text:
Help me out. Take a look at this draft of my survey.
Click here to take the survey now.
Please let me know your thoughts? Are the questions clear? Do they make sense? Any changes in wording and other suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the help in refining this tool.
Gaming & Academic Success: Pilot Survey
Help me out. Take a look at this draft of my survey.
11:55 PM | Tags: research | 2 Comments
Running Silent
I'm out of rhythm. Well, given that I can't dance that shouldn't come as a surprise, but I got out of my posting rhythm this past week. I first I thought that I didn't really have a whole lot new to add after spending two weeks of new content posts. But yesterday I realized how much I value keeping up with my blogs. I value the information and the insight people provide, and I just recently had someone tell that to me. Thanks.
My Thanksgiving started with cleaning 4 20lbs turkeys, getting covered in brine and ended with some late night gaming sessions. Sure there was family and a little shopping along the way as well. I did use the weekend to get caught up on some articles that I've wanted to read. And so I'll post some summaries of those.
I've also been running silent after the research momentum of the console launches. I'm close to finishing a draft of my survey and I'll be looking for feedback on the questions once I'm done... so expect a post here for that. Once the survey is done I'll be trying to push it out to as many people as possible and I hoping some fellow bloggers will help.
There's what's on tap for the next week or so. Talk to you soon.
10:28 PM | Tags: personal | 1 Comments
The Song Remains the Same
Not to be out done by my interviewing of PS3 seekers on Thursday night, I went out on Saturday night to see who was out waiting for the Wii (Nintendo's new system). I thought that I'd find fewer people but those out would be interested in the games, not the profit of Ebay. Although, for the prices the PS3 was getting who could blame them.
I thought I'd name this post "For the Love of the Game" since the percentage of those flipping the Wii was much smaller, but the title fits. Of the 8 people I interviewed between Target and Best Buy, much of what they said was consistent with the PS3 interviewees.
Beyond "practice" as what makes them good, two said they learn quick. Again, as with the PS3, I saw a few students from my college. One of whom said, "I catch on quickly and figure it out."
Another gamer said, "I just get it." While one the surface these may not seem all that insightful, but paired with the results of my recent class activity (read below if interested) helps to explain why students may have rushed through demonstrating their search results. They "get it" or at least the end product and the motions to get there. Whether or not they understand why they are going where they are going, using certain tools, and decisions is in question. I can be good at a game because I know how to use the game system to advance - the same is true for research. But I may not be able to explain why I am choosing the path I am. Sounds like a teachable moment (ahh, buzzword) to me.
When asked what they do when they get stuck there were two answers that were different from the previous statements of trying all opitions and then "cheating" by asking for help.
- "I don't get stuck." I've heard this in class before, usually followed by some poor source choices. Self-determination is a wonderful and dangerous thing, and breaking down that wall is important for reference and instruction.
- "I set it down and come back to it the next day." This isn't that different from what others had said, but this gamer went a step further, "Now that I'm in college, I do the same with my homework." By taking a break and coming back he felt he was able to get through most challenges or questions. It was great to see someone make the education / gaming connection that I'm working toward.
Both of these experiences were a lot of fun. The people I met and the stories they told are most certainly interesting. Maybe I'll come back to those sometime. But until then, this exercise was a good test of some questions and really helped me focus in on some ideas. Plus, it was fun.
11:02 PM | Tags: applications, research | 0 Comments
PS3 Launch Night Interviews
Tonight I went out and talked with the people in line at both Best Buy and Target. Best Buy had about 26 people in line and they stated they were told the store had 27 PS3. They were fun to talk with, most had tents, and even a few were running power cables out of their cars. I saw a few of my students at Best Buy. I think they were surprised to see me, but we had a good conversation. Target had about 12 people in line, but they were not sure if the store had 8 or 12 PS3s. All in all I interviewed 6 people and got some useful information.
I had some survey questions I wanted to test out and cold gamers, waiting in line in the dark is a captive audience. asked the people questions about what they are were planning on doing with their PS3 (of all the people in both lines (38), only 2 said they were planning on selling it. I asked a few questions on what systems they owned and why they play. I was surprised by the number of systems people have from the last two generations. There was a wide range of responses to why they game, and many cited playing old N64 games as a fun social interaction.
The two questions I was directly interested in and that I believe relate to education and research were:
1) What makes you a good gamer?
2) What do you do when you are stuck in a game?
Both I think parallel how people respond and act during the research process, at least that is my hypothesis.
1)"Lots and lots of practice." Practice was the response from all six people interviewed. In games, as in the research process there is not a quick fix and one path that always works. Through practice and experience we are able to navigate that path more efficiently. Heck, as librarians, we don't always know the quickest search with the most relevant entries. It is only through our practice that we can come close and adapt to find what is needed.
2) "It's not fun if you don't try it for as long as you can without doing it."
"I don't like cheating in a game unless I tried everything." The personal determination is wonderful. If only our content to hold their interest as long (it can if we try, hence that's why I'm here). I see this mentality at the reference desk quite often. We are their last place to go when they are stuck. Is this mentality used in research as well? They want to try and figure it out and any help is "cheating?" If it is that latter, then we need to market ourselves differently. As the controversial Stanley Wilder said at the 2005 ACRL National Conference, we should be their first stop not their last.
"If it's driving me absolutely insane... maybe I might ask for help." I don't want reference to be seen as that, and I hope it isn't but it is a challenge if there is the mentality that they should be able to get it and coming for help admits defeat.
Another person said that there was nothing worse than watching someone breeze through a particular hard section of a game easily. Is this the feeling we give off if we breeze through a reference transaction? I've always thought there is value in struggling at reference. There is always the potential to struggle regardless of job title.
Overall it was a good start to developing my survey and gave me a bunch to think about.
12:45 AM | Tags: assumptions, research | 0 Comments
Reach them where they are at... as one gamer said tonight, "They (video games) define our generation."
I enjoyed meeting everyone tonight. Stay warm and I wish them luck tomorrow.
12:34 AM | Tags: research | 0 Comments
I'm going out...
Here's a nice story of someone helping out those waiting in line tonight. 11/17 is the U.S. release of the PS3 and there are lines across the country.
I'm going to try to head out tonight and interview a few people waiting in line. I'm got some ideas for a larger survey and want to test them out. What better way than to hit up some people just trying to pass the time until midnight... I'm off now.
This post is also to try out a new blogging extension for firefox , performancing firefox.
9:12 PM | Tags: personal | 0 Comments
The Hits Just Keep on Coming
Yesterday, we moved through the final two game strategy based activities with continued success. Although by the 8th one I think my excitement level had decreased a little. But the students were still moving through the activity well and able to demonstrate most concepts. Overall, I continue to be very impressed with the students' performances on this activity.
And it appears the students are impressed as well. Between yesterday and today, 5 classes came back for their second instruction session and we had a chance to debrief and discuss the review activity - nothing but positive reviews. When I asked the classes if they felt the activity was valuable I got head nods all around. Myself and another librarian asked each class for feedback on the activity - what worked, what didn't, suggestions for the future.
Some general positive comments include:
- "It was good to get everybody on the same page."
- "It helped me figure out a use for encyclopedias."
- "Definitely a good thing."
Even one usually disengaged student said in all the casual tone he could muster, "yeah, I'd keep it. It was pretty good."
Interestingly, there were many students that suggested we do the activity earlier in the semester. Comments like, "I wish we had this earlier." Make me wonder what the heck they were doing during the other 4 library sessions? The flip side to that question is just as important is – what the heck were we doing? Being able to see the students walk through this process has opened a lot of doors and questions for what and how we teach.
Of the students looking to see the activity earlier, most suggested that, "this would have been nice after the first paper." A few suggested starting off with it, but most suggested doing it at the start of the second paper as a review. This is a suggestion that we'll discuss after we finish up this round of instruction.
One important comparison is the complete lack of any neutral or negative comments. Last semester we tried a similar activity, but it was not open ended and included no options for personalization. It was very task specific and structured, but still focused on the aspects of the research process… except we told them what aspects we wanted. The feedback from last semester was mixed. Some thought it was useful, but many didn't get it or saw it as a waste of time. Sounds like a gaming strategies success story.
We have two more classes tomorrow and should have a little more to talk about tomorrow.
11:46 PM | Tags: applications, instruction | 0 Comments
Interactive ≠ Game
Here's a problem:
If something is electronic or interactive
does not make it a game! Yesterday I took part in a TLT Web seminar by the 21st Century Information Fluency Project entitled "Game Based Website Evaluation." Sounds good doesn't it? I thought so too.
Unfortunately, "game based" meant dragging a file card image representing different criteria for web evaluation into a yes or no box. Once the file cards are sorted, clicking on the "wizard" shows how many cards are in each box. Based on a simple tally, the site tells you whether to "use" or "lose" the website. It's not a bad checklist, but that's all it is. A fancy checklist, is not a game.I was not only disappointed but irritated by the web seminar yesterday. Maybe if I didn't write or read this site and others like it, I would have thought the "game" worthwhile. But come on gentlemen – that is no "game." They did a solid job creating fake sites to evaluate, but the "game" is only a checklist, nothing more. Their "game" falls into a trap that many teachers slip into. Just because we create something a little interactive thinking it's a game – can turn off our students and ultimately the teachers to the idea of using games. Done well, games work. But like any learning strategy, done poorly leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth.
Here's the link, although it's not active yet: http://21cif.imsa.edu/rkitp/challenge/evaluation/useitorloseit_index.swf
I've emailed the creators to see how they justify the site as a game and what research they did to reach that conclusion… I'll post any response that I get.
2:54 PM | Tags: applications, assumptions | 0 Comments
The Winding Road - New Paths in Students' Process
One of the interesting results of turning the students loose to demonstrate their research process is exacting that – Their research process. I'm learning a lot more about where they search, how they search and why than I expected. The lesson was created to give the students the freedom to search however they wanted as long as they accomplished the goal. I'm thankful to have this window for observation.
I could be disappointed that not all the students are searching like we've instructed them to. But really I'm a realist. I never believed that we were reaching everyone, and how can we. Or even better yet, should we? Should students search like we do? Do they need to? Today two students demonstrating the research process for finding an article came to the same article. One found it through the library website and through our databases (yeah library instruction), and the other did a search in Google, which lead him to "Search for scholarly articles" through Google Scholar, and use the links within Google Scholar to find the full-text article provided by the library (yeah ease of access). Same article, same quality source, same goal. Is one path better than the other – I'm saying no. And we, as educators, should be aware of those paths and be ready to work with them and use them as well.
As a gamer, some of the best experiences I've had with games isn't playing them but watching others play. Sitting and watching someone else work through a particular boss or puzzle can open up new ideas. Watching another player move throughout a game can open up new tricks and paths that I didn't know about. Today was a good day to sit back and watch. Up until recently I've avoided teaching Google Scholar or Windows Live Academic. But after watching students play, oh I mean research, I'm starting to think of new paths.
10:16 PM | Tags: applications, assumptions, instruction | 0 Comments
Gaming Strategies in Action
I love teaching and watching with the students move through the research process. The goal did not have one set path and allowed them to determine what resource they would use. A few students questioned their path and sought approval of their course of action, but the small groups allowed them to turn to each other rather than us.
From a research and instructional point of view, it was incredible interesting to see the path different groups took to get to the goal. One group searching for a book bypassed the library catalog for WorldCat. A different group struggled to find books under their initial search terms. They went through the process of trying synonyms and then broaden their keywords out. It's the research process. Another group used a database that we never discussed in class to find an article. They were able to do it successfully though, which is a good sign that they are transferring their skills from one database to another. Seeing student start with general encyclopedias and then move to subject specific ones demonstrates a growing understanding of resources. Every group searching for a website has selected quality sources using evaluation criteria.
Sure there are still a few students unsure, but they are only one or two per class. A student looked totally lost when asked to search for a book. At first I felt frustrated like, "What the heck have you been doing all semester?" But then the student provided an interesting insight into her process, "I always look online for my books first and then see if we have it." Google book search anyone? In the past I've seen students start in Amazon. A discussion of OPAC changes can be saved for another day, but still the observations are useful.
As the student demonstrate their process to the class, although some rush to the end goal of the specific resource, but all are able to example their process and the decisions they made along the way. I'm pleased with the exploration and personalization the activity allows. Each group approaches the goal a little differently, but all reach the goal. The research quest in action.
We've got another 4 classes to do the activity week next week so I'll provide some more analysis and some conclusions then.
7:44 AM | Tags: applications, instruction | 0 Comments
Me Grammar Not So Well
Ouch! I'm sorry to anyone who read the previous post before now (I'd be curious if anyone actually did). Posting at 1:30 in the morning as my head is swimming is not a good idea. Sorry.
I've gone back and corrected some of the UGLY grammar and sentences so it should read a little easier. Posting past midnight, no more I say - no more.
3:52 PM | Tags: personal | 0 Comments
I Get Knocked Down... but I Get Up Again
That statement could sure apply to my life, or to the Democratic turn across the country or to any teacher's lesson planning. Despite staying up until 2:00 watching election results, I adapted another instruction session using gaming strategies today. And, like most first time lessons, it had a few kinks - but should work out well.
Here are some of the gaming strategies used:
- Encouraging inquiry
- Open ended exploration
- Context bridging from instruction to application
- Scaffolding
- Personalization
These goals worked well and the students did a solid job of applying the research process to individual sources.
The students were given a research question and asked to find a source within the given resource. The students quickly ran through the process to reach the goal - this action makes since within the context of games. Given a specific end point the students work to reach that goal to complete the task or goal as quickly as possible. The challenge, as instructors, is to pull back the layers and expose the process more. Question the students. Find out why they took the path they took. When asked the students were able to explain the choices they made and provided good examples for other students.
The one piece that challenged the lesson and knocked me down was the struggle the students had getting started. The lesson tried to provide an open ended exercise for the student to explore and find their own way. Sounds good on paper doesn't it? The lesson did not clearly define the learning goals for the lesson. And due to the large degree of personal exploration and exploration that the lesson encouraged, the students struggled to get started in the activity.
Open ended lessons are a good gaming strategy, but the students struggle without a framework. I think that providing the students a framework for the activity does not take away from the productivity of gaming strategies. In a game, players test and discover the physics of the world/game they are playing. For the in-class activity, the students were not aware of the activities "physics."
I'm working with the other librarians to modify it and help define the "physics" and framework. I'm teaching it again in 11hours so I'll post about the success/failure again after the class.
12:54 AM | Tags: applications, instruction | 0 Comments
Practical Steps
Okay, so that last post sounded good (I hope), but what does that mean for us in the classroom? Here are my 5 tips on how to get started using games in the classroom and library session:
Start small. You do not need to have a full game up and running or create your own product. Start with using some gaming strategies (see last week's post) to modify existing lessons.
Talk with students, find out what they like to play and why. This not only gives you some info to draw on, but helps validate video games for them.
Keep traditional outcomes in mind. When I created my first lesson based on game strategies, I knew specifically what game strategies I was using and mapped the lesson to ACRL Information Literacy Standards. Using traditional standards begins the dialogue with other faculty.
Don't be afraid to fail. My first lesson was rough. The students were all over and confused by the lack having a set process to proceed with. Just like gamers, we can learn from our failures and try again.
Remember all games teach. Once outside the classroom there is still learning to do. Expose new people to games (I've brought my DS Lite to work many times) and help all students see there is a learning process that mirrors life in games.
12:44 AM | Tags: applications, instruction | 0 Comments
Are Video Games Evil?
I saw this on Friday from Steven Bell's blog and on Monday The Chronicle's Wired Campus blog picked it up. It is a good article and a great introduction to the educational uses of games for someone new.
Video games are easy to target, just as music, comics, even (as the article mentions) pinball were in the past. As I've written before, when a fringe medium moves into the mainstream there is an adjustment period. The current controversy over Rockstar's Bully is a good example of this. Without playing the game, many have cried "murder simulators" and "evil." The article makes a very important point that games provide a lot more than just fodder for gunfire (laserbeams, chainsaws, or insert violent stereotype here). We can see this as the extreme, but the difficulty is that this is how some parents, administrators and faculty feel about video games. I hope I'm in the minority, and someday I believe I will be, but I can name a handful faculty at my college that do not let their children play video games let alone bring them into the classroom. For those situations, it is a matter of framing the dialogue. "Introducing software" that helps teach higher level skills and critical thinking – is welcomed. Just changing the language and jettisoning any preexisting connotations is a start.
The article makes the wonderful point that video games "do" teach, it is up to us to determine the "what" and "how." Because we are teaching digitally immersed students, games are just a way to communicate through an understood medium. The article draws this comparison as well, DDR is Twister, The Sims is just playing house. If we view video games as just another instructional technology, why shouldn't we incorporate it into class? Games are not the "magic bullet" but they should be another tool in our repertoire as teachers. Not every lesson should involve video games and/or strategies, just as not every lesson should be lecture or small group. Or worse, video games should not be the new power point. Part of the motivation for games is the 'fun' factor, once we suck that out they are just another software package forced on students.
The idea of testing a hypothesis to a problem based on the given information, and testing again once it fails sounds great and it is just as valid running through the fields of Hyrule or the streets of
The one idea that I challenge is the fact that gamers are bound to the rules of the game and that teaching to succeed with the existing bounds is a key piece of video games. While understanding the dynamics of an environment (either the physics of a game world or the politics of the regular world) is important – and often necessary for success, a gamers ability to reinterpret those limits is the difference between good and excellent. Pushing the boundaries, discovering new combinations and exploiting new ideas is the result of the freedom and motivation that games provide. Getting our students to think beyond the defined boundaries of any discussion is a wonderful step toward success. As a librarian, getting my students to think beyond one article or one source and critically analyze is a great step in information fluency.
Games are so much more than hand-eye coordination. If you are reading this blog, you hopefully know that as well. Getting this article into the hands of those unconvinced is a great start to helping our digital students succeed.
12:28 AM | Tags: assumptions, literature | 0 Comments
Bibliographic Gaming
Bibliographic Gaming
Shameless plug #1, blogging about my other blogging posts. Okay, this is the first and only time (maybe) that I'll link to a blog post on another site. I just joined the blog last week. And since I haven't mentioned it here yet so it's fair game. I'm happy to be bringing my ideas to a wider audience. Check it out.
11:37 AM | Tags: personal, research | 0 Comments
Summit on Educational Games: Wrap Up pt.3
Okay, this is the last post on the Federation of American Scientists report. Milking three posts out of it is enough. But really, when government scientists tell us that games are good and can be helpful in education (neither of which should be shocking) we should take heed.
"Educational games potential for teaching higher-order skills under appreciated"
While I believe this is true, I think that there is hope. Although it is hard to assess higher learning skills, games can help. The assessment is built into the game. It is not a grade, it is progressing to the next level or completing a quest. It is different from the mold, and harder to report to administrators - but it is possible. If a student of mine completed all the steps in the game/quest/assignment and was able to explain the path they took it can easily be mapped to traditional standards. I did just this with my website evaluation lesson (I'll post the lesson soon).
The report also states that there are few clear outcomes for educational games. I do not agree with this. As a parent and an educator it is very possible to determine the outcomes for most games. The challenge is that it requires the parent/teacher to play the game. I've rambled off a list of skills that our son is working on as he plays DS. With knowledge of the game and knowledge of outcomes, mapping them is not complicated.
"Train teachers to support game-based learning"
Welcome. Let's work together, along with a growing community to do just that. Librarians, we are teachers. You all know that. Games and gaming strategies is one way that we can improve our teaching, engage our students, and have some fun along the way. I'm glad that the government agrees.
7:11 PM | Tags: applications, literature | 0 Comments
Summit on Educational Games: Wrap Up pt.2
I started talking about this report last week, and now that my comp exam is over and my brain is back, I'll finish up with a few other thoughts on the findings and recommendations the report had.
The report suggests that the game industry modify commerical games to target specific learning goals. Some individual teachers are doing this already. They are modding existing computer games (Never Winter Nights for PC is one example) to create lessons out of them. Many existing PC games come with a toolset or some game/level design functions. These could be used to create lessons through games. The challenge with this model is the time involved. Teachers that like games would spend the time to create, but others who like the idea but don't know how need something that is more 'plug and play.' The internet and online learning communities could help distribute what others are already creating. There needs to be enough of a business incentive for game companies to modify existing games, and state and regional educational systems could provide that incentive.
The report suggests the game industry look for new markets like after school programs. There is a discussion going on this week (see my post on Bibliographic Gaming for more) about pathways to games and one of the speakers is from a large after school program. If our students are playing games at home and in after school programs, and learning as they enjoy the game, how can a traditional classroom keep their interest. Marc Prensky talks more about this in his book "Don't Bother Me Mom - I'm Learning." We as educators, need to be aware of these influences and passions and work to apply them within our classrooms.
The report also contains recommendations for schools and instrutional uses, but that's for later.
11:10 AM | Tags: applications, literature | 1 Comments
It's official. I'm posted the blog onto a growing wiki of other academic librarian blogs. Research Quest is now out there for a wider audience. It's also a little more pressure to keep up. Check out some other blogs at:
If you are new here, feel free to dig around in the back posts. All the posts from 2006 are focused on Research Quest's mission. But the posts from 2005 about random personal stuff. I originally started this blog as a personal blog, but changed the focus in the summer of 2006 as I focused my own research. The 2005 posts are not really library related, but the give a feel for who I am as a person. They are the prequel posts, nothing too damning though. I'm okay with providing the extra window into my life... it should provide a context for who I am and what I say. In the interest of full disclosure, I did delete a few posts dealing with Star Wars and Fantasy Football. Although Fantasy Football is the librarian's sport... but more on that another time.
Here's the official wiki entry for "Research Quest" if you haven't seen it yet:
Research Quest provides information, suggestions and commentary on using video games and game strategies in information literacy and education. Research Quest also monitors academic literature and news from the video game industry and fan base for new educational applications.
Video games require the player to fill in the information gap in order to progress. The research process is the same. The end result is known, whether it is to win the game or save the world or write the paper or complete the project. What paths the game/research takes along the way is unknown, this is the information gap. Research Quest is designed to help draw those parallels and help students learn.
Research Quest is created and maintained by Paul Waelchli, a librarian at a small Midwest liberal arts college and lifelong gamer.
12:06 AM | Tags: personal | 0 Comments


text:
By David Blumenthal, M.D., Dept. of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases, The Cleveland Clinic
COMPLAINTS OF CHRONICALLY LOW ENERGY, arthralgias, and myalgias are common in
any primary care setting. Physicians often investigate with a battery of laboratory tests, and if the antinuclear antibody (ANA) test is positive the patient is frequently referred to a rheumatologist with a presumptive diagnosis of lupus.
But in fact, few of these patients will be found to have lupus or any other inflammatory rheumatic disease, and many will be diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
Along the way there can be a great deal of confusion, since many of the symptoms of fibromyalgia resemble the symptoms of lupus, and indiscriminate use of the rheumatology laboratory can lead to unwarranted concerns about autoimmune disease. Clinicians who are comfortable with the concept of fibromyalgia, who perform thorough histories and physicals, and who interpret laboratory tests with caution are more likely to avoid diagnostic errors.
Among the key points to keep in mind:
• Patients with chronic fatigue and widespread
pain are more likely to have
fibromyalgia than any other rheumatic disease.
• Be prepared to diagnose fibromyalgia,
while excluding autoimmune diseases by
history, physical examination, and limited
laboratory testing.
• Autoantibody testing is best reserved for
patients whose pretest odds of an autoimmune
disease are high.
• All rheumatology laboratory tests must be
interpreted in the context of the history
and physical examination.
• Embrace the concept of fibromyalgia: it
will help you avoid errors in diagnosis and
treatment and lead to a rational plan of
therapy for your patient.
Lupus is not a common disease. The prevalence in white women in the United States is
approximately 10 to 50 per 100,000; in black women the prevalence is approximately 4 to 5
times higher. Ninety percent of lupus patients are women; consequently, the prevalence in
men is only one fifth to one tenth of that in women.(1)
In contrast, fibromyalgia is common. Wolfe et al (2) found that the prevalence of fibromyalgia in a mostly white population ranged from 1% in women 18 to 29 years old to 7% in women over age 59, for an average of 3.4%. Even the most conservative of these figures suggests that fibromyalgia is at least 20 times more prevalent than lupus in white women, and a ratio of 50:1 to 75:1 is quite plausible.
One should therefore expect that most patients with widespread pain will ultimately be found to have fibromyalgia or an alternative pain syndrome. The medical evaluation will confirm this diagnosis in most and only occasionally will yield evidence of an inflammatory rheumatic disease. In black women the prevalence of lupus is higher, and the physician should be more alert to the possibility of lupus in this population.
Many physicians have been taught to screen for "connective tissue diseases" with serum testing for ANAs, and then clarify the diagnosis with additional autoantibody testing. In practice, however, this approach does not work. The reason: a positive ANA test by immunofluorescence, usually defined as detectable staining at a dilution of at least 1:40, is too sensitive and not sufficiently specific to be used as a screening test.
Studies find ANA positivity common, even in healthy people
De Vlam and colleagues3 studied 485 healthy volunteer blood donors and found that 20% of the women and 7% of the men had a positive ANA result. Of women over 40 years of age, 31% were ANA-positive.
Craig et al (4) found an ANA titer of at least 1:64 in 15% of healthy women younger than 40 years and 24% of women age 40 or older. Tan et al, (5) in a study of healthy adults (age 20 to 60 years), found that 31.7% had a positive ANA result at a 1:40 dilution, 13.3% at a 1:80 dilution, 5% at a 1:160 dilution, and 3.3% at a 1:320 dilution. In the same study, 38.5% of patients with noninflammatory "soft tissue rheumatism" had a positive ANA result
at a 1:40 dilution, and 23.1% at a 1:80 dilution.
Slater et al (6) studied 1,010 consecutive ANA results at a teaching hospital and attempted to correlate the results with clinical histories by chart review. Fifteen percent of all patients and 30% of patients older than 65 years had a positive ANA titer of 1:40 or greater, but the positive predictive value for rheumatic disease was low. The false-positive rate for any rheumatic disease was 72% in patients 65 years old or younger, and 90% in
patients older than 65 years. Even ANAs that were positive at a titer of 1:320 or greater were more likely to be falsely positive (55%) than indicative of any rheumatic disease (45%).
One can draw several conclusions from these studies. Positive ANA tests are much more prevalent than connective tissue diseases, and most of the abnormal results are falsely positive. False-positive ANA tests are particularly likely to occur in the elderly.
Most of the false-positive ANAs were of low titer, but even a high-titer ANA is not proof of an underlying connective tissue disease.
Therefore, not surprisingly, ANA testing is frequently positive in patients with fibromyalgia. Consequently, the ANA alone is not a reliable tool for discriminating noninflammatory conditions from autoimmune diseases. Most patients with low-titer positive ANAs have no other detectable autoantibodies, and additional autoantibody testing adds to the expense but rarely clarifies the diagnosis.
Laboratory methods differ
To complicate matters, laboratory methods are constantly changing, and we often have extensive data on tests that are no longer in use but limited data on the tests currently available. The studies quoted above detected antinuclear antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) after incubation of sera with fixed Hep-2 cells. Many laboratories now use enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) to detect ANAs, and the sensitivity and specificity vary by manufacturer.
Emlen and O'Neill (7) compared the results of immunofluorescent ANA testing to those of ELISA kits from six different manufacturers; 88% of patients known to have lupus had a positive ANA test by immunofluorescence, but the sensitivity of the ELISA kits ranged from 62% to 90%.
Similar problems have arisen in testing for antibodies to double-stranded DNA. Antibodies that were once detected by the Farr radioimmunoassay or by IIF using Crithidia luciliae are now detected by ELISA.
Tan et al (8) tested anti-double-stranded DNA ELISA kits from eight manufacturers against stored sera. The sensitivity and specificity varied widely.
The old teaching that "antibodies to double-stranded DNA are less sensitive for lupus but are very specific" was generally true using the tests available in prior years but may not be true today. The sensitivity and specificity depend on the assay kit in use and where the laboratory chooses to draw the line that separates "positive" results from "negative." If the clinician does not know the sensitivity and specificity of the test kit used, the positive or
negative predictive value of the test is difficult to assess, and one must be careful in applying the results to guide patient care.
Table 1. Symptoms of ANA-positive rheumatic diseases
Oral ulcers
Malar rash
Raynaud phenomenon
Pleuritic chest pain
Joint pain and stiffness
Unexplained fever
Unexplained weight loss
Unexplained lymphadenopathy
Sjögren syndrome
Dry eyes
Dry mouth
Vaginal dryness
Parotid swelling
Accelerated dental caries or gingivitis
Insidious proximal muscle weakness
Scleroderma/CREST syndrome
Hand stiffness
Raynaud phenomenon
Digital infarcts
If autoantibody testing is flawed, what is the clinician to do? Bayes theorem states that the post-test odds of a specific disease are determined by the pre-test odds and the sensitivity and specificity of the test used. When a laboratory test (e.g., the ANA) is not very specific, it is essential to determine the pre-test likelihood of the disease. In the case of lupus, this
is best done by a carefully performed history and physical examination, supplemented by a few simple laboratory tests.
In many areas of medicine the exhaustive history and physical of yesteryear has been replaced by a more cursory interview, a brief examination, and an extensive battery of diagnostic tests. The history and physical examination are a mere prelude to the diagnostic testing, since the test results are often believed to be more accurate and objective.
In evaluating patients for systemic autoimmune disease, however, advances in
diagnostic testing have not supplanted a carefully performed history and physical examination. In fact, many common rheumatologic conditions, including bursitis, tendinitis, fibromyalgia, and osteoarthritis, can be reliably diagnosed without any confirmatory laboratory or imaging tests.
When a patient with chronically low energy and widespread pain presents for evaluation, the search for an autoimmune disease begins with the history. During the history the physician should seek not only evidence of autoimmune disease but also evidence of fibromyalgia.
Symptoms of ANA-positive rheumatic diseases are listed in TABLE 1.
The history must be obtained carefully, for other medical problems can cause symptoms similar to those of lupus. Hair loss might be caused by telogen effluvium or chemical injury. Oral ulcers are commonly simply aphthae. Whether a sunburn represents photosensitivity depends on the patient's natural pigmentation, the latitude, the altitude, and the duration of sun exposure. Rosacea and seborrhea are common causes of facial erythema
that might be confused with the malar rash of lupus. Mild pallor of the fingers on exposure to cold is probably physiologic vasoconstriction and not the Raynaud phenomenon. Well-documented unexplained fevers support a diagnosis of lupus, but a sensation of fever without any measurement of the body temperature is less significant.
Differentiating lupus from fibromyalgia by history alone can be difficult. Patients with fibromyalgia can have a multitude of symptoms that mimic those of lupus, including fatigue, arthralgia, morning stiffness, cold intolerance, chest wall pain, and subjective deficits in memory and concentration. The likelihood of lupus increases if the patient gives a convincing history of lupus symptoms that would not ordinarily occur in fibromyalgia.
Conversely, the likelihood of fibromyalgia increases if the patient has multiple risk factors for fibromyalgia, as discussed below.
Physical examination
During the physical examination, the physician seeks evidence that either supports a diagnosis of lupus or suggests that the symptom or symptoms have another explanation. For example:
• The malar rash of acute lupus generally
spares the nasolabial folds. Erythema involving
the nasolabial folds is more likely to be
• Oily flakes in the eyebrows or scalp suggest
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• Alopecia in lupus can be scarring or nonscarring,
localized or generalized.
• Oral ulcers in lupus are usually seen on the
hard palate, but can be present on any mucosal
• Acrocyanosis may be seen in lupus, particularly
if the examining room is cool.
• Digital pits or ulcers are not usually seen in lupus and are more suggestive of scleroderma or the CREST (calcinosis, Raynaud phenomenon,
esophageal dysmotility, sclerodactyly telangiectasias) syndrome.
• Examination of the joints may show tenderness and synovial effusion in lupus, but the arthritis is nondestructive, and impressive synovial proliferation is uncommon. Lupus, however, can lead to Jaccoud arthropathy,
characterized by swan-neck deformities of the fingers without synovial pannus or joint destruction. Significant synovial hypertrophy with resulting cartilage loss is more suggestive of a synovial-based arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis.
• The examiner should specifically search for sites of myofascial tenderness that would suggest fibromyalgia. Muscle tenderness is not a specific symptom of lupus. When present in a patient with unequivocal lupus in the
absence of myositis, it usually means that the patient also has fibromyalgia.
Table 2. Laboratory abnormalities in lupus
Complete blood count
Leukopenia: usually lymphopenia,
occasionally neutropenia
Anemia: chronic disease, hemolytic
Serum chemistry
Elevated creatinine
Low albumin
Polyclonal hyperglobulinemia
Elevated creatine kinase
Microscopic hematuria
Red blood cell or hyaline casts
Laboratory testing to confirm the impression
Laboratory testing can be used to confirm the impression formed during the history and physical. Laboratory abnormalities that raise the suspicion for lupus are listed in TABLE 2.
Completely normal laboratory tests are consistent with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia.
Most patients with isolated chronic fatigue, diffuse pain, and a positive ANA test are ultimately found to have fibromyalgia. This is not surprising, given the prevalence of fibromyalgia and the frequency of positive ANA results in people without autoimmune disease.
As discussed above, many of the symptoms of fibromyalgia can mimic the symptoms of inflammatory rheumatic disease, leading to initial diagnostic confusion. At a university based lupus clinic, 37 of 149 patients referred or followed for presumptive lupus were felt to have fibromyalgia with positive ANA upon retrospective chart review. The patients with fibromyalgia were slightly older (mean age 44), and more likely to be white.(9)
Fibromyalgia was also found to be the correct diagnosis in many patients referred for suspected tertiary or refractory Lyme disease, (10,11) and fibromyalgia is the most plausible explanation for the "rheumatic" symptoms reported by patients with silicone breast implants.(12,13)
Such diagnostic errors are not only due to the similarity in symptoms. Many physicians do not understand how prevalent fibromyalgia is and are not totally comfortable with using the history and physical to diagnose it.
Factors that increase the likelihood of fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is not merely a diagnosis of exclusion. The history and physical may reveal a number of findings that increase the likelihood that fibromyalgia is present. Fibromyalgia symptoms often occur in a setting of stress, depression, anxiety, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, and traumatic life experiences.
Stress. Patients should be specifically asked about potential sources of stress, including job dissatisfaction, financial difficulties, conflicts in personal relationships, and overwhelming responsibilities.
Depression. The patient may reveal symptoms of low mood, emotional lability, anhedonia, hopelessness, or suicidal ideation suggestive of depression.
Anxiety. Past episodes of chest pain or shortness of breath might represent panic attacks caused by an underlying anxiety disorder.
Lack of sleep, lack of exercise. The interviewer should ask about any difficulties obtaining restorative sleep, and inquire about recreational exercise.
Traumatic life experiences. A history of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse is quite common in fibromyalgia patients and should be investigated using open-ended questions.
The family history may reveal depression, anxiety, or fibromyalgia in close relatives.
Related symptoms. Fibromyalgia patients, in addition to reporting widespread pain and fatigue, often report chronic headaches, memory loss, loss of concentration, paresthesias in the extremities, and symptoms of irritable bowel or bladder.
Soft-tissue tenderness. Physical examination usually reveals diffuse soft tissue tenderness, particularly over the posterior neck, the trapezius and supraspinatus muscles, the proximal forearms, the anterior chest, the posterior pelvis, the greater trochanters, and the medial femoral condyles.
Normal laboratory values. Blood counts, serum chemistry, and urinalysis are normal in fibromyalgia, which helps to differentiate it from lupus when the diagnosis is not clear. When the history, examination, and routine laboratory tests support a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, autoantibody testing is not necessary.
1. Hochberg MC. The epidemiology of systemic lupus erythematosus.
In: Wallace DJ, Hahn BH, editors. Dubois' Lupus
Erythematosus. 5th edition. Baltimore: Williams and
Wilkins, 1997:50–52.
2. Wolfe F, Ross K, Anderson J, Russell IJ, Hebert L. The
prevalence and characteristics of fibromyalgia in the general
population. Arthritis Rheum 1995; 38:19–28.
3. De Vlam K, De Keyser F, Verbruggen G, et al. Detection
and identification of antinuclear autoantibodies in the
serum of normal blood donors. Clin Exp Rheumatol 1993;
4. Craig WY, Ledue TB, Johnson AM, Ritchie RF. The distribution
of antinuclear antibody titers in "normal" children
and adults. J Rheumatol 1999; 26:914–919.
5. Tan EM, Feltkamp TEW, Smolen JS, et al. Range of antinuclear
antibodies in "healthy" individuals. Arthritis Rheum
1997; 40:1601–1611.
6. Slater CA, Davis RB, Shmerling RH. Antinuclear antibody
testing. A study of clinical utility. Arch Intern Med 1996;
7. Emlen W, O'Neill L. Clinical significance of antinuclear
antibodies. Arthritis Rheum 1997; 40:1612–1618.
8. Tan EM, Smolen JS, McDougal JS, et al. A critical evaluation
of enzyme immunoassays for detection of antinuclear
antibodies of defined specificities. I. Precision, sensitivity
and specificity. Arthritis Rheum 1999; 42:455–464.
9. Calvo-Alen J, Bastian HM, Straaton KV, Burgard SL,
Mikhail IS, Alarcon GS. Identification of patient subsets
among those presumptively diagnosed with, referred
and/or followed up for systemic lupus erythematosus at a
large tertiary care center. Arthritis Rheum 1995;
10. Hsu VM, Patella SJ, Sigal LH. "Chronic Lyme disease" as
the incorrect diagnosis in patients with fibromyalgia.
Arthritis Rheum 1993; 36:1493–1500.
11. Sigal LH. Summary of the first 100 patients seen at a Lyme
disease referral center. Am J Med 1990; 88:577–581.
12. Wolfe F. "Silicone related symptoms" are common in
patients with fibromyalgia: no evidence for a new disease.
J Rheumatol 1999; 26:1172–1175.
13. Wolfe F, Anderson J. Silicone filled breast implants and
the risk of fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. J
Rheumatol 1999; 26:2025–2028.
ADDRESS: David E. Blumenthal, MD, Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases, A50, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44195.
The symptoms of fibromyalgia and lupus can be similar, but the treatments are very different. Although the antinuclear antibody (ANA) test has often been used to make the distinction, this approach has its pitfalls. This paper offers
strategies for more accurate diagnosis.
Given that fibromyalgia is common and lupus is not, most patients with pain will be found to have fibromyalgia or an alternative pain syndrome.
Positive ANA tests are more prevalent than connective tissue diseases, and most of the abnormal results are falsely positive.
The history and physical examination are vital to establishing the pre-test probability of disease. Fibromyalgia is not merely a diagnosis of exclusion, and can be differentiated from lupus by history, physical examination, and laboratory tests.
Source: CLEVELAND CLINIC JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, VOLUME 69 , NUMBER 2 , FEBRUARY 2002.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Recipe For Mulled Rum Punch With Apple Cider and Spices
Happy Hour: Mulled Rum Punch
During the Winter months, I love serving (and sipping) hot spiced cider or mulled wine. But at a crowded party full of warm bodies, a hot drink isn't always the best idea, and keeping it heated adds an extra challenge. I was delighted to come across this mulled rum punch, which can be served hot or cold. At first I was skeptical that it would taste good cold, but it was delicious, and when I made it at a recent party, the guests all raved. For a special effect, freeze a bowl of water with some spiced suspended inside — I used star anise, but cinnamon sticks would also look pretty — then place the festive block of ice in the punch. Find out how to make it when you read more.
Mulled Rum Punch
- 4 quarts apple juice or cider
1/2 cup brown sugar firmly packed
24 whole cloves
16 whole allspice
8 2-inch cinnamon sticks
2 whole nutmegs, cracked
1 to 2 cups golden rum
Lemon peel and/or other garnish of your choosing
- In a large saucepan, combine apple juice or cider, brown sugar, whole cloves, whole allspice, cinnamon sticks, and nutmegs.
- Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat, cool, then refrigerate several hours.
- To serve: strain into punch bowl. Stir in 1 to 2 cups golden rum, according to taste. Garnish with thin strips of lemon peel. Note: mulled rum punch can be reheated after straining and adding rum if you wish to serve it hot.
Makes 24 (6 ounce) glasses.
- Category
- Drinks, Punch
- Cuisine
- North American


text:
Under Brooklyn's elevated JMZ subway sits a curious clothing label. On one hand, their apparel often appears in rap videos. On the other, they've released a t-shirt featuring He-Man in S&M gear. Welcome to the wonderfully warped world of Mishka.
Since the mid-2000s, Mishka NYC has been at the vanguard of popular streetwear. A cornerstone of their success has been designing clothing influenced by gonzo horror, Z-grade sci-fi, and the overall dank and stanky underbelly of pop culture. Indeed, their gear is worn with equal aplomb by metalheads and hip-hoppers (Lil Jon and Lady Sovereign have sported Mishka in music videos), and the label's past collaborators have ranged from everyone from Iron Maiden album artist Derek Riggs to erotic photographer Ellen Stagg to electro-reggae supergroup Major Lazer.
Label heads Mikhail "Mike" Bortnik and Greg Rivera were nice enough to sit down with io9 and answer some questions about Mishka's design philosophy, winter line, and how Stan Lee cold lamps it at Comic-Con:
What's the Mishka origin story?
Mikhail Bortnik (left): It started sometime in '03. My job I was working at was going to close, so I decided to take a stab at t-shirt design, which I had wanted to do since college. This was about the same time I met Greg. A few months into it, I realized I was in over my head so I asked Greg to join on-board and sell the line. Greg immediately came on as a full-time partner. The basic idea was we wanted to sell street wear, but we soon realized there were so many fans who were into both street wear and scifi that there was absolutely no reason we couldn't incorporate these two things.
In terms of scifi, what were your earliest influences?
Greg Rivera (right): A lot of our influences have come from B-horror films, straight-up scifi films, and comic books, especially for Mike. I was big into horror comics when I was kid and also things like The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Darkside, anything with the ironic twist at the end. Both of us are also big toy fans. Being in our early thirties, we grew up with 1980s toys, which ended up being a huge influence in our designs.
MB: One example of this influence was in our Fall 2008 Skyway Trippers collection – we tweaked an Israeli Special Forces design to include the phrase "Spaceknights" in Russian, as a homage to the old Spaceknights comic and toy line.
ROM Spaceknight allusions? That's wild. On a similar note, Mishka has a roster of kaiju-like characters who appears on a lot of your apparel – i.e. the half-serpentine, half-ursine Death Adder and the Cyco Simon skull. What's the story behind them?
MB: Actually the notion of bringing characters into the clothing brand goes back to metal bands. Cyco Simon is a reference to [Megadeth's ] Vic Rattlehead and Eddie from Iron Maiden, and we wanted our own. As for the Death Adder, we use our designs to tell a story with him – he's often seen teaming up with our Soviet super-soldier character.
Are we going to see an Adult Swim series with these guys anytime soon?
MB: I'll be honest, Greg and I would love to be able to a comic book or cartoon series with them.
What was the first sci-fi influenced Mishka piece?
GR: "They Live" was probably one of the first ones. It's hard to remember since we've had so many designs over time.
One of my early favorites was your Judge Death-inspired "Kill Motherfucking Depeche Mode" logo.
MB: That was a mixing of the old Brian Bolland artwork with what people guessed [what the name of German industrial band] KMFDM stood for. KMFDM actually gave us a cease-and-desist for that one.
Really? Not the 2000 AD people?
MB: We figured we'd get something from them or Depeche Mode, but no, it was from the KMFDM people!
On a similar note, when was that moment when you said to yourselves, "Holy crap. We can't believe we just put that on a t-shirt."
MB: The "Tom of Eternia" t-shirt.
GR: Mike had the idea of doing a Tom of Finland-style shirt [featuring He-Man].
MB: If you've never hear of Tom of Finland, he's like the homoerotic artist. There was this impetus [to create this shirt] early on when someone made the comment that all we do is put naked girls and 80s cartoon characters on our shirts. Street wear on a whole seems more macho than we are as a brand, so Greg and I were like, let's do this.
GR: Our friend Robin Nishio – who is this amazing illustrator – met up with us and Mike pitched him the idea. Robin actually went and bought two big books on Tom of Finland and aped the style exactly. That was the coolest because we got so much shit from our customers because it was like, "Here's Skeletor as the master and He-Man down on his knees, gay porn style."
What sort of pieces are in the pipeline at the moment?
GR: We did this series of shirts for [the new heavy metal-themed video game] Brutal Legend and we're working with Dark Horse Comics on a project.
Oh wow, are you at the liberty to talk about that right now?
MB: Not really, but if anyone has followed our brand, you'll know that one particular Dark Horse character particularly sticks out.
As far as the Winter 2009 line goes, you seem to have strong robot theme going. You have the Terminator cyclops, the Decepticon hearse, and my favorite, the Ultron bear. Why robots this season?
MB: We've gone so far doing themes that this season just happened to be robots. This was probably one of our most rigid designs themes. The Ultron shirt's been particularly popular.
You guys hit up the San Diego Comic-Con this year. How was it being a street wear brand at what's been historically a comic and scifi show?
MB: We were selling some things there, but we were mostly there as fans.
GR: It's been a little calculated – and not to reveal all our secrets – but if a lot more other brands saw the potential of that market, you'd see a lot more people doing it. It's hard for us to do business, because Mike and I go and we're just geeking out. Besides going out there to meet Tim and Eric [from Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!], we're both really into Japanese kaiju and we had the chance to show off our own kaiju designs.
MB: Comic-Con 2008 was my first one. We wanted to see the Lost panel, but after we saw it spilling into the street, we just said "fuck it" and went to the Battlestar Galactica panel. That crowd was pretty big too, but Dean Koontz was still speaking. So yeah, we killed two hours listening to Dean Koontz.
Any good Mishka Comic-Con party tales?
GR: We crashed an Activision party at the Hard Rock Café and saw Stan Lee. If you're at a Comic-Con party and you see Stan Lee, you know you're at the coolest party.
MB: He was just hanging out with this girl on his arm.
GR: (laughs) She looked like she was twenty years old.
MB: I don't if she was, like, hitting on him or he was hitting on her, but Stan Lee's exactly how you picture him. He really says "true believer."
I wouldn't want him any other way. Do you find yourselves getting calls from influences who've enjoyed your work?
MB: Other than the artists who we're huge fans of and end up working with – like Derek Riggs and L'Amour Supreme – no, not really. A lot of our influences are grumpy old men.
What would you say is the most quintessential Mishka design?
GR: On our first trip to Japan, we stayed in this little town outside of Tokyo and found all these old Japanese horror and sci-fi press kits. These kits would take the coolest part of the movie and turn it into poster art. We found this great Westworld kit and Mike added some comic book stuff, like Ultron and Cyborg from Teen Titans to the design. To this day, it's still one of my favorite ones.
MB: We also found this Motel Hell kit in which we used for our "Electric Funeral" shirt. We electrified the faces and it turned out great.
Alright guys - some final lightning round questions. Kim Cattrall in Big Trouble in Little China or Kirstie Alley in Wrath of Khan?
MB: Kim Cattrall. I'm a Next Generation fan, what can I say.
Zardoz or Troll 2?
GR: Troll 2.
MB: Zardoz.
Would you rather have John Carpenter compose you a personal theme song or direct a movie about your life?
MB: I'd rather have him direct the movie because then he'd have to compose the film's theme song.
Shit! I hadn't thought of that loophole. Any final words to io9 readers?
GR: By all means check Mishka out - you'll definitely find something you like.
Mishka apparel is available at their website and their Brooklyn store at 350 Broadway in Williamsburg, NYC. Store photography courtesy of Dave Digioia.


text:
Sen. Reid says filibuster showdown may be averted
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators moved toward resolving their feud over Republican filibusters of White House appointees on Tuesday, hoping to avoid a Senate rules change by Democrats that would worsen the partisanship already troubling the chamber.
Officials said both parties were discussing a plan to permit prompt confirmation for most of the contested nominees, including Tom Perez to head the Labor Department, Gina McCarthy to run the Environmental Protection Agency and Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The Senate voted 71-29 to clear the way for eventual confirmation of Cordray, whom President Barack Obama installed when the Senate was in recess, angering Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed confidence that a broader deal was within reach, even if it would leave open the possibility of future filibusters of Obama's executive nominees. Reid had been threatening to change the rules, to bar such filibusters.
Senators are not questioning the ability to keep using filibusters -- in which 41 of the 100 senators can block action -- on legislation and judicial nominees, who seek lifetime appointments.
Under the current proposal, Obama would drop efforts to win confirmation for two members of the National Labor Relations Board and name two replacements who would receive speedy consideration. Richard Griffin and Sharon Block were originally named to their posts as recess appointees, meaning they bypassed confirmation. An appeals court has since ruled their appointments were invalid, and the Supreme Court has agreed to review the case.
The proposed agreement would not resolve deep partisan divisions over the future use of filibusters to block a president's executive nominees.
"It is a compromise, and I think we get what we want, they get what they want. Not a bad deal," Reid said on the Senate floor.
The developments unfolded the morning after a closed-door meeting of nearly all 100 senators, eager to avoid a rules change that could poison relations between the two parties.
If ratified, the deal would mark a retreat by Reid from his insistence on Monday that Republicans promise not to filibuster future executive nominees. Republican leader Mitch McConnell had privately offered to clear the way for the currently contested nominees -- providing Block and Griffin were replaced -- officials in both parties said. That's largely the deal Democrats agreed to on Tuesday.
Reid credited Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., with helping broker a breakthrough.
McCain told reporters it was "probably the hardest thing I've been involved in." Noting the Senate recently passed a bipartisan immigration bill, he said, "Maybe we can show more momentum toward bipartisanship. Is it a panacea? No, but I think it's an important step forward."
Democrats acknowledged that a rules change probably would have prompted Republicans to retaliate by doing even more to reduce the minority party's rights if the GOP regained control of the Senate. That could happen as early 18 months from now, after the 2014 elections.
"It's a decision that, if they actually go through with it, they will live to regret," McConnell has said.
Unlike the 435-member House, the Senate has a long and bumpy tradition of granting rights to minority-party members. The most powerful tool is the filibuster, which can kill a measure by using endless debate to prevent a yes-or-no vote.
The mere promise of a filibuster can block Senate action on almost anything unless 60 of the 100 senators vote to overcome it. Filibuster-proof majorities are rare, and Republicans now hold 46 Senate seats.
Both parties have accelerated their use of the filibuster threat in recent times. Since Obama took office in January 2009, Republicans have threatened filibusters repeatedly, infuriating Democrats.
Reid said Lyndon B. Johnson faced one filibuster during his six years as Senate majority leader. In the same length of time as majority leader, Reid said he has faced 413 threatened filibusters. The tactic, he said, blocks action on routine matters that Congress once handled fairly easily.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters the Senate "needs to confirm this president's nominees in a timely and efficient manner." That will be true, he said, "for the next president, and the next president after that. This has become ridiculous."
Asked Monday if Obama worries that a filibuster rule change would make the Senate even more dysfunctional, Carney said, "Well, it boggles the mind how they would achieve that."
This notion that things can't get much worse in the often stalemated Senate seems to have convinced numerous senators and interest groups in recent months that there was little risk in talking about changing traditions to end at least some of the logjams.
Associated Press writers Alan Fram and David Espo contributed to this report.


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Cybersecurity and the Boardroom
Not long ago, the term "cybersecurity" was not frequently heard or addressed in the boardroom. Cybersecurity was often referred to as an information technology (IT) risk, and management and oversight were the responsibility of the chief information or technology officer, not the CFO or the board. With the rapid advancement of technology, cybersecurity has become an increasingly challenging risk that boards, including audit committees, may need to address.
The Board's Role in the Cyber World
A Carnegie Mellon University CyLab report, as referenced in Deloitte's August 2013 Deloitte Audit Committee Brief, found shortcomings in board oversight of cybersecurity. The report, based on a survey of more than 100 board directors and senior executives at Forbes Global 2000 companies, compared the results of the 2012 survey with similar surveys conducted in 2008 and 2010.
The report noted, "For the third time, the survey revealed that boards are not actively addressing cyber risk management… There is still a gap in understanding the linkage between IT risks and enterprise risk management. Boards still are not undertaking key oversight activities related to cyber risks, such as reviewing budgets, security program assessments and top-level policies; assigning roles and responsibilities for privacy and security; and receiving regular reports on breaches and IT risks."
The risk of cyberattacks can directly affect both operations and the broader brand or reputation of a company, often resulting in significant financial repercussions. According to a 2012 Deloitte publication Risk Intelligent Governance in the Age of Cyberthreats, the median annualized cybercrime-related cost in 2011 was $5.9 million, which was a 56% increase over the prior year. A primary responsibility of the board is to provide risk oversight.
As discussed in the August 2013 Deloitte Audit Committee Brief, the audit committee is often delegated the task of overseeing the risk programs and policies, including cybersecurity. The trend has been for other committees to be delegated the task of overseeing risks associated with their areas of expertise. For example, risks to the compensation plan might be overseen by the compensation committee. Ultimately, however, the full board is accountable for risk oversight. In many instances, the committees are delegated the oversight of risk, however, the full board also discusses and continually monitors the most material risks and those for which the company is most vulnerable (i.e., where no controls exist to mitigate the risk). Typically when addressed, cybersecurity is a topic on the short list of risks and is typically discussed at the full board level rather than left solely with a committee.
Cybersecurity is a significant risk that can have a material impact. At least annually, boards should proactively ask questions of management, champion education and awareness programs company-wide, and treat risk as a priority. As cybersecurity issues increase and become more visible, boards may decide to take an active role in understanding the risks associated with those issues. Many boards hear from the chief information officer, chief technology officer or others who are tasked with monitoring the cyberrisk. In addition, some company boards are engaging third-party specialists to speak with them about the risk, how to mitigate it and signs that may signal a breach. The full board take the necessary actions to stay informed on management's risk practices so it can effectively oversee cybersecurity.
Robert Mueller, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who recently spoke on a panel about the future of cybersecurity, said cyberthreats will eventually equal or eclipse the terrorist threat. "There are only two types of companies: those that have been hacked and those that will be," Mueller said, adding that boards should ask themselves what type of company are they and what are they doing about it.
Looking Ahead
Cybersecurity is a becoming top-of-mind issue for most boards, and directors should consider becoming more preemptive in evaluating cybersecurity risk exposure as an enterprise-wide risk management issue and not limiting it to an IT concern. Following are questions boards can ask to help raise awareness of cybersecurity issues:
- Is there someone on the board who serves as an IT expert and understands cyberrisks?
- Does the company have cyber insurance?
- Is there a committee assigned to address cybersecurity?
- Does the company have a chief security officer who reports outside of the IT organization?
- Is social media a concern for our company?
- Do the outsourced providers and contractors have controls and policies in place and do they align with our company's expectations?
- Is there an annual company-wide education or awareness campaign established around cybersecurity?
Fundamentally, the board plays a critical role in understanding the risks associated with cybersecurity and confirming that preventative and detective controls are in place.
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text:
NEW YORK, May 7 (UPI) -- Lisa Lampanelli and Teresa Guidice have been fired from the business-themed competition show "The Celebrity Apprentice" in New York.
Guidice was fired after her team lost the challenge to create a four-page print ad campaign for the CHI Touch Digital Touchscreen hair dryer, then pitch it to Farouk Systems and Elle magazine.
E! News said Lampanelli got the boot because the show's star Donald Trump and guest judges John Rich and Marlee Matlin thought her humor was too coarse for the competition.
Still competing this season are "American Idol" veteran Clay Aiken, comedian Arsenio Hall and singer and actress Aubrey O'Day.
Already eliminated from the show were former Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza, comedian Penn Jillette, "American Chopper" star Paul Teutul Sr., actor Lou Ferrigno, singers Debbie Gibson and Dee Snider, actresses Tia Carrere and Patricia Velasquez, radio host Adam Carolla, "Star Trek" actor George Takei, IndyCar team owner Michael Andretti, author Victoria Gotti and supermodel Cheryl Tiegs.
The last person standing will receive a $250,000 check to be given to a designated charity.


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NEW YORK - Police investigating the death of a 1-year-old boy who was shot in his stroller during a walk on a city street believe his father was the intended target, Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Monday.
Authorities have some leads in the killing of Antiq Hennis in Brooklyn on Sunday night and believe his death may be gang-related, Kelly said.
Antiq's father, Anthony Hennis, had just gone to pick up the boy at the home of the baby's mother, Cherise Miller, and take him to visit Hennis' grandmother, Kelly said. Hennis, 21, put the boy in the stroller and was pushing him across a street in the Brownsville neighborhood when shots rang out at about 7:20 p.m., police said.
'I saw a man with a stroller screaming: 'My baby got shot! My baby got shot,' ' witness Gina Gamboa, 23, told the New York Post.
'He was going crazy.' Grief and outrage over the toddler's shooting loomed over the annual West Indian Day Parade about a mile and a half away, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the killing 'a tragedy for his family, for this community, for the entire city' and political candidates talked about gun violence.
Four shots were fired, and one hit the boy in the left side of his head; he was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. The gunfire left four .45-caliber shell casings on the corner and bullet holes in the stroller, Kelly told reporters before the parade.
'We have some leads, and those leads are being aggressively followed,' the commissioner said.
The boy's family couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
'Today, we all are grieving,' Bloomberg said before the parade. 'We just have to stop this carnage, and we have to keep doing what we've been doing.'
The mayor renewed both his call for Congress to pass stricter gun laws and his condemnation of recent moves by the City Council and a federal judge to rein in the police department's use of the stop-and-frisk tactic, which critics call heavy-handed and racially biased but the mayor says is key to successful policing.
'The ideologues on the far right will continue to tell us our gun laws don't need to be fixed, while the ideologues on the left will continue to tell us we need to handcuff our police officers, who have been unfathomably successful in reducing violent crime,' he said.
As of Aug. 25, killings and shootings were down about 26 percent compared to the same time last year, according to the mayor's office.
In the police precinct that includes Brownsville, a struggling section of central Brooklyn, there had been seven killings this year, half as many as during the same period in 2012. The poverty rate in Brownsville is about twice the citywide rate, according to a 2012 analysis of government data by New York University's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.
Bishop Willie Billips of the Church of Faith, Hope and Charity, who knows the boy's father, told newspapers that he drove the parents to the hospital to identify the body of their only child.
'I'm furious about what I've just seen. I'm outraged,' Billips told the Daily News. 'A 1-year-old baby lying on the bed? It's horrible.'
It was at least the second case of a toddler being shot to death in a stroller this year.
In March, a woman walking home from a post office in Brunswick, Ga., with her 13-month-old son was accosted by a gunman who demanded her purse, then shot her in the leg and fired a shot at the child in his stroller after she told him she had no money, authorities said.
An 18-year-old man was convicted Friday of murder in the death of Antonio Santiago despite his attorney's attempts to cast guilt upon several others, including the child's parents.


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text:
Was it because I was in a football state of mind? Maybe I was just bitter about the commercial break that airs after the ensuing kick-off, which comes after the commercial break aired after an extra point. It could just be that the New York Giants didn't show up for their first quarter in Tampa Bay this weekend. But Apple's new Get a Mac ad that aired yesterday afternoon during the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs, Referee, was pretty terrible for me.
The ad, which featured Mac, PC, and a supposed NFL referee, tied into the games taking place yesterday. The PC brought the referee to the commercial to make sure Mac "plays fair," citing his boasts that Leopard is "better and faster than Vista." (Mac points out that those were the Wall Street Journal's claims, not his.) The referee then inexplicably starts the clock and then heads back to the video camera to review the claims. He comes from the "hood" and declares that "after further review, the ruling stands that Leopard is better and faster than Vista."
Predictably, PC takes exception and proceeds to infer that the referee is blind. The referee then ejects PC, which leads to the highlight of the entire commercial (no, not the end). PC turns to the white background and begins wandering off saying "You can't eject me! Where am I supposed to go?"
In the future, Apple, could you please stay out of the football? While I do enjoy the occasional humorous interjection into my Sunday afternoons, your commercial only reminded me of how long an actual review takes.


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Kansas Says Gay Couples Must File Taxes as Singles
Kansas tax officials issued a ruling Friday saying same-sex couples must file their state income tax returns as if each person were single, even if they filed as married on their federal returns.
The Kansas Revenue Department said it plans to provide a worksheet in its instruction booklet for calculating income, deductions and other data separately for each taxpayer. The agency contends the approach adheres to the Kansas Constitution's definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman.
In August, the federal government said that all legally married gay couples will be able to file joint federal tax returns even if they reside in states that do not recognize same-sex marriages.
The decision came in rules issued by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service designed to implement the tax aspects of the Supreme Court's decision in June that invalidated a section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. The Supreme Court ruling came in a case filed by Edie Windsor, a resident of New York, who was forced to pay federal estate taxes after the death of Thea Spyer, her lesbian spouse.
Thomas Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, said Kansas is essentially requiring same-sex couples to take extra steps that are not required by other married couples. He argued that Kansas tax officials are sidestepping Kansas law that requires married couples to use their federal filing status as the basis for their state taxes. The directive essentially tells gay and lesbian couples, he said, to ignore the state law and fill out separate forms that apply only to them.
"We insist that the Brownback administration immediately rescind this discriminatory directive, and treat gay and lesbian taxpayers with the same fairness every other Kansan is treated," Witt said.
The state's tax guidance also raises questions, he said, when there are large income disparities between the partners. It also causes problems in dividing up deductions for medical costs, home mortgage interest and other items.
"The Department of Revenue is making this up without any kind of legislative authority," Witt said.


text:
|"Are you a wizard or not?"
The title of this article is conjectural. Although it is based on canonical information, the actual name is a conjecture and may be supplanted at any time by additional information released from canonical sources. If this occurs, please move this page to the appropriate title.
Minerva McGonagall wore a set of dress robes to the Yule Ball, which was held on Christmas Day, 1994, together with a hat on which she arranged a rather ugly wreath of thistles. The robes were made of a red tartan fabric.[1]
Her dress robes reflect Professor McGonagall's Scottish heritage, hailing from Caithness herself.
Behind the scenes
- In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Professor McGonagall's dress robes are very different from what is described in the novel: they are made of a green, textured fabric, and she wears a black pointed hat with three thin feathers stuck to the brim.
- Costume designer Jany Temime states that she has taken a particular liking to the material used to fashion this costume because it looked nearly snakelike which "made it look really witchy".
- This robes are very similar to the robes she used in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film) and in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the colour changed to black (Deathly Hallows) and a grey green (Half-Blood Prince) but the thing that are similar are the two buttons, that little 'horns' in on the arms and the long sleeves.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
- Harry Potter: The Character Vault
Notes and references
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 23 (The Yule Ball)
*Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, Fandom will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


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So who's the king now, Roy?
Publicat de Baldovin la 2:09 PM | Etichete: arta teoretica, pictura
My childhood hero, now under the theoretical art. Acrylic on canvas 100/120 cm:
The text for this image comes from my book "The basics of theoretical art" as quoted here:
"As form the ancient ideology there have emerged the science like physics, psychology, anatomy, botany, etc. in the same way these two elements, journalistic and mode, came to be separated from the old traditional art body. Journalistic item industrially developed into press and the mode item came to be industrially made by designers. The fact that explosion of media (initially as newspapers) since the mid-nineteenth century emerged once with the appearance of impressionism (which is the first current of modern art) is not just a coincidence. The two phenomena are very intimately related. Then there was when a major separation that took place in the history of art. On the one hand the journalistic item became press and consumerist art as a press extension and on the other hand the mode item became modern art in first phase and then it became design after the commercial interest stepped into the modern avantgarde that reached the second and even third level of art entropy previously mentioned. Thus the design met in a kind of circle with consumerist art to which the other direction derived in through the utilitarian function that was applied to.
In this way, at the macrosocial level, there has occurred in the cultural history the same phenomenon of entropy that occurs at microsocial level with a cultural current that reflects the dynamic of mode item. After launching as the avantgarde any current then gets popular and then it gets out of mode, do not inspire the present public anymore that go next to another culture form that will have also the same destiny. The values, the techniques and the technology of traditional art have been assimilated by a nonelite public and thus its essential function for civilization has been lost for filling with mediocre products in terms of spiritual. The conceptual item was that to which the art has moved the center of gravity after the journalistic and mode item became popular and turned into mass culture. "
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DOVER — On one night, the Dover High School girls basketball team showed a) why they should be able to compete with any of the top teams in Division I and b) that they still have a lot of room for improvement over their next 16 regular-season games.
The Green Wave were right there with Pinkerton Academy early in the third quarter on Tuesday night in their home opener at Ollie Adams Gym, but the visiting Astros clamped down for the remainder of the frame and cruised to a 62-44 win.
"We need to keep pushing through the whole game," Dover senior co-captain Shannon Goff said. "Start off strong, finish strong, through the whole time, not just bits of it in little stretches."
The loss dropped Dover to 1-1 while the Astros improved to 2-0. Katie Boyatsis led the Green Wave with 14 points while Goff scored 11 off the bench with three 3-pointers.
"We gave away possessions," Dover coach Dan Casey said. "Too many unforced turnovers. If we could turn some of those turnovers into quality possessions, we're right back in the game."
Boyatsis drove the lane early in the third quarter to cut Pinkerton's lead to 27-23, after trailing by 15 early in the second. But Pinkerton responded with a 13-0 run over the next three minutes that effectively shut the door on the Green Wave, who were never able to recover.
"They went on their run and we didn't react well on the floor to it," Casey said. "We weren't able to answer."
Pinkerton's Valerie Martin led all scorers with 20 points, 15 of which came in the third period. She had three buckets and a free throw during the Astros' 13-0 run. Colleen Fortier scored 14 for Pinkerton and Brandi Bonneau scored 11.
"We subbed a lot of kids in the first half," Pinkerton coach John Barry said. "We're not that deep yet. So when we have our first five or six in there, they play well together, aggressively. They do some smart things. We get a little disoriented. It's early in the season so you can only get five, six, seven kids ready."
Dover trailed by as many as 19 points in the third period and never got closer than 13, which came after Molly Wotton converted a 3-point play to cut Pinkerton's lead to 58-44 with 3:05 remaining in the game.
"We didn't communicate enough," Boyatsis said. "We just need to stay positive through the whole game."
Dover trailed 14-5 after the first quarter, and a pair of 3-pointers by Pinkerton's Colleen Fortier in the first minute of the second gave the Astros a 15-point lead.
From there, the Green Wave battled back. Boyatsis and Goff hit baskets and Abby Tilton hit a 3-pointer as Dover went on a 7-2 run. Goff hit the first of her three treys later in the stanza, and Dover scored the final six points to close within 27-21 at halftime.
"We were obviously really motivated," Goff said. "We really wanted to keep pushing the ball, work our offense a little more."
Dover will visit Exeter on Friday.
"There were a lot of positives," Casey said. "The negatives outweigh them because we lost, but we're just going to keep working to get better. I think we're learning to play with each other and overcome adverse situations. Pinkerton's one of the top teams, but we're going to fight through the end in every game."
Pinkerton, 62-44
PINKERTON (62) — McLeman 0-0-0, Gorman 0-0-0, Laliberte 0-0-0, K. Stacy 2-2-7, Breslin 3-3-10, M. Stacy 0-0-0, Fortier 5-1-14, Bonneau 4-3-11, Martin 8-4-20, Hugh 0-0-0, Martel 0-0-0, Moore 0-0-0. Totals: 22-13-62.
DOVER (44) — St. Germain 0-0-0, Harris 0-0-0, Benson 2-0-4, Boyatsis 6-2-14, Cooke 0-0-0, Tilton 2-0-5, Goff 4-0-11, McDermott 0-1-1, O'Connor 1-0-2, Wotton 3-1-7. Totals: 18-4-44.
Pinkerton (2-0) 14 13 25 10 — 62
Dover (1-1) 5 16 14 9 — 44
3-pointers: P-3 (K. Stacy, Breslin, Fortier 3); D-4 (Titlon, Goff 3).


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Available in egg bar, heart bar or straight bar.
Machined aluminium so no weld to break.
A popular shoe with steel toe insert and a good selection of drilled nail holes suitable for many different nail sizes.
Sold by the pair.
Fronts/ Hinds : Fronts
Clip Option : Unclipped
Size : 3 1⁄4"
Studholes : No Studholes