text:
2011 AMA Flat Track
Successfully navigating a single-groove race track, Harley-Davidson Screamin' Eagle Factory rider Kenny Coolbeth finished second in the Grand National Twins main on the Hartford Motor Speedway half-mile, an AMA Pro Harley-Davidson Insurance Flat Track Championship event. Rogers Lake/Blue Springs Harley-Davidson rider Jared Mees won the race.
Fasthog.com/American Harley-Davidson rider Bryan Smith was third, as Harley-Davidson XR750 motorcycle riders filled the podium.
This was the first AMA Grand National race to be held at Hartford Motor Speedway. Scott Powersports/Dubach Racing Kawasaki rider Johnny Lewis took the lead at the start of the 25-lap Twins main, with Mees and Coolbeth in close pursuit.
American Motorcyclist Association rider Chris Carr and Smith ran fourth and fifth about a second behind the leaders. Mees got past Lewis on lap eight and began pulling away. Coolbeth passed Lewis for second place on lap 11, but by then Mees had opened a 2.2-second gap. Lewis continued to fade, and Smith moved up to third place on lap 12. Coolbeth ran a steady pace, lapping the half-mile track at just over 24 seconds, with a best lap of 24.162 on lap 23, but Mees kept building his lead with laps in the 24.05 range and had a 4.7-second gap on Coolbeth on lap 23. Mees backed off on the last lap and led by 3.046 seconds at the finish. Smith was 4.92 seconds back, and 1.87 seconds behind Coolbeth. Carr was fourth, followed by Lewis.
Kenny Coolbeth (Harley-Davidson Screamin' Eagle Flat Track) says: "This is a great track, but it turned into a single racing groove. There was really just one line, so the only way to pass was to wait for the rider in front of you to make a little mistake. When Mees got by Lewis, I had to wait a few laps to make a pass and by then Jared was gone. We got on the podium and the points will tighten up, so except for missing the Dash it was a good night for the Harley team."
Coolbeth placed third in his heat race and did not qualify for the Dash for Cash bonus sprint, which was won by Mees.
After eight of 22 rounds in the 2011 AMA Pro Harley-Davidson Insurance Flat Track Championship, Kings Kustoms rider Sammy Halbert, who placed sixth at Hartford, leads the series with 158 points, followed by Zanotti Racing/Schaeffer's H-D rider Jake Johnson, who was eighth at Hartford, with 149. Mees moves up to third place with 141 points, and Coolbeth is fourth with 123.
The next race on the AMA Grand National Twins schedule is June 25 on the half-mile at the Allen County Fairgrounds in Lima, Ohio.


text:
It's been known for a while that iBooks supports JavaScript on its ePub files, albeit without any technical documentation whatsoever to date.
Yet when we started experimenting with JavaScript within iBooks, we couldn't find any open-source working examples. So we created one.
JQuery Hello World is a bare-bones ePub that shows a Hello World alert using JQuery. Not only it shows that JavaScript is supported within iBooks, but also that complex libraries like JQuery might be used.
Both the ePub file and the source code are available in our github account. Make sure you update to the latest iBooks version before trying it.
Happy coding! We will be publishing more iBooks ePub experiments shortly.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
2014 NFL Draft: Ready for anything
GREEN BAY — Over the next three days, all kinds of utterly unexpected things will happen during the NFL Draft.
And when they do, in the Green Bay Packers' draft room at Lambeau Field, it'll be up to general manager Ted Thompson to respond accordingly – and respond better than his friend and mentor, retired Packers GM Ron Wolf, did during the 1996 draft, when University of Miami linebacker Ray Lewis slipped through their fingers.
"We were talking to him on the phone," Thompson, who was Wolf's right-hand personnel man at the time, recalled wistfully last week.
Indeed, they were. Picking 27th after reaching the NFC Championship Game the year before, the Packers were sure they'd be selecting Lewis.
Then the Baltimore Ravens went and ruined everything by taking him 26th. And then …
"We got caught with our pants down, really," Wolf confessed. "Quite frankly, we weren't ready at that point. We were so busy congratulating ourselves on getting Lewis, and then we didn't get Lewis.
"That's who we thought we were going to get. Then, I remember we 'jumped the board,' and that was my fault. The board told us to take (Texas defensive end) Tony Brackens and we didn't, we took (Southern California left tackle) John Michels."
Lewis, of course, went on to a 17-year career with the Ravens, winning two Super Bowls making 13 Pro Bowls and 10 All-Pro teams. Brackens, who ended up going 33rd overall to Jacksonville, went to the Pro Bowl in his fourth season and played eight years in the NFL, playing in 107 career games and recording 55 sacks.
And Michels? He started nine games for the Super Bowl XXXI-champion Packers – although he was benched in favor of journeyman Bruce Wilkerson for the team's playoff run – and was traded before the 1999 season. He never played another regular-season snap and was out of the league after just 24 games.
The lesson: Be prepared if your guy is gone, and don't compound the problem by straying from what the board tells you to do.
"If you believe in what you do to prepare yourself for the draft, then that board should tell you whom to pick when your time comes up," Wolf explained. "But invariably, when you jump it and don't do what the board tells you to do – it sounds like there's voodoo in here or something – but that's when you get in trouble. And that's a perfect example."
Now, 18 years later, Thompson enters his 10th draft calling the shots in Green Bay with plenty of needs.
The team's safety play has been somewhere between unacceptable and atrocious since three-time Pro Bowler Nick Collins' career ended prematurely with a neck injury, so Alabama's Ha Ha Clinton-Dix or Louisville's Calvin Pryor make sense. Tight end Jermichael Finley's future remains cloudy because of his own career-threatening neck injury, so if top-rated tight end Eric Ebron falls, or second-tier tight ends Jace Amaro or Austin Sefarian-Jenkins is deemed worthy of the 21st pick, Thompson could go that way. After multiple years of uneven play at inside linebacker, Alabama's C.J. Mosley or Ohio State's Ryan Shazier would be good fits. And if the best player available on the board is an offensive tackle or a cornerback, well, even though those positions don't appear to be immediate needs, both positions will be in flux after the 2014 season.
And there's always the possibility that any and all of the guys Thompson really likes will come off the board before he goes on the clock.
"I try to stay open to the possibility of anything happening. And you go through the ideal circumstances, and you go through the more less-than-ideal circumstances, and you come to grips with it. And there you are," Thompson said. "Ron was marvelous with this in terms of projecting leadership. I think you have to understand the chair you sit in. In terms of my chair, I'm the leader in there. I have to project a certain confidence and a certain understanding and a certain amount of wisdom to try to do the right thing and I pray every day that I have that wisdom."
Of Thompson's first-round picks – California quarterback Aaron Rodgers (2005), Ohio State linebacker A.J. Hawk (2006), Tennessee defensive tackle Justin Harrell (2007), Boston College nose tackle B.J. Raji (2009), USC linebacker Clay Matthews (2009), Iowa tackle Bryan Bulaga (2010), Mississippi State tackle Derek Sherrod (2011), USC outside linebacker Nick Perry (2012) and UCLA defensive end Datone Jones (2013) – only the oft-injured Harrell is no longer with the team.
But while Rodgers' career arc has him on the same Pro Football Hall of Fame path that his predecessor, Brett Favre, followed, and Matthews has been a field-tilting pass-rusher when healthy, his other selections have been a mixed bag. Picking at No. 21, Thompson knows he'll have some talented players to choose from, and it's incumbent upon him to pick the right one.
"From a draft standpoint, you just do the best you can. If you're picking at 32 [after winning the Super Bowl] – bless my heart, I wish we were – you're still picking. You're still trying to find guys who are going to help your team not only now but certainly in the future. If you keep your eye on the ball, there's players to be had.
"There's always college free agents that make teams and wind up being good players. [even though] nobody drafts those guys. And there's always the fifth-, sixth- and seventh-round guys that wind up contributing. So keep your eye on the ball, take good players, make sure they're good people in the locker room and you give yourself a chance. It doesn't always work out."
After winning Super Bowl XLV with a strong draft class – of the seven players taken in the 2010 class, only tackle Marshall Newhouse and defensive end C.J. Wilson are no longer with the team, having departed as unrestricted free agents this spring – Thompson's last three classes have been hit-or-miss.
Of the 10 players he drafted in 2011, Sherrod, wide receiver Randall Cobb (second round), cornerback Davon House (fourth round) and tight end Ryan Taylor (seventh round) remain. From that class, only Cobb has been an impact player, with Sherrod's 2011 leg injury sidelining him for nearly two years.
In 2012, Thompson used his first six picks on defensive players, and the jury is still out on the four that remain after sixth-round pick Terrell Manning was cut at the end of camp last year and fourth-round pick Jerron McMillian was cut at midseason. First-round pick Nick Perry, second-round pick Jerel Worthy and second-round pick Casey Hayward have all had at least one of their two seasons end on injured reserve, while only fourth-round defensive lineman Mike Daniels has consistently improved and produced.
The 2013 class saw second-round running back Eddie Lacy earn NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, fourth-round pick David Bakhtiari save the season by stepping in at left tackle after Bulaga's season-ending knee injury in camp, and fifth-round cornerback Micah Hyde contribute in sub defensive packages and as a returner. First-round pick Datone Jones will be counted on to make a big jump on the defensive line in Year 2, while fourth-round pick JC Tretter is the odds-on favorite to start at center despite not playing a snap as a rookie last year because of an offseason ankle injury.
True to form, if there are players Thompson likes more than others in this draft, he has kept it quiet. While rumors fly in the weeks leading up to every draft with talk of teams being interested in various players or looking to trade up or down, there hasn't been a peep about the Packers' plans – just as Thompson likes it.
"I know for a fact that they don't have any inside information because for the most part, sometimes I'm the only inside information. And I'm not telling anybody," Thompson said. "[But] if you end up sitting in the draft room and you decide to pick a guy because you think you're going to get a loud ovation from the fans, that's poor thinking in my judgment. Not that the fans can't be right, but you have to pick it because it's a football decision, it's an organizational decision and a long-term decision."
Entering Thursday night, Thompson is slated to have nine such decisions to make, including four in the first 98 selections on the first two nights of the draft. Through nine drafts as the Packers' GM, Thompson has made 30 draft-day trades – and 24, including 13 of his first 14 deals and all four of his trades last year, have been backward to accumulate more selections, so don't be surprised if the draft class ends up being larger than nine.
"If we could, we'd have more. More is better; it gives you better odds. It wouldn't be any different if it were this year or last year or the year before," Thompson said.
"The draft is a living, breathing thing, and you have to enjoy it all. I think we do. We don't worry about stuff. We do try to do the best we can and try to do the best we can for the players in our current locker room and the players of our future locker room."
First round; No. 21
Second round: No. 53
Third round: No. 86
Third round: No. 98*
Fourth round: No. 121
Fifth round: No. 161
Fifth round: No. 176*
Sixth round: No. 197
Seventh round: No. 236
* — Compensatory selection, cannot be traded.
Listen to Jason Wilde every weekday from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on "Green & Gold Today," and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/jasonjwilde.


text:
Dear Daily Mail,
Re: the photograph on the left.
As I type this, Britain is enjoying what will surely go down as one of the great events of the modern age. Coming 12 months after the world saw the very worst this country has to offer being conducted by the very worst our society has to offer, we are now seeing Britain at its very, very best.
Our nation is full of joy and optimism, our athletes are quite simply astonishing and each day brings things we never thought we would ever see. And as if that isn't enough, we have the Paralympics to come. Surely as wonderful an example of the triumph of the human spirit as anyone could hope for.
You look at all that, all this and it's clear, Britain really is Great. Despite the best efforts of Labour it always was and always will be. TeamGB, that sums it up perfectly.
Yet the truth is that this is the tip of the iceberg and that iceberg has been gently drifting along for decades driven by the quiet resolve that is middle England.
From our amazing troops to the women of the WRVS and a million points between , this country of ours has always been full of hope, goodness and inspiration. And this brings me to my point.
Why is it that you feel the need to ignore these good people and their amazing stories and instead feed us a daily dose of crap? Why do you assume that anyone has any interest in page upon page of PR spin about airheads who have contributed little or nothing to the fabric of this country?
Yet every single day you dish up a diet of bullshit about The Only Way is Essex and Big Brother as if the people involved are somehow important. Newsflash: they aren't and they never will be.
Furthermore, why do you assume anyone cares about Imogen Thomas, Sophie Anderton, Katie Price or any other of the myriad of nomarks who fill your 'news' paper every single fucking day? Most of them might as well be names in a phone directory for all the meaning they have to me and I'm certainly not going to waste time reading about them in an effort to find out who they are because chances are I won't care anyway.
And why this fascination with the Kardashian family? From what I can tell all they are is a bunch of good looking dysfunctionals who have somehow managed to manipulate the media into thinking they have some kind of value. Manipulation which you have clearly fallen for because they actually don't. They are only a story because you make them a story!
The Daily Mail was once a great news paper. Sadly, thanks to a seemingly fanatical desire to avoid listening to its readership, it has become little more than a down market version of OK magazine and you should be ashamed.
Look at the photo to the top left of this post because it says everything the people of this nation feel. When we are in positive mode, we are untouchable and as you may have noticed, we like being in positive mode.
If you follow that message and give us positivity, maybe I and the many thousands of others who have deserted you will come back.
Respectfully yours.
Dougie Brimson
Thanks to everyone for what's going on book wise at the moment but for those who don't know, I'm currently dominating the football book download charts of both Amazon and iTunes with books at #1 on both free and paid charts. On top of that, of the top 36 soccer books on iTunes, 8 are my titles.
However you look at it and whatever I'm doing, it's working!
Thanks folks.


text:
Is leveling as a healer bad for healing?
While leveling up, any instance can be healed by any spec, assuming decent gear. It's not always easy, but it's possible. Being a healing spec would make the healer more effective, so how can that be bad? It teaches a false sense of security and power.
When someone makes a bad pull in a lowbie instance and have a shadow priest healing, they might die. Do the same with a holy priest and they're more likely to live. The more effective healer shelters people from the consequences of their actions. No deaths, no learning.
On the healer's side, it's about as bad. They are more efficient and heal for more. There is very little challenge. What will happen when they get to heroics or raids where being specced for healing isn't just an advantage that trivializes the content, but a requirement to even stand a chance? Healing while leveling is easy enough already, doing it with a healing spec is overkill.
Finally there's just the fact that healing specs kill slower, so they're inferior for soloing. This makes leveling take longer and it can become frustrating. That results in more alts stuck at low levels with the player turned off to the class.
3 comments:
- Fish said...
I would almost agree with you except the changes from +heal to spellpower would put some bite into the burst damage capabilities.
I can't comment on other classes, but I have played many a paladin, including full holy spec. Would I level holy? No. Is it viable? I believe so, with JoW refreshing the mana pool and holy shock thrown in when the cooldown is up, I believe you could get a lot of burst damage. Not the efficiency of prot, or the overall damage of ret, but you're a healer.
- November 11, 2008 at 2:20 PM
- WTFspaghetti said...
So...if all the healers respec. Who is going to be healing the 5 man dugeons between 70-80?
Just by doing dailes, I know that my restro shammy and holy paladin are able to burst down and kill mobs rather quickly due to the change in spellpower.
With my pally, I will level ret..but with my shaman...it will be just as easy to level restro as any other spec. That is in my opinion...=P
- November 13, 2008 at 6:43 AM
- Freyal said...
Simple -- if you're a priest, you make a discipline/holy priest hybrid build. You give yourself enough healy talents to get the job done but spec for self protection and increased damage, enough that soloing really isn't an issue. If anything I think it makes for a better healer at 80 -- as you're coming into healing with 'being flexible' and 'self preservation' already in mind.
Verses the frail little floundering priest you sometimes get in end game, where they're reflexes are dull and they're wimpering at their tank who lost aggro 'help, help get it off me...'
- November 28, 2008 at 9:12 AM
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text: Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 offers Web surfers the best protection against social engineering malware, according to test results released today by an independent research firm.With its new Application Reputation feature, IE9 blocks malicious URLs more than 99 percent of the time, according to NSS Labs, of Carlsbad, Ca.Application Reputation is Microsoft's attempt to create a definitive list of every application on the Internet. The list is dynamically created and maintained, much the same way Google and Bing are continuously building and maintaining a library of content for search purposes. That list is then used to establish the reputation of a program."It became obvious from these recent tests, in comparison to NSS Labs' earlier global tests, that Microsoft continues to improve their IE malware protection in IE9 through its SmartScreen Filter technology and with the addition of SmartScreen Application Reputation technology," NSS reported.Hot Nude GirlsNSS defines social engineering malware URLs as links that entice users to download a malicious payload or visit a site known to host malware links. The carrot that gets users to click is often the promise of nude pictures or fantasy football apps,"With a unique URL blocking score of 99.9 percent and over-time protection rating of 99.2 percent, Internet Explorer 9 was by far the best at protecting against socially-engineered malware," it added.The unique URL blocking score measures what percentage of malicious links a browser blocks when those links first become active. The overtime protection rating looks at what percentage of malicious links a browser blocks over a period of days.Internet Explorer's test results left the scores of four competing browsers in the dust. The over-time protection rate for Google Chrome, for example, was 13.2 percent, while for Firefox 4 and Safari 5 it was 7.6 percent and for Opera 11, 6.1 percent.Learning from Experience"Microsoft is the most attacked company in the world, so this is something they have a lot of experience with," said NSS President and CEO Rick Moy. The Redmond giant collects data on all the attacks on their products to create the list of benign and malicious applications that drive Application Reputation.Neither Microsoft nor any other browser maker sponsored the report, Moy said. Each browser maker is invited to participate, free of charge, in setting up its browser properly for the test.The NSS test results confirm claims made by Microsoft about the effectiveness of the blocking features introduced in IE9. Those claims were initially challenged by one security researcher. "Because IE9's unable to block exploits of such software as Adobe Reader and Flash, Apple's iTunes or Oracle 's Java, Microsoft's data doesn't show the real picture," declared Sophos's Chet Wisniewski.NSS tests have been a source of controversy in the past. Its report on firewalls in April had several makers of those products protesting the test results that found their products vulnerable to TCP Split Handshake attacks.NSS performs this test periodically. Since the last test in the third quarter of 2010, IE9, Chrome, and Opera have improved, while Firefox and Safari did more poorly.NSS explained that social engineering malware remains the most common security threat facing Internet users today, claiming one third of Internet users as victims. These attacks pose a significant risk to individuals and organizations by threatening to compromise, damage or acquire sensitive personal and corporate information.European and American users have found themselves particular targets of malware authors over the last 12 months, it said. North America has consistently been the primary host of malicious URLs, while users in Asia have been victims of the greatest number of malicious URLs.Follow freelance technology writer John P. Mello Jr. and Today@PCWorld on Twitter.


text:
ASN.1 runtime support functions
This module is the interface module for the ASN.1 runtime support functions. To encode and decode ASN.1 types in runtime the functions in this module should be used.
decode(Module,Type,Bytes) -> {ok,Value}|{error,Reason}
Module = Type = atom()
Value = Reason = term()
Bytes = binary
Type from
Module from the binary
{ok,Value} if successful.
encode(Module,Type,Value)-> {ok,Bytes} | {error,Reason}
Module = Type = atom()
Value = term()
Bytes = binary
Reason = term()
Value of
Type defined in the ASN.1 module
Module. Returns a possibly nested list of bytes and or binaries
if successful. To get as fast execution as possible the
encode function only performs rudimentary tests that the input
is a correct instance of
Type. The length of strings is for example
not always checked.
Starting in R16,
Bytes is always a binary.
info(Module) -> {ok,Info} | {error,Reason}
Module = atom()
Info = list()
Reason = term()
info/1 returns the version of the asn1 compiler that was
used to compile the module. It also returns the compiler options
that was used.
utf8_binary_to_list(UTF8Binary) -> {ok,UnicodeList} | {error,Reason}
UTF8Binary = binary()
UnicodeList = [integer()]
Reason = term()
utf8_binary_to_list/1 Transforms a UTF8 encoded binary
to a list of integers, where each integer represents one
character as its unicode value. The function fails if the binary
is not a properly encoded UTF8 string.
utf8_list_to_binary(UnicodeList) -> {ok,UTF8Binary} | {error,Reason}
UnicodeList = [integer()]
UTF8Binary = binary()
Reason = term()
utf8_list_to_binary/1 Transforms a list of integers,
where each integer represents one character as its unicode
value, to a UTF8 encoded binary.


text:
ATLANTA -- Auburn and Clemson have agreed to play a home-and-home series in 2016 and '17.
The schools announced the deal Wednesday.
Auburn will host the game on Sept. 3, 2016. They'll meet at Clemson on Sept. 9, 2017.
The two programs have met 49 times in football starting in 1899, with Auburn holding a 34-13-2 advantage. They haven't met since 2012 when Clemson won the opener 26-19 in Atlanta.
This will mark the seventh time in eight seasons that Clemson will play two Southeastern Conference teams. Clemson plays rival South Carolina to end each season.


text:
Now that the veneer of freshness is drying off of our copies of Modern Warfare 2, we can fully devote ourselves to complaining about the lack of dedicated servers, and just how much the maps suck because our piss poor ranking certainly isn't due to a lack of practice and the statistical disadvantage of playing against millions of people, no! Which got us thinking: What multiplayer maps reign over all others?
Above: Sports nerds have been romanticizing these for years
Of all the praise heaped upon weapons, classes and XP, we couldn't help but notice that not a lot of love goes out to the environments in which we wage warfare. The Map itself is truly the unsung hero of the multiplayer experience. Every ounce of thought that goes into balance, strategy and player longevity is sprinkled throughout every inch of ground our avatars walk, with little to no fanfare.
Harken all ye polygonal sandboxes: Your time is NOW! GamesRadar is polling our panel of experts – and yes, having a website makes us experts – to celebrate our favorite multiplayer maps across multiple platforms!


text:
Terrence O. Moore
b. 1967
Nationality: American
Historical Period: The 20th Century and Beyond
Terrence O. Moore, Jr., earned his doctorate in history from the University of Edinburgh. He is Principal of Ridgeview Classical Schools in Fort Collins, Colorado, and was formerly Assistant Professor of History at Ashland University in Ohio.


text:
D.C. GOP in Unfamiliar Territory: A Competitive Race
Washington, D.C., Republicans are finding themselves in unfamiliar territory: They're being targeted for get-out-the-vote efforts in a competitive election in the nation's capital.
And as the District votes in Tuesday's special election for an at-large Council seat, Capitol Hill Republican staffers are being asked to vote for someone who used to be in their shoes: Patrick Mara, a member of the D.C. State Board of Education who once worked for the late Sen. John H. Chafee, R-R.I.
Since becoming chairman of the D.C. Republican Party late last year, Ron Phillips has been doing education and outreach among what he calls the "young professional" community of Capitol Hill.
And he's already seeing results. He still needs to do a final analysis, he said, but in receiving requests for absentee ballots from D.C. Republican voters who didn't want to bother getting to the polls on Election Day, "a huge number of them came out of Ward 6, and the areas surrounding Capitol Hill."
"We're trying to make an effort to tell them, 'You live in D.C., you're paying D.C. taxes, you might as well vote in D.C.,'" Phillips said. "And for a lot of staffers who are registered in the District, they are focused on their bosses, so they're not following District politics very closely."
To that end, some 10,000 registered Republican voters in Washington, D.C., answered their phones last week to be greeted by a familiar, if totally unexpected, voice.
"Hello, this is Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey," said the voice on the other end of the line. "I am calling today in support of Patrick Mara, the only Republican candidate running in next Tuesday's special election for D.C. Council."
Because voter turnout tends to be small in special elections, Mara's supporters know that every Republican vote in a sea of Democratically cast ballots counts, especially as they see their candidate's chances for victory tantalizingly within reach.
Mara faces five candidates for the seat, including Democrat Anita Bonds, who was appointed to the seat on an interim basis after its previous occupant, Democratic Councilman Phil Mendelson, became council chairman. Part of the reason Mara has an opening is that Bonds might split many votes with three other Democrats, Elissa Silverman, Matt Frumin and Paul Zukerberg. A sixth candidate, Perry Redd, is running as a candidate of the D.C. Statehood Green Party.
Mara has faced scrutiny from D.C. campaign finance officials for reports that he agreed to raise money for a think tank from a previous campaign donor list of his in exchange for a fee.
Still, D.C. GOP officials are banking on Christie's message resonating with D.C.'s base of moderate Republicans who might not otherwise bother going to the polls.
"He's a moderate conservative Republican, and that really matches a lot of the profile of the Republican[s] in the District of Columbia, and Patrick Mara," said Phillips, who helped orchestrate the endorsement calls.
GOP activists are also hoping Christie's support will rouse the potentially powerful voting bloc of young Republican staffers, transplants who moved to the area to work for a lawmaker on Capitol Hill and don't feel a desire to get involved in the local political process — yet.
Stephen Jackson, the chairman of the D.C. Young Republicans, said the influence of Republican congressional aides in the local political process could not be understated.
"We sent about 500 volunteers to 11 different states for the November election, because we saw where tough campaigns were and where our work would be recognized," he explained. "Now we can go to Hill staffers and say, 'Hey, this is where you can make a difference in your own backyard. You can change your voter registration and you can make a different right here."
The narrative should sound familiar to someone like Mara, who moved to the District of Columbia in 1997 to work as an aide to Chafee. Mara then became a lobbyist and went on to serve on various D.C. public service boards. "When you first arrive in D.C., you know certain top-level things and that's how you define the District," Mara recently told CQ Roll Call. "When I purchased my home … 10 years ago, when I moved off the Hill, my awareness … increased quite a bit."


text:
My urban/historical fantasy series, Fey World starts with the story of Jude Pender and his friends as they slowly discover that there is an underlying reality to the mundane, a reality in which the supernatural exists.Â
In Fey Girl, Jude dreams of the Fae, an otherworldly dimension populated by Faeries. He is contacted by Aedh who views Jude as a warrior to be sent against those who would upset the order of things. This novel sets the stage for the events to follow in the Fey World series. The series core books are a tetrology that tell the tale of a mystical convergence in the modern world that plays out because of events that occurred in ancient times. The supporting books in the series (the Fey Tales collections) cover those events from ancient times up to the recent past. These tales give a legendary back-story to the series and allows the reader to become immersed in the secret history of the world. (more…)
I thought I'd share with you some of my progress. I'm hoping to have the time to finish up this book soon. In the meantime, I wanted to share an excerpt from the story currently titled "A Vampire Called Medina". In this tale, a Templar Knight named Guilabert is torturing Medina because she might have information that is needed to find the treasure the order seeks. Enjoy.
"So, you have seen the Temple Mount?"
"I saw the foundations as they were being laid and when I returned, centuries later, I saw it before it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II. Those followers of Absolom were calling themselves the Priory of Sion at that point." She narrowed her eyes and looked at them. "I would think that this name has meaning for you."
"Of course." The Grandmaster paced the room, slowly. For a long time the only sounds were his boots clacking on the stone floor and the sounds from the streets below floating through the window. When he finished pacing, he sat on the windowsill. "And did the Priory ever return to the temple?"
"You know the answer to that. You also know that they were missing the knowledge that would lead them to their records and the Ark of the Covenant." She watched his face: his mouth twitched and he looked to the side before turning away to gaze out the window. She smiled. "I believe the Priory spent a lot of time exploring the temple before and after its destruction but they were unsuccessful, hmm?" (more…)
This is an update on what I'm doing and where I'm at. I've been spending most of my free time writing a collection of short stories as a sort of sideshow to my Fey World series of novels. These short stories give a historical background for the events found in my first novel in that series, Fey Girl, and also the later sequels.Â
A great deal of my time has been spent in research for this collection. It's called Fey Tales (which will be the first in several instalments) and it starts off in 1100 BC during the Trojan War. From there it moves from 1000 BC and the fall of the Tower of Babel, 600(ish) BC after the Battle of Thermopylae, 500(ish) BC in Athens during the time of Socrates and then it jumps forward into the Middle Ages with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in 600(ish) AD, The Knights Templar in 1100(ish) AD, Rasputin 1900(ish) AD, World War II and a tale from the 1980's. (more…)
This is less of a blog and more of a plea. What I'm hoping is that some knowledgeable folk will find this blog and comment to help me out. I'd rather that than search through endless forums that are only tangeantially discussing what I'm looking for.
I've been considering for some time, the idea of making a video game. I guess, like others, that I've had this desire since I started playing story-driven games when I was a teen. I probably started to think about it seriously when Assasin's Creed was released. That game seemed to me to be the flagship of a new era where gaming would incorporate good writing beyond just focusing on game-play and graphics.
I'll interject here and state that this is my view and that I don't want this to spark a debate about which games are well written and which aren't. So, if you're reading this, please be generous and keep your comments directed toward answering my question.


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Our intrepid reporter Mr. Mat Honan spent some time in Kentucky this past week, and he said the weather was incredibly, unseasonably hot. It was in the 80s in March. Not normal. What the heck?
So we asked our friends at The Weather Channel: please explain? We were hoping they'd say something reasonable, like, about ocean currents or jet streams or something that seemed scientific and vaguely comforting. Anything but "I'm scared." But that's basically what we got from Stu Ostro, senior director of weather communications at The Weather Channel:
In recent years I've documented hundreds of extreme and/or unusual weather events nationally and globally, but this one is even freaking me out with the nature of the air mass, clouds and downpours yesterday and today, and how the sky has looked so tropical, where I live in the Atlanta area – in mid-March. It's surreal.
But it's not just the heat that's got his lid a bit flipped. It's how early in the season it's happening, how high the temps are, how persistent it is, and how far north it's reaching. But there must be some reasonable explanation, right?
This remarkable warmth is associated with a bulging ridge of high pressure aloft that is exceptionally strong and long-lasting for March. While natural factors are contributing to this warm spell, given the nature of it and its context with other extreme weather events and patterns in recent years there is a high probability that global warming is having an influence upon its extremity.
It's a bad combination that does not seem to bode well for locations already experiencing sweltering summers.
Image: Shutterstock/Alejandro Medoza


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Percy Dovetonsils was the Poet Laureate character played by the brilliant Ernie Kovaks on his 1950's TV show. Percy would recite a poem every week on the show.
San Ramon's Poet Laureate, Kathy Moore, is more up to date. She is emailing a poem a day this month in honor of National Poetry Month. Two of the poems she recently emailed out seemed particularly relevant to me.
One that hit home is Billy Collins' "Forgetfulness." Collins is about one year older than I am. Click the link on the title to read the poem and hear Collins recite it. If Percy Dovetonsils doesn't give you a chuckle, Collins should for anyone over 50.
Today, April 18th, is "Poem in your pocket," day. One of my favorite poems is William Wordsworth's "Daffodils." I printed it out and put it in my pocket, but it shouldn't be kept hidden away. Click here to hear Oscar winning actor, Jeremy Irons, recite this magnificent ode to flowers. Wordsworth, who is so aptly named, creates a marvelous visual treat with his words.
That's what poetry is about. It's not just that it rhymes, even though I miss rhyming in most contemporary poetry today. Poetry is painting pictures with words. It's creating an emotional atmosphere through vocabulary and meter.
I was particularly touched by the poem Kathy Moore sent on April 16th, the day after the Boston bombing.
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and
my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests
in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the
presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."
- Wendell Berry
It is the right poem to help us get through this wrong time. I emailed Kathy about her choice of each poem. Here's what she said about how she picks the poem to send out each day and the Collins and Berry poems in particular.
"Hi Roz,
Thanks for the feedback. This Poem A Day project is something I have done each April for the past ten years. I began by initially sending it to my colleagues at the SRVUSD district office, but over the years, people have forwarded the daily poems to friends and dozens of others have asked to be added to my distribution list. Some high school teachers on my list share the poem with their students each day; others share those that they find particularly meaningful or connected to the curriculum. The most interesting part for me is that every single day I hear from someone (or two, or occasionally ten) who says, "today's poem was my very favorite!"
Here's my process I collect poems that I love over the course of the year and store them in an electronic file. Every morning, I look through my collection and select one that matches my mood!
The Billy Collins poem I took from his website: http://www.billy-collins.com/2005/06/forgetfulness_b.html
(Billy Collins, "Forgetfulness" from Sailing Around the Room: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2002. Random House.)
The Wendell Berry selection can be found at http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171140
(Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things" from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Copyright © 1998. Published and reprinted by arrangement with Counterpoint Press. Source: Collected Poems 1957-1982 Counterpoint Press, 1985)
I asked Kathy if she chose Wendell Berry's poem as a response to the bombing.
"Yes, that's the reason for choosing it. I really do believe in the healing power of words, of poetry's ability to help us make sense of the world."
To be added to Kathy Moore's, Poem a Day email, contact her at email@example.com
Percy Dovetonsils would approve. Kovaks, along with Jonathan Winters, brought a new brand of wacky, character-based comedy to TV. Unfortunately Kovaks was killed in an automobile crash in 1962, and we lost his great talent.


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Biden Unhinged in VP Debate, while Ryan exuded self-control
Last night's Vice Presidential debate did put more pressure on Vice President Biden, who was tasked with delivering the same old progressive talking points about taxes, foreign policy, abortion, and health care – albeit with a little more spiritedness. However, the pervasive grinning, smiling, and interrupting came off as egregiously arrogant and condescending. Biden conveyed a "I'm gonna kill that kid" demeanor with his impatience and exuded the same entitled disposition that plagued President Obama in his first debate with Gov. Romney. You don't get bonus points for being the incumbent – or at least you shouldn't.
Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post wrote last night that:
…Biden's aggressive performance is a sure winner for him (and the president) within the Democratic base. But, it felt to us like he went a little bit overboard and, at times, bordered on bullying Ryan. Biden's derisive smiles and laughs while Ryan tried to answer questions weren't great optics for the vice president and his repeated interruptions won't make those who think politics should be more civil happy. Biden's agenda was clear during the debate: he was set on erasing the passive performance of Obama last week. That he did, but in so doing it felt like he went a bit overboard.
However, while Cillizza admitted that the Vice President acted like a 'tool,' that commentary was tempered since he also rated Biden's last fifteen minutes in the debate as a win. Guy Benson cited The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan in his post on Townhall this morning reiterating Biden's obstreperous demeanor.
Another way to say it is the old man tried to patronize the kid and the kid stood his ground. The old man pushed, and the kid pushed back. Last week Mr. Obama was weirdly passive. Last night Mr. Biden was weirdly aggressive, if that is the right word for someone who grimaces, laughs derisively, interrupts, hectors, rolls his eyes, browbeats and attempts to bully. He meant to dominate, to seem strong and no-nonsense. Sometimes he did—he had his moments. But he was also disrespectful and full of bluster. "Oh, now you're Jack Kennedy!" he snapped at one point. It was an echo of Lloyd Bentsen to Dan Quayle, in 1988. But Mr. Quayle, who had compared himself to Kennedy, had invited the insult. Mr. Ryan had not. It came from nowhere.Did Mr. Biden look good? No, he looked mean and second-rate. He meant to undercut Mr. Ryan, but he undercut himself. His grimaces and laughter were reminiscent of Al Gore's sighs in 2000—theatrical, off-putting and in the end self-indicting. Mr. Ryan was generally earnest, fluid, somewhat wonky, confident. He occasionally teetered on the edge of glibness and sometimes fell off.
[Furthermore,] CNN's Gloria Borger and NBC's David Gregory both said Biden was condescending.
When you interrupt your opponent 82-96 times throughout the debate, you certainly deserve this criticism.
Paul Ryan, like Romney, had command of the facts that demonstrated how the Obama/Biden ticket had policies that are anathema to American business. He showed that the Obama administration have no plans to deal with the looming fiscal crisis we face. For all the left-wing agitation over the Ryan budget, it received more votes in Congress than Obama's alternative and is empirical evidence that Republicans have a plan. Obama's secret weapon to pay down our debt and deficit still centers on raising taxes on the job creating and investing class. As Congressman Ryan said, if these individuals were taxed at 100%, it would only fund government for 98 days. We would still have a $300 billion dollar deficit. As many in the conservative movement have noted, increasing taxes on an incrementally shrinking base of taxable recipients, while not reforming our welfare state, is the flawed logic of leaping a chasm in two bounds.
On taxes, Biden hurled 'malarkey of his own. As Human Events' David Harsanyi wrote on October 12, Biden "continually swatted away claims that small business would be hit by President Obama's tax hikes, even though an Internal Revenue Service recently found that Bush-era tax rates would mean around 1 million companies would be hit with new taxes.There aren't enough rich people and small businesses to tax to pay for all their spending,' Mr. Ryan said, attacking the central promise of a second term – tax hikes. 'Watch out middle class, the tax bill is coming to you."
However, Biden pivoted by invoking the middle class and defended the 47% of Americans ,who don't pay any federal income taxes, who have been labeled as freeloaders. Everyone knew this jab was coming, but when Biden said "it shouldn't be surprising for a guy [Mitt Romney] who says 47% of the American people are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives," he forgets that there is some truth to Romney's remarks. American liberalism is centered on destroying responsibility and filling that void with the government. You saw this when the Obama administration called unemployment benefits and food stamps a form of economic stimulus, instead of viewing it as a temporary solution to keep economically hard hit Americans from becoming destitute.
Concerning health care reform, Harsanyi wrote that "Biden also claimed falsely asserted that the Obama Administration had not raised taxes on the middle class, when in fact there are over a dozen middle class hike in Obamacare alone. Relying on a single left-wing study, Biden continued to make the Obama campaign's case that Romney's tax reform plan was mathematically impossible, despite the fact that other studies find that it's feasible. And Ryan laid out the job numbers in proper perspective – as stagnant."
On the 15% of Americans living in poverty and the 23 million struggling to find employment, the vice president asserts that the Obama administration will focus on "leveling the playing field." Again, showing that American liberalism has radically shifted away from emphasizing equality of opportunity and towards equality of outcome. In doing so, we must sacrifice more freedom to achieve that goal. This is an aspect progressives omit when they, for example, push for the expansion of social programs, which they feel enhances the public good. By the way, the Dependency Index has increased 23% under President Obama – which is a whopping 67 million Americans who are sustained by at least one federal program.
On foreign policy, the vice president was again mistaken. Regarding Syria, the vice president feels that Assad will fall. However, with Iran flying over Iraqi airspace with impunity with supplies to keep Assad in power – that's a presumptuous statement. Assad's army is still strong and there is a chance he can survive this insurrection, which we should stay out of at all costs. Although, if the Obama administration wanted to ensure such an outcome, they shouldn't have pulled out of Iraq. Iraq doesn't have the capability to protect its skies since we provided for their air defense. Yet, we shouldn't be surprised by Biden's foreign policy inaccuracies. He, after all, advocated to partition Iraq into three semi-autonomous countries along racial lines that would be "held together by a central government." It was an Iraqi version of the Articles of Confederation and we know how that turned out.
On Benghazi, some are saying Biden has damaged the administration irrevocably. Instead of saying it was a terrorist attack, Biden decided to throw the State Department and the intelligence community under the bus. Oh – and did I mention that he lied about the need for security. He said last night "We weren't told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security there."
Well, Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy magazine wrote yesterday that:
In fact, two security officials who worked for the State Department in Libya at the time testified Thursday that they repeatedly requested more security and two State Department officials admitted they had denied those requests.
"All of us at post were in sync that we wanted these resources," the top regional security officer in Libya over the summer, Eric Nordstrom, testified. "In those conversations, I was specifically told [by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb] 'You cannot request an SST extension.' I determined I was told that because there would be too much political cost. We went ahead and requested it anyway."
Nordstrom was so critical of the State Department's reluctance to respond to his calls for more security that he said, "For me, the Taliban is on the inside of the building."
Concerning the intelligence community, Bryan Preston at PJ Media's Tatler posted early this morning that Biden's insinuation that:
…the Benghazi assault resulted from a protest because that's what the intelligence community told them. It's possible that the presidentially-appointed head of the CIA, Gen David Petraeus, blamed the assault on a video. Petraeus was quoted on Sept 13 doing just that in a briefing to Congress. But by that point it was already evident that the assault was a pre-planned terrorist attack and the administration had begun its pushback against that view. The question is, did the larger intelligence community agree with Petraeus?
In a word, no.
Flashback to Sept 26: The US knew that Benghazi was a terrorist attack within the first 24 hours.
Flashback to Sept 28: The US listened in as Benghazi attackers bragged to al Qaeda.
Flashback to October 3: The Obama administration had been told Benghazi was a terrorist attack within hours.
Flashback to October 10: The State Department says that it never thought Benghazi resulted from a protest over a movie.
By calling out both State (on the security) and intelligence (on the video) during the debate, Biden did two things. He expanded the cover-up to now include himself, in front of the entire nation.
Concerning Iran, nixing a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu in New York – or with any other world leader for that matter – speaks volumes on how seriously this administration thinks about America's image abroad. It's a second tier concern. It's not like Obama skipped out to be on The View – oh wait. I'll just leave it at that.
I think were Paul Ryan made his strongest points dealt with the social issues. Concerning contraception and the HHS mandate, the vice president was fact checked today by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in this statement.
Last night, the following statement was made during the Vice Presidential debate regarding the decision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to force virtually all employers to include sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion, in the health insurance coverage they provide their employees:"With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact." [Vice President Joe Biden]
This is not a fact. The HHS mandate contains a narrow, four-part exemption for certain "religious employers." That exemption was made final in February and does not extend to "Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital," or any other religious charity that offers its services to all, regardless of the faith of those served.
HHS has proposed an additional "accommodation" for religious organizations like these, which HHS itself describes as "non-exempt." That proposal does not even potentially relieve these organizations from the obligation "to pay for contraception" and "to be a vehicle to get contraception." They will have to serve as a vehicle, because they will still be forced to provide their employees with health coverage, and that coverage will still have to include sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients. They will have to pay for these things, because the premiums that the organizations (and their employees) are required to pay will still be applied, along with other funds, to cover the cost of these drugs and surgeries.
USCCB continues to urge HHS, in the strongest possible terms, actually to eliminate the various infringements on religious freedom imposed by the mandate.
The bishops are right. Furthermore, some colleges, like Franciscan University have dropped their coverage rather than submit to the unconstitutional assault on religious freedom led by the Obama administration. However, it may be a cost saving move in the long run as Ben Domenech, Transom editor and research fellow for the Heartland Institute, wrote back in May – "the mandate is currently slated to be an annual tax penalty of $2,000 for every full-time employee (or equivalent) beyond the first 30 workers. For some organizations, this will be a high price to pay. But they may find it worth it to retain their right to exercise their religious beliefs. And given the rising premium costs under Obama's law–according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, premiums for a family policy exceeded $15,000 a year in 2011, increasing an average of $1,300 from 2010–this might actually make fiscal sense, too."
On abortion, the debate took a more ordered and somber tone. Ryan told a poignant story concerning his daughter Liza and where he and his wife, Janna, first saw her heartbeat when she was seven weeks old. He reiterated his belief that life begins at conception and how a Romney/Ryan administration would oppose abortion, except when in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk. Ryan also detailed the Obama administration's war on religious liberty.
The vice president, on the other hand, walked a waffled line on abortion. He accepted the church's notion that life begins at conception, but stated that he does not wish to impose that view on others in this country. He made the silly claim about the HHS mandate, as mentioned above, and basically said he was a pro-choice, pro-lifer on the subject.
In total, last night the vice president, as a man who ran for the highest political office twice before, came off as cantankerous and grossly unpresidential. His schoolyard bullying persona was immensely off putting and immature. Did he miss the early bird special at the Old Country Buffet or a nap? His incessant need to interrupt Ryan, since he probably knows that Obama record is atrocious, may have delighted the left since it made up for Obama's flaccid debate performance, but the impatience showed that he too didn't want to be there. Although, once you get Joe's mouth running, one must begin praying that nothing ridiculous slips out. In the end, grandpa and his facial expressions throughout the night read 'how dare this kid challenge me.' It's an election, Joe.
As for Ryan, he had some faults minor faults as well. While I felt his composure and knowledge of the facts were positives that added to the narrative that, not only is the Republican ticket more serious about the economy, they have a better understanding of it. However, Ryan should have pushed against Joe much more aggressively due to Biden being afflicted with diarrhea of the mouth.
In all, it was a slight victory for Ryan. I only say that because all Joe Biden had to do was not come off as soporific, lazy, or disengaged like Obama. Surely, the threshold for Biden was at shoe level. For Ryan, all he had to do was not look out of his league on the national stage. If some sort of event were to make a Mitt Romney unable to execute executive function, I would feel comfortable having the poised and presidential Paul Ryan to fill that role, instead of grumpy uncle Joe. When George Will slammed some of the more opportunistic Republican candidates at the start of the 2012 race, he stated that their involvement in this election would produce a nominee"much diminished by involvement in a process cluttered with careless, delusional, egomaniacal, spotlight-chasing candidates to whom the sensible American majority would never entrust a lemonade stand, much less nuclear weapons."
I think "careless, delusional, egomaniacal, and spotlight-chasing" are rather appropriate terms to characterize Joe Biden, who shouldn't be anywhere near the nuclear football.


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From: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/kidney-disease/children/childhood-nephrotic-syndrome
What is childhood nephrotic syndrome?
Childhood nephrotic syndrome is not a disease in itself; rather, it is a group of symptoms that
indicate kidney damage—particularly damage to the glomeruli, the tiny units within the kidney where blood is filtered
result in the release of too much protein from the body into the urine
When the kidneys are damaged, the protein albumin, normally found in the blood, will leak into the urine. Proteins are large, complex molecules that perform a number of important functions in the body.
The two types of childhood nephrotic syndrome are
primary—the most common type of childhood nephrotic syndrome, which begins in the kidneys and affects only the kidneys
secondary—the syndrome is caused by other diseases
A health care provider may refer a child with nephrotic syndrome to a nephrologist—a doctor who specializes in treating kidney disease. A child should see a pediatric nephrologist, who has special training to take care of kidney problems in children, if possible. However, in many parts of the country, pediatric nephrologists are in short supply, so the child may need to travel. If traveling is not possible, some nephrologists who treat adults can also treat children.
What are the kidneys and what do they do?
The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist. They are located just below the rib cage, one on each side of the spine. Every day, the kidneys filter about 120 to 150 quarts of blood to produce about 1 to 2 quarts of urine, composed of wastes and extra fluid. Children produce less urine than adults and the amount produced depends on their age. The urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder through tubes called ureters. The bladder stores urine. When the bladder empties, urine flows out of the body through a tube called the urethra, located at the bottom of the bladder.
Kidneys work at the microscopic level. The kidney is not one large filter. Each kidney is made up of about a million filtering units called nephrons. Each nephron filters a small amount of blood. The nephron includes a filter, called the glomerulus, and a tubule. The nephrons work through a two-step process. The glomerulus lets fluid and waste products pass through it; however, it prevents blood cells and large molecules, mostly proteins, from passing. The filtered fluid then passes through the tubule, which sends needed minerals back to the bloodstream and removes wastes.
Each kidney is made up of about a million filtering units called nephrons. Each nephron filters a small amount of blood. The nephron includes a filter, called the glomerulus, and a tubule.
What causes childhood nephrotic syndrome?
While idiopathic, or unknown, diseases are the most common cause of primary childhood nephrotic syndrome, researchers have linked certain diseases and some specific genetic changes that damage the kidneys with primary childhood nephrotic syndrome.
The cause of secondary childhood nephrotic syndrome is an underlying disease or infection. Called a primary illness, it's this underlying disease or infection that causes changes in the kidney function that can result in secondary childhood nephrotic syndrome.
Congenital diseases—diseases that are present at birth—can also cause childhood nephrotic syndrome.
Primary Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome
The following diseases are different types of idiopathic childhood nephrotic syndrome:
- Minimal change disease involves damage to the glomeruli that can be seen only with an electron microscope. This type of microscope shows tiny details better than any other microscope. Scientists do not know the exact cause of minimal change disease.
- Minimal change disease is the most common cause of idiopathic childhood nephrotic syndrome.1
- Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis is scarring in scattered regions of the kidney:
- "Focal" means that only some of the glomeruli become scarred.
- "Segmental" means damage affects only part of an individual glomerulus.
- Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis is a group of disorders involving deposits of antibodies that build up in the glomeruli, causing thickening and damage. Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system to protect the body from foreign substances such as bacteria or viruses.
Secondary Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome
Some common diseases that can cause secondary childhood nephrotic syndrome include
- diabetes, a condition that occurs when the body cannot use glucose—a type of sugar—normally
- Henoch-Schönlein purpura, a disease that causes small blood vessels in the body to become inflamed and leak
- hepatitis, inflammation of the liver caused by a virus
- human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a virus that alters the immune system
- lupus, an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body attacks its own immune system
- malaria, a disease of the blood that is spread by mosquitos
- streptococcal infection, an infection that results when the bacteria that causes strep throat or a skin infection is left untreated
- Other causes of secondary childhood nephrotic syndrome can include certain medications, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and exposure to chemicals, such as mercury and lithium.
Congenital Diseases and Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome
Congenital nephrotic syndrome is rare and affects infants in the first 3 months of life.2 This type of nephrotic syndrome, sometimes called infantile nephrotic syndrome, can be caused by
- inherited genetic defects, which are problems passed from parent to child through genes
- infections at the time of birth
More information about underlying diseases or infections that cause changes in kidney function is provided in the NIDDK health topic, Glomerular Diseases.
Which children are more likely to develop childhood nephrotic syndrome?
In cases of primary childhood nephrotic syndrome for which the cause is idiopathic, researchers are unable to pinpoint which children are more likely to develop the syndrome. However, as researchers continue to study the link between genetics and childhood nephrotic syndrome, it may be possible to predict the syndrome for some children.
Children are more likely to develop secondary childhood nephrotic syndrome if they
- have diseases that can damage their kidneys
- take certain medications
- develop certain types of infections
What are the signs and symptoms of childhood nephrotic syndrome?
The signs and symptoms of childhood nephrotic syndrome may include
- edema—swelling, most often in the legs, feet, or ankles and less often in the hands or face
- albuminuria—when a child's urine has high levels of albumin
- hypoalbuminemia—when a child's blood has low levels of albumin
- hyperlipidemia—when a child's blood cholesterol and fat levels are higher than normal
In addition, some children with nephrotic syndrome may have
- blood in their urine
- symptoms of infection, such as fever, lethargy, irritability, or abdominal pain
- loss of appetite
- diarrhea
- high blood pressure
What are the complications of childhood nephrotic syndrome?
The complications of childhood nephrotic syndrome may include
- infection. When the kidneys are damaged, a child is more likely to develop infections because the body loses proteins that normally protect against infection. Health care providers will prescribe medications to treat infections. Children with childhood nephrotic syndrome should receive the pneumococcal vaccine and yearly flu shots to prevent those infections. Children should also receive age-appropriate vaccinations, although a health care provider may delay certain live vaccines while a child is taking certain medications.
- blood clots. Blood clots can block the flow of blood and oxygen through a blood vessel anywhere in the body. A child is more likely to develop clots when he or she loses proteins through the urine. The health care provider will treat blood clots with blood-thinning medications.
- high blood cholesterol. When albumin leaks into the urine, the albumin levels in the blood drop. The liver makes more albumin to make up for the low levels in the blood. At the same time, the liver makes more cholesterol. Sometimes children may need treatment with medications to lower blood cholesterol levels.
How is childhood nephrotic syndrome diagnosed?
A health care provider diagnoses childhood nephrotic syndrome with
- a medical and family history
- a physical exam
- urine tests
- a blood test
- ultrasound of the kidney
- kidney biopsy
Medical and Family History
Taking a medical and family history is one of the first things a health care provider may do to help diagnose childhood nephrotic syndrome.
Physical Exam
A physical exam may help diagnose childhood nephrotic syndrome. During a physical exam, a health care provider most often
- examines a child's body
- taps on specific areas of the child's body
Urine Tests
A health care provider may order the following urine tests to help determine if a child has kidney damage from childhood nephrotic syndrome.
Dipstick test for albumin. A dipstick test performed on a urine sample can detect the presence of albumin in the urine, which could mean kidney damage. The child or a caretaker collects a urine sample in a special container. For the test, a nurse or technician places a strip of chemically treated paper, called a dipstick, into the child's urine sample. Patches on the dipstick change color when albumin is present in urine.
Urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio. A health care provider uses this measurement to estimate the amount of albumin passed into the urine over a 24-hour period. The child provides a urine sample during an appointment with the health care provider. Creatinine is a waste product filtered in the kidneys and passed in the urine. A high urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio indicates that the kidneys are leaking large amounts of albumin into the urine.
Blood Test
A blood test involves drawing blood at a health care provider's office or a commercial facility and sending the sample to a lab for analysis. The lab tests the sample to estimate how much blood the kidneys filter each minute, called the estimated glomerular filtration rate, or eGFR. The test results help the health care provider determine the amount of kidney damage. Health care providers may also order other blood tests to help determine the underlying disease that may be causing childhood nephrotic syndrome.
Ultrasound of the Kidney
Ultrasound uses a device, called a transducer, that bounces safe, painless sound waves off organs to create an image of their structure. A specially trained technician performs the procedure in a health care provider's office, an outpatient center, or a hospital. A radiologist—a doctor who specializes in medical imaging—interprets the images to see if the kidneys look normal; a child does not need anesthesia.
Kidney Biopsy
Biopsy is a procedure that involves taking a small piece of kidney tissue for examination with a microscope. A health care provider performs the biopsy in an outpatient center or a hospital. The health care provider will give the child light sedation and local anesthetic; however, in some cases, the child will require general anesthesia. A pathologist—a doctor who specializes in diagnosing diseases—examines the tissue in a lab. The test can help diagnose childhood nephrotic syndrome.
When the health care provider suspects a child has minimal change disease, he or she often starts treatment with medications without performing a biopsy. If the medication is effective, the child does not need a biopsy. In most cases, a health care provider does not perform a biopsy on children younger than age 12 unless he or she thinks that another disease is the cause.
How is childhood nephrotic syndrome treated?
Health care providers will decide how to treat childhood nephrotic syndrome based on the type:
- primary childhood nephrotic syndrome: medications
- secondary childhood nephrotic syndrome: treat the underlying illness or disease
- congenital nephrotic syndrome: medications, surgery to remove one or both kidneys, and transplantation
Primary Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome
Health care providers treat idiopathic childhood nephrotic syndrome with several types of medications that control the immune system, remove extra fluid, and lower blood pressure.
Control the immune system. Corticosteroids are a group of medications that reduce the activity of the immune system, decrease the amount of albumin lost in the urine, and decrease swelling. Health care providers commonly use prednisone or a related corticosteroid to treat idiopathic childhood nephrotic syndrome. About 90 percent of children achieve remission with daily corticosteroids for 6 weeks and then a slightly smaller dose every other day for 6 weeks.2 Remission is a period when the child is symptom-free.
Many children relapse after initial therapy, and health care providers treat them with a shorter course of corticosteroids until the disease goes into remission again. Children may have multiple relapses; however, they most often recover without long-term kidney damage.
When a child has frequent relapses or does not respond to treatment, a health care provider may prescribe other medications that reduce the activity of the immune system. These medications prevent the body from making antibodies that can damage kidney tissues. They include
- cyclophosphamide
- mycophenolate (CellCept, Myfortic)
- cyclosporine
- tacrolimus (Hecoria, Prograf)
A health care provider may use these other immune system medications with corticosteroids or in place of corticosteroids.
- Remove extra fluid. A health care provider may prescribe a diuretic, a medication that helps the kidneys remove extra fluid from the blood. Removing the extra fluid can often help to lower blood pressure.
- Lower blood pressure. Some children with childhood nephrotic syndrome develop high blood pressure and may need to take additional medications to lower their blood pressure. Two types of blood pressure-lowering medications, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers, have the additional benefit of slowing the progression of kidney disease. Many children with nephrotic syndrome require two or more medications to control their blood pressure.
Secondary Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome
Health care providers treat secondary childhood nephrotic syndrome by treating the underlying cause of the primary illness. For example, a health care provider may treat children by
- prescribing antibiotics for an infection
- adjusting medications to treat lupus, HIV, or diabetes
- changing or stopping medications that are known to cause secondary childhood nephrotic syndrome
- While treating the underlying cause, the health care provider will also treat the child to improve or restore kidney function with the same medications used to treat primary childhood nephrotic syndrome.
Caretakers should make sure that children take all prescribed medications and follow the treatment plan recommended by their health care provider.
More information about specific treatments for secondary childhood nephrotic syndrome is provided in the NIDDK health topic, Glomerular Diseases.
Congenital Nephrotic Syndrome
Researchers have found that medications are not effective in treating congenital nephrotic syndrome, and that most children will need a kidney transplant by the time they are 2 or 3 years old. A kidney transplant is surgery to place a healthy kidney from someone who has just died or a living donor, most often a family member, into a person's body to take over the job of the failing kidney. To keep the child healthy until the transplant, the health care provider may recommend the following:
- albumin injections to make up for the albumin lost in urine
- diuretics to help remove extra fluid that causes swelling
- antibiotics to treat the first signs of infection
- growth hormones to promote growth and help bones mature
- removal of one or both kidneys to decrease the loss of albumin in the urine
- dialysis to artificially filter wastes from the blood if the kidneys fail
More information is provided in the NIDDK health topic, Treatment Methods for Kidney Failure in Children.
How can childhood nephrotic syndrome be prevented?
Researchers have not found a way to prevent childhood nephrotic syndrome when the cause is idiopathic or congenital.
Eating, Diet, and Nutrition
Children who have nephrotic syndrome may need to make changes to their diet, such as
- limiting the amount of sodium, often from salt, they take in each day
- reducing the amount of liquids they drink each day
- eating a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol to help control elevated cholesterol levels
Parents or caretakers should talk with the child's health care provider before making any changes to the child's diet.
More information is provided in the NIDDK health topic, Nutrition for Chronic Kidney Disease in Children.
Points to Remember
- Childhood nephrotic syndrome is not a disease in itself; rather, it is a group of symptoms that
- indicate kidney damage—particularly damage to the glomeruli, the tiny units within the kidney where blood is filtered
- result in the release of too much protein from the body into the urine
- The two types of childhood nephrotic syndrome are
- primary—the most common type of childhood nephrotic syndrome, which begins in the kidneys and affects only the kidneys
- secondary—the syndrome is caused by other diseases
- The signs and symptoms of childhood nephrotic syndrome may include
- edema—swelling, most often in the legs, feet, or ankles and less often in the hands or face
- albuminuria—when a child's urine has high levels of albumin
- hypoalbuminemia—when a child's blood has low levels of albumin
- hyperlipidemia—when a child's blood cholesterol and fat levels are higher than normal
- A health care provider may order urine tests to help determine if a child has kidney damage from childhood nephrotic syndrome.
- Health care providers will decide how to treat childhood nephrotic syndrome based on the type:
- primary childhood nephrotic syndrome: medications
- secondary childhood nephrotic syndrome: treat the underlying illness or disease
- congenital nephrotic syndrome: medications, surgery to remove one or both kidneys, or transplantation
National Kidney Foundation
Children with Chronic Kidney Disease: Tips for Parents
Family Focus newsletter
Employers' Guide
Nemours KidsHealth Website
When Your Child Has a Chronic Kidney Disease
What's the Deal With Dialysis?
Cyber-support group
United Network for Organ Sharing
Organ Transplants: What Every Kid Needs to Know
www.unos.org (PDF, 1.67 MB)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Medicare Coverage of Kidney Dialysis & Kidney Transplant Services
www.medicare.gov (PDF, 1,080 KB)
U.S. Social Security Administration
Benefits For Children With Disabilities
www.ssa.gov (PDF, 413 KB)
[1] Nephrotic syndrome. The Merck Manuals Online Medical Library. www.merckmanuals.com . Updated July 2013. Accessed July 7, 2014.
[2] Bakkaloglu SA, Schaefer F. Diseases of the kidney and urinary tract in children. In: Taal MW, Chertow GM, Marsden PA, et al., eds. Brenner and Rector's The Kidney. 9th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders; 2011: 2622–2643.
Clinical Trials
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and other components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) conduct and support research into many diseases and conditions.
What are clinical trials, and are they right for you?
Clinical trials are part of clinical research and at the heart of all medical advances. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, detect, or treat disease. Researchers also use clinical trials to look at other aspects of care, such as improving the quality of life for people with chronic illnesses. Find out if clinical trials are right for you .
What clinical trials are open?
Clinical trials that are currently open and are recruiting can be viewed at www.ClinicalTrials.gov .
This information may contain content about medications and, when taken as prescribed, the conditions they treat. When prepared, this content included the most current information available. For updates or for questions about any medications, contact the U.S. Food and Drug Administration toll-free at 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332) or visit www.fda.gov . Consult your health care provider for more information.
The U.S. Government does not endorse or favor any specific commercial product or company. Trade, proprietary, or company names appearing in this document are used only because they are considered necessary in the context of the information provided. If a product is not mentioned, the omission does not mean or imply that the product is unsatisfactory.


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ForumsGetting Things Done®What would you suggest to a beginner?
What would you suggest to a beginner?
Stephan Waldeis
Posted: Aug 09, 2009
i decided to go for a Pro Account with Toodledo and will use it as my main GTD System.
Therefore i would like to have some basic tips from you how you would get ahead if you start from scratch, like i do.
I have about 60-70 Projects - i'm not sure if the Subtasks feature is the right for my projects, i'm not used to the concept how the UI works there. I would rather go with a seperate Folder per Project, would you think that this will work?
Any other ideas how to start?
If you are interested in the Getting Things Done approach, I would encourage you to try simply using contexts, using Home, Work, Out, et cetera. Use one context for Projects, or perhaps 2 for Projects Work and Projects Personal, and have a Someday/Maybe context. This is what David Allen suggests, and after years of fighting it, I find it is really is the fastest and easiest way. I do find it is essential to have my project support materials NOT in Toodledo. For that, I use Evernote. In any case, the best thing about Toodledo is its adaptibility. As long as you keep your next actions and projects in good shape, you can fiddle with everything else, and only waste time. :)
Posted by stephan:
I have about 60-70 Projects - i'm not sure if the Subtasks feature is the right for my projects, i'm not used to the concept how the UI works there. I would rather go with a seperate Folder per Project, would you think that this will work?
Any other ideas how to start?
Much like GTD is a framework upon which you can customize your system, Toodledo is GTD inspired task management system with extreme flexibility.
If you wanted to, you could make a separate folder for each project, but I know most people, myself included, want a way to keep work and personal separate for viewing purposes.
Since you are going Pro, the typical hiearchy people use is Folder (Something broad like "Work") -> Task (Actual project name) -> Subtask (What would be your list of next actions). I do not prefer this setup because of my own personal implementation of GTD. You can read about my approach in my post in the Tips and Tricks forum "Pseudo subfolders" The organization part is really up to you.
Most of my collection is done outside of toodledo in my work inbox, home inbox, email inboxes, and hipster pda. During my spare moment, I will process items from inboxes as is appropriate, then I will add the task/project to toodledo, if necessary (which I can conveniently do from my iPhone). And that is it!
I also tend to differ from the way people use toodledo because my folders are project names, and I rarely have more than one task in any given folder. The task in the folder is my next action, and my folder name can help me figure out my next action as I complete one. I tend not to put multiple actions in a folder because I think it adds to the clutter that GTD is trying to clear up.
I use toodledo strictly for task management. My calendar is my iPhone. And when I need to look at my task lists, I can use the computer I am at, or my iPhone. Many of the other features in toodledo, I simply prefer to have in a physical form in my file cabinet.
I review multiple times during the day, probably dozens.
That about wraps it up. Honestly, though, try setting up toodledo how you think it should be setup. Then use it. Using it will help you customize it to how you want. You will learn what you like or don't like about your workflow. I know the way I have toodledo setup for myself is FAR different from the way I set it up when I first signed up. You'll have your workflow figured out soon enough. What's important is just using it.
First of all I want to say Congratulations for wanting to be more Productive. I believe that Toodledo would help you accomplish this task.
There are many great ideas from brilliant people on these forums. Many of us implement GTD in different ways with Toodledo and they are all successful as long as it works for you.
There is no right way or wrong way, what I do suggest is that you look at others GTD setup as a basis and customize for your own needs from there.
I have share my GTD Setup with others on a different post which I will post here for your convenience.
My setup was something I tweaked many times as I used Toodledo with GTD to be productive at work, home and my business.
I learned a little from everyone so I won't take the credit for anything I am currently doing. Just listen to the advice from others and use what works for you.
Good Luck.
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Book your Ticket Or Hotel
Adults (12+):
is a unique Kerala travel company. 'Aana' is the word for Elephant in our local Indian language, Malayalam. And of course the elephant was among the first mode of travel in India.
We are from Kerala and we have vast experience in Kerala tourism and travel. We know the hoteliers, the houseboat owners, the drivers and all those responsible for ensuring you have the trip of a lifetime.
India is indeed an exotic and wonderful land but it's very strangeness can be confusing to the western mind. That's why we also travel in the west in order to get a deeper understanding of how east can meet west.
Malayalee people love an occasion for a good celebration. Food, song and dancing come naturally to a people whose gourmet feasts are now
gaining popularity all over the world and whose films are among the best known in the whole subcontinent.
As you sit and read this in a place where so many people have demands on your time, it may be dificult to fully realise the relaxing, rejuvenating powers of Kerala's ancient science of life, Ayurveda. If you come on an Ayurvedic holiday, you WILL believe it.ve it.
Aana Holidays India Pvt. Ltd.
TC 44/586, Airport Road
Vallakkadavu P. O.
Trivandrum -695008
Kerala, India
Copyright © 2013 All rights reserved


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The Honda Walking Assist Devices attempt to augment human mobility with robotic power. Earlier today I took the futuristic prototypes for an exclusive "first outdoors spin" in Times Square.
Honda is developing both the Stride Management Assist (the one that looks like a belt) and the Bodyweight Support Assist (the robotic legs and seat) to help elderly or otherwise mobility-challenged people regain the ability to walk on their own or extend their current range of abilities. There are also potential workplace applications; the devices could reduce the strain of heavy lifting, repetitious bending, walking long distance or even standing for long periods of time.
The Honda Stride Management Assist is the simpler of the two products and probably the one that makes the most sense. It's designed for people with weakened muscles that can still walk on their own, but could use some help getting back in shape after an injury or tackling difficult tasks like walking up steps. Basically, a motor sits on each hip and helps lift the leg using and arm and strap connected down by your knee. Its your own movement that activates and controls the length and degree of assistance, so you won't find the device trying to force you into movements you didn't already want to make.
The help the Stride Management Assist provides is most evident walking up stairs two at a time; you can feel the motor helping lift your leg to a fairly extreme level while your own effort is minimal. It's still a natural movement, just a natural movement that's easier while you're wearing the device. That assistance can also be felt taking long strides, but sadly won't boost your running speeds or jumping heights to superhuman levels. Honda says the idea is to reduce exertion, not boost strength.
In addition to just providing assistance, the Stride Management Assist helps train its users muscles to move more efficiently. In this way, wearers will build muscle strength, posture and increase the length of their stride, moving towards a time when they will no longer need to use the device. Honda envisions hospitals and physical therapists being the main customers for the Stride Management Assist, but it could also be used by the elderly as a way to extend their personal freedom. Eventual customer-ready systems could be slim enough to fit underneath normal clothing. As it is, the total package weighs just 6 Lbs, so you can barely feel it. It'll run 2 hours on a full charge.
The Honda Bodyweight Support Assist has a far greater range of abilities, but it's also far more obtrusive. Walking around in it outside the W Hotel in Times Square, I got looks ranging from confused smiles to "Who's the crazy person? Time to cross the street."
To put it on you sit down, take off your own shoes, then strap yourself into the dorky black and silver orthopedic items connected to the carbon fiber legs. Turn both legs on, then lift the seat up into your crotch. Move your legs up and down and you get the kind of jerky, mechanical movement that you'd expect from a pair of robotic legs.
Like the Stride Management Assist, the Bodyweight Support Assist is designed to help people with weakened leg muscles and mobility, but adds the ability, as the name suggests, to support bodyweight during squats, crouches etc. Over the belt, the legs also add the ability to take load off the knees and hips, something older people constantly reminded that I'll appreciate in twenty or thirty years.
As it stands now, the Stride Management Assist doesn't do much for my healthy, young body except limit my natural range of movement and speed. Still, it's pretty neat crouching down and having something support your pelvis. It's like your very own seat that walks around with you wherever you go. The total device, including batteries, weighs 14 Lbs, but supports its own weight. A full battery charge is good for 2 hours of use.
Honda sees the Stride Management Assist finding favor with large manufacturing companies since it could help keep and aging manual labor workforce more efficient for longer. Another application could be tourism, providing museum goers, tour takes or sports fans with a little help walking long distance then standing for long periods of time.
As devices to assist with rehabilitation after injury and increase mobility for the elderly the Honda Walking Assist Devices make a lot of sense. They not only decrease fatigue, but they help train muscles and their owners to work together in a more efficient manner. The only downside is that they don't provide super strength to already fit people as we'd originally hoped. Honda doesn't want to put a date or a price on either device coming to market, but judging by the production-ready nature of the two we tested, expect to see them in the hands of corporate customers in the near future for what Honda says will be a "reasonably affordable" price.


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Wildlife and Landscape Photography
Tours and Workshops around the WorldI try hard to regularly create interesting content for you. I take pride in trying to write relevant content in my blog that is beneficial to all photographers. And, I have what I think are some truly cool workshops and tours to offer landscape and wildlife photographers. Please check them out. Click on the blog tab on the right side of the menu bar above this paragraph and check it out, if you're into reading blog articles. The Canadian Rockies are an incredible place to call home, and to practice my craft, wildlife and landscape photography. I sincerely hope you have the chance to visit here soon to photograph the landscape and the abundant wildlife. The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks are truly one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Tours and Workshops:Wildlife and Landscape photography workshops and tours are based in and around Banff where I live, across the country from coast to coast to coast and around the World in Japan, where my wife and business partner, Kazue, is from. I'm an experienced professional wildlife and landscape photographer based in Banff since 1997.
Who am I?Brian and his wife, Kazue, have been leading wildlife and photography workshops and tours in Banff, Japan and Cape Breton collectively for decades. We strive to deliver to you the extraordinary essence of these places that only a 20 year native of all of these areas can communicate to you. Brian grew up in Halifax and Cape breton in Nova Scotia. And, Kazue lived in Japan for the first 25-ish years of her life in Japan. Now, we have been living married together in Banff for over a decade. We love helping you get the most out of your photographic experience. I hope you get to enjoy Banff, our beautiful home, Japan, Kazue's home country, and where I'm from, Nova Scotia, with us in the very near future. Banff is a UNESCO world heritage site and it is simply amazing here. Let us show you one of the most beautiful places in the world.


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65 Roses® 'Burst of Joy' - 7mm Silk Ribbon
7mm Ribbon (1/4 inch) 5 yards
Inspired by and named for actual roses (except blues and greens), many 65 Roses® are limited edition colorways--only blooming once! And new ones will bloom each season.
We love the yellows and oranges in "Burst of Joy" and in our 65 Roses interpretation, we added lots of green for the leaves. Click here to see "Burst of Joy" rose that served as inspiration.
"65 Roses®" is a term often used by young children with cystic fibrosis to pronounce the name of their disease.
Treenway Silks donates a minimum 10% of sales to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, in honor of Andrea's angels, to help find a cure for cystic fibrosis (CF). Since developing the 65 Roses® colorways in 2017, Treenway Silks has donated $11,400 through March 31, 2022—we appreciate your support as we work toward our 2022 goal!
Hand-dyed in Colorado--color fast. We use acid dyes with heat and then rinse until water runs clear.
Wash in tepid or slightly warm water.
The silk is from the Bombyx mori silk worm, often referred to as "mulberry" silk.
5 yards
Did you know? Treenway Silks' ribbon can also be used in your sewing machine bobbin.
1 skein fits onto a standard sewing machine bobbin) We suggest DecoBob by wonderfil as a goot top thread
About Treenway Silks' Ribbons
--All widths of Treenway Silk's ribbons are woven with selvage edges. The selvage edge can hold up to stitching on fabric or being pulled through canvas.
--The silk used is the highest quality reeled silk which still has the sericin in it. The sericin acts as a natural sizing.
--The warp (length-wise) threads are two strands of fine silk which are twisted together. There are 300 fine warp threads per inch.
--The weft (cross-wise threads) is a single silk strand.
--The ribbon is woven in plain weave, where the weft thread goes over and under each individual warp thread, all the way across the ribbon, giving a strong, stable ribbon.


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The Games of Tigran Petrosian - Volume 2
Book Description
This is the second volume of a two-volume work on the games of Tigran Petrosian. The first volume has his games from 1942 to 1965. Tigran Petrosian was World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He became the first player in the modern era to win a match to defend the world chess title, by defeating Boris Spassky in a match in 1966. He had gained the World Chess Championship by defeating Mikhail Botvinnik in a match in 1963. He is perhaps best known today for being the one who broke Bobby Fischer's streak of winning 20 games in a row against grandmasters. Petrosian had an unusual playing style. Instead of attacking, he would anticipate his opponent's attacks. He would set traps and pitfalls so that when the opponent attacked he would usually fall on his own sword. This gave Petrosian the undeserved reputation of being a dull, drawish player. Statistics show that Petrosian was not a drawish player at all. Tal would attack often unsoundly hoping to catch the opponent in a maze of complications. Fischer by contrast always tried to make the best move and would only sacrifice after he had analyzed deeply and found the sacrifice to be sound and correct. Petrosian on the other hand would wait until the opponent attacked him. Modern players study the games of Petrosian in order to try to understand what he was doing. His deep positional insights are difficult to ferret out. Prior his untimely death in Moscow on 13 August 1984.at the age of only 55, Former World Chess Champion Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian had been collecting his games and was preparing lectures and notes. He was planning to compile them all into a book. However, due to his premature death the book was never published. His widow Rona E. Petrosian went to work and with Eduard Shekhtman and with great difficulty was able to collect and compile the games which are published here.
|Eduard Shekhtman
|Publication Date
|December 3, 2012
|Notation Type
|AN - Algebraic
|Book Binding Type
|Book Edition
|This is a Modern Reprint of a Classic Book