On June 12, JTBC ‘s first column, “Jung Doo – Hong, director of martial arts, talked about the films” Good Man, Bad Man, Strange Man “and” Sun Dae Jong “.
Jang Sung-gyu said, “If you think about Korean action movies, Jung Doo-hong only thinks about you.” Jung Sung-chul, editor, said, “Director Jeong Doo-hong is well known overseas.” When director Zhang Yimou’s filmmaker made a film, he told his staff to refer to the director’s “samurai”.
Jung Doo-hong said, “‘Musa’ was aimed to advance to Hollywood, but it did not work well.” He said, “I have created a band called Jung Woo-sung, and I was teaching him.” I said, “I played the action without a band,” he said.
Yun Jong-shin said, “It is a work that opened up a new horizon of Korean-style blockbuster” about the movie “Nomo Nomome”. Director Min Kyu-dong said, “It was the No. 1 hit in 2008 with about 6.68 million viewers.” It was an experimental and challenging film that created the western genre, which was a combination of western and Korean fun. “
Jung Doo-hong said, “It was funny at first to make a scene where the eyes turn around, but it was really cool when I edited it.” “It seems that the emotion has been delivered well.”
He had a great pain when he shot Manchuria. He said, “I lost my junior in an unfortunate accident, all the staff fell into the temple, I do not know where the movie is going,” but “everyone was able to catch it well.
Jung Doo-hong surprised everyone by saying that he had been denied action contest 27 times to director of ‘Berlin’ Ryu Seung-wan. “I’ve shot a lot of footage on the 27th,” he said, “but I’ve never been able to take action on the second shot.”
Director Jung Doo-hong expressed his respect for the film “Sun Dae Jong-sa”, which was directed by Wang Ga-wi. He said, “The real person in the movie, Lok Moon, is Bruce Lee’s martial arts teacher,” he said. “He tried to defend the Chinese martial arts.”
Jung Sung-chul, the editor-in-chief, said, “In the history of Chinese mooring, there are Fei Fei, Kwak Won-gap, and Lokmun, there is one in Paju in Korea.
“Speed is important in action movies,” said Jung Doo-hong, “and the same actions are delivered with a new feel to the speed.” “Sound and harmony is as important as the devotion to action.”
‘Gap 1 column’ is broadcast every Friday at 6:30 pm.


text:
Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
Academic Editor: Alireza Minagar
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) effect upon seizure cessation was studied in five male Wistar rats using a penicillin intracisternal injection model (which did not damage the cranial vault). Animals were observed both clinically and electrographically for seizure development. ECT was applied at varying times following onset of seizure, at varying parameters (frequency, pulsewidth, and duration). ECT affected EEG seizure pattern in several different stimulation parameter-dependent ways: (1) modulation to different pattern; (2) increased interictal time; and (3) seizure cessation. Stimulation with higher, sustained current (50 mA) led to changes in seizure amplitude; stimulation at pulses of current led to seizure frequency dimunition, and at certain characteristic pulses "capture" was seen as the EEG activity mimicked the ECT-inducing stimulation pattern. Interictal time was usually increased by sustained, continuous (rather than pulsatile) stimulation. Seizure activity was completely stopped in several instances using parameters of 800 pulses at a frequency of 200 Hz, with 2.56 ms pulsewidth and 50 mA of current (in consecutive iterations for one specimen). No ECT-related adverse effects were noted. Analogous to the heart, pacing or defibrillating the brain using external scalp electrodes may have a role in the control of otherwise intractable seizures.

domain: biology


Chrysalis Filled Publisher's description
from Ben McGehee
Chrysalis Filled 1.0
A truetype font with a strong and accurate look
Chrysalis Filled is a TTF character that was created in order to enable you to change the regular appearance of your papers.
System Requirements:No special requirements.
Program Release Status:
Program Install Support: Install and UnInstall


text:
Friday, November 18, 2011
TALL, DARK AND GRUESOME (1948)
RATING: * & ¾ out of ****
PLOT: Playwright Hugh Herbert just can’t make headway on his latest script with all the noise going on outside his city office. He and his assistant Dudley Dickerson commence to a quiet country cabin but the quiet is soon undone by real live gorilla and some masqueraders in scary costumes. Will Hugh finish writing his play or will his attempts to write the play finish Hugh?!
REVIEW: A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a special presentation of silent films at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (click here to see my write-up about the event). These weren’t just any silent films – they were silent horror-comedies programmed by Bruce Lawton with wonderful piano accompaniment from Ben Model as part of their "Silent Clowns" film series.
But they were more than just silent horror-comedies, too. Mr. Lawton did a terrific job putting together a selection of shorts with a very specific theme: “Scary Shenanigans on the Second Reel.” Bruce’s concept: screen comedy shorts where the spooky stuff doesn’t happen until the second reel.
This idea of the second half of the film being the scary part worked beautifully in the shorts Bruce and Ben showed, including Harold Lloyd’s classic (and soon-to-be-reviewed-by-me) “Haunted Spooks” and two films I’ve previously reviewed, Buster Keaton’s “The Haunted House” and Our Gang’s “Shootin’ Injuns.” By no means is it a silent-film only concept, however. Some notable talkies that also went this route include such shorts as the Three Stooge’s “Idle Roomers” (reviewed here) and Laurel & Hardy’s “The Live Ghost” (reviewed here) as well as the final Hal Roach-produced Our Gang/Little Rascals short, “Hide & Shriek” (reviewed here). Even some features have followed this format – Bob Hope’s famed “The Ghost Breakers” has a rather lengthy prelude before the creepy stuff begins while the majority of spooky kookiness in Wheeler & Woolsey’s “The Nitwits” takes place in the third reel.
So here we have the great team of Hugh Herbert and Dudley Dickerson again. You may recall I waxed rhapsodic over their hysterical horror-comedy, “One Shivery Night.” I mostly love these two guys whether paired with each other, paired with others (like Hugh with Allen Jenkins in “Sh! The Octopus” and with Broderick Crawford in “The Black Cat”) or playing in solo or supporting roles (Herbert brilliant in Wheeler & Woolsey’s “Diplomaniacs” and Olsen & Johnson’s “Hellzapoppin;” Dickerson just as brilliant in Our Gang/Tthe Little Rascals’ “Spooky Hooky” and the Three Stooges’ “A Plumbing We Will Go” as well as several other Stooges shorts and Marx Brothers features).
Given the above, as well as the fact that, as reported by Ted Okuda and Ed Watz in their essential book, “The Columbia Comedy Shorts” this short was well-received by both movie exhibitors and audiences alike, I truly wanted to love “Tall, Dark and Gruesome.” But when compared to “One Shivery Night” and everything else I’ve mentioned, it just pales in comparison. It’s not terrible – it’s a typical two-reel comedy of its day – but it lacks the spark and wit we’ve come to expect from this twosome. Still, there are some late inning antics that help save the film from being a complete “miss.”
Alas, many of the best laughs in “Tall, Dark & Gruesome” come in the first reel, the setup before the scary stuff kicks in. The short starts with Hugh as a mystery writer quoting his own dialogue “You gangsters don’t scare me with those machine guns! You wouldn’t dare use them!,” he intones... and promptly leaps scared out of his chair as a jackhammer on the street below punctuates his prose! Ever observant, Hugh’s assistant Dudley offers that “Some of these days, boss you’re gonna’ scare yourself to death, writing all them mystery plays.” It is an effectively compact introduction to the two main characters, establishing both their roles and their relationship to each other.
Hugh gets hit with something (rotten fruit, perhaps – the resolution is none too clear) when he yells out the window to the construction workers, leading into a scene where he gets stuck halfway in and halfway out the window. This is where the hit-and-miss nature of this short comes into full view, as the “comedy” here is labored, strained and unfunny. It’s hard to pinpoint why – both masters like Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello as well as lower-tier film clowns from yesteryear have mined laughs out of such scenarios, but here it just plays flat. It’s possible that the sight of Herbert, clearly a middle-aged man dangling from a window just doesn’t inspire the same funny/fear response in audiences as when they watch whimsical man-boys like Stan Laurel, Lou Costello and Curly Howard find themselves in similar situations.
We go from an unfunny bit to a funny bit, as Dudley actually vacuums up the pages of Hugh’s play script. The laughter is brief, however: as Hugh tries to retrieve the pages from the machine, the vacuum backfires spraying him with black soot and dust. This leads to a string of tasteless racial jokes as Hugh now appears to be in “blackface.” First Hugh talks into the mirror thinking he’s talking to Dudley, then Dudley tries to shoo Hugh away thinking Hugh is some sort of solicitor.
Dudley suggests that Hugh put on earmuffs to muffle the noise of the riveters. Then Hugh’s producer calls to prod him about the delayed play script and another labored gag occurs as Hugh takes the call with the earmuffs on continuously exclaiming he can’t hear a thing. In the hands of Stan Laurel, such a gag would come off as whimsical and cute but with Herbert’s advanced age and forced delivery, the sequence falls flat.
It does, however, lead to the plot device that enables the second reel to become a horror-comedy. When Hugh laments to his producer that it’s too noisy for him to finish the play, the producer suggests Hugh commence to a quiet country cabin of a friend named “Captain Dalton” who is away. Of course it’s shades of “Seven Keys to Baldpate” and all that’s really needed to get Hugh and Dudley out of their cityscape and into a climate of fear.
Shortly after Hugh and Dudley’s arrival, a big case is delivered to the cabin for the vacationing Captain Dalton. When Dudley informs Hugh about the case, Herbert muses that “Twelve Bodies Make a Case” would be a great title for a mystery play, easily the most cleverly written line of dialogue in this short.
Dudley raps on the case (including the obligatory “shave and a haircut – two bits”) and whatever is inside of course raps back. In a fourth wall busting moment, Dudley looks straight at the audience and asks, “did you hear what I heard!”
The audience soon gets a glimpse of the case’s occupant: a gorilla! Dudley has opened the latch but is distracted by Hugh calling out to him and doesn’t notice that the beast keeps reaching to grab him as he sweeps! Hugh requests a shave from Dudley while in the other room the gorilla breaks through the bars and out of the case. The surly simian walks in on Dudley shaving Hugh, unbeknownst to both… until Dudley spots the gorilla and passes out!
The gorilla becomes fascinated with the snoring Hugh, lulled into a deep snooze from his shave. He starts to use the blade on Hugh’s whiskers. Hugh starts making mildly funny comments about the rough shave but as he opens his eyes to see the gorilla there, what should be hysterical ends up hysterically unfunny as Herbert mugs in a rather inert fashion spouting out such unfunny lines as “where’s my mother” (as opposed to the clichéd but much funnier “I want my mommy.”
Hugh beats feet and then Dudley comes back into the room to continue giving Hugh a shave – not realizing the gorilla has taken Dudley’s place in the chair and has shaving cream smeared on his face. He laments that he had the craziest dream about a gorilla… and then realizes the gorilla is there in the chair. Unfortunately, Dudley catches Hugh’s broad bug from a moment before as his scare reaction is just as unconvincing and forced as Hugh’s, until saved a bit by some funny arm-waving and sped-up action.
The short has one more plot complication up its sleeve (and desperately needs it because it would be completely D.O.A. if it just had to rely on Hugh and Dudley’s encounters with the gorilla): a trio of lost partygoers arrive to ask directions. The party they were heading to? A masquerade party of course, with one man a devil, another a skeleton and a woman dressed as a ghost. The woman is the ubiquitous-to-Columbia shorts heroine, Christine McIntyre, statuesque blonde beauty who tussled a time or ten with many funnymen, most notably The Three Stooges (you can read Dave Whitney's affectionate tribute to this underrated comedienne when you click here). When the already skittish Dudley answers the door, he races screaming from the costumed trio.
The partiers find their way in and start chumming up to the gorilla, who they think is someone else going to the masquerade party. In fact, the devil is quite impressed: “You’re part of the masquerade, too! Say, that’s some costume – you oughtta’ win first prize!,” the faux Faust exclaims. It doesn’t take long for the partiers to realize they’re dealing with a real gorilla (or at least a very menacing brute in a gorilla suit) and scatter in various directions to elude him.
Hugh takes refuge in a bedroom where the skeleton-wearing man has plopped down into a chair and draped a cloth over himself. Hugh decides to have a cigarette to calm his nerves, but when the skeleton hand not only offers it to him but lights it Hugh goes running – first to a closet door where the ghost woman is hiding, then back to the bedroom door where the devil man is.
The bedroom bits are funny and the costumes remind one of the Faust players Buster Keaton tangled with in “The Haunted House” but when compared to the great “One Shivery Night” the screams and reactions from Hugh and Dudley are so forced this time that they become overreactions. Yet, old pros that they are the duo still have their moments. Dudley in particular gets to shine in the next sequence. He’s hiding under the bed, and when Hugh dives under it to join him Dudley retreats in sped-up motion… right into the room containing the case the gorilla was shipped in, now inhabited by the devil man! After much rocking of the case and screaming from Dudley, he makes another hasty retreat, right into a closet where the skeleton man is. The skeleton man grabs Dudley’s shoulder, which sends him careening toward the nearest exit. A very funny bit ensues with Dudley trying to open the door but having the door knob stretch out on and on forever like one of comic book hero Plastic Man’s dangling limbs.
Many horror-comedies, including some of the truly great ones defy all (or at least most) logic, but there is the nagging question here of why the masqueraders, obviously scared by the gorilla would not only stick around inside the house but persist to take delight in scaring the heebie-jeebies out of Hugh and Dudley. It is something of a disconnect. And come to think of it, just why has a gorilla been delivered to the cabin of the vacationing Captain Dalton?!
Just as Dudley’s bits improve the film in spots, so too do Hugh’s, as he has a great bit where he decides to fight back and take on the gorilla. He’s in a room with various ancient swords on the wall. As he swings a blade around in preparation, Dudley enters and just as quickly exits, thinking his boss has gone mad and is about to slice him up. Dudley decides the swords will just not do; lucky for him there’s a cannon in the room! Hugh gleefully taunts the gorilla to come in (“C’mon in gorilla – I dare ya’!” and “Whatssamatter – you afraid?!”) and positions the cannon directly opposite the a door, not realizing the gorilla will enter through an alternate entrance! A very funny turning of the tables finds Hugh cowering behind a couch as the gorilla aims the cannon right at him! This is a big dumb hairy beast though (the gorilla, not Hugh!) and soon the animal’s curiosity gets the best of him as he stares down the barrel of the cannon. Cut to Hugh’s reaction as the cannon goes off; the next hysterical shot showing the gorilla blown sky high atop the chandelier!
These bits lead to a rather socko ending. Hugh has run out of the room but Dudley’s luck isn’t as good: he comes into the room and the gorilla (complete with chandelier) lands right on top of him! Cut to Hugh driving away at top speed, delivering the funniest line in the film, “C’mon car you can do better than a hundred!” This laugh is topped by the sight of Dudley outracing the car on foot! “This guy must be going 200 miles,” muses Hugh. That would be a fine place to end, but the script throws in one last scare take, as the skeleton man emerges from the back seat to tap Hugh on the shoulder. Hugh passes out, leaving the skeleton to grab the steering wheel as the end credits roll.
The final bits help bring the short to just about an average rating. They’re so good in fact that they serve to point up the weak bits. It’s a shame the short isn’t better than it is, but if you’re a big fan of horror-comedies, Hugh and/or Dudley and of course, gorillas then “Tall, Dark & Gruesome” may be just the short for you!
SPOTTED IN THE CAST: A couple roles in this short are filled by some extremely busy character actors of yesteryear. Charles C. Wilson plays the producer of Hugh’s play, one of a long string of authoritative characters that include many stern bosses and gruff lawmen. Along the way, he had the good fortune to appear in many classic and notable films, including “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” “Meet John Doe,” “This Gun for Hire,” “Scarlet Street” and more. On the comedy front, he was in Joe E. Brown’s “Elmer the Great,” Danny Kaye’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” the series entry “Blondie in College,” Laurel & Hardy’s “The Big Noise,” the Hope-Crosby “Road to Utopia,” and the classic Wheeler & Woolsey horror-comedy, “The Nitwits.” He was also in the 1943 “Batman” serial and even appeared in a film called “Tall, Dark and Handsome.” He previously appeared with Hugh Herbert in the Bette Davis starrer, “Fog Over Frisco.”
Deliveryman Charles Heine Conklin was a real veteran by the time this short was made. He had appeared in dozens of silent comedy shorts for famed Keystone Films producer Mack Sennett, was in Chaplin’s legendary “The Gold Rush” and “Modern Times” and continued to perform into the talkie era in a variety of notable genre films including many comedies… and a few co-starring Herbert. Among them, “Million Dollar Legs” with W.C. Fields, Leon Errol and Hugh Herbert; Wheeler & Woolsey’s “Diplomaniacs,” also with Herbert; Harold Lloyd’s “Professor Beware,” and a variety of Columbia shorts starring The Three Stooges, Andy Clyde He also appeared in such mystery entries as the Charlie Chan, Lone Wolf and Boston Blackie series. His career came full circle when he played a Keystone Kop in Olsen & Johnson’s “Crazy House” and a studio guard in “Abbott & Costello Meet the Keystone Kops.”
BEST DIALOGUE EXCHANGES:
HUGH: “Tell them to stop that noise – they’re driving me crazy!”
DUDLEY: “I did boss, but the places they told me you could go, my pastor wouldn’t let me repeat!”
DUDLEY: It’s so quiet here you can hear the flies walking on the ceiling!
(then after some knocks on the door): What was that?
HUGH: A couple of flies I guess…
HUGH: A couple weeks up here will help cure your nerves.
DUDLEY: Ain’t nothin’ wrong with my nerves, boss – why I could walk through a cemetery at midnight without… what am I saying?!
HUGH: If this is gonna’ be “gorilla” warfare, I’m gonna’ be prepared for it!
BEST VISUAL GAGS: As the entire short is very hit-and-miss, the visual highlights are few and far-between. There is a lot of running and screaming that should be funny but mostly isn’t. We’re left with a couple bits from the first reel, namely Dudley vacuuming up Hugh’s script pages and a stiff drink of furniture polish that sends Hugh’s hat flying straight up. The second reel delivers the bang-up gag of Dudley tussling with the door handle and he gorilla on the chandelier; as previously mentioned, pretty much all the business leading up to and including the finale are a hoot.
FURTHER READING: Ted Okuda and Edward Watz wrote an indispensible book called “The Columbia Comedy Shorts” and Leonard Maltin wrote one called “The Great Movie Shorts” (also known as “Selected Short Subjects”). You can order them here:
Selected Short Subjects: From Spanky to the Three Stooges (Da Capo Paperback)
I also encourage you to visit The Columbia Shorts Department – Greg Hilbrich’s excellent site dedicated to the fun and frolics of this studio that gave the world The Three Stooges and so much more.
WATCH THE FILM: Enjoy this clip featuring of most of the spooky bits in this short:

domain: entertainment


text:
Google just announced their latest doodle contest for kids. I think this would be a blast to do as a fun family night. I know parents can’t submit, so why do I think this would be fun?
Because kids have more fun doing art with others!
Case in point: I spotted this paint by numbers kit. It was on clearance. And it looked so fun, so I… I bought it for myself!
It’s great for stress relief – fun and creative without having to use much brain power! Obviously I’m not even close to being done (that baby chick can’t be left orange!), but a funny thing happened when I got out my paints. My children decided to get out theirs and start playing:
Google Doodle. Check it out. Have fun!

domain: artistic


text:
Brentwood-based Santa Fe Holding Co., parent of roadhouse-themed restaurant chain Santa Fe Cattle Co., filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday, according to NashvillePost.com, where the story is available to subscribers.
The company released a statement in which it said it would use the Chapter 11 reorganization process "to strengthen its financial position which will improve operating and financial performance."
Danny York and Dave Wachtel--the pair that co-founded Logan's Roadhouse--introduced the Santa Fe concept in 1996. York, who also operates Mère Bulles, sold his stake to Wachtel and ultimately repurchased it after Wachtel's death. In the last two years, Santa Fe has been on a growth spurt, with plans to grow from 17 to 100 units.

domain: economics


Oh Prometheus. If loving you is wrong I don’t want to be right. I didn’t think a movie could court as much controversy unless it was directed by Christopher Nolan. How naïve I was back then!
Four months after the “Prometheus sucks!” furor died down (just in time for the considerably less hysterical “Cloud Atlas sucks!” and “The Master sucks!’ outrage to begin), those of us who didn’t write petulant, ignorant letters to Damon Lindelof had to have our hearts trampled on all over again in preparation for the “Prometheus still sucks!” onslaught.
If you saw Prometheus and hated it, I would urge you to rewatch it on Blu-Ray. However, we all know how film critics are loath to change our minds on anything and (heaven forbid) admit we might be wrong. I saw Blade Runner in the late ’80s and honestly hated it. I was interested enough, however, to see the Director’s Cut theatrical release in 1992 and immediately changed my mind. Granted, the voiceover was removed in that version, but I also like to think I grew up a little bit.
With Blade Runner, I had the benefit of a few years to catch up, not four months. It’s doubtful that any of Prometheus‘s most vocal critics will give it a second chance, even if they get a free Blu-Ray to review. It’s also obvious that someone at Fox was paying attention because the cover states unequivocally that Questions Will Be Answered, which I’m sure provoked more than a few derisive snorts of laughter from the haters.
This is supposed to be a Prometheus Blu-Ray review though, so let’s get to the good part. While I doubt anything could compare to the nearly miraculous experience of seeing Prometheus in 3D, Blu-Ray on a big screen TV with a half-decent surround sound set up comes surprisingly close. It is a gorgeous, captivating piece of film; this cannot be denied.
of Toronto to promote the home video release.
There are a lot of little touches that push the disc into even cooler territory, like the intuitive menu selections and the consistent graphics. Yes, there are also extras and special features and these are what I most looked forward to, after the experience of watching the film again, of course.
There are 14 deleted and alternate scenes; these can be watched alone (with scene title and brief synopsis text included in the menu scrolling feature) or with commentary by editor Pietro Scalia and Visual Effects supervisor Richard Stammers. What’s fascinating is how almost every deleted scene or alternate scene is a direct response to the problems people seemed to have with Prometheus. I’m not going to list them all here, but after watching the movie three times and all 14 scenes twice, there are only four that I think might have been better included in the finished film.
This is not because I felt the story didn’t make sense told as it was in the theatrical cut, but because these scenes could only have added to what were already good moments.
Scene 47: Our First Alien
In this deleted scene, Millburn finds a worm in the inner chamber of the pyramid and is naturally delighted. Scalia explains that while this scene was great for showing how the crew works as a group, it was cut because it introduced an idea that they “couldn’t develop,” saying it was “great for character but didn’t go anywhere for story.” Including this would have possibly quieted the “why would a biologist approach a strange animal?” argument that ran rampant in conversations about Prometheus, even though the film works perfectly well without it, if you have a little bit of imagination. Scalia notes he was “really sad” to see this removed.
Scene 65: We’re Not Alone Anymore
This scene would have taken place after the crew (minus Millburn and Fifield) returns from the pyramid. Shaw toasts everyone and tells an African folk tale origin story she heard from her mother. Holloway acts like a jerk and she confronts him about it. Scalia says this was cut because it felt too “harsh” and “forced” in terms of the relationship between Shaw and Holloway. I think it would have been good to leave it in because it would clearly show Holloway’s disappointment before he gets drunk and hangs out by the pool table. Also, it indicates that Shaw is tougher than she looks, even though this is made clear later on in the film.
Scene 109AC: A King Has His Reign
This is an extended version of the scene between Weyland and Vickers when she derisively calls him “Father.” It was changed, according to Scalia, because it would have taken away from Shaw’s character progression (she was dealing with creature removal at the time). However, the dialogue is excellent and the tension between Vickers and Weyland, as well as insights into their relationship, would have been good to witness.
Scene 119:The Engineer Speaks
The title of this scene says a lot, if you’ll forgive the pun. When Weyland and David confront the Engineer in the Juggernaut (horseshoe-shaped ship), he actually carries on a brief conversation. Scalia explains that it was cut because it removed the mystery from the Engineer and made him “less godlike.” I agree with this, but I would still like to have seen Weyland’s dialogue included because it was very good, although perhaps too obvious and expository.
The Ridley Scott commentary is insightful and proves several things. 1) Ridley Scott had a huge hand in the production and costume design, art design, practical effects, and story development of Prometheus. 2) He is a tough bastard who doesn’t like people questioning his vision (and he admits that he hates to use that word). 3) He wants people to “get” Prometheus now and not “in 30 years.” Whether this commentary (or Scalia’s for that matter) was recorded before the film’s release or after, is not clear, so I am not sure if these comments are in response to criticism or merely in anticipation of criticism, but I’m guessing it’s a bit of both.
For me, the most significant commentary was that of screenwriters Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof, recorded separately, but edited together into one audio track. This commentary was recorded before the film was even released, and already Lindelof is defending his choices, as well as those of Scott and Scalia, in addition to explaining that not all of the changes and deletions were his idea.
He is clear that exposition is hard to write and he hates doing it. He adds that he loves to “not answer questions definitively” because although it may be “frustrating,” it makes people talk about the movie afterwards. I agree that too much exposition is boring and insulting and that I’d prefer to think about a movie than have everything explained to me.
His commentary is more proof that the alleged failure of Prometheus was not Damon Lindelof sabotaging Ridley Scott’s would-be masterpiece through his ineptitude as a storyteller and screenwriter.
In fact, I feel strongly that Lindelof’s changes (according to Scott’s express wishes) to reduce the explicit Alien franchise iconography in Spaihts’ original screenplay was a sound decision. I would have been hugely disappointed to see a bunch of chestbursters and xenomorphs running amok during Prometheus; it would have felt like pandering and probably, despite everyone’s best efforts, would not have matched the look and feel of the visual effects used in the first movie (or its sequels). The CGI xenomorphs in Alien 4: Resurrection were awful and I don’t want to get into the George Lucas Effect in detail but I’ll sum it up by saying that the extensive CGI in the Star Wars prequels did not fit the timeline of the story.
Serving the story is the most important part of any movie, except perhaps character development. Since Scott has been criticized for not doing this well in Prometheus and other movies, listening to all the commentary on the Prometheus Blu-Ray hints that perhaps he is more concerned with moving the story forward. Yet, because Prometheus is a big-budget, action-filled science fiction blockbuster, too many character development scenes and exposition would likely not have worked.
I do hope that people will give Prometheus a second chance because it deserves it. It is a masterpiece of filmmaking, which utilizes 3D to its current, fullest potential, in addition to provoking fascinating questions and displaying fantastic acting.
One more thing: Guy Pearce was cast before the scenes showing him a young man were cut so no more whining about “old man makeup,” okay?
The Prometheus two-disc Blu-Ray was released on October 9 through Twentieth Century Fox and includes a DVD and a digital copy of the film. The four-disc Collector’s Edition Blu-Ray has even more special features like a Making Of documentary and screen tests.


text:
You’re at the doctors with a suspected infection, but instead of offering penicillin or erythromycin, they prescribe honey. Would you switch toast toppings? Take a honey pill? How about letting the doctor smear medical grade honey over the infected area?
People have been using honey (not mad honey) as medicine since ancient times, but until now [...]... Read more »
It is well known that crops go through a genetic bottleneck at domestication. Due to the founder effect, they typically show a fraction of the genetic diversity found in their wild relatives. Which is bad, but fixable: fixing it is the plant breeder’s job — or part of it anyway. What’s less well known, according [...]... Read more »
Erskine, W., Sarker, A., & Ashraf, M. (2010) Reconstructing an ancient bottleneck of the movement of the lentil (Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris) into South Asia. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. DOI: 10.1007/s10722-010-9582-4
Christopher Taylor over at Catalogue of Organisms has a nice post on agglutinated Saccamminid foraminifera, and very recently wrote on the taxonomy and morphology of Pelosina, Pilulina and Technitella, wherein he brought up a fascinating paper on one hell of a bizarre foram: the 'spicule tree', initally mistaken for a gorgonian (sea fan). I'm going to leech off his find as he didn't specifically mention this tree foram in his post. Also, he mentioned Komokians before I did. Meanie. In all seriousness, go read his posts. For the phylogenetically inclined protistologists, the Komokian post is good food for thought.I'm going to slack off a bit this time. For an overview of the huge clade of awesome that is Foraminifera, see my earlier post here; for another tree foram, see Notodendrodes here.Foraminiferans are amazing creatures: some of them can be best described as giant cannibalistic carnivorous wads of sticky reticulated pseudopodia, capable of snaring and devouring small metazoans and Volvox colonies. They have the fastest microtubule growth rates in the eukaryotic kingdom - a whole two orders of magnitude greater than those of animals at a stunning 12µm/s! (animal cells grow microtubules at around 1-15µm/min.) (Bowser & Travis 2002 J Foram Res) Their pseudopodia are themselves capable of shearing flesh in a process so unique it deserved its own name: 'skyllocytosis' (Bowser 1985 J Protozool). Do not screw around with forams. They are scary.Most of them also have shells, but that's a story for some other day. Well, many stories, for many days. Forams are a huge and diverse group.The following specimen belongs to Astrorhizidae, a group of agglutinating forams - meaning their tests are composed of material from the environment, often very selectively picked. As implied by its name, the spicule tree, or Spiculidendron, composes its test entirely out of sponge spicules. Furthermore, this contraption reaches a stunning 60mm (6cm) in height, as a single-celled organism!Plant, animal or protist? A foram tree to shame all foram trees. A giant spicule-covered monster from the Caribbean tropics. (Rützler & Richardson 1996 Biologie)The paper mentions difficulties in determining whether the spicule tree bears a single nucleus or is coenocytic. Presumably, if it was that hard to find (though they had few specimens to work with), it may well be uninucleate like Notodendrodes. This would be quite cool as 6cm is one hell of a giant cell to be supported by a single nucleus. The cytoplasm also contains symbiotic dinoflagellates, making this tree foram even more like an actual tree.Note that this strange monster of a foram was only described in 1996. The age of exploration is far from over.ReferencesRützler, K., & Richardson, S. (1996). The Caribbean spicule tree: a sponge-imitating foraminifer (Astrorhizidae) Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique 66 (Suppl.), 143-151Bowser, S. (2002). RETICULOPODIA: STRUCTURAL AND BEHAVIORAL BASIS FOR THE SUPRAGENERIC PLACEMENT OF GRANULORETICULOSAN PROTISTS The Journal of Foraminiferal Research, 32 (4), 440-447 DOI: 10.2113/0320440BOWSER, S. (1985). Invasive Activity of Allogromia Pseudopodial Networks: Skyllocytosis of a Gelatin/Agar Gel The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 32 (1), 9-12 DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1985.tb03005.x... Read more »
Rützler, K., & Richardson, S. (1996) The Caribbean spicule tree: a sponge-imitating foraminifer (Astrorhizidae). Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique 66 (Suppl.), 143-151. info:/
Bowser, S. (2002) RETICULOPODIA: STRUCTURAL AND BEHAVIORAL BASIS FOR THE SUPRAGENERIC PLACEMENT OF GRANULORETICULOSAN PROTISTS. The Journal of Foraminiferal Research, 32(4), 440-447. DOI: 10.2113/0320440
BOWSER, S. (1985) Invasive Activity of Allogromia Pseudopodial Networks: Skyllocytosis of a Gelatin/Agar Gel. The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 32(1), 9-12. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1985.tb03005.x
A really interesting idea that seems to be growing in popularity is the concept of fluid-based biomarkers from blood, urine, saliva etc, as opposed to invasive tumour biopsies. A recent paper in Cancer Research took a look at this novel...... Read more »
Martin, K., Fournier, M., Reddy, G., & Pardee, A. (2010) A Need for Basic Research on Fluid-Based Early Detection Biomarkers. Cancer Research, 70(13), 5203-5206. DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-10-0987
Marmorkrebs are difficult beasts. As I’ve mentioned before, there is no species name for them yet, partly because of how people define species. At the practical level, most crayfish are identified by the sex organs of the males (which Marmorkrebs don’t have). At the conceptual level, many people define species by interbreeding populations (which parthenogenetic organisms don’t do).
Birky and colleagues recently proposed a way to define species for parthenogenetic organisms. As near as I can understand it, their argument runs like this.
First, they’re going to define species using DNA. They just think morphology is too subtle and too prone to mislead.
Second, the criteria that they’re going to use to separate species is going to revolve around two key concepts: genetic drift and adaptation to a niche.
For any organism, even parthenogenetic clones like Marmorkrebs, there is a certain probability that mutations will occur each generation. Even when there is no selection pressure for that mutation, the frequency of the mutation in the population will change just due to chance over time, even becoming fixed or eliminated. That’s genetic drift.
Birky and company define a species as a group of organisms that show genetic changes that are too large to be accounted for by drift alone. They argue that this is indicative of a population that has undergone adaptation to a specific ecological niche.
The details of their proposal involve a fair amount of math, which, for the purposes of writing a blog post, I didn’t feel the need to become intimately acquainted with. At first glance, however, this approach seems generally fruitful. They apply their methods to six different asexual groups, and seem to make some headway on defining them. I think they could also apply their approach to sorting defining an asexual species that is derived from sexual ancestors, although they don’t discuss this.
Some potential glitches in their approach are that they effectively rule out the possibility that two species could be created by drift alone, which I think many evolutionary biologist would be uncomfortable with. They also mention briefly the idea of “higher taxa,” but how to define those higher taxa was not laid out nearly as clearly as for species.
But they do provide hope that Marmorkrebs, and many other asexuals, can get recognized as species, as they should be, in my opinion.
(Note: I wrote most of this before learning that there is a paper coming out that should shed some new light on the identity of Marmorkrebs. Stay tuned!)
Birky C, Adams J, Gemmel M, & Perry J. 2010. Using population genetic theory and DNA sequences for species detection and identification in asexual organisms PLoS ONE 5(5): e10609. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010609... Read more »
Birky C, Adams J, Gemmel M, & Perry J. (2010) Using population genetic theory and DNA sequences for species detection and identification in asexual organisms. PLoS ONE, 5(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010609
In an experiment originally intended to be a control, the Lahav lab has identified a previously unsuspected feature of the p53 response. It turns out that p53 is being activated in normal growing cells all the time. Because the cell cycle of cells in culture is unsynchronized, this activation can only be seen by looking at single cells. Since p53 may be the most studied protein on the planet, discovering something completely new and unexpected about its activities isn’t an everyday event.... Read more »
Loewer, A., Batchelor, E., Gaglia, G., & Lahav, G. (2010) Basal Dynamics of p53 Reveal Transcriptionally Attenuated Pulses in Cycling Cells. Cell, 142(1), 89-100. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2010.05.031
Back at the day job, we are often asked by journalists and others how many different types, or varieties, of this or that crop there are in a country, or indeed the world. And, with help from our friendly crop experts, we have tried to provide answers. But it is as well to remind ourselves [...]... Read more »
Oupkaew, P., Pusadee, T., Sirabanchongkran, A., Rerkasem, K., Jamjod, S., & Rerkasem, B. (2010) Complexity and adaptability of a traditional agricultural system: case study of a gall midge resistant rice landrace from northern Thailand. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. DOI: 10.1007/s10722-010-9579-z
I've heard the assertion that octopuses have short- and long-term memories several times in the past few days, mostly in discussions of the ethics of eating octopuses prompted by ethical questions raised about Paul, the famous German octopod. It's interesting to me what these people don't say - that they think that having a multiphasic memory process makes octopuses worth not eating (because, well, people have multiphasic memories, and you wouldn't eat them, would you?!? Sicko.) While I don't think that memory capacity of an animal is associated in an uncomplicated way with its ability to suffer or its moral status, it seems to me like a nonetheless interesting question. I'm almost sure that most of the people who use (read: copy and paste) this bit of information to support their beliefs have very little idea of what sort of research is behind it. Let's face it: developing a working knowledge of behavioral research on cephalopods is something that just isn't on most of the public's mind. In fact, until I began writing this blog, I had very little knowledge of the subject. I plan to set the record straight, so that internet users need never make an unfounded or unqualified statement about memory processes in cephalopods again (a lofty goal, huh?) If you don't know octopus neuroanatomy very well (and who does?) you might want to check out the figures in this post. I'll be talking about the vertical and superior frontal lobes of the octopus brain, and I know it sometimes helps to be able to visualize things like that when you're reading about them. Just so that it's clear: the term "biphasic memory" means that the memory system in question has two discrete parts or processes (ie. short-term and long-term memory.) A monophasic memory would have only one process, so that memories would last for a certain amount of time and then fade similarly in all circumstances. A multiphasic memory system (which could be biphasic, triphasic, or more) is a general term to describe memory systems that are clearly more than monophasic, but are not completely characterized yet - and no memory system is. Now, on to the research! J. Z. Young, that demigod of cephalopod neurobehavioral research, published one of the few papers I could find on this topic back in 1970, following up on his earlier work on the subject. In it, he investigated the development of short and long term memory in O. vulgaris (I assume - he doesn't actually mention what species he uses in this paper, but he almost always used O. vulgaris) as well as the role of two brain areas in memory, the median superior frontal lobe (MSF) and the vertical lobe (VL). To do so, he performed surgeries to remove one of these two areas of octopuses' brains and put them through a learning task. In this task, octopuses were trained to either attack a rectangle (rewarded with a piece of fish) or withhold attacking a crab (which was punished with electric shock.) It turned out that octopuses whose vertical lobes had been removed were greatly impaired in learning to attack the rectangle. Young explains this by claiming that the vertical lobe is involved in short-term memory, and that the acquisition of stable behavior day-to-day was impaired because the animals without vertical lobes could not remember events long enough for the training to be effective. The animals without median superior frontal lobes, however, learned the task just fine, but were impaired in their long-term retention of it., suggesting that the MSF lobe might have some role in retaining learned information. Interestingly, Young also found (in other experiments) that removing the vertical lobe after a task was learned resulted in a greater retention of the task. These results suggest that the vertical lobe plays a role in the updating of memory stores, but is not absolutely essential for the recall of memories. His results from the attack-withholding task were less clear, but they suggest that animals with lesions, especially those with vertical lobe lesions, were less consistent than intact animals in learning not to attack a crab after being shocked each time they attacked it. Basically, Young argues (on the basis of this and some of his other experiments) that octopuses have a memory system that can be disrupted in more than one way; that is, it is possible to dissociate memory acquisition from long term retention, just like in vertebrates. For the most part, more current research has agreed with his position, as we'll see in this next paper. Moving forward (past a lot of great research that I'll skip over for the sake of brevity) to 2008, Shomrat et al. used electrophysiological methods to test this hypothesis. Before we get into their methods, let's look a bit more closely at the system that we are talking about (this figure is from Shomrat et al. (2008)): On the left is a sagittal slice of the supraoesophageal (over-the-oesophagus) mass of the octopus brain. On the right is a diagram of the memory system in question. Sensory information flows into the MSF from the arms and eyes before being sent along to the VL. The VL neurons in turn send out information encoding attack. It's been established that long-term potentiation (LTP) can occur in this area of the octopus brain, and this is a likely mechanism for the formation of memories in octopus (I blogged about this here - check it out if you need a little more background.) The authors' procedure went as so: O. vulgaris who had already been trained to attack a white ball either had their MSF tract cut (at the dashed line in each image,) severing the sensory input to the vertical lobe, or this tract was stimulated, causing LTP at the synapses indicated in the figure. Shortly after the procedure, the animals were trained to avoid a red ball through electric shock. It was found that animals with severed MSF tracts were slower than controls to learn to withhold attack, while animals in whom LTP was induced were quicker. This is all well and good - it confirms what we already thought about the role of the vertical lobe in acquiring memories in the octopus. The really important result from this paper came when the authors tested the octopuses a day later. It was found that both MSF tract transection and LTP induction impaired recall after 24 hours. So even though stimulation of the MSF tract improved short-term memory (presumably by hyper-activating the memory system in the vertical lobe,) it impaired long-term memory. This suggests that these two processes are not identical; that is, that octopuses have discrete and dissociable short- and long-term memory circuits. This general finding has been replicated in cuttlefish (see my post on cuttlefish memory) and nautiluses (Crook and Basil, 2008). Unfortunately, that's just about all that we know at this point: that cephalopods appear to have biphasic memories, meaning that the behavioral evidence of short-term memories can be dissociated from that of long-term memories. This is hardly (by itself) a basis on which we can imply any sort of consciousness or advanced cognitive capacity, as animal-rights supporters who mention this fact seem to imply. In interpreting these results in the context of our knowledge of cephalopods as a whole, we should keep in mind what is meant by short- and long-term memory in humans. Short-term memory is what happens when newly learned information is bouncing around the cortex somewhere, being continually processed but not permanently encoded somewhere. These memories will disappear if they are not rehearsed (or otherwise actively retained). Long-term memory has been (relatively permanently) encoded into neural circuits, so that it can be retrieved after periods when it has not been actively processed in short-term (or working) memory circuits. These processes have been studied intensely in humans, and can be precisely because we have a complex cognitive system build around them (or on top of or parallel to them, depending on who you ask) that we can access. As of yet, we don't have the experimental techniques to assess exactly how "human-like" or "vertebrate-like" cephalopod memory systems are, because we can't study them in nearly as much detail as language-based and other cognitive tasks allow us to in humans. Thus, making any strong conclusions about the nature of cephalopod memory other than that it appears ... Read more »
SHOMRAT, T., ZARRELLA, I., FIORITO, G., & HOCHNER, B. (2008) The Octopus Vertical Lobe Modulates Short-Term Learning Rate and Uses LTP to Acquire Long-Term Memory. Current Biology, 18(5), 337-342. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.01.056
J. Z. Young. (1970) SHORT AND LONG MEMORIES IN OCTOPUS AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE VERTICAL LOBE SYSTEM. Journal of Experimental Biology, 385-393. info:/
Crook, R., & Basil, J. (2008) A biphasic memory curve in the chambered nautilus, Nautilus pompilius L. (Cephalopoda: Nautiloidea). Journal of Experimental Biology, 211(12), 1992-1998. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.018531
I recently took part in what social scientists call a “vacancy chain” (a social structure through which vacancies in discrete, reusable, and limited resources propagate through a population) and all I needed was a moving truck, a few helpful relatives, a case of beer and a few pizzas. You see, when my girlfriend and I [...]... Read more »
Rotjan, R., Chabot, J., & Lewis, S. (2010) Social context of shell acquisition in Coenobita clypeatus hermit crabs. Behavioral Ecology, 21(3), 639-646. DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arq027
I just came back from SMBE2010, where I presented a poster about our recombination detection software and had the chance to see awesome research other people are doing. The poster can be downloaded here (1.MB in pdf format) and I’m distributing it under the Creative Commons License. Given the great feedback I got from other [...]... Read more »
de Oliveira Martins, L., Leal, É., & Kishino, H. (2008) Phylogenetic Detection of Recombination with a Bayesian Prior on the Distance between Trees. PLoS ONE, 3(7). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002651
Oliveira Martins, L., & Kishino, H. (2009) Distribution of distances between topologies and its effect on detection of phylogenetic recombination. Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, 62(1), 145-159. DOI: 10.1007/s10463-009-0259-8
On top of a log pile under a shelf in the garden lives a large female Tegenaria. She has a large funnel shaped sheet web with a deep retreat. Every time I water the plants nearby - something I've had to do a few times in the last few weeks due to the dry weather - she jumps out of her retreat to the front to the web, only to find that there is no prey, just some water dropplets, and then she rapidly hides again. Today, I got my camera on one hand and a watering can on the other and managed to get a few close ups of the spider, which dutifully posed for me for quite a long time after being prompted by the watering. I also photographed her funnel and when I looked closely into the photo I could clearly see two tiny spiders on it.The female Tegenaria at the front of the webTwo spiderlings at the top of the funnel (click on the image for full resolution)Many female spiders display maternal behaviour, the most basic version consists on wrapping their egg clutches in a silky cocoon which protects the eggs from predation and adverse environmental conditions and shelters the spiderlings during their first moult. Some spiders go further than that, for example wolf spiders carry their egg sacs and spiderlings on their abdomen for a while. Tegenaria - the usual bath spider - has a different kind of maternal behaviour: the females, usually agressive and predacious towards prey entering the web, in contrast 'accept' the spiderlings on their webs for about three weeks after hatching, often longer, until these disperse. The tolerance behaviour turns into cannibalism as the spiderlings grow, but by then most of her offspring would have dispersed. Mated females lay several egg clutches in the spring - the offspring of the previous autumn males.Females in all reproductive states - even virgin females - tolerate newborn spiderlings on their sheets, but females which are at the reproductive state when they have spiderlings are the most tolerant of all. Females rapidly approach foreign spiderlings placed on their webs but after touching them with their first legs and palps leave them alone, while they often attack and eat crickets of the same weight. The female's behavioural changes towards older spiderlings have probably to do with chemical changes in the spiderlings cuticles. Even if it seems like a very simple form of maternal behaviour, the fact that the spiderlings are able to remain on their mothers web for a few weeks is likely to dramatically reduce their chances to fall prey to predators.More informationPourie, G., and Trabalon, M. (1999). Agonistic behaviour of female Tegenaria atrica in the presence of different aged spiderlings Physiological Entomology, 24 (2), 143-149 DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-3032.1999.00124.x... Read more »
Pourie, G., & Trabalon, M. (1999) Agonistic behaviour of female Tegenaria atrica in the presence of different aged spiderlings. Physiological Entomology, 24(2), 143-149. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-3032.1999.00124.x
New York City’s major airport is buzzing with traffic – and it’s not just airliners.
Grasslands at the John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport are teeming with insect life, a new survey finds, suggesting that even one of the world’s busiest airports can be an important refuge for urban wildlife.
Using nets and a leafblower […] Read More »... Read more »
Kutschbach-Brohl, L., Washburn, B., Bernhardt, G., Chipman, R., & Francoeur, L. (2010) Arthropods of a semi-natural grassland in an urban environment: the John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York. Journal of Insect Conservation, 14(4), 347-358. DOI: 10.1007/s10841-010-9264-8
Molecular differences between vodka brands might confirm what vodka drinkers have long suspected.... Read more »
Hu, N., Wu, D., Cross, K., Burikov, S., Dolenko, T., Patsaeva, S., & Schaefer, D. (2010) Structurability: A Collective Measure of the Structural Differences in Vodkas. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 58(12), 7394-7401. DOI: 10.1021/jf100609c
by Kim Lewis in Small Things Considered
The majority of bacteria will not grow on nutrient medium in the lab. The basic experiment is simple: take a sample from the environment, such as marine sediment or soil, mix with water, vortex, allow it to settle, dilute supernatant and take two droplets. Plate one on a Petri dish...... Read more »
D'Onofrio A, Crawford JM, Stewart EJ, Witt K, Gavrish E, Epstein S, Clardy J, & Lewis K. (2010) Siderophores from neighboring organisms promote the growth of uncultured bacteria. Chemistry , 17(3), 254-64. PMID: 20338517
Last month, we discussed the garage doors of the body’s ion channels, the millions of microscopic machines that control the heart’s beat and the nervous system’s communication. Benoît Roux and his colleagues employed 25 million computational hours to model the potassium channel voltage sensor, a kind of garage door control box that determines when the [...]... Read more »
Cuello LG, Jogini V, Cortes DM, Pan AC, Gagnon DG, Dalmas O, Cordero-Morales JF, Chakrapani S, Roux B, & Perozo E. (2010) Structural basis for the coupling between activation and inactivation gates in K( ) channels. Nature, 466(7303), 272-5. PMID: 20613845
Cuello LG, Jogini V, Cortes DM, & Perozo E. (2010) Structural mechanism of C-type inactivation in K( ) channels. Nature, 466(7303), 203-8. PMID: 20613835
The short of it...
Creationists often put physicians on a pedestal as the scientists doing the real work in biology, useful work of improving human health and well-being as opposed to the pontificating, abstract work of the evolutionists. But, can we really understand human aliments outside of the light of evolution? Well worn examples of antibiotic resistance vividly illustrate the folly of ignoring evolutionary processes in medicine. Cancer however is another example of evolution in action. Tomislav Domazet-Loso and Diethard Tautz of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in the journal BMC Biology used a technique called phylostratigraphy to trace the origin of the genes associated with cancer to the origins of the cell and the first multicellular animals. The evolution of the first multicellular organisms necessitated a fine balance between the reproduction of individual cells and the evolutionary interests of the multicellular organism. The role of genes involved in cancer is to keep the peace and limit the ability of particular cells to go rogue, curtailing the reproductive success of individual cells in favor of the group. Understanding the evolutionary origin of these ancient genes sheds light on why we get cancer and can light the way to new treatments.... Read more »
Domazet-Lošo, T., & Tautz, D. (2010) Phylostratigraphic tracking of cancer genes suggests a link to the emergence of multicellularity in metazoa. BMC Biology, 8(1), 66. DOI: 10.1186/1741-7007-8-66
Queller, D. (2003) Single-Gene Greenbeard Effects in the Social Amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Science, 299(5603), 105-106. DOI: 10.1126/science.1077742
Velicer, G., Kroos, L., & Lenski, R. (2000) Developmental cheating in the social bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. Nature, 404(6778), 598-601. DOI: 10.1038/35007066
As iGEM season is now properly underway, I thought I'd have a look at a synthetic biology paper and found this fairly awesome one about programming bacteria to hunt out and destroy atrazine, a chemical herbicide pollutant. One of the most exciting things about this work was that it didn't just involve bacteria with the ability to remove atrazine from the environment but to actively migrate towards the chemical and then destroy it.The chemical structure of atrazineThe bacteria are controlled using riboswitches - little RNA pieces that can bind directly to a ligand (or signal molecule) and cause a change in gene expression, changes which can include switching on or off the genes involved in cell movement. Atrazine is a good molecule to start with because as well as being a relevant pollutant it also contains plenty of N-H bonds which are good for forming hydrogen-bond interactions with RNA. As well as that it has a well-characterized breakdown pathway, all components of which have been expressed successfully in E. coli.The first stage in creating these seek and destroy bacteria was finding RNA sequences that would bind to atrazine. This was done by attaching the atrazine to a solid support and running bits of RNA past it, to see which ones would bind. They then took these successful binders and tested for riboswitch activity, i.e whether the binding to atrazine caused a conformational change in the RNA that lead to the turning on of a gene. They did this by putting a sequence complimentary to the isolated RNA upstream of the DNA for the CheZ gene, which controls motility in E. coli and then carrying out the selection process shown below:In the absence of atrazine the CheZ is not synthesized and the bacteria stay where they are. When atrazine is added to the plate, the bacteria start to move...Dose-dependent assays were then done on the successful RNA sequences, to characterise the reaction and check that it actually was the atrazine levels that lead to movement rather than some other confounding factor. Sequencing and examination of the binding site also helped to characterize the riboswitch and determine how it was working. The genes for atrazine-consuming ability were then added to the bacteria that moved towards the atrazine, leading to a little search-and destroy module capable of seeking out a dangerous pollutant and removing it from the environment.---Sinha J, Reyes SJ, & Gallivan JP (2010). Reprogramming bacteria to seek and destroy an herbicide. Nature chemical biology, 6 (6), 464-70 PMID: 20453864---Follow me on Twitter!... Read more »
Sinha J, Reyes SJ, & Gallivan JP. (2010) Reprogramming bacteria to seek and destroy an herbicide. Nature chemical biology, 6(6), 464-70. PMID: 20453864
GPCRs are extremely important proteins both for pure and applied science research, but they are also very difficult to crystallize and hence structural information on them has been sparse. Naturally in such a case, computational modeling can be expected to be of great value of providing insight into GPCR structure and function. However, even though progress has been impressive, such modeling still has to overcome many challenges. A recent review lists some of them.Firstly, in the absence of crystal structure, homology modeling wherein a sequence for an unknown structure is 'threaded' through that of a known one is well-established as a valuable technique. However the technique is tricky. First and foremost one has to get the right sequence alignment between the target and the template. As the article notes, recent studies have suggested that using multiple structures for alignment instead of a single one provides better results. Particularly noteworthy is this detailed study. Once a homology model has been obtained, it must be meticulously examined, both for internal consistency (bad contacts, incorrect hydrogen bonding interactions etc.) and for its agreement with experiment. Data from cross-linking studies and mutagenesis can be used to achieve this. A recent promising development has been termed 'ligand-supported homology modeling'. In this process, topographical protein-ligand interaction data from mutagenesis and other studies is used to limit the number of homology models. Such data-driven homology modeling is becoming increasingly popular.Once a good homology model has been obtained, many things can be done with it. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations provide a very valuable avenue for exploring protein motion and be used to detect structural features not obvious in static models. A recent MD simulation of the beta-adrenergic receptor helped to resolve discrepancies between biochemical and structural observations. MD simulations can be used to investigate protein dynamics and to refine the models. Several challenges present themselves during this procedure. Firstly, while helices in GPCRs can be well-modeled, loops (of which there are six- three intracellular and three extracellular) are much harder to model because of their higher flexibility and because they are often ill-resolved in crystal structures. Unfortunately, it's these loops which are important ligand-interacting elements, so getting them right is key. Recently developed algorithms for loop-refinement based on either first-principles energy minimization or by statistical modeling based on a database of known loop conformations have been used in getting loops right. Also, state-of-the-art long MD simulations spanning several microseconds can be used to model large-scale structural changes in GPCRs.There are still immense challenges still to be overcome in understanding GPCRs. One of the biggest concerns the cycling between several inactive and active states (and not just one active and one inactive state) that present often conflicting features that can be subject to varying interpretation. For instance, for class A GPCRs (which is the largest class), it has been well-established that activated states involve the breakage of the "ionic lock", a salt bridge between arginines and glutamates on transmembrane helices 6 and 3. Breaking this lock allows TM6 to shift away from TM3 and towards TM5, a hallmark of GPCR activation. Yet the MD study on the beta2 cited above indicated that even an inactive state may feature breakage of this lock.In the GPCR jungle, strange shape-shifting creatures appear and clutch gems of insight in their palms. It is only fitting that we throw the kitchen sink at them to unravel their secrets, and computational techniques can only be a valuable arrow in this quiver.Yarnitzky T, Levit A, & Niv MY (2010). Homology modeling of G-protein-coupled receptors with X-ray structures on the rise. Current opinion in drug discovery & development, 13 (3), 317-25 PMID: 20443165... Read more »
Yarnitzky T, Levit A, & Niv MY. (2010) Homology modeling of G-protein-coupled receptors with X-ray structures on the rise. Current opinion in drug discovery , 13(3), 317-25. PMID: 20443165
I recently read a very interesting point/counterpoint on the use of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ in physiological research from last month’s AJP:RICP. In Point: a call for proper usage of “gender” and “sex” in biomedical publications, King points out that sex and gender are often used interchangeably when the variable involved is very clearly sex and [...]... Read more »
King, B. (2010) Point: a call for proper usage of "gender" and "sex" in biomedical publications. AJP: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 298(6). DOI: 10.1152/ajpregu.00694.2009
Geary, N. (2010) Counterpoint: physiologists should not distinguish "sex" and "gender". AJP: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 298(6). DOI: 10.1152/ajpregu.00113.2010
Victoria Braithwaite’s Do Fish Feel Pain? is not a technical book. The type is large and the prose is easy to understand.
I had to read this book, because many of the issues around fish pain are the same as those raised for invertebrate pain (Puri and Faulkes 2010; this post). Fish researchers are about five years ahead of the invertebrate researchers.
Braithwaite’s answer to the question posed in her title is...
Spoiler alert! Click the heading of the post to read more.
Her arguments will probably not convince everyone, however.
For Braithwaite, a defining aspect of pain is that pain is a conscious experience. She repeatedly distinguishes pain from nociception on the grounds that nociception is unconscious and reflexive. Her views on these definitions seem idiosyncratic. My impression is that for many researchers, nociception is a description of a behavioural response, with nothing said about consciousness one way or the other.
By recasting that the question of whether fish feel pain into the question of whether fish are conscious, Braithwaite’s arguments become harder to assail, but lose some of their force. Consciousness is a very tricky subject. We don’t have a good scientific theory of human consciousness, let alone animal consciousness.
Given her definition, a large chunk of her book is aimed at proving fish have consciousness; that they are, as she puts it“sentient beings.” For the last bit of evidence she needs to say fish are conscious, sentient beings, Braithwaite draws almost exclusively on one example of cooperative hunting that can occur between individuals in two species, groupers and moray eels. (Irritatingly, this key reference is nowhere to be found in the bibliography! It’s Bshary et al. 2006.)
Now, I realize that a single exciting, detailed story is more compelling than a compilation of statistics. Braithwaite may have chosen to use just a few case studies because this is a popular book. But a lot hinges on those specific examples. And she never says, “This is just one example, but there are loads more I could describe.”
She follows up her chapter on fish consciousness up with a chapter arguing that there is not yet evidence for consciousness in invertebrates. She focuses on the evidence for cephalopods and crustaceans, and I can’t help but wonder if her choices of examples are influenced by those two groups being lumped together with fishes as “seafood.” The strongest evidence of invertebrate nociception there is right now (Tracy et al. 2003) is nowhere to be seen. Similarly, I wonder if Braithwaite considered Portia spiders for evidence of complex cognition in an invertebrate (Wilcox and Jackson 1998). They are very clever wee beasties.
It is a little worrying that the spectacular diversity of fishes and invertebrates doesn’t seem to factor into the argument. If one fish can do it, they must all be able to do it, it seems. The notion that perhaps some fish species might experience pain more than others is never entertained. Again, there’s no way to tell if she just left this out because she wanted to have the broadest appeal or for some other reason.
The book ends with an exploration of applying animal welfare standards more strongly to fishes, and you get the sense that this is what matters most to Braithwaite. She talks about fish harvesting, aquaculture, angling, and more. Considering how degraded so many wild fisheries have become, I do hope that this book gets people to take stock of the way they harvest and use fish.
Another review is here (paywall).
Bshary, R., Hohner, A., Ait-el-Djoudi, K., & Fricke, H. (2006). Interspecific communicative and coordinated hunting between groupers and giant moray eels in the Red Sea PLoS Biology, 4 (12) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040431
Brathwaite V. 2010. Do fish feel pain? Oxford University Press: Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-955120-0
Puri S, Faulkes Z. 2010. Do decapods crustaceans have nociceptors for extreme pH? PLoS ONE 5(4): e10244. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010244
Tracey Jr., W., Wilson, R., Laurent, G., & Benzer, S. 2003. painless, a Drosophila gene essential for nociception Cell 113(2): 261-273. DOI: 10.1016/S0092-8674(03)00272-1
Wilcox RS & Jackson RR. 1998. Cognitive abilities of araneophagic jumping spiders. In: Animal cognition in nature: 411-434. Balda RP, Pepperberg IM, Kamil AC (eds). San Diego: Academic Press.
Photo by anikaviro on Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons license.... Read more »
Bshary, R., Hohner, A., Ait-el-Djoudi, K., & Fricke, H. (2006) Interspecific communicative and coordinated hunting between groupers and giant moray eels in the Red Sea. PLoS Biology, 4(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040431
Brathwaite V. (2010) Do fish feel pain?. Oxford University Press, 1-194. info:/978-0-19-955120-0
Tracey Jr., W., Wilson, R., Laurent, G., & Benzer, S. (2003) painless, a Drosophila gene essential for nociception. Cell, 113(2), 261-273. DOI: 10.1016/S0092-8674(03)00272-1
Do you write about peer-reviewed research in your blog? Use ResearchBlogging.org to make it easy for your readers — and others from around the world — to find your serious posts about academic research.
If you don't have a blog, you can still use our site to learn about fascinating developments in cutting-edge research from around the world.
Research Blogging is powered by SMG Technology.
To learn more, visit seedmediagroup.com.


text:
Beloved War Veteran Commits Suicide
A Chronicle of Echoes
Dennis Kucinich: President Obama Has Trapped Himself With Bad Decisions
Truthdigger of the Week: Naomi Klein
Domestic Violence Kills More People Than War and It's Not Just the NFL at Fault; It's Police Too
sign up to get updates
By Zachary Karabell 17.79
By Orville Schell, Michael Massing $9.95
Without a smidgen of irony, reigning Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela called her visit to Guantanamo Bay last week “a loooot of fun,” making it quite a shame that the prison camp will likely be closed by early next year.
View the most popular tags overall?

domain: news


text:
After Katrina, police sergeant Terence McDonagh rescues a prisoner, hurts his back in the process and earns a promotion to lieutenant plus an addiction to cocaine and painkillers. Six months later, a family is murdered over drugs; Terence runs the investigation. His drug-using prostitute girlfriend, his alcoholic father's dog, run-ins with two old women and a well-connected john, gambling losses, a nervous young witness, and thefts of police property put Terence's job and then his life in danger. He starts seeing things. He wants a big score to get out from under mounting debts, so he joins forces with drug dealers. The murders remain unsolved. A bad lieutenant gets worse. Written by
When McGonagh blackmails football player Renaldo, Terrence dangles his handcuffs from his finger with the bottom cuff unshackled. Moments later, when the shot returns to Terrence, the bottom cuff is shackled. See more »
[to the pharmacist about his prescription]
Excuse me, could ya tell me how much longer that's gonna be?
HELLO, MISS! I'm a lieutenant in the police department! I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF A HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION! CAN I GET MY PRESCRIPTION, PLEASE?
Do you see I'm on the phone?
[McDonagh runs behind the counter]
Hey, hey... You can't come back here!
YOU GOT ME WAITING THIRTY MINUTES TO MAKE A FUCKING PERSONAL PHONE CALL!
See more »
Herzog's popularity, and some might say his entire career, came from his long partnership with the incomparable firestorm of an actor Klaus Kinski. In Herzog's own words, their "joint derangement must have converged to create great art". Whether Herzog was referring to Kinski's explosive fury on screen or something more insidious such as the real life allegations that Kinski sexually molested his daughter from age 5 to 19, we don't know. My point is that Herzog had the ability to draw on Kinski's madness & evil to create some very memorable films about precisely that: madness & evil ("Aguirre", "Fitzcarraldo", "Nosferatu"). After Kinski died, Herzog's films were considerably less explosive although he still pushed those dark themes.
Here in "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans", once again we get the familiar themes of madness and depravity, and although it doesn't quite strike that horrifying Kinski vein, it has moments of brilliance thanks to an excellent acting job by Nicolas Cage.
We also get, at the core, a well-written story by William Finkelstein who wrote extensively for gritty TV crime dramas like "NYPD Blue", "Law & Order" and "L.A. Law".
It's the story of a rogue New Orleans cop who is investigating a series of murders while he himself flirts with depravity as he battles with drug-related issues and moral degradation. What's important to note is the familiar Herzoggian theme of madness and the thrill of of evil on the human soul. Cage plays a detective who, on the surface, is a cool-tempered & intelligent hero, a likable guy really. But he begins to descend into depravity, and there are 1 or 2 moments of outright sickening behavior (such as falsely arresting, then having sex with a woman in exchange for letting her go). This is not a film for the morally faint of heart. It is intended to morally shock us, and that it does.
But what's interesting is the way Cage's portrayal remains heroic (the good guy), unlike Kinski's villainous portrayals (the monster). In the past, Herzog-Kinski films presented us with a vision of evil which thrilled us in a guilty way, as if we're passing a gory car wreck. Here we have the much more comfortable yet equally challenging perspective of watching a good guy who can't resist the thrill of depravity. So from a safer distance from evil, we can watch the story unfold.
I don't know if it's that subtle thematic difference, or simply the idea that Nicolas Cage is not an alleged incestuous child abuser, that made me enjoy this film in a lighter way. I should note that this film also carries much more humor and playful dark comedy than any of Herzog's other films I've seen. In the 2nd half of the film, Cage's frenetic portrayal of a coked-up, cracked-up drug fiend was done a comedic air... along with some hilarious surreal visuals & music (the break dancing scene had me laughing out loud).
Ultimately, we get a "morality tale" which is very gritty, very comic, very morally disturbing, and yet it doesn't leave us with a sick feeling like certain other films which explore the evil nature of human beings. In fact, with the exception of the disturbing sexual bribe scene, "Bad Lieutenant" could almost be watched as a dark comedy from start to finish. It's a different approach for Herzog, one which would be great to see him explore in the future.
Final note worth mentioning, since Herzog's early films were notorious for having real animal abuse/killing that may disturb some viewers: Yes, there is a scene of a dead alligator with her guts spilled out, and yes it is real. But according to the DVD extras, the alligator carcass was purchased from (presumably) New Orleans animal control because it was a "nuisance alligator eating people's pets and stuff." I think there was an American Humane "no animals harmed" disclaimer at the end of the movie.
9 of 13 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?


text:
Mochi is a cake that surprises. Curiously nondescript in appearance, it has a gooey, slightly chewy texture that is similar to the tapioca balls used in bubble tea, but with a much sweeter taste. Biting into a piece feels a lot like sinking your teeth into pure gluten, or at least the rice flour equivalent.
If someone had told me in advance that I would fall head over heels in love with this culinary oddity, I might have scoffed. But fall in love I did, and I have eagerly sought out the unassumingly sugary flavor and gluey consistency of mochi ever since.
Although native to Japan, mochi is also popular in Hawaii, particularly in the form of “butter mochi.” A few degrees removed from the bean paste-filled versions of mochi sold overseas, butter mochi is the butter chicken of Japanese desserts, eminently Westerner-friendly in its simplicity. Easy to make—and even easier to devour—it’s a great study snack (or birthday cake for a gluten-free friend).
I was first introduced to butter mochi by Kira FitzGerald ’17, who hails from Honolulu. This past weekend, she baked two pans of butter mochi—both of which had to be carefully distributed so as not to be eaten immediately—to share with her Spring Dance group and hallmates in Clark. After coming back for seconds, then thirds, and finally shame-facedly for fourths and fifths, I realized I absolutely had to get my hands on her recipe.
I have yet to make butter mochi myself, but rest assured that a pan or two will be cooling in the Clark kitchen at some point soon. After all, if mochi can’t get me through reading week, what will?
1. Cream butter and sugar in mixing bowl.
2. Add the eggs, then the Mochiko/rice flour and baking powder.
3. To evaporated milk, add water to reach 2 cups of liquid.
4. Add this liquid and rest of ingredients into the mixing bowl. Stir well for a smooth batter.
5. Pour into lightly greased or sprayed 9 x 13 inch pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.
7. Cool and cut with a plastic knife.
1 16 OZ. box of mochiko (or any rice flour)
1/3 cup butter
2 1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 12 oz. can of evaporated milk
1 13.5 oz. can of coconut milk

domain: food


text: The fonds consists of a scrapbook with items pasted in. There are also some loose items. There are a few items that pre-date the war such as Bessie’s Girl Guide certificate and Ronald’s choir membership card, as well as his Orderly certificate. Most of the fonds consists of sports and entertainment programmes. The theatrical programmes were mainly issued by the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) under the director of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institute (NAAFI). There is also a service dedication and two photographs for the Church of St. Luke, 115 British General Hospital, and one group photograph including Bessie.

domain: history


text:
Ghost, one of the leading open-source online publishing platforms for creators, came under attack on May 3 causing an outage of service. The platform currently has over 750,000 subscribers and 2 million installations.
The dev team of the popular blogging platform got to work and identified that their servers have been hacked and are being illicitly used to mine cryptocurrencies.
Ghost confirmed the cyberattack on its servers saying hackers exploited vulnerabilities present in Salt, an infrastructure tool, to acquire access to Ghost.org billing services and Ghost websites. According to the development team:
“The mining attempt spiked CPUs and quickly overloaded most of our systems, which alerted us to the issue immediately.”
Ghost, which has a decorated list of high profile customers including NASA, DuckDuckGo, and Mozilla, said that customer data, credit card information, and subscriber credentials weren't compromised. In an attempt to limit the effects of the hack, Ghost introduced firewalls and security precautions in the meantime which caused temporary network instability.
As the situation developed, Ghost's dev team announced that they are working relentlessly to restore all the services and websites as soon as possible while taking every imaginable step to ensure customer data remains safe and secure. Although the dev team didn't find any evidence that hinted towards unauthorized access to their data or systems, all keys, passwords, and sessions were cycled while servers were re-provisioned to ensure robust security.
On May 4, Ghost announced through its status page that all traces of crypto-mining hacking attempt were successfully countered and eliminated. Moreover, they said that all systems are now in stable condition and they don't have any evidence or reason to believe that there are any further network issues or concerns.
"All traces of the crypto-mining virus were successfully eliminated yesterday, all systems remain stable, and we have not discovered any further concerns or issues on our network. The team is now working hard on remediation to clean and rebuild our entire network."
Now the development team is working on remediation to tidy up and reestablish the entire network while the status report will remain open until all issues are completely resolved. All customers will be notified by Ghost about this crypto-mining attempt to keep matters transparent.
Crypto-mining, also known as crypto-jacking, is on a steady rise and Ghost isn't the first victim as Digicert and LineageOS were also targeted by the hackers. Capital One, a Virginia based financial institution, also revealed that it became a victim of crypto-mining in July that exposed data of over 100 million customers.
Given the severity of the threat, the development team of Ghost was able to do an exceptional job to identify and subdue the attack in a matter of hours.


Acudor ED-2002 Flush Universal Economy Access Door 24" x 36" Prime Coated Steel
The Acudor ED-2002 flush access door is an economical and attractive access door for walls and ceilings. This quality product is ideally suited for apartments, condominiums, and office buildings. A concealed pivot hinge, rounded safety corners on the flange, and a grey baked enamel prime coat are all standard features of this access door. Additional features include a flush fit door panel with formed edges.
Rough Opening Should Be 3/8" Larger Than Order Size
Door Sizes Shown Are Width x Height


As eviction moratorium expires, Illinois residents get more options for rental assistance
MADISON — Illinois residents have another way to get rental and utility assistance, as the state’s moratorium on evictions ended Sunday.
The Illinois Department of Human Services is distributing additional help through faith-based organizations in underserved communities and those hit hardest by COVID-19.
“We’ve gotten clients that have applied six months ago for rental assistance and haven’t gotten anything,” said Yolanda Crochrell, executive director of the Quad City Community Development Center.
Faith-based organizations, like Crochrell’s, have established relationships with their local communities and can often reach those in need faster than some government institutions, she said. The state Department of Human Services indicated applications will have a turnaround time of 10 to 14 days, Crochrell said.
The interest in additional assistance has been overwhelming at times, she said.
“Our phone rings off the hook,” Crochrell said.
The development center in Madison started processing applications for assistance at the beginning of September and will continue doing so until June 2022, Crochrell said.
Eligible applicants must meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s low-income designation and provide valid identification, proof of employment before March 2020 and a rental receipt or lease agreement.
Crochrell said a single applicant can receive three months' back rent and three months forward up to $25,000 from Illinois. The money can also help with all utilities except for cable television.
The additional assistance coming to the Metro East will relieve some of the rental assistance burden on Madison County, Crochrell said.
“The county has started a waiting list,” she said. “I think we’re going to take over their waiting list and help some of those people as well.”
Illinois residents in need of assistance can call the Quad City Community Development Center to schedule an appointment at 618-876-4043.
Additional support for the community
The availability of additional rental and utility assistance coincides with other efforts of the Quad City Community Development Center to support residents in Madison and Venice, including a vaccination clinic.
The center also secured commercial washers and dryers with help from two Swansea Democratic state legislators, Rep. Jay Hoffman and Sen. Chris Belt, for families that don’t have access to reliable ones.
While it’s a relatively small addition to the center, Belt expressed how critical clean clothing can be for those in underserved communities, especially children.
“I understand how it negatively affects you going to school,” he said. “No one wants to be ridiculed and made fun of because their clothes aren’t clean.”
The needs of the Madison and Venice community are complex and require help from all parts of the state and local government, Crochrell said.
“This is an important time right now where people need help, and if we can step up and help, that’s what we thrive on,” she said.
Eric Schmid covers the Metro East for St. Louis Public Radio as part of the journalism grant program: Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project.


text:
"I just completed reading Bill and Pam Farrel's, Men Are Like Waffles—Women Are Like Spaghetti. I found myself laughing out loud at the illustrations and descriptions of the different ways men and women react to each other and the tasks involved in married life. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the Farrel's balanced sound research with amusing anecdotes and biblical reference's insight. I know I will be using this book often for marriage seminars and retreats and recommending it to couples to read on their own."
—Ronald E. Martin-Minnich, solider, airmen and family ministry
"Let Pam and Bill Farrel share their passion with you for helping men and women connect. Men Are Like Waffles—Women Are Like Spaghetti is a gourmet treat for all who want to find unity in their diversity."
—David and Claudia Arp, Authors of 10 Great Dates to Revitalize Your Marriage and The Second Half of Marriage
"A must read for those who want to make bad marriages good and good marriages better."
—Jill Briscoe, author of Prayer That Works
About the Author
They are the parents of 3 sons, ages 15 to 22, and have over 26 years experience in helping couples. Pam and Bill enjoy family time, reading, and exercising together . . . especially when it consists of a long walk at the beach. Find out more at www.farrelcommunications.com.

domain: literature


Download this fresh vdm free beat type produced by ThankG. Fresh VDM is one of the official Music and beat producers for Davido and DMW. He is popularly know for producing high quality and slick hip hop and R&B Beat Type. ThankG decided to provide us with this freebeat. Download and Enjoy Below.
Contact ThankG on whatsapp: +2349037607874 instagram: itz_thankg


text:
You can begin by testing our really helpful games, or use the filters available to search out precisely what you are looking for. You can filter by recreation class, sport provider, and/or game theme to slim your search and showcase just the specific game kind you wish. And when you have a particular sport title in mind, you probably can after all seek for it to play it instantly without having to flick thru the abundance of games supplied.
20 Bonus Spins on “Sahara Riches Cash Collect” and 100% Deposit Bonus up to £100 on first deposit. 30x wagering requirement for Bonus Spins and 30x wagering requirement for Deposit Bonus (game weighting applies). If you’re in search of games that are practical and beautiful, we advocate trying out the makers of Sunrise Reels – Realistic Games. Established in 2002, they have concentrated on creating quality content material games for online casinos ever since.
What Are The Slots That Have The Very Best Payout?
Magic Red has all themes coated for players looking for an enormous selection of the best on-line slots. With all the popular titles coming from top suppliers like NetEnt and Microgaming, there’s something right here to maintain everybody immersed and joyful. In addition, all games function excellent graphics and soundtracks. Additionally, all games are tested to make sure outcomes are truthful. The welcome bonus of 100 percent as much as £100 is pretty odd.
The former now figureheads the NetEnt brand, whilst Starburst is recognised as one of many go-to on-line slots for many bonus spins presents. Each wager on these slots contributes to a rising jackpot pool. The jackpot amount keeps growing till you hit the jackpot, after which it resets to a predetermined base degree. Some of the preferred progressive jackpot slots embody Mega Moolah, Mega Fortune, and Jackpot Giant, which have awarded tens of millions of pounds in prizes to fortunate gamers.
Check out our fantastic casino promotions or contact our 24/7 Casino Support Staff directly for additional particulars. Get started at present and be part of our common players from all all over the world. All online slots use one thing referred to as a Random Number Generator (RNG). RNG is https://eslots.info that’s used to create a quantity of random sequences in a fraction of a second to ensure that on-line slot machines play fairly and not in a set sample of outcomes. An RNG is crucial to all slot video games and the licensed casinos that use them as they ensure honest gaming. With the growing recognition of online casinos, casino video games corresponding to slots, roulette, and blackjack may be discovered in additional variations than ever earlier than.
Greatest On-line Casinos To Play Slots
The primary difference is in the money you have to make investments. The free slots give you the alternative to play all variety of games with out deposit, whereas real cash slots require depositing of funds to your account. The list of Germany online free slot websites is here to offer you the most effective free slot games.
Apart from that necessary truth, the free versions of games are normally very related or exactly the identical as the version you play with real money. This signifies that should you first start with a free version and later want to strive putting real cash bets, you will not all of a sudden meet a new algorithm or setup. If you are on the lookout for one of the best online South African on line casino Mansion to play slots, join our many pleased South African players and play at MansionCasino ZA.
It must be famous that they may have a win cap and often come with wagering requirements. We have listed the best online on line casino bonuses in this article. Discover the ultimate word destination for enjoying the most well-liked slots at top-notch online casinos. We have handpicked a choice of trusted and reputable on line casino sites that offer an intensive assortment of the most well liked and most sought-after slot video games. Speaking of bonus rounds, this is another common characteristic of on-line slot video games.
In this case, the casino would maintain £3 of every £100 guess on that particular slot. Read about some slot methods that will in all probability even assist you to increase your possibilities of winning. Another NetEnt creation, this all-time favorite has a staggering 99% RTP. The background and basic really feel is camp and fun, with potted palms and classic wallpaper added to the gaiety. Symbols include the classic cherries, bells and watermelons. The minimal bet is something from 1p to £2, so Mega Joker will swimsuit allcomers.
The higher this number, the higher chances you might have of successful. At CompareCasino we’re offering you a useful overview of one of the best online slot casinos. We have extensively tested the online casinos for the range of video games provided, bonuses, compliance, and consumer expertise. The only factor you, as a seasoned casino participant, can do to extend your slot odds is to play the right slots on the right online casinos.
Our video games are all from licensed, regulated providers that observe the strictest compliance protocols. What’s extra, you may find that the Betfair Casino site is secure and secure, with SSL encryption enabled all through. Volatility refers to how often a slot can pay out and the way huge the payout can be.
Of course, what makes the best slot video games is not only the RTP as other factors need to be taken into consideration. One of those is finding games developed by the top software suppliers. The finest on-line casinos in the UK will carry games from multiple providers and may also have unique on line casino slots which you will not discover at another on line casino. The greatest slot games will also provide players with an exciting gaming experience, keeping the participant concerned. This comes in the form of stunning visuals, fun themes, spins, bonus rounds, and other thrilling options.

domain: hobby