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Talan Torriero of "Laguna Beach" and tennis player Robby Ginepri.
Posted by Kenneth M. Walsh at 4:02 PM 4 comments
googlea0b3b55f1f6f11f3.html
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My Friend Flickr
As if I needed another excuse to spend hours on end in front of the computer, this weekend I (finally) caught the Flickr bug (my brother warned me it was inevitable given what a picture freak I am). Right now my personal Web site and my blog link to my soon-to-be-defunct Coppermine galleries, but the user-friendly inteface plus the ability to share with people around the world have quickly made me a Flickr convert.
I've already posted nearly 2,000 photos. Feel free to check some out by CLICKING HERE (like these photos taken back in 1991, below) and let me know what you think.
Family pictures or promotional stills from a short-lived sitcom on ABC? I'll never tell ...
Posted by Kenneth M. Walsh at 9:42 AM 0 comments
Morning Wood: Josh Hopkins
I first developed a crush on Josh Hopkins when he played Amanda "Jack" Peet's news anchor love interest (Matt Prophet) on the greatest show of all time, "Jack and Jill," a few years ago (remember Alisa?) . He's since appeared in the film "The Perfect Storm" and is currently on the Rebecca Romin-Stamos show "Pepper Dennis Can't Lose," playing what appears to be the exact same news anchor character all over again. These pictures don't really capture his sex appeal, but trust me, he's one handsome man.
Page 1 Consider (07/31)
Gentlemen, Start Your Epithets: In an effort to bring more diversity to the sport, the bigs shots behind the scenes at NASCAR are setting their sights on an up and coming 16-year-old black race car drive named Marcus Davis. Sounds like they're off to a great start: "Initially when Marc came in, there was the name calling, there was the 'n' word, there was all kinds of nonsporting things," the boy's father, Harry Davis, said. "But true NASCAR fans like winners. That baggage went away when Marc moved to the front." Mel Gibson would have been proud. (NYT)
That's Ms. Sugar Tits to you: By now you must have heard about Mel Gibson's arrest for driving under the influence -- and the ensuing anti-Semitic tirade. For those who were away at the beach, here are some of the disgusting details: the arresting officer, Deputy James Mee, apparently audiotaped the entire exchange between himself and Gibson, from the time of the traffic stop to the time The report says Gibson told the deputy, "You mother fucker. I'm going to fuck you." The report also says "Gibson almost continually [sic] threatened me saying he 'owns Malibu' and will spend all of his money to 'get even' with me." The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements: "Fucking Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?" The deputy became alarmed as Gibson's tirade escalated, and called ahead for a sergeant to meet them when they arrived at the station. When they arrived, a sergeant began videotaping Gibson, who noticed the camera and then said, "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" A law enforcement source says Gibson then noticed another female sergeant and yelled, "What do you think you're looking at, sugar tits?" Gibson's dad, who has gone on the record denouncing "the existence of the Holocaust," must be so proud. (TMZ)
Kenny Free: While everyone is taking a minute to wish MTV a happy 25th birthday, I'd like to thank them for giving my favorite animated show of all time, the brilliant "Beavis and Butt-head." (AP)
Massachusetts Is for (Gay) Lovers: With Washington state ruling against gay marriage too, Newsweek takes an in-depth look at what's next -- for both sides of the issue. (Newsweek)
Mother of the Year: Lindsay "Gone Bananas" Lohan's mom thinks the studio executive who ripped her daughter a new one in a well-publicized letter was "out of line." Gee, having your mom bitch out your employer for you -- that doesn't sound like the behavior of a spoiled brat. (AP)
Golden Couple: Has there ever been a cuter couple than "Laguna Beach" alum Kristin Cavallari and Brody Jenner, gold medalist Bruce's son? (TMZ)
Eye on the Ball: German tennis hunk Tommy Haas won the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Russia's Dmitry Tursunov on Sunday -- and never looked hotter in doing so. (GettyImages)
Gay Sex in the '70s: Cum Again?
(Billy Crudup)
(Colin Farrell)
(Jake Gyllenhaal)
(Josh Brolin, left, and Jake Plummer)
( Tim Daly)
Unless you're Tom Selleck or Sam Elliott, mustaches that don't come with beards or goatees tend to be pretty silly on most average guys.
So why am I suddenly finding it so hot when people who don't usually have a 'stache grow one (even when it's meant to be silly)? This 1970s pornstache revival is really starting to get the better of me. Might Hollywood be casting the sequel to last year's "Gay Sex in the '70s"?
Labels: mustache
I Get Weak
6-1, 195-pound Leighton is a fitness model over at StrengthNet.com.
Sunday Worship: Robby Ginepri
One more time ... this time watch my boy strip down to a towel in the sauna. Why isn't he ever at New York Sports Club?
Labels: hairy chests, morning wood, robby ginepri
Did you see this letter over on TheSmokingGun.com? It seems the studio heads aren't buying Lindsay Lohan's "heat exhaustion" story either. Marilyn Monroe -- who had actual talent -- was 36 when she got canned from "Something's Gotta Give." Lohan turned 20 earlier this month.
Sporting Wood: Robby Ginepri
Just because I post action photos of tennis hottie Robby Ginepri every other day doesn't mean I can't make him today's Sporting Wood, especially when I get sexy photos like these sent to me from a sweet reader who calls herself Boca Babe. Woof!
DVR-riffic: No Strings
Madison Ave. Beefcake
Big Guns Down Under
Labels: abs, hairy chests, pecs, robby ginepri
I Love Pretending
Last night's Pretenders show at Roseland Ballroom was a sobering reminder of the difference between Chrissie Hynde and today's generation of music stars: Chrissie is the real thing. Most artists would cringe if they could hear what Chrissie sounds like with nothing but a guitar, bass and drums backing her up. No recorded backing tracks; no microphone voice tricks; no backup singers. She just sings and it's like a Wall of Sound symphony happens right there before you.
They opened with the playful "Message of Love" and never looked back. Because they're promoting a retrospective box set, called "Pirate Radio," there weren't a lot unfamiliar songs to slow things down. The band was tight (Adam Seymour and Martin Chambers were there, but it looks like Chrissie has lost yet another bassist, although Andy Hobson's replacement was a cute youngster, pictured above, who looked in awe to be playing with the Great Pretender herself) and sounded album perfect. It was a little odd that they chose to play very heavily from "Pretenders II" ("Birds of Paradise," "Day After Day," "The Adulteress," "Bad Boys Get Spanked" and their worst song, "Jealous Dogs"), yet missed the album's other big hit "Talk of the Town." "Time the Avenger" and "Cuban Slide" were pleasant surprises, and while they skipped "Brass in Pocket" I was willing to overlook it for a chilling version of "Private Life," plus "Mystery Achievement" and "Precious" (the crowd went wild!).
"Back on the Chain Gang" and "Don't Get Me Wrong" made the crowd smile and "My City Was Gone" made for a sweet encore.
The tour T-shirt lists the city where the tour is stopping and it looks like the band is slated to make another stop in NYC in the near future. You don't want to miss it. As Chrissie laments in the song "Popstar": "They don't make 'em like they used to." Indeed.
Steffi and Andre: 40-Love
Married tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf sure look fit as they each approach 40 years old. I guess having two small kids keeps 'em young.
Andre & Steffi vs. Aging: 36 & 37 - Love (via X17)
Being the President: What a Drag!
I logged on to Google News and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why President Bush was sitting with Dame Edna. Oops.
Chrissie Hynde: The Last of the Independents
Well it's been 22 years in the making: I last saw Chrissie Hynde and her Pretenders in 1984 at the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix. She was on the triumphant "Learning to Crawl" tour, having just mourned the loss of two bandmates (James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon, whom she had recently fired). "Back on the Chain Gang" had become their biggest hit ever, and Middle of the Road" was rising fast on the charts. On it, she sang about the realities of growing middle-aged(!):
"Don't harass me kid,
Can't you tell I'm going home, I'm tired as hell,
I'm not the cat I used to be,
I've got a kid, I'm 33, baby."
Having recruited Robbie McIntosh and Malcolm Foster to fill in the gaps, it sure seemed like Chrissie had a real band that would flourish. It wasn't meant to be. The years since have been a revolving door of collaborators and some occasionally uneven material, yet Chrissie has always remained one of my all-time favorite rocker chicks. (I mean really, how can you not love a woman who is just as skanky today as she was 30 years ago?)
So we're off to see the Pretenders -- who incidentally have remained the same lineup since 1994 quasi-comeback "Last of the Independents" -- tonight at Roseland. If Chrissie was "middle-aged" at 33, I can only imagine how she sees herself at going-on-55. Can't wait to find out. Full review tomorrow!
Morning Wood: Dean Cain
Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh are both very hot -- but for my money, there's no sexier Superman than Dean Cain.
Posted by Kenneth M. Walsh at 9:11 AM 10 comments
Battle of the Bellies: Fernando Gonzalez, of Chile, defeated Marat Safin, of Russia, in the Pretty Boy Second Round Challenge in Los Angeles. (Reuters)
Idea Theft: Who knew that Greg Kinnear invented "America's Funniest Home Videos"?! (NYT)
Prince: The Artist Formerly Known as Married. (Irish Examiner)
Drama Queen: How does Generation Y refer to starvation? "Overheated." (Reuters)
Astor's Place: The socialite Brooke Astor is supposedly living like a normal person -- call social services! (NYDN)
Reality Check: I don't buy that there's much reality in shows like "The Hills" and "Laguna Beach," but star Lauren "LC" Conrad and her producer, Adam DiVello, beg to differ: "Everything they are going through is real. She's really moved up here, she's really moved into that apartment, and Heidi is her best friend, and Audrina lives in the building, and Whitney is her fellow intern," says DiVello, when asked if there is any point where reality ends and scripting takes over. "We film with them for extremely long periods of time, so we do capture everything as it happens, but we have to mold that into a story, of course." Does LC check out what people are saying about her online? "I used to .... but they are really brutal. So, no. They don't have too much nice to say ... but it's like anything else, people love you or they hate you." (AP)
Miss You Blind
Back in 1998 the four original members of Culture Club had a wonderful reunion album and tour (I saw them at Radio City and it's a night I'll never forget). It was a modest success that healed a lot of wounds from their tumultuous '80s breakup, then the guys again went their separate ways. Jump ahead to 2006 and the '80s nostalgia craze is at an all-time high: so what are two of the band's members trying to do? They've decided to cash in once more -- only this time they don't even have Boy George onboard. These fake reunions are sad enough when a band loses its singer to death and hires a new vocalist (INXS, Queen), but shenanigans like this are just plain pathetic (ditto for the "new" Cars). Like there aren't enough actual '80s band reunions going on?
Culture Club remainders Mikey Craig (bass) and Jon Moss (drums/anal sex) -- claiming to be the "original members" even though guitarist Roy Hay is conspicuously not involved -- ran an ad looking for a new vocalist recently that read: "The original members of Culture Club are searching for a unique star vocalist with a brilliant voice, boy or girl, to take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV series. NOT, repeat NOT a karaoke Boy George 'lookalike' but a charismatic and unique performer in his or her own right with something truly fresh, contemporary and original to offer." Who did they come up with? Sam (below, left). I think it's pretty safe to say they had no qualms about a karaoke Marilyn "lookalike" ...
(Evening Standard)
New Coach
By the looks of things I'd guess that Steffi Graf was Andy Roddick's new coach, not Jimmy Connors.
'Love Somebody Like You'
This "Brokeback Mountain" montage gives me goose bumps. Stripped of the societal constraints, hurt wives and self-doubt, it's Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis (Heath Ledger) doing something so very natural -- falling in love.
Of Course It's Not the Cute One ...
Don't be confused by the photo: No, Ellen Degeneres isn't coming out again. It's former O Town Nsync singer Lance Bass -- you know, one of Kathy Griffin's minor gays who is dating a gay reality TV personality named Reichen. How this non-story made the cover of any magazine is beyond me, but Lance better reveal that he used to jerk off with Justin Timberlake back in the Mickey Mouse Club or I'm gonna be really pissed. (People)
Who's That Guy?
On Sunday I posted about a Candis Cayne performance near the West Side Highway that I heard about. My pal and fellow blogger Lavi wrote me to say he had been at it, and he promised to post some pictures from the event. I just checked back on his site and not only did I find some fun pictures of Candis, I also found a picture of her with the person who had originally told me about her street show -- none other than my Michael -- looking ever so skeptical walking in the background! (Oh, Michael.) See more photos over here.
Labels: Candis Cayne
Morning Wood: Paul Ramirez
Sexy 6-foot-4 Denver man Paul Ramirez is the breakout star of "The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency" airing on Oxygen this summer, having been cast in two of the agency's biggest gigs -- 2(x)ist underwear and 1-800-DENTIST.
While Paul's sculpted body and dazzling smile certainly get him noticed wherever he auditions, it's his sweet demeanor that really wins 'em over.
And the shirt comes off BELOW .


We compared microRNA expression patterns in three cisplatin resistant sublines derived from paternal cisplatin sensitive germ cell tumor cell lines in order to improve our understanding of the mechanisms of cisplatin resistance.
Three cisplatin resistant sublines (NTERA-2-R, NCCIT-R, 2102EP-R) showing 2.7-11.3-fold increase in drug resistance after intermittent exposure to increasing doses of cisplatin were compared to their parental counterparts, three well established relatively cisplatin sensitive germ cell tumor cell lines (NTERA-2, NCCIT, 2102EP). Cells were cultured and total RNA was isolated from all 6 cell lines in three independent experiments. RNA was converted into cDNA and quantitative RT-PCR was run using 384 well low density arrays covering almost all (738) known microRNA species of human origin.
Altogether 72 of 738 (9.8%) microRNAs appeared differentially expressed between sensitive and resistant cell line pairs (NTERA-2R/NTERA-2 = 43, NCCIT-R/NCCIT = 53, 2102EP-R/2102EP = 15) of which 46.7-95.3% were up-regulated (NTERA-2R/NTERA-2 = 95.3%, NCCIT-R/NCCIT = 62.3%, 2102EP-R/2102EP = 46.7%). The number of genes showing differential expression in more than one of the cell line pairs was 34 between NTERA-2R/NTERA-2 (79%) and NCCIT-R/NCCIT (64%), and 3 and 4, respectively, between these two cell lines and 2102EP-R/2102EP (about 27%). Only the has-miR-10b involved in breast cancer invasion and metastasis and has-miR-512-3p appeared to be up-regulated (2-3-fold) in all three cell lines. The hsa-miR-371-373 cluster (counteracting cellular senescence and linked with differentiation potency), as well as hsa-miR-520c/-520h (inhibiting the tumor suppressor p21) were 3.9-16.3 fold up-regulated in two of the three cisplatin resistant cell lines. Several new micro-RNA species missing an annotation towards cisplatin resistance could be identified. These were hsa-miR-512-3p/-515/-517/-518/-525 (up to 8.1-fold up-regulated) and hsa-miR-99a/-100/-145 (up to 10-fold down-regulated).
Examining almost all known human micro-RNA species confirmed the miR-371-373 cluster as a promising target for explaining cisplatin resistance, potentially by counteracting wild-type P53 induced senescence or linking it with the potency to differentiate. Moreover, we describe for the first time an association of the up-regulation of micro-RNA species such as hsa-miR-512-3p/-515/-517/-518/-525 and down-regulation of hsa-miR-99a/-100/-145 with a cisplatin resistant phenotype in human germ cell tumors. Further functional analyses are warranted to gain insight into their role in drug resistance.
Cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum II, CDDP) is a chemotherapeutic agent widely used in the treatment of several solid tumors, among them testicular cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, and bladder cancer. Resistance to cisplatin is a serious obstacle to effective cancer therapy. Clinically relevant levels of resistance can emerge quickly after treatment. Beside intrinsic resistance, acquired or gradually developing resistance has been observed in tumors under therapy. Several mechanisms underlying resistance have been described, like decreased exposure to the drug, e.g. via reduced drug accumulation/drug-target interaction or increased detoxification response, diminished cell-cycle effects, reduced apoptotic responses, or increased DNA-repair [1, 2]. A number of these biological processes are controlled on a post-transcriptional level by noncoding micro-RNA species. We created an in vitro model of acquired cisplatin resistance by long term exposure of three well established germ cell tumor cell lines to cisplatin, resulting in sublines with significantly increased resistance to cisplatin. The paternal cell lines are (1) the p53-wt (wild type) pluripotent gonadal germ cell tumor cell line NTERA-2, (2) the p53-mutated pluripotent extragonadal nonseminomatous germ cell tumor cell line NCCIT and (3) the p53-wt nullipotent embryonal cell carcinoma 2102EP, derived from a primary human testicular teratocarcinoma. NCCIT cells have previously been shown to have an approximately 4-fold higher IC50 to cisplatin, compared to NTERA-2 . We utilized a quantitative RT-PCR (RTQ-PCR) based platform for detection of almost all currently known (738) human micro-RNA species on these 6 cell lines. Our approach was designed to characterize the role of micro-RNAs on the presumably multifactorial phenomenon of acquired cisplatin resistance in germ cell tumors.
Both chemo sensitive paternal 2102EP (PW Andrews, Sheffield, U.K.) and NCCIT (ATCC, Manassas, VA, USA) cells as well as their cisplatin resistant sublines were cultured in DMEM F12 (1:1) medium containing 10% fetal calf serum (Gibco-BRL, Invitrogen, U.K.). NTERA-2 (DSMZ, Braunschweig, Germany) and the cisplatin resistant subline were cultured in DMEM medium supplemented with Glutamax-I (Gibco-BRL, Invitrogen, U.K.) containing 10% fetal calf serum (Gibco-BRL, Invitrogen, U.K.). Cells were incubated at 37°C in a humidified atmosphere with 5% CO2 and were passaged every 3-4 days. After trypsination of cultured cells from steady state conditions and at comparable cell density, aliquots containing 10 × 106 cells were transferred into 1 ml RNA-later solution and stored at -20°C. Three aliquots per cell line originating from different cell passages (n+2, n+4 and n+5) were processed and stored as described above.
The cisplatin resistant sublines NTERA-2-R, 2102EP-R and NCCIT-R were generated by intermittent exposure of the parental cell lines to cisplatin over a time period of 18 month, starting with the respective IC10 dose of each parental cell line. At reaching 50% cell kill, the addition of cisplatin was interrupted and cells were allowed to recover over three passages. Analyses presented here were performed after maintaining the resistant sublines for at least 1 week in cisplatin-free medium to allow for an adequate wash-out period. Results of cytotoxicity experiments of all six cell lines using the MTT assay (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide) have been published  The experiments were performed in 3 completely independent replicates for every cell line including generation of resistant cell lines, cell culture, RNA isolation and RTQ-PCR measurements.
Cells were transported on dry ice in RNA-later solution (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) and stored at -80°C until use. After thawing the cells, they were disrupted using a denaturing lysis buffer, and RNA was isolated by combining organic extraction (phenol-chloroform) followed by immobilization of RNA on glass-fiber filters employing the mirVana miRNA Isolation Kit (Ambion, Applied Biosystem, Weiterstadt, Germany) in order to purify total RNA including small RNA species. Remaining DNA was digested on glass-fiber filters (RNase free DNase Set,Qiagen, Hilden, Germany), and after performing quality controls, RNA was stored at -80°C until analysis by RTQ-PCR.
To control the quality and purity (protein or DNA contamination) of isolated total RNA including small RNA, we performed spectral photometry, agarose gel electrophoresis, and PCR (using β-Actin primers). Only high quality total RNA including small RNA species was used for further experiments.
Aliquots from each RNA sample (10 × 1 μg) were reversely transcribed without preamplification over three hours using the so called "Megaplex pools without preamplification protocol for microRNA expression analysis protocol". In a second step, the whole template cDNA and 450 μl 2x RT-PCR master mix were adjusted to a total volume of 900 μl by adding nuclease free water, and aliquots of 100 μl were pipetted into each fill port of a 384-well LDA. Cards were centrifuged twice (12,000 rpm, 1 min, Multifuge3S-R, Heraeus, Germany), sealed, transferred into the 7900 RTQ-PCR instrument and a specific RTQ-PCR protocol was run over two hours using the 384-well LDA format. Two different LDAs existed, thus covering 738 human micro-RNAs. This made it necessary to create two kinds of cDNAs suitable for each of both LDAs using different sets of primers.
Normalization was performed using the median gene expression on each LDA separately, because this proved to be the more robust and slightly more precise method compared to a normalization approach using a housekeeping micro-RNA species provided on the LDA (data not shown). The median gene expression was subtracted from the CT-value of each of the spotted genes, following the ∆CT-quantitative approach for normalization purposes. Normalized gene expression results of cisplatin-resistant cell lines were expressed relative to the genes measured in the paternal chemosensitive cell lines by subtracting the corresponding CT-values (∆∆CT-quantitative approach). As a result, differential gene expression of cisplatin-resistant cell lines was expressed as a several-fold up- or down regulation of micro-RNAs relative to their paternal chemo sensitive origin. These ratios of corresponding cell line pairs are expressed such as e.g. NTERA-2-R/NTERA-2. Only ratios ≥2/≤0.5 were considered to represent differentially expressed genes. All the materials and instruments used for RTQ-PCR were ordered from Applied Biosystems, Weiterstadt, Germany.
All technical procedures were performed in accordance to standard operating procedures (SOP) implemented in our laboratory in 2008 when the Institute became accredited according to DIN EN ISO 9001/2008.
Statistical measures (e.g. coefficient of variation, CV and 25-75% quantiles) were computed using SAS (release 9.1.3, Cary NC, USA).
Intermittently culturing NTERA-2, 2102EP, and NCCIT cell lines exposed to increasing concentrations of cisplatin resulted in a 2.7 - 11.3 increase in IC50 to the substance, as measured by the MTT assay (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide). Whereas the IC50 values of the sensitive parental cell lines were 0.45 μM (+/-0.1 standard deviation, SD), 0.75 μM (+/- 0.1), and 1.75 μM (+/- 0.1), respectively, the three cisplatin resistant sublines exhibited IC50 values of 5.1 μM (+/- 0.1) in NTERA-2R, 4.9 μM (+/- 0.1) in 2102EP-R, and 4.7 μM (+/- 0.2 ) in NCCIT-R. Results of the cytotoxicity experiments have been reported elsewhere .
The coefficient of variation (CV, measure of standard deviation variability expressed in percent relative to the mean differential gene expression for each micro-RNA) was chosen to describe the observed methodological, intra- and interindividual variability of our three independently performed experiments. Mean CV values of differentially expressed genes and associated interquartile ranges appeared cell line dependent, showing increased mean CV values (25-75 percentile) starting at 25.3% (25-75 percentile: 15.7-29.0) in cell line pairs such as NCCIT-R/NCCIT, 30.5% (25-75 percentile: 18.5-36.3) in NTERA-2-R/NTERA-2, and 37.4% (25-75 percentile: 18.6-40.4) in 2102EP-R/2102EP cells (table 1). On average, mean CV did not exceed 30% (28.9%).
The coefficient of variation (CV, chosen as a measure of standard deviation variability expressed in percent relative to the mean differential gene expression) was calculated for each micro-RNA species. Parameters of CV distribution such as mean, median and first-third quartile range were calculated and depicted for each cell line pair consisting of the cisplatin-resistant (-R added to the paternal cell line's name) relative to the cisplatin-sensitive paternal cell line as well as summarized.
About 30-45% of the 738 microRNAs examined showed CT-values within the linear dynamic range of the method (CT 7-29, data not shown). Altogether 72 of 738 genes appeared differentially expressed (table 2) with 43, 53 and 15 genes found in NTERA-2-R/NTERA-2, NCCIT-R/NCCIT and 2102EP-R/2102EP cell line pairs, respectively (figure 1). On average 72% of the genes were up-regulated in resistant compared to sensitive cells, a feature that was more prominent in NTERA-2-R/NTERA-2 (41 of 43 genes, 95.3%) compared to NCCIT-R/NCCIT (33 of 53 genes, 62.3%) or even 2102EP-R/2102EP (7 of 15 genes, 46.7%) cell pairs (table 2). The number of down-regulated genes ranged from 4.7% in NTERA-2-R/NTERA-2 (2 of 43 genes) to 37.7% in NCCIT-R/NCCIT (20 of 53 genes) and 53.3% in 2102EP-R/2102EP cell line pairs (8 of 15 genes). Thirty-four overlapping genes were found in the two pairs NTERA-2-R/NTERA-2 (34 of 43 genes, 79%) and NCCIT-R/NCCIT (34 of 53 genes, 64%). The overlapping number of differentially expressed genes was only 5 between cell line pairs NTERA-2-R/NTERA-2 and 2102EP-R/2102EP, and 6 between NCCIT-R/NCCIT and 2102EP-R/2102EP (about 27%). Only hsa-miR-10b and has-miR-512-3p species were found to be up-regulated (2-8-fold) in all three cell lines.
Differential gene expression relative to the corresponding gene of the paternal cell line.
Differential gene expression (mean fold-change from three independent experiments) was calculated from gene expression measured in the chemoresistant cell line (-R added to the paternal cell line's name) relative to the corresponding gene of the paternal cell line. Genes are listed in ascending order of the NTERA-2 cell's fold-change followed by NCCIT and 2102EP values. P-values were calculated with t-test (equal variance and normal distributed data) and values with asterix with the MannWhitney rank sum test.
Venn diagram on total number (in parenthesis) and overlapping number of differentially expressed genes calculated in cell line pairs consisting of the cisplatin-resistant (-R added to the paternal cell line's name) relative to the cisplatin-sensitive paternal cell line.
Taken together, NTERA-2-R/NTERA-2 and NCCIT-R/NCCIT shared the vast majority of their differentially altered micro-RNAs, whereas 2102EP-R/2102EP showed a rather different profile. A complete list of all detectable miRNA examined is provided as additional file (additional file 1: Table S1).
Our approach enabled us to investigate almost all currently known human micro-RNAs simultaneously. Quantitative RT-PCR was chosen because of it's recognized precision and superiority over other methods for gene expression analysis [5–7]. Our experiments were run in triplicate and on average revealed a CV <30% covering variability caused by methodological (mean CV <5%, data not shown), intra- and inter-individual sources (table 1). Since this CV is clearly below the definition of a two-fold threshold for differential gene expression, we are convinced that the results of our analysis represent true differences in micro-RNA expression between the cell line pairs.
Of 738 micro-RNA species examined, only 9.8% (72) appeared differentially expressed with considerable overlap in micro-RNA gene expression occurring between the cell line pairs NTERA-2-R/NTERA-2 and NCCIT-R/NCCIT, but considerably less overlap with the cell line pair 2102EP-R/2102EP cells (table 1).
Functionally, the most striking distinguishing feature between the cell lines NTERA-2 and NCCIT on the one hand, and 2102EP on the other hand is a difference in their capacity to differentiate. Whereas the former two lines can differentiate upon stimuli such as exposure to retinoid acid, the latter is nullipotent and is therefore devoid of alterations induced by processes of cellular differentiation . Interestingly, there is increasing evidence for a link between cellular differentiation and resistance to chemotherapy in germ cell tumors, both in cell line models, as well as in primary tumor material, which seems to be linked to two microRNA clusters, namely miR371-373 and miR302 .
In contrast to many features shared by NTERA-2 and NCCIT, extragonadal NCCIT cells show a higher resistance level to cisplatin, compared to NTERA-2 . In this context, the several fold-change differences measured in the micro-RNA cluster covering hsa-miR-371-373 is of interest. Based on our findings, hsa-miR-371-373 expression in NTERA-2-R increased 4.0-4.7-fold relative to the paternal cisplatin sensitive NTERA-2 line, and even more in NCCIT-R, relative to the cisplatin sensitive paternal NCCIT cells, showing an 12.0-16.3-fold upregulation, table 1. Noteworthy, this micro-RNA cluster has been discussed in the context of the presence of wild-type p53 in germ cell tumors, counteracting tumorigenesis by induction of senescence [2, 10, 11]. By up-regulation, the cluster prevents p53-driven cellular senescence via a plethora of target genes, e.g. NEO1 or LATS2 , therefore leading to cell proliferation even in the presence of wild-type p53. Furthermore, this cluster has been described in cells exhibiting stem cell properties . Noteworthy, this cluster has recently been identified by other authors to be the most significant differentially expressed microRNA in human germ cell tumors . Therefore, it appears a promising target for further analysis in germ cell tumors, e.g. by posttranscriptional silencing with siRNA, to examine the functional role of the cluster in altering gene expression and thereby elucidate it's contribution to the development of cisplatin resistance.
As already mentioned, there are other gene changes which have been discussed in the context of cisplatin resistance . The tumor suppressor p21, regulating transition through the cell cycle and acting downstream of p53, has already been associated with hsa-miR520 belonging to the miR-106/302 family . An increased expression of miR-106/302 family members inhibits the tumor suppressor p21 and rescues human mammary epithelial cells from Ras-induced senescence . In our analysis, hsa-miR520c as well as hsa-miR520h were up-regulated (3.9-7.1-fold) in NTERA-2-R/NTERA-2 and NCCIT-R/NCCIT cell line pairs, which could point towards another mechanism counteracting senescence.
In an in vitro model of cisplatin resistance of a squamous cell carcinoma cell line, has-miR-21 was found to be down-regulated in cisplatin resistant cells . In our cell line pairs, significant down-regulation of has-miR-21 was observed in NCCIT-R compared to sensitive NCCIT cells. Furthermore, hsa-miR-146a, a microRNA targeting BRCA1, was the most highly up-regulated microRNA in another in vitro model of cisplatin resistance of the breast cancer cell line MCF7 . Similarly, both NTERA-2-R/NTERA-2 and NCCIT-R/NCCIT showed up-regulation in our analysis, yet to a lesser extent. However, has-miR-221, which was also highly up-regulated in cisplatin resistant MCF7 cells, was down-regulated in NCCIT-R and unaltered in the other two cell lines in our experiments, indicating that cisplatin resistance seems to be cell line or tumor type specific. In a lymphoblastic leucemia cell line overexpression of hsa-miR-125b conferred a survival advantage through inhibition of caspase 3 activation after exposure to a broad spectrum of apoptotic stimuli . In our analysis, however, hsa-miR-125b appeared to be up to 5-fold down-regulated in NCCIT-R/NCCIT and 2102EP-R/2102EP cell line pairs, thus making an inhibition of apoptosis through this micro-RNA species unlikely.
According to our analysis, further micro-RNA species appeared either about 8-fold up-regulated (hsa-miR-512-3p/-515/-517/-518/-525) or about 10-fold down-regulated (hsa-miR-99a/-100/-145) in both NTERA-2-R/NTERA-2 and NCCIT-R/NCCIT cell line pairs. Literature results describing a role of these micro-RNAs in cisplatin resistance are missing, warranting further studies to elucidate their potential role in development of resistance.
Recently, a role of the miR-106b seed family members in cisplatin resistance of testicular cancer has been described by another group . Although detectable, neither miRNA-106b, nor miRNA-106a, miRNA-17-5, miRNA-93, and miRNA-20 were differentially expressed in our model. In our view, this points at the multifactorial nature of cisplatin resistance in germ cell tumors.
In summary, our approach, simultaneously examining almost all known human micro-RNA species, confirms that the miR-371-373 cluster seems to be involved in cisplatin resistance in germ cell tumors in vitro and could be an interesting target for interference with drug resistance. Moreover, new micro-RNA species such as hsa-miR-512-3p/-515/-517/-518/-525 or hsa-miR-99a/-100/-145, also potentially involved in cisplatin resistance, could be identified in the germ cell tumor cell lines studied here. It will be of interest to examine tumor samples of patients with both cisplatin-sensitive and cisplatin-resistant germ cell tumors to analyse whether the changes described here are also found in vivo. Furthermore, functional analyses, e.g. by employing si-RNA and simultaneous whole genome microarrays, can help to examine the causal link with cisplatin resistance and to get insight into the mRNA species controlled by the micro-RNAs.
Matthias Port, Stephanie Glaesener contributed equally to this work.
We would like to thank S. Senf for his thoughtful, carefully and accurately performed technical assistance. SG and FH were supported by a grant from Werner Otto Stiftung. This work was supported by the German Ministry of Defense.
MP designed the study, analyzed results and drafted the manuscript. SG carried out experiments related to induction of cisplatin resistance and drafted the manuscript. CR carried out RTQ-PCR experiments and performed statistical analysis. AR carried out RTQ-PCR experiments and analyzed the results. CB participated in the design of the study and coordination. VM participated in the design of the study and coordination. FH was responsible for the induction of cisplatin resistance experiments, designed the study and drafted the manuscript. MA designed the study, was responsible for RTQ-PCR experiments, analyzed results, performed statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.


"Check out West San Carlos Senior Apartments in San Jose, CA if you need a new place to live.
Is a feeling of security something you're looking for in your new home? Features like a gated entrance help keep you protected. Keep your vehicle under covered parking so that it stays out of harm's way. Unfortunately, there can be heavy traffic in the area at times. Because of this, street parking can be difficult.
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I'm interested in WEST SAN CARLOS SENIOR APARTMENTS. Please let me know when this listing is available on ApartmentGuide.


Compare the value of letting a professional reglaze your tub and tile versus the time and money wasted doing it again in 6 months or less!
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Your bathtub will be done in a few hours by licensed professionals!
DON'T Paint a Tub with Rust-Oleum, use a longer lasting solution!


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


With school starting soon for so many of us, I think it's important to stop and check our attitudes. It's good to have a positive attitude going into the new school year! So, of course I had to link up with Kristin from Teach n' Text for her PMA Wednesday!
If you're looking to turn some of your favorite PMA's into cheap posters, check out my wonderful colleague Amy's blog, The Art of Teaching for her post on Inexpensive Classroom Posters. She has links to free posters & tips! Plus check out her amazing blog!
Oh I love the elephant one! Too funny!
I love the Transformers picture! Too cute. :) I followed you on Bloglovin!


Following the ground-breaking collaboration with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), T2 is excited to introduce new "Diamond-tier" events from 2019 and beyond, and the official 2019 schedule of T2Diamond has been revealed.
The prestigious annual series of professional table tennis tournaments, T2Diamond comprises three world-class events in its second season. Featuring the world's elite players with highest points from the ITTF World Tour, T2Diamond will employ an innovative competition format inspired by that of its inaugural season in 2017. T2Diamond will continue to explore new broadcast innovations and develop bold and compelling integrated marketing campaigns throughout the season to elevate the profile of table tennis to a wider global audience.
"T2Diamond promises to deliver an international sporting event that celebrates true sporting excellence and culture while creating a revolutionary standard for table tennis," added Jeff Chue.
The process for identifying and selecting host city partners to jointly organise and stage any one or more T2Diamond events from 2019 and beyond has been launched. The selection process affords all aspiring parties the opportunity to present proposals to host any one or more T2Diamond events from 2019 onward. With the support of ITTF, T2Diamond is inviting the submission of proposals from aspiring partners to be appointed a T2Diamond host city partner.
The International Table Tennis Federation is responsible for the global sport of table tennis and has 226 affiliated National Associations. Table Tennis is an Olympic Sport, introduced at the 1988 Seoul Olympics Games. Table Tennis is also a Paralympic Sport, introduced at the 1960 Rome Paralympic Games.
Headquartered in Singapore and with offices in Shanghai, Chicago and Tokyo, T2Diamond is a pan-regional first-of-its-kind professional table-tennis league that features a new groundbreaking format. The first season of the league featured separate but concurrent Men's, Women's, and Mixed-Team Championships, a player draft system (for the Mixed-Team Championship), 24-minute time limit per match, and a unique scoring system. The inaugural edition in 2017 showcased 36 of the world's best professional players from around the world competing for a combined prize purse of over US$2 million.


Team GeoJewett has branched out to other games as well. While Geocaching is our favorite still, the Munzee Hunting is fun as well. After resolving some technical difficulties with Muzee app on our iPhones, we were able to capture our first Munzee in Round Rock, TX -- Where 35 & 45 intersect? (created: wanderer). There are not many in the immediate Austin area to capture as it seems there are in surrounding cities, but we hope to cure that with deploying some of our own.


Persons with disabilities serve in the Public Service too. We can support them in the Service with just better awareness, understanding and some simple actions.
From a distance, Mr Fam Guo Liang looks like any other inspector at Tuas South Incineration Plant. The senior technical officer can be found carrying out tests on water, ash, scrap metal, refuse and other samples at the plant's laboratory.
Move closer to him, and you would notice that Mr Fam wears hearing aids. Diagnosed with congenital sensory deafness in both ears at birth, he can only hear slight noises without the assistive devices.
But he has thrived at the National Environment Agency (NEA) since joining in 2011, and requires little supervision.
As of December 31, 2014, there are about 150 persons with disabilities (PwDs) working in the Public Service.
While Mr Fam applied for his job on his own initiative, others like Mr Ong Peng Kai had help from SG Enable, an organisation under the Ministry of Social and Family Development that provides assistance to PwDs (see sidebox).
Mr Ong is an assistant manager at the National Council of Social Service (NCSS). The 23-year-old has cerebral palsy and gets around with a rollator, or a rolling walker. The condition affects his brain nerves and leg muscles.
He started his job search in May 2015 after graduating from university, looking for job opportunities on his own even after he had got in touch with SG Enable.
In the beginning, the companies that responded to his application offered roles that he could not take on because of his condition. "They were jobs like sales or marketing that required me to move about quite a bit," said Mr Ong.
After the first month, he decided to highlight his condition on his résumé. "Since then, no one got back to me," he recalled. He eventually received an offer from the NCSS and started work in August 2015, monitoring services provided by voluntary welfare organisations in the disability sector. SG Enable also facilitated a disability awareness session for NCSS staff who would be working with him.
Set up in July 2013, SG Enable supports the needs of PwDs through improving their employability and employment options, and working with employers and other stakeholders to better support PwDs. At SG Enable's Enabling Village, for example, the National Library Board has offered digitisation jobs for six persons with autism, in a partnership with the Autism Resource Centre, a voluntary welfare organisation.
That was the second time Mr Ong had sought help from SG Enable. Back in 2014, he obtained an internship at Standard Chartered Bank through the organisation, during which he worked on improving the bank's call centre efficiency.
Now at the NCSS, it is the "simple things" his colleagues do that help to make the workplace a more inclusive one for Mr Ong: they walk at a slower pace whenever they head out for lunch together, accompany him up the stairs, and ensure that the work space is clutter-free for his ease of access. Mr Ong also has a workstation that is closer to the door.
Over at the NEA, Mr Fam faced his own set of challenges when he applied for his first full-time position after leaving school.
At the interview, facing a panel of four, he struggled to express himself eloquently. "Due to my hearing impairment, I have some difficulties in pronouncing words… Despite that, they chose to give me the opportunity over the rest of the candidates. This itself was a form of encouragement to me," said Mr Fam.
Learning on the job also proved gruelling at first, as there were plenty of verbal instructions. To improve communication, he would use simple hand gestures and get "clues" from observing people's eyes, facial expressions and actions.
Raising awareness among employers is another way to support the hiring of PwDs, said Mr Norrizwan Rasip, a manager for Knowledge Management at the Ministry of National Development (MND).
Mr Norrizwan, who uses a wheelchair after sustaining a spinal cord injury 15 years ago, explained that despite some progress made, there are still many employers who may have reservations about having PwDs at their workplace.
While Mr Norrizwan, 35, has never sought assistance from SG Enable (MND is his third place of employment), he believes more employers would benefit from tapping such organisations to clarify their doubts and concerns about hiring PwDs.
Indeed, Mr Norrizwan's supervisor, Mr Simon Lam, a senior assistant director, said that before meeting Mr Norrizwan in 2014 for his interview, there was a slight apprehension among the selection panel. Aside from determining the job fit, the panel was concerned about the challenges Mr Norrizwan may face and whether the work environment could meet his needs.
"[But] after speaking to him, we were confident in his abilities and found him suitable for the job," said Mr Lam.
Besides small adjustments to the office space, such as ensuring that the restrooms and corridors were wheelchair-friendly, little else had to be changed to accommodate Mr Norrizwan, who said he "doesn't receive any special treatment".
Describing him as an "independent and resourceful person", Mr Lam said Mr Norrizwan has never been excluded from any duties because of his condition. For example, he was an ambassador at the MND's roving exhibition for SG50 last year along with his colleagues, and was on-site to guide members of the public through the exhibition.
Working with Mr Norrizwan has also taught Mr Lam that "PwDs are no different from us. And I am hopeful that with more awareness and understanding, Singapore can be a more inclusive society forall".
The NCSS has a booklet of tips on removing workplace barriers for PwDs.
For more on working with PwDs, read a Challenge (March/April 2014) article by Mr Alvan Yap, who is hearing impaired and has worked with other PwDs as a special education teacher and in advocacy work.


That is based on the float which is not how you calculate market cap. Lykke Coin was able to maintain a consistent price level, such that on April 12, 2017, the token price was 0.054976 USD.Complete cryptocurrency market coverage with real-time coin prices, charts and crypto market cap.You mean that because Korean demand has pushed up the price,. but that is still a false USD price for the coin.
Market capitalization is defined traditionally as the price per share. if bitcoins are a digital currency, the outstanding shares definition fails to adequately.
Market Cap - Top 100 (Coins) Market Cap - Top 100 (Tokens) Exchanges - Top 100.Crypto currencies have a price, but how do you know if you are paying the right price. Lykke (LKK) history, technical analysis, ICO information, founders and more.
Check Wanchain (WAN) market capitalization and other metrics that helps you in your trading or investing quest.
Market Cap: 24h Vol: BTC Dominance: % Cryptocurrencies: Markets: Market Cap. Estimating FUTURE VALUE Of Your Coins - MARKET CAP Explained.


pandas may realize some plotting capabilities based on Series and DataFrame.
than the two modules of pylab and pyplot.
the monthly mean closing prices of the Coca-Cola Company's stock over the recent year.
it's absolutely possible for us to directly use "Series" as its argument.
draw plots based on the Series data type.
than pyplot and pylab in the capability of plotting based on the DataFrame data type.
The method adopted by pandas is "plot()".
of IBM over the recent year.
The result is like this.
of the two sci-tech companies: "Intel" and "IBM" over the recent year.
and then create a DataFrame.
Similarly, draw with the "plot()" method.
we use such an argument "kind".
It means the kind of plot.
Since it's a bar chart, we use "bar".
in our previous pyplot module?
OK, let's have a try.
This is the result of program running.
We may also change the argument of "kind"
to generate different kinds of plots.
If we change that in the "kind" to, say,"barh"
which is also very common.
does it generate a bar chart with the stacked effect?
Other choices are available in "kind".
to select the kind we want.
of each month in the first three months this year.
Let's think about it, Would it be more convenient to use a pie chart?
So, we may set the "kind" here as "pie"
or specify the specific format.
it's also possible to set the image attribute in the "plot()" method.
Here, say, we use "marker".
The data mark is a triangle.
which may well reflect the distribution of raw data.
Its data result is like this.
Let's see. There're five lines inside.
Guess what they represent, respectively.
Well, the third line is the median, i.e., the 50% position.
Obviously, the second line is the 75% position.
There might also be some exception values here.
the distribution regularities of many data.
while that for IBM is shorter.
while that of IBM is more concentrated?
can also show data symmetry, right?
There're more to be explored from the box plot.
You guys can study it more.


Woofwerks rides into the Western sunset with its new Rio Grande collar. Let your best pal chase a herd of squirrels in the park or roundup a flock of seagulls at the beach. Whatever the chase, they'll do it in Western style. This collar is adorned with a Jeremiah Watt engraved buckle with black painted inlay and surrounded by Texas conchos with 14k gold-plated stars on English bridle leather. Just like the West…beautiful and rugged.


Anakin The Two Legged Cat: We have kittens!
We have kittens! Not me exactly but my mom ( Anakin's Grandma ). She's had them for a little over a week. Our vet thinks they are now about 5 weeks old. They are doing great & are named Bo ( orange ) & Luke ( black & white ). They are so cute & I'll be taking care of them for the next week or so & I'll post more pics & videos. Short Backstory - Their mom was someone's outside cat & was hit by a car & died. The kittens didn't have anyone to take care of them. They had 2 siblings that went to homes before my mom got there. We don't know who got them, where they are or how they are doing. I hope they are doing as well as these two.
Wow, are Bo and Luke adorable! That's terrible about their mom, but glad these two are in your good hands!
Thank you Maria. I know it's so sad.
What cuties! I'm so glad your mother took them in.
Thank you Summer. Me too.
Carrie, they are absolutely adorable. So glad your mom was willing to take them since we know they will have a loving home. Luke looks exactly like a kitten I had years ago that was named Prometheus!! Are you keeping them separated from your "babies"? Thanks for sharing them with us.
Thank you Sandy. Me too. Aww Prometheus is a great name! Yes, they will not be having any physical contact with my cats. Since they aren't staying here I don't want to upset mine too much. My mom just needs so help with them for a week or so while they are still so little.
Hi from Chicago Bo and Luke...Handsome little dudes.


text:
Palmarès

Olimpiadi
  a  nella lotta greco-romana, pesi gallo

Collegamenti esterni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


For the longest time I have had my eyes on this Jada dress from Brandy Melville. As you can see I finally caved and purchased it (no regrets there). The loose texture and the way it flows so effortlessly makes it perfect for summertime. A wardrobe must have.


Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 18/s1, pp. s131‐s144.
Special issue: The return to hospitality: strangers, guests, and ambiguous encounters. Edited by Matei Candea and Giovanni Da Col.
This paper considers stories of haunting by ghosts of a foreign origin that have been circulating lately in the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. These narratives, it is argued, depict Chinese and Russian people as very different kinds of strangers, defined by contrastive regimes of relationship with their host. Contrary to Russians, who are still remembered – rightly or not – as great providers, Chinese people are pictured in these stories as some kind of parasites, who constantly take from Mongolian land and never give anything in return.


text:
VOLTERRA, TUSCANY
-SEP. 2012-
ALL PHOTOS © RUUD LEEUW
We drove non-stop from Fontevivo to Volterra, mainly because the temperature had gone up to well over 30 C degrees. We balked at the high fuelprices: euro 1.94 per liter, while we'd left home with prices hovering around 1.77 euro.
Also the 22 euro toll I had to pay, for a mere 01h30 on the autostrada, made me swallow. But in 10 years time we may well laugh at these prices..
All turned out for the best at Volterra, another highlight of the trip.
Albergo Etruria was to be our place of stay for 5 nights and much of the feeling of well-being here at
Volterra was caused by this nice hotel.
The lounge of the hotel was comfortable for book reading. A desktop computer was also available here, but since I carried a notebook with me I had no need for it. Our room was comfortable too, spacious, with chairs for reading or writing. And, as a photo elsewhere on this webpage shows, the garden offered also chairs.
Breakfast each morning was brilliant and the hosts were kind and ever helpful.
And every morning an excellent breakfast in Albergo Etruria.
Time to explore the streets of Volterra.
You won't see many cars here: only with a permit are allowed to drive inside the medieval walls. We had left our car in a carpark nearby, less than a 5 minute walk (11 euro per 24 hours, free parking also available outside the walls).
It seems the city council is in session!
Volterra is not a very large town, but it takes a while before you have explored all the
small alleys and narrow streets!
I don't think there is any country other than Italy which has managed to capture decay, neglect and low maintenance in a rich, fascinating culture.
The adress became a regular stop for an ice-cream, right across the road from our hotel.
As in any other Italian town or city, there are various churches to explore.
Following the wall we came to a hang-out of local youngsters; we felt a little like intruders and continued our way.
Each evening we were treated to a brilliant sunset.
A spot we returned to several times: because it had breathtaking views when the sun sank low,
but also because there was a wonderful restaurant here!
Le Cantine di Palazzo Viti. And they serve Guinness!
Through winding stairs one gets into the basement of this Palazzo and find ourselves in
catacombs dating back to Roman times!
Each evening we explored Volterra for a nice place to eat. There is plenty of choice.
Volterra, known to the ancient Etruscans as Velathri, to the Romans as Volaterrae, is a town and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy.
It became a municipium in the Roman Age. The city was a bishop's residence in the 5th century, and its episcopal power was affirmed during the 12th century. With the decline of the episcopate, Volterra became a place of interest of the Florentines, whose forces conquered Volterra. Florentine rule was not always popular, and opposition occasionally broke into rebellion. These rebellions were put down by Florence.
When the Florentine Republic fell in 1530, Volterra came under the control of the Medici family and later followed the history of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
Volterra features in Horatius, the celebrated poem by Lord Macaulay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volterra
Guarnacci Etruscan Museum, with thousands of funeral urns dating back to the Hellenistic and Archaic periods.
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Latium. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci.
Their Roman name is the origin of the terms Tuscany, which refers to their heartland, and Etruria, which can refer to their wider region.
The origins of the Etruscans are lost in prehistory. Historians have no literature, no texts of religion or philosophy; therefore much of what is known about this civilization is derived from grave goods and tomb findings.
The range of Etruscan civilization is marked by its cities. They were entirely assimilated by Italic, Celtic, or Roman ethnic groups, but the names survive from inscriptions and their ruins are of aesthetic and historic interest in most of the cities of central Italy.
Etruscan cities flourished over most of Italy during the Roman Iron Age, marking the farthest extent of Etruscan civilization. They were gradually assimilated first by Italics in the south, then by Celts in the north and finally in Etruria itself by the growing Roman Republic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruscan_civilization
All things Etruscan: Wikipedia
Even without the sunset, the views from the city over the surrounding countryside is quite breathtaking.
Etruscan settlements were frequently built on a hill —the steeper the better— and surrounded by thick walls.
Bank into the back alleys, climbing up and going down, working up an appetite..
I took a particular liking to wild boar stew, Cinghiale. It is a traditional in the cuisine of Umbria and
Tuscany and is often eaten over pasta as a sauce or as its own secondo. Gamey and delicious.
Parish Church Cathedral, small but that beautiful ceiling (below) could give you a neck injury!
Lunchbreak at 'Da Paolino'.
Across the street a quick look in the 'Chiesa di San Francesco'.
Be it large or be it small, most of these churches had magnificent frescoes.
There was a band playing and the music, albeit in Italian, sounded nice.
But all songs ended prematurely, so we soon moved along. Never got their name.
A cowboy in Volterra!
Magic in the streets of Volterra!
Roman amphi theater. These ruins pre-date the walls of the city.
Elsewhere in town were excavations showing remains dating back to Etruscan times.
This Roman Theatre (dating back to 1st century BC), was excavated in the 1950s.
One of Volterra's magnificent gates: look at that door!
Even for pass holders there are restrictions to the use of the car.
There is a long-standing local tradition of alabaster products made by craftsmen in the Volterra area.
Volterra was the place where the working of alabaster started and the area went on to become the traditional and sole centre of production. I rather buy direct from an artisan, than some ready-made product in a souvenir shop.
The garden of our hotel Albergo Etruria offered shade and tranquility among the rooftops of Volterra.
Volterra's Chiesa di San Michele, 12th century.
You'll find more photos of churches here on my Flickr.com account: Churches of Volterra
The haze and that peculiar orange/red colour cast never looses its beauty.
Back into the cobble stoned backstreets, looking for a nice place to eat.
Almost time to close shop, another day done.
One last spectacular sunset for us in Volterra. Arrivederci!
ITALY, the road SOUTH
TUSCANY ON A DAYTOUR
Created: 27aug12 - Updated: 1 November, 2012

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Aerosol optical properties at the Alpine station of Saint-Christophe, northern Italy are measured with a POM-02 sky radiometer. Diffuse radiances from the sky and direct sun irradiances are processed with SKYRAD and SUNRAD algorithms, respectively, providing consistent results. The aerosol optical depth at the station is generally very low (0.10 at a wavelength of 500 nm); however, spikes (up to 0.75) can occur due to the transport of Saharan dust and smoke clouds moving on an intercontinental scale, according to NAAPS and HYSPLIT models. In addition, the aerosol microphysical properties are analyzed by means of the Ångström exponent and its spectral variation, which allows discrimination between different types of particles and the assessment of possible contamination by clouds. Influence by local meteorology and anthropogenic emissions is investigated, providing useful information to understand the pollution dynamics in mountainous regions. Finally, we highlight some algorithmic and instrumental issues that are still poorly understood.
SKYNET is an international research network of ground-based Prede sky radiometers for the observation and monitoring of aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions in the atmosphere. The algorithm developed by SKYNET is SKYRAD.pack, which can be used to process the measurement data of Prede instruments. In this study, the latest SKYRAD.pack software (Version 5.0) has been used to retrieve the aerosol optical properties measured by a SKYNET Prede sky radiometer over an urban site of Beijing, China. Continuous data have been processed over a two-year period, and inversion products, including aerosol optical depth (AOD), Ångström exponent (α), volumes of different aerosol particle size distributions, and single-scattering albedos (SSA), have been analyzed.
AOD values were found to vary from 0.11 (5th percentile) to 1.14 (95th percentile) with a median of 0.34 at 500 nm, and the maximum and minimum seasonal α values in Beijing were 1.05 ± 0.36 in summer and 0.82 ± 0.39 in spring. SSA values are higher in summer and spring with a similar value of 0.96 ± 0.03, but lower in winter with a value of 0.93 ± 0.04 at 500 nm. Aerosol particles in Beijing clearly demonstrated bimodal size distributions throughout the year: there were coarser particles in spring and finer particles in summer. The α values increased with AOD, indicating that fine particles play an important role in the optical properties of aerosols in Beijing. Dust type aerosol occurrence accounted for 4.1 %, 5.1 %, 0.5 %, and 1.2 % of all measurements data in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, respectively, according to the dust criteria threshold (α < 0.47 and SSA400 nm - SSA1020 nm < 0.018).
The Semi-Arid Climate and Environment Observatory of Lanzhou University (SACOL) project initiated an intensive field experiment on dust aerosols in Dunhuang from April 1 to June 12, 2012. Using sky radiometer measurements and conducting model simulations, we investigated the dust aerosol characteristics and its shortwave radiative impact on the regional climate. The daily averaged optical features of the aerosols markedly varied throughout the study period. High aerosol loading and predominantly coarse particulates were observed in the spring of 2012 ascribed to the influence of prevalent dust storm. The single scattering albedo at 500 nm (SSA500) varied from 0.91 to 0.97 on dusty days and from 0.86 to 0.91 on dust-free days, indicating that the dust aerosols sourced from northwest China were not strongly absorbing. Surface radiation quantities estimated by the radiative transfer model excellently agreed with ground-based and satellite observations, with correlation coefficients exceeding 0.990 and mean differences ranging from -3.9 to 17.0 W m-2. The daily mean aerosol shortwave direct radiative forcing (ARF) values were largely negative at the surface (-79.4 to -3.2 W m-2) and moderately positive in the atmosphere (2.2-25.1 W m-2), indicating strong cooling at the surface and moderate atmospheric warming. The monthly averaged ARFEs (ARFs per unit aerosol optical depth at 500 nm (AOD500)) at the surface were (-73.9 ± 11.6) W m-2, (-67.4 ± 8.3) W m-2, and (-74.4 ± 5.4) W m-2 in April, May, and June, respectively (overall average of (-70.8 ± 7.9) W m-2), comparable to previously obtained values in East Asia and India domains. The relations between the diurnal ARFs at the surface and top of the atmosphere (TOA) and the AOD500 indicate that aerosol composition remained relatively stable at Dunhuang during the spring of 2012. The ARF at the TOA was positive for SSA500 less than 0.85 or when the imaginary part at 500 nm exceeded 0.015.
In this study, characteristics of atmospheric phenomena such as haze and yellow sand (Kosa) events were investigated in terms of aerosols by using sky radiometers, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), and optical particle counter (OPC) observations at Fukue-jima and Amami-Oshima Islands from 2003 to 2004. As a result of the data analyses, we determined that aerosol properties such as loading, light absorptivity, particle size, non-sphericity, and vertical distribution showed specific features both in the atmospheric column and near the surface, depending on the atmospheric phenomena compared with normal atmospheric conditions. A specific case was clearly confirmed: the influence of limited light absorptivity dominated even during a Kosa event. In this study, it was confirmed that even if each ground-based instrument observed the phenomena with different ranges for the atmospheric column, lower layer, and surface, the retrieved aerosol properties were consistent. We demonstrated that the combined use of state-of-the-art instrumentation to detect aerosols is useful for quantitatively characterizing the atmospheric phenomena.
Scattering and absorption coefficients, measured with an integrating nephelometer and absorption photometer, respectively, are often used to characterize aerosols. This study developed a method for retrieving the single scattering properties of an aerosol from multiwavelength scattering and absorption data and evaluated its performance and accuracy using simulation data based on Optical Properties of Aerosols and Clouds (OPAC) models. This statistical retrieval method retrieves the volume-size distribution and the complex refractive index simultaneously, which reconstruct the measured values taking into account the angular truncation and non-ideality of the light source. These values are then used to more accurately estimate single scattering properties (scattering, absorption, and extinction coefficients: single scattering albedo (SSA); and the asymmetry factor). With no systematic (bias) error, the root mean square error (RMSE) of the measured scattering coefficient was 4.42 × 10-5 to 6.61 × 10-5 m-1, whereas the RMSE of the retrieved scattering coefficient was 9.48 × 10-6 to 1.09 × 10-5 m-1. The RMSE was thus reduced to about 20 %. The RMSE of the SSA calculated directly from the measured values was 0.014-0.021, and that of the SSA calculated from retrieved values was 0.002, corresponding to a relative error of 0.2 %. In each case, the error in the SSA calculated from the retrieved scattering and extinction coefficients was less than the SSA calculated from the measured values. Sensitivity tests of the systematic (bias) error of absorption and scattering coefficients in SSA retrieval demonstrated that, with a 10 % systematic error, the maximum difference between the true value and the retrieved SSA exceeded 0.02 for a small SSA, but with a systematic error of 3 % or 5 %, the maximum difference was small. Therefore, a systematic error of less than 5 % is desirable. The retrieved volume size distribution and complex refractive index were qualitatively similar to the original values.
To investigate aerosol optical properties, the Meteorological Research Institute has been continuously measuring scattering and absorption coefficients since January 2002 by using an integrating nephelometer and one- and three-wavelength absorption photometers in dry air conditions at Tsukuba, Japan. We used these optical data to investigate trends of aerosol properties and climatology from 2002 to 2013. The results showed that most aerosol characteristics had seasonal variation and decreasing or increasing trends significant at the 95 % confidence level. From 2002 to 2013, the extinction coefficient at 550 nm and absorption coefficient at 530 nm had statistically significant decreases of -1.5 × 10-6 and -5.4 × 10-7 m-1 year-1, respectively. In the same period, the scattering coefficient showed a non-significant decrease of -8.8 × 10-7 m-1 year-1. The single scattering albedo (SSA) at 550 nm had a significant increasing trend of 7.4 × 10-3 year-1. Asymmetry factors did not show a significant trend. The increasing trend in the extinction Ångström exponent was significant, whereas the trend in the effective radius was not significant. The increasing trend of 2.1 × 10-2 year-1 in the absorption Ångström exponent from 2006 to 2013 was significant. This tendency suggests a compositional change of light-absorbing aerosol. Frequency distributions of aerosol properties were investigated during 2006-2012. In this period, absorption coefficients were measured by the three-wavelength absorption photometer. The most frequent values of the extinction coefficient at 550 nm, the absorption coefficient at 530 nm, and the SSA at 550nm were 25 × 10-6, 3.0 × 10-6 m-1, and 0.905, respectively. The analysis using the extinction Ångström exponent showed that aerosol characteristics were dependent on the extinction Ångström exponent. The aerosol characteristics estimated from optical data were consistent with those derived from radiometer data. Therefore, ground-based monitoring of aerosol optical properties is useful for monitoring aerosol characteristics and interpreting variations in the surface radiation budget.
The effects of dust aerosol particles on the properties of clouds over East Asia and the Sahara are studied using moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer observations from the Terra and Aqua satellites and simulation results of the chemical weather forecast system (CFORS) model. Dust-contaminated clouds are detected using the brightness temperature difference (BTD) method, in which dust or dust-bearing clouds are detected when the BTD between the 11 µm and 12 µm channels in the window region is negative, and by the CFORS model's dust vertical profile. Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation data are also used to assess the above procedures. For the Sahara region, no obvious changes to effective particle radius (Re) are attributed to dust aerosols. However, for East Asia, dust aerosols are found to change the cloud microphysical properties, decreasing Re by 12 % and increasing the cloud optical depth by 27 % and the liquid water path by 9 %. Re is found to be negatively correlated with sulfate concentration by CFORS in dust-bearing clouds, but not in dust-free clouds, over East Asia. These findings indicate that mineral dust can act as effective cloud condensation nuclei in environments polluted by water-soluble aerosols such as sulfates. We also estimate the indirect radiative effect of dust aerosols in the East Asia region and determine, by radiative transfer calculation, that the net shortwave radiative flux at the top of the atmosphere decreases and the absorption of shortwave radiation by the atmosphere increases with changes in cloud properties due to dust aerosols.
Clouds strongly influence downward longwave radiative flux and affect the radiation budget at the surface. We evaluated the cloud radiative effect in both absolute and relative terms on downward longwave radiation at the surface; we considered variations in the cloud radiative effect with changes in cloud amount, precipitable water, and cloud base height, as measured by eight stations of the Baseline Surface Radiation Network. The downward longwave radiation predicted by a radiative transfer model agreed well with observations. The cloud radiative forcing and contribution ranged from -21 to 92 W m-2 and from -6 % to 38 %, respectively. The cloud effect shows a positive correlation to the shortwave diffusivity index (an index of cloud amount) and a negative correlation to precipitable water amount. The absolute effect values are small, depending on site conditions, but the relative effect values are larger under dry conditions than under humid conditions. Under humid conditions, the effect of the shortwave diffusivity index is very small. Under dry and cold conditions, such as those found in polar regions, negative values of cloud radiative contribution appear frequently because clouds absorb the emissions from temperature inversion layers. In comparison with prior research that used the A-Train satellite product, the present study shows a wider distribution and a larger maximum value for cloud forcing from amount of water vapor. Cloud effect has a roughly negative relationship with cloud base height, but a positive correlation with cloud base height occurs under low clouds at Tateno, which is located on the Pacific Ocean side of Japan. This correlation is because of the unusual relationship between cloud base height and cloud effect at Tateno during the summer and winter seasons. These results describe small-scale and near-surface variations in cloud effect, which are difficult to detect by satellite measurements.
Clouds affect shortwave irradiance and the energy budget at the Earth's surface. We investigated the potential radiative forcing in China by applying simple linear regression analysis on pyranometer measurements and data from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP). The potential radiative forcing is a measure of sensitivity of the surface shortwave irradiance to atmospheric parameters (here, cloud amount and cloud optical thickness). The negative correlation between the potential radiative forcing of cloud amount and cloud optical thickness strengthens with an increase in the cloud optical thickness up to about 8, after which it weakens. In contrast, the correlation coefficient between the cloud optical thickness and its potential radiative forcing varies widely for a low optical thickness and converges to a small negative value with an increase in the optical thickness; this is particularly true for data from the South and East regions. The potential radiative forcings obtained by analyzing pyranometer observation data are consistent with those calculated from ISCCP data in the previous study.
The estimation of the distribution of global anthropogenic heat release (AHR) from 1992 to 2009 was obtained by applying Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)/Operational Linescan System (OLS) satellite data. The results indicate that global AHR was geographically concentrated, essentially correlating to economic activities. The anthropogenic heat flux concentrated in the economically developed areas, such as East Asia, Europe, and Eastern North America, reached a level high enough to influence regional climate. In contrast, the anthropogenic heat flux in vast areas, such as Africa, Central and North Asia, and South America, is very small. With the increases in global population and economic development, an increase in AHR was easily found. The model results show that AHR has a significant impact on surface temperature and that it is able to affect global atmospheric circulation, leading to a 1-2 K increase in the high-latitude areas of Eurasia and North America. The results show that AHR is able to affect global climate despite being limited to a region. Although the influence to global warming by AHR is not as large as greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, on a global scale, AHR is an important factor in global climate change that should not be ignored.
A cloud screening method employing two successive procedures of variability test and coarse mode test was developed, aiming at better elimination of cloud-contaminated data in the sky radiometer retrievals. The performance of the new cloud screening method was evaluated by examining statistical features with cloud coverage observations and lidar measurements. The variability test appeared to effectively eliminate data contaminated by relatively thick low-level clouds, whereas the coarse mode test appeared to eliminate data likely contaminated by thin cirrus-type clouds. Overall, the new method was considered to improve the current Sky Radiometer Network (SKYNET) data.
The cloud screening method was then applied to dust detection from sky radiometer measurements. The detection performance was evaluated using surface synoptic observations (SYNOP) dust reports and the yellow sand index from NIES lidar measurements. It was shown that the new method helped to detect dust, effectively eliminating cloud-contaminated signals that were similar to those of the dust.
The sky radiometer is a ground-based instrument implemented to investigate the characteristics of not only aerosols but also clouds and water vapor. This study is the first attempt to bring this instrument in use to estimate the columnar ozone concentration (U). A method and preliminary results related to the estimation of U using the 315-nm-channel data of the sky radiometer are presented. The proposed method consists of calculating the calibration constant for direct intensity at 315 nm wavelength, F0 (315 nm), using in situ observation data, which is an alternative of the traditional Langley method, and estimating U. The temporal values of U at Chiba, Japan for the period of January-April, 2013 were estimated, and they were compared with values observed by the ozone monitoring instrument (OMI). The agreement was satisfactory during the initial observation period; however, the values from the sky radiometer were observed to be gradually overestimated with time. The study suggests that the temporal change of F0 (315 nm) is the important factor to be considered while estimating U values for long-term observations and that F0 (315 nm) must be periodically determined. The study further discusses the uncertainties associated with the estimated U due to the uncertainties in the values of input parameters.
Sky radiometer data are used to retrieve aerosol optical properties and to estimate the effect of aerosols on solar irradiance at the Earth's surface. The Prede POM-02 is equipped with a 940-nm channel corresponding to a primary water vapor absorption band in the near infrared region, but 940-nm data have been underutilized. Atmospheric water vapor is an important factor in determining the surface radiation budget. To retrieve the columnar precipitable water vapor amount from sun-sky radiometers, the 940-nm channel was calibrated using the Langley method, which accounts for gas absorption. The relation between column water vapor and atmospheric transmittance at 940 nm was determined using simulation data, and the results were used to retrieve column water vapor. This method was applied to data collected at Tsukuba, Japan, in 2011 and compared with global positioning system receiver (GPS), microwave radiometer, and radiosonde water vapor retrievals. The highest correlations were found between GPS and radiosonde observations. A comparison of POM-02 and GPS results showed a bias error of 0.09 g cm-2; the root mean square error was 0.179 g cm-2; and r = 0.996. The transmittance of the 940-nm channel was theoretically determined in this study. Therefore, the accuracy of column water vapor retrieval depends on the accuracy of transmittance calculation model.


$21.00 - Flat rate for each trip either originating at Love Field Airport and terminating at a location within the Dallas Central Business District area or originating at a location within the Dallas Central Business District area and terminating at the airport.
$18.00 - Flat rate for each trip either originating at Love Field Airport and terminating at a location within the Dallas Market Center area or originating at a location within the Dallas Market Center area and terminating at the airport.
$45.00 - Flat rate for each trip either originating at DFW Airport and terminating at a location within the Dallas Central Business District area or originating at a location within the Dallas Central Business District area and terminating at the airport.
$37.00 - Flat rate for each trip either originating at DFW Airport and terminating at a location within the Dallas Market Center area or originating at a location within the Dallas Market Center area and terminating at the airport.
Taxi rates to Dallas from DFW airport or Love Field are set by the City of Dallas.
Dallas Central Business District is defined as the area bounded by Woodall Rogers Freeway on the North, Central Expressway on the West, R.L. Thornton Freeway on the South and Stemmons Freeway on the East AND all points within 1000 feet of the boundary.
© 2018 Dallas Yellow Cab Co. - Fort Worth Yellow Cab Co.


5 Inexpensive Strategies to Boost Employees Productivity - Headsets Direct, Inc.
Business owners are trimming in some areas and investing in others as they work through the challenges this economy throws their way. The resulting new reality: doing more with less, with the "less" portion of the equation usually meaning fewer employees. The goal, then: do more with fewer people by equipping them to be as productive as possible. Here are five strategies you can use to improve an employee's productivity, each costing about $300. Some are obvious, but are you doing them? Some aren't, so jump in! Match the strategy to the employee situation.
Most people multi-task, and much of it takes place inside the confines of a computer monitor. Add a second monitor and you double a person's most productive workspace. Suddenly you don't have to keep switching between windows as you reference a spreadsheet or website for something you're writing, or every time you answer an email.
The sense of freedom is immediate. Everything you do on your computer becomes easier. And think about the things you do on a computer hundreds of times a month and, well, you get the idea.
A good quality 19″ flat panel monitor sells for about $150. You may also need a new video card, again, about $150. Both available at any computer retailer and online. Ask your network administrator for help, but it's a very simple process and well worth it. Compare monitors and cards.
Gone are the days telephone headsets are only used in call centers. Any employee who needs access to information while on the phone (computer, paper files, other people, etc.), is on the phone more than three hours a week, multi-tasks, or has customer contact will save time and reduce stress with a wireless telephone headset. How? Two things happen when an employee goes wireless: they can work hands-free and move away from their desk while on the phone. The real time-saver kicks in when "I'll have to find the answer and get back to you" changes to "Let me find that answer for you right now" as they access information on their computer, in a file or down the hall. Fewer callbacks, less phone tag, things get done faster and happier customers with less stress and fatigue at the end of the day. All because they didn't have to hold the telephone handset or stay tethered to their desk. Many headset manufacturers site studies showing a 20% increase in productivity from wireless headset use. Headsets Direct has a variety of wireless headsets for under $300 and experts on the phone to help you select the right model. They also offer a 30-day replacement or return policy to make sure you get the right headset.
Learning how to write better generally means learning how to write faster too. The time savings typically comes from better technique: separating writing and editing; organizing your thoughts before you start writing; improved proofing skills; etc. If an employee spends 8 hours a week writing email, reports, memos, letters, etc., and that's the average for today's knowledge worker, improving an employee's writing can also create about one more work day a month.
A few years ago all the rage was networked printers: those big, fast, high quality printers in a central location everyone connected to. When the euphoria wore off of being able to print at photo-quality resolution and collate 20 copies of that 20-page report, we started to realize we do those things maybe three times a year. The rest of the time we print we're getting up from our desks to fetch two black and white pages of the memo we printed out to proof or file. Ouch! Save your most expensive employees all those trips to the printer each day with a printer in their office. If you haven't shopped for inexpensive computer printers you'll be blown away at the quality and reliability. And, your people can still print from the main printer when they need to.
With email as the preferred form of communication, even from down the hall, the goal here is to provide key employees with easy access to email and messaging wherever they are. The key being easy access. Most cell phones can access email, but most people don't use this feature because it's too hard to use. The answer is simple. Buy a Smartphone, something all cellular service providers sell. A Smartphone, simply put, is a phone with a keypad. Most Smartphone's cost less than $1000 with a 1 to 2-year agreement, and phones at this price point typically make accessing your email and messaging easy to set up and easy to use. Talk to your network administrator to make sure your email system is compatible with the model you want. When times get tough there are things you can do to make the extra workload on employees not as tough. Consider one or more of these suggestions. You'll be glad you did.


I am wanting to experiment with Maps in R17, but just discovered that accessing a single value from a map is not yet implemented. I find this surprising. Isn't this a most fundamental feature of a map data structure?


text:
American Midwest { 11 galleries }
Established in 1978, Badlands National Park is home to one of the most well-preserved prairie lands in the United States. Miles of grassland carpet eroded sedimentary layers, exposing colorful striations in the hills and buttes as well as magnificent fossil records from millions of years ago. Present-day wildlife is also abundant which includes, but is not limited to, bighorn sheep, coyotes, prairie dogs, and pronghorn antelope. Only a short drive from the Black Hills of South Dakota, it's a must-see place that's easily accessible to other nearby natural attractions and fantastic glimpse into what our great plains used to look like.
Bighorn Basin
Spreading out over a vast high desert landscape east of Cody, Wyoming, the Bighorn Basin is home to a beautiful herd of mustangs known as the McCullough Peaks Mustangs, which are contained in the McCullough Peaks Horse Management Area. The region is a deceptively vast high desert that, upon first glance, appears empty and void of any interesting natural features with only a few pronghorn that can be spotted racing across the open expanses of its landscape. A little exploring however will reveal an enormous, elaborate labyrinth of badlands that rivals even Badlands National Park. The Bighorn Basin badlands stretch from miles and miles from the McCullough Peaks all the way out toward the Bighorn Mountains to the east. Upon seeing such a sight, one wonders why there's not more protection for such a mesmerizing natural feature.
Bighorn Mountains
The Bighorn Mountains are an often overshadowed mountain range spanning north to south in north-central Wyoming. They're an island of biodiversity in the surrounding high desert and provide an endless amount of hiking and outdoor recreation.
Harney Peak and Mount Rushmore are just two spectacles of South Dakota's Black Hills that treat every visitor. Harney Peak is the highest peak in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and Mount Rushmore is a large rocky cliff where just two people carved in the great faces of four past presidents. Deeper into the Black Hills, massive granite spires shoot out of the ponderosa pine forests, creating striking landscapes from any angle. A drive through the Black Hills provides incredible views from any angle, while a hike along a great trail system offers a more intimate view of such a rich landscape. Custer State Park is home to many fantastic species of wildlife native to the area such as bison, pronghorn, and many more.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park was designated in 2000 and contains some extraordinary natural environments, given its close proximity to urban areas. Combining a mix of historic architecture and quiet natural scenery, it creates a natural oasis in an otherwise crowded region. A popular trail is the Blue Hen Falls Trail, where a 30-foot waterfall pours over a rocky ledge. The trail loosely follows Spring Creek on its way to the falls and allows visitors the option of continuing downstream to find more gems.
Known to the native people as Bear Lodge, Devil's Tower National Monument is the country's first national monument, protected for the unusually massive spire that shoots out of the surrounding forest hundreds of feet into the air. The area is also home to prairie dog towns, deer, and many other animals. While climbing is offered on the tower, many people prefer not to climb it out of respect for the native culture. Many hiking trails are also in the area to wind visitors around the unusual natural feature for all kinds of different views.
Indiana Dunes National Park
Indiana Dunes National Park is comprised of a beautiful 15,000 acres along the shores of Lake Michigan. It's home to a massive variety of trees, plants, and even wildlife and birds. With over 50 miles of trails, it can even entertain eager outdoors enthusiasts. The massive Great Lakes waters of Lake Michigan create a rugged sand dune landscape as they crash upon the shores of the area. This allows visitors to explore the shores of the beach or the forests beyond the shores as well. Though easy to overlook, its easy access to the Interstate system means there's really no reason to pass it up.
Southern Wyoming
Dotted throughout the landscape of Wyoming, natural treasures are hidden along the rural highways and rewards are given to those who seek them out. Southern Wyoming offers fantastic solitude and extraordinary high desert landscapes. Farther north, the Bighorn Mountains offer peace and solitude among a rugged set of mountains.
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is located in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas, protecting one of the most vital last remaining growths of tallgrass prairie. The preserve protects only four percent of the tallgrass prairie's historic range, stretching across the Great Plains of the North American continent. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is managed by both the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy, as well as private land that maintains an interest in preserving the land. Over forty miles of trails can be found within the preserve, winding around the Flint Hills, and offering visitors a chance to see wild bison in their historic range.
A natural treasure of the American Midwest, this historic location is now threatened by oil and gas development. The land is home to mustangs, prairie dogs, bison, and more that graze across open grasslands and dynamic badlands.
Home to the only collection of boxwork in the world, Wind Cave of Wind Cave National Park provides an extraordinary adventure for those who like to venture underground. In addition to the underground labyrinth rich with unusual formations, above ground offers a magnificent sampling of prairie wildlife that features elk, bison, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and much more.


text:
describe Cha::Client do
  context 'with module configuration' do
    let(:keys) { Cha::Configuration::VALID_OPTIONS_KEYS }

    before do
      Cha.configure do |config|
        keys.each do |key|
          config.send("#{key}=", key)
        end
      end
    end

    after do
      Cha.reset
    end

    it 'should inherit module configuration' do
      client = Cha::Client.new
      keys.each do |key|
        expect(client.send(key)).to eql(key)
      end
    end

    context 'with class configuration' do
      let(:configuration) do
        {
          adapter: :typhoeus,
          api_token: 'AT',
          endpoint: 'https://api.twitter.com',
          proxy: 'http://mitukiii:secret@proxy.example.com:8080',
          user_agent: 'Custom User Agent'
        }
      end

      context 'during initialization' do
        it 'should override module configuration' do
          client = Cha::Client.new(configuration)
          keys.each do |key|
            expect(client.send(key)).to eql(configuration[key])
          end
        end
      end

      context 'after initilization' do
        it 'should override module configuration after initialization' do
          client = Cha::Client.new
          configuration.each do |key, value|
            client.send("#{key}=", value)
          end
          keys.each do |key|
            expect(client.send(key)).to eql(configuration[key])
          end
        end
      end
    end
  end

  context 'when have error' do
    let(:client) { Cha.new }

    {
      400 => Cha::BadRequest,
      401 => Cha::NotAuthorized,
      403 => Cha::Forbidden,
      404 => Cha::NotFound,
      499 => Cha::ClientError,
      500 => Cha::InternalServerError,
      501 => Cha::NotImplemented,
      503 => Cha::ServiceUnavailable,
      599 => Cha::ServerError,
    }.each do |status, klass|
      context "when HTTP status is #{status}" do
        before do
          stub_get('me')
            .to_return(status: status, body: '{"errors":["nyan"]}')
        end

        it "should raise #{klass.name} error" do
          expect { client.me }.to raise_error(klass)
        end
      end
    end
  end
end