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South African Journal of Science
On-line version ISSN 1996-7489
Print version ISSN 0038-2353
S. Afr. j. sci. vol.105 n.11-12 Pretoria Nov./Dec. 2009
Facial-based ethnic recognition: insights from two closely related but ethnically distinct groups
V. CoetzeeI, II, *; J.M. GreeffI; L. BarrettIII, IV; S.P. HenziIII, IV
IDepartment of Genetics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
IIPresent address:School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Mary's Quad, South Street, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JP, Scotland
IIIDepartment of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Canada
IVDepartment of Psychology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
Previous studies on facial recognition have considered widely separated populations, both geographically and culturally, making it hard to disentangle effects of familiarity with an ability to identify ethnic groups per se. We used data from a highly intermixed population of African peoples from South Africa to test whether individuals from nine different ethnic groups could correctly differentiate between facial images of two of these, the Tswana and Pedi. Individuals could not assign ethnicity better than expected by chance, and there was no significant difference between genders in accuracy of assignment. Interestingly, we observed a trend that individuals of mixed ethnic origin were better at assigning ethnicity to Pedi and Tswanas, than individuals from less mixed backgrounds. This result supports the hypothesis that ethnic recognition is based on the visual expertise gained with exposure to different ethnic groups.
Key words: faces, ethnicity, facial recognition, exposure, crosscultural studies
The human face reveals an enormous wealth of information, most importantly on identity, age, gender and ethnicity,1 and plays an important role in mate preferences.2
Cross-cultural studies, for example, have shown that people generally agree on attractiveness ratings across different ethnic groups.35 However, evidence also suggests that we perceive our own ethnic group differently from other ethnic groups. First, people can recognise individuals belonging to different races and ethnic groups6 (where ethnic group refers to distinct populations within a particular racial grouping, e.g. comparing Germans to Britons within the Caucasian grouping). Secondly, faces from the same race as the observer illicit more brain activity in regions linked to face recognition.7 Lastly, recognition of one's own ethnic group is better than that for other ethnic groups.8,9 One plausible explanation for superior recognition of same race and same ethnic group faces is exposure. Most people, especially young people, have more exposure to their own ethnic group.10 This variation in exposure can contribute to the development of visual expertise for same group faces.7 If individuals are exposed more frequently to different ethnic groups, one might expect their visual expertise to include other ethnic groups as well. Two recent studies showed that individuals from minority ethnic groups are better at recognising other ethnic groups in their area than individuals from majority ethnic groups.7,11 Thus, despite agreement on attractiveness across races,35 there may remain a significant element of ethnic recognition, and potential preference, within particular racial categories that potentially may influence mate preferences and subsequent mate choice.
To date, however, studies comparing differences within ethnic groups have focused on groups that show a significant separation of culture and geography (North America, Germany and the Czech Republic6). This means one cannot discount an influence of environmental and/or sociocultural factors on facial morphology and/or greater familiarity with faces of one's own ethnicity compared to other groups. In order to resolve these issues, we tested whether recognition is also possible in a population where there is a large overlap of both culture and geography between the different ethnic groups. Specifically, we tested for ethnic recognition within the African population of South Africa.
According to ethnological, linguistic and genetic data,1214 the South African Bantu-speaking people can be divided into two major groups: the Nguni and the Sotho group. Autosomal and Y-chromosome data group the Xhosa, Zulu, Swazi and Ndebele into the Nguni group, while the Tswana, Pedi and Sotho form part of the Sotho group. The Venda and Tsonga groups were separate.14 These groupings are also observed in the linguistic data, except for the Tsonga, which group with the Nguni.13 Despite this clear separation of ethnic groups, there is, however, a high degree of intermixing both between and within major groups, especially in urban areas.15
In this study we focused specifically on the Pedi and Tswana to determine whether individuals from the same and other groups could assign ethnicity based on facial features alone. These groups have a similar cultural background as members of the Sotho major group and they also show a very minor geographic separation: the hub of the Tswana and Pedi populations are located in the neighbouring North West and Northern Provinces of South Africa, respectively.13,14 Despite their close association, there are genetic differences between the two groups.16 We also assessed whether the sex or ethnic grouping of the observer affected their ability to correctly assign ethnicity. Lastly, we assessed levels of ethnic intermixing in our own sample to confirm that we were drawing subjects from a population in which individuals of different ethnicities had significant experience of each other.
Materials and methods
Full-colour facial photographs were taken of 39 individuals (14 male, 25 female, aged 1826) belonging to the Pedi or Tswana groups. Their ethnicity and that of both parents was self-reported. Photographs were taken with a Sony Cybershot DSC P72 (default settings with 3.1 megapixels fine, soft light flash and 1.0 EV) under standard lighting conditions. Participants were asked to maintain a neutral expression. Slight lateral tilting of individual faces was corrected by rotation around the facial midline using vertical guidelines and cropped 5 cm from each side to standardise size using Corel PHOTO-PAINT v.10. Next, faces were masked to eliminate confounding factors using Corel Knockout v. 1.5 (Fig. 1). All volunteers were students at the University of Pretoria and signed a subject information and consent form briefly explaining the study. Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the University of Pretoria (EC 030606-018).
Thirty individuals (11 Pedi females, 8 Tswana females, 6 Pedi males, 5 Tswana males), for which both parents belonged to the same ethnic group, were used to compile 40 full-colour presentations; each presentation contained two randomly selected male photographs (1 Pedi male, 1 Tswana male) and two randomly selected female photographs (1 Pedi female, 1 Tswana female). These presentations were then displayed to 100 individuals (50 male, 50 female) of known ethnic origin. Each subject was asked to assign ethnicity to each of the images in the presentations as a forced choice between Tswana and Pedi. Thirteen participants (10 male, 3 female) were excluded from the study as both their parents were not originally from South Africa and one female participant was excluded for falling outside the age range of 1826 years. To test whether Tswana and Pedi individuals can be correctly identified we compared the proportions of correctly rated images to the proportions expected under the binomial distribution, with a probability parameter of 0.5. Data were analysed using a binomial test in SPSS version 13.0 (Chicago, IL) and each gender was tested separately. To determine whether rater gender or rater ethnicity affected the ability to assign ethnicity, we performed a general linear model (GLM), with rater gender and rater ethnicity as 'between subject' factors. Raters were divided into four main groups: (a) both parents belonging to the Sotho major group (Sotho major), (b) both parents belonging to the Nguni major group (Nguni major), (c) one parent belonging to the Sotho major and one parent belonging to the Nguni major group (mixed major) and (d) one or both parents belonging to the Venda or Tsonga ethnic groups (Venda/ Tsonga group).
Our rater population was ethnically mixed, with 43% of the 86 raters in the study being of mixed ethnic origin (i.e. having parents belonging to two different ethnic groups). Within this mixed origin group, 19% had one parent belonging to the Nguni and one parent belonging to the Sotho major groups, while 71% had both parents belonging to the same major group but different ethnic groups within those major groups. The remaining 10% had one parent that belonged to either the Venda or Tsonga group. Overall, ethnic groupings were fluid and many individuals were exposed to different ethnic groups within, as well as between, families.
Our results revealed no significant deviation from the expected 50% for the correct assignment of Tswana and Pedi individuals. Both male (observed proportion = 0.49, P > 0.05, n = 87) and female images (observed proportion = 0.59, P > 0.05, n = 87) could not be recognised better than expected by chance alone. Rater ethnicity significantly affected the proportion of correct assignments (P = 0.042, F3,81 = 2.881), while rater gender did not (P > 0.05). Pairwise comparisons revealed that individuals from the mixed major group were significantly better at assigning ethnicity compared to the Sotho major (P = 0.010), Nguni major (P = 0.009) and Venda/Tsonga groups (P = 0.013). These differences were no longer significant after Bonferroni corrections, but mixed major individuals still showed a tendency to assign ethnicity better than Sotho major (P = 0.063), Nguni major (P = 0.056) and Venda/Tsonga groups (P = 0.075).
A high degree of intermixing between the different ethnic groups was observed (43%) in our sample, which is likely due to drawing our subjects from an urban area. Our study population therefore had high-level exposure to individuals of different ethnicity, especially those individuals whose parents belong to different major ethnic groups.
Our results show that individuals from our study population cannot differentiate between facial features of Tswana and Pedi individuals. To our knowledge, this is the first study to test ethnic recognition in two such closely related ethnic groups, with similar environmental and sociocultural histories. We also show no difference in the ability of males and females to differentiate between Tswana and Pedi images. This suggests that perceptual or morphological differences are negligible between the genders, and it is therefore unlikely that there has been selection for one gender to be better at recognising or displaying ethnicity than the other.
Although previous studies have shown that individuals are better at recognising their own ethnic group,7 we found that Sotho major group individuals were comparatively poor at recognising own group faces. However, individuals whose parents belonged to different major ethnic groups were better at recognising Tswana or Pedi images. This discrepancy can most probably be attributed to exposure to variation for individuals of mixed origin, who are likely to have been exposed to a greater variety of ethnic groups within their family environment.
In conclusion, our study shows that African peoples from South Africa cannot reliably differentiate between Tswana and Pedi individuals, based on facial features alone. We cannot exclude the possibility that ethnic recognition is possible based on whole body features, but our results suggest that Tswana and Pedi individuals could be used interchangeably in facial preference studies. We also show that more ethnically mixed individuals are better at recognising Tswana and Pedi faces. This is presumably because of their heightened exposure to a variety of different ethnic groups, but more research is needed to unravel the correlation between exposure and ethnic intermixing.
We thank Ronnie Nelson and Christoff Erasmus for their invaluable assistance with data collection. V.C. was supported by a National Research Foundation (South Africa) studentship, under Grant number 2053809 to J.M.G., and L.B. was supported by a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship during the writing of this paper. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Research Foundation.
1. Farkas L.G. (1994). Anthropometry of the Head and Face, 2nd edn. Raven Press, New York. [ Links ]
2. Fink B. and Penton-Voak I. (2002). Evolutionary psychology of facial attractiveness. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 11, 154158. [ Links ]
3. Perrett D.I., May K.A. and Yoshikawa S. (1994). Facial shape and judgements of female attractiveness. Nature 368, 239242. [ Links ]
4. Jones D. (1995). Sexual selection, physical attractiveness, and facial neoteny. Curr. Anthropol. 35, 723748. [ Links ]
5. Cunningham M.R., Roberts A.R., Barbee A.P., Druen P.B. and Wu C-H. (1995). 'Their ideas of beauty are, on the whole, the same as ours': consistency and variability in the cross-cultural perception of female physical attractiveness. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 68, 261279. [ Links ]
6. Hajni K., Farkas L.G., Ngim R.C.K., Lee S.T. and Venkatadri G. (1994). Racial and ethnic morphometric differences in the craniofacial complex. In Anthropometry of the Head and Face, 2nd edn, ed. L.G. Farkas. Raven Press, New York. [ Links ]
7. Golby A., Gabrieli J., Chiao J. and Eberhardt J. (2001). Differential responses in the fusiform region to same-race and other-race faces. Nat. Neurosci. 4, 845850. [ Links ]
8. Malpass R. and Kravitz J. (1969). Recognition for faces of own and other race. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 13, 330334. [ Links ]
9. O'Toole K., Deffenbacher D., Valentin D. and Abdi H. (1994). Structural aspects of face recognition and the other race effect. Mem. Cognit. 22, 208224. [ Links ]
10. Chance J.E., Turner A.L. and Goldstein A.G. (1982). Development of differential recognition for own- and other-race faces. J. Psychol. 112, 2937. [ Links ]
11. Tanaka J.W., Kiefer M. and Bukach C.M. (2004). A holistic account of the own-race effect in face recognition: evidence from a cross-cultural study. Cognition 93, B1B9. [ Links ]
12. Levitas B. (1983). Ethnology: An Introduction to the Peoples and Cultures of Southern Africa. Oxford University Press, Cape Town. [ Links ]
13. Schapera I. (1962). Bantu-speaking Tribes of South Africa: An Ethnographical Survey. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, London. [ Links ]
14. Lane A.B., Soodyall H., Arndt S., Ratshikhopha M.E., Jonker E., Freeman C., Young L., Morar B. and Toffie L. (2002). Genetic substructure in South African bantu-speakers: evidence from autosomal DNA and Y-chromosome studies. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 119, 175185. [ Links ]
15. Statistics South Africa (2001). Census in Brief. Statistical release 03-02-03, Pretoria. Online at: www.statssa.gov.za/census01/html/CInBrief/CIB2001.pdf [ Links ]
16. Xing J., Scott Watkins W., Witherspoon D.J., Zhang Y., Guthery S.L., Thara R., Mowry B.J., Bulayeva K., Weiss R.B. and Jorde L.B. (2009). Fine-scaled human genetic structure revealed by SNP microarrays. Genome Res. 19, 815825. [ Links ]
Received 6 May 2008.
Accepted 21 October 2009.
* Author for correspondence E-mail: email@example.com


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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts today announced changes to the voting procedure for the Orange British Academy Film Awards.
Following extensive discussion, consideration and research over several years, the Film Committee has confirmed a move from a three-round voting system to a two-round system. This will be implemented in time for the 2012/13 voting period.
As per previous years, members will vote for both the nominations and the winner in the Best Film category and the four performance categories. Members will have the opportunity to opt in to chapters to vote for the nominees and winner in Animation, Documentary, Film Not in the English Language, and Outstanding British Film.
Individual chapters will now decide the nominees and members will vote for the winner in Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Costume Design, Director, Editing, Make-Up & Hair, Original Music, Production Design, Sound, and Special Visual Effects.
Voting procedures remain unchanged for Outstanding Debut by a Writer, Director or Producer in their First Feature Film, Short Film, and Short Animation categories: a jury will decide both the nominations and winner for Outstanding Debut; the Short Film and Short Animation nominations will also be decided by a jury, and the winners decided by an opt-in chapter.
Nik Powell, Chair of BAFTA's Film Committee said:
"For several years, the question of whether the Academy should move from our three-round voting system to a two-round system has been on the Film Committee's agenda. After much research and debate, the Film Committee has elected to implement a two-round system for the 2012/13 Orange British Academy Film Awards.
[[MEDIA:{"IMAGE":"http:\/\/static.bafta.org\/images\/width250\/film-logo-thin-16270.png","WIDTH":"250","ALIGN":"RIGHT","ALT":"Film Logo [Thin crop]","CREDIT":null}]]"This decision was taken due to the simplicity and clarity of a two-round system, not to mention its potential to involve members more. These changes capitalise on the strength and expertise of the Academy's chapter voting system, which was first introduced in 2004/05."
Notes to editors:
The Orange British Academy Film Awards will be held on 10 February 2013.
A chapter is comprised of members with specialist skills or experience in a particular craft area.
About BAFTA
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefiting the public. In addition to its Awards ceremonies, BAFTA has a year-round Learning & Events programme that offers unique access to some of the world's most inspiring talent through workshops, masterclasses, lectures and mentoring schemes, connecting with audiences of all ages and backgrounds across the UK, Los Angeles and New York. BAFTA relies on income from membership subscriptions, individual donations, trusts, foundations and corporate partnerships to support its ongoing outreach work. For further information, visit www.bafta.org or www.bafta.org/guru

subset: commoncrawl


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Track & Field: First, second and third for Wildcats' Lee
Before John Lee could even break a sweat Tuesday night, his nearest competitor in the 3,200-meter race who nowhere to be seen. Lee, a Shoreham-Wading River senior, surged ahead of the pack from the opening gun and was never tested in the opening event of the League V Championship.
So much so, he was surprised at how far ahead he got so quickly.
"I was 20 meters ahead and that didn't seem right," Lee said in describing the early portion of the race.
With Port Jefferson's runners completing the race at a more casual pace, focused instead on securing points rather than a fast time, Lee had the track at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood all to himself. He finished in 9 minutes 53.58 seconds, well ahead of Port Jefferson freshman James Burke, who clocked in at 10:01.17.
"They were trying to get extra points in distance events," Lee said.
It was the second league title for Lee for his career in the winter season and first in the 3,200. He was a league champion in the 1,600 last year.
This season a newcomer from Port Jefferson denied Lee a repeat title. After Lee edged Burke in the 3,200, the two switched places in the next event. Burke, who's had a superb season this year as a ninth-grader, ran 4:37.43. He led by a wide margin for most of the race and Lee closed the gap a bit late to finish in 4:39.51.
Lee spent most of the race by himself, with Burke ahead of him and Port Jefferson senior Andrew Keresztes behind him in third place by a wide margin.
"My coach just wanted me to come in at least third just to get extra points," Lee said. "I knew Burke was going to beat me. He's a crazy freshman. I figured I could out-muscle Keresztes."
Thanks in large part to Lee, the Wildcats finished third as a team with 65 points. In addition to his two individual performances, Lee ran the anchor leg of the 4 x 800 relay team that placed third in 8:55.73.
"Too bad he can't run eight [events]," quipped Shoreham coach Bob Szymanski.
Port Jefferson won the meet with 117 1/2 points and Amityville was second with 97.
Looking ahead to the county meet, Lee will turn his focus to the 3,200.
"I have a good chance to make it to states in that if I have a good day at state quals," he said.
Lee has made it to states in cross country, but hasn't yet in winter track. Last year dealt him plenty of adversity throughout the season with an ankle injury. By the time he reached the state qualifier, Lee finished 10th in the 1,600 with a time close to 18 seconds off his seed time.
"I'm having a much better winter season than last year," he said. "Last year was just terrible."
Shoreham had another second-place finisher Tuesday with senior Tyler Keys in the 1,000. He went up against Keresztes, who took the lead for good with about two laps to go. Keresztes ran 2:39.15 and Keys finished second in 2:40.76.
The Wildcats also got four points in the event from sophomore Jack Kelly with his fourth-place finish in 2:48.38.
In the 600 sophomore Matt Leunig was fourth in 1:36.77.
While the Wildcats did well in the distance events, they couldn't compete in the sprints and field events. They failed to score at all in the sprints and compiled eight points in the field events.
Sophomore Maxwell Maritato was third in the high jump by clearing 5 feet 4 inches. Junior Charlie DeMaio was fifth in the shot put with a top throw of 38-01.
The Wildcats took third in both the 4 x 200 and 4 x 400 relays.
McGann-Mercy scored two points in the 4 x 800 relay with a fifth-place finish in 9:43.25. Senior Jay Marano was sixth in the long jump with a top mark of 17-10 1/4.


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Like snow that melts upon touch,
Oh! soft as scent of damask rose.
So often a heart harbors dreams,
as though mere whisper unheard.
You are desire, sweet, pulsating;
a melody that bewitches my mind
body and soul ―
I gasp as he paints his thoughts on
clouds of fire, spruce and mauve ―
Shivers ebb as waves on virgin skin,
as I sought to perceive love through
the eyes of my friend.
Photo credits: Pixabay
Posted on Poetics @ dVerse Poets Pub
For On Popular Demand – Through the eyes of my Friend
on Friday 17th February at 8:00 am EDT.
and on poems written on Prompt Nights
& On Monday Writes @ My Blog – Verses
Posted on Tuesday Platform @ Real Toads


text:
.In a small desert town reside a populous comprised of ex-bloodsuckers trying to live in relative peace with humans while repressing their true nature. Wearing 100 SPF sunblock and drinking synthetic blood (sound familiar?), the residents resist temptation by directing most mortals away at a tiny gas station (ran by M. Emmet Walsh) along the only road into their sanctuary. But, as always, tensions are escalating within between elder vamps Jefferson (John Ireland) and Count Mardulak (David Carradine). Jefferson is fed up with denying instinct and is secretly assembling a thirsty legion of fresh fangs for a coup d'état against all opposition with "specialized" bullets. The situation boils over when the bookwormish great-grandson of Van Helsing (Bruce Campbell) arrives in an attempt to seal the fate of the entire town.
Anthony Hickox's Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat is quite the non-cult classic anomaly. Not given a theatrical release, the film was picked up by once-home video giant Vestron Video for a tape debut and then virtually vanished. Sundown never even had a niche cult following championing for a DVD release; even with the presence of B-flick icons Carradine and Campbell. I figured this horror/comedy/western had to be terrible or something given this lackluster obscurity, so I pegged scoping out the tape as a low priority. In spite of all this, probably spurred by the success of their long awaited re-issue of The Monster Squad, Lionsgate rolled out a special edition disc approaching two years ago. I popped this in last evening just to spot-check and ended up watching the whole damn thing. Sundown has problems, but it's nearly invisible status among horror fans for almost two decades is unjustified.
Otherwise, we get a good dollop of Campbell fresh off Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987). His nerdy, limp-spined character never approaches the badassness depicted on the above cover, but his spastic screams ala Ash show up and are still humorous. The dependable regardless David Carradine was thoroughly in the drunken nadir of his career as the "Count". Deborah Foreman is cute as a pale vixen smitten with Campbell, Maxwell Caulfield looks like the lovechild of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, and it's always a joy seeing M. Emmet Walsh and George 'Buck' Flower work.
Sundown came after Hickox's debut feature, Waxwork (1988), and is a bold 2.35:1 scope widescreen follow-up in hard-to-market concept. It's what initially damned the film and the modern day gangbusters western motif hurts the inventive underpinnings of wooden bullets and when becoming a vampire isn't always the worst fate. Late composer Richard Stone's full-on orchestral romanticized western score is also so tremendously great that it usually overshadows the modesty on-screen. Gorehounds will be disappointed as well with Hickox delivering a yarn pretty much suitable for young ones with no sexual content, a rubbery severed head, shootouts, and mildly lasagna-faced vampires at the climax. Unimportant quibbles though. Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat is worth your time and its neglected state for so long is a real shame. Lionsgate's anamorphic widescreen DVD has a commentary by Hickox and the film's DP, great interviews with Campbell, Carradine, and Walsh (all think warmly of the project), and photo gallery.


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Celebrity lifestyle guru Gwyneth Paltrow recently broke down and went through "a majorly fun and delicious 'relax and enjoy life phase' about a month ago." To compensate for enjoying life, Gwyneth believes you should DO a detox program. I disagree!
The Movieline crew disagrees as well, going so far as to offer Gwyneth an intervention against her own detoxification and exercise obsession. However, I think the best way to counteract Ms. Paltrow's pile o'GOOP is to create our own pile of JOOP, don't you? Below, your JOOP Guide To Not Feeling Bad About Relaxing And Enjoying Life. Excelsior!!!
- DO: Not listen to this bullshit, please. If you have to spend a month of your life "detoxing" from a period of relaxation and enjoyment, then you might want to start reconsidering your priorities. Life is short. Going through a constant cycle of being "relaxed" and being "disciplined" is a set up for unhealthy attitudes towards everything from food to exercise to body image to self-esteem. Happiness is not something that you need to wash away, and you're not "cleaner" after dropping a few pounds of water weight from your colon. As Kyle at Movieline notes:"You've got millions in Coldplay money and A View from the Top residuals, you act a few weeks a year on an Iron Man movie, and you WORK OUT THREE HOURS A DAY. If you need to assign yourself a "relax and enjoy life" phase, then you are messing up life things." If there's one thing we all need to detox from, it's the idea that losing a few pounds is the key to "fixing" our "bad" spells of, you know, living happily.
- MAKE: Cake. Or pie, if you must. But preferably cake. And then eat it. And then stop worrying about it. Cake is a part of a balanced diet, man. I'm not saying you should eat cake three meals a day, but the sooner people stop assigning "bad" and "good" to foods and start incorporating a variety of treats into a healthy, balanced meal plan, the better we'll all be. And the less likely we'll be to fall for stupid "this is my naughty phase, this is my detox phase" advice from the likes of Paltrow.
- GET: A unicorn. I like to buy my unicorns from an exclusive unicorn dealer on Saturn, but you can probably find one at your local unicorn dealership. A unicorn, if you didn't know, eats bullshit for breakfast and shits out rainbows, which is really handy if you have a stack of printed GOOP newsletters in the corner of your room and you need a little color in your day.
- BE: Happy. Really. Life is too short, you guys. I say this as someone who spent 7 years that I can't get back trapped in eating disorder hell, buying into similar crap notions that I could "fix" myself by going through a cycle of "relaxing" and fasting and so on. What works for a millionaire actress with a bevy of personal trainers and elite doctors and nutritionists may just be a disaster for you. And if you ever have to feel bad about enjoying life, then ur doin' it wrong.
- SEE: A registered dietician, if you really want to change your eating habits. Fasts and detoxes are temporary fixes that don't encourage a healthy way of eating or a healthy attitude towards food. A good dietician will help you incorporate REAL foods into your meal plan (one can not life on juice fasts and frozen diet dinners alone) to create a realistic way of staying healthy and happy.
- GO:Relax and enjoy life. Nobody should ever have to apologize or compensate for having fun and being happy. GOOP may want you to "nourish the inner aspect," but what kind of "nourishment" springs from trying to wash your "fun" times away? Perhaps if we really concentrated on the "inner aspect," we'd see that we're worth a whole lot more than a few lousy pounds. I know I'd rather walk around with a body filled with cake and happy memories than a body filled with a steaming pile of GOOP.
Gwyneth Paltrow: The Movieline Intervention [Movieline]


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11 Things You Should Never Do Again After 50
Author Jacquelyn Mitchard considers her limits after a half-century of experiences
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En español | According to Webster's, the sport involves "traversing environmental obstacles by running, climbing or leaping rapidly and efficiently." Still game? Then consider this: You may have to swing, vault, roll and walk on your hands and feet. You can watch this on YouTube without hurting yourself.1 of 12
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Jell-O Shots
Face it. By your age you should know better than to subject yourself to the extreme embarrassment (and brain cell loss) of getting so drunk that you fall down. Don't imitate today's twentysomethings; they'll probably grow out of it.2 of 12
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Karaoke After Jell-O Shots
So … you tried the Jell-O shots? Then you're probably more anxious to try karaoke than you would have been while sober. Go for it. Friends will drive you home. If your children witness it, they may not want to speak with you for a while — possibly an advantage depending on your perspective.3 of 12
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Trying to Break a Plank With Your Head
Your grandchildren may have advanced far enough in martial arts — typically karate or tae kwon do — to pull this one off. But unless you're sporting a black belt, you can avoid a concussion or worse by sticking to yoga.4 of 12
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Crowd Surfing
Here's how to do this. Go to a rock concert and wear soft shoes and no jewelry, zippers or studs (which can get caught in people's hair). Give your wallet and phone to someone you trust, and climb up on the stage. Make sure the people you're going to jump on have their hands raised to catch you. Dive. Try to stay on your back with your head up as you're passed around — and keep flailing to a minimum. I don't have to make the case against this one, right?5 of 12
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Collecting Owls Made of Shells
Accumulating ceramic frogs or shell owls may seem more age-appropriate than crowd surfing. However, if you're over 50 and inclined to collect such items, every flat surface in your home is probably already decorated. Since nothing says "oldster" more eloquently than a cluster of dustables, consider having a yard sale and starting over with some flamingos.6 of 12
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Boasting About Certain Things
It's considered tasteless to convey excitement in public about the number of stamps in your passport, zeroes in your paycheck, capital letters that accompany your name (unless they're H.R.H.), the number of people you could have married, the size of your acreage … or the size of your anything else.7 of 12
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Explaining Your Personal Role in Bringing Your Kids Up Right
If you think your children "never really got into any of that stuff," you're probably wrong. Chances are the kids will never tell you about "that stuff," but sometimes ignorance is bliss! Avoid making proud claims about your parenting that could be proven wrong.8 of 12
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Explaining Your Personal Role in Getting Your Kid Into an Ivy League College
You may very well have made it happen, but stop before you brag. Although other fiftysomethings might be impressed, soon they will be asking about your financial situation. (See "Boasting About Certain Things.")9 of 12
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Explaining Your Personal Role in Fueling the Rumor That Paul Was Dead
Actually, this may be OK. You can amuse younger folks by relating how, in the 1960s, you pushed Beatles albums the wrong way on the turntable with the needle down on the vinyl to listen for clues. And take heart! Millennial hipsters love vinyl and record players. You've lived long enough to be groovy again!10 of 12
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Single-Spacing Your Holiday Letter
If your yearning to update everyone on your personal role in bringing your kids up right (and getting them into Ivy League colleges) has you considering a smaller font or a bigger page, see previous advice. Then settle for a handwritten greeting on a simple card.11 of 12
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(Video) Skateboard Mom and The Sisters of Shred: Watch Barbara Odanaka take on her passion full-time and inspire other women - The Sisters of Shred - in California to do the same.


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Posted by Editoress on 05/29/11
Who knew? No one. Certainly not cyclocross specialist Craig Richey of Victoria himself, who attacked the lead bunch in the final five laps of the Condo Group Bastion Square Grand Prix to sprint free to win his first Bastion Square criterium in 1:18:01.
When asked at the end how it felt, "Just crazy," the CyclocrossRacing.com p/b Blue rider said, still a little bit in shock at his win.
Team H&R Block's Zack Garland was second in 1:18:08 while (?) Trek Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes was third. Seven riders broke away from the pack in the final laps of the 70-lap race to build a 30-second lead. The pack, led by last night's Kona Russ Hay's time trial champion Rob Britton (Brissel Pro Cycling Team) tried to bridge the gap in the last 10 laps getting close to 17 seconds from the lead, but it wasn't enough.
On the women's side, Team TIBCO/To the Top's Erinne Willock has been to the Olympics and World championships, but a home-town Bastion Square win still eluded her, until today. Willock beat Trek Red Truck's Karlee Gendron and Local Ride/Dr Vie Superfoods+ Steph Roorda in a final surge up the final few hundred metres of Fort Street.
With four laps to go, the women's top five lapped the pack with Willock, Gendron, Roorda, Missing Link Coaching Systems p/b Specialized Leah Guloien and junior rider phenomenon Annie Ewart (Trek Red Truck Racing Team p/b Mosaic) battling it out for the sprint finish (54:15.5).
It was a glorious day for the second race of the two-day Robert W. Cameron Law Corporation Cycling Series with thousands of spectators lining the Bastion Square 900-metre course. The excitement also featured 7th place 2010 Tour de France home-town boy Ryder Hesjedal leading more than 100 young "ryders" in the Tim Hortons Timbit Challenge.
The cycling series is part of the inaugural Victoria International Cycling Festival, presented by Harbour Air and follows yesterday's Ryder Hesjedal's Tour de Victoria.
1 Erinne Willock (TIBCO/To the Top)
2 Karlee Gendron (Trek Red Truck)
3 Steph Roorda (Local Ride/Dr Vie Superfoods+)
1 Craig Richey (CyclocrossRacing.com p/b Blue)
2 Zack Garland (Team H&R Block)
|Return to Canadian Cyclist homepage | Back to Top


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On Saturday, May 15, I will be premiering a new jazz ensemble, the Marc Sabatella Octet, at Dazzle (930 Lincoln, Denver). There will be shows at 7 and 9 PM, with a $12 cover ($8 for students at the 9 PM show). The band will feature Brad Goode (trumpet), Josh Quinlan (alto), Peter Sommer (tenor), Tom Ball (trombone), Bill Kopper (guitar), myself (piano), Drew Morell (bass), and Mike Marlier (drums). Additionally, several of the pieces will feature vocalist Wendy Fopeano. This an extremely special performance for me, and I'd like to take a few minutes to write about it.
The music for this show has been in the works for a long time. One could say it began with my composition Mystic Reverie, written in the late 1990's as a tribute to the larger scale works of Charles Mingus. It combines fully composed chorale-like passages with sections for spirited improvisation. Although it has been performed occasionally in quartets and other smaller ensembles, I have always had in mind a larger setting for this, with Mingus' and David Murray's octets specifically serving as inspiration. Another composition from that same time period, "Venable", is freer in structure but also episodic in nature, and I have always intended this to be played by a larger ensemble as well.
But the real motivator for putting together a regular working octet came when I went back to school in 2005 to get my Master's degree in composition from the Lamont School of Music at DU. While studying with Dave Hanson, Eric Gunnison, and Lynn Baker, I had the opportunity to regularly work with and write for ensembles of seven to nine musicians as well as big bands. Mystic Reverie and Venable were among the existing compositions I was able to arrange for ensembles at DU, and several brand new compositions were created as well. I also studied classical counterpoint and orchestration with Bill Hill and Chris Malloy, and I wrote pieces that were performed by classical chamber groups and the Lamont Symphony Orchestra.
Most of the music I wrote during this period was performed once for a school concert or student recital and never heard again. After graduating from DU in 2007, I hoped to find another opportunity to present this music. At the time, though, I had a steady quartet gig at Denver's famed El Chapultepec, and I was also writing music for this group. While some of the music written for larger ensembles at DU made the transition to the quartet repertoire, most did not.
After the El Chapultepec run ended, I turned my attention to forming a new ensemble of my own to perform the larger-scale music that I had been working on for the last decade. Although I had arranged music for ensembles of varying instrumentation at DU, I wanted to standardize on one configuration for this project. I settled on an octet consisting of trumpet, trombone, two saxophones (who double on other woodwinds), guitar, piano, bass, and drums. By using the guitar as one of the "front line" instruments, I am able to write five-part textures similar to those used in big band writing, and by including the guitar in the rhythm section, I can be freed from the piano when necessary to conduct – plus it gives me the possibility for different textures in the rhythm section. I also wished to feature vocals on some arrangements, since I had written more several songs for which I or my wife, jazz singer Wendy Fopeano, had written lyrics.
Very few of my existing arrangements from my days at DU exactly matched the instrumentation I chose for my new octet, so I had to spend some time reworking those charts. Big band arrangements in particular provided a real challenge, as I wished to preserve both the saxophone "soli" sections and the brass-dominated "shout" choruses, as well as the contrapuntal sections. This is difficult to achieve with only two saxophones and two brass instead of five and eight. Some of this music ends up being unusually demanding to play as result. The charts originally written for seven to nine pieces were more straightforward to arrange for the new octet, but I managed to work in a number of new passages and improvements suggested by my experiences with the original arrangements at DU.
In addition to the charts that began life as larger ensemble pieces at DU, some of the pieces originally written for the quartet at El Chapultepec have also been arranged for this octet, and a few pieces were newly conceived especially for this project.
So after a long journey, the music is finally ready for its debut at Dazzle. Of course, any composition is only as good as the musicians playing it, but the band I have assembled comprises some of the top players on each instrument. Trumpeter Brad Goode serves in multiples roles. During the big-band-style passages, his part alternates between what might be a typical lead trumpet role and a typical lead alto role, and of course he is the trumpet soloist as well. Luckily, Brad is one of the best in business at all of these. Josh Quinlan has the been the alto saxophonist of choice for several of the more creative big bands and other large ensembles in the area, and he has played regularly in smaller groups at El Chapultepec as well. Tenor saxophonist Peter Sommer was featured on my first two CD's – the first recorded when Sommer was only months out of high school – but we have not had the opportunity to work together much in the last decade I am especially pleased to be reunited with Pete for this project. Tom Ball is one of the few improvising trombone players in the area capable of navigating the sort of demanding parts I wrote. On some pieces, Tom also plays euphonium. Guitarist Bill Kopper worked with me on Wendy Fopeano's most recent recording, and as with Tom, Bill has the unenviable task of reading parts of a technical nature that players of his instrument seldom encounter in this type of music. Accompanying me in the rhythm section, Drew Morell has been one of my favorite bassists to work with for many years, and Mike Marlier is one of the tightest but hardest driving drummers around – exactly what is needed to hold an ensemble like this together. Featured vocalist Wendy Fopeano is one of Denver's most expressive singers and is well-known as the host of a regular jazz show on KUVO for the last several years.
Some of the highlights of the concert will include:
Zone Row G – this was adapted from a big band arrangement written in tribute to several different musicians. The central theme of the piece is a "zone row" - a melody made out of a series of pitches arranged to form triads, based on an idea espoused by George Garzone – that is then cast into different harmonic and rhythmic contexts. Over the course of the piece, the "zone row" visits territory inspired by the textures of Maria Schneider, the contrapuntal writing of Fred Sturm, and the serialism of Fred Hess.
Fanfare and Fugue – this piece takes a fanfare by Charles Carter that I learned and grew to love as a clarinetist in the Florida State University Marching Chiefs, pairs it with a honest-to-goodness baroque-style fugue based on two themes found in Thelonious Monk's "Brilliant Corners", and opens it up for both fast-paced improvisation and a musical "conversation" reminiscent of duets between Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy.
Obsession – this Dori Caymmi song popularized by Sarah Vaughan has long been of my favorites, but I have always been interested to hear it in a slightly different arrangement. This version is adapted from a big band arrangement I wrote at DU. It is faithful to the original song while hopefully "kicking it up a notch" in intensity. My arrangement is a feature for soprano saxophone and vocal.
As I Do – I composed this after graduating from DU but while teaching there (which I continue to do). I wrote it as a demonstration of the process of writing a larger scale piece, since I was giving my class an assignment to do the same. It is an essentially "positive" sounding composition that balances melodicism and intensity. It contains a number of inter-related themes and different harmonic contexts for improvisation.
Serving Notice – the bartender at El Chapultepec while I was playing there made no secret of the fact that he hated jazz and would rather be working almost anywhere else. We all loved him anyhow. When he announced he would be leaving (after something like ten years there), I wrote him a song with a hip-hop beat - which is what he preferred to jazz - and had Wendy Fopeano write lyrics on the subject of finally leaving a situation you have been wanting to leave for some time. The groove, melody, and lyrics really resonate with people when we perform this in small group settings, and I'm excited to now be able to present this tune with a "Chicago"-style horn arrangement. Oh, yeah - the bartender ended up changing his mind about leaving; he's still working there today as far as I know.
Hymn For Peter – originally conceived as a simple 4-part chorale in honor of my brother-in-law who died tragically in 2008, the octet version combines a reverentially reflective solo piano rendition of the theme with a gospel-flavored tenor saxophone re-statement, adds room for improvisation, and concludes with a triumphant orchestration of the original chorale harmonization.
Down – while vacationing up in the mountains, I happened to share a lodge with folks attending a writing workshop, and on a whim I tossed out the suggestion that I might set some of their poetry to music while we were all there. One of the writers, Jennifer Phelps, took me up on this and submitted her poem "down (anything but red)". By the evening I had turned it into a song. The octet version is based on an arrangement I did for my recital at DU.
Venable – this piece tells the musical story of a (real) backpacking trip through the mountains and an (imagined) midnight encounter with a bear. It is alternately majestic and heart-poundingly thrilling.
Mystic Reverie – the one that begat this whole project has always been a crowd favorite on the occasions when it has been performed in small-scale arrangements. The piece covers several different moods over its course, and the climax in which everyone in the audience is invited to sing along "like a drunken sailor" sends them home smiling.
My intent is to keep this octet together as a regular working ensemble – recording, writing new music, and adapting more existing pieces from my catalog. I hope to eventually expand into touring, bringing in guest artists, and more. But it all begins at Dazzle on Saturday, May 15, so mark your calendars!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Announcing The Marc Sabatella Octet!
Posted by Marc Sabatella at 9:34 PM 2 comments:
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"This acrylic photo block was magnificently done. Absolutely well done. Delivered as promised on time."
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"I purchase this for my daughter's annual school photo and it looks amazing"


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The example that really stuck with me was synthetic division, a more concise but less intuitive way of performing polynomial long division. Both of these topics are pretty much useless in daily life but polynomial long division does, at least, give the student some insight into the relationship between polynomials and familiar base-ten numbers. Synthetic division has no such value; it's just a faster but less interesting way of doing something you'll never have to do.
I started asking hardcore math people -- mathematicians, statisticians, physicists, rocket scientists*-- if they'd ever used synthetic division. By an overwhelming margin, the answer I got was "what's synthetic division?" Not only did they not need it; it made so little impression that they forgot ever learning it.
Which bring us to this passage from a recent Dana Goldstein post (discussed earlier):
The problem, according to [David] Coleman, is that American curriculum standards have traditionally been written by committees whose members advocate for their pet pedagogical theories, such as traditional vs. reform math.Except, of course, that's not what happened here. As was the case with so many topics in mathematics, synthetic division remained in the curriculum because no one who knew what was going on had bothered to look that closely. Coleman has a clever narrative, but it doesn't fit the facts all that well.
Now I have a request for all the math geeks in the audience. Since we need to pare down the curriculum, what you choose to cut? Specifically, what mathematical topics that you learned in school can future generations do without?
* Literal rocket scientists -- JPL's just down the road.
Also posted in a slightly different form at Observational Epidemiology.


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China professional high quality 3 in 1 multi-function kitchen knife sharpener
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This year's Chili Cook Off will be on February 10, 2013 and seems to have become an annual event. I seldom promote this kind of stuff, but in this case, the organizers are honest and the money goes to the Hogar de Vida, a home for abused, abandoned and orphaned kids that houses up to 35 children ages birth to 10 years old. Good cause.
I could not go last year… some conflict as I recall, but it is on my calendar for this year.
Give it a shot! I am sure that Diet Chili is available for those of us calorically challenged.
Or… maybe not.Filed under Chili, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Cooking, Costa Rica Tourism, Things to Do, Tourism, Travel | Comment (1)


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Mystery gold gifts for tsunami-wracked Japan port 17 февраля 2013, 12:48
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Photo courtesy of donnafremonpowell.com
A Japanese city devastated by the 2011 tsunami has received anonymous gifts of gold worth more than $250,000 in a phenomenon dubbed a "goodwill gold rush" ahead of the second anniversary of the disaster, AFP reports.
The president of the company which operates the port in the northeastern city of Ishinomaki last week received a parcel containing two slabs of gold each weighing one kilogram (2.2 pounds).
"Since it was labelled as 'miscellaneous goods,' I casually opened the box," thinking it must be books or the like as it was heavy, said Kunio Sunow, president of the Ishinomaki Fish Market Co. Ltd.
"I was stunned because what's in there was 24k gold in two plates. One was wrapped in brown paper and the other in a page taken from a magazine -- both were sitting in bubble sheets," he told AFP by telephone on Saturday.
The parcel had been sent anonymously from Nagano city northwest of Tokyo with no message.
"Just looking at 24k gold can encourage people as it has a presence. It's great to know we haven't been forgotten," Sunow said, adding he had not yet decided how to use the gift.
Japanese media said a non-profit group in Ishinomaki that has been supporting its revival had also received two kilograms of gold bullion and at least one more group got more than one kilogram.
The gifts have mystified Japanese people, prompting the mass-circulation Asahi newspaper to call the phenomenon a "goodwill gold rush" in Ishinomaki.
The city, some 350 kilometres (220 miles) northeast of Tokyo, was devastated by the 9.0 earthquake and massive tsunami it generated on March 11, 2011.
The disaster killed nearly 19,000 people, including more than 3,000 in Ishinomaki, and sparked the world's worst nuclear accident in a generation.


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About the Author
Jimmy Gleacher is the author of "It's How You Play the Game" and the screenwriter of "He's Such a Girl," and lives in Boulder, Colorado. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the trippy and groovy Naropa Institute, where he was awarded the Jack Kerouac Scholarship. His short stories have appeared in The Sun, 2wice, The Lullwater Review, Damaged Goods, and other lit journals no one has ever heard of.
I would like to thank Jimmy for stopping by BookHounds today and answering my silly questions.
Check out his other books at the end and enter to win copies of both his previous releases!
1. Bookmarks or dog ears?
2. Dust jacket on or off when reading a hard back?
3. What is the first book you remember reading by yourself as a child?
Old Yeller
4. What are you reading right now?
IMPERIAL BEDROOMS by Bret Easton Ellis
5. Do you have a favorite author?
Tim O'Brien
6. Was there a book that inspired you to write?
7. Do you have a favorite place to write?
Boulder, Colorado
8. How does your garden grow?
Definitely not with cockle shells.
9. What is the last thing you Googled?
Old Yeller
10. What makes you cringe?
All the mistakes I have made.
TRUE OR F A L S E ? It's only a week into summer break and already seventeen-year-old Gates has . . .
a) Hustled millionaires on the golf course
b) Tried to stop his mother from having a(nother) nervous breakdown
c) Promised to lose his virginity with his girlfriend, Mel . . . which would be great if he hadn't already lost it to his forty-year-old godmother
d) Almost killed a man
Yeah, Gates has a lot of secrets, but he's determined to keep his heart true. When he's not swinging golf clubs like a pro, he reads pulp fiction to old folks at the retirement home. And despite his occasional slip-ups—drinking before noon and sneaking glimpses through his sexy godmother's open negligees—Gates only has eyes for Mel. But she knows he's hiding something, and she's beginning to lose her patience.
Just as Gates is about to spill his shameful secrets, he gets tangled up in a golf club scandal that jeopardizes his dreams of a normal life. He's never been a fighter, but this time he finally pushes back at the world—which could have been a breakthrough but turns into an epic fail. Probably because Gates fights back dirty. Now his life is on the verge of ruin, and he's got no one to turn to for help.
Or so he thinks. Because what Gates is about to discover might hit him with the most amazing shock of his life.
Liza Davis is looking for something. Looking for hope, for meaning. For her sister, or her best friend. Maybe she's even looking for herself. In Silly Little Rich Girl, Jimmy Gleacher introduces a fascinating and contradictory heroine. Privileged, famous, beautiful…Liza seems destined for a successful career on Wall Street until a series of events loosens her grip on reality and sends her on a cross-country quest. From New York to Florida to Seattle, she visits the fringes of the underworld, gets an hour's worth of fifteen minutes of fame, falls in love for the first time, and believes her obsession with finding her sibling is sisterly love. Liza's journey is a classic road trip with a postmodern spin. Through Liza, Gleacher takes on American popular culture, from the sacred to the profane. Reality television, politicians, and evangelical Christians are just a few of Gleacher's targets in this incisive sophomore novel.
With a cinematic wit and some emotional insight (rare from the male perspective), Jimmy Gleacher delivers his debut novel, a clever and heartfelt tale of a twentysomething guy's trip through love and relationships.
Jack Wilson's got a few problems. First, there's his ex-girlfriend, Breach — their relationship was too perfect for any twentysomething guy in his right mind. Unable to commit, he quickly ran the other way. Since then, the dating games have spun out of control.
Now there's his new girlfriend, Hope — she's gorgeous, exciting, smart, and quite possibly crazy. Hope's rich friends? Even crazier. Jack's life is suddenly cluttered with young, beautiful people who have a strange definition of love. Relying on fate, Jack decides to ride the situation out with little or no regard for the consequences.
A no-good gambling father, the new girlfriend's psychotic mother, and a seductive older woman aren't making things any easier. Jack's getting plenty of advice, though. If he isn't seeking the counsel of the local Mafioso deli owner, then his mom and her "Friday Night Drinking Club" are more than willing to butt in. Through it all, Jack learns that finding love and living with it depends on a set of rules, a few good moves, and a dose of luck.
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Book: One With You
Series: Cross fire #5
Author : Sylvia Day
Pages: 464
Bought Paperback
Rating: ✪✪✪
One with you is the last book in Sylvia Day's Cross fire Series and sadly I was disappointed. I picked up this series last year and fell in love with it, it was one of those books to read after reading fifty shades. The first three books I gave 5 stars, and then the fourth book 4 stars. Sadly for the last book my rating has dropped to 3 stars for the finale.
I still really don't know how I feel about it. Am really conflicted! The first half started of great and then things just started going weird. I think when a certain incident happened and some things where revealed I was just like, have I been reading a totally different series than I thought. I don't think what Sylvia Day did to a character was needed it just felt so out of sync with the story.
I also found that the second half just rushed so much and was trying to tie everything up that it went too fast. Sometimes a finale doesn't satisfy everyone and this certainly didn't for me. Some strange things happened in my opinion and I just needed it to slow down and give me a bit more.
Have you read any of the Cross fire novels?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.


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In Portland, living the green American dream
More young urban professionals are forgoing square footage for eco-friendly homes.
Bryan and Chris Higgins didn't set out to save the world. But one look at their home, built on a tiny lot with tall windows and radiant floor heat that result in low utility bills, and it's obvious the young couple has a mission: to leave the lightest footprint possible on mother earth's soil.
Mr. Higgins, an architect, and Mrs. Higgins, a civil engineer, are proud to own just one car and walk to work every day, dropping their daughter Frances off at child care along the way. They love their energy-efficient kitchen appliances and feel fortunate to live in a place that cools so well they don't need an air conditioner, even on Portland's 90-degree days.
The Higgins are at the forefront of a boom in green building.
Much of it is being driven by a generation of young professionals interested in anything "earth friendly" to create their own urban oasis. Call them GUPPYS - green urban professionals who are young.
In some respects, it is the 1970s all over again, except its adherents wear Merrills instead of earth shoes and bamboo floors and recycled glass counters have replaced woodstoves and solar panels as signature elements.
And perhaps nowhere does the fervor take on a deeper shade of green than in the Pacific Northwest, in cities from San Francisco to Seattle, where the climate is relatively mild and environmentalism is a virtual religion. Indeed, Portland, Ore. - which already draws a large number of 25- to 34-year-olds - may be the new capital of the ecohouse movement.
"A lot of people move here seeking many things, not the least of which is life in a greener place," says Ethan Seltzer, professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University. "Oregonians may not be getting the biggest paychecks, but they are getting access to a natural environment that provides them with a lot of benefits. So it's not surprising that you see more solar lighting and eco roofs here."
Well-educated young people are disproportionately drawn to Portland, according to Joe Cortright, economist and coauthor of "Young and Restless: How Portland Competes for Talent," a study of the migration of 25- to 34-year-olds across the US. "In focus groups people said Portland is a place where you can live your values, and environmentalism is clearly one of them."
Mr. Cortright sees this playing out across the country as well. In places where young professionals are migrating - Portland, Ore.; Phoenix; and Charlotte, N.C., to name a few - the job market gets extremely tight, forcing much of the creativity into entrepreneurial positions. It is those people who may push the mounting interest in building green over the edge and into mainstream.
Many young professionals looking to buy or build their first house - or empty-nesters wanting to downsize or remodel - see building green as much more than a movement. It's a responsibility, and it's becoming irresistibly chic.
"Building green is both a very practical, self-interested activity, in terms of lower operating costs, and it also has a deeper spiritual value to many people taking responsibility for the impacts they have," says Alan Scott, an architect in Portland who has been involved in the green building movement for years.
Portland groups such as City Repair, which brings several hundred people together to work on natural building projects dotted around the city, have tapped a market that is clearly on the upswing.
Part of its allure is that "green" is no easy name to come by. It is akin to a status symbol, and it must be earned. Even the Higgins hesitate to call their house green, despite its many environmentally sensitive features.
A green building must attempt to produce net zero energy, which many achieve through solar paneling, eco roofs, and smaller spaces. It must use mostly recycled or renewable materials - anything from glass countertops and used lumber to wool carpeting and bamboo floors. Even the energy spent to transport the material to the site is considered; recycled glass, for instance, loses its "conservation" value if a lot of fuel was used to haul it there.
It is no surprise, then, that green homes are less accessible to those who cannot afford the pricier materials and construction expertise. It is still the domain of the wealthy - or at least yuppies with disposable income.
But as the owners of green homes know firsthand, the cost difference is largely superficial. Any up-front costs are recaptured over time because these buildings use so little energy. Portland General Electric, for instance, reimburses houses that generate more power than they use. An award-winning green house in Cannon Beach, Ore., with its solar panels and eco roof (a roof planted with greenery to deflect heat and improve insulation), is actually making money this spring.
"There are such significant selling advantages to building a green building that if the up-front cost differential is eliminated you will see a lot more green development taking place," says Leanne Tobias, founder of Malachite LLC, a venture founded to provide services on sustainable or green development in Washington, D.C.
"As energy prices continue to inflate, the advantages for building green become even greater," she says. "Green building will be mainstreamed, a far greater share of new construction will be green construction, and there will be a great deal of interest in retrofitting existing buildings so that they are more energy efficient."
Though such breakthroughs as solar paneling and eco roofs have been in the works since the '70s, actual adaptation has been slow. Even five years ago the kinds of recycled materials available today weren't on the market. But California's energy crisis, the 2003 blackout in the Eastern US, along with swelling gasoline costs, have served as a wake-up call to homebuyers.
"[We are being] forced, in a good way, to take note and be proactively involved [in green building], says Darr Hashempour, vice president of energy solutions for PinnacleOne, a construction consulting firm in Los Angeles. "This isn't a fad. Building green is now a fact of life."
Not everyone characterizes the green momentum in such optimistic terms. "There clearly is an upward swing, but if you're talking about any real penetration into the mainstream, I don't think there's been any," says Lester Lave, an economics professor and director of the Carnegie Mellon Green Design Initiative in Pittsburgh.
Mr. Lave has been pushing for greener building since he moved to Pittsburgh in the late '60s, and he admits his patience has worn thin. "When I put on my economics hat, I think it is reprehensible for people to build buildings where they're focusing only on first costs. There's no excuse for it."


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When a hardcore Washington Redskins fan and a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan conceive a child, which team the baby will root for can lead to some heated discussions.
When the Redskins visited the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day, the couple decided the winner would get to name their future son. It would be Robert Griffin Vega if the Redskins won, Austin Miles Vega if the Cowboys took the holiday game.
"She didn't really disagree with that at all, but she started saying she would name it Troy Aikman or Emmitt Smith, all these old Cowboys," Vega told The Washington Post. "I would die if my son grew up to be a Cowboys fan. That'd be awful. I don't even know how I'd feel."
"We've had bets before, where she would wear my Redskins sweater at work if they won," the 27-year-old Vega said. "But the name of our son? Determining what fan he would be? It was just insane that they won. That was even bigger than the division title."
Robert Griffin III has yet to comment on whether he is disappointed that his future grandson's initials -- RG5 -- have been usurped (Roman numerals jokes are fun).


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Tango Magic 2008 - Outdoor Milonga
I wasn't in the mood to dance so I thought I'd just take some shots of the Milonga in Kirkland WA during the Tango Magic 2008 festival. These are for private use only and copywritten by Wesley Kronick. If interested in using for commercial purposes, please contact me directly. Thanks -WesleyRead More


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Blue River Technology, which uses robotics and computer vision to optimize agriculture by, for instance, determining which lettuces to thin out of a row and which to keep, has closed a $10 million Series A-1 funding round, led by Data Collective Venture Capital — topping up a $3.1 million Series A it raised back in 2012.
Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors also joined the round as a new investor, while existing investor Khosla Ventures participated.
Blue River Technology's main premise is to reduce the use of chemicals in food production by optimizing agricultural methods via robotics systems that can automatically recognize plants and make decisions about which seedlings to thin or identify weeds to eliminate.
The idea is to enable large-scale farms to tend to the needs of individual plants vs the broadcast methods employed by current generation agriculture — which relies on spraying pesticide en masse, because, well, chemicals are dirt cheap. Yet problems with environmental or even food contamination are not factored in to current farming methods, and that's something Blue River is hoping to change.
CEO and co-founder, Jorge Heraud, told TechCrunch: "Traditional agriculture is very chemical intensive. Chemicals are broadcast applied — a field of many acres, many hectares, gets the same treatment. All plants get fertilized in the same way, all plants get treated with chemical herbicide whether they have weeds or not. Or they get pesticides whether they are sick or not. Everything is just treated the same way.
"The future I see is a future where we use half, a fifth, a tenth of those chemicals by just understanding and putting herbicides only on the plants that need them, by putting fertilization only in the quantities that you need them, putting disease control chemical only on the plants that need it. This can means just a phenomenal amount of savings and efficiency increase and yield increase… We're calling it 'making every plant count'."
Blue River Technology's first product — currently being used by some eight customers in different parts of the U.S. (and bringing in revenue for the startup) — is designed to precision thin lettuce crops by allowing farmers to set the required spacing between plants. The machine then targets herbicide spray to remove only the plants that aren't wanted.
Typically this work would usually be done by human thinners — so in this instance Blue River Technology isn't necessarily reducing chemicals used. But that's part of its strategy to overcoming the agricultural industry's over-reliance on herbicides and pesticides generally.
Heraud said the biggest barrier to uptake of robotics optimized agriculture is the low cost (to agriculture) of using chemicals. That's why it's started by focusing on specific areas where costs are higher — such as the aforementioned lettuce thinning (being as it's usually done by human workers who are more expensive to employ than mass spraying).
By targeting its tech at areas that aren't currently optimised by automation, Blue River hopes to expand into areas that are — and help reduce the chemical load being sprayed onto fields in the process.
"If you're competing against chemicals right now, or big pieces of automation, it's pretty hard; the costs are pretty low," said Heraud. Ergo, the initial strategy to build traction in the agricultural industry is "getting good at the bits where chemicals are not being effective yet".
Other areas Blue River hopes to target next are portions of agriculture where herbicides have been over-used and led to problems with herbicide-resistant weeds — which in turn requires farmers to use more expensive chemicals to kill them. That makes a precision targeting technological solution potentially more attractive, argues Heraud.
Blue River plans to use its new financing to further expand its engineering team and product offering. Specifically, he said it's working on improving its lettuce precision thinning machine with a next-gen version of the product in the works that's wider, faster and more accurate.
It's also working on extending its plant recognition systems — which is where the computer vision tech comes in — and also on big data techniques for application with row crops such as corn and soybeans, which it said can benefit from phenotyping for crop breeding as well as precise weed control.
Phenotyping refers to the process that seed breeders engage in in propagating plants to produce high quality seed. This is an area where Blue River sees plenty of potential for its technology.
"What this machine would do is look at plants and take very quantitative measurements of how the plant does in different situations — how does it respond to having low nitrogen, how does it respond to having low water, how does it respond to higher temperatures, higher salinity — so the idea is to understand the plant's physiology better, so you can select better, so it's a research tool for seed developers," said Heraud, explaining how Blue River's computer vision tech could be applied to the phenotyping field.
"It's a very important tool too — if you think about agriculture and how you can have an impact on agriculture… the work that seed breeders do can have one of the largest impacts on food and food worldwide," he added.
Commenting on Blue River's funding in a statement, Vinod Khosla said: "Blue River is taking a very innovative and practical approach to solving one of the world's top problems – how to produce more food in a responsible way. I'm impressed by how quickly the company brought its first product to market, and how successful it's been. This high-caliber Blue River team has assembled leading experts spanning both cutting-edge technology and agriculture, and they are in a great position to lead the next gen of environmentally-friendly precision agriculture."
"Blue River is leveraging three important trends: machine learning, data-driven agriculture and robotics," added Matt Ocko, founding partner of Data Collective Venture Capital, in a second supporting statement. "This approach has the potential to revolutionize how we produce food in the near future."


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OVERVIEW: What every practitioner needs to know
Are you sure your patient has pharyngitis? What should you expect to find?
Sore throat, fever, odynophagia, malaise, nausea
Tender cervical adenopathy, pharyngotonsillar exudate, edema and/or erythema of pharynx, soft palate and tonsils
How did the patient develop pharyngitis? What was the primary source from which the infection spread?
Pharyngitis of infectious etiology is spread when droplets of infected fluids, such as saliva, nasal discharge, or mucus come in contact with another person's nasal or oral mucosa or conjunctivae. The incubation period is usually 24 to 72 hours.
It is more common among children younger than 15 years of age. Infections are more commonly spread in winter, and the majority of cases are viral in origin. Group A beta-hemolytic streptococci (GABHS) cause 15 to 30% of acute pharyngitis in children and 5 to 20% in adults (strep throat).
Beware: there are other diseases that can mimic pharyngitis:
Irritation, which includes chemical or thermal burns, smoke inhalation, trauma, orogastric or nasogastric tube, and persistent coughRelated Content
Primary allergic reaction
Secondary to postnasal discharge from allergic or infectious etiologies
Steven–Johnson syndrome
Aphthous ulcers (including ulcers secondary to inflammatory bowel disease)
Acute thyroiditis
Behçet disease
Gastroesophageal or laryngopharyngeal reflux disease
Leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia, as well as oropharyngeal malignancies
Oral mucositis, which is usually secondary to radiation or chemotherapy
What laboratory studies should you order and what should you expect to find?
Results consistent with the diagnosis
Peripheral white blood cell (WBC) count with differential: expect neutrophil predominance for strep throat and lymphocytosis for mononucelosis.
Rapid streptococcal antigen test (RAST): positive result for strep throat
Results that confirm the diagnosis
Throat culture (sensitivity >90-95% for strep throat)
What imaging studies will be helpful in making or excluding the diagnosis of pharyngitis?
Imaging has no use in evaluation or management of routine pharyngitis.
X-ray ($60-$125), a computed tomography scan ($125-$500), and magnetic resonance imaging (>$1,000) of the head and neck can be utilized to diagnose complications that can occur, including pharyngotonsillar abscess and Lemierre syndrome.
What consult service or services would be helpful for making the diagnosis and assisting with treatment?
Family medicine; Internal medicine; Emergency medicine; Pediatrics; Ear, Nose, and Throat; and Infectious Disease specialists most often see patients with pharyngitis and can, thus, assist in evaluation and management.
If you decide the patient has pharyngitis, what therapies should you initiate immediately?
Key principles of therapy
Most cases of pharyngitis are self-limiting and do not require any antimicrobial treatment. Antibiotics are often misused as most cases of pharyngitis are of viral origin.
The key to management is in identifying patients who are more likely to have GABHS and then using appropriate antibiotic(s) to prevent complications, such as rheumatic fever and glomerulonephritis, scarlet fever, and local exudative complications such as pharyngotonsillar abscess.
How do I know if the patient has pharyngitis due to Group A streptococci?
Differentiating strep throat (or pharyngitis secondary to GABHS) from other infectious etiologies can often be very difficult. A scoring system, with the intention to guide treatment choices, called the Centor criteria, was developed. The criteria include four points, and patients get one point for each criterion. The four points are:
Absence of cough
Anterior cervical lymphadenopathy
Tonsillar exudates
Temperature (>100.4°F [38.0°C])
Later, a modification of these criteria with the addition of the factor of age was done, keeping in mind that most strep throat infections occur in children. As per this modified Centor criteria, patients within age ranges of younger than 14 years of age, 15 to 44 years of age, and older than 45 years of age get 1, 0, or 1 point, respectively.
A score of 0 or 1 indicates a less than 5% likelihood of GABHS infection, whereas a score of 4 is associated with an almost 50% likelihood of GABHS infection.
Because of this correlation between increased scores and chances of strep throat, the criteria further helps in guiding appropriate management, as follows:
Patients with scores of 0 or 1 do not need any further evaluation. However, if a patient with a score of 1 has had a recent close contact with a known case of strep throat, clinical judgment may guide one toward further work-up.
Patients with scores of 2 or 3 can be evaluated with either a throat culture (slow diagnosis, but gold standard) or a RAST (best for quick diagnosis).
Patients with scores of 4 or more do not need further work-up and can be managed presumptively as cases of strep throat.
Whether patients with negative RAST test need a follow-up with throat culture is controversial. The sensitivity of throat culture is approximately 95%, whereas that of RAST depends on the particular kit utilized. Newer kits can be as sensitive as throat cultures. The specificity of RAST ranges between 90 and 99%.
How does one distinguish infectious mononucleosis from strep throat?
In its early stages, infectious mononucleosis can often mimic GABHS infection. It starts with a prodromal period of chills, sweats, and malaise that proceeds to involve sore throat, fever, and generalized lymphadenopathy. Unlike strep throat, however, infectious mononucleosis can be associated with generalized lymphadenopathy. Palatal petechiae and thick white/purple exudate can often be present. Splenomegaly and/or hepatomegaly can be present in more than 50% of patients. Lymphocytosis, along with greater than 10% atypical lymphocytes and mild thrombocytopenia, can be found in mononucleosis. Mild elevations in liver function tests and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) also accompany mononucleosis, but these laboratory tests are usually normal in patients with strep throat. Heterophile antibodies can be present within 2 to 3 weeks of disease onset and can persist in serum up to 1 year or longer. More specific antibodies, including immunoglobulin M antibody to viral capsid antigen, also exist. Administration of ampicillin frequently induces a maculopapular rash.
1. Anti-infective agents
If I am not sure what pathogen is causing the infection what anti-infective should I order?
Empiric antibiotic treatment for pharyngitis is not a cost-effective approach and is generally not recommended. Antibiotic treatment decreases symptomatic duration by about 14 to 16 hours.
If a patient meets four out of four Centor criteria or more than four criteria as per the modified Centor criteria, then penicillin or erythromycin (for penicillin allergic patients) could be prescribed for treating GABHS. For patients not meeting all the Centor criteria, clinical judgment with regards to empiric treatment is advised. This is especially the case, because most cases of pharyngitis are benign and of viral origin, which do not require specific treatment besides comfort measures.
If empirical treatment is given, then the treatment is usually guided toward treating GABHS, unless the suspicion for an alternate microbe causing infectious pharyngitis is high. In such cases, penicillin V is the most recommended drug of choice by various organizations/guidelines.
Alternate choices of drugs would include benzathine penicillin G (intramuscular form of penicillin, only one dose required), amoxicillin, or amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (better taste). For allergic patients, macrolides (erythromycin) or cephalosporins (cefalexin) can be given.
Treatment options are summarized in Table I.
Table I.
|Streptococcus pyogenes (GABHS)
|Penicillin V
|250mg orally every 12 hours or 500mg orally every 24 hours for 10 days
|Erythromycin is the choice of antibiotic for penicillin allergic patients. It also covers Mycoplasma and Chlamydia.
|Benzathine, penicillin G
|1.2 million units IM once (benzathine)
|250mg orally every 12 hours for 5-10 days
|500mg orally every 12 hours for 10 days
|500mg orally every 8 hours for 7-10 days
|500-750mg orally every 8 hours for 7-10 days
|400mg orally every 6 hours for 10 days
|500mg orally every 8 hours for 3 days
|Mycoplasma, Chlamydia
|400mg orally every 6 hours for 10 days
|500mg orally every 8 hours for 3 days
|Neisseria gonorrhoeae
|Ceftriaxone plus azithromycin
|0.25g IM once (ceftriaxone)1g orally once (azithromycin)
|100mg orally every 12 hours for 7 days
|Herpes simplex
|400mg orally every 8 hours for 7-10days
|Corynebacterium diphtheriae
|500mg orally every 6 hours for 14days
|Penicillin G followed by penicillin V
GABHS, group A beta-hemolytic streptococci; IM, intramuscularly; N/A, not applicable.
2. Other key therapeutic modalities.
Symptomatic relief in pharyngitis is often the main pillar of treatment, as opposed to antibiotic treatment. Both systemic and local therapies can be utilized toward this goal.
Systemic analgesics: aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen are the most commonly used medications. Ibuprofen 400mg orally has been shown to be more effective than acetaminophen 1,000mg in some trials. Aspirin should be avoided, if possible, and used cautiously if needed for children with pharyngitis because of its association with Reye syndrome in patients with viral infections.
Local remedies: warm saline gargles (a tablespoon of salt in 8oz of warm water), as well as lozenges (benzocaine, phenol, menthol, lidocaine, ambroxol, etc.), help calm the sore throat from inflamed pharynx.
Hydration, nutrition, and rest are equally important.
Controversial or evolving therapies: glucocorticoids have been shown to be efficacious in decreasing pain from sore throat in some trials. However, because of methodologic fallacies in some of these trials, the use of glucocorticoids in pharyngitis remains controversial at present.
What complications could arise as a consequence of pharyngitis?
Most viral infections do not have any complications.
GABHS, if not treated promptly, can lead to suppurative (sinusitis, otitis media, mastoiditis, pharyngotonsillar abscess, etc.), as well as nonsuppurative (rheumatic fever, glomerulonephritis in rare cases), complications.
What should you tell the family about the patient's prognosis?
Pharyngitis, which usually presents with sore throat, is a very common self-limiting condition in otherwise healthy patients. It happens because of viral or bacterial infection of the throat. If appropriately managed, most patients usually recover within 2 to 7 days from their infection without any complications.
How do you contract pharyngitis and how frequent is this disease?
Pharyngitis of infectious etiology is spread when droplets of infected fluids, such as saliva, nasal discharge, or mucus, come in contact with another person's nasal or oral mucosa or conjunctivae. The incubation period is usually between 24 and 72 hours.
It is more common among children aged younger than 15 years.
Infections are more commonly spread in winter.
Viral infections comprise more than 50% of all cases of pharyngitis. Bacterial infections account for roughly 20 to 30% of the cases. No infectious etiology is identified for the remaining 20 to 30% of the cases.
What pathogens are responsible for this disease?
Group A, C, and G streptococci, Chlamydophila pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Arcanobacterium haemolyticum, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, Fusobacterium necrophorum, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae:
The presence of 3 or 4 Centor criteria highly suggests GABHS, as opposed to another infectious etiology.
The presence of hoarseness, cough, and coryza are against GABHS.
Pharyngitis in association with bronchitis may suggest Mycoplasma or Chlamydia infection.
The presence of grey tonsillar pseudomembrane (particularly in association with bleeding when the membrane is scraped) may suggest diphtheria. It is more common in alcoholics, as well as patients who have recently travelled to endemic areas.
Candidal pharyngitis: particularly in diabetics or immunocompromised patients.
Rhinovirus, adenovirus, influenza A and B, parainfluenza, coxsackie, echovirus, herpes simplex virus (HSV), Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), Cytomegalovirus (CMV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), respiratory syncytial virus, and metapneumovirus:
Presence of cough, coryza, conjunctivitis, myalgia, and diarrhea are generally suggestive of viral origin.
Mononucleosis-like presentation can be secondary to EBV, CMV, and HIV. However, CMV is usually not associated with pharyngitis.
Lymphadenopathy (anterior, as well as posterior, cervical nodes), white/purple exudate, and hepatosplenomegaly suggest infectious mononucleosis.
Presence of vesicles on oropharynx or tonsils may indicate herpes infection.
What other additional laboratory findings may be ordered?
Anti-streptolysin O (ASO) titers are not useful for GABHS pharyngitis. However, ASO can be obtained for patients who develop complications—rheumatic fever and glomerulonephritis—secondary to GABHS infection.
If the suspicion for GABHS pharyngitis is high but RAST with or without culture is negative, obtain another culture on human blood media, as A. haemolyticum can mimic strep throat and does not grow as well on standard sheep blood media.
If the suspicion for gonococcal pharyngitis is high, use Thayer-Martin media for culture.
Obtain heterophile-agglutination test, as well as anti-EBV titers, for cases suspicious for infectious mononucleosis.
HSV serologies can be obtained in pharyngitis that is suspicious for herpes infection.
Obtain enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with or without western blot if the suspicion for HIV is significant. HIV-related pharyngitis often happens in the acute phase of infection when the serologies are still negative (window period). Point-of-care tests along with HIV viral load assays should be utilized in these cases.
How can pharyngitis be prevented?
There is no single vaccine that prevents pharyngitis, since it can be caused by many different bacteria and viruses. Influenza vaccine may prevent some community causes of pharyngitis. Prophylactic drug treatment is not recommended. Avoidance of direct contact with infected patients is key to preventing pharyngitis.
WHAT'S THE EVIDENCE for specific management and treatment recommendations?
Bisno, AL. "Acute pharyngitis". N Engl J Med. vol. 344. 2001. pp. 205-11. (This review article provides an overview of the diagnosis and management of acute infectious pharyngitis as caused by various bacterial and viral organisms.)
Choby, BA. "Diagnosis and treatment of streptococcal pharyngitis". Am Fam Physician. vol. 79. 2009. pp. 383-90. (The article provides a detailed discussion of the diagnosis and management of pharyngitis from GABHS. It also includes a comparison of different guidelines regarding the screening, diagnostic testing, and management of GABHS pharyngitis.)
Del Mar, CB, Glasziou, PP, Spinks, AB. "Antibiotics for sore throat". Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2006. (This systematic review included 27 studies with the idea to assess the benefits of antibiotics in patients with sore throat. It gave results on the number of patients needed to treat with regard to the management of symptoms. It also addressed the benefits of antibiotics in preventing suppurative and non-suppurative complications of pharyngitis.)
Pelucchi, C, Grigoryan, L, Galeone, C. "Guideline for the management of acute sore throat". Clin Microbiol Infect. vol. 18. 2012. pp. 1-28. (This article provides the ESCMID (European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases) guidelines for the management of uncomplicated acute sore throat. It also discusses and rates the level of evidence in the current literature that addresses the same topic.)
Fine, AM, Nizet, V, Mandl, KD. "Large-scale validation of the Centor and McIsaac scores to predict group A streptococcal pharyngitis". Arch Intern Med. vol. 172. 2012. pp. 847-52. (This is a study of more than 200,000 patients that validated the Centor and McIsaac scores for the screening of Strep throat. The results from this study help better classify the risks of strep throat than the original study because of the large sample size.)
Humair, JP, Revaz, SA, Bovier, P, Stalder, H. "Management of acute pharyngitis in adults: reliability of rapid streptococcal tests and clinical findings". Arch Intern Med. vol. 166. 2006. pp. 640-4. (This prospective cohort study compares the rapid streptococcal antigen test (RAST) with the gold-standard—throat culture. It provides sensitivity and specificity of the RAST. It also compared appropriate antibiotic use with cost per patient for five different modes of diagnostic strategies, including symptomatic treatment, systematic RAST, selective RAST, empirical treatment, and systematic culture.)
Luzuriaga, K, Sullivan, JL. "Infectious mononucleosis". N Engl J Med. vol. 362. 2010. pp. 1993-2000. (This is a clinical practice article on Infectious mononucleosis that also includes a table on the differential diagnosis of the infectious causes of acute pharyngitis. The diagnosis part of this article is relevant given that infectious mononucleosis, in its early stage, can often mimic GABHS pharyngitis.)
McIsaac, WJ, Kellner, JD, Aufricht, P, Vanjaka, A, Low, DE. "Empirical validation of guidelines for the management of pharyngitis in children and adults". JAMA. vol. 291. 2004. pp. 1587-95. (This is a validation study that addresses the comparison of different diagnostic approaches, including rapid tests and culture and its impact on antibiotic use.)
Vincent, MT, Celestin, N, Hussain, AN. "Pharyngitis". Am Fam Physician. vol. 69. 2004. pp. 1465-70. (This article briefly discusses the differential diagnosis, as well as clinical- and laboratory-based diagnosis of acute infectious pharyngitis.)
Copyright © 2017, 2013 Decision Support in Medicine, LLC. All rights reserved.
No sponsor or advertiser has participated in, approved or paid for the content provided by Decision Support in Medicine LLC. The Licensed Content is the property of and copyrighted by DSM.
- OVERVIEW: What every practitioner needs to know
- Are you sure your patient has pharyngitis? What should you expect to find?
- How did the patient develop pharyngitis? What was the primary source from which the infection spread?
- Beware: there are other diseases that can mimic pharyngitis:
- What laboratory studies should you order and what should you expect to find?
- What imaging studies will be helpful in making or excluding the diagnosis of pharyngitis?
- If I am not sure what pathogen is causing the infection what anti-infective should I order?
- What complications could arise as a consequence of pharyngitis?
- What should you tell the family about the patient's prognosis?
- How do you contract pharyngitis and how frequent is this disease?
- What pathogens are responsible for this disease?
- What other additional laboratory findings may be ordered?
- How can pharyngitis be prevented?
- WHAT'S THE EVIDENCE for specific management and treatment recommendations?