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I wanted to let you know about my recent experience making my own anti-flu medicine because I am just so thrilled to be able to make a proven antiviral flu remedy for a mere fraction of the cost of the commercially prepared variety.
Posted on September 4, 2009 at 2:04pm — 8 Comments
I have been reading about slow roasted tomatoes for years and I don't know why it took me so long to jump on the train with all the cool kids, but I am here now! Let me tell you, these things are a revelation. Everything good about tomatoes is magnified in the slow roasting approach, turning a perfectly serviceable Roma into a thing of brilliance. Think of the depth of flavor in a good quality tomato paste, but sweeter, and with the added fragrance of… Continue
Posted on August 22, 2009 at 2:00pm — 6 Comments
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Posted on August 14, 2009 at 3:00pm
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Welcome to MBC! We are glad to have you here. We look forward connecting more with you here. I'm a Super Mama who has a family friendly blog, i also have a weekday blog hop called Exposure 99% . This weekday blog hop helps you get more dedicated readers and blog followers. Hope you link up weekly and i look forward connecting more with you here. If you have any questions about how to link up do not hesitate to let me know.
Hello, welcome to Mom Bloggers. This is a wonderful community where you can meet other interesting moms.
I am Nekky from Reflexions, a fun loving mom of two who like to meet people, make friends and share opinions. I have some weekly blog hops: GET CONNECTED TUESDAY BLOG HOPand WELCOME TO WEEKEND BLOG HOP. Always feel free to link up every week as this will enable you gain some new followers and make new blogger friends.
Hope you enjoy your stay here. Happy Connections.
Happy holidays and welcome on board from The Girlz Korner in upstate New York. We're a one stop visit to light, witty and rather entertaining articles on health, beauty, fashion, parenting, relationships, awesome recipes and so much more. So if you get a chance to kick back, if only for a brief moment ... come on over ~ kick off your shoes and stay a while. We'd love to have you. http://www.thegirlzkorner.com


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If you're thinking about purchasing a vehicle rugged enough to finesse rocky trails, chances are, one make comes to mind: Jeep. This specialty automotive manufacturer has a long history of producing trucks and SUVs capable of off-highway adventures — so much so that the term jeep is used by many to refer to all SUVs, whether the vehicle in question is a true Jeep or not.
Jeep took root in WWII as the name of the now-iconic four-wheel-drive military vehicle produced by Willys-Overland and Ford for the U.S. Army. The name's origin is somewhat of a mystery; popular belief is that it morphed from "GP, " or "general purpose, " though others have suggested that it was a nickname derived from a character featured in the Popeye comic strip of the time.
The mid-1940s saw the introduction of the first civilian Jeep, the CJ-2A. It offered many features not available on military versions, such as a tailgate, an external fuel cap and a side-mounted spare tire, and was targeted mainly toward farmers and construction workers.
Civilian Jeeps caught on with the public, and by the 1950s, new models such as the CJ-3B and the CJ-5 had been introduced. The CJ-5 had the longest production run of any Jeep vehicle, continuing for 30 years after its introduction in the early '50s. The company changed owners during this decade as Willys-Overland was sold to Kaiser in 1953.
Jeep broke new ground in the 1960s with the debut of its Wagoneer. Geared toward active families, this early SUV was the first four-wheel-drive vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission. A new "Dauntless" V6 became available as an option on the CJ-5 and CJ-6 in 1965. This was the first time that a Jeep CJ could be equipped with a V6. Packing 155 horses, the engine's horsepower almost doubled that offered by the standard four-cylinder.
By the 1970s, Jeep had changed ownership yet again, with the purchase of Kaiser-Jeep by American Motors Corporation. New models like the CJ-7 and the Scrambler were rolled out. Additionally, the company unveiled some new technology with the introduction of the world's first automatic full-time four-wheel-drive system. Dubbed Quadra-Trac, it was available in the CJ-7 as well as in full-size Jeep trucks and wagons. During this decade, Jeep's fortunes soared as four-wheel-drive vehicles became increasingly popular with large sections of American buyers.
The 1980s saw the introduction of the Cherokee and Wrangler. The Cherokee was one of the first of the new breed of SUVs — high-riding midsize wagons that skyrocketed in popularity as the decade progressed. The Wrangler replaced the CJ series in 1987 and offered the raw functionality of the CJ along with more comfort features. That year also saw the purchase of American Motors by Chrysler, with the Jeep brand becoming part of Chrysler's Jeep/Eagle division. One of Jeep's most popular models, the Grand Cherokee, debuted for 1993. This handsome, midsize SUV offered considerably more comfort and luxury than the smaller Cherokee while still providing stout off-road capability.
Jeep fell under the umbrella of DaimlerChrysler after Chrysler and Daimler-Benz merged in 1998. This partnership resulted in a few new models, such as the Liberty and Compass, though none were able to attain great sales success. In 2007, Daimler sold the Chrysler Group to a private equity firm. It is now under control of Fiat.
More recently, the company has added a couple of enticing models to its lineup (including a four-door version of the Wrangler and the pavement-scorching Grand Cherokee SRT8) and made substantial performance and quality improvements under the hoods and within the cabins. As such, we expect Jeep will not only maintain a loyal group of customers but will also bring new fans into the fold.


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January 17 Guest blog
Blooding Book Reviews
January 21 Guest blog
Review Jude Series
Guest post series Paranormal Perceptions
January 25 Guest blog
Jude Magdalyn Series on Queen of the Night Reviews
January 30 Promo
Book Lovin' Mamas –
February 4 Guest blog
Buffy's Ramblings
February 5 Promo and review
I know that book.
February 7 Interview
Tory Michaels' World.
February 22 guest post and review for the Frankie Post Series
Queen of the Night Reviews
Jude Magdalyn Series
Shades of Gray
Book One
By L.M. Pruitt
Jude Magdalyn Henries lives what many would call an unconventional life.
Orphaned at birth, raised by nuns, a teenage runaway living on the streets... she now earns a living at odd jobs, including one as a fake tarot card reader. Very little about Jude's life appears normal, by any scale.
When she accepts a gig to do a private reading, unconventional takes on an entirely new meaning. Life as she knows it ends when she's thrust into a world she never knew existed-one filled with magic, vampires, and her beloved New Orleans on the verge of an underground war.
To make matters worse, she's got two men in her life vying for attention, Williams and Theo. Both call to a different part of her, but one scares her just a little bit.
Can she step up to the challenges set before her and make the right choices for the greatergreater good?
Shades of DesireBy L.M. Pruitt
All I wanted was a little peace and quiet.
Instead, I've got dead Covenant members and a steady stream of letters from the new guy in town. His beverage of choice? A 2002 Merlot, with a shot or two of powerful virgin blood.
On top of that, I'm breaking in a new police liaison, failing at playing matchmaker, and fighting nausea like it's a full time job. All I wanted was a little peace and quiet.
Instead, I've got dead Covenant members and a steady stream of letters from the new guy in town. His beverage of choice? A 2002 Merlot, with a shot or two of powerful virgin blood.
On top of that, I'm breaking in a new police liaison, failing at playing matchmaker, and fighting nausea like it's a full time job.
Did I forget to mention that I've also got enough girls living at the Crossroads to start my own boarding school?
Peace and quiet? Out the window.
--Jude Magdalyn Henries
Buy Links Kindle
Book 1 Shades of Grey for your Kindle, in Paperback
Hole in the Wall a Jude Magdalyn free Kindle shortDuprees and Williams have to track down Felipe, fast, before he claims any more victims. If that means making a deal with the Devil--otherwise known as St. Germaine--and using an untrained dhampir, so be it.
Shades of Blood
Felipe, one of New Orleans's most infamous—and crazy--vampires is back in town. And to say he's unhappy is an understatement.
Shades of Blood
Felipe, one of New Orleans's most infamous—and crazy--vampires is back in town. And to say he's unhappy is an understatement.
If that wasn't enough, I've also got rebellious teenagers, feuding couples, and a suddenly full social calendar.
The more things change....
Frankie Post Series
Irish Rover
Book 0.5
Cheating husband?
L.M. Pruitt has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember. A native of Florida with a love of New Orleans, she has the uncanny ability to find humor in most things and would probably kill a plastic plant. She is the author of the best-selling Jude Magdalyn series, the Moon Rising series, and the Frankie Post series. She is currently at work on the next Jude Magdalyn book, Shades of Blood. She makes her home in Florida with one two cats—one smart, the other an idiot.
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/LM-Pruitt/364776895104
Blog: http://www.lmpruitt.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/lmpruitt
Call Frances "Frankie" Post, a private investigator with a trick or two up her sleeve.
In this flash fiction piece (approx. 1500 words) join Frankie as she spends the afternoon in Queens masquerading as a member of the "personal entertainment" business community. A note to cheating husbands - never use the joint checking account.
Book One
Cheating spouse? Stolen jewelry? Missing person?
Call Frances--Frankie--Post. A private detective with a trick of two up her sleeve and a few skeletons of her own.
What starts out as a simple missing person's case dumps Frankie and her lover Jack right in the crosshairs of a dangerous human trafficking organization. With lives on the line, bad blood and old wounds finally see the light of day. And Frankie and Jack are forced to realize: The past always catches up with you.
Moon Rising Series
New Moon Rising
Book One
Nothing ever happens in Selene, Georgia. The biggest events in the past ten years have been a wedding, a funeral and a bar fight. It's slow, sleepy, a little narrow-minded--but for Cari Gravier, it's home.
Now things are starting to happen that nobody's seen before. Strange things in the woods, dead animals--and dead people. Cari's about to discover a whole new side to Selene. And a past that may come back to bite her...
Harvest Moon Rising
Book Two
Cari Gravier might have learned Selene's big secret, but some things remain constant: the Old Town Cafe, blackberry harvesting, and the shaky relationship with her ex-husband, Mike Sullivan.
But there's more change in the wind, the kind even half blind Old Willis can see. The seeds of the past--betrayal, violence, and heartbreak--are ready for harvest.
And some sleeping dogs just won't stay down...
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/LM-Pruitt/364776895104
Blog: http://www.lmpruitt.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/lmpruitt


text: All of us lead a very busy life style and we allocate very little time for ourselves and for our healthcare needs. In this hectic life style we have no time to pay attention to what we are eating and whether what we are taking is supplying our body with the right nutrients and vitamins. This careless attitude over a period of time results in several health related problems. We succumb to numerous health problems which could have been easily avoided by taking healthy diet.,If you too are too busy to pay attention to your health but worried that your general health condition is deteriorating then you need not worry. You can overcome these problems by taking nutrition supplements and vitamins. Even if you do not have time or the patience to follow a well balanced healthy diet these supplements will cover up for the loss and provide you with adequate vitamins and nutrition your body needs.,You need to choose your nutrition supplements and vitamins carefully because the healthcare industry is flooded with hundreds of products and you are very likely to be confused.,So exercise caution while selecting your nutrition supplements. Look for products that have been in the market for quite some time and products that enjoy good reputation. This will protect you from unnecessary risks of side effects. Supplements from companies like Vitamin Power are considered safe. This company has been serving people since 1975, a brand that you can trust.,When you take health supplements and vitamins your body's immune system will be boosted. This will protect you from many health related problems. You will not have to worry about succumbing to many common illnesses such as cold, flu and the like. Your energy level will be boosted greatly and this will be seen through in your daily performance. Whether at work or home you will be able to achieve your maximum potential without feeling tired.,All your dietary nutritional needs will also be met effectively when you use nutrition supplements and vitamins. Regular consumption of nutrition supplements will minimize the number of times that you visit your physician each year. When you are choosing your supplements and vitamin tablets it is essential that you choose natural products so that you will not run into any undesirable side effects. This is where many people make mistakes, they choose their supplements and vitamins without any discretion and when they consume these artificial nutrition and supplements on regular basis they develop unwanted side effects.,On the other hand taking supplements such as Power Source 100 from Vitamin Power you will not run into such problems because these supplements are made of natural ingredients and hence suitable for long term use without any fear of side effects.,It is your responsibility to take care of your health and busy life style need not be your excuse anymore because there are powerful supplements and vitamins that you can use to balance your poor diet and enjoy good health.


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Picture this: You live in Texas, the state with the most solar energy potential in the U.S. Knowing this, you decide to install solar panels on your home's rooftop because, in Texas, you can lease – rather than buy – the entire solar energy system. The option to lease allows you to take advantage of a low monthly payment that will be offset by the savings on your energy bill, rather than face high upfront investment costs.
Now, while you are at work during the day, your panels are actually putting excess, unused energy back onto the grid, when electricity is most expensive. And, that surplus of energy isn't just wasted; it is used by your electric company to serve other customers. In most states, electric companies buy this power back at a retail rate. But, in Texas it's not quite that simple. In order to see any form of pay back, you have to be a lucky customer of one of only three retailers – TXU Energy, Reliant Energy and Green Mountain Energy – that offer "renewable buyback" rates in Texas. If you happen to buy electricity from one of the other 50 retailers serving residential providers across the state, though, you could always switch over to a renewable buyback program. But there is no guarantee that you will be paid a fair market value for the 25+ years your solar energy system is expected to last.
Making a long-term investment to protect against highly-fluctuating, unpredictable electric rates is a difficult decision, and making that decision without knowing whether you are guaranteed fair compensation is nearly impossible. This is one of the key reasons why Texas lags behind the nation in solar adoption. Fortunately, there is a solution in the works. Senate Bill 1239 from state Senator Jose Rodriguez seeks to guarantee homeowners, schools and religious facilities at least a minimum buyback rate based on wholesale market energy prices, which were about 50 percent lower than retail rates in 2011, on average. The bill has a similar impact for rural electric co-operative, municipal and independently-owned utility customers, ensuring that any homeowner, school or religious entity that installs a properly-sized solar energy system will be compensated comparable to the way a fossil fuel power plant is compensated in the wholesale market.
Even though most agree that solar energy emitted onto the distribution grid demands a high value –higher than retail rates pay according to some – Senator Rodriguez's bill is a critical step forward for Texans who wish to be truly energy independent. Today, Texas is one of only six states that does not guarantee customers any form of payment for excess, clean energy, while conservative states – such as Utah, Arizona, Ohio and New Jersey – are consistently praised for having some of the best buyback policies in the country. Hence why Arizona and New Jersey – with longstanding buyback rates – are ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively for solar production in the U.S.
Senate Bill 1239, also known as the Renewables BuyBack Bill, is up for hearing the morning of Tuesday, April 16th, we are proud to be among the broad group of stakeholders, including TXU Energy, Reliant Energy, faith groups, environmentalists and the solar industry working with Senator Rodriguez on this critical legislation. Solar prices continue to drop dramatically, which makes policies like Bill 1239 critical for Texans as the state prepares to find solutions to help address the Texas Energy Crunch.
EDF hopes the Senate Business and Commerce Committee will pass the Renewables BuyBack bill quickly to ensure homeowners, schools and religious entities receive a fair compensation for the clean energy they sell back to the grid, which will help to create opportunities for energy independence for Texans.


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Scotland-born Karen Gillan went from unknown to international TV star when she was plucked from obscurity to play the role of the Doctor's companion in the latest two series of Doctor Who. Her role of Amy Pond coincided with a new Doctor (Matt Smith) and a new head writer for the program (Steven Moffat), and over the course of two seasons, she's gone from a flighty barely grown girl, to a more grounded wife, who learned some shocking news in the show's most recent episode. With Doctor Who returning for the second half of its latest series on Saturday, August 27, at 9 p.m. EST on BBC America, Gillan talked to The A.V. Club about the brilliance of Moffat's scripts, traveling the world to promote the show, and her secret-keeping skills. The interview contains spoilers for major reveals from the last batch of episodes.
The A.V. Club: I heard at Comic-Con that Steven Moffat makes you keep secrets from each other. Are you naturally a good secret-keeper?
Karen Gillan: I would like to think I'm a good secret-keeper, when it comes to friends. I'm quite loyal like that. It's really difficult when you have a massive, amazing, exciting secret about Doctor Who, but I guess we're trained that way now. [Laughs.]
AVC: Do you think that adds to the show, to have these things nobody else knows?
KG: I think that's exactly what it does for the show. I think it's really clever what Steven did. He kind of told everyone a little bit of information that we weren't allowed to tell anybody else. And it just adds, because that's where the characters are, in terms of keeping things from each other, and it makes for a really interesting dynamic in the TARDIS. It's always interesting when somebody's talking and there's double meanings and things, but the other character doesn't know. And also, I've still got my secret.
AVC: How long have you had it?
KG: I've had it since the beginning of the [latest] series.
[Spoiler for those who haven't seen "A Good Man Goes To War," the final episode of the first half of the in-progress sixth season to follow.]
AVC: The River revelation was a surprise to you. When you heard it, did you think, "Okay, now I'm playing Alex Kingston's mother"?
KG: Yeah. I went, "I'm Alex Kingston's mother. Okay." It's pretty difficult to digest. I never thought I'd be cast as that, but there we are. It's really cool, though, because River's always been slightly protective over Amy, and they've always actually really gotten on with each other. There's none of that jealousy that sometimes happens with the companion and another woman in the Doctor's life. It wasn't like that at all. So there was always something interesting going on there, although Alex knew and I didn't. And now it's funny, because we've had a chance to really play with that relationship and certain maternal instincts that Amy might feel toward River.
AVC: What has it been like to play out the process of building a marital relationship with the Rory character?
KG: What I love about that relationship is that we really saw it develop to get to the stage where they were happy together. Because we started off at a point where Amy didn't want to be committed to him, and he absolutely did, and that just gave us somewhere to go with it, rather than just them being happy together. So it was interesting, and it evolved, and Rory really became a hero in the process. He was the lone centurion in 2,000 years. So yeah, that relationship really developed. And what I love is that we're seeing a lot of it, and we're actually going to see how they get together in the next episode.
AVC: How far along are you guys in production for the rest of the series?
KG: The rest of the series is in the can. We are finished filming, and it's all being edited.
AVC: Moffat is famous for puzzle-like scripts that all fit together at the end. When you're filming, do you ever get confused about how everything's going to fit together?
KG: Yeah, sometimes it's quite complicated, because it's not filmed in chronological order, and a lot of things are not revealed in chronological order. But the show's about time travel, so that's not linear storytelling. I think it's how it should be told, because it's playing around with time, which is interesting. And also, it's funny, the big revelation about River being Amy's daughter. I didn't find that out until I'd filmed some of the episodes that go after that. So that was quite interesting. I suddenly went, "Oh, does my performance make sense now?" But Steven and the execs were all over that to make sure it all made sense. I trust Moffat, and I trust Piers Wenger and Beth Willis. They know what they're doing, and if anything doesn't make sense, they're not just going to let it go.
AVC: Have there ever been any episodes where you were particularly surprised by how things turned out?
KG: You know, I've just watched episode 10, which is about to air, and my God, the director is Nick Hurran, and he has done the most amazing job. They are the most cinematic episodes. They just look really, really filmic, and he's got such an attention to detail. And also a really, really amazing director called Richard Senior. It was his first directing job. He directed "Let's Kill Hitler." It's turned out amazingly. For him to start out on that level, he's going to go far.
AVC: "Let's Kill Hitler" almost sounds like a caper.
KG: Yeah. It's a big adventure. It's really fun. It's really funny. Also, we're dealing with a lot of things to do with the big revelation with who River Song is. We're not just brushing over that. We really revel in that. But it's a real fun adventure to start us off with the next half of the season.
AVC: What's it like for you as an actor to balance those more standalone episodes with the ones that contribute to the big story about River's parentage, or the Doctor being killed?
KG: I think it's really good, because it just provides a bit of variety. That's what I love about this role; we get to play so many different things in one character. It's funny, it's sad. Funny and sad at the same time. It's scary, all of those things mixed into one. So I'm just really grateful that I get to play all those things.
AVC: Your parents liked Doctor Who, but you weren't necessarily that familiar with it before the revival.
KG: Yeah. Basically, it's been on since 1963, but there was a break. So it wasn't on while I was growing up. I never got the thing of being a kid and hiding behind the cushions going, "Ahh, it's a Dalek!" I knew what it was, because everyone in the UK knows what Doctor Who is, you're just sort of born knowing what a Dalek is and what a TARDIS is, and all that. So I was only familiar with it from when it came back in 2005, and my Mum's a really big sci-fi fan, so I just watched some if it with her having it on the television.
AVC: Were you into science fiction at all?
KG: Yes. I grew up on The X-Files. I love The Outer Limits. I like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager.
AVC: Where do you see Amy fitting into the tradition of science-fiction heroines? What do you think this character brings to that genre?
KG: Well, I quite like that she's a little bit kookier than a normal action girl. She's got a bit of a madness to her, which is interesting, from when she first meets the Doctor. Also, what we get from her—I feel you really invest in the character, because you meet her as a little girl. But then what you get is, you're really seeing her life pan out. We're seeing her grow up before our very eyes. She starts off as a little girl, then a young woman. We see her get together with a boy, get married, have a kid. We're seeing it all pan out.
I hope she's evolving as a character, because last season, I wanted her to be… I wanted the child to be quite a big part of her character. She was this overgrown child, she never quite let go of her childhood, and when that magic man fell out of the sky… And then the universe rebooted, and she's become more of a settled person, and now she's a mother, so we're going to see a whole new side.
AVC: She had kind of a wanderlust when your character started, and now she's a mother, and she's married. What has that evolution been like?
KG: That's been what I absolutely most love about playing this character, is that she's not just a character. We know what she's like, and that's her run on the show. We're seeing her whole life pan out. That's what I love about her so much. I hope she's changing. She was quite snarky in the last series, and bit like [Whines.] "Ahhhh," quite young. Because she was always still such a child inside, as one of the monsters said to her at one point. And then we see the universe rebooted, so she's got two different versions of reality, so she's still a little messed-up, but she's far more settled as a person, having had a normal upbringing in one reality. She's married, and she has a kid. It's cool; it's really cool.
AVC: You mentioned that you liked the character Rose [an earlier companion on the show]. What did you like about her?
KG: I felt like she was a relatable character. She was a normal, ordinary girl who had something extraordinary happen to her, which is always a relatable formula. You see it in many shows. Like, you have American Idol and all that. It's the ordinary in extraordinary circumstances. I love that. And so I felt like I could relate to her, and I liked her. She really got that role, what the Doctor Who companion should be. She was fun. She was feisty and kind of girl-next-door. And Billie Piper clearly realized the importance of the chemistry with the Doctor. It was very much the Doctor and Rose as a unit, rather than just the Doctor, for instance.
AVC: Before you were cast on the show, was there an episode or moment when you said, "I really like this show, it's a lot of fun"?
KG: I remember seeing bits of it. All I remember massively is seeing Billie Piper in some sort of underground, vent-y area, running away from monsters. And I thought, "That looks really fun." [Laughs.] I did. I was like, "Imagine getting to do that every day." And that was just a really passing thought; I never thought one day I actually would be.
AVC: For all of you in the cast, this is your first role at this level. What's it been like dealing with that level of fame?
KG: It's a bit of a shock to the system at first, because neither of us were known in any way in the UK, or anywhere. I had not done many jobs beforehand, just a few episodes of things. And this was just crazy, because even when they know that they're casting the roles, there's a lot of media speculation as to who it's going to be. You're going into the auditions, and you can't tell anyone. It's so scary. And then we get the roles, and we can't tell anyone.
But then we sort of filmed for nine months. You kind of just get used to your way of life, of filming this show, forgetting that it actually transmits on television around the world. And then when we came out the night it aired, someone said to us, they were like, "Okay, so after this night, your lives aren't going to be the same anymore." We were like, "Really?" And they really weren't.
AVC: The show is big around the world. You've done a lot of traveling with this show. What's different about that experience?
KG: You go to places you might not necessarily choose to go, and find that they're incredible. And you get to meet all sorts of interesting people. All the boring parts are organized for you. That's quite nice. [Laughs.] Like the travel arrangements.
AVC: You were just down in San Diego for Comic-Con. What was that experience like?
KG: Ah, the most. It was really overwhelming, actually, because we did not expect to get that sort of reception out there. It really made us realize how much it really is growing out here in the States. We had 6,500 people in this Hall H at Comic-Con, with all these sonic screwdrivers in the air. They were so excited, and that made us so excited. Matt and I were walking down the street in San Diego; we saw loads of people dressed up as the Doctor and Amy. It was so surreal.
AVC: What have been your favorite episodes?
KG: The first episode that ever aired, "The Eleventh Hour," always holds a special place in my heart, because I just love how the Doctor and Amy meet. I love the whole sequence with Matt and Caitlin, playing the younger version of Amy. And then just seeing them come together for the first time, it's like an explosion or something, because they're both pretty mental. So I love that episode, because it's all about them and that relationship. And I really enjoyed filming episode 10, which will be coming up in a few weeks' time, because I got to play an older version of Amy.
AVC: Can you tell us more about what's coming up?
KG: So basically what we're going to see is, everyone's relationship is explored further after this big revelation about River Song, particularly the relationship between Amy and River. We've had so much fun with that, and actually, I feel slightly maternal toward Alex Kingston now, honestly. And she acts younger around me; it's really funny how that's turned into our actual way of interacting. What else have we got? We got this cool robot thing called the Tessalecta, which is really, really snazzy. And then we get to see an older version of Amy in episode 10. You'll never look at children's toys the same way after episode nine, and then episode 13 brings the mother of all twists.
AVC: What's it like to read these scripts for the first time?
KG: It's just the most exciting thing to get a fresh, new script that's still hot from the photocopier thing. [Laughs.] From the printer, I don't know, and just read it. I don't wait. I tear into it straightaway. It's so exciting, especially a Steven Moffat one.
AVC: If you could follow Amy for several series of this show, where would you like to see her end up?
KG: What I love, again, is seeing her grow up. Rather than getting a snippet of her life and her time with the Doctor, we're actually seeing a lot of her life pan out, and a lot of major things in a girl's life worth seeing. I would like to see her grown into a woman and maybe just see all of her life pan out. That would be nice.


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Way back in May of 2009, Valve introduced Team Fortress players to the Sniper vs. Spy Update, which at the time was TF2's most ambitious game update yet – providing both the Sniper and Spy classes with three significant new weapons each, as well as several new maps, alongside a brand new gamemode. But this update brought us something else, something which would leave a lasting impact not only on TF2 itself, but on all of Valve's future work, as a whole… hats.
Yes, the Sniper vs. Spy Update was when TF2 got its 9 first rare cosmetic headgear items – one for each playable class. Since then, Valve (alongside numerous item designers from the Team Fortress community) have added 259 more hats to TF2- and so, by now, most people have forgotten about those 9 original hats… which makes it all the more interesting that Valve has actually decided to permanently retire them from the game's item circuit.


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More Things To Read
I received this email from someone and thought I would post it here for others to read!
Graham's daughter was interviewed on the
Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God
let something like this happen?" (Regarding the attacks on Sept. 11).
Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us
In light of recent events...terrorists, attack, school shootings, etc. I
think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school... the Bible says
you shall not murder you shall not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself.
And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.
Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. The school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued (there's a big difference between disciplining, touching, beating, smacking humiliating, kicking, etc.). And we said OK.
Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents. And we said OK.
Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school. And we said OK.
Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. Agreeing with them, we said it doesn't matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good.
Then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body. And we said OK.
And then someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then further again by making them available on the Internet. And we said OK, they're entitled to free speech.
Then the entertainment industry said let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex. Let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes. And we said its just entertainment, it has no adverse effect, nobody takes it
seriously anyway, so go right ahead.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.
I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.
Funny how you
can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you
start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about
Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyber space, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on
your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they
WILL think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in!
Back To Home Page Other Things Team Jesus


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WASHINGTON, January 21, 2011— Food and Drug Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg today conducted an unusual one-on-one dialogue with leaders of approximately 60 patient organizations at a forum hosted by the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD).
NORD organized the meeting so that Dr. Hamburg could share with the patient advocates her vision for FDA and hear directly from them their hopes, needs, and concerns.
"I come today to ask for your help, your guidance, and your support at this critical moment for FDA," Dr. Hamburg told the patient leaders. "We welcome and depend upon input from organizations like yours."
NORD President Peter L. Saltonstall assured the Commissioner that the patient community is eager to be involved and supportive of efforts to modernize and streamline the development of safe, effective treatments.
Dr. Hamburg said there are three areas she considers essential to position FDA for today's needs and those of the future:
- to assure that FDA maintains "and earns every day" the trust and confidence of the American people
- to modernize regulatory science to better incorporate scientific advances and
- to address increasing globalization
"Many of the products we regulate today come from outside the country," she said. "Of the active pharmaceutical ingredients in medical products Americans use, 80 percent come from outside the U.S."
Dr. Hamburg emphasized the importance of engaging internationally to share scientific data, harmonize the regulation process, and assure that critical needs of patients and families are being met.
Questions from the patient advocates covered a broad range of topics, including how FDA determines the risk/benefit ratio when considering new products and how it communicates its expectations to those developing new products.
Dr. Hamburg assured the patient representatives that their voices are heard at FDA. She encouraged them to remain active participants in the regulatory process.
"Never underestimate the impact you bring to these issues," she said.


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Friday, October 24, 2008
It's Always Sunny...
Hey gang-here's something I've been meaning to post for a while. I am a huge fan of the show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", and thought I would do some cartoons of the main cast. Some of these work better than others, but I thought they were worth posting. Hope you like em!
Posted by Jeff Victor at 2:56 PM 4 comments:
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Blue Sketches
So, I guess I've entered my blue period today. Actually, these are *gasp!* actual painted sketches. Not painted in Photoshop, but actual paint. I haven't painted anything traditionally in forever, and just wanted some warm up sketches. These came out pretty well I thought for about 10-15 min each. The little creature on the bottom is the love child of Yoda and Gollum, I guess. Try to scrub the image of that coupling out of your mind.
Posted by Jeff Victor at 12:49 PM No comments:
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
"You should see the other guy..."
Ahh, Fargo. One of the most quotable, endlessly entertaining movies ever made. Hope you dig the drawing!
Posted by Jeff Victor at 2:35 PM 5 comments:
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Indiana Jones and Quest for a Good Script
Just doodling while staring at the poster for the latest Indy movie poster. Why does Cate Blanchett look like a demented Edna Mode from the Incredibles? Who knows?
Posted by Jeff Victor at 3:27 PM 1 comment:
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Going on a first date with a chick can be nerve racking, especially when the first date materializes on a whim at the prompting of your prospective lady, out of the blue.
You're not going to say no because your schedule is a little tight, are you? Shit no you're not. You've been working this angle for some time now and the time is right.
You've got to react and you've got to react fast. In a time like this, you need maximum power in a limited amount of time. Every move has to be concise, swift, with purpose and direction — like a ninja.
So, after several sets of push-ups over a limited span of time to pump up my upper body prior to our meeting, I needed something else to really put me over the top; a secret weapon if you will. And I don't mean an Ed Hardy shirt.
It was at this moment that I unsheathed my potential partner in grime: Speed Stick Power. The new Speed Stick Power antiperspirant/deodorant series is predicated on keeping guys fresh and "all-day dry." Speed Stick Power guarantees 24-hour protection while drenching your date in the scent of clean, crisp, educated, ample manliness. Put simply, this isn't Pat Sajak's deodorant.
The kind of man you are (or the man you present yourself to be during your romantic, ahem, campaigns) will help determine your chosen scent. Speed Stick has provided you with a total of six alter egos: Fresh, Energy Surge, Ultimate Sport, Fresh Gel, Ultimate Sport Gel and Unscented.
Ultimate Sport lends itself to some pick-up basketball at the Y with your crew. Or, maybe some intense cardiovascular exercise with your special lady, even. Ultimate Sport Gel is a gel that is uninhibited, unfettered and free, for when you're fighting for rebounds and swinging your elbows like Jim Carrey in "The Cable Guy." Unscented is more for a Sunday in recovery, when you want the funk to flow a little bit, but in a non-offensive, natural, 1970's white afro kind of way. You are a man, after all, and ladies like a little musk every now and again.
Fresh Gel is the most outgoing of the bunch, so bust out your glow sticks and let the all-out assault on the dance floor begin. Energy Surge gives you that "little push over the top of the cliff" when you just don't think "you can get to 11" all by yourself.
But Fresh is the scent that I used on this day, and I can tell you that after the conversation, games of footsie, and slight PDA, it was there for me when we were in public, adding to my overall scent appeal. And later, when tension rose like a cresting wave at high tide, then crashed upon the shore penetrating the sandy coast and punishing it into submission, I was dry.
Whoa. Check out Speed Stick power here and step your scent game up.


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Weddings & Celebrations
From just a few guests to over 300, the venues at Kingsmill are designed to accommodate, yet remain intimate in feel, and completely enchanting in style. With 2,900 gently rolling acres of woodlands framing the majestic James River, this is a stunning and unforgettable backdrop to your wedding, or any other special occasion.
Kingsmill offers two ballrooms :
James River Grand Ballroom: up to 300 guests
Burwell Ballroom: up to 150 guests
For more information, contact a planning specialist at 757.253.3923 or email firstname.lastname@example.com.
You could score a dream getaway to Kingsmill Resort
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Nursing Education Xchange (NEXus)
Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a member of NEXus (The Nursing Education Xchange). NEXus is collaboration between participating doctoral programs in nursing for doctoral students enrolled at member colleges and universities. Students are able to take courses that may not be offered at the student's home institution at a common price.
OHSU Home Institution Students Start Here
1. Review the NEXus course catalog and check registration deadlines (these vary between programs).
2. Talk with your faculty advisor.
3. Fill out the OHSU NEXus Cover page and NEXus enrollment form.
Required FormsChecklist
NEXus Course Enrollment Request
NEXus Enrollment Form
OHSU Teaching Institution Students Start Here
Please see the OHSU Course registration and Course Completion Procedures document for information on how to enroll in a course at OHSU.
Required Forms
Nexus Enrollment Form
Registration Form
Non-Degree Application
Consortium Agreement (please refer to your campus coordinator)
Financial Considerations
Starting Fall 2019, the rate for a NEXus course is $865 per semester credit and is adjusted to $577 per quarter credit (NOTE: OHSU is on a quarter system). This fee is intended to cover all associated university fees such as technology, library, or application fees. As with all courses, you are responsible for the cost of your books and educational materials.
NEXus courses may qualify for financial aid. If you are receiving aid and plan on taking a NEXus course, please contact the Financial Aid Office to complete and route a consortium agreement (phone: 503-494-7800 or 800-775-5460).
Registration Deadlines
You (the student) are responsible for meeting the registration and payment deadlines of the institution that is offering the course. In most cases, this will not coincide with OHSU calendar so advanced planning financially and academically is critical.
Academic Considerations
- Decisions about selecting a NEXus course must be made in consultation with your academic advisor/committee chair.
- Students enrolled in a NEXus course must meet all course requirements.
- Students are encouraged to contact the course faculty in advance to ensure that they understand the course requirements (for example, prerequisite courses, vacation periods, on-campus requirements, technology requirements, synchronous versus asynchronous discussions).
Campus Staff Coordinator Information at firstname.lastname@example.com
Visit http://winnexus.org for additional course information, registration deadlines and dates.


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Friends I have heard that Twitter followers and Loyal Twitter followers are different things. We have over 1000 followers from across the world. Should we add more followers to our account or We just should make them loyal first and then move ahead…
What do you mean? What is Loyal Twitter follower? Someone who read all of your tweets and has an active interconnection with you? Or something else?
exactly the same. Who Retweets my tweets and favorite.
People who follow you but have no interest in your business and don't engage or not going to be any use to you. The whole point about sites like Twitter is to build up a community, not to give you a platform for sending out mass-market spam. So you need to try to build that engagement, loyalty if you like, from the followers you've got … if you can't do that then you need to rethink your strategy of how to get followers, and what engagement you are looking for.
First try to tweet some good and attractive topics. Then people will come to your post and they can follow you because they hunger your next tweet.
Stevie has a good point. Yes building up a following is important but it is equally if not more important to get that following engaged with your brand. I would rather have 300 followers retweeting and otherwise interacting with everything that I do on Twitter as opposed to 3000 followers that don't do anything with my content or interact with my brand in any way. Promotion on these networks cannot be a one-way street.
Here are some tips for engaging twitter followes,
Hope that helps,
I agree that it doesn't mean how much followers you have. But how can 300 Loyal followers improve your sales for example? Maximum what they can do is retweeting of interesting tweets from your company and bring some visitors to the site. And will it justify the efforts for the ad campaign making?
Thanks for responidng
Keep post your website latest news and promotions offers visitor will surely follow you.
maybe you can post some usefull tweets. Post about your interest, if someone search some keyword on twitter, they will find you. If your tweets is usefull and nice, your follower will not unfollow you. I think that is the point.
When someone who doesn't know you chooses to follow you, and you check out their profile to see a bio talk all about their business, how loyal do you think such a follower will be? that kind of following is a form of spam, and such followers are mostly useless. don't be like them.
If you are a blogger who posts high quality stuff, then you can make your followers "loyal" or avid readers of your content.
I've never heard of the term "loyal followers" before. Based on what I can see from other posts in this thread, you mean people who retweet you, right? How are you measuring that, anyway? I guess I just don't get what you're trying to do.
Having 1000 followers doesn't really mean anything if you're not interacting with anyone. Heck, having over 9 million followers means nothing if you're not interacting with anyone. Just ask Beyonce:
And what does "should we add more followers to our account" mean, anyway? How would you do that?
for me, you have to remain connected with your circle. You don't have to agree with everything and all. Let your voice be heard, put out ideas in the open, anything a person would be interested to read. Also, it should help to retweet and favorite tweets, as well as mentioning fellow users. You just have to be part of your circle. I usually unfollow for inactive users.
But, please don't spam. It's a pain to read spam shared in timelines…


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To many companies and independent developers -- not just software publishers -- mobile apps represent something even more powerful and important than a brand-new platform to deploy apps on. It's a new and dynamic source of revenue, one with a lot of room to grow. And given how tough it can be to make money selling software at all, especially in this world of open-source and free Web apps, any proven way to make money in that field can become a magnet.
Just like there's more than one way to deliver software in general, there's more than one way to monetize mobile applications. The various strategies aren't conflicting, but complementary. Each app can use the business model -- or models -- best suited to it.
The line at the register
With mobile apps, the purchasing process varies wildly, depending on which operating system you're dealing with. On the iPhone, everything's done through one interface: the App Store in iTunes. Windows Phone 7 supports direct payment via credit cards and third-party billing of the customer's service provider. Purchasing through a service provider is convenient, but I imagine people might still opt for credit cards to avoid the possibility of spurious charges on their phone bills.
But with Android, the dreaded "F" word -- fragmentation -- comes into the picture. The main way to pay for apps through the Android Market is via Google Checkout, widely criticized for its bad end-user experiences. You can also pay the app merchant directly and there are a number of other merchant mechanisms ... all different. (PayPal has also recently been added to the mix.)
What's most lacking in Android right now is a single, consistent interface for payments. The most seamless solution would be an API that allows app purchases to be added to the carrier's bill (with user consent, of course), which would make the process of purchasing an application all but frictionless. This hasn't happened yet, but Patrick Mork, vice president of marketing for GetJar, a cross-platform mobile app store, claims that it is "right around the corner" and that Google has made no secret of its negotiations with the various carriers to make this possible. Integration with PayPal is also a step in the right direction, even if not everyone uses it.
Less clear is whether such a sea change will require a new version of Android -- meaning those stuck on older handsets that aren't being updated to newer editions of the OS would be left behind. Because Apple and Microsoft both have ecosystems where the purchasing system is already pretty seamless, Android runs the risk of falling behind unless the vast majority of its existing installed base can be brought up to speed when new merchant mechanisms arrive. And because of the way Android is delivered to the end user -- by the handset maker rather than by Google alone, and with any number of gratuitous changes -- a good chunk of the existing generation of Android phones might remain stuck on the old-school merchant systems.
The need to make app purchasing as convenient as possible will only become more important over time, to both the people buying and selling them. Smartphones have become increasingly prevalent among consumers as well as business people; many new users have no experience with buying an app and don't want the experience to be more complex than a click or two. "Many apps are currently purchased on an impulse," says Ric Ferraro, founder of mobile start-up GeoMe. "People crave apps in the same way [as candy bars], and the longer it takes to buy the app, the less likely it is that the purchase will be completed."
Mork puts it another way: "The best purchasing experience is probably the one where you never have to leave the app."
Standing out from the crowd
Along with ease of purchase, discoverability -- how easily you can find a given app and pick it out from its competition -- will also become increasingly important. I've read more than a few comments to the effect that one drawback of the Android app stores is a proliferation of me-too apps that duplicate functionality to the point of redundancy.
From this comes the argument that an app store with a more carefully curated selection of products is more genuinely useful -- like the iTunes app store, for instance. But it's also possible to make an argument that the size of the store is not as important as the interface used to query it. Few people complain about the size of Amazon.com's catalog, in part because it's relatively easy to drill down and narrow the scope of a search.
Another possible solution would be a universal app catalog -- "a single store or a single set of standards which can be accessed independent of the type of mobile device or OS it is running," as Ferraro describes it. "Some initiatives are being set up to attempt this -- for example, the Wholesale Applications Community initiative sponsored by the GSM Association could go a long way in setting unified standards and creating a single platform."
That wouldn't make things much easier for developers, who would still have to produce and test variations of a given app for different platforms -- but the app market is driven by consumers and not developers alone, and where the consumers go, the developers inevitably must follow.
The cost of selling
One other major factor that comes into play when selling an app is the cost of making the app available in the first place. Apple's iTunes store splits revenue 70-30, with Apple getting the 30 per cent. Windows Phone 7's app store has a similar 70-30 split, but a portion of Microsoft's 30 per cent is distributed back to the network operators. Both also have application requirements and yearly membership fees -- $99 for Microsoft, and from $99 to $299 for Apple, depending on whether you get the Standard or Enterprise iPhone software development kit.
The Android Market also features a 70-30 revenue split, but the 30 per cent is distributed between the payment processor and the carrier. The registration fee for developers is also only $25, but an unlocked developer phone, either the Android Dev Phone or the Google Nexus One, can cost upwards of $500. These phones are not required, but they provide some major power-developer features: They can work with any GSM network, and the Android Dev phone also lets you install any custom Android system image.
Alternative places to obtain apps are also starting to become available. For example, Verizon is planning to open its Android V Cast apps store sometime in November, for which it will be offering a 70-30 revenue split. GetJar, an independent site, takes a varying fee for each app download, using a bidding system that starts at one cent per download.
Making a living at apps
All that being said, there are a number of different strategies that developers are using to earn money with their apps -- most outside the traditional pay-for-product model.
The freemium model
The first and most basic approach to monetizing a mobile app is to just sell the application itself. But even a method this elementary is fraught with complexities. After all, how much will people be willing to pay for a given mobile app? Set the price too low and you can't cover development costs; set it too high and nobody will touch it.
One quick way to resolve that problem is to adopt an approach that's been used in the PC world for decades: Give away a minimally functional version of the application -- sometimes ad-supported, sometimes just outfitted with nag boxes -- and encourage the user to buy the full version. The missing feature or features don't have to be significant but should be worth paying for. Another way to put this would be: Give away the app, sell the functionality.
The word freemium has been coined to describe this approach, and it has quickly become an essential means of bringing a mobile app to market. Ferraro described the freemium model in his blog as "a classic marketing tool available to mobile app developers to maintain the perception of a free service, while attempting to lock-in customers into some type of charging mechanism."
The key word here is perception: As long as people feel as if they're getting something for free, they don't mind as much if they have to pay down the line -- even if they have to pay again and again. What matters is the sense that they're getting something for their investment.
Online games have developed this to the level of an art form. As subscription-based games lose favor and "freemium" gaming comes to the fore, the game makers have come up with any number of ways to scare up revenue that don't depend on selling the game itself. Ferraro concurred on this point in an e-mail interview: "App publishers can monetize free by capitalizing on the audience they obtained, and promoting upgrades. This is particularly visible in mobile games, where more advanced gaming levels are only available at a premium."
That said, reluctance on the part of app makers has been one obstacle to use of the freemium model. "Publishers of well-known brands didn't want to be perceived as giving things away or devaluing the brand," says GetJar's Mork. "But this has changed in the past couple of years." Electronic Arts, for instance, has been moving toward a freemium model for its online games -- something enhanced all the more by its purchase of game publisher Chillingo, creator of the hit game Angry Birds. Chillingo's game-development SDK includes technology to easily create freemium applications, something useful to any company that wants to push out such applications across multiple mobile platforms.
Microsoft sensed, quite correctly, the need for developers to create freemium apps. The Windows Phone 7 SDK has direct provisions for this. The free and full versions of an app created with the SDK can be the same binary; all that's needed is an unlock code. No new download is required. This takes the work out of building a separate trial version -- and gives app developers that many fewer excuses not to offer both options.
The service-and-subscription model
A major business model for mobile apps is to sell access to a service and give away an application that's just a convenient front-end for that service. The biggest question is: What service is worth paying for?
It's not just a question of the service being useful. It's about the integrity of the data provided by that service as well. Consider Zagat, the venerable dining and entertainment guide, which has a subscription version of its review service accessible through its mobile apps for $24.95 a year. Zagat's main competition is from crowd-sourced services like Yelp, but Zagat's business model is based on the idea that its information has such a known pedigree, it's worth paying for. Yelp's database may be contributed to by a broader range of people, but it's arguably much messier and more inconsistent.
Another method for selling data involves creating applications that offer a repository of locally stored data. For example, let's say you worked for a company that is known for publishing foreign-language dictionaries, and you wanted to sell mobile versions of its books. You could give away the app itself, with a minimal version of the dictionary data thrown in on top of that (say, 2,000 words), then sell the full-blown version of the dictionary, either all at once or in a regularly updated, periodic-subscription version. This wouldn't stop amateur competitors from creating their own apps and data sets, but a free dictionary that's not very accurate would have less appeal to a serious language student than a modestly priced one that has a brand-name pedigree behind it.
The ad-funded model
A third way to generate revenue from mobile apps is a method ported directly over from the Web at large: advertising. But be aware: Ad-supported apps come with all the controversies associated with using advertising as a revenue model, plus a few new ones.
Ad-supported apps can serve as a way to hook people into buying a full version of a program without the ads. For example, the MixZing Music Player for Android has a free, ad-supported version; pay $6.99 for the full version, and you not only remove the ads (which are at least unobtrusive), but unlock a slew of extra features, like an MP3 tag editor.
The problem with ads in a mobile application is -- for lack of a better word -- acreage. On an ad-supported Web page, ads can run in banner or skyscraper elements confined to the edges of the page and don't have to be as intrusive. With a mobile app, the small screen means any ad is going to eat into the UI, and a badly integrated ad will turn people off. Ads placed too near controls, for instance, may mistakenly intercept button-press actions.
Another small drawback to advertising in mobile apps: The ad system is all but useless if the user doesn't have an active data connection. This will become less of an obstacle as more mobile devices are sold with some form of data plan included and as municipal Wi-Fi becomes more pervasive. (Also, an ad can still be effective, even if it clicking on it doesn't work due to a lack of networking. As long as it raises some awareness in the mind of the viewer, it's still doing its job.)
Another method of monetizing through advertising is using revenue generated through a search engine. This has been Mozilla's model with Firefox and could just as easily be applied to mobile apps as well. Whenever a user executes a Web search via Firefox's native search box, a certain percentage of ad revenue generated from the search goes back to Mozilla through an affiliate program.
The downside to this approach is that it lends itself only to applications that have some search component -- such as a mobile browser -- which make up a very small segment of the existing app mix. That said, it's entirely possible that creative methods of integrating search with mobile apps will make search-engine revenue that much more viable a choice.
Because the current incarnation of the mobile apps market is still so new and only just now experiencing a flowering of cross-platform competition and innovation, the ways apps can be monetized and sold are likely to enjoy as much of a period of experimentation as the apps themselves.
What's clearest is that the processes of selling and monetizing apps have to be as convenient as possible, for customers and developers alike. "To reach as wide an audience as possible, you have to be able to go cross-platform," says Mork. "You need some sort of business model where you can reach different audiences depending on whether or not they have data plans or smartphones." This goes double for apps that spread virally, by word-of-mouth or by direct exposure: If your friend has it on his iPhone, you're going to want it on your Android as well.
To that end, those who can make the monetization process as seamless as possible are set to reap rewards of their own -- along with those who write apps that are worth monetizing, of course.
Serdar Yegulalp has been writing about computers and information technology for over 15 years for a variety of publications, including InformationWeek and Windows Magazine.
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There's a powerful narrative being told about the world's food system — in classrooms, boardrooms, foundations and the halls of government around the world. It's everywhere. And it makes complete sense when you listen to it. The problem is, it's mostly based on flawed assumptions.
You've probably heard it many times. While the exact phrasing varies, it usually goes something like this: The world's population will grow to 9 billion by mid-century, putting substantial demands on the planet's food supply. To meet these growing demands, we will need to grow almost twice as much food by 2050 as we do today. And that means we'll need to use genetically modified crops and other advanced technologies to produce this additional food. It's a race to feed the world, and we had better get started.
To be fair, there are grains of truth in each of these statements, but they are far from complete. And they give a distorted vision of the global food system, potentially leading to poor policy and investment choices.
To make better decisions, we need to examine where the narrative goes off the rails.
Changing diets, not population growth, is the dominant driver of food demand
While we often hear that population growth, and the need to feed nine billion people by 2050, is the driving issue for agriculture in the coming decades, the math doesn't add up.
There are more than seven billion people on Earth today, and we're expected (if current demographic trends continue unabated) to reach nine billion by mid-century. Two billion more people in the next 40 years — that's roughly a 28 per cent increase. If those additional two billion people were to eat the average diet (which is actually unlikely, since most of these people will be added to the poorest regions of the world, where diets are very minimal) that would mean we need roughly 28 per cent more food. It's just simple math.
It's crucial to note that we're talking about the world's choices, not a predetermined path. What we choose to do about population growth, and especially what we do about diets, will determine how much food the world ultimately needs.
The researchers suggest that roughly one-third of future food demand increases may come from population growth, and roughly two-thirds may come from increasing wealth and richer diets
So where does the "twice as much" idea come from? Mostly from assumptions about changing diets, not population growth alone.
In fact, ecologist David Tilman, a friend of mine, and his colleagues have shown that changes in diet will likely be the dominant driver of future food demand. The reason is simple: While population is projected to grow by two billion between now and 2050, there are about three to four billion people on Earth already who are getting richer — mainly in China, India and some other countries — and, if recent history is a guide, these richer people are expected to eat richer diets. That means three to four billion more people eating more meat, more dairy products, and other rich foods, putting tremendous pressure on the global food system.
Food demand: we have a choice
According to Tilman and his colleagues, increasing wealth and projected increases in meat consumption could drive up global food demand much more than population growth alone. The researchers suggest that roughly one-third of future food demand increases may come from population growth, and roughly two-thirds may come from increasing wealth and richer diets. Of course, increasing reliance on crop-based biofuels would only add to the pressure.
But it's crucial to note that we're talking about the world's choices, not a predetermined path. What we choose to do about population growth, and especially what we do about diets, will determine how much food the world ultimately needs. While there are powerful demographic and economic forces at work here — with a great deal of momentum behind them — the path is still ours to choose. Concerted efforts to reduce population growth, but more importantly to steer diets onto a more sustainable path, could dramatically reduce these projected demands. The script hasn't been completely written yet.
People often confuse growing more crops with making more food available to the world. They're not the same thing.
We could do much to ease the pressure on the global food system by looking first at transforming diets where they are already very rich, like North America and Europe. Shifting to less meat-intensive diets in these regions could have dramatic impacts on the food system. But just as important is to focus on the changing diets of newly affluent people — for example, new middle-class people in the cities of China, India, Indonesia and elsewhere. Will they continue to eat a mostly plant-based diet, with little waste, or will they move toward a meat-rich Western diet? In fact, what these people choose to eat in the coming decades will determine much of the future of the world's food system.
Growing more crops is not the only way to get more food on the table
But no matter how much we can curb the growth in future food demand, we will need to grow more crops, right?
Yes, we probably will need to grow more crops, but not as much as this narrative suggests. That's because people often confuse growing more crops with making more food available to the world. They're not the same thing. What we really need to do is deliver more food and good nutrition to the world. And there is another way to deliver more food to the world besides simply growing more crops: Better use of the crops we already grow, making sure they create as much nutritious food as possible.
There is another way to deliver more food to the world besides simply growing more crops: Better use of the crops we already grow, making sure they create as much nutritious food as possible
Sadly, we rarely hear about this option, and are instead told over and over again about ways to grow more crops. It reminds me of when some politicians have talked about energy policy in the past, and yelled "Drill, Baby, Drill!" I think we're obsessed with a "Grow, Baby, Grow!" mentality in agriculture too. In this mindset, it's all about supplying more — more energy, more crops, more whatever. What's missing is how we can better use the resources we have today, through reducing waste and better managing our demands. Buying a bigger furnace for your house because it's cold and drafty in the winter, without even checking if the windows are well sealed or if the attic and the walls are insulated, is shortsighted and misguided. The same is true in agriculture.
If we need more food on the table — and we very likely will — a sensible strategy would take a balanced approach, looking at supply side and demand side solutions. Why would we leave half of our potential solutions off the table?
Food waste alone takes roughly 30 to 40 per cent of the world's calories, but it rarely receives the attention is deserves. (While we can't fully eliminate food waste, surely we can cut it substantially in the coming decades.) Meanwhile, the use of crops for animal feed (instead of for direct human consumption) can be extremely inefficient in feeding people. Furthermore, some key crops are increasingly being used for biofuels, at the expense of producing food. Altogether, this leaves tremendous opportunities to feed more people with the same level of crop production by shifting more of our animal agriculture to pastures and grass-fed operations, and moving biofuel production away from food crops. Basically, how we use crops matters as much as how many crops we grow.
My colleague Emily Cassidy recently made this point very clearly. She noted that the typical Midwestern farm could theoretically provide enough calories to feed about 15 people daily from each hectare of farmland. But there's a catch: People would need to eat the corn and soybeans these farms grow directly, as part of a plant-based diet, with little food waste. What Cassidy found was that the actual Midwestern farm today provides only enough calories to feed roughly five people per day per hectare of farmland, mainly because the vast majority of the corn and soybeans are being used to make ethanol or to feed animals. Amazingly, feeding five people per day per hectare is comparable to the production of an average farm in Bangladesh today.
In other words, we grow a lot of crops, but it's not translating to as much food. So we can deliver more food by rethinking how we use our crops — whether for plant-based diets, feeding animals to make meat and dairy products, or making biofuels — and by not wasting them. If we need more food on the table — and we very likely will — a sensible strategy would take a balanced approach, looking at supply side and demand side solutions. Why would we leave half of our potential solutions off the table?
GMOs and other advanced technologies aren't really giving the world more food
The final piece of the widespread food narrative is that we will need genetically modified organisms and other advanced technologies to feed a growing world.
I'm not so sure.
Before I begin, I am going to state for the record that I hold a neutral position on GMOs. From my read of the current scientific literature, I do not believe that GMOs pose an obvious health threat (although more research should be done on this), nor do they seem to pose any direct environmental threat. Most of the concerns I hear about genetically modified crops are mainly related to how they are used by large corporations in giant monocultures, which are experiencing herbicide-resistant weeds, declining pollinators and so on. But these seem to be mainly problems with vast monocultures, not GMOs per se. GMOs may, in fact, be able to reduce pesticide use and help farmers reduce soil tillage, leaving more organic matter and nutrients in the soil. Maybe GMOs can actually do some good, if used wisely. So I try to keep an open mind about them.
While future genetically modified crops could add other beneficial plant traits, which might help boost productivity in crucial crops, I think the best answers lie elsewhere.
We will need to deliver more food to the world through a balanced mix of growing more food (while reducing the environmental impact of agricultural practices) and using the food we already have more effectively
But I am unsure whether GMOs are actually delivering substantially more food to the world. In fact, as far as I can tell, they aren't. Why? Just consider how GMOs are used: Roughly 10 to 15 per cent of the world's cropland is growing GMOs today, mainly for five crops — feed corn, soybeans, cotton, canola and sugar beets. The vast majority of those crops are not feeding people directly, but rather are being used as animal feed, biofuel feedstock or fiber. Of this list, only canola and sugar beets are mainly "food" crops. Furthermore, the GMO traits currently being used today mainly give plants the ability to fight off insects (the so-called "Bt" trait) or to withstand herbicides (the so-called "Roundup Ready" trait). While reducing losses to insects and weeds is important in maintaining high crop yields, most farmers, especially in the US, simply switched one method of insect- and weed-control (e.g., more frequent tillage, a broader mix of herbicides and pesticides) with another. These GMOs haven't made fundamental changes in plant growth or photosynthesis (that has not yet been done with GMOs in practice); they mainly traded one set of pest- and weed-control systems with another. These "turnkey" solutions for pests and weeds have made big farms more efficient, more profitable, and maybe offered some environmental benefits because of reduced tillage and chemical use. But large, sustained yield improvements have not been a major outcome, except for possibly cotton in India, where pest losses were quite severe and ongoing.
While future genetically modified crops could add other beneficial plant traits, which might help boost productivity in crucial crops, I think the best answers lie elsewhere.
Work in our lab, led by Nathan Mueller, has shown how focusing on improved soil nutrition and water availability is key to boosting crop yields around the world. Mueller's research shows that in developing countries many places exhibit substantial "yield gaps" — the difference between the crop yields we see today, and the crop yields that are possible with improved farming practices — which can be largely closed by improving agronomic practices, such as adding organic matter, small doses of fertilizer (chemical or organic), and extra water (especially with efficient systems like drip irrigation). At this point, it's hard for me to imagine how GMOs would dramatically help farmers in poor countries right now, where yield gaps are large, especially when yields are currently limited by the availability of soil nutrients and water.
The prevailing narrative about the global food supply needs to be replaced by a more accurate narrative that can better guide future investments and decisions.
Of course, GMOs and other advanced technology might be able to help in the quest for a food-secure world, especially if they are not primarily used in large monocultures of nonfood crops, but they are no silver bullet. Hopefully they can help. But in the near-term, I'm placing my bets on lower-technology approaches, targeted at small landholders, especially for improved soil and water management.
Shifting to a new narrative
While the prevailing narrative about the global food supply is persuasive and sounds very logical, it is actually based on several wrong assumptions. It needs to be replaced by a more accurate narrative that can better guide future investments and decisions.
The new narrative might sound something like this: The world faces tremendous challenges to feeding a growing, richer world population — especially to doing so sustainably, without degrading our planet's resources and the environment. To address these challenges, we will need to deliver more food to the world through a balanced mix of growing more food (while reducing the environmental impact of agricultural practices) and using the food we already have more effectively. Key strategies include reducing food waste, rethinking our diets and biofuel choices, curbing population growth, and growing more food at the base of the agricultural pyramid with low-tech agronomic innovations. Only through a balanced approach of supply-side and demand-side solutions can we address this difficult challenge.
These are big challenges, and there are no simple solutions. As a first step, though, we at least need to be sure that we get the story about the food system straight. After all, if we're not even starting at the right place, we certainly will not end up at the right destination.
Jonathan Foley (@GlobalEcoGuy) is director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. These views are his own, and do not reflect those of the University of Minnesota or any other organization. This post originally appeared here.
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Following its initial arrival in SE Europe 8,500 years ago agriculture spread throughout the continent, changing food production and consumption patterns and increasing population densities. Here we show that, in contrast to the steady population growth usually assumed, the introduction of agriculture into Europe was followed by a boom-and-bust pattern in the density of regional populations. We demonstrate that summed calibrated radiocarbon date distributions and simulation can be used to test the significance of these demographic booms and busts in the context of uncertainty in the radiocarbon date calibration curve and archaeological sampling. We report these results for Central and Northwest Europe between 8,000 and 4,000 cal. BP and investigate the relationship between these patterns and climate. However, we find no evidence to support a relationship. Our results thus suggest that the demographic patterns may have arisen from endogenous causes, although this remains speculative.
Figure 2: SCDPD-inferred population density change 10,000–4,000 cal. BP using all radiocarbon dates in the western Europe database.
Colored arrows and their annotations are mine.
Belated update: a follow up study was published in 2014 studying other regions of North, West and Central Europe → Bell Beaker Blogger discussed it.


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LONDON – Westminster Bridge attacker Khalid Masood sent a WhatsApp message that cannot be accessed because it was encrypted by the popular messaging service, a top British security official said Sunday.
British press reports suggest Masood used the messaging service owned by Facebook just minutes before starting a rampage Wednesday that left three pedestrians and one police officer dead and dozens more wounded, including some with catastrophic injuries.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd used appearances on BBC and Sky News to urge WhatsApp and other encrypted services to make their platforms accessible to intelligence services and police trying to carrying out lawful eavesdropping.
"We need to make sure that organizations like WhatsApp – and there are plenty of others like that – don't provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other," she said.
Rudd did not provide any details about Masood's use of WhatsApp, saying only "this terrorist sent a WhatsApp message and it can't be accessed."
RELATED: London stoically carries on
But her call for a "back door" system to allow authorities to retrieve information is likely to meet resistance from the tech industry, which has faced previous law enforcement demands for access to data after major attacks.
In the United States, Apple fought the FBI's request for the passcodes needed to unlock an iPhone that had been used by one of the perpetrators in the 2015 extremist attack in San Bernardino, California.
The FBI initially claimed it could obtain the data only with Apple's help, but ultimately found another way to hack into the locked phone.
Masood drove a rented SUV into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before smashing it into Parliament's gates and rushing onto the grounds, where he stabbed a policeman to death before he was shot dead. A detailed police reconstruction has found the entire attack lasted 82 seconds.
Police are trying to pinpoint his motive and identify any possible accomplices, making the WhatsApp message a potential clue to his state of mind and his social media contacts.
Rudd said attacks like Masood's would be easier to prevent if authorities could penetrate encrypted services after obtaining warrants similar to the ones used to listen in on telephone calls or – in snail mail days – to steam open letters and read their contents.
Without a change in the system, she said terrorists would be able to communicate with each other without fear of being overheard even in cases where a legal warrant has been obtained.
Rudd also urged technology companies to do a better job at preventing the publication of material that promotes extremism. She plans to meet with firms Thursday about setting up an industry board that would take steps to make the web less useful to extremists.
British police investigating the attack say they still believe Masood, a 52-year-old Briton, acted alone and say they have no indications that further attacks are planned.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said it may never be possible to fully determine Masood's motives.
"That understanding may have died with him," Basu said Saturday night as police appealed for people who knew Masood or saw him to contact investigators. "Even if he acted alone in the preparation, we need to establish with absolute clarity why he did these unspeakable acts, to bring reassurance to Londoners."
The Islamic State group, which is losing territory in Iraq and Syria but still has radical followers in other parts of the world, has claimed Masood was a "soldier" carrying out its wishes to attack Western countries.
Masood had convictions for violent crimes in the U.K. and spent time in prison. He also worked in Saudi Arabia teaching English for two years and travelled there again in 2015 on a visa designed for religious pilgrimages.
One 58-year-old man remains in custody in the case after being arrested in Birmingham, where Masood had been living. He has not been charged or named. Nine others arrested after the assault have been freed without charges and one has been freed on bail.
The family of slain police officer Keith Palmer, meanwhile, released a statement thanking those who tried to save his life.
"There was nothing more you could have done. You did your best and we are just grateful he was not alone," the statement said.