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Our dermatologists are available for online consultation now
3 doctors available online in Crook, Illinois
South Carolina
Joined in 2022
Since 2022
Medical School: David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
MPH: Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
Clinical Research Fellowships: Stanford (Cutaneous Lymphoma), Massachusetts General Hospital (Hair Loss Disorders)
Internship and Residency: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, University of Maryland
2021 American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery Social Media Fellow
Selected as the sole recipient as the Social Media Fellow for 2021-2023 during which time I work with the Editor-in-Chief of the Lasers in Medicine and Surgery (LSM) Journal to summarize and promote selected articles on a monthly basis.
2020 Rising Derm Stars Competition for Residents Fall Clinical Conference
One of twenty residents selected from across the country to deliver an oral presentation at the 2020 annual Fall Clinical Conference. I was paired with Dr. April Armstrong, MD, MPH as my mentor during the conference.
2019-2020 Advancing Innovation in Dermatology Scholar
Selected as a 2019 AID Scholar to participate in the Virtual Magic Wand Program designed to empower clinicians to engage in problem-driven research.
2019 Women's Dermatologic Society L'Oréal Day of Discovery Program
Selected to meet with the L'Oreal Research team of scientists and chemists to learn about both upstream innovations (molecules, delivery systems) as well as Applied and Advanced research to understand how current ingredients and molecules are used in current and near-term OTC vehicles. 2013
Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society UCLA Delta Chapter
2012-2013 Letter of Distinction Awards – 3rd year clinical clerkships
2014 American Acne and Rosacea Society (AARS) Mentorship Award
Awarded a one-month mentorship to work under the guidance of Dr. Kanade Shinkai at University of California, San Francisco. Our project investigated the four clinical phenotypes of PCOS based on cutaneous manifestations to establish clinical guidelines to be written in a peer reviewed journal.
2014 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Mentorship Program
Awarded a 160-hour mentorship opportunity to work under the guidance of Dr. Melvin Chiu, MD, MPH at University of California, Los Angeles.
2011 AMA Foundation Leadership Award
One of 24 medical students in the nation to receive an AMA Foundation Leadership Award in 2011; selection criteria includes outstanding non clinical leadership in advocacy, community service, and education
2011 Golden Key Pillars of Excellence Award
Awarded to a member of the Golden Key International Honor Society who has demonstrated outstanding commitment to Academics, Leadership, and Service
2009 Phi Beta Kappa (Junior recipient)
Joined in 2019
Since 2019
General, Cosmetic and Medical Dermatology
09/01/1971 - 05/23/1973
Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts Major - Biochemical Sciences
09/01/1973 - 05/24/1974
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland Bachelor of Arts • Major - Human Biology Year 1 of 5 year combined BA - MD program of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
09/01/1974 - 05/26/1978
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland Medical Doctor - M.D.
06/23/1978 - 06/30/1979
University of Utah Medical School & Affiliated Hospitals, Salt Lake City, Utah Internship in Internal Medicine (PGY1)
07/01/1979 - 06/30/1982
Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California Residency in Dermatology (PGY 2,3,4)
09/01/2013 - 05/23/2015
Isenberg School of Business, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Master of Business Administration - M.B.A. (4.0 GPA)
Joined in 2018
Since 2018
General Dermatology
June 2016 – June 2019: Dermatology Resident at Naval Medical Center San Diego
December 2012 – June 2016: Department head Occupational Medicine at Naval Hospital Guam
June 2012 – December 2012: Undersea Medical Officer Training at NUMI, Groton, CT.
June 2011 – June 2012: Internship at NH Camp Pendleton
August 2007 – May 2011: Uniformed Services University in Bethesda Maryland
June 2004 - May 2005: University of Colorado at Boulder, CO BA in Human Physiology
August 2000 - May 2004: University of Colorado at Boulder, CO BA in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
He enjoys traveling, surfing and being with his family.


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Many trains don't use widely available auto brakes
NEW YORK – After a speeding Metro-North Railroad commuter train barreled into a curve and derailed in New York City on Dec. 1, safety advocates said similar deadly accidents might soon be avoided. Railroads across the country are preparing to deploy high-tech control systems that will let computers automatically slow trains that are moving too fast or headed for a collision.
Yet there is already low-tech equipment, widely available since the Great Depression, that could have prevented the crash, and every Metro-North train already has it.
For many years, the trains have been outfitted with control systems that will sound an alarm if an engineer exceeds a designated speed or blows through a red light, then robotically slam on the brakes if the driver doesn't respond.
Historically, though, the system has been used on Metro-North mainly to keep trains from colliding, not to enforce speed limits on curves, hills or bridges.
That meant that no alarm sounded when engineer William Rockefeller failed to slow as he approached a tight curve in the Bronx. Federal investigators said the train was moving at 82 mph, well above the curve's 30 mph speed limit. Four people died in the wreck. Rockefeller said he became dazed or nodded at the controls, according to federal investigators, his lawyer and a union official.
A week after the derailment, Metro-North adjusted its signaling system so trains approaching the bend too fast will trigger the alarm and automatic braking system.
Similar upgrades are planned over the next few months to enforce speed limits at eight other curves and bridges in Metro-North's 384-mile system.
The relatively quick fix for the deadly section of track raises a question: Why wasn't it done sooner?
The simplest answer seems to be that on most U.S. rail systems, engineers have been seen as capable of handling routine speed adjustments on curves and bridges without mechanical backup.
"We operated trains for 30 years and 11 months without a fatality," said Marjorie Anders, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees Metro-North operations. She added, though, that since the accident, the agency was rethinking its safety operations from top to bottom. Anders said the MTA hasn't yet calculated the cost of installing the safety equipment.
Accidents involving engineers rounding curves too quickly aren't common, but they can be catastrophic.
Last July, 79 people died in Spain when a passenger train hit a curve at 121 mph. The Spanish rail system had sophisticated automatic braking systems, similar to the new "positive train control" systems being deployed in the U.S., but the equipment hadn't yet been installed on that section of track.
In 2005, a passenger train hit a building in Amagasaki, Japan, when an engineer took a curve too fast. That wreck killed 107 people. The train was also equipped with an automatic braking system, but it hadn't yet been set up to check speeds in the spot where the crash happened.
Speed enforcement systems on U.S. passenger trains vary widely. Generally, systems that do have automatic braking are set up to make sure engineers don't accidentally overtake trains operating in front of them or speed through crossovers where trains shift from one set of rails to another.
On Chicago's Metra system, just a few lines have equipment that will automatically stop a train moving faster than a signal allows. Like Metro-North's system, though, those protections are set up to make sure drivers pay attention to signal lights, not enforce speed limits on open track.
"It is the engineer's job to know his territory and know the proper speeds along his route," said Metra spokesman Michael Gillis.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which provides rail service around Philadelphia, has automatic train control on most of its system but doesn't typically use it to enforce speed limits on curves.
Amtrak said it has automatic braking technology on the sharpest curves in its busy Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston.
The Long Island Rail Road, which is also overseen by the MTA, has a system that automatically enforces track speed limits at nine locations, in addition to its more routine job of maintaining space between trains.
Some passenger rail lines lack automatic brakes entirely, even to enforce stop signals.
There was no automatic braking in place on a Metrolink train that ran a red light and struck a freight train in Chatsworth, Calif., in 2008.
That crash, which killed 25 people, prompted Congress to order big rail systems to install positive train control. Those systems monitor the location of every moving train and provide automatic, emergency breaking anywhere.
Many railroads have indicated they expect to have trouble meeting the 2015 installation deadline. Some railways have reported difficulties acquiring technical components or radio bandwidth required to operate the system. The MTA plans to spend $900 million to fully quip Metro-North and the LIRR.
Railroads also have until 2017 to install alarms designed to keep engineers awake. Right now, some trains have those alerts. Others don't. Rockefeller's train had one but not in the control compartment he used the morning of the crash.
Robert Paaswell, a civil engineering professor at the City College of New York and former director of the University Transportation Research Center, said he didn't think Metro-North's failure to expand its existing automatic braking system earlier was negligent.
"The history along that curve was that for many, many decades and thousands of runs, nothing had happened," he said. "This poor unfortunate guy had the tragedy of his life."
Positive train control should help prevent future speed-related crashes, said Ross Capon, president of the National Association of Railroad Passengers. But he said railways shouldn't delay making temporary improvements.

subset: commoncrawl


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Dear Colleagues:
In follow-up to last month's letter about grant applications that NIH receives and the peer review process through which they are evaluated, I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on the NIAMS' budget. Ultimately, the Institute's budget dictates the number of outstanding grants that we can fund. Like the rest of NIH, NIAMS is operating under the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 (Public Law 113-6), as well as the Budget Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-25). The mandatory budget cuts required by the Budget Control Act (which you may have heard referred to as "sequestration") are having a real impact on the NIAMS, on investigators across the Nation whose work relies on federal funds, and on patients and their families who are eagerly awaiting the next advances that will improve their lives.
In the months leading up to the approval of our fiscal year 2013 budget, NIAMS consulted with researchers from a variety of disciplines and our Advisory Council, which includes both scientists and lay members, about how to try to mitigate some of the difficulties associated with flat or decreased budgets. What we heard from the community was that it was better for the Institute to continue to fund as many grants as reasonably possible, albeit at lower levels, rather than to fully fund a smaller number of projects. By handling the sequestration in this way, more researchers will be able to continue to keep their labs open and to train the next generation of investigators. This decision is reflected in our FY13 Funding Plan, and information about the NIH-wide effects on grants is summarized in a Fact Sheet on the Impact of Sequestration on the National Institutes of Health.
Medical breakthroughs do not happen overnight. In almost all instances, breakthrough discoveries result from years of incremental research to understand how a disease starts, progresses, and can best be treated. For example, the new drug tofacitinib, which the FDA approved last November, targets a protein discovered by a NIAMS investigator in 1993. And, much of the work leading to the FDA's recent approval of anakinra for children who have neonatal-onset multisystem inflammatory disease (NOMID) was conducted by another team of NIAMS researchers who had been studying the disease for more than a decade. The basic research that we are supporting today will serve as the foundation for new diagnostic tests, therapies, and prevention strategies that will improve the lives of those who are affected by arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin conditions. Reducing this research lessens our chances of making these future strides in health care.
While NIAMS' fiscal year 2014 budget is still unknown, both the President's Budget and the Senate Appropriations Bill that includes NIH call for increases to our funding. In fact, calls to preserve and protect NIH's funds have been bipartisan and coming from both Houses of Congress. In these tough economic times, there is growing recognition that NIH's biomedical research not only expands scientific knowledge and improves health, but that it helps drive job creation and economic growth. In 2011, NIH funding supported 432,000 jobs and contributed more than $60 billion to the U.S. economy, and it is helping to train the next generation of health scientists.
Sequestration is resulting in fewer funded grants and may ultimately slow scientific progress, but I want to assure you that NIAMS remains firmly committed to investing in the best and most impactful rheumatic, musculoskeletal, and skin science. While budgets may be uncertain, our mission is not. I encourage researchers from across our fields to submit their best proposals and continue the good work that has improved, and is continuing to improve, people's lives across the Nation.
Stephen I. Katz, M.D., Ph.D.
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
National Institutes of Health


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Sometimes it's a bit frustrating when you find your smartphone's touch isn't working well. In this article, we're sharing some possible methods to solve your query: How to fix Google Pixel 5a 5G unresponsive touch screen issue.
Have you ever wondered, what causes such an issue? Probably yes. Most of the time it happens because of physical damage to the display of your Google Pixel 5a 5G.
But that's not the only reason and such issues can also occur in your phone due to a recent software update (included with some bugs or glitches, which make the touch screen not work properly).
How to fix Google Pixel 5a 5G unresponsive touch screen issue?
Here are some ways to fix such an issue:
Reboot your phone
This is the most common method to fix an unresponsive touch screen issue of your Google Pixel 5a 5G. Yes, rebooting your phone clears all processes running in the background and makes its memory free.
This process also makes the apps run smoothly. So, try rebooting your phone. This should fix your problem.
Not solved yet? No worries. You can try few more methods which we have mentioned below:
Boot into safe mode
Safe mode lets your Google Pixel 5a 5G boot to its original condition when your mobile was first switched on. Safe mode disables all third-party applications on your Android phone for a temporary basis.
You can get back to the original condition of your phone by just rebooting your device. Want to boot your Google Pixel 5a 5G into safe mode? Here's what you have to do:
Press and hold the Power Button > Menu will pop up > Press and hold the Power off symbol for 3 to 4 seconds > You'll see, "Reboot to safe mode" notification > Press Ok.
That's it. Now you are in safe mode. Check whether your touch screen works properly in safe mode or not.
If it's working well then you have a problem with some select third-party apps which you have recently installed on your phone. We suggest you uninstall those applications & reinstall them from a Google Play Store.
Test your Display
Yes, you can test your Google Pixel 5a 5G display with the help of some apps available in the Google Play Store. Display Tester is one of such apps used to test your smartphone display.
Factory Reset [ How to fix Google Pixel 5a 5G unresponsive touch screen isssue ]
You might have used this method previously for fixing some other issues related to your phone. With this method, all the data in your Google Pixel 5a 5G will be erased and your phone will be like a newly purchased device (PS: Just don't expect the same performance).
By Factory resetting your phone, all the data stored by third-party apps, and sometimes the setting of the device which was changed by such apps will be restored to default.
Before applying this method, remember that all data in your device will be permanently cleared. So back up your important files.
To factory reset your Google Pixel 5a 5G:
Open Settings > System > Advanced > Reset Options > Erase all data (factory reset) > Click on "Reset Phone."
In addition to this, you may be asked to enter your password at the end of this process & that's it. After performing a factory reset your phone's touch screen should have to work properly.
We hope now you understood, How to fix the unresponsive touch screen of your Google Pixel 5a 5G.
Also read: Google Pixel 5a 5G GPS not working? Try this to fix it


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2006-05-22 23:06:48
|on my shoulder, and it keeps saying "faaarrrk - I need a cracker!" |B- (My head has been squished!)
This forum is awesome! I love it.
|Stephen Brooks
2006-05-22 23:14:47
|Yes, but it looks like I need to add more smiley codes. What's that meant to be a pirate or something?
2006-05-23 00:51:00
|Feck - it's really easy to make a booboo ... sorry - I refreshed the forum page and it reposted
|Stephen Brooks
2006-05-23 00:59:42
|I do have a thing that's meant to stop double-posting in threads, but perhaps I've not got it to prevent double posts *of* threads.
2006-05-23 05:02:17
|where are the smilies, ik can't see them
|Stephen Brooks
2007-07-27 15:27:17
|Test post
|Stephen Brooks
2007-07-27 15:27:30
|OK, seems I'm not 4 hours in the future after all.
|Stephen Brooks
2007-08-25 20:16:39
|Stephen Brooks
2007-08-25 20:16:44
|Stephen Brooks
2007-08-25 20:18:13
|Stephen Brooks
2007-08-25 20:18:29
|There we are.


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Versace goes punk wild with homey looks
Donatella Versace is embracing her own inner Versace. After coming off a triumphant outing at the Golden Globes, she helped launch Milan Fashion Week menswear previews for next winter on Saturday on a high note.
Versace dressed three women for last Sunday's awards show: Angelina Jolie, Saoirse Ronan, winner for best actress in a comedy, and star of the evening Oprah Winfrey, who wore a shape-hugging number to deliver her celebrated lifetime achievement award speech.
Versace has been riding a wave of appreciation since her September tribute show to her slain brother, fashion house founder Gianni Versace, reunited supermodels from the 1990s while highlighting some of the new generation's top talent.
"It is appreciation for Gianni, but maybe also a little for me," she said backstage before her show in Milan.
Here are some highlights from the first day of Milan Fashion Week, which also included fall-winter menswear shows by Emporio Armani, newcomer Isabel Benenato, Marni and Dolce & Gabbana:
This is about as homey as it gets in the take-it-or-leave it ethos of Versace.
Donatella Versace is urging aficionados to "to embrace your inner Versace" with winter menswear looks that take cues from the brand's home collection.
During her Milan Fashion Week show, pillow plaids became suit jackets worn over archival prints in seafoam green, hot pink and yellow. The effect was punk.
Crushed velvet upholstery prints in deep hues of golden, purple and red were cut into wild mid-length coats worn over a silken print shirt and a neckerchief. Burned umber puffer jackets recalled a comforter.
"These are very Versace elements, refreshed in a street key," Versace said.
The designer punctuated the show with 11 looks for women to demonstrate, she said, "that our two souls communicate with one another." They included tassel accents on a low-back mini-dress.
Versace wasn't afraid to take things down a notch with camel overcoats. A women's version included colorful side panels that matched a headscarf and leggings.
Men's trousers were kept short to show off Versace's new tennis shoe, which features the form of a chain molded into the sole and the words "Love is blind."
It was a bling call at Dolce & Gabbana.
The designing duo of Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana constructed a Baroque Sicilian church façade as the background for their "King of Angels" collection. The show opened with a tableau of young stars in formalwear, including elaborately embroidered military-style jackets and floral suits, walking beneath a pair of cherubs.
The colorful knitwear that featured cherubic putti in oval frames looked inspired by church ceilings, and angelic visages also graced motorcycle jackets.
Dolce & Gabbana, as usual, offered a range of looks — with suits styled formally, layered with furry jackets and coming pajama-inspired with robe overcoats. The designers employed light-heartedness and humor with heart-shaped backpacks, as well as one that looked like a golden puppet peeking over the wearer's shoulder.
The designers also emblazoned slogans such as "Time of Change" and "Love is Love" across beanies, waistbands and backsides. Nothing on the runway made the slogans' meanings explicit, although both could be interpreted as calls for new attitudes.
Colombian singer Maluma closed out the show in a glittering silver suit to match his stage presence.
Dancers busted a move in Dolce&Gabbana active-wear at an exclusive late-night "unexpected show" for a smaller fashion crowd. While activewear has long been part of the designers' repertoire, they are putting new emphasis on the hot category.
Their Millennial models showed off the collection, ranging from baseball shirts emblazoned with "King of My Life," to soft bear-head hoodies, eliciting cheers and cat-calls from admiring on-lookers.
Arching zippers, tufts of fur and smooth velvet gave zest to Emporio Armani's youthful tailoring for next winter and fall.
While silhouettes mostly were relaxed, the palette was dark, albeit geared toward the fun end of deep with black, navy and slate giving way to mauve, other blues and shades tinged with purple.
Floral patterns and hypnotic repeating graphics complemented the flowing silhouette of open jackets and easy trousers. Swirls of color also burst forth on alpaca knitwear in soothing blues and icy greens.
Designer Giorgio Armani has forsworn using real animal fur in all his lines, winning praise from animal rights activists. The fur accents on the boots and detachable dyed collars therefore were surely faux. A series of furry black coats were rendered from curly-haired sheepskin, according to the press release, and there were only pony-effect goatskin jackets.
Zippers were deployed with frivolity across knitwear, inviting the playful to detach, or along sleeves, giving a cape-like feel when opened. Trousers were tapered, most elaborately so with a button cuff. Pants were mostly relaxed for daytime leisure and evening events, but tight for the sleek business suits worn tieless.
Velvet worked for day or evening, as casual wear in bomber jackets or elegant suits. Gloves were the accessories of the choice, but the 83-year-old Armani is not abiding the smartphone-driven trend of returning to the fingerless gloves of the 1980s. All of the designer's gloves were perfectly winter-proof.
Only Jeremy Scott would send the fashion crowd running around Milan with a videocassette tape in their bags. That was the invitation to the evening Moschino show.
Scott's collection challenged the gender conventions by being up front about sexual predilections. The suggestion is that the videotape contained something X-rated, if anyone could find a VCR to play it.
The mixed men's and woman's collection started with some deconstructed pinstripe suits, held suggestively together by suspenders or garters, but quickly devolved into an S&M, role play exploration, complete with a chauffeur in a silken white cape shirt followed by a madam in a black latex body suit. The music climaxes.
Beyond the runway props and edgy fashion statements, Scott also included pretty sheer dresses and skirts, as well as suits that suggest nothing more than business. That is if you leave home the leather props.
But even then, Scott pushed the envelope. Turn your head and look at the back of the suit, and there might be a trailing evening dress, or a panel made from a beaded women's dress: A cross-dresser's coming out fashion statement.
His final look: a Siamese twin tuxedo jacket joining androgynous models at the tails.
Animal rights activists made their presence known during Milan Fashion Week, with several dozen attempting to block access to the Marni preview.
The show went on, running late as the fashion world is wont with or without protests. One fur-wearing fashionista endured a shower of verbal abuse as he ducked into the show at the last minute, but no violence was reported.
Animal rights activists have claimed victories recently, with Armani and Gucci being among the latest to commit to not using animal furs in future collections. Brands like Marni, which was born out of a family fur business, have a tougher line to tread.
Still, the runway show by Francesco Risso, in his second year, included only one obvious animal skin reference, and that was a shearling coat.
Entering the Marni showroom is to enter designer Francesco Risso's world, immediately.
Rather than conventional seating, he offered objects to sit upon. A child's stuffed giraffe. A hose-less vacuum cleaner. Stacks of disused videocassettes. Sacks of flour, whole wheat.
These are the details that fill Risso's travel journal. And the traveler's wardrobe embrace a naive, awe-struck sense of the world, with oversized jackets and trousers hand-painted with arm chairs, monkeys or musical instruments. Suits, puffer coats, nylon jumpsuits and anoraks round out the collection. Overcoats, in salmon pink, or blue, look slept in. Blankets do the same tricks. Men, spanning generations, not just youthful, wear talisman around their necks: a string of found trinkets, or a plasticized bear.
The rule, Risso said back stage, "is that there are no rules."
Isabel Benenato held her hands to her mouth in disbelief after her Milan runway debut. Her two young daughters, one clutching two stuffed rabbits, ran to hug her.
Benenato, 38, has nurtured her nine-year-old brand in the Tuscan city of Lucca, far from the Milan fashion epicenter -- and won the notice of the Italian Fashion Chamber, which invited her to Milan Fashion Week.
The brand's philosophy revolves around natural materials, she said backstage.
The preview menswear and womenswear collection was inspired by planets, and was fittingly elemental. The looks were layered, say, a jacket over a tunic and trousers, all loose, well-proportioned and easy to wear. Or a crisp, long white shirt over trousers. A long dress wraps and drapes.
"There is this sense of being wrapped. Of silence. Of relaxing," Benenato said.


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Janko Tipsarević (Serbian: Јанко Типсаревић) (born 22 June 1984) is a Serbian tennis player. His career high ranking is #13, achieved on 12 September 2011.
In his career, he has won two Futures and nine tournaments from ATP Challenger Series. Tipsarevic has also won the 2001 Australian Open junior title.
Tipsarević has achieved victories against eleven players from the Top 10, three against Tomáš Berdych, two against Andy Roddick and one against Fernando González, Mikhail Youzhny, David Ferrer, James Blake, Gaël Monfils, Andy Murray. He also has wins against former World No.1 players, Carlos Moyá, Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt and Juan Carlos Ferrero. His most notable match to date was his Third Round match at the 2008 Australian Open, where he lost to Roger Federer by the score of 6–7(5), 7–6(1), 5–7, 6–1, 10–8.


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In Seattle, two hulking veterans of the Arctic Ocean float side by side at a pier in Vigor Shipyards. The Kulluk, an oil rig built in 1983 that spent its youth in the Canadian Beaufort Sea, is being refurbished by Royal Dutch Shell. Its neighbor is the Coast Guard vessel Polar Star, the last of America's high-powered icebreakers. Built 40 years ago, the ship hasn't been in active service since 2006, but it is being repaired.
Both the oil rig and the ice breaker were built when interest in big, ice-hardened machines ran high. Now they are being brought out of retirement for an era in which the Arctic is gaining in geopolitical importance—one in which Shell could as early as this summer become the first oil company in two decades to drill north of the Alaskan coast using floating oil rigs.
Work on the Polar Star won't wrap up until December. But modifications to the Kulluk are just a couple of weeks from completion, and Shell hopes to deploy it to the Alaskan Beaufort Sea this summer. When I visited a few days ago, on May 25, the rig was freshly painted in blue and white; engineers onboard said that virtually every pump, gasket, hose, pipe, and motor had been replaced. The tour had been arranged for Mark Begich, the junior senator from Alaska, who arrived in khaki-colored Dockers and a casual button-down shirt with his press secretary. Begich was flying home to Alaska for the Memorial Day weekend, but found time to stop by the shipyard. Like other successful Alaska politicians, he is a stalwart supporter of oil development.
More From Popular Mechanics
Potential New Source of Oil
In June Shell is scheduled to tow the Kulluk away from the pier, on a journey north and west through the Bering Strait and then east of Point Barrow to begin operations in late July. The company plans to drill simultaneously in the Chukchi Sea to the west of Barrow, using the Noble Discoverer drill ship that is also currently at Vigor undergoing modifications. No well drilled this summer would be used for commercial production; they are exploratory holes that will be capped and abandoned at the end of the season.
The coastal shelf north of Alaska shares its geological history with Prudhoe Bay, the giant North Slope oil field. According to the often-cited Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal (CARA) study by the U.S. Geological Survey, the Arctic could contain between 44 and 157 billion barrels of undiscovered recoverable oil, and the USGS considers the Alaska offshore to be the most promising region for exploration. But Shell's plan is controversial. The company has been trying to drill in these waters since 2007, facing opposition from Inupiat who live in the region and from environmental organizations.
The Beaufort and Chukchi Seas are home to the healthiest population of bowhead whales in the world, along with other species of marine mammals. These animals are a nutritional and cultural foundation of the Inupiat villages spread along the coast. Craig George, a biologist for the North Slope Borough in Barrow, Alaska, has studied the whales for decades. The bowhead population dropped as low as 1000 animals a century ago as a result of large-scale whaling, he says, but has climbed back to between 13,000 and 15,000. Three other stocks of bowhead around the Arctic have fared worse, largely because of marine traffic and industrial activity, according to George.
For Inupiat whalers, an oil spill is the worst-case scenario. But they also worry about undersea noise disturbing whale migration patterns. "Traditional knowledge and recent studies say whales are extremely sensitive to sound, especially when migrating," George says. "We see deflections at 20 kilometers from a sound source and farther for industrial sites."
The most recent in a series of lawsuits aimed at preventing the drilling doesn't concern oil spills or noise, however. Filed two weeks ago, it challenges Shell's air quality permit for the Beaufort operation under the Clean Air Act.
Air Quality Controversy
Onboard the Kulluk, senior drilling engineer Shawn Gelsinger showed off four gleaming new engines, topped by long rectangular boxes called E-PODs, which are designed to remove pollutants from the engine exhaust before it is vented. Gelsinger says that the E-POD handles nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide (together known as NOx) by combining technical grade urea with exhaust gasses and oxygen, in a catalyst bed made of fiberglass and proprietary materials. The result is plain nitrogen, water vapor, and carbon dioxide. "The system cuts the NOx emissions by 90 to 95 percent," says Gelsinger. It also handles a variety of other pollutants. And to control emissions further, Shell says it will use ultra-low-sulfur fuel in all of the vessels it brings to the Arctic.
Still, oil rigs and their support vessels are industrial facilities and significant sources of air pollution. Colin O'Brien, an Anchorage-based attorney with Earthjustice, helped prepare the newest lawsuit, which contends the EPA acted improperly in issuing the Beaufort air quality permit. "We're talking about particulate matter emissions equivalent to hundreds of thousands of vehicles, and the carbon dioxide emissions of 9000 homes," he says. Details of the Beaufort lawsuit haven't been presented yet. However, a lawsuit filed in February to challenge the Chukchi air quality permits argues that the exhaust-cleaning technology being installed on the Discoverer drill ship should also have been required for Shell's support vessels. It contends further that the standards for particulate matter, or soot, in the air should be met at the railing of the rig. Instead, the standards are being enforced 500 meters away, at the edge of a zone that is to be kept clear of outside ships. Shell officials counter that no other vessels traveling in the region are required to meet air emissions standards, and that even the 500-meter mark is miles from the nearest human settlement.
Neither lawsuit is likely to prevent drilling from proceeding this summer. However, Shell still needs to obtain the final permits to drill from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Meanwhile, onboard the Kulluk upgrades are nearing completion.
Drilling Draws Nearer
As Sen. Begich left us on the main deck to make his next engagement, I asked Mark Duplantis, Shell's well delivery manager in Alaska, about one of the two towering blowout preventers (BOPs) standing one level below the drill floor. The BOP is designed to be a last line of defense if a well gets out of control. In the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010, a BOP failed, allowing oil to spew into the Gulf of Mexico in the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
Unlike the BOP used by the Deepwater Horizon, the unit looming overhead had two sets of blind shear rams, each capable of cutting through the drill pipe to shut off a flow of oil, gas, and drilling mud in an emergency. Duplantis also pointed out four annular preventers, which can tighten around the drill string or open hole to close off the well.
"Having two BOPs is a requirement here—the backup BOP would be used if the rig had to go into relief drilling mode," Duplantis said. To kill an out-of-control well, crews would dig a second hole to intersect the first one, allowing them to permanently plug it with layers of concrete and drilling mud. Shell is also bringing a subsea containment system to the region similar to the one that stopped the flow of oil from the Macondo Prospect well, until a relief well could be drilled.
None of that technology should be used, and it probably won't be. At least not this year. In the long run, of course, Shell's goal is not to drill and cap exploratory wells, but to create an offshore oil industry with many wells producing crude and sending it south through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Other companies will drill, too, including ConocoPhillips as soon as 2014. If all that unfolds, the risks and wildlife impacts will increase.
Over lunch the Shell engineers sounded determined not to make a misstep on one of the most closely watched drilling expeditions they had ever seen. The Kulluk cooks served up fried catfish, crab, shrimp, and hush puppies—all of which complemented the Louisiana accents of the offshore veterans at my table. Most of these guys had worked internationally and would again. To them, traveling a couple of thousand miles to drill a few exploratory wells in shallow water felt like a familiar challenge. "It's all about responsible energy development," Duplantis said, "with the emphasis on responsible."
The 2012 Alaska drilling season was nearly here, and they were looking forward to it.


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I am sure those who regularly visit me know that I become very nostalgic when it comes to friendship, by the grace of god I have made some very good friends all over. I am very proud of that. The following are my views on what I think about friendship, Let me take this opportunity Just want to say I love you all my friends and thanks for always being there .. and to all the new friends I have made here Online , Blogosphere. God bless you all
Internet has been a great tool, I have met so many people over it all over the world and I must say some of them have become very good friends, a few closer than family too. Blogging has helped too in meeting or knowing new people some have been good, some OK, I wont say bad because I think , No one is bad they are good for someone if not you.
I am proud and can honestly say I got friends almost all over the world now , which is GOOD cause I don't have to stay in Hotels anymore and Spend the money THAT I HAVE NOT EARNED YET or should I say Saved yet. I have been to Chicago, vancouver, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, California , Virginia, Mumbai loads and loads of place and guess what yeah FREE ACCOMMODATION AND FOOD (and psssttt Drink tooo yayyyy) …
In this modern world we have become very unforgiving people. It may be an ethnic problem, or a community's problem or a country's, or in your relationships, with your wife, children, parents,Girl Friend, Friends, Acquaintances we get very very unforgiving and we hold that against them and sometimes hold that Grudge for a long long time, We wear it as a badge which says'main tujhe kabhi maaf nahi karoonga' (I will never forgive you)
Everyone has a hidden agenda behind everything, It was not like this always people use to be so good, caring. The words they said meant something , people stood by there words.
Nowadays people are quick to make a relation, even quicker to spoil or break one. What they say is not what they mean. What would it take to go back to the good old days. I mean how can someone say oh we are friends then at next instant go behind your back , I mean what is friendship…
Dosti karo to Jam ke karo
Dushmani karo to woh bhi Jum ke karo
magar khyal itna rahe , ki fir agar Dosti ho
to Sharamindgi na ho….
We have gotten so busy in our life that we have forgotten or forget what the effects of our actions will have on others, We have become so selfish, I ask god one thing always Please don't make me so selfish, or careless, uncaring, heartless, Because I don't know which action of mine might hurt someone, and to those who i have hurt , I am not sure how I will every be able to apologize to. I do hope that some day they can pardon me.
1. What is FRIENDSHIP/ FRIENDS ?.
2. Do we respect our FRIENDSHIP/ FRIENDS ?.
3. How do you show respect towards your friend, Or see if they respect you ?
Is SAYING That I RESPECT you same as SHOWING respect ?
To me a friend is who would stand by you, no matter what, right or wrong is something to think about after the need has got over.. A friend in need is a friend indeed that's how we respect our friendship, Good friends stand by you Right or wrong.. That is not the criteria here at the moment.. The moment is that your friend needs you and You are there..THAT TO ME IS FRIENDSHIP…
I feel that you respect it when you can Tell them how you feel and ask them how they feel directly, rather than assuming… Respect is shown when you See the whole world walk out and a few Walk IN FOR YOU.
Do people actually mean they are friends when they say they are, or are just making fun of you. If they are then why do they do it. Would they feel the same if this happened with them, or have they become so heartless that it does not bother them anymore. How can they go to sleep soundly, well now I am being a fool because they don't even know what hurt they have caused.
People are impulsive and say things that hurt other people, they walk over others especially people whom they say are friends. And in all this process they loose friends, I am a bit of a dumbo it takes a bit of time for me to understand people are trying to ignore me , so it gets difficult to loose me.
Sometimes I wish I had the Ego or Impulse to severe my contact with people. I do pray to god to make me like them as that is the way of the world it seems Now-a-days.
Also how easy it is to Forget these days but more on that maybe some other day, All I would say is Please god take care of all my friends, foes, anyone I know .. God bless all and everyone …
Here is a little poem i wrote some time back, it is dedicated to everyone all who visit this blog , All who Think of me, All who Thought of me and All who at some stage were my friends God bless you all..
PS. – Something for a smile , It is Important to have friends and that too at Important Places.


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Ochino, Bernardino
Ochino, Bernardino bārnärdē´nō ōkē´nō [key], 1487–1564, Italian religious reformer. Ochino was a Capuchin friar, a popular preacher, and vicar general of the Capuchins in 1538 and 1541. Influenced by Juan de Valdés and his circle in Naples, Ochino turned to belief in justification by faith alone, gave up his belief in monastic vows, and adopted an independent Protestantism. In 1542 he fled from the Roman Inquisition to Geneva, where he was well received by Calvin. After two years there he went to England, where he was highly respected until the accession of Mary I, when he returned to Switzerland and became (1555) pastor at Zürich. There he rejected such Calvinist doctrines as predestination. Expelled from the Swiss cantons in 1563 by the Calvinists, he spent his last year in Germany and Poland.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches: General Biographies


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Unleash Your Potential: Quitting abruptly has its perils
You've heard time and time again never to quit your job until you have another job lined up.
In today's challenging workplace, the workload is continually being redistributed to employees as a result of normal staff attrition and corporate downsizing. It's increasingly tougher for workers to go to work every day, smile and enthusiastically commit 100 percent of their time when their frustration level is at an all-time high.
The fact is, each of us has to deal with job frustration at some point in our career. Regrettably, for many of today's workers, one impulsive solution is to abruptly resign with total disregard for the consequences. Conventional wisdom states that having a job — any job, even the one you despise — may be preferable to prolonged joblessness.
Before resigning without another job in-hand, seriously consider the potential consequences of your action:
Unemployment can be mentally trying, and you may feel that getting a little frayed is a small price to pay for the chance to escape your current job. However, feeling good about yourself is absolutely vital to a successful job search. Anxious and depressed people typically perform poorly in job interviews. A discerning recruiter can spot desperation a mile away.
Many of today's workers live from paycheck to paycheck. It may feel like a relief to be out of a nonproductive situation, but you'll also lose your sense of purpose and structure. Unless you can handle waking up in the morning with a "What am I going to do today?" feeling and won't constantly fret about your shrinking bank account, think twice before quitting your job.
The accepted practice when resigning is to provide two weeks' notice. Anything less will compromise your reputation with co-workers, clients and future employers. You will be perceived as petty and unprofessional. Your colleagues will blame you for encumbering them with your workload after tendering an emotional resignation. You may run into these same people again. The co-worker who was burdened figuring out your projects may one day end up as a hiring manager for a job you want — and certainly won't get.
In an emotional spurt, you've self-imposed a poor reference check from your boss. Not very concerned? You should be. Although you may never list him as a reference, hiring managers are inquisitive and will expect feedback from several former bosses. It doesn't require the caliber of Sherlock Holmes for reference-checking companies to locate a former boss. Although four years may have passed, and you're now seeking a new position, you'll easily stand out as the impulsive jerk who did not provide any advance notice and left his colleagues in a lurch.
Most companies have a documented employee policy requiring at least two weeks' written notice before resigning. By resigning without notice, you may forfeit accrued benefits such as vacation and personal day payouts as well as planned bonuses.
Never burn your bridges by allowing your emotions to dictate poor decisions. Always resign with dignity. The goodwill you build now will facilitate your networking with colleagues later in your career.
-- Lenny Keitel runs Hudson Valley Resumes (hudsonvalleyresumes.com), a resume writing service in Monroe. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com, 845-782-6714 or 914-391-5300.


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04/19/10 "Be Above Cruelty" Now also as Film!
Animal Friends and Bojan Jambrosic made a film against animal experiments
- Bojan Jambrosic is the first Croatian celebrity to make a film on animal rights!
Animal Friends and Bojan Jambrosic invite the media and public to the official promotion of the campaign "Be Above Cruelty" and the special reception for journalists. The promotion will take place on Monday, April 19, at 7 P.M. in Europa theater, Varsavska 3, Zagreb. Besides a billboard and promotional flyer with the white list, the film "Be Above Cruelty" made by Animal Friends in collaboration with Bojan Jambrosic, the narrator of the film, will be promoted.
In the film Bojan speaks to the public by explaining what is happening to animals exploited for experiments, showing photos and videos of animals tortured and killed in laboratories. He ends his message with an invitation to purchase products exclusively from the white list of companies which do no test their products and ingredients on animals. The white list can be found at www.animal-friends-croatia.org and on the flyer with Bojan, especially printed for this campaign.
All visitors of the press conference and this event in Europa theater will get the movie on DVD and the flyer from Bojan, while he during the presentation of this campaign will have support of other celebrities as well as the rabbits Dragic and Maza. Scented surprises and vegan refreshments will be prepared on the promotion as well.
The international organizations PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and BUAV (the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection), who for this movie provided their undercover photographs and video footage, also joined this project.
Tomislav Povic filmed "Be Above Cruelty," while Drazen Jeren is photo assistant. Campaign photographer is Marina Filipovic Marinshe and Maja Zaklan designed the whole campaign. Bojan's stylist is Ivan Friscic, and Zvonimir Franic and Lisa Jericevich took care of Bojan's hair and make-up.
The rabbits Dragic and Maza gave a special charm to this project with whom Bojan patiently participated in the shooting, sending out a message for homing instead of buying rabbits from the TarraLand shelter for rabbits and wild rabbits.
The campaign "Be Above Cruelty" is recognized and supported by Arto, Dallas Records, Europlakat, City Office for Agriculture and Forestry of the City of Zagreb, Iskon, Europa theater, Lotusgraf, Lush, Melvita, National Foundation for Civil Society Development, P.I.O., Paul Mitchell, TarraLand shelter for rabbits and wild rabbits, Vectordesign, and Zale.
The film "Be Above Cruelty" will be immediately upon its promotion available in high resolution at www.animal-friends-croatia.org and our youtube channel www.youtube.com/afcroatia.
Photo gallery from the press conference you can see here.
Promotion of the film on April 19, 2010
The Filming


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Contact us
Food and beverage
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Imagine the mess if your freezers packed up and your produce turned bad. Without the right power, cooling and moisture-control, producers can face big headaches. We know the needs of the food and beverage industry inside out. This means we can step up when you need us most – keeping conditions at their best, so you can produce the tastiest food and drink.
Avoid costly pauses in production
It's inevitable that you'll need to upgrade, or maintain your equipment at some point. But a turnaround doesn't mean you have to shut your entire plant. When the time comes to switch off your own power or cooling, we'll have your back. With our generators and chillers in place, you can keep your production running – and keep your customers happy, too.
"When it comes to food and drink production, there's no time to spare. Installing our equipment quickly makes all the difference for our customers."
Extra support in high season
Many food and beverage companies are steered by the seasons. And when your peak production time only lasts three months, it's hard to justify paying out for generators, chillers and dryers that you won't need in the off-season. That's why we flex to suit your needs. If the weather warms up, we can bring in our chillers. And if a bumper crop means you need to boost production, you can rely on us for the extra power you need.
Whatever your changing needs, we can help your facilities perform at their best with our cost-effective and efficient power, heating, energy storage and cooling systems.
We speak your language
Our specialist engineers understand the challenges you face. So if you need to put flowers or fruits into suspended animation, we have the best coolers for the job. And if you need to power your bottling or packaging lines, we know exactly what's needed. What's more, once we have everything up and running, we'll be on hand to monitor and adjust things as your needs change. Our experience makes a big difference. We'll make sure you get exactly what you need. Fast.
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"Aggreko was able to maintain the ambient temperature our client required to keep their fish products in perfect condition and design an effective solution that avoided business disruption."
How can we help you?
Get in touch and we'll help find what's right for you


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Ava 500 the workforce of the future?
Want to work from home? Send a robot to the office instead. The Ava 500 is virtual collaboration gadget from iRobot you can use to make your presence felt at meetings or in the hallways of the office, without physically being there.
In development for years, the Ava is finally available in the U.S., Canada and some European countries through authorized resellers of Cisco teleconferencing gear.
The robot has an automated navigation system and a 21.5-inch LCD screen so it can move around while transmitting a video of your face. Powerful microphones and cameras pick up and transmit surrounding audio and video back to you. Channeling oneself through the robot requires no more than an iPad Mini. Open the app, select a meeting room or a location on the map and the robot will find its way there and get started.
Telepresence robots are a new niche of products that hope to make the video conferencing experience better for companies.
"The biggest elements in favor of telepresence robots are the freedom of movement, spontaneity and physical presence," says Youssef Saleh, senior vice president and general manager of iRobot's Remote Presence business unit. "Instead of being a video on the wall or a voice on the phone, you get a real presence in the room."
What they don't tell you in the press release: Ava 500 robots aren't inexpensive. Each one costs $70,000, though there is a three-year lease option that ranges from $2,000 to $2,500 a month. A similar robot called the RP-VITA, specifically designed for telemedicine, is already in use at hospitals. IRobot has locked down FDA approval for that device.
Since the Ava 500 can map its own environment, there is no need to drive it, or to understand the location's layout. "The robot will never touch or bump into anything when it is traveling on its own," says Saleh. "It has several sensors including 3-D, sonar and laser, so it is incredibly powerful."
The robot's "neck" can move up and down, and the camera can tilt as well, so the remote user can participate in discussions at standing or sitting height. At the end of the meeting, the Ava 500 simply disconnects and automatically returns to its charging station. The robot offers up to six hours between charging.
No need to change out of those pajamas when done.
Source : http://blogs.wsj.com/personal-technology/2014/03/17/ava-robot/
Mar 17, 2014 1:54 pm ET


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Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPGY) today announced a new initiative – the Shire Rare Disease Impact Report – to research the health, psycho-social, societal and economic impact of rare diseases in patient and medical communities. Comprehensive surveys of patients, caregivers, physicians, payors and thought leaders in the United States and the United Kingdom are underway. Survey results will be published and available in the first half of 2013.
Rare diseases are conditions that affect a small portion of the population and are often chronic, progressive, degenerative, Iife-threatening and disabling.1 While individual rare diseases are uncommon and disparate, collectively there are approximately 7,000 different types of rare diseases and disorders affecting an estimated 350 million people worldwide.2
The Shire Rare Disease Impact Report aims to uncover the unique challenges facing the rare disease community in areas such as diagnosis, scientific understanding, treatment options, and social services. The Impact Report will contribute to the continued effort to better understand these complex diseases and how best to optimally manage them for the greatest patient benefit.
"Despite the progress that has been made over the past few decades in the rare disease space, there is still an urgent need to better understand this community and its needs," says Nicole Boice, founder and CEO, Global Genes | R.A.R.E Project. "I'm thrilled to be involved in the development of this Rare Disease Impact Report as its findings will help elevate awareness for the rare disease community and guide future research and education for affected patients and their families."
An external advisory board anchored by thought leaders in the medical, advocacy, health policy and health economics fields will lend its expertise to the development of the Impact Report. Advisory board members include Nicole Boice, founder and CEO, Global Genes | R.A.R.E Project; Dr. Priya S. Kishnani, Division Chief, Medical Genetics, Duke University Medical Center; Tomas Philipson, Daniel Levin professor of public policy studies, The University of Chicago; Alastair Kent, director, Genetic Alliance UK; Dr. Christian J. Hendriksz, Clinical Lead, Adult Inherited Metabolic Disorders, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust; and Mike Drummond, professor of health economics, University of York.
Shire Human Genetic Therapies (HGT), the rare disease business of Shire, has over twenty years of experience discovering, developing, manufacturing, and commercializing novel therapies and solutions for rare diseases. The Company has built and invested in a pipeline of innovative products and solutions to treat rare diseases. The Rare Disease Impact Report will be the first research to go beyond identifying unmet medical needs within the rare disease community.
"At Shire, patients are at the heart of everything we do and we continually strive to provide support for those touched by rare diseases," said Sylvie Grégoire, president, Shire HGT. "We hope the findings from this Rare Disease Impact Report will provide the rare disease community at large with new, unique insights on how best to address the holistic needs of the rare disease community and drive important conversations and innovation. Shire is delighted to take the lead in bringing this to the attention of all those who can transform the lives of rare disease patients for the better."
For further information please contact:
Jessica Cotrone (Human Genetic Therapies)
[email protected]
+1 781 482 9538
Notes to editors
Shire's strategic goal is to become the leading specialty biopharmaceutical company that focuses on meeting the needs of the specialist physician. Shire focuses its business on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, human genetic therapies, gastrointestinal diseases and regenerative medicine as well as opportunities in other therapeutic areas to the extent they arise through acquisitions. Shire's in-licensing, merger and acquisition efforts are focused on products in specialist markets with strong intellectual property protection and global rights. Shire believes that a carefully selected and balanced portfolio of products with strategically aligned and relatively small-scale sales forces will deliver strong results.
For further information on Shire, please visit the Company's website: www.shire.com.
Statements included herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time. In the event such risks or uncertainties materialize, the Company's results could be materially adversely affected. The risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks associated with: the inherent uncertainty of research, development, approval, reimbursement, manufacturing and commercialization of the Company's Specialty Pharmaceuticals, Human Genetic Therapies and Regenerative Medicine products, as well as the ability to secure new products for commercialization and/or development; government regulation of the Company's products; the Company's ability to manufacture its products in sufficient quantities to meet demand; the impact of competitive therapies on the Company's products; the Company's ability to register, maintain and enforce patents and other intellectual property rights relating to its products; the Company's ability to obtain and maintain government and other third-party reimbursement for its products; and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
1. European Organisation for Rare Diseases (EURORDIS) website. "Rare Diseases: understanding this Public Health Priority." http://www.eurordis.org/IMG/pdf/princeps_document-EN.pdf. Accessed October 25, 2012.
2. The Global Genes Project website. "RARE Facts and Statistics." http://globalgenes.org/rarefacts/. Accessed October 25, 2012.


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Stop, wait: don't look at the rating or the price. Look at the picture again. Isn't it pretty? Isn't it awesome? Doesn't it put a great big grin on your face?
Yes, this is the rebirth of a classic twin-lens camera, shrunk to half scale. And it's digital, which is why we're covering it here on TechRadar.
Basic Spec
Let's get the criticisms out of the way first. It only offers three megapixels (but it does a half decent job of interpolating to five) and though we adore the fact that, like the film-based original, it takes square photos, it does mean that at its default settings it's only spitting out shots that are 1,536 pixels along each side.
If the pictures were actually any good that would be perfectly acceptable from what is effectively an expensive novelty camera.
Any serious photographer will tell you that it's all about the lens, and here it's disappointing. It looks like the system you'd find on last year's cameraphone, and the resulting images are insipid, noisy, poorly exposed and badly balanced. They represent a lesson in how not to take good photographs.
Three years ago they'd have been branded 'good'; these days, Sony Ericsson mobile phones take better shots.
We love this camera
Then there's the price. We can't imagine that licensing and producing a camera like this comes cheap, but £350 is just silly. The same kind of cash buys you a Canon EOS 400D. But despite the shoddy picture quality and the dotty price tag, we love this camera.
So often on TechRadar we're judging things by how powerful they are, how much more productive they make you, or how good they are at a task. But with the Rollei, there's something more.
Car metaphors may be the last resort of the lazy journalist, but we can't escape the comparison that like an Alfa Romeo, this camera has soul. It's more than just retro; from its waist-level popup viewfinder to the handle you have to turn 'to advance the frame' before you can take another shot, it just makes you want to smile.
Novelty gadget
We know it sounds wrong, but you shouldn't buy this camera to take photos. It doesn't even take 'good' bad photos; we were prepared for funky Holga-esque goodness, but no, these are simply of low quality.
And we completely agree that £350 is a hell of a lot of money to spend on a camera that takes crap photos. But, if you're in the enviable position of having £350 to spend on something purely because it will make someone happy, this little chap fits the bill nicely.


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|In stock (6)
20" x 15" x 17"
Most items in our store are vintage, antique, one of a kind, or floor models of new items; therefore, some overall wear is a possibility. All upholstery and rugs are NEW unless otherwise noted. We try to accurately describe the items to the best of our abilities keeping in mind their age and condition. However, it is up to the buyer to address any concerns prior to purchase. We are happy to answer any questions or take additional photos to ensure customer satisfaction.
At this time, the buyer will need to make arrangements to pick up or ship the item. We will try our best to assist the buyer in making these arrangements.


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Everyone knows that dolphins are smarter than most other creatures -– but now we have the genetic evidence to prove it. A recent analysis of the bottlenose dolphin's genome has shown that, like humans, a good portion of its genetic makeup is devoted to the development of its nervous system.
The discovery shows that intelligence is a particularly important characteristic for dolphins, more so than for most other mammals.
Dolphins are a particularly interesting species to study, from both an evolutionary and genetic perspective. They are descended from mesonychids, an extinct order of carnivorous hoofed animals that resembled wolves. Their transformation to the sleek, fish-like aquatic mammal that we see today was the result of some fairly extreme modifications. And it's the nature of these variations that's of great interest to evolutionary biologists.
The study of the bottlenose dolphin genome was conducted by a team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston as part of a larger comparative study of 29 mammalian genomes. Essentially, the scientists wanted to know how different the dolphins were, from a genetic perspective, as compared to other mammals.
The geneticists looked at over 10,000 genes with counterparts in the genomes of nine other mammals, including humans, elephants, dogs, horses, and cows. What they discovered was that 228 gene sequences were quite different in dolphins, compared to the other mammals. Plus, about 10% of those changes were related to the dolphin's nervous system -– a strong indication that intelligence is a distinguishing and adaptive characteristic for the species.
One group of genes that the scientists uncovered was very much related to a similar set found in humans -– one that's connected to certain brain disorders, like Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. This could imply that some dolphins suffer from these conditions as well -– yet another sign that the dolphins' level of conscious awareness may rival that of our own.
Another group of genes appear to be responsible for the forming of synapses in the brain, while another relates to the way that dolphins sleep with one eye open, while one-half of the brain seems to switch off.
Not surprisingly, genetic differences were also seen in dolphin lung development –- a morphological change that was most certainly beneficial for an aquatic mammal. And fascinatingly, the team also found a gene related to hair growth. It's known that dolphins have small hairs when they're calves, but this is likely a vestigial "pseudogene" –- a strong indication that the species was derived from a hairy terrestrial animal.
The researchers also found a genetic similarity that's common to humans and elephants as well, namely a decline in the rate of change exhibited by their DNA sequences over time. This may relate to characteristics such as body size, longevity and generation time –- the time it takes for offspring to mature. This particular finding appears to show that dolphins, humans, and elephants share similar evolutionary pressures.
The comparative analysis of mammalian genomes is available at Nature.
Top image via Shutterstock.com/Christian Musat. Inset mesonychid image via NewAnimal. Inset dolphin image via Nature.


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For more information on our recent data notice, please click here
This Thanksgiving season, Sarah Johnston reflects on her journey of becoming a mother for the first time and the unexpected challenges she and her husband faced about four months ago. She hopes her story will resonate with soon-to-be mothers and help them understand that even after all the pregnancy books have been read and the birth plan is written, things may not go as planned.
"I really wanted to have my baby without medical intervention and felt confident knowing the UC San Diego Health Birth Center is cradled in the hospital setting," said Johnston.
At almost two weeks overdue in her pregnancy, Johnston tried every approach to start contractions and avoid induction.
In the middle of the night, Johnston woke up to horrible cramping and wasn't sure what it was: she was in labor.
"I didn't think I was going to make it. I was in such terrible pain during the car ride. When we finally got to the hospital, I was so relieved. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel," said Johnston.
She had to stop several times on the way up to UC San Diego Health's Birth Center to work through her intense contractions. When she arrived and was checked by a midwife, she was stunned to learn she was already dilated nine centimeters.
"I could not believe it," said Johnston. "I went into labor just after 1 a.m., and after pushing for just 15 minutes, I delivered my son Liam at 3:55 a.m. He was 8 pounds, 11 ounces, and we were overjoyed bonding with our newborn while watching the sunrise – it was just perfect."
But less than 24 hours after his birth, things quickly changed when Liam's oxygen levels dropped and he was admitted in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for monitoring.
After days of evaluation and testing, it was determined a blood vessel in Liam's heart closed prematurely before birth, so his heart was pumping overtime and severely enlarged.
"The doctors described it as an inflamed, injured muscle that was not able to oxygenate his blood correctly," said Johnston. "Only time will heal Liam's heart condition."
The new mother describes the following days as an emotional roller coaster.
"This was not at all how I envisioned my birth story to end up. We were now in the middle of the overwhelming environment of the NICU watching our son in an oxygen tent. Despite knowing he was getting the best available care, we experienced disappointing set-backs and frustration as we tried to process what was going on," said Johnston.
Johnston says she and her husband got through that difficult time thanks to a comprehensive medical team that made them feel part of Liam's care.
"From the midwives to the NICU nurses to the lactation consultants, we were given the support, strength and knowledge we needed to build up our hope and confidence," said Johnston.
After spending 11 days in the NICU, Johnston and her husband were able to take their baby boy home.
"It was the longest 11 days of our lives, and we couldn't wait to carry him around the house without being connected to wires," said Johnston.
Specialists say it will still be several months before Liam's heart heals completely, but Johnston says he is doing really well and meeting all his milestones, and cardiologists don't think there will be long-term effects.
Johnston encourages new mothers to go through all the emotions necessary to accept their birth experience.
"Every mother has their own birth story that deserves respect. I got to walk in our house for the first time with my baby in the car seat just like I dreamed – it was just a little delayed," said Johnston. "We have so much to be thankful for this holiday season."
Pregnancy and Childbirth
Newborn and Postpartum Care
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)


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Sooner or later we should all go buildering. Combining the words "building" and "bouldering," this is the term coined for "the unsanctioned use of architecture" and the theme of a current exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati. "Beyond acrobatics, vandalism and occupation," buildering becomes a metaphor "for the creative misuse of built structures," explains the CAC. What buildering does, in the best examples from the exhibition, is to show how you can have fun in the city—even at its dullest and dreariest. Buildering is parkour turned into art.
The star of the exhibition is the German performance artist Sebastian Stumpf. His specialty is behaving badly in an especially nonchalant manner. In one video, you see him calmly walking across a bridge, and then jumping onto and over the railing with a flash of fluidity before disappearing into the river below. You never seem him arise, though you notice he never jumps into the same river twice. In another video, he waits until garage doors are about to close; We wait as well, contemplating the banality of these maws in all its details, unless he suddenly appears in the frame, runs towards a closing door and slides under it right before the aperture closes and the image becomes static and staid again. Stumpf used the Zaha Hadid-designed CAC to good purpose as well: In another video he disappears into one of the utility hatches that hide in plain sight in the gallery's white-painted walls. In another he does what I have always wanted to do: he slides down one of the long, angled balustrades of the ramp-like stairs that connect the Center's various levels.
Sheer play is also at work in Kamila Szejnoch's "Swing" (2008). The Polish artist attached a swing to the arm of a sculpture of a gigantic soldier advancing into the future or victory, turning this somber Warsaw memorial into a place of joy. In Héctor Zamora's "Material Inconsistency" (2013) we see thirty-six bricklayers throw bricks at each other in nimble arcs, losing only a few as they make a full circuit through a three-story building. We see Ivan Argote kissing a shiny pole in a subway car in the most lascivious manner possible, while other artists rearrange bits of urban hardware or just caress buildings.
Not everything in the exhibition is video. There are quite a few collages and photographs of people cramming their bodies into cracks around Berlin, imagining Case Study houses on the moon, or stretching on elevators. These make less impact, though, than some of the large installations. "Los Carpinteros" ("the carpenters"), a Cuban collective, erected a stack of cardboard house parts in one corner of the building, while the French architect Didier Faustino slanted a chain-link and barbed-wire fence through an opening from the gallery into the staircase. Monika Sosnowska strew oversized and warped building elements through the galleries. Hadid's design has never looked better and more alive, reminding me that the Center's intention when it commissioned the architect was to create a place for new forms of art that would move beyond static objects sitting on floors or hanging on walls—which is why most the CAC's exhibitions that focus on such things look less than comfortable.
Buildering puts a smile on your face and reminds you not to take architecture too seriously. It also shows that even the most serious architecture can be rescued from its monumental death-wish and death-grip on us with some inventive art making. I went bounding out of the CAC, looking for urban fun everywhere, and I suggest you builder over here before the exhibition closes on August 18th.
Aaron Betsky is a regularly featured columnist whose stories appear on this website each week. His views and conclusions are not necessarily those of ARCHITECT magazine nor of the American Institute of Architects.


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The Kelly Johnson Conundrum
|Image courtesy of Daylife via Getty Images
To sign Kelly Johnson to a contract extension or to let him walk? That is the question.
Although the Blue Jays don't currently have a gaping hole up the middle of the infield, they could very well be short a second baseman come this offseason.
Things are arguably still in the honeymoon phase with Kelly Johnson. At the moment, he's one of the team's best hitters, and he's making the days of Aaron Hill seem like a distant memory. And I believe that's partially why now is the time to strike and re-sign him to a new contract.
Not that Johnson would really sign a "hometown discount" so to speak,
but the Blue Jays could probably get him to sign for less money and a
shorter duration now rather than wait until the end of the season.
It might seem a little premature to sign Kelly Johnson to a contract extension so early into the season, but the pool of prospective free agent second baseman is becoming shallower by the week. Brandon Phillips and Ian Kinsler are the latest players off the market, and so the options are becoming increasingly limited.
Phillips' $72.5 million dollar contract and Kinsler's $75 million dollar deal is now a yardstick for what Kelly Johnson could potentially fetch on the open market.
If Kelly Johnson goes the entire season and doesn't receive a multi-year deal from the Blue Jays, I think he's basically as good as gone. And if they can't get KJ to sign on the dotted line before the trade deadline, then they might as well trade him.
The Blue Jays could still scoop a Type A pick for Kelly Johnson, but with all the changes to the CBA and Elias Rankings, they would now have to offer him a one-year contract the average sum of the Top 125 paid players in MLB (around $12 million).
So if the Blue Jays would be willing to offer Kelly Johnson $12 million on a one-year deal, they would almost certainly have to offer him more than that per year on a multi-year contract to keep him in Toronto. I'm just venturing a guess at $15 million per for 3-4 years.
Again, that's just me pulled a number out of the air, but the dollar amount is merely arbitrary. The real question is whether the Blue Jays see Kelly Johnson 3-4 years down the road. With all the recent changes to the CBA, it's tough to say how salary negotiations would go down with a Type A free agent.
At an annual salary of $15 million, Kelly Johnson would be making more than top-tier second baseman like Brandon Phillips and Dustin Pedroia. This isn't a knock on KJ, but if the Blue Jays are going to spend
that kind of money, they better be getting an elite second baseman.
All this reinforces how shallow the pool is for elite second baseman. And in this instance and with the new CBA, the player holds the upper hand and not the team. The only way for the Blue Jays to gain an edge here is to re-sign Kelly Johnson as soon as possible.
In a way, the Blue Jays are in a similar position with Kelly Johnson now
as they were with Jose Bautista last year. It's a huge risk to put that
kind of money up front, but I think it's better than the alternative;
waiting until the end of the season and then possibly shelling out even
more after they put up a career year.
There is another alternative, and that's to fill the position internally. There was some talk during Spring Training about the possibility of shifting either Yunel Escobar or Adeiny Hechavarria over to second base.
I don't know what the transition is like from playing shortstop to second base, but I can't image it's very easy. And not something I could see the Blue Jays just springing on Escobar or Hechavarria in the offseason, and then only giving them Spring Training to get acclimatized to the new position.
So this is the conundrum the Blue Jays are left with at second base; do they sign Kelly Johnson to a multi-year contract extension at what will likely be a top-tier salary? Or do they let him walk, collect the compensatory pick, and fill the void some other way?
While the latter option is the most financially attractive option, perhaps it's not the best overall strategy for the team. The Blue Jays don't necessarily need to have premium players at every single position, but they certainly shouldn't keep the position in limbo or fill the void with a replacement level player.
It's a risky venture, but I think it's better to bank on Kelly Johnson than risk the alternative.


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You might be familiar with those optical-illusion toys that let you place a small object into a gadget with two parabolic mirrors and project what looks like a 3D version of that object. Now, there's a higher-tech version on Kickstarter that's designed to work with smartphones and tablets.
The Holho has some advantages over the toy. For starters, it can play video holograms. One version is a small pyramid-shaped gadget that sits on top or under the screen of a smartphone or tablet. Play a special video and it appears inside as a moving hologram.
The are several versions of the Holho. The Holho Naked is a simple version that uses an oblique sidewall to create a frontal projection. The Holho Zed uses a similar design, but holds a tablet on top. Other choices are a three-sided pyramid and a four-sided pyramid.
A Holho Full Pyramid for tablets starts at the $47 pledge level for a 7-inch version. The Full Pyramid for smartphones runs $33. Imagination Farm USA, the Holho creators, are also offering an app that can take videos and divide them up in a way that will work with the pyramid devices. That app costs an additional $20.
If you don't opt for the app, you have to buy specially prepared videos from Imagination Farm USA. All the devices come with at least one video of your choice, but adding two extra videos adds $10 to the price.
Despite the dubious name, the Holho looks like it could be an entertaining accessory to keep around to amuse your friends and small children. Until we get a real full-size Holodeck on Kickstarter, we'll have to settle for this small version.


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This is the first of a few posts about my African Thanksgiving, 1987. I hope you can smell the Sahara and taste the mandarins as I did…
Many moons ago, when I was 17 years old and still fondly dreamed that someday I'd be a famous opera singer, I took a trip to Tunisia with my best friend, her mother and aunt, and another friend. That's right: five women (three of them still in high school) headed to Africa for Thanksgiving. Don't you always think of Northern Africa when you think about Pilgrims and pumpkins? Okay, I didn't either, but it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.
Lest you're imagining us on a many-hour journey across the world, I hasten to inform you that I was living in West Berlin at the time, so really it was just a small hop south.
We arrived, along with a German-speaking tour group, in Sousse, Tunisia. From there we drove to Kairouan, where we spent most of our time. I remember seeing a sign along the route: "Libya, 10 kilometers" – perhaps not that exact distance – and thinking, "Oy! That makes me a little nervous." Quadafi was causing a bit of a ruckus in those days and I had one of those, "I'm not in Kansas anymore" moments.
Those moments continued as we began to explore the town. We ditched the tour group (as none of us spoke adequate German to understand anything anyway) and struck off on our own. I was not accustomed to shops that sold hookas as casually as if they were tea pots. Nor was my friend. "Are those lamps?" she asked, curious as to the purpose of the curvy pottery. "No," our other friend replied. "They aren't." We left pretty quickly after that.
We walked past that shop and headed to the Mediterranean Sea, no more than a block away. It was beautiful and almost empty, that beach. Sometimes we were the only people there. We collected tiny shells that we left in our hotel room to dry and which, by morning, had a residue all around them and on the counter beside them. I couldn't figure out what it was. "Salt," my friend's mother said, and sure enough, as I rubbed it with a finger there it was: the Mediterranean, condensed on our countertop.
The thing I remember most is not the scent of the sea or the feel of the sand or the temperature of the water. What I remember is the Clementine seller. His was a constant presence every time we went to the beach. "Clementine, mandarine!" he would call with a sing-song tone, making both words rhyme. You could hear him coming from way down the shore. He would come up to us with a basket of mandarins, their tangerine-colored skins warm from the sun, and for a few cents we would buy them from him, choosing our favorites from amongst the dozens. Then he would shuffle off, calling his song to whomever could hear.
Even now, 24 years later, when I buy tangerines from the grocery store, I think of that man and I sing his lilting song. I can hear it as clearly as if he were here beside me now. "Clementine, mandarine, clementine, mandarine!" I taught my kids his song and we sing it as we peel and pop the juicy segments into our mouths.
Minnesota is a long way from northern Africa. But even here the memory of the soft sand in my toes, the aroma of the shops, the desert heat, and the clementine-man's song, all conspire together in my mind, leaving my mouth watering for more than just fruit.


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The Los Angeles County Superior Court has agreed to follow a joint stipulation filed by the Getty Museum and the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America by ordering a suspension of the court case between the parties.
In June 2010 the Armenian Church sued the J. Paul Getty Museum for the return of seven missing pages from an illuminated Bible created in 1256. The court last year ordered the parties to mediate the dispute. As recently as August 8, the parties told the court that they needed additional time to mediate. The parties earlier informed the court that they were discussing a possible solution to the Zeyt'un Gospel pages controversy, saying that a May 10, 2012 mediation session resulted in "substantial progress . . . toward a potential voluntary resolution of this dispute . . . ."
In their stipulation to stay the proceedings filed on October 19, the litigants both conclude that the case should be placed on hold pending the outcome of Claude Cassirer et al. v. Thyssen-Bornemisza CollectionFoundation.
The Cassirer case focuses on the same statute of limitations relied on by the Armenian Church in its dispute with The Getty, specifically Cal. Code. Civ. Proc. §338(c). Signed into law in 2010, the statute was primarily designed to allow lawsuits for the recovery of Nazi looted art by extending the time period that stolen art claims could be filed--from a six year statue of limitations to a statute of limitations that begins from the time of the actual discovery of the elements of a claim. The federal district court struck down this statute in May 2012 because the law unconstitutionally intrudes upon the federal government's exclusive power to conduct foreign affairs, according to the reasoning of the lower court. The matter is on appeal in the Ninth Circuit.
Given that "the resolution of that appeal may determine the outcome of this case," the Armenian Church and The Getty have agreed in writing to suspend their court proceedings so as "to avoid potentially unnecessary litigation efforts and expenses pending the outcome of that appeal."
This post is researched, written, and published on the blog Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire at culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Text copyrighted 2012 by Ricardo A. St. Hilaire, Attorney & Counselor at Law, PLLC. Any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of this post is prohibited. CONTACT: www.culturalheritagelawyer.com


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By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, March 13, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- When someone suffers a concussion, it can be hard to tell how serious it is and how long recovery will take, but a new blood test might help answer those questions.
Swedish researchers report they have found a way to test blood for a protein called total tau (T-tau), which is released when the brain is injured. The amount of T-tau is apparently key to diagnosing a concussion and predicting when players can get back into the game.
"We have a biomarker [indicator] that is elevated in the blood of players with a concussion," said lead researcher Dr. Pashtun Shahim, from the department of neurochemistry at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Molndal. "The level of T-tau within the first hour after concussion correlates with the number of days you have symptoms. We can use this biomarker to both diagnose concussion and to monitor the course of concussion until the patient is free of symptoms."
Shahim added that by watching the level of T-tau drop over time, it is possible to predict when symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, trouble concentrating, memory problems and headaches will disappear.
This initial trial involved only 28 hockey players, so the findings need to be reproduced in larger trials, the researchers pointed out, and Shahim suspects it will be a couple of years before this test would find its way into clinical practice.
The report was published online March 13 in the journal JAMA Neurology.
Dr. Robert Glatter, director of sports medicine and traumatic brain injury in the department of emergency medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said the finding is important.
"Identifying a reliable marker that correlates with the severity of brain injury, as well as the recovery, can help track progress and improvements after a concussion, and this can provide an objective measure for safe return to play," Glatter said.
"This is a very promising study that opens the door to looking at biomarkers that can help us to provide better care to athletes with concussions," he added.
For the study, Shahim's team looked for concussion in 288 players in the Swedish Hockey League. From September 2012 through January 2013, they identified 35 players with concussions, 28 of whom were included in the study.
These players had repeated blood tests hours and days after their injury, and after they returned to play.
The researchers found that players who suffered a concussion had higher blood levels of T-tau compared with levels measured before the hockey season began.
The highest levels of T-tau were seen in the first hour after a concussion and these levels declined over the next 12 hours, yet they were still elevated six days later.
Levels of T-tau were also associated with the number of days it took for concussion symptoms to clear and for players to return safely to competition, the researchers noted.
"This kind of test is really necessary," said Dr. Robert Duarte, a neurologist at North Shore-LIJ Cushing Neuroscience Institute in Manhasset, N.Y.
The only treatment for concussion is rest, and knowing how long a patient has to wait before getting back to normal activity is a challenge, he explained.
"This test could be useful on a daily basis, helping patients get back to school, work and play," Duarte said.
Concussion, also called mild traumatic brain injury, is a growing problem among athletes at all levels -- professional, college, high school and even middle school.
Mild concussions generally don't cause loss of consciousness, but they can result in dizziness, nausea, trouble concentrating, memory problems and headaches. Severe concussions can cause temporary loss of consciousness.
Most symptoms go away in days or weeks after the injury, but some patients can suffer symptoms for more than a year after injury.


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Mon 10/17/2016 11:47 am Resolved: Cognos is now fully operational. If you continue to experience problems with Cognos, please contact Tech Support at 573.882.5000
On October 17, 2016. Posted in Campus Updates
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The Bluetooth Open Altimeter (BTOA) is a tiny device designed primarily for logging altitude, g forces and other data in an RC airplane or as a small standalone audio vario that is also compatible with XCSoar for hang gliding and paragliding.
This Arduino Compatible device can be re-tasked for other purposes, for instance I use it to run full colored programmable LED strips for night flying, hula hooping or other night time fun all remote controlled over the Bluetooth connection from an Android app!
In its primary role, The BTOA helps Discus Launch Glider (DLG) pilots practice launch technique by reading out the last launch altitude as the pilot lands the airplane and also acts as a battery monitor.
Specifications and Features
The BTOA RCGroups thread can be found here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1959055
For more information or to contact me, please email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Thank you


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Food Pairing Diagrams
Foodpairing is a web site with an unusual premise: it seeks to visually describe the flavor relationships between a set of foods. By analyzing a set of 250 food products' flavors (or rather, the chemicals that make up those flavors), the site is able to demonstrate flavor in a sort of relational tree. Here's a partial view of the Basil diagram:
Here's a bit more information about the site:
- FOOD IS INTERCHANGEABLE - A food product has a specific flavour because of a combination of different flavours. Like basil taste like basil because of the combination of linalool, estragol, "¦. So if I want to reconstruct the basil flavour without using any basil, you have to search for a combination of other food products where one contains linalool (like coriander), one contains estragol (like tarragon),... So I can reconstruct basil by combining coriander, tarragon, cloves, laurel. The way to use it is to take from each branch of the plot one product and make a combination of those food products.
(Via Kottke.org.)


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Sequester Closes Capitol Doors, Vehicle Access Points
If you're coming to the Capitol, expect a longer wait.
Less than week after the Capitol Police Board said the sequester would mean fewer entrances and checkpoints around the campus, the board sent a memo Wednesday to the congressional community that includes a list of entrance closures and modifications that will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday, March 11.
Last week, the board announced that the sequester would necessitate closures and modified hours of access for certain entrance doors and exterior checkpoints around the Capitol complex — a move that would allow management to cut back on overtime pay to officers typically stationed at those posts.
"As a follow-up to our March 1, 2013, notice regarding access changes … we have continued our effort to match limited law enforcement resources with necessary security requirements," reads the letter from the board, comprised of House and Senate Sergeants-at-Arms Paul Irving and Terrance Gainer and Architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers.
Besides the longer wait times outside, the board warned of other changes inside the complex that are also likely to increase inconvenience.
"Please be aware that there are additional Capitol Police interior posts and other services affected by sequestration not listed on this message which may increase wait times but not negatively impact security," the letter continues. "We regret any inconvenience."
According to the memo, each House and Senate office building would be affected by the changes to some degree, along with the Capitol, the Ford Building, a handful of congressional garages and "vehicular access points" around the campus. It also notes that all doors would be available for "emergency egress."
The memo came out just a few hours after Speaker John A. Boehner said the sequester would not curtail Capitol tours and invited the public to take full advantage of access to the Capitol complex.
Below is a full list of the changes outlined by the Capitol Police Board on Wednesday.
The following doors will be closed:
• Capitol: Lower West Terrace door
• Cannon House Office Building: Northeast door (Independence Avenue and First Street Southeast) and Southwest door (New Jersey Avenue and C Street Southeast)
• Rayburn House Office Building: First Street pedestrian door
• Dirksen Senate Office Building: Dirksen visitors entrance; North Dirksen garage entrance
• Russell Senate Office Building: Rotunda door; First Street and C Street door; courtyard entrance
• Ford Building: Third Street door
The following doors will operate on a modified-reduced schedule:
• Rayburn House Office Building: C Street door, 5 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• The Hart Senate Office Building: Constitution Avenue door, 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• Russell Senate Office Building: First Street and Constitution Avenue door, 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
The following vehicular access points will be closed:
• Independence Avenue and South Capitol Street
• South Capitol Street and D Street
• Independence Avenue and First Street Southwest
The following garage entrances will be closed:
• Russell East Legislative Garage (entry/exit Delaware Avenue Northeast)
• East House Underground (Lower D Street) Garage Door (entry/exit Upper D Street Garage, E Level)