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Unequal Risk
Published — July 1, 2015 Updated — July 2, 2015 at 4:21 pm ET
The impenetrable world of Mark Flores
Yvette Flores unknowingly worked around lead and other harmful substances while she was pregnant; a severely disabled son was the result
Jim Morris
This story was co-published with Slate.
SAN JOSE, California — In the photograph, a frozen moment of optimism, Yvette Flores is smiling.
It's the summer of 1979. Yvette, in a flower-patterned dress, is 22 years old and five months pregnant. To her right is her husband, David, a big man wearing tinted aviator glasses, a T-shirt and an inscrutable expression. They have no idea what's coming.
Mark Rueda Flores was delivered at the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center on December 3, 1979. There were many problems from the start: His eyes were crossed. His testicles had failed to descend. His hips were dislocated. He was unable to suck on a breast or bottle. His head was covered with large blood blisters, known as hematomas.
By the time Mark was 4, it was clear that he was profoundly disabled. He was still crawling. He wasn't talking normally. "The words were coming out like a foreign language," Yvette said.
In December, Mark turned 35. He is six feet tall. Before he had gall bladder surgery last summer he weighed nearly 400 pounds. He speaks mostly in monosyllables, often repeating the last word or phrase his mother says. He watches Sesame Street on a loop and likes trains, forklifts and Chuck E. Cheese. Not long ago, he learned to draw a circle.
For the first 29 years of Mark's life, Yvette had no reason to suspect his condition was the product of anything other than misfortune. Had she not heard a radio ad 6 ½ years ago, she might believe that still.
The ad was sponsored by a law firm. As Yvette remembers it, the announcer asked, "Have you worked in the electronics industry? Do you have a child with these defects?" Yvette: "I go, 'Yeah, yeah.' " She wrote down the phone number and called a few days later.
Risks to workers and their offspring
When it comes to protection against toxic hazards, workers in America are treated differently — that is to say, more callously — than the general public. This legal disparity allows someone who toils inside a factory to face higher risks of cancer and other maladies than someone who lives just beyond the plant fence.
Unequal Risk: Examining the epidemic of work-related disease in America
Slow-motion tragedy for American workers
After 44 years, halting progress on workplace disease
The damage, it turns out, isn't confined to the workers themselves. Building on science more than a century old, recent studies have found ties between parental exposures and childhood afflictions such as brain tumors, malformations and learning disabilities. A bicoastal consortium of toxic-tort lawyers has begun targeting electronics manufacturers, blaming chemical-intensive processes for skeletal abnormalities, developmental delays, heart defects and other problems in workers' children.
The little-publicized litigation comes on the heels of hundreds of lawsuits filed against IBM Corporation and its chemical suppliers in the late 1990s on behalf of cancer-stricken workers and their injured offspring. It raises questions about the control of teratogens — substances, such as lead, which can interfere with tightly sequenced fetal development — in the workplace.
Across all industries, air samples testing positive for lead by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from 1984 through 2013 exceeded the exposure limit 40 percent of the time, a Center for Public Integrity analysis shows. Just how many workers have been exposed to unsafe levels of lead in electronics manufacturing is unclear because the sampling was so much more limited.
"There are not enough government protections for the types of exposures that occur," said Tracey Woodruff, director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco. "OSHA's not even really dealing with cancer, so this is another order down."
Indeed, OSHA itself says that many of its exposure limits for dangerous substances don't offer sufficient protection for workers. Parsing 30 years of agency data, the Center found that when air samples across all industries tested positive for teratogenic mercury vapor, they were above the legal limit less than 1 percent of the time. But a third of the samples topped the much stricter limit recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
The placenta was long thought to provide a barrier against most toxic insults to the fetus. Scientists now understand that "it's nowhere close to a closed system," said Emilie Rissman, who heads the biological sciences department at North Carolina State University. "It has to get nutrition from the mom and has to get rid of waste, so there is some exchange that has to happen. In the same way that nutrients and oxygen get to the fetus, other things in the mom can come in."
A father's exposures also can cause trouble, Rissman said, given that an embryo gets its DNA from both parents. Mutagenic chemicals like dioxins can affect the ability of sperm to fertilize eggs and also can alter genetic material, leading to embryo loss or disease in babies.
Yvette brushes Mark's hair at their home in San Jose.
(Maryam Jameel/Center for Public Integrity)
'I never questioned anything'
Mark Flores' mother was born Yvette Yturralde in Carlsbad, New Mexico, on May 27, 1957. Her family moved to San Jose when she was 2. Her father, Santana, was a plasterer. Her mother, Velma, was a seasonal cannery worker. She had two brothers and one sister.
By the time she was 18, in 1975, Yvette was a few credits short of completing high school. She enrolled in a program that helped her get a GED diploma and find a job. She landed at a company called Spectra-Physics, which made lasers at a plant in Mountain View, northwest of San Jose in what was becoming known as Silicon Valley.
For 4 ½ years, eight to 10 hours a day, five or six days a week, Yvette worked in a small, stuffy room in Building 5, fusing together glass tubes at a precise angle. A man worked behind her.
Yvette sat at her assembly station with a spray gun, applying a greenish adhesive to the glass tubes and using a blow torch to cure it. A fan turned weakly above her. "It was like no air was coming in there," she said. When it got too bad, she'd flee to the larger glass-blowing area in Building 5 for relief.
Yvette mixed the adhesive in a beaker using powder from a box and liquid chemicals. "I was never told to cover myself up or anything when I did that," she said. She would learn many years later that she was being exposed to lead and the solvent methanol, both of which can sabotage a fetus. At the time, she said, "I never questioned anything."
In 1978, the year before she gave birth to Mark, Yvette had a miscarriage in the women's restroom at Spectra-Physics. "I had severe cramping. … I went in there and I was bleeding and I just remember being in such excruciating pain." None of her managers ever followed up to ask if she was all right, she said. She recalls going back to work two days later.
Early evidence of fetal harm
Decades before Yvette Flores became pregnant a second time, researchers knew that a parent's exposure could impair, and perhaps kill, an unborn child.
In a 1911 lecture to the Eugenics Education Society in London, Sir Thomas Oliver, a physician, spoke of his hard-won success "in securing the emancipation of female labour from the dangerous processes of lead-making …. Lead hits hard the reproductive powers of man and woman, but especially of woman."
In the 1950s came alarming reports out of Minamata Bay, Japan, where a chemical manufacturer had dumped an estimated 27 tons of methyl mercury over nearly four decades, contaminating fish, a staple of the local diet. More than 900 people died of mercury poisoning and some 2 million suffered neurological damage or permanent disability. Babies born to mothers who had eaten the tainted fish also developed symptoms, akin to cerebral palsy, of what became known as Minamata disease.
Around the same time, thousands of children worldwide whose mothers who had taken the drug Thalidomide for morning sickness during pregnancy were born with limb deformities.
Over the course of a year, beginning in June 1975, the children of three men who worked in the same building at a GAF Corporation chemical plant in Rensselaer, New York, were born with heart ailments. Suspicion fell on a herbicide, oryzalin, which was made in the building. Federal health investigators later confirmed what they called an "unusual cluster of birth defects" at the plant but stopped short of blaming oryzalin.
One of the GAF babies, Brian Purcell, died at five days old. "Nobody expects to lose a child that quick," said Brian's father, Doug, now retired. "He was delivered by C-section, and once his heart problems developed they moved him to another hospital. We never got a chance to say goodbye." He and his wife had no more children.
In early 1979, just before Mark Flores was conceived, newspapers including The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal carried a story out of Willow Island, West Virginia. Female workers of childbearing age at an American Cyanamid chemical plant said the company had pressured them to undergo sterilization so they could continue to work around lead in the plant's pigments division. Those who refused were told they'd be reassigned to lesser-paying jobs or fired. Five women went through with the procedure.
Yvette knew none of this, logging her hours in Building 5 to the very end of her pregnancy with Mark. Had she suspected her work could hurt him, "I would have run out of that place," she said. "I would have worked in fast food."
Rude encounters
As Mark grew, his parents came to anticipate his quirks and deficiencies. He'd take off running and have to be chased down. He could ride a tricycle but couldn't stop. He could be coaxed into talking only with an offer of food and began putting on weight. His father, David, a truck driver, once told Yvette, "I would give my right eye, my arm, anything, just to go for a minute into his brain and see what he's thinking."
Yvette and David insisted that Mark get out in the world. This policy led to some uncomfortable, occasionally unnerving, encounters. People would stare rudely. When Mark was 12, he accidentally bumped into a woman at a crowded Target store. The woman's husband, convinced that Mark had acted intentionally, became enraged and was preparing to punch him when Yvette stepped in.
The episode appears to have traumatized Mark. As Yvette was recounting it last summer, Mark, sitting next to her on the sofa in their mobile home, snapped out of his torpor and began crying. "Mom, I'm sorry," he said, putting his head on Yvette's left shoulder. She assured him it wasn't his fault. "Mama takes care of you. It's you and me, right?"
Mark was especially close to his father, whom people called Güero — Spanish slang for someone who's light-skinned. After David died in a motorcycle accident on December 23, 2007, Mark was beside himself and began ransacking the house. "He was very physical because he couldn't verbalize," Yvette said.
He found solace at the Multiple Intelligence Training Center, an adult day care center founded by one of his former teachers. He joined the other clients in dancing, singing and gardening. On holidays, Yvette has him draw pictures for his father. "He does 75 pages of circles. I say, 'OK, put them by your bed and the angels will come and pick them up and take them to your daddy up there in heaven.'"
Mark watches Sesame Street, one of his favorite TV shows. His toy trucks are scattered throughout the house. (Maryam Jameel/ Center for Public Integrity)
From canneries to Silicon Valley
The revelatory radio ad Yvette heard in December 2008 was sponsored by Waters & Kraus, a personal-injury law firm based in Dallas. After answering a series of questions, she was contacted by Amanda Hawes, a lawyer in San Jose.
Hawes, who prefers to be called Mandy, is gaunt and barely five feet tall. She talks fast and says she has a photographic memory.
A native of Bergen County, New Jersey, Hawes graduated from Harvard Law School in 1968 and moved to the Bay Area, where she joined the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation. She started off representing people of limited income, mostly immigrant pensioners, who were being evicted from residential hotels in the city's Yerba Buena district in the name of redevelopment. A settlement with the city put them in decent, affordable housing.
In the early 1970s Hawes moved to the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County in the East Bay, where she began representing women, most of them Hispanic or African-American, who performed grueling, low-paying seasonal work at fruit and vegetable canneries throughout Northern California. "Most of the year-round jobs were for the white guys," Hawes said. "Women's labor was always welcome if it was a shitty job that no one else wanted." It was typical for women in the canneries to work 12-hour shifts in hot, noisy conditions with no overtime; some experienced sexual harassment of the crudest sort, an invitation to "get into the camper with the supervisor," as Hawes put it, in exchange for a marginally better job. Hawes helped scores of them file discrimination claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and win back pay.
As the canneries began to relocate to California's Central Valley and Mexico, the electronics industry was booming in the Santa Clara Valley south of San Francisco. Companies that made the brains of computers and other devices — semiconductors, circuit boards, disk drives — were in need of what Hawes calls "cheap, malleable labor." Women who'd been pitting apricots soon were spin-coating chemically complex and highly reactive "photoresist" mixtures onto silicon wafers, cleaning them with solvents, baking them, dipping them in acids. The clamor of the conveyor belt was replaced by the calm of the so-called clean room, where the primary goal was to protect the product against any particle contamination, from dust to dandruff, by using equipment made expressly for this purpose. The workers themselves were largely an afterthought, breathing re-circulated air that, unbeknownst to them, was laced with chemicals.
In 1977, Hawes went into private practice in San Jose and began representing female electronics workers. Her first three clients in this field had worked in an R&D laboratory at Signetics, a semiconductor manufacturer in Sunnyvale. They'd been reassigned to the cafeteria and given essentially nothing to do after complaining of being made sick by acids, solvents and heavy metals. They were fired after the company said it couldn't find work for them. Hawes filed workers' compensation claims and a lawsuit on their behalf; all were settled.
Investigators with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health — NIOSH — visited the Signetics building on several occasions in 1979. They interviewed five employees who complained of severe and lingering headaches, tightness of the chest, metallic tastes in their mouths and nosebleeds. The investigators concluded that "a significant occupationally related health problem exists at the Signetics Sunnyvale facility" and suggested that the company improve ventilation.
In 1981, the California Department of Industrial Relations published the results of a survey of workers in semiconductor chip manufacturing. The survey revealed a range of cancer-causing chemicals used in the industry — including arsenic, chromium, asbestos, beryllium and nickel. The same year, 65,000 customers of the Great Oaks Water Company in south San Jose learned that their drinking water supply had been contaminated with trichloroethylene and other solvents that had leaked from underground storage tanks at plants owned by IBM and Fairchild Semiconductor. Two epidemiological studies later confirmed what some residents had suspected: There were increased rates of miscarriage — also known as spontaneous abortion — among women who'd drunk the water, and of congenital malformations, such as holes in the heart, among children exposed in the womb.
The tainted-groundwater incident "started to change the landscape," Hawes said. People stopped thinking of companies like IBM, whose landscaped grounds looked like college campuses, as benign neighbors. "The chemicals don't really end up in the product, so where do they go? Well, they either end up as hazardous waste that you've got to do something about, they evaporate into the air, they go into the water or they go into workers' bodies."
In 1988, researchers with the University of Massachusetts published a study that found elevated miscarriage rates among workers in clean rooms and other departments at a Digital Equipment Corporation factory in Hudson, Massachusetts. The authors cautioned that the study population was small and recommended that it be repeated with a larger number of workers and better exposure data. They offered no conclusions about possible triggers for the miscarriages, though they noted that a group of solvents called ethylene glycol ethers, used in photoresist, had been flagged as teratogens in animal experiments and also had been seen to cause atrophy of the testicles, behavioral abnormalities and bone marrow depression. Workers' exposures to these chemicals appeared to be "well below federal industrial standards," suggesting that such standards might be too weak.
The Digital study led to two bigger ones in the 1990s: one commissioned by IBM and the other by the Semiconductor Industry Association, a trade group. Both drew a connection between miscarriage and exposure to ethylene glycol ethers. Katharine Hammond, now a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, worked on the SIA study, which involved 14 companies. Hammond went into the project convinced that "we're not going to find anything," she said. Instead, she and her co-investigators documented a nearly twofold risk of spontaneous abortion among women who'd been exposed to selected solvents, and a nearly threefold risk among those exposed to the highest levels of ethylene glycol ethers.
Even the highest exposures were only fractions of federal limits, which had been established to protect workers from acute effects — headaches, nausea — and not carcinogenic or reproductive ones. "Teratogens are very poorly understood," Hammond said. "I don't see employers necessarily being evil in these cases. I think they do care. It's just that we have a huge ignorance here."
The industry responded to the findings by phasing out ethylene glycol ethers, leaving the impression that the problem had been addressed. No follow-up studies were done to see if the miscarriage rates declined. No one looked at birth defects.
In 1970, Dr. Joseph LaDou opened a medical practice in Sunnyvale, 12 miles northwest of San Jose. Many of his patients worked in the electronics industry. "From the outset I saw an extraordinary number of injuries and a high rate of occupational illness," said LaDou, now retired. Workers, he said, would be overcome by fumes and vapors and be "standing in the parking lot" in a state of fear when he arrived on the scene. There were many cases of asthma and bronchitis. Some workers had solvent exposures so intense that they arrived at his office "in the first stage of anesthesia. They were driving drunk from solvent fumes."
LaDou, a former professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and former editor of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, said he began pressing companies to tell him which chemicals they were using and to share any exposure data they had. "I was completely, totally blocked by the industry," he said.
The excessive secrecy continues today, LaDou said: "People have just gotten tired of not being told what the companies use."
In a written statement to the Center, the Semiconductor Industry Association said its members have "a legitimate business need to protect proprietary chemical formulations as confidential business information." Federal regulations require companies to provide workers with safety data sheets listing ingredients in their products, the SIA said, though some "trade secret" ingredients are exempt from such disclosure.
In addition to eliminating ethylene glycol ethers, the industry began using "enclosed processes that reduce routine exposures to process chemicals including potential reproductive [and] developmental toxins," the SIA said. Its members adopted "policies that offered pregnant employees (and those trying to become pregnant) the choice to opt out of working in the [fabrication-room] environment during these time periods."
The group said it didn't pursue birth-defect studies because companies had taken protective measures and because of "the complexity of studying birth defects and the limited number of exposed study participants."
"What we have seen is a pattern of the industry as a whole ignoring the rights and safety of their employees and their employees' unborn children for the sake of profit."
David Bricker, plaintiff's lawyer
'It was a catastrophe'
In the late 1990s, IBM workers who believed they had developed cancer or their children had suffered defects because of chemical exposures began filing legal claims. An expert hired by the plaintiffs, epidemiologist Richard Clapp of Boston University, reviewed an internal IBM "corporate mortality file" unearthed during discovery. Analyzing nearly 32,000 worker deaths between 1969 and 2001, Clapp found significant excesses of brain, kidney and pancreatic cancer, along with melanoma, in male manufacturing workers. Female workers had higher-than-expected numbers of deaths from kidney cancer, lymphoma and leukemia. Clapp detailed his results in a 2006 paper whose publication IBM tried to block.
"Initially, it was a group of guys with testicular cancer, a ridiculously large number, just an improbable cluster," said Steven Phillips, a toxic-tort specialist in New York who worked on the cases with Hawes and other lawyers. "It was rapidly turning into birth-defect litigation, because as we started investigating, all these birth defects came jumping out. They were so severe and unusual, and there were so many of them. It was a catastrophe."
One case against IBM was filed on behalf of Kate and Kelly Daley, twins born in 1979 with a rare skin disease called epidermolysis bullosa, or EB, which caused a whole-body blistering requiring constant care and countless surgeries. Their father, Chris, was a technician who delivered chemicals and disposed of waste at the IBM plant in East Fishkill, New York. He'd started at IBM in 1971.
"He would spill things on him during the day," said his wife, Nancy. "Early in his career he would bring those clothes home and they would go into the [washer] with the rest of the laundry."
The Daley twins' affliction would punish them physically and emotionally until their deaths 13 days apart in 2006, though they managed to graduate from college and become eloquent writers and speakers. "If you ask a burn victim what it's like to be burned — that's the level of suffering they experienced their entire lives," their mother said. "Each one could take up to eight hours for wound care. EB became their job."
In 2003, Chris Daley was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer associated with exposure to benzene and other organic solvents. He sued IBM's chemical suppliers; like other workers, he was barred by the New York workers' compensation statute from suing his employer. He died not quite a year after his daughters.
The twins' lawsuit against IBM and their father's case against the suppliers were resolved under terms that are confidential.
Only two of the IBM cases went before a jury. The plaintiffs were Jim Moore, who was dying of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and Alida Hernandez, who'd had breast cancer; both had worked at the company's disk drive plant in San Jose. Hawes, who helped represent them, was able to overcome the workers' comp bar in California by claiming IBM had fraudulently concealed the chemical sources of Moore's and Hernandez's illnesses, causing their conditions to worsen.
The four-month trial ended in February 2004, the jury siding with IBM. Hawes blamed the defeat on the judge's refusal to allow jurors to consider crucial evidence, notably the corporate mortality file. An IBM lawyer called the verdict "a slam dunk" for the company.
Moore died not long after the trial. Hernandez, who worked for IBM from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, is convinced she lost a breast because of the company's failure to warn her about chemicals. "There were lots of women who were losing their babies, lots of young men who were getting sterile," she said. "They kept it all quiet." Her comp claim against IBM and lawsuits against the chemical suppliers were settled out of court.
IBM spokesman Todd Martin said in a written statement that the company "is committed to the safe operation of all its facilities, as well as to the health and well-being of our employees." IBM, Martin wrote, "has been transparent in addressing" matters raised by the 1990s litigation "and the quality of our operations and health and safety programs are well documented."
Martin did not respond to a question about a 2014 NIOSH study that found a higher-than-expected number of deaths from non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other cancers, and more frequent occurrence of testicular cancer, among 34,494 workers employed at an IBM plant in Endicott, New York, from 1969 to 2001.
He also did not respond to a request to disclose the names of chemicals used at IBM facilities today.
New claims on behalf of children
All the IBM litigation was resolved by the mid-2000s. Then, a few years later, came another round of lawsuits with a different set of defendants. Lawyers who had brought the IBM cases began representing workers at other electronics companies who'd had children with severe developmental or structural defects.
Dozens of claims have been filed against Motorola Solutions, successor to Motorola Inc., which at one time operated a series of semiconductor manufacturing plants in the Phoenix area and Austin. The complaints allege an array of defects among workers' progeny: spina bifida, leaking heart valves, cerebral palsy, club foot, blindness, seizures. They maintain that Motorola officials allowed workers to be exposed to ethylene glycol ethers — despite having been "personally warned" by a federal health investigator in 1981 that the chemicals were reproductive hazards — and that the company tracked the "incidence of adverse reproductive outcomes among the offspring of its employees." Workers also were exposed to solvents such as benzene, heavy metals such as arsenic and many other toxic substances, the complaints charge.
"What we have seen is a pattern of the industry as a whole ignoring the rights and safety of their employees and their employees' unborn children for the sake of profit," said one of the plaintiff's' lawyers, David Bricker of Los Angeles. "We have families who are living in poverty because everything they have goes toward caring for a profoundly injured child."
Co-counsel Phillips said that while ethylene glycol ethers were phased out by U.S. semiconductor manufacturers in the 1990s, "the use of [other] crappy solvents and these heavy metals is continuing ….If you're standing over one of these goddamned vats, dipping [components] all day long, you're getting a snoot full — I mean, huge levels, gigantic levels." The so-called bunny suits worn by the workers "are designed to keep your noxious body parts, like dandruff or eyelashes, off the product," Phillips said. "In no way do they keep the vapors from getting into your lungs."
In a written statement, Motorola Solutions spokeswoman Tama McWhinney said the company does not comment on pending litigation and has not been in the semiconductor business for more than a decade. In a court filing, it denied the allegations in the lawsuits, saying "it is Motorola's policy to conduct all its operations in a responsible manner free from recognized hazards."
A legal case stalls — and is revived
Mandy Hawes approached the Mark Flores case in 2009 as she had many others of its ilk. She knew she'd have to track down Yvette's ex-colleagues, dredge up internal documents — assuming they hadn't been lost or destroyed — and depose uncooperative or forgetful defense witnesses. The odds of success weren't good, given that Yvette had worked in the stuffy room at Spectra-Physics 30 years earlier. "I thought, 'How are we gonna figure this out?' " Hawes said.
It took lawyer Mandy Hawes years to find the connection between Yvette's workplace exposures and Mark's disability. (Maryam Jameel/Center for Public Integrity)
She went forward with a lawsuit, reasoning that Mark's mental disability likely came from something his mother worked with while she was pregnant. Mark's brother and sister, both younger than he, were normal; they'd been conceived years after Yvette left Spectra-Physics at the end of 1979. Hawes was especially curious about the green powder Yvette had mixed with the liquid chemicals and used, day after day, to fuse small pieces of beveled glass onto the tips of laser tubes, the guts of barcode scanners that were beginning to be installed at grocery stores.
Early in her investigation, Hawes sent a request to the company for any air sampling data taken, or written descriptions of chemicals used, during the four-plus years Yvette was there. "All we got was, 'Well, we can confirm she worked here as a laser assembler,' " Hawes said. Her attempts to find former co-workers proved fruitless, and the case stalled. Lawyers for Spectra-Physics asked the court to throw it out.
Then, in 2013, two breakthroughs: A woman named Dora Jimenez, who'd worked with Yvette in Building 5, called her to say she'd been contacted by a defense investigator. Yvette asked Jimenez if she'd be willing to speak with Hawes, and she agreed. Jimenez gave a deposition and was a strong witness, Hawes said. "She remembered that shitty little room where Yvette worked. She remembered the extent of safety training was being told not to touch something so hot it would burn your fingers."
A representative of Newport Corporation, a successor company to Spectra-Physics, also proved unexpectedly helpful. In a deposition, David Marshall, like an earlier defense witness, used the word "frit" to describe the green powder Yvette had handled. Hawes already had a 1985 company document showing frit contained more than 1 percent lead oxide, a teratogen, but found it to be of little value. Marshall produced another document from 2007 that put the proportion at less than 75 percent. "Well, that's kind of different from 'more than 1 percent,'" Hawes said. Accounting for its other constituents, like silicon dioxide, and doing some simple math, she concluded that frit was about 62 percent lead oxide.
Marshall also confirmed the use of organic solvents, mainly methanol, in Yvette's former work area.
Hawes knew she had something at this point. Lead's savage effects on fetuses were well documented, and solvents, as she put it, had their own "affinity for brain tissue."
Still, she needed to connect Yvette's exposures with Mark's problems. This was where the medical experts came in.
Among them was Dr. Cynthia Bearer, chief of the Division of Neonatology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In a May 2013 declaration, Bearer explained that fetuses are "exquisitely sensitive to environmental toxicants" such as lead and methanol, and that fetal harm could occur even when workplace exposure levels were well below legal limits. In Yvette's case, methanol levels regularly were above the limit, Bearer wrote, citing exposure estimates from another expert; the hematomas on Mark's oversized head at birth, she wrote, were classic signs of methanol poisoning.
While Mark has many burdens — poor vision, skeletal anomalies, undescended testicles — his "most disabling feature is his extensive cognitive impairment," Bearer wrote. "He is and will always be totally dependent on a small group of trusted family members and service providers for help in all aspects of daily living, from feeding, dressing, undressing, bathing, urinating and defecating to crossing a street, finding words to express needs, and protecting himself from strangers."
The doctor wrote that in utero lead exposure could produce these very deficits and that Yvette's body was a "toxic warehouse before Mark was conceived, upon conception and throughout Mark's gestation because of the release of stored lead from her bones into her blood stream and across the placenta into Mark's blood stream and the amniotic fluid in which he was contained."
There was no evidence of a genetic flaw, Bearer wrote. "To attribute all of Mark's problems to a purely genetic cause requires a suspension of disbelief that Yvette Flores' exposure to lead and methanol had any impact or played any part in the severe damage apparent in Mark from birth onward."
A defense expert, pediatric geneticist Gregory Enns with the Stanford School of Medicine, disagreed. "I think that Mr. Flores has a genetic condition," Enns testified in an April 2013 deposition. "I do not think that any environmental exposures explain any of his condition." Mark, he speculated, might have fallen victim to a de novo mutation — i.e., "something spontaneous" — carried by one or both of his parents but not expressed in the genes of either. In short, bad luck.
Under questioning by Hawes, Enns said that he and his Stanford colleagues tracked their patients' symptoms, diagnoses, inheritance patterns and ethnicities, but not their parents' occupations. Could he estimate how many worked in electronics, with its attendant metals and solvents, or agriculture, where pesticide exposures were common? "You can ask me about any profession," Enns told Hawes, "and I wouldn't know."
The Flores case was settled out of court in July 2013, shortly before trial was to begin. Hawes declined to disclose the details.
Calls and emails to Newport Corporation and its lawyers in the Flores case were not returned. In a court filing prior to the settlement of the case, the company asserted that Mark's condition was "not known to be caused by chemical exposure" and was, "more likely than not, the result of genetic or other factors."
'He's taught me patience'
As a result of his gall bladder surgery and some dietary changes, Mark Flores' weight has dropped to 218 pounds, according to his mother. The legal settlement enabled her to buy a dark-gray Toyota Tundra pickup truck, and she's in the market for a three-wheeled bike Mark can ride. Longer term, she wants to move from their mobile home in south San Jose into a house. "I want a big backyard for Mark," said Yvette, whose own health is frail. "That's my dream."
Yvette, who admits to feeling exhausted and depressed at times, nonetheless says that caring for Mark has been a blessing. "He notices the small things that we all tend to forget sometimes," she said. "He's taught me patience."
As Yvette eyes the future, scientists and regulators are making incremental progress on the sorts of workplace poisons that debilitated Mark.
NIOSH researchers are collaborating with others in government to add questions about occupational exposures to large studies of birth outcomes and children's health, and to analyze occupational data already captured.
"There's a lot of work happening, but there's still a long way to go," NIOSH epidemiologist Carissa Rocheleau said. "While we can easily detect the dramatic examples like Thalidomide, subtle impairments in children as they are developing might not be easy to detect."
The state of California, acting on evidence that lead is harmful at far lower levels than once believed, is nearing the end of a five-year process to tighten its occupational lead standard — and not by a little.
The state's, and the federal government's, current limits for lead are 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air and 30 per deciliter in a worker's blood. California is moving to change those to 10 and 10 — the strictest in the nation. Recent studies have shown "significant health outcomes" at even those low numbers, said Steve Smith, manager of the Research and Standards Health Unit in the state's Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Among them: high blood pressure, heart disease, decreased brain function and reproductive effects.
Hawes, who has been representing women in workplace litigation for more than 40 years, is unsympathetic to employers who try to blame conditions like Mark Flores' on happenstance. By the late 1970s, she said, it would have been almost impossible for managers at companies like Spectra-Physics not to know that lead could injure fetuses; OSHA recognized the threat and began working on a well-publicized lead standard in 1975. The following year, The New York Times reported that General Motors Corporation in Canada had "ordered that no women of childbearing age work at its battery plant because of the danger." In 1978, OSHA director Eula Bingham warned in a memorandum that infants who survived "the lead intoxication of their parents may be mentally retarded or physically disabled."
Mark Flores was conceived the year after that.
Jamie Smith Hopkins and Maryam Jameel contributed to this story.
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For now, the only ones yanking methylene chloride paint removers off the shelves are retailers.


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The Royal College of Art: Its Influences on Education, Art and Design 1900-1950, 1991, Royal College of Art
Type: PhD thesis
Author: Hilary Cunliffe-Charlesworth
Publisher & Place of Publication: Royal College of Art, London
Volume Number: 1-3
Collection: Royal College of Art
Collection Physical Description: Royal College of Art Archive
Collection Context: Unpublished PhD thesis in three volumes.
'The Royal College of Art: Its Influences on Education, Art and Design 1900-1950, 1991, Royal College of Art', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/reference.php?id=msib4_1246030783, accessed 17 Jan 2020]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Vermont region was explored and claimed for France by Samuel De Champlain in 1609, and the first French settlement was established at Fort Ste. Anne in 1666. The first English settlers moved into the area in 1724 and built for Dummer on the site of present day Brattleboro. England gained control of the area in 1763 after the French and Indian wars.
Vermont is one of the 13 original colonies as part of New Hampshire. It is the 6th state in size and is a very small state. Population wise the state ranks 2nd in lowest population. It is the only state in New England that does not have a border that connects with the Atlantic Ocean. In 1777 New Hampshire and Vermont split into two separate states. It then became the 14th state of the US.
Vermont is known as "The Green Mountain State" Verd Mont was a name given to the green mountains in October 1761, by the rev, Dr. Peters. Some other symbols associated with the state of Vermont include the sugar maple tree, hermit thrush, a Morgan horse, and red clovers. It was named this for its mountain peaks that overlook lake Champlain, which divides Vermont and New York. The mountain also overlooks the Connecticut River, which lies to the east of the mountain range.
In 2013 there were approximately 625,741 people in Vermont. 95% of the population is white and 49.3% of the population is male with the remaining 50.7% being female. The average age for the population is 41. Only 11% of the population is under the age of 18 with 28.3% of households having at least one person under the age of 18. 6.5% of the population is over the age of 65.
Vermont leads the nation in the production of monument granite, marble, and maple products. The state of Vermont is also a leader in the production of talc. Vermont's rugged, rocky terrain discourages extensive agricultural farming, but is well suited raising fruit trees, maple production, and to dairy farming. Vermont's principal industrial products include electrical equipment, fabricated metal products, printing and publishing, and paper and allied products. Tourism is also one of the top industries currently in Vermont. Many of the ski resorts have established year around activities for tourists to enjoy.
According to 2013 numbers approximately 16.4% of Vermont's population consists of people over the age of 65 and 19.6% are under 18 years old. The median household income is $54,168 with a rate of home ownership at 71.2%. About 91.3% of residents graduate with a high school diploma , and 34.2% go on to obtain a college degree.
Vermont has seven metropolitan areas, these include; Burlington-South Burlington, Lebanon, Claremont, Rutland, Barre, Bennington, and Berlin. Burlington, the capital is the largest city and is still a small town compared to other metropolitan areas in New England. This rural state has mostly small towns.
There are no professional sports in Vermont. Vermont is home to the popular league team The Vermont Expos, and college team the Vermont catamounts.
In the 2010 actual crime data reports a total of 15,096 crimes. These can be broken down to 602 aggravated assault crimes, 3,366 burglary crimes, 10,474 larceny and theft crimes, 441 motor vehicle theft crimes, 7 murder/manslaughter crimes, and 74 robbery crimes.
The state of Vermont is covered by twelve state police barracks. These barracks are organized into four troops of three stations each. These troops include; dispatch, public information, assembly permits, and alarms. Their goal is to respond to press inquiries in a prompt manner, assist troopers and issues press releases on significant incidents. Also to ensure public safety to all citizens and those involved for commercial assembly, concerts, or public events. They can also install alarms to help protect residents and residential property and responding to those properties when needed. These are only a few of the many services offered by Vermont's police department, making the safety of the states citizens an achieved goal.


What are the Requirements for Citizenship for Green Card Holders?
Must be person of good moral character for the qualifying five or three-year period. Issues that can lead to a finding that one lacks the required good moral character can include, but are not limited to: certain criminal arrests and/or convictions; delinquent payments for spousal or child support; failure to pay state, local or federal taxes, failure to register for selective service when required, etc.
What are the Benefits of becoming a United States Citizen?
Even after they are eligible for Naturalization, many individuals who attain permanent residence in the United States are content to just have a green card. This is generally a reasonable point of view because, with few exceptions, Green card holders can work in the United States and travel internationally as they please. However, the decision whether to apply for Naturalization should be one which is made with knowledge of the associated benefits that an individual may be foregoing.
First, there are several immigration-related benefits that a Citizen can provide (or more easily provide) to their family members in ways that green card holders cannot. Most substantially is the ability of a U.S. Citizen to petition for permanent residence of their parents, children and spouse without the extremely long visa backlogs which family members of green card holders (particularly those from the Philippines) are subject to. In fact, green card holders cannot petition for their parents, siblings or married sons or daughters at all, whereas U.S. Citizens can. Also, U.S. Citizens, unlike green card holders, have the ability to bestow U.S. Citizenship on a child born outside of the United States.
Also, while green card holders can generally leave and enter the United States with relative ease, they must always be mindful of the length of stay when outside of the country. U.S. Citizens, on the other hand, can reside outside of the country for long periods of time, or even indefinitely without ever needing to worry about losing their ability to permanently return to and work in the U.S. Also, of course, most of us manage to stay out of serious trouble with the law, but deportation and inadmissibility for criminal conduct is another worry which affects green card holders, and generally not U.S. Citizens.
Citizens also have other rights which green card holders do not, including the right to vote, hold political office, serve on a jury, receive certain welfare benefits, certain tax exemptions, and enjoy greater diplomatic protection when abroad. It is also important to many people to feel the pride and connection with their chosen community to be a citizen of the country in which they live.
For more information on how Surowitz Immigration, P.C can help you obtain citizenship, call or contact us today.


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News & Media > 2019 > Vincent Xu football
Sharing his passion for football
Vincent Xu, MSBA '20 started a flag football club at Brandeis. His efforts helped him land an internship with the NFL
November 27, 2019 | By Douglas Moser
Vincent Xu, MSBA '20, founded the American Football Club at Brandeis International Business School.
Vincent Xu, MSBA '20 converted his passion for football into an internship with the NFL.
The Shanghai native enrolled at Brandeis International Business School to build his data analysis skills in the Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) program.
Those skills — and his efforts at Brandeis to share his love for the sport — attracted interest from officials in the league's China office, who hired him over the summer.
An athlete since childhood, Xu grew up playing basketball and soccer in Shanghai. His interest in American football was sparked in Georgia, where he attended high school.
"I love the complexity of it, the physical nature," said Xu.
As an undergraduate student in Manhattan, Xu's campus didn't have the space to play football beyond the occasional pickup game in Central Park.
When he arrived at Brandeis, Xu saw an opportunity to play — but no team. So he rounded up as many people as he could, many of whom were unfamiliar with football beyond seeing it on television, and founded the American Football Club.
It was a hit. The club attracted 100 members — about 20 who have come out to weekly practices and organized flag football games on campus.
"I came up with a plan, sent it to the school and got approved," said Xu. "By spring we started regular practices. It's easy when you have the right environment for it."
The club is growing, too. A new group of students signed up this fall, and Xu is working to make sure it will continue after he graduates.
Xu applied his other passion — data analytics — during his summer internship. Working out of the NFL's Shanghai office, he analyzed market research and social media feeds to develop profiles of various teams' football fans.
The NFL was impressed with his academic accomplishments and his initiative in starting his own football club comprised of newcomers to the sport.
"The NFL in China is not like it is in America," said Xu. "They run like a startup there, but with big backing from the U.S. They're pretty much doing what I'm doing at Brandeis: creating a club with mostly Chinese athletes who don't know the game as well."
Xu is a top student in the MSBA program. In addition to founding the American Football Club, he formed a team for the Data Analytics Club's competition, analyzing and presenting data about AirBnBs around Boston to a panel of judges.
Now, as a part of the first full class of MSBA graduates, Xu plans to make his living at the intersection of sports and data. His focus within the program is marketing, leading him to think about starting off his career in marketing analysis.
But eventually, he wants to apply his analytic skills to the sport itself.
"The field of analytics is growing very fast," said Xu. "You can analyze every aspect of a player, from how they hold the ball, how they jump, run, everything. The goal is to identify any advantage to improve performance and prevent injury."
Xu said the MSBA program is giving him an advantage in the field because technical skills, modeling and analysis are critical in an increasingly data-driven sports industry.
"It doesn't feel like work when it's something you're passionate about," said Xu.


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The Night Swimmers
Betsy Byars
Retta, Johnny, and Roy have no parental rules to follow, so they've made up their own
After their mother passes away, Retta, Johnny, and Roy don't have much parenting in their lives. Their dad is a country singer who keeps them well fed but isn't around much. Older sister Retta takes control, leading her brothers on all sorts of unwise adventures and promising that one day they'll have money, safety, and a nice home. When their dad is away performing at night, they slip into a neighbor's pool to swim and pretend to have a glamorous life beneath the light of the moon. But freedom doesn't mean happiness, especially when a new crisis emerges. National Book Award winner The Night Swimmers is a moving story of siblings who can count on nobody but one another. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Betsy Byars including rare images from the author's personal collection.
"Byars has the uncanny ability to know the secret lives . . . the outward postures, and the exact words her characters would surely use." —The New York Times ". . . a solidly realized story propelled by original, huggably vulnerable characters."—Kirkus Reviews
Betsy Byars (b. 1928) is an award-winning American author of more than fifty children's and young adult titles, including The Summer of the Swans (1970), which earned her the Newbery Medal. She has also received a National Book Award for The Night Swimmers (1980) and an Edgar Award for Wanted . . . Mud Blossom (1991). Byars began writing in college and submitted stories to magazines while raising four children. Her first novel, Clementine, was published in 1962, and in the decades since, she became one of America's best-loved authors for young readers, with popular series including Bingo Brown and the Blossom Family stories. Byars and her husband, Ed, are both licensed aircraft pilots and live above their own private hangar on an airstrip in Seneca, South Carolina.
OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC
Raekitten , 09/20/2018
A Wonderful Read!
Although I first read this in 6th grade, I find myself actually enjoying it a lot more as an adult. The writing style alone is worth the read. It's bittersweet and thought-provoking for a young reader's book, and I'm happy to have re-visited it again all these years later. 5 stars! :)
More Books by Betsy Byars
Summer of the Swans, The (Puffin Modern Classics)
The Pinballs
The Dark Stairs
Keeper of the Doves
Dead Letter
Wanted . . . Mud Blossom


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Wallace & Gromit set to return as BBC announces first special to air in over a decade
Fans of Wallace & Gromit were excited after news revealed the comedy franchise is set to return in 2024 for another special animation
Wallace & Gromit is set to return
Wallace & Gromit fans rejoice – a new special has been announced.
The BBC has confirmed the comedy franchise is set to make a comeback over a decade after A Matter Of Load And Death aired.
The spin-off of the animation will be created by the team at Aardman, who are also behind popular kids' shows such as Shaun The Sheep.
It will be directed by creator Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham.
The latest instalment of the popular show is expected to air in 2024 and will see Gromit worry that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his selection of inventions.
Fans are excited about the new Wallace & Gromit special
AARDMAN)
The worries come true when Wallace's "smart gnome" invention somehow develops a mind of its own.
As events start to get out of control, Gromit has to put his worries aside and take on the sinister forces before Wallace loses the ability to invent anything ever again.
It follows in the footsteps of the Wallace & Gromit spin-off's previous caper, The Flight Before Christmas, which was shown on BBC One last year.
Junior Bake Off fans claim show is a 'fix' as hopeful scrapes through to next round
Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon to follow Tom Hardy in reading CBeebies Bedtime Story
Charlotte Moore, chief content officer at the BBC, said: "It's incredibly exciting to be taking British audiences on a cracking new adventure with Wallace & Gromit and to be continuing our long relationship with Aardman and Nick Park following the success of Shaun the Sheep this Christmas."
Managing director of Aardman, Sean Clarke, added: "Wallace and Gromit are so loved by everyone at Aardman – they're like family to us – and we couldn't be more excited to be creating a brand new film for them to star in.
It'll be the first special of the animation in over a decade
'When Nick came up with the concept for a 'smart gnome', we all agreed that Wallace would find the idea irresistible – despite warnings from Gromit, who is wise beyond his (dog) years. We're sure audiences will find the story irresistible too.'
The upcoming film will premiere on the BBC in the UK and on Netflix in the rest of the world.
Netflix also announced that Aardman are also working on a new Chicken Run movie.
The sequel is set to be named Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget and is expected to air next year.
'Devastated' Cillian Murphy says Covid robbed Helen McCrory of Peaky Blinders role
New mum Sheridan Smith in tears over toughest role that is 'every parent's nightmare'
The Apprentice's Navid Sole is fired as team slip up over peach-flavoured beer
Ben Shephard worries as Nicola McLean goes into detail about her knickers on GMB


Buy what you need... Sell what you don't!
Hundreds of families under one roof in one weekend!
KidStuff Sale has been serving families throughout Kentuckiana since 1997. Everyone is invited to sell with KidStuff, declutter and earn Ca$h from the unused items in your kids' closets and toy bins.
A win-win with KidStuff Sale – more stuff for your money, and more money for your stuff.


text:
Bertelsmann's Print Unit to Do Business as Be Printers
HAMBURG, GERMANY—Oct. 31, 2012—The printing division of Bertelsmann SE & Co., which was founded a few months ago, will operate under the name Be Printers from now on. The international media company had merged most of its worldwide print operations into this unit to achieve improved control and focus.
Bertelsmann is uniting 17 production sites in six countries on three continents under the Be Printers umbrella. The group does business in the key markets of the Americas (United States and Colombia) and Europe (Prinovis, Germany, along with the U.K., Italy and Spain). The CEO of Be Printers is Bertram Stausberg, who also heads Prinovis (the gravure printing operations that are part of the organizations Arvato business). The individual Be Printer companies will continue to do business under their original names.
Axel Springer will remain a co-shareholder in Prinovis.
Be Printers generates annual revenues of €1.2 billion and employs approximately 6,800 people. The group covers the full technological range of modern printing (gravure, web and sheetfed offset and digital printing). Its plants produce magazines, catalogs, brochures, books and calendars for their clients.
About Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is an international media company whose core divisions encompass television (RTL Group), book publishing (Random House), magazine publishing (Gruner + Jahr), services (Arvato), and printing (Be Printers) in some 50 countries. In 2011, the company's businesses, with their more than 100,000 employees, generated revenues of €15.3 billion. Bertelsmann stands for a combination of creativity and entrepreneurship that empowers the creation of first-rate media, communications, and service offerings to inspire people around the world and to provide innovative solutions for customers.
Source: Bertelsmann.


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Friedrich (Fritz) Waller (18 maart 1920 - 15 februari 2004) was een Zwitsers bobsleeremmer. Waller won tijdens de Wereldkampioenschappen bobsleeën 1947 de wereldtitel in de viermansbob  en de zilveren medaille in de tweemansbob. Een jaar later won Waller in zijn thuisland de olympische titel in 1948 en een vierde plaats in de viermansbob. Een jaar later won Waller tijdens de Wereldkampioenschappen bobsleeën 1949 de gouden medaille in de tweemansbob en de bronzen medaille in de viermansbob.

Resultaten
 Wereldkampioenschappen bobsleeën 1947 in Sankt Moritz  in de tweemansbob
 Wereldkampioenschappen bobsleeën 1947 in Sankt Moritz  in de viermansbob
 Olympische Winterspelen 1948 in Sankt Moritz  in de tweemansbob
 Olympische Winterspelen 1948 in Sankt Moritz 4e in de viermansbob
 Wereldkampioenschappen bobsleeën 1949 in Lake Placid  in de tweemansbob
 Wereldkampioenschappen bobsleeën 1949 in Lake Placid  in de viermansbob

Zwitsers bobsleeër
Zwitsers olympisch kampioen

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The 6-month multiple entry business visa for US citizens is costed at $220.
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http://www.3dlearner.com 3D Learner. 'If your gifted child is failing to live up to his or her potential there is a strong chance that they are right-brained and visual and are not well served by the system", says Jeffrey Freed and Leslie Parsons in their book, "The Right-Brained Child in the Left Brained World". These students are often labeled Dyslexic, ADD, ADHD, Attention Deficit Disorder, SLD, Specific Learning Disability, Dysgraphic or Learning Disabled. This helps them qualify for support, but the result is often limited improvement. Why do we call these students 3D Learners?
http://www.cbcbooks.org Children's Books: An excellent website that provided parents with information on how to choose good books and reading activities to do with children.
www.readplease.com Read Please. This site has downloadable software that will read text on your computer system. - is not free, but very good.


It seems as though your favorite fairy tale creatures have fallen down the Rabbit Hole.
Come on down to Front Street and take a trip through the Rabbit hole to see what these fairy tale characters are up to.
Adults are incouraged to go through the tour before they bring thier children. This could ruin any childs perception of thier favorite characters!


Now that you've done all of that, you're ready to enter battle. Start by selecting an appropriate enemy, far enough away from the guards so that they don't "save" you.
Look for a leet or something similar, at level 1 all the mobs will be yellow, so don't worry when you can't find a green or gray con mob to try. Find a target, the Leets or Birds of Paradise are the best bet for a successful first fight.
Target your chosen mob and hit the 'Q' button. You are now in combat, which you can see by the little red flashing target symbol to the left of the compass at the bottom of your screen.
You will fight with your weapon until you or the enemy are dead. Use any special attacks that you put on your hotbar earlier. You will notice that there is a bar going up and down in the top left of your screen. This is your weapon speed.
As you attack it goes up, this is the weapon speed in your weapon description, then it goes back down before it can attack again, this is your reload time.
This is a feature of AO that allows you to define your combat style. It effects the speed at which the attack bar mentioned above rises. The downside is that it modifies your defensive rating as well, the faster your attacks, the more damage you are likely to take as well.
Moving faster than your opponent can be a very important part of a combat. Whether it is to flee combat or approach so quickly that your opponent can't react before you're on them, this is very useful. Everyone has access to some basic run speed enhancing nanos (Swiftness, Adrenaline Pump, and Quickness, in order of bonus).
The two professions that are much better at this are Fixers and Adventurers. Adventurers have some basic speed enhancements, including one for their team. Fixers are vastly superior in this regard, though, as their lowest level speed enhancing nano (Limited Grid Jump) adds significantly to run speed and also to evasion, at the cost of reducing damage output. You could run into battle and cancel the nano before engaging combat if this were a problem, however.
Moving faster is as important as getting your opponent to move slower. There are only a few Professions that have the ability to make their opponents move more slowly, Agents, Bureaucrats, Fixers, Traders, and Nano-technicians. Traders and Nano-technicians only have root nanos, Bureaucrats have both root and slow nanos, and Agents and Fixers have slow nanos. Note that many of the slow nanos actually function as roots in many cases, since their effect is to drop your run speed by a considerable amount. If your run speed is dropped below 0, you can still move, although at basically a crawl speed.
Why is this useful? The two most obvious reasons are to escape combat, or to remove someone from engaging in combat. If you snare or root someone, you can obviously get away much more easily, obviously. An example of the second use is to snare/root a melee-oriented character if you have a ranged weapon, so you can hold them out of range of melee attacks but within range of your ranged weapon, and slowly tear them apart. The opposite also works, melee-oriented characters can root someone there so they can't run away, and you can pound them to a pulp.
It is possibly to time your movement during the actual battle to take advantage of certain conditions. The most common one is reloading. When you're reloading, you can do it whether or not you are standing still, so if you have to move, doing so when you're reloading doesn't incur a penalty on how quickly you attack. Also, if you pay attention to the attack bar in the upper left corner, this moves from left to right and back again (at speeds dictated by the Attack and Recharge speed of your weapon). A shot or attack is only made at the right end of the bar. Moving at that time will delay your attack, but movement at any other time will not affect your attack, as long as you stop moving before it gets to the right side.
There are also a series of less common damage types. These are not always protected by a given armour type. Therefore check your stats carefully - you may be opening yourself up to a certain type of attack. Whilst this isn't too much of an issue against NPC Mobs, in PvP a canny opponent will soon figure out where your weakness lies.
Radiation AC - Protects against weapons or attacks that do radiation damage. After level 50 some Mobs do use radiation attacks.
Be aware that some professions (martial artists especially) have the ability to change their damage type through the use of NF's - they might switch mid fight from doing melee damage to suddenly doing Fire or chemical damage!
When you start you don't have any armour, it's not an issue for the first few levels, but after that you'll want to start looking for some as soon as possible. We'll talk about how to find equipment and armour in a bit.
Whether or not to raise your evade skills are one of the most frequently asked questions of new players to AO (and some veterans as well!). This guide will explain in as much as it can (as the exact calculations are not known to anyone other then the programmers!) what they can do to help you on your travels.
Evades are a set of skills found in your 'SPEED' tab on your skill selection. There are three evade skills that can be raised. We will deal with the specifics of each in a little bit. These skills effect the chances of a mob hitting you, and the chance of that mob doing a critical hit. Whether they actually effect how much damage a hit does is open to debate. Your AC's effect the amount of damage much more then your evades.
Best advice is always to keep your AC's as high as you can in the first place! A good rough guide is that for normal hunting of mobs your armour ratings should be at least your current level x 20.
If you look at the description for any weapon you will see which of the evades it uses to calculate hits. Mobs hits are calculated in exactly the same way.
This is the evade that is used when the attacker is using most types of ranged attack. This is the most common type of attack you will be faced with. If you feel you only have the IP to raise one evade, raise this one.
This is the evade used to calculate melee hits and martial arts attacks.
This is used very little in player v mob combat, but can be useful in PvP as it is used for several of the lines of shotguns in AO. Mobs will very rarely use this type of attack against you.
What is know is that hits are calculated as a check against the attack rating of the attacker and the defense rating of the target. Whilst you can see your attack rating on your hud you cannot see your defense rating. It's a hidden statistic.
So what do they do really?
Well, given the confusion with AC's as mentioned above, players have long debated the worth of evades and what I am explaining here is purely from my own observations in game, and those of other gamers / feedback on boards.
Now if you have raised your evades, it's more like this.
Remember that AC is important, if a mob is doing variable damage against you, its more then likely you need to work on raising your Armour Class as well as your evades. Once you see one of the above patterns developing, then you're probably on target and will start to see the real benefit of raiding your evades.
If you are still skeptical try raising one of the two main evades and then notice the difference in the damage type you raised.
Bear in mind that these are only really visible against high green / yellow mobs. If you try to always do orange / red mobs you probably get high end damage all the time anyway. Likewise if you constantly team, the mobs drop so quickly that your evades are much harder to judge. To get a true picture try a solo mission at 50%-75%, you will truly see that they do make a difference when you can see the damage clearly as you can in that situation.
My personal advice would be to raise these skills, especially if you solo a lot.
If you plan on actively participating in PvP, or want to, you will need to max these three skills whenever possible. No question, no debate, raise them! Players you will fight are more powerful then the mobs and adopt tactics that are designed to exploit weaknesses in players skills. Many PvP'ers use shotguns so the Duck Explosions skill becomes vital. Due to scopes and nanos players also crit much more regularly then mobs so be warned!
All of the special attacks have a factor that determines the speed at which they refresh. They also have a greater chance of doing critical damage. The time factor can be described as follows: a person using a weapon with Burst on it, for example, multiplies the time factor for Burst with the attack speed of the weapon, resulting in a period of time that it takes for your Burst ability to refresh after making that attack. Since Burst's time factor is 60, a weapon with a attack of 2.50 sec, will result in a 150 second (2.5 minute) recharge on Burst.
Crowd Control is a term that came from Everquest, and it is used to refer to times where a group is attacked by more enemies than they know what to do with, and you need to either "remove" them from the battle for a period of time, or look for the nearest escape route for yourself.
The most common way to do this is to "mesmerize" or "mez" your opponent. This has the effect of basically making them stand there for a period of time, effectively stunned, while you deal with the rest of the enemies and can move on to that one. In AO, there are three professions that can mez the enemy, Bureaucrats, Nano-technicians, and Traders. Bureaucrats are the best at it, receiving their first mez spell early on (before level 10) and having the longer lasting ones. Traders don't receive their first one till around 20th level, and nano-technicians only receive one, and have it much later on.
These spells last for a certain amount of time (25 seconds for the lowest level Bureaucrat one), and during that time, the creature will stand there doing nothing. Attacking the creature during that time will break the effect.
Reloading is a minor issue in combat. Obviously only weapons with ammo need to be reloaded. Melee types can skip this section.
In many cases, reload times are not too important and they are merely a nuisance. There are times where they become important, and anyone who has played an Agent knows what I'm talking about. Many rifles have very small magazines (5 or 6 bullets) and have long recharge times, and can't be dual wielded, so you wind up with large amounts of time standing there, in combat, reloading your gun.
The way around this is simple. Guns can be reloaded manually. Pick up the ammo from your inventory and right-click on your gun in your Weapons tab. This will reload your gun. As an Agent, I could usually kill the enemy with a full clip without having to reload, so this was a way to come into battle fully-loaded and ready to fight.
The starter kits only provide a little healing and nano boost, before long you will want to buy heal stims and kits. Stims can be used during combat, while treatment kits have to be used when not fighting. Let's not worry about that just yet, you can get by with the starter kit until you have the hang of it.
When using on another person the target must be seated, you do not have to be. Nano rechargers can be seen as a treatment kit for your nano energy. In addition to treatment skill they require a certain skill in Time and Space. The treatment lab new players start with also restores nano points.


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Boudewijn Cornelis Damsteegt (Rotterdam, 5 juli 1915 - Leiden, 26 oktober 2003) was een Nederlands neerlandicus.

Studie
B.C. (Kees) Damsteegt haalde zijn HBS-B eindexamen en deed vervolgens staatsexamen gymnasium-α, omdat hij Nederlands wilde studeren. In 1940 behaalde haalde hij in Leiden zijn doctoraal examen. Hij promoveerde aan de Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht in 1942. Zijn proefschrift was getiteld Nieuwe Spiegel der Zeevaart. Nederlandse namen op zeekaarten uit de 16e en 17e eeuw.

Carrière
In 1942 werd hij docent Nederlands in Den Haag aan de HBS Beeklaan. Later werd hij benoemd aan het Gymnasium Haganum. In 1955 ging hij terug naar de Universiteit Leiden, waar hij begon als docent fonetiek en spraaktechniek. Zijn belangstelling ging ook uit naar de oude teksten van Bredero, Hooft, Huygens en Van Leeuwenhoek, waarover hij veel publiceerde. In 1968 werd het Talenlaboratorium van de universiteit opgericht, waarvan hij de eerste directeur werd.

Op 1 januari 1980 werd hij, zoals alle toenmalige lectoren, tot hoogleraar bevorderd en in 1981 ging hij met emeritaat. Hij werd opgevolgd door C. van Bree.

Werken (selectie)
Nieuwe spiegel der zeevaart : Nederlandse namen op zeekaarten uit de 16e en 17e eeuw, proefschrift Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht, 1942
In de doolhof van het Nederlands : alfabetisch gerangschikte aanwijzingen voor een zuiver taalgebruik, 1948
Over relevante kenmerken van fonemen en de Nederlandse r, 1969
Van Spiegel tot Leeuwenhoek : syntaktische en stilistische verschijnselen in 17e-eeuwse teksten, 1981

Externe links
 Cor van Bree en Marijke van der Wal: 'Boudewijn Cornelis Damsteegt'. In: Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse letterkunde 2003-2004, pag. 71-75 (met foto)

Hoogleraar aan de Universiteit Leiden
Nederlands neerlandicus


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Overcoming Drug Resistance: The EGFR Enigma, Part 2
Posted on June 26, 2015 June 26, 2015 by Srivani Ravoori, PhD
Part 2: Overcoming resistance to anti-EGFR antibody therapies
In an earlier post, we looked at the challenges and potential treatment strategies for lung cancer patients whose epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant tumors develop drug resistance following treatment with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). EGFR TKIs are small molecules that bind to the intracellular (cytoplasmic) domain of the EGFR to inhibit downstream signaling. In this post, let's look at the challenge we face with anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody therapies and new strategies researchers have developed to overcome resistance to these therapies. Unlike EGFR TKIs, anti-EGFR antibodies bind to the extracellular domain of the EGFR to block ligand-induced EGFR tyrosine kinase activation.
Two anti-EGFR antibodies, cetuximab (Erbitux) and panitumumab (Vectibix), are currently being used for the treatment of certain cancers. Cetuximab is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer and squamous cell cancer of the head and neck, and panitumumab is approved for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Although patients with EGFR-mutated tumors benefit from these treatments initially, their tumors eventually resist such targeted therapies through evolution and heterogeneity.
A couple of studies discussed below have explored the feasibility of using first-in-class EGFR antibody therapies that are rationally designed to circumvent resistance to cetuximab and panitumumab in patients with solid cancers.
A Mixture Approach
Josep Tabernero, MD, PhD, senior author of the study in Cancer Discovery.
In a study published in Cancer Discovery, investigators took an antibody mixture-approach to tackle resistance to anti-EGFR antibody therapies in colorectal cancer patients.
The researchers studied the activity of a first-in-class anti-EGFR antibody therapy called Sym004. This treatment is a 1:1 mixture of two synergistic EGFR antibodies, which bind to different regions of the extracellular portion of EGFR but are administered in the same infusion bag. Unlike cetuximab and panitumumab, the double targeting of the receptor by Sym004 creates a heavy macro-complex that causes superior EGFR internalization and degradation, explained senior author of the study Josep Tabernero, MD, PhD, head of the medical oncology department at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and director of the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology in Barcelona.
In a phase I clinical trial, Tabernero and colleagues tested Sym004 in patients with advanced epithelial tumors including metastatic colorectal cancer harboring wild-type KRAS and with acquired resistance to prior EGFR therapies, and reported that overall, 44 percent of the patients with metastatic colorectal cancers had some degree of tumor shrinkage during treatment with Sym004.
"This study represents one of the first examples of promising translation from preclinical findings to drug development and clinical activity against anti-EGFR antibody-resistant colorectal cancer," Tabernero said in a press release. "The significant antitumor activity of Sym004 in patients whose tumors have become resistant to anti-EGFR therapies suggests that some colorectal cancers that progress after treatment with cetuximab or panitumumab remain dependent on EGFR signaling."
Sym004 is currently being tested in a phase II trial in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
Dual Targeting Approach
In a study published in Clinical Cancer Research, investigators tested yet another approach to circumvent EGFR resistance in patients with solid tumors. This approach involved targeting other members of the EGFR family besides EGFR1 (HER1), which is the target of most anti-EGFR antibody therapies.
José Baselga, MD, PhD, senior author of the study in Clinical Cancer Research.
"For about 20 years, we have been working on the hypothesis of targeting EGFR in epithelial cancers as a fruitful approach based on our understanding that dysregulated EGFR plays an important role in tumorigenesis. What we have learned since then is that there are other players in the EGFR family, such as HER3, which are functionally similar to EGFR and, therefore, have a significant role in tumor promotion," said senior author of the study José Baselga, MD, PhD, physician-in-chief and chief medical officer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, in a press release.
"We felt it is important that we hit not just EGFR alone, but also target HER3, with the goal of achieving more durable responses," said Baselga, who is also president of the AACR.
Baselga and colleagues tested the feasibility of using MEHD7945A, an anti-HER3/EGFR humanized IgG1 antibody, in patients with advanced epithelial tumors. MEHD7945A has dual binding specificity to target both HER3 and EGFR. Each binding arm of the therapeutic attaches to unique epitopes of the receptors, thereby inhibiting the activity of multiple cancer signaling pathways.
In a phase I, multicenter, open-label study, Baselga and colleagues enrolled patients with incurable, locally advanced or metastatic epithelial cancer who had received prior systemic therapies and/or anti-EGFR therapies. The investigators reported that MEHD7945A was well tolerated as a single agent, with confirmed partial responses in patients with squamous cell cancers of the head and neck who had refractory disease, "which clearly suggests that this dual-targeting approach is a good strategy moving forward," according to Baselga.
"We have been using antibodies to treat cancers for a while now, but recent advancements in technology are allowing us to use antibodies in a way we have not done in the past," Baselga noted.
MEHD7945A is being tested in a phase II trial in patients with recurrent/metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
Clearly, understanding the complex mechanisms of drug resistance to targeted therapies and exploring combinations of therapies are vital to turning the short-lived responses to precision medicine in to durable, long-lasting ones.
Overcoming Drug Resistance: The EGFR Enigma
From the Journals: A Possible New Strategy for EGFR-mutant Lung Cancer
Posted in: Journals, Research
Tagged: Cancer Discovery, Clinical Cancer Research, Drug development, Drug resistance, EGFR, Targeted therapies
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Act Now to Prevent Skin Cancer Later →


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Panthers' Benjamin (hamstring) to remain sidelined until training camp
BY foxsports • June 17, 2015
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Once is a fluke.
Twice is a coincidence.
Three times becomes a trend.
Right now, the trend involving Carolina Panthers top wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin isn't a good one.
Once again, Benjamin missed practice time Wednesday during minicamp because of issues with his right hamstring -- the same leg that cause the 2014 first-rounder to miss the majority of OTA sessions over the previous three weeks.
The reason for the hamstring issues may be attributed to a problem that plagued Benjamin at Florida State -- carrying extra weight.
"It could be as simple as weight," says Panthers head coach Ron Rivera. "(Benjamin" did come in a little heavy and he had to work himself into shape, or diet or something. We're going to take a look at it and make sure it's not a chronic issue with him. He's too good a football player to have on the sideline."
Benjamin came to Florida State as one of the nation's prized recruits. However, he showed up to Seminoles camp, as a freshman, at nearly 260 pounds -- approximately 20 more than desired by the FSU coaches.
The weight issue was so bad that Benjamin redshirted his freshman year.
The following season, Benjamin lost a lot of weight, but he still had some issues with it. In Year 3, the extra weight was officially gone -- and his talent rose to meet the high expectations.
As a member of the Panthers, Benjamin lists at 243 pounds.
Last season, Benjamin caught 73 passes for 1,008 yards and nine touchdowns. The only major knock: He led the NFL in dropped passes.
Now, with the hamstring issues resurfacing, Benjamin won't see the practice field until training camp in late July.
Given the soaring temperatures in Charlotte, and with the Panthers nearing their fourth straight week of practice activity, it doesn't take much for frustrations to mount.
On Wednesday, two separate fights broke out between offensive and defensive linemen during practice -- one early and one late.
Some coaches like to see the occasional practice-field scrum, as a show of toughness.
Rivera isn't among that group.
"It'll happen and the same thing will happen in training camp, unfortunately," he said. "It's unfortunate and inevitable, and I think the heat really had a little bit to do with it."
Rivera's greatest concern: There were punches thrown in each fight, which is really silly. Players are wearing helmets and pads. That often leads to hand injuries.
"I don't like the fight, but I do like the fact there was a standoff," Rivera said. "I was disappointed. The heat, the fatigue -- but there's no place for it. I talked to both guys privately and just made sure they knew how I felt about it.
"You've got to treat each other like brothers, and if you had a fight with a brother, you wouldn't swing at him, you'd probably want to make sure you talk to your mom and dad. My office is open."


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Get ready Southern California, K1 Speed in Irvine California will host round three of their Challenge GP Race Series this coming Sunday with the top indoor kart drivers coming to the top indoor kart racing center right in the heart of the OC. Multiple drivers are all in the chase for the points championship, and this will be a race not to miss with the level of talent that will be on hand for this race. Sign-ups will begin at 6:30 PM this Sunday March 4th with qualifying beginning at 7:00 PM. Come out the take on the reverse-ran Super-Track configuration and see if you can take on the best in Southern California with K1 Speed in Irvine California – SEE YOU SUNDAY!


An asset allocation fund is a fund that provides investors with a diversified portfolio of investments across various asset classes. The asset allocation of the fund can be fixed or variable among a mix of asset classes. Popular asset categories for asset allocation funds include stocks, bonds and cash equivalents.
Asset allocation funds were developed from modern portfolio theory. Modern portfolio theory shows that investors can achieve optimal returns by investing in a diversified portfolio of investments included in an efficient frontier. The standard applications of modern portfolio theory investing include an efficient frontier of stocks, bonds and cash equivalents. Furthermore, modern portfolio theory outlines how a portfolio can vary its asset mix to tailor to the risk tolerance of the investor.
Asset allocation funds provide a simplified application of modern portfolio theory with varying allocations and combinations of assets for investors. One of the most common types of asset allocation funds is a "balanced fund." A balanced fund implies a balanced allocation of equities and fixed income, such as 60% stocks and 40% bonds. Investors will find numerous funds deploying the 60/40 mix as it has become a popular standardized strategy for investors seeking broad market diversification. Asset allocation funds also offer varying levels of diversification based on risk tolerance. Investors seeking additional investing categories beyond just 60/40 will find many options, including conservative allocation funds, moderate allocation funds and aggressive allocation funds.
"Life-cycle" or "target-date" funds, usually used in retirement planning, are also considered a type of asset allocation fund. These funds are managed with a targeted mix of asset classes that starts out with a higher risk-return position and gradually becomes less risky as the fund nears its targeted utilization date.
After determining a targeted asset allocation, funds can manage their investment selection in a number of ways. Some funds may choose to invest in a variety of exchange-traded funds to represent different market exposures. Other funds may take a more active approach by using fundamental analysis to select top performing securities in each asset class. Overall, most funds will actively monitor and allocate securities in response to evolving market conditions and economic environments.
Below are examples of some of the investment industry's top asset allocation funds.
The iShares Core Aggressive Allocation ETF is a tracker fund that seeks to replicate the performance of the S&P Target Risk Aggressive Index. The Fund invests in targeted ETFs that seek to replicate the Index. The Index is heavily weighted towards equities, targeting investors with high risk tolerance.
The iShares Core Conservative Allocation ETF is a tracker fund that seeks to replicate the performance of the S&P Target Risk Conservative Index. The Fund invests in ETFs that seek to replicate the Index. The Index is heavily weighted towards fixed income, targeting investors with a more conservative risk tolerance.
Investors seeking asset allocation funds will find a number of options with Vanguard. The firm's Vanguard Balanced Index fund invests approximately 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds. Its holdings seek to track two indexes, the CRSP US Total Market Index and the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Float Adjusted Bond Index.


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Tag: Isle of Whithorn
In the footsteps of a missing saint…
2 Comments on In the footsteps of a missing saint…
Tomorrow, September 16, is the feast day of Saint Ninian. In July, together with Christine Ramsay, Ken Wilson, and Sara Parks, I walked the Whithorn Way in Scotland, the medieval Royal pilgrimage route to St Ninian. To honour Saint Ninian Day here's a short video of that pilgrimage!
Tags Ayrshire, Christine Ramsay, Concordia University, Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association, Crossraguel, CUPFA, Dumfries and Galloway, Galloway, Glenluce, Isle of Whithorn, Ken Wilson, Machars, Matthew Anderson, Matthew R. Anderson, Ninian, Ninian's Cave, Ninian's Chapel, pilgrim, Pilgrimage, pilgrimage studies, pilgrims, Saint Ninian, Sara Parks, South-West Scotland, St. Ninian, Whithorn, Whithorn Experience, Whithorn Priory, Whithorn Trust, Whithorn Way
The Top 10 Reasons to Walk the Whithorn Way Next Time You're Thinking Camino
2 Comments on The Top 10 Reasons to Walk the Whithorn Way Next Time You're Thinking Camino
#1. Scottish breakfasts
#2 if you speak English, they speak the same language. Sort of.
The Black Vault in Dunure Castle
#3 place names – like the Waters of Luce – that sound like they come from The Princess Bride
'tatties and 'neeps (and haggis)
#4 'tatties and 'neeps
photo: Ken Wilson
#5 miles and miles of coastal paths
#6 no need to fight for space on the trail or in albergues
scones and jam (for haggis, see above!)
#7 haggis is less disgusting than pulpo
stained glass of St Ninian at Glasgow Cathedral
#8 a saint who may have known the real King Arthur and St Patrick
Drumtroddan Standing Stones
#9 currags, castles, cairns, and caves (and neolithic standing stones)
#10 real Scottish ales
And lots more: kissing-gates on the edges of cliffs, Norse-Scots stone crosses, a destination where on a clear day you can see Ireland, England, and the Isle of Man, Arts & Crafts art and architecture, scones with jam, the moors, you're more likely to be soaked in cold rain than baked by unending heat,
Robbie Burns, and…I didn't even mention A.D. Rattray's Whiskey Experience in Kirkoswald!
Tags A.D. Rattray's Whiskey Experience, Arts and Crafts, Ayrshire, Ayrshire Coastal Path, Camino, Camino de Santiago, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Craighlaw Arms, Drumtroddan stones, Glasgow Cathedral, haggis, Isle of Whithorn, jam and scones, Kirkcowan, Kirkoswald, Maybole, Ninian, Robbie Burns, scones, Scotland, St Ninian's Cave, St. Ninian, Standing Stones, tatties and neeps, Whithorn Experience, Whithorn Priory, Whithorn Way
1 Comment on There and Back Again
The Mansefield B&B, Whithorn
Pilgrimage has two directions. At least, usually it does: Sara Terreault can explain better than me how the ancient Irish (Insular) monks went on peregrinations or wanderings with no intention of returning home. But for the rest of us, to every "there," there is usually a "back again." Thank goodness! Whithorn said goodbye with a noisy overnight storm that made me get up to close my window against the sideways rain, then clearing and becoming coyly sunny and warm just as we left. Above is our view from breakfast in the Mansefield Inn. It was once the parsonage to the church converted into a Gulf gas station and garage (below). Fortunately, the conversion of the parsonage was a better job.
Free Church Gas Pumps
The Steam Packet Inn, Isle of Whithorn
The folks here are rightly proud of where they live. In our 45 minute taxi to the closest train, the driver told story after story, some of which I can repeat, then briefly turned off the taxi's meter to take us a few hundred yards off-route to see Kennedy Castle. Once on the train, Ken, Christine, and I headed north to Glasgow. My son Daniel once told me how strange it felt to see a pilgrimage "undone" by being in a motorized vehicle heading back to the starting point. I liked seeing some of the sights again from our Scottish Railway car, including these children at one junction waving at the train.
waving at the train as we made our way home
There were unmarked grassy places along the coast where courageous Scots were drying out tents, and I wondered if these were examples of the "Right of Responsible Access."
Glasgow Central Train Station
Glasgow Central Station is one of those beautiful, soaring Victorian train stations. We dropped off Ken and Christine's things, then they accompanied me to the bus station to catch my bus to the airport. On the way we stopped for tea at a replica tearoom done up in the style of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Glasgow's famous early 20th century architect. Now I'm waiting to board a prop plane back to East Midlands.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (or at least a tea-room dedicated to him)
saying goodbye at the bus station
Can one really say that they get to know a place in a short week, even while walking? We covered 120 km, more or less. We saw a lot of mud and stones, beached jellyfish and sheep and cattle and dark woods, barley fields and brambles. Walking is different from seeing land from a train. But both, as Ken reminded me, are different from actually spending time, which is how you make an "anywhere" a "somewhere." It's partly by telling stories, and remembering, that we create a sense of place. So that's the next task for me, as a pilgrim returning from the Whithorn Way. I was happy to share Christine and Ken's company throughout this long walk. PS: It's interesting that, after a week researching the Right of Responsible Access in Scotland, on my return to Nottingham Google Maps led me right through a new car parking lot that SHOULD also be a footpath. I wound up exercising my right and hopping the barrier to walk through.
why did they close off a public footpath?
Tags Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Concordia University, CUPFA, Galloway, Glasgow, Glasgow Train Station, Isle of Whithorn, Mansefield Inn, Matthew Anderson, Matthew R. Anderson, Right of Responsible Access, Right to Roam, Steam Packet Inn, The Whithorn Way, Whithorn Way
On Ninian's Cliffs
4 Comments on On Ninian's Cliffs
Today was a vertiginous day. It's the perfect word, although I had to look it up. Vertiginous has two meanings, both true today: extremely high and steep, and suffering from vertigo. I don't know how the Scots do it. We had just passed through a short section – the worst – where the path was within two metres of the edge and a stumble could easily topple you down 200-feet onto the rocks. A couple ambled toward us with a dog tied to the woman's waist. When we said hi, she cheerily told us "he has to be tied up. He's a naughty dog and we had to call the coast guard to fetch him a couple weeks ago." Hmm.
the dangerous section
a saint's – or pilgrim's – reward
I'm now thoroughly convinced Ninian existed; after all, on finishing the walk all the way from Ninian's Cave to Ninian's Chapel on the Isle of Whithorn, about seven miles away, we had tea in his café. More seriously, the ancient stones, including altar stones, found in the cave (which is now partially caved-in) testify to its age. At our end point, the medieval chapel of St Ninian (below) was the place where pilgrims arriving by sea were welcomed and gave thanks for safe arrivals. Unlike us, they weren't crazy enough for the cliffs; most ancient and medieval pilgrims arrived by sea and only walked a short distance to the shrine.
three pilgrims on arrival at Ninian's Chapel, Isle of Whithorn
Having walked some ancient pilgrim routes that don't seem that tied to religion anymore, I was struck today by the signs that people still take Ninian's cave and Ninian's chapel seriously. Some leave stones with names at the chapel, or insert rocks or prayers in the ancient surf-side cave.
Ninian's Cave
Chris and Clare joined our walk today. I met them six years ago on the St Cuthbert's walk. Clare brought wonderful home-made cake. I'm thankful to see them again after so long.
We've run out of Ninian destinations in this part of the peninsula, so I guess that means this pilgrimage is over. We'll go out for a celebratory pint and dinner this evening, then tomorrow start making our respective ways home. The pilgrimage has been short, but has had many pleasures and a few trials. And will provide me material for a long time to come! I've enjoyed walking with Christine and Ken. Next time in Saskatchewan, which is perhaps not quite as vertiginous!
(for more photos and another perspective on today, see Ken's blog at https://readingandwalking.wordpress.com/2019/07/21/whithorn-way-day-six/)
Tags Concordia University, Galloway, Isle of Whithorn, Matthew Anderson, Matthew R. Anderson, Ninian, Ninian's Cave, Ninian's Chapel, pilgrim, Pilgrimage, pilgrims, Scotland, St. Ninian, The Whithorn Way, Whithorn Way


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Lineup for Juan Manuel Marquez, Brandon Rios, Mercito Gesta bouts announced
Mercito Gesta is photographed with Jorge Marron (L), his matchmaker, after a recent win. In the background on the right side is Vince Parra, Gesta's trainer, friend and confidant. Photo: Jim Wyatt
The lineup for Top Rank's split site PPV card of April 14, 2012 featuring Brandon Rios, Juan Manuel Marquez, Mercito Gesta and Mike Alvarado was just announced.
From the New Mexico Arena in Mexico City:
At this point, Serhiy Fedchenko is busy training in Mexico City for what might turn out to be the fight of his career.
Confidence reigns in the Juan Manuel Marquez training camp.
For the WBO Interim Light Welterweight Title, Juan Mánuel "Dinamita" Márquez (53-6-1, 39 KOs) who now resides in Anaheim, Ca but trains in Mexico City is going up against Serhiy "The Professor" Fedchenko (30-1, 13 KOs) from Kharkov, Ukraine in a 12 rounder at the New Mexico City Arena, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico.
and then from the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas:
Brandon Rios is going for win number 30 without a single defeat.
For the WBA Lightweight World title, Brandon "Bam Bam" Rios (29-0-1, 22 KOs) will meet Richard Abril (17-2-1, 8 KOs) in a 12 rounder.
In a 10 round Junior Welterweight clash Mike Alvarado (32-0, 23 KOs) will be challenged by Mauricio Herrera (18-1-0, 7 KOs).
Also, in a 10 round Lightweight match-up, Mercito 'No Mercy' Gesta (24-0-1, 12 KOs) of San Diego is facing Oscar Cuero (15-7-0, 12 KOs) from Cartagena, Colombia.
On the off-TV undercard will be unbeaten welterweight Oyewale "Lucky Boy" Omotoso (21-0, 18 KOs) from Australia by way of Lagos, Nigeria.


The boys from the SuppsDawg Podcast join me to explore what it's like to get married young, white privilege, toxic masculinity, and some of the most interesting conspiracy theories floating around these days.
Summer is here and to get the most out of it you better have an outfit selection that keeps you looking good, a drink choice that satisfies, and know how to conduct yourself on a boat.
This episode has you covered.