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OpenWetWare:Logo and Promo Poster Discussion
This page is dedicated to discussion with a graphic artist Jen Cook-Chrysos about coming up with a new look (logo, color scheme, page layout, poster and business cards) for OpenWetWare. Jen is posting ideas here and any OpenWetWare user is welcome to give her feedback on this page. The more feedback, the better!
OWW Colors, Poster and Business Cards
Here's the latest round of stuff from Jen. Please post your comments.
Jen also game us the colors that she used.
- Bright Green ("Wetware"): B4CE4E
- Blue ("Open"): 2171B8
- Grid on lower part of web page:
- darkest green: CDDE95
- medium green: DEE8B8
- lightest green: E5EDC8
- darkest green: CDDE95
- Light Blue Background: C5D0EA
- Light cyan boxes (left): E4F2FC (this color might be wrong, i'll check - tmt)
- purple: 4E4496
- Austin 16:23, 10 March 2006 (EST): If we could get a 16x16 icon to use for the favicon.ico, that'd be cool to replace the current 'W' wikipedia icon. See Wikipedia:Favicon for some technical details on creating the proper format.
Main page comments
- Austin 19:11, 8 March 2006 (EST): Not sure how easy it'd be to change the layout/colors of things outside of a single page itself. We'll have to modify the skin, perhaps make our own, and make it the default instead of monobook. Plus the only things that can be changed/moved have to be specifiable using css with elements that already exist on the page.
- RS 09:54, 10 March 2006 (EST): I like it. Even if we don't change the colors outside the page, I still think the page looks nice. And I like the improved legibility over the current color scheme.
Poster comments
- Kathleen 17:42, 8 March 2006 (EST): I think this is really great. It's a nice, simple format that should allow us the versatility we want to use this poster for lots of different things.
- BC 19:26, 8 March 2006 (EST): I agree, this is great. My only criticism would be the hands at the bottom. I don't think they symbolize DNA any longer since they lack the backbone and instead they look like a spine or a neck. I think they would be fine as an abstract pattern but if so maybe they would look well if they were watermarked in the background.
- RS 09:54, 10 March 2006 (EST): The poster looks pretty good. I agree that the hands at the bottom resemble the backbone of a dinosaur more than a double helix but I don't really have strong feelings about whether this resemblance is a good or bad thing.
Business card comments
- Jennyn 16:53, 8 March 2006 (EST): I like 'em. Have we tried orienting the helix vertically on the business card? Might help with the dead space on the left, unless that was saved for something else.
- Kathleen 17:14, 8 March 2006 (EST): I agree that we should try the helix vertically to see how it looks. Also, the word "acquire" is spelled incorrectly. Just paranoid about printing stuff up with mistakes.
- RS 09:54, 10 March 2006 (EST): Agreed on turning the helix vertically and the misspelling.
Poster Requirements
We've also contracted Jen to design a poster for us. We seem to be settling on the logo, so I think that it's time to start thinking about the poster. I personally had envisioned the poster as something of a base design or template that we could change the text in to use for different purposes. One use would be to directly advertise OpenWetWare. We could mail it out to various labs to post around their buildings to advertise OpenWetWare in the same way that conferences are advertized. We could also use different text and use the poster to advertise the OpenWetWare seminar series that is being planned. So as I see it, the specifications are: (please add to this list)
- Design that is consistent with new logo
- Generic enough that we can alter the text and re-use for different purposes
- Look good at multiple sizes (8.5 x 11 or 16 x 20 - the later is the size of the synth bio conference poster for those who've seen it)
- ??
- Jgritton 10:38, 3 March 2006 (EST): How should this be different than the poster Jenny N designed for the BE retreat?
- tmt 16:20, 3 March 2006 (EST): I think that this poster and the one that Jenny N designed will serve different puposes. Jenny N's poster is great for presentation at a poster session where there will be OWW users to explain OWW to people. This poster than JenCC is working on will be used as a template poster for various OWW advertising, including OWW talks and presentations.
Jen's Sketches: 6
Here is the correct DNA spiral with fewer, fatter hands as requested. My suggestion would be to use the horizontal version as the logo, and use the vertical helix as the emblem when it appears alone. I have also corrected the situation of right-handed vs. left-handed hand shaking--I hadn't really considered that when I flipped the hands. Thanks for pointing it out!
General comments
RS 15:11, 27 February 2006 (EST): Overall I think that Jen addressed and resolved most of the comments below. I think round 6 represents a good compromise since it has a realistic backbone but still has the "fat" hands that so many people seemed to like (though note that this leads to the wrong number of hydrogen bonds per turn of the helix! It's okay, I'll live since majority rules). In my mind there are only a few main issues left to be resolved. Add to the list if I have forgotten any.
Two things I'd like to suggest. First, let's make absolutely sure we get the handedness of the helix correct. I believe the current one is right. Second, the bases in real DNA have unequal sizes: purines are large, pyrimidines are small. A more realistic version might offset the hands from the middle of the logo, and vary the spacing to reflect this fact. -- tk
Specific comments
- Orientation: It was a near tie as to which orientation was proposed. I suggest going with Jen's suggestion of using the horizontal version in the logo (with the text) and the vertical helix in the emblem.
- Unpaired hands or not: There is some disagreement as to whether we should have unpaired hands at the ends of the helix or not. The pro of unpaired hands is that it suggests we need more people in the community (from Kathleen) and the con is that it is less aesthetically pleasing (from Jenny and Stephan). Vote here:
- Color scheme: We need to finalize what colors we want. Many people have liked the dark green and light green scheme that previous iterations of logos have used. I am not sure if the emblem would look very good in dark green and light green though. Comments? Some have also liked the current blue and medium green scheme. Though Jason commented that the green looks a bit rough when it is entire columns of the page. Stephan found the medium green friendlier than the current gray and blue. Post any ideas here.
- BC: I like grey and blue but would be happy with the green than is currently used or a slightly more muted green.
- JN: I like green and blue as they are. I think the green bring in more energy to the page, and emphasizes the notion of biology. Me too: JG
- JN: There's also one minor thing. I noticed that the purple on the horizontal helix is dark purple, where in the back where the hands are located, it's lighter blue. I don't know if that seems a bit akward because where the hands are located, should be where the shadow is, but instead the darker portion is in the front? Just wondering what it would look like if we switched it. The hands might stand out more (like in the vertical emblem).
- I definitely like the green and blue over blue and gray. I would prefer a darker green, but then this would not incorporate well into the new main page color scheme, or a green that is less yellow (which, for some reason, is quite hard to do on a computer in my experience). Perhaps a "seafoam" green-type color would work. I imagine a green that is "real" green and is lightened with white, kind of like the grasshopper drink I had the other night, or maybe one of the lighter greens from the round 1 website designs. Just a thought, but the current colors are fine, too.Kathleen
- SK: Don't care, as long as it is consistant across the site.
- Font: Do we still want keep the font used currently, or use Jen's new font?
- I like Jen's new font: JG. Yea, it looks bubblier! JN. Both thumbs up for new font! SM.
- I like the new font, particulary how the helix feeds into the "O".Kathleen
- RS 13:05, 1 March 2006 (EST): I like the new font as well but I do think it would be nice if we had access to the font. That way as new shared pages arise, we could format them as the Materials and Protocols pages are.
- Is the font "copyrighted" if it ends up in the logo? If so, I agree that we should go with a font that we can freely use. Not sure what the legalities are on this, so it would be great if someone could fill me in. Thanks!--Kathleen 13:55, 1 March 2006 (EST)
- Jennyn 10:54, 3 March 2006 (EST): Something that George Ahunov is working on (once he gets access) is trying to get SIFR support on the wiki, so then we use/see different fonts without having to have them installed on our computer.
Jen's Sketches: 5
Thanks for the examples. I think you will like these two new ones, based on round 4. At the bottom, you will see DNA "a" and "b". "a" is copied directly from an example of proper DNA depiction, the other just turns it upside down, but I want to make sure that is OK to do. I think it just looks more graceful in that version, and I have used it in both of these logos.
- These are really great, I like them a lot. I think I'd prefer to keep blue arms on one strand of the double helix and green on the other strand rather than switch them with each rotation as happens in the current logos. At some point we might be able to take advantage of the fact that the horizontal double helix can be read as two intertwined W's. By adding an O you could then write OWW "in DNA". Just to reiterate, these are great!--BC 22:41, 22 February 2006 (EST)
- I'm a big fan of these last two rounds, great work Jen. I put my vote with round4 #2/#3. I like that they are simpler and cleaner than round 5. The extra turns in round 5 are elegant but having the right number of "bases" per turn forces the arms to look unusually stretched. We should get the helicity right since people seem to notice if it isn't (why someone would complain about the directionality of the helix in a drawing where the polymerases have eyes I will never understand), but these are logos not scientific illustrations and in this case I think aesthetics trumps truth. But that's just me--Jgritton 10:38, 23 February 2006 (EST)
- I agree wholeheartedly with Jeff.. I like the fatter hands. --Sri Kosuri 12:01, 23 February 2006 (EST)
- Yay fat hands! I don't like that there are some hands that don't have a partner to shake. It looks lonely. Can we just squish it together so the hands are less stretched but still retain the "proper DNA depiction"? I agree with Jeff that this is a logo and not a scientific illustration, but I also think that the more accurate we are in our logo, the less others will find wrong with our logo. http://www.tcz.net/tczhtml/smiley.happy.gif -Jennyn 02:06, 24 February 2006 (EST)
- My 10 cents: How about the hands at the ends get a partner to grab (I agree that the lonely ones look wrong, somehow) and get faded out in the distance or just plain faded out? By the way - on the risk of stating the obvious and being too wordy - great work! Smeister 19:19, 25 February 2006 (EST)
- I actually like that some hands don't have a partner to shake. It implies that there is a need (and desire) for someone else to come in to add to the helix. Definitely good symbolism for a collaborative community. Maybe it would look better it these unpaired hands were more outstretched, like they were reaching out to shake another hand that may come along at any moment.--Kathleen 10:03, 27 February 2006 (EST)
Emblem feedback summary
Here's a summary of the feedback listed so far.
- The emblem will be a DNA double helix with hands shaking representing the hydrogen bonds. [Everyone seems to concur.]
- The hands should be the same color on each strand of the double helix (like they are in round 4 but they aren't that way in round 5). Thus, in each loop of the DNA, the color of the hands should alternate sides.
- Color follows strand: Barry Canton, Reshma Shetty, Kathleen, Austin Che, Ty Thomson, cmc, Jennyn
- Color stays on one side: Sri Kosuri
- The hand that is in front of the handshake should reflect the twisting of the helix. So in one loop the green hands will be in front (you see the back of the hand) and in the next loop, they will be in back so you can see very little of the hand.
- Sounds good Sri Kosuri, BC, Reshma Shetty, Ty Thomson, cmc, Jennyn
- There is disagreement on whether the "stylized" double helix (round 4) or the "realistic" double helix (round 5) is preferable.
- Stylized: Jgritton, Sri Kosuri, Jennyn (realistically stylized?)
- Realistic: Reshma, BC (but because I prefer the aesthetics not the realism), Kathleen (but because I prefer the realism not the aesthetics), Austin Che, Ty Thomson, cmc
- Don't care:
- There is some question as to what orientation the helix should have: vertical, horizontal or diagonal.
- Vertical: JK, Ty Thomson
- Horizontal: BC, Austin Che (I would like to see a longer horizontal version that has enough repeated loops to spell out OWW in DNA and one with just one 'W'), cmc
- Diagonal: JK (though i'd like to see it), cmc (second on a desire to see it.), Jennyn (third on that one)
- Don't care: Reshma, Sriram Kosuri, Kathleen
- If we do go with round 5, I don't have a strong preference for either round 5 emblem a or b. Either is fine and both are accurate (I think ... please correct me if I'm wrong). [Others?]
- fat hands vs skinny Hands
- Fat: Sri Kosuri, Jeff Gritton, BC, JK, Kathleen, Ty Thomson, Jennyn
- Skinny: cmc (I like this because it's more subtle.)
- More realism issues
- Can we make all the hands right-hands as it is a right-handed helix? Also, the real DNA strands are anti-parallel. One of the hands could be flipped upside down on one of the strands. I don't think we can do both of these easily. Either have a left-hand with upside down right hand or make everything right hands in normal handshake. --Austin Che
- I don't like either of these ideas Ty Thomson
- Oh! Right-handed hand shakes sounds clever. However, are we trying to convey "hand shaking" or "hand holding"...or neither? --Jennyn
- Can we make all the hands right-hands as it is a right-handed helix? Also, the real DNA strands are anti-parallel. One of the hands could be flipped upside down on one of the strands. I don't think we can do both of these easily. Either have a left-hand with upside down right hand or make everything right hands in normal handshake. --Austin Che
- Any more issues that aren't listed here?
Jen's Sketches: 4
After a lot of experimenting, here is what I think--using a double helix as a logo becomes too complex if any action is added. DNA can only be simplified to a certain point (you need at least two turns and base pairs, which are small), so adding hands or something happening turns the logo into an illustration, when it should really be a symbol. The logo or emblem needs to be very simple so that it can be reduced in size without losing clarity. Here are two new ideas using DNA but with limited action.
Images that show action are great for poster illustrations. Here are some sketches based on ideas that people suggested. (Actually, logo 2, which shows DNA made up of shaking hands, might also be better on a poster since the image looks much better enlarged.)
Logo Comments
- I like the round 4 logos a lot. Ilya 15:27, 22 February 2006 (EST)
- really like the helix in round4 sketch 2 and 3, it rocks. -- JK
- Wow, these are really cool. I like sketch 2,3 best... although i do like the horizontal look and offset of 1. I really like the color scheme... these are definitely something i'm really happy with. --Sri Kosuri 15:31, 22 February 2006 (EST)
- I really like the handshake DNA. One thing that I noticed is that the bottom has right hands shaking, and the top has left hands (or equivalently, the green hand is always in front of the blue, which shouldn't happen if the dna twists). But other than that I think it's great! tmt
- I also like the handshake DNA and agree with Sri that it might look good horizontal (or at some other angle) and with the proper offset. I think this emblem does a good job of incorporating the symbolism we were looking for without getting too cartoon-y. cmc 16:42, 22 February 2006 (EST)
- I agree that the handshake DNA looks great! Props to Jen for coming up with such a great design! I would say that round 4, sketch 3 should be our emblem in the corner and round 4 sketch 2 should appear on posters. One comment on the design though. I do think that Kathleen had a valid point when she suggested somewhere below that if we use DNA in our emblem, it should have the right pitch and helicity. How hard would it be for you Jen to tweak the sketch slightly so that it was closer to how DNA really looks? This link has (from what I can tell) a pretty accurate and simplified depiction of DNA. It even includes distances between hydrogen bonds and turns of the helix so that you could conceivable draw the DNA to scale. And this link is a compilation of a bunch of incorrect images of DNA ... namely the helix is left-handed rather than right-handed (and here is a description of the pervasiveness of the problem). Obviously, I know this picture is just intended to be an emblem and that since we have handshakes rather than hydrogen bonds, it is already very far from reality. But since OpenWetWare is designed to appeal to scientists, it seems to me that the closer our emblem is to what DNA really looks like, the better. But seriously, all in all this is a great emblem!
- I like #2/3! Very cool!--Kathleen
- Definitely like these! I agree with Sri that it should be at some angle so that it takes up less veritcal space. Otherwise, I think it communicates OWW perfectly! --Jennyn 22:16, 22 February 2006 (EST)
Poster Comments
I like the first picture (bridge) the best. Cute... to the point... less molecular biology. I think it could be used for a lot of things too. --Sri Kosuri
- I agree, I think it incorporates more OWW ideas (i.e. "bridging" universities & information, making connections through teamwork...) than the other sketches. --Jennyn 22:18, 22 February 2006 (EST)
- Personally, I prefer the idea of using emblem (whatever form of it we decide on) next to the OPENWETWARE text on the posters rather than having a different picture for the poster. I think having a single image for OWW will create more of a brand for the site. If I had to choose between the poster ideas, however, I agree with Sri and Jenny that the first picture is the best. --RS
"Jen's Sketches: 3"
OK, it is only one sketch, but maybe it answers some issues below:
- I did an informal poll around here, and people seemed to like the idea of community that came across with the emblems ([1] [2] [3]). People also aren't tied to integrating an emblem in with the logo (like the plasmids in the plasmid logos). One idea for an emblem that did come out was to have people collaboratively working on/building a linear peice of DNA (or maybe working on/building a cell). You could replace the people with hands if it helps keep it from getting to busy.
Jen's Sketches: 2
In round one, most people said that the idea of many people adding pieces was good and green was good, and the font of the logo was good, but the image did not connote biology and was too complicated. There were various impressions of the scale of the people to the blocks. People suggested referencing some biological feature, such as DNA, plasmids, sunflowers, cells, or other symbols of biology.
So, here is round 2. I have learned that we are not able to use the design based on Jenny Nguyen's logo. In creating a new one, I am hoping to meld the logo with the emblem idea. This way, the pictoral aspect of the logo can be used on subsequent pages as an emblem, but when they are used together they will be more integrated. These sketches are not polished. I am just throwing out my brainstorming ideas to see if any hit the mark. I will fine tune the ones people are interested in. None of these ideas have people in them, because perhaps that was too complicated. However, some of them include a gloved hand offering (or receiving) an "O" plasmid, which is meant to suggest openness, giving, receiving, in the scientific community. Others show the plasmid "O" made of smaller pieces. Other logos use other means to represent biology. Let me know what you think. The ideas are titled and numbered. Please include these in your comments so I know which ones you are talking about. Thanks! --Jencc 14:01, 4 February 2006 (EST)
- I really like the hand and the "sunflower" (plants #3). I also prefer the green over the blue, and actually like the darker green you used in some of the earlier designs. Is there any way to combine the flower and the hand? Potentially these designs could appear in different places, but I think we probably want to go with one core design to have better recognition across platforms. Looking forward to seeing more.--Kathleen 15:51, 4 February 2006 (EST)
- I have addressed the issues you mention--see plants #4--Jencc 20:48, 5 February 2006 (EST)
- I definitely like this new design. I like this better than the plasmid alone because I think the DNA going into a flower encompasses a broader scope of biology. I know we won't ever be able to please everyone, but this may be more memorable than a plasmid-type icon as there may be many people who are interested in OWW and are not familiar with/do not use plasmids. The "flower" also implies something that is growing and needs to be cultivated, a good analogy for OpenWetWare in my opinion. You may also want to try reducing the font size on "wetware" to reduce the space next to "open". This would also help to emphasize the "open" aspect and deemphasize the "wetware" as some people had suggested previously. Thanks for giving us such great options to choose from!--Kathleen 23:05, 5 February 2006 (EST)
- For emphasis, try changing the color of OPEN to the background of the sunflower, and change WETWARE to the lighter color. Right now, when I read the logo, it looks like "PEN WETWARE." This may help the word OPEN stand out. --Jennyn 11:18, 6 February 2006 (EST)
- I have addressed the issues you mention--see plants #4--Jencc 20:48, 5 February 2006 (EST)
- I LOVE the hand one with the insertion in the plasmid (PLASMID 3)!!! You elegantly captured EXACTLY what I was trying to convey in the other logos I tried to design. It looks like a VERY improved depiction of that I attempted. Yours I really like because it is clean, simple, and the emblem is completely separable from the rest of the text without losing its meaning. This one does an excellent job in illustrating the message of "open community" with the palm facing up, giving the impression that we are "offering" to the community. The plasmid on the O, with the insertion portrays OPEN and is a great representation of biology. Possible ways to improve design: Darken (or change the color of) the plasmid in the O or the hand that holds it to bring more attention the two images, and make WETWARE darker so that focus on the text doesn't die out after we see the awesome emblem, while not taking away attention from the OPEN which tends to be washed out because it is completely white inside. I am excited that we are not using the original logo, as it did not successfully portray OWW as open-source-biology as this new design does. You've brought very memorable designs to the table. I like 'em! Plasmid 3 is my vote! --Jenny Nguyen
--What about this (see plasmid #3 again)--Jencc 20:48, 5 February 2006 (EST)
- Jen, this brings out each element much better! I like how the hand is now a gloved-hand, it's cute. Would the text and plasmid would stand out more if the outline was black rather than blue? Just a thought, wouldn't hurt to compare. --Jenny Nguyen
- I don't really like any of the the flower logos. I don't really like that they take two lines of text rather than one (splitting OpenWetWare into two words instead of one). I really like some of the plasmid logos. I like the hand and the outlining from the second last logo (plasmid 3?), and the plasmid from the last one (with the genetic elements marked rather than the double helix). Also, an ungloved hand might be better. -- tmt 11:07, 6 February 2006 (EST)
- I like the plasmid logos in general, the 4th down in particular (gloved hand with DNA in plasmid). I think that the text colors are a little blah together (the green with blue outline). Perhaps a stronger color than the green would not require an outline. Also, I don't care for any of the plant logos. --Dcook 14:44, 7 February 2006 (EST)
- I think if the color of WETWARE were the color of the green DNA (or maybe just darker than the current green) inside the plasmid, it would not require an outline. --Jennyn 15:06, 7 February 2006 (EST)
- I like the following --Samantha
- plasmids: #2 and #4. I like the warmth of the human touch. I disagree with Ty in that I like the gloves... makes it more sciency.
- plants: I like the sunflowers (#3 and #4), but I think the plasmids are more classy.
- I don't like the plants, mainly because of my microbiological prejudice. I like plasmid 2 because it is the simplest plasmid that has all the features we like. I agree with Jenny & Danielle regarding a choice of a different green.--BC 16:04, 7 February 2006 (EST)
--Here is the green that has been requested. I chose the dark blue outline because I thought it did a better job of balancing the elements of the logo. In this one, I think WETWARE stands out too much. --Jencc 19:43, 7 February 2006 (EST) darker green
- For something completely different, I thought basing the logo on a stained gel might be cool. Here is a typical example of a coomassie blue gel. With some crude editing, the bands could be replaced by letters, see here for my ham-fisted attempt at this. The whole OPENWETWARE could be writtein like this. This might look weird to non-wet lab people:)--BC 16:04, 7 February 2006 (EST)
- Another random idea, (sorry for jumping in so late in the game) would be to have a biological network diagram with just three nodes but replacing the node labels with O, W and W for example. Just to recap, I do like plasmid 2 but thought I'd suggest some other (crazier) ideas.--BC 16:11, 7 February 2006 (EST)
--I will give these ideas a try...any other suggestions?--Jencc 19:47, 7 February 2006 (EST)
- As Jason suggested below, I would consider removing the emblem from the words entirely. This can remove the restriction of having the emblem resemble an "O" and allow you to explore more things that represent biology. I think that a DNA helix is a widely recognized symbol of biology, but I'm not sure a plasmid is. I will be picky, though, and suggest that if a helix is used that it not be symmetrical and have the proper pitch, given this is a site for scientists. I also think some kind of critter would be good (plant, animal, bacteria...anyone up for a mouse as the part of the "logo" since it is used in biological science almost as much as the plasmid?) to encompass a larger region of biology in hopes of not alienating future community members. Of course, I seem to be the only one that liked the plant-like emblems, so these ideas may be just as unpopular. I'm just afraid that the plasmid emblem seems good to "us" because (I think) that most of us largely do molecular biology. If you want this to be just a molecular biology thing, then go for it! In the end, I think your stuff is quite cool. I'd even consider revisiting the "growing things" #2 and the "plasmids"#1 (the one without the plasmid and with the flasks, etc.), and I would definitely keep the hand, as I really think this suggests community and openness.--Kathleen
- I like that the emblem is incorporated into the actual logo because makes the entire design cohesive, attractive, and memorable. So when we take the emblem out of the text, we still associate the image with the text. As scientists, we may be too stuck on the preconceived notion that the "O" is a plasmid. If you look at it in another perspective, it is representative of the term "open source." When I designed the "open plasmid", I first wanted to find something that represented "open source" as I believe that OWW as an open-source-biology initiative. I found, Open Source Initiative (OSI). I turned it upside down and incorporated BIOLOGY by adding the insertion. I like the DNA because it makes the biology portion more evident. So this brings familiarity to a broader community because people in technology will recognize the OPEN SOURCE symbol, biological members will see the plasmid, people unfamiliar to science and technology will surely recognize DNA --as it is becoming increasingly popular (it has leaked into the textiles industry! ie. Genetic Denim), and finally everyone else will notice that the hand is facing upwards --indicating that we are a community and that we are open and willing to share information. Not ONLY do we want to attract those in the science community, but allow others outside of science to recognize our initiative. So, instead of focusing on encompassing EVERYTHING into a little emblem (this may lead us to making something too busy and complicated), we should focus on how we can draw attention to the greatest number of people to make them interested in what we are trying to accomplish (word spreads faster this way), rather than have them become uninterested because we failed to catch their interest with the most basic concept we are trying to convey, SHARING. The rest follows as the community becomes more associated with biotechnology. This is just a suggestion so that we take a step back from details, think about our MAIN focus (Go Meta!), and then dive back with a fresh focus. --Jennyn 22:37, 7 February 2006 (EST)
Jen's Sketches: 1a
Hi everyone. Thanks for so much good feedback. I am going back to the drawing board to see if I can incorporate some of the ideas you have come up with. Before I read all your comments, I created this additional idea--I am calling it 1a because it doesn't really address many of the issues mentioned below (since I hadn't read them yet). I came up with this one because the response I got from Felice Frankel was that she thought the logo was too cute. I took out the people to see if it would look less cute. However, I see that it is much busier, when people appear to be calling for less busy. So stay tuned...I will come up with something simpler that still shows people building something that is clearly biological. (I hope).
Finally, things have slowed down for me this week because my baby daughter has been very sick with an ear infection and hasn't been able to go to daycare. I will hopefully make more progress towards the end of the week. --Jencc 22:21, 31 January 2006 (EST)
Jen's Sketches: 1
Here are my first round of ideas based on the discussion below. I emphasized the word "Open" rather than "wet" so that the connection to biology becomes more prominent than the connection to bench work, in order to be more inclusive. I used the green color for that reason as well, to connote biology or life science without making the connection to "wet" or water the way blue would do (although I do include a blue color scheme at the bottom).
I kept the strong aspects of the logo developed by Jenny Nguyen, which really makes the word "OPEN" convey that concept by letting the sides open out into the white background.
The emblem shows many small people icons building the "O" in "OPEN". The "O" also looks a bit like a plasmid. They could be inserting pieces or taking pieces away. I tried to keep this pretty simple. One of the versions shows only one piece being removed or inserted at the top, and looks more like a plasmid with DNA being inserted.
There are business card ideas for each of the different website styles (which are all variations on the same theme).
There is also my runner-up idea for the logo font and an alternative color scheme in blue.
Please comment and feel free to make suggestions! --Jencc 21:05, 26 January 2006 (EST)
Jen: Thanks so much for posting these ideas here. It's great for everyone to be able to respond. And also, welcome to OpenWetWare! BTW, you might want to wait for a few more people to chime in before making any changes ... don't just go with my opinion. -- Reshma
Emblem Ideas
So I like how emblems 1 and 2 seems to suggest the dynamic nature of the site cause pieces of the O are being put in and removed. And I also like that it has people in it cause it suggests community. However, I am not sure that it really suggests biology to me. I don't think the O really looks like a plasmid to me right off the bat. It would be kind of nice if people saw the emblem and came away with the impression of biology immediately. Also, perhaps the people should be less triangular in shape? I can't really explain why. And perhaps more of the emblem should be in the dark green color with a white background so that it is more striking at first glance. Just my two cents. Feel free to contradict me! -- Reshma
The idea is great how a community contributes one piece at a time to some greater picture! However, a simpler design would better complement the text logo, thus will be more memorable to the community. People will be able to associate the text with the emblem. I agree with Reshma in considering an image that suggests biology. This is a great start for the emblem. -- Jenny
One thing I was thinking is keep the idea of the O with people putting in and removing one or more pieces and just have a stylized DNA double helix interweaving through the O along a diagonal. I am not sure if this would make the emblem too busy or not. You could eliminate the "double layers" of the O to make it simpler. -- Reshma
I like the concept -- lots of little people contributing -- but overall I think it is way too busy, and the relative sizes of the "O" and the people are off. Usually, with something like the current plasmid emblem, you can't see the individual bits of information while looking at the plasmid overall -- you have to zoom in to actually read anything. This is true with protein/gene interaction networks too, so it's kind of becoming a theme in biology: lots of information, the particulars of which are not important when looking at the big picture overall, but the specifics of which are available when you need to take a closer look. Maybe that kind of thinking can guide the sizing of logo elements. Green is nice too. -- Danielle
The dark green background makes the emblem stand out better. What about an outer layer of little bricks (perhaps with smaller people) and a continuous, thinner, solid inner layer? I also agree it could be rounder. I think green and round are biological enough without the trite double helix: you could as well make the emblem into a diaton or a sunflower head. -- Alethea
I agree with Danielle's comments about the size of the people relative to the 'O', also like the building of the O from smaller pieces, and the green color scheme. My main comment would be that there's not much meaning in the 'O' -- 'OWW' clearly indicates openwetware, but I think the single 'O' doesn't really do so any more than a random abstract object being built by little people would. I'm not suggesting going back to 'OWW', but rather that we drop incorporating the letters at all and just go with people building up something else, whether a sunflower head built out of double helices, or whatever. --Jason
These are great. I like emblem two the most because it is most evocative of a plasmid. One suggestion is that the people could all be working together to get the final piece(s) of the O in place. So basically less people (i also agree that the people would look better if it were less angular) working on the task of putting the final pieces together. Finally, not too make it even busier, in some of the emblems, the removed pieces are evocative of a W; I kind of like it, but tt may be too subtle and geeky for others though. --Sri Kosuri
Web Ideas
The green theme for the site looks pretty nice and appropriate. I like it. I like that the color behind the OPEN in OpenWetWare is a bit darker in websites 2 and 3. It seems to stand out a bit more. I also like the font that the description is in. I also kind of like the white background behind the description in website 1. -- RS
I like the clean look and shades of green. Site #1 has the best layout. I'm not crazy about the dark green logo background. -- Danielle
Business Card Ideas
business card 1 business card 3
I like the second design but I think we might want to go with an emblem without a background color. It seems like it would translate more easily to different spaces and mediums (i.e. T shirts, business cards, website etc.) -- Reshma
Agreed, don't like the background color. --Sri Kosuri
Is there any other text/message we might want on the card? -- Danielle
Alternative logo style
alternate logo altenate color scheme
I don't think that this alternate logo stands out as well as the original. And I think I prefer the green color scheme. --Reshma Shetty
I think the font is too bare and so doesn't have the same impact or visual interest as the original logo. --Dcook 14:52, 30 January 2006 (EST)--
The font has a very old look to it ("Ye Olde Shoppe" kind of font). I would perfer something more modern looking -- tmt 21:08, 2 February 2006 (EST)
General Ideas
- I know Felice Fraenkel had some contact with Drew and maybe the lab? She seems to be good at visualizing abstract concepts which might be what we need (see the comment below). Anyone know her enough to be able to talk to her about it and see if she has comments/suggestions?--BC 14:46, 13 January 2006 (EST)
--I know Felice from when I worked at Whitehead Institute. Would you like me to get in touch with her and see if she has any input for the logo or poster design?--Jencc 11:19, 23 January 2006 (EST)
--Hi Jen, if you want to talk about this project with Felice that would be awesome. Based on what I've seen of her work she could be very helpful to you and us.--BC 12:20, 23 January 2006 (EST)
We also need to address the issue for how to communicate what we want. How does one represent the idea of on open biology community in a graphic? It seems like the ideas behind OpenWetWare might be difficult to represent graphically. Maybe we should think about abstract ways of expressing what OWW represents (adjectives and adverbs, analogies, mental images?) in order to help Jen come up with ideas.
- One concern that has already been raised is that the name "OpenWetWare" conjures up the notion of wetlab work and possibly excludes computational folk. So perhaps whatever scheme we choose should try to attract both groups. --RS 18:34, 11 January 2006 (EST)
Business cards
- Go with simple design (just logo and simple text), or get artist to do the whole thing? ~tmt
- Here are a few pdf's with some sample business card layouts; you can print them yourself on card stock and cut to size, or we can talk about other designs and printing. --Dcook 09:56, 13 January 2006 (EST)
There is also a page of older logo ideas.
a wiki serving the biological science and engineering community
email email@example.com for an account
Great design Reshma! An addendum to this idea is to have a back that just has something like
[[DNA Ligation]] or [[Victor3 Plate Reader]] or [[Quantifying GFP Flourescence]] or [[Miller Assay]]
stuff like that.
also, definitely need glossy!!! --Sri Kosuri 12:18, 1 Dec 2005 (EST)
I have been spending a lot of effort coming up with a logo for OWW but have been unsuccessful because I am trying to convince people who have no idea what to expect, and I'm pulling ideas from a broad avenue. Let's make this easier and set a list of criteria to describe what we want, for example, color scheme, number of elements, traditional, contemporary, typographic, etc. These are factors that will help narrow our canvas space, and in turn help the graphic artist, or even myself design the desired logo.
Do we want our logo to be...
- Typographical: font speaks for itself? FedEx, Banana Republic, MIT, Dell, Google, ESPN, Nature, 3M
- Image: a picture speaks 1000 words? Apple, NCRR, Gateway, Firefox
- Text in shape? UPS, McGraw Hill Education, Business Week, ABC news, WIRED
- Image + Text? Codon Devices, UT, Continental Airlines, Discover Card, NBC
- Text in image? Boston Red Sox, Regency Cinemas, Starbucks Coffee, Burger King
Additionally, we should consider...
- Ease of duplication
- Memorable
- Recognizable
- How much color to use, etc.
So, these are some things that we should keep in mind and set so that we can move on with getting a logo! :) --JN 17:16, 13 January 2006 (CST)
--I really like the logo that you have on the site and on the business card idea above. The font suggests industry, which to me conveys the practical, "wet" hands-on side of biology while not actually picturing beakers or pipettes that might make some feel excluded, such as the bioinformatics people. The best thing about it is that it conveys the idea of "Open" just by leaving the side of the "N" open, and using the positive and negative space. It is a great font, and very clean. What I would like to do is create a smaller graphic, this time more pictorial, to go with it. This small graphic would be an emblem that could be used on each page of the site, and would convey the idea of an open biology community perhaps using some of the ideas below. The next thing to do would be to get the rest of the site and materials to follow this same style. I will work up some ideas and see what people think. --Jencc 11:30, 23 January 2006 (EST)
Some ideas
- A DNA double helix wrapped around the world.
- Stick people spelling out A T G C (like YMCA :) ).
- A double helix that opens up (unwound) in the center, encircling a globe. (or a bunch of people, like a hogtie!!)
- How about having whatever graphics, and then putting on questions like...
- Need information on DNA Ligation?
- Ever wondered where you could keep your protocols?
- Need a place to discuss scientific issues with a group of people?
- Need an easy way to keep your website up-to-date?
(if questions, which is a good idea, then the questions themselves become really important. they must be catching, amusing, and relevant).
- We may also want to focus on some of the more "unique" aspects of the wiki, like protocols/types of pages that are visited most often, most-edited pages, or things that are not available/difficult to find elsewhere. We may already have information as to what people are interested in and, thus, what may draw new people in (i.e. stats, popular pages). This is likely different for different people, so we may also want to consider some kind of wiki-poll for current users: Why are you here? What do you like best? The poster questions should attempt to encompass as many diverse OWW aspects as possible, because OWW is going to mean different things to different people. We should also highlight the dynamic, responsive nature of the wiki as an advantage over traditional static resources. I also agree that the questions should be catchy. Perhaps we can take some inspiration from the apparently abandoned list of BBF t-shirt slogans.--Kathleen


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But how do you say it? Biochemist writes to ask:
Why do Americans put the emphasis on New - as in: 'enjoy the NOO year holiday' or 'What are you doing at Nooyers?'The 'noo' versus 'new' issue is one that I've discussed before, but the stress difference took me a while to appreciate. I said it to myself a few times and didn't hear the difference Biochemist described. Coming back to it a half-day later, I did hear the difference in my own speech--but it does underscore the point that I'm losing it, dialectally speaking.
Brits refer to the New Year evenly emphasised: 'I'll see you next term, in the new year....' 'Did you have a good time at Christmas and New Year?' and so on.
At any rate, Biochemist asks why, and of course, the answer is: Americans say it their way because it's what they hear from other Americans, and the British say it that way because it's what they hear from other Brits. One might hope that it's part of a general rule for how to pronounce compound nouns and that the rule differs in the US and the UK, but to my knowledge no one's discovered such a rule. (Some of you may be wondering why I keep calling New Year a compound when it's two words. It may be two words in spelling, but we use it as one word--and so it is pronounced with compound stress of some sort, rather than in the way that we would pronounce new year as a phrase made of adjective + noun, in which case the stress would usually be on the noun.) Here's a bit from the abstract for a research project headed by Sabine Arndt-Lappe and Ingo Plag at Universität Siegen:
It is generally assumed that compounds in English are stressed on the left-hand member (e.g. bláckboard, wátchmaker). However, there is a considerable amount of variation in stress assignment (e.g. apricot crúmble, Penny Láne, Tory léader) that is unaccounted for in the literature. [...] It turned out that, although making correct predictions for parts of the data, none of the structural and semantic mechanisms proposed in the literature works in a categorical fashion, and that probabilistic and analogical models are more successful in their predictions than traditional rule-based ones.In other words, English compound stress is irregular. And where there are irregularities (or really complex regularities with different options for applying them), there's the opportunity for cross-Atlantic variability. You could say here that AmE uses the more 'typical' compound stress and BrE is doing something a little funny--if it is your wont to point out ways in which AmE makes more 'sense'. While it's probably wrong to say that one language variety makes more sense than another, it's an awful lot of fun to make that claim when you're an American living in the UK, dealing with condescension about your language on a regular basis. In any case, perhaps Arndt-Lappe and Plag or others will find something to answer Biochemist's question, but it's going to take some digging. Good luck to them! (And thanks to my colleague, Herr Dr Phonologist, for pointing me in the direction of their work.)
This wasn't my first New Year query--the last one has been sitting in my inbox since two New Years ago. It came from Justin, who's probably given up looking for answers to his questions on my blog:
what are Americans meaning when they say "Happy New Year's"? (I'm guessing at the apostrophe.) Is this "Happy New Year's Day" or is there something more interesting going on here?First, we have to note that Happy New Year is a common expression in AmE--the possessive variation is not the only AmE version. Happy New Year's --with or without an apostrophe-- gets 9.7m Google hits, as opposed to 90.7 for Happy New Year. Of those with the 's, 97,000 are Happy New Year's Day, 678,000 are Happy New Year's Eve. My intuition is that Happy New Year's can be used to mean either of these--or both simultaneously. In other words, we might be using it in order to be vague about which bit of the holiday we're wishing you well for, since it spans two days--or, at least, an evening and a day. Of course, the version without the 's seems to wish people well for the year to follow, not just the holiday itself.
Thanks for coming back to read after my month-plus holiday from blogging. It seems perverse to call it a holiday since it was full of hard labo(u)r--a different kind from last year's. (Not that I went through a hard labo(u)r last year...but this time I was absent for the birth of a book, rather than a baby.) My schedule continues to be relentless, with deadlines smacking me in the face (I wish that they'd whoosh by me like they did for Douglas Adams, but mine are set on a collision course) and a one-year-old whose remaining moments of babydom I am savo(u)ring. So, I'll continue to aim, as I did last year, for a post a week (I may fail) and ask for your patience in waiting for me to respond to your e-mails. Happy New Year!

subset: commoncrawl


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Immunization is key to preventing disease. Vaccines benefit both the people who get them, and the vulnerable, unvaccinated people around them because the infection can no longer spread through the community if most people are immunized. In addition, immunizations reduce the number of deaths and disability from infections, such as measles, whooping cough, and chickenpox.
Although children get the majority of the vaccinations, adults also need to be sure they are already immune to certain infections and stay up-to-date on certain vaccinations, including varicella, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), measles, mumps, rubella, shingles, human papillomavirus (HPV), pneumococcal, hepatitis A and B, flu, and meningococcal. Childhood illnesses, such as mumps, measles, and chickenpox, can cause serious complications in adults.
About guidelines for routine childhood immunizations
Many childhood diseases can now be prevented by following recommended guidelines for vaccinations:
Meningococcal vaccine (MCV4). A vaccine to protect against meningococcal disease.
Hep B. This protects against hepatitis B.
Inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). A vaccine to protect against polio.
DTaP. This protects against diphtheria, tetanus (lockjaw), and pertussis (whooping cough).
Hib vaccine. A vaccine to protect against Haemophilus influenzae type b (which causes spinal meningitis and other serious infections).
MMR. This protects against measles, mumps and rubella (German measles).
Pneumococcal vaccine/PCV13 (pneumococcal conjugate vaccine). A vaccine to protect against pneumonia, infection in the blood, and meningitis.
Varicella. This protects against chickenpox.
Rotavirus (RV). This vaccine protects against severe vomiting and diarrhea caused by rotavirus
Hep A. This protects against hepatitis A.
HPV. This protects from human papillomavirus, which is linked to cervical cancer and other cancers.
Seasonal influenza. This protects against different flu viruses.
A child's first vaccination is given at birth. Immunizations are scheduled throughout childhood, with many beginning within the first few months of life. By following a regular schedule, and making sure a child is immunized at the right time, you are ensuring the best defense against dangerous childhood diseases.
Reactions to immunizations
As with any medicine, vaccinations may cause reactions, usually in the form of a sore arm or low-grade fever. Although serious reactions are rare, they can happen, and your child's doctor or nurse may discuss these with you before giving the shots. However, the risks for contracting the diseases the immunizations provide protection from are higher than the risks for having a reaction to the vaccine.
Treating mild reactions to immunizations in children:
Fussiness, fever, and pain. Children may need extra love and care after getting immunized. The shots that keep them from getting serious diseases can also cause discomfort for a while. Children may experience fussiness, fever, and pain at the immunization site, after they have been immunized.
Fever. DO NOT GIVE ASPIRIN. You may want to give your child acetaminophen or ibuprofen to reduce pain and fever, as directed by your child's healthcare provider:
Give your child plenty to drink.
Clothe your child lightly. Do not cover or wrap your child tightly.
Sponge your child in a few inches of lukewarm (not cold) bath water.
Swelling or pain. DO NOT GIVE ASPIRIN. You may want to give your child acetaminophen to reduce pain and fever, as directed by your child's healthcare provider.
A clean, cool washcloth may be applied over the sore area as needed for comfort.
Aspirin and the risk for Reye's syndrome in children
Aspirin should not be given to children or teenagers because of the risk for Reye's syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease. Therefore, pediatricians and other healthcare providers recommend that aspirin not be used to treat any fever in children.
If more serious symptoms occur, call your child's healthcare provider right away. These symptoms may include:
Large area of redness and swelling around the area where the injection was given. The skin area may be warm to touch and very tender. There may also be red streaks coming from the initial site of the injection.
High fever
Child is pale or limp
Child has been crying incessantly
Child has a strange cry that is not normal (a high-pitched cry)
Child's body is shaking, twitching, or jerking


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Who likes meetings? Anybody?
Didn't think so.
Now what if the meeting were held on the go instead of in a stuffy conference room?
If that sounds a little better, then try a walking meeting. You and your colleagues can talk shop and get some exercise.
Popularized by tech magnates Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg (and some underworld figures long before them), walking meetings are touted as a way to improve health while also strengthening work relationships.
Just about anybody can make these mobile meetings work, says Nilofer Merchant, author of the book 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era. Merchant recently wrote a blog post about her own experience with walking meetings for the Harvard Business Review, and she'll be giving a TED talk on the topic next month.
Overweight and stressed from the 20 meetings she had scheduled every week, Merchant looked for an alternative. She has now replaced four meetings a week — those traditionally done over lunch or coffee — with one-on-one walking meetings.
"One thing I've noticed is how equalizing it is to be side by side, as if facing a problem together," Merchant says. "Hierarchy and work stuff largely goes out the door when you're wearing sneakers and sweating together. And of course, creativity has gone up for me and my colleagues by being exposed to nature."
Walking meetings may be an easy sell in Silicon Valley, where Merchant works, But getting them to go mainstream elsewhere might not be easy.
"Certainly the weather will matter," says Keith Murnighan, professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill, where the Friday weather forecast called for a high temperature of 30 degrees and a wind chill of 10 degrees.
Also, quantitative fields and those in charge of sensitive information might have trouble making the transition, he says. "I see [the usefulness of walking meetings] much more in situations where the solution has been reached, but you're finding ways to implement that solution," he says.
Though walking meetings aren't yet commonplace, Murnighan says that a lot of groups have successfully made the transition from sitting meetings to standing meetings. "The beautiful thing about standing meetings is that they are shorter ... and you get it done more efficiently," he says. "That's a small structural change that influences people in a really positive way."
Even the seemingly small change from sitting to standing can make a difference, says Dr. Casey Chosewood, coordinator of the Total Worker Health program at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. "Because physical activity is not natural for some people, it's important to find as many opportunities as we can to make healthy behaviors part of the routine of our day," he says.
Chosewood says that if you can add a regular walking meeting to your schedule, it will contribute to the two and a half hours of moderate physical activity each of us should be getting every week.
Talking walkers might be distracted, so to stay safe from traffic, he suggests planning walking meetings in parks or on trails. In the winter, he says that offices can even designate indoor walking paths that weave through hallways, stairwells and cafeterias.
However, with any form of exercise, the key to success is consistency. "One walking meeting is probably not all that helpful" for your health, Chosewood says. "But if people find a pattern where they are increasingly active throughout the course of their day, that really does make a health difference."
In the end, meeting walker Merchant says that business shouldn't have to make the decision between health and the bottom line — the two go hand in hand. "Things that seem in opposition really aren't," she says. "There is a way to solve for both that actually improves the outcomes of all. But it will take us all trying to do new things, and experimenting with new ideas."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Retrospective: Squad Leader
If you've ever seen a copy of Squad Leader, you'll remember the high quality of its components. Its counters, for example, were very attractive and, to my neophyte's eye, quite easy to read. I envied the wargamers I knew, who could look at the morass of tiny numbers and symbols on a counter and understand their mysteries. This was a talent I did not possess, which probably contributed greatly to my never having gotten into wargames, despite my interest in them. But Squad Leader made me think I could develop this talent; its counters weren't nearly as intimidating and they were attractive too -- a shallow judgment, to be sure, and yet an honest one by my young mind.
Moreso than the counters, it was Squad Leader's geomorphic hex maps that really caught my attention. The game made use a large number of sturdy maps that used a top-down projection to represent the terrain on which its action took place. I adored these maps, so much so that I eventually acquired them -- they were available for purchase separately -- for use in my various RPG campaigns. They were, to me, what the map of Outdoor Survival was to Gygax and Arneson. I distinctly recall using them in several wilderness-based D&D adventures, as well as in Gamma World, because many of these maps included ruined buildings that seemed well suited to a post-apocalyptic game. I'm pretty sure I used them in my Twilight: 2000 campaign too, but then that's only appropriate.
Being geomorphic, the maps could be re-arranged in many ways in order to produce a wide variety of areas for use in play. The reason for this was that Squad Leader, though it had pre-written scenarios, was designed to allow players to create their own scenarios easily, something that, as I recall anyway, wasn't common (or possible, in some cases) among other wargames of the era, which were designed to simulate a single specific battle or theater of war from history. Again, speaking as a non-wargamer, this really appealed to me and I remember listening to some of the guys I knew talk about the scenarios they'd created. I sensed in these discussions a remaining thread of connection between roleplaying games and the wargames out of which they grew, something I didn't feel when I listened to wargamers talk about other such games.
Every so often, I feel the urge to search out a cheap copy of the game on eBay, purely out of nostalgia. Unfortunately, I've found it hard to locate one that's complete and in reasonable shape without paying an arm and a leg for it, something I can't justify given the unlikelihood of my ever playing it. Still, I recall this game very fondly. It's a reminder of a specific time in my life and of a time in the hobby when a complex World War II simulation with hundreds of cardboard counters could be found on the shelves of Toys "R" Us and similar stores. To me, that's probably the biggest indication of the fact that things have changed a great deal since my youth and I can't help feeling a little melancholy about that.
41 comments:
ASL is awesome and a living game to this day. Don't bother with getting the old version of the game-- pick up the (newish) Starter Kit #1 from Multiman Publishing. I'm not a hex and counter sort of guy but I find ASL's rules to be super elegant, very playable and really fun. Sure sure, tanks and artillery are complicated, but the basic units have 3 numbers and a letter (if you don't count smoke exponent) and the leader counters two numbers.
ReplyDelete- AnonymousMarch 2, 2011 at 10:35 AM
My local gaming groups were huge fans of the Squad Leader series. We were all hardcore history geeks, and loved reading about World War II since it was so accessible. The rules, will extremely detailed, were pretty easy to grasp after a few starter scenarios.
I kept up with SL through all the expansions and into the Advanced Squad Leader era. Amusingly, one of the last ASL games I played was at Schofield Barracks, HI, where I kicked my company commander's butt all over the map. I loved SL. A great wargame I used to play a lot in the early 80's. I've always thought this game stood half way between a true wargame and a role playing game. Leaders even had names! Losing Lt. Sthaler at the begining of a battle was like losing your best friend. With luck, even a lone soldier hidden in an abandoned house could destroy a Tiger. Doing it was like rolling a "20" with your vorpal sword on a mortal foe :)
Somehow, playing SL with true wargamers was a pain. Those guys could play without even looking at the maps: they KNEW the line of sight was clear between hex 2256 and hex 5562.
My interest in that wargame faded with the countless rules and "gamettes". Then came ASL and it was over for me.
I do agree with you, James: the geomorphic maps and the wonderful counters were really amazing, at the time...- AnonymousMarch 2, 2011 at 11:54 AM
Inspired an essay in Hobby Games: The 100 Best, I recently acquired a copy of the original Squad Leader. The essay in the book specifically warned that Advanced went too far and is responsible for the perception that Squad Leader was too complex for normal people, which is why I sought the original out. I haven't finished reading the rules yet, but so far I've found them to be very readable and clear, far better than my teenaged dabbling in wargames when I found rules for other games to be as fun and easy as reading legal contracts. I don't know if it's that my teenaged self was unlucky and picked games with poorly written rules, or if I just wasn't ready for them.
ReplyDelete The essay in the book specifically warned that Advanced went too far and is responsible for the perception that Squad Leader was too complex for normal people, which is why I sought the original out.
I have even less experience of ASL than I did of Squad Leader. It came out well after I had any regular contact with wargamers and everything I heard about it suggested that I'd not find it to my liking. From what little I know, it seems like a very "decadent" game, which is to say, appealing primarily to people deep enough into the original that they see flaws and problems that casual players never would. ASL doesn't appear to have been written for guys like me.- AnonymousMarch 2, 2011 at 12:43 PM
I'm a hard-core wargamer, and SL is one of my all-time favorites. When ASL came out, my brother and I picked it up and quickly sold it back as nigh-unreadable. (I also play Star Fleet Battles, that should say something.)
What it reminds me of most is the summers that we took the boxes of this on our family vacation. I am sure we played far more games of it in our own house, but I cannot pick up the "Crescendo of Doom" expansion without seeing my Aunt Bee's basement.
I know several ASL gamers in my board-game club, and I have sat down with them a few times. The tactics I picked up from SL are still valid, and I could lean on their rules-knowledge to sort it all out.
I was at a monster-wargame convention just last week and brought my old SL set, and sure enough, two guys borrowed it to storm Hill 621 one more time.
Introductory ASL appears to be very popular, but I'm using Memoir '44 to introduce my son to wargames-- the plastic pieces add a nice visual. I'll hit him with SL in a year or two.
Combat Commander is a card-driven game at the Squad Leader level, and Tide of Iron is another with plastic minis. All seem to have sold well.
FWIW, I'm told the original leader counters were named for the playtesters at the Purdue Univ. game club. Yeah, I loved the game very much too. Reminds me much of the Moldvay Basic set, which I acquired around the same time.
@Le Baron: I agree very much. SL is halfway between role playing and wargaming, with its distinct leader characters and a more impressionistic approach to showing what happens on the battlefield.
The Up Front! card game (based on SL) is even closer to role playing, with individual soldiers on each card. It's also easier than SL, instead of harder, like ASL. I still play Up Front! every once in a while.Lee said:"FWIW, I'm told the original leader counters were named for the playtesters at the Purdue Univ. game club. "
I work for Purdue, and I've heard this too. Dunno if it has been verified. Anyway, the creator of the game (John Hill) is certainly from Lafayette, IN (right across the river from Purdue), and used to run the only gamestore in town, called The Scale. (I got this info from Jeff Grub, who is a Purdue alum and was here in the late 70s - about 10 years before I came to Purdue.) I'll see if I can contact Mr. Grubb about it, or see if I can turn up any old grognards from back in the day here in town.Squad Leader was great, and indeed much simpler than ASL, although Squad Leader itself started to drift quite a bit as AH released their expansion packs for them (do I really need rules for 12 different kinds of German halftracks? Really?)
"a time in the hobby when a complex World War II simulation with hundreds of cardboard counters could be found on the shelves of Toys "R" Us and similar stores."
I was just thinking this the other day as I was walking through our local hobby store. It wasn't even that long ago (my college years) that they had at least one wall full of AH and other similar products. Now it seems to be reduced to a shelf of card games and "Axis and Allies" (itself a fine product, but not quite the same).
Computer gaming (like Steel Panthers) and platforms have taken their toll on tabletop wargames. It's just so much easier to rely on a computer to keep track of the many ridiculous details that you can stuff into a "realistic" game...plus the ability to simulate "Fog of War" and not seeing the whole tabletop (and hence units) at once is very attractive to gamers.The computer can handle enormous amounts of data and brings something to the game that would be unmanageable otherwise, but all computer games lack one of the things are love about wargames. That's the feel of the pieces in my hands, the joy of sliding them around on the board and sifting through the stacks and counting movement with my finger. There's a real connection to a paper-and-cardboard wargame you'll never get with an electronic one. Like others here, I played the heck out of both SL and ASL, and yeah, it was always an RPG to me (but then, most wargames were).
ReplyDeleteWow, that boxtop instantly filled me with memories. Every game or hobby store I walked into between '79 and '89 had that prominently displayed. I saw it every single time I shopped for anything related to DnD. I 'almost' bought it over a dozen times, but never did, just because I knew I didn't have a group that would want to play it.
ReplyDeletebut all computer games lack one of the things are love about wargames. That's the feel of the pieces in my hands, the joy of sliding them around on the board and sifting through the stacks and counting movement with my finger. There's a real connection to a paper-and-cardboard wargame you'll never get with an electronic one.
I often think that people underestimate the tactile pleasure of using physical objects to play a game. I love rolling my own dice, putting down a map on a table, and cracking out miniatures when needed. There's something very pleasurable about these things that no electronic game, no matter how well done, can replicate (and I say this as someone who regularly plays many video games).The computer can handle enormous amounts of data and brings something to the game that would be unmanageable otherwise, but all computer games lack one of the things are love about wargames.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of people in the computer game space who understand and appreciate this fact. It is just that, for a long time, there was nothing to be done about it.
Ideally you want this "best of both worlds" system where the computer handles the complex adjudication, but the player still moves the pieces about. No one ever did this, because the technology to do this was prohibitively expensive. However, computer vision is so good these days that you do see people toying around with this. Point a camera from several different angles at the board, make sure the pieces have a nicely colored flag on them, and go.
You still have the problem with house rules. Computers don't handle on-the-fly house rules very well. But there will always be trade-offs.Brilliant game. I played a lot of wargames in the 70s and 80s but SL (and Cross of Iron - but no so much Crescendo of Doom or GI:Anvil of Victory) got played the most. Hill 621 updated with the CoI armour rules remains my favourite all time wargame scenario.
I must admit though that the original title for CoD - A Rising Crescendo - was a much better option. And the GI title was just waaaay too parochial.- AnonymousMarch 2, 2011 at 5:41 PM
I have nothing significant to add other than to thank you for the smile that lit my face as soons as I saw the picture of the box.
Favourite memory: My opponent conceding a game because "It'd be useless to send my guys into that withering hail of fire!". As a young person in the seventies, I was introduced to gaming via wargames from SPI and Avalon Hill. As I moved into my teen years, my attention shifted to RPGs like D&D and Gamma World because they provided a more direct experience and were much more in tune with my fantasy and SF-fueled imagination. I had pretty much left wargaming behind, until in my late twenties I discovered Squad Leader for the first time.
Here was a game that was an easy reach for my role-playing sensibilities. It was focused on small unit tactics with 4-5 man squads and individual leaders with actual names. Once you understood the sequence of play it moved quickly and engagements were filled with unpredictable moments of drama (and comedy!). It even had a rudimentary campaign system that allowed you carry units over from scenario to scenario, lending its world an RPG-style permanence. Perhaps most importantly, while striving for historical accuracy, Squad Leader did not try to recreate actual historical battles. Instead, every engagement was a blank slate that could play out in completely unique patterns that reflected the personalities of the players. Squad Leader was a narrative generator and a session report from one of its games could read very much like an RPG session.
It's important to note that Advanced Squad Leader was not written by John Hill. While ASL was intended to be an evolution of Squad Leader, I tend to think of it as a separate branch with only a few surface qualities in common. It is infinitely more rules-heavy and as result, I think it misses Hill's central idea, which was to employ a relatively simple and abstract rule set to simulate the complex mechanics of the real world. The rules for Squad Leader were very "gamey" but the results "felt" real. ASL on the other hand, seems to want to simulate reality on a very systematic and granular level.- AnonymousMarch 3, 2011 at 4:29 AM
I have never played SL or ASL, but I have fond memories of the Bug Hunter: Sniper! game. It's an Alien game, and it had two sets of maps. We played with a referee, and it was very fun.
For some reason, we didn't get the 'real' versions of Sniper!, but played just that scifi-version. We did play large scale strategy games, though. - AnonymousMarch 3, 2011 at 7:34 AM
The evolution of Squad Leader to Advanced Squad Leader is very, very much the evolution of original D&D to Advanced D&D.
First you had Squad Leader, a relatively simple set of rules. Then you had the four gamettes, each of which added new rule upon new rule. (Especially the last, G.I.) Then, with so many competing and contradictory rules, ASL came out to pull it all together.
The core of ASL is far more coherent than Squad Leader; however, ASL has so much chrome on it that it crushes the unprepared. I got into ASL through the Starter Kits a few years ago, and they provide a very good, playable game in their own right.
Reading Don Greenwood's introduction to the original ASL rules really puts me in mind of Gygax's prose: "While it is true that ASL in all its depth may well be more detailed in many respects than the original basic game, it is our belief that it is far simpler in application than the whole of all its predecessor's parts. To the purist, ASL should play far more smoothly than even basic SQUAD LEADER..."
I was able to pick up an original Squad Leader set on ebay not that long ago for not that very much; there were over 200,000 copies sold of them, so there are quite a few floating about! Like you, I too played Squad Leader when I was younger, and a number of other wargames, but never really became a hex-and-counter guy myself: I far prefer the crunchier end of "german style" boardgames or classic non-war-sim games like "Civilization", "Cosmic Encounter", and so on. However, a while back I wanted to add a WWII sim game to my collection, so I did some research to settle on one (I didn't want to a buy a bunch). Candidates were:
- Used copies of classic SL, with supplements
- ASL starter kits (Multiman)
- Conflict of Heroes (Academy Games/Phalanx)
- Combat Commander (GMT)
In the end, I settled on Combat Commander, in some ways because it seems the least traditional hex-and-counter sim. On simplicity and ease and speed of play, Conflict of Heroes gave strong consideration, but in the end, the reviews I read of how Combat Commander plays worked to convince me it was the one to buy.
It's a really fun game, and accessible to people who can play and enjoy the heavier/crunchier examples of german-style boardgames. The components are visually excellent: the maps are paper-stock, but a sheet of plexi works quite well to protect them. The hexes are nice and big, as are the counters, so there's very little in the way of counter-fiddling.
You get lots of maps and scenarios, and several add on packs are available at reasonable cost, so there's lots of replayability, too.
Anyone looking to add "just one WWII game" to their collection, with a taste more for non-war-sim boardgames, might want to consider Combat Commander as the one to choose.@SisterWitch777 I might also add that Combat Commander, as with the original SL, has a strong emphasis on simple, more abstract rules that are flexible and give the feel of the thing, without a heavy concentration on finicky simulation. It is precisely for this reason that I leaned more heavily towards it (and Conflict of Heroes) than towards the ASL starter kits. It was this simple-rules-plus-feel aspect I remembered fondly of SL and wanted to re-present in my collection.
ReplyDeleteSL and its first gamette Cross of Iron was the last days of my hex and chit gaming before RPGs took over. Although I've bought hex and chit games since about the time the second gamette came out I'd reversed rank of hex games and RPGs.
That said, SL has its roots in Tobruk, concentrating on improving the very simplistic infantry rules of that game. Since MMP started putting out ASL, Advanced Tobruk has come out as a simpler game along the same lines. V&V mentioned above looks even simpler but I've enjoyed the ATS I've played.I'l chime in as a fan of Conflict of Heroes. It combines some truly gorgeous components (mounted geomorphic maps, big colorful counters) with a very elegant ruleset, that does lean to the game side of the force, but feels right, and gives you plenty of interesting tactical challenges to solve. I did try Combat Commander but found it to be an overchromed collision between Up Front and Ambush without the charm of either.


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Shortbread has to be one of my favourite holiday cookies, I mean it is so easy to make and that melt in your mouth buttery goodness is almost impossible to resist! Although plain shortbread is amazing you can fill it with pretty much anything from simple to gourmet and from sweet to savoury even. Taking a queue from my candied orange peel shortbread I had been wanting to try a festive version with bright red maraschino cherries, though instead of coating them with chocolate this time I was going to add the chocolate to the cookies along with the cherries. I was however a little torn between whether to use white or dark chocolate as white chocolate seemed more festive but dark chocolate goes so well with cherries. In the end the easiest solution was to make a batch of both and besides you can't have too much shortbread.
The chocolate and maraschino cherry shortbread cookies did not disappoint! I was quite pleased at how the red from the cherries swirled into the cookie dough and both the white and dark chocolate versions turned out amazingly well!
Feel free to drizzle them with or dip them in even more chocolate! 🙂
Chocolate and Maraschino Cherry Shortbread Cookies
Shortbread filled with maraschino cherries and chocolate and optionally drizzled with or dipped in more chocolate.
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup maraschino cherries, chopped and patted dry
- 1/2 cup white and/or dark chocolate chips
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 8 ounces white and/or dark chocolate, chopped (optional)
- Cream the butter and the sugar.
- Mix the flour and the salt.
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until it starts forming larger clumps.
- Mix in the maraschino cherries, white chocolate and vanilla extract.
- Form the dough into the shape that you want, wrap it in plastic and let it chill in the fridge for at least an hour. (I did a rectangular log but you could also do a circular log.)
- Cut the log into 1/4 inch thick slices and place them on a parchment lined baking pan with one inch of space between them.
- Bake in a preheated 325F/170C oven until they just start to turn lightly golden brown on top, about 10-15 minutes.
- Let cool completely.
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. (optional)
- Dip the cookies into the chocolate and place on a sheet of parchment paper and let cool until the chocolate sets. (optional)
Maraschino Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
Orange Cookies Dipped in Chocolate
Dark Chocolate Shortbread with Fleur de Sel
Lime Meltaways
Peppermint White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Bacon Maple Shortbread
Peppermint Triple Chocolate Shortbread
Chocolate Cherry Balsamic Goat Cheese Shortbread
Chocolate Orange Rosemary Shortbread


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Lots of recipes and photos. Tons of comments and emails that have put hundreds of smiles on my face. So many wonderful people I have lost track of.
These are the results of 2 years of blogging – one of the most positive things I have ever done.
I read "The Hairy Ape" almost ten years ago and that book kept me thinking about several things. One of them was the feeling of "belonging". That is something I used to have trouble with – I just did not fit in. The people I knew were very different from me – we did not have anything in common. I felt like a stranger most of the time. And my love for cooking and the idea of having fun in the kitchen were considered weird by others.
Blogging has opened an entire new world to me and knowing people who share my passion for cooking and baking has changed my life in many levels. I do feel like I belong now. And you, my dear readers and fellow bloggers, are responsible for this.
Thank you for standing by me for so long. I wish I could send each and every one of you a slice of this cake, with a big hug on the side.
Polka dot cake
Cake and filling recipes adapted from The Whimsical Bakehouse; buttercream recipe from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes
Golden butter cake:
170g (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups (300g) sugar
4 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups + 2 tablespoons (370g) cake flour*
1 tablespoon baking powder
generous pinch of salt
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (270ml) milk
Grease two 20x5cm (8x2 inch) round pans. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar at high speed until light and fluffy. Add the yolks and vanilla and beat on medium speed until fluffy.
At low speed, add the dry ingredients, alternately with the milk, beating until incorporated.
Divide the batter between the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Cool the cakes on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes before turning them out of their pans. Let them cool completely before continuing with the recipe.
½ cup (120ml) water
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Place water and sugar in a small saucepan and mix well to combine. Heat over medium heat until it boils. Remove from heat, add the vanilla and set aside to cool.
Cookies and cream filling:
450ml heavy cream
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
15-18 chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, crushed into medium pieces (place them inside a thick plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin)
In the bowl of an electric mixer at high speed, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff. Gently fold in the crushed cookies.
Vanilla buttercream:
1 cup (200g) sugar
¼ cup (60ml) water
3 egg whites
1 ½ cups (340g/3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
In a small heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and water, stirring to dissolve sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Continue to boil without stirring, occasionally washing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush, until the syrup reaches the soft-ball stage, 238ºF (114ºC) on a candy thermometer. Immediately remove from the heat.
In a large mixer bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the egg whites until frothy. Continue beating while gradually adding the hot syrup in a thin, slow stream, pouring it down the sides of the bowl; avoid hitting the beaters, or the syrup may splatter. When all the syrup has been added, raise the speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture is very fluffy and cooled to body temperature.
Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and gradually add the softened butter, 2 to 3 tablespoons at a time, beating well between additions. As you're adding the last few tablespoons of butter, the frosting will appear to break, then suddenly come together like whipped butter. Beat in the vanilla extract.
To assemble the cake: using a long, serrated knife cut each cake in half. Place a cake layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or serving plate. Brush it lightly with the syrup and spread 1/3 of the cookies and cream filling. Repeat the procedure with the remaining cake layers and filling, brushing all the cakes with syrup and finishing it all with a cake layer. Frost the sides and top of the cake with a thin layer of vanilla buttercream frosting. Place the cake in the refrigerator until the crumb coat firms up. Frost the cake completely with more buttercream.
Tint the remaining buttercream with desired colors and decorate the cake as you desire.
* there's no cake flour here in Brazil, so I used the following: 1 cup cake flour = 7/8 cup (123g) all purpose flour + 2 tablespoons corn starch
Serves 12-14


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Deep Tissue & Neuromuscular Therapy: Extremities DVD & Streaming Version - Real Bodywork
This video covers the rotator cuff, elbow, wrist, fingers, thumb, ankle & knee! Learn to alleviate pain with 47 highly effective neuromuscular techniques! Get a 3-dimensional view of the muscles, which have been modeled out of clay and feature computer generated trigger point referral overlays. This great video not only covers neuromuscular therapy, but includes functional assessment work, so you know where to work, and how. Along with range of motion and resistive tests, you will learn basic postural evaluation techniques. As part of a comprehensive treatment protocol, discover how to work on the tendons, ligaments and muscles with effective neuromuscular and deep tissue strokes. Finally complete the work with stretches.
This video along with The Torso will prepare you to handle the most common injuries in every joint of the body.Used as support for a 100 hour neuromuscular and functional assessment course, this video is packed with useful, easy to understand information that you can start applying to your practice right away.
Comes with a 22 page booklet that mirrors the techniques shown in the video.
MASSAGE MAGAZINE says: "To Riehl's credit, his knowledge of the subject matter is evident & he makes some of the concepts, like pelvic torsion & subsequent compensations, useful even for advanced therapists. All viewers will gain insight into the nature of myofascial pain in the torso and extremities, and effective treatments... Giving clear instructions and explanations, Riehl encourages intuition while Competently and carefully teaching the mechanics of this powerful treatment approach."
Streaming Version
If you would like to watch this video online, we have partnered with Real Bodywork to offer a streaming version of this title. Please click here:
Deep Tissue NMT Massage - Torso & Extremities 2 Video DVD Set
A new window will open, and you will be taken to the Real Bodywork site via a secure link, where the video is hosted. Payment will be requested there as well.
Sean Riehl has taught massage nationally, presented at the AMTA California conference, written multiple articles appearing in Massage Magazine and the Biotone Newsletter as well as being the author of a number of DVDs on massage
Detailed Contents
This video covers 47 techniques, 30 muscles and 22 trigger points.In the lower limb section Mr. Riehl deals with sprained ankles, Achilles' tendonitis, knee evaluation, anterior and posterior cruciate ligament strain, and anterior and posterior knee pain. Then he shows a rotator cuff evaluation (both resisted testing and range of motion tests), muscle and tendon work on the rotator cuff muscles, evaluation and treatment of tennis and golfers elbow. The forearm section covers the evaluation and treatment of the finger, thumb and wrist muscles, including causes of carpal tunnel syndrome and ligament strain vs. muscle/tendon injuries. This video takes the complicated subject of the forearm and makes it understandable. With these techniques shown in this video, you should be well equipped to assess and perform quality work on any of these joints.


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Cervical Spondylosis
Cervical spondylosis is a type of degenerative disease that affects your neck. Normally, soft disks between your vertebrae, the bones in your spine, provide cushioning. With cervical spondylosis, these disks become compressed.
When this happens, the cartilage that lines the vertebrae on each side of the disc, where they touch, can wear away. Once this protective cartilage is gone, spurs may develop on your vertebrae where they rub together. Nerves attached to your spinal cord may have less room to pass between the vertebrae on their way out of the spine.
Facts about cervical spondylosis
This condition becomes more common with age. Many, however, don't have symptoms—you may not even be aware that these changes are going on in your neck.
Cervical spondylosis usually doesn't lead to disability. But sometimes these changes in the spine can cause the spinal cord or nerve roots attached to it to become compressed. This can cause your legs or hands to feel weak or clumsy.
Symptoms of cervical spondylosis can include:
Pain in the neck that may travel to your arms or shoulders
A grinding feeling when you move your neck
Weakness in your arms and legs
Numbness in your shoulders, arms, or hands
Stiffness in the neck
Trouble keeping your balance
Trouble controlling your bladder or bowels
Your healthcare provider will give you a physical examination to see if you have this condition. You will probably discuss any neck injuries you've had and describe your symptoms. The healthcare provider will probably check your neck, shoulders, arms, and legs to see how well they're working. Other tests that may help make a diagnosis include:
Imaging tests. X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans all provide images of the structures in your spine for the healthcare provider to see. These can show the bones, disks, muscles, and nerves in and around your neck, as well as your spinal cord.
Myelography. During this test, the healthcare provider injects a dye into the fluid around your spinal cord and then does a CT scan to see how the bone spurs and disks are interacting with the individual nerves.
Electromyography. This test shows how well your nerves are passing along signals from your spinal cord to your muscles.
Your healthcare provider can recommend a variety of treatments for pain relief from cervical spondylosis, depending on your needs. These may include:
Medicines. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, like ibuprofen or aspirin, opioid pain relievers, and muscle relaxants may help.
Physical therapy. A physical therapist can teach you stretching and strengthening exercises that may ease symptoms.
Ice or heat. Cool your neck with an ice pack or heat it with a warming pad as directed by your healthcare provider or physical therapist.
Collar. Wearing a soft collar around your neck for short periods may help your symptoms. It can cause your neck to weaken, however, if you wear it too long.
Injections. A healthcare provider can inject steroid medicine and pain-relieving drugs into the painful joint in your neck or into the space next to your spinal cord.
Surgery. In most cases, surgery is not needed. But surgeons can do different procedures to relieve pressure on the spinal cord or the nerves leaving your spine, if necessary. A surgeon can remove bone from around the opening that allows the nerve to exit the spine or bone from other parts of the vertebrae. He or she may also fuse bones in the spine after 1 of these procedures. If you have surgery, an anesthesia provider will put you to sleep beforehand so you don't feel it.
You may not be able to prevent cervical spondylosis, but these steps may reduce your risk:
Stay physically active.
Use good posture.
Prevent neck injuries by always using the right equipment and the right form when exercising or playing sports.
Avoid trauma to your neck
Managing cervical spondylosis
Talk with your healthcare provider about the best nonsurgical steps to help relieve your symptoms. The best way to go could possibly be a combination approach of medicine and physical therapy.


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A new video ad you can see online (or this Sunday on the Fox News Channel) features Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush describing what constitutes a "New Republican."
"If you believe that every parent ought to be able to choose their child's school and that the economy should be driven from the bottom up and not the top down from Washington, then you're a New Republican," Bush says.
Says Jindal: "If you don't think the Republican Party should be the party of big government, big business or big anything, then you're thinking like a New Republican."
Actually, Bush and Jindal's descriptions of what New Republicans believe map precisely onto the existing Republican Party.
But Alex Castellanos, the longtime Republican political consultant behind the , tells It's All Politics the goal is to provide a more affirmative message to change the view many voters have of Republicans as "the party of no."
"Right now the Republican Party is not something that a lot of people see themselves as a part of, or something that they would be very proud to join. A lot of folks see the Republican Party as a very negative force, that Republicans only think their principles are good for saying no and telling people what they can't do.
"Edmund Burke once said that conservatives should have a gift for re-expressing their principles to fit the times. And so that's what we're trying to do. ... The Democrats are trying to build their party on demography. We're trying to build our party on ideas. And that, I think, is the function of NewRepublican.org."
Besides Fox News Channel, the ad will be seen Sunday in the Washington, D.C., market during the morning political news shows. And there'll be more ads to come with other Republican leaders, Castellanos says.
"Not only that, but we're going to be weighing in on campaigns on behalf of candidates and helping them express an optimistic vision. ... We're going to continue to help write some new sheet music for the Republican orchestra."
The risk for Castellanos and others pushing the New Republican effort is that it may come to be seen less as new orchestral sheet music and, switching metaphors, more like putting old wine in new bottles.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Every year, millions of Americans scramble to file their income taxes before the filing deadline — ordinarily April 15.
But procrastinators get a reprieve this year: The 2012 deadline falls on Tuesday, April 17.
This year, April 15 falls on a Sunday. One might expect that would make Monday, April 16, the 2012 filing deadline.
But not so this year. Monday is the District of Columbia's Emancipation Day — a local holiday unfamiliar to most Americans.
Internal Revenue Service spokesman Eric Smith says, by law, District of Columbia holidays are treated like federal holidays when it comes to tax deadlines.
"It's just this quirky little thing in the law," Smith explains. "This is just for a very specific and limited purpose. For all other purposes, it's a regular business day," he says.
The later deadline gives 2012 yet another interesting twist. April 17 just happens to correspond to so-called "Tax Freedom Day" — the day Americans, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, will have earned enough money to pay their entire tax bill for the year.
"Tax Freedom Day is a simple calendar-based measure of the cost of government," says Will McBride, an economist with the foundation, which makes the annual Tax Freedom Day calculation.
McBride calculates that Americans will pay 29.2 percent of their income to federal, state and local taxes this year. Do the math, and that means Americans must work 107 days to cover their 2012 tax burden — up until April 17.
For the record, almost 70 percent of American taxpayers — 98.9 million — have already filed their 2011 individual income tax returns. That means relatively few of us will be sharpening pencils, or navigating online tax forms, through the weekend.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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VALINOR Yacht News
Name: | VALINOR |
Length: | 50 m (164 ft) |
Builder: | Westport Yachts |
Year: | 2013 |
Price: | US$ 35 million |
Owner: | David Wilson |
Name: | VALINOR |
Length: | 50 m (164 ft) |
Builder: | Westport Yachts |
Year: | 2013 |
Price: | US$ 35 million |
Owner: | David Wilson |
Soon you will find the latest news about the yacht and her owner
What began as a pastime for yacht spotting has evolved into a leading online destination for yachting enthusiasts, with thousands of visitors engaging with our content every day.
Launched in 2009, SuperYacht Fan transitioned from a gallery of yacht imagery to a pivotal resource, culminating in the Super Yacht Owners Register—a meticulously compiled database featuring over 1,500 yacht owners.
The allure of luxury yachts and their affluent proprietors has captured global interest, making our compilation a valued asset for those fascinated by the maritime embodiments of opulence.
Our team at SuperYachtFan prides itself on our investigative journalism efforts. Extensive research and in-depth inquiry into the complex ownership structures of these vessels form the backbone of our reporting, which has garnered recognition and usage by various international media outlets.
With a significant daily readership and a consistent growth trajectory, SuperYacht Fan stands as a preeminent voice within the superyacht community, driving the highest organic search traffic among yachting websites.
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The ownership details featured on our site and within the Yacht Owners Register are compiled with the utmost attention to veracity; however, in certain instances, these details may be based on unverified sources. While the legal confirmation of yacht ownership can remain elusive, we strive to follow leads that often indicate underlying truths.
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