text:
Deep Teal blue in a green-blue pearl
Bolivian Blue, 4oz Bottle, Vivid Ultra Metallic Best Value $3.49 per oz
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SKU: V-422 Categories: Antique-Blackened-Shade Colors, Vivid Ultra Metallics
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|0.2 lbs
|1.25 × 1.25 × 6 in
Fluid Acrylic*High Gloss* Medium Tinting.
Vivid Ultra-Metallic Fluid Acrylics are produced with 100% Acrylic Polymer Dispersion.
Minimum drying temperature 49F/ 9 C.
Directions : Shake or stir prior to use. For Slower drying time, use Acrylic Glazing Medium or Retarder.
To modify consistency, use Acrylic Mediums or water.
For best adhesion apply to clean, non-oily surfaces.
Clean-up with Soap & Water.
Cooler temperatures or higher humidity may prolong drying time.
Certain colors may require a second coat for complete coverage.

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Due to my schedule, it's been years since I've helped out or visited regularly, but there have been occasional spurts where I've visited pretty regularly. And I'd almost always pop in when a new version was released.
My work requires me to interact with numerous departments and officials in multiple government offices and when I first started doing some of this work online back in 2000, and even later when I started my own company in 2009, each different office's website was usually coded by a different person which meant being able to use two, and then later three, engines was a necessity. I loved Avant prior to this, but it's what has kept me with it for so long.
These days, pretty much everything is being coded to ensure it works with Chrome and over the past few months I've finally realized that the lack of stability in Avant just wasn't worth the headache anymore. I used it at my office and would have to train people on its quirks. Now, Chromium (so that my people can access/sync work stuff at home and still use Chrome on their own) and the extension to run Trident in a tab is working perfectly for us.
I always had a hard time leaving because of Avant's Quick Searches, AutoFill, and most importantly, URL Aliases, but all of this can be replicated now in Chrome... without extensions.
It's been a frustrating couple of years with Avant's development. And in its defense, I don't think it helps when you have no control over the engine. The change in Firefox's extensions hurt my use a lot. It wasn't completely integrated into Avant anyway, but I think that is what really got the idea to move bouncing around in my head. It seems like developmental support is gone and bug support seems to break two more things every third time something gets fixed. Not to sound too sentimental over a piece of software, but it's poked at me-lil'-ol'-heart.
Since making the jump, I haven't checked out the forums at all until today. I knew that I wouldn't be on as much, but figured I'd still drop in every couple of weeks. What sort of surprised me is that, without the regular quirk popping up in Avant, it never entered my mind to visit. I always enjoyed coming here and helping people... hopefully a fact confirmed by my post count. So don't take this as rude call for all to jump, but rather a notice to anyone getting frustrated and losing productivity that there are viable options out there now. I mentioned the features that kept me with Avant. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that can't be done, almost identically, in Chrome. So, I thought I'd hop on here, say "bye," and offer to lend a hand with anyone trying to make the jump themselves. As I said before, I'd considered it from time to time in the past and it just wasn't doable. I don't think that's the case anymore.
A lot of the 'old crew' is already gone, but I still wanted to post something so that another "Where did this person go?" thread didn't pop up in the moderators forums. I hope everyone stays well and this post will, at least, give me an excuse to pop in for another couple of weeks or so.
Signing off, I think, for good this time
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Re: Signing off, I think, for good this time
Never ever Denny. Thank you for your sercices. Sorry if I got your handle incorrect.
Dell Precision 360 Work Staton XP 32/64 bits
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text:
Backgrounder: The chemical warfare agent 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB, BZ)
Pneumonic Plague
Small Pox
Typhoid Fever
Super Diseases
Threat Scenario
Where does Saddam Hide his NBC
Al Qaeda Terrorist Manual
Gulf War II -
(3-quinuclidinyl benzillate) / \\ N || | / \ \ O \ // | | | || | | | |__O--C-----C--O--H \ / / | / \\ || | \ //
Background: The chemical warfare agent 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB, BZ) is an anticholinergic agent that affects both the peripheral and central nervous systems (CNS). It is one of the most potent anticholinergic psychomimetics known, with only small doses necessary to produce incapacitation. It is classified as a hallucinogenic chemical warfare agent. QNB usually is disseminated as an aerosol, and the primary route of absorption is through the respiratory system. Absorption also can occur through the skin or gastrointestinal tract. It is odorless. QNB's pharmacologic activity is similar to other anticholinergic drugs (eg, atropine) but with a much longer duration of action.
Pathophysiology: QNB acts by competitively inhibiting muscarinic receptors. Muscarinic receptors primarily are associated with the parasympathetic nervous system, which innervates numerous organ systems, including the eye, heart, respiratory system, skin, gastrointestinal tract, and bladder. Sweat glands, innervated by the sympathetic nervous system, also are modulated by muscarinic receptors. The ICt50 (concentration in air of QNB necessary to incapacitate 50% of exposed and unprotected individuals through inhalation during a set time) has been reported to be 100 mg·min/m3. Effects of QNB by any route of exposure are slow in onset and long in duration. The onset of action is approximately 1 hour, with peak effects occurring 8 hours postexposure. Symptoms gradually subside over 2-4 days. Most of the QNB that enters the body is excreted by the kidneys, making urine the choice for detection.
In the US: Use of QNB against the US has never been reported. Currently, the US government is funding numerous programs to prepare the nation for potential chemical terrorist attacks against citizens and the military.
Internationally: Use of QNB has been suggested in a number of international conflicts. In January 1992, soldiers in Mozambique experienced an explosion above their troop formation. Subsequent symptoms resembled those expected from QNB. In July 1995, approximately 15,000 people attempted to walk from the enclave of Srebrenica to the free territory in Bosnia. Many experienced hallucinations during their march that were suspected to be secondary to QNB.
Mortality/Morbidity: The LCt50 of QNB is reportedly 200,000 mg·min/m3. This means, for example, that 50% of an unprotected group would die following inhalation of air that contained 200,000 mg of QNB per cubic meter for 1 minute. By comparison, the highly toxic compound hydrogen cyanide has an LCt50 of 5000 mg·min/m3. The LD50 (lethal dose to 50% of an exposed population) for BZ is estimated to be similar to that of atropine, which is approximately 100 mg. Other factors also are important, such as the exposed patient's preexisting health status and the time from exposure to medical care.
BZ (also known as QNB) is a dangerous hallucinogenic also
produced by the United States in the 1950's and 1960's, but quickly
discontinued and destroyed due to its unreliability.
I know Dr. James Moore who used to be a prof at the U of DE and
made compounds for the CIA. He tells some amazing tales.
Case in point: He made BZ for the CIA and got some on his
hands. He felt very disoriented. "I felt like the whole world turned
sideways on me." This effect lasted for days and so he asked the big
boys at the CIA how to get back. They told him to take some THA
(tetrahydroacridine) that is now used as an experimental Alzheimers
treatment. He claims it straightened him right out.
The gas causes temporary slowing of physical and mental activity, disorientation, and hallucinations. The effects last for up to 6 hours. According to the U.S. Army's Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, which publishes current factsheets on many known chemical warfare agents, "BZ" is the Army's designation of the psychedelic chemical 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, also know as in military circles as "agent buzz" or by the Army chemical code designation EA2277. While BZ was produced at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas between 1962 and 1965, it was discontinued from the chemical arsenal in the late 1960's because "its effects on enemy front-line troops would be varied and unpredictable"(WWW1). To indicate the magnitude of BZ's role in the Army's chemical arsenal at that time, military records reveal that in 1962 alone two million dollars were allocated to the construction of a facility designed exclusively for weaponizing coventional bombs with BZ. Between 1962 and 1964, over one hundred thousand pounds of the chemical were produced solely for that purpose (Harris and Paxman 1982). With the incapacitating dose (ICt50) of BZ at 110 mg-min/m3, which translates to an effective respiratory dose of about 2 milligrams, the sheer quantity of BZ production reveals the considerable potential of its intended use. Still, in comparison to other chemical agents stockpiled in the US arsenal such as nerve and blister agents, the quantities of BZ were relatively small (SIPRI 1973).
The Army factsheet indicates that the primary method of dispensing BZ was in aerosol form, which would facilitate entry into the body via the respiratory system (WWW1). However, the possibility of BZ as a contact hazard is documented by the record of a chemical defense employee's resultant incapacitation after exposure through a punctured rubber glove (SIPRI 1973). Additionally, BZ's ability to penetrate the skin could be magnified 25 times or more by solvating in dimelthylsulfoxide, or DMSO (SIPRI 1973 cit. Stroughton 1964). Quinuclidinyl benzilate is a glycolate ester (SIPRI 1973) and a potent competitive inhibitor of acetylcholine at postganglionic muscarinic synaptic sites, although in high doses it can also affect nicontic sites as well (Voth 1994). Pharmocologically, it acts on central and peripheral nervous system like atropine, but with a much longer duration, blocking the action of acetylcholine in the brain as well as in the peripheral nervous system (WWW2) and directly at base organs. Both atropine and BZ are tertiary amines, posses a similar structure (SIPRI 1973) and have the ability to cross the blood brain barrier. The basic signs of acute exposure outlined in the Army factsheet are increased heart and respiratory rates, pupil dilation (involving contraction of the dilator muscles), paralysis of eye muscles used for near focusing, dryness of skin and mouth, elevated body temperature, impaired coordination, flushing of skin, hallucinations, stupor, forgetfulness, confusion. Within 15 minutes and up to 4 hours after exposure, the principal effects are dizziness, dry mouth, and elevated heart rate. These are followed by restlessness, involuntary muscle movements, rear vision difficulty, and total incapacitation. The final symptoms occur 6-10 hours later and are listed as "psychotropic in nature." Full recovery is expected after 4 days (WWW1 and Glanze 1986).
The symptoms of BZ exposure listed above are consistent with those linked with atropine poisoning: dry mouth, difficulty swallowing and talking, blurred vision, increased heart rate, dry/flush skin, rash on face, neck, and upper chest, increased ventilation, and increased temperature due to atropine's secondary inhibition of sweating. The nicotinic effects of atropine overdose include orthostatic hypotension, attributable to an overall decrease in vascular tone, and skeletal muscle weakness, which has also been indicated in soldiers exposed to BZ in controlled tests (WWW2). High doses of atropine, and especially of other anticholinergics such as scopolamine, can lead to restlessness, confusion, delirium, and even seizures, coma, and respiratory failure due to medullary ventilary center paralysis (Voth 1994). The sites of primary anti-muscarinic activity are the heart, salivary glands, and smooth muscle of the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tract (Negele 1997). Atropine increases the heart rate by slowing down some parts of the nervous system while simultaneously speeding up other parts (WWW3). Clinical uses of atropine as well as other anticholinergics include pre-operative sedation and antisialagogue (i.e. saliva inhibiting) effects, treatment of reflex-mediated bradycardia, and the reversal of non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocking drugs when administered with acetylcholinesterase (Negele 1997).
Although BZ is similar in structure and effect to atropine, subtle structural differences can contribute to remarkable changes in pharmocologic effects. For example, scopolamine and atropine differ only by a single oxygen atom attached as cyclic ether (SIPRI 1973), but scopolamine is most often selected for its sedative effect over atropine because it is 100 times more potent than atropine in depressing the reticular activating system (Negele 1997), a network of nerve fibers extending throughout the thalamus, hypothalamus, brainstem and cerebral cortex which control the functions of attention, concentration, alertness, and introspection (Glanze 1986). Thus while BZ is structurally similar to atropine and scopolamine, and is often compared to the two in terms of its physiological and psychological effects, the possibility exists that pronounced pharmacological differences exist between BZ and other anticholingerics which could limit the value of the comparisons. The chief antidote for BZ is physostigmine, an anticholinergic inhibitor which reversibly binds to and inactivates anticholinesterase (Harvey and Champe 1992), usually administered via intravenous administration at 15-60 ug/kg (Voth 1994).
Major James S. Ketchum, who participated in research experiments at the US Army Chemical and Research and Development Laboratories at the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, published a 1963 technical memorandum (WWW2 cit. Ketchum 1963) which detailed BZ's effects on 362 human subjects (Marshall 1979). The report provides elaborate physiological descriptions obtained from secretive test performed on soldiers at the Dungaway Proving Ground in Utah in late 1964 under codename "Project Dork", and in Hawaii in 1966 and 1967. (Harris and Paxman 1982). Ketchum's reports is sufficiently detailed to reveal in some instances the military's intended use of the incapacitant, as illustrated by phrases such as "individuals in the vicinity of those who are affected or exposed may be recognized or be mistakenly identified."
Ketchum describes the first stage of BZ incapacitation, which lasts up to 4 hours, as characterized by feelings of discomfort and apprehension, manifested through extreme restlessness, muscle spasms in the extremities, and "bird-like flapping of the arms". The second stage lasting from 4 to 12 hours is marked by a sedated, stuporous inactivity. Individuals may sleep or appear to sleep and respond only to forceful stimulation, and alternatively may grope or crawl spontaneously after periods of lying still. The most extreme effects occur 12 hours after exposure: hallucinations take over individual perception and real events and objects are either ignored or grossly misinterpreted. Complex paranormal hallucinations continue 24 to 48 hours after exposure which can be merely amusing or intensely frightening. Attempts to converse with people not actually present can occur, and vertical objects can be misinterpreted for people. Ketchum concludes that there is "little difference how intelligent, adventurous, self-confident or competitive the individual might be; the agent apparently disables the strong and weak impartially without prejudice" (WWW2 cit. Ketchum 1963).
Most records of military experiments involving BZ are still classified and prolonged attempts to obtain them through the Freedom of Information Act have been unsuccessful (WWW2).A group called American Citizens for Honesty in Government, part of the Church of Scientology, tried to locate former soldiers who were exposed to BZ during Army experiments by placing full-page advertisements in newspapers during the summer of 1979. They found 30 former volunteers who claimed residual after effects including memory gaps, difficulty concentrating, and occasional flashback hallucinations (Marshall 1979).
The Army's involvement with BZ can be traced back to the Chemical Corps's increasing interest in the 1950's in exploring chemical warfare agents which were not lethal, but merely "incapacitating." According to a 1968 Army technical manual, an incapacitating agent is:
"any compound which can interfere with the performance of military duties. In actual usage, however, the term has come to refer primarily to those agents which- (1) Are highly potent and logistically feasible. (2) Produce their effects mainly by altering or disrupting the higher regulatory activity of the central nervous system. (3) Have duration of actions of hours or days, rather than momentary or fleeting action. (4) Do not seriously endanger life except at doses exceeding many fold the effective dose, and produce no permanent injury." (TM 8-285 1968)
With a therapeutic index of approximately 1000 (SIPRI 1973), BZ fit the profile as an ideal chemical incapacitant.
As for the origins of BZ, the late 1950's and early 1960's were characterized by cooperation between civilian drug researchers and Army laboratories. During this time pharmaceutical companies were submitting drugs which had undesirable side effects to the Army's Chemical Corp with regularity:"The most important trend to emerge from the search for new agents over recent years is another example of the ironic twist so common in this field: the aim is to borrow knowledge from the pharmacologists in the hope of converting medically useful drugs into weapons of war. The establishments concerned have expressed interest in compounds which produce heat stroke, fainting, high blood pressure, muscular tremors and nausea- the very side- effects which drug houses spend so long on trying to eliminate. During 1962 about 400 possible drugs a month were supplied to the US Army Chemical Center for further testing (Clarke 1968)."
The patent for the process of making BZ was approved in 1962 and filed under an individual affiliated with the New York based Food Machinery and Chemical Corporation, an innocuously titled company which received multi-million dollar contracts from the Pentagon for designing and manufacturing large quantities of VX nerve gases, as well for conducting studies on growing biological warfare viruses in fertile eggs (Hersh 1968).
Cognizant of the fact that much of the Army's Chemical Corps's R&D budget was influenced by public opinion indirectly and Congressional approval more directly, the division began a public relations campaign in 1959 dubbed "Operation Blue Skies" with the goal of presenting the new chemical incapacitants as type of "humane warfare" which could win wars merely by temporarily stunning the enemy, avoiding the typical destruction of dwellings, infrastructure, and human life which characterized more conventional forms of warfare. In addition, the effort was to distance the incapacitants from the more infamous, deadly and disfiguring chemical agents such as nerve gases and blistering agents used in the first World War and elsewhere. Popular newspapers and magazines during the early 1960's published articles with titles such "War without Death" and "Silent Weapons Aired", which may have been encouraged with funding from Operation Blue Skies.
While army officers lobbied at closed Congressional hearings in praise of non-lethal chemical weaponry, academics at technical conferences were entertained with speeches extolling the virtues of psychochemicals as weapons. Dr. William S. Summerson, former research director at the Chemical Corps, proclaimed at the 1960 American Chemical Society meeting that military victories could be achieved "with a significant reduction in loss of life- particularly in comparison to the casualties associated with nuclear use" (Hersh 1968).
In light of the fact that Congress tripled the Army's Chemical and Biological Warfare research budget from $38 million in 1959 to $129 million in 1964 (Spiers 1986), Operation Blue Skies was an evident success. A 1963 article in the Wall Street Journal conveyed the tone: "Exotic chemical sprays and powders, now under secrecy-wrapped development, hold promise of permitting relatively bloodless battles. They are designed to temporarily disable, but not permanently injure, masses of enemy troops and civilians. Some typically incapacitate a foe by casting him into a dreamworld of utter depression or witless euphoria." The Washington Star even directly unveiled the formerly secretive testing of BZ in a 1965 article: "New chemical weapons that win by creating confusion rather than death and destruction have proved so successful that they have been quietly added to the Army's arsenal. The latest and best, a gas called "BZ" by the Army, put a number of soldier guinea pigs out of action during field tests at a Utah Army base last November, and did it without harming a man. There are no specific plans for use of the 'benevolent incapacitators,' as one officer described them, even though they show clear tactical and humanitarian advantages over weapons that burn, blast, and tear their victims (Hersh 1968)."
A variety of military training manuals from that era indicate potential covert uses for BZ, such as "to affect the rationality of an important leadership group at some particularly crucial times." (Hersh 1968 cit. TM 3-215). Other manuals point out the potential unpredictability of BZ warning that, "incapacitating agents may cause passive personnel to become dangerously violent" (Hersh 1968). Ultimately, concern with the fact that maniacal behavior had been observed during BZ experiments, as well as with other hallucinatory incapacitants such as LSD, caused senior Pentagon officers to de-emphasize research into psychochemicals citing the concern that "to confuse key leaders at crucial points in the nuclear age is an invitation to holocaust" (Hersh 1968). Nor could spraying BZ on front-line troops in possession of heavy artillery be considered tactical advantage. Robbing Clarke, author of We All Fall Down- the Prospects of Biological and Chemical Warfare, summed up the apprehension that eventually lead to BZ being excluded from the US Arsenal: "One of the major problems is that it is impossible to predict what effects the hallucinogenic drugs will produce. It is quite conceivable that they will increase belligerency and yet at the same time make a man less effective in his duties. The aim of using such a weapon could hardly be to produce a belligerent, maniacal and depressed machine gun operator or, worse, Army commander with nuclear power at his elbow. Further, there is considerable doubt as to how reversible large doses of such drugs might be; certainly if the doses were really high death could result and permanent psychological changes might be expected from slightly smaller doses (Clarke 1968)."
While there is no conclusive evidence that BZ was used during Vietnam War as the film "Jacob's Ladder" suggests, there is some indication that chemical warfare agents other than riot control gasses and leaf defoliants, such as "agent orange", were considered. A Wall Street Journal article from early 1966 reports that Joint Chiefs of Staff urged President Johnson to "expand" the use of non-lethal chemicals in South Vietnam (Hersh 1968 cit. WSJ 1966). A direct allegation that BZ was deployed in Vietnam was voiced by journalist Pierre Darcourt in France's prominent news magazine L'Express. Darcourt alleged that an offensive involving the 1st Airmobile Division in March 1966 during Operation "White Wing" (Hersh 1968 cit. Darcourt 1966) dropped hand grenades filled with BZ on a force 350-500 Vietcong guerrillas, leaving only 100 survivors. U.S. officials subsequently denied any involvement, and in support of that denial, the Army Chemical Reference Handbooks from January 1970 indicate that BZ was mounted only on 750 pound cluster bombs and field dispensers, not hand grenades (Hersh 1968). However, other references do indicate that BZ was available in small grenade-like 10 pound bombs (SIPRI 1973) which may have been described by Darcourt as grenades. It is also plausible however that covert munitions were stockpiled as well, including BZ in grenade form, as many covert operations took place during the Vietnam War with no official records or lasting documentation.
As for the effects of BZ present in the film "Jacob's Ladder", there is clearly a difference in the film's portrayal of the intended use of BZ versus that of existing chemical warfare literature. The film alleges that BZ was purposely administered to American soldiers to dramatically increase their aggressiveness (Rubin 1990), while the actual intended use of BZ was to temporarily incapacitate the enemy. As for the physiologically effects depicted in the film, it is highly unlikely that a powerful anticholinergic like BZ would induce vomiting, as it has a potent inhibitory effect on the smooth muscles of gastrointestinal tract as well as salivary glands. Indeed, this effect is part of the anti-motion sickness prophylactic mechanism of scopolamine (Kalant and Roshlau 1990) In a Hollywood movie however, it would be difficult and uninteresting to show a person with decreased GI motility or urinary retention, while it would be far more dramatic to portray an actor vomiting in dry heaves. As for bleeding from the mouth, again, there is no recorded evidence that BZ causes capillary leakage in the mucosal vessels (WWW2 cit. Ketchum 1963), nor do other acetylcholinergic antagonists like atropine or scopolamine. Unlike what the film projected, BZ does not cause convulsions as parasympatholytic alone, although it has been documented to cause "extreme restlessness", apprehension, and spasmodic episodes which could be misinterpreted as convulsions. High doses of atropine have been linked to respiratory failure and convulsions, however (Merck 1992). The soldier clutching his head in pain implied an extreme headache, a symptom that BZ does not cause. Arguably, he could have been suffering from delirium or terrifying hallucinations, but these effects usually don't occur until many hours after the initial exposure. The smiling, stuporous soldier who appeared completely removed from the violence of his immediate environment did manifest the final stages of BZ incapacitation, but again this would take many hours to develop, and the onset would be much more gradual (WWW2 cit. Ketchum 1963).
The most telling scene in Jacob's Ladder occurs at the very end, and depending on interpretation, the scene could completely alter the realism of the film's depiction of BZ. Jacob is shown lying on a cot in an Army's MASH hospital tent. Surgeons leaning over him pronounce him dead, commenting on what a good fight he had put up. Until that point, the hallucinatory flashbacks that plagued Jacob's post war life were commingled with situationally similarly events that occurred immediately after his battle injury in Vietnam, suggesting that his entire post war life might have been merely a powerful hallucination. For example, in his New York apartment he suffers from an extremely high fever and has concerned neighbors leaning over him as he is cooled down in a bathtub with water dripping on his head. This scene is juxtaposed with a flashback in Vietnam in which rainfall is dripping down onto him from the trees and Army corpsmen lean over to dress his wounds and load him on a stretcher. The recurrence and overlap of similar situations depicted in both his post war life and flashbacks to Vietnam makes one wonder if he really left Vietnam at all. Since the final stages of BZ exposure results in a powerful hallucinogenic delirium which can last for several days, it is conceivable that a soldier critically wounded in battle and dying over a period of a day or two, like Jacob, could hallucinate an entire illusory postwar life. In addition, the omnipresence of biblical symbolism and obsession with death saturates the film and suggests a far more allegorical than literal interpretation. Could the scenes in New York, which comprise most of the movie, merely be an hallucinogenic projection of a man's last hours as he lay mortally wounded in combat? If so, then the film Jacob's Ladder is an excellent portrayal of BZ incapacitation from the subjective perspective of a person undergoing its potent hallucinogenic effects just before dying.
While BZ is no longer a part of the US military chemical arsenal, as late as 1986 bombs filled with BZ were stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal and were still awaiting destruction (Chemical 1986). Surprisingly, BZ is readily available today from many chemical supply companies and can be easily ordered over the Internet (WWW4). An article in a 1979 issue of Science commented on the remarkable ease with which an ordinary citizen could obtain BZ, in this case from the drug company Hoffmann-La Roche (Marshall 1979). Because of its extremely high affinity for the muscarinic cholinergic receptors (Kalant and Roshlau 1990), much more so than atropine or scopolamine, it is often radio-labeled (especially with tritium) and used as neuropharmacological tag in muscarinic receptor binding assays (Liu et al. 1983). A keyword search for quinuclidinyl benzilate on MEDLINE or other scientific journal databases will reveal BZ as the industry standard high affinity ligand for the post-ganglionic muscarinic acetylcholine neurotransmitter receptor research (Iga et al. 1998; Kjome et al. 1998; Ellison et al. 1999; Abi-Gerges et al. 1997; Singh et al. 1994; Lenz et al 1994).
Since the Vietnam War, there have been records of the alleged use of BZ-like chemical arms in Kampuchea by the Vietnamese in late 1970's (Spiers 1986) and in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion in the 1980's. More recently, an incident in Mozambique in 1992 involving an "atropine-like" agent was brought to the attention of the United Nations, and evidence that an incapacitating agent was used against Bosnians fleeing Srebnica during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was documented in 1995 (Seagrave 1981). More specific sources suggest that this may have been BZ or a similar compound. Survivors describe an attack by Bosnian Serbs under the command of General Ratko Mladi in which mortars left unusual lingering clouds of multicolored gases hovering over the refugees. Some of the marchers began to hallucinate and behave irrationally, a few allegedly killed friends or themselves. Further evidence supporting this incident include details from the Serbian Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) military manuals which reveal their possession of chemical incapacitants including BZ and procedures for their implementation. According to eye-witnesses, the attack in Srebnica closely resembled the protocol listed in the manual. Interviews with 35 survivors, UN Personnel and other witnesses, further suggested the use of BZ or a similar incapacitant. Although chemical traces test performed on the clothes and bodies of those who died yielded no physical evidence, the US intelligence community conducted its own investigation into the incident but refused to release its findings to the public, citing that the information could interfere with the Dayton Accords and the international efforts to achieve peace in the region. Most telling is the fact that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is the only state in Europe not to have signed the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (WWW5), a treaty banning the use of chemical warfare signed by over 120 nations. The Hague's international war crimes tribunal is still investigating the incident. (Phinney 1999).
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While a majority of the nation's foreign assistance programs focus on agriculture and medical care, an ongoing project between a government-commissioned agency and diplomatic ally Honduras is helping local people establish a creative industry — pottery.
Under the two-year project that began last year, a team commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the Taipei-based Corporate Synergy Development Cente has been working closely with potters in the town of Valle de Angeles.
Although residents have been making works of art from clay for many years, their products tended to be fragile and porous, said Laurencio Chen, a consultant with the center who is responsible for the project.
To address the problem, a Taiwanese team has been working to enhance the quality of the kilns used for firing pottery, Chen said in a recent interview in Taipei.
"We've been helping them raise the temperatures in the kilns," Chen said, adding that this makes pottery products more solid.
The temperatures in kilns used by potters in Valle de Angeles used to range between 850°C and 950°C, Chen said.
However, with the team's guidance, the temperatures have been raised to above 1,000°C, he said.
Equally important is firing the creativity of local artists.
"Their products tended to be homogeneous," Chen said.
He gave several examples of how Honduran pottery artists could capitalize on local cultural characteristics.
For example, ceramic coffee cups could become a specialty of the town, especially as Honduras is a major coffee producer in Central America, he said.
Making products with an angel theme to reflect the name of the town, which means "valley of angels," could be another option, he added.
Since Honduras is one of the areas where Mayan civilization originated, local artists are also encouraged to incorporate images and characteristics associated with Mayan culture in their pottery products, Chen said.
"Making people think of Valle de Angeles whenever they find products combining Mayan culture with pottery" is the ultimate goal, he said.
That is also the idea of the project's "one town, one product" concept — creating a niche industry by encouraging pottery makers to infuse their products with local cultural characteristics and create items unique to the town.
The concept stems from Taiwan's own successful experience.
Yingge (鶯歌) in New Taipei City (新北市) is a well-known tourist town that has hundreds of pottery factories offering a range of products, from vases and ocarinas — a simple wind instrument shaped like a sweet potato, with finger holes and a mouthpiece — to teapots and tableware.
Yingge's success was duplicated by the Corporate Synergy Development Center in many communities around Taiwan, Chen said, adding that developing signature products in turn helped the communities attract more tourists.
Pottery artists from Yingge, who impressed Honduran officials during their visits to the town, have also been invited to give classes to their Central American counterparts in Valle de Angeles to help improve their techniques.
The classes have received positive feedback, Chen said.
Initiated by Honduras, the project is part of the Honduran government's efforts to create a niche industry to boost visitor numbers in Valle de Angeles, a popular tourist destination, said Jaime Wu (吳進木), director-general of the foreign ministry's Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs.


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Each class has a maximum number due to seating availability. We also like to keep our classes small so we can make them as personal as possible. If you can't take any other class then we can add you to our waiting list and contact you if anyone cancels.


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For more than 75 years, Tuboscope? has continued to raise the global standard with a comprehensive and integrated suite of value-added solutions that maximize the life cycle of your assets, helping you to drill safer and more efficiently, increase production and decrease downtime.
With over 200 locations in 39 countries we are well positioned to serve our customers when and where you need us.
We have 6 convenient locations in China that provide a variety of
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One-stop full-service facility for all your oilfield tubular needs
Contact Tuboscope to request a Lunch 'n' Learn event with us.
Tuboscope Sales2835 Holmes RoadP.O. Box 808Houston, TX firstname.lastname@example.com


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The following was supplied by an Irish Catholic priest known to the Irish Central editors who did not want his name used for fear of retribution
Fr Tony Flannery, a founder member of the Association of Catholic Priests, has been "invited" by Rome to take some time out to consider his position.
He has been one of those who have been calling for reform in the Catholic Church in such areas as the role of women, ecumenism etc. It is not possible to speak about "reform" in the Church , be it in Ireland or elsewhere, without bearing in mind the ever present elephant in the room, namely the roman Curia and the Papacy.
The need for reform here has been and remains paramount. No question in contemporary Catholicism, however, is proving more intractable and more acutely sensitive.
Roman control of the Church is now more centralised and rigid than ever before. It would seem that they now demand total conformity with papal ideas and ideals in all things and not merely in those which are essential to the unity of the Catholic and Christian faith. Those who hold this position seek to derive their theological, political, and even cultural ideals from the Pope and Curia of their time.
They frown upon legitimate local autonomy, regional diversity and freedom to explore issues of theology and Church policy on which Rome is particularly sensitive. It has come to a point where the Bishop of Rome is regarded less of a bond of unity and charity in the Church than as an oracular figure to be reverenced in his person with quasi sacramental fervour. It becomes a tyranny whenever it successfully creates an atmosphere in which open enquiry and honest dissent are construed as disloyalty or worse.
It is a form of fundamentalism, and it trivialises debate, particularly in the theological field by reducing all issues to questions of authority and obedience. Thus from the start the controversy over Humanae Vitae (family planning) there was a damaging ambiguity over whether the substantive issue was contraception or Papal authority.
The same has happened to such topics as infallibility, the role of women in the Church, ecumenical concelebration of the Eucharist and so on. One is left with the impression that these areas are simply off limit to any Catholic who cannot guarantee that his or her findings will support the contemporary conservative Roman position.
When one uses the term "Vatican II" nowadays, as far as many are concerned, one could well be speaking about the Pope's second residence. The period of the Council was certainly one which promised much, flashed with brilliance and yet was ultimately riddled with disappointment.
Initially there was a mood of optimism and buoyancy among many Catholic scholars. Yet in little more than a generation this noble exercise has become a debacle, a shambles. If John XXIII threw open the windows his recent successors have called in the triple glazers.
Vatican II seemed to promise a changed atmosphere. Many of us welcomed the new openess, the abandoning of paranoid attitudes to the world, the renewed interest in different forms of prayer, liturgical reform, emphasis on the responsible use of freedom, ecumenical initiatives, and all the other ideas and activities which had hitherto been either inaccessible or forbidden to us. Now, it would appear that we are returning to an authoritarian era where the Church will meet its problems, not by discussion and open investigation but by decree. Fr Tony Flannery is the latest to learn this lesson. Nevertheless we "hang in there".
In a shipwreck one does not give up one's seat in the lifeboat merely because the crew have delusions of grandeur. In the last analysis many of us traipse on because we still believe in the possibility of a synthesis between the essential truths of our religion and the essential truths of modernity.
A century ago a great Irishman, Fr George Tyrell spoke of his dream for the Church: "When the Catholic people represented by their bishops and their Pope will assemble, not to decide and impose points of theology, ethics and politics "under the pain of eternal damnation", but to proclaim the gospel of God's Kingdom upon earth as it was proclaimed by Jesus Christ; to preach unity in essentials, liberty in non-essential things, charity in all things".
That seems to be as good a programme as any that might be put forward in church circles today or any day.


text: Nichole Heiress can't help it if there's a naughty little voice whispering in her ear all the time, telling her to take it off, take it all off. If she could, she'd have her stunningly large tits out half the day, shocking people in the cafe, the restaurant, even at the mall. But every once in a while, Nichole just goes on a spree and has to find random groups of guys, a bunch of horny strangers, to tease and excite. She traces this raunchy exhibitionist streak to her cheerleading days, when the sight of a stadium full of spectators used to work her up to a fever pitch. After the games, once she'd drenched a pair of panties there was always a hungry football player or two on hand to hike up her mini skirt and finish her off.


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The Gateway to the East is a harbor town that glitters with the lights of international business. But to really understand Hong Kong, you have to meet it halfway.
Author Jacqueline Detwiler Photography Lauryn Ishak
THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD is a way of life in Hong Kong. Ever since the flrst mainlanders settled the hilly islands in the first and second century, the harbor city has been coveted by dozens of cultures and countries. Its best-known occupants, the British—who lived there for more than 150 years before returning the city to China in 1997—diluted its Eastern heritage with Earl Grey tea, red double-decker buses and Chinese delicacies served with the quintessentially English Worcestershire sauce. But that Western accessibility only makes the small mysteries—the all-but-abandoned temple on a tropical hillside, a traditional songbird market in the middle of a modern city—all the more remarkable.
Hong Kong is more than an international city; it is the original gateway between East and West. A frenetic harbor town that glows throughout the night with beacons of commerce, it literally exists at the end of China and the beginning of the rest of the world—making it the perfect place to explore both.


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- "Mira, I'm trying to count here."
- ―Jose Trunchez before his death.
Jose Trunchez is a minor character in Grand Theft Auto IV.
Jose and his brothers, Javier and Jesus, took control of The Triangle Club after Dwayne Forge was incarcerated. However, in the mission Undress to Kill, Forge sends Niko Bellic to kill the three brothers. Jose is seen counting the club's earnings, liking to do so in privacy, allowing Niko to kill him without alerting others in the club.
Mission Appearances
- Undress to Kill (Killed)
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


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Years of combat are felt in San Antonio
When the invasion of Iraq began, many soldiers figured the conflict would be short and easily won.
Instead, it became one of the longest wars in American history, and its aftermath is deeply felt in San Antonio and Texas.
For 3,317 troops injured in Iraq, the road home detoured to Brooke Army Medical Center.
At Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, the headstones of those killed in Iraq number 46.
"I do think about my son every day and I go out to the cemetery two to three times a month," said Patrick Miller, the father of Army Pfc. Anthony Scott Miller, the first native of San Antonio to die in the war. "I think of the good times that we had together with family. I think of what could have been."
His son was struck by missile near Baghdad in 2003. He was 19.
Tikrit. Taji. Balad. These far-off places in Iraq became all too familiar to soldiers and their families as the years passed.
Deployment ceremonies and welcome-home parties grew more routine. Hardly a weekend went by in San Antonio without a fundraiser to send gifts and care packages to the troops.
The Pentagon pumped billions into the war and some of it transformed San Antonio and its three military installations.
As a trickle of wounded turned into a steady stream, the city's two military hospitals began to fill with troops whose life-altering injuries required long and intensive rehabilitation.
Combat medics, doctors and technicians came here to train.
The city became a hub of medical care for active-duty troops, and what was known as BAMC now is larger than it was in 2003 and bears a new name: the San Antonio Military Medical Center.
It's home to the Defense Department's sole military burn unit and has a $457 million trauma tower.
There's also the $62 million Center for the Intrepid, a high-rise that opened at Fort Sam in 2006. There, badly wounded troops — many recovering from burns and amputations — work months and years trying to restart their lives.
Four Fisher Houses now are home for families of the wounded.
It wasn't just the government that took action.
Volunteers, some of them people with deep ties to the military and others who had never met a GI, jumped at the chance to help.
At Fort Sam's Warrior and Family Support Center, they cook meals and take care of everyday tasks for soldiers.
Kim Smith, whose son was killed early in Iraq's occupation, started Gold Star Families.
"At the time of our son's death we didn't have any kind of support system to get through the grief and the unknowing that that lay ahead," said Smith, 46, of San Antonio. "Everything that we faced, there was nothing out there at the time because everything was so new."
A badly disfigured GI in his wheelchair or walking gingerly on a computerized prosthetic limb might come as shock in some places but not here.
"On a national level, I tell people how welcoming San Antonio is," said Shilo Harris, a survivor of a 2007 roadside bomb blast in Iraq who suffered third-degree burns over 35 percent of his body and lost three fingers.
He has had 50 surgeries, with several more to go.
"I do a lot of motivational speaking around the nation and I want to tell you I can't imagine being anywhere else but San Antonio, Harris, 36, of Floresville added. "The community is such a welcoming community to the seriously injured."


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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) _ Former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe has met with investigators hired by the team to independently assess allegations that an assistant coach made anti-gay comments.
Kluwe wrote in a Jan. 2 article on deadspin.com that coach Mike Priefer made comments because of Kluwe's outspoken support of gay marriage rights.
Kluwe's lawyer, Clayton Halunen, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press (http://bit.ly/1dYbehw ) that during a five-hour meeting Friday Kluwe identified kicker Blair Walsh and long snapper Cullen Loeffler as witnesses. Halunen also says there are corroborating text messages from Walsh.
Halunen says Kluwe met with director of player personnel Les Pico to complain before his May 2013 release. The team's owners say they knew nothing of the allegations prior to Kluwe's article.


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This is the final installment in our 3-part series on food science from the Modernist Cuisine team. We're giving away a copy of Modernist Cuisine at Home below, along with some handy equipment for your own Modernist kitchen. (We're selling copies in the Food52 Shop too, at an exclusive discount you won't find anywhere else.)
Today: How to make water work for you -- and don't miss that giveaway! UPDATE: We have a winner!
Water: Understanding Your Most Common IngredientBy Nathan Myhrvold and Judy T. Oldfield
You have used a multitude of ingredients in your cooking, but nearly all of them share one thing in common: they contain water, and lots of it. From a chemical point of view, fresh foods are little more than water plus "impurities": proteins, carbohydrates, fiber, and so on. A carrot, for example, is nearly 90% water; a pork loin, about 60%. So it should come as no surprise that much of cooking fundamentally comes down to manipulating water: adding it, removing it, using it as a solvent, or changing it from a liquid to a gas or a solid.
Many of the more challenging aspects of cooking can be traced to the counterintuitive behavior of water. H2O is a weird chemical. Boiling the stuff requires a tremendous amount of energy — but on the flip side, steam deposits a huge amount of heat when it condenses back into liquid form on the surface of food, speeding up the cooking. Water freezes in peculiar ways that can ruin ice cream — or can be exploited to concentrate fruit juices. And water is uncommonly good at dissolving certain kinds of ingredients — so much so that the inevitable impurities in our tap water can have dramatic effects on our cooking.
Let's start with the proverbial watched pot. It takes so long to boil because the two hydrogen atoms (the Hs in H2O) in each water molecule have wandering eyes: sometimes instead of bonding faithfully with the oxygen atom (the O) in their own molecule, one of them will pair up with the oxygen in a neighboring molecule. It takes a lot of energy to sever those bonds and excite the water molecules enough that they fly away as steam. That's why it takes so much longer to cook a pizza loaded up with wet toppings, such as tomatoes or pineapple, than it does to bake a plain cheese or pepperoni pie; much of the initial heat goes into boiling off the water in the toppings rather than melting the cheese and browning the crust.
To see a larger version of this photo, click here.
It is possible to get foods hot enough to brown without drying them out, but only if you either dissolve lots of salt, sugar, or some other substance in the water to raise its boiling point or increase the air pressure over the water, which you can do by using a pressure cooker. Stocks in particular benefit from pressure-cooking, saving time and the amount of food needed.
Modernist chefs sometimes use the opposite technique — hooking up vacuum pumps to reduce the air pressure — to lower the boiling point of water. It's a clever way to concentrate a juice or reduce a sauce without cooking away so much of the flavorful aromatics. The taste of the reduction remains wonderfully vibrant.
You can sometimes achieve similar effects by exploiting how ice crystals grow in water as it freezes. Seal fruit in a freezer bag and chill it at a temperature not far below 32°F. Slow-growing ice crystals become large and sharp, rupturing the cellular walls of the fruit and allowing you to extract more of the juice. (If preservation is your goal, you should instead freeze food fast and hard at the lowest temperatures you can, to keep the crystals as small as possible.)
The effect of dissolved sugar or salt on the boiling and freezing point of water can be dramatic, because water is a powerful solvent for these ingredients. Yet other substances, such as oils, don't dissolve in water at all. The root of this behavior lies again in the molecular make-up of pure water. Hydrogen and oxygen atoms are differently charged. This imbalance is analogous to the north and south poles of a magnet. As a "polar" liquid, water readily dissolves large amounts of "polar" solids, such as sugar. But it resists intermingling with nonpolar foods, such as oils and fats.
As a cook, you should always keep this in mind: water comes out of the faucet already laden with dissolved minerals that affect your cooking. If your water is hard (rich in minerals), you may find that boiled vegetables turn out tough (and in particular, dried beans do not soften properly) because the minerals reinforce the natural mortar that holds plant cell walls together. In such cases, buy bottles of distilled or deionized water and cook with that instead. These purer alternatives are also handy when using Modernist ingredients such as hydrocolloid gelling and thickening agents, which are quite sensitive to calcium and some of the other minerals dissolved in tap water.
Water may be colorless, odorless, (nearly) tasteless, ubiquitous, and indispensable. But simple it is not.
UPDATE: The Giveaway!
Thanks to everyone who shared their brilliant modernist inventions with us -- we got together with the Modernist Cuisine team and picked a winner:Congrats to Toni Kervina! The winning answer: "I would love there to be some sort of machine you could place over your food to see what's happening inside. Too long have I suffered from charred edges and uncooked middles!"
Us too! We loved Toni's simple but universal idea, and Judy Oldfield from the Modernist Cuisine team added, "The desire to see inside food is why we created cutaway photos."And for those of you who didn't win, you still have time to pick up your copy (at a $40 discount) in the Food52 Shop.
Want to win yourself a copy of the brand new Modernist Cuisine at Home, along with some handy equipment from Kuhn Rikon and OXO for your own Modernist kitchen (pictured above)?
Answer the question below in the comments section of this post by Monday, October 15th at 3pm EST*. Don't want to leave it up to chance? Get your copy now in the Food52 Shop (the first 10 orders get a signed bookplate!) with a discount you won't see anywhere else.
Sous-vide machines and pressure cookers have changed the way we cook. What's the not-yet-invented, life-changing kitchen gadget of your dreams?
*Sadly, the grand prize can only be shipped within the U.S., but if you don't live here (and don't know anyone here who could receive a sweet package on your behalf), we'll come up with something fun, but admittedly not as fabulous, to send you instead.
Photos: Book - Chris Hoover; Water - Ryan Matthew Smith / Modernist Cuisine, LLC; Pressure Cooker Cutaway - Tyson Stole / Modernist Cuisine, LLC
See what other Food52 readers are saying.


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Blackdog Builders is a design/build residential remodeling company. We work together with our clients to take a remodeling project from the beginning design phase through final finishing details. We also have home services department to address smaller-scale maintenance and repair projects. Our projects range from basic bath remodels to large whole-house renovations - and everything in between. More
GuildQuality customer satisfaction surveys enable homeowners to rate their contractor on a scale of zero to four (with zero being the worst and four being the best) in all sorts of categories. Our members can publish a summary of those answers here on their profile page, displaying a bar for as many or as few questions as they like. The score for each category indicates the percentage of survey respondents who answered a three or four to that particular question.Learn more about the feedback published on this page.
Kitchen remodeling (271)
Bathroom remodeling (265)
Additions (258)
Basement remodeling (256)
Carpentry (256)
Design build remodel (37)
Deck building & maintenance (3)
Window & door replacement (3)
Handyman services (2)
Siding (2)
Aging in place (1)
Covered porch (1)
Drywall (1)
Faucets & fixtures (1)
Flooring (1)
Garage (1)
Roofers (1)
Screen porch (1)
We display two types of written homeowner feedback on GuildQuality member profile pages: Comments and Reviews.
In response to our customer satisfaction surveys, homeowners share lots of comments about construction quality, communication, or any other question asked in the survey. Guildmembers can selectively publish these comments here on their profile page.
Reviews are different than comments. These are star ratings that homeowners ask us to publish, and they come with a written description of the type of experience they had working with their contractor. We publish all of the reviews we receive: positive and negative alike.Learn more about reviews and comments.
As a GuildQuality Guildmember, Blackdog Design Build Remodel relies on our customer surveying to help them deliver an exceptional customer experience.
We have surveyed customers on behalf of Blackdog Design Build Remodel in Andover, MA; North Andover, MA; Windham, NH; Reading, MA; Salem, NH; Amherst, NH; Derry, NH; Haverhill, MA; Tewksbury, MA; Lowell, MA; and 110 other cities in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.
In this report, Blackdog Design Build Remodel has published a summary of the customer feedback they've received since they joined GuildQuality in December 2004. In that time, 458 out of 636 customers (72%) responded to a GuildQuality satisfaction survey, with the most recent response in February 2020.
Blackdog Design Build Remodel surveys all of their customers with the following exceptions:
Customers receive a brief survey shortly after the completion of work, and their feedback appears in the summary on this page.
If you are a Blackdog Design Build Remodel customer, if your project doesn't match the above exceptions, and if Blackdog Design Build Remodel completed work for you after December of 2004 but you haven't yet received a survey, please let us know.
Thanks for letting us know that this comment may be inappropriate. A member of our team will review the comment.


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Being a fan of ATL myself, I felt the need to draw my bby Jack Barakat
DragoArt members upload artwork and drawing tutorials! They are also allowed to leave comments on tutorials, profiles, etc. Many more features, as well; it's way better than just being a boring guest! Register Now!


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Philip Gabriel
About the Author
Philip Gabriel is professor of Japanese literature at the University of Arizona. He has translated works by Kenzaburô Ôe, Senji Kuroi, Akira Yoshimura, Masahiko Shimada, Natsuo Kirino, and Haruki Murakami, including Murakami's Kafka on the Shore; Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (cotranslator); Sputnik Sweetheart; and South of the Border, West of the Sun. Gabriel is a recipient of the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize (2006), and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for Translation of Japanese Literature (2001).


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If you are seeking to improve customer-facing transaction processes, then consider a Wacom Signature Set to get started easily.
This set delivers an affordable and efficient way to integrate electronic handwritten signatures into a business's daily workflow. It is easy to connect to Windows®-based personal computers. Additionally, each signature pad or display is able to capture the static and biometric signals of individual signatures, providing an effective defense against fraud.
Signature set provides an immediate ROI by modernizing the signature capture process, making it easy for businesses to add secure electronic signatures to any PDF document. By eliminating the need to print, scan and store documents, signature set produces tangible results in terms of time and cost savings, not to mention the ease-of-use, security and speedy performance benefits it gives to both employees and customers.
Signatures set bundles are available in multiple configurations to meet your needs.


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Small-Sized with Superior Performance
SparkLAN WUBT-131GN Wireless USB Dongle is compliant with 802.11b/g/n standard, which supports up to 150Mbps data rates. Its small compact size makes it easy to carry around without taking up a lot of space.
Secure Wireless Connection
By supporting 64/128-bits WEP, WPA, WPA2 and WPS, WUBT-131GN USB Dongle helps protect your data and privacy during transmission without sacrificing the performance.


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Virtua Health & Wellness Center
401 Young Avenue
Suite 185
Moorestown, NJ 08057
Evening and weekend hours available
Phone: (856) 581-7755
Fax: (856) 581-7756
Services Provided:
I've always been impressed how friendly and efficient Larchmont Imaging is!!
Everyone was so caring - only place I go and I always recommend it to others
Every visit here has been wonderful, comfortable and pleasant - staff is phenomenal. Thank you so much for the great service
Was very pleased that I called for appointment and was seen within the hour. Staff was extremely friendly and helpful.
I have always been treated professionally by Larchmont, but my experience last week was extraordinary! Your technicians were caring and awesome, and the doctor went above and beyond. Thank you so much!
Read more...
Bone Densitometry | CT Angiography | CT Colonography | CT Scan | Digital Mammography | EVLT (Endovenous Laser Therapy) | Fluoroscopy | MRI | MR Angiography | MRI-Guided Breast Biopsies | Open MRI | Nuclear Medicine | PET/CT | Ultrasound | Ultrasound-Guided Breast Biopsies | Ultrasound-Guided Thyroid Biopsies | X-Ray


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This is the first quest of the series needed for Alliance Engineers to specialize in Gnome Engineering.
This quest is only available to Engineers who have not already specialized, and who have a minimum 200 skill in Engineering.
Objectives Edit
If you wish to learn more about Gnome Engineering, take the Manual of Engineering Disciplines to Tinkmaster Overspark in Ironforge.
You will need:
- [Manual of Engineering Disciplines] (provided)
Quest Text Edit
Engineering at the expert level breaks into two disciplines: gnome and goblin. Gnome engineering represents by far the superior of the two! It's about the construction of wonderful gadgets and devices that make life better!
<name>, read this manual. If you want to learn more on gnome engineering, then take that manual to Tinkmaster Overspark in Ironforge. Remember - membership is permanent and prevents joining the other discipline, so make sure you are sure before finishing his task!
Completion Edit
Ah, a young engineer interested in pursuing the one, true discipline of engineering! Well forgive my melodrama, friend. While our situation remains dire, it still is always a good day to see another engineer respond to the clarion call of true engineering!
Rewards Edit
Notes Edit
It is likely that there is a Horde version of this quest, that takes the aspiring engineer to Oglethorpe Obnoticus instead. [citation needed]
Quest progressionEdit
This is part of the series of quests needed to complete Gnome Engineering specialization. Please see that page for more details.


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But native backyard garden pond frogs are found throughout Australia and by building them a yard pond you possibly can entice them to your backyard. Having Backyard Pond Kits as a beautifier for one's own additional yard home can facilitate to create and preserve a stunning water feature. During the summer i'm terribly busy with yard pond building, often building yard ponds and waterfalls late into the evening. Build pond - water backyard design backyard pond diy, How to build backyard pond or water garden. A backyard pond can take your yard experience to a complete new stage. A water garden can actually do wonders in your house and backyard. Another approach to keep away from this, not to build your yard waterfall to excessive.
Thousands of water garden ponds and streams have been inbuilt the previous few years. To begin us off, I even have chosen this backyard pond design to boost your backyard. A liner is important for many yard ponds to maintain the water from escaping into your soil. Also check out Build the Perfect Garden Pond - Laguna Ponds for more info. Below are some step by step instructions and some concepts for building a stunning backyard water backyard. A water backyard can flip your backyard into a calming haven that everybody can take pleasure in.
The water from the fountain or pond will carry your yard or garden to life by including a very natural and contemporary look to it, as well fake rock ponds as the sound that it'll produce from the water falling down the rocks out of your fountain.
Information on hen baths and directions on how to build a simple backyard pond for birds. Produce alittle backyard pond and a softly trickling waterfall with preformed plastic designed to suit even the tiniest house of your yard or garden. One of the explanations that many individuals set up a yard pond is to develop water plants.
Easy Backyard Ponds
With a new year comes ideas of wanting to build a brand new pond or water feature. A trouble-taking pictures guide to issues with water gardens and backyard ponds. A backyard pond doesn't need to be massive; even a small, 4-by-4-foot pond will attract wildlife.
Both giant and small backyard ponds add landscape pond magnificence whereas attracting birds and other wildlife. You can determine to have both a water backyard or a fish pond. Custom landscaping - to complement your yard pond, water garden waterfall or stream with a patio, retaining wall, flowers, crops, contours, rocks and backyard equipment.
Backyard Pond pumps do one factor: They transfer the water in your pond from where it is to some other place. Check out these scorching yard backyard ideas and find out which outdoor dwelling and landscaping trends homeowners are squalling for proper now. A yard pond might be a really perfect habitat in your pet fish.
Backyard Garden Pond: adds a vibrancy to your home that may provide peace and pleasure for years to come. Cleaning a fish pond of fallen leaves is a nightmare so you will want to take this into consideration for the yard landscaping. Likely everyone else is wanting to build their pond in the spring identical to you.
Pond fish help with the algae problem because they feed on it in addition to feed on insect larvae and reduce the mosquito inhabitants around your yard backyard pond and water backyard. How many occasions have you ever thought-about placing in a water function like a free form pond in your yard garden. There are many advantages of small backyard ponds for both individuals and the setting.
Your pond and your fountain will develop into the focal point for your yard backyard. Or look at some websites that have great yard water garden design ideas and design it yourself. Before you add your pond to the backyard pond it's good to take some time to consider the placement.
Not all crops are suitable for planting close to or in a backyard pond, nevertheless. For more information, learn our sections on fish ponds and Koi ponds (coming soon) for more info on how to construct a backyard pond that may specifically cater to the kinds of fish you'd like to preserve. The most stunning garden ponds are those that look like they've been there for a very long time.
Goldfish are a better choice for a pure yard pond. One benefit of having a garden waterfall or yard waterfalls is they enhance water molecules and produce more oxygen to the pond water, creating a super habitat for Japanese Koi fish. So it's higher to create an enormous yard pond from the beginning than rebuild it later.
Next in your listing of yard ponds is that of a pond filter. One of the very best ways to attract wildlife to your backyard garden is by offering a regular provide of water. Here are a few things you will need to do to start out designing your backyard water backyard.
A pond can really add to the enchantment and look of a yard. Now that you know the way to build a small pond, you'll be able to add one in all these beautiful features to your own backyard. But to get the maximum enjoyment out of backyard garden pond plan a yard water function, you'll have to do some planning, and there are some important points you'll need to contemplate in planning your yard pond.
For that cause, now we have made this assortment of 30 lovely yard ponds and water garden ideas with which we hope to provide you with lots of creative ideas and hopefully spark a bit wish in your thoughts to create one thing related in your personal backyard. Garden Ponds - How to construct your individual garden pond and waterfall low cost - utilizing our ideas for an inexpensive pond liner. In home customized design and installation - of your water garden and yard pond.
They have a pond and a waterfall within the yard at a time, and that must be filled happiness. This might be the place a backyard pond and waterfall will be terribly helpful. Your pond dimension needs to be appropriate to suit into your backyard backyard and likewise sufficiently big to backyard garden pond accommodate your fish.


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Le Provence Apartment Homes is one of Fresno's most luxurious 1 & 2 bedroom apartment communities located in the Dominion, A Wilson Homes Community, in Fresno, California.
Come discover the provincial lifestyle that is waiting for you. It's cosmopolitan flavoring with a touch of comfort - It's Le Provence.
Call our leasing office today at 833-707-9665 for more information on your new home at Le Provence. We look forward to welcoming you to our community!


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Home | About Us | Patient Portal | Contact Us
Admitting that you have a problem with alcohol or drugs isn't easy. It takes courage and honesty. But once you're ready to look at your use, you've taken a big step toward getting over the problem. When you face your problem, you also accept that you're accountable for your actions and for changing them. There are many programs and people who can help you. And keep in mind, it's OK to get help. It's also the first step to getting your life back together.
Recovery doesn't happen right away. It's a long process. There are many steps along the way. During those steps, you'll work on changing the things that were part of your problem. A counselor or other healthcare provider can help you. So can a priest, minister, or rabbi who is trained in substance abuse counseling. Friends and family may also help once you are working with experts. Together you can make changes needed for success. This can help you to have a positive and rewarding life.
National Drug Helpline 888-633-3239
Recovery Village 844-244-3171
Sarah Bush Lincoln | Copyright © 2015 | All Rights Reserved


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Season 2018 Episode 11 | 54m 47s
Ramita Navai investigates sex abuse by United Nations peacekeepers in the world's conflict zones. She traces allegations from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Central African Republic, with firsthand accounts from survivors, witnesses and officials. She examines why criminal accountability for UN peacekeepers accused of sexual abuse remains so elusive.
Aired: 04/27/18Video has closed captioning.
Buy Now:
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Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation, the Park Foundation, The John and Helen Glessner Family Trust, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation.


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Who could possibly portray the dynamic and funny Marcy Massura in the movie? I used to think it had to be a young version of the late great Madeline Kahn, but that isn't an option, sadly. Now I know I was wrong all along. The glamorous comedian Sara Rue will play you in the movie, Marcy.
(Photo stolen from Marcy Massura at The Glamorous Life Association; photo of Sara Rue stolen from here)


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FFA Alumni Chapter news
Send a link to a friend
01, 2014]
The Olympia High School FFA Alumni Chapter
draws its membership from parts of Woodford, DeWitt, Logan, McLean,
and Tazewell Counties. The chapter met for their February meeting on
Feb. 3 at the Olympia High School Ag Room
The first order of business for the night was senior
interviews. Olympia FFA seniors have the opportunity to apply for a
$1,000 scholarship for their college education. The seniors face
interviews by the FFA alumni as part of their qualification for the
Scholarships will be awarded during the annual FFA Banquet which is
slated to take place March 15, at the high school
The alumni also conducted practice interviews with members of the
FFA Practice Proficiency team. Students involved in this project
were allowed an evening of practice in preparation for the
competition they attended later in the month at Pontiac High school.
Alumni members also recognized and congratulated Jake and Carrie
Schworer as the couple announced they are expecting their first
child. Andrew and Lindsey Mussleman were also congratulated on the
arrival of their first child' a little girl named Ava Rose.
In regular business, Michelle Ott read the secretary's and
treasurer's reports, then chapter president Sharon Hartzold
conducted the balance of the meeting.
It was announced that this year's FFA Silent auction and pork chop
sandwich fundraiser brought in approximately $7,000. The group
discussed next year's fundraiser and entertained suggestions of new
ways to promote the annual event.
[to top of second column]
The evening wrapped up with Olympia AG Teacher and FFA Advisor Emma
Meyer offering a report on classroom activities as well as FFA
Upcoming events for the Olympia FFA include the annual banquet to be
held March 15.
The next meeting of the alumni chapter will be held March 3 at 6:30
p.m. in the high school ag room
The 2013-14 Olympia FFA alumni chapter officer team includes
Resident Sharon Hartzold of Standford
Vice president Michael Wheet of Danvers
Reporter Kyle Haning of Delavan
Member at large Don Begolka of Lincoln
[Text from file received from KYLE
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Examination of HEIDENHAIN encoders on site
A new test cable extends the range of applications of PWM 20 and ATS software
The ATS software now can also be used to check the mounting and range of functions of encoders with 1-Vpp and commutation signals for sinusoidal commutation. Only a special test cable is required for this purpose. HEIDENHAIN offers this cable in addition to the standard encoder diagnostic kit (test cables for encoders with sinusoidal commutation, ID number 1118892-02). Motor manufacturers, motor repair shops and maintenance departments will enjoy this benefit in particular.
The PWM 20 encoder diagnostic kit
Since 2010, mounting and maintenance departments as well as QA teams have successfully worked with the PWM 20 phase angle measuring unit and the ATS software. The possibility of adjusting and inspecting measuring systems mounted to machines is highly appreciated, as this saves time and money.
The encoder diagnostic kit comprises:
• The PWM 20 encoder diagnostic kit
• The cables required for connecting to the USB interface of a personal computer
• The ATS software (Adjusting and Testing Software) with integrated local encoder database for automatic encoder identification
You can order the interface-specific test cables individually to fit your testing situation.
Benefit from this comprehensive and flexible diagnostic kit! The functions supported by the ATS software vary depending on the encoder and the encoder interface. The EnDat interface makes it possible to display position values, to read out the online diagnostics, to read or write parameters and shift datums.
Your benefits:
- Diagnostics and adjustment of HEIDENHAIN encoders with absolute and incremental interfaces
- Suitable as inspection and testing tool; the HEIDENHAIN Calibration Service ensures quality and reliability
- Independent examination of your devices at your site
- Free software updates available on the HEIDENHAIN website
- A variety of interfaces on HEIDENHAIN encoders can be processed
- EnDat 2.1 or EnDat 2.2 (absolute value with or without incremental signals)
- DRIVE-CLiQ¹
- Fanuc Serial Interface
- Mitsubishi high speed interface
- Panasonic
- Yaskawa
- 1 VPP (3 Vpp for servicing only)
- 11 µAPP (25 µApp for servicing only)
- NEW: 1 VPP with sinusoidal commutation
(DRIVE-CLiQ is a registered trademark of SIEMENS Aktiengesellschaft.)
For detailed information on the PWM 20 phase angle measuring unit and on the ATS software click this link: Product information


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Message Board
K.J.A. Wishnia Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Wishnia has written!
Author Wishnia's Book Reviews
Blood Lake
St. Martin's, Dec. 2002, 23.95, 272 pp. ISBN 0312281862 Filomena grew up in a very poor region in Ecuador before she immigrated to the United States where she became a citizen, gave birth to a daughter, and obtained her private investigator license. She and her thirteen-year-old daughter return to Ecuador to see their extended family and to take a vacation in the mountain region where she grew up. When she has a chance, she visits Father Camp...
Red House
St. Martin's, Nov 2001, 23.95, 288 pp. ISBN: 031228182X She honestly tries to stay out of trouble and obey the rules while working at a salary that keep her bosses at the Davis and Bacon Company happy. However, former Ecuadorian freedom fighter turned apprentice private detective Filomenia Buscarsella believes her adopted country should do more for the poor that barely speaks English. This leads her to take on cases that are pro bono, as ma...


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Juggaknot - Yes N Deed / I Look Good [JTF Submitted]
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The new Fly Creek UL2 is the lightest two-person tent that Big Agnes has ever made. In fact, it is the lightest two-person double-wall tent made by any manufacturer at the time of this writing. By tweaking the design of their popular Seedhouse SL2 and using some new components and materials, Big Agnes was able to drop 12 ounces from the total weight for a tent that ends up with a trail weight of only 2.39 pounds (Note: Big Agnes' trail weight is stated at a lower weight of 2.12 lb (0.96 kg). As their trail weight does not include stakes, and I found that at least four are required for set up, the BPL trail weight is higher.). This puts it in the realm of single-wall tents for weight. But while low weight is one thing, a tent needs to be livable too. How did the Fly Creek do in extended field tests, and how did it compare to lightweight stand-outs from Big Sky International, MSR and Terra Nova?
|2009 Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2 2 Person Tent
|Three-season, two-person, double-wall tent.
|Body: ultralight breathable nylon rip-stop and polyester mesh
Floor and Fly: ultralight silicone treated nylon rip-stop with a 1200mm waterproof polyurethane coating
|Poles and Stakes
|Poles: DAC Featherlite NSL pole system with press fit connectors and lightweight hubs, total weight 10.2 oz (289 g)
Stakes: 10x 6.25 in (15.9 cm) DAC aluminum J stakes, total weight 4 oz (113 g)
|Length Listed: 86 in (218 cm)
Width Listed: Head 52 in/Foot 42 in (132/107 cm)
Inside Height Listed: 38 in (97 cm)
BPL Verified Accurate
|Packed Size
|6.5 x 19 in (16 x 48 cm)
|Total Weight
|Listed Weight: 2.62 lb (1.19 kg)
|BPL Measured Weight:
|2.58 lb (1.17 kg)
|Trail Weight
|2.39 lb (1.08 kg)
|Protected Area
|Floor Area Listed: 28 ft2 (2.6 m2)
Vestibule Area: 7 ft2 (0.65 m2)
BPL Verified Accurate
|Protected Area/Trail Weight Ratio
|14.64 ft2/lb (3.01 m2/kg)
|Fast Fly Footprint, 5 oz (142 g)
Design and Features
The new Fly Creek UL2 is the two-person version of last year's Fly Creek UL1. Both tents are basically reengineered and lighter versions of the Seedhouse SL tents. I have been using every generation of the Seedhouse SL2 as my go-to solo shelter since its introduction in 2004. I found it very interesting that the Fly Creek bests the Seedhouse SL2 by 12 oz (113 g), yet the Fly Creek has more floor space, as it is two inches longer. It is only 4 oz (340 g) heavier than the Seedhouse SL1, yet boasts 27% more floor space.
The Fly Creek 2's most noticeable difference is in its 9 mm DAC pole system. By eliminating the back hub and two angled rear poles, Big Agnes was able to drop 3 oz from the pole weight. With the Fly Creek, three sections of poles meet in a front hub to form a Y, the short ends (arms of the Y) of which go to either side of the door. The long part curves over the tent to anchor in a grommet centered in the back. While it can be called a free-standing tent, the back corners need to be staked to take full advantage of all the available space.
The tent body attaches to the poles with DAC Swift Clips. These newer clips are much faster to deploy and remove than the old style clips. The center clip is a two piece DAC H-Clip. The female end H-Clip is permanently attached to the poles and when attached to the corresponding male end on the top of the tent keeps the tent from sliding along the poles. DAC even provides the J-stakes (aluminum, with a V cross-section); they weigh only 0.4 oz each.
The tent body is made of solid, lightweight, breathable nylon on the lower sections of the body, only using the trademark mesh on the top third or so.
The only entrance to the Fly Creek is by way of a large D-shaped mesh door in the front. A loop and toggle allow it to be gathered to the side. To either side of the door inside the tent are mesh gear pockets. A third small mesh pocket sits centered above the door. On the top of the tent are the loops to attach an optional Triangle Gear Loft.
The rain fly and floor are made of ultralight, high tenacity micro-denier ripstop nylon. Due to its proprietary nature, that is as much information about it as they will share. It is very light and pretty tough from what I have seen so far. All seams have been taped to ensure waterproofness. Big Agnes includes pre-attached guy lines and lightweight sliding tensioners at the guy points and ventilation pull-out points on the rain fly. At these spots inside the fly are straps with hooks that attach to a reinforced loop on the inner tent to allow it to be pulled out to give added space.
The fly pulls away in front of the door to provide a small vestibule. It is not really big enough to store more than boots and possibly a small pack inside and still be able to get in and out of the tent.
Top left: The single hub Y-shaped poles go to just three points at the ground. Top right: Just one DAC H-clip and five Swift clips are needed to attach the body to the poles. The solid material on the lower two-thirds of the side walls help keep out blowing dirt. Bottom left: The large single door takes up the entire front face of the Fly Creek. Two pads (one regular sized and one Long shown) fit with no problem. The sloping side walls do make it cramped for two people to do much more than sleep. Bottom right: the fly provides full coverage and good weather protection.
Left: Stuff sacks galore! The Fly Creek comes with the tent, fly poles, eleven DAC J-stakes and stuff sacks for all of them. A pole repair section was sent too, but it is not in the picture. Right: The Fly Creek makes a pretty compact package. By carrying the poles separately (as I do), it gets even smaller.
As I have owned so many of Big Agnes' tents over the years, set-up was pretty quick. I almost always use the optional footprint to stop abrasion of the floor from all the rock I find myself making camp on when in the mountains of California. In humid, rainy Minnesota, I use it just to keep the bottom clean.
I often set the guy lines on all my tents, and I have found that they are even more beneficial for the Fly Creek UL2. All of the Big Agnes tents with this design suffer from wind stability when it comes from the side. It can't be helped with the flat face presented. Always try to make sure the back is to the wind, as this is the strongest, most aerodynamically stable position. The first time I set it up was right before a thunderstorm hit. The winds were at 18 mph with gusts to 31 mph. I attached the fly-to-body points and deployed the guy lines, and set it with the back to the wind, but the sides still blew inward quite a bit. I watched the wind hitting it straight on, finally putting enough pressure on one side to cause the single pole to flex to one side, finally jumping inside when the rain hit.
Present this side into the wind for best performance.
The Fly Creek spent an evening, night, and most of the next day in a very big thunderstorm in Moorhead, Minnesota. I escaped back to my house in the morning but left the tent up until the rain was completely through. It weathered it quite well. (Note: I bring tents to Minnesota, where I spend at least a week each month with my twin children, for the opportunity to use them in weather that I may not see for months at a time in California.) The back has no provision to pull the fly out further like the sides do to provide more space for ventilation. Thinking about it later, I realized that when the rain was being driven into the back of the tent by the wind, it is better this way. When there is little or no wind, the fly sits out as far as the stake placement allows. The stronger the wind against it, the more it seals itself.
On a backpacking trip in the northern Sierra Nevada, I encountered temperatures to 29 F (-2 C), but pretty low humidity as it was at 50% to 54% the entire time. It rained and snowed one night, but the Fly Creek shrugged it off without a bit of condensation. (The humidity was so low that, with the wind, everything was dry by morning.)
The same was true of two nights in Domeland Wilderness further south in the Sierra Nevada that saw temperatures of 27 F (-3 C) at night. This area is almost high desert in places and has a lot more bare ground and dirt than the northern Sierra. The wind was blowing almost the entire trip.
A last trip to the south Sierra Wilderness with the Fly Creek saw two nights down to 32 F (0 C) with humidity levels at 67%. On this trip I purposely left the vestibule completely shut one night, and just the top of the door unzipped the next. Buttoned up all the first night, there was light condensation build-up on the inside of the rain fly. It was not enough to drip or run, but I could wipe moisture from the walls. The night with the top of the vestibule door opened at the top just a few inches created enough of a draw to wake up to completely dry walls in the morning.
The Fly Creek 2 in the Domeland Wilderness. The solid walls helped keep blowing dirt out of the tent here.
Nothing in the literature I received from Big Agnes made any mention of the Fly Creek UL2 being the lightest two-person double-wall tent. Nothing I have been able to find perusing the "stacks" at BPL or the internet has given me any indication that this is not the case. So here it is, in its first long-term in-depth review. Big Agnes, you have a winner. Is it perfect? No. Is it viable? In a big way!
Because of the areas I frequent (mountains) and the four-season nature of my hiking, I have always preferred a double-wall tent. I have had many tarptents and use them on occasion, but I like a double-wall tent because the pros outweigh the cons for me. Yes, they are heavier. They take up more room in my pack. These are the main reasons that I carried the TT Rainbow and Squall 2. However, the advantages of condensation control and the ability to do without the protection from rain fly to just use the inner by itself makes me choose the weight hit on most of my trips. Big Agnes has hit into a weight versus convenience/features range that really blurs the lines between the two for me.
I really like the use of the solid nylon part way up the walls. The Fly Creek kept much cleaner inside than other mesh-walled tents, as it did not let as much dirt or dust blow in.
One drawback of all tents of this shape/configuration (my tarptents included) is the necessity to sleep with your head at the high end (door) of the tent. This limits choices when finding a good camp site. The areas I frequent rarely see a flat spot so I want my head to be at the uphill end of a sloped site. However, if the wind is blowing that way, I have to either choose to have the wind blowing in the door or sleep with my head downhill.
Another negative is the fact that the rain fly does not protect the door opening when the vestibule is open. Rain or snow can fall straight down into the tent. As this is where the users' heads are, care must be taken to move sleeping bags or quilts away from the front before somebody enters or exits in inclement weather.
As may be seen above, the rain fly does not cover the front of the tent when the vestibule door is open. This results in water inside the tent when entering or exiting in rainy conditions.
It would benefit from a high vent, as my experiment in the south Sierra Wilderness proved. The Fly Creek can be ventilated at the vestibule door, but if it is raining, this results in water on the inner tent. A small hooded vent would allow air to be drawn from below and the warm moist air inside could flow through it. Will it add weight? Yep, maybe an ounce or so. That may even knock it out of "lightest ever" range, but such a feature would make a tent that I would want to buy even more. Big Agnes does put a high vent on the Copper Spur series (I had the Copper Spur UL3 and now have the Copper Spur UL2), and it adds a lot to the ventilation capability. Changing the design of the rain fly to move the vestibule further away from the front of the tent would do the trick too. This would allow the top of the vestibule door to be open while still keeping rain off the front of the inner.
I used to do a lot of mountaineering, and I should be kicking it back up again soon. Unless I am on a mountain or with my wife, I do not like to share a tent. Because of my height (6'3" / 190.5 cm), I tend to use two-person tents as solo shelters. The Fly Creek has worked wonderfully in this role. I have plenty of room to bring my backpack inside, which is nice when I am packing up in the morning.
For two people, it is another story. While the Fly Creek UL2 has a head height of 38 in (97 cm), it is at one area directly centered in the tent towards the front. Only one person can sit and enjoy the maximum clearance. Two adults of my height would find it pretty hard to share the tent. I will use it with one of my kids, but not another adult, unless we were really REALLY friendly. My twins Emma and Ray used it together and thought it was the best, but they are 4'9" (145 cm) tall.
If insect protection is not needed, or you just want the lowest possible weight, the rain fly can be pitched with just the poles and optional footprint to cut 9.2 oz (261 g) off the total.
I am pretty impressed by the Fly Creek UL2. While it is a bit cramped for two adults, it still offers two people a weather-tight tent at a minuscule weight with the ability to forgo the rain fly on nice nights. Or, as in my case, it offers a very nice solo tent for a tall hiker. From what I have seen during the past few months, I believe that the durability is going to be better than my Seedhouses of old, even though the new materials are lighter.
Dare to Compare
In terms of comparisons, I believe that the Fly Creek's closest competitors are the Terra Nova Laser and the MSR Carbon Reflex, both of which are lightweight, two-person, double-wall tents.
The MSR Carbon Reflex 2 is probably the closest comparison. With its 2-inch (5 cm) taller peak height and 1 sq ft (0.9 sq m) more floor space, it is slightly roomier than the Fly Creek, though it also weighs 9.4 oz (266 g) more.
The Terra Nova Laser is a two-person double-wall tent that is actually an over-sized single person tent as two standard-width sleeping pads can't fit inside unless they are stacked. With a mere 5.3 oz (150 g) heavier trail weight, it has much less head room and 22% less floor space. To its credit, the Laser sets up blazingly fast and has better ventilation than the Fly Creek.
It should also be noted that neither of those tents are freestanding and both cost at least 40% more than the Fly Creek UL2.
|Manufacturer and Model
|Big Agnes Fly Creek SL2
|MSR Carbon Reflex 2
|Terra Nova Laser
|Manufacturer Trail Weight*
|2.12 lb (0.96 kg)
|2.81 lb (1.28 kg)
|2.47 lb (1.12 kg)
|Backpacking Light Trail Weight**
|2.39 lb (1.08 kg)
|2.98 lb (1.36 kg)
|2.72 lb (1.23 kg)
|Floor/fly: 1200mm PU/silicone coated ripstop nylon
Body: nylon & polyester mesh
|Floor: 40D nylon 66, 10,000mm PU
Fly: 20D 1000mm PU/silicone coated nylon
Body: 20D nylon 66 & 20D polyester mesh
|Floor: 7000mm PU coated nylon
Fly: 4000mm silicone coated nylon
Body: nylon mesh
|DAC Featherlite NSL pole system with one hub
|2 Easton FX carbon fiber poles
|1 DAC aluminum pole, 2 carbon fiber struts
|Dimensions*** L x W x H
|86 x 52/42 x 38 in
(218 x 132/107 x 97 cm)
|84 x 46.5 x 40 in
(213 x 118 x 102 cm)
|87 x 34 x 33 in
(221 x 86 x 84 cm)
|Floor Area
|28.0 sq ft (2.6 sq m)
|27.1 sq ft (2.52 sq m)
|21.8 sq ft (2.02 sq m)
|Number of Vestibules & Area
|1 7 sq ft (0.65 sq m)
|2 14 sq ft (1.3 sq m)
|1 7 sq ft (0.65 sq m)
|Floor Area/Trail Weight Ratio****
|11.71 sq ft / lb
(2.41 sq m / kg)
|9.64 sq ft / lb
(1.97 sq m / kg)
|8 sq ft / lb
(1.64 sq m / kg)
|Protected Area/Trail Weight Ratio*****
|14.64 sq ft / lb
(3.01 sq m / kg)
|13.8 sq ft / lb
(2.81 sq m / kg)
|10.57 sq ft / lb
(2.17 sq m / kg)
|Cost US$
*Manufacturer Trail Weight: Minimum weight as listed by the manufacturer. Different companies may include different components in this weight.
**Backpacking Light Trail Weight: This is the weight of tent, rain fly, poles, and stakes needed for basic set-up. It does not include stuffsacks, extra guylines, extra stakes, or repair kit.
***Dimensions: maximum Length x maximum Width x maximum Height (L x W x H). In the case of an odd shaped floor, a double measurement is given for head and foot (H/F). The numbers are as verified by BPL and may differ from the manufacturers' stated dimensions.
****Floor Area/Trail Weight Ratio: This is the floor area divided by the trail weight.
*****Protected Area/Trail Weight Ratio: This is the floor area plus vestibule area divided by the trail weight.
What's Good
- Lightest two-person double-wall tent at this time.
- Very small packed size.
- Solid fabric blocks blowing dirt and snow.
- Proven storm worthiness.
- Light yet strong and durable materials.
- Decent ventilation.
What's Not So Good
- Too cramped to be useful for two adults of my height.
- Strong winds hitting the flat sides can cause problems.
- Rain will fall into tent when vestibule door is open.
Recommendations for Improvement
- Place a small high vent on the rain fly.
- Redesign fly to protect tent while exiting in rain.
Disclosure: The manufacturer provided this product to the author and/or Backpacking Light at no charge, and it is owned by the author/BPL. The author/Backpacking Light has no obligation to review this product to the manufacturer under the terms of this agreement.


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The digital world is ever expanding. Digital technologies permeate every mundane aspect of our society, from phones to cars, from the internet to washing machines. Within the department of Information and Computing Sciences, we develop novel methods for incorporating information technologies in our daily lives. Sometimes these innovations are highly visible, often they are nearly invisible to the user.
We focus on socially relevant and fundamental subjects. By applying innovative thinking and a strong fundamental knowledge, we work on practical solutions and approaches within three themes:
We seek out the boundaries of science, and educate students to become well equipped, enthusiastic professionals.
Department of Information and Computing Sciences
Buys Ballot Gebouw
Princetonplein 5
3584 CC Utrecht
030 - 253 4116
Our research is internationally well respected. We continuously push the frontiers of knowledge and capabilities both in science and application. By developing novel concepts, theories, algorithms, and software we help directing innovation in society.
Our education is valued by teachers and students alike. First we focus on providing a broad but solid foundation. Next we build on this to help students develop in-depth knowledge and skills. Students have the opportunity for further specialization in a field that especially interests them.


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Hearts forced to wait to discover their fate
The Scottish Premier League side were forced to call in the administrators in mid-June due to outstanding debts owed to companies formerly owned by their former chairman Vladimir Romanov.
This move into administration led to a complaint being raised against them, which in turn saw a charge of an alleged breach of the Scottish Football Association's (SFA) ruling relating to a club suffering an insolvency event.
Hearts struggled last season as troubles off the pitch affected their performances. They eventually finished 10th int he SPL, but face an uphill battle to retain their top-flight status as they will begin the new campaign under a registration embargo and a 15-point penalty.
An SFA panel were due to meet on Thursday to decide their punishment, but the governing body were forced to delay their decision.
In a statement, the SFA said: "Due to the unavailability of Tribunal members, today's Judicial Panel Tribunal has been postponed. The Principle Hearing relating to the Notice of Complaint issued to Heart of Midlothian will now take place on Thursday, 1 August."
When the panel do convene next month, Hearts face the possibility of incurring a number of penalties, ranging from a fine to suspension or even termination of their SFA membership.