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Cerebral Venous Thrombosis
Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), which includes thrombosis of the cerebral veins and the dural sinuses, is a rare disorder that can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. Cerebral venous thrombosis can present with variable signs and symptoms that include a headache, benign intracranial hypertension, subarachnoid hemorrhage, focal neurological deficit, seizures, unexplained altered sensorium, and meningoencephalitis. This activity reviews the cause of cerebral venous thrombosis and highlights the role of the interprofessional team in its management.
Review the cause of cerebral venous thrombosis.
Describe the presentation of cerebral venous thrombosis.
Summarize the treatment of cerebral venous thrombosis.
Outline the importance of improving care coordination among interprofessional team members to improve outcomes for patients affected by cerebral venous thrombosis.
Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), which includes thrombosis of the cerebral veins and the dural sinuses, is a rare disorder that can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. Cerebral venous thrombosis can present with variable signs and symptoms that include a headache, benign intracranial hypertension, subarachnoid hemorrhage, focal neurological deficit, seizures, unexplained altered sensorium, and meningoencephalitis.[1][2]
The diversity of risk factors and variable presentation present challenges in diagnosing cerebral vein thrombosis. Delay in diagnosis is common, as the median delay from symptom onset to hospital admission is four days and from symptom onset to diagnosis is seven days. Thus, having a high index of suspicion for this disorder is crucial to ensure timely diagnosis and treatment.[3][4]
Many risk factors contribute to the development of cerebral venous thrombosis. At least one risk factor was identified in more than 85% of patients with cerebral venous thrombosis, and multiple risk factors are found in more than 50% of patients with cerebral venous thrombosis.[5] In general, cerebral venous thrombosis is common in any condition that leads to a prothrombotic state, including pregnancy, the post-partum state, or those on oral contraceptives. In the International Study on Cerebral Vein and Dural Sinus Thrombosis (ICSVT), genetic and acquired thrombophilia were present in 34% of patients with cerebral venous thrombosis. Inherited thrombophilia includes protein C and protein S deficiencies, antithrombin deficiency, factor V Leiden mutation, prothrombin gene mutation 20210, as well as hyperhomocysteinemia.[6][7]
Acquired thrombophilia should be suspected in patients with a history of nephrotic syndrome (due to loss of antithrombin) or antiphospholipid antibodies. Additional causes and risk factors associated with cerebral venous thrombosis include chronic inflammatory disease states such as systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory bowel disease, malignancy, and vasculitides such as Wegener's granulomatosis. Local infections such as otitis and mastoiditis, which can lead to thrombosis of the adjacent sigmoid and transverse sinuses, have also been implicated in developing cerebral venous thrombosis. Cerebral venous thrombosis may also be seen in a patient with a head injury, after certain neurosurgical procedures, direct injury to the sinuses or jugular veins, such as jugular vein catheterization, and even after a lumbar puncture.[8][9]
Cerebral venous thrombosis is a rare disorder with an annual incidence estimated to be three to four cases per million. The frequency of peripartum and post-partum cerebral venous thrombosis is about 12 cases per 100,000 deliveries in pregnant women, which is only slightly lower than that of peripartum and post-partum arterial stroke. Cerebral venous thrombosis occurs three times more frequently in women than in men. This is thought to be due to gender-specific risk factors, for example, oral contraceptive use and, less frequently, pregnancy, puerperium, and hormone replacement therapy. More recently, there has been a significant female predominance among young adults, with the majority of cases (70% to 80%) being in women of childbearing age, but not among children or elderly persons.
There are two pathophysiologic mechanisms thought to contribute to the clinical manifestations of cerebral venous thrombosis. First, thrombosis of the cerebral veins leads to increased venous and capillary pressure, which leads to a decrease in cerebral perfusion. Decreased cerebral perfusion results in ischemic injury, manifested by cytotoxic edema, which damages the energy-dependent cellular membrane pumps and leads to intracellular swelling. Disrupting the blood-brain barrier leads to vasogenic edema and leakage into the interstitial space. The increased pressure in the venous system can lead to an intraparenchymal hemorrhage.
The second pathophysiologic mechanism resulting in cerebral venous thrombosis is obstruction of the cerebral sinuses, particularly when the thrombus does not resolve. Normally, the cerebrospinal fluid found in the cerebral ventricles is transported through the subarachnoid space to the arachnoid granulations and absorbed into the venous sinuses. Thrombosis of the venous sinuses results in impaired cerebrospinal fluid absorption, ultimately leading to increased intracranial pressure. Increased intracranial pressure leads to cytotoxic and vasogenic edema and may result in parenchymal hemorrhage.
Physicians should highly suspect cerebral venous thrombosis given the variable presentation and low annual incidence. Signs and symptoms may be acute, subacute, or chronic, with the most common symptom in cerebral venous thrombosis being a headache. A subacute pattern of the clinical presentation was observed in almost 60% of cases compared to acute (<48 hours in 37%) and chronic (>30 days in 7%).[5] A headache presents in up to 90% of patients.[5]
Headaches may be generalized or diffuse and tend to mimic migraines but may increase in severity slowly over days and weeks and are not relieved with sleep. In some instances, the headache may be thunderclap in nature, starting suddenly and maximal in intensity at onset, thereby mimicking the presentation of subarachnoid hemorrhage. A headache is often worsened with Valsalva or coughing, indicative of increased intracranial pressure. Papilledema and visual symptoms, such as diplopia caused by a sixth cranial nerve palsy when the intracranial pressure is too high, may accompany a headache. The funduscopic examination will reveal papilledema, which, depending on the severity, can cause visual impairment and even permanent blindness if left untreated. However, an isolated headache without any other focal neurologic deficits or papilledema has been reported in up to a fourth of patients with cerebral venous thrombosis and further complicates the diagnostic picture.
Focal neurologic signs are common and are seen in up to 44% of patients. Motor weakness, including hemiparesis, is the most common focal finding. However, unlike arterial thrombosis in the setting of cerebrovascular accidents, localization to one vascular territory is often absent. Hemispheric symptoms, such as aphasia and hemiparesis, are a characteristic but rare finding. Seizures are seen in about 40% of patients with cerebral venous thrombosis, the most common of which are focal seizures. Focal seizures account for 50% of those who experience a seizure in the setting of cerebral venous thrombosis but have the potential to generalize to a status epilepticus. Thus, cerebral venous thrombosis should be considered in any patient who presents with a headache and some combination of either focal neurologic deficit or new-onset seizures. Thrombosis of the straight sinus, or in severe cases of venous infarction with hemorrhagic transformation, can lead to compression of the diencephalon and brainstem, resulting in coma or death due to cerebral herniation.[10]
Diagnosis of cerebral venous thrombosis is clinical and confirmed with neuroimaging. Given its varied presentation and myriad of symptoms, one must have a high index of suspicion to identify and diagnose this rare and potentially life-threatening condition correctly. It should be suspected in young and middle-aged patients, especially those with cerebral venous thrombosis risk factors, such as postpartum women, those with genetic or acquired thrombophilia, and patients with focal neurological findings. It should also be suspected in the following:
Who present with atypical headaches or those having multiple repeat evaluations for an unrelenting headaches
Focal neurological deficit
Stroke-like symptoms, especially in the absence of vascular risk factors that would predispose to cerebral vascular accidents (carotid atherosclerosis)
Seizures (focal, generalized, or status-epilepticus)
Intracranial hypertension or evidence of papilledema on funduscopic exam
Patients with CT evidence of hemorrhagic infarcts, particularly in the setting of multiple infarcts not confined to a single vascular territory
Some important clinical clues to the diagnosis include slow progression, bilateral involvement, and concurrent seizures.[5]
Laboratory evaluation should include a complete blood count, coagulation panel, chemistry panel, as well as inflammatory markers such as a sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein to evaluate for proinflammatory states. Ideally, a screening test that could effectively rule out the diagnosis without subjecting patients to neuroimaging when it is not necessary would be ideal and prove helpful to clinical practice. The D-dimer assay has been evaluated in this regard, and unfortunately, it has been shown to have an unacceptable false-negative rate of up to 26% in one study. This low sensitivity of the D-dimer assay is in contrast to the utility of the D-dimer in ruling out deep venous thrombosis, which may be due to the lower thrombotic burden of cerebral venous thrombosis compared to DVT.[11][12]
Based on recent American Heart Association/American Stroke Association guidelines, a negative D-dimer does not effectively rule out cerebral venous thrombosis and should not preclude neuroimaging if there is clinical suspicion for cerebral venous thrombosis.[13][14] However, adding D-dimer (≥500 μg/L) to the clinical CVT score (comprising of variables such as seizure, known thrombophilia, oral contraceptive use, duration of symptoms for >6 days, worst headache ever, and focal neurologic deficits) has shown to improve its predictive value.[15]
Non-contrast computed tomography (CT): The speed and accessibility with which this test can be obtained make it the first test that should be obtained in any patient presenting with an atypical headache, focal neurologic deficit, seizures, altered mental status, or coma. A direct sign of cerebral venous thrombosis is the cord sign, a curvilinear hyperdensity within a cortical vein in the presence of thrombosis that can be seen for up two weeks following thrombus formation. Other direct signs include hyperdensity with a triangular shape in the superior sagittal sinus, also known as the dense triangle sign. Intraparenchymal hemorrhages or infarcts may be seen on non-contrast head CT and may cross vascular boundaries. In a multicentric study, brain infarction was observed in 36.4%, hemorrhagic transformation in 17.3%, and intraparenchymal hemorrhage in 3.8% of cohorts.[5] Hyperdensity within a cortical vein or dural sinus in plain CT is observed in only one-third of the cases. [5]
CT Venography (CTV): While MRI does have a better sensitivity and specificity when compared to computed tomography, diagnostic and confirmatory venography is required to exclude cerebral venous thrombosis. The presence of new, helical CT scanners has led to evidence that CT venography is superior in the identification of cerebral veins when compared to MR venography and that the two methods are equivocal in the identification and diagnosis of cerebral venous thrombosis. The fact that CT venography can rapidly be performed following a non-contrast head CT while the patient is still in the CT scanner makes CT venography a viable option in the emergency setting when access to MRI imaging and venography may otherwise be limited or unavailable. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography illustrates the empty delta sign, representing contrast enhancement flowing around the comparatively hypodense region of the thrombosed superior sagittal sinus.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance venography (MRV) are considered the gold standard in diagnosing cerebral venous thrombosis as they have a higher sensitivity than computed tomography. MRI is superior to CT when evaluating for parenchymal edema as a result of cerebral venous thrombosis. MRI findings are dependent on the age of the thrombus, as signal intensities change depending on thrombus age. Thus, MRI interpretation requires a detailed understanding of the evolutionary changes seen radiographically. An acutely formed thrombus (0 to 7 days) is harder to detect, but by week 2, abnormalities are easier to detect, with both T1 and T2-weighted images showing a hyperdense signal. The combination of an abnormal signal in a venous sinus combined with the absence of flow on MRV confirms the diagnosis of cerebral venous thrombosis. 2-dimensional lumen-based TOF showing the absence of a flow void in the dural sinus is the most sensitive imaging modality. Multiscale entropy (MSE) of hemoglobin products within the thrombus is of high diagnostic value.[16] The presence of DWI abnormality within the involved veins or sinus indicates low chances of recanalization. The differentials include arachnoid granulations and fenestrations.[17]
Cerebral angiography: If the diagnosis is still in question after using MRI and MRV, then intra-arterial angiography is indicated. Angiography allows for superior visualization of the cerebral veins and helps identify anatomical variants of normal venous anatomy that mimic cerebral venous thrombosis. It is useful in rare cases of isolated cortical vein thrombosis without sinus thrombosis and may show indirect signs such as dilated and tortuous "corkscrew" collateral veins, evidence that there may be thrombosis further downstream of the sinuses.
Superior sagittal sinus is most frequently involved, followed by transverse sinus.[5]
Management initially focuses on identifying and addressing life-threatening complications of cerebral venous thrombosis, including increased intracranial pressure (ICP), seizures, and coma. If a patient seizes and has a lesion such as a hemorrhage or infarction on neuroimaging, then specific anticonvulsant therapy, as well as seizure prophylaxis, should be initiated. If a seizure does not occur, then seizure prophylaxis is not indicated. In the case of increased ICP, the head of the bed should be elevated, and administration of dexamethasone and mannitol should be done promptly to reduce increased ICP. This is followed by admission to the intensive care unit or stroke unit for close ICP monitoring, with a neurosurgical consultation if the patient decompensates and requires surgical decompression. Next, attention should be shifted to specific therapy, including anticoagulation and, in certain cases, catheter-directed fibrinolysis and surgical thrombectomy.
Anticoagulation has been a controversial topic due to the potential for hemorrhagic transformation of cerebral infarcts before administering anticoagulation. The goal of anticoagulation is to prevent thrombus propagation, help recanalize the lumen of occluded cerebral veins, and to prevent the complications of deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in patients who already have thrombus burden and are predisposed to forming additional thrombi. The results of two randomized controlled trials, which compared anticoagulation with placebo, although statistically insignificant, showed that anticoagulation had a favorable outcome more often than controls. They also showed that anticoagulation was safe and not contraindicated, even in patients with cerebral hemorrhage.
Based on these randomized controlled trials and other observational studies, anticoagulation is recommended as a safe and effective treatment of cerebral venous thrombosis. It should be initiated immediately upon diagnosis of cerebral venous thrombosis. Anticoagulation with intravenous unfractionated heparin or subcutaneously administered low-molecular-weight heparin is recommended as a bridge to oral anticoagulation with a vitamin K antagonist. There are no outcome differences while comparing unfractionated heparin (UFH) or low molecular weight heparin (LMWH). The European stroke organization (ESO) guidelines advocate unfractionated heparin in patients with renal insufficiency or the probability of requiring emergent reversal.[5]
The target goal of treatment is an international normalized ratio of 2.0 to 3.0 cerebral venous thrombosis 3 to 6 months in patients with provoked cerebral venous thrombosis and 6 to 12 months in patients with unprovoked cerebral venous thrombosis.[5] Indefinite anticoagulation should be considered in patients with recurrent cerebral venous thrombosis, those who develop deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in addition to cerebral venous thrombosis, or those with first-time cerebral venous thrombosis in the setting of severe thrombophilia.
Thrombolysis
Although most patients see clinical improvement with anticoagulation therapy, a small subset of patients do not, and these individuals clinically deteriorate despite anticoagulation. In these cases, where the prognosis is poor, systemic and catheter-directed thrombolysis is indicated in patients with large and extensive cerebral venous thrombi who clinically deteriorate despite treatment with anticoagulation. As is the case, whenever fibrinolytics are used, there is an increased risk of intracranial hemorrhage. Based on a systemic review conducted in 2003, which looked at 72 studies and 169 patients with cerebral venous thrombosis, there seems to be a possible clinical benefit due to the use of fibrinolytics in patients with a severe presentation. Intracranial hemorrhage occurred in 17% of patients treated with fibrinolytics and was associated with clinical deterioration in 5% of cases. Overall, endovascular thrombolytics should be used at centers with staff experienced in interventional radiology and should be reserved for patients who are clinically deteriorating and despite treatment with anticoagulation. A systematic has shown local thrombolysis to be beneficial only in patients with severe CVT, whereas the results are anecdotal for mechanical thrombectomy.[5]
Surgical thrombectomy is reserved for cases of severe neurological deterioration despite maximal medical therapy. In the case of large venous infarcts and hemorrhages causing a mass effect with risk of herniation, decompressive surgery has been thought to improve clinical outcomes, especially if done early, although this is level C evidence. Decompressive surgery is life-saving, with favorable outcomes observed in more than 50% of patients, with a mortality rate of approximately 20%.[5]
It is important to elucidate the underlying contributory factors of cerebral venous thrombosis and devise a treatment strategy to correct them. Women on hormonal contraceptive therapy should seek non-estrogen-based methods of contraception such as levonorgestrel and copper intrauterine devices or progestin-only pills. Further testing to identify the etiology of all acquired and reversible thrombophilic states should be conducted and, when possible, corrected. In addition to clinical follow-up, the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recommend follow-up imaging 3 to 6 months after diagnosis to assess for recanalization.
The risks for ICH following anticoagulation therapy ranged from zero to 5.4%. A systematic review has shown that the overall mortality was 9.4%, and dependency of 9.4% and 9.7%, respectively.[18][19]
The quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations of the European Stroke Organization guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of cerebral venous thrombosis (2017) can be summarized as follows:
Strength of recommendations
MRV and CT venography as an alternative to DSA
CT venography as an alternative to MRV
D-dimer before neuroimaging
Thrombophilia screening is not recommended
Screening for occult malignancy is not recommended
Treatment with heparin at a therapeutic dose, including those with ICH
Use of LMWH instead of UFH
No recommendation on thrombolysis
Oral vitamin K antagonist for 3 to 12 months
No recommendation for using NOACs
No recommendation on therapeutic LP
Acetazolamide and steroid not recommended
Shunting alone is not recommended
Decompressive surgery in impeding herniation
AEDs in supratentorial lesions and seizures
LMWH in pregnant and puerperal patients
OCP use is not advised in women of fertile age and prior CVT
LMWH during pregnancy/puerperium with a previous history of CVT
Abducens nerve palsy
Blood dyscrasias
Cavernous sinus syndrome
Intracranial abscess
Neurosarcoidosis
Pediatric status epilepticus
Pseudotumor cerebri
Staphylococcal meningitis
Subdural empyema
The diagnosis and management of cerebral venous thrombosis are challenging and best managed by an interprofessional team that includes a neurologist, neurosurgeon, radiologist, hematologist, anesthesiologist, ICU nurses, and intensivist. Other members of the interprofessional team include nursing staff, mid-level practitioners (NPs and PAs), and pharmacists. Management is initially focused on identifying and addressing life-threatening complications of cerebral venous thrombosis, including increased intracranial pressure (ICP), seizures, and coma. Next, attention should be shifted to specific therapy, including anticoagulation and, in certain cases, catheter-directed fibrinolysis and surgical thrombectomy. The prognosis of these patients is guarded. Even those who survive are often left with permanent neurological deficits.[20][21]
Illustration of cerebral venous thrombosis. Superior sagittal sinus, cortical veins, inferior sagittal sinus, Vein of Galen, internal cerebral veins, straight sinus, transverse sinus, sigmoid, jugular veins.
Contributed by Chelsea Rowe
Prasanna Tadi
Babak Behgam
Seth Baruffi
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BAT: The Music of Meat Loaf This Friday at Newton Theatre
Meat Loaf's band The Neverland Express performs the music of Meat Loaf with American Idol star Caleb Johnson this Friday (May 17) at The Newton Theatre. Showtime 8pm.
This a must see show for any true Meat Loaf fan. Come rock out this Friday as The Neverland Express performs Meat Loaf's classic Bat Out of Hell album in it's entirety with lead vocalist and American Idol season 13 winner Caleb Johnson. The show is endorsed by Meat Loaf himself and produced by his musical director, guitarist, record producer, Paul Crook. Tickets are still available through the Newton Theatre box office. Click here to purchase tickets.
Photo credit: The Newton Theatre, www.skypac.org

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


On the 5th of October 2014, Malaysian students of Volgograd State Medical University celebrated Eid Adha or the Great Day of Sacrifice. Eid Adha is a Muslim festival which commemorates the willingness of the Islamic prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail in an act of obedience to God. The celebration this year was organized by 4th year students. The event which was held at Hiroshima Hostel started at 10 in the morning. Malaysian students of all courses wore their colorful traditional clothes and had come to enjoy the celebration together with their curators Mr. Vladislav Goncharenko and his wife together with Mrs. Nina Arseevna.
Just like other celebrations, there were singing and dancing by the talented future doctors of VSMU. Some students sang Raya songs while being accompanied by a live band. A selection of classic favourites such as "Dendang Perantau" and the more jolly "Suasana Hari Raya" mixed with newer songs like "Anugerah Syawal" didn't fail to entertain guests and keep them on their toes.
A variety of games and quizzes were also prepared by the organizers, challenging the knowledge of our future doctors with Raya theme questions. Guests also had the chance to have a taste of traditional Malaysian dish, complimentary of the best cooks of the 4th course students.
All and all, the event went on successfully and well according to plan. Hopes are that students continue to strive in handling such projects in the future and keep on bringing out the Malaysia in them, making us feel at home no matter where we are.


Experience movies and TV shows in clear detail with powerful sound and rich colors on the Samsung 40 in. Full HD 1080p LED Wi-Fi Smart TV. This screen fits well in a large bedroom or living room. A built-in sensor measures room lighting and adjusts accordingly to provide the best possible picture. Get access to a world of instant entertainment with this product. Just connect to the Internet and stream movies, listen to music and access a wide variety of other content.


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Stillleben mit Äpfeln ist der Titel eines Gemäldes des deutsch-russischen Malers Alexej von Jawlensky, das er 1908 malte. 1953 wurde es vom damaligen Museumsdirektor Clemens Weiler für das Museum Wiesbaden erworben. Es trägt die Inventar-Nummer M 678.

Technik und Bildträger
Bei dem "Stillleben mit Äpfeln" handelt es sich um ein Ölgemälde auf Karton auf Holz aufgezogen im nahezu quadratischen Format, 49 × 51,5 cm. Es ist im Bild unten links kyrillisch signiert "A. Jawlensky" und datiert "08". Rückseitig verschiedene Aufkleber, der älteste handschriftlich bezeichnet: Salon 1908-9. Das Bild ist verzeichnet im "Katalog der Gemälde" von Weiler von 1959, im "Catalogue Raisonné" von 1991 des Jawlensky-Archivs, 1997 im Jawlensky-Bestandskatalog des Museums Wiesbaden, 2014 im Ausstellungskatalog "Horizont Jawlensky" 2014.

Die Lehren Gauguins und der Nabis
"In der Zimmermannschen Kunsthandlung [in München] begegneten sie [nämlich Jawlensky und Jan Verkade] im Frühjahr 1908 einer kleinen Van-Gogh-Ausstellung. Dort erwarb Jawlensky durch das Entgegenkommen der Witwe Theo van Goghs eine schöne Landschaft von van Gogh, die er sehr liebte. Im Dezember 1907 war der »Erznabi« Sérusier nach München gekommen und hatte sich dort für drei Monate ein Atelier gemietet. Die Lehren Gauguins und der Nabis sind in jenen Jahren tief in das Werk Jawlenskys eingedrungen. Aber bei aller inneren Verwandtschaft, die ihn mit diesen Lehren verband, ließ er sich niemals zu einem symbolistischen Werk verführen. Immer wieder waren es die Stillleben, in denen er durch die Intensivierung der Farbe und Konzentration der Form zum Ausdruck bringen wollte, was in ihm vibrierte. […] Jawlensky entwickelte in den Murnauer Jahren einen durchaus anderen Stil. Er war in der Zeit, als die Gruppe Marianne von Werefkin, Alexej von Jawlensky|Alexej Jawlensky und Gabriele Münter, Wassily Kandinsky ihre gemeinsame Arbeit aufnahm, der Fortgeschrittenste. Er umschrieb die Flächen mit dunklen Konturen und vermochte so die gesamte Komposition in die Fläche zu bannen. Nicht nur die Landschaft reduzierte er, sondern auch die Stillleben, indem er die Form stets stärker vereinfachte und sich auf wenige stark kontrastierende Farben beschränkte. Damit machte Jawlensky, wie die französischen Fauvisten und vor allem André Derain als Folge der großen Cézanne-Ausstellung des Jahres 1907 in Paris, die Schwenkung zu der strengen Konstruktion mit, aus der in Frankreich der analytische Kubismus entstanden ist. Jawlensky baute mit der Hilfe Cézannes und setzte die Farben im Sinne Gauguins nebeneinander. Was er aber hinzufügte, ist die schwere russische Gesättigtheit der Farbe. Die Farbe wird bei ihm nie dekorativ verwendet, sondern stets gefühlsbetont, innerlich bedeutungsvoll, hintergründig gesättigt."

Kampf der Formen und Farben
Noch zu Lebzeiten der Münter schrieb ihr Biograph Johannes Eichner: "Zweifellos war Jawlensky, als die Gruppe in Murnau ihre Arbeit aufnahm, der Fortgeschrittenste. Er wußte schon, wie man modern malt. Er hatte das Verfahren der, Schule von Pont-Aven gelernt,– die Farbflächen in Konturen zu spannen."
Und genau dieses tut Jawlensky in dem " 'Stillleben mit Äpfeln' von 1908. Das war neu und revolutionär in der Malerei jener Jahre und stand im krassen Gegensatz zum Impressionismus eines Liebermann, Corinth oder Slevogt, der damals Triumphe feierte. Die Münter und Kandinsky bewunderten also Jawlensky. Den Impressionismus hatte der weitgereiste und welterfahrene Jawlensky schon 1903 hinter sich gelassen, und den Neoimpressionismus hatte er erst kürzlich abgestreift. Nun erprobte er im Vorfeld des Expressionismus Farbe und Form auf ihre ureigensten Qualitäten.
Die drei Grundfarben – Gelb, Rot und Blau – werden in unserem Bild gegen ihre Komplementärfarben – Violett, Grün und Orange – aufgewogen. Die einzelnen Farben spannt Jawlensky in Konturen und nimmt ihnen damit die Möglichkeit zur Flucht in die Mischung. Sie müssen im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes Farbe bekennen. Die Bezeichnung "Stillleben" ist eigentlich irreführend und verniedlicht den Bildinhalt, den Jawlensky veranschaulichen will. In Wirklichkeit inszeniert Jawlensky einen dramatischen Kampf der Formen und Farben um die Herrschaft im Bild, der die Darstellung so spannend wie ein mittelalterliches Schlachtenbild macht. Gegen alle Farblogik setzt Jawlensky das Grün, das eigentlich auf Grund seines passiven Charakters wie eine Ablagerung am unteren Bildrand liegen müsste, übergewichtig und massenhaft in der oberen Bildzone ein. Das Grün ist als einzige Farbe im Bild nicht durch eine Kontur präzisiert oder durch eine Binnenform definiert. Somit stellt es sich als unglaublich träges Element dar. Dieses bremst und umklammert zangenartig die vitale Komposition, die sich diagonal von links unten nach rechts oben entwickelt. Dem Grün stellt Jawlensky ein giftiges Rotviolett gegenüber, das er durch Zickzack-formen, wie vom Blitz getroffen, erschüttert. Durch Konturen und angrenzende dunkle Farbflächen ist die Aktivität des Rotvioletts nach schräg oben gerichtet. Sie treibt und presst die Obstschale in das zähe, grüne Farbfeld hinein. Auf ihr liegen die Äpfel, deren vor Energie strotzendes Gelb jeden Moment die Konturen wie Ketten sprengen könnte, um das Grün und das Gesamtbild zu überfluten und überstrahlen. Das Rot spielt in der Gesamtkomposition eine untergeordnete Rolle, ebenso das Blau und seine Komplementärfarbe Orange. Diese Farben veranschaulichen in unserem Bild Ausgeglichenheit, Harmonie und Zusammengehörigkeit. Ein helles und ein dunkles Blau ergänzen sich in quadratischer Ordnung zum Muster des Kruges. Beide Blautöne finden ihren Gegenklang in den zwei Orangetönen des fast kreisrunden Apfels, der den Krug überschneidet.
Eigentlich ist unser Stillleben ein abstraktes Bild, in dem Jawlensky 1908 die Natur als Vorwand benutzte, um das Kräftespiel von Formen und Farben darzustellen. Jawlensky behauptete mehrfach, Kunst sei weder erlernbar noch lehrbar und lehnte z. B. eine Professur am Bauhaus ab. Kandinsky war da ganz anderer Meinung. Mit seinem Buch "Über das Geistige in der Kunst" hat er das bereits 1912 dargestellt. In ihm verarbeitete er ganz sicher auch Beobachtungen, die er an Jawlenskys Bildern gemacht hat. Unser Stillleben und sein Bekenntnis von 1938 an Jawlensky: "Sie lehrten mich, machen das überdeutlich."

Literatur
 Clemens Weiler: Alexej Jawlensky.Köln 1959, S. 278, Nr. 720
 Bernd Fäthke:, Alexej Jawlensky, Zeichnung-Graphik-Dokumente, Ausst. Kat.: Museum Wiesbaden 1983, S. 25 f
 Bernd Fäthke, Jawlenskys "Stilleben mit Äpfeln", Das besondere Bild zum 45. Todesjahr von Alexej Jawlensky, M.S. Museum Wiesbaden 1986, S. 4 f
 Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky and Angelica Jawlensky (Hrsg.), Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue Raisonné of the oil-paintings. Bd. 1, München 1991, Nr. 220, S. 187
 Ingrid Koszinowski. Alexej von Jawlensky, Gemälde und graphische Arbeiten aus der Sammlung des Museums Wiesbaden Wiesbaden 1997, Nr.  3, S. 15 f

Einzelnachweise

Gemälde (20. Jahrhundert)
Stillleben
Kunstwerk des Expressionismus
Gemälde von Alexej von Jawlensky im Museum Wiesbaden

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Rainer Lohmann, an oceanographer at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography, holds sampling devices that will be used to test water for perfluorinated contaminants. Photo by Michael Salerno.
NARRAGANSETT, R.I., Aug. 15 —Nonstick cookware and firefighting foam are miles apart in their purpose, but they have one disquieting characteristic in common. Both products are made with chemicals that could be contaminating drinking water and posing a human health hazard.
Fluorinated pollutants, or poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances, have been used for more than 60 years in a variety of items; still, studies of the chemicals are limited and conflicted.
Now the University of Rhode Island is moving into the forefront of research institutions committed to revealing more about the pollutants. URI has received an $8 million federal grant to research how these industrial compounds, also used in rain-proofing fabrics and food packaging, get into water supplies and harm humans, who are likely to come in contact with the chemicals daily.
The five-year grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences establishes URI as part of a national network of Superfund Research Program centers with Rainer Lohmann, a professor at the Graduate School of Oceanography and an expert in marine pollutants, as director. He will lead an interdisciplinary group of scientists and outreach specialists from URI, Harvard University and Silent Spring Institute to generate new insights into these pollutants and distribute information to communities.
Researchers will examine to what degree groundwater in towns near the Joint Base Cape Cod, Mass., military training site is contaminated with the chemicals, which were present in firefighting foam used during training exercises. Residents will be informed of the findings and, if necessary, steps will be taken to reduce exposure to the pollutants.
The chemicals have been linked to kidney and testicular cancers, thyroid disease, colitis and suppression of the immune system—maladies that lend urgency to the study.
The environmental and human health hazards caused by these chemicals are only beginning to emerge. Although the chemicals have been produced and used in consumer products for decades, their ubiquitous presence in human blood and the environment was discovered only around 2000.
Sources of the chemicals include landfills, the chemicals' manufacturers, industrial users of the chemicals, and airports and fire-training sites that use foam to extinguishes fires. The chemicals, also known as PFASs, are persistent because they don't break down when exposed to air, water or sunlight and can travel long distances, exposing people and other living things in environments thousands of miles away.
Researchers will use a wide range of tools and equipment for their studies, ranging from new detection tools like water samplers to laboratory experiments with mice, clams and worms that have been exposed to the chemicals. The project aims to understand how the chemicals contaminate the groundwater, the food chain and, ultimately, humans.
Working with principal investigator Lohmann is an interdisciplinary URI team: Geoffrey Bothun, professor of chemical engineering; Alyson McCann, water quality coordinator of URI Cooperative Extension; Angela Slitt, associate professor, and Bongsup Cho, professor, of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences; and Judith Swift, professor of communication studies and director of the Coastal Institute, along with the Institute's assistant director Nicole Rohr and digital media specialist Amber Neville.
Lohmann will validate new sampling approaches for the pollutants and work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to examine to what extent worms and clams become contaminated when exposed to polluted sediment from Cape Cod and possibly Hoosick Falls, a community in upstate New York whose drinking water was compromised by chemicals from a plastics plant.
Bothun will explore how the chemicals travel from blood into human cells; Slitt will explore what the chemicals do to animals; McCann, working with the Silent Spring Institute, a nonprofit environmental group, will conduct community outreach with Cape Cod communities; Cho will lead an intensive training program for graduate and post-doctoral students working on the project; and Swift, Rohr and Neville will create videos, brochures, op-eds and other communication material for the public on Cape Cod and at other contaminated sites throughout the country.
Slitt and Bothun will work together to better understand properties that allow the chemicals to enter cells in the body. Bothun's goal is to measure physical and chemical properties of the chemicals and to study how these properties influence the way they interact with biological molecules such as proteins and lipids. Scientific findings about the chemicals are lacking, and conflicted.
Slitt's goal is to understand how various PFASs might disrupt the body's metabolism in ways that can lead to obesity and to explore whether exposure to the chemicals early in life through breast feeding is a risk factor for potential adverse health problems, such as fatty liver disease and disruption of metabolic hormones. Whether PFASs, which persist in the human body, are associated with the development of fatty liver disease in humans is not clear. Slitt will use liver and fat cells from humans to answer these questions.
"The goal of our project is to connect findings in human-derived cells and animal models with human clinical studies being conducted by our collaborators at Harvard to better understand potential health risks associated with exposure to PFASs," says Slitt.


If you are gay and you want to practise cruising in public places in Vilafranca del Penedès in an anonymous way, here you can find spots such as beaches, parks, forests and other spaces next to urban areas, as well as every kind of public toilets and rest areas of highways where you can practise cruising in Vilafranca del Penedès, Barcelona.
Below we show a Vilafranca del Penedès cruising map with all cruising areas and spots that shared our gay community. Click on the map markers for details of each spot.


text:
Contemplative Spirituality Goes Mainstream? with Ray Yungen (Part 1)
Gary: Welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7 , a radio ministry of The Berean Call with T.A. McMahon . I'm Gary Carmichael. It's great to have you tuned in. In today's program, Tom begins a two-part series with guest Ray Yungen as they address the topic "Contemplative Spirituality Goes Mainstream?"...Read more
Read more about Contemplative Spirituality Goes Mainstream? with Ray Yungen (Part 1)
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text:
KKE strongly condemns the lynching of Zak Kostopoulos as an "act of barbarity"
In a statement regarding the lynching of social activist Zak Kostopoulos in downtown Athens, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece issued the following statement:
"The incident of Zacharias (Zak) Kostopoulos' brutal beating, which led or contributed to his death, is deeply disturbing. The "lynching", especially against a socially vulnerable person who didn't consist a serious threat to anyone, simply and solely for the suspicion of robbery, as it happened in this case, is not only an unacceptable and condemnable incident, but consists an act of barbarity".
The KKE also points out that "the broader effort to absolve and encourage such unacceptable acts supposedly in the name of 'self-defense' which comes primarily from fascists, is also dangerous and must be decisively condemned".
The statement writes that "the case must be thoroughly investigated and all those responsible must be punished. Above all, there is a need for state support towards all these people that are becoming vulnerable and marginalized by the rotten exploitative system".
THE LYNCHING OF ZAK KOSTOPOULOS
LGBTQ+ activist and performer Zak Kostopoulos, 33, was beaten to death in front of a jewellery store at Glastonos street near Omonia Square in downtown Athens. The incident happened in a bright day last Friday, September 21st.
The mass media have presented Kostopoulos' lynching and subsequent murder as some form of accident which took place when the jewellery owner tried to "protect his property". However, the brutal video that has been published (watch below) shows that a disoriented, unarmed young man is trying to escape and the shop owner, alongside another man, brutally kicking him to death.
Contrary to the media's version that Kostopoulos was trying to rob the store, Zak's friends and fellow activists say that he entered the shop in an desperate effort to seek protection from some brawl that was taking place nearby and trapped when the store's security door closed automatically.
The disturbing video shows Zak, who was struggling to stand on his feet, exiting the store after breaking the window with a fire extinguisher. The shop owner and another man started beating him viciously while onlookers were watching. Instead of arresting the assailants who were lynching Zak, Greek Police handcuffed Kostopoulos who was lying beaten on the street.
The jewellery shop owner, a 73 year-old man, got arrested only after the video went viral. According to the media he has been charged with manslaughter rather than with murder.
Zak Kostopoulos was a known activist and drag performer who had struggled against prejudice suffered by HIV positive people.
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This sweet sculpture was built by bees. It's one of five pieces in the Yuansu II series from Chinese artist Ren Ri, which explores the natural architecture of honeybee hives. "In the process of keeping bees, I found those little creatures are really genius architects," says Beijing-based Ri. "The process of nesting -- inch by inch, using structured orthohexagonal cells -- is very much like how human beings construct the world."
Ri, 30, shapes each sculpture by controlling the position of the queen bee at the centre of each acrylic shell. He coats the inside of each structure and the mesh of support struts with beeswax and propolis -- esin that bees collect from plants -- to help them acclimatise ("Bees prefer a plane surface," he explains). Ri rotates the hives every seven days, using the changes in gravity to alter the sculpture's final form.
Ri's affinity for bees began during his childhood in the rural region of Wuhan, before studying a PhD in sculpture at Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts. He has used them for Yuansu I: The Origin of Geometry, a series of topographic maps, and Yuansu III, a performance art piece in which the bees settle on his body in front of an audience. (Yes, he gets stung regularly.) He is now using the honeycomb technique to grow a 1.6-metre sphere, to be exhibited this autumn. "The most difficult part is overcoming the inside fear in one's heart toward bees. Once you relax toward them, they become friendly," he says. "My work is a process of co-ordination and co-operation. I was there simply to change the direction of gravity -- all the rest was left to the bees."


text:
Illinois one step closer to legalizing Marijuana
THE WORD | Illinois passes law requiring LGBT history curriculum be taught in schools
Xtreme Kustom's Car & Bike Fest 2019 was lit!!!
THE WORD | ILLINOIS GOVERNOR HOPES TO LEGALIZE WEED, VERY SOON
Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich Asks President Obama for Help to Appeal Prison Sentence
its victory in the Senate last month, SB 2228 passed the House of Representatives on another strong vote of 64-50 and is now on its way to the governor's desk. This bill would remove criminal penalties for the possession of a small amount of marijuana and replace them with a fine.
Sen. Heather Steans' bill, sponsored by Rep. Kelly Cassidy in the House, would remove the possibility of arrest, jail, and a harmful criminal record for people in possession of a small amount of marijuana. While not ideal, these changes would vastly improve current law by replacing criminal penalties with a fine of between $100 and $200 for possession of up to 10 grams.
The bill also makes improvements to current DUI laws, which today can lead to unimpaired drivers being considered under the influence weeks after consuming cannabis. SB 2228 mirrors another bill presented earlier this year by Rep. Kelly Cassidy.
The bill reflects changes made by Gov. Bruce Rauner to a similar bill last year, so we expect he will sign this year's legislation.
If you were arrested for possessing a small amount of marijuana and suffered consequences, or if you are a supportive law enforcement official, clergy member, or medical professional, please let us know at state@mpp.org. Please include your address or nine-digit zip code so we can find out who your lawmakers are.
Story from MPP.org
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text:
Why energy journalism is so bad
Energy futurist Chris Nelder tries to explain why most energy journalism is so bad, and gives readers a few tips on how to read it critically.
By Chris Nelder | November 30, 2011 -- 05:53 GMT (21:53 PST) | Topic: Innovation
One of the questions that plagues me constantly is, "Why is energy journalism so bad?" Most mainstream articles about energy will leave you horribly confused at best, or horribly misled at worst. Today I will try to teach you how to read reports on energy without getting lost.
The topic came up again last week when my colleague Christopher Mims pointed up a sharp discrepancy between three recent stories by Reuters, published between November 21 and 24.
The first reported Saudi Aramco's CEO Khalid al-Falih as saying that unconventional oil (heavy oil, synthetic oil from shale and tar sands, coal-to-liquids and so on) had eliminated global supply concerns, and would rise from 2.3 million barrels per day (mbpd) today to 8.4 mbpd by 2035. This would shift the global balance of power, he said, and reduce U.S. dependence on oil imports. Further, he expected conventional oil supply from Brazil and Iraq to rise. All of this was by way of explaining why Saudi Arabia had recently halted its ongoing $100 billion program to expand production capacity beyond its claimed 12.5 mbpd current capacity, and would not seek to expand it to 15 mbpd (a fact that was already widely assumed by most who follow the energy markets, but apparently was still considered newsworthy).
The second said that oil prices should remain high because global demand had remained strong, and would reach more than 89 mbpd this year according to the IEA. (The International Energy Agency, or IEA, based in Paris and serving at the pleasure of the 28 industrialized countries in the OECD, currently shows 88.7 mbpd for Q3 2011 under a liberal definition of "oil" which includes biofuels and certain types of natural gas liquids. The Energy Information Administration, or EIA, based in Washington D.C. and serving under the U.S. Department of Energy, shows 86.7 mbpd under a more restrictive definition, which excludes biofuels, non-associated natural gas liquids, and other components.) But while demand has been strong, the article noted that supply has been "inconsistent," citing the loss of 1.6 mbpd from Libya, and various "hiccups in production in Russia, Britain, Norway and Nigeria."
The third suggested that high oil prices "could strangle economic hopes," and quoted the IEA's chief economist Fatih Birol: "I hope that colleagues from the producing countries are also looking at the market indicators carefully, including the diminishing OECD stocks levels and the fragility of the global economic situation." In his view, too little worldwide investment in oil supply would keep prices high enough to stifle the recovery of the global economy.
So which is it? How can three stories from a single source, published over a five-day span, simultaneously claim that supply is adequate and inadequate; and that prices would remain high due to strong demand, but would be so high that they would destroy demand?
Even worse, how can the IEA simultaneously claim in its new World Energy Outlook 2011 report that by 2035, the world needs to invest $20 trillion in oil and gas supply and infrastructure to add 47 mpbd of new capacity (equivalent to about five times Saudi Arabia's production, or twice the production of all OPEC countries in the Middle East) to compensate for the decline of mature fields, or else risk "far-reaching consequences for global energy markets". . . while at the same time asserting that the world must slash subsidies for oil and gas development and transition to renewables quickly in order to arrest climate change, starting now?
Welcome to my hell.
Let's review a few of the common errors in energy journalism.
Uncritical acceptance of authority
Citing subject matter authorities is a necessary element of journalism, but so is casting a critical eye on what they say. Unfortunately, most journalists repeat what their selected authorities say verbatim, and rarely mention contrary views.
The main authority cited in nearly all articles about energy is Daniel Yergin, the Pulitzer-winning author of The Prize and an economist with the oil industry consultancy IHS CERA. Journalists love to quote Yergin. He always has an optimistic outlook on the future of oil, forecasting abundant supply and low prices. Editors love him too, and regularly grant him high-profile space in their publications (like this recent Wall Street Journal op-ed) to offer sunny pronouncements and spew invective on those who believe peak oil is a serious issue. The fact that his predictions have been continuously and badly wrong for the last decade straight doesn't seem to phase them in the least, nor does his cozy (and well-paid) business relationship with oil companies. Hey, he won a Pulitzer, and is regularly described as "one of the world's foremost energy authorities." Good enough!
Other authorities often cited are active traders and portfolio managers in the oil market, but it's a rare day indeed when the authors bother to ask whether those authorities might just be "talking their books."
The authority problem leaks downstream, too. When a reputable publication makes errors, it often leads to a series of repetitions by even less skilled journalists who cite the original as fact.
The problem isn't just authority, though. Dozens of serious petroleum geologists and analysts with real bona fides in petroleum forecasted the current oil supply plateau and the price volatility of oil beautifully over the last decade, while economist Yergin missed it. So why don't journalists consult their views? This brings us to the next problem.
Optimism bias
Consider this recent example in the Financial Times. The author elatedly painted a picture of an impending era of energy independence as unconventional oil from gas shales caused a "U-turn in US oil supply," even suggesting that, "in the coming decade the US will leapfrog Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's largest producer of liquid hydrocarbons."
The article went on to cite a jumble of relevant and irrelevant data, along with highly speculative forecasts represented as near-certainties. After sorting it all out, I found that the cited numbers didn't add up: 10 mbpd currently produced by the U.S. and Canada (including about 1.5 mbpd from Canadian tar sands), plus a projected 2 mbpd of new "tight oil" production from U.S. shales, plus another 1.5 mbpd of projected new production from the tar sands gives me 13.5 mbpd, but the author slid directly from that data to a forecast by the National Petroleum Council (NPC), an oil industry group, projecting that the two countries would produce a whopping 22 mbpd by 2035!
Further sleuthing revealed the problem: the author had uncritically reported the best-case "2035 High Potential" scenario offered in the NPC's latest report, in which production from tar sands rises to 6 mbpd; offshore Gulf of Mexico rises to 3 mbpd; "tight shale" (not to be confused with "tight oil") rises from zero today to 1 mbpd; enhanced oil recovery technology adds another 0.6 mbpd, and Arctic production rises to over 2 mbpd.
The author did not mention that the NPC report also included an alternative, "2035 Limited" scenario, in which North American production actually falls about 1 mbpd from 2010 levels.
Now, I have a certain amount of sympathy for the author. The NPC report, like most such documents, was a real slog: 155 pages of extremely overwrought, redundant text, with conflicting data across multiple scenarios. The sad fact is that most journalists don't have the time to really absorb a report like that, let alone offer a critical view of it in a world where getting 1,800 words out within a day of the report's release is considered far more important than accuracy or context. It's all about grabbing those page views before someone else does, and if the errors are criticized somewhere in the blogosphere, nobody important will see it anyway. Another unsurprising fact is that journalists are, well, journalists. They're not scientists, and most of them have no background in energy, even at publications like Scientific American. The best they can do is to rewrite the summary or the press release, and they will remain blissfully unaware if a politically-minded editor writing the summary deliberately misrepresents what the scientists who wrote the report actually said.
But a simple reality check should give any author pause before suggesting that some magical array of technologies will somehow double North American oil production over the next two decades, or that within the next decade unconventional supply in the U.S. and Canada, with a production cost in the range of $80 to $90 a barrel, will exceed supply in Saudi Arabia or Russia, where their production costs are half of that or less. And it doesn't seem too much to ask that journalists bring a modicum of skepticism to their coverage of oil industry propaganda.
Let's have another look at the chart of historical U.S. oil production, freely available on the EIA's web site for anyone who cares to look at it:
That little bump at the end is what all the fuss over unconventional oil in the U.S. is about. I suppose if one ignores the production costs and flow rates and takes plenty of antidepressants, one could imagine that bump is a U-turn that could eventually send U.S. production back up and over its 1970 peak. But I assure you that once you spend a few thousand hours gaining literacy in the subject, such that you can read and understand these scenarios, such optimistic visions begin to sound more like whistling past the graveyard than serious forecasting.
Just remember this: In the eyes of most editors, an optimistic take on future supply is just good energy journalism. And a balanced, nuanced article with indeterminate conclusions doesn't sell papers. But a pessimistic take (no matter how true, or buttressed by facts) is editorializing, which is bad.
Bad arithmetic
Another particularly painful problem is the inability of writers and editors to do a little simple arithmetic to see if their own numbers add up, or if the data they're citing is current. Far more often than not, they don't, and it isn't.
Without belaboring the point, I'll just offer one recent example from the blog of an energy reporter at the New York Times. As you read it, try to do the math in your head:
He gives the example of pumping water from a pipe; if the power plant that supplies the electricity starts with 100 units of energy, it will lose two-thirds of that in making the current and another 10 percent in transmission and distribution. The motor will be only 90 percent efficient; so pumps, motors, drive trains and throttling valves along the way will lose more, leaving the plant with 93 units of energy.
I don't know why this happens as often as it does, but I'll be charitable and speculate that perhaps everybody is just working too fast to bother checking the math.
Missing the fine print
Anyone who has ever signed a contract knows better than to sign before reading the fine print. Yet energy journalists appear to do so regularly.
By now you've certainly heard that hydrofracking has unlocked "vast" deposits of shale gas in the U.S., and heralded a new "golden age for gas" (as the IEA recently put it). Based on the reports you've seen, you probably think that the U.S. now has a 100-year supply of gas, which will enable us to convert a significant portion of our coal-fired power generation to gas, along with a few million 18-wheelers.
The problem is: neither claim is quite certain, or true.
First, it should be obvious that if you transfer large loads to natural gas, a 100-year supply at current rates is no longer a 100-year supply. It might be a 10 or 20-year supply. Oddly, I don't think I've ever seen that mentioned in a single gushing article about shale gas. Again, the math isn't hard, and the data is easy to come by. Why doesn't anyone ever bother to do it?
What's worse are the claims about the size of shale gas resources. I have seen numerous references to the EIA's assessment of the prospects for shale gas, including their note that "from 2006 to 2010 U.S. shale gas production grew by an average of 48 percent per year." Most articles also cite the next sentence, projecting a three-fold increase in shale gas production from 2009 to 2035, but fail to examine the highly speculative details of the Reference case from which it comes. But what about the sentence after that? "However, there is a high degree of uncertainty around the projection, starting with the estimated size of the technically recoverable shale gas resource." Or the following paragraph: "the estimates embody many assumptions that might prove to be untrue in the long term?" Or the paragraph after that: "Moreover, across a single shale formation, there are significant variations. . . and as a result production rates for different wells in the same formation can vary by as much as a factor of 10?"
Then there are the really nitty gritty details. Many journalists completely miss crucial differences between terms like resources (how much of the stuff exists underground), reserves (the portion of the resources that are considered technically recoverable using today's technology), and economically recoverable reserves (what portion of reserves can be produced at a profit). This leads to reports claiming that the U.S. has 1,230 trillion cubic feet of gas yet to burn, when the EIA clearly states that that number applies to the "estimated unproved technically recoverable resource base," while in their Reference case the number drops to 827 trillion cubic feet, and in their Low case it drops to 423 trillion cubic feet — one-fourth the headline number.
By 2035, the EIA projects production under the Low case to be 22.4 trillion cubic feet per year, 7.7 trillion cubic feet lower than under their High case, and what's more, that the U.S. will have once again become a net natural gas importer. Whether that gas will be economically recoverable, or whether the projected production rates might be off by a factor of 10, are questions never addressed in the press.
How to read energy journalism
I realize that this all may seem a bit wonky and hard to understand, so I'll finish with a few words to the wise for the unwary reader.
1. Be skeptical. You will have to make up for the missing skepticism and curiosity of the journalists you're reading. If the article is all sunshine and roses, and includes no caveats or alternative views, it will be more useful to you as fishwrap than information.
2. Discount the sources. If the cited authority represents the oil and gas industry, you should view their forecasts as propaganda, not truth. Particularly when the authority is from an OPEC producer. OPEC (like the IEA) is a fundamentally political organization, and everything they say in public has a political calculus behind it. For example, I read the unconventional oil optimism expressed by the Saudi official cited at the top of this piece as their way of jawboning down peak oil fears, and throwing analysts off the scent of a trail which leads to serious questions about whether Aramco can increase spare production capacity, and whether the world's most productive oil field, Ghawar, has indeed gone into decline.
3. Do the math. If the numbers cited don't add up, then you would be wise to question the validity of what you're reading. Most of the time it's simple arithmetic you can do in your head. More ambitious readers will want to bust out a spreadsheet and have a go at the details.
4. Look for context. If the article only talks about resources or reserves, and doesn't mention production rates, you can safely ignore it. Yes, America may have 1.5 trillion barrels of oil shale (not shale oil, which again is an entirely different thing), but right now we're producing exactly zero barrels of it, and for good reason: it's a highly marginal source of hydrocarbons, and too expensive to produce with today's technology. Remember this: Only flow rates matter, not how much is in the ground.
5. Look up the references. If you really want to know how valid the forecasts are, look up the original sources. Nearly everything is available for free on the Web (except for IHS CERA's data, naturally), and it's not hard to find. The crucial caveats are usually stated somewhere in the documents, but you might have to dig for them, and the Find function (Ctrl-F) is your friend when plowing through a 350-page PDF file.
6. Compare to reality. If a claim sounds outlandish, it probably is. Go have look at the data on the EIA's Web site, and if you're a beginner, start with their Energy Explained site. See if the forecast looks remotely close to reality. Caveat emptor.
Now, I don't mean to be unduly harsh on my fellow energy journalists. I'm sure most of them are serious, nice people who are pressed to do a difficult job under tight deadlines. I don't think most of them intend to mislead or confuse their readers. And no doubt some of them labor under political editorial agendas that may contradict their findings, so they do what they must to keep their jobs. Nor do I mean to pick on these particular journalists; I could have made the same points with thousands of recent examples.
But we've still got a long way to go on energy literacy, and informed readers can push journalists and editors to do better work. I hope these clues have equipped a few readers to be more discerning, and less gullible.
And speaking of gullible, ever hear that rip-snorter of a story about Gull Island? Oh, nevermind. . .
Hat tip to energy economist Andrew Leach for his sharp eye on the IEA WEO.
Photo: credit (sfllaw/Flickr)
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com
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During her postdoctoral studies, Corinne Maurice pioneered the adaptation of flow cytometry for use with the human organism. This technique for aquatic environments makes it possible to individually characterize bacteria suspended in a liquid by making them pass at high speed through a laser beam. Today the scientist uses it in combination with electron microscopy, fluorescence and DNA sequencing to better understand the interactions between the microorganisms in our bodies. "I consider a human body to be like a lake that is host to a unique community of microbes," explained the researcher. "Just as I would do for a body of water, I try to understand the nature of the active microorganisms in the gut rather than simply identifying them. What roles do they play? What nutrients do they consume? How do they interact in a healthy individual versus a sick individual?"


Start your day with a tall glass of water. After hours (hopefully!) of sleeping, your body becomes dehydrated. And when dehydrated, your brain operates on low fuel. Hydrating it helps increase the flow of oxygen to make you feel alert. Drinking water upon waking also helps to purify your body.
Take time for yourself. Effective women know that her first part of the day is the one she will have the most control over – once she starts interacting with her family and her work environment, many other people will rely on her to support them. So, take some time for yourself to do a practice that helps you connect with yourself and takes care of YOUR needs for the day. Maybe you take a few minutes to have a treasured cup of tea. Read something that makes you feel inspired or write down your reflections. Or take a few minutes for deep breathing or meditation. You want to feel that you have done what you need to take care of yourself so you have the bandwidth to take care of others for the rest of the day.
Move! You want to get the juices flowing so you feel awake and alert to have your best day. Make the time you set aside for yourself a time to do a few of your favorite stretches or to mirror the yoga poses from online videos – it's a way of opening up your body to open up your mind as well. Or you might want to make walking or biking a part of your commute. Doing some kind of movement in the morning is the best way to start your day feeling refreshed.
Set an intention for the day. Even if you only take one minute, set an intention for the day. Decide who YOU want to show up as today. Decide on the predominant experience YOU want to feel today (e.g., powerful, productive, confident) so you can remember that in the moments when everyone else's stress starts to enter into your field.
Decide on your 'big rocks' and schedule them. Identify the three most important things you want to accomplish that day. Whether it's a work task, an important phone call with someone, or connecting with someone you love—look over your day and schedule when you are going to do it. Otherwise, distractions and interruptions may take your focus away from those things that are the most important; you will end the day feeling frustrated that you didn't do what was most meaningful. Try to do those things as early as possible in the day so you can feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment the rest of the day.