2011年4月29日金曜日
Blaxploitation Films
Prior to the late 1960s, African Americans rarely had a voice in how they were represented in Hollywood films. With several years of declining box-office profits,rift gold along with the rise of the Black Power movement, Hollywood began to court black audiences with a series of inexpensive urban crime dramas, which “exploited” the audience’s desire to see black heroes and heroines with nearly superhuman physical powers. White men were depicted as sniveling weaklings or corrupt businessmen. Black directors Melvin Van Peebles, Gordon Parks and Ossie Davis made, rift goldrespectively Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971), Shaft (1971) and Gordon’s War (1973).
Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977)
Charles Spencer (Charlie) Chaplin’s movie persona, the Little Fellow, was one of the most widely recognized figures in the world in the 1920s and 1930s. A versatile writer/director and gifted actor whom George Bernard Shaw called “the only genius in motion pictures,” Chaplin was intimately related to the urban world; he was born and raised in a city,rift gold his films often used urban settings, and he first achieved fame when movies were primarily an urban phenomenon.
Chaplin’s account of his early years in My Autobiography (1964) reads almost like a Dickens novel. Born in London in 1889, his parents were both English music-hall singers. His father, an alcoholic, separated from the family in 1890, providing only minimal and sporadic support for his son before his own death in 1901. Ill health and an ailing voice ended Chaplin’s mother’s singing career in the middle 1890s. She was in and out of hospitals and asylums with physical and emotional problems for the next five years while Chaplin and his older half brother, Sydney, shuttled between a variety of urban homes and institutions. By late 1898, Chaplin secured his first job as a performer, and he continued working in the theater and in music-hall comedy troupes until he accepted a contract to join Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studio in 1913.
Working with three movie companies between 1913 and 1918, Chaplin appeared in 61 films, most of them one- and two-reelers, directing all of them after the middle of 1914. Shortly after arriving at Keystone, he began wearing the costume that became his trademark—a tight-fitting coat, baggy pants, floppy shoes, a derby hat, a narrow mustache, and a cane. The character Chaplin created—known variously as the Little Fellow, the Tramp, or Charlie—served as his comic screen persona in nearly all of his films through Modern Times (1936).
This persona became an almost immediate success in urban movie theaters, creating by 1915 what one movie commentator called a national case of “Chaplinitis.” Each contract he signed was more lucrative, and in 1918 he decided to build his own movie studio. This ensured him a high degree of financial and creative control that was solidified when in 1919 he joined movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, and director D. W. Griffith, to found United Artists, a company that would distribute the films that each of the founders produced independently. All of the movies he made between 1923 and 1951 were distributed through United Artists.
Although Chaplin’s movies occasionally satirized rural or small-town life—Sunnyside (1919) and The Pilgrim (1922) are two examples—they more often had urban settings. Among his shorter films, Easy Street (1917), A Dog’s Life (1918), and The Kid (1921) portrayed urban poverty and working-class life in particularly effective ways. His feature films often had urban settings as well, contrasting different classes in urban society or depicting urban versus rural characters. A Woman of Paris (1923) poses rural simplicity against urban cosmopolitanism. Chaplin’s two greatest films focusing on urban concerns were City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936). The first contrasted the lower-class but humane world of the blind girl with the upper-class luxury and hypocrisy of the millionaire. The second comically portrayed the dislocations engendered by industrialism and the Depression. The Great Dictator (1940), Chaplin’s satiric attack on Hitler and Nazism, contrasted life in the palace with life in a Jewish urban ghetto. The central setting of Monsieur Verdoux (1947) was Paris,rift gold Limelight (1952) took place in London before World War I, and A King of New York (1957) used that city as the setting for a satire on advertising, wide-screen movies, progressive education, and McCarthyism.
Chaplin’s progressive political sympathies eroded his popularity in the early Cold War years. After having his reentry permit to the United States revoked while en route to England for the opening of Limelight in 1952, Chaplin settled on a Swiss manor, where he lived until his death in 1977. Although the baronial splendor of his final years differed vastly from the urban working-class world in which he was raised, Chaplin will be remembered for the Charlie persona at the center of his best movies. Just as Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone were mythic prototypes of the American frontier in the nineteenth century, Chaplin’s Little Fellow was a key mythic representative of the twentieth-century urban American landscape.
Chaplin’s account of his early years in My Autobiography (1964) reads almost like a Dickens novel. Born in London in 1889, his parents were both English music-hall singers. His father, an alcoholic, separated from the family in 1890, providing only minimal and sporadic support for his son before his own death in 1901. Ill health and an ailing voice ended Chaplin’s mother’s singing career in the middle 1890s. She was in and out of hospitals and asylums with physical and emotional problems for the next five years while Chaplin and his older half brother, Sydney, shuttled between a variety of urban homes and institutions. By late 1898, Chaplin secured his first job as a performer, and he continued working in the theater and in music-hall comedy troupes until he accepted a contract to join Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studio in 1913.
Working with three movie companies between 1913 and 1918, Chaplin appeared in 61 films, most of them one- and two-reelers, directing all of them after the middle of 1914. Shortly after arriving at Keystone, he began wearing the costume that became his trademark—a tight-fitting coat, baggy pants, floppy shoes, a derby hat, a narrow mustache, and a cane. The character Chaplin created—known variously as the Little Fellow, the Tramp, or Charlie—served as his comic screen persona in nearly all of his films through Modern Times (1936).
This persona became an almost immediate success in urban movie theaters, creating by 1915 what one movie commentator called a national case of “Chaplinitis.” Each contract he signed was more lucrative, and in 1918 he decided to build his own movie studio. This ensured him a high degree of financial and creative control that was solidified when in 1919 he joined movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, and director D. W. Griffith, to found United Artists, a company that would distribute the films that each of the founders produced independently. All of the movies he made between 1923 and 1951 were distributed through United Artists.
Although Chaplin’s movies occasionally satirized rural or small-town life—Sunnyside (1919) and The Pilgrim (1922) are two examples—they more often had urban settings. Among his shorter films, Easy Street (1917), A Dog’s Life (1918), and The Kid (1921) portrayed urban poverty and working-class life in particularly effective ways. His feature films often had urban settings as well, contrasting different classes in urban society or depicting urban versus rural characters. A Woman of Paris (1923) poses rural simplicity against urban cosmopolitanism. Chaplin’s two greatest films focusing on urban concerns were City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936). The first contrasted the lower-class but humane world of the blind girl with the upper-class luxury and hypocrisy of the millionaire. The second comically portrayed the dislocations engendered by industrialism and the Depression. The Great Dictator (1940), Chaplin’s satiric attack on Hitler and Nazism, contrasted life in the palace with life in a Jewish urban ghetto. The central setting of Monsieur Verdoux (1947) was Paris,rift gold Limelight (1952) took place in London before World War I, and A King of New York (1957) used that city as the setting for a satire on advertising, wide-screen movies, progressive education, and McCarthyism.
Chaplin’s progressive political sympathies eroded his popularity in the early Cold War years. After having his reentry permit to the United States revoked while en route to England for the opening of Limelight in 1952, Chaplin settled on a Swiss manor, where he lived until his death in 1977. Although the baronial splendor of his final years differed vastly from the urban working-class world in which he was raised, Chaplin will be remembered for the Charlie persona at the center of his best movies. Just as Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone were mythic prototypes of the American frontier in the nineteenth century, Chaplin’s Little Fellow was a key mythic representative of the twentieth-century urban American landscape.
Quentin Tarantino
Charismatic and creative independent director/ actor/screenwriter/producer whose films show wide knowledge of popular genres and global cinema even as he has transformed them. Emerging from his experience as a video clerk alternating with acting, Tarantino’s eclectic sensibilities became apparent in Reservoir Dogs (1992),rift gold before gaining global accolades with Pulp Fiction (1993). He continues to be both the creator and subject of mass media attention; meanwhile,rift gold his Jackie Brown (1997) revitalized blaxploitation films across racial lines.
You've lost
On her return from school，little Dolly，aged ten，was pulled on to her Daddy's knee，and informed that the fairies had that day brought a big surprise a little baby brother．She see med glad，and presently said：
rift gold
Will you give me a stamp，daddy？I want to write and tell brother Tom．
The father was touched by this，and provided the little lass with the materials to write a letter to her brother，who was away at school．Later，curious to know how she would tell the news，he took an opportunity to read what she had writen．He received something of a shock on reading the following：
rift gold
Dear Tom，
It's come off today．You've lost；it's a boy．
rift gold
Will you give me a stamp，daddy？I want to write and tell brother Tom．
The father was touched by this，and provided the little lass with the materials to write a letter to her brother，who was away at school．Later，curious to know how she would tell the news，he took an opportunity to read what she had writen．He received something of a shock on reading the following：
rift gold
Dear Tom，
It's come off today．You've lost；it's a boy．
Dame Maggie Smith
British stage and film actor, particularly noted for her comedy performances. Born in Ilford, Essex,rift gold she trained at the Oxford Playhouse School before making her début as a comedian in the New Faces Revue in New York City (1956). By 1959 she had turned to acting, joining the Old Vic Company before winning an Evening Standard Award for the double bill of one-act plays, The Private Ear and The Public Eye by Peter Shaffer (1962). Smith has an incredible stage presence, classical poise, and impeccable comic timing, all of which have led her to critical success in countless comedy performances in London and New York, including Amanda in Private Lives (1972) and Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (1992), two roles she has virtually reinvented. Smith’s repertoire has also extended to classical theater, including Desdemona to Othello played by Sir Laurence Olivier (1964). In 1994 she won an Evening Standard Award, her fifth,rift gold for Three Tall Women by Edward Albee.
She has also enjoyed a successful film career, winning Academy Awards for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978). Other films with Smith include Quartet (1981), A Private Function (1984), A Room with a View (1985, for which she won a Golden Globe Award), The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987), Sister Act (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), The First Wives Club (1996), Tea with Mussolini (1999), Gosford Park (2001), and the Harry Potter movie series.
She has also enjoyed a successful film career, winning Academy Awards for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978). Other films with Smith include Quartet (1981), A Private Function (1984), A Room with a View (1985, for which she won a Golden Globe Award), The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987), Sister Act (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), The First Wives Club (1996), Tea with Mussolini (1999), Gosford Park (2001), and the Harry Potter movie series.
Who's better satisfied?
2011年4月28日木曜日
Did Britney Spears Copy Her New Single?
As Britney Spears enjoys the No. 1 spot on iTunes with her new single, TERA Gold 'Hold It Against Me,' one music group is crying foul, saying she ripped off the title of the hit song.
Country group The Bellamy Brothers released a song in 1979 called 'If I Said You Have a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me,' RIFT Platinum and singer David Bellamy is speaking out against Spears' new song, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The chorus of Spears' latest hit contains the line, "If I said I want your body now, would you hold it against me?'
"It's not every day you get in the middle of a Britney Spears brawl," Bellamy told the magazine.
The country crooner, who penned the group's 1979 hit, said his son first clued him in on Spears' single. While no legal action has been taken regarding the song's crossover title, Bellamy is looking into the situation.
"I just have to see what the intent was," he said. "I just kind of found it unoriginal, rift gold and I guess it makes us realize how old we are, because they're recycling our titles already."
Bellamy, who has not heard from Spears' camp regarding the similarities, understands that the "beautiful body" line is often used, but not always as overtly as with this latest hit single.
"This particular title is kinda hard to disguise, because the title is the song," Bellamy said of Spears' track. "It's not like saying, RIFT Platinum 'I love you, baby.' ... I think there's just more original stuff out there to do than just rehashing old titles."
The Bellamy Brothers would know. Rift Gold The country band hits the road this year for a 180-show tour as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of their hit album, 'Let Your Love Flow.'
Spears' song, produced by Max Martin and Dr. Luke, hit the Internet on Monday and quickly shot to the No. 1 spot on iTunes. Her new album is expected to be released March 15.
Country group The Bellamy Brothers released a song in 1979 called 'If I Said You Have a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me,' RIFT Platinum and singer David Bellamy is speaking out against Spears' new song, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The chorus of Spears' latest hit contains the line, "If I said I want your body now, would you hold it against me?'
"It's not every day you get in the middle of a Britney Spears brawl," Bellamy told the magazine.
The country crooner, who penned the group's 1979 hit, said his son first clued him in on Spears' single. While no legal action has been taken regarding the song's crossover title, Bellamy is looking into the situation.
"I just have to see what the intent was," he said. "I just kind of found it unoriginal, rift gold and I guess it makes us realize how old we are, because they're recycling our titles already."
Bellamy, who has not heard from Spears' camp regarding the similarities, understands that the "beautiful body" line is often used, but not always as overtly as with this latest hit single.
"This particular title is kinda hard to disguise, because the title is the song," Bellamy said of Spears' track. "It's not like saying, RIFT Platinum 'I love you, baby.' ... I think there's just more original stuff out there to do than just rehashing old titles."
The Bellamy Brothers would know. Rift Gold The country band hits the road this year for a 180-show tour as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of their hit album, 'Let Your Love Flow.'
Spears' song, produced by Max Martin and Dr. Luke, hit the Internet on Monday and quickly shot to the No. 1 spot on iTunes. Her new album is expected to be released March 15.
B.J. Penn: 'I Feel My Clock Ticking
In the Octagon that night, former UFC champ B.J. Penn sounded like a defeated, deflated fighter. He'd just fought to a draw with Jon Fitch at UFC 127, and yet the way he talked in his post-fight interview, it sounded like he might be ready to walk away from MMA for good.
But as Penn told Ariel Helwani on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour, that was just the disappointment talking.
"I guess I was just bummed out because I know I can beat that guy, and there I was getting my butt kicked in the third round and ending up with a draw," Penn said.
Regardless of how downtrodden he may have sounded in his post-fight interview, however, Penn is far from done. In fact, the way he sees it, there are still some major goals left on his to-do list, such as recapturing the UFC welterweight title and then going back down to lightweight and winning that belt once more before retiring.
"Those are definitely two dreams of mine," said Penn. "I know those are big aspirations, but I guess you've got to shoot for the stars."
The fact that he thinks he still has the skills and the ability to do those things was part of what made the outcome of the Fitch fight so hard to swallow, he said. He'd had a good training camp right up until he injured his shoulder in the last couple weeks, but he still felt like he was in a position to win the fight going into the final round.
"I knew I could do it, and I ended up making some mistakes," he said. Rift Gold "Whether it's in the training camp or in the fight, there's things that have to be fixed, and I was just at a point where I was like, aren't I past making these mistakes already? But I guess you just keep learning, and things keep changing. ...You just try to find what works for you at the end of the day."
It's been nearly two months since the fight, and Penn said he's watched it all the way through only once. While standing in the Octagon following the disastrous third round, he seemed grateful to go home with the draw. Now that he's had more time to think about it, however, he's not so sure that it was a 10-8 round for Fitch.
"I really didn't know at the time. I was just kind of bummed out about how it went. But looking back at the fight, I would have to say I've seen Jon Fitch get many 10-9 rounds that have looked like that. RIFT Platinum I've seen him do that to Ben Saunders and Thiago Alves and many different people, and he got 10-9 rounds for that. But at the end of the day, I think everything unfolds the way it should, and if me and Jon Fitch get the opportunity to step in the ring and meet each other again, that would be a blessing for both guys."
Penn and Fitch were originally slated for a rematch at UFC 132 in July, rift gold but Fitch pulled out of the fight with a shoulder injury. Since Penn was dealing with a shoulder injury of his own, he then decided to withdraw from the event as well, though he said he's still unsure whether he'll need surgery.
At 32 years old, RIFT Platinum Penn's plan now is to stay active and try to accomplish as many of the goals on his checklist as possible before his career comes to an end. There was a time when he thought he'd be fighting well into his forties, he said. Now he just wants to make the most of whatever time he has left.
"I guess in a little bit of a way, I feel my clock ticking. But I don't feel it ticking like it's going to be over real soon, but ticking like I want to accomplish a few more things. TERA Gold I want to fight. I want to be active. I want to make money. I want to get better and have more of these life experiences, and that's it. I want to stay busy. I don't want to sit on the shelf."
But as Penn told Ariel Helwani on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour, that was just the disappointment talking.
"I guess I was just bummed out because I know I can beat that guy, and there I was getting my butt kicked in the third round and ending up with a draw," Penn said.
Regardless of how downtrodden he may have sounded in his post-fight interview, however, Penn is far from done. In fact, the way he sees it, there are still some major goals left on his to-do list, such as recapturing the UFC welterweight title and then going back down to lightweight and winning that belt once more before retiring.
"Those are definitely two dreams of mine," said Penn. "I know those are big aspirations, but I guess you've got to shoot for the stars."
The fact that he thinks he still has the skills and the ability to do those things was part of what made the outcome of the Fitch fight so hard to swallow, he said. He'd had a good training camp right up until he injured his shoulder in the last couple weeks, but he still felt like he was in a position to win the fight going into the final round.
"I knew I could do it, and I ended up making some mistakes," he said. Rift Gold "Whether it's in the training camp or in the fight, there's things that have to be fixed, and I was just at a point where I was like, aren't I past making these mistakes already? But I guess you just keep learning, and things keep changing. ...You just try to find what works for you at the end of the day."
It's been nearly two months since the fight, and Penn said he's watched it all the way through only once. While standing in the Octagon following the disastrous third round, he seemed grateful to go home with the draw. Now that he's had more time to think about it, however, he's not so sure that it was a 10-8 round for Fitch.
"I really didn't know at the time. I was just kind of bummed out about how it went. But looking back at the fight, I would have to say I've seen Jon Fitch get many 10-9 rounds that have looked like that. RIFT Platinum I've seen him do that to Ben Saunders and Thiago Alves and many different people, and he got 10-9 rounds for that. But at the end of the day, I think everything unfolds the way it should, and if me and Jon Fitch get the opportunity to step in the ring and meet each other again, that would be a blessing for both guys."
Penn and Fitch were originally slated for a rematch at UFC 132 in July, rift gold but Fitch pulled out of the fight with a shoulder injury. Since Penn was dealing with a shoulder injury of his own, he then decided to withdraw from the event as well, though he said he's still unsure whether he'll need surgery.
At 32 years old, RIFT Platinum Penn's plan now is to stay active and try to accomplish as many of the goals on his checklist as possible before his career comes to an end. There was a time when he thought he'd be fighting well into his forties, he said. Now he just wants to make the most of whatever time he has left.
"I guess in a little bit of a way, I feel my clock ticking. But I don't feel it ticking like it's going to be over real soon, but ticking like I want to accomplish a few more things. TERA Gold I want to fight. I want to be active. I want to make money. I want to get better and have more of these life experiences, and that's it. I want to stay busy. I don't want to sit on the shelf."
Nutrition in Mustard, Turnip & Collard Greens
Overview
Mustard, turnip and collard greens are all nutritious leafy green vegetables that are very low in calories, though they are very rich sources of nutrients. RIFT Platinum All three vegetables are excellent sources of calcium, folate and vitamin C. Sauté greens in olive oil with garlic, and season with soy sauce. Alternatively, use greens in omelets or quiche, or add them to soups.
Basic Nutrition Information
According to the USDA Food and Nutrient Database, one half-cup of mustard greens provides 10 calories, 1.6 g protein, 0.2 g fat, 1.4 g carbohydrate and 1.5 g fiber. rift gold One-half cup of turnip greens has similar nutritional values, providing 14 calories, 0.8 g protein, 0.2 g fat, 3.1 g carbohydrate and 2.5 g fiber. One-half cup of collard greens provides 25 calories, 2 g protein, 0.3 g fat, 4.7 g carbohydrate and 2.7 g fiber.
5 Foods you must not eat: Cut down a bit of stomach fat every day by never eating these 5 foods. Naviibk.com
Sponsored Links
Calcium
Leafy green vegetables are good sources of calcium, a mineral that is vital for bone health, muscle contraction and blood clotting. Rift Gold The daily requirement for calcium for adults up to age 50 is 1,000 mg. After age 50, the daily requirement increases to 1,200 mg. One-half cup of mustard greens provides 52 mg calcium, while turnips greens provide 99 mg and collard greens provide 133 mg calcium per half cup.
Folate
One-half cup of mustard greens provides 51 mcg folate, while the same amount of turnip greens has 85 mcg. Collard greens boast the highest folate content, with 88 mcg in a half cup. The daily requirement for folate is 400 mcg for adult men and non-pregnant women; RIFT Platinum thus one-half cup of collard greens provides more than 22 percent of the daily requirement. Pregnant women require 600 mcg of folate daily. Adequate folate intake during pregnancy is important for the prevention of neural tube defects. According to the Linus Pauling Institute, higher intakes of folate may help prevent certain types of cancer.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant that is important for the immune system and for the production of collagen that makes up connective tissue like bone, muscle, ligaments and tendons. One-half cup of mustard greens provides 18 mg vitamin C; one-half cup of turnip greens provides 20 mg, and collard greens have 17 mg in one-half cup. The daily requirement for vitamin C for adults is 90 mg for men and 75 mg for women. TERA Gold Male smokers require 125 mg of vitamin C daily, and female smokers require 110 mg. Smokers have elevated vitamin C requirements due to increased oxidative stress on the body associated with the toxins in cigarette smoke.
Mustard, turnip and collard greens are all nutritious leafy green vegetables that are very low in calories, though they are very rich sources of nutrients. RIFT Platinum All three vegetables are excellent sources of calcium, folate and vitamin C. Sauté greens in olive oil with garlic, and season with soy sauce. Alternatively, use greens in omelets or quiche, or add them to soups.
Basic Nutrition Information
According to the USDA Food and Nutrient Database, one half-cup of mustard greens provides 10 calories, 1.6 g protein, 0.2 g fat, 1.4 g carbohydrate and 1.5 g fiber. rift gold One-half cup of turnip greens has similar nutritional values, providing 14 calories, 0.8 g protein, 0.2 g fat, 3.1 g carbohydrate and 2.5 g fiber. One-half cup of collard greens provides 25 calories, 2 g protein, 0.3 g fat, 4.7 g carbohydrate and 2.7 g fiber.
5 Foods you must not eat: Cut down a bit of stomach fat every day by never eating these 5 foods. Naviibk.com
Sponsored Links
Calcium
Leafy green vegetables are good sources of calcium, a mineral that is vital for bone health, muscle contraction and blood clotting. Rift Gold The daily requirement for calcium for adults up to age 50 is 1,000 mg. After age 50, the daily requirement increases to 1,200 mg. One-half cup of mustard greens provides 52 mg calcium, while turnips greens provide 99 mg and collard greens provide 133 mg calcium per half cup.
Folate
One-half cup of mustard greens provides 51 mcg folate, while the same amount of turnip greens has 85 mcg. Collard greens boast the highest folate content, with 88 mcg in a half cup. The daily requirement for folate is 400 mcg for adult men and non-pregnant women; RIFT Platinum thus one-half cup of collard greens provides more than 22 percent of the daily requirement. Pregnant women require 600 mcg of folate daily. Adequate folate intake during pregnancy is important for the prevention of neural tube defects. According to the Linus Pauling Institute, higher intakes of folate may help prevent certain types of cancer.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant that is important for the immune system and for the production of collagen that makes up connective tissue like bone, muscle, ligaments and tendons. One-half cup of mustard greens provides 18 mg vitamin C; one-half cup of turnip greens provides 20 mg, and collard greens have 17 mg in one-half cup. The daily requirement for vitamin C for adults is 90 mg for men and 75 mg for women. TERA Gold Male smokers require 125 mg of vitamin C daily, and female smokers require 110 mg. Smokers have elevated vitamin C requirements due to increased oxidative stress on the body associated with the toxins in cigarette smoke.
Trade show: Patriots, Eagles ready to make their moves
No team manipulates the NFL draft better than the Patriots. They usually wield so much power that coach Bill Belichick should sit on a throne, TERA Gold wearing a crown and holding a scepter. He controls not only New England’s destiny but that of so many other teams.
Whether it’s due to a plethora of picks, a cunning ability to outwit their rivals or just plain chutzpa, the Patriots always seem to mold the draft in their favor. It should be no different in this year’s draft, which kicks off at 8 p.m. Thursday with the first round.
Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots are never afraid to wheel and deal when it comes to the NFL Draft. (AP Photo)The Patriots have three of the first 33 picks (Nos. 17, 28 and 33) and six picks overall in the first three rounds. It wouldn’t be surprising to see them deal the 28th pick for a chance to move up or, more likely, move down and accumulate more picks. RIFT Platinum Teams desperate for a quarterback — and there are plenty of them — might want to try to acquire the 28th slot rather than risk waiting until the second round to try to get their signal-caller.
“There definitely seems to be a lot of interest in our draft picks (from other teams),” Belichick said recently. “And as you know, we’re not afraid to trade them.”
Here are three other teams who could be power players in the draft.
Eagles. They have a history of making draft trades: 29 in the past eight years, 16 in the last three and six last year. Philadelphia holds the 23rd pick in Round 1, which is about the time some of the second-tier quarterbacks could start being taken. rift gold Don’t be surprised to see the Eagles wheel and deal again.
“We’re open to exploring any options that we think make us better,” RIFT Platinum general manager Howie Roseman said, “and whether that’s moving up or moving down, we’re definitely open.”
Chargers. They’re another team blessed with multiple picks in the early rounds — two in both Round 2 and Round 3 — and they have five of the first 89 overall.
Saints. Rift Gold They have traded up in the first round three times in the past eight years. If they feel there’s a player in the middle of the round who can help them make another Super Bowl run, they won’t hesitate to give up picks to move up from No. 24.
Whether it’s due to a plethora of picks, a cunning ability to outwit their rivals or just plain chutzpa, the Patriots always seem to mold the draft in their favor. It should be no different in this year’s draft, which kicks off at 8 p.m. Thursday with the first round.
Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots are never afraid to wheel and deal when it comes to the NFL Draft. (AP Photo)The Patriots have three of the first 33 picks (Nos. 17, 28 and 33) and six picks overall in the first three rounds. It wouldn’t be surprising to see them deal the 28th pick for a chance to move up or, more likely, move down and accumulate more picks. RIFT Platinum Teams desperate for a quarterback — and there are plenty of them — might want to try to acquire the 28th slot rather than risk waiting until the second round to try to get their signal-caller.
“There definitely seems to be a lot of interest in our draft picks (from other teams),” Belichick said recently. “And as you know, we’re not afraid to trade them.”
Here are three other teams who could be power players in the draft.
Eagles. They have a history of making draft trades: 29 in the past eight years, 16 in the last three and six last year. Philadelphia holds the 23rd pick in Round 1, which is about the time some of the second-tier quarterbacks could start being taken. rift gold Don’t be surprised to see the Eagles wheel and deal again.
“We’re open to exploring any options that we think make us better,” RIFT Platinum general manager Howie Roseman said, “and whether that’s moving up or moving down, we’re definitely open.”
Chargers. They’re another team blessed with multiple picks in the early rounds — two in both Round 2 and Round 3 — and they have five of the first 89 overall.
Saints. Rift Gold They have traded up in the first round three times in the past eight years. If they feel there’s a player in the middle of the round who can help them make another Super Bowl run, they won’t hesitate to give up picks to move up from No. 24.
2011年4月27日水曜日
The Monkey and the Nuts
rift gold
A CERTAIN City desiring to purchase a site for a public Deformatory
procured an appropriation from the Government of the country.
Deeming this insufficient for purchase of the site and payment of
reasonable commissions to themselves, the men in charge of the
matter asked for a larger sum, which was readily given. Believing
that the fountain could not be dipped dry, they applied for still
more and more yet. Wearied at last by their importunities, the
Government said it would be damned if it gave anything. So it gave
nothing and was damned all the harder.
rift gold
A CERTAIN City desiring to purchase a site for a public Deformatory
procured an appropriation from the Government of the country.
Deeming this insufficient for purchase of the site and payment of
reasonable commissions to themselves, the men in charge of the
matter asked for a larger sum, which was readily given. Believing
that the fountain could not be dipped dry, they applied for still
more and more yet. Wearied at last by their importunities, the
Government said it would be damned if it gave anything. So it gave
nothing and was damned all the harder.
rift gold
Freudian slip
rift gold
The sentence in the Thanksgiving edition of my church bulletin intended to say "Thank you, Lord, for the many miracles we are too blind to see." But in what might have been a classic Freudian slip, the sentence read
"Thank you, Lord, for the many miracles we are too blond to see."
rift gold
The sentence in the Thanksgiving edition of my church bulletin intended to say "Thank you, Lord, for the many miracles we are too blind to see." But in what might have been a classic Freudian slip, the sentence read
"Thank you, Lord, for the many miracles we are too blond to see."
rift gold
Sleepless City
2011年4月26日火曜日
MMA Top 10 Pound-for-Pound: Jon Jones Surges
The last time I ranked the Top 10 pound-for-pound fighters in MMA, I heard from a lot of readers who thought it was too early to have Jon Jones on the list.
No one is going to say that now.
After Jones smashed "Shogun" Rua at UFC 128, the question isn't whether Jones is one of the sport's Top 10 pound-for-pound fighters -- everyone agrees that he is. Now the question is just how high Jones belongs on the pound-for-pound list.
I think Jones is doing things we haven't seen before, and dominating his opponents in ways that few fighters can equal, and so I have Jones among the truly elite on my latest list, which is below.
(Number in parentheses is the fighter's rank in the last pound-for-pound list.)
1. Anderson Silva (1): Silva has so thoroughly cleaned out the middleweight division that everyone is talking about putting him in a superfight against the champion of another weight class. If that's what happens, I'd rather see Silva take on Jones than take on Georges St. Pierre. As the best fighter in the sport, Silva should test himself by taking on a bigger opponent, not a smaller opponent.
2. Georges St Pierre (2): The upcoming fight with Jake Shields is a great example of how we've all just come to expect consistent greatness from GSP: Shields is a terrific fighter who's riding a 15-fight winning streak, and yet it's hard to find anyone who really thinks Shields has much of a chance. We can practically hear Bruce Buffer announcing that all three judges scored the fight 50-45 for St. Pierre right now. That's just what's assume of GSP these days.
3. Jon Jones (9): Is it too soon to put Jones up this high? I don't think so. RIFT Platinum Not after the way he destroyed a legend in Shogun. Not after the way he's dominated everyone he's faced, from Ryan Bader to Vladimir Matyushenko to Brandon Vera and even Matt Hamill in the fight Jones lost by disqualification. Jones isn't just winning, he's winning like Secretariat in the Belmont. No one at 205 pounds is close.
4. Jose Aldo (3): The featherweight division is arguably the UFC's weakest, and that means it's a little tough to gauge Aldo against the champions of the deeper weight classes. But he's been spectacular so far, building up an 18-1 record at age 24, and I expect him to whip Mark Hominick at UFC 129.
5. Dominick Cruz (5): Cruz has a 17-1 record and only a couple of those 17 wins have even been close. So there's no arguing with what he's accomplished in the sport so far. However, the one loss is to Urijah Faber, who will now challenge Cruz for the bantamweight belt. We'll find out in the rematch whether Cruz has improved enough since losing to Faber in 2007 to really be considered one of the sport's elite, or whether Faber will be back on the pound-for-pound list.
6. Frank Edgar (6): It's amazing how much the lightweight division in MMA has changed in the last year. Before Edgar beat B.J. rift gold Penn in April of 2010, the lightweight class was viewed as fairly weak, with Penn head and shoulders above the rest. Now it's viewed as a shark tank full of challenges, with a long line of contenders already in the UFC, coming to the UFC from the WEC or (eventually) coming to the UFC from Strikeforce. But one thing that hasn't changed since April is that Edgar is at the head of the class.
7. Gray Maynard (7): First in line for Edgar's belt is Maynard, who fought him to a draw in January and gets a rematch in May. RIFT Platinum Maynard has a great chance of dethroning Edgar, but if he loses he'll spend the rest of his career kicking himself for failing to finish Edgar in the first round of their classic New Year's Day fight.
8. Cain Velasquez (8): The king of the heavyweights remains out of commission, awaiting a bout with the Brock Lesnar-Junior dos Santos winner, likely in the fall.
9. Joseph Benavidez (10): Having now moved from the WEC to the UFC, Benavidez just keeps winning, taking a unanimous decision over Ian Loveland at UFC 128. Benavidez is 14-2, with the only two losses coming to Cruz, even though he's fighting in a weight class above where he should be. I still maintain that the UFC needs to start a 125-pound flyweight division, and that if that ever happens Benavidez will reign as the division's champion. For now, he's just below championship-caliber, while consistently fighting bigger opponents.
10. Jon Fitch (NR): After a controversial draw with B.J. Penn in February, Fitch will get a chance to finish things in their rematch in July. Rift Gold I thought he deserved to win the first fight, and I think he'll beat Penn more convincingly the second time around and show that even if he can't beat St. Pierre, he's better than anyone else at 170 pounds.
No one is going to say that now.
After Jones smashed "Shogun" Rua at UFC 128, the question isn't whether Jones is one of the sport's Top 10 pound-for-pound fighters -- everyone agrees that he is. Now the question is just how high Jones belongs on the pound-for-pound list.
I think Jones is doing things we haven't seen before, and dominating his opponents in ways that few fighters can equal, and so I have Jones among the truly elite on my latest list, which is below.
(Number in parentheses is the fighter's rank in the last pound-for-pound list.)
1. Anderson Silva (1): Silva has so thoroughly cleaned out the middleweight division that everyone is talking about putting him in a superfight against the champion of another weight class. If that's what happens, I'd rather see Silva take on Jones than take on Georges St. Pierre. As the best fighter in the sport, Silva should test himself by taking on a bigger opponent, not a smaller opponent.
2. Georges St Pierre (2): The upcoming fight with Jake Shields is a great example of how we've all just come to expect consistent greatness from GSP: Shields is a terrific fighter who's riding a 15-fight winning streak, and yet it's hard to find anyone who really thinks Shields has much of a chance. We can practically hear Bruce Buffer announcing that all three judges scored the fight 50-45 for St. Pierre right now. That's just what's assume of GSP these days.
3. Jon Jones (9): Is it too soon to put Jones up this high? I don't think so. RIFT Platinum Not after the way he destroyed a legend in Shogun. Not after the way he's dominated everyone he's faced, from Ryan Bader to Vladimir Matyushenko to Brandon Vera and even Matt Hamill in the fight Jones lost by disqualification. Jones isn't just winning, he's winning like Secretariat in the Belmont. No one at 205 pounds is close.
4. Jose Aldo (3): The featherweight division is arguably the UFC's weakest, and that means it's a little tough to gauge Aldo against the champions of the deeper weight classes. But he's been spectacular so far, building up an 18-1 record at age 24, and I expect him to whip Mark Hominick at UFC 129.
5. Dominick Cruz (5): Cruz has a 17-1 record and only a couple of those 17 wins have even been close. So there's no arguing with what he's accomplished in the sport so far. However, the one loss is to Urijah Faber, who will now challenge Cruz for the bantamweight belt. We'll find out in the rematch whether Cruz has improved enough since losing to Faber in 2007 to really be considered one of the sport's elite, or whether Faber will be back on the pound-for-pound list.
6. Frank Edgar (6): It's amazing how much the lightweight division in MMA has changed in the last year. Before Edgar beat B.J. rift gold Penn in April of 2010, the lightweight class was viewed as fairly weak, with Penn head and shoulders above the rest. Now it's viewed as a shark tank full of challenges, with a long line of contenders already in the UFC, coming to the UFC from the WEC or (eventually) coming to the UFC from Strikeforce. But one thing that hasn't changed since April is that Edgar is at the head of the class.
7. Gray Maynard (7): First in line for Edgar's belt is Maynard, who fought him to a draw in January and gets a rematch in May. RIFT Platinum Maynard has a great chance of dethroning Edgar, but if he loses he'll spend the rest of his career kicking himself for failing to finish Edgar in the first round of their classic New Year's Day fight.
8. Cain Velasquez (8): The king of the heavyweights remains out of commission, awaiting a bout with the Brock Lesnar-Junior dos Santos winner, likely in the fall.
9. Joseph Benavidez (10): Having now moved from the WEC to the UFC, Benavidez just keeps winning, taking a unanimous decision over Ian Loveland at UFC 128. Benavidez is 14-2, with the only two losses coming to Cruz, even though he's fighting in a weight class above where he should be. I still maintain that the UFC needs to start a 125-pound flyweight division, and that if that ever happens Benavidez will reign as the division's champion. For now, he's just below championship-caliber, while consistently fighting bigger opponents.
10. Jon Fitch (NR): After a controversial draw with B.J. Penn in February, Fitch will get a chance to finish things in their rematch in July. Rift Gold I thought he deserved to win the first fight, and I think he'll beat Penn more convincingly the second time around and show that even if he can't beat St. Pierre, he's better than anyone else at 170 pounds.
Did Britney Spears Use a Body Double in 'Till the World Ends' Video?
Less than a day after Britney Spears debuted her new music video for 'Till the World Ends', rift gold she is already fighting off speculation that she used a body double in the video.
Celeb gossip website Oh No They Didn't! suggest that choreographer and backup dancer Tiana Brown replaces Brit's bod in scenes of the video for the Ke$ha-penned dance hit -- accusations that the Spears camp denies. RIFT Platinum Brown danced on the road beside Britney on the 'Circus Starring Britney Spears Tour' and has worked with other dancing divas, RIFT Platinum including Christina Aguilera, the Pussycat Dolls, Jennifer Lopez and Fergie. But, according to Ms. Spears' official website, when it comes to the video -- it's Britney, b--ch!
The superstar's new album 'Femme Fatale' debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at No. 1 and sold 276,000 copies in its first week -- making it Brit's sixth No. 1 album. Rift Gold Whether or not she solicited the help of a stand-in for the video, there's no denying that this femme fatale is back on top where she belongs.
Celeb gossip website Oh No They Didn't! suggest that choreographer and backup dancer Tiana Brown replaces Brit's bod in scenes of the video for the Ke$ha-penned dance hit -- accusations that the Spears camp denies. RIFT Platinum Brown danced on the road beside Britney on the 'Circus Starring Britney Spears Tour' and has worked with other dancing divas, RIFT Platinum including Christina Aguilera, the Pussycat Dolls, Jennifer Lopez and Fergie. But, according to Ms. Spears' official website, when it comes to the video -- it's Britney, b--ch!
The superstar's new album 'Femme Fatale' debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at No. 1 and sold 276,000 copies in its first week -- making it Brit's sixth No. 1 album. Rift Gold Whether or not she solicited the help of a stand-in for the video, there's no denying that this femme fatale is back on top where she belongs.
2011年4月25日月曜日
Brewers fail to get the sweep, lose 4-3 to Phillies
W: Ryan Madson (2-0)
L: Brandon Kintzler (1-1)
S: Jose Contreras (4)
HR: Jonathan Lucroy (1), Placido Polanco (2), Shane Victorino (2)
MVP: Prince Fielder (+.259)
LVP: Brandon Kintzler (-.158)
Win Expectancy Graph
Well, I guess 6 innings over 3 days was too much for Brandon Kintzler.
Rift Gold The Brewers have never swept the Phillies in Philadelphia and they'll have to wait until next year to try again.
The offense didn't exactly tee off on Cliff Lee like they did to Roy Halladay yesterday, but the were able to knock him out of the game after the 6th inning. The scoring started off in the 1st inning when Carlos Gomez scored on Prince Fielder's single. RIFT Platinum Run number two came in the third when Ryan Braun ran through Ed Sedar's stop sign and scored on Prince Fielder's double. They added another in the fourth when Jonathan Lucroy hit one out for his first home run of the year.
Chris Narveson got the start for the Crew today and was on fire, not even allowing a hit until the 5th inning. But once he allowed that hit, rift gold the wheels started to fall off. In the sixth Narvseon walked the first batter, then gave up a hit to Shane Victorino, then he gave up a 3-run homer to Placido Polanco to tie the game. It took 31 pitches for Narveson to get through that sixth inning.
That was it for Narveson who gave way to Brandon Kintzler for the 7th inning. The rookie looked sharp in the seventh, striking out the side. RIFT Platinum But in the eighth he gave up a home run to Shane Victorino, giving the Phillies the lead and eventually the win.
Losing sucks, but taking two of three from the Phillies in Philly is pretty ok with me.
L: Brandon Kintzler (1-1)
S: Jose Contreras (4)
HR: Jonathan Lucroy (1), Placido Polanco (2), Shane Victorino (2)
MVP: Prince Fielder (+.259)
LVP: Brandon Kintzler (-.158)
Win Expectancy Graph
Well, I guess 6 innings over 3 days was too much for Brandon Kintzler.
Rift Gold The Brewers have never swept the Phillies in Philadelphia and they'll have to wait until next year to try again.
The offense didn't exactly tee off on Cliff Lee like they did to Roy Halladay yesterday, but the were able to knock him out of the game after the 6th inning. The scoring started off in the 1st inning when Carlos Gomez scored on Prince Fielder's single. RIFT Platinum Run number two came in the third when Ryan Braun ran through Ed Sedar's stop sign and scored on Prince Fielder's double. They added another in the fourth when Jonathan Lucroy hit one out for his first home run of the year.
Chris Narveson got the start for the Crew today and was on fire, not even allowing a hit until the 5th inning. But once he allowed that hit, rift gold the wheels started to fall off. In the sixth Narvseon walked the first batter, then gave up a hit to Shane Victorino, then he gave up a 3-run homer to Placido Polanco to tie the game. It took 31 pitches for Narveson to get through that sixth inning.
That was it for Narveson who gave way to Brandon Kintzler for the 7th inning. The rookie looked sharp in the seventh, striking out the side. RIFT Platinum But in the eighth he gave up a home run to Shane Victorino, giving the Phillies the lead and eventually the win.
Losing sucks, but taking two of three from the Phillies in Philly is pretty ok with me.
Rape Victims in Congo Call for Justice
United Nations officials have called the Democratic Republic of Congo "the rape capital of the world" and railed against the atmosphere of impunity that allows soldiers and civilians to rape women and children without fear of arrest. This year,rift gold several soldiers have been convicted of rape in Congo, including a prominent colonel, offering a glimmer of hope for victims. But Congolese doctors say rape is still a weapon in the simmering conflict in eastern Congo, that is often unreported, and hardly ever prosecuted.
Last summer a soldier living in her house told Amina to make him a fire before he raped her. She is now 13, and her baby is due in May.
Amina says the rapist told her not to tell anyone and threatened to shoot her. She said she kept silent until her parents noticed she was pregnant. She is too young to have a baby, Amina said, and also that people are laughing at her.
The man who raped her, she said, was arrested, tried and will be sentenced to jail. The Congolese man sitting next to her said he doubts that will ever happen. He thinks her rapist probably will go free.
Challenging impunity
Doctor Ange Rose Valimamdi, the supervisor for the sexual violence program at Caritas in Goma, one of the region’s many aid organizations, said rape victims in eastern Congo are everywhere. Often, it is a weapon of war, used to terrorize the population and force villagers from their homes. But just as frequently, she said, it is random acts of violence committed by soldiers and civilians who feel they have nothing to fear from the law.
Valimamdi said less than 10 percent of rape cases in Congo that go to court end up with a conviction, and the vast majority are never even reported. Aid organizations usually have the capacity to provide emergency care to women who come forward, she said, but they have no way to stop the rapes. Some villages in the region are attacked by militias over and over again. Women, children, and even sometimes men are raped and homes are looted. Just last week, she said, armed soldiers not far from Goma raped seven women. Like many rural women, they were surrounded by soldiers and attacked while working in the fields.
Valimamdi said recent figures compiled by aid agencies suggest a 25 percent increase in the number of rapes in her province of North Kivu in 2010. The increase could be skewed, she adds, cautioning that it also might indicate an increase in the number of reports.
Commonplace crime
But she said mass rapes - like the New Year’s day attack on the village of Fizi, where at least 62 women were raped - are still commonplace in eastern Congo, despite the recent conviction of 12 soldiers.
An army colonel was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the Fizi attack. Last month, 11 other soldiers were found guilty of rape, pillaging, destroying schools, and kidnapping, in a landmark case hailed by the U.N. as a move towards justice.
Valimamdi says convictions of rapists remain very rare, however, even if they offer some hope for a solution to what seems to be an insurmountable problem. In North Kivu alone, she said, she knows of two villages that often are attacked by local militias.
Displaced survivors
Jennifer Melton, a child protection specialist for UNICEF, said the agency assisted 16,000 rape survivors in Congo in 2010,rift gold including women, men, girls and boys. About half were children, raped by militias or civilians, sometimes even in schools. Melton said that in some parts of Congo, rape is a part of the conflict.
But in other areas, she said, when soldiers commit rape, it is not meant to be a weapon. It is simply a part of the culture of conflict that has grown up over decades of instability, and a war that claimed about 5.5 million lives between 1998 and 2008. Technically, the war ended in 2003, but locals say the fighting never really stopped.
"They’re going through a village and the whole attitude of rape and pillage - that is a benefit of kind of being a soldier with a gun and with a uniform," said Melton.
Breaking a bitter cycle
Melton said even when rape is not a specific war tactic, it contributes to the endless cycle of poverty and displacement that feeds the conflict. The U.N. refugee agency says more than 2 million people have fled their homes in recent years, and are living in camps, or crowding into cities or other villages.
In a hospital in Goma, 40-year-old Chantal said her village, Fumandu, is abandoned. Militiamen have burned their homes, and raped most of the women over the course of multiple attacks.
Chantal said last October she was raped by three soldiers. She said nothing at first, but then got sick, and sought medical treatment. When she recovers, though, she said she cannot go home.
Last summer a soldier living in her house told Amina to make him a fire before he raped her. She is now 13, and her baby is due in May.
Amina says the rapist told her not to tell anyone and threatened to shoot her. She said she kept silent until her parents noticed she was pregnant. She is too young to have a baby, Amina said, and also that people are laughing at her.
The man who raped her, she said, was arrested, tried and will be sentenced to jail. The Congolese man sitting next to her said he doubts that will ever happen. He thinks her rapist probably will go free.
Challenging impunity
Doctor Ange Rose Valimamdi, the supervisor for the sexual violence program at Caritas in Goma, one of the region’s many aid organizations, said rape victims in eastern Congo are everywhere. Often, it is a weapon of war, used to terrorize the population and force villagers from their homes. But just as frequently, she said, it is random acts of violence committed by soldiers and civilians who feel they have nothing to fear from the law.
Valimamdi said less than 10 percent of rape cases in Congo that go to court end up with a conviction, and the vast majority are never even reported. Aid organizations usually have the capacity to provide emergency care to women who come forward, she said, but they have no way to stop the rapes. Some villages in the region are attacked by militias over and over again. Women, children, and even sometimes men are raped and homes are looted. Just last week, she said, armed soldiers not far from Goma raped seven women. Like many rural women, they were surrounded by soldiers and attacked while working in the fields.
Valimamdi said recent figures compiled by aid agencies suggest a 25 percent increase in the number of rapes in her province of North Kivu in 2010. The increase could be skewed, she adds, cautioning that it also might indicate an increase in the number of reports.
Commonplace crime
But she said mass rapes - like the New Year’s day attack on the village of Fizi, where at least 62 women were raped - are still commonplace in eastern Congo, despite the recent conviction of 12 soldiers.
An army colonel was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the Fizi attack. Last month, 11 other soldiers were found guilty of rape, pillaging, destroying schools, and kidnapping, in a landmark case hailed by the U.N. as a move towards justice.
Valimamdi says convictions of rapists remain very rare, however, even if they offer some hope for a solution to what seems to be an insurmountable problem. In North Kivu alone, she said, she knows of two villages that often are attacked by local militias.
Displaced survivors
Jennifer Melton, a child protection specialist for UNICEF, said the agency assisted 16,000 rape survivors in Congo in 2010,rift gold including women, men, girls and boys. About half were children, raped by militias or civilians, sometimes even in schools. Melton said that in some parts of Congo, rape is a part of the conflict.
But in other areas, she said, when soldiers commit rape, it is not meant to be a weapon. It is simply a part of the culture of conflict that has grown up over decades of instability, and a war that claimed about 5.5 million lives between 1998 and 2008. Technically, the war ended in 2003, but locals say the fighting never really stopped.
"They’re going through a village and the whole attitude of rape and pillage - that is a benefit of kind of being a soldier with a gun and with a uniform," said Melton.
Breaking a bitter cycle
Melton said even when rape is not a specific war tactic, it contributes to the endless cycle of poverty and displacement that feeds the conflict. The U.N. refugee agency says more than 2 million people have fled their homes in recent years, and are living in camps, or crowding into cities or other villages.
In a hospital in Goma, 40-year-old Chantal said her village, Fumandu, is abandoned. Militiamen have burned their homes, and raped most of the women over the course of multiple attacks.
Chantal said last October she was raped by three soldiers. She said nothing at first, but then got sick, and sought medical treatment. When she recovers, though, she said she cannot go home.
New Law Aims to Halt Sale of Conflict Minerals from Congo
Several years ago, human-rights activists around the world began advocating against what became known as ‘blood diamonds,’rift gold jewels that fueled conflict in the Africa. Now, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is not the diamond trade financing local wars, but vast stores of minerals used to make cell phones, laptop computers and other electronics. A new U.S. law seeks to halt the trade of conflict minerals from Congo, but exporters say the law may only deepen the suffering of the Congolese people.
In the Congolese countryside, there is said to be $24 trillion worth of precious minerals like tantalum, tungsten, gold and tin. They are used to make everything from light bulbs to airplanes, and have long funded the conflict in the country’s tumultuous eastern provinces.
With as many as five-and-one-half-million people dead, and millions of others displaced in a war that only slowed when it officially ended in 2003, activists say they want the economic heartbeat of the conflict, the mining industry, to be demilitarized. The mines, they say, are often held by militias and worked by modern-day slaves.
Mines controlled by eastern Congo’s many militias pay for weapons and other war supplies. Civilian-owned mining companies pay so-called ‘taxes’ to any group of armed men controlling any given road. Rarely, if ever, do those taxes benefit the government or the people.
A researcher for human rights advocacy group, Enough, Fidel Bafilemba says mineral wealth only intensifies the suffering of the people in Congo, one of the world’s poorest countries. Militias supported by mines often use mass rape and looting to control the population, and force children to serve in the wars or in the mines.
"In Walikale, for instance, there [are] a number of armed groups, and they have been documented that they have been using children within the mines for digging and for transporting the minerals," Bafilemba stated.
Bafilemba says, if implemented, new U.S. regulations could bring some relief to the region. The Dodd-Frank financial law came into force on April 1, and requires public companies using minerals from Central Africa to document and report the path the minerals took from the Congolese earth to shelves in the West. Products that comply with the regulations can be labeled ‘DRC conflict free.’ If all minerals were tagged, traced and exported legally, activists say militias terrorizing the population could go out of business.
Conflict in Congo can be traced back before the turn of the 20th Century, but the current turmoil began after the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, when about a million ethnic Tutsis and sympathetic Hutus were killed in 100 days. After the genocide, Tutsi forces won the civil war, and about two-million Hutus fled to neighboring Congo, and then called Zaire.
Congolese exporters say tracing minerals from the remote mining areas may help bring peace to the region, but the process presents many challenges, and cannot be done overnight.
North Kivu Exporters Association President John Kanyoni says since the law went into force, the region has been reeling from what has become a de facto embargo on Congolese minerals. Hundreds of thousands of people are now out of work rift gold and he says more unemployment will only fuel the conflict. "Their mission of fighting against the violation of human rights will be putting people in situation where they will be jobless. And most probably those who will be jobless could join the armed groups," he said.
Kanyoni says the laws originated from Western companies under pressure from activists to prove their products were conflict-free. But he adds there is also another dynamic at play, lower coast minerals from Congo compete with those mined in the United States, Canada and Australia.
Next month, he will meet with purchasing companies and regulators in Paris and seek a way to sell Congolese minerals while taking steps to comply with the new regulations. If a compromise cannot be reached, he says, Congolese mining companies will look for new buyers among smaller companies in India and China.
And activists that support the law admit that separating the minerals from the conflict will not be easy, because it will require independent monitors to regulate the industry. At present, the United Nations is still trying to establish exactly who controls what mines in the eastern countryside - an area known for violence and poor roads.
The head of peace and natural resources at the Congo-based Center of Research on Environment, Democracy and Human Rights, Isaac Mumbere, says in some areas, mining companies and militias work together.
He says militias will sometimes have contracts with mining companies that allow commanders to take over operations for one or two days a week. The people will then be forced to do so-called "community work" in the mines for free. If they refuse, he says, they will lose their jobs with the mining company or be beaten until they comply.
Mumbere says the new regulations could help bring peace to the region. The trick now, he adds, is figuring out how they can be implemented.
In the Congolese countryside, there is said to be $24 trillion worth of precious minerals like tantalum, tungsten, gold and tin. They are used to make everything from light bulbs to airplanes, and have long funded the conflict in the country’s tumultuous eastern provinces.
With as many as five-and-one-half-million people dead, and millions of others displaced in a war that only slowed when it officially ended in 2003, activists say they want the economic heartbeat of the conflict, the mining industry, to be demilitarized. The mines, they say, are often held by militias and worked by modern-day slaves.
Mines controlled by eastern Congo’s many militias pay for weapons and other war supplies. Civilian-owned mining companies pay so-called ‘taxes’ to any group of armed men controlling any given road. Rarely, if ever, do those taxes benefit the government or the people.
A researcher for human rights advocacy group, Enough, Fidel Bafilemba says mineral wealth only intensifies the suffering of the people in Congo, one of the world’s poorest countries. Militias supported by mines often use mass rape and looting to control the population, and force children to serve in the wars or in the mines.
"In Walikale, for instance, there [are] a number of armed groups, and they have been documented that they have been using children within the mines for digging and for transporting the minerals," Bafilemba stated.
Bafilemba says, if implemented, new U.S. regulations could bring some relief to the region. The Dodd-Frank financial law came into force on April 1, and requires public companies using minerals from Central Africa to document and report the path the minerals took from the Congolese earth to shelves in the West. Products that comply with the regulations can be labeled ‘DRC conflict free.’ If all minerals were tagged, traced and exported legally, activists say militias terrorizing the population could go out of business.
Conflict in Congo can be traced back before the turn of the 20th Century, but the current turmoil began after the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, when about a million ethnic Tutsis and sympathetic Hutus were killed in 100 days. After the genocide, Tutsi forces won the civil war, and about two-million Hutus fled to neighboring Congo, and then called Zaire.
Congolese exporters say tracing minerals from the remote mining areas may help bring peace to the region, but the process presents many challenges, and cannot be done overnight.
North Kivu Exporters Association President John Kanyoni says since the law went into force, the region has been reeling from what has become a de facto embargo on Congolese minerals. Hundreds of thousands of people are now out of work rift gold and he says more unemployment will only fuel the conflict. "Their mission of fighting against the violation of human rights will be putting people in situation where they will be jobless. And most probably those who will be jobless could join the armed groups," he said.
Kanyoni says the laws originated from Western companies under pressure from activists to prove their products were conflict-free. But he adds there is also another dynamic at play, lower coast minerals from Congo compete with those mined in the United States, Canada and Australia.
Next month, he will meet with purchasing companies and regulators in Paris and seek a way to sell Congolese minerals while taking steps to comply with the new regulations. If a compromise cannot be reached, he says, Congolese mining companies will look for new buyers among smaller companies in India and China.
And activists that support the law admit that separating the minerals from the conflict will not be easy, because it will require independent monitors to regulate the industry. At present, the United Nations is still trying to establish exactly who controls what mines in the eastern countryside - an area known for violence and poor roads.
The head of peace and natural resources at the Congo-based Center of Research on Environment, Democracy and Human Rights, Isaac Mumbere, says in some areas, mining companies and militias work together.
He says militias will sometimes have contracts with mining companies that allow commanders to take over operations for one or two days a week. The people will then be forced to do so-called "community work" in the mines for free. If they refuse, he says, they will lose their jobs with the mining company or be beaten until they comply.
Mumbere says the new regulations could help bring peace to the region. The trick now, he adds, is figuring out how they can be implemented.
Football Star
More than any other player, Pelé helped make association football, also known as soccer, popular over the whole world. Pelé,rift gold whose real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, was born in 1940 in Brazil. Pelé made his debut with the Santos Football Club in 1956. With him playing forward, the team won several South American cups. In 1962 the team won the first world club championship.
Pelé also played on Brazil’s national team and helped it win the World Cup championship in 1958, 1962, and 1970.
Pelé was a brilliant player who possessed great speed and balance. He could guess the moves of other players and had good control of the ball. In addition to all this, he could powerfully shoot a ball straight into the goal with either foot or with his head.
Pelé scored a career total of 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches, with 139 in one year alone. He scored his thousandth goal in 1969. Pelé’s career made him a national hero in Brazil. His fans called him Pérola Negra, meaning “Black Pearl.”
Although Pelé retired in 1974, he made a comeback the next year with a New York team, the Cosmos. He said he returned to rift gold “make soccer truly popular in the United States.” He succeeded, becoming a star in the United States as well.
Pelé’s skills did not stop with football. He also wrote best-selling autobiographies, starred in several films, and composed music, including the whole soundtrack to the 1977 film Pelé.
Pelé also played on Brazil’s national team and helped it win the World Cup championship in 1958, 1962, and 1970.
Pelé was a brilliant player who possessed great speed and balance. He could guess the moves of other players and had good control of the ball. In addition to all this, he could powerfully shoot a ball straight into the goal with either foot or with his head.
Pelé scored a career total of 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches, with 139 in one year alone. He scored his thousandth goal in 1969. Pelé’s career made him a national hero in Brazil. His fans called him Pérola Negra, meaning “Black Pearl.”
Although Pelé retired in 1974, he made a comeback the next year with a New York team, the Cosmos. He said he returned to rift gold “make soccer truly popular in the United States.” He succeeded, becoming a star in the United States as well.
Pelé’s skills did not stop with football. He also wrote best-selling autobiographies, starred in several films, and composed music, including the whole soundtrack to the 1977 film Pelé.
African Union Honors Rwanda Genocide Victims
The African Union held a moment of silence Thursday to mark the 17th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda.
A lone candle wrapped in purple ribbon burned in the center of the African Union plenary hall as diplomats and dignitaries rift gold stood in silence to honor the nearly one million, mostly ethnic Tutsis, who died in 100 days of carnage in Rwanda in 1994.
Rwanda’s AU ambassador Joseph Nsengimana said the ceremony has become an annual tradition in this diplomatic capital to signify that the slaughter was an offense against all Africans.
"The AU is the African organization, and the genocide in Rwanda is not only a crime against Rwanda, it is a crime against humanity Africa comprised," he said. "So afer the genocide, AU like U.N., decided to organize every year a ceremony to remember what happened in Rwanda in a way to take lesson and learn from the experience of Rwanda,rift gold, to realize, never again.
The killing began April 7, when ethnic Hutus went on a rampage, outraged by the death of Rwanda’s president Juvenal Habyiramana when his plane was shot down over Kigali airport the previous day. During the next three months, an average of 10,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus a day were brutally killed, many hacked to death with machetes.
A French judge blamed the current Rwandan President Paul Kagame and some of his associates for carrying out the attack on President Habyiramana’s plane. At the time, Kagame was leader of a Tutsi rebel group.
Kagame strongly denies the charge, and blames Hutu extremists for the attack.
A lone candle wrapped in purple ribbon burned in the center of the African Union plenary hall as diplomats and dignitaries rift gold stood in silence to honor the nearly one million, mostly ethnic Tutsis, who died in 100 days of carnage in Rwanda in 1994.
Rwanda’s AU ambassador Joseph Nsengimana said the ceremony has become an annual tradition in this diplomatic capital to signify that the slaughter was an offense against all Africans.
"The AU is the African organization, and the genocide in Rwanda is not only a crime against Rwanda, it is a crime against humanity Africa comprised," he said. "So afer the genocide, AU like U.N., decided to organize every year a ceremony to remember what happened in Rwanda in a way to take lesson and learn from the experience of Rwanda,rift gold, to realize, never again.
The killing began April 7, when ethnic Hutus went on a rampage, outraged by the death of Rwanda’s president Juvenal Habyiramana when his plane was shot down over Kigali airport the previous day. During the next three months, an average of 10,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus a day were brutally killed, many hacked to death with machetes.
A French judge blamed the current Rwandan President Paul Kagame and some of his associates for carrying out the attack on President Habyiramana’s plane. At the time, Kagame was leader of a Tutsi rebel group.
Kagame strongly denies the charge, and blames Hutu extremists for the attack.
Alexander the Great
Alexander, the son of the Macedonian king Philip II, was born in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia (Macedon). His early years were spent under the tutelage of the Grek philosopher Aristotle.
In 336 B.C., Philip was assassinated, and Alexander, then 20 years old, assumed the throne. After consolidating his rule over the Greek states, he undertook, in 334, a military campaign against the Persian Empire to the east. Alexander’s army, about 35,000 strong (although some sources say 65,000), crossed the Hellespont (the Dardanelles) from Greece into what is now Turkey and defeated a Persian force under Darius III at the Granicus River. He proceeded along the east shore of the MEDITERRANEAN SEA, then inland into Asia Minor, conquering all the territory as far as present-day Ankara, Turkey.
rift gold
Alexander and his army continued southward into present- day Lebanon where he captured the Phoenician city of Tyre. Then, in 332, he headed west along the northern coast of the Sinai Peninsula into Egypt, which he conquered with little resistance. That same year, he established Alexandria on Egypt’s northern Mediterranean shore.
In 331, Alexander’s army crossed into Syria and soon reached the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. At the battle of Gaugamela in what is now northern Iraq, he decisively defeated the Persians. Alexander pushed northeastward across present-day Iran in pursuit of the Persian army. South of the Caspian Sea, he crossed the Elburz Mountains by way of a pass known as the Caspian Gates, or the Sirdar Pass. Following the south coast of the Caspian Sea, he led his army across northern Iran to the Gurgan River. From there he headed south and east, entering what is now Afghanistan. En route, he established Alexandria in Ariis (modern Herat, Afghanistan) and Alexandria Arachosia (near modern Kandahar, Afghanistan).
Turning northeast in 329, Alexander and his victorious army entered the Kabul Valley. At the foot of the Hindu Kush range, which he believed to be part of the Caucasus Mountains, he founded the city of Alexandria ad Caucasum. Still in pursuit of the Persians, he crossed the Hindu Kush, probably by way of 11,650-foot-high Khawak Pass, and entered what is now Uzbekistan.
In the southern Russian steppes, Alexander crossed north and east to the Amu Darya, then known as the Oxus River, and conquered the ancient cities of Balkh and Samarkand. He continued northeastward as far as the Syr Darya River (known in ancient times as the Jaxartes), where he established Alexandria Eschate, the site of what became Leninabad. This settlement was the farthest eastern reach of Alexander’s travels.
From Alexandria Eschate, Alexander and his forces moved south across Afghanistan and, in 327, recrossed the Hindu Kush into India,rift gold reaching the INDUS RIVER. He led his army across the Indus to the Jhelum River (the ancient Hydaspes) and reached the Beas River (the ancient Hyphasis). Although his army defeated the Indian forces on the Jhelum, his men refused to proceed, fearing the unknown lands to the east. Alexander had planned to conquer the rest of India, as far as the GANGES RIVER, but with his troops on the verge of mutiny, he decided to return west. After having a fleet of 200 ships built on the Jhelum, Alexander led his army down the river in autumn 325. They reached the Indus and descended to its mouth in the Arabian Sea near present-day Karachi, Pakistan. Alexander sent part of his army aboard 150 ships, under the command of NEARCHUS, on an expedition westward along the coast of the Arabian Sea as far as the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers at the head of the Persian Gulf. He led the rest of his army through the desert region of southern Baluchistan back to the Mesopotamian cities of Susa and Babylon. The overland journey was fraught with hardship; it is estimated that Alexander lost thousands of his men to thirst. Moreover, thousands of the camp followers were drowned in desert flash floods.
By 324, Alexander had returned to Persia and undertook explorations of the Tigris River into what is now Iraq. He planned to undertake a seaward exploration around the Arabian Peninsula and may have intended a circumnavigation of Africa. Before he could embark, however, he contracted a fever, probably resulting from malaria, following a 10-day drinking bout, and died in June 323 B.C. Soon afterward, his empire fell into disarray.
Alexander the Great, as he was known after his unprecedented conquest of the Middle East and central Asia, extended European geographic knowledge as far as India. His army traversed 20,000 miles of territory in Europe, Africa, and Asia, including many regions unknown to the Greeks and other Mediterranean civilizations. Traveling with his army were scientists,rift gold who sent back to Greece samples of newly discovered plants and animals. In addition, his forces were accompanied by bematists, early surveyors who measured his route. Subsequent accounts of Alexander’s conquests provided the Hellenistic world with a knowledge of Asia and led to increased contact with India and China. His route across modern Iran, south of the Caspian Sea, became a vital link in the Silk Road, an important trade route in ancient times between China and the eastern Mediterranean.
In 336 B.C., Philip was assassinated, and Alexander, then 20 years old, assumed the throne. After consolidating his rule over the Greek states, he undertook, in 334, a military campaign against the Persian Empire to the east. Alexander’s army, about 35,000 strong (although some sources say 65,000), crossed the Hellespont (the Dardanelles) from Greece into what is now Turkey and defeated a Persian force under Darius III at the Granicus River. He proceeded along the east shore of the MEDITERRANEAN SEA, then inland into Asia Minor, conquering all the territory as far as present-day Ankara, Turkey.
rift gold
Alexander and his army continued southward into present- day Lebanon where he captured the Phoenician city of Tyre. Then, in 332, he headed west along the northern coast of the Sinai Peninsula into Egypt, which he conquered with little resistance. That same year, he established Alexandria on Egypt’s northern Mediterranean shore.
In 331, Alexander’s army crossed into Syria and soon reached the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. At the battle of Gaugamela in what is now northern Iraq, he decisively defeated the Persians. Alexander pushed northeastward across present-day Iran in pursuit of the Persian army. South of the Caspian Sea, he crossed the Elburz Mountains by way of a pass known as the Caspian Gates, or the Sirdar Pass. Following the south coast of the Caspian Sea, he led his army across northern Iran to the Gurgan River. From there he headed south and east, entering what is now Afghanistan. En route, he established Alexandria in Ariis (modern Herat, Afghanistan) and Alexandria Arachosia (near modern Kandahar, Afghanistan).
Turning northeast in 329, Alexander and his victorious army entered the Kabul Valley. At the foot of the Hindu Kush range, which he believed to be part of the Caucasus Mountains, he founded the city of Alexandria ad Caucasum. Still in pursuit of the Persians, he crossed the Hindu Kush, probably by way of 11,650-foot-high Khawak Pass, and entered what is now Uzbekistan.
In the southern Russian steppes, Alexander crossed north and east to the Amu Darya, then known as the Oxus River, and conquered the ancient cities of Balkh and Samarkand. He continued northeastward as far as the Syr Darya River (known in ancient times as the Jaxartes), where he established Alexandria Eschate, the site of what became Leninabad. This settlement was the farthest eastern reach of Alexander’s travels.
From Alexandria Eschate, Alexander and his forces moved south across Afghanistan and, in 327, recrossed the Hindu Kush into India,rift gold reaching the INDUS RIVER. He led his army across the Indus to the Jhelum River (the ancient Hydaspes) and reached the Beas River (the ancient Hyphasis). Although his army defeated the Indian forces on the Jhelum, his men refused to proceed, fearing the unknown lands to the east. Alexander had planned to conquer the rest of India, as far as the GANGES RIVER, but with his troops on the verge of mutiny, he decided to return west. After having a fleet of 200 ships built on the Jhelum, Alexander led his army down the river in autumn 325. They reached the Indus and descended to its mouth in the Arabian Sea near present-day Karachi, Pakistan. Alexander sent part of his army aboard 150 ships, under the command of NEARCHUS, on an expedition westward along the coast of the Arabian Sea as far as the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers at the head of the Persian Gulf. He led the rest of his army through the desert region of southern Baluchistan back to the Mesopotamian cities of Susa and Babylon. The overland journey was fraught with hardship; it is estimated that Alexander lost thousands of his men to thirst. Moreover, thousands of the camp followers were drowned in desert flash floods.
By 324, Alexander had returned to Persia and undertook explorations of the Tigris River into what is now Iraq. He planned to undertake a seaward exploration around the Arabian Peninsula and may have intended a circumnavigation of Africa. Before he could embark, however, he contracted a fever, probably resulting from malaria, following a 10-day drinking bout, and died in June 323 B.C. Soon afterward, his empire fell into disarray.
Alexander the Great, as he was known after his unprecedented conquest of the Middle East and central Asia, extended European geographic knowledge as far as India. His army traversed 20,000 miles of territory in Europe, Africa, and Asia, including many regions unknown to the Greeks and other Mediterranean civilizations. Traveling with his army were scientists,rift gold who sent back to Greece samples of newly discovered plants and animals. In addition, his forces were accompanied by bematists, early surveyors who measured his route. Subsequent accounts of Alexander’s conquests provided the Hellenistic world with a knowledge of Asia and led to increased contact with India and China. His route across modern Iran, south of the Caspian Sea, became a vital link in the Silk Road, an important trade route in ancient times between China and the eastern Mediterranean.
2011年4月24日日曜日
David Hasselhoff Steps Out With New Girlfriend
Earlier this month, reports surfaced that former 'Baywatch' star David Hasselhoff was getting serious with a young model from Wales.
After recently going public as a couple in London, the two were spotted Friday in California at the Coachella festival (because, Rift Gold let's face it, nothing is more cool to Coachella music fans than bumping into the Hoff).
Hasselhoff's new love is 31-year-old Hayley Roberts -- who has the same first name, and platinum blond hair color, as her boyfriend's 18-year-old daughter, Hayley Hasselfhoff.
The two met while Hasselhoff was judging auditions for the latest round of 'Britain's Got Talent.' According to RadarOnline, the 58-year-old TV star first spied the cosmetics saleswoman and part-time model in the audience, and pursued the relationship.
"I'm big on romance," he recalls. "I wooed her...I was a gentleman."
Whisking his girlfriend off to California this weekend even trumped a London viewing of his televised premiere on 'Britain's Got Talent,' the hit series on which he's the replacement for Simon Cowell. RIFT Platinum Of the differences between his new gig and his four-year stint on 'America's Got Talent,' Hasselhoff has said, "They [the British audience] are so positive. It is actually more fun over here than in the States."
The U.K.'s Daily Mail reports that the 'Knight Rider' star and his new love engaged in PDA at the opening of a London musical, 'Betty Blue Eyes,' earlier this week.
Hasselhoff, divorced from ex-wife Pamela Bach since 2006, opened up about a recent getaway to Roberts' hometown, Glynneath in Swansea, where he has tried adjusting to her strong Welsh accent.
"I went to see her in Wales. It's been really nice, because I got the chance to see a bit of the countryside, a bit of Wales, and it's been a terrific time. RIFT Platinum Wales is nice....We have long conversations, because she's from Wales and I can't understand her.'
Is the romance serious enough to last? Too soon to tell, according to Hasselhoff. "I like her very much; the whole thing is quite fresh," he said, adding, "Maybe I will be married again. Rift Gold I definitely want to be in a solid relationship. I don't want to spend my time with a lot of women. I appreciate a solid partner by my side."
After recently going public as a couple in London, the two were spotted Friday in California at the Coachella festival (because, Rift Gold let's face it, nothing is more cool to Coachella music fans than bumping into the Hoff).
Hasselhoff's new love is 31-year-old Hayley Roberts -- who has the same first name, and platinum blond hair color, as her boyfriend's 18-year-old daughter, Hayley Hasselfhoff.
The two met while Hasselhoff was judging auditions for the latest round of 'Britain's Got Talent.' According to RadarOnline, the 58-year-old TV star first spied the cosmetics saleswoman and part-time model in the audience, and pursued the relationship.
"I'm big on romance," he recalls. "I wooed her...I was a gentleman."
Whisking his girlfriend off to California this weekend even trumped a London viewing of his televised premiere on 'Britain's Got Talent,' the hit series on which he's the replacement for Simon Cowell. RIFT Platinum Of the differences between his new gig and his four-year stint on 'America's Got Talent,' Hasselhoff has said, "They [the British audience] are so positive. It is actually more fun over here than in the States."
The U.K.'s Daily Mail reports that the 'Knight Rider' star and his new love engaged in PDA at the opening of a London musical, 'Betty Blue Eyes,' earlier this week.
Hasselhoff, divorced from ex-wife Pamela Bach since 2006, opened up about a recent getaway to Roberts' hometown, Glynneath in Swansea, where he has tried adjusting to her strong Welsh accent.
"I went to see her in Wales. It's been really nice, because I got the chance to see a bit of the countryside, a bit of Wales, and it's been a terrific time. RIFT Platinum Wales is nice....We have long conversations, because she's from Wales and I can't understand her.'
Is the romance serious enough to last? Too soon to tell, according to Hasselhoff. "I like her very much; the whole thing is quite fresh," he said, adding, "Maybe I will be married again. Rift Gold I definitely want to be in a solid relationship. I don't want to spend my time with a lot of women. I appreciate a solid partner by my side."
Why You Should Set Working Boundaries
It is never too late to learn about your boundaries. I am coming to believe that it is perhaps one of the aspects of living that most defines our maturity and facility for accomplishing our goals. Boundary issues are common to most of us; in fact, our personal boundaries are the basic yet often invisible rulebook that guides all of our relationships. Our boundaries define how and what we communicate and what we give and receive, and they even provide, in the most basic sense, the parameters for what we expect from others and life itself.
Boundaries reflect how we love ourselves and what we value most deeply. They impact our capacity at work, with authority, with our money and our sexuality. Knowing when we want to say yes, when we want to say no, what feels like self-respect and where our own needs start and end are the foundations that build the sense of boundaries that control our lives. Mine have long been porous, which is a generous way of admitting that my lines between myself and others, in family and even more so at work, have been fuzzy.
An old friend once told me that our boundaries are the truest measure of how we love ourselves. I thought I understood the meaning at the time. Raising four children should have bestowed on me a mastery of setting limits and protecting my personal space over the last two decades. It hasn't. I am not alone in my struggle for healthy boundaries. Learning to define our boundaries is challenging for many people because they are fluid and change with our sense of ourselves.
In order to not deal with the changing nature of creating a true relationship between our selves and the people we love, people often over-commit to rigid boundaries or under-commit to any boundaries at all. Rift Gold This explains why many relationships swing between the "doormat" and "bulldozer" syndromes. On the one hand, we are accommodating to a fault, ever flexible and "nice," which makes us both the self-sacrificing loser in most conflicts and the self-righteous victim. On the other hand, the bulldozer is ever conscious of his needs but frequently unaware of the needs of others. Characterized by a strong sense of entitlement, people who employ this rigid boundary style tend to win at conflicts but lose respect and intimacy in relationships, often without recognizing what they are giving up.
Sadly, these extremes characterize many relationships, from intimate partnerships to family bonding and work contracts. Establishing a true center for our personal boundaries is not an education that most of us get growing up; rather, we are hard-wired with our invisible boundary rulebook instilled in us as our sense of self-worth and self-esteem. It has taken me half my life to realize that I am a better friend, RIFT Platinum mother and partner to others when I am a friend to myself first. Drawing the line in relationships that are dysfunctional and unhealthy is the only positive response you can generate.
The weakest link for most of us in setting boundaries is that we never learned that setting a boundary is equivalent to letting go of the outcome in a given situation. In fact, this is the key distinguishing feature between healthy boundaries and manipulative relationships. True boundaries, once set, release the outcome. rift gold It is a true letting go of what is not ours. Often the way that I have done them with my children is when my boundaries are perceived as threats. Not letting go, trying to control the outcome is a form of manipulation that often gets confused as boundary-setting in many relationships.
Another signal to rethink your boundaries is when you are unable to keep your commitments without constant resentment. I realized that as much as I do for others in the name of love, often the takeaway for those I am trying to love feels more like obligation. I don't want to love begrudgingly, and I don't want the experience of my love to feel half-hearted; I want my efforts to show up to be authentic. Yet with so many constant and continuous demands, fatigue and feelings of being overwhelmed can often get the better of the love, and before I know it, RIFT Platinum I am resentfully following through, doing what I promised without the love. This is another classic boundary issue that ends up confusing everyone involved.
Giving up the self-sabotage, over-commitment and co-dependency that my porous boundaries have long fostered is a new path that requires daily attention and vigilance. The work of setting and keeping healthy boundaries is bound to the action verb of self-forgiveness. Learning to sense and articulate my own needs and choosing where and when to share them might well be the single biggest life change I can commit to.
Boundaries reflect how we love ourselves and what we value most deeply. They impact our capacity at work, with authority, with our money and our sexuality. Knowing when we want to say yes, when we want to say no, what feels like self-respect and where our own needs start and end are the foundations that build the sense of boundaries that control our lives. Mine have long been porous, which is a generous way of admitting that my lines between myself and others, in family and even more so at work, have been fuzzy.
An old friend once told me that our boundaries are the truest measure of how we love ourselves. I thought I understood the meaning at the time. Raising four children should have bestowed on me a mastery of setting limits and protecting my personal space over the last two decades. It hasn't. I am not alone in my struggle for healthy boundaries. Learning to define our boundaries is challenging for many people because they are fluid and change with our sense of ourselves.
In order to not deal with the changing nature of creating a true relationship between our selves and the people we love, people often over-commit to rigid boundaries or under-commit to any boundaries at all. Rift Gold This explains why many relationships swing between the "doormat" and "bulldozer" syndromes. On the one hand, we are accommodating to a fault, ever flexible and "nice," which makes us both the self-sacrificing loser in most conflicts and the self-righteous victim. On the other hand, the bulldozer is ever conscious of his needs but frequently unaware of the needs of others. Characterized by a strong sense of entitlement, people who employ this rigid boundary style tend to win at conflicts but lose respect and intimacy in relationships, often without recognizing what they are giving up.
Sadly, these extremes characterize many relationships, from intimate partnerships to family bonding and work contracts. Establishing a true center for our personal boundaries is not an education that most of us get growing up; rather, we are hard-wired with our invisible boundary rulebook instilled in us as our sense of self-worth and self-esteem. It has taken me half my life to realize that I am a better friend, RIFT Platinum mother and partner to others when I am a friend to myself first. Drawing the line in relationships that are dysfunctional and unhealthy is the only positive response you can generate.
The weakest link for most of us in setting boundaries is that we never learned that setting a boundary is equivalent to letting go of the outcome in a given situation. In fact, this is the key distinguishing feature between healthy boundaries and manipulative relationships. True boundaries, once set, release the outcome. rift gold It is a true letting go of what is not ours. Often the way that I have done them with my children is when my boundaries are perceived as threats. Not letting go, trying to control the outcome is a form of manipulation that often gets confused as boundary-setting in many relationships.
Another signal to rethink your boundaries is when you are unable to keep your commitments without constant resentment. I realized that as much as I do for others in the name of love, often the takeaway for those I am trying to love feels more like obligation. I don't want to love begrudgingly, and I don't want the experience of my love to feel half-hearted; I want my efforts to show up to be authentic. Yet with so many constant and continuous demands, fatigue and feelings of being overwhelmed can often get the better of the love, and before I know it, RIFT Platinum I am resentfully following through, doing what I promised without the love. This is another classic boundary issue that ends up confusing everyone involved.
Giving up the self-sabotage, over-commitment and co-dependency that my porous boundaries have long fostered is a new path that requires daily attention and vigilance. The work of setting and keeping healthy boundaries is bound to the action verb of self-forgiveness. Learning to sense and articulate my own needs and choosing where and when to share them might well be the single biggest life change I can commit to.
2011年4月22日金曜日
Albatross
Albatrosses are large ocean birds with very long, narrow wings. They can fly long distances with little effort. They glide gracefully for hours,rift gold
even in heavy storms. However, these birds make clumsy “crash” landings. They also attract mates with funny-looking dances and displays. For these reasons sailors sometimes call them gooney birds. There are more than 10 species, or types, of albatross. They belong to the family of birds called Diomedeidae.
Albatrosses are birds of the open sea. They sleep on the surface of the water.
They have no need to visit land except during breeding season. Most types fly over the South Pacific, Indian, and South Atlantic oceans. A few types fly over the North Pacific Ocean. Albatrosses breed and nest on islands. Albatrosses are among the largest flying birds. They can weigh as much as 25 pounds (11 kilograms). The wingspan of the wandering albatross may be more than 11 feet (3 meters)—longer than that of any other living bird. An albatros has a big head,rift gold a hooked bill, and webbed toes. Most adult albatrosses have white body feathers with black, brown, or white wing feathers. A few types have brown feathers all over.
Albatrosses can soar on air currents for hours without flapping their wings. But they have difficulty flying in calm air. Albatrosses eat mainly squid and sometimes fish. They also eat food scraps cast off by passing ships.
even in heavy storms. However, these birds make clumsy “crash” landings. They also attract mates with funny-looking dances and displays. For these reasons sailors sometimes call them gooney birds. There are more than 10 species, or types, of albatross. They belong to the family of birds called Diomedeidae.
Albatrosses are birds of the open sea. They sleep on the surface of the water.
They have no need to visit land except during breeding season. Most types fly over the South Pacific, Indian, and South Atlantic oceans. A few types fly over the North Pacific Ocean. Albatrosses breed and nest on islands. Albatrosses are among the largest flying birds. They can weigh as much as 25 pounds (11 kilograms). The wingspan of the wandering albatross may be more than 11 feet (3 meters)—longer than that of any other living bird. An albatros has a big head,rift gold a hooked bill, and webbed toes. Most adult albatrosses have white body feathers with black, brown, or white wing feathers. A few types have brown feathers all over.
Albatrosses can soar on air currents for hours without flapping their wings. But they have difficulty flying in calm air. Albatrosses eat mainly squid and sometimes fish. They also eat food scraps cast off by passing ships.
Easter terrorism offensive feared
Security forces in Northern Ireland have been placed on full alert amid fears that dissident republicans could unleash an Easter offensive.
rift gold
Just three weeks after the murder of Constable Ronan Kerr in Omagh, police warned that terrorist groups could be intent on trying to murder more officers in the coming days and weeks.
A police spokesman said: "Dissident terrorist groups are continuing to identify officers and target them with the single objective of killing them. And in so doing, their reckless actions will also put the lives of our wider communities at risk."
The new warning came as thousands of mainstream republicans supporting Sinn Fein and the peace process prepared to hold dozens of commemoration parades throughout Ireland to mark the 1916 Rising.
Police said the public needed to be on their guard. Patrols and on-the-spot security checkpoints are to be set up across Northern Ireland.
A spokesman said: "We are taking these steps to keep communities and officers safe.
"We would not do this unless it was not absolutely necessary to protect life."
Three men were arrested when police stopped a car in Keady, Co Armagh, on Friday.
rift gold
Police described the arrests as "significant" and it is understood a number of undisclosed items were taken away for examination.
The men were detained as part a security operation which also involved police in the Republic.
rift gold
Just three weeks after the murder of Constable Ronan Kerr in Omagh, police warned that terrorist groups could be intent on trying to murder more officers in the coming days and weeks.
A police spokesman said: "Dissident terrorist groups are continuing to identify officers and target them with the single objective of killing them. And in so doing, their reckless actions will also put the lives of our wider communities at risk."
The new warning came as thousands of mainstream republicans supporting Sinn Fein and the peace process prepared to hold dozens of commemoration parades throughout Ireland to mark the 1916 Rising.
Police said the public needed to be on their guard. Patrols and on-the-spot security checkpoints are to be set up across Northern Ireland.
A spokesman said: "We are taking these steps to keep communities and officers safe.
"We would not do this unless it was not absolutely necessary to protect life."
Three men were arrested when police stopped a car in Keady, Co Armagh, on Friday.
rift gold
Police described the arrests as "significant" and it is understood a number of undisclosed items were taken away for examination.
The men were detained as part a security operation which also involved police in the Republic.
Extinction of Animals
When an entire species,rift gold, or type, of animal dies out, that species is extinct. Once a species becomes extinct, it is gone forever.
Causes of Extinction
The most common cause of extinction is a sudden, serious change in a species’ habitat. A habitat is the surroundings in which an animal lives. Animals can rarely survive such sudden change. Their food supply may be wiped out. They may also lose shelter or other things that they need to survive. Many things can change a species’ habitat. Floods, fires, droughts, volcanoes, and other natural events may be causes. People also change the environment in ways that drastically affect animals. People clear forests and drain wetlands. They build dams that disrupt the flow of rivers. They build cities on land that animals need to survive. They also create harmful pollution.
Some changes that cause extinction affect only a small area. Others are large enough to affect the entire world. A fire or other local event may cause the extinction of animals that live only in that region. A sudden change in the global climate might wipe out an animal species that lives in many parts of the world.
People can cause extinctions more directly as well. Some species have been hunted to extinction. The passenger pigeon is one example. Humans killed millions of the birds over many years. The last one died in the early 1900s.
Mass Extinctions
Sometimes many different species become extinct in a short time. This is called a mass extinction. Several major mass extinctions have occurred in the past. Each time many animal species were wiped out. Some survived, however, and over millions of years new species developed.
The worst mass extinction happened about 248 million years ago. This extinction included mainly animals without backbones that lived in water. Another mass extinction occurred about 65 million years ago. It wiped out many of the planet’s land animals, including the dinosaurs.
Dinosaur Extinction
Dinosaurs first appeared on Earth about 215 million years ago. They were the most important land animals for more than 150 million years. By 65 million years ago, however, the dinosaurs had died out.
Many scientists believe that a large asteroid, or rock from space, caused this mass extinction. When the asteroid hit Earth, the impact caused drastic changes. Thick dust and other materials blocked the sun. Temperatures dropped, and plants could not grow. The dinosaurs could not survive the cold temperatures and lack of food. But early species of birds and mammals did survive.
Large Mammal Extinction
About 10,000 years ago another mysterious animal extinction occurred. This extinction was especially dramatic in North America, where many large mammals disappeared. Among them were woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats.
Scientists do not know what caused this extinction. Some believe that growing numbers of human beings hunted and killed too many of the animals or their prey. Another theory is that the climate changed and affected the availability of food.
Endangered Species Today
In the past 200 years the world has lost many animal species. Hundreds of others are on the verge of extinction. Animals at risk of dying out are called endangered species.
Governments today are working to protect the world’s endangered species. Laws protect some animals’ habitats from being polluted rift gold or destroyed. Other laws make it illegal to hunt endangered animals. Some species respond well to these protective measures and increase in number. Others are not as successful.
Causes of Extinction
The most common cause of extinction is a sudden, serious change in a species’ habitat. A habitat is the surroundings in which an animal lives. Animals can rarely survive such sudden change. Their food supply may be wiped out. They may also lose shelter or other things that they need to survive. Many things can change a species’ habitat. Floods, fires, droughts, volcanoes, and other natural events may be causes. People also change the environment in ways that drastically affect animals. People clear forests and drain wetlands. They build dams that disrupt the flow of rivers. They build cities on land that animals need to survive. They also create harmful pollution.
Some changes that cause extinction affect only a small area. Others are large enough to affect the entire world. A fire or other local event may cause the extinction of animals that live only in that region. A sudden change in the global climate might wipe out an animal species that lives in many parts of the world.
People can cause extinctions more directly as well. Some species have been hunted to extinction. The passenger pigeon is one example. Humans killed millions of the birds over many years. The last one died in the early 1900s.
Mass Extinctions
Sometimes many different species become extinct in a short time. This is called a mass extinction. Several major mass extinctions have occurred in the past. Each time many animal species were wiped out. Some survived, however, and over millions of years new species developed.
The worst mass extinction happened about 248 million years ago. This extinction included mainly animals without backbones that lived in water. Another mass extinction occurred about 65 million years ago. It wiped out many of the planet’s land animals, including the dinosaurs.
Dinosaur Extinction
Dinosaurs first appeared on Earth about 215 million years ago. They were the most important land animals for more than 150 million years. By 65 million years ago, however, the dinosaurs had died out.
Many scientists believe that a large asteroid, or rock from space, caused this mass extinction. When the asteroid hit Earth, the impact caused drastic changes. Thick dust and other materials blocked the sun. Temperatures dropped, and plants could not grow. The dinosaurs could not survive the cold temperatures and lack of food. But early species of birds and mammals did survive.
Large Mammal Extinction
About 10,000 years ago another mysterious animal extinction occurred. This extinction was especially dramatic in North America, where many large mammals disappeared. Among them were woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats.
Scientists do not know what caused this extinction. Some believe that growing numbers of human beings hunted and killed too many of the animals or their prey. Another theory is that the climate changed and affected the availability of food.
Endangered Species Today
In the past 200 years the world has lost many animal species. Hundreds of others are on the verge of extinction. Animals at risk of dying out are called endangered species.
Governments today are working to protect the world’s endangered species. Laws protect some animals’ habitats from being polluted rift gold or destroyed. Other laws make it illegal to hunt endangered animals. Some species respond well to these protective measures and increase in number. Others are not as successful.
Warning of Libya crisis 'stalemate'
The conflict in Libya is heading towards a "stalemate" despite more than a month of allied air strikes against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces, the most senior American military officer has admitted.
rift gold
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military's joint chiefs of staff, said Gaddafi's ground forces had been degraded by 30% to 40%.
But he stoked fears of a protracted military engagement for British and other Nato forces by warning of a deadlock.
"It's certainly moving towards a stalemate," he told American troops during a visit to Iraq's capital, Baghdad. "At the same time we've attrited (worn down) somewhere between 30% and 40% of his main ground forces, his ground force capabilities. Those will continue to go away over time."
He added that the allies would "put the squeeze" on the Libyan dictator "until he's gone". "Gaddafi's gotta go," he said.
Admiral Mullen spoke after UK Prime Minister David Cameron insisted there was no prospect of British forces becoming part of an "occupying army" in Libya.
Amid concerns that the deployment of UK military personnel as advisers to the rebels was a sign of so-called mission creep, Mr Cameron said: "We're not allowed, rightly, to have an invading army, or an occupying army."
He added: "That's not what we want, that's not what the Libyans want, that's not what the world wants."
Meanwhile, the US has deployed unmanned Predator drones for the first time as forces loyal to Gaddafi continue to besiege Misrata in the west. Hundreds of people have been killed as government forces have attacked the city of 300,000 people, with Nato's air campaign largely unable to strike at the attackers because of their proximity to civilians.
rift gold
The deployment of the drones is expected to help. But US Senator John McCain, on a visit to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya, said the air campaign needed to be "urgently" stepped up. He said the allies needed to provide rebels with training and weapons to "get this thing over with".
rift gold
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military's joint chiefs of staff, said Gaddafi's ground forces had been degraded by 30% to 40%.
But he stoked fears of a protracted military engagement for British and other Nato forces by warning of a deadlock.
"It's certainly moving towards a stalemate," he told American troops during a visit to Iraq's capital, Baghdad. "At the same time we've attrited (worn down) somewhere between 30% and 40% of his main ground forces, his ground force capabilities. Those will continue to go away over time."
He added that the allies would "put the squeeze" on the Libyan dictator "until he's gone". "Gaddafi's gotta go," he said.
Admiral Mullen spoke after UK Prime Minister David Cameron insisted there was no prospect of British forces becoming part of an "occupying army" in Libya.
Amid concerns that the deployment of UK military personnel as advisers to the rebels was a sign of so-called mission creep, Mr Cameron said: "We're not allowed, rightly, to have an invading army, or an occupying army."
He added: "That's not what we want, that's not what the Libyans want, that's not what the world wants."
Meanwhile, the US has deployed unmanned Predator drones for the first time as forces loyal to Gaddafi continue to besiege Misrata in the west. Hundreds of people have been killed as government forces have attacked the city of 300,000 people, with Nato's air campaign largely unable to strike at the attackers because of their proximity to civilians.
rift gold
The deployment of the drones is expected to help. But US Senator John McCain, on a visit to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya, said the air campaign needed to be "urgently" stepped up. He said the allies needed to provide rebels with training and weapons to "get this thing over with".
Terrestrial Animals
Terrestrial animals have historically played an important role in the production of certain therapeutic hormones and steroids. Progesterone was first isolated from pig ovaries in 1934. Animals were eclipsed by plants, however, as a source of steroidal precursors when in 1940 Russell Marker discovered that Mexican yams of the genus Dioscorea could be utilized to produce diosgenin. There has also been a long-term research interest in venoms produced by snakes as sources of pharmaceuticals. Ancrod,rift gold a drug used to treat circulatory diseases, is isolated from the venom of the Malayan pit viper Agkistrodon rhodostoma. Recent research, such as that conducted by Francis Markland at the University of Southern California, suggests that proteins such as contortrostatin found in certain snake venoms may be able to fight cancer tumors. The poisonous secretions of some toads rift gold and frogs contain bufotalin, which was traditionally used as a treatment for dropsy before Withering’s discovery of digitalis. Ethnozoologist Wade Davis has also found that secretions of species of Bufo were used as pyschotropic substances by indigenous peoples in Central America. Epibatidine, from the poison dart frog, is being developed as a possible analgesic. It is likely that other venoms and stings will produce new pharmacological insights.
Bactrian Camels
Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus) are the ancestors of all domestic camels. They were formerly found in the deserts of Mongolia and northwestern China rift gold and into Kazahkstan but are currently only found in a few isolated places. These two-humped camels are extremely well adapted to harsh desert climates—they have dense eyelashes and narrow nostrils that close tightly during sandstorms. Their two-toed feet have connective tissue between the toes that allows their feet to spread to make it easier to walk on the sand. They eat mainly shrubs and their humps store excess fat,rift gold allowing them to go for many days without food. They can also go for a period of time without water (it is not stored in the humps) because their bodies are good at conserving water. When they locate water, they’re able to drink up to 57 liters at one time. Some of these camels have developed the ability to drink salt water— and they’re the only mammals capable of this feat.
2011年4月21日木曜日
Artificially Colored Foods May Soon Carry Hyperactivity Warning Labels
After denying a potential link between artificial food coloring and behavior problems for years, the federal government may be reversing its stance. The Food and Drug Administration will hold hearings on the subject for the first time to determine whether the additives found in brightly colored foods, such as Fruit Loops, Jell-O and Twinkies, may exacerbate conditions like hyperactivity disorder in some kids.
Though the FDA isn't likely to change its tune on artificial coloring in the near future, RIFT Platinum the fact that it has gathered an advisory expert panel together to review the matter Wednesday and Thursday could foreshadow an eventual shift in policy.
That could involve a mandate that artificially-colored foods and drinks carry warning labels saying that children who already have behavioral health problems may get worse if they consume them.
The FDA advisory committee will examine the existing data and decide whether there is a connection between hyperactivity and dyes including Yellow 5, Red 40 and six others.
Up until now, the agency has said there's no evidence of a link, rift gold but added that "certain susceptible children" be may affected by the coloring and other additives found in what they eat and drink.
Though kids without the disorder won't be affected by the coloring, those with it might experience hyperactivity that is "exacerbated by exposure to a number of substances in food, including, but not limited to, synthetic color additives," FDA scientists wrote in a report.
The meeting is the result of a petition filed in 2008 by Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group, calling for a ban on eight different food dyes.
But could it all be just a myth?
California pediatrician Dr. RIFT Platinum Lawrence Diller told The New York Times that there is little to no proof of a relationship between kids' diets and behavioral disorders.
"There are urban legends that won't die," he said.
Some parents, on the other hand, swear they've seen a cause-and-effect between artificial food coloring and behavior problems.
Rift Gold New York state mother Renee Shutters said her 5-year-old son stopped acting out at school when she no longer gave him artificially colored sweets.
"I know for sure I found the root cause of this one," she told the paper, "because you can turn it on and off like a switch."
The organization that filed the petition said the ban is important since some parents aren't aware their kids might be at risk.
"The appropriate public health approach is to remove those dangerous and unnecessary substances from the food supply," the center wrote.
Though the FDA isn't likely to change its tune on artificial coloring in the near future, RIFT Platinum the fact that it has gathered an advisory expert panel together to review the matter Wednesday and Thursday could foreshadow an eventual shift in policy.
That could involve a mandate that artificially-colored foods and drinks carry warning labels saying that children who already have behavioral health problems may get worse if they consume them.
The FDA advisory committee will examine the existing data and decide whether there is a connection between hyperactivity and dyes including Yellow 5, Red 40 and six others.
Up until now, the agency has said there's no evidence of a link, rift gold but added that "certain susceptible children" be may affected by the coloring and other additives found in what they eat and drink.
Though kids without the disorder won't be affected by the coloring, those with it might experience hyperactivity that is "exacerbated by exposure to a number of substances in food, including, but not limited to, synthetic color additives," FDA scientists wrote in a report.
The meeting is the result of a petition filed in 2008 by Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group, calling for a ban on eight different food dyes.
But could it all be just a myth?
California pediatrician Dr. RIFT Platinum Lawrence Diller told The New York Times that there is little to no proof of a relationship between kids' diets and behavioral disorders.
"There are urban legends that won't die," he said.
Some parents, on the other hand, swear they've seen a cause-and-effect between artificial food coloring and behavior problems.
Rift Gold New York state mother Renee Shutters said her 5-year-old son stopped acting out at school when she no longer gave him artificially colored sweets.
"I know for sure I found the root cause of this one," she told the paper, "because you can turn it on and off like a switch."
The organization that filed the petition said the ban is important since some parents aren't aware their kids might be at risk.
"The appropriate public health approach is to remove those dangerous and unnecessary substances from the food supply," the center wrote.
4 Tips For Women Who Want To Make The First Move
With the kind of dating history Kim Kardashian has, one would never expect her to be shy when it comes to men, but this isn’t what we've seen on the E! series Kourtney & Kim Take New York. Yes, the Kardashian sisters are back and they’re in New York City to open and promote their Dash boutique. Kim, fresh out of a relationship with football player Miles Austin, is single for the show and ready to mingle. But, like many of us, she believes in the traditional idea that the guy is supposed to ask the girl out. And so she waits.
While we understand Kim's desire to be pursued (I mean, who doesn't want that, to some degree?), she doesn't necessarily have to be so passive about it.
Rift Gold Modern dating rules make it OK for a woman to make the first move and we're quite glad that's the case. To boot, men love it when we ask them out, so here are four ways to help you do just that. Why Women Should Make The First Move
1. Be bold. Oftentimes a woman will convince herself that being the first to approach a guy looks desperate. But it’s the exact opposite. It takes a lot of courage to be the one to break the ice—for guys and gals—so this bold first move will not go unnoticed. Simply walk over and strike up a conversation. If you want to be a little more stealthy, buy him a beer. This works well if the guy who catches your eye is also shy because, as he seeks out a "thank you," he'll know you're interested.
2. Be confident. Guys don’t only enjoy when you take control in the bedroom, but in your dating life as well. And the sexiest thing a woman can wear is her confidence, so he'll love it if you have the guts to head over and chat him up first. Why? RIFT Platinum Because it’s refreshing. Men love a challenge when it comes to dating, but they also love a woman who isn't scared to go after what she wants. 5 Things That (Unexpectedly) Turn Men Off
3. Flirt! You must be thinking well, duh! But you would be surprised at how many women underestimate the power of flirting. Plus, men like to flirt just as much as we do—not to mention they love the attention. The trick is not too be too aggressive but playful and sweet. Lightly touch his arm during conversation. Smile. rift gold Ask him about himself. Contribute to the conversation but also listen. Flirting can make things a lot more comfortable and fun. 5 Types Of Flirting Men Love
4. Don't beat around the bush. Simply put, be direct. No matter how obvious we think a gesture or hint is, men just don't get subtlety and nuance the way women do. When communicating with men, RIFT Platinum it's OK (and actually productive) to be more direct than you would be with your ladyfriends. And telling him what you do and don't want helps a man feel less pressure to make all the decisions.
Do you have any other tips for making the first move? Share them with us in the comments!
While we understand Kim's desire to be pursued (I mean, who doesn't want that, to some degree?), she doesn't necessarily have to be so passive about it.
Rift Gold Modern dating rules make it OK for a woman to make the first move and we're quite glad that's the case. To boot, men love it when we ask them out, so here are four ways to help you do just that. Why Women Should Make The First Move
1. Be bold. Oftentimes a woman will convince herself that being the first to approach a guy looks desperate. But it’s the exact opposite. It takes a lot of courage to be the one to break the ice—for guys and gals—so this bold first move will not go unnoticed. Simply walk over and strike up a conversation. If you want to be a little more stealthy, buy him a beer. This works well if the guy who catches your eye is also shy because, as he seeks out a "thank you," he'll know you're interested.
2. Be confident. Guys don’t only enjoy when you take control in the bedroom, but in your dating life as well. And the sexiest thing a woman can wear is her confidence, so he'll love it if you have the guts to head over and chat him up first. Why? RIFT Platinum Because it’s refreshing. Men love a challenge when it comes to dating, but they also love a woman who isn't scared to go after what she wants. 5 Things That (Unexpectedly) Turn Men Off
3. Flirt! You must be thinking well, duh! But you would be surprised at how many women underestimate the power of flirting. Plus, men like to flirt just as much as we do—not to mention they love the attention. The trick is not too be too aggressive but playful and sweet. Lightly touch his arm during conversation. Smile. rift gold Ask him about himself. Contribute to the conversation but also listen. Flirting can make things a lot more comfortable and fun. 5 Types Of Flirting Men Love
4. Don't beat around the bush. Simply put, be direct. No matter how obvious we think a gesture or hint is, men just don't get subtlety and nuance the way women do. When communicating with men, RIFT Platinum it's OK (and actually productive) to be more direct than you would be with your ladyfriends. And telling him what you do and don't want helps a man feel less pressure to make all the decisions.
Do you have any other tips for making the first move? Share them with us in the comments!
2011年4月20日水曜日
It looks like former bantamweight champion Miguel Torres will have to make some training camp adjustments.
Torres was expecting to face Brad Pickett at UFC 130 next month. But the UFC announced Wednesday that Pickett had pulled out of the fight with an undisclosed injury. Rift Gold Stepping in for Pickett will be wrestling standout Demetrious Johnson.
Johnson already was in training camp for his fight against Renan Barao on the same May 28 card. The UFC said Barao will now await a new opponent.
Torres (39-3, 1-0 UFC) and Johnson (9-1, 1-0 UFC) are both coming off wins in their UFC debuts at UFC 126 in February. Torres dominated a standup fight against Antonio Banuelos to win a unanimous decision. Johnson won a unanimous decision against Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto in the Japanese legend's UFC debut.
Torres has won two straight after suffering the first back-to-back losses of his career. The first of those losses, a knockout by Brian Bowles, saw him lose his WEC bantamweight title – ending a winning streak of nearly six years. He returned seven months later and was submitted by Joseph Benavidez.
The losses forced Torres, who had always been his own coach, to rethink his training philosophy. He moved his training camps to Montreal and the Tristar Gym under the tutelage of Firas Zahabi, also the head trainer of UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. He's been happy with the results so far, including a Submission of the Night win over Charlie Valencia to close out his WEC career.
Johnson will come into the fight riding a three-match winning streak. RIFT Platinum Ironically, the only loss "Mighty Mouse" has suffered came against Pickett in Johnson's WEC debut a year ago. Since then, he's won unanimous decisions against Yamamoto and Nick Pace and submitted Damacio Page at WEC 52 in November.
Torres, who at 5-foot-9 is one of the tallest fighters in the bantamweight division, will have a significant height and reach advantage against Johnson, who is just 5-3. But Johnson's wrestling pedigree is superior to that of Pickett, which may have Torres making major modifications over the next month.
The Torres-Pickett fight was to air on Spike TV's live prelims leading into the UFC 129 pay-per-view. rift gold Johnson-Barao was not scheduled to be aired. It is expected that the new fight between Torres and Johnson will be part of Spike's prelim broadcast.
UFC 129 takes place May 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be headlined by a lightweight title rematch between champion Frankie Edgar and challenger Gray Maynard. RIFT Platinum The two fought to a rare title-bout draw at UFC 125 in January.
The pay-per-view also features a light heavyweight bout between former champion Rampage Jackson and Matt Hamill; heavyweight clashes between Las Vegans Frank Mir and Roy Nelson and Stefan Struve-Travis Browne; and the UFC return of Jorge Santiago against Brian Stann.
Torres was expecting to face Brad Pickett at UFC 130 next month. But the UFC announced Wednesday that Pickett had pulled out of the fight with an undisclosed injury. Rift Gold Stepping in for Pickett will be wrestling standout Demetrious Johnson.
Johnson already was in training camp for his fight against Renan Barao on the same May 28 card. The UFC said Barao will now await a new opponent.
Torres (39-3, 1-0 UFC) and Johnson (9-1, 1-0 UFC) are both coming off wins in their UFC debuts at UFC 126 in February. Torres dominated a standup fight against Antonio Banuelos to win a unanimous decision. Johnson won a unanimous decision against Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto in the Japanese legend's UFC debut.
Torres has won two straight after suffering the first back-to-back losses of his career. The first of those losses, a knockout by Brian Bowles, saw him lose his WEC bantamweight title – ending a winning streak of nearly six years. He returned seven months later and was submitted by Joseph Benavidez.
The losses forced Torres, who had always been his own coach, to rethink his training philosophy. He moved his training camps to Montreal and the Tristar Gym under the tutelage of Firas Zahabi, also the head trainer of UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. He's been happy with the results so far, including a Submission of the Night win over Charlie Valencia to close out his WEC career.
Johnson will come into the fight riding a three-match winning streak. RIFT Platinum Ironically, the only loss "Mighty Mouse" has suffered came against Pickett in Johnson's WEC debut a year ago. Since then, he's won unanimous decisions against Yamamoto and Nick Pace and submitted Damacio Page at WEC 52 in November.
Torres, who at 5-foot-9 is one of the tallest fighters in the bantamweight division, will have a significant height and reach advantage against Johnson, who is just 5-3. But Johnson's wrestling pedigree is superior to that of Pickett, which may have Torres making major modifications over the next month.
The Torres-Pickett fight was to air on Spike TV's live prelims leading into the UFC 129 pay-per-view. rift gold Johnson-Barao was not scheduled to be aired. It is expected that the new fight between Torres and Johnson will be part of Spike's prelim broadcast.
UFC 129 takes place May 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be headlined by a lightweight title rematch between champion Frankie Edgar and challenger Gray Maynard. RIFT Platinum The two fought to a rare title-bout draw at UFC 125 in January.
The pay-per-view also features a light heavyweight bout between former champion Rampage Jackson and Matt Hamill; heavyweight clashes between Las Vegans Frank Mir and Roy Nelson and Stefan Struve-Travis Browne; and the UFC return of Jorge Santiago against Brian Stann.
AOL Health: What's the difference between a collector and a hoarder? Or someone who considers himself a packrat?
JS: In terms of collecting versus hoarding, I think the difference is a matter of pride. For a while when I was a kid, my mom was collecting salt and pepper shakers. You display them, you want to show them off, but it's when the shelf becomes totally packed and you're just picking up any salt and pepper shaker regardless of whether it has any value for your collection that it becomes hoarding. It doesn't enhance your life the way collecting does, and it actually hinders it.
Formally, it's defined as the acquisition of and failure to discard possessions that leads to emotional distress and physical impairment of the use of your home. A lot of times with a hoarder their plumbing will stop working or their heat, and they won't call in a plumber because they're afraid if they do their house will be condemned. So they'll end up living without water.
In terms of being a packrat versus a hoarder, I think it's just a semantic thing. I think "packrat" just sounds more innocuous.
AOL Health: How common is compulsive hoarding?
JS: I think it really is more common than people realize. A lot of times a hoarder doesn't let anyone into their house and so people don't know.
For a while the statistic was that there were 2 million Americans who were hoarders and then it was 3 million and then the latest I saw was 6 million. I think it's become more known.
I think even five years ago people thought of hoarders as, "That's just the crazy cat lady," or as selfish people. And now people are realizing it's a mental illness, like bipolar disorder. You wouldn't blame someone or judge someone for having depression or needing to take an antidepressant. It's kind of the same thing with hoarding.
AOL Health: Why did you decide to write this book?
JS: It's something I never thought I would write about, because I really didn't tell anyone about my mother's hoarding other than my husband. RIFT Platinum But then I joined a support group for children of hoarders -- I was shocked to find out one even existed -- and I was amazed by the amount of shame, embarrassment, anger and sadness we were all carrying around. We were carrying this huge secret, and I just thought, I'm a writer -- I can bring it out into the world so that people know about it and take away some of the power of the secret.
Before I even mentioned the idea to my agent, I asked my mother if she would mind, because if she minded, I wasn't going to do it. But she thought it was a good idea because it would help hoarders and other children of hoarders.
AOL Health: What are some of the biggest problems children of hoarders have?
JS: It's really hard when you have a secret for so long to have a fully authentic relationship with someone. I did tell my husband -- I was really afraid to tell him about my mom, but he was just awesome from the beginning. He never judged her, and he's helped me clean out her house. But I hid it from all of my friends, and I think most of us do that, and you can't really have a true relationship with somebody when you're hiding so much of yourself.
AOL Health: Is there a cure, or have any therapies been found to be particularly helpful?
JS: It's a condition that has a lot of comorbidities -- there's almost always another illness tied in with it -- and that's what makes it so difficult to treat. rift gold You can treat the depression but then you have to get through the anxiety and then you have to get to the information processing problems that make up the hoarding. I think the therapy that's been shown to be most effective is cognitive behavioral therapy. There's not, unfortunately, a drug or anything like that.
AOL Health: What reactions have friends, relatives and readers had to the book?
JS: My dad is a really private person so I was worried about his reaction to it, but he really likes it. RIFT Platinum My friends all knew vaguely that my mom had some kind of mental illness. There was a period in my 20s where my mom and I didn't speak for almost seven years. But none of my friends really knew the extent until I started writing the book and then I began telling people. They've all been really supportive. And the book's been out only two weeks, and I've already gotten a lot of e-mails from other children of hoarders who told me how much they liked the book and how good it made them feel to know that they're not alone. It's been really rewarding.
I had two friends tell me that their mothers are also hoarders. That was really shocking. Rift Gold I've had a ton of people say, "Oh, my cousin is a hoarder, or my uncle, or my neighbor down the street when I was growing up." It seems like everyone knows someone.
JS: In terms of collecting versus hoarding, I think the difference is a matter of pride. For a while when I was a kid, my mom was collecting salt and pepper shakers. You display them, you want to show them off, but it's when the shelf becomes totally packed and you're just picking up any salt and pepper shaker regardless of whether it has any value for your collection that it becomes hoarding. It doesn't enhance your life the way collecting does, and it actually hinders it.
Formally, it's defined as the acquisition of and failure to discard possessions that leads to emotional distress and physical impairment of the use of your home. A lot of times with a hoarder their plumbing will stop working or their heat, and they won't call in a plumber because they're afraid if they do their house will be condemned. So they'll end up living without water.
In terms of being a packrat versus a hoarder, I think it's just a semantic thing. I think "packrat" just sounds more innocuous.
AOL Health: How common is compulsive hoarding?
JS: I think it really is more common than people realize. A lot of times a hoarder doesn't let anyone into their house and so people don't know.
For a while the statistic was that there were 2 million Americans who were hoarders and then it was 3 million and then the latest I saw was 6 million. I think it's become more known.
I think even five years ago people thought of hoarders as, "That's just the crazy cat lady," or as selfish people. And now people are realizing it's a mental illness, like bipolar disorder. You wouldn't blame someone or judge someone for having depression or needing to take an antidepressant. It's kind of the same thing with hoarding.
AOL Health: Why did you decide to write this book?
JS: It's something I never thought I would write about, because I really didn't tell anyone about my mother's hoarding other than my husband. RIFT Platinum But then I joined a support group for children of hoarders -- I was shocked to find out one even existed -- and I was amazed by the amount of shame, embarrassment, anger and sadness we were all carrying around. We were carrying this huge secret, and I just thought, I'm a writer -- I can bring it out into the world so that people know about it and take away some of the power of the secret.
Before I even mentioned the idea to my agent, I asked my mother if she would mind, because if she minded, I wasn't going to do it. But she thought it was a good idea because it would help hoarders and other children of hoarders.
AOL Health: What are some of the biggest problems children of hoarders have?
JS: It's really hard when you have a secret for so long to have a fully authentic relationship with someone. I did tell my husband -- I was really afraid to tell him about my mom, but he was just awesome from the beginning. He never judged her, and he's helped me clean out her house. But I hid it from all of my friends, and I think most of us do that, and you can't really have a true relationship with somebody when you're hiding so much of yourself.
AOL Health: Is there a cure, or have any therapies been found to be particularly helpful?
JS: It's a condition that has a lot of comorbidities -- there's almost always another illness tied in with it -- and that's what makes it so difficult to treat. rift gold You can treat the depression but then you have to get through the anxiety and then you have to get to the information processing problems that make up the hoarding. I think the therapy that's been shown to be most effective is cognitive behavioral therapy. There's not, unfortunately, a drug or anything like that.
AOL Health: What reactions have friends, relatives and readers had to the book?
JS: My dad is a really private person so I was worried about his reaction to it, but he really likes it. RIFT Platinum My friends all knew vaguely that my mom had some kind of mental illness. There was a period in my 20s where my mom and I didn't speak for almost seven years. But none of my friends really knew the extent until I started writing the book and then I began telling people. They've all been really supportive. And the book's been out only two weeks, and I've already gotten a lot of e-mails from other children of hoarders who told me how much they liked the book and how good it made them feel to know that they're not alone. It's been really rewarding.
I had two friends tell me that their mothers are also hoarders. That was really shocking. Rift Gold I've had a ton of people say, "Oh, my cousin is a hoarder, or my uncle, or my neighbor down the street when I was growing up." It seems like everyone knows someone.
Angiography
Angiography is a radiographic procedure that employs x-rays of the blood vessels in the body to assist in diagnosing and treating a variety of ailments. The x-ray image, or angiogram, allows diagnosis of pathologies of the blood vessels such as blockages, stenosis (narrowing of the vessel), and other aberrations so that they can be treated. Angiography can be purely investigative,rift gold but it is commonly employed in combination with minimally invasive surgery or catheterization. In the angiography procedure, a venous ‘‘contrast,’’ or dye, is administered orally, anally, or by intravenous injection. This dye is a radiopaque substance that highlights the blood vessels in the x-ray.
Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) does not rely on radioactive dye; rather it employs a specific sequence of radio waves to create the angiogram. The MRA is able to provide a detailed map of the patient’s vasculature without an enhancer, although enhancers such as the rare earth element gadolinium are sometimes used to make the images clearer and bolder. In therapeutic or interventional angiography, the possible treatment runs from surgery to less invasive processes such as angioplasty or catheterization. In angioplasty, a catheter containing a small balloon is guided through the blood vessels to the site of the obstruction. Once in place, the balloon is inflated in order to expand the constricted area of the vessel. The catheter can also be used to guide into place surgical ‘‘stents,’’ cylindrical mesh-like supports that keep the vessel open to the desired width. Over one million angioplasty procedures were performed in the U.S. in 2000 to prevent or treat myocardial infarction (heart attack).
Rudimentary angiography was developed not long after the x-ray came into clinical use. In 1896 in Vienna, Eduard Haschek and Otto Lindenthal took x-rays of the blood vessels in an amputated hand injected with a radiopaque substance. The radiopaque contrast agent of choice has changed over time, owing in part to the high toxicity of the earliest agents used. Common formulations of contrast agents used today include various acetrizoic acids, diatrizoic acids, iodamides, and methanesulfonic acids.
Angiography is employed today in a number of clinical situations. The most common procedures performed are cerebral angiography, thoracic aortography, pulmonary and bronchial arteriography, coronary arteriography, and angiography of the extremities. In celial and mesenteric angiography, these arteries in the abdomen are examined to diagnose gastrointestinal bleeding, aneurysm, or ischemia. In cerebral angiography the blood vessels of the brain are investigated in order to locate and treat of blood clots, aneurysms, tumors, and migraines. In coronary angiography the coronary arteries are investigated to detect vascular diseases such as heart disease, heart attack, and acute stroke. Renal angiography is of value in diagnosing kidney disease and renal failure. In the latter case, the physician uses hemodialysis catheters to divert blood from the neck and filter it through a hemodialysis machine. One problem with kidney angiography is that the contrast agent can be harmful to the kidneys if the patient already suffers from renal ailments. In ocular angiography either fluorescein or indocyanine green contrast helps to view various problems in the eye such as retinal failure.
Complications surrounding angiographic procedures can arise either from reactions to the contrast agent or from problems with the performance of the catheterization or surgery. Reactions to the contrast agent are generally mild, such as nausea, but serious allergic reactions do occasionally occur. Renal damage can occur regardless of previous problems because of the mild toxicity of most opaque media contrasts. Some contrasts have also caused minor drops in blood pressure and vasodilatation of the arteries. When a catheter is placed in the body, blood clots can form and block the vessel or a small particle can break loose and lead to embolization, a potentially deadly complication. Catheters can also tear or puncture blood vessels causing internal bleeding rift gold and an exacerbation of the already existing problem. Hematomas and hemorrhages may occur if there are any complications in the catheterization process.
As with other medical tests and procedures, the risks of angiography are generally outweighed by the benefits, as the angiogram provides specific and detailed clinical information that is invaluable in clinical diagnosis and intervention.
Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) does not rely on radioactive dye; rather it employs a specific sequence of radio waves to create the angiogram. The MRA is able to provide a detailed map of the patient’s vasculature without an enhancer, although enhancers such as the rare earth element gadolinium are sometimes used to make the images clearer and bolder. In therapeutic or interventional angiography, the possible treatment runs from surgery to less invasive processes such as angioplasty or catheterization. In angioplasty, a catheter containing a small balloon is guided through the blood vessels to the site of the obstruction. Once in place, the balloon is inflated in order to expand the constricted area of the vessel. The catheter can also be used to guide into place surgical ‘‘stents,’’ cylindrical mesh-like supports that keep the vessel open to the desired width. Over one million angioplasty procedures were performed in the U.S. in 2000 to prevent or treat myocardial infarction (heart attack).
Rudimentary angiography was developed not long after the x-ray came into clinical use. In 1896 in Vienna, Eduard Haschek and Otto Lindenthal took x-rays of the blood vessels in an amputated hand injected with a radiopaque substance. The radiopaque contrast agent of choice has changed over time, owing in part to the high toxicity of the earliest agents used. Common formulations of contrast agents used today include various acetrizoic acids, diatrizoic acids, iodamides, and methanesulfonic acids.
Angiography is employed today in a number of clinical situations. The most common procedures performed are cerebral angiography, thoracic aortography, pulmonary and bronchial arteriography, coronary arteriography, and angiography of the extremities. In celial and mesenteric angiography, these arteries in the abdomen are examined to diagnose gastrointestinal bleeding, aneurysm, or ischemia. In cerebral angiography the blood vessels of the brain are investigated in order to locate and treat of blood clots, aneurysms, tumors, and migraines. In coronary angiography the coronary arteries are investigated to detect vascular diseases such as heart disease, heart attack, and acute stroke. Renal angiography is of value in diagnosing kidney disease and renal failure. In the latter case, the physician uses hemodialysis catheters to divert blood from the neck and filter it through a hemodialysis machine. One problem with kidney angiography is that the contrast agent can be harmful to the kidneys if the patient already suffers from renal ailments. In ocular angiography either fluorescein or indocyanine green contrast helps to view various problems in the eye such as retinal failure.
Complications surrounding angiographic procedures can arise either from reactions to the contrast agent or from problems with the performance of the catheterization or surgery. Reactions to the contrast agent are generally mild, such as nausea, but serious allergic reactions do occasionally occur. Renal damage can occur regardless of previous problems because of the mild toxicity of most opaque media contrasts. Some contrasts have also caused minor drops in blood pressure and vasodilatation of the arteries. When a catheter is placed in the body, blood clots can form and block the vessel or a small particle can break loose and lead to embolization, a potentially deadly complication. Catheters can also tear or puncture blood vessels causing internal bleeding rift gold and an exacerbation of the already existing problem. Hematomas and hemorrhages may occur if there are any complications in the catheterization process.
As with other medical tests and procedures, the risks of angiography are generally outweighed by the benefits, as the angiogram provides specific and detailed clinical information that is invaluable in clinical diagnosis and intervention.
Antibiotics
The term antibiotic was first used in 1899 by the botanist Marshall Hall, following the coining of the term antibiosis ten years earlier by French scientist Paul Vuillemin. Antibiosis referred to the idea that living organisms might produce substances that were antagonistic to one another, an idea first suggested by Louis Pasteur in 1877. In the late nineteenth century, many observations of antibiotic action among microorganisms were reported,rift gold but unfortunately the significance of these observations was not appreciated at the time.
In the history of antibiosis, an observation by Alexander Fleming (1881–1955), a bacteriologist at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, proved to be the turning point. In the late summer of 1928, Fleming went to his laboratory during the holiday to inspect culture plates awaiting disposal. He noticed one that had been accidentally contaminated with a mold, or fungus, around which bacterial growth had been inhibited. The bacteria were staphylococci and the fungus was Penicillium notatum. Fleming cultured it, fixed the plate in formalin vapor, and gave it the name penicillin. Fleming’s tests showed that the fungus could kill or inhibit the growth of a number of other organisms harmful to man. In a paper in 1929, Fleming mentioned the possible use of penicillin as an antiseptic in surgical dressings. There was further work in other laboratories interested in Fleming’s observation, but progress was limited because of the great instability of the material. The goal of isolating an effective preparation from the organism remained for the future.
In 1939, three other British scientists based in Oxford made the discovery that penicillin was effective inside the body as well as on its surface. Ernst Chain, Howard Florey, and Norman Heatley, embarked on its detailed investigation, urged on by the necessities of war. In 1940 Florey and Chain were able to make a dry, stable extract of penicillin, and the first trial was carried out on four mice on May 25 1940.
The first human received an injection of penicilin on January 27 1941, at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. The patient did not have an infection, but suffered a sharp rise in temperature after 3 hours. After removal of the pyrogen that caused the fever, enough active material was isolated to treat one ill patient. On February 12 1941, a London policeman who had a severe staphylococcal infection was the first sick patient to receive penicillin. After treatment for five days, the stock of penicillin was exhausted, and the patient relapsed and died. Over the following days further seriously ill patients were treated with varying degrees of success, and the results were published in August 1941.
By early 1942, small-scale production was being carried out in the U.K. by Imperial Chemical Industries Limited. However the investment needed to produce penicillin on a commercial scale was considerable and could not easily be found in a country at war. Florey and Heatley went to America to seek support. Penicillin was first made in the United States by the pharmaceutical company Upjohn in March 1942, using a culture supplied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Initial small-scale production was achieved using a surface culture method in bottles. On May 25 1943, the firm was asked to make penicillin for the military, and it began brewing the fungus in 120,000 bottles in a basement. By July 1943 the company had shipped its first batch of 100 vials, each containing 100,000 units of penicillin.
The process of surface culture in bottles had obvious limitations, and work began to develop a more efficient process that used deep culture in vat fermenters. The principle of the submerged culture method is to grow the fungus in large steel containers in a medium that is constantly aerated and agitated. Under these circumstances, the fungus grows throughout the body of the medium. Early problems in the operation of the method were overcome, and by 1949 fermenters with capacities up to 12,000 gallons were in use. Tens of thousands of species and mutants of Penicillium were examined in the search for ones that produced the highest yields of penicillin. Eventually the highest yields were obtained from a strain of Penicillium chrysogenum, originally found growing naturally on a moldy melon. As a result yields have increased 2000 times since the original small-scale manufacture. Solving the complex microbiological, chemical, and engineering problems involved in the largescale manufacture of penicillin required a collaborative effort. By 1944, 20 American and 16 British academic and industrial groups were working on the problem. The first large delivery, consisting of 550 vials of 100,000 units of penicilin each, was made to the U.S. Army in February 1944. Its initial use was in the treatment of gonorrhea; widespread use of penicillin in the treatment of life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia only occurred later when sufficient supplies became available. With large-scale manufacture the price dropped dramatically from $20.05 per 100,000-unit vial in July 1943 to just $0.60 per vial by October 1945.
Full understanding of the mode of action of penicillin only emerged slowly and awaited developments in both biochemistry and bacteriology. The involvement of the cell wall was recognized early on, but even in 1949 Chain and Florey concluded, ‘‘No complete picture of how penicilin acts in vivo can be drawn on the evidence available.’’ Penicillin inhibits an enzyme that catalyzes one of the biochemical steps in the synthesis of mucopeptide, the rigid component of the cell wall. In the absence of the enzyme inhibited by penicillin, links between the peptide molecules fail to occur. When penicillin in sufficient concentration comes into contact with penicillin-sensitive organisms,rift gold it binds to the cell wall. As cell division takes place, defects occur in the rigid component of the wall. Coupled with high internal osmotic pressure, the cell then bursts, or lyses. Penicillin is therefore only active against growing bacteria and only those sensitive to it. Some bacteria contain plasmids that make them resistant to penicillin.
In subsequent years a large number of variants of penicillin were developed. Some of these were naturally produced, some were semisynthetic, and others were entirely synthetic. The search for effective antibacterial substances was widened, and the stage was set for the discovery of a wide range of new antibacterial substances in the post-World War II years.
In the history of antibiosis, an observation by Alexander Fleming (1881–1955), a bacteriologist at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, proved to be the turning point. In the late summer of 1928, Fleming went to his laboratory during the holiday to inspect culture plates awaiting disposal. He noticed one that had been accidentally contaminated with a mold, or fungus, around which bacterial growth had been inhibited. The bacteria were staphylococci and the fungus was Penicillium notatum. Fleming cultured it, fixed the plate in formalin vapor, and gave it the name penicillin. Fleming’s tests showed that the fungus could kill or inhibit the growth of a number of other organisms harmful to man. In a paper in 1929, Fleming mentioned the possible use of penicillin as an antiseptic in surgical dressings. There was further work in other laboratories interested in Fleming’s observation, but progress was limited because of the great instability of the material. The goal of isolating an effective preparation from the organism remained for the future.
In 1939, three other British scientists based in Oxford made the discovery that penicillin was effective inside the body as well as on its surface. Ernst Chain, Howard Florey, and Norman Heatley, embarked on its detailed investigation, urged on by the necessities of war. In 1940 Florey and Chain were able to make a dry, stable extract of penicillin, and the first trial was carried out on four mice on May 25 1940.
The first human received an injection of penicilin on January 27 1941, at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. The patient did not have an infection, but suffered a sharp rise in temperature after 3 hours. After removal of the pyrogen that caused the fever, enough active material was isolated to treat one ill patient. On February 12 1941, a London policeman who had a severe staphylococcal infection was the first sick patient to receive penicillin. After treatment for five days, the stock of penicillin was exhausted, and the patient relapsed and died. Over the following days further seriously ill patients were treated with varying degrees of success, and the results were published in August 1941.
By early 1942, small-scale production was being carried out in the U.K. by Imperial Chemical Industries Limited. However the investment needed to produce penicillin on a commercial scale was considerable and could not easily be found in a country at war. Florey and Heatley went to America to seek support. Penicillin was first made in the United States by the pharmaceutical company Upjohn in March 1942, using a culture supplied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Initial small-scale production was achieved using a surface culture method in bottles. On May 25 1943, the firm was asked to make penicillin for the military, and it began brewing the fungus in 120,000 bottles in a basement. By July 1943 the company had shipped its first batch of 100 vials, each containing 100,000 units of penicillin.
The process of surface culture in bottles had obvious limitations, and work began to develop a more efficient process that used deep culture in vat fermenters. The principle of the submerged culture method is to grow the fungus in large steel containers in a medium that is constantly aerated and agitated. Under these circumstances, the fungus grows throughout the body of the medium. Early problems in the operation of the method were overcome, and by 1949 fermenters with capacities up to 12,000 gallons were in use. Tens of thousands of species and mutants of Penicillium were examined in the search for ones that produced the highest yields of penicillin. Eventually the highest yields were obtained from a strain of Penicillium chrysogenum, originally found growing naturally on a moldy melon. As a result yields have increased 2000 times since the original small-scale manufacture. Solving the complex microbiological, chemical, and engineering problems involved in the largescale manufacture of penicillin required a collaborative effort. By 1944, 20 American and 16 British academic and industrial groups were working on the problem. The first large delivery, consisting of 550 vials of 100,000 units of penicilin each, was made to the U.S. Army in February 1944. Its initial use was in the treatment of gonorrhea; widespread use of penicillin in the treatment of life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia only occurred later when sufficient supplies became available. With large-scale manufacture the price dropped dramatically from $20.05 per 100,000-unit vial in July 1943 to just $0.60 per vial by October 1945.
Full understanding of the mode of action of penicillin only emerged slowly and awaited developments in both biochemistry and bacteriology. The involvement of the cell wall was recognized early on, but even in 1949 Chain and Florey concluded, ‘‘No complete picture of how penicilin acts in vivo can be drawn on the evidence available.’’ Penicillin inhibits an enzyme that catalyzes one of the biochemical steps in the synthesis of mucopeptide, the rigid component of the cell wall. In the absence of the enzyme inhibited by penicillin, links between the peptide molecules fail to occur. When penicillin in sufficient concentration comes into contact with penicillin-sensitive organisms,rift gold it binds to the cell wall. As cell division takes place, defects occur in the rigid component of the wall. Coupled with high internal osmotic pressure, the cell then bursts, or lyses. Penicillin is therefore only active against growing bacteria and only those sensitive to it. Some bacteria contain plasmids that make them resistant to penicillin.
In subsequent years a large number of variants of penicillin were developed. Some of these were naturally produced, some were semisynthetic, and others were entirely synthetic. The search for effective antibacterial substances was widened, and the stage was set for the discovery of a wide range of new antibacterial substances in the post-World War II years.
Dialysis
Dialysis, or hemodialysis,rift gold is a process of separating substances from the blood. Three quarters of a million people worldwide suffering irreversible kidney failure are maintained today using what is commonly called the ‘‘artificial kidney,’’ or hemodialyzer, the first machine to substitute for a failing organ. Around 1960 and by coincidence two separate methods of treating irreversible renal failure developed almost simultaneously as practical treatments: dialysis and renal transplantation (see Organ transplantation).
The idea that death in uremia following kidney failure results from retention of solutes normally excreted by the kidneys emerged during the nineteenth century. Diffusion in gases or liquids was worked out in parallel, principally by Thomas Graham, with mathematical development by J. H. vant’Hoff. These two ideas underlie the possibility of treating kidney failure by dialysis of potentially toxic solutes from the blood, and hence the tissues and body water.
The first attempt to carry out in vivo, extracorporeal dialysis of blood was made in 1913 by John Jacob Abel (1857–1938) in Baltimore, Maryland, at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, together with Canadian physician Lawrence Rowntree and English biochemist Benjamin Turner. Extracorporeal circuits had been developed in the 1880s for perfusion of whole organs in situ or ex vivo. Dialysis needed a semipermeable membrane that would retain protein and cells but allow solutes to diffuse from the blood. A number of substances had been tried in the laboratory, but the best seemed to be collodion, developed for photography in the 1850s as sheets of cellulose dinitrate. Blood was difficult to dialyze since it clotted on contact with foreign surfaces, but about the turn of the century hirudin, the anticoagulant in leech saliva, became available in crude form, and Abel and colleagues used collodion and hirudin. Their design consisted of a number of collodion tubes immersed in a cylindrical glass bath of dialysis fluid; blood drawn from an artery was pumped through rubber tubes into the apparatus and back into a vein. They dialyzed dogs and showed urea could be removed, but they were more interested in separating physiologically active substances from blood. At a demonstration of their dialyzer in London in 1913, a staff writer at the London Times first used the term ‘‘artificial kidney.’’ The team broke up after 1915 and Abel did no more work on dialysis.
The first specific attempts to treat uremia by dialysis were by Georg Haas (1886–1971) of Giessen, Germany, initially in ignorance of Abel’s work. He built a machine very like Abel’s in 1923 and treated the first human patients by dialyzing their blood ex vivo and reinfusing it intermittently. He also used hirudin as an anticoagulant, but this substance was still crude and often toxic. His patients had irreversible chronic kidney failure and all died. Haas abandoned the work until 1927 when the new anticoagulant heparin was discovered by Henry Howell, again at Johns Hopkins, together with medical student Jay Maclean and later, retired pediatrician Emmett Holt. But Haas’ patients still died, and in the face of opposition from the medical establishment, he gave up for good in 1928.
In 1923 Heinrich Necheles (1897–1979) of Hamburg was dialyzing dogs deliberately made uremic, but with a machine incorporating a new design: a flat sandwich with multiple layers of another dialysis membrane, the peritoneum from calves. However, despite his interest in uremia, he used this technique only to prepare physiological extracts from blood in dogs.
Despite the use of heparin, dialysis stalled because collodion was too complicated to produce, too fragile, and too difficult to use. A new membrane, cellulose acetate, was introduced in 1908, marketed as ‘‘cellophane’’ in France in 1910. By 1930 the material was formed into tubes in Chicago by the Visking Company to make ‘‘skinless’’ sausages and was rapidly shown to be useful in the laboratory for dialysis. William Thalhimer (1884–1961) a New York pathologist and hematologist realized in 1937 from his experience of anticoagulating and storing blood that heparin together with cellophane tubing made a practical dialyzer a possibility. He built such a machine and dialyzed dogs, but as he did no clinical work himself he encouraged others to try it in humans. In the early 1940s four individuals tried and succeeded, each without any contact with others. In 1944 Jonathon Rhoads (1907–2002) of Philadelphia built and used a dialyzer with cellophane tubing wound in spiral on a frame within a bath of dialysis fluid and used it on a single patient. The dialysis worked, but the patient died, and he did no more. Toronto surgeon Gordon Murray (1894–1976), an expert on heparin and a colleague of Thalhimer, worked on dogs from 1940 to 1946 to perfect a similar design. In 1946 his first patient was treated three times and survived her acute kidney failure. He did only a few dialyses over the next five years, also designing and using a flat-plate sandwich type of dialyzer. Nils Alwall (1906–1986) in Lund, Sweden, worked on rabbits for four years or more before achieving success in humans in 1946. His design was similar to Murray’s but was notable in that it had an outer casing permitting the pressure around the spiral to be controlled so that ultrafiltration of excess fluid could be limited. Alwall continued working in dialysis until retirement and trained many people to use his first machines, mainly in Europe but also in Australia, Israel, and even the U.S.
The best known of these researchers is Willem Kolff (1911–). In September 1945 he performed the first successful dialysis with recovery of the patient in Kampen, Netherlands. Beginning in 1943 he dialyzed 16 other patients, all of whom died. Many of them, however, had irreversible kidney failure, and some improved briefly. Although Kolff never did any animal work, for the first time he established the size parameters necessary for human use. As a result, his machine had a much larger surface area. He employed a spiral of tubing wound around a large horizontal drum, laying halfway in an open bath of dialysate, which rotated with a coupling from a Ford car engine to allow blood to flow into the cellophane tubing. Kolff believed passionately in dialysis, and during the late 1940s he built and gave away a number of machines, sent plans everywhere so people could build their own, and toured the world to advertise the new technique.
Initially facing worldwide skepticism, he went to Cleveland, Ohio in 1950. His machine was improved in Boston by physician John Merrill, surgeon Carl Walter, and engineer William Olson. Despite its many obvious disadvantages (e.g., large priming volume and uncontrolled ultrafiltration), it continued in use until the early 1960s. One major factor in acceptance of dialysis treatment during the 1950s was that, unlike the milder forms of acute renal failure where conservative management was possible, dialysis made a major difference to survival in injured soldiers with severe but temporary renal failure during the Korean War (1950– 1952). New dialyzers that were much easier to use were introduced. These included the twin-coil kidney designed and built by Kolff and Bruno Watshinger of Vienna in only a couple of months in Cleveland in 1956, and the flat-plate sandwich design invented first by the chemists Leonard Skeggs (1918–) (who later invented automated clinical chemistry) and Jack Leonards, and, independently, Arthur McNeil in Buffalo, New York.
By the end of the 1950s physicians everywhere, having inadvertently started dialysis in patients with chronic irreversible disease, found a slow, miserable ‘‘second death’’ inevitable as the blood vessels vital for access became unusable. A solution came from the polymer industry in the form of plastic polyvinylchloride (PVC) electrical insulation tubing, which was already used for connecting patients to dialysis. Although it was first discovered in 1937, PTFE or teflon, which was not wettable and did not stimulate thrombosis in blood, became available in the 1950s. Seattle, surgeon Warren Wintershide pointed this out to the renal physician there, Belding Scribner (1925–). He then got an engineering colleague Wayne Quinton to bend the tubes using heat and make a shunt joining an artery and vein externally so that it could be closed off from the machine between dialyses but allow blood to flow through it continuously: Suddenly, long term dialysis for irreversible disease was possible. One or two patients who started on dialysis only a few years later in 1966 remained alive at the turn of the twenty-first century. The shunts were improved by the use of another new material, silicone rubber. Then in 1965, from experience with venipuncture while working in a blood bank, James Cimino (1927–) and his colleagues in New York introduced access to veins enlarged by a surgically created arteriovenous fistula. By the end of the decade, these had become almost universal, and external shunts were already obsolete.
Initially, the reusable and then (from 1968) disposable flat-plate and coil dialyzers already in use for acute renal failure were also used for longterm dialysis. However in the early 1960s engineers at the Dow company in Michigan learned to make hollow fibers less than 100 micrometers in diameter from numerous different polymers for proposed uses in water purification, and in medicine as membrane oxygenators. Dick Stewart (1917–), a physician and chemist working with Dow, suggested their use for hemodialysis, and the first capillary hollow-fiber dialyzers were used in humans in 1967. By 1980 they were the predominant type of dialyzer in use, and from 1990 onward, used almost universally. Their great advantage, apart from efficiency, is their small size: a 30 by 15 centimeter hollow-fiber dialyzer has the same capacity as Kolff’s original rotating drum dialyzer, which was more than one meter long and half a meter in diameter.
Commercial cellulose acetate dialyzing membranes continued in use until the 1990s when replaced by more permeable and more biocompatible synthetic compounds such as polysulfone. In addition, these more permeable membranes (of which the polyacrylonitrile AN-69 of 1969 is the prototype) are increasingly used to exploit convective rather than diffusive removal of solutes, as pioneered by Lee Henderson (1931–) in the U.S. and Eduard Quellhorst in Germany in the 1970s. This technology has been particularly effective in treatment of reversible acute renal failure in very ill patients,rift gold using continuous hemofiltration throughout the day.
The other major change in dialysis machinery was the introduction of continuous blending of dialysate from concentrated salt solutions and reasonably pure (but not sterile) water, pioneered by Arthur Babb for Scribner in Seattle in the early 1960s, and now universal. In addition, various online safety measures, starting in the 1950s with a bubble trap to prevent air entering the circulation and the measurement of dialysate temperature and ionic strength, have continued to be introduced through the years.
The idea that death in uremia following kidney failure results from retention of solutes normally excreted by the kidneys emerged during the nineteenth century. Diffusion in gases or liquids was worked out in parallel, principally by Thomas Graham, with mathematical development by J. H. vant’Hoff. These two ideas underlie the possibility of treating kidney failure by dialysis of potentially toxic solutes from the blood, and hence the tissues and body water.
The first attempt to carry out in vivo, extracorporeal dialysis of blood was made in 1913 by John Jacob Abel (1857–1938) in Baltimore, Maryland, at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, together with Canadian physician Lawrence Rowntree and English biochemist Benjamin Turner. Extracorporeal circuits had been developed in the 1880s for perfusion of whole organs in situ or ex vivo. Dialysis needed a semipermeable membrane that would retain protein and cells but allow solutes to diffuse from the blood. A number of substances had been tried in the laboratory, but the best seemed to be collodion, developed for photography in the 1850s as sheets of cellulose dinitrate. Blood was difficult to dialyze since it clotted on contact with foreign surfaces, but about the turn of the century hirudin, the anticoagulant in leech saliva, became available in crude form, and Abel and colleagues used collodion and hirudin. Their design consisted of a number of collodion tubes immersed in a cylindrical glass bath of dialysis fluid; blood drawn from an artery was pumped through rubber tubes into the apparatus and back into a vein. They dialyzed dogs and showed urea could be removed, but they were more interested in separating physiologically active substances from blood. At a demonstration of their dialyzer in London in 1913, a staff writer at the London Times first used the term ‘‘artificial kidney.’’ The team broke up after 1915 and Abel did no more work on dialysis.
The first specific attempts to treat uremia by dialysis were by Georg Haas (1886–1971) of Giessen, Germany, initially in ignorance of Abel’s work. He built a machine very like Abel’s in 1923 and treated the first human patients by dialyzing their blood ex vivo and reinfusing it intermittently. He also used hirudin as an anticoagulant, but this substance was still crude and often toxic. His patients had irreversible chronic kidney failure and all died. Haas abandoned the work until 1927 when the new anticoagulant heparin was discovered by Henry Howell, again at Johns Hopkins, together with medical student Jay Maclean and later, retired pediatrician Emmett Holt. But Haas’ patients still died, and in the face of opposition from the medical establishment, he gave up for good in 1928.
In 1923 Heinrich Necheles (1897–1979) of Hamburg was dialyzing dogs deliberately made uremic, but with a machine incorporating a new design: a flat sandwich with multiple layers of another dialysis membrane, the peritoneum from calves. However, despite his interest in uremia, he used this technique only to prepare physiological extracts from blood in dogs.
Despite the use of heparin, dialysis stalled because collodion was too complicated to produce, too fragile, and too difficult to use. A new membrane, cellulose acetate, was introduced in 1908, marketed as ‘‘cellophane’’ in France in 1910. By 1930 the material was formed into tubes in Chicago by the Visking Company to make ‘‘skinless’’ sausages and was rapidly shown to be useful in the laboratory for dialysis. William Thalhimer (1884–1961) a New York pathologist and hematologist realized in 1937 from his experience of anticoagulating and storing blood that heparin together with cellophane tubing made a practical dialyzer a possibility. He built such a machine and dialyzed dogs, but as he did no clinical work himself he encouraged others to try it in humans. In the early 1940s four individuals tried and succeeded, each without any contact with others. In 1944 Jonathon Rhoads (1907–2002) of Philadelphia built and used a dialyzer with cellophane tubing wound in spiral on a frame within a bath of dialysis fluid and used it on a single patient. The dialysis worked, but the patient died, and he did no more. Toronto surgeon Gordon Murray (1894–1976), an expert on heparin and a colleague of Thalhimer, worked on dogs from 1940 to 1946 to perfect a similar design. In 1946 his first patient was treated three times and survived her acute kidney failure. He did only a few dialyses over the next five years, also designing and using a flat-plate sandwich type of dialyzer. Nils Alwall (1906–1986) in Lund, Sweden, worked on rabbits for four years or more before achieving success in humans in 1946. His design was similar to Murray’s but was notable in that it had an outer casing permitting the pressure around the spiral to be controlled so that ultrafiltration of excess fluid could be limited. Alwall continued working in dialysis until retirement and trained many people to use his first machines, mainly in Europe but also in Australia, Israel, and even the U.S.
The best known of these researchers is Willem Kolff (1911–). In September 1945 he performed the first successful dialysis with recovery of the patient in Kampen, Netherlands. Beginning in 1943 he dialyzed 16 other patients, all of whom died. Many of them, however, had irreversible kidney failure, and some improved briefly. Although Kolff never did any animal work, for the first time he established the size parameters necessary for human use. As a result, his machine had a much larger surface area. He employed a spiral of tubing wound around a large horizontal drum, laying halfway in an open bath of dialysate, which rotated with a coupling from a Ford car engine to allow blood to flow into the cellophane tubing. Kolff believed passionately in dialysis, and during the late 1940s he built and gave away a number of machines, sent plans everywhere so people could build their own, and toured the world to advertise the new technique.
Initially facing worldwide skepticism, he went to Cleveland, Ohio in 1950. His machine was improved in Boston by physician John Merrill, surgeon Carl Walter, and engineer William Olson. Despite its many obvious disadvantages (e.g., large priming volume and uncontrolled ultrafiltration), it continued in use until the early 1960s. One major factor in acceptance of dialysis treatment during the 1950s was that, unlike the milder forms of acute renal failure where conservative management was possible, dialysis made a major difference to survival in injured soldiers with severe but temporary renal failure during the Korean War (1950– 1952). New dialyzers that were much easier to use were introduced. These included the twin-coil kidney designed and built by Kolff and Bruno Watshinger of Vienna in only a couple of months in Cleveland in 1956, and the flat-plate sandwich design invented first by the chemists Leonard Skeggs (1918–) (who later invented automated clinical chemistry) and Jack Leonards, and, independently, Arthur McNeil in Buffalo, New York.
By the end of the 1950s physicians everywhere, having inadvertently started dialysis in patients with chronic irreversible disease, found a slow, miserable ‘‘second death’’ inevitable as the blood vessels vital for access became unusable. A solution came from the polymer industry in the form of plastic polyvinylchloride (PVC) electrical insulation tubing, which was already used for connecting patients to dialysis. Although it was first discovered in 1937, PTFE or teflon, which was not wettable and did not stimulate thrombosis in blood, became available in the 1950s. Seattle, surgeon Warren Wintershide pointed this out to the renal physician there, Belding Scribner (1925–). He then got an engineering colleague Wayne Quinton to bend the tubes using heat and make a shunt joining an artery and vein externally so that it could be closed off from the machine between dialyses but allow blood to flow through it continuously: Suddenly, long term dialysis for irreversible disease was possible. One or two patients who started on dialysis only a few years later in 1966 remained alive at the turn of the twenty-first century. The shunts were improved by the use of another new material, silicone rubber. Then in 1965, from experience with venipuncture while working in a blood bank, James Cimino (1927–) and his colleagues in New York introduced access to veins enlarged by a surgically created arteriovenous fistula. By the end of the decade, these had become almost universal, and external shunts were already obsolete.
Initially, the reusable and then (from 1968) disposable flat-plate and coil dialyzers already in use for acute renal failure were also used for longterm dialysis. However in the early 1960s engineers at the Dow company in Michigan learned to make hollow fibers less than 100 micrometers in diameter from numerous different polymers for proposed uses in water purification, and in medicine as membrane oxygenators. Dick Stewart (1917–), a physician and chemist working with Dow, suggested their use for hemodialysis, and the first capillary hollow-fiber dialyzers were used in humans in 1967. By 1980 they were the predominant type of dialyzer in use, and from 1990 onward, used almost universally. Their great advantage, apart from efficiency, is their small size: a 30 by 15 centimeter hollow-fiber dialyzer has the same capacity as Kolff’s original rotating drum dialyzer, which was more than one meter long and half a meter in diameter.
Commercial cellulose acetate dialyzing membranes continued in use until the 1990s when replaced by more permeable and more biocompatible synthetic compounds such as polysulfone. In addition, these more permeable membranes (of which the polyacrylonitrile AN-69 of 1969 is the prototype) are increasingly used to exploit convective rather than diffusive removal of solutes, as pioneered by Lee Henderson (1931–) in the U.S. and Eduard Quellhorst in Germany in the 1970s. This technology has been particularly effective in treatment of reversible acute renal failure in very ill patients,rift gold using continuous hemofiltration throughout the day.
The other major change in dialysis machinery was the introduction of continuous blending of dialysate from concentrated salt solutions and reasonably pure (but not sterile) water, pioneered by Arthur Babb for Scribner in Seattle in the early 1960s, and now universal. In addition, various online safety measures, starting in the 1950s with a bubble trap to prevent air entering the circulation and the measurement of dialysate temperature and ionic strength, have continued to be introduced through the years.
登録:
投稿 (Atom)