|Publication number||US5367726 A|
|Application number||US 07/992,814|
|Publication date||29 Nov 1994|
|Filing date||16 Dec 1992|
|Priority date||25 Jul 1989|
|Also published as||DE69230797D1, DE69230797T2, DE69233298D1, DE69233298T2, DE69233642D1, DE69233642T2, EP0605624A1, EP0605624A4, EP0605624B1, EP0947152A2, EP0947152A3, EP0947152B1, EP1415576A2, EP1415576A3, EP1415576B1, US5267363, WO1993005684A1|
|Publication number||07992814, 992814, US 5367726 A, US 5367726A, US-A-5367726, US5367726 A, US5367726A|
|Inventors||Robert B. Chaffee|
|Original Assignee||Chaffee; Robert B.|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (60), Referenced by (142), Classifications (23), Legal Events (3)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 07/764,337, filed Sep. 23, 1991, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 07/557,943, filed Jul. 25, 1990, now abandoned which in turn is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 07/384,786, filed Jul. 25, 1989 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,633. These related applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to inflatable support systems, which may include air mattresses, and inflation and control thereof.
The invention provides in one embodiment a portable, inflatable support system, and a portable inflator for use with such a system. According to one embodiment of the invention, the inflatable support system may include an inflatable mattress having a pressure valve and a battery powered inflator for removable engagement therewith, which on engagement is automatically powered for a predetermined time or until a predetermined pressure is achieved. The mattress may be readily expanded for use and collapsed for storage.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, there is provided a multipurpose pressure control, for manual adjustment to provide an inflatable support system of desired firmness, and to modify the posture of the reclining user. In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a dual valve assembly including a cover assembly covers a throat, and the cover assembly is itself provided with a one-way valve.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, there is provided an in-place bedding system, including a mattress, mattress cover, and top and bottom sheets, which retain their functional arrangement when the bed is collapsed for storage and prepared for use, thereby eliminating the necessity for re-making the bed with each use.
The foregoing features of the invention will be more readily understood by reference to the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 illustrates an inflatable mattress in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 2 illustrates a portable battery powered inflation device for use with the embodiment of FIG. 1.
FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate the dual valve assembly depicted in FIG. 2.
FIGS. 5 through 7 illustrate a multipurpose pressure control in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the invention.
FIGS. 8-10 illustrate an in-place bedding system in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the invention, and a mattress cover used in connection herewith.
FIGS. 11-14 provide detail of the sheet retainer rings shown in FIGS. 9 and 10.
FIGS. 15-19 illustrate an alternative embodiment of the dual valve assembly depicted in FIG. 2.
FIG. 20 illustrates a manually operable air release valve for a body support using a structure similar to that shown in FIGS. 15-19.
A first embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 1 provides an inflatable support system including an inflatable mattress 10 having a dual valve assembly 12 affording support and comfort for the user. The mattress 10 additionally is conveniently and readily inflated and assembled or deflated and stored. Although in the examples that follow, it is assumed that inflation of the mattress is achieved using air, in fact any suitable fluid may be used for inflation, such as water or nitrogen, and if desired appropriate means may be supplied for collection or drainage of fluid expelled from the mattress in the course of adjustment or deflation for storage purposes. Furthermore, although the embodiments described below are with reference to an inflatable mattress, in fact they are applicable to any inflatable body support, including an inflatable chair or pillow, or any other low pressure inflatable body.
In FIG. 2 is illustrated detail of the dual valve assembly 12 engaged with a portable battery powered inflation device 20 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. The inflation device includes a dc motor 25, powered by rechargeable batteries 22a and 22b, and an impeller 21 driven by the motor 25, all mounted in a housing 26 having a mouth region 28 that is removably engagable with the inflation input (discussed below in connection with FIG. 3 as item 322) of the dual valve 12. The method of engagement may be by screw threads 27 or by other suitable means known in the art, such as a bayonet mount permitting quick connection and disconnect. Also disposed in the housing 26 are control circuitry for controlling the motor, sensing arrangement 24 for sensing when the mouth 26 of the housing is engaged with the inflation input of the dual valve 12, and dc battery recharging input 29. The housing 26 may also be provided with a suitable arrangement for covering the mouth region 28 and the air inlet 281. Although numerous such arrangements are possible, one arrangement may include a snap-on C-shaped clip that is pivotally mounted along a vertical axis of the inflation device 20 of FIG. 2 to permit the clip to swing off the mouth 28 and the air inlet 281. The control circuitry 23 is connected to the batteries 22a and 22b over lines 231 and 233 respectively, to the motor 25 over line 232, to the sensing arrangement 24 over line 234, and to the recharging input 29 over line 235. The sensing arrangement may be a simple contact switch, mounted in the mouth 28, that is closed by motion of the threads of the inflation input when it is engaged with the mouth 28. Alternatively, for example, the sensing arrangement may be a Hall effect device mounted in the mouth 28 that is triggered by proximity to a magnet mounted in the inflation input.
The control circuitry 23 is configured, by means well known in the art, to deliver power to the motor 25 from the time that the sensing arrangement 24 has detected engagement of the mouth 26 with the inflation input of the dual valve 12. In this manner, pumping of air into the mattress begins only after, and as soon as, the inflation device 20 has been properly engaged. Similarly, the control circuitry is configured to cease delivering power when the inflation device 20 is no longer engaged, so that it may be easily turned on and off without the need for an external switch. When the inflation device 20 is engaged with the mattress, the control circuitry 23 continues to deliver power to the motor 25 until a predetermined condition has been achieved. In one version of this embodiment, the battery-motor-impeller combination is designed to provide a maximum air pressure that does not exceed the maximum desired pressure in the mattress. In such a case, for a mattress of a given size, once a predetermined time has elapsed for delivery of air to the mattress by the inflation device 20, the maximum desired pressure will have been reached.
Accordingly, the control circuitry is designed to cease delivering power to the motor 25 when a predetermined time has elapsed after the sensing arrangement 24 has sensed engagement of the mouth 26 with the inflation input of the dual valve 12. With a typical air mattress and a typical design for an inflation device, for example, maximum pressure may be achieved in about one minute, so the control circuitry provides a timed shutoff after one minute. It is apparent that the timed shut-off feature provides desirable conservation of battery power, and conservation may be enhanced if shut-off occurs at full inflation--i.e. when the inflation device has first achieved the maximum pressure in the air mattress of which it is capable, assuming that this maximum does not exceed the maximum desired pressure in the mattress. Indeed, such an approach permits use of a relatively small and lightweight inflation device. If the user is prepared to provide manually (i.e., by blowing) the final bolus of air to achieve the desired pressure, the inflation device may be smaller still. Such a design spares the user of the time-consuming and headache-producing task of filling the mattress manually, while permitting a compact and lightweight construction for the inflation device 20.
Alternatively, the control may take advantage of the fact that air flow from the inflation device 20 to the inflation input of the dual valve 12 has substantially ceased when the maximum desired pressure has been reached, assuming that the battery-motor-impeller combination is designed to provide a maximum air pressure that does not exceed the maximum pressure in the mattress. In this alternative configuration, the inflation device 20 may be further provided with a flow sensor, and the control circuitry 23 may be configured to cease delivering power after substantial air flow has ceased. The flow sensor in such a configuration may be implemented by a vane (shown in phantom) 201 mounted on a pivot 202 and having an arm 203 that keeps a normally open microswitch (shown in phantom) 204 closed only as long as air flow is substantial, and the microswitch is connected to the control circuitry 23 over line 236. The control circuitry 23 is then configured to provide initial power to the motor 25 independently of the position of microswitch 204 until a period of time has elapsed to permit the establishment of initial flow to cause closure of the microswitch.
In a related alternative embodiment of the device 20 shown in FIG. 2, there may be provided a pressure transducer that is connected to the control circuitry 23, which may be configured to cease providing power to the motor 25 after a predetermined pressure has been reached.
FIGS. 3 and 4 show a cross section and a top view respectively of the dual valve assembly depicted in FIG. 2. This valve assembly is similar to the valve assembly shown in FIGS. 11-13 of my prior U.S. application Ser. No. 07/557,943, filed Jul. 25, 1990. Inflation is provided to the mattress 10 by means of the inflation input 322 having exterior threads 321, which are capable of being engaged with mating threads of the inflation device 20 described above. As previously discussed, the means of achieving the engagement with the inflation device is a matter of design choice, and alternative embodiments, such as the use of a bayonet mount, are within the scope of the present invention. Air pressure at the inflation input 322 causes the downward displacement of diaphragm 34 away from its valve seat 36, thereby permitting air flow through the first cylinder 32 via the triangular passageways 37. When air has been placed within the mattress 10 under modest pressure, however, and air pressure is removed from inflation input 322, the pressure of air in the mattress 10 urges the diaphragm 34 against valve seat 36 and produces a positive seal against the exit of air from the mattress. An optional spring 311 may be used to assure a positive seal even in the absence of substantial pressure within the mattress 10. This seal can be momentarily overridden by pressing downwardly on stem 31, which causes the downward motion of the diaphragm away from the valve seat 36, and permitting the exit of controlled amounts of air through the passageways 37. Thus the valve design permits the reduction of air pressure in the mattress from any excess that may have occurred on inflation to a desired optimum pressure, simply by pressing on the stem 31. The quality of air released by the valve may be controlled by the distance the valve stem 31 is initially depressed (letting air pressure within the mattress 10 force the valve to return to a closed position); for example, a one-eighth inch depression provides a subtle decrease in pressure and a one-half inch depression a more substantial pressure drop. It should be pointed out that the valve described herein typically functions over a pressure range from approximately 1/4 to 1 lb of pressure per square inch (2 to 7 kpa), a region in which it is typically difficult to achieve good control simultaneously with an effective seal. The diameter of first cylinder 32 is large enough (typically about 1.25 inches (3 cm) or more) to permit the rapid inflation of the mattress with a substantial flow of air at relatively low pressure.
The valve assembly just described, including first cylinder 32, diaphragm 34, and stem 31, is mounted concentrically within a second cylinder 33, and is itself hingedly mounted so as to cover the opening of the second cylinder 33. The opening is defined by rim 38, and against which is mated cover seal 39. The hinge pivot 35 permits the valve assembly to uncover the opening 33, which is large enough to permit the rapid and easy deflation of the mattress by expelling air through the opening of cylinder 33, which is typically about 2 inches (5 cm) or more. The opening of the cylinder 33 is sealed when the mattress is in use by latch 36, which is disposed on the opposite side of the assembly from pivot 35, and causes rim 38 to be hugged by cover seal 39. Although the embodiment illustrated herein shows the use of a hinge 35 and a latch 36, it may be seen that the valve assembly described previously may be secured to cover the second cylinder 33 by other means known in the art, including a bayonet mount that is secured after engagement by rotation. Alternatively there may be employed a combination bayonet-hinge assembly, configured so that after the bayonet is disengaged by counter-rotation, a pivot (similar to item 35, but carried on a short arcuate track mounted to the second cylinder so as to permit rotation of the bayonet) permits the valve assembly to uncover the opening defined by rim 38 in a manner similar to that described above.
In order to permit unrestricted air flow into (or out of) the air mattress when it is in a collapsed or near-collapsed condition, the housing for the second cylinder is provided with a plurality of stand-offs 331 that prevent the inner surface of mattress 10 from fully occluding the opening of the second cylinder 33 to the mattress interior. Similarly, a series of openings 323 in the inner extremity of the first cylinder 32 prevent the inner surface of mattress 10 from fully occluding the opening of the first cylinder to the mattress interior.
FIGS. 5 through 7 illustrate another preferred embodiment of the invention, in this case providing a multipurpose pressure control. FIG. 5 is a side view of the embodiment with the mattress 10 moved out of the way. FIG. 6 is a vertical section taken through plane VI--VI of FIG. 5, and FIG. 7 is a top view of the embodiment of FIG. 5. In this embodiment, in a manner similar to that of the embodiment of FIG. 1 of U.S. application Ser. No. 07/557,943, filed Jul. 25, 1990, a housing 57 contains a line-powered motor-driven fan to pump air into the mattress 10 and also serves as a mandrel upon which the deflated mattress may be wound; a large diameter valve at the foot of the mattress (not shown in these figures) may provide rapid deflation of the mattress. Power is supplied via plug 53, line cord 54 and a switch contained in assembly 51. Region 55 of the housing 57 contains a motor and fan to provide air pressure to inflate the mattress 10. The motor and fan may be designed, as described above, in connection with FIG. 2, to provide a maximum air pressure that does not exceed the maximum desired pressure in the mattress and may employ control circuitry of the type described above to turn off the motor once a desired pressure has been reached. Region 56 of the housing contains a one-way valve, similar to the valve assembly associated with the first cylinder 32 described in relation to FIGS. 3 and 4 above. Recessed in the top of switch assembly 51 is switch button 511 for turning on the fan motor. Normally switch assembly 51 is unmounted and moves freely as part of line cord 54. Thus, when the unit is plugged in and the switch in assembly 51 is turned on, the mattress is inflated and unwinds from the housing 57. After the mattress is inflated, the switch assembly 51 may then be placed in removable engagement with receptacle 58 on housing 57.
Receptacle 58 is formed on a flexible membrane forming at this point the exterior of housing 57 and disposed over stem 61 (corresponding to stem 31 of FIG. 3) associated with diaphragm 62 (corresponding to diaphragm 34 of FIG. 3). The walls of cylinder 63 (corresponding to cylinder 32 of FIG. 3) are attached on the outside to air mattress 10, and define an opening 64 through which air from the fan is pumped when the fan motor is energized. The housing 57 is removably engaged with the walls of cylinder 63, permitting replacement of the air mattress 10 or motor fan unit if one of them fails.
It can be seen that pressing button 511 causes the fan motor to run and increases pressure in the mattress. Similarly, moving the entire assembly 51 in a downward direction causes force to be transmitted, through rod 64 and walls 52 of the assembly 51, and the flexible membrane of receptacle 58, to the stem 61 of the valve, causing diaphragm 62 to let air out of the mattress. This embodiment therefore provides an easily operable multipurpose pressure control that in a first position causes air pressure in the mattress to increase and in a second position causes air pressure in the mattress to decrease. Because the housing 57 and related fittings are disposed at an end of the mattress 10, the control may be suitably located and reached at the head of the mattress, and is therefore accessible to a user while on the mattress. The multipurpose pressure control consequently permits the user to adjust the mattress air pressure for the user's personal comfort while on the mattress and without interruption of body contact with the mattress. As pressure adjustments may occur during the night, in darkness, with the user in a semi-awake, semi-conscious state, the control may be operated without vision, excessive manipulation, or major changes in posture. It should be noted that this embodiment permits both gross and subtle adjustments in mattress air pressure, thereby providing a sleep surface which accommodates a wide variety of comfort requirements. Additionally, in connection with embodiments, such as described in connection with FIG. 1 of my application Ser. No. 07/557,943, filed Jul. 25, 1990, wherein the motor-driven fan assembly lies at the head of the mattress, motion of assembly 51 can be used to partially deflate the mattress to permit the user to recline, while using the motor-driven fan assembly to support a pillow; such a position is comfortable for reading and the like. At low inflations, the mattress may still provide complete suspension of the body, while also providing a difference in the range of 6-8 inches (15-20 cm) in elevation between feet and torso.
Although the embodiment described in connection with FIGS. 5-7 uses a mixed mechanical and electrical system, it would be possible to use a control that is entirely actuated electronically, for example, employing a solenoid to move the valve stem 61 to open the diaphragm 62, and a three position switch that in a first position energizes the fan motor, in a second position energizes the solenoid, and in a third position energizes neither. Additionally, it is within the scope of the invention to provide a control that causes a predetermined increment of inflation or deflation in accordance with a user's selection. The increment may be determined, for example, by a timing device or a pressure measurement device.
The pneumatic support system of the present invention offers space-saving and time-saving advantages in comparison to prior art portable or temporary bed arrangements. In its fully expanded "in-use" state, the pneumatic support system herein occupies the same amount of space as a conventional mattress. Yet in a collapsed "storage" state, the support system returns almost 90% of that space to the user. In order for the user to fully realize the benefits of this advantage, the support system must allow the transition to and from storage to occur with maximum efficiency and ease. With the support system in accordance with the present invention, set-up and take-down require as little as 15 to 30 seconds.
In order to take full advantage of the utility offered by the support system in accordance with the present invention, a special bedding system is advantageous. When conventional covers and bedsheets are used with the present invention, they may become misaligned as it is being moved to and from storage, requiring that the support system be made over with bedding with each use. Since the movement in and out of storage may often occur on a daily basis, considerable time and effort are lost through the requirement to re-make. The in-place bedding system of the present invention eliminates the problem of bedding misalignment.
FIGS. 8-14 pertain to the in-place bedding system of the present invention. The in-pace bedding system includes a special mattress cover that permits use of a conventional fitted bottom bedsheet and a conventional top bedsheet, which will retain their functional relationships not only while in use, but also during and after the collapsing of support system for storage thereby eliminating the necessity for re-making the bed with each use.
The exterior of the mattress cover 81, shown in FIG. 8 in a top view, much like a fitted bedsheet, wraps around all four sides of the mattress. The cover assembly includes a padding material 82 sewn to the underside of the cover's top surface. This material may be foam rubber, synthetic fiber, a combination thereof, or other suitable material.
In FIG. 9 is shown a bottom view of the cover 81, which includes two cross-connectors 93 and 94 sewn to the bottom edges of the cover at positions 941 and 942 for connector 94 and 931 and 932 for connector 93. The cross-connectors 93 and 94 span the mattress bottom from side to side, securing the position of the mattress cover for multiple re-use (repeated cycles of inflation and deflation). On both sides of the cover, near the foot end, are sheet retainer rings 91 and 92, attached to the cover by elastic straps. These retainer rings, discussed in further detail in connection with FIGS. 11-14, have the purpose of securing the position of a conventional top sheet for multiple re-use while, at the same time, allowing the flexibility and movement necessary for comfortable sleeping. Controller strap 91 runs around the inner periphery 99 of the cover 81 and is pulled and tightened in a manner known in the art to assure that the cover 81 tightly hugs the mattress. A pair of roll straps 95 are attached at one end to connector 93. When the mattress and mattress cover are rolled up as an assembled unit (possibly using the housing of a motor-driven fan as a mandrel in the fashion described in connection with FIG. 5, and possibly including top and bottom bedsheets as described below), the other end of each of roll strap 95 may be passed through the open region 117 near the ear 111 (see FIG. 11) of a corresponding retaining ring 91 or 92 and thereafter attached to itself via Velcro or similar hook-and-loop type fastening material. In this way, the rolled up assembly may be maintained in a compact condition and easily readied for reuse in accordance with procedures described above. FIG. 10 is a perspective view from above of the general features described in connection with FIG. 9.
Initial set-up of the support system in accordance with FIGS. 8-10 includes the following:
1. Insertion of the deflated mattress into the mattress cover 81.
2. Inflation of the mattress while checking for proper alignment of mattress and cover.
3. Installation of the bottom bedsheet (a standard fitted sheet).
4. Installation of the top bedsheet by laying it on the inflated bed and then drawing the two corners of the sheet through the bedsheet at its foot-end retainer rings 91 and 92, so that the bedsheet has a reasonably snug fit, conforming to the foot-end of the mattress.
Once these steps are taken, mattress, mattress cover, bottom bedsheet, and top bedsheet become a semi-permanent assembly, fixed in position for multiple re-use.
Detail of the retainer rings 91 and 92 is provided in FIGS. 11-14. The retainer ring is a spring fastener, and may be fabricated from a variety of resilient materials including various plastics, such as polyethylene. FIGS. 11 and 12 provide side and top views of the retainer ring, which include slot 115 for attachment to the strap and ears 111 and 112. When ears 111 and 112 are squeezed toward one another, the peripheral wall 116 is deformed, as shown in FIG. 13 (also presenting a top view) and jaws 114 and 113 are caused to open, as shown in FIG. 14 (presenting a side view). FIG. 12 shows the region 121 wherein the teeth of the jaws 113 and 114 are engaged with one another when the ears are not squeezed together. In this embodiment, the peripheral wall, the jaws, and the ears are all formed as part of an integral structure.
Squeezing ears 111 and 112 toward one another allows insertion of the corner of the bedsheet through the jaws 114 and 113 of the ring. The top bedsheet corner may then be easily drawn though the ring to achieve proper fitting of the bedsheet to the bed. Once the sheet is in position (and the squeezing of the ears is released), the spring action of the ring applies pressure to the jaws and in turn on the inserted bedsheet portion, locking the inserted portion of the bedsheet in place, and securing the position of the sheet on the bed. For bedsheet removal, one merely squeezes together the ears 111 and 112 of the ring, and the bedsheet is automatically released.
The retainer ring provides convenience and ease in the use of conventional bedsheets for initially setting-up the bed, for changing bedsheets, and for providing a fixed bedding assembly that eliminates the need for re-making the bed with each use.
Although the foregoing embodiment has been described as a mattress cover, the essential features of the foregoing cover may be directly incorporated into the surface of the mattress. The padding material 82 may then be attached to the top surface of the mattress, provided with a suitable covering layer.
In FIG. 15 is shown a cross-section of a dual valve assembly that is an alternative to the embodiment depicted in FIG. 2. FIG. 16 shows the same assembly in cross-section with the cover assembly 153 in a closed position. FIG. 17 is a top view of the embodiment of FIGS. 15 and 16 with the cover assembly also in a closed position. In FIG. 18 is shown a top view of this same embodiment with the cover assembly in an open position. FIG. 19 is a cross-section of the same embodiment showing the air path through it during inflation.
In FIG. 15 the wall 151 of an inflatable body is shown to be provided with a port 1511 through which air is transferred between the exterior and the interior of the inflatable body. A flange 152 is mounted to the wall of the inflatable body in a location proximate to the port 1511. The flange 152 has a throat 1521 through which all air passes in the course of being transferred between the interior and exterior of the inflatable body. The throat 1521 is defined by a circular rim 1522 of the flange. A cover assembly 153 is used to removably cover the throat 1521. A ring-shaped base 1531 is disposed around the exterior of the rim 1522. Preferably the base is removable from the rim and is retained by top portion 1523 of the rim. Alternatively, the rim 1522 and the base 1531 may be integrally formed. Cap 1533 is attached to the base 1531 by means of hinge assembly 1532. The cap is latched into a closed position by a latching arrangement including latch projection 1535 on the cap and latch receptacle 1536 on the base. When the cap 1533 is closed, gasket 1534 is urged against the top 1523 of the rim 1522. In the closed position of the cap, the gasket 1534 is submitted to compression, and the gasket itself is formed of flexible material presenting, to the top of the rim, in profile a convex arcuate portion. The convex shape of the gasket 1534 may be achieved as shown here by use of a flexible sheet of material retained in an inverted U configuration or by use of a suitable O-shaped gasket.
It is convenient to make the flange 152 of flexible material. Under such circumstances, the rim 1522 may be subject to deformation, an eventuality that may interfere with an effective seal with the cover assembly 153. The deformation may be reduced by integrally forming the rim 1522 with the base 1531. Alternatively, it is convenient to provide a lip 1537, disposed peripherally around the cap, in such a way that, when the cap is in a closed position, the lip 1537 mates with the interior of the rim 1522. In this way, the flexible rim 1522 is squeezed between the lip 1537 and the base 1531, thereby reducing the risk of deformation of the rim.
Disposed in the cover assembly 153 is valve assembly 154. The valve assembly includes a diaphragm 1544 and valve stem 1547 that move axially in the assembly 154. The valve stem 1547 and diaphragm 1544 are supported by valve stem support 1549, which is attached to the cap 1533. The cap also includes the structure defining the inflation input 1542 and valve seat 1543 of the valve assembly 154.
A circular coupling 1541 includes an open end that constitutes the inflation input 1542. It also has a flared end that provides the valve seat 1543 in the form of a circular lip. Mounted adjacent to the diaphragm is diaphragm stiffener 1545, which serves to stiffen the diaphragm except in the outer annular region that is in contact with valve seat 1543.
It can be seen that the diaphragm can be accessed by an individual directly from the inflation input 1542 and can be pushed axially into an open position. Such a process is illustrated in FIG. 16. To facilitate this motion, the diaphragm is provided with push button 1546.
The diaphragm is urged into a closed position by spring 1548, shown here disposed within the valve stem 1547 and pushing against a portion of valve stem support 1549. As can be seen in FIG. 18, the valve stem support 1549 includes here four supporting members spaced around the assembly, but permits the ready passage of air through the throat.
As shown in FIG. 17, the inflation input 1542 may be provided with a bayonette mount or other means for affixing an inflation device.
FIGS. 16 and 19 show relative air flow during deflation (FIG. 16) and inflation (FIG. 19) shown by arrows 161 and 191 respectively. It can also be seen that during inflation the stiffener 1545 is configured in such a way as to permit the diaphragm 1544 to bend towards the interior of the inflatable body and away from the valve seat 1543. This arrangement facilitates the massive flow of air at low pressure into the inflatable body, while still providing resistance to deformation of the diaphragm when it is in a closed position such as shown in FIG. 15.
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|U.S. Classification||5/706, 137/223, 137/226|
|International Classification||B60C5/00, B60C5/04, A47C27/08, F16K15/14, F16K15/20, A47G9/08|
|Cooperative Classification||F16K15/202, B60C5/04, Y10T137/3646, Y10T137/3584, F16K15/148, B60C5/00, A47C27/081, A47G9/086|
|European Classification||A47G9/08, F16K15/20F, B60C5/00, F16K15/14J, B60C5/04, A47C27/08A|
|27 May 1998||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4
|28 May 2002||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 8
|12 May 2006||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 12


text:
Today's Top Sports Stories
Today's top Stories
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Your browser does not support iframes. ALAMEDA - Raiders left guard Gabe Jackson was limited in practice last week, and spent most of his time working on the scout team.
Millsap had him on his back heel and Amir was often forced to settle. His form looks like hes loading a heavy boulder onto a catapult. He cant defend 5-out. Solid work. Good work.
Bennett will be out for a couple of weeks, according to the Penguins pre-game report before they face the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. The following year, Beau Bennett. Marie.
Check out the video and highlights from Coach Nick Saban and his last press conference before the Tide takes on Auburn. Execution is still the number one goal.

domain: news


text:
The man authorities say opened fire in a Buffalo grocery store Saturday, killing 10, appears to have left behind a white supremacist document centered on the idea of a plot to replace the White population with immigrants.
This far-right conspiracy theory, known as the “great replacement theory,” has inspired a lot of recent violence, including the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, where the shooter warned of “White genocide.” He later pleaded guilty to 51 murders, 40 attempted murders and engaging in a terrorist act.
Some of the torch-bearing “Unite the Right” demonstrators, including Ku Klux Klan members and neo-Nazis, who terrorized Charlottesville in 2017 were also motivated by the theory, which warns that an increase in the non-White population fueled by immigration will destroy White and Western civilization.
The Buffalo gunman, identified by authorities as Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old White man, is believed to have posted online a 180-page document arguing that White Americans were in danger of being replaced by people of color.
More on the history of racial violence
But while the great replacement theory has inspired horrific violence in the past five years, it’s a lot older than that. More than 70 years ago, a U.S. senator published a book warning of the same destruction of White civilization.
Theodore G. Bilbo, a Democrat, had twice been governor of Mississippi before he served in the U.S. Senate from 1935 to 1947, when “the growing intolerance among many whites toward public racism and anti-Semitism” led to his fall, according to an account in the Journal of Mississippi History.
An equal-opportunity racist, he addressed some of his letters with slurs against Italians and Jews, depending on the recipient. But the bulk of his loathing and fear was reserved for Black Americans, as spelled out in his 1947 book “Take Your Choice: Separation or Mongrelization.”
A showboater and self-promoter, he began the book with this modest preface: “For nine years I have read, studied and analyzed practically all the records and everything written throughout the entire world on the subject of race relations, covering a period of close on to thirty thousand years.”
Bilbo saw an existential threat in the growing ranks of American-born descendants of enslaved Africans. His solution? Ship them back.
“The great civilizations of the ages have been produce[d] by the Caucasian race,” he wrote. When Black people moved in, he wrote, mighty societies such as ancient Egypt were destroyed and mongrel races were created. “The mongrel not only lacks the ability to create a civilization, but he cannot maintain a culture that he finds around him,” he wrote.
“A White America or a mongrel America — you must take your choice!”
Bilbo proclaimed in his book and in addresses to followers that he was “convinced, beyond every reasonable doubt, that our race is in jeopardy.” It was a fact, he said in one campaign speech, using racial slurs, that at “the present rate of interbreeding and miscegenation and intermarriage between the [Black people] and the Whites, that in nine generations, which is only 300 years, there’ll be no Whites, there’ll be no Blacks in this country. We’ll all be yellow.” Or brown, he added.
He rebutted experts who disputed any scientific basis for racism. Of Franz Boas, often called the father of American anthropology, he wrote, “For some reason which has never been publicized, this German Jew, a newly-arrived immigrant, wanted to destroy the racial stock which had carved this mighty Nation out of a wilderness.” Bilbo recommended deportation for another academic, a naturalized Italian immigrant, who suggested intermarriage could dissolve the color line.
Though he claimed “no hatred or prejudice against any human being” in the preface to his book, he went on to say that he “would rather see his race and his civilization blotted out with the atomic bomb than to see it slowly but surely destroyed in the maelstrom of miscegenation, interbreeding, intermarriage, and mongrelization.”
But the times were changing, even in Mississippi. Black veterans returning from fighting in World War II didn’t take well to efforts to bar them from voting in the United States. And the Allies’ fight against Adolf Hitler and antisemitism had led many Americans to turn their critical gaze to discrimination at home.
As Robert L. Fleegler noted in the Journal of Mississippi History, most criticism of Bilbo in the press had come from liberal publications. But as Bilbo started campaigning for reelection in June 1946, the conservative and influential Saturday Evening Post published a cover story under the headline “Bilbo: America’s Worst Demagogue Runs Again.” The story called Bilbo “America’s most notorious merchant of hatred.”
The politician nicknamed “The Man” was fighting to retain his Senate seat. He told supporters that “the Negro Council in Chicago sent a telegram to Harry Truman, the president, saying to send the Army down to Mississippi and to see to it that these 100,000 [Black people] are gonna vote,” using a racist slur. He also urged “every red-blooded white man to use any means to keep the [Black people] away from the polls. And if you don’t know what that means, you are just plain dumb.” He fought fiercely against his critics, hurling anti-Jewish and anti-Black slurs at detractors in the press. He won the Democratic primary that July and ran unopposed in the general election.
But growing opposition to his race-baiting demagoguery continued to build. Bilbo’s admission in August 1946 on “Meet the Press” that he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan probably didn’t help.
There were calls to oust Bilbo, including from veterans groups and the Committee of Catholics for Human Rights, which called Bilbo’s conduct “a chilling deterrent to the world-wide belief that America is the symbol of democracy and human rights.” They were joined by politicians, including New York’s Democratic senators and a state senator whose son was killed in World War II, who said, “I hate and despise those bigots” like Bilbo.
In March 1946, Republican conservative leader Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio called Bilbo “a disgrace to the Senate.”
On Sept. 19, 1946, an interracial group of Mississippians filed a complaint with the U.S. Senate Committee to Investigate Campaign Expenditures, asking that Bilbo be removed from office.
The committee “heard from more than 100 witnesses — two-thirds of them Black — who outlined local election practices that systematically restricted black registration and voting,” according to a Senate history. Witnesses told of being turned away, threatened with pistols, beaten and arrested.
A slim majority of the committee found in favor of Bilbo, however, and blamed some of Bilbo’s anti-Black campaign on concerns about “outside agitators,” including the national media.
But Bilbo’s opponents had another card to play.
A second investigation by the Senate war investigating subcommittee heard testimony on charges that Bilbo had helped construction firms win government contracts and had accepted gifts in return that included a Cadillac, a swimming pool and the “excavation of a lake to create an island for his home,” according to a Senate summary.
During the investigation, questions also arose about whether Bilbo was pocketing money in return for allowing a drug addict access to morphine. Bilbo had obtained consent from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to allow a Mississippi doctor to prescribe the drug. The drug recipient told an Internal Revenue Service special agent that he paid Bilbo $1,000 for the favor, according to the New York Times.
In January 1947, with Republicans in control of the Senate, a fight ensued over whether Bilbo would be allowed to take his seat, with Southern Democrats threatening to stop the Senate from organizing if he were barred.
Then fate intervened. Senate Minority Leader Alben Barkley (D-Ky.) announced that Bilbo would return to Mississippi for oral cancer surgery. He died on Aug. 21, 1947, without retaking his Senate seat.
Bilbo’s career built on racism and anti-immigrant bigotry had ended. But the bigotry lingers on.
A century ago, Mississippi’s Senate voted to send all the state’s Black people to Africa
One hundred years ago, the Mississippi state Senate voted to evict the state’s Black residents — the majority of its total population — not just out of Mississippi, but out of the country.
The Senate voted 25 to 9 on Feb. 20, 1922, to ask the federal government to trade some of the World War I debts owed by European countries for a piece of colonial Africa — any part would do — where the government would then ship Mississippi’s Black residents, creating “a final home for the American negro.”
The act is a reminder of just how long after the end of slavery some White Southerners were pushing not just to strip African Americans of their political rights but also to remove them from the land of their birth.
What opposition there was to the proposal in the all-White Mississippi legislature came not from people who believed in racial equality but from plantation owners who feared losing their cheap, brutalized labor force. And remarkably, the proposal had a few Black supporters: Black separatists who preferred a move to Africa over the violence and abuse that African Americans faced in Jim Crow Mississippi.
Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 21 was written by Sen. Torrey George McCallum, a former mayor of Laurel in Jones County. The county has achieved some measure of Hollywood fame as the “Free State of Jones,” a pocket of Unionist sentiment during the Civil War, but the McCallums were deeply engaged in the institution of slavery. Torrey’s grandfather Archibald enslaved 51 people on his plantation in 1860 and had a net worth of $80,000, about $2.5 million today.
McCallum’s proposal came in the aftermath of World War I. The relatively late entry of the United States into the war and the devastation of the conflict left many of its European allies deep in debt to Washington. In all, European countries owed $10.35 billion, the equivalent of $174 billion today.
Although short on cash, those countries had plenty of colonial territory — particularly in Africa, where the major European powers had scrambled to divvy up the continent’s land and resources. McCallum saw the makings of a deal.
His resolution argued in flowery language that “the spirit of race consciousness” had grown with a postwar increase in nationalistic feelings worldwide and that it was “our most earnest desire to reach a just, fair, amicable, and final settlement” to what some White people then called “the Negro question.”
It concluded with a request that President Warren G. Harding “acquire by treaty, negotiation or otherwise from our late war allies sufficient territory on the continent of Africa to make a suitable, proper and final home for the American Negro, where under the tutelage of the American government he can develop for himself a great republic, to become in time a free and sovereign state and take its place at the council board of the nations of the world.”
McCallum made clear that “the spirit of race consciousness” he cared about belonged to White people. The goal, he wrote, was “that our country may become one in blood as it is in spirit, and that the dream of our forefathers may be realized in the final colonization of the American Negro on his native soil.” The resolution does not specifically state whether the proposed mass migration would be voluntary. But its use of language like a “final settlement,” “the final colonization,” and the United States becoming “one in blood” makes clear the aim was total removal.
Not consulted in this process: Mississippi’s Black residents, who in the 1920 Census made up 52 percent of the state’s population. During Reconstruction, Mississippi’s Black majority had sent three African Americans to Congress and more than 60 to the state legislature. That had all ended, though, first with rampant White violence in the 1870s and 1880s, then with the passage of a new state constitution in 1890 that effectively disenfranchised Black people.
In some ways, it felt like the post-Reconstruction era was returning: Another spike in anti-Black violence had followed World War I, especially during the Red Summer of 1919, and the Ku Klux Klan was suddenly reborn.At the height of its popularity, the Ku Klux Klan brought more than 30,000 of its members to participate in a parade in D.C. on Aug. 8, 1925. (Video: British Pathé)
Black newspapers nationwide mocked McCallum’s proposal, just as African Americans had generally resisted the previous century’s attempts at colonization. “Only one thing seems to have been overlooked by the Hon. Senator, and that is, how even the Mississippi colored people will be induced or enabled by the Mississippi Legislature to go to Africa,” wrote the Broad Ax, a Black Chicago newspaper. After generations of rape of enslaved women by White men, it wrote, “the intervening shades are so numerous and various, it may be a question to determine who is a colored person. Of course, such things don’t bother McCallum.”
“We see that representatives in Mississippi would colonize the American Negro in Africa,” wrote the Southern Indicator of Columbia, S.C. “Poor fools.”
The one exception was Negro World, the national newspaper published by Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, which embraced McCallum’s proposal. Garvey believed that members of the African diaspora would never be treated fairly in a White-controlled country and that the solution was a new African homeland.
“Hurrah for Senator McCallum,” its headline blared. “Work of Universal Negro Improvement Assn. Bearing Fruit.”
Garvey gave a speech at Liberty Hall in New York endorsing McCallum’s plan: “The Negro should not delude himself … by the belief that the future will mean happiness and contentment for him in this country, since it is the undoubted spirit and intention of the white man that this shall in truth be white man’s country.”
Garvey was becoming known for seeking strange bedfellows in his quest for Black autonomy abroad. A few months later, he went to the offices of the resurgent Ku Klux Klan in Atlanta for a cordial meeting with Imperial Wizard Edward Young Clarke, sparking outrage from Black leaders and newspapers. (Garvey was under indictment on charges of mail fraud at the time, so he also may have been motivated to curry favor with White officials.)
Mississippi’s largest newspaper, the Clarion Ledger—once called “the most racist newspaper in the nation”— happily ran the full text of a telegram Garvey sent McCallum offering his “congratulations” for “the splendid move” he had made.
But Garvey seemed aware of who he was teaming up with. McCallum, he said in a speech, “is the same Southern senator who would object and stand behind the objection, with his whole life and with the last drop of his blood, for a Negro in the United States of America to dine with the President of the United States at the White House.”
McCallum was far from the only racist White leader interested in sending Black people “back” to an Africa they had never seen.
The impulse dates to well before the Civil War, to the early days of state colonization societies, which built colonies in what is today Liberia. The Mississippi Colonization Society created Mississippi-in-Africa on the Pepper Coast, sending several hundred freed slaves there to face what became the highest mortality rates of any society in recorded human history. Some advocates of colonization considered it a more humane option than slavery, but more viewed it as a way to rid their states of free Blacks who might encourage rebellions among enslaved people.
As the Civil War approached, debates over slavery were not limited to the two extremes — continuing and expanding slavery on one hand, and making African Americans free and full political citizens on the other.
Some White people argued for freeing the enslaved but still denying them the vote, just as it was then denied to most free Blacks in North and South alike. Others wanted to create a limitedclass of Black voters, restricted only to the educated or to those who had fought for the Union. And many thought the only solution to the “Negro question” was to send them away — either voluntarily or by force — to a new colony in the Caribbean or “back” to Africa.
Hinton Rowan Helper, the most prominent anti-slavery activist in the South, was nonetheless a virulent racist and advocate of expulsion. As he wrote in the early weeks of the war: “Death to Slavery! Down with the Slaveholders! Away with the Negroes!”
Among those interested in colonization was Abraham Lincoln, who was drawn repeatedly to the idea. In 1862, Congress passed a bill allocating $600,000 for the colonization of formerly enslaved people living in the District of Columbia. Lincoln sent a young free Black man named John Willis Menard to British Honduras (now Belize) to scout it as a potential location; the Danish Virgin Islands, British Guiana, and Dutch Surinam also were considered.
Lincoln struck a deal to set up a colony in the Chiriquí Province of what is now Panama, but strenuous objections from Central American countries led him to scuttle the plan. He eventually signed off on a disastrous experiment that sent 453 free Virginia Blacks to the Haitian island of Île-à-Vache. High rates of disease and a mutiny led to its collapse and 350 survivors sailing back to Virginia less than a year later.
More on Abraham Lincoln
During Reconstruction and afterward, a trickle of Black people continued to leave the South for various promised lands: Liberia, Haiti, Kansas, California. But it took until World War I for the Great Migration of African Americans to Northern and Western cities to start in earnest, driven by job opportunities and the desire to escape Jim Crow.
Still, that was not the end of the idea of colonization, in the minds of either White racists or Black separatists. U.S. Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo of Mississippi, a proud member of the Ku Klux Klan, carried colonization forward to a new generation, proposing in 1939 what he called the Greater Liberia Act. It was modeled on McCallum’s 1922 resolution, offering France and the U.K. relief for their war debt in exchange for 400,000 square miles adjoining Liberia’s borders. Greater Liberia was to be run by a U.S. military governor.
The bill went nowhere — but it again drew the support of an aging Marcus Garvey, as well as the vocal support of Black separatists including Mittie Maude Lena Gordon, the founder of the Peace Movement of Ethiopia.
The Mississippi Senate vote 100 years ago was as far as the state’s attempt to exile its African Americans would go. After passing the Senate, the resolution went to the state House of Representatives. Its Committee on Federal Relations reported the resolution out favorably on March 1, 1922. On March 10, McCallum went to the House floor to advocate for passage.
“He wanted it understood that it was not written, nor was it intended as a reflection in the least on the negro,” a Biloxi newspaper reported, “but was intended to settle him in a country of his own and where he could make himself a home under laws of his own making. He said he simply wanted to settle for all time to come a great problem confronting this country and in the interest of the negro.”
But the speech wasn’t enough, and the House voted the resolution down, 40 to 32.
Most of the chamber’s debate over the bill has been lost to history, but a newspaper reporter did record a representative named John Holmes Sherard explaining his opposition: “He did not like any such propaganda as this meant the loss of labor of his part of the state, the Delta, where the negro was needed. … He asserted that he had 500 negroes on his plantation in Coahoma County, and had never had a quarrel with them.”
One of the regulars at Sherard’s plantation commissary in Coahoma County was a young man named McKinley Morganfield, who picked cotton at a neighboring plantation. At Sherard’s and elsewhere around Coahoma, men like Robert Johnson and Son House were playing what would become known as the Delta blues. In 1941, Morganfield found his own escape from Mississippi — not to Africa, but to Chicago, where he became known as Muddy Waters.
Waters’s songs sometimes romanticized the simpler life back in the Delta, but when asked directly if he ever planned on moving back, his response was clear: “I wanted to get out of Mississippi in the worst way, man. Go back? What I want to go back for?”


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Sometimes, it’s best to let others celebrate your Olympic gold medal for you.
Ukraine won its first event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi on Friday, taking the top of the podium in the women’s biathlon relay.
Instead of jubilation, however, the team was subdued given political crisis that has claimed more than 70 lives at home in the past week.
"We will not celebrate because it’s not time for celebration," said Sergei Bubka, head of the Ukrainian team at Sochi.
"We will be peaceful. It’s a very sad moment for our nations, and our team belongs to the nation; we’re all together," he said. "It’s historical because we have a very difficult moment in our country and of course it was not easy for us to focus and continue the competition."
Protests have plagued Ukraine for months after President Viktor Yanukovych shunned an agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.
Violence flared this week, as protesters and security forces clashed in Kyiv’s Independence Square.
Bubka said, through Twitter, that he believes the gold medal can unite Ukraine. He said there were never any thoughts of withdrawing from Sochi.
Moments after girls won gold Ukrainian Parliament stopped discussions. Speaker greeted the team, MPs sang national anthem!— Sergey Bubka (@sergey_bubka) February 21, 2014
More from GlobalPost: Ukraine’s Olympic athletes call for truce at home
Chamoun satisfied with finishing
The 22-year-old athlete finished 47th overall in women’s downhill — third from the bottom, but better than 25 racers who fell and didn’t finish — just days after a YouTube video surfaced showing her topless.
The three-year-old topless photos elicited a polarized reaction in her native Lebanon, a conservative Middle Eastern country, when they resurfaced as the Winter Games began.
Video of that photo shoot rekindled that debate just as she was to compete.
“Seriously, I didn’t think about that at all today. I was here, happy to do the race, and I was focused,” she told Agence France-Presse. “Small things are not going to disturb me even if it was a big story in my country. I just continue; it’s not a big obstacle.”
“I got a lot of messages from Lebanese people on Facebook, on social media, just telling me: ‘We don’t need your medal. We don’t need you to win. We’re just glad that you represent the country, and you do it very well,’” Chamoun said.
More from GlobalPost: This photo will make you rethink the topless skier story
Sochi has its first positive drug tests
A champion German biathlete and an Italian in the bobsled are home after positive drug tests, the first for Sochi.
Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle and William Frullani each tested positive for methylhexanamine.
The drug is a nasal decongestant once marketed as a dietary supplement, but it can also cause heart attacks.
“This is the worst nightmare you could imagine,” said Sachenbacher-Stehle, who finished fourth this year. “I can’t explain how the doping test could be positive.”
The 33-year-old skier might have eaten contaminated, imported energy bars, reports say.
She also won gold in Vancouver (2010) and Salt Lake City (2002), although she was banned five days in 2006 for high levels of hemoglobin.
Frullani, a police officer, was replaced on the Italian sled for Saturday’s event.
More from GlobalPost: Families displaced by Sochi Olympics wait for permanent housing

domain: sports


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DALLAS (SMU) – Leaf fossils from Ethiopia’s Mush Valley that date back nearly 22 million years have been found by SMU’s Earth Science professors Bonnie Jacobs and Neil J. Tabor and a dozen other international scientists.
The Mush Valley is the first site in Africa to produce an assemblage of some 2,400 leaves from that time interval, and the first to be studied using multiple lines of evidence, including associated microscopic fossils and chemical constituents, that tell us details about the ancient ecosystem.
Scientists can use data from the study to answer fundamental questions, like what climate change may look like in the future. Specifically, climate scientists can take information from the study, along with other data, to test models used to estimate future global climate change.
“The past helps us to understand how ecological processes operate under conditions so different from now. It is like the Earth has done experiments for us,” said Jacobs, a world-renowned paleobotanist at SMU (Southern Methodist University).
In addition, using fossils to learn more about what Africa’s prehistoric ecosystems were like can provide context for events in the past, such as when a land bridge developed between Africa and Eurasia 24 million years ago or the environment for primate precursors to the human family.
The fossils found in this study span an interval of 60,000 years during the early Miocene Epoch, which began 23 million years ago. Ellen D. Currano, a paleoecologist at the University of Wyoming, was the lead author of the study. It was published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
You can read more about the work that Jacobs, Currano and the international colleagues have been doing in the Mush Valley here.
SMU is the nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas. SMU’s alumni, faculty and nearly 12,000 students in eight degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, communities and the world.


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Jussie Smollett testifies in his own defense
Fox News correspondent Matt Finn reports from Chicago as disgraced actor takes the stand
Jussie Smollett took the witness stand on Monday to speak in his own defense as his trial begins to wrap up. Many believed Monday to be the only day Smollett would take the stand, however, the actor is set to continue answering lines of questioning from prosecutors on Tuesday.
The former “Empire” actor, 39, took the stand around 1:00 p.m. ET where he immediately fielded questions about his career and how he met brothers Abimbola and Olabingo Osundairo – who allege he paid them to carry out a fake hate crime attack against him.
Smollett, meanwhile, began his time on the stand by countermanding some of what Bola Osundairo previously testified, explaining that the first night they met they did drugs together and then Bola took him to a gay bath house where they “made out.” This runs contrary to what Bola previously testified, which was that he is not gay and their relationship was not sexual in nature.
Smollett admitted to doing drugs with the brothers, nothing that he frequently had weed on him but would often pay Bola around $200 for cocaine. Bola previously stated that he did not sell drugs to Smollett but merely acquired them for him.
Prosecutors say Smollett staged the attack because he was unhappy with the “Empire” studio’s response to hate mail he received.
The letter included a drawing of a stick figure hanging by a noose, with a gun pointed at it, and the word “MAGA” — an apparent reference to then-President Donald Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
The Osundairo brothers testified that Smollett told them to yell “this is MAGA country” during the fake assault – a phrase which Smollett’s former music manager, Brandon Z. Moore – testified overhearing while on the phone with the actor during the alleged attack when questioned on Thursday by the Smollett defense team.
Moore added that Smollett then told him over the phone, “I just got jumped.”
Jussie Smollett testified to the nature of his relationship with brothers Olabinjo Osundairo, right, and Abimbola Osundairo, which he said included doing drugs with Bola Osundairo and the two allegedly attending a gay bathhouse where they ‘made out’ and did more narcotics.
(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
Smollett, however, has maintained his innocence and argued in court that his association with the Osundario brothers only began after “Empire” creator Lee Daniels allegedly told Smollett he was overweight and Smollett further said he intended to use the Osundario brothers’ training regimen to lose weight for a music video, according to Fox News’ Matt Finn.
The day’s testimony also saw Smollett recall under oath to receiving a text message from CNN’s Don Lemon — supposedly relaying information that the Chicago Police Department didn’t believe his account of what occurred.
Reps for CNN and Lemon did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
Smollett likened the alleged hoax ordeal to a “Looney Tunes” type of chaos when he was attacked.
Asked why he didn’t initially realize a noose was around his neck during the attack, Smollett said, “Because I was getting my a– whooped.”
When asked why he did not call the police after the incident, Smollett said on the stand, “I’m a black man in America and I do not trust police.”
Smollett also testified that an interview he gave to “Good Morning America” was heavily edited.
“Every breath, every emotion is chopped so you really can’t understand it,” Smollett said of the sit-down conversation.
According to Fox News’ Matt Finn, Smollett further pressed that he was invited by Alicia Keys to perform on stage during the Grammys but ultimately declined because he wanted to perform as a singer and not as a singer who was beaten up.
Smollett’s trial wrapped for the day as he was being cross-examined by special prosecutor Dan Webb, who had grilled Smollett about his alleged injuries and his unwillingness to provide his DNA to investigators following the alleged attack.
During his bombshell testimony, Smollett said he took umbrage with Chicago police supposedly indicating Smollett told them his attackers were donning red MAGA hats, stating “I never said that.”
Webb also asked Smollett if he recalls the Northwestern doctor – who was a witness called by Smollett’s own attorney – saying Smollett had no injuries.
“I have a scar under my eye that has not healed… my injuries were real,” Smollett said, according to Fox News’ Matt Finn. “I remember him saying the facial injuries were real…”
Asked if he was concerned that police would see on Smollett’s phone all the substantial communication he had with Bola Osundairo which would pinpoint that the hate crime hoax was planned, Smollett vehemently pressed; “There was no hate crime hoax from my standpoint.”
Meanwhile, a security guard who took the stand on Monday recalled that he told police at the time of the alleged attack that he shined a light in the face of a person running with a ski mask near the scene of the alleged attack – and that the person with the mask was White, yet police persisted in asking if it could have been a Black person.
Former ‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett delivered a bombshell court testimony on Monday. The actor is set to continue fielding questions from prosecutors on Tuesday.
(Photo by Scott Olson)
Smollett is charged with six counts of felony disorderly conduct for making what prosecutors say was a false police report about the alleged attack — one count for each time he gave a report — to three different officers.
The class 4 felony carries a prison sentence of up to three years, but experts have said if Smollett is convicted he likely would be placed on probation and ordered to perform community service.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Read Full Article


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Illeana Douglas has become somewhat of a web series veteran. Her first outing, a comedy called Supermarket of the Stars, put the actress in a grocery store, where other unemployed actors like Justine Bateman also stocked shelves. In Easy to Assemble, she worked at an IKEA.
Spärhusen doesn't have the actress working retail, though she has recruited several celebrity friends to tell the tale of an "almost great band of Sweden." The cast includes Keanu Reeves (!), who plays a record producer specializing in whale sounds. (Seriously, you don't want to miss his sea mammal impressions. Or his wig.)
Check out the first episode, which takes place in 1972:
The musical series kicks off a "fall season" of programming of MyDamnChannel.com. It culminates with the release of a Spärhusen album in the fall.
Whitney has been writing about pop culture for USA TODAY since 1999, when Pop Candy began as a weekly column. Her interests include music festivals, mustaches, Lost, comic books and Andy Warhol. She lives in New York City. More about Whitney | E-mail Whitney

domain: artistic


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ELKHART COUNTY — Anyone with pets knows it can be expensive to feed them. But imagine having to feed more than 200 dogs and then losing almost all of your dog food. That's what the Elkhart County Humane Society is facing right now.
During the winter, water leaked through the shelter’s roof and onto the piles of dog food stored in the garage. Now crews have found most of the food is spoiled.
"We ended up having to throw out three-fourths of our dog food supply,” said Rachel Dennis, who works at the Humane Society. “We lost at least a couple thousand pounds of dog food."
The more than 200 dogs at the shelter go through a few hundred pounds of food a day. And in the room where the food is stored now, the pile keeps getting smaller.
Dogs are healthier when they have a consistent diet. So the Humane Society is asking for donations of Purina Dog Chow, which can run anywhere from $12 to $20. However, Humane Society officials will behappy with donations of any brand of food.

domain: pet


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Unable to Watch this Youtube Video? Click here to play in Soundcloud instead.
Relax ladies, you can put away the Viagra. A$AP Rocky doesn’t have a problem f**king, he’s got a Fu**king Problem. On the latest single from his RCA debut, the young Harlemite returns to let the world know that for all its perks, the legion of women now staking out his hotel room has led to its fair share of difficulties as well. Joining Rocky over Noah “40” Shebib‘s banging beat are a trio of emcees that undoubtedly have some experience in the groupie department as 2 Chainz assists on the hook and Drake and Kendrick Lamar deliver verses. Expect A$AP’s women troubles to only increase when his yet unscheduled LONG.LIVE.A$AP. finally arrives.
Written by Nathan S. on 12/4/12
Polo Grounds Music/RCA
First DJ Booth Appearance:
- Big K.R.I.T. ft. Juicy J, Rittz & A$AP Ferg - Drinkers Club
- Once Lost, a Lil Wayne Fan Finds His Faith in “Carter V”
- Rick Ross ft. Project Pat - Elvis Presley Blvd.
- Big Sean - Untitled EP
- Chris Brown ft. Trey Songz - Songs on 12 Play
- Dyme-A-Duzin - Hip Hope
- “I’m Real”: Five Questions With Raury
- Mick Jenkins - DJBooth RapBox Freestyle
- Kendrick Sued Over “Rigamortis”, Should He Pay Up? (A Sample Clearance Guide)
- The Best Hip-Hop & R&B Songs of 2014 (Ongoing)
Discover the best new songs, videos, and albums added to the Booth.

domain: entertainment


From Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify:
Spotify Files Antitrust Complaint Against Apple with the European Commission Over Its ‘App Tax’
Swedish music streaming giant Spotify has filed a formal antitrust complaint against Apple with the European Commission.
According to a new press release, Spotify has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple over the fees it charges for access to the iPhone App Store in a move that could have far-reaching consequences for the media and technology industries.
In a formal competition complaint to Brussels, the Swedish music streaming giant‘s founder accused Apple of abusing its dominance of the smartphone market to “deliberately disadvantage” competitors.
My goal for Spotify is and has always been to reimagine the audio experience by giving consumers the best creativity and innovation we have to offer. For that to be a reality, it is my firm belief that companies like ours must operate in an ecosystem in which fair competition is not only encouraged, but guaranteed.
It’s why, after careful consideration, Spotify has filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission (EC), the regulatory body responsible for keeping competition fair and nondiscriminatory. In recent years, Apple has introduced rules to the App Store that purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience—essentially acting as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers. After trying unsuccessfully to resolve the issues directly with Apple, we’re now requesting that the EC take action to ensure fair competition.
Among the methods Ek said Apple uses to stifle its rivals is the levying of a 30 percent “tax” that Apple place on purchases consumers make from within the music-streaming apps they are using. Ek said the Apple fee drops to 15 percent if a subscriber has been paying for their particular service for a year, but such fees would force Spotify to raise its prices beyond a level it sees as reasonable
“If we pay this tax, it would force us to artificially inflate the price of our Premium membership well above the price of Apple Music,” he said. “And to keep our price competitive for our customers, that isn’t something we can do.”
If Spotify was to ditch Apple’s payment system, Ek continues, “Apple then applies a series of technical and experience-limiting restrictions on Spotify.”
When Spotify stopped using Apple’s in-app payment system in the past after it was forced to hike the prices of its premium service, it claims Apple blocked “experience-enhancing” updates, locked Spotify out of services such as Siri, HomePod, and Apple Watch and, in some cases, stopped Spotify from sending emails to customers who use Apple devices.
Ek says that Spotify wants the same treatment as other App Store apps like Uber and Deliveroo, “who aren’t subject to the Apple tax and therefore don’t have the same restrictions.” Spotify has asked that:
- First, apps should be able to compete fairly on the merits, and not based on who owns the App Store. We should all be subject to the same fair set of rules and restrictions—including Apple Music.
- Second, consumers should have a real choice of payment systems, and not be “locked in” or forced to use systems with discriminatory tariffs such as Apple’s.
- Finally, app stores should not be allowed to control the communications between services and users, including placing unfair restrictions on marketing and promotions that benefit consumers.
None of these complaints are new for Spotify, which has pursued regulatory help from both the US and the EU for years. They are also not new for other parts of the media business, like magazine and newspaper publishers, as well as video companies.
It’s an ongoing dispute that occasionally flares up in different parts of the industry: Late last year, for instance, Netflix stopped letting customers sign up via through the App Store because it didn’t want to share subscription revenue with Apple.


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Music clip by Old Bear going along with his Ep Green Light.
Excellent tune. Looking forward to the ep!
Thanks Colin! We will be releasing the Ep within this week.
Green Light Ep is out now! You can listen and download the release at: http://rec72.net/?p=3660
Cologne-based netlabel sharing Creative Commons music and visuals


Thursday, December 18, 2014 11:19 pm
Several leaders of the Islamic State group in Iraq have been killed in US air strikes in recent weeks, dealing a blow to the jihadist forces, the Pentagon said Thursday.
“I can confirm that since mid-November, targeted coalition airstrikes successfully killed multiple senior and mid-level leaders” in the IS, spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement.
“We believe that the loss of these key leaders degrades ISIL’s ability to command and control current operations against Iraqi Security Forces, including Kurdish and other local forces in Iraq,” said Kirby, using an alternative acronym for the jihadists.
“While we do not discuss the intelligence and targeting details of our operations, it is important to note that leadership, command and control nodes, facilities, and equipment are always part of our targeting calculus,” he said.
The strikes showed “the coalition’s resolve” in helping Iraqi forces take on the IS group, he said.
The bombing raids were carried out mostly in northern Iraq, defense officials said, but they did not say where each leader was killed.
The attacks came amid a wider effort to pile pressure on the IS group before a major counter-offensive in coming months and as Kurdish forces made gains against the militants around Sinjar near the Syrian border.
US officials named three figures who were killed in the targeted raids, and said other “mid-level” leaders also were taken out.
The most significant figure was identified as Haji Mutazz, better known as Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, who was deputy to the group’s chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Pentagon officials said a second senior militant, referred to as Abd al Basit, also was killed, and was believed to be overseeing the group’s military operations.
In addition, a third militant, known as Radwin Talib, described as a “mid-level” figure overseeing the captured city of Mosul, was killed at some point after mid-September, officials said.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that US forces had taken out several key leaders, quoting the military’s top officer, General Martin Dempsey.
“These are high-value targets, senior leadership,” Dempsey told the Journal.
The newspaper, quoting unnamed officials, said between December 3 to December 9, air raids killed Basit and Turkmani.
The United States launched air strikes against the IS group on August 8 in Iraq, and expanded the raids to Syria on September 23. A coalition of Western and Arab countries has joined the US-led air campaign, which focused this week on IS militants around Sinjar.
Manhunts against senior leaders has become a common tactic in Washington’s war against Al-Qaeda and affiliated extremists over the past decade.
Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, US intelligence agencies repeatedly targeted senior leaders in drone air strikes in Pakistan and the American military conducted frequent raids on the ground and in the air against senior insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.


New Gene Transformation Method Developed
A research team and a bioengineering firm have jointly developed a new gene transformation method using acupuncture needles that is superior to existing techniques.
The team, led by Prof. Choi Yang-do of Seoul National University's college of agriculture and life science, announced yesterday that it has succeeded in developing an herbicide-resistant transgenic soybean jointly with Scigen Harvest Co.
The new method utilizes up to 30 bundled-up acupuncture needles to transplant a gene of interest into a target plant.
Choi said test results showed that the new technology has a much higher transformation success rate compared to existing technology.
He claimed that the newly developed technology has a success rate of up to 21 percent, much higher than the 0.5 percent of the current method.
``This implies that the cost and time of developing transgenic plants, a crucial factor for agricultural biotech companies, can be significantly reduced,'' Prof. Choi said.
The research team applied the technology to a currently cultivated soybean breed in an attempt to create a herbicide-resistant variant. …


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Bound Brook, NJ
Bound Brook is a borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the borough population was 10,402.
Bound Brook was originally incorporated as a town by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 24, 1869, within portions of Bridgewater Township. On February 11, 1891, it was incorporated as a borough, based on the results of a referendum held on the previous day.
The town was first settled in 1681, and was established near the Bound Brook stream of the same name, which flows into the Raritan River via the Green Brook on the east side of the borough.

domain: geography