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Valencia orange cake, sometimes known as Gâteau á l'Orange, goes back centuries. This recipe originates from the traditional Spanish sponge cake that uses oranges from Spain. It is thought that the best oranges were produced in Valencia, Spain. This reminds me that the best clementines I've ever had were from Spain, but they are hard to find here in the United States. But not Valencia oranges—they are grown here so you shouldn't have a problem finding some sweet, organic Valencia oranges. But just in case, you can use other oranges in a pinch.
I highly recommend organic oranges for this recipe because you are eating the entire orange, including the skin (and pesticides tend to be highly concentrated in the skin), and you're only buying two of them.
This cake has a sweet, tangy, orange flavor, and it is very moist. It is great on its own, or it goes well with crème frâiche, whipped cream, or a scoop of ice cream. This recipe was inspired by an orange cake recipe from the wonderful cookbook, The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York by Claudi Roden.
Valencia Orange Cake {grain free}
- 2 organic Valencia oranges
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 cup of honey
- 2 cups of blanched almond flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- Place two whole organic Valencia oranges in a pot with enough water to cover them. Add a tightly sealed lid. The oranges will float, but they should be mostly covered. Simmer them in the pot for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. When you can easily glide a toothpick or fork through them, they are ready. You can add water to them while they are cooking, if necessary.
- Cool the oranges for a few minutes, slice them into wedges and remove any pits or inedible parts (like the nub where the stem was).
- Process the oranges until you have a smooth, orange paste without lumps.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. (I bake using a convection oven setting, so I place the temperature at 300 degrees F).
- To get a slightly lighter cake, separate the egg yolks and egg whites, and then whip the egg whites separately until stiff peaks form.
- In a bowl, beat eggs (or egg yolks if separated) until well blended, and then beat in the honey and dry ingredients (baking soda, salt, and almond flour).
- Fold in the almond flour and orange paste into the egg and honey mixture and blend well.
- If you whipped the egg whites separately, here is where you want to fold the egg whites into the rest of the batter.
- Use a spring form pan or a well buttered baking pan. Butter or oil the bottom of the spring form pan. No need to butter the sides of the spring form pan.
- Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Make sure to bake it thoroughly, especially in the center, or it may settle when it cools. Even if it settles, it still tastes wonderful.
- Enjoy!

subset: commoncrawl


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Reeves, J., Gale, L., Webb, J., Delaney, R. and Cocklin, N. (2009) Focusing on young men: developing integrated services for young fathers. Community practitioner : the journal of the Community Practitioners' & Health Visitors' Association, 82 (9). pp. 18-21. ISSN 1462-2815


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Sean Payton's season of exile from the National Football League is officially over.
The NFL on Tuesday reinstated the New Orleans Saints head coach after he served a seasonlong suspension for the Saints' bounty scandal. The reinstatement came after Payton met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and "acknowledged ... his responsibility for the actions of his coaching staff and players," an NFL news release said.
"Sean fully complied with all the requirements imposed on him during his suspension," Goodell said in the release. "More important, it is clear that Sean understands and accepts his responsibilities as a head coach and the vital role that coaches play in promoting player safety and setting an example for how the game should be played at all levels."
Payton said he was "thankful today Commissioner Goodell has granted me reinstatement."
"As I stated back in March, I, along with (Saints General Manager) Mickey Loomis, take full responsibility for all aspects of our football program," Payton said in a statement released by a Saints spokesman.
"I clearly recognize that mistakes were made, which led to league violations. Furthermore, I have assured the commissioner a more diligent protocol will be followed."
Payton's reinstatement is immediate, meaning he can attend this week's Senior Bowl, a college all-star game featuring NFL Draft prospects.
Are you a beavis or a butthead, Benn.
In fact, there were so many buttheads who attended gladiator games, workers had to be hired to pour perfume on the walkways to cover the stench of death. Fans who would have left because of the putrid smell now stayed.
Of course modern organized sports mirror these things... my point is there have been beavis and butthead type sportsfans before. We KNOW what they did, and we know what happened to their games because of it. They ended.
So you have no stand on this issue. You have no side to defend. "A little of both" loses every time as a house divided falls. Next.
You walked around to the ass-end of my camel, and want to debate with one of the gnats on his ass.
The issue is bigger than Peyton being reinstated, as I described beavis and butthead, and is descibed in the book "The Fix is In".
And, who is this "Peyton" you speak of? Peyton Manning? LOL (Sean Payton there bub)
Yay! Yer happy! I'll give you that one. You haven't even tried to refute any of my points! I made my points, and your is you are happy. he he. Good night, Benn. Have fun at the game and . 🙂
Benn, get this...it's been proven in court that it's legal for the NBA commissioner to order refs to throw games. Check it out for yourself.
It's perfectly legal for NASCAR, a family owned business, to predetermine the outcome of races.
These are things along with all those other things listed in above comments that need fixed in sports. (rather than the games themselves being fixed)
Have a good one, Benn.
the practice is so old they even made high school football movies about it, they just made an example of Sean Payton and the Saints because he took the NFL's crappiest team and beat all odds to win the Superbowl after a hurricane destroyed their home field and city. Haters!!!!!!!!!!
Another partison witch hunt! Partisan posturing has prevented the US government from moving forward for over 4 years leaving our country and economy in complete disarray! The majority of the blame can be squarely placed on the shoulders of house and senate Republicans.
Play time is over guys and gals! America is on to your slimy political power plays and we're sick of them! If you don't stop, the voter WILL stop you – we will vote out everyone who, using partisan politics to obstruct the government, is guilty of preventing our government from functioning. I suspect one or two more election disasters for Republicans like the last one and there will not be a Republican party to be concerned about any longer!
Who cares. It's amazing the amount of importance people put on guys running up and down grass with an oval shaped airbag.
because it's a billion dollar industry, that's why.


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Testers 2.6.4
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Revision as of 14:09, 20 December 2013 by BigChimp (talk | contribs) (→Candidates for testing of 2.6.4)
Candidates for testing of 2.6.4
Anybody willing to contribute to FPC and help to increase release quality by participating in systematic testing of release candidates and short checking of the final release. Note that this testing differs at least partly from just using the particular build for your own purposes, because you are supposed to perform a minimum set of defined operations, let us know when the testing is finished and report your results in certain time period (usually not more than one week - exact dates are provided when the builds are available).
To test a release at least do the following. If some part is not available for the specific target you can skip it of course
- Install the release (check that the version-numbers are correct)
- make sure readme.txt & whatsnew.txt are for the current version
- Read updated text files as distributed in release zip files
- readme.txt
- faq.txt
- whatsnew.txt
- run all distributed executables (in bin/*)
- open the installed hello.pp in IDE
- make a minor change in the demo in IDE & save it
- compile the demo file in IDE
- run the demo within the IDE (debugger)
- view documentation in IDE, traverse 2-3 pages (at least one with screenshots)
- make cycle with newly installed binaries and sources
- run testsuite
- Check PDF documentation (open all files)
- Check HTML documentation, if any
- Check TXT documentation, if any
- Check CHM documentation, if any
Report any findings on the Issues 2.6.4 page
|name and e-mail (account at domain)
|CPU - operating system - version/distribution
|RC1 testing status (how many percents done, when expected to finish)
|RC2 testing status
|First Last, somebody at some.domain
|Intel Septium HyperSuperSomething - Linux - SuSE 23.1
|95% (unable to finish XYZ due to lack of time)


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Plainsman· Administrator
20,101 Posts
Discussion Starter · #1 ·
When a liberal burns the American flag he defends his actions by saying it's his or her first amendment rights. However, they don't extend that right to anyone who is not liberal. With 90% of the media liberal that isn't enough for them. As soon as they get a majority they will attack the first amendment rights of conservatives by trying to shut down talk radio. They have already tried to shut down Rush Limbaugh on the radio provided to our soldiers. It's the number one program that our soldiers in Iraq listen to because as I have personally been told it was the only one they got that gave good news about Iraq. In that situation they didn't respect the first amendment or our soldiers.
So what can we expect from an Obama president with Nancy at his side?
So what can we expect from an Obama president with Nancy at his side?
SHOULD Barack Obama win the presidency and Democrats take full control of Congress, next year will see a real legislative attempt to bring back the Fairness Doctrine - and to diminish conservatives' influence on broadcast radio, the one medium they dominate.
Yes, the Obama campaign said some months back that the candidate doesn't seek to re-impose this regulation, which, until Ronald Reagan's FCC phased it out in the 1980s, required TV and radio broadcasters to give balanced airtime to opposing viewpoints or face steep fines or even loss of license. But most Democrats - including party elders Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and Al Gore - strongly support the idea of mandating "fairness."
Would a President Obama veto a new Fairness Doctrine if Congress enacted one? It's doubtful.
The Fairness Doctrine was an astonishingly bad idea. It's a too-tempting power for government to abuse. When the doctrine was in effect, both Democratic and Republican administrations regularly used it to harass critics on radio and TV.
Second, a new Fairness Doctrine would drive political talk radio off the dial. If a station ran a big-audience conservative program like, say, Laura Ingraham's, it would also have to run a left-leaning alternative. But liberals don't do well on talk radio, as the failure of Air America and indeed all other liberal efforts in the medium to date show. Stations would likely trim back conservative shows so as to avoid airing unsuccessful liberal ones.
Then there's all the lawyers you'd have to hire to respond to the regulators measuring how much time you devoted to this topic or that. Too much risk and hassle, many radio executives would conclude. Why not switch formats to something less charged - like entertainment or sports coverage?
For those who dismiss this threat to freedom of the airwaves as unlikely, consider how the politics of "fairness" might play out with the public. A Rasmussen poll last summer found that fully 47 percent of respondents backed the idea of requiring radio and television stations to offer "equal amounts of conservative and liberal political commentary," with 39 percent opposed.
Liberals, Rasmussen found, support a Fairness Doctrine by 54 percent to 26 percent, while Republicans and unaffiliated voters were more evenly divided. The language of "fairness" is seductive.
Even with control of Washington and public support, Dems would have a big fight in passing a Fairness Doctrine. Rush Limbaugh & Co. wouldn't sit by idly and let themselves be regulated into silence, making the outcome of any battle uncertain. But Obama and the Democrats also plan other, more subtle regulations that would achieve much the same outcome.
He and most Democrats want to expand broadcasters' public-interest duties. One such measure would be to impose greater "local accountability" on them - requiring stations to carry more local programming whether the public wants it or not. The reform would entail setting up community boards to make their demands known when station licenses come up for renewal. The measure is clearly aimed at national syndicators like Clear Channel that offer conservative shows. It's a Fairness Doctrine by subterfuge.
Obama also wants to relicense stations every two years (not eight, as is the case now), so these monitors would be a constant worry for stations. Finally, the Democrats also want more minority-owned stations and plan to intervene in the radio marketplace to ensure that outcome.
It's worth noting, as Jesse Walker does in the latest Reason magazine, that Trinity Church, the controversial church Obama attended for many years, is heavily involved in the media-reform movement, having sought to restore the Fairness Doctrine, prevent media consolidation and deny licenses to stations that refuse to carry enough children's programming.
Regrettably, media freedom hasn't been made an issue by the McCain campaign, perhaps because the maverick senator is himself no fan of unbridled political speech, as his long support of aggressive campaign-finance regulation underscores. But the threat to free speech is real - and profoundly disturbing.


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A&E is checking in at the "Bates Motel."
Cabler has ordered 10 episodes of the Universal Television series while forgoing a pilot. A&E's faith in not asking for pilot first comes in the form of former "Lost" showrunner Carlton Cuse, who will exec produce with Kerry Ehrin.
Set to premiere in 2013, "Bates Motel" examines the formative years of iconic "Psycho" character Norman Bates, and his twisted relationship with his mother. Series will offer insight into their backstory, including how Bates, played by Anthony Perkins in the classic Alfred Hitchcock horror film, became a serial killer.
"We are proud to be partnering with Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin on their thrilling reinvention of one of the most compelling characters in cinematic history," said A&E president Bob DeBitetto and exec VP of programming David McKillop in a joint statement. "It's a provocative project from two of the best storytellers in the business and we're looking forward to getting started."
"Bates Motel" marks the second major Hollywood project based on Hitchcock's classic horror pic. Fox Searchlight is currently shooting "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho," a behind-the-scenes drama detailing the helmer's struggles while making the 1960 feature with Anthony Hopkins set as Hitchcock and Scarlett Johansson playing Janet Leigh.
On Friday, A&E renewed western drama "Longmire" for a second season. Show has gotten off to a strong start for A&E, averaging 3.9 million viewers per episode.


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Oct. 8, 2008— -- You hear people say cancer is a journey, and I never quite understood what they meant. I was like, "What do you mean, 'journey'?" I was feeling fine. I didn't feel sick. The only thing I knew was that I had a lump. And it was cancer. And I had decisions to make.
I decided to continue working during treatment and reveal my diagnosis on the air.
It was a hard decision, and my mother really helped me, because she was the one who basically said, "We don't roll like that. That's now how we do it."
She said, "In our family, it's been about being of service to others. It's not about us."
Click Here to read an excerpt from Roberts' book. You may visit the ABC News store to buy a copy of Robin Roberts' "Nightline" special.
At "Good Morning America," my other family, we don't take it lightly that we're invited into people's homes to have breakfast with them every morning. And I didn't want viewers to hear it from anyone else.
The first time I was told, "You're a survivor," was very early on. My doctor said that, and I know I was just looking at him, thinking, "You've got to be kidding me. I'm feeling anything but."
Surviving Chemo
The idea was to have surgery and get rid of the tumor and get on with my life, until they got a look at it. Once they got it under the microscope, they said the tumor was nasty.
And I remember going, "What do you mean, nasty?"
I was told that I would need chemotherapy and then radiation. And that was the first and only time that I said, "I may die." I never thought of it before then.
What helped me to get that thought out of my mind was to keep working. I was craving normalcy. I tried to tell my oncologist, "OK, tell you what, this is how it's gonna go, doctor: So, I'll have chemo on Friday, rest on the weekend, and I'll be back sitting next to Diane on Monday."
I read everything I could about chemotherapy and side effects, but until you are sitting in that chemo chair, the bottom line is you have no idea.
During the first treatment I was sitting there saying, "OK, I'm ready!" And they gave me the chemo and I thought, "That's it? OK."
The second day -- OK.
Third day -- not so good.
Fourth day -- uh-oh.
I could fool myself for only so long. I was starting to look like a person fighting cancer, and I was told during that time I would most likely lose my hair because of the type of chemo I was receiving.
Sure enough, it happened almost like clockwork, shortly after the second treatment. I was in the bathroom and my hair was starting to come out in clumps, and I just slithered down to the floor and I was just bawling.
Cancer Isn't One Size Fits All
I became obsessed with my hair. Yeah, it's meaningless, in the scheme of things, but I've heard women say that it's more devastating to lose their hair than their breasts. In so many ways, it frames who we are. You know, today, you're wearing a ponytail. Next day you have your hair down. You get to change how you look, it's how you feel, it's a part of who you are. It expresses who you are.
But I knew I was doing what I needed to get healthy again. So many people who have walked this journey before me said, "Shave your head. Don't go through this." But you know what? Sometimes you appreciate the advice people give you, but sometimes you have to almost experience it yourself.
I never thought I would shave my head, but I did. I decided I would be the one to do it, and I felt very in control at that moment. I felt strong, and I was much more comfortable without hair than I thought I'd be. But at the time I was convinced it would be a distraction to the audience, so I wore a wig on the air.
From 7 a.m. until 9 a.m., my hair and makeup team put "Humpty Dumpty" back together again. From 7 until 9, I got to look like me. It was what I felt was best for me to get through this. I can't emphasize enough that cancer isn't one size fits all.
For some reason, I decided to go to the Middle East with the first lady, Laura. Bush. She had invited me. I asked my doctors and they said, "Well, it's a bit ambitious. People don't normally travel to Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia in the middle of chemotherapy." And I was kind of looking at them like, "Yeah, and ...?"
It was easier getting permission from the doctors than it was getting permission from my mom to go on the trip. But she understood the importance of it to me. I had to take the entire week off following the trip. … I couldn't get out of bed. I was spent.
Not the Last Chapter
I couldn't imagine going through this journey without my "GMA" family and my ABC News family. And from the moment I let people know about my diagnosis, support started pouring in, most of it from people who knew firsthand what I was going through.
The homemade items, the prayer shawls, and the number of people in the audience who say, "I prayed for you," … I've lost count.
On the last day of chemo, I shed tears of joy. Because of the chemo, my body just wasn't mine anymore. I was hurting so much. So it's kind of nice not to have any thought of that.
"It's our tradition whenever you finish chemotherapy, you get bubbles," the nurse said.
So she blew bubbles, and everybody cheered, but it wasn't over. The next step: 6½ of radiation every day.
"When they take out the tumor sometimes there are cells left over at the edges of the scar," the nurse explained.
Radiation was very hard on me, fatigue-wise, but after seven months, my treatment was finally over.
There was one more thing on my mind. The day came when I realized that I was in essence hiding behind my wig on the air.
I'd been telling myself that the audience couldn't handle seeing me bald, but you know what? Maybe it was me who was having a problem showing them what I really looked like. I was just holding on to the way I looked prior to cancer.
Now I realize this is me. I look in the mirror. You have cancer. You have cancer. Look at you. You're here. You're living and working with cancer.
I flipped my wig and I shook it off. I am not my hair; I am the soul that lies within.
Now I've walked this path, and I have some insight. I don't think about it when I wake up -- it's not the first thing I think about.
I've also got a lot of pink in my office these days. I never was much for pink before all this, but it's my favorite color now.
This is a chapter in my life, that's it. It is not my life story, and it will not be the last chapter in my life story.
ABC News producers Roxanna Sherwood and Eric Johnson contributed to this report.


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Entries linking to asker
Middle English asken, from Old English ascian "ask, call for an answer; make a request," earlier ahsian, from Proto-Germanic *aiskojanan (source also of Old Saxon escon, Old Frisian askia "request, demand, ask," Middle Dutch eiscen, Dutch eisen "to ask, demand," Old High German eiscon "to ask (a question)," German heischen "to ask, demand"), from PIE *ais- "to wish, desire" (source also of Sanskrit icchati "seeks, desires," Armenian aic "investigation," Old Church Slavonic iskati "to seek," Lithuanian ieškau, ieškoti "to seek").
The form in English was influenced by a Scandinavian cognate (such as Danish æske); the Old English would have evolved by normal sound changes into ash, esh, which was a Midlands and southwestern England dialect form. Modern dialectal ax is as old as Old English acsian and was an accepted literary variant until c. 1600. Related: Asked; asking.
Old English also had fregnan/frignan which carried more directly the sense of "question, inquire," and is from PIE root *prek-, the common source of words for "ask" in most Indo-European languages (see pray). If you ask me "in my opinion" is attested from 1910.
Share asker
updated on February 20, 2017


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Most prenatal care is designed to identify the small number of pregnant women who will develop Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension. This condition can be prevented and treated. This presentation explores how the diagnosis is made, how to identify the symptoms in the early stages, and which clients are at risk.
One of Gloria Lemay's twelve Essentials of Maternal-Infant Care presentations for birthing professionals and other care providers who work with women during the childbearing year. This series also benefits students of all levels who wish to delve into issues that arise repeatedly in clinical practice.
This session is 90 minutes in length.
Cost: $7.50
Certificate of Completion: $7.50 (completion of post-session questionnaire required).
Continuing Education Units are available for some professional groups. To view a listing of CEU opportunities, click here.


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Updated at 8:12 p.m. ET on 8/22
Binghamton, New York (CNN) – President Barack Obama kicked off a two day bus tour in upstate New York Thursday, unveiling plans to change the way the federal government will award federal student aid to colleges and universities.
Complaining that "college has never been more expensive," the president said to students at the University at Buffalo that "a higher education is the single best investment you can make in your future."
But he added that over the last three decades "tuition has gone up 250%, income has gone up 16%." As a result, Obama pointed out, the "average student owes 26,000 dollars" in debt upon graduation.
The president said he intends to focus on proposals aimed at curbing the rising cost of higher education, adding "a higher education is the single best investment you can make in your future."
Later in the day, Obama spoke at a high school in Syracuse, again offering proposals he said would make college more affordable to a crowd of students and teachers.
He says the plan will have three main goals.
"We're gonna start rating colleges. Rate them on who is offering best value so students and taxpayers can get the best bang for your buck," Obama said in Buffalo.
Obama also said his plan would "jumpstart new competition between colleges" and would "make sure that if you have to take on debt...that you have ways to manage and afford it."
In his speech, he hit Republicans, saying affordable college and a better economy aren't the high priorities in Washington.
"Rather than keeping focus on a growing economy that creates good middle class jobs, we've seen a faction of Republicans in Congress suggest that maybe America shouldn't pay its bills that have already been run up, that we should shut down government if they can't shut down Obamacare," he said. "That won't grow our economy, that won't create jobs."
Earlier Thursday, the White House released details of the plan saying the "financial aid to college value" plan is based on a new ranking system to be carried out by the Department of Education.
The proposal also advocates for a "pay as you earn" system for the repayment of debt, by which borrowers would be able to "cap their federal student loan payments at 10 percent of their monthly income."
Currently, this option is only available to those students who began taking on student loans after 2008, or who have not borrowed since 2011.
Additionally, the president's plan recommends tying academic progress to the distribution of student aid, specifically suggesting that students "complete a certain percentage of their classes before receiving continued funding," which the White House says would encourage more students to graduate on time, thus incurring less debt.
As he made his way from Buffalo to Syracuse Thursday, Obama paid a visit to a restaurant in Rochester, and stopped at in Seneca Falls, New York, the site of an historic 1848 convention on women's rights. While there, he presented a copy of a measure he signed, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.
The White House confirmed that Vice President Joe Biden will join the president in Scranton, Pennsylvania for a final stop on Friday.
Student loans – another critical element in the cost of higher education – were a topic of fierce debate before Congress took its August recess.
In the end, legislation was passed keep interest rates on loans down, but only after intense negotiations and gridlock that forced the law to be enacted retroactively, since lawmakers were unable to come to a consensus before rates rose.
The Republican National Committee criticized the bus tour, sending out an email to journalists purportedly from, "the desk of a lame duck president." The press release continued, "[President] Obama officially embraces his lame duck status doing what he does best – giving another speech with no record to show for it."
Better to continue to campaign than:
– keep his laser focus on employment and the economy, because 5 years of unemployment over 7.0% and the US debt over $17 trillion is really a sign if success
– addressing the blatant violation if the 4th Ammendment with the NSA spy program
– getting to the bottom of the IRS targeting scandal to prove to the Nation once an for all that there was no wrong doing
– providing a budget proposal that is not laughed at by both democrats and republicans
... Things a President is supposed to do, not a community organizer who is still running for President.
Mr. President has neither lacked the idea nor the will. The Congress simply would not allow him take credit of any act, to the point of hurting Americans.
With many jobs requiring college degree, it makes our country more split between the haves and have-nots. Lowering the cost of college and some post college programs (like medical school) need to be done so that we don't have have to import those that have the degrees needed.
Tell them how you plan on getting us jobs and out of debt that would be a good first start on solving you out of control spending.
And the baggers ask, "why can't he be more uncaring, less concerned about veterans, less concerned about women's rights, completely oblivious to the environment, disgusted with the poor and middle class, and unaware that education is what keeps America great?"
Answer: that would make him a republican.
Keep hope alive, without hope u have nothing but hate 4 self and others .
How about working while in college or maybe joining the miltary or maybe just going to a college you can afford..Btw stop majoring in art history or drama you won`t find a job..geez, its common sense people.
Here's an idea, stop allowing illegal immigrants to go to college for free, and maybe there could be extra funding for AMERICANS who actually want to go to college and get an education.
So he wants education to offered kind of like a Walmart, get "the best bang for your buck"?


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According to Hit Fix one of the reasons Scott Pilgrim did poorly in the box office this weekend was because people were having trouble determining the plot. I never read the graphic novels upon which the film was based, so I think it is pretty fair to say I only had the trailers to go on myself. It seemed fairly obvious to me that Scott Pilgrim was based on a particular genre of graphic novel addressing disaffected youth, counter-culture, and the pursuit of women and/or girls. I'm not sure how you could watch the trailer and not know that.
Just in case:
the plot of Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Scott Pilgrim is a 22 year old slacker bassist in an unsigned band who thinks he has met the love of his life, hipster Ramona Flowers. In order to date her drama free, he must fight her 7 evil exes all of whom have magical or video game like powers. The bulk of the film takes place at video game speed, with power ups, point values, and information bubbles. Visually it is a cross between the arcade games of 70s childhoods and modern day play station lives. The whole thing is also set to music capitalizing on the popularity of guitar hero and indie rock cred to reaffirm its geek + hipster sensibility.
The Good
Scott Pilgrim vs The World/Universal Studios/2010
The script is full of snappy one liners that in lesser hands would come off as pathetic caricature. Fortunately, from the smallest roles to the largest ones, almost every actor in Pilgrim has the necessary comedic timing and snark to pull it off. Both Alison Pill and Kieran Culkin serve up the best performances in the film, helping keep the pace of Pilgrim moving and entertaining when it could just have easily insulted and fallen flat. Johnny Simmons is brilliant as Young Neal managing to delight in every scene he is in despite having few lines. The only people who don't seem to elevate this film to similar teen-period-piece classics are Bree Larson, whose comedic timing on US of Tara is always a joy to watch but here seems like she's been directed to overact to avoid dealing with real female emotions, and Satya Bhabha whose role suffers from offensive stereotype too much for him to do much with it. But we'll get to that … wait for it …
The music is both entertaining and sometimes really good in this film. Despite failing at the acting end of her role, Bree Larson on stage is a real treat and the song is one of the best in the film. All of the actors take their dual roles as grunge heroes seriously. When they are on stage their parodies play like the real thing. The least effective of these moments is the Asian dragon sequence, but we will get to that … wait for it …
The romantic moments in this film are both visually and emotionally compelling. Scott takes Ramona's hand in the snow the shot captures the individual snow flakes and the open heart shape of their arms to the soft background music that would make any girl's heart go pitter-pat. When they walk together in the x in the snow, the shot not only calls up the plot of the film (evil exes) but also speaks to the crossroad both of them have or will meet in the film. These scenes have all the magic of any romance and yet are couched in enough hipster quipping to keep it from making its core audience wonder what they got suckered into. For instance, in the scene where they sit on the swings in Toronto winter, Flowers in nothing but wool tights, mini, light jacket, and fingerless gloves, they both remark how ridiculous it is that they are outside trying to be romantic in freezing cold temperatures; then, they go inside. Take that Hollywood!
Ramona also makes a nice alternative to the leading women that dominate mainstream romantic comedies. While her disaffected attitude toward both the world and Scott has critics stumped, this seemed no more or less disengaged to me than any other hipster film. Ramona could just as easily be Juno or Nora from Nick and Nora, both of which critics loved. More interesting to me was the fact that she has a healthy body. While she is far a cry from a "plus size" model, she has ample hips and undefined arms; in other words, she's normal. When Ramona takes her clothes off, the camera does not shy away from angles that will make her hips larger or her chest flatter, and no CGI turns her into Laura Croft eye candy either. As much derision as I have for hipster culture, one thing I have always appreciated is that there is room for women of all shapes and sizes in their films, you know as long as they are young, mostly white, and able-bodied … but will get to that … wait for it …
Finally, unlike any number of mainstream and alternative films, this is one of the first studio movies aimed at summer audience with prominent queer characters. Scott lives with his gay best friend Wallace, played by Kieran Culkin. Wallace is hilarious as the non-stereotypical wise-cracking best friend who just wants to live his slacker life and get laid like everyone else. Unlike the chirping snarkfest gay bestfriends of stereotype land, Wallace is compassionate when needed, horny in believable and non-pathologized ways, always has Scott's back even when that means calling him out sans a single "girlfriend", and rather than snark he peddles in a fair amount of cynicism that offers the only real moral compass of the film. While his ever increasing sex partners are a consistent joke in the film, this too is depicted in a way that runs against the grain of the hypersexed gay man or the tragically grateful coming out story that dominate queer young adult films these days. And truthfully, I like that he gets laid without much fanfare, struggle, or questioning but instead is just another guy living his life.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World/Universal Studios/2010
Ramona is also not completely straight. Throughout the film, Scott displays typical heterosexism as he works out how exactly he ended up having to fight Ramona's 7 exes. Every time he says, "7 ex-boyfriends", Ramona corrects him with "7 exes". It starts out as a subtle reminder about how heterosexism works and how people with gay bestfriend's can still be guilty of it. This subtlety-turned-unnecessary-repetition is followed up with Scott finally cluing in with a scene that reaffirms the way the film naturalizes all sexualities; when Ramona says she was going through "a phase", Scott replies "what a sexy phase?". While in some ways that rejoinder reaffirms a heterosexist gaze at lesbian sexuality, ie for the entertainment of straight men, it also refuses to judge or pathologize Ramona's chocies. And while it is not the most questioning -affirming comment in the world, I loved it when Romana's ex responds to their love affair being called "a phase" by calling her a "has-bien", we used to call it L.U.G. (lesbian until graduation) in my day. And I don't think this film used the term to demean bisexuals, which I assume is how it is used in the real world. Instead, the comment markedly calls out women who deny or disavow parts of their sexuality with little regard for the women they ab/use in the process. To me saying a real relationship was "a phase" with all the implied judgment in your tone in front of your ex is a far cry from being confused about what you like or being bisexual and deciding to commit to a man. Ramona is guilty of the former.
Truthfully, as a person who teaches film, if the movie had not failed so horribly in other places I would be comparing it to Fast Times or Singles, for its ability to capture a particular cultural moment in youth culture that people can identify with now and look back on fondly later when, like those other moments, youth culture has moved on,
The Bad
This movie is choppy. It very seldom lets a scene play out all the way through and has even less transition scenes. While this fits with the overall goal of the film to be like a video game, it leads to some scene splicing that pulls you out of the film and makes you wonder about technique rather than story line; visionary work can use new techniques while telling a story.
The same thing happens with excessive use of pop ups. While most of them are in keeping with the film's overall feel, sometimes they seem like an unecessary device reminiscent of the decline of Pop Up Video on VH1 than innovation. In at least one scene there are so many of pop ups you don't have time to read them all. Alternatively, the film uses black marks to cover up cursing to hilarious effect.
Ultimately, the problems seems more about too much and timing than technique. While Director Edgar Wright had an amazing grasp on cinematography and story, his love of his concept gets in the way. Some times I think he does not trust himself with the meatier parts of the story (of which there are few) so he dumps in some graphics instead. This is particularly true when he is dealing with the love story that supposedly drives the film and is unfortunate because he clearly has the chops to make the story line sing.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World/Universal Studios/2010
Most of the characters in this film are two-dimensional. Some characters are introduced and then never seen again. Others are given significant enough attention or back story that we want to know about them but they are simply plot devices that appear and disappear in the night. This is particularly problematic with regards to Scott's ex-girlfriend who is supposed to motivate all his douchebaggery. Of course, the film isn't invested in female characters … But we'll get to that … Wait for it.
For the vegan viewers, this film will also enrage. One of Ramona's evil exes is a vegan who as a result of not eating animal products has magical powers and the condescension to match. For me, his ridiculous banter and ultimate dethroning were deeply satisfying as a critique against self-righteous vegans who act as though they are better than everyone else. Example: PETA's beached whale campaign that incited an endless barrage of fatphobia and hatred toward large people as non-vegan or self-appointed voices of the vegan movement on the internet who transform multiple conversations about racism, classism, and other oppressions preventing veganism from reaching certain people or changing world systems that impact animals into myopic rants about how everyone who disagrees with them "eats meat" and "hates vegans". This kind of pseudo-sainthood that targets others and refuses to address one's own oppressive behaviors makes vegans an easy target and the film is spot on in its depiction of the sanctimonious set within a much larger social justice movement.
At the same time, there is no room in this film for vegans who actually are neither elitest nor judgmental. There is no real vegan in this film. The evil ex, it seems eats chicken occasionally. Even if he did not, there is no other vegan in the film who is sane, committed to social justice, and just trying to live their life in the best way possible. For those vegans this image is a huge slap in the face. It smarts even harder no doubt because in the graphic novel the character is actually a drummer with a bionic arm not a vegan at all … but wait for it …
The Ugly
The article I linked to at the top of this post, has a whole list of reasons Scott Pilgrim did not do well at the box office. None of these include that the film is offensive and thus fails to entertain at a deeper level. However, I would argue that it is the depiction of women and APIs that is at the heart of its failure.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World/Universal Studios/2010
Scott Pilgrim begins with a backstory about Scott being on the rebound with a high school girl. He is 22 and she is 17. To get around both legality and the potential morality issues involved in this hook up, the film spends a considerable amount of time pointing out that they do not kiss nor have sex. I know I am Catholic, and so is Knives Chau, the girlfriend, but seriously … Worse than these age differences is the way Scott treats her. Not only does he forget about her regularly, he misses dates, picking her up, and even jumps out of a window to avoid her. (The window scene is hilarious out of context but fails to read the level of the panty scene in the Breakfast Club precisely because the film never takes its female characters seriously and its characters of color even less so.) Worse, he also cheats on her without even thinking about it; the majority of the film depicts his heartless cheating as the great love story for us to invest in with little regard to Knives either. It is one thing if your hero is a douchebag, it's another if your storyline elevates it to romance.
While Knives is doting on his every word, Scott is trying to get Ramona to pay attention to him. He orders a useless gadget to get her to deliver it after he finds out that is her job. He slides up to her at a party and tries to be witty using the same pick up line he used on Knives a few scenes before. He even goes to bed with her, though they end up not having sex because Ramona changes her mind at the last minute, while still dating Knives. In fact, he is so insensitive that he invites Ramona to the same concert Knives has promised to come see without breaking up with her. When they start to confront him, he simply runs away and does his best to keep them from talking. Only Wallace tells him he is cruel and needs to man up and even then, his answer is to try to avoid it and then simply tell her as she is going on about how wonderful they are, that it is over.
In a scene that should make every girl's skin crawl, Scott rides home on the train looking pathetic because he had to break up with his girlfriend and that made him feel bad. Poor Scott. And then, his pathetic shell-shocked expression twists into a giddy grin as Ramona's face pops into his head. His 5 seconds of guilt don't even amount to remorse since they are really about how much it sucked for him to have to look at Knives teary eyes than about how how he treated her, demeaned her, and took her for granted. Did I mention he makes her pay for their dates?
In typical male fantasy fashion, we are supposed to excuse Scott's treatment of Knives for three reasons: (1) Ramona is his true love, so of course he pursued her. Except, Scott was a self-absorbed user before Ramona came into the picture. (2) Knives is better than Scott, Wallace tells us so and so does Knives herself so that makes all his neglect and douchebaggery ok. And (3) After stalking him throughout the rest of the film, Knives herself gives him permission to go after Ramona even though he was perfectly willing to take her back as a consolation prize at the end of the movie. You know because Ramona said she was leaving and Knives still has an allowance to buy video games and pizza with on their dates. (Supposedly he learns a lesson in this movie, there is even dialogue saying "I think I am learning something" except the fact he is willing to reunite with Knives when he does not love her undermines the entire thing.)
What is most offensive about the Knives storyline to me is that it does not need to be there. Knives serves no purpose in this movie except as a vehicle for Scott and his friend's racism and/or sexism… wait for it … and his overwhelming self-absorption. Including Knives seems like a huge mistake for a film that tries so desperately to convince us that Scott is a good guy. In case your smart enough to know better, the movie has Ramona says it over and over again. In this way, I agree with many of the mainstream reviewers who said one of the big failings of this movie is that the main character is not particularly likable or interesting.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World/Universal Studios/2010
The premise of the movie is also basically sexist when you get right down to it. In order for Scott to be with Ramona he has to fight for her with a bunch of beefed out men, and one puckish girl, who barely care that Ramona is there. In fact, it turns out that none of them are fighting for Ramona but instead to get her back for the only guy in this movie who is more narcissistic and sexist than Scott himself. Haven't we gotten past the woman as property or prize days yet?
Worse, it turns out Ramona's motivation is that she is only using Scott to get her ex to pay attention to her. Seems like Scott and his rival have a lot in common whe it comes to how they treat women and Ramona's quite the catch with her lust for self-absorbed people who barely care about her.
Despite supposedly being empowered, Ramona does nothing to defend herself or put a stop to the conflict, except when Scott refuses to "hit a girl". He can use them and ignore them but hitting is where Scott draws the line; I wish the director felt the same.
Hitting girls is pretty common place in this film. Mr. Vegan punches Knives with such force that he "knocks out her highlights". While the refrain about her highlights being gone is meant to make us laugh, there is nothing amusing about seeing the former Superman punch a 4 foot something teenage girl in the jaw. And there is even less amusing about the fact that neither Scott nor her new boyfriend do anything about it until he insinuates his sexual domination over the two white women in the room. The white women don't care either by the way, one even seems turned on by it. Worst of all, this fight takes place between two women in the graphic novel, meaning the director decided it would be "funnier" to have a huge, muscle bound, male actor punch a thin teenage girl than follow the existing story line; it's a "joke" he resorts to too often and it also speaks to the fact that while he does not mind changing the pre-existing story to heighten iniquity, he has no qualms with leaving it alone when the inequity is already there.
Which gets us back to the other major issue in this film: race. The way Scott treats Knives is bad enough on its own. But as he discusses her with his friends and family, he makes sure to mention that she is Asian. Many of their reactions point to the exotic erotic. Just in case we are too dumb to pick up on the unspoken orientalism, Scott spells it out for his sister when he points out that she is both Asian and has a Catholic School uniform …
Throughout the film her race is used to casually express racism. Besides the multiple conversations referenced above, when Scott wants to break up with her he asks if she is "even allowed to date outside her race" as if his eroticization of her is acceptable but her parents' potential fears about that eroticization are discrimination. At the end of the film, she shows up dressed like a hipster version of a ninja. And when she gives Scott permission to go after Ramona, he says "Chow Knives" you know, cause her name is Knives Chau …
The other Asians in this film fair little better. Ramona's first ex is Indian and is forced to do an obligatory Bollywood dance with ghost-vamps in the middle of their fight scene. It's the kind of thing that made me question what exactly does go on behind the doors of 20-something hipsters' homes when they've locked all the people of color out. When Ramona explains their relationship, she says "he was the only non-white jock in the town." So she did not date him because she liked him; she dated him because he fit into her rebellion against hypermasculinized whiteness that left her no room for female autonomy. In this way, she has something in common with Scott in that she dated a person of color to give her friends and neighbors something to talk about but otherwise could care less about them as people or lovers. She also has something in common with Julie Roberts' new movie, in as much as her supposed act of feminist enlightenment was bought on the back of brown men. Yippee!
Ramona also dated Asian twins. Their sole contribution to this film is a synthesizer that shoots out Chinese dragons. If that weren't bad enough, let me just point out that the twins last name is not Chinese, it's Japanese.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World/Universal Studios/2010
I walked into Scott Pilgrim with the last shred of hope I had left for the summer movie season. I was expecting a sort of graphic novel angst that both entertained and sent up the original in unique ways. While the graphics and the overall gifted cinematic eye were certainly present in much of this film, its tongue-in-cheek hipster angst fell flat in the face of so much unnecessary racism and sexism. The film's race politics seem to be a fairly faithful adaptation of the graphic novel which means both the racism and some of the sexism originated there and the directors and writers made the decision not to omit it in the re-telling for film. What concerns me most about Scott Pilgrim then is that it is not new in its peddling of either oppression; instead, it seems like a sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, sometimes visually compelling version of the same old 20-something shlock. While hipsters pat themselves on the back for being completely disaffected with all the evil in our world, able to cut through the bullshit, and take on any number of liberal causes it seems like in their fantasies, and for many in their real lives, the oppressions that do not impact them directly do not matter to them any more than the fascists and neocons they define themselves against.
I understand why young men would be attracted to this film. Michael Cera as average Joe is always compelling and his fight scenes, done mostly himself, and endless supply of women makes him the perfect nerd hero whether playing Scott Pilgrim or the myriad of other versions of this character elsewhere. However, it is hard to know why white women, and a handful of women of color, buy into this culture that does not take them anymore seriously than the sexist society they rally against. While mainstream culture is both blatant and unapologetic about its exploitation and objectification of young women, hipsters do pay lip-service to their empowerment and does so in this film as well. But if all feminism means these days is you get to be as big a douche as the pompous boy ignoring you and you get to have everyone around you acknowledge that you are smarter and cooler even while they do nothing to change their interpersonal worlds to make room for you as anything other than the ignored girlfriend, hated interloper, or object of racialized sexual fantasy, than give me a new movement. And please spare me the transparent cinematic reinforcement that elevates average Joe at Jane's expense.
Overall Scott Pilgrim gets a C for Crap.


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Lawmakers should proceed cautiously on passing laws involving network
neutrality, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras
said today.
Speaking at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual summer conference
in Aspen, Colo., Majoras announced she was forming an Internet Access Task
Force to study convergence issues with a focus on network neutrality.
Calling network neutrality the "most hotly debated issue in communications,"
Majoras herself expressed doubts about the need for any new legislation.
"I … question the starting assumption that government regulation, rather
than the market itself under existing laws, will provide the best solution
to a problem," she said in a keynote address.
Verizon, AT&T and other large telephone companies want to charge content and
application service providers extra fees based on bandwidth consumption to
use their new fiber lines.
The proposed business model raised howls of protests from technology giants, such as Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, who claim the plan will lead to
discriminatory handling of Internet traffic packets.
The high-tech industry is urging lawmakers to include network neutrality
protections in any telecom reform bill approved by Congress, a notion so far
rejected by the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate Commerce
"The FTC frequently is asked to weigh in on proposed legislation and
policies," Majoras said.
"We virtually always assert the principle that,
absent clear evidence of market failure or consumer harm, policymakers
should not enact blanket prohibitions of particular forms of business
conduct or business models or place requirements on how business is
Majoras stressed three federal agencies — the FTC, the FCC and the
Department of Justice — are already empowered to address issues of network
"We should not forget that we already have in place an existing law
enforcement and regulatory structure," she said.
"Before adding to it, we
should determine that the current scheme is insufficient to address
potential issues as they may arise in this area."
Majoras also said Congress should not approve any new regulatory schemes
without a cost-benefit analysis. In addition, she said, lawmakers concerned
about network neutrality should consider whether a less broad approach might
be a better way to approach the issue.
She added that proposed network neutrality legislative language could result
in lowering the levels of broadband investment with the end result of
diminishing competition.
"Broad regulatory mandates that employ a 'one size fits all' philosophy,
without regard to specific facts, always have unintended consequences, some
of which may be harmful and some of which may not be known until far into
the future," Majoras said.
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the issue of network neutrality when
it returns from its August recess.
The Senate Commerce Committee rejected the
notion of network neutrality in late June, leaving the issue to the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) for further study.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed
legislation in early June overwhelmingly rejecting an amendment to the bill
calling for network neutrality.
Differences between what the Senate eventually passes and what the House has
already voted on will be hammered out in a joint conference committee.
Article courtesy of internetnews.com


text: I personally am no longer a fan of the tv show (having read the books, I was turned off about halfway through the show because of how it differs lol) but the books are so so awesome. I haven't read Dark Matter just yet, but I HIGHLY recommend the Pines trilogy. So so much. If you ever get to read them, you HAVE to tell me what you think. It's my fave :3


text: This Magellan full-resolution mosaic which covers an area 143 by 146 kilometers (89 by 91 miles) is centered at 55 degrees north latitude, 266 degrees east longitude. The bright feature, slightly south of center is interpreted to be a volcano, 15-20 kilometers (9.3 to 12.4 miles) in diameter with a large apron of blocky debris to its right and some smaller aprons to its left. A preferred explanation is that several massive catastrophic landslides dropped down steep slopes and were carried by their momentum out into the smooth, dark lava plains. At the base of the east-facing or largest scallop on the volcano is what appears to be a large block of coherent rock, 8 to 10 kilometers (5 to 6 miles) in length. The similar margin of both the scallop and block and the shape in general is typical of terrestrial slumped blocks (masses of rock which slide and rotate down a slope instead of breaking apart and tumbling). The bright lobe to the south of the volcano may either be a lava flow or finer debris from other landslides. This volcanic feature, characterized by its scalloped flanks is part of a class of volcanoes called scalloped or collapsed domes of which there are more than 80 on Venus. Based on the chute-like shapes of the scallops and the existence of a spectrum of intermediate to well defined examples, it is hypothesized that all of the scallops are remnants of landslides even though the landslide debris is often not visible. Possible explanations for the missing debris are that it may have been covered by lava flows, the debris may have weathered or that the radar may not be recognizing it because the individual blocks are too small


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Here's a column on reforming the payroll tax that I wrote in NYTimes Economix today:
Payroll taxes and corporate income taxes accounted for an equal share of federal tax revenue in 1969. By 2009, payroll taxes generated more than six times as much revenue. We've become reliant on payroll taxes, and a goal of a tax overhaul should be to reform and reduce them, permanently.
First, some background. The share of federal tax revenues coming from payroll taxes has doubled since the 1970s, to about two-fifths of revenue. The payroll tax, underwriting social insurance programs, nearly surpassed the individual income tax as the single largest source of federal tax revenue in 2009.
Source: Office of Management and Budget Historical Table 2.2
Since payroll taxes finance Social Security and part of Medicare, cost growth in these programs pressures policy makers to raise those taxes. In particular, pressure from the Social Security disability insurance program and Medicare Part A has been intensifying.
The number of disability recipients has increased nearly sixfold since 1970. Disability outlays exceeded revenues by roughly $34 billion in 2011. And costs are likely to continue growing because shrinking labor market opportunitiesfor noncollege-educated workers are likely to continue well past this recession. The Congressional Budget Office's long-run projections for the program support this conclusion.
Pressure on the payroll tax from Medicare Part A is even worse. Health cost growth has steadily outpaced inflation, and the pattern shows no sign of abating. Fundamental economic forces – such as Baumol's cost disease, which describes the phenomenon of rising costs in industries less conducive to automation – will most likely continue to increase health care costs steadily.
The primary argument for severing the link between these growing programs and the payroll taxes is that the tax is regressive: It uses a flat rate on incomeup to $110,100, does not apply to most income above that threshold and does not apply to nonlabor income, like capital gains. Because of this relatively regressive nature, payroll tax cuts tend to be a more effective stimulus than typical income tax cuts – and thus are a more effective way for Washington to respond to recessions.
Despite these features, AARP and other groups often resist payroll tax cuts out of a fear that the cuts will undermine the future of the safety net (even though the cuts are fully paid for out of general revenue). Permanently breaking the link between payroll taxes and both disability and Medicare would allow the tax code to become more progressive – and do more to offset inequality – without creating political problems when the business cycle calls for fiscal stimulus.
Obviously, the government would need other revenue if it severed the link between payroll taxes and the safety-net programs. One option would be to limit tax breaks, as Congress and the Obama administration have recently discussed. Others include phasing in a carbon tax, raising top marginal rates slightly or overhauling the tax code to use a progressive consumption tax that encourages saving.
The country is almost certain to face higher costs for health care and for an aging work force whose skills are being outpaced by technology. But there is no reason those costs must be borne by a regressive tax vulnerable to recurring struggles over economic policy.


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A team of scientists, led by University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers, has synthesized hundreds of new compounds with the potential of reducing the production of the A-beta 42 peptide, a primary component of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
In mouse models, one tested compound specifically reduced levels of A-beta 42, which is believed to be responsible for the destruction of neurons, but left other essential enzymatic activities in the brain unaffected, said Steven Wagner, PhD, a project scientist in UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences.
The research, which will be published in the September 8 advance online edition of the journal Neuron, includes collaborators at the University of Chicago, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and several San Diego-based biotechnology companies.
"Current drug efforts have tried to broadly knock out peptide activity, but with resulting adverse side effects such as nausea, gastrointestinal problems, hair color changes and skin cancer," said Wagner. "Our approach is to target and inhibit only the production of key peptides that may play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, while leaving other catalytic processes alone. If some of the compounds we've synthesized are shown to do that in humans, we might eventually be able to inhibit or reduce further plaque production and ultimately prevent Alzheimer's before symptoms actually appear."
Amyloid plaques are tell-tale protein deposits found abundantly in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. The plaques, along with neurofibrillary tangles, interfere with normal neuron functioning. In healthy cellular metabolisms, chemical compounds are constantly being combined or parsed to perform different duties. Among them are two peptides known as A-beta 42 and A-beta 40. High levels of these peptides, particularly A-beta 42, have been linked to the creation of beta-amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's disease, a neurodegenerative condition that afflicts 5.3 Americans and more than 26 million people worldwide. AD is marked by progressive dementia, most notably memory loss. It is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.
Existing drugs in development do not specifically target A-beta 42 levels. Wagner and colleagues looked for small molecules that might preferentially reduce levels of A-beta 42, but leave other cellular components and activities alone. The scientists screened more than 80,000 molecules looking for compounds that fit specific criteria. They found one, which they used as a template to synthesize hundreds of additional related compounds called gamma-secretase modulators or GSMs. These compounds are different and far more potent than non-steroidal anti-inflammatory molecules that have been used by others in previous studies. One GSM was tested in a transgenic mouse model designed to overproduce A-beta 42 and 40 and develop neuritic plaques. Given single daily oral doses of the GSM, the researchers report that levels of A-beta 42 declined and neuritic plaques were dramatically reduced in the mouse model.
"We've shown that a compound can modulate enzyme activity without completely shutting down the enzyme," said Wagner. "We think we've opened up a new area of drug discovery for pharmaceutical companies and universities. We hope they will pursue some of these compounds to see if they can be used in people."
Ultimately, said Rudolph Tanzi, PhD, the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital and one of the paper's co-authors, the hope is that one or more of the synthesized compounds or something similar might be used to treat, even prevent, Alzheimer's disease.
"They could be used like statins are used today to prevent heart disease," said Tanzi. "If there was pre-symptomatic evidence that amyloid levels were too high in a patient's brain, a GSM might be taken to lower relevant peptide levels and reduce AD risk. You don't want to knock out these peptides. They have a purpose. You just want to dial them back to safe levels."
Co-authors include Maria Z. Kounnas of Neurogenetic Pharmaceuticals and Torrey Pines Therapeutics; Anne M. Danks of Torrey Pines Therapeutics and Helicon Therapeutics; Soan Cheng and Phuong Nguyen of Torrey Pines Therapeutics and UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences; Curtis Tyree, Elizabeth Ackerman, Dan Comer, Long Mao, Chengzhi Yu, David Pleynet and Paul J. Digregorio of Torrey Pines Therapeutics; Xulun Zhang of The Center for Molecular Neurobiology, University of Chicago; Kwangwook Ahn in the Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Gonul Velicelebi and Kenneth A. Stauderman of Torrey Pines Therapeutics and CalciMedica; William T. Comer of Neurogenetic Pharmaceuticals and Torrey Pines Therapeutics; William C. Mobley of the Department of Neurosciences at UC San Diego; Yue-Ming Li of the Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Sangram S. Sisodia at The Center for Molecular Neurobiology at the University of Chicago.
# # #
Media Contact: Scott LaFee, 619-543-6163, firstname.lastname@example.com


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Little Snitch 1.2.2 is a valuable application that picks up where Mac OS X's built-in firewall leaves off. Whereas the firewall software that Apple provides only screens incoming traffic (attempts to access your computer from the outside), Little Snitch watches for outgoing traffic—connections from software running on your Mac to addresses elsewhere on the Internet. Aimed at the increasing population of users whose computers are constantly online, the software could prove useful for providing an early warning that a malicious program is running on your Mac and attempting to connect to other systems.
Staying safe
You can configure the Mac firewall to block outgoing traffic, but you have to use commands in Terminal, edit the firewall's settings files, or use a third-party tool such as Brian Hill's Flying Buttress. Even if you're enough of an expert to configure your firewall to block certain kinds of Internet connections, the tricky part is knowing what to allow, and what to block. That's where Little Snitch shines: It tells you what software on your computer is trying to make outgoing connections, then asks you whether you want to allow or block the connection, and if you want to do so one time or forever.
For instance, your chat software may connect to the AIM or Yahoo! server. But before it does that, it may try to contact the author's Web server to check for an updated version. It's nice that the software can inform you about software updates, but you may not want it to—and not all programs let you choose whether to allow such checks. Little Snitch lets you decide if you want to permit these programs to phone home, or whether you'd rather remain anonymous.
While Little Snitch guards you from overeager applications, it can also protect you from software you didn't know was running on your Mac. Potential malware threats include keyloggers that record everything you type and send the information back to a home base; hidden caches of illegal song or movie files served up upon request; and bots that send out spam. Little Snitch reveals all of these problems by asking you what to do about unexpected network connections. And although most of these threats exist on the Windows side, Mac users—especially those who do a lot of downloading—can never be too careful about possible new exploits.
Little Snitch may also warn of connections when software on your computer is responding to normal incoming connection attempts. For example, nmbd (NetBIOS name server) is part of your Mac's Windows-compatible file sharing feature, and it will attempt to respond whether a Windows user is legitimately trying to access your files, or a Windows virus that takes advantage of NetBIOS is attempting to attack. Unless you're expecting a Windows user to log on to your Mac, you can safely reject such connections, but I wish Little Snitch would more clearly explain such situations.
Permission granted, or denied
Little Snitch is easy to install, but plan on spending a few minutes teaching it about your normal habits—network connections it should always allow, such as retrieving new e-mail or visiting your online banking service. In fact, the software includes a set of common connections you'll probably want to always allow, such as Web-page access through Safari or Internet Explorer, QuickTime streaming video, and clock checks via the network time feature. It would have been nice to see a few more entries for common connections, but it's very easy to approve connections for another Web browser (such as Camino) or your chat software.
I was a bit surprised when Little Snitch asked me to approve connections that I had told it to allow forever (for instance, iDisk syncing). But when I contacted tech support about the issue, I got a quick and friendly response explaining that sometimes the same hostname represents more than one numeric IP address—often to balance a number of requests at one time—and for safety's sake, Little Snitch keeps track only by IP address (since hostnames might be too easy to spoof). The company recommended that I configure Little Snitch to recognize a range of IP addresses, such as 192.168.0.0 through 192.168.0.128. This solution worked well.
Macworld's buying advice
Little Snitch 1.2.2 strikes a good balance between automatically blocking potential problems and letting users decide what connections to allow. This is a great tool for anyone who uses a wide variety of software, especially if you tend to download programs from a lot of new sources.
[ Mark H. Anbinder is an IT specialist at Cornell University and a contributing editor to TidBITS.]The MirrorAgent process for synchronizing a user's iDisk is one common connection that Little Snitch doesn't recognize out of the box. Little Snitch doesn't make it clear when software, such as the benign nmbd (NetBIOS name server), might be responding to a connection from a sketchy-looking address, rather than initiating a connection.


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I found this several days ago when I was looking for a way to scale images on an iPhone inside of a fluid layout such that they would display at a 1:1 pixel ratio. If you didn't already know, the iPhone 4 and 4S displays everything as if the screen was the same size as a normal iPhone when it measures and does the layout. The result is that all the text looks extremely crisp, and any sites already designed for the original iPhone don't break or look weird. With images this means that a 300 x 300 pixel image displays the correct size in the layout, but is essentially scaled up to fit over 600×600 "physical pixels". As I was poking around I found an old CSS zoom property here: http://reference.sitepoint.com/css/zoom that for some reason works on mobile safari. Add a media query for 2x density screens, and viola! Your images now display at physical pixel dimensions on the iPhone 4 and 4S.
Here's what the CSS looks like:
@media screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) { img { zoom: 50%; } }
Awesome hacks.
Happy img scaling.