text:
Effects of Lithium and Divalproex`on Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Huntington's Disease
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00095355
Recruitment Status : Completed
First Posted : November 3, 2004
Last Update Posted : March 4, 2008
- Study Details
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- How to Read a Study Record
This study will examine whether lithium carbonate, given alone or with divalproex, increases the amount of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the spinal fluid of patients with Huntington's disease (HD), a hereditary disorder of the central nervous system. Patients with this fatal degenerative disease have lower amounts of substances in the brain and spinal fluid called trophic or growth factors. One of these factors is BDNF. A possible treatment for HD may be to increase the levels of BDNF. Lithium carbonate, a drug used to treat bipolar disorder, and divalproex, a drug used to treat mood disorders and seizure disorders, have both been shown to increase the amount of BDNF protein in laboratory studies.
Patients 18 to 70 years old with a DNA-confirmed diagnosis of Huntington's disease may be eligible for this study. Candidates are screened with a medical history and physical examination, neurological evaluation, blood and urine tests, and electrocardiogram (EKG).
Participants take lithium carbonate with and without divalproex. They also receive placebo (an inactive substance) for portions of the study. On the first day of the study, patients are given a supply of pills with instructions on how to take them. Blood pressure and pulse are measured, and blood and urine tests may be done. Patients are evaluated with standardized tests and scales for assessment of various aspects of HD.
Patients return to the clinic once a week for follow-up evaluations, including blood and urine tests, physical examinations, disease assessments, and a review of medication side effects. Each week, they receive a new supply of medications and instructions on how to take them. At the end of the sixth week, they finish taking the medications.
During the study, patients undergo three lumbar punctures (spinal taps) - at weeks 2, 4, and 6 - to measure BDNF and various other brain chemicals. For this test, a local anesthetic is given and a needle is inserted in the space between the bones in the lower back where the CSF circulates below the spinal cord. A small amount of fluid is collected through the needle. The procedure generally takes from 5 to 20 minutes.
Patients return to the clinic 2 weeks after completing the study medication for a final evaluation, including a physical examination and blood and urine tests.
|Condition or disease
|Huntington's Disease
|Drug: Lithium Drug: Divalproex
|Phase 2
Objective: The overall objective of this study is to examine the acute effects of lithium alone and/ or in combination with divalproex on markers of neuroprotective activity in patients with Huntington's disease (HD). It is hypothesized that at safe and tolerable doses these drugs will enhance depleted levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a neurotrophin which is necessary for the survival of striatal neurons.
Study population: Patients suffering from Huntington's disease will be study participants.
Design: The acute effects of lithium and divalproex on surrogate measures of neuroprotective activity will be evaluated in up to 24 HD patients. The study, lasting approximately 6 weeks, will be conducted on an outpatient basis.
Outcome measures: In this proof-of-principle study, efficacy in restoring BDNF concentrations will be assessed through cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) measurements. Safety will be monitored by means of frequent clinical evaluations and laboratory test.
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Enrollment :
|35 participants
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|Stimulation of Tyrosine Kinase and ERK Signaling Pathways in Huntington's Disease
|Study Start Date :
|October 2004
|Study Completion Date :
|March 2005
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|Child, Adult, Older Adult
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
- Subject is between the ages of 18 and 70 (inclusive);
- Subject will have a diagnosis of HD confirmed by DNA testing [prior to enrollment into the study].
- Only those subjects will be eligible, who with or without a caregiver, can be assumed to be able to comply with study requirements and to report on their condition by telephone.
- Subjects with minimental status examination score of greater than and equal to 24.
Patients meeting any of the following exclusion criteria during screening or during the study will not be immediately excluded from the study, as appropriate:
- Patient has a history of any medical condition such as diabetes, cardiac disease, renal impairment, liver disease, pancreatitis and other chronic medical problems that can reasonably be expected to subject the patient to unwarranted risk;
- Patient has clinically significant laboratory abnormalities that would preclude administration of lithium and divalproex;
- Patient is taking a prohibited concomitant medication;
- Patient has not been using an adequate contraceptive method for the last 30 days or unwilling to continue contraception throughout the study, or is not at least one year post menopausal (if female);
- Patient is pregnant or breastfeeding;
- Patient has participated in a clinical study with an investigational drug within the last 30 days;
- Patient has a condition (such as active drug or alcohol abuse) that, in the opinion of the investigators, would interfere with compliance or safety;
- Patient has known hypersensitivity to lithium or divalproex;
- Patients inability to swallow tablets or to comply with medication schedule;
- Patient and / or caregiver are unwilling to sign an informed consent or to comply with protocol requirements;
- Patient is unwilling to have lumbar puncture.
- Patient with history of severe depression, or past suicide attemps.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00095355
|United States, Maryland
|National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
|Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00095355 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|First Posted:
|November 3, 2004 Key Record Dates
|Last Update Posted:
|March 4, 2008
|Last Verified:
|March 2005
Keywords provided by National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC):
Huntington Disease
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Huntington Disease
Basal Ganglia Diseases
Brain Diseases
Central Nervous System Diseases
Nervous System Diseases
Movement Disorders
Heredodegenerative Disorders, Nervous System
Neurodegenerative Diseases
Genetic Diseases, Inborn
Cognition Disorders
Neurocognitive Disorders
Mental Disorders
Lithium Carbonate
Antidepressive Agents
Psychotropic Drugs
Enzyme Inhibitors
Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action
Antimanic Agents
Tranquilizing Agents
Central Nervous System Depressants
Physiological Effects of Drugs

subset: commoncrawl


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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State men's lacrosse program recently donated $2,940 to the Wounded Warrior Project. The Nittany Lions teamed with Penn State Ability Athletics head coach Teri Jordan to raise the money and submit the donation.
During the March 23 home game against Saint Joseph's, Penn State had Sean Hook and Nate DeWalt honored. Hook is a retired member of the Army and a Purple Heart recipient who competed in the National Warrior Games this past May in Colorado. DeWalt earned the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and participated in this year's World Triathalon Games.
The Nittany Lions sold Wounded Warrior t-shirts at the St. Joe's game for $20 apiece with all proceeds going to the Wounded Warriors. When all the shirts weren't sold that day, the booster club, PSU parent group and Intercollegiate Athletics stepped up and sold the rest of the shirts shortly after to help raise the funds for the donation.
The Nittany Lions are proud supporters of the Wounded Warrior Project, which strives "to foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in our nation's history," according to the Project's website. Additionally, the WWP's stated purpose is "to raise awareness and enlist the public's aid for the needs of injured service members; to help injured service members aid and assist each other; to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet the needs of injured service members."
Penn State men's lacrosse produced one of its most successful seasons ever in 2013, winning a school-record 12 games and earning its third NCAA postseason berth while hosting both the CAA and NCAA Tournaments.


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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese electronics company NEC Corp's talks with Lenovo Group Ltd over a mobile phone venture have stalled due to disagreements over majority ownership and patents, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The Nikkei business newspaper reported that NEC planned to exit its loss-making smartphone business after a mobile phone deal with Lenovo, already a partner in the personal computer business, failed to materialize.
The source said NEC was still considering several options, including talks with a potential partner other than Lenovo, or halting the development of new smartphones and focusing on its existing lines of feature phones.
NEC and Lenovo declined to comment.
China's Lenovo Group, the world's No.2 PC maker has been examining partnerships and acquisitions to expand in high-growth markets such as smartphones, tablets and enterprise computing, spurred by a decline in PC shipments.
NEC had been in talks with Lenovo since early this year on a possible sale or tie-up involving its mobile unit, NEC Casio Mobile Communications Ltd, according to media reports and a source familiar with the discussions.
NEC holds 70 percent of the unit, in which Hitachi Ltd also holds a stake.
NEC, once a major player in Japan's mobile phone market, has seen its market share slip to about 5 percent.
NEC's shares ended 4.8 percent higher at 242 yen after the Nikkei report, their highest in more than six weeks, compared with a 0.1 percent rise in the benchmark Nikkei average. Lenovo's Hong Kong-listed shares rose 0.7 percent. ($1 = 99.2850 Japanese yen)
Reporting by Maki Shiraki in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Rohit T K in Bangalore; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Louise Heavens


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The graphic below appeared in the May 25th issue of Al-Risala, a Hamas weekly newspaper:
Israel National News reports:
The Statue of Liberty, also known as Lady Liberty, is an internationally-recognized American symbol of freedom and democracy. Such ideas are an anathema to the PA; at a rally in March 2006, the newspaper Al-Hayat Al Jadida accused the West of "trying to penetrate Islamic youth with dubious things such as the ideas of democracy".
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Al-Quds and Al-Ayam newspapers have all pictured Lady Liberty as a terrorist, an arsonist burning down the world, a prostitute, and a prisoner of U.S. security agencies, among others.
For reasons that are hard to understand, quite a few Americans seem to have lost the most basic ability to distinguish between friends and enemies.


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Academic Affairs
The Office of Academic Affairs
The Office of Academic Affairs, headed by the Vice President for Academic Affairs, is charged with the management of the College Division of New Mexico Tech, which includes all faculty members and Academic Departments, the Dean of Graduate Studies and the Center for Graduate Studies, the Dean of Engineering, the Dean of Arts and Sciences, the Registrar, Skeen Library, Academic Center for Technology (ACT), Community Education and Outreach Program, and Veteran Affairs.
Mission Statement
The Office of Academic Affairs serves as the locus for both faculty and students, helps to ensure the primacy of the institution's educational responsibilities, and supports faculty and students in their contributions to scholarship, creativity, research, design and the discovery of knowledge appropriate to the institution's mission.
The Office of Academic Affairs facilitates student learning and success through the following activities:
- supervises student academic programs and academic support offices;
- serves in the appeal process for any student academic policy or concern;
- oversees responsible student academic conduct;
- leads student learning initiatives, their assessment and, when needed, revision;
- collaborates with Student and University Relations in co-curricular support programs and with Research and Economic Development for support in research opportunities;
- collaborates with all offices for initiatives to expand retention, persistence and completion.
The Office of Academic Affairs supports faculty development and success through the following activities:
- upholds academic freedom, freedom of expression, and shared governance while maintaining accountability to our students and other constituents and to our accrediting and regulating organizations;
- supports regional, national and international conference participation;
- provides and supports on-campus pedagogical workshops;
- encourages academic departments in strategic planning for their programs;
- advises the management of academic departments and academic programs;
- advises all other matters related to faculty responsibilities.
What does FERPA mean for parents and students? See FERPA.
Facts & Figures
Macey Scholars
CONGRATULATIONS 2015 Macey Scholars!
Tobias Burger, Jared Canright, Andrew Hunt, Kevin Reed, and William Sullivan
Read about each of the 2015 Macey Scholars
The complete list of Macey Scholars throughout the years.
Distinguished Researcher Award
Congratulations to Dr. Mark Person, recipient of 2016's
Distinguished Researcher Award
Read more about Dr. Person's Research and award here.
Distinguished Teaching Award
Congratulations to Dr. Kevin Kirk, recipient of 2016's Distinguished Teaching Award
Click here for the full article on Dr. Kirks's award.
Distinguished Teaching Award Winners
- 2016 - Kevin Kirk, Biology
- 2015 - Mehrdad Razavi, Mineral Engineering
- 2014 - Michael Riley, Chemical Engineering
- 2013 - Nadir Yilmaz, Mechanical Engineering
- 2012 - Frank Huang, Environmental Engineering
- 2011 - Maggie Griffin-Taylor, Communication, Liberal Arts, and Social Sciences
- 2010 - Paul Arendt, Physics
- 2009 - Jeff Altig, Chemistry
- 2008 - Gilbert Kerr, Mathematic
- 2007 - Warren Ostergren, Mechanical Engineering
- 2006 - Al Smoake, Biology
- 2005 - Clint Richardson, Environmental Engineering
- 2004 - Robert Cormack, Psychology
- 2003 - Carl Popp, Chemistry
- 2002 - Mark Cal, Environmental Engineering
- 2001 - Donald Weinkauf, Chemical Engineering
- 2000 - Deidre Hirschfeld, Materials Engineering
- 1999 - Emily Nye, Communication, Liberal Arts, and Social Sciences
- 1998 - Ken Minschwaner, Physics
- 1997 - Paul Fuierer, Materials Engineering
- 1996 - Laurel Goodwin, Earth Sciences
- 1995 - William Rison, Electrical Engineering
- 1994 - Nicholas Haddad, Electrical Engineering
- 1993 - John McCoy, Materials Engineering
- 1992 - William Stone, Mathematics
- 1991 - David Westpfahl, Physics
- 1990 - Frank Etscorn, Psychology
- 1989 - William X. Chavez, Jr., Mineral Engineering
- 1988 - Ross Lomanitz, Physics
- 1987 - Alan Gutjahr, Mathematics
- 1986 - Howard Sylvester, Communication, Liberal Arts, and Social Sciences
801 Leroy Place | Socorro, New Mexico 87801 | Phone: (575) 835-5227 | Fax: (575) 835-5649 | Email: Academic Affairs


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Big IT firms such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro are expected to announce strong earnings for the July- September quarter, helped by a steep decline of the rupee against the US dollar and improved demand for outsourcing services, say analysts.
They also expect strong volume growth for companies, supported by the improving demand scenario.
"Volumes for the top 4 companies are expected to rise by 2.5-4 per cent, organically. Margins are expected to improve quarter-on-quarter, largely on the back of rupee depreciation.
This is despite salary increments (in select cases)," Kotak Securities Head of Private Client Group Research Dipen Shah said in a report.
Infosys will kick-off the quarterly earnings seasons on October 11, followed by Tata Consultancy Services on October 15 and HCL Technologies on October 17. Wipro is yet to announce the date for second quarter financial results.
The July-September quarter has been volatile, with the rupee depreciating about 11 per cent Q-o-Q against the dollar, on an average basis.
According to analysts, while 1 per cent drop in exchange rate boosts operating margins of top exporters by over 30-35 basis points, the extent of benefit depends upon the companies' hedging policies.
A report by Angel Broking said the revenue growth in rupee terms is expected to be in the range of 13.5-16.5 per cent Q-o-Q for tier-I IT companies.
IDBI Capital said in its results preview: "We expect volume growth to pick up in Q2 against the backdrop of modest acceleration in US economy along with improvement in decision making cycle. We forecast 2.2-5 per cent US dollar revenue growth for Top-5 IT companies in Q2."
Traditionally, Q2 is good for IT companies because of the strong budget flush that happens before close of the annual capex cycle by clients. IT companies are expected to witness budget flush from clients on discretionary, operational and capital spending.
"For tier-II companies, we expect volume growth to be modest at 2.0-5.5 per cent Q-o-Q...dollar revenue growth is expected to be 1.5-5 per cent Q-o-Q," Angel Broking said.
It added that with the rupee depreciating sharply against the dollar, IT companies are expected to deploy the gains towards sales and marketing, mitigation of impact of the Immigration bill and investments in new service lines.
TCS is expected to lead the tier-I pack with 4.3 per cent Q-o-Q dollar revenue growth, while Infosys is also likely to see a good quarter with 4.1 per cent Q-o-Q revenue growth, Kotak Institutional Equities said in its quarterly technology report.


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Posted on Jan 22, 2016
Senior Super Foods and Live In Senior Care
We have all heard the saying that "you are what you eat". We have learned that the better foods we eat, the better we will feel. This is why it is important that we aim for low-fat, whole ingredients, and fresh food items to incorporate into our meal planning. Eating properly and healthfully is the best way to maintain a healthy weight as well as the other many benefits of avoiding processed and fatty junk foods.
Fresh and minimally processed are best when compared to other choices, but there are also senior super foods that an elderly loved one can eat that will boost their health in many ways. Fruits and vegetables are so good for our senior loved ones, and there really aren't any bad ones to choose from. Apples, pears and blueberries are especially great sources of fiber and vitamin C. Some delicious and healthiest vegetables like broccoli, asparagus and squash are great senior super foods. These vegetables are great for lowering cholesterol and adding vitamins to the diet. Asparagus is a good source of iron and protein and broccoli offers many vitamins including A, C, folate, and potassium. Eye health and immune system boosts are the reasons why asparagus and broccoli are senior super foods. Beans are another senior super food that is high in fiber, protein, calcium and vitamins. These super foods pack in more antioxidants per bite than any other fruit or vegetable.
There are some grains that can be included in the list of senior super foods. Oatmeal when cooked is generally low in calories and provides high fiber, protein, iron and other minerals. Oatmeal is a senior super food that will lower cholesterol. Another option to add as a dinner side is quinoa. Quinoa is a senior super food that can substitute pasta, rice, and other types of grains. This super food is full of protein, antioxidants, mineral, high fiber, and is also gluten free.
When looking for meal options that include senior super foods, remember to keep salmon in mind. This super food is high in omega 3 fatty acids that can reduce the risk of heart attack and lower blood pressure. This protein is also low in fat and can be cooked in many ways to take on many flavors that will tickle the taste buds.
Coffee and tea are great senior super foods and also tasty drinks to start the morning with breakfast. Coffee also has the ability to protect the heart and prevent respiratory disease, injuries, stroke and infections. Black tea is beneficial as protection from various cancers and helps to boost the immune system. Both coffee and black tea have been shown to protect against various diseases like Alzheimer's disease.
There are many senior super foods that are great for protecting our loved one's health. We can find ways to incorporate these foods into daily eating without having to change one's diet drastically.
If you would like to learn more about caring and consistent in home care for seniors, along with the many benefits of professional live in care for the elderly, or dementia and Alzheimer's care, call Senior Helpers of Fountain Valley to speak to a senior care specialist today 714-593-1177! The compassionate senior care specialists at Senior Helpers can also guide you through the process of receiving the Veterans Administration Aid and Attendance Benefit if your elderly loved one is a veteran. In home senior care allows your loved one to stay in the comforts of their own home for as long as possible while receiving the level of care they need. Senior Helpers of Fountain Valley provides a wide range of services including Alzheimer's and dementia care, personal assistance, companionship, and so much more to all areas of Orange County, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Newport Beach, Sunset Beach, Surfside, Aliso Viejo, Corona Del Mar, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Mission Viejo, Newport Coast, California.


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In the long run, it doesn't matter whether you believe the tragic story of Dylan Farrow, who alleges that her father Woody Allen sexually assaulted her 20 years ago when she was 7 years old.
Nor does it matter whether you believe Woody Allen, who was never charged with a crime, and who has steadfastly maintained his innocence.
This scandal is and will remain a case study in frustration. We will never know for sure what happened. And yet our impulse is to take sides.
But to what end?
To deprive Woody Allen of another Oscar, when he already has won four?
To let other victims of sexual abuse know that the world takes them seriously despite the fact that these charges were taken very seriously indeed when they first arose?
On Saturday, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof gave over his well-read blog to Dylan Farrow, providing her a powerful platform from which to chastise Hollywood for its embrace of a man she says victimized her. (He also devoted his Sunday print column to the story.) For years, Kristof has exposed the plights of victimized girls the world over, and I admire him for that. His disclosure that he is personal friends with Dylan's brother Ronan Farrow, and their mother, Mia Farrow, casts a slight conflict-of-interest tinge over this story. But that is a minor point.
Kristof wrote that it was time for Dylan Farrow to have her say, since Allen was honored last month with a Golden Globes lifetime achievement award, and may win an Oscar in March for "Blue Jasmine":
Look, none of us can be certain what happened. The standard to send someone to prison is guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but shouldn't the standard to honor someone be that they are unimpeachably, well, honorable?
Yet the Golden Globes sided with Allen, in effect accusing Dylan either of lying or of not mattering. That's the message that celebrities in film, music and sports too often send to abuse victims.
That last sentence is indisputable. But honoring Allen is certainly not the equivalent of accusing Dylan of lying or not mattering, and it is disingenuous to suggest so. In 1993, Dylan's accusations were taken very seriously by her mother, by doctors, by prosecutors. Allen was investigated for months and prosecutors chose not to file charges.
Also, Dylan Farrow has had her say, and she has had it very recently. Only four months ago, Vanity Fair published a long profile of Mia Farrow and her children by Maureen Orth. In that piece, Dylan recounted her allegations against Allen in detail, and her enduring trauma, including the death of her 19-year-old sister Tam in 2000.
With the Golden Globes in the rearview mirror, the scandal has been revived again in time for the Oscars. It seems to be the culmination of a Farrow family plan to destroy or at least tarnish the man they blame for blowing up their family, first by allegedly sexually abusing Dylan, then by taking Mia Farrow's daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, into his bed in 1991, when she was 19 and he was 56. I can't blame the Farrows for loathing Allen.
In her open letter, Dylan Farrow wrote that Allen's Oscar nomination felt like a personal rebuke, as if the world were telling her that what she said happened did not happen. She wonders how Allen's stars, like Alec Baldwin and Cate Blanchett, would feel if it were their daughters Allen had been accused of molesting. (Both stars, when asked, refused to take sides, insisting it is a family matter.)
Farrow came forward again, she wrote, to give hope to other victims of sexual abuse:
Last week, Woody Allen was nominated for his latest Oscar. But this time, I refuse to fall apart. For so long, Woody Allen's acceptance silenced me. It felt like a personal rebuke, like the awards and accolades were a way to tell me to shut up and go away. But the survivors of sexual abuse who have reached out to me -- to support me and to share their fears of coming forward, of being called a liar, of being told their memories aren't their memories -- have given me a reason to not be silent, if only so others know that they don't have to be silent either.
Coming forward again may empower Dylan Farrow, 28, in as much as it puts unsavory accusations against Woody Allen front and center at a time when Oscar voters are casting ballots.
And perhaps, as she suggests, her forthrightness will inspire other victims of sexual abuse to come forward, or seek help. Children who have been sexually abused need support, and more important, they need to be believed by those who matter most to them. At some point, they will have to confront the reality of whether molestation can be proved, prosecuted and punished.
The task of the victim, particularly in a murky case such as this one, is to find a way to move forward, to heal the wounds, to seek emotional health.
If your chosen path is to keep the accusations alive, and your family friend is a sympathetic New York Times columnist, more power to you. But Allen has powerful and articulate defenders as well.
Dylan Farrow should be free to raise as much hell as she wants about Hollywood honoring the man she says abused her when she was a defenseless child. But she surely understands that no accused molester who maintains his innocence -- and who has never been charged with a crime -- is going to sit idle while his name and reputation are being trashed. On Sunday, through a representative, Allen called her open letter "untrue and disgraceful."
I earnestly believe that the contours of Farrow's life are not going to change one bit if Woody Allen wins another Oscar. His disdain for awards is legendary and, at 78, his place in Hollywood history is already assured.
If Farrow's goal is to make sure the asterisk about Allen's personal life never goes away, she's succeeded at her task.


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TULSA, Okla. – Duke rallied to beat Southern California by two strokes Friday for its sixth NCAA women's golf title, and the Trojans' Doris Chen took the individual championship.
Duke, two strokes down on the back nine after taking a six-shot lead over Southern California into the final round, had a 6-under 274 total at Tulsa Country Club to finish at 10-over 1,130. The Trojans, the winner last year, shot 10-under 270.
"To have this special group of people fall behind against a team like USC, knowing what they've done in the last several years and that they were getting their momentum, to get those birdies and come back ... I can't imagine one of the other championships being better," said Duke Coach Dan Brooks.
Brooks also led the Blue Devils to titles in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007. The hail-shortened 1999 event also was played at Tulsa Country Club.
Chen closed with a 3-under 67 for a two-stroke victory over Duke's Celine Boutier. Chen finished at 6-under 274. Boutier, tied with Chen for the third-round lead, shot 69.
UCLA was third at 25 over, followed by Oklahoma at 27 over and Arizona State at 30 over.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE: Follow the NCAA finals with PGA.com and NCAA.com
Duke got some help when Chen, 5 under through her first 10 holes, double-bogeyed the 11th. That combined with a run of Duke birdies to give the Blue Devils the lead for good.
Laetitia Beck and Alejandro Cangrejo matched Boutier at 68, and Sandy Choi shot 69. Those four combined for 11 birdies on the back nine. Yu Liu's 72 didn't count in Duke's total.
Sophia Popov led top-ranked Southern California with a 65. Kyung Kim matched Chen with a 67, and 2013 NCAA champion Annie Park and Karen Chung shot 71.
"We had not played the front nine well, but today we got it figured out," Trojans Coach Andrea Gaston said. "We definitely had a chance and had the momentum. But Duke has an incredible team and they did not bow down to our charge. They put up some great scores and really shot well on the back nine."
Chen made a 45-foot downhill birdie putt on the fifth hole, and rolled in a short birdie putt on the 10th to reach 5 under, but hit her second shot over the green on the par-4 11th and couldn't get on the green with her third.
"The putts were falling early today and that really relaxed me," Chen said. "I didn't stress at all until the final four or five holes."


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We all know that "you get what you pay for," but what if you could get more? A cheap paint job doesn't have to be bad if you spend the time to make it right before the paint goes on. If you want to make your budget paint look good, you'll want to pay att
There's no such thing as a cheap paint job. Well, there is, but you wouldn't want to own it. So the challenge is to get the most affordable paint possible that still lets you show your face at the dragstrip or cruise night, and to do it with a minimum of skill.
That was exactly the scenario with our '77 Nova, a new project that we'll build into a reliable foot-brake bracket racer that runs in the low 12s, thereby avoiding the rollbar requirement for now. We'll grow the project from there, testing the tricks you want to know about and telling you every secret along the way. We hope to someday make the Disco Nova run low 9s to high 8s for sanctioned heads-up street racing. Along the way we'll find the best deals on new parts and throw in some good finds from the swap meets, junkyards, and eBayMotors.com. If you think it's too expensive, it's because this one won't be a total hose-clamp-trans-mount dirtball project, or because you've got sticker shock over the fact that we'll always show you every little price of the parts and supplies we used, and there will be no "we had this sitting around, so count it as free" hokum. This is real. So real, in fact, that we were shocked how a basic $499 paint job quickly turned into an $1,800 investment when you add up all the knickknacks. And it's not like this is over the top; it would have been easy to spend another couple grand. For $1,800 you only get an average paint job these days unless you have the equipment to spray the paint yourself, and our point here is to see what can be accomplished by an average guy with a minimum of skill.
You're insane. Why are you wasting your time with that thing? No one cares"
Matt King
Also, when we spend money on stuff, we'll tell you exactly why we make the decisions we do. Like those new Mickey Thompson wheels-we were going to repaint some old rallys, but they weren't bright enough for the cover. The M/Ts totally make the look of the car, but we'll be a bit more practical than that to start. We'll bolt the rally wheels back on for the first few dragstrip stages of the project, then bring back the M/Ts later to see if the lightweight wheels can earn their keep.
The beauty of the third-generation X-bodies ('75-'79 Novas, Olds Omegas, Pontiac Venturas, and Buick Skylarks) is that they use front suspension like a second-gen Camaro/Firebird and rear suspension like a '67-'74 Camaro/Nova. That means you can get suspension parts galore, and the stock 8.5-inch 10-bolt rearend is lightweight and can be made bulletproof enough for our needs. A big-block fits more easily than in earlier Novas, and we can rob the frame mounts from 403 and 400 Trans Ams so we can stab Olds and Pontiac mills into the Disco. We already got mounts from a junkyard '76 Ventura with a Buick 350, so we can try Buick power too. Since the Nova has no collectibility whatsoever, we have no shame about gutting, drilling, welding, and hacking to make it a race car.
It makes the perfect Car Craft flog unit-with the tiny exception that it's still a '77 Nova. Third-gen X-bodies have a small following (see novaresource.org), but we've taken heat from people who think our Nova is just too grotesque to take seriously as a magazine project. With a production-shop repaint made better by lots of do-it-yourself prep work, plus some well-placed graphics and wheels, we've changed a lot of minds. Even staff naysayers are quipping, "ya know, this might not be that bad . . . if it's fast." And we'll get to that next month.
How about you? Tell us your thoughts on Disco Nova by e-mailing email@example.com or hitting the forums at CarCraft.com.
"Wow. This car almost looks worth owning!"
Terry McGean
It's an obvious but crucial point: The straighter the car is going in, the sharper it will be coming out. One of the best points about our '77 Nova was that, despite having rear-ended a semi-truck, it was pretty straight except for stuff we could unbolt anyway. It also only seemed to have one paint job on top of the original. The less old, flaking paint, the less the need to strip the car to bare metal. Another point that made it a good candidate for a budget repaint was that we only needed it to be average, and we were only willing to put a few day's worth of time into our own prep work. Unless you have a lot more time, patience, and skill, a production-shop repaint is probably best for a car you're not deeply in love with. Even so, ours came out surprisingly well.
DISSASEMBLE AS MUCH AS YOU CANOne thing that makes production paint jobs cheaper than custom paint is that production shops take virtually nothing off the car, masking it off instead. However, that doesn't stop you from removing as much as you can. The result will be better detail in the crevices, less random overspray, fewer masking lines that can lead to flaking, and better prep of the edges. Remove bumpers, lights, trim, door handles, outside mirrors, and lock cylinders. We also torched off our cool receiver hitch.
Now's your chance to lose tacky trim. Our Nova was the ghastly Concours edition, and since the grille was gone, we took the chance to convert it to a base Nova; that meant changing the fender extensions, the valance, the headlight buckets, the grille brackets, and the grille itself. We also changed hoods to avoid filling the big hole from the swanky Concours hood ornament. Additionally, we tore off the bright trim around the side-window frames. That trim is virtually impossible to get on and off without destroying it, and leaving it on means tons of masking that will lead to unpainted edges or flaking. We chucked it all.
It's tempting to just mask the front and rear window trim, but don't. Shops often mask the trim by cutting the tape around the edges with a razor blade, invariably cutting through the old paint. That leaves a perfect place for rust to start, and budget paint almost always starts flaking around the windows first. The solution is to remove the trim and carefully sand the edges. This clip tool can be purchased at Pep Boys, and replacement trim clips are available at Classic Industries.
If you're having the jambs painted, remove all the trim around them: sills, front kick panels, headliner-retaining trim, and rear door panels. Otherwise you'll either get paint on your trim or masked edges that show through to the old color. If new weatherstrip is available for your car, make sure to take all of the old stuff out too.
Lose anything with the potential to blow dust or dirt into the paint when the car is being sprayed. A good example is the hideous and likely cancer-causing underhood mat. When the hood is propped up for the jambs, this thing will send shreds of nastiness all over the fenders. Toss it.
Many people ignore the dirtiest part of the car when prepping for paint: the rockers. Ours looked like it had been doing burnouts in 90-weight. Scraping, Scotch-Briting, and degreasing should be a priority. The cleaner the underside of the car, the less dirt will end up in the paint. Scrub the inner fenderwells too, and make sure to thoroughly sand the fender lips.
In places where two body parts bolt together, such as these fender extensions, leave them unbolted enough to allow about an 11/48-inch gap. It will help you sand the edges more thoroughly and get paint all the way around the corners. With parts bolted up snug, paint can fill the crevice, leading to a cheap look and eventual flaking.
You might say you're scared of paint work and would prefer someone else to do it so you don't butcher your car. However, no matter how deep your fear of body filler, we've found that nearly anyone can fix door dings easily. Do it.
They say you shouldn't fill trim holes with body filler because it will shrink and pop out, but in our experience, the newer fiberglass-reinforced fillers will hold tight in an 11/48-inch hole virtually forever. If you're a novice, it's better than warping the panel with a welder and a grinder. Just fill small holes with Everglass (or similar), then sand with 80-grit, smooth with body glaze, and finally smooth it all with 180-grit.
Once the car is as disassembled as it gets and all the dents you can fix are repaired, sand forever with 180-grit, which is as fine as you want to go for the primer to stick well. The photo shows us at 5:30 a.m. after we'd been rubbing on the car for 12-plus hours. And we could have used more. The more you're willing to sand, the straighter the car will be and the fewer flaws you'll find. Use longboards on big surfaces and Popsicle sticks to get into the tiny crevices. Body glaze may be needed on areas where you sand through to bare metal, especially if the car has a lot of old paint jobs on it.
When you're done, there are likely to be some dents that you don't want to tackle. If you want the shop to fix a dent, make sure to mark it with a pen (or better, with masking tape), then take a picture to document the dent (to prove that you asked for it to be fixed in case they don't do it). Production shops will only fix dents that are specifically requested to be fixed, and you'll pay an hourly rate for them to do it.
When all the sanding is done, blow off the car with compressed air if you've got it, focusing on all the little crevices. Next, wash it for as long as you can, cleaning everything and then blowing it out again with air. However, make sure not to use car-wash soap, which usually contains silicone for shine. In fact, the longer you can keep silicone products off the car before it gets painted the better. Do all your scrubbing with dish soap.
If there's anything you really, really want to keep paint off of, mask it yourself. This window felt is a good example of something that is a pain to change but looks terrible if it gets color on it. Pull it back with the masking tape as far as you can to avoid old color showing at the masked edge. Masking your engine is also a good idea, since it's bound to get fogged in overspray.
While the car will certainly get handled quite a bit before it goes in the booth, we figure the best chance to reduce fisheyes in the paint is to degrease the surfaces as much as you can yourself. It will get done again at the shop, but why not be thorough?
There's no chance you'll escape the paint shop without at least some overspray on your tires and wheels. Bolt on some throwaways before you take the car in to be painted.
When you're going for cheap paint, your budget and your bodywork partially dictate the color. We took heavy advice from John Chohlis at the 1 Day Paint & Body in Torrance, California, where we took the Nova. A repaint of the same color is always safe, since chips will show less than if you, for example, painted a yellow car black. You can also choose a color of the same general tone as the base paint for the same reason. If your bodywork is really bad, then white and bright yellow are always safe bets, since they reflect the most light. Dark colors are the worst when it comes to revealing body flaws, and we think metallics can look bad if you don't step up to a basecoat/clearcoat process. We ultimately chose '04 Ford Zinc Yellow, partially to hide our mediocre dent repair, partially so it would be easy to buy touch-up paint, and partially in tribute to the long-lost Car Craft Cheap Street Chevelle. We had the car sprayed with regular single-stage paint but added a clearcoat so we could color-sand it later. A true basecoat/clearcoat system would have cost much more.
When your project comes home there's bound to be overspray all over the inner fenderwells and on the undercarriage. Ours was not nearly as bad as expected, and the shop had blackened out behind the grille for us. We still spent a few cans of VHT semigloss black to kill the misplaced yellow.
Remember how we told you to leave some gaps between unboltable body parts? Some of those gaps will end up filled with thick paint. Before the paint fully cures (before it gets brittle), carefully slice those gaps apart with a razor blade before bolting the parts back together. Be careful that the paint is not so soft that it deforms as the parts cinch up.
If there's excess paint on the rubber trim or glass, flake it off with a knife or razor. Wait a few days for the paint to harden and it gets easier.
We had so much excess paint near the passenger-door gap that it dripped down the edge. We probably could have color-sanded the drip, but instead we opened the door, the edges touched, and we got a big chip. At least we can touch it up, but we should have set the gap bigger before we took the car to be painted.
The paint on our Nova set down quite smoothly but had a little orange peel and a few good chunks of crud in it. Much of that can be solved by color-sanding, and 1 Day Paint recommends that you always clearcoat a car if you want to color sand it. That doesn't necessarily mean you need basecoat/clearcoat paint. Instead, 1 Day will use a regular basecoat, then add clear. We eventually plan to color-sand the car with 1,500- then 2,000-grit, then buff it with Meguiar's compound (the stuff in the photo is a bit too aggressive) on a wool pad, and polish it with a light foam pad.
There's nothing like new paint to make average bumpers look neglected, so you've got to do something about them. Rechroming can often be the last bit of dazzle you need to really make a budget paint job pop. But since we eventually plan to have fiberglass, we used a decent junkyard bumper instead. Mother's Billet Polish was surprisingly good at making it look like new. But forgive us for that scongy rear bumper (see this month's cover).
The factory used rubber gaskets behind parts like the lock cylinders, door handles, and rearview mirrors. Most of these are available reproduction through companies like OER and Classic Industries, where we got ours. New gaskets not only give a more detailed look, but they keep the metal parts from digging into the fresh paint; without the gasket, the edge of the door handle or mirror will lift the edge of the paint, which will eventually chip. Bonus tech tip: The '77 Nova remote-control outside mirror is the same as the one used on '69 Camaros, so a Camaro gasket will work.
Miracle of miracles, Classic Industries actually has door and trunk weatherstrip for third-gen X-bodies. For nearly any other musclecar it's even easier to get replacements, and you really have to R&R the rubber to make a color-change paint job acceptable. Tech tip again: The GM door seals don't really need adhesive and snap nicely into the groove. Press them into place with a plastic spatula (like the one you used for the body filler) to avoid gacking the paint.
No one has a mint '77 Nova grille, and no one wants to pay big bucks to have it restored. We'll also push you away from '80s body-color grilles and run screaming from rattle-can blackout treatments. However, McGean discovered that VHT cast-iron exhaust paint has kind of a nice argent look when applied to a used Nova grille. After knocking all the loose plastic-chrome junk off with sandpaper then priming it, the look was perfect. The headlight buckets got the same treatment.
Ever see a repaint that looks OK until the trunk is opened and it's a different color? We paid 1 Day Paint for a full jamb-job that included the underside of the decklid, and the shop even got rid of the old jack instructions before fogging the color. It also helped that we replaced the hashed trunk weatherstrip, and OER has a new and softer latex seal to replace it; order the same number as a '79 Camaro and cut it to fit. Finally, we degreased and brightened up the trunk with some light gray spatterpaint, which looks more fresh than the original black.
A Gabriel Hi-Jackers sticker on top of an old hair-band decal won't get you far, so make sure to peel all that junk from the bumpers. However, a single, well-placed and subtle sticker on your car can take another step to saying, "I'm a hot rod," in case screaming Zinc Yellow did not get the point across. Choose something special to you and lay it on. We, of course, chose to fly the colors.
You can take a worthless pile of a street machine and make it neat with the right wheels. So it stands to reason that trick rollers will also take your cheap paint job up a few notches, detracting from any flaws. In our case, ugly wheels would have made a '77 Nova way too hillbilly. It already sits too high, so we needed the power of the bitchin' new Mickey Thompson ET Drag wheels that scream "I'm a drag car." We used 27.5×4.50 ET Fronts (PN 3009) on 15×3.5s with 2.25-inch backspacing (PN 75355072) on the front and 28×9.00-15 ET Drags (PN 3054) on 15×8.5s with 4.5-inch backspacing (PN 75805074) on the rear, and they fit perfectly. Expect to see a drag test with these tires in coming months.
Crossbreeding factory tape stripes can create monsters-a Dodge bumblebee stripe on a Plymouth is a huge no-no, for example. But Car Craft has found the '69 Chevelle SS side stripe to be fairly generic and non-offensive on other cars. We even used one on the El Cheapo El Camino a few years ago. This time, a fresh black stripe from Original Parts Group made a giant improvement in the impact of the Disco Nova. Stripes add flash but can also conceal minor waves in the car's waistline.
For more on how we added stripes to the Disco Nova (which you didn't see in the magazine) and to answer our online poll on what you think we should do with the Nova CLICK HERE!


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In our first post, we looked at some surprisingly early examples of nanotechnology at work. However, the field is generally considered to be a very modern one, and most major early developments occurred within the latter half of the 20th century.
The history of nanotechnology is often traced to a very specific moment of inception: the 29th of December, 1959, when physicist Richard Feynman delivered an after-dinner lecture called "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" during a meeting of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology.
Feynman's lecture predated the use of the term "nanotechnology" to describe the field of study as we now know it, but many of the ideas he explored and the questions he asked are still highly relevant.
Feynman wondered "why cannot we write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the head of a pin?" and spoke of the possibility of building machines on a minute scale by "manoeuvring things atom by atom".
'There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom' writes Dr. K. Eric Drexler, whose own work in the 1970s and 80s did much to advance the field, "was a comparatively casual effort - an after-dinner speech at a conference - yet in it he presented a bold and enduring vision of a technological journey leading toward the atomic scale and toward the ultimate boundaries set by physical law. The world has travelled far toward what Feynman saw, and has far still to go."
It's hard to measure the exact impact that Feynman's talk had on the emergence of nanotechnology, of course, but, as Drexler points out, "Feynman was the first to outline a world of technologies that would work and build at the ultimate, atomic scale".
The term "nanotechnology" itself wasn't coined until 1974, when Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi defined it: "'Nano-technology' mainly consists of the processing of, separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or by one molecule'.' Taniguchi used the term "to describe semiconductor processes such as thin film deposition and ion beam milling exhibiting characteristic control on the order of a nanometer. The ideas contained in this definition were further explored and developed by Drexler in the late 70s and 1980s, culminating in the release of his book Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology in 1986, which "is considered the first book on the topic of nanotechnology".
In next weeks post we will take a closer look at these ideas and how they developed.


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Reading about all this AIG stuff is enough to give you the shpilkes. One has to wonder, who on earth is protecting these folks? Who are their political allies? With the help of an internet search engine called Google (apparently...
Posted by Pat Cleary on March 16, 2009 9:18 PM
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News Release
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May 27, 2010
Boaters and Anglers Urged to Help Curb Spread of Zebra Mussels from Lake Texoma
Invasive species can damage fisheries, boats, water treatment plants and pipelines
ATHENS—Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) officials are asking all users of Lake Texoma to assist in stopping the spread of invasive zebra mussels to other water bodies in Texas and Oklahoma.
"Zebra mussels have become well established in Lake Texoma after having been introduced into the lake by boats trailered in from other states," said Brian Van Zee, regional director for TPWD's Inland Fisheries Division.
In addition to being found in Lake Texoma, zebra mussels have been introduced into lakes in the Arkansas River drainage in Oklahoma.
"Zebra mussels have the ability to attach to any hard surface left in the water—boat motors, docks, pipes and even cans and bottles," Van Zee continued. "The larval stage of zebra mussels can also be carried in water left in livewells or bait buckets."
Boats being transported from Lake Texoma to other water bodies pose the greatest threat of spreading zebra mussels to other water bodies. At present the only way to deal with that is for boat owners to be responsible and to inspect, clean, drain and dry their boats before moving them from Lake Texoma to another lake.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is asking anyone transporting a vessel that has been used on Lake Texoma to another water body to take the following precautions. (1) Clean all vegetation, mud, algae and other debris from the boat and trailer. (2) Drain all water from the motor as well as the livewell, bilge, bait buckets and any other compartments or systems that hold water. (3) Dry the vessel and associated equipment for a minimum of 7 to 10 days during the months of May through October or for 15 to 20 days from November through April. These drying times are approximations, and conditions such as cooler air temperatures, higher humidity and whether or not the vessel is kept in dry storage should be considered. These are the easiest preventive measures that boat owners can do to help prevent the spread of zebra mussels.
However, boats and other vessels that have been kept on Lake Texoma for an extended period of time and are infested with zebra mussels may require additional cleaning procedures. Power-washing with water at least 140 degrees Fahrenheit and flushing the motor, bilges, live-wells and other water intake systems with 140-degree water will kill zebra mussels. To be effective the water coming out of the flushed systems needs to reach 140 degrees to ensure the entire system was exposed to water hot enough to kill the mussels.
If it is not possible to clean the internal systems or compartments using 140-degree water, the use of either straight vinegar or a chlorine bleach and water solution (one-half ounce bleach to one gallon water) can be effective at killing zebra mussels as long as the mixture is kept in contact with the mussels for 20 to 30 minutes. Clean water should be used to flush the chemicals and dead mussels from the boat following treatment. Boat owners should check with their manufacturer to be sure using these chemicals will not void their warranty.
Large vessels with complex water intake systems such as those used for cooling the engine, air conditioning or personal sanitation may require decontamination by a boat mechanic or marina.
A video showing how to decontaminate a boat can be viewed at http://100thmeridian.org/Video/Clean.asp. Additional information on zebra mussels and other invasive aquatic species in Texas is at www.texasinvasives.org.
Information and videos on the Lake Texoma zebra mussel infestation can be found at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-Parks-and-Wildlife-Inland-Fisheries-District-2A/127480703935872?v=wall&ref=ts. This Facebook page will be updated with additional information on Lake Texoma as it becomes available.
Since zebra mussels were discovered in Lake Texoma, the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) has suspended pumping water from Lake Texoma to Lake Lavon, which supplies their water treatment plant in Wylie, said Denise Hickey, public relations coordinator for NTMWD. "While zebra mussels do not have a negative impact on the quality of water supplied to our customers, they can clog pipelines and equipment, greatly increasing maintenance costs," Hickey said.
"Zebra mussels are very good at filtering out the zooplankton and phytoplankton that are the basis of the aquatic food chain for fish and other aquatic organisms," Van Zee said. "Zebra mussels have the potential to impact the valuable fisheries in Lake Texoma and other lakes. Because of the damage they can do to water pipelines, water treatment plants and anything left in the water, they are a potential problem for everyone in Texas, not just anglers and boaters."
Under the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas Penal Codes, possession or transporting of zebra mussels in Texas is a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,000, jail time up to 180 days, or both.
On the Net:
- http://www.texasinvasives.org/
- http://www.100thmeridian.org/
- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-Parks-and-Wildlife-Inland-Fisheries-District-2A/127480703935872?v=wall&ref=ts
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- Manufactured in the US for over 75 years and representing a limited portion of our US sales. New Balance Made is a premium collection that contains a domestic value of 70% or greater.
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Dear all. I am coming to London. How is Hamilton college? Does anyone know about it? It's in central London. N how's the life of Nepalese students in London? I have heard that lots of Nepalese students are having hard time there. By the way how to look for the accomodation there? Plz reply me. Thanking you.
Life in Uk
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ReleasesBack to
Frank Foster
The George Wallington Showcase band, recorded for Blue Note on May 12, 1954. This solid little organization included James Moody's ace trumpeter Dave Burns, trombonist Jimmy Cleveland, baritone saxophonist Danny Bank, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and, once again, drummer Kenny "Klook" Clarke. Arrangements were scored by Quincy Jones. This straight-ahead hard bop is tasty and stimulating. Use the four alternate takes for a chaser.


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Who will win "The Voice" this season? Will it be sweet, self-effacing down-home country guy Jake Worthington, of Team Blake? Or soul-singing family man Josh Kaufman, of Team Usher, whose supple voice seems to combine satin and gravel? Or will Team Adam's creative young YouTube-famous pop vocalist, Christina Grimmie, carry the day?
This week, the voters will have their say. Based on Monday night's performances, any of the final three singers could be deemed worthy of the win.
Each of the singers sang two solos: a reprise, selected by America, of a song the singer had sung previously this season and a new one. Each also performed a duet with his or her coach – and the coaches themselves paired up to perform: Blake Shelton and Shakira (the only coach without a singer still in the competition) sang their song "Medicine," off Shakira's new album. And Adam Levine and Usher tried to out-falsetto each other on "Untitled (How Does It Feel)."
In between, the contestants were shown chatting with their coaches and with host Carson Daly, giving voters a clearer picture of those in contention for the crown.
Christina Grimmie (Team Adam)
For Grimmie, America picked "Wrecking Ball," the song she'd sung during her blind audition. Her performance, this time around, was even more explosive – and not only because of the impressive stage pyrotechnics. Shelton said it gave her the "opportunity to hit all those big notes we love to hear" and suggested it marked a return to form. Usher said it reminded him of Grimmie's start on the show, her progress and the way she always fought "to stay on top." Shakira said it highlighted Grimmie's "insane" upper register and said she'd again knocked the song "out of the park." And Levine marveled at the singer's "transformation" during her time on the show and at the way she'd made the song her own. He was, he said, "bursting with pride" for her.
After cutely dueting with Levine on "Somebody That I Used to Know," Grimmie tackled what she said was her "dream" finale song, Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love," in hopes of having an "epic" finish. One of the coaches once compared her to a mini Celine Dion, and with this performance, she again brought that comparison to mind.
Shelton admired her "willingness to take chances and to do something different," saying that covering Elvis was "the biggest chance you can take on this show" and that it had "sounded great." Usher called Grimmie an "incredible vocalist" and the song choice "really courageous." Shakira labeled the performance "flawless" and declared herself to have been "in complete awe." It was, she said, "neither a conservative choice nor an obvious choice," adding that Grimmie's individuality and willingness to experiment were her "trademark." Levine said she'd shown all the marks of a winner – "artistry," "technical ability," "determination," "fearlessness," the ability to make "great choices." He predicted she would "win this show" and vowed to do everything he could to make that happen.
Jake Worthington (Team Blake)
America also assigned Worthington his blind audition song: "Don't Close Your Eyes" by Keith Whitley, and he used the opportunity to show how far he'd come. Usher called Worthington's success this season, after an unsuccessful previous audition, a testament to the singer's "hard work" and Shelton's "coaching." Shakira said Worthington had always been the "guy that my fellow coaches wanted to grab a beer with" and that she "just wanted to squeeze," but asserted that he'd come to "gain credibility," which was key in country music. Worthington's voice was "just perfect on that song," she said – "tender," "real" and lyrically arresting. Levine noted that Worthington's "subtlety" and "memorable tone" were his hallmark and said he loved him "as a person" and "as an artist." Shelton thanked Worthington for showing "so much respect" for country music of a certain generation.
Worthington and Shelton together gave a shout-out to that apparently dying breed on Hank Williams Jr.'s "A Country Boy Can Survive," but not before Worthington had sung his second song: Richard Marx's "Right Here Waiting," putting his country spin on the 1989 ballad.
Usher called it a "spotless performance" and told Worthington he'd pulled off the essential emotion of the song, saying "that right there is the trait of a real artist." Shakira said she was "loving these countrified versions of these iconic songs" and thought Worthington had sung "amazingly well." "I can hear power in your voice I never heard before," she told him, noting new "nuances," "subtlety," vocal breaks and "little cries" that were "very charming." Levine said he'd also noticed new nuances – a "sigh" and a "yip." "You've come such a long way, man," he told him. Shelton said that, in all his time on the show, he had never seen "a more honest, sincere narrator or messenger" than Worthington. "When you get on this stage and you sing something, people are engaged," he said, "and that's a trait that only a true country artist has."
Josh Kaufman (Team Usher)
America stuck it to Adam Levine by choosing the song that prompted him to hand the talented Kaufman to Usher on a silver platter during the battles: Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours." And then Kaufman stuck it to him again by positively killing it. Daly rightly observed that it was if the singer had been "possessed."
Shakira marveled over Kaufman's charismatic, "dynamic," multifaceted vocals. "No one could ever get bored listening to you," she said, noting that it was "unbelievable" that Kaufman had nearly gone home the first time he had sung the song and calling him a "jewel" in the competition. Levine joked that Kaufman had twisted "the knife" by performing the song during which he'd made the crucial mistake of letting him go. Shelton said he'd sung "the crap" out of the song, quipping that he'd not only ad-libbed, he'd put "some Mad Libs in there." Usher said he and Kaufman had "the ability to change what 'The Voice' is," calling Kaufman "the new voice of 'The Voice.'"
While Kaufman and Usher didn't seem to totally click when they took the stage together with "Every Breath You Take," their collaboration seemed to reap better dividends on Kaufman's second solo outing, Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain," a risky choice. The show pulled out all the stops, production-wise -- the white suit, white mic and stand, white-clad onstage string section, and candelabra- and candle-strewn, white-fabric-draped grand piano; the fire -- and Usher advised his team member to pull out all the stops emotionally as well. Kaufman did, at one point dropping to his knees as flames shot up behind him.
"Throughout this process, you have wanted to represent soul, and that is precisely who and what you are," Usher said after the crowd finally quieted down. "What you represent is something different, something that is courageous, something that changes the standard … It cannot happen that this guy doesn't win 'The Voice.' You are the winner of this competition."
That's for the audience to decide and for us to find out on Tuesday night, but Kaufman may have sealed the deal on Monday night. Then again, the country-music faithful could turn out to support Worthington. Or Grimmie's dedicated fans could vote her/lift her to the top.
Who do you think should be crowned the winner of "The Voice" this season?
Who will win "The Voice" this season? Will it be sweet, self-effacing down-home country guy Jake Worthington, of Team Blake? Or soul-singing family man Josh Kaufman, of Team Usher, whose supple voice seems to combine satin and gravel? Or will Team Adam's creative young YouTube-famous pop vocalist, Christina Grimmie, carry the day?


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Forbidden to Remember
Forbidden to remember, terrified to forget; my life after Edward Cullen.Forbidden to remember; my life after the accident. Bella happily immerses herself in her hallucinations of Edward until her lack of concentration results in her riding off a cliff. Three weeks later she finds herself in hospital with amnesia. Bella can't remember who she is, who her friends are, why she looks so ill or who this Edward Cullen guy is. All she can recall is her life starting after her regaining consciousness in hospital three weeks after the accident. She knows Charlie is hiding something about her old life, but what she can't put her finger on... B/J and B/E. A story about destiny: Will a change of events affect Bella's final decision of who she should choose? 21.06.11 CHAPTER 12 "CONFLICT" IS UP!! I'M SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY, I CAME ON TODAY TO SEE WHAT WAS TAKING SO LONG TO VALIDATE AND NOT ONLY HAD THE CHAPTER GONE THROUGH, IT WAS MISSING THE STORY TEXT -.-" I AM SO SORRY BUT THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE ~ SparklyCullen
Edward gets his wish; Bella living her life like he had never existed. But when he drops in to find Bella happy with Jacob, should he walk away or make his presence known? Will Bella ever regain her memory?
1. Bella
Rating 3/5 Word Count 3805 Review this Chapter
AND SUDDENLY I WAS FLYING, cutting through the air like a sharp cleaver through meat. It was not a love for motorcycles or adrenaline rushes that had me attempting to ride a "death trap" as my father would put it, but what the adrenaline provided; Edward cursing my actions silkily in my ear. He was yelling at me now, telling me to go home to Charlie, to stop being so reckless and stupid. I wouldn't be here if he hadn't made me promise to keep myself safe; I would have topped myself if I didn't feel so responsible for Renée and Charlie. But then again I wouldn't be here on the motorbike if he hadn't broken his promise first.
I listened dreamily to the hallucinated Edward's infuriated velvet voice, trying not to remember, just to feel. Forbidden to remember, terrified to forget; my life after Edward Cullen.
Out of the blue I heard a distant roar, bringing me back to my senses. I realised I was riding into the wooded area surrounding the sandy area where Jacob and I were riding our bikes, leaving Jacob behind. It was a miracle I hadn't hit a tree yet.
"Bella!" bellowed Jacob and my hallucinated Edward simultaneously. "Brake!"
Panic began to spurt in my body like boiling water spitting out of an overfilled pan. I tried to reach the handbrake without taking my hand off the steering, but my clenched fists tilted the handle bars, throwing me off to the left. I tried to straighten up but the bike caught a small moss covered boulder. I could hear the roar of Jake's bike as he tried to catch me up, but I was too far gone. I was on the tarmac of the road, surging me further towards the edge of the cliff where I had watched Sam Uley and his cult cliff-diving hours earlier.
"Bella!" cried Jacob as he was forced to brake to prevent himself following me over the edge.
"Bella, you have to brake!" snarled Edward, his volume increasing. Realising that a small cut didn't matter compared to death, I slammed my foot into contact with the back brake.
I took off, soaring over the handlebars, like an eagle in flight. I dove down gracefully towards the water, no longer in control of my direction as the raging sea threatened to swallow me whole.
"Bella! No!" cried Jacob from far above me.
"Bella!" Edward was suddenly there too, his butterscotch eyes tortured, his marble skin glittering faintly in the sun, his auburn hair rustling slightly in the non-existent breeze. He was so beautiful; how thankful I was that I could still remember his exquisiteness even after months of trying not to remember.
Edward, I thought as I plummeted down through the empty air, my stomach turning in the g-force as efficiently as if I were a washing machine. Edward Cullen, I love you so much. I love you, I love you, I love you!
The last thing I heard was my screaming in dread as the jutting cliff face drew closer and the beginning of a sickening crack as I plunged into the rock.
The darkness - instant, smooth and black - took over. It was like my numb state returning but much more powerfully than before.
Forbidden to remember, terrified to forget; my life after Edward Cullen.
Forbidden to remember; my life after the accident.
Urgh, what had happened? My head ached painfully, and as I moved it, the whole world swirled around. I felt groggy like I'd dropped my brain in a vat of warm, thick, sludgy mud. My eyes fluttered open and bright white light leaked in between the cracks. I lifted my arm to block out the blinding light when I heard a man speak to me.
I looked to the left, my eyes adjusting from the darkness. A man in his forties was seated on a small blue plastic chair. What was left of his brown curly locks were mussed, like he had just woken up after a long, restless night. He was white, brown eyes wide; relieved but wary, tired yet alert. He was wearing a crumpled, short sleeved police shirt and creased black trousers. A thick sheriff jacket lay over the back of his seat, but it dropped to the floor as he leaned forward towards me. I blinked, automatically shifting away.
"Bella!" He heaved a heavy sigh. "How're you feeling, honey?" I looked over my shoulder, expecting a woman to be standing behind me, but instead there was only an aged man in a wheelchair and a young man in his twenties, both with russet skin, both with long black hair, both watching me with ancient, confused eyes.
"Bella?" I looked back to the white man. His forehead was furrowed, his gaze full of despair. "Bella, can you hear me? Do you understand what I'm saying?" I stared back blankly. Who was he talking to?
"Jacob, call a doctor or a nurse," spoke the man in the wheelchair to the young man he was sitting nearest to, an unquestionable sense of authority clear in his voice. "Tell 'em she's awake but not responding to any questions."
The young man glanced at me, his face devastated with concern. He rose to his feet and left the room, inclining his head to fit through the doors, his glossy black hair shimmering attractively in the electric lighting.
"Bella, please, talk to me!" The white man grew paler, his voice cracking under the strain of not crying.
"Charlie, give her a minute, let her gain her bearings," advised the old man huskily, looking at his friend with a reserved expression.
I glanced between the two of them as the officer nodded reluctantly in defeat. He looked so heartbroken; I couldn't not try to help.
"What's wrong?" I asked him sadly, his head snapping up in response.
"Bella?" Hope filtered into his expression.
"Bella?" His answer confused me. "Who's Bella?"
The hope evaporated, his expression became overcome with anguish. I looked to the other man, hoping for enlightenment.
"You're Bella," he murmured quietly, rolling closer, patting my hand which was lying absently on the sheets beside me. "Can you remember anything?"
I thought carefully. I struggled to recall what came before the black. Had anything come before that? Was this a trick question?
"I... remember... waking up just now?"
The man to my left sobbed loudly, but the other ignored him. "Do you recognize any of us, Bella?" I shook my head. "Do you know your name?"
"Bella?" I asked carefully, wondering if it was me who they kept referring to as Bella.
He cracked a small smile. "That's because I just said it, right?"
I smiled in response, blushing slightly at being caught out. "Yeah," I admitted, embarrassed.
He nodded to himself and looked me directly in the eyes. "You are Isabella Marie Swan," he told me in his gravelly voice. "You're eighteen years old and your birthday is the thirteenth of September. This is Charlie Swan." He waved a hand to the white man. The man, Charlie, looked at me with bloodshot eyes and nodded his head. "He's your father and Chief of Police for Forks. You live with him in Forks, which is in Washington; the forty second state of the United States of America. Your mom's called Renée, but she and your dad are divorced, so she lives in Jacksonville, Florida with her new husband, Phil. Get that?"
I thought for a second, thinking over everything he said. I nodded with conviction.
"Good," he smiled proudly.
"Who are you?" I asked, curious.
"I'm Billy Black," he stated boldly. "And that lad who left a few minutes ago is my son, Jacob. We live on our own in La Push, the reservation near Forks. My wife's dead and my two daughters have left home."
"Oh," I muttered, taken aback by his blunt statement of his wife's state. Charlie began to complain, but Billy raised a wrinkled hand to stop him interrupting.
"She's got to find out sometime, right?" He asked, obviously not expecting an answer. "You attend Forks High School and your best friends with Jacob – who is?" He smiled, testing my attentiveness.
"Your son," I answered swiftly. "The man who left a few minutes ago to get a doctor."
"Right," he said, a smile brightening his features. "But he isn't a man yet, Bella. He's only sixteen."
"Sixteen?" No sixteen year old could be so big. Even a man in his late twenties couldn't match him.
"Yup," grinned Billy. "Big, isn't he?"
I nodded, surprised, wondering if Billy was lying to me about Jacob's age.
"-she opened her eyes and had a look around, but when Charlie started asking her how she felt, she didn't answer." Jacob entered the room with a small white man with wispy white hair. I listened intently to Jacob's voice. If you could remove the anxiety, it sounded gorgeous; a deep, husky and warm tone, like the texture of bark. His beautiful, smooth russet skin was striking; his black, silky hair was beautiful. He instantly brought warmth to the room, though I presumed it could be even warmer if he was at ease.
"Hello, Charlie," the doctor nodded in Charlie's direction. "I see Bella's conscious at last!"
I listened silently, watching the man as he leaned down and shined a light into each of my eyes in turn. He pressed his cool fingers against the inside of my wrist, nodding his head at a steady beat whilst staring fixedly at his watch. He straightened up and talked to Charlie again.
"She seems in fine physical condition at the moment," he said, ignoring me. "Jacob has said she's having trouble communicating...?"
"Well," Charlie began, clearing his throat before continuing. "Billy started talking to her just after Jake left and she's talking back."
"Oh!" exclaimed the doctor in pleasant surprise, appraising my watchful stare. "Good evening, Bella."
"Good evening," I repeated shyly.
"I'm Doctor Gerandy; I've been looking after you for the past couple of weeks. Do you remember what happened?"
I hesitated, trying to recall anything, but after a few seconds I resigned and shook my head.
Dr. Gerandy glanced at Charlie and Billy. "We haven't told her yet," said Charlie, still upset over my current condition.
"Well, Bella, you were very lucky to walk away," smiled the doctor kindly. "You were in a motorcycle accident. You were with this young man in La Push, and you used the back brake, which resulted in you flinging off the bike and over the cliffs, isn't that right, Jacob?" Everyone looked to Jacob, who winced gently.
"Yeah," revealed Jacob, his brown eyes meeting my eyes. I couldn't remember what I looked like, but what he saw made him smile slightly. "Gave me a good scare, Bells. I can promise you we won't be doing that again in a hurry."
"I should hope not," growled Charlie dangerously, his soft kindly features distorting under the fury. "You're forbidden to ride another motorcycle in your life, Isabella Swan!"
"Ok, Dad," I replied immediately, frightened. Charlie didn't seem one to be super strict, so he must really hate the idea of bikes to speak so viciously. He didn't answer, only nodded stiffly, his features warming at my use of "Dad".
"Sam Uley heard me yelling for help," continued Jacob. "He's one of the guys on the rez, and so he and the others came running. Embry ran to phone an ambulance while Sam and Jared climbed down the cliff to help you. Paul stayed with me so we could help raise you up and here we are!"
"Sorry," I mumbled, feeling awful. I really liked Jacob – it felt like an instinct to like this man or boy or whatever he was. I was automatically drawn to him and hated the thought of forcing him to save me.
"Don't worry about it, Bells," smiled Jacob friendlily. "I wasn't fussed about riding the damned bikes any way. I'm just sorry yours went off with you after the money you spent on them."
"What money?" asked Charlie staring at me in shock. I shrugged bewilderedly, looking at Jake for further enlightenment, but his head was bowed guiltily as though he'd just said something he wasn't supposed to.
"What money?" demanded Charlie again, more forcefully. Jake looked up, trying to conceal the regret that soaked his body language.
"Err, it was just the spare cash she had aside for any truck repairs," lied Jacob. "But when I said I'd do the manual work free she decided to spend the extra fixing up the bikes." Charlie was no longer pallid; his face was beginning to flush with fury but Jacob sidetracked him masterfully with a promise that the bikes were already listed on eBay and the top bidder was up in Canada.
Doctor Gerandy continued to prod me gently, testing my reflexes as he simultaneously tried to trip start my memory, without much triumph.
"Perhaps some home videos?" suggested the doctor to Charlie. "A photo album, a favourite CD; something that holds some strong memories for her could prove successful."
"Good job Renée sent that album over, eh Charlie," winked Billy. "She did fill it, right?"
"Yeah," murmured Charlie distractedly. "She showed me the pictures the day she had them printed. Hey, doc." Dr. Gerandy looked up.
"Yes, Chief Swan?"
A long pause followed as Charlie seemed to make up his mind. "No," he replied. "It doesn't matter. I guess I need to bring that photo album in... When's she allowed home?"
"Hmm, well judging by her reflexes, she should be fine to go in the next couple of days," he mused. "I want to run a few more tests before giving her the all clear, check we haven't missed something."
"What's wrong with me?" I asked. "Except for the memory thing?"
"You had a few broken ribs, but they're mostly healed now," explained the doctor, his grizzled eyebrows contracting in thought. "You have a broken arm, so you'll need a sling for another few weeks, yet. A couple of broken fingers, a fractured kneecap and severe bruising as a result of the internal bleeding you had originally, but we fixed that as soon as you came in. For the next few months you'll need regular check-ups and you'll probably experience a sense of fatigue hanging over you for a month to a month and a half, as well as aching limbs and joints."
"Oh," was the only reply I could form.
He smiled. "It sounds a lot but you actually got off quite lightly. Most people would have lost the ability to speak, their key skills, be suffering permanent injuries or even death, whereas your worst case scenario is the occasional day in a wheelchair so you're mobile even when you're too exhausted or sore to walk and even that will probably only span the next couple of years."
"Oh," I repeated. I considered everything he said. When I focused my concentration, I could feel various parts of my body aching like I had been run over by a truck several times in a row. "Where am I supposed to get a wheelchair from?" I asked, looking back to the doctor.
"It's alright, Bella," growled Billy. "We got you covered. I'll have Jacob deliver one of my old ones to your place for when you get home. That way you won't need to spend a fortune on something you'll only use once in a blue moon."
"Thank you," I said gratefully, relaxing slightly.
"Yeah, thanks Billy," agreed Charlie gruffly as Dr Gerandy exited the room to help somebody else. "I don't know what I would have done without you here the past couple of weeks."
"You're welcome, Charlie," dismissed Billy with a wave of his hand. "Jacob would have dragged us here anyway, so it was better to use my time doing something useful when I was denied a TV."
Charlie laughed half-heartedly. "Let me know if I can do anything to repay you, Billy."
"Will do," he answered, stretching his arms and yawning. "Come on Jacob, take me home. It's been a long day."
Jacob began to argue, but Billy interceded. "You owe me, Jacob," he said, looking his son directly in the eyes, hinting at something deeper. Jacob sighed and stood up.
"Fine," he muttered, defeated. He reached out and squeezed my hand gently. His hands were so warm and mine so cold that I wanted to hold on, but he pulled away and wheeled Billy out sullenly, dragging his feet.
"See you tomorrow," called Billy cheerfully as the door swung shut behind them.
"Bye!" Charlie and I echoed. Charlie sighed, leaning back in his chair, closing his eyes. I decided to follow suit and allowed my eyes to drift shut.
"Bella?" I opened my eyes again.
Charlie smiled lovingly. "Hey, Bells. It's been a while."
"How long has it been?"
"About three and a half weeks now." Wow, three and a half weeks. I had no memories to compare the length of time with, but I knew it was nearly a month, which was about twelfth of a year. A long time. Probably.
"You don't remember anything then, Bells?" asked Charlie, concern scrunching his forehead again.
"I remember today..." I muttered, feeling useless. I'd lost eighteen years of my life; my whole life had disappeared due to a motorbike accident. Forbidden to remember; I guess that's what my life's like now.
Charlie sighed. "Your mom's coming down to Forks tomorrow."
"My mom?" I asked, thinking. "Renée, right? Lives in Jacksonville with her husband... Phil? Phil's my step-dad?"
"Yeah," said Charlie. "Any idea what she looks like?"
I thought for a while, trying to use logic to work my way around the amnesia. "Me?" I guessed.
Charlie laughed. "Sorry, Bells, but you look more like me."
"In what way?" I asked, wondering fearfully if I was balding too. I looked down and noticed a long strand of matted brown on my shoulder. I picked it up between my fingers and realised it was connected to my head. "I have brown hair?"
Charlie's face screwed in temporary pain. "You can't remember what you look like?" I shook my head helplessly, trying to avoid witnessing the pain I was causing my father, instead concentrating on the hair in my hands. I had ghostly white hands attached to fragile, skeletal wrists. Charlie stood up but I ignored him as I continued to explore my identity. I noticed that on one hand there was a crescent shaped scar. I ran my fingers over it gently. It felt cold. How strange.
"Hey, Dad, how did I get this scar on my hand?" I asked Charlie looking up. He was standing half out of the door.
"Hmm? Oh, that!" exclaimed Charlie in recognition. "You got it last summer when you- err." Charlie stopped himself suddenly, looking away from me.
"When I...?"
"You, err," Charlie hesitated as though he was trying to think quickly. "You went to see your mom in Phoenix, Arizona where you grew up, but you forgot she'd moved to Jacksonville, so you – you, err, stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights while you waited for the next flight home and as you came down the stairs in the hotel with your luggage, you tripped and went through the glass window. You were in hospital for a while."
I nodded as though I accepted his story, but something nagged me in my head that Charlie was lying to me. I felt as though I was only getting half a story, and even that was a lie. I shrugged it off as Charlie thanked a nurse and held out a mirror in front of me.
"This is who you are," said Charlie. "Isabella Marie Swan, my daughter."
I stared at my reflection, stunned into silence. "Bella," Charlie began to sound worried again. "What's wrong?"
"I look so ill," I said, reaching up to touch my pale hollowed cheeks and faded purple bruises under my eyes. "I look like I haven't eaten for ages! Not just three weeks!" My long wavy brown hair hung limp and greasy against my face and down my neck, barely reached the bottom of my shoulder blades.
"You, err, weren't exactly in the best condition before, Bells," said Charlie shiftily again as though he was twisting the truth. "You were just starting to get better after a few days down at the Black's, but that doesn't matter now, eh? We can make a full recovery here." Charlie smiled, cheered slightly by the thought.
"My hair looks pretty disgusting," I said, trying to push it away from my face.
"It used to be really long, but it was easier to manage the operations if they cut it shorter," informed Charlie. "It used to reach your waist and when they cut it, it was just past your shoulders, but it's growing back again."
I had brown eyes; they looked huge, but I assumed they wouldn't look so big if I wasn't so undernourished. My top lip was slightly more full than my bottom lip, it's colour was bleached as well.
"Is there a shower or something here?" I asked Charlie, pulling at my dirty hair. "I really need to clean up."
"I don't know, but I'm not sure if you're supposed to get out of bed, Bella."
"What's that?" A nurse asked as she wheeled a trolley into the room. My eyes focused on the contents of the trolley. Food!
"We were wondering if Bella was allowed out of bed for a shower," answered Charlie awkwardly. "I didn't think she would be."
"Sure," said the nurse cheerfully. "If she feels up to it, I don't see why not."
I made to sit up and Charlie rushed to my side to help me up, dropping the mirror on the mattress. The movement drained my energy.
"Although I would suggest she waits until morning," added the nurse as she rolled the table to me and placed my dinner on it; macaroni cheese, orange juice and an apple. She glanced at my disappointed face and giggled. "Hon, it's half eleven at night! I'm only bringing you dinner because you're conscious and it would have gone to waste otherwise!"
I grumbled mentally, as I began to eat. It felt so good to fill my empty, shrivelled stomach. The macaroni cheese was lukewarm, the apple slightly bruised, but I ate it all, even gnawing on the core for the extra nutrition.
I wasn't quite full, but my lids were beginning to droop, and as Charlie began to lie me down I didn't object.
"'Night, Bells, see you tomorrow," he whispered in my ear.
"'Night, Dad," I murmured as the black washed over me again.