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Victoria's Purrrrfect Treasures
Victoria ~ Proprietress, New Germany NS Canada
In good vintage condition with original dust jacket. Age appropriate wear and a notch cut to bottom of inside flap on dust jacket. This edition Copy right 1969 The Hamlyn House Publishing Group Limited. Printed in Italy . 157 pages. Book measures about 5.5 by 7 3/4 inches. Featuring 71 plates in full color.
Some Plates included are :
Nereids riding sea-monsters , Peacock , Cock Fragment and many more.
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Watch: What Movies Like '21 and Over' and 'Project X' Look Like in Real Life
We all like a good party movie because it takes us back to those days when we partied much softer than they do in the movies. Oh c'mon, like you've ever experienced a party similar to one portrayed on the big screen. (And don't be all like, "The cops came to one of my parties once" because cops showing up does not equal a crazy bash -- it just means you have overly sensitive neighbors.) So if the monster all-night bashes featured in movies like Project X and 21 and Over aren't exactly accurate representations of our own real-life party experiences, then maybe this fake trailer for the movie Average Party sadly runs a drop closer to what most of our parties are actually like.
Movies.com, the ultimate source for everything movies, is your destination for new movie trailers, reviews, photos, times, tickets + more! Stay in the know with the latest movie news and cast interviews at Movies.com.
Copyright © 2018 FANDANGO MOVIES.

subset: commoncrawl


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Definition- Fawn v.- try to gain favor by cringing or flattering;
Synonyms: fawn1, apple-polish, bootlick, kowtow, slaver1, toady, truckle-These verbs mean to curry favor by behaving obsequiously and submissively:
I had always found Fawn's posts at kimkins to be over the top. They were long posts, with various colors, fonts and more glitter and smilies than one of those terrible obligatory, souvenir t-shirts , but I thought if that is her style- then so be it. But then, when the random outbursts of cussing and head spinning rants started, it made be wonder what happened to all the rainbows and butterflies! So I really shouldn't have been surprised when I found her profile in an alternative lifestyle website….could this be agentlefawn? Yes! There she was without a smilie in sight!
Now, when I began to search for a connection between Heidi Diaz and other potential internet businesses she may be involved in, I automatically thought of pornography and drugs. I mean where else do most criminals decide to invest their money to watch it grow? I was guessing that most cons don't put their illegal gains into a savings account or an IRA.
The first odd link that came up was with the words "Jeannie Baitinger florida". I posted about on LCF on Nov 29, 2007 and it was clear from the placement of the terms, that this was random, and didn't have anything to do with the website.
It would seemed that someone had added Jeannie's name throughout some websites that promoted porn and some that sold pharmaceutical drugs on the internet. The timing of the word placement, being right before Jeannie was to appear on national TV, narrowed down the possibilities of who would know there would be an increase search of her name in the near future. To me all evidence made Kimmer/Heidi Diaz suspect of being the one behind the act. This seemed to confirm my suspicions of Heidi's other business interests.
After being told that a general search of "agentlefawn" turned up a board that discussed the lifestyle of Domination and submission (BDSM) -I thought this could be the link to Heidi Diaz and the pornography industry. Fawn had always been such a Devout follower of Kimmer, that I didn't find it too off course to believe that Kimmer was in the domination role and Fawn in the submissive role in that relationship.
I began to search Fawn's information because I felt at this point Heidi Diaz knew better than to be out there on the internet using the screen name "Kimmer" or any other variation, and the only way to track her down was through other means. In this case I was looking at Fawn as being the way to find any businesses that Heidi could own in the BDSM or porn world. Then about a month ago I found Fawn's profile as Ebony2006.
I had this information but hadn't posted it or blogged about it. But then when I read the ambiguous post on Fawn's blog regarding a "Criminal Investigation" and then her reply to Medusa's comments, it seemed that something was amiss. Here is an excerpt of their exchange, but you can view the now deleted blog post of Fawn's at Medusa's as well as the comments between them in full.
Medusa- "what is happening?"
Fawn- "Let's just say someone used something of mines without permission."
Fawn's Summary – "Summary: A situation came up that something that belongs to me was used elsewhere on the net without my knowledge or consent and it was investigated in a matter of hours, shut down and handled with legal proceedings swiftly cause if it was left up to me, I would have been done something because I have a short temper but my people had to calm me down and sh-t "
Ok, so this got me to thinking – Talk about timing! How is it that Fawn has suddenly now be informed that her image is out there in the internet world?… OR…. Did she realize she had been seen on various websites?…Since I point blank asked her recently on her blog -if she had met Heidi Diaz on an alternative adult website.
Then she has this post about criminal investigation and how someone used something that was hers (pictures) and how she got them removed quickly. I agree- The pictures were removed quickly, but I have to consider the timing here. If Fawn didn't put those images up then she certainly found them fast, because there are a lot of alternative adult BDSM sites out there to have to peruse.
And if Fawn wasn't the one that put them up then how odd that her profile there showed the user online as of 10am today EST!
Click on the thumbnail below to see the profile as it appeared prior to editing –
I will leave you with a quote from Fawn- "Ebony people do NOT play around..well most don't and I am one of the Most"
Ummmmmm………..I beg to differ there Fawn it looks like Ebony2006 likes to play A LOT.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: BDSM, drugs, Fawn, Heidi Diaz, Kimkins, Kimmer, Porn, pornography |


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H&H Roundup
Top Stories
Light on apartment but heavy on therapy is Sandy Lerner's rustic cabin. As much as we love our urban nests, it's refreshing (or agonizing, depending on your position) to hear about life beyond the city walls.
Our secret fascination (okay, my secret fascination), with both hippies and the Upper East side drew me down the rabbit hole here. The story on Erica Wilson and Vladimir Kagan led to -- where else? -- cool modern furniture and, well, downright adorable needlework.
Wall treatment Q&A for those with a fear of commitment, and for Proust.
This story just made it onto our radar, but only because the H&H people have been a little stingy today, and because Maxwell's in Paris. I think I see him waaay in the background.
Spotted in Currents and Personal Shopper
Voyage, a new chandelier installed in the departure hall of Kennedy Airport's Terminal 4 last week.
Barbara Barry's new collection for HBF, introduced last week at Neocon.
"Touch Me: Design and Sensation," an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London through Aug. 29.
An orange and pink organdy tablecloth in a floral pattern is 120 inches round and fits a 60-inch round table; $120 at Roberta Freymann, 153 East 70th Street (Third Avenue) or (212) 585-3767.
An orange umbrella (70 inches in diameter) from Thailand is made of wax-coated fabric on a bamboo pole. Also in green, fuchsia, turquoise or red; $135 at Roberta Freymann.
Bamboo folding chairs are $75 each at CITE, 120 Wooster Street (Prince Street) or (212) 431-7272.
The Birzì Lamp by Carlos Forcolini and Giancarlo Fassina for Luceplan is made of silicone and comes in orange or acid green; $78 at the MoMA Design Store, www.momastore.org.
Leaf-shape ceramic plates and bowls come in shades of green. A 17-inch serving plate is $85; a 12-inch dinner plate is $38 and an 8-inch bowl is $38. At Homenature, 6 Main Street, Southampton, N.Y., or (631) 287-6277.
A floral floor cushion (21 inches square) is $40 at www.anthropologie.com or (800) 309-2500.


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Dan Slaven, a Dallas entrepreneur, has launched RealEstateDealSheet.com, a membership-based website for commercial real estate professionals prospecting for new deals. Slaven is president and chief executive officer.
The website provides information on completed deals and listed properties to developers, architects, lenders and equity providers. Its profiles also attract brokers, owners, tenants and leasing agents.
In its first month, the site generated more than 230 connections, posted nearly 100 deals, attracted more than 160 unique visitors and suggested nearly 10,000 deals, according to Slaven. New members extended more than 1,800 invitations, he ads, and the site drew more than 500 visits in one day.
Slaven has been a partner in Dallas-based Silverado Interests, a commercial real estate investment firm, since 2008.


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WASHINGTON - In the 10 weeks since he was nominated to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Samuel Alito has been praised by his supporters as a "lawyer's lawyer" who takes each case as it comes and denounced by critics as an ideologue who would move the court dramatically to the right.
Today, after secret rehearsals known as "murder boards," Judge Alito finally will speak for himself at confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he has been warned to expect even more intensive questioning than Chief Justice John Roberts received.
It isn't just that Judge Alito has a longer record on the bench than Chief Justice Roberts and that he would replace a perennial swing vote who was also a supporter of a constitutional right to abortion, a concept that Judge Alito criticized as a lawyer in the Reagan Administration.
Senators also want to press Judge Alito about his views of presidential power in light of the revelation that President Bush ordered the National Se-curity Agency to eavesdrop on American citizens without a court order.
But however much Washington may be hanging on Judge Alito's words, those words probably will be less important in the end than two numbers - 55, the number of Republicans in the Senate, and 14, the number of senators from both parties who have ruled out a filibuster of Supreme Court nominations except in "extraordinary circumstances." Democrats may succeed in delaying a committee vote on Judge Alito past Jan. 17, the date contemplated by committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R., Pa.). But defeating the nomination - or derailing it with a filibuster - is a problematic proposition regardless of what Judge Alito says.
All 10 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee - including Senator Specter, an abortion-rights supporter who plans to question Judge Alito closely on that issue - are expected to vote for the nominee. Even if the committee's eight Democrats all voted no, the nomination would be recommended to the full Senate.
Under current Senate rules, which some Republicans want to change, it takes 60 votes to cut off debate on a judicial nomination. Democrats have 44 seats and often can rely on the vote of Independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Judge Alito's opponents also hope that his past pronouncements on abortion - especially a 1985 application for a promotion in the Reagan Justice Department in which he said "I personally believe" that the Constitution does not protect abortion - might induce a handful of "pro-choice" Republican senators to desert his cause.
But that assumes Democrats would vote as a bloc to maintain a filibuster, which is unlikely.
Sen. Robert Byrd (D., W.Va.), who was conservative enough to be considered for a Supreme Court appointment by President Richard Nixon, has discouraged speculation about a filibuster. He is one of seven Democrats in the so-called Gang of 14 that agreed last May that judicial nominations would be filibustered only in "extraordinary circumstances."
That suggests an uphill battle for Alito opponents even if the nominee made a bad impression in the hearings, said Michael Comiskey, a political scientist at Penn State University's Fayette campus and the author of Seeking Justices: The Judging of Supreme Court Nominees.
"If the Democrats had even 47 or 49 seats, they could sustain a filibuster against Alito because I can imagine them getting three or four Republican votes if it were perfectly clear [after the hearings] that Alito opposed abortion rights," Mr. Comiskey said. "But with 44, it will be difficult."
As for "extraordinary circumstances," a term that is not defined in the Gang of 14 deal, Mr. Comiskey was skeptical enough senators would put the Alito nomination in that category.
Mr. Comiskey said Judge Alito's confirmation wasn't a foregone conclusion because the nominee, a 15-year veteran of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has a longer paper trail than Chief Justice Roberts, who served only two years as a federal appeals court judge before being named to the high court. The Alito paper trail includes hundreds of opinions the judge has written or joined on the 3rd Circuit and 93 documents from his days as lawyer in the Reagan Administration. Alito critics, including the liberal groups People for the American Way and the Alliance for Justice, say the paper trail leads inescapably to the conclusion that Judge Alito is hostile to individual rights. They cite studies like one by Professor Cass R. Sunstein of the University of Chicago Law School that concluded that "when there is a conflict between institutions and individual rights, Judge Alito's dissenting opinions argue against individual rights 84 percent of the time."
The Bush Administration and Judge Alito's supporters counter that critics have "cherry-picked" decisions that support their caricature of the judge as a conservative activist while overlooking rulings in which he favored plaintiffs, racial minorities, and abortion rights. Several of Judge Alito's colleagues and former law clerks, including liberal Democrats, have said he is not an automatic vote for one side or the other.
Contact Michael McGough at: firstname.lastname@example.com or 202-662-7025.


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Has only bought one of these?
I dont want to make this particular kit. I have an idea of a design and want to try out different valves. Im thinking that I could build this but with a few modifications, so I can easily change out the plate and cathode resistors in order to try different tubes. For the different pinouts of the tubes I would have to make adapters, but this shouldnt be too much of an issue.


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On the one hand, we have James Taranto's approach to acknowledging errors (discussed below). On the other hand, we have the New York Times's "never give an inch" approach, documented in Byron Calame's extremely interesting Times column this morning: "Even Geraldo deserves a break."
Calame unfortuntely mixes in additional personal abuse of Geraldo Rivera in documenting the Times's malfeasance — illustrating why I prefer a simple acknowledgement of wrongoing when you're wrong. The Times is wrong. Why it can't say so is beyond me. Why Calame has to compound the offense to Rivera with Calame's personal abuse of Rivera is also beyond me.
Calame's discussion of the Rivera matter concludes on a note that is also of interest to us:
Meanwhile, in the opinion section of The Times, the corrections policy of Gail Collins, the editor of the editorial page, is not being fully enforced. As I have written on my Web journal, Paul Krugman has not been required to correct, in the paper, recent acknowledged factual errors in his column about the 2000 election in Florida.
The Times has long been a trailblazer in its commitment to correcting errors. This is no time to let those standards slip – even when well-known critics and columnists are involved.
Calame writes in his capacity as the Times ombudsman. I think his column today is notable and even courageous. Michelle Malkin, however, recently declared the New York Times ombudsman "totally worthless." On my own scale, the measure of worthlessness in ombudsmen is set by the Star Tribune's Kate Parry. With Parry at absolute zero, Calame seems to me to occupy a spot well north of worthless. Bruce Kesler reflected on Michelle's post at Democracy Project in "The ombudsman hoax." (Thanks to Lucianne and RealClearPolitics for the tip to Calame's column.)


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Ashland Wine Cellar
38 Lithia Way
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Cost: Free tasting
Join us for complimentary wine tasting every Thursday from 4:30 - 6:30 pm. As always, featured wines will be 10 off during the tastings, and there is no charge to attend. Rogue Creamery and Willamette Valley Cheese Co. cheeses, crackers, and GF crackers are served. 21 and over only. Visit AshalndWineCellar.com for a complete listing of tastings.
This week features Cowhorn Vineyards. A certified Biodynamic farm and winery, Cowhorn grows 25 acres of wine grapes historically associated with the Rhône River wine region of France: Syrah and Grenache for red wine, and Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne for white wine.
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Dec 4 (Reuters) - Real estate developer Woodbridge Group of Companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, citing costs of expansion, litigation and a government fraud investigation.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been investigating Woodbridge since 2016 for possible fraudulent sales of securities, according to court documents.
Woodbridge, which is based in Sherman Oaks, California, said it would fully cooperate with regulators.
The privately owned company has raised nearly $1 billion from about 11,000 investors, according to documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
Woodbridge, which calls itself a leading developer of high-end real estate, said it planned to use Chapter 11 to restructure $750 million in debt and had already obtained a commitment for up to $100 million in debtor-in-possession financing.
Chief Executive Officer Robert Shapiro resigned on Friday, and turnaround specialist Lawrence Perkins of SierraConstellation Partners has taken over as chief restructuring officer, Woodbridge said. (Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)


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Adam Bate
Comment and Analysis @ghostgoal
Joe Hart mistake against Stoke: Is this the end of his England hopes?
Last Updated: 17/04/18 11:29am
Joe Hart's costly error in West Ham's 1-1 draw against Stoke surely ends his hopes of reclaiming his England place, but should he even go the World Cup this summer? The statistics paint a damning picture of a fading force whose performances do not warrant inclusion, writes Adam Bate.
Andy Carroll's last-minute equaliser should secure West Ham's Premier League status for another season but Joe Hart could be forgiven for having another thought in his mind after yet another costly error. The long-time England No 1 is earmarked as Gareth Southgate's senior figure in the squad for this summer's World Cup, but the mistakes just keep on coming.
Hart's inability to deal with Xherdan Shaqiri's low shot from the edge of the box allowed Peter Crouch to turn the ball into the net. It should have been a routine save for a man with 75 England caps and two Premier League titles but in the week that he turns 31 and is, in theory, entering the prime years of his career, Hart's form continues to underwhelm.
"I don't know what Joe is doing," Gary Neville told Sky Sports. "He'll look back and not know what he was doing. I have no explanation. He makes a right mess of it. I think he gets a really good sight of it. It's not really a powerful shot. He goes down with both hands and almost tries to push it away. It's a really strange technique, something you don't see much of."
Strange, indeed, but not unique. The list of errors continues to grow. Hart's poor form in November persuaded David Moyes to replace him with Adrian and though he has since been reinstated this has not led to an improvement. Amid the wreckage of West Ham's home defeat to Burnley, Hart's error for the third goal almost escaped attention. Not this time.
According to Opta's statistics, Monday's mistake was the fourth that Hart has made this season leading directly to an opposition goal in only 18 appearances for West Ham. Alarmingly, that is as many such errors as every other English goalkeeper in the Premier League has made this season between them in a total of 179 appearances.
In contrast to Hart, that same data shows that 25-year-old Nick Pope is yet to make such an error in his 30 Premier League appearances for Burnley this season. And yet, with the in-form goalkeeper remaining uncapped despite having been included in Southgate's England squad last month, it would seem Hart remains the favourite to go to Russia.
The logic is that England have a young squad and with neither Jordan Pickford nor Jack Butland having made an appearance at a major tournament, the group would benefit from Hart's experience. But that position is beginning to seem untenable as Hart continues to struggle and Pope remains blemish-free. It is extraordinarily harsh on the Burnley man.
The statistics show that Pope has claimed 44 catches to Hart's three. He has a better save percentage both inside and outside the box. He has even successfully come out of his area to sweep up behind his defence much more regularly than Hart - twenty times to the senior man's six. By every measure, he has been the superior goalkeeper this season.
In front of the watching Southgate at the London Stadium, Hart delivered just the latest example of his struggles. It would have made the manager's job much easier if the man who has kept goal for England in each of the last three major tournaments had shown some form. But he has not. Southgate will surely be forced to look elsewhere this summer.
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Our Kitchen Gift Basket features an apron, oven mitt, hot pad, set of two dish towels (all in color-grown certified organic cotton), plus a 2-oz. sample of our All Purpose Cleaner & Degreaser, arranged in a charming proofing basket. The perfect gift for your master chef! In tan or sage.
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Is Christ still in the manger in Bethlehem?
Christ is born in Bethlehem
Hark the herald angels sing...glory to a newborn king....
silent night, Holy night,...... Christ our saviour is born.........
And so on and so on .... We hear these same xmas songs year after year, and our hearts are soft because it´s xmas time.
More and more advert on t.v. asking us to dip into our pockets for orphans, underprivelaged children, the homeless etc..
Personally l think we ought to think of all the people strugglining, all the abused children etc., all year round. Their pain doesn´t just last for a few days at xmas.
Coming back to the singing carols , it surprises me how many mention the baby Jesus as being Christ.....when in fact he had quite a few years to go. He became Christ (The anointed) on the day he was baptised (29.a.d.)
Yes of course the baby Jesus was the son of God who one day would become our saviour and King. Does anyone think of that? Of course thousands of people think of Jesus in amongst all the hectic runnaround of buyingTurkey, presents, wrapping paper, alcohol, don´t forget the mulled wine. So much to do for weeks leading up to xmas, yet they stil go to church and many people still make a nativity scene in the house with the obligatory tree. Mary, Joseph, Baby in a manger, after that it varies. Sometimes everyone is there, the ox, lamb, shepherds, 3 wise men and even angels.
Other people keep it more to the words of the bible which tells us the shephrds were there, and Mary and Joseph and the baby, of course.
The others came later..............but more than anything what came later was Jesus grew up in Nazareth with his carpenter father ,going to the Temple in Jerusalem and visting the local synagogue, as all devoted jews did in those days,., and only when he was a grown man did he get baptised by John the Baptist and at that moment became The Christ (or the anointed one)
It was after Jesus´baptism that he began to tell everyone about God´s Kingdom, and he healed the sick, the blind, the deaf etc., not as a baby........ Nothing wrong with remembering him as a baby , we all do it with pictures of our now grown up children, But if Jesus is remembered ONLY as a helpless babe there´s something wrong, somewhere. !!!!
Christ is our King. He is an incredibly powerful archangel in Heaven. I feel strongly that we must remember that, because Satan would love Jesus to be always a helpless baby, unable to talk, to tell of Gods´Kingdom, unable to perform miracles to show how things will be in the future ..(and God will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning, nor outcry, nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away) Revelation chapter 21,. vs 3, 4 .
So while we´re enjoying the xmas pudding , the family reunion, the exchanging of presents and all that extra love that seems to be in the air at this time of year, ....please spare a thought not only for the beautiful nativity scene, but Christ as he is NOW A mighty King in Heaven
May God bless the lonely, the homeless the soldiers far away from their families, the sick, the sad and all of us who try to be happy and make others happy at this time of year and always.
Dear Dim I am an old sort of kind of hippy too..that loves the Lord..lol..Thank you for a great hub. Wonderful reminder that Our Lord Reigns!
Beautiful message Dim, You Rock!
Happy Holidays my wonderful friend! XX
This is a beautiful hub.
Very thought-provoking, Dim. I guess we've become used to the manger at Christmas, the resurrection at Easter and forgetfulness the rest of the year. We commemorate the event - and forget all about the living power, don't we?
Nice information again.I don't get it.When we are suppose to care about others more at Christmas than at other times of the year.What about the Salvation Army bell ringers out in the cold.Can't they at least let them in out of the cold.O.k. just a few feet in the store instead of in 10 below weather outside the store.Does it make that bit of a difference.At least give them a portable heater or something.
Ah Dim. If we could see the invisible people every day of the year, it would be a different world. We do tend to haul them out every year at Christmas like decorations - the hungry, the lonely, the sick children, the elderly and forgotten. We toss a few dollars 'in their general direction' (remember that line?) and consider we have met the Christmas criteria. The older I get, the more I am concerned that this has become just another opportunity to sell more electronics.
I love you Dim! I appreciate you and your wonderful heart and compassion. God bless you Dear Dim!


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The BBG News
Serious Fun & Frivolity
Baby Boomer Girl is expanding, "… hopefully not around the hips", but hip in gathering great fellow musicians to fatten up their great new 'boomer-rock' sound. Core members, Radha Sahar, alias the notorious Baby Boomer Girl herself, and Bernard Wells, (electric guitar), were already delighting audiences in ever expanding circles, starting at the Masterton Club in the Wairarapa. Baby Boomer Girl also had a hoot of a time strutting her stuff at the infamous Musicians Club in Whanganui.
Hot young players Matt Parlane on bass and Evan Williams on drums then joined Radha & Bernard. The expanded sonic expansion swept the crowd off their rockers – (those that had rocking chairs, that is …) – at the full band launch in June.
The band has a theatrical flavour, wacky humour and many unique, new songs – from the slightly outrageous to 'touching. The BBG News followed their highly successful launch, and will comment a few months on as to what antics they are up to. Watch this space – and meanwhile grab the single and tee shirt from the Get the Music & Tee page!
December 11th 2009
Grandmother Becomes World's First 'Boomer-Rock' Star
New Zealand singer/songwriter & grandmother, Radha Sahar, recently rocketed to #1 in the life- fantasy charts as the world's first 'boomer-rock' star. Sahar's stage name is Baby Boomer Girl (BBG). The BBG News interviewed her today … (Above) Yes -that's the Tee Shirt – you can get one of those too!
BBGNews – How come you're claiming to invent an entirely new musical genre – surely this is not possible?
BBG – There's nothing else like this out there. Record companies are feeding baby boomers' huge doses of nostalgia – (it's back catalogue, easy profit & no investment). Fiscal fools like me invest in my dreams. I'm not doing nostalgia. Boomer Rock is about what's happening now in the crazy lives of baby boomers. Of course we love our fav stars from the past, but who wants to live in memory lane? Now is the best time in my life – and I want new boomer music. Boomer Rock hasn't happened before, so I"m billing it as a fun new genre.
BBGNews – What characterises Boomer Rock?
BBG – The musical styles vary enormously – rock, pop, comic, slow rock and a few tearjerkers, but the genre itself is defined more by where it's coming from. It has a kind of theatrical quality – real life drama being lived out in the song. It is triumphant, playful and full of celebration – and it's youth-angst free! Boomer Rock oozes mature content. The songs ring with a quality only falling in love at age 60, or re-inventing our sagging selves, can bring. Boomers want to live-it-up while we still can, so Boomer Rock is often rebellious & energetic. It also exposes the hopes, dreams & gratitudes of our inner lives.
BBGNews – What are your aspirations for this, your first track?
Infection – I hope the song's enthusiastic passion for life will spread like a virus, uplifting & empowering it's victims until they won't be able to stop smiling. And doors too – I hope it will open them so I can share more from my copious new collection. And of course I aspire to Global Domination, so my music will be a voice for baby boomers everywhere who want a new musical way to celebrate life. I just heard about SSP (shameless self promotion) so I'm jumping in boots and all – (and 4 those of you who like my boots, and want to walk in my shoes, they're Doc Martins).
Getting back to the music, my single introduces Baby Boomer Girl as a character. She's a gal who is (r)aging disgracefully; at age 60 living out a life-long dream of being a rock star. The song tells her story – which is also the life story of many baby boomer women. In the chorus she airs her rebellious attitude in no uncertain terms. Culminating in verse three she yells "I'm gonna rage in a rock band, misbehave. Gonna dance to my coffin and sing in my grave".
BBGNews – You're not exactly in your twenties. How do hope to break into the market at this late stage?
BBG – Yes. I know what you mean; society invests all its music funding into teens & twenties bands. My generation had it's moment in the sun so, to start anything new at this stage we have to self fund. I hope my generation will get behind me. Boomers grew up supporting their favourite artists by purchasing their music – they didn't free-load as much. So hopefully they'll continue their honest-purchasing music habits and load up their online trolleys with mine. I hope they'll identify, want more, and get a kick out of empowering it to happen.
BBGNews – So where to from here?
BBG – Well, after the hairdresser, the beauty parlour, the gym and a hot yoga class, probably a nice meal and a movie. Or I'll hang out with my gorgeous grandchildren … In the new year we'll be working on a music video for the track and planning a Baby Boomer Girl stage show. Plus, there's the album, and another album … Who knows where the music might take me? Wherever it is, I look forward to a boomer journey.
BBGNews – We will be watching and waiting with baited pen for the next story …
BBG – Thanks. Have a boomer day!
This page will be regularly updated, nonetheless Google Feedburner does not inform email subscribers of updates – just whole new articles. So do re-visit this page to keep up to date. Scroll around the blog to enjoy some of my song lyrics … (Gravity, I Won't Forget You, etc) … then you'll feel familiar with the songs when you finally get to hear the music – cheers!
Thanks to Keith Morant for the imaginative & playful concept of The BBG News. Keith is an international award-winning painter of contemporary art. View his work at www.keithmorant.com


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Shortstop Jean Segura and the Brewers figure to discuss a contract extension this spring, MLB Daily Dish's Chris Cotillo reports. This isn't the first time the Brewers have discussed an extension with Segura, but Cotillo says that two parties haven't talked much since last fall. In September, MLBTR suggested that Segura might receive about five years and $20-23MM guaranteed in an extension, although that number might need to be upward somewhat given extensions that have been reached since then. He's set to become arbitration-eligible after the 2015 season, and free agency-eligible after 2018. Here are more notes on extensions.
- Reds GM Walt Jocketty still has hope that his team can sign Homer Bailey long-term and believes he has made progress toward that goal, ESPN's Jim Bowden tweets. Recent reports have indicated that Bailey and the Reds aren't close on an extension, which makes sense, given Bailey's situation — he's eligible for free agency after the season and should be in line for a hefty new contract.
- The White Sox and pitcher Jose Quintana do not plan to discuss an extension during spring training, Cotillo tweets. Quintana, 25, posted a 3.51 ERA with 7.4 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in 200 innings in 2013. He will likely be eligible for arbitration next offseason as a Super Two player.
- Pitcher Jarrod Parker and the Athletics have not talked about an extension this offseason, but they could do so this spring, Cotillo tweets. The righty threw 197 innings in 2013, posting a 3.97 ERA with 6.1 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9. He's arbitration-eligible after the 2014 season.


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Gluten Free Homemade Dog Biscuits Recipe
I was teaching a gluten-free cooking class at Rollin Oats Market a while back and mentioned to the audience that mine is a totally gluten-free household. A woman asked me if I had a dog and if so, do I feed the dog a gluten-free diet.
The answers are yes and yes.
We are owned by an adorable shih tzu named Jake. Jake is a character; he jumps and carries on every time we come home, as if we are rock stars or returning warriors. He is completely unaware of the fact that he is supposed to be an inside, frou-frou house dog, and he enters the federal relocation program every time he hears the word "bath" (he is also a bit of a genius, as he has learned how to spell and goes deep undercover when we spell out the letters B-A-T-H). He trained us to give him treats by one day standing on his hind legs like a dancing bear, making a pawing motion with his front feet and giving us the big brown puppy eyes. It was so precious we just had to give him a treat and he's been doing the same routine ever since whenever he wants a little snack.
He also happens to be gluten intolerant. Gluten intolerance in dogs is a lot more common than one might think and is the cause for lots of problems your pup may be having, such as scratching, rashes, and digestive issues. You can read more here and here.
In a previous post, I described how well I feed my dog. From the time he was a puppy, I have made his food from raw turkey and fresh fruits and veggies. His treats, however, were a different matter. Not realizing that Jake suffered from gluten intolerance, I was giving him little pet treats now and again that I picked up at the grocery store. And the scratching began.
Gluten-free dog treats are not so easy to come by and are awfully expensive. So now I make Jake homemade gluten-free dog biscuits. He loves them, he stopped scratching, and all is well in Simply Gluten-free land.
As a note – Jake declined to have his photo taken for this post. My son convinced me I could save a ton of money by buying a $200 pet grooming device and foregoing his monthly trip to the groomer. So he shaved off all Jake's beautiful hair. The groomer has decided she needs to charge me double to fix the damage but of course can't get him in for 3 weeks and Jake is walking around looking like a Chinese water rat. Needless to say, he is very distressed over the ordeal.
The cost of "saving" grooming fees – $290
A well intentioned son – priceless!
Gluten Free Homemade Dog Biscuits Recipe
2 ½ cups gluten-free oats
1 ½ cups potato starch (not potato flour)
½ cup white or brown rice flour
3 tablespoons flax seed meal
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg, beaten
½ cup olive oil
1/3 cup dry milk powder
1½ cups water
1 sweet potato, scrubbed but not peeled
Put 2 cups of the oats in a blender or food processor and grind into a fine powder. Combine with the remaining ½ cup oats, potato starch, rice flour, flax seed meal and salt in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the egg and olive oil. Mix the dry milk powder with the water and combine with the rest of the ingredients.
Grate the sweet potato using the large holes of a box grater. Stir into the mixture. The dough should be firm, smooth and workable. If not add more rice flour. Cover the bowl with a towel and let set for 20 minutes to let the moisture distribute.
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats.
Flour a work surface with rice flour and roll the dough out to either ¼ inch or ½ inch thick (depending on the size of your dog). Cut the biscuits out with a dog bone shaped (or any shape you like) cookie cutter, pressing firmly to cut through the sweet potato. Transfer the biscuits to the prepared pans.
Bake for 1½ to 2 hours or until the biscuits are dry and firm. Let cool completely.
Store the Gluten-free Dog Biscuits in a food storage bag or airtight container.
The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owner's. This blog accepts free manufacturers' samples and forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. Affiliate links may be included in this post.
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Jackie Bradley Jr. stars, John Lackey sharp again as Red Sox beat Rangers, 5-1
Jackie Bradley Jr. had himself a major league night and the Red Sox won their first game at Fenway Park in 2014, beating the Texas Rangers 5-1 behind the second solid start by John Lackey.
Bradley did it all against the Rangers tonight: driving in two runs and scoring one to go along with three hits, and he made a couple of top-notch web gems in right field to round out his night.
"It's a start," Bradley said about the approach that made him successful Monday night. "It's a work in progress and I'm continuously trying to get better every day…
"Just trying to see some good pitches that I can put some good swings on and handle. Definitely with [Rangers starter Tanner] Sheppers on the mound, he's got some really good life on his ball so I definitely wanted to be aggressive early with strikes there in the zone."
Red Sox manager John Farrell was also impressed with JBJ's efforts with the bat and glove.
"He executed well offensively," Farrell said. "Obviously the big RBI single in the second at-bat, but two very good defensive plays, the one that he slid in on that ball was in the lights and he was able to take an angle where he got underneath it well enough to pick it up out of the lights and on the ball from Arencibia, he goes back to the track and he makes a good running catch and it's just good to see him get in the flow of things, get in the mix. It's been a different first 10 days of the year for him but I think we've talked so many times about the importance of right field here, the defense out there and tonight he was very good."
The Red Sox — who banged out 14 hits on the night — were leading 2-1 entering the bottom of the eighth and picked up an insurance run when Bradley singled on a bunt ground ball to embattled first baseman Prince Fielder that scored A.J. Pierzynski after Fielder threw the ball away for an error.
Daniel Nava made it 4-1 when he smoked a single to right field scoring third baseman Jonathan Herrera. Bradley then came home when Dustin Pedroia grounded to third baseman Adrian Beltre which forced Nava out at second, but Pedroia managed to stay out of the double play and Bradley scored the Red Sox fifth run of the night.
Bradley picked up his second RBI of the game to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth when he singled sharply to left to score Pierzynski who singled to center to start the inning. Pierzynski had his first three-hit game as a member of the Red Sox, ending an 0-for-8 drought.
Xander Bogaerts has a hit in six of the Red Sox first seven games after going 1-for-4 with a run scored Monday night. Pedroia snapped his six game hitting streak, going 0-for-5 in the win.
The Rangers tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the fourth inning when Beltre scored on a sac fly to center by Mitch Moreland. Grady Sizemore made a terrific catch on the play. The run was unearned as a passed ball by Pierzynski allowed Beltre to advance to third. Herrera air-mailed a throw to second base on a ground ball deep behind the bag in an attempt to get Beltre, but Bradley backed up the play, keeping Beltre at second until he advanced on the Pierzynski passed ball.
The Sox took their first lead at home this season when Bradley drove in Bogaerts on a hard ground ball single up the middle with two outs in the second inning. The Red Sox played a little hit-run-run earlier in the inning, which allowed Bogaerts to advance to go from first to third on base hit by Pierzynski.
Bradley has also made two terrific catches in right field tonight, one a running catch on a ball hit over his head hit by J.P. Arencibia in the third inning, the other was a sliding grab of a line drive off the bat of Donnie Murphy to end the second.
"I saw it from the start and then I kind of went into it," Bradley said on the sliding catch. "I had to get down to try to get under the lights to be able to pick it back up. If it didn't go in the light I probably would have caught it standing up, but I had to get down there."
The over the head grab of Arencibia's ball was something Bradley said he works on constantly.
"That's one of those plays where I definitely try to work at during BP," he said. "On the balls that are hit over my head and I just take my eye off of it and kind of guess where I feel like the ball is going to be and I happened to run a pretty good route and there it was waiting on me."
Daniel Nava — playing back in left field tonight — made his second error in the outfield in as many nights when he let a line drive single by Alex Rios get past him in the second inning. Rios would end up stranded at second base.
Grady Sizemore ran hard into the padding on the center field wall in effort to grab a triple by Shin-Soo Choo in the third inning. He may feel something tomorrow, but seemed OK as the game went on tonight.
The Rangers challenged a force play in the first inning but the call on the field was upheld as David Ortiz reached first on a force attempt when shortstop Elvis Andrus dropped the ball thrown from second baseman Donnie Murphy.
Lackey looked sharp for the second start in a row, working ahead in the count early and often. He gave up five hits and threw just 71 pitches through six innings while allowing only the one unearned run. Lackey ran into trouble in the seventh inning after a couple of walks and stolen bases had runners on second and third, but he got Arencibia to ground out to Pedroia at second to end the Rangers threat.
Lackey gave up just the one unearned run on the night, throwing 95 pitches over seven innings giving up five hits, five strikeouts and two walks. Lefty Chris Capuano came on for Lackey and pitched a scoreless eighth inning, giving up one hit. Koji Uehara let a couple of runners on, but closed it out in a non-save situation.
"He was outstanding tonight," Farrell said of Lackey's performance. "He made a number of big pitches with men in scoring position no bigger than that final out in that seventh inning. And a couple of times he picked up the defense when there was an added 90-feet given, he picked up his teammates and did a heck of a job once again for the second time this year."
Lackey said the key to the start was getting ahead of the Rangers batters.
"I want to throw strikes at them," Lackey said. "I definitely want them to know I'm going to throw strikes, and if you're going to get me, you better get me quick because I'm coming after you for sure. It can work both ways, if you're not locating well, you can get hit pretty quick too that way so you just gotta try to continue to locate and hopefully keep pitch counts down and try to get deep in the game."
For Uehara, it was his fourth scoreless appearance of the season. Dating back to 2013, 36 of Koji's last 37 outings have been scoreless with 48 strikeouts to just one walk in that span.
Rangers starter Tanner Scheppers would last just five innings, giving up nine hits, two earned runs, three strikeouts, and a walk before giving way to reliever Pedro Figueroa in the sixth.
The Red Sox improve to 3-4 after the victory tonight, snapping the three game losing streak at home.


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We present a formal calculus, termed the chemtainer calculus, able to capture the complexity of compartmentalized reaction systems such as populations of possibly nested vesicular compartments. Compartments contain molecular cargo as well as surface markers in the form of DNA single strands. These markers serve as compartment addresses and allow for their targeted transport and fusion, thereby enabling reactions of previously separated chemicals. The overall system organization allows for the set-up of programmable chemistry in microfluidic or other automated environments. We introduce a simple sequential programming language whose instructions are motivated by state-of-the-art microfluidic technology. Our approach integrates electronic control, chemical computing and material production in a unified formal framework that is able to mimic the integrated computational and constructive capabilities of the subcellular matrix. We provide a non-deterministic semantics of our programming language that enables us to analytically derive the computational and constructive power of our machinery. This semantics is used to derive the sets of all constructable chemicals and supermolecular structures that emerge from different underlying instruction sets. Because our proofs are constructive, they can be used to automatically infer control programs for the construction of target structures from a limited set of resource molecules. Finally, we present an example of our framework from the area of oligosaccharide synthesis.
1. Introduction
Living systems are unique in that they integrate molecular recognition and information processing with material production on the molecular scale. The predominant locus of this integration is the cytoplasm, where a multitude of biochemical compounds are highly organized in vesicular compartments that co-locate reactants of desired reactions, whereas separating those of undesired reactions. Surface markers on these compartments are used for vesicular trafficking, as well as vesicle budding and fusion, thereby allowing for the fine-tuned control of biochemical reaction cascades [1–3].
The desire to employ this complex molecular organization in next-generation chemical synthesis has led to various studies on supermolecular compartments as nanoscale 'bioreactors' [4–7]. Several pathways for vesicle fusion [8–10] have been suggested. In particular, Hadorn et al. [11–13] employ short single-stranded DNA tags for the specific interaction of various reaction compartments. In the European Commission-funded project MATCHIT [14–17], we are working on creating an artificial cellular matrix that seamlessly integrates information processing and material production in much the same way as its biological counterpart: the MATCHIT framework employs DNA-addressable bioreactors (termed chemtainers in the following), to mimic the topological organization of the cytoplasm. DNA tags open up for DNA computing operations akin to the 'key–lock' information processing mechanism found in biological protein–protein interactions. This form of molecular information processing is governed by autonomous chemical reaction kinetics and allows for tight integration of chemical production and information processing. In particular, we here employ the DNA join-and-fork gates to implement Boolean computation [18].
Whereas natural cells ultimately employ genomic information to regulate the resulting material production network, we envision programmable electronic control by embedding chemtainers into mechanoelectronic microsystems [19,20]. In such devices, dedicated microfluidic channels can be designed for vesicle generation [21], DNA tag insertion, tag and chemtainer trafficking [22], specific or unspecific fusion [23], vesicle rapture and encapsulation [24]. Possibly paired with real-time feedback, this allows for control of chemical reaction cascades at the molecular level. This interplay of autonomous molecular computation and external electronic chemtainer manipulation enables the programmatic set-up of complex reaction cascades that allow for automated chemical production of a desired target molecule from a limited set of chemical resources.
Here, we propose a formal calculus to describe system states and transitions in an abstract representation of the artificial cellular matrix. We call this the chemtainer calculus. In essence, the chemtainer calculus allows us to describe the organization and manipulation of chemical compounds down to the molecular level in possibly nested, addressable reaction compartments. Sets, or more precisely, multisets of such compartmentalized reagents are situated at locations, e.g. at positions of a microfluidic machine. Several calculi for compartmentalized reaction systems have been proposed previously [25–27]. Our syntax for nested and tagged compartments follows relatively closely the one from brane calculi [27]. Those calculi offer transitions for compartment transformations, such as fusion and splitting as well as molecular reactions. Transitions are integral components of the system state, and the calculus employs a process algebra to deduce the set of possible transitions from the current state. In the chemtainer calculus, we additionally define an explicit transition system that operates on states externally. This organization better reflects the difference between the chemical state transitions and external mechanoelectronic control.
The calculus was designed for the architecture described in reference [20]. The tool chain for compilation of high-level directives of the chemtainer calculus into eventual electrode configurations to control the mechanoelectronic microfluidic hardware is presented in reference [28]. Yet, the general framework discussed here is not tailored towards one specific technology. For example, instead of microfluidic channel segments, locations could equally denote test tube arrays, or wells in a high-throughput chip.
In this article, we first design a syntax that allows us to express the rather complex system states—or rather system arrangements—that we encounter in the artificial cellular matrix: located multisets of tagged and possibly nested chemtainers that carry cargo. Figure 1 schematically depicts an example of a possible state. We then introduce transitions between states that model possible changes of the physical state. Some of these transitions, e.g. DNA hybridization, capture autonomous chemistry, whereas other transitions are thought to be induced by control operations of the artificial cellular matrix. We proceed by defining a simple programming language that consists of sequences of parametric instructions that induce transitions on the system state. In §3, we discuss how the underlying instruction set of the chemtainer calculus affects the set of constructable objects, and we give our main result (theorem 3.3) that a set of eight instructions is sufficient to construct any well-formed target state. Because we use a non-deterministic semantics, our proofs demonstrate only the possibility, not the probability of creating a certain desired state. In §4, we apply our framework to the area of chemical manufacturing, where we present an algorithm for synthesis of branched oligomer structures by means of controlled chemtainer fusion and DNA computing.
2. The chemtainer calculus
2.1. System state
Objects of the calculus are molecules, address tags and chemtainers. Chemtainers represent compact microreactors, such as vesicles, oil droplets in water or water droplets in oil, DNA nanocages, etc. They can be decorated with address tags, and can hold chemical content and even other chemtainers within them. Here, we do not distinguish between different chemtainer types, but we could imagine a type system for chemtainers to specify their physical properties. All components of the system are situated at specified, discrete locations.
Our notion of space is rather simplistic: we assume a fixed set of locations; each component of the system state is situated at a certain location; we will introduce transitions that allow collocated components to interact (while objects at different locations may not interact), and we will introduce transitions that induce transport from one location to another by means of state transitions. Note that we currently do not introduce a specific topology on the set of locations (e.g. to move from one location to another, one might need to cross a third one), but such an extension is possible.
For countable index sets , and , let denote the set of locations, some set of molecules, and a set of DNA tags. We take if tags are explicitly given. Note that might intersect with or not.
The following context-free tree grammar Gs for system states formalizes the above verbal interpretation: 2.1 2.2 2.3with the start symbol . Here, the vertical broken bar is a metasymbol that indicates syntactic choice. We denote the empty state by the symbol . The binary operator denotes localization, where xi is a location identifier; the binary operator denotes composition of locations, whereas denotes composition within locations; 0 denotes the empty local state; * is the Kleene operator and signifies no or arbitrarily many repetitions of its argument. We write 2.4and 2.5with the empty tag to explicitly list tag and gate sets.
Following convention, we denote chemtainers by half-moon parentheses that enclose the chemtainer content with address tags associated with the left parenthesis [27,29]. Finally, the relation denotes DNA gates, which will be explained later. We write , , and for the grammars with the start symbols , , and , respectively.
To generate a state with the grammar , being a non-terminal, one recursively applies the above production rules starting from until the resulting state tree contains no more non-terminal symbols. The language is the set of all possible states that can be generated from the start symbol . In what follows, , , and denote arbitrary states of the respective languages.
Informally, we interpret states of to signify the following: the global system state is a composition of local states, where each local state has a location identifier xi and an associated local state description. The latter are compositions of molecules mj, gates qk as well as chemtainers with content P and gate set q*; gate sets, in turn, are compositions of gates qk as well as individual tags sk. See figure 1 for an example of a global state.
In order to conform with this interpretation, we introduce the following structural congruence relation (an equivalence relation with additional axioms that guarantee substitutivity of equals in context) over , , and : 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27
Thus, states that belong to the same equivalence class of ≡ represent the same physical state, even though they might be syntactically different. Equations (2.6)–(2.18) induce monoidal structures on , , and , where ':' distributes over ' + ', and equations (2.19)–(2.27) guarantee that we can substitute equals in any context.
We introduce some notational shortcuts. We write , and we introduce the notation 2.28which emphasizes the relation to mulitsets. We also allow ourselves to drop the explicit notation of empty locations by defining 2.29With these definitions, the example state depicted in figure 1 can be written as 2.30
2.2. Transitions
We are now ready to introduce a transition system that codifies the possible outcome of both autonomous chemical reactions as well as externally induced operations that manipulate the system state. Autonomous reactions, in turn, are either arbitrary chemical reactions among molecules, which we refer to as application chemistry, or the working of DNA computing operations.
2.2.1. Application chemistry
Reactions are just transitions of the form 2.31where and are multisets of reactants and products with stoichiometric coefficients νi and μi.
We ensure that chemical reactions can occur among any co-located reactants that are not separated by chemtainer walls 2.32 2.33 2.34 2.35
We extend structural congruence to transitions by defining. 2.36and 2.37
In its ground form, the chemtainer calculus does not offer any transitions of the form (2.31). Instead, the user of the calculus is assumed to provide a set of autonomous transitions as axioms.
Note that there is no particular need to restrict to be finite. Our calculus can be applied without adaption to an infinite set of molecules, including polymers or branched structures—an example of which will be presented in §4. We also emphasize that we explicitly allow and to intersect. If they do, tags can occur in the reactant and product sides of chemical reactions, such that tags can be altered chemically.
2.2.2. DNA gate transitions
Here, DNA computation is implemented by join-and-fork gates [18] that irreversibly release a given set of output strands once they have bound a set of inputs , written . Note that does not physically contain the strands . Rather it means that the gate accepts those strands as input.
If a gate is co-located with all its input tags, it can release its output tag 2.38
We have to ensure that these transitions can occur between two co-located complementary tags in any context, unless they are separated by a chemtainer boundary. This is allowed by introducing the following inference rules 2.39and 2.40
Examples of gate transitions are depicted in figure 2. Owing to the inferences (2.32)–(2.37), it is guaranteed that DNA computing operations perform in any context.
2.2.3. Induced transitions
We now introduce transitions that model the controlled manipulation of states through operations of the artificial cellular matrix. We introduce eight such operations, responsible for feeding and moving of chemtainers and tags, controlled fusion of chemtainers, encapsulation of material into chemtainers, chemtainer bursting and flushing of content. Our exact transitions are motivated by the functionalities of the underlying microfluidics architecture [20], but they also serve as a guideline as to how alternative transitions in other hardwares can be codified. The impact of the exact instruction set on the constructive capabilities of the resulting calculus will be discussed in §3.
Induced transitions are of the form where I is a parametrized name. We first give the formal definition of these transitions (schematics are shown in figure 3) and will afterwards comment on their particular choice. In §2.3, we will introduce a small programming language based on these operations. 2.41 2.42 2.43 2.44 2.45 2.46 2.47 2.48 2.49Transitions (2.41)–(2.49) operate strictly on the top level of the state, meaning that we do not allow, for example, tagging or fusion of chemtainers that reside within another chemtainer. To ensure this, we simply do not provide inference rules that would allow us to derive such transitions. However, the above transitions are allowed to operate in any context through the following inference 2.50We now comment on the individual choice of operations and their transitions. feed allows one to feed chemtainers that are equipped with a certain number of molecules of a single molecular species into a location. This is the only means to provide elements of . Similarly, feed_tag allows one to feed a certain number of identical tags into a location. tag has been modelled to unspecifically attach some available tag to some container at a given location. No means are given to specify which tag or which chemtainer is transformed in this operation. The reason for this choice is that the actual linking of tags to a chemtainer involves linker molecules (e.g. biotin and streptavidin) that are common to all chemtainers and tags independent of the actual tag sequence or chemtainer type.
We provide a flush command to counteract the effect of feeding, where flushing simply removes content at a location. The operation is most easily implemented by literally flushing the material out of the system.
The move command allows one to move a specific tag, or a chemtainer decorated with a specific tag from one location to another. Notably, this allows for content separation: for example, the state will transition into the state in response to the operation . In a certain interpretation, this can be understood as chemtainer docking, where the locations correspond to volumes of bulk fluid that themselves move along a microfluidic channel decorated with the complementary tag (here τ). Assuming that both chemtainers are initially at location x which is decorated with τ, the complementarily tagged chemtainer is allowed to temporarily hybridize to the channel wall, whereas the bulk volume—and thus the locations—physically move along the channel. Non-matching content at the logical location x will remain at that location, although its physical position has changed. Matching content, however, will be at a different location, e.g. y and can be released into the corresponding bulk.
The operations fuse and wrap are more specific to the artificial cellular matrix and enable fusion and (vesicle) encapsulation. fuse induces unspecific fusion of co-located chemtainers, leading to mixing of both chemtainer surface and content. Besides unspecific fusion, tag-specific fusion of vesicles has been achieved experimentally [30,31]. A version of the chemtainer calculus featuring such tag-specific fusion is presented in [32]. wrap enables encapsulation of material into vesicles, e.g. using interface transfer: it is assumed that the material at location x resides in an aqueous phase which is first immersed into an oil phase where it forms surfactant-coated water droplets—providing the inner layer of the future vesicle. Next, the water droplet passes a surfactant covered oil–water interface which provides the outer layer of the vesicle membrane. If the original state at x contains chemtainers, these are equally transferred into the interior of the new chemtainer, leading to nested chemtainers [12]. Microfluidic implementations of this protocol are presented in [33]. We will later analyse the power of this transition system with and without the wrap operation.
Complementing encapsulation, we provide a burst operation that releases the content of a chemtainer. We envision that burst does not fully dissolve the chemtainer, but rather ruptures the chemtainer wall temporarily, for example by means of a heat or salt shock. After bursting, the chemtainer will reconstitute itself and remain in the system, available for further processing.
In order to capture obvious implementation constraints of the physical machine, some of the operations are restricted to subsets of , e.g. feed(x) might require . It can be shown that the constructive power of the calculus is not affected by this limitation, as long as move, tag and burst are allowed to operate on the entire set . Likewise, we could constrain the move command such that the target location has to be in a certain neighbourhood set of the source location in order to capture, e.g. the channel topology of microfluidic devices.
We wish to clarify one point that might be counterintuitive. Assume, for example, the state . What will be the action to the operation move(σ, x, y)? Intuitively, we might expect that the system transitions into the state y : 10σ, meaning that all instances of σ have been moved. However, x : 10σ is structurally equivalent to owing to the distributive relation (2.18). To this state, we can apply the transition equating S = x : 9σ, which results in . Thus, move, and by similarity all other transitions, will operate only on a single instance. There is a simple way out, however: in order to move all 10 instances in the example above, we can simply execute the move operation 10 times in sequence. Our reason for this semantics is that it allows for consistent assignment of stochastic rates in a potential stochastic semantics [34,35].
2.3. Programs
In §2.2, we have informally given parametric names to transitions, such as move(s, x, y), tag(x), a.s.o. We next interpret parametric names as elemental operations of a programming language that can be used to operate the artificial cellular matrix. We do this by first defining another formal language, the formal language of chemtainer programs, and then expressing the semantics of this language by means of state transitions, the latter employing the language of chemtainer states.
As with states, we define programs by a recursive grammar, which we initially keep as simple as possible 2.51A program π can be either the empty program , or a (parametric) instruction followed by another program (the remainder), with instructions being separated by semicolons. Instructions I can be any of the formerly introduced parametric names feed(xa, mj, ν), feed_tag(xa, qk, ν), move(sk, xa, xb), tag(xa), wrap(xa, xb), fuse(xa), burst(xa) and flush(xa) with and . Each instruction I has a set of associated transitions, and we write I : S → S′ to denote any such associated transition (as was already done in the previous part).
Strictly, the concatenation operator ';' is only defined to concatenate single instructions with programs. In order to concatenate arbitrary programs π and π', we introduce an additional operator ';' for program concatenation through the following recursive definition 2.52and 2.53Because both concatenation operators have different domains, it is clear from the context whether the concatenation refers to single instructions or programs. Therefore, we will drop the syntactic differentiation and use the symbol ';' for both operators.
A program π together with a system state S is expressed by the tuple and we write to denote that the program π can transform the state S into the state S′, called a result of π. Results are defined by the following structural operational semantics [36]: 2.54 2.55 2.56In words, given a program that starts with instruction I with some associated transition from S′ to S″, the second rule allows us to transform the system into S″, thereby reducing the original program to whatever remains after execution of I. If program execution encounters an instruction with no associated transition that is applicable with the current state S′ (e.g. tag is asked to operate on an empty cell), the third rule allows us to skip the instruction without modifying the system state. This latter rule primarily addresses erroneous conditions and ensures that a program does not get stuck, simply because the respective molecules are not present at some point of the execution. Using non-deterministic semantics, rule (2.56) might even be used when rule (2.55) is applicable, thereby skipping instructions of the program sequence. This could be remedied with a stochastic semantics that assigns an arbitrarily small transition rate to rule (2.56).
We can now distinguish between autonomous and induced transitions, by extending the semantics with the rules 2.57and 2.58where S → S' and S' → S'' is an autonomous transition inferred through (2.35). These rules allow autonomous transitions to occur at any time during program execution without affecting the program.
We extend structural congruence to program application using the inference rule 2.59
Lemmas 2.1 and 2.2, proved in the electronic supplementary material, allow for uncomplicated composition of instructions.
Lemma 2.1.
Program application is not context sensitive: if the application of program π on the initial state S can lead to the result S′, the application on the composition can lead to the result , containing S′ as a substate. is an invariant of π: 2.60
Lemma 2.2.
Programs can be concatenated, and the start configuration of the second program will be the result of the first program: 2.61
2.4. Extension: control flow directives and parallel execution
We could easily define control flow directives known from standard programming languages, such as branched execution and loops. This is particularly interesting in the context of feedback control. Let 2.62be a conditional over the system state. For example, f could measure whether a fluorescent signal at a certain location exceeds a certain threshold. We could then extend our grammar to 2.63to allow for conditional loops, where the semantics of the while statement are given by 2.64 2.65As evidenced with these definitions, there is nothing particular about control flow directives in the chemtainer calculus compared with other imperative languages. In order to introduce more elaborate control flows, the reader can simply apply standard text book procedures.
Similarly, it is straightforward to define the semantics for a language of communicating sequential processes [37,38] that parallelizes the production process 2.66
2.5. Example
To make the above definitions more familiar, we employ the chemtainer calculus in order to decorate chemtainers with addresses and use those to mix the contents of two chemtainers.
The left column shows which parametric instruction is executed, and the right column shows the effect of its associated transition. Read from top to bottom, the left column therefore simply gives a program that can construct some desired state denoted on the right. 2.67
To use this sequence later on in programs, we define it as the parametric macro resource(x, σ, P). Now, we use this macro to create two chemtainers and fuse them 2.68
Keep in mind that the right column only shows a possible response of the system state to the program on the left, not the necessary response. In general, because of the ambiguity of transitions, the system could have transitioned into alternative states in response to the same program.
3. Instruction sets and their constructive power
The instructions given in equations (2.41)–(2.49) serve as examples of possible operations, rather than the final specification of an artificial cellular matrix. Potential real-world implementations might involve only a subset of the operations mentioned, or might enable other means of chemtainer manipulation. It then becomes interesting to determine whether different instruction sets are equivalent in what they can construct or whether the set of constructable states differs.
In order to approach the problem formally, we define the constructive closure of the language as the set of states that can be constructed from the empty state through some program . Formally 3.1Similarly, we define the reset closure as the set of states that can be transformed back into the empty set. Formally 3.2Of primary interest is of course the case where the machine can be reset from any state. In this case, one can formally transform any initial state into any target state, thereby programming sequences of states: if and , the concatenation π; π' will transform S into S': . This result, however, is mostly of theoretical interest, as an interim reset of the machine might not be desired when programming such state sequences. In a practical application, one would define a distance measure between states and ensure that the transition path length of programs is minimized, thereby preferring for example a single move instruction over a sequence of flush;feed_tag;move instructions with equal outcome.
We consider the following three incremental instruction sets 3.3 3.4 3.5
Let , and be the sets of programs over the respective instruction set. We will show the following relations between the corresponding constructive and reset closures: 3.6
If and only if all locations are flushable, i.e. if , the right-most chain of relations simplifies to 3.7
Diagram (3.6) can be decomposed into several theorems, for which we need to define the nesting level of a state S or local state P as the following 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15
With this definition, we can state the relations of diagram (3.6) more precisely:
Theorem 3.1.
The constructive closure of is the set of states that do not contain nested chemtainers nor free floating molecules other than tags: 3.16
Theorem 3.2.
The constructive closure of is the set of states that do not contain free floating molecules other than tags: 3.17
Theorem 3.3.
The constructive closure of is the entire set of states: 3.18
Theorem 3.4.
The reset closure of all instruction sets is limited to states that do not contain free floating molecules other than tags in non-flushable locations:
Proofs for all theorems are given in the electronic supplementary material. Note that these proofs are constructive: for any given target structure we can automatically generate a program that will construct S. This observation forms the core of a compiler that is able to generate a sequence of transitions for building a given target structure.
Theorems 3.1–3.4 assume that the entire set of molecules can be fed as resources. We now address the case where only a subset of compounds can be directly provided by feed and where chemical reactions are employed to produce compounds outside .
For some reaction with we can employ the program 3.20to initiate the chemical production of , where m3, m4 are not necessarily elements of . Applying this procedure repeatedly allows us to obtain successively bigger subsets of . However, without means for content separation, the set of producible states will be constrained by the stoichiometries of the reactions. If the artificial cellular matrix would offer content separation, e.g. by means of electrophoresis [39], we could encode this with the induced transition 3.21
where the exact partitioning of chemtainer content into P and P' would depend on its electrophoretic mobility. Continuing the above program, we could now derive 3.22
The tagged chemtainers are ready to be used as input for subsequent reactions. This recovers the constructive power of the chemtainer calculus, provided that all elements of can be constructed by some chain of reactions. However, in order to maintain a well-defined mapping from DNA tags to chemtainer content, the separate operation would need to assert the correct redistribution of surface tags along with the content separation such that products can be unambiguously identified by their tags.
4. Programmable reaction cascades
Here, we demonstrate how our calculus (even with the minimal instruction set Imin) can be used to integrate chemical production with molecular computation in order to control programmable reaction cascades. This example is motivated by and closely mimics the synthesis of oligosaccharides in the Golgi apparatus [1,2]. Oligosaccharides are branched, heterogeneous polymers composed of typically 5–10 individual sugar monomers such as mannose, galactose and glucose. This diverse class of biochemicals is involved in various physiological processes pertaining, e.g. to cell–cell recognition, intra- and intercellular trafficking and metabolic modulation [40]. However, their combinatorial richness poses a challenge for chemical oligosaccharide synthesis based on conventional chemical manufacturing techniques [41].
Biological oligosaccharide synthesis proceeds in the Golgi apparatus by adding individual monomers one unit at a time to specific binding sites of the growing oligomer. Monomers are attached to enzymes that promote the specific binding reactions 4.1
Here, Pi denotes an intermediate oligomer, to which monomer Mi is added at the site j. If binding sites are unique, a given enzyme–monomer complex contains all the information required to build the specific product Pi + 1 from Pi. Prior to these polymerization steps, monomers have to be attached to the respective enzymes 4.2
Chemical one-pot synthesis of a given target structure is challenging, because repetition of bindings sites in the oligomer structure can lead to undesired side products. The number of potential side products can be controlled, however, by forcing some reaction steps to occur sequentially while others are allowed to proceed in parallel [42]. Weyland et al. [43] present an algorithm that identifies such optimal reaction cascades. For example, assume that the structure shown in figure 4 can be produced with the reaction cascade 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6
where it has to be ensured that reactions (4.3)–(4.5) occur in isolation and prior to reaction (4.6).
Our strategy here is to employ the chemtainers in order to control the encounter of reactants and hence the order of reactions by encapsulating reactants within chemtainers. Fusion of chemtainers co-locates desired reactants and triggers their polymerization. Simultaneously, DNA gate computation on the chemtainer surface will reflect the change of chemtainer content after reaction. The same DNA computation can ensure that reactions are started if and only if other reactions have been performed beforehand. We use one location x0 for processing and one location xS for storing intermediate products.
We start by preparing chemtainers with enzyme complexes using the program given in equation (3.20). For example 4.7creates the state . See figure 5 for a graphical representation of these steps. We use this algorithm repeatedly to set up the machine in the following state 4.8With this mapping from chemical compounds to DNA tags, we translate the reaction cascade (4.3) and (4.6) into a set of DNA gates 4.9 4.10 4.11 4.12
To carry out reaction (4.3), we feed the gate (4.9) at location x0. We then progressively move chemtainers from xS to x0, initiate their fusion and transport the intermediate product P0 back to xS (see figure 6 for a schematic representation): 4.13
The flush instruction cleans the processing location in the case that the execution of an instruction was skipped because of rule (2.56). This prevents the subsequent fuse operations from operating on chemtainers that where intended to be kept separate.
Repeating the above algorithm with gate (4.10) and tags as well as gate (4.11) and tags produces chemtainers with the intermediate products P0, P1 and P2 tagged with κ, λ and μ, respectively. Eventually, the above algorithm with gate (4.12) and tags κ, λ, μ produces the chemtainer which can readily be moved to some output location.
Note that the above program operates over a finite set of resources, tags and locations, in order to build a compound from a potentially unlimited universe of target molecules, and the mapping between tags and compounds is established only within the controlling program. This demonstrates again the universality of the programmatic synthesis approach.
5. Discussion
We have formally introduced the chemtainer calculus which is capable of capturing system states and transitions of an artificial cytoplasm. The chemtainer calculus allows us to describe the organization and manipulation of chemical compounds in possibly nested, addressable bioreactors. Elemental operations of a simple programming language are proposed that allow for the programmatic control of chemtainer transitions. A constructive proof is given that a programming language based on eight elemental instructions is capable of constructing any possible system configuration that can be expressed in the grammar of the chemtainer calculus. This proof can serve as a core component of a compiler for automated program inference. We have presented how our machinery can be used to compile and execute complex chemical synthesis protocols and have given an example from oligosaccharide synthesis which still poses a challenging task for conventional chemical manufacturing techniques. This framework for programmable chemical synthesis demonstrates how molecular computing and chemical production can be integrated in much the same way as in biological systems, for example in the Golgi apparatus.
One might object that chemical synthesis in chemtainers works the same as sequential mixings of reaction solutions in test tubes, which is a conventional methodology. What then is the added values of chemtainers? First, we point out that microfluidics in general (even without employing chemtainers), allows for the programmed set-up of reaction cascades in small volumes. This gives a general advantage over setting up reactions in test tubes either manually or even by liquid handling robots: as pointed out by Füchslin et al. [42], small spatial dimensions offer the possibility for rapid transport of intermediate compounds among different reaction environments. The accompanying reduction in processing times can be of crucial advantage in synthesis steps where intermediate compounds are only stable for short periods of time. Consequently, compounds not viable in present processing may become interesting candidates for, e.g. catalysis in miniaturized systems. Employing vesicles as reaction compartments allows for the use of even smaller reaction volumes on the femtolitre scale. Second, DNA-addressable reaction compartments can sometimes avoid the need for distinct reaction environments, in the sense that all reactants can be provided simultaneously in the same 'pot', but individual reactions are controlled by DNA-mediated vesicle fusion. This 'automated assembly' is programmed not in the microfluidic control, but in the DNA tagging of vesicles. Although this has not been exemplified in this paper, we can envision synthesis pathways where DNA tags participate in the reaction cascades, e.g. as aptamers. Folding the DNA tag set with the set of chemicals would allow chemical reactions to directly 'report' on their progress, such that, e.g. a DNA tag operation is triggered only after a chemical compound has been consumed. DNA-tagged reaction compartments further allow for the extraction and recovery of unreacted compounds by their unaltered DNA tag, and the extraction of reaction products by their altered DNA tag. Third, encapsulation of compounds into vesicular reaction compartments offers additional advantages for chemical manufacturing in microfluidics. Compounds do not contaminate microfluidic channels as they are physically contained in vesicles. Vesicles can expose a unified physical 'interface' (in terms of friction, buoyancy, charge density, etc.) for microfluidic control independent of their content. By altering the composition of membrane molecules, these properties can be altered vastly independently of the vesicle content.
In all our derivations, we have made ample use of non-deterministic semantics: we have proved that there exists a program that is able to induce desired transitions, and is thus able to construct a desired state. We have not taken into account the likelihood of those transitions—especially with respect to possible but undesired side reactions. As this is an important issue in the area of programming chemistry, we have carefully designed our transition system with an extension towards stochastic semantics in mind [34]. Application of these known techniques to the chemtainer calculus would be the subject of future work.
Funding statement
The research leading to these results has received funding from the Danish National Research Foundation through the Center for Fundamental Living technologies (FLinT) and from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreements no. 249032 (MATCHIT) and no. 318671 (MICReagents).
Steen Rasmussen, Andrew Phillips, Rasmus Petersen, Rudolf Füchslin, Ehud Shapiro and members of the MatchIT consortium are acknowledged for helpful discussions.
- Received October 25, 2013.
- Accepted March 3, 2014.
- © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.


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ISTANBUL – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia), the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) in Germany, and the World Health Organization (WHO Regional Office for Europe) are jointly developing a series of policy briefs on sexuality education.
The first two issues have now been released and answer the questions:
- And what is the impact of sexuality education?
The policy briefs are targeted to politicians and other decision-makers, primarily in Europe and Central Asia, and provide them with comprehensive information on different issues regarding sexuality education. As an advocacy tool, the policy briefs promote good-quality sexuality education as an effective life-course intervention which supports children and young people in protecting their sexual health and general well-being.
Policy brief No. 1 provides background information on the history, the benefits and the rights-based approach of sexuality education and further discusses myths and facts in this field. It argues that children and young people can greatly benefit from good-quality sexuality education which is age- and development appropriate.
Policy brief No. 2 summarizes the scientific evidence regarding the impact of sexuality education on the sexual health and well-being of children and young people. In this regard, it explores public-health-related indicators such as the reduction of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, but also so-called "soft outcomes" of sexuality education, such as the development of a positive attitude towards sexuality as well as skills in communication, decision-making and critical thinking.
Both policy briefs are available for download:
And hard copies can be ordered from BZgA's website.


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HOUSTON – The inaugural Miami Beach Bowl will debut on Dec. 22 at 2 p.m. ET at Marlins Park. It will be broadcast on ESPN, according to American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco.
"We're pretty excited about it," Aresco said Thursday while in attendance at TDECU Stadium in Houston for the conference opener between UCF and Houston.
"If BYU doesn't end up playing in a New Year's game, they are already committed to that bowl game. We'll send one of our good teams down there to play."
The AAC created the bowl game and is running the event.
"The stadium is beautiful – Marlins Park – it will hold about 30,000 to 35,000...


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This Is Me Program
The Heritage Camp experience has historically contributed to adopted children's' positive sense of self
by creating opportunities for them to interact with community members from their birth culture during camp and offering programming that enhances their identity including HeART Talks™, and More Than Me™.
The This is Me™ program at Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families, is a unique set of activities developed for high school teens that seek to assist each of them in development of a positive bicultural identity. The need to establish a bicultural identity emerges most strongly for adopted youth during adolescence and young adulthood. This sense of self or "identity" is multi-faceted and very personal for each one of them. It is not simple, but beautifully complex, having both pieces of their birth culture and experiences of themselves often living in homes and communities that are not of their same culture or race.
Why is "This is Me™" Important?
In November of 2009, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute published a groundbreaking study titled, "Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity formation in Adoption." Several recommendations from this report are worth noting by parents, counselors and educators, but we agree with that there is a need for not only strategies that promote cultural socialization, but experiences that give adoptees additional support on "racial and cultural identification, and comfort" (p. 8).
Pam Sweetser, HCAF Executive Director, has found through her many years of experience with internationally adopted children, and as a parent of young adult adoptees herself, it is common for them to continue to struggle with issues around identity, even as they move into young adulthood. Adoptees have told her that they feel different: not like the people they have met from their birth country, and not like people they know who were born in the United States. Pam believes that our task as parents and educators is to help them explore how they are uniquely from two cultures: an identity that needs to be defined by each of them in the context of support from other adoptees, parents, and loved ones during their Heritage Camp experience.
When Pam shared this opinion and these findings with our Cultural Advisory Board, one of its members, Fran Campbell of the Filipino-American community, took action. She used her expertise in working with adolescents and young adults in various professional settings to develop our trademark This is Me™ program for our high school campers. At each camp, members of the appropriate cultural community lead these workshops with Fran at the helm, to ask and answer culturally specific questions, find out what makes a culture what it is, talk about how and where our adoptees can fit in, and role play situations they may encounter as they leave the relative safety of home and community to go to college, or into the work environment, etc.
This is Me™ has been a valuable way for our cultural community members to interact with the high school campers that is honest and meaningful, sharing their own experiences growing up in another culture and trying to fit in. There are many similarities that have nothing to do with being adopted, but simply with being of another race or culture than the majority. The positive outcomes of this program have proven to be many, mostly by giving the high school campers the tools to find ways to truly belong to their cultural communities if they so choose.


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Hello there,
My name is Debs and I am a writer, traveller and fitness-goer from the UK.
I began this blog back in 2013 as a means of talking about my international backpacking adventures. Travel changed my life – it brought me more confidence, happiness and independence than I can say. I wanted to share my stories and advice as a means of encouraging others to embark on their own travel dreams.
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A writer and Political Science graduate hailing from the Devon countryside in the UK, Deborah is a twenty five year old who has just returned home after a two-year-long Round The World Trip.
Beginning in May 2013, despite having huge reservations about leaving Merry and Pippin (her two ragdoll cats) behind, she made the jump to travel by herself through Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, New York, California and Fiji.
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Towards the end of 2014 Deborah moved to Melbourne, Australia, where she worked as a freelance writer and farm worker. She remains confused by both Melbourne's ever-changing weather and the Aussie's preference for "pots" and "schooners" over pints.
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