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Sidney Crosby, Penguins stay hot, batter Rangers
PITTSBURGH -- The lineup shuffling continues for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
So does the winning.
Sidney Crosby scored his 23rd goal of the season and added two assists, and the Penguins ripped the New York Rangers 5-2 on Friday night for their 11th straight home victory.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 33 saves for Pittsburgh, and Jussi Jokinen ended a lengthy scoring drought with two goals. Chris Kunitz also scored twice for the Penguins, who won for the 10th time in their past 12 meetings with New York.
Pittsburgh remains on cruise control atop the Eastern Conference despite a roster riddled with injuries. Star center Evgeni Malkin is still out with a leg injury. Defensemen Kris Letang and Paul Martin are out as well.
Yet the Penguins keep rolling. Jokinen, moved to wing alongside Brian Gibbons and Brandon Sutter, scored for the first time in 34 days while Crosby and Kunitz continued to provide a lethal one-two punch, particularly on an ever-evolving power play.
"We know at this point there's going to be different combinations," Crosby said. "With guys out of the lineup like we've had, it's what we've gotten used to."
Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma picked up his 231st career victory, leaving him one shy of Eddie Johnson's franchise record for coaching wins.
Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves for the Rangers. Mats Zuccarello and Ryan McDonagh scored third-period goals for New York, but the Rangers continued to have problems with Pittsburgh, which can tie the mark for longest home winning streak in team history Sunday against Winnipeg.
"It was just too easy for them to create big chances," Lundqvist said.
The Rangers had plenty of opportunities of their own, just not good ones.
Fleury's play had a little something to do with it. The Pittsburgh goaltender improved to 29-3 in his past 32 games at Consol Energy Center and is bolstering his bid for a spot on the Canadian Olympic team when it's announced next week.
Crosby's place is already assured. And four years after lifting Canada to gold in Vancouver, he remains at the top of his game. He pushed his point total to an NHL-best 62 by setting up Kunitz twice and bumping Pittsburgh's lead to 4-0 late in the second with a pretty backhand from in front that Lundqvist fanned at as the puck hit the back of the net.
"I use a pretty straight blade and try to use it to my advantage," Crosby said. "I probably go to it more than probably other guys because I'm comfortable there. ... On those ones, you always like having it."
There's a good chance Crosby could be joined in Sochi by Kunitz, who has developed a unique chemistry with one of the game's greatest players. Both of Kunitz's goals came on assists from Crosby. Kunitz's 22nd goal of the season put the Penguins in front late in the first period, and his 23rd goal with 6:37 remaining blunted a late New York rally.
"Any time you give a team like this that's so structured the lead that we gave up, it makes it real hard," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said.
New York simply couldn't keep up. Ryan Callahan returned after missing nine games with a knee injury, and while the Rangers were able to control play for several lengthy stretches, they never came close to beating Fleury while the outcome was still in doubt.
Their best chance came early, when Derick Brassard broke in alone on Fleury only to have his backhand shot deflect off the inside of Fleury's pads and out of harm's way.
Pittsburgh had little trouble capitalizing on the reprieve. Kunitz pushed a puck into an empty net 13:09 into the first, and Jokinen scored his first goal since Nov. 30 with a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle that Lundqvist barely saw.
"I think any forward knows when it's been awhile, when it's been more than 10 games, it's been awhile," Jokinen said. "There's not any magic you can do about it. You just have to score goals in practice and keep your confidence level high."
After going 34 days between goals, Jokinen barely had to wait 20 minutes for his next one. He took a pass from Gibbons and flipped a backhand by Lundqvist's right shoulder while being dragged to the ice to make it 3-0.
Game notes
New York forward Derek Dorsett broke his leg while trying to block a slap shot by Pittsburgh's Olli Maatta in the first period and is out 4-6 weeks. ... Pittsburgh is 19-2 when it scores first. ... Pittsburgh's longest home winning streak is a 12-game run set Feb. 22 to March 30, 2013. ... New York plays in Toronto on Saturday.
Regular Season Series
PIT leads 2-1
Game Information
- Referees:
- Dan O'Halloran
- Greg Kimmerly
- Linesmen:
- Scott Driscoll
- Mark Shewchyk
2022-23 Metropolitan Division Standings
|New Jersey
|NY Rangers
|NY Islanders


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The Remington Nature Center added its latest exhibit-an observation honey bee hive. The observation hive, honey bees and queen bee came from Draper's Super Bee located in Auburn, Nebraska. Specially made with double strength glass, hinged door and locked entry, the observation feeder allows everyone to safely observe the bees. Such hives from Draper's are on display all over the Midwest, including at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. Craig Rippey, WPC, lent the Nature Center his knowledge and expertise by placing the bees into the observation hive.
A tube connects the observation hive to the outside and on nice days, bees fly in and out, busy with their work. Danny Murawski got the piping into place, as well as made a base to elevate the hive. A feeder jar with sugar and water syrup also feeds the bees, until the flowers are fully in bloom.
More features will be added to the exhibit, including an informational sign about bees, take-home brochures and honey recipes from the National Honey Board, and possibly a video of honey bees and their importance.

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Professor Greg Huebner is the first art professor given the high honor of presenting a LaFollette Lecture. He's also the first to step to the Salter Hall podium and declare he won't be giving the LaFollette Lecture, after all.
"I would feel more comfortable if you could suspend the thought of it being the 29th LaFollette Lecture and instead think of it as the First LaFollette Performance Art," Huebner told his faculty and staff colleagues, students, alumni and Wabash trustees as he introduced the aptly named "Life at a Half Bubble Off Plumb: Rethinking Truth, Beauty, and Jumbo Shrimp."
(See a photo album here.)
Following a light-hearted introduction by last year's LaFollette lecturer, mathematics professor J.D.Phillips, Huebner began his artful performance with words projected over the Salter Hall stage.
"Any work of art is the sum of an artist's life experiences, ability, and craft up to the point of the work's creation. Therefore, whenever a student asks me how long it took me to complete a particular painting, I always respond, 'my entire life.'"
And for the next 50 minutes, dozens of slides, and references to numerous disciplines in the liberal arts, Huebner talked the audience through the creation of his most recent painting, interspersed with autobiographical sketches of how he became the artist he is today and what inspires that work.
"The artist has absolutely no choice in the matter. You create and you make art. It is who you are and what you must do," Huebner said. "And it begins at a very early age. Growing up I was constantly making things and looking for new materials to create things."
He recalled his machinist neighbor whose "garage was like a wonderland for a boy like me. Dave Hohaus was like a second father to me, and we spent hundreds of hours working on his projects and my own."
His interests veered from tinkering to art in grade school, when in exchange for being allowed to bring a TV into the classroom to watch his beloved Chicago White Sox in the World Series, he volunteered to "do the art" on his teacher Sister Ramona's bulletin boards for the rest of his fifth grade year. He enjoyed it—both the process and the praise he received. Even after his drawing for the Easter Week bulletin board of Christ driving a 1957 Chevy convertible to heaven was rejected by Sister Ramona, he noticed that she seemed to be fighting back a smile.
Huebner took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago—his first formal art training—the summer of his sophomore year in high school.
"For the first time I had actual artists teaching me and I was surrounded by other students who were seriously interested in art. It was a wonderful experience."
At 16, he began to consider art as a vocation. But even so, he chose to attend a liberal arts college.
"I have always felt that a liberal arts education was the perfect environment for educating artists," Huebner said. "Art springs from a keen observation of the world around us, and the humanities present unlimited sources to help the artist understand what he or she is observing.
"Art comes from deep within our mind and soul, from the meeting place of the reasoned, the felt, and the observed, where knowledge becomes true understanding," Huebner said.
At first his painting was more realistic, but when he was 20 year old he encountered the paintings of Kazimir Malevich, a pioneer of geometric abstract art.
"From my first contact with Malevich I moved steadily toward non-objective abstraction," Huebner explained.
"Through non-objective abstraction I was able to find my own voice. To quote [art critic] Mel Gooding, "It was what could not be seen that mattered."
That search for the unseen has driven a career of almost four decades and more than 500 paintings.
"Abstract painting is about love, birth, death, and all the great ecstatic experiences of being human," Huebner said. "It is like those first wild marks we make as a child, which announces to the world, "I am here! You don't have to paint a figure to express human feelings. When I paint I am organizing moments of feelings and these moments of feelings become issues of color, light, shape, airiness, weight, lyricism, or even violence."
And as an artist in pursuit of the unseen, Huebner likes these words by abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning: "What you do when you paint is, you take a brush full of paint, you get paint on the picture, and you have faith."
"Since 1990 I have viewed my own painting as a visualization of my spiritual self," Huebner said.
That "self"—the twelve-foot-tall painting whose creation he'd documented in his lecture—was perched in the Little Lobby after the lecture. Huebner's audience—professors of the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities—milled around it, experiencing a visual echo of the first LaFollette Lecture to be delivered by an art professor. The final product of the First Annual LaFollette Performance Art.


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East Gloucester resident David Coffin presented his "Music from the King's Court — Exploring the Early Winds" enrichment program to the East Gloucester Elementary School 3rd-graders, who are learning to play the recorder this year.
David brought an impressive collection of wind instruments, and played almost all of them for the spellbound kids. He demonstrated that the ocarina, bombard, recorder, slide whistle, gemshorn, organ pipe were essentially the same instrument. He even played a water bottle and a drinking straw!
David Coffin is remarkably talented, and is wonderful with kids. I strongly recommend him for any school looking for a music-based enrichment program!
David's web site has a page that demonstrates these wind instruments: http://www.davidcoffin.com/index.php?page=kings-court-meet-the-instruments


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|A MOLECULAR WRECKING YARD: Electron-micrograph images of the termite's third gut, where food is turned into fuel
(Images by Falk Warnecke, Phil Hugenholtz, Doe Joint Genome Institute and Manfred Auer, UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
For more than a hundred million years, termites have lived in obscurity, noticed only by the occasional hungry anteater or, more recently, by dismayed homeowners. Other social insects, such as bees and ants, are celebrated for their industriousness and engineering feats, but popular culture has not gotten around to cheering on termites for theirs—even though they build mounds as tall as 20 feet, which may be oriented north-south as accurately as if plotted with a compass, in order to maximize heat from the sun. The extraordinary powers evolution has bestowed on termites—some protect the mound by spraying chemicals from nozzles on their heads at intruders, while others have snapping mandibles that can decapitate invading ants—have similarly failed to elevate their status. On the contrary: last year, scientists at the London Natural History Museum called termites "social cockroaches" and proposed reclassifying them, in a paper brusquely titled "Death of an Order."
Video: "How to Hunt for Termites"
Lisa Margonelli captures highlights from her termite-hunting trip in the Arizona desert with Department of Energy researchers
The more closely one examines the termite, the more mysteries one finds. In some species, if a termite discovers a contamination in the mound, it alerts everyone else, and a hygiene frenzy begins. As a disease passes through a mound, the survivors vaccinate the young with their antennae. When a mound's queen is no longer capable of reproduction, the workers may gather around her distended body and lick her to death.
The greatest mystery of all is found in the worker termite's third gut, which is delineated by an intricately structured stomach valve, as unique from species to species as individual snowflakes are and, in its way, just as lovely. The size of a sesame seed, the third gut contains a dense mush of symbiotic microbes. Many of these microbes live nowhere else on Earth; they depend on adult termites to pass them on to the young by means of a "woodshake," a microbial slurry.
This microbial mush may be a treasure trove for the human race. Recently, sophisticated genetic sequencing produced an inventory of more than 80,000 genes, spanning some 300 microbial species, from the guts of Costa Rican termites. These findings, published last November in the journal Nature, got a lot of attention, not for the quantity of microorganisms—after all, the human mouth contains 600 species of bacteria—but for their complexity, and in particular for the fact that among them are 500 genes for enzymes able to break down the cellulose in wood and grasses.
With oil prices at historic highs, the quest is on to turn such plant materials into a replacement for gasoline—call it grassoline. Since 2007, U.S. energy policy has been shaped by the premise that we can brew enough biofuels to replace 35 billion gallons of gasoline by 2017, and 60 billion by 2030. Corn ethanol has been a bust, blamed for wasting water, exhausting croplands, and causing tortilla shortages in Mexico and rice shortages in Asia. For all these problems, it currently contributes the equivalent of only about 4.2 billion gallons of gas a year. And the carbon dioxide emitted in the process of growing and fermenting corn and then distilling and burning ethanol is nearly as much as that emitted by extracting, refining, and burning gasoline.
Wood and grasses seem to hold more promise. They contain chains of thousands of glucose molecules that could be made into so-called cellulosic ethanol and then burned like gasoline, while releasing just 15 percent of gasoline's greenhouse-gas emissions. But there's a catch. Wood has evolved to keep its sugars to itself, covering them with lignin—a substance that gives cell walls rigidity—and then locking them in a matrix of cellulose and hemicellulose protected by complex chemical bonds. Because these sugars are so hard to get at, our output of cellulosic ethanol is still, after decades of research, just 1.5 million gallons a year—less than 1 percent of one day's gasoline consumption.
But where humans have failed, the termite succeeds—spectacularly. A worker termite tears off a piece of wood with its mandibles and lets its guts work on it like a molecular wrecking yard, stripping away sugars, CO2, hydrogen, and methane with 90 percent efficiency. The little biorefineries inside each termite allow the insects to eat up $11 billion in U.S. property every year. But some scientists and policy makers believe they may also make the termite a sort of biotech Rumpelstiltskin, able to spin straw—or grass, or wood by-products—into something much more valuable. Offer a termite this page, and its microbial helpers will break it down into two liters of hydrogen, enough to drive more than six miles in a fuel-cell car. If we could turn wood waste into fuel with even a fraction of the termite's efficiency, we could run our economy on sawdust, lawn clippings, and old magazines.
And so the termite may be poised for its moment in the sun. Speaking last year about moving toward a biofuel economy, Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman pointed to the termite-to-tank concept, asserting, "We know this can be done." Another official called it a promising "transformational discovery." Suddenly the termite is everywhere, from Popular Science to Congressional Quarterly Today to Wired. With the audience for energy speeches and articles so small and wonky, it's too soon to say that the little bug has exactly become a celebrity (although it did recently rate a footnote in Vanity Fair). But in some circles, it has attained a certain status as the pest that could solve our energy problems, transforming geopolitics and agriculture in the process. "Deus ex termita," you might say.
Perhaps—but it won't be easy. Last year, in an initiative that has been compared to the Manhattan Project, the Department of Energy founded three Bioenergy Research Centers, which collectively house scientists from seven government labs, 18 universities, and several private companies, and are aimed at making cellulosic ethanol competitive with gasoline within five years. The effort, which has $375million in funding, is focused on plumbing the structures of woods and grasses and learning how various creatures break them down; genetic modifications, scientists hope, could then enable us to make cheaper fuels. The centers are expected to come up with ideas that can be commercialized—actually making them more like Bell Labs, say, than like the Manhattan Project.
|VIDEO: Author Lisa Margonelli captures footage from her termite-hunting expedition in the Arizona desert with researchers Falk Warnecke and Phil Hugenholtz
Started two years earlier, the termite project described in Nature is based on the same model of public and private collaboration, and is now an important part of the bioenergy initiative. Indeed, termites might be seen as an "indicator species" for the larger effort—and, as scientists are learning, they are full of devilish details and vexing complications.
In 2005, the microbial ecologist Falk Warnecke, of the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute, traveled with researchers from Caltech and the San Diego biotech company Diversa to Costa Rica, where they opened up a termite nest in a tree. The group dissected 165 worker termites, freezing the contents of their third guts in liquid nitrogen and shipping them to Diversa's lab. After extracting the DNA from the microbial cells, Diversa sent a sample to the institute to be sequenced.
Housed in a low brick building in Walnut Creek, California, the Joint Genome Institute is sequencing the genes of hundreds of plants and microbes that might be useful for energy production and environmental cleanup; it is a key part of the Bioenergy Research Centers. Originally formed as part of the Human Genome Project in the late 1990s, the institute has its roots in the Department of Energy's decades-long interest in tracking genetic mutations in atomic-bomb survivors and nuclear workers. The scale of its current mission becomes evident as soon as you enter the lobby, where a TV screen displays a ticker that tallies sequences by the minute, day, month, and year. When I arrived at about 10 o'clock one morning last spring, the day's total stood at 25,555,288 DNA base pairs, the twinned nucleotides that are the building blocks of genes. Every second, another thousand base pairs joined the tally. Employees call this incessant data stream the "fire hose." The institute now sequences as much DNA in an hour as it did in all of 1998, and the pace is planned to double by the end of the year.
Even for people accustomed to avalanches of data, the effort to map the contents of the termite's third gut is extraordinary. "A disgusting mess of a data set," says Phil Hugenholtz, the head of the institute's Microbial Ecology Program. An angular Australian in his 40s, he speaks in rapid bursts, like a human fire hose. Traditional genomic analysis sequences one organism at a time, but Hugenholtz is a leading practitioner of metagenomics—the new science of sequencing genes from whole environments of microbes at once, and sorting out the resulting jumble of loose DNA code with the aid of computer science, statistics, and biochemistry. Metagenomics is not only breathtakingly fast; it allows us to catalog genes that were previously unknowable because so few types of microorganisms—fewer than 1 percent of all species of bacteria—can be cultured in a lab. Many biologists regard metagenomics as a scientific revolution akin to the invention of the microscope. In practice, though, it's a sloppy art.
When the sequencers finished, they had 71 million letters of DNA code in tiny fragments. They sorted the fragments, assembled them into longer chains of genes, and scanned the genes to determine their likely functions and which of the 300 microbes they might have come from. Scientists then looked for combinations of chemicals that might be enzymes, comparing the results to enzymes known to work on cellulose. The metagenomic picture of the termite's third gut that has so far emerged is a portrait of codes and probabilities—more sophisticated than a photograph from an electron microscope, but less satisfying, because so much remains indefinite.
Next, the scientists set about the long process of figuring out how all the parts work. "It's like trying to learn about a house when someone's given you nothing but the blueprints—and they're all ripped up," Hugenholtz says. Still, the blueprints were stunning. The termite gut contained much more than enzymes involved in breaking down wood into sugars: for example, there were a hundred species of spirochetes closely related to syphilis but here devoted to, among other things, producing hydrogen. There were also 482 appearances of a mysterious giant protein that Warnecke says looks like the international space station. He drew me a picture of a long, Lego-like scaffold with different enzymes plugged into it, hypothesizing that the protein might help strip sugars out of wood. But that was only a guess: "One of the disadvantages of finding so much is that you don't know what it all means," he told me.
Hugenholtz and Warnecke began sifting through the questions raised by the metagenome. Why do termites have 300 microbes and 500 different genes to degrade cellulose? How do you go about deciding which microbe is the most important? Do some termite species have stronger guts than others? And what on Earth was the space station doing? To tackle these questions, they needed more termites. They took some from cow patties on a Texas farm, surprising the elderly landowners by asking for a signed waiver on whatever intellectual property might develop.
One afternoon I watched Warnecke dissect 50 of the new termites. He worked at a rapid clip, pulling the insects' heads and anuses in opposite directions with a microscopically violent yank; each termite's gut unwound into a short, lumpy string. He showed me an electron-micrograph image of the inside of the gut. It looked like an undulating carpet. On it were rod-shaped bacteria; Warnecke pointed out pimple-like structures on the sides of a few, which he thought might be the space-station-like giant proteins. He speculated that the proteins work something like a Swiss Army knife, holding an array of tool-like enzymes and catalysts outside the cell to grab pieces of wood and whittle away, allowing the cell to slurp up the sugars thus released. If this hypothesis is correct, the proteins could be a great fit for biofuel production, because those loose sugars could be fermented into ethanol.
But the magnified images were far from conclusive. Hugenholtz slumped in front of the screen and complained that he saw no wood in the gut—were the termites starving? He impatiently made a list of tests he wanted done. Hugenholtz is confident that the team will eventually figure out what the proteins do. "You really see the science flailing around blindly here—but then things crystallize out of the darkness," he told me.
One morning when I met Hugenholtz and Warnecke at a coffee shop, they began to riff on how the gut might work. "You get the feeling the microorganisms are more dominant than the termite. They must have a way to control the insect," Warnecke said. Hugenholtz interrupted, quoting a colleague: "Maybe the termite is just a fancy delivery system for the creatures in the gut." We tend to assume that the larger organism in a symbiotic relationship is in charge, but relationships like the one between the termite and the microbes involve constant two-way chemical communications. Even human beings, Hugenholtz said, are subconsciously eavesdropping on chemical conversations between the inhabitants of our guts; this leads us to crave, say, potato chips when our microbes want salt. His eyes fell warily on his coffee. "Do you think our stomach bacteria have trained us?"
History suggests that science follows its own timetable, often producing results long after the politicians who approved the funding have left office. Yet curiosity without the prospect of imminent practical application is something biotech investors are increasingly loath to pay for. When the Nature study began, Diversa was on the cutting edge of "ethical bioprospecting"—searching the world for novel environments and enzymes. After merging with a biofuels company, it became Verenium last year, and shifted to the more prosaic task of making commercial enzymes involved in the development of products including animal feed, paper, and fuels.
David Weiner, the assistant director of enzyme technology at Verenium, gave me a tour of the labs, showing me what he calls the "giant funnel"—the process the company uses to sift through nature's intellectual property for enzymes that can be converted to profits. "We're not really interested in DNA," he said, meaning that the focus is on an enzyme's performance, not its origins.
Whereas the Joint Genome Institute began by sequencing the termite-gut DNA—learning about its underlying structure—and only then tried to identify what might be useful, Weiner's colleagues threw all the material from the Costa Rican expedition directly into testing, using the funnel approach to separate the most-useful enzymes from the millions of useless ones. Researchers inserted gene fragments into lab bacteria that had been genetically "tamed" to produce whatever enzyme the fragments were programmed to make. They then tested those enzymes on cellulose, to see if they would attack it. Only the winners made it to sequencing. You might think of the Joint Genome Institute as a group of diligent librarians, studying every step along the way. In contrast, a Verenium senior researcher told me, the company takes a "Julia Child approach"—once it has thrown together the ingredients (like termite guts and cellulose), it turns its attention to the final product, with far less focus on the stages in between.
Much of the action takes place in a machine—a type of robot, really—called the GigaMatrix. Clad in steel, the GigaMatrix looks like a copier from the late 1980s, with two flat TV monitors on top and a door on the side. It can screen up to a million enzymes at a go, easily exceeding in a single day the lifetime performance of a human lab tech. The GigaMatrix and other machines took the 500 or so most interesting enzymes from the termite gut and narrowed them down to fewer than 100 with potentially practical applications. Those were then tested for their effects on cellulose, modified, and inserted into "factory" bacteria trained to produce large quantities of enzymes while dining on cheap food, such as corn syrup. As the enzymes made their way through the process, every parameter of their growth and efficacy was measured. Only a small percentage proved powerful enough to merit continued investigation; these were stirred into multiple-enzyme "cocktails" to evaluate their speed and efficiency in combination. By the end, Weiner said, just a few enzymes remained in the running for further testing.
Geoff Hazlewood, a former senior vice president and now a consultant to Verenium, told me that the company has currently put aside studying termites for biofuels and has moved on to other potentially lucrative efforts. "You could screen ad nauseam," he said, "but you can't commit an infinite amount of resources." Whatever the termites are doing may be too complicated and fragile to be useful in a large industrial process. There may be genius in the termite gut—Weiner calls it, admiringly, "a whole town"—but the wonders of symbiosis, in themselves, mean little to companies focused on the bottom line. "We want faster, cheaper, more efficient," Weiner told me.
And it's too early to tell whether the termite will ever provide genes or information that will enable biofuel production. Termite research could instead provide a cautionary tale about the difficulties of replicating nature on a political schedule. It may be faster and easier to come up with a comprehensive energy policy—investing in energy efficiency, changing personal behavior, and working with other large oil consumers to control prices—than to create a cellulose economy out of the termite gut.
Termites certainly have their critics. One is Harvey Blanch, a professor of chemical engineering at UC Berkeley and the chief science and technology officer at the Department of Energy's Joint Bio-Energy Institute, in Emeryville, California (where Hugenholtz also conducts research). "Those microbes eat pâté!" Blanch said. By the time wood reaches the termite's third gut, he explained, it has been chewed to a fine consistency and soaked in the highly alkaline second stomach; the gut microbes don't have to work very hard to break it down. Pretreating wood in similar ways on an industrial scale would be ridiculously expensive, he believes. He thinks the termite has been overhyped, and sees this as a reflection of unrealistically high hopes for quick, painless replacements for gasoline.
Blanch has experienced the pitfalls of research driven by political goals. In the early 1970s, he worked on creating faux meat products from petroleum, which was then thought to be a cheap way to feed the world. For example, single-celled "chicken" proteins were produced by yeasts that fed on oil by-products, and then draped around plastic bones. But when the 1973 oil crisis hit, the cost of the raw material soared, effectively ending the petroprotein business. Blanch then shifted to cellulosic ethanol; the project was progressing until President Reagan killed it, in the mid-1980s. Now, he's at once hopeful that we will one day be able to engineer novel organisms and make better fuels, and wary of putting too much faith in quick technological solutions. "Given the scale at which we need to operate, it's hard to imagine any magic organism that will do the trick," he told me.
Several years ago, government labs set a goal of producing cellulosic ethanol for $1.33 a gallon by 2012, but Blanch cautions that the retail price could be $6 or $8 a gallon if the cost of the raw materials rises, and he thinks a realistic deadline is at least 10 years away. Perhaps because of his earlier experiences, he fears that projects that fail to deliver quickly are at risk, which puts a lot of pressure on both the Bioenergy Research Centers and individual researchers.
These concerns speak to an important tension underlying the termite research: the often competing agendas of work aimed at producing quick results, and of the slower, more methodical approach known as basic science, which tries to discover the fundamental logic of natural processes. Again, Julia Child (or maybe the more commercial Wolfgang Puck) versus the librarians. Some of the scientists—and even venture capitalists—I spoke with voiced fears that the race to harness nature for fuel production may cause us to neglect basic science and thus jeopardize potential long-term gains.
Consider this: half of the 80,000 genes inventoried from the Costa Rican termites remain unidentified, and each of those 40,000, Warnecke imagines, could require a Ph.D. thesis to figure out. Hugenholtz says that metagenomics is grappling with the problem of having too much information and too few references. "Sequencing is far outstripping our ability to characterize the genes," he explains, adding that this can lead to "genome rot"—a chain of errors created when one scientist gets a gene wrong, and then the mistake is multiplied across other genomes. The popular model of science is based on "eureka" moments, but right now, metagenomics is more like a big 3-D puzzle, where every new piece of knowledge—and every mistake—affects the whole. Trying to solve just one part of the puzzle for a quick commercial breakthrough may be as tricky as solving the entire thing.
It could also cause us to give short shrift to alternative solutions. Eric Mathur was one of the Diversa executives who helped set up the Costa Rican expedition; he now works for Synthetic Genomics, a company founded by the scientific impresario Craig Venter to search for biology-based fuels and methods to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Mathur says the Nature paper is just the beginning of a long process of understanding how symbiotic creatures deal with wood and carbon. He thinks that searching for individual enzymes in the termite will be a dead end, but that harnessing the power of whole environments might yield results. The challenge, he says, is to learn how these environments' overall metabolisms work, and then use the tools of synthetic biology to engineer the organisms in them to evolve—creating a "slave organism" that focuses all of its resources, down to its last electron, on processing carbon. "Metabolic engineering is a very powerful method for productivity," he told me.
But the strongest argument for more basic research may be the termite itself. Jared Leadbetter, an associate professor of environmental microbiology at Caltech, remembers feeling "like an ecotourist in Alice in Wonderland" the first time he looked at a magnified termite gut, 18 years ago. Leadbetter has pioneered the study of the metabolism of a few of the spirochetes in the gut. Like Mathur, he believes scientists might put the termite's gut to work against global warming by using it to understand and possibly alter the carbon cycle—the biogeochemical give-and-take of greenhouse gases between the Earth and its atmosphere.
Leadbetter says one of the extraordinary things about termites is not how much ethanol they might make, but how little methane they produce. Cows lose 20 percent of the energy in the grass they eat, because the microbes in their stomachs combine hydrogen and carbon dioxide from the grass to make methane, a greenhouse gas that traps 20 times as much heat in the atmosphere as CO2. In 2006, the greenhouse gases produced by U.S. farm animals exceeded the emissions of the iron, steel, and cement industries combined. Termites lose less than 2 percent of their nutrients to methane production, because the spirochetes in their guts transform hydrogen and carbon dioxide into acetate, which the termites use as fuel. If we understood this process, perhaps we could put new microorganisms into the stomachs of cows and reduce their production of methane.
We're a long way from changing the chemistry of cows' stomachs, but the process of adapting and commercializing the termite's role in the carbon cycle has already yielded success on a small scale. The Virginia-based company ArcTech trained termites to eat coal, and then rummaged through their guts to find the microorganisms best at turning coal into methane. It cultured those microorganisms and now feeds them coal; the company plans to use the methane they produce to make electricity, and is already selling the by-products, including one used by farmers as a soil additive. ArcTech says this method eliminates virtually all greenhouse-gas emissions from coal-based electricity production. Other companies are trying to engineer similar organisms that could be sent into abandoned mines and oil wells to scavenge fuel that goes unused because it is so hard to get at. Such efforts could have a dramatic effect on both the environment and geopolitics: experts estimate that increasing the yield of oil wells from the current average of 35 percent of the oil in a reservoir to 40 percent would be the equivalent of discovering a new Saudi Arabia.
Who knows what other answers may lurk in the termite? Elizabeth Ottesen, a graduate student doing research in Leadbetter's lab, dissected a termite and put it under a microscope to give me a tour of its gut. At first glance, the dark mass of the gut was immobile, the organisms apparently packed too tightly to move, but as Ottesen added water, a menagerie of blobby Trichonympha, whizzing spirochetes, and other creatures materialized, all supported by gangs of bacteria too small to see. The inhabitants here are arranged in hierarchies more elaborate than Manhattan real estate, she said: Those at the edges use oxygen, while those in the middle are anaerobes. Many are high-speed commuters, outfitted with complicated sensing and swimming apparatus that helps them find hydrogen and other gases. Among the creatures in the termite's gut, and especially among those creatures' genes, exist redundancies that suggest the system has been overengineered to survive the worst (including being force-fed coal). A spirochete's flagella, for example, are between the layers of a double skin, enabling the organism to drill through the most viscous environments.
Leadbetter expects it will take at least 25 years to unravel what he calls the "teleological questions" about the termite's complexity. Along the way, the termite will likely provide clues to solving climate change, but Leadbetter thinks its greatest value may be as a repository of biological wisdom gathered over the course of more than 100 million years of survival on Earth. "When you look at a termite and its gut," he says, "you're looking at a long line of winners."
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Women's Tennis completes day one with successful outing
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (September 30, 2011) – The ETSU women's tennis team had a very successful opening round on Friday at the Wake Forest Invitational, as Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain), Karina Kedzo (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela), Giulia Andreazza (Balneario, Camboriu) and Jessica Brumit (Elizabethton, Tenn.) all advanced to second-round play.
The doubles pairs of Kedzo and Jaime as well as Andreazza and Brumit advanced through two rounds, and will begin semifinal action of their respective draws tomorrow.
"Overall it was a solid day," said director of ETSU tennis Yaser Zaatini. "Paula has been under the weather physically and still fought a tough match to come back from a set down. Karina played extremely solid and without many flaws. She played a lot of high-percentage tennis and that's what we need from her. We also had a great showing from Jessica, who won a very convincing match, and Giulia played solid all the way through."
Competing in the A singles draw, Jaime rallied after dropping her opening set to defeat Virginia Tech's Shannon Betts (3-6, 6-0, 6-3). The senior will now face the flight's No. 2 seed, Kayla Duncan, from Wake Forest. Duncan took out Davidson's Stephani Synn (6-2, 7-5) in her first round.
Kedzo opened up against Frida Jansacker from Elon, winning in a convincing fashion (6-2, 6-1) to advance through to flight C's quarterfinals. Like Jamie, Kedzo will also take on her draw's No. 2 seed, as Kristina Koprcina of Marshall got more than she bargained for, but still defeated Radford's Hannah Crawford (6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (0)).
Andreazza stared down a BIG EAST opponent in Catie Wickline from West Virginia, and defeated the Mountaineer (6-3, 6-1) in the singles E bracket. The sophomore now looks forward to her flight's No. 2 seed, taking on Marshall's Ellie Ball after Ball defeated Davidson's Katherine Dicconson today (6-4, 6-1).
The local talent, Brumit, played in the F singles draw, and was successful against Radford's Sara Tegner (6-2, 6-2) to join Jaime, Kedzo, and Andreazza in Saturday's quarterfinal action. Brumit will take on Wake Forest's Brigita Bercyte, as Bercyte defeated Richmond's Nil Horoz (6-1, 6-3).
Senior Marine Wieliczko (Rouen, France) and junior Diana Navrostska (Lviv, Ukraine) played hard but fell in their respective flights. Wieliczko ran into Virginia Commonwealth's Daria Yakavleve (6-0, 6-1) and Navrostska fell to Winthrop's Giovanna Portioli (6-2, 6-4).
"Diana, although losing, really had a great performance," commented Zaatini. "Not so much as for who she played or how she played, but just her effort. If she's not playing great tennis, then she's still competing well. If she stays in the match and finds her game, then I think she'll be very productive for us."
The Bucs A doubles team is also still alive after day one, as Kedzo and Jaime defeated Wake Forest's Duncan and Cutillo (8-4), before taking out the draw's top seeded team of Bara and Bara (8-2) to advance to Saturday's semifinals. The duo will meet the bracket's No. 3 seeded pair from Louisville of Miller and Brown on Saturday at 9 a.m.
Joining them will be Andreazza and Brumit, as they have advanced to the semifinals of the C doubles flight. Andreazza and Brumit got there by first defeating Amrani and Gunaysu of Winthrop (8-6) and then topping Elon's Smialek and Camara (8-3). The two Bucs will take on their flight's top seed in Sutherland and Falcon of UNCG on Saturday at 10 a.m.
Wieliczko and Navrostska started the day well in the B doubles flight, taking down Forman and Bercyte of Wake Forest, but lost to their flight's No. 2 seeded pair from VCU of Yakavleva and Terteac (8-2). The two Bucs will continue play in the fifth-place bracket on Saturday.
For more information on ETSU tennis please visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the tennis links.


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Supplies Used
- AccuQuilt GO and Feathers Die Cut
- Enough variety of Fall Fabrics to cut 5 tail feathers
- Fusible Webbing for the Applique. I used Lite Steam a Seam2
- Brown fabric scraps to cut two brown feathers for the body
- A tiny scrap of red for the "red thingy thing" that hangs on the turkey
- I used two rhinestones for the eyes
- I went easy with a black permanent fabric marker for the feet.
- Cut your first square of fusible webbing enough to cover
the 3 cuts of the non-curved feathers on the AccuQuilt Go Feather die. I
cut 3 feathers of each color fabric so that I can make a couple of
these to give to friends and family. I probably should have started
sooner on this.
- Remove one layer of paper from the fusible webbing if using Lite
Steam a Seam 2 like me. This will leave one side sticky to grab the
fabric. Place the fusible web over the feathers with the sticky side
- Cut your first piece of fabric for your feathers and place on top of the fusible web which is also on top of the feather dies. Make sure your fabric is right side up. The fabric side you want to see on the turkey is facing you as you place it on the fusible web.
- Send the die through the AccuQuilt GO and there you have your first 3 feathers.
- Repeat so that you have your five colored tail feathers. You can make them all different or same, it's totally up to you!
- Now, repeat the process only using the brown body fabric to cut out at least two feather shapes for the turkey body in brown.
- If you have a used a beak color fabric (yellow or orange) on one of
your feathers, snip off the triangle end to one of the tail feathers you
will be using. Don't worry, it will be covered.
- Remove the paper backing from the feathers to reveal the cut feathers and matching fusible web. Apply 5 feathers to your towel in an arrangement you feel suitable. Don't iron down yet.
- On one of the brown body feathers, trim the larger feather area into
a circle for the head. Don't make it too small. Remove the paper from
the brown feathers exposing the fusible webbing on the fabric. Place
the full feather upside down to make the turkey's body. Place the cut
feather circle above it to make the turkey's head.
- Remove the paper to expose the fusible webbing on the tiny triangle snippet and place in a preferred location on the head to serve as the beak.
- When all are pleasingly positioned for you, iron them down. Be careful not to drag the iron and move your feather placement.
- Once all is fused down, take a scrap of red and add some fusible
webbing to it. Free cut a tiny teardrop to serve as the "red hangy
thingy" on the turkey.
- Finally, add two eyes. I used rhinestones but I'll remind the
receiver to always check the towel to make sure they haven't come off.
You could always be safer and sew a knot for the eyes. Also, I used a
black fabric marker for the feet. You could always stitch in some
feet. Last step is to sew down the sides around the turkey. I didn't
complete this step yet.
Thanks for stopping by!


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adrena fulva, bee nesting in lawn, Bee-fly, Bombylius major, important pollinating insect, mining bees, small furry bee, solitary bee, tawny mining bee
April 1st – Garden, Rhos on Sea
In the late afternoon sunshine a number of little bees were zooming around in a corner of the front garden, pausing frequently but briefly on the warmed surfaces of ivy leaves. I have seen similar ones here each spring for the last five years, so was pretty sure they were male Tawny Mining Bees, but I had to wait a while for a prettier and more distintinctive female to take a breather from her nest-building labours to be sure. Males significantly outnumbered females here this afternoon, probably because they don't contribute in any way to constructing nests or to raising offspring, so once mating is accomplished by a lucky few, they are free agents.
Tawny Mining Bee – Andrena fulva
The rich fox-brown colour and furry coat of the lovely little Tawny Mining-bee (Andrena fulva) makes it the most distinctive and obvious of all the Spring-flying solitary bee species. It is a common bee in much of England and Wales, which nests underground and leaves a little volcano-like mound of soil around the mouth of its burrow. Nests can often be seen in lawns and flowerbeds in gardens and parks, or in mown banks and field margins in farmland and orchards.
Size: Females 10 to 12 mm and males 8 to 10 mm long.
The Tawny Mining Bee is a small rich gingery-orange coloured bee that can often be seen visiting its nest in grassy areas such as lawns during the springtime.
Females are larger than males and covered in a dense layer of fox-red/orange hairs. Their underside is black.
The males are quite different to the females. They are much slimmer, covered in less dense orangey brown hair and have a distinguishing pronounced moustache-like tuft of white hairs on the lower face. They play no part in nest building or providing for their offspring.
When to see it
The bee has a single flight period each year and is on the wing from early April until early June; the males emerging well before the females.
Peak activity coincides with the flowering periods of fruit trees such as Pear, Cherry and Apple and also of fruiting shrubs such as currants, gooseberries and other Ribes species and are important pollinators. The female collects pollen and nectar for the larvae which develop underground, each in a single 'cell' of the nest, and hibernate as pupae over winter.
The bee is common in gardens, parks, calcareous grassland, orchards and on the edges of cropped agricultural land.
Andrena fulva nests are constructed in the ground, and the nest entrances are surrounded by a volcano-like mound of excavated spoil. Nests are often in loose aggregations in tended lawns, flower beds, mown banks and in sparsely vegetated field margins. Pollen is collected from a wide range of plants including flowering trees and shrubs, weeds and garden species.
Life History
Having hibernated through the Winter, Tawny Mining Bees emerge in Spring as adults; the males emerging well before the females. After mating, the female seeks a place to make a nest. The bees' tunnelling throws up small heaps of waste soil, that look like tiny molehills or volcanos with the entrance/exit hole at its summit. You may notice these little heaps in your lawn without associating them with the bees. They won't spoil your lawn! The nests are short lived and do not damage plants or harm earthworms.
Nests will often consist of one small, main tunnel, with perhaps 5 or so branches, each containing an egg cell. The nest is a vertical shaft 200 to 300 mm (8 to 12 in) with several brood cells branching off it. The female fills these cells with a mixture of nectar and pollen, on which she lays one egg in each cell. The larva hatches within a few days, grows quickly and pupates within a few weeks to repeat the cycle as new adults emerging the following spring after hibernation.
Sometimes more than a hundred females build nests in a few square metres but the Tawny Mining Bee normally does not create a colony: each female has her own nest.
Distribution in Europe
According to BWARS, the Tawny Mining Bee is common across most of England and Wales, there is only a single confirmed Scottish record, and only old, tantalizing records from Co. Kilkenny in Ireland. On continental Europe, the species is widespread and common from Britain eastwards across central Europe. It is not found in Scandinavia and is restricted in the Mediterranean region.
April 7th
Checking up on the Tawny Mining Bees today I noticed a number of the diagnostic little 'volcanos' have appeared in the bare line of earth between the lawn edge and the ivy-covered front wall.
I spotted females going in a few times and there are still males hanging around close to the nest sites. I photographed one female as she had emerged from her nest, her legs, head and furry body coated with a layer of dusty earth.
As this garden is having a bit of an overhaul at the moment, there are very few flowering plants for the bees to nectar on, so they are having to seek food elsewhere. Poor things must be worn out, all that digging, producing eggs and having to fly across the road to find food.
An Enemy in the Camp
The bees carried on industriously, seemingly unaware they were being watched by a potential murderer of their offspring. The sinister character, a Bee-mimic, looks a little strange; it has a long rigid proboscis at the front of its head which it uses to tke nectar from flowers while hovering over them and long trailing legs. They are also quite cute, furry, lovely to see and entertaining to watch – this was a Bee-fly Bombylius major.
Bombylius major has several host species, including beetle larvae and the brood of solitary wasps and bees particularly digging bees such as Andrena, like our Tawny Mining Bees.
The Bee-flies mimic bees to allow them to get close to the bees nest entrance. When close enough, the female will flick her eggs into or near the nests of the host insects. The larvae will then hatch in the nest and feed on the food stored, as well as on the young solitary bees or wasps.
I knew this is how Bee-flies behaved, but hadn't witnessed their egg-flicking behaviour before today. I have to admit it is fascinating, while feeling a bit sad about the possible outcome for some of the poor hard-working Miners. But then I like to see the Bee-flies too…..


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The four derivates of a function f(x) are defined as follows.
The upper right derivate
\(\displaystyle f^{+}(x) = \limsup_{h \rightarrow 0^{+}} \frac{f(x+h)-f(x)}{h}\)
The lower right derivate
\(\displaystyle f_{+}(x) = \liminf_{h \rightarrow 0^{+}} \frac{f(x+h)-f(x)}{h}\)
The upper left derivate
\(\displaystyle f^{-}(x) = \limsup_{h \rightarrow 0^{+}} \frac{f(x)-f(x-h)}{h}\)
The lower left derivate
\(\displaystyle f_{-}(x) = \liminf_{h \rightarrow 0^{+}} \frac{f(x)-f(x-h)}{h}\)
Infinite values (positive or negative) are possible. A finite derivative exists at every point x where the four derived numbers have the same finite value.
In a paper in 1908 in the Proceedings of the London Mathematics Society, William Young proved that if f is a continuous function, then f+(x) = f–(x) and f–(x) = f+(x) everywhere except at a set of points of the first category.
Grace Young's 1914 Acta Mathematica paper [Abstract] contains the result that for an arbitrary function f, f+(x) ≥ f–(x) and f–(x) ≥ f+(x) everywhere except at a countable set of points.
Further results appeared in her 1916 Gamble Prize paper in the Quarterly Journal. At the same time, Arnaud Denjoy was studying the same problem in France. Both independently established the following theorem for continuous functions. In a 1916 paper in the London Mathematical Society Proceedings [Abstract], Young proved it for measurable functions. Stanislaw Saks eventually removed the measurability assumption in 1924.
Denjoy-Young-Saks Theorem: Except at a set of measure 0, the derivates of an arbitrary function f(x) at any point x belong to one of the following three cases. Either
- all four derivates are equal and the function is differentiable at x, or
- the upper derivates on each side of x are +∞ and the lower derivates on each side are –∞, i.e.
f–(x) = f+(x) = +∞ and f–(x) = f+(x) = –∞, or
- the upper derivate on one side is +∞, the lower derivate on the other side is –∞ and the two remaining extreme derivates are finite and equal, i.e.
f+(x) = f–(x) are finite, f–(x) = +∞, f+(x) = –∞, or
f–(x) = f+(x) are finite, f+(x) = +∞, f–(x) = –∞.


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iPhone for the first time takes top spot from Nokia for global mobile internet usage
Web analytics firm StatCounter is out today with updated stats for the month of January 2013. When it comes to Internet usage, iPhone users this month held the No. 1 spot as Nokia experienced a significant decline during 2012. With Nokia's share of mobile internet usage down 15.52-percent from 37.67-percent last January to just 22.15-percent this year, Apple was able to move into the No. 1 position for the first time despite experiencing a decline of 2.81-percent. Apple took 25.86-percent of mobile Internet usage in January, down from 28.67-percent last year. Nokia was also bumped to third position with Samsung gaining 7.85-percent to move into the No. 2 spot. However, it's important to point out that StatCounter didn't include iPads in its definition of mobile devices.
As for mobile OS, StatCounter has Android at 37 percent of the market in January up from 33.19-percent in December. In comparison, iPhone and iPod held 25.85-percent of the global OS share, up from 23.26-percent in December. Keeping in mind that StatCounter didn't include iPads in these stats, we also looked a report for January from NetApplications (pictured below) that has iOS with iPads included at 60.56-percent of the market during the month: Expand


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SOPA is terrible—it threatens the existence of the internet we know and love. You can call one of the dozens of companies backing it and give them a piece of your mind. Or, try the White House.
Using the White House's official "We the People" petition tool, over 34,000 people have expressed their rightful opposition to the bill. Most online petitions are sad and futile, but WhiteHouse.gov petitions often receive official responses from the administration—so let's hop on this one together. Ask Obama to veto SOPA. [White House via BuzzFeed]


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Nat Davies, Boyesnberry, Arty Cake
Silly farm
Our Boyesnberry, 28g Arty Cakes are part of the Fruity Range Collection, created by Natalee Davies.
Natalee teamed up with Silly Farm to create brilliant colours, intense blends, that will help you create Natalee's creative and classic designs.
Contains, White, Teal, Merlot and Burgundy. (guide)
Click here for Nat's full range of products.
Silly Farm Arty Brush Cakes are small face painting Split Cakes that combine a few different colours that blend well together, making it possible to create beautiful designs with a quick stroke of a brush or swipe of a sponge.
To apply, use a slightly damp sponge or a suitable size flat brush, depending on how many colours you wish to use. Ideally a 3/4" (18mm) or 1" (25mm) brush is great.
Don't use not too much water, it may cause colours to blend and bleed into one another
Water Make-up dries within 15 seconds. If you do not want the colours to mix, be sure to wait for the first layer to dry before continuing.
If you apply the make-up too thickly or in too many layers, you will end up with a cracking effect.
Remove with soap and cold or lukewarm water.
Hand the USA, using professional face and body paints from a variety of brands.
Non-toxic, hypoallergenic, anti-microbial, gluten, paraben and nut free.
Avoid contact with Fabrics.
FDA Compliant. Conforms to ASTM D-4236 & 76/768/EEC and EC No 1223/2009.
Images for guidance, additional colours may-have been used.


text:
2.5 lb. Chrome Olympic Pressure-Ring Training Collars (Pair) – Ivanko (COT-2.5)
Ivanko 2.5 lb. Chrome Olympic Compression Ring Training Collars (Pair) - Ivanko Compression Ring Collars arguably offer the strongest holding power in the industry. Each Compression Ring Weight Lifting Collar includes a lever bolt that, as it is tightened into the collar, restricts the internal compression ring band around the circumference of the bar. This compression ring band makes contact with the entire circumference of the bar thus offering superior holding power without damaging the Olympic bar.
In 1985, Ivanko decided that none of the existing collar technologies were "good enough." So, a number of engineers worldwide were invited to design "the perfect collar." One that would be 5 to 10 times stronger than the lever bolt method. One which would protect the bar from damage, occupy a minimum of space, be aesthetically pleasing, be patentable, and most importantly, be inexpensive to produce. The result is Ivanko's patented pressure ring collar. The compression band locks onto the entire circumference of the sleeve, leaves no surface marks, and over 25 years later, still remains the best fastening solution.
- 2-1/2 lb. per collar (5 lbs. total weight per pair)
- Thickness: 1-3/8"
- Steel Collars
- Hard triple chrome-plated finish with nickel base
- Effective for any size Olympic Bar with 2" sleeves
- Particularly good for shorter bars
- Easy-On/Easy-Off
Need to make a large purchase of bar collars for a weight room or commercial gym? Contact an IRON COMPANY® strength equipment specialist today at 1-888-758-7527 or email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Shipping Included
Shipping cost included within the lower 48 states only
Ships via UPS


text:
Johnson to end long FSA career
Steve Johnson has been the county executive director of the federal government's Farm Service Agency, formerly USDA office, for nearly three decades, during which time he tried to help area farmers receive maximum income through a variety of programs.
As of Monday, he will again join the ranks of farmers, as he retires from the FSA office, located on Route 116 West.
"I started out helping my dad and granddad farm in Macon County, where I grew up," said Johnson. "Then I taught high school agriculture before I ended up working in this office. When I retire, I'll be helping dad with the farm books," he said.
Johnson's last day at the office will be Monday.
"I've been responsible for a lot of different programs over the years that offer farmers subsidy payments or low-interest loans, like the conservation reserve and farm storage facility loans. This office has a loan manager and officers and they see a lot of work," he added.
"However, unlike the drought of 1988, farmers in this area were much better protected this year, I think most learned from that earlier one and participate in a federal crop insurance program now. Through insurance most farmers will recoup enough money to plant next year's crop. Insurance has been a real boon, even though it's not the same as having a bumper crop. Also, the hybrids are better able to withstand tougher conditions. There was still crop this year, in 1988 there wasn't. Where we see a real need is when a crop is bad for some other reason, then we help restructure financing so the farmer can plant the following year.
"Of course, there are fewer farmers than there were, as more and more small operations are taken over by bigger operations," he said.
In year's past, the agency used control production through conservation and idle acres programs to help the market, but that is no longer the case, Johnson said.
"Our programs just focus on how we can help each farmer individually," he said.
Farming has become more automated, as has the office, Johnson added with a laugh.
"All of our application processes are automated now, which is good because we get less funding while trying to do more."
Johnson said what he will miss the most is dealing with area farmers.
"The best thing about this job is all the farmers I have met and worked with over the years. It's been enjoyable being associated with agriculture and helping farmers maximize their income."
The least enjoyable has been the cut in funding available to farmers, as well as to operate the office.
Johnson and his wife, Pat, currently live in Flanagan, but anticipate a move to Maroa in the future, so he can be closer to his father, who lives in Decatur.
"My wife, 'P.J.' works in the county clerk's office and she isn't ready to retire just yet," he said. "I'll be spending a lot of time helping dad, so it probably won't really feel like retirement for awhile."


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SLIS Student Pursues Degree While Teaching in Spain
Kent State University School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) graduate student Christina Booth believes that everyone should be required to travel and live in a foreign country for at least six months before graduating high school or college. The learning experiences you gain from living abroad are priceless, she said.
Booth speaks from personal experience, having visited or lived in several different countries. This year she is teaching English as a Foreign Language at a public school in Spain.
[Christina Booth- Feria y Fiestas de la Virgen de San Lorenzo Valladolid 2012]
Photo: Christina Booth at Feria y Fiestas de la Virgen de San Lorenzo Valladolid, Spain
Booth, originally from Doylestown, Ohio, has a bachelor's in psychology with a minor in sociology from Kent State University and a certification to Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). She is currently teaching English in Valladolid, Spain, to students whose ages range from middle school to high school. She has also taught English as a Foreign Language in Dresden, Germany, and Playas del Coco, Costa Rica.
"While working at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College as an English as a Second Language (ESL) Instructor, I assigned my second language students to go to our local public library," said Booth. "After they were familiar with the system, they still felt deterred by the language barrier. This prompted my interest in combining ESL and cultural outreach with fostering libraries as a community resource, which in turn led to my decision to apply to Kent State University's Master of Library and Information Science program."
Booth has always loved different languages and finds them fascinating. During her time in Germany, Professor Klaus Gommlich, her Kent State English professor who created the Dresden program, taught students how to search for real Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) positions. She then researched programs and located the North American Language and Culture Assistants in Spain program where she contacted past participants to get feedback about their experiences.
"The best way to broaden our horizons and the understanding of our world is through experiencing it," she said. "Traveling somewhere new, escaping my comfort zone and challenging myself was difficult for me at times, but in the end I am grateful for all that I've learned."
While teaching in Spain, Booth will continue to work on her master's degree through the eDegree option in SLIS. The program allows students to take courses online from anywhere in the world. Assignments are posted weekly on Blackboard, and students are responsible for completing homework on their own time, as long as it's submitted before the due date.
"It takes a lot more motivation, focus and perseverance to stay on task with online learning, but I have had previous experience with it when I was teaching English to second language speakers for six months in Germany while studying for my bachelor's degree and Teaching English as a Foreign Language certification," said Booth.
Booth encourages students to take full advantage of studying, living and traveling abroad opportunities.
"You must be persistent in your studies, but also take time to learn from the culture that is around you," she said. "Research the country's history, interact with the natives, eat their food and attempt to speak their language without being afraid to make mistakes. Immerse yourself in the culture."
See more photos from Booth's travels on SlideShare.
-- By Nicole Gennarelli


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Hello All,
This is my first Thread on to this forum. I am lookin for a answer of the following query:
I want My webpage links should revert back to the unvisited color whenever the page is refreshed.
Howz is it possible? Could anyone help me out in this
Thanks ,


text:
Mike Davis saw his life path and career change years ago in a form that had been normal throughout his life: a physical attack from his brother.
Davis had traveled to attend his sister's wedding, which was far enough away that he hadn't seen his younger brother in a long while. They had spent their youth as close confidants, but also as near-daily combatants, mimicking professional wrestling moves and even using socks as boxing gloves in the backyard.
When Davis walked into the room, he got the usual greeting.
"He just attacked me," Davis told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "I hadn't seen my brother in about a year, and that's just what we did with each other.
"We went to the wedding, and I decided to stay."
Davis and his brother went about placing mats in the basement, setting the foundation for later mixed martial arts training. He solidified his position as one of the premier flyweights in Canada by defending his title on June 21 at Unified MMA 16. His first-round submission victory underlined his recent success, including an eight-fight win streak to get him to an 11-3 record.
Now Davis is looking for his next opportunity. With the help of his training-partner brother Tyler, who has his own seven-fight win streak and a 9-2 record, Davis has turned his attention more to MMA while keeping his schedule flexible by working as a contractor.
Because he has faced most of the other notable flyweights in his home country, Davis is hoping to expand to U.S. competition soon. When he does, he'll try to continue a rise that almost didn't happen after he started his career 0-2. With encouragement, he continued his training and has built an impressive resume.
"I've come a long way," he said. "I dropped two weight classes – I was eating pizza at my first weigh-in. Now I really try to finish (fights) as much as I can. I try to attack."
Brotherly affection (and fighting)
Davis was born 16 months before his younger brother. They were fighting nearly from the beginning, but that never affected their close relationship.
In fact, Davis laughs while telling the story of once punching his only sister in the nose when they were small children because she was attacking his brother. Only he, it seems, was allowed to pound on Tyler.
The family moved multiple times and finally settled in a small town in Alberta. It was small enough that Davis' high school graduating class was barely 20 students. But the brothers still found enough inspiration to dream of MMA training.
They were constantly at it. Tyler once broke his arm when the two were playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mike kicked him off the bunk beds. Both have faced their share cuts and bruises throughout the face and body.
First, they were fans of professional wrestling, practicing the moves they saw in the backyard. Then once, when at the video store, they accidentally rented a UFC tape instead of a pro wrestling episode.
"I saw my first Tito Ortiz fight when I was about 10 or 11," he said. "I just fell in love with the violence. We were drawn to that."
That's why, when the brothers reunited at their sister's wedding, they couldn't again separate. Davis moved in with his brother and they set up a training area in their basement. Soon, several other friends were involved.
"We found a gym that was about 30 minutes away, and we tried some training there," he said. "We didn't really know what we were doing at first, but it was something we loved to do."
Overcoming disappointment
Davis had only been training for about three months when he got his first opportunity.
When he got to the gym one day, the coaches were looking for someone to take a fight at 145 pounds, heavier than he might've preferred. He accepted and became a professional immediately in 2009.
"It was a bloody mess," he said. "It was a drawn-out fight, and he was way too experienced for me. In the third round, I was tired and he caught me and the ref stopped the fight. I made 200 bucks, but I had two big swollen eyes and a broken nose.
"The next day they sent me home from work."
At the time, Davis worked doing piping insulation, which required being outside in very cold temperatures. His fighting, or at least the physical results, surprised some coworkers.
Davis lost again in March 2009, and after that 0-2 start he seriously considered ending his career. But he got plenty of encouragement to keep going, including from his brother, who has been a steady sense of inspiration throughout his career.
"It's huge," Davis said of having his brother as a confidant. "I can trust him 100 percent. Say I'm cutting weight and I'm in the sauna, if someone told me to do five more minutes, I might not be in the mood to listen to them. If it's my brother, I'll listen to him.
"I know I can trust him completely, and not everyone has someone like that."
After getting back to some basics of grappling and jiujitsu, he surged. Beginning in November 2009, Davis has won 11 of his past 12 fights, including his June title defense.
Now he waits for his next opportunity, which he hopes will soon involve meeting some of the best flyweights from the U.S.
"I would love to fight a bigger name," he said. "I'm feeling good about where my career is now, and I'm ready for a big challenge."
Catching up
Last month, Holly Holm told us about her life growing up in a rural area as the daughter of a preacher, but that didn't mean things were always calm. The family made its backyard into a soccer field, basketball court and baseball field, plus added a zipline to start Holm on a path to adventure.
She continued her MMA journey last week by topping Allanna Jones with a second-round knockout at Legacy Fighting Championship 21 to improve to 4-0.
Back in 2010, Demetrious Johnson discussed his mother's lifelong lesson that he and his siblings should look someone in the eye when talking to them. There was a reason for that that they didn't learn until they were teenagers: She was born almost completely deaf, so that was the only way she could understand them.
She wanted to be independent, which she also stressed to her kids. Johnson used those lessons to build a 17-2-1 record heading into a Saturday matchup with John Moraga at UFC on FOX 8.
Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel pens "Fight Path" each week. The column focuses on the circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.


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Story by
Matthew Panzarino
Matthew Panzarino was Managing Editor at TNW. He's no longer with the company, but you can follow him on Twitter. Matthew Panzarino was Managing Editor at TNW. He's no longer with the company, but you can follow him on Twitter.
The Google Nexus 4 smartphone website indicated that the unit was sold out in the US Google Play store in both 8GB and 16GB variants, but some users are reporting that they have been able to purchase it. Roughly 50 minutes after it went on sale at 8:35 this morning, the site was displaying the 'coming soon' banner for us.
Update: Google has confirmed that it has sold out in 'a few countries'.
The Nexus 4 went on sale in Europe earlier today and sold out there as well, along with the Nexus 10. The Nexus 4 sold out in roughly 15 minutes in Germany.
A sellout is good for Google obviously, but the question of how much stock there actually was in the store limits our ability to assign a rating of just how good it is. I quite liked the Nexus 4 when I reviewed it earlier in the month. It has the best Google Now experience on Android so far and shows some promise for the platform. But is crippled in some regions by its lack of LTE (which won't affect some global purchasers obviously).
Update: Some readers, like Henk van Ess are reporting that they're still able to snag them. He used Chrome to make his purchase as other browsers wouldn't allow him to complete the transaction.
We've amended the post above to indicate that you can probably keep trying at this point.
Interested in the Nexus 4? Read our review.
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If I had known about the 5Rhythms® practice back when I was in high school, I'd be all over Lyrical, man.
I was such a Lyrical creature in my adolescent stage. Proof:
(1) My first America Online screen name was derived from Shakespeare's most renowned romantic tragedy (just call me Juliet204, please).
(2) I borrowed my 10th grade English teacher's copy of her A Tale of Two Cities video (PBS edition, baby!) to watch at home (at least twice, and that's not including the in-class viewing) because I was in love with the love that Sydney Carton represented.
(3) I turned an English class assignment about A Separate Peace into an interpretive dance.
(4) Sometimes instead of going out with friends on Friday nights, I'd opt to crank up Yanni in my
Acropolis, err living room and play "Reflections of Passion" on repeat.
There were other notes of Lyrical, of course (mostly involving scads of poetry and an obsession with sonnets, haiku, and the novel Rebecca), but perhaps the biggest indicator of my Lyrical tendencies was my love of, well… lyrical.
Lyrical dance, that is.
Back in the 1990s, my dance education in the small-town studios of South Jersey was usually limited to the basic menu of ballet, tap, and jazz styles. The fluid-like, emotion-packed genre of lyrical was just emerging in my area, and my initial experience with it was through watching dance competitions I videotaped on TV.
These girls with their loose, un-bunned hair and long flowy skirts and bare feet! Their songs with words and lyrics that made my heart weep!
I had only learned to stuff my feet into pointe shoes just a few years prior, but about the time I got my first period I was yearning to see what soft marley felt like under my toes instead. I wanted to wear footless tights. I wanted to untie my French braid and let my strawberry-blond locks tumble dramatically past my shoulders.
Most of all, I was interested in expressing my beloved writing medium—poetry—as a dance form.
I loved the power and punch of jazz dancing, but the more classic literature I read in high school (coupled with the sudden onslaught of female hormones), the less interested I became in executing knee-to-nose hitch kicks across the dance studio floor.
I wanted depth. I wanted feeling. I wanted to emote.
I was already kind of an odd bird at my dance studio, the way I was rigidly disciplined with my time and my secret love of a strict ballet teacher that everyone else hated.
So it wasn't much of a surprise, then, that my senior year of high school, when I was invited to participate in a special performance for graduating students, instead of doing what all the cool kids had done in the past and voting to learn a super-awesome explosive heart-thumping jazz routine in a slinky, sexy, sequined costume, I politely requested that our group of 17- and 18-year-old girls dance a sweet and elegant lyrical routine.
And not just any lyrical routine. I requested that we dance to Elton John's "Candle in the Wind."
The year was 1998, and it was only the summer before that Princess Diana had passed away. Her death was a sentimental sensation, especially for tenderhearted Lyrical creatures like myself who responded to the tragedy by crafting poems and prose about the late princess.
To me, my request made so much sense. The theme of the dance recital that year was "international travel," with each song to represent an area of the world. Elton John + Lady Di + OMG that tearjerker performance at Westminster Abbey = hello, United Kingdom!
And our graduating group of dancers included four young women transitioning from high school to college. Weren't they too bursting with hormones and notions of romance and an ache to pour their maturing hearts onto the stage?
No, no they weren't.
They raised their eyebrows at me when I so passionately proposed my suggestion to the dance studio director, and their reactions were even less forgiving when my suggestion was accepted.
I felt bad. The other girls took their distaste out on the dance teacher by coming to rehearsals in baggy sweats and rarely putting any effort into their movement.
I knew they had wanted techno. Pizzazz. Flashy and sassy. If 5Rhythms had been part of our language back then, they would have been Staccato, for sure.
But we had been served Lyrical, and I lapped it up.
Footless tights? Check. My hair stayed in a bun, but we clipped a red flower to our white satin skirts to represent England's rose. My mother and grandmother cried during the performance and each time they watched the routine on video, and will probably cry reading this as well.
The most important thing, however, was that I got to dance my poetry. I got my Lyrical.
I didn't know it at the time, but I was learning to find my rhythm. No, not just find my rhythm but be it.
My Flowing exploration helped me understand my sensitive nature and navigate why I wanted to dance this piece.
My Staccato energy pushed me to approach the studio director and present my suggestion.
My Chaos was the emotional drama I felt after rehearsals when I knew my peers hated my decision that had cost them their super-cool jazz routine.
My Lyrical was the dance.
And finally, My Stillness was the moment after curtain call when I realized my dance hobby had developed into a true passion.


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Is rural Europe being left behind?
Rural communities have distinctive patterns of economic development and social life. Previous research has highlighted a rural–urban divide across several dimensions of quality of life. For instance, living standards are lower on average in rural areas. This policy brief aims to draw policymakers' attention to aspects of quality of life where rural dwellers are doing less well than the urban population, focusing on three topics: financial security, connectedness and life satisfaction.


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IP Phones, PBX boxes and other 3rd party hardware that you have tested with Quadro
Use this control to limit the display of threads to those newer than the specified time frame.
Allows you to choose the data by which the thread list will be sorted.
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CPR has long comprised three steps: clearing one's airway, administering mouth-to-mouth breathing, and pumping their chest. But the American Heart Association's new guidelines say that untrained resuscitators should just skip the whole mouth-to-mouth part. Wait! No!
The new guidelines state that chest compressions are the most important part of Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and in most cases, especially if the resuscitators don't have formal CPR training, they should be the first step taken.
Recent studies showed that starting with chest compressions yielded higher survival rates for people in cardiac arrest—the cause for the vast majority of situations in which CPR would be administered. Dr. Michael Sayre, coauthor of the new guidelines, says that the traditional technique "was causing significant delays in starting chest compressions, which are essential to keeping oxygen-rich blood circulating through the body."
Situations in which an individual is under respiratory distress—a drug overdose, say, or drowning—will benefit from traditional mouth-to-mouth, though, which means that this classic trick from The Sandlot should still work just fine.
Here are the AHA's full instructions for the new CPR:
— Before starting, shake the victim's shoulders and shout to see if he responds.
— If the victim is not breathing, yell for someone to call 911. If you're alone, call 911.
— Begin chest compressions. Push hard and fast on the center of the chest at a rate of at least 100 compressions a minute (which happens to be the beat of the 1977 Bee Gees disco hit "Stayin' Alive").
— Push down on the chest at least 2 inches with each compression. Make sure you fully release the chest before beginning the next compression.
— If you have not been trained in CPR, continue chest compressions until help arrives.
— If you have been trained, after 30 chest compressions open an airway and begin mouth-to-mouth breathing. Give two breaths, then resume chest compressions. Continue sets of 30 chest compressions and two breaths until help arrives.
100 compressions a minute is also the beat of "Quit Playing Games With My Heart" by the Backstreet Boys and "Heartbreaker" by Mariah Carey, points out Giz editor and all-around weirdo Jason Chen, which I must admit is some excellent cosmic CPR / BPM punnage. [SF Gate and AHA]


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I'm fine. Truly I am. For all of you who have expressed concern over my current upsurge in grief, I just want to tell you there is nothing to worry about. Upsurges in sadness do not in any way affect my life or my dealings with other people. They are just there, a fact of my life like shortness of breath after exercise. If I didn't write about my feelings, no one would know about my times of sadness. There is so much bad advice given to people about grief, such as acceptable durations and ways of grieving, that I want to provide a counterpoint, and I wouldn't do much good if I kept silent about what I happened to be feeling at any given moment.
Many people have told me that after the death of their husband, they never found happiness until they married again. People have told me that even after they got married, they still experienced upsurges in grief, sometimes years afterward. People tell me they never got over grief at the loss of a life mate, it just got different. The death of a cousin or even a brother doesn't affect us the same way as the loss of a child or a soul mate, so the severity of the loss has to be taken into affect before you start wondering if someone is grieving inappropriately. Some people do fall in a pit of depression and cannot get out without help, but I am not one of them. Nor am I ruining my health by riding out the sadness. That's what tears are for — to release the stress. Walking, exercising, and blogging also relieve the stress of trying to create a new life for myself out of the embers of the old one.
For me, an upsurge in grief usually comes right before or right after a new level of acceptance or a greater understanding. This latest upsurge began on Independence Day. It's a day for families to get together, to have fun, to do whatever it is that families do when they get together, and I was alone. I understood that this could be the way holidays will be for the rest of my life, and I found it difficult dealing with the unwelcome understanding. Also, while walking in the desert recently, I've had several revelations that are helping me with my search to find a new focus for my life, and such forward motions bring on an upsurge of sadness because they take me further away from the past I shared with my deceased life mate/soul mate.
And anyway, even though I am no longer a child in the world of grief, I've not yet achieved full growth, either. Therapists who have studied grief and grievers admit that it takes three to five years to find your way back to life, and I am just past two years. I still have a long way to go. Besides, what's a few tears among friends?
The truth is, though, I am more exhausted than sad. I'm tired of living in an alien world, tired of having to figure out where to go from here, tired of not feeling like me, but mostly, I'm tired of his being dead. Whether I continue to be sad or find happiness, whether I continue floundering of find new focus, he will still be dead. And absolutely nothing I do or say or feel will ever change that.


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A big retirement party for former Greyhound Canada bus drivers, who used to drive across Western Canada, is kicking off today in the South Okanagan.
The party, which runs until May 19 at various locations around Penticton, is meant to be a meaningful send-off for their years of service.
To raise money for the event, former bus driver for the company, Ann Meacham, collected pop cans left on buses over the years.
Meacham started collecting the cans when the company stopped paying for retirement parties several years ago, she said.
So far, the Kelowna resident, with the help of others, has raised $2,000.
Last summer, Greyhound Canada announced it would stop service in Western Canada on all but one route at the end of October.
One route, between Vancouver and Seattle, remains as it is operated by Greyhound in Washington State.
Meacham said she has heard that many bus drivers have moved on to find other work, either for a different bus company, public transportation or school buses.
This afternoon, bus drivers from the Vancouver area, Kamloops, Kelowna and Calgary are in Penticton playing golf at the Twin Lakes Golf Course.
On Saturday, a banquet is taking place at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre. A barbecue will take place at Sun-Oka Beach on Sunday.
A total of 150 former Greyhound Canada bus drivers are coming to town for the celebration, she said.


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Produced by Zena Koo Magnum In Motion
|Previous Days
|Jan 12, 2010
|Jan 11, 2010
|Jan 8, 2010
|Jan 7, 2010
Book of the Week
Deep in the Heart of Technology
by Erich Hartmann
Erich Hartmann was a pioneer in photographing technological components as art objects, bringing into broad view the connections between humans and technology.
Join the Fray
© Marilyn Silverstone / Magnum Photos
What do you think of these photos? Join the Fray, our reader discussion forum.
To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It's a way of life.
Henri Cartier-Bresson


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Chris Pincetich, SeaTurtles.org

/ Change.org – 2013-06-10 01:39:47
A Petition to Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica
From
Chris Pincetich, SeaTurtles.org

/ Change.org
(June 9, 2013) — On Thursday, May 30, Jairo Mora Sandoval, a 26-year-old conservationist, was kidnapped by sea turtle poachers. The next morning, his body was found on the beach where he had worked to protect endangered leatherback sea turtles. The Costa Rican government must respond to this shocking murder with swift action that sends a clear message to all sea turtle poachers that their actions will not be tolerated.
My name is Chris Pincetich and I am in Costa Rica now co-leading a volunteer ecotour to a Caribbean leatherback nesting beach. Illegal killing of turtles and poaching of their eggs is driving leatherbacks to extinction.
Without conservationists on beach patrols that reach the nesting females and their nests before the poachers, sea turtles do not stand a chance. The brutal murder of Jairo Mora Sandoval has traumatized the conservation community and threatens the future of sea turtle ecotourism in Costa Rica.
Jairo had asked for protection and action from local authorities to stop the poaching, but it didn't work. We're asking the Costa Rican government to respond to his murder by committing police protection to the beaches where there have been threats and significant poaching levels to make these areas safe for sea turtles, conservationists and ecotourists.
To ensure transparency and reassure the tourist community, the federal government should take over the investigation and ensure Jairo's killers are swiftly brought to justice.
Costa Rica's economy rests on its reputation as a mecca for ecotourism, protection of the environment and its reputation as a safe haven for American and other international tourists. Ecotours, like the one co-sponsored by the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, bring millions of dollars each year to the Costa Rican economy. That's why the Costa Rican government needs act decisively and swiftly to bring justice for Jairo Mora Sandoval, so that its economy and ecology can be protected.
Please sign the petition and let the Costa Rican government know that the whole world is watching and hoping for justice so that Costa Rica can earn back its peaceful reputation.
This is the moment when the Costa Rican government's response will either send a message that they want to protect their citizens, visitors, and wildlife, or that poachers are welcome to rule their beaches.
Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica
Immediate justice must be sought for the brutal murder of sea turtle conservation worker Jairo Mora Sandoval that took place Friday May 31, 2013 at Moin Beach on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
Your leadership to capture these sea turtle poachers and prosecute them to the full extent of the law is needed now to send a clear message to all citizens, conservationists, and tourists that murderous drug dealers do not rule Costa Rica's beaches.
Costa Rica is respected around the world for its history of ocean and environmental conservation and for its peaceful, safe society that supports ecotourism. The sea turtle conservation community is already feeling the shock waves from brave Jairo Mora Sandoval's murder.
His courageous hard work continues along hundreds of beaches at projects that rely on international tourists to support nightly beach patrols. Now that human and sea turtle lives are in jeopardy on Costa Rican beaches, the entire ecotourism economy is in jeopardy.
Please take swift and decisive action to send a clear message to all sea turtle poachers across that country that their illegal actions will no longer be tolerated. Jairo Mora Sandoval's murder must be solved and the criminals punished.
All the prayers of all the sea turtle conservation workers across the world can not bring Jairo Mora Sandoval back, but you and your administration can turn his tragic death into a historic turning point to end the threat of violence on sea turtle nesting beaches and end poaching in Costa Rica forever.
Sincerely,
[Your name]


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|A succulent rock garden
Soil: Despite their association with the desert, these plants survive in soil, not pure sand. An ideal medium for both cactus and succulents consists of one-third each sterile potting mix, pea gravel, and compost.
Drainage: Root rot is the most dangerous enemy to cacti and succulents. Use pea gravel or coarse sand to ensure good drainage.
Light: Outdoors in the north, plant cold-hardy succulents in full sun; in the south, give them filtered light. Indoors, set plants in a south-facing window.
Water: Easy does it. Cacti and succulents have a great ability to store water, and need only a little additional moisture from us. Let soil dry out almost completely before watering.
Humidity: The dryer, the better.
Food: As a rule, cacti and succulents require very little supplemental feeding, if any.
If you enjoy this website, you might like my magazine, Gardening Life.
Thank you for stopping by to spend time in my garden. If you liked the article, please take a moment to let me know. I will be delighted if you would suggest Gardens Inspired to your friends, follow me or subscribe to my Blog.
Leave a legacy, but garden like you'll live forever!
Did you like this post? Please recommend it to other readers by selecting the g+1 box, below.
Image credit - Mark Turner


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Last night E! premiered its show in which women compete for the grand prize of a full-body plastic surgery makeover in order to look "perfect" for her wedding day. It would be funny if it weren't actually real.
Seriously, though, the show does seem like a big joke—a sort of social commentary on what has become our modern-day "wedding culture" where tons of time and money is spent (wasted?) on creating a fairytale day in which there's only a 50% chance of a "happily ever after" outcome. But it also could be seen as self-parody of the entire genre of reality TV, by taking a ridiculous, if not completely unhealthy, premise and seeing how complicit contestants are in their own humiliation while also trading in some of their dignity for a little bit of fame and the slight chance that they will get some free lipo and tits. The problem, though, is that while there's a possibility that the show's creators are clever enough to be so self-aware, its on-air participants are clearly not. Case in point: When going over the brides'-to-be surgery wish lists, the doctor stares at one woman and tells her, "You have perfect breasts…for doing a breast augmentation." He also willingly, and perhaps unethically, marks up areas on some size 0 contestants where they could use liposuction.
Of course, the entire notion of promoting physical perfection through cosmetic surgery is dangerous, not only physically—due to the general anesthesia required, and any complications that might arise during recovery—but also mentally.
But it should be pointed out that Bridalplasty doesn't just focus on the superficial. The winner must be at least a little bit smart, as evidenced by the first challenge. The contestants had to race to finish a puzzle, by covering up their old "gross" bodies with Photoshopped versions of themselves.
The women who finished their puzzles in a timely fashion were allowed to attend an "injection party," where they would be able to get a bunch of fillers and Botox. The last two women were up for elimination, and their fate was decided by the other brides, meaning that this competition will feature alliances and backstabbing and tons of fighting.
When planning my wedding, I thought that the pressure to have a lighting design and color scheme was oppressive and ludicrous. But if you read enough of those wedding magazines, even the more outrageous and wasteful things can begin to seem commonplace and necessary. It took some effort to not get caught up in such nonsense. I can't imagine how it would feel to think that surgery was just another step in walking down the aisle, particularly because someone has already agreed to spend the rest of his/her life with you, as is. Naturally, not all women would fall prey to that kind of thinking, but evidently, many will. Unfortunately, Bridalplasty doesn't offer brain augmentations.


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Candidates for the M.E.R. Degree must obtain a grade of B or better in all program courses.
Candidates who receive a grade of less than B in a program course will be permitted to remain in the program, provided the course is repeated and passed with a grade of B or better. Alternatively, the candidate may, on the recommendation of the GCER, and with the approval of the Dean of Graduate Studies, substitute another graduate course. Only one course repetition or substitution will be permitted during the candidate's program after which the candidate shall be required to withdraw from the program.