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The shimmering circus that is Times Square oozes neon fingers through the front glass of ESPN Zone, a restaurant in which people watch 14 large televisions while they dine -- and one small screen when they urinate. In a second-floor skybox overlooking this den of excess on an early July Saturday, a 44-year-old man-hulk from Hollywood, Florida, named Joe LaRue is settling down to a buffet plate heaped with goopy chocolate desserts. About 18 hours from now, he will ingest more hot dogs in 12 minutes than most people eat in a summer. Tonight, the brownie mound is a potential gut-plug after a full dinner.
"I wouldn't if I were you," fellow eater Dale Boone advises.
"Go get a plate," LaRue joshes. "I'll beat you."
Ah, the camaraderie is almost palpable, if not very palatable, before the world's biggest digestive bacchanal, the annual Fourth of July Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island.
Imagine, if you're not just sitting down to an omelet or a plate of noodles, a league of comic book heroes whose sole, shared superpower is the ability to down food in Costco portions at hors d'oeuvres speeds and you might begin to comprehend this gathering. The six-foot-eight white dude with the trimmed hair and a sapphire in his left ear is LaRue. The loudmouth tottering about in the overalls and coonskin cap? That's Boone, an alleged descendant of Daniel, who once consumed 28 reindeer sausages in ten minutes. The bearded fellow in the suit with his ass filling a crater in the couch? That's Don Lerman, who set a world record by gulping 7.5 sticks of salted butter in five minutes. "I love butter," he says. "But when you eat that much, it's not that tasty. The grease is overpowering. Best laxative I've ever had."
Across from Lerman, with the plate of victuals in his lap? That's Cookie Jarvis, a human Himalaya capable of scarfing 64 ounces of mayonnaise in five minutes. "That's only half a gallon," LaRue says, almost dismissively, when he recalls this fact. The guy in the mustard-colored sports coat and shorts with a bouquet of dreadlocks crowning his grinning head? That's Crazy Legs Conti; he's trying to explain to a New Zealand documentary film crew the meaning of tomorrow's Coney Island race. He asks what is the biggest sporting event in New Zealand, and the answer comes: Rugby World Cup. "OK, Rugby World Cup," Crazy Legs says in a gallant display of cultural insensitivity. "Take that, and bump it up a notch."
The towering Japanese fellow with the mouth seemingly large enough to conceal a mid-sized chandelier? That's Nobuyuki Shirota, the only human ever to have beaten the otherwise superhuman eating champion, Takeru Kobayashi, who in 2002 set a world record of 50.5 hot dogs in the 12-minute Nathan's Famous race. Aside from Shirota, only a brown bear has out-eaten Kobayashi.
"Beyond any sport, we're the most dedicated athletes," Jarvis says. "Because if you don't win, what's the point?"
Among this astounding group, LaRue stands out because of his height and also because his 280 pounds are more muscle than bulbous belly meat. After two years of competitive eating, he's ranked seventh in the world; that's hardly a scientific rating, but it's safe to say that few humans (or baleen whales, for that matter) can eat more food in less time than LaRue.
"He's one of the fastest-rising stars in competitive eating," says George Shea, who with his brother Richard runs the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE), which oversees the contest. "He's a big man, and he harkens back to the very essence of humanity. If he were on the plains of the Serengeti 50,000 years ago, he would have survived."
He'll have his plates full tomorrow, when in front of 10,000 screaming, grimacing fans, he'll chug dogs against 19 others. ESPN will broadcast and rebroadcast the event to 2.75 million households. It's the first time the super bowl of competitive eating -- the Rugby World Cup of the sport, if you will -- has been carried by the network. The niche sport is growing even faster than America's collective love handles, and o! the glory that befalls its fearless competitors!
LaRue lives in a two-bedroom apartment on Sheridan Street a couple of miles west of I-95, in one of those fungible South Florida complexes that look like a layer cake of 40-year-old beach hotels. The living room holds a couple of couches, a desk cluttered with newspaper clippings, and a bookshelf jammed with about 80 cookbooks. LaRue is a part-time chef at one of the area's finer kitchens, the Turnberry Isle & Resort in Aventura; from banquets there, he has spirited out a mess of wine corks to glue against a wood frame to make a bulletin board. That project sits perpetually half-finished in the tiny kitchen that is LaRue's pantry, his sanctuary, his laboratory, and his training room.
When going against the world's best, LaRue sharpens his prodigious powers of consumption with various forms of preparation. One is what he calls "water training." He fills 20-ounce tumblers of water and gulps them in succession. In the past year, he has nearly doubled the amount he can drink at one sitting to about a gallon and a half. This is enough water to make most people quite ill or, perhaps, dead. It makes LaRue feel woozy.
LaRue also assigns himself "buffet training." This involves visiting some poor, all-you-can-eat eatery and bombarding his alimentary canal with ten plates of food. Admittedly, if LaRue were not a finely tuned athlete, some might consider this "pigging out." The staff at his favorite restaurants, such as Dynasty Buffet in Miami Gardens, know him so well that they simply show him a table and bring him a pitcher of water when he arrives.
By far the most intense regimen is "dog training." This requires LaRue to simulate the Nathan's Famous competition over the kitchen sink. One night a couple of weeks before the contest, he grilled two dozen hot dogs, stacked them five to a paper plate, and lined the kitchen counter with the plates. He placed a pile of paper napkins nearby because when he eats too fast, his nose runs, one of the many aspects of his body he can't explain because it has always been that way.
His lanky roommate, Steve Lutz, arrived home with his chatty blond girlfriend, Becky Silvagi, just as LaRue was psyching himself up. "I've never seen this," she said.
LaRue warned: "It's not a pretty sight." He cued up Tool's hard rock album Aenima on the living room stereo and set a timer on his cell phone. Then he took a hot dog from its bun, snapped it in half and plugged the two ends between a set of molars. With 11 quick chomps, they were pulp in his cheeks. While he chewed, he grabbed the bun, ripped it in half, dunked the parts into one of the 44-ounce plastic cups of water by the sink, and mashed the soaking mush into his mouth.
Each dog and bun took less than 30 seconds to obliterate, which didn't seem terribly fast until he did it a second and third and ninth time.
For a while, the only sounds were the buzz from the old Hotpoint refrigerator, the blaring music, and a disquieting wet meat gulp-plop-sniffle-slurp-squish-belch that made LaRue self-conscious. Silvagi watched for a couple of minutes, at first sipping a Coke but almost immediately slowing as she registered the feat at the sink. "Ewww," she said, her face scrunching. "Why can't you eat the hot dog all together?" There was no way LaRue could answer with a faceful of soggy tube steak, so she said as an aside, "He looks like he's going to hurl." LaRue continued to burrow through his hot dog pyramids. He bounced on the balls of his bare feet as water ran down his elbow in rivulets.
When the 12 minutes had elapsed, LaRue's belly was 19 dogs and 17 buns the richer. (That was an improvement from a previous dog run at his home a week earlier, in which he did a mere 17 dogs and 14 buns. After that one, he plopped on his couch and said, "Dude, I'm not even full. I'm going to finish those out of spite." And he did just that.)
After the run, he stood red-faced and blowing his nose into a napkin, pondering the leftovers' fate. "You don't look so bad," Silvagi said. For a guy who had just ingested nearly 6,000 calories and 300 grams of fat, he didn't. He was, after all, upright.
LaRue, still sniffling, pointed to one of the remaining dogs. "If you want a hot dog...," he said.
"I don't want a hot dog," she replied.
Competitive eating may have eventually welled up from its county-fair roots to become a cultural force without the IFOCE, which was just a fluke of timing and effort. But credit where credit is due: It was the Sheas who put their fingers down the national throat and brought eating spectacles to the fore. In the late 1980s, the brothers were running public relations for the Nathan's Famous contest, literally standing on the street to amass a crowd for the annual hot dog-eating ritual, which has been around since 1916. Every year, they gussied up the contest until eaters started calling them. By 1997, they had formed a sanctioning body that now boasts more than 3,000 members and in the past year, has overseen more than 70 competitions in eight countries.
Among the foods: onions and pickles and cabbage and crawfish and deep-dish pizza and a whole host of other things that seem appealing until you watch someone down them in hazardous quantities.
"We did a huge thing [the 2001 Glutton Bowl] on Fox," George Shea says. "That was somewhat of a miss. We did Battle of the Buffets on the Travel Channel. Great show, wrong place. It's the Travel Channel. Its viewers didn't appreciate a piece of corned beef swinging from Cookie Jarvis' maw." The Sheas travel constantly, carnival-barking to crowds at fairs, malls, and conventions and giving off the aura of kids waiting for someone to walk up behind them, tap them on the shoulder, and tell them the jig is up.
But whatever; people keep watching this crazy mess, and they keep serving it. "I am hot dog boy," George Shea says. "I'm embarrassed, yes, but I've grown to accept that."
After California and New York, Florida is probably the hotbed of the sport. There's a wings contest in Miami, sweet corn in West Palm Beach, a Nathan's Famous qualifier in Pembroke Pines, burgers in Jacksonville, and up until a couple of years ago, conch fritters in Key West. The purses usually reach about $1,000 for all the competitors -- hardly enough to keep a family fed but enough that the top eaters can cover expenses. The Wing Bowl in Philadelphia this year did bestow a new, $20,000 Suzuki sedan on its winner.
George Shea says the league lost money for years but is finally looking up and working on television deals, and talks are moving for a reality TV series. "We're not making these guys up," he says. "It's not like 'Stone Cold' Joe LaRue who people see through. The quest is real, and the competition is real."
You will never eat so well as when you hang around LaRue. "Dude, you hungry?" is a standard greeting at his front door, then out comes, say, a roast beef, pepper jack, lettuce, tomato, and mayo sandwich built into a half-yard of French bread from Publix. On a night when he barbecues, he stands in the small apartment courtyard wearing a pair of cloth shorts with the fly down and a T-shirt with a cartoon pig head from a North Carolina barbecue joint named Lancaster's. He's a droll sort of jolly, quick to offer a dry joke or a flat Sprite. He talks about how he loves the pots and pans at work as he arranges his $29-a-set cookware and begins preparing the exquisite barbecue chicken and what he calls "salt potatoes." He boils them along with a pound of salt and slathers them in so much butter that they taste like candy-coated heart attacks. In a 12-minute contest, he figures, he could eat three, four pounds of them.
"I'm a person of limited moderation," he says. "In every aspect of my life. Except for money. Earning has always been in moderation."
He was born in Binghamton, New York, the third of four children, in 1960. One of his earliest memories is from when he was about 6, when his dad, Lloyd, drank himself out of his job as loading-dock muscle at IBM. The family left its house and moved to a mangy apartment with graffiti in the hallways. LaRue remembers a Christmas when he was about 10 years old -- his entire haul was a secondhand vinyl gym bag. From a young age, LaRue's appetite was remarkable. His old man, a 325-pounder who also answered to "Ox," used to ask him: "Do you have to make a fuckin' meal out of everything?"
"He had a rough growing up," says his maternal aunt, Evelyn Napierala. "His father was not the best provider."
Ox had a hard time getting or keeping work. When the old man would guzzle a quart of Fleischmann's whiskey by 1 p.m. and pass out, LaRue would sneak a couple of ounces from the bottle and stash the stuff. At age 11, he was meeting friends on a nearby railroad trestle to drink.
He had a mind to play wide receiver in high school, but his coaches wanted to put his six-foot-four, 178-pound frame on the line. LaRue ditched and took up soccer, which he wasn't particularly good at because by that time he was generally too stoned to much care. After graduation, he went to work as a cook but dedicated himself to getting drunk.
At the time, his mother, Irene, suffered from epilepsy, diabetes, and vicious mood swings. "I was the only one who could calm her down," LaRue recalls. When he was in his mid-20s, they found part of the cause: She had a brain tumor nearly the size of a baseball. That one, surgeons carved out. In 1986, they found a second one. LaRue thinks her medication kept her blood sugar artificially high, which prevented her family and doctors from noticing that she wasn't eating. Only after she died did it occur to Joe that she had starved herself. "I never really felt it until years later," he says of her death. "Addiction numbs quite a few things."
In this time, LaRue worked a steady procession of humdrum jobs. He sold insurance, then swimming pools, then windows, then home improvement; then he turned a wrench for a while as an auto mechanic. By 1990, he was running deliveries for an industrial laundry. Then he met Stacey Rehberg, whom he would later marry, at the gas station where she worked.
She remembers his vast appetite. Sunday breakfasts were a pound of bacon, two pounds of potatoes, and a pile of eggs. At his favorite restaurant, Old Country Buffet, she would so tire of watching him eat that she would bail mid-meal to read a book in the car. "He was a big boy, and he ate a lot of food," she says. But she loved him for what he was, and LaRue was moderating other parts of his life. He got sober in 1991, an event he commemorated with a tattoo on his left biceps of the Alcoholics Anonymous symbol breaking through a chain. He and Stacey tied the knot in a hilltop park in June 1994.
In 1995, his brother Mark, an addict, succumbed to a brain tumor. Then his dad, who puffed chains of Chesterfield King nonfilters pulled up with emphysema and heart problems. LaRue put him in a home and visited him weekly. "We didn't get along until I was sober," LaRue says, taking the blame for that rift. "I saw too much of me in him." His father died in February of 1998, and later that year, LaRue quit smoking. He bought pretzel sticks and Tootsie Pops in bulk, to give him something to hold, and packed on about 15 pounds.
Clean, sober, and a nonsmoker, Joe LaRue became restless. He left Stacey, and two years ago, needing a change, he did what 700 people do each day: move to Florida. Originally, he followed a woman to Coral Springs, but that imploded about the time he got here. So he was kicking around, working for an appliance repair shop, when friends told him a meal he cooked one night was so intricate and flavorful that he should be a chef. In September 2002, he enrolled in culinary school, at Johnson & Wales University; he is two years shy of a bachelor's degree.
"He's still struggling," his sister Cathy says. "But I think he's come a long way, and I'm proud of him for moving on."
In fact, LaRue has sublimated his self-destructive cravings into a calling. Whereas some recovering addicts find God, he found food.
According to LaRue, the best Broward sushi restaurant is an all-you-can-eat joint in a Lauderhill strip mall between a ten-cent bingo parlor and an adult video store with posters advertising Paris Hilton's One Night in Paris. He drives there one 80-degree summer evening with the heat running full-blast in his irascible 1995 Chevy S-10 so the engine doesn't turn to cinder.
When the enormous man lumbers into Sushi Takara, heads turn. He plops down and fills out the little order cards that look like Monopoly money. In the next 45 minutes, he eats two pieces of white tuna, 32 sections of various rolls, seven hand rolls, a summer roll, an autumn roll, a spicy conch salad, something called a son-in-law egg, and three chunks of tempura bananas. "I could eat more," he says, "but I don't want to bore you." Then a waiter brings a huge plate of stuff that LaRue didn't order and walks off. By now, you can pretty much guess what happens.
"Excess has been with me my entire life in one form or another," he says. "I have found a balance with it. I can't let excess rule my life."
In another dimension, Joe LaRue would be merely local legend, a wisecracking gentle giant with a storm drain where his esophagus ought to be. His friend Marshall Levy, the former banquet sous chef at Turnberry, praises LaRue for working hard and pushing himself to invent new dishes. But Levy marvels at the cafeteria lunches in which his friend mows down three heaping plates of food. "How can one man eat so much food?" Levy says. "I don't know where it goes, I don't know how he doesn't get sick or something. To be honest, it was kind of nauseating."
It was 1999 when LaRue had the mini-epiphany that launched his athletic career. He had just come from the all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast at the Marathon Maple Festival in Marathon, New York, when he mentioned to someone that the festival ought to have a pancake-eating contest. He was told that they did -- and that he had missed it by an hour. He waited a year, then made like MacArthur and won the first of his three titles there.
"We've had some characters, some 300-pounders -- you can't fit a ribbon around their neck," says Connie White, who coordinates events at the festival. "They can't eat like Joe LaRue. Those guys go down in flames."
Florida opened a new world of eating for LaRue. In June 2002, he read about the Nathan's qualifier at Pembroke Lakes Mall after the fact. He went online and joined the IFOCE. "That's when they contacted me and told me, 'Hey there's a contest down your way,' " LaRue says. "I said, 'Oh, really? Kickass.' " It was conch fritters, in Key West. He drove down as an unknown and placed second, with 41 fritters down the ol' stovepipe. Among those in his conch contrails: Ed "The Animal" Krachie, a two-time Nathan's winner at Coney Island.
"Dude, I was elated with second place," LaRue says. "I thought I could have won it. I hesitated for maybe 15 seconds -- which when you're competing is an eternity -- to catch my breath, look around for a second. I lost like two, three conch fritters."
Suddenly, a surreal thing was happening. LaRue was finding that an ability he had always taken for granted was being measured. And he happened to be one of the best in the world. The next year, he romped in the local qualifying event for the Nathan's competition, with 14 dogs, and at the 2003 Nathan's contest at Coney Island, he scarfed 19, good enough for eighth place. He followed that with a sixth-place finish at a chicken wings competition in Buffalo and seventh at a chicken taco contest in Grand Central Station.
The only time LaRue has been formally kicked out of a restaurant was the day he pulled a chair up to a Shoney's breakfast buffet in Davie for a radio stunt in 2003. The manager shooed him. "Well, it's an all-you-can-eat buffet, right?" he replied. "I'm going to eat it all." The manager threatened to call the cops. LaRue filled a couple of plates and was noshing away when an officer arrived and politely escorted him out.
"I wasn't trying to be a hard nose, but I wasn't going to put up with that," general manager Barbara Higgins says. "Our biggest seller is our buffet. I get complaints when a child goes up and touches the food, much less an adult. I'm reasonable with people, but that's not reasonable."
This year, in preparation for the Footy's Y-100 Wing Ding in Miami, LaRue was invited to the nine Hooters restaurant qualifiers in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Anyone who finished first or second was qualified for the Wing Ding. LaRue swept all nine, including two in one day. He won the second leg by a scant wing, then ordered a cheeseburger out of gastric chutzpah. Some wise guy bought him another, then someone ordered him a third. Another man pulled out $300 and bet LaRue that in his current state, he couldn't eat five cheeseburgers. "I wanted to," LaRue says. "But I just couldn't cover the bet." At the Wing Ding, he razed more than three pounds of chicken wings in 12 minutes to earn a giant, gold, wrestling-style title belt that he keeps in a cotton cover in his bedroom.
"Some people look at [the contests] with disbelief and disgust," says James Gelfand of Coconut Creek, a friend and fan of LaRue's who helped coordinate the Wing Ding and qualifiers. "It's a freak show."
This April, LaRue finished second in the Sweet Corn Fiesta contest at the South Florida Fairgrounds. To earn a trip to the 2004 Nathan's contest in Coney Island, he vacuumed up 18 dogs in a qualifier at Pembroke Lakes Mall, then told a Miami Herald reporter, over a huge post-match pastry, "I do it because I can."
He's perfecting his techniques yet. He lifts weights, cycles, and runs nearly every day to maintain enough muscle to burn the excess calories. He has learned not to starve himself before a race and instead pounds a gallon of water about six hours ahead of time, to hose himself out. He lost the corn contest because of sheer mandible fatigue. Before next year's event, he's determined to develop some kind of jaw-strengthening apparatus.
What began as a simple, consuming-all proposition has become all-consuming. "To have the model of the alcoholic father -- I learned those excesses, and later on, after I got sober, I could still eat, but it wasn't an escape that the drugs and things were," he says. "It went from fun to a minor hobby to I don't know what you call it now. I'm a professional eater. I can't make a living off it, not yet. I'm trying to figure out a way to."
Maybe one day, there will be sponsorships, movie deals, signature restaurants. To this point, LaRue has done well to break even. Maybe five grand in travel expenses, five grand in winnings. And a cholesterol level of about 230. He's trying to bring that down a few points.
"Joe's going to any length to enter the contests, whether he has to scrape up his last dime," Stacey says. "I wonder sometimes, but he seems to have faith that something's going to work out in the end."
One night after throwing a massive roast beef sandwich to that prolific furnace in his abdomen, LaRue rests on his floor, his legs sprawled on the carpet. For once, he speaks softly, as if revealing a tender revelation. He says, "I think I can do fuckin' anything."
The weather conditions on July 4 in Coney Island are clear, breezy, and wonderful. Eaters worry about standing in the sun for a half-hour at a time. Wrapping their stomachs around dozens of hot dogs is brutal enough and can induce crippling perspiration fits known as "the meat sweats." But the sun today is mild. It's a delicious day for spectacle.
George Shea, wearing a sport coat and barbershop quartet straw hat, barks to a throng of what must be thousands, in addition to the live ESPN audience, proclaiming his precontest show of rappers and banjo players and cheer squads "Broadway meets Vegas meets vaudeville meets grade school." (Shea later admits he was scared out of his wits, improvising like hell for the broadcast, and had a total budget of $75 for the entertainment. All considered, he performs admirably, though his blue tongue, stained by Gatorade, belies his inexperience.)
As the contest draws near, the 20 eaters pile out of their charter bus and approach the long stage surrounded by photographers. LaRue stands in a sleeveless white shirt and a pair of up-yours black Oakleys. "The sweet corn-eating champion of Florida! The conch fritter-eating champion of Florida!" Shea proclaims. "The missing link -- but not between man and ape. Between man and God! Jammin' Joe LaRue!"
They seat him near the end. Other eaters file on. To huge fanfare, Kobayashi takes center stage. He waves and smiles without showing his formidable teeth. At the devouring hour, 12:45, it becomes spectacularly apparent why the young Japanese glutton has groupies.
He is the embodiment of eat. He is a plague against hotdogkind. He is astonishing. Superhuman. Nauseating. It's downright violent, the way he buzzsaws through a hot dog, then pulverizes the wet bun and mashes it open-palmed into his mouth. The spangled girl flipping Kobayashi's tally card for the crowd stares at her eater like a child watching a mare drop a foal.
The horror. The horror.
From down the row, LaRue is having his best contest ever. But he is a tortoise chasing the hare. His difficulty arises from his blind adherence to the traditional human impulse to chew. He noshes at full height, tilting his head backward like a Tyrannosaurus, and lumps slide down his exposed throat. Later, he recalls the dialogue in his head as he forced himself to swallow: "More, more! You must eat more! Keep shoving food in me!"
While LaRue languishes in the teens, Kobayashi ravages his way past 40 hot dogs, then 50, and when he breaks his preposterous world record with the 52nd dog, LaRue and the other eaters turn to stare. The crowd erupts, and Kobayashi steamrolls to 53.5 dogs. The ESPN broadcasters earnestly posit, to the 765,000 households that are tuned in, that Kobayashi may be the greatest athlete in the world.
Afterward, LaRue stands at the side of the stage. His pockets bulge with plastic bottles of mustard and wasabi he pilfered from the table. He knew that salmonella poisoning was the only hope he had of surpassing the ravenous champion, but he had hoped to do better than the personal-best 20 dogs that earned him tenth place.
As Kobayashi accepts a towering trophy, LaRue mutters, "The bastard." Then he adds: "I'm gonna go get a burger."
The weekend after Nathan's, LaRue was in Orange County, California, on his own dime, for a doughnut-eating contest. With time expiring and Don Lerman (the butter junkie) midway through his 28th donut, Joe crammed the last bit of number 27 and an entire number 28 into his mouth.
"At five, four, three, two, one, I was shoving two donuts in my mouth," he says over dinner one night. "The news people, I could hear them go, 'Uhhhhh!' "
Lerman beat him by a quarter-doughnut in a one-minute tiebreaker. Actually, both men managed four donuts in the overtime, but judges ruled Lerman swallowed first.
"Swallowing is one of my biggest downfalls," LaRue laments. "That is one thing holding me back. The other thing I need to get used to is, I want to chew too much. I've got to work past that.
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"I've thought about trying acupuncture. It's not like I'm having surgery to enlarge my esophagus. There's an Oriental herbalist. I stopped there, and I was talking to him about it. He said, 'I have advice for you.' I knew what he was going to say. I said, 'Yeah, what?'
"He said, 'Don't do it.' Don't do the contest.
"I told him, 'Thanks. Have a nice day.'
"So I'll find it," LaRue continues, probing the problem of how to take it all in, all of it, the fastest of anyone. Of how to remove the body from the equation altogether. Of becoming a mind and a mouth. "I've got a guy who may help me with Zen kind of shit, and that may help. I'm looking outside myself to look inside. I know the answer's inside. But I haven't been able to pull it out yet."


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A huge internet survey has discovered that British housewives are the world's biggest surfers - spending close to half of their leisure time online.
A massive poll by TNS of over 27,000 people in 16 countries came up with the startling suggestion that the average UK housewife spends 47% of their free time on the internet.
That knocks students, with a meagre 39% of their leisure time online, into a cocked hat.
Online, offline
TNS also discovered that 58% of the 2,500 British respondents claimed to have met up with someone in real life that they had made contact with for the first time online, lagging behind the more trusting Germans (79%).
A few other facts include Brits insisting that 25% of their friends were 'online-only', and the revelation that we have an average of 17 friends that we have met online.
So, statistically at least some of you out there reading this must be housewives who we've only met over social networks.
So we'd better wish you a Happy New Year and add you to our friends list.

subset: commoncrawl


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Proposition B Brings Smoking Tax to Ballots
Related Story
COLUMBIA - If Missouri voters approve Proposition B on Tuesday, smokers will pay a state tax of 90 cents on each pack of cigarettes.
Local gas stations have "vote no" signs outside trying to sway voters, but some voters are still locked on their decision.
Dan Foye said, "I will vote yes for proposition B. I believe since taxes are already at a low rate, I don't smoke cigarettes, and money is going to a great cause. So why not?"
Other voters like Sammy Porter said they are against the proposition because the wording for it is too vague. Porter is a smoker but said, "I actually have grandsons I never want to smoke, I have told them that many times. I don't feel the money will be appropriated right. As, I understand it will probably go under general funds."
The money from the additional tax is supposed to go toward elementary, secondary, and college education. The proposition is estimated to produce an extra $283 million to $423 million dollars annually.
But it would also increase the cost of a single cigarette by three cents, and there would be a 25 percent increase of the manufacturers' invoice price for roll your own cigarettes, and 15 percent for other tobacco products.


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Robin Gibb performs in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1991.
Rob Verhorst/Redferns
By David Browne
May 20, 2012 6:35 PM ET
Robin Gibb, one-third of the Bee Gees, died Sunday after a long battle with cancer, his spokesperson has confirmed via a statement. Gibb was 62 years old.
"The family of Robin Gibb, of the Bee Gees, announce with great sadness that Robin passed away today following his long battle with cancer and intestinal surgery," reads the statement. "The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time."
Two years ago, Gibb battled colon and liver cancer, but despite making what he called a "spectacular recovery," a secondary tumor recently developed, complicated by a case of pneumonia in April. The singer was hospitalized last month and fell into a coma at one point, although he was later said to have regained consciousness and communicated with family members.
Gibb was born in the Isle of Man in 1949, along with twin brother Maurice. (Maurice died in 2003 of complications from a twisted intestine; eerily, Robin had surgery for the same medical issue in 2010.) Along with their older brother Barry, the brothers began harmonizing as a trio in Australia, where the family moved in 1958. Although the Bee Gees had some success in Australia – they hosted a weekly variety show there – they didn't truly arrive until they returned to England and signed with manager Robert Stigwood. Robin's quivering, vulnerable voice was featured prominently on several of the group's earliest and most Beatles-eque hits, including "New York Mining Disaster 1941," "I Started a Joke," "Massachusetts," and "I've Gotta Get a Message to You."
Although he looked and sounded like the meekest Bee Gee, Robin grew into the family rebel. By 1969, he and Barry were feuding over whose song should be singles, and Robin, then 20, was declared a "ward of the state" by their father when his drinking and partying seemed to take over his life. "It happened so fast that we lost communication between us," Gibb later recalled. "It was just madness, really."
But it was also Robin who, in 1971, made the first call to Barry to reunite with his brothers. Robin's solo career had stalled, and Barry and Maurice's attempts to continue the Bee Gees as a duo had floundered as well. "If we hadn't been related, we would probably have never gotten back together," Robin said at the time. Robin's voice was heard, beautifully, on the chorus of their minor 1972 hit "Run to Me."
The Bee Gees' massive second wind arrived with their proto disco hit, "Jive Talkin'," in 1975; two years later, their contributions to Saturday Night Fever made them bigger stars than ever. Most of the hits from that era featured Barry's falsetto voice, but the brothers' vocal blend remained an indelible part of their sound.
The group entered another fallow period during the early Eighties, although during this time, Robin produced a semi-hit album by Jimmy Ruffin, brother of the Temptations' David Ruffin. The last Bee Gees album, This Is Where I Came In, was released in 2001. Two years later, Maurice died, and with his passing the Bee Gees ended. (Their other, younger brother Andy died in 1988.)
Robin and Barry reunited periodically – in 2010, they made an appearance on American Idol and inducted ABBA into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – and talked about a duo tour, but nothing materialized. Robin, though, kept his hand in music. With his son Robin-John, he wrote an ambitious piece, The Titanic Requiem, a mix of orchestral and vocal pieces telling the story of the doomed liner on the 100th anniversary of its sinking. "It's a serious subject and it's not a rock opera," Gibb said before its debut. "There are no backbeats. This could have been written 300 years ago."
Featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the work had its world premiere in London on April 10th. But in a sign that Gibb's health had taken a turn for the worse, he wasn't able to attend.


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The Prince George's County Historic Property Grant Program (HPGP), in its 10th year, helps fund rehabilitation, restoration, preservation, or acquisition of historic property. Capital grants from the program are designed to preserve, protect, and enhance historic properties; encourage others to preserve, protect, and enhance historic properties; and promote interest in, and the study of, historic properties. The grant program is administered by the Prince George's County Planning Department of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) on behalf of the Prince George's County Planning Board.
The Prince George's County Historic Preservation Commission's Non-Capital Grant Program (Grant Program) provides grants to support projects that identify, preserve, promote, and protect the historic, cultural, and archeological resources of Prince George's County for the benefit of the public and to encourage the revitalization of communities. These grants are intended to help produce and disseminate information, stimulate public discussion about preservation, make technical expertise accessible, and encourage community partnerships. The Grant Program can be used to pay for the costs of professional services such as preservation and planning consultants, planning studies, design work, and education.
More Information For more information, please call 301-952-3680 or Email Historic Preservation.


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Consensus 101: Introduction
"We reject: kings, presidents, and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code." -- Dave Clark, IETF Proceedings, July 1992
What is Consensus
Consensus is a non-violent way for people to relate to each other as a group. Successful use of a consensus process depends on people understanding the idea and wanting to use it.
Consensus allows us to recognize areas of agreement and act together without coercing one another. Under consensus, the group takes no action that is not consented to by all group members.
The fundamental right of consensus is for all persons to express themselves in their own words and of their own will; the fundamental responsibility of consensus is to assure others of their right to speak and be heard.
Consensus vs Voting
Voting is a means by which we choose one alternative from several. Consensus, on the other hand, is a process of synthesizing many diverse elements together. With consensus people can and should work through differences and reach a mutually satisfactory position. It is possible for one person's insights or strongly held beliefs to sway the whole group. No ideas are lost, each member's input is valued as part of the solution.
Consensus clearly takes more time than a simple vote. But the added time can be viewed in relation to the increased understanding each member of the group will have about the issue and the increased probability of the decision being implemented.
What does Consensus Mean?
Consensus does not mean that everyone thinks that the decision made is necessarily the best one possible, or even that they are sure it will work. What it does mean is that in coming to that decision, no one felt that her/his position on the matter was misunderstood or that it wasn't given a proper hearing. Hopefully, everyone will think this is the best decision.
What is Required of Us
- Cooperation: Look for areas of agreement and common ground, and build on them. Avoid right/wrong thinking.
- Respect: Respect others and trust them to make responsible input.
- Struggle: Use disagreements to learn, grow and change.Work hard to build unity in the group.
- Listen: Good listening is as important as good speaking. It is important not to withdraw when not speaking; good listening is active participation.
- Responsibility: Participants are responsible for voicing their opinions, participating in the discussion, and actively implementing the agreement.
More Consensus Info from the same document.
Consensus at Noisebridge
Noisebridge is run by consensus with all the members. We don't do anything as a group that everyone isn't OK with (not everyone has to be wildly enthusiastic). We've evolved a way of getting to this state, which is not any kind of definitive rule, but has worked reasonably well so far. Here's what to expect in most cases, except when we get to consensus by a different method.
Use Cases
The Short Version
- Dick wants to paint the bike shed pink. He brings it up at a Tuesday meeting as a Discussion Item.
- Jane doesn't want the bike shed painted, Dick and Jane yell at each other for a while. People get annoyed and they ask Dick and Jane to discuss this after the meeting.
- Dick and Jane get together later and talk out their problems, they agree to paint the bike shed blue.
- Dick brings up painting the bike shed blue as a Consensus Item at the next Tuesday meeting.
- Everyone agrees this is a great idea. Consensus has been reached!
The Long Version
- Dick wants to paint the bike shed pink, others at Noisebridge say this is a great idea.
- Dick adds "Paint the bike shed pink" to Discussion Items for next week's Tuesday meeting.
- Dick shows up at the meeting and discusses his plan with everyone attending. Discussion is allowed to continue on for a week to give people time to read and respond to the meeting notes if they weren't at the meeting and want to be involved.
- Jane thinks this is a stupid idea, she doesn't think the bike shed should be painted at all.
- Jane and Dick argue for 5 minutes, everyone gets annoyed and tell them to shut up, Jane says she'll block consensus at the next meeting.
- Jane, being an member who is excellent to others at Noisebridge, talks to Dick after the meeting, Dick offers to be ok with painting the bike shed whatever color, Jane says blue is great, Dick agrees. Story continues.
- In an alternate universe Jane is totally a jerk and doesn't want to be open to anymore discussion about this, she'll block no matter what. Story ends here.
- The note taker of the meeting posts the meeting notes to the wiki and the mailing list.
- Marty sees the item, even though he wasn't around for the meeting he responds back and states that isn't going to support this issue unless eco-bio-organic friendly paint was used. Dick agrees.
- Cathy emails the list and says she doesn't feel that spending Noisebridge funds on paint is a smart thing, but wont block.
- Yojimbo does want to block this item but wont be able to physically make it to the next meeting, since he's never actually been to the space and doesn't actually know anyone there, he's having a hard time convincing someone to act as a proxy for him.
- Dick puts the topic into Consensus items for next week's agenda.
- At the meeting, Dick discusses the item and what his new revised plans are.
- Bobby blocks because he feels Noisebridge shouldn't have a bike shed in the first place. Go to step number 5.
- The meeting moderator asks if anyone disagrees to the bike shed getting painted, everyone's silent, consensus has been reached.
- Dick paints the bike shed.
- The process is decision-centric, and should be able to re-configure itself around the decision that needs to be made.
- Typically a week is given to an item from Discussion to Consensus in the Tuesday meetings to give people who didn't attend the first meeting time to review the meeting notes and start discussion over other mediums if they wish to participate in the consensus process.
- Generally by not coming to a meeting, and in turn not participating in the process, as a member you're stating that you are ok with the direction the rest of the membership participating go with, but might not necessarily agree with the subjects or topics that pass through consensus.
- Members are allowed to not block but state that they're not in support or agree with the subjects or topics that pass through consensus.
- Anyone, members or guests of Noisebridge, can bring up items for consensus.
- Only members are able to participate in the act of coming to consensus, I.E. blocking the process.
- In order to participate in consensus (block the process), a member must be physically in the space during the meeting.
- A member who isn't able to physically make it to a meeting is allowed to have another member act on their behalf as proxy if they can find one who's willing to do so (as in agrees to their point of view on the subject).
- A guest who wants to block the process is allowed to have a member act on their behalf as proxy if they can find one who's willing to do so (as in agrees to their point of view on the subject).
- There is also the notion of a Do-ocracy. If you want something done, do it, but remember to be excellent to each other when doing so.


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girltank is an ode to all the women and girls around the world – seen and unseen – that are taking risks, making hard, sometimes impossible decisions and courageously thinking big about how we can collectively make the world a better place for everyone to live and to thrive. We are a collaborative and global community of female social innovators. We accelerate the bold ideas and ambitions of our members by providing them with access to resources, strategic partnerships, funding and visibility. Our vision is a world where female thought leaders and founders of social innovation ventures are leading and provoking change in every region of the world.
We sniff out resources and build partnerships with organizations that can help you get the funding you need to grow and scale your enterprise. And sometimes, we even offer funding ourselves.
Not every passionate founder has the business skill and know-how to build an enterprise from scratch. We understand the challenge and have built an ecosystem of support to help you.
You're not alone. Okay, we will repeat that – you are not alone in your desire to do meaningful work that changes the world. We help you connect to global communities of like-minded peers.


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Freesat has added ITV Player to its selection of catch-up viewing services.
Freesat set-top boxes with an Ethernet port that's hooked up to a user's broadband connection can access ITV Player on Channel 903. From there, users can view previously broadcast shows from ITV, ITV 2, ITV 3 and ITV 4.
Well, we say 'Freesat set-top boxes', but in fact the service is limited to Humax-branded machines. Freesat promised more boxes and Freesat-capable TVs will gain ITV Player support "over the coming months".
ITV Player is being automatically added to boxes' EPGs.
Freesat's catch-up line-up currently includes BBC iPlayer. ®


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In the November Issue of W magazine I was surprised to see a fashion editorial that featured the Florida Gator and Florida State Seminole Football team! How surprising that this in-state rivalry is featured in a national fashion magazine? The Sunshine State Rivalry between Florida and Florida state comes to ahead on November 26th. Unfortunately, the editorial never actually directly mentions either team, but each team's colors, and school spirit shine throughout the 6-page spread. The caption read:
Fashion and football have more in common than meets the Eye: Strategic rivalries, and of course serious body armor. Whose colors will you be sporting?
I'll proudly be wearing my Gator orange and blue. Well, not exactly the blue Piazza Sempione belted wool and silk jacket and matching orange pants that's featured in the spread, probably something a tab bit more casual. But, orange and blue nonetheless 🙂


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…Greetings, friends!
We have two bonus #TWTT videos for you this week, which should offset any potential interruption coming up in the near future (details on that forthcoming). Matt Bradford of Zombie Cast, Video Game Outsiders, GamesRadar, and Guiness World Records joins us as we GO DEEPER®! These shows feature what you, our beautiful community, have requested; namely, LIVE flash fiction readings!
In addition to the three pieces I read on-air, I added another piece I just whipped up. Hope you enjoy them! XTX001 Part 2 is where you can go to listen to the live readings and our concepts thereof.
If you want to be part of my #FlashFiction Potluck, e-mail your piece to yomar(arroba)geekyantics(punto)net – looking forward to inspiring each other!
…Proper attribution/credit will be provided, of course! This is just a fun way to share quick, raw fictional works with each other. In future installments, I'd like to share writing prompts and challenge everyone (myself included) with monthly themes. For example, we can do word count limits, use word banks, or set up specific topics and formats. Let me know what you think, lovely geeks!
Timey-Wimey Tea Time PART 1
- What is the purpose of podcasting?
- What keeps us motivated with podcasting and social media?
- Is the Video Game Outsiders approach a good model to follow?
- Do we have a responsibility to our fans or community as creatives?
- Can you do something you love AND be productive with it?
- Doctor Who Series 8 mid-season review.
- Writers need to know when to "leave a moment alone".
- Series 8 may suffer from too many hands in the pot…
- …or is it lack of creative direction?
- The importance of managing expectations in ALL ventures.
- Narrative Structure VS. Podcast Structure
Timey-Wimey Tea Time PART 2
- Is Danny Pink manly or whimpy?
- A man's struggle of ego vs. righteousness vs. love/compassion.
- Does the Doctor love Clara
- Stan's encounter with infidelity, deceipt, and mind games.
- Is it insecurity or strength?
- Flash fiction readings.. These are truly raw works!
- Inspirations and creative processes driving our fictional works.
- A future of lazy couch potatoes.
- Foreshadowing of augmented and virtual reality gone wrong.
- Control is an illusion.
- Everyone has a boss. Complete freedom is also an illusion.
…and now for some flash ficiton!
Mrs. Busy Work
"Honey, I am awfully busy today.. Can this wait?"
Wilfredo was very perplexed. Why did all this have to be done now? He had deadlines up the wazoo. As it was, he would be lucky to get any sleep in the coming weeks. In spite his pleas, his wife, Suki, insisted.
"No this NEEDS to be done NOW."
Today was the day Suki decided that everyone would take on the urgent tasks of relacing all shoes, shuffling furniture about, cleaning the fridge, vacuuming every nook and cranny, and mastering the absolutely mudane. As usual, these "plans" were executed on a whim. There was no distinction between want and need. Every task was treated as if thousands of lives depended on them.
The kids played it smart. After bathing the dogs and mowing the lawn, they magically disappeared. Wilfredo continued to break his back as Suki barked unrelenting orders.
"No no no… That's not how you load the dishwasher. Do it this way."
"Sweetheart, I read the manual and this model has the sprinkler arms in the middle. Every dish should face the center."
"WELL, I don't care what the manual says.. I want it done MY way."
Wilfredo thought to himself, "This is gonna be a looooong day…"
Virtual Reality Television
The new P0-T8-T0 XXL DX Limited Edition VRI suit supports both augmented reality and full-dive virtual reality. We are proud to announce that you can now use SFS 3.0 to not only synchronize your visual substitutions but also all sensory feedback. This allows participating parties to experience your augmented reality as you intended it.
For our users who prefer the longer full-dive immersions, we now support all popular septic and waste recycling systems. You have the option of using a G-Lock quick-connect adapter or the native V-Clamp. Now you'll never have to return to messy clean-up jobs! For those on-the-go, liquid waste recyclables can be converted into ten fantastic flavors including root beer, grape, and piña colada.
Last but certainly not least, we are proud to announce the brand-spanking-new Jer-Z-HOAR system. This new scripting platform will allow you to live out your favorite reality TV stories! Full-dive servers are online and fully functional. AR support coming in six months!


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Orwell and Kafka combines at nation's third largest public school system... CPS officials are purging the CPS website of financial and other data so that lies like '145,000 fewer children...' may go unchallenged
Anyone from anywhere who goes to the Website of the third largest school system in the USA today (December 6, 2012) can no longer get the massive amounts of information that once were provided to the public from the Board of Education's Office of Research, Evaluation and Accountability. The office is still listed in the directory for CPS (go to Departments, then Research, Evaluation and Accountability), but when you click on the department you get the following message:
The misuse of information and the purging of major reports from the Board of Education's website has been increasing since Barbara Byrd Bennett (above at Lowell Elementary School on October 29) became CEO of CPS following Rahm Emanuel's purge of her predecessor, Jean-Claude Brizard. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.404 - File or directory not found.
The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
Since Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed the current seven-member Board of Education and the first of (now two) "Chief Executive Officers" for CPS, several key documents have been disappearing, while CPS is claiming that it can't afford to provide the public with these documents in print. For more than 100 years, CPS provided budgets, annual audit books, and the agendas of the Board meetings in print at local public libraries, schools, and the offices of the aldermen. Until now. CPS officials, when they speak about things like this, claim that it is "too expensive" to provide these building blocks of democracy to the public.
But these same officials and board members have no problem providing the highest salaries in history to top executives. Jean-Claude Brizard was awarded a quarter million dollar a year contract by the Board in June 2011 and -- AND -- $30,000 in "relocation expenses." Seventeen months later, Brizard was gone (with a golden parachute worth at least another quarter million dollars) and Barbar Byrd Bennett was awarded a quarter million dollar contract -- also with $30,000 in "relocation expenses." Like Brizard, who came form Rochester, Byrd Bennett came from outside Chicago (her most recent job was in Detroit).
The Board would be able to provide the public with information with the money it could save simply by recouping the "relocation expenses" it has provided to out of town executives it has hired during the past eighteen months.
One aspect of the attack on the public's right to know came to public attention quickly on December 5, 2012, when CPS officials were quoted as saying that the city had lost "145,000 school age children..." between 2000 and this year, implying that the school system had lost that many children. The talking point (which was later found to be inaccurate even in itself) was designed to demonstrate the need for CPS to "right size" the system by closing schools.
But a quick review of the actual data shows that CPS has lost roughly 25,000 students since 2000, as I reported yesterday at Substance. But the key data that would enable any citizen to easily challenee the CPS numbers has been "disappeared" from the CPS website as completely as Jean-Claude Brizard, Tim Cawley, and the former "Portfolio Chief" Oliver Sicat have been disappeared.
The data set I used to establish the actual number of students in Chicago Public Schools for 2000 was the "Racial Ethnic Survey -- Students" as of September 30, 2000. That booklet showed that CPS had 435,000 students. This year CPS has roughly 410,000 students. The census data are largely irrelevant to how many kids are in the public schools, and the only honest way of reporting these facts is by avoiding the CPS talking points and demanding to know what the actual figure are for CPS.
This used to be easy, but beginning with the late Huberman administration and growing under Rahm's choices, CPS is actually destroying the data sets that provide these kinds of information. It used to be possible to go to the CPS website, then go to Departments, then go to Research, Evaluation and Accountability and get these reports (the Racial Ethnic Surveys of both students and staff). The last time I tried, these data were no longer available.
CPS is also purging the Web of early Board Reports, including the all-important "Action" agenda going back to the early 21st Century.
Recently, CPS has refused to publish its budgets in print and distribute them to libraries, schools and aldermanic offices, as was the procedure for the past 100 or more years. The "budgets" that CPS then posts on line are virtually useless, basically doing, on any particular day, whatever CPS wants the numbers to do. Unless someone has a huge printer to print out the budgets, they become inaccessible to most of the public.
This is obviously the policy of the Rahm Emanuel administration and the Board and executives that Rahm's appointed.
The public is then left to ridiculous talking points and endlessly revised Power Point presentations by rehearsed outsiders (most recently, Alan Anderson, who's been at CPS for less than two years), such as the "information" being provided to the public at the hearings (Meeks last week; Marquette Park tomorrow night).
The sad result is that most reporters simply report the "facts" as stated by CPS officials (or, in some cases, without even providing names, simply reporting "CPS said...") as if those "facts" were true. Yesterday when we published the fact about actual student enrollment in Chicago public schools during the last 12 years, it quickly became clear that CPS was lying with facts, utilizing its strange way of calculating the number of "school age" children to create another manufactured crisis number to fan the other lies ablaze during the discussions about utilization, etc.
We will be checking other areas as well.
But the public has to begin every discussion with some CPS official by asking "How long have you been with CPS and what are your qualifications for this job?"
Most of those CPS is sending out, led by Barbara Byrd Bennett, are overpaid corporate mercenaries who will read the scripts as ordered to provide City Hall with the facts wanted.
By: Paul Schearf
CPS data sets
Mr. Schmidt,
CPS reorganized its Web site. You can find the Racial/Ethnic Survey data here: http://www.cps.edu/SchoolData/Pages/SchoolData.aspx
From the CPS Web page, Go to Schools, Performance, School Data, and then select Demographics.
By: George N. Schmidt
CPS 'reorganizing' Website by dumping facts
Thanks to a number of people, I've been able to locate the "Racial Ethnic Surveys" at their new location on the CPS website. If you go to the department that used to do those data sets -- "Research, Evaluation, and Accountability" -- you still hit a blank wall. But the other addresses do yield the Racial Ethnic Surveys...
sort of...
CPS has purged all of the Racial Ethnic Survey -- STAFF -- from its data bases.
In my opinion, CPS has done this to cover up the dramatic reduction in the number of African American teachers and non-teaching staff at the local school levels since Arne Duncan began renaissancing the schools (and giving many of the buildings away to charters at one dollar a year lease deals) in April 2002.
The CPS "Racial Ethnic Survey -- Staff" used to be published as a companion to the "Student" version every year. Now it's been disappeared from the CPS official version of history (that cps website) as completely as a number of erstwhile "officers" (most dramatically, Jean-Claude Brizard, but four others I can name) have been disappeared from Board of Education meetings.
Obviously, during the Reign of Rahm there will be no inconvenient information available to counter the official talking points. If you want to know what this week's TRUTH is, just ask the CPS Office of Communications, which will get it cleared with the Mayor's Press Office (both of which have doubled in size and cost since Rahm took office).
By: berlin stromtarife vergleichen
berlin stromtarife vergleichen
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Why does it feel like everyone is broke this time of year? Is it because we just got done paying off the holiday bills? Or are we all really broke? Whatever the reason, now is as good a time as any to start saving money.
Oh, but you've tried that and it never works? Folks, I promise you that it's possible. If you really want to save money, you just have to be a little creative. Just check out these creative ideas that are guaranteed to keep the cash in your wallet:
1. Only run full loads. How many times do you run the dishwasher when there's still room for dishes or run the clothes washer for just a few towels? STOP doing that! Running full loads means running fewer loads overall -- saving you on your electric and water bills.
More from The Stir: Woman Does the Unthinkable to Save Money Around the House
2. Use less. Whether it's the cleaning products you spray liberally on your kitchen counters or the coffee you load in the filter, try to use just a little bit less. You'll be surprised how it adds up ... and how much longer you'll be able to go before buying replacements.
3. Ask about sales. It's all well and good to read the sale circulars, but they only tell you what the sale is right now. If you're looking to make a big purchase, it's worth it to ask the salesman if they know of upcoming sales. One mom saved $300 on her laptop by going back the next day!
4. Pack lunch on weekends. We all know about packing lunch to take to work. But what about the weekends when you're running errands? You work up an appetite doing all that running, and it can be so tempting to just pop into the local pizza place for a slice ...
5. Save old clothes. Turn them into rags or napkins, and you will save a ton on paper towels and, well, napkins.
6. Become a swapper. Whether you throw a fashion swap for your girlfriends so you can all exchange the clothes you've gotten tired of or you trade babysitting services with another family in the neighborhood, it's the best way to get the things you need without spending a dime.
7. Use cold water. Unless you're taking a shower, do you really need hot water? Certainly not for things like washing clothes!
8. Use your fridge and freezer. "Shelf-safe" foods such as bread, batteries, even wax candles will last longer if you keep them in the cold.
9. Cancel email subscriptions to daily deal sites. Yes, you signed up for them with the intention of saving money, but how often do you end up buying things you don't need because "it's such a great deal I couldn't pass it up"? Get rid of the temptation!
10. Unplug everything. Ever heard of vampire power? It has nothing to do with Robert Pattinson and everything to do with the energy your appliances are drawing even though you've flipped the power switch.
What are your kooky ways for saving money that really work?
Image via terrypressley/Flickr; igor.stevanovic/shutterstock


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Is Masonry a religion?
Masonry is a fraternity, not a religion. Masonry acknowledges the existence of God, but Masonry does not tell a person which religion he should practice or how he should practice it. That is a function of his house of worship, not his fraternity. Sometimes people confuse Masonry with a religion because we call some Masonic buildings "temples." But we use the word in the same sense that Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes called the Supreme Court a "Temple of Justice." Neither Masonry nor the Supreme Court is a religion just because its members meet in a "temple." Most Michigan Lodges now refer to their buildings as Masonic Centers to avoid the confusion.
Why is Masonry so secretive?
It really isn't secretive, although it sometimes has that reputation. Masons don't make a secret of the fact that we are members of the fraternity. We wear rings, lapel pins, and tie clasps with Masonic emblems like the Square and Compass. Masonic buildings are clearly marked, and are usually listed in the phone book. Lodge activities are not secret – events are often listed in the newspapers, especially in smaller towns. But there are two Masonic traditions that are shared only with members. First are the ways in which a man can identify himself as a Mason, through a handshake or a password. The second tradition is Masonic ceremonies, which are private (for members only) but are not secret. Both of these traditions are practiced in most fraternities.
Why hasn't anyone ever asked me to join?
Some men are surprised that no one has ever asked them to become a Mason. They may even feel that the Masons in their town don't think they are "good enough" to join. But it doesn't work that way. For hundreds of years, Masons have been forbidden to ask others to join the fraternity. We can talk to friends about Masonry. We can tell them about what Masonry does. We can tell them why we enjoy it. But we can't ask, much less pressure, anyone to join. It's not that we're trying to be exclusive. We believe that becoming a Mason is a very serious thing and that no one should be talked into making this permanent life commitment.
How much time is required of a Mason?
Most Michigan Lodges hold ten meetings a year. In addition to the meetings, members may participate in various community outreach programs. The events calendar for each Lodge is different, but members are encouraged to put their family's needs first.
Why does Masonry use symbols?
Much of the general population uses symbols every day because it allows us to communicate quickly. When you see a red light, you know what it means. When you see a circle with a line through it, you know it means "no." In fact, using symbols is probably the oldest method of communication and teaching. Likewise, Masons use symbols for the same reasons. Certain symbols, mostly selected from the art of architecture, stand for certain ethics and principles of the organization. The "Square and Compass" is the most widely known symbol of Masonry. In one way, this symbol is the trademark for the fraternity. When you see it on a building, you know that Masons meet there.
What is the difference between a "Lodge" and a "Grand Lodge"?
A Lodge is the name of the place where Masons meet to have their meetings. There are more than 340 Lodges in Michigan. A Grand Lodge is the administrative body in charge of Freemasonry in some geographical area. In the United States, there is a Grand Lodge of Freemasonry in each state and the District of Columbia. In Canada, there is a Grand Lodge of Freemasonry in each province.


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Book This Date!
Book This Date!
- February 23, 2020
1:00 pm - 3:30 pm
- 8 guest minimum / 24 guest maximum
- Registration closes 72 Hours prior to the party date and time to allow proper preparation of projects.
- Each guest registers & pays for their project separately via your dedicated party link.
- We provide all of the materials & supplies
- Pricing is based on project choice
- Outside food is welcome
- We handle all the clean up!
- Leave the party with your project…allow 2.5-3 hours from start to finish for projects
- Hostess is responsible for a minimum of 8 guests. Should the minimum not be met before registration closes, the hostess will be responsible for paying the remaining balance before the event is held (balance will be based on the average $55 project). This balance will be issued as a gift certificate to be used in future public workshops or another pre-arranged time to come finish the project.
- This $50 deposit will hold your Workshop date. The $50 deposit will be refunded 48 hours after the Workshop. In the event of a cancellation or the 8 guest minimum is not met, this $50 will be forfeited.
Venue: Aerie Lane St.Louis
Venue Phone: 636-493-6903
Venue Website: https://stlouis.aerielane.comAddress:


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iPhone Sales Should Get a Modest Lift From T-Mobile
The iPhone's imminent arrival on T-Mobile, the fourth largest wireless carrier in the United States, should give a nice little bump to Apple's quarterly iPhone sales, though perhaps not as big a one as you'd expect.
News yesterday that Deutsche Telekom's U.S. subsidiary has finally inked a deal with Apple inspired a scattershot of analyst estimates of just how many iPhones T-Mobile can sell in a year. Consensus seems to be upward of four million. In a research note this morning, RBC Capital's Amit Daryanani suggests Apple will see 4.8 million additional iPhones sold per year with T-Mobile on board as a carrier.
Sounds reasonable enough. Sprint sold 6.3 million iPhones during its first year with the device, outfitting about 20 percent of its postpaid subscribers. T-Mobile has about 24 million postpaid subscribers, so if it sells a similar percentage of them as Sprint, 4 million to 5 million incremental sales seems a pretty safe bet.
The problem is, T-Mobile plans to sell the iPhone unsubsidized. Which means subscribers who want the device have to pay full price for it. And full price can be pretty daunting.
For example, unsubsidized, the iPhone 5's price ranges from $649 for 16 gigabytes of storage to $849 for 64GB. Now, it's not yet clear if T-Mobile will require cash upfront for the iPhone, or if it will offer some sort of installment plan that will lessen the sticker shock it might inspire in some. Either way, there's a wildcard variable here that will clearly have some impact on sales.
As Wells Fargo analyst Maynard Um observed, "While previous carrier launches of the iPhone would imply that T-Mobile could activate roughly 4.5 million iPhones, by our estimates, during its first year post-launch, we believe investors should temper expectations as the impact of Deutsche Telekom's recent announcement that it will no longer provide subsidies on cell phone purchases with a contract is unknown."


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Pagan Community Notes is a series focused on news originating from within the Pagan community. Reinforcing the idea that what happens to and within our organizations, groups, and events is news, and news-worthy. My hope is that more individuals, especially those working within Pagan organizations, get into the habit of sharing their news with the world. So let's get started!
The Occult Humanities Conference: Contemporary Art and Scholarship on the Esoteric Traditions will be taking place October 18th-20th in New York City, hosted by Hosted by Phantasmaphile, Observatory and the NYU Steinhardt Department of Art and Art Professions. Quote: "The conference will present a wide array of voices active in the cultural landscape who are specifically addressing the occult tradition through research, scholarship and artistic practice […] The presenters at the OHC represent a rich and expanding community of international artists and academics from multiple disciplines across the humanities who share an exuberance and excitement for how the occult traditions interface with their fields of study as well as the culture at large. The small scale of this conference (approximately 100 attendees) will give ticket holders an intimate look at the presenters and their views." Participants include Robert Ansell of Fulgur Esoterica, Pam Grossman of Phantasmaphile fame, Ithell Colquhoun expert Dr. Amy Hale, and author Gary Lachman, among others. If I had the budget for it, I'd be there in a heartbeat! If you're in New York, you should check it out!
Issue of #27 of Witches & Pagans Magazine is scheduled to be released on October 15th, and features an interview with Teo Bishop, conducted by T. Thorn Coyle. Quote: "This issue guest-stars a triplet of fascinating Pagan notables. Paranormal and detective novelist Alex Bledsoe sold his first magickal "Lady Firefly" story to PanGaia in 1998. Catch up with his journey in this conversation with Deborah Blake; then listen in as the inimitable T. Thorn Coyle talks with Pagan blogger, mystic, Druid and musician (aka Matt Morris) Teo Bishop; and visit with Renaissance woman, writer, and community leader Tish Owen." Meanwhile, the rest of the issue is water-themed. Quote: "What would it be like to experience water viscerally? Susan Harper teaches us to become conscious of the sacral nature of this ubiquitous element in her article 'Sensing Water.' Loremaster P. Sufenas Virius Lupus writes about the ability of water and even of drowning to assist in the apotheosis of humans in his fascinating look at classical Greek and Roman paganism 'Deification by Drowning.' Leni Hester introduces us to the Lady of Fresh Water, Ochun, in 'No One is an Enemy to Water.'" You can pre-order the issue, here.
Last week I reported on an upcoming Pagan-led public ritual in the UK to protect the land near Glastonbury Tor from the practice of "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing to extract oil an gas from the earth). Since then, more Pagan leaders have stepped forward to weigh in on the topic. Author and activist Starhawk said it was "almost unbelievable" that the UK government "would threaten the purity of Chalice Well in Glastonbury, a site sacred to both Pagans and Christians!" So far, over 1000 people have committed to attending the ritual, with many more promising energetic work in solidarity. In addition, Druid leader John Michael Greer writes at length about the false promise, and dangerous effect of the practice. Quote: "The increasingly frantic cheerleading being devoted to the fracking industry these days is simply one more delay in the process of coming to grips with the real crisis of our time—the need to decouple as much as possible of industrial society from its current dependence on fossil fuels." Could fracking become a new rallying point for Pagans drawn to environmental activism? We'll keep you posted as this issue develops.
In Other Pagan Community News:
- "Tales of Albion," an 8-part web-based film series follow-up to the Pagan film "The Spirit of Albion," has posted several production pictures taken over the Summer. Quote: "We are now scheduling like crazy for the next few shoots which will see us tackle a legendary outlaw and the once and future king. We will travel to an 11th Century monastery, the Bronze Age and even Neolithic caves. We will see two world wars, the 95thRifles and a priest with writer's block! It's going to be quite a ride…"
- The Open Hearth Foundation in Washington DC has a library. Here it is in six seconds.
- October 11-14th will be Twilight Covening, a yearly event held by the EarthSpirit Community. Quote: "Twilight Covening is a three-day institute of Earth spirituality held within a continual three-day ritual. It is a time for exploring ways to deepen Earth-centered spiritual practice and a time to develop our collective wisdom in a shared sacred space as we move into the dark time of the year."
- Friday, September 20th will see the launch party for Abraxas Issue Four, at Treadwells in London. Quote: "A night of partying, 40 minute session of speeches, short presentations and a few words from each of the contributors who can join us. When you've finished looking at the art on the walls we will serenade you wtih three short readings. Think of it as a salon for magic and the imagination. Join us, meet the contributors, and revel in the delight of magic and the imagination."
- The Delmarva Pagan Pride Festival in Delaware happened yesterday. They had symphonic gothic metal band Cassandra Syndrome play, which you have to admit is pretty hard-core for a Pagan Pride Day event.
That's all I have for now, have a great day!


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Hands down, Shakespeare is one of my favorite authors of all times. I find it quite obvious that the timeless appeal of his plays and poems have earned him a permanent place in the highest echelons of literary achievement. I have read his works time and again, and watched some of his plays. In fact, Macbeth is one of my favorites—the dark themes, ageless truths about human nature, and writing wizardly that no one else but Shakespeare could manage all come together to make me glad that the work of such a larger-than-life artist is part of our history.
My admiration for Shakespearean literature aside, I am aware that some people dispute the fact that Shakespeare was responsible for his brilliant works, and there are theories to prove it. The Oxfordian theory boasts of the largest following among this group of people. Some of its claims in contradiction to Shakespearean authorship are noteworthy, and not even avid Shakespeare fans like myself can remain blind to the potential truths that belie them.
Still, while some of the Oxfordian theory's claims might be true, many of them also seem to do it lots of injustice. For instance, there is an argument to be made about the continued publication of Shakespeare's works after he had passed on, with some of his poems clearly getting published after his death in 1616. While this clearly indicates that other parties might have played a role in the creation of the literary masterpieces we have come to accept as the works of Shakespeare, it also proves that Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, would have been responsible for an even lesser quantity of works himself, having died more than a decade before Shakespeare in 1604.
The Shakespeare authorship question came up in the 1920s in England. Then the Shakespeare Fellowship took the baton from there and decided to be the society upon which theorists in support of the Shakespearean authorship question could rally around and promote their controversial views. Later on, the organization adopted the Oxfordian theory and changed into the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship to reflect its revised ideological standpoint. However, I find the central argument of this organization quite ridiculous (that Edward de Vere was the person who wrote Shakespearean works with "William Shakespeare" as his pen name).
This is quite a reach if you ask me. William Shakespeare never changed his name throughout his life. In fact, Shakespeare was his father's name. And the arguments that he did not have the upbringing to have the all-round knowledge that typifies his work is equally frivolous in my opinion. He may not have had top-notch learning by the day's standards, but he did have a social life that allowed him to know about the aristocratic life he often wrote about. His acting group, which relied on his work, was able to win the admiration of the day's elite, to the point of making him affluent and an active member of the day's high society. Who but a true genius could manage such a feat? And if I may point this out, other works by Edward de Vere indicate a substantially inferior writing skill to the works he apparently wrote under the "Shakespeare" alias.
As far as I'm concerned, Shakespeare is the genuine article, and the evidence proving that is overwhelming. The fact that the quality of his work remained consistent up until his death indicates that for all the controversies regarding Shakespeare's authorship, Edward de Vere could certainly not have been the author. There is also evidence that works published after his death in his name ended up showing inconsistencies when compared to the works he completed before his death, which, again, shows that he was truly the author of the literary pieces that have rightly helped curve his name in the annals of history.
Shakespeare and Finish Line Shoes
It's not happy coincident that, as someone who sees Shakespeare as the true creator of the Shakespearean works, I am quite proud to flaunt my admiration for his work. In fact, I got myself a pair of Men's Lacoste Shakespeare Tech Athletic Casual Shoes in honor of the Bard of Avon. The shoe is available from Finish Line, an athletic shoe store with more than 650 stores in the US. The shoe has a classic look, a fitting tribute to Shakespeare's classic literature, as well as a modern feel. With Finish Line, the benefits went a little further, thanks to Finish Line coupons 20 off which helped shave off part of the cost.
This particular shoe spots a leather upper and a rubber outsole. Its great styling and comfortable design ensures you can wear this shoe casually with pride and remain comfortable the entire time. Through a few subtle stylistic tweaks, the Lacoste Shakespeare shoe is able to earn lingering looks and appreciation for its simplistic sophistication. At the moment, few things make me as proud to be a fan of Shakespeare's works as this shoe does.


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POSITION 52 IN α1 GLYCINE RECEPTORS IS IMPORTANT FOR THE ACTION OF ETHANOL by Yi Shen A Thesis Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE (MOLECULAR PHARMACOLOGY & TOXICOLOGY) MAY 2008 Copyright 2008 Yi Shen
Object Description
|Position 52 in alpha1 glycine receptors is important for the action of ethanol
|Shen, Yi
|Author email
|Master of Science
|Document type
|Degree program
|Molecular Pharmacology & Toxicology
|School of Pharmacy
|Date defended/completed
|Date submitted
|Restricted until
|Date published
|Advisor (committee chair)
|Alkana, Ronald L.
|Advisor (committee member)
Davies, Daryl L.
Cadenas, Enrique
|Glycine receptors (GlyRs) have received considerable attention as putative sites of action causing the behavioral effects of ethanol. Studies over the last decade have identified several positions in the transmembrane domain of GlyRs that are critical for ethanol modulation.; Studies to date in the extracellular domain of alpha1GlyRs found that mutations at position 52 in Loop 2 alter receptor sensitivity to ethanol, abolish receptor sensitivity to an ethanol antagonist and can eliminate subunit-dependent differences in ethanol sensitivity between alpha1 and alpha2GlyRs. These findings suggest that the extracellular domain also represents a target for ethanol in GlyRs.; The present study uses systematic substitution of the amino acid residue at position 52 of alpha1 GlyRs to study possible structure-function relationship between the physical-chemical properties of the residue at position 52 and receptor sensitivity to glycine or ethanol. The current investigation also begins to test for possible relationships between changes in agonist activation produced by these mutations and ethanol sensitivity. To investigate the specificity of the findings for ethanol, we also tested propofol, another general anesthetic, which is thought to act at different sites than ethanol in alpha1GlyR and GABAARs.; To accomplish this, we produced mutant alpha1GlyRs in which the alanine at position 52 in wild-type (WT) alpha1GlyRs was replaced with each of the remaining nineteen naturally occurring amino acids and measured their responses to glycine and modulation by ethanol. Xenopus oocytes expressing WT or mutant alpha1 GlyRs were voltage-clamped and tested for the effects of ethanol using an OpusXpress 8 channel two electrode voltage clamp system (-70mV).; We found that: (1) all mutations produced functional alpha1 GlyRs, with several of the mutations significantly reduced the glycine EC50; (2) most of the mutations significantly reduced receptor sensitivity to ethanol; (3) molecular volume and molecular weight of the amino acid residue at position 52 play roles in determining the responsiveness of alpha1GlyRs to both glycine and ethanol; (4) changes in glycine EC50 were correlated with changes in magnitude of ethanol potentiation; (5) position 52 of alpha1 GlyRs is a target for ethanol action, but not for propofol action.; Together, the present study adds to the evidence that position 52 in the extracellular domain, in addition to the transmembrane domain, plays an important role in ethanol modulation in alpha1 GlyRs. The findings provide insight into structure-function relationships for GlyRs. This work also provides new evidence that ethanol modulates alpha1 GlyR function, at least partly, by affecting agonist activation through position 52.
|glycine receptor; ethanol
|Part of collection
|University of Southern California dissertations and theses
|Publisher (of the original version)
|University of Southern California
|Place of publication (of the original version)
|Los Angeles, California
|Publisher (of the digital version)
|University of Southern California. Libraries
|Legacy record ID
|Contributing entity
|University of Southern California
|Shen, Yi
|Repository name
|Libraries, University of Southern California
|Repository address
|Los Angeles, California
|Repository email
|Archival file
|Page 1
|Contributing entity
|University of Southern California
|Repository email
|Full text
|POSITION 52 IN α1 GLYCINE RECEPTORS IS IMPORTANT FOR THE ACTION OF ETHANOL by Yi Shen A Thesis Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE (MOLECULAR PHARMACOLOGY & TOXICOLOGY) MAY 2008 Copyright 2008 Yi Shen


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The following crimes are from the week of Feb. 13 to Feb. 19, 2011.
Feb. 13. 200 block Benezet Street. Complainant states that upon returning home at approximately 1 a.m., they found first floor window and patio doors open. Taken was one Xbox 360, Turche Beach headset, Madden Xbox game, gold diamond ring and a silver band.
Feb. 15. Unit block W. Rex Avenue. Complainant states that he parked his vehicle at this location and when he returned at 12:30 a.m., he found passenger side window was broken. Taken was a diaper bag.
Feb. 16. Unit block W. Chestnut Hill Avenue. Complainant states that between 1:35 and 6:30 p.m., an unknown person forced open sliding glass door to sunroom and then forced open sunroom door to home.
Feb. 16. 100 block Benezet Street, Complainant states that between 3 and 4 p.m., an unknown person entered an unlocked 1997 GMC and stole a black briefcase, Dell Notebook computer, Cannon cameras, four UBS thumb drives and a Blackberry Curve.
Feb. 16. 9600 block Germantown Avenue. Complainant states that when she returned to her red 2009 Hyundai Elantra she found passenger side door broken and credit cards and money taken.
Feb. 17. Unit block E. Chestnut Hill Avenue. Complainant states that between 5 p.m. on Feb. 16 and 9 a.m. on Feb. 17, an unknown person gained entry to house by using key left in box on front porch and stole a Dell laptop and a Toshiba laptop.
Feb. 17. 8400 block Germantown Avenue. Complainant states that two black offenders were inside store when merchant noticed a bronze box missing. Police were notified and one black female and one black male were transported to Northwest Detective Division (NWDD).
Feb. 17. Unit block Benezet Street. Complainant states she started her car and went back into her house and when she returned her 2010 Subaru, Pennsylvania tag EWT4803, was stolen.
Feb. 19. 8500 block Germantown Avenue. Complainant states that two unknown offenders entered store at approximately noon. Female engaged owner in conversation while male placed China plate into his hoody and left store without paying. Black female, 36-40 years old, 5'5" tall, dark complexion, wearing a black jacket and a white hoody. Black male, 36- 40 year old, 250 lbs., brown complexion, wearing a gray sweatshirt.
Feb. 19. 8200 block Germantown Avenue. Complainant states that vehicle was parked in rear of location. An unknown person broke the passenger side window and took a handbag containing make-up.
Feb. 19. 8100 block St. Martin's Lane. Complainant states that an unknown person entered his unlocked blue 2000 Honda Accord and stole a Toshiba laptop and an LG cell phone.
Feb. 19. 8200 block Germantown Avenue. Complainant states he parked in rear of location and an unknown person broke the driver's side rear window and stole a MAC laptop computer and a laptop charger. Reported at 10:03 p.m.
Feb. 19. 8200 block Germantown Avenue. Complainant states that an unknown person broke the rear driver's side window and stole a briefcase. Reported at 10:03 p.m.
Feb. 19. 7600 block Huron Street. Police responded to alarm and observed rear door with glass panel on door broken. Police did a walk through with negative results.
Summary — Fourteen crimes for week. Weather getting warmer. Four burglaries, one stolen vehicle, two thefts and seven thefts from vehicles. Think of how many doors and windows the thieves used to get into homes and cars, Keep alert.
Town Watch, 215-248-1320.
If you have been the victim of a crime and would like information, service or support, call Northwest Victims Service, 6301 Germantown Ave., Second Floor, Suite One, 215-438-4410. The service is free.


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Research Papers Authored by this Year's Nobel Prize Winners in Physics and Chemistry
Compiled by Marco Bettinelli, Sergey Feofilov and Richard Meltzer, Journal of Luminescence
2014 is a very special year in the history of the science of luminescence, and of optics in general. This year luminescence-related research has received a truly outstanding recognition: the Nobel prizes both in Physics and Chemistry have been awarded for achievements closely connected to this area of optical science.
Throughout its long and exciting history from ancient descriptions of fireflies and other light-emitting living beings, to the discovery of glowing stones by a shoemaker living in Bologna in the early 1600s, to the amazing 20th century developments including lasers and sophisticated biomedical diagnostic techniques, the science of luminescence was always at the front edge of understanding of light and matter. Studies of "cold light", i.e. the emission of light by objects that are not "red-hot" (how luminescence is often defined), have attracted the constant attention of scientists and have resulted in many wonderful achievements, ranging from understanding the fundamental properties of excited states of condensed mater to countless practical applications in light-emitting devices.
The achievements of the winners of the 2014 Nobel prize in Physics have made an outstanding contribution to the field of electroluminescence: emission of light caused by an electric current. Indeed, their accomplishments dramatically changed the world landscape within a short period of time: from white LED flashlights on the shelves of any supermarket (not containing energy-hungry incandescent light bulbs), to numerous lighting devices in buildings and cars, to huge (and sometimes annoying) advertisement screens in cities, to LED-backlit computer monitors (one of which you may be using while reading this Introduction). All these devices use the blue light emitting InGaN photodiodes invented and created by the Physics prize laureates. In fact, the white LED technology is currently revolutionizing lighting, with the potential of saving huge amounts of energy every year. The predicted trend in the market of the materials generating white light using blue LEDs (and appropriate phosphors) shows approximately a fivefold increase in the years 2012-2019, reaching a value of several billion USD.
Showing how wide is the field of luminescence science, the 2014 Nobel prize in Chemistry was awarded for achievements in a very different direction: the application of photoluminescence for studying molecule-sized objects. Seeing single molecules with the naked human eye - well, not exactly naked - is a wonderful opportunity which opens an extremely wide range of possibilities for studying microscopic processes in organic and inorganic media. One critically important application of this technique, which overcomes the physical limit for the maximum spatial resolution of traditional optical microscopy, is in the study of the pathways of individual molecules in living cells. This allows one to understand the mechanisms responsible for many important biochemical phenomena, with a large impact on the diagnosis and cure of several diseases.
The editors and publisher of Elsevier journals covering the field of optics ( in this case specifically Journal of Luminescence, Optics Communications, Optical Materials) congratulate the recipients of the 2014 Nobel prize in Physics Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura, as well as the winners of the Nobel prize in Chemistry Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner, and wish them more wonderful achievements in their work. We are proud that a number of research papers related to the 2014 Nobel prize-awarded results were published by the awardees in our journals. This joint Special Issue celebrates these Nobel prizes by featuring a collection of these publications.
We would also like to take this opportunity to invite future Nobel prize winners - though not only them! - to submit their contributions to our journals, and we promise to do our best to attract maximum attention to their results in the field of studies of light and matter.
On behalf of Elsevier Optics,
Marco Bettinelli, Sergey Feofilov and Richard Meltzer, Journal of Luminescence
Please find below the research papers by this year's Nobel prize winners in Physics and Chemistry
Critical issues in AlxGa1−xN growth
Hiroshi Amano, Isamu Akasaki
Optical Materials, Volume 19, Issue 1, February–March 2002, Pages 219-222
Time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy in GaN-based semiconductors with micron spatial resolution
T Izumi, Y Narukawa, K Okamoto, Y Kawakami, Sg Fujita, S Nakamura
Journal of Luminescence, Volumes 87–89, May 2000, Pages 1196-1198
Ultraviolet emission properties in InxGa1−xN epitaxial layer revealed by magnetoluminescence and time-resolved luminescence studiesHiromitsu Kudo, Hiroki Ishibashi, Ruisheng Zheng, Yoichi Yamada, Tsunemasa Taguchi, Shuji Nakamura, Genichi Shinomiya
Journal of Luminescence, Volumes 87–89, May 2000, Pages 1199–1201
Electron beam effects on blue luminescence of zinc-doped GaN Hiroshi Amano, Isamu Akasaki, Takahiro Kozawa, Kazumasa Hiramatsu, Nobuhiko Sawaki, Kousuke Ikeda, Yoshikazu Ishii
Journal of Luminescence, Volumes 40–41, February 1988, Pages 121-122
Highly excited luminescence in InGaN epitaxial films: Origins of the blue-green emission
Sasaki F., Kobayashi S., Tani T., Yamada Y., Taguchi T., Nakamura S., Shinomiya G.
Journal of Luminescence, Volume 76-77, February 1998, Pages 242-245
InGaN quantum-well structure blue LEDs and LDs
Shuji Nakamura
Journal of Luminescence, Volume 72-74, June 1997, Pages 55-58
Photoluminescence and optical gain in highly excited GaN
L. Eckey, J. Holst, A. Hoffman, I. Broser, H. Amano, I. Akasaki, T. Detchprohm, K. Hiramatsu
Journal of Luminescence, Volumes 72–74, June 1997, Pages 59–61
Interferometry of a single nanoparticle using the Gouy phase of a focused laser beam
Jaesuk Hwang, W.E. Moerner
Optics Communications, Volume 280, Issue 2, 15 December 2007, Pages 487-491
Synthesis and properties of glassy organic multifunctional photorefractive materials
Meng He, Robert Twieg, Ulrich Gubler, Daniel Wright, W.E Moerner
Optical Materials, Volume 21, Issues 1–3, January 2003, Pages 353-357
Determination of the unknown phase difference in 4Pi-confocal microscopy through the image intensity
Carlo Mar Blanca, Jörg Bewersdorf, Stefan W. Hell
Optics Communications, Volume 206, Issues 4–6, 1 June 2002, Pages 281-285
Homodyne detection of ultrasonic surface displacements using two-wave mixing in photorefractive polymers
Marvin B Klein, G.David Bacher, Anders Grunnet-Jepsen, Daniel Wright, W.E Moerner
Optics Communications, Volume 162, Issues 1–3, 1 April 1999, Pages 79-84
Gain enhancement by moving gratings in a photorefractive polymer
A Grunnet-Jepsen, C.L Thompson, W.E Moerner
Optics Communications, Volume 145, Issues 1–6, 1 January 1998, Pages 145-149
Refractive index mismatch induced intensity and phase variations in fluorescence confocal, multiphoton and 4Pi-microscopy
Alexander Egner, Martin Schrader, Stefan W. Hell
Optics Communications, Volume 153, Issues 4–6, 1 August 1998, Pages 211-217
Two- and multiphoton excitation of conjugate-dyes using a continuous wave laser
Pekka E. Hänninen, Lotta Lehtelä, Stefan W. Hell
Optics Communications, Volume 130, Issues 1–3, 15 September 1996, Pages 29-33
Single molecule spectroscopy: maximum emission rate and saturation intensity
Taras Plakhotnik, W.E Moerner, Victor Palm, Urs P Wild
Optics Communications, Volume 114, Issues 1–2, 15 January 1995, Pages 83-88
Fundamentals of single-molecule spectroscopy in solids
W.E. Moerner
Journal of Luminescence, Volumes 60–61, April 1994, Pages 997-1002
Vibronic spectroscopy of single molecules: Exploring electronic-vibrational frequency correlations within an inhomogeneous distribution
Anne B. Myers, Paul Tchénio, W.E. Moerner
Journal of Luminescence, Volume 58, Issues 1–6, January 1994, Pages 161-167
Optical studies of single terrylene molecules in polyethylene
Paul Tchénio, Anne B. Myers, W.E. Moerner
Journal of Luminescence, Volume 56, Issues 1–6, October 1993, Pages 1-14
Single molecule spectral diffusion in a solid detected via fluorescence spectroscopy
W.P. Ambrose, T. Basché, W.E. Moerner
Journal of Luminescence, Volume 53, Issues 1–6, July 1992, Pages 62-67
Gated spectral hole-burning for frequency domain optical recording
W. Lenth, W.E. Moerner
Optics Communications, Volume 58, Issue 4, 15 June 1986, Pages 249-254