if mine is too extreme: Go one year without reporting any public polling data.'
But why stop there? Why not just fudge the president's approval rating and levels of public trust regardless of what the polls say? That is what the mainstream media have done to a large degree anyway, refusing to vet Obama during his 2008 campaign and ignoring his many scandals as they have arisen.


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Louisiana Tech has agreed to play Southern University in 2018 and Grambling State in 2019. Kenn Rashad and Jeff Duplessis discuss the details of both deals and the differences in payouts to both HBCU programs. Plus, Jeff gives his analysis on North Carolina A&T head football coach Rod Broadway and where he ranks among the all-time greatest HBCU coaches. Kenn and Jeff also discuss key HBCU matchups involving Morgan State vs. Hampton, Savannah State vs. N.C. Central and the SWAC game of the week between Jackson State and Southern University.
Listen to "E2: La. Tech Agrees to Play Southern & Gambling" on Spreaker.


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Experts say colored contacts that create vampire or zombie eyes for Halloween can cause damage to the eyes. Make sure you have a prescription before using them.
Considering zombie eyes for your Halloween costume this year?
How about red vampire eyes?
You can achieve this look by using decorative or costume contact lenses.
They don't correct your vision, but can change the color of your eye.
But experts are warning consumers to be careful this Halloween season and ensure they only purchase contacts from a reputable supplier who requires a prescription.
"It doesn't matter if it corrects your vision or if you're wearing it simply for fun, or in this case, to dress up in a costume for Halloween. The lens is a medical device, and in this country, medical devices are regulated by the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration], meaning that the products have to be inspected and approved before they are imported into this country legally," Dr. Thomas L. Steinemann, clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, told Healthline.
Although novelty contacts may be seen as part of a costume, in the United States they're not considered a cosmetic. They can't be sold over the counter without a prescription.
Beauty parlors, party shops, costume stores, and online retailers that sell contacts without requiring a prescription are breaking the law.
"If you're buying contacts from street vendors that don't require a prescription… that's illegal and that's a red flag for the buyer. If somebody is willing to sell you a lens no questions asked, they are basically involving you in an illegal trade and… it's probably a pretty good bet that that lens is not approved for legal sale in the U.S.," Steinemann said.
They advise consumers to never buy contacts from street vendors, salons, beauty supply stores, boutiques, flea markets, novelty stores, Halloween stores, record or video stores, convenience stores, beach stores, or internet sites that don't require a prescription.
"There is no way to know if those breaking the law and selling them without a prescription are selling quality lenses or dangerous junk. Poorly fitting or poorly manufactured lenses may cause scratches to the eye surface, which in itself are very painful," Dr. Colin McCannel, a professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and medical director of the Stein Eye Center, told Healthline.
"Worse yet, once there is a scratch, there is an increased risk of an infection. Corneal infections from contact lenses are very serious problems, and can cause blindness," he said.
Steinemann says some of the lenses sold illegally are made overseas using questionable products.
Those lenses that are imported into the United States without approval are in some cases contaminated with germs on the lens.
Such germs could be transferred to the wearer, who'd then be at risk of a blinding infection.
Those who wish to wear decorative lenses for Halloween can do so safely if they obtain a prescription from a qualified eye care professional.
That prescription should include a brand name, the measurements of the eye, and an expiration date.
Contact lenses aren't a "one-size-fits-all" medical device. Both Steinemann and McCannel say it's essential the eye is properly measured so that the lens will fit properly.
"The surface of your eye has certain measurements that your qualified eye professional — your ophthalmologist or optometrist — will measure and make sure the lens parameters fit on the surface, then look at the fit of the lens on the eye, like trying on a shoe to make sure the shoe fits," Steinemann said.
Another benefit to obtaining a prescription for decorative lenses through a qualified eye care professional is that the wearer will then be properly trained in the appropriate way to wear and care for the lenses. This includes proper cleaning practices.
Even if decorative lenses are obtained legally, Steinemann says consumers still need to be aware of the potential risks associated with wearing costume lenses.
"One thing people may not realize is Halloween, theatrical, or decorative lenses are filled with lots of dyes. Dyes don't allow the surface of your eye to breathe very well, so you can't really wear a colored lens the same way somebody who is nearsighted or farsighted would wear a corrective lens that is clear. The surface of the eye requires oxygen from the atmosphere, so when you have a piece of plastic — or worse yet a piece of painted plastic — that is impeding oxygen flow, that's not very healthy for the eye," he said.
Symptoms such as redness or pain in the eye, feeling as if something is in the eye, light sensitivity, or a decrease in vision are all signs of a possible eye infection. They require immediate attention from a qualified eye care professional.
Steinemann advises people to think carefully about whether they need costume contacts this Halloween, and to not take any risks by buying from a vendor that isn't an authorized distributor of contact lenses.
"It's not worth it. For one night of fun, it's not worth going blind," he said.


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Saturday, November 29, 2014
Archaeo-Blogger Celebrates Small Business Saturday
Archaeo-Blogger Paul Barford has unexpectedly celebrated Small Business Saturday with a tribute to the small businesses of the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art. What better way to mark the day by purchasing an antiquity or ancient coin from one of these fine IADAA dealers or some equally fine small businesses of the numismatic trade?
Posted by Cultural Property Observer at 1:01 PM
Labels: Blogging, Dealers, Humor/Satire/Irony
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June, 2016
Anita's Caprese Salad in a "Fan Way"
Farm ripe tomatoes, fresh buffalo mozzarella with fresh basil, presented in a very fun (fan) way. A refreshing and delicious summer salad or snack with balsamic glaze. Enjoy!
Anita's Most Tender Roasted Pork Shoulder
Tender Pork shoulder soaked in a citrusy marinade, a combination of oranges and lime. Cooked covered in an unglazed natural Clay Pot, that produces more steam and elevates the concentration of flavors.
4 pounds pork shoulder (Bone-in)
10 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups fresh orange juice
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
1/2 cup springs fresh oregano leaves
1 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon cumin, ground
1 Tablespoon garlic, ground
1 Tablespoon Annato (achiote)spice
1 teaspoon cloves, ground
1 teaspoon parsley, dried
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Teaspoon black ground pepper
- Using a mortar or using a food processor, smash garlic, cilantro, and mint leaves with a 1/3 teaspoon salt until it becomes a paste.
- In a plastic bag combine olive oil, orange juice, lime juice oregano, ground cloves, cumin, dried parsley, annatto, salt and pepper and mix it up. Add pork in.
- Place marinated pork over a dish into the refrigerator overnight.
- Meanwhile, soak your clay pot in cold water if it was used before for 20 to 30 minutes, otherwise it has to be soaked overnight if it wasn't never used . (The use of a regular roasting pan can be used pre-heating your oven before as usual).
- Place pork with juices from the marinate into the clay pot. Insert into a cold oven in the middle rack .Set your oven to 385 grades Fahrenheit.
- Roast for 4 to 5 hours. Insert thermometer in the center and check for 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Pork should be fork tender.
- Remove heavy, clay pot from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes.
- The magic of cooking in a natural clay pot, is that meat becomes extremely tender, caramelized top with an exceptional juicy meat. Serve next to fried plantains(Maduros)see recipe below, black beans(see recipe on my site under Venezuelan Pabellon criollo), and white rice. Enjoy!
Fried Plantains (Maduros)
- Heat 1/2 cup of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Peel 2 ripe plantains in an angle, 3/4 inches thick.
- Brown plantains for about 2 minutes in both sides until golden brown.
- Remove and place over paper towel to drain oil excess.
- Serve warm, cold or at room temperature.
Anita's Refreshing Watermelon Caprese Bites
Watermelon Caprese Bites! A perfect combination of sweet juicy watermelon, salty feta cheese with a refreshing mint flavor over a delicious reduced balsamic vinegar glaze. Cool your hot summer down!
Watermelon cut into cubes or use your favorite shapes using a cookie cutter. (like the flower shape I used on my picture).
Feta cheese
Fresh Mint
Reduced Balsamic Vinegar Recipe:
Place 1/2 cup of Balsamic Vinegar in a small saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until vinegar has reduced.
Arrange by drizzling some of the balsamic glaze over a serving dish, placing your cut flowers watermelon over. Locate a fresh mint leaf in the center. Place cheese in the center. Enjoy!
Anita's Eggplant Lasagna with Meat-Tomato Sauce
A healthy dinner choice ! Where the eggplant replace the noodles. Trust me you won't miss the cheese either.
4 large eggplant, cut in rounds 1 1/2 -2 inch thick
4 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 pound lean ground meat
1 small yellow onion
4 tomatoes, small diced
1- 8 ounces can tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon oregano, dried
1 teaspoon parsley, dried
1 teaspoon red crushed pepper
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
- Preheat oven to 375 grades Fahrenheit.
- Place your round eggplant on a baking sheet coated with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Roast for about 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.
4. Meanwhile, add 2 tablespoon of olive oil to a large pan over medium heat.
5. Add meat to the pan and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes until meat is browned. Seasoned with salt and pepper. Add garlic, onions and cook for another 10 minutes until softened.
6. Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, dried oregano, dried parsley, bay leaf and red crush pepper. Bring to a boil and lower the heat.
7. Simmer sauce for about 30 to 35 minutes. Check your seasoning again for any more salt and pepper.
8. To assemble noodle-free lasagna, place rounds slices of eggplant into a well buttered glass pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
9. Add in half of meat sauce over eggplant. Another layer of round slices of eggplant finishing with a layer of the meat sauce.
10. Repeat procedure, alternating between eggplant and meat sauce. (number of layers optional)
11. Cover glass baking dish with foil. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes until all flavors have integrated. Garnish with some parsley. Serve with rice or next to a salad. Enjoy!
Anita's Grilled Skirt Steak Quesadillas
Please visit my site for Grilled Skirt Steak Recipe. 🙂
Anita's Mexican style Grilled Steak for Quesadillas or Burritos
Delicious spiced-rubbed tender skirt steak. Assemble carne asada (grilled steak) into a quesadilla, burrito or have on its own over salad. "No Worries", you don't feel like grilling? Use a cast iron pan instead. Enjoy!
1 pound skirt steak, cut in long stripes
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon of Adobo seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup of vegetable oil (for grilling)
6 ( 10 inch) flour tortillas
Preparation for Marinating Steak
- Whisk together olive oil, vinegar. Add adobo, garlic, cayenne, chili powder, salt and pepper seasoning.
- Incorporate the steak into the marinate to coat thoroughly in a plastic bag. Place it into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Preparing the outdoor Grill
- Heat grill to 400 grades Fahrenheit. Rub the grate with vegetable oil using a grill brush.
- Place the steaks on the grill and cook until medium well or rare (optional), on one side until seared for about 2 to 3 minutes. Turn steak over and sear other side for about 2 minutes.
- Remove from the grill. Cover with foil paper to retain steak's liquid. Let it rest for about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Slice steak across the grain of the meat, in long thin stripes.
Serving skirt steak (choices)
- Serve in warm Tortillas, quesadillas adding grated Monterrey jack cheese(optional). Place them into the grill until bottom of tortilla is crispy. Place another tortilla on top.
- Using a spatula, flip quesadilla over until grill marks have appear.
- Transfer quesadillas to a board and let them rest for two minutes. Cut and serve next to guacamole, radishes and fresh homemade pico de gallo salsa.(see recipes on my site) Enjoy!
Anita's Lebanese Ejjeh -Vegetarian Dill Omelette
A crunchy, rustic, and herby delicious Omelet. Great as a sandwich on a pita bread or next to your favorite salad. Enjoy !
7 large eggs
14 Tablespoon coconut flour
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 bunch parsley, chopped
1 bunch dill, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 Tablespoon of vegetable oil
- Mix together green onions, parsley, dill and yellow onions. Add beaten eggs.
- Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix until all combined. Batter will be thick.
- Stir in coconut flour slowly over the vegetables. Mix all ingredients.
- In a big skillet over medium heat, add 4 Tablespoon of vegetable oil and heat.
- Scoop 1/3 cup of batter into the skillet. Level down each ojji with a spatula. 4 ojji at a time. Do not overcrowd the skillet.
- Flip each ojji after 2 to 3 minutes on both sides until golden brown.
- Remove and place over paper towels.
- Serve immediately or at room temperature.
Best loaves of bread look like these…
Crusty sourdough, hand-mixed with a long natural fermentation with fresh organic rosemary and the special touch of our hands.
Please see recipe on my site.


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Mickey Rourke was the star of one of the steamiest movies of the 80s, 9 1/2 Weeks, but I think we all figured his days of hot romance were over. But an Oscar nomination can do funny things for a man's career, so Rourke will be joining Alice Braga and Vincent Cassel in 11 Minutes an adaptation of Paulo Coehlo's novel.
Braga, who has made a career of playing mysterious hot women (I Am Legend, Blindness) gets the lead this time, playing a girl who swears off romance after being betrayed by a lover. She then somehow winds up as a high-priced hooker, with Cassel playing a music exec who gets her into S&M, and Rourke playing the manager of the sex club.
Variety notes that Hany Abu-Assad, who directed the acclaimed Palestinian drama Paradise Now, will helm the film. The international cast and literary source makes the whole thing sound pretty classy, even if it is about, uh, a sex club.
Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News
Staff Writer at CinemaBlend
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text: Koning's Concern Started Early February 2008 Barry Friedman, Explorer Correspondent AAPG member Tako Koning spends about half of his time as an adviser for Tullow Oil Angola. The other half is devoted to helping the people of Angola in their struggle against malaria and the need for clean drinking water. It's not an easy battle. Despite the success that Angola has had as a major oil producer, many parts of the country still face destructive conditions brought on by malaria-carrying mosquitos and a lack of clean drinkable water. But Koning is no stranger to helping others. Being involved with people on a humanitarian level beyond his duties as a geologist has long been a part of his life. Earlier efforts to help centered on satisfying people's thirst for knowledge. As residential development manager for ChevronTexaco in Luanda, Angola, Koning organized an effort in 1997 to collect geology and petroleum-related books and journals to donate to African universities. That effort stemmed from his experience lecturing on petroleum geology and economics at nearby universities, where he quickly noticed that libraries were severely lacking in books.


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Wedding.net have appeared as one of the most eminent names in the industry engaged in fabricating and supplying a unique array of Luxury Wedding Tent. With a list of service providers a quality assortment of Wedding Tent in various designs and patterns are available in Pune. An ambience that takes your heart away and is value for money is here, so select the deal you like.
Our vendors have designed and decked to deliver a perfect setting, these highly fashionable tents are aesthetically decorated with new designs evolving with each passing year as per the change in tastes of fashion and demand of new aesthetics in the structures. So glad you are here to choose best services for tent. We care for your budget,Style needs,Size of wedding and demand. some of them can be used for multipurpose.


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Working Memory
Duration and Capacity of Short-Term Memory Explained
Working memory is also sometimes called short-term memory. Some researchers sometimes use these terms interchangeably, as will we throughout this literature.
As the term short-term memory suggests, information is briefly stored there. However, the duration of items residing in working memory is, as we will see, much longer than that of items residing in sensory memory Opens in new window.
Working memory retains less information; its capacity is unlike the unlimited capacity of the visual icon. Working memory is limited to storing just a small number of items.
Whereas information in the different sensory stores is specific to modality, coding in working memory can be acoustic, semantic, or visual. How the different types of codes are put to use is discussed at length in Alan Baddeley's model of working memory.
For now it is helpful to use the analogy of a workbench when thinking about working memory. A workbench is a space where one can construct something using parts and tools.
For example, if one wanted to build a spice rack, s/he would need several pieces of wood, some nails, and varnish. In addition to this, s/he would need saws to cut the wood to size, a hammer, and a paintbrush. With these items in hand one could then set about to create the final product.
Working memory is the mental equivalent of this workbench. It is a place where data (the parts) can be temporarily stored so that they can be operated on by cognitive processes (the tools).
In this sense working memory is the site where conscious thinking takes place. It is here that you remember a phone number, figure out how to navigate your way around a new city, or solve an arithmetic problem.
How long does information last in working memory?
This is a crucial question. If information is lost rapidly from short-term memory, this must limit our ability to think about several things at once.
In a classic study, Peterson and Peterson (1959) demonstrated the duration of items that reside in short-term memory. They presented participants with items to be remembered. A tone was sounded following the presentation of the items.
In separate trials the tone was sounded at varying time intervals. Sometimes it would go off immediately; during other trials there would be a substantial delay. The participants were instructed to recall the items upon the sounding of the tone. In this condition, all participants were able to remember the items correctly, no matter the length of the delay.
In a second condition, presentation of a three-digit number followed presentation of the items. Participants were instructed to count backward in threes from this number. If the number was "796," they would have to count out "793," "790," "787," and so on. A tone was sounded, again at varying intervals, cueing recall of the item.
At this point the results were quite different. The ability to remember the items deteriorated rapidly as the period of delay increased. After an 18-second recall interval, the accuracy of recall had dropped to just 5%, meaning participants could only recall 5% of the items correctly. Figure 1 shows idealized results for both conditions of such a study.
You may have guessed what's happening here. In the first condition, participants were able to rehearse the trigrams. Rehearsal, by the way, is the mental repetition or mental "practicing" of some to-be-learned material. Rehearsal refreshes items in short-term memory; it keeps them active and prevents them from decaying.
In the second condition, participants were prevented from rehearsing because of the backward counting. Here the items underwent decay. Using this paradigm, Brown (1958) and Peterson and Peterson (1959) were able to determine that the duration of short-term memory was about 18 seconds. Our next discussion involves capacity.
How much can working memory hold?
It is easy to devise an experiment that tests this question. It would involve presenting participants with a series of lists, each containing a different number of items.
For example, we could present a list of four digits, then a five-digit list, a six-digit list, and so on. If there were a limit to how many digits could beheld in working memory, we would see a dramatic drop off in retention as we arrived at that limit.
Many early experiments of this sort demonstrated that this was indeed the case. On average, individuals can retain about seven items, give or take two, commonly denoted as 7+2. This limit has come to be called the "magical number seven" (Miller, 1956).


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Chosen by the Biggest Names in Health
Sherry A. Rogers, M.D.
"The best way to get rid of heavy metals and pesticide residues? The Infrared Sauna. My searching led me to a very reputable company, High Tech Health. You can call for information on the infrared sauna, the best sauna I could recommend."
Dr. Rogers, perhaps the world's foremost expert on environmental medicine, is board certified by the American Board of Family Practice, board certified by the American Board of Environmental Medicine, a Fellow of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition. She has authored 20 scientific papers, textbook chapters, received the American Academy of Environmental Medicine Rinkle Teaching Award for Teaching Excellence, published a referenced newsletter for 19 years, and authored over a dozen books.
Dr. Rogers has recommended use of High Tech Health products in newsletters as well as in such books as Detoxify or Die, Pain Free in 6 Weeks, The High Blood Pressure Hoax, and The Cholesterol Hoax.
Stephen Sinatra, M.D.
"Clearly, detoxifying ourselves is one of the biggest personal challenges of the 21st century. The sauna that I'm now using is made by High Tech Health in Boulder, Colorado. I use my sauna nearly every day."
Dr. Sinatra is a board-certified cardiologist, a certified bioenergetic psychotherapist, and a certified nutrition and anti-aging specialist. Besides publishing a monthly newsletter, "Heart, Health & Nutrition", he has has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, Heart Disease, CT Medicine, and written or contributed to over a dozen books. He is a three-time recipient of the American Medical Association's Physician Recognition Award and has received the Harold Harper Award from the American College for Advancement in Medicine.
Dr. Sinatra has recommended use of High Tech Health products in his newsletter as well as in his book Spa Medicine: Your Gateway to the Ageless Zone.
Jonathan V. Wright, M.D.
Dr. Wright graduated from Harvard University cum laude and is an expert in the science of applied nutritional biochemistry. He is author of the best-selling Book of Nutritional Therapy and Guide to Healing with Nutrition. He is President Emeritus of the National Health Federation and has served on the Board of Directors of Bastyr University, The Life Extension Foundation, the American Preventative Medical Association, and other important medical institutions. His medical seminars are internationally recognized as the best educational resource for physicians who want to learn nutritional medicine.
He is also the author of a newsletter called Nutrition & Healing, in which he has referenced High Tech Health products.
Robert Atkins, M.D.
Best known for the "Atkins Diet", he specialized in cardiology and complementary medicine. He authored 17 books and wrote a monthly newsletter. He owned an electrolyzer from High Tech Health and recommended it in his newsletter.
David Brownstein, M.D.
Dr. Brownstein is a Board-Certified Family Practitioner and Medical Director of the Center for Holistic Medicine. He has lectured internationally on nutritional therapies and written 7 books.
He mentions High Tech Health in his book Overcoming Thyroid Disorders.
Ray Kurzweil & Terry Grossman, M.D.
Ray Kurzweil is an inventor, entrepreneur, and futurist. He has authored several books on health, artificial intelligence, and futurism. He received the 1999 National Medal of Technology from President Clinton and has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Dr. Grossman is the founder and medical director of the Frontier Medical Institute as well as assistant professor of family practice at The University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Chelation Therapy, and a member of the American Academy for Advancement of Medicine, the International Oxidative Medicine Association, and the American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine.
Together they authored the book Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. The book has a chapter on alkaline water and they own and recommend our products.


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Lowe-White Memorial Park
- Corner of Leonard Street and Willis Drive, Southport, NC 28461
Facilities include a pair of enclosed tennis courts, playground equipment, picnic tables, benches, restrooms, and the enclosed basketball half-court. The park also offers more to be explored within the woods that surround it. An overlook structure provides some peace and quiet, and an intricate network of walking trails create a continuous loop throughout the wooded property.