After years of barbecuing and grilling, I accidentally tripped on what's now my favorite for the best BBQ chicken on the grill recipe! A few years ago I tried grilling salmon on cedar planks for the first time. Now I never grill salmon any other way.
So, one day I wanted to do something different with a whole chicken and since I didn't have any beer for the usual beer can chicken, I thought I'd try grilling it on a cedar plank. WOW! was all I could say when I took it off the grill and took the first bite. Not only did the chicken get infused with that wonderful cedar flavor, but talk about moist. I didn't even realize how juicy the chicken would be because it was cooked with indirect heat while sitting on the blank. Now I have a hard time grilling chicken, whether whole or quartered, any other way. It's just tooooo good!
RULE #1 SOAK THE CEDAR PLANK!
The whole purpose of using the plank is to get a good smoke. If you don't soak the board for at least 30 minute, it's too dry and will burn up quickly. It's not as important to soak it that long when you do Salmon since salmon really only takes a few minutes to cook. A whole chicken on the other hand, needs about an hour to cook so you don't want your board burning up before the chicken is done.
Cooking Time & Temperature: We will be cooking HOT, about 375°F to 400°F. (sometimes my grill gets hotter than that but I end up settling down around the 375 mark.
Proper BBQ Grill: You can use a smoker or any charcoal grill as long as it has a cover, decent vents for controlling airflow. Gas grill, hummm, I'm not a fan of gas, but if you have a gas grill, okay. Needless to say, gas is easier to keep the temperature consistent but I think hardwood charcoal is the only way to go.
Charcoal: Hardwood Charcoal. It's just the best, period. But do NOT use any lighter fluid of any kind. Use a chimney starter. I've been using these for years. Not only are they quick and easy, but you save the money on not having to buy starter fluid. And, most importantly, you never have the nasty smell or risk getting that starter fluid flavor into your food.
1.) Rinse the chicken and remove giblets etc. Rinse inside and out. I like my chicken really clean before I grill it.
2.) Be sure it's fully thawed. In a rush I've quick thawed a chicken before and put it on the grill to find out later that the outside is over done but the very center is still cold and blood red. Not good!
3) Rub. Coat the meat with your favorite BBQ spice rub. Inside and out! With a whole chicken, I make sure and coat the outside well AND coat the inside so you get as much flavor of the spice into the meat as possible. You can do a lot of flavor variation at this step. You can go with lemon and/or limes for a citrus flavor, go with an herb mix, or any rub recipe you like. My personal favorite happens to be a Sweet Mesquite Seasoning that I buy at the local Costco store which I've not duplicated with a recipe of my own yet. It has what I'd call a sweet southwest flavor. Here are a few spice rub recipes you can try or take a look at our wide selection of BBQ dry rub recipes.
Here's a more common Chicken spice rub. Has what I'd call a more Thanksgiving flavor because of the sage and thyme in the spice mix.
Once your grill is at the right temperature and all the coals are good and hot, put the whole chicken, breast side up, on the cedar plank and put it in the center of the grill directly over the coals. You want good heat directly under the cedar plank so the cedar will smoke through the whole cooking process. I normally have the coals lowered so they aren't too close to the grill. Otherwise you can burn up the board if it's too close. Chicken should be cooked (depending on size) 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes. All depends on the heat and size of the chicken. You can use a thermometer if you like, but I always use the "until the juices run clear" principle. I just cut into it and make sure it's cooked to the center and no blood runs out. If you are using a thermometer, the chicken should bet to 170°F.


text:
We Showed How Easy It Is to Commit Health Care Fraud. Now Senators Want to Close the Loophole.
Post author By by Marshall Allen
Tags Health Care, Health Insurance Hustle
Four United States senators have introduced a bipartisan bill to close a little-known, but gaping, loophole that allows scammers to plunder commercial insurers by posing as licensed medical providers.
The Medical License Verification Act, introduced Thursday, comes in response to a July ProPublica story that showed how absurdly easy it is to commit health care fraud, which experts say could be costing Americans hundreds of billions of dollars a year. ProPublica told the story of David Williams, a Texas personal trainer and convicted felon, who represented himself as a licensed physician when he applied for National Provider Identifiers, the unique numbers required by the federal government to bill insurance plans.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administers the NPI program. But ProPublica found that it did not verify whether applicants had valid medical licenses, which could be done easily by checking with state licensing boards. That missing step allowed Williams to collect at least 20 different NPI numbers and bill some of the nation's most prominent health insurers, Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare, for millions of dollars in bogus medical services.

The insurance companies auto-paid the claims without checking to see if Williams had a license. Over more than four years, Williams filed more than $25 million in false claims with the companies, reaping more than $4 million. Some insurers actually sent him letters noting he wasn’t a doctor and was filing false claims, but they continued to pay new claims anyway. In 2018, a jury convicted him of health care fraud and he’s now in federal prison.

At his trial, investigators for the insurers said that their companies assume people are being honest when they file claims.The insurers told ProPublica it wasn't easy to stop the fraud because Williams billed them using different organization names and tax identification numbers.
The proposed Medical License Verification Act would require Medicare to verify that an NPI applicant's license is valid and in good standing before approving an NPI number. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., called it a "commonsense step" in a statement released by the legislators. Consumers pay for fraud losses, Scott said, so the proposal will "prevent bad actors from defrauding families."
Cracking down on unlicensed providers will prevent fraud and lower health care costs across the board, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said in the statement. The bill was also signed by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. The bill's next step is to be assigned to a committee, where it will be considered, according to Scott's spokeswoman.

Read More

<img alt src="https://assets.propublica.org/images/articles/_threeTwo400w/20190719-npi-health-insurance-3x2.gif" width="400" height="267" srcset="https://assets.propublica.org/images/articles/_threeTwo400w/20190719-npi-health-insurance-3x2.gif 400w, https://assets.propublica.org/images/articles/_threeTwo800w/20190719-npi-health-insurance-3x2.gif 800w, https://assets.propublica.org/images/articles/_threeTwo1200w/20190719-npi-health-insurance-3x2.gif 1200w" sizes="(min-width: 1720px) 335px, (min-width: 960px) calc(18.38vw + 23px), (min-width: 780px) 18.75vw, (min-width: 600px) 27.5vw, 43.21vw">

A Medicare official said the agency does not comment on proposed legislation. The trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, better known as AHIP, did not reply to a request for comment about the proposed legislation.

In the Williams case, the insurers and regulators were slow to stop the personal trainer's fraud even though his ex-wife and her father, Jim Pratte, had been reporting the criminal activity to them. Pratte said Thursday that he was pleased to hear about lawmakers' proposal to block scammers like Williams from easily getting NPI numbers. Politicians have talked for years about how to pay for the high cost of health care, Pratte said. "One major thing you can do without hurting anybody is cut out the fraud," he said.
The failure of insurers to take prompt action against Williams, and the ease of his fraud, led ProPublica to look at how aggressively such scams are pursued. Across the country, ProPublica found that insurance carriers not only made it easy for fraud to happen, they seldom pursued the fraudsters or referred them for prosecution.

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" » We Showed How Easy It Is to Commit Health Care Fraud. Now Senators Want to Close the Loophole.." by Marshall Allen | Radio Free - Accessed 2022-01-19T17:25:21+00:00. https://www.radiofree.org/2020/02/14/we-showed-how-easy-it-is-to-commit-health-care-fraud-now-senators-want-to-close-the-loophole/
" » We Showed How Easy It Is to Commit Health Care Fraud. Now Senators Want to Close the Loophole.." by Marshall Allen | Radio Free [Online]. Available: https://www.radiofree.org/2020/02/14/we-showed-how-easy-it-is-to-commit-health-care-fraud-now-senators-want-to-close-the-loophole/. [Accessed: 2022-01-19T17:25:21+00:00]
» We Showed How Easy It Is to Commit Health Care Fraud. Now Senators Want to Close the Loophole. | by Marshall Allen | Radio Free | https://www.radiofree.org/2020/02/14/we-showed-how-easy-it-is-to-commit-health-care-fraud-now-senators-want-to-close-the-loophole/ | 2022-01-19T17:25:21+00:00
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text:
What I read in September 2022
The Man From the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann by Ananyo Bhattacharya
This book explores the life of a time-traveler. Someone who theorized, pondered, and invented tools that would create the lives of some and destroy the lives of many. Game theory, quantum mechanics, The Manhattan Project, computers, and the RAND Corporation are just some of the many disciplines which von Neumann dabbled. This book helps explain those wide-reaching fields and the many lives they impacted.
At times during this book, I was a bit lost. Part of that wandering was due to the highly technical chapters that didn't come with any explanation--though I didn't expect much seeing how this book was written by someone with a Ph.D. in physics. But part of that wandering was that this book didn't really explore the "visionary life of John von Neumann" as the subtitle claims. Instead, it explored more of the inventions and fields that the life of John Von Neumann invented. The beginning has the traditional origin story of our main character, but after that, the narrative of his life isn't cohesive. You do, however, learn much about the lives of the people he worked with and the work they produced together. Book notes here.
Leadership by Henry Kissinger
This book profiled six leaders who led during a dramatic half-century. The leaders in this book influenced the world that followed the two colossal world wars that engulfed Europe and its allies. Their duties included reorganizing collapsing governments, cities, and countries; humbly accepting defeat and enduring global embarrassment; attempting to create global peace; and much more. These leaders struggled to create long-term policies when everything that came before was focused on the immediate.
Kissinger's own experience with each of the leaders made this book all the more interesting. There was plenty of research and due diligence from Kissinger that profiled each subject well, but each chapter ended with Kissinger's reflections and lessons from the personal relationships he maintained with each statesman. I didn't know that when I started reading it and it was a welcomed surprise. For some reason, these interactions made each subject more personal and real, not just someone whose name is in the history books a few times. Book notes here.
Solitude and Leadership - An exquisite critique of the current political/bureaucratic systems in higher education and other elite institutions as well as an encouragement to carry the burden of leadership, and with it, the inevitable embrace of solitude.
The History of Blogging by Wikipedia - When you think about it, there are a lot of weird things that have happened. Blogging is one of those weird things. I've always wondered who the first person to put their thoughts online were. This article did a pretty good job of answering some of my questions.
The Steve Jobs Archive - The title gives it away, but this is from their website: "A timeline of quotes, videos, and audio from Steve Jobs." It's all pretty illuminating.
What I've Learnt About Writing by Scientific Discovery - *4 lessons from an editor of science articles. The most eye-opening lesson for me was #2, "Writing is about communicating." The author points out that writing is about communicating information that the writer knows but the reader doesn't. This sounds obvious, but I find myself writing facts/statements that I know are true, but on the surface sound like opinions because I'm assuming my reader has the exact same knowledge that I do. 'Tis not so. *Compliment with Noah Smith's writing advice.
How to make a proper iced coffee - I've been drinking (and making) iced pour-overs for 4 years now and this is the only way I've ever seen it done. Unbeknownst to me, some people make hot coffee and pour that over ice (yikes), so thought I'd share this brilliant method and exceptional documentation.
Engaging with History by Morgan Housel - "The more you see a behavior throughout history, the more you realize how ingrained it is in human behavior, which makes you more confident that it'll be part of our future. It's the only way to forecast with accuracy."
1966 documentary of John Von Neumann


Instagram How to: Instagram is a photo sharing social networks. Today it becomes part of social media sites. It was released in October, 2010. It is today available in 25 languages. It placed initially in Application Shop in simply 24 hours of its launch. Chief Executive Officer of Instagram is Kevin Systrome. Utilizing it we can get much fun as well as journey as well as expertise and various other phases of life. Currently, I will instructs you the best ways to download as well as set up Instagram It likewise covers the essentials of navigating the Instagram interface in addition to taking and uploading pictures.
1. Download and install the Instagram app. You can do this by looking for "Instagram" in your device's app marketplace (e.g., the App Shop on iOS or the Google Play Store on Android) and after that picking the relevant search engine result for download.
2. Open up the Instagram app. To do so, touch the Instagram symbol (it looks like a various colored camera) on among your device's house displays.
3. Create an account by touching Sign up at the bottom of your screen. From here, you'll need to enter your e-mail address, preferred username, password, and also contact number (optional but suggested). You'll also have the possibility to submit an account photo prior to continuing.
- You could choose to add a little bit of individual information in the "About" area as well, including a first and last name or an individual web site.
- If you already have an Instagram account, you can tap Check in below the Instagram login page as well as enter your account login details instead.
4. Select good friends to comply with. After finishing your account production, you'll have an option to choose to discover pals from your contact list, Facebook account, Twitter account, or by hands-on search. Note that you will certainly have to provide Instagram with your Twitter or facebook account information (your e-mail address and also relevant password) before you'll have the ability to pick close friends from either of these platforms.
- You can decide to follow suggested Instagram users by touching the "Adhere to" button next to their name.
- Complying with people allows you to see their posts in your "Home" page.
- You will be able to add pals any time from within your account, even after you produce your account.
5. Select Done when you prepare to proceed. Doing this will certainly take you directly to your Instagram account's Home page, which is where you will certainly see messages from the people you've opted to follow.
- Tap the + icon in the top left corner of your display to videotape as well as upload an Instagram Tale for every one of your fans to see. You'll need to enable Instagram accessibility to your microphone as well as video camera for this to work.
- Tap the delta symbol in the leading right corner of your display to see your Inbox. Straight messages will certainly show up below.
2. View the "Search" web page by tapping the magnifying glass icon. It's to the prompt right of the Residence tab at the end of the display. From here, you can search for accounts and also keywords by keying in the "Search" bar on top of the screen.
- Celebrity Instagram Stories will certainly also show up on this page directly beneath the Browse bar.
3. View your account's activity by touching the heart symbol. It's 2 symbols over from the magnifying glass icon. This is where every one of your in-app alerts will show up (e.g., picture sort and comments, good friend requests, etc.).
- Touch the + icon in the leading left edge of your display to add close friends from Facebook and your get in touches with checklist.
- Touch the equipment or ⋮ in the leading right edge of your display to check out the Instagram choices. You can adjust your account settings and include buddies or social networks accounts from here.
- Tap Edit Account to the right of your profile image to change your name or username, include a biography and/or website, as well as change your private details (e.g., your contact number and also email address).
5. Return to the Residence tab by touching the house-shaped symbol. It remains in the bottom left edge of your screen. If any kind of individuals which you adhere to have posted given that you have actually last visited this page, their new web content will certainly show up below immediately.
- Library - This choice allows you upload an image currently in your library.
- Image - You can take a photo utilizing Instagram's in-app electronic camera below. You'll have to permit Instagram to access your electronic camera prior to taking a picture.
- Video clip - You can record a video making use of Instagram's cam right here. You'll need to allow Instagram to access your microphone initially.
3. Select or take a photo. If you're taking a picture or video, you'll need to tap the round switch towards all-time low of your display to do so.
- If you're picking a pre-existing photo, you'll should touch Next in the top right corner of the screen to proceed.
4. Select a filter for your image. You can do this from all-time low of the display. Today on an average 11 filters are available in your instagram account. The major purpose of it is to earn boring photos fascinating. You can also download Instagram filters. Filters transform the color scheme as well as make-up of your image-- as an example, using the "Moon" filter changes your photo to a washed-out black-and-white shade.
- You could additionally touch Edit in the bottom appropriate edge of the display to change aspects of your picture such as Brightness, Comparison, and Framework.
5. Faucet Following. This is in the top right corner of your screen.
6. Add a subtitle to your photo. You'll do this in the "Write a subtitle" box at the top of the display.
-Faucet Tag People to tag fans in your picture.
-Faucet Include Location to add your existing location to your image's description. You'll have to enable Instagram to access your location solutions to do this.
-Article your photo to your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Flickr account by sliding the essential switch right to the "On" position. You will certainly need to link your Instagram account to the exterior account in question before you can do this.
8. Faucet Share in the top right corner of your screen. You have effectively uploaded your very first Instagram picture!


text:
Trump signals openness to compromise on USPS funding
The president had resoundingly rejected Democrats' proposals as part of his ongoing attack on mail-based voting.
By MATTHEW CHOI and DANIEL LIPPMAN
Updated: 08/14/2020 05:13 PM EDT
President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he would be open to approving additional funding for the U.S. Postal Service if congressional Democrats agree to his legislative agenda on combating the coronavirus pandemic and its accompanying economic crisis.
During a White House news briefing, Fox News' John Roberts asked Trump whether he would accept an additional $25 billion for the Postal Service and over $3 billion that could be used for mailing ballots if Congress were to approve his administration's coronavirus relief proposals.
Trump responded: "Sure, if they give us what we want."
The figures Roberts cited came from House Democrats' opening offer for coronavirus relief, legislation passed in May which stalled in the Republican-held Senate. The bill — dubbed the HEROES Act — included $3.6 billion for "election resilience grants," which could be used for mailing ballots and registration forms to voters.
Trump had resoundingly rejected those proposals as part of his ongoing attack on mail-based voting. The president conceded in an interview with Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo on Thursday that blocking supplemental funding would leave the Postal Service unable to handle the expected volume of mail-in ballots, a maneuver Trump's opponents quickly characterized as an attempt at voter suppression.
But the president's remark Friday hinted at a change in posture, hinging on approval of his administration's relief proposals. Shortly before the Friday briefing, Trump had tweeted that he was pushing Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to advance direct payments to cushion the financial blow of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump tweeted: "DEMOCRATS ARE HOLDING THIS UP!"
The president has repeatedly characterized mail-in balloting as a gateway to voter fraud, even as Americans fear the risk of contracting coronavirus at in-person polling stations.
Despite his claims, there is no evidence of the type of widespread voter fraud that Trump has alleged. There is some additional risk of voter fraud with mail-in voting, experts have suggested, but that risk can be mitigated by election security measures.
Trump's appointed postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has also faced criticism this month for substantially adjusting postal services in what he has characterized as cost reduction efforts. Postal workers have complained that the measures severely hamper their ability to deliver the mail on time, potentially hamstringing the service just as an unprecedented number of voters are expected to request and submit mail-in ballots.
The Postal Service's inspector general is examining DeJoy's changes to mail service that have caused an uproar on Capitol Hill a couple months before the election and also whether he's complying with government ethics rules, according to a spokesperson for the IG and a spokesperson for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Warren and eight other Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the IG last week requesting the review and said that DeJoy's changes could threaten the ability of Americans to properly vote by mail in November.
"We are in receipt of the congressional request and are conducting a body of work to address concerns raised," said Agapi Doulaveris, a spokesperson for the IG. "We cannot comment on details of ongoing work."
Saloni Sharma, a Warren spokesperson, said: "We have learned that the United States Postal Service Office of the Inspector General is investigating all aspects of our request from August 7th and that they've already requested documents as part of the review."
CNN first reported the IG's investigation and also reported earlier this week that DeJoy has a major equity stake worth between $30 million and $75 million in his old company XPO Logistics, a contractor that does work for USPS and other parts of the government.
Warren's letter said that DeJoy's changes have made mail service "slower and less reliable" and also threaten "the well-being of millions of Americans that rely on the Postal Service for delivery of Social Security checks, prescriptions, and everyday mail of all kinds."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a number of House committee chairs also sent a letter to DeJoy on Friday pressing for details behind DeJoy's policies. The letter also specified that the Postal Service requested the $25 billion of additional funding in the HEROES Act to meet normal operating standards amid the pandemic — a request approved by the service's bipartisan, Trump-appointed board of governors.
The request came as the Postal Service claimed it would not be able to "fulfill its core mission," let alone accommodate an unprecedented surge in election materials.
The Postal Service sent letters to several states and Washington, D.C., warning them that ballots may not arrive in time to be counted based on current state election policies, The Washington Post reported Friday. Several states' voting regulations operate on timelines that are far too tight for the Postal Service to mail and return ballots to meet election deadlines, the letters warn.
According to a copy of the letter sent to Florida election officials and obtained by POLITICO, voters should mail their ballot requests at least 15 days before Election Day and send in their completed ballots at least one week before Election Day. But some states, including Florida, allow ballot requests far closer to Nov. 3.
Florida's Republican secretary of state, Laurel Lee, responded to the Postal Service, saying election officials were monitoring the situation, but that voters were ultimately responsible to have their ballots in by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Lee said voters could leave their ballots at secure drop boxes run by election officials if they are concerned about extended mailing times.
Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer said in a statement to POLITICO that the service had been contacting state officials for months to ensure mail-in voting ran smoothly. Some states have reported mailing volume 10 times higher than normal.
"The Postal Service is well prepared and has ample capacity to deliver America's election mail," the statement said. "However, the increases in volume and the effect of when volumes were mailed in the primary elections presented a need to ensure the Postal Service's recommendations were reemphasized to elections officials."
A number of other Democrats have also come after Trump and DeJoy for their impact on the Postal Service. Former President Barack Obama said Friday that Trump was trying to "actively kneecap" the Postal Service in an effort to discourage voting. Obama said Trump's hostility toward expanding funding for the Postal Service were "unique to modern political history."
California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom also called out Trump, saying Friday the president was responsible for the "vandalism of our Postal System." California will count ballots that arrive up to 17 days late so long as they are postmarked by Election Day.
"We thought that was important with all the uncertainty of Covid," Newsom said. "We didn't realize how prescient, not just important, that appears to have been."
Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer both said in a statement Friday that "The President, his cronies and Republicans in Congress continue to wage their all-out assault on the Postal Service and its role in ensuring the integrity of the 2020 election."
"Yesterday, the President threatened to further starve the Postal Service of the funds that it needs to deliver the absentee ballots necessary to ensure that people do not have to choose between their health and their vote this fall — threats that he doubled down on last night," they wrote.
Pelosi and Schumer noted in their statement that the president and first lady themselves had requested to vote absentee this week.
"Democrats call on the President to immediately cease his assault on the Postal Service, make clear that he will allow the 2020 election to proceed without his sabotage tactics and enable the American people the same opportunity he and the First Lady requested this week to vote by absentee ballot," Pelosi and Schumer said.
The National Association of Letter Carriers also leveled criticism at the Trump administration, writing in a statement Friday that the administration had been hostile to the Postal Service and its workers' bargaining rights. The postal workers union cited a history of efforts by the administration to privatize the Postal Service and cut back services.
The union endorsed Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for the November election in its Friday statement.
"This pandemic threatens the very survival of USPS," the union wrote. "Yet, while postal employees are on the front lines providing essential services to the public every day, the current administration refuses to provide the necessary financial relief that would strengthen the agency during this pandemic."
Gary Fineout and Jeremy White contributed to this report.
Postal Service,
Donald Trump,
President Donald Trump,


text:
The Punisher Presents: Nice, Orderly Sound Effects.
from Punisher Annual #3 (1990) by Mike Baron & Neil Hansen
And seriously, the third one down...is someone farting at the Punisher?
posted by Mikester @ 00:01 |
Something I miss.
When a 1970s Marvel comic would incorporate a text page into a story, like so:
I mean, as long as they didn't do it too often. Though this issue of Howard the Duck was pretty much nothin' but, and that was pretty good.
Hmmm. Steve Gerber wrote both the Howard the Duck and the issue of Giant Size Defenders that page up there came from. And he did this in a Man-Thing or two as well. Mr. Gerber did love his prose comic pages.
Another thing I liked about this issue of Giant Size Defenders was this brief exchange. Nighthawk and Daredevil had met as adversaries before, causing DD to be a bit distrustful of this fellow, but it doesn't take a whole lot of convincing to get DD to throw in with him:
Of course, Daredevil may have been using his super-hearing to monitor Nighthawk's heartbeat like a human lie-detector...but I prefer to think that DD, like most Marvel heroes, is just easily convinced (as discussed before - third entry in the post).
By the way, my old pal Cully talked me into buying this Giant Size Defenders , like, fifteen years ago. "Hey, you ever read this comic?" he asked. "Why, no," sez I. "Oh, man, it rules," countered Cully, and swayed by his persuasive argument, it's now in my collection all these years later. And he was right...the Defenders fighting the Grandmaster, an old Dr. Strange reprint, a kick-ass Golden Age Sub-Mariner story...well worth the $2 or so I spent on it.
images from Giant Size Defenders #3 (1975) by Steve Gerber, Jim Starlin, Len Wein, Dan Adkins, Don Newton, Jim Mooney, and a partridge in a pear tree
"UNNN UNH"
More comics badassery - Ka-Zar's pal Zabu beats the tar out of a bunch of AIM agents:
HOLY CRAP. The blood-red (well, more or less) backgrounds certainly add to the holy-crapness.
Okay, that wasn't the reason I pulled out this particular comic ( Astonishing Tales #13 from 1972)...what I wanted to say was that the comic contains a very early appearance of Man-Thing, where some of Man-Thing's attributes are a bit different from the currently accepted version of the character.
Man-Thing is, as the character is used now, mindless and voiceless, a shambling heap of plantlife and muck with no semblance to humanity. So, this panel is pretty much impossible today, given the character's established interpretation:
There are plenty of panels in this comic of Man-Thing grunting and growling and otherwise making sub-vocal noises, like above, which, as we Fans o'Manny know, more or less contradicts nearly every other appearance of the character. And, also contradictory is the idea that Man-Thing has it together enough to point other characters toward an exit, which requires more reasoning power than Man-Thing is supposed to have.
Also in the story the captions make reference to Man-Thing having a brain, and when Ka-Zar checks an apparently-dead Man-Thing for life, he hears Manny's beating heart. Needless to say, the Manny we know and love has neither of these things.
Now, I'm not listing all this to be a jerk (for once). I simply find this comic to be an interesting example of trying to nail down attributes for a brand new character...attributes that may have been altered or discarded over the years since. It still seems a little strange to be reading a story where Man-Thing actually growls and shows more brain-power than normal.
Speaking of Man-Thing, he gets a swell cover on this week's new issue of Alter Ego (#81), as well as an article about the character's creation. Apparently a lawsuit was, at least, briefly considered against DC for their Swamp Thing character. I didn't know that. Anyway, the article contains lots of information of interest to the swamp creature enthusiast.
Also, having seen the preview copies for next week, Man-Thing puts in an appearance in a Marvel book coming this Wednesday. Which one will it be...which one? (Oh, okay, it's Marvel Zombies 3 .)
Anyway, that's enough Man-Thing for now...here, have another helping of Zabu:
images from Astonishing Tales #13 (Aug. 1972) by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Rich Buckler, and Dan Adkins
"I didn't miss, son!"
And now, the mercy of the Sub-Mariner:
from Sub-Mariner #38 (Feb. 1955) by Bill Everett
- reprinted in Giant-Size Defenders #3 (1975)
1. Those are the bad guys' "death ray weapons" that Subby is holding -- hence the "WHAP! BLAP!" sound effects that, you know, all death rays make.
2. I'd give anything for Sub-Mariner to talk like that again. "Thanks for the tip-off, jokers!" C'mon, that's gold.
Really, that Ghost Rider appearance was totally out of left field.
So, the other day I was watching an episode of the mid-1990s Fantastic Four cartoon, which adapted the 1982 Terrax/Galactus storyline from FF #s 242 through 244. Here's the cover of the middle installment, just so this post isn't all boring text:
Anyway, the episode takes this three-issue storyline, including the introduction of Frankie Raye and the "she's got powers like the Human Torch" storyline from the previous year's continuity, and manages to squeeze it all into a 20-something minute episode.
Most of the storyline's plot points from the original comics make it into the show, with some adjustments here and there. The most noticeable change is that, instead of the guest-starring-superhero free-for-all like you see on that cover up there, the only guy that shows up in the cartoon is Thor. And taking the place of Dr. Strange is Ghost Rider, who in the cartoon puts the mystical showing-Galactus-the-souls-of-his-victims whammy on the big G that Strange did in the comic. Apparently this was Ghost Rider's first appearance in the cartoons, judging by the reaction of the other characters. He just pops up, says "hello," gives Galactus the ol' magical hairy eyeball...er, eyesocket, and takes off, confusing children watching at home everywhere.
But the story plays out more or less the same in the cartoon as in the comic...Galactus' reserves are depleted and he's on the verge of dying, Reed Richards decides to save his life, Frankie volunteers to become the new Herald of Galactus and lead him to a new world to consume, and Galactus takes off, vowing to never trouble Earth again and notes that this is the one world where he may have friends. The end.
There's another change I should note, concerning Frankie's characterization. In the comic, she had a habit of using excessive force on the bad guys, giving as her reasoning, "well, they're bad guys, right? So what?" When she decides to sacrifice herself to become a Herald, it's pointed out that she'd likely have to lead Galactus to inhabited worlds for him to consume. Her response:
"So? A few bug-eyed monsters? What's that compared to my being able to go...out there?"
An amoral stance for a superhero-type, to be sure, and it's not surprising that it didn't make it into the cartoon. In its place we get some very broad hinting that Frankie may be, if not outright falling in love with Galactus (a plot development that turns up in later FF issues), at least completely admiringly awestruck by him.
Not quite sure why I'm so fascinated by these comic-to-cartoon translations of specific storylines I enjoyed as a younger Mikester. Particularly since the end result, after having watched this episode, is the realization that as profound and significant it all seemed on the printed page, seeing essentially the same story in animated form made it all feel a bit...silly, I guess. Perhaps it's just the nature of the bare-bones condensing of the original tale, or perhaps it's just the recontextualizing of the story from the familiar printed format to an animated one, forcing us to reconsider the storytelling tropes freed of nostalgic memories (see also: the '60s Batman TV show, discussed previously).
Or perhaps I'm just overthinking a cartoon whose primary purpose was to sell toys to children.
But, honestly, that Terrax/Galactus story from Fantastic Four #s 242 through 244 is really good. And maybe a little silly, but there's nothing wrong with that.
"Oh, man, this guy's going on for a third day about the whole 'death of Jonah Hex' thing? This blog sucks."
Well, yeah, I do have a few more things to say about Hex, but only briefly. Don't panic.
I was going to bring up some of Jonah Hex's other time-travel/non-traditional western encounters, specifically in light of his appearance in the recent Justice League animated series, where Hex clearly is aware of the concept of time travel and is able to I.D. the Leaguers as being from the future. Well, you folks beat me to it in yesterday's comments section, with this anonymous commentator whipping out specific cites to Jonah's wandering about the DC Universe. 'Course, he gives out the titles in shortened form, and if you're able to identify them all in row without stumbling, you get a cookie. (NOTE: Get your own cookie, I'm not gonna mail you one.)
What's interesting, I think, about the Justice League cartoon appearance is that the idea of Jonah being the Old West character that Weird Sci-Fi/Horror Shit Happens To is apparently been mainstreamed into the character's concept. Even in the current Jonah Hex series, which while generally playing the comic as a straight western, featured supernatural elements in its Halloween issue. I think I remember reading somewhere, too, that one of the proposed concepts for the theoretical film adaptation would have incorporated the Vertigo Comics' horror-themed Hex stories. (I didn't Google that up, so if someone has more recent, reliable, movie information, feel free to drop it in the comments.)
So, in short, I like the well-traveled-in-time-and-space Jonah Hex. Here's to more of that sort of thing.
An addendum to the fate of Hex's stuffed body following the Secret Origin 's tale related yesterday. I was looking at the Wikipedia entry, and it states that the body eventually made it into the hands of Booster Gold, who placed it into his "Planet Krypton" restaurant (and visible in the Kingdom Come collection-only epilogue, if I recall correctly). I'm now going to imagine Booster Gold wrestling Hex's body from the hands of the elderly Tall Bird, because it's both cruel and amusing and I'm a bad person.
By the way, this blurb was on the cover of Hex #18, the last issue of that series which I was also discussing yesterday, and while I was all ready to make fun of it:
...I am, after all, still talking about this series, 20+ years after its conclusion. It's a classic to me.
In which I talk a bit about the ends of various Jonah Hex comics, so consider that a SPOILER warning.
Following up on yesterday's post:
Reader Ha-rel asked why ol' Jonah Hex was dead, stuffed and mounted in the first place, and the really short answer, without trying to explain the entire story (as seen in DC Super Special #16, 1978), is that after he was killed in a tavern during a card game, his body was acquired by a traveling circus and put on display.
And the last page of that story followed Hex's body from circus to antique shop to warehouse to standing in front of a wild west theme park in the early '70s. And honestly, those last two panels, featuring Stuffed Hex just standing out there in the rain while a kid with toy guns play-shoots at him...that's really one of the saddest, most pathetic scenes in comic book history:
We do get a sequel of sorts in Secret Origins #21 (Dec. '87), which both R.D. and Dwayne -- Dwayne who runs this swell Jonah Hex weblog and I hope doesn't mind me encroaching on his territory a bit, here -- pointed out contains a second case of Hex's dead 'n' stuffed body taking a life. In this case, it's more of a mysterious "who could have pulled the trigger...except the ghost of Jonah Hex, woooOOOOoooo!" thing instead of that dope triggering the guns himself as shown in yesterday's post.
In any case, this story, which takes place presumably in the mid/late-'80s, ends with a character promising to retrieve the mounted body so that Jonah's still-living common law wife, Tall Bird (last seen in that DC Super Special ) can put it to rest properly.
More on that in a moment, but now it's time for some CONTINUITY!
In the Secret Origins tale, Tall Bird relates that Jonah once briefly disappeared to another world:
...which, as that footnote indicates, is a reference to that great series Hex , with Jonah Hex trapped in an apocalyptic future:
Man oh man, do I love Hex . I've spoken about it before (and funny how there I'm coy about revealing endings, but now I'm all about the Hex spoilers), but one of the things I love most about this series is its last couple of pages in Hex #18 (Feb. 1987).
It's the year...oh, I don't know, 2048 or something, and Hex is recovering from injuries and just sorta killing time, toolin' around a warehouse filled with antiques and amusement park materials. And what does he come across but...
...and thus, like the Secret Origins comic that follows, establishes that Hex does eventually get back to his rightful time. How he does so is something that's never been revealed, far as I know, and I doubt it'll ever be addressed, unless it turns up as a Booster Gold plot-point or something.
And going back to the ending of that Secret Origins story, the happy ending that the story seems to give us, with the impending recovery and return of Hex's body to his wife, is undercut by what we'd read a few months prior in Hex . Tall Bird's intention was to burn the body, apparently, but it obviously doesn't happen if the body is still around for "Road Warrior" Hex to discover in that future warehouse. Don't know if it was stolen, or if Tall Bird simply died of old age before she should have anything done, or what...regardless of the reason, the closure of the story is not quite so closed after all.
It's a nice, dark twist, which only has its full impact if you'd been keeping up on your Hex comics, which clearly not many people were since the series was canceled after 18 issues.
But really, consider again that the Hex series ends with Jonah Hex face-to-face with his own stuffed and mounted corpse:
I am both appalled and amused and damn if I don't love this comic.
image sources:
Hex #1 (Sept. 1985) - cover art by Mark Texeira & Klaus Janson
Hex #18 (Feb. 1987) by Michael Fleisher, Keith Giffen & Carlos Garzon
Secret Origins #21 (Dec. 1987) by Fleisher & Gray Morrow
DC Special Series #16 (1978) by Fleisher & Russ Heath
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Chicken Noodle Hoop
Surviving winters with soup and basketball
My Soup
Shots Per 36 Compared to Average Player
Team All-Star Stats
The 2016-2017 All-Bizarro Leaders in Minutes
2015 NBA Season May 1, 2017 Leave a comment
It's about that time of the year again. It's time to announce the most important All-NBA squad, a lineup composed of the most unusual players who led a team in time on the floor.
I started this because guys like LeBron James and James Harden are likely to lead their respective teams in total minutes, but there will be players who got a ton of burn on rebuilding teams that need someone, anyone to be a key cog during that phase. There could also be minute eaters on contending teams, an aging player with fresher legs than expected, or one who came back from a devastating injury only to pick up where he left off.
Since 2007, these are not the best All-NBA teams ever. Given the minutes they've totaled, maybe they'd log all of them together, 2,000-minute lineups bad enough to get coaching staffs fired, but net top-five picks. The good and bad even themselves out, really. As an example of how these rosters look, below is what 2016's looked like.
2016 Tm MIN G MPG
Jordan Clarkson LAL 2552 79 32.3
Evan Fournier ORL 2566 79 32.5
Wesley Matthews DAL 2644 78 33.9
Matt Barnes MEM 2190 76 28.8
Anthony Davis NOP 2164 61 35.5
Clarkson received a ton of minutes despite competition in the backcourt in Kobe Bryant, D'Angelo Russell, Louis Williams, and whatever they could get from Marcelo Huertas and Nick Young. Meanwhile, Fournier had a rare, healthy season and appears to be one of the few players to spend a handful of years in Orlando. Davis was a choice for a similar, but more weird reason. He was reasonably healthy on a team with a roster that dropped like flies. Due to his decline in overall scoring efficiency, Matthews may not have completely recovered from a torn Achilles tendon, but is still capable of eating a ton of minutes at a position thin on depth league-wide. And finally, Barnes was a selection because of his age (35 years old) and having his two highest minute totals in his two most recent seasons.
This season was a challenge to find a five-man squad because most stars had great health, fueling an unexpectedly (to me, at least) great regular season. Below were my five picks.
Elfrid Payton, Orlando Magic, 2,412 minutes
Payton led the Magic in minutes despite going back-and-forth between starting and coming off the bench, a common theme on this list. It felt unlikely that Nikola Vucevic, Bismack Biyombo, or Serge Ibaka would rank first because of their minute-crunches up front, but Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier were key cogs, much less tradeable than the frontline or Payton. In particular, there wasn't a ton of depth behind Fournier until Orlando traded Ibaka for Terrence Ross, but Fournier played 14 less games than Payton and, well, now we're here.
I don't have a whole lot to say about Payton. That's not to say he hasn't improved. He's a triple-double candidate with enough minutes, his shot percentages from around the rim to 16 feet have increased each year, and he's still only 23 years old, but there's a ceiling for guards who struggle from beyond the arc (27 percent on 2.2 attempts per 36 minutes), don't draw a ton of fouls (2.7 team fouls and 3.2 free throws per 36), and aren't freakishly good on defense. It's hard to find consistency with that player type, especially on a mess of a roster.
Jordan Clarkson, Los Angeles Lakers, 2,397 minutes
Clarkson makes his second-straight appearance, playing the second-most minutes among players of the last five years who started less than one-fourth of their games. The obstacles to playing time weren't as stiff this time around. Kobe Bryant retired, Louis Williams' career year with the Lakers lasted only until the trade deadline, and Nick Young missed 20 games in the best season of his own career.
But a bad team typically mixes in young pieces no matter what, like Tyler Ennis and David Nwaba, and just about any Laker was going to make this list. If it wasn't Clarkson, it would've been Brandon Ingram or someone like Nick Young, second and fifth in total minutes, respectively. This might be the last time Clarkson is in this post anyway. Every summer is obviously important for teams, but it #feels even more so for the Lakers to return to playoff contention, and trading Clarkson and/or another young building block #feels necessary in order to do that.
Darren Collison, Sacramento Kings, 2,063 minutes
If not for the shocking mid-season trade, DeMarcus Cousins would've led the Kings in minutes. If not Boogie, it would've been Rudy Gay, but a torn Achilles injury sidelined him for the rest of the season and possibly some of 2018. That left the random assortment remaining, and Collison squeaked by with just over 2,000 minutes. Collison's one of 30 "active" players who's averaged 10 or more points per game in each of their first eight seasons. It doesn't feel like it was already his third season in Sacramento, but who knows if he'll keep the streak going there as he's a free agent this summer.
Collison's also the third guard on this list, but we were thin on candidates this season.
Nik Stauskas, Philadelphia 76ers, 2,188 minutes
Any 76er was going to make this list, but the Stauskas reclamation project topped T.J. McConnell, Dario Saric, and Robert Covington by 50 to 70 minutes. Suddenly, Stauskas' next contract looks interesting. After a frustrating first couple of seasons, he became a league-average three-point shooter with the help of super-hot shooting from the corners at 48.5 percent. Stauskas could still improve around the rim, 53.6 percent this season when the average is 63, but he's at least taken about 80 percent of his shots in the most efficient areas of the floor. That should bode well with a healthy Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, or at least one of the two being healthy.
Wilson Chandler, Denver Nuggets, 2,197 minutes
Chandler rounds out the squad as the tiny-ball center, leading the Nuggets in total minutes despite missing the 2016 season due to hip surgery. In second and third place for Denver was Danilo Gallinari, who's only played 60 percent of games since 2012, and Jameer Nelson, who is old.
There should be minute shifts next season as Nikola Jokic, Gary Harris, Emmanuel Mudiay, Juan Hernangomez, and Jamal Murray enter another year of their rookie contracts. That's a ton of prospects, but Chandler and Gallinari should still get a ton of play if they stick around and stay healthy. Both offer the versatility and bodies to be modern-day power forwards, but it seems like the Nuggets are also primed for a trade. They're deep, but too deep.
Honorable mentions: Dennis Schroeder and Tobias Harris.
As usual, hopefully Boris Diaw has 4,000 minutes in him next season.
Minutes and other stats, unless noted otherwise, were from Basketball-Reference.
Tagged: Darren Collison, DeMarcus Cousins, Elfrid Payton, Jordan Clarkson, Nik Stauskas, Nikola Jokic, Rudy Gay, Wilson Chandler
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Marie said, 'The work that Liz Cameron OBE and her team do for the business community in Scotland is fantastic.
This trip was an opportunity to showcase some of the amazing companies we have in Scotland going for growth.
The LSE yet again delivered an exceptional visit and continues to support Scotland's SME's scaling up.


In her own time, and for a long while afterward, her real capacity was obscured by her apparent indolence, her fondness for display, and her seeming vacillation; but now a very high place is accorded her in the history of Russian rulers. She softened the brutality that had reigned supreme in Russia. She patronized the arts.
John Packer was always good-tempered when the wind was in the south. The milder air, which relaxed too much the dispositions of less energetic men, and made them depressed and worthless, only softened and tempered him into reasonableness.
At noon, some bacon and corn-bread were issued to the officers, and to the enlisted men in addition some peas which were by long cooking softened sufficiently to be eaten.
In this view, I can not suppose that heaven indicates the path to final reconciliation through fresh dissension. The hearts of the parents can not be softened in the way your highness proposed, and that must be the first step in your plan. Besides, I have little confidence in the agency of a human and selfish love to reach an end that ought to be gained by purer motives.
He had handsome features: black, keen eyes, a commanding nose, a mouth and chin of the greatest firmness of contour. What more particularly struck one, however, what gained the heart of every listener, was the expression of extreme amiability and anxious sympathy which ever softened the imperious haughtiness of the prelate's face. Pierre had formerly known him as Cure, or parish priest, of Ste.
The skies were serene; the music of reeds came upon the ear, softened by distance; while the snowy fleece of sheep and lambs formed a beautiful contrast with the rich verdure of the landscape. "All things around you are tranquil," said Plato; "and thus I ever found it, even in corrupted Athens. Not the stillness of souls that sleep, but the quiet of life drawn from deep fountains."
The gratitude with which James Little's wife received Hetty's proposition was so great that it softened even her father-in-law's heart. "I do believe, Hetty," he said, when he gave her their answer, "I do believe that poor girl has suffered more 'n we've given her credit for.
"That," went on Paul, "rests entirely with yourself. You may be sure that I will tell no one. I am not likely to discuss it with any one whomsoever." Etta's stony eyes softened for a moment. She seemed to be alternating between hatred of this man and love of him a dangerous state for any woman.
Yet once more and a distant hill, duskily blue against the bluer heavens, wakened for him some memory of his boyhood, seeming to challenge him to renew the old joys and to revel in the by- gone fervors. All these things softened the mood in which Maurice came back to the old town, and as he walked up the village street, so well remembered yet so strange, he had a sense of unreality.
She felt the pressure of his hand, the changed and softened inflections of his voice, she knew the words of her fate were trembling on his lips, and yet they did not come!


text:
'Broken, confusing, costly': ACCC calls..
'Broken, confusing, costly': ACCC calls for major reform of energy market
3AW Mornings
The competition watchdog has recommended a dramatic overhaul of the national electricity market in a bid to stop exorbitant prices and confusing deals.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's wide-ranging investigation into retail energy suggests consumers are being let down, and major reforms are needed to "reset" the industry.
It includes extra powers for the regulator to crackdown on so-called "market manipulation" by retailers.
The report says bad policy has lead to a "serious electricity affordability problem"
They've made 56 recommendations to fix the energy market.
CEO of the Consumer Action Law Centre Gerard Brody said the energy market had become a free-for-all, unregulated marketplace with confusing and incomparable deals.
"The ACCC has confirmed as we all thought, the energy market is broken, it's confusing, it's costing us way to much," he said.
"As you mentioned there are a multitude of offers out there suggesting discounts which look good but in the end are just confusing and are really incomparable.
"You can't make head nor tail of them."
He said often switching providers didn't lead to better outcomes for consumers, and recommended the regulator set a fair price that all energy providers adhere to.
Click PLAY to hear more
Rod Sims, chair of the ACCC, told Tony Jones the problems inherent in the sector came as a surprise to him.
"There's been problems that have arisen over 10 years," he said.
"We've got to get it right. We think Victorians can save at least $300, some of them they will save a lot more.
"Your average small business would save more than $1000. This needs to happen, Tony."


India's UltraTech Cement Ltd plans to invest INR110bn over the next three years to as as part of the company plan to increase capacity from its current 52Mta to 75Mta, Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said at the company's annual general meeting in September.
UltraTech is set to bring on-stream 9.2Mta of cement capacity by 1QFY14. Investment plans involve new clinker plants through brownfield expansion at Chhattisgarh and Karnataka together with additional grinding units. The company also plans to install waste heat recovery systems and installing bulk packaging terminals as well as ready-mix concrete plants.
Speaking of the Indian cement sector's recent performance, he noted that demand has been weaker than expected given lower infrastructure spending and poor housing demand. In FY11, consumption grew just 5.3 per cent compared with 8-10 per cent over the past decade. Overcapacity also continues to plague the domestic industry with 28Mta of capacity added in in FY11, on top of the 60Mt in FY10. High fuel and energy prices have further compounded the issue consequently squeezing industry margins.
However, in terms of India's long-term growth potential, Mr Birla expects demand to advance 8.5 per cent a year and the government would continue to invest in developing infrastructure and housing. The government's 12th Five Year Plan has doubled infrastructure spending to US$1trn.


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Highland Park Community Development Corporation
Community development in Pittsburgh's Highland Park neighborhood
Ground-Breaking and Bite of Bryant Street
Submitted by hpcdc on Mon, 10/22/2012 - 22:12
Please join us for Bite of Bryant Street!
Enjoy the next phase of transformation on Bryant Street in Highland Park on Thursday, October 25th. At 3:00 there will be a groundbreaking of a brand new, mixed-use building, followed by "Bite of Bryant Street" beginning at 3:30. Bite of Bryant Street will feature food and drink specials as well as free menu samplings from participating restaurants so you can see all that Bryant Street has to offer.
No RSVP required, just come out to Bryant Street on Thursday, October 25th and be a part of the future of Highland Park!
Read more about Ground-Breaking and Bite of Bryant Street
hpcdc's blog
Ground-Breaking on Bryant Street
Submitted by hpcdc on Wed, 10/17/2012 - 22:55
New mixed-use building at 5803-5811 Bryant Street. Ground-breaking on October 25th!
[flickr-photo:id=8088808524,size=m]
David Hance from the HPCDC will be speaking to the Highland Park Community Council at their monthly meeting on Thursday, October 18 about the latest plans for Bryant Street including the phase 2 ground-breaking ceremony scheduled for October 25th.
After the ground-breaking ceremony, the "Bite of Bryant" street event will take place until 6pm with free samples of food from the menus of the many fine restaurants on Bryant Street.
Read more about Ground-Breaking on Bryant Street
Submitted by hpcdc on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 22:33
Dear Friend and Neighbor,
Read more about Fund-Raising
Park Bruges Restaurant Opening
Submitted by hpcdc on Thu, 01/27/2011 - 21:47
Highland Park's newest restaurant, Park Bruges, will be officially open for business on Tuesday, February 1, 2011. They're located at 5801 Bryant Street at the corner with N. St. Clair Street.
The new restaurant's hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00am to 10:00pm, Sunday from 11:00am to 9:00pm with brunch served until 3:00pm, and closed on Monday. No reservations needed!
Call 412-661-3334 for more information.
Read more about Park Bruges Restaurant Opening
Bryant Street
Dear Highland Park neighbors,
Read more about Bryant Street
Submitted by hpcdc on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 16:21
There is now a link at the top of the page to the HPCDC flickr photos group. Also, new photos will appear on the right side of the front page here.
Read more about Photos
Pop City: Point Brugge Café owners to open Highland Park bistro
Pop City has a very nice write-up about the Park Bruges Café opening on Bryant Street in Highland Park "[b]y early next year..."
Read more about Pop City: Point Brugge Café owners to open Highland Park bistro
Park Bruges restaurant announced
Submitted by hpcdc on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 17:17
Today restaurateurs Jesse & Amy Seager of Point Brugge Café announced the name of their new restaurant, "Park Bruges Café", to open by the end of the year at 5801 Bryant Street. State Senator Jim Ferlo, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, architects Andrew Moss and Chad Chalmers, local businesspersons Amy Enrico and Lee Gross, and representatives from Highland Park Community Development (HPCDC) and East Liberty Development, Incorporated (ELDI) participated in the ceremony as well.
Read more about Park Bruges restaurant announced
Celebrate construction of a new restaurant at 5801 Bryant Street
Jesse & Amy Seager of Point Brugge Café will be special guests (along with Senator Jim Ferlo and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl) at a ceremonial start to construction of a new restaurant at 5801 Bryant Street in the Bryant Street business district on Friday, May 15, 2009, at 2:30 PM. Light refreshments will be served.
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5801 Bryant Street restaurant and apartments
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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008	More
Illustrated information
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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008 - Illustrated Presentation
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008 - Prize announcement
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008 - Press release
Osamu Shimomura
Martin Chalfie
Roger Y. Tsien
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Illustrated Presentation
Lessons from the jellyfish's green light
An unexpected catch for Shimomura
Tsien creates a palette with all the colours of the rainbow
A brilliant experiment by Chalfie
Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura, Roger Y. Tsien
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2008 jointly to Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura and Roger Y. Tsien, "for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, gfp".
Off the west coast of North America, floats the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. In its light-emitting organs resides the green fluorescent protein, GFP, which glows intensely under ultraviolet light. GFP now revolutionizes the life sciences, and the scientists responsible for its development have been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The green light enables scientists to track, amongst other things, how cancer tumours form new blood vessels, how Alzheimer's disease kills brain neurons and how HIV infected cells produce new viruses.
Throughout the summers of the 1960s, Osamu Shimomura (rearmost in the picture above), his family and various assistants, caught tens of thousands of jellyfish in the Pacific Ocean. From the edge, which emit green light when the jellyfish is agitated, Shimomura isolated a protein. Surprisingly, that protein did not shine in green. It was blue. Shimomura assumed that additional proteins were involved, and indeed found one more. It was not luminescent, but did glow bright green under the light of an ultraviolet lamp.
A green guiding star for biosciences
Today, scientists use GFP to understand the function of cells and proteins in living creatures. Proteins are the chemical tools of life – they control most of what happens within a living cell. Every human being functions thanks to the well-oiled machinery of thousands of proteins, like haemoglobin, antibodies and insulin. If something malfunctions, illness and disease often follows. Therefore it is fundamental for the biosciences to map out the role of various proteins. Using DNA-technology, scientists connect GFP to interesting, but otherwise invisible, proteins. GFP functions like a little lantern, which is activated by ultraviolet light. The green glow helps scientists track these proteins in the body.
From Gene to Protein:
During the 1990s Roger Tsien explored and changed GFP. His playful research resulted in proteins that glowed cyan, blue and yellow. However, he did not manage to produce any red colours. Red light penetrates skin and other biological tissue more easily, and so is especially useful for research.
In 1999, Russian scientists isolated a red fluorescent protein, DsRED, from a coral. This protein was larger and more cumbersome than GFP. Tsien, however, managed to decrease the size of DsRED. From DsRED, Tsien also developed proteins with mouth-watering names like mPlum, mCherry, mStrawberry, mOrange and mCitrine.
When Martin Chalfie first heard about GFP in 1988, he was delighted. He realised that GFP could possibly be used to colour cells and proteins. If that was the case, it would revolutionize the biosciences. The picture above shows Chalfie's successful experiment. The touch receptor neurons of the millimetre-sized roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans fluoresces green. We can see the round bodies and the long slender projection of the nerve cells.
How cells become green Chalfie positioned the GFP-gene behind a promoter (a gene switch), which is active in the touch receptor neurons of the round worm. He injected the gene construct into the gonads of a mature worm. The worm is a hermaphrodite and fertilizes itself. The GFP gene is passed onto the eggs that the worm lays. The eggs divide, forming new individuals. The GFP-gene is then present in all cells of the new generation of roundworms, but only the touch receptor neurons will produce GFP. When they fill up with GFP, they start to glow green under ultraviolet light.
The brainbow
Scientists have used three fluorescent proteins in cyan, yellow and red – colours similar to those used by a computer printer – to colour the brain of a mouse. Different neurons randomly produce different amounts of the proteins. We can distinguish single neurons interlaced within the dense network. Tumour surrounded by nourishing blood vessels
Scientists have coloured a breast cancer tumour with DsRED and the surrounding blood vessels with GFP. In this experiment, scientists discovered two proteins which help breast cancer cells spread. If scientists can neutralize these proteins, they might also be able to stop the cells from breaking away from the tumour area.
US citizen. Born 1947 in Chicago, IL, USA. Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
Japanese citizen. Born 1928 in Kyoto, Japan. Professor Emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, MA, USA, and Boston University Medical School, MA, USA.
US citizen. Born 1952 in New York, NY, USA. Professor and Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
More information about the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2008 can be found on: www.kva.se, http://nobelprize.org, www.nobelmuseet.se
Pieribone, V. and Gruber, D.F. (2005) Aglow in the Dark, The Belknap Press, Harvard University Press, 2005
Zimmer, M. (2005) Glowing Genes, Prometheus Books
Shimomura, O. (2005) The discovery of aequorin and green fluorescent protein, Journal of Microscopy, 217 3-15
Shaner, N.C. et al (2008) Improving the photostability of bright monomeric orange and red fluorescent proteins, Nature Methods, 5 545-551
Movie showing a cell producing GFP-tagged HIV particles: www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7201/suppinfo/nature06998.html
Website describing the GFP-revolution: http://www.conncoll.edu/ccacad/zimmer/GFP-ww/GFP-1.htm
Credits and references for the 2008 Nobel Poster for Chemistry
Editors: Gunnar von Heijne, Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Ann Fernholm, Katalys Media, Annika Moberg and Andrea Westerdahl, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Layout and illustrations by Typoform
Printed by AlfaPrint AB, Stockholm, 2008
Copyright © 2008 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Box 50005, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone:+46 8 673 95 00, fax: +46 8 15 56 70
e-mail: info@kva.se, www.kva.se
Posters may be ordered free of charge by phone, fax or e-mail.
Web adapted version: Nobelprize.org
Nobel Poster from the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, web adapted by Nobel Web
MLA style: Illustrated Presentation. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2020. Fri. 17 Jan 2020. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2008/illustrated-information/>