Abstract: Nanaocochleate represent a new technology for oral and systemic delivery of drugs. It is a novel lipid-based system which represent a unique technology platform suitable for the oral and systemic administration of a wide variety of molecules with important therapeutic biological activities, including drugs, genes, and vaccine antigens. Nanocochleate formulation technology is particularly applicable to macromolecules as well as small molecule drugs that are hydrophobic, positively charged, negatively charged, and that possess poor oral bioavailability. Proof-of-principle studies for cochleate-mediated oral delivery of macromolecules as well as small molecule drugs is being carried out in appropriate animal models with well established, clinically important drugs, which currently can only be effectively delivered by injection.
Abstract: Centrifugal spinning (C-spin) is one of the emerging techniques for the production of ultrafine fibrous web which mimics Extracellular matrix (ECM). Due to its unique characteristic features it is widely used in bio-medical applications such as tissue engineered scaffolds, wound dressing materials and drug delivery vehicles. In the present study tetracycline loaded polycaprolactone (PCL) blended polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) fibers were fabricated using in-house built C-spin system. The developed ultrafine fibers were morphologically characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) before and after drug release and the results showed that the developed webs were highly porous and the pores were evenly distributed. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy results confirmed that the drug was incorporated on the fibers. The antibacterial activity and drug releasing strategy were examined and the results showed that the developed webs can effectively act as a drug delivery vehicle.
Abstract: Multicomponent drug delivery systems have found several potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Among these the interpenetrating polymeric network (IPN) has emerged as one of the most useful novel biomaterial, which is entanglement of polymer networks with at least one network synthesized and/or cross-linked in the presence of the other. The development of IPN is attractive because they provide free volume space for the easy encapsulation of drugs in the three-dimensional network structure which are obtained by cross-linking of two or more polymer network. This review focuses on the IPN hydrogels based on chitosan for oral drug delivery applications. Chitosan is a natural, biodegradable, nontoxic, mucoadhesive and biocompatible polymer and has found diverse pharmaceutical applications. Chitosan based IPN hydrogels have garnered immense attention as a vehicle for oral drug delivery. The suitability of chitosan based IPN hydrogels as potential oral delivery vehicle stems from their capability of imbibing large amount of body fluid without solubilisation and potential for encapsulation of large amount of drugs, adaptability to be combined with specific responsive polymer(s). This review also summarizes IPN and various multicomponent polymeric materials for developing drug delivery vehicle.
Abstract: The delivery of poorly water-soluble drugs has been the subject of much research, as approximately 40% of new chemical entities are hydrophobic in nature. One area in which published literature is lacking is the field of non-aqueous emulsions. This review gives a conceptual idea about non-aqueous system. Non-aqueous systems are well known as solvents for drugs, suspension vehicles, oleogels, soft gelatin or magnoresponsive drug delivery system. It provides reservoir vehicles for transdermal systems and controlled drug delivery systems or hydrolytically unstable drugs.
Abstract: The most common method for applying a drug in to the eye is to formulate the drug in the form of an eye drop, but this method is not considered ideal for ocular delivery of drug because of poor bioavailability arising from precorneal loss processes, this loss of drug from the precorneal area is a net effect of drainage, tear secretion and noncorneal absorption. Following the above lead we tried to improve the ocular bioavailability by increasing the corneal contact time and the feasible way was to formulate a drug with mucoadhesive/viscosity imparting agents. The adhesive strength of various polymers on corneal surface was studied with the help of self modified Franz diffusion cell and freshly excised goat/bovine cornea. The polymers hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, carboxymethylcellulose sodium, Eudragit type E/RL/RS, Carbopol ETD 2020 and Carbopol 934 National Formulary were formulated with drug, ketorolac tromethamine. The adhesive strength of polymers on corneal surface and permeation characteristics of drug through cornea were investigated by using above said formulations. Eudragit type E/RL/RS did not show any improvement in mucoadhesion, but the formulations containing Carbopol ETD 2020 and Carbopol 934 national formulary showed good mucoadhesion on corneal surface in the concentration as low as 0.75%. The mucoadhesive strength was also evaluated using the combination of Carbopol acrylates/C 10-30 alkylacrylate with allylpentaerithrital and preservative benzalkonium chloride, which also resulted in good mucoadhesion with improved corneal permeation. Observations made in this study indicate the potentiality of the ophthalmic formulations containing mucoadhesive/viscosity imparting agents.
Abstract: rface engineering of macrophages with nanoparticles to generate a cell–nanoparticle hybrid vehicle for hypoxia-targeted drug delivery Original Research (6733) Total Article Views Authors: Christopher A Holden, Quan Yuan, W Andrew Yeudall, et al Published Date December 2009 Volume 2010:5 Pages 25 - 36 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S8339 Christopher A Holden1, Quan Yuan1, W Andrew Yeudall2,3, Deborah A Lebman3,4, Hu Yang1 1Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, 2Philips Institute of Oral and Craniofacial Molecular Biology, School of Dentistry, 3Massey Cancer Center, 4Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA Abstract: Tumors frequently contain hypoxic regions that result from a shortage of oxygen due to poorly organized tumor vasculature. Cancer cells in these areas are resistant to radiation- and chemotherapy, limiting the treatment efficacy. Macrophages have inherent hypoxia-targeting ability and hold great advantages for targeted delivery of anticancer therapeutics to cancer cells in hypoxic areas. However, most anticancer drugs cannot be directly loaded into macrophages because of their toxicity. In this work, we designed a novel drug delivery vehicle by hybridizing macrophages with nanoparticles through cell surface modification. Nanoparticles immobilized on the cell surface provide numerous new sites for anticancer drug loading, hence potentially minimizing the toxic effect of anticancer drugs on the viability and hypoxia-targeting ability of the macrophage vehicles. In particular, quantum dots and 5-(aminoacetamido) fluoresceinlabeled polyamidoamine dendrimer G4.5, both of which were coated with amine-derivatized polyethylene glycol, were immobilized to the sodium periodate-treated surface of RAW264.7 macrophages through a transient Schiff base linkage. Further, a reducing agent, sodium cyanoborohydride, was applied to reduce Schiff bases to stable secondary amine linkages. The distribution of nanoparticles on the cell surface was confirmed by fluorescence imaging, and it was found to be dependent on the stability of the linkages coupling nanoparticles to the cell surface.
Abstract: We have fabricated surface-modified paclitaxel nanowires (SM-PNs) with a precise diameter and an average length of 50 μm. The surface of these nanowires is coated with a monolayer of octadecylsiloxane (ODS), which prevents aggregation and enhances dispersivity in aqueous media. This system constitutes a novel drug delivery vehicle based on one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures with a large drug to vehicle ratio. We assayed the cytotoxicity of different diameter SM-PNs (200, 80, 35, and 18 nm) with U937 cells and compared their activity to microcrystalline paclitaxel. SM-PNs reduced U937 cell proliferation in culture followed by cell death. For the same amount of paclitaxel, different diameter SM-PNs displayed different cytotoxic effect at the same incubation time period. SM-PNs with 35 nm diameters were the most efficient in completely halting cell proliferation following the first 24 hours of treatment, associated with 42% cell death. SM-PNs with 18 nm diameters were least effective. These SM-PNs can be tailored to fit a certain treatment protocol by simply choosing the appropriate diameter.
Abstract: A flexible methacrylate powder dressing (Altrazeal ?) transforms into a wound contour conforming matrix once in contact with wound exudate. We hypothesised that it may also serve as a drug delivery vehicle for antiseptics. The antimicrobial efficacy and influence on bacterial growth kinetics in combination with three antiseptics was investigated in an in vitro porcine wound model. Standardized in vitro wounds were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA; ATCC 33591) and divided into six groups: no dressing (negative control), methacrylate dressing alone, and combinations with application of 0.02% Polyhexamethylene Biguanide (PHMB), 0.4% PHMB, 0.1% PHMB?+ 0.1% betaine, 7.7 mg/mL Povidone-iodine (PVP-iodine), and 0.1% Octenidine-dihydrochloride (OCT) + 2% phenoxyethanol. Bacterial load per gram tissue was measured over five days. The highest reduction was observed with PVP-iodine at 24 h to log 10 1.43 cfu/g, followed by OCT at 48 h to log 10 2.41 cfu/g. Whilst 0.02% PHMB resulted in a stable bacterial load over 120 h to log 10 4.00 cfu/g over 120 h, 0.1% PHMB + 0.1% betaine inhibited growth during the first 48 h, with slightly increasing bacterial numbers up to log 10 5.38 cfu/g at 120 h. These results indicate that this flexible methacrylate dressing can be loaded with various antiseptics serving as drug delivery system. Depending on the selected combination, an individually shaped and controlled antibacterial effect may be achieved using the same type of wound dressing.


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Fred produces fantastic display in Man Utd's win over Crystal Palace
Brandon West
Manchester United midfielder Fred produced a superb performance during Sunday's 1-0 Premier League win over Crystal Palace at Old Trafford.
The Brazil international had been in fine form for the Red Devils in recent games, and continued the good run against Patrick Vieira's side yesterday.
Fred produced a brilliant all-round display with 10 duels won alongside seven tackles and two clearances. He was also a regular presence in the final third, and eventually made the difference.
The 28-year-old had been getting into terrific goalscoring positions recently. He squandered a wonderful late chance against Chelsea, but redeemed himself against the Eagles.
The £120k-a-week star bagged the winning goal with a brilliant curling effort from the edge of the box with his weaker right foot.
Fred has not been a favourite among some United fans, but he has proved many of them wrong with his terrific run of performances since the last international break.
His workrate and eagerness to push forward has been notable. He appears an ideal player for Ralf Rangnick, who prefers his midfielders to play with attacking intent.
United started yesterday's game with great intensity as they pressed their opponents. There was a drop in performance levels in the second half which was justifiable.
After just one training session, the players may not be used to such intensity over 90 minutes, and things should get better as they adapt more to Rangnick's system.
Rangnick had no qualms over deploying his preferred 4-2-2-2 set-up yesterday. It was not the perfect performance, but they secured maximum points in the end.
Fred was the gamechanger with the winning strike. He appears to be finding his groove, having previously made two key goal contributions in the 3-2 comeback win over Arsenal.
Scott McTominay did not quite produce the same performance as Fred. There is room for improvement for the Scot to cement his place as a regular starter under Rangnick.
United moved to fifth in the Premier League standings after beating Palace. They are within three points of West Ham United, who hold the final Champions League spot.
Related TopicsFredMan UtdPremier LeagueRalf RangnickRed Devils
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) accounted for over 50 per cent of Dubai's polymers and petrochemical trade, valued at more than AED 49 billion ($13.34 billion) in 2021
Tanker ship vessel unloading at the Jebel Ali Port
Global economies are facing increased pressure from uncertainty in oil prices, capacity, and supply chain disruptions. The petrochemicals sector is not exempt from these global challenges. Despite this, Jebel Ali Free Zone's (Jafza) petrochemical sector witnessed stability. One indication of this is the increase in export volumes in 2021, which grew 52 per cent year-on-year. Additionally, last year, the free zone alone accounted for over 50 per cent of Dubai's Polymers and Petrochemicals trade, valued at more than AED 49 billion.
ENABLING SEAMLESS TRADE
Petroleum gas tanks
DP World, through its local and regional assets, multimodal connectivity, cost-effective supply chain solutions and digital trade platforms has supported petrochemical trade lanes and ecosystems worldwide. The company plays a crucial role in facilitating the growth of the regional and global petrochemicals sector through Jebel Ali.
The integrated logistics offerings, supported by connectivity across international petrochemical trade lanes and the ecosystem at the Jebel Ali hub, give the industry the most attractive logistic proposition. Additionally, its vast network of global liners has contributed to the success of the UAE and the region.
THE JEBEL ALI CONNECTIVITY
DP World's petrochemical hub, which spans the port and the free zone, handles over one-third of the UAE's polymer and petrochemical trade through Jebel Ali Port. With storage being an essential factor in the industry, finding a suitable site with convenient connectivity for trade and transport, and a very high standard of safety due to the nature of the products is integral. Jebel Ali Port's solutions meet all these requirements while ensuring reduced costs and time-efficient operations for customers.
Jebel Ali Port complements the traders' ambitions with tank terminals and warehousing, specialised storage space for packed lubricants, fuels and industrial chemicals, ISO tanks storage and hazardous goods warehouses.
The port comprises tank terminals with 11 dedicated berths for liquid handling, spread over an area of 2 million sq m with over 1 million cubic metres of liquid bulk storage space. The Chemical berth is well equipped with a storage capacity of over 250,000 cubic meters to store various grades of chemicals.
Prominent industry players such as DOW, BASF, Total and Gulf Petrochem are now headquartered within Jafza and create the basis of a healthy ecosystem of almost 600 companies in the sector. Jafza's strategic location is also ideal for serving demand in the Middle East and Africa. Its industrial facilities for processing and value-added services make it the perfect base for chemical and petrochemical traders serving growing markets in the Indian Subcontinent and the Middle East.
Jafza is one of the world's leading free trade zones and is home to over 9,000 multinational companies. Jafza accounts for 23.9% of total FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) flow into Dubai, sustaining the employment of more than 135,000 people in the United Arab Emirates. In 2020, Jafza generated trade worth $104.2 billion.
Strategically located at the crossroads of a region providing market access to over 3.5 billion people, Jebel Ali Port and Free Zone create an integrated multi-modal hub offering sea, air and land connectivity, complemented by extensive logistics facilities. The Port and Free Zone contributed 33.4% of Dubai's GDP in 2017.


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Human rights -- Bibliography..
Project Diana : An Online Human Rights Archive at Yale Law School
DIANA, a joint project provided by an international consortium of libraries and human rights organizations, is dedicated to the construction of a comprehensive database of documents essential to human rights research. Currently, segments of the database are hosted by four libraries. Each library provides a unique set of documents for the collaborative database. The Yale Law School Library contains...
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/diana.asp
Bibliography for Research on International Human Rights Law
Compiled by David Weissbrodt and Marci Hoffman and provided by the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library (discussed in the January 5, 1996 Scout Report), this extensive bibliography contains a large number and variety of resources for researching international human rights law. Entries include: Human Rights Instruments, Human Rights Case Law, Research Guides on the Six Major Human Rights...
http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/bibliog/BIBLIO.htm
DIANA, a joint project provided by an international consortium of libraries and human rights organizations, is dedicated to the construction of a comprehensive database of documents essential to human rights research. Currently, segments of the database are hosted by four libraries. Each library provides a unique set of documents for the collaborative database. The University of Minnesota Human...
http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/
Human & Constitutional Rights
The Arthur W. Diamond Law Library at Columbia Law School maintains this excellent resource for finding materials on human rights and constitutional rights. The metasite serves students, scholars, and practitioners as a portal to documents and Internet resources on international and domestic law related to human and constitutional rights. The information resources are divided into six sections:...
http://www.hrcr.org/


B vitamins are a family of water-soluble nutrients, each with a distinct role to play in promoting health. B vitamins play critical roles in modulating biochemistry and metabolism, and represent the most common vitamins utilized by the body as cofactors for facilitating enzymatic function. The modern refined diet, high in sugar, alcohol, and devitalized foods, leads to lower levels of B vitamins. Stress and many medications may also lower B vitamin levels. While B vitamins have mainly been researched individually, they also have therapeutic power when taken together.


Sophisticated data-capturing technology will be introduced in the Western Cape at the end of the year to improve ambulance response times, it was reported on Monday.
The new information and communication technology system at emergency medical services (EMS) call centres would get ambulances to incidents in the shortest time possible, The Cape Argus reported.
The R250 million system would be phased in in November and would be run by Dimension Data for the next four years.
"One of the problems we have in informal settlements is locating addresses," EMS manager Shaheem de Vries told the newspaper.
The new technology would also allow ambulance staff to capture patient details electronically from the scene, which could then be sent to the hospital prior to the ambulance's arrival.


And the Pursuit of Happiness!
Can this really be called a blog? If so, then what I am doing is something much less, perhaps just a bl.
I just discovered And the Pursuit of Happiness, Maira Kalman's monthly illustrated feature about American democracy which the New York Times calls a blog. It's wonderful. The current one (July) is about Benjamin Franklin. Earlier posts I looked at just now featured Memorial Day and Lincoln.
I'll have to go read the rest of them when I have time, which I don't now. I have to write a short PowerPoint called "The Once and Future Moon" for my presentation at Starfest 2009 tomorrow night. It has to be short because I will have just 30 minutes and I also have to launch a Saturn V, land Apollo 11 on the moon, and take NASA's future Orion and Altair spacecraft for a quick spin around the moon (all courtesy of the Orbiter space flight simulator). Yes, I did wait until the last minute. I better get busy.
Last night I was wondering whether my iPod Touch could help me with song lyrics - finding them (other people's) and writing my own, especially when it comes to rhymes. Turns out it can help quite a bit. I found a bunch of rhyming dictionaries at the iTunes App Store and bought two of them for 99 cents each. One is simply called Rhyme and it seems to not require a web connection. The other is called Rhyme Time and only works with a web connection (Wifi for the iPod Touch), because it's essentially a front end to the RhymeZone web site. Because of this, it provides a lot more rhymes.
I also bought a cool app called Lyrics+ which will find and display the lyrics for songs you have on your iPod, and also allows you to search by artist and title. It doesn't have lyrics for everything, but it's pretty extensive (web connection required). I happened to search for Arlo Guthrie and rediscovered an old favorite album that I used to have on vinyl, Washington County. So I bought that on iTunes. Serendipity strikes again! Especially for Apple.
It's great when friends visit from out of town. For one thing, you get to see things in your own area that you'd probably never see otherwise. When my friend Rob Simbeck visited from Nashville last week, we hung out and did music and stuff, but we also took a day trip into Cambridge. After lunch at the geek-chic Miracle of Science Bar & Grill, we spent a few hours at the MIT Museum, which amazingly enough, I had never visited.
The MIT Museum has especially great exhibits on robotics and holography, but I also liked the small exhibit on Apollo. Much of the work on guidance and navigation was done at MIT's Draper Laboratory, including the development of the AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer - try it for yourself, or read the history here). Some of the development hardware was on display, along with a reproduction of a large blackboard showing the Command Module GN&C Block Diagram (interactive version here). Very cool stuff.
It's also cool that forty years later, Draper Labs continues to be involved with systems for landing on the moon, as discussed in this recent article in the MIT Technology Review. Their system for NASA's Altair lander will be a lot smarter and friendlier than the AGC. It will use LIDAR (laser radar) to accurately characterize the lunar surface so the software can recommend the best landing options, as shown in the simulator image above.
Starfest 2009 (PDF) is the Aldrich Astronomical Society's big annual public astronomy event (parking and admission are free, though donations are welcome). It will be held, rain or shine, next Saturday, August 1, from 6 to 10 pm, at Anna Maria College in Paxton, MA, just a short distance from Worcester. In addition to telescopes, demos, and presentations by members, we are also happy to feature a special presentation by Donald Rethke, also known as "Dr. Flush."
Don is a retired engineer from Connecticut who worked on life support systems for the Apollo program, and also on the development of space toilet systems (hence the nickname). I've seen several of Don's presentations at the New England Air Museum, and he is an engaging, educational, and funny speaker. We are happy to welcome Dr. Flush and his collection of space flight paraphenalia for his first Starfest appearance. He will do two presentation sessions, 6:30 and 7:45 pm in the Zecco Performing Arts Center at AMC.
My presentation will be called "The Once and Future Moon" - a brief look back at Apollo at 40, and a briefer look forward at NASA's plans to return to the moon. Naturally it will include a simulated Saturn V launch and Apollo 11 moon landing using Orbiter.
If you happen to be in certain fortunate parts of Asia or the Pacific on July 22, 2009 starting at 00:14:54 UTC, you may be able to witness the longest total solar eclipse of the century. For information on how you can view the eclipse on the web, check the links on this site.
Eclipse predictions including the animated GIF above are by Fred Espenak of NASA's GSFC. Based on past experience, it may not actually be animated on my blog, for reasons I don't understand (if not, see it animated here). I think I may have fixed it with some brute force HTML editing to override Blogger's handling of images.
If this eclipse signals the end of the world as we know it as some superstitious people no doubt believe, then, hey, it's been nice knowing some of you!
I just learned about "We Choose the Moon," a special "live +40 years" web site from AOL and the JFK Museum. It's feeding "real time" audio from Apollo 11, but displaced by 40 years! I happened to "tune in" at about 17 minutes before the Eagle landed (that was at 4:17 pm EDT). So now it's just a few minutes before landing, and it's audio-only, static and all, program alarms, NASA commentary, just like it was for those of us watching TV or listening to radios on this day back in July 1969. Very cool idea! I'll have to tune in for Neil's first steps tonight.
It was forty years ago today: of course I'm referring to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landing on the moon on July 20, 1969, not when Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play (that was twenty years ago today). I'm having a busy summer, and what celebrating I was able to do for this historic anniversary took place last Thursday (July 16) which was the anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. I spent the second of three Thursdays in July at the Boston Children's Museum, doing "live" demos to supplement their Living in Space exhibit. I say "live" because I was actually using the Orbiter space flight simulator and the great AMSO Apollo add-on package to perform simulated Saturn V launches and Eagle (LM) landings at Tranquility Base, while sharing my reminiscences of July 1969 with visiting kids and their parents. I had a number of other pre-planned simulation events (e.g., docking the shuttle with the ISS just like the real STS-127 mission now in progress), and with a billed schedule of such 15-20 minute "happenings," the second day was much busier and more fun than the first (for the kids and for me).
Only a few of the kids understood the significance of that historic week forty years ago. More of the parents got it, though most of them were too young to remember it themselves. And what was the significance of that week? If you read Tom Wolfe's NY Times essay on the Apollo 11 landing, you'll learn that it was "one giant leap to nowhere," and that this was because Apollo was actually a high-tech version of sword play between the Soviets and the Americans, and because while NASA had many scientists, engineers, and adminstrators, they had only one flawed (former Nazi, oops) "philosopher," Wernher von Braun - not enough fire power and "Words" to justify pushing on to Mars once the Soviets were beaten in the moon race. Bummer.
I know that NASA only got the budget that it got in the sixties because the space race was a proxy for the Cold War, and I know we've been "stuck in low Earth orbit" since 1972, but I'm still a bit of a romantic when it comes to interpreting Apollo 11, whatever its political genesis, and however delayed its ultimate effects may be. For the first time ever, humans left the Earth and landed on another body in the solar system. That was an insanely bold and cool thing to do, especially with the technology of the 1960's. It was way ahead of its time. But it showed that we could actually leave this planet when we want or need to, and go to other places.
Of course all the other places we will eventually visit and inhabit are much, much farther away than the moon, and the energy and technology required will be much greater. But when the time comes, we can do it, we can go to those places. Of course we should do our best to repair and maintain this planet - Earth is the Cradle of Mankind, and while one normally doesn't stay in the cradle forever, it has been a pretty spacious and human-friendly cradle, so most of us will stay as long as it remains habitable. But there's no guarantee that it will remain habitable forever - there are a lot of ways that we and/or "Nature" could mess that up, and I for one would like to have a long-term backup plan. Robots are great for science and exploration, as are humans, but I'm talking about places where humans can eventually live.
The Apollo program was an impressive proof of concept and down payment on those future developments, not to mention a tremendous inspiration to me and to many thousands of other engineers and scientists of my generation. Whatever Neil's exact words or intended words may have been when he hopped off that ladder, it was indeed one giant leap for mankind, and if there are still people around to remember things a couple of hundred years from now, I would bet that Apollo 11 will be one of the few events of the 20th century that will be considered worth remembering.
There are so many things happening to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the first moon landing, and I just don't have time to absorb most of it. I did read a couple of interesting pieces in the New York Times (iPod edition) this morning, including a nice reminiscence by John Noble Wilford who covered the Apollo program for the Times back in the day (if you search nytimes.com for "wilford moon" you can pull up his original articles, though you have to pay to read such archive articles). Good thing I've been absorbing the Apollo program for a good 45 years myself or I'd really be feeling some pressure this week!
Thursday is the anniversary of the Saturn V launch for Apollo 11 (July 16, 1969), and I'll be at the Boston Children's Museum again, helping out with their "living in space" exhibit. I plan to use Orbiter to launch a few simulated Saturn V's for the occasion. And that evening I plan to watch a PBS special, "Apollo 11: First Steps on the Moon," which will air at 9 pm on my local PBS station (WGBH Boston). The video here is a brief trailer for the show.
I posted a new tune on Garageband.com, "Achin' All the Time." I actually wrote it and started the recording on it in 2003, but did some additional work on it recently with Roger at the Tremolo Lounge (pictured) to get it ready for the new album I'm working on. I need to remember to take a camera to my next session so I can get some studio shots with Roger's beagle sidekick Mr. Henry.
This is a song that started out in Band-in-the-Box, using a reggae style backing track. I'm not much of a reggae artist so when we recorded it, we went for more of a straight rock ballad. Steve Mossberg played some keyboard tracks, and I especially like the organ solo he did. Lyrics are on the Garageband page. I also added the song to MySpace Music.
We're coming up on the 40th anniversary days for Apollo 11 - the mission launched on July 16, 1969, and the first moon landing was on July 20. I just listened to Nancy Atkinson's 365 Days of Astronomy podcast from July 11, "Apollo 11 Through the Eyes of a Young Girl." Nancy even put some of her memories into musical form with a folk-style song called "Who Flies the Ship When Mike Collins Goes to Sleep?" Neil and Buzz get all the glory, but it's good to remember Mike, too (pictured above, training for Apollo 11 - it's hard to find photos of Mike in space!).
My own memories of this time in 1969 are not musical (yet!), but they are pretty vivid. As I wrote back in 2007, that was the summer between my junior and senior years in high school, and I was lucky enough to spend six weeks of it at Ohio University in an NSF-sponsored Student Science Training Program. There was a TV in the lounge of my dorm (I think it was Washington Hall), and that's where I watched with a bunch of fellow high school science students from all around the U.S. as Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon (it wasn't all science - we had some great field trips and I even had time to develop a serious crush on a girl from Virginia).
I had just turned 16 in June and was still planning to be an aeronautical engineer - it really seemed like anything was possible that summer, and that the way to do "anything" was through science and engineering. I finally ended up an optical engineer (with a few detours along the way for computer science, physics, and music), but I certainly attribute my strong interest in science, math, computers, flying, and space to the U.S. space program, especially the Gemini and Apollo programs that I followed intently through my elementary, junior high, and high school years, 1962 to 1970.
He provides ad-free Word files in addition to web-formatted (HTML) pages!
This is saving me hours of time in addition to getting me to start playing some songs recorded after 1980 - thanks Rob!
Rob also has a blog which is quite cool, and to make sure you have no trouble determining what it's about, it's called A Guitar Teacher's Lesson Notebook. None of this namby-pamby "music of the spheres" business (is it music? is it astronomy? it's both! it's other stuff too!). He's got great playing and equipment tips, funny stories, inspirational ramblings, videos, photos, etc. (and almost as many guitar effects boxes as my producer Roger - almost).
If you play guitar (or are even thinking about playing guitar), check out Rob's site and blog. His stuff almost makes me wish I lived in Seattle so I could sign up for lessons with him - except he's got a five year waiting list, so I guess I'll stay in New England for now.
July is here and I'm realizing that the educational outreach events I've signed up for are coming up fast. I've got three events at the Boston Children's Museum in July (9, 16, and 30). Several other Solar System Ambassadors are also doing "walk up" events to supplement a temporary exhibit called "Living in Space" (May 24-September 8 in the Global Gallery). This is a traveling exhibit inspired by the International Space Station and intended to show children what it would be like to live, work, and play in space. The hands-on exhibit was created by the Children's Museum of Memphis. I'm looking forward to seeing this myself!
My supplemental "walk up" presentation will include demonstrating shuttle launches, moon landings, and solar system tours with Orbiter, and I will also have 3D glasses and posters of 3D Mars images from JPL. See the BCM calendar for the schedule for other Solar System Ambassadors' presentations.
You probably already know this since it went up on June 29, but this week's Carnival of Space is hosted by Jennifer Oullette at Discovery Space's Twisted Physics.


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Music Sections
Keith Hancock Named 2017 Music Educator Award Presented by Grammy Foundation
BroadwayWorld.com Feb. 9, 2017
Keith Hancock of Tesoro High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., has been announced as the recipient of the 2017 Music Educator Award™ presented by The Recording Academy® and the GRAMMY Foundation®. In addition, nine music teachers have been announced as finalists for the award. Initial nominations were submitted from all 50 states. Nominations and applications for the 2018 Music Educator Award are now open via www.grammymusicteacher.com. A complete list of the winner and finalists is below.
A joint partnership and presentation of The Recording Academy and the GRAMMY Foundation, the Music Educator Award was established to recognize current educators (kindergarten through college, public, and private schools) who have made a significant and lasting contribution to the field of music education and who demonstrate a commitment to the broader cause of maintaining music education in schools. The award is open to current U.S. music teachers, and anyone can nominate a teacher - students, parents, friends, colleagues, community members, school deans, and administrators. Teachers are also able to nominate themselves, and nominated teachers are notified and invited to fill out an application.
Each year, one recipient is selected from 10 finalists and recognized for their remarkable impact on students' lives. Hancock, the 2017 honoree, will be recognized during GRAMMY Week. He will also attend the 59th Annual GRAMMY Awards®ceremony and a range of GRAMMY Foundation events. In addition, he will receive a $10,000 honorarium. The nine finalists will each receive a $1,000 honorarium, and the schools of all 10 finalists will receive matching grants.
Additionally, the previously named 15 semifinalists will receive a $500 honorarium with matching school grants for the first time in the award's history.
The grants provided to the finalists and schools are made possible by the generosity and support of the GRAMMY Foundation's Education Champions: Converse, Disney Performing Arts, Ford Motor Company Fund, and Journeys. In addition, the American Choral Directors Association, National Association for Music Education, NAMM Foundation, and National Education Association support this program through outreach to their constituencies.
BIO: Hancock has taught choral music for 15 years at Tesoro High School, where he directs more than 250 students in five curricular and four extra-curricular ensembles, and oversees the music production/audio engineering program. Last year, Hancock was selected as a Music Educator Award finalist and he was recently awarded as the Secondary Vocal Music Teacher of the Year for Orange County, California.
The Tesoro High School music program was chosen as one of 13 GRAMMY Signature Schools nationwide for 2015. Under his direction, the Tesoro High School Vocal Ensemble was invited to perform at the ACDA Western Division Conference in 2012 and 2016, representing one of four high schools in the Western United States. The Tesoro choirs have performed to rave reviews in Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, and Ireland, as well as Carnegie Hall in New York. In addition, ensembles under his direction have won two Golden State Choral Competitions and three Barbershop Harmony Society high school quartet championships.
A former faculty member at the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music at Chapman University, Hancock has earned three degrees (summa cum laude). As a performer, he has sung at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, and with the Cypress Pops Orchestra, in addition to performing at various venues around Europe and Asia. Hancock has been married to his wife and fellow music teacher, Carly, since 2003. They have two sons, Joel and Chase.
Established in 1957, The Recording Academy is an organization of musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, and recording professionals dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. Internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards-the preeminent peer-recognized award for musical excellence and the most credible brand in music-The Recording Academy is responsible for groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment, advocacy, education and human services programs. The Academy continues to focus on its mission of recognizing musical excellence, advocating for the well-being of music makers and ensuring music remains an indelible part of our culture. For more information about The Recording Academy, please visit www.grammy.com. For breaking news and exclusive content, follow @RecordingAcad on Twitter, "like" Recording Academy / GRAMMYs on Facebook, and join The Recording Academy's social communities on Google+, Instagram, Tumblr and YouTube.
The GRAMMY Foundation was established in 1988 to cultivate the understanding, appreciation, and advancement of the contribution of recorded music to American culture. The Foundation accomplishes this mission through programs and activities that engage the music industry and cultural community as well as the general public. The Foundation works in partnership year-round with its founder, The Recording Academy, to bring national attention to important issues such as the value and impact of music and arts education and the urgency of preserving our rich cultural heritage. In recognition of the significant role of teachers in shaping their students' musical experiences, The Recording Academy and the GRAMMY Foundation partnered to present their first Music Educator Award in 2014. Open to current U.S. music teachers in kindergarten through college, the fourth annual Music Educator Award will be given out during GRAMMY Week 2017 and nominations are being accepted for the 2018 cycle. For more information about the Foundation, please visit www.grammyfoundation.org. For breaking news and exclusive content, please "like" GRAMMY in the Schools® on Facebook, follow the GRAMMY Foundation on Twitter (@GRAMMYFdn) and join us on Instagram (@GRAMMYFdn).
Converse Inc., based in Boston is a wholly owned subsidiary of NIKE, Inc. Established in 1908, the Converse brand has built a reputation as "America's Original Sports Company"™ and has been associated with a rich heritage of legendary shoes such as the Chuck Taylor® All Star® shoe, the Jack Purcell® shoe and the One Star® shoe. Today, Converse offers a diverse portfolio including lifestyle men's, women's and children's footwear, apparel and accessories and is sold globally by retailers in over 160 countries. For more information, visit Media.Converse.com and follow @converse.
Disney Performing Arts unlocks student potential and helps young people make their own dreams come true-whether it's performing in front of an international audience of thousands at Disney theme parks and resorts or honing their craft in enriching workshops and clinics taught by entertainment professionals. Every year, thousands of vocal, instrumental, and other ensembles travel from around the world to participate in Disney Performing Arts programs at the Disneyland Resort in Southern Calif. and the Walt Disney World Resort in Fla. Disney delivers workshops and performance opportunities that enrich, inspire and often lead to life-changing personal achievement.
Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services works with community and global partners to advance driving safety, education and community life. Ford Motor Company Fund has operated for more than 65 years with ongoing funding from Ford Motor Company. Ford Driving Skills for Life is free, interactive, hands-on safety training focused on skill development and driving techniques, while addressing inexperience, distractions and impaired driving. Innovation in education is encouraged through Ford Blue Oval Scholars, Ford Next Generation Learning and other inspiring programs that enhance high school learning and provide college scholarships and university grants. The Ford Volunteer Corps
enlists more than 30,000 Ford employees and retirees each year to work on local projects that strengthen their communities and improve people's lives in more than 40 countries around the world. For more information, visit community.ford.com.
Journeys is a leader in the teen specialty retail scene, with more than 800 stores in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada. Journeys uses fashion savvy and merchandising science to keep in step with the fast-paced footwear and accessories market for 13- to 22-year-old guys and girls. Journeys offers a wide variety of trendy, relevant brands that cater to teens that seek the hottest, new styles. However, the Journeys store is more than a retail environment-it's an extension of the teen lifestyle. From the plasma TVs playing exclusive content and the latest music videos, to the visual merchandising strategy and promotions, to the employees whose image and style reflect the customers' lifestyle and attitude. In addition to retail stores, Journeys reaches its customers through journeys.com, catalogs, social media, and grass-roots events like the Warped Tour, Alternative Press Music Awards, and national club-level music tours in the spring and fall seasons. Journeys-An Attitude You Can Wear! Journeys is a division of Genesco Inc.
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Clinical and Radiological Aspects of Dysplastic Gangliocytoma (Lhermitte-Duclos Disease): A Report of Two Cases with Review of the Literature - Milbouw G.
Abstract : [en] Two cases of Lhermitte-Duclos disease confirmed by biopsy are reported. Review of the 58 published cases shows that the disease can manifest itself only by signs of increased intracranial pressure. Cerebellar symptoms are not constant. Computed tomographic (CT) scans suggest the diagnosis by showing a posterior fossa lesion, iso- and hypodense, partially calcified, and not enhanced by contrast medium. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) seems to define limits of the lesion better than CT scanning and could improve the surgical approach. Surgical excision of the lesion is the only satisfactory treatment. The postoperative prognosis is usually favorable.


Lots of leaders...lots of information....lots of Lions fellowship!
It was a full agenda, with installation of officers, some decisions on key Lion projects, and a program presenter with a candid assessment of the Belle Fourche business climate.
District Secretary Neil Vollmer, accompanied by a contingent of other Lions from the Newell Lions Club, was on hand to lead the installation of officers for the coming year. Leading the slate of new club leaders is Lion Joyce Drabek, who becomes the first woman to lead the Belle Fourche Lions Club. Members of the Northern Lights Lions Club of Belle Fourche, comprised of Lady Lions, merged with the previously all-male club a couple of years ago.
Lion President Joyce leads an array of talented members from the Northern Lights club who have infused renewed vigor into the Belle Fourche Lions. Their impact can be seen in the leadership positions of our club, as well as in the committee assignments.
Club leaders for the coming year include: Lion Joyce Drabek, president; Lion Willert, First VP; Lion Kline, Second VP; Lion Zupan, Third VP and Lion Tamer; Lion Rich Drabek, Treasurer; Lion Del Neumesiter, Secretary; Lion Sue Neumeister, Board Member; and Lion Cooper, Tail Twister. To get a closer look at these club leaders, along with a few other snapshots from the evening, visit our Lions Gallery.
New Belle Fourche Chamber of Commerce director Gary Wood (shown at left) gave an assessment of the business climate in Belle Fourche, with some positive information about our community that is often overlooked -- such as the hefty number of manufacturing plants that call Belle Fourche home.
A full slate of business followed installation. You can read all about it in the timely and comprehensive Minutes compiled by club secretary Lion Del Neumeister. Click the "Minutes" tab at the top of this page.
Also lots of upcoming Lions events. Check 'em out on the "Calendar" tab above or in the right-hand column.
When long-time Lion Harry Haivala took on the duties of chairing the Eyeglass Drop-Box Committee two years ago, he didn't waste any time. Despite escaping the frigid climes of South Dakota for a few months of warmth in Arizona, he took his work with him!
Harry and his wife, Irene, have been going south for 18 winters. But when he took on the task of coordinating the collecting of used eyeglasses for the Belle Fourche Lions Club, he decided to "expand" the collection area.
While at his park model home in north Mesa, Arizona, he decided to set up a "South Dakota" collection point for used eyeglasses in the office of their park, Apache Wells RV Resort.
"I knew that in a 55+ resort, there would be quite a few new glasses, and no place to go with the old ones, except Walmart." Last season, he collected about 30 pairs of glasses.
A retired Game Warden with the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks department, Harry Haivala was based in Belle Fourche for 27 years. During those years, he appeared as a guest speaker at Belle Fourche Lions.
"I decided after I retired to join one civic organization and determined that Lions was the best," Haivala said. Since 1994, Lion Haivala has been an active member of the Belle Fourche Lions Club. He is also chairman of the Christmas Family Committee and continues to provide leadership for the Adopt-A-Highway Clean-Up. Thanks for your good work, Lion Harry Haivala!
Lion Del Neumeister (left), Belle Fourche Lions Club Secretary, received a Membership Pin for "successfully opening the door of Lionism to at least two individuals." The pin was presented during the May 24, 2016 meeting of the club at The Stadium by president Leo Orme. Congratulations and "Well Done, Lion Neumeister!"


Ten years ago this month Something For Kate's Deja vu single was released from 2003's The Official Fiction album. To celebrate, we're giving away VERY limited edition packs of SFK & Paul Dempsey guitar picks every day for 10 days – To win, just 'like' Paul Dempsey's facebook page, at https://www.facebook.com/pauldempseymusic1 & comment on the competition post! We'll pick a winner every day! These fabulous custom picks have been personally made for the band over the last decade by Grover Allman Guitar Picks. You cannot buy these picks.


As one of Canada's top business law firms, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP are always looking for ways to provide the greatest value and expert service to their clients. Way back in 2013, Osler was producing a wealth of great news and content to share with prospective and current clients, but their means of publication and engagement had become increasingly cumbersome. Between a corporate website with outdated CMS technology, a multiplicity of specialized externally hosted blogs, and social media communications to maintain, something needed to change.
Osler engaged ecentricarts to create a robust online presence that would allow them to present an updated brand identity to the world, unify the Osler online experience under one URL, communicate their service offerings, and showcase their thought leadership with ease. This process would entail redeveloping the firm's corporate website and migrating their separate marketing and thought leadership blogs into the new website framework -- creating an online experience that is easy to navigate, and easy to discover (through industry leading SEO performance). The new Osler.com also needed to assist users in navigating a vast and ever-growing library of resources with optimized global search.
During our ongoing relationship with Osler, ecentricarts has developed a flexible and functional website that has enabled Osler to meet their business objectives, and clearly demonstrate their thought leadership and legal expertise. Not only is Osler.com now a one-stop shop for business law news and blogged content, it's also a downloadable, user-centric resource portal for prospective and current clients, students and recruiters, and alumni alike.
Through its optimized site structure, rich metadata and content, Osler.com has delivered industry leading SEO results for the firm, with the site typically ranking within the top five search result positions across a wide variety of legal services and client sector terms.
Osler and ecentricarts' working relationship lasts to this day, as we continue to implement new tools, support, and methods for Osler to spread their specialized knowledge and services online -- stay tuned for more updates and integrations!


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Q: Reference or counter-example for Closed Graph Theorem for multivalued maps in general topological spaces Could someone be so kind to point me in the direction of a citeable proof of the following version of the Closed Graph Theorem? (i.e. assuming this is true, could someone give me a literature reference, or if it is false, a counter-example.))
Suppose $A$ and $B$ are topological spaces. For the correspondence $f : A \to B$ with closed values (i.e. $f(a)$ - closed for all $a \in A$ and $f(a)\neq\emptyset$), closed domain and compact range, to be upper hemicontinuous it is sufficient and necessary for $f$ to have closed graph.
Edited to add: $B$ is not assumed Hausdorff.

A: Since this result is mentioned in Wikipedia article on hemicontinuity, the references mentioned there might be a reasonable place to look for this result.
If you simply try searching for "upper hemicontinuous" "closed graph" in Google Books, there are several reasonably looking results. (Of course, you can also try Google and Google Scholar.) Notice that some authors use the name *upper semicontinuous instead of upper hemicontinuous. This gives us some other reasonable search phrases - again you can try Google Books, Google or Google Scholar.

Aliprantis C.D., Border K.C. Infinite-dimensional analysis (3ed., Springer, 2005), page 561:

17.9 Definition A correspondence $\varphi \colon X \twoheadrightarrow Y$ between topological spaces is
  closed, or has closed graph, if its graph
  $$\operatorname{Gr}\varphi = \{(x,y)\in X\times Y; y\in\varphi(x)\}$$
  is a closed subset of $X\times Y$.
17.11 Closed Graph Theorem A correspondence with compact Hausdorff range space is closed if and only if it is upper hemicontinuous and closed-valued.

If $\varphi$ is single-valued (i.e., $|\varphi(x)|=1$ for each $x$), then the definition of upper hemicontinuity becomes continuity and the above result says that a function with compact Hausdorff codomain is continuous if and only if it has closed graph. (This is also sometimes called closed graph theorem.) As can be seen from counterexamples given here, the assumption that $Y$ is Hausdorff cannot be omitted in the closed graph theorem for functions. (There is an example of a function to a compact space, which is continuous and does not have closed graph.) Of course, this means that it cannot be omitted from the close graph theorem for upper hemicontinuous multifunctions, either.

EDIT: Since I made this post, the Wikipedia article linked above was edited and now (link to the current revision) it contains the following reference for the theorem in question:
J.-P. Aubin, H. Frankowska: Set-Valued Analysis (Birkhäuser, 1990), page 42

Proposition 1.4.8. The graph of an upper semicontinuous set-valued map $F\colon X\to Y$ with closed domain and closed values is closed.
The converse is true if we assume that $Y$ is compact.

Here domain is the set $\operatorname{Dom}(F)=\{x\in X; F(x)\ne\emptyset\}$ (defined on page 34).

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Find more results for ELLECI PROJECT S.R.L.
Search For "Apparel" Companies in Milano Marittima, Italy - Click Here Now!
ELLECI PROJECT S.R.L. in Milano Marittima is a company that specializes in Men's & Boys' Clothing. Our records show it was established in Italy.


As many of you know, I was in Japan last week and took the Shinkansen to Kyoto. I was very impressed. The SigOther now tells me about Dr. Yellow - a test train full of computers that tests, among other things, the safety of the tracks and the effects of bad weather on service.
It's considered good luck to see one of the trains.


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Caleb David Schaber (March 23, 1973 – April 17, 2009) was an American artist and journalist best known for his participation in the Seattle Monolith project at the beginning of 2001 and his run for mayor of Seattle later that same year.

Early life
Schaber was born March 23, 1973 in Niles, Michigan. He attended school at the Gifted and Talented Academy in Fairplain and enrolled at Lake Michigan College at the age of 16. He graduated Lake Michigan College in 1991 and moved to Seattle in 1993. He enrolled at the University of Washington in 1995 with a major in anthropology and a minor in art, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2002.

Life in Seattle
Shortly after moving to Seattle, Schaber did a cannonball off the 167-foot high George Washington Memorial Bridge while intoxicated. He broke his spine and spent nine days in the hospital. A steel rod was used to repair his back. He is one of only 30 people to have survived the 15-story plunge into Lake Union from the bridge.

While studying for his degree at the University of Washington, he wrote for the school newspaper The Daily. One of his articles was titled "Flatulence is natural – free a fart". Many of Schaber's articles generated responses from the readers.

Schaber was a bartender for the Blue Moon Tavern and while he worked there he painted images of the presidents above the urinals in the men's room. Schaber said, "We called them the Presidential Fountains. People could go in and cast their ballot." He enjoyed modern art. He owned a custom-built guitar made from an old bike that was showcased at Make magazines Best of Maker Faire 2008. He owned an art car and was involved with the Burning Man group of artists. He worked on the political news show Deface the Nation with Jeff Pearson.

The Seattle Monolith
Early on New Year's Day 2001, a monolith mysteriously appeared on Kite Hill in Seattle's Magnuson Park. The monolith was similar to the one in Stanley Kubrick's movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. There was no indication of how it got there or who put it there. The event made front-page news in The Seattle Times'. The media dubbed the object the Seattle Monolith as the news traveled across the United States and other nations.

On January 3, the monolith disappeared as mysteriously as it had appeared. The monolith was later found on an island in the middle of Seattle's Green Lake. Schaber came forward as a spokesperson for a group called Some People, who created the monolith, stating they had installed the artwork but didn't know who moved it to Duck Island. The group wanted help to retrieve the artwork and asked for permission to have it reinstalled at Magnuson Park. Schaber became a bit of a celebrity during this period and remarked that "We're just pleased that we were able to send a positive message out to the world from Seattle."

Race for mayor
In April 2001, Schaber declared his intention to run for mayor of Seattle. Although he did not believe he would win, he took the race very seriously. He felt the police department should have cops on the beat in local neighborhoods. He supported the Monorail and he thought the city should have a permanent tent city for the homeless. Gus Hellthaler, owner of the Blue Moon Tavern, helped with Schaber's campaign.

Combat journalist
In 2004, Schaber traveled to Iraq as a combat journalist embedded with the Nevada National Guard. Schaber covered the war on the front line. Schaber spent ten months covering the war in Afghanistan when he was embedded with the Indiana National Guard in 2006.

Death
On April 17, 2009, Schaber died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Gerlach, Nevada. Schaber had been suffering from post traumatic stress disorder for several years. Memorials in Schaber's honor were held in multiple places across the country, including:
 Buchanan, Michigan
 Reno, Nevada
 Seattle, Washington
 San Francisco, California (Ocean Beach)
 Gerlach, Nevada (Frog Pond)
 Austin (Dead End)

Legacy

A scholarship in Schaber's name was established for the study of visual arts at Lake Michigan College.

A biographical feature film (which originally began as a co-written treatment in 2007) based on Caleb's life, times, art, writing and videography during the recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars has recently resumed pre-production after a period of mourning by the filmmakers, who were longtime friends of Caleb's before his untimely passing. Through the telling of his life story, the filmmakers wish to celebrate Caleb's DIY spirit as well as offer an empathetic, entertaining portrait of a complex individual whose way of life raised as many eyebrows as it did spirits (both in the bottle and with sentient beings) around the world. Along with the feature film, a book Caleb was working on is also slated for completion and release.

See also
 Seattle Monolith
 Burning Man
 The Daily of the University of Washington

References

External links
 Official website
 , Schaber's news company
 Caleb Schaber's blog from the war in Iraq (2004)
 Caleb Schaber's blog from the war in Afghanistan (2006)
 Caleb Schaber's blog from the war in Iraq (2007)
 Caleb's New Stuff, Schaber's site at WordPress
 , Caleb Schaber's vanity site at the Internet Archive
 Caleb Schaber's MySpace page
 Schaber and the Seattle Monolith (2011)

1973 births
2009 deaths
Journalists from Michigan
People from Niles, Michigan
Artists from Seattle
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
American war correspondents
War correspondents of the Iraq War
War correspondents of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
2009 suicides
Suicides by firearm in Nevada

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https://lonzowire.usatoday.com/2018/04/16/jordan-crawford-lavar-ball-lonzo-ball-big-baller-brand-pelicans-nba-playoffs/
Jordan Crawford thinks LaVar Ball's Big Baller Brand is 'genius'
Jordan Crawford has every reason to be stoked on the Big Baller Brand these days. The New Orleans Pelicans guard is "still in talks" with LaVar Ball's apparel company about an endorsement deal, after he became the first player other than Lonzo Ball to wear the Los Angeles Lakers rookie's signature shoe (the ZO2 Prime Remix) in an NBA game.
That decision by Crawford to put real wear and tear on his $695 kicks will soon pay off in shipments of those shoes to sport for the Pelicans' playoff run, with the potential for negotiations to continue over the summer. But as the 29-year-old Detroit native told HoopsHype.com's Alex Kennedy, his support for the Triple Bs is way bigger than basketball.
"I see the vision. It's a black-owned business and it's entrepreneurship," Crawford said. "It was smart that instead of signing on with someone else and letting that company use their likeness, LaVar just started a company of his own with his kids so they can use their own likenesses and take advantage of the opportunities. In this era, it's like he's taking people to business school without them having to sit in class, you know? It's genius, for real."
Big Baller Brand reportedly 'in talks' with Pelicans' Jordan Crawford
In the Big Baller Brand, Crawford sees a desire by the Ball family to use its "power to empower others." That includes allowing its endorsers to wear shoes from more established competitors like Nike, Adidas and Under Armour.
"They would definitely give the freedom to do things that haven't been done before," he said. "I think that's the beauty of it. With this platform that I have and the platform that they have, a lot of new things can come out of it."
Among those new things: charting a course toward independence and control that young athletes can follow. To that end, Crawford could be a pied piper for a movement that could reshape the world of sports business.
"Once high school players, college players and other NBA players see that and understand, I think more will [sign with Big Baller Brand]," he said. "That's kind of why I'm so on board with it. I want other NBA players, college players and high school players to see that, so they can start thinking as an individual rather than just following the systematic way of doing things."
As Crawford sees it, that novel approach may be part of the reason LaVar has become a pariah in some corners of the court of public opinion.
"He's definitely misunderstood. But that's always going to happen when you aren't doing the norm," Crawford explained. "People think the norm is signing a five-year endorsement deal and you get crumbs of what they're making off of you. But more important than an endorsement deal is equity and ownership. That lasts forever."
Would the Big Baller Brand offer that same power of self-determination to Crawford? Is that what he's looking to get out of a groundbreaking shoe deal, beyond the merchandise?
That all remains unclear. At the moment, the only outcome that seems anywhere near certainty is that Crawford will be rocking ZO2s for the Pelicans this postseason, however long it persists past New Orleans' Game 1 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Jordan Crawford covers up Nike symbol ahead of Big Baller Brand deal
LaVar Ball: Hornets 'don't understand what they got' in LiAngelo
LaVar is ready for LiAngelo to join LaMelo on the Charlotte Hornets.
Lavar Ball announces new Big Baller Brand luxury lifestyle shoe
Big Baller Brand is back like it never left!
LaVar Ball sports 'I Told You So!' hat at LiAngelo's debut
More LaVar Ball
LaVar Ball


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Social Node
on the social consequences of emerging tech
Ingress - A Precursor of the World to Come
With over 500K active players, Ingress, the Google-funded augmented reality game for Android, is about to exit Beta and already marks a notable step forward in gaming and interactive media. As it scales, it could have a major psychological and material impact on our world.
Ingress as Indicator: Futurists, tech bloggers, entrepreneurs, investors and sci-fi writers all spend much time scouring the world for interesting signals from the edge to identify emerging trends or even the next big thing. In the past decade, many have zeroed in on gamification, augmented reality and the ongoing mobile explosion as important zones of development. Residing squarely at the intersection of these potent growth areas is Ingress, the quirky augmented reality game that hearkens to visions of the future contained in works like Snow Crash, Otherland and Rainbows End. As I've played the game (I'm up to Level 7 of 8), I've come to believe that it's an important precursor of things to come.
Gameplay: Created by Niantic Labs, an internal Google startup that's technically autonomous from the parent company, Ingress is both simple and very complex. Fundamentally, it splits players into two teams, Resistance & Enlightenment, that play in the context of a sci-fi storyline that progresses week-to-week. The two massive sides battle, in real-time, to control and link portals located at real-life places of interest such as libraries, museums, post offices, restaurants, murals, etc. You play by walking or driving around to portals and capturing them, then linking the portals together into triangles called control fields. Whichever team has the highest # of human population contained beneath their control fields is considered the current global leader. Notably, players can also earn points for submitting new portal by providing GPS tagged location photos.
Flying Under the Radar: Boasting a large, highly engaged player base, Ingress is a fascinating case study on multiple levels. But it's been able to fly under the radar largely due to the popular perception that it's purely a game. Expect that perception to change as the Ingress platform continues to evolve and bloggers and other experts continue to notice its traction and potential impact on information gathering, work and social interaction.
10 reasons to pay attention to Google's great Ingress experiment
The Hanke Factor: Ingress is the brainchild of John Hanke, the creator of Keyhole, which was purchased by Google and then became Google Earth. Hanke went on to work as Google's VP of Product Management overseeing the impressive Geo division (Google Earth, Maps, Places, Local, StreetView, SketchUp, and Panoramio) and then created Niantic Labs as an autonomous entity under the Google umbrella. He's a big-thinker and achiever with a great feel for launching geo-products and platforms utilized by billions who is unlikely to waste his time on something not-massive. In light of CEO Larry Page's focus on projects with massive scaling potential and his reported desire to keep Hanke and Niantic in-house, it's obvious that Google views Ingress as more than just a game. Among other things, it's an attempt to create a new mobile-phone-based system that can extend Google's information gathering abilities into the rapidly emerging geosocial sphere.
Serious Traction: In just under a year of closed beta 500k+ users are actively playing Ingress. I was lucky to receive an early invite and have played on-and-off since January. I very much enjoy the game, though many of my less techy friends regard it as big time-suck. Much like foursquare, it's mostly appealing to geeks, gamers and early adopters. What sets Ingress apart is its well-designed gameplay, competitive structure and compelling secondary world & storyline. With some basic tweaks, it could relatively easily become an informational gusher for Google Places, which should make Yelp nervous and Foursquare incredibly so.
Augmented Engagement: To date, there are very few examples of augmented or mediated reality games capable of garnering user participation and changing their real-world behavior. Geo-caching has been around for decades, but is a lone-wolf game with limited adoption. Foursquare was a breakout success, but appears to have stalled somewhat. Considering the level of participation required, cooperation required and sheer # of active players (who spend a lot of time coordinating with one another and traveling from portal to portal), Ingress, to my mind, is the most successful augmented reality game on Earth to date. This augmented engagement accomplishment is an important benchmark for a new class of technology that will likely power or catalyze new work and entertainment behaviors. Naturally it's Google that has perceived this potential value and invested heavily. Mix in rapidly evolving mobile devices such as Google Glass, which Hanke and the Ingress team are already messing around with, and the feasible near-term future of engaged augmented gaming gets very interesting.
Next-Gen Gamification: The idea that software-mediated games might serve as the interface for many future systems, ranging from social media to ordinary task management, caught fire in recent years. Made possible by powerful smartphones, growing bandwidth and better backend capabilities, the underlying Ingress platform represents the bleeding-edge of gamification. Some potent future capabilities can be extrapolated from a seemingly innocuous portion of the game that rewards players for submitting GPS tagged photos of interesting locations to become new portals. It's no stretch to imagine that Google could apply the Ingress backbone to expand its Street View capabilities. Considering that Ingress players are now helping Google to quantify places of interest for free, imagine how these crowd-sourced mapping efforts will be amplified as cameras improve, bandwidth grows, new sensors are added to mobile phones (such as a miniaturized Matterport or Bublcam device), augmented reality gets real, gameplay gets better and financial and/or other participation incentives are increased.
RL Social Interaction: A popular and valid criticism of social media and video games is that they fuel anti-social, glued-to-the-screen behavior. Contrasted with the likes of Facebook and Call of Duty, my time playing Ingress actually rewards me for moving about the real world and interacting with other players. My girlfriend and I enjoy playing the game together and find that it can increase our weekly physical exercise (which the game actually measures). It's refreshing and illuminating to see technology making that possible. At the same time, the flipside of increased gas and bandwidth usage is a valid new age concern and interesting edge indicator.
Media Component: Ingress utilizes a complex sci-fi storyline to structure its gameplay. Weekly video updates are released by in-game "reporters". Factions work together in the context of this information to score more points and gain prestige. It's hard to tell what sort of an impact this has had on engagement, but my guess is that it's very important for super users and also helps retain general users. Seeing rich media storylines in video games and now in augmented reality games suggests that rich narrative structures and secondary worlds will play an important role in the ongoing roll-out of social media and the metaverse.
Future of Advertising: Having worked on a pair of augmented reality startups (in3d, a 3d modeling and video company, and Swarmado, a content harvesting game for groups at events) I appreciate the importance of an underlying financial model that can support the software, server and human superstructure required by these ventures. By-and-large, advertising is the go-to strategy (though a few choice companies can bypass this if purchased for their sheer informational value or future potential). The holy grail of location-based advertising is generally considered to be any system that can meaningfully drive foot traffic to locations where its currently not. In this regard, Ingress could be a smashing success. Through partnerships with Jamba Juice and Zipcar, Niantic is actively exploring this option. I'll be following new developments closely to see what strategies emerge and how closely they resemble or depart from those we hatched at in3d and Swarmado. :) There certainly are many potentially lucrative options for any system with a large user base and high engagement.
Privacy Concerns: Privacy concerns can be tinderboxes that cause unwelcome flare-ups for info-oriented companies like Google. Streetview has already drawn serious market backlashes in various regions such as Germany. As Google inevitably seeks to input more information about the world, the company carefully considers the social and political implications of its behavior. Though Hanke has stated his preference for start-up culture as the reason for Niantic Labs' separation from parent Google, we should also consider the possibility that Page and Hanke both want to ensure the public and governments view the two as separate entities so as not to add to Google's image as a great datavore. Ingress has already taken some heat for its info ingestion from bloggers and in forums, so that looks to have been a good call. As the project moves forward and the game evolves it could become a critical, perhaps revolutionary, tool for systematically gathering information about the world via swarms. It could become a mini-Google.
Human Resources: 1) Imagine if Ingress, or a version of Ingress based on the same principles or backbone, established itself as a real-deal information generator. Then, 2) imagine if it became a formal part of the broader Google system. Such a gaming system could incrementally reward millions of player-workers for the data they input or even serve as a soft "play-in" layer for vetting future Google employees. Utilizing game-based systems for HR purposes could become increasingly effective and popular in the coming decades.
The Google Factor: As listed above, there are many reasons for Google's interest in a social, info-valuable augmented reality gaming system like Ingress. It's even conceivable that such a company could pose a future threat to the search behemoth. To my mind, Google's interest in Ingress reinforces its solid strategic vision of the near-future and that the company is making very smart bets on technologies that could both threaten or amplify its core potential. As a part of Google, Ingress could add billions to its market cap. Independent, or as part of a competitor, the quirky game might have become a major, central threat to Google.
Now that Ingress is moving out of Beta (it no longer requires an invite, you can get your Android download here) and onto iOS in 2014, you can confidently expect to catch many more smartphone-wielders to silently, or not so silently, playing the game all around you. Whether you find it to be a gigantic waste of time, gas and bandwidth, or a revolutionary new economic system, it's an edge indicator that's at least bound to garner hype and headlines for years to come. Seriously.
Have any thoughts or information you'd like to share? Pleas leave a comment!
Building Human-Level A.I. Will Require Billions of People
The Great AI hunger appears poised to quickly replace and then exceed the income flows it has been eliminating. If we follow the money, we can confidently expect millions, then billions of machine-learning support roles to emerge in the very near-term, majorly limiting if not reversing widespread technological unemployment. Human-directed machine learning has emerged as the dominant process for the creation of Weak AI such as language translation, computer vision, search, drug discovery and logistics management. I ncreasingly, it appears Strong AI , aka AGI or "human-level" AI, will be achieved by bootstrapping machine learning at scale, which will require billions of humans in-the-loop . How does human-in the-loop machine learning work? The process of training a neural net to do something useful, say the ability to confidently determine whether a photo has been taken indoors or outside, requires feeding it input content, in this case thousands of diff
Google Earth Adds Virtual Time Travel, Moves a Step Closer to Gelernter's Mirror World Vision
Not only did Google add an ocean to its Earth platform today , the company also enabled "Historical Imagery", a new feature that brings to life a crude version of what Yale computer scientist David Gelernter 's 1992 prediction of the planet on a "time toggle". The Google Blog: Until today, Google Earth displayed only one image of a given place at a given time. With this new feature, you can now move back and forth in time to reveal imagery from years and even decades past, revealing changes over time. Try flying south of San Francisco in Google Earth and turning on the new time slider (click the "clock" icon in the toolbar) to witness the transformation of Silicon Valley from a farming community to the tech capital of the world over the past 50 years or so. Along with a new 3d Mars feature, the additions have increased the scope and resolution of the largest publicly accessible simulation of our physical system, thus expanding the Google's information sc
Ukraine to Test Transparent, Blockchain-powered Voting System
A handful of Ukrainian government officials, several Ukrainian NGOs and blockchain businesses Ambisafe, Distributed Lab and Kitsoft have announced a partnership to test and gradually implement a transparent, blockchain-based voting system in Ukraine. The move to the blockchain marks a next logical step in Ukraine's recent experiments with e-voting systems. Press Release Analysis
About Alvis Brigis
Alvis Brigis
Earlier Blog Posts (by Month)
accelerating change
ballmer
C.O.P.E.
cascio
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community genomics
declaraticetechnology
exponential information
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text:
The 1965 PGA Tour season was played from January 8 to November 28. The season consisted of 40 official money events. Jack Nicklaus won the most tournaments, five, and there were six first-time winners. Jack Nicklaus was the leading money winner with earnings of $140,752. Dave Marr was voted the PGA Player of the Year and Billy Casper won the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average.

Schedule
The following table lists official events during the 1965 season.

Unofficial events
The following events were sanctioned by the PGA Tour, but did not carry official money, nor were wins official.

Money leaders
The money list was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in U.S. dollars.

Awards

Notes

References

External links
PGA Tour official site

PGA Tour seasons
PGA Tour


text:
Episode 5.5 | The Turn On x Mistress Envy
On Episode 5.5 of The Turn On, we interview Mistress Envy, author of "Erotic Confessions of the Mildly Perverse: A Collection of Short Stories."
Book, "Erotic Confessions of the Mildly Perverse: A Collection of Short Stories": Amazon
Author, Mistress Envy: Instagram
Kenrya: Today, we're hype to talk to Mistress Envy, who wrote and self-published "Erotic Confessions of the Mildly Perverse," a collection of short stories back in 2018. Hey, Mistress Envy.
Mistress Envy: Hey, hey, hey.
Kenrya: Hey, we're glad you're here. But first off, what are your preferred pronouns?
Mistress Envy: She, her, is fine.
Kenrya: Awesome. Thank you. Can you tell us what you do in one sentence?
Mistress Envy: I make love to your mind with my naughty stories.
Kenrya: I love that there's love and there's naughtiness. It's a nice balance.
Mistress Envy: There you go, yay.
Kenrya: That's awesome. So have you always been a writer or was this a new venture for you?
Mistress Envy: I always wrote things here and there. When I was younger, like in high school, I would write poems or little short stories, but the whole erotica came about because I was in a relationship, a sexless relationship, so that that was my outlet when I tried it.
Kenrya: That sounds like a tragedy.
Mistress Envy: It was horrible.
Kenrya: Why was it sexless? See, I'm about to get all in your business. You just didn't want it?
Mistress Envy: Oh no, it was never my... Oh, no, it's never my fault, because I feel like I probably want it too much. I want it all the time, every day. There's not a time when I don't want to. He wasn't down for the get down. He would say things like, "Something wrong with you, you want to do it too much." I was, "What? This should be like every man's fantasy, let's get it." So, yeah that's how I started writing.
Kenrya: Oh, Lord, all right. I mean I guess you gotta find an outlet somewhere.
Mistress Envy: Yeah. It didn't last too much longer though after that though. It really didn't.
Erica: Well, I'm sad that that's the origin story of the book.
Mistress Envy: Don't be, don't be.
Erica: Your fans are very grateful that he sucked.
Mistress Envy: Well thank you.
Erica: Turning lemons into lemonade.
Mistress Envy: There you go.
Kenrya: Nice.
Erica: Well obviously your name is not Mistress Envy. We know your mama didn't name you that.
Mistress Envy: Correct.
Erica: So, why did you choose to write under a pseudonym?
Mistress Envy: Because I feel like Mistress Envy and my government name are two separate people and you have a regular government nine to five. I didn't want too many people knowing where it was, maybe, you know, afraid for my employment so I could start writing books full time. So that's why I chose to go by Mistress Envy.
Kenrya: I know that's real. I mean not everyone has the same amount of respect for this work, which obviously we think is ridiculous because this is our work.
Mistress Envy: Right.
Kenrya: But I dig the practicalities of making sure you're okay.
Erica: So, as we talk about the work that we do, we learned by reading your bio that once upon a time you worked as an exotic dancer. What was the best thing about doing that work?
Mistress Envy: The money.
Erica: Hands down. No pause.
Mistress Envy: The money. It was always about the money, I guess. I don't know. For me that was always my motivation, the money. It was not glamorous, and all that. To me, it was to get in and get out. You know what I need.
Kenrya: Did you have any friends who danced who did it for other reasons or was that really the prevailing thing?
Mistress Envy: I knew some women who did it for other reasons. They were doing something strange for a piece of change. I feel like I lot of women that I encountered doing that type of work, some of them were about their money, but a lot of them was like into some other stuff.
Kenrya: Was it about power play?
Mistress Envy: I think it was a combination of the power, yes, but also the ones who would just... I've seen a woman get a man like stupid drunk so she could just constantly keep swiping his card or keep going in his wallet and I was like, "Wow. This life is not for me." I did it enough to get what I needed to get it and I was done.
Kenrya: Well, I think we all have our different thresholds, right?
Kenrya: Yeah. Yeah, and that was what worked for them. But that's interesting.
Kenrya: What would you say, we know what the best thing was, what was the most challenging thing about doing that work?
Mistress Envy: The misconception of, because you're a stripper, you're also a prostitute. You know, like you out here shaking it, then you definitely sucking and fucking. So no, in my situation, that's not what it was. That was the toughest thing about it.
Kenrya: How often, was it a frequent thing where men got out of out of pocket?
Mistress Envy: Oh, yes, all the time. All the time. They try you, you know what I mean? They've succeeded with other women. Why not try it?
Kenrya: It's just like, I mean to that point of they figure at least it'll work once. It's just like all the raggedy things that they try to say to women and hopes-
Kenrya: It only takes one.
Mistress Envy: Yup. That's all it takes.
Erica: When you were, and I don't want to, we're definitely gonna talk about your writing at some point...
Kenrya: But this is like a bridge.
Erica: When you were dancing, how did you set those boundaries of keeping yourself walled off from clients or people getting a little too personal or assuming things or feeling like because you do this they have access to you.
Mistress Envy: Yeah, sometimes you can tell before you even start the conversation of would you like a dance? You can kind of tell what a man is already on, how he's behaving when you're on the stage, or how he's been treating other dancers in the club. I would kinda be keen to that, like, "Oh, okay, I see what he about. I'm not in the mood for that, like no, there's no time." But then you get the ones who are overly aggressive, and if that happens, like get your hands off of me, you to have to go type stuff. But some men, when they are in that environment they don't take no for an answer.
Mistress Envy: Yeah. You just gotta be strong.
Kenrya: It sounds like you have to do a lot of advocating for yourself in those situations.
Mistress Envy: You do. Absolutely.
Erica: How did these experiences inform your writing?
Mistress Envy: Oh my goodness. I feel like a lot of my writing comes from a lot of things in around about way that I experienced in my life. So, that whole time doing that and dancing, it gave me more fuel for when I write sleazy characters in my story, or nasty things I've seen or witnessed. That adds the spice, the finishing touches to my story.
Erica: Helps color in some of those details.
Mistress Envy: Yeah. Uh huh.
Kenrya: So speaking of your stories, in this book you've got six stories and they run the gamut from chicks who have pep talks with they pussies, to women who are stepping out with the young jawn across the street. How did you settle on this particular mix of stories?
Mistress Envy: Oh it was really tough. It was so tough because I wrote quite a few. I would read little snippets to my friends to say, "Which one did you really like and be honest?" But still, I'm artist and I'm sensitive about my shit. What would you really want to want to see or hear and it was overwhelming. I didn't have a choice. I had to put 'Young Thing' in there or several people were going to be mad. For me that's not even my favorite story. But okay.
Erica: That was what hooked me. I was like, Oh, really. All right.
Kenrya: Alright, so which one is your favorite?
Mistress Envy: Oh my God, "The Anniversary."
Kenrya: Ooh. Oh. I don't know if y'all have read this yet, but we didn't do that one. It's the one that closes out the book right? Is that the last one?
Mistress Envy: Oh, the last one is "My Sister's Husband."
Kenrya: Oh, oh. Yeah. Y'all need to get--
Mistress Envy: I love it.
Erica: In our full episode, we read two short stories. First one we read is "The Tease," and that story, just so we can set the scene, we meet a woman who is having trouble telling her body what to do when her little friend denies her sex. So have you ever been in a situation where your mind is saying one thing and your pussy's like "No, bitch. I'm ignoring you."
Mistress Envy: Yes. I used to be like a fuckboy magnet, you know he wouldn't shoot, but the dick would be amazing. My vagina was telling me all the time, "I don't care he don't have no job, a place to stay. His dick is amazing." So yeah.
Kenrya: He can stay in this pussy.
Mistress Envy: Right. That's what I'm saying. Why does he need to sleep? I've got a bed for him. Totally, totally been in that situation.
Kenrya: So, in "The Train," we had a whole another situation. We have a woman who was fantasizing about her coworker, and then she uses her hand and get off at work. Are you a fan of the hand or do you have other favorite tools and toys for getting off?
Mistress Envy: See, I'm not a fan of the hand and I don't know, maybe something's wrong with me. I can't get down on my hand. I literally have to have something battery operated or you plug into the wall to get me going. I'm just not a fan of the hand.
Kenrya: I'm not either. I mean I feel like it will be convenient if that worked well.
Kenrya: But, she just slid up on her desk and was like, eh!
Kenrya: Well for me, I have to get all my stuff out.
Mistress Envy: Exactly.
Kenrya: It's a right there, but it's still a thing that I have to pull out and do, but yeah, I'm a fan of tools too. What about you?
Erica: Well, I will tell you desperate times call for desperate measures. Personal story, I am not a... I too, desire in generally need a toy or some sort of extra help. But when you really riled up, all you got to do is touch it.
Kenrya: You make it happen.
Erica: I can make it happen, Captain.
Mistress Envy: Oh great. Hilarious.
Kenrya: Yeah, I'm not talented.
Mistress Envy: Me either.
Kenrya: I mean, I probably need to practice. I mean we were legit on the last episode talking about practicing and like why it's important for more women to spend time with themselves. One, just so you don't have to have somebody else and you don't end up in them situations where your pussy is able to win out cause she deprived. But, also so that you can figure out what works when you are with a partner, because it's hard to tell the partner with to do if you don't know what to do.
Kenrya: One thing that we love is that you're entrepreneurial. You didn't just write this book, you published it too. Could you tell us a little bit about the self publishing process?
Mistress Envy: Oh sure, sure, sure. Well, I have wonderful friends with who wear many, many hats. My one friend, she is a published author, she wrote a self help book, an adult coloring boo and I told her, you know, I want to publish my own book. She came right over to my house, explained the steps to me. Basically, it was really simple. I did it through Amazon, through KDP publishing, and it really walks you through the process. I feel like that was way easier than actually writing the story.
Mistress Envy: Yeah. I expected to be a big ordeal, and it absolutely wasn't. I would recommend anyone who wants to self publish a book, go out there, do it.
Kenrya: That's pretty cool, because I imagine that that keeps a lot of folks from getting out what they have in them is because you're worried about what that publishing process is going to look like.
Mistress Envy: Exactly, and for KDP through Amazon, for erotica, they're pretty much liberal. I was so worried like, "Oh my God, I'm saying nasty shit in his book. Amazon isn't going to put it out there." It was like I was 14, I'm so nervous, and they were like, "We just don't allow pretty much anything with children or animals, that type of thing." Oh cool. But no, none of that. I don't cross that line when I write erotica. It was so stress free after that point, like, "Oh, I got this. It's nothing."
Kenrya: Wait, wait. KDP is that Kindle Direct Publishing?
Mistress Envy: Yep.
Kenrya: Okay, cool. How long did it take you to actually write the book?
Mistress Envy: Oh, I felt like it took forever. It took many, many, many years because I wrote a story, like I said, when I was in that horrible relationship, that was, I don't know, 15 years ago. In between that time, I just kept writing random thoughts, and then they turned into all these sentences, and then it was a book. So, from the time I really felt like, "Oh, I'm going to write this book," until it was actually published. I'd say it was less than a year, because once I get in the mode of "Oh, I'm ready to write," it just comes out. It just comes out. So, it didn't take long at all.
Kenrya: No. That's pretty cool.
Erica: Yeah it is. When can we expect your next book?
Mistress Envy: You know, I get that question all the time. My Deviants, that's what I call my fans, my Deviants keep asking that. Well, they should be happy because I've already started it. I've actually started my first story. It's going to be a collection of short stories again. It's going to be called "Smush," the first story, I'll let you just run wild with it. I'm not going to give any info, but I call it "Smush."
Kenrya: We need air horns. I don't know how to do those.
Mistress Envy: Y'all are hilarious. I'm really pushing to having this done by the end of the year because I'm really in a writing mood. I'm in a good space so the words are just flowing out.
Kenrya: Yes. That's always the best.
Mistress Envy: Yes, it is.
Kenrya: Like you can't even stop it if you wanted to, right?
Mistress Envy: Yeah. That's pretty dope.
Kenrya: Okay. So we are really glad that you were able to join us and even, I mean, attached to that, really excited that you let us share your book with our readers. I think a bunch of them are going to pick it up, and they're going gonna love it as much as we did. For the folks who are waiting on "Smush," because I mean I am, where can they find you?
Mistress Envy: Well, all my deviants follow me on the Instagram. That's what my mom calls it, the Instagram, the Facebook, the all that. But, on the Instagram it's @MistressEtheauthor. Simple. You can find me there. Go ahead, Check out the page. I may have to accept a request as you can just imagine the type of people who've been contacting me.
Kenrya: Listen, we already have crazy stuff.
Mistress Envy: So I had to make it private for a second. However, for the sake of this wonderful, wonderful interview I've done, I am going to have the page public so you can get a little taste of the little quickies that I provide to my Deviants. So, make sure you follow me.
Kenrya: Okay. Y'all heard her. Make sure you follow.
Erica: This week's episode was produced by us, Erica, and Kenrya, and edited by B'Lystic. The theme song is from Brazy. Please subscribe to this show on your favorite podcast app. Follow us on Twitter @theturnonpod and Instagram @theturnonpodcast and find links to books, transcripts, guest info, and other fun stuff at TheTurnOnPodcast.com. Bye.