Dennis Allen looked and acted on Monday like a guy who knows his boss has his back. That?s confidence in a way that merely saying the word ?confidence? cannot.
He also looked like a man who wants command, who has thought about command, and sees that being the new coach of the Oakland Raiders is, for the first time in nearly half a century, a true chance to command.
And he also looked, at least facially, like Washington?s Kyle Shanahan, which should not unnerve you too much. Most young football coaches tend to look like Kyle Shanahan.
Mostly, Allen gave off the vibe of someone who is not going into this Raider thing blind. He knows he has been brought to Le Trou Noir to be definitive rather than deferential. His bearing and accent say ?Texas A&M,? and his complete surety shouts, ?Go on, test me. I dare you.?
This, then, is the new face of the Oakland Raiders -- a man like McKenzie, only without the rounded edges. They were brought here under separate cover to change what the Raiders have come to be known for --? underachievement, indiscipline, failure in moments of stress and overall playoff avoidance.
Oh, he used all the buzzwords -- ?up-tempo? and ?aggressive? and ?disciplined,? most notably, as though most coaches come out in favor of slow, passive sloth.
But it was the specificity of his answers on certain topics that leaped out as coming from a guy who has already seized the job.
He knows what kind of coach he would be -- a game manager, not a hands-on-too-tight play-by-play detail hog. He knows his view of talented but undisciplined players -- they wouldn?t play. He knows one area he needs to dramatically improve off the bat -- the secondary, which was shredded for nearly 4,300 yards and 31 scores last year.
And he paid as much attention to acknowledging the Raiders? past as he needed to, and not beyond. He regards it, pure and simple, as far less important than establishing a strong and sensible future.
That came in response to a question from a fan, an odd idea that we suspect will be imitated by other teams in the years to come. Allen handled it with the same shark-eyed, jut-jawed glare that he handled all the others.
He is, in short, the first coach since Al Davis in 1963 to speak so frankly of command, and if in fact he backs up his image and words with deeds come OTAs and training camp, and the players realize how dramatic the change is from the weird old days, he will in fact be that commander.
Of course, the proof is in the two-a-days, and it helps that he got to see the Raiders in person at their best (when they sat on the Broncos in Week One by not allowing them to run the ball) and worst (when they went in the tank in Week 9, blowing two 10-point leads and giving up 100-yard games to Willis McGahee and The Tebow).
In doing so, he saw why the Raiders can impress, and why they are held in such disdain when they don?t. And even if he wasn?t making notes on the Raiders after those two games, he surely has since.
None of this, of course, gets him Win 1, but as the living embodiment of the new power washer being taken to the Raiders, he?ll do fine. It is instructive that owner Mark Davis read a brief introduction and then left the stage to McKenzie and Allen. Not only did Al never do that, most owners don?t. They want you to know that they own the team and that their word is law. Davis wanted to leave the absolute opposite impression, so he left.
The result of this, we suspect, is that a lot of players will find Allen?s style of leadership off-putting, and will miss the old laissez-faire days when the players held the hammer because they had better access to Al than the coach did. Some may even resist, or rebel.
But as we said, Allen is McKenzie?s guy, and McKenzie has the keys. Whether this lasts four years, the length of Allen?s contract, remains to be seen, but he won?t be able to say, as so many have before him, that he wasn?t given the chance to be his own man.
(Reuters) ? Madonna on Monday announced plans to build 10 new schools in Malawi with a new partner after mismanagement forced the pop star to scrap her first project there last year.
The singer, who has adopted two children from the impoverished southern African nation, said she hoped the 10 new schools would educate at least 1,000 children a year, half of them girls.
That is double the number of children she hoped to help with her previously planned academy for girls, which was scrapped in March 2011 because of mismanagement and cost overruns.
Madonna said her Raising Malawi charity was teaming up this time with the non-profit group buildOn, which has constructed 54 primary schools in Malawi in the last 19 years.
"I am excited that with the help of buildOn, we can maintain our ongoing commitment to move forward efficiently. We now will be able to serve twice as many children as we would have served with our old approach," Madonna said in a statement.
"I have learned a great deal over the last few years and feel confident that we can reach our goals to educate children in Malawi, especially young girls, in a much more practical way. Constructing smaller schools in partnership with buildOn has restored my faith that we can accomplish what we promised we would," she added.
Madonna's earlier plan to build a state of the art girls school for about 400 girls just outside the Malawi capital Lilongwe collapsed last year, and the board of her Raising Malawi charity was fired. The New York Times said at the time that $3.8 million had been spent on the school with little to show for it.
The singer has lent $11 million to the organization which she co-founded in 2006.
Malawi has more than half a million children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic and is ranked by the United Nations as one of the world's 20 least developed countries.
Madonna's plans for new schools came at the start of a busy week for the singer, actress and director. Her new movie "W.E", which she wrote and directed, opens in U.S. movie theaters on Friday, she is performing at Sunday's halftime show at the 2012 Super Bowl, and will release the first single from her upcoming new album on Feb 3.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
4-week vaccination regimen knocks out early breast cancer tumors, Penn researchers reportPublic release date: 30-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Holly Auer holly.auer@uphs.upenn.edu 215-200-2313 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Majority of patients treated develop strong, lasting immune responses
PHILADELPHIA -- Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report that a short course of vaccination with an anti-HER2 dendritic cell vaccine made partly from the patient's own cells triggers a complete tumor eradication in nearly 20 percent of women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), an early breast cancer. More than 85 percent of patients appear to have a sustained immune response after vaccination, which may reduce their risk of developing a more invasive cancer in the future. The results of the study were published online this month of Cancer and in the January issue of the Journal of Immunotherapy.
The researchers say the results provide new evidence that therapeutic breast cancer vaccines may be most effective for early, localized disease, and when the treatment goes after a protein critical to cancer cell survival.
"I think these data more than prove that vaccination works in situations where the target is right," says the study's leader, Brian Czerniecki, MD, PhD, surgical director of the Rena Rowan Breast Center at the University of Pennsylvania and Surgical Director of the Immunotherapy Program for the Abramson Cancer Center. "Previous vaccines targeted tissue antigens that were expressed on the cancer cells, but were not necessary for tumor survival. So a vaccine response would cause the tumor to just stop expressing the antigen and the tumor would be fine. Here we're going after HER2/neu, which is critical for survival of early breast cancers. If we knock it out with the immune response, we cripple the tumor cells."
Czerniecki and colleagues enrolled 27 women with HER2-positive DCIS. They isolated specialized white cells from the patients' blood using standard apheresis techniques similar to the blood donation process. Once isolated, the researchers activated the dendritic cells, which are key regulators of the immune system, and primed them with small pieces of the HER2/neu protein. Each patient then received four shots, one week apart, of their personalized anti-HER2 vaccine. And two weeks later patients had surgery to remove any remaining disease, which is standard care for DCIS patients.
The new approach has several critical advantages, compared to testing a vaccine in patients with more advanced disease. First, the activated immune cells have fewer tumor cells to kill. Second, patients' immune systems are still responsive, unlike advanced cancer patients whose immune systems have been suppressed by their disease. Third, the investigators are able to see results quickly, by looking at serum and tumor biomarkers.
In fact, when the team compared pre-vaccination biopsy samples with post-vaccination surgical samples, they saw dramatic changes: Five patients had no disease visible at the time of surgery, indicating that their immune system had wiped out the tumor. Of the remaining 22 patients, HER2 expression was eliminated in half (11 patients), and reduced by 20 percent or more in another two. "We are continuing to see this pattern in our second, ongoing trial," Czerniecki says.
When the team looked at immune responses, they found that 85 percent of patients had HER2-reactive CD4 and CD8 T cells, suggesting that the patients developed a robust and relatively complete immune response after vaccination. Importantly, some patients maintained their immune responses as long as 52 months, which means that they continue to have some protection from recurrence of HER2-positive disease a key insurance policy for patients, since doctors currently are unable to accurately predict which women are likely to develop invasive breast cancer following a DCIS diagnosis.
The results of the study show the vaccine is safe and relatively easy for the women, with only low-grade side effects. The most common side effects were malaise (72 percent), injection site soreness (59 percent), chills or rigors (38 percent), fever (28 percent) and headaches (24 percent).
While the numbers of patients treated in the trial are relatively small, Czerniecki thinks they will have some idea whether the vaccination reduces the risk of disease recurrence within the next two years. In the meantime, the team continues enrolling patients in a larger study, is designing another study to test the approach in women with early invasive breast cancer, and also plans to test vaccination with additional antigens, including HER3 and HER1.
"I think if we target several of the HER2 family members, we'll drive the tumor to a place where it has nowhere to go," Czerniecki says. "Basically, we'll push it over a cliff because those pathways are critical for tumor survival."
Czerniecki notes that what the team is learning in DCIS is applicable to invasive breast cancer, and to other solid tumors that rely on the HER family of signaling proteins, including melanoma, lung, brain, and colon cancers.
###
Co-authors include Anupama Sharma, MD, Ursula Koldovsky, PhD, Shuwen Xu, MD, Rosemarie Mick, MS, Robert Roses, MD, Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, BS, Susan Weinstein, MD, Harvey Nisenbaum, MD, Bruce L. Levine, MD, Kevin Fox, MD, and Paul Zhang, MD, PhD from Penn, and Gary Koski, PhD, from Kent State University in Ohio.
This study was funded by an NIH grant (R01 CA096997), the Harrington Foundation, Pennies-in-action.org, and the Mistler Foundation.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
4-week vaccination regimen knocks out early breast cancer tumors, Penn researchers reportPublic release date: 30-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Holly Auer holly.auer@uphs.upenn.edu 215-200-2313 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Majority of patients treated develop strong, lasting immune responses
PHILADELPHIA -- Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report that a short course of vaccination with an anti-HER2 dendritic cell vaccine made partly from the patient's own cells triggers a complete tumor eradication in nearly 20 percent of women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), an early breast cancer. More than 85 percent of patients appear to have a sustained immune response after vaccination, which may reduce their risk of developing a more invasive cancer in the future. The results of the study were published online this month of Cancer and in the January issue of the Journal of Immunotherapy.
The researchers say the results provide new evidence that therapeutic breast cancer vaccines may be most effective for early, localized disease, and when the treatment goes after a protein critical to cancer cell survival.
"I think these data more than prove that vaccination works in situations where the target is right," says the study's leader, Brian Czerniecki, MD, PhD, surgical director of the Rena Rowan Breast Center at the University of Pennsylvania and Surgical Director of the Immunotherapy Program for the Abramson Cancer Center. "Previous vaccines targeted tissue antigens that were expressed on the cancer cells, but were not necessary for tumor survival. So a vaccine response would cause the tumor to just stop expressing the antigen and the tumor would be fine. Here we're going after HER2/neu, which is critical for survival of early breast cancers. If we knock it out with the immune response, we cripple the tumor cells."
Czerniecki and colleagues enrolled 27 women with HER2-positive DCIS. They isolated specialized white cells from the patients' blood using standard apheresis techniques similar to the blood donation process. Once isolated, the researchers activated the dendritic cells, which are key regulators of the immune system, and primed them with small pieces of the HER2/neu protein. Each patient then received four shots, one week apart, of their personalized anti-HER2 vaccine. And two weeks later patients had surgery to remove any remaining disease, which is standard care for DCIS patients.
The new approach has several critical advantages, compared to testing a vaccine in patients with more advanced disease. First, the activated immune cells have fewer tumor cells to kill. Second, patients' immune systems are still responsive, unlike advanced cancer patients whose immune systems have been suppressed by their disease. Third, the investigators are able to see results quickly, by looking at serum and tumor biomarkers.
In fact, when the team compared pre-vaccination biopsy samples with post-vaccination surgical samples, they saw dramatic changes: Five patients had no disease visible at the time of surgery, indicating that their immune system had wiped out the tumor. Of the remaining 22 patients, HER2 expression was eliminated in half (11 patients), and reduced by 20 percent or more in another two. "We are continuing to see this pattern in our second, ongoing trial," Czerniecki says.
When the team looked at immune responses, they found that 85 percent of patients had HER2-reactive CD4 and CD8 T cells, suggesting that the patients developed a robust and relatively complete immune response after vaccination. Importantly, some patients maintained their immune responses as long as 52 months, which means that they continue to have some protection from recurrence of HER2-positive disease a key insurance policy for patients, since doctors currently are unable to accurately predict which women are likely to develop invasive breast cancer following a DCIS diagnosis.
The results of the study show the vaccine is safe and relatively easy for the women, with only low-grade side effects. The most common side effects were malaise (72 percent), injection site soreness (59 percent), chills or rigors (38 percent), fever (28 percent) and headaches (24 percent).
While the numbers of patients treated in the trial are relatively small, Czerniecki thinks they will have some idea whether the vaccination reduces the risk of disease recurrence within the next two years. In the meantime, the team continues enrolling patients in a larger study, is designing another study to test the approach in women with early invasive breast cancer, and also plans to test vaccination with additional antigens, including HER3 and HER1.
"I think if we target several of the HER2 family members, we'll drive the tumor to a place where it has nowhere to go," Czerniecki says. "Basically, we'll push it over a cliff because those pathways are critical for tumor survival."
Czerniecki notes that what the team is learning in DCIS is applicable to invasive breast cancer, and to other solid tumors that rely on the HER family of signaling proteins, including melanoma, lung, brain, and colon cancers.
###
Co-authors include Anupama Sharma, MD, Ursula Koldovsky, PhD, Shuwen Xu, MD, Rosemarie Mick, MS, Robert Roses, MD, Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, BS, Susan Weinstein, MD, Harvey Nisenbaum, MD, Bruce L. Levine, MD, Kevin Fox, MD, and Paul Zhang, MD, PhD from Penn, and Gary Koski, PhD, from Kent State University in Ohio.
This study was funded by an NIH grant (R01 CA096997), the Harrington Foundation, Pennies-in-action.org, and the Mistler Foundation.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PARIS (Reuters) ? President Nicolas Sarkozy used a primetime television interview on Sunday to flesh out a flurry of measures to boost employment and competitiveness which he hopes to rush through France's parliament before a presidential election in April.
Sarkozy, who is running far behind Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in opinion polls for the election, said he would raise the VAT rate to 21.2 percent from 19.6 percent from October to fund a reduction in social charges on companies.
The move, which Sarkozy first alluded to in a New Year's speech, is aimed at narrowing a competitiveness gap with Germany that is weighing on French growth, but it risks angering voters.
Among other measures, Sarkozy said he would set up an industrial investment bank in February with a billion euros in capital that will lend to small and medium-sized businesses struggling to obtain financing in today's climate.
He also said companies with more than 250 employees would be obliged to take on interns to the level of 5 percent of total staff, as a way of helping reduce chronic youth unemployment.
Sarkozy said he had a duty as president to hold off announcing his re-election bid until as late as possible.
Yet his interview, broadcast live across eight TV channels, seemed timed to respond to a series of TV appearances and speeches last week by Hollande, who is campaigning at full throttle for the two-round election on April 22 and May 6.
"We have to protect employment, we have to defend it, value it," said Sarkozy, who has thrown his focus onto growth and jobs since it became clear late last year that his deficit-cutting efforts could not save France from a credit rating downgrade.
"I am convinced this decision will save jobs and that it's the only credible way to stop outsourcing," he said of his so-called "Social VAT" plan to ease firms' social contributions.
Sarkozy, who turned 57 on Saturday, said a financial transaction tax he is planning for August would set a tax of 0.1 percent on transactions in French securities.
He gave no detail on the tax, which France wants to be adopted across the European Union, but a government source later said it would target shares, not bonds, and could raise a billion euros annually.
Separately, Sarkozy announced a rise in taxes on individuals' financial income such as interest and dividends.
UPS AND DOWNS
Sarkozy has worked hard in recent months to present a more austere and presidential demeanor following criticism of his informal and sometimes brash manner, and he stuck to a highly technical discourse on Sunday. He referred frequently to Germany as an economic model that France should be copying.
Setting the stage for what aides say will be an "honest" campaign that admits past mistakes yet seeks to show he is the safest pair of hands to steer France out of economic gloom, Sarkozy sounded a note of humility about his years in office.
"I accept the criticism," he said, adding that there had been "ups and downs" and things he regretted.
Opinion polls show Sarkozy could lose a runoff against Hollande by 10 percentage points, and some in his UMP party believe he is suffering from his decision to leave launching his campaign until close to a March 16 deadline.
Hollande put in an able performance last week in a TV debate against Alain Juppe, Sarkozy's foreign minister and one of the most talented politicians in his team, and he also unveiled a weighty and fiscally responsible economic plan.
In an attempt at one-upmanship, Sarkozy said France's public deficit for 2011 could come in as low as 5.4 or 5.3 percent of gross domestic product, well below a target of 5.7 percent.
Yet illustrating the economic challenge ahead, the source said that the government will soon revise down its 1.0 percent forecast for 2012 growth.
Both Hollande and Sarkozy are seizing on the euro zone crisis and what many fear is a descent into recession in France as their key focus for the 2012 election.
While Hollande blames France's woes on more than a decade of conservative leadership, Sarkozy is playing on his experience next to a man who has never been a government minister.
An Ifop poll published on Sunday showed, however, that many see Hollande as the best candidate to tackle debt reduction and unemployment, which is running at a more than 12-year high.
The poll found 46 percent of respondents trusted Hollande most to fight unemployment, versus 22 percent for Sarkozy, and 34 percent chose Hollande as the best to handle the public debt, versus 32 percent for Sarkozy.
Underlining a belief that Hollande could defeat Sarkozy, Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party said on Saturday that the German Chancellor plans to actively back Sarkozy in his campaign by making joint appearances with him.
TEHRAN, Iran ? Iran's official news agency reports that the head of the state oil company is claiming that the price of crude will go up to $150 per barrel.
Head of the National Iranian Oil Company Ahmad Qalehban did not give a time frame for the prediction, nor any other details in the Sunday report by IRNA.
The price of benchmark U.S. crude on Friday was around $99.56 per barrel.
Qalehban's statement comes as Iranian officials prepare to debate a ban on crude sales to European Union countries, in response to a planned EU embargo on Iran's oil by summer because of that country's nuclear program.
The United States and its allies argue that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons technology, while Tehran says the program is for purely peaceful purposes.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.?? The driver of an SUV veered around a crossing arm and ignored flashing warning lights before the vehicle was struck by a light-rail train in Sacramento on Saturday, killing an infant and two adults, authorities said.
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The other person inside the Nissan Pathfinder, a woman in her 30s, was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, said Niko King, assistant chief with the Sacramento Fire Department. Six of the roughly 50 passengers on the light rail train suffered minor injuries and were taken to a hospital, he said.
King and a spokeswoman for the transit line said video from a camera at the crossing clearly shows the SUV driving around the crossing arm. The light rail followed two Union Pacific freight trains, which use separate tracks, and the arms had remained down during the interval, said Alane Masui, spokeswoman for the Sacramento Regional Transit District.
"They were down after the UP trains and before the (light rail) train approached, so the crossing arms were properly working," she said.
She said the length of time between the freight trains clearing the intersection and the light rail train crossing it had not yet been determined and would be part of the investigation. Investigators also were reviewing video from a camera mounted on the light rail train.
The collision, in a working class neighborhood south of downtown, occurred shortly after 4 p.m. and pushed the Pathfinder about 30 yards from the point of impact.
"All I heard was a big bang, and I saw a light-rail train heading south with a big truck smashed on it," said Ravin Pratab, 42, of Davis, whose car was among those waiting for the train at the rail crossing, on the opposite side of the tracks from the Pathfinder.
The train was going about 55 mph at the time, a typical speed for that location.
Authorities did not release the identities of those in the Pathfinder or their relationship. A man and woman in the vehicle, both in their 40s, died at the scene while the baby was pronounced dead at a hospital. Firefighters said one had been ejected.
The University of California, Davis Medical Center in Sacramento would say only that the woman remained in serious condition late Saturday.
The light rail system carries an average of 50,000 passengers a day, with lines stretching from the state capital to its suburbs in the north, south and east.
Masui said there are four sets of tracks at the crossing ? two for freight and two for light rail so trains from both systems can run in either direction.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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New submitter klchoward writes "Working for NOAA, I have been really pleased to see the weather data from the new Suomi NPP satellite coming into our computer models already but have been blown away by its capability to take stunning high-definition images of our planet. See the article at Huffington Post or go straight to the image at NASA's website." Reader derekmead has some images from further afield, too: these beautiful images of Mars come from NASA's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, mounted on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
If you're going help save the world, you might as well get a little something for yourself at the same time, right? World of Warcraft fans listen up, because Blizzard wants you to help them help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and it's willing to give you a fairly unique piece of WoW memorabilia for digging deep. The game developer is once again auctioning off World of Warcraft server blades. This time, the company's offering up 2,000 HP p-Class blades that were recently retired when it upgraded its backend hardware. The blades, which have gone up for auction on eBay, have been fitted with a clear case bearing the WoW logo and a plaque featuring a slew of developer signatures. One-hundred percent of proceeds will go to help the research hospital.
Microsoft has just released a free Hotmail app to the Amazon Appstore, claiming to have optimized its existing Android app for the Fire. No doubt it probably works better that the Fires's native email client, which is tolerable at best. What I want to know, though, is who the hell is still using Hotmail? What is this, 1998? [Amazon via The Verge] More »
Plus, a Rachel Weisz thriller, an unusual horror film, and a new Criterion for Godzilla.
We've got a lot going on this week in the home video department, and thankfully, most of it is relatively good. First up, though we won't be mentioning them outside of this intro, there are a handful of nifty Blu-ray reissues hitting shelves: a few Alfred Hitchcock films (Notorious, Rebecca, and Spellbound) are getting the hi-def treatment, as well as a couple of Woody Allen classics (Annie Hall and Manhattan). Oh, and if you're into fad workout programs, you might be interested to know that the Insanity line of training videos are also being released. Otherwise, we've got one of the best-reviewed wide releases of the year, a robotic underdog story, and the latest in Paranormal Activity. Then there's the sex trade thriller starring Rachel Weisz, the indie horror film with the crazy third act, and a quirky teen romance by... Gus Van Sant? Lastly, there are two new Criterions hitting shelves, so we'll be covering those as well. See below for the full list!
The Maximum Airspeed Above Which Birds And Drones Are Bound to Crash In pursuit of fleet-footed prey, the northern goshawk wings through thick forest canopies and underbrush at breakneck speeds, dipping and diving to avoid colliding with trees or other obstacles. But it can only go so fast, apparently obeying an unspoken speed limit dictated not by biology, but by the density of its environment ? beyond a certain threshold, it is certain to crash into something. This is an important lesson for makers of drones and other flying objects, according to researchers at MIT and Harvard.
Source: POPSCI Posted on:
Tuesday, Jan 24, 2012, 8:19am Views: 39
Forum rules This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.
Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!
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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup. "Vera! Vera! What has become of you?" :)
I may be interested in this roleplay. Can you tell me a little bit more about the plot?
Ita, ibi stabamus, et... Oh, ignosce mihi, was I speaking Latinam iterum? So sorry, ego really must work in ille. Anyway, back to fabulam meam, So, we were standing ibi, et...
FalloutRomanae
Member for 1 years
Could I get a hold on female 3 please?
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid. ?I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.? ?I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth.?
Lux_Disraeli
Member for 1 years
Very surprised at the response for this! Okay so since there's one place left then If you could send in your characters then I'll choose which one I like best but I may yet expand the character spots but first need to get some guy spots filled.
Calvazara
Member for 1 years
I noticed you make historical role plays, which I absolutely love...maybe I will reserve one of the male characters
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. (H.P. Lovecraft "The Call of Cthulhu")
girlwt
Member for 3 years
History is my passion! And it would be great if you could!
Calvazara
Member for 1 years
My character is done I hope she's alright.
snipergirl24
Member for 1 years
Post a reply
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The president will use the group video chat tool to field questions on Monday, January 30
Just days after the White House?joined Google+, President Obama has announced that he'll be putting one of the social network's most unique features to good use. In Google+, members of the social network can participate in group video chats using the site's aptly named?Hangouts feature. As a follow-up to Tuesday's 2012?State of the Union address, Obama has invited users to submit questions on its official?YouTube page for the Hangout,?will take place on Monday, January 30.
As another video product under Google's wing, Hangouts tie in closely with YouTube. In a Hangout, up to ten users can chat seamlessly, including the user who convenes the Hangout ? in this case, Obama himself. Hangouts feature a few cool tricks, like the ability to automatically highlight the G+ user who is speaking at any given moment and slick integration with YouTube that lets all ten users simultaneously watch a video on YouTube, right in the chat window itself.
If you're interested in getting heard ? or being one of the nine attendees featured in the group video chat ? submit your best questions as we gear up for tomorrow's State of the Union address, which you can?watch live online, tomorrow at 9 p.m. Eastern.
New York ? The Boss captured the national zeitgeist with "Born in the USA" in the '80s and "The Rising" after 9/11. Now, he's trying again with "We Take Care of Our Own"
The audio: Bruce Springsteen has a history of giving musical voice to the anxieties of the 99 percent. "Born in the USA" tackled the struggle to achieve the American dream, while 2001's "The Rising" captured the need to build a country worth protecting in a post-9/11 world. Now, as the U.S. endures a feeble economy and a contentious election, The Boss releases another politically-themed song "We Take Care of Our Own." (Listen to it below.) With lyrics like, "Wherever this flag's flown/we take care of our own," this quintessential Springsteen track doubles as "a protest song [and]... a rousing patriotic anthem." Though typically pro-American, it's also a scathing reminder of what those in power owe the American people. "We Take Care of Our Own" is off of Springsteen's 25th studio album Wrecking Ball, which he claims is "angriest yet," and will be released March 6.
The reaction: "Could there be a more Springsteen-esque subject than" hard times in America, says Jim Farber at The Daily News. The song is so predictable that "Springsteen-phobes" will surely roll their eyes, and even fans might agree that it "comes all too close to self-satire." That said, counters Scott Mervus at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the lyrics are "passionate and powerful." Unfortunately, this may be "Born in the USA" all over again, says Chris Willman at The Wrap. The '80s hit, perhaps "the most misunderstood song of all time," was misappropriated by politicians like Ronald Reagan who seemed deaf to lyrics about "American promises unfulfilled." Expect "We Take Care of Our Own" to be misguidedly embraced "as a conservative anthem," too. Listen for yourself:
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SEE ALSO: Did Adele save the music industry in 2011?
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Andrew Adler, the owner of local publication the Atlanta Jewish Times, has apologized after suggesting that assassinating President Barack Obama is an option that should be considered by the Israeli government.
As reported by Gawker, Adler's article, written earlier this month, describes the urgency in protecting the Israeli people from threats such as Hamas and Hezbollah and argues that there are essentially only three options available: attack Hamas, beat back Hezbollah, or assassinate Obama.
From Adler's column, which is not available online, but which Gawker uploaded to the web:
Yes, you read "three" correctly. Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel's existence. Think about it. If I have thought of this Tom Clancy-type scenario, don't you think that this almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel's most inner circles?
Another way of putting "three" in perspective goes something like this: How far would you go to save a nation comprised of seven million lives ... Jews, Christians and Arabs alike?
You have got to believe, like I do, that all options are on the table.
In a subsequent interview with Gawker, Adler seemed hesitant to stand by his words, saying he had written them just to "see what kind of reaction I would get from readers."
Now, however, Adler has issued a full apology.
"I very much regret it, I wish I hadn't made reference to it at all," he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Friday.
Of course this is not the first time Obama has come under fire for his talk of diplomacy in the region, as well as his overall foreign policy platform, which his detractors have viewed as too passive at times. In the midst of the 2012 election cycle, GOP hopefuls such as Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have attacked the president on his handling of threats from unfriendly nations. According to The Hill, some GOP candidates feel that the president is being too hard on Israel and not tough enough on its enemies.
"This president appears more generous to our enemies than he is to our friends," Romney said at the Republican Jewish Coalition forum in December.
Former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) also claimed that "Obama has confused engagement with appeasement, and it has inspired Israel's enemies."
Despite the criticism from GOP hopefuls and the rhetoric of local spectators, Obama seems to be holding up well in his popularity within the Jewish community, a voting populace that is considered imperative to his re-election. According to Forward, a Jewish news site, top-level Jewish fundraisers from Obama's 2008 campaign are sticking with the president in 2012.
ScienceDaily (Jan. 20, 2012) ? Recent experiments conducted at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) produced striking results, showing for the first time that corals hosting a single type of "zooxanthellae" can have different levels of thermal tolerance -- a feature that was only known previously for corals with a mix of zooxanthellae.
Zooxanthellae are algal cells that live within the tissue of living coral and provide the coral host with energy; the relationship is crucial for the coral's survival. Rising ocean temperatures can lead to the loss of zooxanthellae from the coral host, as a consequence the coral loses its tissue colour and its primary source of energy, a process known as 'coral bleaching'. Globally, coral bleaching has led to significant loss of coral, and with rising ocean temperatures, poses a major threat to coral reefs.
It was previously known that corals hosting more than one type of zooxanthellae could better cope with temperature changes by favouring types of zooxanthellae that have greater thermal tolerance. However, until now it was not known if corals hosting a single type of zooxanthellae could have different levels of thermal tolerance.
Results recently published in the scientific journal, Nature Climate Change, showed corals that only host a single type of zooxanthellae may in fact differ in their thermal tolerance. This finding is important because many species of coral are dominated by a single type of zooxanthellae.
PhD student, Ms Emily Howells from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) at James Cook University, Townsville, together with scientists from AIMS and CoECRS, collected two populations of a single type of zooxanthellae (known as C1) from two locations on the Great Barrier Reef. The population collected from Magnetic Island near Townsville experiences average ocean temperatures 2?C higher than the population collected from the Whitsunday Islands. In experiments at AIMS, young corals were treated with one or other of the two different populations of zooxanthellae, and exposed to elevated water temperatures, as might occur during bleaching events.
The results were striking. Corals with zooxanthellae from the warmer region coped well with higher temperatures, staying healthy and growing rapidly, whilst corals with zooxanthellae from the cooler region suffered severe bleaching (loss of the zooxanthellae) and actually reduced in size as they partly died off.
Madeleine van Oppen, ARC Future Fellow at AIMS, says the research results will likely have a major impact on the field, as until now corals associating with the same type of zooxanthellae have been viewed as physiologically similar, irrespective of their geographical location.
"Our research suggests that populations of a single type of zooxanthellae have adapted to local conditions as can be seen from the remarkably different results of the two populations used in this study. If zooxanthellae populations are able to further adapt to increases in temperature at the pace at which oceans warm, they may assist corals to increase their thermal tolerance and survive into the future." says Emily Howells.
"However, we do not yet know how fast zooxanthellae can adapt, highlighting an important area of future research," says Bette Willis, Professor from the CoECRS at James Cook University.
Research at AIMS is therefore currently assessing whether zooxanthellae can continue to adapt to increasing temperatures and at what rate. This work in progress will provide insights into the capacity of zooxanthellae to adapt to future climate change.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
E. J. Howells, V. H. Beltran, N. W. Larsen, L. K. Bay, B. L. Willis, M. J. H. van Oppen. Coral thermal tolerance shaped by local adaptation of photosymbionts. Nature Climate Change, 2011; DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1330
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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